How he became the person he is
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 14:
The week passed like that, Kakashi going on missions with Arashi, Tomoko returning to the hospital, and Jiraiya going on solo missions. On Sunday, both Orochimaru and Tsunade were in the Hokage's office.
"Good to see you two again." Sandaime smiled.
"That was a pretty long time, old man." Tsunade was sitting confidently with her right elbow placed on the back of her chair and her left hand grasping her other hand.
"That took longer than I thought, Sarutobi-sensei." Orochimaru had his arms crossed across his chest. "Is the idiot back?"
"He's on a mission. He'll be back by sunset, I'm sure." He took his pipe from a drawer and lit it.
"That pervert's back? When did he come? I didn't see him for like two years now!" She frowned.
"Ne, half a year ago. He was on a mission also. It was classified." He smiled. "So, anything interesting?"
"I was experimenting with different ways to heal small wounds using less chakra. And I got to make twenty different antidotes more for that poison that swiped our shinobi at the battlefield a year ago." Sandaime smiled in satisfaction. 'As expected...' "And some other things as well." Tsunade concluded as she eyed her old teammate.
"I'll turn in a report." Orochimaru, who wasn't a shinobi of many words, ended at that. Sandaime nodded.
"Well, you guys heard that we are at war with Hidden Cloud, I assume?" Both nodded. "We need as many people as we can have, so you two will have to help. Orochimaru, you'll have to go on missions, and you, Tsunade, will have to help in the hospital. Like before. I don't want to send genin and especially, kids, to the battlefields. We had a five year old graduate a few months ago. Sakumo's son." They put a look that said, 'It figures.' "And now he's a chuunin." Sandaime added.
"Impressive." Orochimaru said.
"Indeed." It was Tsunade.
"Arashi's taking care of him." Orochimaru's eye twitched at the mention of the name.
"That brat?" Tsunade frowned. Arashi graduated the academy at the age of 10, and he was promoted to chuunin the same year, under the tutelage of Jiraiya. Then he became a jounin at 14. It was a record. Not many people made jounin that easily. And he was a sensei. Already.
"Yeah, I thought that with some responsability, the kid would grow up." Sandaime chuckled. "And I'm satisfied with the result." He exhaled a puff of smoke out of his mouth.
"I'm leaving. I'll have the report ready for tomorrow morning." Orochimaru bowed and left through the old fashioned way. When the door closed, Tsunade shook her head.
"I think he looks paler than before. Don't you think, Tsunade?" Sandaime asked.
"Yeah. I guess the months outside the village were challenging." She smirked and got up. "I'm going back to the hospital tomorrow, then. Take care, sensei." In a split of a second, the Hokage was left alone on his office.
"They've grown so much..." Sandaime remembered those old times when he used to consistently scold them for something they've done. Those times wouldn't come back to him, but he knew those times would keep repeating themselves throughout history. He grinned.
That day's mission had been another D-rank mission. Arashi and Kakashi were back by six o'clock, and they decided to have a little training session. Arashi took his student to a training ground near a river.
"You'll probably master this easily. It's similar to tree-climbing, but now you have to walk on water. Like this." Arashi stepped on, and Kakashi watched his sensei unmistakably standing on water. Arashi smiled. "It's very useful, and it helps you to control you chakra much better. You have to make sure you extract the right amount of chakra to your feet, or you'll fall in. Wanna try?"
Kakashi nodded and made the hand seal. After a few seconds of meditating with his eyes closed, he put a foot on the water and stepped harder, followed by his other foot. His sandals got wet, but that was it.
"Pretty good. Use a little more of chakra. Another part of the training is that you have to keep extracting the same amount of chakra while you walk, or run. Try again."
Kakashi concentrated more chakra to his feet and in the next full step he made, he was standing above the surface. Arashi smiled.
"Walk a few more steps." Kakashi did as he was told, but strumbled on the way.
"How come the surface feels different from before, sensei?" Kakashi asked when he stopped.
