Author's Note
As per usual, stuff with an asterisk in the section title is stuff paraphrased, quoted, or chopped up into words and pulled from the original canon NARUTO. I do not own NARUTO but as this arc is the Chunin Exams, expect a lot of canon retelling until perhaps the end of this arc. As I still make no money off of this fiction, I would appreciate not getting sued.
Warning for some bits of Ino being a prick…
By the end of this chapter, Gaara will be eleven and a half-ish. Kankuro and Temari: fourteen—though Temari's going to be fifteen by the end of the Chunin Exam arc and Kankuro just turned. I may have messed up on the ages—again. But whatever. I poured enough energy into detail work for it to be okay, I think... (I also went back a few chapters for time stamp edits just in case...)
Chapter 38
Temari (two months later, approximate time: 9:00 AM)
"Check into the hotel allocated to us—it's the one closest to the Chunin Exam arena building—I'll meet you there," Baki-sensei told his students as he checked in by the border.
"Yes sir," they responded. The two of them that were there, anyways. Gaara was still way in the back, tailing them from the far distance that was no longer mandatory but now customary to the team's set up (and comfort).
Temari and her brother set off. They were seven days early to the date the Chunin Exams were meant to begin on the first of their summer's second month.
Katiya (approximate time: 9 in the morning)
"Katsu, there's been a change of plans…" Those were the words Orochimaru had said to her before they disembarked, wearing what was noticeably someone else's face. Katiya let out a low grumble as she trailed behind her team on their route to Konoha. She was hating this particular change of plans even if it was apparently to help shake off one of his former students, Anko Mitarashi. It was a bullshit reason.
Roll. Scoot. Roll. Scoot. Roll.
Rather than going to Konoha as the sensei of the three genin she trained for the last month, apparently she was going as the disabled sensei of the three genin she trained.
Roll. Scoot. Roll. Scoot.
Orochimaru apparently wanted to be able to witness Sasuke's abilities up close and personal as an Oto-nin as soon as the opportunity arose rather than just during the Chunin Exam finale like any other civilian bystander. But apparently he also wanted as many Oto-nin around in general. Somehow that led to the decision to have her disable one of her legs to be at the Chunin Exams as "that disabled sensei over there" and Orochimaru himself to be "that replacement sensei for that disabled sensei over there". At least, that was what Katiya thought of the arrangement as. She let out another grumble as she scoot-rolled on her wheelchair over dirt road terrain that had an irritating amount of friction.
Of course, as a medic-nin, healing the damage of her senbon induced paralysis was as simple as smacking a Mystic Palm Jutsu onto her leg but still. Roll. Scoot. Roll. Scoot. If only her arms could roll a bit faster. She didn't even know where Orochimaru was at the moment. And her students were over there, almost to the border of Konohagakure, traveling faster than she was.
And she still had to register at the border as a foreign jonin—despite not even being one on paper—just for being a damned sensei. While Orochimaru could probably meander in behind her, the paperwork already filed.
ROLL.
Kankuro* (approximate time: 9:30 AM)
Thump.
Kankuro turned around to see a blue-scarfed kid on the floor. "Do you need something?" The kid didn't respond. Kankuro took a side-eyed glance at the kid's companions. A couple of Academy kids and Konoha genin, he suspected. Potential competition down the line. It was a good scouting opportunity. Putting on his most pissed-off face, he picked the kid up by the collar. "So. Does this hurt, punk?"
"Put him down, Kankuro. Or you know you'll pay for it later," Temari told her brother automatically, probably not really understanding why he was doing what he was doing.
Some random pink haired girl ran up to them to apologize, Konoha hitai-ate in her hair like a headband—a kunoichi, then. Some other kid—also genin by the hitai-ate and lack of skill—in orange also came up and yelled out demands to drop the boy Kankuro had in hand. So these are Konoha's genin…
"We got a few minutes before he gets here. Let's mess with these punks, huh?" Kankuro said, smiling insincerely at the kid with a glance at Temari to hopefully pass her a hint.
The kid in Kankuro's hand let out a groan and started to kick him. "Let go of me, you jerk!"
Kankuro's smile widened. "You're feisty… but not for long," he said in a singsong voice, tightening his grip.
"PUT HIM DOWN!" the orange kid yelled again, running towards Kankuro now.
