The Two Fawns:
Chapter 9: Food Poisoning and Training with Hatake Kakashi
The Effects of Yoshiko's presence will soon be felt starting in this chapter. Hope you guys like it. :) hmmm... I too feel that besides Sakura's excessive fangirl antics over Sasuke, she is actually a pretty decent Kumoichi herself. I hope that my portrayal of Sakura in the story would be accurate. She had to have some skills to be the top kunoichi of the year right?
Kakashi Hatake felt a lot better after reaching their destination. The bridge would be ready in a few weeks or month's time depending on the number of hours the builders put into working on the bridge. Oh meanwhile he would have some training time to spare for those three little Genins.
The area around the house was also secured, well as secured as it could get with a Genin's surveillance level. With four hour rotation shifts with two Genin on guard duty every night, Kakashi felt that Sakura did a good job in making use of her limited resources. Of course, the pinkette followed the rules thoroughly; first making sure that she had his permission to start the guarding duty and second to match people up via their abilities. Kakashi felt that the only female in his team might be the only one with an ounce of leadership abilities. 'Seems like Sakura will be a Chunin before those two idiots then, Yoshiko too perhaps, given her talent at deduction.' Kakashi mused to himself as he looked at the current tables the pinkette had drawn up along with the makeshift map that Yoshiko had been busy with. Sakura was currently discussing the timings of the shifts with the medical ninja.
At least the two girls were getting along. Kakashi though wistfully at the two boys who were currently bickering over which side of the futon they would be sleeping on. 'It appears to me that girls are more mature as compared to their male counterparts.' Kakashi thought, before deciding that the twelve year him was a lot more mature than those four. Then again, they were not forced to grow up quickly.
Sakura was extremely professional in this case; she matched up Naruto and Sasuke, despite her wishes to be alone with the raven haired boy. Her reasoning behind it had been simple: Yoshiko and her would have screamed at Naruto with their clashing personalities. Yoshiko would definitely be reading her book and Naruto, being the hyperactive ninja would somehow rile the short-tempered brunette up, hence creating a lot of noise rather than being on guard duty. She might also run into the same predicament with Naruto as she, too had a short fuse towards Naruto's antics. Sasuke, on the other hand, would be perfect as Naruto's partner. With their childish rivalry, the two boys would be having a competition to see who could be more silent than the other.
~Page Break~
Yoshiko was extremely impressed by Sakura when she had single-handedly made up the shifts rooster for an entire within fifteen minutes. Yoshiko had found Sakura quite intelligent and fun to be around when she was not around Sasuke or fangirling over the Uchiha. Sakura had requested for her to assist her in planning out the places for the traps to better safe-guard the house. Sakura had been quite creative with the making of traps, surprising for a well-known goody-two shoes back in the Academy.
"My poisons would be good for knocking out any intruders." She suggested, twirling a pencil in her fingers while looking at all the red Xs around the houses where the traps were supposed to be.
"Hmm... I think we will need some poisons like that poison pollen of yours." Sakura said, now writing a short note about a balloon trap. Besides the balloon trap, there were a few others like the kunai trap, poison smoke trap and the quicklime trap. Sakura had little trouble remembering designs from the various books she had read up to ace her examinations.
Iruka-sensei said that her answers for the written exams were well detailed, the pinkette had mentioned in passing when she handed Yoshiko her book of notes from the Academy. Flipping through the horrendously thick textbook; Yoshiko was soon seeing Sakura in a different light.
They were busy right up till dinner time when Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter called the girls down for dinner. The boys, for the lack of a better description, stink like a carton of rotten eggs. And they were glaring daggers at each other. For once, Sakura had chose to sit at the opposite end of the table from Sasuke and Naruto who were forced to sit together. Kakashi was sitting in his own corner and reading his little orange book.
"Geez, what were they doing?" Sakura asked Yoshiko who barely managed to finish her food without feeling the urge to vomit.
"It smelt like a failed attempt at fishing to me." Yoshiko answered back. The stench was quite familiar actually, with her being slapped in the face by fishes many times meant she smelt exactly like them during her trainings in the hospital. When Sakura gave her a slight questioning look, she shot the other girl back with a no-questions look.
However what she had said apparently managed to stir up some strong feelings in Naruto. "I caught more fish that teme over here ttaebayo!" He shouted with his chopsticks pointing up high in the air.
"I caught more than you did, dead last." Sasuke snapped back. The glaring contest was back again. Suddenly, utter realization dawned upon Yoshiko. The fishes that were served for dinner had knife wounds on their abdomen. Now her appetite was really gone.
