STATUS: QUIESCENT

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO


《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》


Sasuke cracked open his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a blur of red and pink hanging over him.

"Sasuke? You finally back to the land of the living, dum-dum?"

The Uchiha closed his eyes and opened them again, forcing his vision to focus. "Sa...kura...?" he groaned out. His throat was so dry. As if reading his mind, his medic friend helped him sit up and handed him a glass of thankfully-cold water.

"Where's Naruko?" he asked, handing the empty cup back to her. Sakura smiled in amusement, and made a point of looking down at his other side. Sasuke followed her line of sight; his eyes widened when he saw his other teammate's head resting on the bed, her head just touching the side of his blanket-covered thigh.

"She and Jiraiya-sama went to find Tsunade Senju of the Legendary Sannin," Sakura explained softly. "She had to battle with Kabuto Yakushi — you remember him? She's a little tired, but she refused to leave until you woke up."

Sasuke tentatively reached out to finger the blonde locks that were spilling all over the hospital sheets. 'She looks peaceful.' He narrowed his eyes a little at her worn-down features, and more than once he had to watch closely for the minute rise and fall of her back that indicated she was breathing. Sasuke couldn't help smiling a little in helpless, yet fond, exasperation. 'She must've pushed herself to the point of knocking herself out... idiot. I always tell her not to overexert herself. Guess she never really listens after all.' He gently untangled his fingers from her hair and brushed his knuckles against the whisker-like marks on her face.

Sakura couldn't help smiling. 'I wonder if he's even aware of how he's acting.' The pinkette said at last, "I should go — you still need your rest. Do you mind if I leave her there?"

"It's fine," Sasuke murmured. "I don't mind."

Sakura smiled. 'I know you don't.' She hesitated before leaning over to press a chaste kiss to his temple in a sisterly fashion. Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at her, but said nothing. "Take care of her for me," the pinkette winked at him as she slipped out of the room and practically skipped over to Rock Lee's room.

Sasuke's pale cheeks flushed a deep red at the implications. He hastily turned his head away from the doorway, focusing intently on the window beside his hospital bed. Unconsciously, his lips turned down into a frown. 'Itachi... so Naruko was right. But that's not enough... I need to talk to you. I need to—'

"Oh, you're awake."

His head jerked up to the doorway, and saw a young blonde woman with brown eyes and a lilac diamond on her forehead. A pale flush rose to Sasuke's cheeks and he had to struggle more than he'd ever admit to stop his eyes from drifting down to her overly-generous bust. "Who are you?"

"Tsunade Senju," the woman replied simply, before her eyes landed on Naruko. Sasuke watched curiously as her eyes visibly softened, and she quietly walked around the bed to shake Naruko's shoulder. "Hey shrimp, wakey-wakey... don't you want to be there when I wake up your idiot of a brother?"

"You're unnecessarily mean, baa-chan," Naruko mumbled, swatting the Sannin's hand away as she sat up, rubbing her eye. "Oh, you're back from visiting Jiji already?"

"I've heard that one before," Tsunade answered with an indulgent smile. She tilted her head at the bed's occupant, seeing that Sasuke was patiently waiting for his teammate to come out her sleep-induced haze of mind.

"Huh?" Naruko blinked twice at Sasuke, who was raising an amused eyebrow at her, before her face was lit up with a grin. "Sasuke, you're awake! Welcome back to the land of the living."

"Funny," Sasuke said with a wry smile as he accepted his teammate's hug. "Sakura said the same thing when I first woke up."

"Eheh..." Naruko pulled back, though she kept one arm around him as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I guess I've been rubbing off on her, huh?"

"You've been rubbing off on all of us, dobe," Sasuke deadpanned.

"Shut up, teme," was the automatic reply. The teammates exchanged secretive smiles — well in Sasuke's case, it was his perpetual half-smirk, half-smile — before Naruko stood up and held out a hand. "Let's get Sakura, and then we'll go see Kaka-nii."

Sasuke's smirk-smile — shall we just call it a smirl? — widened. "Hey, I have an idea..." He leaned in to whisper said idea into Naruko's ear. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the devilish smile that was steadily growing larger and larger on the jinchuuriki's face, and silently wished the victim of the Uzumaki and Uchiha's combined apparent-prank all the best.

"Let's do it," Naruko grinned, punching her right fist into her open left palm.

Tsunade blinked once, and the bed was empty. Shaking her head with a sigh, the Slug Sannin walked out the room at a much slower pace. She entered the hallway just in time to hear a high-pitched shriek followed by a, "I CAN'T DECIDE IF IT'S INDECENCY OR NAIVETY, BUT YOU IDIOTS NEVER FAIL TO ASTOUND ME EITHER WAY!" that was almost drowned out by Naruko's laughter. Said Genin shortly exited Room 207 after that, still giggling uncontrollably. She was tailed by her Uchiha teammate and the pink-haired girl Tsunade had first seen by Sasuke's bedside when she and Naruko had entered to heal the boy.

"Right," the pink-haired girl cleared her throat, "Kakashi-sensei." Apparently being the only child capable of respect on their Genin team, she turned to Tsunade and bowed. "Tsunade-sama, my name is Sakura Haruno, and I am on Genin Team 7 along with these two idiots—" Here she dope-slapped said idiots while still bowing, "Thank you for healing Sasuke. I hope Naruko didn't cause you too much trouble on your journey." Sakura ignored Naruko's indignant cry of, "What are you talking about, I'm a delight to be around!" and automatically placed her hand over the blonde's mouth. Not a second later, she did the same to Sasuke, cutting off his playfully snarky comeback halfway through.

This only served to further intensify Tsunade's amusement at Team 7's dynamics. "Right... don't worry about it, Sakura. Healing Sasuke and Kakashi when I came back was part of the shrimp's bargain. As for the journey... well, Naruko wasn't as bad as she could've been, I'm sure." Both females ignored said girl's second cry of indignation, which was successfully muffled by Sakura's hand.

"Now," Tsunade clapped her hands once, "shall we go visit Kakashi?"

"Yes please," Sakura smiled before grabbing the back of both her teammates, and dragging them along behind the Slug Sannin. She didn't even turn around when she calmly reprimanded, "Stop making faces." Sakura rolled her eyes at Sasuke's snicker that only confirmed she was right. "You too, Sasuke." This time, it was Naruko's snicker that confirmed she was right, yet again. 'Why am I the one stuck with an immature teammate who loves to rub off on all of us? Even our sensei is weird. And of course, the one person I thought I could always depend on to be mature just loves to get back at Naruko.'

"Hey 'Nai-nee, Gai, Asu," Naruko greeted with a wave of her hand.

Sakura cleared her throat, "Kurenai-sensei, Gai-sensei, Asuma-sensei," she greeted pointedly. Sasuke merely grunted, tilting his head at the three Jonin. Sakura sighed; someone still needed lessons on manners.

Naruko silently slipped out of Sakura's grip and walked over to Kakashi's bedside, sitting down gently on his left. "He's been like this since Pervy Sage and I left?" she asked in a small voice.

Kurenai moved forward to wrap her arms around the blonde; something about her tone made her seem so vulnerable in that moment. "A little bit after," she murmured, "but he's under the same genjutsu as Sasuke was. And since he's here now, I'd say Tsunade-sama did a fine job on him... so Kakashi will be fine. Don't worry."

"She's right," Tsunade confirmed as she placed a glowing hand on Kakashi's forehead. "He's had to stay under this particular genjutsu a little longer than Sasuke, but he'll be fine regardless." Her hand stayed for a moment on Kakashi's head, even as the green glow faded, and then raised her eyebrow at the dark-haired beauty. "Remind me how he got like this again? To be taken down by two insurgents... and here I thought Kakashi Hatake was a genius."

