Chapter 7: The Misadventures of Konohamaru and Isamu (part 1)

"What is this feeling, so sudden and new?
I felt the moment I laid eyes on you.
My pulse is rushing.
My head is reeling.
My face is flushing.
What is this feeling? !

"Loathing" by Wicked

Konohamaru

From the moment I saw her, I hadn't liked her at all. Of course, Sakura-nee just had to go and be all 'open and loving' sisterly mode on her and offered her apprenticeship that I had rightfully claimed as her long dubbed brother. But then in walks a soft, short girl with ink black hair and eyes and Sakura just jumps to recruit her?

The entire thing made no sense.

Here I was after an attack was sent on my home with no connections to Konoha telling me if my mother lived or died in the fire –though my heart told me she did not, the only way I could keep myself from crying is the thought that she did– and Sakura decided to take in a wayward kunoichi who couldn't do much but glare at everyone.

"Now," Sakura clapped her hands together to gather our attention. "Isamu-kun, Maru-kun, you are both hereby under the tutorage of me and will be following my exact orders from here on out. You will train, you will bleed and you will want to give up. But first I will give you a test to pass before we can progress through the finer details of medic-nin jutsu and then ninjutsu that we all know . . ."

Well, some of us know. I added in my head, but batted away.

Isamu was unmoving and gave Sakura an odd look when she rolled out two paper scrolls in front of us. Her attention was directed on Isamu this time. "Okay, Isamu-kun, do you remember everything I taught you yesterday?"

What? My head snapped back. Sakura-nee said she couldn't talk yesterday because she had work! Was she giving Isamu a private lesson? !

"Yes, I remember. I did the reading too."

Oh, sure the goodie-two-shoes did the reading . . . wait, there was reading?

Sakura continued to explain the assignment of reviving a fish on the brink of death. Giving us both pointers on chakra flow and the jutsu we were supposed to use and answered our questions before ducking out to deal with a problem down the hall.

Leaving me alone with her.

"So . . ." I ventured, hands still positioned over the fish. "Have you ever gone to school for this?"

Isamu didn't answer.

Her dark hair hung over her face like a curtain between the two of us, though most of it was pulled back into a low ponytail I could see it was a lot cleaner than it had been when we first met, Sakura had kept to her promise of taking care of her. Everything about Isamu now was clean and new; right down to the clothes Sakura had given her. Sakura had swore that they'd once belonged to her but the colors and designs proved that she'd taken Isamu shopping for new clothes so she wouldn't have to wear her moth eaten ones.

She was stealing my sister away from me.

I continued to stare at her as she began chewing off her own lips and flushing red from effort over the fish. Her chakra signature was a sharp collection of knives, turning and cutting and dangerous.

She was determined to make her fish breathe again.

Its tail twitched slightly under her efforts.

The blaze of her chakra bared stronger.

I didn't have the exact knack for medical jutsu Sakura had, but if this kept me away from the village I was sure I could rough out a few chakra flow lessons and try to stop a few bleeding wounds in order to stay.

Closing my eyes, I summoned more chakra to my hands and breathed out. Doing as Sakura said by picturing the fish's body in my mind. Finding the lungs and heart of its respiratory system and pour my chakra into its body at that point. Cooling, healing, living.

A slimy wet tail slapped my palm and my eyes shot open to see the wiggling fish on the paper.

I did it . . . I revived the fish!

A grin stretched across my face broadly and I looked up to find Isamu staring at her own wiggling fish with a satisfied look on her face.

The door clicked open and Sakura-nee-chan appeared in the doorway with a clipboard. "How are we progressing?" she asked, still reading over the document.

How are we progressing? I smiled in spite of myself at her formal talk. I'll show you how we're progressing!

Grabbing the squirming thing in my hand, I moved to hop off of the stool and my foot caught on the edge of my scarf, bumping me into the table. The table began to tip and I reached for it, grasping the fish tighter in my hand, its whiskers cutting into my flesh, I cried out and went flailing back and . . .

Isamu's deathly calm and scrutinizing glare swept over me.

. . . efficiently crushing Isamu's revived fish.

Two weeks later, Isamu stilled hadn't forgiven me for the incident that destroyed her first achievement in becoming a fully fledged ninja. Where I'd gotten to keep my fish, Kei, in a tank in my room, Isamu was left with empty hands and a thirst for my blood.

Continuing our training, we were bitter rivals for Sakura's attention and success.

"Now, this man is laying in bed." Sakura said gesturing to the poor patient that had volunteered to be the specimen for her class in order to go up higher on the waiting list for surgery. It was a small sacrifice on his part, but on the bright side he could be in surgery within an hour if everything went accordingly. "By sight only we can tell his leg is broken and the bandages around his head are spotted with blood –which shows either a fresh injury or him needing a gauze change. But don't let sight alone fool you. It's looking inside the boy that tells the real story."

Isamu stared at the man a moment longer and he withered under her intense gaze.

"Maru-kun, would you like to check him for further injury?" Sakura asked, smiling at me like an adoring elder sister.

I nodded. "Hai."

Stepping forward I smiled at the patient to reassure him, like Sakura had taught me, and was about to rest my hand on his chest when Isamu started talking.

