Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 21 – Education
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 5,279
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 21 of ? Unbeta'd.
"Ino, do you want to try reaching out to Sakura or I with your mind?"
The answer, obviously, is 'um, duh' since that's a condition of her staying on this mission (okay, so she'd probably stay on this mission anyway but she's not telling anyone that) but Ino doesn't say that because Hatake-sensei is actually being super great about laying out all their options and she genuinely does respect that.
Even if he'd brought up blood adoption which—ugh. She'd had nightmares about that when she was a kid, the very thought of someone forcibly stealing her away from her Dad and her Clan was just…
She wasn't thinking about it.
Luckily, and he hadn't mentioned it to Sakura, the older a person got the more blood adoption relied on consent. The ritual necessary didn't give two figs what a one-year-old thought but at their age now the only way anyone was making a blood adoption go through was by consent.
Otherwise, the resistance against it would cause the ritual to fail. Good.
"Yes, Hatake-sensei," Ino says, ignoring the way that Sakura looks all kinds of devastated. It makes her heart bleed but there's nothing she can do about it. Sometimes, being a ninja is about being devastated. Her dad had always told her that being a ninja was nothing but pain, unless you actively worked to make it more than that.
She hadn't really got it, back when she'd been in the Academy, except around the edges of other peoples' grief. Even mostly closed, her mind caught the strongest filaments of thought and feelings that other people threw off unknowing.
After a year and change, she had a better understanding of what that level of pain could mean for her, on a more personal level.
Ino was just desperately, incredibly lucky that none of her pains came from the deaths of anyone she loved. The mess with Shikamaru, with Chouji, even with Asuma-sensei was a mire of unmet expectations and betrayed emotions but they were all alive.
It really, really sucked but she was never going to be anything but grateful that they still existed, even if they were mad at her. So long as they were alive, there was a chance for things to get better. Maybe she'd have her friends back.
She didn't know if she'd get Asuma-sensei back in any capacity. She tried not to hope too much for that, especially since, while she loved him, she also disliked him (hate was too strong a word) in almost equal measure. It could have been so great and he'd let her down over and over and over again.
But her sensei now was waiting for her and she turned her mind to that as he gestured for her to go ahead.
He doesn't even ask who she's going to try. It's a bit of trust in her that she cherishes.
Ino takes another half-moment, bare instant to brace herself, just in case this fails, because even though the pain in her head is gone now, she's never had that happen to her before. She's never been head-blind and she never wants to do that again.
It had left her feeling defenseless, no matter how many words of praise Hatake-sensei gave her for the things she'd managed while unable to use her Clan abilities to their fullest extent.
Ino reaches out smoothly, the way she's been trained by her dad and only barely started using with Sakura and their new sensei, and she can't knock on the mind of someone without her ability, but she can announce her presence.
Here, Hatake-sensei.
She can feel his mild surprise that she chose him over Sakura but he doesn't comment on it.
Good, he says. Any pain?
None.
And she's so very relieved by that. She takes a second to revel in Hatake-sensei's gladness, wrapping it around herself, and then disengages, feeling like she's smiling for the first time since yesterday when things had all gone wrong.
"Everything works fine," she says to both of them.
Sakura beams at her. "That's fantastic!"
Ino can't help but beam back at her. There's a lot that could go wrong with this mission but having her mind abilities back in working order goes a long way towards making her feel better about their odds.
"That is good news," Hatake-sensei says. "Now I want both of you to think about if you want to continue the mission, knowing all the options. You've got thirty minutes to think."
Sakura's face clouds over immediately and, clearly troubled, she says, "Yes, Hatake-sensei."
Ino nods, resting her chin against the back of her chair and closing her eyes. She doesn't need to, to think, but it's a visible sign to Sakura that Ino doesn't want to be disturbed.
Because Sakura desperately wants to ask her for her opinion and Ino is just as certain that this is a choice they've got to make on their own, without pushing or input from anyone else. It was why Hatake-sensei had so bluntly outlined their options and then stepped back.
