"Beyond Hearts and Minds"
by XyoushaX
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own the for Dummies series. I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's why I'm poor, okay?
Finally. After driving, looking at museums, returning home, experiencing writer's block and a cold, I have come with a new chapter. :sigh: I have my best friend to thank for lifting up my spirits.
"Quotations"
'Inner Thoughts'
(( Flashback ))
Chapter 26: Breaking Point
"Running formation!" the ANBU-trainer barked. He pointed at every person, mentioning everything that could be improved upon. The fact that almost all were at their physical limit was inconsequential. "The redhead over there! Cover that mane with a bandanna; that's what Genma does!" Flying through the cold air, he turned around 180 degrees, and pointed at another victim for his criticism. "You there, with the thick boots!"
One of the ninja glanced back — and nearly screamed when he saw the trainer just barely slash his neck with a kunai. He launched a kick into the higher-ranking shinobi, only to have the strike completely blocked.
"Wear normal sandals if you can't kick with heavy boots!" the captain scolded.
The outside air nipped around the group of twenty ANBU-hopefuls. This year's winter seemed earlier than usual, making business and commerce slow to a lull. This, in turn, gave the Leaf ninja more opportunity to train — or at least, that's what the intensive teachers liked to think. Truth be told, most ninja did not want to train in the coldest months of the year. Especially outside.
With the first round of ANBU-training done, the remaining shinobi received a new instructor. Needless to say, he was a slave-driver. His students hated him, yet he was the best there was in Konoha for jump-starting elite ninja into powerhouses. It was like a two-month boot camp.
Naruto softly landed on the tan, drying grass. He rubbed his bare hands together in his pause. The captain had told the trainees yesterday not to wear gloves... but Naruto began to think that he just gave that order to torture them. He renewed his dash with tightened fists, hoping to finish this marathon without frostbite. 'You'd think I'd remember after Kakashi's bell-test...'
(( "Oh, and don't eat breakfast. You'll throw up." ))
Naruto noticed Sasuke running ahead of him in the shortcut. "Hey, Sasuke!"
Ignored.
A brief flash of envy went into Naruto when he saw the thin, black gloves the Uchiha wore. His rival had beaten him in wits again — Sasuke had known well that the chill of winter could be a numbing enemy of any soldier, and simply had ignored the orders, ANBU-trainer or not. Between Naruto and Sasuke, at least one of them kept some common sense in weather.
Not to say that all was perfect. Sasuke was beginning to look more haggard as of late. The Uchiha's skin was no longer white anymore — it was more like a light, grayish blue. Dark shadows formed under his eyes.
One month had passed since 'that incident' with Sakura, as the Hokage labeled it. Kakashi had informed Naruto earlier that Sasuke had been going through a slight depression. It was difficult to recognize at first glance. Sasuke had shut himself at home, spent long hours training solo, and avoided social activities — which was all typically him. But once, when Naruto greeted Sasuke in the streets and the Uchiha had strode into a dango-shop as if he hadn't heard, Naruto realized that there was something wrong. Sasuke would never walk into a dango-shop; that place dripped with saccharine goodness. The avenger hated sweets, aside from the gluey fermented soybeans known as nattou.
Naruto weaved himself through the tree-trunks, and caught up with Sasuke.
The Uchiha let off a glance to Naruto. To Naruto's relief, he didn't take off towards a different trail for running.
The blond ninja felt his tongue oddly tied. "So..." If Naruto's body had not been preoccupied with running laps, he would almost be tearing out his hair. Putting on a fake grin was getting harder and harder to do these days, especially before a downed Sasuke. "Have you been sleeping enough?"
Sasuke shrugged. "Not really," he said, as if it were trivial. To be exact, he had had two hours of sleep before taking this physical test. In normal lingo, a physical meant having a doctor draw out various bodily fluids and test them for any chemical imbalance. In the ANBU, a physical meant training in the dark, early morning. To check these ninja for chemical imbalance was sort of a waste of time — if their minds were not warped (which was what one hoped for among elite ninja), then the effects most often would show up in some physical form or another.
The ANBU-trainer turned to Naruto. "You, stop wearing orange. You look like a fruitcake!"
That hit a nerve. "Excuse me, but I look awesome in orange!" Naruto shouted. "At least I don't shave my head bald as an egg in cold weather!"
"WHAT did you say?" the captain snarled. "Repeat that!"
