Obito-Sensei Chapter 13

Unexpected Allies

The splint was primitive, but it was the best Sakura and Naruto could manage. They'd fashioned it from some of the bandages they'd carried with them and two small branches, twigs compared to the trees around them. When it was in place and Sasuke's arm was immobilized, Sakura sat down, trying to figure out what had happened. Naruto sat with her, while Sasuke paced. Both her teammates had obvious bruises as well, Sasuke's on his other arm and Naruto's on his face.

Sakura was the only one without a scratch.

"We have to go after him," Sasuke said eventually. Sakura looked at his arm, and then at him.

"And then what?" Naruto asked. "Get our asses kicked again?" He shook his head. "If we chase him, we'll be giving up the Exam. That's just what he wants."

"Who cares about the Exam?!" Sasuke demanded, pacing harder. "He's going to…" He stopped, his face twisting. "I don't know what he's going to do."

Sakura sighed. "I don't understand what's happening," she said, and Naruto and Sasuke shared a look. She was reminded of how distant she'd felt when she'd first joined the team; she thought she'd been making inroads with both of them, and with their sensei, but here, now, with Sasuke's arm broken, she felt farther away than ever.

'You're just their teammate. Not their friend.' She tried to crush the thought. It wasn't true.

"We never told you about Itachi?" Naruto asked, and Sakura shook her head. He looked dumbstruck.

"My brother…" Sasuke started, fumbling for the words. "Sakura, that first day, when Obito came to us in the classroom and asked us about ourselves, I said I had something to attend to. Do you remember?"

Sakura nodded. She remembered the way Sasuke's face had gone sharp, turning from handsome to hateful for just a second. But she'd never asked. It hadn't been her place.

'Maybe they're not your friends because you don't act like they're yours.'

Shut up, Sakura told herself. This wasn't the time for that.

"When I was seven years old, Itachi…" Sasuke went quiet again, gazing at something Sakura couldn't see. She leaned forward a little, giving him a questioning look, and to her surprise Sasuke took a shuddering breath and remained quiet.

"He went crazy," Naruto cut in, and to Sakura it looked like Sasuke was almost grateful. She'd never seen him so uncertain. "He went crazy and killed his dad, and Obito's brother, and a bunch of other Uchiha." He looked to Sasuke like he was asking for permission, and Sasuke nodded, confirming Sakura's suspicion. "Almost half the clan."

Sakura had always known that the Uchiha had suffered a tragedy. She'd always known that Sasuke's father was dead. Shinobi dying was a fact of life, and the clan had picked themselves back up and continued on with their lives. Sasuke had been quiet and bad-tempered for a whole year when they were young, and in hindsight she'd assumed that his father had died on a mission and that he'd been struggling with it. The way he'd overcome that sorrow had been what had made him so admirable to her; it's why she'd wanted to be on a team with him all those months ago.

But… it had been Sasuke's brother?

"That's horrible," she whispered, and Naruto grimaced in agreement.

"Sasuke's family thinks that Itachi is going to come back for him," he said as Sasuke continued to stare into the distance. Sakura started as a memory cut across her mind, a serious, burned face regarding her with appraising eyes.

"I didn't realize… Sasuke's mom told me that." Sakura waved off Naruto's questioning look. "Coming back to kill him too?" she asked, trying not to think about how horrible the subject matter was. "Why wouldn't he have when he was younger?"

"Not to kill me," Sasuke said. He was pale. Sakura wasn't sure if it was because of the conversation or his arm. "For my eyes."

Sakura paused. "You said something about that," she said slowly. "You don't mean… literally?"

Sasuke nodded; his pacing had finally stopped. "Have you ever wondered about Obito's title?"

What did that have to do with anything? "Mangekyo no Obito?" Sakura asked. "Uhh, not really," she admitted after a moment. "I didn't really see what a kaleidoscope had to do with it; I thought it might have to do with his sword and that white chakra it lets off, but I didn't really…"

'Care?'

No, she told herself. It just wasn't important. She cared. Why would she think otherwise?

"He has that name because of his Sharingan," Sasuke said. "That weird design his eyes have: that's a Mangekyo Sharingan. It's an evolution of the standard eye."

"Yeah," Naruto chimed in. "One tomoe, two, three, that's normal. But the Mangekyo-"

"Is something else entirely," Sasuke cut him off. He was a little less pale. Maybe talking was helping him take his mind off his arm. "Only the most elite, like Obito and Itachi, can evolve it. But once you do, anytime you use your Sharingan, you start to go more and more blind." His lips twisted. "This all used to be really secret clan stuff. But after Obito, it got out in the open, during the Third War. I don't know how."

