A/N: Well, the votes are still the same. VOTE PEOPLE! I'M STOPPING THE VOTES SOMEWHERE BETWEEN CHAPTERS TEN AND FIFTEEN!
Anyway, Enjoy!Chapter Seven
The Forest of Chakra
In a moderately large house by the coast, the Konoha ninja were relaxing from their journey and fight. The sea birds were flying in the skies, creating a loud yet strangely pleasant noise. After the battle with Zabuza, when Kakashi and Sakura collapsed, Sasuke, Naruto and Tazuna had brought them to the bridge builder's house to rest.
Kakashi was lying in a spare room, tucked into a futon for warmth. Sakura was beside him in another futon, breathing silently in her sleep. The former woke up and blinked with his only visible eye a few times, taking in his surroundings, but without sitting up from the warmth of the futon.
'Ugh…I think I over did it a bit with my Sharingan.' He groaned to himself as he looked up at the ceiling.
A young woman walked into the room and saw him. Her hair was long, reaching to the bottoms of her shoulder blades, and black while her eyes were the same colour. She wore a short-sleeved pink jumper and a dark blue skirt that stopped just below her knees. Her appearance was pretty, but not beautiful.
"Waking up, huh?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips. "Are you alright?" The woman added. She walked to the futon and stood right next to it and looked down at Kakashi.
"I've been better." He complained, still not moving. "It'll be a week before I can move…normally." Kakashi grunted as he sat up slightly.
"See?" She asked, taking note of the pain he was in. "It's better if youdon't move, so just lay down."
"Right." Kakashi grunted, complying with her gentle order. Footsteps alerted Kakashi to more visitors and Naruto walked in, soon followed closely behind by Sasuke and Tazuna.
"Look, Kakashi-sensei is coming around!" Naruto noticed when he saw Kakashi's eyes open. "Listen…the Shara-thingy is cool and all, but if it means that we have to fall behind in our mission when you use it, maybe it's just not worth it." He added.
"Sorry." Kakashi sighed.
"Ahem." The woman cleared her throat.
"Oh! This is my daughter, Tsunami. Tsunami, this is Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and the girl in the futon is Haruno Sakura." Tazuna explained.
"Nice to meet all of you. It's an honour." Tsunami said with a smile.
"Honour?" Naruto echoed.
"Well, you four ninja did take down one of the most powerful assassins around here, so we should be fine and safe for a while." Tazuna told them.
"Right, right! We're awesome!" Naruto cheered.
"What about that boy in the mask?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes at the thought of the boy who was so obviously more powerful than he was that it wasn't even funny.
"He's from the elite tracking unit of the village hidden in the mist, Kirigakure. Those masks are only worn by the most elite shinobi." Kakashi informed them.
"Uh…what do they do?" Naruto asked, scratching his head in confusion.
"The ANBU black ops, also known as the inferno squad, destroy all traces of a rogue ninja's corpse. The ninja's body would contain many secrets; ninjutsu, chakra and special medicines used on his body. These are the secrets of his village. If his enemies find them, his people would be in grave danger." Kakashi explained.
"So…" Naruto prompted.
"If a ninja betrays his village, the trackers hunt him down, eliminate him and erase every trace of his existence. That's their specialty." He concluded.
"I still don't get it!" Naruto cried in annoyance.
"Well, for an example; if I were to die at the hands of the enemy, he would try to analyze my Sharingan. In the worst case, the entire jutsu could be stolen and used against our own village. It is the sacred duty of the shinobi trackers to prevent this…to keep our village secrets safe."
"What if one got a hold of Sakura-chan, like that Zabuza guy was trying to do yesterday?" Naruto asked.
"Then may Kami-sama help us all." Kakashi sighed.
"Hey, guys?" Sasuke called, getting their attention.
"Yea, teme?" Naruto acknowledged.
"Where exactly is Sakura?" He asked, gesturing to the once-occupied futon on the floor.
[--
The boy in the mask who took down Zabuza was sitting with said criminal in front of him. A giant sword, the very one Zabuza fought with, was stuck in the ground so that it was standing not too far from them. He took out a roll of equipment and picked out a pair of sharp green pliers.
"First I'll cut the bandage and drain some of the blood." He said to himself as he raised the pliers to do so. The boy gasped when the 'dead' ninja lying in front of him grabbed his wrist and opened his eyes. Zabuza grunted and pulled down the bandages near his mouth.
"That's enough." He commanded to the hunter-nin. "I'll do it."
"So…you've already come back to life." The boy observed nonchalantly, as if he was just talking about the weather. Zabuza sat up, not bother in put the bandages back in place, and panted form the effort it took on his pre-dead body.
"Haku…you're brutal!" Zabuza scolded.
"You're the one who's brutal, Zabuza." Haku shot back calmly. "If you keep pulling my senbon out like that, you really will be finished." He added when he saw Zabuza rip the needles out of his neck harshly.
"Hmm, how long are you planning to wear that phoney mask?" He asked when he was the still-covered face of the boy. "Take it off." Zabuza ordered harshly.
"I have good memories of this mask." Haku told him, reaching up and removing the mask. "And it was quite useful for tricking those four ninja into thinking I was a tracker-nin."
"Whatever." Zabuza grunted.
When the mask came off, it revealed a beautiful face. Haku had thick, black eye lashed framing innocent and sparkling brown eyes. His pale skin had no impurities or scars and his face looked soft to touch as a cloud would seem. Around his forehead, he wore the Hatei-ate with the symbol of Kirigakure on it.
"You should be grateful. If I hadn't have intervened, you'd most probably be dead now." Haku claimed as Zabuza spat on the ground. "That much is certain." He concluded. Zabuza looked the boy in the eye and glared.
"Putting me in a temporary death-state is fine, but not though the pressure points in my neck." He stated, pulling up the bandages to cover his mouth again. "Cruel as usual. I think you enjoy it!"
"It was the only sure way." Haku assured innocently. "That and I wouldn't want to mark up your flawless body…you'd complain about that even more than the neck thing." He added with a slightly amused tone. "The neck is more vulnerable. There's no layer of muscle, so I can go straight into the pressure points."
"Ugh." Zabuza grunted as he attempted to stand up, but failed in even raising himself a centimetre.
"There's no point in trying to move. You'll be numb for a week." Haku assured unhelpfully. "Although…if you're as stubborn as usual, you'll probably be moving in half the time."
"You are so innocent." Zabuza noticed randomly. "And yet you're clever at the same time. It's a rare combination, that's why I keep you around."
"Hehe, I'm still a kid, what else would you expect?" Haku asked with a small laugh at the beginning. He stood and continued. "The mist has cleared."
"Hn." Zabuza grunted in acknowledgement.
"Next time…will you be alright?" Haku asked in worry.
"Next time…I'll see right though that Sharingan." Zabuza promised.
"What about that girl? She was a Haruno, if I guessed right." Haku reminded him.
"I know…I'll leave her to you. If I remember correctly, you're interested in learning more about the Haruno clan anyway, Haku." Zabuza noted.
"Yes…but she seemed stronger than the average Haruno." The brunette stated with a small smile.
"She was. Remember that black tree with all the leaves fallen off." Zabuza asked his partner.
"I do…why?" Haku enquired.
"It was her."
"A ninjutsu?" Haku asked.
"No…a poison did that within three seconds of impact. She made the poison herself and was aiming it at me." Zabuza stated, frowning as the place his eyebrows should have been lowered.
"I see." Haku nodded in mild shock.
[--
'What is this? If Zabuza is finished…then why do I feel this way?' Kakashi asked himself as he rubbed his head. He was still sitting in his futon, too weary to get up. 'Something is defiantly wrong. It's almost like I missed something big. And where has Sakura gone?'
