The Immigrant, The Refugee, The Cold Case

Sakura was a liar: chakra-walking isn't easy. Naruto has no idea how she taught it to herself on the fly within ten minutes, but he has a newer, deeper respect for his teammate. He's run at these walls a billion times and he just isn't sticking. Sakura is amazing.

His only consolation is that Sasuke hasn't made it up more than a few meters either.

Darui-sensei covers the bottom half of his face with his hand to hide his grimace. "What a drag. I didn't expect you two to have such an issue with this exercise."

Sakura is asleep against a trunk. She managed to learn water-walking sometime between the twentieth and thirtieth time Naruto ran up a wall, fell off that wall, and landed on his head. It's easy, she said.

Sakura is a liar.

"Can't you teach us how to do it?" Sasuke spits. He has a bruise blooming on his forehead. "Aren't you supposed to be our teacher?"

"I've explained it already. It's about controlling your output. Too much, you blow up. Too little, you might as well not be sticking at all. Naruto — man, I'm surprised you have chakra left: you don't need to use that much!"

"Then how much do I use?"

"Less."

Naruto wants to put his fist through something. That isn't helpful advice. It's barely advice. Darui-sensei tips his head back and groans. "If you two could swap techniques, you might get it."

It's not the first time Darui-sensei has subtly turned them at each other. Naruto's stance remains the same. "I don't need that bastard's help with something he doesn't know how to do," Naruto crosses his arms.

Sasuke rears up at him. "What is your problem?"

"Nothing. I just don't wanna go to you for advice when you're not any better than me!"

"I am better than you," Sasuke shoots back immediately. He makes to step forward, but too many falls has weakened his right leg. It buckles a little. Naruto has fallen twice as much but Kyuubi has been good at fixing him up. Sasuke and his coolness evidently doesn't compare to a jinchuuriki's accelerated healing.

The boy looks furious about his apparent injury. Naruto puts his hand around his ear. "Huh? What was that? I'm not taking shit from a guy who can't land properly!"

"You nearly broke your neck your last run!"

"But I didn't."

"You won't even have to worry about the rocks breaking your neck when I'm right here to do it for you!"

Darui-sensei gets Sasuke in a chokehold again. Naruto is about to laugh when he feels arms lock around him, too. What the hell?! He tries to see who it is . Sakura hasn't moved, and it's only them here.

Darui-sensei sees his panic. "Shadow clone," he explains shortly, then shakes Sasuke in his grip. "If you two don't cool off I will seriously through your asses into the river. It's getting late. Give it a few more tries."

Once he's certain the boys are calm, he lets go. Naruto wheels around to see what Darui-sensei meant by shadow clone: his captor looks exactly like his sensei, identical in every way. Naruto blinks. He pokes it.

Fake-sensei swats his finger away. "The hell, brat?"

Naruto gawks. "Cool. Can I learn this?"

Fake-sensei bluntly says, "Learn how to climb a mountain first, dumbo."

He disappears in a cloud of smoke. Darui-sensei throws two kunai at the rocks. "Five attempts to reach there, then we go back to the village." Darui-sensei rubs the back of his neck. "Jeez, what a pain…"

Sasuke looks mullish. "And if we can't?"

"More like when. Well, me and Sakura will have to piggyback you two home. How does that sound?"

By Sasuke's audibly grinding teeth: horrible.

Naruto made the trip here on Sakura's back. He won't hate going through it again, but he'd still rather not. It was embarrassing enough the first time. Besides, Bee would strain a muscle laughing if he ever heard about today. Luckily Naruto doesn't plan on telling him shit. Not that Bee won't find out by himself.

He can be tricky when he's focused.

Freshly motivated not to be humiliated, Naruto storms over to Sasuke. He's just started running for the wall. Naruto grabs the back of his shirt to stop him.

He doesn't like it. Probably because it's been happening to him all day. "What?"

Naruto says, "Show me how you do it."

"No."

"You're not even gonna think about it?!"

"Why would I want to help you?" Sasuke says derisively. "Besides, I can't."

