Thank you all for the fantastic reviews I got for the last chapter! I kept looking back at them for motivation when this chapter wasn't cooperating like I wanted it too. Also, the question of Sakura's age came up once again: for any of you who are curious – she is currently ten-years-old. And therefore, two years younger than the Konoha Rookies, three years younger than Neji and four years younger than Kaoru and Akane.
Hope this clears up all misunderstandings!
~Enjoy!
We moved out of the branches and closer to the clearing by which the other gennin stood. I saw the Great Copy Ninja Kakashi facing down another ninja; one I had seen so many times in my bingo book; Zabuza Momoichi. From where we stood, it looked like the Copy Ninja was winning… but something was wrong. I scanned the field with my chakra, and stifled a gasp – there were six signatures, but I could only see five people. Not even a second after my discovery, two senbon needles sent out of nowhere pierced through Zabuza's neck. Everyone present looked up in search of the owner of the needles.
A small figure stood on the branch opposite where the pair had been. He wore the mask of the Kirigakure Hunter Ninja.
"Something's off." Akane muttered beside me, staring intently at the fallen missing-nin. I kept my eyes on the Copy Ninja as he knelt down to check his pulse, then got up again, apparently not finding it.
I watched the blond kid throw a tantrum at how unfair it was, and I realised that we had just missed a battle. Straining slightly to hear what his sensei said in response, I frowned when I heard his words;
"In this world there are kids who are younger than you… but stronger than me." I ignored the knowing look Kaoru sent me at that statement.
Suddenly, the hunter-nin disappeared from the branch and appeared by Zabuza's side. "Forgive me. I must now go and dispose of the corpse. It's a body filled with secrets." His soft voice barely reached my ears, but I still heard them.
I frowned. "Don't hunter-nin normally dispose of the body on the battlefield?" I asked, curious.
"That's it!" Akane suddenly exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. "I know what was off before – the position of his needles – they hit pressure points; he's not really dead!"
The three of us exchanged horrified glances as the meaning of his words registered.
A fake.
Immediately, we jumped down from our hiding spot, and Akane hurried in the direction of the three ninja. "Don't let him leave! He's not a real hunter-nin, just a-!" but he was too late as the fake hunter-nin had already disappeared in a whirl of leaves. I paid little attention to the shell-shocked gennin and bridge builder, instead scouting the area to see if he was still around somewhere, but it was a false hope.
I returned to my teammates, shaking my head. "They're gone. Though, I'm not really surprised." I sighed.
"Hey, don't worry Sakura-chan. We'll get them eventually." Akane consoled me, and I offered a weak smile at his efforts.
However, it seemed as if the shock had worn off the gennin as the loud blonde exploded, "Just who the hell are you?!" he demanded.
I noticed Kaoru wince beside me. "Aish, kid, have some respect for my eardrums." He grumbled, massaging his head. "Here." Akane offered, reaching out with his hand to the brunette's temples, the soft green chakra soothing his headache, both completely ignoring the raging blonde.
Oh, so they were leaving me to do the talking, huh?
I turned to the Copy Nin, also ignoring the obnoxious blonde. "We're your back-up." I stated matter-of-factly, but it seemed that the gennin took pleasure in interrupting us, and did so before the man could reply.
"Back-up?" The Uchiha hissed indignantly. "We didn't call for any back-up." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his attitude.
"Perhaps you didn't, Uchiha, but your sensei did." I replied, unaffected by his anger. "Now, if you'll excuse us, your sensei and I need to talk about how to get rid of an S-Rank missing-nin that's currently after your assignment." I said coolly, turning my back to him.
But it seemed that the Copy Nin took that exact moment to suddenly collapse, freaking his students out even more. Immediately, the blonde was in front of me pointing an accusing finger at my face. "What did you do to Kakashi-sensei?!" he shouted angrily.
"She didn't do anything." Akane said calmly, kneeling beside the fallen ninja. I saw the blond jump in shock – apparently he hadn't heard Akane coming. "He was simply too exhausted due to overusing his Sharingan."
