Authors note at the end
~Linebreak~
We left the village at a sprint, almost immediately taking to the trees. Kakashi lead, I took my place behind him, followed by Sasuke and Naruto on either side of me. Unlike the in the Forest, we weren't trying to hide our presence and could afford to take a point guard position. Sensei gave no explanation for the hard pace and none of us had any breath to question the run.
We ran the entire day, stopping for a unforgiving five minute rest around midday where we scarfed down water, rations, and went to the bathroom. There was no time for conversation—there wasn't even time to catch our breath before sensei let out a sharp whistle and lead us back into the treetops.
We finally stopped at sunset, when the sky had just taken on the orange-pink of pre night light. I stood leaning against a tree, gasping for breath and clutching at my side in pain from the barely healed wounds. Sasuke was collapsed on the ground next to Naruto—although his stamina was better then the average genin, the mix of chakra cycling, chakra control, and general aerobic work of long distance endurance running left him a pale sweaty mess.
Shockingly, Naruto, who had struggled to keep up the majority of the day, was recovering faster then either Sasuke or I. He already had recovered from his ragged breathing and was slowing beginning to even out the deep huffs into more regular breaths. His face had a sheen of sweat, but the redness from working out was already beginning to fade as his heart rate dropped back to its resting pace.
I stared at him incredulous before giving up and letting myself slide to the floor in pain. Sensei eyed us all dispassionately, his arms crossed. He looked like he always did—unflappable and unbothered. That wasn't to say that he hadn't worked hard; I could see the slight sheen of sweat on his brow and he had a slight flush to his cheeks that let me know that he hadn't been simply walking but clearly this pace was more like a jog to him then the grueling punishment it was to the rest of us.
The first Sasuke was the first to recover both his wits and his breath. He asked one of his startlingly rare questions: "Where are we?"
Okay, maybe he hadn't recovered all his wits because that wouldn't have been my first question. Distractedly I answered him, glancing around the forest as I spoke. "We're probably half a days run outside of the border of Fire Country. We ran perhaps the length of fire country today including all the doubling back."
"Doubling back?" Naruto questioned, looking around us curiously. Sasuke also looked taken aback.
Sasuke Hmm'd. "I didn't notice that. Just the genjutsus sensei was laying." I blinked.
"Genjutsus?" I questioned, glancing towards our teacher. Sensei had pulled his pack off and was ruffling through it. He glanced at the sky and seeing no clouds, put a scroll away. He left out another and unsealed it, revealing a bed roll. I blinked at it tiredly then pulled my own heavy pack off to find my own bed roll. The other Naruto was already unrolling his on the ground and Sasuke was moving to follow.
"I laid a few genjutsu down as we traveled." Sensei spoke up after a moment of silence. I jumped, tired enough that I'd already forgotten the question. "And I had us double back a couple times so that no one would notice where we were going, leaving a trail or not."
Satisfied with his bed roll, he stood up and glanced at us. "Sasuke you're on latrine duty. Naruto you're digging out a fire pit and setting up a spit. Kage, you're on food duty." He winced almost imperceptibly. "Try not to get a squirrel. I hate squirrels."
Too tired to argue, I grabbed some kunai from a pouch in my pack rather then use the ones in my side pouch—that would mean restocking later and that was work I didn't want to do. Slowly, my other two teammates stood along with me and got to our duties.
By the time I was far enough from our campsite to hear signs of life, full dark was upon us. Nearing winter now, the sunsets were shorter, the nights cooler. I blinked and looked around me taking in the night with crystal clear clarity, once again thankful for my family and the great night vision I had been blessed with.
I did notice a small family of squirrels playing in the trees. Listening to sensei, I avoided them and instead followed the sound of churning water. A small slip of water ran through the forest, barely a stream it was so small. I tiredly claimed a tree looking down on the water source and crouched on an overhanging branch, ready. I had only been waiting for a few minutes when a bird fluttered to the ground. I ignored it. It was too small to feed the four of us. Once it had flown off, I had a slightly longer wait before the next encounter. This time was a small fox, peering suspiciously around the clearing. I waited until it had ducked its head to drink in the stream before I launched myself off the branch at the animal.
I swooped down silently, only startling the fox when I landed on its back. It was already too late for the mammal. As it was turning to try and snap at its attacker, I gripped my kunai tighter and pulled it across in one smooth motion, slitting the throat of the fox. I held it firmly in place while it thrashed for a few moments before finally growing still. I tiredly stood up and grabbed the fox by its hind legs and tossed it over my back. It was a small thing, no where near full grown and wasn't to heavy to carry even in my exhausted state.
I made my way back to the campsite, tripping in the dark for all that I could see just fine. I was exhausted, mentally and physically.
While I had taken Sensei's advice to heart about the training weights, I was still feeling the hard pace of today. The lack of weight I normally had on meant nothing compared to the distance and speed we'd run. Especially straight out of the hospital. I had expected an easy mission. Not this grueling pace.
I found a quiet grouping when I got back, as well as merrily dancing fire, dug into the ground to avoid the radius of its light. The tongues of flame barely danced over the pit, which already had a macguyere'd apparatus of tree branches to hang my catch from. I sluggishly brought my catch over and dumped it next to Sasuke. He obligingly began skinning the creature as I let my legs finally fold in and let myself fall to the ground. I let myself fall back, throwing my arm over my face to cover my eyes.
"Ugh" I let out a grunt of pain. Naruto moaned in commiseration. Sasuke Hm'd in agreement.
Kakashi sensei chucked ominously. "Children, are you unhappy with todays pace?"
I paused reflecting on his question. It was telling that Naruto and Sasuke stayed quiet as well.
'They're probably waiting on you' I internal thought, remembering what sensei had said about being a leader on the team.
With that responsiibiitly, I sat up from my slump and frowned at the other two thoughtfully.
"…Yeeeeees." I stretched out the word carefully, still thinking about it. I didn't want to trigger Kakashi's sense of contrariness and have him speed up the run tomorrow but—"I think at this rate, we're going to be unfit for duty when we finally reach our mission."
