Well, here we are.
Last chapter was just Team 8 (Hiashi aside), and there was no "on-screen" action whatsoever. Both of these things will be changing now. We'll have fighting, and we'll have Team 7 too! After this chapter, we will only have one other significant action sequence in the arc, in the sixth and final chapter.
Key Warnings: While this chapter is revised almost three years after it was originally posted, I've kept the raw structure of the battle it was in the first version, which just so happened to be my first action sequence ever… be gentle.
Also, a certain character does very questionable things in this chapter. Please read the closing A/N before sending angry reviews… their point of view does NOT reflect what I believe to be right, and truthfully, whether they are right or not isn't really the point.
The Prologue
Chapter 4: Genin X Former ANBU Captains (v3.0)
"So sorry. Maybe next time."
Kakashi disappeared, bringing with him the two bells strapped to his hip and leaving behind only a handful of leaves and the defeated members of Team 8.
Hinata had already lost count of how many times this same scene had repeated itself in the past few hours.
Each time they painstakingly hunted him down, avoiding all the traps that infested the woods of Training Ground 3, the jonin easily avoided all their attacks, foiled all their plans—or rather, Shino's plans—taunted them, and fled.
It was as if they were stuck in an endless loop, and the frustration was starting to get to Hinata. Especially with how she ended the last fight knocked down on the grass.
'We're not making any progress here,' she thought through gritted teeth as she raised herself from the ground and stopped the chakra that fueled her Byakugan, her shoulders sagging. 'This is really, really, bad. We are going to run out of time at this rate!'
She didn't share her concerns with her teammates, though. What if that sparked a fight between them? She was getting better at diffusing those, but…
…What if they blamed her instead?
Hinata knew her Gentle Fist was the key here. It was simply the most efficient way of forcing an opening big enough for them to win, and all of their strategies up to that point—or rather, Shino's strategies—revolved around setting her up.
Thus, she remained silent.
Kiba didn't.
"Guys, this… isn't working," he said between gasps of air, struggling to fill his lungs after a well-placed kick from Kakashi had emptied it. Akamaru kept to the boy's heel, worried and ready to protect his weakened master. "We… need another plan. And I'm running out of stuff, too…"
Emboldened by her teammate's words, Hinata decided to voice her concerns… to a degree. "I… I think we don't have much time left, Shino-kun."
Hinata felt awful by what she was doing. She knew that if only she were smarter, she would have been able to relieve Shino of the tactician's burden rather than pressure him deeper into it. Yet that wasn't the case, and the not-clever Hinata had no choice but to depend on Shino.
Her consolation was that, unlike herself, Shino handled pressure well.
"I understand. Kiba, how many resources you have?"
"Only a couple more smoke balls. I have plenty of pills for Akamaru, but he already took one back then. He can only handle one more… so at best we have two fights at our fullest," he said, groaning as he rubbed his stomach. "I already don't like our chances with my bombs and pills. Without..."
That news made Hinata's mood plummet. She had only had two tries to ensure the future of her friends. Likely just one.
She hated those odds.
"…Very well," Shino said, "I believe this may be enough for us to win."
"Our plans haven't exactly been working though," Kiba shot back, an eyebrow raised high. "And we've tried a lot of different things already."
"No, they haven't," Shino agreed, "and I apologize for that. However, I have been watching Kakashi-sensei closely during these fights and I think we have sufficient information to work with a more complex plan than previously. For example…"
As Shino shared with his team all that he had figured out, between how to work around the counters Kakashi had for them to the patterns the jonin had fallen into during the test, Hinata felt her hopes renewing.
It got to the point where she was smiling by the time their strategy meeting was over.
"Okay guys, let's do this!" Kiba pumped his fists, with a bark following from Akamaru. "We're gonna pass this test together!"
"Indeed. I trust that we will all see this through. Now, shall we?"
At Shino's words, they moved out.
'This could be it,' Hinata thought.
She then shook her head—Kiba and Shino's futures were on the line.
There wasn't room for error anymore.
'It will be it!'
It took Team 8 a while to approach Kakashi's new location.
They had discovered throughout the test that Kakashi had laid only his simplest traps on the paths each genin was intended to take to reach him on the first time. The other parts of the woods had more advanced traps that forced them to slow down and be more cautious, costing precious time between each lost fight.
It tried their patience, but finally, they got close enough for Hinata to find him in a small clearing with her Byakugan. He, like always, was busy reading. They knew better than to account for that as an advantage. His senses were too keen for him to be unaware.
Nonetheless, Team 8 kept to signals to communicate before their ambush was ready… one that required them to split off.
Hinata scanned the surroundings for traps and, seeing none, signaled for Shino that it was safe. The Aburame nodded and both of them parted ways with Kiba, one going left, and the other right. She kept track of Shino as they moved, just in case she missed a trap somehow… and thanks to her expanded eyesight, she could also watch Kiba and Akamaru preparing themselves for the incoming fight at the same time.
Their role required that Kiba used the Four-Legs Technique to increase his agility, and that effect could carry over to Akamaru by using a technique named Beast Human Clone to make the small dog mirror his owner's shape and abilities. As Akamaru didn't have much chakra, he had to take a special soldier pill to temporarily increase his reserves. It was a useful trick, but abusing the pill could result in a severe backlash for humans, and for dogs… Hinata shuddered to think about it.
She then shook the thought away, scowling. 'Get your head in the game, idiot!'
With renewed focus, she noticed both boys were ready and waiting for her signal. Her hand trembled as she reached for a handful of shuriken on her leg pouch.
Hinata took a deep breath.
"Kakashi-sensei doesn't put his book when he detects us, only when we engage him," Shino had observed earlier. As such, their plan was to initiate by shooting projectiles at Kakashi's least protected direction: the back of his non-dominant limb, meaning the left shoulder blade.
She let the shuriken fly.
It was on.
Kakashi whirled around and easily deflected the few projectiles that would actually hit him, but the angle Shino had suggested was chosen to make him waste time.
Every extra instant their team had to act mattered.
Hinata felt his eye lock on to her even with the wider point-of-view her Byakugan offered, but it lasted a mere second. Metal cut through air, and Kakashi twirled again to deal with an incoming projectile coming from the opposite direction—from Shino.
The blade landed by Kakashi's feet, but its job wasn't to harm as he found out when a dark cloud swallowed him.
'They tied a smoke bomb to the kunai,' Kakashi realized.
The detonation made Hinata sigh in relief.
'Time for part two,' she thought, watching Kiba and the transformed Akamaru dive into battle, using their Fang over Fang technique to become flying drills. Under the smoke's cover it would be easy to just target Kakashi directly, however…
"There were times he fled underground using an Earth jutsu," she remembered Shino's words. "We need to neutralize that escape route."
Hinata dashed from the safety of the bushes into the smoke cloud, knowing she could see Kakashi but that the inverse wasn't true. Her footsteps would normally give her position away, but a good idea solves not just one problem, but multiple problems.
By periodically burrowing underground as they attempted to strike Kakashi, Kiba and Akamaru not only made it much riskier for the jonin to flee that way, but they also shook the ground, which muffled Hinata's steps and made her approach safer.
The duo timed their movements well, allowing Hinata to keep out of their way while they kept trying to land a hit on Kakashi.
The whirling sounds of the Fang over Fang ceased. Hinata saw Kiba and Akamaru dash into to engage Kakashi in taijutsu, but they were too slow and the jonin summoned two clones to change the odds.
To Hinata's confusion, the clones vanished. Her eyes then saw up two objects hidden in the nearby holes, glowing bright blue. 'The clones transformed… he's preparing a substitution?'
Unable to communicate anything to her allies without giving her position away, Hinata could only hope Shino would end up detecting them.
Her focus had wavered enough that she caught only the tail end of her teammate's brief scuffle with Kakashi. One Kiba tried a bold flying kick from behind the man, while the other assaulted from the front, arm wound back for a claw swipe.
They failed.
"He prefers to stay on the defensive, dodging, blocking, our countering our attacks with throws," her mind replayed Shino's words again.
Kakashi pivoted away from the swipe and caught the other Kiba's leg before he even landed, swinging one at the other. Hinata saw them crash and fall into one of the nearby holes and wanted to see if they were okay. But she couldn't.