Because he can't do it either. Yeah, yeah. Obviously. "No shit. I wanna know how to make less chakra. Show me that."

Sasuke opens his mouth, then stops. He has to try three times. "Make less?"

"I have a lot of chakra."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because I have an ocean, bastard, and I'm trying to use a teaspoon of that to climb this stupid wall and it isn't working. I don't know what a teaspoon feels like. It's too small, it feels like I'm not using anything!"

Sasuke still doesn't look like he gets it. He probably has a puny amount of chakra. He wouldn't understand. "Just… use… less… How the hell do I explain that?"

"What does it feel like to you?"

"'Feel like' — like a small amount of chakra on my feet!"

"Show me!"

Sasuke shoves Naruto back with a hand on his chest. "Chakra isn't visible, you idiot!"

Naruto stops.

"Eh?"

"You can't see chakra. Not without a kekkei genkai or something, like the byakugan or… but otherwise, it's invisible. I can't show you."

"You can see chakra," Naruto says dumbly. He knows you can see chakra. He sees his and Yugito's and Bee's literally all the time. " You can see chakra, Sasuke."

Now he is looking at Naruto like he's really concerned about his ability to think. It's a powerful expression for someone who barely has a face to begin with. Sasuke says, "I swear you can't. Who told you that?"

"No one told me that!"

"Then why do you think it?"

"Because—"

Darui-sensei appears between them. He has a hand on their heads, lightly for now. "Are you two still arguing?"

Sasuke turns to him and says, "This idiot thinks chakra can be seen."

Naruto replies, "Stop calling me that when you think chakra is invisible!"

Darui-sensei blinks at them. Then he brings their heads together with a resounding crack! "You are wasting my time, you drags. Talk about that later. Right now I'm sure Sakura has other shit she wants to be doing."

"She's sleeping," Sasuke grumbles under his breath. Darui-sensei gives him a look.

"Because she's earned it. Up the wall. Hurry." He sends Sasuke along by putting his foot on Sasuke's back and pushing him. Sasuke stumbles, glares, then tries to run up the wall. Predictably it does not go too well.

Darui-sensei looks like he wants to sit down and not look at either of them. He seems exasperated when Naruto stands by his side.

"Naruto," he says, "why are you still here."

"Oh. Crap, yeah, I'll just—"

"Up."

\V/

Sasuke lands on his back for the last time today. He hears Naruto meet a similar fate beside him, and grits his teeth against a pained sound. He's furious and it is enough to get him up again, but before hecan, Darui picks him up by the back of his shirt.

Sidenote: Sasuke is getting sick of that.

"Good job," Darui says lowly. He eyes Sasuke critically. "How do you feel?"

Like every injury that didn't heal from his fight with Kiyona has multiplied by the dozen. "Let go of me," he snaps, jerking out of Darui's hold. The man holds his hands up lackadaisically. "So that's it?"

"For now. We'll try again tomorrow. Sakura and I will have to carry you both here though, so wait at the Yotsuki range for us."

"I don't need an escort."

"You kind of do." Darui says. He goes over to tell Naruto the great news — he takes it with a rosy face and clenched fist but no outburst, shockingly enough — and then wakes up Sakura. She doesn't seem to mind being told that she's carrying one of her teammates, but does ask for Naruto.

"I'm used to him," she explains. She won't look at Sasuke.

What follows is a twenty minute trip that Sasuke forces himself to forget as soon as it happens. Darui talks with Sakura and Naruto the entire time, but Sasuke hatefully maintains his silence. Everything about this situation is unbecoming. The fact that Sakura could do it proves that it isn't challenging, that Sasuke's inadequacy is a personal failing and nothing less than. Itachi probably—

Sasuke flinches away from the thought.

Yotsuki range is not too far from the gates of the village and marks the beginning of their trip to ravine seventy-three. Darui lets Sasuke off when they get there. "Did your pride survive that, kid?"

Sasuke glares with as much venom as he can muster. Not much: Darui is unmoved.

