Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 53 – Debrief
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 5,024
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 53 of ? Unbeta'd.

It's an absolutely beautiful day in Konoha.

The sun is shining, the sky is a perfect shade of blue, the temperature is warm but not yet hot.

Kakashi doesn't trust it at all.

Not after Ino had found him the night before and asked if they could use an actual training ground for their work today. He'd pressed for answers but she'd been evasive and said that it was Sakura's business to tell, not hers.

And what was I to do with that?

So, here they are, on a grassy field-Training Area #17-absolutely surrounded by trees, and as close to a private setting as is possible in the village.

Ino, looking somehow both bright-eyed and serene at the same time, is reassuring. Sakura, on the other hand, looks like a wax doll, the fact she'd been up at least half the night with anxiety dreams written all over her face.

"Good morning, Hatake-sensei!" Ino chirps.

Sakura mutters something that makes Ino laugh. Kakashi thinks it's 'what's good about it?' but she ducks her head so he can't read her lips and he's too far away to hear it.

He's terribly proud of her for that.

He waits until they're close enough to talk to without shouting, then lifts one hand.

"Yo," he says. "Get to stretching first, then we'll talk."

Sakura looks even more dispirited by this, somehow, but Ino grins at him.

"Yes, Hatake-sensei!"

And he's not sure how to take it, watching as Ino bullies Sakura into falling into their usual stretch routine. Normally, he'd stretch as well, wanting to make sure he's doing what they're doing, but today he stands back a little and watches them while leaning against a tree.

Sakura's upset about something but Ino either knows and doesn't think it's that big of a deal or she's already figured out a way to fix whatever it is. That means... what, exactly? I wish I had some idea of what I was going to be walking into here.

But it's not like he'd have turned down a training lesson either.

And we do need to talk about that mission, alone...

Because talking about the mission is going to require that they at least attempt to have no one else around, Kakashi uses the time the girls are stretching to make sure there's no one around who shouldn't be.

Just the normal village security, he decides. And none close enough that a normal conversation will draw their attention. That's about what I expected-after all, they're here to protect our so-called fair isles in the trees, not concern themselves with what goes on in the training grounds unless it gets way out of hand.

By the time he's returned to the clearing, the girls have done their exercises. At a glance, he can see that Sakura looks a little more settled and that Ino is amused.

She's probably been teasing Sakura again...

But he's grateful for it, all the same, because it bothers him that Sakura is still nervous about just speaking with him.

I blame a lot of people for that, though, and it's not my fault. All I can do is continue to be someone she feels like she can approach and allow time to take care of the rest.

"Alright," he says. "We're alone. There's several things we need to talk about but, I confess, I only know of one. Our last mission. We haven't had time to debrief amongst ourselves, though all of our reports were submitted to Hokage-sama. I was fine with waiting until Sakura was more fully healed, though, but it was the two of you who requested that this training session be held away from other people."

He surveys them.

Ino still looks comfortable, Sakura rather less so.

"So," he says, "what was the reasoning for this meeting place?"

"I requested it," Ino says, "but I did it for Sakura. She's not up for running about the village looking for you, after all, so I did it instead."

"Thanks, Pig," Sakura mutters. "Just throw me under the wagon."

Ino shrugs. "The wagon can be climbed upon, if you're quick enough," she retorts. "So hop to it, Forehead. This is your show."

Sakura heaves a put-upon sigh.

"It's about that mission, Hatake-sensei," Sakura says, and bites her lower lip, obviously hesitating on how to continue.

He waits, patiently, as there were a lot of things on that mission, most of which they need to talk about, but he can't think of anything in particular that would involve Sakura feeling like she's been thrown under the wagon.

But I was in a closet for a lot of it, he reminds himself. Or otherwise occupied-deliberately, I got the feeling.

