Chapter 55: Volume 2, chapter 6: Teammates, Repute & honour.
Sakura was nervous, really nervous.
Today was the day.
The day they met their Jonin instructor.
Being placed on the same team as Sasuke had been a very welcome surprise, it gave her a lot more time with him. She could only imagine how far behind she was now, given how little time and attention she had to spare towards her pursuing true love.
In the weeks following Sasuke's rejection of her, Shizune-sensei made sure she was very busy and when she wasn't training with her sensei she was training and hanging out with Naruko. She could cut back on the time she spent with her blonde friend to spend more time chasing Sasuke but… she didn't think it was worth it.
That thought alone made her feel unfaithful for placing her friendship with Naruko above Sasuke, but she wasn't really doing that! Naruko not only helped her train, she also made her a better person, which would make her a better girlfriend to Sasuke!
So in a round about way she had to be friends with Naruko, right?!
…Anyway, it's not like chasing Sasuke around would get him to like her. No, he had made it very clear, get useful or get away, and Sakura heard him loud and clear. She had spent almost every waking moment the past few months trying to make herself more useful and now she could show him just how useful she had become.
If only her Sensei would show up!
It had been almost an hour since the last team had been picked up by their Sensei and Sakura and her teammates were still waiting for this 'Hatake Kakashi'. She had done her research on the Jonin in the village and who could potentially be her sensei but she had not come across that name.
She hoped he was as good as Shizune-sensei.
She wasn't alone in her wait, Naruko sat at the same table as her, she looked bored and a little sad. Sakura knew why, she had been lamenting earlier about the perv not being around to witness her team's formation, and while Sakura did not have a high opinion of Hanama-san, she did accept how happy he made Naruko so she was a bit sad on her behalf.
Only a little bit though, how could she truly be sad when she was on the same team with Sasuke! With how difficult her life had been recently it was like the heavens finally gave her some slack. She had a chance now, all she had to do was show how far she had come and Sasuke would definitely fall for her.
… hopefully.
Right as those thoughts crossed her mind the door to the classroom creaked open and in came in a tall man with gravity defying silver hair and a full face mask. He stopped at the door and inspected the trio with his one visible eye.
"My first impression-" he began to say in a deep drawling voice before an orange blur cut him off.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruko exclaimed as she charged the Jonin who exploded into smoke as soon as they made contact, then the smoke cleared to reveal Naruko hugging a log.
"My first impression is that… you're alright." came a voice from directly behind Sakura making her flinch in her seat, and whip her head around.
"You could do with some more situational awareness though." he said, somehow conveying a smile with his one visible eye.
"Oi! Don't ignore me!" yelled Naruko discarding the log when she realised her hands were not wrapped around her target.
"Hm, you said something?" Kakashi asked.
She glared and Kakashi walked down the stairs ruffled her hair but said nothing else.
"Meet me on the roof," he ordered and disappeared in a shunshin before Naruko could react.
"He's so annoying!" the young blonde huffed while tugging at her ponytails in frustration.
"You know him?" Sasuke asked.
Naruko glared at him and ignored his question, speaking to Sakura.
"C'mon, Sakura-chan." she said as she jumped out the window one of her hands took hold of the window sill to flip around and plant her feet on the wall and sprint to the roof.
"So the Dobe can wall walk." Sasuke noted, watching Naruko with interest in his Onyx eyes and Sakura felt jealousy stir in her chest.
"I can wall walk too!" she exclaimed, earning a sceptical look from Sasuke.
"Show me," he ordered and Sakura hurried to comply.
Sakura ran to the window and after a bit of unsteadiness and manoeuvring, she planted her feet and looked up only to see Sasuke already on the wall crouched in front of her and watching her intensely with his beautiful spinning red eyes.
"Acceptable," he said with a grunt and turned around to casually walk up the building and Sakura scrambled after.
"Well we're going to go around introducing ourselves," Kakashi said as Sauke and Sakura stepped on to the roof. The bright blue of the Konoha afternoon sky added a strange lustre to his already peculiar silver hair.