Kurenai sweatdropped a little. "U-Um, he came to mine and Asuma's aid against two Akatsuki members after Itachi dispelled the Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death I cast on him—"

Naruko's face went blank. "I'm sorry, please repeat, that did not compute." Kurenai opened her mouth to repeat herself, but the blonde cut her off; "You used a genjutsu on Itachi Uchiha?" she all but shrieked. "As in, the Uchiha prodigy? The guy who awakened his Sharingan at age eight, and his Mangekyō Sharingan when he was just a thirteen-year-old boy?" At Kurenai's somewhat sheepish nod, Naruko threw her hands up in the air and demanded, "Were you panicking or did all your brain cells just decide to spontaneously self-combust?"

Kurenai didn't even look offended — if anything, she looked resigned — but Sasuke was another matter. "And what would you have done?"

Without missing a beat, Naruko answered, "Kicked him in the groin and shoved a Rasengan in his mouth. He's skinny enough to warrant someone force-feeding him a heavy snack."

Sasuke's mouth fell open while Kurenai shook her head in exasperation. "Then why didn't you do that when he and the shark-dude came to your hotel room?"

"Because you were an impulsive idiot who rushed at him with a Chidori," Naruko answered with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Besides, you wanted to talk to him, so I stayed out of your way."

Sasuke huffed and was about to retort when a soft groan from the bed drew all of their attention to the formerly-comatose Jonin.

"Baa-chan, would it be okay if I hit him?" Naruko asked with a silent plea in her eyes. Tsunade pursed her lips with a contemplative look before regretfully shaking her head, a playful sparkle in her whiskey-brown eyes. The younger blonde sighed but restrained herself until Kakashi sat up, whereupon Naruko instantly launched herself at her brother to throw her arms around his neck. "You idiot," she hissed into his ear. "Absolute moron. I hate you for worrying me like that."

"I would be insulted if I didn't know you cared so much," Kakashi grunted, wrapping his right arm around his little sister before lowering his voice, "I'm sorry."

"You should be," Naruko muttered before pulling back, keeping her hand on his shoulder. "Are you feeling okay now? And no lying, or I will whack your head, no matter what baa-chan says."

"I have a little headache..." Kakashi admitted begrudgingly.

"And that's my cue." Sakura moved in to Kakashi's other side and pressed a glowing hand to her sensei's temple. Naruko smiled as Kakashi's face relaxed, and smiled at her in silent thanks. The pinkette shook her head with a smile as she removed her hand, and then gave Kakashi her own hug. "You can be as bad as Naruko sometimes, sensei."

"Ouch," Kakashi sighed, wrapping his left arm around his other female Genin pupil. "Again — I would be insulted if I didn't know my little gremlins cared about me so much."

Two out of three said gremlins then turned their eyes almost predatorily on the third — Sasuke stared back uncomprehendingly before instantly started to back away, shaking his head. "No... absolutely not."

"Heh, just get over there, Uchiha," Tsunade grinned, slapping Sasuke's back and sending the boy careening over to sprawl unceremoniously onto Kakashi's lap. Both his teammates and even his sensei destroyed any chance of escape as the girls pounced on him like vultures to drag him into the group hug while Kakashi held them all together with an iron grip, his signature eye-smile on his masked face all the while.

"Okay, we love each other. Are we done yet?" Sasuke demanded after a second or two. The lack of response had him putting up a weak struggle for a second or two — this only succeeded in the tightening of the group hug — before the Uchiha finally slumped; contrary to popular belief, he did know defeat when it stared him in the face. And while he could be "stupidly bull-headed", as Sakura was so fond of saying, Sasuke knew his team could out-stubborn him any day, especially when they ganged up on him. He learned it was better to just give in whenever it concerned any member of Team 7 — especially one Naruko Uzumaki.

Kakashi eyed his now-still Genin for a moment before looking up at Tsunade. "I suppose it was your doing that I'm awake...?"

"Can't you just say "thank you" like a normal person?" Kurenai grinned, reaching over to ruffle his gravity-defying hair. Kakashi gave an "Uchiha grunt" as response; Asuma burst into laughter while Kurenai sighed.

Gai simply beamed at his Eternal Rival. "Ah, you're just too cool, my rival. Tsunade-sama, would you please take a look at my pupil, Rock Lee, now?"

"Oh, right, there was a third one," Tsunade rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Right. Let's get to it."

Sakura scrambled off Kakashi's bed and darted out the door. "He's this way!" she called behind her. Gai, Tsunade and Shizune exchanged looks before following the excited pinkette.

Her team exchanged bemused looks; "When did she get so close to Lee?" Naruko wondered out loud. She received two identical clueless looks paired with simultaneous indifferent shrugs in response. The blonde smacked her palm onto her head, "I swear you're half-Uchiha, Kaka-nii..."

"Oh, Naruko," Asuma paused, "Ino told me... that Hinata told her... that Neji told her... no wait, I think it was Neji who told Tenten who told Hinata who told Ino... or was it—"

"Get to the point, Asu," Naruko deadpanned.

The Sarutobi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Right. Well, since you're back, if you feel up to it, could you pop over to the Hyuuga Compound?"

Naruko blinked blankly before smacking her fist into her palm. "Right! Of course, the Caged Bird Seal. Man, I completely forgot about it." She pulled out her sketchpad and flicked through a few pages. "I didn't actually finish it since I was kinda caught up in a bet with Tsunade-baa-chan, but there was something in otou-san's fūinjutsu journal that caught my eye... aha! Here it is! Now if I can just..."

"Oh boy," Asuma muttered playfully under his breath, "here it comes — the Fūinjutsu Master." He got Kurenai's elbow to his ribs for that comment.

"Otou-san was amazing..." Naruko breathed as she tore out a strip of paper from her sketchpad and laid it directly beside a diagram at the back of the journal. "Well would you look at that... it's a perfect fit."

"Please enlighten us mere mortals," Sasuke drawled. A grunt sounded when Kakashi planted his hand to duck Sasuke's head, ruffling his spikes in the process. The Uchiha swatted at the Jonin's hands with a mild glare, hands coming up to cover his hair almost protectively. Kakashi simply eye-smiled at him.

"Right," Naruko rolled her eyes. "Long story short: Pervy Sage told me how otou-san attempted to undo the Caged Bird Seal at Hiashi Hyuuga's request, but was told to stop halfway through. I thought there was something different about his ideas compared to mine, but they were similar enough to his train of thought when recreating the Hiraishin that I could interpret them. See, the thing about the Hyuuga's juinjutsu is that it is intricately intertwined with the mind, which was the part I couldn't figure out how to get around. I could theoretically unravel the juinjutsu using this method, but it would cause a great deal of pain, and I want to avoid that. But that was one of the first problems otou-san identified and tackled, so when if I were to take out around half of my seal and replace it with otou-san's..." As she spoke, Naruko copied the combined seal onto her last copy of Neji's Caged Bird Seal, and watched in barely-contained glee as it slowly eroded away.

"Yatta! It works!" she cheered, throwing up her brush in excitement as she bounced off the bed. Asuma's hand snatched up to catch said brush, but before he could hand it back to the blonde she had already grabbed Kurenai's hand and was running out of the room. "Nii-san, teme, you two behave for Asu! And stay in bed unless baa-chan says so, otherwise you'll have to deal with me when I get back!" Naruko grinned to herself when she heard Asuma's bellowing laughter; no doubt the Sarutobi was laughing at the Uchiha and Hatake's identical blanched faces.

She was distracted from her thoughts when she saw a familiar pale-eyed heiress exiting a nearby grocery store. "Hina!" she all but hollered, almost startling the poor girl into dropping her brown paper bag.

"A-Ah, Naruko!" Hinata was cut off with a yelp when she was suddenly tugged along to join in on the impromptu sprint along with her friend and her sensei. "K-Kurenai-sensei, what's going on?"

"Uh," Kurenai smiled sheepishly, "Naruko's dragging us to your house, I think. I mean, I'm pretty sure she figured out how to undo the Caged Bird Seal, so... deductive reasoning?"

"Really?" Hinata gasped in delight, hugging her paper bag to her chest tighter. "Naruko, that's amazing." The heiress suddenly giggled, "So all you have to do is draw the removal formula on Neji-nii-san's forehead and bada-bing bada-boom, he's juinjutsu-free?"

