Chapter 8
Be Careful What You Wish For: A New Danger in a Distant Land!
The sun was shining high in the sky as Amari got into position. Her eye was set on their target; her mind was calmed of any storm as it worked over plans to take them down. "I'm at point D," she whispered into the headset connected to her entire team. She couldn't act, not yet, not while her team was still moving into their respective positions to keep their target boxed in.
You won't escape me.
"I'm at point B," Sasuke followed.
"I'm at point C," Sakura's voice came a few seconds later.
Using her Byakugan she could see the pair already set up and waiting. A moment of pause passed before their final teammate reached his position. "I reached point A. Believe it."
"All right, Team Seven let's— Hm?" Their target dove from the tree and dashed away, having sensed their presence before they could act. "Target has moved! Follow it!"
The four Genin moved into action without much coaxing. Stop running coward! She jumped up onto a tree branch and followed their target as it dashed quickly across the grassy floor below until eventually coming to a stop in a clearing to search for its hunters. Its head moved side to side, scanning the area, seeking out any sign of them.
Team Seven halted their movements and hid themselves by blending in with their native environment of plentiful trees and bushes surrounding the clearing. Silently, Amari guided her shadow down the tree. Her chosen position in the tree was working perfectly to her advantage. At this time of day with the position of the sun and canopy of leaves above them she was in her element, and their target was right in her grasps, unaware of the black shadow sneaking up behind it.
"Give me ten more seconds and I'll have it in my Shadow Possession Jutsu. Once I give the signal, move in."
"Right," Sakura answered.
"Ready," Sasuke replied.
"We'll be ready, Amari," Naruto responded.
Her shadow slithered across the ground like a snake without the excess movement, inching closer and closer to the target. "Keep it steady, Amari. You're almost there," their Sensei coached.
Just a little closer…Her shadow shot forward and attached to the target, paralyzing it in its place. She could feel their targets futile efforts to break her hold, but no amount of strength would it help it here.
This was her domain, and their prison.
"Now!"
Not a second later her teammates charged the target. Naruto dove headfirst through the air to grab and restrain it, all but tackling their target into the dirt. Seeing the situation was under control, she let her shadow recede back to her.
The cat, having regained its ability to move, proceeded to freak out and start scratching Naruto in an effort to do everything possible to break his hold. Yelps and cries of pain and struggle broke through the quiet forest as her teammate did his best to maintain his hold despite the vicious attack he was receiving.
When it became clear Naruto was beginning to lose his fight with the cat, Amari sighed and jumped down to his aid. With quick reflexes she grabbed the cat by the back of its neck and hooked her other hand around to restrain its front paws. Their target spun in her grasps to turn the attack onto its newest assailant but froze in fear when it met her irritated onyx eye.
"You better stop trying to run away or I'll dunk you in a bucket of ice water," she threatened. Their target relaxed into submission at the warning, allowing her to return the cat back to her teammate without it offering any fight whatsoever.
"We've got a positive I.D." Sasuke relayed to their Sensei.
"Right. Lost pet Tora captured. Mission accomplished."
Amari was about to breathe a sigh of relief for the sake of the mission being over when she noticed a vein suddenly bulge on Naruto's forehead. "Can't we get a better mission than this?! I hate cats!"
Sighs of understood frustration echoed out of her other two teammate's right after. By all accounts Naruto was right about the mission being lame and boring, but this was all a part of becoming familiar with one another and working on the fundamental skills…
But its soooo boring! Amari exhaled her own sigh and slumped in defeat. This wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she signed on to be a shinobi. She expected danger, hard work, and moments of limit breaking.
Pet retrieval, not so much.
The cat took it upon itself to once again scratch the boy for his outburst, earning an irritable grunt from Amari as she once again snatched the cat by the back of its neck and restrained its front paws. This time when it met her eye she gave it a murderous stare.
"Stop."
Or else went unvoiced between them.
If the cat could, it would have nodded in quickly in response. Instead a look of understanding crossed its furry face. Target restrained, she took it upon herself to lead the way back towards their meeting point. "Come on, I'll hold her since she doesn't seem to want to risk my wrath."
Behind her she could sense Sasuke and Sakura giving Naruto teasing smirks. A growl from her friend all but reinforced it. "Stupid, evil cat," he grumbled.
After meeting up with their sensei they made their way back to the Village and to the Mission Assignment Desk to finish the mission and receive their next one.
Tora remained on her best behavior the rest of the way while Naruto gave it sidelong glances, clearly thinking the pet would strike Amari at any moment. She didn't. Obviously even animals knew the wrath of Amaririsu Yūhi was not to be trifled with.
When they finally reached the office, the Wife of the Land of Fire's Daimyo was waiting for them. She was a larger woman, and in Amari's opinion reeked of too much older lady perfume. Seriously, how did anyone think that smell was remotely nice? She was certain every Inuzuka Clan member could smell her from inside their homes even when she was at the front gate of the Village.
Ugh, I think I'm going to puke or pass out. Maybe both. Amari bumped into Kakashi's back just to bury her nose into his flak jacket and take a long inhale so she could hold her breath long enough to return Tora to the Daimyo's wife without dying. Kakashi cast a suspicious glance back at her, but when he noticed she was holding her breath he chuckled apologetically.
"Can't…breathe," Sakura muttered under her breath. "Hurry up, Amari."
Oh she was hurrying. She nearly cleared the distance at a sprint, all but shoved the cat into the Daimyo's wife's arms and concealed her rush back to her team.
If she wasn't struggling to breathe she might have felt bad for Tora when her owner began hugging, or squashing in Amari's eyes, and rubbing her cheek against the terror stricken feline.
Naruto, on the other hand, was cackling at it. "Hahaha! Stupid cat! That kitty deserves to be squashed."
Although she understood his point of view, she did feel sympathy for the poor animal. If you were a dog and didn't belong to the Daimyo's wife, I might have tried to keep you or save you. Unfortunately for Tora she wasn't much of a cat person and had no intentions of stealing from the wife of the Feudal Lord, let alone standing that close to the woman ever again.
Almost out of air. After payments were made and the like, the Daimyo's wife departed, though her stench lingered. Amari, unfortunately, couldn't keep holding her breath any longer. She was almost purple and fighting against the instinct to breathe damn it!
"Sensei, sleeve please," she begged on her last bits of breath.
Kakashi chuckled and offered her his sleeve, which she buried her nose into and inhaled precious oxygen that smelled like some sort of man scent she didn't care to question the origin of. All she knew was it was the equivalent of breathing in the smell of rose petals at this point.
"Oh, thank kami," she said quickly, trying not to exhale too much air. Oxygen, how she had missed it so. "How are any of you alive right now?" she asked, looking to her team and even the Hokage for a real answer.
Most offered her shrugs of indifference or looks of sympathy.
"Over time you grow immune to it," Lord Third stated flatly.
"Over time?" she questioned in horror, her eyes wide.
That meant she'd have to encounter her again?!
No one knew for certain, but they all sensed the internal cry of "Noooooo!" when they saw her entire body bend slump forward in depression.
Lord Third picked up a sheet of paper without so much as a sideways glance at the scene in front of him, almost as if he had seen it before in another group of Genin. His weathered features rested in-between pure indifference and boredom.
"Now there are several available tasks available for Team Sevens next mission."
Amari had to fight back a groan and the need to fall to the floor when the Hokage began listing off their available missions to pick from, all of which were between babysitting children to babysitting adults as they went about their business. Depressed and on the verge of slamming her head against the wall, the Nara stood back up and let her eye roam to the window just behind the Hokage to seek out the clouds on the horizon to make this whole process less painful.
