Three Days Ago
A cloth tied too tightly around her eyes obscures Sakura's vision and her ears ring painfully. Her arms are tightly restrained behind her and the slack of the rope that someone pulls drags her. Her body aches with every step and a sudden gust of cold wind freezes her; she can't feel her chakra and can't summon it to warm her body. She is kicked down and her hearing clears up.
"You don't know? I thought I told you to look into that," Sakura doesn't know who any of the voices around her are, but the first one is definitely male.
"It doesn't matter," a level voice sounds. Another male.
"Thanks, though," a sigh, "I'm sure this is enough. Either she's still in ANBU Black Ops or she's been transferred to the regular Jounin Corps. Since Kakashi is out for recon, it's probably the latter."
"What will you do on the off chance that you're wrong?" the level voice asks.
Sakura can hear the hesitation in the first man's hum of thought, "I'll just have to use Kakashi. There's no other way I can lure her out; she's probably busy with her Genin or Shirusu and Yuuko."
"I have a bad feeling about all this," the second man admits.
"Why?"
"Because…" the second man sighs, "Even if she is in the regular Jounin Corps, she fully inundated herself with ANBU propaganda. She studied every rule in the Shinobi Code Handbook until she memorized all of them. This was a huge risk to begin with."
"Don't worry," the first man sounds confident, "Let's go; we've got to get to the rendezvous point."
"Yeah," the second man says tonelessly. One of them grabs Sakura and flickers, a nauseating ordeal for the Haruno girl. She'd never been dragged through space like that, much less had her organs squeezed until every ounce of life had been rid of. When her organs come back to feeling whatever normal is, she drops to her knees and vomits. Someone wipes her mouth and she is tugged along again. Sakura feels the men pull her left and right until she stops. At least three days has passed since I first woke up and heard these two men talking…where in Kami's name am I?
"This is Haruno Sakura," the toneless man says.
"Oh?" a mousey-sounding man sneers, "Good, good. A little underdeveloped but—"
"You will not hurt or touch her. She is merely our bait, since your spies failed," he responds with a dangerous edge in his voice. "If you lay a hand on her, I promise your death. That includes the other Konoha girl as well."
"What?" the man exclaims, "What am I supposed to do? What good will having girls around if I can't—"
"That isn't our problem," the first man cuts in sharply, "Your job is to watch for a Konoha Jounin with silver hair and a white scar on her neck and face. We'll be waiting here."
"Give me my payment," the mousey man says.
Sakura supposes he is given his payment because the man mutters for them to go on. Sakura finds herself pulled along for a short walk before the blindfold and ropes are pulled off. Someone pushes her down and something slams behind her. She whirls around to look at her kidnappers, but they are already gone. She looks around and her first impression is darkness. As she peers more, she sees human figures and after counting a few, she realizes that there are perhaps fifty or sixty. All of them lack clothes. She cringes and takes a step back, "W-who are all of you?"
There is no response that Sakura can pick out from the murmuring. Within moments, though, she has her answer. The humans descend upon her and her clothes are ripped from her body. Sakura screams in horror and flushes as her body is exposed to the cold air and all of the eyes around her. She presses herself into the corner of the…cage. She pales. Cage? What…what is this place?
"S-sakura?" a soft voice asks.
Sakura turns slowly, her blood pounding in her ears, "Who's there?"
"Hinata," the voice responds and a figure steps into her vision. Dark hair frames white eyes that look into her green ones. Sakura embraces the girl.
"Oh, Hinata," Sakura says, overwhelmingly glad. Then she remembers the conversation she'd heard earlier, "Hinata, why were you brought here?"
Hinata frowns, "Some people were saying things around me, but I couldn't understand a word of it. Why? Do you know?"
"I heard some guys taking about how we're bait to lure out someone from Konoha, I guess. Someone who knows some 'Kakashi' and 'Shirusu' people. I have no—"
"You said 'Kakashi' and 'Shirusu', right?" Hinata's eyes are wide. "Kami, if what you said is true, that we're merely bait to lure out…" Hinata grits her teeth, "Bait to lure out Kosari-sensei, then we're," Hinata shakes her head, not wanting to think about it.
Some time passes and a short man walks in and looks greedily at the two Konoha girls' bodies, "Unfortunately, I won't be able to fully acquaint myself with you. Uchiha Shisui, that famous murder, paid me a lot of money to keep you here until someone shows up. So, unless you want to die, you should keep quiet. If you aren't, you'll just starve," the man says. Sakura narrows her eyes. So I can finally put a face to the voice of that mousey man. "If this person just doesn't show up, oh well. I'll just keep pinkie here and take over the Haruno Company," the man shrugs before turning and grabbing a girl from the cage and slamming it closed and dragging the girl away.
"Uchiha…Shisui," Hinata says darkly, "It's definitely Kosari-sensei they're luring out. But why?"
"That's not important," Sakura says as she takes out a pin from her hair, revealing it to be wrapped with paper and wire, "Come on, I have a plan," her green eyes shimmer with excitement.
Hinata blinks, "What is it?"
Sakura leans in close and cups her hand to the Hyuuga's ear.
"It's been a long time," Shisui says as he takes a step forward.
Kosari stands still, her black eyes wide beyond belief. Sakura pushes Kosari and Hinata out of the way and tugs hard on the wire around her fingers. It makes a high-pitched sound as the wire runs on the surface of rusted metal bars before wrapping around Shisui and the tags explode on him. Sakura tugs Kosari out, not liking the blank, empty expression she was wearing.
