Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, some mild to moderate character bashing where unavoidable (mostly Dumbledore & Danzou with some Sakura & potentially lots of Sasuke), alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), OCC behaviors and personalities, a number of original characters and obscure canon characters to flesh out family trees, random chosen last names to give a number of characters surnames, and who knows what else.
AN1: Partial credit for the Story Prompt/Challenge used to create this story goes to the Guru of Challenges; Challenge King. For details, see the first author's note at the top of the first chapter.
AN2: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Debriefings
May 17, 1990, 6:31 PM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Elemental Nations
Sakura bit her lip as she glanced between the back of the ANBU escorting them to the Hokage's Tower and Haruo's profile. She was rather confused by the younger boy's sudden change of behavior. He almost acted like the man was going to be the one to personally punish him for whatever it was that he'd hinted he'd done on their mission that he wasn't supposed to do. Then again; maybe he was just scared of the ANBU? They were considered the boogie men of the shinobi world, after all.
The masks they wore were intimidating. And they were amongst the most powerful shinobi in the village. Each one of them were hand picked by the Hokage and Sakura imagined that they would have to be something special or have done something spectacular to gain the Hokage's attention.
A frown worked itself onto Sakura's face a moment later as she recalled Naruto mentioning the name Koneko back when they had first spotted the ANBU that were waiting for them. Koneko didn't really sound like a proper ANBU code name to her. Although… hadn't Haruo also mentioned his mysterious friend? The one he called sensei-nii? Did that mean that Koneko and Haruo's friend were one and the same? But if that was true, then did that mean that Haruo's friend was actually a member of the ANBU Corps?
Sakura's gaze turned thoughtful as she stared at the back of the ANBU's head until the man turned around to look at her in response to her staring. Embarrassed over being caught, Sakura blushed bright red and dropped her gaze to the ground in front of her. Her discomfort would be forgotten a moment later as her thoughts immediately returned to their earlier train of thought. Part of her couldn't help but wonder how the two boys might have meet a member of ANBU and why the man would have any interest in interacting with a couple of kids.
Unless the man had been ordered to keep an eye on the boys to stop their pranks?
Sakura shook her head; no, that didn't make any sense because they'd played plenty of pranks right up until they'd been placed on a team together. And according to Haruo, he's known his 'sensei-nii' for years. At least, she thought he had.
A moment later, Sakura decided none of that mattered at the moment. She was more concerned with the reason why Haruo was suddenly acting like the world was ending. The only other time she ever remembered him acting like that was during the first week or so after he'd regained consciousness after the fight with Zabuza and Haku on the bridge. She didn't think anything of it at the time simply because she had been far more focused on watching over Tazuna, worrying about whether or not Haruo saw her as weak, and wondering if anything else would go wrong on their mission.
Now that she was thinking about it, she thought it was rather odd.
She also couldn't really think of anything that Haruo had done that had been particularly bad outside of fighting with Sasuke on a mission but that was something that Kakashi would likely punish him over. It was possible that he was referring to the fact that he'd pushed himself into chakra exhaustion twice within a fairly short period of time but it seemed rather silly to punish someone for pushing themselves while doing their job. It would've been far worse if Haruo had held himself back and their client had been injured or killed instead.
So what had the younger Genin done that would get him in trouble?
Sakura still hadn't come up with an answer by the time they'd reached the Hokage's Tower and so dropped the matter for now since she didn't think Haruo would want to talk about it within hearing range of his possible friend. It was only a few minutes later that Team Seven (minus Sasuke) found themselves in the Hokage's office where the Sandaime, Ino's father Inoichi (who Sakura had met a few times when she was younger – before her falling out with the blonde), a man that reminded her a lot of Nara Shikamaru from the Academy, and four other individuals she didn't know.
One of those unfamiliar persons was wearing a white mask with flames on it and she assumed that meant that he was also a member of the ANBU Corps. The other three people were two men and one woman; all three of them rather old and one of them permanently crippled from what she could tell. The disabled man creeped her out what with the way his only visible eye raked over her and her teammates.