Really wish I could be a cloud. Just float along wherever the wind brings you with no responsibilities or worries. Responsibilities weren't too bad, she supposed. They weren't these dreadful things that Shikamaru made them out to be…But these missions are just sooo boring. I understand we are Genin, but seriously? Babysitting? Escorting someone's wife around while she shops?
"Noooo!" Naruto groaned loudly as the voice of all of Team Seven's inner thoughts. "We want a real mission! Something that challenges us and is exciting, not this little kid stuff! Come on, Old Man!"
Reluctant agreement crossed each of the other three Genin's faces, though none of them verbally backed up their teammate. They were each too respectful to outright whine to the leader of their village, where Naruto was…well, Naruto was Naruto.
Enough said.
Next to her Kakashi was rubbing the back of his neck at the outburst in what was probably embarrassment for his student's action.
"How dare you!" Iruka reprimanded.
Amari once again chose to tune them out and drift off back into her own thoughts as her eye watched a cloud casually drifting across the blue sky. She had no interest in listening to an argument between her admittedly immature teammate and former sensei.
Suddenly Kakashi nailed the blond on top of the head with a hard punch, knocking him to the floor and silencing his childish argument.
This is going well, she thought with a roll of her eye.
Again her attention to the situation was disregarded to something far more interesting, like how much she wanted to create a clone to either take her place or to go train while she waited for this all to work itself out. At this rate we could be here for a few hours if Naruto keeps acting up, and I would really like to train.
She glanced to the Hokage, Iruka and then Kakashi. Each were focused either on scolding Naruto or watching him, but their attention wasn't drawn far enough away for her to sneak a clone or two out of here. They'd all know I created them and then I would be dragged into this mess.
Troublesome adults.
There was just so much she wanted to train with. There was a new genjutsu and taijutsu technique Kakashi wanted her to continue working on, the continuous practice of her Fire Jutsu's, clones, regular sparring, the Body Flicker Technique; so much to be learned and improved so she could become stronger. And here I am, stuck listening to a stupid argument.
Two weeks had passed since their pass or fail test, and during the first four days after Kakashi had met with her early in the morning to teach her four new techniques: one taijutsu, one genjutsu and two ninjutsu. To speed up her learning process he had her watch the moves with her Sharingan activated so she could analyze each move to the tiniest detail.
This didn't grant her the ability to pull the moves off right away, though. Unlike her previous belief that Kakashi's Sharingan had given him the ability to just copy any ninjutsu, genjutsu or taijutsu, that was not an accurate description of how the Sharingan worked. While the Sharingan granted its wielder the ability to copy techniques, what it really came down to was having the physical ability and able body to perform the jutsu.
For that very reason it was impossible to copy a kekkei genkai or a Nature Transformation a wielder of the Sharingan didn't know. You could analyze and understand how it worked all you wanted, but not having the bloodline trait or the knowledge of how to perform such a Nature Transformation made it impossible to use right away.
That wasn't to say one couldn't memorize the handseals or body movements needed and put their body through rigorous training so they could use them eventually, excluding kekkei genkais of course. This was how Kakashi had Amari learning. She watched him perform the moves and after that it was up to her to train herself to be able to use the moves somewhere down the line in the future.
And train she did, but not without one last stipulation. Off mission she had to wear seals on her biceps and forearms as well as her thighs and calves under white bandages to make sure they didn't get ripped or ruined. Didn't sound so bad in passing, but that was because there was far more to it than keeping paper wrapped under white bandages.
To start, off mission was the inclusion of sparring, training alone or moving around on a daily basis. The only time she was allowed to take them off was when they were on real missions so she didn't slow the team down or turn herself into a slow moving target for enemies and night time when she returned home.
Now what exactly was so special about the seals that would slow her down on missions? The seals were weight seals, meaning upon activation the seal would no longer weigh like a piece of paper, instead they would weigh as much as the set weight Kakashi decided on. They looked like paper, they even felt like paper, but each seal weighed five pounds each once activated.
Quick recap: two seals per arm and leg, ten pounds per arm and leg, forty pounds total.
Amari had never felt so heavy in her life.
She had been fit before the weights and had more physical strength than most girls her age, but this new training was really becoming a huge struggle. About forty pounds of struggle to be exact.
The first time Kakashi had activated the seals she ended up face flat in the dirt. An hour later she finally made it onto her hands and knees after constant interruptions from Kakashi "accidently" bumping into her and knocking her back to the ground. After that he furthered his "help" by sitting up in a tree as he read his Make-Out Paradise book and provided "motivation" by telling her she needed to do this on her own to become stronger.
Honestly Amari couldn't help but feel he was sadistically enjoying her struggle to get back on her feet, definitely since she caught him watching her with an amused glint in his eye longer than he had his nose in the book at some points. By the time she actually got back onto her feet they had to train.
Needless to say, Amari was silently cursing her sensei's name for what he was putting her through.
Tree climbing, which she had become quite good at, became harder to do, not because of lack of chakra control, but due to the new weight she had. She had a hard enough time walking with the new weight, but forcing her to try to run up the tree was pure torture. More weight also equaled a harder and faster crash to the ground, granted it also forced her to adapt quicker to avoid the crash, but still! What had she ever done to deserve this punishment?!
In the analytical portions of her mind, the parts not screaming for the pulverization of Kakashi, did realize this training was needed since intense training and exercise was the best way to increase her physical energy. She already was increasing her spiritual energy through consistent studying and meditation so she needed to balance that out by working even harder physically.
The end goal was to increase both energies so she could create more powerful chakra. More powerful chakra would help her to defeat Kasai and protect her friends—two goals that made the strain of the weights worth the drenching sweat and repeated stings of bruises forming on different parts on her body.
Two weeks later she was finally getting used to having the weight on her, but getting used to it and being able to move around without an issue were not the same things. Her reaction time normally was fast enough to block attacks; unfortunately now she could see the attacks coming but couldn't block them like she used to. The fights started out really bad, suddenly the top kunoichi could no longer keep up with any of her teammates moves no matter how fast or slow they were.
Their secret weight training didn't remain secret once the others caught onto her sudden change of talent. Explaining it had gone over fairly well…kind of. Naruto persistently questioned why their sensei wasn't having them train with the weights until Kakashi placed a one hundred pound seal on his shoulder and activated it without warning.
Thus Naruto and the dirt became close friends. If she didn't understand the feeling she would have laughed. But she understood what it meant to be acquainted with the dirt. They were like roommates.
After watching him struggle for a moment or two, Kakashi deactivated and explained that because Amari had managed to hit him and get the bells he believed she deserved a reward. Team Seven firmly believed she was being punished and let it be so they wouldn't end up with the same fate.
Amari really couldn't blame them.
Everything was still difficult to do being weighed down, but for this recent mission she was allowed to finally move freely without weights in what was an excellent reprieve she was soaking up. In all fairness, she had noticed she was far lighter on her feet and quicker in short bursts of speed, but she was struggling to figure out if her brain was being hopelessly optimistic to combat the despair of the weights or if she was really improving.
As for the techniques she was learning, the first was the taijutsu technique called Dynamic Entry, and Amari couldn't shake the feeling there was some hidden reason behind Kakashi teaching her it. The technique was nothing entirely special, nothing at all matching the likes of Shadow Clone Jutsu or Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu. It didn't even provide a struggle to master, which was a drag because she enjoyed a good challenge.
In no way was it nearly as helpful as Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu that she deluded herself into believing she was on the verge of succeeding with or the genjutsu she was trying to learn called Demonic Illusion: Death Mirage Jutsu.
Dynamic Entry was…well, its name was kind of the purpose of the move. It was a jumping kick to the face that she figured was best used for surprise attack.