"Hey! Are you okay?" Naruto asked his sensei, seeing the older man's dark expression.
"Huh?" Kakashi asked, snapping out of his thoughts. "Oh…yeah, I'm perfectly fine. I was just thinking…tracker ninja usually deal with the body of their prey immediately…meaning on the spot. That way, there's no room for error." He told the boys on his team, along with the dark-haired woman and Tazuna.
"Is that important?" Naruto questioned him.
"Think about it. Do you guys remember what that tracker did with Zabuza after he killed him?" Kakashi asked them seriously.
[--
The man in the tree used a wind current and disappeared, only to reappear next to the fallen body of Zabuza.
"Your struggle is over…for now. I hope that we shall meet again soon, Haruno-san. I must now dispose of the body." The young boy said, gathering Zabuza onto his shoulders. "Farewell." He bid, leaving in a small tornado.
[--
"I don't know what he did." Naruto admitted easily.
"I guess…he took it away somewhere?" Sasuke stated, not too sure about his own answer.
"Exactly. But why? He could have worked on Zabuza right there; as quickly as possible." Kakashi noted. "Think of the weapons he used for the take-down. Do you remember what they were?"
"Normal throwing needles." Sasuke remembered. "No way."
"Yes. None of it adds up." Kakashi sighed.
"What are you all yammering about? You demolished that assassin where he stood." Tazuna stated.
"Wrong!" A female voice yelled from the window. Everyone looked over to it and saw Sakura crouching on the frame with her long pink hair tied up high on her head with the black ribbon she always carried around. Her eyes, for some reason, were covered with sunglasses.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered, running to her. She jumped off of the windowsill and straightened up, placing her hand on her hip.
"Zabuza is alive." Sakura told them, getting right to the point. Naruto gasped and Sasuke looked at her in shock. The other people in the room choked on air at the blunt news.
"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked to be certain.
"Positive. I'm never wrong!" Sakura boasted, smirking. She reached up and untied her hair before shaking it out of place so that it fell to her knees and over her shoulders as usual.
"She's right." Kakashi confirmed with a sigh.
"But we saw his body! Dattebayo!" Naruto protested.
"You checked him yourself, Kakashi-san!" Tazuna cried. "You said that his heart stopped!"
"His heart did stop." Kakashi frowned. "That was, however, just a temporary state of false death. The weapons that tracker used aren't normal throwing needles, but are called senbon. I believe Sakura has thousands of them in her own arsenal. They can rarely kill unless they hit a vital organ, but pierce the skin deeply."
"The neck is different though. If a senbon hits the right place with the right amount of force, the victim will be paralyzed and their heart will stop for a certain period of time while the body remains alive." Sakura cut in helpfully as she brushed her fingers though her pink hair to work out the knots and tangles. Kakashi nodded and continued.
"It isn't easy, but hunter-nins are trained so well that it would become a mediocre task for them." He said. "First, the tracker carried Zabuza's body away, even though it's much heavier than he is. Second, he used senbon, which have a precise effect, but are rarely fatal."
"From those two factors, it's obvious that the tracker wasn't trying to kill Zabuza. He was trying to save him. Cha! I am right again!" Sakura stated proudly.
"Come on…you're over-thinking this, aren't you?" Tazuna stated lightly, but with a decent amount of nervousness in his voice.
"In this kind of situation, over-thinking saves more lives than simply dismissing the matter does." Kakashi told the man. "Every shinobi knows that. We have to prepare ourselves quickly." When he finished his statement, he saw Naruto grin. 'Huh, he's actually pleased to hear that Zabuza is alive. Now Naruto has another shot at him.'
"Wait…how did you manage figure that out so long before Kakashi-sensei did, Sakura?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.
"I pride myself in my own knowledge." Sakura sneered back, still hiding her eyes behind the glasses.
"Pride yourself, eh? Okay…so you're pride then." Kakashi stated. Sakura huffed and took off her glasses, revelling the same coloured eyes as Sasuke. 'Typical that pride, which is only a small step away from arrogance, is the same colour eyes as Sasuke.'
"Aw man! How'd you figure it out?" Sakura…Pride moaned.
"Well, I actually didn't. It was a guess and you just proved me right without meaning to. You're certainly not as smart as the brown-eyed one." Kakashi shrugged. Pride growled.
"Of course she's not as smart as me." The brown-eyed Sakura stated as she jumped though the window. "I'm Intelligence, after all." She shrugged.
"Alright! That's enough! Ladies, spread your wings." The red-eyed one commanded as she stood on the windowsill next to the one with grey eyes. They all took a breath and burst into butterflies, forming one Sakura leaning against the door with her eyes closed. She gasped and opened them, showing green.
"Could you not do that?" Sasuke asked with an unrecognisable emotion filling his voice.
"Why not?" Sakura retorted.
"It's weird." Sasuke scoffed.
"I'll do it as much as I want to, Uchiha." She sneered back.
"Well, could you at least explain it to me, Sakura-chan? I want to be able to use that jutsu as well!" Naruto grinned.
"You can't." She stated bluntly. Naruto's face fell.
"Why not?" He asked.
"You're incapable." The girl told him with a shrug. Her blonde team mate growled.
"Hey! If this is a crack about my ninja skill or abilities in the academy or anything like that then-"
"It's not, Naruto. My ability is a kekkei genkai. Only someone of the Haruno clan can perform it." She explained.
"Oh." He sighed in defeat. "Can you tell me about it anyway?"
"Fine." Sakura sighed.
Out of nowhere, Sakura pulled out a whiteboard and a black pen to draw on it with. Naruto and Sasuke were pushed into chairs by an invisible force and desks with pencils and paper were dropped in front of them from somewhere above. The room changed to a classroom and the boys picked up the pencils as Sakura uncapped her pen and cleared her throat.
"Firstly, my kekkei genkai is called 'Kanjoo jiyuu'. This means 'Emotion freedom'. It allows me to either have one emotion take control of my body or split into all twelve of my emotions. The emotions I control like that are Anger, Depression, Desire, Envy, Fear, Happy, Intelligent, Love, Pride, Rage, Vain and Shy." She began.
"Sakura-sensei, what different coloured eyes do each of your emotions have?" Naruto asked as he took notes. Sasuke also took notes, but he looked up at her too.
"Good question, Naruto. Anger has purple eyes, Depression has dark blue eyes, Desire has peach-coloured eyes, Envy has dark green eyes, Fear has yellow eyes, Happy has orange eyes, Intelligent has brown eyes, Love has pink eyes, Pride has onyx eyes, Rage has red eyes, Vain as teal eyes and Shy has pale green, almost white, eyes."
As Sakura explained this, she was, drawing stick-girls with pink hair for each one, all pointing to another stick-girl with pink hair and 'Sakura' written below her. Above each of the twelve emotions, she drew a circle of colour to show their eye-colours.
"Who were the twins?" Sasuke asked after he wrote down the colours of the emotion's eyes.
"The twin wearing a white kimono is Yin and the twin in a black kimono is Yang. They are a mix of my emotions. Yin has all of the goodness from my personality inside her while Yang has all of the darkness." Sakura told them, adding Yin and Yang to her diagram. "Anything else?"
"Sakura-sensei, you only told us about twelve emotions. Before, they split into thirteen!" Naruto remembered, lifting his hand as he spoke.
"Well, the one with grey eyes is me. Once the emotions are free, my body is still Sakura, but I am emotionless. Get it?"
"Yep!" He shouted happily, scribbling down this new information.
"Okay, so when I just change my eyes, they become the colour of the emotion I'm using, but have a white Haruno circle surround where the pupil would go and no pupil." She continued. "So, when I use rage for example, I would say 'Kanjoo jiyuu akagekido', meaning 'Emotion freedom red rage'." She paused.