"Where is the last Uchiha? He is a part of Team Seven, is he not?" the only woman in the room demanded as soon as the door closed behind their masked escort.
"He was escorted to the hospital to have his injuries tended to," Kakashi answered in a bland tone.
"I take it the boy was injured during the capture of Momochi Zabuza," the disabled man inquired in a tone that made the question more of a statement.
"Chigau, Sasuke-kun was injured by a pair of mercenaries with samurai training while he was protecting our client's family on the same day that Zabuza and his apprentice attacked the bridge."
"Are you implying that the rookie of the year was injured by a pair of mere civilians?" the other man, who was wearing glasses, asked in an incredulous tone.
"No, the arrogant Genin got himself injured when he tried to fight six mercenaries head on and overestimated his own abilities and equipment while underestimating his opponents."
"Why did none of your other Genin help him?" the disabled man asked next as the man's eye drifted back to the three teammates in the office. "Uzumaki knows the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu; why did he not supply his teammate with proper backup?"
"Naruto-kun had provided back up; he had twelve clones stationed around the clearing where Tazuna's family lived and those clones had managed to disable and capture half of the mercenaries sent to take Tazuna's daughter hostage before the clones were dispelled due to Naruto being placed in a death-like state by Zabuza's apprentice. Additionally, Naruto-kun and Haruo-kun were guarding the bridge builder at the time and facing off against Zabuza and Haku at the same time as the house had come under siege."
"And where were you?" the woman inquired with a scowl and Sakura was almost insulted on her sensei's behalf over the accusation in the woman's tone.
"I had been escorting Sakura-chan to the bridge to relieve her teammates and the two of us immediately joined the fight with Sakura-chan taking over guarding Tazuna so that Haruo-kun could back up Naruto-kun while I dealt with Zabuza."
"And you expect us to believe that some no-name orphan helped you bring down Zabuza and a Hyouton wielder after Uzumaki had been easily knocked out?" the disabled man demanded in a condescending tone.
"Enough," the Hokage ordered as he slammed his hand down on his desk to gain everyone's attention; the loud sound startling Sakura. "If the three of you are going to badger my Jounin to the point where he can't provide a proper report, then I'm going to ask you to leave. I asked the three of you to attend as a courtesy as you are my advisors but that does not grant you the right to treat this debriefing as a trial simply because Uchiha Sasuke was injured while out of the village on a mission."
"A mission that should have been aborted the instant Hatake had discovered that the client had lied," the disabled man sneered.
"Mendoukusei," the man who looked like Shikamaru grumbled grumpily. "Don't be dense, Danzou; had Kakashi made the decision to abort the mission and his client had been murdered the moment he'd abandoned him, then Konoha's reputation would've taken a huge hit and we'd have lost a large percentage of our clientele due to the fear that they too would be abandoned by a team of Konoha shinobi they had hired. And it would not have mattered that the client had lied because that little detail would've gotten lost amongst the negative rumors that would've cropped up."
"Continuing the mission was still foolish since Hatake's team was ill-prepared to deal with the opposition," Danzou, who turned out to be the crippled man retorted as he slammed his cane down on the floor for emphasis. "Not only should he have returned to Konoha to report the gross breech in contract by the client, he should have immediately handed the mission over to a suitably skilled team!"
"I did report the breech; I sent one of my ninken with a message the moment I discovered that the bridge builder had fudged the facts," Kakashi countered without raising his voice and Sakura found herself admiring her sensei's control since she would have yelled back or curled up and cried if someone had been pointing out everything she'd done wrong like that. "There's also the fact that returning to Konoha would have potentially given Gato enough time to hire more missing nins of questionable rank."
