Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 28: Troubled kunoichi

by Chronodt

Tsunade drank again, just a little tipsy from the few little sake bottles before her. The bar she and Shizune were currently in was rather near the hospital, since the medic wanted to get plastered a bit after a day of hard work. And she still needed a few more bottles to gather up the courage to ask her companion the favor the Hokage wanted from her. Shizune, before becoming a medic-nin had been trained as an infiltrator, actually she was considered a prodigy in the field, but...

She had too many bad memories of that period, in particular the incident who forced her to quit and resume her studies as medic ninja. Having seen civilian and children tortured, raped and killed while she could do nothing to help to maintain her cover had killed her willingness to perform such missions. Luckily, she was as gifted as a medic so her change of career wasn't questioned by the higher-up. In a war-torn era, a trained medic specialist was worth more than a traumatized infiltrator, even if gifted.

Resolving to speak to Shizune the next day, Tsunade drank just a bit more...


Naruto walked to the door, where someone just knocked a few instants ago. Opening it, he saw Sakura, a little distressed about something, and apparently she didn't even know where to start.

"Come in, Sakura-chan." he said, ordering the couple clones who were marking the map to free the table (and naturally hide everything that shouldn't be there)

"Tea?" one of the clones offered. Naruto wasn't a tea person, but his mother insisted that he kept at least some of it around for guests.

"No, thank you, Naruto. I... I don't even know why I came here to begin with..."

Naruto's clone nodded and dispersed, along all the others in the room, leaving just the original with Sakura.

"Could it be related to the rumor that is going around about you, Ino and the fan club?" asked Naruto, guessing where the problem was.

"So you have heard about it, too." she said. "It should have been a way to keep Anko away from Sasuke-kun, but all the girls got together against us! And what's worse Sasuke-kun today actually sat with her in a restaurant! What can I do, Naruto?"

Naruto actually felt a little irritated. If he still harbored that crush for Sakura-chan this 'confession' about her jealousy would have either ripped his heart apart or have him trying (unsuccessfully) to 'console' Sakura offering himself as an alternative. The latter would probably have led to a painful concussion. Maybe it was because he let go of her that Sakura-chan now felt safe confiding with him. And Sakura-chan didn't even realize Sasuke's true objective with the Scary Snake Lady.

He had no true experience in counseling people, even less girls. Hinata-chan had been a complete accident, what could he do?

-What do I say, mom?-

-I think you'd better tell her what Sasuke is really doing, it will lighten her load, at least a little. She will probably blame herself for being stupid for recreating the fan club, but it will be a useful lesson, in the end.-

"Sakura-chan, do you even know what Sasuke wants from her?" asked Naruto.

Sakura nodded. Naruto almost laughed out loud. "So, she thinks she knows, eh?"

"Then why are you stopping him from trying to become her apprentice? It's not like he is 'romantically' interested in her, or the other way around, after all..." he said, as if he didn't know Sakura-chan completely misunderstood both of their motives. And her reaction was really comical, her eyes bulged out, completely shocked.

"A-are you sure? How can it be? He went to her and was completely embarrassed!" asked an incredulous Sakura.

"Anko is a special jonin, Sakura. She knows Sasuke's worst defect, and that is his overwhelming ego and arrogance. After what I heard of his attempts to impress her, I say that the one thing she really wanted him to do was to ask her nicely, something Sasuke would find very hard to do. I'm not surprised it took him so long to actually sit down and do it. The scene you just saw today, was Sasuke swallowing his pride and … well, beg is a strong word for what he actually did, but he asked her to become her student, and she accepted. That's all there was to it."

Sakura remained open-mouthed for a while, then she asked: "How do you know about all this?" her tone implied that she still didn't believe what he told her fully.

"Ever since I heard a few nasty rumors about how I 'cheated' in my victory against Neiji, I discreetly kept my ear to the ground in the gossip grapevine. From what I heard, Sasuke has tried for a few weeks to gain her favor. He tried ambushes and outright attacks to show her his ninja abilities, but she refused every time. Every ninja and most adult civilians understood almost immediately what Sasuke was trying to do, but you and your fan club are the first and probably only ones to even hint a romantic attachment between the two of them. Anko simply isn't interested in boys our age and Sasuke is only interested in her strength and what she can teach him."

Sakura looked like she just swallowed Gamakichi while he was struggling.