Sakura's green eyes dart around and catch oversized coats and a blanket. She grabs it and tosses the coat to Hinata. It drapes over her entire body to her knees and Sakura wraps herself in the blanket. The two Genin look back and see that Kosari isn't following. She stands, staring at her hands in shock. Her cold black eyes burn with fury that Sakura gets the feeling isn't directed at her, "Go."
"We can't leave you," Sakura grunts before grabbing the woman's hand and pulling her out of the compound.
Kosari pushes both girls to the ground as the compound suddenly explodes with a huge wave of heat. Even underneath the silver-haired woman, the two girls felt as if their skin was melting off. Sakura looks at the woman with her eyes shut tight. It must be unbearable…
When the explosion dies down, Kosari pushes herself off of them and grabs them, pulling them with only one direction in mind: away. She sees the ocean and without a moment of hesitation, she jumps in and her back is soothed by the cold water but another wave of pain after her skin was burned makes her go rigid. The salt in the ocean is supposed to have medicinal properties, but for now, it just hurt even more than getting burned. Kosari grips a slimy rock, covered in algae, and it breaks under her white-knuckled grip.
"Kosari-sensei," Hinata says, looking at the face of pure pain before her, "I'm…"
"Kosari!" a familiar figure runs towards her with five others in tow. She opens an eye a crack and sees Hyuuga Ko. The man offers a hand to help her out and she takes it. He pulls her out and gasps when he sees her back. Her clothes had burned off and revealed terribly burnt skin. She shakes with cold and pain, diverting all her chakra to easing the burn. She inhales and exhales raggedly, her hearing and vision going in and out.
"Why don't you heal her?" Sasuke demands with Shino on his back and a splint on his leg.
"I don't have enough chakra," Ko admits bitterly. He takes out a roll of bandages and begins to wrap her back in it, eliciting a wheeze of pain. He continues until she roughly pushes him away.
"What's wrong?" he asks, terribly concerned. She shoots him a dark look before whispering, "Run."
"Run?" Ko parrots, "What? From what?"
Kosari pushes herself up to kneel on the ground. She takes out the scroll Hiruzen had given her and hands it to Kurenai. Before Kurenai can even closely examine the matrix, a kunai sails towards it and pins it to the ground. The paper suddenly burns and Kosari pushes them all back with a gust of wind produced by her own chakra. She cries out as the pain of her burn is fully felt due to her diverting her chakra to pushing them all back twenty feet.
"Nice try, but that is hardly going to work," a dark figure materializes and sheds a smoking cloak down to the ground. Kosari staggers to her feet and brandishes a kunai with trembling fingers and hate and pain burning in her eyes.
Sasuke drops Shino to the ground and rushes with a battle cry towards the man that had taken away his clan. Shisui looks at the boy weaving signs and blowing out fireballs aimed at the Uchiha man. Shisui dodges easily. Just as Sasuke is about to pass Kosari, she holds out an arm and prevents him from going forth.
"Kosari-sensei!" Sasuke grits out, "Let—"
"Silence," Kosari hisses, "Stay back."
Shisui eyes Kosari curiously, "I take it you were kicked out of ANBU, right?"
"None of your fucking business," Kosari spits, her tone drastically different from its usual polite and distant, "I have one question for a bastard like you."
"Oh?" Shisui arches a brow.
"Where…" Kosari gasps in pain, "Is Kakashi?"
Shisui's lips quirk up in a smirk, "I see now. He was a disgrace to my clan and I'm glad he got rid of it. You have it, don't you?"
"Disgrace?" Kosari repeats before her eyes turn to mere slits, "You should be damn grateful to him! You wouldn't be alive if he hadn't saved you in the war! If anything, he brought honor to the clan you should be ashamed of calling your own!"
Shisui smiles, "Can't the same be said about you? You've done far worse than I have. You aren't worthy to call yourself a Hatake, much less have their silver hair. You should be dead."
"Yeah?" Kosari challenges, "Then why aren't I a criminal like you?"
"Well, Hinata's mother and…me," Shisui places a hand on his hip, his eyes glimmering with amusement, "Truly, it's been too long," he tosses her a small parcel she doesn't catch. She doesn't pay it any mind.
Kosari's pain melts away into cold rage that colors her vision red. Lightning cackles around her, "Shisui…" she wheezes, "Where is my brother?! I won't ask again!"
"We'll talk again, Kosari. For now, keep them alive. I'll have a word with them later," Shisui says as he flickers away.
"…"
Rin sends a dark glare to Ko, who fidgets with the hem of his shirt nervously. "Ko. Just what happened? I heard about her 'illness' from Asuma. And now this?" Rin gestures to the bandages covering her wound.
"She left me behind!" Ko exclaims, "She snapped and pushed away any common sense in exchange for ridiculous notions justified by ANBU and Shinobi Code regulations! She jumped into danger!"
Rin shakes her head, "That's not all," the woman picks up her clipboard and shoves it in Ko's face angrily. Ko blinks once before paling when he registers the words.
"Tuberculosis," Rin glares, "Just how did she contract that? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find the right medicine for that? And, to make sure it didn't interfere with any of the painkillers, stimulants, and anti-depression medication she apparently was taking?" Rin sighs loudly, exasperated with her face in her hands, "Her blood tests revealed she drinks too! Ko, just what…?"
"Anti-depression…stimulants?" Ko mutters, searching on the paper for it. "She wasn't given any sort of prescription. Why would she be taking this? Where is she getting this, anyway?"
"How should I know?" Rin angrily snaps, "And what do you mean, she 'snapped'?"
Ko bites his lip before cupping a hand to her ear and lowering his voice, "Pakkun, Kakashi's ninken summon, had his eye in a small parcel. You can imagine what this must imply."
