Me: I do not own Naruto
Naruto: Believe it!
Me: :o Where did you pop up from?
Naruto: :P
Ray
When Naruto and Sasuke found Kasumi, Naruto had yelled at Inari for the moron of a boy's words and views and Sasuke had restrained him and dragged him out the door. Naruto, knowing full well that the Uchiha had been reluctant to intervene, had decided without a single word spoken between them to go looking for their female teammate.
They found her ten minutes later, wandering aimlessly around, staring silently at the sky. The boys shared a look and seamlessly slid themselves on each side of the white golden-haired girl.
If she objected to their presence, Naruto couldn't see it. Not in her eyes, her face or in her body language.
Now, contrary to popular belief, Naruto was not a total idiot. He couldn't be, not with the traps and pranks he pulled on a daily basis. It was simply that his intellect was more in people and beliefs than it was in principles and books. Kasumi had picked up on that and explained it to Sasuke early on in their training sessions with one another, so they mostly tried to skip the boring stuff and teach him in terms that he could understand, relating it to street-stuff and things like that.
He knew that Kasumi had been suffering during this mission. He knew that she was sad and angry and in pain. Naruto thought that Sasuke probably knew, too, but the bastard just wasn't as close to his emotions as Naruto was and couldn't consciously identify it. But that didn't mean that the teme didn't know.
He knew that Kasumi had been having nightmares, waking up in the middle of the night and spending long hours outside. It was why she had been getting so tired recently, and he shared the teme's concern about that. He didn't want Kasumi getting hurt because she was too tired!
Naruto knew all that, but he didn't know what to do to help his friend... and that was what he had realized she had become. Kasumi had taught him, coached him, guided him patiently without expecting a thing in return and the old man and Iruka were the only ones who had ever done that for him before.
How was it possible for him not to consider her a friend? That was why he was so frustrated because he wanted to help Kasumi but she wouldn't let him help, and Sasuke was being a jerk and he wasn't helping her either.
Well, Naruto thought that the teme might have been trying, but he didn't think he was getting a lot of luck. Which was understandable, really; Sasuke was a cold-hearted bastard who was extremely out of touch with his own emotions and possessed general social awkwardness.
Hey, Kasumi might have coaxed (threatened) them into working together, but the Uchiha was still Naruto's rival.
She didn't say anything or do anything when they showed up, so Naruto relaxed slightly. Kasumi was really kind and sweet and nice... but she could come up with retaliations worse than his.
And that was scary.
Shuddering a little at the reminded of The-Wet-Book-Incident-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, Naruto blinked when the brown-eyed girl started to move, her face tinged with a sorrow that pulled at his heart, and her footsteps near soundless.
The blonde glanced at Sasuke, confused. He just offered a half-shrug and jerked his chin in Kasumi's direction, indicating that they should probably follow her. Naruto frowned, but started walking.
Kasumi led them around the area for hours. He couldn't see any sort of pattern in the way she walked, so he concluded that she was probably choosing the direction randomly. The pace wasn't taxing, wasn't anywhere close, and they didn't talk, but Naruto could all but feel the melancholy coming off his female teammate.
He made sure to press up against her or 'accidentally' bump into her when he felt like the sadness was going to overwhelm her. She didn't make any indications that she noticed or that it helped, but he could almost see the darkness retreating a little from her eyes.
Sasuke didn't do anything or say anything, but he was there, walking close enough that Kasumi must have been able to feel his body heat, and for him, that was probably a gigantic social step forward.
She finally stopped in a clearing, the original clearing that Kakashi-sensei had gathered them in, Naruto realized, and without a word or gesture, laid down on the ground on her back, eyes looking up into the stars.
She was tired. Not surprising, considering that Naruto was pretty sure she hadn't been sleeping like she should have been for a while.
Exchanging a glance with Sasuke, they laid down next to her, making sure she wasn't cold in the early morning chill. He didn't make a move to touch Kasumi and Sasuke refused to have skin to skin contact, but Naruto thought he might have felt her relax, just a little bit.
Sometime later, he wasn't really sure when, her eyelids fluttered closed and so did his. He wasn't aware when Sasuke finally gave in to the call of sleep.
Naruto was proud, though, that Kasumi didn't have a single nightmare that night.