"Is that the problem? The fact that your friends realized that Sasuke wasn't interested in her and gave up the observation?"

Sakura shook her head, letting out a few tears. "No. I... We..."

Sakura didn't know how to continue. Naruto's conclusions made too much sense, and she couldn't believe she jumped to that conclusion without even considering the facts. Her love almost literally blinded her to what was transpiring before her eyes, and completely overreacted! And now she was stuck in a mess of her own making!

She had to talk to Ino, as soon as possible.

"T-thank you, Naruto. I must go to Ino, but you have been a great help." and she hurried away, out of the door without even waiting for his reply.
"It... was nothing, Sakura-chan..." he said to her empty seat.

Girls were truly weird.


The Hyuga residence was quiet during the night, but even so, guards from the branch family were outside, patrolling the interior of the complex. Inside the main family mansion, three men, aged ex-shinobi, contemplated a few photos and a report.
"An a-rank shinobi? How could he survive?" murmured the first, examining Kabuto's picture, extracted from the Bingo Book, as the most recent in their possession.

"Apparently Kabuto was in a hurry to escape, Jiraya was on his trail and had a comatose Tsunade to take away. Not ideal conditions to fight. However, the fact that he forced such an opponent to stand and fight him until he had to flee was incredible. Not that we truly wanted his death, but if he did die I wouldn't have lamented his departure."

The third nodded. "He is about to leave for a few years as the apprentice of the Toad Hermit, but my sources weren't able to determine when. It's likely that it will happen soon, however. Probably no later than the Festival, but after his traditional chunin missions. Our attempt to discredit him weren't as successful as we hoped and his status as Jiraya's apprentice is starting to circulate. It won't be possible to do a further public opinion attack of that level. We have to either step it up and risk exposure, or change our approach."

"We cannot risk his death in Konoha." Stated the second. "We have no knowledge of the Fourth's seal to risk it. If he feels betrayed while he is dying we have no certainties that he won't be able to free the Kyubi in retaliation. The only thing we can do is trying to frame him and get him exiled."

The first frowned. "Isn't that a bit too much just for that level of humiliation? All of us know that the only reason he beat the Kaiten was because of that summon. All his other tactics were already documented in our histories, and if Neiji had been allowed to consult them, the boy wouldn't have lost that badly."

The third frowned. "We won't allow branch members access to our libraries, even if they are gifted. I thought this point was clear already!"

The second nodded, and the first, too, reluctantly agreed.

After a silent minute, the first spoke up again: "We cannot frame him before the Hokage, that would be surely excessive, but we can frame him to the public. He has been quite silent recently in his pranking ways, hasn't he?"

The other two nodded.

"We will organize an outrageous prank the very day of the Festival, a prank that will inflame the fury of the villagers against its perpetrator. In his former style, so that no one would believe his innocence when he will declare himself as such."

"Yes, it is a fitting punishment." declared the third.

"I concur." said the second, too.

"So be it." said the first, standing up and leaving the room in silence, followed by the other two.


Ino yawned, sitting in her bed. Sakura, before her, was chatting animately about all her fears and insecurities, and what was even more shocking, about Naruto's revelations about Sasuke's behavior. Even if it was rather late, she could not stop thinking about how stupid they have been in both analyzing the situation and in employing the right tool to reach their objectives.

In summary, they failed as kunoichi, blinded by their crushes on the boy.

This would not do.

They spent all the night analyzing facts, observations and speculations, discarding false conjectures and using facts to create various scenario, but Naruto's hypothesis held true, and was, in fact, the most probable thing that truly happened, if they only did this beforehand!

"So, Sasuke-kun managed to get himself an apprenticeship, in the end." said Ino, bleary-eyed and tired, as she looked at the lightening pre-dawn morning sky.

"I'm pretty sure Naruto did, too, with Jiraya-sama." said Sakura.

"You know, right, that this will mean that for a few years they will be mostly training singularly, until their masters deem them ready?"

"Should I get an apprenticeship, too?" asked Sakura, worried. "I had some thought about getting medical training. It wouldn't be an apprenticeship, but it would be a perfect way of using my strengths."

"Why not both? You can ask for an internship/apprenticeship with a medic-nin. Heck, if your chakra control is as good as you say it is, you may even nail Tsunade-sama herself!" she said, jokingly. Sakura didn't seem to completely discount that possibility, but then she shook her head. "I don't know if I would ever have the courage to present myself to her and ask to be her apprentice. I'm not Naruto, you know!" she said with a smile.