"That does not excuse your negligence! Nor does it allow us to recover the revenue lost because you failed to bring the bridge builder back to have him tried for his breech of contract. The price of a C Ranked Escort Mission that the man paid is less than a third of the cost of an A Ranked Escort Mission that you completed!"
"Nami no Kuni as a whole already paid us restitution for the breech of contract," Kakashi dryly announced and Sakura wondered what the Jounin meant. "They relinquished their claim to Gato Corporation; allow me to fully claim Gato's fortune and businesses on Konoha's behalf for his attempt to invade a territory under the former protection of the defunct Uzushiogakure no Sato since we are Uzu's registered Ally. Oh, and these last two contain the proof necessary to collect a few outstanding bounties on a number of individuals."
Kakashi then walked up to the Hokage's desk, pulled a series of storage scrolls out of his flak jacket, and calmly stated the general contents of each scroll as he set them on the desk with a sharp thwack that emphasized the significance of what he was turning over to the Hokage.
"I was able to retrieve the deeds to the property and businesses that Gato owned, the business documents that Gato had kept in Nami, the account books for all of Gato Corp and its subsidiaries, Gato's Last Will and Testament, and the large amount of cash that Gato had on hand at the time of his death. I also collected anything of value that had been kept in Gato's base to prevent that wealth from being lost. That was in addition to the dead criminals that I secured."
Sakura fidgeted nervously in the tense silence that had fallen in the wake of Kakashi's little show. A covert glance at Danzou let her know the man was still upset about something but wasn't asking any more questions for some reason. The other two unnamed elders that had originally been questioning Kakashi about Sasuke both looked rather nervous all of a sudden but they hadn't spoken up since the Hokage had first told them to back off.
Her thoughts then turned to the scrolls Kakashi had produced and it made her wonder if the reason he'd disappeared so often during the second half of the mission was because he'd been collecting all of that stuff while she watched Tazuna. It would certainly explain why he'd spent so much time away from them. She also knew that he had been capturing the men that had been part of Gato's army since she'd seen him turning over his prisoners to the villagers more than a few times while she'd been protecting the bridge builder or giving first aide to the civilians.
Sakura's attention was immediately pulled back to the present when Danzou and the other unfamiliar man and woman excused themselves and left the room. The pink haired Genin was more than a little glad to see them leave but wondered why they didn't bother to stick around to hear the rest of Kakashi's report. After a few seconds, she pushed the matter out of her mind and focused on the Sandaime when the Hokage addressed her sensei as soon as the door closed behind the three elders.
"Kakashi, why don't you start your report now that the drama appears to be over," the Sandaime encouraged as he transferred the scrolls Kakashi had given him to a drawer in his desk.
"After I sent back the request to have the Oni Kyoudai picked up along with the report that Tazuna had lied about the threat level we would face on the mission, we continued…"
Sakura tuned out Kakashi's voice as he droned on about the general descriptions of the mission and their team's performance over the course of the mission. She soon found her gaze drifting towards Haruo once again and spent the next several minutes observing her youngest teammate's behavior. More than once, she noticed the eleven year old cringing or wincing in response to something their sensei had reported and wondered why. It didn't take a genius to figure out that there was more to the green-eyed boy than she originally believed.
It almost hurt her to find out that he probably didn't trust her enough to share his secrets with her.
Instead of that through depressing her or angering her like it would have before they'd gone on the mission to Nami, she found herself determined to earn Haruo's (and Naruto's) trust. She'd meant it when she'd said she wanted to be their friends after Haruo had stepped in front of her to protect her from Sasuke's anger. Sakura just wasn't certain of how to go about earning the two boys' trust though.
Maybe I should ask them if I could spend time with them during our days off now that we're back in the village, Sakura silently mused as she caught sight of their masked escort slapping his hand over mask in response to Kakashi's description of the shield that Haruo had created to protect Tazuna from Zabuza's blade out of the corner of her eye.