"So, what if you wanted to use pride?" Sasuke questioned.
"Then instead of saying 'akagekido', I would say 'kurohokori'. Get it, Sasuke?" Sakura asked.
"Aa." He replied, noting this down.
"Any more questions?" She enquired.
"What about that fight yesterday? When you used another jutsu and every time you got hit you split into two?" Sasuke asked.
"Well, the jutsu, 'Kanjoo jiyuu irobunretsu' meaning 'Emotion freedom colour separation', basically means that whenever I get hit, another one of my emotions splits out of me. It's more a defence technique, so if one goes down another gets up to fight, but sometimes a Haruno loses control and activates the jutsu by accident in a trance-like state, as I did yesterday." She explained.
"Okay. I understand." Sasuke nodded.
"Well, that concludes our lesson on 'Haruno Sakura's kekkei genkai'! Don't miss the next class!"
The room once more became Tazuna's house and Naruto and Sasuke put away their papers, slipping them into their pockets, before everyone returned to what they were doing before the three of them flew into the classroom, or rather the classroom flew to them.
"Sensei, you said 'prepare ourselves quickly', right? Well, how can we do that when you can barely move? Wouldn't it be really hard?" Naruto asked, frowning as he was deep in thought. Kakashi looked at him and chuckled lightly.
"I can still train you." He claimed, shrugging at the disbelieving looks on both Sasuke and Sakura's faces.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but a little last minuet training wont make anyone strong enough to beat Zabuza. You couldn't even beat him with the Sharingan and my kekkei genkai was a flop! We have to be reasonable about this." Sakura stated.
'What, are you trying to get us killed, sensei?! Cha!' Inner agreed angrily.
"Sakura, why was I able to stop Zabuza? Because you all helped me. If that fake hunter-nin hadn't come in at the last second, Zabuza would really be dead right now." Kakashi assured her. "You've grown. I mean, you have perfect control over your Kanjoo jiyuu for ten minuets without feeling tired afterwards. A bit more training and you could have unlimited time with it."
"I…I guess." Sakura shrugged, smiling inwardly.
"Naruto!" Kakashi called.
"Huh?" Naruto asked as his attention was caught.
"You've grown the most." Kakashi told him happily.
'Well…he does seem stronger…and…defiantly more confident than before as well.' Sakura noted with a mental smirk.
'Cha! Naru-chan rocks!' Inner cheered.
"So you noticed, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto grinned. "Now things are going to get better! Dattebayo!" He cheered, just like Inner-Sakura had.
"I don't believe it and nothing's gonna be good!" A bratty voice hollered from behind them pessimistically. The ninja of Konoha turned to see who was speaking and saw a small boy in the doorway.
He wore brown sandals in the style a ninja would have them, dark green dungarees that cut off just below his knees with a pocket on the chest and a crème, wide-and-high-necked, short-sleeved jumper under it. His short brown hair was covered mostly by a white hat, which had two blue stripes around it, and his eyes were black, just like Tsunami's.
This kid looked to be around the same age as Konohamaru, meaning eight, and just as annoying as the 'honourable grandson of the honourable third Hokage' too. Pff, how troublesome.
"Who are you?!" Naruto yelled at the short kid.
"Aww! Inari, where've you been?" Tazuna asked as the kid ran over to him and hugged the old man.
"Welcome back, grandpa!" Inari yelled in joy.
'THAT'S the grandson?! So much for him being hot! But…he is kinda adorable! Just like Konohamaru!' Inner gushed, sitting down to sew a new plushie of Inari, her Konohamaru one sitting nearby.
'Konohamaru is annoying and this kid is a brat!' Sakura yelled in her mind.
"Inari, that was very rude!" Tsunami scolded. "These ninja helped your grandpa and brought him here safely!"
"That's okay, it's okay! I'm rude to them too." Tazuna assured him.
Inari just looked at the group of Genin kneeling on the floor with a blank, but slightly hateful, look. He looked first at Sasuke, glaring at the dark-haired Uchiha. Then he shifted his gaze over to Naruto, sending another hateful glare. Finally, his coal-coloured eyes looked at Sakura, to whom he blushed at but still managed a small frown.
"Okaa-san, don't you see? These people are going to die!" Inari told his mother as he stood up. "Gato will come back with his fighters and ninja men and wipe them out!"
"What did you say, you little brat?!" Naruto yelled at him. "Listen up; you know what a super-ninja is? Well that's me, only I'm a lot better! You see, I'm gonna be the Hokage! This 'Chato' or 'Blato' is no match for a real hero, like me!"
"Ha. There's no such thing as a hero. You're just full of stupid ideas and fantasies!" Inari said mockingly.
"What did you say?!" Naruto yelled, charging to hit the kid. Sakura intercepted him and grabbed his arm and head before he could get close enough to touch Inari.
"Naruto, calm down! He's just a kid!" She screamed over Naruto's roaring and growling, still trying to keep her grip on his hair and jacket.
"If youninja wanna stay alive, you should just go back where you came from." Inari warned them before walking away. Sasuke watched the kid go in silence.
"Inari, wait. Where're you going?" Tazuna asked the child.
"To look out at the ocean." He said, opening the door. "I just wanna be alone, okay?" With that, the kid walked off on his own.
Sakura, still struggling with holding Naruto back but this time holding his shoulders, didn't notice Sasuke sighing and getting up. The Uchiha walked over to her and smirked mentally at finding an excuse to hold her again, like he did when they first set out of Konoha. He slid his arms around her waist to help her pull.
"Wha-? Sasuke! What are you doing?" She asked, feeling the grip he had on her.
"Helping you hold the dobe." He replied.
"Why can't you just grab onto Naruto then?" Sakura questioned in aggravation.
"Me? Touch him? I don't think so." Sasuke told her. She sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Sorry about that." Tazuna said to them. Naruto was still growling, but calmed down enough so that he wasn't pulling against Sakura and Sasuke anymore.
Now, with nothing holding them up, Sakura's hand slipped off of Naruto's shoulders and she fell back. However, since Sasuke was behind her, he also fell back and she landed on top of him. So now, Sasuke was sitting on the floor with Sakura in his lap and his arms around her waist.
"AHHH! TEME! LET HER GO!" Naruto yelled when he saw what position his team mates were in. Kakashi just smiled in amusement.
"S-Sorry." Sasuke stuttered as he let go of the girl. Naruto helped her up and she shrugged.
"No big deal. It wasn't your fault." She assured him.
[--
Later that day, Naruto and Sakura were wandering around the house, trying to find Inari. Naruto was going to pummel the boy while Sakura went to make sure the blonde didn't get carried away. She sighed as he started growling again when they walked up the stairs, him in front and her following just behind.
"Grrrrrr, who does that brat think he is? I'll put him in his place right now and he'll never insult ninja again!" Naruto promised, stepping up the final stair.
"Uh huh. Sure, Naruto." Sakura muttered, not really paying attention. He stormed down the upstairs hall, Sakura walking lightly behind him, before he heard crying coming from inside one of the rooms.
'Huh?' Naruto asked mentally, looking into the room. 'He's crying?'
Inari was sat on a desk by the window, his head bowed and tears spilling from his eyes. His shoulders shook with every loud sop and choked hiccup that escaped his throat and passed his lips. The tears streaming down his face made it seem as if someone had thrown a bucket of water at him recently or something similar. Not ever the sea birds' cawing could cover the noise of the boy's sadness.
In Inari's hands was a framed photograph of a man with spiky black hair, a white rope around his forehead and tanned skin. His eyes were closed and the bottom of the photo was jagged, as if the man was ripped from another picture. Inari's tears fell on the glass covering the photo.
"No Otou-san, no!" He cried though the thick sobs. Naruto and Sakura could only stand and watch the boy cry; the former with a heavy heart and the latter with sad eyes.
