Tazuna and Team Seven didn't spend much time away from Kakashi after he'd collapsed. Sasuke and Akira had managed to carry him all the way to Tazuna's house without straining themselves too much, and Kakashi had been out cold ever since. The more she thought about it, the more Akira wanted to blame the Sharingan. It already put a substantial amount of stress on an Uchiha, so Akira couldn't even begin to imagine what sort of damage it could do to someone like Kakashi.
Team Seven kept an eye on Kakashi in two-hour shifts, each one of them choosing to spend their time in silence differently. Sasuke did nothing except 'look cranky', as Naruto put it, and he, in turn, spent it talking to the unconscious Kakashi about different kinds of ramen. Sakura and Akira hoped that Kakashi couldn't hear him for his own sake, and the former usually spent her time practising small-scale jutsu. Meanwhile, Akira used the time to lie down and stare at the ceiling, enjoying the sound of the waves.
When she wasn't watching over Kakashi, Akira was usually just outside Tazuna's house, bare feet hanging over the edge of the dock, toes dipped in the cool water, or lying down on her stomach and staring down at the water, watching it ripple as she dragged her fingers across the surface. Sometimes, Akira felt as if the water moved with her, to the sound of the songs she hummed around it. Occasionally, there was a tickle on her fingertips, and the water swirled extra perfectly, following her fingers as if it were copying the girl's movements. But today, there was a spark, and it took Akira by surprise. Before Akira could touch the water again, however, Naruto came barrelling out of Tazuna's house.
"Akira, Akira—Kakashi-sensei is awake!" he cheered.
Akira scrambled to her feet and followed Naruto inside. Kakashi was lying in bed, as he had been for a while now, but his uncovered eye was opened this time, looking at the small crowd gathering around him.
"I'm fine, you guys," Kakashi said with a chuckle. "Just overexerted myself a little."
"Listen, Sensei," Akira said sternly. "The Sharingan thing is amazing and all, but if it's going to take this much out of you, I don't think it's worth it."
"Sorry."
"Hey, what's he apologising for?" Tazuna asked. "He took down one of the most powerful ninjas. We'll be safe for a while."
"We don't know that, Tazuna," Akira insisted. "Maybe there's more of them, and now our only Jōnin is out of commission for this excessively out-of-scope mission of ours."
Tazuna cleared his throat and looked away, unwilling to argue with her.
"Right, that reminds me," Sakura said. "You know that kid with the mask? He was weird, no?"
"Huh, what do you mean?" Naruto asked. "The only thing weird about that kid was how easy he took out Zabuza."
"Sakura's right," Akira stated. "The ANBU does the same thing as this tracker was supposed to do: destroy all evidence of a rogue ninja's corpse. A shinobi's body contains so much valuable information; it contains ninjutsu, chakra, and special medicines used on his body—these are all secrets of the village. Let's say Kakashi-sensei had died at the hands of an enemy, they'd immediately try to get information about his Sharingan. In the worst-case scenario, the entire thing could be stolen and used against the village. It's literally the only job a tracker has—but what did this guy do?"
Akira was met with silence.
"Oh, come on, guys, use your heads!"
"He was supposed to deal with Zabuza right then and there," Sasuke said after a moment. "But he didn't. He took him off somewhere."
"Exactly. But why? He should have worked with Zabuza right there, as quickly as possible." Kakashi said tiredly. He sat up and faced his students. "Think of the weapons he used for the takedown... Do you remember what they were?"
"These needle things," Naruto said. "What about them?"
"None of it adds up, that's what. Zabuza is most likely still alive."
Tazuna, Sakura and Naruto screeched.
"But we saw his body! Believe it!" Naruto yelled.
"You checked him yourself!" Tazuna shouted. "You said that his heart stopped!"
"His heart did stop, but that was just a temporary state."
"Pressure points!" Sakura exclaimed. "I remember it from class! The neck doesn't have any muscle mass, it's easier to get to the pressure points!"
