Best Laid Plans

Arun

Chapter 5: Blood on My Hands & Rabbits in the Bush

Disclaimer:

Borrowing Naruto. One chapter at a time.

Sitting by his bedside, Sakura stared at the sleeping form of her teammate. In the last few days, as Team 7 recuperated from their wounds, they had learned a lot about themselves. That learning paled in comparison to the knowledge they had gained about Naruto, however. It boggled her mind to think that the boy bore the essence of such a thing as the Kyuubi and had been unaware of it for all his life save the last few days. How powerful the Yondaime must have been to defeat the demon fox and how skilled he must have been at the art of sealing to build a prison to imprison it for so long without even the jailor being aware of the fact!

"We have a Jinchuuriki for a teammate," Sasuke commented from behind her, breaking the silence.

Sakura turned to regard her fellow genin.

"Don't say that," she told him. "He's your friend."

Sasuke shot Sakura a stare in return that made her feel like an idiot.

"I never said he wasn't, pinky. Question is, do you?"

Sakura glared back.

"You protected me as I lay dying. As did Naruto. You think I care he houses a demon within him? I would overlook any flaw in his character and in yours for what you two did."

"True," the Uchiha accepted, drawing a chair to sit beside her. He felt the same way himself, to tell the truth. Whatever his feelings may have been three months before, now he would do the same for his teammates.

"He almost died," Sakura said after a long silence. She reached with her hand and ran her fingers through the blonde's locks.

"We all did," Sasuke replied. "He just came closer to death than the two of us."

When Naruto crashed into the tree from the force of Kakashi's last punch, he'd banged his head against a dried up branch's stump. After the exercise while the medics were doing triage, they found a partially healed hole in the back of his head. Without the Kyuubi's healing powers, Kakashi had explained to the day before, Naruto would have died instantly from the wound.

"Thank God he didn't die," Sakura said aloud.

Sasuke nodded and turned his attention back to the peacefully sleeping blond. He had things to say but wanted Naruto to be awake when he said them.

"You look like you have something on your mind."

"Huh?" Sasuke replied eloquently, having been lost in his own thoughts. "What did you say?"

"You look like you have something on your mind."

"Yes. There are… things that I want to tell you two. I'm waiting for him to wake up."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Sakura asked, seizing the blond by his shoulders and shaking him. "The jerk's recovered. He's just too lazy to get out of bed and face the world. Hey, Naruto, wake up. Uke wants to say something."

Sasuke glared at his teammate for bastardizing his name so.

"Pinky, what did you call me?"

"Huh?" Sakura paused trying to remember the words that had flowed out of her lips. A smile blossomed on her face when she did. "You got a nice name, Uke. Naruto, wake up."

Sasuke glared at her some more, but Sakura did not mind it. If he called her pinky, he was by God uke.

Naruto woke up at that moment.

"Wha? What, Sakura?" he yawned, sitting up.

"Uke wants to talk to us," Sakura replied, grinning broadly at Sasuke.

"Fuck you, pinky," Sasuke replied.

There was once a time when the very thought of doing it with Sasuke would have sent her into blissful oblivion, but now, after all that had happened and all they'd done together, Sakura did not even blink an eye.

"Definitely not an uke like you, Uke," she retaliated, her grin widening further. To Naruto, she said, "Are you his seme?"

Naruto, having caught on to the game, looked Sasuke up and down.

"What say, Uke? Want a ride?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth and glared at his two teammates. Seeing the beatific smiles they shot at him, he took a deep breath. This wasn't the end of it, but right now, he had more important things on his plate.

"I refuse to get distracted by this," he muttered aloud. His fists clenched as he spoke, a sure sign of his solidifying resolve. Through sheer force of will and a blind trust in his team born from the trials and tribulations of the last few months, he did what he had never done before. He bared his soul for the first time since the massacre. "The man I want to kill is my brother. I want to kill him because he murdered my whole clan in cold blood."