Naruko raised an eyebrow, "Now who in the world are you quoting?"

"Oh, no one in particular," Hinata almost sing-songed.

Naruko shook her head with a small smile. "Well, no, not exactly. In layman's terms, as a person, Neji has chakra. Paper doesn't. So I would have to manually unravel the seal from his forehead. Oh, here we are~"

"Wait, Naruko, I don't think you should just—"

Hinata was unfortunately ignored by her overly-exuberant friend slamming open her cousin's bedroom door as she shouted, "Neji Hyuuga, I'm here to release you from your cage!" Kurenai turned around, pinching the bridge of her nose while Hinata suddenly went bright red with a soft "Eep!" and ducked behind the wall while Naruko's face comically dropped of all expression.

"Do you mind?" Neji snapped, glare already in place to cover up his embarrassment.

A smirk steadily spread across Naruko's whiskered face. "Having fun with your girlfriend, Neji-kun?"

"Tenten is not my girlfriend, and have you not heard of the word "privacy" before—"

"W-Wait, Neji," Tenten waved her hands with a placating smile on her face, "didn't you hear her first sentence? Naruko just said she was here to... um... release you from your cage?"

Neji instantly clammed up, turning intense lavender eyes on the Uzumaki. "I-Is... is that true?"

Naruko simply grinned, holding up a piece of paper that, metaphorically speaking, depicted the key to Neji's cage. "Let me show you and you can decide for yourself." Inviting herself in, Naruko knelt down opposite the two teammates and reached for Neji's hitai-ate. The Hyuuga boy stayed perfectly still as Naruko copied his juinjutsu onto a blank paper talisman, and watched closely as she painted over it with light, sure strokes before sitting back. Tenten, Neji, Hinata and Kurenai watched in awestruck fascination as the seal glowed green before slowly lifting from off the slip into air and eroding into nothing.

Neji slowly lifted his eyes to meet Naruko's; she stared back at him calmly, a hidden question in her azure-blue depths. Neji stared at her for a moment more before abruptly dropping his head. "Thank you, Naruko-san."

Taken aback, Naruko blinked at his bowed head before shaking her own. "Don't worry about it, Neji. And please drop the honorific — I am both younger than you and of a lower status. Now, if you would like to begin the removal process, please go and lie down."

Neji stood up and nodded at her, something like gratitude in his pale eyes, and then went over to lie down on his futon.

"Um, should I... go?" Tenten asked tentatively.

Naruko raised an eyebrow at Neji's sudden stiffening. "No, actually," she said slowly. "I think it might help Neji if you stay. Go sit on his left," she instructed politely as she knelt by Neji's right. Tenten mimicked her position, settling down by Neji's head. "This may be a little different than what it looks like on paper," she warned, "but the effects will be the same, so don't worry."

"Why isn't it the same?" Tenten asked curiously, watching as Naruko deftly painted the removal formula over the Caged Bird Seal.

"Like I told Hina-chan and 'Nai-nee, Neji has chakra, and paper doesn't. The purpose of testing it on paper was to make sure the seal did as it was designed to do — that is, deconstruct the Caged Bird Seal. Because this particular juinjutsu is intricately intertwined with the wearer's chakra, for the anti-seal to work, it has to interact with Neji's chakra network. That's where I come in — but I just find the starter thread and get the process going, and the anti-juinjutsu takes care of the rest for me."

Tenten sweatdropped a little. "I'm not sure I... um, I didn't really understand what you just said."

"Neither did we!" Hinata and Kurenai chorused cheerfully from the background.

"Think of fūinjutsu as a puzzle," Naruko suggested helpfully. "Picture it as a puzzle that with only one piece missing. To undo a seal, you need to find the missing puzzle piece. That's what I did by creating my own removal method. Or, in Neji's case, I found the key to his cage," Naruko grinned impishly, ignoring Kurenai's exasperated sigh. "But when it comes to actually undoing seals that are as complex as the Hyuuga juinjutsu, I have to think of it as a spiderweb." Naruko laid a hand on Neji's forehead and carefully probed about with her chakra. "All spiderwebs have a beginning thread, and the same concept applies to fūinjutsu. So once you find it..." A triumphant grin grew on Naruko's whiskered face as the area beneath her palm glowed lime-green, and then she lifted her hand to hover an inch or two above Neji's head, revealing a trail of illuminated ink characters connecting her palm to Neji's forehead. "You can "unravel" it."

Once all the characters had floated off Neji's skin, with a snappy rotative movement of her wrist, the characters flew into her palm. Opening her hand, Naruko revealed the Caged Bird Seal was inscribed in her palm. Naruko frowned contemplatively at it as her cheeks puffed out, and sent some chakra to return the remnants of the Caged Bird Seal to their ethereal state. Hinata nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw her friend blowing embers out of her mouth instead of air, burning the characters into nothing; shaking her head, she chalked it up to it just being another Naruko-thing.

"Amazing," Tenten breathed, eyes wide. "I never realized fūinjutsu could be illustrated with such regular things. I've never used it for anything other than sealing my tools."

"Oh Kami, another fūinjutsu nut," Hinata whispered playfully to Kurenai, who lifted her hand to cover her mouth in order to hide her growing smile.

"Fūinjutsu has so much more uses than just sealing," Naruko grinned. Turning to the Hyuuga, she commanded, "Neji, try opening your eyes."

The skin around Neji's eyes crinkled a little before his pale irises were revealed. Slowly, he sat up, his eyes roving around the room until they finally settled on Tenten. "So... how do I look?"

Tenten smiled at him, squeezing the hand that had somehow found its way into hers sometime during the removal process. "Flawless."

"Did Neji just make a joke or did I get transported to an alternate dimension?" Naruko hissed to Hinata, leaning back. Hinata giggled into her palm that was pressed hard into her mouth. "And I might have something wrong with both my eyes and my brain, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but I am almost ten billion percent sure they're... flirting."

"Ah, young love," Kurenai sighed teasingly.

"You're one to talk, sensei," Hinata said mildly, smiling to herself. "How's Asuma-sensei, by the way?"

Naruko fell over giggling at Kurenai's flabbergasted expression as she floundered for a response. Who knew Hinata could be so devious? Finally, Naruko took pity on the dark-haired beauty and turned the spotlight over to Neji and Tenten; "Alright, listen up you two lovebirds, I have rules for you, Neji. First: try not to use your Byakugan for at least three hours minimum. Holding off using it until tomorrow would be best. This is just a precautionary measure, but I'm fairly confident of the "no side effects" thing. Second: if you start getting headaches or have trouble activating your dojutsu or anything of the kind, come to me or Tsunade-baa-chan immediately. And third... yeah nope, that's all I got. Any questions?"

Neji shook his head, a small smile playing at his lips. "No. Thank you, Naruko."

"Yeah, thanks," Tenten smiled, coming over to hug the blonde. "And don't worry, I will personally make sure Neji doesn't use his Byakugan until tomorrow."

Naruko grinned as Neji instantly blanched; a woman's wrath was nothing to scoff at, and Neji had apparently already learned that lesson — and thoroughly. Now that Naruko thought about it, Tenten was a perfect match for Neji; stubborn, not afraid to speak out and strong-willed, she was a spitfire through and through. She balanced out Neji pretty well, and since Tenten was his teammate, she was able to deal with the Hyuuga stoicism better than most girls would, and was obviously more than capable of taking him down a peg or two when his stubborn pride became too much.

Smirking, Naruko leaned in to whisper into Tenten's ear, "Good luck with him. I know you two will be very happy together."

She left a bright-red kunoichi behind as she swiftly exited Neji's room, dragging a madly-giggling Hinata along with her. Kurenai followed them out, her lips twisted in amusement. Naruko had at first planned to drag her best friend over to Ichiraku's to celebrate the highly successful removal of the Caged Bird Seal — because it also meant the other branch members could have their seals removed — but something caught her eye. Something very large, very inviting, and very... clean. And in her opinion, it wasn't supposed to be clean at all.

