Notes: Okay, so I went back and looked over my previous chapters because I've been going back and forth on the ways I've been capitalizing things. Anyway, I decided to make a couple changes (as per what looks better for me and what the Naruto wikia does):
Ranks—genin, chūnin, and jōnin—are now lowercase, though tests such as the Chūnin Exam, the Bell Test, and the Mist's Genin Exam are still capitalized. All 'nin' things (medic-nin, missing-nin, etc) have the hyphen and are lowercase. Titles are still capitalized (Demon Brothers, Copy-Nin, etc). Shadow clones and water clones have been decapitalized, but jutsu such Chidori, Replacement Jutsu, etc, are all still capitalized. (The difference between a shadow clone and Chidori is that shadow clones are the tool byproduct of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, in the way kunai and shuriken are tools. Chidori and Rasengan are the direct move that is the jutsu, at least in my mind). Also, jutsu are no longer italicized because that looked weird.
It was finally the day. We'd been at Tazuna's house for a week. Just the other night, Kakashi had explained to Inari how Naruto had grown up an orphan, but how he'd never once seen Naruto cry because of it. Inari had gone to bed with a contemplative look on his face, relieving me. Even knowing that Inari was just a kid, I'd gotten more than a little annoyed with his insistence that there were no heroes.
If I remembered correctly, it was the day after that conversation that the attack had come in the show. Today was that day.
"Oh dear," Tsunami, Inari's mother, said as we were getting ready to leave. "Sakura, sweetheart, your dress…"
We all looked. There was a huge tear along the back of Sakura's dress. It looked like Sakura had attempted to sew it up, but it hadn't helped much. The whole dress was stained and faded and the ends were coming apart at the seams.
"Did you buy that dress at a civilian shop, Sakura?" Kakashi asked.
Sakura, her face flushed red, nodded.
"That's not good, Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "Civilian clothes don't last long."
I stared. "You can't tell me that orange monstrosity is from a shinobi shop?"
Naruto shrugged. "I think it's just supposed to be for training, but yeah. It was the only thing I could afford–" Naruto cut himself off, flushing even redder than Sakura. "That doesn't matter," he said quickly. "We have to help Sakura-chan. She can't fight Zabuza in civilian clothes!"
"Naruto is right," Kakashi said. "Shinobi outfitters add extra layers of protection to their clothing. A civilian dress just won't cut it."
If I remembered the show correctly, Sakura didn't do much actual training during this mission. This time, though, Kakashi had been drilling her taijutsu—I suppose it made sense that her dress looked like that.
"You can probably wear one of my extra pair of pants," I offered. "They have a drawstring, so they should fit."
"And I have an extra undershirt!" Naruto added.
"Is it orange?" Sakura asked. The flush was still present on her cheeks, but it faded into disgust at the thought of wearing anything orange.
"Nope." Naruto unzipped his jumpsuit to show them the white undershirt.
"Oh, okay," Sakura said. "Um, thank you."
We headed upstairs to get Sakura the pants and shirt and then left her to change. As we walked out with Tazuna, I heard Tsunami telling Sakura not to worry, as she'd make sure to sew up the ends so the clothes would fit her right.
At the bridge, we saw that mist had spread over everything. For a moment, I had a flashback of California streets and how hard it was to drive when the fog came in from the ocean.
Then I realized the mist wasn't natural. Tazuna's workers were knocked out on the ground. One of them lifted his head and croaked, "It was a demon!"
Despite the seriousness of the situation, I couldn't help but role my eyes. These people wouldn't know a true demon 'til it stared them in the face.
"Protect our client," Kakashi ordered. I pulled out a kunai and got into a defensive position in front of Tazuna. Next to me, Naruto crouched down and began setting something up. I wanted to ask him what he was doing, or look myself, but just then Zabuza revealed himself in front of Kakashi. Kakashi didn't play around, opening up his Sharingan eye immediately.
