Chapter 16
"Tch, you brought one of those out here?" Zabuza hissed as he felt the bloodlusted aura flood the air, supplanting both his own and the infused mist created by Kakashi. "I know that bridgebuilder couldn't afford to hire one of your village's most dangerous weapons. Why did you bring it here?"
Kakashi shrugged lazily.
"Guess you could just call this a weapons test." He said, trying to hide the concern he felt for Naruto and the other Genin with him. It was unlikely, but if the seal was somehow weakened then they'd be in serious trouble. "Though now I'll definitely have to kill you. Can't have the rest of the world know which of our ninja has it, you know?"
He needed to end this as soon as possible, and make sure his students were okay.
…Okay, Ami too. She may not be his student, but he couldn't lie and say she wasn't worming her way into his life – an annoying brat, but one he wanted to make sure was safe.
"Just my fucking luck." Zabuza's hand flash through a set of hand signs and shot out in front of him. "Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!"
The water of the lake surged out towards the leaf ninja, forming into the shape of a massive, ravenous shark. Kakashi leaped backwards to create some distance as he formed his own seals.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" He called whilst slamming his hands into the ground, creating a several inch thick wall of chakra reinforced mud. The shark that had been charging at him slammed into the wall instead, destroying its own form as it tried to push past the barrier.
Small cracks appeared in the wall as bits of water leaked through.
Kakashi created several more hand signs and stuck his hands into the leaking cracks.
"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" Sparks flooded the water, chasing towards Zabuza with immense speed.
It was only through his existing knowledge and Jonin level speeds that he was able to escape the water in time, though even then a couple of strong sparks jumped from the liquid into his legs. Numbness and pain made its way up from his feet to his thighs before he could think to bend them further away from the electrified water.
"Shit!" He had to hiss under his breath to avoid revealing any pain. It seemed that Kakashi had abandoned any sort of mind game, and was intending to finish him off quickly instead. He'd need to pull out all the stops if he wanted to get through this without taking serious damage at the very least.
He knew well enough the Copy Ninja's kill count was likely well in the thousands by this point. Zabuza refuses to be added to that count.
"HAKU! GET OUT HERE!" He yells into the mist, and sees a body flicker into frame out of the corner of his eye. "Get ready to fight all out. The Copy Ninja won't let us go without a fight."
He wouldn't let a supposed Hunter-Nin enter the fight anymore. A secret, untrained Jinchuriki is too much of a major secret to let out into the world. Haku would become a target off of the sheer chance that he could have felt and recognized the demon's aura.
They needed to create an opening, and run the first chance they got. This was no longer a test of what the Sharingan could do, if they had to face Kakashi and the Junchuriki at the same time…
Zabuza may be a human demon, but even he knew who the real devils were.
Kakashi cut his thumb against a kunai, and slammed his hands into the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A series of puffs echoed around him, and the ninja was met with the sight of his Ninken. Each dog was sitting at attention, and ready for the man to give them orders.
"Tunnel and entrap, we're going for kills here." He ordered, watching as all of them tunneled into the earth with heightened speed. With them doing their own work, he would need to act as a distraction until the trap is sprung.
With that, he dashed around his barrier and reentered the fight. From his pouch, he threw a multitude of shuriken out towards Zabuza. He kept running towards the man, kunai in his hand whilst his eye watched the shuriken fly with extreme speed.
Only for them to be knocked off course by a bunch of needles.
Kakashi's eyes widened as he suddenly stopped and stepped back, blocking several needles that were aimed for lethal or paralyzing points on his body. When the attack ended, he looked towards where it had come from and realized that the mist ninja was no longer alone.
"Huh? Who's this?" He asked Zabuza before looking towards the intruder. "You're wearing a Hunter-Nin mask, but you protected Zabuza."
He was clearly young, a prodigy of some sort if he was fast enough to catch Kakashi off guard. And whoever this person was, they weren't in the bingo book – as far as Kakashi was aware; an impressive feat considering he had memorized the book front to back.
"You aren't the only one with a secret weapon, Copy Ninja~!" The mist shinobi taunted as he stabbed his sword into the ground, hands blurring through hand signs.
Kakashi briefly considered using a Genjutsu on him and mirror his movements, but knew he couldn't cast it with enough subtly while also fighting against another ninja of similar skill.
"Haku, now!" Zabuza ordered, prompting the other ninja to throw more needles at the leaf Jonin, forcing him to block them. At the same time, his free hand blurred through a series of signs.
"One handed seals?!" Kakashi realized. "Shit!"
Kakashi formed three hand signs, thunder sparking around his hand.
"RAIKIRI!" He announced as he ran straight towards Zabuza. He only had enough chakra for this last Ninjutsu, so he would need to get it off on the one giving orders, and hope that his dogs would be able to get the drop on the other.
"TORI!" Zabuza finished off his long string of seals, and Kakashi watched as another creature emerged from the water – a dragon.
Almost immediately after, Haku finished his own seals, ice flooding over the plane and up the body of the dragon.
"Ice Style: Ice Dragon Jutsu!" They called the creature together, sending it straight over to Kakashi.
"A Kekkei Genkai?!"
The last student of the Fourth Hokage leaped into the air, barely avoiding the body of the dragon as he continued trying to get closer to Zabuza. His energy crackled and sparked as he raised his hand to stab forwards.
