Fire: This is Wait for Me: Following chapter five. Anyone in the wrong window, close this window and read the link again.
Kakashi: Um…I'm sure they're all in the right window.
Fire: Oh! (sweats) I didn't think there would be so many people here…
Kakashi: (sweats) They're staring…
Fire: Maybe you should hand me a review.
Kakashi: (pulls out the Big Bag of Reviews and drops it on the ground with a loud thud) Was this… (wipes away sweat from his brow) …what you meant by you'll see next time?
Fire: (smiles) Reviews make the bag heavier. (stares back at the staring audience)
Kakashi: (sighs as he pulls out a window) Here.
Fire: (looks nervously away from the staring audience and glances down at the window) …
Kakashi: Well…?
Fire: Saskie-chan doesn't understand why Sakura didn't tell you that she was Sakura. (turns to Saskie-chan) That's simple, and it will become more apparent in the story later on, but she simply didn't want Kakashi to know what she's doing. If you were going to do something crazy like join up with Orochimaru, I'm sure that you wouldn't want your mentor or your family to know about it. It's just something that they would try to stop her from doing, and Sakura is someone who–once they make up their mind–is impossible to stop. I'm sure everyone knows just how determined Sakura can get. And I'm sorry if the babbling doesn't make sense. It's just to get confusing things in the story out in the open, concerns, etc.
Kakashi: Anything else?
Fire: Hmm...Sakura doesn't want to see you?
Kakashi: That's mean.
Fire: Well, enough reviews. On with the story!
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Disclaimer: the term "sensei mode" belongs to Fire. If you want to borrow it, please send an email or a review to me and I'd be happy to lend it to you, completely free of charge!
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Chapter 5: Flames of the Sakura
The days were endless when Sakura first found that kinjutsu in the pile of scant information on kinjutsu given to her by Orochimaru. She had run to him, asking for help then. She was too excited to figure out what the text was saying. She wanted him to explain it to her.
Kuchiyose edo tensei...
No other three words had ever meant so much to her before. She couldn't believe that a man such as Orochimaru could have something like this.
Even as she was studying the other books and scrolls sprawled out on her desk, on the tables, on the walls around the room, her eyes still wandered to the single kinjutsu scroll which was never too far away from her. She would never let go of it...not that tempting technique that still glared at her even after she had decided to ignore it. She had to become stronger, and she would do it without that technique.
'I have to do this. For Sasuke-kun... For Naruto...' Her eyes were clouding over with something that seemed like tears...but that couldn't be! She had forgotten how to cry. She was sure of it!
The kunoichi wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stared at the water that had collected there. Tears... Long forgotten tears...
She smeared them away. She didn't have time to cry. She had to finish this!
"Here! Orochimaru!" She held up a new passage for the pale man. "Orochimaru!" She yelled at him.
The man pulled his head up. He was dozing off again.
Orochimaru looked at the kunoichi. She was forcing him to sit with her while she studied...something about needing his guidance. But she would just sit there and read over the same page for hours. She couldn't expect him not to fall asleep!
Then, he looked down at the book she was holding out to him. Shikumi no jutsu... "Why do you want to learn this?"
"Just tell me how it works!" The kunoichi snapped.
"You need to sleep. You've been working for ten days straight." Orochimaru waved a hand over her un-dilating eyes. Just like Tsunade used to be. It was amazing that she was still standing.
"Leave me alone and just tell me what I want to know!" The girl snapped at him again. "When did the fearsome Orochimaru become such a kind heart!"
'You took Sasuke from me. You made him into a monster. Then, when he returns, he leaves again! What do you care what I do, you heartless freak!'
But, Orochimaru only laughed at that. He laughed in his own twisted way...that evil laugh that sent chills down Sakura's spine. "A kind heart?" His eyes were cold again as he looked at her. "I don't care if you work yourself to death. You hold no interest for me." She wasn't worthy of being a container. She wasn't worthy of being a minion. "It's just obvious that you were Tsunade's apprentice." He just wanted her for what she was. She had Tsunade's knowledge in her brain because she was Tsunade's apprentice. Because she was Tsunade's apprentice, that emotional bond would always be there, that bond that would allow him to destroy Konoha...that was the only reason why he wanted her...why she was still alive now.
