Sasuke: Consideration

Sasuke leant against a tree just outside Konoha's east gate, waiting for his ever-tardy sensei. He was confused and not enjoying the feeling. Amemai-san had turned all of his certainties sideways, forced him to look underneath the underneath then left him to come to his own conclusions. The worst part was that he suspected with ever-increasing dismay that she had a point.

"You all right, teme?" Uzumaki Naruto had noticed his unsettled state. Fool that I am. Uchiha do not fidget.

Naruto was nothing like Sasuke had assumed him to be. At the academy the blond had been the dobe, loud, dense and fun to spar against. The latter was still the case but Sasuke had to work harder and harder to stay ahead of his team-mate in taijutsu. The Uchiha was seriously considering learning a new style to help him hold off his insanely hardworking team-mate. Naruto was a stamina freak of the highest order so to beat him Sasuke had to pound him bloody. And even then the dobe doesn't stay down for long. At least my kenjutsu is improving, though I still can't break through that swirling defence of his. The blond was starting to talk about his training and had mentioned that the more advanced scrolls he was starting to practice from all contained offensive moves to balance the purely defensive style he had learned up until now.

Sasuke had to admit -if only within the privacy of his own mind- that Uzumaki kenjutsu was a truly formidable sword style, ahead of its field just as Hyuuga gentle fist was in taijutsu. That Uzuna -whirlpool blade- used no chakra whatsoever was just scary.

Naruto was still cheerful and friendly and probably would remain so in the face of anything short of an apocalyptic catastrophe, but he was also keenly observant, driven to succeed and inclined towards inflicting his wicked sense of humour on those who mistreated him. The blond didn't mind helping others to improve and helped Sasuke with his own developing kenjutsu regularly though he also poked at the black haired boy's temper with equal regularity, saying that no ninja could afford to allow their anger to control them.

"Kenjutsu or taijutsu, your style falls apart when you're pissed off," Naruto had told him bluntly after the blond had provoked him during a taijutsu spar and then taken him apart. "Lose your temper and you've lost the fight. It is that simple. I can win any time I like; I just have to get you angry and your hot buttons are not hard to find."

Sasuke found it irritating that the truism did not apply to Naruto; whenever the whiskered boy became genuinely angry Kakashi-sensei got twitchy and made them stop fighting.

This fact of life -combined with Amemai-san's recent talk- had inspired Sasuke to go back over why he was always angry on one level or another. Itachi slew every last clan member but let me live, saying I was too weak to be worth killing. But the younger children and babies were killed too and they were all weaker than I was. He said he killed them to test his capacity, but obliterating the clan while they were at home eating dinner, unarmed and unaware, is not a real test of what a person is capable of. Plus he was the strongest person in the clan. A real test would have involved attacking the hokage or the other ANBU.

It makes no sense. All his arguments are full of glaring holes.

If Itachi really did it for the reasons he related to me, then he was delusional and completely insane. The other more likely option is that he lied to me, which I cannot believe I didn't consider earlier! Especially since he was an ANBU captain and had to have gone through dozens of psychological tests to make it that far.

So he lied to me about why he killed the clan -if he really did it at all, that could also be a lie- which means his advice is also without merit. Or is it? He basically told me to run away and hide, to survive. Was the clan attacked by an outside force which Itachi was covering up? Was it an internal dispute? Could the clan have slaughtered itself?

If so, his ordering me to hate and despise him is rather off. Of course trapping me in Tsukiyomi and forcing me to watch him slaughter everyone was a completely crazy thing to do unless he wanted me to hate him, especially now I know that the way some of them died does not correspond with the visions he showed me.

Sasuke was rather embarrassed that he'd taken the advice of the lunatic who'd destroyed his clan seriously and even tried to build his life around it. Amemai-san's healing technique that countered the damage of the Tsukiyomi had made his thinking clearer and his sleep more restful. It was like a veil had been lifted.

