The Two Fawns:
Chapter 10: Scary Girls and A Not-so-Conventional Ninja Showdown

Sakura and Yoshiko practically crawled back to Tazuna's house after that training session with Kakashi. It was exhausting: torn muscles, chakra almost depleted, Sakura's hair looked like a bird's nest literally with twigs and leaves stuck in it, Yoshiko's face was smeared with mud and sweat making her look she went skipping in the mud puddles. The two kunoichi's clothes were ripped and they knew with a doubt they both looked unsightly and stinky. Yoshiko was almost glad that Naruto and Sasuke were not back yet. Oh that Naruto would probably be laughing his head off when he saw her current appearance. The lazy girl who wouldn't do anything looking like she got toiled through a field, Naruto would never let her live it down.

Yoshiko loved baths and she loved hot baths even more when her muscles were sore and aching after that training exercise. They had no choice but to use some sweet smelling bath washes to get rid of that horrible smell of dog pee that was sprayed on them, most ninjas would not use any scented wash. Scented wash would cause them to have a harder time masking their scents.

"Say Sakura, do you really use dog's shampoo to wash your hair?" Yoshiko asked the other girl who was currently brushing her hair to get rid of the tangles.

"No! Of course not! Who would want to smell like a dog! Ewww... Dogs are really disgusting!" Sakura shuddered at the pug that had sputtered them with urine.

"Hmm... Sakura, would you say that Akamaru is disgusting?" Yoshiko asked thoughtfully as she smooth through yet another tangle. A knot of hair appeared at the base of the comb. That was payback from her hair for not brushing it daily. It was so troublesome to spend time combing through her hair. Yoshiko simply grabbed them all and tied them into the classic Nara-styled ponytail that required little tending to. It was less troublesome than other hairstyles. It was no wonder most of the guys in the Nara Clan always had their hair in a ponytail. However, unlike the guys, she had long hair... So there comes the tangles whenever she combed her hair and of course the mess causes the classic pineapple hair most Nara had.

Sakura jumped back slightly as if she was being hit by a bucket of cold water before replying quickly, "no, wait it's because Kakashi's dogs smell gross! Akamaru's cute and I bet Kiba keeps him clean as well! Hey stop that!" Sakura reached out to playfully punch Yoshiko. She hits hard, Yoshiko noted as she rubbed her arms painfully. The normal Sakura before Sasuke comes back and Number One Fangirl would instantly come flying back. She should enjoy it while it lasted.

"How about we pay him back tenfold for that?" Yoshiko grinned like the cat with cream while she juggled the extra bag of catnip she managed to harvest while making her concoctions.

"Men who like dogs so much wouldn't mind cats' sinking their claws into him right?" Sakura giggled hysterically. 'Just you wait Kakashi-sensei...'

~Page Break~

Meanwhile in the forest...

Kakashi sneezed while he was reading his book. Unlike most days, the copy-ninja had no mask on his face and was currently enjoying the caress of the soft breeze against his mask-less face and in the company of his pack.

Less than a minute later, Kakashi sneezed again. 'Strange, I was never the one to catch a cold.' Kakashi thought as he reached around to stroke another one of his dog while reading through the pages of the X-rated adult book.

"Kakashi, you know when you sneeze for no reason at all, it means that someone is gossiping about you." Pakkun pointed up lazily while chewing on a doggy treat like the rest of the pack for helping with the training earlier with the girls of the team.

"I wonder who..." Kakashi said knowingly. The rest of the pack knew the answer as well as their alpha. Female ninja or not, girls would still be girls. Covering them in dog's piss and mud had been quite a low blow, and Pakkun was worried that his alpha might finally get a taste of a woman's, no, women's wrath, judging from the seething anger in the female Nara and the pinkette earlier.

