So I know I promised a longer chapter, but my laptop is broken and the computer I'm using has a shitty keyboard, so this is mostly what I've already written. If you notice any glaring errors, please point them out to me as some of the keys were sticky. (especially the y and s keys for some unknown reason...) Should have my laptop back sometime this week, so the final chapter of the wave arc will be posted next Friday night/ Saturday morning!
As always, please let me know what you think in a review or message, and enjoy :)
~line break~
When I woke the next morning after a glorious 13 hours of sleep, I had no interest in actually getting out of bed. In my family, the best way to spend a day—other then napping— was laying in a comfortable spot, relaxing, imitating a nap. So when I woke up, I planned on doing exactly that. To be completely honest, all thoughts of being on a mission or possible retaliation were completely out of my mind. I sighed contentedly, snuggling deeper into the thick blanket, grateful for the warmth in the chill of Wave Country. Hearing movement from a ways off, woke me up a little more, and slowly the previous day came back to me. I made no motion to remove myself form bed, however, instead processing all the information.
There were plenty of things that as a team we could improve on. There were also, unfortunately plenty of things that I personally had screwed up on and would need to fix. After mulling this over, I finally got up to greet the day. I chose to take another shower (no way had I gotten rid of all the grime in my stupor yesterday) and dressed quickly in one of the spare outfits I had packed. I left my hair out of its pony tail while it dried, forgoing the lavender oil I normally rubbed in it for the sake of anonymity. Snatching up a ration bar and cracking it in half, I glanced down at myself and shrugged, content with the state of disorganized I looked. (As a ninja representing the leaf, I was taught in the academy to always look my best on missions when possible, but the lazy look I used just fit me so well)
Munching on the dense but tasty bar, I made my way down the stairs and to the packed kitchen. Sensei was at the table awake, but seated, an empty plate in front of him, while Sasuke looked asleep at the table, munching on food with half closed eyes and a blank face. Naruto, as always, looked wide awake and cheerful, also with an empty plate in front of him. Tsunami turned from the stove where she was doing something, but I waved her off with the hand holding the ration bar, glancing out the window to my left to figure out the time. Probably around 11 in the morning it was still early. And I hadn't been woken for my night shift either. I should be mad, but instead I just felt relieved.
"Kage-chan, good to see that you're awake now." Kakashi began but I interrupted him with a quizzical look.
"When did you wake up? I had you pegged for a good day and a half at the least." I honestly had expected Kakashi to be knocked out for a full 30 odd hours, but I'd been wrong before.
"Earlier." Sensei dismissed me and continued. "Now that you're awake, I wanted to talk with everyone."
Tazuna moved to rise up from his spot at the table, "…I can leave if you ninja need privacy."
"No I think it's important for you too hear what I have to say, because it concerns you too." Here he paused and the whole attitude in the kitchen switched from tired and sleepy to tense and aware. Sasuke straightened up in his seat and Naruto focused on Kakashi's face. I stood leaning in the door way I had arrived in, not happy to be having this mission debrief, but recognizing that mistakes on a mission need to be noticed and rectified.
"I think Zabuza is alive." Mixed reactions to that news. Tazuna predictably didn't handle it well. Sasuke couldn't hold back his gape. Naruto screamed "WHAT DATTEBAYO!" Jumping from his seat, unable to hold back his excitement and worry. Tsunami clutched her hands to her chest to hold back their shaking.
And I froze. Trying to see what sensei had seen."There are a couple things that make me think this." Good, maybe with his explanation I could follow along. "The hunter-nin used senbon. Their leathality is very low. You need to be very precise to kill someone with them. Even then, it's difficult. However, if you're precise enough to aim for the kill points, you might also be precise enough to aim for spots that can trigger a death like state. I checked Zabuza's breathing and pulse, however if he was in a near death state, I wouldn't have been able to tell. For now, lets operate under the assumption that he is." Now I unfroze.