Sasuke winced at the yelling. Not only at the noise, but what Naruto could receive as a punishment for that comment. The ANBU-trainer wasn't shaving his head; he was bald because of a recent radiation treatment. Evidently, Naruto did not know that, or he wouldn't have said what he said.
Sasuke pulled on Naruto's shoulder, preventing him from stepping up to the trainer. "Shut your mouth," he hissed, before Naruto could comply with the order to repeat the comment.
Naruto sputtered. "But he just told me —"
"No, he's right," the man decided quickly. He turned to Naruto, with a harsher glare and a renewed order: "Shut up, Brat." Several hand-seals whizzed by. The trainer ran to the side, his form melting into the barren trees. In truth he was still running along and monitoring his 'herd'.
Naruto wanted to kill Sasuke. "Brownnoser," he whispered in the Uchiha's direction.
Sasuke nearly rolled his eyes. "Just make these two hours of practice without yelling. It'll be easier for everyone if there are fewer whiners." The blond shinobi harrumphed in response.
An hour later, the captain released the crew from the laps, push-ups, and other grueling sets of exercises. "That's all for today. Dismissed."
Naruto and Sasuke managed to walk out coolly as the group dispersed. If they showed a bit of agony in front of the trainer, their score for entering the ANBU would go down. The only hint of their exhaustion was the sweat on their brows, which quickly evaporated into the cool, dry air of the early morning.
Naruto breathed onto his bare hands, hoping to heat them up. He walked over to his bag lying next to a tree. The blond ninja dug in, pulled out a bottle of water and chugged it, enjoying how the liquid hit the back of his throat.
Nearby was Sasuke, who was sliding off his forehead protector. The Uchiha dabbed a hand-size towel on his brow.
"How did that practice feel?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke shrugged. "It was okay," he answered blankly.
Relief swelled inside Naruto. 'A complete, non-imperative sentence. He must be recovering!'
"Don't forget your papers!" the captain shouted.
Sasuke and Naruto paused. Two objects projected towards their heads like ammo. The ninja caught them in their hands.
Naruto examined the object. It was a thick wad of paper, with paperclips and string binding it up. The blond unlaced it to study its contents. "Math?"
Naruto was confused, and a little nervous. Although he could apply rough geometry to projectile weapons, and arithmetic to personal finances, algebra was where he rolled downhill in mathematics.
"You have two weeks to do it."
Sasuke compared his papers to those of Naruto. The captain had gone so far as to give them different sets of questions, ensuring that they couldn't cheat off the other.
"Two weeks..." Naruto squeezed the packet in his hand, as if excited for this challenge — albeit sweat was already dampening the paper. "Plenty enough time!"
Sasuke had already jammed his homework in his bag, and began to walk home.
The ANBU-trainer stilled, and glanced back. "Oh, ho — Uchiha knows what he's doing, huh?"
Sasuke halted in his tracks. Naruto suddenly noticed that the other trainees were watching. 'Wait,' Naruto thought, 'Wasn't Sasuke the only one who wasn't insulted during practice?'
The captain sneered. "Don't think that acting all tragic because you lost your clan gets you favor in the ANBU. If anything, it makes you annoying and vulgar."
A chill passed over the trainees. That was too harsh, in Naruto's opinion. The trainer calmly walked away. Sasuke was motionless, as if his body had turned into a statue of ice.
The other trainees looked away when the realized the show was over. "All's fair in love and war," one of them mumbled.
Naruto shook in fury. He wanted to yell at the captain, and perhaps his classmates. Didn't they know how much stress Sasuke was going through right now?
"Drop it, Naruto," the raven-haired shinobi intoned.
The blond ninja pointed at the trainer's retreating back. "But—"
"I don't care." Sasuke turned his head a little: Naruto saw that his eyes were colder than ever. "I honestly don't care."
"Haaaaah!"
Hinata held out her palms, her fingers curling over what first seemed like thin air. Long, thin wisps of bluish-white chakra began to collect between her hands.
Next to her, a boy in a dirty kimono watched carefully. "Loosen your fingers a bit," Zashiki Warashi instructed. "Breathe carefully while you hold the ki."
Hinata exhaled slowly, and lightened the stiff position of her hands. The lines of energy thrashed out chaotically. Hinata let off a squeak. A tiny white ball of chakra started to form, yet it almost immediately burst like a soap bubble within her hands.