It was her turn.
Once again a kunai sliced the air, forcing Kakashi to react. He blocked the kunai and saw her bursting through the smoke, palm outstretched.
Her thrust was fast… but too telegraphed.
Kakashi's arm lashed at her own to divert her strike, and Hinata smiled.
It went through her.
The immaterial clone dissipated. The jonin's sole eye widened and the real Hinata gathered chakra in her fingers, approaching from behind and aiming for one of his legs.
She missed by an inch, her arm batted away by a kick. Though her stealth attack had failed, she was still close enough to force a taijutsu duel.
"He stretches out our engagements until we come too close to stealing the bells, at which point he grows more violent and then he simply runs away."
That recollection brought a spike of nervousness in Hinata's heart. Their margin of error had decreased considerably if Kakashi didn't choose to just dodge that strike. Nonetheless, she pressed on even as her heartbeat grew frantic in her ears.
Thrusts, pokes, slashes, feints… Kakashi danced around every attack she threw at him and flipped their pacing upside-down as he began to retaliate with blows of his own.
He held back as promised. But his moves were still too much for someone of Hinata's level, and she could only barely keep on the defensive… until, finally, he overextended slightly with one attack. It was impossible for a normal fighter to exploit.
But Hinata used the Gentle Fist.
She pounced.
"In close quarters he is far beyond our abilities. He won't do any mistakes by accident—it's all deliberate. Any openings you see in his taijutsu are completely on purpose."
Hinata's hand almost brushed the pair of bells… yet Kakashi clamped down on her wrist and pulled her closer. His free hand pressed against her stomach to give him leverage, then Hinata's feet left the ground.
They made eye contact for the briefest of seconds while she was in midair. Kakashi's gazed at her accusingly, disappointed.
This was exactly how she had been knocked down in their last fight.
But she looked back in triumph. Her other hand lashed out and struck his shoulder with chakra-laced fingers.
Hissing, Kakashi almost botched his throw but years of experience shone through and he tossed her over his back anyway.
…Not before she kicked at his hip, however, making the bells ring out.
'Go, Kiba-kun!'
The signal had been sent.
Her efforts meant she wasn't thrown too far. Rolling to break her fall, she scrambled to get up while drawing some shuriken from her leg pouch.
Her eyes focused on Kiba and Akamaru. Instead of using the loud Fang over Fang, the pair went for pure taijutsu. Both approached from the back, one on the left going for a sweep and the other on the right opting for a haymaker. The attacks were angled carefully so that Kakashi only had two options to dodge them, but one would bring him too close to Hinata.
She wasn't surprised when he didn't make her life easier. That's what her shuriken were for—she tracked his chakra-enhanced jump and aimed at where he'd land, thanking her luck for him being close enough that her mediocre aim would be sufficient.
The first projectile buried into Kakashi's bulky flak jacket… and became a cloud of smoke, leaving only a log behind.
'The clone!'
Her eyes instantly allowed her to see Kakashi's new position thanks to his glowing chakra network, but her Byakugan wasn't good enough for her to see much smaller creatures, whose networks barely glowed, without specifically focusing on them.
If Hinata had been doing that, she'd have noticed that the tunnels Kiba and Akamaru had dug up were flooded with Shino's bugs, with higher concentrations near the entrances where Kakashi's disguised clones were.
However, the one thing she couldn't see yet no matter what was the Wind chakra inside the clones. She only figured it out when a second shuriken made the "log" burst, making it burst in an explosion of wind that almost threw Kiba at her feet.
"Gah!"
"Kiba-kun!" she hurried close to him—Akamaru had been tossed in another direction completely. "A-Are you alright!?"
Crouching down, she offered him a hand. "I'm fine… problem is, my smoke cloud isn't."
Yet another thing Hinata couldn't see with the Byakugan was smoke. The Wind-elemental Shadow Clone had dispersed a chunk of the cloud away, leaving much of the battlefield bare for Kiba to see.
Then another clone blew up—Kakashi had substituted himself into the smoke again.
While Hinata was still watching everything unfold as she helped Kiba up, the boy could only hear Kakashi's calling out "Lightning Release: Static Skin!"
"The bugs!" he quickly realized, and Hinata grimly nodded at him.
Kakashi evaded Shino's trap, and this counter-strategy made their plans crumble.
"Dammit," Kiba cursed, pounding his fist on the ground. Hinata almost allowed herself to echo him in the privacy of her mind when Kakashi brought forth yet another ninjutsu.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
He had used that jutsu to disperse a smoke cloud in a previous attempt, and their failure in keeping an offensive up long enough led to the same result again.
'Everything is going downhill,' her mind helpfully supplied.
They were going to fail.
She shook her head. 'Focus'.
Kakashi kept exhaling wind, but this time he aimed downwards, into the holes. 'This should delay all those bugs… but I better not stay here anyway.'
He chakra-jumped away.
"I won't let you flee!" Kiba growled, blood boiling as he rushed toward Kakashi. The Four-Legs Technique was still active, and though Hinata tried to follow, he left her in his dust. Only the transformed Akamaru managed to keep up.
Kakashi, still in midair, weaved seals once more.
"Water Release: Slippery Stream!"
The liquid he spewed fell by Kiba's feet, who walked right into it.
"W-Whoooooa!"
He slipped in the puddle, crashing on the ground. His momentum held over, and true to the technique's name he continued to slip away as if he had fallen on an icy floor.
Akamaru learned from his master's mistake and leaped over the trap to engage Kakashi by himself, leaving a worried Hinata to hurry after Kiba.
"Tsk. Twice in a row. Dammit," the boy muttered, shaking his head as Hinata helped him crawl out from the water and rise to two feet. "Thanks."
"A-Are you al—"
A loud whine cut off Hinata.
They turned to see Kakashi with his fist buried in Akamaru's stomach. The "boy" was sent flying by the punch, and after crashing and rolling on the ground his transformation shattered, leaving the puppy in his original form, knocked out cold.
"Akamaru!"
Kiba rushed towards his partner, but Hinata wavered.
'Our plan failed… what am I supposed to do now!? We're going to lose again!''
Luckily, her inner panic didn't make her lose focus completely. Shino had flared up his chakra, drawing her attention to him and, subsequently, a drawing he was making on the floor—a silent form of communication that Kurenai had drilled into their minds.
It was a simple triangle, but she got the idea immediately.
While Kiba put himself between Kakashi and his fallen partner, Shino emerged from the woods and launched a cloud of bugs to stop Kakashi from fleeing in that direction. Hinata's part in the plan was to complete the triangle and surround Kakashi from the final point, blocking off the hole-filled area they had been using so far.
The three genin were all a few meters apart from their target. He began to clap slowly.
"Congratulations, Team 8… you've cornered me," he said, still facing Kiba. "But what now?"
His tone was jovial, Hinata noticed, but she didn't care.
'We have the advantage,' she told herself. 'I don't know what Shino-kun is planning, but as long as we follow his lead we should be fine.'
However… the seconds passed and nothing happened.
She frowned confusedly, much like Kiba nearby. Her eyes focused on Shino, and he had quite the scowl hidden beneath his sunglasses.
'Oh no. Oh no!'
…Then she realized their situation.
'We messed up!'
Though it looked like they had the upper hand, they hadn't trained enough to fight the same target at once without an organized strategy, especially not when they all they were all coming from different directions. They weren't coordinated enough for such an assault to work without risking friendly fire just yet.
Hinata was sure Kakashi knew that from the moment they had surrounded him.
"Still," he said with a slight chuckle, "I suppose this is the farthest you three have gone thus far, by a decent margin. I believe a reward is in order."
Kakashi casually shifted his stance and locked eyes with Hinata, making a chill go down her spine even though her vision was too wide for eye contact to matter. Her legs froze, even after she saw him quickly gather chakra and blur through hand seals.
"Guys, it's that jutsu!" Kiba screamed, throwing himself at the man.
But it was too late. Kakashi had disappeared into the earth. All Kiba could do was to press his ear against the ground to feel where the jonin was.
"…Hinata, watch out! He's going after you!"
She gulped.
"He separated us once before," Shino had told her before, "and he might do it again should he try to capture one of us. We will lose far too much time if that happens—we must avoid this situation at all costs."
