Kakashi: Loose Ends

Sharingan no Kakashi, one of the most feared shinobi of his generation, ambled absent-mindedly through the trees on his way to the house where his client and sole female student should be lurking. Most of his thoughts were occupied by the chaos magnet that was Uzumaki Naruto.

Today his kill count has gone from two to over seventy; more than some chunnin. He seems to be coping but it is still cause for concern; especially since he has just halved the local bandit population.

Wait.. isn't the sun supposed to be behind me?

The jounin stopped, puzzled as to why he was now travelling in a direction perpendicular to his planned route. An illusion of some kind?

"Kai."

Nothing happened.

Okay; backtrack then. Kakashi retraced his steps, this time paying attention to his surroundings. Oh, now I know where I am; the perimeter should be just over- aha.

It was incredibly subtle: a slight shift in his internal balance that –if heeded- would make him walk in a wide curve instead of a straight line. Kakashi experimentally uncovered his sharingan, but the red eye with its three black tomoe could detect nothing amiss.

A sharingan-proof genjutsu. How brilliant yet how simple: it does not affect the eyes at all and is therefore not visible except –probably- at the instant of being cast. Kurenai will bang her head against a wall in frustration when I tell her the trick to fooling the sharingan. The jounin performed a soft "kai," then looked around for the caster.

"Sakura?"

"Sensei?" drifted back from up a tree several yards to his right. "Kakashi-sensei!"

There were a few thuds of sandal on wood, the rustle of leaves and then his kunoichi student dropped out of the canopy in front of him. "Is everyone alright, Sensei?"

"Aa. No casualties or injuries," Kakashi assured her. "Nice genjutsu by the way."

"Nani?"

"Your 'go somewhere else' genjutsu. I had to retrace my steps; it's very subtle. Well done."

Sakura blushed. "Gomen for catching you in it, Sensei. I shouldn't have left it up where anyone could trigger it."

"Maa, no need to apologise. It's good to see what excellent progress you're making."

"Arigatou, Kakashi-sensei. Those scrolls you lent me have been said genjutsu works best if the victim is unaware of it, so I've been working on some subtle ones that affect the various senses. Visual genjutsus are surprisingly limiting."

"Did you realise your jutsu was sharingan-proof? It doesn't affect the eyes so it can't actually be seen. Very tidy."

The pinkette's eyes rounded in awe. "I made a sharingan-proof genjutsu? That's- that's- wow!"

"Aa," Kakashi agreed with an eye-smile as he pulled his hitai-ite down again, "very much so. I don't know if I'd be able to see it being cast or not, but I was unable to unravel it without using kai."

Sakura processed this. "Sensei?"

"Hai?"

"Would you be willing to recommend me to an inin when we return to Konoha?" She asked tentatively.

"Why?"

"This particular jutsu works by adjusting the inner ear: the inner ear is what enables you to determine which way is up. By nudging it I can make people walk in circles or even fall over. I got the idea from a medical textbook. If I expand my medical knowledge I'll be able to create more sensory genjutsu, which I think are better than the normal kind anyway. Just shutting your eyes won't make this one go away." She paused. "Plus Naruto thinks I'd be good at ijutu and team seven needs someone who can heal since we're an assault team. I'm the long-distance genjutsu person, which makes me the best candidate for field medic anyway."

"Sensory genjutsu is it? Creating a new jutsu type?"

The kunoichi made a vaguely impatient sound in her throat. "Sensei, all the genjutsu I've come across so far target the eyes, even the ones transmitted acoustically. That's just self-limiting. It makes them all vulnerable to doujutsu and then there's what Naruto does: he just closes his eyes and ignores them! Then there's the fact that visual genjutsu are more chakra intensive since human vision is highly detailed. The balance-affecting jutsu barely uses as much chakra as henge and I can hit anyone within my field of vision with it! And it only needs two handsigns!"

"I agree that the field is vastly under-explored," Kakashi conceded. "Very well. When we get back I will write a recommendation for you to give to a chunnin medic so you can continue your studies. This does not licence you to slack off or opt out of team practices or any other assignments I give, mind you."

"I understand. Arigatou nasai, Kakashi-sensei."

The copy-nin looked around, hunting for the source of his increasing unease. It was subtle, but now that he concentrated he could smell drying blood and ash and the ground ahead of him was slightly disturbed. "Did anyone else come this way at all?"

Sakura paled slightly and her eyes focused on a point past the jounin's hip. "Half-a-dozen bandits trying to be samurai, Kakashi-sensei. Two Naruto-clones helped me distract and dispose of them."

Kaksahi's attention snapped back to his student. "Report, genin Haruno Sakura."

Sakura straightened, chin up, giving Kakashi a good view of the grime smeared across her face, the blood spatter on her skirt, cuffs and collar and the forest detritus caught on the firmly secured knot of hair at the nape of her neck.

"I was patrolling inside the perimeter when the clones came back with Tazuna; one dispelled to alert Naruto, another escorted the bridge-builder back to the house and the last two joined me. They warned me that some kind of incident was taking place in the village, so I concentrated on the section of perimeter facing the settlement. A short while later six men armed with swords and wearing poorly kept samurai armour approached. I put them under a Ukai-ro no jutsu –that's what I call the balance-affecting technique, Sensei- then layered it with a standard Naikanshin genjutsu to make them less attentive. One of the clones henged into one of the swordsmen and kawarimi'd with him. The other clone killed the sword user as he appeared, took his sword and kawarimi'd with the henged clone, attacking the other men. It killed three before getting dispelled. The henged clone returned to normal and picked off one of the men trying to escape. I caught the last two in a Mahi no jutsu and took them out with thrown kunai." The kunoichi paused, face taking a slightly green hue as she relived her first kill.

