Chapter 3 is here. I still have a writing streak so for the moment I actually have a decent upload scedule. I'm happy to take bets from everybody, concerning how long my writing energy will remain.
But enough whinning for now, have lots of fun with Chapter 3.
Chapter 3
„So, team, the hour is up. Have you decided which technique to learn?" Kenta had appeared out of nowhere, making Sakura twitch a little, before she noticed that he wasn't alone, he had two other shinobi with him.
One of them was another guy, how was a bit smaller than Sensei and had slightly longer brown hair that went down to his neck. One of his eyes seemed to have been lost, since she could still see the scar underneath the eyepatch he wore. Except for that however she found him attractive, if it wasn't for the hair colour, he could have almost passed for an adult Sasuke, so his presence made her blush a little. He worse the usual attire of a Konoha shinobi and carried a Katana and a shorter blade at his hip.
The second person was a woman, also about the same age as Kenta, with black hair, that was about if Sakuras, which she wore open. She had warm green eyes and a wide smile on her face, as she seemed to inspect them. She didn't wear the standard uniform, instead she wore a custom dark brown vest, with even more pockets than the standard issue, over a green shirt. She also wore fingerless gloves and dark pants, which she had rolled up, so they ended just under her knees, were her slightly heeled boots started.
Neither Naruto nor Sasuke seemed to be surprised by these visitors, something Sakura was slowly getting used to and finally Kenta sensei explained the situation.
"As you may have guessed already, I can't teach you all the different elemental techniques, so I brought some help. My old teammates, Masamune Satsu and Tara Taci. Masa is a highly skilled lighting user and Tara is without the doubt the most prolific Wind element user I know." They both nodded their head in agreement about the praise, but Sakura started to notice a problem here, however she kept it to herself for now.
"So, you actually have a lightning affinity you little shit head." Masamune addressed Sasuke, who only huffed, while Tara had already approached Naruto, ruffling up his hair and saying.
"Well, let's see if can't get something useful into that thick skull of yours." Naruto blushed, but smiled widely, which the woman returned.
Finally, Sakura was left with Kenta, but Kenta didn't have an Earth affinity, so.
"Don't worry Sakura, while I have a fire affinity, I'm skilled enough with Earth techniques to teach you a few tricks." His smile was friendly and warm, still Sakura felt like she was left out. Naruto and Sasuke got help from people they already knew and who had the same chakra affinity as them. And all she got was "skilled enough".
Kenta seemed to notice how unhappy she was with this, sighed and walked past her for a demonstration. He waved several signs and then put his hand and the ground. And the ground split, there was no rumbling or a moment of silence before the jutsu showed its effect, not immediately the earth moved apart as two neatly separated plates, leaving ten feet wide, 100 feet long and twenty feet deep chasm in the ground.
The Genin looked at their sensei in amazement, while his old teammates only sighed about this obvious muscle flexing.
"Don't worry Sakura, I know what I'm talking about."
The pink haired girl just nodded her head before they separated into three two people groups, so that each of the Jonin could help the Genin with their chosen technique.
"Earth Wall, what made you choose that?" Kenta asked Sakura once she had shown him what she wanted to learn and for once she was in her element.
"It's a very versatile technique. It has great defensive use and I can also use it to limit an opponent's movement or augment mine." She proudly exclaimed and there was a short hint of pride on Kenta's face, before he answered.
"Good answer. Now you need to understand. The Earth Wall is a rather diverse technique with many ways of how to use it and how it looks. Your Earth Wall won't look like mine and will, for now be much weaker. But it will still be useful."
Sakura nodded and was eager to learn, so she was surprised when Kenta sat down on the ground and gestured her to do the same. So, she sat down and looked at her Sensei excited.
"Place your hand on the earth and close your eyes." Sakura did as was told, but still felt tense, not knowing what to expect.
"Now put chakra into your hand. Do you fell how your chakra flows through the earth?" Sakura tried her best, but she didn't feel anything. She was good at chakra control, but now she felt absolutely nothing, and it frustrated her. She opened her eyes again and Kenta sensei was smiling at her.
"I would have called you an absolute genius if you had managed this at first try. I could just teach you the technique, but I want you to understand the element and actually control it, so you can also properly use the Jutsu."