Her instincts kicked in and she broke into a run, going as fast as she could. Unfortunately, her escape route was littered with holes, forcing her to lose precious time dancing around them.
Fortunately, Kakashi's jutsu wasn't built for speed, leaving Kiba with enough time to give Hinata better intel.
"You've got, like, ten or so seconds before he catches you!"
Shino also contributed with another plan, sending a wave of bugs after her. "Gather your chakra and jump! To the woods!"
A simple solution. She could delay her own capture by getting past all those tunnels at once, if not escape altogether… Shino's ability to remain calm and rational in spite of everything was something Hinata couldn't help but envy and love at the same time.
Yet his suggestion made a slightly different idea worm its way into her mind.
A very greedy idea.
'…It's all or nothing!' she decided. With the future of her friends at stake, she had to take risks.
There was nothing to lose after all.
Hinata kept running, Kiba's estimation ringing loudly in her mind as a countdown until the moment she had gathered enough chakra for her plan to work.
To her eyes, her legs were glowing brightly… far too brightly for a simple chakra jump.
And then she stopped.
"What are you doing!?"
Hinata didn't hear Kiba's scream, nor did she hear Shino's cloud of bugs overtaking her… she could only focus on one thing.
Her feet.
"Hinata! Run!"
The ground began to vibrate.
'Focus!'
…Finally. She felt two hands firmly gripping her ankles, pulling her down.
She let it go as she sunk.
As if a dam had broken, her chakra practically burst out of her legs, flowing furiously out of her body.
'Gah!'
Kakashi almost screamed. It felt like someone had poured liquid fire inside his hands. The invading energy burned down all it touched until it left the area completely numb.
Though most of Hinata's attack missed its mark, she did enough. From nerves to muscles to his chakra system… as far as that fight was concerned, Kakashi's arms became completely useless.
Fortunately, he wasn't stuck underground. The Headhunter Jutsu only needed the user's hands for the hand sign sequence that made the ground beneath them crumble.
Leaving Hinata buried to the neck, he resurfaced a distance away from her only to be met with more problems. Kiba was closing in fast, Shino was a bit behind but armed with kunai, and Kakashi could hear the incessant buzzing noises from somewhere behind himself.
'A pincer attack,' he realized, eyes narrowing. 'Looks like I'll need to take them more seriously.'
Without his hands, he couldn't perform ninjutsu and his taijutsu was limited. If he didn't take care he could truly lose the bells this time.
The next moments would be decisive. Regardless of who was going to win, it would all come down to these next few seconds…
Seconds that Hinata would never get to witness.
By the time her body was neck-deep into the ground her Byakugan had deactivated, but no colors returned to her world.
Before she even realized something was going wrong, her vision failed, leaving her in a world of black as all her senses shut down at once.
And so her consciousness faded away…
Kurenai honestly didn't know if she should be pleased or not with Team 7's progress as she watched them bumbling around Training Ground 5, searching for something that quite literally wasn't there.
Looking at the genin objectively, she felt she should. Her duty was to teach them about genjutsu, and on that front they were excelling. Or rather, Sasuke and Sakura were. As the academy reports said, Naruto didn't really have a talent for the art, or chakra control in general… but he had found more success in breaking genjutsu than she had predicted considering the amount of time that had passed.
His teammates hadn't gone much beyond her expectations. However, said expectations had been quite high given how the academy reports outlined both had a strong affinity for genjutsu and sung praises about the duo's intelligence and chakra control. It didn't surprise her when the two had succeeded at executing both of the D-ranked genjutsu from the scrolls she gave them earlier within the first hour of training, nor when they could already perform it consistently before the second hour was halfway through.
As she had promised them earlier, once she had been satisfied with their results Kurenai moved on from genjutsu practice to dispelling practice. By casting simple illusions and having the three identify what was wrong and then break them over and over again, Kurenai was helping the kids hone their senses and pay more attention to their surroundings. If they ever became separated from Team 8 and Kakashi during their incoming missions, they would have a stronger chance to survive if faced with a fellow illusionist, if weren't as skilled as herself.
Considering all of that, one would think that Kurenai should definitively be at peace regarding her work with Team 7. Sasuke and Sakura were finding success, and Naruto was doing as well as she could have hoped for given his difficulties. What could possibly be bothering her still?
…The answer laid beyond her scope, with something that normally should only concern Kakashi, the actual jonin-sensei of the squad. But with how these genin—mere children—were about to unknowingly embark on an A-rank mission, if not an S-rank, she couldn't stop herself from worrying.
Naruto's voice rang out.
"Guys? Come here for a sec…"
Sakura and Sasuke dropped what they were doing and approached his position. The blond was crouched near a bush, frowning as he sniffed it.
"What is it this time?" Sakura asked, irritation written across her features. It wouldn't be the first time Naruto had called them for, ultimately, nothing.
Knowing that, he wilted a bit, but explained himself anyway. "I don't think this bush was here before. It does feel like it exists," he then shoved his hand inside the bush, "but it doesn't smell right. I dunno, it's weird!"
Huffing, Sakura walked up to the bush and plucked a random leaf to examine it closely. Her expression soon shifted to one of genuine curiosity. "Hmm… what do you think, Sasuke-kun?"
Unlike her, Sasuke crouched and did the same test Naruto had done on the bush: he sniffed it. "It smells like grass…"
"Hmph. I knew it," Sakura crossed her arms and glared at Naruto. "Pay mor—"
"…But it doesn't smell as strong as a bush should."
Stunned into silence, Sakura watched as Sasuke rose and walked away, only to crouch and sniff the air again. Except this time, he wasn't close to any bush.
"Naruto is right," he ultimately concluded and, finally, turned to Kurenai. "Isn't he?"
Since the genin knew they were going to be affected by a genjutsu, simply trying to break it wouldn't accomplish much. They were always in one, so they'd always break free. Kurenai instead tasked them to identify which part of their reality was fake, and only when she gave the okay would the three be allowed to break the illusion…
And, smiling proudly at Naruto, that's exactly what she did.
"Alright!"
The boy jumped in joy, scaring and almost knocking over the nearby Sakura with his suddenness. "Take that, you stupid genjutsu!"
He blew a raspberry to the fake bush and chuckled to himself. Sakura, however, wasn't as amused.
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," the girl muttered, annoyed, and Kurenai saw as Naruto's joy wavered at those words. He was still beaming widely, but his eyes told her it was no longer genuine.
So she intervened. "Now, Naruto, break the genjutsu for everyone, please."
"Okay."
Moments later, Naruto placed a hand on his teammates's shoulders, closed his eyes and focused.
"…Release!"
When he opened his eyes again, the bush was gone and Naruto was jumping in commemoration again. "Yeah! Got it in one try!"
Perhaps because this time Sakura saw it coming, his outburst didn't irritate her. Instead, the girl allowed herself a little smile as Naruto's myrrh infected her.
"Guess you're improving, huh?"
"Yeah!"
…But he took her words in the worst way possible.
"This calls for a celebration!" he announced. "So, Sakura-chan! How about you and me go have some ramen later?"
Between that and how Naruto suddenly broke into her personal space, Sakura's slight friendliness melted into disgust. She shoved him away, accidentally making him stumble and fall on his butt.
"How many times do you need me to say the same thing!? No means no! Get it through that empty skull of yours already!"
"Ow… didn't need to be so rough, Sakura-chan…"
Sasuke cut them off before things escalated further.
"Would you two stop acting like idiots? We are still training if you haven't noticed."
Being admonished by her crush, Sakura's anger dissipated and shame settled in. "Sorry, Sasuke-kun," she muttered, head hanging low.
Naruto, however, actually started to become angry. "Tsk. Nobody talked to you, Sasuke!" he snarled, glaring daggers at the other boy.
To nobody's surprise, that sparked yet another argument between the three.
It made Kurenai shake her head at them, struggling to restrain herself.
They were constantly falling back to infighting. She had yelled at them before, scolded them… but nothing worked. There was always something to ignite another fight between them, and that was what worried her. While those three were able to improve as individuals, they failed as a team in her eyes.
'How can Kakashi approve of… this?'