He didn't trust her at all...and he had no intention of really teaching any of these techniques to her. Not unless it was going to benefit him.
Sakura stared at the snake man for a moment before tapping the page again. "How does this work?" She repeated herself.
"Get some sleep, Tsu–!"
Sakura pounded him in the head again. Orochimaru grabbed hold of the kunoichi's arm as he fell, and found himself lying on the ground, looking up at an effigy of Tsunade with pink hair. "Tell me now!" Her eyes were still blazing even though she was in no position to demand anything from him. Her hands, still balled into fists, could easily hit him again with that strength which mirrored Tsunade's own.
Orochimaru pressed the girl's thin body against himself, ran his nose along the edge of the kunoichi's neck as he sniffed her like a snake playing with his prey. "For a Sakura, you don't smell anything like a flower," he said before Sakura smacked him in the face and pulled herself away. "You want power, yes? I can give you power."
Sakura glared at him. Already, she knew what he was thinking. 'Pedophile.' She didn't want that kind of power. The cursed seal... She had heard what it could do to a person. She had read what it could do to a person. She had seen first hand what it could do to a person.
"Get out of my room!" Sakura glared at Orochimaru. "I don't want your stupid cursed seal!"
Orochimaru stared at the girl. His seal was...stupid? "I'm sure that you will change your mind later." The tall pale man turned to the door. If she didn't want it, he wasn't going to give it to her. Chances were...she would just reject it and die, or it would become inactive. There were plenty of other people waiting for him to give them such power as the seal could bestow. He wasn't going to waste it on an ingrate!
"No...never," Sakura said coldly as the man exited the room. She wasn't going to allow him to control her using that seal...not like Sasuke had allowed it to control him.
The kunoichi turned back to her books, her eyes blurring even as she looked down. But he was right. She was too tired. She needed sleep.
Sakura sighed over the scroll as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. It was one thing to admit to herself that she was tired. It was quite another to admit to herself that Orochimaru was right about her being tired. She wasn't going to give in. Orochimaru wasn't right! She would study. She had plenty of energy left. She could just...
Sakura sagged over the books before drifting to sleep. The weariness that she had been holding back over the last ten days seeped over her body and dragged her into unconsciousness.
Lee faltered as he heard the Hokage's words. Denied. He wasn't allowed to leave the village. Kakashi already had five people on his team in total, one more than was usually on a basic team. He didn't need another shinobi...especially since they were supposed to be a reconnaissance team, and stealth was important.
And Lee couldn't argue with that. They were going to return in half a week. He could wait for them to return, then go back to Otogakure with them when they go to retrieve Sakura. He could wait. He could wait.
'Chikusho! Why didn't he bring me with him!'
He couldn't wait. He wished they would return.
Orochimaru looked around the compound. Kabuto. He hadn't seen Kabuto for a few days now, and he was beginning to wonder where he could have gone. The grey-haired nin never went anywhere without informing him first, without getting his permission first.
The pale man clenched his hands in annoyance. When he gets his hands on Kabuto, that spectacled nin was going to pay. He demanded obedience, and Kabuto, his right arm, should know that better than anyone.
"Are you still wandering around here like that?" Sakura glared at Orochimaru as she walked up to him. From what she had gathered during the last month she has been here, he never really walked around so much in his own home before. "What are you looking for?"
Orochimaru looked at Sakura for a moment before a smile spread across his face. "Kabuto," he said simply without any further explanation. She had asked what he was searching for...and his answer was Kabuto.
Sakura stared at him for a moment, her mind a little surprised at his reply. She was just about to go look for the pale man; there was a passage that she wanted explained. But that had nothing to do with why she was surprised.
She had asked Orochimaru a question, and he had answered. She had never gotten such an easy answer from the pale man in all the four weeks that she has been in this underground complex!
"Ka...buto?" Her mind was still trying to register it.
