Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it belongs to its writers, animators, and producers. I gain nothing but writing and editing experience from writing this.
Summary: After waking up from a horrible dream Sakura's life takes a turn for the...well something? She only hopes it will be good and will end better than her dream suggests her life will. The secret family trade is hers to learn, and in the process she will become a stronger kunoichi. Sometimes all it takes is a little wake up call.
A/N: So I've time-lined up through the first test of I.C.E., though I'm still trying to figure out some of the logistics. At the moment, there are two directions this fic could take in—given how I write—twenty chapters. But I'm saying all of this to show that I have thought ahead and do have an idea of where I'm going with all of this, even if all the pieces aren't coming together at the moment. Thank you to all those who have reviewed, or put this on alert or favorite ~ with love, depressedchildren Edited 5/12/2016
Chapter 29: Training Away part 1
Week Four
Sasuke lay boneless in his bed after a day of training with his team and a five hour shift at the teahouse. It had been more brutal than he thought it would be, especially after yesterday. The afternoon with Anko in the Forest of Death on their day off and then a shift at the Teahouse had left him exhausted: emotionally, mentally, and chakra-wise. So he had decided to sleep in a few hours since they were just expected to do proactive training because their sensei was a lazy ass.
Of course, that hadn't ended so well for him, and was probably part of the reason why today's training had been so brutal.
Sasuke knew it was sunrise already, he could hear the morning birds and bugs making a ruckus outside. He had rolled over to get more comfortable and hopefully block out the sounds. He was just starting to drift off again, but the dream he was having was strange. In his dream the dobe was yelling at the Cyclops to put him down. Then everything was silent, even the annoying creatures outside were silent, and Sasuke had a foreboding feeling that maybe he wasn't dreaming.
When he was yanked out of his warm bed, his eyes shot open, but all he could see was a green flak jacket with a red swirl on it, and the dobe in button up pajamas holding onto a frog patterned sleeping cap—or maybe those were toads. The dobe was not pleased with the situation and was pouting.
"Now that I've collect my wayward students, let's go meet up with your teammate," the Cyclops' voice was strained and annoyed, and Sasuke paled along with the dobe—he had a flashback to their second week of training and the hell they had been subjected to.
Before he could think of trying to escape from his position on the Cyclops' shoulder, the world was blurring into one point and he couldn't breathe until everything stilled and they were thrown to the ground of training ground 7. He was looking up at the angry Cyclops now, and the bookworm was behind him but looked startled at their sudden appearance. She didn't say anything, but looked worriedly at the Cyclops' back.
He heard the dobe audibly gulp as their sensei fixed them with his one-eyed glare, "Your teammate came to practice on time, but you two decided to sleep in. Care to explain?" the Cyclops asked in an even tone as he opened his body up to have all of Team 7 in his view.
"Ah…I forgot?" Naruto lied sheepishly. Even after having to fend off those monstrous animals for failing to lie, the dobe could not lie, literally, to save his life.
"You were just going to have us train by ourselves until you showed up who knows when," Sasuke spat out as he stood up. The dobe's sorry excuse didn't work, so he would just tell the lazy man the truth.
The Cyclops' eye narrowed further, and he just stared at Sasuke for a minute. It was unnerving but he shook away the unease and met the stare head on. The Jounin then made a curt motion that suggested he wanted the bookworm to move in next to her teammates.
Once they were all sitting together in front of the angry Jounin, the Cyclops sighed and closed his eye as he dropped his head. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and Sasuke watched him warily. Did this mean he wasn't angry at them anymore? Sasuke's body was tensed in anticipation of something happening—maybe the Cyclops would yell at them to do a hundred laps around the village again?
"I was thirteen and a newly appointed Jounin when the third shinobi war ended," Sasuke tried to refrain from gawking, but thirteen?! Jounin at thirteen! Sasuke tried to push back his amazement and instead focused on the Cyclops and the slow, soft way he was talking. "But that final mission in the war cost me my teammates," Sasuke could tell the man was clenching his hands in his pockets. "I killed both of them…" Sasuke heard his teammates gasp but he remembered the Jounin saying this to him before, just after the bookworm had broken his jaw. But when he had said this to Sasuke, it had sounded like it was more that his actions were what had led to the deaths of his teammates; his unwillingness to view his teammates as more than burdens.
"What?! Sensei, how could you do that, 'tebayo!" The dobe was standing up and looked like he wanted to run away from the clearing, but the bookworm said the dobe's name softly and shook her head. She had a thoughtful look on her face, like she didn't quite believe the Cyclops, or at least thought there was something more to this.
"Sensei, that doesn't make sense. Their deaths were an accident, right?" the bookworm asked with her brow furrowed.
"That's what the reports say," the Cyclops had his eye closed as he said this, but then he opened it slowly after a moment. "That doesn't change the fact that my actions had led to their deaths."
The dobe was frowning now and he sat down abruptly. The bookworm was sitting now and had her knees pulled up to her chest as she looked at the Cyclops like she was trying to figure out a puzzle or parsing out a lie.
The dobe broke the silence first. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly as he stared up at their sensei. Only the dobe could ask such a thing and completely sincere and with no malicious intention.
"A comrade had been captured by the enemy, I wanted to put the mission ahead of her life but my other teammate…" The Cyclops' eye softened slightly; it seemed like he was both happy but regretted so much.
Sasuke couldn't believe he was answering the dobe's question, but then, the dobe had asked so sincerely. If Sasuke had asked that same question, the Cyclops probably wouldn't have answered because he would have just assumed Sasuke wanted to know for some manipulative reason. But the dobe…he made people let down their guards; he seemed so guileless that they just opened up to him. It was almost nauseating, but information was power in the shinobi world so he wouldn't complain, and Sasuke really did want to know what exactly happened to the Cyclops' teammates.
"He made me realize that when you abandoned your comrades for the mission, you were lower than trash." So that was where he came up with that saying…the saying that made him go after his teammates when that crazy bitch came along to teach them new skills. It was the very bitter lesson that the Cyclops made Sasuke come to understand, and his teammates reinforced.
The bookworm looked lost for a moment and she made a pained grimace before a hand came up to rub her temple, a headache? Great…
"What happened next, 'tebayo?" the dobe was much more subdued now, and the Cyclops shut his eye slowly, as if in pain.
The Cyclops shook his head. "I can't…" his voice sounded off, perhaps a little tight, "not today, but…" He looked up at them after swallowing thickly as he pushed on with what he probably initially wanted to tell them. "They are the ones I visit at the memorial stone; them and my sensei."
