Chapter 7: Preparations
This was...so not what he'd been looking forward to since yesterday.
And yet he couldn't help but feel like he was the fool for not expecting something like this from their maybe-not-so-useless-but-still-not-great teacher. Special training his ass, as if he needed any extra help to worsen his mood after meeting their client's grandchild. The annoying little brat did nothing but repeat how they were going to die over and over to their faces during breakfast. And now, to add insult to injury, his special training was just to help Tazuna-san move materials around the construction site along while sustaining fifteen clones for the rest of the day.
When he asked how the hell was practicing a move he'd so obviously mastered already all he got for an answer was a closed-eyed smile and an overly cheery 'you'll figure it out' before he was sent in his way. Kagome-chan and Sasuke got to follow the albino in crutches to somewhere in the forest near the house.
If Naruto thought for one second their sessions would be even the slightest bit different he might've gotten a little jealous. As it was the blond felt fairly sure that the two were stuck doing something equally boring and useless as he was.
The angry screams of the old man yelling at one of his clones to be more careful caught his attention for a second. The old builder was so dramatic, it was wood for the gods' sake a little bump wasn't going to destroy it. Grumbling under his breath the blond turned and let his eyes wander.
The town was...a bit depressing to be honest. It'd turned dark already by the time they'd managed to drag their motionless teacher to the house. By then the jinchuuriki had been far more interested in finally getting some warm food and making sure Kakashi-sensei really was okay so he failed to take notice of the small city. In the light of day he'd realized this place seemed washed out, somehow. Everything felt subdued, and then there was the construction site itself. Naruto wasn't an expert but he was confident there should also be more people helping around here. Like a lot more.
"Oi, tell your clones not to get distracted." It took the blond a couple of seconds to realize Tazuna was talking to the real him this time "What's the point of having extra help if I end up having to fix things after them?"
"They're doing what they're told, maybe make the instructions clearer" Naruto grumbled back but still turned to shout at clone no. 2. The cocky bastard was clearly playing around trying to stack the logs in an inverse pyramid.
"What are you doing here anyway? Weren't you supposed to be training or something?"
"Hmph, I'm doing protection duty and training" Naruto boasted "I'm the only one who can do both at the same time" Sure, this didn't feel like training but the old builder didn't need to know.
"Tazuna...can I talk to you.?" One of the few workers had stopped working and was walking towards them an anxious look in his face.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"I've been thinking it over..." the man trailed off "this bridge we're building it's just not..." and he trailed off again. "I want off this job."
Shock took over the old man's face in an expression Naruto hadn't seen yet, all traces of annoyance and cockiness vanished. "Wh-why?!" he finally managed to utter "Out of nowhere like this...you of all people!"
"Tazuna, we go back a long way. I want to help you, I do, but we can't take the risk. Gatou will take out a contract on us if we don't stop! And if you die it won't be just this one project. We could lose everything!" The man screamed back, real desperation very clear in his voice "Please just give it up...this bridge isn't worth it."
"I can't do that," the old man answered, determination obvious in his words, anger had returned to his face but it was different this time, controlled. "This bridge belongs to us all, it's everything we've been working towards for our entire city. When it's finished it will bring trade and commerce and affluence to put our poor little Land of the Waves in the map!"
"But we're talking about our lives here! Your life!"
And Naruto...could see his point.
Not that he would ever agree to hide and pray to be spared but he wasn't sure he could blame anyone who reached that conclusion. These weren't bad people, they were just scared.
"It's afternoon now, isn't it? Let's call it a day..." the old builder's voice was so low Naruto almost missed it but still unfaltering. "You don't have to come back."
A weight seemed to have fallen on his client's shoulders while he watched from a distance. Well, that explained why there were so few people on site. Maybe having him help out with his clones while also protecting the old man wasn't such a shitty idea after all.
"Let's go back, Tsunami must've started on lunch already."
There was a tiredness to Tazuna's voice that hadn't been there before not even after having spent the whole day walking. Grudgingly he gave the old man a couple more points. If this was the way he'd been working all this time then, he couldn't really blame him for having lied about the mission.
