like mother, like son

by snickerdoobles

Summary:

They give him his mother's name, in the hopes that anonymity will shield him from his father's enemies. But he holds far more in common with her than a name. He holds her burden: the Fox. He holds her dream: to become Hokage.

And he holds her greatest weapon.

The Uzumaki Chains.

__________________________________

A What-If fic where Naruto never learns the Shadow Clone technique, and instead manifests the Adamantine Sealing Chains.

Chapter 1: like mother, like son

Summary:

In which Mizuki is a terrible teacher, the Fox is a terrible influence, and Naruto is in terrible trouble.

Uzumaki Naruto is many things, but one thing he’s not? Evil .

 

People assume he’s evil, just like they assume he’s the one responsible whenever something goes wrong, just like they assume he’s going nowhere fast. And true, he might have been behind a fair number of pranks and tricks in the past, and yes, he might be dead last in class, but the demon comments are...weird, to say the least. Even more confusing is the way that the villagers just...whisper about it. Most of the time, when someone yells at him, it’s loud and upfront, but they never call him ‘demon’ to his face. Only in hushed whispers, when they think he can’t hear them. Another assumption to add to the pile, apparently. It’s not like he’s deaf.

 

He tried asking Jiji about why people call him a demon the last time he visited Naruto’s dingy apartment, but the old man just dodged around the question before handing Naruto his budget for the month, mussing his hair, and shuffling out the door. 

 

There’s not too many other people he can turn to for answers. Within his first month at the Academy, he learned the hard way that most of the staff won’t give him the time of day. They only pay him any attention when he pulls pranks or shouts at them or distracts the other kids. And even then, it’s not good attention like pulling him aside to correct how he holds his wrist when he throws a kunai or teaching him how to do math more complicated than counting on his fingers. ( Force them to look at you, whispers the voice in his heart as he slips an explosive tag full of glitter and foul-smelling smoke into a teacher’s desk, force them to see you, to acknowledge your presence. )

 

But not Iruka-sensei. Iruka is kind to him, in little ways like offering him test retakes and taking him for ramen once in a while, and he knows that Iruka means well when he lectures him. He also knows that Iruka tried ignoring him like the other teachers do at first, but Naruto figured that something must’ve changed his mind. Sometimes, Naruto thinks that Iruka goes beyond tolerating him. Sometimes it seems like Iruka might even like him.

 

Even so, Naruto sometimes sees the same cloud of fear flit across his teacher’s face that he’s seen darken so many of the villagers’ expressions. The last thing Naruto wanted to do is alienate the one person who’s willing to give him even the barest scraps of acknowledgement. 

 

Naruto’s been waiting until he has the right words to ask about his demon problem. And now he thinks he might have waited too long. He scuffs his feet in the dirt beneath the swing in the Academy courtyard, grimacing slightly as grit worms it’s way into his sandals and between his toes. His classmates all dance around each other, flashing their hitai-ates proudly to parents and siblings and friends. The teachers mill around, offering their congratulations to everyone. 

 

Everyone but him. Because he failed. Again.

 

He practiced so hard this time around. He studied all the scrolls he could get his hands on, he poured so much time and energy into training, and he would have passed--his Taijutsu is up to par, he can henge well enough to pass muster, his substitution is decent, and he knows he at least passed the written portion, despite the letters floating dizzily across the page--if not for the stupid bunshin. He hates bunshin. He can never get it right. They’re either too weak or they pop immediately after forming.

 

Mizuki-sensei had argued in his favor after his disastrous performance, citing his endurance and determination, and Naruto had let himself feel a brief spark of hope, but Iruka had dumped a bucket of cold water on his dreams and summarily failed him once again. Naruto can see him now across the courtyard, standing next to Jiji. The older man is saying something to the scarred chuunin, but Naruto’s hearing isn’t quite sharp enough to hear it over the delighted chatter of his classmates, and he’s never been stellar at lip-reading.

 

There’s a rustle behind him, and he twists on the swing to see Mizuki-sensei perched on a branch above his head. “Naruto,” the chuunin murmurs, a gleam in his dark eyes. “You must be upset, after failing again. Want to go talk about it?”

 

(Why do you care all of a sudden? snarls the voice, but Naruto ignores it like he always does)

 

“’M not upset,” says Naruto thickly, swiping his sleeve across his face. He’s not just upset, he’s devastated, but he knows the shinobi code well enough to recognize that he shouldn’t be showing this much emotion. “I’m definitely not upset. But yeah, I guess we can ditch this joint.” 

 

Mizuki offers him a grin and jerks his head towards the edge of the schoolyard. “C’mon kid, I know a pretty good spot for moping. Even though you’re definitely not upset.” He leaps from the tree, landing light as a cat before strolling off.

 

Naruto spares one last glance at Iruka, questions he didn’t quite know if he wanted to know the answer to burning in his heart. He can’t ask them today, not after he failed so miserably. Not after Iruka told him he wasn’t ready. He’d try next month. After school started again. Maybe he’ll get it right next time.

 

He sighs, then darts off after Mizuki. 

 

---

 

Ever since he was little, he’s always felt more at home in high-up places. The tops of trees, water towers on rooftops, the Hokage Monument. Partially, he suspects, it’s because he’s out of reach from most civilians. But there’s something else, something about the tug of the wind on his hair and clothes, something about the way his heartbeat roars in his ears and his stomach clenches when he looks down, something about the way the sun glints off of everything when it’s unobstructed by trees or buildings. Up there, he can see beyond the great sea of trees surrounding Konoha. Up here, nobody throws rocks or insults at him. Up there, he feels like he could be Hokage.

 

He sees shinobi pass through his secret kingdom all the time, but they rarely ever stop and take in the sights. To them, trees and roofs and cliffs are things to be climbed on the way to their goal. He thinks it’s a shame, really, that nobody wants to look at Konoha from above. So when Mizuki takes him to a precarious balcony overseeing the Flower District, he’s quietly relieved that there’s at least somebody in this village who appreciates a good view.

 

After he’s situated himself in the perfect spot, his feet dangling lazily over the edge of the balcony, Naruto tells Mizuki as such, and his sensei laughs. "The sunset’s absolutely gorgeous in Konoha, when you can actually see it. Too many trees here for that." Mizuki hands Naruto a container full of gyoza as he settles next to him, threading his legs through the balcony’s railing. “Iruka-sensei failed you because he’s worried about you, Naruto. We both are.“

 

“It’s the stupid fucking bunshin,” Naruto snaps, then ducks as Mizuki flashes a hand out to thump him on the head, hissing 'language!' at him. “I would’ve passed that exam if I didn’t have to make a perfect bunshin, you know it, I know it, and Iruka definitely knows it.“

 

“I understand that you have trouble with the bunshin, and, well, yes, you would have passed if it were not for that. But every ninja needs to know the Acadamy Three. They’re important fundamentals that lay the groundwork for--”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” grumbles Naruto, wrinkling his nose as he stuffs a piece of gyoza in his mouth. He scrubs his greasy fingers on the leg of his pants before muttering through a mouthful of dumpling, “Doesn’t mean that I’m not fuckin’ pissed about it, y’know.”

 

“Language,” Mizuki repeats warningly, picking a gyoza of his own from the container.

 

“Doesn’t mean I’m not fuckin’ peeved about it, y’know.”

 

Mizuki laughs, taking Naruto by surprise. “That’s what I like about you, Naruto, you always see a way around the rules.” A thoughtful expression crosses the man’s face, and he taps his chin. “In fact, you might benefit from taking the Scroll Exam.”

 

Naruto freezes. “The what?”

 

“The Scroll Exam,” Mizuki says slowly, “is an alternate exam that a prospective shinobi may take in order to graduate. It’s rarely given outside of wartime, but as your sensei, I am authorized to decide whether or not that would be a viable option. And for you, I think it’s your best chance. The test itself is difficult, but for you, it’s absolutely within your power.”

 

“Okay, but you still haven’t explained what it is.”

 

“There is a scroll in the Hokage’s library called the Scroll of Forbidden Seals. We talked about it in class at the beginning of the semester, but you may not remember. The scroll is full of powerful jutsu, so it’s kept under lock and key. Usually, the Scroll Exam starts at noon, but I don’t think you’ll have any difficulty if you start at sundown. For the exam, you must smuggle the scroll out of the Hokage Tower, learn a jutsu by midnight, and perform the jutsu for your sensei.”

 

“Wait. I’d have to... steal? From Jiji?”

 

Mizuki’s face twists slightly in reproach as he shifts closer to Naruto, smacking him lightly on the head again. “Sandaime-sama, Naruto. Calling the Hokage ‘Jiji’ is rude. And you won’t be stealing the scroll! Not really. It’s a test of your skills, to see how well you can infiltrate, how well you can retrieve an asset, how fast you can learn a difficult technique, and how well you can keep a secret. Lots of shinobi in the past have taken this alternative exam. They’ve just been sworn to secrecy.”

 

Naruto feels his own expression twist as he bites his lip. “I--I dunno, Mizuki-sensei, this sounds an awful lot like stealing.”

 

“Well, yes, technically, it will be stealing. But you’re not intending to keep the scroll, just retrieve it, and I’ll smooth things over with the Hokage.”

 

“But...I’ve never heard about this test. I’ve only ever heard of people passing the exams. I feel like Jij--Sandaime-sama would have told me about this.” And he’s sure he would have heard from someone, especially one of the clan kids. Shikamaru especially would have taken this route in a heartbeat; anything to get out of sitting the exam with their peers. If anybody would know about this, it would be the clan kids, and the clan kids only worried about keeping their clan techniques secret. Not something like this. 

 

And, well...he’d like to think that Iruka-sensei would tell him about it, too, if he thought Naruto would be able to pass this test. 

 

“He probably thought you’d pass the conventional exam. Listen, Naruto, you could be an awesome shinobi if you had the chance, but it’s the bunshin that’s holding you back. You can’t pass the exam the way everyone else does, so you just have to take a shortcut.” He taps his forehead, grinning crookedly at Naruto. “Work smarter, not harder.”

 

(He wants something from this, the voice says. Be careful.)

 

“I...guess,” Naruto said hesitantly. 

 

“Good kid,” Mizuki chuckes, ruffling Naruto’s hair. “Now remember, you have to have the jutsu memorized by midnight tonight. Steal the scroll, learn a jutsu, come find me at training ground 17, and I’ll test you.”

 

“...Ok, sensei.”

 

---

The longer Naruto thinks about this whole mess, the more trouble he realizes he’s in.

 

For starters? Earlier tonight, when Jiji caught him sneaking through the window into the Hokage’s archive, Jiji did not seem like he knew what was happening. He didn’t spend a whole lot of time with the old man, but he knew that when it came to dealing with Naruto, Jiji had a terrible poker face. If he’d been expecting Naruto to be sneaking the scroll out, he wouldn’t have frowned and asked him what he was doing out so late. He might have rolled his eyes or smiled that weird knowing smile, but he wouldn’t have looked so... confused. Naruto can only hope that Jiji was shocked enough by his Oiroke No Jutsu that he wouldn’t think much about Naruto’s presence in the Tower.

 

And then there’s the fact that the one and only jutsu on the scroll was a stinkin’ bunshin. Mizuki had made a whole big fuss about how the bunshin was holding him back, that he needed to learn a jutsu that wasn’t a bunshin, and now Naruto was expected to learn an even more complicated version of a bunshin? He supposes he could have studied the seals and used one of those, but Mizuki specifically told him to master a jutsu. So he’s been trying. And trying. And trying. But he keeps hitting a wall somewhere, and he’s starting to feel tired and dizzy. 

 

To top everything else off, just as he’s about to give up entirely on this nonsense and just become a shinobi the proper way, Iruka bursts from the bushes and catches sight of him. The chuunin has an angry, frustrated fire in his eyes, and Naruto tries not to shrink back too much from it. “I-Iruka-sensei! I--I’m sorry, I can’t--I’m not--I can’t do bunshins--” 

 

Iruka storms forward, his voice sharper than it usually is during his lectures. “Naruto, that’s no excuse for stealing the Scroll of Seals."

 

Naruto is now absolutely sure he’s in the most trouble he’s ever been in his entire life. Even more trouble than the time he caught his stove on fire. “I--Mizuki-sensei--”

 

There’s a flash of silver at the edge of the clearing, and Mizuki slinks from the shadows. He’s got three huge shuriken strapped to his back, and there’s something in his eyes that pitches Naruto’s heart rate into overdrive. “Iruka,” Mizuki purrs. “You found him before he could do any damage with the scroll! Excellent, I was starting to worry.”

 

Iruka’s face shifts from outrage to puzzlement. “Mizuki? I thought you were ordered to check the riverbanks--”

 

A fleeting emotion flashes across Mizuki’s features, too quick for Naruto to catch. “I--saw you heading here. You know the demon better than I do, I figured you might know where it would go to ground--”

 

Something splinters in Naruto’s stomach as a wave of realization washes over him, threatening to drown him. “Iruka-sensei,” Naruto says softly, trying to ignore the wobble in his tone. “Mizuki told me to get the scroll. He told me I could graduate if I learned a jutsu from it. That was--that was a lie, wasn’t it?”

 

The confused tone in Iruka’s voice when he says “What?” is the only answer Naruto really needs.

 

Mizuki was framing him. He wanted the scroll, and he used Naruto to get it, and Naruto had fallen for it like the stupid fucking idiot that he is because, what? Mizuki fed him dumplings? Liked the view of the sunset from a rooftop? Told him he could be a shinobi? (As if you can be a shinobi now, hisses the tiny voice in his heart. Too stupid to realize when someone’s playing you for a fool.)

 

It’s worse, though, Naruto realizes as he slowly rolls the scroll back up and slings it across his back. It’s worse, because for a brief, shining moment, he actually thought that Mizuki believed in him.

 

“Naruto,” Iruka-sensei is saying, but it sounds muted and far away in his ears. “Run to the Tower. Take the scroll back, apologize to Sandaime-sama, and we’ll have a long talk later about what you did tonight.” There’s a kunai glittering in Iruka’s hand, and Naruto briefly wonders how it got there.

 

Mizuki snorts from across the clearing. “I don’t know why you’re defending it, Iruka. You’ve gotten soft. Or maybe you were soft from the start.” He reaches over his shoulder and unhooks one of the shuriken, almost idly shifting into a throwing stance, his lip curling into a crooked smile that didn’t seem as friendly or charming in the dim moonlight. A practiced flick of the thumb, and the shuriken is spinning in his hand. “Hey, Naruto,” Mizuki croons as the shuriken dances in the pale light of the moon, his voice slippery with honeyed venom. “Don’t you want to know why everyone hates you?”

 

“No, I don’t give--I don’t give a rat’s ass--” Naruto stutters.

 

“Naruto, don’t listen to him. He’s trying to manipulate you for the scroll. Don’t fall for it. Run. Go.” Iruka’s voice is urgent and low, and if Naruto didn’t know any better, he’d swear that there was a note of panic threaded through it. “Go, now.”

 

“It’s because you’re a demon,” Mizuki sing-songs, an almost animalistic gleeful glint in his eyes. “You’re the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto.” 

 

The shattered, splintered thing in his gut twists painfully, and Naruto recognizes somehow that Mizuki is telling the truth for the first time tonight. Everything slowly clicks into place. The whispers of ‘demon’ when he’s barely in earshot. The way people looked at him on adoption days at the orphanage, then passed him over for other kids. The ANBU he remembers following him as a child.

 

The dreams of giant, flaming red eyes watching him from a golden cage in the dark.

 

Mizuki’s smile grows wider and sharper. “The Yondaime--”

 

Iruka interrupts, voice harsh. “Don’t listen to him, Naruto--”

 

“--the Yondaime, he died sealing the Kyuubi into you. You killed him, Naruto, you killed all those people--”

 

“--Mizuki, stop, he’s-- ”

 

“--you killed Iruka’s parents.”

 

Iruka pauses.

 

And Naruto remembers. He remembers Iruka telling him I’m an orphan too, you know, over a bowl of ramen late one night. My parents died the night of the Fox attack. 

 

Naruto did that. Naruto did that to Iruka.

 

Mizuki moves and there’s a terrifying shrieking sound as the shuriken flies from Mizuki’s hands, whirling straight towards Naruto. Iruka is screaming at him to run, he tries to move, he tries to dodge, he tries to do anything , but it’s like his feet are bolted to the ground. His legs jerk awkwardly and he twists around, falling straight on his face, it’s too late to scramble away--

 

There’s a sickening, wet thud, a pained grunt, and a cruel laugh from Mizuki. “Honestly, Iruka. It’s incredible that you’re defending that thing.”

 

Naruto’s head whips around. Iruka is crouched protectively over him, Mizuki’s shuriken embedded in his back. Why, Naruto wants to whisper, and maybe he managed to say it out loud, because Iruka answers. “Because we’re the same. You were so--” A rattling cough wracks Iruka’s body, and blood flecks his flak vest as the chuunin hauls himself to his feet. “My parents died. And nobody paid any attention to me, either. I was so lonely. And you are too, aren’t you?”

 

I’m so lonely, I’m so sorry, Naruto wants to say. I didn’t realize. I just wanted to be a shinobi. I just wanted to be strong. “He’s going to kill you,” he says instead. 

 

Naruto can barely see Iruka’s grimace as the man turns to face Mizuki, but he can hear it in his voice. “I know. Run.”

 

He wants to fight. He wants to help fix his mistake. He wants to make it up to Iruka somehow.

 

But he runs instead. 

---

Naruto is absolutely not crying.

 

He scrubs tears from his face as he tears through the underbrush, forgoing any attempts at subtlety as he tries to put distance between himself and Mizuki. It feels like he’s been running for hours, but it’s probably only been minutes, if even that. His mind is whirling and he’s so dizzy and the tiny voice in his heart is laughing at him--

 

The voice. Oh. The voice.

 

He’s heard it all his life, but recently, it’s been easier to understand. When he was little, it was less of a voice and more of a feeling. As he grew older and older, he could hear it better and better. At first he thought it was normal, that everyone had something like that. And then he thought it was because he was lonely, and he’d made up a friend that lived in his heart.

 

But now he thinks it might be the influence of the Fox. 

 

(The voice is laughing now. It’s loud, louder than it’s ever been before, it’s angry and it just won’t shut up .)

 

There’s an enraged howl from Mizuki, muffled by foliage and distance, and Iruka suddenly crashes through a bush next to Naruto. “I--sensei, I’m--I’m so--”

 

Iruka’s hands fly through the henge signs-- dog boar ram --and suddenly, Naruto is looking into his own face. “Hide,” Iruka hisses, and Naruto can barely hear his sensei’s voice layered underneath his own.

 

He should stand his own next to Iruka, but his traitorous legs run around the base of a tree and collapse under him. Naruto can barely hear what happens next over his own panicked breathing, it sounds like maybe Mizuki tried to henge himself into Iruka to get the scroll from Naruto--

 

The tree shakes as something crashes into it, and Mizuki is yelling at Iruka now. “He’s going to use the scroll, Iruka, just like he’s taking advantage of you! The Fox--”

 

“You’re right,” Iruka chokes out, and Naruto’s world spins out from underneath him. The voice abruptly stops laughing, and the silence in Naruto’s head is heavy and terrible, but it’s nowhere near as dark as the yawning pit in his stomach. Iruka hates him. He killed Iruka’s parents, and Iruka hates him for it, how could he not--

 

“You’re right,” Iruka repeats. “The Fox would take advantage of me. But Naruto isn’t the Fox.”

 

What happens next is a messy, painful blur. Naruto barely recognizes that his legs are moving until he’s standing in between Iruka and Mizuki. His arms are splayed out awkwardly in front of him, reaching for Mizuki, who is taking rattling, gasping breaths through bloody teeth. Iruka is also breathing heavily, but he sounds much better than Mizuki does. And for good reason.

 

There’s a giant golden chain coming out of Naruto’s right hand. It’s covered in spikes, and it’s soft, sunshine-yellow light is pulsing in time with Naruto’s rabbiting heartbeat. The chain is taut, drawn straight as an arrow through the clearing, straight to Mizuki’s chest. Not just to his chest. Through it. It pools on the ground behind Mizuki, coated in bright red blood.

 

Mizuki falls to his knees. Then pitches forward to the ground. Then takes a strained breath. 

 

And dies.

 

(Like mother, like son, whispers the Fox.)

 

The chain shatters, each link crumbling to golden, sparkling dust that swirls away in the slight evening breeze. Naruto slowly turns to Iruka, whose face is slack with bewilderment. “What the hell was that,” he manages to say, and promptly passes out.

Notes:

mizuki: naruto, in order to be a shinobi, a profession in which you will lie, cheat, sabotage, and sometime straight up murder, you must temporarily steal something
naruto, eyes wide: STEALING IS WRONG, SENSEI

hello! not dead! editing these chappies for punctuation and generally tightening up some stuff. thanks for reading!

Chapter 2: liar, liar, will of fire

Summary:

In which Iruka is a big fat liar, Hinata is a good friend, and Naruto takes a power nap.

Iruka tries not to hyperventilate as his student crumples bonelessly to the ground in front of him. He reflexively triggers a shunshin to Naruto’s side, fingers digging at the child’s neck, and he almost passes out himself when he finds a weak, thready pulse. Naruto’s hands feel clammy and cold, his breathing is slightly labored; symptoms of chakra exhaustion. Quite a feat for an Uzumaki, let alone a Jinchuuriki. 

 

But then again, Adamantine Chains of any form were a major chakra drain, even for people with enormous chakra pools like those found in Naruto’s clan. According to rumor, they were considered a chuunin level jutsu or higher in Uzushio, where Kage Bunshin were commonplace and used by genin. It was no small wonder that Naruto had performed the technique without killing himself from the strain. And the fact that he used it instinctively, with no prior training? Iruka has to wonder what could be if Naruto actually masters this ability.

 

He gently bundles Naruto’s limp body into his arms and staggers upright. There’s a bright-hot stab of pain in his back, and he winces as the tacky, blood-soaked fabric of his shirt drags across his skin. Suddenly, the world swirls around him, and he quickly stumbles back against a tree and drops to the ground before laying Naruto back down. The absolute last thing Naruto needs right now is for Iruka to pass out and drop him on his head.

 

The tree canopy above him rustles softly in the gentle breeze, and for a moment, he stares at the stars through the gap in the branches. It’s a nice evening: if he could ignore the unconscious child breathing raggedly in his lap and the cloying smell of slowly drying blood in his nostrils, he could almost imagine taking a peaceful nap in this clearing. 

 

Maybe if he just laid his head down for a moment...

 

The world does another twirling dance, and Iruka belatedly realizes that the adrenaline brought on by the fight with Mizuki must be dropping away. His limbs are growing heavy, and he’s not sure he can lift Naruto while he’s in this state. They both need medical attention soon, and he debates whether or not he can make the journey to the hospital with another shunshin. He used an awful lot of chakra in his tussle with Mizuki, and if he miscalculates the chakra needed for a longer jump, he might pass out halfway through the jutsu. That never ended well.

 

Ok, so he can’t shunshin. Bad idea. He does not want to end up glitched through a wall. (He’s not entirely sure that’s a thing that can happen, but it’s something he forcefully tells his students every year to prevent them from trying to shunshin before they’re ready.) He can’t treewalk either. Or normal walk, come to think of it, not carrying Naruto anyways. He could leave Naruto here under a simple camouflage genjutsu, go for help--

 

The debate is cut short by the arrival of several ANBU. He doesn’t know their identities, as per ANBU tradition, and his brain is fuzzy enough from blood-loss and the adrenaline crash that he’s barely able to make out what animal their masks portray. Cat, Monkey. Maybe Sparrow? Hard to say. “Mizuki set him up,” he mumbles, fighting hard against the encroaching dark that flickers at the edge of his vision. 

 

Maybe-Sparrow nods once, sharp. ‘ Understood. Hokage ordered unit here, back you up. Need medical attention?’ they ask in Konoha hand-signs. He nods mutely, and feels a pair of arms gently lift Naruto from his lap. His vision dances as he swings his head around (is he moving fast or slow? He can’t tell,) to see Monkey heave Naruto up. Naruto is pale and motionless in the moonlight, and he looks dea-- nope, not finishing that thought, you know he’s not. 

 

He looks back around, and sees that Maybe-Sparrow’s signing at him again. He scrunches his face in thought as he tries to parse what they’re saying. ‘ Mission complete, good job dispatching traitor.’ Oh. They thought he killed Mizuki. Which means they didn’t see the fight. 

 

He doesn’t know why he finds this so important, but he does. It’s one of the last thoughts he has before passing out.

 

---

When he wakes up, the Hokage himself is there.

 

“Sandaime-sama,” he rasps, hauling himself into a sitting position and frowning as an IV line tugs uncomfortably against his arm. 

 

“Iruka-kun,” the Hokage replies cheerfully, holding out a cup. “The healers said you’d wake up soon, so I took the liberty of getting you some ice chips. Slowly, boy, don’t speak until you’ve had some.” As Iruka takes the offered cup, he sighs and settles deeper into the chair at Iruka’s bedside. “In answer to the questions you undoubtedly have, you’ve been unconscious for a day. Team assignments for the Academy students have been decided, but the announcement will not be made for another four days. I’m afraid you missed the Graduation ceremony, and I’ve been asked to pass along the well-wishes of your students. As far as the general public knows, there was an altercation involving the Scroll, you, and Mizuki. They do not know how he died, or what he was attempting to do, but needless to say, everyone is gossiping about the details.” He peers at Iruka over steepled fingers. “I myself am also rather curious.”

 

Iruka tucks an ice chip into his cheek and clears his throat. “Mizuki manipulated Naruto into stealing the Scroll, Hokage-sama. He took advantage of Naruto’s...failure to graduate. Naruto was under the impression that if he stole the scroll and learned a jutsu, Mizuki would grant him a provisional graduation. I believe Mizuki thought he could easily steal the scroll from Naruto and leave Konoha before anyone caught on.”

 

The Hokage grunts, shifting in his chair once more. “Hm. That lines up with intel we received. One of our off-duty ANBU overheard Mizuki speaking with Naruto about the scroll and reported it shortly after the hunt for Naruto started.” There’s something about the way Sarutobi won’t quite meet his eyes, something that reminds him of a student with a minor secret they’re not quite hiding, but also not quite telling. “But we’re not certain how he died. The autopsy indicated that his chakra pathways in his heart had been burnt clean away, in addition to some sort of impalement or stab through his chest. Perhaps you can shed some light on that?”

 

An involuntary spasm clutches at Iruka’s gut as he realizes that the Hokage has no clue about Naruto’s involvement with Mizuki’s death. And if the Hokage doesn’t know, nobody in the village does. Once the Hokage learns about Naruto’s new ability, he’ll have to take measures to protect Naruto from being stolen by another village. Jinchuuriki were rare prizes: those with unique abilities even moreso. If Naruto’s chains are discovered, it’s quite probable that the Hokage and the Council will never allow Naruto to leave Konoha’s walls.

 

Traditionally, Konoha Jinchuuriki do not fight as shinobi. Officially, it is because they are already giving their lives in service to Konoha by holding the Kyuubi at bay. Unofficially, Konoha only holds one Jinchuuriki instead of two like most major Hidden Villages do. If a Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi dies in battle, it may be decades before the bijuu forms again, decades in which Konoha will be vulnerable to attack. If the Jinchuuriki is stolen, it is likely that Konoha will never get the Kyuubi back. 

 

He’s talked about it with the Hokage, from time to time, what Naruto’s role is expected to be. As Naruto’s sensei, he’s privy to slightly more information on the situation than the average Konoha citizen or shinobi. From what he’s been told of Naruto’s seal, it’s not one typically used by Konoha Sealmasters: the Yondaime had sealed the Kyuubi in Naruto with an Eight Trigrams Seal, meaning that the Kyuubi’s chakra intermingles with Naruto’s more than it would with the traditional bijuu seals. The Council, upon learning this, apparently wanted to see if Naruto could take on a role closer to those found in other Hidden Villages: a weapon.

 

Iruka stuffs a few more ice chips in his mouth to buy time for the decision now in his hands. Naruto is a valuable asset to Konoha, either way, but what he says today in this room will shape Naruto’s future. If he tells the Hokage about Naruto’s chains, it might be the tipping point for the Council, and they might place Naruto on lockdown for the rest of his life. If he lies-- no, Iruka, soften the blow, you’re not lying so much as not telling the truth right this second-- if he doesn’t tell the truth right this second, Naruto might use the chains incorrectly or succumb to chakra exhaustion in the field, which would spell death for Naruto and a lost bijuu for the Village.

 

What he needs to consider right this second is which path would be best for Naruto. A safe, guarded life, trapped in a village with civilians who hate him and shinobi who ignore him? Or a potentially dangerous career as a shinobi, with the freedom to choose his path?

 

He crunches the ice chips and swallows them along with his misgivings. “The truth about what happened in the forest, Hokage-sama…”

---

 

Naruto is by no means a large boy.

 

His spirit and his voice are enormous, but his body is absolutely dwarfed by the hospital bed he currently occupies. Iruka thinks it might be malnutrition to blame for Naruto’s slight frame. He remembers how Naruto always eats as if it were his last day on Earth whenever Iruka takes him out for ramen. He tries not to think about how he could have done more to ensure that he’s got enough food to eat.

 

The healers work around Iruka, and he can tell they’re disgruntled with his presence, but they let him be as they tend to Naruto. “He’s showing signs of waking soon,” one medic-nin tells him. “Might be connected to the you-know-what, but his chakra’s bouncing back a lot quicker than we anticipated. Most kids this age take about a week to wake after chakra exhaustion, but his system’s almost completely regenerated after a day and a half.”

 

Iruka thanks the healer, then turns his attention back to the sudoku booklet he’s been picking at while waiting on Naruto’s recovery. The entire left half of the page he’s working on is a grey mass of poorly erased scribbles, and he huffs a sigh. Number puzzles aren’t enough to distract him from how small and fragile Naruto looks right now. Iruka wonders if he’s always been this tiny or if the past few days have just thrown into sharp relief just how mortal his student is.

 

The door slides open and closed behind him, and soft footsteps echo through the room. A small voice says “Oh!” and Iruka turns in his chair to see a slightly puzzled looking Hyuuga Hinata standing several feet away, clutching a corner of her jacket in nervous, twisting hands. “I--wasn’t e-expecting anyone to be here--I should--go--”

 

He hopes his confusion isn’t showing too much as he smiles gently at her. “No, Hinata, you’re fine. You’re the only one of Naruto’s peers to visit, you know?”

 

She nods hesitantly and shuffles forward, her hands still wringing at her coat. “I-I don’t know why the o-others don’t--see him.”

 

“They’re probably too busy preparing for their team assignments,” Iruka murmurs, knowing full well that was not the truth. Before Hinata appeared, he was sure he’d be the only visitor Naruto got.

 

“No, I don’t mean visiting him,” she says, her voice uncharastically strong and loud for a moment before dropping down to her usual tone and cadence. “I--I mean, I d-don’t know why they d-don’t see him. H-how nice he is. He c-could be--he could be v-very mean, i-if he wanted. I-it would be e-easy for h-him. But he’s not. A-and I don’t u-understand why p-people hate him?”

 

A few years ago, he had understood why people hated Naruto. He’d hated him, too. And when he was assigned to teach Naruto’s homeroom class at the Academy, he’d been absolutely livid, even going so far as to approach the Hokage and ask for another assignment. When Sarutobi had denied his request, he’d hung his head in defeat and accepted his fate.

 

On the first day, one of his coworkers had taken him aside before class and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Iruka,” he’d droned. “You did good on your teacher’s exams, you have all the knowledge and know-how, and you have a lot of potential. For some reason, the Hokage has taken a shine to you, and Sage knows the man has a good eye for teachers with talent. But you don’t have the experience yet. So let me give you some advice up-front. Ignore the demon-brat. Don’t let his pranks get to you. Don’t acknowledge him. Don’t even look at him. Just grade his assignments and report his behavior to the Hokage.”

 

He’d heard the horror stories about Naruto. Brash, loud, destructive. Prone to derailing lessons and distracting his classmates. And Naruto certainly lived up to the rumors. Within two minutes of Iruka entering the classroom, he’d discovered a tack placed on his stool, a rudimentary and very unflattering picture of himself scrawled all over the board, and a very wiggly and giggly Uzumaki Naruto, waving chalk-dusted hands in the air gleefully as he crowed, “Are you going to put me in the hall?”

 

Iruka had taken a deep breath in, released it back out, and began teaching the lesson as if nothing had happened.

 

Over the course of the next month, he and Naruto had played a simple yet infuriating game, in which Naruto would attempt to get a reaction out of Iruka, and Iruka would studiously ignore him in favor of teaching the rest of the class. The pattern continued on and on, until one particularly nasty streak that ended with Naruto becoming so frustrated he skipped class for a week.

 

On the final day, Naruto was still absent. “I take it Uzumaki is still out?” Iruka had sighed, flopping the roll sheet down on his podium.

 

Shikamaru, in a rare display of proactiveness, had raised his hand. “He went out to the hills, where the battle was the other day. Hibachi said he could be a part of his group if he brought back a kunai from the skirmish that happened outside the wall the other day.” Hibachi had spluttered and immediately protested his innocence, demanding Shikamaru take it back, but the Nara heir had already laid his head down on his desk and was snoring lightly.

 

“You all have a free period to study,” Iruka had barked, already out the door. 

 

When he found Naruto, the boy had a kunai clutched in his white-knuckled fist and three enemy nin hot on his heels. 

 

After he’d gotten Naruto to safety (albeit with the help of an ANBU, Sage only knows how the boy had slipped away from them long enough to be cornered by foreign shinobi ), he’d smacked Naruto upside the head. “What were you thinking? You could have been killed, ” he snapped.

 

“I-I just wanted friends,” Naruto had replied in a small voice, staring at the ground and hugging the kunai to his chest like it was a lifeline and not a sharp weapon capable of maiming or hurting someone. 

 

Iruka had paused. “If you come back to the Academy--”

 

“Nothing will change!” Naruto had cried out, his blue gaze flashing up into Iruka’s own, then returning to the ground. “Nothing ever changes. Everyone’s always gonna hate me. I don’t even know what I did, but I thought that maybe--” There was a sniff that sounded suspiciously like Naruto was on the edge of tears. “I dunno, I thought maybe if people paid more attention to me, they’d see that I’m not bad.”

 

And everything had clicked into place. He understood everything clearly, so very clearly, because he’d been in Naruto’s place not too long before. A sad, lonely child, with nothing but a loud voice and a bold personality to make them stand out. Of course he’d turned to pranks. It was what Iruka had done when he was that age, too. And it hadn’t been until Sarutobi had started paying real attention, good attention to him that he’d bloomed into the shinobi he was today.

 

“Ah,” Iruka had said. “I see. Would you like some ramen?”

 

Now, he shakes himself out of his reverie and places the sudoku booklet down on the side table. “You’re right, Hinata, they don’t see him. And I think that’s why they hate him.”

 

---

Ironically, Iruka is asleep when Naruto finally wakes up.

 

Naruto quickly rectifies this by poking Iruka in the ribs, none too gently. Iruka hisses, curling in on himself reflexively. “What did you do that fo--Naruto! You’re awake!” He sweeps the boy in a crushing hug, ignoring the slight twinge between his shoulder blades. 

 

“I’m awake,” Naruto replies, his voice muffled by Iruka’s shirt. “We’re alive.”

 

“Not for lack of you trying. I thought you were done running into danger after Hibachi dared you to find that kunai?”

 

There’s a muffled giggle, and then Naruto wriggles out of his grasp. “So. Uh. About what...Mizuki said.”

Iruka knew this was coming. “We were going to tell you after you graduated. It was kept secret to protect you, but…”

 

Naruto scowls. “Fat lot of good that did. Everyone knows, don’t they? About. Y’know.”

 

He nods, and the boy’s face falls into something between grudging acceptance and puzzlement. “Naruto, about the Fox. You need to know, you’re not--”

 

“Oh, I know!” Naruto says hastily. “I know I’m not the Fox. It...talks to me sometimes, I think? Which is not great to think about, having an evil giant demon talking to me in my brain, but now that I know, I can ignore it, y’know.”

 

Iruka chokes back his absolute horror at the implication that the Kyuubi is talking to Naruto. He resolves to chase the issue further when things have settled. “O-oh. That’s...one way to look at it.”

 

Naruto fiddles with the hem of the shirt issued to him by the hospital staff. “Anyways...is the Scroll…?”

 

“Safe and sound in Hokage Tower.” Iruka ruffles Naruto’s hair, happy to change the subject. “Again, not for lack of you trying. Let this be a lesson, Naruto, if you ever have reason to doubt something a superior tells you, or if something seems off about an order you recieve, you take it farther up the chain and verify it.”

 

Naruto’s grin is sheepish as he bats Iruka’s hand away from his head. “Yes, Sensei.”

 

“Also, If you ever nearly die on me again, I’m killing you.”

 

“That seems counterproductive,” Naruto laughs, poking Iruka in the ribs again.

 

“Your reading score isn’t nearly high enough for you to be using words like ‘ counterproductive’ ,” Iruka teases.

 

“Sakura-chan uses big words a lot and I have ears.” Naruto suddenly sobers. “But you’re right, I’m no good at reading. I couldn’t even manage a stupid bunshin from the scroll.”

 

Iruka snorts. “That technique is for chuunin and up, Naruto. It takes a massive amount of chakra, and many shinobi simply don’t have enough to make even one. If you had managed to perform a Kage Bunshin, you might have keeled over and died of chakra exhaustion on the spot.” He taps his chin. “Although, you are an Uzumaki, so you might have enough chakra to pull it off. We never did get your reserves tested, did we?”

 

“Damn right I could have pulled it off, ya know! I’m--wait, what do you mean I’m an Uzumaki?” Naruto’s head is tilted and his eyebrows are scrunched together. “I thought that was just a made-up name the orphanage gave me when they took me in. Are there more--do I have--”

 

His breath catches in his chest as what Naruto is saying registers in Iruka’s mind. He knows that many things have been kept from Naruto, but his heritage as an Uzumaki? He’d always assumed Naruto had known his clan’s history. “The Uzumaki clan,” he begins, and Sage if Naruto’s eyes don’t shine with wonder at that, “lived in Uzushiogakure, in Whirlpool Country. They specialized in sealing demons, and they were said to live extraordinarily long lives. One of their clan techniques was a sealing jutsu called Adamantine Chains.”

 

Naruto’s eyes are the size of dinner plates as he scoots closer to Iruka. “Adamantine Chains,” he breathes. “Is that what I--”

 

“Yes,” Iruka says simply. “It is. And Naruto, this is important, you cannot let anybody know. Not yet. Not until you’ve mastered them.”

 

The wonder in Naruto’s eyes abruptly withers and dies. “What?! But Iruka-sensei--”

 

“ Listen to me, Naruto, ” Iruka says in his best This-Will-Be-On-The-Test voice. “The Uzumaki Clan lived in Uzushiogakure. Do you remember what happened to Uzushio?’

 

“It...vanished?”

 

“It got destroyed ”’ corrects Iruka. “It got destroyed by Kumo and Kiri in one night. The Uzumaki were massacred because of their seals. And their chains. There were some survivors who fled here, to Konoha, and one or both of your parents must have been one of those survivors.” He takes a deep, steadying breath. “The...Fox destroyed the Uzumaki compound in the attack. You were found there, with the Yondaime. And the seal.”

 

Naruto’s gaze is focused in the middle distance, his teeth worrying his lower lip. “So...people might want to kill me because I’m an Uzumaki.”

 

“Worse.” Iruka hopes his grim face and tone convey how serious the situation is to Naruto. “You are the guardian of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, which means you hold a lot of power. You also have a very rare ability, one that nobody else in this village or this country or possibly even the world has. People aren’t going to want to kill you, Naruto, they’re going to want to use you.”

 

The silence in the room is deafening, and Iruka bites down on the urge to clear his throat as Naruto processes what Iruka has told him. “Will I ever be able to tell anybody? What I can do?” There’s a desperate hope in the boy’s voice, and Iruka can only guess at the frustration that Naruto may be feeling at this moment in time. The lonely kid who’s constantly seeking any sort of acknowledgement or attention, finally handed a power that could put his name on the map, only to learn that to do so would place him in danger. 

 

“Eventually, yes. But only after you’ve mastered it well enough to use in combat.”

 

Naruto perks back up at that. “You think I’ll be able to?”

 

“Naruto,” says Iruka gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I know you’ll be able to. And I’ll be there for you, every step of the way. We’ll figure this out together.”

 

It’s like the sun bursts in Naruto’s eyes. “Okay,” he whispers hoarsely. “Okay. I promise I’ll graduate this coming semester, and I’ll train real hard, and I’ll be the best shinobi ever so I can show the world what I got!”

 

“About that,” Iruka says, leaning down to a bag on the floor. “Close your eyes for a second.”

 

“Uh, okay?” Naruto scrunches his eyes closed, patting the bedsheets of his bed absently. “This seems weird. You better not do anything weird. You’re going to do something weird, aren’t you? I bet it’s super weird, y’know.”

 

Iruka laughs softly as he fishes out what he was looking for. “Nothing weird. Just something you’ve earned. You know about the Will of Fire, right?”

 

“Yeah, the whole thing where the village comes first or something.”

 

“That’s…one interpretation of it. But my sensei, the one who helped me find who I was and what I wanted to do with my life, he thinks of it another way. The Will of Fire runs deeper than loyalty to Konoha. It dates back to the Founders of the Hidden Villages: Iwa has a similar Will of Stone. The Will of Fire is the willingness to fight for what you believe in, the strength to work for a better future for your village, and the bravery to protect the people most precious to you. And you fought well, Naruto. I can see the Will of Fire in you.”

 

“You lied, this is weird,” Naruto laughs weakly.

 

He places the object gently on Naruto’s lap. “You can open your eyes now.”

 

He’s pretty sure Naruto’s joyous shriek can be heard outside the hospital walls, and Iruka makes a mental note to requisition a new hitai-ate. He doesn’t want to separate his old one from it’s new owner, after all.

Notes:

iruka: naruto can you maybe chill
naruto: how about maybe YOU chill

 

thanks for reading!!

Chapter 3: ghosts in the corner of your eye

Summary:

In which the Hokage throws the team assignments off kilter, Kakashi talks to himself, and Iruka starts a conspiracy in a broom closet.

It was that time of year again, and Hatake Kakashi is absolutely dreading his team assignment.

 

Three years ago, the Hokage took him out of ANBU and started trying to give him genin teams. Trying being the key word, as he’s rejected every band of snot-nosed brats they toss his direction. He knows he has a reputation for being a hard-ass amongst the genin corps now, but he can’t be bothered to care about it. They’re better off this way.

 

But this year? This year is going to be different. This year he has to take his team on, because this year, he’s going to get Uchiha Sasuke. The Council will not let that child be anything but a shinobi, and as the only Sharingan user loyal to Konoha, he is duty-bound to be the sensei of the last Uchiha. If he rejects this team, it’s the end of his career. And Sage knows he can’t do anything but be a shinobi.

 

He’s been keeping up with the rankings, and as things stand, his team is going to be dismal. Sasuke is at the very front of the pack, which by Konoha tradition, means he’s going to get the Genius-Idiot Dream Team. They always pair the head of the class with the Dead Last, and since Uzumaki Naruto didn’t pass his graduation exam again, the honor of village idiot goes to Inuzuka Kiba.  

 

Teaching them isn’t going to be the issue. Sasuke, from what he’s heard, is a jutsu sponge, even without an active Sharingan. Depending on the boy’s elemental affinity, he might even be able to pass on Chidori, if Sauske ever activates his Kekkei Genkai. There are a few tricks and techniques he might be able to pass on to Kiba (the Hatake and Inuzuka clans share so many traits that sometimes enemy nin will try to goad him in battle by calling him an illegitimate Inuzuka bastard. The idiots writing the Bingo Books for other villages can’t even be assed to do their research.), but the real challenge is going to be getting the team to cohere as a unit.

 

If they were truly going by rankings, he’d be getting Yamanaka Ino as the third addition, but he knows that the brass are loathe to break up the Ino-Shika-Cho team. Asuma’s probably getting those hellions, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Kurenai gets them. (If it were up to him , he’d give them to Kurenai. Sure, Asuma’s known for thinking five to thirty-fuckin-thousand steps ahead at all times, but battle plans only get you so far. Kurenai is a genjutsu expert, someone who must always tailor her jutsu to her opponent with little to no forward planning. What the Ino-Shika-Cho team needs is someone who can teach them to think on the fly. It’s the Hyuuga heiress and the Aburame heir that need Asuma’s guidance the most, especially considering they might be forced to take on an older genin whose teammates have already made chuunin.) (Well, no, that’s a complete lie. If it were up to him, they’d all go back to the Academy for another five years and he’d never have to take a genin team.)

 

No, they’re fudging the rankings so Ino-Shika-Cho stays together, and that lands Haruno Sakura on his team. And she’s a puzzle. Civilian-born, no clan, very book-smart but no other outstanding remarks on her record. Or any remarks, really. She’s a blank slate, and thus a giant hole in his knowledge of how well this unit is going to come together. 

 

Without knowing how Sakura will mesh with Sasuke and Kiba, Kakashi is in the dark about how he needs to approach testing them. He’s considering the bell test, but he doesn’t feel like that’s quite right with Kiba and Sakura in the mix. Kiba has been practicing teamwork with his ninken for the better part of three years, so he already has a small advantage in the test. And Sakura will be at a harsh disadvantage, considering that Kiba and Sauske will have at least one tie in that they’re both Clan children. Not to mention that literally every team he’s tested has failed the bell test, and if Sasuke fails, there will be hell to pay.

 

No, he just needs to wait until the Sandaime meets with him and takes him to meet their families. Then he can work out a better plan for the Genin Test. 

 

The Hokage’s assistant, a slight, mousy man who Kakashi never bothered to learn the name of, pokes their head out of Sarutobi’s office. “Sandaime-sama’s ready for you, Hatake-san.” Kakashi grunts, nodding in acknowledgement before levering himself up from where he’s been sitting in the hallway. Mouse-assistant scurries off before Kakashi enters the office, a clipboard clutched to his chest and glasses slipping precariously down his nose. 

 

“Hokage-sama,” Kakashi greets politely, ambling up to the large mahogany desk that dominates the room. The stinging cloud of tobacco that constantly hovers around Sarutobi assaults Kakashi’s senses, and he’s grateful that his mask muffles the acrid smell. “I’m assuming my genin team assignment has been finalized.”

 

Sarutobi laughs dryly, tapping the ash from his pipe. “Yes, indeed. It took a while, as we had a...surprise nomination at the last moment.”

 

Kakashi’s mask negates the need for him to suppress the grimace that crosses his face, but he does it anyway from sheer force of habit. Great, the teams are unbalanced again. What little planning he’s managed to scrape together for this team has just flown straight out the window. “Oh? That’s rare, especially this late after graduation.”

 

“Hm.” The pipe returns to Sarutobi’s mouth, and he takes a puff. “You are hereby assigned guardianship of Team 7.”

 

Wielders of the Sharingan have a naturally occuring eidetic memory, one governed by and intrinsically tied to emotion. Certain phrases, sights, or smells will call up perfectly rendered memories, and those memories are accompanied by associated feelings. Most people say it’s an amazing trait, but when the Uchiha wrote about it in personal accounts, they cursed it. When Obito gifted Kakashi his eye, he gained the eidetic memory as well, but only in Obito’s eye. It took him the better part of five years to become accustomed to the onslaught of images and emotions called up seemingly at random. It can even pull memories from his early childhood, from before Obito gave him the Sharingan.

 

He understands why the Uchiha hated it. Because right now Obito’s eye is showing him his old team.

 

Minato-sensei carves a delicate seal into the handle of a kunai, his tongue between his teeth. Rin and Obito run towards him, laughing as Kushina barrels towards them, eyes aflame as she bellows curses for whatever prank Obito’s pulled this time. His father’s tanto shatters before his eyes, Obito’s hand grows limp in Rin’s, Rin’s eyes grow dull as his lightning blazes through her--

 

It lasts no longer than a heartbeat. He forces himself to stay still and slouched and passive as the memories fade to nothing.

 

“Team 7 is comprised of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura,” Sarutobi blows smoke from his nostrils with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose, “and Uzumaki Naruto.”

 

“ What ,” Kakashi blurts, forgetting his lackadaisy persona for a moment and starting, his spine going ramrod-stiff. What? Naruto failed his exam. Flunked it. Can’t even form a bunshin. If he’s put on a battlefield tomorrow with all of his peers, he would be the first to die. Who on earth recommended him? 

 

“Do you swear to take them on if they are worthy?”

 

“Who nominated Naruto?” Kakashi demands, ignoring the customary vows he’s supposed to be taking at the moment. “I was under the impression that he wasn’t ready. Why is he being considered for genin? What changed?” It must be the Council. They’re trying to push Naruto into training before he’s ready so he can be a weapon like the other Jinchuuriki. Fuck.

 

“Who sponsored Naruto in his bid for genin is none of your concern, as are the circumstances that led to his nomination. Suffice it to say that his sponsor argued in his favor to me, as is their right. I accepted, and that is that.” Sarutobi intones, his voice dipping dangerously low. It’s clear he’s inviting no arguments on the matter. So it’s almost definitely the Council behind this. “Do you, Hatake Kakashi, swear to take them on if they are worthy?”

 

“I do,” Kakashi replies, heart heavy in his chest. This is going to be an unmitigated disaster.

 

---

Normally, Kakashi would meet with his upcoming team’s families. But two out of three of his new charges are orphans living on their own, so there’s technically only one family to meet today: the Harunos. 

 

Haruno Kizashi is a moderately successful merchant who imports precious metals and jewels from Suna and Iwa, and it shows. The Haruno household is well-furnished and it’s clear that the family is living comfortably, if somewhat erratically. Bookshelves with rare tomes line the walls, there’s a riot of mismatched but expensive furniture crammed into the living room, and there are baubles and bits and bobs crowding every surface. The plush couch that Kakashi can feel himself slowly sinking further and further into is probably worth more than a month of his rent, despite it’s garish green and pink pattern.

 

Haruno Mebuki is a civilian-born kunoichi in the Genin Reserve Corps. He doesn’t remember if Mebuki has seen combat, but he doubts it. She’s old enough to have served during the Third War, but he doesn’t remember seeing any commendations or reports about her. And she’s never made it past genin. Towards the end of the war, genin (kunoichi especially) were kept from the front lines.

 

So it seems that Sakura is not seeking the life of a shinobi at the behest of her parents. It’s common for civilian households to push their children towards the shinobi lifestyle in the hopes that the child will ascend to greatness and carry the family with them. But the Harunos have no need for Sakura to bring money in, and due to Mebuki’s lackluster kunoichi career, they most likely do not harbor any misconceptions about Sakura attaining glory and riches.

 

Which means that Sakura is probably self-driven. Interesting.

 

“So, you’ll be teaching our little Sakura,” booms Kizashi cheerfully, handing Kakashi a brimming cup of tea. Kakashi does not exactly wince at the man’s exuberance, but it’s a close thing. He hopes Kizashi won’t take offense if he doesn’t drink the tea: he just watched the other man pile three cubes of sugar into the cup before thrusting it his way. ”‘We’re very proud of her! Tell me, who are her teammates?”

 

Mebuki smacks her husband’s shoulder. “ Zashi, they can’t tell us, not until the announcement. She’s very excited,” she says, turning to Sarutobi. “Can’t stop talking about it. I take it she’ll start on D-ranks?” Ah, scratch his earlier assessment. She has seen combat. Between the false cheer and hopeful tone when she asked about the D-ranks, she’s practically screaming that she doesn’t want her child on the battlefield anytime soon. Kizashi has the same underlying tension: his cheer is a touch too strained, his hands shake slightly as he pours a cup of tea for himself.