Zabuza saw the approach, and ripped his sword upwards from the dirt to meet the lightning blade. The two attacks met each other, Chakra flooding against itself as they each tried to overpower each other's attacks.
Kakashi had to close his Sharingan eye in the process just to conserve that little bit extra Chakra, pouring as much as he could dare to part with into his attack.
And eventually, one side ended up giving, the top half of the Kubikiribocho coming off with a high-pitched thunderclap. Both Jonin watched as the lightning blade inched closer and closer to Zabuza's chest, neither being able to alter its course anymore.
Then, a fist connected with Kakashi's face, sending him straight into the water. His hand went off course, cutting Zabuza from his chest all the way up his shoulder. Withing seconds blood began to pour from the open wound as the man groaned in pain.
"Zabuza-sama!" Haku yelled as he held the man up, already checking his injury.
Kakashi tried to get up and out of the water's edge, but his energy was too spent to do anything else. That Raikiri had been his last gamble.
The masked shinobi turned his attention to Kakashi, and raised a two fingered hand seal. The Sharingan Warrior heard a roar, and saw that the ice dragon from before had finally recovered from its first missed charge. It flew upwards above them all, before turning downwards towards them.
Haku and Zabuza then both vanished – a Body Flicker.
"Shit!" Kakashi cursed under his breath as he tried to force his body up, but found his body was too burned out to do anything. "Pakkun! Get me out of here!"
Almost immediately, Kakashi's dogs burst out from the ground. In a coordinated effort, they grabbed onto him with mouths and started running away from the incoming ice dragon. The Jonin's vision blurred as he watched the frozen attack starting to come down towards where he had previously been lying.
When it impacted the ground, he saw a massive glacier form over the lake.
"Hmm… If I were a betting man, I'd probably way that the fake Hunter-Nin is a member of the Yuki clan." He mumbles tiredly as the dogs continue to drag him away from the scene of the fight. "Pakkun, get me back to my Genin. I'll need to brief them on everything that's happened… after I wake up."
Judging from how deep the injury was, he was sure that Zabuza would need a couple of days to recover – though that's assuming that he didn't have a medical ninja in his back pocket. Hopefully he didn't; Kakashi needed to call for backup to make sure that the mist ninja was put down.
Those mist shinobi were now major threats to the Leaf's safety.
Kakashi closed his other eye, allowing his exhaustion to take him.
Sakura was the first one to see the forms heading towards us.
"Kakashi-sense-" The pink haired girl paused as she looked at the group that was carrying him. "Dogs?"
"Must be his nin-ken." I reasoned as I looked their way, feeling a bit relieved at the sight of the group of dogs, all of their tails seeming to wag with excitement as they approached us. "I figured he had to have at least one given how he always smells like wet dog."
"Is that what that smell is?" Sasuke asked. "Good thing I'm a cat person then."
"You totally look like a cat person."
"What's that supposed to mean."
"Nothing." I answered as I met the dogs part way, kneeling down to take a small check over of Kakashi. "He looks fine on the outside, no immediate signs of bleeding or broken bones. Chakra Exhaustion maybe?"
When the fight went off the rails like that, I wasn't sure what state the man would be in when the fight was over. It was a bit of a relief to see that he seemed to be alright.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted as he ran over as well. "Ami-chan! Is he okay?! What happened?!"
"He should be fine when he wakes up, he just used too much of his Chakra." I explained to him, patting Pakkun on the head in appreciation. "Now make a couple of Shadow Clones so that we can carry him to safety. We need all hands on deck until we find somewhere not in the open."
"And why should Naruto do what you say?" Sakura asked, crossing her arms. "You're not in charge here."
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto said, forming a pair of clones that slung Kakashi's arms over their shoulders, giving the dogs more room to act as watch for the team.
"Naruto? What are you doing taking orders from her?!"
"Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei is hurt!" Naruto… actually ends up yelling back. "If there's a way that someone can help him get better, I'm going to help! I don't care if you don't like each other!"
Sakura had the decency to look ashamed.
"Sasuke?" She asked the brooding boy, seeming to look to him to see what she should do. It was annoying as hell to watch; she had just given me so much shit and then couldn't stand on her own when Naruto threw it back in her face.
The brooding boy didn't even look at her, watching me carefully.
"…Where do you think we should go?" He eventually asks.
I turned my attention to Tazuna.
"How far is your home from here?"
"It's not too far from here. I'll show you guys the fastest way." He said, looking more sober than I had ever seen him. Guess seeing that all go down would definitely sober someone up.
"Lead the way old man!" Naruto and his clones all yelled in sync.
"Hn." Sasuke nodded.
I stayed silent and stood nearby to Naruto and Kakashi, stealing one last glance at Sakura before we set off on the last stretch.
There was no missing the conflicted confusion in her eyes.
Chapter 17
"Man, how much farther away is your place, Old Man?" One of Naruto's clones asked as we walked along the edge of the water. "We've been walking for hours already!"
"Naruto." I replied to the clone with a deadpan. "It's only been thirty minutes."
"What?! No way!" All of the Narutos yelled in surprise, clearly in disbelief. "It feels like we've been walking all day! Even longer than one of Iruka-sensei's lectures!"
