I Do Not Own Naruto
No one had ever really noticed before. The signs had always been there of course, and some people had picked up on them. Naruto had a strange way of deciding immediately who he adored and who he was cautious around, as well as those that he was simply kind to. He very rarely changed his mind, and was very rarely wrong, and his teammates had seen, even if it didn't truly register. Without even thinking, it had become habit to watch Naruto as they met new people, or even as they interacted with old acquaintances. So it wasn't much of a surprise when Kakashi asked his opinion on the confrontation with the strange hunter-nin who came to take Zabuza. What was a surprise was his response. After all, they had never really noticed.
"I dunno. He's gotta be with that creepy no-eyebrows guy, but...he didn't feel like a bad guy. Neither of them really did." And then he just sat there like normal, totally oblivious to the stares of his entire team.
Sakura was the one to finally ask what they were all thinking. "What exactly do you mean, he doesn't 'feel' like a bad guy?"
Naruto blinked his big blue eyes in a way that could probably let him get away with murder, had he been anyone else. "You know. His Aura. It didn't feel bad, just sorta sad and maybe a little desperate."
"Aura." Kakashi's voice was totally flat, in a way that screamed 'I can't have just heard what I thought I just heard.' But he had, and Naruto was quick to confirm it.
"Yeah, Aura. It's kind of like a feeling in the air around someone, but I can sort of see it too? It shows what people are, I guess, and I can read strong emotions from it sometimes." Naruto screwed up his face into a thinking expression. "The old man explained it to me once, with all the technical stuff, but I didn't really get it. I think it has something to do with emotions, and the old man said that it's nothing dangerous or weird, so it's all good." And then he smiles, big and wide and bright, almost blinding. The others stare at him. Sasuke's eye twitches.
"Um. Okay? So…you're…a sensor? You should have said something earlier, you'll need – "Kakashi is cut off by a cheery "Nope!"
"I'm not a sensor, I can't see or feel people's chakra at all. It's something totally different. Everyone feels like something, and that's who they are, and the mask guy doesn't feel bad. He feels like a small animal, kind of. Like . . . calm, and soft, and gentle. Usually there's something a bit more specific or distinct, but his Aura is a bit blurry. Almost like there's some part of it that's missing. I know he's with the creepy sword guy cause the edges sort of reach out for him."
Kakashi sighed, a tired, longsuffering sound that he suspected he would be making quite often with this team. "Look, I've read the reports on the Mizuki case. If you could tell when people are good or bad, then how in the world did you get led into a situation like that?"
Sakura blinked fast, like she was trying to fill in the blanks in the conversation, and Sasuke was looking more and more annoyed as the explanation progressed. Naruto's face had scrunched up in distaste.
"Weeeellll, Mizuki's Aura wasn't really bad, exactly. Sometimes people's Auras don't show all of their emotions, even ones they feel really strongly. And not all Auras fall into good or bad categories. Sometimes they've got a nice sort of happy tint to them, like Sakura's. But most of the time, they just are. I've never met anyone with a bad Aura, even when they're tainted or feeling really bad emotions. Mostly they're just neutral, and I can read some way better than others. Mizuki felt like snow, and I could barely read him at all. I thought it was the good kind of snow, for snowmen and snowball fights, but it turned out to be the bad kind that gives you frostbite." The blond boy frowned. "The old man says I can probably read people better the more closely connected they are with me, or if their emotions are directly related to me. I can feel when people hate me or wish me harm, but Mizuki wasn't feeling like that until the end, when he was focusing less on the scroll and more on me."
At this point, Sakura just couldn't take it anymore. Her irrepressible curiosity burst forth. "You said my Aura was good, right? What is it like? What is Sasuke like? Can you see if people are connected, or soulmates, or something like that?" Remembering herself, she frowned angrily at him and added, "I mean, if you're even telling the truth at all."
Naruto beamed at the questions, even as Kakashi sighed again and Sasuke glared at Sakura. Now she'd done it. Their teammate never shut up as it was, but he was always ten times worse if you enabled him.
"Sure! You feel like new life. Um, Sort of like…growth? You know, like the earth and the sky and all the green things in between." Sakura looked a little gobsmacked at this evaluation of her being. Sasuke just looked incredulous. Naruto forged on. "Sasuke feels like silk, or polished wood, or silver. Like something elegant and beautiful, but also well-made and sturdy and really hard to break. The kind of things that people keep forever, and take care of, and pass along to their loved ones. Also, kind of glow-y? Way more complicated than Sakura but not as nice, and I bet mine would be so much better if I could feel it. I don't know if people are connected other than to me, except that sometimes people's Auras start to blur into each other around the edges if they're really close emotionally. But that's not always romantic, and I don't think it has anything to do with soulmates."
Sakura wilted a little, but then remembered new life, growth, earth and sky and green, and she sat up a little straighter. Sasuke looked slightly affronted and confused at being called beautiful, but also smug and flattered, because…sturdy. Hard to break. Taken together, that could be interpreted as strong, not that he has ever been anything less. Kakashi still looked skeptical, and a little unsure how to tread. After all, up to this point his basic teaching strategy had been 'set a task, explain the importance, and read porn until the cute little genin complete it' with occasional lessons on teamwork. Although, what the Uzumaki had said about Haruno might indicate an affinity for medic work…
"…Okay. So Naruto sees people's Auras, Sakura is green, and Sasuke feels pretty. Anything else I should know? Or can we move on to the mission?" Once again, his cute little genin are so predictable. Sakura blushes, Naruto huffs in indignation, and Sasuke glares virtual death rays. Sakura, still blushing furiously, raises a hesitant hand. "Yes?"
"Well…don't you want to know what your Aura is like, sensei?" Oh. The older ninja couldn't help but wince. Kakashi had been hoping she wouldn't ask that, of all things, but he knew it was somewhat inevitable, given the circumstances. He just hoped he didn't radiate blood and regret too obviously.
"Not particularly, but I think he's going to tell me anyway, so we might as well get it over with."
Naruto pouted in a way that is far too adorable for a boy being trained to kill, and blurted "Kakashi-sensei feels like lightning and stone, or something in between. A lot like how paved paths in the village are washed clean after a really hard rain, you know?" His teacher sighed silently in relief and slouched even further into his seat. These too-small soldiers didn't need to know the horrors that had forged him. Not yet.
(Later, after the other two genin have left, Naruto gave his teacher a very serious stare. He didn't hesitate, just spoke, managing to cut right to the heart of the issue without even trying. Then again, it's Naruto, and somehow he's always been able to strip everything else away to see what really matters.
"Sakura is a growing, living thing that isn't growing or living very well. She's something great, but who she is isn't who she's being. She can't move beyond the Sakura that everyone else sees. Sasuke is stained and torn silk, scratched and burned wood, and tarnished, dented silver. Something is eating away at everything that makes him amazing, everything that makes him good, makes him Sasuke. You are old paths and stone worn smooth, but there is rain and lightning in you. You have potential to be slates washed clean and new beginnings, and I think all four of us need that. We just need you to give it to us."
As Naruto left the room, Kakashi couldn't help but feel that he didn't need to give them anything. After all, a little blond boy with eyes full of dreams and pain in equal measure seemed to be doing that well enough on his own.)