"Alright, you guys know the drill. Here, tomorrow at six. After we get this chakra stuff down, I can do proper training and get us some missions."

A fire lights itself in Naruto's eyes. "You'll get us a mission?!"

"We gotta do some other stuff first…"

"A real mission?!"

"The whole not-listening-to-me thing is going to be a real drag in the future, Naruto."

"Woo!" Naruto hollers, proving Darui's point. He forces a high-five from an obliging Sakura, blows a raspberry at Sasuke, then dances around the group singing, "Mission! Mission! Mission!"

He's an idiot.

"The rest of you can go," Darui waves at them. "Just let him do his thing. Again, good work today."

Sakura goes pink around the ears. "Thanks, sensei. See you later, Naruto-kun, and, um, you too Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke steamrolls right over her without acknowledging what she has said. He's invested in putting as much distance between him and them as he can in the short amount of time he has. There's no need to say goodbye when his actions do the trick perfectly well.

It's an uncomfortable walk home. Mikoto doesn't know any medical jutsu, so Sasuke will have to lather himself in healing salve and hope for the best. The sun has long since set when Sasuke arrives home: dinner is being eaten.

Mikoto, Kagen, and Hidoi are sitting around the table. Sasuke's plate is already set between his mother and Kagen.

"You're late," Mikoto scolds before taking in his state. "Oh my. Do you want to bathe, Sasuke?"

He should. He smells, he's filthy, and his clothes were dumped in dirty river water. Sasuke wasn't raised to sit at dinner like he is now. One glance at Hidoi confirms his next course of action. Sasuke sits down and pulls his plate in close. He eats like he's starved.

Hidoi makes a disapproving noise. "Sasuke—"

"He's hungry, Hidoi," Mikoto interrupts. She sounds amused. If they were in Konoha, she would have sooner killed herself than let Sasuke stink-out her kitchen. "How was training?"

Sasuke makes eye contact with Hidoi, speaking with his mouth full. "Intense."

"I can see that. Did you learn anything?"

"Getting there. This is delicious, mom."

"Thank you, sweetie. Kagen helped with the eggs, aren't they wonderful?"

He grunts neutrally. The kid should start pulling his weight around somehow. "I like yours more," he says, then focuses on clearing his plate. He's done in what feels like a minute.

As he rises for seconds, Mikoto snaps her chopsticks together. She points over his shoulder. "Clean up, then you can eat more."

He knew she wouldn't last. Well, Hidoi looks apoplectic, so Sasuke supposes they've done the best they can. He showers, runs a bath, and sits in the scalding water until his muscles have loosened up. He applies the salve before putting on his clothes.

The kitchen is mostly cleared when Sasuke returns. Mikoto is going over Kagen's school work. She gets bored a lot now that she's retired from the force. "Your serving is in the fridge."

Sasuke eats slower this time. Mikoto asks about his day; he tells her enough to satisfy her curiosity but doesn't get into it. She hums, fascinated. "I didn't learn chakra-walking for a while. I guess it's more important in Kumo. The mountain ranges, you know."

Yeah, Sasuke knows. He just finished learning all about it. "How was Konoha's test?"

"It was a teamwork thing. Konoha valued comradery above all else," They share a wry, disbelieving look. "Hypocritical, I know, but it was valuable for genin to learn. I met my best friend on that team. Do you have anyone like that?"

"No."

"No? Not even the girl, what did you say her name was?"

"Sakura?"

"Yes, her. She sounds nice. Determined, too. Usually girls get too flustered around you, but this one has her head screwed on right."

Sasuke shrugs. He doesn't have the highest opinion of her at this very moment. Explaining will just make his mother laugh at him, so he moves on, "Well, the other one is an idiot, so she isn't the worst."

"The boy?"

"Some nobody called Naruto."

Mikoto looks startled. "Naruto?"

Sasuke squints. She's sitting rigidly, and seems genuinely surprised to hear that name. She definitely recognizes it. That's odd, because Naruto has come out of nowhere and Darui didn't even explain it. He's like some sort of ghost. "You know him?"