"But if sensei got his Mangekyo Sharingan that long ago, why isn't he blind?" Sakura asked. Something wasn't adding up here. "And how do you even know Itachi has a Mangekyo?"

"Sasuke's mom and Obito both say so. And that's why Sasuke's family is worried about Itachi coming after him," Naruto said.

"I think I know why Obito isn't blind," Sasuke continued, clearly resisting the urge to start pacing again. "If someone with the Mangekyo Sharingan implants the eyes of a close relative, ideally a sibling, those eyes will never degrade, while retaining the power of the old ones."

He sounded like he was reciting something, Sakura thought. She got the feeling Sasuke had had this rehearsed to him several times.

"So, super gross, Obito probably has his brother's eyes," Naruto said with a dour look.

"And the reason Itachi wants you to unlock a third tomoe…" Sakura murmured, and Sasuke nodded.

"So that he can take my fully developed eyes," he said. "That's what mother thinks."

"That's so creepy." Sakura couldn't think of anything better to say, and Naruto laughed at her bluntness.

"Yeah, he's a creep," he said. "You saw that. He'd have to be, to kill his own family like that." He glanced at Sasuke. "We always figured he'd come after us; just not so soon." He frowned. "I'm really sorry we didn't tell you. Maybe if-"

"Don't worry about that," Sakura said. "Just… that's not what we should worry about right now."

"Yeah," Naruto acknowledged. "I guess the real thing is if we should keep going or not."

Sasuke sighed. "You were right, Naruto. We can't catch up with him," he said, grimacing. "Even if we'd chased him right away. He was always too fast. If he was going to kill anyone else, he would have done it before coming here… and if he's going after anyone, he'd get to them before we could." He sighed. "I think he was being honest. He's just here for me."

"Then… he asked you to drop out," Sakura said. "Do you think he meant it?"

"No," Sasuke said. "I don't know if it was reverse psychology or something else, but if he really wanted me to drop out, he would have done worse than break my arm." He rubbed his shoulder, wincing. "He might not even have left. He might just be watching us, seeing what I'll do."

Sakura tried not to show just how disconcerting she found that idea.

"He wants you to keep going, I bet," Naruto said with what he probably thought was a sage nod. "There's no way he'd think you'd actually listen to him. You develop more tomoe from challenges, right? From being stressed out?" Sasuke nodded, and Naruto grinned. "Well, doing the Chunin Exam with a broken arm would definitely be that."

This was all a game, Sakura thought. Sasuke's brother was playing a game with them. Now that Sasuke had raised the possibility, she was sure they were being watched, but she had no way of knowing if that was her instincts or just paranoia. In a forest like this, which had just filled up with over sixty ninja, more than just Itachi could be watching them.

"So… we should play along then," she said. "Keep going, if that's what he wants."

"If that is what he wants," Sasuke repeated quietly. "He could have really thought we should drop out."

"If he thought that, fuck him," Naruto declared, shooting to his feet. "Sakura and I are both still fine, and you've still got one arm. We can still do this."

What a contrast, Sakura thought. Naruto was always like that; he might have been hesitant to start the Exam but now that he was here he was going to give one-hundred and ten percent. It was definitely one of his most admirable qualities. She smiled and stood up as well.

"It's up to you, Sasuke," she said. "You're the one who's hurt."

Sasuke looked at the both of them, and then out to the forest.

"Tch." He grunted, his nostrils flaring. "Naruto's right. Fuck him." Sakura giggled. She'd never heard Sasuke swear before. "If we're going to drop out, we should at least drop out trying."

###

Team Seven set out in search of Team Eight, sticking to the treetops as they scanned the training ground. They didn't see any other competitors, but every once in a while, they could hear them. Distant yelling, the occasional scuffle, and once an explosion, either a jutsu or a detonating tag. Naruto had tied a message around his arm, written on a piece of bandage: 'Hinata.' They'd hoped that the Byakugan would pick it up, and that the other Leaf team would come to them.

That hadn't happened. Two hours into the second test, Team Seven still hadn't seen a single other shinobi. Plenty of animals, including bugs the size of a grown man's arms and birds bigger than couches that hunted them, but no genin.

"We should start heading for the center," Sasuke said. He held his arm stiffly at his side; Sakura had seen him wince once or twice as they'd leapt from tree to tree and it had jostled against him. "It's been too long; people are probably already heading towards the tower."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, and Sakura nodded. If they weren't finding anyone or being found in turn, the main groups of teams must have already made their way past them. They'd been given two days to complete the test, but for most people, it wouldn't take nearly that long.

