0.0 :jawdrop: .god. I GOT SO MANY REVIEWS. :D
Darktayle LOVES YOU ALL. 8D Please enjoy the chapter....and give me reviews. My muse eats them and is happy. :)
xxxxx
Naruto calmed down before long, somewhat sheepish at his lapse of concentration. It was all too easy to revert to his triumphant exuberance, formerly triggered for any noteworthy accomplishment. For one such as this, it was near impossible to not become so cheerful. He forced himself to sober up.
Focus. Remember your mission.
"Well, we're off the hook for now." He informed his team cheerfully. "Not dead yet, at least. I can't believe that worked. But anyway, I'll send out some clones to scout the forest. See if they can find where Zabuza and his lackey are hiding." He paused. "Maybe even Gato too. Chikage no jutsu." He made eight clones, feeling carefully for any adverse reactions. He could feel a strange rushing of his blood, and his heart pumped ridiculously fast for several moments, but he didn't feel anywhere near that horrid dizzying sensation of earlier. Apparently, it only happened when mass amounts were created at once.
Dammit. That made creating an instant army impossible.
Oh well. There was still Kage Bunshin for that, if he needed it. He frowned. Somehow, using the less developed version after creating his own seemed unsavoury.
"Right, guys, you know what to do. Each of you take one direction. North, south...all that crap. Be stealthy as possible. You're not being decoys this time." He informed them, and watched as they saluted and disappeared into the undergrowth. "Old man, how do we get across the water?"
Tazuna swallowed. "We go to the dock. A friend of mine has a boat."
They followed Tazuna there, taking in the rower who seemed highly unimpressed with them, yet slightly wary at the same time. Most of that diminished after Tazuna told him of how they'd protected him from a powerful ninja only a little while ago, and invited them into his boat.
"Very misty." Naruto remarked, looking around.
"Good for cover." Sakura recited immediately. She was the expert of the facts. Sasuke just 'hn'ed from where he sat, looking as if he were thinking hard about something.
Tazuna was reciting the details of the fight to his friend, who cast appreciative glances over to team 7 at the highlights, wondering how children had managed to do such things. Naruto looked to the sky. "Hell, it's getting late. How long will it take to get to your village?"
The rower shrugged. "An hour, give or take."
"Where can we stay?" Naruto queried. It would probably be quite dark in an hour. The barren, bleeding time of day was nearly upon them, heavens injured and ready to open. The colour was faint through the mist.
Tazuna grinned. "With my family. We've got guest rooms."
"Makes sense." Naruto grinned back, feeling a little of his distaste for the guy dissipate. "Thanks."
"Least we can do," Tazuna justified absentmindedly. "I did get you lot into this mess, after all."
The trip was silent after that.
xxxxxxx
"Well, that's it. I'm going home." The rower told them, fastening his boat to the docks. "...Good luck."
The team nodded to him gravely, and followed Tazuna off through the lingering light. They could see, even from here that the village was a mess.
"We live on the outskirts. It's safer." Tazuna explained, taking a path into the forest. It wasn't long, just ten or so minutes. There was no rush now, so no running was involved.
The house was...quaint, Naruto supposed. Certainly better than his accommodations. It was hard to say how much he was looking forward to a nice, soft bed though.
Tazuna was the one to knock, so as to not frighten anyone inside. The young woman who opened the door seemed incomparably happy to see him, and encased him in a giant hug.
Tazuna chuckled. "This is my daughter, Tsunami. Tsunami, these are the ninja I hired to protect us." Tsunami released him, then looked to the young Genin. Her expression wavered.
"Children...?"
"Technically, we were no longer children the moment we got out headbands." Naruto informed firmly. "We might just be Genin...but hell. Your old man didn't say anything about ninja, so you got rookies. Now our sensei is dead, and you'll be lucky if Konoha doesn't skin you for that."
Sasuke nodded. "He was a very notorious ninja. The only non-Uchiha to ever wield the Sharingan, he held one of the last five eyes in existence. He was famed for having copied over two thousand jutsus."
Naruto looked mildly confused at the mention of the Sharingan. He recognized the name, but didn't know anything about it. Sakura, however, looked incredulous. Her reaction only confused him more.
Tsunami flinched, and then smiled sadly. "Please come in. I was just about to start dinner." They graciously followed her into the classic home: tatami mats, cushions, and a table. "I have a son, but he's upstairs. He won't be coming down until dinner."
"Why?" Naruto inquired, puzzled.
Tsunami looked distinctly uncomfortable. "He's asleep." She lied, and all three ninja narrowed their eyes at it, but chose to let it pass.
"Hm." Naruto grunted in a manner oddly alive Sasuke's, Sakura peering at Tsunami suspiciously for a moment. "Ne, Sasuke, didn't you say you'd gotten slashed on your shoulder?"
"Hn." The Uchiha nodded cautiously.
"We should treat that." Naruto proclaimed, feeling quite pleased with himself. It was all too often that he forgot that other people didn't heal like he did, and that their injuries stayed. Like the ones on his Chikage. "Sakura, did you get hurt?"
She shook her head slowly, looking over his arm, frowning. "No, but I'm pretty sure I saw Zabuza get you on the arm. Don't we need to treat that?"
Naruto's grin wavered a little. "Eh, it's healed already. Nothing to worry about."
"Wounds don't heal that quickly, dobe. No matter how small they are." Sasuke informed him smugly.
"Well, they do on me!" Naruto shot back. "It's to do with how much chakra I have, or something, but I heal so fast it's weird. Look." He picked at the ripped material, revealing that it was dark with near-dried blood, but there was no trace of a wound beneath it.