"Ne, Hina-chan, wanna spar?" Naruko asked with a mischievous undertone, her eyes lingering on the Hyuuga private training ground. 'After all... it's much too pristine, and definitely due for a little... roughening up.'

"You just want to destroy the training ground, don't you?" Hinata asked flatly once she saw what had caught her friend's attention. Naruko's beam was answer enough. Hinata hesitated, "I don't know... Father and the elders most likely won't be too happy if they were to find out this training ground had been turned into a crater..." Hinata turned and sweatdropped at the puppy-dog-eyes she was instantly subjected to. Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, the Hyuuga heiress dropped her shoulders indifferently. "Oh, why the hell not... what do I care, anyway?"

"Yosh!" Naruko pumped her fist into the air and practically bound over to the far right-hand side of the private arena. "Hina, hurry hurry hurry! Taijutsu only! You can use your Jyuuken, of course and 'Nai-nee, you can be our proctor— uh, I mean, adult supervision!"

Sensei and student exchanged amused looks as they walked together into the arena grounds before separating to their respective places — Hinata standing opposite Naruko and Kurenai by the sidelines.

"You just want to see how your Kyuubi-fire taijutsu style fares against the Jyuuken again, don't you?" Hinata laughed at the sight of her childish friend hopping from foot to foot in excitement. "Say, you still need to find a name for that, don't you?"

"Yeah," Naruko pouted before brightening up. "But for now... threetwoonelet'sgo!"

"Naruko!" Hinata shouted in both alarm and delight as she leapt back to dodge Naruko's maniac and nonsensical attacks. "No fūinjutsu!" she declared strictly, skipping back a step or two so she could safely activate her Byakugan and thus begin her counterattack. "But of course, Naru-chan, you are free to be as unpredictable as you like!" Hinata added laughingly.

"Got it!" Naruko grinned widely, launching herself forward, propelled by the flames surrounding her fists and ankles. Hinata, smiling just as widely as Naruko, leapt forward to meet her halfway.

Kurenai smiled to herself; Hinata had never looked happier.


《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》


The same could not be said for Sakura.

"I'll be straight with you." Tsunade's voice was both firm and void of emotion, her hand pressed against Lee's curved back. "Give up being a shinobi."

A soft gasp slipped past Sakura's mouth, and she saw Lee's eyes widen in shock. Even Gai had a look of disbelief on his face. Tonton gave a soft "buhi..." under her breath.

"T-Tsunade-sama, don't joke like that," Gai said at last, attempting a smile. He failed miserably.

Tsunade's brow furrowed further. "There are numerous bone fragments in the area around most of his important nerves. Moreover, they are deeply embedded. Lee is not physically capable of carrying out the missions of a shinobi. Even if I were to operate—"

"Don't be fooled, Lee!" Gai burst out. "This woman is an impostor! You've transformed yourself with a Henge, haven't you? Just who the heck are you?" The self-proclaimed Green Beast of Konoha was about to go on, but was forced to settle when Shizune laid a restraining hand on his shoulder and shook her head sadly.

'No... this has to be some sort of sick joke...' Sakura had her hands clasped to her mouth as she tried not to let her tears fall. Why should Lee have to see her crying, when he was the one who was forced to give up his career, his life, his dream?

"Don't I have any... chance?" Lee's voice was soft — soft enough that Sakura could barely hear it.

"There is no one besides me who is capable of doing the surgery, and it would take too much time," Tsunade answered plainly. "Furthermore, there is a huge risk. The probability of such a surgery being successful is about 50% at best, and if it fails... you'll die. It's better that you give up being a shinobi and look for a different path."

"Rock..." Sakura closed her eyes. "Tsunade-sama, Gai-sensei, Shizune-san." She felt the adults turn to her direction. "Could you please leave us alone to talk?" It wasn't very respectful to ask that of the one person capable of healing Lee, or to ask his sensei to leave, but Sakura needed to talk to him. All of this information... she couldn't stay silent, but if she stayed she might end up saying something she'd regret. But for the most part, Sakura needed to know what was going on in her childhood friend's head. There was no way he was ready to throw in the towel just yet.

Tsunade looked at her for a long moment before nodding. "Shizune, I want you to come with me to see sensei. There's something I'll need you to do with his rehabilitation, and I'm pretty sure I won't have time to do that once the old farts swamp me with all that typical Hokage crap, much less have time for myself..."

"Tsunade-sama, you shouldn't call them "old farts"—"

"...and if that old war hawk says one more thing about "Konoha's ace", I'm going to show him exactly where he can shove his arguments and I sure as hell am not going to be the one who will have to surgically remove it from his ass!"

"Hai, hai... please stop struggling, Gai-san."

"Shizune, let me gooooooo!"

Had it been any other situation, Sakura might have laughed at the legendary Sannin's bluntness, unprecedented lack of restraint and foul mouth, coupled with Shizune's apparent-resignation to her master's tendency to speak her mind — and then some. Sakura internally shook herself; this was hardly the time to indulge in entertainment. The pinkette waited until the footsteps were no longer able to be heard, and then she pushed herself off the corner wall she had been leaning on to make her way towards Lee.

Sweat was trickling down Lee's face, and his mouth was closing and opening like a fish as he sucked in air like his life depended on it. Well, it kind of did... Sakura shook that thought away; it was not an appropriate time for jokes, Naruko's tendency to do just that be damned. Seeing that Lee was grabbing his spandex suit to pull it back over himself, her hand automatically reached to grab his. "Let me..."

"I can do it," the boy answered roughly, snatching his hand back.

Sakura blinked, her brow crinkling in worry. "I didn't mean to upset you, Ro— um, Lee," she said quietly. "I know you can do it... I just wanted to help you." She frowned when Lee still didn't raise his eyes. "Hey..." She sat down on the bed, ducking her head so she could see Lee's face. "Stop looking so down. That's Sasuke's thing, not yours." Sakura couldn't help smirking at the mental picture of Sasuke's irate face, if he were present to hear that comment.

The smirk fell off her face when she saw Lee's lips moving, but heard no sound. Frowning lightly, Sakura inched a little closer. His lips froze. Sakura hesitated before gently laying her hand on his knee. "You... you can talk to me, you know? It's been a few years since we've been together, but I haven't changed enough that you wouldn't recognize me, I promise. I may look a little different, but inside I'm still the same girl you met seven years ago. All want is to help my first friend... just like he helped me so many years ago. So I guess the real question is: will you let me?"

Lee looked up at that, and was met with a warm smile paired with gentle beryl eyes. He glanced down at the hand covering his knee, and then back at the owner, and slowly let his head dip in a shallow nod. Sakura's smile brightened, and she waited patiently for him to begin.

"When I first became a Genin, I revealed my dream... my aspiration — to prove I could be a great ninja, even when I couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu. Neji laughed at me then, but I meant what I said. At that time, Gai-sensei told me, "If you act with passion and compete with rivals, you can become a fine ninja". And that in order to do so, it'd take effort. I was happy to hear that because while in the Academy, no one — not one friend or teacher — said that kind of thing. Well... that's not true... there was one. But she wasn't in my class."

Sakura blinked. 'Me...?'

"She put me at ease and let me be myself... she opened up my eyes when I was unsure of myself and made me realize that all I had to do was try my best. We helped each other, and even if she wasn't supposed to learn the things I was learning, she tried anyway. When I complained that I couldn't match the efforts of the others' natural talents, she just laughed and said I had a natural talent for effort."

Sakura went red, 'I didn't mean to laugh... stupid Past-Sakura making stupid puns...'

"That was when I learnt the importance of believing in my own strength. I wanted to protect her with that strength. It was because of her that I managed to graduate, if only just. But by the time I graduated, I hadn't seen her for a while. But Gai-sensei, his words reminded me of her. So I continued to try my best and even looked to Gai-sensei as a role model... but when I... S-Sakura-chan..."