It was too far away from us to really hear their conversation, anymore than murmurs anyway. I looked around instead, wondering where Haku was.
Naruto popped up a moment later. "Done."
"Done with what?" I asked.
"Protecting Tazuna-ojii-san," Naruto explained. "Ojii-san, you can't move outside the circle, okay?"
I stepped forward and turned around. Naruto had set up a circle of seals around Tazuna. "What are those?" I paused. "Is that the package you wouldn't tell me about when we were packing your mission pack?"
"Yep! I modified some presents from Iruka-sensei," Naruto said. "So long as Tazuna-ojii-san doesn't leave the circle, it'll blow away anyone who tries to touch him."
"Are those explosive tags?" I studied the circle closer. "And that's a storage seal."
Naruto just smiled.
"How'd you think to do this?" I asked.
Naruto shrugged. "When me and Sakura were training the other day, while you were at the bridge, we talked about how I usually set up for my pranks. And it got me thinking, and then I remembered the stuff I packed 'cause I was thinking about pranking Kakashi-sensei, but then we were attacked and so I modified some stuff and I got this." He beamed proudly. "Awesome, right?"
"If it works."
"It will!"
I looked back at Kakashi, only to see that Haku was there as well, still wearing his white mask. Zabuza laughed loud enough for us to here and then Haku sprang forward.
"Let me wear him down first," I told Naruto and jumped to meet Haku. If I could, I would take away the pain of Naruto knowing he'd fought his new friend.
Except, Haku was freaking fast. I stopped thinking and fell into instinct and muscle memory as I dodged left and struck right. I could tell Haku wasn't fighting at his whole capacity, which was aggravating as much as it was relieving. I took a chance as Haku stood there after throwing a few shuriken and made a couple hand signs.
Haku spun as I ducked under and around him. He held up his arms in defense, but it wasn't enough for what I'd planned.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu," I said, just before pushing the chakra the rest of the way out of my mouth.
The fireball was easily the entire size of Haku and I'd shot at point-blank range. It had been risky, putting myself that close to him, but I hoped to avoid Haku's kekkei genkai.
"Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō," I heard as my fireball died out.
The ice mirrors sprang up all around me and I let out a startled curse. Haku, reflected twenty times over on the crystals, was a bit singed but otherwise no worse for wear.
"You have potential," Haku said, his voice soft. "If given time, you could grow much stronger." He lifted up his right hand, a senbon tucked between two fingers. "But I will not disobey Zabuza-san, and so I must kill you."
Was that regret I heard in Haku's voice? I suppose it had to be. I knew Haku was no older than myself—younger if you counted the age of my last life. He thought himself a tool for Zabuza and truthfully it only took Haku's death before Zabuza thought Haku anything but. It was wrong, so wrong.
And I didn't want to die.
"Hey!" Naruto yelled, jumping through the gap in the ice mirrors. "Twenty on one isn't fair!"
"It's a kekkei genkai, dobe," I told him. "Why did you jump in here? Now you're trapped with me."
"Sakura's back to help Kakashi-sensei, so I had to come help you." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"That's not what I– Naruto!" All around us, I saw Haku raise his senbon and throw them with precision.
There were a couple things I thought of in that moment. I thought of the show, how the other Sasuke jumped in front of Naruto. I thought of my death—blond hair, grey eyes—and how much it'd hurt. And I thought of Naruto, and how much I cared about him, and how much more he still had left to do.
I pushed Naruto out of the way. In my panic, my mind felt clearer than it had in years. The world seemed crisper, as if I was taking that moment to memorize this world I'd ended up in before the very real possibility of leaving it.
After all, for all I knew the other Sasuke had survived, it just took one senbon to a large artery for me not to.
The first of the senbon hit me in the thigh. It wasn't a bad pain, no worse than getting my ears pierced in my other life. And then the next three senbon hit my lower back, my side, and my shoulder. Another couple hit my arms, and then one hit the back of my knee and I crashed to the ground.