Mikoto opens her mouth. "I — know the name. It must be more popular than I thought. Sorry, I was just surprised. Carry on."

… Weird.

"Are you sure?"

"It can't be the person I'm thinking of." She says firmly. "Really, it caught me off-guard. I want to hear more. How is your sensei?"

\V/

"He's the best!" gushes Sakura over the buzzing of Kai-shishou's sander. Her voice is muffled by the protective face mask she's wearing. "I think it's gonna go great! We were talking and he has so many ideas. He has water release like me, so he's going to teach me all these jutsu and he has a sword too so he can help me with my form and—"

The sander cuts off. Kai-shishou pushes up his face mask to ask: "Are you replacing me?"

"No!"

"Hmm. Sure." Kai-shishou flips his mask down before Sakura can say anything. "Well, don't stop there motor mouth. I want you to finish speaking before I'm done restoring this hatchet so I don't have to listen."

Sakura puts her hands on her hips. "Shishou I know you can hear me perfectly well."

He turns on the sander. It is so loud. "Huh? Are you speaking, Sakura? Speak up!"

Sakura rolls her eyes. Whatever, he's just jealous. She won't replace her shishou. He has been her teacher for years, teaching her to fight with axes and projectiles, and is the man in charge of her regime during the Academy. Sakura wouldn'tbe half the woman she is now without Kai-shishou's attention.

She wouldn't just forget that.

Sakura talks all through Kai-shishou's process. She helps where she can when he moves onto other projects, typical blacksmithing stuff: sharpening, moulding, grinding. "And how's your aunt?"

"She sent me over to your place so I would stop yapping her ear off. Her words."

Kai-shishou scoffs, pushing his hand through his copper hair. "I'll have to pay her back. Did you go to Netsu's place already?"

"Of course. She still wants you to make her a sword, shishou."

"Tell her that I'll do that when she can lift it. She has the muscle definition of an overcooked noodle."

"Not at all like me, eh?"

He flicks her forehead reproachfully. "You can start bragging when you go up a weight class, Sakura. Your sensei can help there. I don't know enough about chakra to be of any assistance."

Sakura smiles warmly at the older man. "You have your specialties, shishou."

"You don't have to tell me that. Now let's move onto a topic that interests me. Your axes. Do they need any work?"

"I chipped one two weeks ago," Sakura confesses. Kai-shishou groans loudly. "I didn't mean to!"

He waves her scrambling away. "No, no, I expected it to happen eventually — not before you graduated, of course. You're going to need heads made of tougher metals, real military grade materials. I'll have to take them from you to upgrade them."

"Oh, sure. I can get them out now?"

"... Later. I'm going to get started on tea. I want to hear about your teammates. Sasuke — is he the one you had a crush on?"

Sakura is on fire.

"WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT."

He laughs under his breath and ushers her into the kitchen. "You're many things but subtle isn't one of them. Hey, quick — do you think your axes need chakra-conductive metal?"

"Eh, I'm a water-type. Sorry shishou, but that's not complementary."

He hums, slightly disappointed. "That makes sense. If one of your teammates gets into weapons work, make sure to point them to me. I really wanna work with the iron I got imported."

Sakura promises she'll talk about it with Sasuke. Inner shifts nervously. Are we honestly gonna have the guts to talk to Sasuke-kun? Realistically speaking.

Ha!

… No. Shishou doesn't need to know.

\V/

The room is dark and small. Considering the size of his ego, it's amazing that Sasuke doesn't feel claustrophobic in here. Naruto does: he's used to wide-open spaces, and Sasuke's home is surprisingly modest in size. Freakily clean, though. That meets expectations.

Naruto tiptoes to avoid tripping on all the zero things on Sasuke's spotless floor. He sleeps on an elevated bed pushed against the wall. His drawers don't have anything on them but his bedside table has a lamp and a picture frame.