"Quiet down." Sasuke hissed to the orange wearing boy, before pointing a finger to Kakashi. "Our sensei's already out of commission; we need to make sure to avoid attracting any more attention before we can find a rest spot."
Sakura stayed quiet, oddly enough. That's weird. I would have expected her to at least say something about Sasuke being right.
Did a spy replace her or something? That would be hard, she's been in my line of sight almost the whole time. The only time I didn't have her at least in my peripherals was when I was checking Kakashi's vitals, and even then I think Tazuna had her in his own field of view.
I guess I'll have to write it as her being shaken up by the fight unless I get proven otherwise.
"Will you brats stop arguing and keep moving? My house is just over this hill." The bridge builder said as he pointed towards the hill in question. "Just giving you a heads up, my daughter and grandson both live with me. So if you hear what sounds like kitchenware and such, then it's probably just Tsunami cooking lunch."
I got a good look of the house as we reached the top of it, the other side gently sloping out to the house on the water.
"Save your judgement for when or if we actually hear something, sir." I said in a low tone. "We want to be mentally prepared in case one of the other thugs is waiting for us."
Me saying that seemed to put everyone else on alert, Naruto and Sasuke both seemingly becoming more cautious and suspicious of the place, while Sakura seemed to tense nervously whilst trying to peak into the windows with narrowed eyes. Their alertness even extended as far as Kakashi's nin-ken, who seemed a bit more protective while they carried Kakashi.
Thankfully, we didn't have to go all the way down to the house before the door opened to reveal a young woman. Her face was split by a relieved smile when she saw Tazuna.
"Papa!" She yelled and grabbed him into a hug, which he returned in spite of his blushing grumbles. "You're okay! Did you get the ninja that you were looking for?"
"Yeah, yeah. I got the ninja." He said as he waved a hand at us. "We uh… ran into a bunch of Gato's hired goons, and one of them ended up getting uh… what did you call it again purple girl?"
"Chakra Exhaustion." I answered.
"Yeah, that." The bridge builder nodded as he turned back to his daughter. "Think we can set them all up in the spare room so that the big guy can recover?"
"Oh, of course!" Tsunami said with a smile, gesturing for us to go inside. "I have some extra futons for your friends to rest in. Now hurry along now, lunch is almost ready!"
Thank God, I'm starving. The first chance I get after making sure Kakashi's wet dog of a self is alright I'm gonna see about getting a portion of the food for myself. It probably won't be nearly enough for me to fill up on, but it's been a really long time since I've had a real, homecooked meal.
I've tried to cook like that so many times, but it never ends up tasting quite right. It never really compares to the taste of a food made by a loving mother…
Shit, now I just feel sad all over again. Why do I do this to myself?
I shook my head, focusing myself on the task at hand. Things were far, far too dire and precarious for me to risk disassociating or making myself depressed. Team 7 didn't have the knowledge to properly take care of Kakashi if something went wrong; I didn't have much more knowledge than then, but it was still more than what they had.
"Hey, clones." I waved over Naruto's Shadow Clones who were carrying Kakashi over their shoulders. "Lay Kakashi onto the futon and then we can cover him up. I'll run another check on him to make sure there's no external bleeding or obviously broken bones."
"What are we gonna to do with the nin-ken?" Sasuke asked as Naruto laid Kakashi down on the grounded bedding. Each of the dogs in question looking in his direction and tilting their heads. "So long as Kakashi-sensi's unconscious, I'm pretty sure that we can't unsummon all of these dogs. We don't have the food on hand to keep all of these guys fed."
"On the contrary, we're fully capable of sending ourselves back at any time." Pakkun said casually as he sat down besides his ninja partner. "After so long of being around this mask wearing pup, we picked up a trick or two. Just wanted to wait for him to wake up."
"…Did that dog just talk?" Sakura asked, speaking herself for the first time in a while.
"As a matter of fact, he did." I confirmed as I gave Kakashi's arms a closer check for any internal damage. "Summoned animals and animal partners that are trained for it can communicate with humans pretty easily; get with the program, Sakura."
The pink girl blushed and went to argue with me, but paused for a second. Then, she went quiet again.
"Do you have any way to get Kakashi up?" Naruto asked his teammates, sparking something in my mind.
"Oh yeah… I have these." I said, pulling out a scroll and poofing up some pilled shaped wrapped items. "Ammonium Carbonate tubes. They have a smell strong enough that it should force Kakashi awake even with his current status."
"Yeesh, I'd back that up." Pakkun said with a wince, both he and the other summoned dogs trying to cover their noses with their paws. "I can smell it all the way over here; those things could probably wake the dead…"
"Near enough, yeah." I said as I snapped one open and held it underneath Kakashi's nose. "It was either this or trying to find a way to bring Narcan with me."
"What's Narcan?" Naruto asked.
"Exactly." I muttered, seeing that the Jonin was starting to have a reaction. "Wake up you shitty, mask wearing bitch. I'll make sure the next Icha-Icha book is about you and Gai if you don't wake up right this second."
I wasn't sure if the smelling salts were effective or if he somehow heard my threat, but the ninja's eye opened wide and shot up into a sitting position. Big mistake if his sudden clutching of his chest was anything to go by.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried with relief. "You're okay!"