In every sense, it was for them to come to their own choices as individuals. Once a choice was made, they could discuss it, but…
Well, it's no secret that Sakura tends to lean on other peoples' approval to make decisions.
She's getting better at it, though Ino knows she's not the best judge of that, but… Ino does understand why Hatake-sensei wants them to do this alone.
As for her…
What do I want?
That's the question she's got to find an answer for. Is she willing to risk her life, Sakura's life, and even Hatake-sensei's life (because make no mistake, she has the measure of him now and it's written in his soul that he'll die before anything kills them on his watch), on this mission?
It's not like this mission was supposed to risk life and limb. They weren't Jounin or even Chuunin. They weren't even Genin out on border patrol, which did see combat now and again and, yes, sometimes lives were lost.
But this… this had been a concession to her dad coupled with Hatake-sensei's wish to retrieve his dogs from wherever they were stuck. This had been a training mission. Low risk but interesting. She had been enjoying learning the jutsu to look for things.
Sakura had told her that Kakashi-sensei had told them to look 'underneath the underneath'. Hatake-sensei hadn't said to do so, in so many words, but he was very clearly training them in how to do it all the same.
Ino loves that.
Then there's the matter of her pride. Is she able to walk away from this mission now that it's become a potentially huge risk?
Her pride does not like that idea. Ino has never walked away from a mission yet and she doesn't want to start.
At the same time, this is the very first time it's honestly ever come up. There had been no need to ever consider it while she'd run missions with Team Ten, and this was the very first time she'd run a mission with her new team.
Sure, she'd done a couple of in-village missions solo, before transferring, but that also hadn't exactly been risky. Running courier missions and taking notes in meetings was hardly dangerous, no matter how interesting she found them.
(Ino did like doing these things. If she was quiet and industrious while doing the assigned job, she learned more than people thought she did. Ino loves knowing things.)
On the other hand…
She hadn't become a ninja to be a glorified secretary.
That's really the answer right there. Sakura hadn't been wrong when she'd said that Team Ten had been designed as an espionage-type team, because that was what they were, especially at the Genin level. Higher in rank, though, and they added another specialty type: assassination.
How could she ever live up to both her potential and her family's legacy if she ran away now? It would just set a precedent for leaving when things got tough—and she'd already been left once.
So that's it, Ino decides, confident in her choice. I stay.
Feeling better, now that she's made her choice, Ino ponders what had happened to her last night and, more importantly, if she knew of anyway to not have it happen again.
Dad would know, she thinks, but then he's a lot older and wiser and experienced than she is. Whether she figures out a solution or not while here, she'll be running it past him after the fact. For now, though, it's up to her to find something to tide her over.
Not using my abilities would be the easiest way to avoid being injured, but that seems...
Loathsome.
She can fully shut down her mind-abilities but… Yamanaka don't do that. Not unless it is an absolute necessity and... she doesn't know if this is. Last night had hurt her, but so did a stubbed toe when you crash into a wall.
And what if that was just me stubbing my mind?
It really could have been. She doesn't have the keys to this mystery. It's so frustrating.
Where is the fine line between prudence and cowardice? Does it even exist in the here and now with the choice in front of them?
"Time's up," Hatake-sensei says and Ino opens her eyes.
She pretends to not see the plaintive look Sakura gives her.
Sakura is her very best friend but while she can, and will, help... she can't be ferry that gets her across uncertain waters. It's not like it used to be, in the Academy, when saving someone only made them stronger. If she doesn't push Sakura further these days, Sakura will just get weaker.
Over my dead body.
Hatake-sensei looks from her to Sakura, and he must see that they've come to a decision because he nods his head slowly.
"So?"
Ino loves the way that Hatake-sensei puts so much challenge into just one word. He's not daring them to stay, he's made that quite clear, he's daring them to express their opinion and the fact that he actually listens to those opinions is what makes him so different.
Asuma-sensei had never stopped her from saying what she thought. He'd also just not really listened to her. At all. Ever.