"Likes, dislikes, dreams for the future. I know the least about you so your first pinky," Kakashi said, nodding his head at Sakura.
"Ah, w-well, my name is Haruno Sakura, I like Medical Ninjutsu, training with my friends and…" she trailed off her face reddining as she glanced toward Sasuke.
"Anyway! My dreams for the future are becoming a capable kunoichi who can protect her friends and her village and…" she glanced at Sasuke again, her dreamy stare interrupted by Naruko making gagging noises, earning a playful tap from Sakura and a blushing pout.
"And I dislike it when my friends make fun of me!" she finished while furiously poking Naruko in the side.
"Geez, sorry, sorry," Naruko said with a playful giggle.
"You next blondy," the jonin said.
"My name is Naruko Uzumaki!" she said, striking a pose with one hand held above her fingers spread.
"I like ramen, fuinjutsu, pranks, cooking, ramen, sewing, training, my friends, ramen and a whole bunch of other stuff. I don't like people that attack what I care about and my dream…" she trails off here with a contemplative look on her face, confusing Sakura. Didn't she want to be Hokage?
"... My dream is to have a really big family with lots and lots of friends," Naruko said after a moment of thought.
"You don't want to be hokage anymore?" Surprisingly it was Sasuke that asked.
"Nah, if the village starts imploding or something, I'll clean up everyone's mess, but other than that? I'm good," she said with a contented smile.
"Well that just leaves you Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said to the last member of their team.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke began with a furrowed brow, turning away from the team to stare over Konoha from their roof top view. It took everything Sakura had not to swoon.
"I don't like much and I dislike many things… my dream… is to achieve world peace," he finished turning back to his team, his beautiful red eyes whirring on the backdrop of his handsome face.
The rooftop fell into a stunned silence. Even Naruko seemed faintly impressed.
Sakura was beside herself. Of course that was Sasuke's goal, he was not just handsome but honourable, no wonder he didn't want her around. He had a goal to achieve, a goal that was for the good of the world, he couldn't waste time on the trivial and useless, he couldn't afford the dead weight. She would prove that she could be useful and then she would help him achieve his dream.
"What about you?" Naruko asked Kakashi.
"Me, huh? Hmmm,"Kakashi hummed with contemplation while his gloved hand came up to massage his mask-clad chin.
"Well I like some things, I dislike others… as for my dream," Kakashi began.
"My dream is to turn you all into splendid ninja," he said with a wide eye smile
They all smiled at his sincerity. Even Sasuke gave a hint of a smirk.
"No matter how much you beg me not to," he said with a smile that seemed even more radiant yet filled their blood with ice.
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The elemental nations didn't have many cemeteries. The culture couldn't really afford it, death being as common as it was. A coffin and a plot of land to be buried was reserved for men and women who were of high status. Otherwise an urn was enough for most, or a ditch for the less fortunate.
That was the dark side of the memorial stone. A way to honour those who fell in service to the village yet were not deserving of a grave. Where their names could be placed alongside those that did earn a resting place.
For Kakashi it was a place he could come and mourn everyone he had ever lost in one location.
"Your team?" Came the voice of his unexpected company, though maybe he should have been expecting her. She would definitely want to speak to him privately and there weren't many places one could hide from Naruko Uzumaki in Konoha.
"Hmm," Kakashi grunted in reply, not taking his eyes off the stone.
"What was it like to be my dad's student?" She asked and Kakashi had to spend a moment searching for the right words to describe what Minato-sensei meant to him.
"Minato-sensei… was the kindest man I had ever known," it was not enough, he wasn't sure if there existed words to truly encompass what the man known as the Yellow Flash had meant to a young Hatake Kakashi but that was the best he could do.
"And my mom?" Naruko asked. She must have known for some time now. There was sadness in her questions but they were subdued. She was learning to live with the loss.
"I never knew my mother." Kakashi said in reply to her question.
"Kushina… Kushina-neesan was the closest I got to one." he admitted those words for the first time. It felt hollow, never having said the words to the woman herself, only saying it to her orphaned daughter in front of a memorial to her passing.