[--
The following day, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi stood the forest close to Tazuna's house to train. Kakashi, who was using crutches to support himself, stood just in front of a tree as he taught while Sakura stood in front of him, Naruto and Sasuke to her left and right respectively.
"Alright." Kakashi began. "Your training begins now."
"Right!" Naruto cheered, swinging his tanned right arm over Sakura's paler shoulders. She glared at him, but didn't move to make him take his arm away from her shoulders. Sasuke, seeing this, glared too.
"First, we will begin with a review of chakra. A ninja's basic source of power. Understanding chakra is essential." Kakashi stated, putting up one finger. 'Hmm, this is better than my book! Sasuke's jealous of the close bond Sakura and Naruto share. Naruto has a huge crush on Sakura! Sasuke likes her too, just as much! Sakura, just to add to the tension, is completely oblivious to it all! Oh I love teaching!'
"We know that." Sasuke stated obviously, gently sliding his closest arm around Sakura's waist. Sakura turned and glared at him, but he just shrugged and she didn't make him let go. Smirking inwardly, Sasuke counted the scores he had been adding since they became a team a few weeks ago. Naruto: 9. Sasuke: 11. Oh yeah!
"He's right. A long time ago we learned about…Uhh…Catra!" Naruto stated in what he believed to be a smart and all-knowing tone.
"Chakra." Kakashi corrected with a sigh. "Could you explain this to him, Sakura?"
"Fine." She sighed, stepping out of the one-way hugs the boys had put her into and she now stood in front of them.
"Thanks." Kakashi said.
"Now listen closely, 'cos I'm only saying this once! I'll explain simply so that even you can understand it. See? I even wrote a scroll and it has pictures to demonstrate what I mean." She stated, taking out an orange scroll with 'secret teachings' written on it. When opened, the scroll said 'Scroll of chakra, a lesson from the beautiful and young kunoichi of team seven'.
"Wow! The scroll describes you perfectly!" Naruto gushed when he read it.
"Whatever. Listen up. Chakra is the elemental life energy a ninja uses in performing his or her jutsu. It is the source of all his or her power when not concerning raw taijutsu. With me so far?" She asked.
"You bet, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheered. Sasuke, for his part, looked impressed at her knowledge.
"Now, this energy has two forms. Physical energy, which exists in all the cells in the entire body all working together, and spiritual energy, the primal source of power which is intensified though training and experience. As you see, these two things must be brought out and draw together in order to perform jutsu. Finally, hand signs focus and unleash the chakra." She concluded, showing the sign for 'tiger'.
"Right on all points." Kakashi noticed. "Iruka-sensei really did have some excellent students."
"Pff, whatever." She shrugged, throwing the scroll to Naruto. 'How would he know whether Iruka-sensei taught me that or I picked it up before I joined the Konoha academy?'
"Ah! What's the big deal with all these complicated explanations? The whole point is to learn the jutsu, isn't it?" Naruto asked in frustration of being out-done again, even if he could willingly admit that Sakura was a great ninja.
"Naruto's right for once. We're already using chakra energy in our jutsu, so why are you bothering to explain?" Sasuke agreed, although he was enjoying listening to Sakura speak.
"No!" Kakashi reprimanded. "You haven't mastered this method, you've barely even scratched the surface of it."
"What do you mean?!" Naruto asked heatedly.
"Calm down and listen. It's just like Sakura said. You must draw out both physical and spiritual energies and then you have to combine them within yourself. But, how do you do that?" He asked. "Each jutsu requires different types of chakra in different proportions. You must select and combine them in exactly the right way. Up to now, you've just guessed at the proportions, hoping they'd come out right."
"Huh?" Naruto questioned.
"Even if you produce a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's all worthless. The jutsu wont work at all, or it'll just be a joke. You waste so much energy that way. Then you're out of chakra and you can't fight at all, making you nothing but a target." The older man stated wisely.
"Uh…so how do we change that?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"How? Well, you train so hard that controlling your chakra becomes like a second nature. To achieve this goal, you must be ready…to put your life on the line." He finished dramatically.
"So, how do we do that?" Sasuke asked, annoyed by all the speaking that was going on. Kakashi chuckled at them.
"Climb a tree." He stated.
"CLIMB A TREE?!" They echoed loudly in disbelief.
"That's right. But, there's just one rule. You can't use your hands." He told them, holding up his own slightly.
"You're…kidding…right?" Sakura asked slowly.
"Am I? Well, let's see." He said, placing his hands in the tiger seal. The dirt around his feet shifted slightly with the sudden addition of chakra to his feet, but then stilled. He then picked a tree and walked over to it using his crutches as support. To further prove his point, Kakashi stepped up onto the tree and began to walk up it slowly.
"He's climbing!" Naruto stated in awe.
"Straight up! And he's not even using his hands!" Sakura added. Once Kakashi reached a thick, long branch, he walked out and stood upside-down on it. Kakashi faced his students and looked at the pure astonishment on Naruto and Sasuke's faces as Sakura's own became calculating.
"Well, you get the idea." He drawled lazily. "Focus the chakra towards the soles of your feet and use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra." Kakashi ended with a curve of his eye, indicating a smile under the mask.
"Wait a minuet! That's a nice trick, but how does it help us fight Zabuza or anything?" Sakura asked.
"It's the only way to fight him, Sakura. That's the entire goal of this training session." Kakashi said seriously. "You learn to pull a precise amount of chakra to a precise point in your body. Even for advanced ninja, this is difficult. This type of climbing requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy, and the bottoms of the feet are the most difficult points to focus chakra. To put it bluntly, if you can master this then you can master any jutsu. Well, theoretically." He stated.
"Really? Cool!" Naruto yelled.
"Well, moving on. The second point is being able to maintain your chakra levels. When a ninja is focused in battle, this is even harder to do. A deadly mistake. To avoid this, maintaining chakra must become like second nature. Effortless." Kakashi concluded. "Well, I can talk about this all day, but that wont advance your skills now, will it. You need to apply the power of chakra though training."
Kakashi took three kunai out of his holster and threw them at the ground so that there was one in front of each of his Genin charges. The three looked at the kunai in question.
"What do we do with these?" Naruto asked.
"Use the kunai I gave you to mark the tree at the highest point you can climb without using your hands. Then try to get passed that mark the next time and the next and the next and so on. At first, you'll need to run at the tree so your momentum can take you a high as possible…until you get used to it. Ready?" Kakashi asked.
The Genin each took the kunai from the ground in front of them respectively and held the weapon tightly in their hand. Naruto had a look of pure determination on his face as Sasuke remained impassive and Sakura looked as though she was remembering something.
"I'm so much more than ready! This training is gonna be no sweat all the way! Dattebayo!" Naruto claimed. "Remember what you said, sensei. I'm the one who's grown the most!"
"Well, you're defiantly the one out of you three who talks the most. Now get focused and do it!" Kakashi told the blonde. Sakura untied the black ribbon from her wrist and used it to tie her hair up in a ponytail high on her head, leaving two long bangs free to frame her pale face.
'Well, he did say that.' Naruto assured himself as he preformed the tiger seal to gather his chakra. Sakura and Sasuke did the same.
'Okay, first I need to draw the chakra to the bottoms of my feet.' The three thought in union. The ground under the three shifted, signalling that they had all successfully gathered their chakra.
"I got it!" Naruto claimed happily. "CHARGE!" He yelled, running towards his chosen tree at full speed. The boy only managed to take two small steps up the tree before he fell back and hit his head on the ground.
Sasuke was a bit more successful and made it up a full fifteen steps before the bark cracked under his foot and he had to mark the tree before falling back. He landed on his feet and observed the rather impressive height he had travelled.