 

“Sakura-chan will be starting on D-ranks, yes, but it’s my hope that she and her teammates will take part in the upcoming Chuunin Exams,” the Hokage replies smoothly, and that’s news to Kakashi. The Chuunin Exams are in a little over half a year, and whipping a fresh genin team into shape for that is going to be no mean feat. He remains stock-still however, a feat that Mebuki doesn’t quite manage. No wonder she didn’t make it past genin, if she can’t hide her reactions. “Rest assured, if they are not prepared for it, they will not be entered, but it would be a good mark on her record to advance quickly.”

 

“Ah,” Kizashi says, his tone subdued ever so slightly. “That’s...we look forward to supporting her.” 

 

And happily, Kakashi hears a thread of truth winding through his voice. Whatever Sakura’s path, from what he’s seen here, her parents will support her. She’s lucky to have them. “As do I,” he says, struggling out of the veritable swamp of couch cushions and bowing deeply. “I swear to you, I will guide your daughter the best I can.”

 

“I’ll hold you to that,” Mebuki replies, and for the first time today, Kakashi can see the steel in her eyes, hear the winter in her voice, and knows beyond a doubt that she has taken lives and will not hesitate to do so again.

---

The next location on their list is the Uchiha district. There is no family to meet, only a spartan apartment with spartan furnishings. It’s spotless, meticulously organized, and so very, very cold.

 

The Hokage shuffles to the cabinet, peeking inside. “As you know, Sasuke-kun has no family.” 

 

As Sarutobi offhandedly mentions Sasuke’s family, for a blinding nanosecond Obito’s Sharingan activates and he can see Itachi’s pale, blank face vanishing behind an ANBU mask, he can see the bitter ash and blood choking the streets of the Uchiha compound, and he can feel fresh and new the burning regret that he didn’t catch Itachi’s madness in time.

 

Maybe that’s why the apartment is so bare. Maybe Sasuke is already showing signs of a perfect memory, and maybe he wants to forget.

 

He blinks away the maelstrom of emotion and peers over Sarutobi’s shoulder. “Hm. Lots of canned tomatoes.”

 

Sarutobi nods unenthusiastically. “If you have questions about Sasuke-kun…”

 

Kakashi lets his gaze flit from the neatly stacked scrolls to the neatly bundled futon then to the neatly painted Uchiha fan dominating the far wall. It feels as if a ghost lives here, if even that.

 

“No,” he says. “I don’t.”

 

“Then on to Naruto.”

 

---

Naruto’s place is the complete and utter anthesis of the Harunos’ house and Sasuke’s apartment. It’s squalid and messy, there are cracks in the ceiling and what Kakashi darkly suspects is black mold creeping up a wall. And it’s warm. There are posters lovingly plastered on every surface, a tangle of ratty orange quilts on a rickety bed, and an explosion of houseplants taking up the balcony, sunshine pouring in through the window and casting a golden glow through the leaves. 

 

Sarutobi sighs. “I told him not to get ramen again.” The cabinet is open, and it’s full to the brim with instant ramen packs, a far cry from the Harunos’ kitchen, full of spices and teas, or Sasike’s kitchen, full of canned vegetables and non-perishables. Clearly nobody has been teaching this fool child how to cook for himself. He adds ‘food that will prevent you from getting scurvy’ to the list of things to teach.

 

“How much does he know?” Kakashi asks softly, and he’s keenly aware that Sarutobi knows he’s not asking about Naruto’s general education.

 

An irritated sigh escapes the Hokage as he sits down heavily on a rickety chair. There’s only one, Kakashi notes sadly. Even Sasuke had a full dining set. “He knows about the Fox. Mizuki revealed it to him in an attempt to rile him up. As for his parentage, he’s still in the dark, and it needs to stay that way.”

 

“Why?” Kakashi rarely questions Sarutobi these days, but there’s a vision of Minato breathlessly telling Kakashi that Kushina’s pregnant, there’s memories of the absent-minded and pure love radiating from Kushina as she traces the curve of her belly with an idle hand, there’s the heart-wrenching despair when he hears a newborn’s wail above the crackle of fire that consumes Konoha. His memory won’t let him forget who Naruto is, and it’s incredibly unjust that Naruto doesn’t have the slightest clue.

 

“Naruto is as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face,” grumbles Sarutobi, picking up a milk carton and sniffing it. “Great Sage, this is rancid. As I was saying, Naruto is not subtle. If he finds out who his father was, he will latch onto that and brag. And then the other villages find out, and…”

 

“And the Raikage pulls his spine out and beats him to death with it.” Kakashi hates how much sense it makes, hates how he’s going to lie to the boy who could have been a little brother to him.

 

Sarutobi’s frown softens. “One day, he will learn. And as his sensei, I think it will fall to you to decide when he’s ready.”

 

“Hm.” He takes one last sweeping glance at Naruto’s apartment, soaking in the life that the boy has worked into the cracks and corners of his shadowed existence. “Hopefully soon.”

 

---

The next day, Kakashi is scheduled to meet the team itself. He’s been given a time to show up at the Academy, and the Hokage had given him a pained look when he asked Kakashi to please at least try to show up before noon. It’s one thirty now, and Kakashi is, predictably, lollygagging.

 

“Hey, guys,” Kakashi says, staring at the Memorial Stone. “Been a bit.”

 

Images rise unbidden, swirling in Obito’s eye. Rin laughing at Obito, saying ‘ About time you showed up! ’ Minato, waving to him from across the marketplace. Kushina, crushing him in a hug. He blinks, and they all fade.

 

“So,” he says, sinking to sit seiza before the Stone. “I’ve got a big problem here.”

 

More memories. Minato frowns quizzically at a seal and turns to ask Kushina what she thinks. Rin wraps Obito’s hand in gauze and says ‘ Come to me sooner next time, goofball .’ Kushina pours him a cup of tea and asks him what he’s thinking.

 

“It’s Naruto,” he begins, and braces himself for the flood of memories. Minato reading a tattered copy of The Gutsy Ninja by the light of a campfire, Rin with a textbook on child-rearing, Kushina grumbling as she props her swollen ankles up on an ottoman. “He’s not ready to be a shinobi, but he’s been assigned to my genin team. Team 7, if you would believe it.” Obito and Minato and Rin all running ahead of him through the forest, flying fast as birds through the golden sunlight filtering through the canopy. “I don’t know if I should give him a chance like you did with us, Minato-sensei.” Obito, tied to a post. Rin, sneaking onigiri to him. Kakashi, refusing to play along. “If I do, and he--he dies--” 

 

Oddly, the memories fade at that. “If he dies, I’ll never forgive myself.”

 

The Sharingan remains dormant for a while, as does he. He’s about ready to heave himself up and go face the music when a thought occurs to him. ”But if I leave him behind? I don’t think I could forgive myself for that, either.”

 

---

After what seems like an eternity, he hauls himself to his feet, brushing his pants free of dust and dirt, then shunshins to the Academy’s gate. There’s all sorts of seals and barriers that prevent shinobi from body flickering directly into the Academy; it’s intended to be a civilian shelter during attacks. Only teachers can shunshin in or out of the Academy’s walls. Otherwise he’d just shunshin directly into the classroom to try to get a feel for how his prospective genin team reacts.

 

Kakashi ambles upstairs, taking a turn towards the classroom he’ll be meeting them in, then stops short when he sees an instructor pacing back and forth in the hallway. The instructor turns, sees him, then bolts towards him. He’s a highly trained ANBU veteran with hundreds of solo missions, assassinations, and battles under his belt, and he’s still taken off guard by a schoolteacher barreling into him and triggering a shunshin into--”Maa, sensei, is this a broom closet?”

 

“Shhhhhh!” The schoolteacher hisses, slapping a hand over Kakashi’s mouth and biting the thumb of the other. He flicks through some signs, reaches past Kakashi’s head, sketches out a few marks, and mutters “Fuuinjutsu : Himitsu no Ido.” 

 

A very intricate and complicated seal spirals out from his touch, and Kakashi whistles lowly. “Very nice, not many people can perform a Well of Secrets Seal without a scroll.” He peers closer at the schoolteacher and belatedly recognizes him as Umino Iruka, homeroom teacher to his little band of hellions. “I assume this is about my genin team.”

 

“No. Well, yes. Well, mostly.” Umino is pacing the best he can in the small enclosed space, which is to say not well. “It’s about Uzumaki Naruto.”

 

Kakashi glances at the insanely complicated and high-ranking sound barrier seal on the door. “I’m guessing this has something to do with the Fox?”

 

“No. Well, maybe? I don’t know. It’s unclear.” Umino trips over a mop and seems to give up on the idea of pacing altogether. He takes a deep breath in, then slowly breathes it back out. “First, I want to know something. What do you think about him? Naruto, I mean.”

 

That makes Kakashi pause. “I haven’t gotten to know him yet,” he replies slowly. Umino is either unaware that Kakashi has spent many a shift as Naruto’s ANBU protector, or he’s playing along with the whole ‘Nobody Knows Who The ANBU Are’ game. “Personally, I mean. I’ve read his file, and I’ve certainly heard the stories about the things he gets up to, but hearing what other people say and reading what other people write about someone are vastly different from actually knowing someone.”

 

This seems to be the correct response, because Umino relaxes almost imperceptibly. “Okay. I’m going to be upfront with you, I’ve been on the fence about telling you about all...this--” he waves his hands wildly “--but you’re his jounin-sensei, and if anyone’s going to find out first, it’s you. And you seem willing to get to know him before you make decisions about him, and that’s very important .” Another deep breath, in, then out. “He’s unlocked the Adamantine Chains.”

 

Obito’s Sharingan helpfully flares back up again, spinning him a picture of Kushina lunging forward with teeth bared and golden chains springing towards a sparring opponent. “He has the what? How do you know? Has he used them? What did they look like? Big or small?”

 

Umino nods frantically, running a hand over the top of his head and tugging nervously on his ponytail. “The scroll incident, a week ago. Mizuki tried to kill both of us but Naruto manifested the chains. I think maybe it was stress? I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. They were...big. And golden.”

 

“So that’s why the Hokage put him on a team,” Kakashi says faintly. Naruto has the Adamantine Chains. He has his mother’s chains. Fuck. Fuck, fuck fuck. Fuck.

 

“Uh, funny you should mention.” Umino tugs on his ponytail again. “Um. The Hokage...doesn’t...know?’

 

Kakashi fights the urge to drag a hand down his face for all of five seconds before giving in and slapping a palm to his forehead. “Why. In the name of the bloody Shodaime. Does the Hokage not know?”

 

“I...uh...kind of...lied to him?”

 

“About the Jinchuuriki. Of Konoha. Who is possibly the last Uzumaki in existence.”

 

A faint, sheepish grimace creeps onto Iruka’s face. “It’s...for a good reason?”

 

Kakashi pours every ounce of his frustration and confusion into one menacing glare. “You have exactly one minute to explain to me, in great detail, why you think the Hokage should not know this very valuable and important information.”

 

“Well, it’s about the Council. Since his seal is different, they want to use him as a weapon.” That... tracks, even with Danzo on house-arrest. He wouldn’t put it past the others to step up their manipulation games in Danzo’s place. “It’s why they put him in the Academy in the first place, instead of teaching him all the traditional Jinchuuriki meditation and isolation junk.”

 

“Probably doesn’t help that all of Uzumaki Mito’s records were lost in the Kyuubi attack.”

 

“Right, right. But if Naruto doesn’t show any promise as a shinobi, he’s done. Through. They’ll never let him live a civilian life, and you know it.”

 

“Still don’t see what this has to do with not telling the Hokage about his chains.”

 

Umino snorts, a frustrated noise. “If they find out about his chains, they’ll figure it’ll make him a target. The last Uzumaki is bad enough. A Jinchuuriki on top of that? Even worse. If the world at large figures out he has chakra chains? Everyone will want to steal him.”

 

Kakashi was wrong the other day. If the Raikage figures out the truth about Naruto, he won’t try to kill Naruto. He’ll try to kidnap him. “Ah. So you think by keeping it from the Hokage, and by extension the Council, we can give Naruto enough time to establish himself as a shinobi before revealing his chains.”

 

A bright, relieved grin crosses Umino’s face as he snaps his fingers. “Yes! Exactly. Give him time to master the chains, coach him on how to avoid showing his hand to enemy nin, give him a choice in all of this.”

 

Obito’s Sharingan spins once more, and shows him a vision of Kushina, frowning unhappily as she waves to them from the gate. ‘Sensei ,’ Rin had asked. ‘ Kushina-nee is a jounin too, right? Why doesn’t she go on missions? She’s a strong fighter, she has the chakra chains. We’ve all seen how you two fight together during spars. If you and her fought together on the battlefield… ’

 

Minato had grimaced. ‘ She’s too valuable, ’ he had replied, and none of them had truly understood what he’d meant.

 

He blinks, leaving the moment in the past where it belongs. “Ok,” he says. “For Naruto. So he can have a choice.”

 

Umino slumps against a shelf, a box of floor cleaner coming dangerously close to falling onto his head. “For Naruto.”

---

Kakashi hopes dearly that nobody saw him and Umino scramble out of the broom closet together. He’s got enough on his plate as it is, he doesn’t need rumors of a tryst between the two of them reaching the Hokage’s ears (or Sage forbid, Gai’s.) As he reaches for the door to the classroom, finally about to meet his team, a flash of white-on-black meets his eye at almost ceiling level. Someone has jammed an eraser into the doorframe so it will drop directly on the head of whoever enters the door. Naruto. He mentally adds ‘traps’ to the ever-growing list of things to teach his new students. 

 

Huffing an exasperated breath, he yanks the door open and steps inside, not even pausing as the eraser makes contact with the top of his head. Three pairs of eyes meet his gaze. Naruto, vibrating with barely contained glee. Sakura, spitting with barely contained rage. And Sasuke, eyes blank and expression neutral as he watches the proceedings with disinterest.

 

“My first impression,” Kakashi says. “Is that this is going to be interesting.”

Notes:

iruka: i didn't know who to trust!!
kakashi: AND YOU PICKED /ME/??

thanks for reading!

Chapter 4: red on black on white

Summary:

In which Kizashi makes a cake, Naruto learns to tell time, and Sakura skins her knee.

The sun has almost set by the time Sakura drags herself through the front door. “I’m home,” she calls out, halfheartedly nudging her sandals closer to the edge of the genkan with one foot. Sakura’s mom has been on her case lately about leaving her shoes in haphazard piles, and with her current luck, the ‘someone-might-trip-and-fall-and-break-their-neck-Sakura’ scenario might actually come true. She sits down heavily on the genkan’s step, running a hand through her hair. 

 

Kizashi bursts into the front hallway, a misshapen cake with pink frosting and sparklers held at arm’s length in front of him. “CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR TEAM ASSIGN--oh, Sakura, what’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing,” Sakura lies through her teeth as she scrambles upright, forcing a smile on her face. “Just tired.”

 

Her father’s left eyebrow shoots straight up as he gives her a deadpan look. “You’re as bad at hiding when something’s bothering you as your mother. What’s wrong, little blossom?”

 

Sakura wrinkles her nose at the nickname. “Dad, I’m not little anymore. Don’t call me that.”

 

“Sure thing, not-little-anymore blossom.”

 

“Ugh, really, Dad?” she huffs, trying to edge past him to escape up the stairs to her room.

 

“Ah-ah-ah!” He nimbly dances around to block the stairs entirely, plopping himself down on the bottom step. “No room time until you give your old man the details.” He thrusts the cake at her, and a glob of icing sloughs off the whole mess and hits the ground with a splat. “Does it have anything to do with your team assignment? I know you were hoping to be on a team with that Uchiha boy, but he’s not the only fish in the sea--”

 

“He’s on my team,” Sakura replies, taking the plate from her father. “But so is Naruto.”

 

“Oh,” her father says. “I...see. I thought you said he didn’t graduate?”

 

“He didn’t! Or at least I thought he didn’t. But now he’s on my team, and he doesn’t know anything and he’s just going to drag us down. He tried to trick our jounin-sensei with an eraser in the door today. An eraser. He tried to trick an elite shinobi with an eraser. ” She sighs and sits back down on the genkan step. “And on top of that, I think Sasuke-kun hates me.”

 

“Well,” scoffs Kizashi. “Shows what good his fancy eyes are if he can’t see what a special flower you are.”

 

“Daaaad,” Sakura groans, setting the cake down on the floor next to her.

 

“It’s true,” he says sagely. “I should know, I’ve known you all your life. I feel I am uniquely qualified to comment on the matter. I’m an excellent judge of character, you know. A man’s gotta know how to read people when he deals in precious treasures like you.”

 

If anyone asks, she will adamantly deny the soft giggle that comes out of her mouth. “Ugh, why did Mom ever fall for your cheesy jokes?”

 

“I guess I’m lucky she’s not lactose intolerant.” He shrugs, then sobers. “Back to the Uchiha boy. This is the kid you and Ino-chan fell out over, right?”

 

And holy crap, he’s right. It hadn’t been a huge blowout fight, but she and Ino had definitely drifted apart over their quiet quarrel over who liked him more. She’d been devastated when she realized what was happening, and she knew it was her fault that she and Ino were growing more and more distant with each passing day. It’d been Ino who first suggested that Sasuke-kun was dreamy and talented and perfect. She really didn’t understand at the time, but she went along with what Ino said, because Ino was beautiful and funny and smart and tough, so of course she knew what she was talking about. Sakura had thrown herself wholeheartedly into liking Sasuke, but had realized too late that Ino saw it as competition instead of something they had in common.

 

He seems to pick up on all that, but blessedly refrains from talking about it. “From what you’ve told us, he’s always been a bit distant, even before...well. But what on earth makes you think he hates you? Did he say anything to you to suggest that?”

 

“He said I was annoying,” Sakura says quietly. And he had. Which was hardly fair, because compared to Naruto, she was a delight. She’d been commiserating with him about Naruto, come to think of it. He’d even started the conversation about the other boy, before darting off suddenly. When he came back...it was like he’d changed somehow. Become colder. More closed off. She’d desperately tried to steer the conversation back to where it had been going beforehand, but after she started complaining about Naruto, Sasuke-kun had brushed her off completely and sauntered away like he hadn’t just crushed her hopes. “I didn’t even...I didn’t get the chance to tell him I lov--like him. Like him.” She sniffles a little, swiping furiously at her face.

 

“Ah, I see.” He tugs on a sideburn, eyebrows scrunching together almost comically as he cocks his head slightly. “Sakura, when your mother and I started dating--” She makes a face at this and he laughs gently. “Yeah, yeah, I know, your old folks having feelings at each other. Gross.” She giggles, and he continues. “When we started dating, it was because we liked certain things about each other. I liked her for her intelligence, I liked how she hummed when she was focusing on something, I liked her because she punched that rat bastard Ishida Seji in the mouth for calling her a useless civilian.”

 

“She did what--”

 

“She, of course, liked me for my charm and devilishly handsome good looks.” He pauses and poses in a way Sakura assumes is supposed to be dramatic and dashing, but his arms are slightly too akimbo and his crooked grin lends a definite goofy air to the whole effect. “What I’m trying to say is...what is it you like about Sasuke-kun?”

 

“Well, that’s easy! He’s--he’s…” Sakura flounders for a second. Well, obviously she liked his...no, that wasn’t it. Maybe how he...but Shikamaru did that too, and she definitely didn’t like him. Was it his…no, she didn’t think so. “He’s...good at...fighting?” she said hesitantly.

 

“He probably knows just about as much about you,” her father says gently, scooching forward on the stairs to lay a hand on her shoulder. “You two don’t know each other very well yet. Give it time, little blossom. Find out what you like about him before deciding that you love him. And give him a chance to find out what he likes about you.” His face grows cheerfully thunderous, a wild glint growing in his eye as his grin turns just a touch manic. “And if after all that he still thinks you’re annoying? You punch that rat bastard in the mouth.”

 

---

She didn’t eat any of the You’re A Kunoichi Now cake last night, and now she’s kind of wishing she had.

 

Instead of eating anything like a rational human being, she’d gone straight to room after her chat with Dad. She rationalizes that she needed the rest: she has no idea what this ‘survival test’ is going to entail, and given that Kakashi-sensei told them to meet at five in the morning, she’d thrown herself into bed shortly after packing every last weapon and survival kit she had into an overnight bag. Sure, she’s well-rested, but now her stomach is complaining loudly.

 

Not as loudly as Naruto, though. “Where iiiiiiiiiiiis he?” whines the orange nuisance from his perch atop one of the posts in the empty field Kakashi-sensei directed them to. He’s been bouncing back and forth between the posts for a good hour and a half now, and it’s setting Sakura’s teeth on edge. “It’s like...almost noon, y’know!”

 

“He was late to the orientation, so I don’t really know why you’re so surprised,” Sakura mutters, shifting slightly so her legs don’t fall asleep. He doesn’t need to know that she’s also a little taken aback at their sensei’s tardiness. “And it’s maybe eight-thirty. You can tell by the position of the sun.”

 

“How?” Naruto is suddenly peering at her quizzically, all complaints about Kakashi vanishing like the early morning mist.

 

“Uh--” She’s not quite sure how to take his curiosity. A lot of kids figured out she was really good at doing the homework and would ask to copy her, but this seems different. Like he actually wants to know. “Well--we read about it in class, remember? It was during the wilderness survival unit--”

 

He looks almost sheepish as he scrubs the back of his head. “Oh. I uh...kind of forgot most of that part. I remember things better if there’s pictures? Like I’m real good at figuring out plants and shit, cause there were tons of illustrations in the packets they gave us, and I could go look at them when I went fishing, y’know! But uh...there weren’t any about...directions and the sun and telling time.”

 

Sakura blinks. She never considered it, but the wilderness survival unit had been...rather hands off. Even the packets they had been given were really short and information heavy, and she does remember that the stuff about finding edible plants had been one of those matching assignments where you had to draw a line to the correct illustration. “Oh. Well, I could...show you how to tell? It’s pretty easy, actually, but you have to be sort of careful when you do it in the morning or early afternoon or you’ll go blind.”

 

It’s like she’s given him a thousand ryo. He bounds from the post, grinning like a maniac as he drops to his haunches next to her. “Aw, shit, nice! So how do you do it?”

 

“You hold up your hand like this, so your pinky is just touching the horizon. Be careful not to look at the sun for too long, or you’ll do lasting damage to your eyes.”

 

“Like this?”

 

“No, hold your fingers together, like this.” She reaches over and rearranges his hand. “Now here’s the tricky part. Sunrise changes from season to season, but here in Fire Country it only ever varies by about an hour or so, and the length of the day never really changes that much, which is why this trick works so well. When you get farther north, into Kumo and Tetsu, this trick is actually kind of useless because of the differences in how long the sun is up during--” 

 

“Okay, but what does this have to do with my hand?”

 

“I’m getting there. Each finger represents about fifteen minutes. Today the sun rose at six-thirty, so you start at six-thirty here, at your pinky, and add time in fifteen minute increments.”

 

He pokes his tongue out as he adds up the time in his head. “Oh...so four fingers is an hour!”

 

“Yeah!” She’s honestly a little surprised he’s catching on so quickly. This doesn’t mesh with the Naruto in her memories, who struggled with tests and nearly failed the Academy altogether. “When the sun is just barely peeking over your pointer finger, it’s been an hour. And you can stack your hands to count each hour, like this--”

 

“So it really is around eight-thirty. I mean, I knew you were smart, but now you’re cool , too.”

 

She can feel herself blush a little at the compliment. “Ah--well, the trick only really works here in Fire Country--and only when you can reliably see the horizon, so it doesn’t really work in the forest--”

 

“Sakura-chan,” says Naruto seriously. “This is the coolest shit anyone has ever shown me, ever, and I am absolutely counting that time Kiba found that two-headed snake out in that field by his grandma’s place. This is cool shit . Right, Sasuke?” He turns and looks at the other boy, who has been standing vigil a short distance away in front of the polished stone set in the center of the clearing.

 

“Tch.” Sasuke shrugs. “It’s practical.”

 

“See, even the bastard thinks it’s cool.” Naruto turns back to her, beaming. “Thanks, Sakura-chan, I really appreciate you showing me.”

 

“I--”

 

“Good morning,” drones a lazy voice from behind them, and Sakura whips around to see Kakashi-sensei, slouching against one of the posts as he waves jauntily at him.

 

“YOU’RE LATE, Y’KNOW!” Naruto shrieks in unison with Sakura’s cry of “YOU SAID FIVE!”

 

“Maa, there was a black cat that crossed in front of me, so I had to take the long way around, which took me by a little old lady who needed her groceries carried...” He trails off as he eyes the glares Naruto and Sakura are sending his way. “Well. Ok. To business, then.”

 

They watch dumbfoundedly as he produces a huge alarm clock from a bag slung over his shoulder. He sets it down with a definitive thunk on the center post and presses a button on the top. “What’s that for?” Naruto blurts out, scurrying up to the post and reaching out a hand for the clock.

 

Kakashi slaps his hand away. “The survival exercise. It’s set for noon, which, thanks to Pinky over there--” Sakura chokes down an annoyed snort at that. Even Dad is pushing his luck when he calls her dumb nicknames, and this guy doesn’t even properly know her yet. “--you know is three and a half hours away.”

 

Naruto shuffles back to stand next to Sakura, nursing his hand. “Ok...so...do we have to like...survive in the woods until then, or…”

 

She can’t see his mouth for the mask that covers it, but she somehow gets the distinct impression that he’s smiling with all his teeth. “Oh, no, Dead-Last. You have to survive me.”

 

---

Sakura’s struggling to piece together a timeline for what’s happening. Here’s what she has so far:

 

1. It’s been thirty minutes since this wretched test started. 
2. It’s been about twenty-nine minutes since Naruto tried to bull-rush Kakashi-sensei, screeching bloody murder as he hurled a kunai directly at the jounin’s head.
3. It’s been about twenty-eight minutes since Kakashi-sensei neatly hoisted Naruto by the collar of his hideous orange jumpsuit and unceremoniously tossed him into the stream running through the training field. He didn’t even look up from the book he’d started reading.
4. It’s been about twenty-seven minutes since Naruto flailed out of the stream and vanished up a tree on the south edge of the field. He’s not moved from there since, not that Sakura’s seen.
5. In the following stretch of time, neither she nor Sasuke have made an attempt on the bells, until: 
6. About two minutes ago. Sasuke finally decided to make a move. It starts with a pair of shuriken, arcing out from his hiding spot. Sakura could barely track their movement, and if she didn’t already have eyes on Sasuke’s position, she wouldn’t be able to tell you where they’d come from. She wishes she could curve her throws like that: obfuscating the point of origin of thrown weapons is an invaluable skill for shinobi.
7. In theory, of course. In practice, Kakashi catches the shuriken in question and turns his one-eyed gaze directly on Sasuke’s hiding spot.

 

She’s all caught up, she thinks. Naruto is nowhere to be seen. Sasuke has been flushed out of his patch of brush in a fit of desperation. And Kakashi-sensei seems bored with the whole ordeal.

 

Sasuke’s dancing around Kakashi-sensei in, honestly, kind of a graceless manner. He’s barely keeping ahead of the man, and she can see the growing panic in his eyes as Kakashi deflects another brace of shuriken with a flick of a kunai.  

 

Kakashi, in direct contrast, hasn’t looked up from his book since the fight started. His free arm swirls almost lazily around him as he blocks Sasuke’s desperate kicks and punches. Occasionally, Kakashi will twist and strike out with his feet or glide smoothly out of the path of a kunai, but for the most part, he’s staying in one spot.

 

Sasuke seems to realize that he’s literally fighting a losing battle and breaks off, making a run for the thicket to the east of the clearing. Kakashi doesn’t even watch Sasuke’s haphazard retreat. He slowly turns a page in his book.

 

And turns to look at her.

 

Up until this point, she hadn’t been quite sure why Sasuke had allowed himself to be driven from his hiding spot. But now she’s bolting across the clearing, lungs burning as she hurtles through the shallowest part of the stream. She’s not even sure why, she knows that Kakashi won’t seriously hurt her, but nonetheless, she almost feels as if she’s running for her life. Sakura makes it to the other side, flings herself behind a boulder, risks a glance over the top--

 

What the heck. Kakashi’s still standing in the same spot. He didn’t even move.

 

“ Sakura-chan ,” hisses a voice from above her, and she almost draws blood when she bites on her tongue to keep herself from screaming. She looks up to see Naruto’s face nestled in the leaves of the tree above her. “Listen, I think we should like--I dunno, compare notes or--”

 

“No,” she says loudly, slapping a hand over her mouth when her outburst rings out with a little more volume than she intended. “No, we shouldn’t. It’s a test, Naruto, we--there’s only two bells. It’s every shinobi for themselves, and if we cheat and help each other, he’ll know.’” She had, at the beginning of the test, considered teaming up with Sasuke, but the other boy had hissed at her that he needed to do this alone. And he was right, they all need to do this alone.

 

“But Sakura-chan-”

 

“ No buts, Naruto,” she bites out. “Listen, it was kind of nice teaching you how to tell time, but if you’re going to be a shinobi, you can’t rely on me for everything. This isn’t the Academy anymore, we can’t just copy each other’s homework anymore. Not that I’d ever copy yours.” She regrets the jab as soon as it leaves her mouth, but if she’s going to do this alone, he needs to scram.

 

He’s silent for a few moments that weigh heavy between them. “...ok. I don’t wanna mess up your grade, y’know.” There’s a tiny swirl of leaves that fall to the ground as his face disappears from above her. She watches the canopy sway gently as he retreats, and she hopes he won’t feel too badly when he fails this test and goes back to the Academy.

 

She takes a deep breath. Okay, she thinks. Back to business. Scooting carefully closer to the end of the boulder she’s crouched behind, she winces as her knee catches on a root. It stings, and it’s dripping blood, but she doesn’t have the time to care about a skinned knee. 

 

There’s a tree nearby that has a better vantage point, and will allow her to stand while still giving cover. She dives across the gap, tucking and rolling to keep closer to the ground, and peers cautiously around the trunk. Good, Kakashi-sensei’s still in the clearing--

 

“Maa, that was kind of mean, Pinky,” drones a voice behind her. She whirls, catching a glimpse of white hair and a black mask and something impossibly red--

---

When Sakura wakes, she can’t shake the feeling that everything’s moved two inches to the left.

 

She squints up at the sun, does some mental calculations, and is a bit perturbed to discover that it’s been about forty-five minutes since the test started, which means she’s been out for just shy of fifteen. Not great, losing that much time, but hey, she still has a chance. She scrubs at her eyes and blinks away the resulting splotches of red and black and white that dance in her vision. Wait. The trees, the trees are wrong, she can feel a breeze, she can hear the leaves rustle, but the branches, the leaves aren’t moving--

 

She was panicking a second ago. Something about the trees. She can’t remember. It’s fine, though, they’re just trees. 

 

Sakura crawls to the edge of the boulder, spots a tree nearby--and stops. Didn’t she already do this before? Wasn’t she already behind that tree? She’d scuffed her knee on this root as she peeked around to see if Kakashi-sensei had moved...hadn’t she? Her knee had been bleeding slightly, the red of her blood catching the light of the sun and contrasting the black of the dirt ground into the wound and the white of the hem of her tunic--

 

No. No, her knee was unmarred and Kakashi-sensei was--wait, no he wasn’t there anymore. He’d been behind her. She remembers a flash of--of red-on-black-on-white-- and sucks in a shaky breath. Kakashi-sensei has her in a--

 

What was she thinking about? She can’t remember. Doesn’t matter, she’s gotta find Kakashi-sensei and get a bell. She’s going to be a kunoichi, and she’s gotta do it alone. And he’s vanished from the clearing in the past fifteen minutes, so she needs to track him down--

 

And whoa, holy crap, how did she get to the clearing so fast? Sakura can’t remember. She doesn’t know how to shunshin, that’s a high-level genin technique, almost chunin, she doesn’t have the chakra pools for it yet--

 

Wow, for a jounin, he’s surprisingly easy to track. Just leaves footprints and broken twigs like he’s not some sort of elite shinobi. The trail he leaves is so clear and easy to spot, she’s going to have no trouble at all finding him. A stroke of luck, really. When was the last time she was this lucky? She can’t remember. She looks at the sky to see how much time has passed, her hand blocking out the sun, the white glare of the sunlight casting warm red shadows through her hand that edge into black-- red-on-black-on-white--

 

The sun is in the wrong place. It’s in the wrong place . The sun is in the wrong place in the sky. It’s telling her that it’s eight-thirty, that the test hasn’t even started yet, that’s wrong, wrong wrong wrong-wrong-wrong-RED-ON-BLACK-ON-WHITE--

 

“ Sakura,” rattles a voice from the bushes next to her, and of course the sun isn’t wrong, how can it be wrong? Why did she think the sun could be wrong? She can’t remember. She needs to check out the voice. It might be a clue about Kakashi-sensei--

 

--red-on-black-on-white-red-on-black-on-white--

 

She shudders, and the voice rasps her name again. The bushes shake and shiver, and a dark blur tumbles out, raven hair in disarray around a pale face, so pale it’s almost like looking at a ghost, globules of red blood and gore tumble from thin lips and kunai that stick out of terrible, horrible wounds at terrible, horrible angles, red blood matting black hair against ivory skin, RED-ON-BLACK-ON-WHITE --

 

Something slams into her and knocks the universe two inches to the right.

 

“Sakura-chan,” squeaks Naruto, and she blinks, and the red-on-black-on-white ghost of Sasuke vanishes without so much as a death rattle. Her knee is aching, still bleeding sluggishly, the leaves on the trees are dancing slightly in the wind, the sun is no longer telling her it’s eight-thirty, and Kakashi-sensei put her in the most intricate genjutsu she’s ever seen in her entire life. They practiced how to detect simple genjutsus in the Academy, like singling out bunshins from the original, but this was another level entirely. “I know you said we shouldn’t cheat, but you kept muttering about--about colors, and you started crying, and you weren’t moving and it’s been so long since he attacked you and I figured Kakashi did something weird to you--”

 

“No--no, I...thanks, Naruto,” she replies shakily. “Yeah he--he got me.”

 

Naruto grimaces. “You’re not the only one he got. I heard Sasuke doing that fancy-fire-jutsu thing he does, and then he just--stopped. In the middle of the jutsu. So it’s pretty safe to say he’s down for the count.” He scrubs at the back of his head. “Listen, Sakura-chan, I know you don’t want to work together on this ‘cause you think it’s cheating, but...ninjas get put on three-man-teams for a reason. Iruka-sensei doesn’t run the Academy by himself. Even Jiji has bodyguards and assistants and people to help him. I don’t think we’re supposed to do this alone, cause nobody does this alone, y’know?”

 

“But the bells--if we work together, Sasuke--”

 

“He said that the person who hasn’t gotten a bell off him by the time the alarm goes off gets tied to the post and fails, yeah? But he never said you had to keep the bell you get. So what if one of us takes a bell, makes sure Kakashi-sensei sees that we have the bell, then another puts it back while they’re taking the other bell? Then whoever’s left takes the bell that was put back. He’ll never see it coming. We’ll all win.”

 

“I...ok, how are we going to take the bells in the first place?”

 

“Well, we find Sasuke, and we--”

 

And then the alarm goes off, and the test is over, and they’ve all failed.

 

---

When they trudge up to the posts, Sasuke is tied to the center post. He’s, bafflingly, covered from the neck down in dirt, and his eyes are cast to the ground in a sullen glare.

 

“So none of you even came close to getting a bell,” Kakashi says dryly. “And to think, Sakura and Sasuke are the best your graduating class has to offer. What do they teach you these days?” He shakes his head. “Eh. Whatever. Won’t be my problem anymore after today. Sit, sit.”

 

Naruto plops himself down gracelessly, his scowl matching Sasuke’s in intensity. Sakura sinks to the ground next to him, trying not to cry.

 

Kakashi ambles over to his pack and digs out two bento lunches. “You guys should give up on being shinobi,” he says casually, as if he’s discussing the weather. “I mean, you can’t take a measly bell off a stupid old jounin, so you’re never going to reach those lofty goals of yours. I mean Naruto and Sasuke’s goals are lofty, of course. Not you, Sakura. No offense, but ‘killing a certain man’ and ‘becoming Hokage’ are definitely grander ambitions than...what was yours again?” He taps his chin, and if Sakura was unsure that she was being mocked beforehand, she was dead sure now. “ Right, you didn’t have one. But!”

 

He hands one bento to Naruto, then one to Sakura. “You two still stand more of a chance than Broody over there.”

 

Sasuke splutters, the first noise he’s made since they arrived. “I-- what?”

 

Kakashi holds up a finger. “First,” he says. “Dead-last. Here’s what you did right.” Naruto’s head jerks around, and he looks almost as startled as Sakura feels at that statement. “You may have rushed in unprepared against a much stronger opponent, but once you discovered you were outmatched, you went to ground and observed. You recognized that Sakura had been put under a genjutsu and took steps to break her out of it. And you recognized that you’ll never be able to take me on alone.”

 

Naruto puffs himself up indignantly “I--well, not today, but I’ll keep working until I can beat you with one hand tied behind my back, y’know!”

 

Kakashi snorts. “When I’m 85 and senile, maybe. Moving on. Secondly, Pinky. You also recognized that you’re no match against me, and kept your distance. When you realized your hiding place had been made, you retreated instead of attacking, thus allowing yourself to pick the battleground instead of letting me choose for you. It’s a decent tactic for luring opponents into traps. You kept your wits about you long enough for someone to help you shake off the genjustu I placed on you. And when you found yourself with a minor injury, you didn’t fuss about your appearance or allow it to slow you down.”

 

Sakura blinks. “I--it’s just a skinned knee--”

 

“I’ve seen shinobi panic over simple, non-threatening injuries, and I know that those stupid kunoichi classes drill into young girls’ heads that your appearance comes first. Glad to see you didn’t let it stop you.”

 

“Uh...thanks?”

 

“Broody,” Kakashi says, whirling around. “You may be stronger than these other two idiots when it comes to fighting, but you didn’t learn from your attacks and adjust your strategy, You just kept attacking in the same way over and over again. You made no effort to retreat. After I buried you with my Headhunter Jutsu--” Oh. That’s why he’s covered in dirt. “--you made no attempts to call out to either Naruto or Sakura to warn them about me, or call for help. You allowed yourself to get captured and allowed yourself to stay captured.”

 

Sasuke’s stormy expression does not change, nor does his gaze shift from the ground during Kakashi’s evaluation.

 

“Despite all of your...shortcomings,” Kakashi continues. ‘I am going to give you one last chance.’ 

 

Naruto give a wordless shriek of excitement, and Sakura almost drowns in her relief. Sasuke slouches almost imperceptibly against the ropes binding him to the post.

 

“Here’s how this is going to work. We’re going to sit here and eat our lunch, and in thirty minutes, you will try again. It’s going to be much harder this time, so you’ll have to make your strategies and plans during this period. And--” Kakashi’s eye focuses lazily on Sasuke. “Broody doesn’t get lunch. He let himself get captured, and this is his punishment for that.”

 

Sasuke lets out a small ‘ hm’ at this, but no other reaction.

 

“Sakura, Naruto, I suggest you start eating now.” Kakashi digs out another bento from his pack and settles on the ground in front of the large stone dominating the clearing. “And before you start your planning, I’ll give you a little history lesson. It’s probably going to be the only thing I teach you.” He gestures vaguely to the stone. “This is the Memorial Stone. Engraved on it are the names of the greatest heroes of Konoha.”

 

“Oh, cool!” Naruto sprays rice all over Sakura as he jabs his chopsticks at the Memorial Stone. “I’m gonna get my name carved on there someday!”

 

Kakashi cocks his head. “Ah, perhaps you will. There are a lot of names here, from all walks of life. This man was a guardsman, this kunoichi was a quartermaster for a guardpost on our border with Taki. The Yondaime himself has his name on this stone, right next to a genin who helped evacuate civilians during the Fox attack.’ He pauses. ‘Do you know what they have in common?”

 

Both Sakura and Naruto shrug, at a loss. Sasuke speaks up, which startles them both. “They’re dead.”

 

“They’re dead,” Kakashi echoes, nodding. “Died in the line of duty for the sake of Konoha. I have a lot of friends on this Stone, and undoubtedly, you three know someone who knew someone on this Stone.”

 

Naruto has gone very still and very quiet, and Sakura cannot say she blames him. She knows, on some instinctive level, that she’s risking her life by becoming a shinobi, but she’s never really thought about how she, at any point, could die on the battlefield. Maybe she’s not cut out for this. Maybe Kakashi is right. Maybe she should give up on being a shinobi. Maybe--

 

“I don’t wanna end up on there just yet,” says Naruto suddenly, slowly setting down his chopsticks. “But I’d be proud if I did, cause it’d mean I saved someone, right?”

 

Kakashi regards him quietly. “Yes,” he says finally. “Yes, if you did end up on the Stone, it would be because you saved someone. And that would be something to be proud of.” His demeanor shifts abruptly, the melancholy slipping away. “Ah, I’ve forgotten my chopsticks. Be right back. Don’t feed Sasuke while I’m gone. Ja ne!” Kakashi vanishes in a swirl of leaves, and they’re alone with the weight of their own mortality on their shoulders.

 

Naruto almost immediately scrambles to his feet and starts making a beeline for Kakashi’s bento, which lies open on the grass in front of the Memorial Stone. “Naruto, what are you doing?” Sakura hisses, flailing an arm out to grab at his pants as he passes by her. “Don’t try and mess with his bento, that’s underhanded and he’ll probably catch on anyways--and don’t try to eat it either, yours should be plenty--”

 

“It’s not for me, it’s for him.” Naruto jerks his head at Sasuke. 

 

“What,” says Sasuke flatly at the same time as Sakura. 

 

“ We need each other if we’re going to win this,’ ” Naruto hisses as he uses his chopsticks to delicately extract an onigiri. “We all need to bring our A-game to this, and I’m guessing you didn’t eat breakfast like he told us to?” Sasuke nods hesitantly, as if it pains him to admit it, and Naruto thrusts the onigiri at him. “Okay then. We gotta do this quick, and while you’re eating, Sakura and I can explain the plan.”

 

Sakura squirms, biting her lip. “Wait, Naruto--”

 

“I know you’re worried about him catching us cheating, but--”

 

“No, what I was going to say was--we shouldn’t use his bento. We should use ours. So he doesn’t immediately catch on.”

 

A huge grin breaks across Naruto’s face. “See, that’s why we need you. You’re the smart one.” He wedges the onigiri piece back in, scoops his own bento back up off the ground, and thrusts a sausage at Sasuke. “Well? We don’t have all day, Kakashi can come back at like, any second.”

 

Sasuke looks like he’s liable to bite Naruto’s fingers off instead of the food he’s being offered, but he takes the food nonetheless. As he’s chewing, Sakura scoots closer, clearing her throat. “Okay, uh--Naruto and I were thinking we could all three take a bell by--”

 

“ YOU THREE! ”

 

Kakashi doesn’t even bother with a leaf shunshin. He just appears in an explosion of smoke and wind, and he’s seething. Naruto yelps and drops his bento, rice scattering everywhere. “ Explain yourselves.”

 

They all start talking at once. Naruto yells about how he was just stretching his arms, waving them in the air as if to prove his point. Sakura stammers that she has no clue what Kakashi’s talking about. Sasuke mutters that his arms are falling asleep, and if he’s going to fail them, can he please do it soon so he can go home? Sakura’s the one who finally stops yelling incoherently, and when she does, she takes a deep breath and says, “Sensei? You were here the whole time, weren’t you? This was a test.” She gulps. “It was a test, and we cheated, and we failed.”

 

“I was,” Kakashi growls. “I’ve been watching this whole time. I saw you cheat. And--” The anger leaves Kakashi’s eye like it never even existed, and his voice grows cheerful. “You pass!”

 

Everyone freezes.

 

“What?” blurts Naruto, his arms dropping. “We--what?”

 

“I don’t understand,” Sakura says faintly. “We cheated. We failed. ”

 

“Pinky, we’re shinobi . We kind of make our living off of subterfuge and deceit. Cheating is the name of the game.” He sobers a bit, straightening. “And today you displayed that you were more willing to help your teammates than risk my wrath. Remember this. Anyone who breaks the rules? They’re scum. But those who don’t cherish their friends? They’re worse than scum.”

 

Sakura’s eyes are watering, and she thinks she’s dangerously close to crying. “We’re...we passed,” she says dumbly, slumping to the ground. 

 

“You passed,” repeats Kakashi, not unkindly. “Team Seven starts missions tomorrow.”

Notes:

ino: wow sasuke is so cute and dreamy
sakura: that sounds fake but okay

also: fun fact: the hand trick absolutely works if you live close to the equator. it works better in the summer, but it's still fairly accurate during the winter. the farther north or south you go, though, and the less accurate it gets. thanks for coming to my ted talk

asdfjk asdf HI i've been away for far too long. rest assured, i have not abandoned this fic ;o;

thanks for reading!!

Chapter 5: routine maintenance

Summary:

In which Kakashi is chronically late, Naruto is mistaken about how bones work, and Sasuke has severe undiagnosed PTSD.

Sasuke has a routine.

 

He’s had this routine ever since that night . Well, the morning after he got released from the hospital, technically, but whenever he thinks about when his new life started, the point in time he traces it to is that night . And his routine is his life now. So the routine started that night .

 

He rises shortly before dawn, just as the songbirds are beginning their morning refrains. It takes him fifteen minutes to roll his futon neatly and change out of his sleepwear into workout clothes: just enough time for his brain to shake off the fog of sleep and sharpen up for the day.

 

After he’s dressed, he leaves the apartment. People call it his apartment, but he doesn’t feel that it belongs to him. Nothing in the Uchiha district belongs to him, not really. Everything here belongs to the ghosts, from the grand Naka Shrine to the smallest toolshed. It all belongs to the long dead, and so does he, until he can free them all from the memory of that man . Once he avenges them, maybe then he can find a place to call his own. 

 

He locks the door behind him, despite thinking that nobody would want to steal from him. He’s an orphan with a genin’s wage, and nothing in that apartment is really his. He’s just borrowing from the ghosts for now. But locking the door is an important part of the routine, so he locks the door and neatly tucks his key into his pocket.

 

The path to the training ground is overgrown, weeds and briars weaving themselves through gaps in the cobblestones, and he’s considering adding maintenance to his routine. For now, the path is still traversable, so he has time to figure out a plan. 

 

When he arrives at the training ground in the center of the Uchiha compound, the birds are in full chorus and the sky has lightened enough to see clearly. He runs through a few kata, and only occasionally chokes on the knowledge that he’s probably not doing some of them right. Learning from scrolls will only get you so far, and his father had only taught him the most basic forms. There is nobody left to teach him the more advanced family techniques. They will die when that man does. 

 

After warm-ups, he practices with thrown weapons. He’s almost proud of the clean, looping arcs he can get with his shuriken: he knows he’s nowhere near where he needs to be in terms of weapon accuracy and planning his trajectories, but he’s leaps and bounds better than when his routine first started. It means he’s progressing, and it means his routine is working.

 

Next comes taijutsu practice. A bunshin is a poor stand-in for an actual sparring partner, but it helps him hone his reflexes and accuracy to have a moving target.

 

When he’s done with taijutsu, he cools down with simple jutsu practice. Sometimes, he catches himself thinking Oh, my fireball is much stronger now, I should show Father how far I’ve progressed, or Mother might be able to give me tips on how to make my substitution smoother. It’s strange how kunai target practice never calls up thoughts like these, but he’s not about to take that particular boon for granted. He doesn’t want to think of showing anything to that man until he’s strong enough to face him. Even with his progress, even though he’s the top of his class, he knows he’s nowhere near ready. 

 

With jutsu practice behind him, he follows the overgrown path back to the apartment, digging his keys out from his pocket and blinking against the early morning sun that’s now properly in the sky. He showers, dresses in clean clothes, eats a small meal (usually leftovers from last night’s dinner), and leaves for the day, once again locking the door behind him as if he has anything worth taking anymore. Now that his morning routine is finished, the day can start in earnest.

 

Or it would, if his stupid jounin-sensei ever bothered to show up to their designated meeting spot on time.

 

He and Sakura have been sitting on this dumb bench by the decorative koi pond in front of the shinobi district for almost two hours now, their heads automatically snapping around to track movement whenever anyone crosses the small courtyard. His legs are going almost as numb as his bored brain, but he refuses to allow himself to wiggle feeling back into his toes. Remaining stock-still and quiet is an important skill for shinobi, and he wants to prove to himself that he’d be able to withstand the discomfort associated with sitting still for hours on end.

 

“This is just our lives now, huh,” Sakura groans, shading her eyes to look at the sun. “Half the morning gone. We could have gotten at least one simple mission done by now. And I’m not complaining about getting more time to hang out with you , but this is ridiculous. If Kakashi-sensei would show up when he tells us he will, we wouldn’t have to waste time sitting around like this.”

 

He hums noncommittally, hopeful that his relative silence will indicate that he really doesn’t want to talk right now. 

 

She doesn’t catch the hint. “Take this morning, for instance! If we’d known he wasn’t going to show up this late, we could have gotten breakfast together, or gone on walks or something.” 

 

Ah, yes, he’d almost forgotten. She’s one of the fangirls. He doesn’t really hold it against her, he knows she wasn’t even a ringleader of the gaggle of kids that followed after him like punchdrunk puppies after that night . They all saw him as a novelty, as a puzzle to solve, a fascinating new book to read. She does, too. That’s nothing new, and she doesn’t really stand out from the other members of the Tragic Uchiha Survivor Watching Club. If anything, she’s slightly more tolerable than the Yamanaka heir, who insisted on making advances and offering to invite him over for dinner. 

 

Still, best to keep her at arm’s length. She doesn’t share his ghosts, nobody does or ever will, and it would be unfair of him to paint a target on her back . So he shuffles her away in little ways, like calling her annoying, leaving practice in a rush as she calls after him, or grunting tonelessly as she blathers about hanging out. It’s better this way. Everyone is safer if he minimizes contact with them, and it’s obvious to onlookers (and by extension, that man ) that he doesn’t care for her beyond being classmates. He won’t have to completely and utterly burn bridges with her if he doesn’t truly build them in the first place, so keeping his distance is kinder. 

 

He just has to keep this up until they’re chuunin. It’ll be easy, once he figures out a way to wrangle a predictable routine out of Kakashi’s irregular scheduling. He can avoid all of them unless they’re training or on a mission once he has a proper grasp on when things are actually happening.

 

“--and it’s bad enough that Kakashi-sensei is always late, now Naruto is showing up late, too.” Sasuke belatedly realizes that he’s been tuning out Sakura’s chatter. And damn, she’s right, the third genin of their unit has been showing up late on occasion. Today is one of said occasions. “Do you think he’s figured out a pattern to when Kakashi-sensei’s actually going to show?”

 

“No,” says Sasuke firmly, his first coherent word all day. Why the hell would Dead-Last Uzumaki Naruto find a pattern in anything before either of them? Sakura may not be strong or particularly talented, but she’s got a decent amount of intelligence. 

 

“Speak of the devil,” she grouses, pointing across the courtyard. Sure enough, Naruto is pelting towards them, waving farewell to-- “Why was he with Iruka-sensei?”

 

And isn’t that the question of the century. It’s the weekend, so it’s not entirely surprising that Iruka is out and about in the village, but he wouldn’t have pegged the chuunin for someone who would willingly spend time with Naruto. And now that he thinks back on it, a lot of the times that Naruto’s showed up late to team meetings, it’s been a weekend. 

 

“Maybe he’s doing remedial practice,” Sakura says quietly. “He didn’t graduate with the rest of us, maybe he had to, I dunno, make a deal with the Academy instructors. I heard one of the kids in the class above us did something like that.”