The release and the hollow coldness of those words and the bitter irony of the time and place in which they were said was softened by the hand of his precious little genin taking his hand.
His sensei's daughter. His Imouto.
He didn't think those words would ever leave his lips, but knowing what she meant to him in his heart and being able to acknowledge it to himself felt like it was enough. It had to be.
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Kakashi did love the smell of terror in the morning.
"How does he keep doing that?!" Sasuke yelled as he was dragged into the earth for the fourth time leaving his head poking out of the ground.
It was the morning of his test. The test that his sensei used on his team and his sensei's sensei used before him. The bell test.
Naruko dashed over her buried teammate to cut him to pieces with her chakra coated wakizashi. Kakashi batted it aside and threw a blunt kunai into the bushes. The satisfying thump of the projectile hitting the original in the head signaled his interruption of her fourth attempt at a rasengan, while dispelling the clone attacking him with a casual front kick.
"Stop trying to use a jutsu you can't get off in a split-second. In a fight it will kill you." Kakashi voiced casually while flipping a page of his Ichaicha and casually dispelling the latest attempt at genjutsu from Sakura.
The test had been a general success. They had collaborated without hesitation and it was beautiful to witness. Of course it had been a rough start, Sasuke had tried to take charge, and predictably Naruko opposed this, leaving Sakura to play peacemaker.
It took Kakashi handing out quite the humbling before they were forced to reach a consensus, with Sakura serving as genjutsu support and Naruko and Sasuke serving as the main combatants.
They attacked with a surprising amount of coordination for two kids that purportedly hated each other.
It was fun to watch. Their ferocity left him positively tickled.
Kakashi channeled all this joy into working his team hard, very hard. Months of agonising mentorship under The Professor had given him something of a crash course in teaching, and for the past few hours he had used this knowledge to push his cute little gennin's basics to the absolute limits.
"Sakura! From the top rope!" Naruko yelled as her attempt at a rasengan was interrupted for the sixth time by another blunt kunai to the forehead. She had given up on distracting him with shadow clones, destroying them en masse was amusing. He didn't get to use his repertoire of b-ranks that often.
Despite this she was still stubbornly trying to get the jutsu off. Her natural tenacity showing through. He couldn't really blame her, none of their other tactics were working.
"What?! No, I'm still working on it!" Sakura yelled in shocked reply, giving away her genjutsu concealed hiding place if Kakashi hadn't already known where she was.
Oh~ do his ears deceive him? His cute little gennin was holding back?
"Intent to kill Sakura-chan~." Kakashi sang the instructions he had given at the start of this fight, using some light genjutsu to send a shiver of cold down all their spines. To set the mood you know.
"I thought you said you weren't useless." Sasuke said trying to sound harsh but the desperation in his voice was clear as day to Kakashi. Also being buried up to your neck wasn't a very good place to menace from.
"I'm not!" Sakura was not as prescient, and actually flinched at his words.
Note to self: start personality conditioning. They didn't have to be able to stand up to advanced interrogation but it should take more than an immobile skinny twink to make you flinch.
Saskura took up a stance. Kakashi blinked in surprise as her chakra rapidly focused in her hands and feet, then the ground shattered under her as she leapt into the air and descended upon him. He dodged easily of course but that didn't save the earth from Sakura's wrath.
"Shannaro!" the pinkette roared at the top of her lungs and the earth cratered around them.
Kakashi couldn't help it, he started laughing, loudly and hysterically. The genin's hearing his mirth shuffled in sensible caution but caution wouldn't save them. They had shown themselves to be exceptionally talented.
That just meant he could push them even harder.
Why was he ever worried about being a teacher again?
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Asuma Sarutobi was a laid back man, with a calm outlook on life that I could easily sense in his chakra. He didn't seem very similar to my sensei beyond looks, but the affection that carved its way through my sensei's usual restrained demeanour made it clear that meant nothing to him at all. Asuma was his son and he loved him and was happy to see him.
A fact he happily expressed, which seemed to make the younger Sarutobi incredibly uncomfortable.
"Uuhh, Dad?" Asuma asked, his hands raised in the air as though he was in close contact with something extremely dangerous.