"Oh I lied. There's no mission." The fire popped cheerfully in contrast to horror I felt growing. Sensei continued on blithely. "Your guardians will be informed of course, otherwise they would wonder where you've gone. But the hokage approved me for an indeterminately long training trip!"
"indeterminately…" Sasuke sounded shocked and despondent at the same time.
"Sensei, you told us to pack for two days!" I cried desperately hoping he was lying.
He eye smiled at me. "Of course I told you two days! Thats what the manifest we left at the front gate says too! No one knows you're out here right now except myself and the hokage. And soon your parents." He nodded at me.
"Is this cause of that snake guy?" Naruto questioned bluntly.
"In part." Sensei motioned for Sasuke to add the fox to the spit. He unfroze and stuck the sharpened wood through the animal. "Clearly, your team was targeted."
"Sasuke-teme was targeted." A grumpy Naruto grumbled without any real feeling.
Sensei sighed. "Mah, yes it was Sasuke who was targeted. But all of you ended up feeling the effects of that. So I took you out of the village, where no one knows you are and where you would—hopefully—be safe. With the Hokage's consultation of course." I relaxed a little.
"So today was about getting away from the village where no one could find us? It wasn't about getting to some B rank mission assignment as fast as possible?" I let my tension dissolve from my shoulders a little.
"Of course not!" Sensei sounded shocked at the accusation and the rest of the tension evaporated. Today's pace had been brutal.
"Today was about beginning day one of training! You all are lacking in a few departments. I already spoke with Kage about it" He nodded to me, before turning to the other two boys. "Tomorrow I'll speak with each of you separately and explain your new training plan going forward." He eye smiled again.
"Don't worry though, I'll make sure we have time for a long run every once in a while! By the last day of training I expect us to be able to redo today loop in a fraction of the time it took today—a necessary improvement."
I let myself fall back to my slump and let out another groan, echoed by my teammates.
~linebreak~
The next morning we began what would be our training for the foreseeable future.
Sensei created two clones and pulled them off to speak to each of the boys in the solitude of the forest while he motioned for me join him next to his pack. He was rummaging through his pack and I was still sleep deprived because Sensei had woken us before the crack of dawn, so I let myself fall into a seated position next to him, crossing my legs underneath me in a lazy seiza.
After a dramatic moment, of which I'm sure sensei orchestrated because he liked drama, he let out a significant "Aha!" and pulled out a beautiful blade. It was shorter then a katana, but longer then Shisui's tanto. It was a black and gold wrapped handle with golden triangles woven into thick rope covering the handle. The physical blade was covered in a scabbard with intricate designs going up the side and some kanji that I couldn't quite make out. The scabbard matched the black and gold design, the kanji in a faint unreflective gold which contrasted nicely with the stylish pattern etched up the side of the black leather.
Sensei spoke quietly. "This is a wakizashi, a short sword often worn with a katana. The Hatake's of past used to wear them as a pair until they broke off from the samurai lifestyle. Once they became shinobi, they dropped the use of the katana to distinguish themselves. The pair of blades —the katana and the wakizashi—is called a big-little. The little blade was chosen because it was seen as less samurai like and more shinobi." He paused here and I pulled my eyes away form the blade for a moment to look this face.
Sensei wasn't looking at me; he seemed lost in his own thoughts as he gazed at the blade. He didn't sound upset, but more—I couldn't place the emotion. Wistful?
I looked back at the blade, nothing how carefully wrapped the handle was, how there was no sign of any other user. The scabbard had a few nicks, but nothing overt. For all intents and purposes this looked nearly unused.
After the thoughtful pause, sensei spoke again, "You'll be using this wakizashi in our training. Let me show you—" I didn't realize I was leaning forward until sensei moved to unsheathe the blade. The second the metal flashed in the daylight I took in a sharp breath.
I reeled back from my seated position, falling awkwardly on my hands, but dragged myself still further back.
Sensei stayed where he was. His face, what I could see of it, was rather blank, but he hadn't moved to unsheathe the sword anymore then it was already drawn.
I took a second to catch my breath and slow my racing heart, purposefully not looking at the sword. I was pretty embarrassed to have such a visceral reaction. I had known after all that sensei was going to be training me in using a sword. But I couldn't help it as memories of pain this body had never felt flooded my brain.
"That was…an interesting reaction." Sensei pushed the sword back into its sheath and carefully set it to his side. He tilted his head curiously at me and silently motioned for me to move back to my previous position.
I hesitated for only a moment before sliding forward on the dirt towards sensei—I wasn't scared of him after all, just the sword that I could no longer see.
I didn't meet sensei's gaze, studiously looking down at my lap, still embarrassed at myself. He let out a half groan-half sigh.
"When did this start, I wonder? Not before Wave, you handled that just fine." He thought aloud for my benefit.
I let out a small noise of protest. "I didn't see Zabuza's sword when he attacked me. He was blocked by the mist. And it wasn't this…close. I just froze then cause he was further back."
"So before Wave then?" Sensei sounded incredulous. I flinched. Had I really told sensei just a day ago that I was willing to learn how to use a sword? Had I really forgotten I had a phobia of sharp objects?
"Always, I think." I know. I remembered. I failed to hold back a shudder.
"But not kunai and shuriken?" In another situation, sensei's bafflement would've been funny. Here it was frustrating because how was I supposed to explain that I could be a competent ninja with a fear of sharp objects particularly covered in blood.
"Eh—only with blood on them." I tried to not wince when I said it. So like anytime I would need it as a ninja.
Sensei heaved out a deep sigh. "Do you have any idea what caused this…aversion?" he phrased it carefully.
I wondered how to use my experience with Itachi as an excuse. I thought for a long moment before I opened my mouth. Then I closed it and thought more carefully about what I wanted to say. Part of my openness was my total exhaustion. But part of my openness was because this was Hatake Kakashi, and in the few short months I'd been assigned to team seven, he'd become like another member of my small family. I, strangely enough, trusted him.