~Page Break~

Dinner was fun to some extent. Yoshiko was extremely amused to see Naruto and Sasuke grabbing their bowls of rice and eating it up like a manic. Surely with that kind of speed eating would lead to-

"If you guys want to eat, then don't puke it all out!" Sakura slammed her hands onto the table when the boys both collapsed from rapidly regurgitating their food on the floor next to them. They had formed a rivalry... Yoshiko was pretty sure of that and was doubly confirmed when the two boys glared at each other venomously. If there was a competition between the most troublesome of all ninjas, Yoshiko wasn't sure if Naruto or Sasuke would win first place with her mother coming a close second.

The night had passed slowly with a crybaby yelling about his woes, something that made Yoshiko want to cover her ears and return to Konoha. She had not made the deal of being forced to listen to a know-it-all ramble about how invincible Gato was. Naruto had tried to reason with the boy but to no avail. Yoshiko did not bother interfering, a brat would stay a brat. How troublesome it would have been if she had to step in on that mess. A waste of breath, yep, so the lazy Nara waited eagerly for dinner to be over to return to her beloved book collection. A few had some leather maintenance work to be done and others had to be checked for samples falling apart which she hoped none.

Naruto had the persistence and energy to sort people out, she didn't. Hmm... A game of Shoji would be fun and it would buy some time for Sakura to carry out their plan. She grabbed a board from her backpack (she didn't recall placing that in her bag, it must had been Shikamaru's doing) and made a beeline for the silver-haired Jonin.

"Kakashi-san, would you like to play a game of Shogi?" She sounded a little too eager, well not playing or watching anyone play was enough to give her cold turkey. The silver haired man raised an eyebrow before nodding.

Kakashi was wondering when the kid would ask. Knowing Shikaku, there was not a day where he would not play Shogi, surely his daughter had inherited his passion for that strange old man's game. The Jonin Commander had often joked about his two children ganging up on him with hopes of beating him one day.

A game of Shogi with a Nara huh? It would be a good experience, that Kakashi was sure but to play against a child? Kakashi knew better than to hold back, if he underestimated this little girl, it would come back and bite him hard in the ass. Her twin had effortlessly defeated Asuma several times without even the man knowing the game was lost. Sometimes the checkmate was quick when he had his twin whispering into his ear, again a testament to her impatient ways. Double the trouble means double the fun, Asuma had said quite happily. Kakashi had not met Shikamaru personally, but if his sister was acting as the Nara genius's advisor; he'd be careful.

The game was long and brutal. Yoshiko was wary of him at first, highly defensive and guarded her King fiercely against him. Kakashi hadn't been able to attack her and neither was she able to attack him. Kakashi tried lulling her into a sense of false security, it had work partially but at the cost of his chariot and several pawns. She lost her rook in the process.

Suddenly, the dynamics of the game changed. Yoshiko seemed to have finished checking his skills out, she launched a fast but still careful attack against him, almost afraid of losing more pieces. Kakashi was forced to defend himself, she was strangely aiming for all his Generals. He gave his all for the game, blocking her at every attempt she made. She didn't let her prey go easily, he could see that with the little huffs of frustration when he blocked yet another one of her attacks or she allowed herself to be led into yet another trap in her haste. Kakashi had to spend more time defending himself against the numerous attacks that rained on him like a downpour. Some he successfully evaded, others had pricked him sharply. The Nara heiress counted her victories and fought tooth and nail for the upper hand and control on the board. A persistent female, he mused.

Kakashi had not realized that they had played for three hours until Yoshiko gave a slight grin and said, "Kakashi-san that was a good game. It's checkmate for you," and promptly captured his king with a sweet smile. Kakashi was as per usual quite impressed by the skill of the Nara in terms of strategy games. Little Yoshiko has nothing on the level of Shikaku yet, but there was potential. She'd been trying to capture his King for the past hour but was deflected by him all the time, well it might had looked like it. Eventually, her tricks became more and more complex, causing Kakashi to think harder on how to counter her moves. Like in her impatience to ensnare him, she had became ruthless in the battle.

"Indeed Yoshiko, it was a good game." Kakashi got up from his place on the table while Yoshiko kept the pieces in her board. When Kakashi entered the room, he smelt something strange in all his bedding and his pack were currently snoozing on his bed. It reeked of catnip, he would never give ninja hounds for it had a calming effect on them and sometimes induces deep sleep for them which was happening to the smaller dogs in his pack. Personally, Kakashi disliked the smell of catnip.