"Hey did you guys use clean Kunai knives?" She asked, Shinobi with weaker immune systems were often hospitalized due to consumption of unsanitary food. Probably due to them not changing the kunai they used to fight and the kunai meant for skinning their animals. The fact that the kunai may contain impurities or rust from the blood of opponents with less than stellar cleaning standards. (Kunais are quite cheap these days. And most Shinobi purchase new equipment once every three months, understandable due to the fact that many were too exhausted after missions to throughly clean their equipment. Konoha had warehouses full of them with the over-ordering by the Third Hokage. Ninja tools deliveries were made almost every week to stock up further on equipment.) Swords and specialized weapons, however were a different story. There were oils and special washes sold at weaponry shops dotted across Konoha to cater to the needs of these Shinobi.
"Ehh... Yoshiko-chan, your kunai knives are always clean right? Cause you're a medic and all... Ttaebayo..." Naruto scratched the back of his head as an uncomfortable silence ensured. Kakashi simply sighed.
"Naruto, you idiot! I'm both a medic and a poison specialist! How in the world would my kunai not contain any poison! Congratulations, you guys had the honor of consuming my laxative poison, that would keep you all in the bathroom for the whole night." She hissed at him like a viper. The silver lining in the clouds was the fact that those two chose her Kunai where the concentration of poison was considerably lower as compared to the senbon and needles, her main weapon choices.
Everyone at the dining table paled at once and ceased eating immediately. Tazuna turned even more green if that was possible, probably recalling Kakashi's words about Yoshiko's particular talents at poisoning and creating poisons. Kakashi smirked under his mask, he had detected the poison and had not consumed a bite of that food at all. Unfortunately, he couldn't warn Tazuna and his family about the mild poison contained in their dinner in favor of teaching his two little brats a lesson on not touching another ninja's equipment without permission. Sakura was simply an unfortunate victim caught in the circumstances unknowingly.
"However, lucky for you all, I'm a responsible poison user who carries her antidote with herself all the time. Next time,do not touch my equipment without asking me." Yoshiko got up from the dining table and to the room for the antidote. She herself had consume her portion of the antidote when she found that glass of antidote before making her way into the kitchen. Might as well teach those two buffoons a lesson, she thought with a wicked grin.
Grabbing all the glasses, she filled all but two glasses with one drop of the antidote mixed into the water. Kakashi's portion was excluded as well. Then she proceeded to hand all the glasses out one by one, giving the excuse of measuring out the antidote portion via the different masses of the recipients to ensure its effectiveness. She didn't escape Kakashi's knowing gaze and rather amused expression. Nothing escaped that man's eye anyways. Sakura seemed to know that something was up but not sure what was up.
That night, there were curses and loud insults from the bathroom that night. Sleeping in her bed and looking up at the sky from the window, she wondered what was her twin up to that cloudy night with very little stars and the moon being hardly visible.
~Page Break~
In the Nara Clan Compound...
Shikamaru sneezed loudly while gazing at the clouds via the twins' shared bedroom. The clouds were nice and fluffy that night, slowly drifting from the gentle breeze that was blowing.
Shikamaru felt that the room was remarkably empty without a certain noisy, troublesome female there. Sure, he did not enjoy her screeching into his ear and her over energetic ways, from his point of view at least. But that troublesome female had been sleeping in his room since they were both little babies. Sleeping without her around was a little unsettling to say the least. Plus, there was no Yoshiko to keep mother from nagging at him and fussing at him like an old hen during dinner to work harder. The old man's too whipped to say anything. But troublesome girl often get mom's attention for coming back with hair looking like a mowed lawn. Their mother would then shift her attention to the other female of the family.
Laying lazily on the bed, Shikamaru thought about how troublesome it was to start analyzing Yoshiko's and his mother's behavior. Ahh... Women are a drag and that's the truth, he concluded before promptly falling asleep after his cloud gazing.
~Page Break~
"Good morning!" Yoshiko and Sakura announced brightly at Kakashi when they met at the designated meeting place aka Sensei's makeshift room, the largest guest room. Sasuke and Naruto both look quite haggard, both with dark circles under their eyes.
"Yoshiko, that was so mean of you!" Naruto shouted, pointing his finger accusingly at her. Sasuke too shot her one of his famous death glares.
"Well... It was all necessary in the name of teaching you guys a lesson. Kakashi-san knew all about it." Yoshiko replied. That was when all hell broke loose.
"Kakashi-sensei!" The three shouted with enough volume for the man's gravity defying hair to flatten slightly. Kakashi simply gave a slight smile before waving them away.
"Sasuke-kun are you alright? Do you need-" Sakura started to ask the raven haired boy only to be ignored with a "hn" by the object of her affections.
Naruto started ranting at Yoshiko about how badly his stomach had hurt throughout the whole night while the brunette simply continued reading her book.