"BE RIGHT BACK." I shouted behind me as I ran out of the room and up the stairs. Entering the guest room that housed all our packs, I tore through mine before finding the anatomy book I had brought with me. Bookmarked with some of the senbon Shisui had give me were the pages I had been reading a few nights ago about kill spots for senbon. Racing back downstairs, I all but threw the book at Kakashi. "Here. With the sharingan, you can remember where he was struck, right? This will let you make a better guess on his life or not."
"THAT WAS SO FAST. Oops too loud sorry Kage-chan." I lowered my frown but looked around the room in surprise. Tsunami seemed to have forgotten the threat to her father's life for a second to goggle me, with Tazuna joining in. Even Sasuke seemed surprise. I guess the two boys hadn't been able to see me fight Zabuza yesterday, busy with their own fight, but still I was surprised. This was slow for me. I was recovering from broken ribs and was still tired.
Kakashi brought me out of my thoughts. "Maaa. Based on the book, I'd have to say in all likelihood Zabuza is still alive. The hunter-nin is probably his partner. A very good partner as well considering that he was able to aim so accurately. Based on his speed, throwing ability, and his ability to remain hidden even during the fight, he ranks at least Chunin, perhaps even tokubetsu jonin. It allots however." He closed my book and handed it back to me. "He was sloppy at the end. Anbu are typically meant to destroy the body right then and there, with a few exceptions of course. If he had made a token attempt, I probably wouldn't have woken up questioning the situation. And then we would've been very unprepared."
His voice grew very serious at the end and I stood straight, eyeing him for a few minutes while all of us collapsed into heavy silence. (He was lost in thought staring at the whorls in the table) Finally I decided that as much as I was going to hate having a mid mission debrief, our team needed it.
"Sensei, are we going to debrief?" He looked up from the wood to meet my steady gaze with his one eye, then smiled at me.
"Typically no." What why and how. That was not the answer I expected. I was taught from the cradle (not really but from 3 and a half) that debriefs, as much as they sucked, were a necessary evil. What kind of jonin did not do regular mid-mission debriefs. "Unless, I'm working with a Nara or someone used to working with them like a Yamanaka or Akimichi." Huh. That was surprising. I hadn't realized that they weren't common. "Usually," He informed me, "Most teams I work with, especially those I lead, only do a single debriefing after we reach the village, or once the mission is officially over, whichever is easier and faster. But considering you were so helpful breaking down the situation earlier in the road, I was going to ask you to conduct this one."
I blanched and he chuckled. Everyone else looked confused and Naruto was on the verge of asking a ton of questions to Sensei spoke up. " A mission debriefing is done for missions over C rank. You can do them for D ranks as well but it gets very tedious so most don't bother." He shifted his gaze from me to the two boys sitting next to each other at the table. I knew what this a debrief was so this short lecture was for them (and the two nosy civilians) then for me. "The team discusses what went wrong and what went right on the mission. Usually its a pretty quick process and sometimes is skipped all together unless something went majorly of course on the mission." I moved to speak up, about to correct sensei because debriefs should never be skipped (they were a valuable tool for improving ones ability, the teams overall cohesiveness and also helped to catch weaknesses and gaps in knowledge.
Sensei continued before i could speak up, "However, like I said before some teams take them more seriously then others. These can get pretty brutal as you get called out on mistakes you made that directly impacted the overall mission and safty of your comrades. Teams composed of Nara's or Yamanaka's or a random few others typically do two briefings. One about halfway through the mission to review any plans made, make adjustments to the teams structure, or to review what has happened so far. The second meeting happens after the mission and is the same thing, but more detailed. Its usually led by the team leader of the mission. However, because Kage is our appointed chief strategist, I'm asking her to lead this one." Naruto and Sasuke both nodded at Kakashi's joke (I hoped it was a joke. I was rather attached to my role of support. Chief strategist sounded like more work)
"What do we have to do to get better then?" Sasuke queried. Kakashi gestured to me to take over the conversation. I took a deep breath to center myself. I had done plenty of mock discussions like the with dad and Shika, but either one of them usually led the talk, so I was nervous. (Sensei wasn't lying. They could be brutal, because you were calling out your team on their weaknesses and overall failures. It sucked to hear that someone had noticed your fuck ups, especially ones you didn't even notice making.)
