Land Of Waves III. Revelations
“What? How?” Naruto asked, gaping openly in shock and surprise. I did the same, though with less gaping and more thinking.
“Remember the hunter-nin from before?” Kakashi-sensei said as he sat up, propping himself up with my help. “Did you see how he disposed of the body?”
I actually felt the blood drain from my face. I know what he was talking about, but a mixture of tiredness and incredulity had taken over my higher thought functions, leaving me to respond in a rather base manner. “But what you’re suggesting is impossible!” I blurted out aloud.
“Huh, what’s impossible?” Naruto asked, looking at me. I ignored him.
“Senbon, in the end are just twenty centimeters of steel!” I continued, eyes looking at sensei, trying to see a hint of what he was thinking. No luck. “Sure, if you strike the proper part of the neck, you can incite a state of pseudo-death. But if you miss by even a millimeter, the person will just die. Not to mean that he did so from such a distance.” I ranted at sensei’s passive face. “Doing so is a huge risk and may endanger his partner!”
“But not impossible.” Sensei replied calmly and in a tone that brooked no argument. I shrank back, blushing a bit from my outburst. “Especially when the person doing it specializes in that technique.”
“Can someone please tell me what you’re talking about?” Naruto wailed.
“Quiet down, dead last.” Sasuke muttered, causing the other boy to shoot a sharp indignant glance at him. From the look on his face, he also knew what was going on. “They are saying that the Hunter-nin is in cahoots with Zabuza and had probably saved him.”
That was a really good summary actually, and I was even more surprised by the fact that Sasuke was willing to elaborate the situation to Naruto. Huh, guess their relationship may actually be improving?
“Indeed,” Kakashi-sensei said, nodding at Sasuke. “Which means that it will be likely that he is coming back for a second attempt. On another note, what is the situation?”
“The house is secure.” I reported. “We have shadow clones at the four corners and one on the roof, ready to call out at the first sign of danger. I had asked Sasuke to stand by and rest though, as he would be our best chance to take out any hostile that would approach at this time.”
“Hey-” Naruto started, though I silenced him with a glare. I only recently noticed that I was getting pretty good at that. Huh, the things you learn about yourself.
“Mmmh, I see. Good thinking.” Kakashi-sensei replied, though the way he did made me wince. It just felt so dismissive.
The silence that descended afterwards was deafening, in the awkward sort of way.
“I think that I've had enough rest.” Sasuke said, his words knocking me out of my reverie. “I’d take over outside.” He nodded at me before turning to Naruto. “Come on, dead last.”
“Why you!” Naruto started, but Sasuke had already exited the house. He huffed in annoyance, before following the other boy out, all the while muttering about arrogant Sasukes and how to punch them.
Leaving me alone with sensei.
“Uhhh, sensei.” I asked meekly. “Is something wrong?”
He looked at me, before laying back down without saying a word.
Sweat flowed down my forehead. He might not be showing it, but it was clear that he was mad. At me. However, try as I might, I could not tell what would warrant such a reaction from him.
Unless it was…
Oh…
He was mad about the time I openly defied his orders, did he?
“Ummmm….” I bit my lip, unsure of how to go about this. On one hand, I did manage to salvage the situation and technically save Kakashi-sensei’s life, yes, it was a technicality as I had no way of knowing if he could escape from that life and death situation, so in a way, I did manage to avoid the worse case scenario.
But on the other hand, I did commit insubordination, as I openly defied my commanding jounin’s orders…
Guess there was nothing I could do but apologize, huh?
I swallowed my pride and bowed my head, my face parallel to the ground. “I am sorry, sensei.” I said, trying to sound as apologetic as possible. “For disobeying your orders. I am willing to accept any punishment you would mete out.
No response.
I waited a little longer, holding that pose.
Still no response.
I then decided to chance it, looking up. And felt my nose hit something.
…
Did he just booped me on the nose?
Kakashi-sensei’s eye was curved, evidence that he was smiling. For some reason, I felt a deep inclination to return the blow a hundredfold. Instead, I took a deep breath, to calm myself. I’m not at the level where I could attack a jounin after all, even if he was injured.
“Maa, it's not a shinobi rule but... a good friend once told me that you should always keep your word to your teammates.” Kakashi-sensei chuckled good naturedly as I rubbed my nose. “But don’t worry,” His hand patted my hair. “You did a good job.”
“Ah…” Was I forgiven?
“However, you will still be punished.”
Oh. So much for that.
“Get some rest, you look terrible.”
Huh?
“Go and sleep, Kyoku-chan.” Kakashi-sensei clarified gently. “And get Naruto back in here for some rest. Sasuke can hold the dawn watch. You’ll be needing it for tomorrow’s punishment.” His eye glinted maliciously.
“U-understood…” I sighed. I’m not going to like what's coming tomorrow, was I?
Tazuna was surprised when he saw Kakashi-sensei up and about, but glad enough that the ninja was well. Breakfast was a simple affair, plain bread and a simple cup of hot tea, which still tastes a whole lot better than rations, at least in the fact that it was a warm meal to a certain extent.
“What are you putting in your tea, Kyoku-chan?”
“Poison.”
All of them sans Kakashi-sensei stared. Then Naruto giggled.
“Nice one, you nearly had me there!” He laughed, only for his glee to slowly die down when he realised that I was serious.
“Ummm, why?” Tazuna asked.
