Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 51 – Erosion
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 4,021
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 51 of ? Unbeta'd.
"Chouji?"
Sakura blinks at Ino as she stretches.
Ino rolls her eyes. "I mean, yeah, you remember him, right?"
"Don't be like that," Sakura says, but she keeps it mild as Hatake-sensei is watching them like a one-eyed hawk from feet away.
He'll let them chat as they stretch but that doesn't mean he's going to put up with bickering.
"I was just surprised," Sakura says. "It's been a while and we weren't ever that close."
"But you weren't not close," Ino says. "And, well, I get why he didn't visit in the hospital."
Sakura makes a face as she lowers her head towards her knee and grabs her foot by the ball of it. The stretch runs all the way up the back of her leg and feels good. Almost normal.
"I get that too," Sakura says. "Yeah, I think it's fine if he comes over. I should probably check with Tenten's mom and dad though. They're already putting up with you and Hatake-sensei all the time."
Ino laughs and Sakura can tell Ino is switching positions, though she couldn't say how she knows that, just that she does.
"Tenten," Ino calls out.
There's a pause and then Tenten leans out one of the upstairs windows. "What's up?"
"You are," Ino says. "Can Chouji come over?"
"Hang on," Tenten says, and disappears from the window.
It doesn't make any difference because they all hear her shriek the question down the stairs, loud and clear.
"I hate all of you," Sakura grouses. "What a long and winding road to get permission."
Tenten's head reappears. "Yeah! Mom says that's fine! Any time!"
"Thank you!" Ino calls back. "Did you want to spar with me after?"
"Yeah!"
Hatake-sensei, who had, so far, allowed this conversation without intervening stirs at that.
"Tenten," he says, "why don't you come down and work with us?"
Sakura peers up at the pause that follows that, in time to catch a complicated series of expressions cross over Tenten's face.
Is she upset? Why would that upset her?
"Yeah, alright," Tenten says, after a moment. "I'm coming!"
But there's no real time to ponder why Tenten was a bit weird about the invitation as she comes tumbling down the stairs, her smile back in place, calm and confident and, yes, eager too.
Hatake-sensei surveys the three of them. "Alright, we'll take the stretches from the top so that Tenten doesn't get left behind."
She opens her mouth to say something but, from the downstairs window, Yuuta-kun shakes his head in a silent no, so she just shrugs a little instead. Yuuta-kun, who she's pretty sure is dead at this point, if only because Tenten's mom hasn't tried to feed him, is generally pretty good about knowing when and where to voice an argument.
And it wouldn't even be an argument, really, it's just that I'm tired.
Even in her head, that sounds pathetic.
"I can't believe you went down the stairs," Ino is saying to Tenten. "You could've leapt out your window, free as a bird, no problem."
"Only if free birds get smacked out of the air by their mother's broom," Tenten retorts. "Mom won't have it. She absolutely refuses to let us leap out windows just because we're too lazy to go down the stairs. Emergencies or work orders are a different story but training is training."
"Training is training," Hatake-sensei agrees. "Let's see those stretches from the top again."
They get to it and as she works through them again, Sakura allows her irritation to dissipate. It's not really Tenten she's mad at anyway or Hatake-sensei.
It's me. I'm the problem. I'm so antsy about this ghost thing that I'm antsy and my temper is terrible.
It's not a good look but, well, Sakura still hasn't figured out who to talk to about the whole thing. She'd have brought it up to Ino except that Ino can't read her mind right now and know that what she's saying is the truth.
And I don't want to talk to Yamanaka-san about it either. He loves Ino, sure, and I think he likes me well enough, but what if he doesn't believe me? My career is over. And if he does believe me... what happens then?
She doesn't know and that makes her more anxious about the whole thing too.
They probably don't lock people up with weird powers, right? But then, it's not like mine's a bloodline or something I did to myself voluntarily. At least I remembered what Hatake Sakumo said to me, about a gift, but even thing... explaining that my sensei's dead dad gave this power to me-and it's not even one he was known for in life-is just... it's terrifying.
