The Rain that Cleans Wounds – Konohamaru's Loss

Looking out of the window of his apartment, Sasuke tried not to feel bitter. He watched the heavy, grey clouds roll over the Hokage monument, promising rain and a sombre mood to the proceedings. It struck him as unfair that he had buried his clan in sunshine, as though the world had rejoiced at their passing, but that it now held respectful silence for the departed Hokage. He could see other people, clad in black, making their way through the streets, heading towards where the memorial was to be held. All this sadness caused by one man's death.

Sasuke closed his eyes and remembered how the Hokage had come to see him, soon after he had buried his parents. And I turned him away. Told him that I didn't want sympathy, I wanted training. He smiled slightly. He told me that I was angry, and that it was okay to be angry for a while, but that I should try to look for happiness and contentment. I thought he knew nothing, but maybe he was right after all. He was jerked from his thoughts by a frantic knocking at his front door.

When he opened it, Sakura almost fell into his arms, sobbing.

"Sasuke-kun! Naruto… Naruto's refusing to come out of his apartment. He says it's because he doesn't have the right clothes, but…"

Sasuke sighed, and tried not to pull back from Sakura. "I'm not surprised. This is probably the first time he's lost anyone." He rubbed her shoulders gently, trying to calm her down so she would let go of him. "I can lend him some clothes, but he has to want to come, Sakura. After all, he wouldn't come to training yesterday with us, and he might not be feeling up to this yet."

Sakura looked up at him with tearful eyes. "Could you try, Sasuke-kun? You always seem to be able to reach him better than I can." She looked back down. "He'd listen to you."

Sasuke stepped back from her, shaking his head slightly. "That idiot only listens to me when he wants to." He sighed and brushed the hair out of his face. "I'll go try. Just give me a minute to find some clothes for him." He turned back to his bedroom, trying to ignore Sakura's relieved smile. I don't know what she expects me to do. I've got no real sympathy for someone who can't suck it up and get on with life. He quickly pulled out some spare black trousers and a shirt, before heading back to the main room. "Okay. I'll head over there now."

Sakura nodded and started out of the apartment. "Do you want me to go with you?"

Sasuke looked up from locking his door and resetting the traps. "Why don't you go on and wait for Kakashi? We'll meet you at the corner where the tea shop is." He watched Sakura nod then disappear around the corner. Sasuke tried not to sigh. I really don't know what she expects me to be able to do. I'm not the kind of person to give kind words. This whole situation is making me on edge. He started to walk towards Naruto's apartment block. To my mind, funerals will always be 'bad'. Not sad, or consoling, or even cathartic. Guess it must be a hold over from childhood. He kept walking, ignoring the damp in the air, making his way to Naruto's door before tapping on it lightly.

"Go away, Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke sighed. "Let me in right now, you idiot. It's going to start raining any minute." Receiving no reply, Sasuke hammered on the door more firmly. "Open this damn door, Naruto!" Receiving no answer, Sasuke pulled a loop of wire out of his pocket and proceeded to pick the lock. Like most locks in Konoha, the one on Naruto's door was there more out of custom than the belief that it could stop an intruder from within the village. Sasuke had the door open in seconds. "You better damn well have some clothes on, Naruto," he muttered to himself, going in and looking around.

He found Naruto sat on his bed, curled up and looking forwards, blankly. Several bandages covered Naruto's face, including where Sasuke remembered there being a gash on Naruto's forehead.

"Hey, Sasuke." To Sasuke's ears, Naruto's voice was dull and lifeless, lacking its usual warmth and cheer. "You should go. Don't want to be late."

Sasuke scowled at him. "You're a mess. You think no one else in Konoha is unhappy? They haven't gone all to pieces, so why should you?"

Instead of arguing back, Naruto just curled further in on himself.