Now let's see… Kankuro snapped a few chakra strings out of his free hand. The kid fell with a startled outcry, apparently not knowing what had tripped him. Kankuro rolled his eyes. It was less than he expected. "You're a Konoha genin too. Your village is full of wimps!"
The orange kid let out a yell. "Konohamaru! That's it! Drop him now or I take you apart! You got that, bakayaro?!?"
The pink haired kid grabbed the orange boy in a choke hold before he could move. "You're the baka—! Making threats isn't going to help, Naruto!"
Okay, someone has sense, Kankuro thought, smiling while he filed the names away in his head. "You're annoying… All of you. I don't like runts or any other scrawny weaklings. So when a wimp like this starts shooting off his mouth, I just wanna break him in half…"
Temari sighed. "Ugh. Fine. I'm not involved in any of this though, okay?" she said, letting Kankuro do his thing.
"First I'll take care of this little squirt, then I'll waste the other one," Kankuro said in reply, almost theatrically. He pulled his arm back to punch the kid he had grabbed, only to have the skin of his wrist scraped off with a stone.
A pebble fell to the floor.
"Huh?" Kankuro's heart rate spiked, and he let the boy go. He may or may not have broken into a cold sweat as well. The point was to gather some intelligence, not make a huge scene with—Gaara? Kankuro turned nervously.
"You're a long way from home and you're way out of your league," a new voice called. The tone was cold and calm, coming from above them. Not Gaara. There, a dark haired kid playing with another stone sat on a tree branch.
"Sasuke!" the pink one yelled.
Oh great, another punk. Kankuro took in the new appearance's name and speculative combat capability as well. This "Sasuke" punk was dressed in a dark blue short sleeved shirt with a high collar, arm warmers that could have hid who-knew-what, white shorts, taijutsu leg wraps and standard shinobi sandals and pouches, dark blue of a different shade. Right handed, by the thigh pouch arrangement.
The punk crumbled the pebble in his hand that he was playing with. "Get lost," he said.
The runts made irritating random statements about the Sasuke one's coolness. Kankuro ignored them. "Hey punk, get down here. You're the kind of pesky little snot I hate most," he grumbled at the boy, pulling the Konoha-punks' attention back to him. He grabbed his puppet where it was wrapped in bandages on his back. "All attitude and nothing to back it up."
"What? You're going to use Karasu for this?" his sister asked incredulously.
Kankuro narrowed his eyes, thinking it over. His sister had a valid concern. But before he could decide, yet another voice stopped him. A familiarly frightening unemotional rasp. "Kankuro… back off. You're an embarrassment to our village."
Without looking, he knew both he and his sister shriveled back.
"Hey Gaara," Kankuro said, breaking back out into a cold sweat once again and looking to the tree's other branch. Gaara was standing upside down from it, defying gravity, using his chakra. "They challenged us—they started the whole thing, really. See, here's what happened—"
"… Just shut up… or I'll kill you."
"—R-right—I was totally out of line… sorry, Gaara… totally out of line," Kankuro pulled his hand off his puppet and into a more placating position, deciding to play up his nervousness around Gaara now.
"I'm sorry… for any trouble he caused," Gaara stated meaninglessly, not really looking at anyone in particular. He shifted his sand around his body, moving himself to the ground though the spirit realm connection his sand had between himself and it. "Let's go," he said, completely ignoring whatever situation Kankuro had manipulated them into. "We didn't come here to play games."
"Alright. Sure. I get it," Kankuro replied, shuffling behind his brother. He got the bulk of what he needed anyways. Temari followed, rolling her eyes.
"Hold on! Hey!" the voice of the pink kunoichi called.
"What?" Temari asked without looking back.
"I can tell from your hitai-ate you come from Sunagakure. Of course the Land of Wind and Land of Fire are allies, but no shinobi can enter another's village without permission. So state your purpose—and it better be good!"
"Really. Have you guys been living under a rock or what? You don't know what's going on, do you." Temari turned around, pulling her village pass out of one of her pouches and then proceeding to explain the dynamics of the year's Konoha-hosted Chunin Exams.
"Chunin Exams? What's that? I've never heard of any Chunin Exams, believe it," the blonde orange-clad one said by the end of it.
"Oh, I believe it alright. You're completely clueless."
Kankuro and Gaara both stopped to wait for Temari. The blue-scarfed kid was the one who had to explain what the Chunin Exams were to the blonde orange-clad boy. Gaara scoffed and moved away. Kankuro and his sister moved to follow.