The good news, for her at least, was that she was tweaking the move a bit to make it far more useful. Her main version was having one or two clones transform into shuriken or kunai before or during a battle then tossing them at the person and having them dispel the transformation to nail the move. Doing so would make it a far more handy ambush technique in the heat of battle, plus it was forcing her to increase her skill so clones using the Transformation Jutsu became easier to maintain.
Total bonus points there.
But still, this was Kakashi teaching her this strange move. Out of any and all taijutsu techniques he had seen and learned through the years he was teaching her this one? Her suspicions were furthered by the amused glint in his eye every time she practiced it.
Why is it so funny? I've got to ask Mom about it, maybe she'll know.
The other weird thing was he had read a few books on other elemental chakras. The second day he showed her the Headhunter Jutsu he used against Sasuke to see if she could do it after analyzing the move. She failed, miserably. Truly it would have been mortifying if failure hadn't been her closest adversary when Kurenai first started training her.
But, at the same time, that was also the lesson Kakashi was trying to teach her.
"You knew I'd fail," she had said without accusation or anger.
"I did. I wanted you to fully understand that no matter how great of a tool the Sharingan is, and no matter how much of a genius you are, learning a new nature is not something you will achieve in a day or a week of training. You will have to work hard, harder than you have before if you want to pull off these techniques. It'll take you even longer to master them."
"Which is why you're starting me with it now?"
"Exactly. I know nothing I can say will turn you away from your path to find and defeat Kasai. When that fateful day comes, I want all of your skills sharper than any blade he can find. I want your weaknesses hidden in the darkest shadows no dōjutsu can see through. And I want to see you return with your head held high, knowing in your heart that you won with your own strength and your own power because you are strong shinobi and person. That's why you're real training begins today."
Her inner warrior spurred her to work even harder so she could prove to him his belief in her wasn't misplaced.
This is where her physical, spiritual and chakra control training was going to come in handy. To perform a different elemental nature of chakra meant learning to mold her chakra in an entirely different way than she did for her Fire Jutsu's or Shadow Possession Jutsu. Hard work was the only way forward, and that was what excited her most about learning a new element.
Difficult or not she wasn't going to give up. She was going to continue to push herself until she was finally able to get it to work, even if that meant training herself until she couldn't stand up with her own strength. Of course learning it also didn't mean she'd be a master of the Earth Style chakra nature. It would take years of practice to be able to pull off strong Earth Style techniques even after she eventually learned Headhunter Jutsu. But the texts given to her and the jutsu itself were meant as a stepping stone to help move her towards that goal.
Demonic Illusion: Death Mirage Jutsu was a relatively easier technique to learn, but still was giving her trouble. Luckily her mother was aiding her to understand how to use it at night when they were both just relaxing after a long day of training or missions.
Learning it was going okay. Genjutsu had never been one of her prime focuses ever despite living with a master of it. But even though she wasn't all that great with it, that just made it even more important to learn about. She needed to strengthen her weaknesses whether they were weak because of lack of interest or because she wasn't very good at it.
As for the final jutsu Kakashi showed her, she hadn't even been able to take the time to try learning it. It was a wind based jutsu called Wind Style: Gale Palm; not an ultra-powerful wind attack but it would strengthen her fire based jutsus if combined with each other. Such a combination, though, would require far more training to pull off successfully, especially since the amount of chakra necessary would be on the level of Shadow Clone Shadow Possession, possibly beyond it.
A sudden new thought hit her like a bolt of lightning. Wait a minute…I thought about sending my clones out to train while I wait but…why not create five clones and have them do the same training? It would cut down time since I would gain all the knowledge and experience they did. Doing so would definitely drain my chakra as well but…I could cut the time it takes me to learn something in half…maybe.
She'd have to run it by her sensei or mother first to see what they thought about it. If it was too dangerous now she wouldn't risk it; not for a while anyways. Besides, it wasn't like she listened about her Shadow Clone Shadow Possession. She blatantly ignored that. And got scolded for it, rightly so. Still, unless this one meant absolute death it was unlikely she could be warded off.
As for the Body Flicker Technique she was still working on it as much as she could. She wanted to master it…No, she felt moved to master it for a reason she couldn't quite explain. Either way, traveling across the village and through the forest to meet up with her team with the added weight before missions and after was definitely helping.
Kakashi even took the time to teach her a little more information on the Sharingan, mostly so she could understand how analyzing jutsus worked. Otherwise he told her to start using it and her Byakugan more when she trained with her mother to help her advance them.
"Your Sharingan prowess will not grow if you don't use it while you train. The same goes for the Byakugan. You need to start practicing with them far more than you have so you can unlock their full potential. Unlike my Sharingan, your eyes don't drain the same significant portion of chakra mine does. Utilize that advantage, because if Kasai is half the shinobi he believed himself to be, he will."
She took the words to heart and had started doing her best to incorporate more training with them both. The Byakugan was the easiest to do since her bandana kept it and the veins bulging on her cheek hidden from sight, which allowed her to use it while training with her team. The Sharingan was something she had to do when she was alone or just with her mother or Kakashi.
I wonder when I will have to tell them about my eyes…probably no time soon.
"What are you thinking about so intently?" Kakashi whispered to her as the Hokage lectured on about…something.
"I'm wondering about the meaning of life and my existence in it," the young ninja wisecracked softly.
"If you get that crystal ball working let me know; I've got some questions that need answering. How's training coming along?"
Amari shrugged slightly and unnoticeably. "I've got the taijutsu technique down and I feel like I'm getting closer with Earth Style. Though I still have a while to go if I'm being honest with myself. I haven't even attempted anything with the Wind Ninjutsu yet, and I think I'm starting to understand the genjutsu. Yin Release is kind of the basis of genjutsu, and since Shadow Possession Jutsu is a Yin Release jutsu I have a better handle on my spirit energy than most others. Plus mom is a master of genjutsu so she really helps me in breaking it down to the basics."
"Good. Earth and Wind will take you time to master, years to be exact, but your dedication helps."
"Would using my clones cut down the time?"
Kakashi remained silent for a moment, a contemplative silence from what she could feel. Then he spoke. "Yes, but we'll discuss that another time. That takes a lot of chakra, chakra you may or may not have to use. As for the genjutsu you'll be able to use it much easier later on when you mature more and make it more powerful. Trust me, it may be supplementary but even a supplementary jutsu can become extremely powerful."
At least it wasn't a straight no on using clones.
While saying she needed to mature more would have offended others, Amari knew what he truly meant. Her Sensei was really referring to her Sharingan but they had come to a silent agreement that saying she needed to mature more would be code for it. First she had to learn the genjutsu and be able to cast it, then she would figure what he meant by using her special eye to make it powerful.
"Like the Body Flicker Technique?" she asked in regards to his final words.
"Exactly. You should really focus though. Any second now we'll be given a mission and you'll want the details."
She nodded in response as the Hokage finished whatever speech he was on about only to notice that Naruto had turned around to start talking to the team about ramen. The young ninja suppressed her giggle and hid her smirk behind her hand as Lord Third shouted at him for his disregard to his speech.
Once again the blond started yelling at the Hokage about not being a little brat pulling pranks anymore; usually Amari would have listened and agreed but she once again found her attention waning and returning to the clouds.
I wish I could go practice the Water Walking Technique or something. The Nara forced back her bored sigh. This is such a drag. Even doing a D-rank mission would be better than listening to them bicker. At least I'd be doing something. Even if Naruto just got us a C-Rank mission…Wait what?
Amari snapped out of her thoughts at the details coming from Lord Third regarding their new mission.
"You'll be bodyguards on a journey," Lord Third said with an amused smile.