Amemai-san had explained to him that Tsukiyomi was a reverse sharingan genjutsu that forced the victim to remember in complete and perfect detail all they witnessed while trapped inside it. This had preventing him from recovering properly as he was unable to process what he had seen. She had told him that -since most people used the jutsu to inflict horrific physical pain- the majority never noticed that what the victim saw within the genjutsu was always remembered in its entirety. Sasuke could tell -after less than a full day- that allowing her to heal him had been the best decision he had ever made.

"I'm fine dobe," Sasuke replied to Naruto's query. "Amemai-san gave me a lot to think about."

Naruto nodded, eyes following Sakura's pacing as the kunoichi stewed silently, her conflicted expression indicating she was in two minds about something. "Kaa-san's cool like that."

"Kaa-san?" Sasuke knew Naruto had been orphaned at birth.

Naruto shrugged. "She's had people looking after me since I was six, paid for my food, clothing and education and genuinely cares about me. If it wasn't for her I probably would be an oblivious, incompetent loudmouth knucklehead like I pretended to be at the academy." he paused. "Do you really want to learn an extra taijutsu style?"

Sasuke felt his eyes widen involuntarily. I said that out loud?

"Hai."

"Northern Mantis would work best for you out of all the styles I know. You're quick on your feet and it would integrate nicely with your clan style."

"Not Dragon?" Sasuke liked the dragon style. It looked powerful and nimble, a perfect combination.

Naruto's large, friendly sky-blue eyes narrowed into angry, purple tinged slits. "That's Uzumaki taijutsu, Sasuke; the secret clan style. If you ever copy it once you get your sharingan I will rip your eyeballs out and shove them down your throat."

"I may not be able to help it in a fight," Sasuke pointed out, secretly shaken by the vehemence of Naruto's graphic threat. "and I've fought against you enough that I can already mimic some of the forms." His team-mate's clear belief that he would eventually acquire the legendary Uchiha doujutsu was nice though.

"Then I request that you never, ever use it unless it is a life and death situation. Literal life and death teme; Dragon Fist and Swirling Blade are all that remains of my clan. Don't disrespect my ancestors' hard work."

"I'll make sure my enemies know that they lost to a proxy Uzumaki if that ever happens," Sasuke smirked.

"Hey, was that humour? Sakura-chan! Sasuke made a joke; is the world ending?"

"Sensei is still late so no," Sakura replied tartly, forcing Sasuke to swallow a chuckle. "Naruto, what are you fiddling with?"

Sasuke actually looked at what Naruto was holding. It looked like a large notebook and a calligraphy brush. A bundle of neat slips of paper stuck out of his kunai pouch.

"They're tags. I'm learning fuuinjutsu because it's my clan speciality like Yamanaka mind jutsu and Akiminchi body jutsu, Naruto muttered. "Don't tell Sensei; he'll confiscate them and try to make me stop."

"Hn." the Uchiha felt slightly cheated. Naruto's clan had left him more useful techniques than Sasuke's had despite having been dead and gone long before the blond was even born.

"Teme, the Uchiha were like magpies; they taught you the basics then expected you to beg, borrow or steal everything else and build your own unique style. Uzumakis were more structured, partly because they ran a village for a few hundred years. We are seal and sword masters first and everything else is secondary. I actually have an Uzumaki text book which states that it was expected for us to reach a certain level in both before we were allowed to start learning the other jutsu types in order to pick a third specialisation," Naruto said, tucking his tags, notebook and brush out of sight. "I'm going to pick ninjutsu as my third since my chakra reserves are ridiculously huge."

"If I were to choose three fields what do you think they should be?" Sasuke asked. Once again the blonde had divined the source of his irritation and diffused his anger before it took root. Naruto was better at calming him down that the silly civilian counsellor he'd had to visit after the massacre had ever been.