"Hey! You. Identify yourself," the cold voice of the Sasuke-punk called, stopping them once again.
Temari turned around. "Hmm? You mean me?" she asked cutely. Kankuro stopped himself from turning to her and giving her a sidelong glance.
"No. Him, with the gourd on his back."
"Huh?" Kankuro quietly murmured. I just poked a bunch of you punks and you're interested in him?
"My name is Gaara… Sabaku no Gaara… I'm curious about you too… Who are you."
"I am Sasuke Uchiha."
The two took the other in. Gaara of the Desert and Sasuke of Konohagakure's Uchiha Clan.
"Hi there! I bet you're dying to know my name, right?" the annoying voice of the orange one asked.
Gaara blinked, the orange boy breaking the moment Kankuro knew his brother was sharing with the whole eye-to-eye thing with the other boy. "I couldn't care less."
Gaara made a chakra-enhanced jump to a nearby rooftop. Kankuro took it as their cue to leave. He and his sister followed. The loud voice of the orange kid echoed as they left. "Hey, Konohamaru, do I seem uncool or something?"
Katiya (approximate time: 1-something, afternoon)
Oto's only genin team to participate in the Chunin Exams reported in. Katiya sat there, bored, listening as they went over the details until they said something notable. "Desert rat", Katiya mentally repeated, using one of their phrases as they debriefed her. She had not bothered to inform her team of her connection to Gaara. Nor was it truly necessary for the team to know of it. But she knew who they must have been referring to, after they said they did some information gathering heading into Konohagakure and observing a team from Suna.
"What did you observe of the team and this 'desert rat's' jutsu?" Katiya asked Dosu to verify. Her students could not see her eyes narrow under her tinted googles.
"Nothing much, but the one with the gourd's powerful. Very powerful. The girl carried a giant war fan. And the other boy uses chakra strings."
"They're irrelevant at the moment," she found herself saying with an indifferent nod. "Just remember your mission. They may prove obstacles later—our forces and Suna's may be allies—but they're not aware of all of Oto's plans." The plans to kill their Kazekage, that was. She continued, "Our sources say the exam will be split into three parts, a written, a survival and a public battle royale where our own plans are meant to be executed. Sunagakure has been informed of the same. Have you all planned out a course of action for the first part?" she asked, changing the subject.
Zaku let out a derisive snort. "You've drilled it into us long enough. We know."
"We also got eyes on our target while you were out," Dosu added.
Katiya narrowed her eyes at that. I see.
Kankuro (approximate time: 2:00 PM)
"So what did you manage to learn?" Temari asked her brother, well away from the scene he created earlier in the day.
"Not much. We got a record anywhere for a 'Konohamaru'? The arrogant runt seemed like he had some noble clan blood in him."
"Konohamaru… Sarutobi, yeah," Temari replied. "He's the grandson of the Hokage."
Kankuro let out a low whistle. Temari folded her arms over her chest, probably thinking something disparaging. Knowing the noble status of the boy, he was made even less threatening and less noteworthy. Neither of them could remember a time when they were that pathetic.
"What about the others? The Sasuke one?" Temari asked.
"Meh. The blonde one, whatever, is a knucklehead. I don't expect anything besides Academy basics out of him. The kunoichi companion of his is probably even worse. By the look of her arms, she'd probably lose to you in a simple match of taijutsu. She didn't even seem to be carrying any gear we need to be worried about."
Temari smirked at that. "Sasuke, then?"
Odd. It was the second time she asked about the same boy in the same conversation. It seemed Kankuro's sister was interested in the boy.
"Favors taijutsu, probably has stuff hidden up his sleeves if he's smart, and whatever the Uchiha clan poured into him. I'm not too worried about dealing with the Konoha-punks right now, though. If their jonin are anything like their genin, this invasion should be a piece of cake."
The two gave Gaara a look where he was, both sensing his interest, and as a reflex. The hotel they booked themselves into went silent for a moment.
"'Konoha-punks'?" Temari repeated humorously, turning back to her brother.
Kankuro turned red. It was the first time he used the term outside the Puppeteer Corp headquarters. "Leave it alone. At least I'm not developing a crush on the first random Konoha-nin I see."
It was Temari's turn to turn red. "Oh shut up, you know that blush was fake."
"You blushed?" Kankuro grinned.
"No! Uchiha looks cool—but he's not my type—later when Baki-sensei gets back here, I'm going to take a walk out," Temari flustered, "Try to match our maps with the one Oto's got."