If she wants to talk to anyone, it's going to have to be either the ghosts (not that she can tell who is dead or who is alive) or her team.
But neither of them seem like good options... how would I tell Hatake-sensei that his dead dad gave me a present and that present is to see dead people?
Sakura doesn't have any answers and, that's the worst of it all.
But I wonder, if with a little help from my friends, we could come up with a solution...
And, oddly, it would be easier to talk to the girls all together than just going to Ino one-on-one for this problem. It wouldn't be hard, either, to get Ino on board with a meeting and, from there, if they roped Tenten and Hinata into it...
That wouldn't even look strange. It's been a while since we've had one of our informal kunoichi teaching kunoichi classes...
With something like a plan in mind, Sakura throws herself into her stretching and then watches as Ino and Tenten spar while Hatake-sensei supervises them. She studies their fighting styles, admiring the way that Ino has gotten faster and stronger in the time they've been on the same team.
Tenten's been forbidden from using weapons by Hatake-sensei, given how they're just in the backyard of a normal row of normal houses and not in a training yard or on a compound that has enough room to let loose. Weapons going flying here, as they're wont to, would be far too dangerous.
So she's at a disadvantage, since weapons are her strongest point, and yet...
Tenten's still better than the two of them and she can tell that too, right away, which Sakura takes as a victory all by itself because it's not a matter of sensing someone's overwhelming power or anything it's just...
I can see it, in the way she turns. How she controls her fists. The flow of the lines of her body as she commits to an attack.
And Sakura is pretty sure that, before, she wouldn't have been able to notice all of the little details that add up to Tenten being the better fighter at taijutsu.
Though, given her sensei, I'm not surprised either.
"Ryo for your thoughts?" Hatake-sensei says.
She blinks up at him and smiles. She hadn't noticed him working his way around towards her.
"I was admiring Tenten's form," she says. "It's a different style than what you're teaching Ino and I, isn't it?"
Hatake-sensei follows her gaze back to where the other two are still going at it.
"Tenten's style is purer than what I'm teaching you and Ino," he says. "Gai-sensei specializes in taijutsu styles, whereas I'm a ninjutsu specialist who just grabbed what I needed from whatever style was available and made it work. Gai-sensei knows the reasons for all the forms and has picked styles best for his students."
Sakura thinks about that for a bit.
"Gai-sensei hasn't been around for a while," she ventures. "Do you know anything about when he'll be back, Hatake-sensei?"
She's not sure if Tenten would want her to say anything but, well, living under the same roof has made it really, really obvious that Gai-sensei is not around. She's seen Hyuuga Neji twice, though she hasn't spoken with him, and Lee-kun is still in the hospital, though he did send her a lovely letter telling her that he knows she'll be well soon and to not give up.
But she hasn't seen or heard Gai-sensei and Tenten sometimes seems to be at a bit of... loose ends. She keeps busy, and Sakura admires that, but all the same...
Hatake-sensei frowns a little. "I can ask around," he says.
Sakura frowns at him. Something about that had sounded a little... slippery.
But that's Jounin, I guess, she realizes. I bet there's loads and loads that he knows and can't share with us. I should take it as a victory that I can tell he's being cagey, instead, even if he probably meant for me to catch that.
"Ino and her get along really well," Sakura says. "I bet neither of them would mind if you had them work against each other a bit more."
"And you?" he asks.
"I like her too," Sakura says, startled. "And once I'm cleared for combat training, I'd love to have a go against her. She'll probably beat the tar out of me, though, so... I'd rather wait a bit, Hatake-sensei. At least get my wind back and some of my stamina before I start going up against people I don't have a chance against."
"You're smart," he says, smiling. "You could try and out-think her."
"My mind is magic," she says, and is rewarded when he huffs a short laugh. "But all the mind power in the world isn't going to stop her from putting her fist in uncomfortable places. She's faster and stronger than I am. I can see that from here."