"By the way his leg is bent it was not a clean break, shards of the bone should be embedded into the muscle on the inside, hinting that he was jumped." Isamu's eyes climbed to the head wound. "He was probably hit over the head first . . .with something made of metal, telling by the bruises, and with a sharp edge in order to cut deep enough to cause profuse bleeding . . . there are probably bruises on his abdomen and chest too from kicks and punches."

The man and Sakura stared at her in shock and then Sakura nodded.

"That is correct, Isamu-kun. Nice work."

Isamu seemed to puff a little with pride. "Arigato, Sakura-sensei."

My eyebrow twitched and Isamu sent a glare my way. "What?' she hissed.

"She probably just looked at his medical chart." I addressed to Sakura.

"Maru-kun, it's in my hand." Sakura said calmly, showing me the clipboard with a schooled expression.

"There's no way she could have know that."

"How can I cheat? !" Isamu gaped at me liked I'd just smacked her with her own dead fish. "I know these injuries. I see them all the time!"

"Do you cause them then?" I asked dryly and Isamu lunged at me, grabbing my forearm in an iron constrictor grim.

"Want to find out?" she asked darkly and I growled right back at her.

"Like you could."

"Enough." Sakura snapped causing us both to jump. "We do not show hostility in front of patients. We submerge them into a calm environment and if you two can't understand that so help me I will throw you both out the window!"

Isamu and I shared a side glance.

"Twenty laps after work. Go find Junko-san and ask for someone to heal this man's injuries. I'm going to the demolition sight after this." The look on her face screamed for murder, the same face she always got whenever Isamu and I took up our bickering. It annoyed her, deeply. It was one less thing that she would have to deal with if she decided we weren't worth it. She'd send Isamu to school and me back to Konoha –the home I missed but could not go back to as long as Danzo was in charge.

"Hai, Sakura-sensei." We muttered.

Reluctantly, Isamu and I turned to head back to the front desk while Sakura scribbled away at her report and apologized to the patient who looked terrified for his own life. Once Sakura had went inside to change out of her medic coat, Isamu turned to me.

"I can't believe you." Isamu growled harshly under her breath.

"What's there not to believe?"

She tripped me, floor rushing up at me and I caught myself before my face made contact with the cold, hard floors.

"You're such a spoiled brat that you'd believe that I can't be a formidable ninja?"

"I never said that . . ." I glared. "And I am not a spoiled brat."

Isamu glared darkly and chuckled to herself. "You are the most spoiled, unrequited, clingy, snot nosed brat I had ever met. And trust me, I've met them all."

"Don't act like you know me!" I screamed, catching Isamu and several medic-nin off-guard.

Flashes from that day crept from the back of my mind. Holding images of fire, of fear, of my life burning around me. And then the nightmares. The ones that continued what I might of seen if my mother hadn't teleported me to Sakura.

I saw my mother dying. I saw her withering and burning and screaming.

I watched her become blackened and chard and the smoke suffocated me mercilessly.

". . . you don't know anything." I growled. Getting up from the floor and shoving Isamu out of my way.

Isamu

Twenty laps around the perimeter of the Tower. Lovely, just lovely. I thought irritably as the brat and I continued our circling of the Tower and the large square courtyard. Around us, patients and medic-nin watched and whispered two each about how the two 'unruly apprentices of the Goddess' weren't getting along again. It was amusing to them.

My teeth bared at them and they shrunk away to go about their business and leaving me alone.

Sadly, my glare didn't have the same effect on the brat.

He'd just stare at me, roll his eyes or make a comment about how scary my face looked and either continue to pester me or just walk away unamused.

He was an idiot. And a jerk. But mostly a brat.

"Trip me again and I swear I'll fracture your ribs!" The brat –Konohamaru was his name– called from two yards behind me, still coming up fast after my previous attempts to make him face plant into the dirt.

Another irksome thing about the brat: he made only half-hearted threats.

He'd say things like 'fracture' or 'sprain' instead of 'break' or 'crush'. When I asked why he simply replied that it was what he was capable of and wouldn't make a promise he couldn't keep.

Idiot.

A loud explosion followed by a scream rang through the village, sending us both falling to the ground. Looking up I found one of the sky high towers of Amegakure fall to the ground, leaving a huge cloud of dust in its wake.

I felt my blood go cold at the sound of Sakura-sensei's voice dripping with malice over the rumbling sounds of the wreckage.

"What are you doing here? !"

This could not be good.

*Slaps self in face* Get it together woman!

Sakura found something! Hell yes! Madara is back!

Next chapter coming soon because this one is so short. Fianlly getting the ball rolling into the stuff I have pre-written. Sorry for the wait, I've kept this on the back burner for too long and someone -who will remain nameless, you know who you are- commented on my graveyard of back burner stories (now for dramatic monologue)

Ugh! My poor children! Who's done this to you! ? Me? You're mama? No! It couldn't possibly! But it is . . .*cries* I will save you all! I swear!

gah, lack of sleep I have bags under my eyes. But for arguments sake the avatar/profile picture someone chooses for their profile is just how I picture them when I'm reading one of their stories or writing to them. So if you picture me to be as pretty as Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette from Marie Antoinette 2006 (my profile picture), then bless your little soul and give yourself a cookie.

-Song- Give it a listen if you haven't, it's hilarious.

Review me, let me know your with me,

~QueenVamp