Sakura nodded in agreement, as she put her hand on the ground again and repeated the exercise. Again, Kenta instructed her.
"Keep calm and feel the ground, feel the chakra you are pouring into the ground and how it flows through it. Can you feel it?" but Sakura just shook her head again, she didn't feel a thing.
"Keep on doing that exercise until you actually feel something. It's the most basic training you can do to learn Earth techniques and we'll do it slowly and properly." Kenta reassured her, before they continued with the exercise. But, although she knew that she was at the very beginning of her training, it was rather disheartening to see both Naruto and Sasuke seemingly having more progress than her. There were tiny lightnings jumping between Sasukes fingertips and even Naruto seemed to create some wind, at least she hoped it was wind and not a fart.
"Alright, I won't you to continue this exercise on your own. Masa and Tara will help us once week, unless they are busy or have missions." They continued this training for the rest of the day, but she made no real progress on it for today. And as Kenta had asked her to, Sakura continued her training on her own, although progress was minimal.
"He had told me it would take time to learn this, just got to hang on." Sakura told herself, as she failed really feel anything for the tenth time this day. It was their day for today and Kenta had been summoned by the Hokage.
"How is progress with your team, Kenta." The old man asked in a friendly tone, while his advisors scoffed.
"Oh, they are making good progress, it will be a while before we reach the point where I want them to be, but we are slowly getting there." Kenta replied, not without a tiny hint of pride. They were making progress, especially Sakura had improved a lot during the last few weeks, but he already had a suspicion where this conversation was going.
"That may be. But your team also has the lowest number of successful missions of all the new training teams and you only did D-Rank until now." One of the advisors, Homura, noted and Kenta sighed, of course they wouldn't be satisfied with the mission count, since he was more focusing on properly training them first.
"We understand you concern for training your team first and then send them on missions. However, we believe that you are currently focusing too much on training." Koharu added and in his head, Kenta replied Wouldn't have to train them that much if the Academy was worth anything. But he kept it to himself and just nodded his head.
"Therefore, we have decided that you and your team should take a C-Rank mission, it will be a great opportunity for your team to improve themselves. Kenta continued nodding stiffly, he for sure was not happy with this, but he also had the feeling, that he had already pushed his own position as far as he could. Unless he wanted them to remove him from his post, he had to give in on this one.
"I assume you already have decided on a fitting mission for my team?" Kenta asked and the Sandeime nodded, as he handed him a sheet of paper. Kenta quickly flew over the mission details. The mission seemed simple, courier duties outside the Fire country. It would take time, but probably no combat.
"Thank you very much, I will inform my team and we will head out tomorrow." Kenta declared and after some murmurs of acknowledgement, he took his leave. However, somebody else was already opening the door and Kenta smiled as he saw who.
"Hi Kakashi." Kenta greeted his fellow Jonin who also replayed with a short hi and a handshake. It was however one of Kakashi's students Kenta cared about.
"How is it going little brother?" Kenta asked his younger brother Sho as he ruffled up his hair, against which the boy struggled with no success. Sho was about Narutos age and had graduated with him, but he was also an almost perfect copy of his late father. Sho had black hair which slightly curled, brown eyes and a soft and kind face.
This had always hurt Kenta to know. Back when their clan was still independent, Sho would have never had to a warrior, he was a kind and gentle person and generally despised killing. But with their desperate situation and the deal they made with Konoha, they had had no other choice. He also greeted Shos teammates, he had seen them a few times, but they had seemed nice, before he finally left the room.
Kenta was a bit lost in his thoughts, so when walked down the hallway, he crashed into an older man stumbling along. The man smelled of cheap booze and wasn't the nicest person, so Kenta just mumbled an apology and headed out as soon as possible. He still needed to inform his team, if he was lucky, they were still together.
Sakura had enjoyed her day hanging out with her team, especially with Sasuke, even if he was still rejecting her advances, for now. So, she had decided to reduce her advances for now and instead just had a bit of fun with her teammates. Today they had just bought something to drink and eat and then relaxed together, just chatting a little about really nothing. It was nice, and Sakura enjoyed herself.
"So, you have two siblings that are also in training teams?" their discussion had reached talking about their families and while Sakuras family was completely uninteresting, Sasuke really didn't want to talk about it, understandably. So, it was mostly just Naruto happily talking and Sakura giving him questions from time to time to go on.