Rin gasps and covers her mouth with her hands as tears streak down her face, "Oh Kami…"
Ko nods grimly, "Yet, this doesn't explain the stimulants or anti-depression medications she was taking. How long—"
A knock comes before someone opens the door. A tall, white haired man steps in and his glassy eyes drift from Jounin to Jounin and finally settles on the woman asleep on the hospital bed, "Damn," he mutters under his breath.
"J-Jiraiya-sama," Rin bows, "If you're here…where's Kakashi?"
Jiraiya looks away, "I'm sorry."
"What?!" Rin exclaims, horror chilling her blood, "Jiraiya-sama…he can't be…"
Jiraiya grimaces and puts a hand on his face, "She's asleep, right? She can't hear me, right?"
Rin shakes her head, trembling with sobs, "No…she's in a drug-induced coma."
Jiraiya crosses his arms gingerly, trying to avoid brushing his chest, "Good. She doesn't look too good already. I don't want to tell her she's…truly alone now," Jiraiya's mouth tastes metallic at the last part, "Don't tell her, okay? Don't tell anyone."
Ko holds Rin as she buries her head in his chest, sobbing, and looks at his old teammate on the bed with grief that she wouldn't feel until…When can we tell her? She'll eventually find out at some point, right? Even if she's released of Jounin sensei duty, she'll ask around before leaving by herself to find him, only to find a corpse. She can't be alone…can she?
"Jiraiya-sama," Ko says softly, "She isn't alone."
"Hm?" Jiraiya looks up from his gloom.
"She's got me, and Rin, and all of the other Jounin. She might not be initially friendly or want to be, but she isn't alone," Ko says. Jiraiya grunts in indifferent agreement. Ko rubs Rin's back comfortingly. Somehow, that might just be worse.
Two weeks pass until Rin takes Kosari out of her coma. Kosari blinks a few times and sees her students around her, slowly coming into focus. She looks up at Rin, "Nohara-san…I had a dream."
"What was it?" Rin squeezes her hand, wearing only black.
"That Kakashi was dead," Kosari says, her voice hoarse from not using it.
Rin squeezes her hand harder, "Of course not. It's just a dream after all."
Kosari squints at her, looking at her face carefully before her features calm, "Yeah," she shakes Rin's hand off and sits up.
My head…
"Nohara-san, just what kind of medication did you give me?" Kosari arches a brow at the woman.
Rin forces a smile that Kosari sees straight through but decides not to comment, "Just some painkillers. I'd like for you to take it easy, though," Rin hands her a white bag, "These are some other painkillers. I organized them in their own pillboxes so you don't have to think or worry about it. Just make sure to take them daily until you run out. I put in four boxes, so come back after you run out. I'll personally refill your prescription so you don't have to wait in line or anything. Make sure to drink plenty of water, ne?"
Kosari pushes herself off the bed and winces at the tightness in her chest, "Do you have my clothes, or at least my Jounin vest?"
Rin frowns, "Hokage-sama took it; he wants to have a word with you, about something."
Kosari rolls her eyes, "Thank you, Nohara-san."
Rin nods and briskly walks out, leaving the Jounin with her Genin. She tries to stuff her hands in her pockets, but there are none. She settles by crossing her arms, not turning to look at them. They look too miserable.
"Kosari-sensei, I'm sorry," Hinata says quietly.
"For what?" Kosari genuinely asks.
"You didn't have to protect me," Hinata says, "If I hadn't—"
"Hyuuga-san, I owe your clan a lot, especially your mother. She was a kind woman," Kosari says as she starts to walk out. She turns and looks at Naruto, "None of you should be apologizing. What's done is done. If you live your life apologizing about things that have already happened, you're the same as dead. After all, you're dwelling on the past and not truly living. I can't teach students that aren't alive," Kosari says.
Naruto looks at his feet before producing the parcel that Shisui had thrown at her. He hands it to her. He stares at his feet, "Are you feeling better, Kosari-sensei?"
Kosari places a hand on his soft red locks, "Yeah," she gives him what constitutes in her mind as a smile, "Team 7, meet me on the training grounds tomorrow morning. You can go home."
Sasuke and Naruto shuffle out past Kosari while Hinata trails behind the woman. Kosari glances at her face, obvious signs that she wants to talk, "What is it?"
"How do you owe my mother?" Hinata asks.
The woman pauses before answering, "She helped build me back up to who I used to be after the war. A lot of people my age either didn't come back or came back with startlingly different personalities. The Second War was brutal and the Third War took a huge toll on my generation, with a very, very high casualty rate. I was just a teenager when it finally ended. I didn't have any family; the Third War took them all away one way or another. She even helped me get into ANBU. I'm not sure what strings she pulled, but I turned in my application and an hour later I had been accepted."
"Oh," Hinata says. She still looks as if she wants to talk more. Kosari decides to indulge her with one more question. Besides, it'll be easier if I get on better terms with her. "Kosari-sensei, you said in the Land of Waves that Hatake Kakashi was…your brother. That means you're the Copy Ninja's sister, right?"
"Yeah," Kosari says, "In fact, he was supposed to become your sensei. But, he was called up for an important mission and hasn't come back yet. I think you and your team would've been much better off with him rather than me, but we've got almost three months down and roughly eight months to go until the Chuunin Exams," Kosari says as she leans against the counter where Rin takes off her hospital wristband and formally discharges her with a bag of medications rattling in it.
Hinata looks at her teacher's form until she disappears down a side street. Just what is her connection to Shisui?