"I think you underestimate yourself," Hatake-sensei says mildly.
Sakura considers that, and him, and the way Ino and Tenten are still sparring. Ino is grinning-a wild, reckless thing that makes the hair on the back of Sakura's neck rise in anticipatory horror at the thought of it being directed at her-and Tenten is laughing-laughing-as she spins and ducks under a kick.
"In a real fight, where it was no holds barred," Sakura says, "I think I could better hold my own. But it does no one, not even me, any good to pretend to be better at taijutsu alone. I'd rather be realistic, Hatake-sensei. I won't let it discourage me or consider it a bad thing. I know I'm better than I was, already, and that's enough."
"Good," he says. "I'm glad to hear it."
Then he goes and calls a halt to the spar and, as Sakura listens to him give a run down of their strengths and weaknesses, she wonders if that's all she really needed.
I think he's pleased with me, she decides. Even if I'm not quite sure why.
It leaves her with a warm glow, though, and Sakura wraps that feeling around her and refuses to let anything dim that.
Tenten had begged off going along with Ino and Hatake-sensei for a true reason-she has a class to get to, and she doesn't want to miss it, and she'd promised that she'd come by after it-but, honestly, she's glad for the space to mentally breathe.
For a moment in time, it had felt like she was part of a team again, and it leaves her feeling raw in ways she hadn't anticipated, especially when she doesn't dare believe that any of them had meant it as anything more than her being there, available, and just good friends with Ino and Sakura.
Not, she acknowledges as she gathers up her growing medical supply kit and her textbooks, and gets ready to actually go to her class, that there's anything wrong with being just good friends with anybody.
More friends are always good.
But all the same, I think Gai-sensei's 'don't stop until you get enough' attitude has rubbed off on me, she thinks ruefully. I still want more and I don't know what to do about that. I need to take Hinata up on her offer again. We didn't find anything last time but she seems pretty convinced there is something to be found that would apply to my situation.
"It doesn't have to be permanent," she says, and looks at herself in the mirror as she shoulders her bag. Her reflection mirrors her shrug. "But then, what does?"
Her reflection doesn't answer her which is probably for the best and, after a moment, Tenten heads out.
The walk to the hospital-she has plenty of time, even with the shower she'd taken-is nice and the wind is brisk enough to be bracing which only further serves to bolster her mood.
It's not like anything's wrong, she reminds herself. No one thinks that right now.
But would they, if she tried to transfer teams? Does she even want to transfer teams?
I'd miss them. Neji's finally venturing out of the Hyuuga compound again and he's... he's different, now, after this fight with Naruto. I want to see how deep the differences go. And Lee will be released from the hospital soon. I'm happy on my team. I really am. It's no one's fault that the last while has been so disjointed. Once we're all together again, I'm sure I'll be happy.
But they're not all together yet and, so, Tenten is unable to stop her thoughts from going around in circles for long.
Until she gets into the classroom at the hospital and all of her thoughts come roaring to a halt because, for the first time in a couple of weeks, Shikamaru is sitting at their table.
And he looks exhausted. I'd say terrible.
Well, there's nothing to do but keep moving ahead. If she stops and stares that will only draw more attention to the whole matter and, given his expression, she's pretty sure he's liable to snap if provoked.
Tenten slides into the seat next to him. "Hey," she says. "Good to see you."
Shikamaru slants a glance at her, as if gauging her level of sincerity, but Tenten does mean that much.
She might not be sure about the whole rest of everything and the disaster he's brought down upon himself or how Sakura and Ino are taking it let alone how the Clans are dealing with it-and she's glad to not have to care about all of that, though Hinata keeps trying to explain it to her.
But she's happy enough to see him in class. He's a good partner for the exercises and, sometimes, absolutely hilarious with his scathing comments.
Not that I think we'll get many of those today. I doubt he'd dare put a toe out of line right now.
"Hey," he says, when she's apparently passed scrutiny. "What did I miss?"