Vaguely, I heard a roar. Naruto's chakra pricked at the edge of my awareness. It felt hotter than normal. A couple more senbon pierced me, but I hardly felt them. I was focused on that flaming chakra.
The Kyūbi… I struggled to get up. "Naruto," I tried to say, but all that came out was a long groan. The darkness was pulling at me like a friend I was intimately familiar with.
I faded, and then snapped myself awake. "Naruto!"
"Sasuke!" Naruto called back. I looked wildly around. The ice mirrors were gone. How had I missed them disappearing? The darkness was still there at the edge of my vision. I struggled to get up, only to wince as I felt the distinctly uncomfortable sensation of accidentally pushing one of the senbon further into my body.
Haku lay on the ground in front of Naruto, but Naruto was ignoring him. He jumped toward me instead and helped me shakily stand up. "We need to get you to Sakura-chan," Naruto said.
"What about–" I gestured weakly in Haku's direction.
Haku looked at me. "Please, kill me. Your friend refuses to do it, but I cannot go on. I have failed. I am a broken tool. Please, dispose of me."
"Shut up," I growled, and then coughed as I tasted the blood in my mouth. I grimaced, reaching toward the senbon sticking out my neck. I pulled it out and suddenly I could breath a little easier.
"Haku, when I met you, you were gathering stuff to heal Zabuza, right?" Naruto said. "Heal Sasuke! Please! He's one of my precious people, just like we talked about!"
I noticed that the mist was beginning to clear. I saw Tazuna sitting on the ground in the circle of seals Naruto had surrounded him with. Just outside the circle lay a prone figure. On the other side, Sakura stood completely still facing another man. It was Meizu, which meant the guy knocked out on the ground had to be Gōzu.
Farther over on the bridge, Kakashi pushed his Chidori straight for Zabuza.
"Naruto, grab Haku!" I yelled, because any second now Haku would notice and jump in front of the Chidori and be killed. And for all I found I didn't care, Naruto did.
Naruto didn't even hesitate before doing what I asked. Haku struggled, but he was too weak to hold Naruto off and that was all that was needed.
Zabuza just barely managed to get his sword in front of his body before the Chidori blasted into him. He flew backwards, falling over ten meters before hitting the ground with an audible crack.
"Zabuza!" Haku screamed, pushing Naruto away and running over to his mentor.
Before either Kakashi, Naruto, or I could react to that, Meizu suddenly screamed and dropped to his knees. Sakura broke from her frozen stance and began to pant. She wiped her forehead with a shaky hand.
"Otōto," Gōzu cried, struggling to rise. I noticed that he was covered in what looked like paint. There was a serious burn mark on his right cheek and his clothes were nearly completely burned away. A wire was still half wrapped around his legs, tangled so he couldn't rise to his feet. "What did you do? A genin shouldn't be able to break free from that jutsu!"
Meizu was recovering now, rubbing his face. I stumble-walked in Sakura's direction, forcing Naruto to help me along faster.
"Sasuke!" Sakura said, her voice sounding as exhausted as she looked at me and Naruto.
"Careful now," Kakashi said, appearing at our side. "Sasuke, we need to get those senbon out of you."
"Quickly," I said, gritting my teeth. The ache was really setting in now. I hoped I wouldn't develop a fear of needles from this, but I wasn't too optimistic about my chances. The senbon freaking hurt!
Naruto and Sakura worked to pull out all the senbon sticking in me as Kakashi hauled Meizu to his feet and threw him beside Gōzu. Gōzu had managed to cut the ninja wire holding is legs together and now stood protectively in front of his brother, glaring at Kakashi.
Sakura pulled out the last of the senbon and I sighed in relief, even as a commotion took all our attention to the other end of the bridge.
"Gatō!" Tazuna announced as Gatō and about a hundred men raised their weapons.
"Worthless," Gatō said, loud enough for us all to hear. "I hire the Demon of the Mist and his three men and what happens? They lose to one man and a couple of brats."
