They entered their master's room and sat in the chairs, watching for possible side effects from Itachi's sharingan. Now that Naruto was gone and they were silent, Seina started to question a few things that didn't add up regarding Itachi. It wasn't the first time she thought about it, but she always had something more important to do than think about Sasuke's mysterious brother.
"I'm glad you didn't go chasing after your brother like an idiot," she confessed to him.
"Hn. For a moment I thought about it, but… I made you a promise."
"I know."
"Sometimes I think you have doubts," Sasuke looked at her directly, sensing her indecisive feelings.
"I don't doubt helping you kill your brother, if that's what you want, but I doubt we really know what happened that night."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed automatically, irritated, as every time someone reminded him of his clan's murder. However, he knew her well and knew she would never say something like that so lightly without having serious doubts. That was enough for Sasuke not to get angry. That and their semi-open bond.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you find the whole situation strange? To begin with, how many members would you say your clan had the night they died? 20, 30, 50?"
"I don't know exactly, but it was a high number, maybe 50."
"Alright, let's say 50 members. Your brother was not even 14 years old at the time and, despite being a genius, surely your clan had elite ninjas with the sharingan and much more experience than your brother. Do you see where I'm going? How could one person kill them all without ending up gravely injured? He could have used poison or genjutsu to make it easier, but did none of them realize and resist? I also don't think he could have caught them all off guard, at most the first pair of people he attacked. The probability of any of these scenarios happening is very low."
"You're suggesting he didn't act alone," Sasuke thought aloud, his face more severe than ever.
"Honestly, if we analyze the probability of each scenario, everything points to that."
"But everyone believes he did it alone. Not even the other ninjas mention anyone else when they talk about… the massacre."
"And that's what makes me doubt the most about this whole situation. As far as I know, the investigation of what happened was carried out by the anbu and the officials closest to the former Hokage, so it makes sense that everyone else believes your brother killed them all in a fit of madness because that's the only 'reliable' information they have."
"But that doesn't mean the information we have is the truth…"
"No, not at all… Then there's the fact that he left you alive instead of killing you, why? I know he told you to get stronger if you wanted to kill him and to use your hatred, but what sense did it make if Itachi really acted in a moment of madness? When I heard and saw your memory of that day… it seemed strange to me how he said it. He didn't seem to be mocking you, he didn't seem… I don't know. An excited maniac looking forward to a fight with his brother in the future? No. He seemed to genuinely, from the heart, want you to get strong enough to defeat him. I firmly believe that's what your brother wants."
"Why would he want that? Out of guilt? Why not just kill himself then?"
"If I'm right… I imagine it would be because if he left you alive, his little brother, and then you killed him, he would feel like he was atoning for his sins. If he had committed suicide, he would just be a coward who would have caused you a lifelong trauma, but if he left you alive and then you managed to avenge your clan by killing him, he would have been able to redeem himself for what he did."
"Then, why do it!? Why try to redeem himself for something he did himself!?"
"…"
"Whatever you're thinking, tell me, please," Sasuke almost pleaded.
"Doesn't the situation make no sense at all?" she said, sighing. "However, it makes more sense if we assume he did what he did unwillingly."
"What?" Sasuke asked in a whisper, completely bewildered. "Unwillingly? You mean… someone forced him? You think that… He was ordered to kill my clan?"
"I've been thinking about it a lot and it's the most feasible option with the information we have. Look, I'll tell you what I think happened from the beginning," she cleared her throat and organized her thoughts for a few seconds. "To start with, somehow Itachi was convinced to kill your family, maybe through blackmail or orders from someone. The point is he agreed to kill your clan, but in return for sparing your life. Otherwise, you'd be dead. He probably had help that night, which would explain how it's possible everyone died and Itachi came out practically unscathed. Then, he made sure you didn't succumb to depression by using your hatred against him to give you a reason to keep living. Not only did he help you move forward, but he also ensured his own death wouldn't be at the hands of someone else but yours. That would be enough to ease his guilt for killing his family."
