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Chapter 3: Secrets

The moon was full again.

"Couldn't sleep," Kakashi asked.

Sasuke glanced over at his teacher. "Why are you here again?" He asked.

"I've noticed," Kakashi told him. "Every month, when the moon is full, you're up here on the roof, watching it. It's as though you're waiting for something to happen." He eyed his student, taking in the pale, white yukata he was wearing. "You'll freeze out here if you're only wearing that."

"Its summer, Kakashi," Sasuke glared. "It just reminds me of that night. It was a full moon then, too."

"But you still have your family," Kakashi reminded him. "I can't talk to ghosts like you can, but I bet they're worried about you. You should go inside."

"Hn," Sasuke sighed. He knew they were. It wasn't actually what Kakashi thought. He was worried about the full moon, but not for the reason Kakashi thought he was. During the full moon, Yue's powers were the strongest. If Yue did ever choose to attack, it would be during the full moon…

Still, it didn't seem as though it would happen tonight, so he slid off the roof and went inside.

Cerberus, in his false form, cuddled into his arms after he had changed into his silk pajamas and climbed into bed.

"No sign of Yue?"

"Not even a whisper," Sasuke replied.

"We'll have to wait until the next full moon," He sighed.

Sasuke nodded.

"For your first C-rank mission, you will be jointly guarding this merchant caravan as it travels to Kusagakure," Hiruzen instructed them. Team Seven saluted, along with Team Eight and Team Ten. It was nice to see their former classmates again, Sasuke thought. Team Eight was mostly a tracking team, and Team Ten were perhaps interrogation and information gathering? In any case, between the three of them they could cover a wide range of specialties and of course they could all fight. He watched as Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma together laid out what they would be doing, covering guard shifts and inter and intra-team activities and paid attention.

He found himself paired with Kiba and Akamaru in the lead. Kiba seemed intent on proving his dominance. Sasuke told him point-blank that there was nothing to prove, and that he would defer to Kiba's lead unless the boy had a really stupid idea as he was going to play the support role. Kiba looked taken aback and Sasuke sighed inwardly and repeated what he had told to Naruto, that he was training to become a medic-nin. Akamaru licked his hand and wagged his tail, and that seemed to be good enough for Kiba.

Kiba wasn't dumb, though. He knew Akamaru could sense chakra levels, and Sasuke might be a healer, but Sasuke was way above Genin level, even Chuunin level. Jounin level, perhaps… Akamaru wasn't sure. But Sasuke wasn't dangerous to him, or anyone else, so Kiba kept quiet about that.

The first week of travel was boringly peaceful. They were still close to Konoha, after all, and any bandits or thieves in this area would have to be suicidal or very desperate, to try attacking so close to a hidden village. They traveled during the day and camped at night, and on two occasions the merchants even left the ninja to guard their wares as they made merry in a nearby town. Sasuke tried his best to make conversation with his former classmates during the day when they rotated shifts, but it was not his strong suit, and he had to spend quite some time avoiding Ino and some of the merchants' daughters and nieces. Why were there so many clingy females? At least Sakura seemed to have gotten over her crush on him…

The bandits attacked on the ninth day, in the early morning, before the mist had cleared. One moment, there was nothing, the next there were screams and flaming arrows hissing overhead. It was impossible that their Jounin-sensei had noticed nothing, Sasuke thought, so was this a test?

Protect the clients, he thought. Kiba was already dashing towards the merchants, heading for the screams. Sasuke gazed at the mist, thought, it could be a trap. He inhaled, felt the wind flow through him, exhaled… the fog parted, and he saw Kiba hurtling towards the caravan leader, Youji. Not a trap, yet… then he saw the man with the bow, up in the trees, taking aim at Kiba. Chakra filled his legs, and he sprang, metal covering his body as he shielded them both. The two arrowheads broke against his armor, and he heard Kiba's exclamation of surprise.

"Get him to safety," Sasuke hissed, Sharingan eyes meeting Kiba's startled ones. Kiba grabbed Youji and fled.

Metal on his fingertips, senbon formed, straight to the man's throat. No time to think, how many left?

There were a dozen there, by the trees… Sasuke flickered, shuriken in hand. Two down, three shuriken in each torso, just like Itachi would have taken them down, Kakashi thought, observing. Not dead yet, but good enough for now. He turned his attention to the other students, saw a man being eaten alive by Shino's kikaichu, Hinata striking with the jyuuken right and left. Naruto burying two bandits alive underneath a clone avalanche, Sakura delivering a truly agonizing groin kick. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji were evacuating several other merchants; very good.

Sasuke wrapped himself in fire and lightning. Kakashi's eyes sharpened, his Sharingan was on, and he could see the precise chakra flowing around the boy. Fire and lightning weren't the only two elements present. Those were only the two most obvious ones.

Son of a bitch…

Sasuke wove between the bandits gracefully, like a dancer. Those that weren't immediately incinerated or electrocuted died very quickly with a single touch. When it was over, Sasuke wove his chakra back into himself, gathered up every flicker of flame, every spark of lightning, every drop of water and speck of earth, every gust of wind and blended them all together until it looked normal, until there was no ice or wood or metal or crystal or anything else that shouldn't belong in a slightly-above average genin, no yin or yang or anything in between. Then, he stepped back into Kakashi's line of sight.

"Damn," Asuma looked at Kakashi. "What have you been teaching your students?"

