Redoing the outer layer of seals around the house was fairly simple. Naruto had displayed a childish queasiness at being bled, but he had no problem keeping a blatant watch on the area where he wouldn't be able to see exactly what Sasuke was doing. Leaving openings for possible attacks could come later. Sasuke didn't want anyone interfering with this. He was left alone to do his work and did so with confidence. His mind, on the other hand, was in turmoil.
Shikamaru had burned the timeline before they left to have lunch. Sasuke was going to draw it out again so he could add things to it. There were those communications between Rain and Mist that Ibiki had shown interest in, which had taken place only months before the Chuunin exam. Naruto had said there were a number of Rain shinobi unaccounted for after that exam. Was there an alliance between Rain and Konoha? He hadn't gotten that impression at all. Maybe it had been a temporary truce like the one Sound had requested for the duration of the exam. There might be other things he knew that could fill in some of the gaps between Shikamaru's markers. He would store the scroll with his weapons so there was no chance of anyone getting their hands on it. Shikamaru's 'facts' had all been gathered from public records, formal protests being available to anyone Chunin and up and the informal but recorded information being available to special jounin and up. Sasuke didn't understand the reasons, the politics, for limiting the information the way they did but he accepted that all of Shikamaru's 'facts' were a matter of public record available to a good portion of Konoha's shinobi. So why had he needed to destroy the timeline? An excess of caution, in Sasuke's opinion, but he respected it. His reproduction would include things that weren't part of Konoha's public record so he would do his part to keep that private.
He wasn't thinking about any of that now, though. His view of the world was twisting again and this time he couldn't blame it on chakra depletion. He didn't want to believe he could be utterly wrong about the reanimation technique, but why would Kakashi lie about it? His Sand instructor had lied to him for two years because the clan didn't want him learning new things. At least, that was what his instructor had told him. His instructor could have been lying about that as well. The man had also told him that Sand and Konoha had only been allies for the last few years. According to Shikamaru's timeline they had been allies from the moment the clan settled there. His Sand instructor was a confirmed liar. Kakashi wasn't...so far. He still didn't want to accept it. If he could be so wrong about a single technique, what else was he wrong about?
Now he wondered if Kabuto had been surprised by his simple acceptance of the existence of that technique. Maybe Kabuto had assumed he already knew about it, and knew not to tell others about it, because the clan had been dealing with Sound for years. But Sand had also been dealing with Sound for years and Sand shinobi suicided when captured. After learning about the reanimation technique he had assumed Sand shinobi committed suicide in order to prevent giving away information whether alive or dead, that the act of suicide did something, tainted the soul, the chakra, something that prevented it from being brought back. If that wasn't the case then all Sand shinobi were doing was handing themselves over to an enemy that might use them against their own village. Was Konoha really allowing them to continue doing that simply to keep the reanimation technique a secret? That made far less sense than his own assumptions. If he was utterly wrong, it was due to a lack of information. Konoha had no such excuse. It was easier to believe that Sand knew, and Konoha knew that Sand knew, but both were pretending they didn't know in order to play politics with each other to maintain the alliance. But that brought him right back to his original assumption that all of the villages knew and Kakashi had been insistent that wasn't the case. He didn't know what to believe.
He wanted to talk to Naruto about it. But if that technique really was some big secret and Naruto didn't know about it, he might get into serious trouble for telling him after Kakashi had forbidden him from mentioning it to anyone. Did he care about getting into trouble? He didn't take orders from Kakashi. But if this really was forbidden, restricted information, then he should speak to Ibiki about it first. He should at least try to do things their way. Only why had Ibiki sent Kakashi to discuss it with him rather than commenting on it himself? Maybe Ibiki hadn't wanted to distract him from discussing the body.
The dead body, Sasuke scoffed to himself. At least now he knew why Ibiki had asked him about that body rather than just reviving it in order to get answers. The hardest thing of all to believe was that Konoha knew that technique existed but didn't have a single person able to perform it on their behalf. He refused to believe there was no one in this village capable of learning that technique. There had to be something about the technique itself that made them unwilling to use it. Maybe it was part of the 'nasty shit' that made Orochimaru so hated by his own village that they despised an entire species of animal simply because he summoned them. In that case he might not have to wait to speak to Ibiki. If Naruto knew about that technique and could be persuaded to talk about Orochimaru he might even bring it up himself.
Sasuke warned Naruto away from the engawa as they entered the yard for the first time. The next layer of the seal was on the outer supports of the surrounding porch. The side yards were narrow and overgrown. The pond in the back was a complete mess, slimy and stagnant and swarming with mosquitos. The nearest neighbors probably hated that.
"A fire jutsu would get rid of the worst of those," said Sasuke. "Unless you want to feed them to one of your toads? Would they be interested in insects this small?"
Naruto grinned. "Genji would. He's been waiting for me to bribe him."
The little green toad hopped right into the pond, stirring up the cloud and the stench so badly Naruto and Sasuke retreated back to the side yard. The insects didn't get far, though. Sasuke had never watched a normal toad eat, much less a summon. Its tongue was agile, long and thick, and visibly sticky from the way it caught every insect it touched. He had expected it to be slimy after the way Naruto had gone on about never being able to sit on his summon's tongue. Maybe the stickiness was something they only produced while feeding.