"Precisely. Those two factors—taking Zabuza away and using needles as a killing tool—tell me that the tracker wasn't trying to kill Zabuza, he was trying to save him."
"Come on, you're overthinking this!" Tazuna said.
"Even if he is, when encountering suspicion of any kind, a ninja must prepare quickly," Akira said. "Hesitation leads to disaster. Every shinobi knows this saying."
Sasuke scoffed.
"Akira, you say prepare quickly—but how can we do that when Kakashi-sensei can barely move?" he said.
"Hey, I don't have all the answers, Sasuke."
"I don't know, after that speech, you sure seemed to give off the impression you did."
Akira rolled her eyes and pulled a face at Sasuke, which only made Kakashi laugh.
"I can still train you," he said.
"Hold on! A little last-minute training won't help us get strong enough to go against Zabuza," Sakura protested. "You could barely defeat him even with your Sharingan! We need to be reasonable about this!"
"Plus, you're swaying, Sensei," Akira said, poking Kakashi on the shoulder. He wobbled a little and fell backwards. "See?"
"Look, another few hours of rest and I'll be able to train you, all right," Kakashi insisted. "I was able to stop Zabuza earlier because you all came together—you've grown!"
"Yeah, right!"
Everyone turned towards the declaration of doubt with raised eyebrows. A young boy was staring at the ninjas, and between the high collared shirt and low bucket hat, you could barely see the dispassionate look on his face.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked.
"Ah, Inari! Where've you been?" Tazuna exclaimed, welcoming the young boy in his arms.
"Welcome back, Grandpa!" Inari said as a woman walked in.
"Inari that was very rude," Tazuna's daughter said, walking into the room. "These ninjas helped your grandfather and brought him here safely!"
"It's okay, it's okay—I'm rude to them too!" Tazuna chuckled.
Akira stared at him, deadpan. This man was serious.
"Mom, don't you see? These people are gonna die! Gato and his men will find them and wipe them out!"
"What did you say, brat!?" Naruto shouted. "Listen up! You know what a super ninja is? Well, that's me only a lot better! But I'm gonna be Hokage! This Gato or Blato—whatever he's called; he's no match for a real hero like me!"
"Ha! There's no such thing as a hero," Inari scoffed. "You're just full of stupid ideas!"
"What did you say!?"
Naruto launched himself at the kid, but thankfully Sakura caught him before he could take more than a step toward him.
"Naruto calm down!" Sakura shouted.
"If you want to stay alive, you should go back where you came from," Inari said, then left the room, slamming the sliding doors shut behind him.
While Sakura and Naruto were busy fighting, Kakashi had the bright idea to get up from bed. Akira sighed, irritated, as he swayed some more, but she gladly lent him her shoulder as they went outside. Sasuke helped too, and when they realised Kakashi, Akira and Sasuke were gone, Naruto and Sakura followed them out towards the woods nearby. It was peaceful and sunny, and the warm air instantly brought Kakashi's colour back.
"All right, training starts now," he said as Sasuke and Akira helped him sit. "First, we'll start with a review of chakra: the primary source of a ninja's power. Understanding chakra is essential."
"We know that," Sasuke sighed.
"Yeah! A long, long time ago we learned about, uh—catra?" Naruto said.
"Chakra, Naruto," Sakura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, let me just explain it to you, real simple—Chakra is the elemental life energy a ninja uses in jutsu, the source of all his power. Now, this energy has two forms: physical energy, which exists in all the cells of the entire body, all working together; and spiritual energy, the prime source of power which is intensified through training and experience. These two types of chakra must be brought out and put together in order to perform jutsu. Finally, hand signs focus and unleash the chakra."
"You sound like a textbook," Akira said, deadpan.
"Well, I can't comment on that," Kakashi said. "But you're right on all points, Sakura."
"Huh? What's the big deal with all these complicated explanations?" Naruto complained. "The whole point is to learn the jutsu, isn't it?"