Sasuke growled slightly. "Right. Up." He darted forwards, grabbing Naruto's arm and hauling him bodily up and off the bed. "You are going to move. You are going to get showered and dressed and fed, because I'm sure Sakura's been trying to mother you too, and then you are going to come with me and Sakura and say goodbye to the Hokage." He shook Naruto by the arm, trying to get a reaction.

Naruto tore his arm out of Sasuke's grip. "I don't want to! I don't want to have to stand there with everyone else and hear how great old-man Hokage was, and how bad things will be without him! He was a living, breathing person, not some ideal who died for his village! I don't want him to be remembered like the Fourth is." He looked down. "When you hear about the Fourth, you just hear that he was a genius, and how he died. But what about his favourite colour? What about what kind of girls he liked? Did he like kids, or did he hate being a jounin-sensei? Did he even like ramen?" He shrugged. "I don't want the old man to end up remembered like the Fourth. I want him to be remembered as a person, not an event."

Sasuke sighed. "Go shower, Naruto. If you don't go to the funeral, you'll regret missing the chance to say goodbye." Or at least, that's what all those medical ninjas told me back then. "You'll be able to see that there are lots of others who want to remember him, just the same as you." He started to shove Naruto towards the bathroom. "I've even brought you some clothes. Now go get cleaned up and changed, or Sakura is going to kill us both for being late."

After the memorial, it seemed that the whole of Team Seven were drawn together towards the Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Sakura supposed that it was force of habit, and wanting some tangible sign that life would continue on normally, even with the Hokage gone. She was glad that meeting Iruka at the memorial service and talking some things through with him had seemed to perk Naruto back up again, and that he seemed at least superficially back to his normal noisy self. When she had said so to Sasuke, he had merely pointed out that Naruto's eyes were still somewhat pained and less bright than usual, although he agreed that Naruto seemed well on the mend.

In an unusual move, even Kakashi had decided to join them, ambling along behind them, as if it was mere coincidence that they were going the same way. Sakura gradually fell behind Naruto and Sasuke, leaving them to bicker, while she walked alongside Kakashi. "Things seem almost back to normal, don't they, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?" Kakashi turned his head to look at her, as if only just noticing her. "Well, it does seem that way on the surface. Although, it's going to be annoying having to deal with all three of you at once."

Sakura hmphed and folded her arms, still walking. "You haven't seen us being annoying with our new and improved teamwork yet. We'll drive you crazy within a week."

"Do try. I could use some light exercise." His one visible eye twinkled in merriment at her. "Plus, I have some new training for you."

Sakura tilted her head. "Going to run off with Sasuke-kun somewhere again and leave us alone?"

"Tempting, but no. Now that we have time, I was going to teach you some genjutsu and ask Sasuke to partner for you with the training." He smiled at her look of confusion. "Sasuke will have his own lessons to learn from all this, which you'll understand in due time. Meanwhile, Naruto is still a mess of a ninja. I'll be teaching him what he should have been learning before the exam but managed to weasel out of."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto waved from the stall-front. "Come on! Aren't you hungry?"

"Coming!" called Sakura back, trying not to laugh at the scowl Sasuke was giving Naruto for yelling across the street. "Are you going to join us, Sensei?"

"Hmm…" Kakashi tilted his head and appeared to think hard about Sakura's question. "Well I have nothing better to do, and I am hungry."

"So that's a 'yes'," said Sakura, taking hold of his arm and pulling him towards where Naruto and Sasuke were standing, glaring at each other. "Come on, you two. If you keep that up, you'll never eat."

Naruto broke eye-contact first, preferring to pout at Sakura. "But Sakura-chan… It's ramen. You wouldn't stop me from eating ramen, would you?"

Sasuke snorted. "At this rate I might pay for ramen for you because it's the only time you seem to stop jabbering away. I could use the peace and quiet." He shoved at Naruto, who had held his hands out as if to receive money. "I said 'might', idiot." A smile quirked at his lips, which he quickly suppressed before sitting down next to Naruto.