"Oh, that's rank," Naruto grimaced, waving a hand over his face. "All that rain and the water still smells rotten. How can you splash around in that so much?" he called to the summon. The toad ignored him, hopping all over the place and lashing its tongue so the mosquitos remained corralled into a loose ball in the air.
"Is he a slimy frog sort?" asked Sasuke. "Gamakichi said you had some summons that don't mind being submerged."
"You could say that. Genji is more froggy than most of my toads when it comes to water. Even gross water, apparently." He rubbed an arm over his nose. "The way my dad explained it to me, all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. I mostly just summon toads. I got a few frogs when I first started summoning but they need to stay close to water or their skin dries out and that's really bad for them. Toads are much easier to work with because they usually prefer land. Gamakichi says frogs are faster and can jump higher, but most of them never get very big and the few who do have a bad attitude. Genji is probably the closest I'll get to a non-toad frog. Unless," he sent Sasuke a sly look, "you want to play with some poisonous frogs. I bet some of them are even more deadly than snakes."
"I'll keep that in mind." He wondered if all of Naruto's summons were male. All of the snakes he had summoned were male. Did summons not breed at all? Or did the females only answer female summoners? If Naruto was able to summon small poisonous frogs, males so there were no eggs, he might very well consider learning more about them. It would keep the insects down, at the very least.
He showed Naruto how to activate and deactivate the outer wards. It wasn't much different from the traps in his own apartment.
"Just like locking the door," said Naruto. "What does it feel like if someone brushes by the outside?"
"A tingle, just an awareness from the way your chakra reacts. If someone knocks, you'll feel it even if you're too far from the entrance to hear it. If someone actually tries to break the seal there should be plenty of warning, enough time to stop them or wait until help arrives, or to escape if necessary. Are the closest neighbors shinobi?"
"I don't know. I can find out."
"Find out," said Sasuke. "They should be warned not to intervene if someone attempts to break in. Any attempt will attract a lot of attention, especially if we're not here to intervene quickly. They would do better to inform someone rather than get involved themselves."
"I know what Shikamaru said, but I really can't see anyone attacking us at home. Here, or the apartment. I've had assassination attempts and they never happened at home or when I was around a lot of people. They always waited until they thought I was alone."
"Do you know who was targeting you for those?"
Naruto flashed him a wry grin. "Only guesses. Even when the Anbu took them alive, my dad wouldn't tell me who was behind it. Some of them were probably allies. He didn't want me being biased and holding a grudge because a few bad people out of a whole village wanted to get rid of me."
"Because Konoha doesn't hold an entire group responsible for the actions of one individual?"
"Exactly. And I was really young when most of the attacks happened. I would definitely have held a grudge."
"You intend to become Hokage someday," Sasuke pointed out. "At that point you'll be in a position to find out who was behind those earlier attempts. What then? How will you handle knowing for a fact that an ally once tried to kill you?"
Naruto gave him a searching look. "Are you talking about someone in particular?"
Did he really not know? If the Hokage had been openly sheltering him then maybe he really didn't know. But surely he at least suspected. "I don't want to play politics with you," he told him frankly. "I don't see the point of lying for the sake of lying, when both parties know the other is lying. Necessary secrets can be kept without resorting to obvious lies."
"Playing politics," Naruto said with a wry smile. "It's funny you refer to it that way. It really is like acting out a role in some story. I was taught to think of it as a dance, they move forward and you move back, and you have to both do it at the same time because otherwise you bump into each other and it gets messy. I don't think both parties refusing to acknowledge the truth is the same as lying, though, not if they both know what they're doing and why they're doing it. That's just maintaining a polite distance between each other during the dance. Because that's politics, everyone following the same steps so they aren't all crashing together in a messy pile that will take forever to clean up."
That analogy sounded good, but never having seen anyone dance he wasn't sure how apt it was. "Do you actually know how to dance?"
"A real dance? No!" Naruto laughed. "I think of it like a taijutsu exercise, you know? They throw a punch and you move back to catch it in your palm. You kick at their side and they turn to block with it with an arm. After a while it speeds up until you're both acting and reacting with no one getting hurt because you're just practicing the moves and you both know the steps. That's how I was taught taijutsu and it's what I think of when my dad talks about dancing around politics. Yeah, it gets frustrating because in a fight I'd want to catch them off guard and win. But you can't do that in a political dance or it ends right there and they'll never want to dance with you again. They'll warn all their friends not to dance with you, either. Sometimes I think it is just lying, and a stupid waste of time, but that's what you have to do if you want to be a kage dealing with other kages. They all do it. Even Gaara is learning to do it."
"I wasn't taught taijutsu that way. I never knew what move or 'step' my opponent was going to make next until I could see it coming with the sharingan, and even with that I don't know for certain how an opponent will react to my own moves. You can show me what you mean tomorrow so I'll understand your analogy better. But even if I knew the 'steps' it wouldn't change my mind. I don't want to 'dance around politics' with you. If there are things you can't discuss with me due to political reasons, or for any reason at all, just tell me. I'll be equally honest with you about the things I can't discuss. We should be able to keep our secrets without having to lie."