 

“HEY SAKURA-CHAN, HEY TEME!’ bellows Naruto as he skids to a stop in front of them. “Kakashi-sensei still not here? Weird, I thought I saw him over by the library when--well, I guess I beat him here anyways. Had to run all the way here, Iruka-sensei and I had a race across the rooftops, it was pretty cool, y’know.”

 

Sakura’s ‘remedial practice’ theory is suddenly holding a lot of water. Sounds like Iruka had strong-armed Naruto into studying something at the library, and they’d seen Kakashi as they were leaving. The idiot needs all the help he can get, he supposes. And it’s not like he wouldn’t be able to cut it as a shinobi: he’s got a decent amount of talent when it comes to sparring, anyone with half a brain can see he has at least some talent with traps, and Sasuke has witnessed him easily slip away from angry victims of his pranks on several occasions. It makes a certain amount of sense that the Academy would allow him to graduate on the grounds that he attends study sessions with Iruka.

 

“Wait, you can run on rooftops?” Sakura’s head is cocked, like a dog hearing a noise it doesn’t quite understand. “How on earth are you using chakra like that? You’re a genin.”

 

Naruto’s grin grows brighter as he scruffs a hand through his hair. “Aw, that ain’t nothin. I’ve been climbing up onto rooftops since I was, like, seven. Don’t even need chakra for it, just gotta know where to put your feet, y’know? All the buildings are pretty close together in Konoha, it’s easy to jump from building to building, and even if you fall, it’s not like you’re going to get super hurt. Just a broken arm or leg, and those heal super fast.”

 

Sasuke knows from experience that broken arms and legs do not heal super fast, but he doesn’t have the energy or patience to argue that point with Naruto. One day, the idiot will slip and fall and find out how slow broken bones heal, and hopefully it won’t be in the middle of a battle. 

 

“You don’t know a thing about broken bones,” Sakura says archly, and apparently she feels up to the impending argument. “A broken arm takes at least--”

 

“Yo,” says a now-familiar bored voice, and both Sakura and Naruto yell wordlessly at Kakashi, who is now calmly reading one of his idiotic books on the bench next to Sasuke. 

 

“You’re late,” Sasuke says blandly, finally shifting his legs and forcing himself not to wince as feeling rushes back to his limbs in a tidal wave of static pinpricks. Finally, the day can start. It’s about time, too. 

 

“Am I? Or are you--”

 

“If you say ‘simply early’, I will feed that stupid book to those koi.” Sakura crosses her arms in front of her chest. “We have lives outside training and missions. Things to do. People to hang out with.”

 

“Yeah!” chimes in Naruto. “You can’t be late all the time--”

 

“Naruto, you were late too.”

 

“--and--c’mon, Sakura-chan, he didn’t need to know that--”

 

“We have a mission,” says Kakashi mildly, turning a page in his book. 

 

“It better not be that stupid cat again--” 

 

“--what’s wrong with Tora, Naruto? I think he’s sweet.”

 

“He always claws my face up! And you guys always make me carry him!”

 

“It is, in fact,” Kakashi drawls, “the stupid cat again. But I remind you, the ‘stupid cat’ belongs to the Daimyo’s wife. As in the woman married to the man who holds all the financial power in Konoha. So maybe this time, we don’t call the cat ‘stupid’ in front of his owner, who I might stress, is the Daimyo’s wife. Naruto.”

 

“What? What’d I do?” Naruto’s voice is petulant and defensive.

 

“Repeat what I just said.”

 

“The stupid cat belongs to the Daimyo’s girlfriend and I shouldn’t call it stupid in front of her, even though it is stupid and mean and ugly.”

 

Kakashi rubs the bridge of his nose, wrinkling the fabric of his mask between his thumb and forefinger. “Close enough. Ok, let’s get started.”

 

---

“Here’s your stupi--your cat,” Naruto says, dropping the yowling bundle of malice into the waiting arms of his owner. 

 

Sasuke swallows an amused snort as he ambles past the reunion, keeping pace with Kakashi’s meandering stroll towards the Mission Desk. The Daimyo’s wife doesn’t seem to notice the slight towards her precious cat, as she’s too busy squeezing the life out of it as it tries in vain to wriggle out of her embrace. “No wonder he always runs away,” mutters Sakura as she trots past, and he can’t help but agree with her.

 

“Well, we’ll never be short on D-ranks so long as Tora’s around,” Naruto mumbles back, and it’s true: Team 7 is the only genin unit this year that’s had relative success in tracking Tora down. And most of that success is actually attributed to Naruto, as painful as it is for Sasuke to think about. The stupid cat can run circles around Sasuke and Sakura, but Naruto has a weird knack for wriggling through gaps in between buildings and dashing across rooftiles that gives him an edge in the chase. Two Tora-chases ago, he’d just scrambled up a ten-foot-tall chain-link fence like some sort of demented squirrel without even hestitating. And Sakura had been right, earlier, they didn’t have the kind of control needed to use chakra to climb like that.

 

“--Jiji, isn’t there something more exciting?’ ” Naruto is saying, and Sasuke realizes that he’s been tuning out the conversation again. 

 

“ Naruto,”  hisses Iruka reprovingly from his desk next to the Hokage. “Remember what we talked about? About working your way up to C-ranks?”

 

“Actually, given Sasuke and Sakura’s scores on their exams, I think they’re about ready for C-ranks,” the Hokage interjects, puffing on his pipe and shuffling through the pile of scrolls in front of him. “In fact, we have a very low-level C-rank available now. An escort mission to Wave Country. No enemy nin expected, just bandits and wildlife. A perfect mission for these three to cut their teeth on. Now if I could only find that scroll…”

 

“H-hokage-sama, are you certain they’re ready?” Iruka stammers, head whipping around to stare at the Sandaime with eyes the size of dinner-plates. “They’re still rookies, barely three months out of the Academy.”

 

“Final say goes to Kakashi, as their jounin-sensei he’ll have a better sense of their abilities. Ah, here it is. Look it over, Kakashi, and tell me if you think they’re up to the task.” 

 

Kakashi takes the offered scroll, flicks it open, and takes a minute to scan the details. Naruto is standing on tip-toes next to the man, straining to see what’s inscribed. Sasuke is absolutely not stooping down to his level, but he does manage to catch ‘bridge’ and ‘bandit’ written in a spidery hand. “Yeah, this looks about right for my squirts,” Kakashi drones, rolling the scroll back up and tucking it into his flak jacket. “We’ll take it.”

 

The Hokage nods, looking pleased. Iruka splutters, looking decidedly not so.

 

“Ugh, FINALLY,” Naruto says. “No more stupid cats.” His blue gaze flicks over to the Daimyo’s wife, who is settling payment with a desk nin across the room. “Uh, I mean, no more absolutely wonderful and totally not stupid and evil cats.”

 

“Well!” The Hokage claps his hands together, smiling crookedly around his pipe. “I suppose introductions are in order. Tazuna-san! If you would come in here please!” he calls, craning his neck to look expectantly at a side-door.

 

The door in question slams open, and through it stumbles an old bespectacled man with a towel slung around his shoulders, a hat hanging from a cord around his neck, and a bottle of cheap sake dangling precariously from his fingers. “What’s this?” he barks after a few seconds of scanning the room. “They’re a bunch of damn brats.’” He takes a swig from the bottle, then squints at Naruto. “Especially that one, the shortstack with the stupid look on his face. Are you really a ninja?”

 

Sasuke almost lets out a sardonic laugh, but catches himself in time. Really? As if this lunatic has any room to talk. It’s barely mid-afternoon and he’s already drunk. He bites back a sarcastic response as Naruto finally catches on that he’s the shortstack with the stupid look and starts shrieking angrily and stomping towards Tazuna.

 

“Oi, Naruto, don’t do anything to the client!” Sakura’s got a hand on Naruto’s shoulder, and she’s throwing a look over to Sasuke, her eyes pleading. “Sasuke-kun, help me keep this--argh! Help me keep this idiot from killing our client!”

 

He rolls his eyes and grabs Naruto by the collar, kicking the other boy’s feet from under him with a sharp motion. This shouldn’t be his job, Kakashi should be the one wrangling him. But their sensei is currently deep in a hushed conversation with Iruka for some reason, so when Tazuna gives them a curt introduction and turns to storm off, it’s Sasuke’s hand that forces Naruto’s head into a short, apologetic bow.

 

“You leave tomorrow,” says the Hokage cheerfully. “You’re dismissed for the day. Make sure you pack all your necessities!” 

 

Kakashi breaks off from Iruka, dragging a still spitting-mad Naruto out the door by the ear. “The Hokage’s right, you guys need to go pack. Wave Country is a day and a half’s walk from Konoha, you’ll need to pack weapons, clothes, a small medical kit…”

 

“What did Iruka-sensei want?” Sakura asks curiously. “Is it something to do with Naruto’s remedial lessons?”

 

Kakashi and Naruto both freeze like spooked deer. “Naruto doesn’t have remedial lessons with Iruka, Sakura,” says Kakashi sharply, just as Naruto blurts out, “The fuck does remedial mean? Is it a cool jutsu?”

 

“Uh,” Sakura says smartly. “Well--Sasuke-kun and I just thought--”

 

“Don’t bring me into this,” he mutters softly.

 

“Naruto doesn’t have remedial lessons,” Kakashi repeats, finally letting his white-knuckled grip on Naruto’s ear go. “I don’t know how you got that impression, but he doesn’t. At any rate, you need to go pack. Make sure to pack something warm, the coast can get a little chilly at night this time of year.” After a few seconds of everyone standing there awkwardly, he waves his hands. “Well? Go pack! If you have any questions about what you need, ask Iruka!”

 

---

The route back to the Uchiha district is the same general direction as Naruto heads when it’s time to go home, so when he tags along after Sasuke, it’s not too much of a surprise at first. Sakura, though, he knows lives in the merchant’s district, so she has no excuse to go this far afield. And he’s fairly certain that Naruto missed his turn about two blocks back. But they’re chattering to each other, seemingly content to not engage him in conversation for a change, so he doesn’t call them on it.

 

“What do you suppose the ocean’s gonna be like, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asks, strolling along the top of raised wall beside the path. “I wonder if it’s anything like my dreams. All huge and shining and rolling around like the forest on a windy day.”

 

“I’ve never seen the sea,” Sakura admits. “I’ve been outside Konoha once or twice with my father, when he was picking up a shipment from another settlement or meeting a business partner, but we never left Fire Country or went near the ocean. Always west, close to our border with Grass Country. I wonder if the ocean looks like the plains that way?”

 

“Nah, grass is green or brown sometimes. The ocean is...I bet it’s like. Blue. Like the sky, but...more, y’know.”

 

Sasuke can’t help but snort. “What does that mean, dead-last?”

 

Naruto kicks at a stone on top of the wall. “I dunno, just...more. More shades, more to it. The sky’s mostly all the same, you know? It gets a little darker closer to the horizon, but for the most part. Same. The ocean...I bet it has more colors to it. Like some of the blues are almost black, but some of them are almost green, depending on the light.”

 

Sakura doesn’t seem convinced. “It doesn’t look green, I’ve seen illustrations.”

 

“I said almost green--”

 

Thank Amaterasu, he’s almost at the gates to the Uchiha compound. He can sense the coming argument, and he wants absolutely no part in it. “I’ll see you two tomorrow,” he says, not quite breaking into a run.

 

“--how can water be green-- oh! Uh, Sasuke-kun, don’t you want to--”

 

He doesn’t stop to listen to whatever Sakura has planned as he speedwalks into the Compound, her voice falling farther and farther with each step. In fact, he doesn’t stop at all, not until he finds himself at the training ground. He’s only mildly surprised that he wound up here: it’s only four in the afternoon, and he can still get some good training in before sunset.

 

In fact, from here on in, he can simply slip back into his routine. It’s a relief, really, knowing exactly what will happen next. No waiting around for a lazy sensei for hours. No weird idle chit-chat with a girl he barely knows and who barely knows him. No weird growing mystery around why Naruto’s spending so much time with an Academy instructor this long after graduating. No drunkards, no idiotic talks about the ocean, no coming home from a late practice to find your mother bleeding out on the tatami and your father staring with empty glassy eyes at the ruined walls--

 

Sasuke’s heart seizes in his chest, and he almost falls to his knees as the memory of that night blazes in his mind. He stumbles to a rock on the edge of the training ground to catch his breath, sitting down heavily and only wincing slightly as a stray stick jams into his ankle. He doesn’t bother extracting the offending twig, though, opting instead to calm his breathing and grind the heels of his palms into his eyes. He’s wheezing now, and he can’t stop taking quick, rattling gasps, too quick, Sage curse it all he’s getting dizzy--

 

No. It’s fine. He’s fine. He’s keeping to a schedule, everything that’s going to happen in the next four to six hours are completely and utterly predictable because he’s the one who’s making the plans. That man isn’t coming back, not until he’s got Mangeyko Sharingan, and he doesn’t even have his normal Sharingan yet. That’s why he has the routine. To get the eyes to face him. And to make sure he lives until he has them.

 

It’s fine. He’s fine. He’s going to live. He’s not one of the ghosts yet. He just owes them vengeance.

 

His breathing has slowed, thankfully, and he manages to heave a sigh without the world spinning around him. It’s been a while since he’s suffered through one of these weird episodes. He wonders sometimes if it’s something other shinobi go through, if they sometimes relive their worst moments at the most inopportune times, or if it’s something uniquely Uchiha. He has vague memories of one of his great-aunts complaining about how she relived a battle every time she had to activate her Sharingan, so he thinks it’s just a Uchiha thing. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, though, since he doesn’t have a Sharingan yet, but maybe it’s something they all had regardless of whether or not their dojutsu was active.

 

When he finally feels up for moving again, the sun has slunk down behind the trees. Damn. That’s the worst thing about these episodes. He can never tell how serious they’re going to be, or how long he’s going to be locked into one. He’s lost a lot of daylight to this one, and he’d better head back to the apartment if he’s going to pack.

 

As he trudges up the path, it strikes him: he’s lucky not to have suffered one of these episodes in front of Kakashi or Sakura or, gods forbid, Naruto. He’d never live it down if they saw him like this. He should do some more poking around the Clan’s library, see if there are any scrolls or books about how to avoid these episodes in the future.

 

It takes him about an hour and a half to square away his overnight bag. Most of the time is dedicated to attempting to fit a decent amount of clothing into his pack: in the end, he settles for just cramming as many shirts as he can find into the bag. Surely he won’t need more than two pairs of shorts. They don’t get as sweaty as shirts do. That’s logical. And he needs as much room as possible for his weapons and medical kit. 

 

Dinner that evening is rice and a hastily dashed together curry. Normally, he takes more time with his dinner, but his episode earlier has left him...not necessarily weak, but drained. And his routine tomorrow will start just before dawn, as it always does, so he’s eager to get some rest. He’s almost tempted to take another shower and ease some of the tension building in his shoulders, but he decides against it. It’s not like he did anything very strenuous today. 

 

The final part of his routine is the most important. He meditates for a while before going to sleep. It’s one of the three things he’s found that can reliably ward off the nightmares, the other two being a) falling asleep after an incredibly long and tiring day and b) not falling asleep at all. 

 

After meditation, he feels a little less drained than before, but certainly more tired. Time to turn in for the night. He unrolls the futon and drags it into place below the meticulously painted Uchiha fan spread across the wall. It doesn’t take long for sleep to overcome him, not after his emotionally tumultuous day, but just before he nods off, a stray thought flits across his mind:

 

Why does Uzumaki Naruto dream about the ocean if he’s never seen it?

Notes:

sasuke: [has a panic attack]
sasuke: hm. must be a me thing. i will tell nobody of this weakness.

naruto has ABSOLUTELY broken his arm before and it took like maybe three days to fully heal cause Kurama, but he doesn't realize this is not normal and figures That's Just How Bones Work

thanks for reading!! kind of a shorter one today oop

Chapter 6: baby's first road trip

Summary:

In which Iruka is a mother hen, Kakashi is a mother bear, and Naruto learns the merits of meditation.

Notes:

heads up: some light gore and death in this chapter. nothing too graphic, but canon-typical violence ahead.

Naruto is of the firm opinion that it’s too damn early to be up on a Sunday, the one day of the week he usually has off, but here he is at seven thirty in the morning, perched on the back of his couch as Iruka-sensei checks to make sure he’s got everything he needs for his first C-Rank mission.

 

“Ramen, Naruto? You packed instant ramen?”

 

“I don’t know if Wave Country has ramen,” says Naruto, bewildered. Why is Iruka getting so hung up on what he’s packed? He has his weapons pouch. He has a bandage. He has Gama-chan. He has three pairs of underwear. He has seventeen instant ramen packages. He has his pyjamas. He’s all set. He even packed the ramen bricks instead of the cups so there’d be more room.

 

Iruka sighs. “Naruto, what about extra changes of clothes? A bedroll? Your toothbrush?” He digs through Naruto’s pack and withdraws the bandage. “Is...is this your medical pack? It’s one roll of gauze. And, Naruto, really. This is a lot of ramen.”

 

“Yeah, I mean, we’re gonna be gone like a week and a half, y’know.” He’s not sure why Iruka doesn’t get why he needs all this ramen. He’s gotta eat while on the road, and ramen travels well. He assumes there’s gonna be pots and pans where they’re going, and while he’s never been to Wave Country, he’s confident that he’ll be able to catch at least some fish to add to the ramen. He could live on fish and mushrooms and roots, but it’s just not as tasty or filling as it would be if he could add said fish and mushrooms and roots to a bowl of ramen. Even if he doesn’t have a way to boil water or bowls to hold the ramen in, he can just crumble a brick and snack on that.

 

“Go get your toothbrush at least. And toothpaste. And a hairbrush. Might as well take another change of clothes with you as well.” Iruka makes little waving motions with his hands, clearly shooing Naruto towards his bathroom.

 

Naruto dutifully heaves himself off the couch and hauls himself into his tiny bathroom. After rooting around in the medicine cabinet for a few seconds, he digs out his toothbrush and a nearly-empty tube of toothpaste. He should be able to stretch the toothpaste out for a week and a half more. If not, he’s got some emergency ryo he can use in Gama-chan, who is tucked safely away at the bottom of his bag. He hopes Wave Country has toothpaste.

 

He returns to the kitchen, triumphantly stuffing the toothbrush and toothpaste into a side pocket of his pack. “Okay! Done packing! You can stop freaking out now, I have everything-- hey , why’d you take all my ramen out?!” Naruto tries not to pout too much at Iruka as he scoops his ramen back up and dumps it back in his pack. 

 

“ Because, ” growls Iruka in his scariest I-Am-Your-Sensei-And-You-Should-Listen voice, “you need room for your other things. Like a hairbrush, other changes of clothes, and a bedroll.” 

 

“I don’t have a hairbrush or other clothes,” Naruto replies cautiously, a mild panic building in his chest. Was he supposed to have more than one set of clothes? Jiji never said so. He just reminded Naruto to buy new clothes when his old stuff was wearing out or too small for him. “And I don’t even know what a bedroll is.”

 

“You don’t...Naruto, do you only have the one jumpsuit?!”

 

Iruka sounds upset. Shit, he was definitely supposed to have more than one set of clothes. How was he supposed to know? He’s only ever had one set his whole life. Clothes are expensive, and he needs to pay rent and buy ramen packs to supplement what he forages from the forests and training grounds. And he’s probably going to have to replace the set he has currently within the year: the pants are a little too short on him, and the sleeves no longer reach his wrists. “No…?” he says hesitantly, not wanting to make things worse.

 

“You only have the one jumpsuit,” Iruka says faintly, and it’s not a question this time. 

 

“I’m sorry,” Naruto mumbles. “I’ll save up so I can afford another set.” He perks up, suddenly realizing something. “Oh! C-ranks pay more, right? Maybe I’ll be able to afford it soon!”

 

Iruka looks absolutely gobsmacked. “Naruto, have you been wearing the same jumpsuit every day for—” he ticks off a few fingers as he does some mental math, “— three years? Please tell me you at least change your shirt. By the Six Paths of the Sage, I pray you change your shirt.”

 

“Well, I used to? But I outgrew my white shirt, the one with the cool spiral-y flame thing, so now I just have the one black shirt. I wash it every day, though,” Naruto says hastily. He knows first-hand how grubby one can get if they don’t bathe or wear clean clothes. For a large stretch of time after he first moved out of the orphanage, he had reveled in the lack of structured bathtimes. And then he started noticing the whispers villagers hissed behind his back, about how he was filthy and smelled awful, and how this proved he wasn’t really human. He also noticed that those particular whispers were fewer in number when he came back from splashing around in Konoha River. It didn’t take long for him to start bathing again and rinsing out his clothes each day. It’s part of why he’s particularly fond of his current jumpsuit: it holds up a lot better to repeated washings than his other clothes did.

 

“Thank the gods for small favors,” Iruka says faintly. “When you come back from Wave Country, we’ll see what we can do about getting you some more clothes. I’ll run to my apartment and dig out my spare bedroll for you so you don’t have to sleep on the bare ground. We should have enough time for that before you set out.”

 

Naruto breathes a sigh of relief as he flashes Iruka a wobbly grin. He’s not in trouble for only having one jumpsuit. Now that he’s not in the Academy and doesn’t have to prank people to get their attention, he’s come to realize that getting in trouble feels awful. It’s honestly a huge weight off his shoulders, not having to act out to get people to notice him. Between hunting for information about his clan with Iruka during their free time and the occasional one-on-one sparring practice with Kakashi-sensei, Naruto no longer feels like he’s a starving puppy begging for scraps of attention. Even Sakura-chan is friendlier to him these days, less likely to brush him off or insult him, and more likely to offer advice or answers to his questions. 

 

In fact, Sasuke is the only variable in Naruto’s immediate social circle that remains relatively unchanged: he’s as distant and vaguely pissed off as ever, and he’s still wiping the floor with Naruto during taijutsu practice. Sasuke’s practice fights with Naruto have always been... intense , and now that Naruto knows the truth about the Nine-Tailed Fox, he wonders if the Academy teachers were willfully turning a blind eye to how out of hand their sparring matches could get. Iruka-sensei would always get flustered and call a stop when their spar would devolve from a practice match into a full-on brawl, but none of the other instructors would make a move to separate the two.

 

But it’s not like the other boy hates him, he thinks. Sure, Sasuke seems permanently annoyed with him, and he’s quick to call Naruto out on his mistakes, but he does the same for Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei. He doesn’t seem angry with Naruto in particular, just...angry in general.

 

And there’s something else, too. Sasuke doesn’t necessarily go easy on Sakura-chan when they’re paired up for sparring, but he also doesn’t throw his all into the match like he does when facing off with Naruto.

 

In his own, weird way, Sasuke’s been paying attention to him from the start, Naruto thinks. It’s not the best feeling, getting his ass kicked or his mistakes roasted, but at least he knows that Sasuke is taking him even a little bit seriously.

 

“You really don’t need all this ramen,” Iruka says, jerking Naruto’s attention back to his dim, drab kitchen. “I have some extra ration bars you can take, and I also have some scrolls that I’d like you to study. I know, I know,” he laughs as Naruto splutters indignantly. “But you’ll have some down time in between guard shifts, and I feel it would be best if you brushed up on basic chakra theory before you dive headfirst into trying to manifest your chains.”

 

Naruto’s mood immediately brightens at that. “Are we gonna try again when I get back?” About a month ago, he and Iruka had booked a training ground for five hours to see if he could call up his chains in a more controlled environment. And in those five hours, he hadn’t managed to form so much as a single link. He’d been terribly disappointed, but Iruka had just hummed and told him that these things take time and patience. 

 

Iruka chuckles, ruffling his hair. “When you get back from Wave, we’re going to try again, yes. Provided you study your scrolls. And I’ve asked your sensei to make sure you do.”

 

“ Buzz-kill.”

 

“What was that?” 

 

‘Nothing, Iruka-sensei!’

 

---

After a short detour to Iruka’s house (to stuff ration bars, three scrolls on chakra and how to mold it, and a surprisingly compact bedroll into Naruto’s pack) and a not-so-short detour to Ichiraku’s (which had been open for hours: a ramen bar opening at six in the morning might have been bizarre in a civilian village, but shinobi villages never truly sleep) Naruto finds himself squashed in a very awkward hug from Iruka. “Iruka-senseeeei,” he whines, trying to wriggle free from the embrace. “I gotta go, it’s nine o’clock, you can tell cuz of the sun—”

 

“Be safe,” Iruka says instead of releasing him. “Listen to Kakashi. Don’t let Tazuna-san get to you.”

 

“Iruka-sensei pleeeeeeeeease—”

 

“Read your scrolls. Listen to Kakashi.”

 

“You said that already—”

 

“It’s very important. I’ve lost track. Where was I? Oh, yes, don’t forget to do your practice katas. And listen to Kakashi.”

 

“ Lemme gooooooooooooo, Sakura-chan and Teme are waiting for meeeeee—”

 

“And Naruto, this is very important.” Iruka relinquishes his hug in favor of gripping Naruto’s shoulders tight and staring deep into his eyes. “ Do not, under any circumstances, try to use your chains in the field. Tell me why you shouldn’t.”

 

“I don’t know how to regulate my chakra so it doesn’t drain me, I can’t use them with my taijutsu yet, and if I collapse from chakra exhaustion, I endanger myself and my teammates,” Naruto mutters back. Iruka’s been drilling this into his brain from day one of their impromptu lessons, and Naruto knows that it’s important that he keep the chains secret until he can use them right, but he’s tired of repeating the Don’t Use Your Super Special Move Mantra back to Iruka whenever the chuunin thinks he needs a reminder.

 

“Good.” Iruka musses his hair again, and honestly, why did he want Naruto to pack a hairbrush if he keeps making his hair messier? “You shouldn’t need them, really. As far as C-ranks go, this one is tame enough that you should get by with taijutsu alone. Now off you go. Tazuna-san is waiting for you.”

 

Naruto whirls and dashes off, happy to be free from Iruka’s weird clinginess. As he draws level to the gate, he skids to a stop in front of his waiting teammates and turns back, cupping his hands around his mouth. “BYE IRUKA-SENSEI! THANK YOU FOR THE ROLLY BED THING!”

 

Iruka looks like he’s stifling a laugh as he waves to Naruto before turning and strolling back into the village. “Thought your sensei was the weird tired guy with the mask,” Tazuna grunts, squinting against the mid-morning sun. “Where is he, by the way? That bridge ain’t gonna build itself, and I don’t wanna spend more time on the road than I gotta.”

 

“He’s late,” grumbles Sakura, just as Kakashi-sensei drops down from the top of the gate and drawls, “Good morning, Tazuna-san.”

 

“Amazing, you’re almost punctual for once,” mutters Sasuke, adjusting a bulky pack on his shoulders. “So I guess we mean much less to you than drunken bridge-builders, since you never show up on time for us.”

 

“Maa, Sasuke-kun, is that any way to talk about our esteemed client?” Kakashi drones, eye-smiling. “I’ll give you a hint: if Naruto isn’t allowed to insult the Daimyo’s wife’s cat in front of her, you’re not allowed to insult Tazuna-san to his face. Apologize, please.”

 

Sasuke stiffens, his eyes narrowing to slits before turning with a jerk to Tazuna and bowing woodenly. “I apologize.”

 

Tazuna eyes Sasuke, his mouth twisted into a slight frown. “Yeah, whatever.”

 

“Well!” Kakashi claps his hands and rubs them together. “Let’s hit the road. Tazuna-san is right, we don’t want to spend too much time on the road, and with the weather being so clear today, we should be able to make decent time.”

 

Naruto can barely contain his excitement, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Iruka-sensei and I looked at the routes we can take last night and he thinks we could shave a few hours off if we take the path that’s closer to the Rain Country border, but also that it’d be a bigger risk ‘cause the closer you get to other Countries, the more of a chance you’re gonna run into shinobi instead of just bandits or animals—”

 

“And Umino-san is right. It is a bigger risk, and an unnecessary one, as Tazuna’s bridge can wait one more day for us to arrive.” Kakashi withdraws a map of his own from a pocket and gestures the genin closer so they can study it themselves. “Now, this is the first time any of you have left the Village--”

 

“Oh, perfect,” growls Tazuna, resettling his pack on his shoulders. “Exactly what I needed, absolute novices that’ve never been away from home.”

 

“--so I want you all to be aware of your surroundings,” Kakashi continues as if Tazuna had said nothing at all. “Well, wait, hold on. Sakura-chan, have you left the Village before? I know your father’s a merchant, I don’t know if he’s taken you on business?”

 

“Only to Tanzuka Gai,” Sakura mumbles, staring unblinkingly at the map like Kakashi will tuck it away forever and quiz them on it. Naruto wants to assure her that they’re gonna stick to the paths, and he figures Kakashi and Tazuna will know the way to Wave, but he’s not sure she’d appreciate him calling attention to her obvious anxiety. “Never this--this far. Only day trips.”

 

“Still,” Kakashi says, folding the map neatly and handing it to her. “You’re the one in the group who’s spent the most time outside the walls. I’d like for you to take point. It’s a big responsibility, and you have to be constantly on guard for potential threats. Can I trust you to handle this? Naruto and Sasuke might be a bit...distracted by the new experience.”

 

Sakura’s eyes widen even farther, and she mutely nods. Naruto bites back more reassurances, instead vowing to somehow drop some compliments on her navigation later on today, if Kakashi or Sasuke don’t beat him to it. Although, now that he thinks about it, Sasuke would probably have to hit his head on a rock, get amnesia, and forget all about the stick up his ass before he willingly points out someone else’s accomplishments.

 

“Sasuke, stop sulking for a second,” Kakashi deadpans, because Sasuke’s permanent frown has deepened at the insinuation that he’s not suited for a task that Sakura has been assigned to. “You’ve got the fastest reflexes and the strongest taijutsu of the unit. I’d like you to shadow Tazuna, and if any threat makes itself known, protect him.”

 

This seems to ease Sasuke’s wounded pride, because his frown lessens and he snorts that stupid little snort he does whenever he doesn’t want to talk like a human. “Hrm.”

 

“Naruto,” Kakashi says, and Naruto feels his face break into a huge grin. He wonders what super important job Kakashi has for him, what he could possibly be doing to help the mission-- “Iruka-san asked me to make sure you study your scrolls. I’m familiar with the content on them, and I’ll quiz you every other hour.”

 

“Aw.” Naruto deflates. “But, Sensei--”

 

Kakashi’s flat stare meets his eyes, inviting no argument. “Yes?”

 

“...okay,” Naruto grumbles. 

 

---

 

Naruto’s trying super hard to read the scrolls Iruka gave him, but his gaze keeps getting drawn away by brooks running by the side of the path, by birds he’s never seen flitting around Konoha’s trees, by wild bushes heavy with berries whose tastes he can only guess at. There’s so much to see outside Konoha, so many new sights and sounds, and he just wants to stuff the scrolls deep in his pack and tear up the newest tree to drink it all in from a decent vantage point.

 

“Maa, Naruto,” Kakashi sidles up to him. “Tell me how to use hand-signs to mold chakra and perform a jutsu.”

 

“You do the goofy hand things and you do the jutsu,” Naruto replies irritably, tearing his eyes away from a brilliant purple butterfly that had just caught his attention. “I can’t remember why the hand signs help with the chakra-mold-thing. Something about the place on your body it comes from?”

 

Kakashi waves his hand in a see-saw motion. “Ehh, you’re close. Closer than you were four hours ago, anyways. The hand signs help you focus your chakra and draw it from certain tenketsu, yes. There are...I think 365? 360? Around 360 tenketsu on your body, I forget how many exactly. I’m not a medic-nin. Twelve of these tenketsu are considered to be Greater Tenketsu, and each of them are associated with a particular hand-sign. For instance, Rat and Horse are your left and right wrists, respectively.”

 

“Okay, right, sure,” said Naruto, trying to look like anything Kakashi just said made any amount of sense to him.

 

“Some Tenketsu will be easier to draw chakra from than others. For you, I suspect Ram, Tiger and Snake are the ones that you draw from the easiest. Ram and Tiger sit on either side of your collarbone, and Snake is on your belly. Unfortunately, this means it’s easier for you to overload your buunshin. You can’t control the flow as well as your peers because you simply have too much chakra.”

 

“Because of the--”

 

Kakashi slaps a gloved hand over Naruto’s mouth. “Yes, because of the Uzumaki lineage you have,” he replies, perhaps a touch louder than was strictly necessary. Right. Right, the Fox was an S-rank secret. He almost forgot, what with how freely Iruka talks about it now. Their current line of theory as to why his chains simply won’t come out is that the Fox’s chakra is somehow affecting him.

 

In front of them, Tazuna’s head pops up from his seemingly permanent slouch and twists around to stare owlishly over his shoulder. “Hold on. Uzumaki? This kid’s an Uzumaki? Hell, you shoulda told me sooner, that’s honestly a huge fuckin’ relief. Glad to see your clan’s still kickin’, one of my best friends growing up was from the branch house. She prob’ly died in the Fall, but maybe she made it out, if your parents did.”

 

The entire party screeches to a halt, Sakura stumbling over her own feet, Sasuke looking as if someone’s punched him in the gut, and Naruto dropping the scroll on handsigns directly in a mud puddle. Tazuna takes a few more strides before he realizes that something’s amiss. “What? What’d I say?”

 

“Tazuna-san,” Kakashi says quietly, no hint of lazy humor or disregard laced through his voice. “I would very much appreciate it if you did not mention Naruto’s clan again. Here in Fire Country, we should be safe, but Wave being so much closer to Kiri…”

 

“Don’t gotta tell me twice,” the bridge-builder grunts. “I’m old enough to remember the Fall of Uzushio. Nasty fuckin’ business, that, right shame.” Sakura and Sasuke are both flicking uncertain gazes between Kakashi and Tazuna, the millions of questions Naruto wants to ask about his long-dead family mirrored in their eyes. “Hell, Wave wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in if Uzu were still stompin’ around--”

 

“What mess?” Kakashi says sharply. “I was under the impression that this was an economic venture, Tazuna-san.”

 

“Uh,” Tazuna says dumbly. “Um.” 

 

“I swear on the Shodai’s bones, if you’ve endangered my genin--” Kakashi snarls, sidestepping around Naruto to advance on Tazuna.

 

“I didn’t know Konoha’d assign me fresh genin, how could I have known that--”

 

Naruto feels something cold and wet and hard close around his ankle, and his gaze darts down to meet the crazed eyes of a foriegn shinobi dressed in weird clothing erupting from the puddle beneath him. There’s a cruel mask covering the lower half of their face, and a wicked, clawed gauntlet is clamped around his leg. He manages a single cry before the hulking form of another, similarly dressed nin surges up on his other side, his identical clawed glove hovering inches from Naruto’s neck as his other arm wraps tightly around his shoulders. “Nobody moves!” the first shinobi barks, hauling himself further out of the puddle, revealing a chain connecting the two shinobi together by their gauntlets. “Nobody moves, or the little baby Uzumaki meets the rest of his precious family in the Pure Lands!” They drag Naruto backwards, manhandling him farther from the group. 

 

“Tazuna-san,” Kakashi grinds out. “I am going to flay you alive.”

 

“Aw, come on now,” laughs the shinobi holding his claws against Naruto’s jugular. “That’s our job, Konoha. Now hand him over, nice and easy, and you can have your boy back. But no funny business, or I shove my hand through his pretty little neck.”

 

“Acceptable,” drawls Kakashi almost instantly, placing a hand on Tazuna’s shoulder and shoving him bodily down the path. Tazuna yelps, stumbling as he tries to dig in his heels.

 

Sakura darts in front of Tazuna, a steadying hand on his arm drawing him back behind her. “Kakashi-sensei, the mission--”

 

“Is off. This coward is useless, and I have no qualms trading his meaningless life for Naruto’s.”

 

“S-sensei, no, ” Naruto starts to say, and bites back a yelp as two kunai bury themselves in the loops of the chain in quick succession, pinning it to the ground and yanking the claws away from Naruto’s neck. He feels the tips of the claws scratch fine welts across his skin and counts himself lucky it wasn’t any deeper as he flings himself into a rolling dive forward and away from the two attackers. Naruto’s roll to his feet isn’t nearly as bad-ass as he wants it to be, but it’s serviceable, and by the time that he’s got his legs under him again, he’s got a good two or three feet in between him and the newly pinned shinobi, well out of their range.

 

“The chain--Meizu, disengage the chain--” 

 

With a muffled clank, the chain falls away from their gauntlets, and they’re free to lunge at him again. He fumbles for a kunai of his own as he tries to put more distance between himself and the attacking shinobi--

 

--only to drop his weapons pouch entirely as a dark form blurs past his left side. A weird screechy-keening-bird call echoes loudly in his ears and the smell of ozone burns his nostrils as the blur coalesces into Kakashi, his right arm buried up to the elbow in the gut of one of the shinobi, electricity flickering from the wound. The other shinobi manages a strangled cry before Kakashi lashes his other hand out, a kunai arcing from his grasp into the other man’s neck.

 

There’s a small gasp behind Naruto, and he turns to see Sakura standing in front of Tazuna, who’s sprawled on his backside in the dirt. She has a kunai held loosely in her grasp as she stares with eyes the size of dinner plates at the dying shinobi. “Oh,” she says faintly. “That’s--oh.”

 

“Well, this mission has now officially gone from C-Rank to B-rank,” grouses Kakashi, yanking his arm out from the attacker’s gut with a disgusting squelch . He shakes a bit of charred gore from his hand disinterestedly, and yanks his canteen from his belt, uncorking it and pouring water over his blood-and-intestine soaked arm. “Naruto? Are you okay?”

 

The welts on Naruto’s neck sting uncomfortably, there’s a writhing, uncomfortable feeling in his gut, and the smell of the attacker’s blood seeping into the dust of the road is making his head spin, but he shrugs the best he can and says “Yeah,” in the most unaffected voice he can manage. Sakura’s on the edge of freaking out, he can tell, and if he loses it too, it’s only gonna get worse. He’s gotta squash his panic down as far as he can, for the sake of his teammates.

 

“Sakura,” Kakashi says, voice calm and soft, like he’s talking to a horse that’s about to spook. “Sakura-chan, you did very well, protecting Tazuna-san like that. And Sasuke, excellent aim with those kunai. Excellent job using Sakura and I as a smokescreen for the setup. And Naruto,” Kakashi reaches out (a thankfully gore-free) hand to rustle Naruto’s hair. “Good job keeping your cool. If you’d panicked and thrashed around, the claws would have broken skin and poisoned you.”

 

Naruto’s hand involuntarily claps to the welts on his neck, their sting already fading. “Oh,” he says numbly. “Uh. Yikes, I guess.”

 

“You tried to sell me out,’ ” exclaims Tazuna shakily, still sitting on the ground, his legs akimbo.

 

“Maa, Tazuna-san, it was a logical deception.” Kakashi waves his still-slightly-bloody hand in a shrug. “As logical as your deception was, I think. So tell me. What exactly is the mess in Wave?”

 

---

 

They make camp for the night after Kakashi seals the bodies of the shinobi away into storage scrolls. Naruto’s not sure if he’s going to be able to sleep after everything that happened today, but he’s bone-tired and still vaguely dizzy, so he’s grateful they’re bedding down. 

 

He’s just settling down onto Iruka’s rolly bed thing when his eye’s meet Sakura’s over the small fire Sasuke built. She’s staring vacantly ahead, normally bright eyes glazed and empty, and it looks like her breathing is super shallow and irregular. “Uh, Sakura-chan?”

 

She jumps violently, eyes snapping into focus. “What?” she snarls defensively, hands curling into fists.

 

“Just...uh...you did really good with the directions today,” he said lamely, not wanting to poke too hard at whatever thoughts are hurting her. He knows he doesn’t like thinking about the night Mizuki died, so she probably doesn’t want reminding of today’s ordeal either. “We made really great time, I think, and we couldn’t have done it without your help.”

 

Sakura stares at him blankly. “Anybody could have read a map.”

 

“I can barely read normal things, let alone maps,” Naruto responds dryly. “And Sasuke’s never been outside Konoha either. I betcha the bastard has no idea which way’s north.”

 

“Hrm.” Sasuke’s disaffected grunt rings out from the lump of dark blue sleeping bag set up further away from the fire.

 

“Okay, Teme, which way is north? Tell us right now. Sakura-chan, whattya wanna bet he has no idea which way north is?” 

 

He’s taken off guard when she hesitantly replies, “...5000 ryo.” 

 

She never joins in when he pokes fun of Sasuke for anything. She must really be taking this badly. All the more reason for him to steer her thoughts away from the fight today. “Hear that, Sasuke? You’ll owe us both 5000 ryo if you can’t tell us which way north is.”

 

Sasuke sits up in his sleeping bag, dark eyes glittering in the firelight as he glares at Naruto. “That’s not how bets work, Dobe.”

 

“It’s how this bet works. So do you admit defeat? Or are you gonna tell us?”

 

“Tch.” Sasuke points straight back up the path. “Obviously, we have to go south to get to Wave. So the direction we came from is north. Simple.”

 

“Not quite,” Kakashi sing-songs from his perch in the tree above them. “Wave is southeast from Konoha. We’ve been traveling east for quite some time now. That’s west, Sasuke. I sure hope you have ten thousand ryo lying around.” He pauses, cocking his head. “Well, you will after this mission, anyways. B-ranks pay much better than D-ranks.”

 

“I still don’t know how we’re going to afford it,” grumbled Tazuna, settling further into his bedding. “We might have to set up tolls, but Gato won’t take kindly to it.”

 

“We’ll work something out with Wave’s Headsman,” Kakashi says smoothly. “Konoha is always open to fee negotiation, Tazuna-san. I’m only sorry you were unaware of that.” His singular gaze flicks down towards the old bridge-builder. “I know you didn’t intentionally put my genin in harm’s way, but understand that we’re cutting the mission a bit short. I cannot afford to put these kids on the front lines of a shipping war, not with enemy nin at play. Certainly not nin of the Demon Brothers’ calibre. The last time their entry was updated in the Bingo Books, they were running with Momochi Zabuza, and I’d hate to cross paths with him right now.”

 

Tazuna shrugs helplessly. “All I can ask is for you to get me home.”

 

“We will do just that, nothing more.” Kakashi leans further back against the trunk of the tree. “Get some rest, Tazuna-san. I’d like to leave as soon as possible in the morning to make up for the time we lost fighting the Brothers. Same goes for you three. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn for watch.”

 

And just like that, Sakura’s back to staring vacantly at the fire. Dammit, all Kakashi’s talk about the Demon Brothers has got her thinking again. “Sakura-chan,” Naruto says softly. ‘You wanna talk about...what happened?”

 

She shakes her head vigorously, and he decides to change tactics. “Yeah, me either. I guess we’d better try to get some rest.”

 

It’s several minutes before she replies. “...how?” she whispers, her voice cracking slightly. “How can I sleep after...that?”

 

“I...I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll be able to either.” Naruto twists the fabric of his favorite quilt in his hands, glad Iruka talked him into packing it. The night is surprisingly chilly, and the fire can only do so much to keep him warm. “I’m gonna be honest, I’m worried about having nightmares about it. I dunno how I could avoid nightmares after...that.” He doesn’t think that admitting that he has nightmares about Mizuki will help at this point, and he definitely doesn’t want to explain why he’d be dreaming about Mizuki dying. 

 

Sasuke replies, taking them both by surprise. “Meditation. I can guide you through it.” 

 

“That’s...actually kind of nice, Teme,” Naruto says, mildly shocked that Sasuke would suggest it without prompting.

 

“Do you want me to help you two or not?” Sasuke almost snarls.

 

“There he is,” Naruto laughs.

 

“Shut up, Dobe, and sit up, cross-legged. You too, Sakura.”

 

It’s...weird, having Sasuke talk them through the meditation. Normally, Naruto’s thoughts race wildly, one after the other in quick succession, like songbirds chasing each other through the trees. Sometimes they light on a branch and stay a while, and he can focus on one thing, but for the most part, they run wild and free. 

 

But with Sasuke’s low, quiet voice washing over him, guiding his breaths and encouraging him to let his mind drift unmoored, his usually rampant thoughts...settle. He can almost feel his stream of thoughts slow down. It’s calming, and the more he focuses on his breathing and on Sasuke’s voice, the further away the troubles of the day seem to grow. Eventually, Sasuke’s words start to fade away too, replaced by another sound he can’t quite place. A gentle, rhythmic roaring, pulsing in time to his heartbeat. It sounded almost like the wind, but not quite. The ocean, his brain supplies. The sound of the ocean. 

 

He’s not sure why he knows what the ocean sounds like, he’s never been, but the knowledge rings true in his heart. It tugs at him, the crash of the waves and whistling of the wind singing to him of peace and tranquility, and he lets his mind sink further into the meditation. 

 

A gasp breaks his concentration, the waves abruptly vanish from his mind, and his eyes snap open. He’s surrounded by a burning orange glow, and he immediately leaps to his feet, thinking the fire has somehow spread to his bedroll--

 

--and then he realizes. As soon as he registers what they are, his Adamantine Chains shatter into burning dust, joining the lazy sparks of the campfire as they spiral into the night sky.

 

Notes:

kakashi: listen tazuna i would sell your soul to satan for one corn chip
tazuna: you know what? fair

 

guest-starring some very bullshit chakra theory world building that i pulled out my ass.

 

lemme tell yall: fulltime retail is a helluva drug, I've barely been able to write at all. but im back baybeeeee! will i start updating regularly? reply hazy, check back again.

thanks for reading!!

Chapter 7: it's not paranoia if they're trying to kill you

Summary:

In which Kakashi tries to give advice, Sasuke gets mildly seasick, and Sakura kills a defenseless bunny.

Sakura has almost drifted off to sleep when something bright flashes very close to her face, painting her vision a muddy orangey-pink, even through her eyelids. She jerks abruptly into full consciousness, flipping over in her sleeping bag and scrabbling for her weapons pouch. As she clumsily withdraws a kunai, she gasps as pain lances through her hand: she’s scored a line across her palm somehow. Sakura tries to turn back over, but her sleeping bag has tangled around her legs, and she struggles to extract herself, yelping ‘K-Kakashi-sensei—?’ as she twists her head around to the source of the light.

 

Naruto is standing at the other side of the campfire, eyes wide as dinnerplates as he stares at the fire, hands slack at his side. As she calls for Kakashi, his body twitches, and his vision snaps to her. ‘Sakura-chan,’ he breathes, “Did—Did you see—”

 

“A log shifted in the fire,” Kakashi calls down from his perch. “The change in the light must have startled you both. Sakura, are you all right?”

 

“I—” She gulps, taking the time to slowly sit up on her bedroll, gingerly setting the kunai down by her weapons pouch. “I’m okay.”

 

“You’re bleeding,” Sasuke grunts from his pile of bedding. “And noisy. Bind your wound and go to sleep.”

 

“Oh,” she mumbles, looking at her hand. The gash across her palm isn’t very big, but it’s steadily dripping blood, and it’s admittedly a lot deeper than she expected.

 

“I have a bandage—” Naruto starts to say, reaching for his pack, but is cut off when Kakashi drops near-silently from the tree and shakes his head. “Uh—hi, sensei—”

 

“I’ll bandage her hand. Go to sleep, Naruto. I’ll wake you for your watch.” Sakura stares with trepidation as Kakashi pats Naruto on the head, then turns and drops to his haunches by Sakura’s bedroll, fishing a small medical kit from one of the pockets of his flak vest. “Let me see your hand, Sakura-chan.”

 

She meekly holds it out. “I...wasn’t paying attention when I packed my weapons pouch. I need to make sure I stow them properly, it was a dumb mistake--”

 

“You did well today,” Kakashi says softly, dabbing at her palm with an alcohol swab. She’s so taken aback by this sudden turn in the conversation that she almost doesn’t notice the sting. “Today was your first real combat situation, and instead of freezing, you immediately moved to protect our client.” His eye crinkles into what she tenuously decides is a genuine smile. “And you talked back to me when you thought I was going to sacrifice him.”

 

“The client always comes first,” she mumbles, trying hard not to breathe through her nose. The tang of her blood is starting to permeate the air, and it makes her think about--about the--about earlier. 

 

Kakashi’s still smiling, she thinks, as he starts wrapping the gauze firmly around her palm. “True, but I’m glad you feel comfortable enough with me to second-guess my orders. It’s important to look underneath the underneath.”

 

“You still haven’t explained what that means,” she grumbles.

 

“Maa, you’ll understand one day.” He deftly tucks the end of the gauze into the wrapping, and pats her head. “Just...remember that I don’t expect you to know the ins and outs of battle yet. Sasuke and Naruto both took an active part in the battle today, but you also contributed.”

 

She frowns, puzzled. “I...didn’t, though. I stood by.”

 

His eye smiles at her. “And sometimes, that’s what you need to do in battle. Sometimes it’s not about throwing kunai or using jutsu. Sometimes it’s about staying put and making sure your client is protected.”

 

“...Okay,” she says, still unsure that she understands. She didn’t do anything today but read a map, yell at her commanding officer, and--and watch two shinobi die. 

 

Kakashi seems to take her at her word, pats her head once more, and shunshins back up to his perch in the tree. “Good night, Sakura-chan.”

 

“Good night, Sensei,” she says softly, staring at the bandage on her palm, feeling like she’s missed something important that’s going to be on the test later.

 

---

 

Morning breaks, and Sakura has not slept a wink all night. She has managed to meditate a bit more, following Sasuke-kun’s instructions, so she feels a little better than she usually does after an all-nighter, but she’s definitely not at the top of her game today. Sakura stifles a yawn as Naruto shuffles dirt over the remains of their campfire.

 

“Dobe, stop kicking dirt everywhere,” Sasuke deadpans, hoisting his bedroll away from the spray of grit that showers his belongings. 

 

“Oh, okay, Teme, you can put out the fire.”

 

“Idiot, use some water from the stream down the hill.”

 

“Absolutely, if you want a shitload of smoke in your pretty little face. Dirt smothers it, y’know, but water just makes a bunch of smoke.”

 

“Boys,” Kakashi drones. “Sasuke, Naruto’s right, dirt is better for putting out fires. Naruto, that’s only true if the dirt actually gets into the firepit, and not your teammate’s belongings. Aim a little better, please.”

 

Both boys seem to take this as a victory, Naruto sticking his tongue out at Sasuke as he resumes his dirt kicking, Sasuke scowling pointedly as he shakes the dust from his sleeping bag before rolling it neatly.

 

“Sakura, how’s your hand this morning?” Kakashi asks offhandedly as he prods Tazuna with his foot. “Oi, Tazuna-san, we’re leaving in fifteen. Up you get.”

 

“My hand?” She flexes it experimentally. “It...doesn’t feel stiff or anything. I guess it’s fine?”

 

Tazuna stirs, blinking blearily as he sits up from where he wedged himself between two roots last night. “Whuzzat? Hands? What hands?”

 

“Never you mind, Tazuna-san,” Kakashi replies, ambling over to Sakura. “May I?” he asks, nodding towards her hand.

 

“Oh. Uh, sure?” She offers it to him, watching as he gingerly unwinds the gauze, peering closely at her hand. “Kakashi-sensei, about the log last night...I didn’t mean to make such a big deal about nothing, but--”

 

“No need to apologize,” he says airily. “Paranoia is common among shinobi, Pinky. It may even save your life someday. Better to raise a fuss over nothing than to dismiss a threat.”

 

She wrinkles her nose, mulling that over. She’s not sure she’s paranoid...yet...but she’s certainly jumpier than she was this time yesterday. And she’s wondering now if Kakashi’s definition of paranoia lines up with hers. Last she checked, paranoia was characterized by delusions and the absolute certainty that the world is out to kill you when there’s no evidence to the contrary. Someone had tried to kill her yesterday. She’s not delusional, she doesn’t think everyone’s out to get her, she knows that two people tried. 