"If you aren't aware, Zabuza is pretty much alive and might come back for us once he recovers." Again Kakashi had neglected telling the three that Yoshiko had poisoned the latter with the very same poison that had affected them last night. Yoshiko was quite sure no one except her knew the antidote when she wrote all her notes for poison making in English, a code that only Raido-sensei and Genma-sensei were able to decode. Teaching three adults English had been relatively fun as well as effective. They thought that she had a talent for coding, little did they know that it was simply a language that Jean used to speak every day. They had been so amazed by the fact that the code had its own grammar structure and its own sentence structure that was vastly different from their own. She was planning to show her father the code once the mission was over.
"What?" Came the four collective gasps. Sighing, Kakashi decided to explain the front part before leaving the medic to explain the rest.
"A Hunter-ninja after killing their prey would quickly destroy the bodies to prevent any secrets of the village from getting out. That Hunter-ninja had opted to take the whole body with him. That was not required and impractical with the fact that Zabuza was clearly a lot heavier than him. Normally, the head itself would suffice. Plus, the fact that he attacked Zabuza's neck with a senbon. Why the neck? And why did he use the senbon that can be used in medical treatment or acupuncture?" Kakashi asked the group rhetorically. The sudden realization on Yoshiko's face was the cue that she would take over the explanation.
"That would only place Zabuza on a near-death paralysis that would leave him in a state of 'fake' death where the heart's rate is slowed to the point of a hibernating animal. This way chakra would be conserved. Most medics use that technique to treat Shinobi in the battlefield that suffer from severe chakra exhaustion. But it's only done by those trained in Acupuncture for its near the jugular vein and artery. Any error would lead to immediate death." Yoshiko explained before looking at Kakashi for some sort of answers.
"Hunter-ninjas are well versed in Human Anatomy. It's no surprise that he knew that." Kakashi added in. Once the fact on their enemy being alive sank in, all four looked like deers being caught in the route of a wagon.
"However, with Yoshiko managing to poison Zabuza, he would take at least a month for his system to finish combating the poison. By that time, the bridge should be completed, however, Tazuna might be in the danger of him attacking again." At that the four looked slightly relieved before Naruto loudly announced that they should train to fight Zabuza.
"Naruto you idiot, what can we do with only a months' time." Sakura practically whined at their sober predicament.
"Well, I guess I can teach you lot a thing or two to make you better equipped at dealing with Zabuza." Team Seven got up and followed Kakashi, while Yoshiko laid back at the window to look at the clouds. Ha! She didn't have to train, she thought gleefully to herself.
Unfortunately, that bubble was burst when Kakashi gave her a close eyed smile, "oh and Yoshiko, you are coming with us." How troublesome, Yoshiko grumbled to herself while she dragged herself out to the forest at the back of Tazuna's house.
~Page Break~
"Climb a tree?!" A hyperactive ninja exclaimed loudly clearly in disbelief.
"Naruto's right for once. How does climbing a tree help in fighting Zabuza?" Sasuke questioned, clearly unimpressed with his sensei. Even Sakura looked doubtful towards the silver haired man, thinking that he was finally off his knocker.
"Did I say to use your hands? I meant to climb the tree without using your hands. Watch carefully." Kakashi walked up the tree branch like he was walking on flat ground. He ignored the looks from awe from his cute little Genin. Yoshiko, however, looked extremely bored. Kakashi threw three kunai at the feet of his students. "Mark the spot that you've reached after climbing the tree."
Naruto counted the number of kunai before scratching his head in confusion. "But sensei, there's only three kunai. What will Yoshiko do?" He questioned the currently reading medic ninja who was perched up on a tree branch and casually swinging her legs. She looked up at the mention of her name but returned back to her book shortly after that.
"She will be having her own brand of training from me." Kakashi gave his signature closed-eye smile again. Suddenly, Yoshiko felt as if she should flee the scene as soon as possible. "But we will be watching you all for a while." Kakashi flipped his little orange book open again and continued reading.
Naruto promptly returned to the tree-climbing exercise. The two boys charged at the trees like two bulls and ran up the tree before marking the spot that they could reach. Sasuke fell off gracefully after destroying the bark of his tree while Naruto went tumbling down. The whole cycle went on four or five times.
"Hey this is fun!" Sakura giggled from the top of her brunch. She was perched on the highest branch like Yoshiko who looked up to see the pink-haired girl at the same level as herself.
"Hmm... It seems like the only female of team seven is good at chakra control. Guess Sakura is closer at becoming Hokage than anyone else here and it seems like the Uchiha is not as impressive as he seem." Kakashi found it highly amusing when the two boys went as stiff as boards before a renewed fighting spirit gleamed in their eyes. Sakura relished the compliment before admonishing Kakashi for insulting Sasuke. Time to deal with his lazy medic.