Naruto squinted at him foxily. "You're pretty damn good with your ninja-to for a beginner, so kenjutsu rather than taijutsu. That most ninja stick to taijutsu gives you a further edge. Genjutsu because you can do it consistently and your reserves are big enough to do complex ones and layer them. Illusions are a great combination with a blade because you can fool your opponent into defending the wrong area. When you get your sharingan you'll be able to cast genjutsu without seals which will make the combination even more effective. For a third... Ninjutsu. You have a knack for it. Plus, the pure elemental stuff is really, really cool. Chunnin to journin level, but cool."

Sasuke liked the picture that painted. He also liked the sound of 'pure elemental stuff'. Some of the scrolls back at the compound mentioned elemental manipulation. I'll have to look into it once we get back...

"What about me?" Sakura asked hopefully. Sasuke wasn't sure what to make of her today. She hadn't squealed once. It was unsettling.

Naruto eyeballed the pink tressed kunoichi. "Genjutsu as primary. You are creepily imaginative with it. I did notice that nasty balance affecting one you tried in our last spar, Sakura-chan. Taijutsu second because you are a natural at hitting things. You enjoy it -don't deny it- so so you work hard. Third..." Naruto paused. "I recommend that you investigate ijutsu. The team could use a medical specialist and you have the intellect and the control to excel."

Sakura blinked. "Medical? That sounds," she paused, brow furrowing, "wimpy. I want to be a strong kunoichi."

That was news to Sasuke. She doesn't want to be a fragile damsel any more? Has given up on me rescuing her by choice rather than necessity? What happened and can it be done to the rest of the shrieking horde?

"Medicine is about how the body is put together, which includes how to take it apart," Naruto said flatly. "It is very difficult and required tremendous control and vast amounts of in-depth knowledge that may only be used once but all of which is critical. Ame-kaa-san knows some healing and it enabled her to mend Sasuke's mind after it was damaged by an S-class genjutsu. Medical knowledge will enable you to improve your taijutsu to strike sensitive areas and impact points. Doctors are not wimpy; Why do you think I hate hospitals? It's because they're full of people who know how to reverse -and therefore deal out- life-threatening injuries."

Sasuke would never admit it, but Naruto had a point. "Is Amemai-san an iryou-nin?"

"No, she has some kind of healing bloodline. Ame-kaa-san denies being a doctor because none of what she does can be replicated by those without the bloodline. Not replicated easily, anyway. I think she mentioned 'five years of study and dozens of willing test subjects' as one of the conditions."

"Hello students!" Kakashi called out brightly as he appeared behind Sakura. The pinkette spun around and took a deep breath then hesitated.

"You are never going to arrive when you are supposed to, are you sensei," she stated flatly.

Kakashi eyesmiled at them, a small book with an orange dust jacket dangling from one hand. "Probably not."

The little orange books had reappeared a week after the so-called survival exercise, but Naruto hadn't reacted as violently to them. The Uchiha had asked the blond about it and learned that the new books only looked like Icha Icha.

Sakura deflated, shoulders sagging. "Well we're here, you're here and the client's here. Lets go."

Kakashi looked a little bemused by the subdued kunoichi. "Off we go then."

Sasuke fell in step beside Naruto. "What's with her, dobe?"

Naruto shrugged. "Kaa-san had a word with her about professional kunoichi behaviour. No idea what was said but I think Sakura was intimidated; kaa-san knows more ninja stuff than sensei and she isn't even a kunoichi."

"What is she then?"

Naruto glanced at him sideways and lowered his voice to a mere whisper. "Miko and yogensha. Don't tell."

Sasuke blinked. He'd never met anyone blessed by the kami before. They were rare, far rarer than kekkai genkai. The prophetic gifts were one of the rarest of those granted, healing being more common. Though he said she could do that as well. That explained why she had been so insistent he go over the past with clear eyes; she had somehow seen he was making a mistake that easily could be corrected.

The idea of Kakashi marrying a miko is somewhat ridiculous, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Notes

Ijutsu = medical techniques

Iryou = pertaining to medicine and healing

miko = priestess

A/N: I had no idea this was coming. Sasuke just had to say his piece. Anyway, on with the mission!