Sakura blinked. "That's not just fast healing. That..." She concentrated, trying to remember. "It sounds like regeneration, I think, or whatever I heard about it."
Naruto snickered. "Oh, that's brilliant! Healer Sakura, team medic! I never knew you studied medicine."
Sasuke smirked slightly in amusement, but then adopted an oddly thoughtful expression.
Sakura scowled. "I don't! I just remember reading something about regeneration somewhere. A textbook? Hm..."
"It's not a bad idea." Sasuke spoke, sending his teammate's startled eyes towards him. He spoke so rarely, after all. "You have good chakra control, from what we've seen in the academy. Perhaps you should look into some beginner's medic techniques when we get back to Konoha." He shrugged.
Naruto blinked. "Hey, that would actually work really well. All ninja get hurt, no matter how strong they are. It'd be great if you knew how to patch everyone up."
"It used to be a rule to have a medic on every fully operational team." Sakura put in reluctantly, chewing over the idea. "But...healing? I don't know. I've never thought of it before."
"Well, then, think about it." Naruto shrugged. "It's just a suggestion after all. Hey, Tsunami, where can we put our things?"
The young woman jumped at being addressed, having been listening to their conversation with curiosity. She's never heard of ninja that healed before. Wasn't that kind of against the point of what ninja did? "Well," She hesitated. "I've got three spare rooms, so you can have one each. C-come with me." She showed them hurriedly to the hallway, pointing out the free rooms and then scampering away to let them decide amongst themselves. The rooms were quickly claimed, and with satisfaction Naruto began unpacking, glad to have some sort of temporary home. He'd brought a change of clothes, but all that consisted of was a spare black shirt to be worn under his jumpsuit. He didn't have any other things that still fitted him.
Naruto frowned at his jumpsuit. The sword guy had pretty much cleaved one arm off of it, and he realized the hems were about to split. He scowled deeply. He'd known it was bad quality, but at the time it had been the only thing he could get...besides, he liked orange. Orange was cool!
The blonde suddenly whacked himself on the forehead. Hell, I can't believe I forgot. I'm supposed to be being serious! Orange isn't serious. It's civilian stuff! I...might have to get rid of my orange... He mourned his decision, but decided that there really wasn't a way around it. The jumpsuit was ruined anyway.
He sighed, and inspected the stuff he'd salvaged from the missing-nins. He'd been assigned to carry the pills and scrolls (all of which had strange, basic kanji on them. It was puzzling, but his team-mates seemed to think they were valuable.), Sakura had carried the food, and Sasuke had carried the weapons. He took off his jumpsuit and changed his shirt, since his current one was sweaty and smelt horrible. It was no use sneaking up on an enemy if they could smell you coming. He wondered what to wear for a moment, before he got an idea.
He made a Chikage, and had it henge into a basic pair of short dark blue jeans. He wasn't exactly an expert on clothing, but he realized he'd missed some things out in a few places, such as buttons and pockets and stitches. He surveyed the clothing, having it make change after change until he thought it looked right. Then he put them on.
He grinned, amused by the unorthodox solution. It was strange, but it worked. He laughed inside as he got brief impressions of exactly what it felt like to be worn and how uncomfortable it was. He snickered, and made his way out of his new room, back into the lounge. Sasuke, already there, gave him an odd look.
"New clothes, dobe? When did that happen?"
Naruto huffed. "When I realized my jumpsuit was ruined."
Sasuke snorted dispassionately. "At least there's no orange now."
"There is." Naruto frowned, indicating the front of his shirt, dorned with an orange spiral standing out against the black. He mused sardonically that the spirat was barely off of where the actual spiral seal was.
"Pfft." Sasuke made his opinion clear.
It was then that Sakura emerged from her room, blinking at the sight of Naruto. "I didn't know you brought other clothes." She commented.
No way in hell was he going to tell her that his short jeans were actually a tranformed clone. No way in hell. "Hmph." He responded eloquently, refusing to grace her with the use of proper words.
The kunoichi inspected him. "It looks better than the jumpsuit, definitely." She congratulated. "And more useful for the job, too."
Naruto gave a mildly embarassed cough, earning him an amused look from Sasuke. He regained his equilibrium quickly, mind actually racing for once. "I think we should start training tommorow." He suggested, summing up his thoughts. "Zabuza doesn't heal like I do. He doesn't have nearly enough chakra for that to work. Technically, with that poison, he should die...but I don't think his lackey will let that happen." Naruto shrugged. "But whatever, wounds like that take a while to heal." He bit his lip. "Really, I don't know how long, since i've never had any injuries that lasted more than a couple days before, and that was only when they were really bad and there was a lot of them."
Sakura quickly went thorugh calculations, muttering. "Right...the poison..." She blinked, furrowing one eyebrow. "That....hmm. Depth and amount? Let's go with that. Do you know how deep the wound was?"
"I think I might have hit his shoulder blade." Naruto offered, feeling mildly ill at the thought of it. "So yeah, deep."
Sakura looked pleased. "Oh good. If he survives at all, I think we have at least two weeks. Maybe more."
Sasuke frowned. "That's still not much time to train, though." He pointed out.
"Then I guess we'll just have to train really hard." Naruto declared. "Ne, Sakura, you're good with book stuff. What would make us a lot stronger that we can learn on our own?"