"Do you need something?" He walked up to her, loomed over her with that evil smile on his face. He took the book from her hand and looked at it before handing it back to her. "Juin jutsu." A wider smile spread out from the smile that was already on his face. "You're trying to learn how to do it yourself?" He tilted her head up to face him. "Or perhaps you're just trying to find a way to counteract it later...hmm?"
Sakura pulled herself away from him, stumbled back a few steps. "That's not it at all!" She shouted at him. It was an attack, a technique that he was willing to teach to her. She wasn't just going to waste it...not when it might come in handy later!
"Such a smart girl... You just might succeed too." Orochimaru walked away from her, continuing in the direction in which he was headed before. "But, if you want to counter my cursed seal, you'll have to figure it out yourself." There was no way that he was going to just hand over the secrets of his precious technique to a girl.
"Orochimaru!" Sakura fumed. "You said that you'd teach me any technique that I want to learn!"
"I never said any such thing," Orochimaru said, even as he continued away. "Try to remember things properly, Tsu–!"
"You try to remember things properly!" Sakura pummelled the man in the face. "I'm not Tsunade!"
"Such a punch..." Orochimaru held his jaw to make sure that it hadn't dislocated. "You couldn't possibly blame me if I forget."
Sakura's eyes flamed. It should have been a compliment. Tsunade was a strong and capable kunoichi, a powerful medic-nin of Konoha. But, that was a long time ago. Sakura would rather not have to be compared to someone of such high status when she knew that she no longer held the right to look up to her anymore. She couldn't even admit that she had the right to say the woman's name.
And she inwardly reminded herself to punish herself later for having said it. Tsunade. That was someone that she would rather forget as well, because if she remembered, she wasn't sure if she would be able to do what she knew she had to do.
"...Sakura." The end of Orochimaru's sentence, her name. That detested word...that detested name...only the sound of it made Sakura's blood run cold. "If you want me to explain it to you, come and find Kabuto for me. I'll show you a prime example of how the seal works."
Sakura could only stare at the man's retreating back before running after him. A prime example of how the seal works. What could he mean by that!
Anko looked at the unconscious spectacled man with apprehension behind her purple eyes. She didn't like him. She didn't like the idea of her former sensei being around him. This man. Everything about him was...irritating.
"Kakashi, do you think it was a good idea to abduct him like that?" Anko asked as she looked at the man again. He was unconscious, but he could wake up at any time.
"He wouldn't bring us to Sakura," Kakashi said simply. "We need to make sure that she isn't here." They needed somewhere safe to interrogate him thoroughly.
Anko straightened from where she crouched. That made enough logical sense, but still...she had a feeling that that wasn't all. "What are you planning, Kakashi?"
"I'm only asking you to keep an eye on him for now, Anko. I'm not asking you to kill him," Kakashi said half-jokingly with a smile. "At least...not yet."
Then, the grey-haired jounin turned and walked away from the far wall of the cave where they were keeping the young man. The rest of the party waited near the front of the cave. He had a plan...and most of it, he had already told Anko, but the rest of it... He couldn't bring himself to tell her that. No matter what Orochimaru had become, he was still Anko's sensei, and she would never accept anything that he decided to do to stop him.
"What are you thinking, Kakashi?" Asuma asked, all the while sending small glances in Jiraiya's direction. The man may be a Sannin, but he was sure to get a good beating if he kept making unwanted advances toward Kurenai like that.
Then, there was the sudden echo of a slap ringing through the cave.
"Itai," Jiraiya said slowly as he rubbed his face. Then, he turned to Kakashi, all seriousness on his face. "You've decided what we're going to do if she's in there, haven't you?" The man had seen enough of the world to know. Kakashi wasn't going to go easy on the girl just because she used to be his student.
"Find her. Bring her back to Konoha. That's what I'm going to do. But this is a reconnaissance mission..." Kakashi said, his eye turning to Anko for a moment before looking at Jiraiya again. "All we're here to do is confirm that it's Sakura-chan. I have no intention of disobeying orders." As much as he wanted to do it.
