Chapter.5
"No. I won't allow it to happen." A dark-haired young man growled fiercely. His sensei didn't appear even slightly phased.
"Now, now Sasuke-kun. You know you can't go against Tsunade's orders." A gray-haired man reasoned. He wore a pair of sunglasses that were obscured by a mass of hair on the left side of his face. Everything that wasn't lost under the mass of silvery hair was covered in a navy blue mask that ran all the way up to his nose. All this fabric had a curious effect. One who didn't know him might think the older man was being eaten alive by his accessories. His loose black slacks and navy blue turtleneck didn't diminish this at all.
"That's my room. I refuse to share it with them." Sasuke growled again, black eyes flashing. "There is no way. Not with a child!" Mesh covered arms crossed. They disappeared under a pleasingly tight sleeveless black shirt that ran down to halfway between his elbows and shoulders and ended abruptly. This had caused mass nosebleeds before the female population until they developed at least a partial immunity. Sasuke attempted to read his teacher's expression, but it was near impossible to do so at the best of times.
It was still early enough in the evening that some sunlight was able to push itself through the thick foliage- so forcefully in fact that once the light passed through it could do nothing but spin in crazy half-circles on the dirt. Sauske had come to train in the relative privacy the thick branches had offered him. After all, the clearing he usually trained in was quite close to his cabin. The staff and students of Kono understood the dark boy needed his space and for the most part they left him alone. Whether this privacy was because of the prestige of his clan of that his adoptive father Hatake Kakashi had asked for it, Sasuke had no idea. Up until now it hadn't mattered either- because he was allowed such freedom without question. But this was about to be changed- by the obnoxiously loud group!
Sasuke had heard them, even from his semi-remote spot.
"That child is also a mute. Hardly loud." Kakashi argued. Sasuke's spiked hair twitched.
"Less than a hour ago there was screaming just over there." He gestured animatedly to a point at a right angle to his dorm and the edge of the public training grounds. "And then those three brats rushed by!" Sasuke waved his hands angrily. "How is that not loud?"
Kakashi's eyes narrowed to mirror Sasuke's, not that he could see. Even if his eyes were invisible Sasuke could sense the man was angered.
"The young mute, had a seizure." The gray-haired man said.
"Hn." His student sounded unimpressed.
"You might be interested to know that the Chuunin was able to hone in on Tsunade's chakra."
Sasuke whipped his head around to stare at Kakashi.
"How do you know?"
"Sakura spoke to me afterwards. She could barely keep up with the Chuunin boy's speed- but she told me he somehow managed to find Tsunade where she was gathering herbs." Kakashi intoned, dropping the bit of information like a hunk of meat to a starving man. Sasuke's eyes narrowed to slits.
"How could a total stranger would know Tsunade-hime is a medical expert? Only Kabuto-san is listed as our medical staff." The dark boy said. His sensei shrugged, pleased his bait had worked.
"Ask them. They're already moved into your dorms." The sunglasses-clad man said. Sasuke's temper flared around one of the few people he allowed it to.
"How could you? It's MINE!" Sasuke cried. Kakashi glared at him.
"May you sound childish. You must recognize there was no other place they could go."
A breeze stirred the leaves slowly, but neither shinobi noticed.
"Couldn't you move them in with Ishikara and Koori?"
"Their dorm was only built for three."
"You could have split them up."
"Jiraiya-sama allowed their request to remain together."
"Hn." Sasuke grumbled, but now he knew he'd lost. There was no way he could fight Jiraiya and Tsunade's orders. Eventually he stormed off to his completely occupied dorms. He supposed it wasn't all bad- something could be gained of this. The Chuunin might be a good sparring partner.
Before he heard the voices outside his door, Sasuke's steps had slowed down and to the world he appeared cool and collected once again. He was so immersed in his act of the aloof ninja he barely flinched when he heard his cousins gossiping. Perhaps he could glean some useful information off them. Kakashi had mentioned Sakura was with his new roommates- he could learn more about that Chuunin.
The black-haired boy positioned himself so he would walk up the backs of his cousins, and surprisingly Sarutobi Neji, since they were facing towards his cabin. All three of them were talking in hushed voices. Even in the dappled light (that was already growing dimmer) Sakura and Akane's clan emblems where obvious. Sasuke winced under the weight of his own Uchiha symbol. Before their parents had died, all three children had been under a great deal of pressure to continue the Uchiha bloodline. Especially Sasuke, the only one in his age group to master the Sharingan Eyes- except Aniki. But that was too painful a train of thought.
"Sakura-san. Akane-san." Sasuke said, which functioned quite well as his salutation. He and Sarutobi allowed a nod of acknowledgment. Akane jumped to his side.
"Have you heard about your new roomies?" She gushed.
"No." Sasuke answered as coldly as possible. Akane appeared hurt for only a second.
"We were watching a battle, and boy where they boring! They hardly knew how to fight!" She said. Sakura shook her head sadly.
"They both maintained Kage Bushin no Jutsu. I've never seen such speed- especially from the gray-haired boy, Daniel, who was injured."
"Both his ankles sprained." Neji murmured sadly.
"But the curious thing was how scared they got when their little brother had a seizure." Sakura said again. "When they were fighting they looked almost relaxed- even happy."
"The blonde, what was his name.... Jacob? Yeah, Jacob used his chakrra to walk down a tree- that was pretty cool. You remember- like Kakashi did when we first met him?" Akane interrupted.
"I can do that too Akane- the skill does take some chakra molding finesse, but it's not too amazing." Sakura butted in. Sasuke's hopes at someone to spar with jumped- he had just recently learned the same skill. Sakura, looking frazzled from all the interruptions, continued slowly, "but even after they found Tsunade- which was amazing and practically impossible..." Sakura stopped when she saw Akane's face. "fine, nee-chan, you tell this part." She said. Akane pranced about happily.
"Tsunade-hime said No-chan had a heart problem, and that's why he did all that weird stuff. His brothers looked really scared! It was like they didn't know! And Noah-chan must have been born with it- the heart problem, I mean." Akane gushed. Sasuke absorbed all this, or started to at least. He was still quite sore about his intruders.
"We should inform Shikamaru. It's best to have information gathering in one spot- and I can't think of anyone more clever than Nara. Even if he is lazy." Neji nodded, only slightly ruffled he hadn't made Sakura's list.
Sasuke headed down the stairs to his door.
"I shall inform Shikamaru, Sakura-san. I was most interested to note the Umino brothers and Tsunade recognized each other..." Neji's voice was cut off as Sasuke pulled his door open and slipped behind it. Forgetting he had company for only a moment, he breathed deeply of the cool earthy air. Like all the other dorms, Sasuke's cabin was built half-underground, and plants were encouraged to grow on top of his sod-covered roof. Not only was it virtually invisible from above, but it kept the three-room dorm relatively the same temperature year-round. Sasuke was about to walk across the main room to the bathroom (directly across from the entrance) when he heard steady breathing.
Silently he crouched down in the gloom. His roommates had neglected to turn on the light, so everything was cloaked in gray streaming through the waterproof half-windows around the room. The boys had set up futons, presumably from the supplies in the closet, around Sasuke's futon. The far was a solid wall of futons. Three boys lay curled up on top of his futon in the middle. The older boys were huddled protectively around the smallest boy, who looked odd in this light. He looked nearly translucent, actually, but that must have been his pale coloring.
The smallest must be Noah. And the two older boys must be Jacob and Daniel. He knew this must be so, as he summoned up the names he had just heard. Despite these names, a completely different name floated to the surface of Sasuke's mind.
"Naruto?"
TBC...