Naruto laughed, and signalled the owner. "One bowl of pork ramen, Mister."

Sakura slipped into the seat the other side of Naruto and gave her own order in before turning back to the conversation. "It's a shame Naruto talks with his mouth full, Sasuke-kun. All you'd be doing is changing intelligent conversation for an unintelligible one."

"I think the unintelligible one might make more sense." Sasuke settled on Naruto's other side then flicked a glance over at Kakashi, who was folding his lanky frame onto the stool the far side of Sakura.

Kakashi grinned back. "Now, now, don't mind me, Sasuke. I just want a quiet lunch."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Naruto and Sakura, who were bickering again.

Naruto folded his arms and gave Sakura a pitiful look. "But, Sakura-chan, it's mean to say I never say anything intelligent anyway."

"But is it untrue?" teased Sakura back. "You spend all your time talking about how you're going to be the greatest ninja ever. I could practically recite your speech from memory at this point."

Naruto looked away from her. "Yeah, well. Maybe I've changed my tune lately. Being Hokage is a tough job. Old man Hokage showed me that. He was just some old man who'd actually made it, you know? Gone through and up the ninja ranks and actually survived being Hokage once before. He should've been allowed to live in peace."

Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, he was the leader of the village. When trouble came, it was his job to protect the village and he knew that. He even suspected that all this would happen because, when we finally got to him, he was in the battle dress he used as a young man. He knew this was coming, and he managed to hurt the assassin in the fight."

Naruto shook his head. "Still, who'd want to do that? Assassinate him? This isn't the Ninja Wars anymore. Things like assassinations aren't supposed to happen between allies."

"They happen all the time, Naruto," said Kakashi. "Peace is just something we ninja give lip-service to in order to keep the civilians and the feudal lords happy. At best all we can hope for is an uneasy truce that can fall apart at any time. The Hidden Villages all compete for the same clients, and all try to keep their own affairs secret from each other." He nodded towards Sasuke. " For example, as little as is known in this village about the sharingan, our medics do know a little, even if it's only what sealed records tell those with clearance. You actually know a lot for a Konoha ninja on the subject." His mask crinkled into a smile. "In fact, you'd be something of an expert, really. But outside of this village, it's almost impossible to find someone who even knows what it looks like."

"Really?" Naruto looked interested, then his attention was diverted by the food arriving.

Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief. At least this means that Naruto doesn't yet know that it was Orochimaru who killed the Third. Finding that out might cause problems with Naruto seeing Orochimaru as hurting what amounts to his family, what with Sasuke and the cursed seal. The last thing we need is that and Kabuto's betrayal to cause Naruto to take this personally. With one of the Legendary Three involved, we can't afford to let it get personal.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was noticing someone who was trying desperately to go unnoticed. Of course, if one is going to go unnoticed, it would help if he held his camouflage cloth the right way round. This instantly suggested that the small figure was not a threat to the group and Sasuke almost ignored it totally.

Then he heard it choke back a sniffle.

Ah. Must be that Konohamaru-brat. Snuck away from any adults because all they'll be doing is giving sympathy and grand speeches. "Death comes to us all" and blah blah blah. They should know that it's small comfort to a child. He reached out slightly, and elbowed Naruto.

Naruto gave an indignant squeak. "Hey jerk, what was that for?"

Sasuke jerked his head towards where Konohamaru was trying to sneak past and watched Naruto's face fall.

"Oh." Naruto quickly shoved his now empty bowl back towards the owner, nodding. "Thanks, Old Man." He turned towards Sasuke. "You better not try anything with Sakura-chan while I'm gone, you know."

Sasuke snorted and folded his arms. "Go, Naruto."

Naruto nodded. "Later, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei."