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise and hurt. "Do you think I've lied to you? About what?"
"A number of things," he admitted. "But I don't know whether you were lying due to political reasons or if you honestly didn't know. Do you really believe Sand had no part in what happened during your chunin exam? If you can't discuss it, for whatever reason, just tell me that you can't discuss it. Don't tell me Gaara had no part in that if you know he did. That's lying and you don't need to lie to me. I won't lie to you."
Naruto grimaced and sent a quick look at the wall separating the side yard from the next one over. "Not here. My answer to that particular question won't matter much, but if we're going to talk about things like that we'd better do it at the apartment. Let me check on Genji."
The toad was swimming slow laps around the pond, stirring it into a slimy soup and slurping up the mosquito eggs clinging just below the surface. Compared to the first time Sasuke had seen him, the toad sounded downright friendly when Naruto asked if he was happy now.
"Not bad," the toad grinned. "That was just a snack, mind you, but it's a good start. You find any spiders in that old place, you give me a call."
"You eat spiders, too?" Naruto grimaced.
"And crickets," Genji said, hopping out of the water. "Love me some crickets. Overgrown place like this is bound to have some of those under the porch. I'm a digger, you know."
"You dig? Like under the ground?"
The toad let out a long huffing breath. "And this is why I didn't want to work with you. Don't even know what you're summoning." He lifted one of his spiny back feet and waved it at Naruto. "I'm a spadefoot. We dig. Sand is better than the dirt around here, but it's nice to take a dip now and then, especially when the eating is good. Just call me when you find some more food. A few more bribes and I'll consider taking you on as a regular."
"Thanks," Naruto muttered. "I'll do that." He dispelled the toad and then spent a few minutes looking at the pond, the yard, the wall, the house, everything except Sasuke. Eventually he smiled at him. "Well, this isn't a bad start. Now for some truth-telling, huh? It's about time. And it'll be a relief to have that out there before you meet Gaara. Can we teleport with the ward up?"
"Yes."
"You take us to the apartment, then," Naruto grinned. "You need the practice, being a newbie and all."
He really didn't need the practice. Kakashi had made him teleport back and forth between the hospital and tower until he had wanted to complain about the waste of chakra. Teleporting with another person took a bit more, but was just as easy. Once they were back in the apartment Naruto dispelled the clones he had left behind and made a new one to go find Sakura.
"She probably knows all about the timeline," said Naruto, "thanks to Ino. But she said she was going to come by if we didn't come to her, so this way she can interrogate me and check you out at the same time. Until then," he stripped off his jacket and sat on the couch, "hit me with anything you think I've lied about. Gaara first. Do you think he was in on Sound's attack? That he knew he was going to be set to face me early?"
"I think Sand was in on that. I don't know if Gaara was aware of it or not."
"Gaara suspected it afterward, but he doesn't know for sure. Konoha doesn't know for sure. Only Sand and Sound know for sure and they're not admitting it. Do you know for sure?"
"No," Sasuke admitted.
"That's why I said he had nothing to do with it. I wasn't trying to lie, I just wasn't sharing our suspicions because we don't have any proof. Gaara is my friend and Sand is our ally so I didn't want you to suspect them of something when we have no proof of it. If you had told me you already suspected them, I would have told you what we suspected. Maybe." He gave an apologetic smile. "I was still getting to know you back then, you know? Gaara and his siblings are pretty much convinced that their dad planned that along with Orochimaru. But without proof they can't do anything except keep an eye on him. That's a big problem with politics. You can't accuse someone without proof or you lose the alliance and end up with an open enemy instead. We can't risk that. So we just don't talk about those things."
"I see. But you and I need to talk about those things."
"Agreed," said Naruto. "I want to know more about what you think, who you suspect, so it's only fair that I tell you what I suspect. I just wasn't looking at it that way when we first talked about the exam." He gave a wincing smile. "I was just hoping I wouldn't bias you against Gaara before you even got a chance to know him. The politics of it, with your clan being in Sand and Sand claiming they didn't know your clan was working for Sound, just makes it messier."
Sasuke told him about the communication going on between Rain and Mist at the time, and his suspicions about how that tied into the Rain genin who were unaccounted for after the exam. "Ibiki was very interested in my dealings with Rain. Even Kakashi had a reaction to that. What I know of Rain tells me they wouldn't have wanted to take part in that exam. They don't interact with other villages that way."
"They don't," Naruto confirmed soberly. "It was definitely suspicious when they asked for a truce for the duration of the exam. We couldn't even confirm that we were actually talking to them because we don't know who the current leader of Rain is. Do you?"
"No."
"You never heard anyone mention the name Hanzou?"
"No."
"He was the last leader we knew of," said Naruto. "He could still be the leader, for all we know, but we haven't heard anything about him in a long time. We don't get any information about Rain unless they leave their village. They're completely cut off. There's no telling what they're doing in there. So when they suddenly contacted us, yeah, that was very suspicious. But we couldn't refuse and risk losing a chance to open communications with them. What do you suspect? That we were actually talking to Sound just pretending to be Rain, so they could get into the village as Rain shinobi?"