Cooperation
Of course the peace couldn't last. No, that would have been far too much to ask.
Kasumi sighed as she watched the fifteenth try of Sasuke and Naruto's collaboration technique go down in flames. Literally.
The two simply could not cooperate with each other.
Long story short, the whole collaboration techniques hadn't been going well. For some odd reason, as soon as their jutsu met, the attack got weaker, not stronger. By the time it got a few feet away, it dispersed completely into smoke.
She could work together with both of the boys fine. The hours of practicing together with Sasuke on their fire and wind combo had paid off; they could synchronize their lightning and water easily. While her collaboration techniques with Naruto weren't nearly as powerful or as smooth, it was still passable.
Naruto and Sasuke though...
"Oi, teme!" Naruto screamed at his rival. "Why the hell are you always so slow?!"
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. "Me? You're the one whose timing's off!"
"What did you say?" Naruto shoved his face into Sasuke's.
"I said-"
"Boys!" Kasumi cut in quickly, seeing a potential replay of the kissing scene that had so scarred her mind in the Academy.
"What?!" They spun around to glare at her and were immediately met with a raised eyebrow.
She waited patiently for them to realize their mistake, tapping her foot gently on the ground. Normally, she might have a bit annoyed, but would have let it go. However, the past few days had taken their toll on her temper and her restraint.
Surprisingly, Naruto was the first one to understand, though considering the amount of times she had had to discipline him, maybe it wasn't that strange. He paled, eying her with worried eyes.
A second later, Sasuke shifted uneasily and his chakra churned.
No one yelled at the kunoichi. It was bad for their health... and they had forgotten that.
Kasumi smiled. It wasn't nice. "I have an idea."
They gulped. Hard.
Blindfold
"Kasumi-chan!" Naruto screamed, yelping when a kunai whipped by his cheek, resulting in a shallow cut. "Is this really necessary?"
Though he said nothing, the scowl on Sasuke's face indicated that he was of the same mind as the dobe. Especially when Kasumi sent him flying back with a ruthless kick to the solar plexus.
The boys knew, just knew that she was smiling serenely, despite the fact that they couldn't see her, courtesy of the stripes of cloth tied around their heads. "Of course it is, Naruto-san. You two need to learn to work together, after all."
Naruto barely dodged a shuriken aimed at his arm, but was promptly met with a jab to his gut. "Couldn't... you... have... found... another way... for us to... work together?" He gasped, falling to the ground.
Her smile widened. "Oh, no. I think this is working out just fine, Naruto-san."
"Evil witch." Sasuke muttered under his breath and was abruptly met with kick to his chin that he couldn't avoid, because he couldn't fucking see! Needless to say, he didn't repeat the insult.
By the end of that training session, Naruto and Sasuke had learned to work together, in combat at least. It was Kasumi's hope that they would be able to combine their jutsu later.
They also seemed to be sporting a multitude of bruises and scratches. She claimed no responsibility for that when questioned by an amused Kakashi.
According to Kasumi, such was only a tragic side effect of their training. He didn't ask further, to the annoyance of Sasuke and Naruto.
Repeat
The next morning, she watched critically as Naruto and Sasuke brawled on the ground before her, having gotten into an argument after their sixth attempt at combining their jutsu.
Kasumi didn't quite remember what had been the catalyst and she didn't particularly care. What she did care about was that the boys were fighting again and they seemed to have forgotten yesterday's lesson.
'Well,' she thought to herself, slightly annoyed. It had been amusing earlier, but she wasn't that sadistic. 'I guess that means I have to remind them.'
Sighing tragically, she took out the blindfolds and coughed subtly.
Naruto and Sasuke froze, knowing all too well why it wasn't a good idea to ignore their female teammate. They turned slowly to face her, sweat appearing on their foreheads.
"Co-Come on, now, Kasumi-chan." Naruto said, eyeing the blindfolds in her hands nervously, face pale. "I - thi-this really isn't necessary."
She simply shook her head and advanced.
"Kasumi..." Sasuke warned, eyes focused firmly on the threatening length of white cloth.
There was absolutely no way Sasuke could hurt her. For one, Kasumi was no shrinking violet. For two, Naruto would always be on her side should it come to a physical fight and they had learned that at full strength, two against one could and would beat Sasuke.