Strange, that. Then again, creating that shield had exhausted Haruo the first time. Maybe the man was just worried about Haruo's health? Or had Haruo's use of that jutsu been forbidden outside of training? Could that be what Haruo had been talking about when he'd mentioned he'd done something he wasn't supposed to?
Sakura mulled the possibility over in her mind for a few minutes before she turned her thoughts to her ruined friendship with Ino and what she was going to have to do to fix it. She supposed she should start with an apology. Though, she was not looking forward to Ino's reaction to said apology. Or worse, her reaction to Sakura's pending announcement that she was no longer interested in Sasuke. Sakura was half certain that Ino would refuse to be her friend again the moment she told the blonde about Sasuke's cruel side.
The young kunoichi let out a soft sigh of resignation as she recalled the mess she'd made of her life with her decision to become one of Sasuke's many fan-girls shortly after she'd befriended Ino.
May 17, 1990, 7:28 PM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Elemental Nations
Shikaku frowned slightly as he listened to Kakashi droning on and on about the mission he and his Genin team had just completed. It didn't escape his notice that the younger Jounin had intentionally left out quite a few details during the course of his report. He just didn't know the motivation behind the omissions. He suspected that Kakashi's reasons for withholding those details had something to do with the glaring holes on Haruo's file but he had no proof.
The Nara Clan Head silently cursed the fact that he'd allowed the issue with the holes in Shikamaru's education and training at the Academy to distract him from the mystery surrounding the young Genin during the past few months. He then returned his attention to Kakashi as the younger man finally wrapped up his truncated report.
"We remained in Nami until the bridge was completed as per the parameters of the original mission. After the completion of the bridge on the twelfth, we remained Nami an extra day to give Sasuke a chance to get used to being on his feet again before we left on the morning of the fourteenth and took our time coming back in order to avoid taxing Sasuke's and Haku's injuries."
"I see," the Sandaime murmured thoughtfully as he stroked his goatee. "Do you have an estimate of how many of Gato's ragtag army escaped capture?"
"I would say no more than a dozen at most since there weren't that many seaworthy boats that they could have used to leave the island and I kept close watch on the bridge right up until we left in order to prevent them from using it to disappear into Hi no Kuni the moment it was finished."
The Sandaime hummed a wordless acknowledgement before he instructed, "Inoichi, why don't you take Haruno-chan into the back office and start her assessment. I'll send the other two to you once their punishment for inappropriate behavior on a mission has been decided upon." The Hokage then fished the scrolls that Kakashi had given him earlier out of his desk as he added, "Shikaku, I'd like you to personally deliver these to the appropriate people and to supervise the legal preparations for our takeover of Gato Corporation."
"Of course, Hokage-sama," Shikaku replied without revealing his disappointment at being kicked out of the meeting as he collected the handful of scrolls.
The moment he stepped outside of the office, he felt a barrier being raised in the room behind him and the lazy Nara just knew that he had just missed a golden opportunity to have all of his questions answered. Letting out a soft sigh, Shikaku made his way out of the tower and headed for the T and I Building so he could deliver the scrolls containing the bodies of the dead that Kakashi had brought back with them to Ibiki for processing. He would find his target in his office and Shikaku almost smirked when he noticed the scowl on the other man's face.
"Bored already, Ibiki? I thought for sure you'd be busy enjoying the present that Kakashi brought back from Nami for you."
"No, ANBU claimed that little gift."
"I guess that means you'll have to make do with the consolation prize," Shikaku quipped as he tossed the two black bordered scrolls he was carrying at Ibiki.
"Who did you bring me?"
"Not sure but I believe most of them will be civilian criminals with outstanding bounties and possibly an occasional rogue samurai or failed Shinobi Academy Student thrown in."
"Sugoi," Ibiki sarcastically replied as he dropped both scrolls into his desk drawer. "Was that the only thing you brought me or did you have something else for me?"
"That was it; the rest is all paperwork, hard cash, and fancy junk that needs to be sorted."
"Have fun with that."