He looked down at the ground and shifted slightly, "I lost my whole team within the span of a year, one right after the other…" his arms were shaking with tension, likely he was trying to remain composed. "I started to do, what most people classify as, suicide missions," the jounin shrugged as if he disagreed but even Sasuke could tell that was just a weak denial; the jounin's voice sounded almost too distanced, as if he was trying not to let the words he was saying affect him.
The Cyclops exhaled slowly and looked anywhere but at them. "After a few years of that…" he swallowed again, and seemed to struggle for the right words. "The medics said I had a breakdown…and nearly killed one of the attending medics." He coughed slightly, as if to let off some of his unease. "But…I was able to uh…collect myself when I came to the memorial stone, and since then…" he swallowed again, obviously uneasy to be talking about this, especially to them.
"Since then you've gone to the memorial stone and its helped you cope and stay stable?" the bookworm asked, and the man nodded as he gave her an appreciative look. Apparently it took too much for him to say it, so he was thankful the bookworm did say it.
"Yes…" he exhaled and looked around the clearing, "So for all of our own good, I need time to think and reflect, and I do that best in front of the memorial stone."
"What about on missions?" Sasuke asked; if their sensei was a ticking time-bomb, he did not want to go on any extended missions with him.
"I am first and for most a professional," the Cyclops stated, suddenly serious and exuding confidence.
"Plus you probably spend a lot of time in front of the stone before you go, right?" the dobe asked almost cheekily.
Somehow, the Cyclops managed to give the dobe a dry look before shaking his head as if he was endearing. "Partly," the Joun replied after a moment.
"Is that also why you have your trashy novels on you all the time?" the bookworm asked before the Cyclops could say more.
He straightened in response and narrowed his eye slightly as if to tell her to stop prying into the reasons he read those perverted books. "That is beside the point," the man sounded almost defensive.
Sasuke couldn't resist joining in with his teammates at supplying answers for the bizarre man's actions, though he would be a little more serious than them, "Or are you so busy making sure none of your teammates die on you again that there's no chance for you to snap on a mission, right?"
He glared at Sasuke who smirked back. "That's enough stalling from all of you," he snapped and Sasuke bit back a laugh, though the dobe didn't try to stop himself from laughing. It looked like the Cyclops was going to completely change the topic rather than answer their statement-questions.
"Start on your proactive training, and when I get back you're going to disarm traps until noon or you don't set any off—whichever comes first. Then I'll continue correcting your taijustu and teach a few new kata after lunch."
It had been much more painful than it sounded. Sasuke's fingers had started to bleed from all of the trip wire he had worked with, and taijutsu training had been exhausting and brutal. Whenever they, meaning he or the dobe, had done a kata incorrectly, the Cyclops had exposed the weakness of their sloppy form in the most painful way possible, while demonstrating it to the bookworm so she could replicate the assault. He had deep bruises along his shoulder and joints because of that.
He was looking forward to a nice, peaceful sleep-in, and no practice until the next evening. At least, that had been the case until he was awoken by a weight on his chest a kunai to his throat.
"Wow, usually Pinkie knows as soon as I'm at the foot of her bed, but you…" Sasuke glared at the crazy woman sitting on him.
"Come on, up you get, we need you and Blondie to be lying pros fast," she hopped off of him and grinned like some sort of maniacal demon cat from hell. Damn it.
…
Naruto felt dead on his feet by three in the afternoon. He had maybe gotten six hours of sleep in the last two days.
First, that crazy Anko lady had woken him up after he had had training all day, and then she had kept working on their lying until almost three in the morning, and then the crazy woman had woken them up again at sunrise and they had to start all over again in the Forest of Death. Perhaps a few hours past sunrise, she had been called away for a few hours and they had gone back to sleep in their homes, only to have woken up this time tied together in the center of the stupid scary forest as a sort of punishment for leaving before she had been done with them. They had just been lucky they had a shift at the Teahouse at noon, and Anko didn't want to raise suspicion, so she had had to let them leave that creepy training ground.
But work had been terrible. It had been so busy, and Naruto had felt like there wasn't any time to breathe! Nee-chan had been completely exhausted by the time their shift ended, and the teme hadn't been much better. But that had been when they had their night training. Of course, when they had gotten to training ground seven there had been a note that said they were to meet at training ground forty-four. Sensei was killing them!
Sensei had just watched them run away from the scary animals in the forest, and they had slept in snatches and turns until the sun rose. They had known sensei was there the whole time, just watching them, but there had been some really close calls that only a quick kawarimi had gotten them out of, and it was only when an animal had continued to pursue them afterwards that Sensei would step in. It had been a harrowing night, and once the sun rose up, they had had to move to their usual training ground to go through their normal practice.
The ten laps around the village while sensei had gone to get them all breakfast, had felt like they would be the end of Naruto, but of course they weren't. Then after their breakfast, they had worked on picking locks before they thankfully got to meditate—though Sensei threw things at them if they had started to fall asleep.
Now he was only halfway through his shift at the teahouse and he didn't even think he could finish this shift. How were the teme or Nee-chan able to fair this well; they didn't have as much energy as him, and they felt the burn in their muscles more than him, so how come they weren't crawling on the floor? Naruto felt like doing that! But then…now that he thought about it…they had made him take the longest watches. Naruto glared at the wall for a moment as he realized his crazy stamina had been used against him, no fair!
Naruto shook his head, he had to stay in character. He had to keep acting like "Kushina," who was bit like Ayame-nee-chan, and a few other civilian girls he had observed around Konoha. Naruto guessed his own personality came in a bit too, maybe a bit too much from time to time, but oh well. He hoped he was convincing because he had studied long and hard about how to act feminine for his Oirokie no jutsu.
He had to keep character, even if there was a slight lull in the traffic at the moment, "Kushina" still had two tables of civilians to serve. Expertly carrying his trays filled with different cups of tea, Naruto stopped at his first table and gave a kind smile. He just wanted this day to be done!
…
Kakashi watched his cute, little genin drag their feet as they worked on disarming traps again; they were getting better at it, but he would have to find an abandoned building for them to practice more practical trap evasion and disarming. They were also getting better at rearming the traps to look as if no one had ever been there.
However, it was that crazy bitch's fault they were so tired. She pounced on them as soon as she could and she kept them for far too long without giving them a chance to sleep; Sasuke and Sakura were starting to look ill. Maybe he should convince Ibiki to keep Anko occupied tomorrow so his genin could actually rest on their day off. He couldn't look like he knew his genin were being trained by that snake bitch, so he could just use Ibiki to distract the T&I department's resident psychopath-with-sensei-issues (who takes those issues out on innocent people).