"It's about... when I died," Sakura says awkwardly, and Ino pats her on the shoulder. "Or well, when I didn't, quite, but was close. The thing is, I didn't notice it right at first, because of... healing, I guess, and I don't know if it took time to show up, but I'm... I'm seeing ghosts."

What?!

Sakura seems to take his shocked silence as something she needs to fill.

"And, and I can't tell who is dead or who is alive," she hurries on, her green eyes worried. "Ino and I went to a festival last night and tried to tell but, like, nothing seemed to stand out to me, though between us we were able to confirm who I could see and she couldn't."

Ino clears her throat. Pointedly.

Sakura flushes, casting a reproving glance over at Ino, and he watches, bemused, as with one raised eyebrow and a shake of her head, Ino wins whatever argument they were having.

Sakura looks like she's been sent to her execution, but she gamely squares her shoulders.

"Ino thinks it's presenting as a bloodline ability," she says, with a withering look at Ino, who just shrugs. "But, but the thing is... when I was near dead in the Estate, I met the ghost of your dad. He and I talked a lot and he gave me a gift. I think... I think that this weird power was the gift he gave me."

Sakura looks like she's going to keep talking, so, Kakashi holds up one hand.

"Let me think about this first," he says. "Give me a few moments."

Why did Minato-sensei think we were his adorable students no matter how much trouble we caused? Did we ever give him headaches like this?

For a moment, he's tempted to lie to himself and say, no, of course not, but his memories tell a different story and it's easy to remember how once upon a time, they'd constulted about, finding times even in the midst of war, to act like the idiot children they'd been.

They, of course, hadn't thought they'd been acting like children at the time, but...

But we were. Even with the war.

And now he's got his own team and their own headaches and this-

It's not even like they're trying to cause problems or anything, just...

He turns his thoughts to the actual problem at had, shaking himself out of his memories and forcing his attention back to Sakura, who is waiting for him, and Ino, who is watching.

I don't know what to do about this. I've never heard of my family having a connection to the dead, other than killing people...

And the other question...

It's pretty incredible, but I'm inclined to believe her. Sakura would rather light herself on fire, literally, than make up a bullshit story like this. Ino, well, Ino might pull a joke or two, but this would be a joke done in horrifically poor taste. Which leaves me with... as unlikely as it seems, this is the truth. One of my students is seeing and talking to the dead and she's pretty sure she got it as a present from my dead father.

Kakashi misses when his life was simple and made sense. ANBU life was grim, with companions dying frequently while out on missions, but there'd been a simplicity to it. If you died, it was because you weren't good enough or someone was better.

This is safer but it's harder, too, in its own way.

Patience is the critical variable, he reminds himself. For me, but also for both of them. If this is the truth, they're right to come to me, and as I believe them, then...

He doesn't know what to make of it, of the idea that Sakura spoke to his dead father, that she was given a gift from him, that she's... seeing dead people. He decides not to deal with that for the moment. His emotions can wait, so he boxes them up.

"I have to admit," he says, "I'm not sure what to do with this information."

One of the first things he'd learned, back when he'd first been put in charge of trainees in ANBU was that it was important to admit your own ignorance. Far better to confess and win support of your underlings than lie and lose their trust when they find out.

"For now," he says, as the girls swap glances, "we're going to work on your chakra control. Same way we worked with the blades. Focus on making and holding them static. While you do that, Sakura, I want to hear everything you know about it so far, and Ino, I want to know what you've observed."

They get to work, their chakra blades sharp and bright in the morning light, and Kakashi is impressed at how far they've come, even with not having done the exercise in a few weeks now.

"I don't know how long I've been seeing them," Sakura says, "though I only started noticing that things seemed... a bit crowded when I got to Tenten's place. The hospital was busy but the hospital is always busy and I was high most of the time from pain meds, sleeping, or talking with you guys. If there was anyone around who was dead, I honestly don't know. But Tenten's house is always full. I thought it was supposed to be."