"Good start!" Warashi complimented. "I saw a brief circle before you got scared. Don't worry if the aura-strings whip out at first. That always happens when you're a novice. Just remember: control jams together the energy, but a loose mind makes it freer and more powerful."
The Priestess looked at her hands. The first signs of a chakra-burn were showing around the fingertips. "So you're saying... I have too much control?"
The ghost hesitated. "Well... kinda. Concentrating this white ki is a little different than normal chakra. When you're a priestess, you sort of have to let it possess you and go with the flow, rather than you possessing it. That's what shaman do when they invite spirits into them as a medium, see.
"You can purify spirits and have them as allies, but only if you place your trust in them to take some of the control. It's a fine balance — please them enough as to receive help, but also give them the autonomy they want. Some demons, like the nine legendary ones, will never bend."
Hinata sat down on a rock. The stone chilled to the touch. "Thus, the limited calling-contracts. Hafusono-sama and Nunagawa-sama..." She shivered at the thought: a whole forest and a river could assist her in battle. Even though their agreements were constricted in many respects, Hinata still deemed it an honor. "Are there demons in foreign countries, Warashi-chan?"
"Of course," the specter answered. "So far, they're still asleep." He pulled out a scroll from the chest-space of his kimono. "But look what I got out of the spirit world — an oracle of which major-demons will attack which places for the next year!"
Hinata looked at the item with suspicion. "Where in the world did you get that, Warashi-chan?" In her person opinion, such a message seemed too convenient to be true. A whole year?
"I got it in a trade with a demon, in return giving him the whereabouts of a large pickle-vat. He had this strange obsession with preserved human food." He twirled up the transparent scroll, which transformed into a black, squiggly mass. Hinata could literally see the words unravel and twist around Warashi's hand. "But never mind. Give me pen and paper as an offering, Hinata-neechan!"
Hinata dug into her backpack, and fished out a scrap of paper with a pen. She laid a nearby rock onto the leaflet as a paperweight.
Warashi twirled around the rope of words through the air like a lasso. "Thanks." He shot his calligraphy-laced arm at the pen. The ribbon of versed words and poetry shot from his finger, and whirled into the pen like water in a drain. The apparatus jumped up, and began to scribble the paper.
Within a minute, the writing utensil dropped dead on its side. Hinata put away the rock weight, and picked up the sheet.
x
As winter lands, and the new year breaks
enter where the water washes over rocks.
Greet your former enemies with renewed trust
and you will find the image of your true opponent.
x
Take refuge under the shadows of your two demons —
keep them close to you and to each other.
Both are prized jewels, on each a curse has been laid.
The more you keep them safe in mind, the more you will succeed.
x
Hinata rolled up the sheet of paper. She was already confused with the first two verses. Two demons — were they referring to Hafusono and Nunagawa? She needed to think about this more before she read further.
Hinata went still, sensing an evil eye. Her hands folded together into a seal. 'Byakugan!'
Forest. The Ninja Academy Trees. Hospital. More forest. The Hyuuga manor.
Hinata's vision zoomed in. One elder — was he her great uncle, or her great-great uncle? — sat with crossed legs on top of a large boulder in the training air, his eyes closed in firm meditation.
Hinata suppressed a burst of laughter at the sight. 'Don't laugh! He could die of pneumonia!' Then again, there was little risk for ninja to catch that illness, much less die from it. He was quite healthy for his age.
Hinata looked forty degrees to the right of the mansion, and caught sight of Naruto — it seemed that his morning practice was done. A sparkle came in Hinata's eye. 'He's free! At least for this morning!' She deactivated her bloodline limit, and went to chase down her boyfriend.
Naruto clutched at his head, sagging down into the library chair. He had forgotten how wearying homework could be, staying up at night while trying to figure out this assignment.
How could two weeks go by so quickly?
Oh why the hell, of all things, did he try to wait out on this one? Naruto never procrastinated on anything; more often than not he rushed into things too quickly. He had always been a working devil, especially when it came to learning and practicing new jutsu. If just concentrated his effort into a specific goal, and the clear path was training, training, training, he'd train until he got it right.
However, forcing oneself through did not apply to math and puzzles.
This assignment was nothing like the Rasengan-Factor in him. The training for that jutsu had gone extremely well in Naruto's case, due to several reasons: Jiraiya explained how to master it step-by-step, Tsunade bet her priceless necklace that Naruto couldn't figure it out within one week, and Kabuto later tried to attack Tsunade...