"Uh huh," Kankuro replied, not believing that excuse for a second and very aware of Temari's attempt to change the topic.
…
There was an awkward silence as Gaara just sat there and Baki had yet to arrive.
"So… Uchiha…"
"Kankuro, shut up!"
Gaara (approximate time: 4:00 AM)
There were enough linked rooms in the portion of the hotel they were provided for Gaara to get his own, courtesy of Konohagakure, but Baki-sensei locked one of them. He was to share a room with one of his siblings at all times out of "safety concerns". And so at night, they all slept in the same room as they did on missions with their low budgets. He didn't mind. He let his mind wander as one of his siblings slept and another took watch.
He knew there was something to keep an eye on—a possible worthy target of his—with the pebble the boy from the pervious morning had thrown. There was a cold ferocity there he found resonance with—marking him as WoRthY pReY.
But there was some familiarity he felt with it as well—something else that called to him in the boy "Sasuke Uchiha"—
—ThOsE EyES—thosE EyeS.
UcHihA, he felt himself and Shukaku repeat excitedly.
Temari (the next day, approximate time: 7:00 AM)
Temari was walking around one of the neighborhoods of Konohagakure, a few maps in hand. Unlike the time she had searched through the ruins of Takigakure, the ones she held now were much more viable. She was therefore more relaxed this time around, not having as stringent a time constraint and a much easier job to do. Walking easily, her only real objective was to take her time so as not to draw suspicion from any other shinobi. She stopped in front of a flower shop. In the name of not appearing suspicious, she walked in.
It was a well-lit shop with homely wooden floors and flower shelves. Unlike her native Suna, these flowers weren't in a state of perpetual dehydration or sunburn. She recognized only a few of the species and the shop had no succulents for sale, but that was to be expected. She found herself browsing their bonsai selection and staring at what was labeled to be an "Apple Bloom Bonsai" placed separately from the rest, glowing in a sunny area. It was covered in a sort of pale white powder, not unlike the farina or epicuticular wax of a Land of Wind succulent.
I never knew Land of Fire plants made farina, Temari thought as she made to pick it up.
"Ah, I wouldn't touch that if I were you," a petulantly girlish voice called. "We stuck that one there so people wouldn't go near it. Can't you see the mildew on it?"
Temari put her hands down. Oh—?
"Let me guess: first time visitor?" the girl asked. Temari turned around to look at the girl, her shinobi reflexes kicking in. Blue-eyed with long creamy blonde hair tied into a high ponytail, the disappointingly petite girl was in a cowled knitted dress, a shade of eggplant purple, tied at the waist by bandage wraps and a Konoha hitai-ate. She had a pale apron thrown over one arm-warmer covered arm, evidently beginning her shift as the shopkeeper.
"What gave it away, my hitai-ate?" Temari asked wryly.
"Not really," the girl said, turning her head away slightly. "Here at Yamanaka Flowers, we just pride ourselves on knowing our customers. But you're right, your clothes did give you away. No one around here would dress like that with your body type."
My what?!
The girl prattled on, "Not to mention the moldy bonsai. Regular customers know we don't use pesticides and have to reserve a corner of the shop for natural cleansers like sunlight. I mean, nothing like a good base tan to make your skin glow, am I right?" she joked.
The girl gave Temari a closed-eyed smile and haughtily fanned the air with an open hand, posing with a hand on her hip until she realized the Temari wasn't joking back. Temari, on the other hand, was glaring at her with narrowed eyes.
"What?" the young shopkeeper asked, as if not realizing any offense and now trying to recover. "The Land of Fire's international fashion magazine says that broad shouldered girls shouldn't be wearing off-the-shoulder dresses since they bring attention to shoulder width—everyone knows the trends are all about being lean right now. Here in the Land of Fire, we just try to keep on top of it all to have the best chance of attracting the boys. I just figured it'd be the same in—" the girl looked at Temari's hitai-ate around her neck.
Temari cut her off. "I guess me being from Suna, I'm at a disadvantage then," Temari said, her eyes glittering dangerously, "I'm sure your 'international fashion magazine' arriving late to our borders isn't Konoha's fault."
"Well, I'm not—?"
"—How much is that?" Temari asked, gesturing at the moldy bonsai with her thumb.
"Wha—?" the girl asked at the non sequitur, "Uh—it's—!"