Ino shrugs a little. "I mean, as far as I've seen, they do have a pretty wide revolving door of visitors. Between family, found family, and long time friends and customers, there is almost always someone around, but I never found it to be too much, not the way that Sakura says. It bustles but not like there's so many people around there's no space. I thought Sakura was just..."

There, Ino trails off and Kakashi understands.

Ino is a social person, Sakura is not. Sakura likes her time with her friends but values her time and space alone too. Ino finds her own quiet moments but otherwise, seems to draw energy from being around other people and their energy. He can absolutely understand how she wouldn't have taken Sakura's complaints about the amount of people seriously.

"Once you've regained access to your bloodline, I'd be interested in hearing if you can feel the minds of Sakura's ghosts," he says.

Both girls look intrigued, glancing at one another speculatively.

"I mean, I've never mind read anyone dead before," Ino says, "that I know of, anyway, and I've never heard of it being done. But I also don't know anyone with Sakura's new ability either, so..."

"And physically, I can't tell any differences between them being dead or alive," Sakura says. "I can touch them, they can touch me, they feel like normal people. I could feel callouses, creases, knuckles. Some run colder than others, some are warm. The ghosts I have managed to figure out are ghosts, they were all done by process of elimination or me asking or them telling me outright. Can bloodline abilities intersect with each other that way?"

"Theoretically," Ino admits. "But this..."

"This would be new," Kakashi says, drawing their attention back to him. "And, for now, it's a moot point. Feel free to speculate amongst yourselves about it, but when Ino is using her mind abilities again, I expect to be told."

"Yes, Hatake-sensei," they chorus.

Kakashi is quiet, then, staring anew at them as he sorts through his jumbled feelings about this matter. The gift itself isn't the problem-he can see several ways it could be very, very useful and, equally, several ways it could be very detrimental, but that's the way it goes with all bloodline abilities, especially when they're brand new.

And not just bloodline abilities have that caveat, though they're usually harder to train, since the pool of people that can use them is so limited...

"You said my father gave this ability to you," he says, finally. "Can you remember what he said?"

Sakura screws up her face in concentration, clearly trying to remember with all her might what it was that had been said while she'd been... dead.

I don't like any of this, Kakashi decides. But I'll deal with it.

"A gift," Sakura recites. "You're a smart girl, Sakura. I look forward to you using it."

Kakashi feels a headache coming on.

"That's it?" Ino says. "Nothing else about the gift or what it was for?"

Sakura thinks about that. "No," she says, "we did talk a lot, about many things, and about the path of me and where I wanted to go, but nothing... nothing about gifts or what to do with them."

She looks uncertain, then, before admitting, "I don't think we really talked that long, in terms of time, but it felt like a moment that went on for forever. A lot of it is fuzzy."

"Because you were dead," Ino says.

"Thank you, Ino," Kakashi says, before this can descend into a squabble because he can tell that it's on the edge of doing so.

She grumbles but subsides, with a glance at him.

"Sakura," he says, "my dad was correct, you are a smart girl. If he believes you can figure this out, I believe you can too. I was very young when he died, but I remember that he was a man of his word."

And that, really, had been part of the problem and part of the reason the war had started in the first place. If Hatake Sakumo hadn't been quite such a man with honour and determination to keep his entire team together, then, perhaps-

But a man who doesn't look after his teammates is worse than trash. I believe that too. Would I have managed differently, in his shoes?

Kakashi doesn't know the answers and, after all the time that's passed, he's not sure he could ever know that.

"For now," he says, "I think we'll table the discussion of Sakura's new bloodline talent. If anyone asks, that's what it is-an emerging talent. We'll work out exercises to see if there's a way to differentiate between the living and the dead."

"We've got a plan for later," Sakura says. "We're going to try a very simple game at a tournament. While watching, I'm going to pick out people and they're going to try and guess who I'm looking at."

It's crude, but it's a good measure to start with.