Sakura felt quite pressurized, but at the same time pleased that she was being useful. She would try to become powerful, if only to get rid of that horrid feeling of helplessness and uselessness she'd felt in the initial fight with Zabuza. "Um," She focused. "Probably...chakra control. If we can use less chakra for things then maybe we won't have to take any chakra pills or anything. And you could probably manage a lot more clones if you could control the chakra you use for them more, Naruto. Most techniques get better when they're more focused."
Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "Right...makes sense, I suppose." His face screwed up. "I suck at chakra control. Oh well." He mused over things, frowning. "How exactly do we improve our chakra control? We -- we don't have a sensei." He stumbled a little over the words. The concept was still new to him. He'd pushed all thoughts of Kakashi and his death away, because they were dangerous to have in such times. Now...now, when the threat was gone and they could rest safely, it was difficult to keep the torrent back. The distressed look on Sakura's face told him she had much the same feelings, and even Sasuke wore a grimace.
"Well..." Sakura concentrated. "Zabuza was walking on water, right? That has something to do with chakra. We saw from you, Naruto, that if you use too much chakra you rocket into the air, and too little makes you sink. So it has to be about a balance, about control. I'm willing to bet that water walking is a chakra control exercise. I've never read about it before, but that might just mean it's a bit advanced." Sakura looked a bit nervous about that. Naruto beamed.
"That's great! We've got something to train on, then. Bastard, you got any ideas?"
The Uchiha blinked. "Several times when I was younger I saw my familt hanging off of walls or trees by just their feet. Perhaps that's chakra control as well."
"Tree walking!" Naruto proclaimed triumphantly. "Great! We should start trying those things tommorow. I'm looking forward to a bit of rest tonight, though." He gave a satisfied sigh.
"Me too." Sakura agreed tiredly. "I need a shower. I'll ask Tsunami-san where it is after we've had something to eat."
And so their precious few hours of peace and rest went on, full of comfort and satisfaction and the herbs on Tsunami's rice. Naruto had seen their host's son -- a small boy named Inari, who eyed them with something alike resentment or defeat. The blonde took an instant disliking to him, he just seemed to emit waves of some attitude which struck a nerve deep in his psyche.
And speaking of psyche, it was what had brough him into the house's roof, staring at the thinly veiled stars, finally allowing all the floods of emotion and thought to crash down.
He felt guilty. So guilty that he'd let someone who accepted him die. It seemed that everyone close to him came to be in danger. Iruka-sensei had nearly been killed because of Mizuki and his vendetta with Naruto. Kakashi-sensei had actually died because Naruto had distracted him so foolishly. The villagers weren't right about him being Kyuubi, no doubt about that, but perhaps they were on to something with the claim that he ruined everything. He sighed heavily, frustrated. It wasn't his nature to give up. Even when the endless hours tore at his heart and mind. Especially not now, when so many lives counted on his determination. He realized, in a way, he was the Hokage of these people, just for now. He was leading them all, trying to protect them against all odds.
That's so ironic. Tch...
"Dobe."
Naruto started, glancing with startled eyes over to where Sasuke was, slipped from the shadows onto the roof beside him. "Hey, bastard." He greeted half-heartedly, not bothering to ask why he was there. It didn't really matter. The Uchiha took that as acceptance, and seated himself.
After a few moments of silence, of Naruto looking to the stars, eyes glimmering in the moonlight, Sasuke spoke. "...You said we could talk once the danger was over."
Naruto snorted, not moving his head, but briefly closing his luminescent eyes against the sky. "Yeah, I suppose I did."
Sasuke adopted the same indifferent stare that Naruto did, fixing his eyes on the rising mist. As if his attention were only partly focused on the conversation. "It....irritated me when you ordered us about. You're the dobe, after all, and I'm the opposite. It made no sense that I should listen to you." The Uchiha was faintly aware of how his companion's eyes narrowed, muscles stiffened. "But there was nothing else to do. I've never been a leader before. Sakura couldn't be a leader if she tried. So at the time it was most logical to listen to you, however much I disliked it." He huffed an odd noise of disgruntled appraisal, like he couldn't decide whether to be annoyed or impressed. "But you proved yourself a leader, dobe. You kept us alive and so far, we've not failed the mission. It's not like I know how to lead people, and Kami knows how you do at all. But whatever, for however long this mission goes on and you're still alive, I'll acknowledge you as leader. Once we're back in Konoha, we'll probably get a new Jounin, and that'll change." Sasuke shrugged. "Kami help us, but there's not much else we can do."
Naruto had broken away his gaze from the endless folds of forest, and was staring at Sasuke with some kind of morbid incredulousness. He opened his mouth like a fish, then closed it without saying anything. Finally, the demon container seemed to gather his mind together and snickered weakly. "Heh, thanks bastard. I sorta expected you to challenge me to a fight for leadership or something."
"...That was my second option."
If anything, that only made Naruto laugh more. "Hah! You're not as much of a bastard as I thought." Naruto abruptly paused, seeming to quickly think over something. "Well, actually, maybe you are. Just less bastardish in one way."
Sasuke snorted. That comment was just so Naruto he couldn't help it.
"Didn't you have a bloodline or something? I think I remember Iruka-sensei saying something about the Uchiha clan being one of Konoha's bloodline clans." The blond peered at him closely, and he was momentarily startled. The boy's randomness never ceased to throw him off-guard.
After a brief silence, Sasuke responded. "...Yes, I do."
"...Cool! What's it do? Can you show me? Why didn't you use it against Zabuza? What-"
Sasuke broke him off, not wanting to have to add anything more to the list of questions he had to answer. "It's called the Sharingan. It can see chakra, break Genjutsu, and copy Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and some Genjutsu. I didn't use it because I haven't been able to activate it yet." His pronounced scowl told Naruto exactly what his opinion on the matter was.