"That would explain why they were unaccounted for afterward. According to the timeline, Konoha considered Sound an enemy the moment it was established. Orochimaru must have known Konoha wouldn't accept a temporary truce. Why would he even bother asking for one? So you wouldn't connect him to the sudden request for a truce with Rain. I don't think Rain had anything to do with that. But I do think the communications between Rain and Mist allowed for that. Rain shinobi died during those communications and I suspect the supposed Rain genin who entered your village looked just like some of those dead men. Sound knew what disguises to use, either because Mist told them or because Sand did. If I asked Ibiki what those supposed Rain genin looked like, do you think he would tell me?"
"Probably not," Naruto admitted. "Ibiki has to follow really strict rules when it comes to restricted information and clearance levels. He'll take any information you're willing to share, but he has to be very careful what he shares in return. You should ask him anyway. If you tell him what the dead ones looked like then at least he'll know if they match up with the genin who took part in the exam. That would be pretty solid proof that the only communication we've had with Rain in years wasn't actually with them."
If Ibiki wouldn't confirm anything he would have to guess based on the man's reactions. He doubted he would be able to do that.
"It probably doesn't matter," said Sasuke. "I was thinking that if the Rain shinobi had been killed by their own people then the only way Orochimaru would have known what they looked like is through the report I gave to the clan, which they gave to Sand. That would cement Sand's involvement in what happened during your exam. But they could have been killed by Mist shinobi, meaning it was Mist that passed the information to Sound. It's possible. I just don't see Mist shinobi being strong enough to have done that. They both tend to use powerful water techniques and when it comes to those, the Rain shinobi I've met were far better at it."
"How many have you met? And how?" Naruto gave him an exasperated look. "The closest I've gotten to a Rain shinobi was during the exam and I didn't get close enough to get a good look at them. They were wearing weird masks on their faces. And if you're right then those weren't even real Rain shinobi. How did you even end up doing missions for them?"
"My father sent me my orders," Sasuke shrugged. "Usually requests are sent to Sand, but if Sand has been spying on Rain for as long as that timeline implies, they probably sent the request directly to the clan. The first Rain shinobi I took orders from said that I was being tasked to guard the scroll because, as an Uchiha, I could be trusted to carry out my orders without taking sides. The clan does a lot of that between groups that prefer not to interact directly. Even those who don't have a truce with Sand are willing to deal with our clan. Sand has always supported that since our reports of those missions give them information on the other villages. What Sand might do with that information, the politics of it," and he gave Naruto a pointed look, "has never been enough of a concern to stop them from sending the clan requests. Sand is our only longterm ally. Everyone else is just a potential employer. I'm not sure how much the current truce will change that."
"They'll be dealing with us, too, now. That's a pretty big change."
"Dealing with you how?" asked Sasuke. He didn't like the sound of that. "Do you mean Konoha might send requests to the clan? What sort of work would they have them doing?"
"Nothing bad," Naruto said quickly. "We don't get many missing-nin and when we do, we deal with it ourselves. When we get requests we aren't willing to do, we reject them. We don't pass them along to our allies. We definitely won't be passing them to your clan. But if Rain has been willing to deal with your clan, maybe we can get the clan to pass along messages from us to Rain. Then we could at least open communication with them. You can bet my dad contacted Sand as soon as Ibiki told him you had worked for Rain. We've done a lot of joint ventures with Sand, trying to get information on Rain. Sand could justify keeping whatever they learned through the clan a secret before the truce. Now they're supposed to share things like that."
"And if they don't?"
"Then we'll stop sharing information with them until they're straight with us. The Kazekage is shady. We know that. He always has been. That's one of the reasons so many in Sand want him to step down. If we put enough pressure on his supporters he'll be stepping down sooner than he likes."
"If the alliance between Konoha and Sand ends, what happens to the clan?"
"Nothing," Naruto said quickly. "Our alliance with Sand won't break. We fight sometimes but then we're right back to dancing nicely again. Dealing with Sand is like that. But even if we did become enemies until Gaara takes over, it wouldn't change our truce with the clan. You said it yourself. The clan deals with everyone and Sand supports it because they benefit from it. We'd just have to be careful not to share any information we don't want Sand having, the same as everyone else. But it won't come to that."
No, it probably wouldn't come to that if Konoha was aware of Sand's 'shady' dealings and prepared to overlook them. He wondered how an actual alliance with Konoha would change the way the clan shared information about missions. They would likely start sharing information with Konoha the same way they did with Sand. They would also cut all dealings with Sound because Konoha, unlike Sand, was consistent in considering Sound an enemy village.
"You're not going to like this," Sasuke warned Naruto, "but we're being honest here. Right?"
"Yeah..."
"After hearing Shikamaru's report I can see myself siding with Danzou and Orochimaru." He winced when Naruto freaked out, as he had expected he would. He spoke over him. "As an outsider, I can see their side of things. Not as an Uchiha. As an Uchiha I'm surprised the clan never made any serious attempts to eliminate Danzou, if only for revenge. If Sand really wasn't aware of Itachi's potential involvement in that attack four years ago, and my involvement in slowing the pursuit, then it's possible the clan joined with Sound on their own to do that. Or maybe Itachi did that on his own and my father only learned about it in time to send me to help stop him from being caught. As an Uchiha, I can understand why my clan might side with Orochimaru in that venture, if the goal was to strike a belated blow at Danzou. I'm not saying that's what happened," he stressed. "I don't even know if Itachi was involved in that. But if we're speculating then I can see how it might be true. Danzou appears to have been the driving force behind the clan leaving Konoha.