I opened my mouth again and spoke slowly, careful of how I wanted to phrase this. "I never meant to hide this…but I never knew how to bring it up without people thinking I was crazy."
Kakashi patted my head soothingly. "No one is gonna think you're crazy for having a phobia."
I wrinkled my nose at him, "Well that's not exactly true. You see, I'm scared of knives because I remember dying from one. Being murdered actually."
Sensei sighed. "I read your file and I know you went head to head with Itachi Uchiha at a young age—you might not remember it, but it would've been enough to cause nightmares. You actually ended up passed out from chakra exhaustion, which would've added to a dream like effect. Combined with Wave, I probably should've been checking on you guys more. The forest didn't help of course bu—"
I let out a slightly hysterical giggle. "You think I'm talking about nightmares?" Sensei leaned back seeming slightly worried about the maniacal look that was probably on my face.
"Kage-cha—"
"Sensei, you're not going to believe me…but I'm absolutely certain I lived an entire life before this one. And I remember it. And I remember dying. By being murdered. And I had no way of proving it, so I never mentioned it before." At sensei's blank face I gave him a shaky grin.
"At least it's not nightmares though?"
Sensei stayed quiet for a moment clearly digesting what I had said. He came to the obvious conclusion. I was insane. I could tell the moment he started placating me, his gaze pitying.
"Kage-chan, when did you first realize you were a reincarnation?"
I sighed and rolled my eyes at him. "You don't believe me. Fine. Let me try my best to explain it to you. I first realized when I was in the orphanage. Because I was a baby again and the last thing I remembered was getting stabbed in an alley. Kind of had to put two and two together."
"Kage-chan…I don't want you to not trust me. I believe you." He eye smiled at me but I frowned at him unimpressed. I noticed the tense posture he'd taken as well as the sudden alertness in his gaze. "So what happened in this 'orphanage'?"
I rolled my eyes again. "Okay you can think I'm crazy, but there is no reason to doubt the orphanage claim. You know Shikaku is my adopted dad right?"
Sensei was quiet here. He didn't meet my eyes. I exploded.
"You said you read my file! You even knew about the night of the massacre! Thats classified!" I exclaimed.
Slightly sheepish despite the tense atmosphere, Sensei rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"I mean, I skimmed the family stuff. It was all self explanatory I thought. Read more about the psychological profile and instructors evaluations."
"And you've never realized…? I mean I wasn't trying to hide it. I love my mom and dad but I love my birth mom too. She was a Nara too. My dad's sister."
Sensei nodded agreeably. "Okay so you lived in an orphanage. And what happened then?"
He nudged me forward in the tale.
"I'm cutting some stuff out, but I met Shikaku when I was three. I was adopted, brought to Konoha and you know everything about me since. But at first, I was too young to explain to them about the past life thing. Who would believe a kid? It would've been seen as a make believe thing. And by the time I realized the Yamanaka could check, I'd already discovered that entering a childs head too young could cause permanent damage that I didn't want to risk and that I was sure my dad wasn't going to risk either. Then I grew up and suddenly, I wasn't a kid anymore. There was no set point where it was like yup kid yesterday but adult today. But more like at a certain point where if I brought it up, it would've been awkward like 'Woah Kage, you've been like this all your life and never thought to tell anyone?' and then after a while it just never really came up in conversation.
Till now." I finished lamely.
Sensei sighed and patted my head again. "We're going to need to take you for a psych eval when you get back to the village."
I groaned. "I figured. It'll be bothersome, but I guess Inochi-san will be able to peak around my head and see."
"It's all in the details." Sensei agreed and eye smiled at me. "Do you know something about Iwa because you grew up there? Or how about Suna? Maybe Kiri if you were stabbed to death. I've heard it can be a very violent place." He teased.
I felt my mouth take an O shape. "No way." I crossed my arms in an x over my chest.
"If I grew up as a ninja before, I would be a prodigy this time around. I had to actually work to get to where I am. And every time I think I know something, I end up being wrong. I thought I was as fast as a tokubetsu jonin before the wave trip. Wrong. If I had been a ninja before, I would just know these things."
"…You are some kind of genius though. A little smidgen of a prodigy maybe. Team seven passed the second portion of the exams ridiculously easily. The whole team is shaping up to be incredibly quick at learning—"
I cut him off. "Stop talking yourself up sensei. That's because you're an amazing teacher, but that's not what I'm saying. In my past life…" I let myself think back wistfully on a time when I could be even lazier then I already was. I had really taken it for granted. "I wasn't a ninja. No one was. Chakra didn't exist."
Sensei blinked. Processed. Then burst out laughing. "How can chakra not exist? Thats like saying air doesn't exist. Or water." I grinned in acknowledgment. His short chuckle had lightened the mood significantly. I leaned back on my heels.
"The whole world didn't have any chakra. Or if it did, it couldn't be accessed like it can here. And it didn't affect everything like it does here. I was actually training to be a doctor. All my years of study made useless because the chakra system throws every body system interaction that I had already learned. As an aside, you were right; what you said about being a medic: I don't have the knowledge anymore: I'd basically have to relearn a new human body.
But, yea, no chakra on anyone. Almost completely different medical techniques. More reliance on science, government, society. There was no constant state of violence. No ninja…No child soldiers either."
I paused here. I had already said way more then I had ever planned on telling anyone. I hadn't been lying earlier; there was no reason to keep my reincarnation a secret—I had just never gotten around to informing anyone. But if I was going to tell anyone…Kakashi-sensei was probably one of my top choices, behind only dad and Shisui.
"So I know you think I'm crazy pending verification from a Yamanaka, but can you believe me pending that same verification?" I pleaded with him. I gave him my best puppy dog eyes and wavered my lip.
He gave me a droll stare back, before finally sighing and relaxing his posture from his tenseness. "It's pretty hard to believe Kage-chan. And you're telling me that no one else knows. I still can't believe you could have kept something this big a secret?" He ended it on a question still stuck in a state of disbelief.