Sasuke watched Naruto hurry off after Konohamaru, then sighed and shook his head, turning back to his own bowl of ramen. An idiot, but his heart's in the right place. Maybe if I'd had someone like Naruto around… He killed that idea mid-thought. The past is past. Damn this funeral, it's making me think about this stuff again, when I really don't want to. A contented sigh drew Sasuke's attention and he looked over to see Kakashi sit back, his bowl empty and his mask still firmly in place. How does he eat so fast?

Kakashi smiled over at Sakura and Sasuke. "So… What plans have the two of you for the rest of today?" Receiving a blank look from Sasuke and a confused shake of the head from Sakura, he smiled and continued. "Then maybe we should take advantage of Naruto being occupied elsewhere today to start your training together."

Sasuke nodded slowly. If we try when Naruto's about, he'll just be bouncing around, distracting us until Kakashi deals with him. This way, he can focus on us today and focus on Naruto tomorrow. He shoved down on the jealousy caused by the thought of Kakashi working with someone other than him and nodded more confidently. "Training would be acceptable."

"More than 'acceptable'," said Sakura quickly. "I could do with finding something constructive to do, else I'll spend all day just wandering about." And with all this destruction, I'll feel guilty that I haven't been assigned to a work team yet.

Kakashi nodded. "Alright then. Meet up again in an hour." He vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura blinked a few times. "I wish he wouldn't do that. I know he's a jounin and all, but would it kill him to say things like 'bye' once in a while?"

"Whatever." Sasuke rose from his stool slowly, stretching slightly to try to get rid of the stiffness from his remaining bruises. "We should get changed and fetch our gear before we have to meet up again. Even after arranging this, he'll probably be late, but…"

"But in case he's not, we should be there on time," sighed Sakura. "Okay, Sasuke-kun. I'll head back to my house after I finish eating. See you there, huh?"

Sasuke nodded and started back to his apartment, trying to figure out if training with Sakura one on one was a good thing or a bad thing.

As predicted, Kakashi was late. Sasuke was grateful that it was only by ten minutes, and suspected that it was as close to 'on time' as Kakashi would ever allow himself to be in a non-urgent situation. And maybe even in an urgent one. The man follows his own rules. He stretched slowly and frowned at the skin under the bandages on his arm pulling slightly, even though the bandages were now only tied around his hand and forearm. Hopefully this training will be enough of a break to let the skin heal at last. As long as I stop dragging it through things, my arm should be okay.

"Okay then," said Kakashi, looking positively gleeful. "I hope you're both ready to suffer dreadfully."

Sakura laughed nervously, mostly sure that Kakashi was simply trying to scare them. "Always am, Kakashi-sensei. Now what is it that we're going to do?"

Kakashi nodded and started to walk. "We're going for a walk. The centre of Konoha is hardly the place to try to do this." He kept walking, not looking to check that Sakura and Sasuke were following behind, although Sasuke was sure he was tracking them by either sound or chakra somehow.

Without Naruto, the walk was much quieter than normal. Sakura made a few attempts to converse with Sasuke, but he was obviously ill at ease with trying to make friendly banter with her. Maybe it's because he's worried that I'll start to act like Ino and the other girls around him if he gives me any sign of interest. I think, maybe in the past I would've taken it as a sign of love he couldn't express on his part, but now I just see that he doesn't really know how to talk with people any more because he's been alone so long. She kept trying to chatter away and was relieved that Sasuke's answers, while short, were at least pertinent.

Finally, Kakashi stopped at a location that confused Sakura. I know that I'm supposed to be doing genjutsu training, but this is an assault course training ground. "Sensei? Are you sure this is where we're supposed to be?"

"Yup." Kakashi gave her another infuriating smile. "This is the spot all right."

Sasuke snorted. "After the chuunin exam, this doesn't look so challenging."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find it challenging enough, Sasuke." Kakashi dug in his back-pouch and produced a scroll that he gave to Sakura. "Here. I want you to study the first genjutsu on this scroll, then use it to guide Sasuke around the course until it's flawless."