This was getting painful to watch. "You get two hours to rest and eat lunch," he called, and his genin looked over at him in a slight daze as if not wanting to believe what he had just said. "Time's ticking," he stated before he used shunshin to appear outside the Hokage's office; after all, the monthly progress report and evaluation was due today, and he may as well get it over with while he was waiting on his genin to become productive again.
There were some of the more veteran sensei in attendance at the moment, and they turned to look at his appearance in surprise. The evaluations and progress reports of the most recent genin class were given last, so naturally the veterans were surprised by his appearance, especially since the newer instructors weren't here yet.
He leaned against the back wall after bowing to the Hokage and listened in as one veteran Jounin instructor described, at length, his genin accomplishing several missions. Then another veteran spoke about how the replacement genin had been performing sufficiently, but he feared his initial genin were no longer willing to pursue their careers after the death of their comrade. He would present them with several options, most of which included some form of paper position in the office or records department; anything but active duty. Eventually, the last of the veteran instructors left, and the next group of instructors would be coming in.
"I'm surprised you're here so early, Kakashi-kun," the Hokage said around the pipe in his mouth.
"My cute, little genin must not have been sleeping well lately, so I gave them a long lunch break." The Hokage frowned but nodded his head.
Kakashi grimaced when the door suddenly slammed open and a familiar green shape stood proudly in the doorway. "Hokage-sama I am here to give my progress report about my most youthful students' radiant springtime of youth!" Kakashi felt like he was going deaf in one ear, even though he was at the other side of the room as the "Sublime" Green Beast. There was one other instructor who had genin from the previous graduate group, and he just walked past the green clad man without giving much reaction.
"What!?" damn it, he was noticed, "Kakashi, my eternal rival, what brings you to your progress report so early?"
Kakashi looked past the large, green clad man to look at the Hokage, "Could I give my report now, Hokage-sama?"
Gai began ranting about how hip and cool he was acting as Kakashi ignored the other man, which seemed to only encourage him more.
"Of course, what time are you supposed to meet up with your genin again?" Hokage-sama asked, and Gai stopped mid rant to look at Kakashi in alarm.
"Your team is still meeting today?" he asked at a surprisingly room appropriate volume level.
"I gave them a two hour break, and should meet back up with them in…" he looked over at the sun and shrugged, "soon."
Gai dropped his head, as if he couldn't believe Kakashi. "Ah, my hip friend," he just shook his head like Kakashi was the begrudgingly endearing one in their bizarre friendship.
"Then please proceed, Kakashi-kun," Hokage-sama was smiling a smile that said he found Kakashi's antics annoying but endearing too. It made his eye want to twitch.
"Team 7's teamwork is coming together, and for the most part they are able to share leadership roles amongst themselves with some ease. Team 7's specialization skills are increasing day-by-day, and I would like to request a building to rig as I see fit to further evaluate said skills" Kakashi began, and was pleased to hear the disappointed remarks from his self-proclaimed rival at the lack of specific details. As if Kakashi would give anyone enough detail to figure out what his team's skills were, and Hokage-sama didn't mind; in fact, the formidable shinobi looked amused at his progress report.
"Individually," Kakshi sighed, "they each have their issues. For instance," Kakashi continued, "Sasuke-kun continues to have problems with accepting his teammates' help and letting the others lead, but he has improved greatly in that department already. His taijutsu still needs correction, but next week I will begin focusing on his specialization." Hokage-sama nodded his head understandingly and motioned him to continue.
"Naruto-kun needs a good deal of work on his taijutsu still, but Sakura-chan has been trying to work with him on that outside of training. In addition, his literacy is still a work in progress but he has made leaps and bounds." Hokage-sama looked displeased and surprised by that statement, but motioned for Kakashi to continue. "Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan have been working with the boy privately in this regard, I only recently caught onto this focus in their after practice meetings." Hokage-sama nodded gravely, and Kakashi could feel the mood in the room drop as the implications sunk in—someone had sabotaged the blonde's schooling. "His chakra control needs much more work before I can start on his specialization, but I will test him for it still."
"And Haruno-chan?" Hokage-sama asked.
"Sakura-chan continues to have issues with Sasuke-kun, but no fights have erupted between them since the first week. I have already begun helping her to develop her specialization, but she needs to greatly increase her reserves. I would also like permission to teach her chuunin clearance level first aid."
"I'll be sure to give you the proper forms for such a request," Hokage-sama stated, and since the older man wasn't shuffling through his papers, Kakashi knew it would be sent to his apartment, along with a request form for an abandoned building. "And overall, what is your evaluation of Team 7?" Hokage-sama asked calmly.
"They are coming together, but they have a lot of work to do."
"Dismissed," and Kakashi hurried through the signs for shunshin before Gai could bombard him with questions in an attempt to figure out what his team was specializing in. All that mattered in that exchange was that Hokage-sama understood where Kakashi's genin were in development; no one else needed to know the specifics.
Week Five
If last week had been hell, Naruto didn't know what this week was. He had been thankful that he had gotten to sleep in on their day off, but then Anko had showed up during the afternoon when Naruto had met up with his equally revived teammates. It had felt so good to sleep a full eight hours, but the cycle of barely any sleep started again as the week went on!
It was after another all-nighter with Kakashi-sensei—where they had to try sneaking around the village without him catching them—that he had told Sakura to work with him on his tiajutsu while Kakashi-sensei pulled Sasuke aside. It had initially pissed Naruto off that the teme was getting one-on-one attention with Sensei, but then he had realized the teme was just working on throwing those needle things at a dummy and that didn't seem too cool, plus Kakashi-sensei had kept yelling corrections at him.
Then after their shift at the Teahous, they had been kept up most of the night by Anko, and Naruto had a feeling the scary woman was going snap at him soon if he didn't get this lying thing down. It just felt wrong lying, and well…what if he messed up? He remembered once, when he was little, he had lied to one of the ladies taking care of him, and when she had found out he had lied….she had kicked him out of the house during the middle of a storm. People didn't like being lied to…so he had a hard time with it and it made him feel bad lying.
After that yucky night with Anko, he had training at sunrise with Sensei. He had been so tired, but he had pushed through it, somehow. They had finished their proactive training and meditated for maybe an hour, when Sensei had made them sit around him.
Naruto waited almost impatiently while Kakashi-sensei just stared at each of them. He then pulled out a ratty looking, ordinary book. "This is a test. One by one, you'll try to get as far into this book as you can."
Naruto had looked over at his teammates in confusion. Were they supposed to unlock something, like when they picked locks? Or was this some other sort of test?
"Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun,"Kakashi-sensei called for their attention, "Spar over there, taijutsu only." Naruto frowned but complied. They'd all be tested, right? Before they had to go to their shift at the Teahouse, they had to all be tested, they just had to.
