Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 11 – Small Steps
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 4252
Summary: AU. Sakura gives up on Kakashi as a teacher after Team 7 falls apart. Too bad fate, enemy ninja, and sheer bad luck have other plans.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 11 of ? Unbeta'd.
Notes: Oh hey, look at that, it's only been a month since my last update! This is the most regular I've been in years! I want to thank all of you for reading, reviewing, and supporting me as I update!
It takes hours for Hatake-sensei to go through everything they own and inform them what was wrong with just about all of it. The pens had just been the beginning.
He'd kindly replaced most of it, which had taken out some of the sting. Really, the only thing he hadn't replaced and had, instead, ordered them to buy before the next mission, was the underthings and Sakura was frankly grateful that he was leaving them to buy their own panties and bras and feminine hygiene products so long as they fell within the brands he'd explained were country-neutral and harder to trace.
I can explain to my parents that my sensei bought me pens, and other things, like matches, and wire, but I'd never be able to get through underwear with them.
It was definitely for the best if that never came up with her civilian parents. Ino hadn't seemed to mind as much. Though it had helped that Hatake-sensei had been brisk, impartial, and professional about his critique.
Sakura hadn't really thought anyone could be so work-oriented about that sort of thing but he'd managed it and while she was a bit embarrassed she didn't have much of an urge to hide.
Once that had been done, he'd made them re-pack to his exacting standards and then told them to cart their things back home (Ino had dropped her things off at Sakura's place, since it was closer) and now, finally, they're ready to go on their mission properly.
Rather than leading them out of the village, though, he instead leads them on a long and winding path through it.
"Where are we going, Hatake-sensei?" Sakura asks.
"You'll see," he says.
"All of that work and we're not even leaving the village?!" Ino protests. There's one good thing to come from Hatake-sensei's endless lecture on their supplies—it's distracted Ino from whatever she'd been in a bad mood about. "Hatake-sensei!"
"What kind of C-Rank can we do inside of the village anyway?" Sakura wonders.
"More than you'd think," Hatake-sensei says. "But we're almost there, come on. I'll explain everything once we're inside."
"Inside?" Ino asks, pouncing on the word.
"Our mission's in a house?" Sakura looks around at the neighbourhood they're in with a considering glance. D-Rank missions happen fairly frequently inside houses given that they're always in the village for missions but she'd never thought of any of the higher rank missions being in the village. That's a new idea to her.
She bites her lip for a moment before asking, "Is it a haunted house?"
"… Something like that," Hatake-sensei says. "Now, enough."
They shut their mouths, exchanging a startled look. Hatake-sensei doesn't use that tone of voice with them very often. Trailing after him, Sakura watches as Ino frowns as the neighbour changes from newer developments to creaky old houses and sprawling estates, ones that were around before the village was founded officially.
Ino draws in her breath sharply, almost inaudibly, as they step onto a street that's so empty and desolate that it feels like they're nothing but a couple of ryo rattling around in a can.
Sakura glances her way. Hatake-sensei, who must have heard them, doesn't pause in his stride.
Don't freak out, Ino says, her warning the only thing that allows Sakura to clamp her hands over her mouth to stop from squealing in shock at the voice inside her head. I know where we're going, I think.
You never said you could talk inside peoples' heads! Sakura accused.
Ino shrugs at her, looking unrepentant. You never asked.
That's... fair. Much as Sakura doesn't like it. She sticks her tongue out at Ino, who shoves at her, and they both break out in giggles.
"Really?" Hatake-sensei says, turning to look at them. He sounds a little amused, though, so Sakura doesn't take his remonstrance too seriously.
"Sorry, Hatake-sensei," she says.
Ino shrugs again. "She started it."
"Ino!"
"But we'll be good," Ino says. "Hatake-sensei."
And you did start it, Ino continues sub-vocally. Don't even.
"Just behave until we get there," he says, still sounding amused. "It's not far now."
I thought so.
Where are we going? Sakura demands. What have you figured out?
I could be wrong, Ino says, studying Hatake-sensei through lowered eyelashes. And I don't know why we're going there but I think we're going to his family's place.
Sakura misses a step, nearly stumbling, before she regains her balance.
You're going to have to get better at not giving away that I'm talking to you, Ino says. It's not much of an advantage if everyone knows we're talking.
