Lessons of Experience
Chapter 9: Waking Up
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Umino Iruka sat in the Hokage's office going over some last minute business concerning the end of the academic school year.
It was nothing but paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork, but the kindly old Hokage made for some pleasant company.
Iruka was expecting a predictable afternoon and sighed under his breath.
Outside, the sound of approaching footfalls grew louder and louder.
Both men watched silently as the doors of the Hokage's office were flung wide open by a disheveled and singed Hatake Kakashi.
"Hello Kakashi. How are you finding your new team? " greeted the old man with his most cheerful grandfatherly smile.
The experienced jounin was clearly not feeling like sunshine and rainbows.
"With all due respect Hokage-sama, but just what the hell has Uzumaki Naruto been learning?"
The leader of the Village Hidden in the Leaves had a perfectly innocent, "Who, me?" look that might have been passable if he had only been sixty or so years younger
Kakashi was terminally unfazed.
Seeing that his opening stratagem did not work, the famed tactician then quickly adopted a thinking posture, rubbing his aged chin.
"Hm…I seem to recall that young Naruto has been training in the mornings with a retired shinobi."
"Which retired shinobi, Hokage-sama?" inquired the jounin almost non-chalantly through clenched teeth.
The Hokage smiled.
"I don't think you would know him by name, but you may have heard of his work during the Great Shinobi Wars as The Executioner.
Umino Iruka just blinked in confusion, not understanding the reference.
Hatake Kakashi just froze, his face growing pale underneath his mask, and his stomach growing queasy.
The Executioner.
Kakashi did his best to suppress a shudder.
Some names and deeds were never glamorized in the annals of Konohagakure's official history and never will be.
No historian will write flowery accounts of how Morino Ibiki had to drive bamboo spikes under a traitor's fingernails to get them to speak,, or how Nara Skikaku accidentally strangled a child to death with his shadow to avoid compromising an A-rank assassination mission.
Only some ANBU members and other people in the hierarchy of Konoha were privy to the unvarnished truth.
Nowadays, Konoha possessed a reputation for being soft-hearted, but that was not always the case. Once upon a time, Konohagakure was another little pissant village. The leaf village's reputation as a major shinobi power was built upon the blood of its enemies and patriots. Before the advent of the modern organization of ANBU, Konohagakure relied on individual shinobi for black ops missions. Back then, a single capable nin was burdened with the work of what entire ANBU teams were given nowadays. For all their relatively small numbers, these proto-ANBU made up for with skill and viciousness.
In all the references Kakashi heard of relating to this elite group, one dominant figure was mentioned in hushed tones with nothing but the highest respect as the meanest motherfucker of them all.
The Executioner.
An uncharacteristically disturbed Hatake Kakashi leveled an accusing finger at the leader of his village, stating, "You are a bad man."
The one-eyed nin then leveled a finger at Umino Iruka as well, remarking, "And you… …you're the friend of a bad man."
Iruka just looked bewildered as he watched the jounin quickly make his exit
The Sandaime had the decency to not chuckle.
"Does that mean that Team 7 passes, Hokage-sama?"
Umino Iruka took the Sandaime's laughter as an affirmative.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hatake Kakashi reflected on his first meeting with team 7, and on every cut, and every bruise.
Being a pragmatist, Kakashi knew it was all his fault. It was his encounter to lose or win. If he had only taken them seriously from the beginning, things could have gone much more smoothly.
Being blindsided by a genin who was technically dead-last at the academy, if only Uchiha Obito could see him now. The happy-go-lucky Uchiha would've had a field day.
Hell, it would have been a freaking dream-come-true for Obito.
Now, because of his own arrogance and ignorance, the sole survivor of Team Minato had a genin team of his own to deal with.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
To relive the pains of his past was the last thing he had ever wanted, but they had earned it.
They were his now, and he'd be damned if they ended up the same as his last team.
Like Obito, who sacrificed his life to save a comrade.
Like Minato-sensei, trading his soul to defeat the nine-tailed fox demon.
Like Rin, captured by a squad of iwa-nin, tortured, raped, and ultimately killed.
The loss of his team, his surrogate family, jaded Kakashi so badly that he retreated inwardly, performing his missions efficiently, doing little else. He was a consummate professional, always getting the job done.
They made him an ANBU commander for that.
Despite the harder missions, being a part of Konoha's ANBU forces was easier for Kakashi than having a team.
He was greeted with respect and admiration rather than affection. The ninjas he worked with didn't try to become his friends. They clearly understood the life and death nature of their line of work. Instead, they were comrades.
Team Minato was his family.
This was the reason why Kakashi's graduation tests were so demanding compared to other jounin. He secretly hoped to never be in charge of a genin team.