The pinkette's eyes widened when she saw tears start sliding down Lee's face; her body moved on its own.

"But... this one time... even if I try my best... and even if I believe in myself, there's nothing in the world I can do. Sakura-chan... please tell me... why did this kind of thing happen only to me? And I... what should I do? Please, tell me!"

By now, Lee was all but bawling into her shoulder. Sakura's eyes glittered with the same pain she knew Lee was going through; she tightened her embrace. When she at last spoke, her voice was gentle and empathetic. "You tried to become a great ninja by relying only on taijutsu... until now, that's all you had. It must be so painful for you, now that it seems all your dreams and wishes are being cruelly taken away. Lee..." Sakura opened her eyes and clenched her jaw in tandem to her tightening grip on the boy's shoulders. "If you want to be free of that pain, you'll have to prepare yourself."

She felt Lee stiffen. "Do you mean... prepare to give up my dreams?"

Sakura shook her head. "If you lose your dreams, you will undergo pain even greater than what you feel now. Lee, the surgery is a fifty-fifty gamble — you could live, or you could die. But I know your surgery will be a success because you have worked hard all the way through. You have the power to bring your own future in the heavens. I know this is another tough time in your life, but this time... I won't leave you alone. You had to have hated me at one point for... for leaving you. I don't blame you, and I'm sorry I did. But this time, I want to be by your side. I will do whatever it takes to raise your survival rate, even if it's just by 1%. Because I want to help you the same way you helped me... that's how it was for so long, wasn't it?"

"Sakura-chan..." Lee was the one who shook his head this time. "I never hated you. I wasn't even angry. I was just... sad. Sad that I lost a precious friend. But I always hoped that we'd meet again and when we did, I'd be the kind of person you'd be... proud... to be friends with."

"You are too forgiving, Lee," Sakura sighed, resting her chin on Lee's head, which was lodged in the crook of her neck. "I don't deserve that. I don't deserve you... not in the least. But I am proud to be your friend, Lee. And I will continue to be. "Hand in hand, arm in arm, friend to friend, side by side" — cheesy as that sounds, that was our promise, wasn't it? Our promise of a lifetime. So in the one in a thousand— no, the one in a million chance that something goes wrong..."

Lee's eyes widened when he felt the warmth surrounding him pull away and disappear, only to be replaced by a single point on his head as Sakura pressed her forehead against his. But despite her words — "I will die with you." — she was smiling, with not an ounce of hesitance or fear in her eyes; there was nothing but sincerity... and did he dare to think of that partially-hidden emotion as... affection?

"S-Sakura-chan..." Lee let out a breath he hadn't even known he had been holding. "Thank you. But I can't let you throw away your life on the chance that I don't survive the surgery."

Sakura leaned back, smiling just as brightly at him. "Good — so we agree that nothing's going to go wrong, then."

Lee blinked at the pinkette, who was smiling as bright as the sun behind her that gave off a halo-like illumination of her face. For a moment, Lee wondered if he was dreaming — dear Kami, he hoped he wasn't — because what would such a girl like Sakura Haruno, an impossibly beautiful, sweet, gentle and yet strong girl, be doing with someone like him?

Lee nearly jerked when he remembered when he had, in fact, asked that question once, many years ago. She had not give him a direct answer, but... "Don't do that. Don't put yourself down in front of me, because I won't stand for when people make fun of my friends, but when it's them making fun of themselves... that's another matter entirely. Rock, you are... well, you are my rock, literally and figuratively. You are my first friend, and you've helped me in so many ways that you don't even realize, and all the paper in the world wouldn't be enough if I were to try and write it all down. So don't ever say "someone like me". That implies you are something to be dismissed or disregarded easily, and you are not. You aren't "someone", or "no one". You are you, and there is not one hair on you that I would rearrange because I love you the way you are. And even when we grow up and we change with the the world around us, that will be the one thing you'll always know to be true and unchanging, okay?"

For the first time since hearing Tsunade's prognosis, Rock Lee smiled, just as bright and hopeful as his glowing cherry blossom.


《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》


A week and a half later, Team 7 met up in the same training ground where they had undertaken their first "survival exercise" and became a real Genin team. At this point, Sasuke and Kakashi were back to their usual standards, and Kakashi had taken a page out of Jiraiya's book and gave Sasuke a lecture on the background theory of the Chidori. Sasuke soaked it up like a sponge and mentally took notes on how to improve his sensei's original jutsu. On the other hand, Naruko left her ninjutsu progression behind as she was called away every second day by Hinata, Neji or even Tenten, to come to the Hyuuga Compound and secretly remove the Caged Bird Seal. By now, she had to have freed at least a third of the Hyuuga branch house, and despite her protests, all of the men, women and even children insisted they were now indebted to her. As for Sakura, unlike the fūinjutsu master who could be found almost everywhere in the village, the medic-in-training had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth during the past ten days. It would be a while yet until Team 7 found out that Sakura had been busy with — after much begging and bargaining — helping Tsunade Senju study — Shizune's shriek of "Tsunade-sama is studying?!" followed by an even louder "Concentrate?!" could be heard all over the village, and had a certain blonde Genin cackling until she was wheezing for breath — to raise Lee's chances of survival in a risky surgery. Once that was done, Sakura would help with the surgery preparations, but only if Lee's survival rate rose high enough to satisfy Tsunade.

But for now, Team 7 put all their activities, secret or public, behind them and focused on being a three-man squad again. It felt like an awfully long time since they had last been together — just three Genin and their Jonin sensei, with no village or island to save and no invasion to deal with.

"Alrighty," Kakashi eye-smiled at his team. "Now that everyone's here and dandy, we're going to have a nice little teamwork exercise."

"Again?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Not to toot our own horns or anything... but you do realize that Team 7 is probably the Genin team in terms of teamwork aside from Team 10, and only because they are the sixteenth generation InoShikaCho?"

"I wasn't finished," Kakashi practically sang as he pulled out two noise-cancelling headphones and two blindfolds. "You will be fighting against me, but handicapped. That means you have to completely and totally rely on each other just to move."

"I assume I'll be getting a blindfold," Sasuke sighed in resignation as he took the offered cloth. It was a strange task that seemed impossible, no doubt, but by now he had sadly gotten used to his sensei's eccentricity. The very thought of how strange his life had now turned out to be made the Uchiha want to cry — figuratively, of course.

"And it's chakra enforced, so even if you activate your Sharingan unconsciously, you won't be able to see anything," Kakashi confirmed. "I want you to work on giving out messages or orders with your hand signs. You're good at reading, but not so much at doing. Sakura, you're going to be deafened because I want you to work on lip-reading," he handed a pair of headphones to the pinkette, "and Naruko... you're both."

"Why am I both?" Naruko frowned as she caught the objects thrown her way.

"Because all you subconsciously rely on your enhanced sight and hearing," Kakashi answered flippantly. "So you're going to work on sensing chakra signatures while completely blinded and deafened."

"Don't worry," Sakura smiled, headphones around her neck. "I'll make sure you don't fall into any stupid traps."

Naruko narrowed her eyes. 'Hmm... I could just use the chakra pulse.' She smirked to herself as she tied the cloth securely over her eyes. 'But where's the fun in that?'

When she was a child and had to move around her cave-house in the dark, she discovered that if she manipulated it correctly, chakra could be used in a way similar to echolocation. Small waves of chakra would find out the position of objects, inanimate or human, and then it would "report" back to her by forming "images" once the chakra brushed over everything in the vicinity. Naruko figured it was mostly due to being a sensory type — thank Uzumaki genes — and as such she was more sensitive to chakra in general. The images were vague and she only used it so she wouldn't bump into anything, however if she closed her eyes and concentrated, she would get something that looked like an oil painting. It was particularly handy when preparing for pranks or, in a more practical mindset, during missions.