Now, Kurenai couldn't claim to be much better. Her team had a fair share of problems, such as Shino's low tolerance for ideas not founded in logic, Hinata's reluctance to make her voice be heard and Kiba's short temper. These flaws alone already made their team dynamics go awry at times, but Kurenai always was there, trying to steer them back on track.
What truly set the two teams apart was how Team 8 wanted to work together despite their conflicts. Kiba, Hinata, and Shino looked out for each other and genuinely wanted to foster a bond between them. Team 7, however, was self-destructive.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura provoked each other constantly, breeding anger and animosity that smothered the budding camaraderie that Kurenai sometimes got faint glimpses of. They either couldn't stand each other, or held crushes that bordered on the obsessive and repulsive to the target of their affections.
Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto simply didn't value each other as teammates should… and Kakashi, of all people, should be aware of how dangerous that could be. One of his biggest regrets, as he had confessed to her once upon a time, was rooted in what had ultimately been bad team dynamics…
The mission to destroy Kanabi Bridge during the last war. The mission where his teammate Obito Uchiha died.
The chain of events that lead to Obito's death began when the enemy had captured their other teammate, Rin Nohara after their sensei had left to the frontlines. Kakashi, who had been left in charge, chose the missing instead of her.
He hadn't valued her enough. But Obito had.
After a heated argument, the two boys split up. Kakashi had tried to continue the mission on his own, yet Obito's words eventually won him over and he double back to help Rin… but his delay had a price. Obito had been in a losing fight when he arrived, and rescuing him cost Kakashi his right eye.
To make things worse, another enemy made the cavern collapse after they saved Rin. That missing eye created a blind spot, and when a boulder was about to fall on him he was none the wiser. Obito managed to push Kakashi out of the way, but ended up trapped in the boulders in his place.
Kakashi and Rin returned without him. Only Obito's left eye came back with them, transplanted by Rin into Kakashi by Obito's own request. To Kakashi, it became a permanent physical reminder of his failure. A trauma that he still carried with him to that day.
If she knew her old friend well, Kakashi was betting on the three working out their dynamics by themselves, with time leading to maturity. And perhaps he wasn't in the wrong. But with a highly dangerous mission looming on the horizon, could they really take that risk?
Kurenai just… wasn't sure.
These flaws in their dynamics could lead to something much worse in this new context that they'll be inserted into. If either herself or Kakashi ended up unable to help the kids against an enemy, their teamwork would be their strongest asset towards their survival. She knew she might've been overthinking this, but the situation with Team 7 led to her more selfish worries: her own team.
While Team 8 had potential, they were too young to truly stand as a combat squad outside of maybe ambush scenarios. They—and unfortunately Sakura as well—would be depending a lot on Sasuke and Naruto's raw power to get them through if the jonin had their hands tied or worse.
The volatile dynamic Team 7 had could easily spread to her own team, and despite her efforts to raise Hinata as a peacemaker, she doubted the girl would have the courage to step in if five people were in a heated argument instead of just two. Whether that led to hasty decision-making or being discovered by an enemy… nothing good would come from it.
One of Kurenai's hands fell to rest between her breasts. She could feel her quickened pulse on her fingertips even through her chainmail… and at that moment, she realized she wasn't worried anymore.
She was frightened.
There would be no Team 7 or Team 8 during the mission to Wave. They'd be a unified squad. Team 7's problems, for at least the coming days, were no longer just their problems. Problems that needed to be solved at some point.
…Unfortunately, Kurenai was drawing a blank. Was it even possible to fix this situation in such a short time? Her team had been far easier to work with, but she spent weeks with them already and there was still so much room for improvement. Worst-case, she'd only have these next few hours to do anything.
If there was a solution, she knew it would need to be drastic. She'd have to take a forceful approach to this, if not a dangerous one.
The background noise of Team 7's bickering faded for a single second, and it drew Kurenai back to the real world. She had been quietly staring in their direction, and the genin finally remembered she was there.
It wasn't Kurenai's intention, but she took the chance and sent them a withering look.
"Are you three finally done acting like academy students?"
There was an old strategy for teachers, where they simple stood quietly when the students got too rowdy until they noticed they were doing something wrong by themselves. Shame usually followed, but that only held true for Sakura in that instance. The boys were still fuming, and though Naruto was significantly more expressive than Sasuke, she could see that both felt wronged.
'Much like before,' she noted, sighing wearing. "Let's move on… please sit down."
Though their actions had been reprehensible, Kurenai believed strongly in positive reinforcement. Perhaps given the circumstances it wasn't the best thing to employ with these specific students… but after all the time she spent teaching Hinata and especially her meeting with Hiashi, Kurenai refused to let the positives to pass by unacknowledged.
The genin obeyed, and she sat across from them. "We are almost done with genjutsu training for today, so I think now is a good time to review how you've done before we move on to the final part."
"There's still more?" Naruto questioned.
"Yes. And I think you'll like the last part, but let's focus on the now. Starting with you," Kurenai pointed at him. "Due to a few problems, today your role only involved being on the receiving end of genjutsu. The biggest of those issues is, by far, your poor chakra control, and it's a barrier that is affecting your ability to break free of these illusions," she said, making the boy wilt under her cold analysis.
"That being said, I'm satisfied with your progress today."
"…Huh? Really?"
Smiling a bit, she nodded. "Earlier you took almost three minutes of constant attempts before you managed to fully break an illusion through the chakra burst method. While you unfortunately still can't execute it consistently, you seem to be able to do it in around three or so attempts now. That's a lot of progress for just a few hours!"
Naruto blinked a few times, confused, until it sunk in and he broke into a big grin again. "Hehe, isn't it? One step closer to being Hokage I'd say!"
"Well, yes, but you still have a really, really long way to go. You have a clear difficulty in keeping track of your surroundings and detecting the inconsistencies between genjutsu and reality. This can get you killed outside of the village's walls," Kurenai reminded him, effectively dumping a bucket of cold water over the boy.
"You also improved in that regard as we went on with the second part of our training," she continued, "but it still leaves a lot to be desired. I'll just say this for now: please show up for my classes as often as you can. It's not going to be fun, engaging or immediately rewarding to be an effective lab rat for your peers, I know, but this is a weakness you need to get rid of as soon as possible. Only when you are actually aware you are trapped in an illusion that you can break it, if it's breakable to begin with."
Though a bit conflicted, Naruto nodded. "I guess it is that important…"
"Of course it is. Now, Sa—"
"Hold on," Sakura spoke up. "Sorry for interrupting, but… about what you said just now. Are there genjutsu that can't be broken? I never heard of that back in the academy."
Kurenai's brows shot up. That simple detail had just slipped unintentionally, a result of her years of expertise bleeding through her words. It wasn't a topic she thought of covering with Team 7, however, Sasuke answered the question before she could recover.
"I assume you have read about my clan's bloodline limit, the Sharingan."
"Uh, k-kind of…? The academy didn't exactly cover that topic much, haha…" Sakura tried to shrug casually, knowing there wasn't a way around the implied lack of relevance that the Uchiha Clan's abilities had. Considering how many of them remained, their legendary eyes became no more than footnotes in the average academy books.
However…
"The Konoha Library still has material on that," Sasuke said. According to a few books I read, there are genjutsu that only a Sharingan can weave. The Sharingan can also break any genjutsu no matter how strong, but for those specific illusions it's the only option."
He then looked away, allowing the darkness to cloud his expression and hatred to flare up within his black eyes. "Not that you'll ever need to worry about that."
The girl crossed her arms. "Hmm… unbreakable genjutsu, huh. That's almost like cheating."
"We're ninja though," Naruto reminded her, scratching his head.
"I know, I was just thinking of it like, in a spar against Sasuke-kun down the line or something with actual rules. Anyway, sorry about straying off-topic Kurenai-sensei," Sakura said with an apologetic smile. It melted away into confusion when the woman didn't answer.
Her gaze was fixed upon Sasuke, who was still staring off into nothing. She seemed troubled, as if trying to figure out a puzzle.
"Sensei?" Sakura tried again, louder this time.
"Oh! Er… no need to apologize," Kurenai waved her off, her cheeks reddening a bit. She cleared her throat. "So where was I? …Ah yes, Sakura and Sasuke."
