Forbidden Skills
Alexnandru Van Gordon
Alex: This is getting a little freaky…you aren't going to hurt anyone…are you?
Namu:…
Alex: I mean, why would you hurt anyone to begin with?
Namu:….O.o?...Are you seriously asking me that? Do I look like a good guy to you?
Disclaimer: Same as chapter one.
CHAPTER THREE: The sole target…
"Okay…a four lettered word that can describe a…bird."
"Hm…tiny?"
"Huge?"
"Blue."
"White!"
"Naruto, that's five letters! Learn how to count!"
Grumble… "Fine…Nice."
"Ugly."
"Dead."
"…"
"…"
"If birds can live, then they can die."
"…Fair enough…."
"Pest."
"Cute."
"Thin."
"Annoying."
"That's eight letters."
"I was referring to this game."
There was no use pretending he was asleep anymore. They weren't going to leave unless A) He physically threw them out; B) There was something terribly interesting for them to do elsewhere; or C) There was a sudden attack on the village and they went off to act like heroes—all of which weren't likely to happen any time soon. First of all, he could barely stand (there was no use trying to physically throw them out). Secondly, they'd been going in and out of his room in the last two days as though it was a public forum and that obviously meant they were bored out of their wits. Lastly, they were brave and they were talented—but they weren't heroes yet. Someone would probably lock them in the room with him if a crisis broke out in the village, and he would rather die then have to put up with that…
Opening his uncovered eye, Kakashi turned his head to stare at his group. The three if them were sitting across the room, propped up lazily against the far wall as they tried to invent games to keep themselves interested—either that, or they were trying to irritate the hell out of him. In that, they were successful.
"Shouldn't you be outside?" He hinted, stifling a yawn to hide any form of weakness. Rule number…'something-close-to-one'—never let your enemy know you're hurt or weak, and, right now, he was in the lion's den… "You know? Enjoying the weather…"
Sakura smiled. "Gai-Sensei said you might enjoy the company."
That conniving little…
Well, at least now he knew his team's being there was a masterfully laid-out plan devised by none other than Gai to get another step up on Kakashi. Let him laugh all he wanted. The moment Kakashi could get his hands on those release-papers, he'd gather up his dogs and…
"Something on your mind, Sensei?" Sakura asked meekly. Oh—she would know when someone was having an internal battle. She liked to do that a lot in the middle of a dilemma…
Smiling behind his mask, he tried to push aside the thought of Gai getting the best of him. "No—not at all, Sakura. How's your day been?"
She looked mildly frightened at the sudden change of topic (or it could have been due to the mischievous gleam in his eye) and Naruto fidgeted nervously where he sat. Sasuke, as usual, remained impassive.
"It was…interesting." She started. "We trained most of the time, but then we went to talk to Gai and Iruka Sensei. Gai Sensei mentioned you were probably bored out of your wits in here all by yourself. I also heard you were ordered not to leave unless the Hokage allowed you to sign the release forms. I never knew they could do that…"
Neither did he…until he was threatened to have both him and his team suspended from taking up any missions for the next five weeks, which, by the way, he didn't know they could do either… At first, he really only expected them to threaten him solely—which wouldn't have been a problem, but bringing his team into the mix only added the guilt factor to his conscious. But, as he was promised, if he stuck around in the hospital until they found out what was wrong with his legs and how to fix them, then his team wouldn't ever find out about the threat. Life would go on…
"Wow…" He laughed, forcing himself to sound surprised. "Who told you that?"
"Gai-Sensei." Naruto blurted out. "He also said—"
"How's Lee?"
The mute answer from his team meant the message was heard loud and clear. Sasuke allowed a minor smirk to slip past his usual stoic expression and Sakura blushed in utter torment.
-NarutoNarutoNaruto-
"Well, he's in a pleasant mood…" Naruto muttered, making sure to whisper as he reached to close the door.
"I can still hear you." Kakashi called from inside. Naruto twitched nervously but managed to close the hospital door without making another witty remark. Then he stalked over quietly to Sasuke and Sakura and followed them toward the stairs.