>> "He probably thought that once you managed to kill him, you could heal the trauma of your family's death since you would have achieved your childhood and adolescent goal: killing your parents' murderer. Once you avenged them, you could create your own family, ensuring the Uchiha name wouldn't be lost. Any way you look at it, Itachi comes out as a winner: he fulfills the orders or blackmail, but the Uchiha clan continues to be well-regarded thanks to you for killing him and, despite being almost extinct, will grow in numbers again in the future if you have children."
"And why not warn the clan that someone ordered or blackmailed him to kill the clan?" Sasuke asked, holding onto the last thing left to resolve.
"Very simple. Do you think your clan would have sat idly by waiting to be killed? No, of course not. If someone really wanted your family to cease to exist, they would have succeeded sooner or later by other means without Itachi's help. No, Itachi would have lost the only advantage he had. If your clan had known and attacked, say, the Hokage, do you think the other Konoha ninjas would have stood by? That would probably have meant the elimination of all of you, including Itachi and you. By doing it the way he did, he ensured you lived."
"How sure are you of what you just said?" Kakashi-sensei said, who clearly hadn't been sleeping for a while.
Seina and Sasuke jumped. Damn, not even her spell had caught the change in their master's heartbeat or breathing. They turned to see him and watched as he sat up with some difficulty, a serious expression on his face.
"Right now? Quite sure. When it happened everyone talked about it, as usual. With my powers I heard all kinds of conversations, but everyone who knew or had seen Itachi found it strange that he did something like that. According to them, he was the most humble Uchiha and always very kind and, despite the pressures he was under, he always had time to take care of his brother. Basically, no one spoke ill of him. Most wondered if the pressure of being the clan leader's son and a ninja prodigy had taken its toll, but none spoke of him as a psychopathic murderer but as a traumatized ninja."
>> "Plus, there are two things that make me doubt if he's really guilty: the first, which I had forgotten until now, is Sasuke's memory… When Itachi attacked him… he seemed to have been crying. It doesn't make sense. He seemed devastated by what he had just done. Which only makes sense if he killed them involuntarily. The second… Itachi was anbu, right? How did you find him so easily today in Konoha if he knows all the village's hideouts? Why did he confess he was after us when he could have kept quiet? Who would be stupid enough to say something like that? Isn't Itachi supposed to be a genius?"
"…Yeah. Itachi wasn't one to succumb under pressure," Kakashi-sensei sighed. "Kurenai and Asuma saw him eating in a restaurant and then near the river on the outskirts… Now that I think about it…"
"Do you think Seina could be right?" Sasuke immediately asked him.
"I'm afraid so. I never thought about it deeply. Itachi was anbu under my command. Even so, I didn't know him well. He was always very distant, although cordial. When he did it, I was still in anbu so I didn't have time to think about it. I simply accepted the version given by the other comrades who investigated the case. In fact…"
"In fact, what?" Sasuke pressed him.
"This whole situation. What Seina described… it's not how the Third acted."
"Then, who could have pressured Itachi like that?" she asked, having believed, though not explicitly stated, that it had been an order from the Hokage. Who was as powerful as the Hokage for Itachi to obey without question?
"Danzo."
"Danzo? The same Danzo?"
"Who is he?" Sasuke asked angrily. "Could he do something like that?"
"Danzo was the leader of an anbu department called Root. The Fourth Hokage ordered the group to disband, and for a while, it did. When your father died, Danzo went back to his old ways. For a time, he even tried to recruit me in hopes of using me to spy on the Third."
"Spy on the Hokage?"
"Danzo wanted to kill him, but I set a trap for him."
"What?" she exclaimed upon hearing this. "And the Third knew all this?"
"That's right."
"But how is that Danzo still alive?" Sasuke asked, incredulous.
"He was a childhood friend of the Third's, maybe it was impossible for him to get rid of his friend. Perhaps Danzo was useful to the Hokage, despite the danger he posed."