Sasuke folded his arms. "Why would I need help from genjutsu? This isn't a high level training field, it's one of the ones we used to use when we just got out the academy and into Team Seven."

"Ah," said Kakashi, "but can you do it like this?" He reached out and tugged at Sasuke's forehead protector, pulling it down over his eyes.

"Hey!" Sasuke started to push it back up but Kakashi pushed his hand away. "What are you doing, Kakashi?"

Kakashi's smile turned slightly frostier, and he put a guiding hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Come on, Sasuke. We're going to go have a chat while Sakura studies her new scroll."

"Sasuke-kun? Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke was unable to see Sakura's expression, but she sounded confused and nervous to his ears.

"Don't worry, Sakura. We won't be going far," replied Kakashi.

Sasuke felt the firm grip on his shoulder start to guide him away, and then his attention was pulled towards not tripping over the uneven ground. Eventually, the hand was removed from his shoulder and Sasuke's hand again went to push his forehead protector out of his eyes. This time it was met with no resistance. "Okay, Kakashi. What is the meaning of all this?"

Kakashi shook his head slightly. "I think our walk just proved it, Sasuke." He waited to see if Sasuke would show any signs of having figured it out for himself, then sighed as Sasuke remained silent. "Sasuke, you have one flaw that if you don't learn to correct now will cause you serious complications in the future." He saw Sasuke's gaze change to a glare, and inwardly chuckled. Don't like being reminded that you have flaws, do you? "It's a flaw common to most of your clan, and maybe even most doujutsu users. You see, your eyes are your main weapon. That trait has been bred into you, and then your clan's training methods for using the sharingan re-enforced it."

Sasuke snorted. "Yes, and why not? It makes sense to use an advantage to its fullest."

Kakashi smiled. Ah, how easy to bring that image crashing down. "And what if the enemy uses a jutsu to blind you?" He held up a hand to stall Sasuke's counter argument. "Oh, not a genjutsu, but dust, or mist, or even just an attack on your eyes themselves? At the minute, you are fine but you're in danger of becoming dangerously blinkered, to the point where you will only see the threats in front of you. Just as your sharingan sharpens your eyesight, so you need to sharpen your other senses."

Sasuke started slightly, then turned to look over at where Sakura was reading her scroll. "That's why you want me to partner Sakura as she learns this particular genjutsu, isn't it? Because I'll have to compensate."

Kakashi shrugged. "I couldn't say. I did hear it rumoured that the Uchiha have sharper than usual eyesight, even before they get the sharingan. If that's the case, you're going to have to compensate in other ways, aren't you?" He grinned at Sasuke. "So. Work hard. I'll be back later to check on your progress. Right now I need to go see if there are any more cute kitties that need rescuing." He disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving Sasuke trying not to curse.

And the unfair thing is that Kakashi's arguments make perfect sense. Sasuke tried not to sigh, and turned to walk back to where Sakura was slowly going practicing a sequence of hand-seals. "You know what we're doing, then?"

Sakura nodded. "This is just a simple projection genjutsu. I should be able to make you see anything I want you to, although it would be easiest to just show you what I see. Might be best to start with that, rather than me trying anything too complicated. Once we get the hang of it, maybe then we can try me making things up?"

Sasuke tried not to shiver at the idea of simply allowing someone to play with his perceptions. "That's fine, Sakura." He tried not to wince at how uncertain he sounded. This is Sakura. She wouldn't try to hurt me like he did, and this blindfold is only voluntary. If she does anything I don't like, all I have to do is push my forehead protector back up and use 'kai'. I'm not going to be trapped in genjutsu. He clenched his hands into fists for a moment, before pulling his forehead protector down over his eyes again. "Okay, Sakura. You can start now."