"I don't blame Kakashi-Sensei." Sakura noted with an 'I-know-everything' tone of voice. "No one knows what's wrong with his legs, and I don't think he likes missing out on all the action."
"Sure…" Sasuke grumbled. "That's why he reads those books."
"Yeah, but he's read them maybe seventy times over each."
"That could be due to the content."
…Sakura had nothing to say to that.
Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, but Sensei even admitted that his legs didn't look anything out of the ordinary. Just a few bruises here, a small sprain there…"
Sakura waved the idea off with her hand, reaching for the stairwell door and throwing it open. "Oh well, he'll be up and running soon. In the meantime, we should be—"
"Hi!"
She nearly knocked Naruto over when she stumbled back into the hall. Not many people stalked the stairwell, preferring to the elevator on most days, and the somewhat short boy before went completely noticed until he spoke up.
Standing before her, not much taller than shoulder-height, was a little boy who was maybe eight or nine years of age. Wearing a toque, a baggy sweater and a plain summer shorts, the boy looked like one of the students from the academy. Hands shoved into his pockets, eyes glittering happily, he looked like a perfectly innocent child…
"Sorry." She laughed weakly, stepping aside with her companions to let him through. "I hope I didn't scare you nearly as much as you scared me."
"Not at all!" He chirped happily, stepping inside but deciding to stay. "Wanna play with me?"
"Uh…"
"We have to go." Naruto grumbled, trying to shoo him away. "Maybe some other time."
The watery-eyed look the boy gave them put Sakura on the brink of tears. "But….I-I just wanted to play tag. I mean—you all look so big. You can catch me, can't you? No problem—right?"
Naruto felt like saying something else, but found himself rubbing the back of his neck in irritation. Now he knew how Kakashi-Sensei felt when they played the word game…
"We should really get going." Naruto finally replied. "Drop by the academy and maybe we'll play after we train."
"No then?" The boy asked quietly, stepping back into the stairwell. Stopping at the last step, he turned sideways and took his hands from his pockets. "Then I guess you won't be needing this then, eh?"
And—lo and behold—he was holing Naruto's headband.
"HOW THE HELL!"
The kid didn't give them much time to react, sprinting down the stairs at break-neck speed with Naruto hot on his tail. Laughing to herself, Sakura hopped down the stairs in slow pursuit.
'…No kidding.' Sasuke thought. 'How did that kid do that without any of us seeing?' It wasn't as if they'd grown rusty after all this time without missions. They still trained and they had a fair amount of experience beneath their belts. How then, exactly, did some little kid snatch Naruto's headband without taking his hands out of his pockets…
More importantly, if he wanted to play tag, why was he hanging around at the hospital?
Knowing well enough that Naruto deserved losing his headband permanently, Sasuke turned around and started back toward Kakashi's room. Waiting…just to see…
Not actually entering the room, he waited outside in the hall and leaned against the wall near his door.
-NarutoNarutoNaruto-
Jin hated trees. Yeah, they provided shade. Yes, you could grow things on them. And hey—it was easy to hide up in one, but forests brought back bad memories and the sooner they left the better. So, just on the brink of twiddling his thumbs, he waited as Taiku raced from the hospital and into the forest at rapid speed. Behind the youth were two of the other people he smelt earlier at the hole…
Where was the third?
Waiting for them to pass, he jumped down onto the path and took a good whiff of their scent…No, neither one had any part of it.
'Glad that's settled.' He thought to himself. Earlier on, he checked out the two men Namu saw at the hospital the other day, and that eliminated four out of the six suspects on their list. They already knew that the one residing in the hospital had part of it (if not all of it), and that left one other member…
"Namu. Kyoko." He called back up into the trees.
"Yeah?" They answered back in unison.
"They haven't got it."
"Is that all of them?" Kyoko yawned. She, like everyone else, was bored from sitting around the entire time. Action was something they were all eager to get a piece of soon.
"There's one more, but I think Namu's suspect is the only one who really stumbled across it. You know what that means?"
Namu couldn't suppress his grin. "Take and run?"