His smile is so not comforting in the slightest. This C-rank mission is probably just the Hokage placating Naruto with the idea that the mission will be tougher only for us to end up really bored or something. Wait, did he say bodyguards…Amari fought back her groan. Aw man, we're going to get stuck traveling with someone who is going to be terrible at traveling or will complain the whole time. What a pain.
Traveling sounded nice for the most part to the untraveled ninja, but being around someone who probably wouldn't be all too nice plus the bickering between her own teammates would grate on the nerves of even the most patient people.
The door sliding open brought Amari out of her thoughts as the smell of alcohol suddenly attacked her senses. Even worse: A drunkard. Naruto, sometimes I want to smother you.
"What the?! A bunch of little snot nose kids?!"
Yep, totally going to smother him tonight.
The man took a long drink of his alcohol before leaning on the doorframe in either an unconscious action or to keep his balance so he didn't tip over. He wore light brown shin length pants with a brown tank top. A white towel hung around his neck and the man already had his large bag for travelling ready to go. The man had a large gray goatee and spiked back gray hair and wore glasses.
Not just a drunkard, an old drunkard. Why is our luck so terrible? Amari sighed in defeat. Well, at least I will be able to practice my skills as we travel…not that I would cast a genjutsu on my teammates or this drunkard for entertainment.
She wouldn't actually cast a genjutsu on them, but that didn't mean she wouldn't think about doing it.
"And you, the short one with the stupid look on your face. You really expect me to believe you're a ninja?" the man asked very impolitely.
Before Amari could make a witty remark to shut him up, Naruto foolishly started laughing at the verbal joust. "Hahaha! Who's the short one with the stupid look on…his…" The blond paused as the words hit him. He looked at his teammates, who had all stepped closer to him to help him realize he was the shortest of their entire team. Although it wasn't necessarily a great plan, Amari found herself giggling when his face contorted into incredulity and then anger at the man calling him stupid.
The knucklehead attempted to charge while shouting about demolishing the old man but Kakashi was quick to grab him by his collar and stop him from going anywhere. "You can't demolish the client, Naruto. It doesn't work like that," he scolded.
"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder and I must return to my country. I am building a bridge there that will change our world, and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it means giving up your life."
That was a bit…dramatic for a C-rank mission. Obviously shinobi missions did have risks, and higher ranks brought more danger…but his delivery flipped on her suspicion alarms. His bloodshot eyes didn't reveal much to her, yet she couldn't quiet the feeling he was hiding something.
His intentions of changing their world sound really noble, but he also makes it sound like we should expect some major problems. Amari looked to his drink. He is also incredibly inebriated so he is either a dramatic drunkard or he is trying to cope with something…Mortality inching closer perhaps.
All the gears within Amari's mind started turning as she tried to solve the new puzzle while they made short introductions to the bridge builder. Her wary eye watched him the entire time, gauging every single inconsequential word spoken and shift of body language. By the end all she gathered was how much she despised the smell of alcohol, but nothing groundbreaking or enough evidence to warrant her suspicions or to dissuade them.
Afterwards they went their separate ways to go home and get packed for the mission that they were about to go on.
All the way home Amari rolled Tazuna's introduction around in her head. Laying down your life for your comrades or your clients or the mission is all a part of being a ninja. I'll stand and fight regardless of the outcome…I just can't shake these feelings I have.
Something was up but she didn't know what it was just yet. As she entered her home, though, she let the thoughts go to focus on packing her long term equipment.
"Where are you going?" Kurenai asked when she entered Amari's room.
"Land of Waves for a C-rank mission. We're bodyguards for a bridge builder named Tazuna…but…" She paused as she thought about his introduction again.
"Even if it means giving up your lives."
"…I don't know. Something about him rubs me the wrong way."
Red eyes examined everything from her uneasy body language to her pensive onyx eye. "How so?"
"His goal is noble and I can tell he isn't lying about that, but he was a bit dramatic on the delivery. He drank a lot in our meeting so that may be it…It's like he is really expecting harder trouble than a C-rank, yet the Hokage wouldn't send us on it if it really was a B- or A-rank."
And the Hokage had been around a lot longer than she had been. If a client was lying surely he would have noticed.
Kurenai nodded slowly, evaluating her explanation as she moved further into the room and began helping her pack her remaining items. "Lord Hokage wouldn't put Genin in a position that they weren't ready for…but if your gut is telling you that he is not being fully truthful then you should not let your guard down."
"I wish I could discern intentions as well as you," the young ninja mumbled to herself while she pulled her pack on.
Her mother merely smiled and poked her in the forehead; a loving gesture that put her mind at ease and brought a soft smile onto her lips. Something about it seems familiar, strangely enough. Kind of like my bandana having meaning to me. The girl stopped her thoughts with a mental shake of her head. Not a big deal since it's not a bad familiarity.
"You can. You just have to listen and trust your feelings more than you do and you'll realize it." The duo moved to the kitchen to get the traveling rations that they had yet to pack. "Keep your senses open to the world around you. You will do great on this mission; you just need to stay focused."
The wild blue-haired ninja nodded as she closed her pack and put it on. "I will. I know if anything bad happens we have Kakashi-sensei to fall back on if we can't handle it, but I won't let my guard down one bit." They walked to the door and Amari gave her mother a big hug. "I'm going to miss you," she whispered.
She hadn't been out of the Leaf Village since she was brought back to it. Kurenai in the past had had to leave on missions, but this was different. This time she was the one leaving and she'd have to worry more about her own safety than over her mother's.
Kurenai hugged her back and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I will miss you more. Stay safe for me, Amari."
"I will. I love you."
"And I love you, little one."
She let go of her mother then gave her a big closed eye smile before leaving to meet with her team at the front gates. Instead of Body Flickering there the young ninja chose to conserve her chakra and walk it normally. If anything does go bad I need to be at full strength.
Kakashi was waiting for the team with Tazuna at the gate. By the looks of it he appeared to be bored out of his mind, though it was hard to say if that was his normal look since recent D-rank missions made it a prominent look as of late.
"Amari, punctually as always," he greeted.
She nodded with a smile in greeting and took her place by his side while they waited for the others to show up. "Kid, what's with the bandana over your eye?" Tazuna asked rather rudely.
Under her bandana she felt her eye twitch slightly at his attitude, but she remained docile in her other eye. Maybe I should cast him in a genjutsu to train as we go.
"It's a fashion statement," the young ninja retorted slyly. "Right, Sensei."
"Heh, yeah," he chuckled and ruffled her hair.
"Hmph. Got a mouth on you, I see."
"Actually she's the shyest of our squad, surprisingly enough," Kakashi responded.
The bridge builder raised an eyebrow in question, so Amari decided to give an explanation in short. "A boy rendered me blind when I was ten."
"Rendered you blind?" Tazuna asked like she had tried to explain the complexities of combining multiple chakra natures.
"He cut my eye with a kunai knife and killed my best friend," Amari explained, her voice short and to the point. "I can fight perfectly fine with one eye before you question that too."
"You're talking to the number one kunoichi and rookie of the year, Tazuna," Kakashi informed, a tease in his voice. "Trust me when I say you aren't going to be able to question her skills and get away verbally unscathed."
Amari faltered in her seriousness and felt her embarrassment begin to rise at the reminder of how she had whipped her team into shape during one of their missions. It wasn't entirely her fault. They sort of asked for it when the questioned how she advanced so quickly in two years.
"I trained really hard?" she offered in her confusion.
"Ah, come on, Amari! Don't be like that! Seriously, do you have any tricks?" Naruto had asked for the others.
"You think I've used tricks to get stronger?" To say she had been offended would be understatement.