Naruto then realized how idiotic he'd been in the last few seconds. He couldn't let himself be a stupid idiot again just because they had a bit of a break before they had to fight for their lives again! "Oh. How do you activate it, then?"
"...It's supposed to be activated when the bearer is under the stress of thinking they're going to die, or are in a life-threatening situation."
"Then why the hell hasn't it activated yet? I'd think the last few days were life-threatening enough."
Naruto posed a point, Sasuke supposed. "Maybe it was because I didn't really get much into the fight. I mainly hid with your clones and wasn't really in too much danger because of that."
"Hmm." The short genin frowned. "What about that killing-intent stuff? Doesn't that make you feel like you're about to die?"
Sasuke blinked with mild surprise. It sort of made sense. He concentrated on what his relatives had said about activating the Sharingan.
"-like I was dead, or would be soon. Very unpleasant, but it turns out sometimes killing intent can activate our Sharingans, but you need a hell of a lot of it. More than the nastiest Jounin can give out, for sure."
Sasuke nodded slowly. "I remember one of my relatives saying that. I don't remember exactly, but it might have been in the Kyuubi attack-" The Uchiha noticed how suddenly Naruto flinched, and frowned. "-that he activated the Sharingan. According to him, you need a LOT of killing intent, more than most Jounin can give out." He noted how oddly disturbed Naruto seemed at that, and also how oddly enlightened he seemed.
"Don't you think it might be useful for us to learn killing intent?" Naruto spoke uneasily, more uncomfortably than Sasuke had ever heard. "I mean, we won't be any good at it for ages, since we're just Genin, but we have to start somewhere, right?"
Sasuke nodded absentmindedly, mostly focusing on why Naruto seemed so tetchy about the current subject. "I've already learned how to produce killing intent, though I can't manage much."
Naruto seemed both delighted and horrified at his admission. "C-could you teach me?" It was almost as if he were forcing himself to ask. Sasuke frowned, but at his attitude, rather than question.
"I suppose. All you really do is think of things that piss you off, and make your chakra...bubble, for lack of a better word. If you want to...glare killing intent at someone, or something, you'd put the bubbling chakra up to your eyes. You don't need much. The more pissed off you are the better it works. What I read about it says that the more you try it, the better you get at making yourself angry at will, but the best ninja also make it so their anger doesn't get out of their control and they manage not to go on a mad killing spree because of their anger. The more reason someone has to be angry, the more killing intent they can create." Sasuke instructed.
Naruto nodded reluctantly, and concentrated on his chakra. It felt odd to try and manipulate it to a certain nature, like the 'bubbling' that Sasuke described. His chakra felt cool, too calm to become something as tempestuous as what his goal was. Maybe if he got angry, it would make more sense.
He thought of the unjust treatment by the villagers. How they sneered at him and did all they could to make his life a living hell. How they thought him less than human, not human. How some of them even hunted him, wanted him gone forever. He growled slightly to express his dark feelings of the memories, and Sasuke watched him. Naruto was evidently in the 'piss self off' stage. Naturally, after the Uchiha Massacre, it hadn't been difficult to find things to make him angry, but he wondered what Naruto was picturing.
Naruto continued, because he wasn't angry enough. The rough, tense feeling of rage was too low, too complacent at the moment. He continued thinking, because anything was better than this mild, smouldering frustration that simmered too low to properly express. He thought of the villager who'd once insulted old man Ichiraku and his daughter for being friendly to him, and the confused guilt hed felt as a result. He remembered how Mizuki, out of hate for him, had nearly killed the most precious person to him that existed. He thought of how he was alone, all alone, and no one would reach into his solitude without a sacrifice of their blood to his antagonizers. Kakashi had been killed because of him, because of those fucking Chuunin that had attacked. Bastards! Now he thought of what would happen if he failed, he envisioned his teammates, pale and splattered on the ground, innards hanging out from sword wounds in their bellies. Children, innocent children like he'd never had the chance to be, sprawled across the streets in puddles of their own blood.
He was angry now. Suddenly it made sense that his chakra would bubble with the fiery, poisonous heat of rage. Water boiled and bubbled and spat when heated for long enough, after all. With the thought of those massacred, helpless innocents still in mind, he focused his chakra to every pore in his body. He saturated his skin, his hair, his eyes with such anger that he'd never felt before. It seemed familiar: the slaughter, the anger. The rage was so familiar, like a distant memory, as natural as the air he breathed. He shifted into its path, and everything changed.
Memories assaulted him in a furious rush. They assailed him as if desperate, too wild to be supressed. They weren't his, but they were awful. He saw a strange world, where huge metal birds dropped the compact equivalent of five hundred poisonous explosive tags on a city, and the venom seeped out and destroyed the world. His home. A world that had ended, begun again, and had been as perfect as ever. Then they started again with their destruction, their defiance! Couldn't they see they only brought nightmares? Nightmarish, agonizing pain to everything they touched.
There were too many memories, so many, and just enough for what he wanted. It was as if whoever owned these memories was desperate to release their anger at the thought of them, but had been tortured by them for too long. These memories lent Naruto their anger, more anger than his own lifetime could possibly produce, and he accepted.
If his chakra had been bubbling before, now it was roaring, snarling, overflowing. Naruto was in a haze of mad rage where the world was tinted red, and the sight of every little thing in it only angered him more. He wanted it gone! He snarled, the sound inhuman and rough, nearly a roar. It did nothing. He wanted nothing more than to release his anger, pour destruction upon what lay here, and watch it burn away. But he didn't, because that would be becoming what angered him. This hovel was pathetic, destroying it would destroy more woodland than human settlement, and that was something he could not condone.