"I can't believe it… The Third was an idiot," Seina thought aloud. "And what do we do? Apparently, he's a powerful person with a thirst for power."
"We do nothing," Kakashi-sensei told them firmly. "First, we wait until we have a new Hokage. I need to gather some evidence and people to corroborate this story, only then will an investigation into the matter be warranted."
Sasuke looked out the bedroom window. She could feel how he was a mess of emotions. She knew what she had told him had completely shattered his perception of what happened and of his brother. The worst part was that Kakashi-sensei seemed to agree that Itachi's true pacifist nature didn't match what everyone believed, and they had a perfect candidate for who might have used his brother to do something like that.
"Hmm… It is strange," the jonin thought aloud.
"What is?"
"What Seina said earlier. She's very right. Why would someone who lived in the village and was anbu, knowing all the hideouts, sit down to eat in a restaurant in the middle of the village without hiding his presence?"
"You think he let himself be seen," Sasuke reiterated his words. "Hn."
"I had already thought it was strange that he was noticed, especially by Kurenai who didn't know him, and then reappeared on the other side of the village when he was supposedly looking for your brother and you," Kakashi-sensei looked her and then at Sasuke, thoughtful. "Although… if what Seina said is true… It might be that he wasn't here for them but as an excuse to see how you were, Sasuke, after the invasion and the power vacuum caused by the Third's death. The more I think about it, the more obvious it seems. By the way, where's Naruto?"
"Asuma-sensei took him with ero-senin," she answered. "He left me in charge until you regained consciousness. How are you?"
"I'm much better. I don't know what you did, but it worked."
"I basically removed Itachi's chakra from your brain and repaired the damaged areas of your mind with my powers."
Kakashi-sensei nodded, as if what she had just said was something totally normal.
"Thank you, Seina. Do you think you could counteract the sharingan in some way? I think it won't be the last time we see each other. In fact, I don't even know how I came out conscious from his jutsu."
"Don't you remember I used runes to protect your ninja headband?"
"Are you saying my headband protects me from genjutsu?" Kakashi-sensei asked, astonished.
"Clearly not entirely, but it has helped protect your head," she replied, shrugging.
"So, with your powers, it's possible to stop his genjutsu, right?"
"Hmm… If you wore glasses, I think I could do it easily," she thought, then spoke to Sasuke mentally. "Do contact lenses exist in this world?"
"No. I think many shinobi use chakra to see better. Others wear glasses."
Seina took out her journal and noted down to make permanent contact lenses with a vision-correcting spell. Her to-do list was growing. Kakashi-sensei glanced at her journal momentarily but didn't ask.
"The glasses idea sounds good. I don't mind wearing them for combat."
"I could make them unbreakable and also useful for night vision, X-ray vision, and telescopic vision... What else could I add? Oh, yes, water and dirt repellent."
"Can you make glasses with X-ray vision without using actual X-rays?" Kakashi-sensei asked, slightly surprised. "If the hospital knew about this, they'd kiss you. In fact, maybe we could mention it to Tsunade-sama so you could get paid for your creations. The Uzumaki were experts in fuinjutsu, so it wouldn't surprise anyone if you started creating such inventions."
"That's a good idea... I want to make something that the interrogation department will love," she grinned from ear to ear at the thought of the truth chair or the pensieve. She noticed a presence approaching the house's magical barriers. "Asuma-sensei is here again."
"Let him in, please. I'll go take a shower in the meantime."
She had already used a spell to clean him when she treated his wounds but let him go to the shower to relax a bit, without commenting. Seina opened the door a second before Asuma-sensei could. She let him in.
"Your brother has already left the village with Jiraiya-sama. Apparently, there were no problems. How's Kakashi?"
"He's showering."
"Showering?" He turned abruptly to look at her. "He shouldn't even be able to move for days!"
She shrugged. Let him think what he wanted. Then Kakashi-sensei came out, dressed in his uniform but without the vest. Sasuke followed behind him.