"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, but I quickly clamped a hand around his mouth. I was interested in what Gatō was about to say.
"Oh well," the man continued. "It wasn't like I was going to pay you guys anyway." He and his men laughed.
"What?" Shockingly, that was Zabuza. I had been so certain of his death. He sat up with Haku's help and was now glaring at Gatō. "You planned to double-cross me?"
Gatō smirked. "It wouldn't have even been hard, if all it took was a couple of kids to take your cohorts down."
"Boys," Zabuza said then. "I'm too weak to move, but you should be enough to show this damned bastard his miscalculation."
"Yes, Zabuza-san!" the Demon Brothers and Haku chorused. Meizu helped his brother up and together they flickered to Haku's side.
I could tell that none of them were really at full fighting speed, but what they had was enough to take out a couple of civilians.
Gatō, I was pleased to note, promptly pissed his pants.
And then Inari showed up with the villagers. Sakura looked pleased. "While I was there this morning, a couple of Gatō's thugs tried to take Tsunami to use as a hostage and I helped Inari fight them off," she explained. "Inari said after that he was going to stop crying and be a hero… like you, Naruto."
"Me?" Naruto blinked.
I began to laugh. I couldn't help it—it all just caught up with me at once. The citizens of Wave clashed with Gatō's men, fighting for their home, and meanwhile the Demon Brothers and Haku had fallen back to help Zabuza and here I was being healed by Sakura in the too-big shorts she'd borrowed from me and the now-stained white shirt she'd borrowed from Naruto.
It was all too much.
"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," I said. "I'm just glad it all worked out."
Naruto and Sakura exchanged a glance, and then they too were grinning. "Did you see how awesome my trap was, Sakura-chan?" Naruto exclaimed. "It totally took out that Demon Brother, didn't it?"
"It was pretty cool to see," Sakura agreed. "Even if you didn't explain it to me before rushing after Sasuke." She glared.
Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Uh, oops?"
I felt a pressure on my hair and tensed, before realizing it was just Kakashi patting my head. He did the same for Naruto, and then Sakura. "Good work, team," he said.
I looked around and noticed that the rest of Gatō's men had fled. Gatō himself was dead, along with the other half of his men. It was a bloody sight, but that didn't bother me in light of the Wave civilians' relieved faces. Maybe it would later, but I was too exhausted to register the severed limbs with anything more than huh.
Tazuna chortled. "You really did it," he said. There were tears in his eyes.
"We did it," Inari said, bounding up to his grandfather.
"The bridge is complete, Gatō won't be bothering us any longer, and my family is safe." Tazuna shook his head. "How can I ever repay you?"
"Maa, we may need to impede on your hospitality a bit longer," Kakashi said. I saw the weariness in the corner of his eye and figured the only reason he wasn't sagging was because our four ninja opponents were still alive and huddled together on the other end of the bridge.
"I don't have enough skill to heal Sasuke any more than I have, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura protested.
"I'm fine," I said, though my body ached something fierce.
"Haku does!" Naruto remarked, and before we could do anything, he bounded toward the four ex-Mist-nin. Kakashi followed after him.
"That baka," Sakura said.
"He's something else, isn't he?" I agreed.
"He sure is," Tazuna said. "You know, I've just decided what to name the bridge."
"What, grandpa?" Inari asked.
"I think the Great Naruto Bridge is appropriate, isn't it?"
I let out another little laugh. "Yeah," I agreed. My vision was growing dim again. "I'm glad that didn't change."
"What?" I heard Sakura ask, but I was too tired to reply.
I'd just take a little nap…
When I woke up, I was stiff all over. I winced, slowly sitting up. There were bandages wrapped around my body and I was shirtless, though luckily I still had my shorts on—even if there were some bandages under them.