I'll get better, Sakura says, stung at the very idea of not being good enough to keep up with Ino. Ino, come on!
Ino hooks her arm comfortingly through Sakura's. You'll get better. Why were you so surprised about Hatake-sensei having a family estate?
He's never mentioned anything! He lives alone! He can barely keep a cactus alive!
A fat drop of rain hits the top of her head. Sakura holds out her hand to catch the next few drops.
You said we're almost there, right?
If we weren't staying in the village for this job… you realize we'd be running through this too, right?
Sakura grumbles indistinctly.
Ino laughs, shrugging and tugging her along.
With a rueful sort of smile, Sakura allows her to do so. (Not that being told 'no' has ever really stopped Ino.)
But… yeah, there's the Hatake family estate. It's kind of a taboo topic, really, so I'm not surprised no one told you since you're on his team and…
Sakura heaves a sigh so dramatic that Hatake-sensei glances back at them briefly. It's another one of those things they don't tell to civilians, isn't it?
It's not hidden, Ino says, but we just… don't talk about it. The Hatakes were an old family. Not big, like the Hyuuga, but old and respected. Then… well, you know the war with Iwa?
She nods. She's read about it in history books at the Academy.
Tensions were already high. Hatake Sakumo had a choice of completing a mission or saving his teammates. Ino hesitates, glancing at their sensei's back. He choice his teammates and, I don't really know how, but the failure to complete the mission is what started the war. Hatake Sakumo killed himself, later, due to the shame he brought upon his family.
Sakura gapes at Ino.
It gets worse, Ino says, even her mind's voice sounding uncomfortable. Hatake Sakumo was Hatake-sensei's dad.
Horror and shame flood her.
And I asked if the house was haunted! Sakura wails internally.
I didn't know where we were going or I'd have told you earlier, Ino says hurriedly. Just don't mention it again and I'm sure it'll be okay. He doesn't seem mad!
Please, please don't tell me he killed himself at home…
Ino's expression is all the answer Sakura needs.
The Nara Clan's woods are creepy.
Chouji knows the shadows (which are thicker and darker here than elsewhere in the village) that lurk like gloomy puddles under the high, wide branches won't hurt him. He also knows that they could.
He takes his time making his way through the woods nonetheless. Sure, he's unsettled and uncomfortable, but that's almost the norm these days, since Ino went and threw a wrench in everything.
What's a little more skin creeping discomfort in the face of that?
It hurts a lot to know that Ino left them, that they weren't good enough for her, and that she hadn't given them a chance to do better, but…
Well.
Chouji knows he's not a total genius like Shikamaru. He knows he's not as wildly clever as Ino.
But he's not stupid.
His feelings are hurt and he's tired of Clan meetings and he hates that their team now has an empty space in it where once was a familiar, well-loved friend but he's not stupid and once he'd gotten over all of his feelings (which remain complicated and ugly and he's never sure how to say them) well…
None of what Ino did is really about him, now is it?
He misses her dreadfully but… He's seen her bounce back into town, talking a mile a minute with Sakura, with Kakashi-sensei trailing behind them, and both girls are covered in scrapes and training bruises and are filthy and disheveled and they're so happy they almost glow.
Honestly, if he digs deep, he can't remember the last time Ino was that happy on their team. Chouji's pretty sure she was that happy way back at the start, right out of the Academy, once they aced their last test and first assignment as a team but after that it gets hazy.
He remembers a lot of good times but that's not quite the same thing.
The woods begin to break up slightly, each tree still spaced so meticulously that shade is absolute even on the brightest of days, but less crowded, less on top of each other, as he reaches the outskirts of where most Nara live.
Unlike the Hyuuga compound or the (old) Uchiha sector, there's no walls around the Nara's place. There's no need. The rings upon rings of shadows are a more effective deterrent than any wall would be to ninja.
There's always Nara here and any of them can trigger the shadows that protect their home.
Chouji isn't sure of the details of that and he doesn't ask. It's not his Clan, not his business, and he only knows as much as he does due to the fact that the Akimichi are old allies of the Nara. That he's best friends with Shikamaru helps a little, too, but not as much as outsiders might assume.