I stifled a laugh at the redhead's cocky tone – I rarely saw it anymore, and it was really amusing when it wasn't directed at me. Regaining my composure, I turned to the bridge-builder with a raised eyebrow. "What's your name?" I inquired coolly.
I saw his eyes widen when he saw how young I was. "Kami above, you're just a kid!" he cried, shocked. This time I did roll my eyes.
"I don't see how that matters." I replied pointedly. "Now, back to my previous question."
"My name's Tazuna. I'm a bridge builder." I nodded, easily formulating a plan in my mind – after all, we still had a mission to complete.
"Right." I turned to address the gennin. "Since your sensei is down, I'm in charge. Now, we're going to impose on Tazuna-san's hospitality, at least until he recovers, and then my team will leave you to do your job while we do ours and seek out Zabuza and his side-kick." I stated, not leaving space for any arguments. Or so I thought.
"And why should we follow your plan?" the Uchiha asked snidely, sneering at me.
"Sasuke-kun!" the girl behind him gasped, surprised at his tone. I ignored her, turning my full attention to the brat.
"You should follow my plan, Uchiha," I started coldly, my eyes boring into him, "Because it's the only plan that is guaranteed to save your sorry little ass and get both of our missions done." I finished.
The blonde gaped, his jaw slack and eyes wide, while the Uchiha looked like I had just spat at him.
"Why you-! You're just a brat." He hissed, glaring at me.
"Perhaps, but I have more experience out in the field than the three of you combined." I motioned at each of the genin individually. "Which, in turn, makes me superior to you. Since you're fresh out of the Academy, I trust you remember Rule Sixteen? 'A shinobi must always follow their superior'?" I asked rhetorically.
"Actually, it's 'A shinobi must never question their-!" the brunette girl interrupted, but was cut short by the Uchiha's hiss of "Shut up, Hikari." He turned to me. "You're not my superior."
Now I was getting irritated. "Be quiet." I said coldly, my words coming out exactly like I wanted them to; threatening and final. "I could crush you, Uchiha." I continued, my voice venomous. "I could crush you and break you and stomp all over your pretty little face until you'd beg me to stop. And I will, if you don't shut up, swallow your pride and do as you're told. Understood?" I hissed at the end, making sure to punctuate my statement with a shot of killing intent.
A hand rested on my shoulder, and I didn't have to look up to know it was Kaoru who came to calm me down. Kami only knew how he did it. "That's enough, Sakura-chan. You've scarred him enough."
Indeed, the Uchiha was shaking, and looked ready to puke, but at least he took my words to heart and quietened down. I turned to the bridge-builder who was staring at me with a horrified expression.
I smiled slightly, laughing internally when he winced. "Lead the way, Tazuna-san. We're right behind you."
Once we arrived at Tazuna-san's house, I commanded the little genin to get some rest, studiously ignoring the glares and angry mutters. I didn't care; it was easier for us if they slept and regained their energy than if we had to deal with a group of exhausted genin while trying to run away from enemy ninja. We switched guard every three hours so that each of us got at least some sleep. Even so, I couldn't relax – this mission was turning out to be a lot like our first one, the only difference being that their sensei had the sense to call for back-up at the last possible moment.
I wondered how it would end…
Sometime during my musings, I had dozed off into a light sleep, so I didn't even notice when the sun rose over the horizon – we had insisted on sleeping outside in our tents, not too keen to venture into the already-crowded house. I was therefore startled awake by the sound of somebody unzipping my tent and crawling inside, followed by a light shake of my shoulder.
"Hey, Sakura-chan, wakey-wakey." Akane's voice penetrated the air. "Tazuna invited us in for breakfast; apparently the brats' sensei had woken up and is demanding an explanation."
I groaned and sat up, wiping at my eyes. "Tell him to wait." I grumbled, not ready to deal with people so early in the morning.
"He says he'd already waited enough…" the redhead mumbled, unsure of what my reaction would be.
"Then tell him that patience is a virtue! I don't give a crap if he has to wait another ten years!" I hissed irritably, not happy to hear that the man whose ass we had saved was complaining after he'd left us to deal with the brats he called his pupils.