"Hmm?" My sensei replied.
That danger being his father holding him in an embrace and gently patting his back. I could sympathise with him, the sight of my badass sensei acting like a mother hen made something in my soul cringe.
I didn't know why, I didn't care much to figure it out I just joined Ebisu in looking away as though nothing was happening. While Naruko and Kuro cooed over the familial interaction.
"I um, I'm happy to see you too?" Asuma said, his hands slowly coming down to gently tap against his white robes.
Satisfied with the amount of abrupt affection and confusion he had inflicted against his son, my sensei finally pulled away.
"Now, what is this I hear about some Noble's son?"
Asuma grimaced and opened his mouth to tell us a tale.
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It turns out some nobleman badmouthed my sensei in Asuma's presence, which normally would not have gotten a rise out of him, then he started insulting Asuma himself and while he found it annoying it didn't draw him to action.
Then he made some insinuations about his mother based on her poor choice of partner.
The following beat down earned Asuma a flogging and six more months of service in the twelve guardian ninja despite his request to be discharged and deprived the young noble of half his teeth and the ability to chew for six months.
Naruko found this tale hilarious, and given it involved gratuitous amounts of violence Kuro loved it too.
After the story the father and son wandered off to the balcony for a private conversation.
I decided to head off to bed.
It was as I was done in the shower and intending to climb into bed that I noticed its other occupants and froze in place.
"Don't just stand there Ku-kun." Kuro called from my bed dressed in a night gown that while not actually suggestive in any way, was much more revealing than anything I had ever seen her in.
Naruko was already fast asleep wearing one of my shirts she had undoubtedly brought in a seal. The familiar sight of her fast asleep relaxed me.
We were just sleeping.
I turned towards Kuro who smiled at me with her sharingan spinning in her eyes.
We were just sleeping, right?
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We indeed just slept, but I was sure without a doubt that puberty was upon me with a vengeance. Sharing a bed with two beautiful girls was torture, sweet sweet torture.
I had to use some of the meditative breathing exercises Lu Ten had taught me to fall asleep, and still woke up the next morning with the woodiest of morning shrubbery.
With Kuro wrapped around my arm and Naruko sprawled over my body. I laid there for a moment in torturous warmth blinking the sleep away from my eyes, my thoughts somewhere between how lucky I was and how easy it would be to push that luck even further.
With a supreme act of will and some chakra to loosen their hold, I slipped out of bed and snuck into the bathroom for a cold, cold shower.
A knock at the door drew my attention as I walked out of the bathroom. Expanding my senses, told me this was a person I had not met yet, though their chakra signature was somewhere in the lower genin level, which surprised me, none of the chakra signatures I had come across so far had been at that level, they had either been chunin and above or civilian. With caution I walked up to the sliding door to answer.
Pulling the door aside I was met with a surprising sight.
"Good morning, Hanama-sama, My name is Akuro and I will be your personal assistant for your stay in the capital," said a boy of an age with me, dressed in the robes of a eunuch—voluminous and stamped with the kanji for fire. Unlike the other eunuchs I had met so far there was a lone tuft of hair on his head as opposed to the bald head they all sported.
"Izukuuu, come back to bed." Naruko whined from back in the room.
"Oh-oh my, I'm sorry for any disturbance I caused, I will wait outside your apartments. Call on me if you need assistance." the young eunuch said with a blush on his face and hurried away from the room.
Leaving me standing there with my finger outstretched in his direction. I sighed at the misunderstanding. Was it a misunderstanding? Not really, we hadn't done anything but sleep but it wasn't like anyone would care if we did.
With a shake of my head I went back in to wake Naruko and Kuro for the day. While the girls were busy getting ready I noticed my Sensei's absence. There was no doubt a clone of him present within my vicinity but if he did not present himself then he must not consider his presence necessary. In short I was left to my own devices.
In a few minutes they were dressed and Naruko's transformation jutsu was up again, then we were out the door.
"Hanama-sama," Akuro said with a flush when he saw us.