Friendships could come and go—though he is loathe to consider that—but the alliance is an old, sturdy and stable thing.
Even if it is taking a few knocks from what Ino's done.
That's not fair—even in his own thoughts he knows that's not fair—but Chouji allows himself, for the moment, to think it and not feel too bad about it. It's more complicated than that but if he can't have hurt feelings inside his own head…
Where can he have them?
Shikamaru is frowning ferociously at a shougi board on the front porch of his home. He doesn't look up at Chouji grabs one of the cushions meant for guests and settles himself down with a bag of chips to eat as he waits.
He's good at waiting.
"We don't have training today," Shikamaru says eventually, long before Chouji gets tired of waiting. "Mission?"
It's really not hard to out-last Shikamaru or Ino. While they can both be patient when they have to be it's something they have to do rather than a state of being.
"No," Chouji says, crunching through another chip, and leaving it at that because he knows Shikamaru won't be able to resist poking at that.
"What then?" Shikamaru asks, looking away from the shougi board to frown at him, eyes raking him over to make sure he's in one piece.
That bit is new, since he nearly died in the attempt to retrieve Sasuke.
"Is everything okay?"
"I'm fine," Chouji says, smiling slightly in an attempt to put Shikamaru at ease.
"You didn't come here just to hang out," Shikamaru says, flat and skeptical. Which he has every right to be. Chouji does sometimes come just to hang out but it's rare. Especially with everything else going on these days.
"I didn't," Chouji says agreeably. "Dad said that Ino'll be out of the village for the next week or so."
Shikamaru's frown deepens and he turns back to the shougi board. "That has nothing to do with us."
Chouji hesitates. It's true and untrue and in about equal amounts. That's one of the reasons this is such a mess, he thinks. It would be easier if it was cut and dried but there's nothing easy in Clan politics.
"Are you mad that she's left us or are you mad that she's happy in her new team?"
That was the question he'd wanted to ask. He doesn't know the answers himself. Chouji thinks the answer, on his part, is 'both' but…
Shikamaru's back stiffens.
"She didn't say anything," he says, his voice low and tight.
Chouji doesn't reply to that. There's one thing Ino has always done and that's let people know when they're disappointing her. She'd complained a lot. To him. To Shikamaru. To her dad. She'd spent days nagging Asuma-sensei about things.
"Okay," Shikamaru continues, resentment heavy in the words. "But this isn't done."
It isn't. Especially not amongst the Clans. There's always maneuvering beforehand—though they'll never know how much their parents did to get them on the same team—but afterwards, transfers from full teams are rare. Combining incomplete teams happens all the time.
But Team 10 had been a complete team. Whole and healthy and exactly how a team ought to be in the eyes of the village.
"It's not," Chouji agrees. "But since when has Ino ever done only 'what was done?'"
There's a pause.
Shikamaru moves a piece on the board before speaking again. "She's a pure traditionalist when it comes to training."
"Exactly." Chouji sighs. Eats another chip. The crinkle of the bag is a comforting, familiar noise. "Which means she takes her training seriously."
Rain starts to drum down in soft, scatter-shot patterns. Chouji shifts so his legs are under the balcony instead of hanging off the edge but otherwise makes no move. The overhang will keep them dry unless the wind changes and it's not cold.
And he waits to see what Shikamaru will say to that.
"Something's wrong," Shikamaru says finally, frowning as he does so (Chouji doesn't need to see his face to know he is). "She'd never have gone over to Hatake Kakashi's team after his… management... of Team 7 just because Sakura asked, no matter how good of friends they are. Asuma-sensei may not be as tough a sensei as she wanted but…"
"But?" Chouji prompts.
"We're missing something," Shikamaru says. "Something big. Ino wouldn't have left if there's not more to this."
"It's awful that she left," Chouji says. "And I miss her and I wish she hadn't."
He doesn't say that he wants her back, though, because if she came back right now he thinks there would be just more fighting over the hurt feelings and turmoil she'd caused.
(He does want her back though.)
"But we're missing something."
And, for the first time, Shikamaru sounds thoughtful instead of angry or betrayed.
Chouji eats the last of his chips and, as he wipes his fingers off on his pants, he asks, "What are we going to do about it?"
Shikamaru pushes away from the shougi board, looking briefly startled at the rain, before standing and offering Chouji a hand up.