A pause.

"There, I said it."

Naruto nodded.

"I knew already. Old man Teuchi told me."

"And," Sakura blushed as she said this, "I learned from my aunt after our first exercise together. I was curious about the state of the Uchiha compound and wanted to find out why. I'm ashamed I never knew and never cared to find out before."

Sasuke ignored the carefully phrased apology and cast his eyes to the world outside the window.

"The Uchiha clan was the most powerful combat clan in Konoha. We had an unrivaled record of service to the village earned by rite of blood in battle. We had honor. We had respect. We were as much symbols of the village as the hokages... We had everything… I had everything. And then, in one night, my brother took it all away. He slaughtered the whole clan by himself. He killed my parents, my relatives… He killed every soul I ever knew in cold blood and made me relive their murders over and over again in my head," Sasuke confessed with a choke as he fought tears.

"The Uchiha are a forgotten footnote in history because he stole our honor. No one remembers us because we are the weak clan wiped out in a single night by a rogue. Our destruction is so shameful the academy books don't even talk about it…" Sasuke trailed off, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

"I will kill my brother. Because he stole my parents. Because he stole my clan. Because he stole our honor. Because he stole my sanity. Because he's a feckless kin-slayer and deserves to be put down like the rabid dog he is."

"Sasuke…" Sakura began, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't say anything," Sasuke replied. "After all we've been through I just wanted you two to know."

"Just so, we're with you, Sasuke," Naruto said in a solemn voice.

"I know," the last Uchiha replied, knowing they meant it and taking comfort in their support.

xxxxx

The next morning, as Team 7 was getting ready to be discharged, Kakashi visited them.

"I see you're all healthy," he said as he walked into the room.

"No thanks to you," Sakura muttered. The bastard had visited Team 7 but once in the three days they were laid up in the hospital and then only to narrate Naruto's story. After nearly killing them for the sake of a stupid exercise. He must have a lot of nerve to act as if nothing had happened and everything was okay.

Kakashi ignored the comment even though he heard it. If he acknowledged Sakura's words, he was constrained by law to act in certain ways. Ways that were unpleasant and would all but destroy the team he had worked so hard to build.

It wasn't as if Team 7's resentment was unwarranted, anyways. They were bound to resent him for the things he did and he did not begrudge them their hatred. For now, he could live with their bitterness so long as they did their jobs. His team was smart enough that they'll learn the wisdom of his training at the first whiff of reality outside the walls and forgive him.

Or at least, he hoped they would pardon him. There was always the possibility that his actions had destroyed any bridges between Team 7 and himself. Being smart enough to realize the wisdom of his teachings did not mean they would do the rational thing and let him off the hook, after all.

However, there was a more immediate problem to consider. If he stayed with Team 7 too long with their minds not focused on any mission, there was a chance they might give vent their anger at him. Not a good thing at all.

"We have an escort mission to protect a citizen of Wave country. We're supposed to leave today, but the client's drunk. I've used it as an excuse to delay things for a day. Meet me at the Eastern traveler's gate at 9AM sharp. Pack for a ten day mission."

"The mission…" Sakura began, but Kakashi had already shunshined out.

xxxxx

Tazuna, the bridge builder was a bastard. Not as much of one as Kakashi, Team 7 universally decided, but then, their teacher was neither a drunk nor nearly as annoying as their client. The jounin observed the discussion using battle language between his students with wry amusement, but since Tazuna had no idea what the "innocent little brats" were calling him, he let it be. He even got a few chuckles out of the deal as Naruto and Sasuke discussed in quite vivid detail, the bridge builder's supposed preference for the company of goats to fulfill his physical needs. Indeed, the boys were developing some very dirty mouths.

