How he became the person he is
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 15:
Arashi headed to the Hokage tower after coming out of the hospital. When he entered the room, he saw Jiraiya. He bowed to the older men, and walked towards them.
"Have a seat, Arashi." The Hokage said.
"How's the brat?" Jiraiya asked.
"Better. You just came back, sensei?" Arashi asked in an unenthusiastic voice, as he sat next to his sensei.
"Half an hour ago."
"So you heard everything?"
"Yeah. Did he speak up?" Jiraiya frowned a little.
"Hai. It was a cloud ninja." Arashi answered in a serious tone.
"What are our Anbu doing, Sarutobi-sensei? They can't even keep intruders off the boundaries?"
"Things happen, Jiraiya. We can't just blame the Anbu. At least I'm pretty sure that the war will go on for only a few weeks, now." He took his pipe from a drawer. "It's good that Orochimaru and Tsunade are back."
"They are?" Jiraiya asked, surprised.
"Tsunade is back in the hospital, and Orochimaru left on a mission earlier in the morning."
"Hmm. That's good." Jiraiya took his hand to his chin and rubbed it.
"Hokage-sama, do you have anyone who can track down the intruder by today? It would be to our disadvantage if we let him go. He might have left already with any information he was successful in gathering. And we might have more of them within the village." Arashi said.
"Yes, don't worry about that. I took care of it already. I think he was the one that our Anbu missed the day before yesterday." He took the pipe from his mouth and let out a ring of smoke. "Sakumo should be coming back soon." He smiled. Arashi looked surprised and stared at the older man.
"So, you sent Sakumo-san this morning?"
"Yes, I decided to send him, even if it meant that he couldn't take care of other more difficult missions. It was better to ensure the mission's completion. Sakumo is one of the best trackers in our village, and as you probably know, he's a very skilled ninja." Arashi smiled lightly. He admired his village's leader's capacity of dealing so swiftly with everything that was going on.
They heard a knock, and the Hokage answered. Sakumo entered looking a little tired, and he bowed to the older man. Sandaime signaled him to sit down.
"What took you so long?" Jiraiya smirked. Despite his fatigue, Sakumo gave Jiraiya a glare that could have roasted him.
"It's done, Hokage-sama. He was hiding all the way up in the middle of the northern forest. He's in the Anbu department." He didn't need to say what the fate of that cloud ninja was going to be.
"Thank you, Sakumo. That could have brought us a lot of problems, otherwise." Sandaime said.
"Hai. Is Kakashi up, Arashi?"
"Hai, Sakumo-san. Once again, I'm sorry for what happened, sir."
"I already told you that it's okay, Arashi. He's also a shinobi. He didn't experience anything that could hurt him in learning our way of living this world." Jiraiya nodded once, and the Hokage closed his eyes.
"Hai..." Arashi answered. Silence fell in the room. Arashi didn't know what else he could say. He was the one that had to take care of the kid. Jiraiya got up all of a sudden.
"Hmph. I'm taking the rest of the day off, sensei. Thanks." Jiraiya vanished from the room before the Hokage could stop him. Sandaime Hokage shook his head. Arashi smiled. Sakumo chuckled.
"Any more missions today, Hokage-sama?" Sakumo asked.
"No, I'll send a message if I need you."
"Hai. You coming, Arashi? I'm going to the hospital."
"Yes, I told him I was going to visit." He got up, and both of them bowed to the older man.
Kakashi was still sleeping when both men entered the room. Sakumo sat next to the bed, and saw how his son was sweating. Arashi sat in the couch.
"The other day, I taught him the Kuchiyose. He can summon my dogs now." Sakumo smiled.
"That's impressive. I barely learned to summon frogs when I was eleven."
"Haha. Do you have time to train on your own these days?"
"Yes, I'm keeping up with my training schedule."
"That's good. Hokage-sama was telling me this morning..." Sakumo told him what he heard about the war. He told Arashi that Konoha was going to make a final attack in about two or three weeks, with all of its reinforcements, and take the final blow. "...that way we can end this unreasonable war at once. We might lose many of our shinobi, but Hokage-sama thinks that the longer we keep on going with this war, the greater the number of our loses will be."
"Why will it take so long, though?" Arashi half joked.
"Come on, Arashi. They are also one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries. Their security won't be easy to pass through. We'll have training sessions in the next few days."
"I really hope this war will be the last one." Sakumo closed his eyes and nodded.
"I'll be back. I want to talk with Tomoko."
As Sakumo went out, Arashi got up and sat next to Kakashi. He thought about his childhood and compared it to Kakashi's. At least when he was young, they weren't at war. He thought about whether it was good to be a prodigy or something to mourn at. Kakashi would probably have to be on the battlefield even before Arashi himself had graduated from the academy nine years ago.
Kakashi opened his eyes. He saw everything blurred. He blinked once. He saw his sensei's yellow hair. He blinked again, and saw his sensei's grinning face.