"Well, your mother is one of the elite shinobi of our village. Obviously there's some kind of special trick she uses with you for you to be the number one kunoichi," Sakura decided to point out.
That was the last straw.
"First off: yes, my mother is an elite and without her I wouldn't be who I am today. I will never deny that. But don't any of you dare insinuate that I've used some sort of trick to become as strong as I have. I have worked day in and day out to change who I am. I have trained to the point I couldn't walk on my own all to catch up and see some sort of value in my abilities and myself.
"I won't deny I've had help along the way. People close to me have given me guidance, have helped me understand the complexities of jutsu I never would have understood without their help. And those same people helped to pick me up off the ground when all I wanted to do was cry and give up because I was hurting inside. And because of them I kept fighting to become stronger, no matter how much it hurt. So don't you dare insinuate I haven't worked hard enough to earn my strength!"
She hadn't realized how angry she was at their thinly veiled insinuations until Kakashi rested a calming hand on her shoulder.
Presently she was losing the battle against her blush. We swore to never talk about that again after I realized I had given a lecture! "Sensei!" she whined. "We said we were never going to talk about that again."
"And just like that the shy side reveals itself."
Amari groaned in embarrassment and turned her head to conceal the warm blush from the sight of her sensei and client. She wouldn't give them the pleasure of seeing her flustered.
When the others finally arrived Kakashi had the team do an equipment check to make sure they were all ready for the trip while Naruto rattled on about traveling outside of the village for the first time.
A small part of her was actually really excited to be traveling beyond the borders of the village. Amari kept that excitement in check, however, refusing to let her guard down for even a moment. Beyond the safety of their walls was an entire world that was ripe with danger waiting to spring out of the shadows.
I have to keep my senses open until we know for certain if I'm just being paranoid or if the bridge builder is lying about the rank of this mission.
She kept to herself as she waited for Kakashi to give the order to leave, half listening to an argument between Naruto and Tazuna about…something. She wasn't really paying attention.
Then she felt as if a ghost brushed up against her body, sending shivers down her spine and causing her body to tense as her senses picked up a surge of strong chakra somewhere nearby. Just like a bolt of lightning it was gone in a sudden flash leaving in its place feeling of dread building in her gut.
I…I've got a bad feeling about this.
She looked to their Sensei to see if he had sensed it too or if she was just imagining these things. He seemed as aloof as always, which didn't necessarily answer her silent questions but eased her just enough to think it was just another Leaf shinobi or her imagination. The latter was, of course, highly unlikely since she sensed the chakra, but she was trying to be optimistic.
I should keep to myself about it so I don't worry the others needlessly. Just have to keep my senses open on this journey and I'll be able to sense an attack before one happens, if one happens.
Hour upon hour passed as they made their trek to the Land of Waves in mostly relative silence. The silence was broken sometimes by idle chatter between the team or a question to Kakashi or Tazuna about one thing or another. At the moment they were at one of those breaks as their Sensei was answering Sakura's question about ninjas in the Land of Waves.
"The Land of Waves holds no shinobi, but as you all learned in the Academy there are other shinobi villages out there. On our continent the existence of a shinobi village means a specific land holds military strength. In other words, shinobi are a means of protection that maintain the balance of power with neighboring countries. Shinobi villages like ours are not controlled by any government; they're independent and have equal status.
"Now a small island, like the Land of Waves, has natural protection from the sea so they don't necessarily need to build a shinobi village. The five ancient lands that possess shinobi villages are the Lands of Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth."
Amari nodded along to the lesson being given. "And each of them hold massive territories that form the Five Great Shinobi Nations," she continued off his statement. "The Land of Fire contains the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Land of Water contains the Village Hidden in the Mist, the Land of Lightning with the Village Hidden in the Clouds, the Land of Wind which contains the Village Hidden in the Sand and the Land of Earth with the Village Hidden in the Stones."
"Exactly Amari. Only these nations are…"
Another ghostly touch shot shivers down her spine. Amari ceased listening immediately and tried to find the source without the help of her Byakugan—an unsuccessful endeavor. But hope was not lost, her team halted momentarily for one reason or another she hadn't been paying attention to, in turn granting her the chance to activate her Byakugan and start searching covertly for the source. Once again it disappeared before she could even lock onto it, but there was one thing she knew with certainty now: We're being followed.
Not good.
Amari made the clone seal then created two Shadow Clones. I can track them with my Shadow Clones and find out who we're dealing with and their strength. Before she could send her clones off she noticed the entire group staring at her like she had grown two heads…I suppose I did, in a way.
"Sorry, just looking to get some training in as we walk," she lied.
Kakashi took note of the terrible lie and gave a slight nod of understanding. "Save your chakra, Amari. We'll get some training in later."
I can't protest him or the others will get suspicious about what I was doing. Sensei looks like he wants me to keep what I know quiet for now. With a reluctant nod she dispelled her clones and deactivated her Byakugan then motioned for them all to continue walking.
They continued to travel forward, though this time Amari was taking up the rear at a slow walk as she was lost in troubling thoughts regarding who was tracking them and how strong they could be.
Definitely not Genins. You don't send a Genin on a high stake mission unless you are misinformed or that Genin is very powerful. They've slipped up twice now so it's unlikely that they are Jōnin. A Jōnin wouldn't take chances, even against a team of Genin and one Jōnin in case there is a sensory type among the group. So if we're lucky we've got a Chūnin or two who are new to their rankings. If we're unlucky we've got high level Chūnin's who are arrogant in their strength.
While she was deep in thought Kakashi, ever the covert ninja, fell in line with her pace without anyone noticing. "What is it?" he questioned quietly.
"I felt a chakra presence back at the gate and again back there but I couldn't get a lock on them. My hunch is they are Chūnin leveled ninjas, whether they are new to the post or strong enough that they don't care if someone catches them I don't know. I do know whoever is out there is following us." She narrowed her eye at the back of Tazuna. "He's hiding something. I just know it."
"Hmm. Guess I was being too hopeful that I was just getting jumpy. Keep it to yourself for now. We need to figure out if whoever this is means us harm…" Kakashi lifted his chin towards the bridge builder. "Or him. Move up to the others and keep your eyes open. Protect your comrades and Tazuna if this ends in a fight."
"More like when it ends in a fight, Kakashi-sensei," she muttered before jogging to catch up to the others.
As she fell in step with her team Naruto looked at her with slight worry at her sudden presence after there being a lack of one. "You okay Amari?"
"Yeah. Just got caught up in my thoughts about different techniques I'm trying to learn." An easy and believable lie given her obsession with training constantly.
"Anything super cool?" he asked, getting excited at her lie.
The Shadow user smiled softly at his own desire to grow even stronger by learning whatever she was trying to do. "Water Walking Technique for chakra control." Her answer earned a frown. Obviously he was expecting a giant fire jutsu or something of the sort instead of what he saw as a stupid chore. "Chakra control is important, Naruto."
Naruto offered a reluctant nod, though his eyes showed he was remembering her original lecture. "Hey Amari, how hard is the Water Walking Technique anyways?" Sakura asked.
"Well, there is a big difference between the Tree Climbing Technique and the Water Walking Technique at the very core of their techniques. When it comes to water walking you have to be constantly changing the amount of chakra you focus to your feet to keep from falling into the water.
"But with tree climbing you are using a fixed amount of chakra. You still have to work it until you get the perfect amount, though. Both techniques are difficult but learning them will help you control what chakra you have until you can build more. You should also not attempt water walking until you've gotten tree climbing down."
"Why not?" Naruto asked as they walked.
It was weird teaching her squad these things, even Sasuke was listening to her speak with interest. Strange as it was to no longer get the death glares from them, it was also nice to be able to share what little knowledge she picked up over the years from the people closest to her. To say that Sakura didn't want to pulverize her still or Sasuke didn't hold a slight envy for her skills was still an unknown to her.
