Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 13 – New Perspective
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,862
Summary: AU. Sakura gives up on Kakashi as a teacher after Team 7 falls apart. Too bad fate, enemy ninja, and sheer bad luck have other plans.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 13 of ? Unbeta'd.
Given that it's the middle of the day, the shinobi library is pretty much empty.
Of course, it's never really empty, even at the oddest of hours because shinobi keep weirder hours than most, and the library is never closed.
Ninja would only break in if it was closed—it would be taken as a challenge.
Still, as Tenten breezes through the doors, she knows that it's basically empty. She'll ignore the presence of the other shinobi and, in turn, they'll ignore her presence, and that's really the same thing as far as anyone who uses the library is concerned.
'Empty' is a term they've all politely agreed on without ever saying a word.
There had been so many pros to graduating but Tenten's absolute favourite was probably that she now had access to the full shinobi library instead of just the section that Academy students were permitted to use.
She loves going on missions and getting stronger with her team (even if having Gai-sensei as her Jounin-sensei is… decidedly not what she'd pictured back in the Academy) and learning new weapons.
One day she'll be known for her weapons skills.
But coming to the library is like greeting an old friend that you haven't seen in ages and yet nonetheless you pick up where you left off, seamlessly, and effortlessly, and it's just about perfect every time, no matter the circumstances.
It's hard to be perfect no matter what.
Her kunai skills aren't there yet. (They will be.)
It's also a good place to think.
Lee's busy with rehabilitation training at the hospital and Neji's at the Hyuuga compound basically busy with the same thing. She's incredibly grateful that both of them will be okay. That they're not completely okay now, though, leaves her at a bit of a loose end.
Especially with Gai-sensei being in and out of the village on missions so often.
Tenten gets all the reasons why, and they're good reasons, and as a Genin of more than a year she's more than capable of handling her own training and studies for this time period.
But it leaves her feeling a bit superfluous and she hates that.
Sweeping down her favourite aisles, Tenten grabs a few books that she's read before but wants to review certain sections. She leaves them on a table nestled in the back of the library, leaving one of the chakra tags she'd grabbed from the front desk on top of her books so that no one puts them away.
The tags are an easy way of saying 'I'm in the library, these are in use, don't touch'.
It's really not worth it to incur the wrath of the desk Chuunin if you forget to use one of the tags. They're all incredibly protective of the works here and anything left unattended without a tag will be put away almost immediately.
The final book she's looking for takes her a bit to find. It's not where it's supposed to be, which perplexes her enough that she goes back to the front desk.
"Excuse me," she says, leaning against the counter and smiling apologetically for having disturbed them, "but is Notable Genin Teams by Watanabe Hikaru currently signed out by anyone? I couldn't find it on the shelves."
"Hang on," the Chuunin says, a gruff looking man named Taiga Rinnosuke. "I'll run the index."
Politely, and because she's seen people get kicked out of the library for attempting to learn the index unauthorized, Tenten averts her eyes.
She knows the library well enough to know where things should be anyway.
It's only a few moments before Taiga-san grunts and stands. "Nobody is using it. It's been mis-shelved by someone trying to be helpful," he grumbles. "Stay here, I'll fetch it for you."
Then he's gone before she can even say 'sure'.
Tenten waits.
The other desk Chuunin ignore her and she ignores them right back. That's the way it is in the library, where talking might actually set off someone flinging a kunai to your head. Talk when you need to, but no idle chatter.
"Here it is," Taiga says, shortly, appearing with the book in his hands. "I'll update the register to note that you've got it—at your usual table?"
Tenten takes the book gently. "Yes," she says. "Thank you."
He nods, gruffly, and she takes that as her cue to head back to that desk of hers. Everything is where she's left it, which is good, otherwise she might throw a kunai at someone. She settles in to read, losing herself in old familiar passages.