"OK, OK. I'll tell Kaoru to pacify him for a little longer." Akane relented and I nodded gratefully, stretching my back until I heard a satisfying 'crack!' that made the redhead wince and mumble something that sounded only like 'Geez, creepy child' before he crawled out. I made sure I was presentable before I followed his example and got out; after various stretches and katas, as well as some simple chakra control exercises, I was ready to deal with the brats. At that moment, I didn't care about the fact that some weird man wanted my presence, regardless of the fact that said man was the great Copy-Cat Ninja Kakashi Hatake.
I was a little uneasy as I entered the house and headed to the kitchen, where I could hear voices coming from. As I walked in, the conversation quietened and all eyes turned to me.
"Good morning, Tazuna-san and…?" I trailed off, looking at the lady and the little kid beside her.
"My name is Tsunami and this is Inari." The pretty woman replied with a smile and I forced one on in response.
"Tsunami-san and Inari-kun. I thank you for your hospitality." I bowed, before turning to the gennin team, once again ignoring the blonde's stupefied look after seeing the 'polite' side of me. I fought the urge to scoff.
"Hatake-san. Glad to see you're feeling better." I nodded at the man, keeping my face carefully blank.
"Likewise." He responded, scrutinising me with his one visible eye. So, he didn't trust me. Interesting. "I hear you took care of my students?" he asked, though I could see he was testing me.
"I wouldn't say 'took care of'. Some of your students are far too proud to listen to simple instructions." I replied, casting a subtle glance in the Uchiha's direction.
"Hm. I would say they were simply surprised by your… appearance." I frowned distastefully, the implication behind his words blatantly obvious.
"They should know that age does not define one's ability." I stated coldly, getting more and more annoyed as he smiled at me.
"Even so. I would like to speak to your sensei, if that's not a problem." Immediately, the temperature in the room dropped down a good ten degrees. I froze, and Hatake must've sensed he was treading in dangerous waters as he said no more, instead continued assessing me with that judgemental eye of his.
I took a breath, attempting to control my rapid heartbeat, but it proved futile. Kaoru must've noticed as well as he subtly edged himself between me and the jounin.
"I fear that's impossible, as our sensei is not here with us." He stated politely, yet his words held a note of finality.
"Your sensei isn't here?!" the blonde shrieked. "Is that even allowed?" he yelled, jealousy evident in his tone.
"Lord Hokage knows we're more than capable to take high-rank missions without assistance. We've been gennin for two years, after all." I replied quietly, the formality of the words somehow calming my fraying nerves. When I was sure my voice wouldn't break, and after I had pushed the memories of our sensei lying motionless on the ground to the deep, dark recesses of my mind, I allowed the confident mask to steal over my face once again.
I was finally able to take pleasure in the gennin's shell-shocked expressions.
"T-Two years?" the only girl on the team stuttered, her eyes as wide as saucers. "B-But, you're younger than me!" she pointed her finger at me, almost accusingly.
"Yes, so?" I drawled, already bored with the conversation.
"The Academy graduation age is twelve!" she exploded.
"Nuh-uh." Akane disagreed, grinning. "When some children prove truly exceptional, they may graduate earlier than others – Sakura-chan was one of them and joined our team when she was eight." He explained, visibly gloating.
"That makes you ten years old." The girl stated, and I realised that the math, like it had to me, had made her slightly calmer.
"That's correct." I replied easily, smirking lightly. "And it's also the main reason I expect you to do what I tell you to." My smirk grew when she shrunk back in her seat, and I sent a meaningful glance at the Uchiha.
"Hah, I see there's quite a lot I missed while I was gone." Kakashi attempted to break the steely silence that had stolen over the room.
"Yeah! That chick literally jumped on Sasuke-teme, going all crazy on him! She's scary!" the blonde, whose name I learnt was Naruto, accused, jumping at the opportunity.
"She didn't jump anyone!" Akane defended me. "It's his fault for being a jerk!"