'This is harder than I thought.' He noticed. 'The balance has to be perfect, no questions asked. If the chakra is too strong than it smashes the tree and pushes you off.' Sasuke looked at Naruto, who was rolling around and nursing his head. 'But if it's not strong enough, you just tumble right back down, like Naruto.'
"That about what I expected from Sasuke…and Naruto." Kakashi noted, looking at the two as they tried their best.
"Hey, I've never been this high up before!" A joyous female voice called out from above, gathering the attention of all the boys in team seven.
"Huh?" Sasuke cried quietly in shock.
"Wha-?" Naruto asked, looking up from holding his head in pain. "Sakura-chan!"
Sure enough, sitting near the top of the tree on the highest branch thick enough to hold her, Sakura sat with a small smirk, which almost looked like an attempt at a smile, on her face. She laughed as the wind picked up had long bags and caused them to dance around her face, tickling her cheeks.
"Well, the female on the squad has the most advanced chakra control out of everyone. Well done, Sakura." Kakashi congratulated. 'She's amazing at this! I've never seen such raw talent!'
'Hmph. If I'm not good at this from all my past training in chakra control, then I might as well quit being a ninja!' Sakura thought to herself.
"Hmm, I've never even heard of this training technique before now, but it sure is fun!" Sakura admitted.
"Never heard of this? But, you must have learnt chakra control somewhere before now. Iruka-sensei told me that your ability in chakra control was outstanding from the moment you joined the Konoha academy two years ago." Kakashi prompted.
"I learnt it before, but not this way…" She trailed off, remembering exactly how she was made to control her chakra.
[--
"If you don't press the chakra to the soles of your feet in time, then you can't escape, Sakura!" A man called out to the pink-haired six-year-old in front of him. To each side of the man was a small boy, around seven-years-old. All of them wore a Hatei-ate with four snowballs carved into the metal to represent their village.
"Escape? From what?" The girl, Sakura, questioned emotionlessly.
"From this." He told her, performing a jutsu so quickly that no normal ninja would have been able to tell.
The floor below the girl shifted and she dropped into a pit when the floor split in two. Holding back the cry of pain she wanted desperately to release when she landed wrong and she broke her ankle, Sakura stood shakily and looked around her. Nothing.
All of a sudden, the wall began closing in on her and kunai were short from the wall and floor. The sharp weapons pierced her skin and clothing, giving the small girl serious cuts. She refused to cry out or beg for her teacher to stop though, and just gritted her teeth.
Focusing chakra to the soles of her feet and her hands as her sensei had taught her to, she began to climb the wall. When kunai sprung out of the wall and ripped right though her palms, she was forced to only use her feet to climb with.
Upon reaching the top, Sakura was engulfed in a hug from one of her team mates. Yes, even at this young age Sakura was part of a team, all of them the same age as her. Where she is from, children are pushed from a very young age to become ruthless ninja.
"Thank Kami-sama you're alright, Sakura-chan!" A young boy with harlequin green hair and maroon eyes sighed in relief as he released her from his hug.
"Do you need any help, Sakura-chan?" He other team mate, the identical twin of the first boy, asked in a serious tone.
"Hoshi Taiyoo, Hoshi Tsuki; get away from her. Your team mate needs no pity or help. Sakura is of the Haruno clan. She should be able to take care of herself, right?" The man who made her fall in the pit scolded.
"Hai, Haruno-sensei!" The twins cried in union.
"Hai…Otou-sama." Sakura muttered.
[--
"Hm? Anything on your mind, Sakura." Kakashi prompted, wanting to know what she was thinking about.
"None of your business." She snapped coldly. 'The people of Konoha will never know true suffering like the training forced onto children of Yukigakure.'
"Way to go, Sakura-chan! I always knew you were awesome! I never doubted you! Dattebayo!" Naruto stated proudly. 'Even though I am a little jealous.'
"Whatever." Sasuke grunted, turning away from the kunoichi who could always best him. He glared at the ground and clenched his fists. It wasn't that he wasn't happy for her, but it ticked him off whenever he was proven to be second-best to someone. That feeling only doubled when he was compared to a girl.
"Well, not only does Sakura understand chakra the best, but she can also control and maintain it as well." Kakashi stated happily. "We spoke about someone becoming Hokage one day, didn't we? Seems like Sakura has got the best chance of that, wouldn't you agree?" He mocked, causing Naruto to growl. "And as for the great Uchiha clan…maybe they're not so great after all." He said, making Sasuke glared at him, then Sakura and finally returning the glare to the ground.
Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other and glared. Silent promises, bets and deals were made all in that one look. A promise to be the best Genin out of the two. A bet that one would win. And finally, a deal to give up on flirting with Sakura if one defeated the other.
'Alright. I think they're motivated now. Hehe, if what I see is right then they just used the secret way of silent bet-making that can only be used between males to try and get the other to back off of Sakura. Ah, so much better than my books…'
"Alright! First I'll match up with Sasuke, then I'm going all the way up to the top! Dattebayo!" Naruto promised himself.
[--
Not too far from the training Genin, Inari watched them from behind a tree so that they wouldn't see him. He glared at the ninja without them knowing and took a few steps away.
"Huh. What a waste of time. These guys don't even know what their up against!" He stated to himself. Inari then remembered the picture of his father and clenched his fists. "They'll just die."
"Oh really?" A girl asked from behind him. Inari turned quickly to see who it was, hoping that it wasn't a girl from the village, and saw the pink-haired ninja girl. Blushing, both from being caught and because the girl was in front of him, Inari said the first thing that came to mind.
"But…b-but, you're over there!" Inari yelled, pointing to the kunoichi sitting in the tree. Sakura looked to where he was pointing and smirked.
"No…Iwas over there. That's just a clone. Those things do come in handy when I want to ditch my team." She said with a laugh. "Come on, I wanna talk to you."
[--
In a hut hidden deep in the forest, Zabuza was lying in a bed with Haku sitting near him. The latter had his mask still off. When the door opened and a small group of people stepped into the room, Haku looked towards them and glared heatedly.
A short man sporting wild grey hair, black sunglasses and a black suite with a yellow shirt and red tie stood by the door. two other men stood either side of him like bodyguards. One was very tall with a patch over his eye and the other was tall, but not as tall as the former, with a black cap on his head.
"Some Jounin you turned out to be." The short man mused. "The unbeatable ninja just got beat, limping back home like some pathetic has-been. Heh. Demon of the hidden mist? Ahahaha! More like coward of the hidden mist!"
Haku rose swiftly from his chair, and the two bodyguard-like men on either side of the shorter man readied their swords to attack. The short man just stood there, unfazed by what was going on. He did, in actual fact, stand as if he were having tea with his mother and not in the presence of a man who looked to be able to kill him in an instant.
"Drawing swords?" Haku asked, not turning to face the new-comers.
"Hang on a minuet." The short man ordered, stepping towards Zabuza with Haku carefully watching his every move. "All right, let's hear what you have to say about this fiasco…and don't play possum, I know you can talk." He reached out to uncover Zabuza's mouth, but was stopped when Haku took a firm grip on his wrist. The man gasped in surprise at the sudden contact, but soon growled.
"Keep your filthy hands off of him." Haku growled warningly before tightening his grip on the man's arm, steadily crushing the bone.
"Ahh! You're gonna break it!" Shorty cried. His bodyguards were slow to react to the threat, but both moved to draw their swords. Haku turned to face them and before either could blink, he was between the two, holding their own swords at their necks.
'That is impossible!' The one with the eye patch thought in awe.
'No one could move that fast!' The one in the cap noted.
"Don't push me." Haku warned. "I'm in a really foul mood." He threw the swords across the floor and the short man walked to his guards.