They still have time before class, so Tenten obligingly opens her textbook and they go over the chapters that Shikamaru hadn't been around for. He doesn't take notes, just nods when she shows him what exercises they need to know and what chapters they've read.
Shizune-sensei comes in, a medic-nin following her with a gurney. On the gurney is a mannequin.
Conversation in the room dies abruptly.
"This," Shizune-sensei says, "is Shiroko."
"The mannequin?" someone asks.
"That's right," Shizune-sensei says. "And her name is Shiroko-sensei to all of you, as she's been specially created and treated by Hokage-sama herself to have her bones strengthened to the point that we can do this next series of exercises."
Tenten sees the moment that Shizune-sensei spots Shikamaru but their teacher calls no attention to him, just orders all of them to come and gather around her and the gurney and the other medic-nin.
"Like we're all to worship her," Shikamaru mutters, but it's so low she doubts anyone other than her would be able to hear him.
She grins.
Tenten's not sure how to feel about all of the everything going on between the Nara-Akimichi-Yamanaka Clans and Asuma-sensei and, other than the fact that Ino cares about it, she probably wouldn't have any feelings about it, really, so while she cares because Ino does, she also enjoys that Shikamaru's here in the lesson.
And I like that he's still mouthy, she admits, even as they take their places around Shiroko-sensei, Shizune-sensei, and the other medic-nin who has not offered their name.
It's interesting, too, that Shizune-sensei has not named them either.
But nothing that really impacts me, Tenten concedes, and makes herself focus on the lesson.
Shiroko-sensei, it turns out, is a practice mannequin, who's false bones and body has been fine-tuned until it can take any damage that can be dished out upon it and then healed up again for the next person to go.
They're not medic-nin, nor are they in training for it, so they don't do that.
What they do is, once Shizune-sensei has broken Shiroko-sensei's bones-with a noise that sounds so real it's unnerving-they're taught how to properly handle each break to stabilize it enough for transit.
"Eventually, we'll have Shiroko-sensei's brothers and sisters in here too," Shizune-sensei says. "So that each of you will be handling one on your own."
"I wonder if they've got their own names?" Tenten murmurs, very quietly, to Shikamaru, who gives her an appreciative smirk.
"Can these be injured past the point of repair?" One of the other students asks.
"Eventually, yes," Shizune-sensei says. "It gets to the point where they're broken so often that they become resistant to healing, feeling that being broken is their default state."
Being broken is their default state?
Tenten shivers and she's not the only one. That's creepy and... and sad. She tries to imagine being broken so often that she no longer recognizes being whole as her 'default' state and that's...
Oh, she realizes soberly. That happens to a lot of people, as they get older. What their normal is changes. Some because of illness or disease, some because of injury, some because they don't take care of themselves or because their bodies are working against their best efforts. They're not broken but, then, they're human. Humans can't be broken the way dolls are.
And that's what the fancy, surely expensive, mannequin is. It's a doll for them to play with and learn.
So that we don't wind up 'broken' earlier than we need to be.
That's a depressing thought.
She's grateful when Shikamaru joggles her elbow, drawing her out of contemplation and giving her the chance to focus on the lecture.
After class, where they get more homework and her hands and heart ache from the way she'd spent the time learning how to keep Shiroko-sensei together enough to get her to someone who could repair her-Tenten had not been able to shake the malaise about dolls and humans and their differences-as she packs away her books, she glances at Shikamaru.
"Do you need to go right back home?" she asks him.
Shikamaru's dark eyes study her with more intensity than he'd paid to the lesson.
"I'm supposed to," he says, after a moment.
"Oh," she says, "just, you're not a terrible class partner. I was wondering if you'd be a terrible study partner."
His lips twitch, amusement and, she thinks, some bitterness too.
"Are you sure you want to be seen with me in public?" he asks. "I'm not exactly Mr. Popular right now."
"And you did that to yourself," Tenten says. "It's got nothing to do with me or with this."
"Aren't you friends with Ino?" he asks, after a moment, frowning a little as he puts his books away.