The moment Naruko fell into a world of darkness, she sent out a wave of chakra to get the basic locations of her teammates. Sakura and Sasuke stood still, letting the barely-noticeable chakra wash over them. The first hundred times Naruko had used it, they hadn't noticed and constantly moved around, making it tricky for her to discern clear images of their surroundings. It was only after Naruko had the foresight to train them in their sensory skills in preparation of the Chuunin Exams did they noticed the quiet, constant chakra pulses. After explaining the mini-jutsu, both Genin understood that in order to get a clear image, they should preferably remain still to avoid disrupting the echolocation. Neither were at that level of performing it yet, however Sakura was getting closer. It probably had something to do with her precise chakra control.

Kakashi looked at his handicapped students. "Alright, I'm going to go hide now, and you have to find me. After that, engage in combat. And yes, I realize this may be tricky, but each of you have a distinct advantage over each other which should cancel out the disadvantages. Learn to piece it together."

Sasuke, who was the only one who could hear, nodded at his direction, and then turned back to where his teammates were still standing. 'I hope I don't mess this up...' He tilted his head toward where Sakura's distinct breathing pattern was, and started signing to her. Sakura looked amused at one point — not that he would've seen it — and responded verbally. Sasuke paused as his lips twisted into smirk; /Stop shouting. Your voice keeps rising with every word./

Sakura blushed. "C-Can you hear me?" she spoke as quietly as she dared. Sasuke gave her a brief nod. Naruko was already walking over to them, though very carefully.

Naruko reached out to grab Sasuke's arm, causing the Uchiha to turn to her. "Kakashi's hiding in the trees," she said simply. She spoke slowly, since she couldn't hear herself speaking and was unable to discern if she was speaking comprehensibly. It was also for Sakura's benefit, since the pinkette was supposed to be working on lip-reading.

"One would think you of all people would tap it out with morse code," Sasuke muttered under his breath, though secretly he was glad he didn't have to decipher it.

"I read that," Sakura said happily as she moved over to her blind teammates. "Okay, so I'm going to tell you the plan, Sasuke, and you're going to tap it onto Naruko's arm... unless she can see us with the echolocation jutsu?"

"I have to really focus to see the specifics," Naruko answered verbally after Sasuke relayed it by tapping it onto her arm. "And I think it'd be a little more fun if I didn't have to use it all the time."

Sasuke snorted — leave it to Naruko to omit the most useful skill just to make it "more fun". He reached out and felt Sakura's hand grab his. "Okay, so we're all here, we got Kakashi's location and Sakura's forming a plan. What—" Sasuke abruptly cut himself off when he realized both of his teammates were deaf, but then realized he had no need to since Sakura was supposed to be lip-reading him. The Uchiha almost facepalmed, hearing Sakura's soft giggles.

Sighing to himself, Sasuke tapped out a question on Naruko's arm, and she nodded. "Naruko's going to lead us to Kakashi," Sasuke told Sakura, who tilted her head in confusion with a frown before her eyes lit up in realization and she nodded happily.

"Kakashi's probably going easy on us with his hiding spot," Sakura said quietly, and Sasuke had to agree with her. Despite how sadistic Team 7's sensei could be sometimes, and how high his expectations for his team were, Kakashi wasn't unfair. He would go easy on them for the first two or three rounds of a new exercise and then ramp it up when they just got used to it.

And speaking of the Jonin sensei — Kakashi watched with intrigue as his three Genin walked to where his Shadow Clone was, sticking very closely together. It seemed Naruko couldn't discern a Shadow Clone from the real thing, but the fact that she had so easily picked up on its location in the first place was impressive. Sasuke was leading Naruko along as he listened to Sakura speak quietly in his ear — at least the Uchiha was better at listening to instructions than he was during the initial formation of Team 7.

The three split off into a triangular formation around the Shadow Clone, who was leaning on a tree and reading a book. The first to attack was Sakura, creating a loud crash and causing a large tremor to run through the ground — signals for each of her teammates. Seeing as Sasuke was blind, his hearing would've heightened to accommodate for lack of sight, and anyone would be able to hear that crash. As for Naruko, the tremors through the ground would give her an idea of the direction to run at, since she wasn't very clear on Kakashi's location.

Sasuke's movements were a little jerky as he continuously split his attention between fighting Kakashi and listening to Sakura. At first glance, he appeared to be utilizing his mediocre sensory skills to avoid clashing with Sakura while cornering Kakashi with every move, but when Kakashi took another look, Sasuke's dodges were almost instinctive; the Jonin's eyebrows rose when it suddenly became clear that the only reason Sasuke was able to move out of Sakura's way in the kind of fluidity that he did was because he was intimately attuned to the girl's chakra signature. This outcome really wasn't a surprise — after all, his three Genin did spend time with each other nearly 24/7. And speaking of Sakura; she was a little distracted and so allowed herself to be hit a bit more often than usual since she had to keep a lookout for both herself and the Uchiha. As for Naruko, she was staying in the shadows, and she called out whenever she either felt or saw a flare of chakra in Kakashi's body that could possibly indicate he was preparing to launch a jutsu — good, she knows when it's best to stay back.

All in all, they were doing rather well considering it was their first time being handicapped in such a way. But the way they were fighting was basic, almost Academy-level at most. Surely that wasn't all his team had?

Of course, Kakashi was proven wrong as, on Naruko's whistle, Sasuke suddenly signed an order to Sakura and leapt to the right three times while Sakura backflipped off the clone. They were, interestingly enough, in the exact same positions of the triangular formation they had assumed in the beginning of cornering the clone. And then Naruko started weaving an unknown sequence followed by Sakura and Sasuke — Serpent, Boar, Dog — but the most surprising thing was that it had three different endings; Naruko ended in Hare, Sasuke's hands slid into Horse and Sakura's hands contorted into Rat. A circle of glowing green kanji lit up around the clone, the center circle running back to identical, but smaller, glowing circles at the three Genin's feet. It seems Naruko hadn't just been staying back — she had been laying down seals in preparation for immobilizing Kakashi's clone while her teammates distracted him.

Kakashi smiled proudly. There was definitely room to improve, and they were holding back quite a bit for fear of accidentally hitting each other — so they needed to work on trusting each other to take care of themselves more; sometimes such a closely-bonded team could be a pain to train with, but the advantages outweighed the disadvantages — and if Kakashi had been fighting at a higher level, he would've been able to take them out pretty easily. Granted, Team 7 had only just started giving him quite a bit of trouble during one-on-one spars, which was a great feat in itself.

'Rookie of the Year, Top Kunoichi, and Deadlast,' Kakashi mused to himself with a quiet chuckle. Those Academy-given titles were nothing more than a thing of the past, now — except for when the teammates were aiming to rile each other up — but sometimes Kakashi would pull out those titles to show them how far they had come and how different they were from the impressionable children who had graduated the Academy.

Sasuke — Rookie of the Year. A boy who cared for nothing more than avenging his clan by killing the one who was responsible for slaughtering them all. He had no interest in making friends, or in being in a Genin Team. "They would only slow him down", had been his train of thought. But if you looked at him now, you wouldn't ever think those words would come out of his mouth. The Uchiha was now a boy who often joked and teased and made jabs at his teammates and friends. He didn't laugh much, but those rare smiles he did show were genuine. He was a prodigy; there was no doubt about that, especially with how he picked up the Chidori and due to his natural curiosity, Sasuke was always seeking out ways to become better. His pride-fueled stubbornness was something that still needed more than a bit of work, but luckily Sasuke had teammates who weren't afraid to knock him down a peg or two... or fifty. Kakashi rolled his eyes just thinking of the many occasions his hotheaded imouto had done just that. But the silver lining was that he was doing it for himself; it was no longer about being strong enough to kill Itachi, and that lifted an unprecedented weight off Kakashi's shoulders. However, there was still something dark and almost sinister lurking deep within the Uchiha that Kakashi couldn't figure out... and truthfully the Jonin wasn't sure he wanted to. He wasn't sure if Sakura or Naruko could see it, or if Sasuke himself was aware of it. But for now, he didn't worry too much about it seeing as his two girls were doing a good job of being Sasuke's moral compass and humanity. But then there was the matter of having received Orochimaru's Curse Mark; Sasuke hadn't changed at all. So as long as Sasuke didn't fall victim to the Uchiha Curse of Hatred — with Naruko there, Kakashi sincerely doubted Sasuke would — then there really was nothing too much to worry about. The darkness inside him was dormant for now... but Kami help the poor soul who dare so much as harboured ill intent towards Sasuke Uchiha's precious people.