'And Orochimaru... I'll tell you want we're going to do to Orochimaru later...when we're out of Anko's earshot.' Orochimaru wasn't in their orders. They could do whatever they wanted with him.
Jiraiya, Asuma and Kurenai nodded slowly. They understood completely, but then, Kakashi didn't expect any less from shinobi of their status.
"Anko," Kakashi turned back to the woman at the back of the room. "You'll have to stay here and watch our prisoner. The cursed seal on your shoulder..."
The purple-haired jounin nodded. She understood. Orochimaru would know immediately if she came too close to Otogakure. "I understand." Even if she desperately wanted to bring the head of her former sensei back to Konoha with them, she couldn't go.
"If we're not back in two hours, come after us. You are our trump card, Anko," Kakashi said as he led the three other members of his party forwards.
He wasn't here to fight, and Anko knew that he hoped it wouldn't be necessary for the woman to come after them, but if worse came to worst, Anko could stop Orochimaru and bring them all back safely. He knew that he was putting a lot on the woman's shoulders, but that was something that Kakashi had to trust she could handle. That was what being a shinobi was about. He had to trust that each member of his team could accomplish their part of the mission.
"As for Orochimaru," Kakashi said as they hurried toward the village. "We're here on a reconnaissance mission. We'll avoid confrontation, but if necessary, we will engage the enemy. Try not to kill anyone, but Orochimaru..." Kakashi frowned. The man who might very well have killed his student by now... "If you get the chance, kill him!"
Everyone around Kakashi was silent for a moment before Jiraiya spoke up. "Kakashi, we're not rookie genin. You should think about getting out of sensei mode when you're on missions with higher level shinobi."
And Kurenai had to stifle a laugh. That was going to be hard to do. The man spent way too much time around Naruto...even when Naruto was dead.
End Chapter 5
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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:
Finally, the age old mystery is solved! Well, not really an age old mystery, but still a mystery to people writing everywhere. Personally when I write speech, I attach the fragment to the end. "Ramen," said Naruto, or "Ramen," Naruto said. Other people prefer to write it in front. Naruto said, "Ramen." In case you were wondering, both these forms are correct. You can write it either way, just like you can write dependent clauses on either side of the independent clause. The mystery comes from whether you capitalize the first word in the quotation when you attach the fragment to the beginning. Is it Naruto said, "ramen," or Naruto said, "Ramen." The surprising answer is that both are correct. You can write it either way—if you don't believe me, ask your English specialist and you'll get the same answer—but Naruto said, "Ramen," is more widely used. And now that that mystery is solved, we can ponder other English mysteries.
Fire's babbling:
Sakura: (running around in circles, screaming) Ahh! Orochimaru's trying to give me a cursed seal!
Orochimaru: Is that a bad thing?
Fire: Yes!
Sakura: (still running around, still screaming) Ahh! He's being a pedophile!
Fire: He was already a pedophile.
Orochimaru: That's slander. Kabuto, kill Fire.
Kabuto: The plan to attack Konoha isn't scheduled until much later, Orochimaru-sama.
Kakashi: O.o You sound organized.
Sakura: I just want power. I don't want to be your slave!
Kabuto: That sounds wrong.
Kakashi: Very wrong.
Fire: She means it literally.
Sakura: (screaming) Ahh!
Fire: Well, while Sakura's running around in circles, please feel free to send me a review. If you were confused about anything that's currently happening, or you have a concern about the story that you want cleared up, send me a review. If you hate the story, send me a review. If you like the story, send me a review. If you want me to kill Sakura…
Sakura: Hey! Don't kill me!
Fire: …send me a review. If you want—
Kakashi: Are you trying to brainwash them into sending a review?
Fire: (turns to Kakashi) You ruined it! It's subliminal advertising. It really works. They said so in Psych class!
Kakashi: (sensei mode) Don't brainwash the readers.
Fire: Okay! (hugs Kakashi and steals Icha Icha Paradise) Just remember to review! (runs away)
Kakashi: My book! (runs after Fire)
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