Another chapter is here!
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"Is everything alright?" Naruto asked, peering up from the board-game on the table towards the red-haired Jinchuuriki of the Hidden Sand. He'd taken to trying to visit Gaara every other morning just to talk to him and pass the time before he met with Jiraiya for training. So he'd gotten a good enough read on Gaara to tell something was off. "You look tired."
"I have been experiencing nightmares of the One-Tailed Raccoon," Gaara admitted, causing Naruto's expression to shift in alarm at that from knowing that the reason for his insomnia previously was because if he was asleep the chakra demon within him would begin to torment his mind.
"Has something gone wrong with the seal Jiraiya placed on you?"
"They have checked the overlaying seal and found nothing wrong," he stated. "As far as I can tell, they are presuming that it is simply nothing more than nightmares. So once my curfew sets in, they provide me with a sleeping pill to ensure that I at least get rest. However, it is bothersome that I cannot enjoy my sleep anymore."
"That's rough," Naruto couldn't help but say. He was amicable to sleep, but Gaara had been unable to do so for years since having the chakra demon implanted within him. It was a luxury to him that he enjoyed, a silver-lining to his captivity that also played into why he was being a model prisoner. "And it's just started happening recently?"
"Yes, though I can't fathom why it started in the first place. I can only hope that it does not linger." Gaara then turned his attention back to the board and moved his piece, taking the place of one of Naruto's and capturing it. "How have you been progressing in your training?"
"Eh, about as well as I can… I guess." It had been roughly a few weeks since Naruto had been bound to the village, arguably for his own safety after the attempt to retrieve Anko Mitarashi had failed. Karin… didn't take it well, and Naruto felt frustrated himself since he felt partly to blame for it after losing control, so he'd put more effort into his training as well.
He had gotten the invisibility technique down for the most part, though it didn't last long for him since Yin Chakra wasn't exactly his forte—despite having Sakura's help in learning how to convert it. The Rasengan was somewhat coming along as well, since he had to learn to form it without a clone to handle the rotation and containment. And he'd made good progress in learning to use his Wind Element.
However, he was struggling with the more inner-focused parts of his training. He was supposed to meditate, learn to still his body and quiet his mind. But he found it extremely difficult to do so when he had so many other concerns.
Hopefully they'll get rid of those Cursed Seals on them soon, Naruto thought to himself as he made his next move on the board and moved the conversation along. "So, did you read the letter you were sent by your sister?"
"I have," he said. "It merely inquired into my health and informed me of some minor changes within the village. It would seem that so far things have improved somewhat with the new Wind Daimyo, though at present they haven't selected a new candidate to become the Kazekage."
"Any idea who they'd choose?"
"The candidates for it would need to someone of prowess and social standing, or possibly possessing a bloodline similar to the Third Kazekage and my father. As I was only told what was needed in relevance to my missions and my handler was executed, I am unaware of their choice." He knocked over another piece on Naruto's side. "And this is my victory."
"Huh?" Naruto looked down to see that he was in a position where he couldn't make any moves. He was forced to concede defeat. "Nnn…one more round before I have to leave?"
[-oOo-]
Kiba gave chase as Sakura ran through the smokescreen-laden training ground. She was fleeing, trying to use the smoke to obscure her presence until the time limit ran out. But it was pointless as he and Akamaru closed the distance as a whirling pair of twisters from the front and back, cutting through the air with ludicrous speed.
"Gotcha!" Kiba announced as he and Akamaru stopped their spinning and turned the momentum into a lunge, arms outstretched to pin her down. Yet the pair ended up sinking through her and crashing into each other, ending into a tangled mess of limbs as they hit the ground. Kiba watched as the Clone proceeded to disperse and swore under his breath.
Then the sound of parting air reached his ears. He spun off the ground along with his Transformed ninja-hound, getting back onto his feet in time to avoid the hail of dulled kunai that came from the above. He watched as Sakura pulled herself out of the tree she was half-sunken into and then the ran off into the smoke again, leaving him snarling in frustration.
Kurenai-sensei had given their unit the task of chasing down and capturing Sakura within fifteen minutes as part of a training exercise. Normally it wouldn't be a problem for them to deal with since, between the three of them, there was no way she could reasonably get away. They were awesome like that after all and Sakura was just one kunoichi, even with those extra lessons that Kurenai had been giving her.
However, after ten minutes of chasing her down and god knows how many traps she'd set up—meaning she knew damn well ahead of time they were going to do this exercise while they didn't—he just wanted it to end. So he had been more than a little frustrated when he and Akamaru picked up her scent and rushed towards her again. They poured on the speed to catch her once he found her crouching down and preparing another trap. This time he felt resistance and held fast, pulling her arms behind her back as Akamaru grabbed her legs to stop her from getting away.