"The current. It won't make you extract a different amount of chakra. It will feel a little weird, but you won't fall in as long as you keep the pace."
Kakashi walked back towards his sensei, without strumbling, and smiled.
"Now, let's race. In the water. If I win, you'll have to come back here and get our stuff, alright?"
"Do you really think that's fair, sensei?" Kakashi asked sarcastically.
"And if you win, I'll teach you a new jutsu tomorrow." He smiled. "Even if we draw, I'll teach you the jutsu. It's worth it, huh?"
"Okay."
"Okay, then. Let's head to the end of this river. That's about two miles from here." He positioned himself, and Kakashi did the same. "Go!" Arashi started off better than Kakashi, who wet his sandals on the first step he took. He was too distracted on winning that he forgot to control his chakra correctly. Arashi glanced back and smiled. 'Good. I'm sure this will help you to improve your chakra control on the water.' Both sensei and student ran, Kakashi splashing a little of water, and Arashi barely touching it.
Five minutes later, they were still running, and Arashi left Kakashi way behind, just enough for him to be able to feel Kakashi's chakra. Then, he felt his student's chakra stop at one place, and he stopped too to see if there were any problems. When he didn't feel Kakashi's chakra moving from the place, he ran back to see what Kakashi was doing. As he got further from the finishing point, he heard someone panting on the side of the river.'Damn!' Arashi hurried and ran towards the sound. It was Kakashi. He just knew it. When he arrived, he saw the boy bent on the ground, with his hand on his throat.
"What happened, Kakashi?" Kakashi was all wet, and he had his mask down. He was coughing out water... and blood.
"Did someone attack you?" Kakashi didn't respond, and kept choking and trying to take out the water from his body. Arashi rubbed Kakashi's back and hit it occassionally, trying to help. After a few minutes Kakashi was lying on his back, breathing hardly. Only then, Arashi saw the red slash across Kakashi's stomach.
"What happened?" Arashi asked once more, in a more demanding tone than the first time. He leaned closer to his student. Kakashi placed his hand on the cut.
"...attacked..."
"How? Who?"
"Kakashi!" Arashi's voice was louder than before.
Kakashi sighed, and went on. "A shinobi." Kakashi sat up and looked at his sensei. Arashi's eyes widened at the words, and he did what he should have done when he saw the kid spitting out blood.
"Let's go to the hospital first. You'll have to tell me later in details." Kakashi nodded. Arashi held Kakashi in his arms, although the latter insisted on walking 'You're injured, Kakashi.', and ran as fast as he could to the village's hospital. He would have done so earlier if he had seen the cut. He didn't get how he missed the chakra that must have been used to injure the kid.
When he arrived in the hospital, he went to the first nurse he saw, and he didn't need to say anything for the nurse to tell him to follow her. The nurse led him to a room, and told him to wait. Arashi laid Kakashi down in the bed. Kakashi fell asleep while they were heading to the hospital. After a few minutes, she came back with no other than Tomoko. Tomoko was surprised to see Arashi standing next to her son lying in bed. Arashi was surprised too, but he bowed before talking to her.
"Arashi-kun! What happened?" Tomoko asked startled.
"I'm sorry, Tomoko-san, but I don't know what happened, either. We'll have to ask Kakashi once he gets better." Tomoko stood for a moment, but she nodded and started to examine Kakashi's injury. He was still panting and he had his eyes closed because of the pain.
"Nn, he almost got his stomach cut. But even if it isn't grave, it will take time to close completely." Tomoko gathered some chakra on her hand and placed it over the cut. Kakashi grunted when Tomoko's hand started to glow more with her chakra. Arashi crossed his arms across his chest and watched Tomoko healing Kakashi. She took a few minutes to close the cut and then she sat next to her son, and placed a hand on his forehead. He was sweating, but he was still cold.
"It looks like he got soaked, too."
"We were near the river practicing water-walking. And then we went on a race, and he was alone when he got attacked. I'm sorry." He apologized once again.
"That's alright, Arashi-kun. Do you have any idea of who attacked him?"
