Confluence
By Violet Garnets
Chapter Three: Getting Back into Rhythm
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Killing intent nearly bowled Kakashi over as he opened the door to Hokage's office. Two blondes glared at him, their hair standing on end.
"You're late…" Tsunade and Naruto hissed.
Kakashi cringed. "So you got the color out of your hair, Naruto," he noted the boy's bright golden locks attracting his eye.
"Don't change the subject!"
Beads of perspiration on Kakashi's forehead formed as the levels of killing intent soared. He still couldn't help a snippy little comment escape. "Well, don't get your panties in a bunch—" He realized his mistake far too late.
Several kunai whizzed towards him, pinning him to the wall helplessly. One happened to cut a few strands of his silver hair off. He winced, and his forehead became damp with sweat.
On the other side of the room, Tsunade gave Naruto an approving smile. "Your aim's improved."
Naruto only gave a sweeping bow in response.
"Now, let's get to work. While a certain jounin was asleep or doing whatever the hell he was doing, Naruto gave me an extensive report along with Yamato," Tsunade folded her arms over her chest and looked at Kakashi.
Kakashi cocked his head to the side. His temple brushed against the cold of a kunai, so he retracted his head to its original position. "Oh. Cool. Where is Yamato anyway?"
"Yamato-taichou went home. He was here the whole night, talking with me." Tsunade turned around to face the windows. "Kakashi, you understand what you have to do, yes?"
He nodded, even though the Hokage obviously couldn't see. "Yes. Prepare the little one for his exhibition."
"Hey! I grew! You're just freakishly large," Naruto retaliated.
Tsunade happened to turn back around in time to see Naruto's tongue sticking out. She sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Honestly, you're eighteen years old, Naruto. And yet you still act like you're thirteen."
The blonde in question shrugged and grinned impishly.
"I give up," the woman decided. "Naruto, get Kakashi down from there. Then you two head over to somewhere you can start working. Now move!" She screamed the last bit with such sharpness that the two men were down and out within seconds.
As soon as they were gone, she smiled gently. It was nice to see the two of them back together. Kakashi had been too quiet for too long.
"Ah, Kakashi-sensei? Where's Sakura-chan?"
"The last I heard she was in Sand again. After she saved Kankurou's life, they've become really interested in Konoha medicine. She's picking up much from them as well," Kakashi replied.
"Oh…do you know when she'll be back?" Naruto asked, attempting to be as casual as possible.
Kakashi suppressed a smile. "Soon." He felt… proud, for some reason. He had managed to craft a team that truly cared and supported one another. Sasuke was the exception, but as long as the teammates of the defected one believed he could be redeemed, he would hope as well.
"Jeez, you're really annoying when you're vague," Naruto huffed.
The jounin simply shrugged in response. "Maa, we're here. So, what should we start with?"
"Hell if I know."
"Thanks for being such a big help," Kakashi muttered dryly. But it didn't quite matter anyway. They'd get around to everything eventually. "How's your taijutsu?"
Naruto winced apologetically. "It's…better. Not really up to par yet. I'm nearly there though, I swear!"
Kakashi closed his eyes and sighed. "At least you know that you need to work on it. How about ninjutsu?"
The blonde's mood brightened. "Amazing." He said smugly. "Yamato-taichou has been helping me hone the water element. I've got a ton of new ones, including another Rasengan!"
"Is it as… destructive as…?"
"Shuriken Rasengan? No, it's even crazier!"
Kakashi blanched.
The teen almost giggled, nearly girlishly. "Kidding, sensei. It's got much more finesse."
"Something you severely lack in most cases," the silver-haired man mumbled under his breath.
"I heard that!"
"So? It's true. We'll take a look at those later then. What about genjutsu? Can you perform any now?"
Naruto shrugged. "I can do the basic ones, and a few more skilled ones. I don't really think it's my thing."
"That's fine. The only important thing is that you can break a genjutsu, especially with…" Kakashi hesitated to finish. "…who we're up against."
The blonde showed no sign of discomfort, only a certain look Kakashi couldn't quite describe. However, he almost thought he heard the sliding of steel, somewhere in the recesses of his mind.
Kakashi felt like slapping himself on the head. Of course Naruto would be over that stage. It had been years since Sasuke had left. Now the name was more like a memory of his promise than it was actually attached to a human. But as long as his former student pursued that goal, Kakashi would be there to spot the kid when he fell.
"To tie into breaking genjutsu as well as your final test for the exhibition, I need to know how your chakra control has improved, Naruto."
The blonde only smiled and pulled out a scroll from seemingly nowhere. With a few simple hand seals, a bow, a thick glove similar to the ones ANBU wore, and a quiver of arrows appeared after a little puff of smoke dissipated. "Ta-da!"