"Grrrrr! One chance! That's it!" The man promised. "If you fail this time, I'll cut you off and there'll be no one left to cover for you!" He warned the two ninja. "Lets go." And with that he turned and left with his lackeys following closely behind him. When the door closed, Haku returned to his seat.
"Haku." Zabuza said in a scolding tone. "That wasn't necessary." He told the boy, holding the kunai he had in his hand under the covers even tighter than before.
"Perhaps. But it's too early to take out Gato. He's still our best cover at the moment. Think about it. The murders would draw their attention, and then they'd be after us again." He said, thinking of a group of real Kirigakure tracker-nins. "We need restraint."
"Right." Zabuza sighed.
[--
"I have a question, Sakura-nee-chan." Inari told her.
"Go on, Inari-chan." Sakura prompted.
"Well, I over-heard that blonde boy say something in his sleep about a scroll of sealing and how you memorised it. Is that true?" The younger boy asked her.
"I'm not that good at jutsu, but I am a damn good liar! I only said that I memorised the scroll as a trick so that Mizuki-teme, someone who was after the scroll, would believe I'd really burn it. I did look at the scroll when I first entered Konoha, but only memorised one or two of the jutsu inside it. In truth, it took me much longer than it took Naruto to learn the Kage Bunshin no jutsu, let alone the rest." She told him.
"Oh." Inari nodded. "So you weren't always a leaf village ninja?"
"No." Sakura said with a chuckle.
"Where did you come from then, onee-chan?" He asked innocently.
"I came from…Yukigakure, the village hidden in the snow." She told him wistfully.
"I bet you have a lot of good memories, huh?" The boy shrugged.
"…I have…very few good memories from my entire life, Inari-chan."
[--
Back with Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura's clone, the two younger boys of the team were still trying their best to reach the top of the tree as Sakura had.
Naruto ran up at least seven steps, using the kunai to mark his newest accomplishment before falling back and hitting his poor, spiky blonde head again. He crouched into a ball and held his head, trying to lessen the pain once more.
Sasuke was kneeling on the ground, panting, with his kunai next to him as he observed the steadily raising marks he had been making on the tree.
Sakura's clone was still sitting in the tree, waiting for the real Sakura to get back from her talk with Inari.
After five minuets of Naruto and Sasuke running up and down the tree, the real Sakura came back and took the clone's place on the tree, dispelling her Bunshin. She swung her legs back and forth a few times, enjoying the wind blowing though her long hair, before jumping down and twisting in the air a few times, landing gracefully on her feet at the base of the tree.
The pinkette watched Naruto rubbing his head.
'He isn't making any progress at all! Poor Naruto…' She thought. 'Knowing him, he'll just give up round about now and throw a tantrum.'
True to her thoughts, Naruto looked at his measly marks and began to stomp his feet in aggravation. Sakura rolled her eyes.
'Heh. He is so predictable that I'm almost embarrassed.' Sakura thought with a mental shudder.
Naruto looked at his marks again, then his pink haired team mate and nodded to himself. He took a deep breath to calm himself, knowing that Sakura would kill him if he yelled at her, and walked over to the pinkette as she looked up at the sky.
"Naruto?" She asked when she saw him crouch down beside her laying form and cup his mouth with his hands.
"Hey, you're good at this, Sakura-chan." He whispered to her. "Do you think you could give me some advice?" Naruto asked hopefully. Sasuke noticed his two team mates talking and looked over at them. "The thing is…could you not tell Sasuke I asked? Please, please?"
'Naruto is really catching on.' Kakashi thought as he looked at Naruto whisper to Sakura. 'From now on, he'll just keep getting stronger and stronger. How strong? After all, Naruto possesses more chakra than Sasuke.' He saw Naruto grin as Sakura agreed to help him. 'In fact, the amount of chakra he possesses is greater than my own…and Sakura? Hm, she is just one big mystery.'
The Land Where a Hero Once Lived
Sakura yawned as she sat on the edge of Tazuna's unfinished bridge, watching the workmen and listening to her Inner self rate them on cuteness. So far, not even one man as rated a full 10 and the highest score is a 6.
"You always this lazy?" Tazuna asked her as he walked passed, carrying a long, heavy metal bar. "Hey, where's that weird blonde kid and the one with the attitude?" He asked, referring to Sasuke and Naruto.
"They're training. Climbing a bunch of trees." She explained, waving a hand in dismissal.
"Too tough for you?" He asked her mockingly.
"No…in fact I'm the best at it. That's why my sensei sent me here to guard you while they try to reach my standards." She shot back. The bridge builder stopped walking and looked at her, sweat coving his face from the heavy lifting.
"You have got to be joking." He commented with a serious face, although he was just teasing her. This was his way of getting her back for all the cracks about his bridge and the situation the Lang of Waves was in at the moment.
Sakura scowled at him coldly, but got up and gave him a hand with putting down the bar when she saw that he was about to break his neck with it. She grabbed one end as he lowered the other and they put it on the floor as a man, who was also working on the bridge, approached the two with a sheepish look on his face.
"Tazuna! I need to talk to you." He said to get his boss's attention. Tazuna looked over at him as Sakura took her seat again and crossed her arms.
"Eh? What about?" Tazuna asked gruffly.
"Uhh…the thing is, I've been thinking a lot about the bridge and I've decided that I've pushed my luck far enough. I want to stop." He admitted boldly.
"Now you're going to quit of me?! Just like that?!" Tazuna asked in rage, spitting his words at the quitter. "You have got to be kidding!"
"You know, I stayed on because of our friendship. But I'm putting my life on the line every day that I stay here. Gato and his thugs will show up eventually." He said in a rush. Tazuna narrowed his eyes. "When they do, they'll kill you and the bridge will never get finished anyway. It's a lost cause, Tazuna. Why don't we stop now, while we can still get out of this alive?"
"No chance." Tazuna replied stubbornly. "This is our bridge. Our island is poor, which that little brat reminds me about every day, and it will stay that way until this bridge connects us to the mainland! Trade and hope; that's what we're building here!"
"There's not gonna be much hope of we're all dead." The man stated in a way that could even bring Naruto out of happiness.
"It's already noon." Tazuna noticed, walking passed the man. "Let's break for lunch."
"Tazuna! Let's not end it like this." He pleaded.
"Save your breath. Oh, and Gichi, don't bother coming back after lunch today or any other day." The master bridge builder told him.
[--
"Argh! Why is this so hard?!" Naruto screamed to himself as he fell back down the tree again.
Both he and Sasuke were panting and exhausted, but neither wanted to be the first to give up. They were both sitting on the ground, observing how far they had gotten so far. The boys looked at each other and glared heatedly before standing up fast.
'I'm not going to lose to you!' Naruto thought determinedly.
'I can beat this dobe…I know I can.' Sasuke encouraged himself.
They ran at full speed to their marked trees and continued to push themselves to be the best.
[--
The Land of Waves is known for its trade and sea-based products, meaning a busy town. Said town is now where we find Tazuna and Sakura, walking though the busy streets. Around Sakura right shoulder and sitting on her left hip was her black and red messenger bag. On Tazuna's right shoulder hung his own pack.
"Where are we going?" Sakura asked as she looked around the crowds of walking men and women.
"You wanna eat tonight, don't you? I gotta pick up some things for dinner or there wont be any." Tazuna explained. Sakura nodded and continued to look around.
Walking along by the side of the road was a thin, sick-looking man with a sign hanging from his neck reading; 'Will do any kind of work'. Just up the road was a boy, running towards them carrying a loaf of bread in each hand and a man running after him, yelling 'thief'. Two teenage boys, probably only a year or two old than herself, were sitting on a blanket by the side of the road…homeless.
'…I don't even know what to think…' Sakura told her Inner in a depressed tone.
'Oh, Tazuna! I'm sorry I bad-mouthed this place!' Inner wept overdramatically.