"Akuro-san," I said, burying my embarrassment under serenity. "Kuro, Naruko this is Akuro-san"
"Nice to meet you Akuro-san," Naruko said, her voice low and gentle and her lady-like persona back in full force. By the way Akuro flushed, it seemed to be just as charming as it was yesterday, if not more so.
Kuro seemed to watch him carefully, her chakra signalling caution but not leaning one way or the other. She had been that way since we entered the capital. Focused and aware.
"You said you were assigned to assist me?" I asked him.
"Yes, Hanama-sama."
I contemplated on what to do with this. What exactly would I need assistance with? After a moment of thought I could only conclude that the answer to that was everything, the capital was a very unfamiliar place. Though first and foremost was to make sure I had no obligations. I assume my sensei would inform me of anything serious but it was best to show some initiative.
"Is there anything that is required of me during my stay?" I asked the young eunuch.
"Not today Hanama-sama. It is my understanding that Daimyo-sama is holding court, but that will only be attended by high officials and the Prince, leaving members of the younger generation with little to no obligations."
"I see, so there is nothing to do?" I asked, trying to hide the eagerness that bubbled below the surface. If I had nothing to do then I could embark on an endeavour that had scratched at me since my arrival.
Finding the library.
"Taizen-sama is holding another gathering," Akuro said, shattering my hopes and dreams.
I turned to Kuro who in turn raised an eyebrow at me as though to say 'this should be obvious'. It was but that did not salve my injured curiosity.
"I see, and where is this gathering?" I asked, managing to contain a sigh. You didn't turn down royalty.
"This way Hanama-sama," he said, leading us down the halls of the palace outside of the residential area to the series of hallways connected to grand halls that sat adjacent to the gardens. The same area where Taizen held his gathering yesterday except in a different room.
"Good morning Hanama-san," Taizen said as he approached us, with his fiance Yoshiko in tow. There was something about his demeanour that was off, but I couldn't sense it through his inscrutable chakra. Yoshiko on the other hand was an open book and she seemed to regard me with fear and respect. How odd.
"We all intend to go into the city this evening. Would you do us the honour of your company?" he said with a strange inflection as I sat at the table.
"I would be honoured, Taizen-sama."
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The streets of Oiujisama were warm tonight, the people alive with excitement and the hustle and bustle of city life. Taizen loved this city, he was born and raised here, it was his only home and some day in the future it would be his seat of power.
He loved the people too, every last one of them, his father would say he loved them a bit too much given his penchant for feasts and celebrations, that while adhered strictly to propriety still gave him the image of a fop.
He couldn't bring himself to care though and out here in the streets of his home he was reminded why. Street music filled his ears and the smell of the road side stalls played across his senses. The men and women moving through the streets in clothes of every make, going about their lives all unique and memorable in their own way. Why wouldn't he love them? Who wouldn't?
His appreciation for the unique and absurd was known and had gotten him some strange recommendations from his friends and followers. The most recent of which was a book.
A treatise on political power. How to gain it, how to lose it, how to use it and the horrific extremes we go to acquire it.
A song of ice and fire.
Most read it and fell in love with the characters between its pages and Taizen could admit that certain characters resonated with him, but that was not the truth of the book.
No, the truth was the story was just an afterthought, masterly weaved between the lessons within, to create the most poignant political commentary of their time.
How should one treat the man who wrote such a thing?
With extreme caution.
"Hananma-san, I hope you enjoyed your night." Taizen spoke to the younger yet much wiser man with a smile. He would have liked to refer to him with more deference but he was the prince and such things were below his station.
Though the brief inspection that Hanama-san gave him in response to his form of address and polite tone, suggested it had given something about himself away. Something important enough for such a master to visibly react. If only for a split second.
"It was very entertaining, thank you." he said, his crimson eyes roving over him and Taizen could not help but feel exposed. The only character in Hanama-san's books that had red eyes was a priestess of a god that bestowed divination upon its followers, was that some sort of commentary on what it meant to be prescient among the unenlightened? A mirror to his own condition in life?
One could never know with a mind as brilliant as his.
A brilliance that he should have been expecting. He was a disciple of the Hokage, one that was not part of the military structure.