"Yo, tired of sleeping?"
"Not really." Or at least that's what Kakashi tried to say, but only a "mmm" came out. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. Kakashi yawned. "An oba-san wanted to see you, sensei. My mom told me that she just came back to our village."
"You don't mean Tsunade-obaa-san, do you?" Kakashi nodded. Arashi went pale. Tsunade was the only one who could make him turn like that. Her attitude wasn't his favorite characteristic in a person. She had left many bruises on him when he was younger. But, he loved to talk back to her. He just did it for fun, and sometimes because he was stubborn, but Tsunade had wanted to educate the little jerk that Arashi had been. And really, sometimes he even got scared of Tsunade's angry expressions.
"And sensei, she told me to press this button when you came." Arashi opened his mouth and was in midair, ready to take the button from his student. Without waiting for his sensei's next move, Kakashi pressed it. Kakashi smiled at his sensei, wondering why he wanted to take the button from him. Arashi heard the hands of the clock in the wall banging in his eardrums louder than before and faster. Even his heart was beating faster. He was sweating a little. A bang in the door. He couldn't leave now, could he?
"Thank you for calling me, Kakashi. I was hoping to see you today. Arashi." Arashi turned and smiled. A forced smile.
"I heard from Hokage-sama that you were back, Tsunade-obaa-san." He swung his hand as a greeting. He was going to stick with the situation.
"I thought you had grown up, kid." She smiled malignantly.
"Oh, a long time ago. But I think that it's unfair to miss some entertainment as an adult." He placed his right hand on his chin and looked at Kakashi. He grinned. Tsunade reappeared behind Arashi and grabbed him by the neck with her left arm, and rubbed his head with her right fist. Kakashi was watching them, and he thought that both had the same age mentality. The punishment went for at least thirty seconds, before Arashi gathered the strength to stop both of Tsunade's hands/arms.
"Ku!" Arashi freed himself from the tight grabbing from Tsunade and rubbed his head and his neck softly. He had a red mark on his neck. "That hurt. Why did you do that for?"
"You get entertained by messing with an adult?" Tsunade place a hand on her hip and tapped her foot. Arashi shook his head and laughed. Tsunade also laughed.
"Well, how've you been?" Arashi finally asked sitting down on the couch.
"Pretty good. How was your life as sensei?" She sat down in the chair next to the bed.
"I haven't done much, you know. Kakashi's the one that did all of the work. Did you know he's a chuunin?"
"Yeah. Heard from everyone I met since I came back." She scratched her elbow. "Is everything in order?"
"Pretty much. Sakumo-san captured a cloud ninja in the northern forest and took him to the Anbu."
"Is he going to die?" Kakashi asked.
"Nn. We'll probably have him as a prisoner. At least until the war is over. Right, Tsunade-obaa-san?"
"We could do that. He didn't kill anyone, you know." She shrugged her shoulders. "Why do you ask anyway, Kakashi?" She thought that she knew the answer.
"I just wanted to know, Tsunade-obaa-san." Arashi's jaw dropped. He didn't expect Kakashi to learn that from him. Did he just call Tsunade 'obaa-san'? Tsunade frowned. Damn right she knew the answer!
"Obaa-san. Obaa-san. Remember Kakashi is just a six-year-old, who is in the hospital. In the hospital." Arashi got up and was motioning his hands to tell her to calm down, and he got closer to where she was sitting. Tsunade glared at him. In a split of a second she smacked Arashi's head in the back, and he almost had his nose broken from hitting the bed. Well, his nose was bleeding. Kakashi stared at his sensei, and then at Tsunade who was looking at him as though she was daring Kakashi to say another word. Kakashi gulped. She smacked his sensei. She was no ordinary oba-san. She was an oba-san with a bad temper and a strong oba-san.
"Next time any of you two call me that, there won't be anything called mercy. You understand, brat?" She hit the table that was next to the bed with her fist, and it broke into pieces. She glared at Kakashi. Kakashi was sure that not even his mom could break a table like that. The unmasked little chuunin just nodded slowly.
"You too! Answer!" Tsunade turned her glare to Arashi. He was trying to heal both hemispheres of his head. He had his right hand pressing his nose, and his left hand rubbing the back of his head.
With a high pitched voice, Arashi answered, "Sure, obaa-san." He knew that Tsunade was always going to be like that. She would hit him or something, but he always ended up calling her oba-san again. She didn't like being called old. But even though he had called her obaa-san all his life, she never did anything worse than leaving a bruise on him. Or a cut. Or making him bleed. Or a broken bone. Well, he was glad that she had never tried to kill him.
Tsunade shook her head in surrender. She really felt like she was getting old. She was already on her 30s. If it would have been ten years earlier, she would have already gotten Arashi's surrender. (Well, she didn't know that she was maturing.)
"Didn't Jiraiya-sensei come to see you?" Arashi asked minutes later, after Tsunade healed his nose. She had waited like ten minutes for him to suffer a little more.