Catnip? Kakashi knew the culprit, however, unless Yoshiko could do the Shadow Clone technique, there was no way she was in this alone. Another scent mixed into the overpoweringly sweet smell of catnip was the familiar scent of a certain pink haired girl. Girls and their need for payback perhaps? Kakashi thought in amusement and there Shikaku was saying that girls could be scary. How scary could two girls who sneaked catnip into his room be? He thought rhetorically.

~Page Break~

Three weeks passed quickly. Kakashi was glad that the two boys in his team were at least able to climb a tree with only their chakra and that the teamwork of Team Seven was improving with the time that they were forced to spend together. Tazuna's bridge was completed as well, today was simply the naming day of the bridge.

The whole month had not gone very smoothly with Gato's little mercenaries coming after the workers on the bridge at every turn. Some, clearly not ninja, had freaked out at the sight of Jutsus being used. Yoshiko's Lighting Release: Nerve Shock brought him the most amusement out of it. The mercenaries had panicked when they found that their bodies were not listening to them. The Shadow Possession that came along did not help matters. Yoshiko practically paralyzed them before using them for her target practice.

His three Genin had done the same as well. With Yoshiko taking out some members, others turn to flee and were instead pulverized by the three. They had even managed to mess around with Gato, where Yoshiko conveniently helped knock out his guards who monopolize the warehouses for basic necessities. Knowing that none of the opponents were ninja made things easier. Plus fighting those fools gave his Genin Taijutsu practice and Kakashi could simply stand at a corner and read his book.

Sasuke had Sharingan training with him in the early mornings, he indeed lived up to his title as the top Genin of his class in terms of sheer talent. Within three weeks of training, his Sharingan had matured to a two tomoe in one eye while the other had one tomoe. Kakashi knew that for the tomoe in his student's eyes to mature, he had to force Sasuke under intense training where Sasuke felt that his survival was at stake or his comrade was in danger. Hence Kakashi had made use of Naruto several times, often driving Sasuke and Naruto into the corner. Once that happens, Sasuke often tried to help Naruto get out of it by fighting to his fullest potential. Much as Sasuke liked calling Naruto a loser, Kakashi could see the beginnings of a friendship bond forming between the two.

Naruto, had to be cured of his impulsiveness in battle as well as his head-on charging tactics. Kakashi was reminded of a certain someone when he trained the boy. Definitely, the boy had not inherited any of his father's well-reputed intelligence. Rather he had inherited his mother's hot-headed personality, something that may or may not be beneficial for the young boy. Still, Kakashi could see he was a people's pleaser, wanting to impress a certain pink-haired girl hence he could work with that.

Sakura, Kakashi had not invested much of his time with her. Instead, she had found her way with Yoshiko. The duo did chakra control practice together, with Yoshiko teaching Sakura how to use basic medical ninjutsu to fight. Currently, Yoshiko was teaching Sakura how to make use of chakra concentrated in her weapons to make sharper and more dangerous weapons. They had been practicing how to get Lightning infused chakra onto their hands to make their strikes a lot more painful before a numbing sensation follows.

Kakashi had a feeling that Yoshiko was planning to create a unique form of surgery with that theory in mind. Lightning could cause shock and pain, but it could also cause the body cells to temporarily shut down or it could cause the chakra to flow to another direction with a lot less chakra, rather than the using the traditional chakra consuming method to circulate chakra. Yoshiko had low chakra reserves; causing her to be unable to take part in many operations that required a lot of chakra like treatments that required medics to utilize their chakra into the patients' body and recirculate it for hours. That information, was known to Kakashi when the girl herself asked him on ways to increase her reserves slowly.

Sakura definitely had more chakra reserves that Yoshiko hence she hadn't had to train as hard as Yoshiko when coming to using Lightning Techniques that were chakra consuming. Sakura had pushed on chakra and good chakra control to carry out the technique, Yoshiko had made use of her almost perfect chakra control to do the technique. Not a morsel of chakra was wasted in Yoshiko's case. Kakashi wondered if she could even one day be able to save her comrades lives simply by stopping their cells or forcing them into hibernation while she repairs the damage.