Temari cut her off by whipping out her lowest currency coin and hurling it at the plant. It found itself rather threateningly embedded in the plant's pot—thrown in such a manner as not to crack the pot to pieces—and still be visibly stuck where it was embedded. A smashed plant pot would be the least of Konohagakure's concerns come a few weeks more anyways. Temari pivoted and walked out of the shop.
"H-Hey!" the girl cried out, recoiling, apparently shinobi enough to wear the Konohagakure hitai-ate but not enough to do anything to stop Temari as she walked out the door. Passing the threshold, Temari Body Flickered to some distance away. The shopkeeper still gave no visible action to chase. And so Temari moved to resume her map confirmation, now fuming.
In the belief system more prevalent in the northern civilian regions in the Land of Wind, she was to dress safely. In a way that made her comfortable. There were multiple ways to interpret the dogmas of the belief system, but that was how her mother did. Her mother, valuing the shinobi lifestyle before the dogmas of the northern religions—just like Temari herself did—they didn't care much for religion when it became matters of practicality. Nor did they give a damn about some fashion magazine.
In Suna, some just chose to dress in a way that covered everything, to be prepared just in case of the north's prevalent sandstorms. Some interpreted it to dress respectfully, to others who might have become uncomfortable and thus became hostile otherwise. It was rare to find someone who cared about what some trend magazine had to say, especially since "fashion" could have been downright dangerous in sandstorms and demon issues of the Land of Wind.
She was shinobi comfortable in the way she was. She trained to be at home in the worst of the situations, in the face of others' hostility. She was respectful of the Suna-nin's way of dressing for one's fighting style as being bogged down by unnecessary fabric would have hindered her ability to fight. She felt safe in what she wore. Back when purchasing the outfit. She liked the dress.
Temari touched one of her mesh-covered shoulders self-consciously as she made her way down one of the more quiet alleys. She liked her shoulders, and how the dress brought attention to them. She liked how muscular they were. She was a shinobi, after all. And muscle mattered more than fashion to the average shinobi.
But she was in a new place now, on a war mission.
Maybe she ought to cover up more in the future.
But her favorite dress hid equipment tucked away in its attached accessible armpit holster. Pain relief medications for a kunoichi's monthly nuisance. Or for injuries in general, to keep fighting. She needed it in case of emergencies. For the invasion. She even wore it just for that.
Temari kicked an alley trash bin away noisily, quickly finding herself leaping through the streets of Konohagakure, eager to finish her job now. She pounded the thoughts of whatever Konoha-nin might think or say to the back of her head. Konohagakure, quickly losing respect in her mind if this was what their kunoichi were willing to do for their boys.
Katiya* (approximate time: 9. In the morning. Again.)
From her now shortened vantage point from being stuck in a wheelchair, Katiya picked her way across one of Konohagakure's shopping districts. A street full of random street-food shops selling noodles, mochi, exotic fruit and desserts, and she still couldn't find one that sold Land of Waves cuisine.
She had been craving some comfort food since… a while, though thinking about the circumstances behind it dug up some less than satisfactory memories. Wearily, she scooted along, pushing the thoughts away with her fonder food memories, though those threatened to kick up another can of worms themselves. Dried anchovies, roasted seaweed, coconut chips… At that point, she figured she'd settle for even the soggiest Land of Waves style sandwich Konohagakure had as long as it was able to replicate its carrot, daikon, and grilled meat filling. She couldn't go back. She was telling herself she wouldn't go back. But maybe she could still eat the food, assuming the resulting "homesickness" or whatever it was didn't threaten her position in Otogakure.
She let out a breath and turned the corner and startled.
"BWAH!?? You look just like my sensei!" some random kid exclaimed.
Katiya blinked in response. She found it highly unlikely considering the majority of her face was covered by a balaclava. Katiya touched a hand to her tinted goggles, which were perched on the top of her forehead at the moment. Was it somehow her eyes? She instinctively began pulling as much chakra as she could from them.
"I'm sorry?" Katiya tried.
"Oh man! I've gotta tell my teammates you look just like Kakashi-sensei! I bet they'll be just as surprised as I am when they hear he's got relatives from—uhh—" the child squinted at Katiya. She wasn't fond of wearing the Otogakure hitai-ate, but her flak vest was distinctly not from Konohagakure in design. "Say, where are you from again?"