"Yeah, Eri and Shi both are also in training teams. Sho was actually in our class and Eri has already been a Genin for two year."
He was right, Sakura now remembered Sho, the quiet, black haired boy who usually sat next to Naruto in class. She had honestly never cared about him, the only boy she had cared about in the Academy had been Sasuke, something that now seemed a bit strange to her in retrospect. But she had never heard about Eri, thankfully Naruto now kept on talking about her.
"Obito is her sensei and she and her team work really well together. She's is super strong and will easily soon become a Chunin or a Jonin." He happily explained and Sasuke seemed to cringe a little, when his caretaker was mentioned. Sakura just looked at him bewildered for a few moments, before he finally gave in and grumbled
"Obito liked to use me as a training assistant before I became a Genin. Usually for target practice." Sakura wanted to ask if that was even legal to do, but she had to admit that image of Sasuke wearing a target and getting attacked made her giggle a little.
"Well at least that was good evasion training for you." Kenta had appeared behind them without any of them noticing, causing Naruto and Sakura to almost fall of the bench they were sitting on. Kenta just laughed a little about their usual surprise and explained
"Sorry for bothering you during your free day, but we were just assigned a mission and I wanted to warn you for tomorrow. We'll be going on a C-Rank mission outside the Fire Country. So please prepare yourself for that and pack enough supplies and clothes for at least three weeks. See you tomorrow."
Kenta disappeared just as fast as he had appeared and left the three Genin stunned. Sasuke seized this opportunity to excuse himself, as he now walked away and left his teammates alone. On the inside Naruto was giving his buddy a thumbs up, however Sakura had already realized what they were up to.
"I'm going home now, too. And now, I don't need you to walk me home Naruto." Well, so much for his hopes, as Sakura just walked away, too. Well, he probably had to stop trying to force himself onto her, Naruto thought. It probably annoyed her just as much as Sakura annoys Sasuke when she fangirled about him.
But how was he then supposed to get closer to her, it was a mystery he had not managed to solve yet.
The next day they met at the village gate and again, Sakura thanked her sensei for the training they had done till now. She carried a large backpack with enough supplies for the long mission and she was sure that a few months ago she wouldn't have been able to carry this stuff for long.
"Alright people, our mission is rather simple. We are to act as couriers for an important package." He showed them a small box, he then again stored away in his backpack.
"Our destination is in the River Country and the two-way trip will take about two weeks. The package is not time sensitive, so we won't run ourselves to death. I want you to be on your guard during this mission. We do not expect any other shinobi to attack us, but the region is well known for having a bandit problem. So, there could be some problems." He explained and Naruto and Sasuke seemed to look forward to some action.
They would be disappointed. Nothing happened on their way to the border, they didn't even meet any other travellers and just walked the entire All they did was walking all day long and they would only stop when the sun was already setting. They would then train their elemental control for some time, before going to sleep. And while they were still in the Fire country, they also didn't post any sentries, so that they could all get a full night of sleep.
"You did its Sakura." Naruto screamed out, as Sakura hadn't even noticed that some of the Earth had clung to her hand, as she removed it from the ground. It was a large piece of the ground that seemed to be glued to her hand freaked her out a little. But after a few seconds the dirt just fell of and Sakura was left starring at her empty hand.
"Not the progress we were aiming for, but progress non the less." Kenta commented, but Sakura knew that he was just putting it nicely. She had heard about the techniques to walk up walls and trees and walk on water and she was pretty sure she had just done this on accident. She had not felt anything with the ground and earth and the way it had stuck to her hand she was sure that this had happened.
"This was a different technique, wasn't its Sensei?" Sakura asked and Kenta scratched the back of his head, while Naruto didn't seem to grasp the situation completely. Kenta finally sighed and decided to mix things up a little.
"I think it'd be for the best if we try something else for the moment Sakura. A bit of distance can always be useful. We can actually work with what you just used." Kenta now walked towards a tree and, knowing what was going on, Sasuke and Naruto do the same.