She's been reading some of these books since she started at the Academy. Notable Genin Teams only came available to her upon obtaining the rank (and she suspected that there were matching editions of Notable Chuunin Teams and Notable Jounin that were, as of yet, out of her reach) so though she's read it more than once it's still newer to her than most of the books she's reviewing today.
"Just fact checking," she murmurs under her breath as she pages through the thin, coded print of the book. It is expected the Genin could figure out this code. It is paranoid but it makes sense. Most of the books and scrolls are in some form of code.
Tenten never wants to be a code-breaker full time, but she's quite handy at deciphering the ones they use on sensitive books. (If she says so herself—and she does.)
Once she's confirmed that she was remembering right, Tenten moves onto her other books, making her notes out in a code she'd created specifically for research. It's not complicated—if you know her. And that's the point.
By her internal clock, she's been reading and working for two hours when she's disturbed.
"A-Ano, Tenten-san," Hinata's soft voice says. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"
Tenten smiles, looking up. "Sure," she says easily, noting the books in Hinata's hands. "Do you need me to guard those while you find anything else?"
Hinata shakes her head, smiling, as she slides out a seat next to Tenten and takes it. Her books don't make a sound as they are placed on the desk. "No," she says, "I've got everything I need for the moment already. Thank you."
"No problem."
Then they both go back to the books. Tenten likes studying with Hinata, for all that they study different things. Hinata understands the way the library works. While Tenten wants to know about Team 8 going back on active duty, she'll ask later.
Actually—
"Drinks, after?" she says.
"Sure," Hinata replies.
And that's that. Neither of them had looked up from their books.
It's maybe an hour after that, an hour and a half at most, when she's interrupted again and this interruption is much less welcome. It lands on her as heavy a storm. Beside her, she can tell that Hinata's frowning—her hands have stilled, fingers curling slightly.
Flicking her eyes up from her notebook, Tenten frowns at little as Shikamaru and Chouji take seats across from them. Companionably.
Except we've never been companionable. That's always been with the boys.
She's always just sort of… been there. Tenten's gotten the impression that Chouji's nice, but shy and that Shikamaru finds girls incredibly tiresome (probably a holdover from dealing with Ino, admittedly) and she's just… always had better things to do.
Word on the street is that she's standoffish.
She just doesn't want to waste her time.
Hinata knows them a little better, given that they are her classmates, but she's never said that they were friends and from the way Hinata's brow is firmly set to 'puzzled' she's just as confused as Tenten is.
"Hey," she says, dropping her eyes back down and finishing her note. "If you're here to work, there's other tables."
Go away.
"A-ano," Hinata says, the apology in her tone, not her words. "The library isn't a place for meeting up…"
Chouji looks uncomfortable—and a bit apologetic—while Shikamaru leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. And on one of her books.
He did that on purpose.
It irritates her. Can't they see she's busy?
"Nice greeting," Shikamaru says mildly, though his eyebrows are raised.
"It's not like you said anything first," she replies, equally mild, though she glances at Chouji. "How're you doing? Lee's been asking about you."
Chouji looks relieved at the question. Probably because it's politer than her first attempt at talking to them. "I'm doing a lot better," he assures her. "I'll be back on active duty soon."
Tenten nods, leaning back in her chair and nonchalantly closing her notebook, putting it on her lap. Shikamaru is clever enough to break her code, no doubt about that. "Good," she says, meaning it. "I'll let him know. He'll probably want a training session when you're up for it."
It was how Lee cared. Chouji's smile seemed to say he got that.
"Kiba-kun and Shino-kun will be happy to know that too," Hinata says. "If you don't mind my telling them?"
"Of course not," Chouji reassures her.
"We're not here for chitchat," Shikamaru grumbled.
"I know," Tenten says, leaving it at that. Hinata just nods and doesn't mention all the ways that polite small talk serves a useful purpose in smoothing awkwardness away. Their loss.