Jutsu-equations were different. When the ANBU-trainer handed over a stack of meaningless, seemingly pointless questions without any sort of instructions of how to work them, Naruto was completely stumped. And the approval of an instructor he despised was not the strongest motivation on the bench.
What was worse was that for the past two weeks, the captain kept on reminding Naruto about the assignment, practice after practice. One time, Naruto swallowed enough of his pride to ask the ANBU-trainer for a pointer.
(( "Don't worry, it's just the basics of jutsu-equations."
Naruto had to wonder, whether that was a smirk on the trainer's mouth.
"I'm not asking you to invent stuff," the captain said with a wave of the hand. "If you do a little research in the library, you'll get it. Knowing even the basics helps a hell of a lot when predicting what attack comes next. It's like calculus: the beginning is really easy, and then it gets complicated as hell later." He pulled up his gear, and walked off. "Wasn't Kakashi your jounin-instructor when you were a genin? He'd know about it." ))
One thing the ANBU-trainer had failed to mention was that Kakashi was out for the whole month on higher rank missions. Naruto tried to ask around for jounin who knew that field of study, but the few who did seem knowledgeable were oddly secretive.
Naruto needed an instruction manual. That was it. Only when he was given a dependable, previously tested order of hand-seals, written in solid ink on a scroll sitting before him, could Naruto solve an analytical problem.
'If I don't hand this in tomorrow, the captain will fail me.' Naruto dropped his head onto the desk. 'I'd rather focus on becoming jounin — but then Sasuke'll think I gave up too easily. Damn it! I just want to prove that I'm capable of it if I'm ever needed in the ANBU!'
The clock struck eight in the evening. Naruto still had twelve hours. But there were twenty sheets of equations. The first and only thing Naruto had jotted down was a rewrite of the original problem itself (the trainer had reminded the class to show their work).
'Keep your spirits up,' Naruto thought, pulling out the scrolls and books from the Konoha library. 'There's got to be some textbook or other that explains this equation-useless-junk.'
Every book he opened, every scroll he unrolled, seemed as useless as the last. This was getting frustrating. He noticed empty gaps in some of the shelves. 'The other guys in class must have checked them out in advance,' Naruto thought, a sinking feeling in his gut.
The clock chimed nine.
The blond shinobi heard a door open in the library. He decided to ignore it; this building was open until three in the morning, so nobody was kicking him out.
A familiar baritone sounded behind Naruto. "Hey."
Naruto quickly slammed down a book over his embarrassingly blank paper, and turned around in his seat. "Sasuke!" He put on a happy face to conceal his inner nervousness. "How's it going?"
"Did you receive something like this?" Sasuke asked quietly, holding a small package in his hand. "From Sakura?"
Naruto examined the box, and sighed. "Yeah. Five weeks ago." He turned around in his desk. "I got three scrolls, according to the will."
Sasuke pulled out one from the box, and showed Naruto the label: -Elemental Jutsu Systems, Scroll II-
"Did you get the first volume for this one?" Sasuke's voice held a mysterious tempo of haste. "I didn't find out that you were the other benefactor besides her parents, and so..."
Naruto grabbed the scroll from Sasuke's hands, and pulled it open. "Holy shit!" Naruto exclaimed. "Where the hell did Sakura get this? It's friggin' hand-written!"
"The first volume," Sasuke repeated. "You have it, right?"
"This could be expensive, if it's in calligraphy and all," Naruto observed, looking over the brushwork. "Maybe even an antique..."
"Focus a little, Idiot!" Sasuke hissed. "Do you have the first volume?"
Naruto paused, and bit his thumb in thought. "Isn't it illegal for genin to own this kind of information?"
Sasuke was at his wits' end. "I want the FIRST VOLUME!"
A unified, negative hiss erupted around them. Even though it was already night, the library was still being used, who either wanted to research information or find a relaxing book. Sasuke could feel glares from the staff shooting into him like darts.
"Um... Now that I think about it, there was a scroll with the same title," Naruto said nervously, hoping that he wouldn't be deemed responsible for Sasuke's rudeness. He hastily crammed his stuff into a backpack, and quickly left the floor. "It's at my house."
"Are you sure you have it?" Sasuke asked, going down the stairs two steps at a time.
"I don't remember exactly," Naruto said. "I kind of browsed through the scrolls once, and then decided to study them in detail later when I had more time..." Once on the main level, the two exited the building and ran towards Naruto's apartment.