I slowly got out of bed and threw on my shirt. It smelled a little, but not enough for me to care. I was still in Tazuna's house, but I was alone and I couldn't sense any other chakra signatures nearby. Kakashi was good at keeping his covered too much for me to sense, but Naruto was a beacon. I wondered where he was.
I headed downstairs. Tsunami was in the kitchen with Inari while Tazuna sat at the table drinking sake.
"Ah, Sasuke, you're up!" Tsunami said. "You slept for half the day and the whole night."
"Where's my team?" I asked.
"They're out training, I think," she said. "Naruto-kun said something about making sure that Zabuza knew what his friends were worth and ran off right after breakfast. They've been gone for a couple hours now."
I looked at Tazuna's sake glass and raised an eyebrow. It was only a couple hours after breakfast and he was drinking? Tazuna saw me looked and raised the glass with a smirk.
I sniffed and left without another word. It didn't take long to find my team in our usual training spot, along with Zabuza, the Demon Brothers, and Haku.
I stood for a moment, watching them. Zabuza was leaning against a tree. I could tell he was still injured, but he was talking with Kakashi civilly enough. Sakura was unwrapping a bandage around the large burn mark on Gōzu's face as Meizu watched, dare I say, nervously. Naruto was talking excitedly with Haku, who was smiling at the blond.
It was all very peaceful.
"Sasuke!" Sakura was the first to announce my presence, though I was sure the more experienced ninja had noticed me first. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine," I said, walking the rest of the way into the clearing. "What are you doing?"
"Haku-san is just waiting on another ingredient for the burn salve we're going to use for Gōzu-san and Zabuza-san," Sakura said, polite as ever with her honorifics.
"Here it is," Haku said, even as a familiar white rabbit bounded into the clearing. Except, this rabbit wore a little vest like I remember seeing on Kakashi's ninken. It wasn't the same olive green color, it was a dark blue actually, but it had just as many pockets.
The rabbit hopped up to Haku and then settled onto two legs. It reached into one of the pockets with one of its paws and pulled out a bundle of herbs. "Here you go, Haku-dono!" it said in a distinctly feminine voice.
"Ah!" Naruto jumped back. "Your rabbit just talked!"
"That's a nin-animal, Naruto," Kakashi said. "They're far smarter than normal animals and develop human speech as part of the chakra bond created between them and their master."
"Oh, she's so cute!" Sakura squealed. "What's your name?"
"I'm Aisuko, Haku's ninusagi," the rabbit said promptly. "Thank you for not killing my master and my master's friends."
Haku flushed slightly. "Aisuko," he reprimanded. He shook his head. "I'll teach you how to make the salve now, Sakura-san." He took out a pommel and bowel from his kunai pouch.
I walked over to Kakashi as Haku began to explain the ingredients in the burn salve and how inserting chakra as you mixed them activated… blah blah. I already said I wasn't a biologist, nor did I ever consider going into a medical field. I would never be able to stay awake enough to absorb anything from a pre-med lecture.
"Not dead yet, kid?" Zabuza said as I approached him and Kakashi. "You must have really impressed Haku for him to use his kekkei genkai so quickly into your fight."
I shrugged. That hadn't been my intention, but it had all worked out. "How are you still alive?" I asked, curious. "Kakashi-sensei, isn't Chidori your signature move?"
"Read about it in my bingo book?" Kakashi assumed. "Maa, I suppose I should have aimed for his head."
I looked to Zabuza's lap. The broken remains of his sword were spread across it. I winced. "That was one of the Seven Great Swords, right?"
"Kubikiribōchō," Zabuza said, sighing sadly. "I was trying to convince your sensei here to pay for the cost of repairs."
"Isn't it enough that it saved your life?" Kakashi said. "And that I've decided to allow you to continue to live?"
Zabuza huffed and looked away. I wondered what we were going to do with him and the others. Were we going to turn them in for their bounty? They'd probably be executed then. I wanted to say Kakashi wasn't that cruel, but… well Kakashi had been in the ANBU Corps.