"No. I hope to see him, though." She stood up.
"Do you think Kakashi can leave the hospital today?" Arashi asked, standing up as well.
"I don't know. I'll send someone later. See ya, brats." She went out the door, and Arashi looked at Kakashi. And Kakashi looked at his sensei. Both sighed.
"Be glad that you just met her. I've known her for the last ten years."
"Why do you call her obaa-san? She isn't married, is she?"
"No, of course not. I don't know whyI keep calling her that. I used to be a prankster when I was young. I guess that habit of mine won't disappear." He grinned. Kakashi chuckled.
Later in the afternoon, a nurse came in, and told Arashi that it was okay for Kakashi to leave. She warned Kakashi to don't overdo anything, and left.
Arashi told Kakashi that he would take him home.
"Konoha will be busy in a few days, now. All shinobi will have to train together for the final attack. You won't be included for sure, but you'll have to go on missions alone."
"That's alright with me." Kakashi said. Arashi smiled.
"If you say so. Do your best when the time comes." He ruffled Kakashi's hair.
"Hai."
At night, Tsunade was in her room in the hospital. She had decided to catch on on some reading. During the time she was out, nothing changed much, but they brought in many texts. She had met Sakumo earlier. He still was the gentleman he had always been. Him and Tomoko made such a nice couple...
"Hey, Princess Tsunade." Tsunade turned around. Jiraiya was leaning his right forearm against the door frame and looking at her.
"What are you doing here?" She asked surprised.
"Visiting an old friend. Heh. Did you eat?" Tsunade shook her head. "Thought so. I bought some sushi. And some sake." He held his other hand high, holding a plastic bag. Both smiled.
"What was the mission the old man sent you to?" asked Tsunade once they started on their late meal.
"Oh. I've been around the countries looking for any hints of alliances against our village. It was better if no one knew it at all. Where have you been?" He grabbed his cup of sake and took a sip.
"Creating new antidotes and medicines. I was in Tea Country. It was fun, honestly."
"Did you gamble?" Jiraiya smirked.
"Did you peek in the hot springs?" She took a sip from her cup. Both laughed.
"Any ideas of where the Snake Prince was?" He had a sushi.
"No. He told the old man that he was going to turn in a report. I have no idea. Nn." She took another sip.
"But hey, can you drink? I mean, you have to work. What if there's an emergency in the middle of the night?"
"A few drinks won't kill me. Did you hear about our upcoming plan?"
"Yeah. The attack. Medic-nins will probably have to go too."
"That's good to hear." Tsunade thought about what she had requested a few years ago. "At least we will be able to save those who we can. Not like inthat war."
"Yeah. Things have changed, huh?" He sighed. Tsunade nodded.
"I hope that that will be the end of the war." Tsunade said.
After two days, the shinobi of the higher ranks were receving messages to attend to an important meeting. Most jounin were called. Special jounin were called as well. Some elite chuunin were called. The Legendary Sannin and Sakumo and Tomoko were called too. Arashi was called. Kakashi wasn't called since he was recently promoted to chuunin. Anyway, he didn't have the experience to participate in the war.
After the meeting that day, they started having training sessions from time to time in the following days, and they learned their strategies and techniques from the most experienced in their areas. Their groups were separated into those who fought at short-distance, long-distance, medics, and strategists;the Anbu had their own secret training sessions; those with bloodlines trained with their respective clans.
After the three weeks that Sandaime had announced previously, all the shinobi that had been working hard for that time ran towards the place they were supposed to go. The end of the war was coming.
A/N:
That did take long. The most interesting thing is that I wrote 2/3 of the chapter in the last three days. Too much stress these days. LOL Hope you guys liked the long-awaited(?) chapter! ;)
alliedoll: Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed!
Salor Earth: I'm glad you like my story. Thanks! Regarding the tournament of the chuunin exam... I mentioned in chapter 11 that in the first match, that two of the girls got disqualifed because they passed out (like Sakura and Ino). It's the same as 28 people left. 1st round-->15 matches, 14 genin left; 2nd round-->7 matches, 7 genin left; 3rd round-->3 matches, 4 genin left; and so on. I love people who point out things to me! ;)
HanaTenshiHimeko: I just wanted to emphasize the truth that they were at war by having an enemy ninja attacking poor Kakashi. This story is going to turn even sadder. As we all know, Kakashi had a sad childhood. (Even if in my fic it doesn't look that bad, does it?) Thanks for reviewing!
Kira-Reen: You don't know how happy those words made me when I read your review a month ago. I'm so glad that you like my story. I'll try to update more often. Thanks!
ChidoriManiac: Haha. That was a little late, huh? Sorry. Too many things to do, but not enough time. Thank you for reviewing!
Yonatayu: Of course Kakashi will be fine!LOL Sorry for the wait. Hope you liked this chapter as well.