"Oh, yes, mister 'I will be Hokage' and 'I'm awesome' would have no trouble going there and bugging her until she caved." she said with a smile. "Maybe it's the way he convinced her to return, he annoyed her until she agreed, just to keep him quiet!"

Sakura and Ino laughed, silently to not disturb Ino's sleeping family, but both of them could easily picture the scene Ino just described.

Sakura looked out again. She really missed her friendship with Ino. Why had she broken it just for a boy? Well, maybe not 'just' a boy, but for someone who doesn't even look at her (or Ino, or any other girl for that matter) with interest? It was clear from her tentative medical studies that boys developed interest in girls later than the girls themselves were interested in boys, and Sasuke was probably still in his 'girls are icky' phase. At least she hoped it was so.

"Well, it's time to 'wake up', I guess." said Ino, with a grimace. "You up for breakfast?"

Sakura nodded, "Sure!"


Team 7's morning assembly went with a strange difference. Sasuke was clearly satisfied, even in a good mood, while Sakura was still a bit depressed, even if not as much as when she was at Naruto's apartment. Naruto even managed to get Kakashi sensei to instruct them a bit more in subterfuge battle tactics, otherwise known as making ambushes, that, even if it was not the entering and sneaking in instruction that he needed, it was close enough to surveillance that he could easily adapt those teachings to keep under control a building, once he identified the correct one. After another shift at the Archives he went looking for the last of his ninja friends, team 10 Unfortunately he wasn't able to locate them. Apparently they finished their training much earlier than him and each of them already went home. A pity, that.

In the end, he simply shrugged and left to training ground 17, where he would receive Tenten's glaive lessons.


Orochimaru entered the laboratory, seeing Kabuto working at his desk. He was actually looking in a big medical volume on degenerative diseases and comparing charts and graphs with what he had pinned on the wall.

"Orochimaru-sama, I have not very good news, I'm sorry to say it. The White Chakra amount on that blood sample was so small that it barely gave him 2 weeks more to live, and that because we were lucky. I have reduced the origin from millions to less than a dozen thousands genetic markers that possibly caused his disease, but it's not enough. I'm afraid that we cannot afford to select the perfect mother for your future body, Orochimaru-sama. We only have time to do a carpet insemination and cull out the diseased children once they have been born, regardless of their strength potential."

Orochimaru sneered, but he knew this solution was preferable to the oblivion of Kimimaro's bloodline.

"Do it. And send the Sound Four to get me Sasuke-kun, as we planned last month. If I cannot use the Kaguya, at least I will have the sharingan for my next body."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."


Tsunade looked at Shizune, and remembered her half-drunk resolve to tell her apprentice of the Hokage's request today. She was almost ready to procrastinate again, but she decided that she would not fail sensei again.

"Shizune, I have to talk to you, here, in private." she said to her apprentice, while they were decorating Tsunade's new office.

Shizune closed the door, and waited for her mentor to start. It looked as if she was trying to force herself to speak.

"I received a request, from the Hokage, a request for you, specifically." she started. "Naruto needs... a specialized instructor in a field you were very proficient in..."

Shizune blanched.

"Yes, the Hokage wants you to train Naruto as an infiltrator. And before you protest, I'll tell you that he created an alternate identity as a kunoichi that is currently living in the village, probably even right now, using shadow clones and Henge..."

"T-Tsunade-sama.... I..." Shizune gulped, and then she stopped. She thought for a moment how Tsunade-sama was able to get past her phobia thanks to Naruto-kun. Could they help each other? And it wasn't as if she was asked to do the job herself, or even a true girl, for that matter. Not that she would wish some of the things she saw in that branch of ninja assignment to anyone, but...

"Shizune, I know that it must be h-"

"I accept, Tsunade-sama!"

"-ard, but.... uh?"

Tsunade was surprised, she didn't expect that Shizune would accept immediately, and for a moment she was off-balance.

"Yes, I accept, Tsunade-sama. It will be hard, but as long as I only have to teach I can do it." and under her voice, barely audible, she added: "And maybe I can put all of that horrible experience behind me, once I'm done."

"Thank you, Shizune. I will inform the Hokage."