"You know, boy, you have the right build for kenjutsu," Zabuza said. "Not a butcher cleave like Kubikiribōchō but perhaps a shorter sword, like a chokutō."
I blinked. Hadn't that been the kind of sword the other Sasuke had used? How had Zabuza known? Well, I supposed he had trained under one of the Seven Great Swordsmen. They surely knew their craft.
"I've considered it," I said honestly. I hadn't really, not in this body, but I'd always wanted to learn swordfighting in my old life. I mean, how cool was that? "But unless Kakashi-sensei has a skillset in kenjutsu I don't know about," I looked at my teacher, who was reading his porn book, "then I'd have to get a different teacher."
"Konoha's a bunch of weaklings," Zabuza said dismissively. "But your village does produce some specialists. The problem you'd run into would be convincing a master to take you on. Can't do that without showing at least a little talent to prove to them that it's worth it."
"What do you suggest?"
Zabuza was silent, looking over my shoulder. I shifted so I could look too. Haku was helping Sakura put the burn salve on Gōzu's face. They rewrapped the bandages around it and then headed our way.
"Pardon us," Haku said as he knelt down on Zabuza's other side and began unwrapping the bandages around Zabuza's torso. I couldn't help but wince as I saw the nasty mark the Chidori had left, even with Zabuza's sword acting as a shield. Zabuza's skin was an angry red and purple, inflamed in places while elsewhere the skin had ripped open.
Sakura came around my other side and took a brush from Haku. Together, they painted the burn salve on the raw skin around Zabuza's more open wounds. After a moment, Sakura set the brush aside and made a couple hand signs. She placed her green-glowing hand over the worst of the wounds. I didn't see a noticeable difference when she'd finished, but Zabuza seemed to relax a bit, so I assume she'd taken some of the pain away.
"Let me check you too, Sasuke," Sakura said. "Haku-san helped me put some salve on you last night. I want to see how much it's helped."
I unwrapped one of the bandages on my arm and held it out for her without a word. Already, I could see the puncture wound was looking much better. Sakura's chakra was a pleasant temperature as it rushed over the wound. It felt like she'd put a hot pad on my arm, though I knew it was just her chakra.
"You should be fine in another day or two," Sakura said, pulling back. "Haku said they won't even scar!"
"I don't care about that," I said, rewrapping my arm.
"And me, girl?" Zabuza asked.
Sakura turned back to the missing-nin. "I'm sorry, Zabuza-san. Your wound is a lot more severe…"
"It may take a fortnight before you are ready to go any long distance," Haku murmured.
Zabuza looked at the sky for a moment, before nodding. "Very well, then. Hatake, if I'm to be stuck here a fortnight then I might as well do something to keep me busy. I'll be stealing your student."
"Oh?" Kakashi asked, his tone deceptively light.
"He wants to learn kenjutsu. Haku ain't got the form for it and Gōzu and Meizu prefer their chains. Might as well pass down some basics before we go."
I was honestly shocked. "I… I'd be honored," I said honestly. To learn kenjutsu, even just the basics, from one of the Seven Swordsmen! I had not seen that coming at all.
"We're staying, Zabuza-san?" Meizu asked. He and his brother had come over to our side of the clearing. Naruto, hugging Aisuko to his chest, joined us.
"Just for a fortnight," Zabuza said.
"Hooray!" Naruto cheered. "Then I can keep talking with Aisuko-chan and Haku!"
"Naruto-kun wants to learn how to get a nin-animal of his own, Haku-dono," Aisuko said.
"Nin-animal are a lot of responsibility, Naruto," Kakashi said.
"I can handle it," Naruto replied, puffing out his cheeks.
"Do you have a nin-animal, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"He fucking pinned me down with them," Zabuza said.
Kakashi smiled. "I have a pack of ninken, yes."
"A whole pack!" Naruto gaped. "Haku, can I get more than one nin-animal?"