Sakura nodded, and flicked her fingers quickly through each seal in sequence. "Shikaigen no jutsu. (1)" She held the image of Sasuke in her mind, as the instructions said, and was only mildly surprised when she started to somehow feel his presence nearby. This must be the sensitivity to individual chakra patterns the scroll talked about. Tentatively, she reached out to Sasuke's pattern, imagining her own laying on top of his. Sakura saw Sasuke tense suddenly and, if she did not know better, could have sworn that his whole body seemed composed of nervous tension. She focused on making sure the connection was steady before speaking. "Sasuke-kun? Are you okay?"

Sasuke nodded sharply. "Fine."

"Can you see anything?" asked Sakura nervously, thinking that perhaps he could sense her interference, but without there being a visible result.

"I can see myself," replied Sasuke. "It's not very sharp though." So maybe Kakashi was right about Uchiha eyesight. I hate when he's right, it lets him be smug. "Can we just get this over with?" He started to stalk over towards where he thought the training equipment was, then stopped mid-step as a wave of dizziness overcame him. The world view doesn't move as I do. This is going to take a lot of work to get used to. The perspective he was perceiving started to change to a close up of the side of his head and he felt Sakura's hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay, Sasuke-kun? What's wrong?"

He shook her hand off roughly. "Just the perspective throwing me a little. I'll be fine." He straightened up, making a conscious decision not to allow himself to show any further weakness in this. This is not how I should act. This is training to overcome a weakness, so I should dedicate myself to it fully.

Sakura nodded, not really understanding Sasuke's sudden tension. "Okay, Sasuke-kun. Why don't I walk behind you? That way you can see better." She waited for him to nod before she moved to face the equipment. "Okay. Well, after you then." She watched him start walking before following, trying not to notice the stiff steps and the tension in preparation for a fall. This seems to be such a different Sasuke-kun. He's never seemed so uncoordinated, so graceless. It makes him seem more like Naruto somehow.

Together they stopped just in front of the start of the assault course. Sasuke took a deep breath and started to stretch his arms and shoulders. "So, if you walk alongside, we'll take it fairly slowly. Are you good to hold this a while longer?"

Sakura nodded. "A little while at least. We can do it once, then I'll probably need a break. I just don't have the stamina for techniques that you do." She moved around, noting the wince on Sasuke's face as his perspective shifted again. "Ready, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke nodded. "Okay. Just take care on this." He started to move cautiously through the course, and Sakura saw him often make a mistake from misjudging distances and angles.

Of course he would. He's not seeing what he needs from me. As she guided him through, she tried not to wince as he banged against the hard wooden equipment, knowing that he was still hurting from the Sand's attack on Konoha. And judging from his expression, this is almost a kind of torture for him, being pushed back to clumsy from his status of Number One Rookie. As he cleared the last part of the test, she let the genjutsu stop and moved to meet him as he pushed up his forehead protector again to blink in the sunlight. "Good job, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke snorted. "I looked like an amateur." He rubbed at his injured left arm slightly. "Kakashi was right though," he said, somewhat reluctantly. "He said I relied too much on my eyes, and I obviously do if I can't even cope with the way you see the world." He sighed. "So I'm going to fix this. I need to get rid of all weaknesses, so next time…" He trailed off, and looked pointedly away from Sakura.

Sakura tilted his head. So next time… what? Does he feel guilty that I got hurt in the fight while he was okay? Does he think that because me and Naruto got hurt, he should've protected us better? "It's okay, Sasuke-kun. This way, you get to learn to deal with less information, and I get to learn about genjutsu and increase my chakra capacity through training. We both gain from this."

Sasuke sighed and nodded. "You're right, Sakura. Let's try to get this perfect." He pulled the forehead protector back over his eyes, and started to walk unsteadily back towards the beginning.

Sakura shook her head as she followed. Maybe it's too early to ask what about all this is making him so nervous. Maybe he doesn't like me taking control from him, even with something this simple. Obviously, this will be quite a challenge for us both.

(1) Shikaigen no jutsu – Literally "World-View Illusion technique". Created from the kanji 視界幻の術 (Assuming I'm reading it right)