'But why would Sakura-chan decide to split the volumes apart?' Naruto wondered. 'Maybe she didn't — the officials could have divvied them apart between me and Sasuke by accident.'
The blond pulled out a set of keys as soon as he saw the apartment complex approach his view. "Ah, home sweet home."
Sasuke studied the apartment — it was small, and the roof pieces were roughly thatched on. He landed next to Naruto at the door.
"Nice place," Sasuke commented.
"Thanks." Naruto swung the door open.
Sasuke followed in, and immediately wanted to take back what he had just said. Naruto's living room was piled high with junk! Well, not exactly junk; most of it was weaponry and scrolls and books and other things — but damn, Naruto could easily purchase a bookshelf. Or throw an old notebook or a rusting kunai to the recycling. 'Didn't Naruto hear that the town blacksmiths are asking for old weapons because of an iron shortage?'
Sasuke picked up a plastic bowl from the table. He realized it was an old container for instant ramen. He glanced around for a wastepaper basket. He spotted one, already brimmed full with rubbish. The raven-haired ninja crushed the contents down into a more compact form with his fist.
"You ought to get a maid if you can't clean this yourself," Sasuke said, disposing of the old ramen cup. His mind twitched at the mess; just looking at it was nauseating. 'Actually, a genin team would be a better option,' he commented silently. 'Who knows what kind of dangerous material is around here.'
"I haven't had time to clean it up recently," Naruto said. "Plus, the garbage man sort of avoids this district. Some moron on the second floor keeps on forgetting to dispose his syringes in separate biohazard-containers." Naruto dug around for the box. "Ah, here it is!"
Sasuke was hesitant. "Is it still clean?"
"Yes, it is!" Naruto roughly answered. "What kind of pig do you think I am?" He reopened the box, and his fingers fumbled around with the contents. He lifted up one scroll, and read its label carefully. "Here it is! Elemental Jutsu Systems, Scroll I — hey!" Naruto spun around before Sasuke could yank the item out of his hand. "Are you trying to steal it?" Naruto asked incredulously. "It's Sakura-chan's keepsake to me; you have your own!"
"Let me borrow it, just for one night," Sasuke bargained. "Please."
Naruto blinked. He looked at Sasuke, and realized something.
"Did you also procrastinate on the assignment?" Naruto asked.
There was a dark silence.
Sasuke looked away. A tiny, angry bite of the lip was there.
"...You really did," Naruto concluded. He swung his bag over his shoulder, and then walked to the door. "Come on."
Sasuke looked up to see his rival leaving. "Where are you going?"
"We'll go to your place, and then get back to the library."
An annoyed expression crossed Sasuke's face with the thought of Naruto coming over to see where he lived. "Why?" the Uchiha asked scathingly.
"Because my place is too messy for a study-session, and we need to pick up your homework!" Naruto held up the scroll. "Besides, I'm legally in possession of this." The blond ninja peeled the flap of the scroll open, and studied the contents. "The complete set may be our only hope."
Sasuke wanted to throttle something, or someone. One tiny voice in his brain said that he ought to feel grateful that Naruto was even offering to share the first volume with him for one night, but he just counter-argued that Naruto wouldn't understand the contents of it on his own, so there was no point of Naruto possessing it.
Continuing his walk to Sasuke's living quarters, Naruto carefully reread the first section of the scroll. The blond froze in his tracks. "Hey, Sasuke," Naruto murmured. "You've got to see this."
The avenger looked on the paper where Naruto pointed. With swishing elegance, the full-length title of the volume was brushed on. -Elemental Jutsu Systems: Jutsu-Equations for Morons -
The teenage boys stared at the heading.
Sasuke unrolled the second volume. From the shaking of the Uchiha's fingers, it was clear to Naruto that the complimentary volume held a similar insulting title.
Naruto began to laugh. "That title is so ingenious!"
Sasuke's mouth tightened. "She's mocking us." A little noise like a snort escaped from his nose. He couldn't curse Sakura for handing him such a book; she was already dead, and his karma was already in a compromised position. "Let's just read the damn thing and hope it works."
"Right." Naruto looked at his watch. They had a little more than ten hours left.
A chipmunk-like sneeze erupted in the winter air.
Minoru looked at the shivering form next to him. "A cold already?"
The rounin sniffed. "Either that, or someone's spreading rumors about me."