"Okay is a little bit of a stretch right now, Naruto." The Jonin murmured before looking at me. "What the actual hell was that stuff you shoved under my nose. Made my eyes water…"
"Just a couple of smelling salts made from Ammonium Carbonate." I explained to him while sealing the salvageable tubes. "It wasn't easy to get ahold of it, but considering how quickly it got you up then I think it was more than worth the trouble."
"I see…" Kakashi muttered. "And what exactly is it made out of?"
"…Ammonia and Carbon?" I asked with genuine confusion mixed with a deadpan. "It's in the name, Kakashi. You're basically asking me how to make table salt. It's not exactly hard to get if you know what you're looking for."
"Um, okay?" Kakashi eventually responded, then shook his head. "Anyways, Pakkun. Get over here, I need to send a message back to the Hokage for emergency reinforcements."
I blinked in surprised, but I guess I should have seen it coming. With how the fight with Zabuza ended up going off the rails that it did, we'd want to play things safe and send for backup in case something else ended up happening. Kakashi may have come out with the same level of injuries as in canon, but I had no idea what the outcome was with Zabuza; whether he was dead, unharmed, or on an equal level of injury as the original.
"What?! We don't need any help!" Naruto argued, completely missing the way that both of his fellow teammates and myself whipped our heads around to glare at him. "We totally kicked that water clone's butt, and you beat him too, right?! We beat him all on our own!"
"You're right, we did win… except for the fact that none of you saw Zabuza's teammate bail him out and nearly kill me with an ice dragon."
I chocked on my own spit. Haku had interfered like that?
"I-Ice?" I asked, trying to recover as best as I could. "A member of the Yuki clan then? I thought that Kiri had exterminated most of the Kekkei Genkai clans?"
Obviously not, but I couldn't reveal that I knew anything more than that.
"Ah? So you know about them then, Ami?" He asked. "I'm surprised, info like that is only covered briefly in the academy. You must have been studying up."
I felt a flush in my cheeks.
"I wanted to make up for my lack of studying in the academy." I admitted. "But still, if Zabuza has an Ice Style user in his corner, and one with the potential to nearly kill you… does that mean that this mission has gone above A rank danger?"
"Maybe, maybe not…" Kakashi lulled his head back and forth, not at all soothing my worry at the question, nor the sudden worry of any of the other teammates. "Don't worry about it, kiddos. We'll be getting some extra hands to take care of things soon enough. Maybe in about two or three days."
"But it only took us a day and a half to get here." Sakura commented.
"Yeah, but we had a boat. And knowing who they're probably gonna send, he'll take two days to cross the water over here."
I couldn't help but furrow my brow at his comment. Who could possibly take that long and still be on a level that could make up for Kakashi's exhausted state?
"But either way, I'm getting distracted." Kakashi looked over at his team. "You guys showed some good teamwork in that fight. I wasn't there for the whole thing, but you were able to keep each other calm under Zabuza's Killing Intent. That's something to be proud of."
The scarecrow of a man then turned his attention to Naruto.
"And from what I felt, you were the one who took out Zabuza's clone, weren't you?" He asked, and I already knew for a fact that he felt that murderous Chakra from Kurama. He's probably subtly hiding it while telling a partial truth; I'm pretty sure people felt that demonic aura for miles. "You've improved a lot since the academy. Keep up your progress, and I have a feeling that Hokage might not be that much of a stretch for you to achieve."
Wow… I don't think I've ever heard Kakashi been so genuine before. Not in this life at least.
"Ehe~, thanks Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said with genuine joy, scratching the back of his head.
"And Ami." The Jonin continued, and I was surprised to see a spark of what seemed to be satisfaction and pride in his eye. What was…? "You've proven to be a surprise help today. You're prepared and well researched. Whoever your team's original sensei was supposed to be did you a major disservice by not trying to sign you on as an apprentice."
I felt my face burning.
"A-Ah, no no no. I'm not that great of a ninja, Kakashi." I managed to stutter out through a blush. "I-It was only because Hayate-sensei failed me fully that I actually started to change for the better. If I had been made his apprentice or personal student I don't think I would be anywhere close to proficient in any of the areas I work in now."
Kakashi gave me a nod, accepting my answer.
I noticed Sakura looking at the man, seemingly hurt by his praise of me. And I could see her confusion seemed even stronger than before.
Eventually I just pushed her to the back of my mind. We needed to start training as soon as possible if we want to be ready for whatever comes next, compliant with the original story or now.
"Is that everything of yours Haku?" Zabuza asked as he looked over his damaged sword. It was going to take a whole bandit camp worth of blood to repair the thing. "We aren't coming back."
"I have everything, Zabuza-sama." The boy confirmed, his mask no longer in place as they prepared to travel again.
"Y-You can't just leave!" Gato yelled at the two ninja, red-faced with rage. "I pay your wages, and you do what I say. And I'm ordering that you go back out there and kill that damn old man!"
"Huh?" Zabuza hummed questioningly. "Could you repeat that? Seems my injuries have left me hard of hearing."
Gato grounded his teeth.
"I said… get out there and kill that damn old ma-"
The man froze as Haku held a trio of needles right up to his eyes, a small shockwave cracking and shattering his glasses.