A shadow clone spars with Team 7, while the original Kosari sits off to the side, watching their form and often calls Naruto and Sasuke out on disadvantageous taijutsu form, "Don't hold your arms up so high, Uzumaki-san. You're leaving your chest too open."
Naruto quickly changes his form. His expression changes to an eerily calm one before he throws an obvious punch forward. Sasuke catches his hand and sends a knee aimed to uppercut Naruto's jaw, but Naruto suddenly twists and slams Sasuke into Hinata. Hinata stumbles back and raises her hands in the formal Academy style, but Naruto bends down low and spins with a leg outstretched, not only catching Hinata off guard, but also knocking her off her feet. She twists and backflips, narrowly avoiding a punch. Naruto quickly advances and dodges her punch. She lets out a growl of frustration and sends a kick towards him. He ducks under her leg and punches her gut, sending her flying towards Kosari. She lands hard once before bouncing up and then rolling to a stop.
Kosari looks at the boy curiously. She summons a shadow clone and the clone races towards the boy. Naruto blocks an incoming punch and his feet dig into the dirt before the initial force pushes him back. He twists and extends his leg, aimed to kick her stomach, in the small space between them. She grabs his leg and slams him twice as hard as he could have down to the ground before he crudely lands on an extended hand and backflips. He rebounds forward and jumps high into the air. The clone goes on the defensive and he sends a powerful kick, arcing from the left to the right. The clone catches his leg once more, but this time he swings an arm around as he cocks back a punch. She blocks with the other hand before he sends his other arm around to—
The clone flickers a few feet away. Naruto barely lands on his feet. The clone increases in speed and Naruto sees only a blur of green vest and silver hair before he feels his body thrown up, pulled through the air, and a knee sinks into his stomach.
"That was high-Chuunin level speed," Kosari says as the clone's puff of smoke dissipates. She squats to look at the boy, lying painfully on his back, and pokes his face, "You're a little faster than I thought."
Naruto brushes her offending finger away and sits up, holding his stomach.
"Well, now that that's over," Kosari eye-smiles at Sasuke, who limps towards them, "How does lunch sound?"
Naruto greedily slurps his noodles beside his teammates and sensei. Sasuke orders a simple side dish of pan friend dumplings while Hinata stirs her ramen with her chopsticks, occasionally nibbling. Kosari settles with simple tea and sips, eyeing Sasuke's plate.
Sasuke sighs at Naruto when he finishes his third bowl and turns back to his own plate, almost finished with the ten he'd ordered. He poises his chopsticks to grab the last one, but it simply vanishes.
"A little too oily," a voice mutters beside him.
Sasuke's head whips to the woman next to him and glowers, "That was mine."
Kosari shrugs, "I'm paying, right? It's my money."
"It was my food," Sasuke shoots back.
"I certainly hope you enjoyed chewing it because you don't have to digest it," Kosari quips calmly, taking a sip of her tea to wash down the oiliness of it.
"Is that a threat?" Sasuke growls.
"See it how you like," Kosari says, smirking a little. "A growing boy needs his vegetables, not the instant ramen you seem to like to limit your cooking expertise to. This had just a few slices of green onion and cabbage; I've saved you from unhealthy food."
Sasuke sputters, flustered and angry, "I can cook more than just instant ramen! I'm not Naruto!"
"Oh, really?" Kosari's eyes twinkle.
"Obviously!" Sasuke exclaims.
"Well, Uchiha-sama, Hyuuga-san, Uzumaki-san, and I be looking forward to it tomorrow night," Kosari grins. "Refill, please."
"Coming right up," the girl behind the counter says and pours piping hot tea into her porcelain cup. Kosari takes a long sip before sighing in content.
"What?" Sasuke demands, disbelieving.
"What if your team gets injured on a mission and you're the only able-bodied one to gather food?" Kosari queries, "You can't give us burnt twigs."
Naruto chokes on his ramen when he hears that. Hinata pats his back and the red-haired boy hoots in laughter and claps his hands as his stomach begins to hurt. Tears form in his eyes from laughing so hard and he shakes on the counter, banging his fists next to his bowl.
"Shut up!" Sasuke hisses at Naruto.
"No, seriously," Kosari says with an innocent look, "If it's the wrong twig, it might be poisonous. Cooking it might aerosolize the poison and it'd be a double-whammy: the fumes and 'food'."
Kosari take another sip as Sasuke tries to wrap his head around cooking, "There's no way Kagami-jiisan agreed to this."
"Why not? You're the heir to your clan; you should be at least able to cook," Kosari reasons, "What if you die, wifeless?"
Hinata snickers behind her hands.
"I'm going to be the strongest," Sasuke says, staring at his hands, "I don't need a wife or the skills to cook; I can just eat rations on missions and when I become a Jounin, I can buy takeout."
Kosari rolls her eyes. Sounds just like Kakashi when he was a Genin… "I'll give you three the address of where Uchiha-san will be cooking us dinner after we finish up training today," Kosari puts down just enough money and drags Naruto away before he can order more ramen. Kakashi…he can't be dead. Shisui was just bluffing and even if he weren't, he wouldn't have killed him; he's too valuable. Such are the perks of being Konoha's favorite and famous war hero.
Kosari holds three slips of paper between two fingers, "Normally, I'd be up front about this, but I like harmless surprises once in a while," she hands each of them a square of paper. She takes out her own paper and holds it out in front of them between her thumb and index finger, "If I channel chakra into it…"
The paper crinkles outwards from her fingertips.
"It crinkled," Hinata notes, "Meaning…?"
