Tale of the Setting Sun

Chapter 7: "Companions"

Kakashi had just been nodding off to sleep when his mental warning bells suddenly went off. Immediately alert again, he hadn't had to look long to find the man behind the disturbance. He didn't know who this man was, but the jōnin knew that people like him, with such little regard for others' lives, were one of the most dangerous opponents to have around. And the least forgivable.

"Don't just stare at me," said the strange shinobi, swinging his katana carelessly. "Show me what you've got!"

Kakashi obliged. Sending chakra into his feet, he propelled himself like a bullet towards the man. His opponent's violet eyes widened in surprise as his foot connected squarely with his chest. Letting out a grunt of pain, the man flew backwards and careened through a row of gangly trees.

The jōnin raised his hitai-ate, revealing the three tomoe of the sharingan in his left eye, and lowered his hand: "Raikiri (Lightning Cutter)!"

As he channeled his lightning chakra towards his hand, the deafening sound of crackling chakra filled the garden, and a focused ball of swirling blue materialized. The silver-haired shinobi was still dazed from impact, and Kakashi saw with his sharingan that he would not have enough time to move out of the way. The instant his Raikiri was ready, the jōnin lowered his head and shot towards the stirring man, tearing up the earth behind him with the sheer aftershock.

However, just before he reached the man, there was a flicker of movement he hadn't anticipated. Kakashi, to his shock, sensed a much smaller and weaker chakra suddenly being thrust between him and his opponent. His hand was already moving towards the man's heart however, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop even if he had to go through the child.

A surge of roiling yellow chakra – Naruto – was already moving towards them, and Kakashi, with all the strength of his will, managed to inch his crackling chakra slightly upwards. Naruto tore the boy out of the man's grasp, and to his relief, evaded his hand. However, the brief instant it had cost him gave the other man enough time to recover and leap backwards. Kakashi's hand instead slammed into the ground; the earth exploded, throwing up a huge wave of dirt. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the wave, the jōnin followed under its cover and aimed a quick kick at the man.

"Whew, that was close!" said the man, blocking with his katana, and then swinging it at Kakashi. Slipping under the blade, Kakashi attempted to sweep the man off balance, but he nimbly leaped over the jōnin and slashed downwards. Though evading the sharp edge, the side of the katana crashed into the white-haired ninja. He skidded backwards, the heels of his feet creating furrows in the earth. The man raised his katana once more and flipped into the air, prepared to finish off the jōnin. However, having read his movements ahead of time with the sharingan, Kakashi rapidly channeled his chakra into his hand once more. As the man dropped down on him, unable to dodge, the jōnin plunged the shrieking lightning towards the silver-haired man.

It could only be a testimony to the man's skill that he managed to get his katana up in midair, but it was no use. Kakashi's Raikiri pierced the blade, shattering it into dozens of deadly steel splinters that were sent flying through the air, and then kept going through the man's chest.

The man let out a pained, guttural scream. Thick globs of red blood came gushing out of his chest. Throwing himself back, he landed heavily on his feet, panting. As he stood there, hunched over, he dropped the handle of the broken katana on the ground with a clatter. Looking around wildly for a moment, the man disappeared, and flecks of blood flew through the air in his wake.

Kakashi blinked in surprise; he had missed his heart, but he had still severely injured him. The man shouldn't have been able to move, let alone move at such high speeds. Looking around for the man's violet chakra with his sharingan, he spotted it near the exit gate. With a sinking heart, he saw nearby another chakra that he knew well.

"Hell, this hurts..." The man spat out thick blood, and grinned weakly. He squeezed the throat of an unconscious black-haired boy – Rai – and then nudged something on the ground with his foot. "Nice weapon you got here. Real nice. Mind if I borrow it?" Without waiting for a response, he kicked a red-bladed scythe into the air and grabbed it with his free hand. With a hateful look towards the jōnin, the man threw the genin into the air, and then swung down with his new weapon. The curved blades made a sick whistling sound as they pierced the air.

Kakashi leaped into the air, and grabbed the limp body, spinning to avoid the blades. As he did so, he saw the man race out through the gate, leaving behind a ghostly, malicious laugh. Then he was gone.

It was over.

Kakashi lowered his hitai-ate back over his sharingan. Setting Rai down on the ground, he checked the genin's vitals and let out a sigh of relief. Looking around, he saw that most of the bodies lying on the ground had only superficial injuries; the biggest damage had been done to the garden itself. His eyes widened as he found his two other genin.

"Naruto!" said Kakashi, running over. "Mayu! What happened?"

Looking terrified, Mayu was trying to staunch a profusely bleeding wound on Naruto's bare chest. The boy was unconscious on the ground, the tips of his fingers still twitching. His yukata, which had been partially opened to reveal his chest, was torn and ragged. A long jagged shard of metal, covered in sticky blood, was on the ground besides them.

