Hidden in the Night Sky
Chapter 4: The Month Of The Chunin Exams
Going off world had been a little tougher than the Knights had expected. While they were not Konoha shinobi and not beholden to their rules, as in, they wouldn't be labelled as deserters or international criminals, it didn't mean they were free to move about as they wished. While they weren't super famous, they had become somewhat known figures, and people expected them to be present at certain times.
Shamal was expected in the hospital at certain times, and her not being there would be a bit suspicious. She also couldn't afford to offend Koharu by missing her lessons. The fact that she could do so many more things with her rings than she'd thought had actually inspired Shamal to learn quite a few new things, amongst them different ways to bind people. Many of them were fairly useful off the battlefield. Normally, the bindings she used automatically snapped into position where she thought them most useful, but there were lots of different ways to bind people.
It was a lot easier to work on surgery when you got people bound in the exact position you want them to be.
Using her device as weights attached to the end of a wire was also far more useful than she'd thought it'd be. Her device, despite its purpose as a healing implement, wasn't any more fragile than Graf Eisen or Laevateinn. Sure, it did not have the shape of a sword or hammer, but it didn't need to. Shamal didn't think she'd ever be a frontline fighter, and didn't wish to be in the first place, but it was much easier to work with her comrades if she could stop people from capturing her with relative ease once they closed in.
Zafira had his training with his... self proclaimed Eternal Rival, Maito Gai. Gai, and Gai's team. The three of them had made it into the Chunin exams, and Gai was actually taking the time to train all three of them. However, he couldn't quite train all three of them and at the same time keep up with his own training, so he had requested help. It just so happened to be that Zafira was looking for training himself.
Some believe that teaching things can help you understand them more than you ever would before, and Zafira was actually of the mind that it was true. He'd learned Gai's fighting style from training with the man, and helping Lee correct the differences between his own rendition of it and Gai's taught Zafira more about the style than he'd thought he could learn in such a short time. It helped that the entire team was really dedicated and motivated. Even the fatalist Hyuuga Neji wasn't one to give up even when he was overwhelmed.
Signum had actually been hired by the Hokage to provide some swordplay instruction to the ANBU, mostly because she, as well as the rest of the Wolkenritter, had a great deal of experience in all forms of assassination. Despite Laevateinn being larger than most of the weapons the ANBU utilized, there was still much she could teach them that had less to do with a specific sword style and a lot more to do with sword usage. While most of them were experts, none of them had the kind of experience one earns over centuries of being a killing machine.
Somewhere along the line, she'd also been drafted by the teachers at the academy. Apparently, one of the ANBU was a former school teacher and gave the suggestion to the Hokage that swordplay teaching should begin a lot earlier, and as such, Signum was 'invited' to the Academy once every few days, either for a demonstration and spar or for a practical lesson. Learning to hold back so she could teach children without beating them up was... definitely a new experience. It was quite a bit more difficult than just fighting at her full strength, which was surprising.
The three adults of the Wolkenritter had expected responsibilities, and people would notice they were missing, which they hadn't quite expected.
The only one who didn't have such responsibilities was Vita. She was the one who went on the hunt most often, for certain, but few knew that the Wolkenritter worked as missing ninja hunters for Konoha, and they didn't particularly advertise it. Instead of training as the others, she'd instead taken more of those missions, preferring to train herself through real combat. Just about everyone agreed that, given her temperament, it would probably end with less injuries on Konoha's personnel than forcing her to train with them would.
This meant that Vita was actually in a prime position to hunt strong Linker Cores off world. Which she did. Most of the animals that abounded around the nearby worlds were very strong, though, and most of them had evolved in what amounted to Death Worlds, also known as "Those Worlds in which Everything Is Trying to Kill You". There was an overabundance of horribly strong giant worms with too many teeth. Even worse, despite how tough they were, it was a fact that they actually gave the greatest reward for their efforts.
However, they had another problem.
Vita had returned with a noticeable wound and several bruises once, clearly too exhausted to mind herself...
... and Naruto had actually seen her.
The Wolkenritter were very loyal to their master, regardless of who it was, and they were particularly loyal to a master who would be kind to them no matter what. That was why they would act beyond that master's orders to ensure her safety and continued health. Unfortunately, their master... disagreed with their priorities.
To say that Naruto had been mad at seeing Vita beat up as she was would be an understatement.