Kosari grins excitedly, "Sorry for the throwback to boring Academy days, but here's a small lesson you were never taught in-depth. I'm sure you remember being taught that there are five different kinds of jutsu, right? Suiton, katon, raiton, doton, and fūton?"
They nod. "But, the interesting thing is that shinobi are actually predisposed to certain jutsu. This predisposition is called a 'chakra affinity'. It basically tells you what kind of jutsu you are able to perform," Kosari looks at Sasuke, "To some extent. Now, I have a question for you three: why do the names of the Five Nations coincide with that of chakra affinities?" she places a hand on her hip, "This should be easy."
"Because certain affinities are more common in certain regions?" Sasuke replies, furrowing his brows.
"Yes," Kosari says. "As a result, there is a high ratio of katon users to doton users in Konoha compared to that of Kiri, who has a higher ratio of suiton users than Konoha, and so on. There are exceptions to this generalization, but this is just an outline.
"What I'd like for you to do is this: channel chakra into the paper. It'll tell you what affinity you have based upon the paper's reaction to your chakra. Some of you may already know your predisposition, but it's highly common to have more than one, but perhaps not now," Kosari looks at Sasuke for a moment.
Naruto grips his paper in his hand and focuses with his eyes closed. Hinata stares at her paper, waiting for it to move. Sasuke is the first to have an answer: it rips. The two whip their heads at the crisp sound and Naruto gawks. Hinata gasps when hers turns to dust. Next to her, Naruto's ignites.
Yondaime-sama, what do you think? Are you proud, or are you terrified that your seal may be weakening? What would you do? Kosari clears her throat, bringing the three back to attention, "My paper had crinkled, meaning I have a raiton affinity, or can perform raiton techniques. Uchiha-san's ripped, meaning he has a fūton affinity, Hyuuga-san's turned to dust; she has an affinity towards doton techniques. And lastly, Uzumaki-san," Kosari purses her lips, "Do it again."
She hands him another slip of paper and to his shock it crinkles. Kosari nods once, "I actually already knew the answers after being around you three for some time now."
"How did you know? We obviously never had tested with these papers before," Hinata says.
"Wait. I haven't finished yet," Kosari sighs, "Uzumaki-san, you can perform katon and raiton techniques. Raiton to begin with is rare in the Land of Fire, but I had a feeling you'd be able to. Normally, only Jounin can have two different chakra affinities due to extensive training, but you're an outlier," Kosari looks at him carefully. Either that, or Naruto wasn't fiddling his thumbs as an orphan. Far from it, by the looks of it. "I only had you test again because I didn't quite believe the paper; I could sense your affinity," Kosari places a hand on her hip.
"Back to Hyuuga-san's question, the reason is because when you're not concealing your chakra and especially when you're molding chakra for a technique, anyone around you can sense you. It's why you know that someone is behind you even if you don't see him or her. However, I was in ANBU for quite some time. As an ANBU, you must be able to sense someone is around and especially behind you even when their chakra is concealed, for security purposes. This is hard enough, especially when you send out waves of your own chakra to sense. Even harder is having to conceal your chakra and be able to sense someone who is also concealing their chakra, tell his or her gender, relative age, shinobi level, and of course, affinity. I excelled at sensing and honed my skills to a particularly fine point. Because you three don't conceal your chakra, it's quite easy to tell. In the beginning, I thought Uzumaki-san had a raiton affinity, only to see a katon affinity. I was a little shocked, so I had you test again."
"What other techniques can you perform?" Sasuke asks, trying to burn his curiosity away. He shouldn't care, but he somehow does. Is this because she's friends with Kagami-jiisan? Then he frowns. Friends? Just what connection could Kosari-sensei have with him?
"Including raiton, I have three that I've mastered. Suiton and fūton," Kosari says. "I've brought technique scrolls for the three of you," she produces three from her back pocket and tosses them to the three Genin. They unfurl it almost ravenously. Naruto scowls at his and glances over at Hinata and Sasuke's scrolls. Then he looks up at the silver-haired Jounin, "Why'd you give us all D-Rank techniques? We're better than this!"
Kosari shoves her hands in her pockets, "Given the fact that you're going to train night and day every day with this technique, it's best that you start off with a technique that isn't going to totally kill you from chakra exhaustion."
"What makes you say we're going to train with this Academy stuff?" Naruto challenges.
"Because you three have two weeks to perfect this," Kosari says, "It shouldn't take longer than that. Once you manage to get a D-Rank technique mastered, it will take you less time to master a C-Rank, B-Rank, and then A-Rank technique."
"Just two weeks?" Naruto gapes, "Kosari-sensei! Give us a little more slack!"
"Hey," Kosari snaps, "There's no reason you should be whining; you managed to master tree-walking and water-walking faster than your teammates. Chakra control, despite the sea of chakra you possess, is something you're good at. Use that to your advantage."
"But—"
A blur of black quickly hops and sprints over to the three. Kosari's eyes slide over to the figure and look over with mild curiosity. She looks at the man before her, "Team 7, this is Yamato. He's an old friend of mine, and the one that taught me a few useful suiton techniques."
"A few?" the man mutters, "Kosari-senpai, I—"
"Yamato, I'm sure you're familiar with these three," Kosari smiles pleasantly at the man. A bead of sweat runs down his face, "Yeah…Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uchiha Sasuke, right?"
"Right," Kosari says. She looks at Hinata, "Yamato has a doton affinity, one of the strongest in the village. I would've asked someone else to demonstrate your jutsu for you, but Yamato is the next best thing."
"Thanks, Kosari-senpai," Yamato says sarcastically. "What jutsu is it?"