 

Kakashi hums tunelessly as he re-wraps her gauze. “Healing nicely. Shouldn’t even scar.” He pats her head before heaving himself to his feet and ambling over to Naruto and Sasuke, who have started squabbling again, this time about which ration bars are best. Naruto seems to be arguing for the case of taste, but Sasuke is more interested in nutrition. Frankly, she thinks they’re both wrong; Naruto is adamant that the peanut butter bars are better than Sasuke’s choice of the nut and fruit bars. She likes the taste of the mango bars better than the peanut butter, and Sasuke isn’t considering the nutritional value of the tasteless emergency MREs. 

 

“I don’t care what your preferences are,” Kakashi intones, plopping his hands down on both their heads. “Pick something, eat it, and pack up. We’re three hours from the coast, and we need to make our rendezvous with Tazuna’s ferry friend.”

 

After a hasty breakfast and even hastier packing, they’re on the trail again. And Sakura maintains that she’s not paranoid, but every twig crack, every rustle of leaves, every trill of birdsong makes her jump. It didn’t rain in the night, but she finds herself scanning the path for more puddles. At one point, a songbird actually swoops across the path, and her hand plunges into her weapons pouch.

 

She notices that she’s not the only jumpy one, which ironically soothes her nerves a little. Naruto is twitchy as well. At one point, a white rabbit dashes from one bush to the other alongside the path, and Naruto shrieks at the movement, before sheepishly laughing. “A-ano, just a little bunny,” he stammers nervously.

 

“Hm,” Kakashi mutters. 

 

Tazuna seems to catch on that they’re all on edge. “We’re near the coast now,” he says almost placatingly, sniffing a bit. “You can smell the sea air from here.”

 

“Oh,” Sakura says dumbly, realizing that at some point the air had grown salty. “I hadn’t noticed.”

 

“It smells...nice?” Naruto’s head is cocked. “Like...it smells warm, y’know. Welcoming, somehow.”

 

“Oh, you are definitely an Uzumaki. Noriko could not stop waxing poetic about how the sea was her home, how it was--right, sorry, gotta shut up about him bein’ an Uzu brat,” Tazuna cuts off at Kakashi’s warning glare.

 

Naruto’s almost vibrating at this point. “Sakura-chan, how close are we? Check the map!”

 

“Uh--” she unfolds the map and bites her lip as she does some mental calculations. “We’re...really close. I wanna say it’s about two miles--”

 

“Naruto, do not run off,” Kakashi says sharply as Naruto dashes ahead of the group.

 

“Aw, sensei--”

 

“Don’t ‘Aw Sensei’ me, Naruto, you were nearly killed yesterday. We stick together until we are back through Konoha’s gates, you hear me?”

 

A pout scrunches Naruto’s face. “Fine,” he relents, kicking at the ground.

 

---

 

Naruto sulks for the next half hour, before perking up again. “Do you guys hear that?”

 

Sakura can barely make out a crashing, almost hissing sound. “Is that...that’s gotta be the ocean, right?”

 

The grin on Naruto’s face is almost blinding. “You bet it is! We gotta be close now!”

 

“Don’t--” Kakashi starts, but Naruto has already broken into a dead run. “This kid’s gonna be the death of me. I’m growing more grey hairs by the second.”

 

“Your hair’s already grey,” Sasuke says.

 

“ Silver, it’s silver.”

 

“We should catch up,” Sakura says, picking up the pace. Naruto’s already left their line of sight, scurried around a bend in the path. She reasons that nothing bad will happen to him. They’ve gotten this far, surely they’ve already hit their quota for terrible things happening to them on a C-rank. Sure enough, they hurriedly round the corner in the path, and Naruto is standing at the edge of a small cliff, staring with wonder at the ocean. She...can’t say she sees the appeal, because--

 

“Wow, it’s foggy as fuck today,” Tazuna says. “Well. That’s good for us, because it’ll cover our passage into Wave. C’mon, the ferryman’s waiting.”

 

Naruto has to be tugged away from the edge of the cliff. “It’s just like I dreamed,” he mumbles. “Like the sky, but more.”

 

“Jeez, kid, you’re really an--right,” Tazuna breaks off at Kakashi’s warning hum.

 

---

 

The ferry that’s waiting for them is rickety-looking, but quick and quiet. They glide over the waves, which, while gentler than Sakura’s imagination had painted them to be based on books she’s read, still tosses her around and makes her feel ill. “Sea-sickness,” Kakashi murmurs to her. “Focus your chakra in your inner ears. It helps.”

 

“Why?” she asks quietly, curious as to how he knows.

 

He shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s a trick I picked up from an old friend who lived out this way.”

 

She tries it, and surprisingly, her nausea slips away almost instantly. The ocean becomes exponentially louder around her, and she has to dial it back quickly; it takes her several minutes to find the right balance of chakra to hold in her ears to avoid becoming either sick or overwhelmed with noise. Sasuke, who’s been listening in, seems to be struggling to find the balance he needs, and after a few minutes, returns to looking vaguely queasy. 

 

Naruto, interestingly enough, doesn’t seem to be affected. Instead he’s perched at the bow of the ship, running a hand almost lovingly through the water. 

 

“He from Uzu?” the ferryman asks Tazuna. “I only ever seen Uzu folks adapt that quick to bein’ on the water.”

 

“Don’t ask,” Tazuna grunts, shooting a glance at Kakashi.

 

After she figures out the trick to not hurling her guts up, Sakura finds herself staring curiously at the waves. She’ll never admit it, but Naruto was right the other day about the color of the ocean. When she leans over the side, the waters below the boat are a deep blue, almost black, but the waves she sees cresting further out are an almost grey-green color. It really is like someone took the sky and gave it more depth, more variety. 

 

In fact, the water is so mesmerizing that she is taken aback when she notices the massive unfinished bridge looming out of the fog. “How on earth are you keeping that a secret from Gato?” she asks Tazuna.

 

“We aren’t,” he says. “It’s why my workers keep disappearing. Wave’s headman approved the project, so Gato can’t shut us down without stepping on some serious legal toes, so he’s doing his best to skirt around the issue by taking the workers off the board.”

 

They weave through the bridge’s support beams, and pass through a tunnel into a mangrove forest. She catches glimpses of a small village in between the mangrove trees: what she does see of Tazuna’s hometown is rundown and ramshackle.

 

It’s almost disappointing when the trip ends. She sympathizes with Naruto, who again has to be dragged away from the boat. “We’ll be back soon,” she says. “Remember? We’re just taking Tazuna to his house, and then we have to go back to Konoha.”

 

“Right,” he says, his eyes still on the water.

 

The trip over the sea has calmed her nerves somewhat, but Sakura’s still hopped up enough to actually palm and throw a kunai when she hears a twig snap off the path. She realizes she’s still channeling chakra to her ears when she can hear the kunai hit with a thunk and the pained squeal of the white rabbit she’s pinned to the tree.

 

“That’s...weird, right?” Naruto says dazedly. 

 

“What’s weird?” she snaps. “That I hit a target? That I can throw a kunai? I’m not useless! I’m NOT!” Her voice echoes off the trees, and she realizes that she’s been yelling.

 

“Uh...no?” Naruto looks startled at her outburst. “You’re really good at target practice. I was talking about the bunny. It’s a weird coincidence that we’ve seen two white rabbits so close to each other.”

 

Sasuke snorts. “Coincidences are--” 

 

“ DOWN ,” barks Kakashi, and Sakura hurls herself forward instinctively, suddenly glad that Kakashi had drilled them all last week on reflexes. Her trajectory is fortunate enough to knock her shoulder into the back of Tazuna’s knee, causing the bridge builder to collapse into an ungraceful heap.

 

And just in time, too. A giant sword rips through the air where Tazuna had been standing and slams into a tree behind them. There’s a ripple of displaced air, and a slender form shunshins to stand on the grip of the blade now embedded into the trunk of the tree. The man now perched above them has a hitai-ate, but she can’t see the symbol etched into it. She assumes he’s a Kiri nin, though; his arm-warmers are patterned in a way that could work as an underwater camouflage.

 

Kakashi lifts himself up from his crouch, kunai already in hand. “Momochi Zabuza,” he says, tone deceptively light. “I assume Gato has hired you?”

 

“Sharingan no Kakashi,” intones the newcomer. “Shame you brought the brats this far. Guess I’ll have to add a few more kiddies to my kill count.”

Notes:

kakashi: here is a very specific trick to get rid of seasickness
sakura: why does this work
kakashi: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
me, the author, climbing through the fourth wall through the hole i just chopped in it with an axe: it's because of the tiny hairs in your inner ear shifting with each movement, when they wiggle around too much you get sick, so theoretically, if you stabilize them with chakra, you won't barf

 

[tumbles through your ceiling, drops a new chapter on your lap like a cat dragging in a mouse] hi im back, thanks for reading

Chapter 8: epic assassination fail

Summary:

In which Zabuza loses a fight to a pack of twelve-year-olds and their lazy sensei.

Well, shit. No wonder the Demon Brothers had issues, Zabuza thinks as he adjusts his stance. Hatake Fuckin’ Kakashi. Bold of Konoha to give him a genin team. Even bolder to send them into Wave with Hatake, unless Konoha brass knows nothing about the current mess with the bridge. 

 

Hatake flicks a hand at the genin, fingers forming some sort of comminiticative sign—he doesn’t know Konoha’s sign language, though, so he can only guess that he’s directing the brats to back up based on how they scramble back, the scowly dark-haired one grabbing the asset by the back of the shirt and tugging him along with them. It takes a second though; the brat seemed to tense when Zabuza called Hatake by his Bingo Book name, which is odd. The girl who killed Haku’s scout has thought to get another kunai from her pouch, so she’s marginally better than the orange brat, who is frozen stock-still and has to be dragged back by his teammates.

 

Maybe the kiddies will bolt, he muses. Maybe he’ll scare them bad enough when he kills their sensei, and he won’t have to kill them, too.

 

“I assume you’re working for Gato,” Hatake says, almost languidly, while reaching for his hitai-ate.

 

Zabuza sighs inwardly, flicking his own fingers through the signs for the Hidden Mist jutsu. Fog surges around him, and he has to bite back a snicker as he shunshins to the water. Hatake doesn’t know it yet, but he’s in a terrible matchup: He has four charges to protect, and Zabuza has the definite edge in this fight. Hatake won’t be able to see through his chakra-laced mist to copy Zabuza’s jutsu, but Zabuza will be able to sense his presence through the fog itself. The Hidden Mist jutsu allows the user to not only obscure the battlefield, it provides a medium for higher-level shinobi to cast their chakra through to generate a map of their surroundings. Masters of the technique can even read the mist to provide analysis on their enemies, to tell when their opponent is building up or exerting chakra, and even tell what their elemental affinity is. And Zabuza is an expert. He can tell that Hatake is channeling more chakra to that Sharingan of his, that Pink Girl has low reserves but tight control, that Dark Scowly is trying to channel chakra to his eyes for some reason, and that Orange Brat’s chakra is dense and tightly coiled. 

 

He can also tell that Hatake does have a slight advantage: his affinity is Lightning. Intriguing. He’ll have to end this quick, before Hatake can get off a lightning jutsu. Zabuza’s affinity is water, much like everyone else in Kiri, and it does not clash well with lightning at all.

 

Just for shits and giggles, Zabuza lets a little Killing Intent loose, just to see how the brats will react. The girl stiffens, eyes wide: she’s never felt KI before, it seems. Scowly twitches, but doubles down, raising his kunai after a second. He’s felt it before, then, but isn’t used to it. 

 

Orange Brat, surprisingly, has a similar reaction to Scowly. He’d been shadowing the bunch since the shoreline, and Orange Brat had definitely seemed the spaciest and most naive. But he simply fishes a kunai out of his pouch and white-knuckle grips it, head on a swivel around the group as they tighten up around the asset. Hm. Maybe these genin aren’t all entirely green.

 

Hatake says something saccharine to his brats about ‘not allowing them to die’, which, ugh, can he not? Zabuza hates saps, and that’s about the sappiest thing you can say before you die. He rolls his eyes and twists his chakra, creating a water bunshin that substitutes with a leaf in the middle of the knot of genin. Hatake’s chakra follows in a blur, and Zabuza is almost disappointed with how easily the jounin fell for his trap. He lazily shunshins to a tree branch above the group, close enough to see Hatake bodily shove his genin and the asset back as he buries a kunai to the hilt in the clone’s gut. 

 

Zabuza grins beneath his bandages, and leaps, touching down behind Hatake and swinging Kubikiribocho down in a diagonal slash assisted by gravity and reinforced by chakra. It cleaves through Hatake like butter, and Zabuza feels a momentary flash of satisfaction at a job well done--

 

--only to curse as the water bunshin that Hatake somehow replaced himself with disintegrates into a puddle of water.

 

Fuck, did he copy Zabuza’s technique through the mist?

 

He retreats back to the tree, leaving another water bunshin in his place to distract Hatake while he weighs his options. If he can get Hatake to the water, he can trap him in a Water Prison--

 

The water bunshin pops, and Hatake flickers into the tree right next to him. Fuck! The Bingo Book was right, this fucker must have some Inuzuka in him, cause one of the most reliant ways to track someone through the Hidden Mist jutsu was by smell.

 

“Maa, are you done playing hide-and-seek?” Hatake drones as he throws a kunai unerringly at Zabuza’s face.

 

He deflects the kunai and drops down again, this time near Pink Girl. Pink squeaks as Hatake flickers to her and bodily slams into Zabuza before he can move to take action against her. Zabuza grunts as the jounin makes contact, collapses to land on his back, and kicks out with a chakra-enforced knee in an attempt to overbalance Hatake and flip him to the ground. He must’ve overcharged it, though, because his leg is hurting like a bitch now and Hatake’s gone flying over his head.

 

Zabuza hears a crash of a large object hitting the water, and almost cackles in triumph. He’s managed to get Hatake in the water! He forms a few signs and hauls himself up, lunging for the shore. If he can make contact before Hatake breaches the water, he can--

 

Something trips him up before he can make it to the waterline. He looks down to see a length of ninja wire tangled around his ankles, and follows it back to Dark Scowly, who yanks on his end of the wire. 

 

Well, he was willing to give the kiddies a chance to run, but now they’ve gotten on his nerves. 

 

Zabuza snarls to himself, and uses part of the chakra he’s built up for the Water Prison on a water bunshin. “Kill the brats,” he snaps, before severing the wire with a blow from Kubikiribocho and flickering to the water. Hatake’s head has just burst from the water as Zabuza slams his palm down on the water’s surface next to him. “ Gotcha , bitch,” he hisses, as the water bends to his will and encases the jounin. “I think I’ll keep you alive just long enough to watch your bratlings die.”

 

With Hatake subdued, Zabuza returns his attention to the beach. Orange Brat has lost his hitai-ate somehow and is wasting time tying it back on, the absolute buffoon. Zabuza pegs him as the first to die. Pink Girl is tugging the asset further away from the battle by the back of the shirt, which is sensible, but Haku will catch them if they manage to get too far. Dark Scowly is barrelling at the bunshin like an idiot with a deathwish, and Zabuza may have to change the assessment on who’s going to die first.

 

Sure enough, the bunshin catches Dark Scowly by the throat and bodily slams him to the ground. Orange Brat bullrushes the bunshin, but is easily repelled with a lazy kick to the gut. It does give Dark Scowly enough time to scramble out of reach of the bunshin, though, and both genin scramble back, shoulder to shoulder.

 

“Whattya’ wanna bet?” Zabuza asks Hatake, leaning close to the sphere, careful not to disturb his hand’s connection with the water. “Which of your kiddies dies first? My money’s on Dark Scowly, though Orange Brat’s a serious contender. Pink Girl’s got the best chances of outlasting both, dontcha think?”

 

The glare Hatake sends him is murderous. If looks could kill! Though, in Hatake’s case, looks maybe could kill, judging by the stories of Sharingan. They couldn’t all be true, though. Otherwise Hatake wouldn’t be imprisoned by him.

 

Pink Girl has scuttled away from the asset to regroup with her teammates, and he’s sorely tempted to signal to Haku to take the asset out when he’s unprotected, but damn, it’s been a while since he had this much fun with a fight. It’d be a shame to end it now, and he trusts Haku to step in if things get too drawn out. 

 

The three genin huddle together, whispering to each other out of the corners of their mouths. Orange Brat and Dark Scowly have the forethought to bury their chins in their ridiculous cowl-neck shirts and collars to mask any lip-reading, but Pink Girl has to cover her face with a hand. The bunshin starts to prowl towards them, and they all scatter into the trees, Dark Scowly masking their trajectories with a simple genjutsu of a smoke cloud. When the smoke clears, the asset is also out of sight, but a simple pulse of chakra into his Hidden Mist reveals to Zabuza that he’s been dragged off by Pink Girl to hide behind a boulder.

 

He snorts. “Smart kids, hiding like that. Too bad I can sense them.” Hatake thrashes a little at that, and Zabuza grins. “Aw, Hatake, don’t be like that. I’ll make it quick for them.”

 

He doesn’t tell Hatake, but he’s actually running a little low on chakra by now. The bunshins took it out of him, but he can’t split his focus between maintaining the Water Prison and reading the Hidden Mist. It’s one or the other, and unless Hatake drowns soon (unlikely: most chuunin or higher level shinobi from most backgrounds can hold their breath for long periods of time. Hatake may last for another twenty minutes, if he balances his chakra right) or his bunshin catches and kills the kiddies, he’ll have to drop the Hidden Mist jutsu in the next five minutes.

 

A Fuma shuriken hurtles out of the underbrush from where he last sensed Dark Scowly. Zabuza catches it deftly, almost tempted to chuckle at the attempt. Bold, really, going for the real Zabuza rather than the bunshin stalking them. Bolder still is the second shuriken that follows almost in it’s shadow, edges glittering with the chromatic aberration of a hastily applied genjutsu. He leaps over it just in case it isn’t a bluff, careful to leave his connection with the Water Prison undisturbed--

 

--and he hears the pop of a henge coming undone, and feels a kunai slam into his shoulder.

 

He twists around to see Orange Brat hit the water behind him , who he did not expect, and feels a gloved hand close around his wrist.

 

The Water Prison has broken.

 

He slams an open palm into Hatake’s chest, flinging the Fuma Shuriken he’d caught earlier in a blind arc at Orange Brat, only to have the damn thing change direction mid-flight; Scowly must have rigged it to a really fine wire at some point, because it flies of it’s own accord to Scowly’s hand as he dashes from behind a bush.

 

Zabuza dispels the bunshin on the beach. He’s got bigger fish to gut now that Hatake’s out of the Water Prison. The bratlings will have to wait for their death until he’s taken care of Hatake.

 

Hatake’s Sharingan is spinning ominously as he calls out to Orange Brat. “Naruto, swim to shore and regroup with the others.”

 

“Sensei,” Orange Brat starts, then seems to reconsider when Hatake pins him with a look. “Okay, okay, I’m going. Kick his tacky-dressed ass!”

 

“That’s the plan.” Hatake refocuses on Zabuza, and he can tell that he needs to go all out right this second, or Hatake is absolutely going to kill him.

 

Zabuza starts running through the signs for a Water Dragon Jutsu. Ox-monkey-hare-rat-boar--

 

And then, to his absolute horror, Hatake starts making the signs with him. Is the sharingan that good? That he can copy a jutsu as it’s being formed? 

 

He finishes the litany, and the dragon coalesces around him at the same time that Hatakes’ does. Both dragons charge at each other, crashing and tearing into each other and causing a 

brief surge of water that washes Orange Brat ashore in a spluttering heap. The dragons dissolve after mere moments, returning to the water as Zabuza leaps at Hatake, bringing Kubikiribocho down in an overhead strike. Hatake blocks with a tanto--a tanto ? This motherfucker is blocking him with the equivalent of a toothpick against a meat-cleaver, and it’s somehow working, because Hatake is forcing him back slowly but surely.

 

Zabuza disengages to get away from an attempted ankle-sweep from Hatake, and prowls around him in a cautious circle. Maybe...maybe Hatake already knew the Water Bunshin and Water Dragon jutsu? He is known for copying a thousand jutsu. He might be trying to pysch Zabuza out. Experimentally, Zabuza raises his hands to make a sign--

 

--and chokes back panic when Hatake makes the exact same sign at the exact same time. 

 

Fuck. 

 

He twists his upper body away, hiding his signs behind his torso as he mutters the rest of the incantation. Hatake follows him unerringly, up until he gets ahead of him somehow and forms a Water Vortex jutsu just before Zabuza can complete the jutsu himself.

 

The jutsu hits him like a bag of bricks to the face, and he plunges under the water, only to be ripped along by the current until he slams into a tree. The water surges around him, and he barely manages to spit out a mouthful of water before four kunai slam into his arms and legs, pinning him to the tree. Through the pain, he registers Hatake stalking up to him, tanto at the ready, and he hoarsely asks, “C-can you see the future?”

 

“Yep,” Hatake replies, darkly cheerful. “You’re going to die.”

 

And then Haku finally steps in.

 

---

 

He’s never actually been on the other end of Haku’s paralyzing senbon. He’s seen the kid use them time and time again before, but he’s never felt what it’s like when they bury themselves deep in the pressure points of the neck. It’s...oddly painless. He also feels his heartbeat slow almost instantly to a crawl, which is mildly disconcerting, but he knows Haku knows what he’s doing. He never knew that Haku’s victims stayed so alert during the ordeal, though: he’s keenly aware of Hatake checking his pulse before he’s whisked away by Haku. 

 

The journey back to their hideout is relatively quick when he’s fully awake and functional, but somehow, it feels like years before they arrive back home. In that eons-long trip, he can’t help but wonder how he got his ass handed to him by three genin and a jounin that keeled over of chakra exhaustion as soon as the battle was done. 

 

Haku gently maneuvers him into the kitchen of the tiny-ass hovel in the middle of buttfuck nowhere that they’ve chosen for their hideout. He hoists Zabuza up onto the counter after sweeping a few pots off into the sink. As Haku carefully removes the senbon, he feels a wave of pure exhaustion wash over him. “Well, that fucking sucked. Remind me to tell Gato to double his pay, or we bail.”

 

“Zabuza-sama, we don’t have anywhere to bail to.”

 

Zabuza grinds his teeth. “Yeah, I know.” Gato, unfortunately, is the only reason that real Kiri hunter-nin haven’t tracked them down before now. After the shipping kingpin took them in a few years ago, he’s been using his contacts to spread misinformation about the whereabouts of Zabuza and his charge. “Still can’t hurt to ask for a pay raise.”

 

“We can try again in a week.” Haku is busily wrapping gauze around Zabuza’s upper arm to staunch the blood flow from the deepest of his wounds while he drops that bombshell.

 

“What? No, we need to move fast, Hatake--”

 

“Will be on bed rest for quite a while yet,” Haku interrupts. “It takes a week and a half for a shinobi to fully recover from chakra exhaustion like that. A week at the earliest. And you expended quite a lot of chakra today yourself,” the brat says in a slight admonishment. 

 

“Hm.”

 

“I will be by your side in the next battle,” Haku says, as if it’s been decided. As if Zabuza would allow him to go against Hatake. “You will need me,” he adds at Zabuza’s glare. “I will engage the genin while you take on Hatake-san. Our mistake this time was to assume that they would not participate in the battle. I will be able to at the very least stall them until you dispatch Hatake.”

 

“Don’t see why you call him ‘Hatake-san’, but yeah, I get your point.” Zabuza stifles a yawn. “Did you coat those senbon with a sedative?”

 

“Hm...yes.” Haku smiles gently. “You will need your rest before we fight Hatake-san and his team again.”

 

“I’m perfectly capable of resting without you drugging me!”

 

“Of course, Zabuza-sama.”

 

“Don’t patronize me!”

 

“I would never, Zabuza-sama.”

 

He and Haku bicker back and forth as Haku patches him up, but he feels himself grow wearier and wearier with each second. “Hey, Haku?” he asks as Haku draws the needle taut on the last stitch of his last wound. “Which of those kids do you think is the biggest threat?’

 

Haku pauses after snipping the surgical thread off. “...Separately, I don’t think any of them pose a threat at all. Perhaps the Uchiha boy, if cornered and desperate, but on their own, none of them stand a chance against you or I. The key will be to separate them.”

 

“Okay, but which is the ringleader of the three? The one to put down first?”

 

“The Uzumaki,” Haku replies immediately.

 

“The what?” That sends a jolt of adrenaline down Zabuza’s spine. An Uzumaki? They were in deep shit if one of those brats was an Uzumaki, even an untrained one. “The girl? Is she half Uzumaki? That might explain the hair--”

 

“No, the boy with the orange jumpsuit.”

 

He stares. “The...dumb one?”

 

“He rallied them while you were busy with forming the Water Prison. I think they were ready to bolt, but he kept them together and inspired them.”

 

Zabuza rolls his eyes at that. “Gods save me. Inspiration. They would have been better off running. Now they’re stuck in a foreign land with a half-dead sensei and two missing-nin intent on killing them.” It does make him feel better, though, to know that Orange Brat is the Uzumaki in the equation. He seems too dumb and naive to really fit the description of the battlefield terrors he's heard from Kiri veterans of the Fall of Uzu. Clearly, whichever parent was not an Uzumaki has rubbed off more on this idiot, and while Zabuza won't underestimate him next time, he doesn't think for a second that he's going to be facing a full-fledged Seal Master or some shit like that.

 

“The point is, he may not be the team leader, but he’ll be the one who keeps them from coming apart in battle.” Haku starts to repack his first aid kit. “The Uzumaki boy was also the one to disturb your Water Prison. The girl may have fine-tuned the plan he had, and the Uchiha boy may have implemented it, but he was the one to come up with the plan in the first place.”

 

“Hm.” Zabuza yawns again, this time in earnest. “Stuff to think about, I guess.”

 

“Perhaps.”

 

“Well, I’m turning in.” He hauls himself off the counter, and stretches, wincing as his wounds sting from the exertion. “Sleep with one eye open, Haku. I’ll probably kill you in your sleep tonight.”

 

“You can try, Zabuza-sama,” Haku says, smiling at their weird in-joke. He can’t remember when he started threatening to kill Haku in his sleep; probably shortly after he picked the brat up off the street. He knows now that it’s a joke, and that he’d kill everyone in this world to keep this kid safe. And he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Haku knows it too.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Get your beauty sleep. We’re going hunting in a week.”

Notes:

zabuza: i've only had haku for seven years but if anything happens to him, i'll kill everyone in this world and then myself

thanks for reading!

Chapter 9: teaching moments

Summary:

In which Kakashi herds some feral cats, Sasuke gets really mad about eyeballs, and Sakura has low self-esteem.

Kakashi is retaking the Chuunin Exams. 

 

Some bit of paperwork never got filed, and the Hokage insists that he needs to take the Exams over. “You need to retake the Exams or you can’t wear your facemask,” Sarutobi says. “Here, wear this instead.” He tosses an ANBU mask to Kakashi, and he gratefully slips it on, even if it’s got a Kiri mark engraved into its forehead.

 

The Exams have changed so much since he was a kid. For some reason the first exam revolves around how well he could do acupuncture, and the next on how well he could balance on a tree branch without using chakra. He’s so dizzy that he can barely stay on the branch, but he manages.

 

The Exams culminate with Genma acting as a proctor, perching on the branch next to him as Kakashi desperately jams a needle into a dummy’s neck to try and relieve a tension headache. Genma clucks woefully, says “Well, you’ll put them in a coma with that move,” and pushes him off the branch.

 

When Kakashi has almost hit the forest floor, he wakes with a start from one of the weirdest chakra-exhaustion-fever-dreams he’s ever had.

 

The smell of sea brine is still heavy in his nostrils, so he assumes they’re still in Wave. More than likely this is Tazuna’s house, or a close, trusted friend of Tazuna. Frankly, Kakashi is not keen on either option, given how Tazuna is a civilian and probably is also under surveillance by Gato’s thugs. But Konoha doesn’t have any safehouses in Wave, and even if there were, Kakashi isn’t going to be able to walk any faster than a brisk hobble for the next few days. 

 

“Hello, Sensei,” says a soft voice, and Kakashi turns his head to see a kind-looking woman. If he squints, he can see Tazuna’s widow’s peak in her hairline and how her eye color matches the bridge-builder’s. She must be related to him somehow. Daughter, perhaps? “How are you feeling?”

 

“I’ve been better,” Kakashi rasps as he starts to sit up. “How long have I been out?”

 

“A day,” she responds, hands on her hips as she watches him struggle to heave himself to a sitting position. “Maybe it’d be better if you laid back down. I can get you a change of clothes. I would have, earlier, but Dad said it’d be better to leave you alone. Something about twitchy shinobi.”

 

Ah, so she was Tazuna’s daughter. “He’s right,” Kakashi replies as he gives up on sitting and settles back down on the futon. “I’ve been stabbed by fellow shinobi when I went to wake them for their watch. Best to leave us be.” His eye drifts over to the wall, where his pack rests. Naruto’s is leaning up against his, it’s contents spilling out of it in a pool of clutter, the bedroll hurriedly squashed into a messy ball that is somehow still out of the way. Sakura’s is also close to his, with her bedding tidily rolled and tucked against the wall. Sasuke’s things are all neatly shoved into a corner, far away from everything else. “Where are my students?”

 

“In the living room. I’ll call them, if you like--”

 

“KAKA-SENSEI,” bellows Naruto, skidding into the room. “You’re awake! We thought you DIED, jackass!”

 

“It was a little startling when you fell over,” Sakura says, fidgeting with a piece of her hair as she enters the room behind her teammate, Tazuna just behind her. “It--it seems like a textbook example of chakra exhaustion, but I don’t know why three jutsu and a few substitutions would give a jounin chakra exhaustion. Unless you have really low stores, but that’d be silly, you wouldn’t have made it past chuunin if you weren’t proficient with high-powered jutsu--”

 

“Not necessarily,” Kakashi interjects. “I know a very competent and dangerous jounin who makes a point of using pure taijutsu.” He really needs to introduce these brats to Gai. Their schedules haven’t really aligned, as Gai is fond of taking his team on long training trips away from Konoha, but he thinks Team 7 could really use the shift in perspective that Gai always manages to give.

 

“No, it’s the Sharingan that did it,” mutters Sasuke, slinking into the room, dark eyes glittering with mistrust. He’s really gotta talk with this kid; he knows that he’s never been a favorite of the Uchiha, and he has no clue what Fugaku told Sasuke about Kakashi, but he needs to clear the air about the matter before things escalate. He makes a note of talking to him later.

 

“Maa, you’re right,” Kakashi sighs in the meantime. “I sometimes overdo it when I use the Sharingan. Usually I can use it to get one really good hit in to win the battle before it starts, but when a fight gets prolonged like that?” He shrugs. “It tends to overtax my chakra stores.”

 

It’s Naruto who nods thoughtfully, to his surprise. “You’re a glass cannon. The eye-thingy is like an ultimate move, but one with a cooldown of all your other abilities and a few frames of vulnerability,” he says, then frowns when the other two shoot him a look. “What? I play a lot of arcade games, y’know? The arcade is air-conditioned and they don’t kick me out if I’m playing. It’s the best way to cool off during the summer. Ultimate Samurai Storm is easy to beat, and I can get a lot of mileage out of a few ryo with it. Shikamaru plays with me sometimes, and he’s always talking about the technical stuff like keyframes and hitboxes and junk, but some of the strategy stuff sticks.”

 

Kakashi...did not understand any of that, but it seems like Naruto has gotten the gist of the risk/reward dichotomy involved with the Sharingan, so he nods and makes an assenting noise.

 

Sakura trots over to her pack and starts rummaging through it. “I should have a book on first aid in here somewhere, I’m sure there’s a chapter on recovering from chakra exhaustion. I can’t remember details, but I’m guessing you’re going to need a diet of high protein and high carbs, lots of fluids and bedrest, not to mention something to counteract the fever…”

 

“Maa, Sakura, I’ve had chakra exhaustion before, I know how to recover from it.”

 

“But-- books, Kaka-sensei!”

 

He needs to get this girl a secondary mentor, stat. She has the disposition necessary for a healer, with the brains and chakra control to back it up. But then again, fine-tuned chakra control could be an asset on infiltration missions, and she already has an in with the Yamanaka, so she could go into either Foreign Intelligence or T&I fairly easily. It also does not help that she’s become more patient with Naruto and is actually pretty good at explaining concepts to him, so she could become a teacher at the Academy.

 

The real issue with teaching Sakura, Kakashi has found, is that she is a fairly blank slate when it comes to skills, and also has at least a passing interest in most fields of study. He can’t decide how to best train her to prepare for her future career because she could easily fit most career paths, and she seems to oscillate wildly between interests. Today, it seems, she has taken an interest in the medical arts, so Kakashi lets her drag a thick tome from her pack and rattle off the treatments that he already knows. She seems to be okay if he lets her pick her focus, and he’ll simply give her a well-rounded regiment until he can figure out where her true passion lies.

 

Sasuke, in direct contrast with Sakura, has a set goal already. Kakashi is uneasy with Sasuke’s declaration of his intent to kill Itachi. Kakashi’s not the most mentally-balanced person, but after Danzo attempted to manipulate him into killing Sarutobi in the name of vengeance, the idea of taking revenge for something, even an ostensibly evil act like Itachi’s, seems to Kakashi like it wouldn’t bring peace of mind. But who is he to judge? He’s made plenty of self-destructive choices. And if he can train the kid enough, he’ll be able to help pick up the pieces after Sasuke’s had his revenge. He eventually learned to relax, so Sasuke should be able to as well.

 

As a result, Sasuke’s training regiment is straight-forward and simple. He’s basically just given Sasuke the same regiment that he followed as a genin: he has a strong suspicion that the boy’s affinity is lightning, which works in their favor. Training Sasuke is easy, because the boy has picked a path, and Kakashi is simply there to give him the tools to follow it.

 

Training Naruto…

 

The boy is a brawler, there’s no two ways about it. His form is sloppy, and it will never be anything else, but it works in his favor, because it makes him unpredictable. His chakra control is almost nonexistent, most likely because of the Kyuubi, but he’s the only one of the genin that can manage more than three substitutions in a row because of the sheer amount of chakra that he possesses. His stamina rivals Gai’s, which is a frankly terrifying notion, but he can’t stay focused long enough to apply that stamina to anything. He claims he wants to be Hokage, which is a nice and pretty dream, and he doesn’t seem swayed by the hard work in front of him, but Kakashi has not seen any scrap of leadership in the boy’s personality. Charisma, yes. Drive, yes. The maturity required to lead, no.

 

And yet, the boy soaks up praise like a dry sponge and converts it into determination. He is improving, bit by bit, and Kakashi knows Iruka is working with him on the chains. Which seems to be working, as Naruto finally manifested his chains just the other night. He’s fairly positive that none of the others saw the chains, which is a relief, and it’s going to be a boost to the boy’s confidence when it comes to summoning them again.

 

Kakashi still has no clue what to do with the boy, though.

 

“Ne, Kaka-sensei?” Naruto asks as Sakura continues to chatter about the myriad ways Kakashi could potentially die if he doesn’t rebalance his electrolytes. “The guy with the mask. What was that about? It didn’t look exactly like the ANBU masks from Konoha, but it was similar. y’know.”

 

“Kaka-sensei? When did you start calling me that?”

 

“I could call you Ero-sensei. You read those pervy books all the time, would you like that better--”

 

“Maa, maa,” Kakashi says hastily, throwing a glance at Tazuna’s daughter, who’s hiding a grin behind her hand. “Kaka-sensei’s fine.” He’s feeling a little more steady now, so he hauls himself to a sitting position. Sakura squeaks something about rest, then relents when she sees that he’s not actually getting up off the futon. “In answer to your question, they were a Hunter-nin, most likely associated with Kiri. If a shinobi goes rogue, Hunter-nin find them and dispose of them. Sometimes they’re sent to dispose of friendlies’ corpses behind enemy lines.”

 

“They also...burn the bodies to make sure Village secrets don’t get out, right?” Sakura asks hesitantly. 

 

“If they’re from the Village that the nin belonged to, yes. Bounty hunters typically don’t, and neither do nin from other Villages, because bounty hunters need the body for the payout.”

 

Sasuke’s eyes narrow. “Do they...do that in front of others, or do they have...secret methods?”

 

“I don’t know that there’s a super-secret way to catch something on fire,” Kakashi says dryly.

 

Naruto has also started squinting thoughtfully. “Uh...the masked guy said he needed to dispose of the body privately.”

 

“Oh. Shit. There’s a chance Zabuza’s alive, then.”

 

Sakura and Naruto both yelp loudly at this. Sasuke grimaces, but Kakashi’s not sure if it’s at his teammate’s outburst or the knowledge that Zabuza might still be prowling around the coastline. Tazuna jerks upright, a panicked frown on his face. “What? Did I hear you right? Zabuza’s not dead?!”

 

“There is a chance he’s alive,” Kakashi repeats. “We’re going to act as if he is. Better to raise a fuss over nothing than to dismiss a threat.”

 

“It isn’t paranoia if someone tried to kill us,” Sakura mumbles, tucking her book close to her chest.

 

“How long do we have to prepare?” Sasuke says, getting up and padding over to his pack. He begins unpacking his weapons, ostensibly to do an inventory check. “And how should we prepare? Should we return to Konoha?”

 

“You should go back,” pipes a new, small voice. A small face framed by a bucket hat is peering around the shoji doors. The child it belongs to clambours into the room and patters across the tatami to cling to Tazuna. “Hi, Ji-chan. Welcome back.”

 

“ Inari,” scolds Tazuna’s daughter. “That’s no way to greet guests, especially ones that protected your grandfather!”

 

The child seems to consider that for half a second before turning to the room at large and solemnly announcing, “You’re all going to die. Go home. You can’t stand up to Gato.”

 

Naruto leaps to his feet and screeches “ SAY WHAT, YOU LITTLE BRAT?!” Sakura and Sasuke both dive for Naruto’s ankles to prevent the boy from storming across the room at Inari, and only just manage to wrestle him down as he shrieks about how Inari had better believe they’ll triumph over Gato.

 

“Sage grant me patience,” Kakashi mutters under his breath, and starts to plan the training for the next few days.

 

---

 

Kakashi expected that none of his brats would understand tree-walking as a concept. He expected Sakura to have the most solid grasp on the theoretical part, Sasuke to make it a decent way up before overloading, and Naruto to flounder a bit. 

 

He did not expect Sakura to master it on her first damn try. 

 

“Maa, good job Sakura,” he says as she strolls back down the trunk, only occasionally wobbling. “We need to work on your stamina, so I’ll start you on laps on the trees tomorrow. For now, head to the bridge so we have at least someone on duty with Tazuna’s crew.” At her panicked glance, he hurriedly tacks on, “But remember that Zabuza will take about a week to recover! You’re looking out for civilian threats! Bandits are all chickens, throw a few kunai and you should scare them off. I’ll be over to the bridge soon so you won’t be alone.”

 

Mollified, Sakura nods and trots off, only to be stopped at the edge of the glade by Naruto. He seems to be asking advice from Sakura, which gives Kakashi the perfect chance to talk with Sasuke in quasi-private about the Sharingan. He calls Sasuke over, and the boy lodges the kunai in the trunk of the tree he was practicing on before walking over. “Yes?” Sasuke says, tone clipped. 

 

“About the Sharingan,” Kakashi starts to say, before Sasuke’s eyes flare in anger. “I-it’s not what you think! I don’t know how much of the situation was told to you, so--”

 

“You’re a thief,” Sasuke snaps, and isn’t that a knife to the gut, being called a thief for bearing his teammate’s last gift to him. “You’re a thief, and that’s why it doesn’t work properly for you, and no, I don’t know anything about how it works because I don’t have access to those records yet!”

 

“Okay,” Kakashi says, sitting down heavily and patting the grass next to him. “Let’s talk this out.”

 

Sasuke does not sit, choosing instead to glower at Kakashi. 

 

“That’s, uh. Fine, you don’t have to sit. But I hope you’ll listen to what I have to say. I’m not a thief, no matter what your clan may have told you. This Sharingan was freely given to me by my former teammate. Yes, it does not work properly for me because the chakra pathways to my eye needed to be fused open in order for it to function. No, I do not expect you to teach me how it works, or the secrets that your clan undoubtedly has on record.”

 

Sasuke looks ready to snap back, but Kakashi plunges on. “I’m not sure if anyone told you the reason I was assigned to be your Jounin instructor. The Council thought it best if someone with experience with the Sharingan was paired with you, to help guide you a little better when yours manifests. And I may not know everything, but I will help you as much as I can. If you want me to.”

 

The boy sits, pulling his knees up to his chest as he stares across the clearing at Sakura and Naruto. Naruto is currently spider-walking up the tree using his hands in conjunction with his feet; technically out of the parameters of the training, but Kakashi will allow it. Sakura is crouched on the tree-trunk above him, coaxing him higher.

 

“They didn’t tell me,” Sasuke says after a few heartbeats’ silence.

 

“Maa, that makes sense. The Council rarely shares--”

 

“My clan,” Sasuke interrupts. “They didn’t say anything about you.”

 

“Oh.” That is...surprising. There were two or three months after Kannabi when the Uchiha wouldn’t shut up about Kakashi and his alleged theft. His Sharingan spins under his hitai-ate, greedily sucking up the dregs of his chakra to show him Minato’s apologetic face as he tells Kakashi that he’s not allowed to go to Obito’s funeral, as he’s been banned from the Uchiha compound indefinitely. “Ah. I didn’t expect that, to be honest. Your great-grand-aunt Hisae was...quite outspoken about the matter, when it happened. Petitioned the Hokage to have both my eyes removed and to have me exiled from Konoha.”

 

Sasuke shrugs, turning his gaze downwards as he fiddles with a strap on his bracers. “My family...didn’t talk to me about clan matters, much. I was the second son. It was...I wasn’t going to be heir, so they left me alone, mostly. They would have included me more after I got my Sharingan...” He trails off.

 

Kakashi understands. His father had barely taught him the first few Hatake forms with the Chakra Sabre before he died. He’s been able to piece together the rest from the scrolls he found in his father’s room, but he doesn’t know but half of the burial rites, or which gods they prayed to, or the minor jutsu their ancestors invented to sow fields and water crops. He only knows scraps, pieces. Sasuke will only know what he reads in the books and scrolls of the Uchiha archive.

 

“Did... he know?” 

 

His breath catches in his throat. There’s only one he that Sasuke could be talking about. “Yes,” he says after a moment. “He did know. I...worked with him a few times.” 

 

Kakashi had been out on a mission the day before the massacre, and had crashed on a sofa in the breakroom at ANBU Headquarters rather than walk home. When he awoke in the middle of the night and stepped out of the breakroom, it was to a buzzing chaos that halted abruptly at the sight of him. Raidou had crossed the room in two steps, eyes wide as dinnerplates as he said, “ Weasel went rouge. He killed all the Uchiha and fled. We...we thought he got you, too, when Cat didn’t find you at your apartment.”

 

Itachi had been at HQ when Kakashi had flopped on that couch for a power nap. Itachi had known where he was. Itachi could have easily started the Massacre with him.

 

He’s had a long time to think over why it was that Itachi didn’t kill him, too. He’s read the report of Sasuke’s testimony, he knows the reason Itachi gave to his younger brother. To test the limits of my abilities.

 

Kakashi would like to think that he could give Itachi a run for his money. He’d like to think that, if they crossed paths again, he’d be able to at least hold his own. But Itachi, who slaughtered an entire clan, his entire clan, to test his strength...hadn’t even bothered to slit his throat while he slept. Kakashi hadn’t registered as a threat to Itachi. 

 

“He did know,” Kakashi repeats. “He just didn’t care enough to kill me.”

 

---

 

By the time Sasuke has returned to his tree-walking exercises, Sakura has left and Naruto seems to be doing much better. He’s overloading the jutsu more than Sasuke does, but he’s at least making his way up the tree. “Maa, I’m heading to the bridge. Keep practicing, and be back at Tazuna’s by sunset.”

 

Sasuke nods to him from his perch on a branch about ten feet up. He doesn’t know what the boy is thinking in regards to the Sharingan, but he hopes he’s been able to smooth things over. Honestly, what was the Council thinking, assigning him to Sasuke without letting the boy know that he had a Sharingan? That was a recipe for unneeded drama. 

 

Naruto ricochets off his trunk but manages to twist in midair, catching a nearby branch with his hands. He scrabbles up onto it, hooks his legs over it, and flips downward to dangle upside down. “Bye, Sensei! I’m gonna beat Teme to the top, y’know!”

 

“Only because you cheat and use your hands, Dobe.”

 

“Isn’t cheating if Kaka-sensei doesn’t see it!”

 

“Naruto, while using every tool available to you is commendable, you do need to work on your fine-tune chakra control. This will help you learn to regulate your chakra, which is a fundamental component of learning jutsu. If you take a shortcut by using your hands, it will take you longer to get your chakra control right, and take you longer still to learn elemental jutsu.”

 

He can almost see the cogs turning in Naruto’s brain as the boy processes what’s been said, and he almost sighs out loud from relief when Naruto nods and says “Okay, I won’t use my hands unless I’m gonna fall. I don’t wanna break my arms or legs, it’s itchy when it heals, and I don’t wanna lose a day or two.”

 

Kakashi...is choosing to unpack that statement later. “Try running up the tree instead of walking. Get some momentum behind your stride, and find a rhythm. Anyways, I’m off. Ja ne, my cute little minions.”

 

As he strolls away, he hears Naruto stage-whisper to Sasuke, “Did he just call us his cute little minions?”

 

“Just this morning you threatened to call him Ero-sensei.”

 

He chuckles, then continues on down the path to the bridge.

 

When he arrives, Sakura is chatting animatedly with one of the workers, who seems to be on break. She notices him quickly, as she seems to have her head on a swivel. Good. She’s relatively alert, at least. 

 

She hops off her perch, waves to the worker, then trots over to him. “How’re the boys doing?”

 

“Eh.” He wiggles his hand side-to-side. “They’re making progress, but I don’t think they’ll have it down for another day or so. Naruto’s doing better, after you talked to him. Thank you for that, by the way.”

 

“It’s the least I could do, after I...really didn’t help with the attacks,” she mumbles, hands flying up to worry at a piece of her hair.

 

“You did help,” Kakashi says gently, taking her by the elbow and guiding her to the edge of the bridge. He props his crutch up on the railing, and leans against the railing himself. “Remember what we talked about a few days ago? About how sometimes battle is not about fighting?”

 

She nods hesitantly, then furrows her eyebrows. “But--”

 

“No, no buts. Tell me what you did during those battles.”

 

“...nothing?”

 

He resists the urge to pinch his nose. “You guarded Tazuna-san both times, didn’t you? And you hid him during the second battle.”

 

“But I--”

 

“You also helped with the battle plan against Zabuza, right?”

 

“The genjustu to hide where we hid was my idea, and so was hiding in the trees to disguise Naruto’s henge” she admits. “But it was Naruto’s plan in the first place--”

 

“Every little part of the plan helps, Sakura. If Naruto had henged in plain sight, it might not have worked as well. You also made sure that Tazuna was hidden from Zabuza, and you stayed with him, too.” He does not tell her that Zabuza absolutely knew where they hid, and he also does not tell her that Zabuza’s partner most likely had a bead on them the whole time. 

 

“I...okay, but I don’t feel like I’m...contributing as much as Sasuke-kun and Naruto,” she says, fingers twisting through her hair so quickly it’s a wonder she hasn’t tied the pink strands into knots. “I just...feel like I’m going to be in the way if I try to fight like they do.”

 

“Nonsense,” Kakashi says. “You have excellent chakra control--”

 

“Everyone keeps saying that, but I can’t chakra control an enemy nin to death,” she snaps suddenly, which catches Kakashi so off-guard that he laughs. After a startled second, she joins in, until they’re both laughing uncontrollably. Towards the end, their peals of laughter have a decidedly strained, almost manic edge to them, and several of the workers are staring nervously at them as they peter off and catch their breath.

 

“Well,” Kakashi says after he finishes wheezing giddily, “technically, yes, there are ways that you can chakra control someone to death. Sort of. Kind of. Some med-nins can form their chakra into scalpels--”

 

“Ooh, I’ve been reading about those!” Sakura says brightly. “Since they’re made from chakra, they make clean incisions, you don’t have to worry about sterilizing your tools in the field, and you can regulate the intensity of your own chakra to debride wounds and even sometimes cauterize a wound--”

 

“And you can use them to slice an artery or gouge out an eye,” Kakashi says. “But forming them takes very precise chakra control.”

 

“Oh.” She looks a little taken aback. “That’s not an application I thought of, but...yeah, I guess I could.”

 

He ruffles her hair. “And that’s not the only one. Some shinobi can regulate their chakra to withstand extreme temperatures, hold their breath longer, go longer without food or drink. Some enhance their senses.” Another Hatake technique, lost to time, was the ability to dull the senses. Some Hatake were born with sensitive taste, smell, hearing, touch, or sight; some with a combination, or even all five. Kakashi got off lightly, as he only has heightened smell, which is easily rectified with his mask. “For now, though, you’ll be faster at learning jutsu, and I guarantee you that water-walking will be much easier to learn for you than it will be for Sasuke or Naruto.”

 

“Water-walking?” she squeaks, eyes wide. “Do--do you think I’m ready for that?”

 

“You will be soon,” Kakashi replies. “For now, let’s focus on a plan for guarding this bridge…”

 

---

 

Kakashi and Sakura make it back to Tazuna’s house as night falls, and Kakashi enters to see Sasuke picking twigs and leaves from his clothes on the genkan. “Tell me Naruto didn’t track bits of foliage into our host’s house,” Kakashi groans as he sits heavily on genkan beside the boy.

 

“He didn’t,” Sasuke replies.

 

“Incredible, it’s almost as if he remembered his manners for once.”

 

“Because he’s not here.”

 

Kakashi indulges in a face-palm. “He stayed out to train more, didn’t he?”

 

“Hm,” Sasuke hums noncommitedly as he flicks a piece of bark out of his hair.

 

Gods above, Kakashi is so tired. Is this what Minato-sensei felt like when he and Obito and Rin got up to their shenanigans? “Hhhhhhhokay, you guys help Tsunami-san with dinner. I’m going to go find Naruto.”

 

It takes fifteen minutes for Kakashi to hobble his way to the clearing where he left the boys to train. When he gets there, Naruto is curled up at the base of a tree, snoring lightly. He prods the boy gently with his crutch. “Oi, Naruto, get up. There are murderous missing-nin unaccounted for in these woods. You are not going to sleep out here.”

 

“Huh?” Naruto mumbles blearily, his head popping up from it’s slouch. “But I need to be the first out here to train so I can beat Teme--”

 

“This isn’t a pissing contest,” Kakashi grumbles, reaching down to scruff Naruto and haul him to his feet. “You don’t have to be first to be best. And I don’t want you to be the best just yet, I want you to be alive. So you’re not going to sleep out here, you’re going to come home and eat the dinner our lovely and gracious hosts are preparing for us, and you are not going to sneak out in the middle of the night to train. Do not lie to me, I know you’re planning it.”

 

“Eh--hehehe,” Naruto chortles nervously as he rubs the back of his neck. “I--okay, you got me, I was totally gonna do that.”

 

Kakashi sighs. What is he going to do with this kid? “Okay, come on, brat. Back to the house with you.”

 

To Naruto’s credit, he does not sulk at being caught breaking Kakashi’s rules. In his place, Kakashi might have kicked sullenly at rocks along the path, or stoically remained silent. But Naruto instead digs a kunai out of his pouch and begins to twirl it on his fingers in a complicated pattern. It’s a popular game among Academy students and young genin to play small pattern or rhythm games with their weapons; it was all the rage when Kakashi was a kid, and it’s nice to see that some things don’t change much between generations.