Naruto and the teme had started out their spar in correct form, but then the teme did this weird sort of sliding move at the last minute and attacked him from the side. That wasn't an academy move! The cheater! So Naruto got a little angry and began to swing wildly at the other boy. He punched and kicked and tried to knock the teme's legs out from under him. But the teme was doing all these weird, sliding, last minute dodging sort of moves and it was annoying!
But then, all of a sudden, Naruto felt someone knee him in the gut before punching him in his shoulder which he hadn't kept his guard up to stop, but it wasn't Sasuke. As he was flying backwards from the force of the blow, he saw Sakura looking at him with a displeased expression and the teme rubbing at his knee with one hand and cradling his stomach with is other arm. He was glaring at Nee-chan too.
"Both of you just completely threw out everything we've gone over in taijutsu!" Nee-chan chided with her hands on her hips. Naruto ducked his head in embarrassment while the teme glared off to the side. Huffing, Sakura turned to Sasuke, "When you get done with the test, we're going to drill correct academy katas and not your hybrid, flawed style."
He got up and dusted his pants off, but he was glaring at Nee-chan really bad now. She just returned the look before she raised an eyebrow all calm and cool like. "Just because it worked in the academy doesn't mean it will work here, and I was paying attention when Sensei corrected your form last week. So I know where its flaws are."
The teme just huffed and turned away before limping slightly over to where sensei was waiting patiently with that ratty old book.
"So what's the test like?" Naruto asked as he got into the correct academy taijutsu stance.
"You'll find out soon enough," Nee-chan said with a smile as she gently adjusted one of his arms and then began going through kata's with him. She was on the defensive and he was on the offensive. She blocked and parried each blow with ease and Naruto couldn't help but wish he could move like his Nee-chan; she was just so good at this!
They had just switched roles when the teme came up to them and gestured for Naruto to head over to sensei. He swallowed nervously and shook out his hands out slightly as he walked over to Sensei—as if that would shake off his nervousness too.
This was so scary! What if he messed up?! He glanced back and saw Nee-chan trying to correct the teme's stance, but he jerked away so she just shook her head and made a really quick punch at Sasuke's unguarded elbow. The teme gave cry and clutched at his joint in pain.
"Like I said, I know its flaws; wanna try the correct stance?" Nee-chan challenged with her hands on her hips. The teme glared at her but shook out his arm and got into the academy stance.
"Don't worry about your teammates, Naruto-kun," Sensei's voice pulled Naruto's attention away from his teammates glaring at each other—it was like they were dogs fighting over dominance—to stare at the one-eyed Jounin. His eye was in that upside down 'u' shape and his tone had been gentle and even teasing, "I won't let those two kill each other."
Naruto laughed weakly and sat down in front of his sensei, but he looked nervously down at the book resting on the ground between them. "Don't be nervous, Naruto-kun, work through the different pages at your own pace."
Naruto nodded slowly and picked up the book. When he opened it, it was blank. What?! He frowned and closed the book before flipping it open to the first page, and then he quickly flashed through each of the pages. Blank. It was all blank!
Glaring at the book, he closed it and examined its outside; nothing, no title, no author, just hard covers and a binding. He scrunched up his face, weren't there things that could only be visible if someone put chakra into it? There were scrolls and stuff like that, right? Well, it couldn't hurt to try.
He circulated a little bit of chakra into his fingertips and ran them over the spine of the book first. Characters began to appear along the binding. He couldn't read the first character, but he recognized the next two from the history tests on the Hokage: Namikaze Minato. Whoa! So cool, was it like a biography about him or did it have justsu he made? Naruto really wished he knew what the first word was.
Hm… grabbing a stick he copied the character, "Sensei, what does this character mean?"
"Property," he looked a little amused and Naruto's eyes widened.
"This was the Yondaime's! Oooh! So cool, dattebayo. How'd you get this?" Naruto asked as he leaned in closer to the Jounin.
Kakashi-sensei laughed slightly and pulled back a little from Naruto. "He was my sensei, Naruto-kun, remember?"
The blonde's eyes widened, "So…does that mean you know all his jutsu or have scrolls on his jutsu. Can you do his flashy move, 'tebayo?"
Naruto thought Kakashi-sensei blinked dumbfounded at him, but it just looked like he was closing his eye since he only had one. "No, Naruto-kun, I don't know many of his jutsu, and this is the closest thing I have to a scroll of his jutsu—"
"Wha! So cool!" Naruto fell onto his back and held the book above his head. "So this has all his jutsu in—"
"It has his notes and research on fuinjutsu, which the hirashin is in a small part of, but it doesn't have any jutsu in it."
Naruto wasn't sure how he felt about that, but then Sensei said that the Yondaime's super cool, flashy jutsu was part fuinjutsu,, so maybe he could learn that from his notes, or even recreate it!
Naruto started to smile broadly and immediately sat up. He was determined to crack this book open and get all its secrets. First he just had to figure out why all the pages were blank and there was no cover. He ran his chakra coated fingertips over the cover and a strange design showed up on it. It was circular with all these squiggling lines and characters, but—
"Naruto-kun, you should start on the first page, not the cover." The blonde blinked after his teacher derailed his thoughts, so he just nodded.
Opening the book, he ran his fingers over the first page and frowned when a riddle showed up, how was this going to help him learn fuinjutsu? When he voiced his concern, Kakashi-sensei just gave him an eye-smile.
"The first few pages only test one's affinity toward fuinjutsu, so answer the questions with one or two characters."
"So there's already determined answers?" Naruto frowned as he glared down at the riddle; he hated those kinds of tests, when there was an answer he had to figure out. He wasn't so good at thinking under that sort of pressure or having to remember things like that.
"I believe Sensei considered several possible answers for each riddle, but only one of them is better than the others and would suggest the highest affinity."
"So…?" Naruto asked with his brow furrowed.
"Just do your best, and at the end of the test you'll know if you have an affinity for fuinjutsu."
Naruto looked at his sensei skeptically, and Kakashi-sensei just sighed, "By writing into the book with chakra, it helps identify your chakra's compatibility to fuinjutsu, but your answers help determine if you have the right mindset for fuinjutsu."
Naruto fidgeted as he looked down at the riddle on the page. He'd just have to do his best. He grabbed a stick and drew a character into the earth, "What's this character."
Sensei sighed as he dropped his head forward. "Do you have a dictionary on you?" he asked tiredly, and Naruto blinked…did he? He might have packed it with him. Reaching into his weapons' pouch, he felt the shionbi conduct manual and then he found the thicker book that was his pocket dictionary. Smiling triumphantly, he began to look up the character. As he worked through the first riddle, he had to ask Sensei how to write his response since he didn't know the character, and Kakashi-sensei begrudgingly supplied the answer. It turned out that his answer had two different writings, but Naruto liked the look of the second one, plus the alternate meaning for the second character was nice; it just seemed more fitting for some reason.