Making sure none of his cones were still carrying the suddenly more important material the blond moved to dispel the technique.
It hit him like a wall of bricks.
His knees buckled under him as he stumbled, a wave of exhaustion washing over him, his brained complained as a bunch of not quite memories rushed into his mind. Somehow now he knew exactly every single thing his bunshins had carried and where they left them.
"Hey, you okay kid?" Tazuna asked.
"Ahahahaha, yep. Everything fine, totally perfect." Naruto forced out a laugh, this was even worse than their typical taijutsu training.
A string of silent curses flowed through his mind at the realization that his sensei had to know what was going to happen but didn't bother to give him a warning. Though Naruto would admit if only to himself, that maybe he hadn't perfected the kage bunshin technique just yet. Ideas about what this little discovery could mean were rushing through him. It didn't mean that the albino wasn't going to wake up covered in paint and glue and maybe feathers one of these days, of course.
Tazuna looked at him for one more second before shaking his head. "Come on then, my daughter asked me to pick some things for lunch on the way home."
Blue eyes wandered around the town as they walked, his frown growing a bit more with every nearly fallen house they passed. As much as he hated to admit it with the city (if it could even be called that) in a state like this he wasn't so surprised about Inari's bad attitude anymore. From what he could see most of the adults acted the same. Screams of people running after much too young thieves and half-starved vendors would easily destroy anyone's mood.
His narrowed eyes widened in surprise however the moment he got a clear view of the inside of the grocery shop.
"Wha...but this is empty!"
"Yeah, that's what happens when there's no trade in a place where farming is not an option." Tazuna's answered dryly, clearly, this was not something new.
It felt weird, Naruto realized, on one hand, none of these people were openly insulting him. The kid he'd given some of his spare candy on the way here had smiled brightly at him in a way no one would ever have done back in Konoha (with the one notable exception being Kagome-chan) so the blond couldn't help but feel just a teeny tiny bit happy. On the other, well, this whole place was just plain sad to look at.
Gray seemed to overtake every single thing he could see, so different from the vibrant hues ever-present back home. Never had he thought he could miss the green of the trees or the bright blue of the sky.
"It's been like this since Gatou moved in," Tazuna answered, picking what some of what little was on the almost empty shelves. "We've become a city of slackers, cowards, and fools. That's why the bridge we're working on is so important. It will become an emblem of courage, maybe the people who've taken the path of less resistance will be willing to walk the road of courage and dignity again. If we can only complete it I truly believe that our city and our people can be what they were once again."
Naruto smiled this time as he looked around when they left the store, yeah, it would be nice to see the empty streets become more lively. Maybe the old bridge builder wasn't exaggerating so much when he introduced himself. Sure this wasn't a mission to protect a princess or a feudal lord but it wasn't insignificant either.
Heat exploded in front of him. Damn, that was too big.
"Don't stop running!" the obnoxious voice of his jounin instructor echoed across the small clearing.
Sasuke huffed as he sped up his constant jumping through trees (which he hadn't stopped, thank you very much). He was annoyed and letting that annoyance affect his performance. He supposed he should be used by now to their teacher seemingly useless task being the basis for their training. By this point he really shouldn't allow himself to get so affected by them. Then again a sleepless night followed by ever-increasingly grim muttering about their impending and gruesome deaths at breakfast was not the best way to start his day. He'd never had much patience to begin with.
Here they were, literally risking their necks to keep the lying old man from becoming minced meat and the brat thought the best way to repay them was by grumbling how idiotic they were for accepting the mission. If the kid insisted on keeping up with the commentary it would be a small miracle if the Uchiha didn't knock the irritating chit out cold (or maybe just drop him from the roof) before this stupid mission was over. Never had he imagined someone more irritating than the loud, deluded, fangirls from Konoha could exist.
He'd been wrong.
"You can go faster!"
Heat washed over him again as flames licked at his arms.
"Control them better!"
Taking a deep breath Sasuke forced himself to push down his irritation. Letting emotions bleed into any jutsu was always risky, but dealing with fire only doubled those risks. His hands moved, forming the familiar seals with as much speed as he could.