What gifts must he possess to have gained the interest of the Professor without the ability to serve in active combat? A towering intellect of course.
Though a brilliant mind didn't stop him from day to day accidents like bumping into others in a busy street.
There was a small crash and the light shuffle of movement as a figure in voluminous robes bumped into Hanama-san, Taizen recognised him.
On second glance his robes were not baggy; they simply seemed that way on his spindly frame. His name escaped him at the moment but most everyone was aware of the cripple that threw himself at the feet of the Samurai clans every selection day to be taken in as Deshi.
Taizen admired his tenacity, it was a sad reality that tenacity did not make up for a lack of talent.
"Ah, apologies Samurai-san." Taizen blinked in surprise at the words that had just left Hanama-san's mouth. Inspecting the cripple he could see how he could come to that assumption based on his attire and the wooden sword tied to his waist, but his emaciated frame should denote his lack of martial training.
"What?" the cripple asked.
"I said my apologies, Samurai-san."
"You think this is funny? Do I amuse you?" the cripple spat.
"Samurai-san?" Hananma-san asked in what seemed like confusion. You could never be sure with men like him.
"Does this look like the body of a Samurai!?" the cripple bellowed, ripping open his robes to display the horror that was his skeletal body. A body almost absent of flesh with paper thin skin that clung to bone and tendon, with dark and pulsing veins being the only thing that could denote life, if only a life spent in torture.
All present recoiled from him and the Samurai that shadowed their group stepped forward to redress the insult of his outburst. Maiten-sama raised a hand and that casual gesture held them in place.
And it was Maiten-sama, the look in his eyes could not belong to anyone with a name as benign as Izuku. The intensity with which he watched the cripple as he lay on the floor ventilating after his outburst like he had run a marathon was spine chilling.
The cripple eventually calmed down and had the good sense to realise how precarious his situation was and stumbled to his feet. Fleeing in a shambling run that was slower than other's casual walks, and that was what Maiten-sama did. Casually walk after him like he had all the time in the world, two of their samurai retinue falling into step behind him without a word.
Taizen did not follow. Neither did any of the other young Nobles. Whatever Maiten-sama had in store for that cripple, they wanted no part in it.
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Foolish, so incredibly foolish.
Exposing his shame and disrespecting a noble? That could get him killed. His breath fogged the air of the dark alley he had deposited himself into, his meager strength having abandoned him after his morning training a day on his feet and his …business… to madame Hakane.
He pulled himself to his feet and turned to leave only to see the noble who had been mocking him standing at the mouth of the alley flanked by two Samurai.
Ah, so this was how he died.
He reached for his belt to unsheathe his wooden blade in hopes of dying with some dignity. The noble approached and his grip tightened against the hilt of his blade.
So he would die just as he lived honourless and alone. Tano grit his teeth at this. Well, at least he would die on his feet. The young noble stopped a few steps from him, watching him with the most unnerving pair of eyes he had ever seen. Wine red, like grape juice tinted with blood. Tano braced for his end yet instead of ordering his execution the noble spoke.
"What is your name?"
Tano was startled but saw no reason to refuse.
"Tano," he said slowly.
"What do you want, Tano?"
The young cripple wasn't sure what was going on but something about this conversation cautioned him against lying. So Tano listened to his gut despite its propensity to lead him astray.
"I want to be a samurai. I want to have honour." he said, he caught the samurai that followed the noble here bristling out of the corner of his eye.
"And what would you do to be one? To be a Samurai?" Tano couldn't believe his ears.
"Anything. I would do anything."
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A/N: I'm trying out a new format. Tell me what you think.
Nothing drops panties like a man with ambition!
Sasuke makes his dreams known, speed running his first cult member!
Sakura grows as a person, rejection has that effect on some people!
Kakashi is in his feels in this chapter, don't get used to it. He prefers aura farming.
The legend of the political mastermind Maiten-sama begins!
What is Izuku's interest in young Tano? Why does everybody want his body?!
Puberty is upon us brethren, how long will our dear Izuku's chastity persist?!
FIND OUT NEXT TIME, ON FOR THE LOVE OF KUNGFU!