Upon hearing her call, Sasuke shifted his eyes to Kurenai's, who held his stare for a couple seconds until he raised his brow at her.
"These past few hours I helped you to learn how to cast two very basic genjutsu. I believe both of you are able to perform them consistently and are ready to be introduced to slightly more advanced illusions the next time we have a genjutsu class. I do warn you that it will be a while until we move on from simpler illusions, which have very specific uses and aren't too flexible. For now the focus is in laying down a solid foundation, okay?"
Sakura nodded, a proud, excited gleam in her eyes that contrasted heavily with the boredom radiating from Sasuke. Considering that he could one day get access to the Sharingan's premium genjutsu, Kurenai couldn't exactly blame him.
"Nonetheless," she continued, "despite being rather limited, these two illusions do have their applications. That's the final thing I wish to cover with you three today."
"Uh, wait a sec." This time the interruption came from Naruto. "That's the part I was supposed to like? I can't even do genjutsu!"
"Indeed," the woman answered with an almost mischievous smile. "That doesn't mean you can't help to find ways to put them to good use. Truthfully, genjutsu is not too far from pranking people, and I believe you have quite the reputation as one," she said, motioning with her thumb to the far-off Hokage Monument behind her.
Nothing could inflate Naruto's ego more than a reminder of his magnum opus.
"Hehehe. You guys hear that," he smirked smugly, glancing at his teammates. "A reputation, she said."
"That's not something to be proud of," Sakura remarked dryly.
Kurenai cleared her throat again. "Shall we begin, then? The first one should be the easiest to get something out of, so tell me what you can think about the Frozen Image genjutsu."
There was a brief moment of silence before Naruto started the discussion. "So I was thinking, that one is a lot like taking a photo, isn't it?"
Sakura raised a finger to her chin. "Somewhat, except it only works on the enemy, and we can't carry whatever image we froze with us anywhere. But until the enemy does break it, a small area will stay exactly like it was at the moment the illusion was cast. That is kind of like a photo, I guess."
"Yeah! I was thinking we could use it to hide traps. Or the other way around, even."
Though Naruto seemed excited, Sasuke frowned a bit. "I can see how it could disguise a trap, like an explosive tag, but the other way around?"
"I mean, think of a smoke bomb. If we use that genjutsu, we could make the smoke last longer than it actually does. Get it?"
"But smoke bombs cover too big an area. This genjutsu doesn't."
"Actually," Sakura intervened, "there are varieties that should be just small enough to work with it. And they are cheap too!"
And by cheap, Sakura meant they were actually affordable for a simple middle-class genin like herself. Which is more than she could say about explosive tags...
"That was a well-thought answer," Kurenai nodded at Naruto, who swelled with pride. "You can also take a third option with it and make enemies think there's something in front of them when it actually isn't there anymore. Such as a teammate that has just fled through a Substitution."
"Interesting…" Sakura muttered. She tried to think of a few other uses, but Kurenai moved on before she could.
"This technique does have a critical weakness in that it is based on the target's eyesight, and only that. Their other senses can give the illusion away, so be careful if you ever employ it somehow. But what about the second technique?"
"Smoothing smell, wasn't it?"
Everyone looked at Naruto incredulously after he said that. "What would that even be a 'smoothing' smell?" a wide-eyed Sakura questioned.
"Uh…"
"It's called Scorching Smell," Sasuke reminded.
"Pay more attention next time," Sakura scolded him, hands on her hips.
"Sorry, sorry…"
"Anyway," the girl shifted to Kurenai, "to be honest, I didn't really see a use for that one."
"Me either," Naruto said, scratching his head. "I mean, it just makes you smell something burning up…"
Kurenai didn't say anything, leaving the genin to ponder for themselves. Soon it became clear to her they needed a little push.
"Unlike the Frozen Image, which targets an individual, remember that this one is an area-of-effect genjutsu instead. Also, think a little about what the illusion is mean to imply…"
It took three seconds for Sasuke to find the first clue. "Fire."
"Oooh, that's right," Naruto spoke up. "If something is burning, then it means it's on fire!"
"So we are supposed to use this illusion with Sasuke-kun's Fire jutsu?" Sakura asked Kurenai.
"That's one option. An explosive can work just as well, though… but how do you use it?"
"Maybe make the enemy think their clothes are on fire," Naruto suggested, chuckling a bit to himself.
It made Sakura snort. 'What a stupid idea. Typical of a silly prankster like him,' she thought.
Even so, something about the idea made her unable to discredit it…
"Or we could make them think the area behind them is on fire, too," Sakura suggested. "If we are fighting, the enemy will think they can't go backwards. That would make the fight easier, wouldn't it, Kurenai-sensei?"
"Indeed, especially if they had a substitution prepared somewhere in the area. Ideally you could even get the enemy to turn around in their surprise, but simply making them reluctant to dodge a certain way can be quite useful. However," she raised a finger, "there's more to genjutsu than just combat applications."
The conversation dived into a silence after that.
Though simple illusions, Kurenai had thought hard about which of the many under her repertoire that she'd be teaching these genin that day. There wasn't that much one do with simple genjutsu like those two, which only targeted one of the five senses, but she had a purpose.
Seeing that the three kids were at a loss, she took the chance to nudge them in the direction she wanted.
"Let me give you three a scenario. Let's say you are hidden in enemy territory. Inside a stronghold, for example. You are too wounded to fight your way out, and there's not a good escape route available thanks to too many enemies standing patrolling the area. How do you attempt to escape?"
Sakura was the first to come up with something.
"We could make them think something is on fire outside the base and make some of the enemies go check it out!
"Or," Sasuke interjected, "make them think something is burning inside the base. Not that we couldn't just really set something on fire."
"Nah," Naruto shook his head, "the smell is actually a bit strong. It would take too long for a normal fire to get that stinky, so they'll panic way harder if it's fake."
Kurenai began to clap. "Good answer! That's exactly what I was looking for."
Giving the genin a chance to flee if they ended up stranded in enemy territory was something that Kurenai now didn't have to worry as hard about. If the kids could gather, between these illusions, Shino's bugs and Naruto's clones, the chances of them being able to escape back to the Leaf weren't negligible. But most importantly, this also gave room for Sakura, the obvious weak link, to try and escape on her own if given an opening or contribute if the others were unable to.
It gave her some peace of mind, despite her fears still remaining.
"But man, this stuff is just gold," Naruto commented off-handedly. "Can you guys even imagine the kind of pranks I could pull off if I could use genjutsu well? They'd be amazing!"
Kurenai heard the alarm bells in there.
"Naruto, listen to me," she warned, growing serious. "You have just graduated from the academy, and now you are not only considered a ninja, but also legally an adult. Pranking people from now on will have consequences, especially if you use any kind of jutsu or ninja tool. You could even have your headband taken away from you depending on how offensive the transgression is so—"
"Yeah, yeah, I know that already!" he interrupted brusquely, waving dismissively. "Iruka-sensei already talked to me about that. I won't be pranking people anymore…"
"You say that as if you ever listened to him," Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Yeah. You better not do anything embarrassing with us around!" Sakura warned, her pointer finger almost poking Naruto's nose. "Whatever you do can reflect on me and Sasuke-kun. Just like your prank on Kakashi-sensei on our first day!"
"What, the blackboard eraser thing? Come on," Naruto waved her off. "That barely qualified as a prank. Besides, it was funny!"
"No. It was just as stupid as your other pranks"
As prideful in his skills as he was, Naruto immediately took offense to the Uchiha's words. Predictably, that led to yet another argument between the three genin.
Kurenai closed her eyes and massaged her temples. 'Do they never get tired of being at each other's throats constantly like this?'
She had gotten her hopes up during the past few minutes, but it was clear to her now. If someone didn't do anything about it, Team 7 would remain a mess. Or it would only get worse.
Her mind went back to what happened with Obito, Kakashi and Rin… the thought of Team 7 mimicking its predecessor sent a chill down her spine.
She couldn't think like that. But the new Team 7 also couldn't remain that way… and unlike before, she had an idea.
A single idea. One that could solve or help to solve the team's problems considerably.
One that was extremely risky. Was such a risk even worth the attempt…?