"You know… you look like an old man too." Zabuza commented. "So don't get too eager to boss us around. We might just listen."
With that, both ninja vanished with a Body Flicker, leaving the business tycoon shivering whilst taking off his rather expensive tinted spec.
"Tch, who needs ninja anyways?" He grumbles, trying to hype himself back up with the sudden departure of the two powerful men. "I'll show that stupid bridge builder his place with my own two hands…"
Chapter 18
Kakashi gave each of his nin-ken head pats and chin scratches as he sent them each back to Konoha, which all of them accepted with joyful looks. Though when he got to Pakkun I saw him slip the talking pooch a piece of folded paper. I knew he probably wasn't going out of his way to hide the thing, but he didn't exactly make a show of passing it along.
My verdict was to stay quiet about it. Whatever it was, it was probably a few steps too high for me to be questioning anything. Instead, I was trying to focus on not getting worked up about the unknown of the world around me.
We were in completely different territory compared to what I was familiar with, the two most notable things being the outcome of the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza, as well as Naruto triggering the power of the Nine Tails a week earlier than he was supposed to. There was no way that neither of the two Mist ninja wouldn't have felt that sheer murderous power.
I shook my head, trying to knock myself out of my thoughts.
"We need to pick up our training." I said, getting the attention of the previously silent group.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "I kicked that clone guy's butt! You saw it!"
I flinched.
Yeah, I saw it alright. Kind of wish I didn't though. It reminds me of why the Tailed Beasts are considered demons.
"That's the thing, it was a clone." I had to stop my voice from straining to focus on the situation we were still dealing with. "If that had been the real Zabuza, I don't think you would have won, weird powerup or not. He fought against Kakashi, and not to be rude to him, but I have a feeling that encounter could have gone either way."
"Wow, I'm really feeling the love over here, Plum-girl." Kakashi piped up from his futon.
"Trying not to be rude right now, Wet Dog-san." I hissed at him, although it lacked any real fire. If anything, calling each other names felt like something of a comfort; as if we weren't facing a potentially dangerous set of circumstances. "You're the one in charge here. What should we do?"
The members of Team 7 looked to their teacher, the natural flow of authority having seemingly restored itself from the previously haphazard control I had taken due to the extraneous circumstances.
"Ah, well let's save that for tomorrow. Don't think I'm good enough to even show you what I've got planned out." The Jonin said with a small eye smile, extremely casual in spite of what should have been a serious conversation. "And I don't know about you kiddos, but I'm pretty hungry. And given what I've seen of her so far, that means that our plum-colored shrimp of a tagalong is probably half-way to starving."
Jashin damn it all, you fucking wet dog! Don't get me thinking about food at a time like this! I know you're just trying to distract us!
…Okay, he's right – but still. I don't appreciate being called out like this!
Sakura spoke up for the first time in a little while.
"I-I'll go help Tsunami-san with the food then. Excuse me." I noticed her glancing at me out of the corner of her eye as she left, leaving just the four of us left in the room with varying levels of worry, seriousness, and uncertainty.
Well, except for Naruto. He was still all bright smiles as his bombastic victory over the Zabuza clone, thankfully either unaware or not paying attention to the small twitches I made when he looked my way. A part of me was expecting to see those slitted eyes when I looked his way.
Stop being bitch-made Ami; you can't let that stupid overgrown fox stop you from being a better friend for Naruto!
I took a deep breath, taking the steps to cool my growing anxiety as I listened to the conversation take a different direction.
"Kakashi-sensei…" Sasuke paused as the rest of us turned to him, his expression serious as he looked at the Hatake. "Where did you get that Sharingan from? Were you born with it, or did you steal it?"
"Ah ha ha~, sorry to disappoint you. But it's neither." The man's eye smile turned awkward as he explained. "It was… a parting gift from a dear friend and teammate, an Uchiha like you actually."
I had to stop myself from laughing at that. I would hardly describe Obito as being anything like Sasuke, but it wasn't like I could point that fact out.
"I see… what was he like?"
"Imagine Naruto as an Uchiha."
"Gack?!"
"PHAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!" I couldn't help but laugh at the clan heir as he seemed to have all the life drain from his eyes. The fact that he just blatantly described him like that? It completely blindsided me to the point where I couldn't help but giggle until my stomach hurt.
"Ami-chan! What are you laughing for?!" Naruto asked me loudly as he jumped to his feet. "I'd be a great Uchiha! Definitely better than that jerk over there!"
"AHAHAHA I-I'M SORRY HEHE HAHA! I-IT'S JUST T-TOO FFFPHAHAHA~!"
After around a minute of me laughing and Naruto pouting about it, I finally calmed down enough for the conversation to continue. Sasuke seemed utterly bewildered by the description that Kakashi had made of his former teammate, maybe even a little disturbed. I guess when he had been raised around so many serious Uchiha for his early childhood, the idea of one being anything like the blond boy would be a bit of a slap in the face to hear.
"I… I don't… Really?" He asked again, leaning forward a bit as he watched Kakashi for any sign of deception.
"Pretty much." The older shinobi confirmed, though I could see a faint sign of… discomfort in his shoulders. It reminded of me of how I looked in the mirror when I thought about my mom. "There are a few differences, but I'd say Naruto is more alike to Obi-"
"Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Sasuke-kun."