The mission continued in that vein, with Team 7 keeping away from Kakashi but generally enjoying themselves. All said and done, the C-rank was a walk in the park and as gay as one, until the jounin spotted a puddle in the middle of the beaten road. It was odd, especially since it hadn't rained for the last few days and Kakashi readied himself for battle. He did nothing to warn his wards, however. He would not always be there, watching their backs. It was better they walk unsuspectingly into a trap now when he was there with them then someday in the future when he wasn't.

Surprisingly, Sakura spotted the puddle as well. She straightened for a second as she came to it, but managed to recover adroitly without doing anything stupid.

And that, Kakashi thought to himself, was the best you could ask of a rookie a few months out of the academy. Good though the ninja academy was, it had the same limitations as any school. Namely, its curriculum lacked that touch of practical experience that differentiated the warriors from the wannabes. But that was okay. So long as the real training, the one given on the job, was good, the theoretical lessons imparted to the students in the academy would be a stepping stone rather than a crutch. And Kakashi had seen and experienced the results of his training regimen.

So, as he prepared to kawarimi when the bad guys sprung the inevitable ambush, Kakashi allowed himself a little giggle. He really wanted to do an evil chuckle as he'd read so many villains do in his precious Icha Icha – it fit the state of his mind better – but a chuckle doesn't quite fit the description of a porn reading, oblivious pervert as a giggle. And Hatake Kakashi, jounin mentor of Team 7, former commander of the Hokage's own personal assassin corps, was always particular about staying in character.

xxxxx

The not-so-bright and not-very-resourceful ambushers sprung the trap seconds after Kakashi stepped over the puddle. That was about the only thing they did right through the whole exercise. They went after Kakashi first – the other thing they did right – but the fools must have actually believed that they could take out a jounin with such an obvious trap.

Even sadder, they didn't even bother to check if he was really dead before they went after Team 7. To quote Kakashi from the report he submitted to the office of the Hokage, the poor fools must have been in a hurry and may have been driven by an urgent need to attend the call of nature. It was established official Kakashi speech for "they were a bunch of blundering incompetents who couldn't be bothered with taking the most basic precautions."

Naruto reacted admirably with instinctive use of deadly force that would have done any veteran proud. Problem was he wasn't a veteran killer. Yet. He had the instincts of one thanks to Kakashi's training – all three members of Team 7 did, in fact – but the psychological shock of the first kill was always a hard one unless you are a sociopath, which the jounin had long since concluded Naruto was not.

Reaching for his thigh holster, Naruto drew shuriken and threw them at the nearest of the two attackers even as they turned their attention to him. As per Kakashi's lessons, he did not aim for the target itself, but rather used the shuriken as an area denial weapon, restricting his opponent's freedom to maneuver. His prey thus trapped, he blurred out of sight. Charging low even as his opponent countercharged with his partner, Naruto pulled a kunai and held it crudely in his hands in a grip that could not be used for anything other than to punch stab.

With but ten feet to go, he bent his left hand and used it to brace his right and with a massive burst of chakra, launched himself at his opponent's throat, literally vanishing from sight as he did. Such a bloody-minded attack from a genin would have caught anyone by surprise. Even Kakashi had almost fallen for it the first time Naruto went for his throat, but where the jounin had reacted on pure instinct and broken the Uzumaki's arms and jaw, the enemy nin failed to even complete a block with his wrist guard. Naruto crashed into his assailant hard, his impromptu punch dagger taking the masked attacker in his throat with a sick squelching sound that heralded the rookie's first kill. The force of the impact sent both pin wheeling away with Naruto's opponent flopping the way only a dead body can.

"Meizu," the surviving nin cried out, even as Naruto and his victim rolled away. The assailant skidded to a halt, turned towards them and let out a bloodcurdling scream that cut off abruptly as Sakura kunai-whipped him.

"That went better than expected," Kakashi observed, appearing before them with his porn clutched lovingly in his hands. He flipped a page and shot his patented blinding smile – which unfortunately, was really not all that blinding - at his students. He turned to Tazuna still sporting that smile, but the humor no longer reached his eyes and the bridge builder knew true fear. "Tazuna-san, please explain why two chuunin ranked missing nin are after you."

