Chapter 4

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Comments

This was my first go at writing something more serious/emotional. It was definitely the hardest chapter so far, trying to explore the impact of grief on the people around you. But for better or worse, Naruto is a story filled with ups and downs, and this will not be the last time I'll be touching such a topic.

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"You are your best thing."

~ Toni Morrison ~

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"Sooooo, why am I here?" I asked, blinking owlishly as I found myself face to face with a silver-haired Hatake who was nonchalantly polishing his blade.

"Training." He replied, and finally set his blade down once he was satisfied that it was sharp enough to cut through… me?

I was puzzled. I had heard from Kushina about her husband's grump of a student and was surprised that he was willing to spend his time with me.

"Are you going to offer me as a sacrifice?" I asked with narrowed eyes.

"Only if you let yourself get sacrificed."

I gulped. With that mask on and his back towards me, I couldn't tell if he was joking.

As I braced for Kakashi to deal what I assumed to be the first of many strikes that would shred me into confetti, I heard Obito's voice cut across the training field.

"Tsubaki! Tsubaki!" He yelled.

Sighing, Kakashi lowered his tanto, stabbing the blade into the ground and with one hand coming to rest on his hip, glaring at the Uchiha's knucklehead ninja.

"What's wrong Obito?" I asked, taking a few steps forward to meet the boy who was huffing and puffing like he had just ran a marathon.

"Kushina… Kushina-san… News… from Suna." He gasped in between choking down oxygen. "Emergency... Go now."

And just like that my instinct kicked in. Barely turning to look at the two I dashed towards the Hokage tower, where I presumed Kushina-sensei and the Third were waiting for me.

'It's fine.' I thought, but the coil in my stomach betrayed my thoughts.

I got to the Hokage's office in what must have been a record time. Yet as I stood outside, a paralysing fear stopped me from walking through that door. A chill travelled down my spine and I felt my feet glued to the floor.

'Pull yourself together. You're overreacting.' I repeated it like a mantra. Taking a deep breath, I raised my hand and knocked. Three times. Confidently. Like a shinobi reporting for duty.

"Come in Tsubaki."

And I stepped through the door.

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Kakashi let out a sigh as Obito missed another punch and fell straight into his web of explosive tags. Honestly, he was starting to wonder how the Uchiha had survived for this long.

"Are you really taking those skills out into the battlefield?" Kakashi sighed as Obito untangled himself from the mess.

The Uchiha stuck his tongue out, "Yeah yeah Kakashi, I'll beat you in the next round!"

"Sorry, I'm back!"

The two shinobi turned as Tsubaki quickly rejoined. Kakashi gave her an odd look. Physically, she seemed fine. But there was a change in her... something was up but who was he to pry.

"Hey, are you ok Tsubaki? You look like you're about to cry." Obito asked.

She laughed, waving off his concern. "I'm fine… Just a bit sad."

"Hmm, ok. I need to go back and finish some chores for the old man, but next round I'm gonna crush you Kakashi!" Obito swore, then running off in a swirl of blue and orange.

"So, where were we?" Tsubaki asked, a smile as she took a stance preparing to meet Kakashi's first blow.

Wordlessly, he picked up his blade and resumed their training, but it didn't last long. They barely started when Kakashi made a comment about her heart not being in it.

"I don't know what's gotten into you but you missed several strikes that you normally dodge. I thought Kushina-san fixed your tunnel vision issue a long while ago."

And just like that, Tsubaki broke.

Letting out a wail, the kunoichi fell to the floor. Gasping for air, one hand dug into the ground beneath her, as the other tightened itself around the shirt she was wearing.

Kakashi panicked. Slowly, he put aside his tanto, and spent some time thinking about what to do next. Tsubaki was strong, and highly capable. He had never seen her break down like this, and he wondered if it was due to his earlier criticism.

Slowly approaching his distressed teammate, he spoke, "Tsubaki, what's-"

He felt a surge in chakra coming from Tsubaki, and the ground below responded in kind. Any metallic minerals that were naturally occurring within the earth started to rise in specks of dust and swirl as an angry storm around her.

"They killed him… he's dead!" She shouted, and Kakashi could see that she was starting to hyperventilate.

"Tsubaki, calm down!" He shouted as the sand storm had grown so that it was not reaching the borders of the empty training field.

But it was clear that she wasn't listening. He cursed as he felt tremors in the earth building in intensity and frequency. Kakashi's tanto blade had flown off somewhere, taken by the sand storm, but that didn't change the fact he needed to stop her, now.

His fingers started forming the seals for an earth jutsu, but before he could do anything, a spike of sand rose from the ground reaching to impale him.

If it wasn't for the fact that he had practice against Minato's Flying Thunder God, he had no doubt that he would have been seriously injured by the spike.

"They KILLED HIM!" Tsubaki screeched, and the sand storm responded, swirling around her with greater intensity. A dangerous combination of a shield to protect her, and to attack anything around her.

"Get back!"

Recognising the voice of his sensei, Kakashi didn't hesitate to jump back and stay out of Minato's way. There was simply nothing he could do.

With a flash, Minato vanished and reappeared immediately behind Tsubaki. The sand roared in anger, but it was too late. He had reached out and slammed a seal directly into the back of her neck.

Tsubaki gasped, the sand storm stopped, and instead gently fell onto the ground like snowflakes. Now that the storm was gone, Kakashi and Minato could see the array of cuts that littered across her face and arms.

Approaching the two, Kakashi knelt down to face Tsubaki and saw that the wind had mixed tears with blood from the cuts across her forehead, painting her with a crimson crown.

"Kaka-kun." She cried, swaying weakly "I'm sorry."

As she fell, Kakashi instinctively reached out to catch her which exposed the dark red marking of a seal now at the base of her neck.

"Come now, we should get her to the medics." Minato said.

"Obito said that there was an emergency from Suna. What happened?" Kakashi asked.

"It's her father Kakashi," Minato looked down at the sleeping girl that cried red tears, "He's dead."