"A basic technique for every shinobi is "Walking on Walls", an important technique that improves the movement of a shinobi. It is also a great way to train your chakra control." With these words, he simply walked up the trees trunk like it was the simplest thing ever and Naruto and Sasuke just did the same, Naruto with a big and proud smile. Sakura knew that Kenta had not done this to make her feel weak, this still didn't stop her from feeling that way. But she quickly pushed that aside and jumped, ready for action.
"So how can I learn this technique?" Sakura asked and Kenta explained.
"Focus your chakra in the soles of your feet, so it can suck you onto the tree. You need to regulate the flow very precisely, too little and you just fall off, too much and you damage the tree and get repulsed." Sakura nodded and focused on her feet and after a few moments, walked towards the tree.
"Don't worry Sakura. Even I managed to master this after a lot of…" plomp, there was an almost satisfying sound when Naruto fell of the tree and face first on the ground. He hadn't fell because he was incapable, but because of shock, as Sakura walked up the tree with no problem. She continued walking up till she reached a strong branch and sat down on it. Both Kenta and Sasuke looked at her in amazement, honest pride mixing into his expression as he applauded his pupil.
"Well done Sakura, really well done. Seems like none of us can match your chakra control." Even Sasuke gave her an acknowledging nod, making Sakura blush, she even appreciated Naruto now praising her like she was the second coming of the first Hokage. It felt nice to be on top for once. For the rest of the day, Kenta was more lenient and cheerful than usual, so they got away with no more training that day.
Sakuras happiness continued until the next day and she had a skip in her step as they followed the path to their destination. They were still two days away from their destination, but Sakura didn't really care, since her euphoria was giving her a little high. She didn't notice her mistake before it was too late. Naruto had pushed her to the ground, and she could see him flinch in pain as they both landed in the dirt. Kenta and Sasuke had already sprang into action, the young Uchiha throwing several Kunai into the direction where the attack came from and the Jonin drawing his sword.
Sakura now was pinned under Naruto, who wasn't moving and just groaned out a "Are you alright Sakura." While he was obviously in pain. She moved him of her and almost screamed in shock, as she saw the rusted arrow embedded into Narutos shoulder. Blood was already drenching Narutos cloths and out of instinct, Sakura already wanted to pull out the arrow, but Naruto yelped in pain the moment she touched it.
She remembered, you ere not supposed to remove something like unless you could immediately bandage the wound or Naruto would lose even more blood. He was in shock and just lay on the ground groaning and Sakura didn't know what to do, she had neither the training nor the supplies, Sensei had the medical supplies. Thankfully he was already back, him and Sasuke having chased away the bandits, he was now taking care of Naruto.
"Sakura" he addressed her in a cool and collected tone and got her complete attention "I'll count to three and then I'll pull out the arrow, you immediately put with bandage on the wound and apply as much pressure as possible. Don't panic if blood comes out, you're just making sure that it's not too much." Sakura nodded as he gave her the cloth bandage and then, after a short pause, he grabbed the arrow gently but firmly and started to count.
One…two…. three!
Naruto screamed in pain, although Kenta only needed on quick yank to get the entire arrow out and immediately, just as she had been told, Sakura applied pressure with the bandage. Still, there was so much blood, it is soaking the bandage, it was covering her hands. She is applying pressure, but it still didn't stop. It was only a few seconds, but to Sakura it seemed like hours, before Kenta guided her hands away and finished the entire bandage. It wasn't perfect, but god enough to prevent Naruto from bleeding out and the blonde boy seemed to slowly recover a little.
Sakura was still in shock, her hands were covered in Narutos, her teammates blood, it was everywhere, it was still warm. She panicked, she needed to get this off, she needed get rid of this, she felt nuisance, she wanted to vomit, she… A stream of water was streaming down on her hands, washing away the blood, as Kenta emptied his entire water bottle on her hands. It wasn't completely clean, but it was better, and she stopped shacking, as Kenta pulled her into a one-armed hug.
"Don't worry, it's ok, everything is ok. He'll be fine, he'll be fine." He told her in a soft voice, but there was the hint of something in it that scared her. The faintest hint of a tremble, like he was saying to convince himself and not her and this was worse than anything right now. Sasuke now also came back, having chased off all the attackers and he looked at his wounded teammate.
"You idiot had to play hero, didn't you?" he scolded the blonde boy, while standing above him, to which Naruto, in a weak mumble replied.