I shrug. "It honestly never came up." At his disbelieving look, my voice rose in defense. "Honestly! I just explained it to you! Everyone would've thought I was absolutely insane anyway. In my old world, I never would have mentioned it. They didn't have Yamanaka to doubt check these kind of things."
We were silent for a moment before Kakashi reached for the wakizashi again. I tensed but sensei made no move to unsheathe it.
Instead he simply moved to hand it to me, still in the sheath. I hesitated before taking hold of it.
I tried to not let my hand dip at the weight, but it was much heavier then expected. A solid weight of black cool black metal, I could see the faint gold characters on the scabbard as well as the intricate triangles woven into the handle. I didn't move to unsheath it either; instead I simple examined the outside of the blade while I felt sensei study me.
"I had a whole day of training planned." Sensei said wryly, at last. "And you've really gone and thrown all that out the window."
I turned my gaze back to meet his, grinning slightly. "Surprise."
He rolled his eyes and ruffled my hair, before standing up.
"You're going to get that sword out of the sheath. On your own. Hopefully today. I'll be over there-" He pointed to in a general direction that was away from me. "—reading. Unless you need anything."
And then he left.
I refused to mistreat the blade. It clearly was important to Kakashi sensei-a representation of his family. Of the entire Hatake family. The fact that my tight lipped teacher had bothered to tell me the history of the Samurai and the big little pairing meant that much. So on my first attempt to pull out the sword, I didn't let myself throw the whole contraption away from me mid panic attack.
It would have landed in the dirt. And something so beautiful deserved better then the dirt.
But it was difficult. I had to struggle to hold it in my lap, immediately slamming the sword back into the sheath with more force then necessary.
In the meantime, I tried to come to terms with the fact that I had just spilled a lifelong secret to sensei. I suppose I could have been feeling relief. I could have been feeling fear.
I could have been feeling a lot of things; I didn't really feel anything, however. To be honest, I was still so exhausted from the day before that if there wasn't a sword in my lap, I was sure I could have fallen asleep at any moment. Maybe their was a smidgen of relief that of all people I'd chosen Kakashi-sensei. But otherwise my overriding emotion was bone tired exhaustion.
After my third attempt, I paused before trying to unsheathe the sword again. I took a few deep breaths trying to slow my racing heart and bring down the adrenaline. It was damn embarrassing that the glint of metal could frighten me like this. I got excited from battles for fucks sake— I was enjoying most of the chunin exams minus a certain snake-prick—because of potential for danger.
Why was it that a fucking inanimate sword could scare me so much?
Unable to come up with an answer on my own, I wondered it aloud for sensei as well.
He hmm'd thoughtfully but didn't verbalize anything so I continued.
"I never told anyone about dying before." I said it thoughtfully. "But when I died, it was my first real taste of violence. I had never gotten in a fight. I wasn't very outdoorsy. I was as civilian as they come."
I paused lost in my memories, bittersweet as they were. Today was a really weird day and I needed a nap or I was going to start crying soon.
"So you're scared of dying again?"
I sharply turned my head from the wazikashi in my lap to sensei. His gaze was nonchalantly on his book. His voice was feigned relaxed. "Maybe that's why you don't want to open the sword. You're scared to die. Being a ninja means death and dying after all. It's easy to forget with D ranks. But maybe seeing this blade reminds you of the reality of it all."
I dropped my gaze back to the sword. Was that right?
I flipped the blade over, tracing the pattern of woven rope in the handle with one finger. I hefted the whole blade up and brought it to eye level examining the outer sheath and handle with a careful eye. It was gorgeous. Masterfully crafted. A thought came to me and my head popped up. I looked over at Kakashi.
"Does the sword have a name?"
"Yes. But that's for later. Don't worry about names for the time being."
I went back to studying the wakizashi. The forest was silent except for the sound of animals and wind. I wondered what my teammates were doing. Probably still talking with sensei if the silence was any judge. I tried to focus my thoughts.
"I'm not scared of death." I said carefully. I kept the blade at eye level. Holding the sheath with my left hand, I grabbed the handle firmly with my right. "Dying was painful. I screamed and cried out for help. But nobody came. I was so scared. Terrified. What took seconds felt like hours. Dying is something I never want to experience again." I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment before took a deep breath and opened them again trying to hold onto my resolve.
"But I'm not scared of death. That was easy. Nice even. Comfortable. And then I woke up. What was to hate about that?" With that mantra in my head—I'mNotScaredOfDeathI'mNotScaredOfDeathI'mNotScaredOfDeathI'mNotScaredOfDeathI'mNotScaredOfDeathI'mNotScaredOfDeathI'mNotScaredOfDeathI'mNotScaredOfDea—I yanked the Wazikashi out of the sheath completely.
I held my breath while I stared at the blade. My thoughts were racing: It was deadly, it was made to kill, it was like the one that had killed me, it was a knife, made to kill, deadly, shiny, soon to be bloody.
And at the same time: It was absolutely stunning. It was a glistening black metal that, on the top half of the blade seemed to absorb the sun. The coloring was a true black, the color of ink. The bottom half of the blade was a darker gray, almost black that was shined to reflection, like a ghostly mirror.
A hand came down on my shoulders and then I realized sensei was crouched beside me.
"—breath Kage-chan, that's it another deep breath, there you go—" I laid the empty scabbard on the ground next to me but kept the blade in hand. I angrily wiped away a tear from my face, and huffed annoyed.
"I didn't think I'd get this worked up over a sword. You pick the worst gifts sensei." I tried to joke.
He let out a surprised chuckle and cautiously rose from his crouch. "You did well." he ignored my comment. "Are you ready to get started?"
I glanced at the sky. Sasuke and Naruto had probably only been gone for an hour or two. This wasn't a long enough time to get over two lifetimes worth of trauma. I glanced at the sword. But it was a start.