Kaoru and I sighed in unison, leaving the two idiots to their argument as we sat down and thanked Tsunami-san for the meal. This was going to be one hell of a long mission.
After breakfast, I found a nice spot on the roof and stayed there as I watched the group of gennin prepare for what their sensei had ambitiously called 'training'. I scoffed when I realised he was talking about the tree-climbing exercise, but my eyes widened when the gennin hung onto his every word, obviously hearing about this for the first time.
"What is this? Are they serious?" I muttered in disbelief, still staring wide-eyed at the scene below me.
"Not everyone can be like you, Sakura-chan." Kaoru's voice came from behind me, and I stayed silent as I felt him settle down beside me. "These children attended the Academy, yes, but they were sheltered from the real ninja world for much longer than us. I can bet this is their first mission outside of the village." He continued thoughtfully.
"…Why do you always have to be the voice of reason?" I muttered quietly, only half-joking.
He chuckled. "I just am. You up for a spar?"
I grinned, and jumped off the roof, landing gracefully on the ground below. "Well? I'm waiting, Kaoru." I called up to him.
"Waiting for what?" Akane asked as he suddenly popped up beside me, swiftly moving out of the way as Kaoru landed where he had stood just a few seconds earlier.
"A spar." I explained. "By the river; the first one to get wet loses." I challenged, and their answering smirks were all I needed as confirmation.
"This isn't working!" Naruto yelled in frustration as he fell on his butt for the umpteenth time. "Stupid tree!"
Hikari, who'd already reached the top branch and now stood beside her sensei frowned at the blonde. "That's because you're doing it wrong, you idiot!" she scolded him, her eyes quickly flickering back to Sasuke, her frown deepening when she realised he wasn't that far ahead of Naruto.
Suddenly, the sound of laughter reached their ears, and they all turned their attention away from the conversation and towards the source. Through the trees they could easily make out the blue of the river, and the three genin running and jumping on top of its surface.
"Looks like our back-up is having fun." Kakashi mused.
"What the-! They're walking on water!" Naruto sputtered, dumbfounded.
"They're sparring on water, dobe." Sasuke corrected easily, but his eyes remained glued to the fighting trio.
"Ah! That's dangerous!" Hikari squeaked as the redhead fired a giant fireball at his teammates, both somehow managing to get out of the way.
Team 7 watched, intrigued, as they continued, making off-handed comments on the jutsus, or gasping in horror at the impossible manoeuvres and techniques they shot at each other. Kakashi's eyes, however, were trained on the rosette's feet – she seemed to glide on the water, and he soon noticed that it was because her feet never lost contact with the water's surface.
This jutsu had been around for hundreds of years, yet I'd never seen anyone make such acute adjustments to it…
They all watched as the rosette suddenly disappeared, leaving the brunette and his shorter friend sparring in the middle. The redhead went to attack the other with a kunai, but was easily blocked as the taller boy unsheathed a tanto. They noticed the redhead grin as he kept on putting more pressure on the kunai, until both of the boys' arms were trembling with exhaustion. All of the sudden, the redhead sprung back, and they watched, in awed silence, as the small pinkette appeared in mid-air and drop-kicked the brunette's shoulder, forcing him beneath the water's surface.
The redhead walked towards her and ruffled her hair, saying something they were too far away to catch, but it made the rosette laugh and playfully punch his arm.
As the brunette surfaced, the laughing duo walked towards him and helped him up, the boy dripping wet, but still managing a chuckle as the redhead jumped on his back and shouted a joyful 'You lost, Kaoru-chan!'. Kakashi managed to read the boy's lips as he replied, and chuckled behind his mask at the words; 'No fair. You double-teamed on me. In a fair spar, you'd be the drenched one.'
Both boys laughed, but the rosette's eyes turned watchful and guarded as she scanned the area, and the burning emerald eyes finally connected with his coal black one. All traces of a smile vanished from her face as her eyes narrowed, and Kakashi frowned at the caution and suspicion evident in them. Those were not the eyes a ten-year-old should have.