"Asuma. Thanks for listening to me earlier."
"As if I could have refused," Asuma-sensei scoffed with a sarcastic laugh. "I imagine your new chunin has told you what happened this afternoon."
Kakashi-sensei turned sharply to look at her, with a pleased expression.
"Why didn't you tell me you got promoted, Seina? Congratulations, Chunin Uzumaki."
"Thank you very much, sensei," she replied formally, bowing. "I didn't think it was relevant considering the situation."
"Your achievements are always relevant," Kakashi-sensei disagreed and then turned to look at Asuma, who was watching the scene with a raised eyebrow. "Is it true that Itachi has already left the village?"
"So it seems. Both he and his partner have been seen moving away from Konoha. Jiraiya-sama is aware of the possible danger," Asuma-sensei looked at them discreetly, and Kakashi-sensei understood what he meant.
"You can speak in front of them. They always end up finding out everything," his sensei shrugged.
"If you don't mind," Asuma-sensei accepted. "An anbu team has been dispatched to track them. With them after those two, they probably won't get close to Naruto."
Kakashi-sensei talked for a while longer with Asuma-sensei, assuring him that he was much better and didn't need to go to the hospital, much to the other jonin's amazement. Late at night, his master asked to leave a clone at his property and move to his house, where even Asuma-sensei and the others didn't know about its existence.
"I knew that if they took me to the hospital and it turned out you could heal me, they'd ask how you did it, and I'd be forced to lie. Also, the hospital isn't a safe place for you. Not only could Itachi and his partner have attacked you, but Orochimaru could have taken the opportunity to get Sasuke, and apparently, we also have to worry about Danzo until Jiraiya-sama returns with Tsunade-sama. Right now, this house is even safer than mine, so we'll stay here until I fully recover."
"I'll start making dinner," Seina sighed and created a clone. "I think I'll resume my previous study routine."
"Some normality wouldn't be bad, indeed. And you, Sasuke? Why don't you train your kenjutsu with Seina? I can give you advice from my seat."
"Sounds good to me."
"Great. We'll start tomorrow."
They started dinner, somewhat surprised that Naruto wasn't with them, and explained what they'd been told at the Hokage's tower about their chunin exam evaluations. Kakashi-sensei sighed when he heard how, having arrived late and not completed his exam, Sasuke wasn't allowed to be promoted despite being qualified. When he heard why Naruto hadn't been promoted, he frowned.
"Naruto needs to learn subtlety and to be less driven by emotions," he sighed again, eating dessert. "He can't identify so much with every rival, or he'll end up hurt, or worse."
"I know, but try teaching him that," she said. "I'm convinced that if it weren't for Sasuke and me sometimes being literally connected to his mind, he wouldn't correct his behavior half the time."
"The dobe spends half his time thinking about how to save his enemies instead of how to defeat them. He's too sensitive."
"That's because, so far, you haven't encountered anyone truly irredeemable. Someone who is genuinely bad, no matter how many chances you give them or how hard you try to help them. One day, he will meet someone he can't help, someone willing to kill you, and you'll see how he reacts. Naruto will have no choice but to do what he must if he wants to save his loved ones," Kakashi-sensei told them. "That will be the dose of reality he needs."
"I suppose you're right... Even Zabuza turned out to be a decent person in the end, and Gaara is just a product of his childhood. You can't—"
"Nee-chan!" Naruto shouted mentally, and Seina jumped in her seat. "He's here, Sasuke's brother!"
"Naruto!?" Sasuke asked mentally, cursing.
"Naruto says Itachi has caught up to them," she informed her jonin-sensei, who put his bowl down on the table and gave her his full attention.
"I suppose he can hear me," Kakashi-sensei said calmly, not even asking if it was true or not. He then looked directly into her eyes, as if he could speak to her brother. "Naruto, is Jiraiya-sama fighting him? Where are you? Can you sense an anbu team? Hide and don't attack directly, or they'll capture you."