Hinata looks at the scroll, "Doton: Inner Decapitation Technique."
Yamato grins, "That's one of my favorites," and then his smile fades to a look of concentration, "Watch closely. I summon chakra to my feet before plunging myself into the ground. Your chakra should act both as a shield, because there may be bombs or other dangerous objects hidden in the ground, and as a drill, because you're pushing the ground aside to allow for you to slip into it. Try to make the ground a little more viscous, like soil, mainly to make slipping into the ground easier."
"Doton: Inner Decapitation Technique," Yamato says before he disappears into the ground. Kosari frowns as she looks over the scroll and mumbles, "He didn't explain every—"
Her words were cut off as she is dragged into the ground until only her head remains. Yamato climbs out of the ground before he squats and smiles beside her glaring head, "What were you saying, Kosari-senpai? That I didn't show everything?"
Kosari doesn't respond. Instead, she mutters something under her breath before her chakra grinds up against itself and cuts the ground around her to pieces. Yamato offers her a hand to get out of the three-foot-wide hole she'd created, which she takes.
"Hinata, this is actually a torture technique," Yamato says solemnly, "After dragging your enemy down until only his head remains, you can torture him for information before simply slicing his head off. But," he grins at Kosari, "You can also use it for simple payback."
"I did nothing," Kosari says flatly as she dusts off her clothes.
Yet, her eyes glimmer with hidden laughter. Yamato feels a little more at ease. When he'd first met her, she was nothing more than a very devoted tool to Danzo. Her kunai and lightning were nothing more than extensions of herself. At some point, eons ago, she had been belittled by several other ANBU several years older than her. Yamato too had been belittled for being the youngest in the group and took the beatings and sneers, but on a mission to a town to 'gather intelligence', Kosari had taken down the entire town down, along with her superiors. She had justified their deaths by saying that they allowed their prejudice for their fellow ANBU to get in the way of being able to retrieve information, which was true, because they'd simply stayed back and drank at a bar and left Yamato and Kosari to do the work. Danzo never asked her why they never returned and Yamato was haunted by nightmares of Kosari electrocuting him to death for a month. Some time later, Yamato was on a mission with not only Kosari, but also the friend-killer: Hatake Kakashi. Yamato still wasn't entirely sure what their relation was but they certainly didn't seem to get along; Kakashi kept trying to put her in the back of the formation despite her role as captain. He speculated they were perhaps cousins from the silver hair, but he truly wasn't sure.
He wanted to know, though, now that he could see her face.
Yet, he didn't. Should this façade of mild nonchalance and glimmers of 'emotion' be nothing more than a mask in which another purpose lay, he didn't want to end up dead. It was obvious she knew a great deal of information on him, possibly including his past as Orochimaru's experiment. Normally, Danzo would put another agent in a vacant room in the ANBU barracks, but he hadn't put anyone in her room. It was as if Danzo was awaiting her arrival back into ANBU Black Ops. No, Yamato wanted no part in her reentry in ANBU. Danzo was surely concocting some sick plan and Yamato was very sure that Kosari would be more than willing to fall back into her ANBU mold and carry out his orders.
Stay away, he reminds himself. Stay far, far away.
"—mato?" fingers snap in front of his face. She looks at him quizzically.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Yamato swallows hard and nods.
She eyes him warily before sighing, "Thank you, Yamato. If I need you again to help Hyuuga-san…"
"Sure," Yamato forces a smile, "Of course. Anything."
"Thanks," Kosari says, giving him an ANBU smile, "Make sure to take care of yourself, Yamato. You don't look so good."
Yamato pales, "O-oh, really?" he laughs a little too loudly, "Sorry to worry you, Kosari-senpai. I'll see you around, right?"
"Sure," Kosari's eyes form two crescents as she smiles, "See you around. Thank you, again."
Yamato nods before flickering away to a tree and holds his chest where his heart beats wildly against his ribcage, ready to explode after too much fear and horror lit it up. His ears pound with his racing heartbeat and sweat pours down his forehead. He wipes it away before racing off at top speed, sensing her eyes trail him until he walks the merchant district, far from the training grounds. He steps into a café and tries to forget that his life was in the palm of his hands.
"I'll demonstrate the other two," Kosari says, looking at Naruto and Sasuke.
"Fūton: Gale Palm," Kosari says, "It's actually quite simple. You don't need hand signs. All you need to do is mold chakra to your hands and clap. It compresses the air between your hands and creates a thin and sharp gust of wind. Wind in general is suited perfectly for combat since it can cut through just about anything. Combined with fire, wind creates a deadly inferno."
She summons chakra to her hands before her hands meet and send a gale of wind towards a tree. The tree splits in half and its leaves fall to the ground. Sasuke's eyes widen a bit. And to think this is just a D-Rank. If the Fireball technique is just a C-Rank, then what could an A-Rank look like?
"Raiton: Lightning Discharge," Kosari looks at the Uzumaki boy. He looks at her with mild anticipation and the mere look of twin orbs examining her and analyzing her every breath and every move makes her skin crawl and something warm and unpleasant to writhe in her chest. She knew the pain of being an orphan after her mother died and her father abandoned the village, but Naruto simply wasn't normal…there was something lurking beneath the easy-going Namikaze eyes and excitable Uzumaki locks.
Kosari shows him the seals before clasping her hands together in a tiger seal and the ground around her buckles. She points an index and middle finger towards a tree and it cracks in half. "You'll want to start off simply with discharging from all your chakra points. Once you can get the ground to crack, you can try to condense it in your arm before sending a bolt towards something. Lighting techniques always require some sort of expulsion of lightning, whether it is spreading it about or condensing it, so this is a good start."