"... why do you do this to me?" Naruto had asked, not looking so much angry as she looked disappointed. It tore at their hearts, to see their master like this, but they knew that they couldn't stop. To protect the person who would be so kind as to be worried and sad for their sake... To make her dreams come true, they'd endure any pain and heartache.
Suffice to say, Naruto had since not let Vita out of her sight. It'd taken quite a bit of convincing to allow her to let Vita leave to continue doing her job as a hunter for Konoha, but she'd forced Vita to always take backup with her. Zafira had volunteered.
It was now that the time spent as a wolf would come in handy. Most of the time spent in his animal form was spent, one way or another, hidden from view or doing something uninteresting. Naruto had nearly permanent ANBU watchers, but they hardly ever thought about him. The less people who knew about the Wolkenritter's excursions, the better.
While Vita could only go out on sanctioned 'hunts' without arousing suspicion, Zafira had a lot more freedom to move around.
The month between the second and final task of the Chunin Exams was rather calm, on most sides.
For most of it, Konoha was in a festive mood, as there were a great deal many foreign nobles touring the village since the start of the exam, as well as foreign ninja who were getting themselves acquainted with Konoha. It was true that quite a few returned to their villages, but many remained in the village to await the final exam.
It would be quite an event, after all.
In the festival, few took notice of the rather unique party that was the Wolkenritter and their mistress observing the festivities. Naruto was at the head of the group, pulling Vita by the hand as she ran from stand to stand, pointing out all sorts of crafts and arts stands as well as both foreign and familiar cuisine, both expressing her interest in trying it as well as her awe at some of the more produced foods.
"Hey, look! That looks just like the old man's hat!" Naruto said, pointing at a stand that had imitation ninja gear, as well as some of the more iconic outfits, such as the legendary fourth Hokage's white coat, or the Sandaime's samurai-inspired helmet. There was obviously a set of imitation Hokage robes along with the hat. "I wanna buy it!"
And so she did. It was actually quite expensive, but Naruto evidently liked the hat enough to sink quite a few ryou into it. Vita winced, however, when Naruto looked somewhat forlorn for a second before shaking her head. "Come on, there's lots of fun games to play!"
"You don't need to pull," Vita said, rolling her eyes as she let her mistress drag her around. Best not to let anything get you down, since if you let your mood drop, you'll make the mood of the entire party drop.
Naruto pulled Vita along nonetheless, laughing as she approached a stand that sold weird drinks, not all of which were alcoholic in nature. Naruto was curious about what her knights would be like drunk, but they all refused to drink alcoholic beverages. Of course, Naruto never really gave up trying to get them drunk. "You'll all be drunk one day, and I will be there to watch you all do all sorts of stupid things, and then I'm going to laugh!"
"What makes you think you won't be drunk, too?" Vita asked, raising an eyebrow. "You'd do all sorts of dumb things, too!"
"I said I'd be there, not that I'd be sober," Naruto replied, shrugging. "Anyway... we should all order something to drink! I just got my stipend for this month, so go crazy!"
"We've got our own money, Mistress, you don't need to spend on us," Zafira said, interrupting Naruto and Vita's chat. "We've been working so-"
Naruto rolled her eyes. "You will do as I say, and accept my generosity," Naruto said, deadpan. "So don't try to wiggle your way out of it."
"Well, that was... not unexpected," Shamal said, an amused smile on her face.
"I suppose we might as well," Signum said. "It's pointless to oppose our mistress when she's like this."
"That is true," Zafira admitted, shaking his head with a fond smile. "Very well, then."
"Let's get something to drink!" Naruto said, grinning. It did take a little while, as there were several people ahead of them in line. Naruto was disappointed when they refused the more elaborate alcoholic drinks, instead all of them choosing to buy fruit smoothies. Sure, they were all delicious (and Naruto had of course tried them all within a short time), but it wasn't funny if they weren't getting drunk and doing all sorts of stupid things...
Naruto, of course, was walking backwards and giving her disappointed stare to the knights as they continued to walk through the festival. Instead of looking properly chastising, however, she only managed to look adorable, and the smile tugging at the side of her lips every time they looked at her certainly didn't help.
"Oh, hey! Isn't that... It is! Hiya, Naruto-chan!"
Naruto blinked, turning around. "Oh! Kiba-kun, Sasuke-kun, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, grinning widely and waving her hand at the genin team on the other side of the street.