"Not exactly, Naruto-kun," Haku said. "If the pack is not already together before the chakra bond, it would not work."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Just like there are some humans born with chakra, some animal are born with it as well," Haku said. "They are smaller than we are and therefore their chakra reserve is not enough to do much, however it provides them many of the physical and mental abilities ninja receive."
"That's why they can talk?" Sakura asked.
"Not exactly," Kakashi said. "Do you three know the Inuzukas?"
"Kiba was in our class," Naruto said.
"But Akamaru doesn't talk," I pointed out. "Wait, don't his mom and sister's ninken talk, though?" I remember finding that strange, why Akamaru didn't talk when the other Inuzuka ninken do and Kakashi's do.
"The Inuzuka raise their ninken from birth. They believe that developing a bond before the actual chakra bond allows them to have a stronger connection with their ninken," Kakashi explained. "Kiba likely hasn't done a full chakra bond with Akamaru yet."
"What's the chakra bond, then?" I asked. "And how is it different from a summons?"
"Summons live in a separate plain of existence and are brought to ours when called," Meizu said. "They're not like nin-animals at all."
"Though they're just as hard to contract with," Gōzu added.
"The chakra bond forms a connection between the ninja and the nin-animal," Haku said. "It gives the nin-animal a chakra boost, allowing them to use chakra to speak like a human. It also allows the ninja master to summon the nin-animal to their side with a simple summoning seal, so long as they are focused on the chakra bond."
"But unlike summons, nin-animals usually stay with their master," Meizu said.
"Where are your ninken, then?" Sakura asked Kakashi.
"They stay at my house unless I call them," Kakashi explained, shrugging. "They're too disruptive to take on missions unless I need them."
"That's what you get for bonding with a whole pack," Zabuza grumbled.
"So how do I get one, then?" Naruto asked.
"You can't just force a chakra bond on any animal, Naruto," Kakashi warned.
Haku nodded. "To do that would kill the animal. You must make sure that the animal has enough chakra to be a nin-animal, and also that their chakra is compatible with yours."
"Oh." Naruto frowned. "How do I tell that?"
"The easiest way is to be observant," Haku said. "Nin-animals compatible with a ninja often follow that ninja around."
"I followed Haku for a year before he stopped trying to hunt me!" Aisuko piped up.
"I was very young and unaware of nin-animals," Haku defended.
"If you notice an animal following you around, let me know and I'll assess the situation. If it all looks fine, I'll teach you guys how to create the chakra bond," Kakashi told us.
Naruto jumped up and began looking in the bushes, as if hoping an animal would pop out of the woods immediately. I, while admitting it would be cool to have a nin-animal, was far less optimistic about the chances of getting one. It was more likely I'd be able to find the summoning contract with the hawks like the other Sasuke had done… since it wasn't likely I'd get the summoning contract with the snakes without going to Orochimaru.
"Are you sure he was the one who set up the trap around the bridge builder?" Gōzu whispered.
I exchanged an exasperated glance with Sakura. Naruto never failed to be the number one most surprising ninja.
"I have a question," Meizu said, looking at Sakura. "What kind of jutsu did you use to break out of my genjutsu trap? I've never seen anything like it."
"What sort of genjutsu trap?" Kakashi asked, sounding suddenly much more dangerous.
Meizu flinched backward and Gōzu glared at Kakashi.
"It's an interrogation technique, though it works for battle too." Meizu said softly.
Sakura shuddered. "It was scary. We were just in an empty room, Meizu-san and I. I couldn't move at all. I knew I was in an genjutsu, but I couldn't release it."
That sounded like Tsukuyomi. I looked at Kakashi. He seemed angry. I wondered if it was a common interrogation jutsu. If so, had it been modeled after the Uchiha ability?
"I just meant to knock her out," Meizu said quickly, wary of Kakashi's leaking Killing Intent. "But then a second one of her appeared and fought me off."
Sakura blushed. "It's my Inner," she explained.