~Line break~
The days continue much like they had the first day. Sensei split us for individual training most days. Once or twice a week he made us do a stupid long run reminiscent of the run for the village that had gotten us here. Those days, after the run was finished, we worked on team drills rather then split up for individual practice. Each night we moved camp to a new location and we rotated duties to a new person so that everyone had the experience of digging latrine pits and hunting foxes or whatever else was around, excluding squirrels.
Two weeks in, before we went to bed, sensei rummaged inside his bottomless bag and pulled out three wrinkled pieces of paper. "Children, my original discussion with the Hokage involved you learning for taking you a C rank elemental jutsu each. Which you are all woefully behind on."
I didn't have the energy to complain, but Naruto jumped up. "How are we behind if you haven't started showing us yet!?"
I nodded tiredly in agreement while I heard Sasuke Hng his approval from where he was cooking dinner.
Naturally, sensei ignored us all. "Well, no time like the present, everyone take a paper."
Naruto grabbed all three and handed them out to me and Sasuke. I took it distastefully wondering if it was chakra paper. While I could've stolen some of dads and confirmed my nature years ago, I'd never bothered.
"What is it? What is it? Is it special paper-datebayo? What does it do?" Sensei stayed quiet and so did Sasuke which meant he didn't know the answer. Or at least wasn't sure about it.
"Is it chakra paper?" Sensei beamed at me. Naruto turned his attention to me. I relaxed on top of my bedroll. "Chakra paper is paper made from Hashirama trees, the type of trees all around Konoha. Its very sensitive to chakra and when made properly will react to chakra to show you primary chakra nature."
Anticipating Naruto's next question, I continued. "There are five primary chakra natures possible: Fire, lightening, water, wind, earth. elementally each one is stronger then one and weaker then another. For example water is stronger then fire but weaker then earth." I droned on, parroting a textbook. "It is sometimes inherited within families as a kekai genkai, which is a mix of two bloodlines- The boy from wave, Haku had a family that had a mix of water and wind which created ice. Some families don have these bloodline limits, but they do have a particular elemental affinity that they are inclined towards."
I made a sweeping gesture in Sasuke's general direction. "Uchiha are typically fire. Nara are typically earth. Hatake's are always lightening I've heard," I say raising an eye brow at sensei who just shrugs, which I take as a yes.
Naruto looks fascinated. "So you can guess what jutsu people will use based on how they look?"
I hesitate but then nod. "Sort of. It's not full proof, but Iwa ninja, for example, are known for being earth users. If I see a blonde hair blue, eyed ninja, not named Naruto, I would probably get a team of ninja of can use lightning jutsu ready. And Konoha mostly has fire as our elemental affinity. In general, fire is the most common, followed by water, then earth, then lightening, then wind which is the least common."
"Kage chan, why do you even know all of this stuff?" Sasuke asks incredulously.
I shrug from my bedroll. "The academy was dead boring sometimes. Reading up about stuff like this was more interesting then re-reviewing a lesson for the third or fourth time."
I meet Kakashi's gaze from across the fire and turn away uncomfortable, realizing that he now knows that when I say re-review a lesson, I really mean it. I'm still not quite used to having some know about the reincarnation and while I don't regret it, weeks later, it doesn't come up often so it can be easy to forget that I've mentioned it at all.
"You said that people are gonna think that we're learning elemental jutsu?"
"That's right." Kakashi happily agreed.
I frowned thoughtfully. "Sensei are you helping us keep our skill set hidden?"
Before Naruto could ask Sasuke explained, his gaze also thoughtful on sensei, "What she's asking is if sensei is helping us learn things but keeping it hidden from the village so that people underestimate us."
Suddenly my mind jumped back to the chunin exams. "Like spy boy! Was the grey haired kid with glasses in the exams a plant? He was a Konoha genin?"
Sensei frowned at me. "Not that I'm aware of. He's a life time genin that tends to do a lot of hospital work. Pretty good with medical ninjutsu but keeps trying for the promotion just in case. Will probably just settle for genin soon."
I glanced at my teammates. before frowning at sensei. "I guess in all the commotion, I kind of forgot to mention that I think he's really suspicious. He had these info cards with info on all of us. Detailed info. Stuff from the Academy only thought. And mission logs; how many A rank, B rank etc. I noticed when I saw his card that it had no info on Sasuke's genjutsu, or Naruto's sensing. But it had details that are not common knowledge in the village about our specialties. And he had one for at least all the genin in the room."
"His name was Kubuto." Naruto added helpfully. I nodded my head in agreement.
Sensei frowned, then shook his head. "I'll get a letter to the village and make sure it gets handled. Anyway…"
Sensei clapped his hands to fully grab our attention. "We won't start the lessons till tomorrow, but I want to know what your affinities are now so that I can at least have tonight to plan some lessons."
Obligingly, I turn to Naruto and lift the paper. "You just need to add chakra and see how the paper reacts; it will tell you your affinity."
I reach for my own drained reserves and grab a tendril of chakra. Calling on it with no seals has become much easier after training with sensei, so much so that I think I could do a seal-less kai against a weaker genjutsu, which is good news for my future one handed seals. I slowly move the trickle of chakra into the paper as I hear Naruto shout out in alarm. I glance at his paper which has split in two. Wind.
I turned back to my own paper. Crumpled. …Lightening…
"Fire." Sensei announced pointing at Sasuke, then me and Naruto in turn. "Lightening. And wind. This is an odd combination for a team. And pretty uncommon as well."
I stare at my paper. This can't be right. Nara are Earth affinity. I should be Earth. I speak outlaid before I can shut my mouth. "My father must be a Kumo ninja." I gawk at the paper uncomprehendingly.
In my past life, we had done blood typing in biology class. There was a story, an old wives tale really, that a girl doing the test had discovered that she was adopted because it was impossible for two type O parents to create an AB child.
This was kind of the same thing. I knew I had a biological father out there somewhere; maybe alive maybe dead. But I hadn't known what village. I hadn't known civilian or ninja. In fact ninja was very unlikely and discouraged for infiltrators.