Sakura glances side-long at her. Ino waves for her to go first, which gets her a grimace, but Ino is pleased when Sakura just rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and gets on with it instead of complaining or trying to get out of it.
She's not happy with Ino—she knows what Ino is doing—but she's so much more forward than she was before.
"Hatake-sensei," Sakura says, "I think we should stay. So far, the threat has been confined to the Main House, during the night. If we search the Main House during the day and leave rather than sleeping there, we may never run into this thing again. Further, if any of us are injured, we are in Konoha. If we need help, we can get it."
He nods slightly. "Ino?"
"I'm also in favour of staying," Ino says. "Leaving aside my dad's wish for us to be out of the village for at least a week, which it hasn't been yet, we haven't yet searched the rest of the grounds for the scroll. It may not be in the Main House at all, and I concur with Sakura that so far we haven't seen a threat outside of over-nighting there. There's a lot of work we could still do without potentially triggering any disaster."
"Good points, both of you," he says. "Now what if the threat doesn't remain only a problem at night in the Main House?"
Ino takes this one first, since she had Sakura go first the last time, and it's only fair.
"I don't think it matters, Hatake-sensei," Ino says. "We're shinobi of Konoha. We can't live our lives running away from a 'what if'. Every mission has the possibility to go wrong. We're actually lucky in this one that we've identified a threat and have a chance to talk about ways to minimize said threat. We wouldn't have that chance in an ambush while escorting a caravan or if a border patrol found enemies attempting to cross authorized."
"It's not that we want to leap into danger," Sakura adds, her green eyes a little anxious but her voice earnest. "But a possibility of danger shouldn't be enough to stop us when we have so little information. If it's just a nightmare creature that shows up after dark in the Main House, there's a lot of work we can do without triggering it's conditions."
"So, basically, we're saying that until it makes a move outside of night in the Main House, it would be premature to consider aborting the mission," Ino finishes firmly. "If it does change the pattern and begin to be active in daylight, or outside of the Main House, we can re-consider. We're aware that there's a potential danger now so it's less likely to be able to catch us unaware and it came with a calling card—both feelings and the physical cold arrived well in advance of it actually showing up. Worst comes to worst, there ought to be plenty of time to evacuate if we absolutely must."
After they're done speaking, Hatake-sensei is quiet for a long time. Ino watches him, and when Sakura opens her mouth to ask what he thinks, she shakes her head slightly. Sakura subsides. This is a thinking silence. They've made their choice and said their piece and now it's up to their sensei to decide what to do.
What's the hold up? Sakura asks, staring at her.
No idea, Ino says, though she has several.
The look she gets in return is frankly incredulous. You can read minds!
Doesn't mean I'm going to, Ino says reasonably. And, in this case, Hatake-sensei is both our commanding officer and our client. He holds all of the power of choice.
Then why did he even ask our opinion and go through all of our options for escape? Sakura demands.
Ino spares a moment to hate Kakashi-sensei just a little more. Sakura ought to know this.
Because how else are we supposed to learn what we should do if he doesn't? This is a weird aberration to our original mission but despite us not knowing what the thing is, the risk is actually fairly low. We could all end up dead but we could all end up dead on a mission to buy groceries if the building falls in unexpectedly.
That's not going to happen.
Happened to a Genin team twenty-six years ago. Tenten-san told me that once while we were practicing together. So, yeah, it's not likely to happen, but it could, and part of being a ninja is being in danger. So we have to know how to think about it.
So you're saying this is a… practice run?
Ino blinks a little. What do you think most of our jobs are? They're all meant as practice for when we become Chuunin and Special Jounin and Jounin. Less than two percent of all graduated Genin remain as Genin for the entirety of their career. Genin's a stepping stone to actually being able to run missions that help the village prosper. Genin are important, don't get me wrong, because without them a lot of things wouldn't get done and a lot of people need the help that a Genin team can provide them with, but no one becomes a ninja with the intent to remain a Genin for life. That's why you can't live off of a Genin salary very well. You're not meant to.