"Not my job," Shikaku countered with a snort as he made his way to the door. "I'm just playing delivery boy."
Shikaku left Ibiki's office to the sound of the other man's laughter. He then put the other man's amusement out of his mind as he made his way one floor higher in the T and I Building to where Konoha's Intelligence Department was located. He didn't stay there long as all he needed to do was drop off the scrolls that held Gato's documents and business files and inform them that their report was to be sent to his desk as soon as they finished combing through everything.
His next stop was then Konoha's Treasury where the scrolls holding the property and business deeds, Gato's will, and the scrolls holding both the cash and the material wealth were passed over to the team of accountants responsible for the village's finances. His last stop was the law firm that handled Konoha's legal affairs in order to start the process that would finalize Konoha's claim to Gato's former business empire.
Once the lawyers had released Shikaku from their grip, he allowed his thoughts to return to the mystery surrounding Haruo as he headed home. It was as he was passing through the torii gate that marked the entrance to the Nara Estate that he finally recalled the fact that Shikamaru had never gotten around to giving him a report on his impressions of Naruto and Haruo a few months back. The subject of the Academy's failures had taken precedence at the time. He'd have to remedy that as soon as he could track down his son.
"You missed supper, again," Yoshino irritably stated the moment he set foot in the house and it took all of Shikaku's willpower not to flinch at the sight of the rolling pin tucked into his wife's folded arms.
"The Sandaime had me running around handling a few urgent errands of a sensitive nature in the wake of Team Seven's recent return from a C Rank turned A Rank escort mission," Shikaku apologetically offered with a weary shrug of his shoulders. "I hadn't expected to be kept out as late as I was or I would've sent word to let you know."
"Team Seven…? Isn't that Naruto and Haruo's team?" Shikamaru inquired as he stuck his head out of the kitchen.
"Yes, it is."
"Haruo's team?" Yoshino repeated in a worried tone and Shikaku glanced sideways at his wife in time to see a troubled expression crossing her face. "You said their mission had been upgraded from a C Rank to an A Rank, ne?"
"Yes."
"Are they alright?"
"They made it back in one piece; though there were injuries incurred during the course of the mission," Shikaku readily informed his wife.
"Yokatta," Yoshino breathed in relief before she spun on her heel and headed back to the kitchen. "Shikamaru, you are to invite Haruo-kun and his friend over to supper on Sunday; it's been months since the last time they were here and someone has to make certain those two boys are taking care of themselves. That means that you're going to need to clean up that room of yours before the weekend."
"Mendoukusei," Shikamaru complained as his shoulders slumped in response to being told to clean his room.
"Shikamaru, when your mother's finished with you, come see me; there's something we need to discuss," Shikaku instructed before he disappeared into his office before his wife could give him a list of chores to complete in preparation for their weekend guests.
"Hai, tousan," Shikamaru unenthusiastically muttered to Shikaku's back as he reluctantly returned to the kitchen where he'd probably been washing dishes prior to Shikaku's return.
While he waited for his son to join him, Shikaku set up the Shogi board and mentally reviewed the various questions he intended to ask his son that night. And he had more than just a few; a number of them generated by Team Seven's recent mission to Nami. Half an hour later, Shikamaru entered the office carrying a plate of rewarmed leftovers that he handed over to Shikaku before he sat down at the Shogi board. Shikaku let his son plot out his first move while he took a moment to eat before the food got cold again.
"How's your training coming along?" Shikaku inquired a few minutes later as he set his empty plate aside before he took his seat across the Shogi board from his son.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled as he made his first move. "Will you tell me why Team Seven's mission was bumped up in rank from a C to an A?"
"Is it the training itself that's troublesome or the fact that you are required to actually train that's troublesome?"
"Both. And Ino has been extra bossy for the last month because she's been grumpy over missing her 'Sasuke Time'. Are you going to answer my question or are you ignoring it because you can't answer?"