They've never talked to her outside of when she was with her team and they've never sought her out before either. She's always just kind of there.
It grates, but later. She'll think about it later.
Shikamaru allows the silence to stretch but Tenten knows this tactic—Ino's mentioned it to her, before, that Shikamaru likes to try and out-wait people and while he's good at it in battle…
He's not as patient for non-work things.
(She knows that because he's shown up, interrupting her work. He knows better. This tactic doesn't work on Hinata, either, who sits as quietly as she does.)
"Che," he mutters, after a few moments, turning his head away.
"It's about Ino," Chouji says diffidently. "We had a few questions, if that's okay."
Tenten thinks about it. It's not really okay (library, honestly, boys) but if she indulges them they might go away faster and that's better than getting kicked out if she causes a scene.
(The Chuunin are already keeping an eye on them—they're talking.)
"This really isn't the best place," Hinata points out, her voice gentle in a way that Tenten's never is.
"Keep it fast," she says, since Hinata's second admonition goes as unheard as the first. "If you get us kicked out, I'm using you both as target practice."
And she will.
"We just…," Chouji looks at Shikamaru, but Shikamaru's busy staring at her books intently. "We want to know how she's doing."
Hinata sighs.
"You could ask her that," Tenten points out. "It's not a hard question."
Except it is.
"She's not in town right now," Chouji says. "Besides, with our Clans… it wouldn't be…"
Tenten doesn't sigh, but only through sheer force of effort. Ugh. Clan things. She has enough of that just being friends with Hinata and on Neji's team. It's a detriment to her standing in the village that she's not of a Clan but, honestly, Tenten is just as glad.
Clans start somewhere anyway.
She'll make her own. A Clan of weapon masters, getting better and stronger and more varied down the ages. She'll do that with her own two hands.
"I'm not going to tell you anything she's told me," Tenten says, which isn't much, aside from training details. Tenten hasn't asked for anything other than training info and tips on improving her resistances to poisons and other substances. Ino is a veritable treasure trove of knowledge there. "You'd probably get more information just from listening out on the street."
Everyone is talking about them. Gossip ran through the lifeblood of the village—shinobi and civilians alike.
"Everyone's talking about her. And Haruno."
"But not many of them know her," Shikamaru says. "And you do." He glances at Hinata. "And you."
Tenten doesn't blink. "Not well."
"You train with her sometimes," he points out. "And there's that seminar thing you do."
"I train with a lot of people," Tenten returns. "And it's not just me and her in those meetings."
"Ino-san and Sakura-san keep their own counsel," Hinata says. "This is… uncomfortable. We are all shinobi of Konohagakure."
Tenten doesn't ask how they know about the meetings. None of them had kept it a secret that they were meeting. The first meeting's topic hadn't been secret either, though she has no idea what Hinata will be presenting next.
(It's Ino, Hinata, Tenten, and then Sakura—they'd drawn the names out of a hat to get the order.)
"If that's all," Tenten says, "I'm going to ask you to leave. We've got work to do."
She doesn't want to talk about the people everyone is talking about. Even though they are her friends.
"What are you looking up?" Shikamaru asks. "There's a lot of information on Genin teams here."
Tenten smiles thinly. "My session."
It's a lie and not a very good one, in her opinion, though Chouji seems to buy it, but Tenten presses a touch of chakra to the bottom of her desk, where a sigil is. Hinata's eyes flicker to her, holding a bit of relief.
Taiga shows up, out of nowhere.
'You two are going to have to leave," he rumbles at the boys. "You're interrupting people at work."
Shikamaru slants a glance at them (mostly her) that's mostly a glare while Chouji sighs an apology—both to her, Hinata, and the Chuunin standing over all of them. As the boys get up, Chouji asks, "Are you sure-?"
Hinata just shakes her head and refuses to say anything.
"I'm sure," she says firmly. "I don't sell-out friends. Besides, like I said, everyone is talking about them. Try listening to them."