Sensei said he had to write the answer in with chakra, and after he carefully dragged his finger over the paper with chakra accumulated fingertip, a new riddle appeared. So the process continued for the first page, and then he flipped it over and there was a puzzle on the next page. He continued going through the book in this manner. A riddle here, a puzzle there, and a word problem on this page with three options, but he didn't like any of them so he made up his own answer—it was asking who should get a powerful and corruptible weapon out three very different rulers; Naruto decided the weapon should be hidden because the people would fight over it anyway or hurt each other because one of them had it while the others didn't. His least favorite problems were the mathematical ones; he really did try to answer those, but he just knew he got the wrong answer each time.
However, after the fifth page, it changed; the book didn't show riddles and puzzles anymore, but it started to describe the main components of fuinjutsu. There was ink mixed with the fuin user's blood. This allowed for a stronger connection to the user's chakra because it wasn't just the chakra used to activate the seal that made it function, but the chakra infused in the ink and paper.
"What are you reading Naruto-kun?" Kakashi-sensei asked, he probably saw Naruto flip the page and was confused since he hadn't written on the last page.
"Oh its talking about the ink and stuff, 'tebayo."
Sensei laughed a little and shook his head, "Well congratulations then, you passed the affinity test and had high enough of an affinity to move on toward the practical lesson Sensei left behind."
Naruto jumped up and launched himself at the Jounin. "Ah, thank you, thank you! I'm gonna be the best fuin expert in the world, dattebayo! I'm gonna learn everything this book has!"
Kakashi-sensei just shook his head, "the book will continue to ask you questions, and if you don't answer them correctly you won't be able to continue on. Eventually you'll even have to undo seals within it to continue moving further into that book. It's not going to be easy." Naruto frowned but nodded his head slowly as he pulled away from his sensei.
"I'll do my best and read all of this book, 'tebayo!" Naruto held the book close to his body, and Sensei just smiled before ruffling his hair.
"I'm sure you will." Kakashi-sensei then stood up and set a hand on Naruto's back, "Let's go collect your teammates and eat lunch before you all go to the teashop?" he suggested as he gestured to Sasuke and Sakura who were almost no longer in the clearing. They were still glaring at each other but now they were panting and their forms were a little sloppy; however, the teme didn't slip into his stupid hybrid form 'cause Nee-chan brutally took advantage of its weaknesses whenever he did.
"Neh, Kaka-sensei?" he noted the man's eye twitched slightly at the nickname, hmm…maybe he'd keep calling him that. "Why'd the Yondaime leave this and leave it with you?"
Kakashi-sensei looked down at Naruto and smiled slightly, "He was afraid all of the Uzumaki fuin knowledge would be forgotten, so he collected as much of it as he could and even put his own research notes into that book." Right, his mom was a fuin expert, but did this mean his whole family was made of fuin experts? He focused back on Kakashi-sensei before his thoughts distracted him too much. The jounin continued on, "He then made that test so that those who wanted to specialize in fuinjutsu, and be serious about that specialization, would have a way to learn it if no masters were available."
"Why's that? Isn't fuinjutsu like super awesome and important? Why wouldn't there be a master available?" It really didn't make much sense. It seemed like any village would have a bunch a fuinjutsu experts.
"Well, for one, it is a very complex and challenging field. Two…" Kakashi-sensei seemed to be thinking about how to say his next words, "Well Uzushiogakure was wiped out because of the Uzumaki clan and their formidable mastery of fuinjutsu. The other villages saw them as a threat and wanted to cripple Konoha in the process of wiping out that threat." Naruto frowned but nodded slowly. He had had a clan but they were taken out because they were too powerful…people were scared of them. He chewed at his lip but nodded his head to his sensei's words.
"So as you can see, fuin experts are usually targeted because they're a threat. At a time, this village had three fuin masters: Kushina-san, Minato-sensei, and Jiraiya of the Sannin." Naruto swallowed as the implication set in. "Hokage-sama is well versed in fuinjutsu, as am I, but neither of us are masters. But that book," Kakashi-sensei gestured over at it, "It can teach you what you need to know to become a master with patience and time."
Naruto nodded slowly as he processed the words. "So…" Naruto began, "will I have to re-answer all those questions when I open it up again?" Naruto asked; he really hoped not.
"Only if you don't open it for a month and work on it." Naruto paled slightly but nodded his head. "Occasionally," the jounin added, which made the blonde frown, "the book may make you review concepts, particularly if you make a mistake later on."
"Aww, man!" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.
"You'll be fine Naruto-kun. It's better than blowing yourself up by accident," Naruto paled and looked up at his amused sensei. "Oh, speaking of blowing yourself up. You need to work on your chakra control before you even think about making seals of your own or get too far in that book."
What?! He couldn't move and just kept staring at his sensei;, he hoped this was just some joke!
"So the next time that book asks you questions, don't go any further because you need to have much better chakra control, or else you may burn up that book and hurt yourself in the process."
Naruto swallowed thickly and nodded his head. Oh man…
"Kushina-chan!" someone called, and Naruto turned around to see Genma and Kakashi-sensei sitting down at a table. Not again… Whenever the two of them were together, they embarrassed Naruto and the teme relentlessly. He so didn't want to deal with this! At least tomorrow morning they had free…unless Anko showed up again… she was going to show up, wasn't she? Man! Couldn't they have a break just this once!
…
Sakura was instantly alert. She felt the shift in the air and could smell something sweet come into her room. With her hands under the blankets, she quickly used kawarimi and with a doll she had made of herself to go with the dolls of her teammates, and then threw a kunai at the crouched figure at the end of her bed. Anko spun around and caught the kunai in time, but she gave Sakura an appraising look.
"Not bad, Pinkie."
She glared at the woman as she folded her arms over her chest. She was tired and feeling run down. She didn't want to go training with her today, but then she also wanted to become stronger and—although the woman couldn't actually offer them power (like her dream revealed)—Anko could offer them skills ahead of time. Who knew when they would need them? But still, she was getting tired and hadn't had the energy to train with her father in far too long. She felt like she was forgetting what the different patterns of tea clumps meant or the meanings of the different cards.
"We can't keep this up, Sensei will start to suspect something if we can barely keep awake during training," Sakura's voice was even, but she was afraid of what Anko would do.