I looked over to see Sakura was back, her expression mostly neutral as she stepped in. I didn't fail to notice how she had omitted calling my name as she entered. "The food is ready. Tsunami-san was pretty much already done. She just needed some help setting the table a bit."
"In that case I guess we should be heading out then." Kakashi said, just the slightest bit rushed as he tried to lean up. "Tch."
"Kakashi-san." I muttered as I went over and helped him up, letting the exhausted ninja lean some of his weight onto my shoulders. "Let's go see if Tazuna or Tsunami have some crutches for you to use."
"Mah, fair enough." He muttered as we walked out of the room. "…You know, with how prepared you seemed to be I'm surprised you don't just have a set of crutches in one of those storage scrolls."
"I will next time, that's for sure. I don't want to have someone leaning on me while smelling like he just came from the dog house."
"Yeah, whatever Plum-Head."
"Wet Dog."
Alright, let's find these damn crutches before I end up just dropping this guy in the middle of the hallway.
"Lee!" Gai called out to his protégé as he continued doing his handstand thumb pushups. "Don't forget to lift with your legs! If you try to lift with your back you might hurt yourself!"
The smaller green beast immediately adjusted his stance, lifting the massive rock with his legs instead of his back.
"Thank you for the reminder, Gai-sensei!" The boy yelled back to his teacher with enthusiasm. "To make up for my mistake I shall lift this boulder another five-hundred times!"
"Excellent! Keep up the good work!" The Jonin smiled with a literal shine as he turned his attention to his two other students, who were doing their less intense but still harsh training regiments. "And how are my two other youthful pupils doing?"
"…I don't know why I'm supposed to be training my Gentle Fist against a tree." Neji admitted as he glared at the ruined bark like it had personally insulted him. "Making the power of the attacks themselves don't make a different to how they impact the Tenketsu."
"Ah Neji, you can use your Gentle Fist for more than just your opponents." Gai said in a more normal, but still loud, volume as he lectured the genius. "The terrain is just as much of a target for your techniques as an enemy ninja, so remember to use it to your advantage, even if you need to finger-point your way through a couple of trees and rocks."
Neji nodded, silently accepting the reasoning as he went back to attacking the tree in front of him. It was a pretty large one, so it would take some time before it would be too ruined for him to use without worrying about knocking it over.
Unlike a certain purple-headed girl that Team 9 had seen in action a handful of times now. Neji was sure that tree would be giving out any day now with how much she punches and kicks it. He just hopes that when it does, it won't fall on top of her.
She seemed to have at least a little talent, more than Lee at least.
Tenten on the other hand was doing a bit of target practice with her kunai, her face in total concentration as she rapidly tossed weapon after weapon right into the bullseye. By the time she paused, three of the targets had their center rings completely filled with thrown weapons.
"I'm still a little off." She observed as she walked over and started pulling out the blades one by one. "There's something I'm not doing right. I'm still hitting the center of the target, but not exactly where I want to hit."
"Well let's see how you're doing things right now." Gai shifted from his handstand onto his feet and walked over to observe the Genin. "How are you thinking of things usually when you throw your kunai?"
"I always try to make sure that I-"
"Jonin Maito Gai."
Everyone's attention immediately turned to see a woman with purple hair landing on the ground near the Jonin teacher, her face covered by a cat-like mask. It took a moment for the younger members of Team 9 to realize that they were looking at a member of the ANBU black ops.
This girl's presence meant that there was something big going on that their sensei was being called for."
"What's going on?" He asked, seeming slightly more serious than usual. Lee, Naji, and Tenten; none of them had really seen much of Gai's serious side, but just then they could see a bit of it peeking through his expression.
"Lord Hokage is summoning you to back up a mission to the Land of Waves, high A-Rank." The lady explained simply before straightening out and practically shoving a mission scroll into the Jonin's hands. "You are to head out immediately. That scroll contains the necessary information you need to know. You are to destroy it after reading it."
"I see, I see." He nodded as he opened the scroll and looked it over on the spot. "Haaaahhh… Kakashi, what have you gotten yourself into, my eternal rival?"
"Gai-sensei?" Lee called out the man's name, confusion clear on his face.
"Ah… I'm sorry, but it seems you'll have to manage your own training for a little while." The Jonin nodded to the ANBU woman, who disappeared with a flicker. Right afterwards, Gai grabbed the scroll in his hands, rubbing them onto the paper until the friction made it burst into flames. Moments later the ink and parchment were reduced to simple black and grey ash. "I have to go save my rival with my youthful techniques!"
The man held his fist up high, showing that he was still the same bombastic person in spite of the seemingly more serious and mysterious situation. Seconds later, and the man disappeared in a burst of speed. Whether it was another Body Flicker or just his natural speed, only Gai himself knew.
His three students were left wondering what exactly was so important that their sensei couldn't even give them some parting words.
"…I know this is kind of out of left field, but didn't that ANBU lady kind of look a little like that Ami girl?" Tenten asked, looking at the other two Genin. "Do you think they might be related?"
Both Neji and Lee gave each other a look at the sudden, unrelated theory being presented to them.
"No."