"Okay. I think we need to talk about that fight and how that affects us. Especially considering that Zabuza is still alive and probably pissed off at nearly dying. And Sensei is injured." I warbled off biting my lip. Not off to a good start. Okay, just got to channel dad. I sat down at the table and eyed my teammates and Tazuna (He was there so he was part of the debrief dammit.)
"Sasuke, what do you think you did wrong during the mission?" He was going to start us off on this emotional journey of a conversation. He looked surprised then angry.
"What I did wrong? I did everything just like I was supposed to! I listened to sensei and I even got him free! I—" I shook my head.
"No this isn't about what you did right. You did listen to sensei. You protected the bridge builder and you also maintain proximity with Naruto and I. You did your job right. But right now we're looking for mistakes that were made. For example," I turned my gaze to Naruto, who I knew would not yet able to pick out his mistakes like I hoped Sasuke could. "Naruto you opened up the confrontation by trying to rush Zabuza. You almost left one side of Tazuna-san unprotected, if not for sensei. Speaking of which, you also distracted sensei from giving his full attention to Zabuza when sensei had to stop you. In the middle of the confrontation, you were over all fine. However, at the end, with the shadow shuriken, you spammed clones to throw in front of you and Sasuke. That was a waste of chakra that might have been needed if the fight hadn't ended as soon as it did."
"Instead, we need to improve your dodging and deflection skills. One clone that can deflect kunai is better then 6 clone bodies that waste energy and distract Sasuke." I turned back to Sasuke. "Which was one of the mistakes you made. You let yourself be distracted by the amount of clones surrounding you. You did eventually use teh distraction to your advantage, and using it as an attack at Zabuza. Having Naruto henge was quick thinking and a very good use of combinging a teammate's ability with your own...but we've been a team for over 3 months. Naruto's signature ability is shadow clones. You cant let yourself get distracted. Even with the garish amount of orange involved." Here he lowered his head.
"I also…" He hesitated, but I looked on encouragingly. (the best way to improve was to recognize your faults on your own without needing somone to point them out to you) "I also let myself get caught up in the middle of the fight. If Kakashi-sensei hadn't said something…" I shook my head.
"You're right it is a problem, but that's one we all need to work on in time. For now know your limits. Remember the feeling, and know that its just energy in the air. It's not real and you can breathe." He nodded sharply. I paused, hating the next part but knowing that before I could move on to Kakashi sensei I needed to talk about myself. (I was such a hypocrite. But knowing my flaws and mistakes was a very different feeling from admitting them out loud. And I had made some big ones that could have cost us the mission...)
"I…" I faltered then continued. "I let myself get caught up in the fight. I blocked the side of Tazuna that was closest to the trees, which was good for the shadows that were offered, but I didn't manage to notice the hunter-nin hiding in teh woods even though I was sensing for people." Kakashi looked like he was going to interrupt me here (because even he didn't notice the other ninja) but that wasn't the point of the debrief so I didn't let him. "I also didn't plan properly, when I went to hold off the Zabuza clone. I should've asked you to make a clone to watch him, Naruto." I nodded to the boy. "It's not a good team dynamic to have one person take on too much. I shouldn't have said I could handle holding off the clone, watching Tazuna-san and also blocking the real Zabuza. Ideally I should only have done one of those tasks, but because we don't live in a perfect world, I should've stuck to no more then two of them. ...I jeopardized the entire mission by not remembering teh mission objective. I should have made sure that there was a solid form of protection for Tazuna before running off and biting off more then I could chew."
I faced Tazuna. "I am very sorry for risking your life by not better focusing on your safety." I turned back to my team, adn brightened considerably "Okay with that, I think we can turn to Kakashi sensei." Naruto and Sasuke both looked surprised but Kakashi looked bemused.
"Me?"
"Even jonin-sensei make mistakes. Like moving a fight to the top of water against a former hunter-nin from the hidden mist who clearly has a water affinity."
"…Point."