"Isn't there more detail in that saying?" Potamos asked, entering a building. She passed under the draping cloth with the hiragana of "yu" printed on. The syllable alone was the word for 'hot water', indicating that the building was a bathhouse. "Sneeze once, and people are speaking good of you. Sneeze twice, and they're speaking ill of you."
"That's just a silly superstition," Minoru argued. The blond shrine-worker pushed several notes of money towards the owner of the bathhouse. "One adult, two children."
"Very well," the manager said. He gestured to the two doors to the back. "The men's area is to the left side, the women's to the right. Please relax and enjoy our facilities."
"Thank you," Minoru said. He and the rounin slowly stepped to the left side, and Potamos skipped into the other door.
The manager of the bathhouse sat down, and picked up a magazine from the table. A frosty wind drafted into the room. The owner got up from his desk. He walked over to the door, and closed it completely shut. The owner didn't notice one person sneaking behind him: the rounin madly rushed from the men's bathhouse to the women's.
Potamos hummed a ditty to herself. She peeled off her human clothes, and folded them neatly in the basket. She heard a foot touch into the dressing room.
The rounin quickly pulled off the straw hat, and began to strip off the simple montsuki. "What the hell — this shirt is sewn together!" The black hakama-pants were kicked off. "What's with kendo uniforms nowadays?" Locks of silky, pink hair dropped slightly past the shoulders.
The water-demon giggled. "Wanna join me, Sacchan?"
Sakura fumbled with the binding of her chest. "Gladly. I haven't had a bath in days." She turned to Potamos. "Go ahead; I have to work on this." Potamos nodded, before skipping off to the steaming room.
With some unwinding, the strips of cloth trailed onto the ground. The fresh air on her bare torso made Sakura sigh. The young lady folded her clothing, and pushed it down into one of the storage baskets. She put her bath-set into a wooden container the bathhouse provided.
The kunoichi stepped carefully into the steaming room. Sakura pulled up a seat in front of one of the shower heads, and right next to a humming Potamos. The girl was already lathering unscented shampoo in her purple hair.
"Potamos, wouldn't soaps hurt or poison your kind?" Sakura asked. She realized that this was the first time she had seen the water-demon apply such chemcals. Yes, Potamos regularly brought her own bath-sets into public bathhouses, but Sakura had thought the bottles to be mere props. It turned out that it really was just shampoo, conditioner and wash.
"Just because I have control of water, doesn't mean I can go without cleaning once in a while," the petite girl answered. "If there's too much crud piling up on my body, my movements slow down. Taking a dip in a lake helps. But a hot bath is so much better. Something to do with energy and pores and all that." She picked up one bottle, and showed it to Sakura. "For some reason, though, I can only take hypoallergenic stuff."
"Hmm." Sakura massaged shampoo in her own hair. "I wonder how Minoru-san is doing on the other side. I'm still surprised of this whole arrangement."
"It's that other guy in the contract, right?" Potamos chimed. "Mino-chan, Salvia-sama, and that man." She turned to Sakura. "What's that man like, anyway?"
Sakura sighed. "He's... I don't know." Their conversation stopped there.
Sakura rinsed out the shampoo, and applied conditioner to her hair. She carefully picked at the troublesome knots with a comb. Potamos, already done with the washing part, slipped herself into the bathing pool.
Sakura washed and pampered her body slowly. Not even dressing as a man could make her forget the luxury of a full bath. If anything, it made her enjoy it more, especially with feminine things like conditioner and body wash. Even though Sakura liked the group security and warmth that came with disguising herself as a rounin, she sort of missed being noticed as a woman. Sakura was pretty, not beautiful — but it was a guilty pleasure for her, knowing that there were some men whose minds she could twist into helpless ooze, all because they lusted after her body.
The medic-nin rinsed the soap off her skin, and plunged herself into the stone bathtub. She nearly yelped at the high temperature. Within ten seconds, the pain went away. The kunoichi folded her arms over the edge of the hot pool, and rested her head over her crossed hands. She sighed in the heat.
"Feeling better?" Potamos asked.
"Mm hmm." Sakura cranked her neck a bit. She could feel the steam banishing the winter chill from her limbs. It was as if the water had the power to wash away everything, making her sweat out the last feelings of confusion within her.
Potamos cocked her head to the side. "Sacchan?"
Sakura did not bat an eye. "Hm?"
"You're... not feeling guilty about this whole thing, are you?" The water-demon looked worried. "It's not too late to go back."