All three of them were, oddly enough, wearing yukatas. Though they did look good in them, Naruto wondered if they had switched color schemes or something. Sakura was wearing blue and white, Sasuke was wearing gray and tan and Kiba was wearing red. Even Akamaru was wearing a bright red collar instead of his usually naked neck.
"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto asked.
"Well, these two were training for the chunin exams," Kiba said, gesturing towards Sakura and Sasuke, "but I managed to convince them to come over here during at least one of our holidays," he added.
"You mean Anko-sensei forced us to take a break," Sakura said, glaring at Kiba. "Anyway, what brings you here?"
"We've been visiting the fair every weekend," Naruto replied. "I haven't seen you guys in forever! How have you been?"
"In a lot of pain," Kiba said, moaning. "Anko-sensei's brutal, and she only gets worse every day!"
Sasuke shuddered. "It's... working, I guess," he added.
"At least I get some free time since I'm studying medicine and I need time for that," Sakura said, shuddering herself. "I don't know how you two can go all eight hours..."
"So you're gonna become a medic like Shamal?" Naruto asked, tilting her head.
"Well... I'll try," Sakura said. "Anyway, how have YOU been? We haven't seen you, either!"
"Bored! A lot! Everyone's been working so hard, that I've been really lonely and without anybody to play with," Naruto said, pouting and turning around to glare at the knights, who looked a bit contrite. "But I'm sure that's boring, too, so why don't you tell me what you've been doing for training?"
"So many snakes... why did it have to be snakes!?
Vita blinked. "Okay, now I'm interested..." she admitted.
"I saw someone investigating the corpses of the creatures I'd slain," Zafira telepathically commented, his eyes closed.
"It was a given they'd pick up on us, eventually," Shamal replied, smiling as Naruto laughed at the explanation given for how Anko motivated her students to run past the limits of their legs.
Zafira frowned. "My apologies. I should've been more discrete," he admitted. "If I hadn't killed them, then-"
"It's no use lamenting now. It's unimportant, at any rate. We've had much time to work with, and the book is almost complete," Signum stated, looking less concerned and more supportive. "If worst comes to worst... Naruto-chan can always reabsorb us. That should be enough to complete the book."
"That is no good. I... won't accept that. Not if it means leaving Naruto alone!" Vita replied. "We'll just have to step up our gathering rate... I don't think they know where exactly we are, anyway. All we have to do is be a lot more covert! That's all!"
"And I am fairly certain she would not take that option, even if her life depended on it," Zafira said, solemnly.
"Then we will have to fight. If worst comes to worst, the bureau will provide us with the last few pages we need."
As the Wolkenritter discussed their situation, others discussed their own.
A tall woman with strikingly green hair, wearing a blue military uniform, looked over a star chart on a floating screen. It zoomed in several times, until there were a few systems instead of hundreds on it. Several systems were lit up in bright red, and she frowned.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense," she muttered. "There doesn't seem to be a clear pattern to their hunting... They are definitely somewhere in this quadrant, but..."
"Sir, they might be aware that they could be tracked if they hunted around a radius of their base, so they might be deliberately hunting in an otherwise illogical pattern," one of the bridge crew replied.
The woman nodded. "We'll have to monitor the entire quadrant as best as we can. We might need to ask for backup."
"On it, Admiral!"
"Have you thought about it, Chrono?" the admiral asked, leaning against the doorframe that led into the dully decorated quarters.
"Yes, Admiral. I've decided that it's for the best," Chrono said, nodding at her. "Fate and Nanoha will be contacted. I have no doubt what their answer will be. I don't want to interrupt their training, but..."
Chrono Harlaown hated to have to do this, but he did need help from two of the most famous civilian collaborators he knew of. Few had a rise in notoriety as meteoric as Takamachi Nanoha and Fate Testarossa. He knew those two, how they worked and their abilities... it was no wonder he trusted Nanoha and Fate with such an important operation. But this operation... It was nothing like the one prior.
This time, their opponent wasn't a dying mage barely holding onto her sanity. They were no longer inexperienced little girls, tossing around high powered spells without thinking of which one was better suited to the situation. He'd seen them in training, he'd trained with them on occassion, and he'd been there to see Fate be accepted into the Enforcer program.
"Then we should contact them," the Admiral said, clearly giving him a suggestion, before she turned around and left. "Oh, and, don't forget to get Amy a gift. You know that we don't like it when you thoughtless men forget important dates," she said, grinning eagerly.