"Your what?" Gōzu asked.
"My Inner. That's what I call her. Look, I know it sounds crazy." Sakura was speaking very fast now. "I have another me in my head. Except she's not me. She's a little more violent and, well, loud. I call her my Inner."
"Sakura," Kakashi said slowly. "Does she talk to you?"
Sakura nodded. "She's helped me before, when I was too nervous or scared to do anything. I thought… well she first appeared when I was younger and I thought maybe she was just my mind's reaction to be bullied but she never went away–"
"Sounds like a kekkei genkai," Zabuza said. "No regular mental delusion would be able to physically beat away an intruder during a genjutsu."
"I'm not from a clan, though," Sakura said.
Zabuza snorted. "How do you think clan kekkei genkai's start, girl? Someone is born with some ability that gets passed down to their children. Whole clans don't just pop out of nowhere."
I remember Sakura using her Inner to push Ino out of her mind, but I don't remember it ever being anything else except comedic relief any other time in the show. "Can she come out of your head?" I asked, thinking aloud.
"What do you mean, Sasuke-kun?"
"Can you make a clone, but put your Inner in it or something?" Everyone stared at me. I shrugged. "A clone is just a mental and physical copy, isn't it? If Sakura has two mind's in her head, then maybe she can learn to pull the other one out."
"That'd be more useful with a shadow clone," Naruto said.
I nearly jumped. Sakura and the Demon Brothers definitely did. None of us had realized Naruto had stopped looking for a nin-animal and had been listening in.
"Naruto's right," Kakashi said. "Let's put that aside for now. What's more useful about this is the possibility of weaponizing it during genjutsu."
Meizu shuddered. "Now that'd be scary," he said. "If you could call your… Inner… out not just during genjutsu that go into your mind, but also area genjutsu, it would be a huge advantage during a time your enemy will expect you to be mostly useless."
"Do you really think it's a kekkei genkai, sensei?" Sakura asked.
"You won't know until you have children," Kakashi said.
Haku cleared his throat. "Speaking of kekkei genkai, congratulations Sasuke-san."
"What?"
Haku blinked. "Are you not aware? I saw your Sharingan just before you, ah…"
"Yeah, Sasuke, your eyes turned red like Kakashi's right before you jumped in front of the senbon for me," Naruto said. "Um, thanks for that, by the way. Even if it was stupid of you to do."
"Shut up, dobe, I acted on instinct," I said, rolling my eyes. Upon retrospect, of course, I could tell myself Naruto would have healed way faster than me, but at the time I had been worried about a stray senbon hitting him in the eye and killing him. Naruto was far more important than I am, even with my somewhat unreliable knowledge of the future.
"You unlocked the Sharingan, huh?" Kakashi scratched his cheek. "I suppose I can take some time out of my reading schedule to teach you a couple things about it."
"I can train with Naruto-kun," Haku offered. "I still have a few more things Sakura-san may be interested in learning about healing balms and salves, but while she is training her genjutsu I would be honored to teach Naruto."
"And what would you be teaching him?" Kakashi asked.
"It came to my attention that Naruto has far more chakra then a normal genin. Would he not benefit from advancing to elemental jutsu so as to focus his chakra output?"
Kakashi seemed to think for a moment, and then he nodded. "Might as well include all of them on the preliminary lessons, but Naruto could spend some time learning more ninjutsu—since he has enough chakra to burn off several techniques in a battle."
"Yes!" Naruto cheered. "Cool jutsu, here I come!"
"Well then, we have a fortnight," Kakashi said, flipping his porn book back out. "Sakura, you'll work with Haku on medicine and with Gōzu and Meizu on genjutsu. Sasuke, when you're not working on the Sharingan with me, you'll be at Zabuza's tender mercy. Naruto, you'll work with Haku on ninjutsu."
I smiled, excited. Of course, I knew the next week would be a lot of work, but it sure sounded like we'd learn a lot.
I was right, on both accounts.