"That's that and this is this," she says, like it explains it all.
It does, to her. It makes perfect sense.
Going by his expression, though, it doesn't make the same amount of sense to him at all.
"Won't she be mad that you're spending time with me?" he asks finally. "After..."
"I doubt it," Tenten says, figuring she's got a pretty good handle on Ino's temper these days and, frankly, given that-
"She and Chouji are hanging out with Sakura at my place this weekend," she says dryly. "I really don't think she holds that kind of a grudge the way you seem to think she does."
Tenten slings her bag over one shoulder.
"But even if she did," she says. "Since when has Ino ever controlled who I spend time with? If you're worried about gossip impacting me, well, I'm going to point out that I voluntarily hang out with Lee all the time and I know just how poorly people talk about him too."
Which... she hates that she can see why. Lee is a fantastic guy, wonderful, who is freely and fearlessly affectionate, encouraging, motivating, and also-he wears terrible clothes, is far too loud, can't use chakra (which negatively impacts him in the social pecking order of shinobi all the time) and is honestly terrifying when he gets enthusiastic about something.
Tenten gets it. Most people never get to actually know Lee. Just judge him on how loud and disruptive he is when excited. And other shinobi don't understand just how hard he works to make up for how he was born.
Though that's getting better, I think. Tenten is glad for that. He might not have made it to the finals but he impressed a lot of shinobi during the Chuunin Exam.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru looks startled and she's not sure about which part.
Maybe all of them. He's a genius, they say, but he's also an idiot who, when he's comfortable, sees no reason to be uncomfortable. But you never grow if you just stay where it's easy.
"So," she prompts. "Do you want to study or not?"
Shikamaru looks over her shoulder. "Am I allowed to go study at the... library?"
She nods agreeably, half turning to see who he's talking to. She hadn't really settled on a place, but the library is always a good choice. Especially for actual, class given, homework.
It doesn't really surprise her that the Nara-Akimichi-Yamanaka kunoichi who are taking this class with them are the ones listening in.
The Nara looks exasperated but also amused.
"Can you not push the envelope for longer than a day?" she mutters, tossing her hair back from her face. "Himeko?"
"On it," the Yamanaka says, resting her head lazily against the Akimichi's shoulder. "Give me time to get a response, would you? You're always such a pain in the ass, Chi-tan."
The Nara scoffs but doesn't argue that description. The Akimichi doesn't bother to say anything at all, just watching them with shrewd eyes.
"Yoshino-san says he can if we go with him," Yamanaka Himeko says, sounding put-out, a few minutes later.
"We were going to the library anyway," the Akimichi points out. "Don't get wound up over it. Come on, Himeko, Chihara."
"Babysitting duty," Nara Chihara groans. "Gross. Reimi, he's all yours if he makes a break for it."
"I'm right here," Shikamaru mutters as Akimichi Reimi gets her friends moving. "But does that matter? No."
"I think you're probably better off with that not mattering," Tenten says easily. "All things considered."
He grunts.
Then asks, "You sure you want to do this?"
"I like to live an interesting life," Tenten says.
"I hear, some places, that that's a curse," he points out.
She laughs.
Ino squints at her.
Tenten waits patiently.
"... Why would I care about that?" she asks.
"That's a good question," Tenten says, shrugging. "But I promised I'd ask you, since it seemed to matter to him."
"Tell him I think that he's being an idiot and I look forward to when he finds his brain and common sense again," Ino commands. "But, like, have fun, I guess? Oh, and don't tell him that I'm going to beat the shit out of him when I get a chance, okay?"
"Not about me, though, right?"
Ino grins at her.
"Not even a little," she promises blithely. "I've been working on a plan with Hatake-sensei since I got out of the hospital. He thinks I can take him, but it'll be tricky. So we're working out all the tricks."
Tenten pities Shikamaru.
A smidgen.
Not enough to tell on Ino, though.
"Can I get tickets?" she asks.
Ino laughs. "You know, Sakura said the same thing?"