Anko just remained crouched where she was and had her head tilted to the side. Sakura swallowed audibly and started to reach for her weapons' pouch that she had left on her desk. The kunai she had had on her was now in Anko's hands and she didn't want to be left vulnerable in front of that woman.
Anko slowly got off of Sakura's bed and walked toward Sakura with a blank expression on her face. Sakura stopped moving for her weapon's pouch, and instead glared at the woman as she raised her arms into a defensive position. Anko stopped walking and tilted her head again. "We'll keep meeting every chance I can until your teammates learn how to lie and be aware of their surroundings."
Anko shook her head slowly, and this suddenly serious side of her rooted Sakura to her place. "There will be no breaks," the woman said lowly as she stepped closer to Sakura, "until each of you can sense chakra to the best of your ability." The woman set her hands onto Sakura's shoulders, but the girl was too afraid to move or try to strike out at Anko. "Then, you three can have all the breaks you want." Anko's hands tightened on her shoulders, "But that's not today, so get moving," she hissed, and Sakura jerked backwards out of her grip before moving to grab her clothes to change.
Anko watched her for a moment before nodding her head and leaving via the window. At least they had a shift at the teahouse to look forward to. She quickly finished getting dressed and grabbed a quick breakfast. She was almost finished with a bowl of rice porridge when her mother spoke up. "Training?" her mother asked, and Sakura slowly nodded her head before wiping her mouth and moving into the kitchen to prepare a few bento boxes for herself and her teammates. Anko always woke her up first so could do just this.
"Doing some individual practice before we meet at the teahouse," Sakura explained as she hurriedly packed some rice from the rice cooker into one compartment of the different bento boxes. "We have evening training again though," She could imagine her parents frowning at that, but she quickly went about preparing some fish to put into another compartment.
"It seems like you have these evening practices every day," her father commented, and Sakura hummed as she continued putting everything together. "Musume," he called her and her hands stilled. She was so tired, and she wasn't happy with her schedule either but she had to be strong so that—so that her family wouldn't be targeted and Naruto wouldn't be hurt!
She felt her dad set his hands on her shoulders and felt him press a kiss onto the top of her head, "I know you're training to prevent that war, but…" his hands and arms moved to hug her and she turned around in the embrace.
"I'm so tired," she cried against her father's chest.
"I know, I know," he stroked her hair. "You need to take care of yourself too."
Sakura soaked up the warmth and protection her father was offering her before she pulled back, only to see that her mother was finishing up the bento boxes. She tried to keep from crying, but fatigue made her resistance waver and she closed her eyes tightly as tears started to slip down her face. She felt her mother's arms suddenly envelop her too.
"We know you're training hard to keep us and Naruto-kun safe, and we're so proud of you," her mother whispered. "We know you're a ninja now and we can't make demands of your sensei or you, but you're just a girl still, you need your sleep."
"I know," Sakura managed to get out before she made herself pull away from her parents and gather her things together. "I know, but I can't take a break now."
She shook her head and began to run out the door, only just remembering to put on her shoes before she left. As she lowered her chakra output and carefully covered her tracks on the way to the Forest of Death, she tried to convince herself that this needed to be done. She tried to convince herself she wasn't being careless, but the last week and a half was making it more and more tempting to tell Kakashi-sensei that they were seeking outside training. She couldn't trust Anko, and they were being pushed too far with their current training schedule.
She finally arrived outside of the Forest of Death. Her teammates were waiting for her, and Anko did not look very happy. "Sorry my parents…" she sighed and set the bento boxes in a little shelter like thing outside of the fenced training ground.
When she turned around, she saw that her teammates and Anko were giving her clueless looks. "They're worried about how much we're training," she said tiredly, and Anko rolled her eyes.
"I told the boys what I told you, so let's hop over that fence and get started." They did as they were instructed. Sakura knew that she could just walk away from all of this, but then…she wasn't sure what exactly Anko would do to her or her teammates. The woman was frightening, and even if she didn't outright attack them, she could find ways to scare them and slowly drive them insane; after all, she did work for the T&I department, so there were no bounds to what she was capable of inflicting upon them psychologically.
Once they were fairly deep into the forests, Anko began her interrogation drills. Sasuke continued to play apathetic and emotionless, despite her insistence that he needed to learn how to dictate tells instead of shutting them all down. Naruto was just miserable, he always flinched or fidgeted when he was telling a lie, or he looked down ashamed after telling a lie without giving any immediate tells. It was beyond frustrating. Sakura was the only one on her team that could lie effectively it seemed.
This continued on most of the morning; at least up until Anko snapped. One minute Sakura was anticipating she and her teammates had to fend for themselves after Naruto's failure to lie, and the next minute Sakura was on the ground with her arm wrenched behind her. "Try again Blondie," Anko growled out.
"Wha!?" Naruto asked terrified. "Anko-san, let Sakura-san go!"
Sakura tried to bite back a pained scream as her arms were wrenched farther behind her body and Anko crouched down on top of her; the woman's foot dug uncomfortably into her back. "You're hurting your teammate," Anko hissed. "Now I'm asking you one last time, who is your commanding officer, and where is?!"
Through the breath-taking pain, Sakura could see Naruto glaring at Anko as he gritted out his answer, "Jounin Hisao Sai. We were supposed to meet up with him five kilometers south of the Valley of the End." He remained firm. He did not falter or waver; instead, Naruto just continued to glare venom at Anko.
Sakura sighed when the tension was left off of her arms and she was allowed to stand. "This is life and death kid," Anko was saying, likely she was also waving a kunai about as she addressed Naruto too. "If you aren't so concerned for your life, be concerned for your teammates' lives. Every failure you make at lying is putting them at risk," Sakura looked over to see Anko standing right in front of Naruto who just stood there glaring at her with something close to hate…she had never thought Naruto as capable of such an expression.
"The moment you donned that forehead protector," she tapped it with her kunai, "civilian concepts of morality were thrown out the window. You will kill, lie to, and seduce people for the security and safety of your country and comrades. Your inability to do any of the above may as well mean their death and abandonment."
Sakura started to move over to her honorary brother when Sasuke spoke up. Like Naruto, he was glaring at the forest floor, though he seemed confused and troubled about something. "So we're just weapons?" he asked, and Anko grinned at him.
"That's what ninja the world over are viewed as," she smiled as if this was something to be happy about, but Sakura saw a rawness beneath her mile…something told Sakura that Anko hated being considered as something less than human, something to be disposed of when it was broken or failed to meet standards.
"I'm not a weapon," Sakura could barely hear Naruto's reply, and Anko scoffed.