Oh. Sakura frowns a little. I mean, I knew that, but I never really thought about it that way.
"All right," Hatake-sensei says. "It's unanimous. Team Seven will continue with this mission."
He doesn't like it, as the girls exchange triumphant and determined glances, but Kakashi has weighed the odds and decided that it's better for this to go-ahead than it is for him to insist on ending the mission.
If he ends it here, their morale will plummet, and he will be telling him that he doesn't trust their judgement or their bravery.
And they're not being reckless or thoughtless, two things I won't tolerate at this stage, he broods. Their arguments were well considered and correct.
He still doesn't like it, as he hadn't wanted them in a situation where they might be forced to fight at this stage of their re-training, but as he told Inoichi: coddling them won't help them. They've decided, they're right, and he's just going to have to make it work in a way that satisfies all of them.
"Before we do anything else," he says, "the both of you will be learning the best ways to escape. Clean up here and meet me at the training ground in ten minutes."
He doesn't give them a chance to say anything—though as he disappears, he hears the start of, "Yes, Hatake-sensei", but not the end of it.
A lot can be done in ten minutes, and he reappears not in the training ground but in the bathroom that he'd used to clean himself up last night. His bandages are in the trash, and he fishes them out, inspecting the stains for the most useful one. Tearing the piece off, he drops the rest back into the trash, promising himself he'll burn them later, then disappears to land near the front gate.
Folding the dirty bandage over several times, he sticks in in a small pouch. Dried blood isn't sanitary, no blood really is, but it ought to work and so long as they keep it separated from anything else it's not going to cause problems.
The area around the front gate is peacefully quiet. There is no sign of Konoha beyond the gates, just an empty street lined with leafy trees and bushes, but he knows that should he walk out he'd be on a mostly abandoned street of once grand places. People fear that shame is catching and that by staying close to the Hatake family estate they'll be tarred with the brush of it. It's foolishness, truly, but before now he hadn't been back much either.
He can't truly blame them.
Putting thoughts of blame from his mind, Kakashi reaches out with his chakra to probe thoughtfully at the family wards. They yield easily to his inspection an invisible parade of twinkling lights that he recognizes by feel.
We know you! they say, on a level too deep and primal to actually be words. Family!
Eagerly, they inspect him back, and Kakashi wonders if they'll find evidence of him being out of place, out of time, if they do, it doesn't bring any confusion to their purpose. From a different timeline or not, he remains family. In a strange way, that comforts him.
Show me your length and breadth, he urges gently. Let me see the whole of you.
They do, spinning him through the wards like a child's toy feverishly turning, dancing across a surface, the force of each turn being the only thing that keeps it upright. Kakashi yields to the frenetic pace knowing that to try and slow it down would only knock him off balance and, instead, he focuses on memorizing the wards. He's memorized harder with less reason; this is almost simple.
Anything based in blood usually is. The strength comes from the blood itself, not the complexity of the wards.
Once he's seen everything, the wards let him go, wrapping around him like the drape of a cloak or a quick hug, then falling back into their default state, only the warmth left behind against his chakra to prove they'd ever done anything at all.
Approximately three minutes have past while he'd been lost in the wards. He still has a short handful of them before he has to be at the training ground. Kakashi uses those minutes remaining to do a quick (and it is quick) check of the borders of the family estate.
He arrives at the training ground with a half minute to spare and is pleased to see both Sakura and Ino already there, going through the stretches he's drilled them in as they talk in low voices. Kakashi doesn't try to listen in; they may be his team, but they are also entitled to privacy.
"Yo," he says.
Their attention snaps to him with gratifying alacrity.
It still baffles him how they seem to feel he's a good sensei when he constantly feels like a fraud, one that channels what Minato-sensei had drilled into him, but at the same time, it's reassuring to know that, even dead, his sensei has given him the tools to succeed.
He still doesn't know why this timeline's version hadn't even bothered to try. It's not easy: Kakashi has to constantly remind himself that he must vocalize his approval and soften his criticism, he has to strip the training he's given to his kouhai in ANBU down to the basics in order for his Genin to keep up, and he must always, always remember that no matter what came before or what will come after, everything he does now will have a formative impact on the kunoichi these two will grow to be.