"Finally! We—" Her figure wavered and flickered out to reveal that it was his teammate. "Shino?"
Shino groaned softly, clearly in pain, as a pair of hands stuck out of the ground holding another gas-filled smoke bomb. The slender fingers pulled the string and detonated it point-blank, catching them before they could scramble away. The world tilted and Kiba fell over with a scant few moments of consciousness remaining.
"Dammmnnn… ittttt…" he managed to say before passing out.
[-oOo-]
"I'm sorry," Sakura said as she phased out of the ground while Kurenai arrived with Hinata in tow to check on her students. "I planned on him getting frustrated for that last part to work, but I didn't expect that he'd hit Shino that hard."
"Is he going to be okay?" Kurenai asked her Hyuuga protégé. "I told Kiba not to use excessive force in subduing the target as a precaution, but I could hear the crashing from past the tree-line."
Hinata, whose eyes were active, nodded her head. "Um, Kiba-kun didn't break anything…. but he'll be bruised where they hit…."
"I'll have to work on teaching him to keep a level head so it doesn't happen again." Kurenai huffed, before turning to Sakura and giving her a slight smile in approval. "But that was well done. I didn't expect for you to get all three of them in the end."
"It was only possible because you gave me a week's warning in advance and they expected me to use Genjutsu right away," Sakura explained. Kurenai had approached her after practice, once she'd gotten the hang of the Hiding in a Surface technique to supplement her Genjutsu lessons. She wanted to observe how her students would react to an unexpected scenario, which was in this case being a target who knew in advanced they would be coming and had foreknowledge of their abilities—a very real possibility if they became more renown over time.
Naturally, they expected Sakura to use a Genjutsu right off the bat since that was what Kurenai was known for. Genjutsu worked best when the target didn't realize they were under one, so that naturally put her at an even greater disadvantage since Sakura knew that all three of them could track and disable her with relative ease. It was a challenge to plan for, to say the least.
"I expected you to make preparations," Kurenai admitted. "But the order and execution were almost perfectly done, given the time constraints. None of it would have worked if you hadn't removed Hinata."
"That's why I aimed for her first." She turned to Hinata. "No offense, but I couldn't think of a way to get anything done since your eyes made it too difficult to hide what I was doing compared to the others. So I considered Naruto's match during the Finals and asked Tenten how she would deal with your cousin when they practiced, to be safe. Then I came up with that plan."
Said plan basically involved launching a ball of sealing tags towards them, expecting them to dodge. It then forcibly released multiple other bombs that contained sleeping gas, blanketing the area they were in with it. Shino's insects could purge it from his body and Kiba could get out of the area quick enough with Akamaru, but she couldn't before it put her under.
"Medics and Sensors are the first to be targeted because you need to take out any advantages they bring to the opposition," Kurenai said in agreement as she turned to Hinata. "If she hadn't caught you by surprise, what measure would you have used to deal with it? And how did you being taken out change things for the group as a whole?"
"I… I would have held my breath and pulled back… or try to use the Rotation technique if I could manage it," Hinata said. "But I was surprised, so I didn't react in time. And because I had to be taken out of the area, Shino-kun split from Kiba-kun and Akamaru."
"Which was what I wanted," Sakura added. "Shino could cover a larger area with his insects, but he's slower than Kiba and Akamaru. Since Internal Genjutsu requires a developed brain and they're insects that track through scent and sight, he would ideally be able to find me faster and be unaffected by Genjutsu. So he'd respond by spreading a net."
That put a good portion of his hive out for her to deal with. Naruto had gotten to the point where he could simply use a wind technique to blow them away or spread clones out for them to deal with, while Sasuke could burn them all with fire. But Sakura needed to reserve her chakra, so she took another page out of Naruto's book and used concussive sealing tags filled smoke—she'd considered using the same gas Naruto used during the Finals but decided against it since she'd be affected too—that were altered to radiate out in a larger area at the expense of having less force behind them.
Being so small, his bugs were a lot more vulnerable to the shockwaves disrupting their internal systems and thus easier to kill. And with the smokescreen up, Shino wouldn't risk going too deeply into it without replenishing his hive. So he'd have the remainder ready to guard him against any frontal attack she could make as he hastened the process of hatching them within his body, locking him into one place.
Sakura then turned her gaze towards Kiba and Akamaru. "As for them, Kakashi-sensei raised ninja-hounds so I asked him for advice. Ninja-hounds are vulnerable to Internal Genjutsu, allowing me to start interfering with their senses like what was done to my team during the Chuunin Exams by the team from Hidden Rain. I had to be gradual in doing so, slowly altering their sense of smell and hearing while putting up a chase so they didn't notice. But by that point they were frustrated enough that when I led them to where Shino was and sank into the ground, they struck first without realizing the switch."