"And also jonin who uses water affinity A rank jutsu that drain his chakra reserves rather then sticking within his own affinity. Or at least using earth affinity that are strong against water affinity."
He nodded and said dryly, "I knew there was a reason I asked you to lead this."
Feeling loads lighter I grinned. "Okay now that we've talked about all this, we have to talk about the most important part. What can we do to improve this? What did we do right that we need to do again? What do we need to fix?" I looked at them expectancy.
Naruto raised his hand as if in a classroom, and I inclined my head at him, "I think the shuriken at the end worked really good. Sasuke managed to make the switch without anyone noticing. So he should use more genjutsu?" It came out as more a question,but I nodded anyway.
"Right, I agree. Sasuke, you're turning out to be this team's midrange fighter, and also a pinch close combat specialist. We should work on your genjutsu and also yours and Naruto's teamwork. The Shuriken trick was really well done." Naruto beamed and Sasuke sat up slightly straighter trying not to show how pleased he was. "It goes without saying that as a midrange fighter, you and Naruto, our close range fighter, are more likely to be partnering attacks then anyone else in the team. Although, … I think your skill with ninja wire is really helpful for my techniques. When we have time, we should really work on that..."
Sasuke nodded and added his own analysis. "You're really fast as well. If you can blend that speed with mine, we'd both probably have been able to handle the clone and the real Zabuza for a little while longer." I nodded in agreement, happy that our team was actually having a productive team-like conversation.
"Naruto," He straightened up, surprised. I guess he hadn't expected me to have any other praise for him after the shuriken technique. "We need to improve your sensory skills. You noticed a missing nin before anyone else on the team. I don't even think Kakashi-sensei noticed anything till you pointed it out. That is an invaluable skill that it seems I can't yet match, if ever."
I eyed my team again. "I think, as long as Kakashi agrees, that we should have some focused training for the next few days. A near death state, as well as huge chakra drain mean we won't have to deal with Zabuza for probably 3 or 4 days, but more likely a week." I looked at Kakashi for confirmation, biting my lip. He looked thoughtful but nodded his head eventually.
"We probably can expect a little more then a week, but we should be cautious."
I sighed in acknowledgement. "With that being said, I think we should work on our skills and weaknesses. Naruto, you need to work on dodging and sensory awareness. Sasuke, you need to work on genjutsu and a little ninja wire practice never hurts anyone. So I guess my specialized training for you two...hmm." I thought for a second, "You two are basically gonna beat the shit out of each other. Naruto, your goal is to just dodge or deflect. We're trying to build up you're awareness of Sasuke as well as your speed. So maybe after a few days we'll try blindfolding you and see what happens. Sasuke, you're going to be trying to hit him with weapons, to build up accuracy while maintaining your hidden location in the woods. This will help improve your chakra muffling ability and also...we should bring up your genjutsu skill. Okay, you're gonna try using genjutsu on the weapons to make it more difficult for Naruto to dodge. Similar to how you combined them against Zabuza. The feel of chakra weapons will only help Naruto with his senses. Personally, I was going to work on meditating to bring up my chakra reserves, and also being the person to go watch Tazuna at the bridge for the next few days, till you guys get enough practice that we can rotate in and out. In my spare time, I was also going to try and improve on my family jutsu, but I don't know how much I can do on my own, so I'll increase my weights to help bring up my strength and speed over the next week."
Even sensei looked impressed. I thought it was a pretty neat idea. Everyone had a place to be: a purpose. The training would be effective and would also bring up Sasuke and Naruto's teamwork because they would get very good at predicting the others move.
"And what about your poor sensei?" Said Sensei teased.
"Your going to sleep."
"…What." Unexpected? No, but I was hoping he would just accept that he needed to rest.
"You're our strongest person here. The best thing for you to do is recover from your injures and more importantly, refill your chakra reserves. I healed your ribs as best I could, so you should be fine with those in a few days, but your reserves need to be refilled. The best way is sleep and low activity. Maybe some light exercise like basic training, but nothing excessive. Perhaps you can accompany me and Tazuna? There isn't likely to be anything happening in the next few days. The Hunter-nin will probably attack with Zabuza, now that the element of surprise is over. That's what I would do anyway."