With only a week trying to have them all learn and master new techniques was a fool's endeavor. Against someone who used to be in ANBU half-learned would only show weak points to be exploited. Rather than waste their time with a jutsu that could fail in the middle of a potential life or death situation they were to perfect what they already knew.
It was the logical choice really.
Even if it meant he was stuck with fine-tuning his control over the katon. Waste as little chakra as he could while keeping as much intensity and precision. Which was why he was currently going in circles, jumping from tree to tree keeping a constant volley of fireballs...and why he'd been doing that for the last three hours.
It wasn't like the exercise was useless. It was one thing to use the technique a couple of times during training (mostly as a way to cut off escape routes) but keeping the chakra stable for so long was another thing entirely. What had felt like an easy thing to do during the first hour felt far more difficult by the end of the session. Something he'd discovered along with al his teammates the day before. Regardless of its efficiency, the whole thing was still infuriating.
Their still-mostly-useless teacher was standing on crutches, stupid orange book in hand, somehow giving commentary on both his and Kagome's performances.
"Everything alright?"
Kagome asked from the bottom of a tree at the edge of his circumference, hands busy with a jumble of wire as she tried to pull back several dozens of senbons tied it with a single motion. Something that probably wouldn't have been that difficult (like the neat pile of regular senbons set on the floor near her indicated) had she not used her reiki to charge the needles that were now mostly sunk in the trunk of a tree on the opposite side of his circumference.
Technically she wasn't supposed to stop, her exercise consisted of sprinting up and down a tree while targetting specific points in the tree. Half of her projectiles were to be charged and sent in between regular attacks. The fact that the charged senbons were embedded in the wood forced her to take short breaks though they were getting shorter with every repetition.
Things would've probably gotten much tenser when it came the time to assess what to do with Kagome's training. Unlike many others, he knew the girl had no overgrown pride about her clan or her bloodline but it didn't change the fact that such techniques were what could easily give her an edge in a battle. It was probably once more due to the lack of time that Kakashi had held back his curiosity (he didn't believe for a second that disinterested facade of his was real) and simply asked for a general overview of what she could do.
"Just perfect" the Uchiha grumbled back to his teammate, hands already moving through the seals once again.
"Kagome-chan, don't get distracted!" their obnoxious teacher screamed from the middle of the clearing "You can do better, I believe in you!"
"Everything alright?" he scoffed at the sight of narrowed azure eyes glaring back.
"Right...just perfect."
It wasn't that the man didn't know what he was doing, it didn't take too much thinking to realize the jounin clearly planned for much more than it looked like. Their previous training had come in handy after all, and even with just a day, Sasuke could tell this would probably create a difference. It was just that their teacher seemed to pick the most infuriating ways to teach them.
"Alright everybody, we can rest for a while."
Huffing the Uchiha landed, he could already see Kagome searching in her hidden pockets the burn salve and new bandages. It wasn't that bad, not really, trying to tell her that though would only end up with a scolding he'd have to listen to as she proceeded to bandage the light burns anyway.
Oh well, at least it would delay their going back to the house, hungry or not the Uchiha was not looking forward to another forced family dinner.
It may not be as good as Ichiraku's ramen but Naruto couldn't deny that Tsunami-san was a really good cook. The memory of the nearly empty grocery store had, of course, absolutely nothing to do with the way he was determined to enjoy and savor every single bite of the meal in front of him for the last few days. Even if he was starting to feel more than just a little full.
Besides him, his friends looked just as tired as he felt, surprisingly they seemed just as determined as well. Idly he wondered what their training was like to have given them a determination that refused to wane for the last three days. Probably something that sounded insultingly useless but ended up being harder than it originally was, like his own. For all that he liked them those two were terribly proud.
"More plea..." he started
"Naruto-kun…you're going to make yourself sick you know," Kagome said, amusement dancing in bright blue eyes "This is way more than you usually eat."
"But I wanna eat, we have to eat to become stronger."
"You do realize there's absolutely no point in eating if you're just gonna hurl it all back right? That's just wasting food and it won't make you stronger," she replied again.