Katiya blinked again. A part of her was wracking her mind for who the heck "Kakashi-sensei" was. Would he be in one of our Bingo Books? Sounds familiar…
The cerulean eyed blonde bundle of orange was looking at her with a strange (or strained) look of concentration now. "Unless you're not one of Kakashi-sensei's relatives and you're really just trying to copy the Copy Ninja because he's just that awesome!" the child decided.
Katiya mentally winced, her mind repeating the part about "the Copy Ninja", remembering now. He was their Uchiha target's sensei and also a Sharingan wielder. Similarities being drawn between them did not bode well. But she dismissed the concern since it appeared to be derived from her mask-wearing.
"I'm not familiar with your sensei, I'm afraid. But I'm sure he'd be glad to hear you think so highly of him. Though, may I ask why?"
"Because he signed me and my teammates up for the Chunin Exams—the exams you've gotta take to become a full-on chunin—so I'm gonna do them and become the next Hokage, believe it!" the blonde child exclaimed with a pointed index finger in Katiya's direction.
"I see," Katiya replied neutrally. "Well then, I ought to be off. I've yet to have breakfast," she said, now trying to extricate herself from the conversation.
The blonde child jumped up at that rather than bidding her farewell. "That reminds me! I haven't had breakfast either—I was headed to Ichiraku Ramen before I got caught up and ran into you! You should check them out! They have the best pork ramen toppings! And Old Man Teuchi's so nice he even gave me a meal on the house yesterday after I told him I'd be taking my Exams—I didn't even have to use my coupon!" The child began to pat the front of the orange jumper and matching trousers that were being worn, presumably looking for the aforementioned coupon. "Oh, not again!"
Katiya tilted her head bemusedly. The hyperactive child was something else. Most other shinobi simply dismissed her, seeing her wheelchair bound, faking an injury or not. It was different, having this attention no matter how odd the circumstances were, when her being injured essentially rendered her invisible to most other shinobi. She found herself pulling down her goggles, activating her Sharingan for just long enough to give her the ability to guess where he'd put his ramen coupon based on the energy and personality of his chakra, and then deactivating them and pulling her goggles off to wipe so as not to seem suspicious. It was a crowded area, she rationalized later. Two people stopping to chat was hardly suspicious anyways.
"If it's not in one of your rear pockets and assuming you didn't leave it at home, maybe it's in your hitai-ate?"
The child's hands went to the aforementioned hitai-ate, feeling the coupon and then replacing it back to where it was stored. "Whoa, thanks Miss—uhh—gee I uhh—"
"Katsu," Katiya said by way of introduction.
The child grinned sheepishly.
"And you?" she asked.
"Naruto Uzumaki, soon to be the next Hokage, believe it!" the kid said with a thumbs-up.
Katiya's mind stilled at the exclamation. Naruto Uzumaki… another familiar… now where… ?
The kid let out a laugh. "Well, nice chatting with you—see you!" the kid yelled, running off with a wave, seeing her silence.
Katiya's eyes widened, remembering something. Unlike his sensei, the name "Naruto Uzumaki" was not written into one of the information files she received from Otogakure. No, it was from something someone told her when she asked about the new bridge in the Land of Waves and the rumors of the story behind the choice of name... The Great Naruto Bridge, named after one Naruto Uzumaki… After… After rallying the people and kicking out a corrupt kingpin, wasn't it… Huh, Katiya thought to herself. That "Naruto" was quite the child in that case.
Author's Note
The last section there: it's a bit of an amalgam of several episodes, I think. I remember there being a bit where Naruto had a ramen coupon on him but couldn't find it but I'm not sure where that episode was and I actually have no idea if the whole treat-you-out-for-ramen thing after Naruto announced he'd be taking the exams was a thing—I didn't bother paying attention to the episode after I got the Sand Siblings coming into Konoha bits.
I hate strict retellings of canon since it defeats the point of a fanfiction that builds off of canon but I need a few bits of grounding. I'll be keeping it to minimums as much as I can.
Side note. The Sharingan does not give "X-ray" vision, nor can an X-ray see a paper coupon. But it does allow one to see the energy release of someone's and a typical Sharingan wielder's brain can then process the view of that energy to anticipate a person's future movements. I'm assuming it'd also potentially do that for past movements as well. Katiya's fairly okay at reading people's rough intentions via their body posture and facial expressions without her Sharingan from her own experiences analyzing, living life, and being mindful… but that has its limits. Hence why she decided to use her Sharingan to help out after being put into a rather fair mood by Konoha's resident ball of sunshine.