Shikaku rolled his eyes in response to his son's one-track mind before he answered, "The client lied about a few aspects of the mission." He then took the time to counter his son's most recent move. "Are you struggling with any part of your training?"
"Not really; it's just tedious and tiresome."
"Remind me to show you a couple of exercises designed to increase your stamina."
"I wasn't looking for more work when I came in here, you know."
"That doesn't change the fact that your stamina is below average for your age."
"Whatever," Shikamaru grumbled as he made his next move.
Instead of bothering to address his son's petulant response to being offered additional training, Shikaku moved again before he changed the subject as he instructed, "Describe for me your very first meeting with Haruo."
May 17, 1990, 7:36 PM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni
Elemental Nations
Haruo watched the back of Shikamaru's father disappear through the office door before he reluctantly returned his gaze to the Hokage in order to avoid looking at his father. He couldn't quite stop a shiver from dancing up his spine when he felt Kasai activate a temporary privacy barrier. The nine year old cast another longing glance towards the exit before he let out a soft sigh and leaned against Naruto.
"You're not really going to punish us, are you, jijii?" Naruto demanded as he shifted his footing to compensate for Haruo's sudden weight.
"Yes, I am, Naruto," the Sandaime sternly countered. "The unprofessional behavior that you demonstrated on your mission could have cost us future business if your client had taken offense to the two of you constantly bickering with your teammate."
"That's not fair! We didn't start any of the fights!"
"It doesn't matter who started the fights; it was still wrong of you to behave so immaturely while on a mission and all three of you will be punished accordingly."
"Chikushou," Naruto muttered mutinously under his breath before he asked, "What is our punishment going to be?"
"To start, I will be restricting Team Seven to D Ranked missions until such time as your sensei deems that the four of you are capable of maintaining an appropriate level of professionalism in front of your clients. I'm also going to dock your pay a full rank for the mission to Nami. That's on top of whatever punishments your sensei deems necessary to impress upon you the need to behave appropriately while on a mission."
"Ah, man; that sucks."
"Be thankful that I'm not suspending the three of you from active duty for a month," the Sandaime retorted in response to Naruto's verbal complaint and both boys winced in response to the casual threat of having their hitai-ate temporarily confiscated. "Any other complaints? No? Good. Moving on, the next point that needs to be addressed is what happened during the confrontation on the bridge. Kakashi, if you would be so kind as to fill us in on the details that you omitted from your original report."
"There were only a small handful of omissions that I made due to Sakura and Shikaku's presence," Kakashi stated and Haruo turned his head so that he could watch his father out of the corner of his eye. "First, Haruo pulled on both his Mokuton and his mahou after Naruto had been placed in a death-like state. His Mokuton manifested in the form of a dozen living beams of wood that grew from his chest and back. He was able to wield all twelve beams like an extension of his body; using them to pummel his opponent as well as tie up both prisoners."
"His mahou, on the other hand, created flames that were hot enough to set fire to the Hyouton user's ice in addition to melting through concrete and steel. He also did a strange little transportation trick that allowed him to instantaneously transport himself from point A to point B in a matter of seconds. The technique reminded me of sensei's Hiraishin; only instead of producing a flash of yellow light upon arrival, it produced a loud crack when he disappeared and another when he reappeared in a new location."
"The next omission had to deal with Naruto's seal. I'm not certain if it was a result of the senbon that had embedded themselves into his stomach and coils or if it was a result of the death-like state he'd been placed into but upon regaining consciousness, Naruto drew on the Kyuubi's chakra in his anger. He regained control of the chakra by the time he'd reached Gato and as soon as the Kyuubi's chakra had dissipated, he pulled on his Uzumaki heritage and produced the chakra chains once again."
"The final omission has to do with Sasuke and the fact that he awakened his Sharingan. The only reason why I didn't mention that earlier was due to the fact that Sasuke has not spoken to me about the awakening of his Sharingan and has in fact attempted to hide his Sharingan from me. I easily recognized the changes to the chakra pathways around his eyes and the boost the awakening gave his reserves though. I'm also concerned that he'll attempt to use his new eyes to copy the techniques that Naruto and Haruo know due to the jealousy he harbors towards both boys."