Kakashi hmmed in agreement. "Fine, I can manage rest."
"and sleep?"
"I'm a jonin." He said in explanation.
"So what—oh" I understood after a second. After so much training, the body got used to getting so many hours of sleep. The lack of sleep often made recovery difficult and hospital staff irritable, but considering the strenuous training our bodies went through, no one was really surprised. Our training affected us from how much we felt comfortable eating in on sitting to our ability to actually stay asleep for long periods of time. But… I had packed some Nara pills. More for myself and possible nightmares of lives past, but I had plenty.
"I might have a sleep aid with me…" He looked at me blankly (Fuck maybe that wasn't the word here. Well it was self explanatory, so I was just gonna play it off like he was clueless not me) "They're pills and remedies that help you fall asleep. The ones I have help you stay asleep, but as long as you get 3 or 4 hours, you're not too drowsy after."
He looked intrigued but shook his head focusing on the table.
"And that children, is a a debrief." Naruto and Sasuke looked a little bit shell-shocked. (It had been very information dense, and it was always hard to talk about what you did wrong in a situation, but I was pretty proud of my team. Usually these talks go way worse. No one had seemed to take anything too personal. We'd managed pretty well. Perhaps this was a good sign of our team to come.) "Lets move to it. We're wasting day light; those are perfect training hours out there." I turned back to Tazuna, who looked bemused at the quick swing from serious discussion to playful orders, "Are you ready to get back to bridge building today? I'm sure I'll be fine with any thugs that show up. We shouldn't be getting any big names till Zabuza is back."
With that being said the kitchen unfroze and everyone moved to get ready for their assigned task.
~line break~
After about 3 days of Sensei sleeping and doing nothing but reading his book, I relented to his puppy dog eye and declared him fit enough to do whatever he wanted. His ribs were almost completely healed, his own chakra system, as well as my healing I had administered right away, significantly speeding up the healing process (compared to a normal human like my previous life medical knowledge expected). He decided to send a clone with me to the bridge, which had been quiet, while the real him joined in on Sasuke and Naruto's training.
"If you don't tell them your joining in, its even better training for them." I suggested.
He ruffled my hair, mussing my ponytail, "Sneaky little genin." He said approvingly. When Naruto and Sasuke returned that night they both complained about feeling like they hadn't improved at all. One glance at Sensei's blank face let me know that they were doing just fine.
I had taken to bringing my medical book with me, as well as my pack of cards. While everyone worked, I studied the text, trying to incorporate the strike and kill points for kunai, shuriken and senbon into my extensive anatomical knowledge (really the chakra system still threw me off and I'd been studying for a couple months now). When Tazuna and the other workers took smoke or meal breaks, I dealt out hands and played quick games of poker, black jack, and a curious game I'd never heard of but was like a mix of go fish and bullshit. I'd never really gambled in my past life (I used to be a goody two shoes with no life to speak of besides studying and netflix) but in this life, quick reflexes, sharp eyes and an even sharper mind was enough to count cards and figure out odds. I purposely lost most hands anyway. These men needed a pick me up and apparently beating the little ninja gave it to them. Any other free time I had allowed me to meditate and try to improve my sensing ability.
The days passed quickly like this and it wasn't until the sixth day since the fight with Zabuza, the fifth since we'd begun training in earnest, that Kakashi decided to bring along an extra genin. He left a clone with Naruto to practice with, while both Sasuke and I escorted Tazuna to the bridge, Kakashi ambling behind us. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, except I now played more cards then I did reading. By the end of the day, I had actually had a conversation unrelated to ninja life with Sasuke. (perhaps emo boy and I will be friends after all...)
The next day it was switched, with Sasuke left at the home to train with one of Kakashi's clones dodging, while Naruto accompanied me to the bridge.
It was on this twelfth day since the fight that Zabuza and his hunter-nin friend decided to attack.
~Linebreak~