"Well neither of you were paying attention and Sakura would have gotten hit in the head." He earned himself an acknowledging huff from the raven-haired Uchiha, before Kenta returned to him.
"We'll hurry to our destination and finish it as fast as possible and then we race back home like the will. If we are lucky and Naruto isn't too stupid, he shouldn't bleed out." Kenta tried to joke, but the atmosphere was too gloom for that. Sakura had just barely recovered some composure and Sasuke wasn't up for any jokes. So, Kenta, carefully, took his little brother piggyback and they continued their way. Even if they hurried, they still wouldn't be able to make it there within a day, it was already getting late and soon they had to take a break.
"You three sleep and I'll be sentry, the entire night, no arguments." He shoots down Sasuke before the Uchiha could even open his mouth and the Jonin almost forced them to fall asleep. But it was hard, Kenta had given him the painkillers from the medicine kit, but he was still in pain and hardly slept. This combined with shock and fear kept both Sasuke and Sakura awake for most of the night as well.
So, when the morning came, they all looked horrible, bags under their eyes and generally bad. But Naruto had not reacted, he was still in his sleeping bag and didn't react. Sasuke approached him and the moment he put his hand on the blond boy, his face turned pale and his eyes widened in shock. Naruto was hot, he had a massive fever and was unconscious only shaking slightly, covered in cold sweat.
Kenta immediately jumped up and to their side, panic no visible on his exhausted face. He inspected the wound and went just as pale as Sasuke, while he picked the boy up and addressed Sakura. "Sakura, get out the map and tell me where the nearest village is, we need a doctor, immediately." Sakura did as she was told, as she was now also filled with panic and she pulled the map out.
"Half an hour to the North-West is a larger village, they might have a doctor." Kenta only nodded in replay, while Sasuke had recovered from his shock and was now gathering all their supplies. It only took a minute and they were off, as fast their tired bodies allowed. And even then, Sakura had to admit that she was impressed by her Sensei, although he hadn't slept, carried both Naruto, his supplies and Narutos supplies, she could hardly keep up with him.
They managed to get to the village with in twenty minutes and while the villagers didn't want to help at first, the obviously suffering Naruto changed their position immediately. They guided them to the house of the doctor, who lived on a small hill outside the village and they raced there. Sasuke and Sakura had just caught up with Kenta again, when the door of the house opened, an older, mid-sixties, white haired man coming out. He looked at them angrily at first, having spotted their Konoha headbands, but he immediately mellowed once he saw the suffering Naruto.
"Get the boy in." he commanded, and Kenta did as he was told and carried Naruto inside and into the doctor treatment room, there he placed his little brother on the operating table and then explained what happened.
"Bandits attacked us, he got hit in the shoulder with a rusty arrow and it must have gotten infected. I did what I could, but I only have basic first-aid training." The doctor only grumbled at the explanation as he started to work, removing the bandage and properly cleaning the infected wound.
"Get out, wait in the living room. I'll inform you once I'm done." There was no resistance to this from Kenta and he immediately pushed both of his remaining, protesting students out of the room, closed the door and sat down on the old couch, burying his face in his hands. Both Sakura and Sasuke only looked at him, while he started "Please, please get ok."
The two children watched their teacher for a minute, before they both sat down too, not saying anything. They just sat there in silence, until the doctor finally came out, maybe half an hour or more later, they had no idea and addressed them.
"The boy is stable now. I properly cleaned out the wound took care of it; I also gave him antibiotics for the infection. He'll be asleep for quite some time and he shouldn't move for much longer." Kenta sighed loudly, as he finally relaxed in his seat and said.
"Do you mind me takin a nap? And my other students too, they really need it." The doctor nodded and Kenta gave Sakura a tired smile, as she was already about to reject, but he was right, they were all dead tired.
The doctor only looked at them for a moment, before he retreated to his private room. It only took a moment and the fact that Naruto was safe, made them all relax a little and after a minute they were all asleep.
And, there was blood again, blood on her hands, Narutos blood. No, this couldn't be, she looked around and Sasuke also lay there, in a puddle of blood. The blood was everywhere and there was so much of it, she couldn't take it, no. "Get off, get off, get off!". She snapped awake again, screaming. She looked at her hands and they were clean; she was still in the doctor's house.