Kosari smiles at the three of them, "Good luck. You three have two weeks," then she digs in her pocket to produce three slips of paper, regular paper, "This is the address. Dress nicely and don't snack before dinner; save your appetites for Uchiha-san's magnificent cooking," she sends Sasuke a smile before vanishing into thin air.
"Damn."
The dry cleaners had helped a great deal, sure. The bloodstains of the daimyo from the Land of Iron had certainly gotten out, but odd smudges of iron remained on her kimono. She runs her thumb over the sleeves where the smudge was darkest and puts it down. Clad in only a green striped bra and matching panties, she looked at herself in the mirror on the back of her bathroom door. Scars littered her body, but the one that still hurt was the one that had used her belly button as the target. Most of the scars, even the poison ones from Shisui, had healed to a degree; merely thin lines of white on her skin. While she wasn't as pale as Kakashi, her scars sometimes camouflaged with her skin. Yet, the one smack-dab in the center of her stomach was pink. The blade hadn't been anything special: it was just a sword. It wasn't some triangle shaped one that created a wound that couldn't be closed up or some two-pronged kunai. It was just a sword.
At the time, she knew Fugaku wasn't necessarily in his right mind. But, she did hold a lot of respect for the man, as many did. He held his ground as the village's thoughts of the Uchiha began to sour and was mostly quiet and reserved, especially around his son. As the ANBU assigned to the Uchiha compound, she found him to be someone that could've become Hokage, if Minato wasn't wearing the hat. But, as the ANBU assigned with the vague order of 'aid' and 'protect', she had no idea of the danger she was in. Oh, sure, Shisui had tried to warn her when he was off-duty from his other ANBU missions and found her perched in a tree without a trace of her chakra around, looking at Fugaku converse with Danzo. Of course, with a lot of pride and annoyance from someone who wasn't her superior, she brushed him off.
Time passed and her stomach began to hurt, as if she'd caught some sort of illness. The pain only got worse and she hugged her abdomen as her eyes glazed over. She saw Fugaku's wrist flick and she appeared before him with her fist on the ground in a kneeling position. Her entire body went rigid from trying to hold in the pain.
"Stand," was what he'd said. He was perfectly calm. Shisui was out on a mission and couldn't flicker in to intervene. Itachi was out training still and Mikoto was innocently stitching up Itachi's ripped shirt in another room.
She did so and staggered back before falling to her knees, staring in disbelief, at Fugaku and then at his hand and then at the sword that had gone straight through her. She looked like a pincushion that Mikoto had made, but lacking about fifty pins and needles. Blood dribbled down the corners of her mouth and she looked at Fugaku through the holes in her mask in horror, "F-fugaku-sama…"
"Uchiha-sama to you, you damn Hatake. I wish your father were here, though. He'd always wanted a perfect family of five sons, but you were the one that ruined everything and his reputation plummeted. Four sons and one weak female. He frequently thought of killing you and making it look like an accident, or poisoning you. It never worked, though. I don't think he tried hard enough, but today, I'll finally be freeing my friend and clan of this disgrace! If my next child is a girl, I'll bury it alive! I've been trying to poison you and I see that it's finally working. Your head burns and your stomach feels like it's on fire up and your body is filled with pain, right?" Fugaku grins, "You'll have Orochimaru to thank for that. He'll come soon to get you; your organs must be quite interesting specimens to resist poison for so long."
Hound stared up at the man with shock, "M-my father…he didn't…"
Fugaku cackles, "Oh, oh, oh Kami I wish I could bring him here for him to see the pure shock and denial on your face! Priceless! Damn ANBU up on your high horse drops down to a weak and stupid woman who can't understand her fate! Priceless!"
Hound gasps in pain and shock before getting to her feet and running out and away. She hops over rooftops before jumping down to the gates. She staggers as blood trails behind her and her vision begins to blur. She reaches out to try to grasp the gate because it looked so close despite the real distance of thirty feet, and collapses on her side. Strong arms pick her up and she gazes up blankly at angry red ones. "Who…?"
"What happened?! Who did this?!" he demands. Hound squints to try to get a better look at him. She studies him for a long time before realizing it. Pride and shame surge through her and she turns away, not wanting to tell him.
"Please," he says, suddenly very gently, "I don't want you to die without telling me who killed you."
"Like I'll die," she says before coughing wetly as blood comes back up. She coughs and blood seeps into his shirt.
"Then I'll just have to get the truth out of you. You'll be the laughingstock of the ANBU corps," he says, playing at her game. She relaxes a little and closes her eyes, just to make sure he didn't cheat, "You were right. I should've had my guard—" she coughs again before her eyes roll into the back of her head.
When she came to, Minato, Kushina, Kakashi and Shisui were looming over her with concern. She sends a glare at Shisui, "Are you happy now? You were right; I was wrong. Now get out, all of you. I only want to talk to Kakashi."
Kosari shakes the memory away from her mind and puts on a black turtleneck and dons her kimono. A clone ties the wide cloth that covers her abdomen behind her back and ties her hair simply with a white ribbon. She doesn't apply makeup.
"Fugaku, you should be glad," Kosari says as she places a hand on her stomach, "Not only did Minato not go after you even when I came into his office to tell him about the Seijou, but your sword still hurts. You've won, even in death."
She locks her door and turns to walk to the stairs.
As she nears the house, she sees a figure standing in front of the house. Upon further inspection, she sees that it is Nohara Rin. The woman turns and smiles at the silver-haired woman before she gasps at her formal wear, "Kosari-chan, you really went all out! Today is a holiday, but I guess I just never thought you were all that festive…" Rin laughs a little.