"For starters it would be like trying to cast a jutsu you've never casted before in an element that you aren't accustomed to." Her example led to a lost look from their resident knucklehead. Amari sighed. "Naruto, if Iruka-sensei saw you make that face he would stop taking you to ramen and drag you back into class."
Naruto's eyes widened in dramatic horror at the mere thought of being dragged away from ramen back to class. Well at least I'm well read up on this now with my previous studies and the new ones sensei has given me, not to mention knowing how hard it is.
"Okay, as we spoke earlier there are Five Great Shinobi Nations each named after an element. Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water." The blond nodded with his two teammates. "These nations are named after the five basic Nature Transformations. Nature Transformation is a form of advanced chakra control where you are molding and defining your own chakra into a certain chakra nature to use techniques like Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu."
All nodded once again following along as she spoke, even Tazuna and Kakashi seemed to be listening to the young ninja, though Amari was unaware of them. If she had been she would have shied away from speaking.
Blissful ignorance was best when it came to knowing you were speaking for an audience.
"I remember this," Sakura said, her emerald eyes lighting up as her brain flashed on. "Naturally each element has another element it is weak against and one it is strong against. Like Fire and Water or Earth and Lightning."
Amari gave her a praising and agreeing nod. Looks like we both dove into some extracurricular studies. "Right. Now the five elements are our basic elements that you will see in the ninja world, but each ninja has a different affinity. Sasuke has an affinity to Fire and so do I. Because of that Fire Style jutsu's are easier for us to create and control the nature of, though calling learning a jutsu easy is an overstatement."
Sasuke grunted in agreement.
"So we all have one affinity?" Naruto asked.
"With the exclusion of kekkei genkai users, I'm actually not sure. What I do know is we are not limited to one. Jōnin, like Kakashi-sensei, master more than one nature, but this takes a lot of training and time to do by normal means. Mostly Jōnin just learn two. Some have learned more and even fewer have learned all five."
Few enough that the only ones she knew for certain were the First, Second and Third Hokage.
"So using an elemental chakra you don't have an affinity for, like if you tried a Water jutsu, would be very difficult or impossible at first," Sakura said.
Amari dipped her head in a nod and it seemed even Naruto was following along with it as they crossed a bridge over water.
"So there are just five elemental natures?" Naruto asked.
"Well those are the basics, but there are more. You also have to include Combined Nature Transformations like Wood Style, which was the kekkei genkai—or bloodline trait—of the First Hokage, which combined Earth and Water natures."
"But aren't Combined Natures rarely seen outside of kekkei genkais?" Sakura asked.
She nodded again. "Yes, that is true. But that's not it for Nature Transformations. There is a second set of natures called Yin and Yang. Most genjutsu and techniques like my Shadow Possession rely on Yin Release, which is the basis of imagination and spiritual energy while Yang Release is the basis of vitality and physical energy."
"How do you know all this?" Naruto asked, surprise in his voice.
Amari giggled. "Some of us paid attention in class and studied as much as we could when we weren't training." The boy frowned, earning a smile out of her. "Honestly I've barely scratched the surface. Everything I've said is really a simplification of very complex subjects. You'd really need someone like Sensei to get a real in depth understanding. As I was saying before, attempting water walking before tree climbing isn't something I'd advise. Water walking is difficult even after you've learned tree climbing so trying to learn it before would be like me trying a Water Style jutsu."
All three nodded and let it be. Curious as to why Sakura was asking, Amari decided to ask, only for her mouth to snap shut when her foot landed in a puddle. Chills shot up her spine and nearly paralyzed her place in sheer fear. By willpower alone she kept moving, glancing back to Kakashi to try to warn him. That wasn't normal water. The Jōnin caught her eye and she gave a barely noticeable lower of her head in the direction of the puddle with a look of worry on her face.
He just nodded and continued marching forward.
That chakra…they want to kill us no matter what. The chakra she felt was coming from the puddle and whoever it was definitely was between Chūnin and Jōnin level…and vile. Extremely vile. Why couldn't they just be easy low rent Chūnin leveled guys? She took a deep breath to calm her rising nerves and try to get rid of the cold chill running up her spine. Stay focused, you know they are about to spring their trap so counteract it.
Amari activated her Byakugan to keep the new ninjas in sight only to find the two of them already in the midst of going after her sensei.
"What the?!" Kakashi's surprised voice snapped the others to attention.
Spiked chains unraveling from the mechanisms on the arms of their enemies destroyed the quiet walk they were having in an instant. The chains wrapped around Kakashi, making him gasp in a mix of shock and pain. Their mechanisms also had sharp knife like blades for claws. One of their enemies wore a large black cloak that covered his torso and the other a grey tank top with a camo pattered shirt under it. Both had spiky long black hair of varying lengths.
Her fellow teammates gasped in shock with only Amari and Sasuke reaching for their ninja tools when they turned around.
"Do it!" one of the ninjas shouted. Suddenly the chains tightened and ripped apart Kakashi like he was paper, causing horror to cross Sakura's and Naruto's face.
Nice play, Sensei. Amari smiled mentally as she noticed her sensei take cover in the trees.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted in horror.
Naruto had taken his eyes off the ninja, giving them ample opportunity to jolt forward when he was blind to their movements.
No! "Sasuke, the chains!"
The Uchiha boy grunted in agreement. He jumped into the air with a shuriken in one hand and a kunai in the other while Amari crouched down to one knee and brought her hands into Rat.
Hopefully Sasuke's attack would stall the ninjas long enough for her to catch them in time.
Sasuke's shuriken nailed the chains and pinned them to a nearby tree. His kunai cut through the air and landed perfectly in the little hole in the center the shuriken, making it so the chain had no way of getting free. He landed on their mechanism covered arms just as her shadow captured the pair, paralyzing them and preventing them from retaliating against her teammate.
"Huh?!"
"Sasuke, now!" Amari shouted. The shadows weren't to her advantage here. The moment these two realized they could force their way out of this jutsu she'd be screwed.
Sasuke gripped the arms and mule kicked both ninjas in the face. Only through perfect timing of releasing her jutsu did she not have to feel the kicks they received through her jutsu. Amari wasted no time, however, in gloating over her amazing skill at not being hit by friendly fire.
She jolted forward as they stumbled backwards, the action breaking the chains off of their mechanisms. The one with the cloak was the first to recover, dashing away and leaving his camo shirt partner to receive her next attack alone.
"Dynamic Entry!" Her flying kick nailed his face hard, the force of the blow knocking him to the ground. At the same time she could see his partner targeting the bridge builder.
"Guard Naruto!" Sasuke ordered before running to protect Sakura and the bridge builder.
Good luck, Sasuke. She gripped her two kunais tightly in her hands as she watched her opponent get back onto his feet quickly. Behind her was Naruto, frozen in fear with shaking hands.
"Come on Naruto! Snap out of it!" she scolded. There wasn't time to be gentle like she wanted to be, not when these ninjas would kill them regardless. "This is no different than Mizuki! I need your help!"
He didn't come to his senses in the slightest. He was stricken by the horror of thinking their sensei was ripped to shreds. There wasn't time to tell him differently and then there was the fact she didn't want these ninja to know that.
Damn it.
The camo shirt wearing ninja charged at her with a growl. Amari prepared to send her shadow at the man in an effort to keep him at bay a little longer so she didn't have to cross blades with that giant claw, but then Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of him, lodging his fist into their enemies gut before locking him in a tight headlock.