Kakashi found that making a Nara do something they did not like was akin getting a cat to swim. He couldn't bait her like the other three Genins of his with treats and compliments. Yoshiko didn't behave like a puppy who seek approval from him. He had to trick her somehow into working. Unlike Genma and Raido that have a hold over the girl with the capacity of being her teachers, or Hikari who was her superior in training; Kakashi was only her team leader, and she was not his student. Yoshiko reminded Kakashi of a nocturnal tabby cat with a fluffy tail, content to laze around for the whole day on its comfortable spot. Fortunately he could be very persuasive, especially towards little girls with little egos.
"Hmm... Seems like you are stuck with me. Do you want to test your abilities against mine?" Kakashi asked her despite knowing her answer.
"Nah, I'm just planning to read." She quickly replied, shifting her body to a slightly more relaxed position.
"Really? Not even a battle of wits? I often wondered if the Nara are as intelligent as their reputation made them to be. After all, they are a lazy bunch. Plus you're Shikaku's kid." The carrot and the stick. He had ensnared her when he brought up her clan when she stiffened in posture. Ahh... The clan pride in her. Kakashi knew that she was thinking of methods to make the training as painful as possible for him. Genma often spoke of her being easily provoked if her clan or father was insulted. A vague memory of a five year old little girl in a red dress verbally dismantling a couple probed at the back of Kakashi's head.
"You want a fight? You shall have one!" The little girl leapt off the bunch with the grace of a feline and took off deeper into the forest. Kakashi followed her scent easily. Her scent stopped in the clearing of a forest. There she was on top of another tree, waiting for him. He had to give her credit, Genma had trained her well in terms of speed.
"Conditions?" Yoshiko asked, looking from her spot at the Jonin. Kakashi could smell wariness leaking from the female in front of him. She knew that he was dangerous and was trying to keep a distance from him. It was totally Raido's style to carefully observe an opponent before taking them on. Now that he was the one chasing her, she felt hunted and threatened by him but she was unwilling to completely submit to her instincts of danger towards him. How cute. The kitten had a brain and claws after all. Currently, he waiting for the other female of the team to join them.
"Kakashi-sensei, I'm here as you asked." Sakura soon joined the other girl on the same tree. Females flock together hmm... Kakashi could almost see the logic behind it, of the two Yoshiko looked like the least threatening one of them both. Sakura simply picked the lesser devil.
"Okay we're all here. Let's begin. You will both hunt me down with all the methods you have. You will have to immobilize me for two minutes. However, the catch is that you cannot allow me to catch you first." Hunt or be hunted, that was the basis of their training. He didn't bother summoning his pack, they were not required against two little Genin.
"But how long do we have Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked while Yoshiko was staring a hole into him. One was taking note of the details, the other one was coming up a host of strategies to fight him and at the same time evade him.
"Three hours." He simply said before disappearing into the forest in a flurry of leaves. He forgot to add that he had suppressed his chakra for he wanted to train up their tracking skills.
~Page Break~
Meanwhile in some place in the Wave Country
"Curse you, Hatake Kakashi!" Zabuza shouted furiously after returning from his seventh trip to the toilet. He was feeling both light-headed and excessive stiffness in his limbs. Zabuza knew he was poisoned, but how? It must be that damned Hatake! Stupid copy-cat! He was only imitating him like a monkey! He didn't believe that those four brats with him could poison him like that.
The two boys only got the better of him due to him underestimating him, a mistake that he would not make twice. Pink-haired girl was busy defending the old man, she wouldn't even budge from her spot. Nara only had her lousy Shadow Technique and medical ninjutsu. Just then Haku entered the room with some more herbs that he had gathered.
"Haku, have you found an antidote to that poison?" He barked at his disciple who shook his head sadly. Apparently, the poison that was currently wrecking havoc on his body would eventually be metabolized by his body in a month's time. The main ingredient required to neutralize the poison was the Golden Flower of Konoha that Konoha would never sell or export. Haku was currently looking for an alternative for that herb, but his attempts had proved futile.
That was surprising for Zabuza for the Copy-cat ninja was well known to be extremely tricky but poison was not his area of speciality. He had come into contact with the Sand puppetry department's infamous scorpion and metallic poisons before and he had survived them all. It was simply baffling that Kakashi would suddenly had such skill for poisons. Zabuza would not believe it and he refused to wait around for his chakra burn off the poison. Gato, that little twit was annoying to be around and Zabuza wanted to complete the job in order to get his payment quickly.
Hahaha poor Zabuza. Actually the reason why Haku couldn't neutralize the poison was due to the error in belief that Zabuza was afflicted with only one poison when in actual fact, Yoshiko had used three poisons on him.