"Wanna bet?" Anko asked with that forced broad smile. "I'm sure if you ask the council and most of the civilians, they'd say you are a weapon of mass destruction." Naruto was glaring down at the ground and Sakura hurried over to his side, but then Anko kept speaking. "Just like they'd say Uchiha boy over here is weapon that needs to procreate fast to ensure those damn eyes stay in the village." Sasuke flinched and Sakura felt sick hearing what Anko was saying. "They like to think that's all any of us are really good for; do you want to prove them wrong?" Naruto looked up at Anko with a determined look on his face, and Sasuke glared at the ground as he nodded his head.
"Good, and how are you going to do that?" Anko asked and seemed to be opening this question up to all of them. Sakura was quick to respond in the hopes that her teammates would have time to cool down from what the woman had said to them.
"By putting my team before the mission," Sakura whispered, and Anko nodded, "and protecting my family first." She reached out and wrapped her fingers around Naruto's. The boy bit his lip as silence permeated the air. It lasted for a few beats.
"By having my own ambitions and plans," Sasuke murmured, thus breaking the silence. "Outside of the mission," he almost added as an afterthought, as if it needed to be clarified.
The silence resumed, and Sakura could tell Naruto was thinking, "By…by being my own person and…and protecting my precious people." Naruto's voice rose with conviction as he found the words he had been looking for.
Sakura squeezed his hand and smiled at him. Anko looked at each of them before sighing. "You three came up with such good strategies," she looked away from them; had she not found a way to prove to people that she wasn't some weapon? She didn't seem like the most controllable person, which would dissuade people from thinking she was at least a reliable weapon. Maybe this was more a reaction to something else? Something only Anko was feeling, or a unique problem to just the woman. Whatever it may be, Sakura found herself respecting the woman a little more, even if she still did not trust the woman.
"Ah, you three are annoying me!" she suddenly called and waved her kunai dangerously close to their persons. "Get out of my forest!"
Sakura's eyes went wide when it looked like the Jounin was about to leave them here on their own, "Wait! You're going to just leave us here?"
Anko paused in her preparatory crouch to glare at them, "You've been running through this forest before, suck it up." Then she was flying through the trees.
"Crap…"
"I can't believe she just left us, 'tebayo!" Naruto screamed before there was a roar nearby and they all paled.
"Let's just get out of here," Sasuke murmured, and they began to race toward where they believed was the main entrance. It ended up being the direction to a tiger den.
"We're dead…" Sakura breathed as a whole pack of tigers began approaching them and circling around them. If she used another kawarimi she wouldn't have enough chakra for their teahouse shift, and that wasn't even considering the amount of chakra she would need for tonight's survival run with Kakashi-sensei through this damn forest.
"Spam a lot?" Naruto asked as the three of them moved to stand back to back.
"It would be our best bet," Sakura murmured as she stared at the approaching tigers.
"You'll have to get them into a safe position to switch with us," Sasuke stated as he glared at the still prowling tigers, which were their height or taller.
However, before Naruto could bring his hands into the familiar cross sign, the tigers pounced. Sasuke threw several kunai at the first one approaching him while Sakura moved to kick the ground with her chakra enforced heel, a crack opened up in the ground as her chakra dispersed into at the point of impact. The crack was deep and moved away from her. The tiger facing off against her slipped its foot into the crack by accident. She quickly glanced over at Naruto and saw that he had successfully managed to make a dozen clones to distract the tiger approaching him.
Suddenly, Sakura saw a dark blur move from the other side of the clearing, and then there were two black tigers heading for them. One of the black tigers—like completely black—swiped at some of the surrounding tigers while its partner jumped at them. Before Sakura could think to defend herself, she felt something wet and cold suddenly surrounding her and moving her. She was inside the tiger, and it was made of ink, she was inside of it and so were her teammates! What the hell!?
The boys looked just as dumbfounded as her, but then they were deposited outside of the clearing in front of a very familiar boy. There was something about how he held himself that said he was very nervous and he was looking at every shadow as if it would attack.
"Quickly," he said and began to run away from the clearing while the ink tiger moved back into the clearing to fight with its bother.
Sakura hurried after the boy without hesitation, but from her peripherals she saw her teammates' hesitate—as if deciding whether to follow mystery boy or try their luck against the tigers. I know him, she signed and then heard the boys follow after her. The other boy was fast though, and it was hard to keep up let alone try to talk to him.
At last they were at the training ground's fence, but Team 7 was panting heavily. "Thank you," Sakura breathed. "Can you tell me your name now?" she asked as she straightened and smiled at the boy.
"Wait, I thought you knew him," Naruto asked with his brow furrowed. Sasuke was glaring at the boy as if he was suspicious, and said boy looked around almost nervously before shaking his head.
"I shouldn't have even helped you," he whispered as he continued to look at the shadows around him with what Sakura knew had to be fear, even if she couldn't plainly see it.
Naruto stopped whatever rant he was about to go on and looked at the boy in confusion. "Well, we're glad you did, ink boy," he was his usual informal self, and Sakura shook her head.
The boy looked down at the ground and it appeared as if he wanted to leave, but something was holding him back. Their own resident pale boy looked like he was torn between interrogating the artist or completely ignoring him.
"We are glad you did, even if someone," she looked back at the ungrateful Sasuke, "won't acknowledge it." She then smiled brightly, "So your paintings can be an offensive move, that's really cool."
The boy stiffened slightly and looked around again, clearly wanting to leave but still feeling compelled to stay, even though he seemed to think he shouldn't. Naruto was of course oblivious to this. "Yeah, it was really cool, but does that mean your ink has, like your blood in it? 'Cause you need that for fuin, 'teabyo." Naruto seemed to be thinking on this matter, and the boy just shifted slightly in masked unease.
Sasuke made an annoyed noise, "If you want to leave, leave; otherwise spit it out already." Sakura looked over at her teammate in surprise; she had never thought he would pick up on the other boy's conflict.
The pale artist looked at Sasuke blankly before looking away again. "How could you three…" his words failed him. "You're ninja, weapons of Konoha, why would you…" there was almost a minute furrow of the boy's brows, and she could tell he was confused.
"You were spying on us?" Naruto asked in surprise. "How come crazy lady didn't find you?" And would this boy tell on them? Would they no longer be working with Anko?
The boy's jaw tightened slightly when he looked up at Naruto, and Sakura imagined the boy was annoyed or even felt incredulous at the Naruto's choice in question.
"Naruto-san," Sakura said with a sigh, only he would get hung up on that instead of the implications of what the boy said. Sasuke seemed to be staring at the other boy as if to analyze him or dissect him.
Naruto just grinned sheepishly at the reprimand before his expression became serious. "You're more than just a ninja, ya know? You're a person too," Naruto began, "and people have emotions and dreams, and precious people, 'tebayo, because those are what make you human and unique."