"You ok Sakura?" Kenta was also awake, and he looked at her from the chair he had sat on the entire time and Sakura just nodded, but she was still shaking, and Kenta didn't fall for it.
"Seeing other people get hurt is always hard, especially if its your first time." He tried to assure her and after a moment of thinking Sakura replied.
"Will I ever stop feeling like this? How can I be a shinobi if I can't stand seeing my friends and other people get hurt?" there was almost a pleading tone in her voice, she wanted him to tell her that this was only a phase and would go away, but Kenta sighed, as he straightened himself and explained.
"The best thing you can hope for is that it never goes away. The moment you stop caring about these things is the moment you stop being a human. These feelings are important warning signals, if you feel shock and disgust from seeing other suffers, you won't put people in harms way easily. You will get used to it a bit, you'll be able to stomach it better, but I pray that neither of you ever stop caring about this." Kenta was weakly smiling at her, and Sakura understood what he meant, at least she thought so and now the Jonin stood up and made his way to the door separating the doctor's private rooms from his office.
He knocked at old wooden door and after a minute it was opened by the doctor and they started to talk. Sakura couldn't hear what they were saying, but after a few minutes of arguing her returned to her and Sasuke, who was now also awake, and Kenta told them what would happen now.
"I will finish the mission myself now. If I hurry, I should be back by tomorrow morning and then we can head home. The doctor agreed to let you stay here for the night, he'll keep an eye on Naruto and if we're lucky he'll be better tomorrow. There are more beds in the patient room with Naruto, so you can sleep there. Stay low and don't leave the house, Konoha shinobi aren't too popular here and keep an eye on Naruto."
Before they could ask any questions or object, Kenta had already left the house, leaving the two Genin alone. They looked at each other slightly perplexed, before Sasuke just shrugged and went to the patient toom, with Sakura following him. Inside, Naruto was asleep and hooked up to an IV, he didn't even snore which made the scene almost peaceful. Although he was drooling on his pillow a little.
Sasuke just grinned and shrugged, evidently Naruto was already feeling better, before he sat down on one of the other two free beds and again, Sakura did the same.
"So, any idea what to do or how to pass the time?" Sasuke asked and Sakura could only look at him in bewilderment, was this really Sasuke who had just asked this? The raven-haired Uchiha noticed and huffed, mumbling "We have to pass the time somehow, with the idiot asleep."
"We could make out." Sakura suggested in joking tone, although part of her hoped that Sasuke would agree, but he only raised his eyebrow and she waved her hands in a defeat.
"Worth a try." She shrugged and Sasuke lay down on the bed, his eyes fixed on the celling. For a minute he was silent, seemingly trying to find something irregular in the white celling, before he huffed again and said.
"Want to talk about what happened? Seems like you need it." He said this in a slightly arrogant tone, but for once Sakura could see through his façade. He was also worried and bothered by all of this and he needed somebody to talk to. So, Sakura also lay down and started talking.
"I never saw somebody bleed or suffer like this. I mean they tell us about this stuff in the Academy, but it just felt so far away and like it would never happen. I still can't stop thinking about all the blood, about how Naruto could have died because I wasn't paying attention, that it's my fault he got hurt." She was holding back tears and could hardly finish her sentence; it was just so much she had never faced, and it felt so horrible.
Sasuke didn't move and replied, in a neutral, almost monotone voice
" We all make mistakes and I know this moron well enough to be sure that he won't blame you for anything. Seeing something like this for the first time is always hard, just remember not to get completely dull to this or you'll turn into a monster."
Sakura was puzzled, had Sasuke listened in and now just repeated what Sensei had told her? But that mixture of surprise and a little anger quickly faded away, as she realized something else.
"Have you experienced something like this before, Sasuke?" she asked, but got no answer, not even a sound. After a few moments she looked at Sasukes bed and saw, that he had turned away from her and covered himself with the sheets. Sakura looked at him for a minute, but he showed no movement, until he finally started to fake snore. Had she said something wrong? But while she wanted to ponder about this, the tiredness was now returning and within a few minutes she had fallen asleep.
Authors Note:
Well, this was Chapter 3. And if somebody is wondering, yes, we won't just follow the old canon story. You may ask "But without them, what will happen there? How will they solve that?" All in due time dear readers, all due time.
Tobi out.