They turned north, orienting towards the center of the forest, and moved off more slowly than they had before. They'd been skirting the southern edge of the training ground, hoping to catch anyone lingering near the entrances; by moving towards the center, they were advancing into potentially hostile territory. Without actively communicating, they fell into a standard triangular formation, with Naruto and Sakura at the front and Sasuke covering their rear, keeping about ten meters apart as they advanced through the canopy.

The forest was an amazing place, Sakura thought. It was both deceptively huge and amazingly dark: it was around noon, when it should have been brightest, but only a fraction of the sunlight managed to penetrate the enormous trees around them. Konoha might not have been so hidden anymore thanks to the demands of a modern industry and a population that enjoyed things like plastic and instant ramen, but when it had first been founded decades ago, it must have been impossible to find the Village Hidden in the Leaves unless you knew exactly where to look.

It was strange, that the Hidden Villages were no longer truly hidden, that they were known factors that everyone planned for and understood, that were important parts of their nation's government, Sakura thought. She wasn't smart enough to call that good or bad, silly or normal: just strange.

"Hold up." Naruto raised one of his hands, and Sakura and Sasuke both came to an immediate stop, resting against the sides of the trees closest to them. Sakura felt her chakra work its way into the bark of the tree, anchoring her in place, and marveled that something that had been so alien to her just months ago was now totally second nature: she hadn't even thought about sticking to the surface, she just had.

"Down below," Naruto whispered, and Sakura followed his line of sight just in time to catch a flicker of movement, black against the shadows of the forest. Someone had just relocated, about eighty meters away and thirty down. "I think they saw us."

"We don't have a scroll," Sakura said. "Why would they bother us?"

"They don't know that," Sasuke said quietly, and Sakura resisted the urge to slap herself. Duh. How would they have known that? Any team was a potentially valuable target more than two hours in; there was no guarantee people who'd started without scrolls still didn't have any, or vice versa.

"What should we do?" Naruto asked, and Sakura considered the problem. By now, that shinobi they'd seen could be anywhere.

"Go up?" she asked. "Harder to get surrounded that way."

Sasuke shook his head. "And easier to get cornered," he muttered, peeling his upper body off his tree. "Use me."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke stared at him like he was an idiot.

"As bait," he said with a smirk, shifting his broken arm slightly for emphasis. "I'm a good target. I'll go out ahead, and try to get them to jump. Then, you guys jump them."

"That's dangerous." Sakura frowned, and Sasuke shrugged.

"Better than just waiting here. Sound good?" Naruto and Sakura shared a glance, and Naruto sighed.

"Just be careful, okay?" he said, and Sasuke grinned back.

"Of course," he said, and then he was off, tearing through the forest without looking back and descending in altitude.

"He can make a lot of noise," Naruto admitted. He was right: Sasuke wasn't dampening his footsteps with chakra, and he was raising a veritable cacophony leaping from tree to tree and tearing through smaller branches. There was no way the other team wouldn't notice him. "I thought that was my thing."

"Well, maybe you can show him how it's done after this," Sakura said, and Naruto grinned at her. "C'mon: let's follow him."

They went after Sasuke, silent and invisible in the trees, keeping about one-hundred meters behind their teammate. The subdued chase continued for about thirty seconds, and then Sasuke came to a stop.

Sakura strained to see why through the cover provided by the trees, and found Sasuke perched on a branch, looking at something she couldn't see. His mouth was moving, she was pretty sure: he was speaking with someone. The way he held himself told her he wasn't frightened, but he was alert. The person who Naruto had seen, or one of their teammates, had probably confronted him.

"Let's go around," she told Naruto, and he nodded as they changed directions, heading towards whoever Sasuke was speaking with. They went in a slight arc, so they'd approach from the rear.

"Where's the rest of you?" she heard Sasuke say, his voice faint, when they were within fifty meters.

"They're around." Sakura thought she recognized the voice that answered. It was a boy, a cocky one. It wasn't someone she knew, but the tone was familiar. "What about yours?"

"They're around," Sasuke retorted, and there was a rustle of leaves. Sakura came out from behind a tree and finally saw who he was speaking with. It was the boy from Rain, the one with shark teeth. The Ame-nin was standing on a branch above Sasuke, looking down at him with his arms crossed. His teammates were nowhere in sight.

"Sounds likely." The boy couldn't see Sakura and Naruto approaching from behind him, fixated on Sasuke. Sakura looked at Naruto, tapping the hilt of her sword, and she was pretty sure he understood right away; if she was the one to attack, she might kill him, and they didn't want that. Taking him down was going to be Naruto's responsibility. "You're probably bait, right-?"