And then there was the black-eyed boy's conscience, not that he would ever admit it. Underneath all the vengeance and the darkness, she had the feeling that he was built more to protect than to hurt. Kasumi had great doubts as to whether Sasuke could actually seriously injure her and live with the guilt afterwards.
So... she smiled fearlessly and kept right on going.
Minutes later, various grunts and curses rang out across the clearing. A Kakashi clone sitting in a nearby tree eye-smiled and went back to reading about how Haru was being seduced by Suki...
Frequency
"Hmm..." Kasumi mused to herself a few hours later, after yet another failed attempt by a Naruto and Sasuke that were a little more bruised up than before.
"Why isn't this working?!" Naruto demanded, stomping his foot on the ground.
"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke said, but his flinty eyes told his teammates that he was just as annoyed.
She frowned, thinking over how the combination jutsu had gone. If it was one thing that she had already known and that Shikamaru had helped enforce, it was to train smarter, not stronger.
When Naruto's wind had collided with Sasuke's fire... what had happened? Some of the fire had been put out, some had lessened in intensity, the heat had cooled...
"It's the temperature." She said suddenly. Clearly startled, both boys snapped around to look at her. Kasumi stared back at them steadily, barely tempering her excitement with her natural restraint. "It's the temperature of Naruto-san's wind."
Naruto blinked at her and Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"Eeeh? Kasumi-chan, what are you talking about?" The blonde scratched his head, adorable in his confusion.
Hiding her smile, she leaned back against a tree, satisfaction in her blood. "Naruto-san, your wind is too cold." She explained patiently. "Cold wind reduces the temperature of fires and disperses reactive materials, 'killing' the fire, so to speak."
"Oh." Naruto frowned, evidently not having understood most of that, but getting that his wind was too cold and that was what was causing the problem. "Well, then, what do I have to do?"
Kasumi considered it, mind flashing back to when she and Sasuke had first tried combination attacks. "I think..." She said slowly, "that Sasuke-san and I had the same problem. We simply fixed it before I had to resort to analyzing the why of it."
Sasuke frowned. "We did?"
She nodded. "Yes and I do believe that we eventually adjusted our jutsu subconsciously."
Naruto furrowed his brow, question marks dancing around his head. "Sub-con-xiou-sly...?"
"Subconsciously," Kasumi corrected gently. "It means, 'doing so without thinking about it'. Sasuke-san, do you know what we did?"
He shook his head. "No. I was never aware that we 'did' anything."
She inclined her head, unsurprised. "I wasn't either, at least, not until this came up. I think that I automatically ramped up the temperature of my wind and you unconsciously intensified your flame after a couple of tries, which is why we didn't notice anything."
"So..." Naruto frowned. "What should I do?"
"With some practice, you should be able to raise the temperature of your wind. I would suggest molding and heating your chakra before releasing it." She replied.
"Alright!" The blonde pumped his fist into the air, eyes aflame. "I can do this, believe it!"
Sasuke looked like he wanted to roll his eyes. "Just get to it, dobe."
"What did you say, teme?"
Kasumi sighed and looked wistfully at the sky. Why her?
Once More
"Naruto-san?" Kasumi glanced at the gasping blonde, open concern on her face. "Maybe you should take a break. It's dinner time."
Bent down, hands on his knees, Naruto shook his head, tilting up his head with visible effort to offer a weak smile. "No, I'm fine, Kasumi-chan. You two go on without me."
She hesitated. Hours had passed and the sun was close to setting. That entire time Naruto had been working on his wind jutsu, the torn up trees around them baring evidence to his hard work. Even with his massive chakra reserves, the blonde had to be exhausted.
"The dobe's right." Sasuke nudged her in the direction of the house. "He'll be fine. We should go back and eat. His stomach will lead him back soon enough."
"Yeah!" Naruto grinned triumphantly...and then scowled. "What the hell did you mean by that, you teme!?"
Sasuke gave him a blank look. "What do you think I meant, dobe!?"
"Why you -"
Kasumi shook her head, a soft smile pulling on her lips, and headed back for the house. They were right; Naruto would probably be just fine.
For now.