 

“So, about your chains,” Kakashi starts, and Naruto’s fingers slip, causing his kunai to nick his thumb. Kakashi watches from the corner of his eye as the boy hisses in discomfort; the wound is bleeding quite freely when Naruto pops the digit in his mouth, but seems to stop bleeding altogether within seconds. When Naruto examines the thumb after removing it from his mouth, it’s completely unmarred. So he has accelerated healing. Did Kushina or Mito have that? He can’t remember. He’ll have to look into it. “You manifested them the other night. Do you remember what was different?”

 

“I wasn’t like...trying to do them on purpose?” Naruto says, resuming his kunai-twirling. “I was meditating, and I was paying so much attention to what Teme said to do that I have no idea what it was I did that made it happen, y’know.”

 

It sounds like his chains may be an unconscious reaction. That does not bode well for Naruto using them in battle, unless Naruto can figure out the trigger for manifesting them. “We can try adding meditation to your regiment when we return to Konoha. For now, don’t meditate here. We were lucky when I was able to convince Sakura that she saw the light from the campfire, but it won’t be as easy to sell if you manifest them in the middle of Tazuna’s house.”

 

“Uh…” Naruto bites his lip. “Do you think I could...tell Sakura and Teme about...the chains?”

 

It’s a good sign that Naruto feels comfortable enough with his teammates to tell them his secrets, Kakashi reasons. But unfortunately…“No. It needs to stay secret for now. Once you’re able to use them on purpose and without a significant chakra drain, then yes, you may tell them. But for now…”

 

Naruto finally begins to sulk. “Okay,” he grumbles, his foot skipping across the ground to kick a pebble into the underbrush. “I won’t tell them.”

 

---

 

Dinner is a chaotic affair, and Kakashi is only marginally aware of it. Exhaustion tugs at every bone in his body, and weighs on his mind like an oppressive fog. He barely registers Naruto having a yelling match with the small surly child, and only partially acknowledges that it’s probably going to be a problem later on. For now, it’s a wonder that he manages to herd his brats into the room where they’re sleeping. 

 

“Are we taking sleeping shifts?” yawns Sakura as she stumbles out from where she was changing into sleeping clothes behind a privacy screen. 

 

“No,” Kakashi says. “No point. Bandits aren’t sneaky enough to get into the house without setting off the traps I set earlier, and if Gato had any other shinobi at play, he’d have sent them to take us out by now.”

 

Sakura mulls this over, then nods sleepily and flops down onto her bedroll. 

 

Sasuke and Naruto seem to be having a hushed but ferocious argument about where their bedrolls are going to be, and Kakashi snaps his fingers at them to get their attention. “If you can’t figure out arrangements yourself, we will do watch shifts, and it will be unpleasant for you.” They relent after this; he’s unsure if they actually came to an agreement or if they simply decided to let it go for now, but he’s too tired to care.

 

And Sage’s bones, he is tired. It’s not just a physical exhaustion; that he’s used to. Nor is it a depressive spell; it doesn’t feel like he’s spiraling back into that dark place he used to be in after the Kyuubi attack. No, this is a new feeling. A mental exhaustion. These kids are taxing him, pushing him to the edge of his paitence, and for the first time in his life, it feels like he’s been given a task that’s a challenge.

 

He has no idea how to teach. No clue. He can train people, certainly. He did that all the time in ANBU. He can coach someone through the motions of a kata, or teach them the signs for a jutsu, but teaching? Is something else entirely. He can’t just give these kids the instructions for something, he has to walk them through why they need to follow the steps, when it’s appropriate to not follow the steps, how to critically think about the steps.

 

He’s not sure how to really do that, if he’s deeply and terribly honest. He’s always dealt with fully-formed shinobi before, who had been self-actualized enough to have their own learning processes. His brats don’t have those yet, so on top of teaching them the steps, he has to teach them how to learn the steps in the first place.

 

Gods , he hopes he can figure it out soon. He’s really gotten attached to the brats. He doesn’t want to fail them now.

Notes:

kakashi: gosh i love dogs
sarutobi: cool, now go herd some cats

also: in regards to everyone asking if i'm going to let haku and zabuza live: i guess you'll find out soon ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

thanks for reading!!

Chapter 10: the quick brown rabbit jumps over the sleepy orange fox

Summary:

In which Haku is gay and does crimes, Naruto takes yet another power nap, and Zabuza is a terrible patient.

Haku is not sure what kind of day this is going to be.

 

Usually, when Haku wakes up, they know exactly what they are that day. Every day last week, they could tell that it was a boy day. The week before was a mix of girl and boy days. Today, though, they’re not sure if they feel like a boy or a girl. A small grimace wrinkles their brow as they hold up their boy clothes. It doesn’t feel right, so they pass them over for their more feminine fare.

 

Their girl clothes feel like what they want to wear today, so they look into a mirror and pass a small, unobtrusive henge over their face and think, Girl? She mulls it over, tugging at one eyelid to better view her henged-on eyeliner. No, they finally decide. Not a girl today.

 

Zabuza-sama is snoring as they pad up to his bedroll. A quick peek under his dressings tells them his wounds are still just as infected as they were yesterday. They sigh, tucking the bandages back into place before moving into the kitchen to collect their supplies for the day.

 

Their more feminine style today would look good with a bun, they decide, so they twist their hair up and slide a few senbon in for good measure. They glance in the mirror...and bite back a growl as they take it down again. No, no, no. Doesn’t feel right. A quick finger-comb to detangle the hair, and they feel a little better about it. They’ll just have to hide the senbon in the basket.

 

After they tuck some senbon into the lining of the basket and into their obi, they scoop the basket up and exit the kitchen to see Zabuza blinking blearily in the early morning light streaming through the window. “What time issit?” he mumbles, scratching at the bandages across his chest.

 

They stride over to him, kneel, and slap his hand away. “Don’t scratch, Zabuza-sama,” they say mildly. “If you rip your stitches, I’ll make you redo them yourself.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles, swatting at their arm. “No scratchies. Sure.”

 

“I mean it.”

 

“Uh-huh.” Zabuza yawns, rolling his shoulders lazily. Haku tries not to sigh as they think about how many small lacerations he could be reopening. “Yep. Absolutely. You’ll leave me to stitch myself up and do it all wrong and then die. That is your master plan.” He eyes Haku, taking in their appearance. “Girl day?”

 

Haku shrugs. “I am not sure yet.”

 

“Mm,” Zabuza grunts. “Well, what’s the plan for today?”

 

“I’m going to collect more herbs for your poultice. I’ll probably grab some more food from Gato’s complex as well. Is there anything you want?”

 

“Get me more of that sake Gato gave us when we first contracted with him.”

 

“No alcohol until you’ve recovered.”

 

If anyone asks, Haku knows to say that Zabuza is not pouting underneath the bandages. “Alcohol can be used to clean wounds,” he whines.

 

“That is not how it works, Zabuza-sama.”

 

Zabuza’s head lolls back and he sighs. “Eh, worth a shot. I’ll settle for any decent fish.”

 

Haku nods, tucking the basket into the crook of their elbow. “As you wish, Zabuza-sama. I will return before noon today.”

 

After years with Zabuza, it’s easy to read his expressions through the bandages. The surprised grimace that graced their sensei’s face was small enough that anyone else wouldn’t have been able to parse it. “That long? Haku, are you getting soft? Gato’s place is an hour from here by a civilian’s pace. I know you’re faster than any civvie alive .”

 

They nod again. “I’m also planning on some reconnaissance. Rei-sama reported that Hatake’s team has been doing training in the forest, not too far from the bridge. We may need to fight them there instead of the bridge proper.” They’re thankful Rei is even speaking to him: the rabbit summons that they contracted with a year ago are prideful, and the rabbit had been incensed that they’d used a normal rabbit as a decoy the other day instead of one of the summons. They’d gotten an earful of a lecture on how it was disrespectful of them to turn to mortal rabbits instead of their summons.

 

Zabuza grunts. “Don’t get too close. Hatake has Inuzuka in him, according to the Bingo Book. The fucker can smell you, even if you have your chakra tamped down tight. Better to go in blind than get caught snooping around.”

 

“As you say, Zabuza-sama.” Haku sees the wisdom in Zabuza’s order, but it’s tradition for them to be coy about accepting the guidance. It’s tradition for Zabuza to grumble about how ungrateful Haku is with that small smile on his face that only Haku can see through the bandages. And it’s tradition for Haku to give a small smile back.

 

---

 

The herbs will take a little while to dry, so they’re first on Haku’s list. They’ll gather the herbs first, lay them out to dry, and gather them on the return from the supply run to Gato’s. The itinerary has the added benefit of avoiding contact with Hatake and his team; from what Rei-chan has told Haku, the team starts training around mid-morning and into the early afternoon, with Hatake making a continuous loop in between the bridge and the forest to keep an eye on both the construction workers and the genin training in the glade.

 

Haku had asked Rei-sama what the training entailed, when she first reported. “How am I supposed to know?” she had snapped, nose wriggling incredulously. “You shinobi use chakra so strangely . I have no clue what they’re training for. Could be endurance, I guess, there was a lot of running involved.”

 

Endurance drills make...some sense, Haku supposes. Fresh genin did lack the endurance for long-term fights. The genin team did okay with the encounter a few days ago, but they would have lost had the battle been any more drawn out. Hatake would recognize this, and may be hoping to up their endurance to prepare them for prolonged battle.

 

At any rate, Haku plans to be in and out of the area around the glade long before Hatake and his team arrive. They could escape them, they have no doubt, but if Zabuza is right, Hatake could track them right back to Zabuza. They’ll have to send in Cheiko-chan to do better recon than Rei; Rei might be the eldest of the rabbits, and thus in possession of more chakra, but Cheiko’s tawny coat will blend better with the foliage and sandy forest floor, and Cheiko has spent more time in the mortal realm. They can never say it out loud or Rei would never speak to them again in a pique of jealousy, but Cheiko was just plain better at reading human behavior.

 

Perhaps they can use Rei-sama on their supply run? Haku knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that they can slip into Gato’s compound to steal food and other sundries and leave without a trace, but Rei’s pride is still wounded, and they want to make it up to her. 

 

So: the plan is set. Gather the herbs, lay the herbs out to dry. Skip over to Gato’s to gather food with Rei, keep an eye out for smoked fish and that high-end sake. Swing by and pick up the herbs, send Cheiko out to spy on the genin team, and return to Zabuza-sama by noon. Simple enough. All in all, almost a relaxing day.

 

The plan is thrown out the window when Haku leaps down from running through the tree canopy and almost lands on the Uzumaki genin sound asleep under a fern.

 

Haku’s first instinct is to finish the child off. They’ve heard tales of the Uzumaki and their prowess in battle, and even if he is a genin, he’s unlikely to suffer the stamina issues his peers have. Haku is not a sensor, but from what Zabuza told them, the Uzumaki boy has a lot of chakra. He may not know a lot of jutsu, but if he knows even one higher-level fire jutsu, it’s possible he could repeatedly cast it and overpower Haku’s mirrors. Not likely. But possible. 

 

They’re about to draw a senbon and jam it into his neck when Zabuza’s words come back to them. Hatake has Inuzuka in him. Fucker can smell you. 

 

Right now, Hatake and Zabuza are at odds because of their jobs. Hatake defended his own, made a point of defending his genin while mostly ignoring the asset. It’s standard Konoha mentality, really. Many Konoha teams will prioritize safety of their shinobi over lower-rank missions or assets. Everyone knows Konoha brings in enough high-profile missions to afford scrubbing a C-rank or below if the team’s safety is jeopardized. Likely Hatake is only sticking around to heal, and will retreat if pushed again. 

 

But if they kill one of Hatake’s genin, it will give Hatake motive to hunt down Haku and by extension Zabuza. Zabuza is in no state to defend himself just yet, and Haku knows they can’t face Hatake alone. And if the Bingo Book is to be trusted, Hatake has Inuzuka lineage. Tracking Haku would be easy for him; he’s probably not bothered with it by now because he wants to keep an eye on his genin.

 

The boy stirs in his nest of fern fronds, brow crumpled in the early bleary confusion that comes from rising out of a deep sleep. Haku has seconds to decide how to proceed: kill, or retreat and hope the boy hasn’t sensed them.

 

“Kaka-sensei?” the boy mumbles, a hand drifting up to swipe at his eyes. There’s a kunai clutched in the other hand that Haku had not noticed. At least the child isn’t totally unarmed out here. “I know you said not t’ come out here without you, but I--”

 

“You’ll catch a cold, sleeping out here like that,” Haku blurts out, automatically pitching their voice up to feminine tones. 

 

Uzumaki’s eyes crack open, and he hauls himself up. “Who’re you,” he asks bluntly, then blushes slightly. “Uhhh, I mean--Thanks for wakin’ me, nee-chan. What’re you doing out here?”

 

Haku has an opportunity here. Clearly, Uzumaki hasn’t recognized them at all, which is fair given the radical difference in their appearance today. And the boy seems entirely too trusting of strangers. Perhaps they can leverage that, and subtly interrogate him? It would certainly make their information-gathering go easier if they can get it directly from the source. If they play their cards right, they may even get the child to invite them directly into Tazuna’s home. “I am gathering herbs for my sick friend,” they reply, keeping the answer vague.

 

“Oh,” the boy replies. “Oh! I can help, I’m great at picking plants, y’know! I have to pick wild stuff all the time back home, ‘cuz the stuff at the market’s too expensive. Whatcha hunting for?” Haku shows him the herbs they’re gathering for Zabuza, and he squints at them. “Ehh, I’ve never seen that one before. Must be a Wave thing. Never been out of Konoha before now.”

 

True to his word, Uzumaki is fairly decent at picking out the herbs they need from the foliage. “You got a lotta stuff to do today, nee-chan? Is that why you’re out so early?” he asks as he drops another fistful of kodavan into Haku’s basket.

 

“Yes,” they reply simply. “And you?”

 

“I was trainin’,” the boy replies blithely, scrutinizing some frankly rather toxic weeds before thankfully passing them over.

 

“Ah, you must be a shinobi,” they say. “The headband is a dead giveaway.”

 

A brilliant grin crosses Uzumaki’s face. “Yeah, yeah! I am a shinobi!”

 

Haku nods. “Why are you training?” they ask, intending to lead the boy further into asking about the training regiment the genin are undergoing. They might even be able to learn how advanced the genin are from him; he’s incredibly trusting and open to the complete stranger that he just met. Clearly he’s not suited to infiltration. Not all shinobi are, but he’s going to have to learn how to keep his cards closer to his chest if he’s going to survive.

 

Uzumaki cocks his head. “To get stronger,” he replies slowly. “I gotta get stronger, y’know. To prove myself to the village. To get recognition. And respect.”

 

Oh. This kid really went in the opposite direction from what Haku was hoping for. “Ah, you’re training for yourself.”

 

His head cocks the other way, and Haku is suddenly reminded of a curious dog. “Uhh...I guess so? But..maybe not? I wanna be Hokage, and the Hokage’s gotta protect the village. So I’m training for myself...so I can protect others later…?”

 

“There’s nobody you want to protect now? Nobody precious to you?” Haku prods, trying to steer him back to the subject of his team. Hopefully he’ll accidentally reveal a weakness in the team structure when he identifies who he needs to protect. Most likely though, they realize, he’ll ramble off again. Either this child is actually decent at hiding information, or he legitimately is unaware of anything beyond himself. Either is possible; he had seemed vague during the encounter between the two forces the other day.

 

“Eh? Precious? Whattya mean by that, nee-chan?”

 

Ah. He is dumb. Zabuza was right. “I’m gathering these herbs for someone precious to me,” they explain patiently. “I had to rise early this morning so I could gather them, and I had to learn which herbs to gather and how to apply them. I trained to carry out these tasks so I can protect my precious person. And I am stronger for it. It gives me motivation to push onwards, knowing that I am there for him.”

 

“Oh!” The child brightens. Good, he’s understood the concept. Hopefully he’ll reveal which of his teammates is most precious to him, and give Haku an amount of leverage in the coming battle. “Like Iruka-sensei back home! He’s one of my favorite people. I had to protect him from--well. I was stronger when I needed to be because he was in danger, y’know.” 

 

Haku nearly strangles the child right then and there. How is he so good at avoiding what Haku needs to know? It’s not like he’s trying to avoid the subjects Haku is asking about. It just seems like the kid skips a few steps in the thinking process and blurts out a barely related thought. 

 

“Anyways, I gotta get back to the house. Kaka-sensei will kill me if he knows I snuck out last night. He shoulda made his traps tougher to get past if he didn’t want me out here, though.” He bounces to his feet, brushing stray leaves and bits of dirt from his pants. “Maybe we can meet again, y’know! It was nice talkin with ya, nee-chan!”

 

Something clicks into place, and a smile blossoms across Haku’s face. “I’m actually a guy,” he says, and he feels right for the first time today.

 

---

 

Haku’s raid on Gato’s compound goes smoothly, like they always do. He’s in and out before anyone knows he’s there, which is for the best. He’d rather not break any more arms. Not that he cares about Gato’s thugs--they can all drown in a tidepool for all he cares. It’s just that it causes unnecessary drama between Gato and Zabuza-sama. And the more drama that builds, the more of a chance that the two parties will come to blows. He doesn't think Gato poses a physical threat to them. Quite the contrary, the little businessman wouldn't stand a chance against them. But he is a good source of income. Even so, he hopes they’ll be able to shed the contract after this job. Gato will probably be happy to see them go, with the rising tension between his men and the shinobi. He’ll also be happy to sell information on them to Kiri. Haku’s frankly surprised he hasn’t sold them out by now. Gato probably thinks they’d take him down with them if Kiri found them here. He’s absolutely right.

 

“You’re thinking loudly again,” Rei-sama says irritably. “Stop fretting and dig this burr out. I can’t reach it.”

 

Haku plucks the offending burr from behind her ears, giving her silky white fur an idle scratch afterwards. She clicks her teeth and leans into the touch. “Thank you for your assistance, Rei-sama. You were a valuable distraction.”

 

Rei huffs, her nose twitching. “Hardly. I know you didn’t need me for this milk run. You’re better than that, you don’t need an old doe like me to give some stupid guard dogs a good chase.” She pauses, then licks his hand affectionately. “But it is nice to stretch my legs. You haven’t been summoning us for months, using those silly little common bunnies instead. And now you've summoned me twice in one week? Why the sudden change of heart?”

 

Zabuza got hurt on my watch, Haku wants to say. Cheiko could have gathered more intel on the shinobi involved, you could have helped Zabuza with a chakra infusion, but I used a mortal rabbit and he got hurt on my watch. “Not many shinobi use Rabbit summons, you’re so...reclusive,” he half-lies instead. “I did not want someone to recognize me.”

 

Her milky pink eyes narrow as she mulls this over. “Hm,” she responds, clearly not buying it. “Well, don’t neglect us. We may be...how did you put it? Reclusive? But we still enjoy seeing the mortal realms. It’s been a while since we had a summoner. Especially one like you.” She pauses, then flops down beside him. One of her abilities includes size-changing; during the earlier chase, she was the size of a mortal rabbit, but now she’s the size of a large-ish dog. Her weight presses into his knee, but it’s not uncomfortable. “We worry about you, you know. So young to have so many burdens on your shoulders. There’s no shame in requesting assistance. We are here to help, whenever you need.”

 

Haku reaches out and scratches behind her ears again. She hums happily, tail twitching madly. “I’ll be better about summoning you, I promise,” he says.

 

“Good,” she says. “Now what else is on the agenda today? Do you need me to spy on those shinobi kits again?”

 

Haku stifles a wince. “No, I was thinking Chieko-chan could use the experience to sharpen her infiltration skills. Also, I haven’t summoned her in a while, she needs a chance to stretch her legs.”

 

“ That silly kit? If you insist, Haku-kun. It is Haku- kun today, isn’t it?”

 

Haku nods. He isn’t sure how the rabbits always know what gender he is on a particular day, but they’re very rarely wrong. When they are, it’s generally one of the younger rabbits that hasn’t spent much time with him, and they’re quick to apologize and adjust. He’d thanked the warren once for their understanding, and Rei had primly said, “No need for thanks. It’s just polite.”

 

Rei stretches, then hops to her feet. “Well, if you’re going to be summoning Chieko, I think I’ll head to the warren for the day. May your feet be swift and your senses sharp, and may you be cunning and full of tricks.”

 

Haku murmurs the benediction back to her, giving her ears one last scratch, and then rises to his feet as she disappears in a puff of smoke. He stretches languidly, then peers through the trees at the sky. From the sun, he guesses that he has a little over half an hour before Hatake and his team arrive in the glade to train. He’d better head out soon if he wants to give Chieko instructions before he leaves her to watch them.

 

---

 

After he gets Chieko-chan set to her task, Haku heads back to the hideout. He has a certain level of paranoia regarding Hatake tracking him back to Zabuza, especially after Haku interacted at length with one of the man’s genin. As a result, Haku takes a very circuitous route, employing a few more summons to lay false trails for Hatake to follow should Uzumaki report the strange man he talked to in the forest.

 

Who is he kidding? The idiot brat won’t even mention it in passing. Naive fool.

 

When he arrives, Zabuza is sharpening Kubikiribocho. “How’d your run go?” Zabuza asks, testing the edge with a thumb. “Break any more arms? Please tell me you broke more arms. I would absolutely love it if you broke more arms.”

 

“No more arms broken today, Zabuza-sama. Though I suppose I can always return to the compound and find some arms to break if it pleases you.” Haku replies, setting the basket down in the kitchen. “I think your first assessment of the Uzumaki child was right. He’s quite stupid. Or a genius that can come across as stupid. It’s hard to tell without talking to him more.”

 

Zabuza startles, dropping the whetstone. “You talked to him? Hatake--”

 

“Hatake-san doesn’t know that I did,” Haku interrupts. “Chieko-chan says it’s unlikely I left a scent on the boy, and if he reports back to Hatake, all he’ll have to say is he ran into a weird civilian boy gathering herbs.”

 

“It doesn’t matter, you risk Hatake tracking you back h--oh, a boy day then? Noted. Anyways, Hatake could follow your scent here--”

 

“I laid several false trails, and if he were interested in tracking us, I bet he would have by now,” Haku counters, opening one of the cabinets and peering inside. “Where’s the mortar and pestle? I need to prepare your poultice.” At Zabuza’s annoyed huff, he adds on, “I did find some of that nice sake. You might be healed enough by tomorrow to have some.”

 

Zabuza’s pout melts away. “Ahh, I knew there was a reason I kept you!”

 

“ Might,” stresses Haku, finally finding the mortar behind the rice cooker. 

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll take my medicine,” Zabuza grumbles. “You want the bandages off yet?”

 

“Yes, please,” Haku replies as he starts bundling the herbs he needs together.

 

After examining the wounds on Zabuza’s chest, Haku is relieved to note that some of the inflammation is already down from this morning. With the poultice and a small healing session tonight, Zabuza should be ready for combat by tomorrow morning. When he tells Zabuza the good news, a deadly grin warps the bandages encasing the man’s face. “Fuckin’ finally! Hopefully Hatake’s taking longer and we can take out the asset without facing him.”

 

“The best time to strike will be the morning.” Haku smears a small amount of poultice on the largest of Zabuza’s cuts. “Tazuna heads out early, and Hatake-san is still giving his genin instructions for training when he arrives at the bridge. If we wait too late, Hatake will have started checking in on him, or worse, set one of the genin as a guard on the bridge. From what I’ve seen, Hatake’s priority is the genin. If we take out the target without engaging the genin, he might not retaliate.”

 

Zabuza grunts. “That’s the best-case scenario. Worst-case, what do you figure?”

 

“The Mizukage shows up on our doorstep and we both die at his hands.”

 

“Worst-case plausible scenario.”

 

“I said what I said.” Haku begins rewrapping Zabuza’s chest in fresh gauze. “Really, the best tactic is to avoid Hatake-san and the genin altogether, get our payment from Gato, and leave before tensions get too bad with him.”

 

“Weren’t you telling me the other day that we don’t have anywhere else to go to?”

 

“Yes, but I feel that Gato will betray us soon. I don’t have any solid intel, call it intuition, but he’s going to turn on us.”

 

Zabuza sighs. “Yeah, you’re right.”

 

A thought occurs to Haku as he finishes tucking the gauze into place. “You know...we could pit the two against each other. Hatake and Gato, I mean.”

 

“They’re...already against each other.”

 

“Well, yes. But we could focus Hatake’s attention on Gato. The asset leaves early in the morning, and Hatake and his team train for a little while in the forest by the asset’s residence. What if we convince Gato to send a few of his associates to distract Hatake and his team while we take out the bridge builder? That way, Hatake is preoccupied with keeping his genin safe, and any retaliation from the attack will be directed at Gato. We’ll just have to make sure to collect the payment before the two clash.”

 

Zabuza whistles lowly. “Sneaky, sneaky. I usually prefer head-on confrontations, but I think I can stand to be underhanded for once.”

 

Haku nods sharply. “The plan is set, then. I’ll run over tonight and tell Gato we plan to strike tomorrow morning. Or, better yet, I’ll forge orders from Gato and send the thugs over myself.”

 

“And I’ll make sure the sake doesn’t go to waste!”

 

“ Not until you’re healed, Zabuza-sama.”

 

“Ahh, spoilsport.”

Notes:

i'll be real with yall i did not expect the rabbits. the rabbits just kinda sprung outta nowhere. it started as a throwaway line and now it's a whole dang thing.

also haku is genderfluid. my city now.

ANYWAYS! i've hit over a thousand kudos, which is. WOW, very mind-boggling!! Thank you all for your patience with my wonky schedule, and it means so much to me to have so many people reading and interacting with this fic. it gives me so much motivation to keep writing!! i love you guys ;A;

thanks for reading!

Chapter 11: battle at the bridge

Summary:

In which Sakura becomes a demolition expert, Sasuke has special eyes, and Naruto is terrible at keeping secrets.

The ache has finally faded from Kakashi’s left shoulder, which means he’s at least mostly recovered from his chakra exhaustion. When he was a genin, he had picked a fight with a Hyuuga, some main brancher that he can’t remember the name of. She’d blown out his tenketsu, and he’d been given three weeks off for his recovery. He’d gone back to full-on training after one, despite instructions to take it easy, and his shoulder hadn’t necessarily experienced long-term physical ailment, but it is always the last nexus on his body to recover after chakra depletion. 

 

He rolls said shoulder experimentally, relishing the sensation of tendons stretching without pain. Bouncing a little on the balls of his feet, he’s pleased to find he has no residual weakness in his legs. His chakra reserves are a little lower than he’d like; if pressed, he can only get off one Chidori before he’ll be in hot water again. He’s back to (mostly) full strength a full day earlier than most textbooks project for recovery from chakra exhaustion; one of the benefits from suffering from it so much is that he knows exactly how to speed up recovery time.

 

The front door slams shut, which he takes to mean that Tazuna has left for the day. He did mention leaving early last night. Apparently, the bridge is almost finished, and one more half day of work will complete the job. Another reason to be pleased: he and his kids will only have to stay until noonish, and then they can go back to Konoha. He’s contemplating whether or not to have them tree-hop all the way back; they’re all proficient with tree-walking now, and it’ll be good endurance practice for Sakura. Also, it will get them away from Momochi and his accomplice much quicker.

 

He stretches one last time, and pads from the living room into the side room where they’ve all been sleeping. He’s about to tell Naruto to start packing his gear, when he sees a small flash of orange light in the corner of his eye. Whipping his head around, he sees Naruto sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes squeezed shut as a small orange thread twists around his hand.

 

“NARUTO,” he barks, crossing the room in one stride and flicking the boy on the ear. Naruto yelps, chains dissipating with his movement as he twists away from the contact, and Kakashi lunges to catch the ear between his thumb and forefinger. “ What did I say about meditating in the house?” 

 

“Owowow leggo that hurts--”

 

“I told you not to, that’s what.” He releases Naruto, then smacks him lightly upside the head. “If you cannot take the simplest of orders here, will you be able to when you’re behind enemy lines? When you’re on the battlefield? Lives depend on you being able to take orders, Naruto. Your life, your teammate’s lives, and the lives of people you may be tasked to protect.”

 

Naruto is looking away as he rubs his ear. “M’sorry,” he mumbles. “It’s just--”

 

“No. No excuses, Naruto. Look at me.” Kakashi guides Naruto’s chin with a finger to look the boy in the eyes. “You know the stakes. If someone sees you, someone who can’t know this secret, if word gets out, there are other nations that would stop at nothing to gain your power. Iruka-san and I have told you many, many times that you must keep it secret, or you run the risk of endangering yourself and your teammates. Every time you manifest these chains, the chance that Kumo or Kiri or even someone from Konoha--” Naruto’s breath catches at that last addition. He must not suspect that his own village would try to take advantage of him, which absolutely takes Kakashi off guard, considering that Konoha is already using him as a Jinchuuriki. “--will try to kidnap you, and will hurt or kill the people around you to take you.”

 

“I--I know, but--”

 

“ No buts, Naruto. You have knowingly placed yourself and your teammates in danger. Nothing has come of it so far, but it is only a matter of time until your luck changes.”

 

Naruto is looking away again. He’s clearly fighting back tears. Kakashi hates to think so, but it’s good that he’s upset. Maybe it will drive home how dangerous the situation is. Naruto sniffles, and swipes a sleeve across his face. “I...I’m sorry, Kakashi-sensei. It won’t happen again.”

 

Kakashi sighs. “Good.” He ruffles Naruto’s hair. “It’s impressive, I might add. Summoning your chains twice in a week? It seems like you found a method for manifesting them. Good job.”

 

The smile that creeps across the boy’s face is sheepish. “I--uh--three. Three times. I got them to come out yesterday morning, too. I...snuck out at night to train more, and figured I could take a nap to recover after I summoned them. It makes me kinda sleepy, even if I don’t use them. I was almost late getting back to the house before you woke up yesterday. I’m lucky that guy yesterday woke me up, I prolly woulda slept till noon if he didn’t, y’know.”

 

Kakashi blinks. “That...guy?”

 

Naruto nods. “Yeah! I thought he was a girl, he was so pretty. He asked me some weird questions about why I was training, an’ I helped him a little with gathering some herbs for his sick friend.”

 

He grabs Naruto’s shoulders, making the boy squeak in surprise. “Don’t be weird about this,” he says, then buries his nose in Naruto’s hair. The boy smells of preteen sweat (not sharp yet, still a soft salty warmth without the tang that comes with puberty), woodsmoke and a slight hint of fish (he’d helped Tsunami with dinner last night, they’d smoked some herring and Naruto had helped clean the fish), an undercurrent of musk and deep woodlands (fox, his mind supplies, but he gamely ignores this scent), and--

 

“Why do you smell like rabbits?”

 

Naruto writhes out of his grasp. “Dude, you can smell that good?” he yelps, scruffing a hand through his unruly hair. “I mean, yeah, there was that really cute rabbit yesterday that hung out at the bridge for a bit while I was on guard rotation, and it let me pet it, but--”

 

“Rabbits aren’t native to Wave,” Kakashi says faintly. “It was either livestock that got loose, or…”

 

“Or…?” Naruto says, voice uncharastically nervous. “Or what?”

 

“A nin-animal or summons that was sent to spy on us,” Kakashi finishes. “And we already know of one rabbit associated with Zabuza.”

 

“ Oh , ” whispers Naruto. 

 

“Pack your gear,” Kakashi says, standing and casting his eyes around the room. Sakura has just entered, and seems unaware of the revelation. “Sakura. We’re leaving, now. Pack your gear.”

 

“Kaka-sensei,” Naruto starts, one of his too-small hands clutching at Kakashi’s glove as he hauls himself to his feet. “Kaka-sensei, I’m sorry--”

 

Kakashi brushes the hand off and crosses the room to his own pack. It’s already packed, he knows, but he wants to be sure. Sakura edges up to him, and nervously starts to ask, “Kaka-sensei, why--”

 

“Pack. Now,” he bites out, then his eyes fall on Sasuke’s gear, which is also ready to go. “When you’re done, go tell Sasuke we’re leaving. Zabuza’s associate has been snooping a little too close to us for comfort, and we’re bugging out before we come into contact with them.” He sees Sakura stiffen, then nod and run to her pack. Good, at least one of his kids has sense. 

 

“Oh fuck,” Naruto blurts. “Shit. Kaka-sensei--”

 

“Not now, Naruto! Pack!” he says, waving the boy towards his pile of gear.

 

“But--”

 

“ Naruto, Kaka-sensei gave you an order,” Sakura chides, tucking her textbook neatly into her pack.

 

“But Sasuke’s at the bridge! ” Naruto shouts.

 

Kakashi’s blood freezes cold.

 

“Oh no,” Sakura breathes, straightening from her kneeled position, her rumpled sleep-shirt falling from her hands. “It’s his turn on guard duty. Tazuna left early today, and Sasuke-kun went with him, I was supposed to tell you he was going with him, and Zabuza’s probably out there right now, oh no.”

 

“Pack your gear,” Kakashi says, and his voice is eerily calm to his ears in contrast to the abject terror building in his gut. “Pack your gear. Sasuke and I will be back here in ten minutes. Be ready to run. ”

 

“Sensei--” Sakura starts, then squeaks as Kakashi shunshins past her and out the front door. He flings himself to the tree canopy once he’s past the bridge that leads from Tazuna’s house to the shore, and once he’s gotten to the very tops of the trees, he throws himself into a rapid series of shunshins. If a mednin could see him right now, exerting himself like this so soon after chakra exhaustion, he’d never hear the end of it, but it doesn’t matter because one of his kids is in danger. So he ignores the spin of his Sharingan and the vision of Rin telling him to take it slow, and he flies across the treetops to the bridge.

 

When he arrives, Zabuza is already there. He’s advancing on a group of construction workers, all cowering behind Tazuna and Sasuke, the former of which is clutching a hammer defensively, and the latter of which is baring his teeth as he sends a pair of shuriken spinning towards the older nin. Zabuza easily deflects him, but his attention is focused on Sasuke, which leaves him wide open for a Chidori--

 

Before Kakashi can even start to draw his chakra into a Chidori, a hail of senbon comes spiraling out of the morning fog, and he barely has enough time to throw himself out of the way. He comes to a stop behind Zabuza, who whirls at the sound of Kakashi’s sandals hitting the concrete of the bridge. “Zabuza-sama,” calls a soft, steady voice from the bridge’s edge. “Hatake-san is here.” Zabuza’s counterpart slips from the railing and glides silently to Zabuza’s side. 

 

Both have their attention trained on Kakashi, which is how Kakashi likes it. He flicks a finger to Sasuke, who’s eyes dart to follow the movement. Asset, base, retreat, regroup, he signs in Konoha standard, hoping Sasuke will understand that he means for Sasuke to run to Tazuna’s house.

 

Unfortunately, Sasuke has apparently taken it to mean that Kakashi wants Tazuna safe too, if the way he’s trying to herd the workers away from the confrontation is anything to go by. Kakashi has nothing against the man (that’s a lie, if Tazuna lives through this it will be a close thing for Kakashi to keep himself from gutting the man with a rusty butcher knife for endangering his kids) but Tazuna’s safety is not even remotely his priority right now. No no no, retreat retreat retreat, no asset no, he signs desperately at Sasuke as he calls to Zabuza, “Hey, there. Rematch?”

 

“Thought you said he’d be out for a few more days,” Zabuza grunts to his partner. The other nin shakes their head. “Eh, whatever. He’s not got the other two here to run interference, and you can take care of Broody easy.”

 

“Who says they’re not right behind me?” Kakashi bluffs, trying to draw their attention away from Sasuke, who has continued to edge further down the bridge. He’s going the wrong direction if he wants to get to Tazuna’s house, but at this point, Kakashi will happily take ‘ away from Zabuza’ as a valid option.

 

Zabuza chuckles darkly. “The civvie bandits that Gato sent to the shack you’ve been bunking in,” he replies, planting his massive sword in the ground and leaning casually on the guard. “They’d be no match for you, but a couple of fresh genin? I’d be surprised if they got away with a light maiming. So I’ll cut you a deal. Leave the builder to me , and I’ll leave your kiddies to you .”

 

“No deal,” snarls Sasuke, and Kakashi shakes his head violently at the boy when both Zabuza and his partner swivel their attention to him.

 

“Shame,” Zabuza says. “Haku, take Broody. I have Hatake.” He flicks his fingers through a series of handsigns. Kakashi flings himself forward desperately, automatically drawing his tanto as he goes, but he’s too late to catch Zabuza before the eerie chakra-infused fog of the Hidden Mist jutsu begins to rise rapidly from the surface of the ocean.

 

The last thing Kakashi sees before the mist closes around him is Sasuke’s eyes meeting his, and Kakashi is terrified that it’ll be the last time he sees the boy alive.

 

---

 

Sakura is panicking.

 

She knows, in some deep, calm, not-hyperventilating portion of her brain, that the panic is an automatic stress response, and it’s not conducive to victory in this situation. So she should take a few deep, calming breaths to quell the rising panic in her throat, check her gear one last time, and make sure Naruto is packed and ready to go when Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun get back.

 

“Kaka-sensei and Sasuke-kun,” she says nervously, almost hesitant to voice her concern aloud, as if that made it more concrete somehow. “They’re late.”

 

“Only by a few minutes. Besides, Kaka-sensei’s always late, y’know,” replies Naruto, stuffing his bedroll into his pack. His voice sounds just as unsure as she feels, which is oddly reassuring. There’s something comforting about having someone to panic with.

 

“Kaka-sensei’s late all the time, yes, but he’s been getting up early for training all week. I think he’s late to training back in Konoha to keep us on our toes.”

 

Naruto gnaws on his lower lip. “And it’s not like Teme to be late like this. Okay, so they’re late. What do we do now? Kaka-sensei didn’t tell us to do anything if they were late.” He crams one last item, a roll of gauze, into his pack and yanks it closed. She’s amazed it all fits, considering how hap-hazardly he’s jammed everything in. “We can’t go to the bridge, he’s expecting us to be here, and if we’re not here when he gets back, he’ll waste more time looking for us. I say we stay here.”

 

“But Zabuza knows we’re here,” Sakura counters. “And you and I don’t stand a chance against him. I say we regroup with Kaka-sensei. Maybe we’ll meet him on the path and we can leave from there.”

 

Naruto shakes his head emphatically. “Kaka-sensei won’t take the path, he’ll tree-hop. It’s faster, leaves less of a trail to follow, and he can carry Teme with him.” At her questioning glance, he continues. “Shinobi hop trees and roofs all the time back home in Konoha. It’s probably the next step for us in training. Well, you, anyways. Teme and I don’t stick as well to trees as you do.”

 

“What if we tree-hop there?”

 

“Kaka-sensei still might miss us. And I really don’t wanna fall and break an arm. It’s uncomfortable, and it takes a coupla hours to heal enough.”

 

Wait. Back up. “ Hours?” she asks. “Try weeks. Bones can sometimes take months to heal.”

 

He cocks his head. “Oh. Maybe I…sprained my arm then? I fell off Hokage Monument when I was painting it, and my arm was fine the next morning. Does that sound right? A sprain?”

 

Sakura is 90% sure that it takes longer than overnight to heal a sprain, but maybe Naruto had just bruised a bone. Either way, he’s right. Falling out of a tree and breaking a limb right now would be disastrous, and would leave them even more vulnerable to Zabuza. “Ok, so we can’t tree-hop and we can’t go to the bridge by the path because Kaka-sensei won’t see us on the path. Now what? We just sit here until they come back? What if--what if they don’t--”

 

“They’ll come back,” Naruto interrupts, but his hands are fisted in the hem of his jacket and his eyes betray his fear. “They have to. And I know Kaka-sensei’s weird and lazy, but he’s never--he’s never not shown up. He’s just late.”

 

Sakura’s about to press the issue when a muffled thump rattles through the small house. It’s followed by a yelp and some distant cursing. She runs to the window, peers outside, and immediately ducks down when she sees four men with a variety of weapons on the walkway outside, huddled around a fifth who obviously ran afoul of one of Kakashi’s traps. “ Bandits,” she hisses. “I don’t think they saw me. What do we do? Oh crap, what do we do?”

 

“The front door,” Naruto says breathlessly. “We gotta barricade it. Teme would have disabled the traps to let Tazuna by, they’ll get in through the front.”

 

They both scramble out of the bedroom and tear down the hallway. There’s a small bookshelf off to the side of the main entrance, and Naruto takes the front while she shoves the back. Between the two of them, they manage to maneuver the shelf in front of the door, and they jam a side table and a chair up against it for good measure. “Think that’ll be enough?” pants Sakura, looking wildly around for any more furniture that could add to their defense.

 

“What are you weirdos doing?” comes a small voice, and they both wheel around to see Inari-chan, standing at the end of the hallway and staring owlishly at them. He’s clutching a small raggedy stuffed dog, which Sakura hasn’t seen before, and from his rumpled hair, Sakura guesses that he’s just woken up. 

 

“Uhh,” says Naruto dumbly, just as Sakura says, “There’s some very bad men outside, Inari-chan, and we don’t want them getting inside before our sensei comes back. When he gets here, he can--um--protect us.”

 

Inari’s eyes grow wide, he drops the dog on the floor, and he dashes forward to grab at the barrier, howling at the top of his lungs. Naruto grabs the smaller boy, hauling him away from the haphazard pile. “Whoa, hey there brat, that’s keeping the bad guys out, y’know!”

 

“BUT OKAA-SAN IS STILL OUT THERE!” wails Inari, and Sakura’s heart drops like a stone.

 

“Wait. Oba-chan’s outside?” Naruto says, releasing Inari. “How do you know?”

 

“She always leaves early to check the nets!” Inari says, tears streaming down his face. “She’s out there, the bad guys are gonna get her, I just know it!” 

 

“Um, well, don’t cry,” Sakura says soothingly, kneeling down to Inari’s level. “I’m sure Tsunami-san will take her time getting back. And maybe she’ll see the bad guys from far away and be able to avoid them! They’re not very sneaky or smart. One of them even got caught in our sensei’s trap. And our sensei is due back any second now.”

 

The door shakes from a blow from what sounds like a blunt weapon. That tracks, one of the bandits had a club with them. The sound still makes Sakura jump a little, but she doesn’t feel too embarrassed about it because Naruto twitches too. “Shit!” he yelps, skittering away from the barrier. “Sakura-chan, can I talk to you?” He eyes the sobbing Inari. “Alone?”

 

“Hey, Inari-chan, why don’t you go make sure all the windows are closed and locked?” Sakura asks sweetly, gratified when the small boy nods hesitantly and patters off to check each room. She knows Kakashi has each room locked down tight, but it gives Inari something to do other than panic, and it gets him out of earshot for whatever it is Naruto has to say. “What is it?”

 

“There are five guys out there, right?” At her nod, he starts pacing, fiddling with the tassel on his shoulder. “We can take five guys, especially if they’re normies. Usually. But with Inari here…”

 

“He’s a liability.”

 

“What’s a...li-ability?”

 

“A person or asset that hinders the mission by virtue of their presence, but not in an active way. Like if you’re trying to hit a target with a bullseye, and there was a little old lady that was trying to cross the field in front of you. She would be a liability.”

 

“Yes. Well, no, because he’s just kinda here and it’s not his fault that we can’t take out all the bad guys and protect him at the same time. But yeah.”

 

“What are you suggesting? We leave him to those bandits?” 

 

“What? No! Fuck no, he’s just a little kid!” Naruto splutters. “Yeah, he’s an annoying brat, yeah he’s kinda a crybaby, but he doesn’t deserve that. What I’m saying is that we need to get him away from these guys and to somewhere safer. And then we can come back and. Uh. Take care of them.”

 

Sakura relaxes, and she suddenly realized that she’d tensed up at the notion of leaving Inari to die. She didn’t think Naruto had it in him to leave a child to the whims of bandits, but it’s nice to get confirmation. “Okay,” she nods. “How do we do that?”

 

“We take him out a window and run for the village. I mean, we’ll have to take him out one of the windows that’s trapped from the inside, but--”

 

“Wait,” says Sakura, a plan suddenly blossoming into her mind. “Wait. I have an idea .”

 

---

 

Inari has checked all the windows and doors. He made sure not to touch anything, just to look, because Kakashi-san had been very serious about him not touching any of the pieces of papers with the funny squiggles or the tangles of wires that had been wrapped around the window’s locks. When he comes back into the hallway, he makes sure to wipe the snot off his face with a sleeve before Naruto can see it. He doesn’t want the bigger boy to yell at him for being a crybaby again. He’s not a crybaby. He’s not.

 

The bad guys are still hitting the door with something really heavy, he thinks, because every ten seconds or so there’s a huge crash at the door. He thinks he can see light shining from behind the pile of junk, which means they’ve broken the door.

 

He slips a hand into his pocket to brush his fingers over his lucky rock. It’s...really not very lucky, considering everything that’s happened in the past few years, but Kaiza-nii-chan said it was lucky when he gave it to him. So it’s less a lucky rock, he guesses, and more just...a reminder of Kaiza. It makes him feel better to have it with him.

 

Naruto and Sakura are both squatting by the barricade, whispering together like they’re excited about something. He steps on that one creaky board by the kitchen door, and their heads turn at the same time to look at him. “Inari-chan, come here,” Sakura says, beckoning to him. “How do the windows look?”

 

“All locked up,” he says, sniffing back another wave of snot. 

 

“Good,” she says, smiling kindly, and nods sharply to Naruto. “Okay, what do you think? Can we do it?”

 

“ Hell yeah,” Naruto says, and she hits him on the head. “ Owwwww, what was that for?”

 

“Don’t say that in front of Inari-chan, he’s only like five years old!”

 

“I’m eight,” says Inari crossly. “Hell isn’t that bad a word. Ji-chan says it all the time. Okaa-san gets mad when he says ‘shit’ in front of me, and she never gets mad when he says hell. She got really mad when he said fuck, but I don’t know what that one means.”

 

“See?” Naruto says, pointing at Inari. “He already knew it. Tazuna-jiji is cranky as hell, of course he knows cuss words.”

 

Sakura throws up her hands. “We don’t have time for this! Are we going or not?”

 

Naruto grins. “After you, m’lady,” he says, getting to his feet and bowing. Sakura hits him on the head again, and he yelps. “Owww, jeez, okay, fine. Let’s go. Inari, how heavy are you?”

 

“Uh,” Inari says. “I don’t...know?”

 

“Can’t be any heavier than those stupid rocks we had to move out of that lady’s garden back in Konoha. C’mere.” He beckons Inari closer, then picks him up by the armpits and settles him against a hip. “ Oof. I take it back, you’re heavy as fuck. Don’t hit me, Sakura-chan, he already knows that wor--ack!” His sentence is cut off as Sakura punches him in the shoulder.

 

“What’s going on?” Inari asks, then twitches as a splinter hits his cheek. He twists around and looks over his shoulder, and there’s way more light showing through the door now. The bad guys are almost through, so why are Sakura and Naruto so calm? They keep joking with each other, and they’re not running the other way. Maybe the plan they have is really good?

 

“We’re gonna get out of here,” Naruto says, then gives him a noogie with his free hand. “You gotta be brave, ok squirt? No crying on me. I don’t wanna haveta wash your snot out of my jacket.”

 

Inari sniffs, then nods. “No crying.”

 

“Touching,” says Sakura dryly. “Okay, I disabled the trap on the kitchen window, and it doesn’t have a line-of-sight with the front door--” She pauses, then turns and frowns quizzically at the door. “Why’d they stop? They’re not through yet.”

 

And then Inari hears the worst sound he’s ever heard in his life.

 

His mother is screaming.

 

“Oh, no, they have Tsunami-san,” gasps Sakura, then claps a hand over her mouth. “Naruto, put down Inari-chan, we need to--wait.” She grabs a lock of her hair, twisting it in her fingers as she thinks. “Wait, wait, wait. No, they’re not after Tsunami-san or Inari-chan. They’re after Tazuna-san. Naruto.” She grabs Naruto’s shoulder. “New plan. Henge. Out the side window. Lead them to the kitchen door. Go through the window, trigger the tags on the door with a kunai.”

 

Naruto shifts Inari off his hip, then does some weird stuff with his fingers. There’s a poof of smoke, and when it clears, Ji-chan has taken his place somehow. But...not really? He’s shorter than Inari remembers, and his hat looks taller, almost as if to make up for the difference in height. “Got it,” Ji-chan says in a weird voice. It almost sounds like it’s layered with...Naruto’s? He grins, giving a thumbs-up, and sprints down the hall way faster than Inari remembers him ever moving before. 

 

“Inari-chan,” says Sakura, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the kitchen. “Listen carefully. I need you to go hide. It doesn’t matter where, just don’t come out until we call for you.”

 

“No!” he yells, struggling against her grip. She’s crazy strong for a girl, it must be a ninja thing. “Okaa-san’s in trouble, you need to help her, I’m too small!”

 

“We will, I promise--”

 

“ NO!” he screams. “YOU NEED TO HELP HER NOW!”

 

“ Inari-chan--”

 

There’s a bang, and Ji-chan’s voice yells from outside. “ TSUNAMI!”

 

“TOU-CHAN, RUN!” Okaa-san screams, and it’s the final straw for Inari. 

 

He writhes out of Sakura’s grasp, and runs to the side window. He makes it just in time to see three men rush past, weapons drawn, and he ducks down so they don’t see him. After they pass, he scrabbles out of the window, ignoring Sakura’s cry of “ NO! ” from behind him as he falls to the ground outside.

 

His mother is crumpled on the ground, a huge guy with a club standing over her. The bad guy grins nastily at Inari, and he sees red. A scream rips it’s way out of his throat as he takes off running, and he yanks his lucky rock out of his pocket. “GET AWAY FROM MY MOTHER!” he yells, and throws the rock with all his might.

 

It glances off the bandit’s shoulder, and then spins out of Inari’s sight forever . The bandit doesn’t even look hurt. In fact, he just looks amused. He’s laughing, even.

 

There’s another huge bang from behind him, way bigger than before, and a few wails of pain echo off the walls, but Inari doesn’t care. He’s too angry. That anyone could hurt his mother and then laugh. He keeps running at the bandit, too mad to think of a plan, too mad to be sad he’s lost his lucky rock, too mad to care that he’s scared out of his mind. The bandit leers, and raises his club--

 

A kunai comes flying out of nowhere and hits the bandit in the shoulder, right where Inari hit him with the rock. He howls, and drops the club. “NEXT ONE GOES IN YOUR FUCKING EYE,” screams Sakura, suddenly appearing behind Inari and scooping him up in one fluid motion. “The rest of your little gang are DEAD, and you’re next if you don’t LEAVE!”

 

The bandit scrambles back, tries to pick up his club, then seems to think better of it and turns tail and runs down the dock.

 

Sakura relaxes, dropping Inari to the deck, then collapses to her knees next to him. “Hoooooly crap that worked. I didn’t think that would work.”

 

“You said a baaaad word,” crows Naruto, jogging up to them and side-stepping the fist Sakura swipes at his knee. He slaps something soft onto Inari’s head, which Inari takes a second to recognize as his hat. When did he lose that? Was it before or after he went through the window? “Hey, squirt. Good job with the rock. That’s some nice aim. Maybe one day you can be a shinobi too.”

 

“He didn’t need to be out here,” Sakura says shakily, running her hands through her hair. “Inari-chan, why did you do that? You had me so worried, you could have died!”

 

There are rapid footsteps approaching, but Inari ignores them. He ignores Sakura’s questions, and Naruto’s praise, and the shaking in his legs as he hauls himself upright and runs to his mother’s side. “Okaa-san--” he says, voice wobbling almost as much as his legs. 