Naruto picks it up because he's curious. So what? It's just a picture of a family: Sasuke's presumably. He's recognizable, although barely because he's smiling and Naruto wasn't aware that he could. There's his mom, his dad, and another kid who is taller than Sasuke and standing behind him. He's looking down at Sasuke with a sweet smile on his face. It's a good photo. If Naruto had one like that…

The Kyuubi rumbles with cruel amusement. It's enough to snap Naruto out of his head. He replaces the frame where it belongs and gets started on what he came here to do.

"Sasuke," says Naruto, pushing his shoulder. "Oi, bastard—"

What Naruto isn't expecting is for Sasuke to be friggin' psychotic. Sasuke lashes out as soon as he is touched, throwing a fist into Naruto's gut to knock the wind out of him. He's barely keeled over when he's forced to the floor, Sasuke on top of him and holding a kunai to his neck.

That's not the weirdest thing. The lights are off but the window is still open — it's a full moon. Naruto is pretty sure that Sasuke doesn't normally have glowing red eyes.

Naruto goes to shout. Sasuke shoves his hand over his mouth.

"You…" Sasuke hisses lowly, eyes narrowing into furious slits. "You have five seconds to explain why you broke into my house, Naruto. And then I'm going to break your face."

As if he could. Sasuke isn't as tough as he thinks.

The hand is taken off. Naruto wastes a second just catching his breath. Then he wastes the next by asking: "What's with the eyes? They're freaky, man."

"Five," says Sasuke, shifting the kunai to remind him that it is definitely still there. "Four."

"Okay, okay, jeez. Paranoid much? Look I tried to move on but I couldn't stop thinking about what you said earlier. While we were training, 'ttebayo, do you remember? You said chakra was invisible. It isn't. Sasuke, it's not. Why do you think that? I have to know and that's why I'm here. I couldn't get to sleep it was bothering me so bad. It took me ages to figure out where you lived, it is way later than I thought it would be. Chakra isn't invisible. We have to talk about this."

Definitely went over his time limit. But Sasuke looks like he's forgotten to keep track of that. Naruto is fine.

Sounding dazed, Sasuke asks, "Do you have brain damage?"

"What?"

"Shut up. Keep your voice down, you'll wake my mom up," Sasuke stares at Naruto like he's a new kind of specimen. "Actually, just get out of my house. Now."

Seems like this ignorance is more dangerous than Naruto feared. He holds out his arm — Sasuke watches it like a snake but doesn't, like, amputate it (he might: Naruto doesn't know) — and says: "I have proof that it's visible."

"I can see it," Sasuke admits. Then he glares. "But only because of my… my…"

"Eyes," Naruto helps. Sasuke doesn't seem to know the word. Or appreciate his assistance. He's grinding his teeth again.

"Only dojutsu reveal chakra pathways. Any other time it can't be seen. I am going to throw you out the window, Naruto."

"But I can show you!"

Sasuke tenses up, throwing a panicked look at the door. "Volume, idiot—"

Naruto pulls on his chakra and gathers it around his arm. He was taught centralization when he was six; it's easy to focus it in one place and then keep at it. He pools his chakra into his arm, drawing on the miniscule pool of ever-present Kyuubi chakra he can access without needing to ask. Pointedly and smugly, he stares at the swirling mass of blue-and-orange.

Sasuke, in awe of Naruto's mad skills, stops breathing. He waves it around in his face in case the bastard tries to pretend his chakra isn't right in front of him. "I told you. You can see it! What are you going on about that it's invisible? That isn't true at all,"

Sasuke snatches his bicep to stop Naruto from moving it. There's a peculiar wrinkle between his eyebrows. "It's hot. How."

"Chakra nature? I dunno, never asked. I know someone who feels a bit like water,"

"You know other people who can do this?"

"Yeah, about three? My sister, my brother, his brother; we're not blood-related, they just raised me. Is that relevant? Have you seriously not seen this before?"

"Naruto," Sasuke starts, visibly alarmed and also undeniably fascinated. His eyes are roving over Naruto's arm like he's committing the sight to memory. At least the kunai is gone. "Do you have any idea how much chakra you have—"

Then the door slams open, and some lady is shouting Sasuke's name.