"I'm fine." Sakura's green eyes opened.
A pair of yellow eyes narrowed dangerously before her. Without notice, Potamos had silently swum up to her. Her cat-like pupils only emphasized her expression of a grumpy tiger.
"Okay, okay!" Sakura said hastily. "Maybe I do feel a little homesick." Sakura dipped herself further in the pool, letting the water reheat her shoulders. "But if it's human safety versus staying in my home village... obviously I'll take the former." She shrugged. " 'sides, it's not like I'll be missed. Much."
Potamos circle-swam around the human, and touched her shoulders. "You have knots in your back, Sacchan." She powerfully fingered the overwrought muscles, clearly enjoying Sakura's mixed moans of pleasure and pain. "You've gotta stretch more often."
Voices came through the walls from the front desk. It was probably a new customer. Potamos patted Sakura's back, and then moved away.
Another woman stepped into the bathing area. She had dark-brown hair, brown eyes, and seemed to be in her mid-thirties. Sakura felt the air for any unusual vibes from this woman. 'She's definitely human,' she confirmed. Sakura closed her eyes, and didn't mind her.
Five or so minutes later, the stranger rinsed the suds off her body, and dipped into the pool.
"You know, you look a lot like that ninja from the leaf, Haruno Sakura," the woman mentioned.
Sakura stiffened at the comment, and then relaxed. "Really?" She gave a sheepish smile. "...I thought she was a lot prettier."
The brown-haired woman raised an eyebrow, but then smiled. "I notice that you practice iaidô."
Sakura tried her best to hide her nervousness. "What makes you think that?" She had been sure that she stuffed her uniform tightly in the basket. Did this woman search her belongings?
"Your hand has the Mark," the lady answered.
Sakura's left hand opened slightly, and tightened. "Oh... I see." Sakura noticed that Potamos was listening in on the conversation, her face a little nervous. "You practice iaidô, too?" Sakura asked the knowledgeable stranger, keeping the atmosphere light.
"I'm an instructor," the woman answered. "I also teach a bit of kendô, although my husband is a better teacher with that. Do you go to tournaments?"
Sakura shook her head. "I can't. I'm not allowed by my—" The kunoichi had just about said 'guardian', or maybe even 'village', but she halted herself. "Um... my parents don't think it proper if I were to enter public fighting contests." She lied through her teeth, of course, but it was a believable reason.
The woman clucked her tongue. "They ought to know that even the women of samurai-class enter them with honor and style!" She laughed to herself. "My father was horrified when I showed up for tournaments, at first. But a year later, he was as proud as a peacock! Especially when I could instantly cut down any persistent suitors within a two-meter radius." She cackled, almost manically. "I was a tomboy, you see."
Sakura and Potamos looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
The brunette's laughter fell to a sated sigh. She cleared her throat. "Well, perhaps I ought to explain myself. I was wondering if you knew about the Kiyomizu tournament."
Sakura had never heard of it.
"Kiyomizu..." Potamos raked her brain at the words. "Clear... Water?"
"That's the meaning of the name, yes." The brown-haired woman smiled at Potamos' giddy face of achievement, then turned back to Sakura. "We're in desperate need of more participants — I would love to see you come."
Sakura lowered her eyes. "I don't know..." As much as she wished to attend, showing herself in public was one of the last things she was allowed to do. That Chuunin Exams ruckus had been bad enough; Konoha was probably on her tails by now.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," the woman soothed, "but could you at least mention it to the school you train at? It'll be held in the spring, in Rice country."
Sakura felt bit little disappointed. Their group was not planning to enter the Rice country until well into the summer.
"There's also archery," continued the woman, "and a two-player duel with ninja as the seconds."
Potamos livened up. "Ninja as seconds?" She squealed, and floated up to the brunette stranger. "How's it done?"
"Um, I'll see if I can recommend other people to the contest," said Sakura quickly. 'Damn it, Potamos, don't show yourself as a ninja — that's a paradox on its own!'
"They're closing in fifteen minutes," Sasuke whispered.
Naruto looked at his paper, then at the scroll, and back to the paper. He wrong down the kanji for the hand-seals, and drew several arrows. "How far are you in the assignment, Sasuke?"
"Two-thirds," Sasuke answered. "You?"
"Just over half." Naruto glanced at the upper corners of the room. "We only need an hour more."