"We get more information."
Chouji smiles as he reaches for Shikamaru's hand. "Alright."
Ino might still never come back to their team but at least, this way, they might have the whole story.
He hates this street. He hates the estate they stand in front of. He hates the gates that stare back at him.
It's irrational—none of these things have ever hurt him directly—but the earliest pains, the pains that originally formed him started here and so he hates it all.
Kakashi isn't sure the last time his other self had been here, but for him it had been years. It's like picking at a scab to find out that it's only half-healed.
The village is very, very good at indoctrinating their shinobi in the proper behaviours. It's excellent at—well, usually he'd say they were excellent at training; he has his doubts lately-but, in any case, the fact is that the village, however good they are at many, many things, has never found a way to stop its shinobi from feeling grief and pain.
But I think that's a good thing, overall, or else we'd cease to be human.
He hates it but, in feeling that hate, that grief, that pain, he stays human. Kakashi has seen monsters wearing human skins—has killed monsters wearing human skins—and would rather be human.
Fallible and fragile as humanity might be.
He glances behind him, then, realizing that his students haven't followed him. Sakura looks stricken and he realizes Ino must have given her a rundown of his past.
I'll have to keep an eye on that, he realizes, if Ino's going to start mind-talking.
"Come along," he says, smiling for them as he pushes the gate open. He doesn't feel it, his heart is somewhere around his ankles, but he smiles for them. "Your mission has started."
The girls slip through the gate and he locks it behind him, the jutsu ward glowing a sullen red before fading. The rain is growing steadily worse. An afternoon storm.
"We'll be staying in the first building on the left," he says, guiding them down the over-grown path. "It's not the main house—we'll start there tomorrow."
"Yes, sensei," Sakura says, subdued as she looks around. Signs of decay are everywhere. No one has properly taken care of the paths in ages. The trees and flowers (and weeds) running wild, with determined sprouts of grass having forced their way up through the gaps in the stone walkways.
The building they make for is mostly intact. A few of the windows have cracked where hail hit them and it's dark and dusty as they step in out of the rain but it's in one piece and that's really all he cares about.
"Water is still running so the toilets, sinks, and showers can be used," he says, locking the door behind them. It smells like cedar wood, dust, and emptiness in the hallway. "There's no electricity hooked up, so you'll have to rely on candles and oil lanterns for lighting."
"Hatake-sensei," Ino says, with a glance at Sakura that he feels more than sees. It's dark in the house. "What is our mission?"
Ah. Yes.
He still hasn't told them.
"You're both aware of the fact that I've been prioritizing your skills over taking you on missions," he says, guiding them down the hallway. "I will not lie to you: I was asked to take you both on a C-Rank mission to get you out of the village for a while."
Sakura yelps. "They want us to leave?!"
"Because of—everything, right?" Ino says, sounding resigned.
He claps one hand on her shoulder briefly in support as they spill out into what had been the main area of this house. The couches are abandoned under white sheets, like lumpy ghosts. He can see the outline of a fireplace.
"Partly due to the waves caused by the team transfer," he allows. "I'll say again that neither of you should feel poorly for making decisions that will benefit both your own training and the strength of the village in the long run."
They don't (yet) believe him, of course, but he'll keep saying it, in different ways.
"But we're… not out of the village…," Sakura says.
"No," he agrees, smiling slightly and letting his voice warm a bit. "But we might as well be. Ino, what do you sense?"
Ino blinks at him and then—
"I can't reach my dad," Ino says, surprised. "In fact, I can't find—anyone, but us."
"Old wards," he says. "Old jutsu. In being here, we might as well be on the far side of the moon as far as the rest of the village is concerned. I'm not comfortable running missions with the two of you outside the village," he says bluntly. "You're both growing in leaps and bounds and that will come. For now, this mission fulfills both my priorities for your training and the request to leave the village."
"But…," Sakura begins, the falters, looking at Ino for support.
"But what are we doing here?" Ino asks. "There's a reason we're here, right?"
"We'll be here a week," Kakashi says. "Whether or not we accomplish our mission. That being said, our mission is one that I hired us for, so if I change the terms…"
Well. Then he changed the terms.
