AN: Chapter title: Late Nights
The ringing of blades clashing against each other had sounded out for the past three hours exactly. The moment the third hour had been reached, it had ceased.
"Good work." Yugao lowered her sword at last, such a thing serving as the signal that their training was over with for the night.
Sakura was glad to let the tip of the sword fall to the ground, barely kept the hilt wrapped in her numb fingers. Her bangs were plastered to her forehead courtesy of her sweat, the same could be said for the rest of her loose-fitting training clothes. After the first night, she had learned her lesson and tied her Forehead Protector at her side to prevent the red cloth from getting soaked through in sweat. It was one of the many signs of how her nightly training with Yugao was absolutely exhausting, the short time they had only making her condense what would normally be spread across a full day into an intensive three hours. Her entire body ached, was all but screaming at her to take the night off.
Even if she knew she couldn't.
If she wanted to make Kakashi-sensei proud.
If she wanted to keep herself safe around Naruto and Sasuke.
If she ever wanted to prove everything he thought of her was wrong she needed to keep training.
"T-Thanks." The Genin still dropped to the ground, allowed the cool night air to wash over her in this moment between one set of training and another. She could take at least a little time to simply breathing, to trying and rub away the aches that were spread across her body.
"You're Kenjutsu skill is still amateurish but it's improving." Yugao's words would likely be cutting to anyone else who heard them but, as strange as it was, Sakura could see the praise in them. The Kunoichi was simply amazingly blunt when it came to things like evaluating skills, didn't see the need to say anything but what was factual. "If you continue to improve at this rate, we can move on to more advanced techniques in a month. The beginnings of Leaf Style Kenjutsu in three."
"I won't let you down Yugao-sensei." As tired as she was, as exhausting as this nightly training was, Sakura fully intended to stick to it.
She couldn't afford to slack off.
"You don't have to call me that." She may not have been able to see the purple-haired Jonin but there was no doubt in Sakura's mind that the woman was blushing. She didn't know why exactly but her latest teacher was utterly delighted when she added '-sensei' to her name.
The Jonin sheathed her sword on her back as her steps carried her across the grass to where Sakura was sitting, was gradually catching her breath.
She joined her on the ground as the Genin reached up and tugged the tie out of her hair, allowed her long pink hair to spill down her back. She offered a pat on the back.
"You really are improving." The immediate assessment was over, Yugao a bit more delicate with her words now. She had fallen into routine when she shouldn't have, evaluated her student as if she was part of an ANBU training cycle instead of a Genin. "Most Shinobi limit themselves to basic skills with kunai and shuriken. You're already a step ahead of them."
"You don't have to lie that to spare my feelings." Green eyes found the grass beneath her more interesting, found themselves locked onto the reflection in the polished blade. "I know I'm still behind." Even exhausted as she was, her hold on the hilt tightened. "I'm always behind."
"That's not true." Yugao didn't know if she should keep patting her back or not, settled for her hand rising to her shoulder. "I wouldn't lie to my student. You are improving. When I began learning Kenjutsu, I was just like you. I felt like I wouldn't improve, that I would never advance in my training. But I remained committed and my commitment allowed me to succeed where others gave up, where they settled for failure. Even now when I practice advanced techniques with my b-teacher. Teacher. He still has a lot to teach me and I have a lot to learn."
Yugao squeezed her student's shoulder.
"You're not arrogant. You don't think yourself some master just because you've been training for a few days. Your humility, the ability to admit that you need help, that you're not the best at something, is a trait many don't possess."
"It's not humility if it's true." Sakura sheathed the blade as she spoke, exhausted green eyes looking up into her latest teacher's brown eyes. "Compared to those two…I'm not even worth mentioning."
"…That is true." Yugao wouldn't lie to her, didn't see the need to. "But you're ignoring the circumstances around it all." At the same time, she wouldn't let the girl beat herself up either. "Naruto Uzumaki is a member of the Uzumaki Clan, noted for their powerful Chakra, and the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi. Sasuke Uchiha is of the Uchiha Clan, one of the founding clans of the Hidden Leaf and legendary even depleted as it is. You, on the other hand, come from a civilian background. Traditionally, Shinobi that lack a Clan start out below the standard. Yet you're here now. You push yourself to your limits. I can see it. You may lack the benefits of a Clan but you have the drive, the passion to succeed. That matters."