He disappeared without a word so Amari deactivated her Byakugan and looked back to see Kakashi stop the other with a clothesline that halted him dead in his tracks before he even reached Sakura or Tazuna, both of whom had Sasuke standing defiantly in front of them.
Their sensei stood in the aftermath of the fight with his eye lazily half open and no tension in his body whatsoever, save for his the arms keeping the pair firmly in place.
"Hi."
Glee gleamed in Sakura's eyes at seeing their sensei alive and well while Sasuke on the other hand looked at him with surprised annoyance. Amari couldn't help but snort at Kakashi's entrance. "Show off."
"Who? Me?" Kakashi wisecracked. She just let out a light laugh, choosing to shake her head instead of offer another retort. "You have great instincts, Amari. Ordering Sasuke to trap the chains to give you time to capture them both in your Shadow Possession Jutsu took these two by complete surprise. Your execution of the Dynamic Entry was also on point."
"Thank you, Sensei," she thanked.
Kakashi turned his head to look at Naruto. "Naruto, I'm sorry I didn't help you immediately. I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I just didn't think you would freeze up like that." The Jōnin turned away and walked towards Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna. "Good work Sasuke, very smooth. You too, Sakura."
For the most part everything turned out pretty well, Amari just felt bad about Naruto freezing up like he did. She couldn't understand why he did. When Mizuki had tried to hurt Iruka he fought without fear, yet when these guys looked like they murdered their sensei right in front of them he froze up.
Hmm. I knew Kakashi was okay, but had I not known he was or that we were about to be attacked would I have frozen up? After a moment of thought, she shook her head. No. I didn't even hesitate for a second against Mizuki. Protecting my comrades and Tazuna would have made my instincts take over regardless…It's just something he'll have to work on.
A far more important point to be focusing on was how their enemies reacted in the previous fight. Rather than focusing on the four Genin, their focus was dead set on the bridge builder once Kakashi was out of the picture, providing all the evidence Amari needed to confirm her theory that Tazuna was hiding something from them. Although she would've taken pleasure in being the one to fire off questions at him, she knew that it wasn't her place to be the one to do that. She would likely shy away from it anyways.
"Hey," Sasuke spoke up to Naruto.
"Yeah?"
"You're not hurt are you?" A vindictive smirk pulled onto his lips. "Scaredy cat."
Had he not been her teammate she would have decimated him right where he stood for being such an arrogant jerk. Unfortunately for her he was her teammate, nixing any plan of pummeling him so far into the ground that they'd come out the other side of the planet. Instead she huffed in annoyance, choosing to walk away from the boys back to Kakashi and Sakura. Boys are so strange with their egos and rivalries.
There was a growl of anger from Naruto followed by a shout. "Sasuke!"
"Naruto!" Kakashi cut off the boy with his stern tone. "Stand still. These ninja have poison in their claws. We need to get the poison out of you quickly."
Amari came to an abrupt halt as fear for her friends life took over her. Poison?! Of course tactically it made sense, but Naruto was poisoned?! When did it happen? How had she not seen it? Better question, did they have the materials necessary to heal him?
Naruto let out a wordless cry laced with fear as his anger at Sasuke vanished in fear for his life. "You have to open the wound and remove it. Because the poison is in your blood you need to limit how much you move otherwise you'll end up spreading the poison faster through your body."
"Why didn't I study Medical Ninjutsu?" Amari groaned at herself for having no motivation whatsoever to even dive into the healing arts. Why was it always the things she didn't take the time to learn that always ended up being the most helpful? Maybe she was just overthinking it, but could anyone really blame her? One of her teammates was poisoned and based on Kakashi's orders none of them had antidotes to help.
She quickly unslung her pack and opened it up in search of any basic first aid equipment she might have packed. Ration bars, hair brush, ninja gear…books on genjutsu, body flicker and other ninjutsu's…Why did I pack my first aid at the bottom?!
"By the way, Mr. Tazuna…"
The bridge builder turned to Kakashi with worry set in his features. "Yeah? What?"
Kakashi merely peered over his left shoulder with his covered eye. "We need to talk."
Amari hid her smirk at hearing her sensei calling their client out. At least we aren't letting this go without actually getting real answers from him.
Being more or less tricked by this man to be sent on a mission against stronger ninjas took away a lot of the remorse she would have felt otherwise for Tazuna.
Kakashi brought the two ninjas over to the tree and tied their unconscious bodies to it while the group formed a half circle with Naruto on the outer right side followed by Tazuna, Kakashi, Amari, Sakura and finally Sasuke on the outer left side.
They didn't remain unconscious much longer, and even though they were defeated they still looked like they wanted to rip the group to shreds.
I forgot what that look felt like…Amari grabbed her left mesh covered arm as old feelings began to well up inside her heart. To be looked at with pure unadulterated hatred and disgust. Like you are so worthless and unworthy of life or being killed by them.
She fought back the shudder that she felt coming to remain strong on the outside. Old feelings or not, these guys wouldn't get under her skin if she kept a focused mind.
"These two are Chūnin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Their specialty is relentless attack; they keep fighting no matter the sacrifice to their comrades or the amount of blood they have to spill to achieve their goals," Kakashi explained.
"How did you know about our ambush?" one of the ninjas prodded angrily.
"Simple, your arrogance made you careless, and because of that arrogance our sensory ninja caught your chakra signature. Even against Genin a good shinobi takes precautions against revealing their presence before an ambush, a lesson you two clearly never learned," Kakashi chastised them.
At hearing the mention of their sensory ninja, everyone—save Amari and Kakashi—began looking around in an effort to figure out who he meant. Nervously, Amari gripped her mesh covered left arm tighter and kept her eye drawn away to the side so she didn't have to see them all staring at her when they finally realized who he meant. Not a second after her hand tightened did she feel the entire group turn their gazes to her, her team in confusion and their enemies in rage.
"She had you pinged the moment we exited the village."
"Amari is a sensor?" Sakura asked.
"Wait a minute, Amari knew we were being followed?" Sasuke asked with disbelief in his tone. He didn't doubt her ability to sense them; he was far more irritated she hadn't mentioned the attack coming.
Before she could defend herself Kakashi jumped to her aid. "She wasn't sure exactly who was, but yes she knew something was out of the ordinary, Sasuke. To answer your question, Sakura, Amari does have sensory abilities but we'll talk about that at a later time."
Both nodded but she could feel their suspicion growing. Truth was she knew them better than they knew her. Granted she didn't know everything about them or their darkest secrets, but she knew their abilities, fighting styles, how to rile them up in a fight and their weaknesses.
Being able to use her mind to beat them and not showing all of her techniques or telling them why she could find them or sense their presence with ease had left Sasuke and Sakura confused and somewhat suspicious. Naruto thought she was really cool and strong, not unbeatable though, after all he was going to become the greatest Hokage ever so one day he was going to become stronger than she was.
Amari looked forward to that day.
"When she created her two clones originally she had sensed them once again but I decided it was best to wait them out and sent her to the front with the rest of you. That way in case I was overwhelmed someone was already preparing a defense."
The others nodded again. It was a sound tactic and for the most part it had worked with the exception of Naruto freezing up. Kakashi returned his attention to the two ninjas. "The most obvious hint was your terrible disguise. A puddle on a clear day when it hasn't rained in weeks? If I may ask my student a question, Amari how did you know the puddle wasn't a normal puddle."
Eyes were all on her again and the shy ninja attempted to shrink away mentally. "I-…The puddle felt wrong. Not just because of what you said, but when I stepped in it I felt their chakra. The feeling sent chills across my body and it nearly paralyzed me."
"Why?" Naruto asked.
"I hadn't felt something so…evil in years," she answered while fighting off a shudder at the reminder of their chakra.