And not pestering her, who just exists. Or Hinata, who they barely acknowledged.
(Who talks about her?)
Taiga walks them out and Tenten is just beginning to relax when he comes back, a frown on his face.
"Anything I need to know about, you two?" he asks.
She shakes her head. "I don't think so," she says. "It's just..."
"…Clan politics," Hinata finishes, with a bit of a sigh.
He grimaces, like he's bitten into a lemon.
"Alright," he says. "If that's the case, I'll let it go. Remember to recharge the sigil before you leave."
She and Hinata know that and he knows they know that but they all also know that he's obligated to tell them.
Tenten nods as he glances at the books they've accumulated between them.
"Anything interesting?"
Tenten smiles. "Not unless you know the significance of thirty-four years."
To give him credit, he thinks about it before he shakes his head. "Not off the top of my head, not in those books. I'll know by the next time you come in."
It's an old game they play.
With a wave, he leaves her to her work and she sighs, quietly.
Thirty-four years.
She has some thinking to do. Later. After she's found all the information she wants to back up her thoughts.
"I wonder why they're asking about Ino-san now," Hinata says, into their friendly silence.
Tenten frowns. "Don't know."
But they'll figure that out later, over drinks.
"Up, get up!" Hatake-sensei says, sounding way too chipper in the morning.
At least, Sakura thinks it's morning. She's not sure, as she sits up. "What time is it?"
"Way too early," Ino opines, from where she's buried in her sleeping bag. "Do we have to, Hatake-sensei?"
Sakura, squinting at Hatake-sensei (who stands in the doorway, silhouetted by lantern light), has the impression he's smiling at him.
"Five minutes," he says. "In the kitchen."
Then he's gone, even as Sakura begins to scramble up. Ino lays where she is for a moment longer before squirming out of her bag.
"The kitchen?" Ino mutters. "At least he might be planning to feed us before whatever he's got in mind."
Sakura smothers a yawn with her wrist as she pulls out a fresh change of clothes and begins the process of getting into them quickly. Ino does the opposite of her, brushing out her hair first and tying it back.
"What time is it?" she asks, again.
"Can't be past five," Ino says, peering out the window. "Otherwise we'd have woken up for our own training. He picked a time we're usually asleep on purpose, I bet."
That… sounds like their sensei. It sounds like Kakashi-sensei too. Sakura catches the brush Ino tosses at her.
"Wonder what he wants to teach us," Sakura muses, attacking her hair as Ino does the clothing scramble.
"Knowing Hatake-sensei, it's going to be something we aren't expecting," Ino says, with a little bit of a frown. "Or else he just wants to get us started on cleaning the main house."
Sakura frowns, too, at that thought. She'd be perfectly happy, she realizes, to spend a week in this little side house with her team and training.
Ino pulls her sandals on and makes for the door as Sakura tosses the brush on their bags.
"Guess we'll see," Sakura says, a bit shaken at a revelation that really shouldn't throw her off as much as it does.
Hatake-sensei has made them oatmeal.
It's field oatmeal, rather than the fancy stuff you can get if you go to the right cafes early in the morning, but it's warm and filling and rather nice, actually.
After they've washed the dishes, they head out onto the grounds. Hatake-sensei brings his lantern with him and the warm light is the only real illumination since the sky isn't yet lightening.
"Stormy day out," Sakura observes.
It's not raining, yet, but it will be. It's too dark for anything else to be coming.
The temperature is cool, little winds nipping at their hands, and Sakura is grateful that they'd had a warm breakfast. A luxury, probably since they aren't in enemy territory.
(Unless that enemy is bad memories and dust, then there is a war to wage.)
They reach an overgrown field that, nonetheless, when he holds up the lantern, Sakura recognizes—
"A training ground," Ino says, rather approvingly.
It's old and over-run but… something about it feels comforting. Maybe it's because this is so very routine to her now. Sakura feels a little more centered as she steps out onto the field.