She bit her lip and forcibly suppressed that thought. When the time came, Kasumi would deal with it.
Lullaby
Kasumi sat on the back porch of Tazuna's house, gently running a brush through her recently washed hair.
Dinner had been a quiet affair. She had been in no mood to promote conversation and Sasuke was hardly a small-chat person. Kakashi had been engrossed in his porn, as always, and Tsunami had been too embarrassed over Inari's behavior that she hadn't been comfortable talking with the ninja protecting her father. Said boy had stared at his bowl the entire time and Tazuna had been drunk.
Sighing softly, she glanced up at the night sky. The stars really were bright here, she noted. In Konoha, they were somewhat muted by the many lights that glowed throughout the night, but the town here was so ruined that it was simply pure moonlight and starlight.
Beautiful... in a rather sorrowful way.
"Mom?" A distant voice floated down to her and Kasumi turned her head slightly to see that the window above her was open. Inari's bedroom, she assumed.
"Hush, Inari." Came Tsunami's gentle voice. "It's time for bed."
A pause. "Mom, I'm sorry."
The older woman blew out a breath. "I know, sweetheart. I know."
"Can you sing me that song?" A request that told Kasumi just how much of a child Inari still was, although she had already known that.
"Of course." Tsunami took a deep breath and the kunoichi's blood turned to ice, her hand clenching on the brush in her hand.
"Oh, sweetie, the night is old.
Listen to the crashing of the waves,
and slip into the sweet embrace of sleep.
Let the sea sweep you away,
like a mother's hug.
You'll be safe and sound always,
for the night is when ninjas roam
and protect their villagers from all harm..."
Kasumi stood up abruptly, face pale. Spinning on her heel, she stepped back into the house, but even then, that lullaby haunted her like the trickling of a cold hand down her spine.
If she tried hard enough, she had no doubts that she could replace her mother's voice with Tsunami's.
Daybreak
"Where's Naruto?" Kakashi asked over breakfast as Sasuke lifted a spoonful of porridge to his mouth.
"He didn't come back last night." Kasumi replied, tone relatively indifferent.
'But only for the people that don't know her,' Sasuke amended to himself, flicking a glance to his female teammate. There was a note of concern in her voice that he only just caught.
He snorted. "He should be fine. Probably snoring on the ground somewhere."
Sasuke wasn't all too worried about the dobe. His rival could take care of himself, especially with all of the training they had been pounding into his thick skull.
Kasumi shot him a reprimanding look, but there was a twinkle of amusement in those milk chocolate eyes and he smirked. It was... good to see the cream-haired girl acting more like herself.
Sasuke was no fool; when he focused, his observational skills were nearly as good as Kasumi's. He knew that she was the primary 'glue' holding the team together and they couldn't afford to fall apart now.
He continued to nonchalantly eat his breakfast, paying no attention to the silence that had befallen the table. Kakashi had already finished his breakfast - without once taking off his mask, the bastard - and Kasumi seemed to be lost in her thoughts. He really couldn't care less about the family of the bridge builder they were guarding.
Finished, Kasumi set her spoon down quietly and rose to place her bowl in the sink. "Pardon me. I'm going out." She said, the words polite but the intent clear.
"Wait." Downing the last few drops of the porridge, Sasuke got to his feet and copied her actions. She waited patiently, no trace of the strain that he had seen the past few nights, and when he was done, nodded gracefully to the door.
"The dobe can take care of himself." He murmured to her as they made their way to the clearing.
Kasumi glanced at him, face serene. "He's our teammate." She said mildly. "And you're worried as well."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her. "How so?"
A gentle curve of her lips. "You're walking here with me, aren't you?"
"Touché." He admitted grudgingly. "Do you think the dobe's gotten the jutsu done yet?"
"He's Naruto-san." She reminded him. "He probably only collapsed after he perfected it."
Sasuke was about to answer when Kasumi suddenly tensed and turned her eyes toward the forest they were about to enter. Frowning because he hadn't sensed any change, Sasuke discreetly placed his hand near his weapons pouch and kept himself alert.
A few moments later, as they entered the forest, a pale figure with long dark hair came into view, carrying a straw basket. It was a male, Sasuke deduced from the structure of the stranger's body, but one with incredibly feminine features.