It's not easy and he'd still rather be in ANBU... but this is his team now and no matter how hard it is, how tiring it is, he wants them to succeed. Not out of spite towards his older self, though there's some of that, he's only human, but because he likes them. They're intelligent, driven, and talented.
And he likes them. More and more he wants them to succeed for their own sakes.
He thinks he understands Minato-sensei better these days.
"Alright," he says. "We're staying. Now let's make certain that we can get out even under the very worst of circumstances. We're going to cover breaking through the wards using force first. Sakura, this will be your primary method of escape; Ino, your secondary."
They nod. Ino grimly, Sakura looking a little down but just as determined.
He reminds himself to keep an eye on that, then carries on.
"Wards are essentially a shell around a person, place, or thing. They don't become part of what they're guarding but rather they encase it. Depending on the size of what you have warding this may or may not be essentially the same thing. An estate like this? Encased. There's plenty of room inside of the ward to maneuver. A warded pendant? Technically the ward is only encasing it, but the object is so small there's no easy way to differentiate between breaking the ward and breaking the pendant. On the estate, there is."
Sakura raises her hand, and he nods. "Hatake-sensei, does that mean if you were to use this method on something small, like the pendant, you'd end up destroying the object you're trying to get to?"
"Correct," he says. "It won't matter here but this method shouldn't be used on small-scale wards unless you're also trying to destroy what it is guarding."
"Are there ways to break through small wards?" Sakura asks.
"There are," Kakashi says. "And we can cover that in more detail once this mission is over. It will be good for both of you to know."
But later, when he's not making sure the worst-case scenarios in this mission are covered.
"For now, the important thing to remember is that the perimeter of the property is where the ward is directly encasing the property. Like an eggshell, the ward extends up over us and also underneath. However, the space contained within is not warded from inside threats or changes. Which means...?"
"That we or any other entity that is in here can make whatever changes we feel like," Ino says. She doesn't bother to raise her hand, only leaning forward a little. "We could level all the buildings, uproot the trees and flowers, do anything in here, if we felt like it, and the wards wouldn't stop us."
"That's right," he agrees. "Which means two things: the wards won't protect us from any internal threats and to get out of here you must be at the perimeter. Attempting to escape the wards while in the center of the estate would be like balancing without chakra on a greased high wire. Once we're done here, we'll do a full walk around the perimeter. At all times you'll need to keep in mind where you are in relation to the edge of the property. This will be vitally important as it, more than anything else, will be the determining factor in your evacuation routes."
They nod seriously. Sakura has pulled her knees up under her chin and is watching him with green eyes made darker by her concentration. Ino is listening equally as hard, leaning slightly towards him though she is angled so that she is half turned away from him, playing with the grass with idle fingers.
"Now, breaking through the wards." He takes a moment to organize his thoughts. Kakashi has never had to explain ward theory to people without some knowledge already. "At this point in your training, I don't believe either of you have the chakra available to punch through them. However, you may," and for their sake, he hopes, "have the chakra to cut through."
"Like we would with a kunai?" Sakura wonders.
"Very much like," he agrees. "But don't try this with a kunai against the wards. You will be electrocuted."
Ino shifts slightly. "Is that a feature of these wards or a characteristic of all wards?"
"Good question. It's a characteristic of all wards. If you hit a ward with a metal weapon aimed with intent, at best you'll be thrown backwards and at worst you'll be electrocuted, likely dead."
Sakura mutters something about everything in the world ending with death. She's not wrong so Kakashi allows it to pass. Ino is smiling slightly, though she also makes no move to contradict what Sakura said.
"What about a weapon not made of metal?" Ino wonders. "I have some wooden senbon."
"They're likely to shatter against the ward; we can test this later. Now, what you'll want to do is form a blade out of chakra alone," Kakashi explains, working through a seal with the ease of long practice and forming a slim, slightly translucent blade that extends a few inches from his fingers. "This anchors' it to you alone which is why, using this method, no one else can escape with you."