Quickly putting the pieces together, Kakashi gently pushed the shocked girl aside. She obliged willingly, standing up. She put a comforting arm around a young, trembling boy that he didn't recognize. Gathering his chakra together, he prepared to use what little medical ninjutsu he knew to try and at least stabilize the boy – and then stopped.

Impossible, thought Kakashi. Disbelievingly, he wiped away some of the blood that had pooled on the boy's chest, but saw that it was true. The deep wound was already healing; even as he was watching, the skin was beginning to knit back together. Amazed, the jōnin blinked, as if doing so would somehow halt the healing. It didn't. He realized then that the sealed Kyūbi must have somehow accelerated Naruto's healing rate – perhaps by pumping out its chakra to save the boy.

"Sensei?" said Mayu, her voice taut with fear.

"He'll be fine, it was just a shallow cut," he lied.

"Shallow?" repeated the girl, her eyes widening. Kakashi wordlessly bent over, and picked Naruto's surprisingly light body up. There were shouts at the gate, and several medics came racing in. Catching one of the medics' attention, he directed them towards Rai, who was just beginning to feebly stir.

When he turned back to wave for Mayu to follow him, he saw the look on her face and stopped. "Mayu...?"

"Sensei, I already know," she said quietly. "I know what he is."

When Naruto came to, everything was hazy and out-of-focus, and there was a sharp, throbbing pain in the right side of his chest. He was alone in a dark room. Looking down, he saw bandages covering his chest. For a second, Naruto couldn't figure out what he was doing there – before the memory of what happened came rushing back.

When the piece of the metal blade came spinning at the boy in the blue yukata, Naruto hadn't thought – he'd simply just moved. The only thought in his mind right then was how much he wanted – needed – to save the boy. He'd pushed the child aside, and that was the last thing he could remember before waking up in the room.

Naruto wondered briefly if he had died and this was some awful version of the afterlife, but quickly dismissed the thought. He didn't think his body would hurt this badly if he were dead.

Just then, he heard footsteps outside the room, and then soft voices. Naruto tensed – wincing as he did so – before relaxing as he recognized their voices. It was Kakashi and Mayu. They were talking too quietly for him to hear, but it seemed like they were discussing something. A minute later, they must have come to a decision for he heard Kakashi's heavier footsteps begin to walk away. There was a pause, and then the door slid open: It was Mayu.

Naruto quickly closed his eyes and feigned sleep.

He didn't know what to make of his female teammate; though they'd been together for months now, she'd been avoiding him the whole time. In fact, ever since the mission with the bandits, she'd made an even more apparent effort to avoid talking to him. He didn't know what she was doing in his room, and he certainly didn't want to talk to her.

He heard Mayu's footsteps pad over to where he was lying down. There was a soft thunk as she set down what sounded like a small table – his dinner, perhaps.

Ah, Naruto thought. So that's why she was here.

But while he'd expected her to get up and leave right away, for some reason, she sat there in silence.

Too wary to fall asleep, Naruto waited, forcing his breathing to stay steady. It was only after some time had passed that at long last, he heard the sound of rustling fabric.

Suddenly, he felt a warm pair of hands wrap around his own. He tensed – and she squeezed.

"I'm sorry. I forgive you," Mayu whispered into the darkness. Then she got up and left the room, sliding the door closed behind her.

As soon as her footsteps had faded away, Naruto opened his eyes. He stared at his hand for a long time.

The next day, Naruto was feeling much better, and when the medic removed his bandages, saw that he was almost completely healed. When he saw how there was barely a scratch left on his chest, he inadvertently let out a sound of disbelief. Judging from how painful it had felt, he had thought the cut had been much deeper. He supposed that the shock and chaos of the moment had skewed his judgment, and Naruto felt a little silly for having delayed their return trip for so long over nothing. But just before they left the village the following day to begin going back to Konoha, the young boy he had saved came up to him.

"Thank you," said the boy – Taki, he had said was his name, looking up at Naruto. He had changed out of his blue yukata into black mourning robes. His face was downcast and his eyes were red – he was probably still reeling from the shock of losing his sister – but he was much calmer now. "Thank you," he repeated, and a single tear came leaking out of his eye. It slid down his round cheek.

Naruto nodded, but he didn't respond. There was a strange feeling welling up in his chest that he held back, because he knew this was just another part of being a ninja. If he wanted to grow stronger, he would have to get used to it.

But after a moment, he allowed himself to pat Taki on the head. It was something he had seen others do before, and he thought it might comfort the boy. For some reason however, Taki only began to cry harder.

By the time they finally left through the gates of the village however, the tears had dried, and Taki waved goodbye to Naruto, sniffling.

As they began to walk back to Konoha, Rai demanded to see Naruto's wound. When he lifted up his shirt to reveal his mostly-healed chest, Rai let out a snort, before slapping him hard on the back.

And so, without major incident and only a few days behind schedule, Team 7 finally returned home.