"Once the fight was over the clone stripped the bodies and moved them inside the barrier to be burned. Then I threw up." She looked embarrassed. "I remembered how upset Sasuke was when he realised he'd killed that nukenin so I let the clone comfort me a bit before sending it back to the house for a sealing scroll. When it got back it sealed all the useful stuff in the scroll, burned the rest with the bodies and dispelled. That was nearly half an hour ago. Nothing happened between then and you arriving, Sensei."

"Did you cast the detour genjutsu on me directly?"the jounin asked.

"Iie, Kakashi-sensei. I laid it on the ground in a band about six feet wide about fifteen yards away from the perimeter; that way anyone coming into contact with it would never reach the perimeter at all."

"Contact activated, hm?" Kakashi briefly uncovered his sharingan to take a closer look at the path. And there it is; almost invisible. People really don't look down do they? Not even ninja. Naruto was right: I do need to practice more. "Well Sakura, you've done brilliantly. Your first real fight and you didn't freeze up until it was over, and even then you set up a trap to divert intruders while you were incapacitated."

The kunoichi managed a wobbly smile at the unexpected praise.

"Sasuke and Naruto are dealing with the cleanup back at the village; they will be back soon enough. Diffuse the genjutsu trap and we'll go back to the house. Tazuna needs to be told what has happened."

"Hai, Sensei. How did your mission go?"

"It was successful," Kakashi conceded. Although it is probably the reason why those thugs formerly in Gatou's employ were raiding the village. My bad.

The Naruto-clone said it was probably your fault things went pear-shaped," Sakura said absently, "but I suppose that was just Naruto being silly."

Kakashi sweatdropped. Oops.

Back at the bridge-builder's house Sakura immediately went for a shower, leaving Kakashi to explain things to Tazuna and his family while Zabuza lurked in the corner of the room, sword lying across his lap.

"Gatou's dead," the jounin said laconically, "His thugs attacked the village but Naruto dealt with most of them and Haku and Sasuke picked off the rest. There are probably a few still drifting around but you should be able to deal with them without much effort. The bridge can be finished now without outside interference."

There was a stunned silence.

"He's really dead?" Inari asked timidly.

"Suffered a fatal heart attack at a quarter to four this morning," Kakashi assured him. "I don't have his head with me but I can fetch it if you need proof."

"No," Tsunami said firmly, "we believe you. Don't we?"

Both Tazuna and Inari nodded dumbly.

"We can probably stick around for a day or two just to make sure the bandits don't come back before we return to Konoha," the copy-nin added. "You'll have to pay a fine for deliberate misrepresentation of the mission parameters but I can speak to the Sandaime so you don't get blacklisted for it. Just be honest in future, ne?"

"Hai! Arigatou, Kakashi-san!" Tazuna managed.

"Good, good. Zabuza? A word?"

"Sure." The nukenin wandered outside, Kakashi following at his heels. The Demon in the Mist leant back against the wall of the house to watch the clouds as the Copy Ninja casually balanced an elbow on the railing. "What do you want?" the nukenin asked.

"Well, since you're technically soon-to-be family, I thought I should give you some of the cash I found lying around when I made my house-call to Gatou," Kakashi said blandly, "if only to ensure you aren't anywhere near here when the ANBU I ordered come sniffing around."

"Sounds like a plan;" the former mist-nin mused, "how much cash?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Twenty thousand?"

Zabuza smirked toothily through the bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face. "Good enough; you've got a deal, copy-nin. Give me the money and Haku and I will be out of your hair and on our way home by noon."

Kakashi wordlessly opened the sealing scroll he'd put the money into and unsealed one of the compartments. Twenty thick wads of banknotes appeared in a puff of chakra smoke.

The nukenin snickered evilly. "Perfect." In an instant the money was gone. "Nice meeting you; thank-you for ypur generous funding of the Resistance. Take care of Yogensha-sama and the blond brat, will ya?"

Kakashi inclined his head in agreement. "Could you see if you could get some friends of hers that aren't in the bingo book to visit her, possibly for the wedding? It should be in a few months, during the chunnin exams."

"I'll ask around. Sayonara!" the Demon in the Mist said cheerfully as he launched himself off the decking and into the trees, oversized sword strapped across his back.

"One less headache," the copy-nin muttered to himself, pulling the latest little orange book out of his pouch and dropping down to sit with his back against the wall as he waited for his other students to return. "Now where was I?"

Notes

inin = medic shinobi

ijutsu = medical technique

ukai-ro no jutsu =detour technique

naikanshin genjutsu = no interest illusion technique

mahi no jutsu = paralysis technique

A/N: And that's the wave arc over bar a few loose ends (hehehe). Sakura is very hard to write about since there isn't much of her in canon to work from. Plus, making her more than just a foil changes the team dynamic quite significantly, given her unexplored potential. I hope I've conveyed that properly. Plus, first kill. Team seven is properly blooded now.