"Mother..!" Chrono said, his face coloring. "My interpersonnel relationships are none of your business."
"I'm your commanding officer for the time being, so yes, it is part of my business, and I'm also your mother, which means I get dibs to tease you about it," she said, laughing as she left, before he could formulate a response.
Chrono took a deep breath and redirected his anger into the computer he was typing into. Sometimes he wished that he had a physical keyboard, so that he could hear the satisfying clacking of the keys as he smashed his fingers into them, maybe it'd help him get rid of the temper his mother had provoked. However, he didn't let it keep hold of his mind for long, and instead, he opened an old document he'd received quite a while ago.
Rereading it, he frowned and dug into one of his pockets, retrieving a silver card and bringing it up so he could examine it.
The book... it had to be stopped. It had to be stopped before it destroyed yet another world. His hand clenched around the shaft of Durandall. Could he..? In the end, could he bring himself to do it?
He hoped he could. It was their last... their only chance to seal it off for good. Eleven years of work... All for this moment. It was... not something he wished to do. Much as he wanted to see its threat ended...
To say that he didn't like the way it had to end would be an understatement.
Chrono's eyes closed as he waited for the Asura to reach teleporting distance of the coordinates the tracker had given for the book. Admiral Gil Graham's work was exemplary in many aspects, and he'd dedicated too much to this operation. Chrono would not disappoint the man who'd helped raised him by failing now. They'd detected the general vicinity of the book. With a bit of luck, the knights would reveal themselves once more, and they'd be able to track them to a single planet, narrowing the search even further.
Leaving the bridge, and ignoring the calls from around him, Chrono retired to his room. He had to meditate on what was coming.
Naruto giggled excitedly as she watched the impressive shinobi fights below her, from the Kage Box, seated on the Sandaime Hokage's right side. Normally, only Kage would be in the aptly named Kage Box, but Naruto had begged to be allowed to watch the fights, and her pout and teary eyes had been classified as a lethal weapon, as of late, so she'd gotten her way regardless.
Really, Naruto could be a spoiled rotten brat at times, and it was only her innate ability at manipulating her own cuteness as well as her less than favorabe situation that let her get away with it. Being close to the Hokage didn't hurt.
It took quite a bit of convincing to send the Knights away, since it'd be quite a bit harder to swing armed bodyguards past the Kazekage, and the man would jump at the chance to bring his own security. Since it was a stupid idea to allow a Kage to bring an entourage with which he could distract Sarutobi long enough to assassinate him, they had to forgo Naruto's usual protection detail. Allies or no allies, the Kazekage was still a foreign ninja, and it'd be almost insulting if he didn't at least make an attempt at stabbing such a well presented back.
It was just normal ninja etiquette.
Of course, there was also the fact that the Kazekage had been acting suspicious for a long time now.
"They're all so strong..!" Naruto muttered, mostly to herself. "What's that?"
"That's called a war fan," Sarutobi said. "Though I'm sure Kazekage-dono could explain it more thoroughly than me, right?" the Hokage asked, turning to the Kazekage.
"Don't sell yourself short, Professor," the Kazekage said, shaking his covered head. "Regardless, I suppose I can. The War Fan is an old and well known traditional weapon of Suna. Its use was born of the need to stop the massive sandstorms that assault the village proper every fortnight or so. Any given wind jutsu wouldn't be enough, and so, instead of having to rely on massive teams of wind users, the War Fan was developed. It looks like any normal, if gigantic, fan, but it's actually covered with seals making it tougher and more able to channel wind chakra, which paper excells at."
"So... it's basically an amplifier for wind ninja magic?" Naruto asked.
"Put simply, yes, it works like that," the Kazekage said. "It is a very difficult weapon to handle, and my daughter-"
"Just lost it," Naruto commented.
Indeed, it seemed the Kazekage's daughter had lost 'it', and by it, Naruto didn't mean the fan. It appeared her opponent had gone and done something to anger her, as she had opened her fan fully and was now sending massive waves of wind to ravage the land before her, while her opponent seemed to be dodging for dear life. "Temari needs more discipline," the Kazekage stated, simply.
"That she does. If an insult as simple as "You should stay in the kitchen and bring me a sandwich when I ask for it" can rile her up to this level," Sarutobi said, shaking his head. "I actually have ninja who specialize in taunting people. I'm pretty certain they'd be able to make her explode if her temper is this poor."