The boy stared at them each for one long moment before he just darted off into the forest again. "He's weird," Naruto commented before hopping over the fence without giving the incident another thought.
"Naruto-san…" Sakura sighed as she too hopped the fence.
"I want to fight him," Sasuke murmured as he followed suit, though he continued to look back into the forest.
"I bet he'd kick your butt with his super awesome ink ninjutsu!" Naruto threw back with a grin. Sakura shook her head at her teammates, but surprisingly Sasuke didn't rise up to Naruto's bait.
"He isn't a normal ninja, is he?" Sasuke asked, still looking back at the forest.
Sakura bit her lip and shifted uncomfortably. "No…I don't think he is. I think…" she looked away and Naruto quieted down to stare at his teammates with wide eyes.
"What do you think Nee-chan?" Naruto asked softly and earnestly.
"I think he's been trained to kill his emotions and heart…I think he's really sad deep down but he's not allowed to feel that way, and we confuse him." She said this all in a low whisper, for some reason she felt like she shouldn't be talking about this because the boy would get in serious trouble if someone overheard.
"Who would do that?!" Naruto asked horrified, though Sasuke just nodded his head in understanding.
"It was a common practice in our village's past," Sakura looked over at her teammate in surprise, "They made ninja emotionless and driven to complete the mission so that they were better weapons. This happened in particular during wars." Sasuke continued, now looking straight ahead, "But after the wars were over, these ninja were unstable and…"
She paled along with Naruto. "So that's why it's not as heavily enforced today?" Sakura asked slowly.
"Yeah," Sasuke responded, "but other countries enforce it still, and even in Konoha each ninja is expected to guard their emotions to some extent and will be expected to kill their heart at one time or another…" Sasuke seemed to be quoting someone, and his voice grew quieter and quieter as he went on, "but it doesn't mean that Hokage-sama or our sensei thinks of us as weapons."
"How do you know all that, Te-Sasuke-san?" Naruto gave Sakura a sheepish smile and she just shook her head, before throwing her arm over his shoulder and using her other hand to ruffle his hair.
Sasuke didn't respond immediately, and when she looked back at her teammate, she noted he had a confused, angry, but sad look on his face. As if he had thought one thing but realized it was something else.
"Sasuke-san?" Sakura asked and fell back slightly as she let go of Naruto. The dobe turned around and frowned at their teammate.
"Sasuke-san? You in there?" he asked almost obnoxiously. "Don't give yourself an aneurism remembering, okay?" the blonde was close to grabbing Sasuke's face and examining his pupils.
Sasuke snapped out of his thoughtful daze and slapped away Naruto's hands. "Do you even know what an aneurism is?" he shot back incredulously.
"I do too know, dattebayo! It's when blood comes out of your nose from thinking too hard."
"Guess that must happen to you a lot," Sasuke sneered, and Sakura promptly put an end to that childish fight in the making.
"Okay Kei-chan, Ichi-chan, knock it off!" both boys flinched and glared at her.
"Nee-chan, we're not those bratty kids, 'tebayo."
"Oh really? 'Cause you're acting like them," she shot back. The boys glared at her again, though Naruto's glare was half-hearted.
Blissful silence resumed as they made their way around the fenced training ground to collect their lunches. Once they sat down to eat the hurriedly packed bento boxes, Sasuke suddenly spoke.
"When I started the academy…" Sasuke began lowly, and Sakura knew whatever he was about to say was going to take a lot out of him and was a huge discloser, so she promptly shot Naruto a look to keep him from blurting out something offensive and shutting up Sasuke. "My father said I was going to become a weapon, that's what Konoha ninja were. They couldn't have their own dreams or ambitions, they couldn't have emotions… but the police corps was different he was saying…" Sasuke's brow was furrowed in confusion, "but the police corps always looked more serious and cold than some of the ninja in the village."
He looked down at the hastily packed bento, but didn't say anymore. Naruto's mouth hung open slightly in surprise before he finally asked his questions, "So who told you what you told us, 'tebayo?" Sasuke flinched and looked away from them.
"That man did…"
"Uh…?" Sakura was equally as lost as her honorary brother.
Sasuke threw his bento box away and hid his face in his knees as his hands pulled at his hair. "Onii-san told me, but why…? He was just like them! He was a weapon and he…" Sasuke's words choked him, "he killed them…."
It was silent in the shelter outside the training ground while Sasuke seemed to be trying to gather his composure. Sakura could only stare at the half eaten bento spilled out on the grass. The implication of his words were sinking in now, and if she remembered back to their team introductions; he had called the man he wanted to kill that man, and that man was his…his big brother.
Sasuke probably never would have said what he had if they hadn't been so tired lately, or if they had never seen that painter boy, who probably reminded him of what his brother had looked or maybe acted like. The fatigue probably made him think about things he hadn't wanted to remember or forgot ever happened, and he was confused. It seemed as if Sasuke's brother before the massacre and after were so very different and told him different things—things that questioned what he knew.
She wasn't sure what to make of it all, but she knew one thing: Sasuke had been betrayed by family, the one he trusted and looked up to the most—because that's what younger siblings feel for their older siblings, right?
Naruto was beginning to fidget. "Well, we aren't weapons, so he's right about that, but the rest is all messed up! So who needs stupid, confusing people that hurt you, 'tebayo!" Sasuke looked up at Naruto in shock. Naruto grinned broadly and held out his mostly eaten bento box, "You need to surround yourself with less confusing people, like us!" he exclaimed as he gestured between himself and Sakura.
"Nee-chan and I will always be here for you, dattebayo, 'cause even if you're a teme and mean..." Naruto looked down suddenly embarrassed, "well, you're still our teammate and one of my precious people." Naruto carefully looked up and over at Sasuke who just stared at him for a long moment before looking away.
"He's right, Sasuke-san. Even though you are insufferably annoying, rude, and mean," Sakura had to stop herself from devolving into a bitter rant about how lousy of a person the Uchiha was, "well, you're our teammate and we're gonna be spilling blood together, so…you're kinda stuck with us and like family."
Sasuke looked down at his knees which were still pulled up to his chest. He then promptly stood up and drawled, "Yeah, whatever." He then began moving in the direction of the village, likely making for the Teahouse. Naruto was ready to yell at the boy, but they both saw his fingers begin to twitch in sign. Perhaps he hadn't fully intended to even move them, but she couldn't help but share a smile with Naruto at the message he sent them: Thanks. Maybe these exhausting weeks were worth it, for honest moments like this.
TBC
A/N: So kind of fluffy and long. Hope you all enjoyed, and thank you for reading, next chapter will span several weeks, ~ much love, depressedchildren