"But as an outsider," he continued, "I have to agree that the Hokage showed clear bias in favor of the clan and against Orochimaru. What Orochimaru did in forming his own village was less of a betrayal than what the clan did. The clan settled with a village that wasn't even an ally of Konoha. Orochimaru formed a new village and immediately attempted to make an alliance with Konoha. He should have had every reason to expect Konoha to accept an alliance after they were so quick to form an alliance with Sand. But they didn't. They immediately considered him a dangerous enemy and to this day refuse to recognize him as a kage of his own shinobi village. Why? Why did Konoha go from celebrating him as one of their legendary sanin to viewing him as a lifelong villain in the space of a few months? What changed?"
"I don't know," Naruto sighed. "If my dad was biased he must have had a good reason. But he never shared it with me. I didn't even know Orochimaru was still here when the clan left. I thought he left right after the Third Hokage died. Jiraiya says Orochimaru changed during the last war, that he stopped valuing human life and lost his own humanity in the pursuit of the shinobi arts. That definitely fits with what we've learned about him and his so-called village. You've worked with them, so you can tell me how Sound compares to other villages. Maybe it isn't that different on the surface. But there's a lot of nasty shit going on there that they're not showing. What we do know is that Orochimaru openly recruits shinobi, missing-nin, rejects, anyone wanting more strength or direction or freedom than they could get where they started out. And most of those people are never seen again. The few who are spotted again are messed up. I don't know about scientific experiments, but he's definitely experimenting with forbidden techniques. I don't mean forbidden like the kage bunshin, I'm talking about really horrible techniques that shouldn't even exist because only a monster would use them."
"What sort of techniques?" He raised an eyebrow when Naruto shot him a guarded look. "If you can't discuss it with me, just say so. It's okay. I'm only asking because I mentioned something to Ibiki and was warned by Kakashi never to mention it to anyone again. I don't know if that includes you or not. So I can't bring it up. But if you bring it up, then I won't be telling you anything you don't already know."
"Kakashi told you to keep something a secret from me?" Naruto demanded.
"He didn't say not to tell you in particular. He said not to speak of it to anyone at all."
"Well, you're not going to obey that order. Not with me. Even my dad can't make you keep secrets from me if you don't want to. There are things I can't talk about because I swore I never would, but I made those pledges voluntarily. No one in Konoha can force you to-"
"Calm down," Sasuke cut him off. Naruto looked liable to work himself into an actual rage. He sighed and rose from the couch. "Forget I said anything. Just for now. It isn't anything that won't keep. I'll ask Ibiki whether or not you're included in that warning to keep silent. He and Kakashi might have assumed I would immediately ask you about it despite the warning. Once I know whether or not they're telling me to keep it a secret from you, then I'll decide if I want to keep that secret or not. They may have a good reason for not wanting me to discuss it with you. Politics, most likely. This reeks of politics."
"No, this reeks of bullshit," Naruto scowled. "You haven't sworn loyalty to Konoha, so you can't be forced to keep anything a secret, especially not from me. If you want to talk to Ibiki first, I'll wait, but if he makes it sound like an order then he's bluffing. Only my dad can give you orders and even he can't make you obey them. He definitely wouldn't ask you to keep secrets from me. There's already too much I don't know about you."
Naruto probably knew more about him than anyone outside his own immediate family. He had certainly spent more time in direct contact with him.
"Let's get you started on the teleportation seal," said Sasuke. "I'm going to draw out Shikamaru's timeline before Sakura gets here. There are some things I want to add that she should hear about."
Naruto fell for the distraction nicely, cringing back against the arm of the couch. "You still want me to do that seal? Now?"
"Yes, and as soon as Sakura leaves we'll get your wristbands set up. So you'll have that to look forward to."
"Can't we do the wristbands now and save the teleportation seal for never?" Naruto's hopeful expression was childishly exaggerated and cute. It was also completely ineffective.
"No."
.-.
"Does your chakra usually recover this quickly?" asked Sakura.
She had insisted on checking him over first. Since she had arrived early and Naruto was looking blatantly guilty after scrambling to hide the scrolls he had been working on when she knocked, Sasuke led her to the bathroom to give Naruto time to settle down. It was only buying him a bit of time, though. Eventually Naruto would be comfortable enough with learning these things that he'd probably want to brag about it rather than hide it.
"This wasn't quick for me," Sasuke told her. "Usually my chakra starts recovering within an hour or two. This time it didn't recover enough to get past the drain until after I took a second pill last night."
Sakura was openly skeptical. "You only took two pills?"
"That was more than I wanted to take. What are you implying?"