Sasuke was already too tired to scold Naruto that that estimate was grossly wrong. The lights of the room began flickering, a reminder for people to start packing up their things.
Naruto leaned over the table, and whispered to Sasuke. "Maybe we can stay here longer."
Sasuke blinked. Realization came to him slowly. But it just did not seem possible: Naruto wanted to stay longer, in a library? "Why?" Sasuke asked.
"We have no other place to finish," Naruto reasoned. "As you said, my apartment is a dump. And both of us need that scroll." He then paused. "Well, we could use your place..."
Sasuke glared. "No." He would give up his ambitions for revenge before letting Naruto into his living quarters.
"Okay." Naruto folded his hands through several In. "Start hiding, and cover the cameras."
Sasuke groaned. His eyes blinked open. He sat straight up in his chair.
Naruto lay on the opposite side of the writing table, his head on a pillow of books. A drip of spittle fell from the corner of his mouth, and onto a wad of papers — more specifically, Sasuke's homework.
The Uchiha shoved Naruto's head to the side. A groan came out of the blond shinobi, followed by a yelp when he fell on the floor.
Sasuke only looked at his papers. He sighed in relief. His own handwriting, every problem done. It wasn't a dream.
The clock chimed. Naruto looked up groggily. "What's going on...?"
The two shinobi glanced at the clock. It was six o'clock.
Their curses were simultaneous.
The ANBU-trainer glared at the two teenagers. "Well, I certainly see that you are Kakashi's students." He lifted up his wrist, and read his watch. "Ten minutes late. If you pull something like this in a real mission, not only would you be dead — so would your teammates, and possibly an entire village."
"We're sorry," Naruto repeated for the fourth time. Sasuke remained stoic as always.
The captain looked at the two wads of paper on the ground in disgust. He picked them up. One looked like its corner had been dipped in some strange liquid. His eyes then trailed over the paper. His eyes seemed to harden with every sheet he looked at.
The captain had not dismissed them yet. It was agonizing for Naruto and Sasuke as they watched.
The ANBU-trainer breathed. He tossed down the papers. "These are unacceptable."
The two ninja were jolted. "WHAT?" burst out Naruto. "There's no way in hell that you could have corrected forty pages front-to-back that fast! Was every single answer wrong?"
The captain's eyes were scrutinizing. "I did not look at every sheet, but I know foul play when I see it. You two are dismissed." He turned around. "To be precise, you are officially banned from this training-session."
Sasuke's grip over his crossed arms tightened.
The ANBU-trainer turned his heels in the snow, and began to walk away. "Get out."
"That's... You can't be serious!" Naruto shouted, oblivious to the deadly aura Sasuke was giving off. "We did what you assigned us to do!"
The older shinobi glanced back. "Your investigating was fine work in this assignment," he complimented. "But a bit too fine. Cheaters like you are not worth the dirt you step on." He strode away.
Naruto was speechless. This... this man was crazy! The captain just tells them that they're cheaters (when it was clearly their handwriting on the pages), throws away the packets, and kicks the two of them out of class?
Naruto was just about to retort something, when a shadow passed his side. 'Sasuke?'
The captain stilled. He moved to evade the hit, but he was so bewildered at first that his reaction was not on top as it usually was. Plus, the attacker was in a violent rage.
The ANBU-trainer received a face-full of a rising dragon kick, by none other than Uchiha Sasuke.
The older shinobi staggered back, and steadied himself on a tree.
"Sasuke!" Naruto started after his rival. "Stop—" He felt something slam into him. When Naruto opened his eyes, he realized that a supervisor had pinned him on a tree. Evidently, the jounin thought that Naruto was either going to join the fight, or try to get in the way of a mentally unstable Uchiha.
The captain twisted around, and raised his arm. His hand grasped the air — a split-second later, he threw Sasuke onto the ground. The chuunin's back hit the frozen ground in a painful crash. A red-eyed Sasuke tried to get up, but the captain and a jounin held him down on the snowy floor of the forest.
"Don't move."
At the cold touch of the jounin's kunai on his neck, Sasuke finally realized what he was doing. He had just attacked a member of the ANBU. The Sharingan eyes faded into black once more.
The trainer brushed his arms, as if nothing significant had happened. "Assault — or at least an attempted assault," he said in a sadistic voice. "You have guts, Uchiha."
Sasuke's closed his eyes in frustration and anger. Towards the captain or himself, he didn't know.
All that was clear was how much trouble he was in.
Notes:
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.