As Tazuna narrated his story to the jounin, Sakura went to Naruto and braced his shoulders as he puked his guts out into the ground right next to his downed opponent. Sasuke, for his part, pulled out the kunai he'd used to pin Meizu's partner to the ground – the reason the man screamed so loudly – and wiped it clean while standing guard over the prisoner.

xxxxx

"So let me get this straight," Naruto said at the end of Tazuna's speech, "You knew there were assassins after you, but because you have neither money nor brains, you decided it would be better to downplay the danger involved and asked for an inadequate escort. At what point did you think that it would be better to take an inexperienced team with you into the afterlife than to die alone, shithead?"

Naruto did not bother to add how he had been forced to take a life because of the bridge builder's stupidity. It was obvious to everyone who heard his words that the real cause of his anger stemmed from that aspect of the mission rather than the actual lie.

"But you were able to handle it," Tazuna muttered undiplomatically.

Naruto heard the comment and moved to slap the drunk, but Kakashi gripped his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Restrain yourself, Naruto," the jounin said in his best command voice.

Naruto glared at Tazuna as he stepped back. The bridge builder cringed at the loathing and hatred he saw in the boy's eyes.

"I apologize for my mistakes. It's just that I saw no other way to survive the journey home. I guess some part of me didn't realize how dangerous this really was," he confessed, "I'm sorry you had to kill someone, but the path should be clear now, right? After all, you've dealt with the assassins."

"There'll be more," Kakashi replied immediately. His words got Team 7's attention like none before. "And the ones to come will be more powerful than The Demon Brothers. We might have to face jounin level opponents."

"But…" Tazuna began before Kakashi interrupted him rudely.

"Your irresponsible actions have put my whole team in danger. My thanks," the jounin said with a smile.

Team 7 stared flabbergasted, though they knew they really shouldn't be. Their sensei was the sickest bastard to ever walk the earth, after all.

"The life we've chosen is a hard one," Kakashi told his students solemnly. "Death, pain, fear, loathing, hatred, blood, sweat and betrayal are constant companions. Through Tazuna-san's thoughtless actions, you'll endure all these in this mission. As rookies, you shouldn't have to. And with any other team of genin, I would be dead set of heading back to the village right away. But you aren't any team of genin."

"Still, we're only genin," Sakura growled. "We can't fight jounin. Look at what happens whenever we spar against you."

Kakashi sighed mentally. Team 7 had lost for so many times and so badly to him that their sense of self-worth had taken a hit. In the heat of battle, they were superb, but give them time to think and by the time they entered the fight, their heads were filled with fatalistic thoughts. He had known this would be one side effect of his training, but considered it a necessary evil. Battles fought and won on the field under his watchful eyes would teach them the self-confidence to overcome the trauma of all those humiliating defeats. It was one of the reasons why he was glad for this C-rank that wasn't, though with the resources that Gatou had at his disposal, this was going to be one hard pill to swallow.

"You're my students," he told her, making eye contact with Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura one after the other. "You've survived training that ANBU would flinch away from. You're Team 7 and as members of this team, you have the honor of those who came before you to uphold. Heroes such as my teammate Obito, Yondaime-sama, Sandaime-sama and the sannin.

"Team 7 does not retreat. Come what may, we go forward and we will get the job done."

Kakashi knew he was laying it on a bit thick, but this was a motivational speech and it was okay to stretch truth a fair bit.

Sakura looked as if she wanted to say something, but closed her mouth and turned askance towards her teammates.

"You really mean it?" Sasuke asked, catching the questioning glance his pink-haired teammate shot at him.

"Mean what?"

"That part about the training you gave us."

"Sasuke," Kakashi said in the sincerest tone Team 7 had heard him use, "as a genin, I would have died under that regimen."

"Why did you do it then?" Naruto asked. His face had shed none of the paleness from before, but his eyes had lost that haunted look.