"Asuma," Kakashi said shakily. "I can assure you, I didn't teach Sasuke any of that." He focused on Sasuke again, rubbing his eyes. What the hell? Now he couldn't see any elemental chakra at all within the boy. "I know I saw all five chakra natures inside of him earlier… but now… what is he playing at?"

Kurenai turned to look at him. "Maybe we should go help now?"

Kakashi nodded dumbly. Yes, some of the wagons were still on fire, weren't they? Yes; and the bandits were mostly out of commission. Helping sounded good. He could interrogate the boy later.

Fortunately, no one had died, and the goods were largely intact. The wagons could be repaired, and Youji was very glad indeed he had hired a ninja escort.

Kakashi caught Sasuke by the stream that evening.

"Sasuke," He said.

"Kakashi," Sasuke met his gaze unflinchingly.

"Who trained you," He demanded.

"I already told you," Sasuke wasn't lying, and he knew it in the marrow of his bones. "My family did."

"When did you know you had all five elemental natures," He asked his next question.

Sasuke looked thoughtful. "I believe I was nine."

"And you didn't think to tell me?" That came out sharper than he would have liked.

"You didn't ask Naruto or Sakura their elemental natures," Sasuke pointed out very reasonably. "It would have been showing favoritism…"

"Sasuke," Kakashi sighed. "How strong are you?"

"I don't know," Sasuke replied honestly.

"Take a guess," Kakashi told him harshly. "You're definitely above Chuunin level."

"Anbu," Sasuke suggested. "Niisan was, at eleven. Why wouldn't I be, at twelve?"

"Right," Kakashi gazed into his eyes. "We are going to spar for real as soon as we get back to Konoha. And if I catch you holding back, I'll kill you."

Sasuke just smiled.

"Do you need our help?" Cerberus asked.

"That would be a little unfair to Kakashi, don't you think?" Sasuke asked.

"You are our Master…" Light reminded, embracing him from one side.

"And we are here to serve you," Dark purred from his other side.

Sasuke chuckled as they each kissed him on a cheek. "I may need Mirror soon, but we shall see…"

Kakashi was in over his head.

They had started off with taijutsu. Sasuke was skilled, he was willing to admit, but Kakashi had the advantage of a lot more experience and a stronger adult body. Then the kid had trapped him in some kind of all-senses illusion that he just couldn't figure out how to break. He had attempted kai. He had activated his Sharingan. He had stabbed himself with a kunai. He knew it was an illusion. But why couldn't he get out of it?

Sasuke hummed as he wondered if Kakashi would realize that he had not actually inflicted bodily harm upon himself as that pain was also an illusion. Yes, the Sharingan was supposed to break through illusions, but as Illusion was the source of all illusions known to man and Sasuke had trained under him, there was no way Kakashi was going to break out anytime soon. He made some more naked Icha Icha heroines from Kakashi's subconscious mind wander past and was rewarded with some heavy breathing from his sensei. As entertaining as this was, he really wanted to pick up some new techniques so he decided to give Kakashi another half hour before he broke the illusion himself and got to the fun stuff.

So, Kakashi finally broke the illusion, or so he thought, and got serious. But for some reason, Sasuke was just too damn fast for him to hit with any of the techniques he was throwing at him. And Kakashi was throwing a lot of techniques at him, and Sasuke was drinking them in greedily, Sharingan copying every jutsu in sight. Granted, the training field was getting horribly destroyed, and so was the forest and the river around them, but that was what it was for. Sasuke threw a few katon and raiton techniques Kakashi's way, ones the man could dodge easily, added a few suiton and doton for variety and to shield himself, and finally a nice fuuton to show off a little. Then he slipped inside Kakashi's guard and nicked him with a kunai. The paralytic had his sensei on the ground in three seconds flat.

Kakashi glared at him balefully. Sasuke helpfully injected him with the antidote.

"You've made your point, you cocky brat."

"So, can I take the Chuunin Exams with Naruto and Sakura?"

"Actually," Kakashi said, with an eye-smile. "You've just been promoted to Anbu. Congratulations."

Sasuke blinked. Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped out from behind a tree.

"Very well done, Sasuke," He said. "I was going to have you pass the Chuunin Exams at Akagahara but I see no point in doing so. And I know you broke the illusion on Kakashi. That level of genjutsu alone is beyond anything even Yuuhi Kurenai could manage. Combined with your level of ninjutsu… you were still holding back, weren't you?" The god of shinobi chuckled. "I trained under the Nidaime Hokage, Sasuke. I sense something of his spirit inside of you. I think you'll make a fine Anbu. But don't worry – you won't be leaving Team Seven just yet. There are still a few missions I've got my eye on for you to take…"

"Hokage-sama," Sasuke sank to his knees.

Hiruzen smiled. "You'll get your mask and tattoo later. For now, you report only to me, Hawk."

Hawk, Sasuke thought. He liked it.

"Your first mission," The Hokage said softly. "Is…"

"So, how'd it go?" Cerberus asked.

"I got promoted," Sasuke replied.

The Guardian Beast looked at him. "You're going on a long trip tomorrow, aren't you?" He asked. "Want me to come along?"

Sasuke nodded. Cerberus sighed. "You feel it too?"

"Yue is coming," Sasuke said softly.

"Finally…" Cerberus growled. "After all these years…"

"It's time for the Final Judgment."

End Chapter

Started 3/25/16

Completed 3/25/16

Sasuke spent over four years training with the Clow Cards. More will be explained later.