"Nothing," she shrugged. Her dismissive smile didn't reach her eyes. "Maybe they were more effective because you aren't used to taking them. Your healing is further along than it was before the attack, so you haven't done yourself any harm with that. I'd still recommend against using up too much of your chakra, but if you do get low enough for it to hurt you can take another pill." She pressed hard on his lower back, probing the place with her chakra as he watched over his shoulder. It didn't hurt at all this time. "You're officially clear for active duty. Or training, in your case. I doubt even a direct hit would be a setback at this point."
"Thank you," he said. He eyed her closely as he pulled his shirt down. She didn't look like a medic who had just given someone good news. "Do those pills normally have side effects? I should have asked that before taking them."
"Those? No, those are the lowest level we make. If you took too many of them you'd suffer from serious brain fog and physical exhaustion after they wore off, possibly even torn muscles if the chakra high kept you from realizing how much you were pushing yourself. But that would take half the bag. It's the stronger chakra pills you have to be very careful with. Why?" she asked sharply. "Did you experience adverse side effects?"
He blanked his expression so he wouldn't give in to a wry smile or a blush or something equally telling. He wouldn't call the side effects he had experienced 'adverse' but they definitely weren't something he'd want to experience immediately after a fight, or even a spar for that matter. "Maybe a bit of brain fog. I was unusually relaxed after the second pill. I had just woken up, so it was strange to want to go back to sleep so soon." Sleep wasn't all he had wanted to do, but she didn't need to hear about that.
"You might really have a low tolerance, then. It is unusual for someone to be an active shinobi for as long as you have without any exposure to supplements. I'll make a note on your charts. You might have a similar problem with general anesthesia. That's something we'll have to keep an eye on the next time you require surgery."
"I'm hoping I won't require surgery again."
"We're all hoping for that," she scoffed. She turned to the door and stopped with her back to him. After a moment she sighed, put her shoulders back and turned around. "Is it me that's making him look like that? Did you two learn something from Shikamaru that he's afraid to talk to me about?"
"No, nothing like that. He's just working on something that has him self-conscious. Once he masters it he'll probably want to show it off."
"Are you teaching him something? Something new?" A genuine smile made her eyes glow. "Oh, thank goodness. He said training with you would force him to learn new things, but saying that and actually doing it are two completely different things. Especially with Naruto. I don't think he has learned any new techniques since he first saw you. Not that I'm blaming you! He has always had a one-track mind, obsessing over one thing so he just doesn't have the patience to even try focusing on anything else. And even when we were younger, he'd get himself so worked up, not wanting to disappoint anyone, that he'd just freeze right on the spot. I don't know who I felt worse for when we were in the academy together, him or Iruka-sensei. Honestly, I blame the Hokage for that. When Naruto first entered the academy he was so childish - enthusiastic and full of potential, don't get me wrong. But all he wanted to do was play and make friends to skip classes with. It was like sitting still was physically painful for him. It's amazing his father managed to cram as much information into his head as he did when he was even younger than that."
"Do you think he has some sort of mental block like Lee?" he asked.
"Oh, no. Naruto is very good at using his chakra when it's something he understands and feels capable of doing. He learned to add wind to his rasengan so quickly it was ridiculous. He burned himself out doing it, because that's what he does when he gets hyper-focused that way, but he figured it out so fast it's almost infuriating. I don't know if I'll ever find time to work on creating a nature transformation attack of my own. You need at least one of those to make jounin. I'll probably max out at special jounin due to my medical training. Naruto, on the other hand, has so much potential to learn things quickly with all of the bunshin he's capable of making. There's no excuse for him to have just stopped cold the way he has. Though he did try for a while there." She gave him a cautious smile. "Did he finally talk to you about working with Kyuubi after we left the other night?"
"Yes."
"Did he tell you what happened with Jiraiya?" She relaxed at his nod. "Good. That was honestly frightening, seeing the damage he caused. And it was such a disappointment. That was the one thing able to distract him from his obsession with you, something that kept him in the village and training to get stronger, and then he had to stop, just like that. He has hardly even used Kyuubi's chakra since then. He can use it safely. Did he tell you that? He can use quite a bit of it before he's in danger of losing control. He's just afraid to. He hasn't worked on much of anything since then. He doesn't even practice with his clones unless someone goads him into it. If he doesn't pick the pace back up, and fast, then Kakashi will probably make Hokage before he does."
"Kakashi?"
Sakura laughed, making him aware of the expression on his face. He grimaced. The thought of Kakashi as the Hokage, while he was living in this village, forced to take orders from him, was very unpleasant.
"Don't tell Naruto I said that," she grinned. "I don't think his father will skip over him like that. But it could happen if he doesn't get his butt in gear and get back to training. If there is anything I can do to help with that, just say the word."
"There is something," he admitted. He told her what he intended for tomorrow. Her reaction was downright gleeful. He hoped he wasn't getting her hopes up too badly. "As for tonight, there is something I need to tell the two of you that might upset you. It concerns Kabuto."
That sobered her up quickly. She didn't look worried or upset, though, just resigned. "We'll be talking about Orochimaru, so that shouldn't surprise me. Let's get to it."