"The pervert isn't fighting him; Naruto thinks he's under a genjutsu since he felt the illusion just a few minutes ago. He used his bracelet to stay unnoticed, and Itachi hasn't been able to see him inside the room. They're at an inn in Shukuba City. It seems they're alone since he can't hear any other ninja."
"Good. Don't deactivate the bracelet or try to break Jiraiya-sama out of the genjutsu. They might be waiting for you to go for him. Hide and wait for reinforcements. An anbu team is on Itachi and Kisame's heels. They should arrive soon. Do you hear anything else?"
"No, just someone moving around the inn, apparently searching for him. Wait! It seems the pervert has broken free from the genjutsu! He's fighting both of them at the inn's entrance!" Both Sasuke and she focused on Naruto to see through his eyes. Suddenly, she wasn't in her home but in Shukuba, and she was Naruto. "He can see them through the window. He wants to help but knows he might be a hindrance, so he's sent out many clones to even the fight. Jiraiya seems to have summoned a huge toad. They're fighting. It looks like he's trying to trap them inside it. Itachi is using some strange Sharingan. It must be the Mangekyou Sharingan you talked about. He plans to leave since he doesn't want to fight and is low on chakra, or so he says. He's used some black flames to escape. Naruto hears them heading west."
Seina blinked, returning to her body. It was the first time since their team training that she shared a body with several people at once. She saw Kakashi-sensei progressively relax in his seat, taking a breath. She noticed the spoon he had used for dessert was slightly bent.
"He's safe, right? Great. Crisis averted. What's happening now?"
"Naruto has reunited with the pervert who, apparently, was tricked by the genjutsu of a woman," she said, irritated that her brother's safety was compromised by an old man's lecherous behavior. "Fortunately, both are fine. Jiraiya ordered him to sleep while he keeps watch tonight. Naruto is hearing the supposed anbu team arriving; Jiraiya will hear them soon too."
Minutes later, the pervert made contact with Konoha's reinforcement team, and Seina felt more at ease. Sasuke, who had been tense in his seat, relaxed upon hearing this as well.
"We should get some rest now that we know everyone is safe."
"How long are we staying here?" she asked.
"Now that we know Itachi isn't in Konoha, part of the danger has passed, but until I'm fully recovered, I'd like you to stay here," Kakashi-sensei informed them. "For now, thanks to Asuma and the other higher-ups, you don't have any missions, so take this as a break. Once I'm recovered, we'll have this conversation again."
Seina wished them good night and went to take a long bath. Without missions until further notice, she decided to relax and resume her hospital studies that had been on hold for a month.
The next day, she woke up a bit later than usual and was still the first to go down and prepare breakfast. She was grateful Sasuke hadn't had the bright idea to wake up earlier to cook himself. While she cooked, for a change, she let about 30 clones resume her academic texts from the hospital and practice the iryo ninjutsu she already knew. To her surprise, she realized she was starting to know more medical jutsus than ninjutsu.
"Good morning, Seina."
"Good morning, Kakashi-sensei."
"Already studying?" he asked, looking out the window at her clones in the garden. "A bit early, isn't it?"
"I wanted to do something. After breakfast, I was thinking about researching the glasses against genjutsu, but after some thought, I realized they aren't really necessary. Genjutsu affects the central nervous system, meaning the brain. When you told me about the idea and mentioned using glasses, did you say that because the Mangekyou Sharingan is only effective when you look into the eyes?"
"That's right. You can fight with your eyes closed against someone with those eyes."
"How is that possible?" she wondered aloud. "To perform a genjutsu, visual contact shouldn't be necessary."
"The Mangekyou Sharingan is different," Kakashi-sensei explained. "I myself have a type of Mangekyou different from Itachi's, so I know the basics of how it works. Like all genjutsus, it affects the central nervous system, but unlike regular genjutsus, each type of Mangekyou can perform a unique illusion specific to the eye of each user. This means it doesn't need hand seals since the eye itself is capable of performing the illusion, acting like a pre-loaded jutsu."