Sasuke actually leaps. It's like Yugito when she's surprised: a micro spasm, like a shocked cat.

"Mom!"

His mom looks a second away from a mental breakdown. Now that he's distracted, Naruto twists his hips and throws Sasuke the hell off of him, sitting up and dispelling the chakra around his arm. It'll be too much of a pain to keep it up right now.

Besides, what's happening seems urgent. And possibly Naruto's fault.

Sasuke's mom flicks on the light. Her eyes cut straight to Naruto. They, much like her son's, are bright red with black decals that definitely aren't pupils. "Minato?" She gasps, and that is not anyone'sname. Where did she get that from.

Oh no. Is Sasuke's mom crazy too?

"I'm Naruto, lady," he corrects, rubbing his neck. No wound, but yes to blood. Sasuke has issues. "Sorry for breaking into your house; I had to ask Sasuke something."

Sasuke's mom is speechless.

"We shouldn't have woken you up, sorry."

His mom blinks. Her eyes are black again. She exhales heavily; she can't hide the tremor in her hands. She must be really protective of Sasuke.

"You… look like someone I knew," She says flatly. She hasn't stopped staring at Naruto. "You don't act like him, though."

Naruto blinks. "What do you mean?"

"That chakra," she says abruptly, "it was yours?"

"Uh, yeah."

"But that doesn't… why are you here?"

"I told you: I had to talk to Sasuke."

"That's not what I meant — Sasuke!" She whips around to face Sasuke, who so far has been standing to the corner of the room trying to disappear into the panelling. He turns into a statue with his mother's attention on him. "You can't have visitors in your room without telling me first, those are the rules!"

"He's not a visitor. He's an intruder."

Naruto snorts. "Am not."

"You broke in and I didn't invite you — you're an intruder."

There is plenty Naruto can say to that, such as him being a genius because he is right about the chakra thing and how Sasuke can suck eggs, when someone joins Sasuke's mom at the door. A child.

"Go back to bed, Kagen," Sasuke says immediately. His tone is freezing cold.

The kid, Kagen, flinches. "I was just…"

Sasuke emits an over the top threatening aura. Naruto stomps over to bonk him over the head. His wrist is caught, but Sasuke isn't trying to kill a four-year-old with his eyes anymore.

"He's just a kid, lay off."

"Mind your business," Sasuke snaps painfully. "Kagen, scram."

Kagen still hesitates. Sasuke's mom sighs sharply, eyeing them critically, before carding her fingers through Kagen's hair. "Go back to bed, sweetie. I have everything covered. Is your dad awake?"

He shakes his head. "He's a heavy sleeper."

"Thank god for that. Go, I'll talk to you when I'm finished with your — with Sasuke."

Her words convince Kagen to leave. Sasuke watches him leave with dark eyes. His voice is utterly monotonous when he says, "I'm sorry, mom. I wasn't expecting this idiot to make a ruckus at three in the morning."

"Two, actually," she corrects, before pausing. "It's — it isn't your fault, Sasuke… Naruto."

Naruto snaps his head up: Sasuke's mom is staring dead-on, sharp and calculating. He hopes Sasuke doesn't inherit that stare. It could turn someone to stone. "Next time plan your visit during reasonable hours, please. And come through the front door."

Naruto swallows, certain that he's just gotten off easy. A quick check of Sasuke confirms it. The bastard looks disappointed that Naruto isn't being chewed out. "I will, Mrs... uh..."

"Kimura Mikoto." She tells him. "Call me Mikoto-san."

"Sure, Mikoto-oba-chan."

She doesn't even look surprised. For Sasuke, however, it's the last straw. He grabs Naruto by the back of his neck, draws him in to whisper, "We are so not done, moron," and without much fanfare at all, throws Naruto out of his room. He lands in some rose bushes.

Picking thorns out of his butt, Naruto whisper-shouts: "You're just mad that I was correct the entire time!"

Sasuke sticks his head out so his unimpressed face is on show, then pointedly slams the window shut.