"Were there any witnesses to those three events?" Kasai gruffly demanded and Haruo cringed as he felt the weight of the ANBU Commander's stare fall on him.
"Aa, Zabuza and Haku both witnessed Haruo's little melt-down; Zabuza mistakenly identified Haruo as a bastard of the Senju Clan due to what he saw. He didn't comment on Haruo's mahou at any point though; not even to comment on his ability to teleport – so I doubt he understood what it was he'd been seeing at the time. Zabuza, Gato, and Gato's army of thugs witnessed Naruto unleashing the Kyuubi's chakra and using his Uzumaki Heritage but Haku was unconscious at that point. And there were only eight potential witnesses to Sasuke's awakening; the bridge builder's daughter and grandson, and six of Gato's thugs."
"What about Tazuna-san? Was he not on the bridge during the confrontation?" the Sandaime inquired with a slight frown as he fiddled with his pipe.
"Yes, he was on the bridge; however, he did not witness any portion of the fight as he'd been secured in a solid dome of earth that Haruo had hardened into steel through the earth-pressing exercise."
"That's something, I suppose."
"Small comfort when one takes into account the fact that Gato's army of thugs numbered well into the hundreds," Kasai dryly pointed out. "Gato had to have had at least one of his thugs monitoring the situation on the bridge simply because of the timing of his arrival; so, it's safe to assume that far more people are aware of what happened during the fight on the bridge. A fact that defeats all of our efforts to keep both brats' abilities under wraps."
"That's a possibility," Kakashi agreed slowly. "However, I believe that Haruo's feats on the bridge were overlooked by Naruto's demonstration. The majority of rumors filtering through the village in the wake of the fight on the bridge were about Gato's death and the part Naruto played in the man's heart giving out. There hadn't been a single whisper about Haruo or his Mokuton; not even amongst the mercs that I rounded up."
"That doesn't change the fact that we can expect the gaki's heritage and Kekkei Genkai to become public knowledge sooner rather than later," Kasai grumpily countered. "It would only take a single person blabbing about what they saw into the wrong ear; and you left at least two such persons alive!"
"Why did you leave Zabuza and his accomplice alive?" the Sandaime inquired as he leaned back in his chair and placed the stem of his pipe in his mouth. The question left Haruo's stomach all in knots because there had been several long minutes where he hadn't wanted to leave Haku alive and he had nearly beaten the teen to death with his Mokuton. "It would've been far less of a hassle to permanently silence them."
"Originally, it was to keep Haruo's anger focused on an appropriate target rather than dealing with the potential risk that he might bring the bridge down around our ears in his grief over Naruto's temporary death. After Gato died, there just didn't seem any point in killing the two of them since we'd already captured them and I didn't dare release them on the off-chance that they might seek revenge once they had recovered from their injuries."
"Hn," the Hokage grunted as he shifted his gaze from Kakashi to Naruto before it settled on Haruo. "Naruto; why don't you go see if Inoichi is finished viewing your teammate's memories?"
"Does that mean that you're finished with us, jijii?" Naruto asked as he glanced towards the door that Inoichi had taken Sakura through before he returned his gaze to the Hokage.
"Almost, there are a few things left that need to be addressed before I let you both go though. The two of you will also need to see Inoichi before you are dismissed and there's no reason for you to stand around when we question Haruo in regards to his actions when it would be more efficient for you to see Inoichi while we finish up with Haruo."
"Oh," Naruto murmured in reply as he reluctantly stepped away from Haruo.