Kurenai opened her eyes. Their argument was getting heated—Naruto was red in the face and seemed on the verge of trying to attack Sasuke. The Uchiha's stoic mask had cracks all over the place, and Sakura only fueled whatever conflict was at hand despite how her crush kept sending annoyed looks at her.
'This has to stop,' she finally decided.
And stop it did.
The three genin went completely silent when a sharp, sound pierced the air from behind them… the familiar noise of a kunai.
They had no chance to process that sound when something ahead of them crumpled to the ground with a soft thud. The children's eyes shifted focus from themselves to the sound's source…
And silent they remained as their eyes widened.
What they saw was something nobody would be faulted by reacting with a scream, yet Team 7's members hardly were able to react to the sight. Sakura let out an almost inaudible gasp, and Naruto barely pushed through a single word.
"S-Sensei…?"
Kurenai was what had hit the floor. She was sprawled on the grass, and one of her hands was beside her opened leg pouch, loosely grasping a kunai. It, however, wasn't the blade that made the sound from earlier.
The true culprit was another kunai. One that had been tossed with such strength and precision that it ended buried to the hilt inside Kurenai's forehead. Thick liquid seeped from the entrance, traveling across her fair skin to her unmoving eyes until it fell to her hair and the grass, staining everything it touched with a deep crimson.
The three genin had yet to move in any way. Their brains rushed to feed information to spur them into moving:
Kurenai was dead. Someone had murdered her. The kunai that killed her came from somewhere behind them. An assassin was behind them.
Run!
But it was futile. Before they could do anything, a deathly cold wave enveloped them. Not of water, but raw pressure.
Killing intent.
It chained the three children down, their trembling in fear being the only resistance they were allowed, no matter how much their bodies screamed at them to get up and flee.
What hope did three simple genin have if Kurenai, a jonin, fell so easily?
They were already dead.
Yet for one of the three, that frightening realization would soon lose all meaning.
"Konoha's jonin are as pathetic as ever, I see."
It was a man's voice.
Sasuke was already a pale person, but every bit of color drained from his face at the moment he recognized that deep, cold tone.
It was his voice.
"Hmph," the assassin scoffed. "Don't tell me that you really believed that genjutsu of all things would ever make you strong enough to defeat me."
How could Sasuke ever forget that voice? It was impossible... it was the same voice that haunted him every single night for the past five years, even if deeper.
"Didn't you just tell your teammates that the Sharingan can reverse illusions, Sasuke?"
The icy fear that once paralyzed Sasuke gave way to a flaming, overwhelming rage that fueled him with the energy to turn around and see the truth with his own two eyes.
It really was him.
Only about 30 meters separated Team 7 from was Kurenai's killer. Though the years made him taller and deepened his voice, he still looked the same. He wore generic pale black pants and shirt, with the latter covered by a grey flak jacket and with a Leaf headband shining on his forehead: the usual outfit for an ANBU of Konoha, complete with a sheathed tanto. His hair was black and smooth, pulled back in a ponytail… but none of that mattered.
Even if everything did look different, Sasuke knew there was still only one person in the entire world that could be looking at him with that pair of blazing crimson eyes with a trio of black, swirly spots surrounding each pupil…
A pair of fully developed Sharingan eyes.
"Itachi," Sasuke growled, a single word uttered with enough venom to kill a man twice over.
"You have grown since we last met, my little brother."
That last part made both Naruto and Sakura curious enough to overpower their fear and stand up as well.
"You are… brothers?" Naruto asked, but neither Uchiha answered.
Sakura answered instead, in a wavering whisper that trembled just as much as her legs did.
"H-He's the one who murdered the entire Uchiha Clan by himself in a single night… Itachi Uchiha!"
"W-What!?" Naruto almost fell on his butt. "You've gotta be kidding me!"
"Is that so hard to believe?" Itachi questioned, his expression not wavering in the slightest. "They were numerous, but weak."
"Shut up!"
Sasuke's scream did nothing to faze his older brother.
"History speaks for itself," he retorted. "The question at hand this time around, however…. is if you are strong enough to defeat me yet."
A hint of a smirk broke through the former ANBU's stoicism. "Though we both know the answer to that, don't we?"
The unspoken taunt was the last straw.
Roaring and letting the rage fill his vision with red, Sasuke charged forward while throwing a barrage of shuriken.
"Pathetic and predictable," Itachi spat disdainfully as the projectiles were about to hit him. "I expected so much more from the strongest genin of the year."
That reminder of their difference in rank added to the minimal effort Itachi spent into dodging the shuriken only made Sasuke's fury grow. The hatred, the desire to kill, the thirst for revenge…. they blinded the boy, and despite how his distraction failed, he foolishly continued to approach his brother head-on.
It made Itachi shake his head in disappointment. "Let me show you how I used shuriken when I was younger than you."
Itachi then blitzed through hand seals at a speed that the kids couldn't even comprehend, spat a watermelon-sized fireball that hovered in front of his face and tossed a bundle of shuriken through it. The blades absorbed the fire chakra and carried it with them as they flew not only at Sasuke, but at his teammates behind him.
The younger Uchiha wasn't intimidated by the attack and responded by weaving seals of his own. The few throwing stars that he aimed at Sasuke soon struck true… but the boy's body burst into a cloud of smoke, making Itachi raise an eyebrow after seeing a wooden log where his brother's corpse was supposed to be.
Ignoring whatever happened to his brother's teammates, Itachi flipped around and threw his fist forward, countering Sasuke's attempt to land a haymaker from his blind spot and sending the boy reeling backwards from the punch that struck his gut.
Undeterred from his failed deception, Sasuke pressed on to lock his older brother into a taijutsu duel. However, Itachi's years of experience and his dojutsu made the rush pointless. Every punch and kick that the younger Uchiha attempted was effortlessly dodged. Sasuke's attacks were fast, but not fast enough to get the upper hand over someone with a Sharingan.
Furthering the boy's ire, Itachi kept staring impassively at him throughout their deadly dance, sending a single unspoken message that Sasuke could hear loud and clear:
"You disappoint me once again, little brother."
Sasuke's focus on Itachi was so intense that he failed to notice how suddenly an army of over seventy Narutos was stomping towards both of them, nor did he hear their loud battle cries.
Itachi, however, was well aware of the noisy nuisances that were behind him. When Sasuke overextended himself after attempting a sideways kick at his torso, the former ANBU went for the boy's leg and whirled around to send Sasuke flying towards the sea of orange.
Sasuke flailed in the air, barreling through and destroying a few unfortunate clones... and the original Naruto barely had a moment to realize Sasuke was only going to stop after colliding with him.
His blue eyes went wide. 'How did he know which one was the real me!? Is... Is that the power of the Sharingan!?'
There was no room to avoid Sasuke, and the impact sent them crashing to the ground.
The surviving clones were all aware that their boss's situation and most of the Narutos briefly stopped to check if the real one was alright.
It was then that Itachi made his move…
Sasuke and the original Naruto struggled to disentangle themselves from each other.
"Get off me, Naruto!"
"Stop kicking me then!"
Naruto managed to get up first and offered a hand to his teammate. After seeing his rival's ass kicked, he realized the only way they could possibly win this was just like in the bell test—through teamwork.
"C'mon Sasuke, we need to—"
"Shut up." The Uchiha swatted the blond's hand, standing up with his own strength. The two boys glared at each other for an instant, but a chain of poof-like noises forced them to look elsewhere.
Itachi was calmly walking up to them. His short blade was drawn and the remains of a big cloud of smoke could be seen behind the older Uchiha. The man had slain all of Naruto's clones in only seconds, using nothing more than kenjutsu and pure speed.
Neither of the two boys could truly believe it. So many foes, in only a precious few seconds... however, one person had witnessed what Sasuke's brother had done to the clones: Sakura.
The girl was sprawled on the ground near a few of the still-burning shuriken that came from Itachi's previous attack. She had been too shocked by Kurenai's murder and Itachi's killer intent to possibly react to man's fire technique; Naruto had to tackle her to the ground after seeing that screaming at her to dodge wasn't going to work. The blond then had immediately used the forbidden version of his favorite jutsu and rushed to save Sasuke... but Sakura still hadn't moved an inch.