"That's right," Hatake-sensei says. "Do your usual warm-ups and we'll get started."
They fall to their stretches as he circles the field, lighting a few other lanterns with the one he carries.
He must have set that up before coming to get us, Ino muses, her voice back in Sakura's head.
Sakura yelps, tumbling from her stretch. "Ino!"
Ino grins at her, entirely unrepentant. "You've got to get used to it."
Sakura smacks her on the arm and begins her stretch all over again. Hatake-sensei doesn't say anything but that's not his style. So long as they're doing what he wants them to do, and doing it right, he'll save other comments for after.
Do you think he slept at all? Sakura wonders, pushing the thought awkwardly in Ino's direction, uncertain if it will work.
She can feel Ino's smile in her words. Doesn't seem like it—though I suppose he could've prepared the lights yesterday, while we were cleaning.
Oh! That's honestly a bit of a relief to think about. I hope that's what he did.
But they don't worry too much more about that while they're working out the stiffness that comes from sleeping and once they're done, and sitting on the damp, over-grown grass in a ring of lights, Hatake-sensei rejoins them.
"We won't be working on conditioning too much here," he says. "Though I know you're working on arm strength and endurance, so I'll show you later where the pells are for training against. They're solid; I've tested them out."
They both nod. That means they're unlikely to be able to break them without serious effort.
"If you've got energy to burn, feel free to go there but I won't expect it while we're on the estate."
Sakura leans forward a little. "So what will we be learning today?"
"Last night we talked about sensor-nin," Hatake-sensei says, crouching down. "Today we'll be learning sensing jutsu."
Sakura frowns. Ino tilts her head.
"I know what you're thinking," he says, "but these aren't ones that only Sensor-nin can use. These are the jutsu that other ninja have come up with to work around what they can't feel innately."
"Oh," Sakura says, feeling a little silly. "I didn't realize there were—jutsu for that. I thought it was just knowledge and skill?"
It had always seemed like knowledge and skill when she watched or worked with older, higher-ranked shinobi.
"Skill is certainly part of it," Hatake-sensei says encouragingly. "As a shinobi you absolutely must be able to identify and follow signs of an enemy's passing. These jutsu are used more when you're looking for something hidden."
"Something like casting a net over the area?" Ino suggests. "Is that what you're talking about?"
"Very good," Hatake-sensei agrees. "We'll be learning one that does that today. However, there's a different kind of sensing jutsu too. Care to make a guess?"
They both fall silent.
Sakura thinks furiously while also trying to keep those thoughts to herself so that Ino doesn't pick up on them. She wants, more than she should, more than she wants to admit to herself, to get the other answer.
It would be embarrassing if Ino realized that and kept her mouth shut in order to give Sakura time to think of the answer.
"Dowsing!" she blurts out, then flushes scarlet, glad that the light might hide some of her colour.
"Correct!" Hatake-sensei says. "Good, you're both thinking. What's the difference between the two of them, Sakura?"
"Well," she says, with a glance at Ino to see if she can figure out her expression but Ino is focused on Hatake-sensei. "If you cast a net, you draw things towards you but with a dowsing rod you have to walk around and then dig up anything you find."
"Very good. Ino, do you have anything to add?"
"They've got different applications," Ino says. "Dowse when you know you're looking for a specific thing in an area that's been clearly delineated, but cast a net when you want to see what you might… fish up?"
"Good," he says, rubbing his hands together. "We'll be learning one jutsu of each type today. Tell me—which kind of sensing do you think will be better for this situation?"
"Dowsing," Sakura says. The ground is damp and chill under her but she feels warm and… useful. It's nice. "Because the estate is an enclosed space, right?"
"Very good," he says, and she has the impression he's smiling. "So we'll be learning the net first, before moving onto the one we'll be using the most while here. Any questions before we begin?"
They shake their heads.