 

Her eyes blink open, and he starts crying, the relief is so much. “Inari,” she croaks. “Baby, you shouldn’t have done that.”

 

“I had to, Okaa-san,” he babbles, scrubbing the tears away. “I couldn’t lose you too.”

 

“You didn’t,” she says, eyes brimming with tears of her own. “I’m right here. I’m okay. You’re okay.” She struggles upright and draws him into a tight hug. “But if you ever do something like that again, you’re grounded.”

 

There’s a tap on his shoulder, and he looks up into Naruto’s face. Sakura is climbing into the house through the window. “Sorry about your kitchen,” the older boy says sheepishly. “It’s kinda...blown up. We gotta go, we think Kaka-sensei and Teme are in trouble.”

 

“My kitchen…?” Okaa-san says faintly.

 

“It was the only way to take out all three of the bandits at once,” says Naruto. “Sakura-chan’s real smart for thinking of it so fast, y’know. And we put the fire out, so your house won’t burn down! But, uh, you might wanna wait until the smoke’s all gone. And there’s...um...parts left behind. From the bandits.”

 

“Inari, don’t go in the kitchen,” Okaa-san says firmly. That’s ok. He’ll take a peek later.

 

Sakura drops back out of the window, tucking a small bundle into the pouch around her waist. “Okay, I have my first-aid kit. Let’s head out. I know what you’re going to say, but I really think we should risk tree-hopping. Time’s short.”

 

“Yeah, you’re right.” Naruto nods at her, then ruffles Inari’s hair through his hat, laughing when Inari swipes a hand at his arm. “There’s some locals that came to investigate the noise. They’ll look after you and your mom, and make sure the bad guys don’t come after you again. Oh, hey, your rock!” He bends, plucks Inari’s lucky rock off the ground, and drops it into Inari’s hand, apparently missing the dumbfounded look on Inari’s face. “See ya later, Inari! Sorry I called you a crybaby!”

 

Inari watches as Naruto and Sakura take off down the dock, then run up the side of a tree and disappear into the leaves. He knows they’re going to go fight someone tougher and stronger than the bandits that came to his home today. He knows that Ji-chan is out there facing that someone right now.

 

He hopes they don’t die.

 

---

 

The raven-haired boy is fast. 

 

He’s really causing Haku a lot of trouble, even with the mist surrounding them. Haku is more than used to Zabuza-sama’s mist, in fact a lot of his techniques work better with the chakra-laced fog. But this-- child is faster than Haku is. Either that, or he’s really good at predicting Haku’s movements, which Haku severely doubts.

 

Every time Haku has an opening, the boy is there to block it. Every time Haku tries to curve a senbon’s path to reach Tazuna, a shuriken intercepts it. Every time Haku shunshins past the boy to lash out at Tazuna, the boy launches himself straight into the way of the strike.

 

Haku huffs under his mask, then forms the signs for a Thousand Needles jutsu, but the other boy simply pushes chakra into his legs and leaps up over the deadly ice shards, coming down hard on Haku’s head. He braces his arms above his body, reinforcing them with chakra to prevent the skull-shattering blow from reaching his head. 

 

The other boy--what was his name? Sasuke? Sasuke flips off the arms and lands behind Haku, arm whipping around in an attempt to drive a kunai into Haku’s relatively unprotected neck. A nice try, Haku supposes as he shunshins away, but ultimately it unbalances the other boy and causes him to stumble. 

 

The break in the flow of combat gives Haku his opening. His ice mirrors take about ten seconds to fully form, and Sasuke is almost at the dome’s edge before the jutsu is completed, trapping him inside.

 

“Shit,” breathes Tazuna, and stumbles back away from the dome. Haku would finish him off now, but he’s loathe to leave a shinobi in play, so he ignores the bridge-builder’s retreat in favor of slipping into the icy embrace of his mirrors.

 

It’s...hard to describe what being in the mirrors feels like, to outsiders. He’d tried once, but he thinks Zabuza just ended up confused at his description. It’s a little like being underwater, but more in the sense that you’re dreaming that you’re underwater. He can breathe freely, but he doesn’t need to as much as he would in normal space. He’s aware of his reflections, and they relay sensory information back to him, but he doesn’t feel them as extensions of his body. It’s more like they give him reports on what’s happening rather than feeding him raw data. He only feels what happens to the mirror his real body is occupying.

 

In order to keep track of the mirrors, he always does his best to align them with the cardinal directions. Right now he’s in the top southwest mirror: his reflection in the lower north mirror tells him Sasuke is flicking his eyes back and forth, the two eastern mirrors say his hand is digging in his weapons pouch, and the lower southern mirror can hear Zabuza laughing madly as he battles Hatake.

 

“What the hell is this?” Sasuke snaps, twitching around and running his gaze over each mirror. “Are these clones? Which one are you? Come out and fight me, coward!”

 

“No, I don’t think I will,” Haku replies softly, making sure to echo his words through each reflection so Sasuke can’t narrow down which mirror he’s in. “This is my clan’s legacy. You should be honored to see it before you die. I am the last user, after all. Not many people will see it before it fades into obscurity.”

 

The lower southwest mirror catches Sasuke stiffening at those words. “So I’m supposed to be impressed by your party trick?” he says, wheeling in a circle. It places his back to Haku’s real body, so Haku takes the opportunity to change places to the lower northeast mirror, slipping a senbon into Sasuke’s left shoulder as he passes.

 

The younger boy curses and recoils from the strike, yanking the senbon from his shoulder. He forms a few rapid signs and brings his fingers to his lips. A jet of fire blossoms from the boy’s mouth, which sets Haku’s teeth on edge. Fire weakens the perception of his mirrors, and renders him unable to use any mirrors affected by the flames for a few minutes. He doubts the boy knows a powerful enough jutsu to completely crack the mirrors, but it is possible if he has a fire affinity.

 

“It’s not a party trick,” he replies, hoping to distract Sasuke from letting off another flame jutsu. “I’m the last of my clan, you see, and these ice mirrors are why my clan was targeted by Kiri for destruction. They feared these mirrors, and you will come to fear them too.”

 

Sasuke twitches again at that, and an idea creeps into Haku’s mind. He can lean on this, unbalance the boy as he uses senbon to paralyze him, then he can take out Tazuna. If he does it quickly, he and Zabuza can retreat and leave the boy alive. He fears that if he kills the boy and Zabuza does not manage to kill Hatake, Hatake will hunt them to the ends of the earth.

 

No, better to leave the boy mostly unharmed. He never had the stomach for killing children younger than he is. 

 

He switches mirrors again, jabbing a senbon into Sasuke’s left knee. He sees the leg spasm and lock, and he knows the boy won’t be able to move that leg for at least fifteen minutes. “You don’t know what it’s like,” he says after he slips safely into his mirror. “To have no family. To be hunted in your own homeland. To live on your own for so long until someone kind enough to take you in sees your potential.”

 

“Shut up,” snarls Sasuke, flinging a trio of shuriken at the mirrors. Only one makes contact with a mirror. He’s getting sloppy.

 

“Am I hitting a nerve?” asks Haku, flitting to the upper eastern mirror and placing a few senbons in a nerve cluster in Sasuke’s lower back. “You seem agitated. Perhaps you do know what it’s like to lose your family. Shall I send you to them?”

 

“SHUT UP! ” Sasuke yells, and runs through the hand signals for his fire jutsu. 

 

Haku makes to move into another mirror, but is interrupted by a loud, incoherent yelling coming from outside the dome. The lower southwestern mirror has just enough time to tell him that someone has placed an explosive tag on it before the mirror blows inward, followed by an orange blur.

 

“TEMEEEEEE,” yowls Uzumaki Naruto as he plows straight into Sasuke. “WE CAME TO RESCUE YOU!”

 

“ We?” splutters Sasuke as he struggles to his feet. “Who’s--wait, dobe, the mirrors--”

 

They’re too late, though. Haku has already regrown the damaged mirror. “Now you’re trapped here too, Naruto-kun,” Haku says, with a hint of regret. There goes his plan to leave them unharmed. 

 

“That was my plan all along!” crows Naruto, bouncing to his feet. “Now we can kick your...ass...fuck, there’s a lot of them, huh?”

 

“No, idiot, it’s just one shinobi. The others are reflections. I think.”

 

“They could be clones, y’know.”

 

“No, look at them, they’re flat. One of them has to be real, though.”

 

“So we smash them all!” Naruto runs up to the lower northern mirror and tries to drive a foot through the surface. “ AUGH okay no, that’s not gonna work, fuck that hurts. I think I sprained a toe. Fuck.”

 

Knowing how hard his mirrors are, it’s more likely that he broke the offending toe. Haku transfers to the upper northern mirror, and puts a brace of senbon into Naruto’s arm. The boy screeches and scurries back to Sasuke, who after several seconds of hushed conversation, puts his back to Naruto’s. “Working together won’t save you now,” Haku says, rapidly running through potential scenarios that allow the other boys to live. He’s not really finding any viable way to finish this without bloodshed, unfortunately. “If you had coordinated and attacked the mirrors from both the inside and the outside, you might have escaped. But now…”

 

“Now we’re going to smash your stupid mirrors and escape,” Naruto yells, flinging a kunai at the mirror Haku is occupying. Haku easily evades by transferring to the lower western mirror, and he throws a handful of senbon at Sasuke’s face for good measure as he passes. Sasuke unerringly deflects every single one.

 

That shouldn’t be possible.

 

“Whoa, shit, when did you get so fast?” Naruto says in a surprised tone. 

 

“Shut up, I’m concentrating,” Sasuke snaps, rubbing at his eyes.

 

Curious, Haku flits to the mirror right in front of Sasuke, the lower eastern mirror. It’s recovered from Sasuke’s earlier fire jutsu, but it still feels...off, somehow. Each transfer takes less than half a second, but this one takes a little more time. He’s still faster than the human eye can track, though, so he’s surprised when Sasuke throws a kunai that manages to snag the edge of his sleeve.

 

“Gotcha,” the boy hisses, raising his eyes to look straight into Haku’s face. 

 

His blood-red eyes.

 

---

 

“Gotcha,” Teme says behind Naruto, and he can almost hear the smirk in the other boy’s voice. He twists his head to see over his shoulder, and catches a glimpse of the masked nin’s reflection in the mirror directly in front of Teme. The sleeve has a small gash in the hem, and a piece of the fabric is dangling from a kunai that’s pinned to the ground.

 

“Nice,” Naruto says appreciatively, and Sasuke turns his head to acknowledge the comment. His eyes are really weird now, an eerie red that Naruto swears is almost glowing. There’s a ring in the iris, and an extra little shape that does a funny little spin around his pupil. “Oh, shit, that looks like Kaka-sensei’s eyeball. Are you related or something?”

 

Sasuke’s face twitches weirdly, and he snorts. “No,” he snaps. “Don’t ask dumb questions when we’re about to die.”

 

“Okay, but what about smart questions?”

 

“I don’t think you’re capable of smart questions.”

 

“Why, you little--” A senbon lodges itself into Naruto’s cheek, and he reels back, yelping. “Ow! Okay, can we like. Set this aside until we’re out of this? Whatever this is?”

 

“Tch,” Sasuke grunts, deflecting another senbon. “I guess we can.”

 

Naruto nods. “Okay. We need to destroy all the mirrors at once, right?”

 

Sasuke shrugs. “I guess so. That’d at least force him out into the real world.”

 

Another senbon plants itself into Naruto’s shoulder. It doesn’t go too deep, hindered by the thick material of his jacket, so he just flicks it out. Then he plops down onto the ground, ignoring the puddle of ice-cold water now seeping into his trousers.

 

“What. Are you doing,” Sasuke asks flatly, sending a shuriken spinning into what seems like thin air. Judging by how all the reflections wince slightly, he actually managed to hit the masked guy before he got into one of his mirrors. “ Why are you sitting down right now--”

 

“Shut up for a second,” Naruto interrupts. “You and Sakura-chan and Kaka-sensei. I put you all in danger today, because I talked to--well, him.” He gestures at the mirrors. “And I helped him get the stuff to heal Zabuza.” There’s a lump in his throat, and he tries to swallow it down. “I need to make up for that. And the only way I can do that is if I break us out of this dome. I think I have a way to do that, but I can’t do it if he’s trying to make me into a porcupine.”

 

“What are you talking about--”

 

“You’re a rat bastard, and you’re mean and rude, but--you’re my teammate. You’re...you’re the closest I’ve ever had to family. I don’t wanna lose any of you today. Not Kaka-sensei, not Sakura-chan. Not you. And I trust you. Can you cover me?” Naruto asks. “Please.”

 

Sasuke stares openly at him, his unnervingly red eyes boring into Naruto’s soul. “...fine,” he says finally. “What do you need me to do?”

 

“Keep the senbon off me,” Naruto says, then closes his eyes.

 

He’s a little worried at first that he can’t meditate in the middle of a battle, but the sounds of senbons pinging off of metal and Sasuke’s banter with the masked nin become more and more distant with each breath Naruto takes. The ocean crashing around the bridge takes the foreground, the steady roar of the waves pounding against the cliffside that’s not too far away slowly becoming more and more in sync with his heart rate. Or is it the other way around? It’s hard to tell.

 

The only thing he can hear from the battle now is Sasuke’s breathing. He’s not sure why that’s standing out to him--maybe because it’s in sync with his? Or his is in sync with Sasuke’s? It’s...helpful, really. It lets him know that Sasuke is still out there. Lets him know the other boy is still breathing.

 

He lets himself drift further down into his thoughts. A familiar thread starts to tug at his chest, and he imagines himself reaching out to grab it. It grows stronger and stronger with each heartbeat, each crash of a wave against the shore. 

 

The thread is starting to feel heavy and cool in his hands when he hears a strange gurgle. Sasuke’s breathing falls out of sync with his, his eyes snap open involuntarily, and just like that, he’s lost the chain before it can form properly. “Teme, what the hell--” he starts to ask, whipping his head around. Sasuke is on his knees, wheezing as his weight collapses to the floor. “Oh shit,” Naruto says, and scrambles to his side. 

 

He hauls Sasuke over onto his back, and chokes back a scream.

 

There’s a senbon sticking out of his neck.

 

---

 

The Sharingan, Sasuke decides, is absolutely living up to the hype.

 

After Naruto makes his impassioned speech, Sasuke turns his attention to whoever this masked bastard is that’s trying to kill them both. He can almost track the shinobi’s movement as well as an unaided eye could see someone running by, but it’s still taking an effort to hit him with any throws. 

 

But he’s managing. And the difference between his normal eyesight and the Sharingan is staggering. He can almost see chakra now. No, scratch that, he can see chakra now, because he’s just now noticing the new...almost sort of an aura around the mirrors. It’s a clear, icy blue color. It’s really pretty, but Sasuke can’t let himself get distracted by the new sensation right now. Not with lives on the line.

 

He manages to peg the masked shinobi with a few more kunai strikes before he turns to check on Naruto. The boy is meditating, and Sasuke can’t envy him for having set up in the middle of what has to be a freezing cold puddle of water. He seems to be doing ok, so Sasuke leaves him to it.

 

“Maybe I should kill Naruto first,” the masked shinobi says. “You seem awfully...fond of each other. There’s nothing that hurts worse than losing your precious people right in front of your eyes. But you know that, don’t you?”

 

“I know that you’re too much of a coward to face me on solid ground,” Sasuke retorts, spinning around Naruto to block a cluster of senbon aimed at the boy’s chest. He gamely ignores the implication that Naruto is precious to him. He...can’t say he hates the other boy, and he likes the challenge he poses in sparring matches, but precious? No. Surely not.

 

The masked shinobi tsk’s at that. “Avoiding the question. So he is precious to you.”

 

Sasuke tries to let off another Grand Fireball, but he can’t get the signs done in time before he has to block a senbon from taking out Naruto’s eye. “No, I just want out of your shitty disco ball death party, and he might have a way to take you down.”

 

“Such faith,” the shinobi mocks. “I’ve talked to the boy myself, and there’s not much going on in his mind, now is th--what is that.”

 

Sasuke snorts. “Like I’m going to fall for the stupidest playground trick in the book,” he sneers, then scans the dome before checking on Naruto again. 

 

He blinks, then rubs at his eyes. Nope, nothing wrong there. So the bright orange chain coiling itself around Naruto’s hands really is real. It doesn’t seem like it could be, though; it’s glittering with a warm light that chases the chill of the icy mirrors away. The way the light shimmers around the links reminds Sasuke of building bonfires in the summer months with his cousins as a child.

 

“That’s an Adamantine chain,” the masked shinobi breathes. “Oh, no, he really is an Uzumaki.”

 

“What do you mean by that--” Sasuke starts to ask, mesmerized by the bright patterns spiraling in a fractal around Naruto’s arms, but he’s cut off by a bright, stabbing pain in his neck.

 

“ Gotcha ,” mocks the masked shinobi, slipping back into one of his mirrors.

 

He tries to slap a hand up to the senbon that’s buried in his throat, but he can’t move his arms. His legs collapse from underneath him, and his breathing has become labored as he falls to the ground. Naruto is scrabbling across the concrete to him, but he’s barely aware of that as the world spins away from him.

 

So this is what it felt like, he thinks muddily to himself as all his muscles relax. Mother, father. I’m coming to you now. I’m sorry I couldn’t kill him before I came.

 

“Who?” asks Naruto, and Sasuke realizes he must have been speaking aloud. No matter. He’s about to die, anyways. He might as well know. And , a small voice in his mind says. Maybe he can finish it for you. Maybe he can bear your burden for you. Maybe he can understand you, now that you’re dying in front of him.

 

“My brother,” he gasped. “My brother. Find him. Kill him. So my family can be at peace. So I--” His breath catches in his throat. “So I can be at peace.”

 

“Wait, no, Teme, you’re not gonna--don’t fucking die on me,” blubbers Naruto, eyes filling with tears.

 

“Avenge me,” Sasuke says, then lets himself relax into the open arms of death. He’s confident that Naruto will find some way to survive this. Maybe he can coordinate with Kakashi and get out of the mirrors. Maybe he’ll be able to conjure those weird chains without Sasuke’s help. Maybe he’ll find some way to brute force his way out of the dome. But Naruto’s a survivor, and Sasuke finds that he trusts Naruto to carry on his purpose after Sasuke dies.

 

So it’s slightly weird for him when he doesn’t actually die.

 

It’s almost like falling into a dream, but one of the hyper-realistic dreams where it feels like he’s wide awake. He knows that Naruto is shaking him, asking him questions, shrieking at him to answer him, but he’s not in control of his body. He’s just...vaguely awake. His heartbeat is agonizingly slow, and he can’t really breathe properly, but he’s still alive.

 

And his Sharingan are still active, which means he can see the weird red energy beginning to spiral out from Naruto’s stomach. That’s weird. It doesn’t look anything like the orange aura that outlines Naruto. Is this some sort of weird kekkei genkai?

 

“You killed him,” Naruto mutters, his eyes squeezed shut. Tears are leaking out of his eyes, spilling down his face, but his voice is calm and level. “You talked a real big game yesterday about having precious people and protecting them, and then you killed one of mine. You. Killed him. ” Sasuke isn’t sure if it’s a side-effect of whatever was coating the senbon, but Naruto’s eyes are wide-open now, and they look...for lack of a better word, feral. And he’s certain that they’re usually blue instead of the deep bloody crimson they are now. “ I’m going to kill YOU.”

 

“That’s the way of the shinobi world--” says the masked shinobi, and then Naruto roars.

 

---

 

The bratling is in his cage.

 

He doesn’t think it’s aware of him yet, though. It seems to be screaming about someone being killed. Or killing someone. So it seems like it came here in a pique of passion, rather than intentionally arriving here to interact with him.

 

Pathetic, really, compared to it’s predecessors. The first was cold and calm the whole time she visited. She tended to just watch him, observe him, ask him questions that he never answered. The second came just to scream at him about how unfair her life was or to rail against him for his existing. Not as focused as the first, but at least she came to him with a purpose.

 

Still, he can use this to his advantage. With the bratling here, that means it’s more susceptible to his chakra. He can feed a little bit of it to him now, and that will help to loosen the damned seal keeping him locked inside the bratling. 

 

Really, it’s a win for both sides, the Kyuubi no Kitsune muses as he carefully threads a mere wisp of his chakra through the bars and into the bratling’s nexus. The bratling will be granted the power that it needs to kill whoever it is that needs killing out there. The bratling won’t die in whatever conflict it’s gotten itself into, which means he won’t die with it in what he feels is the most ungraceful way for a Bijuu to die: locked inside an absolute speck of a human.

 

And the bratling will eventually die when the seal corrodes, and he will finally be free.

 

---

 

Of the many ways for Zabuza to die, he never imagined it would be under a pile of dogs.

 

Hatake is definitely Inuzuka, he decides as he fruitlessly tries to tug his arm out of the jaws of a massive bloodhound. Fucker has like, seven shinobi-trained dogs on constant stand-by, he 100% has some Inuzuka floating around in there somewhere.

 

A fucking pug comes trotting out of the mist, and scratch that, Hatake has eight motherfucking ninken on constant fucking stand-by, because the man himself is right on the little fucker’s heels. “Got ‘im for ya, boss,” the pug intones, scratching an ear with a hind-leg. “Locked down tight.”

 

“Good work,” Hatake says, his fingers flashing through a set of handsigns. Sage wept, he’s really going to die under a pile of dogs. He hopes Haku manages to get away clean, and doesn’t see that he dies with a fucking mutt latched onto his fucking left asscheek.

 

There’s a muffled explosion behind them, and a massive rush of acrid chakra roils through the fog. Zabuza can’t really place it, but it feels...weirdly familiar. He’s not really all that concerned with identifying it, though. Can’t do much good. He’s going to die covered in dog slobber. What does it matter where the chakra’s coming from?

 

Hatake seems to think differently, though, because he freezes before he finishes the jutsu and stares wide-eyed behind Zabuza. “Fuck,” the other man breathes, and that’s true panic in his voice.

 

“Is that--?” the pug asks, shying away to hide behind Hatake’s leg.

 

“The fox,” Hatake says, then dashes past Zabuza into the fog.

 

“Follow!” barks the pug, moving way faster than Zabuza would expect given it’s tiny little legs. “Fox takes precedence, ignore the small fry!”

 

“ Small fry?” Zabuza says incredulously as the dogs all release him as one and run after the pug into the mist. They ignore him and vanish quickly from sight, though he can still track them through the jutsu. But, honestly, fuck it, he’s low enough on chakra as it is. He might as well release the jutsu and grab Haku before bailing. Wouldn’t be the first time they bugged out like this.

 

When the mist clears, he sees that Haku’s dome is broken, and the Uzumaki brat has Haku bound in flaming crimson Adamantine Chains.

 

He’s about to move to take off the brat’s head with Kubikiribocho, but he suddenly remembers that Hatake shattered his fucking sword with some sort of overpowered lightning jutsu. It’s not even close to charged enough to reform yet. He’s sprinting for the bastard anyways: he’ll rip out the brat’s guts and strangle him with his own fucking intestines if it means getting him off of Haku. If only he had enough chakra for a Water Blade or a Poison Mist jutsu--

 

Hatake beats him to the punch, literally. Well, it’s less of a punch, and more of a full-body tackle. Both the boy and Hatake go sprawling, skidding several feet away from Haku after the impact, and Hatake is yelling at the top of his lungs. “NARUTO! Naruto, it’s me, it’s Kakashi, you need to stop!”

 

The chains have dissipated by the time Zabuza arrives at Haku’s side. The boy is barely breathing, but he is breathing, despite the heavy, third-degree burns covering his chest. Most of his kimono top has been burned away, and Zabuza is cursing his fucking shortsightedness, why on fucking earth hasn’t he learned any healing jutsu? Sage, it’s not like it’s even hard to learn basic first aid, he’s just never bothered because he’s had Haku. And now he may not have Haku anymore.

 

A slow clapping echoes across the bridge, and Zabuza jerks his head up to see Gato standing at the unfinished edge of the bridge. “I see your little servant couldn’t even take out a ten-year-old,” the businessman sneers. “I came to see why it is you sent those men to Tazuna’s house without my approval, and I witness this pathetic display. Frankly, Zabuza, I had hoped for more, considering what I was going to pay you.” The sneer grows deeper. “It’s a good thing that brat of yours is on death’s door. I’d hate to see what the Mizukage had in store for him. Shame I can’t collect on his bounty, though.”

 

“Hey, Hatake,” Zabuza calls out conversationally. “I have another proposal for ya.”

 

Hatake is clutching onto Uzumaki, who seems to have come down from whatever...fit he was having earlier. “...Okay,” he says hesitantly. “Shoot.”

 

“You know any first aid?”

 

“A little,” Hatake admits.

 

“You give me that stupid little tanto that’s clearly no match for the very precious sword that you broke earlier, and then I kill all those-- ” He gestures broadly at Gato’s thugs. “--motherfuckers for you. In return, you do what you can for Haku here. If he dies, I hunt you to the ends of the earth but leave your kiddies alone. Do we have a deal?”

 

“Done,” Hatake says, and tosses him the tanto.

 

---

 

Tazuna would like very much to retire, please.

 

The little pink shinobi was the first to find him in the mist. She grabs his hand, tells him very seriously, “I’m sorry about your kitchen. Let's get you to safety.” and starts dragging him back down the bridge.

 

They stumble across half the village in the mist when they were halfway back. They’re all armed to the teeth with improvised weapons, and when he asks who sent them, they say that Tsunami and Inari are fine, don’t worry about them. He’s very worried now. They hand him a sledgehammer, and he reluctantly leads them back up the bridge to the battlefield. They’ve just reached the spot where he first saw Zabuza this morning when the thicker, unnatural mist abruptly vanishes. Tazuna, who’s in the lead, can barely make out a flare of crimson a few hundred yards away. 

 

The crowd reluctantly shuffles forward, the little pink shinobi insisting that she be in the lead. “For your protection,” she says. “Kaka-sensei told me to protect you, so I’m going to protect you. End of discussion.”

 

Slowly, the shapes become clearer. There are massive blocks of concrete strewn around the bridge, great long grooves cut deep into their faces. Tazuna’s fairly certain there wasn’t this much standing water here this morning, and the further they move along, the more they have to pick their way around the weaponry scattered on the ground.

 

“ Sasuke-kun!” gasps the little pink shinobi, and she darts ahead, skidding to a stop by a crumpled form surrounded by strangely formed sheets of ice. Sure enough, it’s the little rude boy. He was never Tazuna’s favorite, but he’s sad to see the child dead.

 

Someone comes running past them, screaming. It’s one of Gato’s thugs, and he’s missing an arm. A kunai comes flying and catches the man dead in the throat, eliciting a gurgle and sending him spinning to the ground. 

 

“Oops, nearly missed that one,” says Zabuza cheerfully. “How’s it comin, Hatake? Can Haku fight yet?”

 

Kakashi-san is kneeled over a half-naked form, his hands glowing an eerie green. “I’m not a medic, Momochi. I’ll stabilize him, but I can’t do anything other than that. Watch it, civvie on your six.”

 

“Heyo!” Zabuza’s hand lashes out and he catches Gato by the throat. “Damn, I thought you woulda booked it by now. Whatcha got there?” He rips a detonator from Gato’s grasp and sends it hurtling into the ocean with a well-placed throw. “Civilians. Dramatic lot, aren’t they? Can’t get their way, so they rig the whole thing to blow.”

 

“Have I missed something?” Tazuna asks weakly. “When were you on our side?”

 

“I’m not!” Zabuza says with a manic smile that reads even through his bandages. “I’m on my side! The rest of you idiots can go to hell for all I care.”

 

“Done,” Hatake calls out, sitting back on his heels. “He’s stable enough to move. What about you?”

 

“Got one more loose end,” grunts Zabuza, lifting Gato by the throat with one arm as if he weighed no more than a chicken. He strolls over to the edge of the bridge, pulls Gato close, and says “Bye, bitch.” With one quick motion, he breaks the man’s neck and drops him over the side of the bridge.

 

“Lovely,” Hatake drawls. “Give me back my tanto.”

 

“Lost it. It went over the edge after it got stuck in a normie.”

 

“You lost my tanto--”

 

“You broke my sword. Oh, look, it’s almost reformed!” Zabuza yanks his massive blade out from under a body. It’s missing it’s tip, which is slowly reassembling itself.

 

“Wait,” Tazuna says, sitting down on a piece of rubble. “I’m lost. So Gato--did Gato betray Zabuza, or was Zabuza a double-crosser this whole time? Why is he on our side? Are we friends now, or enemies?” He rubs his temples. He has such a big headache building right now. Stars above, he just wants to take a long nap and maybe wake up in a week or so.

 

“Again, I must stress, I am not on your side, you old coot,” Zabuza says, trotting over to the boy. What was his name? Haku? “How ya feeling, brat? Ready to go?”

 

“Alive,” Haku rasps, with a small smile. “We can work on the rest later.”

 

Zabuza nods, then scoops Haku up and walks to the side of the bridge. “See you fuckers later. No, actually, never again. If I ever see any of you again I’m killing you and then myself. This has been a nightmare. Goodbye.” With that, he steps off the side of the bridge as nonchalantly as stepping off a porch. After a beat, Tazuna can make out his shape walking over the water to the shoreline.

 

“Feeling’s mutual,” Kakashi-san calls after him, then nudges the orange brat. “Oi, Naruto. What’s wrong?”

 

The orange brat is crying, Tazuna realizes with a start. “S-sasuke-teme,” he snivels. “H-he’s dead--”

 

The broody brat in question sits up, helped by the pink one. “No, I’m not dead, idiot. He just paralyzed me. I’m fine. Quit crying, crybaby.”

 

The orange brat howls even louder and catapults himself across to tackle the broody brat to the ground. The pink one goes down in the tangle as well, shrieking, “Naruto-baka, get OFF! NO!” The sobs are gradually fading into hysterical laughter, though, echoed back by both the broody and the pink brats. It’s good to see they made it through all this. Especially because it means that Kakashi-san is less likely to eviscerate him after this is all said and done.

 

“What the fuck happened here?” says one of the villagers, peering around at the carnage.

 

“Fuckin’ crazy shinobi, is what,” replies Tazuna. “Shinobi happened here.”

Notes:

*gently lifts canon like a baby*
*gives it a gentle kiss on the head*
*throws it into the fucking sun*

 

little bit of a formula break for this one! this chapter has always been a struggle to place whose POV to write it from, so I went full taco commercial girl and went "well why not EVERYONE"

also adding the "haku lives" au tag to this fic was INCREDIBLY cathartic 83

Chapter 12: dear hatake kakashi

Summary:

In which Iruka and Kakashi become penpals, Pakkun adopts several children and a teacher, and Team Seven fixes a sink.

Iruka is woken rather abruptly on his day off at half past six in the morning when a small dog lands on his face.

 

He splutters and shoves the offending dog off his head, spitting dog hair out of his mouth. It’s hair from it’s belly or back, he tells himself. It’s definitely not hair from a dog’s ass that he’s combing off his tongue. “Who on earth—“ he hisses, scruffing the dog, intending to haul it back to the Inuzuka compound to ask who slipped their ninken into his apartment—

 

“Message for you,” the pug says in a deeply incongruous gravelly voice. “From Team Seven.”

 

He drops the dog unceremoniously onto his futon. “You’re one of Kakashi’s pack,” he says, swiping one last dog hair from his cheek. Now that his eyes have adjusted, he can see that the pug is wearing a tiny custom-made vest with that dumb henohenomoheji that Kakashi doodles in lieu of a signature. “Forgive me for handling you like that, you startled me, and I mistook it for a prank by one of the younger Inuzuka. A pleasure to meet you, uh…?”

 

The pug brightens. “Just Pakkun’ll do, Iruka-sensei. It’s not often I come across someone that treats me with respect so soon after they meet me. I think I like you. In fact, I am going to let you touch my paw beans.” He extends a small paw, pads up.

 

“Thank you?” Iruka says awkwardly, gingerly reaching out to pat the paw. It’s got the texture of a fine suede, with none of the usual roughness of a dog’s paw pads. “Oh,” he says, almost involuntarily. “Those are nice .”

 

“I moisturize. Would you like the brand name? I can give it to you.”

 

“I’m…good, thanks,” Iruka says, feeling faintly like he may still be dreaming. 

 

“Suit yourself,” the pug shrugs, a strange movement on a dog that nonetheless translates. “Anyways, I have a message for you from Kakashi-kun.” 

 

He twists his head around, poking his muzzle under his vest, and withdraws a small scroll. Iruka hesitantly accepts the scroll, expecting it to be dripping with dog drool, but is pleasantly surprised when it’s bone-dry. “Thank you.”

 

Pakkun scratches an ear languidly. “I’ll wait for you to write your reply. Is it okay if I use your kitchen? The ocean air always dehydrates me something fierce .”

 

Iruka nods, unrolling the scroll to read it’s contents.

 

Umino-san, it starts in Kakashi’s handwriting, and that’s a bad start if he’s ever seen one. For one, he’s being extremely formal. For another, it’s a hasty scrawl instead of Kakashi’s usual precise script. Most people expect Kakashi’s paperwork to be in chicken-scratch, but the man has surprisingly neat handwriting. When he bothers to do paperwork, anyways.

 

I’m sure you’re up-to-date on the current reports we’ve been sending. Yes, Iruka is, and it has him absolutely incensed that Kakashi did not scrub the mission the second the Demon Brothers showed up. He is going to flay Kakashi alive when Team Seven gets back to Konoha.

 

I’m happy to report that the situation has been resolved with no fatalities and minimal property damage. Meaning no deaths or life-threatening injuries. At least to Team Seven. The minimal property damage is a surprise, though, given Naruto’s involvement.

 

This is mostly thanks to that move you’ve been working on with Naruto. Iruka’s heart sinks at that. The secret behind the chains is out. Hopefully he’ll be able to talk Sarutobi-sama into keeping Naruto as a field agent, but more than likely he’ll be locked down for the rest of his life, only deployed in dire situations. I know you wanted to keep it a secret until all the kinks were worked out, but Naruto’s more animal instincts broke through. 

 

That last line puzzles Iruka for a few seconds, until he remembers the second half of the equation: the Fox. If Naruto’s seal is slipping, that’s a whole new problem. He’s definitely going to have to sit down with Naruto and interrogate him on what exactly happened.

 

The combatants that witnessed the events are tentatively neutral, and listed as missing-nin, so don’t worry about your new technique making the rounds in other Villages. Iruka takes that to mean that Momochi Zabuza and his accomplice made it out alive, but are no longer at odds with Team Seven. Missing-nin can be like that sometimes. Since their loyalty lies with clients instead of a Village, they easily flip sides if the job finishes or becomes too much of a hassle. 

 

Sasuke on the other hand is intensely interested in the technique. He may want to join your training sessions, and who knows, he may be able to see something the three of us haven’t with those sharp eyes of his. So Sasuke knows now. And possibly has his Sharingan. He may prove useful in tracing how Naruto manifests the chains; Kakashi has attempted to use the Sharingan to that effect, but admitted that he’s never been able to see chakra patterns in quite the way that natural-born Sharingan users do.

 

Sakura doesn’t see the use in the technique, but we might as well include her in the training. Meaning that Sakura did not witness the chains herself, but Kakashi thinks it may be a good idea to clue her in on the secret. Given how perceptive she can be, Iruka agrees. She’ll be able to tell there’s a secret being held from her, and that will unbalance the team’s dynamic if it’s kept too long.

 

Since the immediate danger has passed, Team Seven will be staying in Wave until we have affected repairs on the client's kitchen. Shouldn't be too long, but you know how genin can be with simple tasks sometimes. They tend to overthink.

 

Iruka has not the foggiest idea why Kakashi has decided to give Tazuna a kitchen remodel. He can't even parse it as some sort of weird code for anything, it just reads as if they're repairing his sink for the hell of it. He'll have to ask for clarification.

 

I know how attached you are to Naruto, so I’ll keep you updated on the situation via Pakkun. If you have any questions or input on the proper forms we’ll need for the damage reports, send word back with him.

 

Kakashi is intimately familiar with the forms for damage reports, as the man is catastrophically inept when it comes to minimizing property damage during his silly little competitions with Maito Gai. He doesn’t want input on the damage reports, he wants input on how much of the real events to include in the report to the Hokage.

 

We’ll see you in Konoha in about three days. The letter is signed with Kakashi’s usual stupid doodle.

 

Pakkun comes trotting back into the room with a pad of paper and a pen held delicately in his teeth. He leaps onto the futon and drops them onto Iruka’s lap. “You don’t have to code the reply. Now that I have your scent, I can come to you directly through the Run, and we don’t have to worry about someone snooping through the letters.”

 

“Is that your Realm?” Iruka asks, scooping up the pad. 

 

“Not really? Dog summons are…complicated. We aren’t a natural-born summons, strictly speaking. Most dog summons actually live in the Mortal Realm. Our pack is tied to the Hatake clan, and we live at the old estate. Kakashi can summon us from there, just like a natural summons being called from their Realm.”

 

“So what’s the Run?”

 

“The Run is less the Realm of the dog summons and more of a place that we have access to. All dog summons can use the Run, but it’s not… ours . We don’t know who it belonged to before we came along, we just know how to find it and use it.”

 

“An abandoned Realm?” Iruka doesn’t know much about how summons work, but he knows enough to be unnerved by the concept of a summons abandoning their dimensional pocket. An empty Realm would imply that the space had either become uninhabitable to it’s occupants, or, more distressingly, that the summons that lived there had become extinct.

 

Pakkun scratches his ear nervously. “That’s the kicker. We don’t really know if it was abandoned or not. We just know that we’re just guests in that space. It could be that the original owners are still there, and are simply allowing us to pass through.”

 

Forget unnerved. Iruka’s terrified at the concept of passing through a seemingly abandoned Realm only to find the occupants are still there. 

 

Pakkun seems to sense his unease. “We’ve never seen nor smelled anyone in there,” he says hurriedly. “And our pack has been passing through the Run for generations. Bottom line is, we can use the Run for secure communications between you and Kakashi-kun now. We couldn’t before, because he’s a stubborn pup that refuses to let us bond with anyone until he thoroughly vets them, but you’ve apparently passed his tests.”

 

Lucky me, Iruka thinks morosely as he begins to write his reply to Kakashi.

 

---

 

None of his brats may have died, but he’s about ready to kill them himself, Kakashi thinks.

 

“ No, dobe, you’re screwing that in wrong--”

 

“Oh, so you’re a plumber now? Sakura-chan, did you hear? Sasuke-teme’s a plumber now! We’ll have to find a new third person for the team, maybe we can get someone who’s not a complete asshole--”

 

“Uh--it is upside-down, though.”

 

“See? Sakura agrees with me.” Sage, he can hear Sasuke’s smirk from here. “Give it here, you’ll only mess it up.”

 

“Will not!”

 

“Will so!”

 

“Um,” Sakura pipes up. “That’s not even...the right piece, I think?”

 

There’s a slight pop behind Kakashi and he swings his gaze away from his squabbling brats. Pakkun drops a neatly folded piece of paper into the hand that he offers to the pug. “We’ve got Iruka-san’s scent now, Kakashi-kun.”

 

“Iruka- san? How is he Iruka- san and I’m Kakashi- kun? ”

 

“I like him,” Pakkun says simply, and scratches an ear languidly. “He’s very polite to me. He asks interesting questions. And also I’ve known you since you were barely able to crawl. You’ll always be Kakashi-kun. And I do call you Boss during missions. It could be worse, you could be Kakashi- chan .”

 

“Is that a dog? ” says Sakura from where she’s kneeling, all interest lost in repairing Tazuna’s sink. “How’d it get in? Is it yours?”

 

“And when are you going to introduce us to your pups?” Pakkun asks, leaning around Kakashi. “We already have Naruto-chan’s scent from the patrols, but the other two may need our help in the future. Plus you know how much I love pups.”

 

“You can go introduce yourself now, if you like. Just don’t blame me if they start pulling on your ears.” Pakkun trots past him, tail wagging furiously as he goes, and Kakashi smiles to himself as he unfolds the letter.

 

You Absolute Idiot, it starts, and oh, he’s in for it, isn’t he?

 

Why you didn’t turn around the second enemy nin came into play is beyond me. Which, fair. He’d very seriously considered it, but by that point, they were close enough to Wave to feasibly drop Tazuna off and high-tail it back. He hadn’t anticipated the swift reprisal from Momochi, nor had he seen the chakra exhaustion coming, and in his defense, he had very much wanted to leave when the final confrontation arose.

 

As it stands, your mission is being bumped from C-rank to A-rank. The Hokage is already in negotiations with Wave’s headman in regards to payment plans. So it seems there will be no retaliation on Konoha’s part when it comes to Tazuna’s lie. He hates to admit it, but he’s disappointed. The man knowingly put his genin in danger over an issue that could have easily been settled before the mission even began. It’s not the Warring States period, it’s not like Kakashi wants Tazuna executed or anything, but...it rankles him to know that his brats could have died and all Tazuna’s going to get is a slap on the wrist.

 

You can tell Naruto to expect a thorough talking-to when he gets back home. He relays this line to Naruto, and the boy pales and shrinks back against Tazuna’s kitchen cabinets. 

 

Sasuke should be able to keep the secret well, and I agree that Sakura should be brought into the fold. However, we should keep the technique under wraps for now, as the Chunin Exams are coming up soon. With all the foreign nin around, broadcasting the existence of the technique would be a terrible idea, given it’s incomplete nature. Kakashi interprets all this as ‘keep your lips zipped and lie like hell in the paperwork’. Which is perfect, because this is exactly how he was going to play it, and he can coach his brats on what to keep and what to omit in their reports. It leaves a sour taste in his mouth, lying to the brass like this, but he reasons that it’ll keep Naruto out of Danzo’s clutches. Sarutobi-sama may be convinced that Danzo’s on house arrest and inactive, but Kakashi has suspicions that ROOT is still very much alive and kicking. 

 

Not entirely sure why you're repairing a kitchen? You won't need any pocket change for a while after the mission pay is going to be bumped.

 

Kakashi snorts. It's going in the official report, so he'll figure out soon enough, but the idea of Iruka thinking they're going into kitchen remodels on the side is amusing. Especially with how grossly incompetent they're all turning out to be without the guidance of a ten-pound pug.

 

Keep me updated on the paperwork. I’m happy to look over everything to make sure you’ve got everything filled out right. Meaning: ‘Keep me in the loop so I know how to lie to the Hokage for you.’ Kakashi’s very glad he’s not in this alone. He’ll be honest, lying to the brass is all very new to him, but Iruka seems to have practice with it. Which makes a certain amount of sense, really, given his pranking streak as a teenager. He wonders how much Naruto knows about Iruka’s delinquent childhood.

 

Bring the kids home safe. His signature is neat and tidy.

 

“We fixed the sink!” crows Naruto, scrabbling up to sit on the counter. “Pakkun helped! He said he had to do it at your house a few times, y’know!”

 

“Still can’t believe a dog knows how to do this better than you, Dobe,” Sasuke says, throwing a dishtowel at Naruto’s head.

 

“I mean, being fair, Pakkun-san did say he had to help Kaka-sensei with his kitchen sink,” Sakura says, rubbing the aforementioned dog’s belly as Naruto squawks irritably from the countertop. “And none of us necessarily have any experience fixing kitchen sinks, do we?”

 

“Ne, Kaka-sensei, since we fixed Tazuna-jiji’s sink on top of protecting--”

 

“No, you are not getting additional pay for fixing his sink. Especially because you were the one to blow it up. The mission is getting bumped up to an A-Rank, however.”

 

“HELL yes,” Naruto says, pumping a fist in the air. “I can get another shirt and take Iruka-sensei for ramen!”

 

“And pay your rent,” Sakura interjects.

 

“Aw, I have that covered already. I’ve got like...three? Four? Four months’ rent saved in Gama-chan and under my floorboard. I almost missed rent once and had to scrounge for food for a month, I’m not doing that again.”

 

Kakashi blinks. Of all his kids to be sensible about saving money, Naruto would not be the one he would peg as being the best. It makes a certain amount of sense, though. Sasuke’s monthly allowance came from the Uchiha estate, and was thus higher than the amount Naruto would receive. In addition, Sasuke was not technically paying rent on his apartment, as it was located in the Uchiha District. Naruto, on the other hand, had been fending for himself since the age of five, and is probably far more familiar with the intricacies of balancing rent, food, and clothing budgets.

 

Thinking back on it, Kakashi had been clueless about paying rent and budgeting for food when he moved off the Hatake lands. Obito’s sharingan whirls, and paints him a picture of Minato-sensei lending him money to cover his rent the first time he came up flat broke. The image bleeds into Kushina-san sitting down with him to hammer out a proper budget.

 

He wonders who did that with Naruto. He wonders if anyone did that with Naruto.

 

“Got a reply for Iruka-sama?” Pakkun has his head cocked, a playful gleam in his eyes.

 

“Now you’re doing that on purpose.”

 

---

 

The next time Pakkun visits, he pops into existence on top of Iruka’s lunch.

 

I’m doomed to eat dog hair, he thinks as he scoops Pakkun out of his soba. “Hello, Pakkun. I assume you’ve got Kakashi’s reply?” he asks as he sets the pug down on his table, careful to aim the dog’s now-soggy paws away from the stack of essays he’s grading. 

 

The dog lifts a paw, licks it, then snorts. “Blech. Too heavy on the sesame oil, if you ask me.” Iruka does his best not to droop. He thought he’d done quite well with the sauce, but clearly it needs more work. “Sauce aside, yes, I do have a reply from Kakashi-kun.”

 

Iruka takes the offered paper and scans it quickly. Iruka-sensei, it starts, which is a much more comfortable address than Umino-san had been. For some reason, it looks almost as if Kakashi had bolded “sensei”, but he can’t really tell why he would have. 

 

I’ll ask Naruto how he wants to proceed with including Sakura in the training, as it’s his technique. He was eager to tell his teammates before, so I don’t see why he’d shy away now, but I feel like it would be best left up to him to decide. Knowing Naruto, he’s probably been chafing at the idea of keeping the secret from Sakura-chan. Iruka thinks the boy would be pretty indifferent towards Sasuke-kun learning about the chains, but he knows that Naruto looks up to Sakura. At first, Iruka was convinced it was a puppy-love crush, but now he thinks that Naruto looks to Sakura like she’s hung the moon because she’s booksmart and willing to give him the time of day. 

 

We have a few more minor repairs to finish here, since Naruto and Sakura caused a minor explosion in Tazuna’s kitchen-- Iruka’s going to have to unpack that one later. Naruto and explosions go hand-in-hand; Sakura and explosions doesn’t quite track. -- but as soon as we’re done, we’ll fill out the paperwork and send it in for review ahead of our return. I’ve included an outline on the back of this paper.  

 

Flipping the paper over, Iruka sees that Kakashi has indeed included a basic rundown report of the events that occurred. Kakashi has been careful to avoid any mention of chains, simply stating that Naruto overpowered an opponent by dint of superior stamina and an advanced healing factor. Anyone that knows Naruto will buy the lie: sometimes it seems that the child does not have an off switch. And from what the healers told him when Naruto was down from the Scroll Incident, Naruto does indeed have some sort of healing ability. He’s unsure if it’s tied to the Fox or his Uzumaki heritage: even with all the digging he’s done into records, he’s been unable to turn up anything about the long-lost Clan.

 

The mission report also goes into detail about the kitchen: Sakura and Naruto triggered a lot of pre-made explosive tags that Kakashi had left behind with them. Definitely overkill for a small pack of civilian bandits, but there was a small child and a hostage, so Iruka can see how they lost their heads. Nonetheless, it seems that Naruto has dragged Sakura into his more destructive tendencies. It’s only a matter of time until Sasuke picks up on the property destruction habit, considering Kakashi’s also prone to collateral damage. And, well, actually, Iruka remembers that Sasuke has been known to light training grounds on fire.

 

Sage’s bones. There’s going to be four of them. The mere thought of the future paperwork is giving him a migraine.

 

---

 

When Pakkun returns with Iruka’s reply, they’ve finished repairs on Tazuna’s kitchen, packed their belongings, and said goodbye to Tazuna’s family and the workers they’ve been protecting. They’ve travelled about three hours away from the coastline, and even now, Naruto is still casting glum looks over his shoulder as if he wants nothing more than to run back to the ocean.

 

“Kakashi-kun,” Pakkun says after he pops into being, licking his chops as Sakura squeaks and bounds forward to scoop him up. The pug usually abhors being held, so Kakashi moves to stop her, but Pakkun just about leaps into her embrace, tail wagging. Pakkun twists around in her arms to face Kakashi as Naruto scuttles over to scratch behind his ears. “Sorry it took so long, I had to teach Iruka-san how to make a proper garlic sauce.”

 

“Yeah, Iruka-sensei kinda sucks at cooking,” Naruto says blithely, ruffling Pakkun’s ears and knocking the pug’s hitai-ate askew. “He tried making katsudon one time and it was a disaster. ‘S why we always go for ramen, cause he can’t cook and I might burn down the stove again, y’know.”

 

“Tch. Again?” Sasuke reaches over Sakura’s shoulder to readjust Pakkun’s hitai-ate. “Dobe, just how many stoves have you caught on fire?”

 

“Just the one! And that wasn’t my fault, it was my first time, and I couldn’t reach the knobs to turn it back off in time, y’know! S’not my fault I’m short!”

 

“Any letters?” Kakashi asks over the newly minted argument. It’s a record, he thinks, they went four whole hours without antagonizing each other.

 

“No letters, just approval for the general plan.” Pakkun’s back leg begins kicking wildly as Sakura finds his sweet spot for scratching.

 

“Right.” Kakashi sends a side-long glance at the three genin, all crowded around Pakkun. Sakura and Naruto are openly fawning over the pug, but Sasuke is being sneakier about it. He can tell the boy still likes Pakkun though, as he’s silently dug out a piece of jerky from his pack for the dog. There’s a little bit of tension that’s released that he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding; the kids and at least one member of the Pack have bonded, something that hasn’t really happened since Gai met the Pack. Certainly, the Pack is cordial and professional when it comes to working with other shinobi, and he wasn’t nervous about whether or not the Pack would defend his genin if it came to it, but...Pakkun never likes being held by strangers. Not like this. Gai’s the only one that can pick him up without him squirming other than Kakashi. The Pack, Pakkun especially, have always been excellent judges of character. And now Pakkun has accepted his brats, and his brats in turn have accepted him. It’s a start, really. And he feels like, maybe, just maybe, they can all bond a little closer now.

 

“So I have a kekkei-genkai,” Naruto blurts to Sakura, and the moment is broken. 

 

Kakashi pinches his brow. “Naruto,” he says, resisting the urge to just lay down and take a nap in the middle of the path. “Now? You couldn’t wait until we get back to Konoha?”

 

“Oh, is it the orange chains?” Sakura asks brightly, adjusting Pakkun in her arms. “I was wondering about those. Inari-chan told me he saw you making them, I was meaning to ask but I didn’t want to be rude about it. Oh, wait, was that what the orange light was when we were camping? How do they work? Is it rude of me to ask that? I don’t know, I just know that kekkei-genkai are rare and are genetically passed down instead of taught.”

 

He wants to scream. Kakashi really wants to scream. Screaming would be a bad idea but Sage damn it all, he really wants to scream. “You knew? ”

 

“Dobe’s not very subtle,” Sasuke says bluntly. “He’s only made them like four times since we left Konoha, and he never hid himself to do it.” He feeds Pakkun another scrap of jerky.

 

“Stop feeding Pakkun, he already ate lunch at Iruka’s,” Kakashi says irritably. “And don’t say you didn’t, Pakkun, I can smell the garlic on your breath from here. The pug huffs into a paw, then grimaces. “And Sakura, now that I know that you know, we all need to go over the official report and what we’re going to omit. Namely, Naruto’s kekkei-genkai.”