She remained at her side, watched as her student digested her words.
"I know it's difficult to be with two teammates so strong, that you feel the gap is impossible to close, but don't let it stop you from trying."
Yugao left the Genin a while later, the Kunoichi having seemingly taken her words to heart. She didn't stay and watch her additional training. She gave her that privacy.
"Good luck Sakura." Her voice was lost on the wind but, a part of her, hoped it reached the Genin.
Left alone, Sakura only gave herself a few more minutes before she was on her feet.
A scroll was drawn out and one of the objects inside unsealed:
A rubber ball. One of a dozen sealed inside.
Sakura took it up in one hand.
"Alright. I can do this." Exhaustion was whittled away by focus, by drive. "Just like Kakashi-sensei showed me."
Even if she would be exhausted tomorrow, would be left with hardly any sleep in her actual bed, she had to keep training.
She couldn't break her promise to Kakashi-sensei.
"This isn't working."
As much as he hated to admit such a thing, he had to.
There was too much information to go through alone, too much of it little more than worthless. The worthwhile copies were few and far between, sometime hours spent between each find he could even claim to be somewhat important. Even after days of nearly endless sorting, he only had a small stack of papers in front of him.
All of them mentioned Uzushiogakure in some way, were either signed by Naruto or Sasuke.
He still didn't have more than a small insight into Naruto's future plans, an undisguised effort to leave the village in the future.
He didn't know the time Naruto expected beyond vague mentions of "eventually".
"I can't do this alone." He hated to admit it but it was the truth. Even now, his returning kikaichu were replicating more stacks for him to look over. They could recognize paper, recognize if it had been written on or not, but they couldn't distinguish between anything else. And Naruto's records were expansive, seemingly covered everything one could think of.
His army's weapons, movements, individual reports, group reports, reports on operations past and present, expenses, and countless notes that stretched from a single sentence to pages.
"Dammit." Shino had long since dragged his normally ever-present glasses off to rub at his tired eyes. "Dammit." His hands covered his eyes, prevented them from seeing the countless stacks of papers spread across his room. He would need to figure out what to do with the papers he deemed useless sooner rather than later, risked being buried under it if he persisted in not coming up with a solution.
He finally dragged his hands down his face, stared out at the sea of white and black in his room.
He sighed.
"I shouldn't be this against asking for help…" The only question was who? His team? Kiba would surely help him, was probably eager to take some of the load off of the Aburame but the Inuzuka was also spending most of his days with Karin Uzumaki.
A part of Shino worried that Kiba was…distracted more than he should be. That he didn't hold the mission in the same regard as he did.
Hinata was completely out of the question. He still didn't even know how to approach his teammate, if he should even bother speaking with her.
He didn't want to call her a lost cause when it came to Naruto but she was swiftly approaching exactly that. Even more so with Kurenai-sensei now out of the village, busy escorting the Daimyo back to the capitol.
The rest of the squad? He didn't know if he could rely on them, his fellow Hidden Leaf Shinobi. Ino was content to hide whatever she considered worth hiding, had shown as such during their latest meeting. Shikamaru was distant, seemed focused on simply keeping tabs on them and devoting time to his own project, whatever it was, while they were on the clock as Tribunes. Choji wouldn't keep a secret from either of the two, would insist that he would need to bring the two in. And Sakura was too exhausted to help him even if he asked, he hadn't seen her awake in the tower in days.
"Dammit." Shino found himself at the same conclusion as always: He had to do this alone.
It was better that only he spend his time on this.
Success or failure, it would be his responsibility.
"I can take a break for now." It was a struggle to drag himself from the desk in his room, head out for some fresh air.