Naruto was back to normal when they joined him in the livingroom. He had already moved the furniture back and unrolled Sasuke's version of the timeline. Sakura knew all about the 'facts,' thanks to Ino. She listened to the speculation and then offered information she had gotten from her visit with Lee. He was already out of the hospital and being watched by his team to keep him from jumping right back into training and missions. His attacker had blatantly been trying to keep him away from the fight without injuring him. At first. Then, in Sakura's words, Lee had 'taken it up a notch' and forced the man to evade or 'suffer the consequences.' It wasn't until Lee had worn him out and gotten close enough to disable him that the man had cut him with his weapons. Sasuke didn't recognize the name of the poison, but Sakura said it wasn't normally considered fatal. The pain was usually enough to incapacitate a target, but it could take days to kill even without medical intervention. Since Lee was a beast, and Naruto grinned at her use of that term, he had barely felt it. That confirmed Sasuke's belief that the attackers hadn't wanted to kill Lee. He wondered what Ibiki would make of that information.
"I only have three things to add for now," said Sasuke. He placed two marks directly before the chunin exam. He told Sakura about his missions with Rain and his speculations about Sand's involvement in spreading information to Sound. She sent a quick glance to Naruto, who told her 'no secrets,' and then she nodded.
"Temari is convinced her father was involved," said Sakura. "She was furious that he would use Gaara that way. Even if they had managed to kill Naruto, an open Sand and Sound alliance still wouldn't have been able to take down Konoha. There was no point to it. That's the only thing that keeps her from acting, the slight chance that they could be wrong because there was no benefit to Sand being involved in that. No benefit that they can see, anyway. Unless," she winced at Naruto, "he just wanted to get rid of Gaara."
"If that was the point," Naruto scowled, "he failed miserably. He won't be trying that again. Gaara has his own supporters now."
Sasuke tapped the second marker. "As soon as I returned to the clan after working with Rain I was sent out on my first mission with Sound. The man who met me and gave me my orders introduced himself as Kabuto and looked like this."
Naruto flinched at his henge. He probably should have warned him in addition to Sakura. But he was no longer afraid his past dealings with Sound would be held against the clan, and he had decided to be honest with Naruto about these things. It was best to get this out in the open quickly.
"He was wearing a Sound forehead protector," said Sasuke. "I had no reason to think he was anything but a Sound shinobi. I continued working with Sound up until my last mission." He placed another marker directly after the attack four years ago. "When I escaped into Sound, Kabuto was the one who met me. He sent word to the clan that I had developed the sharingan and I was called home."
Naruto and Sakura were looking at each other. Sasuke gave them a moment and then asked, "Is he the same Kabuto?"
"Yes," said Sakura.
Naruto shook his head. "But how could he have been in Sound when he was working in the hospital right before the exam? How was he getting in and out of the village? And why? He must have had an easier way to stay in contact with Orochimaru than to go personally."
"He could have been using a bunshin," said Sasuke. "He's the one who taught me the kage bunshin jutsu."
"That settles it," Sakura growled, clenching her fists. "He was definitely watching you, Naruto. He probably started working at the hospital purposely just to befriend me so I'd help him get added to our team. That bastard!"
"Yeah," Naruto sighed. He looked more resigned than angry. "But we knew he was probably working for Orochimaru for a long time before the exam. This just confirms it. What was he like," he asked Sasuke, "the first time you met him?"
"The white hair stood out," Sasuke admitted, "but the only thing that really struck me as unusual was his age. He seemed too young to be giving me orders on behalf of a village I had never worked with before."
"Wait," Naruto jumped. "You mean you had never worked for Sound at all up until then? I thought you had been working with them for years."
"The clan was working with them, not me. Sound was probably working exclusively with Itachi up until then, though I don't know that for sure. My first mission for them took place immediately after I finished working with Rain. That may not have been a coincidence. I worked almost exclusively with Sound from that point on right through that last mission. I took most of my orders from Kabuto or one of the people who were with him the first time we met." He performed a henge for each and was disappointed when Naruto and Sakura didn't recognize any of them. At least that meant Kabuto might have been the only former Konoha spy he had been dealing with. "Some of them had very disturbing chakra, dark enough that I could see hints of it even without the sharingan. Your demon's chakra reminded me of them," he told Naruto.
Naruto winced. "That's one of those nasty things I was talking about. He puts some sort of mark on some of his people that makes them...mutate into something else." He hesitated for a moment and then said quietly, "He put one on Anko. She escaped before it could turn her into a monster, but it messed her up pretty bad. Don't tell her I mentioned that to you. Most people know, but no one talks about it, especially not to her. Iruka-sensei says she was just a kid when Orochimaru got his hands on her. None of that was her fault."
"I won't say anything." He was glad Naruto had resisted the urge to keep that a secret. Yes, it was gossip, but it explained Anko's hatred of snakes and the way she had viewed him with suspicion as someone who had been dealing with Sound, and possibly Orochimaru himself. It also said a lot about Konoha's bias against Orochimaru, if the man had a history of targeting children. Many of Sasuke's early targets had been people known to target children. Hatred of such people was something all the villages he had worked with had in common. All except Sound? That would certainly explain a lot.