"We're looking for a summoning scroll," he explains. "I'm used to it being about twelve inches long, one inch in diameter, with a red rod. It may look different in this time and place."
"Oh!" Sakura says. "For summoning dogs!"
He smiles at her. "That's right. We're looking for my family's summoning scroll."
"What do you mean 'it may look different'?" Ino asks.
"It changes sometimes," he says. "I've seen it larger, with a black rod. For now, we'll concentrate on locating anything that might be a summoning scroll. Any questions?"
The girls exchange looks, words he can't hear no doubt passing between them, before they shake their heads.
"I realize this isn't the sort of mission you expected," he says. "And that it's a self-serving mission."
"It's fine, Hatake-sensei," Ino says quietly. "You had to take a mission, we get it."
Looking at them, he thinks that Ino does get it—not unexpected, given that she'd have grown up with Clan politics—and that, while Sakura might not really get it, well, she's willing to go with it for now.
It's enough.
"Alright," he says, clapping his hands together. "This afternoon we're going to be cleaning and searching this place. Let's get some lights on and begin."
They scatter to do just that.
Rain early in the afternoon gives her an easy out to dismiss her team—and they understand that, leaving cheerfully and already wondering what they'll be doing tomorrow with her—Kurenai collapses for a well-deserved nap before waking up hungry to find the evening in full swing, the rain having passed, leaving the streets clean and glistening and the air sharp and fresh.
Knowing that it's better to get on a standard schedule as soon as possible, she gets up and goes out. There's a good handful of hours before she should even think of going back to bed.
A street vendor selling chadango satisfies her need for sustenance and then, without really thinking of it, she goes meandering through the lamp-lit streets of Konohagakure no Sato, and while she hadn't planned on it, she's not surprised when her feet lead her to her usual bar.
Nor is she surprised to find Asuma there, nursing a drink.
"Hey, stranger," she says, smiling warmly as she slides onto a bar stool.
"Hey, yourself," he says, with a smile of his own and giving her a once over, his eyes resting on her bandaged arm. "That anything to worry about?"
"Not even a little," Kurenai promises.
"Good," he says. "Buy you a drink?"
She says yes and they drink together in comfortable silence for a bit.
"Team 8 has been recalled to active duty," she says eventually. "Hokage-sama told me last night."
It's a good sign for the village that the Genin teams are going back to their usual formations. It's been hectic after the attack on the Chuunin exams and no one has really had time to breathe.
"They've all been cleared for active?" he asks, leaning towards her slightly. "That's fantastic."
"Clean bill of health," Kurenai confirms. "Akamaru will have to take it easy for a while longer, but most of Kiba's companion training is done in-family. Hinata's heart injury has been healed with a note about it in her files for future reference. Kiba and Shino are fine."
And she's grateful that her team came out of it so well. It could have been so much worse.
Kurenai knocks back the last of her drink and, seeing that Asuma is done his, she says, "Walk with me? It's a nice night."
"I could do with a smoke," he allows, so that's what they do.
The moon is bright and clear after the afternoon rains. Kurenai breathes in deeply as Asuma lights up a cigarette.
"How have things been in the village?" she asks easily, choosing not to ask about his team right off. "Or have you been running missions outside of it?"
He laughs, low and rough. "A little from column a, a little from column b. Things are getting back to normal. Most of the arena's been repaired already."
The homes and lives lost cannot be repaired no matter how many times the houses are rebuilt. She knows that well.
"Not that we'll be hosting for a while," she says, with a certain dark amusement. "How's Chouji's rehabilitation going?"
"Good," Asuma says, after a long, slow puff of smoke. "He's not ready for active duty yet, but he'll get there. I think he'll be healed before Shikamaru forgives himself for putting Chouji in that position."
"That's usually the case," she agrees, letting the silence grow and linger as they wander the streets, close enough to touch but neither of them reaching out to do so.
Asuma's cigarette has long since been finished before she speaks again.
"People are talking about you," she says as they cross one of the red-railed bridges.
"Yeah," he says quietly. "I know."
"Did you want to talk about it?" Kurenai asks, glancing at him.
"Not yet," he says. "Not tonight. If that's okay? Just… walk with me, will you?"
"Of course," she says, bumping his shoulder companionably. "That's fine."
Kurenai can be patient.