"Because Team 7 has always been the forge for Konoha's leaders. Because all three of you have the potential to be truly great, but mostly, because you made a terrible team in the beginning. There was no trust between the three of you. And no love lost. You would have broken under stress on the field. I couldn't let that happen." Like so many other teams. Like mine.

Realization of what Kakashi had done dawned then and with that realization, Team 7 shed some of the resentment they harbored for their teacher. The jounin observed the softening in their eyes and smiled behind his mask. This mission was really a godsend.

xxxxx

The second ambush happened soon after they landed on the shores of Wave country. This time, all three genin sensed the tightly suppressed chakra of their opponent at about the same time as Kakashi. The rabbit decoy the hidden assassin used when he realized his prey were onto him fooled no one and quickly, Tazuna was pushed into the center while his protectors split into pairs facing the greenery both sides of the road.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and eyed the undergrowth suspiciously. Now, if he was the one laying the ambush, where would he…

"Get down," the jounin shouted, discarding all thought as he sensed a muffled spike of chakra.

Sure enough, a massive zanbatou went spinning over their heads. It lodged itself into the trunk of one of the more massive roadside trees and their opponent finally revealed himself by shunshining atop it. Kakashi groaned internally as he recognized the man. It was Momochi Zabuza, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He signed for Team 7 to stay back and took a step forward.

"Momochi Zabuza," the Hatake greeted the assassin.

"The famed Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan recognizes me. How nice!" the masked assassin observed in a droll voice.

"I wonder if you'd let us walk away from here without a fight."

"And miss fighting the Copy-nin? Only if you leave the drunk behind," Zabuza replied jovially. Sure, if the Konoha jounin wanted to give up his quarry, he was all for it.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Kakashi replied in the same tone, putting himself between their client and his students, and the swordsman-assassin.

Zabuza held Kakashi's gaze and nodded. He'd thought that his opponent wanted to avoid bloodshed. But apparently, that was an attempt to warn him off.

"Guess you aren't going to walk away after all," he said, acting obtuse. Let the enemy underestimate his intelligence to their detriment.

"One of us isn't," Kakashi agreed and slipped into a stance.

For the first time since he showed himself, a flicker of anger crossed Zabuza's face. Call him vain, but he was the bloody Demon of the Mist. He wasn't going to be treated like a third-rate shinobi.

"You underestimate me, Kakashi. Better unveil your sharingan or this won't be much of a fight."

"Be that as it may, I prefer to go without it," Kakashi replied. To Team 7, he gave the only valuable warning he could before the shit hit the fan. "Zabuza's a dangerous missing nin skilled in the art of silent assassination. Be on guard."

The three genin nodded.

Zabuza unleashed his killing intent, saturating the air with his bloodlust. It was powerful enough that the genin trio would have gone catatonic even two months earlier. Now, after so many close brushes with death, the children had accepted their mortality and Zabuza's oppressive chakra, while impressive, wasn't powerful enough.

Zabuza noted the reaction of Kakashi's students and felt sufficiently intrigued. The three kids must be some genin to shrug off his psychological attack. But he was a man who knew his priorities and taking down the famous jounin came first.

Zabuza was also a big believer in deception and stealth. Accordingly, as his opening move, he used the kirigakure to raise an impenetrable screen of mist. Then, he formed several mizu bunshin and sent them to draw out Kakashi, leaving the children ripe for the plucking.

It succeeded beyond his wildest imagination, too. Kakashi foolishly separated himself from his students to meet Zabuza's first clone when it came at him sword swinging. The silver-haired jounin masterfully slipped into the clone's guard and with frightening ease, rammed a kunai into the fake missing nin. The clone fell apart and too little too late the Konoha nin realized his oversight. His desire to end the fight fast had made him careless and now, he was too far to protect his team and their client.