Ino tunes out, kinda, while Hatake-sensei is talking to Sakura, prying the details of what they're planning to test the whole ghost thing out on, mostly because she already knows it, has her own thoughts on it, and this is Sakura's thing.

She grins, internally, pleased at the thought.

Sakura's thing! A thing that I can't do, ever. I wonder if she's realized that? I know it matters to her.

Which, like, Ino doesn't really care, having grown up quite used to the fact that there's tons of things that other people can do that she can't do, and being secure in her knowledge of what she can do.

And learning to be a proper sensor, actually, just makes helping Sakura figure out her new gift even more fun. I wonder if I can sense ghosts? Are they made of chakra? If they are, I should be able to sense them, if on a different level than Hatake-sensei wanting me to see if I can read the minds of ghosts...

Ino mulls over that for a bit, keeping a smidgen of her attention on what Sakura's saying, so that if she's called out, she can call back and retort she totally was paying attention.

I'm pretty sure Sakura's fudging the details of how much she remembers about Hatake Sakumo but, like, at the same time I don't really blame her for not wanting to talk about dying and the whole... paths of me thing. That sounds weird and personal and she probably doesn't want to talk about Hatake Sakumo too much around his son. Hatake-sensei's taking it pretty well, so far, but we both saw the way he flinched and went more closed off...

Ino doesn't blame him for that, either, because that's just... that's just being human.

Which is probably not what he'd ask for, if he got a chance to ask, but Daddy always says being human is what shinobi need, more than anyone, because otherwise we just become the monsters other people say we are.

And Ino knows, knows well, from the reading of other peoples' minds that her dad's not wrong. There's sharp differences in the way shinobi and civilians think and, most of them, are there for good reason. If they reacted the way civilians did when in the middle of battle or on a mission where the orders were absolute and the work was terrible, they'd never be able to survive their own thoughts and actions.

But... at the same time, there's the risk of losing too much of themselves, becoming nothing but human shells good for nothing but weapons.

Ino blinks. What was the question? Oh!

"I think that the mission sucked," she says blithely. "But it was also awesome."

Sakura laughs and Ino grins at her.

"I mean," Ino says, "I don't recommend the last bit, where things got weird, but I really liked the training and the searching and just... I liked the mission. The part where you nearly died and Hatake-sensei was missing and replaced with someone else? Those parts were not things I'd care to repeat but we all got out of it okay."

"I was knocked out and stuck in a closet," Hatake-sensei says and he says it so dryly that it takes Ino a moment to really understand what he'd actually said.

Sakura looks like she's going to stop breathing entirely, from the effort of not laughing. Ino doesn't bother trying to hold it in and, after a moment, Sakura's laughter joins her.

Hatake-sensei looks incredibly resigned but also amused. Once they've calmed down, he keeps talking.

"I was placed in a closet," this time Ino does bite her tongue to keep from giggling again, "bound poorly enough that I got out with little effort, and went looking for the two of you. What happened in the bathroom, Ino? I could tell you'd thrown up."

"You didn't tell me anything happened to you!" Sakura says indignantly. "Ino!"

Ino flushes a little, since hearing her be weak like that sucks, but she supposes that Hatake-sensei would be aware of something like that, if he was looking for it, since-

He's not as good a tracker as the Inuzuka can be, but he's a very good tracker in his own right...

-but all the same, did he have to say it that way?

"Nothing did happen to me," she says, though there's a slippery feeling to her thoughts, something about the barrier she's placed around her bloodline ability, that suggests that what she's saying isn't quite correct.

But if that's the case, there's nothing she can really do about it.

Reality might be an organizing principle, but what happens when reality is different for everyone and what they know isn't the same? What does reality mean then?

"I mean, okay, I did disobey orders," she admits. "I decided that, after making my escape from Sakura and the Hatake-sensei I was increasingly certain was a fake, that I'd drop my shields long enough to ascertain what was going on. But I forgot, we were in the Main House, where the monster lives, and we all know my abilities don't play nice against that. That's all. I slammed my mind shut again, and I haven't opened it since. I threw up once out of reaction to the pain. That's it."