It was the same reason he preferred the straightforward narratives of Jiraya's writings compared to the company of his peers.
In Jiraiya's stories, the endings were usually happy and, at worst, bittersweet.
The happy endings in the Icha Icha series did not exist like that in real life.
All true stories ended in death.
Kakashi found that out years ago when he was helpless to stop Rin's torment. Upon finding Rin's cooling body, he had mowed down every member of the iwa-nin squad responsible. Kakashi did so with Obito's eye at his disposal, and with the usage of the newly-dubbed raikiri, having just pierced through an expert raiton user and his prized lightning bolt jutsu.
Team 7 would not end up like Team Minato, Kakashi decided. Even if they ended up hating him for it, the members of Team 7 would thrive as shinobi, together.
Kakashi had a lot of legacies to uphold, but he would do his duty as he always did.
It was time to get cleaned up, and then address an issue of vital importance concerning his new genin team.
A team, like a length of chain, was only as good as its weakest link..
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Haruno Sakura was combing her hair in front of her bedroom mirror before heading to sleep.
Suddenly, the reflection of a tall, silver-haired figure in dark ANBU-style armor appeared behind her. He had the hilt of a short sword poking out from behind his back and full equipment pouches brimming with kunai and shuriken.
The pink-haired girl let out a high-pitched scream of terror.
"Yo."
The silver-haired jounin waved.
"Ack! What are you doing in my room, Kakashi-sensei?!"
"As you witnessed earlier today, I had a wake up call. Because of it, I am now responsible for your life, and your possible death."
Haruno Sakura nodded, confused, and not just a little bit intimidated.
"Being a shinobi is a not a game for children. To prepare, I will train you until you hate me, and until you are competent, and hopefully to where you can give your teammates a run for their money. I'll expect the best from you, because, as an active duty kunoichi in a prospective heavy assault team, you cannot afford anything less. In battle, if you take your new role and responsibilities lightly, you will be killed instantly, and at worst you will captured alive and tormented in ways that most male shinobi will never experience."
Sakura shuddered in revulsion at the thought.
Kakashi tossed her a small parcel.
"What is this?" wondered the young girl out loud.
The jounin smiled through his facemask.
"Those are mercy capsules. You could swallow one whole and it will pass through you system, but biting down on one will kill you quickly and painlessly. Some nin carry them around in their mouths on missions to avoid being captured alive. Also, in a pinch, you could break up the capsules and use the same poison against your enemies."
In an instant, Kakashi turned deadly serious.
"Take your training seriously, or get used to the idea of biting down on a capsule to avoid a fate worse than death. Alright?"
Sakura, frightened and numb, merely nodded.
Kakashi tousled her hair playfully.
"I used to be an ANBU commander, so I'll train you guys in the tricks of the trade. I'll focus on you especially, because I hope it'll never come to that."
With a small wave, the jounin vanished.
Sakura stared in shock at the small package in her hands.
Just what kind of team did she end up on where a jounin-sensei gives suicide pills to his subordinates as a friendly gesture?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sleep did not come easily for Uzumaki Naruto.
If fact, it was excruciating.
He had been fighting for hours, but it may as well have been days or weeks as faceless shades descended upon him in his sleep. Sometimes they bore various weapons, and sometimes brutal techniques. At times, they attacked him one on one or en masse with vicious teamwork.
The only things that were constant were that they were utterly relentless, and utterly skilled, and they always won in the end.
How well he dodged or struck did not matter.
No matter how many he killed, he would eventually falter and be killed in return. Impaled, burned, throat cut and gasping for life, Naruto could not rest as he found himself whole again and again, and beset by mysterious enemies.
Every time the shadows overwhelmed him, Naruto felt an irrational desire to rage against fate with every dying breath. This frenzied instinct for survival grew more intense with each successive defeat, and against increasingly bleak odds.
Even if a brutal death was his inevitable future, Uzumaki Naruto would not be broken.
Even if the effort was ultimately futile, he would fight tooth and nail.
After what seemed like an eternity, Naruto woke up sweat-drenched and exhausted, curled up on San's couch.
Relating his dream vividly to San, the old man simply smiled a knowing smile and nodded in approval.
"Naruto, sometimes a person chooses an art, and sometimes an art chooses its practitioner. Your dream suggests the latter. You know what this means, boy?"
Naruto shook his head.
San summoned a knife to his right hand.
"You were born for this. It's in your blood."
San dispelled the knife and turned to his blonde student.
"Let's move. It's time to cash in a favor that the Sandaime owes me. Believe me, you'll love it."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
End Chapter 9
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
C&C welcome