 

Sakura blinks. “Why would we need to omit that? I would think that would be valuable information to Konoha, especially if he can use it on the battlefield.”

 

A little too valuable, Kakashi thinks to himself, grimacing. “Well, the situation’s complicated. It’s a Clan issue. In a perfect world, Naruto would have the support of his Clan to learn the technique and perfect it’s use, and protection from outside dangers and forces that might want to take him for his powers.” And the Fox, and the fact that he’s the Yondaime Hokage’s son, and heir apparent to the Konoha Branch of the Uzumaki Clan, he leaves unsaid. “But this world is far from perfect. And there are those that would kidnap Naruto in a heartbeat for this. So we need to keep it quiet for now, for Naruto’s sake.”

 

Naruto’s eyes cast down as Sakura slowly frowns. Sasuke’s eyes are similarly fixated away from the rest of the group. “Oh,” she says softly. “Naruto, I’m...sorry, I didn’t think about it like that.”

 

“Aah, it’s okay,” Naruto says with forced cheer. “It’s not like I...remember them to be sad about it, anyways. Just means I gotta work a little harder and be a little sneakier about it, is all.”

 

“Should...should we lie about Sasuke’s sharingan too?” Sakura asks hesitantly, throwing a glance at the other boy. There’s a subtle tension to Sasuke’s shoulders, the only indication that he’s heard.

 

“No,” Kakashi says. “Everyone in Konoha knows he’s the last Uchiha in the village. It’s expected that he’ll form the Sharingan. But Naruto’s power is an ace in the hole, and the longer we keep it under wraps, the better of an advantage we’ll have. He’ll be our secret weapon, and those are always handy to have. Especially with the Chuunin Exams coming up.” Immediately, he mentally kicks himself: he wanted to keep the Chuunin Exams as a surprise for his brats, but the cat’s out of the bag now, and he won’t be able to wrestle it back in by the way that Sasuke immediately whips his head back around.

 

“The Chuunin Exams are soon?” Sasuke asks over Naruto’s whisper-yell of “ I’m a secret weapon!”

 

“Do you think we’re ready?” Sakura asks hesitantly.

 

“For these exams? Honestly? I’d prefer you get at least another year’s training in before trying for Chuunin,” Kakashi says. “But we’re hosting this year, and the Hokage will want to put in a good show of force. More than likely, he’ll encourage all the rookie teams to participate. And it will be a good dry-run for you squirts.”

 

“I will never live it down if Kiba makes Chuunin before me, y’know,” Naruto says gravely. “I’m stupid, but at least I’m not Kiba.”

 

“You’re not stupid, Naruto. Just...not good at school.” Sakura’s words surprise all three of the remaining members of Team Seven, and Naruto turns to her with wide eyes that look dangerously close to tears. “What? You’re not! You’re good at building and disabling traps, you figured out how to beat Zabuza the first time we met him, you've figured out how to do...whatever it is you do with those chains! You’re not dumb! I just think...maybe you need a little more help sometimes. Like how Pakkun helped us with the sink.” 

 

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto says, voice wobbly. “I--you really think I’m not dumb?”

 

“Don’t worry, Dobe,” Sasuke deadpans. “I still think you’re dumb most of the time. But you have occasional moments of intelligence.”

 

Pakkun barely has time to wriggle out of Sakura’s embrace before Naruto tackles her in a smothering hug. Sasuke is even patting Naruto’s hair in an awkward show of comradery as the pug trots over to Kakashi. “You’ve got good brats,” he says to Kakashi as Naruto blubbers words of thanks to a bemused Sakura. 

 

Kakashi sighs. “I guess I do.”

Notes:

pakkun: oh fantastic more children for my collection

hello! i'm adding actual chapter titles now, because I think I may move away from the one-POV-per-chapter format from here on out. and fun story chapter titles are HARD.

thanks for reading!!

Chapter 13: underneath the underneath

Summary:

In which Team Seven lie directly to the Hokage's face, Naruto finally buys Iruka's ramen for once, and Sakura takes a well-deserved shower.

Notes:

Potential trigger warning: a character has a panic attack.

Naruto feels as if he’s about to burst when they finally walk back through Konoha’s gates. The ocean was great and all, and near-death experiences aside, he can’t wait to do another mission outside the Village again, but there’s something nice about the familiarity of Konoha. He tries to make a break for Ichiraku, but Kaka-sensei collars him before he can get too far. “Nope, gotta do entry paperwork, squirt. You’re not ranked high enough to bypass this step just yet.”

 

“Hm,” Sasuke mutters, and Naruto can agree with his sullen I’m-Too-Good-For-This grunts for once. But if Kaka-sensei says they need to fill out paperwork, then he guesses one more step before ramen can’t hurt too much. 

 

“Oi, Kakashi,” the shinobi manning the desk at the guardhouse says around the senbon he’s got jammed in his mouth. It’s an extremely cool look, Naruto thinks, but after fighting Haku, he’s a little leery of putting needles anywhere near his face. “The Hokage wants you and your brats to make a direct report on top of the paperwork. Soon as possible, he said.”

 

“Maa, such dramatics over an escort mission,” Kaka-sensei sighs. Naruto tries not to fidget too much while Sakura fills out her entry. It feels weird to hear Kaka-sensei brush off the direct summons that Jiji’s given out, especially after they all spent a whole day practicing what they’re going to say. And aww, man, he just realized they’re gonna have to report in before he gets ramen!

 

“You ran into an S-class missing-nin. On your genin’s first C-rank. Asuma heard what happened and just about popped a blood vessel. He’s taking his kiddies out for their first milk-run and he’s been fretting about strategies for if they run into a similar situation ever since.”

 

“He should trust his kids more, they’ll be fine. Ino-Shika-Cho’s always a solid combo, they’ve been working on teamwork since they were in diapers.”

 

Needle-mouth snorts and shoves the clipboard towards Kaka-sensei. “Ehh, after what happened with the Guardians, I think Asuma’s always gonna be planning for the worst-case scenario. He’s just freaking out because you upped the ante from ‘maybe a few bandits’ to ‘holy shit a Kiri swordsman’.”

 

“Lightning rarely strikes twice,” Kaka-sensei says as he prints his name on the log. “The chances of their mission flipping from C to A are slim at this point. And speaking of rankings, are you really so hard up for money that you’re taking gate duty? That’s Chuunin work at best.”

 

“Gai’s back in town and I got a concussion sparring with him yesterday. The medic-nins told me light duty only until Wednesday.” Needle-mouth’s nose creases as he frowns, scratching at his neck. “Plus which, all the high-rankers are winding down for the season, cause the brass wants everyone on deck for…you know.”

 

“Oh, my brats know about the exams.” A gloved hand plops itself down on Naruto’s head as Kaka-sensei flips the clipboard back to Needle-mouth, who, to his credit, does not fumble the catch. “In fact, now that I know Gai’s home from his training trip, I’m thinking of introducing his team to mine for some joint exercises. Ja ne, Genma.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, see you around,” Needle-mouth–no, wait, Genma–responds. 

 

“Who’s Gai?” Naruto asks as they turn away from the guardhouse, then freezes instinctively as he spots a familiar face. Iruka-sensei is power-walking towards them, and he looks like he’s about five seconds away from henging his head really big and yelling like he did when Naruto walked in late to class. It makes Naruto feel like he’s about to be in massive trouble.

 

But he also feels like he’s being welcomed home, in a weird sort of way, so it’s not all that bad.

 

“Hatake-san,” Iruka-sensei says as he strides up, his voice all sweetness and light, despite the twitching vein above his temple. “Welcome back.”

 

Ah, Naruto’s not the one in massive trouble. Kaka-sensei is. And he knows it, too, judging by how he just sucked in a breath. “Umino-san,” Kaka-sensei replies, and wow, are all adults this formal when shit goes weird? “It’s good to be home, thank you. We were about to go report to the Hokage.”

 

Iruka nods stiffly. “The Hokage sent me to accompany you.”

 

“Uh,” Genma says from the guardhouse desk. “I didn’t know you two…knew each other?”

 

“Umino-san’s been giving me–” Kaka-sensei looks around wildly at Iruka-sensei, whose forced cheerful expression is slipping further towards irritation by the second. “--um, tips about teaching. The brats. I’m not a good teacher.”

 

“Oh, yes, absolutely terrible,” chirps Sakura, a grin spreading across her face, and ohhhh, this is a joke they’re doing right now. “Truly awful at teaching. Horrendous at keeping us alive and whole.”

 

“Doesn’t care about us at all. Totally didn’t defend us against two crazy murderers.” Naruto is probably nodding too wildly for the joke to really land right, but now it’s kinda getting away from him. “100% did not nearly drown for us.”

 

“Hasn’t been checking our very minor injuries every other hour to make sure we’re alive,” Sasuke adds, rolling his eyes a little. Naruto would probably be a little exasperated with Kaka-sensei too if the man had been hovering over him like he’s been mothering Sasuke. And yeah, sure, Sasuke did almost die , but he’s doing a lot better now, especially if he’s contributing to the joke.

 

Kaka-sensei is staring openly at all of them by this point, like he doesn’t quite believe what they’re implying, so Naruto laughs a bit and smacks his arm to break the weird tension. “C’mon, Kaka-sensei, you’re not that bad. You taught us to tree-walk! And my aim is loads better than it was back at the Academy, and, and! You taught us all those hand-signs too, I don’t think the other kids are learning those yet. Except maybe Shikamaru, but he doesn’t count, because he bases his whole personality on knowing things before other people, y’know.”

 

“Aww, your kids love you!” Genma sing-songs from his desk, not even flinching when Kaka-sensei throws a glare at him. “Nothing like a good ol’ trauma-bond to bring a genin team closer to their sensei!”

 

“Touching as this is,” Iruka-sensei interrupts, “we do need to get to the Tower.”

 

Sakura and Naruto wave goodbye to Genma, who has a huge shit-eating grin as he waves back. “Seeya, kiddies. If you ever want some embarrassing stories about your sensei, just track me down and I will spill all the dirt on him.”

 

“Soooooo how do you know Needle-mouth?” Naruto asks as they leave the Wall. Iruka-sensei is herding them at a pretty brisk pace, so he’s basically trotting to keep up with Kaka-sensei’s long-ass legs. He hopes to hell he gets a growth spurt soon, cause he is sick and tired of being the shortest on the team. 

 

“Genma and I work together sometimes. He was in my age bracket at the Academy, so the brass tends to team us up a lot. Even after you hit higher ranks, they try to pair you with your peers, instead of forcing new team dynamics across generations.” Kaka-sensei shrugs a bit. “My generation gets a little weird, though, since so many of us graduated early. I actually apprenticed for a really long time before joining a genin team, so it took me a bit to acclimate to working with a team. Also, since I graduated so early, most of the people that were in my age bracket were just becoming genin when I made jounin. It made the power dynamic really…weird, to say the least.”

 

“Wait, how old were you when you graduated?” Sakura asks, running a few steps to catch up with Kaka-sensei, then settling back into an almost-not-quite jog. 

 

“Five,” Kaka-sensei says, and both Naruto and Sakura stumble to a stop and incredulously screech “FIVE?” at the same time.

 

“It was war-time,” Iruka-sensei says, nodding. “I barely missed the same thing. They were going to push my graduation through early, but then Suna surrendered and Iwa and Kumo started ignoring us in favor of fighting each other. I was…nine, I think? I’d just turned nine.”

 

“I was thirteen,” Kaka-sensei says, as if that’s not the age Naruto is turning next month. “Barely been a jounin for a year.”

 

“You went to war…at five? ” Sakura asks, voice trembling.

 

“No, no, I was still apprenticed at that point. And the war hadn’t really begun proper yet, not until I was almost six. It wasn’t until Suna joined forces with Iwa that they started putting younger nin on the field. I was…eight, the first time I was really involved with a battle?”

 

When Naruto was eight, his biggest concern had been the price hike his rent had taken and how he kept accidentally burning the leaves he was given for the chakra control exercise. He tries to imagine going to war at eight and finds he just…can’t.

 

The worst thing about all this, he finds, is that Sasuke is nodding like he understands.

 

And Naruto thinks that maybe he does.

 

---

 

By the time he and Iruka have wrangled Team Seven into the Hokage’s office, Kakashi’s blood pressure has probably doubled. It’ll triple by the time the report is made. But if they don’t pull this off, if Sarutobi discovers their deception, as well-intentioned as it may be, his blood pressure will be the least of his worries.

 

Naruto is vibrating nervously as well. Anybody else would probably peg it as the child’s usual rambunctious energy, but Kakashi can read the tension in his fidgeting. Sakura’s fingers are twisting her hair again. Sasuke has his hands stuffed in his pockets and a disaffected expression on his face. Of the three kids, Sasuke’s the one projecting the most calm.

 

He hopes any outsiders are chalking Naruto and Sakura’s jitters up to their first near-death experience. He hopes Sarutobi does too, and forgets or ignores that this is Naruto’s second brush with mortality. 

 

“Iruka-kun!” the Hokage calls, smiling around his pipe. “Thank you for bringing Team Seven in for their debrief. I must admit, the paper reports are never quite as exciting as an oral report. I have been looking forward to hearing about all the twists and turns on this one!”

 

“Jiji,” Naruto whines. “Couldn’t it have waited until after we got ramen?”

 

“ Respect your Hokage,” Iruka hisses at the child as he thumps him on the head, then weaves past the rest of Team Seven to take up his paperwork station. Kakashi’s unsure if Naruto’s whining is improvised cover or genuine, as they didn’t rehearse that line, but it’s good cover either way.

 

“I could have used a shower before coming,” adds Sakura quietly, her gaze on the ground as she combs a hand through her hair. This, he can tell, is improvised. It’s building off of Naruto’s bit and explaining away why she’s fussing with her hair. He wishes he could flash her a thumb’s up for it, but he settles for making a mental note to praise her later.

 

Kakashi slaps a hand down on both Naruto and Sakura’s heads. “We make our report first, as the Hokage has ordered. Then we can decompress.” There. The first rehearsed bit of the performance. They practiced a few different versions, so the kids have some variety in how they can respond at this point.

 

Naruto takes the lead, batting Kakashi’s hand off and snorting. “We took Tazuna-jiji to Wave and there were a bunch of bad guys, we won, the end. Ramen time?”

 

Sarutobi chuckles. “I need a few more details, Naruto-kun. I understand that you ran into enemy shinobi?”

 

Sakura cocks her head. “Well, yes, there were other nin at play, but for the most part we fought civilian bandits. Kaka-sensei took out the–what were they called? The Demon Brothers?” At a nod from Kakashi, she continues. “He took out the Demon Brothers and fought the other shinobi. Zabuza.”

 

Sasuke rolls his eyes and straightens a little from his slouch. “You’re both doing this wrong. We’re reporting, not telling a story.”

 

Sasuke volunteered to be what the boy called ‘the voice of reason’ for the report, and Kakashi agreed, knowing that the performance would only work if someone occasionally steered the group back on track. Sasuke, as a stickler for rules and routine, is a perfect candidate for this role. Naruto and Sakura, as Kakashi has discovered in the past week and a half, are both agents of chaos disguised as preteens, and thus perfect for leading the report through a labyrinth of distractions and away from any hint of Naruto’s chains.

 

“After we met the Demon Brothers on the road and Kakashi-sensei dispatched them, we confronted Tazuna about the difference in mission parameters. It was decided that we would escort him to Wave and forego guarding the bridge, instead returning to Konoha after delivering Tazuna to his village,” Sasuke rattles off dutifully, as rehearsed. 

 

“But you didn’t return,” Sarutobi says. 

 

“No, Kaka-sensei kinda beefed it fighting the dude with the huge sword,” Naruto says. “He slept for like a day and a half, and he couldn’t really walk that fast after he first woke up, so we had to stay in Wave for a while, y’know.” 

 

“He had chakra exhaustion,” said Sakura, perking up a bit. “I’d just been reading about chakra exhaustion, so I knew he needed rest and liquids and to stay warm and dry. It’s a lot like going into shock, actually? I wonder if the two conditions are tied–”

 

“We trained while we waited for Kakashi-sensei to get better,” Sasuke interjected, seemingly trying to get the report back on track. “Zabuza had an accomplice that faked his death with the use of a senbon to a pressure point, and we thought that Zabuza would take a week to recover.”

 

“And we knew that Big Sword Dude would think that it would take Kaka-sensei the whole week to recover too, but Kaka-sensei apparently beefs it a lot and is used to chakra exhaustion, so he recovered faster–”

 

“Zabuza healed faster too,” Sakura talks over Naruto. “He didn’t take the whole week either. So we tried to scrub the mission entirely, but Sasuke-kun had left early for the bridge with Tazuna-san.”

 

“You let one of your genin go off on their own with an S-ranked enemy nin at play?” Sarutobi’s question is mild, but his eyes are steely as he looks at Kakashi. 

 

Kakashi tries not to wince. “Hokage-sama–” he starts to reply– 

 

–but then Sasuke cuts him off. “I went off on my own, Hokage-sama. I…thought that Zabuza would be recovering for a bit longer. And since we helped defeat him earlier, I…underestimated him as an opponent. I usually rise before dawn here in Konoha, and I missed the routine. I would have been overwhelmed if Kakashi-sensei hadn’t come when he had.”

 

Well then. That was improvised as well. Mostly because they hadn’t covered this point in rehearsals, because Kakashi had figured that Sarutobi would wait for his solo report to dress him down for allowing his genin to wander off. He finds it oddly touching that Sasuke would speak up for him.

 

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson about sticking with the group,” Kakashi says, pinning him with a meaningful glance. “But I should have kept a better eye on you. On all three of you. Naruto, I am not forgetting how you snuck out early to train more.”

 

“How else am I s’posed to get better at tree-climbing?” Naruto grouses. “Sakura-chan got it down in like, three hours tops, and Teme’s just good at everything . I gotta catch up somehow.” 

 

“ I didn’t sneak out,” Sakura adds, a touch smugly.

 

“No, you just blew up our client’s kitchen,” Kakashi counters.

 

“There were bandits trying to kill a child,” Sakura shoots back. “And we fixed it! Mostly. They had running water again by the time we left.”

 

Sarutobi pinches his nose. Kakashi can relate, honestly. “So after you dispatched the bandits and regrouped with Kakashi and Sasuke-kun…?” the Hokage prompts.

 

“I made it a priority to get civilians away from the battle,” Sakura says. “I didn’t meet anyone except for Tazuna-san, the rest had fled or were caught in a sleeping genjutsu by–was his name Haku?” She twists around to Naruto, who nods. “Haku, Zabuza’s accomplice. I was leading Tazuna away, towards the village, when we came across a group of villagers that had taken up arms against Gato.”

 

“Oh shit we didn’t explain about Gato,” Naruto blurts. “Gato was this creepy little business guy–”

 

“I know who Gato was, Naruto-kun,” Sarutobi interjects. “I will not lie, his death will upset the political balance between Wave and some of the other coastal nations in some...interesting ways, but with the bridge finished, perhaps it will be for the better.” Which is a delicate way of saying that Konoha probably had an invested interest in Gato continuing to wreak economic havoc in mostly Kiri-friendly villages, but will accept Wave owing Konoha a massive debt as an outcome.

 

“Oh,” Naruto says, scratching a cheek. “Yeah, I guess things are gonna change now that the villagers have more say in things. Their headsman was nice! He promised to contact you and set up a payment plan for the mission charges, y’know.”

 

“I have been in correspondence with Wave’s headsman,” Sarutobi acknowledges. “Sakura-chan, I understand you returned to the battle with the villagers?”

 

“Not…quite?” Sakura says hesitantly. They’re wading into treacherous waters here, with this line of questioning. They focused many of the rehearsed questions on Naruto and Sasuke’s involvement with the battle, as Sakura’s contributions mainly happened at Tazuna’s house. “When I rejoined the battle, it was mostly…done. Zabuza had flipped sides by then, and Gato’s band was mostly civilian thugs, so it…wasn’t much of a fight by that point.”

 

“And how did you convince Zabuza to defect?”

 

“Kaka-sensei made the deal,” Naruto pipes up. “Teme and I were fighting Haku, an’ Haku was moving super fast, but Teme’s weird eyeballs came in, so he could see him and managed to roast him with a huge-ass fireball–”

 

“Naruto…helped,” Sasuke says through gritted teeth, sounding just the right amount of begrudging. That may be the most honest part of the performance, really. “If he hadn’t have been running distraction for me and taking most of the senbon hits, I never would have had the time to create a plan. We’re lucky he’s got that–” he steals a glance around the room, then twists to look at Kakashi, who nods. “He’s got that advanced healing factor.”

 

“Oh?” says Sarutobi, just as Naruto, remembering his cue, yells, “OH RIGHT! Jiji, watch this!” and pulls a kunai out of his pouch, moving to jam it into his hand.

 

“Hey, wait, no,” Kakashi says, reaching over and plucking it out of his hand. “Don’t bleed on the Hokage’s floor, Naruto. That’s rude.”

 

“Aww, but I wanna show Jiji my cool new power!” Naruto whines, crossing his arms. “You said I had to keep it a secret until we got here, but how’m I supposed to sit on this? At least let me show Jiji, y’know!” 

 

“And there will be plenty of time for that later,” Kakashi says soothingly. “But for now, we should keep it under wraps.”

 

“Nuts,” Naruto mutters, scuffing his foot on the floor.

 

Sasuke snorts impatiently. “As I was saying, we overpowered Haku and injured him. Kakashi-sensei had immobilized Zabuza, and then Gato and his men showed up and broke the contract with Zabuza. Kakashi-sensei brokered a deal with Zabuza, and offered to heal Haku if Zabuza took care of Gato.”

 

“I was on the brink of chakra-exhaustion again,” Kakashi says, taking control of the narrative. “If I had finished Zabuza off, I would have fainted and left my genin to the whims of an angry, well-armed mob.”

 

Sarutobi nods, taking a drag from his pipe. “A calculated risk, but one with merit. Well! Quite exciting for your first C-Rank, isn’t it?” Kakashi’s brats all nod, Naruto and Sakura emphatically, Sasuke only barely. “We will be bumping your pay up to A-Rank, don’t you worry. The paperwork is mostly in place, your sensei will help you finish it later. For now, go get some rest. Off you go!”

 

Naruto and Sakura bolt for the door, Sakura pausing slightly to bow to the Hokage and Naruto screeching “BYE JIJI, BYE IRUKA-SENSEI!” as he sprints out the door. Sasuke rolls his eyes and bows before taking his leave at a more sedate pace. He’s almost bowled over by Naruto, who skids back into the room and dashes up to Iruka’s desk. “I almost forgot! Iruka-sensei, d’ya wanna meet for ramen at lunch today? I can pay!”

 

Sarutobi chuckles. “Iruka-kun, I need to debrief Kakashi and discuss some further issues with him. Perhaps you and Naruto-kun can take an early lunch?”

 

“Oh,” Iruka says, sounding slightly baffled. “But my lunch isn’t for two more hours?”

 

“It’s fine, my boy. We don’t have any appointments scheduled until late afternoon anyways. Go on.”

 

Iruka stands and bows slightly. “Thank you Hokage-sama,” he says, then nudges Naruto with an elbow. “Naruto? What do we say to the Hokage?”

 

“Thanks, Jiji!” Naruto chirps, flinging his head forward in a very sketchy bow. He then grabs Iruka’s hand and starts hauling him towards the door. “C’mon, Iruka-sensei, I’m buying! Sasuke-teme owes me ‘cause he can’t tell which way’s north, and I’ve got rent covered for the month…”

 

As Naruto’s babbling fades, the Hokage flicks a hand. Three shadows flit out of the room, marking the passage of the ANBU guarding him. He leans under the desk to where Kakashi knows a privacy seal is carved into the wood. “So. Naruto’s healing factor.”

 

Kakashi almost melts with relief. The gambit worked. Sarutobi is focusing on the healing factor, which gives Kakashi more room to hide the chains from him. That was the plan all along: feed Sarutobi an issue far greater than the chains to lead his attention away. They’ve successfully hidden it underneath the underneath. “I think it’s the Kyuubi,” Kakashi says grimly. 

 

The Hokage stiffens, ever so slightly. “Are you certain?”

 

“I caught scent of its chakra on Naruto the other day,” which is technically not even a lie. “Faint, but there. And I know the Uzumaki had an advanced healing factor, but I witnessed Naruto score his thumb and heal immediately. Sakura mentioned on the way home that Naruto has talked about healing from a broken bone overnight. It’s on par with Tsunade-sama’s healing abilities, but it’s instinctual.”

 

Sarutobi frowns. “That does sound like the Fox’s influence,” he says gravely. “Kushina reported an uptick in her healing ability, but nothing to this degree.”

 

“Naruto’s seal is different,” Kakashi replies. “We need Jiraiya to look at it.”

 

“Jiraiya is indisposed.”

 

“Well, he should un-indispose himself,” Kakashi says shortly. “We have a jinchuuriki seal that may be loosening.” More misdirection. While it may be a good idea for Jiraiya to take a look at Naruto’s seal, the real reason Kakashi’s pushing on this is to make it seem like the seal is the number-one priority. 

 

Also, and Kakashi may be petty for this, but he wants Jiraiya to meet Naruto and understand how deeply he’s betrayed the boy by abandoning him to the whims of Konoha. Nobody would have thought twice of Konoha’s Grand Sealmaster raising a jinchuuriki. 

 

“I will take that under advisement,” Sarutobi says in a tone that makes it clear that he absolutely will not be doing that.

 

“In other news, Sasuke has manifested his Sharingan.” Kakashi drops this info as casually as he can.

 

Sarutobi nods. “It was mentioned in the written report, yes.”

 

“I’ll be working with him closely on that.” Not a total lie, but an omission of sorts. Kakashi intends for Gai to help with training his brats. He knows from experience that sparring with Gai can help a Sharingan user learn how to track movements effectively. He also knows from experience that Gai is perhaps one of the few people in Konoha that would be able to beat Uchiha Itachi in a fair fight. 

 

But the council hates Gai. Loathes him. Something about the man just pisses them off. Which, really, Kakashi can’t fathom why. Sure, Gai’s an…acquired taste, but he’s a competent, elite jounin, who’s unflinchingly loyal to both Konoha and his peers. As far as Kakashi’s concerned, the man’s a paragon. A really weird paragon, but a paragon nonetheless.

 

So yeah, admitting to the brass that he’s going to unleash Gai upon his genin, especially Sasuke? Probably not the best idea.

 

Sarutobi hums as he taps ash from his pipe. “Keep me apprised.” 

 

Kakashi bows. “Of course, Hokage-sama. I always do,” he says, the lie sticking only a little bit in his throat.

 

---

 

True to his word, Naruto pays for Iruka’s ramen. It only takes Iruka a few minutes of debate to convince Naruto into taking it to go, though Naruto did insist on taking three bowls for himself. “I’m a growing boy,” he says primly when Ayame teases him lightly for eating like an Akimichi. Iruka chuckles and ruffles his hair, eliciting a giggle from Ayame when Naruto fusses at the affection.

 

The walk to his apartment is short. Naruto rambles the whole way about seeing the ocean for the first time, about how Kakashi was teaching them tree-walking to improve their chakra control, about how one of the enemy combatants had bunny rabbits for companions and they were very soft. Iruka lets the happy chatter wash over him, and tries to ignore the gnawing sensation of concern deep in the pit of his stomach. 

 

As soon as they’re through his front door, Naruto shucks his sandals hurriedly and patters quickly into Iruka’s kitchen, setting his ramen portions on the table. “Ne, Iruka-sensei? Is it okay if I use your bathroom? Kaka-sensei made us drink so much water on the road, we had to stop to piss like every other hour, y’know.”

 

Iruka nods, and the boy bolts for the bathroom, hollering a hurried “thank you!” over his shoulder. Honestly, he’s not sure why he bothered asking. He’s over at Iruka’s apartment enough that he has a spare key. It should be a given that he can use the restroom while here.

 

While Naruto is preoccupied, Iruka busies himself with setting up some basic privacy seals. Even if Naruto no longer has a dedicated ANBU guard, he knows better than to assume that nobody will be listening in if precautions are not taken. If anybody notices his increased security, he can always say he needed to talk to Naruto about the Kyuubi, which won’t even be a lie, just not the whole truth.

 

When Naruto returns, Iruka is putting the finishing touches on a proximity seal on the door. “Oh! Kaka-sensei used that one when we were in Wave. That was one of the safe ones, it just made a noise instead of exploding or burning.”

 

“And how do you recognize if a seal is armed?” Iruka asks, slipping into Teacher Mode. They didn’t spend long on seals at the Academy, and he knows Naruto wasn’t paying much attention, because they always cover seals in October. Naruto was always at his most distracted around his birthday, most likely from the heady combination of the excitement of an approaching birthday and the increased hostility of the civilians. So no, Iruka does not expect Naruto to know much about seals, and yes, he is using this opportunity to teach him at least something.

 

“Oh, easy, it does the weird buzzy hum thing,” Naruto says blithely. “Like a TV screen that’s just been turned off. Obviously you have to get close to a seal to feel it, so proximity seals are tricky, but that’s how I find Jiji’s security seals on the window at the Tower, y’know.”

 

“That’s…okay, not exactly a standard answer, but yes, armed seals do leak a small amount of chakra, which does feel similar to a static charge.” Iruka takes out an unarmed seal and charges it, double-checking to ensure it’s a harmless training seal. He places it on the table and beckons Naruto to look closer. “There’s another way to tell. Look along the edges of the paper.”

 

Naruto shuffles close and squints, his hands hovering above the seal like he wants to grab it. “It’s…almost burning? A little bit?”

 

Iruka nods. “That’s from the chakra leakage. Remember the forehead leaf exercise? How you burnt your leaves with your chakra? It’s like that, only much smaller and much slower.”

 

“It can’t be on purpose,” Naruto mumbles, scrunching his nose. “That’d give it away.”

 

“It’s not,” Iruka replies, surprised that Naruto caught on. “Chakra leakage is common, but a good seal-master can lock a seal tight enough to prevent it.”

 

Naruto’s expression shifts from concentration to almost pensive. “...what if the Kyuubi leaks? Will I…burn like that?” he asks softly.

 

Iruka starts to reply no, the Kyuubi will never leak, the Yondaime was an accomplished seal-master, your seal has never leaked before and you’re safe, but the words catch before they can leave his mouth. “...you might,” he admits instead, because Naruto deserves the truth, and perhaps if he’s told the dangers, he’ll know how to look for the signs. “Bijuu chakra is very harsh compared to the chakra we use. If enough of the Kyuubi leaks, it could burn you.”

 

Naruto squirms, hands fidgeting with the hem of his jacket. “Ah…I think it…might have already leaked?” he says nervously.

 

“What makes you think that?” Iruka says quickly, the words turning harsh in his mounting panic. If the Kyuubi’s starting to leak, the seal is slipping, which means both heightened danger to Naruto and increased scrutiny of his actions. A leaking jinchuuriki seal could lead to Naruto being permanently taken off the rosters, confined, or, in the event that the seal continued to degrade, the Kyuubi could be resealed into a new host.

 

That cannot happen. Iruka will move heaven and earth to make sure that never happens.

 

Naruto cringes back, eyes flicking to the floor. “I, uh, I got really angry when I thought Sasuke-teme was…well. I got really mad and scared and kind of…blacked out? And the next thing I knew, Kaka-sensei was tackling me and I felt like I had a really really bad sunburn on my belly. And Haku-nee-kun had some really bad burns. I think…I think my chains had some Kyuubi in them.”

 

“Just your belly?” Iruka scratches his scar nervously. “The Kyuubi’s seal is on your stomach, if I’m remembering right. Nowhere else? Did Kakashi get burned, too?”

 

“Just my belly,” Naruto confirms. “It faded fast, too. And I don’t think Kaka-sensei got burned? He didn’t say anything about it.”

 

Iruka sighs. “I think it leaked, yes, but it sounds like it’s not a constant leak, which is good. You probably pulled on it subconsciously when your emotions got the better of you. More than likely, the Kyuubi’s chakra will burn you until you build up a resistance to it.”

 

Naruto slumps, relief obvious on his face. “Oh, good, I thought I was gonna turn out like all my leaves!”

 

You might, Iruka thinks. You’d burn like a sapling in the Kyuubi’s jaws. 

 

“Let’s eat,” he says instead. “And you can tell me all about what really happened in Wave.”

 

---

 

When her daughter arrives home, Haruno Mebuki is waiting with a hug. “You forgot to pack your shampoo, little blossom,” she chides, carding her fingers through Sakura’s salty, greasy hair. 

 

“Moooom,” Sakura whines, wriggling out of her embrace. “I didn’t have space! I needed the first-aid textbook more, and Tsunami-san let me borrow hers anyways. It was just the trip back that I couldn’t wash up, and it took longer because…we were moving slower, I guess.”

 

Mebuki tuts, brushing Sakura’s fringe away to place a kiss on her forehead. “Well, fortunately for you, your father’s already left for the market for the day, which means there’s nobody to hog the bath. Go on, wash up.”

 

Sakura brightens and dashes off to freshen up. Mebuki chuckles as she scoops up the pack her daughter has haphazardly slung at the base of the stairs. Sakura may be an adult in the eyes of Konoha, but she’s still a preteen terror to her.

 

After taking the pack upstairs to Sakura’s room, Mebuki puts on a kettle for tea. She’s got a fresh new tin of Sakura’s favorite oolong variety set out and is rummaging around the fridge for the leftover dango from last night when Sakura comes into the kitchen. “How was your mission?” she asks over her shoulder. “Iruka-sensei let us know about the delay but couldn’t really get into details about how things were going, only that you were okay.”

 

“It was…” Sakura’s voice drifts off into an uneasy silence, and Mebuki’s mother senses flare. She abandons the dango hunt (Kizashi probably snagged them for breakfast anyways) and closes the fridge to ask her daughter what’s wrong. She supposes that a C-Rank can be overwhelming for some, after all, it was Sakura’s first time outside Konoha without her parents. And really, Mebuki should have seen homesickness coming–

 

“I killed three people and a rabbit,” Sakura blurts, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

 

“...What?” Mebuki blinks. Sakura was on a C-Rank. A C-Rank. Mebuki hadn’t even seen combat until her third B-Rank . What on earth had happened? 

 

“I killed them,” Sakura whispers through her fingers. “I killed three bandits, and I killed a bunny rabbit, but not on p-purpose, but the bandits were on purpose, and Naruto’s right, they were t-trying to kill us and a little b-boy too, and Kaka-sensei’s right, too, that I was p-protecting myself and my teammate, but I killed three people.” Her volume has risen three times throughout her rant, to almost a yell, and her fingers are clutching at her cheeks now. “I killed three p-people, Mama. And I tried to kill a-another right a-after. And Kaka-sensei says it’s normal, but he went to w-war at eight, so how normal can it possibly be?”

 

Sakura starts to cry in earnest, eyes wide and panicked, and Mebuki takes a small, gentle step towards her, arms wide for a hug. She wants nothing more in the world than to dash to her, to fold her in an embrace, but Mebuki remembers how one of her teammates nearly gutted their jounin-sensei when she tried to console him after his first kill. She knows her daughter is on the thin edge of a breakdown, and she knows the Academy has ensured that Sakura will always pick fight when she goes into fight-or-flight. Sakura needs to come to her, or Mebuki might get a kunai in her kidney when Sakura’s training overtakes her.

 

And fortunately, Sakura does come to her, sobs hitching her breathing as she essentially tackles her mother. “Oh, little blossom. First kills are the hardest, I know, I know,” she murmurs, brushing Sakura’s damp hair back from her forehead. 

 

“ I killed them!” wails Sakura, muffled by Mebuki’s blouse. “ I k-killed them and I didn’t even care!”

 

She plants a kiss on the crown of Sakura’s head, rocking her gently. “That was the adrenaline, probably,” she says. “I was like that after my first kill, too.”

 

Sakura sniffles, and oh boy, her blouse is probably an absolute mess by now, isn’t it? “...you were?” Sakura asks, her voice hoarse and small.

 

“Oh yes. I killed a kunoichi who attacked a wall patrol that I was a part of. After I took care of her, I helped the rest of the patrol fight off her comrades. It wasn’t until much later after our patrol ended, almost three whole days later, that I panicked.”

 

She feels Sakura shift, and she loosens her arms in case her daughter tries to pull away. But Sakura just turns her head until her face is free from Mebuki’s chest, and doesn’t try to leave the embrace. “...you panicked?”

 

“Completely,” Mebuki says. “Broke down and cried on an ice cream date in the park with your father. I was so snotty and gross!”

 

“Like I am r-right now,” Sakura says, a small laugh breaking the words mid-sentence.

 

“ Worse,” Mebuki says. “Oh, sage, I was so upset my teeth were chattering! Though that could have been the ice cream, I suppose. Your father did everything he could to cheer me up. He told jokes, he sang a silly song, he gave me his ice cream cherry, he even tried braiding my hair!”

 

“Dad’s a-awful at hair-braiding, though.”

 

“I had knots in my hair for days,” Mebuki laughs. “But what finally calmed me down was when he told me, all serious and quiet, that he was glad that I chose myself.”

 

“W-what does that mean?” 

 

“It threw me for a loop, too. But when he explained, I felt better. He told me the same thing I’m about to tell you.” Mebuki squeezes her daughter, then pulls back and takes her by the shoulders. She doesn’t try to force Sakura to look her in the eye, but Sakura meets her gaze anyways. “It was you, or them. You chose you, and I am so grateful and happy that you chose you.”

 

“Me or them,” Sakura echoes.

 

“You or them,” Mebuki repeats. “You were not the one who forced the choice. It was not murder, Sakura. It was defense. You are not bad, or wrong, you are alive.”

 

“I’m…alive,” Sakura says. “And so is Naruto, and Inari-chan, and Tsunami-san.”

 

Mebuki nods. “Because you chose. You protected them, and yourself. You’re going to have to make that choice again, little blossom, if you stay a shinobi. Probably not soon, but it will happen again.”

 

Sakura sniffles, swiping at her face. “I-I think,” she starts, then takes a deep breath. When she speaks again, her voice is steadier, more sure. “I think I want to be stronger. So that when I do have to make the choice again, I can be…better at it. Protecting myself and my teammates, I mean, not better at killing. Well, kind of better at killing, I guess, but if I’m stronger, I can just scare them off–”

 

The kettle squeals, startling them both. “How about a nice cup of tea?” Mebuki suggests, leading Sakura to sit at the table. “And then we can talk about how you can get stronger.”

 

Sakura nods vigorously, her fingers tangling themselves in her hair. “I’d like that,” she says. “And Mom?”

 

“Yes, little blossom?”

 

“Thanks. For…talking, I guess. I think I’d just bottled it up until I got home and made my report. I was trying so hard to keep it together until we talked to the Hokage that I guess I just…forgot to process. Talking about it really…really helped me.”

 

Mebuki sets a mug in front of her daughter and drops the infuser down into it, pressing a kiss into Sakura’s hair as she does so. “I’m glad I could help. Now, have you considered med-nin training? I have a little battlefield healing training myself, it really helps in a pinch…”

Notes:

Naruto, looking at a paper seal: it's just like...me...
[smash cut to the swing] [sad ninja flute music plays]

Sakura: I KILLED THREE MEN
Mebuki: oh, sweetie, you did such a good job!!

 

whassup yall guess who's not dead!! it's me (๑>ᴗ<๑)

Chapter 14: running with the dogs

Summary:

In which the kids have some actual training exercises, Kakashi has some happy memories for once, and Pakkun gives an impromptu therapy session.

Sasuke has been doing his routine for years. Five years, in fact. Half a decade. He’s been getting up and training in the exact same way every day for half a decade. Certainly, there are variances. He understands that there will be circumstances that keep him from the training grounds, like bad weather or sick days or holidays. But there’s been nothing else to disturb his pattern in these five long years.

 

Until today. Today there’s a dog sitting at the gates of the Uchiha Compound.

 

Two weeks ago, Sasuke would have dismissed her as a stray, unable to get past the wards lining the Compound’s outer walls. But she’s very clearly not a stray. Her coat is sleek and shiny over a lean but clearly well-fed frame, her eyes gleam not with hunger but a quiet intelligence, and, most telling of all, she is wearing a hitai-ate and a vest. She must be one of Kakashi’s summons.

 

If she’s one of Kakashi’s summons, she’s being polite by not forcing her way through the wards. Sasuke supposes he should be polite too. “Good morning,” he says, abandoning the path to the training grounds to walk over to her. He turns his Sharingan on as he passes the warding seals on the gate, marveling at how they flare ever so slightly as he passes through, their intricate writing fading back to black within seconds. He still can’t quite get over the novelty of seeing chakra.

 

“Good morning, Sasuke-chan,” the dog says, and wow, the suffix sounds very weird coming from an ostensibly adult dog. “I am Uhei. Kakashi-san has sent me to fetch you for training.”

 

Sasuke frowns. “This…early in the morning?” The sun is barely up. The world must be ending if Kakashi is up this early. 

 

She dips her head in response. “Are you ready?”

 

He runs a quick mental inventory. Keys, wallet, weapons pouch. “Yes, I have everything I need–”

 

Uhei grins, then lunges and grabs his weapons pouch in her teeth. She effortlessly yanks it off of his leg, then body flickers away before he can react. Sasuke can only stare in bafflement as she tucks it neatly into her vest. “Your task this morning is to catch me and take me to Training Ground 37,” she calls from halfway down the street. “If you fail to do so in two hours’ time, you will be running reflex drills for the rest of the week instead of learning a new jutsu.”

 

Sasuke grits his teeth. Really? He’s finally unlocked his Sharingan, he survived his first encounter with enemy shinobi, he even held his own against that ice-mirror user for the most part, and Kakashi has him chasing a dog?  

 

“Sasuke-chan,” Uhei barks. “We haven’t got all morning. Are you ready to begin?”

 

“Yes,” he sighs. The faster he gets this over with, the faster he’ll be learning a new jutsu, and the faster he can return to his normal routine. “I suppose.”

 

She grins, tongue lolling from her mouth as she splays her paws out in a play-bow. “Well, then. Show me what you can do, pup.”

 

---

 

Sakura has woken up way too early today, but that’s okay. She can use this time to meditate like Sasuke-kun showed her and Naruto, and she can drop by the library before training to renew her books before training starts. Actually, she can probably fit in a few chapters of the romance novel she picked up just before Wave. It’s nice to be back in Konoha, where she doesn’t need to be out the door and ready by dawn.

 

After a bit of debate, she decides to instead read another section of the essay on the benefits of chakra control. Turns out, Kaka-sensei’s right, there are a lot of applications for simple chakra exercises. Technically, the basic Academy jutsu are not true jutsu, just an exertion of chakra in the right way. It’s why most chakra-capable people are able to master the three; it takes the least amount of chakra, and not a lot of conscious manipulation. There are tons of variants on the the basic three: kawarimi having the least variations, and bunshin having the most. It does make a certain amount of sense, she supposes; there’s only so many ways you can switch places with an object, but bunshin are just a simple genjutsu, so you can have way more variety.

 

But the Academy Three are not what interest her the most. She’s most interested in the other, more practical applications for non-jutsu chakra modification. Like strengthening her muscles, or regulating her heart-rate, or–

 

“Sakura,” her father calls from downstairs. “You have a–uh–visitor!”

 

What? Sakura’s not even showered yet. She’s still in her pajamas. Who on earth is visiting her at this hour? She starts to run through the possibilities as she hastily gets dressed, foregoing her usual morning routine in favor of speed. It could be her teammates–but Sasuke wouldn’t meet her at her home, and she’s not even sure Naruto knows where she lives. It could be Ino–but that’s wishful thinking, she hasn’t seen Ino since graduation, and even then they weren’t on good enough terms to meet up for breakfast. It could be Kaka-sensei–no, that’s ridiculous, the man probably wouldn’t be awake for at least another hour and a half.

 

A terrible thought occurs to her. It could be someone from T&I. They could have discovered that Team 7 lied on their paperwork. It could be an ANBU coming to take her for interrogation. It could be–

 

“Little Blossom?” Kizashi’s voice, muffled as it is by her door, cuts through her mind’s spiral. “There’s a–uh. Um. Pair of friendly dogs asking for you at the door?”

 

Her panic immediately fades. Oh, it must be one of Kakashi’s summons! “Tell them I’ll be down in a few minutes!”

 

When she clatters down the stairs, she initially panics again at the sight waiting for her by the front step, because there’s no way that’s a dog. That must be a bear. An ANBU bear come to take her to T&I to answer for her insubordination–

 

“Hello,” a voice says, and a very normal-looking dog pops their head up over the ANBU-bear-dog’s back. “I’m Guruko! This is Bull! Kakashi-san sent us to bring you to training! Are you ready to go, or do you need a few more minutes?”

 

“Um–yes, I’m ready,” she stammers, hastily jamming her sandals on. “Wait, hold on, let me grab my weapons pouch–”

 

“Here you go,” Kizashi says, handing her the weapons pouch in question, in addition to a small backpack. “I slipped a ration bar in there for the road. I also rinsed out and filled your canteen and packed you a bento, in the bag.” 

 

“Oh, Dad, you didn’t need to!” Sakura is kind of embarrassed that he’s packing her lunch like she’s a little kid, even more so that he’s talking about it in front of Kaka-sensei’s summons. But she’s also really grateful that he’s looking out for her.

 

He grins. “Oh, it’s no trouble! It was kinda nostalgic, really. I used to pack your mother’s go-bags for her before missions.” He ruffles her hair, and she half-heartedly ducks away from his hand. “Have fun at training, Little Blossom!”

 

“Daaaaad.”

 

“Ah, right. Not-so-Little Blossom.”

 

She snorts, but hugs him goodbye anyways as Bull huffs out a breath, lumbering to his feet. It takes a few moments of shuffling and rearranging to get him turned around and out the door, Guruko chatting amiably with her father the entire time about the weather and how it’s supposed to get even hotter next week.

 

Once they’re out on the street, Guruko hops up on Bulls back. He’s now higher than Sakura’s head, and even though Sakura knows this is Kakashi’s summons and she’s not in danger, he’s still…intimidating like this. “Sakura-chan, it’s very nice to meet you! Kakashi-san has given you a task, but I know you’ll be able to do it, easy-peasy! You’ll be learning that cool new jutsu instead of doing endurance drills, no sweat!”

 

“Um,” Sakura says, a nervous grin creeping onto her face. “What’s the task?”

 

“Carry me to Training Ground 37!” Guruko chirps. “See? Easy! You have two whole hours, even!”

 

Sakura starts to ask what the catch is, but then Guruko flings himself into her arms, and yeah, okay, there’s the catch. Guruko is insanely heavy. As he wriggles around in her grasp, she can feel the training weights around his midsection. The weights themselves have to be more than twice Guruko’s weight. “How much did he strap to you?” she grunts as she takes a step. 

 

“About 25 kilos,” Guruko says, tail wagging. “Bull can take over, if you want–”

 

“Nope,” Sakura grinds out. “Let’s go.”

 

---

 

Naruto feels really bad. Like, insanely guilty. Holy shit, he’s never felt this terrible about anything. Well, sure, there were some questionable pranks, but nothing he’s done in recent memory has been quite this awful. “I’m so sorry, I won’t do it again, y’know,” he babbles as he tears through the medicine cabinet about his sink. Where the fuck is it? He got a whole new one with mission money just yesterday, what the fuck happened to it–

 

“Oh, it’s ok, Naru-chan!” Bisuke yips from their perch on his table. “I’ll be fine! It’s not the first time I’ve been stabbed, it won’t be the last!”

 

“Ok, but I’m still real fucking sorry,” Naruto says as he edges out of his bathroom and makes a beeline for his couch. He bought a bunch of new manga yesterday at the same time as the new first-aid kit, maybe he just left it over there when he unpacked the manga?

 

“And I appreciate the concern,” Bisuke says. “But I did surprise you. I should have waited until you were awake, given the circumstances. And I should know better than to startle a shinobi awake.” They twist around and sniff at the stab wound in their hip. “‘Sides, it’s not even that deep. The bleeding’s mostly stopped. It’ll heal just fine.”

 

Naruto finally finds the dumb first aid kit, under the couch of all places. He flips the lid open on the kit’s hard case, and takes stock of what’s inside. Lots of gauze, some weird tape, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol–there! Needle and thread. 

 

Bisuke eyes him warily as he slaps the kit down on the table and unpacks the needle and thread. “Hey, Naru-chan. What’re you doing?”

 

“Uh,” Naruto says, blinking. “You said stab wounds need stitches?”

 

“I also said the wound’s shallow and the bleeding’s mostly done,” Bisuke replies. “Really, all I need is a bit of disinfectant and maybe a gauze pad. Go wash your hands, and then I’ll walk you through the rest.”

 

He dutifully scuttles to the kitchen sink to wash his hands, pausing only for a moment to peer at his rabbit’s foot fern. He really needs to repot Usagi soon, she’s getting too big for the pot she’s in and he doesn’t want her roots to start creeping out of the drainage hole. The last time that happened to one of his plants, he nearly lost them from the damage he caused to the roots when he was trying to wrestle them out of their pot. He can probably get a bigger pot for Usagi from Ino’s family’s store, they’re one of the few establishments in Konoha that don’t treat him like garbage when he shops there. 

 

Bisuke clears their throat. “Naru-chan? Your hands are plenty clean, pup.”

 

“Haha, oops,” Naruto chuckles nervously. “My mind wandered off, sorry.”

 

“And don’t touch anything, your hands will get dirty again,” Bisuke chides as he reaches up to self-consciously rub at the back of his neck. 

 

“Sorry Bisuke-chan. Bisuke-kun? Which do you like better?”

 

“Just Bisuke’s fine, pup.” Bisuke grabs his sleeve gently in their teeth and pulls him closer to the table. “Now, get out the alcohol, the scissors, a gauze pad, and some tape. Use the alcohol to clean out the wound and the area around it. You’ll have to cut the fur down with the scissors to make sure the tape sticks better. While you do that, I’ll explain the training exercise Kakashi-san has set for you this morning.”

 

Well, that certainly explains why Bisuke’s here. Naruto figured they were one of Kaka-sensei’s summons by the headband and the henohenomoheji on the back of their vest, but he didn’t know why the dog had broken into his apartment at crack-of-fucking-dawn o’clock. He cracks open the alcohol bottle and dumps a liberal amount onto the stab wound in Bisuke’s leg, recoiling in horror when Bisuke yips and jumps away. “Oh shit! Did I fuck up? Sorry, fuck, oh shit–”

 

“It’s–it’s okay, Naru-chan, it’s just that alcohol stings a bunch.” Bisuke resettles, their muzzle scrunched slightly. “In the future, you can just use a little. Anyways, let’s talk about your training. If you pass, you’ll be learning a new jutsu. If you fail, you’ll be studying scrolls during between-mission downtime for the rest of the week. Your task is…get to Training Ground 37 without using chakra.”

 

Naruto squints as he tries to remember which one that is. “That’s the one over by the hospital, yeah?”

 

“No, it’s the one by the east guardhouse, with the pond.”

 

Oh yeah! Kiba threw him in that pond once. They got in huge trouble with one of the shinobi at the guardhouse for trespassing, Kiba had been grounded for like three weeks and Naruto had to clean the classroom for Iruka-sensei for a good while after that. “Ah. Gotcha. How long do I have to get there?” 

 

Naruto hopes he’s not cutting Bisuke’s fur too short, he doesn’t want them to have a bald patch on their butt because he’s a scaredy-cat and stabbed them. Bisuke doesn’t seem to care, judging by how calmly they reply. “Two hours.”

 

Naruto grins. Easy! Training Ground 37 is like a thirty-minute walk, fifteen if he jogs. He’ll make it in plenty of time! Cool new jutsu, here he comes!

 

“And the floor is lava.”