"No, Tomoko-san. But I doubt it was someone from our village."
"Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, you should go and report to Hokage-sama. We might have intruders in our village."
"Hai. See you tomorrow, Tomoko-san." He bowed and went out the door.
Tomoko stayed there for a few minutes before going back to help other patients. She changed Kakashi's clothes, and dried his face from the sweat. It was by luck that she was the one to heal her son. She was the only one that was taking a rest. All the other medic-nins were busy saving those who survived in the last battle they just had. Probably, she was going to be asked to even go on missions. The only thing she hoped was that the war would end before Kakashi was sent to the battlefields.
The next morning, Kakashi woke up to see the smiling face of his sensei.
"Sensei!" Kakashi was so surprised that he even forgot that he had been attacked the day before, and got up automatically. A spark of pain rushed to his stomach and made him let out a small, "Ku."
"Nn, don't move around, Kakashi."
"What time is it?" Kakashi asked leaning agaisnt his pillow.
"Noon. Sakumo-san came in the morning before going on a mission. And Tomoko-san is working right now." Kakashi sighed, and closed his eyes.
"Yesterday..." Kakashi told Arashi what had happened in the river.
Flashback
They had been running for a long time. Kakashi saw his sensei running a few meters ahead of him, but when Arashi started running a little faster and he couldn't see him anymore, he saw someone running between the trees. He stopped and he noticed that that someone hid himself. He stepped in land and walked towards the area. It was strange that someone from his village would hide from him, so he decided to make sure it wasn't an intruder. It was way more important to guard off shinobi from other villages than learning a new jutsu.
As he got closer, a kunai flew past his right ear. He moved his eyes to locate the place from where it came from. When he blinked, something hit him hard in his chest and it sent him all the way back to the water, where unable to gather chakra on his back, he fell in. The punch or whatever that had hit him hurt a lot, and he gulped a lot of water. As soon as he hit the bottom of the river he stepped hard on it and came back to the surface. Trying not to give the enemy any chances to attack, he hurried up and reached the land.
He got on his feet before anyone could land another attack on him, but he had to face five shuriken. He kneeled to dodge those shuriken, and he got a kunai from his holster. The enemy took his ninja sword from his back. Even though it was after sunset, Kakashi could see the shinobi's hitai-ate. He was a cloud ninja.
"What is a ninja from a village we are at war with doing here?" Kakashi asked.
"Nothing a kid needs to know."
The cloud ninja lifted his sword to his right with both hands and ran towards Kakashi. He blocked the sword attack with his kunai, and he shifted his body to the right, letting the sword land in the grass. Then he kicked the enemy in the chest, sending him a few feet away. Kakashi made the hand seals for the Goukakyuu no Jutsu. When he exhaled the flames out, he felt something on his stomach and realized what the enemy had done. The cloud ninja had sent a bunshin after the kick, and when Kakashi used his jutsu, the bunshin landed the attack on him. Kakashi fell on his knees, and was he was coughing out blood. The cloud ninja walked towards the young shinobi and looked at him.
"You're very skillful, indeed. But that won't help you out of this one." He kicked Kakashi in the stomach, and sent him in the water. 'I should kill you, but...' He thought as he ran away before he changed his mind. He was a shinobi, but he was in Konoha to spy. No one told him that he had to kill a kid during the mission.
Kakashi sank in the water feeling a terrible pain that made him grunt all the way down to the bottom. He had to get out of there. He almost lost his consciousness because of all the water that entered his lungs, but he managed to get to the surface and swim to the land. With difficulty, he brought his body up to the land, and automatically began to throw up, and to take out the water from his body. He coughed, and blood came out as well. And that's when Arashi came. Kakashi was glad to hear his sensei's voice.
"Nn, sorry I left you alone, Kakashi. We were lucky that he didn't kill you with that counter." Arashi smiled, relieved. "He must have been a jounin. They don't send lower class shinobi to those kind of missions."
Kakashi looked at his hands that were over the blanket.