"Kyudo?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, caught between skeptical and impressed. Archery was a rare form nowadays, as shinobi opted for more efficient, modern weapons. But the bow had a certain elegance to it, and the man had a feeling it was a weapon that worked well for the young blonde.
Naruto nodded once, quite energetically, as he slipped his right hand into the glove. He stretched out his fingers to flex the muscles. "We passed some school my second year gone and Yamato-taichou was inspired. Honestly, it helped a lot. Ready?"
The atmosphere suddenly shifted as Naruto assumed a serious expression. Slinging the quiver of arrows over his shoulder, he proceeded to pick up the bow. It seemed to rise and meet his hand, as if there was a magnet between the bow and the wielder. "Pick a target, sensei."
With no trace of hesitancy, Kakashi pointed to a wooden pole about thirty feet away. "That shouldn't be too difficult, right?"
"Not at all."
Naruto closed his eyes and breathed slowly, carefully, for a while. Every inhale, every exhale, burgeoned with a careful deliberation. Kakashi stood to the side and watched with a calm detachment— even though he was quite keen on seeing what would happen next. He waited patiently for a handful of minutes. Then, Kakashi could feel it: a spike in his student's chakra levels. It was subtle, but evident nonetheless. It pulsated, slowly at first, but then accelerated exponentially, to the point where a blazing aura slowly appeared around the boy.
The blonde seemed to read Kakashi's mind. "Don't worry, sensei, there's no need to move back," Naruto gasped, his voice cracking under the strain.
Suddenly, the boy grabbed an arrow and strung it with one fluid motion, as if it was far simpler than it really was. Naruto's eyes snapped open, and Kakashi from his side-view noticed slender streaks of red snaking in the sapphire iris, constantly moving in different directions, converging and diverging at the same time. With a loud snap, the arrow left the bow and whizzed towards the pole, burning a freakish orange as it went. It went clean through the tree, but just as it made it to the other side, the orange fire consumed it completely and the arrow was no more.
Kakashi's eye trailed back to the pole, and there was no way he could mask his shock. The pole was only a shadow of its previous figure. Long curls of dark smoke spiraled upwards, and an opaque resin bled out of the wood like blood.
It was burning from the inside out. And the arrow only made one clean-cut, miniscule hole in the wood.
"The arrow disappears, and the hole made is small. Besides, no one uses the bow and arrow anymore. Very few people would know that a yumi caused the damage, let alone one fused with highly toxic chakra. Even if I missed – and I rarely ever do nowadays – the chakra would still cause some damage," Naruto said, his voice just barely even. "Pretty cool, right?" He added with a tired grin.
His teacher nodded, the gears in his heads slowly turning. "But…you can't quicken your focus, can you?"
Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated and frowned, as if re-thinking what he wanted to say. "No," he finally admitted, "Kyuubi won't merge, so I have to take what I need by force." He paused again. "I guess I sound like a dick for saying it like that."
"What did you think being a shinobi meant?"
"A…hero, I guess."
"Well, you usually end up being both."
Naruto and Kakashi then chuckled at the same time— sharp, humorless laughs. Before allowing them to get too wrapped up in their personal thoughts, Kakashi clapped his hands together.
"Ah, well, you've made a lot of progress. I'm really proud of you, Naruto, I am." He was sincere, and he knew Naruto knew that he meant it when a glowing blush graced the teen's face. As much as the boy liked to brag about his own merit, he always seemed to act completely the opposite when someone else complimented him. It was pretty cute, he had to admit. Kakashi wondered if his teacher thought the same thing when he and his team were younger. Probably.
Now that the initial overview was done with, it was time to really get to work. "Let's start with some taijutsu," Kakashi declared as he pushed off his foot and sped towards Naruto, with a glaring intent to kill. Happily, Naruto slipped into a fighting stance immediately and the training began.
Kakashi wasn't sure if he should be surprised that Naruto's self-critique turned out to be so extremely accurate. When the boy said that his taijutsu was better but not quite up to scratch, he had expected quite a subpar performance. Naruto did tend to exaggerate. Of course, Kakashi had also forgotten the standards Naruto held himself to. Long gone were his days of boasting, at least when it was important to be honest. Naruto was honestly quite good, but some more brushing up never hurt.
"Stop wasting time with adding those showy moves. There's no need to spin around twice after your high kicks. Once should be enough to regain control of your momentum."
"But it looks badass, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto did it again to illustrate his point.
"When you find a useful cause for your extra spin, feel free to do as you like."
The blonde groaned and muttered underneath his breath. Kakashi simply shook his head. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt like Naruto was stalling. These were simple, nothing new. The kid was seventeen now anyway, he should at least the basic dos and don'ts of jutsus.