 

“Eh?” Naruto throws Bisuke a confused glance as he tries to untangle the tape from his fingers. It’s supposed to go on the dog, not him! Why is tape always sticking together like this? “Whattya mean, the floor is lava?”

 

“The floor is lava.” Bisuke grins slightly. “If you touch the ground, you ‘die’ and you have to go back to the beginning.”

 

“And I can’t…use chakra.” 

 

“Nope.”

 

Naruto glances at his alarm clock as he finally wrangles the last piece of tape onto the gauze pad, securing it to Bisuke’s hip. Okay, it’s a quarter past six, which means the sun is barely up. He’ll at least have some light when he’s trying to jump from building to building. “When do my two hours start?”

 

Bisuke huffs, which Naruto is tentatively interpreting as a dog-laugh. “Fifteen minutes ago.”

 

---

 

Kakashi is mildly surprised when Sakura is the first to show up to Training Ground 37.

 

She’s incredibly out-of-breath, her hair is sticking out at wild angles, and she’s glaring at him with naked animosity as she dumps Guruko unceremoniously on the grass. She is also 32 minutes past the deadline, despite being first. “Maa, good morning Sakura-chan. I hope you’re excited for your week of endurance drills.”

 

Sakura wordlessly digs a ration bar from her weapons pouch and uses her teeth to open it, stuffing the bar in her mouth and chewing vigorously for a few moments. She makes direct eye contact with him as she swallows, takes a swig from her canteen, and says without any inflection, “Fuck you.”

 

In any other village, that level of insubordination was dangerous, even deadly. In Kakashi’s genin and chuunin days, showing that level of disrespect to a superior was grounds for punishment, sometimes severe and corporal. But this is here and now instead of there and back then, so Kakashi just laughs, grateful that times are changing and that his genin can be little shits without fear of reprisal. “If it’s any consolation, Sasuke’s going to be doing reflex drills, and I’ve got some fantastically tedious beginner’s sealing scrolls for Naruto to slog through.”

 

“That…does make me feel a little better,” she concedes. “Though I wish I could swap places with Naruto. Endurance drills suck.”

 

“Naruto doesn’t need endurance drills, you do.” Kakashi flicks a glance to Guruko and Bull. “Guruko, report. How’d she do?”

 

Guruko scratches an ear. “Real good, boss. She started using chakra to reinforce her arms about half an hour in, and only stopped cause she ran dry. She didn’t complain or drop me, even once! A tip for you, pup,” he says as he turns to Sakura. “Next time, reinforce your legs and back too. You do a lotta lifting with your legs, and you don’t wanna mess up your back, especially at your age.”

 

“Thanks, guys. You can go back to the estate, if you like. Or stay, whatever you want.” Kakashi digs out two biscuits from his weapons pouch and tosses it to them. Guruko snatches his out of thin air, but Bull misses the catch and has to place a massive paw in between Guruko’s thieving jaws and his treat. Apparently his ninken can be little shits too. He can’t remember if his father’s pack ever misbehaved like this, but Kakashi trusts his partners and is more than willing to let them be lax about discipline.

 

“Hey, Kaka-sensei,” Sakura says after taking another sip from her canteen. “Do I have to start…now? On the endurance drills?”

 

“Hmm…” He purposefully drags out his thoughtful hum, trying to milk the suspense for all it’s worth. “Let’s talk more about this week’s training when the boys finish their exercises.” 

 

She flops back on the grass with a sigh. “I’m gonna take a nap. Wake me up when they finally get here?” Kakashi nods, and she closes her eyes, flopping an arm over her face. 

 

Kakashi scratches idly at his neck as Guruko trots over to him. “You and Bull staying here, then?” It’s another small surprise for him if they both stay. Guruko loves meeting new people and experiencing new things, to the point where he sometimes henges himself into a nondescript stray just to wander Konoha’s streets as what Guruko calls ‘a common mutt’. 

 

Bull, however, mostly keeps to himself outside of combat. Kakashi’s got concerns that Bull sees himself as too intimidating to civilians. Before he’d joined the Pack, he’d been a puppy trapped in a chakra-capable animal fighting ring in Iwa. He’s still not very socialized around humans in everyday situations. That’s not to say Kakashi thinks he’d turn feral, though; Bull is a fully-realized summons, with human-level consciousness and intelligence, and he knows that Pakkun is keeping tabs on the Pack and making sure they’re rock-solid when it comes to mental health. He just knows that Bull’s not very comfortable around new people, and he worries that part of it is Bull being self-conscious about his appearance. 

 

“Yeah, we’re both staying. I need the fresh air, and Bull says he wants to meet the other new pups.” Guruko settles back onto his haunches with a yawn. “He really likes Sakura-chan. I can’t blame him, she’s a real catch. She’s got spunk, and she doesn’t give up easy. She didn’t even try to pass her pack to Bull.”

 

“Hm,” Kakashi replies. On the one hand, he is happy with Sakura’s perseverance. On the other, he really needs to start pushing lateral thinking skills on these kids. He sent Bull with Guruko to offer Sakura an alternative option; he hoped Sakura would have thought to at least ask Bull for a ride. Still, credit where credit is due, she stuck with the exercise and saw it through. 

 

“You want me to go check on the other pups?”

 

“No need, I have bunshins tailing them.” Speaking of, Sasuke’s tail just popped. The boy finally managed to wrangle Uhei, it seems. He quickly scans through the new memories, processing them as fast as he can. From what he can tell, Sasuke basically brute-forced the exercise; he spammed a few fire jutsu and boxed Uhei in, took his weapons pouch back from her, and used a coil of blunted wire to tangle her paws. Another mixed success, it seems. True, Sasuke performed the task as was laid out to him, but the whole point of Uhei taking the weapons was to encourage him to use his environment rather than rely on his own tools. “Sasuke will be here soon. Still waiting on Naruto, if we haven’t heard from the clone in an hour I’ll send you or Uhei over.”

 

“Fair enough,” Guruko shrugs. Kakashi’s still not sure where his ninken picked up shrugging, or how they can manage it with dog legs, but they all do it now. Could be worse. He knows that Genma’s sparrow summons all have a habit of whistling earworms to get songs stuck in people’s heads on purpose. 

 

Naruto’s clone pops not long after: he’s managed to make it to the Wall and up onto the battlements. Kakashi puts him at getting to the guardhouse and over onto the training grounds in ten minutes.

 

Sure enough, when Sasuke trudges into Training Grounds 37 about ten minutes later, hand firmly clamped on the collar of Uhei’s vest, his arrival is mirrored by Naruto falling through a tree into the small pond. He flails out of the water, scurrying up to Kakashi with Bisuke hot on his heels. “Did I beat Sasuke-teme?” he asks breathlessly, apparently uncaring that he didn’t pass the exercise. 

 

“Maa, I’d call that a tie.”

 

Naruto groans and collapses on the grass next to Sakura. “Ne, Sakura-chan, did you have to parkour here without chakra too?”

 

“No, I just had to carry a little less than my weight in very wiggly dog,” she drawls, apparently still awake. “What was your task, Sasuke-kun?”

 

“Had to catch a dog,” he grunts. “It was…harder than it seems.”

 

“Did you seriously have to catch a summons?” She peeks out from under her arm. “Did you have to catch a greyhound summons ? Kaka-sensei, that’s just cruel. Nobody’s that fast. Well, maybe the Yondaime was that fast. Do you think he’d be fast enough? With the weird teleportation jutsu he had?”

 

“Yes, he was that fast , but he never met Uhei,” Kakashi says. “He only ever met Pakkun. The rest of the Pack formed after Minato-sensei died.”

 

Sakura sits bolt-upright and Sasuke drops his grip on Uhei’s collar. They both stare at him with gobsmacked expressions for several heartbeats, until Sakura splutters, “Minato- sensei?! Your jounin-sensei was Namikaze Minato? YOU WERE TRAINED BY THE YONDAIME?!”

 

“Oh,” Kakashi says, a little startled that they didn’t know. He thought everyone knew? Isn’t it public knowledge? It’s in every one of his entries in all the Bingo Books. It’s about three-quarters of the reason Sarutobi forbade him from interacting with Naruto for the first decade of the boy’s life. “Yes, I apprenticed under the Yondaime. We, uh–” How to put ‘I served on his ANBU guard and dedicated my life to protecting him, his wife, and unborn child (who just so happens to be sitting here) from harm, and fucked that up so entirely that the entire village hates the kid, sorry about that Naruto’ in unclassified, non-S-ranked secret terms? “--kept in touch after I was promoted.”

 

“What was he like? He was handsome, right? And strong, and smart. I bet he was super serious, his carving on the Monument is so serious-looking,” Sakura gushes. Her eyes are gleaming with wonder, and even Sasuke is paying rapt attention as he settles into a cross-legged sit next to Sakura on the grass. Naruto is…weirdly quiet, avoiding eye-contact as he picks at the grass around his legs. He’s probably just tired from the trip over. Probably.

 

“He was–” Obito’s sharingan is practically overloading Kakashi with memories of Minato-sensei. Good ones, bad ones, joyful and sad ones. The good and joyful ones always outnumber the bad and sad, even when in the past the terrible memories were always stronger. These days, the good ones have stayed strong, and the bad ones have faded slightly. He’s grateful for that. 

 

“He was what?” Sasuke tilts his head. 

 

“A massive dork,” Kakashi finishes, finally managing to wrestle the memory onslaught down to something manageable. “He sang terrible, goofy songs. He liked to bake, and he had a silly apron that he wore in the kitchen. He was a genius when it came to sealing, but his handwriting was atrocious. Kushina-san–his wife–she was the one that really had a head for the Hokage stuff. Minato-sensei just wanted to make seals and bake for his friends, Kushina was the real brains behind it all.” 

 

His heart aches with the need to continue, to say that Minato named his son after a book character. That his favorite color was red and Kushina’s was yellow, which makes orange, isn’t that ironic? That the terrible goofy songs were sung to Naruto before he was born, that Sasuke was their godchild, that Kushina would have known exactly how to train Sakura best. 

 

But he can’t. Not yet. His kids are already keeping a massive secret, he can’t dump another on their shoulders. And…he hates to admit it, but Sarutobi is right. Naruto would never be able to keep it under wraps that he’s the son of the Yondaime. He barely kept the secret of his Adamantine Chains from his teammates for three and a half months, there’s no way he could sit on that knowledge at this point in time.

 

That’s part of the reason he’s encouraging this little exercise in subterfuge. It’s practice for the big, powerful secret. 

 

So instead of telling them more, he claps his hands and says, “And he wasn’t a pushover when it came to training. I’ve been slacking off, squirts, and it’s time to really get down to business and teach you the way he taught me.”

 

Sakura’s eyes sparkle, Sasuke gives a firm little nod. Naruto…is less excited than Kakashi would have anticipated, but still has a determined frown on his face as he gives Kakashi a thumbs up. He’s probably upset because he knows he’s been assigned book learning while the other two are doing what Naruto probably sees as ‘fun’ training. 

 

“Okay, kids,” Kakashi says. “Let’s begin.”

 

---

 

The thing about dog summons: they’re fundamentally different than the ninken used by the Inuzuka of Konoha or the canine companions of the Yasuda samurai. Ninken and samurai hounds are just normal chakra-capable dogs. Dog summons are something else entirely: what exactly, is up for some debate. Some argue that dog summons are descended from wolf summons, others maintain that they’re descended from ninken that bred with wolf summons. 

 

It gets even more complicated when you allow for cases like that of Bull, who was a full-bred ninken before joining their Pack: after about three or four years of running with them, he’s closer to ‘summons’ than ‘ninken’ in terms of his abilities and eccentricities. There’s a lot of dog summons who started off as ninken. Something just…changes about them, when they join a summons Pack. Maybe it’s exposure to the Run, maybe it’s something weirder. Nobody really knows.

 

The other thing about dog summons: they’re not… exactly …true summons. There are tons of aspects about dog summons that don’t exactly line up with the traditional definition of ‘summons’. Sure, they have extended lifespans, but they’re not immortal like a true summons. And yes, they can be summoned, but they don’t have a Realm to call their own. Their contracts, while still just as binding as those utilized by true summons, are usually a vow of words instead of a signature on a scroll. And dog summons can, in the case of an abusive summoner, break the contract at will.

 

The theories about their origins are a little beyond the point, though. What it boils down to is this: dog summons are not really ninken, and not really summons. They’re an in-between thing, something fantastically and truly weird.

 

But Pakkun is definitely sure that humans are weirder.

 

“Are you Pakkun-kun or Pakkun-chan?” Naruto asks as he rips up a long stalk of grass and jams it into the corner of his mouth. “Or just Pakkun, like Bisuke?”

 

“Just Pakkun,” he replies. “Focus on your reading, pup.”

 

Naruto frowns and nods quietly, turning back to his scroll without complaint.

 

Pakkun is, as dog summons go, middle-aged. Gone are the days when he was a hotshot young summons, bouncing from contract to contract on whims and never settling with a Pack. Now he’s mostly a pupsitter. Once upon a time, it would have chafed at him, but these days, he’s more than happy to watch over the little ones. Pakkun’s been watching over the younger generations for close to fifty years now.

 

He’s really experienced with kids, suffice to say. He practically raised Kakashi, after Sakumo…passed. So he’s really, really good at telling when something’s wrong. And something is definitely wrong with Naruto. Sure, he’s fidgeting a lot, like he does when he has to sit still for longer than thirty seconds, but he’s not usually quiet about it. Whenever he’s put to a task that he’s not exactly excited about, he will give at least one cursory complaint. He’s not complained once about his reading assignment. So something is wrong.

 

Humans, Pakkun has noticed, will try to skirt around emotional issues. Kakashi is especially bad about talking about feelings, either his own or other peoples’. It’s not just Kakashi, either; Pakkun’s first summoner, Hatake Hibiki, was so emotionally constipated that it took Pakkun an entire year to make the man talk about anything other than combat. 

 

Pakkun has no such compunctions. “Pup, what’s wrong?”

 

“Eh?” Naruto blinks, turning to face him. “Uh–well, the scroll’s boring–”

 

“Try again,” Pakkun says. “Something has been bothering you all morning. Other than the scroll.”

 

“Oh.” Naruto sets the scroll on the grass and draws his knees up to hug them. His gaze flicks away from Pakkun and over to where Kakashi is guiding Sasuke through his drills. “You know about…my thing, right? Cause you’re one of Kaka-sensei’s summons.”

 

“The chains? Yeah, pup, I was there at Wave.”

 

“No,” Naruto blurts. “The–the other thing. The, um. Big thing. With, uh…the seal, y’know?”

 

“Ah,” Pakkun nods. Sasuke is halfway across the field and very focused on dodging the blunted kunai Kakashi is liberally showering him with, and Sakura is on lap one of four around the Village. Pakkun can’t smell anyone else nearby, and he knows Kakashi has some privacy seals up around the training ground’s perimeter, so this is as good a place and time as any to talk about sensitive issues. “The Fox.”

 

Naruto wilts. “Yeah. The Fox.”

 

“Is it talking to you again?” When Kakashi had dropped that distressing tidbit in Pakkun’s lap, he’d initially panicked, thinking about how the poor pup was being waylaid by a demon. But Kakashi’s been watching Naruto closely, and he hasn’t shown any signs of being controlled by the Fox; just the one incident at Wave, and Pakkun’s pretty sure that was just blind battle rage being fueled by Bijuu chakra. But if the Fox is speaking to him again…

 

The boy flails his hands wildly, shaking his head. “No! No, it hasn’t talked to me since–um, Mizuki-sensei’s whole…thing.” 

 

“That’s good. You know to ignore what it tells you, right?”

 

Naruto nods vigorously. “Right.”

 

“Good. So what is it that’s bothering you?”

 

“Well…” He huddles his knees closer to his chest, almost curling into a ball. “Um, Kaka-sensei knew…knew the Yondaime. He was Kaka-sensei’s sensei. His, uh, Yon-sensei. And he…I mean, from the way he was talking about him, he was probably one of Kaka-sensei’s precious people. And…I dunno, it’s stupid, I’m just being stupid about it, never mind–”

 

“Pup,” Pakkun interrupts gently, placing a paw on Naruto’s arm. “It’s okay. You can tell me. I promise, if you are being stupid, I’ll tell you how stupid you are. But your worries shouldn’t be bottled up. They can fester and grow into something more dangerous. And they can pop out at the worst time, like the battlefield. Better to address it here, where you’re safe, than to have it come to a head out there, where you’re maybe not.”

 

“What-if-Kaka-sensei-hates-me-cuz-I-killed-his-Yon-sensei?” The sentence bursts out of Naruto in a sudden babble, made wobbly by the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. 

 

“Oh,” Pakkun says, a little taken aback. “Yep, you’re being stupid.”

 

“Wh–what?” Naruto says, tears now flowing in earnest.

 

“Stop crying, pup, you’re worrying about nothing,” Pakkun says, not unkindly. “You didn’t kill the Yondaime. The Fox did. It’s just being stored inside you, like a scroll, remember? You were a baby, you couldn’t have hurt the Yondaime if you tried.” 

 

“Yeah, but–” Naruto sniffles, swiping a sleeve across his face. “Everybody else thinks I did, don’t they? That’s why they treat me like crap. They think I killed him, and everyone else that died that day. What–what if Kakashi–”

 

“He doesn’t,” Pakkun says firmly. “He does not think that, Naruto. He knows you’re just a normal kid. Well, normal for a shinobi kid. Kind of. Actually, scratch the normal part, there is literally nothing normal about you. But Kakashi knows you didn’t kill the Yondaime.” He leans in, whispering conspiratorially. “Don’t tell him I said this, but he loves you. All three of you. He’s basically adopted you. Heck, he got up early today for you pups. On purpose. ”

 

Naruto sniffles again. “...you think so?”

 

“Yeah,” Pakkun says. “I know so. But don’t tell him I told you that, he’s weird with emotions.”

 

“Like Sasuke-teme,” Naruto nods. “Dude’s so emotionally-backed-up I’m surprised he doesn’t explode.”

 

“Little bit.” And boy, Pakkun does not want to think about how hard it’s going to be to untangle Sasuke’s issues. “Now that we’ve got your silly worries out of the way, I’ll make you a deal. If you read that whole scroll by noon, you can touch my toe-pads.” He wiggles his paw, pads-up, to entice Naruto.

 

“But it’s so boooring,” Naruto whines, but dutifully picks the scroll back up.

 

Pakkun snorts, settling down beside Naruto. “You can pet me while you read, if you like. To help you focus. Might help to have your hands busy at the same time.”

 

“You just want pets.”

 

“Maybe, maybe not. Won’t find out until you try.”

 

Naruto gives a small, watery little laugh, and reaches out to run a hand down Pakkun’s spine as he reads. Pakkun sighs contentedly. Naruto is performing his task, the pup’s nerves are settled, and he’s getting pets. Today’s going to turn out okay. But he’s going to have to remember to talk to Kakashi about Naruto’s concerns. It won’t do for Naruto to feel guilty about his sire’s death, especially when he’s not at fault. Hopefully, hopefully, they’ll be able to explain the whole thing to him soon. He deserves the truth, after all.

 

Pakkun just hopes that it won’t hurt him more to learn it.

Notes:

pakkun: do you want to talk about your emotions kakashi
kakashi: no
naruto: i do
pakkun: i know, naruto
naruto: i'm sad
pakkun: i know, narut--WAIT WHY ARE YOU SAD, STOP THAT

 

the dog summons lore is really taking over my brain. why are they different from the inuzuka ninken!! why can't akamaru talk!! why are these magic ninja dogs different from each other!!

Chapter 15: first impressions

Summary:

In which Tenten craves normalcy, Gai and Kakashi sit in a tree, and Sasuke has an Emotion.

Being back in Konoha is kinda boring, compared to Maito Gai’s Training Trips Of Youthful Doom. But honestly, Tenten likes boring. She desperately wants to exclusively have boring things happen to her for the rest of her natural life. No more insane challenges, no more screams of “YOSH!” from her overly-chipper teammate, no more morose diatribes against fate from the other, decidedly non-exuberant teammate. The Chuunin exams are coming, and as soon as she passes, she is marching straight to Hokage Tower and putting in a request for a fuuinjutsu work study. She just wants to make boring old seal-scrolls for her mom’s boring old shop, and by the Sage as her witness, she is going to make that happen. 

 

“TENTEN!” Lee yells from across Training Ground 13. “GOOD MORNING! GAI-SENSEI HAS NOT YET ARRIVED BUT I WONDERED IF YOU WOULD LIKE–”

 

“No thanks,” she cuts him off. “I’m going to work on my kusarigama forms. Ask Neji if he wants to spar with you.” Lee bellows wordlessly and cheerfully in response as she unseals the pair of chain-sickles from her scroll. 

 

Neji shows up shortly after her third run-through of her katas, his arrival heralded by a yell from Lee and a disaffected snort from Neji. “Can you spar with him?” she huffs, inspecting the handle on one of her kusarigama. The wrapping is fraying, she’ll need to replace that before the Exams. “You know I can’t match him physically. Gai-sensei’s not here and I think he needs to do something before he explodes.”

 

“Hmm,” Neji hums noncommittally. “I suppose I could use a warmup.”

 

Tenten does three more sets before she’s satisfied she’s limber enough for the day’s training. Neji and Lee are deep in a spar by now, and Gai-sensei is still not here, which is weird but not alarming. It’s not like he’s been attacked or something. They’re in Konoha, after all. And Tenten may think Gai-sensei is the most abnormal shinobi on the face of the planet, but she also thinks he’s one of the most powerful shinobi on the face of the planet. She’s seen him kick a missing-nin in half. It was incredible. Gross, but incredible.

 

Nah, he’s not in danger. Probably just took a challenge from the jounin he hangs out with sometimes. What’s his name? Kaka-something. 

 

“IS KAKA-SENSEI LATE AGAIN?” a new voice shrieks from the training ground’s entrance. There are three genin clustered together by the sign. They have to be some of the rookies from this year. She’ll have to ask Lee if he knows who they are, she doesn’t remember a lot about her Academy days. She tested out early and took an apprenticeship at her mom’s shop before becoming a genin, so she skipped like…two years of social life. 

 

“HELLO!” Lee sprints toward the rookies and only gags a little when Neji catches him by the back of the jumpsuit. 

 

“Don’t scare the babies, Lee,” she chastises. 

 

“Hey,” one of the rookies says. He might be a better fit for Team Nine than she is, considering his bright orange outfit. And he seems familiar, like she should know who he is. She probably saw him at the market a bunch or something, his outfit’s pretty distinctive. “We’re not babies. We’re shinobi. We’re here to train, y’know!”

 

“We’ve got these grounds booked all day,” Neji says, and the pink-haired one twists around to look at the sign, as if she’s checking to see if they’re in the right place. “Run along back to your jounin-sensei.”

 

“Maa,” a voice says, soft and deep and right the fuck behind Tenten’s ear holy shit when did they get there? “I’m already here, Hyuuga-kun. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, meet Team Nine. Their jounin-sensei is Maito Gai, who is…later than I am, for a change.” A jounin slides almost soundlessly past Tenten, silver hair catching the dawn light for a moment and turning almost yellow in its glare. That’s him! That’s the dude that does the goofy challenges with Gai-sensei! Oh…that’s the dude that can keep up with Gai-sensei. Yeesh, this guy’s gotta be a powerhouse of his own, then.

 

“Hello,” the pink one–Sakura, probably–bows slightly. “It’s nice to meet you. Please take care of us.”

 

“You’re on time again,” the orange one says dumbly.

 

“Is it a crime for me to be punctual, Naruto-kun?”

 

“No, it’s just weird,” Naruto replies, squinting. “Teme, can your special eyes see through genjutsu or–”

 

“No,” the one who’s probably Sasuke, if the process of elimination can be trusted. “But I can tell it’s Kaka-sensei. His vest is covered in dog hair.”

 

“Besides, who would want to impersonate Kaka-sensei,” Sakura dismisses. “You’d have to read those little perverted books, and wear a mask all the time, and slouch and be late.”

 

“And keel over of chakra exhaustion every time you use more than two jutsu in a row.” 

 

“ Brats,” Kakashi grumbles, but there’s no heat to his words. “Ten laps, go.”

 

“Training ground or–” Sakura waves her hand vaguely. “Whole village?”

 

“Maa, just the training ground. Gai will be here soon, and his training can be intense. I don’t want to overwork you before he gets his hands on you.”

 

“Oh thank the Sage,” Sakura sighs. “I’m so sick of running around the Village. I need new scenery, the Walls are so boring now.”

 

“At least you’re doing something,” Naruto grouses, dropping into a stretch. “I’ve just been reading all week.”

 

“I would fistfight a bear if I thought Kaka-sensei would let me read instead of running laps,” Sakura replies. 

 

“Would you fight it bear- handed? Wait–” Naruto squawks as Sakura picks up a clod of dirt off the ground and whips it at him. “That one was actually funn– ow !”

 

“ Usuratonkachi ,” Sasuke hisses, eyes narrowed at Naruto. “You’re never funny. Just dumb.”

 

“You say that,” Naruto says, ducking under another lobbed chunk of earth. “But I saw your dumb little half-smirk yesterday when I told that joke at lunch.”

 

“If you’re warmed up enough to be horsing around,” Kakashi says mildly. “You’re warmed up enough to run fifteen laps.” All three of his genin stare at him, mental calculations obvious through their expressions. “Or twenty. Hm, you could even be up to running twenty-fi–”

 

Sakura takes off like a shot, startling the other two for a half-second before their brains catch up and they hurtle after her.

 

Kakashi chuckles. “Maa, my cute little minions are sure energetic today. I hope they’ll have enough energy to keep up with you.” He turns and smiles at a point just beyond Tenten. “Go easy on them?”

 

Tenten does some mental calculations of her own, just in time to clap her hands over her ears and muffle Gai-sensei’s booming laugh. “HAHA! YOU KNOW I WON’T, ESTEEMED RIVAL! THAT WOULD BE EXTREMELY UN-YOUTHFUL OF ME!” 

 

“Hi, Gai-sensei,” Tenten says, grimacing as she shakes her head to try and abate the ringing in her ears.

 

“GAI-SENSEI!” Lee shrieks, almost matching Gai’s level of volume, thankfully well away from Tenten. He’s right next to Neji, which earns him a withering stare from the taller boy. “When you said we had a special training session today, I didn’t realize you meant we had some rookies! OH, do you think they’ll call us senpai? I hope I get a kohai!!”

 

“Sensei, surely we’re not training with green genin,” Neji says, tone even in spite of his pinched brow and wrinkled nose. “Especially this team. Especially that– no, I cannot.”

 

And huh, that’s weird. It sounds like Neji has a personal grudge with one of the younger genin. He’s usually so aloof that he doesn’t single people out to be pissed at, even Lee and his exuberance usually just exasperate Neji instead of making him beef with Lee personally. Neji’s angry at everyone equally, except for whatever family drama’s going on. Is one of them a bastard Hyuuga or something? 

 

“I hope,” Kakashi says mildly, ambling over to Neji. “that you’re not jumping to conclusions based on civilian hear-say. It would be a shame if you let gossip in the markets color how you see a fellow shinobi of Konoha. Don’t you think so, Hyuuga-kun? I hope we can all work together.”

 

Oh, now Tenten remembers where she’s seen Naruto. He’s on almost all of the do-not-serve lists in the civilian markets, and her mom’s shop is right on the border between the civvie shops and the shinobi markets. There are some shinobi stores that turn him away, too, but not quite as many, and she’s noticed that all of the Clan-ran places are pretty open to him. He’s not on the list at her mom’s place, either. Once, Tenten had asked her about it. “ He’s never done anything wrong to us,” Okaa-san had said. “ Never done anything but be born. Poor kid wants anything from us, it’s half price, you got that?” 

 

She never got a chance to tell him, he tends to move through their section of the market pretty quickly, like he’s afraid people will start yelling at him for even looking at their storefronts. That’s gotta suck. And it sucks even more if Neji is really buying into civilian gossip, because if Neji is listening to what civvies say, other shinobi will too. 

 

Neji, for his part, looks chastened, averting his eyes. “I will–do my best.”

 

“Maa, I’m glad,” Kakashi’s eye wrinkles in a smile. “Gai, my brats are running laps, but once they’re done, they’re all yours.”

 

Judging by the way Gai beams in response, they’re going to have a really, really long day ahead of them. Tenten rolls her shoulders and turns to Lee and Neji. “Well, sounds like I gotta get warmed up too. You guys want a three-way spar?”

 

---

 

Kakashi is acting weird.

 

Well, weirder than usual. Gai knows all jounin have their eccentricities, some more than others, but Kakashi tends to tip the scale. And yes, he’s fully aware that he’s at the other end of that scale, thank you. 

 

But when Kakashi starts acting weirder than his normal, baseline weird, Gai knows it’s time to start paying more attention. Both to events unfolding, because Kakashi is keenly observant and very much in the know, and to Kakashi himself, because Kakashi has permanently broken his sense of self-preservation. So when his rival starts acting edgy or distracted, Gai is on high alert for potential danger, either from external sources or from Kakashi himself.

 

And Kakashi is acting weird. 

 

He’s basically covered the whole training ground with privacy seals. (He and Tenten had a short, animated conversation about them as he did so, where she demanded to know his supplier, and when he said he got the paper and ink wholesale and made them himself, she demanded he at least sample some of her mother’s wares.) Never mind that they’re deep within Konoha, at a secluded training ground surrounded by empty, flat plots with nowhere to hide and eavesdrop. And he’s set several of his dogs to patrol the borders. Something is deeply and truly going on,

 

“What’s going on?” Gai asks Kakashi bluntly, after Team Seven has returned and received orders from Gai to ‘mingle and get to know each other!’

 

Kakashi looks around furtively, as if he hasn’t gone to every conceivable nook and cranny of the training grounds and slapped down enough seal paper to paper the walls of an entire house with. “I need to talk to you,” he says in his Serious Elite Jounin Voice. “Away from the kids. Not out of eyesight, just earshot. Think they’ll hold for a bit?”

 

Gai knows his kids have been and will be fine on their own. Kakashi’s kids…he hasn’t really met them, so he can’t make a judgment call on how they’ll do without supervision. At a glance, he can see that Tenten and Sakura are going to be fine: the two are chattering amicably as Tenten shows off her arsenal to the other girl. Naruto and Lee are also getting along famously, if a little chaotically. Sure, Lee just landed a punch to Naruto’s ribs that knocked the smaller boy flat, but he just popped right back up. Lee likes that kind of attitude, they’ll be fine together, provided Lee doesn’t go overboard and break any of Naruto’s bones.

 

Sasuke and Neji…don’t seem to be talking with each other much. That’s okay! Kakashi’s quiet too, after all. And frankly, after everything Sasuke’s been through, Gai doesn’t blame him for being withdrawn. Maybe with time, they’ll warm up to each other, come a little more out of their shells. Clan kids can be weird, socially speaking. 

 

At any rate, it looks like the kids won’t get into too much trouble. “They’ll be okay!” Gai shoots Kakashi a thumbs-up, and follows him to the treeline. 

 

After they get settled in the lower branches, and double-checked that they still have line of sight on their charges, Kakashi runs a hand through his hair and sighs. “So I’ve been lying to the Hokage,” he says, and Gai chokes on nothing.

 

“ What,” he manages. “I– what about?”

 

Kakashi grimaces. “Naruto can use the Adamantine Chains.”

 

Confusion. Pure confusion. “Isn’t that–wouldn’t he be happy? To know that?”

 

“Sure, probably,” Kakashi shrugs. “It’s not him I’m worried about. It’s the Council. The wrong person finds out, and he’ll either be taken off the roster for fear another Village will try to poach him, or he’ll disappear behind an Anbu mask faster than you can blink. Or worse .”

 

It clicks. “Oh, you want to keep it from Danzo! That’s understandable. I’d lie to the Sage himself to keep my kids away from Danzo.”

 

It’s Kakashi’s turn to splutter. “Wait, you know about ROOT? You know about Danzo?”

 

That’s the thing, isn’t it? Gai knows that people underestimate him. He likes it that way. They see the loud, boisterous fellow who doesn’t use jutsu, who sticks out like a sore thumb and wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s careful to cultivate his happy-go-lucky, head-in-the-clouds persona for two reasons: so people feel comfortable gossiping around him, and they never suspect that he knows things. 

 

And Gai has heard a lot about Danzo. He knows he’s manipulative and conniving. He knows the man was close to Orochimaru, before the Sannin was revealed as a traitor. He knows that the quiet, awkward jounin with the happuri-style hitai-ate that sometimes accompanies Kakashi on outings was under Danzo’s command, and he knows that there’s something fishy about how he was raised and trained. He knows that he had the Sandaime’s ear for quite some time, and somehow fell from his favor shortly after the Uchiha Massacre. 

 

There’s one more thing. It’s not concrete, he has no proof, it’s just a hunch at this point. He doesn’t want it to be true, and it makes his blood run cold even thinking about it.

 

“I think he’s following Neji,” Gai says quietly. 

 

Kakashi’s eye blows wide. “Are you–are you sure–”

 

Gai shakes his head. “I can’t be. He’s too subtle about it. I think he’s scouting him for when the kids make Chunin.”

 

He knows that the unit will disband once they get their Chunin vests. They’re all professional enough to work with each other, but he can tell they’re not the best of friends. They’ll go their separate ways and live separate lives, just like Gai and Genma and Ebisu did.

 

Gai keeps in touch with Genma and Ebisu and Chouza-sensei. If anything, his relationship with Genma improved after they weren’t forced to be around each other every day. And he knows he can always rely on Chouza-sensei for advice or friendly company. 

 

But Ebisu…he drifted. Nothing wrong with that! Gai knows that not everybody appreciates his energy, and that’s more than fine. These days, they only see each other in a professional capacity. Ebisu’s more of a paper-nin than anything, and sticks close to Hokage Tower. Genma is in the Barrier Corps (and Anbu, but Gai knows he’s not supposed to know that) so he doesn’t report to the Tower unless something has gone desperately wrong with Konoha’s defenses. (Well, he doesn’t report as Genma, but as Sparrow, but again, he shouldn’t know that. And Anbu summons are rarely, if ever, social calls.) Chouza-sensei always sighs and asks Gai if he’s seen Ebisu lately, if he knows what Ebisu’s been up to, so that means he’s not visiting their old mentor.

 

It worries Gai. He just can’t help but see the parallels to Team Chouza and Team Nine. Sure, none of them are one-to-one reflections of Team Chouza, but…it’s eerily close. Tenten is a lot like Genma: talented, but not as driven as her teammates. She and Lee get along okay, but don’t hang out after training. Lee, well, he can’t help seeing himself in Lee, now can he? It’s impossible to imagine him as Ebisu. No, that honor goes to Neji.

 

Neji, who leaves as soon as training is over. Neji, who remains professional and distant. Neji, who makes no secrets about how he is not out to make friends. Neji, who hates his Clan and spends as much time away from the Compound as possible. Neji, who will be alone as soon as he makes Chunin. 

 

The perfect target for Danzo. If he can only figure out why he’s shown an interest in the boy. He’s ostracized, certainly, and has a chip on his shoulder the size of a canyon, but he doesn’t have the personality for ANBU. He’s too…well, too much of a Hyuuga. Too concerned with Clan issues to be impartial, when it comes to internal investigations. Not enough moral flexibility for black ops. 

 

Suddenly, one of the kids scream . 

 

Kakashi and Gai body-flicker to them as one. After the frankly harrowing conversation they just had, Gai is on high alert for any threats, especially strange shinobi in unmarked ANBU masks, but they only find–

 

“I’m sorry,” Kakashi says, confusion clear in his voice. “Is my genin… biting yours?”

 

The two boys are full-on brawling with each other, and not in a friendly way. Sasuke has his teeth buried in Neji’s wrist and kunai at his throat. Neji, in turn, has his kunai against the younger boy’s throat, and the other hand clenching a fistful of Sasuke’s hair. The other four genin are huddled together, eyes wide and unsure as they flick back and forth between the two boys and their senseis. 

 

Years of working in tandem with each other have Gai and Kakashi taking one massive simultaneous stride, Gai smacking the kunai out of Neji’s hand and jabbing a point behind Sasuke’s ear to release his jaw, and Kakashi wresting Neji’s hand from Sasuke’s hair and twisting the weapon from Sasuke’s hand. Within seconds, each jounin has their respective genin by the scruff of their collar and ten feet apart.

 

“Who started it?” Kakashi barks, and his genin jump. 

 

“A-ano,” Naruto says. “Snitches get…stitches?”

 

“So it was you,” Kakashi turns his head to give Sasuke a full-bore glare. Gai has rarely seen Kakashi so livid. “I expect this sort of nonsense from Naruto–” he hisses, giving Sasuke a little shake.

 

“Hey,” Naruto pouts. “I don’t try to beat up Konoha nin, y’know. Just bad guys.”

 

“--or Sakura–”

 

“Uh, what?”

 

“--but really? I wouldn’t expect to have to give you a lecture on the importance of not going overboard during a spar with an ally.”

 

“And I expect you to look after your fellow genin,” Gai says gravely, leveling his best Disappointed Sensei look at Neji. 

 

Lee nervously pipes up. “Uh, Gai-sensei, it’s not like he threw the first punch...?”

 

“He's lucky it wasn't a kunai,” Sasuke mutters, and Kakashi glares even harder at him.

 

Gai loosens his grip on Neji, kneeling down beside him. “He’s your peer, Neji, and like it or not, you may have to work with him professionally. If you can’t manage to get to know him without fighting, maybe you’re not as ready for the Exams as I thought.”

 

Neji’s pale eyes widen at that, then flick away to stare at the ground. “It won’t happen again,” he says stiffly. “I apologize.”

 

“I don’t,” Sasuke snarls, twisting like a feral cat in Kakashi’s grasp. “Not until he takes back what he said.” 

 

“Neji?” Gai prompts. 

 

“I cannot,” the boy says coldly. “It’s the truth. I will not lie to make you feel better. I will only apologize for–pulling his hair. It was unbecoming.”

 

Sasuke snarls again, twisting hard enough to break Kakashi’s grasp and lunge away. Gai pushes Neji behind him, ready to stop the boys from instigating another brawl, but Sasuke bolts for the underbrush instead, vanishing into the gloom of the surrounding trees before Kakashi can catch him again. 

 

“Aah,” Kakashi sighs. “I’d better–”

 

“Go on,” Gai says. “I’ll keep an eye on the others.” At that, Kakashi nods gratefully and lopes after his wayward charge. Gai turns to Neji. “What in the world did you say to him? Was it an insult, a threat, what?” Gai’s real fear is that Neji has somehow gleaned the truth about Naruto’s role as a jinchuuriki and outed him to Sasuke. Firstly, it wouldn’t be his place to share that kind of information, secondly, it could get him in a heap of trouble if the higher-ups found out he was bandying S-Ranked secrets for petty childish fights. And thirdly, it would mean that Neji is paying a lot more attention to civilian gossip than Gai realized.

 

If he missed that sort of animosity, Gai’s been missing too much. He can’t afford to miss that much, not with the Darkness of Shinobi with his eyes on Neji.

 

Neji raises his chin stubbornly. “Like I said earlier. I told him the truth. And I cannot help it if he cannot handle it.”

 

“Don’t be an ass,” Tenten snaps. “Were you being a dick about Naruto?” 

 

“Who’s Naruto?” Neji asks bluntly.

 

---

 

Kakashi tracks Sasuke all the way back to the Uchiha compound. He could just walk in. He’s still keyed to the wards, after all, and it would be within his rights as Sasuke’s de facto guardian. If Kakashi wanted, he could even move Sasuke out of the Compound entirely, into another apartment in shinobi housing, or even into his place. It wouldn’t go well, he thinks. He was reluctant to move off the Hatake lands when he was Sasuke’s age. It took Minato-sensei’s death to drive him towards the village center, and even then he never sold his father’s house. Sasuke’s going to be the same way about it, maybe even a little worse, because his identity is so wrapped up in being a Uchiha.

 

He sighs, and summons Pakkun. “Hey, do me a favor,” he says, squatting down beside the pug. “Go see if Iruka’s available and bring him here if he is, yeah?”

 

Pakkun scratches at an ear. “Trouble with the pups?”

 

“Mm.” Kakashi assents. “Sakura and Naruto have already had their breakdowns. Guess it’s Sasuke’s turn.” He wrinkles his nose. “At least his isn’t mid-battle like Naruto’s was. I mean, he did bite Neji…”

 

“Yeesh,” Pakkun grimaces. “Be back in a tick.”

 

Kakashi hops up into a nearby tree. Wouldn’t do for someone walking by to see him hovering outside the Compound like a creep. Not that it’d be any of their business, and if pressed he can absolutely explain, but he’s never been a fan of airing dirty laundry that he can just hide himself.

 

Iruka sprints up a scant three minutes later, Pakkun ensconced in his arms, skipping along rooftops like a man possessed. He skids to a stop at the gates to the Compound, huffing as Kakashi drops back out of the tree beside him. “Yo. Thanks for coming,” he greets the other man. “Pakkun, go check on the other pups, please.” The pug salutes before dismissing himself.

 

“Pakkun said Sasuke’s having an emotion explosion,” Iruka pants. “What the hell does that mean?”

 

“He exchanged blows with another genin,” Kakashi explains. “Decidedly not spar-level blows. Had a kunai to his throat, bit him, even. Very unlike him.”

 

“Hm,” Iruka hums. “I don’t know, his spars with Naruto at the Academy were always very intense.”

 

“And they still are,” Kakashi agrees, “but I’ve never had to haul him off of a sparring partner before, and he’s never nearly sprained my wrist fleeing from the fight. And the other genin copped to saying… something to trigger the fight, I don’t know what.”

 

“Oh.” A look of comprehension settles on Iruka’s face. “Oh, yeah, that does sound different. It’s…over, though? Why did you need me to come here? And why did you let him run all the way back here before catching him?”

 

“I pulled stuff like this with Minato-sensei, and he always let me bolt and come to him on my own terms.” Kakashi shrugs. Obito’s eye spins and shows him memories of seeing Minato tailing im from a distance. He knows for a fact that Minato let him see him, let him know he was there. “He kept an eye on me, made sure I didn’t do anything stupid, but he never caught up to me or dragged me back to apologize or to punish me. I’m starting to think he may have been too lenient with me. Kind of made me into a brat who knew I could get away with things if I ran fast enough.”

 

“Ah,” Iruka nods. “And now you’re trying to strike the difference between ‘letting it be’ and ‘dressing him down in front of his peers’.”

 

“Yeah, pretty much. He’s not had someone to talk him through emotional stuff for a while. I remember what that was like.”

 

“And you had Pakkun bring me here because you don’t know how to talk to him about it.”

 

He nods. “Got it in one. I tried talking Sakura through her self-esteem issues, and she ended up blowing up a client’s house. I didn’t even notice Naruto was sneaking off to train more until he nearly brought a missing-nin back to that same house, and he was doing it because he also has self-esteem issues. And I didn’t see the signs before Sasuke very literally blew up at Hyuuga Neji. Help?”

 

“One problem,” Iruka says, scratching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know how either. I mean, look at how well I did with Naruto.” He laughs sardonically. “He still gets into heaps of trouble, no matter how much I try to tell him not to. It’s better now, but it took me realizing how similar our situations are for me to connect with him in a way that was. I dunno, constructive?” Iruka gestures helplessly at the empty Uchiha Compound. “There’s no way I can connect with Sasuke about whatever this was. You’re going to have better luck than I ever would.”

 

“Okay, maybe I should summon Pakkun again to have him re-explain to you how bad I am at emotions.”

 

Iruka smacks his shoulder. “There you go. Common ground. I didn’t have as much one-on-one interaction with Sasuke as I did with Naruto, because he never acted out in school and had good grades, but I know for certain he has issues with his emotions.”

 

Kakashi sighs. “You’re not going to help me with this,” he says. “Are you?”

 

“I can’t,” Iruka replies helplessly. “There’s no way I can connect with Sasuke, not like you can. Last of a Noble Clan, emotionally repressed, weird loner complex. I don’t have that. You do.”

 

“Ughhhhhhhhhhffffffine,” Kakashi grinds out, dragging his hands down his face. “I’m going to make you buy my drinks tonight when I fail at this.”

 

Iruka slaps his back. “Absolutely not. I have papers to grade.”

 

“You’re supposed to say, ‘I won’t need to, Kakashi, because you got this handled!’”

 

“Mm, no. I shouldn’t lie, it’d be unbecoming of a schoolteacher.”

 

“Oh go back to whatever you were doing before,” Kakashi grouses. 

 

“Oh I’d rather not,” Iruka frowns. “The Hokage’s going through final prep for the Exams and he’s getting tetchy. Apparently Suna’s put in another last-minute team, and Oto has decided to finally respond to invitations.The vetting process will be a nightmare, with it being so short-notice. Suna at least has some information on their team, it’s the Kazekage’s children, so he’s unlikely to risk any untoward action with them at play, since the Kage position is hereditary. But Oto is such an unknown, and it’s driving Sarutobi-sama a little crazy.”

 

“Understandable,” Kakashi nods. “Well. Have a nice day avoiding responsibilities. Since I can’t.”

 

“Go on,” Iruka laughs, giving him a little shove. “Go do emotions. I guess I can buy your drinks tonight, but only if I can grade my papers at the bar.”

 

---

 

“Maa, Sasuke-kun.”

 

Sasuke doesn’t look up from where he’s tearing weeds out from between the cobblestones. “Go away,” he grits out. “It doesn’t involve you. It’s between me and him. It’s Clan business now.”

 

There’s a gritty shkrissh of a sandal scraping against stone, and Kakashi’s shadow hunches down beside his. “All right, as the Hatake clan head, I’m stepping in as a third-party mediator. Usually it’s an Akimichi doing that, but I don’t think Chouza wants to get dragged all the way out here for a petty genin brawl.”

 

“You’re not from a Clan,” Sasuke snaps. “I went to a few meetings with Tousan, I never saw you there.”

 

“Well, my Clan only has the one member,” Kakashi’s shadow shrugs. “I’m not invited anymore, just like how you’re not or Naruto’s not. You’ll get a seat on the Council when you reach the civilian age of majority, just like how Tsunade-hime has a seat even though she’s the last Senju. But unless I revive the Clan, I don’t get a vote. Doesn’t mean I don’t know Clan politics, though.”

 

“...revive?” 

 

“Mm. Hatake bylaws mean I can adopt someone and they’re considered full, main house members, so it’s not like I gotta have biological kids. But I’ve had a lot on my plate, the last couple of years, and Tousan never really involved me in Clan business before he died. It’s not a huge priority for me. My clan was dying before I was even born. Sometimes it’s better to let things fade. Let things go.” He pauses. “Like, say for instance, letting comments from other people go.”

 

Sasuke rips another weed from the ground. “I can’t,” he says, throwing the offending plant to the side of the path. “I won’t let them fade. And I can’t let it slide, what he said.”

 

“You don’t have to let your family go.” A gloved hand reaches into his line of sight and grasps a weed, pulling it from the ground and placing it to the side. “It’s your decision, because it’s your Clan. But if you do decide to work towards bringing the Clan back, you need to have good relations with the other Clans in the Village. And that means not picking fights with their members, even if they say things that upset you.”

 

“ Upset me?” Sasuke grabs at another weed, the side of his hand skidding uncomfortably across the stone. “He insulted me. He insulted my family. ”

 

“Oh, I see,” Kakashi says, plucking another stem and adding it to his slowly growing pile. “I know what it’s like, having people insult your family. My father…he failed an important mission. A very important mission. There were a lot of consequences, because of that, especially when it came to light that he intentionally threw the mission. When everyone found out, the Hatake name became mud. People spat on us in the street. I wanted to fight them, but my father…he never even said a word back to them.”

 

“He didn’t even defend you?” Sasuke wrinkles his nose in disgust. What kind of father would do such a thing?

 

“No,” Kakashi shrugs, scooting a few inches ahead of Sasuke and tugging on a particularly stubborn shoot. “And one day, I came home to find he’d finally had enough and killed himself.”

 

“He abandoned you,” Sasuke spits. “That’s worse.” 

 

Kakashi sighs, sitting back on his haunches. “I felt like that, too. Hard not to, when you’re six and you don’t know how to cook for yourself.” His eye slides over to meet Sasuke’s gaze. “Did you feel like you were abandoned, too?”

 

“Fuck you,” Sasuke spits. “You–you have no idea–”

 

“Then give me an idea,” Kakashi says, fully turning to face him. “Work with me, Sasuke. Talk to me. Or tell me you’ll talk to someone else. Or, hell, just tell me what it was Neji said to set you off like that, that’d be a start.”

 

“He said it was FATE!” Sasuke screams, startling birds from the trees. “HE SAID WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM WAS DESTINY!”

 

The silence is deafening. Kakashi’s eye is blown wide, the slate-gray of his iris fully ringed by white. “He said what?” he finally says lowly, tone gravely like a dog about to flash it’s teeth in a snarl.

 

“He said–” Sasuke sniffles, and oh sweet gods, he’s about to cry in front of his sensei. “I tried to–ask him? About his Clan, and he said–I dunno, he said something about how he doesn’t want to talk about it, and I should understand, because I was also–also from a Clan broken by destiny?”

 

“That’s… extraordinarily out of line,” Kakashi says, after another tense pause. “I will speak to Gai, and we won’t be doing any other joint exercises with Team Nine. I will be honest with you, I still want you to train some with Gai, because he helped me gain experience with my Sharingan, but after today, I won’t push you.”

 

Sasuke sucks in a rattling breath, scrubbing at tears still threatening to spill from his eyes. “But you said I need to have–have better relations with other Clans?”

 

“Eh,” Kakashi shrugs. “The Hyuuga rarely get along with anyone else. And Neji is just one member. It's not like you punched out an Elder, or insulted their Clan Head to his face. Just…next time, don’t immediately start physical violence?”

 

They stare at each other for what seems like ages. Kakashi remains quiet, waiting for Sasuke to speak, and when he finally finds his voice again, Sasuke asks, “I’m not…in trouble?”

 

“Mm,” Kakashi shrugs. “I understand why you did what you did, but you have to understand that you cannot do that to another shinobi of Konoha. He might be in the wrong, but attacking him makes it seem like he’s right and you’re desperate. That’s the real reason my father never lashed out, I think. He didn’t want to give them the satisfaction.” He sighs, and heaves himself to his feet. “But my old man never talked to anybody else about what he was going through. He let it all build up, and…well, you know how it ended.” His eye, back to it’s lazy, half-lidded state, stares at Sasuke. “Please don’t follow in his footsteps. It doesn’t have to be me, or even another adult, but…just talk to someone.”

 

Sasuke…doesn’t know if he can. There’s nobody that can really, truly understand what he feels. Except…Kakashi also lost his entire Clan. Sure, it was only one member, but…he might…understand a little. “...can I…think about it?”

 

“I’ll take it,” Kakashi says. “And you should take the rest of the day off. If you wanna clear weeds, fine, but no training, please. I have to go, clear things up with Gai, let him know we’re scrubbing the joint training. If you do decide to take on extra training with Gai, let me know.” He takes a small notepad out of his vest pocket and scribbles something down. “This is my address. I’m not always there, but at least one of the dogs is at the apartment, and they can come find me to let me know you’re there.”

 

He hesitates before taking the scrap of paper. “...if I decide to talk…you won’t tell anyone else, right?”

 

“It’s Clan business,” Kakashi says simply. “Nobody else has to know.”

 

“...thank you.”

 

A heavy, gloved hand plops itself down on his head. “Maa, don’t worry about it. Just trying to be there for my cute little minion.”

 

“Don’t push it.”

 

“But you are!”

 

“I will bite you.”

Notes:

naruto, afterwards: so what'd he taste like
sasuke:...sweaty...

 

hello. i return from the dead. have some anime boys having Emotion Explosions.