At that he faltered, he had thrown up yesterday. After his training was adjusted to twenty-five clones instead of the original fifteen, the blond came up with the idea that he could compensate for his tiredness with an overabundance of food. It hadn't quite worked as he wanted. He was about to open his mouth again when another voice interrupted him.
"Why?"
It was low and had this been anyone else Naruto was pretty sure no one would've noticed in the first place. Inari never really spoke at meals though, at least not unless it was his ever creepy 'you're all going to die' trademark catchphrase. Him saying something else however ended up freezing everyone for a second.
"What do you mean why?" Naruto asked slowly.
"Why do you wear yourself out trying?! No matter how hard you train you'll never be a match for Gatou's thugs!" What had started out as a quiet questioning was quickly devolving to screaming recriminations "You act all cool and you talk all tough but big strong guys like that are always too much for people weaker than they are! They'll destroy you!"
The kid was suffering as well, Naruto tried to remind himself of that even as his fingers began carving crimson half-moons on his palms. They'd heard it after training the first day they spent in the poor city, the tragedy of what had happened to Inari's adopted father. Hell, Naruto himself heard the kid crying after storming off that first time, blowing off on him was not going to help things. He felt sorry for the kid, really. Still, a look at his childhood friends made it harder to keep his mouth shut. Sasuke was keeping quiet but the slender hand holding his wrist was using far more force than usual. Not surprising, those two were chasing after someone way stronger than them after all.
"Shut up! I'm not like you. Also, we're not gonna lose!" This wasn't loosing his cool, nor really. He just needed to take a deep breath. A really deep one.
"Just watching you ticks me off! You go running your mouth when you don't know a thing!" pot meet kettle. "This isn't your town! And you don't know a thing about me! You're always clowning around and having fun. You don't know a thing about suffering or loneliness or what my life is like!"
It was so easy to see it now, his dark empty little apartment when he came back from their D-ranked missions, the dirty looks thrown his way, the hard rocks that used to accompany said looks when he was still small. So clearly he could see the silent streets of the Uchiha district, the closed-door separating him from the only two people who'd ever smiled at him, with him, and the freezing fear of losing even that.
Rage filled him, pushing back the filter he'd so desperately tried to keep. His anger was not hot this time though, it flowed cold through his veins as his mouth opened. "So...you figure it's noble to star in a melodrama and treat everyone around you like guests at your pity party? Oh yeah," he sneered "it takes a really big man to sit around and cry...you brat...you big baby!"
The tears in the kid's eyes failed to spark regret in him, even as the child stood and ran away from the room leaving behind only silence at the table.
He didn't wait for Inari's family to get angry at him, instead, he made his own way to the opposite door. He'd just insulted the grandkid of his client but he didn't care. He wasn't taking it back. None of it.
"Where are you going?"
His feet stopped just before he could start sprinting, Kagome's voice was soft and soothing and he wasn't sure if it was just for his sake. The kid's stupid talk about being unable to catch up to those stronger had to have hurt both of them as well. But where he might scream (did scream) at the brat he was sure Sasuke would be enough of a jerk to actually punch Inari before the girl managed to stop him...if she bothered to try and stop him at all.
"Training."
He heard her sigh, a resigned sound of someone who already knew trying to argue would be pointless. "Just... don't overdo it, okay?"
He nodded, he was well aware of his limits by now. In all honesty, it would probably be better to rest considering Kakashi-sensei would be at mostly full strength tomorrow morning and wanted to have an all out brawl to check on their progress. Hell, it was dark enough the blond probably wouldn't be able to see for much longer but right now what he needed the most was to blow off some steam.
They were going to lose, the brat said, like hell they would.
Somehow, the image of the young girl moving around his kitchen had at some point during these last 4 days become something normal. Tazuna kept watching as the two women talked while they kept on prepping the food for breakfast.
The first day he'd seen it he'd been surprised. The girl, Kagome, looked slightly tired, nothing close to exhausted but tired all the same. He'd seen the girl move around after days on end of continued walking looking as fresh as if she'd just taken a leisurely stroll around a park though. All of them looked just as rested during their travels, to think what kind of work would get them to actually look tired was something Tazuna wasn't sure he could imagine. Still, he'd been surprised when the girl insisted on helping out with the chores.