"It would be very youthful if Ami-chan's family had made it into ANBU!"
The topic would quickly become a repeated point of conversation for Team 9.
Chapter 19
Dinner was a really simple thing, pan seared fish with some sea salt and an assortment of wild vegetables. Absolutely not enough for me personally, but I wasn't going to turn down the extra bit. While a simple dish with hints at the poverty that people in this land suffered, there was a sort of beauty to the plain taste; it didn't need or want to be anything special or flavorful, it was just something to keep you fueled and healthy.
In my memories, there was the deep-rooted desire for soul food and spices, fried chicken and gumbo and cornbread. But I couldn't exactly get my hands on any of that stuff right now. Not in this world, and most certainly not in the Land of Waves.
I might be able to make some of those things later, but right now it was fish and veggies for me… Along with one of my packed meals once I get a chance to slip away. A part of me felt like it would be rude to immediately pull out some other sort of food after having just eaten as a guest in someone's home, particularly right in front of them.
"Oh, Inari!" Tazuna called out from the table, causing everyone's attention to immediately turn their attention to the boy standing in the doorway. "It's good to see you again, boy. How about you come over and meet the ninja that helped your old gramps get back home in one piece?"
The small child looked at all of us with a blank expression, one that I immediately recognized. After all, I had seen it in the mirror for most of my life at this point.
Empty and sad, like the life had been drained right out of it.
Damn it, Mom…
"Why does it matter if I say anything?" Inari asked, addressing his grandfather's earlier question. "They're gonna die anyways."
I couldn't help but let out a laugh.
"Aren't we all gonna die someday?" I asked, my eyes flicking over to Naruto – who was about to get all offended at the boy, but was now facing at me with just as much offence. "Though if you're thinking that a team of ninjas are going to lose against a bunch of hired grunts, then you're in for a big shock."
I'm pretty sure Naruto's clones alone could take out a group of Gato's hired thugs, even if it's just through sheer numbers. Ninja wouldn't be the top dogs of the world's militaries if some random jobbers swinging swords could kill them, especially in a team like this one.
"Tch, whatever." The boy hissed and walked away. "I'm not hungry anyways."
"Inari-" His mother spoked his name, but was cut off.
"Good night." He let out before his footsteps started to fade. A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed before Sakura said something.
"That was really rude, Ami." She glared at me, though I could only shrug.
"He needed to hear it." I casually replied – I certainly would have needed to hear it, at least – then putting my chopsticks down as I noticed everyone had their eyes on me. "Tsunami-san, I assume that something happened to his dad?"
"Ami-" Sakura stopped her outburst when Kakashi put a hand down on her arm.
"I… well, it's a little bit more complicated than that." The woman picked at her meal awkwardly as she seemed to be lost in a memory. "Kaiza wasn't his biological father, but that never really seemed to matter."
As she got into the story about the deceased hero of the Land of Waves, I couldn't help but compare it to my own personal experience. The loss of my own personal hero…
God damn it, I didn't want to think about that shit.
My family didn't really have any type of clan name. Perhaps some of our ancestors did, but that was too long ago for any of us to know now. This made it pretty obvious that we were a painfully average people, with only enough to our names to make due or with very few personal expenses. Both of my parents having to get jobs just to make sure we still had a roof over our heads and food on the table.
Dad was a general laborer who bounced between different kinds of construction and building maintenance, while my mom got a lucky break and was a fairly successful kunoichi. She certainly wasn't anything special in terms of strength, but that hardly mattered to us. We didn't have to be wealthy or powerful in the first place; we were just content with having each other.
That is, until my mother had the absolutely rancid luck of coming across a rogue Jonin from the Land of Stone. It was supposed to be a high C-Ranked mission, maybe a low B-Rank at the highest since it was to deliver orders to the border, but it had immediately jumped to an A-Rank when she came across him.
We had to have a closed casket funeral, her body being too ruined to salvage before the burial. No matter how much I cried and begged to see her one last time, I was denied.
The last words I ever heard my father say was "Stop crying Ami, it won't do anyone any good," as the God damned dirt was being dumped on her grave.
Just thinking about it made my teeth grind in my skull, and I stood from my seat the moment that Tsunami was done talking about the fate of Kaiza.
"Ami-chan, where are you going?" Naruto asked.
"I lost my appetite." I muttered, lying.
"You already ate everything on your plate." Sakura noted to everyone, and I could hear well enough to catch her muttering of "you pig" right after that.
I just went back to the room that Kakashi and the rest of us ninja were going to be using for the duration of our mission.
My head fell forwards into my hands, trying to stifle the stupid tears that were falling down my idiot face.
Why couldn't I have just been someone else?
The next day saw us leaving the house of the bridge builder pretty early, heading into the tall forest trees to do the training that Kakashi had promised us. His crutches clacked against the grass and soil as we walked further and further inland. When we finally got to a stopping point, we were among a particularly tall group of trees. In a way, it reminded me of the redwoods that those other life memories said grew on the American east coast, though these ones seemed a fair bit sturdier than those ones.
"Alright everyone!" Kakashi gave us an eye smile as he turned around, and it was pretty obvious that he was already laughing internally at our expense. "We're exactly where we need to be to start your training. Anyone want to guess what we're going to be doing here?"