"Naruto's right for once," Sasuke said.
Akira and Sakura looked at him, blinking stupidly.
"No! You've not mastered this power, you've barely scratched the surface!" Kakashi told the students.
"What do you mean!?" Naruto said, getting impatient.
"Pipe down and listen, Naruto," Akira hissed.
"It's just like Sakura said—you have to draw on physical and spiritual energies, and then combine them within yourself. But how do you do that?" Kakashi said. "Each jutsu requires different kinds of chakra, in different proportions. You must select and combine them in precisely the right way. Up to now, you've just guessed at the proportions, hoping they'd come out right. Even if you produce a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's all worthless—the jutsu won't work at all, or it'll just be a joke. You waste so much energy that way, then you run out of chakra, and you can't fight at all—you're just a target."
"Uh, so how do we change that?" Naruto asked, scratching his head.
"Train so hard your chakra control becomes second nature," Kakashi said. "To achieve this goal, you must be ready to put your life on the line!"
"You're joking, right?" Akira asked, concerned. "He is joking, right?"
"What do we have to do?" Sakura asked, unsure.
Kakashi laughed.
"Climb a tree."
"Climb a tree!?" the four students chorused, confused.
"That's right. There's just one rule: no hands."
"What? You're kidding," Sakura said, giving her sensei a deadpan look.
"Am I?"
This time, Kakashi stood without swaying, put his hands together in a simple seal, and then calmly walked towards the tree. He put one foot on the trunk and walked all the way up as if it were nothing.
"He's actually climbing..." Naruto said, astounded.
"Straight up," Sakura added. "With only his feet!"
"Okay, now you're just showing off, Sensei!" Akira shouted as Kakashi walked up-side-down on a thick branch.
"Yeah, well, you get the idea," he said coolly. "Focus your chakra to the soles of your feet and use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra."
"Wait a minute! This is a nice trick, but how does it help us fight Zabuza?" Sakura asked, annoyed.
"It's the only way to fight him, Sakura. That's the entire goal of this training. First, you'll learn to draw a precise amount of chakra to an accurate location of your body; this is difficult even for advanced ninja. This type of climbing requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy, and the bottom of your feet is the most challenging place to focus chakra. Are you getting the picture? If you can master this, you'll be able to master any jutsu! Well, theoretically... The second point of this exercise is to learn how to maintain your chakra levels. When a ninja is focused in battle, it's even harder to maintain and control his chakra levels—a deadly mistake. To avoid this, maintaining chakra must become second nature, effortless."
Out of one of his pouches, Kakashi-sensei removed four kunai and threw them right in front of each student's feet.
"Use the kunai to mark the tree at the highest point you can climb without using your hands. Then, try to get past that mark the next time. At first, you'll need to run at the tree so your momentum can take you as high as possible... Until you get used to it. Ready?"
Akira grabbed the kunai and walked over towards a tree. She stared up at it for a moment, trying to visualise herself hanging upside down like Kakashi, then walked back to her starting position. Akira put her hands together and began trying to focus her chakra, much like she'd done when trying to find chakra in the area the other day. But, as Kakashi said, the task was far more complicated than she'd anticipated, and it took her several minutes to feel any chakra moving downwards.
When she was satisfied with the amount to test with first, Akira broke into a sprint. She remained focused, attempting to keep her chakra's balance as she thought about running, and then ran up the tree for as long as she could. When she felt her feet slipping, Akira pushed off the tree and landed.
"Hm, halfway," she muttered to herself.
Dissatisfied with her first attempt, Akira closed her eyes and focused on her chakra for a little bit longer. When she opened her eyes again, Akira dashed towards the tree again, in synch with Sakura.
"Race you to the top," she said.
"Oh, you're on, Sakura!"
Both girls raced up with incredible speed, leaving Sasuke and Naruto speechless. Neither of them faltered, steadily maintaining their chakra until they both reached the very top.