"I see!"
Basically, the Mangekyou Sharingan was like a wand with a preset spell capable of casting a finite number of spells. In Itachi's case, it seemed he could mentally torture someone by making their brain believe time was moving much slower than it actually was. That's why no hand seals were needed; the eye itself acted as the manual seal, and the "jutsu" only activated with visual contact. Besides this inconvenience, the genjutsu acted technically like any other genjutsu, once its chakra reached the brain. Without visual contact, the chakra wouldn't reach the target, and the victim wouldn't fall under the genjutsu.
Now she understood why Kakashi-sensei had thought of glasses, but certainly, they weren't necessary for her. As long as the Mangekyou acted like any other genjutsu, it didn't matter if Itachi looked into her master's eyes 50 times; she could protect his mind from foreign chakra, and Kakashi-sensei would be as immune to the genjutsu as she was. She explained all this to see what he thought.
"Mmm… So, you could protect me from the genjutsu externally, protecting my brain, not my eyes."
"Exactly."
"And how would you do that? Like the earring the boys wear?"
"The earring worn by who?" Sasuke asked, appearing at the door.
"We're talking about making him immune to the Mangekyou. The earring idea could work perfectly," Seina told him. "It wouldn't be as cumbersome as glasses, and I can make it so no one can remove it with ill intentions."
"That's a good idea, though I think it would draw attention if I wore glasses."
"The problem is we have no way to test it against a genjutsu as strong as the Mangekyou Sharingan."
"How sure are you it would work?"
"99%. The 1% being a type of genjutsu that doesn't work by affecting the brain."
Kakashi-sensei raised an eyebrow at her confidence but seemed to believe her. He picked up one of the many earrings she had bought for testing, a metal bar with a small silver ball, and went to her study to perform the necessary spells and runic rituals. She had done so many of these for her family that it didn't take even 20 minutes.
"All that's left is for you to put a drop of blood on the earring," she informed her master, who had followed a clone to her study. "I wouldn't want your own chakra to stop reaching your brain, after all."
"You're binding the earring to my blood? Ingenious. So no one else, except a clone genetically identical to me, could put me under genjutsu, right?"
"That's right. Well, a clone of yours and anyone whose intentions are to help you. I thought about leaving it for anyone who didn't have ill intentions against you specifically, but that would leave you exposed to falling into a genjutsu whenever it wasn't activated against you specifically, and you had fallen into it by accident… Oh, and I prepared another earring for you. With this one, you can use it like we do, to listen from afar."
"Well thought out," he cut his finger with a senbon and let a drop fall on the earring, watching as the runes absorbed it. "What's the range of this earring?"
"About 30 meters, like mine. Sit down, I'll pierce your ear."
In less than 5 minutes, Kakashi-sensei had one ear pierced with two identical earrings, one above the other. She explained how some materials, like the titanium she had used for these earrings, couldn't contain as much power as other minerals and how it was much more effective to use natural materials than transformed or conjured ones. A material that had grown in the earth, charged with magic or chakra, was much more useful than something she had created from the molecules in the environment, despite having the same chemical composition.
"That's why I'm trying to save up to buy different types of materials and see which one is more effective for my jutsus," she told him, showing him the different materials she had bought in small quantities for experiments, considering that "magic" as such didn't exist in this world.
"So, if you find a material that's sufficiently... strong? You could put more than one of your jutsus in the same piece of jewelry instead of using two different earrings."
"Exactly."
"You've got your work cut out for you… Well, try putting me under genjutsu."
Seina used several genjutsu, but to Kakashi-sensei's excitement, nothing worked.
"Now I understand what you meant. It's like I can feel the physical presence of something hitting my brain, and yet, I don't even have to repel your attempts. This is huge, Seina. Thank you so much for the earring, and for the gift."
"You're welcome."
"How do you activate the spying jutsu?"