"Here we are." Tazuna pronounced as they stopped at the entrance to a small food shop.
"Welcome." The man at the counter bid as they stepped in. His voice was frail, as if he had a cough or infected throat.
The two looked around the shop, although Sakura wasn't doing so with as much normality as Tazuna. All she could do was glare at the near-empty shelves and the dirty floor and walls. Very few fruits and vegetables were laid across the shelves, but at least none were mouldy or half-eaten.
'This is a store? There's nothing here.' Sakura thought to herself, but Inner heard it too.
'Cha! These poor people!'
A man walked behind Sakura and looked at the large bag handing over her shoulder. Greed overtook his common sense and he didn't even take the time to notice the dangerously stoic face or the demonic eyes of the girl. He reached towards the bag, but missed and his hand landed right on her butt.
Sakura tensed under the touch, but not just because she hated being touched. No, she actually had a more valid reason this time. Man's hand + Sakura's butt DANGER!
"YOU PERVERT!" She yelled, kicking him in the jaw and sending him flying back from the force.
"No…I was just…!" He said, trying to explain, but not another word leaked from his mouth as Sakura growled and glared at him. To say that the man sprinted as if he were being chased by demons baring the promise of death would be the biggest understatement of the century.
[--
"Wow, you really surprised me back there." Tazuna complimented as they walked back to his house. "Girls around here don't fight like that."
"They should. Something is seriously wrong here." Sakura stated with a frown. She then felt another hand grab her butt and growled.'AGAIN?!'
'CHA! KICK THE PERVERT'S BUTT!' Inner seethed.
"Hey, buster!" She yelled, fully intending to take out, kill and/or mentally scar this new guy. However, when she turned to face the butt-grabber, she was met with the shocked face of a little boy, around nine or ten years of age.
The boy's hair was bushy and looked as if it had never met a comb, but his eyes were a pretty shade of aquatic blue. His clothing was a brown shirt, which looked more like a potato sack than anything else, and a pair of blue, torn up trousers with ratty sandals. Painted across his cheeks was a light blush.
"Please?" He said, holding out his hands. With a big smile, the beggar-boy laughed a bit and made it seem as if having to beg for food and money was fun. Sakura's shoulders relaxed and she looked at the little boy with kind eyes.
"What's you name?" She asked quietly, crouching down to his level.
"Taiyoo." He answered. Sakura's breath hitched in her throat and she felt something burning behind her eyes.
"Really? I knew a guy named Taiyoo when I was a kid." She told him sweetly, like a big sister talking to her brother. "He was very brave. I bet you're brave too."
"Yep! I have to be to take care of Okaa-san and my Imouto." He told her with a big grin on his face. Sakura smiled –a true smile– and brushed some of his hair away from his face.
"Hold on. I've got something for you." Sakura said softly, reaching into her bag. "Here." She said, taking out a few pieces of colourfully wrapped candy. The boy's eyes widened as if he were seeing heaven or a miracle and he took the candy, but didn't snatch.
"Oh, thank you, aneki!" He praised, calling Sakura his 'big sister'. Sakura stood to her full height and nodded, still holding that smile on her face and tears in her eyes. The little boy smiled again and ran off, waving his hand in the air. As soon as the boy was gone, Sakura wiped the smile from her face.
"This is how it's been since Gato came here." Tazuna told her. "The children suffer, and the adults are afraid to stand up to him. They've lost all hope. That's why we have to finish the bridge. It will bring more promise and good trade, but much more importantly than that, that bridge is a symbol of courage. We, the builders of that bridge, must restore the spirit of our people. When the bridge is finished, people will start to believe again. We can't let Gato stop us."
"I understand." Sakura said, her voice cracking as a tear fell from each of her eyes and slid down her face. Tazuna saw it and smiled a little.
"Heh…you call me a cry baby?" He asked, joking.
"You are." Sakura said with a smirk. "But…you have every right to be."
"I'm willing to bet…that you do too."
[--
Back with Sasuke and Naruto, both were once again running up their trees. In perfect step, they continued up until the bark snapped under Naruto's foot and he was forced to mark the tree and kick off. He landed on his feet and looked to his mark. Sasuke, on the other hand, kept going further up.
'He's still climbing!' Naruto though, panting. 'That's impossible!'
Sasuke lost his focus and slipped up, marking the tree before falling back yet again. He kicked off from the two trees, hopping between them to keep his speed down so that he wouldn't hit the ground too hard and cause himself to get injured.
'Gah! He's catching up to me inch by inch!' Sasuke noticed before he landed on his feet. Naruto looked at him and growled. He shook his head and tried to focus again.
'No! No! No! If I think about Sasuke I'll lose my concentration! I can still beat him! Dattebayo! Come one Naruto…centre yourself.' He thought, performing the tiger seal and thinking back to what Sakura told him before she left.
[--
Naruto looked at his marks again, then his pink haired team mate and nodded to himself. He took a deep breath to calm himself, knowing that Sakura would kill him if he yelled at her, and walked over to the pinkette as she looked up at the sky.
"Naruto?" She asked when she saw him crouch down beside her laying form and cup his mouth with his hands.
"Hey, you're good at this, Sakura-chan." He whispered to her. "Do you think you could give me some advice?" Naruto asked hopefully. Sasuke noticed his two team mates talking and looked over at them. "The thing is…could you not tell Sasuke I asked? Please, please?"
"Okay. Chakra requires spiritual energy, so if you get all frantic, then is sure as hell wont work!" Sakura informed him.
"Sakura-chan! I'm not frantic!" He replied.
"Are you gonna listen or what?" She snapped at him.
"…Sorry." He mumbled.
"Whatever. Anyway, like I was say, you can't get all frantic. You need to relax and totally focus on the tree. That way, you get a steady chakra flow in the bottoms of your feet."
[--
'Relax…focus on the tree…' Naruto thought. He felt his chakra pooling in the soles of his feet. 'YES! I can feel it! I'm so going to go all the way this time!' He claimed, crying out and running to his tree.
"Hey! Naruto!" Sasuke called to him, causing the blonde to lose his footing and fall flat on his face.
"GAH! Sasuke-teme! What're you doing?! I was trying to focus my chakra, teme!" Naruto yelled at him, getting up with a look on his face that so clearly said; 'I'm-gonna-kill-you-if-you-don't-give-me-and-good-reason not-to'.
"Well, uh…you know…the thing is…" He stressed out sheepishly, obviously embarrassed to say what he had to say.
"The thing is…what?" Naruto asked him in aggravation. 'That's strange. He never talks to me. What's he up to?'
Sasuke, to be fair, seemed to genuinely be struggling with his pride to say what he needed to say. He never once looked at Naruto, for he was too embarrassed, and kept kicking the dirt below his feet every few seconds in nervousness. His eyebrow twitched as he started again.
"You…You know…You asked Sakura for advice when she was here? So what did she tell you?" He asked, trying to make it seem like a casual question and he wasn't at all curious. Naruto looked at him in shock for a few seconds before breaking out in a knowing grin.
"I'm not telling you." Naruto informed him, trying his best to keep from laughing. Sasuke's eyes widened and his head snapped in Naruto's direction so fast he got whiplash. The boys glared at each other.
[--
In Tazuna's home, everyone was chowing down on the food Tsunami had made with the limited supplied Tazuna and Sakura purchased in town that day. Little did anyone know, Sakura had made the entire meal to give Tsunami a well-deserved break. However, she had made Tsunami promise not to tell anyone for the sake of her reputation.
At the moment, Sasuke and Naruto were sitting opposite each other at one end of the table with Sakura between them and Kakashi next to the orange-clad ninja. Tazuna was sat opposite Sakura, at the head of the table, Inari was next to Sasuke and Tsunami was doing the dishes.