"—and eliminate." Kyoko added for good measure.
Jin nodded. "Certainly. We'll grab the guy and return to kill anyone who knows about the hole besides him. Now group…" He smiled mischievously. "…be gentle. We don't want to draw anyone else into this matter."
"No problem." Kyoko promised, fingers undoubtedly crossed behind her back. "In and out in a flash…"
-NarutoNarutoNaruto-
Seeing Naruto and Sakura race past him at high speed while chasing a little boy wasn't something he saw everyday. It was peculiar…but new things were bound to happen and if he didn't get Kakashi's odd talking dog, Pakkun, to see his master soon, he was sure the little mutt was going to bite his hand off.
"I can't believe this…He falls unconscious for a couple of days and forgets to tell anyone about his dogs…" The little runt muttered heavily, lying lazily in Iruka's arms as they headed toward the hospital.
"He didn't forget about you. He even reminded me to talk to you today."
"Yeah, well…" The dog tried his best to look upset. "You're not much help. The food you give us tastes like dirt."
"I gave you the food he told me to give you."
"Yeah right..."
Iruka grinned. "He said you were on a diet. Maybe that's why it tastes so bad."
The little dog made a snorting noise and stuck his nose up arrogantly, "If I wanted to lose weight, then I'd do it…I just have heavy bones."
"You fat little liar—"
Iruka shut-up mid-sentence when the dog chomped down on his left hand. Waving it frantically, he nearly collided with the hospital door. Pakkun released his grip when Iruka nearly rammed him into the wall, landing almost like a cat and strutting in ahead of Iruka as he stepped inside.
"What would Kakashi say if he ever found out you bite anyone who argues with you?"
"No idea. He hasn't ever caught me before."
Iruka smiled inwardly, gitty at the thought of ratting on the dog, but didn't quite feel like having the mutt on his bad side. For such a small creature, he sure could bite.
"He'll catch you sooner or later."
Pakkun made a small attempt at shrugging, padding off toward the elevator. Iruka had to run to catch up (originally wanting to take the stairs) and pushed any further 'fat' insults to the back of his mind.
"If the other dogs could talk, I'm sure he would." Pakkun admitted. "But they're such suck-ups. They'd do anything to get his attention."
"Well…dogs like attention, don't they? You sure as heck do."
Pakkun snorted again. "Ha ha—very funny. If he isn't off training or dealing with a mission, he's taking care of them. Honestly, I can't even remember the last time we sat down to play chess."
The sudden image of Kakashi playing chess with a small—and 'pudgy'—dog made him chuckle (near to the brink of laughing his head off). Luckily, Pakkun didn't take notice.
"Well…today's your day. His kids are obviously off running around"–images of Naruto and Sakura on the run came back to mind again—"And I have to get back to work in half an hour. I don't believe he has any other visitors to see today."
"With my luck, he'll probably be sleeping."
Iruka paused. "How often does he sleep?"
"Usually when no one's looking. He is human, you know."
The elevator, now slowing in motion, came to halt on the third floor. Waiting for the old doors to open, Iruka and Pakkun filed out into the hall.
"That was slow…" Iruka muttered. "The stairs would have been much faster."
Pakkun glared up at him and he decided to say nothing more.
That's when he noticed Sasuke, Staring down the hall at teacher and dog, Sasuke didn't say much, but the look in his eyes did most of the talking for him. Most certainly, something was way off in the universe.
"What's wrong with this kid?" Pakkun thought aloud. "Looks like he ate some bad Ramen…"
"Shut up." Iruka hissed. "Something's wrong."
"Like what?"
Iruka didn't have the chance to answer. There was a loud crash from inside Kakashi's room and Sasuke was partway through opening the door when Iruka sprinted down the long hall toward him.
Something was wrong alright…
-A and N-
Alex: Wow, that was longer than usual.
Namu:….Only a little.
Alex: Thanks for the reviews everyone!
Namu: I demanded more reviews!
Alex: Don't review if you don't want to—but thanks for your opinions anyway! ;)
Until Again,
Alexnandru Van Gordon
And,
Namu