A week ago the old builder might have been concerned about his daughter being around any of his hired bodyguards. After the encounter with Zabuza, however, those fears had vanished.
Tazuna may only be a civilian (as their teacher often reminded the pipsqueak whenever he complained about going too slow) but even he knew that back then there had been a third option. One that would allow them to escape unscathed and fairly easily. One that apparently none of them had even considered, let alone brought up despite its very obvious existence.
Leaving behind the old client who wasn't paying them enough had to be the easier way out.
Oh, he was still uncomfortable about having children this young be so bluntly exposed to death and gore but he no longer feared a knife on his back. Kakashi had been right when he said they weren't the type to double-cross anyone.
"To have a hobby like that" he muttered as he watched the girl handle some of the pots with practiced ease. Her attention clearly caught by his daughter's instructions.
"Maa, it's more of a necessity than a hobby"
The old builder almost jumped when a familiar voice sounded behind him. The elite teacher was finally out of the crutches and was once more moving without making a single sound.
"They live on their own, all three of them actually. Learning how to cook was probably a must."
"You mean..."Tazuna trailed off that would explain why Naruto had snapped last night.
"They're all orphans, for different reasons of course," the man continued "but they've learned to keep moving forward."
Tazuna nodded, he knew what it was being said under the casual remarks.
So far all of them had in deference for his grandchild's pain, allow the boy to do whatever it was he wanted to do. Rude comments, gloomy predictions, even acting rude was given a pass. Despite it all, the ninja had allowed him to go on without complaining to him or Tsunami about his behavior up until last night. The subtle admonition was obvious. Kakashi was not going to punish his subordinates for talking back and if either he or Tsunami kept quiet then the man would probably do something more than the quiet talk Tazuna had overhead last night.
"I'll talk to him"
It was time for the boy, no, for all of the people in this city to stop crying and move on.
Careful fingers moved through her newly bandaged arms, after Kakashi-sensei recovered the man had insisted on having an all vs 1 sparring match before Tazuna left home. Just a way to get himself back in shape he said, though Kagome had the feeling the whole thing was nothing more than an excuse to put them all back in place. They were definitely good for genins, they'd showed they could even match some chuunins, but there was still a very big gap between that and an experienced jounin.
Without the advantage of having time to come up with a proper plan, and then to that add the lack of the surprise element that allowed them to get the upper hand during the bell test, the only thing they accomplished was to get themselves utterly and completely bruised.
Normally healing bruises and cuts like this would be something Kagome had no trouble doing. In the current situation leaving alone anything that could heal on its own in little time was the wiser choice. With an imminent attack in the next couple of days keeping her reserves as full as possible was essential. Ironically she probably had to thank Zabuza for giving her some time to figure out what she was going to do regarding her clan's techniques.
So now she sat on the edge of the clearing making sure the wrappings were not too tight as she kept an eye on the spar in front of her.
The fact that their teacher was still not using any jutsu other than kawarimi despite Sasuke shooting a liberal amount of katons had to be pushing the boy's irritation to new heights. For all that they could feel their progress, they still couldn't force the man to stop playing around.
Not that she'd faired any better in her own one on one spar after Naruto was sent to continue with bodyguard duty.
Her own fight had been oddly refreshing. Not because of the struggle she had with her hits actually connecting (that was just plain infuriating) but because the man was clearly hitting her just as hard as he hit the others. As much as she loved the boys in her team sparring was always a bit annoying thanks to the fact that both of them very obviously held back. Something that was painfully clear once she compared the strength they used against each other and the one used against her. No, she didn't want to be hit, but how was she supposed to grow stronger if her sparring partners always went easier on her?
She'd have complained long ago time ago if only she wasn't doing the exact same thing. It just wasn't possible for her to go all out against some of the only faces that brought her comfort.
Sasuke wasn't quite as appreciative of that, however, and had started his own spar with an already flimsy control on his anger.
At least the exercises the man had put him through were enough that she didn't have to worry about something accidentally catching on fire. Annoying as it was their control had increased thanks to his training. The only thing they were really missing was team training but the mission details meant that one of them had to constantly be at Tazuna-san's side whenever the man was out of the house.