"Ahahaha! This is fantastic! It's been ages since we've had so many guests around our table." Tazuna informed them. Naruto and Sasuke were too busy inhaling their food and demanding more to notice. They both finished their food and stood, bowl in hand.
"I want some more!" They yelled in union. Noticing that the other had said the same thing at the same time, they then proceeded in glaring electricity at each other. The glares didn't last too long, since they then puked up their food on the floor.
During this whole thing, Sakura was eating her food politely with a steadily growing irritation mark and, when the puking started, a very disturbed face. She was on her last nerve and the two had just picked up chainsaws and cut it.
"DON'T EAT SO DAMN MUCH IF ALL YOU'RE GOING TO DO IS PUKE IT ALL BACK UP!" She screeched.
"I…have to eat." Sasuke told her, wiping his mouth from the trails of puke at the corner.
"I have to eat more than him. It's the only possible way I'll get strong enough to beat him." Naruto added, also wiping his mouth.
"That's true…but…puking wont help you." Kakashi told them with a large sweat drop.
"Hey! My daughter spent her time and effort making this meal! If all your going to do is be sick, don't waste it!" Tazuna yelled at them. Tsunami turned around and saw the boys before gasping.
"Oh no!" She cried.
"That's right, you little-" Tazuna began, but he was cut off when his daughter spoke again.
"Sakura, your food! They're wasting it!" She finished. Sakura's eyes widened and she dropped both her jaw and her chopsticks.
"Sakura?!" Sasuke asked in shock, looking down at his empty bowl.
"YOU COOK?!" Naruto yelled, also looking at the once food-filled bowl in front of him.
"Well…that was unexpected." Kakashi said as he watched Naruto yell questions at Sakura and Sasuke just looked between her and the empty bowl. Sakura, for her part, was glaring at an apologetic Tsunami.
[--
Later that evening, when Sasuke and Naruto had gotten over the fact Sakura could cook and Tsunami had made tea, everyone was sitting around the table with a cup of Ginseng tea. Tsunami was still doing dishes rather than drinking the tea.
Naruto was gulping down the tasty liquid without spilling a drop. Sakura sipped her calmly, looking up at the torn picture Inari had told her about earlier. Sasuke also noticed the photo as he drank his tea.
"Hey, your picture is torn." He stated, pointing to the photo. Sakura's eyes widened. "Is there some reason for it?" The Uchiha boy added, taking another sip of tea. "The brat kept and Sakura were both looking at it all though dinner. It looks like there was someone else in the picture, but they got torn out." He said. Sakura put down her half-full cup and looked at Inari, who froze when Sasuke mention it.
"It was my husband." Tsunami told him quickly, not once turning from her chore.
"They used to call him a hero in this land." Tazuna added quietly. Inari stood up from the table without a word and began to walk away, not looking up and hiding his face beneath the rim of his hat.
"Inari, where're you going?" Tsunami asked her son as he opened the door and walked out. "Father, you can't talk about him like that in front of Inari. You know that!" She scolded, moving to go after the small boy when Sakura stood from the table. Everyone looked at her.
"It was Sasuke's fault for mentioning it. I'll go after him. You go and rest, Tsunami-san." Sakura offered. Tsunami looked at the younger girl in question before nodding and leaving though the door, turning in the opposite direction to where her son went.
"Sakura?" Kakashi said in enquiry. She said nothing back, but simply carried her cup to the sink and left to go after Inari.
"That brat is so…I mean…what happened to him?" Naruto asked, looking at the door both his friend and the brat he spoke of left though.
"Hmm, is there a story behind this?" Kakashi asked Tazuna.
"He wasn't his real father. He came into our family later and he brought with him so much happiness. He and Inari were very close." Tazuna told them. "In those days…Inari used to laugh all the time. But then…" Here, the bridge builder paused and tears fell from his eyes. "…all that ended so suddenly. He never laughs or smiles now. Ever since the day everything changed."
[--
"Inari?" Sakura called, going to his bedroom door. "Inari-chan?" She tried again.
"Onee-chan?" Inari asked, his hatless head lifting from his arms. The boy's eyes were full of tears when he looked over to his door to see his 'big sister' standing there. Without warning, Inari ran to her and hugged her as he cried into her stomach. All Sakura did was place a comforting hand on his head as he cried his little heart out.
"Shh, it's okay. I'm here, Inari-chan." She soothed, stroking his hair comfortingly.
[--
"Ever since that day…ever since it happened." Tazuna began, explaining to the three ninja in the room.
"Tell us…what happened to Inari." Kakashi prompted.
"Before you can understand what happened to Inari, you need to understand who the man taken from the photo is. His name was Kaiza and was a fisherman who came to the Land of Waves in his travels…"
"Oh?" Kakashi said when Tazuna paused.
"Yea…He saved Inari from drowning when a few of the village kids threw his dog, 'Poochie', in the sea and Inari jumped in after him. Of course, the dog could swim and he couldn't. Kaiza showed up and swam out to help Inari. Eventually he became a father figure to my grandson, and taught him the principles of being a man." Tazuna stated.
"What else?" Naruto asked, getting really into the story.
"Well…He became close to Tsunami, as well, and was accepted into the city. After helping to prevent a major flood, he even became known as the hero of our land! Of course, it didn't last long."
[--
"What happened then?" Sakura asked Inari when he stopped after telling her about the flood.
"He was accused of being a terrorist against the Gato Corporation." Inari told her choking down a sob. "And then…he…"
[--
"…he was executed publicly by Gato's men, under his direct and unquestioned orders. With the death of Kaiza, the source of the city's bravery died, too, effectively crushing the spirits of nearly all its inhabitants, particularly Inari's." Tazuna finished, wiping a tear from his eye.
Naruto remembered something.
[--
"Ha. There's no such thing as a hero. You're just full of stupid ideas and fantasies!" Inari said mockingly.
[--
Inari was sat on a desk by the window, his head bowed and tears spilling from his eyes. His shoulders shook with every loud sop and choked hiccup that escaped his throat and passed his lips. The tears streaming down his face made it seem as if someone had thrown a bucket of water at him recently or something similar. Not ever the sea birds' cawing could cover the noise of the boy's sadness.
In Inari's hands was a framed photograph of a man with spiky black hair, a white rope around his forehead and tanned skin. His eyes were closed and the bottom of the photo was jagged, as if the man was ripped from another picture. Inari's tears fell on the glass covering the photo.
"No Otou-san, no!" He cried though the thick sobs. Naruto and Sakura could only stand and watch the boy cry; the former with a heavy heart and the latter with sad eyes.
[--
The blonde scowled at the picture, deep in thought. He made up his mind and got up, only to fall back down. Naruto was exhausted, too tired for his body to function.
"What're you up to, dobe?" Sasuke asked him.
"You better take the day off. No more training. You've used too much chakra. If you push yourself any harder it could kill you." Kakashi told him. Naruto just ignored the wise words of his sensei and struggled to get himself off of the floor.
"I'm going to prove it." He stated, still trying to get up.
"Prove…what?" Sasuke asked, his eyes narrowing. Naruto stood on shaky lags, holding onto the edge of the table for support. He left go of the edge of the table and clenched his fist.
"I'll prove that…that it's true." He grunted. "That in this world…there are real heroes." The boy finished with a grin.
[--
"Real heroes?" Inari asked the kind ninja with a tough mask put on around almost everyone else.
"Yep. I know there are." She nodded.
"Are you a hero, onee-chan?" He asked, blinking the tears from his eyes.
"…No, I'm not." The pinkette admitted.
"Then…who?" Inari questioned, utterly confused.
"I can think of someone." She mused.
"Who?" Inari asked curiously.
"Wait and see." She teased with a small smile. '…Naruto…'