"Oh, right. I need to activate it the first time. Do you want me to do it now?"
"Better in the garden."
Minutes later, she let Kakashi-sensei test his new toy in the garden while she returned to her study to create her first summoning animal. She looked at her list of animals, but despite trying to avoid sentimentality, her eyes kept landing on the entry that read "snowy owl."
"Why not?" she sighed.
Mentally thanking the universe for being an expert in wandless magic, she began transforming one of the rocks she had stored in her bottomless trunk into the shape of Hedwig, which she knew perfectly. It didn't take her long to examine her old friend, making sure she was perfect. Then, she started enchanting and inscribing runes to make her indestructible, stronger than usual, and lighter. After that, she used her blood to bind the owl to her, so she could control it with her thoughts and intentions. The last thing she did was animate it, giving it a voice and the normal sounds of any other owl.
The owl, which looked completely real and not like a weapon she planned to summon that could kill anyone with its magically sharp talons, hooted and flapped its wings, perching on the windowsill to look outside. For a moment, she thought of naming it the same as her old owl, but deep down, she couldn't because it wasn't the same, only an invention of hers.
The golden eyes met hers, sensing the emotions she felt. It hooted softly and flew again, now perching on her shoulder and nipping at her like her owl had done over a century ago. It still needed the seal that would serve to summon it, but since she didn't yet have the suitcase where she planned to place all her summons and where the other half of the summoning seal would reside, she let it free, knowing it wouldn't stray far from her.
Hours later, Kakashi-sensei called her down for lunch.
"What have you been doing in there all morning?" asked Sasuke, ravenously eating what she had prepared that morning for midday.
"I've started with our plan. Look at this," Seina mentally called her invention, which was resting on a perch in front of her window in her room, and listened to it fly to her.
Both Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke watched as the owl perched on her shoulder, tidying her blonde hair. The golden eyes of her new owl fixed on Sasuke and then on Kakashi-sensei. When it hooted, her teacher gave an almost imperceptible start.
"It looks so real..."
"Where did it come from?" asked Kakashi-sensei.
"Oh, I forgot you were asleep when we talked about it."
"Talked about what?"
She explained everything they planned to do regarding the summons and how they had decided it was easier to create their own teams with the most useful animals than to use a single contract. To say he was stunned when he realized it wasn't real but a transformation of hers was an understatement.
"I'm impressed."
"I've started with the smaller animals. So far, I have all the birds made; they just need animating, but I need to check the sounds of each one to make them accurate. Also, I need a suitcase to carry out our plan. We can make one for you, if you want."
"Actually, I have my own summons."
"That's right! I almost forgot!" she exclaimed, delighted. "Can we meet them? I love dogs!"
"I guess I have enough chakra for this... Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
A cloud of smoke appeared in the middle of the dining room, and suddenly, she saw the small body of a tan pug with brown eyes. She had to bite her tongue not to squeal in delight at seeing something so adorable.
"Yo, Kakashi! It's been a while since you called me," the pug turned to look at Sasuke and her closely. "Who are they?"
"Pakkun, these are Sasuke and Seina, members of my team."
"Nice to meet you."
"Can I pet you?" she asked him.
Pakkun didn't respond. He jumped into her lap and let her pet his ears and head. She saw him sniffing her.
"Pakkun..." Kakashi-sensei scolded him.
"You smell nice."
"Thanks... I guess," she said, stifling a laugh.
She spent the entire afternoon with Sasuke creating their summons. By nightfall, the house was full of birds, mice, cats, dogs, rabbits, and insects scurrying around, to Sasuke's excitement and her teacher's amazement.
"Do you think I could send a clone to buy a few things tomorrow?" Seina asked Kakashi-sensei.
"Tomorrow we can all go out. With that second revitalizing potion you gave me, I'm almost at 100%. I'll have to go to the Hokage tower to report, so I don't know if I'll be back soon. Sasuke and you can take the day off to train or continue with your project, but always within the village."
"Great!"