Naruto pushed off his tree, hard, to cover the last thirty meters, and the enemy shinobi must have heard something. He turned around just in time for Naruto's foot to connect with his neck.

To his credit, Naruto didn't yell 'Gotcha!', or anything else that Sakura had expected him to say. But that was probably because when his kick took the Ame-nin in the throat, the boy's upper body exploded into water. So instead of knocking the shinobi out, Naruto let out a surprised yelp and soared straight through his opponent, over Sasuke, and directly into an inconveniently placed tree, burying his foot in its bark.

"Wow!" The boy uncrossed his arms and laughed, looking back to Naruto. He hadn't seen Sakura; she unsheathed her sword, mind whirling. Was he a clone made of water, or was that some sort of jutsu? Either way, he probably wouldn't die if she cut him. Her knuckles went white as her grip tightened. "Little dramatic, don't you think?"

Sakura didn't make a sound; she just leapt and swung in the same motion, landing on the tree besides the boy and spinning to face him. He glanced at her, and his head fell off.

Sakura had thought that maybe if she'd separated his head, he wouldn't be able to pull the same trick, but that wasn't the case. He caught it in one hand before it could hit the branch. "Huh, it is you guys," he said, raising it back up and making an exaggerated motion of screwing it back onto his neck. His body flowed, melting into water for a second and then solidifying once more. "I told you, Leaf shinobi got no idea how to treat guests."

"You're made of water?" Naruto shouted, struggling to free his foot from the tree. "That's not fair!"

"There's no such thing as fair when it comes to shinobi." Another voice came from higher above them, and Sakura glanced up to find one of the boy's teammates looking down at them; the boy with grey hair and glasses. He smirked. "That was a good attempt though: he'd be unconscious and dead if he weren't cheating."

They were in trouble. Sakura backed up, raising her sword. One opponent right in front of her, another above and to the right, and the third one nowhere to be seen. Her hand was shaking a little, and she placed her other one on the sword as well, steadying it.

"We don't have a scroll," she said, and the boy grinned. "If that's what you're wondering, there's no point in us fighting."

"I already told him," Sasuke said. "Apparently, they don't care."

"It's true." Sakura spun; there was a new voice, soft and gentle, coming from right behind her. She jumped away, down to Sasuke's branch and put her back to him, looking up where she'd come from. The third Rain ninja was there, the one with the black and red haori. She looked down at them, her brown eyes sharp. "We don't care if you have a scroll." She smiled, and to Sakura it seemed totally genuine. "In fact, it's lucky that you don't."

"What do you mean?" Naruto had finally gotten his leg unstuck and he was standing on the side of the tree, rotating to keep all three of the enemy ninja in view. What were their odds, Sakura wondered. They clearly just wanted a fight. The guy made of water would have to be Sasuke's problem: he was the only one with fire jutsu. What if the others-

Her train of thought was entirely derailed, in the same manner of something falling off a table and exploding when it hit the ground, when the girl above them took something out of the folds of her haori and tossed it down to them. Sasuke caught it instinctively with his unbroken arm, and he and Sakura glanced at it, neither able to believe what they were seeing.

It was a scroll, emblazoned with the symbol of Heaven.

"What?" Sasuke asked, looking at the scroll again and then up at the Rain ninja. The boy smirked at him. "What?" he asked again. "Why?"

"We were lucky enough to come into two scrolls early on," the boy with glasses said, leaping down to join his teammates. He produced an Earth scroll with a grin. "But it's not much good to have both without someone to hand it in with, is it?"

"You didn't work with the team that had the other?" Sasuke asked suspiciously, and the girl shrugged.

"They didn't want to cooperate," she said. "We thought it would be simpler to find someone who would."

"Lucky you." The other boy smiled, revealing his shark teeth. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you know, getting to team up with us: we're gonna pass this exam for sure. You gonna be smart enough to take it?"

"What if you just take us out like you did the other team?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes, and the girl laughed.

"We could," she said. "It would be easy, with one of you hurt. Sasuke Uchiha, right?" Sasuke started at his name, and the girl waved him off. "Don't worry: you're a little famous, you know. Who managed to break your arm like that?"

"Doesn't matter," Sasuke said, and the girl shrugged.

"Kabuto?" she asked, and the boy with glasses jumped down to their branch. Sakura leveled her sword at him, and he raised his hands with a disarming grin.

"Look, no funny business, alright?" he said, showing his empty hands. That didn't mean anything: a ninja's hands could be their deadliest weapon. He walked forward slowly. "Put it to my neck if you want, I don't really care." He looked at Sasuke. "Do you mind if I take a look at your arm?"