Sakura — Top Kunoichi. A civilian who was the first of her family to try and make it as a shinobi. It wasn't a life cut out for her at first, being the shy and timid and dainty girl she was. But Sakura had quickly realized just how far behind she was compared with her teammates, and rather than let it get her down, she found her own role on the team. Her knowledge and quick thinking had helped her team get out of many sticky situations, and she was not afraid to pinch her stronger teammates into doing her bidding; more often than not, to shut up and follow either her or their sensei's orders. Despite her less-than-auspicious start, Sakura was a part of Team 7, and she was both invaluable and irreplaceable — not just as a medic, but as a teammate, a comrade, a friend. While Sasuke and Naruko were the obvious heavy hitters with their respective backgrounds, the pinkette was the one who balanced them and held them together. Kakashi sometimes thought of Sakura as their innocence, their conscience, their moral compass — she was the only member of Team 7 who had yet experience just how cruel the world could be. But that was a good thing, for who else would keep them from going too far? Kakashi had a suspicion that, if anything were to happen to Naruko, Sasuke would go ballistic; the only other person who would get through to him would be Sakura, and even then Kakashi wasn't sure the pinkette would want to stop him; she was fiercely protective over both her teammates — to the point where she radiated some of the strongest Killing Intent Kakashi had ever felt the first time Sakura had witnessed the village's treatment of Naruko firsthand — a trait that no one would have ever predicted. But then again, Kakashi conceded, if Sakura was the one who was hurt... no one would be able to stop Naruko or Sasuke.

Naruko — the Deadlast. And what a surprise that had been for her teammates when it had been revealed that it had all just been an act. But not all of it; for the most part, Naruko continued to be the exuberant and cheerful girl she had been in the Academy, albeit less obnoxious and a lot less oblivious to... well, everything. Her surprising apparent-bond with the Kyuubi allowed her to fight in whichever unorthodox way she pleased, as she demonstrated during the third phase of this year's Chuunin Exams. While she was not particularly prodigious in the same way Sasuke was despite having the same amount of curiosity, Naruko naturally gravitated towards eccentric ways of thinking — this, coupled with her natural aptitude for fūinjutsu, made her a shinobi to be wary of. And there was also her unexplained connections with foreign ninja, most of which were quite high-ranked. But Kakashi already had suspicions as to how they knew each other. Putting that unanswered query aside for the moment, Kakashi wondered if it was her skills or her ability to make anyone — ally or enemy — her friend. After all, if she could "convert" the Uchiha avenger into a normal boy — well, as normal as one could be when he had his entire family slaughtered by his older brother when he was seven — and the Hyuuga branch prodigy her friend... Kakashi smiled and shook his head just thinking about it. It was all thanks to her that Sasuke was now decidedly loyal to Konoha, and that Sakura had finally found her confidence and, unexpectedly, a new passion. Kakashi knew that, should anything happen to Naruko, more than just her Genin team would be out for their blood; the entire Konoha 12, the Jonin Sensei, most of the ANBU Black Ops, the T&I Department, and apparently the Hyuuga branch clan... lanta only knows what Naruko did to gain their respect and loyalty.

Kakashi almost facepalmed; anyone who ever dared to even think of touching any member of Team 7 might as well kiss their lives goodbye and not even bother with the admittedly-suicidal attempt. Well, unless said remaining members were successfully neutralized...

A sudden shrill scream tore him out of his thoughts, and Kakashi launched off his branch when he saw Naruko slump onto the ground and disappear in a flash of black, just in time to miss the upending of the earth, courtesy of Sakura. Sasuke had torn off his blindfold at the pure terror in Sakura's voice, and was looking around haphazardly for his now-missing third teammate, alarm mixed with an undertone of fear painted across his face. Sakura's hands fumbled uselessly with her headphones before she finally yanked them down around her neck.

But of course, there was always someone idiotic enough to try what most classified as suicidal...

"Kakashi-sen—"

"Stay there!" Kakashi barked at his remaining Genin, cutting off Sakura's warning shout and also stopping Sasuke from running after the abductor. The Jonin was closing in on the flash of black as it wove its way through the foliage — why was it so familiar with the geographical landscape? — but he was continuously having the dodge crudely-made smoke bombs. But it was the stripe of yellow slung over his shoulder that helped Kakashi keep track of him. And speaking of which; Kakashi inwardly cursed when he unconsciously took a deep breath of air and smelt faint traces of chloroform — with Naruko's enhanced sense of smell that nearly rivaled an Inuzuka's, it didn't take much more than a strong dose to knock her out cold. And sometimes it didn't even need to be held directly to her face, if the drug was potent enough. But no one besides himself, Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama were supposed to know that.

As the Copy Ninja closed in on the assailant, the shinobi shot a look over his shoulder and let out a curse that was muffled by his thick mask. He pulled out a small black orb from his pocket, and muttered something. The orb suddenly started crackling with lightning, but Kakashi ignored the item, knowing that the shinobi was headed straight towards a sudden cliff, where he could easily corner him. That was his mistake — once the orb's surface was completely covered with a net of lightning, the shinobi threw it down and instantly disappeared in a violent thunderbolt.

"Damnit!" Kakashi shouted as he skidded to a stop. He grit his teeth, looking around briefly for a similar thunderbolt, on the faint chance that it would be a short-distance teleportation item and the flashiness was just a distraction — of course, no such luck. The Jonin hastily bit down on his thumb; "Summoning Jutsu!" He waited impatiently for the smoke to clear away, and once it did, he barked out before Pakkun could even utter a greeting, "Naruko's been taken. I chased them here until they teleported away. Find their scent and see if you can trace it back to someone you know, or even a Hidden Village. I don't care, just find something!"

Pakkun gave a sharp nod and turned to the rest of the summoned ninken, already barking out orders. Kakashi didn't stick around to see them disperse; he had a much more important task to do — inform the Hokage.

Kakashi turned and darted back into the forest the way he came, running just as fast as when he was pursuing Naruko's captor. His heart thrummed against his ribcage in a melody of — what he recognized with half-surprise — fear. Fear for what that ninja had wanted with his sister... fear of what they would do to her... fear of never seeing her again, of never hearing her laugh again, of never being able to eat her cooking, hear her voice welcome him home, even being the victim of her childish pranks... fear of losing yet another precious person.

He didn't spare a thought for Sasuke and Sakura, who were undoubtedly waiting anxiously for him to return. The only destination on his mind was the Hokage Tower — he would later realize with great chagrin that he could've Shunshin'd to the Tower once he was back within Konoha borders — and the instant the red building was in sight, he scaled it until he reached the office window. Without hesitation, Kakashi slammed right into the glass, shattering it and effectively startling all of the occupants into drawing out their weapons. Kakashi rolled to his feet, his eyes landing on a startled Tsunade as he ignored the other Jonin in the room.

"Naruko... kidnapped..." he managed to gasp out between pants. That double run had taken a lot out of him, especially since he had to chase the assailant through Konoha's extensive outer forest and a few miles out of the village's border, and then returned at top speed.

"What?" Tsunade practically roared, slamming her hands onto her table and creating a crack in the middle of it. "What do you mean Naruko's been kidnapped?"

"I would imagine that's exactly what it means," Hiruzen, who had been sitting on the other side of the Hokage's desk, said dryly, though there was a troubled look in his eyes.

"Already have the ninken... searching the site..." Kakashi's breathing was slowing back to normal but his heart was beating just as fast. "He teleported... I was going to corner him at the cliff... but then he used some sort of lightning orb to get away..."

Tsunade fell back into the Hokage Chair, slapping a hand over her eyes. "Trust the shrimp to pull this kind of shit right before my inauguration..."