Then Naruto snapped back into his state of mind, with mild horror. he couldn't manage more, so caught was he in his storm of anger. But he realized suddenly where the anger came from, exactly who it belonged to, and felt an odd sense of dark, smouldering triumph. If it would please his prisoner, he would vent his anger, but without the destruction he so desired. He pushed out his anger, enraged and in a numb state of mind very similar to a violent blood frenzy. He was aware of Sasuke in front of him, frozen with unbelievable terror, and gave a throaty sound more like a spasmodic growl than the laughter he'd voiced it as.
He allowed the killing intent to explode around him, a black miasma of hate and fear, and screamed. it was the most human sound he'd produced since the whole episode started, but it was just as angry as ever. He screamed until his throat was raw, and he was out of breath, and only then did he drop to his knees atop the roof, exhausted, and allow the otherworldly hate to sizzle away and settle back into its dormant state of calmness. But he could feel it still, just below the surface, with its own dark message. I'm here if you need me. It was as if the Kyuubi was taunting him and thanking him at the same time. Naruto couldn't ever remember being so tired. He glanced wearily over to Sasuke, wondering how much of a mess he had to fix.
He was troubled by the absolute terror he displayed, and though the boy was obviously calming, he was breathing so heavily Naruto wondered if he was about to have a heart attack. "Sasuke, calm down. I'm not going to kill you. You're my teammate. Killing you would be completely stupid and would probably get me killed. I repeat: I'm not going to kill you." Sasuke looked as if the words had passed in through one ear and out through the other. With reluctance, Naruto breezed over to him, and slapped him across the face. Not hard enough to move him, just hard enough to give him a shock. Sasuke jerked violently, and finally his eyes seemed as if they were looking at something. With a frown, Naruto noted that Sasuke's irises were actually red.
He hadn't done him any lasting damage, had he?
"...Dobe," Sasuke finally choked out. "What the hell was that?"
"I-I don't know." Naruto admitted. "I was just remembering stuff that would piss me off, and..."
"Freaking hell." Sasuke muttered, and his voice shook slightly. "That's some killing intent you have, dobe. I'm not sure it would work against a seasoned Jounin like Zabuza, but it should help."
Naruto nodded shakily. "Hell...if I'd thought that would happen..." He gulped.
"What the hell did you think of anyway? It had to be something to piss you off so bad..."
The blonde flinched. "I had a bad childhood." He answered lamely, not really being able to supply much more. Then he decided to change the subject. "Ne, bastard, your eyes are red. You might want to get them looked at."
Sasuke froze, eyes flying wide. "...They're red?" he demanded. "You're sure? What do they look like?"
Puzzled, Naruto made his observations. "Instead of being black, they're blood red." He told him. "You've got these weird black things in them, like mutated commas or something, I dunno."
Sasuke swallowed, looking as if someone had presented him with the most shocking news in the universe. "Markings?" he croaked. "How many?"
"Uhm, two. In each eye." Naruto informed, confused.
Slowly, Sasuke's face curled into a wide, if slightly sadistic, smile. It was pretty much the second time he'd ever seen the bastard smile, and made Naruto wonder what the hell was so brilliant. Then he noticed the black marking things loop around like spokes of a wheel in Sasuke's eyes.
Sharingan. The Copy. Wheel. Eye.
Oh.
Naruto grinned brightly. "Hehe, I activated your Sharingan, bastard!" He cheered happily, and Sasuke smile became less evil and more honest. The expression looked unfamiliar on the stoic boy's face, but it did suit him.
"Yeah, dobe. I guess the killing intent helped out." His eyebrow raised.
Naruto snickered. "We should go show Sakura. She'll have a fit." Then his eyes widened. "Oh crap, Sakura!"
"What?" Sasuke's eyes widened in alarm.
"If you nearly pissed yourself scared over that, think of how bad off Sakura and everyone will be!" Naruto and Sasuke cursed at the same time, though the muttered words were considerably different, but no less appalling than the other. They sped over the roof and through the skylight they'd used to get up, rushing to the lounge.
As predicted, the immediate populace was quivering with fear in their respective locations. Tsunami at the sink, Tazuna on a wooden chair, and Sakura and Inari on cushions. Tsunami was trembling, and a wooden bowl she'd apparently been holding before had fallen to the ground, tilted sideways. Tazuna in his seat was in a state of perpetual shock, eyes darting around in terrified paranoia. Sakura was frozen, clutching a kunai with a hand shaking so much she could barely sustain her hold on it. Inari was huddled into a ball, making odd, dry whimpers. Naruto felt a lump in his throat, and guilty shame flashed in his thoughts.
Sasuke quite pointedly approached Sakura and gave her a sharp but light slap on the shoulder, and she jolted out of her trance in much the same way Sasuke had. "S-S-Sasuke-kun?" She croaked nervously, looking around uneasily. "W-what was that?"
"Just the dobe playing around with Killing Intent." Sasuke grumbled. "Turns out he's pretty good at it. No threat. Calm down."
Sheepishly, Naruto prodded Tazuna. "Oi, old man, no one's coming to kill us. Stop panicking!"
Tazuna shot him a weak glare, still too shaken to do much more. Tsunami was attempting to regain her focus, taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. Inari was faring distinctly worse, still whimpering, though he was less circular than he'd been a few minutes ago.