"That's it?" Sakura says, scowling. "You didn't throw up before when we met the monster."

"Well, no," Ino says, "but I also had you there to give me pain meds and watch out for me until I was stable enough to move. I didn't have meds on me that time. So I threw up, felt like shit, and once I had stabilized enough to get myself together, I got out of the bathroom and went for the rooftops."

"I knew the Ino that came back from your bathroom trip wasn't you," Sakura says meditatively. "It just wasn't right, though they had the looks down."

Now, Ino scowls. "They all had the looks down and I don't understand why they were all wearing my face. I mean, it's a great face, they have excellent taste, but why where they wearing my face?"

She considers that.

"And I wear it better anyway."

Hatake-sensei sighs.

"Alright," he says, holding up one hand. "Once Ino was out of the Main House and on the rooftops, what happened then?"

"I spent a lot of time on the roof," Ino admits, with that same slippery feeling again. "Then I wound up following someone wearing my face for a bit, because I wanted to know what was going on, and I maybe wound up throwing a lantern at one of the imposters. It didn't burn the estate down, so they probably got it out, but after that I ran, skulked, and didn't do anything until there was an explosion and I went to the rooftops again, found Sakura trapped, and you in that weird shadow thing. Daddy always said there was a lot of waiting, in being a ninja, and he was right. After that, once the monster showed up, I bolted for Hatake-sensei. I had an idea, and it wound up working."

Hatake-sensei does not elaborate on what the weird shadow thing had been and, instead, looks at Sakura.

"Can you walk us through what happened to you?" he asks.

Sakura frowns. "I can try," she says, "but I was unconscious for a lot of time. I managed to get away from the false Hatake-sensei, but only because the false Ino helped me. I tried to get away from her, but she pulled an explosive note from my pocket—I don't even own explosive notes!-and threw it, and I'm not sure how long I was unconscious then, but I woke up briefly in the courtyard, saw them doing a bunch of creepy barrier and ritual preparations, tried to make a break for it..."

Ino grimaces. She remembers seeing that.

It was bad enough, watching Sakura get the tar beaten out of her. It was worse, since the enemy had been wearing Ino's own face and body.

"I passed out on the altar," Sakura finishes. "And other than meeting Hatake Sakumo while I was unconscious, I don't think I've got anything else. I woke up with Hatake-sensei making my heart beat again. Which, like, I appreciate. It hurt like hell, but thank you. I don't think I said that."

"You're welcome," he says, "though it's really not necessary to thank me, Sakura. I want to you live a long, happy life."

Sakura looks like she had no idea what to say to that.

Ino agrees with Hatake-sensei, though, and she knows she's not the only one.

"We like having you around, Forehead," she says. "So no dying on us. We can't talk to ghosts."

Sakura makes a despairing sort of noise and Ino laughs. She loves the way Sakura hates ghosts and now is stuck with them. It's a perfect bit of nonsense.

"What happened to you?" Ino asks. "You were trapped, right, Hatake-sensei?"

"In a genjutsu," he agrees. "Ino careened into me, and the monster broke it, so her idea managed to work. The same idea had the monster be turned into the weapon that broke the barrier. It caused an implosion—I flung Ino away from it—"

"I hid under the branches of a tree and passed out," Ino admits. This part, somehow, is easy to admit to. She hadn't been weak. She'd done everything she could do, at that point, and then had needed a rest. No shame in that. "Next thing I know, I woke up in the hospital."

"I was stalled from reaching Sakura by another of the false Inos," Hatake-sensei says. "It wasn't until they peeled out of their own volition, the leader claiming the mission was done, that I got to her. She, ah..."

"I was dead," Sakura says. "I know, Hatake-sensei. It's... not okay, but I'll be okay with it eventually."