Seeing my teammates worried looks I cursed my outburst but explained my silent thoughts. "My mom, my biological mother, was an infiltrator. While on a mission for Konoha, she got pregnant with me, and had to leave. Unfortunately,she was chased down and killed. I always thought she was discovered and ran…or something. I don't know, I never really gave it much thought. Infiltrators have a high incidence of death on the job. Lots of suicides to preserve village secrets. So I figured that my father was some random civilian.
But in a civilian, the chakra affinity isn't trained up, so my mother's affinity, earth, would have dominated. The only way I wouldn't be earth, or even fire for a civilian with slightly more active chakra, is if my biological dad wasn't a civilian but someone with a lightening affinity. And Kumo has the highest number of them…And it explains why my mother was being chased down; who cares about some wife of a civilian. But the mother of a shinobi's child? It explains a little more about how she died anyway."
My eyes were wide as I stared at the paper.
"I didn't know you were adopted Kage-chan." Naruto said shyly. I snorted. Everyone on team seven was technically an orphan. Didn't we make a happy bunch.
"Neither had Kakashi sensei and he'd supposedly read my file. I doubt it's common knowledge. Dad was pretty good about making sure our family stayed under the radar. And I never talk about it. I love my family." I explain quietly, trying to lighten the mood.
"Are you going to try and find out who he is?" Naruto queried.
I sat up quickly, crossing my arms into an x. "NO WAY." I shouted panicked. Both my teammates looked alarmed.
I forced myself to calm down. "No way." I repeated, calmer but no less forcefully. "I plan on making jonin one day. The number of people who make it to jonin are few and far between and it's not always because there skills aren't good enough. If the village has any reason to doubt your loyalty; well you'll be a life long chunin. Tokubetsu jonin if you prove yourself. Fraternizing with the enemy would be showing disloyalty. In fact, this is probably why dad made sure this wasn't big news. As jonin commander, he would know how much being born outside the village hurts my chances at ever reaching jonin…"
I trailed off, paling at the thought. Finally I pick up my thoughts again. "I have NO interest in my birth father…Lets just forget this conversation ever happened." I finish firmly, forcing myself to lay back on my bed roll.
The campsite is quiet until Sasuke announces that the food is ready.
~Linebreak~
Over the next few days, lessons continue, except now elemental affinity lessons are tossed into the mix as well. Now I have even less chakra when I go to sleep every night, if thats even possible. I'm showing no progress in the lightening training either. I am physically exhausted, mentally I am still terrified of my sword, although everyday the initial drawing of the blade gets a little easier.
I haven't been keeping track of days so I have no idea how long we have been out of the village this morning. The days have a tendency to blur together, in a not unpleasant way.
"Today we're running." Sensei says shortly as he finished packing up his bedroll. His presence from the campground last night has already been erased. It's Naruto's turn this time to clear the site for which I'm grateful. I finish packing up my bag and stand to the side waiting for Naruto to finish scuffing the dirt, moving rocks, and generally hiding our presence.
As I wait, Sasuke shuffles over and I begin debriefing him on his training and informing him of my own. I'll need to know what he's been working on so that we can include it in our drill training this afternoon.
Sensei has continued Sasuke's lessons on genjutsu and ninja wire. Now that Sasuke has an active Sharingan, sensei has been showing Sasuke how to weave more and more intricate genjutsu with less and less hand signs. They can be scarily convincing but Sasuke has a horrible habit of just throwing people right into the middle of them; sensei has been trying to show him how to lure them in, change things about the environment slowly, not all at once so that its less abrupt and noticeable.
Caught in a genjutsu, Sasuke claims its very easy to get someone to run into a ninja wire and slice off their own head— no other work on his part necessary. It's yet to be seen if he can actually do it on anyone other then a Naruto clone, however.
Although I haven't talked to Naruto yet today, and probably wont have a chance to until just before the drills later today, he's been working on his hand to hand combat. Sensei has been drilling him on kata's over and over again. He's been doing tons of sparring. He's had more time then anyone to focus on his Wind training. Sasuke, having already managed his grand fireball jutsu is given the least time by sensei. Even with the time adjustments for each of us, all three of us haven't managed much success in out elemental training.
Besides, it felt like Naruto and Sasuke had more time to learn about their elements. I felt like I was drowning in the amount of information I was supposed to be learning.
Naruto and Sasuke both had time in Wave to begin at least creating a foundation for some of these skills. I was stuck learning how to use a sword and how to form hand sign one handed and how to use Lightening elemental release all in this single training trip. The hand sign bit wasn't going well so far either, even thought I had sensei guiding my chakra formation with his sharingan. It was too difficult at the moment.
With my immobilization out for the time being, Naruto's training was coming into play; sensei was showing him different strategies to hold enemies in place. All different kinds of forceful take downs and submissions.
In the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, Cho attacks and distracts. Shika captures and holds. Ino then controls their mind and boom mission completed.
Kakashi had created a bastardized assassination version of an Ino-Shika-Cho team. We each had our own skills, and we each would be able to be individual ninjas on our own, but within the team we had a purpose: Sasuke was going to be the Cho- the attacking and distracting from far away; Naruto and his clones was going to be the Shika, by capturing and physically holding the enemy in place; and I was going to be the Ino- Strike hard and fast.
Within my own training, I was focusing on the katas for the Hatake style of sword fighting. It was a mix of hand to hand and blade work, the blade an extension of the arm, and included elbows and feet just as often as it did the sword. It required flexibility and agility. It was something you teach to a child and form their body to because it was such an aggressive style.
Instead, sensei was simple beating my body into the shape of the style instead.
It was the only thing I was excelling at. Years of doing yoga had left me a body wiling to do the demanding stretches, albeit with complaint. Years of spars with Shisui had raised my agility- not high enough but at least to slightly higher then it would've been. And the aggression was something that was surprisingly easy to jump into.
I was loving it. If it wasn't for the fact that I was scared shitless to draw my sword, I would've wished I had started this years ago. I couldn't believe I'd ever considered not being a front line fighter. But then again, I was getting more and more comfortable with the sword everyday. Hopefully one day I'd be fine.