"N-Naruto did that? Naruto?" Even winded, Sakura's voice radiated disbelief. It was understandable, certainly.
Sasuke gave a pertubed grunt. "Hn." Sakura took it as an agreement, and stared at Naruto. If he could produce killer intent like that....she wouldn't risk asking about it here. Part of her admonished that, he was the dead last for Kami's sake. But then, Sakura reasoned. He wouldn't be able to create a Killer Intent like that. In minutes, her entire opinion of the loud Genin had been lost to the wind.
Now, she felt wary, and had all reason to be. Then...she noticed something. Something she really should have noticed before. She gaped at Sasuke's eyes.
"Sasuke-kun! Your Sharingan!"
She couldn't really tell, but the young Uchiha seemed quite amused. "Turns out the dobe's killer intent activated it."
And, just like that, all fear, all wariness...it all vanished behind the thrill of excitement that rushed up her spile.
Yeah, she was supposed to be being serious...not doting on Sasuke-kun.
But old habits die hard, as the saying goes.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
The next morning, all three Genin were not comforted by the fact they were relatively safe. Their subconscious still registered that there was a threat around, and so they sprung awake with the reactions of shinobi in wartime.
"So," Naruto announced. "We're gonna be training our asses off today. I'll leave some Chikage with the old man." He peered at Tazuna. "That's okay with you, right?"
"Y-yes!" The drunk assured immediately, remembering that despite his appearence, this blond had released that horrid miasma. It wouldn't do to anger him.
Naruto nodded happily. "Right! And you can get them to help out with your construction work. It'll make things move quicker. I'll start making some now." Naruto sat down, and made the seal repeatedly, leaving around ten seconds between every performance. Two clones gained substance each time, and moved to gather outside.
"Why not just make loads at once?" Tazuna questioned, confused.
Sakura blinked. "We saw before Zabuza attacked that creating too many of them all together gives him bad blood loss. I'm not sure how he creates blood so quickly, but it must be something to do with his fast healing. Probably." Their client nodded in understanding. He'd been there, but really hadn't been able to keep his bearings in the chaos.
As soon as twenty were made, Naruto lowered his hands and grinned. "Right, they'll take you wherever you want and do what you want them to...within reason. They won't do anything stupid you ask them to do."
"Thanks." Tazuna hurriedly made his way outside to the horde of Narutos, and disappeared amongst them as they herded him through the forest.
Sasuke grunted. "What now?"
"We go find somewhere far away enough that we won't blow anyone up when we train." Naruto cheerfully proclaimed, creating another two clones. "You two stay and guard Tsunami and her brat. Report if anything weird at all happens." He turned back to his team. "Right, let's go!"
Sasuke and Sakura quickly followed their impatient 'leader' out of the door, joining him in his dance across the treetops. "How far?"
Naruto shrugged. "A mile? Should be enough."
A mile wasn't much at all to shinobi, even Genin, but it was still a quite wide range in which to train and destroy. Sasuke nodded curtly, Sakura plainly following his lead. Her previous wariness of Naruto had returned, and she frowned at his back as she ran, forming tons of theories in her head about how he could have done that.
Undercover Anbu? No way in hell.
Bloodline? Eh...probably not.
Really, really bad life? ....Maybe. Just maybe.
Suddenly, when she was deep into her thoughts, Naruto stopped, she and Sasuke soon after.
Naruto whistled, impressed. "Whoa. Big clearing."
Indeed it was. It seemed almost like one of the training grounds back in Konoha.
"...Maybe we should train here." Sasuke suggested in a monotone.
"I'll say!" Naruto agreed. "You think so, Sakura?"
She nodded thoughtfully, her theories still lingering in her mind. "So, chakra control?"
The blonde nodded solemnly, with a slight grimace. "Chakra control."
"What sort of chakra control?" Sasuke deadpanned.
Naruto blinked. "Well, uh..." He surveyed the surroundings. "No water nearby....damn. Maybe we should try that walk-on-walls thing your family did, ne bastard?"
A grunt was his reply.
"I guess so, then." Naruto decided. "Right, so it definitely has something to do with putting chakra on your feet. I guess it makes you stick, or something." He approached a tree, sat down, and placed a foot on it. He immediately focused a sort of medium amount of chakra to that foot, going on his miserable atttempts at waterwalking.
Turns out it was still too much. With a loud splintering noise, a large foot-shaped indent appeared in the surface of the tree. His leg was forced back slightly, and Naruto was fascinated by the odd fluctuations of air left in its wake.
"Ooh." He commented. "Too much. I wonder what would happen if I had someone's arm in my hand and I gave it chakra like that?" Suddenly, he shuddered. "Ouch. I'm not sure I want to know." He focused a smaller amount of chakra onto the tree, and much the same thing happened. He growled, and tried again.
...and again.
....and again...
His teammates watched him with eyebrows raised for a few minutes, then shrugged and got to it themselves.
Sasuke was definitely making more progress than Naruto, who hadn't even gotten his feet to effectively stick to the tree yet. He'd managed a few steps, so far. He looked to Sakura, to see how she was doing.
If he had not been an Uchiha, his jaw might have dropped. Sakura was more than half way up her tree. Angrily, he turned himself back to his tree with new fevour.
x
Naruto growled in frustration, a few steps up the tree. "Dammit! Why the hell can't I get this right?"
Sakura was apparently attempting to increase her reserves or something by hanging vertically off of a branch by her feet. She'd had the exercise completed hours ago. Sasuke was nearing completion....and Naruto was nowhere near. Nowhere at all.