"As for Kabuto," Sasuke continued, "he seemed normal enough to me. More of a supplemental medic than a fighter," and he couldn't avoid seeing the way Sakura winced at that, "but he clearly held a position of power and respect among the Sound shinobi I interacted with. His tone did seem suspiciously casual at times when he addressed me, compared to the colder way he spoke to others. He wasn't antagonistic toward me, though. He just made it clear that he didn't think much of me." Because Kabuto would rather have been working with Itachi? If Itachi really had been part of the attack four years ago then he might have already been dealing directly with Orochimaru by the time Sasuke began working with Sound.
"I was never invited into the heart of the village itself," he told Naruto, "so I don't know what they might have been hiding there. Aside from the fact that most of the shinobi were genin despite being too strong for that rank, and some had that dark chakra, they didn't seem much different from other shinobi I had worked with. They just followed their orders, teaching me what I needed to know to carry out the missions assigned to me. When I returned to recover between missions they ignored me altogether." Except they had still been very aware of his presence, loudly and openly discussing things he had no interest in hearing. Had they been trying to get a rise out of the Uchiha? Probably. They had failed in that regard.
"Did they ask you about your missions with Rain?" asked Sakura. "Is that why you added it to the timeline?"
"No, they never asked about any of my prior missions. If I'm right about Sand's involvement they would have had no need to get information from me. I added it to the timeline because of the timing. I was never considered for missions from Sound until after I had worked with Rain. That's worth noting. I also added it to mark the beginning and end of my dealings with Sound, and with Kabuto in particular. This is a timeline of facts and these are facts I feel no need to hide."
Naruto gave a slow smile. "I can only imagine what you were thinking each time I mentioned Kabuto. None of your past dealings with other villages is going to change how we treat the clan going forward. I'm glad you're confident enough to believe that now."
"More confident," Sasuke warned him, "not entirely confident."
"Confident enough to keep fewer secrets," said Naruto. "I'm taking that as a win. So, now we know Kabuto has worked with all three of us. That's a good fact to have down."
"But he left," Sakura said slowly, "before you learned to use Kyuubi's chakra for tails, before I learned the offensive aspects of my medical ninjutsu, and he lost access to Sasuke right after he got the sharingan. Unless Sound still has spies here, any attacks they wage will be based on how strong we were five years ago, and how strong Sasuke was four years ago. That gives us the advantage. Well," she flashed Sasuke a teasing look, "it would give us an advantage if we can get Sasuke to stop taking out his attackers so easily."
Naruto laughed. "He is making it look easy, isn't he?"
"Tell that to Lee," Sasuke muttered.
"Nonsense," smiled Sakura. "Lee considered that a wonderful workout. He was terribly embarrassed about not realizing he was poisoned, but he had nothing but good things to say about you. He can't wait to work with you again. Tenten is very annoyed by that, just so you know."
"Lee doesn't want me fighting his teammate," Sasuke informed her. "He believes it would be dangerous and demotivating for either of you to fight someone like me without your teammates as backup."
She waved that away. "Lee is a bit overprotective and chauvinistic when it comes to kunoichi. He's not as bad as Naruto, but he has his moments. Luckily for him, he's endearing enough that we're willing to tolerate that flaw."
"Lee isn't the only one," Naruto reminded her firmly. "I don't want you two fighting either. Not without some strict ground-rules."
"Yes, I know," she murmured, her eyes narrow. "But teammates are supposed to help each other improve and since you have never so much as sparred with me your opinion on the matter doesn't mean as much as you think it should. Lee is overprotective. You, Naruto, are smothering and hindering my potential growth. Work on that, because it is not the least bit endearing."
Naruto winced, and then flinched backwards when she abruptly stood. Maybe she really was in the habit of hitting him. She didn't hit him now, she just scoffed at him before bidding them goodnight. Sasuke closed the door behind her.
"She has a point," said Sasuke. "All of your friends appear willing to train with their female teammates. Have you never even provided her with bunshin to train with?"
The answer was written plainly on Naruto's guilty face.
"I have never had a bias against kunoichi," said Sasuke, "but I do have one against supplemental medic types. In my opinion, they have no business on the battleground and should only be brought into an active fight if they can be protected while providing aid. But I'm used to working alone. On a team, leaving the medic behind just makes that medic a target. If you do hope to go on missions with her you should do everything you can to make certain she's strong enough to protect herself from being taken out while you're busy fighting. Even if she never goes on a mission outside the village, she may find herself caught up in an attack. If the thought of throwing a single punch at her is disturbing, imagine having her be killed because you refused to do so."
Naruto closed his eyes tightly and ducked his head, his voice a pained whisper. "That already happened. Gaara almost killed her. If Ino hadn't woken her up enough to use her medical skills she would have died while I was busy fighting Gaara. Shikamaru's team kept her safe and alive long enough for her to save herself. If not for them I would have come back to find her dead body in that hollow tree. You don't understand. It's not just about me not wanting to fight a girl. It's Sakura-chan. I can't hit Sakura-chan."
"That was five years ago. As she pointed out, you have both grown stronger since then." He brushed a hand over Naruto's hair as he passed him. "You don't know what she's capable of now. You don't even know what you're capable of. Stop saying you can't. Yesterday you thought you couldn't draw out a seal. Who knows what you'll learn tomorrow."
.-.
TBC