But with the focus on combat, I was struggling to learn one handed seals. The goal was to be able to control my shadows with one hand. This would free up Naruto on the battle field as well as give me an advantage by essentially giving me extra limbs. But holy shit it was difficult.
And with the introduction of elemental chakra? Forget about it. Like I said, none of us had managed a jutsu yet, except Sasuke who already had his clans fireball jutsu mastered. The days weren't long enough for the amount of training that sensei was trying to squeeze in.
When Naruto finally finished with the campsite, sensei started us on our run, hard and fast as usual. I was out of breath almost immediately. I knew it would stay this way for the entirety of the run. I tried to keep my breaths even, slow and quiet. I focused on my form, bringing my knees up with each step. I planted my foot carefully behind Naruto after each step he took, Sasuke doing the same behind me. We ran in a line, just like sensei had trained us, practicing leaving as little a trace behind us as possible. Stealth was key.
Only a few minutes in, something different happened on this run. Naruto stopped running and I almost ran into him, barely managing to jump to the side of him, Sasuke managing slightly more gracefully to land on Naruto's other side because he had more time to react.
Sensei had kept going, but quickly noticed and hopped back to join us. Naruto looked confused and worried at the same time. It was an alarming look on his normally cheerful face.
'ENEMIES?' He signed carefully, just like we'd practiced for the chunin exams. He cocked his head south east, vaguely in the direction of the village and slightly off course of where we'd been headed in our run.
"We're still in the land of fire-" Sasuke started to explain to Naruto before Sensei cut him off and looked at Naruto seriously.
'HOW MANY' Sensei signed slowly for Naruto's sake but I could see Sasuke straighten up all the same. Within our own country, it probably wasn't enemies, just a fellow Konoha team returning from a mission. But…sensei was taking it seriously. And Naruto hadn't noticed any other ninja in the whole time we'd been out here so far. Which was rather odd. Which meant that sensei probably knew that no ninja should be in this area.
Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and I could see him mentally counting. '6' He looked certain.
Sensei signed, still slowly, but slightly quicker. ' YOU HOLD, I SCOUT, BE BACK'
Before we had any chance to react he flickered away. I looked at my teammates warily. Sasuke eyed us both, then flicked open a pouch at his side and pulled out some ninja wire and a shuriken. Naruto copied him, pulling out a kunai. I gripped the handle of my wakizashi, strapped horizontally across my lower back, where the pack didn't interfere with it, but didn't draw it yet. All of us stood at attention, eyes alert.
Sensei wasn't gone long. He returned in another flicker that I barely caught with my eyes. His face looked rather grim, but it brightened when he saw us looking so alert. Keeping his voice low, he informed us of what he'd seen.
"There's a camp of ninja a few meters out. Very close actually, we're lucky they didn't notice us first. They're not wearing any distinguishing marks, village insignia, eceterea. They're all chunin or genin. 4 sitting around a fire, two sentries standing at the edge of the campsite, within eye site of the fire. Very sloppy. Just waking up for the day. There are two people there who looked to be in charge. One had a red bandana on. The other one had a purple vest and a pair of glasses on. Both of them are by the fire. They need to be captured. What's the plan?"
I blinked. Okay, first, Kakashi's insane training schedule had managed to get us up earlier then infiltrating ninja. Someone needed to have a talk with the man, but right now wasn't the time. Second,…he was leaving the planning to us. This was a training moment.
I looked at my teammates and found their gaze on me.
"We're on a time crunch, if they're just waking up. We need to get there before they're on the move and more alert. No time for a detailed plan. We're gonna bare bones it and run it like a training drill. Sasuke, let's make it an unfair fight. Can you lay down a targeted genjutsu on the ninja by the fire? One that makes them sleepy? If you can actually make them fall asleep that'd be great. Naruto, I want you to take out the sentry farthest from us, further south east. Hold him down. I'll take care of the one closest to us, then come join you and take care of the second one. Then we'll move in and take out the other two ninja, finally secure the two captives and bring back anything that we find on them with identification or orders."
"And by take out you mean…?" Naruto asked hesitantly.
I wasn't feeling squeamish, but distinctly uneasy for sure. I glanced at for Kakashi sensei for confirmation. He nodded stoically, so I answered. "We don't want to leave enemy ninja alive within our borders Naruto. And the four of us can't escort 6 ninja of equal rank or higher then our own rank back to the village. We're going to be able to do this because of surprise."
Sensei spoke up finally. "We're on a time crunch. I'll let you guys take the lead and hang back in case you need help.
I dropped my pack to the side, knowing that I'd have to come back to retrieve it and then, once my teammates had done the same, we moved to the infiltrators camp. We didn't pause, the second we had a visual in sight, we snapped into the basic plan.
Naruto led the way, hooking us around and then Sasuke's eyes burned red and I could feel the slight breeze as he flicked quickly through hand signs. The men in the center of the camp dropped into a daze then quickly laid themselves down to the ground to sleep. I kept my attention split focusing on them with the back of my awareness incase on of them broke the genjutsu while Naruto spammed some clones and launched himself at the sentry further away form us. I changed at the sentry closest to us.
He must have noticed the odd behavior of his teammates and turned to investigate. He noticed me coming at him and quickly drew a kunai, swinging at me.
I drew my wakizashi in one smooth motion from all the practice with sensei, pivoting on one foot to turn my body away from his wild dodge at me with a kunai. This left me at his side with a clear opening, so I turned the wakizashi up and pulled, dragging through the soft skin and sinew of his exposed armpit, just like one of the katas I had run through a few days ago.
He jerked back and let out a cry, but that left him open for a move that I had practiced, that all of team seven had practiced, hundreds of times on clones. I spartan kicked the man, letting him fall onto his back and slammed the blade down through his throat and out the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord.
Unlike all the hundreds of times, I had practiced it, this body didn't dissapear. I froze for a momnet, waiting for the poof and the explosion of smoke from the clone. But nothing. I tried not to notice the blood glistening on the black blade but it drew my eyes. I pulled my head away and turned to the clearing.