A Naruto's clone yelled in joy, in the woods beside Konoha, congratulated by the other ones present for completing their first successful Life Jutsu. It took him 10 minutes to do it, way more than what was tolerable to get the desired results, but it was a perfect construct. Their hunting success improved to the point that they did not need more than a couple traps to keep enough birds around. Once they could successfully revive a bird, he would only practice once on each of them. He didn't have the heart to kill, revive, kill and then revive again the same bird and he was tired of eating them. He actually wanted a bit of ramen, he hadn't yet had a single cup since he left the village!

He resumed his training, realizing the first success was right around the third week mark just like he guessed. Now he had to reliably replicate the feat, hasten it significantly, and he was finally done with this jutsu. Hopefully he would never need to use it, but it was better to be prepared for any eventuality.

Taking hold of another bird, the clone proceeded to kill it and try to perfectly craft the Life construct again.


Akiko groaned, burying her head in another math book. She was right, math even just below the required level was horrible, a torture device created by enemy nin to frustrate her. She really had to rest her brain from that mental workout, while her clones took notes about 9 of the 10 buildings. One had already been discarded, because it was used by the Equipment & Supply division, which took care to supply civilian police in the surrounding villages and guardhouses scattered in the Land of Fire.

Catching a sudden thought, looking at the sunlight entering from a window, she absentmindedly examined a few grain of dust dancing in the air, thinking back to the sand girl, Temari and her battle fan. Back then she dismissed the use of a battle fan because it would be hard to find the relative techniques in Konoha, but it would be a possible weapon of choice for Akiko. Naruto had his Summoning Glaive, and her readings told her their wind natured chakra could sharpen bladed weapons immensely. However she could not use it, unless it was an emergency, and because of it she needed a personal style, different from Naruto if she was ever sent in a mission or her cover would never hold. As a wind user and a kunoichi, a fan, specially just a hand-held one, would be completely inconspicuous in the hands of a traditionally dressed girl, with a kimono and everything and could be used to power wind jutsu. Good quality kimonos were rather expensive, but Naruto's recent winnings would allow her to buy a few mid-high quality ones. She would naturally wait to see whatever her infiltration instructor wanted her to wear, though, before buying things. And tomorrow Naruto will be assigned his first patrol mission, and that would mean again a manpower and chakra shortage, leaving her to study as the only possible pastime. Life just wasn't fair sometimes...


Anko looked at Sasuke, sharpening a few kunai before the gate to training area 44, naturally her favorite Forest of Death.

"Alright, brat. I've already seen what you can do due to those silly ambushes, so I'm going right to the juicy part. You are going in there, and I'll give you five minutes before I come for you. You are allowed any trick you can imagine, but you must reach the Tower whole and before sundown. Since this is our first time, I will just use kunai." she showed him her just sharpened kunai with a mad glint in her eyes and started caressing it like it was her baby. "Oh, and please don't die, I don't want to fill anymore training death reports, they are annoying..." she said with a purr.

Sasuke contemplated his sanity when he decided to make her his teacher, but if she made him stronger than his brother, it would be worth every inconvenience or madness.

"Ok, brat, remember that once the sun is completely down, the exercise is over. If you don't reach the tower, you'll run 3 times around the whole forest before going to bed, though."

Sasuke groaned; he remembered the Forest of Death being somewhat large and having to run around it it would mean a very long trek. He hoped he had time to sleep tonight.

"Ok, brat, you can go." she said, suddenly.

Sasuke didn't wait a second and launched himself in the forest, trying to go for speed. None of his traps ever got her, so he didn't bother to lay too many of them, just the few needed to force her to pay attention to her surroundings and hopefully delay her. It was at times like these that he envied Naruto's chakra capacity because if he had it he could have left a couple shadow clones to lay traps in his trail. He didn't know any other clone jutsu except the useless academy one and he resolved to ask Kakashi sensei for one, hopefully a clone type smart enough to do the job and without the horrific drain of the Shadow ones. Considering the terrain, an Earth Clone should be perfect, even if he had no affinity for earth jutsu. He could even pass it off as a jutsu for Sakura and copy it for himself at the same time. Dodging a kunai, he realized that, unfortunately, Anko already caught up with him. And he barely ran halfway to the tower! Gritting his teeth, he prepared himself to resist her attacks while still advancing to his objective...