Sakura had a lot of untapped strength with her potential to build strength rivaled to many male Genins or even Jonins, that Kakashi could tell. Well it was easy from how she could punch Naruto and cause severe bruising on a Jinchūriki that could heal inhumanly fast.

However, he had no idea on how to make her strength become her assert, not with that girl insisting on dieting, causing her to contain little muscles in her bones. Seemed like girls strangely had an obsession with looking slender. Yoshiko naturally had a long slender body and lean muscles which meant that strength training for her to build muscles for significant strength was futile. Sakura was not ready to achieve her fullest potential yet. He was not going to sacrifice his poor student like a helpless lamb to a green spandex Jonin.

Thoughts about his little band of misfits aside, Kakashi hoped to be able to return home soon once the day was over. Zabuza had strangely not returned for a Round 2 fight, neither had his accomplice. Kakashi knew that he had to be on guard in the event that Zabuza decided to attack on the opening ceremony of the bridge.

Kakashi had asked the little poison specialist on the poisons she had used on Zabuza. She had quickly replied that she would be surprised if Zabuza could even move from his bed in this whole month. She had given him six syringes full of poison. Unlike the belief that she had only used one poison, she had poisoned Zabuza with three different types of poisons.

It was non-fatal and not too complex due to her current mastery at poison-making but she had made sure that the one of the ingredients in the antidotes clashed with one another should Zabuza's apprentice managed to find the antidote of two of the poisons. For the third, Yoshiko had laughed and said it required something that the Nara would never had sold: the deer velvet and the roots of the Golden Flower. Deer velvet was what that would have stabilized the other two poisons while the third was being neutralized by the roots.

Kakashi was indeed impressed by her genius leveled prowess in the art of poison-making. So the three poisons had similar antidotes but the final ingredient to her infamous sleep potion required deer velvet to stabilize the other two before it could even work. That was clever. Highly amused by the sheer devilish way in which she poisoned Zabuza, Kakashi too pitied the man who underestimated a little girl's abilities. Yoshiko was on her way to become a scary woman indeed.

~Page Break~

Haku felt a lot of pity for his master as well as a slight sense of helplessness at his plight. Whatever the Konoha ninja had injected him with had left his master confined to his room for weeks. Haku had tried his best to neutralize the poison. So far his attempts had all ended in failure. That in itself, meant that the poisoner was a master in that field. Haku knew that should that poisoner wished his master dead, it would be extremely easy given his level of mastery and the sheer complexity in the poison he had used. Haku was not sure who exactly had poisoned Zabuza, but he knew that person was merciful. The poison was meant to cause havoc and inconvenience to his master and not to kill him.

Haku had wanted to confront the Konoha ninja and get the antidote, he had wanted to make sure that his master was safe. Personally, he'd disagreed with that cause of action and distrusted Gato but he knew that Zabuza needed the money to support the cause of overthrowing Yagura's reign of the Bloody Mist. Mei Terumi, the one in charge of the underground rebellion had tasked Zabuza with the collection of funds. Zabuza's pride had prevented him when going to the Konoha team.

Haku felt that should he showed the Leaf Ninjas that they were not the enemies, the poisoner might choose to provide the antidote if they were not threats to their mission. The Leaf Ninja would not be attacked by them and Zabuza would not be suffering from the effects of the poison with the least bloodshed between the two groups. It was a win-win solution. Another confrontation with the Leaf Ninja was disadvantageous with the infamous Copy-Ninja, Zabuza was severely weakened and would not be a match for the other Jonin at full strength. With that, Haku vanished from the underground hideout in a swirl of mist.

~Page Break~

The bridge naming ceremony was annoying. With most of the people and the Daimiyo around, it was extremely crowded and full of chatter. Noise gave Yoshiko a headache and the fact that she was forced to endure through the whole 2 hours was plain annoying. Gato had not dared confront them, not with half of his forces still busy licking the wounds Team 7 had so generously given without the help of their Jonin sensei gave them. Others she had assisted in poisoning them or impaling them with her needles or her shadow technique to keep them in place for Naruto's punches for target practice.