"Remember, a thin layer." Sakura called, bored enough to lend advice to the most surprising ninja in Konoha's known history.
"I know!" Naruto snarled, the layers of chakra fluctuating from his small lapse of focus. "Argh! If only there was more time!"
"Time?" Sakura skidded down the tree, and neared his location in a few quick strides. "What do you mean?"
"I can't work on this forever! I need to get stronger, or Zabuza will kill us! We don't have the element of surprise anymore."
The pinkette was momentarily surprised by the soberity of his thoughts, and then reminded herself that this Naruto was different from the one that had existed in the past years. "Hmm....we can't exactly stop time. It would be better, I think, if we could increase how fast you learned things, that would be nearly as good. Maybe better." Naruto watched her, frustration ebbing away a little, as the gears turned in her brain. "How to make you learn things quicker...." She mused for a second, absently noting that Sasuke had momentarily abandoned his training in favour of finding out what was going on. Suddenly, she was hit by inspiration like a wet cloth to the face. "That's it! Naruto, when we were running from Zabuza, didn't you say you got their memories?"
The boy nodded, not really understanding where she was going.
Sakura voiced her thoughts aloud, guiding the less enlightened along her views. "After you dispelled enough of them, you had a good idea of his fighting style. Which means you can learn stuff from them!" Naruto's eyes lit up, finally realizing what his kunoichi teammate was talking about.
"If I make loads of clones then I'll learn faster!" He exclaimed excitedly, then dropped from his sudden high into thought.
Stop. Think. Think things through. It was a mantra he'd been using repeatedly lately.
Chikage or the original Kage Bunshin? Chikage would last and were more sturdy....on the other hand, they would tire, and he couldn't make nearly as many at once. Kage Bunshin he could create en masse, even if they were more difficult to actually make. They wouldn't need much chakra for chakra control. On the contrary, it would probably help. A lot. He grinned, and made a handseal that had begun to get unfamiliar. "kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He made sure to force as much chakra as he could into it, using it more precisely from the meager chakra control he'd learned that day.
His results certainly paid off. In seconds, over a hundred clones popped into existence around him. Less than two hundred, though. He didn't bother to count them. All of them wore the same fanged foxy grin as he.
"That's....a lot of clones." Sasuke murmured from the base of his tree, quite impressed.
"Alright! Get to work!" Naruto ordered loudly, finding the absence of mental connection with these clones oddly disturbing. He'd grown used to the feeling of having the presence of many others in his mind, seeing and living through them all. It felt odd that he didn't feel it from his Kage Bunshin....like they weren't really there.
In the next hour...heck, the next thirty minutes, Naruto's control improved in leaps and bounds. He'd occasionally pause to dispell a round of clones, create new ones in their place, and then continue his task with considerably more ease.
Watching him progress so fast because of her idea, not only sparked the familiar incredulity and envy of a 'dobe' improving, but bloomed an odd feeling of warm pride within Sakura. And as she watched, as she observed, she thought.
Then she chuckled quietly in the sheer mirth of the situation.
However wary she was of him now...however much she still resented him from years of doing so...however insignificant he and his inhuman progress made her feel...she, Haruno Sakura, was gaining friendly attachment to the village pariah.
Oh the irony.
xxxxx
"But I haven't finished yet!" Naruto complained, as his teammates attempted to drive him back to Tazuna and his family. It was late after all. They'd be starting to wonder where they were soon...
-Boss?- As if on cue, he received the signal from one Chikage. A quick mental focus revealed it was one of the few inside the house guarding, rather than outside.
What is it? He questioned sharply. No alarms?
-No, no. There's been jack shit of trouble all day. Boring, really. Tsunami wants to know where you lot are.-
Eh, I'm trying to convince the team to stay a bit longer. I've nearly finished the exercise....nearly.
-Just create some lookouts and camp out for the night. Send the others back, they're not as happy with roughing it as we are.-
Pretty good idea. Now I just have to get them to go along with it.
There was a chuckle over the link. -Good luck.- And he broke off.
"Naruto?" Sakura repeated, growing annoyed. The blonde turned to her, as if having woken up.
"Hm? Sorry, I was just linking with a Chikage. They want to know where we are." he hesitated. "Look, you guys go back. I'll stay out here for the night. I'll keep lookouts, and if anyone attacks I'll try to set off that killer intent for a few minutes, and you can come over once I let it up. Or I'll just flare my chakra."
Sasuke eyed his teammate suspiciously. "...Alright. I suppose that's okay. Speaking of your killer intent, I think we should experiment with that later on....and I need to train my Sharingan."
"Mmhm." Naruto nodded absently. "I'll see you guys later, then. Meet me here tomorrow." With that, Naruto abruptly hurled himself at the tree again. His two fellows looked on with exasperation.
"That dobe..." Sasuke shook his head. "Come on, Sakura." And he jumped into the dying light, shrouded by the shadows of the forest.
xxxxxx
"Wake up, boss." A blood clone whispered urgently. "You told us to wake you if anyone came by."
Naruto was up instantly, on alert at once. "Who? Where?"
"That person, over there." The clone indicated to a figure just appearing from the trees. "Our sentries spotted them a bit away and I came to wake you. We have lots of clones watching them in case they're a threat."
"Male or female?"
"...Probably a girl. Looks like a girl, and..."
"And what?"
"...Well, it...uh...smells female." Naruto understood its hesitation. Ever since the Mizuki incident he'd been very touchy about fox-related details, such as his ridiculously high sense of smell. Very little of the enhanced senses passed onto Chikage, so he'd have to check for himself. He took a deep breath, eyeing the she-male warily.