She could only tremble and breathe—barely. Her terror allowed for nothing else.
Unlike Naruto and Sasuke, who were still trying to land at least one blow on Itachi, Sakura had no delusions about their chances of survival. If he had annihilated the Leaf's strongest clan by himself, it was clear that he was on a whole other level than your average jonin, and Team 7 was nothing when compared to any kind of jonin.
She could only stare at the unfolding fight with tears of despair flowing freely from her eyes. There wasn't any hope of leaving that training ground alive.
'We're going to die! We're all going to die...!'
Sakura's theory about Itachi's abilities was confirmed when Sasuke's best attempts at engaging the man with taijutsu were completely useless, but the missing-nin wasn't done yet. He also managed to prove to her that there was no escaping him after effortlessly destroying Naruto's clones with his blade. The army of Narutos never stood a chance against the rogue Uchiha; he was simply far, far too fast for them.
Despite that, the blond was determined to keep fighting alongside their other teammate. "So... what's the plan?" He tried to speak with a cocky tone, but instead his voice came out shaky and laced with fear.
"There's no plan," Sasuke growled. "I told you when our team was formed that day in the academy: don't get in my way! Take Sakura and run—this fight is mine."
Both Uchihas were glaring at each other waiting for one of them to crack and move.
Naruto, on the other hand, focused fully on Sasuke. "Are you crazy!? All three of us couldn't take on Kakashi-sensei when he was holding back and this guy is actually trying to kill us! How the hell do you plan on winning!? Just because you were the top—"
"I told you to shut up!" The black-haired boy briefly moved his eyes from Itachi to Naruto. "I know that my brother is stronger than this... he's toying with us," he whispered. "I don't know what it is but he wants something."
Without waiting for a reply, Sasuke once again dashed towards Itachi. This time the boy drew a kunai as he ran, intending to clash with Itachi's small katana.
However, instead of using his blade, Itachi simply avoided Sasuke's slashes and buried his knee deep into the boy's stomach. The attack was carefully calculated to knock Sasuke upwards for an instant—and that moment was all that Itachi needed to pivot and land a powerful sideways kick with his other leg, launching the younger Uchiha away.
Sasuke only stopped when his back crashed into a tree, emptying his lungs and flooding his system with even more pain as he slid down the trunk.
'Bastard!' Sasuke screamed in his mind unable to talk.
Lying on the ground and struggling to breathe. 'Nothing is working! I... am I not strong enough yet...? Dammit!'
He closed his eyes to try to escape the pain.
Of course… Sasuke had known that Itachi was completely beyond him from the very beginning, yet his thirst for revenge blinded him, stopping him from accepting the truth.
And before he could, a voice shattered his thoughts.
"Naruto!"
Even though she was far away from him, Sasuke could still feel her terror through her scream. The reality of his situation—their situation—started to sink in.
Despite knowing he would regret seeing with his own two eyes the result of his failure to avenge the Uchiha clan, Sasuke knew he had to. He was too hurt to get up, so all he could afford was to grip the ground and use that to shift his position until he had a good angle.
He saw Naruto only a couple feet apart from Itachi, separated by the man's extended arm. There was an expression of shock frozen on the boy's face, and a silver blade piercing his stomach. On the other side of the picture was Sakura, who had a privileged view of Itachi's blade poking out of Naruto's back, the point painted in red.
The moment ended and Itachi slid his weapon out of him, allowing the boy's blood to flow freely and stain his black shirt.
"I have no interest in you."
Naruto stumbled backward, but Itachi caught him by the collar before he could fall. Instead the man dragged him a short distance away from the others and tossed him into the lake.
Coldness assaulted Naruto's every fiber as the water swallowed him whole. He couldn't help but remember when Kurenai pranked him with the tree illusion as he started to sink underwater. This time the sensation of cold was much stronger, and he also could feel painful, throbbing sensation in his stomach.
And that time, it had been just a genjutsu. But considering what Kurenai had said about breaking them, he couldn't possibly be trapped in one. Between the cold water and the burning pain, if he truly was under an illusion, it would have shattered already.
'This... this is really happening...!' he thought as he started to suffocate from the water entering his lungs. 'This is real!'
Naruto kept flailing his limbs, but he failed to recover his balance, leaving a growing trail as he sunk deeper and deeper…
On the surface, Sakura had sunk to her knees, her face a red mess of tears. Her worst fears were becoming a reality. It didn't help that despite her blurry vision, she could see Sasuke's battered form up ahead, struggling and failing to get up.
"You... you bastard! I... will... kill—"
He started coughing blood, interrupting his own speech. His eyes, however, remained glaring at Itachi the entire time, his fury clear as day. Itachi apparently didn't care about either fact.
"It seems you took more internal damage than expected. Hn. It doesn't matter," the man stated nonchalantly, "You are going to die here regardless. That's what happens when you blindly charge at someone much stronger than yourself."
"Shut up! I... won't die to the likes of you... not like this! I... 'll avenge—!"
Itachi flashed forward and stomped Sasuke in the head.
The boy felt at least one of his teeth going down his throat, only to vomit it with more blood a few seconds later. His damaged jaw and cheekbones didn't make the process easy or painless.
"You are not in a position to kill anyone, little brother... but I am." Doing a long sequence of hand signals in only a few instants, he exclaimed, "Lighting Release: Lighting Dragon Bullet Jutsu!"
"No! Stop!" Sasuke wheezed as he tried to get up again. But the last attack dizzied him, and his body was simply too damaged for him to support his own weight. He found himself unable to do anything except watch his brother's technique.
Itachi took a deep breath and exhaled, not air, but a great stream of electricity in the shape of a dragon's head, aimed straight at the lake. Itachi didn't need to actually strike Naruto to kill him with that move; everything that was underwater would die from the electrical discharge instantly.
And as much as they wanted to close their eyes and turn away, both of the remaining members of Team 7 watched helplessly as the lighting construct crashed into the lake. It splashed into the water and dissipated, coating the entirety of the lake with its touch of death.
"This is what it means to kill someone."
This time Sasuke didn't turn to look at Itachi, and instead he only stared emptily at the lake.
With a flash of light, Naruto was gone.
There was no chance of him surviving that.
Sasuke had always called Naruto a loser... but as much as he wasn't willing to admit it, he was starting to warm up to the energetic blond. Perhaps one day they might have been truthfully best friends—a label that only worked from his side because he had nothing else close to a friend—but now, he would never find out what could have been born from their bond, because Naruto was gone. And it had been his fault that Naruto died.
"Perhaps if you had chosen your actions more carefully he might not have died," Itachi suggested. "Will you choose wrongly again?" he asked, which reminded Sasuke that there was another person at the scene. The younger Uchiha searched for his only living teammate, the loud wails that still rang throughout the clearing indicating that she was still present.
His eyes landed on her just as she turned away from the lake, unable to keep staring at what had become Naruto's grave. But in trying to avert her eyes from where one corpse rested, she came face-to-face with Kurenai's body, which only made her wail harder, louder, as she was reminded of the fact that she would soon join them.
Sasuke's rage suddenly spiked from seeing her breaking down, but Itachi's words also confused him, dulling his fury.
"...Why?" he asked weakly. His wounds, the pain… they invited him to let go, to surrender his conscience and sleep. Perhaps an eternal one.
But Sasuke resisted it, using his fist and what little remaining strength he had to pound the ground in frustration and defiance, if only to help him focus as a new wave of pain hit him from the exertion. He flinched, but he did not close his eyes, making eye contact with his brother for what he expected to be the last time.
"Tell me..." he pleaded, crimson liquid falling out of his mouth as he spoke and stared at a pair of similarly colored eyes. "Why!?"
If he was going to die there, without being able to avenge the Uchiha clan... then so be it. He was too wounded and weak to torment himself over his failure. The thought that his fight was finally over doused the flames of his vengeance. It brought him an eerie tranquility that he never felt before.
And that tranquility led him to questions, ones his revenge had never allowed him to linger on: what had happened to his kind, gentle big brother to make him become this monster?