"Alright, alright. That's good enough," Kakashi said, he wasn't reading the little orange book but he still sounded too bored with the whole thing. "Now go, let Kagome-chan give a check-up and switch with Naruto."
Sasuke grunted as he lifted himself from the ground where the last kick had sent him to, a dark glare directed at their jounin sensei.
"It'll probably take me more to get there and back than for the moron to lose," he grumbled as he sat beside her.
"He's been getting better though."
"Maybe, but he's too pigheaded, he'll just rush in without thinking."
The girl grimaced that...was most likely true. The boy was good at coming up with unpredictable plans but those almost always came in the middle of whatever mess they were stuck in. Properly preparing a throughout plan beforehand and keeping his cool though...that was another matter entirely. As much as she would like to find one, there was n excuse to the way Naruto-kun would often lose his temper and just jumped at the slightest provocation. Something Kakashi-sensei seemed to specialize in.
It probably wouldn't help that the prankster had become too invested in the whole Wave situation. Goading him to just blindly rush in would barely take a minute, if their teacher was taking this training seriously then he'd have the blond flying at the first chance.
"He really needs to work on that doesn't he?" Sasuke scoffed at her question.
Letting silence fall upon the clearing Kagome focused on making sure none of the bruises on the Uchiha were hiding worse injuries behind. Their teacher was holding back to make sure none of them ended up with broken bones or torn muscles, the cuts on their arms were superficial and nowhere near their vitals but even then accidents could happen and a simple bruise could become quite troublesome if they overused whatever limb said bruise was on.
Slim fingers lingered on top of some of the darker bruises as she applied the poultice. Despite the boy's reassurances of his fast return a part of her kept whispering grim murmurs laced with her fears and anxieties. In a place like this, with the threat of an attack on their heads, her fear of separation was only getting worse.
"There you go." She forced a smile.
Sasuke nodded once before turning to leave, only the slightest hesitation on his steps visible to her trained eyes. They would both feel better once they were back home.
"He's too used to you covering his blindspots."
"I suppose so" the girl responded, a bit tense at the subtle implication on the man's words "then again I am used to covering my team's blindspots."
Kagome smiled a beatific smile, she knew their relationship was uncommon, she just didn't care.
Sore arms struggled to comply as she forced her limbs to follow her orders. The soft light of dawn was barely making its way into the world and here she was, slowly picking up as much of the herbs she found near their little training clearing.
Thanks to the end of their intensive training session yesterday they were running out of ointments and salves. At least her long sleeves hid the multitude of bandages adorning her arms and her high stockings did a fair work covering the ones around her legs. Today all of them were going to be going to the construction site and the last thing they needed was to have people wonder why the kids staying at Tazuna's home were suddenly covered in injuries and in need of medicine. It was bad enough that Kakashi-sensei had been in crutches for most of their stay here only to ditch them the moment the teens started sporting bandages. She may not be overly fond of the old builder but that didn't mean she wanted him to deal with baseless rumors. Not when he was already dealing with quite a bit of stress thanks to having a price on his head.
Besides, the old man did stop jumping around her after their confrontation with Zabuza.
A familiar buzz on the back of her head had her head snapping to the path to the clearing and cursing herself.
Yesterday had been trying. As the only one who could actually make an accurate diagnosis, the girl ended up stuck in their improvised training ground as the boys rotated guard duty. Meaning she'd been constantly separated from the one person that helped her get her anxieties under control. And she should honestly start working with those issues if she was now jumping at a civilian slowly walking up to the clearing.
It wasn't like the place was part of private property and thinking she was the only one with knowledge of medicinal herbs was way too arrogant. There was no reason for her to be so nervous around other people in general. Especially since a quick look at the empty handbasket made it clear he (Kagome was almost certain they were a he at least) was here for the same as her. Still, she kept quiet as the teen offered her a smile and knelt beside her, the girl simply nodded in response.
"I'm sorry if I'm intruding but...are you okay?"