"Definitely a girl. Huh. Dresses so boyish, too."
"Crossdresser." Another clone dropped from nowhere, sniggering.
"Oi, you." Naruto addressed the clone that had just spoke. "You're a second hand?"
"Yep. Heh."
"Thought so." Naruto accentuated his discovery with a punch to its gut, clearing it away instantly. "I swear, secondhands don't have brains. Must be the lack of chakra."
"Must be." The Chikage nodded sagely.
"I wonder how kunoichi survive." Naruto wondered.
The blood clone whacked him on the head. "Baka! Unknown person approaching, remember?"
"...Whoops." All replicas plus the original watched the she-male walk closer, apparently not affected at all by the clones littering the makeshift training ground.
"Hello." The person greeted politely, giving a warm smile.
Naruto eyed her cautiously. "....Hi." He replied, voice heavy with suspicion.
"I saw you sleeping here....you could catch a cold if you sleep outside at night, it gets quite cold around here."
The blonde frowned slightly, guard not dropping. "I was training. And it's not like I'm not used to sleeping outside, anyway. I never get ill." Quite true. He'd slept outside for a large portion of his early life.
"Training? For what?"
"There's some freaky missing-nin after us. We think he should be out of action for a while yet, with the amount of poison we got into his wound."
"And that's the only reason you try to get stronger? Simply to win?" The girl asked softly, seeming concerned.
Naruto sent out a probe of chakra, surrounding the unknown person, and focusing on the small details. He'd learned long ago that his chakra could give a basic idea of a person's condition and intentions.
They seemed reluctant, in an odd way. The girl was....looking for something. Information? Wanted to know something. He focused.
She wanted to know something....for personal reasons? Yes, she wasn't asking anything with malicious intentions. She didn't aim to hurt him here. He relaxed.
"I guess. I need to keep us alive, not only me and my teammates, but the village. They'll all die if we don't defeat these enemies." The girl looked stricken at this, and his chakra told him that...she was guilty? That was suspicious....right? Oh, I don't know.... He touched his fingers to his forehead, and transmitted to the other clones. What do you lot think of her? Can she be trusted?
-Not sure.- One replied immediately. -I don't think she came here to hurt you. She might have something to do with Gato and Zabuza, though. Even if she does, I don't think she wants to be a part of it, if that guilt of hers is a sign.- The other clones inputted their agreement.
"You have no precious people, then?" The girl was sad at her words.
....What? "What do you mean, 'precious people'?"
"People who you love, and would do anything to protect."
Naruto was startled at her question, and thought about it. Slowly, his expression softened and a sad smile reached across his face. "I live in a village which hates me. I protect them and they repay me with their cold eyes. But I guess...I've got people to protect there, the few that like me for who I am...I could have had another, but some missing-nin killed him on the way here. He sacrificed his life for us."
The girl's eyes misted slightly, and the chakra supervising her went haywire. She was guilty, and felt very, very sad. There was a strange spark of startled recognition, and a feeling of base kinship. It was confusing. "I am sorry a precious person of yours had to die. But as long as you have people to protect, you will be strong. That is true power." She smiled warmly.
Naruto sighed, feeling forlorn. He managed a smile, as he always did. "So, what are you out here for, anyway?"
The girl read his intention, change the subject, and respected it. "I came to pick some herbs. There are some good ones in this area."
Naruto mused on his options for a minute. No way was he going to train while a potential hostile was around, intentions be screwed. The others would be here soon, and that would probably spell trouble. The best thing to do, really, was have all his clones help her find her herbs so she could get out of his makeshift training area fast. "Me and my clones can help, if you want." He offered.
"That's very kind. Thank you." The girl smiled, and he could help the sheepish smile that transformed his face. He simply wasn't used to being thanked. "I'm sorry, I never introduced myself. My name is Haku."
Finally, he had a name! "I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." He had to squash down the 'dattebayo!' and long string of ambitious declarations. If Haku was an enemy, it wouldn't do for her to know too much about him. He hoped she wasn't, though, as she had some very respectable ideals. He liked her for that.
For a while, he and his clones picked out the herbs indicated, and before long the basket that Haku had come with was full.
"You've been a great help. I need to get these back home now." Haku indicated the herbs.
"Alright, Haku-chan." He grinned. "Good luck with whatever you needed those for."
Haku smiled, then moved to exit the clearing. She paused, then turned briefly. "By the way, I'm a boy."
Naruto frowned, wondering who she thought she was kidding.
Then he realized that she thought that she would be able to fool him. Not many people had his sense of smell, after all.
"No, you're not." He instantly called her bluff. Immediately, Haku stiffened. "I don't know why you're pretending, but I know you're a girl. But whatever, it doesn't matter to me." He assured her, keeping his grin.
"I...see." Haku said, voice strained. "Thank you. I must be going."
"Bye, Haku-chan!" Again, Naruto emphasized his knowledge of her gender, and watched until she was out of sight. He waited until his clones confirmed she was long gone. Then he sat up, and stepped onto a tree.
It was much harder to slowly and calmly walk up a tree than it was to run up one. But he did so now, with little difficulty. He had tree-climbing mastered.
He sat high on a branch, and waited for his teammates to arrive.
The forest seemed so quiet now that he was alone.
xxxxxx
This has to be one of the longest chapters I've ever written. And I did it for YOU, readers! :D
The ending sucked a bit, yes, but I wasn't sure how to end it. I sort of got carried away with the killer intent bit, but I assure you, it was necessary to the story line.
Please review. :)