"I have to go and report to Hokage-sama. I told him yesterday that we might be having intruders, but I wasn't sure. We'll be sending the Anbu in search of them. I'll be back later. See ya." Kakashi nodded.
Soon after Arashi left, Tomoko came in.
"You're awake, Kakashi." She smiled. Kakashi paralyzed. He didn't even want to imagine what his mother would say about his cut. If she was like that when he got those small cuts with the shuriken and the kunai...
"Good afternoon, mom." Kakashi gave a false smile.
"You should have been more careful. You could have died." She kept smiling.
"Ha...ha. I think I know that, mom. Uh, mom. You know what? I'm not feeling good, right now. I wanna sleep." He tried to slip down and go back to sleep before he could hear anything else from her.
"No! You have to eat lunch, Kakashi. Otherwise, you'll have to stay here longer."
"Ugh..."
While Kakashi was having his lunch, Tomoko sat next to him and lectured about grave injuries.
"...and if something like this happens to you next time, I'm gonna tell my old friend to heal you. She isn't nice like me, so she'll give you an unpleasant time, Kakashi dear. I'm glad she's back. Hn." Her last smile made Kakashi choke.
As Kakashi finished eating, a blond lady came in the room. She was wearing a different outfit from the medic-nins, although Kakashi could tell that she was one.
"So, this is your kid, Tomoko? He's another Sakumo, ne?" Tsunade asked as she sat next to Tomoko. Kakashi looked at her.
"Yeah, Tsunade. I told him that if he ever gets injured like this again, I'm gonna let you heal him." She winked to her without letting Kakashi notice.
"Don't worry about that. I'll take care of everything next time it happens." Tsunade winked back. Kakashi narrowed his eyes.
"You feeling better?" Tsunade asked Kakashi. He nodded. "So, I heard you are a chuunin?" He nodded again. "You can't speak?" She frowned a little.
"I can." Kakashi said.
"Kakashi, this is Tsunade. My friend from the academy years. She is one of the Sannin, you know? Like Jiraiya." Tomoko realized that Kakashi was being stiff as he always was when he met someone for the first time, so she introduced Tsunade properly.
"Nn. I gotta go now. I was just passing by to see how the youngest chuunin ever looked like. I was expecting to see Arashi, too. It's been a long time." Tsunade got up.
"I heard you've come up with the antidote for that poison."
"Yeah, fortunately."
"Arashi-sensei went to Hokage-sama to report what happened yesterday." Kakashi told her.
"Alright, then. Press that button over there when he comes. I wanna talk with him. Are you going to stay here, Tomoko?" Tsunade asked.
"No, I have to go too. Kakashi, don't leave the room, alright?" Kakashi nodded. Both Tomoko and Tsunade went out the door.
Kakashi fell asleep while thinking about the shinobi from Cloud. He wondered what would happen to him. He leftKakashi alive. Hmm.
A/N:
Sorry for the late update! School's coming up, and I don't know how often I will be able to update... but I won't stop writing the story, so err... don't worry! You guys will have to be patient! Thanks for the reviews!
sabath-no-leeloo: Yep, I love how all three characters are so mysterious! And no, Uzumaki Arashi is not the real name of the Fourth Hokage. It's the name most people think is his name(I think.) LOLThanks for reviewing!
Yonatayu: LOL I would like to have a pic of them on my bedroom's wall. Hopefully someday I will. Hope you liked this chapter!
Krows Scared: Wow! Thanks for reading my fic. You read it in a day...? I should update more often... sorry... Kakashi rocks!
alliedoll: Uh... I didn't get what you were saying... sorry...
christieelise: I'm glad you like it! Thanks! The others wouldn't be able to pick on Kakashi, though. He would take care of them all, I believe. LOL
HanaTenshiHimeko: I'm really sorry for the late update, HanaTenshiHimeko! I'll try to update as soon as possible. Right now, I didn't even start my next chapter, though. So... please wait! Thanks for always reviewing!
Kira-Reen: Reviewing at least once is much better than no reviewing at all, I think! Thanks for the review!