Though Sasuke's top priority had always been killing Itachi, the fact that he had changed so much to begin with had always bothered the younger Uchiha. He had thought that if he could kill Itachi, then that wouldn't matter. Yet as he came to grips with his failure, with how Itachi was going to finally finish what he started all those years ago… Sasuke realized that he would never rest in peace without having an answer.
He needed to hear it from Itachi's own mouth before letting go and accepting his death.
"Why... what, exactly? Why did I kill your teammate? Your teacher? Our clan... our parents?"
Sasuke only managed a minuscule nod, knowing his brother's Sharingan would easily pick it up. His voice no longer worked.
"Simple. It was because I could." The elder Uchiha said without an ounce of emotion, his hands slowly forming hand seals in preparation for a jutsu that Sasuke was very familiar with. "Because you let me. You couldn't stop me back then when I wiped out our clan. You were weak then, so I gave you the chance to grow stronger..."
He stopped his seal on the Tiger. The seal of fire.
"But you foolishly wasted the opportunity I gave you," Itachi continued. "You chose the wrong path since the very beginning, and you will pay the price for your stupidity right here. My little brother, you will die exactly as you lived: alone and powerless."
To say Sasuke was not satisfied with that answer was an understatement. Furious once again, he tried to move away, to say something, anything... but he found that even with his anger reignited his body no longer obeyed him. The adrenaline of his bout with Itachi died down, which added to his wounds from the fight and even the strain of training before that, left him defenseless.
His rage waned, allowing him to realize everything went silent. Searching around, he noticed Sakura was gone from the clearing. In the end, he felt relieved from knowing that the girl who seemed to like him so much, even if a good part of what she felt was superficial, was not there to watch his last moments. He didn't need to burden her with that sight, that trauma.
And now she also had a chance of surviving, however small. His death might yet have a purpose… and in that hope, he found peace.
"Goodbye, Sasuke. Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The last thing Sasuke witnessed before his death was a huge meteor, a sphere of pure fire coming towards him, almost as if in slow motion. The light it radiated was far too intense for him to keep looking at, so he simply closed his eyes and waited for his death in darkness, hearing the destruction the flames left in their wake.
He only hoped that his parents and his clan would be able to forgive him for failing to avenge them... but at least he wouldn't be alone anymore. He finally wouldn't be alone anymore… it made him smile.
And then, silence, followed by heat.
Not the destructive heat of Itachi's infernal jutsu… no. It was something warm and… comforting?
Familiar. It had been so long that Sasuke had almost forgotten what it felt like.
He opened his eyes, only to see that he somehow was on his feet again, with a bundle of pink in front of him, hugging him tightly. Her hands and the area of his back that they were touching were very hot for a few instants before they cooled down and returned to their normal temperature—evidence that Sakura had been sending her own chakra into him.
Her shoulders quaked uncontrollably. That and the sobbing that he heard coming from her told him she was still crying, and her shaky voice only confirmed it.
"I-It's over, Sasuke-kun...! It's over...! He... your brother... he... was never here!"
The words felt like they were to comfort herself rather than him, but that was the only thought that came to Sasuke at the moment. The situation shocked him to a complete stillness.
He breathed in. He breathed out. Sakura tightened her hold on him, and his mind went back to what little work it could do amidst this mess of information and sensations. Sasuke calmed down enough to take control of his body again, but Sakura didn't.
Normally he would push her away immediately, but from the way she was clinging to him, repeatedly muttering something that sounded like "we are still alive", he began to understand how the situation had affected her. This wasn't like her usual bursts of superficial affection. These things were completely beyond his comprehension, but right then, Sasuke could do something he almost never did.
He was able to empathize. Because… he had been in a similar place, five years prior. He had watched people die. He had been powerless. He had been crushed by guilt, confusion, pain…
Knowing how much he would have appreciated if someone had been there for him on that fateful day, Sasuke wrapped his hands around her, returning the hug.
"Yes... we are safe now," he whispered to her in uncharacteristic soft tone, hoping to reassure Sakura, and himself, that everything was truly alright. His younger self had nobody to reassure him, to help him. He couldn't possibly turn his back on her after remembering that.
The girl continued to sob uncontrollably. Sasuke drew from his memories of waking up from nightmares and rushing to his mother's comforting arms… he rubbed her back and continued to reassure her.
It dawned on him how good it was to have this kind of closeness with someone. This had nothing to do with Sakura—he just missed his family. Including the Itachi he had once proudly called brother, as much as it pained to admit it.
The sensation of comfort that Sakura's hug gave him was something he hadn't experienced ever since the day of his mother's death. That had been years ago... long, grueling five years.
…After what felt like ages, Sakura calmed down and slowly released him. She morosely walked away from the Uchiha, who watched her with confused interest.
Sakura made her way to Naruto, who was sprawled unconscious in the grass nearby. Crouching to the blond's level, she placed a hand on his shoulder and flared her chakra. Seconds later, the blond woke up, gasping desperately for air and flailing around until he realized with much confusion that he no longer was deep underwater, suffocating.
It was at that moment that the truth of what had happened during these past few minutes fully sunk in for Sasuke.
'It... it was all a genjutsu…'
And there was only one person who could have been responsible for such a thing...
But why?
A/N:
And we reach the end. I wonder how many people thought the "Captains" in the title was a typo when they first saw this…
Yes, it was Kurenai. Now, whether or not she was justified in what she did, this is not the point of the chapter. She will have time to defend herself next chapter, but like many choices in life, there are positives AND negatives.
I can happily debate those with any of you (I think she shouldn't have done this, myself), should you want to drop a review here or in the next chapter, but please don't structure them as critiques to the story unless you feel Kurenai's behavior and emotions here and in the past chapters simply doesn't work with her final stunt. If it felt justifiable from her point of view, then that's where I stop and say "a job well done". You can disagree with her opinion nonetheless, but I believe that doesn't turn her actions into a story-telling flaw.
The explanation from her side comes next chapter. Kakashi's test will have a resolution then too, but Hinata's fainting spell will take more than a few chapters before you all have the full picture… look forward to all of that!
One last preview/bait: the teams will meet up by the end of Chapter 5, finally!
I hope the action was to everyone's liking. I admit, I struggle a lot with these kinds of scenes. If you think you can help me improve them, please, I'm open to suggestions. I love going back and forth with my reviewers, and will gladly revisit this chapter no matter at what point in the story I'm at if necessary. Your feedback is always important to me!
I hope to see you next chapter!
PS: I made a reference to Team 8 by S'tarkan! See if you can spot it!
Changelog:
1.0 to 1.1 (12/29/2015)
Fixed an incomplete sentence regarding Kakashi's use of the wind-elemental Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Thanks to Perentie Fan for pointing that ridiculous mistake for me. I feel so stupid...
1.1 to 2.0 (07/10/2016)
Fixed typos, incomplete sentences, formatting issues, changed some words and added a little, little bit of extra content in some places
2.0 to 3.0 (10/16/2018)
Usual 3.0 Fare. Regarding Team 8's scene, I had to change the time frame of the engagement so that a fair amount of time passed between last chapter and Hinata's sacrificial stunt, and I built a scene with Kakashi fleeing after their last attempt before that point. It has some light strategy discussion and majorly serves to paint Hinata's growing desperation.
The actual Kakashi fight hasn't changed much structurally, with only a few details here and there… but now it's 99% in Hinata's PoV and 1% in Kakashi's. That was so I could avoid Kakashi's spoilery thoughts compared to Hinata's thoughts and the conflicting moods between them. He killed any tension her thoughts tried to portray. The pacing I believe has improved a lot.
The Team 7 scene too got an expanded beginning, this time to help frame Kurenai's worries. The genjutsu changed to better portray Team 7's toxicity and the hints of their potential when they are in harmony, which goes for the section as a whole really. The fight with Itachi hasn't had significant changes besides him being much more subtle about what message he wanted to impart to Sasuke.
The big change here is Kurenai's motivator. Before she was basically grounded just on stress-induced paranoia, but I added some introspection where she reflects upon the incident where Obito died. That happened with the old Team 7 primarily because of problems that also plague the current Team 7, and I believe her behavior now is significantly easier to understand and empathize with, even if many will disagree with her opinion at least her actions and emotions flow as they should. The newest beta, Ozymandias Rex Regum, deserves a lot of credit for helping me find this missing link in her line of thinking.