At his side, Sasuke felt Kasumi stiffen, although when he glanced at her, her face remained studiously blank. He wasn't fooled; like himself, he had come to realize that when his female teammate didn't want to show any of her emotions, she didn't. More... there was a certain panic in her dark brown eyes that made him frown, ready his chakra.
Kasumi and Sasuke passed him without a word, though they kept their eyes on each other the whole time. As soon as the stranger disappeared into the distance and he was sure that they were alone once more, Sasuke turned his attention to Kasumi.
"What's wrong?" He demanded shortly.
She pressed her lips together. "Where's Naruto-san?" Her voice was unusually strained, tense.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, but didn't push. Not yet. "Up ahead." He could see the idiot's bright yellow hair.
They passed the distance to their third teammate in silence, not that Sasuke ever let himself forget what had just happened. Flicking a glance at the blonde, he found him sitting on the ground, arms crossed, a stupidly thoughtful look on his face. "This is a weird world..." He mumbled to himself.
Sasuke's eye twitched. What was the dobe doing?!
"Naruto-san." Kasumi called out quietly.
"Oh! Kasumi-chan." Naruto immediately perked up upon seeing Kasumi, though a more petulant look quickly replaced the smile when he spotted Sasuke. "Oi, teme, what are you doing here?"
He snorted dismissively. "Me? Dobe, what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean what am I doing here?!" Naruto waved a fist at him. "I was training."
"Training to be a moron?"
"Why you - !" Naruto glared.
"Boys." Kasumi interrupted calmly. Kneeling down next to Naruto, she stared at him intently, a troubled look in her brown eyes.
Sasuke shifted to turn his attention to her, mentally shelving his natural irritation at Naruto's idiocy for more important matters. Now what? For all that she was classically the one breaking up their fights, Kasumi rarely had that serious of a tone.
Naruto caught it, too. "Kasumi-chan?" He questioned, twisting around to face her.
"That person that came by, just now." She said. "Did you talk to him?"
"Yeah!" Naruto grinned. "He was really nice."
"Can you tell me what he said?" Kasumi questioned, a strange sort of desperation in her voice that she tried to hide.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. What was going on here?
The dobe squinted at her, appearing just as confused. "Uhhh... well, okay." Haltingly, he told them of their conversation, from waking up to find him gathering herbs to protecting their precious people.
Kasumi listened patiently, never interrupting. When he was done, she nodded, a distracted look in her eyes. She thanked him, and without another word, turned right around and wandered deeper into the forest.
Sasuke exchanged a look with the dobe. What the hell was going on here?
Combination
They never did find out what bothered Kasumi so much, but Sasuke eventually pushed it to the back of his mind. They were training now, growing stronger, and this... this was what he liked the most.
Even better, it was actually going well.
"Ready?" The dobe grinned at them, blue eyes bright with excitement.
Sasuke nodded curtly and the corners of Kasumi's mouth tilted up. "Ready." She confirmed quietly, taking a small step to the side so that they would both have enough space to fight.
Naruto nodded back and shaped his fingers into that all too familiar seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He called out, creating a few dozen shadows clones in a poof of smoke. That done, he quickly leapt back and orientated himself next to Kasumi.
Just in time. "HERE WE COME!" His clones shouted, rushing towards the trio of genin recklessly.
"Sasuke-san." Kasumi cued, already performing her own seals. "Water Release: Black Rain Technique." Black oil splattered all over the clones, to their indignation.
The Uchiha bought his hands up, flashing through his seals with an impressive amount of speed. "Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" He blew the fireball straight at the clones who yelped and scrambled away.
"Naruto-san."
Naruto grinned brightly and clapped his hands together, chakra swirling around him. "Wind Release: Gale Palm!" He called out, slamming his hands out.
The massive gust of wind blew across the clearing and promptly met with the fireball. The flames swelled up, expanding rapidly, and hastily, they threw up an arm to block out the heat. The resulting mass of flames and fire ignited the oil and thoroughly torched the clones, the pure heatwave affecting even the three genin standing twenty feet away from the attack.
"Wow..." Naruto gaped, eyes wide with awe and pride. Kasumi smiled in satisfaction.
Sasuke simply smirked. That was what he had expected. Of himself... and his teammates.