Kosari nods, "I light incense every year. It's just that today is much more than what the villagers are celebrating for," her eyes glimmer knowingly.
Rin frowns, "What do you—" then her face lights up, "That's right!"
Kosari glances down at the burning sticks of incense, "Did you light these?"
"No," Rin says, "Someone else did. When I got here, someone had already lit incense and presented offerings. Maybe a family friend…"
Kosari narrows her eyes, "I suppose," then she sighs, "In any case, a student of mine is cooking dinner. Would you like to join us? I've already sent a clone to get cake and candles. You're the only one of Team 7 in the village right now, especially with how Kakashi wants to take his time getting back, and I didn't want to ask Ko to come."
"Sure," Rin says, trying to shock from her face. Kami, she doesn't know about Kakashi yet… "Where?"
"Here," Kosari says, "I've taken down most of the traps and disabled the seals and cleaned up a bit."
"Kosari-sensei!" a voice hollers from afar. Kosari smiles and walks up the steps to unlock the door. She steps in and sees her clone had already laid out several ingredients for Sasuke to work with. She turns and sees her students and Rin enter. Sasuke glares at Kosari, answering the question she was about to voice, "He couldn't come."
"Ah," Kosari says, "I've bought a few ingredients for you, Uchiha-san. We'll be counting on you," she says as she takes a seat at the table and folds her hands neatly in her lap.
Sasuke slams down plates of rice and stew on the table, sending murderous glares to everyone, especially the silver-haired woman. He takes his own plate and begins to eat angrily, crushing even the bones to smithereens. Naruto smiles at him as he finishes his plate, "Seconds please, Sasuke-chan."
Sasuke grabs his plate from him, exuding pure hate, and a messy plate of rice and stew (along with a large scoop of the eggplant that he'd nearly vomited on when cutting) and throws it at the boy. Naruto catches it carefully and begins to vacuum the stew.
"Naruto-kun, it's not good for you to eat so quic—" Rin says with a nervous smile.
As if on cue, the boy begins to choke. It isn't obvious at first. He looks up when she says what she says before his eyes widen and he doesn't move. The boy's face drains of color and he begins to panic. Kosari glances over at him and grabs his collar. With her chopsticks poised in her other hand, she deftly plucks out a large piece of eggplant. She places it on his plate and wipes off her chopsticks.
"I agree with Uzumaki-san, though," Kosari looks at her Uchiha student, "It's quite good. I'd stuff my face like him, but only if I were a child," she looks at Naruto with amusement, "But, your skills could rival that of Ichiraku Ram—"
"No one can," Naruto says darkly, "Not even Sasuke-chan's cooking."
"Don't call me that," Sasuke's chopsticks sail through the air, aimed for Naruto's neck. Naruto dodges and the chopsticks head for the wall. Kosari reaches to grab them and places them next to her plate, "Don't do that. This isn't my house. This house used to belong to someone very, very important."
"Who?" Hinata asks.
Kosari smirks at Rin before answering Hinata's question, "The Yondaime Hokage and his wife."
The three Genin go silent. Then Sasuke realizes something very, very disturbing, "Why are we here? This house should be a memorial…not some stage."
"Not anymore," Kosari says, "This house was entrusted to five people, of which the number has dwindled. Today marks the day in which the ownership passes on to another. But, for another three minutes, this house is still under the jurisdiction of those five, which includes myself and Nohara-san here."
"How come?" Naruto asks.
"Well," Kosari says, "Nohara-san and my brother, Kakashi, were both students of the Yondaime Hokage. I was close to the Hokage because I was his ANBU, among other reasons."
"Who are the other three?" Naruto asks, getting more and more interested in the life of his hero.
"His wife's disciples," Kosari says as she turns and takes a box from the fridge. She places it on the table as she summons a clone to clear the table and clean the plates. She places candles on it as Naruto is obliviously walking about and exploring the home of his hero. "Uchiha-san, could you light these candles for me?"
The boy complies and a flame from his finger goes from each wick until they all burn brightly. She glances back up at the clock and smiles. "Hyuuga-san, turn out the lights. Uzumaki-san, come here."
The two comply and they all gather. Kosari sits Naruto down in front of the cake and stands opposite him with a camera in her hands, poised to take a photo. She puts it on a timer and sets it down on a ledge.
"Happy thirteenth birthday, Uzumaki Naruto," Kosari says, "Smile and blow out your candles."
The candles' flames are extinguished as the camera flashes.
Cake is served and Naruto grins as he eats the cake, vacuuming it without hesitation. Rin sighs at his display and resigns to her slice of cake. The cake is quickly polished off and Kosari is left with a lump in her throat, "Uzumaki-san, there's something you should know."
"What?" Naruto asks, his cheeks round with cake.
Kosari stares at her untouched plate. Too sweet. "Today, thirteen years ago, is the day you were born. It's also the day that the Yondaime Hokage and his wife, along with countless other shinobi, gave up their lives when the Kyuubi attacked," Hound looks at the boy seriously, "And, today is the day you inherit this house."
Naruto chews once more before stilling. His eyes widen and he stands and takes a step back, "No way…"
"On October 10, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina said their last words, with nothing but love for you," Hound says. She takes a few steps before taking a photo album from the bookcase. She pulls out a photo and hands it to him. He takes it with shaking hands and tears roll down his face as he sees his hero standing beside a woman with a swollen stomach. The couple exudes happiness and joy.
Tou-san…Kaa-san…I'll make you proud.