At the very moment Kakashi realized his error, a second Zabuza appeared within the circle between Tazuna and Team 7 with his zanbatou coiled to strike. The sword swung faster than the human eye could track and though the genin reacted instantly, it cut right through Sasuke's right hand as he jumped to avoid the cutting blow. The Uchiha lost his balance thanks to the hit and fell on his behind. He remained thus, staring at the stump as bright arterial blood fountained all over for a few seconds before his eyes rolled into his head and he fainted.

Meanwhile, Zabuza swung his sword back, catching the Uzumaki on his head with the flat of his blade. There was a sharp clang as metal hit hard head and head lost rather spectacularly in a spray of blood. The boy hit the ground spinning and lay still, his arms and legs extended at an unnatural angle with a fractured skull.

Kakashi reached Zabuza then. The look in his eyes promised murder and his actions stemmed from pure desperation. The injuries inflicted on both Naruto and Sasuke were not instantly fatal, but without immediate medical treatment, Kakashi knew there was no way they could survive the next few hours. Sasuke was a dead man walking and with such massive blunt force trauma to his head, Naruto may not survive either even with Kyuubi's help.

Problem was Zabuza had decoyed Kakashi again. Sasuke's and Naruto's murderer turned out to be a clone as well. And as Kakashi punctured its lungs with a kunai, a third Zabuza appeared behind Tazuna and knifed the old drunk in his kidney. The bridge builder opened his mouth to scream in agony, but the nature of the injury prevented it. He bled out in seconds and died thus, his mouth frozen in a rictus of agony.

The real Zabuza laughed, hidden safely in the surrounding mist as Sakura knifed the one that killed Tazuna. It was as perfect an end to a battle as he'd ever dreamed…

Zabuza screamed in agony as the world shattered before his eyes. Kakashi, with his sharingan unveiled, twisted the kunai he'd struck into the missing nin's right shoulder, the one that the sword wielder was known to favor.

"Like you said, Demon of the Mist," Kakashi whispered into the Momochi's ears, "one of us isn't going to walk away from here. But allow me to correct you, if you will. The last one standing sure as hell isn't going to be you."

"Go to hell," Zabuza whispered, his mind aghast at how badly he'd been outsmarted and outmaneuvered by his opponent. He hadn't even moved an inch after he jumped down to greet Kakashi.

Leaving the kunai struck in Zabuza's shoulder, Kakashi pulled out another to kill their would-be assassin, but his chakra sense spiked before he could. He jumped back just in time as a single senbon took Zabuza in the base of his spine. The dangerous missing nin fell dead. A second later, a Kiri hunter-nin appeared over his dead body. With a nod of acknowledgement to Kakashi, both the nin and the corpse vanished in a whirlwind of petals.

Kakashi turned to his students, eyes glazed as mild chakra depletion finally got to him. Sharingan for non-Uchiha was a cold-hearted, power hungry bitch.

"And that is why you need to learn counter Genjutsu training," he said to his students, pointedly staring at Naruto. His point made, he sought the nearest tree and collapsed against it.

Author's notes:

Please leave reviews.

The chapter doesn't feel right to me, but then, none of the chapters except the prologue do. I'll leave you, the readers, to judge it as usual.

This chapter was kind of hard to write. I knew what I wanted to do with the fight on the bridge, but this one… except the outcome of the first ambush, everything else was unplanned, though they're an integral part of the story. The future, however, is bright because the plot's still as solid as ever and I haven't deviated even a little from where I wanted to go so far.

Addendum [04/09/2009]: Someone commented sometime back that the kanji for gay "uke" and sasuke "uke" are different and that's why they don't like my story. I found it funny, which is why there's an honorable mention here. This self-proclaimed expert, this celestial genius, this amazingly snooty individual apparently forgot that often puns – especially horrible ones like "uke" thing – are like that. LOL Now, I may be wrong here, btw, but wasn't Ranma ½ full of horrible puns like this? Oh, well, can't please them all. ^_^