Haruo stumbled as soon as Naruto moved away from him due to the way he'd been leaning up against his friend. As he watched the blond walk away, his heart seized in his chest when he realized that Naruto was being sent out of the room. Breathing became rather difficult as Haruo began to panic over the mere idea of allowing Naruto out of his sight. The moment Naruto placed his hand on the door handle, Haruo took a single step towards his friend and found himself being squeezed on all sides and pulled through a straw again.
The feeling stopped a heartbeat later as he appeared practically right on top of Naruto with a loud crack. He then threw his arms around Naruto's waist and tackled him to the ground as he begged, "Don't leave me!"
Naruto yelped in surprise and groaned out a pained, "Itai!" when his elbow hit the ground but otherwise made no attempt to pry Haruo off of him.
"I thought we had agreed that you would wean the gaki off of his dependency, Kakashi," Kasai growled in irritation as soon as the adults got over their surprise over the way Haruo had just teleported across the room without any warning.
"I've been working on it since December but Naruto's temporary death triggered a bit of a set back and Haruo has refused to let Naruto out of his sight since he regained consciousness. I'd thought his clinginess had dropped back down to manageable levels after I'd removed the chakra disruption seal I'd placed on him to keep him from drawing on his chakra while he recovering from his second bout of extreme chakra exhaustion in such a short time period but apparently I was wrong on that account."
"I thought the summoning clans warned you not to meddle with his chakra network," the Sandaime commented with a frown.
"They only told me to never fully suppress his chakra or bind any of his abilities," Kakashi corrected. "After Haruo had exhausted himself in his little temper tantrum, I felt it best to make certain that he couldn't draw on his chakra in the event that he woke up disoriented lest he do himself further damage. The seal didn't appear to cause him any harm or distress. It wasn't until after I removed the seal that I learned it had potentially interfered with his ability to sense chakra but that could have also been a product of the exhaustion he'd been experiencing at the time."
"You can look into that another time; for now, I'm more interested in wrapping up this mission debriefing so that I can call it a day before my grandson decides to prank me in retaliation for spending all evening in the office yet again."
Haruo soon found himself back in the middle of the room with Naruto and the two of them would be grilled on their brief fight against Zabuza and their fight against Haku. The two Genin would then be sent to Inoichi where Naruto would be questioned a second time before Haruo's memories of the mission were reviewed by the Mind Walker. Once they were finished, Kakashi escorted the two of them back to their apartment while his father went to see if Tokage was free to give the two friends a medical exam that evening.
Haruo wasn't really looking forward to his father's return since he knew his father was angry with him; it was kind of hard to miss the stiffness in Kuma's posture or the fact that the masked shinobi hadn't said a single word during the entire debriefing. He was also not looking forward to the various lectures he knew he was going to be given. Nor was he in any hurry to find out what additional punishments Kakashi and Kuma would assign to them for fighting with Sasuke in the middle of a mission.
The young Trueborn let out a gusty sigh as the trio reached the apartment building where he and Naruto lived; it was going to be a long night.
Translations: English to Japanese
Aa – yes
Chigau – can be used to mean wrong, no, or to differ
Chikushou – damn/damn it
Gaki – brat
Itai – ouch
Mendoukusei – how troublesome, what a drag, or this sucks
Sugoi – wonderful/wow/awesome or dreadful/terrible (depending on how it is said)
Yokatta – an expression of relief, usually translates as 'I'm so glad' or 'thank goodness!'
AN: Some of this chapter might still feel a bit rushed since I've only edited it once or twice and it's not as polished as I'd prefer but it could still be worse. I'm also not one hundred percent happy with the last section but it is far better than what I'd originally had there.
Hm… what else, oh, I know. Haruo's dependency has been acknowledged again here but it'll be addressed in more detail in the next arc. The same is true for some of the little oddities that were cropping up around Haruo's chakra sensory, his Mokuton limits, and his magic. You can also expect to see Tenzou's reaction to Haruo's tantrum and bouts of chakra exhaustion, the reunion between Haruo, Sirius, & Remus, and a few other things. ~ Jenn
04-15-17: More minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.