Secretly, Yoshiko wondered what the hell happened to Zabuza. Most ninja would be forced to a diet of only baby food and a baby's lifestyle for a month; however, Zabuza was not most ninja. Still she hoped that the man would take his anger out on that swine of a businessman and not her. An angry elite assassin was not what she wanted to face, heck, she was not even the type for combat! She was back-up! Chances were that she would hide behind Kakashi or run away before that happened. Shikamaru and her were both equal contenders on the prize of number one at running away.

The girl was sticking to the corner of the ceremony, perched atop the tallest branch of another tree and reading her book lazily with a scowling Uchiha on a lower brunch, hidden amongst leaves for camouflage. He had been hiding on the top branch from Sakura when Yoshiko came and pushed him off the tree. Sasuke had been caught off guard and promptly went tumbling down the foliage of the upper canopy in the tree. Yoshiko had burst out laughing when two nestlings popped out of his hair and started chirping. Apparently resting on his head earlier was a bird's nest. He had to bear the brunt of her jokes while she removed the nestlings. It reminded him slightly of the times they had before that Thing happened and her decision to slot herself into the Medical Corps.

Sakura had been searching high and low for him. Hn, she was not looking up high enough. But Sasuke was not going to complain. A day without that rabid fangirl who was eagerly screaming in his ears was highly welcomed. Sasuke looked around for his sensei. The silver haired man was currently reading like Yoshiko, except he was busy fending off numerous women who were paying him a little too much attention. Sasuke gave a slight smirk when he witnessed the futile attempts of flirting by the women.

~Page Break~

Kakashi could sense the presence of another upper-leveled ninja near him, observing him. Unlike the other four cute little Genins, he had not been fooled by the Shadow Clone he left to attend the ceremony. Without a doubt, it was Zabuza's little apprentice and the one that tricked them of Zabuza's supposed death.

"Come on out," Kakashi said lazily, although his body suggested differently. That boy was at least an ex-Hunter ninja and the assassination corps of the Mist was not to be trifled with.

The boy came out of his hiding spot, with his mask on and all that. He was guarded like Kakashi was. Kakashi had a slight inkling on what this boy had come for, but it was better to reconfirm matters. Putting away his book, he looked up to acknowledge the boy.

"Hatake-san, I would like to request for the antidote of the poison that you have poisoned my master with. I assure that we will not attack you and your company. We've already broken off the contract with Gato, we are not your enemies now." The boy jumped into business quickly by taking off his mask and making his request known. Had Kakashi hadn't known that he was a boy, he would have mistaken him for a female with the feminine appearance he had.

How interesting, they thought I was the poisoner. Kakashi felt slight amusement at having to tell the Hunter-Ninja that he was barking up the wrong tree. A Jonin was not responsible for the poisoning but a Genin had. A Genin had bested Zabuza. Well with his help anyway. That ninja's arrogance could be his downfall via underestimating a less powerful opponent.

"I would have to tell you that you are asking the wrong person. It would be the Medic of the team you should be asking." Kakashi waited for the boy's reaction. The boy remained expressionless and instead vanished in a swirl of mist.

~Page Break~

Yoshiko was not pleasantly surprised when a girl appeared in front of her while she was eating the free mochi being given out. She had not been using her sensory techniques, hence being caught off guard and placed in a rather humiliating position when she gave out a rather girly scream.

Naruto had came running when he heard her scream from the ramen side of the buffet table which was the nearest to the mochi section. Naruto had began laughing at her and pointed at her, "Hehehehe Yoshiko-chan, you're scared so easily ttaebayo. Oh, hi Haku!" He practically hollered much to the embarrassment of the Nara who proceeded to mention of troublesome he was being.

Yoshiko turned back at the girl, now named Haku, raising an eyebrow at her sudden appearance. A Shinobi definitely, wait that chakra was familiar... Where had she sensed it? Yoshiko could remember one's chakra signature if she was familiar with them but strangers was difficult for her as she would associate the texture and the feel with that person's personality.