Sasuke glanced at her, and Sakura took Kabuto's advice, putting her sword to his neck; he just shrugged. What if he was made of water too? Even if he wasn't, could she cut someone's head off knowing for sure it would kill them? Sakura wasn't sure she had it in her. Kabuto continued to walk slowly forward. "I'm not gonna touch you," he said. "I've got medical training. We just wanna show we're serious. If you consider teaming up, I'll fix up that arm for you."

Sasuke frowned suspiciously. "Prove it."

"You hurt him," Naruto threatened from above, "and I'll smash you into a million pieces."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Kabuto said, and Sakura had no idea if he was being sarcastic or not. He gingerly reached out, looking at Sasuke for permission, and hesitatingly, Sakura's teammate extended his broken arm. Kabuto ran his hand over it, a faint green glow issuing from his palm.

"It's a clean break," he muttered after a second. "It would heal quickly even without my help." He looked up. "Do you mind if I touch it?"

"If you want. Remember, you've got a sword at your neck," Sasuke said, and Kabuto laughed, glancing at Sakura.

"Hard to forget. Steady hands, though. Have you ever cut someone with that?"

Sakura didn't answer. If she lied, she'd look like a fool. If she told the truth, it would be even worse.

Kabuto didn't seem to mind the lack of response. He reached out with both hands, fingers making contact with Sasuke's skin, and the Uchiha flinched. The Rain shinobi's palms began glowing again, and he traced them up and down Sasuke's arm, leaving trails of iridescent green chakra that sunk into Sasuke's skin.

"Does it hurt?" Sakura asked. She'd never seen medical jutsu before. Sasuke shook his head.

"It's warm," he said. "I think…"

"Just give me a minute," Kabuto said, and Sasuke did, letting him run his hand up and down the arm twice more, focusing on the elbow. "Okay." He released Sasuke's arm and then, to Sakura's shock, gave it a slap. Her teammate barely reacted. "Any pain?"

"...no," Sasuke said. "Doesn't hurt at all."

"Cool." Kabuto grinned. "Good as new then."

"That's totally amazing!" Naruto had been watching the whole thing with wide eyes and now he was smiling, totally taken in by the display. "Hey, thanks! If you're being serious, we'll be happy to team up with you guys!"

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted up at him, and he looked down at her with a confused expression. "Are you sure about that?"

"If they're willing to fix Sasuke," Naruto said, "why shouldn't we?"

"You wanna pass, right?" the other boy from Rain said. "You shouldn't stick your nose up at help."

Sakura looked back and forth between both her teammates: Naruto was enthusiastic, but Sasuke was just quiet. He was probably thinking the same thing as her, she thought. Even if this was some sort of trick, they could at least use this team to get themselves farther. Just fighting them and taking both their scrolls wouldn't be the smart move. There was no guarantee they'd win.

Passing with the team from Rain would be better than losing without them.

"Alright," she decided after a moment, lowering her sword from Kabuto's neck. He adjusted his glasses, still looking unruffled. "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to apologize for," he said good-naturedly. "I'm sure I would have done the same thing, in your situation." He stuck out his hand, open and inviting. "Want to start over?"

Sakura regarded his hand, but Sasuke was the first to take it. "Sasuke Uchiha," he said. "Though it sounds like you already know me."

"Kabuto Yakushi," Kabuto said with a firm shake. "It's a pleasure, Sasuke." He pointed up at his teammates. "My friends up there-"

"Suigestu Hozuki!" the other boy called down with a grin. "You can let me introduce myself, you know!"

Kabuto laughed. "Of course. My apologies." He surrendered with an overly dramatic wave of his hand.

"I'm Naruto Namikaze!" Sakura's teammate called out. "And she's Sakura Haruno!" He looked at the last Rain ninja, waiting for a name. "And what about you?"

The girl gave him a gentle smile. "I am Haku Yuki," she said. "It's nice to meet you all. I hope we can complete this together."

Haku: that was the name of the shinobi who'd been watching them since before the first test. She seemed kind, but looking around, Sakura was sure that them meeting up more than two hours into the test like this wasn't a coincidence. The team from Rain had already had both scrolls. It was like they'd been looking for them.

That couldn't be it, right? There was no way they could have known the second test would involve working with another team ahead of time. But maybe once they had…

'Who would want to team up with you?'

"Sakura?" Naruto asked. "You alright?"

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah." She tried to smile. "It's nice to meet you all."

"Likewise," Haku said. She gestured to the east. "There's a river heading north, we think towards the tower at the center; we were following it before we ran into you. Shall we?"

Sasuke nodded, and Team Seven left with the team from Rain, making their way towards the river and an uncertain future.