"I thought that was a rumor," the Kazekage said.
"Ninja who specialize in taunting people are a fairy tale," Sarutobi said, waving his hand.
"That sounds really, really fun though. How did she know what that guy said, old man? We're really far!" Naruto said.
"I can read his lips," Sarutobi said, shrugging.
"He's facing the other direction," Naruto said, frowning.
"I'm just that cool," Sarutobi replied, giving her a cheeky grin.
"Uzumaki-kun, I am fairly certain he heard it when the announcer repeated it. You were just not paying attention," the Kazekage supplied.
"Mou... that's cheating!"
Incidentally, Temari was stopped by the announcer, one Gekko Hayate, before she could actually catch her opponent in one of her jutsu fully, instead of the four glancing hits the boy had taken. It'd been enough to nearly shred him, and so he was carried off the arena while Temari was told to calm down or face disqualification for unruly behavior.
The announcer took a microphone that a stage hand ninja gave him and cleared his throat. He sounded somewhat bored. "And now, could Uchiha Sasuke and Kankuro of Suna report to the arena? If you don't, you'll be disqualified, and that'd just suck."
"He is putting a lot of energy into this, isn't he?" the Kazekage stated, dryly.
"To be fair, I saw what we interrupted to draft him to do this. I don't blame him for being unenthusiastic," the Hokage stated.
"What could possibly be so important that he would protest in such fashion?" the veil covered man asked.
"I think Signum said her name was Yuugao, right?" Naruto chirped.
"... Huh. Well, I'd be angry, as well," the Kazekage admitted.
Before long, Sasuke and Kankurou had faced off. Much like the prior battle, there was very little in the way of contest in this one.
"YOU THINK YOU KNOW SHIT ABOUT POISON!? I'LL SHOW YOU POISON!"
Kankuro had learned that you don't ever want to try hallucinogenic poison against a student of Mitarashi Anko, because they're already crazy, and will just go crazier. The fact that Sasuke was currently chasing him while wielding Crow as a club and swinging it around like a lunatic was just icing on the cake. He wound up forfeiting when Sasuke shrugged off four different kinds of lethal poison and spat a glowing purple glob that melted halfway through Kankuro's metal plated headband before he could remove it.
"... I... don't think we can blame Kankuro for this," Sarutobi said. "He couldn't have expected his opponent would have a psychological breakdown midfight."
"But shouldn't he have gathered some information on his opponents or something?" Naruto asked, tilting her head. "I mean, whenever Signum, Vita or Zafira are going to fight somebody, they always try to gather as much information on them as Konoha has," she noted.
"She is right," the Kazekage said. "Let me be the first to say that, weren't it for your unfortunate condition, you'd have made a splendid ninja, Naruto-chan," the Kazekage said, absent mindedly patting her head.
Naruto giggled. "Thank you," she said, grinning.
"Kankurou should've researched his opponent. I believe just asking around would've yielded an answer. Mitarashi is... not particularly low profile, and neither is Uchiha-kun. Still... his breakdown was very well faked. It almost convinced me."
"Oh, you noticed?" Sarutobi asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, yes, I've seen my fair share of crazies. They are rarely as efficient as Sasuke showed himself to be. No, I do believe he was faking it to intimidate Kankuro. It appears that unlike my son, Sasuke might have researched his opponent..."
After Hayate took center stage once more, he coughed a little and faced the audience... which was all around him. "Now, would Rock Lee of Konoha and... I can't pronounce that, I'm gonna try anyway, Ikutsk... Ikustu... That Guy from Ame report to the arena?"
"... It's not that hard," Naruto frowned. "Ikutsuki," she said, almost as if testing it.
"I think he did it on purpose," Sarutobi said, nodding.
The fight lasted like ten seconds anyway. Rock Lee simply ran to his opponent and decked him before he could throw his needle umbrella into the air. Just like that, it was over.
"That had to be the most boring fight yet," Naruto said. "I demand a repeat! With Lee-kun's hands tied behind his back, and a weight tied to his legs!"
"Maybe later," Sarutobi said.
"Now, will Gaara of Suna and Aburame Shino of Konoha report to the arena?"
"... Shino-kun will forfeit," Sarutobi said.
"Of course he will. Gaara being here is just a formality, after all," the Kazekage said.