He needed to see to his kikaichu. He was developing a separate hive for this exact purpose, sacrificed combat potential for the ability to identify ink and paper, the ability to copy. He had progressed from hard to decipher partial text to near perfect copies. He had to continue to breed a swarm capable of what he needed, persisted at the pipe dream of them eventually able to decipher what was 'important' from 'unimportant'.
"Maybe keywords? Train them to identify specific words or phrases?" He was talking to himself, the halls of the compound belonging to the Aburame Clan all but deserted this late at night.
The handful of Clan members awake were either deep underground, returning from or leaving on missions, or on guard duty.
"Even if I could train them, I would need samples from Naruto or Sasuke, the clones. I couldn't make them myself. I could find them but…" Shino dismissed the idea.
He didn't know where to begin and there was no one he could ask.
He couldn't even go to his father at the moment if he wanted his help, Shibi Aburame dispatched on a mission just this morning that would leave him out of the village for the next few days.
"I'll have to figure a way out of this by myself. Why? Because it's my responsibility as a Chunin of the Hidden Leaf."
Sleep was hard to come by.
She hadn't actually slept since her change.
She could close her eyes, could feel her body slow down, but she didn't sleep more than simply lay down. It wasn't insomnia, didn't leave any negative impact on her.
Honestly, the sudden uninterrupted bout of continued consciousness since the invasion had been as helpful as it had dragged her down into the depths of her mind.
With a mission, she could at least focus on something beyond the fact she was a (freak) had become like this.
It at least helped her late-night meetings with others.
Like now.
The Hokage was seeing longer and longer nights in his office, had at least seen to it that he wasn't in the Hokage Office for all of them. He had asked her to join him on the roof for this meeting. This late at night, the village was quiet. There was still a steady stream of activity but it was subdued, became more like white noise than a roar.
"This is a bold plan Anko." Hiruzen's eyes were focused on the village stretched out in front of him. "Are you sure they're up to it?"
"I'm…not sure." Anko was honest. Even if the Hokage was looking away from her, her eyes turned away from him. "As a whole, they possess a diverse set of skills. Individually, they're mostly above our standard for Genin. The only possible issue is the lack of cohesion they've developed but the nature of my plan limits the possible impact of even that. Even in the worst-case scenario, they can be individually assessed for their suitability. I would prefer all of them were able to participate as the principal but I could still complete my plan with only two of them. The results would be less accurate."
"Still, it's the only method I can see beyond staging an attack on the tower itself." She kept her arm folded across her knee, remained on a knee behind the Hokage. "This way I can analyze more of their behavior, develop a better playbook for how they behave and why they act the way they do. I understand the risk involved but none of the Genin will be at risk more than they already are in the tower."
"Genin and Chunin." He gently corrected her. His eyes remained focused out on the village. Even at night, he could still see the telltale signs of the heavy reconstruction underway courtesy of the failed invasion. 'Is this a sign of things to come? Will we need to rebuild again?' He didn't dare to imagine it, to allow such a nightmarish vision to cross his mind.
"…None of the Genin or Chunin would be harmed without them going through me first. I'll monitor them the entire time." Anko bowed her head. "I…I know this won't go over well with the Clan Heads, that they'll question putting me in charge of their safety, but I promise you that they won't be harmed if I can stop it. I know people think I'm-"
"You are one of the most loyal Shinobi in the Hidden Leaf. I have never doubted this in the past nor have I doubted it in the present." The Hokage heard her sharp breath, the fact that his words stunned her. "When it concerns the success of a mission, the Clan Heads have no say in the matter. Like my any of my advisors, they may provide input but the final decision has always laid with myself alone. I have assigned you to this squad because I trust you to not only provide results but that you will protect those under your command to the utmost of your abilities."
Hiruzen finally turned away from the rebuilding Hidden Leaf, gave Anko his full attention.
He didn't bring notice to the tear running down her face, the shock that decorated her face at his words.
"You have my full support. Inform Yugao and Tenzo of your plan and you may begin when you deem it appropriate." He headed back into the building. "I wish you the best of luck Anko."
"T-Thank you."
AN: 4/4 chapters for this update. Going to keep trying for 1-2 months between updates.
PM/review/adopt this story if you want.
Peace.