With a nod, Ino pulls up a few more tufts of grass. They're too short to really braid but that doesn't stop her from absently trying as she thinks through that.
"But why can't we just cut a hole that's big enough for two people?" Sakura asks slowly. "Hatake-sensei, if we did that, then wouldn't we be able to get anyone with us out?"
He allows the blade to dissipate. "Making blades this way is very chakra intensive at this point in your training, Sakura. Then there will be the resistance of the wards themselves. They will fight you every inch of the way and, as soon as the blade has gone through, they will begin to re-knit themselves together. Simply put that, while in theory you could cut a hole with a chakra blade, in practice it's exceedingly difficult to do so unless you have huge stores of chakra, are very reckless with them, and are incredibly fast at cutting through the wards. Making a slit to slip through is much more efficient."
Ino looks at Sakura. "Naruto could do the hole-thing," she says. "All that crazy chakra of his? He could do it. I guess Sabaku no Gaara could do it too."
That seems to put it into better context for Sakura as understanding dawns across her face, her green eyes lighting up. "Oh!" Then she frowns again. "But then why is there a method for punching a hole through the wards? Isn't that even more of a Naruto thing?"
Kakashi wishes, for a moment, he'd been around to see how his sensei's son uses his chakra. He's read the reports, of course, but that's not the same, especially not when his team is looking to him for answers.
"Strangely enough, cutting a hole large enough to escape through is more chakra-intensive than it would be to punch right through a ward. Ino, can you tell me why?"
His blonde student thinks about that, with a tilt of her head. "Because cutting the hole would be a sustained attack on the wards while punching through would be a quick, sharp attack?"
"Very good," he says approvingly. "That's correct. With this information, Sakura, can you make a guess at why I say you and Ino wouldn't have the chakra for a punch through but would have the chakra to cut a slit, not a hole, in the wards?"
Sakura mulls this over. "Because... because the force necessary for that one, quick punch would exceed what it would take to sustain a chakra blade long enough for a single cut?" She frowns as she speaks, her brows furrowing. "That seems... counterintuitive, Hatake-sensei. What am I missing?"
He smiles reassuringly. "You're thinking just about the attack itself. Consider what you're doing to the wards."
Her frown deepens. Ino looks at him inquiringly, but he shakes his head. It's good that Ino has figured it out but right now he needs Sakura to come around to this because she's the one who may need this the most should everything go sideways here.
"Ah!" Sakura says, looking triumphant. "It's because of the difference in the amount of the ward we need to break through. Slicing has a very small surface area while a punch large enough for a person to get out is significantly more."
"Well done," he says, as Ino nudges Sakura companionably. "That's exactly right. Furthermore, the slice doesn't need to be as tall as you are. It only needs to be as long as the widest part of you."
"So, we'd be eeling out of the slit?" Ino muses. "I suppose if we're fleeing in an emergency then how we land in Konoha doesn't really matter, though I'd hope I wouldn't fall flat on my face. Hatake-sensei, would anything in here be able to follow us out through a single cut line?"
"Nothing is ever absolutely certain," he admits. "But it is unlikely."
"What would happen if we cast a jutsu at the wards?" Sakura asks suddenly. "Would it act like a mirror or would it be absorbed?"
Kakashi can't help but smile. "Another good question, Sakura. Unfortunately, the unsatisfying answer is that it will depend entirely on both the jutsu ward you're up against and on the jutsu you choose to use. There's no easy answer."
She grumbles discontentedly.
"Any further questions for now?"
They shake their heads in tandem, one blonde, the other pink-haired, they're nothing alike except in how intently they're listening to him.
His team.
"Then let's cover the seals to make a blade of chakra," he says. "These seals are to help give your blade shape and form. The power will come from how much chakra you put into it. For now, we'll be practicing with the bare minimum necessary until I feel you have a good grasp on how to manifest the blade…"