Naruto – because of course it would be Naruto – raised his hand in excitement.
"Hm…" Kakashi waited a second, as if he were a teacher in a classroom looking over the class of students who've already answered too many questions. Eventually he decided to humor the blond. "Yes Naruto?"
"Are you going to teach us how to shoot out lightning from our hands?" He asked with excitement, eliciting memories of a certain red blade wielding senate for some reason. "Or maybe you'll tell us how to make that crazy mist stuff that Zabuza used! Oh! Oh! Maybe some super secret technique that explodes someone's heart when you punch them!"
I just chuckled quietly and shook my head. Typical Naruto thinking, but hey, it was kind of endearing. It honestly made me feel like a complete tool that I hadn't tried to be friends with him beforehand. He was lots of fun to just let ramble!
And it seemed Kakashi actually agreed, given how his eye smile relaxed into something more genuine.
"It's not really anything quite that extreme, I'm sorry to say." He stated with a small bit of awkwardness. "We don't really have the time or the resources to do anything too crazy, so for now we're going to be working on a more fundamental skill that you'll be using for the rest of your ninja careers."
Now it seemed that Sasuke was more intrigued, given how he was leaning forwards slightly.
"And what exactly is this skill Kakashi-sensei?" He asked with a seriousness that I'd imagine he likely only reserved for when he was planning his hunt for his crazy ass brother.
Kakashi's eye smile went right back to its teasing form.
"You're going to learn how to climb trees of course!" He exclaimed like it was the secret meaning of life. Several seconds passed as the rest of Team 7 were just stunned silent.
I rolled my eyes.
"Damn wet dog acting like he's some sort of comedian."
"Hey, I'll have you know I'm a crowd favorite on stand-up comedy nights." He rebuked.
"Suuuure…"
"Kakashi-sensei, I'm pretty sure that most of us here already know how to climb trees." Sakura stated, giving me a side eye as she emphasized the word "most". "Do we really need that sort of refresher course?"
That seemed to be exactly the kind of questioning that the wet dog was looking for, given the way he seemed to perk up a bit.
"That's were you're missing some crucial info." He explained as he walked over to a tree with the crutches. "You see, you've been taught physical fitness with climbing. Here we're going to be doing the climbing without the use of our hands."
He then backed up this fact with his little display of casually walking up the side of the tree, only stopping when he was upside down on one of the larger branches.
"You couldn't have just told them that little detail from the start?" I asked, taking a few steps up the side of the tree myself. "At least then I could have done it too and gotten this over with."
"EEEEEH?!" I heard the combined yelling of the Team 7 Genin as I joined Kakashi on the underside of the branch.
"Since when did you know how to do tree walking?" The Jonin asked me with a raised brow. "Most Genin don't learn this kind of skill until they get taught it by a Chunnin or Jonin."
"Got curious and asked the two Eternal Chunnin guys that give me my missions every day." I explained with a shrug, not bothering to hid the information since it was at least partially true. I had asked Kotetsu and Izumo about tree walking some time ago when I first started training the skill, pretty much exactly to explain it away when I had access to the ability later.
"Those two, huh?" He muttered. "I guess if you already know how to do this then, you can do some of your own training. Just make sure you don't overdo it. I've heard from some of the other Jonin that you've been pushing yourself a lot."
"So your 'Eternal Rival' keeps you up to date about little ol' me?" I asked with a small smirk. "Maybe I should break out my green jumpsuit and start spouting about youth then while I train."
I didn't actually have one of those things – yet at least; they actually seemed kind of good for the base of an outfit at least – but the thought alone seemed to genuinely bother Kakashi.
"On second thought, you're on guard duty for Tazuna." The wet dog changed his tune immediately. "In fact, if you actually do that I'll have you removed from the ninja force immediately on grounds of instability."
I just let out a chuckle and walked down the tree.
"Whatever you say, wet dog-san~!" I joke as I touch down on the floor. "I'll start putting on my gear and head out to start guarding the old drunk man they call a bridge builder."
"A good a plan as any." The Jonin shuddered as he touched down on the ground before addressing the rest of his team. "Well you've seen pretty much everything I have to show you about what this should look like and then some. The principal is to push your chakra out of the bottoms of your feet, enough to not just slide down the side of the tree, but not enough to just make whatever your walking on explode. Try to get a running start, and use some kunai to mark your progress. If you have any more questions… ask Ami between guard duties."
Bastard! Don't hoist your duties on me!
Kakashi would definitely pay the next time I see him, though for now he was out of reach given how he was already on his way back to the house.
I just shook my head and began taking my gear out of their respective storage scrolls. I figured that I might have a few days to work on reviewing my Fuinjutsu readings, so I also took out the guide for that as well. Any kind of training I can squeeze in here without completely burning myself out would be very helpful. After all, small bits of progress are still progress.
As I finished putting on my outfit, I heard an annoying, angry voice pipe up from where Team 7 was supposed to start training.
"You have some nerve acting the way you are." Sakura growled, standing over me with her armed crossed. "I know exactly what kind of person you are, Ami. Don't try to pretend that you've changed."
…God fucking damn it, I guess we're doing this now.
And right at the moment where the Jonin sensei isn't around with no emergency to squash the bullshit.
Let's just get this over with.