But even if he was just extending the time they had, Kakashi didn't mind. It had been three years since he had seen his student after all. With his constant assignments and Sakura's devotion to her missions, he found little time to spend with her. And Sasuke…well, that one was obvious. Where had the days gone, when Team Seven was so much simpler?
Kakashi sighed. This habit of nostalgia was dangerous. He needed to stay focused on Naruto, the only one right here with him. "Hey, Naruto. Let's continue. And pick up the pace this time, or I'll have to call in the Green Giants of Youth."
"To hell you will!" And the blonde launched himself at Kakashi, beginning the second round of sparring.
It was well near sunset when Naruto finally won out the battle. During this time, it became obvious the kyudo helped the blonde's chakra control. It seemed like the boy could win any battle through endurance alone now, and they had left ninjutsu out of this particular spar. Kakashi never had much chakra to begin with, and it was only through his refined skills that he managed to go for that long. Age was taking its toll on him, he realized, as his back popped slightly. But as a teacher, he was more than pleased to see his student advance so far. Although he was beginning to wonder why Naruto had been stalling earlier on…
A slow series of claps broke through. Naruto and Kakashi shifted into defensive stances, but relaxed quickly when they realized who it was.
"Welcome back, Naruto!" Sakura shouted as she hurried towards them. There was a sort of hesitancy to both of them, Kakashi noticed, but they overcame it quickly and Naruto pulled her into a tight hug. The height difference between them was even more pronounced, and Naruto seemed to pick her up easily. The young woman laughed and ruffled his hair.
Kakashi smiled, but for some reason his heart felt as if it was being pulled in multiple directions. He ignored it. "I trust that Sand has been good to you, Sakura, but it's nice to have you back."
"Hey, sensei," she giggled, breaking out of Naruto's embrace. "Good to be back. Although I wish a certain psychotic ninja hadn't returned to spoil this marvelous, innocent, beautiful village."
"Hey now!"
Sakura smirked and flipped her hair before continuing. "Sand is doing fine. Gaara's taking excellent care of things and communications between Sand and other regions have increased. The Sand medics have taken a liking to me too," she added with a wink.
Kakashi chuckled and shook his head, strangely relieved. Naruto jumped in predictably with prodding questions. "Who? I've got competition? Is it Kankurou?"
"No. Shut up, Naruto. You're not even a competitor."
Naruto stuck his tongue out, earning himself a punch to the arm—one that sent him flying into a tree. A colorful stream of language could be heard from the branches, and birds answered his call. Kakashi did his best not to snicker. Sakura did so openly. While the blonde scrambled down the tree, his teammate began to speak to their teacher, never taking her eyes off of the blonde.
"Is he ready?"
"More than ready. Just needs some polishing up."
"As always. They're most likely going to want to see him within the month."
"I know. I'm expecting the earliest at the end of the week."
Sakura 'hmmed' and folded her arms; the topic was dropped. Naruto pranced his way back to his teammates with a cheery grin, as if he had never been pounded into a large tree.
"Kakashi, I'm hungry!" The blonde bawled. "Can we go eat now?"
Her eyes sparkling like emeralds, Sakura smiled. "I'm actually feeling pretty hungry myself. Will you join us, Kakashi-san?"
The words came out of Kakashi's mouth before he could stop himself. "No, I wouldn't want to intrude on a date." As soon as he said it, the jounin felt a pang of…regret. Odd.
Surprisingly, it was a scratchy voice that responded. "Ridiculous! You should definitely join us." Naruto shouted, and an expression of shock immediately appeared on his face. It was as if he hadn't expected himself to say it.
A silence ensued, broken quickly by Sakura's laugh. "Sure," she said between giggles, "that's fine. Is the new restaurant fine?"
"There's a new restaurant?" Naruto cocked his head to the side.
"Yeah, it opened about a year ago. The okonomiyaki there is fantastic."
"Okonomiyaki-ya! Let's go!" With that, the blonde dashed off.
Sakura stifled a chuckle and shouted after him. "Moron! You don't know where it is." She looked over at Kakashi and sent him a bemused smile. "Do you think he'll ever change?"
His eyes had been focused on Naruto the entire time, and even as he replied to her question he stared at the young man. "I hope not."
"Me too, sensei. So, shall we go?" Grabbing the end of his sleeve, she toted him along. "If we go any slower, the place will get crowded!"
Kakashi allowed himself to be pulled along, and thought distantly of the few meals he had with old friends, long ago.
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Thank you all for your kind reviews, alerts, favorites, and whatnot. It is always, always appreciated. The monthly update is really working well for me, as I don't feel too rushed to push out a product and therefore am able to give you guys as best a piece I can. I hope you all are enjoying it. I know the pace is a little slow, and I warn you in advance that it will be like this for quite a while. I've got a few things I need to work out, plot-wise, before getting into the real action— or lemons.
Reviews, praise, or flames will always be loved.
Ja ne,
Vi