Sarutobi nodded.
Naruto tilted her head, confused. However, Shino did exactly that.
"Discretion is an imprescindible part of valor. That must be commended, don't you agree?" Sarutobi asked, turning to the Kazekage.
"Truly, I do. Knowing when to fold has saved me many a hand," the Kazekage noted.
Most of the fights were quite boring, with the highlights being commentary made by the Kage. Naruto was actually treated to what amounted to two expert players critiquing everything that the newbies did wrong, and praising them whenever they showed potential or promise. The fact that those two clearly knew everything ninja from inside out certainly made a great deal of difference in whether their commentary was entertaining or not.
It was a lot easier to laugh at their jokes when you knew that they were right.
Finally, though, the matches became more entertaining as the third and final rounds approached. The semi finals had the two Kage be a lot more silent, as they chose to watch the fights and comment only afterwards, while Naruto was treated to the cream of the genin showing exactly why they'd been the ones chosen to represent their villages.
Finally, though, the finals rolled around. After a semi final round with really amazing matches, it was up to the two final contestants.
"This is it, Hokage-dono, the final fight. The pride of my village, my son Gaara, against Uchiha Sasuke, the last of an once illustrious clan. A bout for the ages, eh?" the Kazekage asked.
"Perhaps," Sarutobi admitted.
And then the fight was on. Sasuke moved really, REALLY fast! Like, he was just a blur and Naruto could barely track him fast! But it seemed that no matter what he did, he just could not pierce Gaara's defenses.
However, it seemed that Sasuke had one ultimate plan.
And like any good Uchiha, it had him defaulting to what his clan did best.
Kill it with fire. And if fire doesn't work, then it's because you're not using enough fire.
It turned out that the sand shield wouldn't really work against heat, so to speak. Which meant that while Gaara was not being hurt by the flames themselves, he was being cooked alive the more he remained close to the fire. Running away didn't help, since whatever technique Sasuke had used seemed to chase Gaara no matter where he went, even if Gaara created walls of sand, the fire just parted and flowed around them.
Eventually, he was surrounded by fire and cornered, at which point he created a sphere to shield himself. That turned out to be an even worse idea, however, as now he was practically in a sealed oven.
However, when it parted, what emerged wasn't a piece of toasted boy...
No.
What came out of the sphere was instead half a boy, and half a monstrosity made of sand.
Feathers rained down the stadium.
Hoo.
Interesting Trivia:
Gai thinks Zafira has a Hip and Cool attitude, but is nevertheless a very youthful person.
One of the nearby worlds that the Wolkenritter visited resembles a primitive Tuchanka. The overpowered worms are Thresher Maws.
Konoha is abusing the hell of the massive influx of tourists during the Chunin Exams, and that is why there appears to be a month long festival. It's basically a bunch of merchants, both nomadic and sedentary, setting up shop to try and get the most out of the visitors, every weekend.
It has been quite a while since the plot of the original series. Nanoha and Fate are both 10 going on 11 and Chrono is 15 going on 16. He STILL looks a lot younger than he is. He is already dating Amy, if you couldn't guess. Fate has not yet been adopted because adoption procedures take forever.
The ninja who riled Temari up is Abumi Zaku, also known as 'That Guy Who Had His Arms Exploded By Shino'.
Sasuke did indeed look up Kankuro and learned a bit of info about Gaara. Pretending to go absolutely bugfuck nuts was a ploy to play on Kankuro's learned fear of crazies. It worked.
The name 'Ikutsuki' and people struggling to pronounce it is a reference to Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3, where the Chairman of the Board for the school has the name 'Ikutsuki' and when he introduces himself, he remarks on how hard it is to pronounce.
Sasuke is faster, stronger and more skilled than he was in canon, because his teacher isn't a lazy jerk. She's just a colossal bitch, not lazy at all. Instead of relying on a suicidal technique (because approaching Gaara is suicidal and Sasuke only survived it in canon because of sheer plot armor), he instead developed a remote-controlled fire jutsu. It's unconsciously based upon Amaterasu, which he saw Itachi do (and which is engraved into his mind because Sasuke already had a Sharingan at the time of the massacre, but it's trauma-locked).
At this point, Sasuke doesn't even know his main affinity is actually lightning, and he does not have a Cursed Seal because Orochimaru was interrupted by Signum, who could get there a lot faster than Anko, before he could give it to him.