Despite everything that had happened to them, not much had changed in Konoha. The village people continued to go to the market in the mornings, and children still fought over who got to ride the swing in the playground.

Naruto was still the village pariah. As he grew older, he'd finally realized that the reason people avoided him could not simply be because of his appearance as he'd once feared. But the fact of the matter was, if he entered a store without using a henge, he still got charged double the ordinary price. If he strolled normally through the streets of the marketplace, people began to group together in clumps as they noticed his red hair and whisker marks. And if children got too close to him, their parents would drag them away, scolding them.

At one point, in a spark of inspiration, Naruto had wondered if perhaps his features really were a signature mark of an unpopular clan. But despite his best efforts, he'd found nothing about an Uzumaki clan in the Archives, and so, could only conjecture as to why he'd been singled out from such a young age. Having gotten used to the isolation long ago, it did not bother him as much as it might once have. To him, it had simply become an unquestionable law of his world.

And yet, despite everything that had stayed the same, he found that some things were not exactly the same.

Kakashi had begun to regularly drop by his apartment, even on days when they didn't have a mission. Sometimes, they would pick up where they had left off in previous discussions of chakra application. Other times, the jōnin would take him to the training field and teach him some new kenjutsu or ninjutsu moves. After Naruto kept asking him about the lightning-release technique he had used on Hidan, he even promised to start Naruto on learning a second nature affinity.

It wasn't just his team leader. Occasionally, Rai would bang loudly on his door, demanding to spar with him. It seemed that Rai couldn't get over the fact that Hidan had knocked him unconscious so quickly, and was determined to get better. And in return for some taijutsu tips from Naruto, Rai would help Naruto with target practice, teaching him how to fasten letter bombs to kunai in discrete ways that the opponent wouldn't notice.

Even Mayu sometimes joined in, though she never looked for Naruto by herself. She was always with either Rai or Kakashi – but she had begun to talk to him more and more with increasing bravado. Naruto wondered if it had something to do with the night back when he was healing, and she had whispered those words to him. Thinking back on what she had said, he had tried to figure out if he had ever wronged the girl, but couldn't think of anything. It was puzzling; he had a feeling that Mayu knew he had heard her words, and yet he couldn't bring himself to ask her.

Still, nowadays as he trained with his team, Naruto felt light in a way that he'd never felt outside of the Archives. Out in the training field, none of the other villagers were there; it was just them, the four members of Team Kakashi.

After a long hard day, they sometimes all went to Ramen Ichiraku for bowls of Konoha's finest ramen. The first time they went, Naruto had only stared in awe as Rai and Mayu squabbled over a piece of pork in one of their bowls.

"You said I could have it!" said Mayu with an uncharacteristically ferocious glint in her eyes.

"That was before I realized it was the last one!" said Rai, holding it out of the shorter girl's reach with his chopsticks held high over his head. Then, making sure she could see, he popped the strip of meat into his mouth.

With a cry of fury, Mayu threw her chopsticks, like shuriken, at him. Skillfully, Rai batted aside the chopsticks with his own – but then froze, as the ricocheting sticks of wood knocked over Kakashi's bowl. They looked on in horror as it crashed into the ground, its noodle contents pouring out over the ground.

Taking one look at the frozen smile on Kakashi's face, Rai jumped out of his seat and began to beg for forgiveness.

"Why does this always happen when you're around?" the owner asked Naruto, the edges of his mouth twitching. And for the second time, Naruto found himself apologizing to him.

And so, the months and seasons passed. Naruto's 11th birthday came and went with little fanfare, though to the entire team's shock, Mayu baked him a birthday cake. It was his first time eating cake, and while it was actually too sweet for his tastes, he found himself finishing his portion to the very last bite.

Best of all, however, was Kakashi's gift of a new tantō. Unlike the older one he'd been using, it was made of a special metal that would allow Naruto to channel his chakra into it. He made sure to polish it after every use.

Team Kakashi continued to go on missions, though nothing quite as eventful as the one in Yugakure occurred. With Mayu's new willingness to work with Naruto, their teamwork grew leaps and bounds and their missions became even easier to complete. That wasn't to say that their team was perfect: Though both Rai and Mayu were willing to go along with Naruto's direction, Rai sometimes lose focus, inadvertently deviating from the plan, and Mayu had a tendency to freeze up when anything unexpected happened.

But while Naruto may have once considered them to be in his way, now, he found himself thinking during his free time of how to help them improve.

It was some time into the new year, at the end of a particularly fruitful training session, when Kakashi told them that the Chūnin exams would soon be taking place in Sunagakure, the hidden village in the Land of Wind.

Hearing this, Naruto looked at his teammates, and they nodded back at him. He looked back at their sensei: Team Kakashi was going to be there, and if he had his way, they would all be passing.

A/N: This marks the end of arc 1.

1/21/17: Edited.