"Naruto, you're familiar with her?" Yoshiko asked the blonde curiously. Naruto had a talent for making many friends, hence she was not surprised at that affirmation. Hell, he had managed to get her brother, the laziest kid she knew to play a game of ninja with him.

"Yep, that's Haku." Naruto chirped back, almost eager to speak to this Haku who was looking at him with an amused smile. Yoshiko wouldn't put it past Naruto to have developed a crush on that pretty older girl.

"Yoshiko-san, is it? I would like to speak to you alone." The girl said before motioning towards the secluded area hidden by the trees. Yoshiko raised her eyebrows again before she complained slightly on how troublesome it was. Well, she begrudgingly followed the older girl to the meeting spot; never lowering her guard. Something about this girl rubbed her the wrong way, her chakra was familiar but she could yet to figure out where and when she came into contact with that chakra.

Haku turned to her once she was sure that Naruto was not in the heading range of their conversation. Still Yoshiko made sure to keep her chakra flared to inform their team leader of their location. Should anything go wrong, he would be the first to know and respond.

"Yoshiko-san, I would like to request the antidote of your poison to cure my master." Yoshiko jumped into action and trapped her with her Shadow Possession Technique.

"Shadow Possession Technique, success." So that was the fake Hunter ninja that they ran into, Zabuza's little minion. Yoshiko was wary, she was out of her league here and at a severe disadvantage if Kakashi don't come running and rescuing her soon.

She sent a flare of panic in her chakra to the leader of the team, praying fervently that he would respond. She still had her poisons, but without knowing her enemy's abilities and that the fact that she was up against a Jonin-leveled ninja, close contact was a strict no-no for her.

"Relax, I'm not here to fight. I wish to tell you that Zabuza-san and I are no longer working for Gato." Haku quickly said before continuing, "I hope that we may move elsewhere to negotiate, Nara-san." Yoshiko eyed the older girl uneasily, there wasn't any sign of offense in her body language... Fine, she would take a chance. Knowing Kakashi, he would be arriving soon, give or take a few minutes.

Haku made no move to fight the Shadow Possession while Yoshiko moved them under the shade of trees and towards the source of Kakashi's chakra that she had picked up upon. The shadow was the Nara's friend and Yoshiko would have a huge advantage with the shadows on her side should the negotiations sour.

"Haku-san, as you have figured, I was the one who poisoned Momochi-san and I am very much aware that no antidote that you have tried worked. Am I right in my assumption?" Yoshiko needed to know that she had the upper hand and that she had leverage against the Hunter-ninja. Probably, Haku was unaware that Zabuza would not actually die of that poison, it was administered simply to keep him at bay. Finally, it seemed like the Hunter-ninja had not detected three different but similar poisons laying siege on her master's body. But that little bit of information was going to stay with her.

Haku nodded to show that she was correct. "Hence, I would like to request for the antidote of that poison. We will not attack the bridge builder or your team as we will return to the Land of Water once Zabuza has recovered." Haku finished simply.

Yoshiko felt that she might be able to take that girl's word for it. Plus it was troublesome and worrisome if they had to be wary of an attack from a furious and vengeful Zabuza on their way home. She would obviously refuse to treat the man herself; one, it was too dangerous and two, Haku might put two and two together and figure out the poisons' properties. She would have to hand Zabuza half the exact amount of antidote that had to be consumed to make sure that he finished all of it in one sitting and hence the best way was to instruct Haku to feed Zabuza the antidote in different orders, pretending that they were all for one poison.

Surprisingly enough, Haku had obliged and had not felt the least bit suspicious on her weird instructions. Well, she was supposed to be the doctor here...hence, she concludes that the older girl was not a medical ninja but had basic knowledge on medicine.

As Haku was preparing to leave after being handed the antidote, she suddenly turned round and said, "by the way, I'm a boy." At that statement, Yoshiko was left gaping like a fish at that girl-no boy with an extremely feminine appearance.