Kagome looked up in surprise at the soft, worried voice, a groan almost escaped her as she looked down at her hands. Dirtied bandages from pulling herbs out of the ground were peeking from under her sleeves. There was no way that looked okay when added to the ones her skirt was unable to cover while she was actively picking up herbs to make ointments. Right, back home seeing a child with a couple of bandages usually lead to think about a training accident, in a civilian town however the logical conclusion was likely a less pleasant one.
"Oh, these?" Kagome laughed, airy, and fake. "It's nothing really, training just got a bit rough."
"A bit?" The stranger pointed at her borrowed basket, filled to the brim with medicinal herbs.
"Fine, a lot," she smiled again, making sure to push amusement to the front of her expression. "But it's nothing serious, just some cuts and bruises."
"I see, you must enjoy fighting then."
"Oh, not at all. Honestly, I'd much rather try and talk things out. It would be nice if nobody had to get hurt."
It was true enough, she'd lost count of how many fights she'd defused back in the village. Not because of fear that Sasuke could lose but simply because she generally didn't enjoy seeing anyone in pain.
"Hmm, I see you are a kind person."
"Kind?" She almost laughed, she hadn't been kind to that chuunin on the road from Konoha, she hadn't been kind as she watched the unknown man that tried to take her away choke in his own blood back when she was just a child, stroke down by the then Uchiha heir. "I... wouldn't use that word to describe me...I do end up fighting after all." No, she was not a kind person, she just liked to pretend. "For the sake of protecting those I love, I will hurt others. Rather than kind, selfish might be a better word."
"Isn't that just part of being strong?" The surprise must've been evident in her face, he continued. "You hurt when you hurt others but you do it all the same. Being willing to put your own wishes aside for the one you love, that is strength."
"I...guess I hadn't seen it that way." And she hadn't really hurt when she'd attacked either had she?
"Here," the stranger offered a smile as he changed the topic by holding a small flower in front. of her "This is an anesthetic, if you boil it and ground it into a paste, it's quite good."
"Really?"
For the first time since they began speaking there was no falsehood in her tone, she was pretty sure she'd never seen this plant before.
"Yes, I don't know if it grows naturally in other countries though, it needs a lot of water." The stranger left the small flower in her hand. "I'm sure you'll be able to protect them, those you love."
She took a brief glance at the small flowers before looking back at the teen's as he stood up to leave.
At first she hadn't noticed, but there was something very specific about the way people moved. Civilians certainly lived in Konoha but she'd been restricted to the Uchiha compound for most of her childhood and then was around only other ninja trainees and fully-fledged shinobis. At some point, Kagome had become desensitized to the particular grace possessed by those who knew exactly how their body worked and moved. In fact, she'd only realized that wasn't normal after spending some time around Tazuna-san's family. People with no training in any sort of martial arts moved...sloppier somehow.
Perhaps that's why she hadn't noticed, she'd completely failed to realize no civilian would stand up in such a fluid motion.
The mask had muffled the voice but as far as she remembered the fake hunter nin's voice wasn't raspy or particularly deep. The height and build weren't that far off either. She'd chalked up her initial jumpiness to the stress of their situation but could it be...
"Are you okay?"
Quick fingers covered the contents of the handbasket that threatened to spill at the speed of her jump. Azure orbs met with obsidian as she took a deep breath trying to shake off the sense of deja-vu. Gods how out of it was she that she missed Sasuke's arrival.
"Yeah, sorry I just…" Cautious eyes glanced at the small flower between her fingers. Despite it all she never felt in danger during their conversation, even now nothing in her warned her against the unknown plant. "I lost track of time."
"Are you done yet?"
Guilt gnawed at her as she eyed the boy once again. He could handle being alone far better than she, no doubt about it but it didn't mean he was free of the same kind of anxiety when being separated. The tension he couldn't quite hide from her made it quite clear the idea of not knowing where she was bothered him far too much. Enough that he actually went ahead and came to look for her.
"Almost, just give me a minute to pick some more of this and we can go," she smiled reassuringly, whether it was just for the boy's sake she wasn't sure.
"Hurry it up" Sasuke grumbled but she could see him relax a little. "Naruto is desperate to show off his great skills."
A/N: Kakashi definitely chose those methods because they were useful, it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was ignored again by his team. Nope, not related at all.