The fire dissipated eventually and though it was tempting to charge ahead, Sasuke forced himself to stay in place. Kasumi had spent hours pounding into his and the dobe's head that teams were meant to stay together and no, running forward recklessly would not make you look heroic or manly or powerful, just an idiot that would get his team killed.
Naruto had pouted and Sasuke had scowled, but they didn't disregard Kasumi's words.
From the way the dobe was all but vibrating next to him, he assumed that Naruto was having the same problem, but to the hyperactive blonde's credit, he stayed still.
Kasumi inclined her head gently in approval, and Sasuke felt a ridiculous thrill of pleasure. He crushed it mercilessly as soon as he was aware of it; Uchiha Sasuke did not need anyone's approval.
'But that doesn't mean you don't want it...' A small, sly voice in his head purred. He quickly suppressed that voice, too.
"HAH!" The loud, obnoxious voices snapped his attention back to the charred, blackened land where their combination jutsu had burnt out.
Some Naruto clones popped out of ridiculous hiding spots, including one that had transformed itself into a rock and had another throw him out of the line of fire. Sasuke reluctantly admitted to himself that, at least, the dobe was creative. Humph, Naruto was an idiot, but he was Sasuke's rival. It was only right.
"YOU DIDN'T GET ALL OF US!" The clones stuck their tongues out at the three.
Sasuke and Kasumi deadpanned. Naruto glared at his clones, screaming back, "SHUT UP! WE'LL DEFINITELY GET YOU NEXT TIME!"
Never mind. He took it back. Naruto was the dobe and that was that.
"That could be a problem..." Kasumi muttered next to him, and he glanced at her to find her frowning at the nearby shrubbery that had caught on fire. She paused, throwing a glance at him. "Double hit?"
Sasuke smirked. "Go."
Kasumi snapped through several seals. "Water Release: Wild Water Wave." She called out, blowing out a large stream of water.
"Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!" Sasuke slammed his hands on the ground, sending a lethal electrical current towards the clones while Naruto stood alert and ready, kunai in hand.
They didn't stand a chance. The water crashed into them violently, easily extinguishing the small traces of fire that still burned on leaves and brushes, and a second later, the electrical current crackled across the water on the ground and painfully electrocuted all the remaining clones.
The cheerful chirping of a nearby bird broke the silence as the trio stared at the remnants of what had been a perfectly healthy, green clearing.
"YATTA!" Naruto spoke first, though shouted would probably be a better term. He grinned so widely that Sasuke was surprised his muscles weren't protesting the abuse and pumping a fist into the air. "THAT WAS AWESOME!"
Kasumi laughed softly, but a smile danced on her lips. Not like Naruto's absurdly large grin, but soft and gentle. And proud.
Sasuke shook his head. "Hn."
But there was a smile on his face, too. Small, barely noticeable, but there.
Next time:
Kasumi... she knew that she could completely shut down her emotions. Fight with Haku no matter that he had originally been her first friend. But Naruto... she didn't know if he could make the same choice. The blonde was so bright, so vivid, so entrenched in his emotions that she didn't know how he would do this.
Me: And the reviews! Thank you all so much!
michi-nin: Here ya go! Teamwork for the win! Thank you, thank you! I'm so happy you like my story! Hope you enjoyed this chapter~
FilleDePluie: Oh, that's good! Thanks for the review, hun!
starrat: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for the review!
Nikita: Oh, thank you! You're going to make me blush! I love tvtropes. And fandoms. And random stuff. My parents despair. Kasumi and Sasuke are both painfully stubborn people so I guess we'll have to see where this goes! I fixed that little mistake - at least, I saw a mistake and fixed it - so thank you very much!
Bella-swan11: Sasuke can be jealous, but I don't think he's gotten to that stage yet. Jelly Sasuke would be cute though... Thanks for the review, hun!
Serenity10116: Thank you for all of the reviews, sweetie! Hope you liked this chapter~
NothingNooneZero: Kyaa! Thank you! Your review literally made my day. I'm delighted you like my story. Thank you for your beautiful review, hun!
Guest: Lolz, Sasuke is cute when he's confused. Thanks for your review!
Question: What in the world is up with Kasumi and Haku?