"That… was amazing." Hikari remarked from behind him, her voice breathless, and his attention suddenly snapped back to his team, all of whom were gazing at the retreating team with varyingly awed expressions.
"Teach us to fight like that, Kaka-sensei! I wanna kick some butt!" Naruto shouted gleefully, and returned to his attempt at tree-climbing with renewed vigour, Sasuke soon joining him.
"You two keep practicing. I've got to check something." Kakashi remarked calmly, giving them his signature eye-smile before disappearing.
Night soon fell, and Sasuke and Naruto remained in the forest, Hikari occasionally going back to deliver them some food. Kakashi had been trying to find the pinkette for a few hours, but to no avail. It was like she completely disappeared, or masked her chakra, and considering what they'd witnessed not too long ago, he wasn't all that convinced it wasn't the latter.
Finally, he saw her perched on the tree closest to the water, staring with unseeing eyes at the dark surface.
"Is there something you need, Hatake-san?" she asked calmly, and Kakashi wandered if she had some sort of sixth sense or just a really good chakra-sensing ability.
"Actually, there was." He replied light-heartedly, moving to sit beside her. "It's a pretty night, isn't it?" he observed.
"Please get to the point."
Kakashi chuckled and became serious.
"You're not like the others." He stated bluntly. "But even so, that does not explain how you became a gennin so early, or why you look like you're constantly expecting an attack."
Sakura glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke. "I became a genin because I had almost killed my classmate with a forbidden, thought to have been extinct taijutsu style." She explained, her voice devoid of emotion. "As to being constantly on guard… I have seen too many horrors of shinobi life to remain trustworthy, and oblivious enough to believe that just because something seems immoral, the other ninja won't do it."
Kakashi took in her words with a thoughtful look in his eyes. "Spar with me." He requested. She arched an eyebrow at his words, but stood up regardless. Forget her age, or his experience; he needed to see with his own eyes.
An hour later found them panting and in various stages of exhaustion. Sakura was nursing a split lip and a broken wrist, while Kakashi had multiple bruises on his forearms from blocking chakra-enhanced kicks, and a few blocked chakra points.
"Juuken?" he asked curiously, prodding at the blocked point on his collarbone.
"Sharingan?" she replied to his question with one of her own.
He chuckled breathlessly. "Coincidence." He explained vaguely.
"Let's just say I'm friends with a certain Juuken-wielding Hyuuga." She muttered, just as ambiguously.
Sakura knew the Copy-Nin could've easily pinned her down and ended the spar in half-time, but she had also realised he was testing her. For what, she had no idea, but she enjoyed the spar nonetheless, and even gained some respect for the man.
On the other hand, Kakashi was now sure the rumours had more depth to them than he'd previously assumed. If this was her at full power, he belatedly realised that what his team had witnessed by the river was mere child's play. This girl was fully deserving of the title as the 'Captain of the Demon Siblings', and her team of said moniker.
"Seems like Konoha has itself a very strong generation of ninja this year." He remarked casually.
"And it seems like the jounin don't just laze around the headquarters drinking sake." She replied, and he chuckled when he realised this was as much of a compliment as he'd ever get from her.
"Mou, we're not that old." He complained.
She smirked at him over her shoulder. "Did anyone say anything about you being old?" she asked mischievously, before she dissolved into the shadows and disappeared from his sight.
When she was gone, Kakashi allowed the grin to slide off his face. Teasing aside, that really isn't the level normal gennin should be at. He absent-mindedly rubbed at his still aching shoulder and the chakra points that buzzed in pain. I'm half-expecting her to suddenly become ANBU and murder her clan…
He stopped in his tracks and thought about what his mind had just noted as dread began to fill his stomach.
Actually, there are too many similarities for it to be a coincidence…
Aaaaaand… here it is! I apologise for the longer-than-normal wait, but I had just come back from Paris yesterday! It was so cool!
Next chapter will be the meeting at the bridge, so I can guarantee it'll be rather lengthy ;)
If there are any things mentioned in this chapter that require clearing up, don't hesitate to mention it in your review or a PM!
Hope you enjoyed,
Review please!
~Invincible Shadow