Not since Kasai. Kasai then hadn't had nearly the same amount of killing intent these guys had, but his betrayal and the spiteful look of pure hatred still was scarred into her memory. Even Mizuki hadn't felt so evil despite trying to hurt and kill her friend and sensei.
"I see. You did good, Amari."
She nodded then lowered her head in an attempt to get the attention off of her. "Wait, if you both knew there was going to be an attack, why'd you leave it for the Genin to do the fighting?" Tazuna questioned.
"I could have taken them out quickly." Show off. "But then I'd have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was…and what they were after."
Time to figure out what we are really in for.
"Hmm? What are you getting at?" Tazuna sounded taken aback at the veiled accusation.
"This: I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or if they were after you, the master bridge builder. When you put in your request you asked for standard protection from robbers and highwaymen. You didn't say there were shinobi hunting you down with the intent to kill you and anyone else around you."
The others seemed a bit confused at the sudden line of conversation, yet there was an air of understanding of the new situation that Kakashi was getting at. Amari watched and listened intently, gauging the bridge builder's body language and eyes for anything else he might be hiding.
"If we knew this, it would be a B-rank mission or higher." Tazuna lowered his head, his features falling into sadness at being caught in his lie. "Our mission was meant to be simple: get you to your destination and protect you while you finished building your bridge. Highwaymen and robbers would've been no issue for my students."
Kakashi's eye became intensified. "But had we known we would be fielding attacks from enemy shinobi this team of young Genin would not have been selected and the cost for would've been raised to that of a B-rank mission. Apparently you have your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of our original mission."
Getting this into the open was good. It would help everyone understand the reality of their situation and force the bridge builder to be honest with them from here on out…Still, Amari wanted to help him. Even though he lied about what they'd be dealing with, and in doing so knowingly put them all in an incredibly dangerous situation, she knew in her heart that his cause was noble. She could feel it.
The problem is this mission is above our rank and by all protocols we need to head back to the village…But I've done a terrible job at following protocol before. Don't know if this one would be a good idea to go against though.
She cast her glance to her fellow Uchiha. Me and Sasuke are highly skilled for Genin. We both can hold our own in taijutsu and ninjutsu…but against someone as strong as Kakashi we wouldn't stand a chance alone. Her eye flicked over to her best friend. Naruto is strong as well in his own right and his usually unwavering will is enough to keep him in a fight normally…but if he freezes up like he did earlier we'll have an issue. A fatal issue.
Her eye moved to her fellow kunoichi. Sakura probably wouldn't be able to fight too long on her own against these higher ranked ninjas, but her intelligence would keep her out of trouble, I think. She knows how to fight; it's just getting her to the point that she will that is tough. I should really ask her if she wants to train in taijutsu with me to help her become stronger physically.
A problem for another day.
"We're Genin, this is too advanced for our level of training. We should go back." Sakura was right in a logically sound world and with Naruto having poison in his hand, as Sakura was pointing out verbally, that complicated matters. The logical part of Amari's mind was hitting the same points as her teammate…Yet her heart was telling her that leaving the bridge builder was not only condemning an entire land to whatever life they had that he was trying to change, but also condemning him to death by these ninjas.
Her heart was winning out in her own internal war.
"Hmm. Amari, I saw you analyzing your teammates. What do you think?" their sensei asked.
"I don't know, Sensei. Sakura is right about this mission being higher leveled for our training and about needing to heal Naruto's hand but…I guess I just want to help the bridge builder and complete the mission." Her answer earned her raised eyebrows from Tazuna. "He may have put us in danger, but I don't have a doubt in my heart or mind that his cause for his home is noble."
"How do you know?" Sakura asked.
How to explain the complexities of reading eyes and body language and the gut and heart based feelings she had? "…It was in his eyes when he told us about building the bridge and it's even in his eyes now. I…I don't know how to explain it."
She clenched her arm a bit tighter as she struggled internally with explaining her assumption without real tangible facts. "I don't have evidence you guys can see and know. Everything I've based this off of is what I can read in his eyes and the feelings in my heart and gut. It's only ever led me astray once…and I paid the price for that, but that was when I was still an orphan…" she trailed off slightly at her own reminder of Kasai but then mentally pushed it all away to refocus. "I've learned more about people and how to read intentions better because of all of my training with Kakashi-sensei and Mom.
"Anyway, the only problem I see is us running into a ninja stronger than these guys. While we all have our individual strengths and we can work together, that won't matter against someone like you, Sensei. We still have you and your skills to counteract that against at least one shinobi of your level, but if there are two or three at your level our ability to protect the bridge builder isn't high enough to repel those attacks."
She let out a sigh as logic won out that fight. Logic dictated that if they were sent against multiple strong ninjas they'd be lucky to survive the encounter. The question was should they leave him out of cowardice for their own lives or stay by his side and face certain death in the worst case and probable injuries or near death instances in the best case.
"As I said, I don't know. By protocol we should head back, but my heart and gut are telling me we should push forward and help this man complete his goal of changing their world, even if it seems bravely stupid or stupidly brave of us to do it."
Kakashi remained silent a moment after her dissection of their chances. "All good points. I don't doubt you've read Tazuna better than you realize, yet Naruto's hand could become a problem." The Jōnin exhaled a sigh that sounded fake. Is he egging him on? Does Kakashi-sensei really want to work or something? "I guess we should go back to the village."
Much to everyone's shock, and Amari's horror, Naruto grabbed a kunai knife and imbedded it into the wound, splattering blood everywhere. "Naruto! What the hell are you doing?!" Amari yelped, rushing to his side with her medical tape in hand.
He turned away from her and kept the blade in his hand. "Why am I so different? Why am I always- arghh!"
But…
"I worked so hard to get here, pushing myself until it hurt! I trained alone for hours, doing anything and everything I could to get stronger so I could reach my dream."
Amari lowered her head as understanding of where he was coming from came over her. I see. You and I aren't so different, Naruto, but while you saw me doing something you think you're incapable of…I saw you doing what I have fought to change in myself.
She closed her eye while her thoughts trailed back to her early days of training and even present day training. I've replayed the memory of myself watching with fear as my friends fought and tried to kill each other over and over again, reminding myself that I failed them because I was too weak and scared. I could've stopped it. I could've saved Ryu at the least, maybe even the Kasai I cared for if we could get through to him…but I was too emotional, too weak to do anything to help.
Since then I have tried so hard to train my body and mind to never freeze up so I never have to witness it again. It took me a long time, to be honest, to stop freezing up. To stop closing my eyes in the middle of a fight because I was afraid or hurt…I got hurt a lot. But Mom never let me quit, even when I tried to. Even when I was balling my eyes out because of how much a failure I saw myself as, she never let me give up. It's because of her guidance I was able to find my strength to be who I am today.
"I will never back down again and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke. Upon this wound I make this pledge."
A smile made its way to Amari's face at hearing him find his own strength and resolve without the guidance she needed. But that's why you're special, Naruto. You have that spark and strong will I lacked…a will your friendship helped me to strengthen within myself. "And I'll make sure you keep it, you knucklehead."
He gave a faint smile at her comment. "Bridge builder, I'll complete this mission and protect you with this kunai knife." The boy turned around with a struggled smile. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Naruto, uh, that was really cool how you took the poison out an all. Eh- but if you lose any more blood, you are going to die." Silence filled the air at the information Kakashi revealed, leaving their sensei to slide in behind the scared boy who was beginning to sweat a waterfall of water. "Good idea to stop the bleeding now. Seriously."
Amari just shook her head and tossed him the medical tape with a smile. Well this will definitely be interesting. Only going to get harder from here on out.
No wonder they tell you to be careful what you wish for.