"Lightning orb?" Kurenai repeated, her brow furrowed.

Kakashi looked to his left and blinked — the other Jonin sensei, Genma, Yugao, Hayate, Jiraiya and the aforementioned Third Hokage were in the room as well. "...was I late for a meeting?" he asked blandly.

"Yes," Asuma answered distractedly, "but that hardly matters now. Was the kidnapper wearing a black cloak with red clouds?"

Kakashi shot him an annoyed look. "I know what the Akatsuki looks like, thank you very much. If you've forgotten, may I remind you that I came to your aid against Kisame and Itachi?"

Asuma swallowed a retort; the only reason he wasn't snapping back at Kakashi was because he very clearly remembered how the Jonin could be whenever Naruko was injured or ill as a child. It was like whenever something happened to the young blonde, something snapped in Kakashi and he would use anger to cover up how scared he was, and would lash out at those who dared to come close. That was something they had discovered during the time Naruko, as an eleven-year-old, suddenly came down with a rather severe case of pneumonia. It had been anything but a pleasant experience — the reason Asuma remembered that occasion with startling clarity was because it was the first time Naruko had fallen ill, and after a vexing day with a snappy Kakashi, Asuma had reluctantly come back to grab something of Kurenai's and accidentally saw Kakashi sitting at a sleeping Naruko's bedside with the most vulnerable and lost look on his face. It was the same expression Asuma had seen on the day the Fourth Hokage and his wife died. That was when Kakashi's defense mechanism was realized, and they all started to make extra efforts to be patient with the man. Thankfully, once Naruko was better, Kakashi returned to his usual self and had even apologized to them for his behaviour.

"Alright, easy there, Kakashi," Gai came to his rescue, laying a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "We will find Naruko. Hokage-sama?"

"Right..." Tsunade's eyes lingered on Minato's portrait for a moment before snapping into action; "Kurenai, gather your team and have them meet up with Kakashi's ninken. I know they're only Genin, but Team 8 was specifically assembled for tracking. Do not tell them of the circumstances just yet — we don't want people to know Naruko has been taken from within Konoha's walls. As for you, Kakashi, get the rest of your team and come back here. Yugao, you may gather a small squad of ANBU to begin a search. Hayate, go to the T&I Department and alert Ibiki and Anko... if she's there. Asuma, take your old man home to rest. Gai, stay here — I'm going to need you when Team 7's Genin show up."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" the shinobi said as one, before leaving to do their respective jobs.

'Naruko... please, please be alright. For Kakashi's sake, if nothing else...'


《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》


"...how much chloroform did you use, you brawny meathead?"

"Keep your breathing steady, don't even twitch," Kurama growled quietly at the back of her head. Naruko obeyed; she had been about to open her eyes to see the owner of the unfamiliar voice, but the Bijuu's orders sounded much more sensible now that she really thought about it.

'What happened?'

"Someone knew and took advantage of your enhanced sense of smell and set off a strong-ass stench of chloroform. Well, strong for your senses... it knocked you right out and this dude kidnapped you. Your brother was running after you, but the dude used a kind of orb that fortune-tellers do to teleport himself away," Kurama answered almost amusedly.

Naruko almost sweatdropped at the comical explanation. 'That's Kurama; never gives a straight answer without throwing in some wry humour,' she thought, pulling up a partial wall so that he wouldn't be able to hear and respond to that particular train of thought. Letting down the wall, Naruko then asked, 'Are you able to tell where we are?'

"Um... perhaps now is not the best time..."

Naruko's brow twitched together when she felt a persistent prodding in her ribs. Finally cracking her eyes open, she saw a brown leather shoe nudging her ribs repeatedly. It wasn't enough to be painful, but enough to certainly be felt and to be annoying. 'Guess there's no helping it...' Giving an internal sigh, Naruko rolled further onto her back and squinted up at the tall man before her; he had brush-like hair that spiked up, coloured a gradient of white at the roots and mint-green at the top. Two locks of hair draped over his face — one on the right and one in the center — but it was two symmetrical diagonal lines that caught Naruko's attention. They were connected to his inner eyebrows and descended to half an inch underneath his eyes... it looked like someone had drawn a crack in his face. Naruko idly thought he looked to be the type of boy that Ino would call a "lady killer", but despite that, it was the cold, calculating gleam in his garnet-red eyes that had shivers running down her spine.

Her eyes caught on the grey symbol stitched onto the breast pocket of his white lab coat — three cloud-like symbols, two of which were connected. She was in Kumogakure.

"Ugh, what the hell is it with Kumo and kidnapping Konoha shinobi?" Kurama grumbled. "First it was your mother, then Hinata, and now you. Good lanta, you'd think they'd learn by now. Although," he paused, "this is the only successful kidnapping attempt out of three. And I'm not saying that Konoha isn't searching for you, but this seems a little odd to me..."

'Well it's not like I could've left a trail,' Naruko sighed resignedly, 'I was knocked unconscious the whole trip.'

"And both your teammates were critically handicapped and Kakashi was observing from a distance when the shinobi ambushed you. In the past two cases, Kushina dropped her red hair while Hinata was taken from the compound, so it was obvious the latter wasn't going to work. But still, something seems too convenient... they shouldn't have been able to take you that easily."

"Naruko Uzumaki, yes?" The man was looking at a small clipboard, but his piercing gaze fell on her. Naruko could only manage a wordless nod. "Hmm, let's see... Date of Birth: October 10th 1994. Parents: Deceased — orphan since birth? How interesting. Gender: Female. Heh, obviously. Age: Thirteen. Height: 146.2 cm. Isn't that a little... short for a thirteen-year-old? Status: Genin of Konohagakure, as of October 3rd 2002. Genin Team: Team 7 under Jonin Sensei Kakashi Hatake and teammates are Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. Well, this is exhilarating."

Naruko's brow furrowed. 'How the hell did he get all that information? That's sensitive Konoha-only information. If he has all of that... does he know I'm a jinchuuriki?'

"Doubt it," Kurama answered, his voice laced with wary suspicion. "He appears to be the type who loves showing off, so if he knew he would've mentioned it along with everything else. But I do agree with that question of how the hell did he get all of that information? And why is he concerned about your height?"

The man looked at her for a moment more before jerking his head. "Come with me."

Naruko slowly got to her feet and trailed after him, feeling like a lost puppy. Her eyes flickered around discreetly; everything was dark, and what few lights they had were cold artificial lights coloured a pale blue. All in all... it looked like a secret, illegal experimental laboratory. Naruko idly wondered if this was what Orochimaru's hideouts looked like.

"My name is Dr. Senku Ichinose," the man said, not even turning around to look at her. "I'm a scientist, researcher, whatever you want to call it." He stopped before a door and turned to face the girl with a smirk. "What is beyond this door shall never be revealed to anyone outside of the lab. Of course, I won't have to worry about you spilling my secrets." The ominous gleam in his red eyes caused Naruko to shift uncomfortably, but she didn't say a word. Seemingly pleased at her lack of words, he twisted the doorknob and beckoned her. "Come."

Naruko hesitated, but ultimately deemed it to be in her best interest to obey the man. There was no telling what he would do to her if she defied him. And while she would've loved to, this Senku Ichinose was dangerous — perhaps not in the way S-rank rogue shinobi were, but dangerous in the sense that he held absolutely no regard for human life, and would therefore feel no remorse in using her as a lab rat.

The kunoichi cautiously stepped into the room, and at Senku's pointed look, slowly approached what looked like a metal box with a glass pane for a lid. Rising onto her toes in order to see what was inside, Naruko instantly dropped back down and started to back away, eyes wide and hands pressed tightly to her mouth.

'How...?'


《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》


A/N: Yeah... so originally this chapter was supposed to be around 23,700+ words long (it was already at 23,780 and I was only halfway done with the chapter), but then I realized that's probably a little bit too much to read all at once, so I split it up into two chapters... have fun with this little cliffhanger :)

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top