I turned to find my teammates and saw Naruto subduing the other sentry, holding him down on the ground on his knees, the foreign ninjas arms over his head, elbows together. This ninja, like the first, had brown hair and fair skin and was looking at me hatefully. I moved towards him numbly but quickly and then without any thought, I slit his throat.
Naruto let go of him in surprise, but the other ninja didn't fight, just grabbed his throat in surprise, trying to stop the blood from pouring out. For good measure, I grabbed his hair and stabbed him in the back of the neck as well, also severing his spinal cord. He dropped like a stone to the forest floor.
Naruto stared at me wide eyed. Then turned to the body, then gagged.
I looked up at the sky.
"It takes a while to die from bleeding out." I explained, fumbling for words. "This way is…" More humane. Faster. Easier. There's a lot of words. None quite fit.
I ended up dispatching the other two ninja as well. It's sickeningly easy. Naruto is in no state and honestly, knowing that reincarnation is a thing, at least i don't feel guilty about it. Or at least not completely guilty. I didn't think I'd ever get over the moral code my previous life had ingrained on me.
By this point, sensei has joined us in the clearing and waved Sasuke in as well. Naruto and him end up securing the other two ninja as prisoners. They tie them up, just like we were taught in the academy, Sasuke leading because Naruto probably missed the lesson. Sasuke looks fine, unbothered by all the gore surrounding him, but Naruto looks slightly ill.
I should probably feel…something more horrifying. But to be honest? I feel a little disconnected at the moment. One of my biggest gripes with being a ninja was having to kill. But this wasn't so bad. I'd made it as painless as possible. And if anyone knew that death could be not so bad, it was me. And like I said: reincarnation. Hopefully I would get reincarnated again and not end up in hell for all the paid murders I was going to be expected to commit in this life.
(I mean I knew I was a little fucked in the head. But holy shit, I was glad it had been so easy. I didn't want to be a mass murderer. But I didn't want to let my friends die. Let my village die. And sometimes a little murder was required to maintain the status quo. )
I eyed the captives, standing next to Naruto. I put an arm around his shoulder which he seemed grateful for, leaning into me, seeming a little freaked out by everything. Sasuke was eyeing the clearing curiously. The little sociopath—was he trying to see how far the blood spatter had gone from my first strike? Weirdo. Although it was pretty far considering I'd nicked an artery.
Sensei was reading a scroll.
And maybe re reading it. He was clearly unhappy about whatever it said.
"We're cutting the training trip short. These guys need to go back to the village ASAP." I guess that meant that if he had found something less important, he would've just killed these guys and kept training us.
"What's in the scroll?" I asked curiously, peeking to try and read it. He went to pull it out of the way then paused and handed it to me curiously.
"I'm not sure that its real; it's not encrypted like I would've expected for something this serious. But it looks like orders from Suna to join to rest of her infiltration party waiting within the Land of Fire."
I gasped, grabbing the scroll and reading it in disbelief.
"Why would Sand have an infiltration group in our country? Maybe they're just supposed to be meeting with the genin in the exams and the scroll is written weird?" Naruto questioned.
"You would plant a group of people deep in Land of Fire if you were planning a sneak attack and you needed them in place." Sensei said. He'd moved to secure the prisoners even more, latching another rope around their arms and looping it around twice then a third time, pulling it tight. He pulled two seals from out of his bag and placed them on the bare chest of the ninjas, cutting open their shirts to reach skin.
I looked up from the scroll Kakashi had given to me, handing it off to the expectant Sasuke. Incredulously, I asked him, "Do you think they're planning an invasion or something? That would mean war! Sand is our ally! I know our daimyo's have been fighting but-"
Kakashi threw one of the bodies over his shoulders and then motioned for Naruto to do the same with other. When Sasuke handed him back the scroll, his eyes wide, sensei tossed it to me. I caught it with clumsy hands.
"I think it sounds exactly like an 'invasion or something'. Lets go. We're gonna swing back, grab our bags, then were hustling. I want to make it back to village before noon. We stop for nothing. If we do get involved in fight, Kage-chan go on ahead, get that scroll directly to the Hokage's hands. Move out."
~Line break~
Whoooo finally an update! Only a month and some days aha. Okay to address some points before I get them in the comments
Q: There is no way that after orochimaru attacked Sasuke that he would be allowed to eave the village on a training trip! Be realisitc!
A: Uh that's literally what happened. Except it wasn't the whole team, just Sasuke and Kakashi.
Q: Kage just got over her trauma, just like that?
A: Nope, one day at a time. But yea, thats pretty much the worst of it. She has had over a decade to resolve some of the fear and trauma. So I see no reason to harp on it.
Q: I cant believe you had her mention she was reincarnated! Why would you do that?
A: Two reasons, only one of which I will explain now. It makes sense in context of the story. Theres no reason to hide it. She's not gonna tell anything about the anime beacon then she really will seem crazy, and its not like it would be helpful considering she doesn't know everything anyway. Besides things are changing! The second reason I wont explain now.
Q: Wow you gave Kage a dad. Is she gonna run away to Kumo now? Whats her blood line list gonna be? Is she killer b's daughter? What about A's?
A: NO, NO, NO, NO. She needed a dad. She needed an affinity. Her mom needed a reason to die. This has been planned from the beginning. She's always been lightning. Its going to be used along with the kenjutsu, which also has always been planned from the beginning. There wont be any random blood line limit that lets hr go invisible or whatever the fuck thrown in, I promise. As far as the story is concerned, her dad was a jonin in Kumo that her mom seduced for information on Konoha. random jonin, not A or B or anyone we know. And not anyone to challenge her allegiance to the leaf. This just isn't one of those kind of stories.
Please feel free to comment or message me, I love to hear your theories about what you think is gonna happen to Kage. Also, I have some drabbles/ side stories that aren't important or anything to the story but I'll upload those soon. They just odds and ends that don't quite fit in here but I had to write out anyway.