"I got your heart going again," he says, "and I got all of us out of there."

They're all quiet, at that, thinking about the mission. Ino ponders the slippery spots in her mind and how, when she looks at them, they seem to tell her everything will be fine, and it's her who is telling herself that, unmistakably.

Well, I guess I'll figure it out eventually. If it's all fine, then there's no point in worrying anyone about it, right? That's my own confidence there and if I can't trust myself, who can I trust?

After a few minutes, Hatake-sensei sighs.

"What I haven't told the two of you is that Yamanaka Inoichi and I went back to the estate, while you were still in the hospital, Sakura. That's when I brought the rest of your things."

Ino nods curiously, even as Sakura leans forward, resting her chin on her knees.

"I remember that," Sakura says. "We had to re-do our shopping lists."

Ino grins. "Yeah, we did," she agrees. "But what happened at the estate, Hatake-sensei?"

"That's the thing," he says, "we went there and, while traces of our presence were everywhere, when we got to the courtyard where the altar had been. The courtyard that had been blown up... it was like none of it had ever happened. Even the grass was where it was supposed to be. Not a single trace of anything having ever gone on."

Sakura shivers and Ino resists the urge to tease her. It is creepy, that something like that happened.

"So," she says slowly, "whoever it was that attacked us, either they left and came back, or they'd pulled back long enough for you to get Sakura and I out of there, and then had come back to clean up the mess we'd caused, leaving everything... like it had never happened."

"But only in the courtyard?" Sakura asks.

"As far as we could tell," Hatake-sensei says. "Yamanaka-san couldn't find anything out of place with his mind either."

"And Daddy wouldn't be stopped by some monster," Ino says confidently, though she's frowning now, trying to imagine how this makes sense.

The slippery feel is creeping back, though, so she gives it up after wrestling with the question while Sakura says something about the altar.

"We couldn't find any sign of it," Hatake-sensei says. "We did search for it. It would have been the hardest thing to just make disappear, given the weight of it."

"Unless they could seal it in something," Ino says, tilting her head thoughtfully. "I'm not great at seals, but some of the people who are good at it can put pretty much anything in a scroll."

"That's correct," Hatake-sensei says. "And, if that's the case, then we'll have even less luck in figuring out what went on. There is one thing that happened, that we've got people looking into, but we're not sure it'll come to anything."

"What is it?" Sakura asks.

"Before your heart was stopped," he says, and they all grimace at that sentence, "they used a knife to draw patterns of cuts on your body. I recorded those cuts."

"I never saw them," Sakura says, and Ino shakes her head when Sakura looks at her.

She'd never seen them either.

"They were very shallow," Kakashi explains, "and once they were cleaned, it was determined by Hokage-sama that there was no point in not healing them. We had what they looked like and, in ritual, that's more important."

Ino shivers this time. Ritual work sounds terrifying.

It also sounds kind of neat, but in a way where she wants to look it up to make sure she knows what's going on if something like this is ever encountered out on a mission.

"Oh," Sakura says, looking a little green. "And no one knows yet what they did to me?"

"I hate to say it," Hatake-sensei says gently, "but that's correct. As far as we can tell, you're healing well and exactly how you should be."

Sakura looks down, her hair falling in front of her face, hiding her expression.

Ino frowns and asks a question she wishes she didn't have to.

"What if the seeing ghosts thing is from the ritual rather than from Hatake Sakumo?" Ino wonders.

Hatake-sensei sighs. Heavily.

"He said he was giving me a gift," Sakura says. "And he was kind. I liked him."

"We can't rule it out," he admits, though he sounds like he wants to. "We don't know enough of either situation to determine where an ability like Sakura's is coming from."

They're all quiet then.

Ino is the first to stir.

"Can we do some training?" she asks. "This is important and terrifying and all but I still need to get good enough at fighting and thinking so that I can take Shikamaru down and make him eat his so-called manly superiority."

Sakura laughs, and they move on.