"And that allowed you to bypass Shino's insects since you couldn't get close to him," Kurenai finished. "Misdirection and deception are the most powerful tools available for someone who doesn't fight head-on. If you keep that in mind, I'm sure you'll excel in the future."
"Thank you for the compliment, ma'am."
[-oOo-]
"The Mystical Palm technique generates the chakra that allows it to hasten the body's recovery depending on where its directed, but you have to make sure that you don't overdo it," Shizune instructed as she went around observing the various attendees of her medical training course. "Before the fish suffocates, you should be able to discern both the nature of the wound, the cause of it, and fix it. Once you're done, place it back into the bowl and record it on the report."
"Yes ma'am," the students as a whole responded, Karin included as her hands shone with pale green light. They'd gotten a basic understanding of anatomy and practiced generating the medical chakra necessary to use the Mystical Palm technique. The green hue of the chakra seemingly came from the balance between yang chakra and unaligned chakra, giving the body-enhancing qualities of the former while maintaining the versatility of the latter. There were other techniques a medic-nin would need over the course of their career, but for first aid and emergency treatment, it would suffice.
She held it over the bleeding fish in front of her that writhed sluggishly, likely drugged and numbed to the pain from a cut in its side that allowed its blood to leak out. The chakra sank into its body and spread through her chakra control, mapping it and giving her insight into the nature of the wound. It was a shallow cut that severed a few veins and arteries, the length of which was precisely three inches long and done cleanly with no fragments from a blade or particles.
Most likely Wind Chakra or a Chakra Scalpel, she reasoned. To be safe, she activated her Mind's Eye and narrowed her focus on the fish to search for any traces of lingering chakra. Impressively, it took her a few seconds to pick up the chakra signature within it. The cut was so cleanly done, and with so few traces of chakra, that it was like trying to pick a black grain of sand in a patch of white.
Committing it to memory for the time being, she concentrated on the wounded area and used the medical chakra to have the fish's body constrict the blood vessels to avoid any more of it from leaking out. Then she began to hasten the healing process—destroying dead cells, having the immune cells clean the wounds, rebuilding the lost tissue to repair the damaged veins and arteries, and repairing everything else.
Another scan followed, searching for any mistakes she made. It wouldn't do to make the arteries too weak to support the flow of blood. Once she was sure that it was fine, she normalized the bodily functions that she had been manipulating. Then she pulled as much of her own chakra out of the fish before gently placing it back into its bowl and writing her report.
Of the thirty or so applicants in the course, most of them had ended up killing their fish in the end by either healing them wrong or letting them suffocate. Others had been more successful to varying degrees. Karin's was swimming in its bowl, waiting to be inspected along with her report, as she sat patiently while deep in thought.
The Hokage had added Anko's name to the Memorial Stone since she was thought dead, or at least MIA. Karin had broken down crying upon hearing that at first. Not just because they hadn't managed to save her, but because she knew Kabuto. Her fears about returning to captivity and within his grasp was because she knew exactly how dangerous he was and some of the horrific things he was capable of.
Death would be merciful compared to finding her alive after whatever twisted thing he would do to her. And knowing that she was in the mad medic's hands because the woman chose to save her and Naruto only added to the gnawing sense of guilt deep in Karin's heart every time that she went home and looked at the door to her room. Worse was the fact that Anko's sacrifice and suffering had only bought her a little time.
She knew Kabuto would come after her again at some point. He'd probably gloat about what he did to Anko too, tormenting her over it, and maybe go after Naruto. She could just imagine the things he'd do to the boy she loved in the name of sadism masquerading as science, testing just how well he could heal until he was nothing more than a misshapen lump of still-living meat.
That's why she took the suggestion to join the medical course when the Hokage suggested it. He theorized that with her natural tendencies towards chakra control she would be well-suited for it and could help many people. To her, that would simply be a bonus since it meant she didn't have to let anyone else other than Naruto bite her and leave a mark in her flesh.
No, she intended to fight poison with poison. If she was going to have any measure of happiness, she couldn't just keep relying on Naruto to put himself out there and getting hurt. She would learn whatever measure of medical arts she could for the sake of being able to turn it on Kabuto when the time came.
Of course, she couldn't tell anyone that was what she intended to do. It was an affront to any practitioner of the medical arts and they'd definitely try to stop her. And if Naruto learned about it, he'd be disappointed with her—which would be just awful with things between them going so well at this point.
Another thing to hate Kabuto for, she thought to herself. I hate lying to Naruto, but we won't have any long-lasting happiness until Kabuto is dead. He has to die and I have to be the one to do it.
She refused to let Kabuto take anything she cared about away from her again. She would kill him with her own two hands. And she'd do it so thoroughly enough that there would be no trace of him left in existence by the time she was done.