“I use senbons coated with poison.” I shrugged, “Don’t want myself to get poisoned by my own methods.” I held up the small packet. “So I regularly take small amounts to develop an immunity to them.”
Granted, it would not work for all kinds of poisons, but I had ensured that it was effective for mine.
“Okaaaay,” Tazuna blinked, then turned to Kakashi-sensei, “So you’re saying that the ninja from yesterday is still alive?” He asked, in an effort to change the subject.
“Yes.” Kakashi-sensei replied. “And that means that the chances of you being targeted is very high.” He looked at the rest of us, expression unreadable. “While our mission was a escort-only mission, on the account of my current state and the fact that we failed to properly finish off one of his assailants, we’ll be extending the duration of our mission, at least until the bridge is built.” He turned to Tazuna, “though that would mean that there would be a high chance that this mission will be upgraded to a B-rank when we report back in, will that be acceptable, Tazuna-san?”
“Well, I can’t deny your help.” Tazuna replied, “but, Kakashi-san, there is the matter of payment. As you can see, the Land of Waves is not a very wealthy nation. I don’t know if we could gather money to pay it off…”
“Mah, don’t worry about it.” Kakashi-sensei replied, shrugging nonchalantly, “the people at the mission desk will work something out. I’ll even drop in a word so that they won’t do anything outrageous, how about it?”
Tazuna nodded, though it was not like he had a choice in the matter. He did need our help after all, and we were his best shot at staying alive.
“Now then,” he turned to the rest of us. “I suppose that I must say that I was impressed , especially with how the three of you acquitted yourself with the fight just now.”
The three of us exchanged looks. Did Kakashi-sensei just… compliment us?
“Be that as it may, I believe that it is time for you to train. The next time Zabuza comes, his hunter-nin friend would most certainly be there. So some training would most certainly be useful if you would want to stand a better chance.”
Naruto perked up. “Yeah!” Then he blinked before smiling sheepishly at the sensei, “How though?”
“How are all of you at tree walking?”
“Their chakra control has improved to the point in which they could run on walls already, sensei.” I reported.
“Good, then we’ll move on to the next stage then.”
“Sensei,” Sasuke suddenly interrupted, “but what would our arrangement be? Someone still needs to look after Tazuna-san.”
“We’d do it in rotations.” Sensei replied. “One of you will accompany Tazuna at all times, switching with one another on the next day. “
“And if Zabuza turns up?”
“Bring Tazuna back immediately. But considering his injuries, I doubt we’d see him in a week.” Sensei replied dismissively. “We’d just have to hope that Gatou doesn’t have another shinobi of his caliber.” At our worried looks, Kakashi-sensei laughed. “Maa, don’t worry about it. Considering the fact that Gatou is hiring a nuke-nin means that there will be no proper village ninja helping him out, and nuke-nins are expensive and competitive. The chances that he has two under his paycheck are quite impossible.”
“Still, what kind of training are we going to be taking on?” I asked, “if we only have a week, I don’t think that we’d stand any chance against Zabuza no matter how much effort we put in.”
“Says you!” Naruto stuck his tongue out at me, “by the end of the week, I’m going to be able to take on Zabuza, and any other thug that that Gatou would be able to send against us!”
“Keep dreaming.” A voice said, coming from the stairs.
“Inari!” Tazuna cried happily, as he beckoned the pint-sized child with an oversized bucket-head over to him. “Where were you?”
The boy walked over dutifully, giving his grandfather a hug as he did so. “Welcome back grandpa.” He said in a rather deadpan voice.
“Say hello to the ninjas that protected grandpa.” Tsunami said as she exited the kitchen.
He looked at us, before looking back at Tsunami.
“Mom, you know they’re going to die, right?”
“What did you say you little brat!” Naruto yelled.
Inari merely looked at him with soulless eyes. “There’s no way you can defeat Gatou.”
“You brat! I’ll have you know,” Naruto pointed at himself, “I’m going to be the hero that will one day become Hokage! This Gatou guy will have nothing against me!”
“What are you, stupid?” Inari glared back as he turned to leave, “There’s no such thing as a hero!”
I winced. Of course he was going to hit Naruto where it hurts most. As a person that was seeking recognition, being a hero meant everything to Naruto, denying it was effectively refusing to acknowledge every thing that Naruto himself seeks to embody.
It was a tactic that I was planning to use should I ever face off against the Jinchuuriki, though hopefully it would never come to that.
Still, incoming outburst...
“You little brat!” Naruto yelled up at the boy’s departing figure.
Yeah, figured.
“Leave him be.” Kakashi-sensei muttered. “I sense that there’s a story to be had, but I won’t pry.” He looked at us, “Now for the rest of you, Tazuna-san is going to be leaving for the bridge in an hour, I’d want you all to decide who among the you is going to accompany him. The other two will follow me, understood?”
“Understood.” We chorused. It was then when Naruto got this look on him. Almost as if he was thinking about something. I shivered slightly. The words ‘Naruto’ and ‘thinking’ were not to be used lightly in the same sentence.
“Oh yeah!” He clapped his hands together, before turning to me. “Kyoku-chan!”
“Y-yes?”
“How did you do that yesterday?” He asked, eyes sparkling. “You know, the thing with the flying senbon!”
Oh.
Come to think of it, I never did tell them about my magic, had I?
“Ah,” I stalled, before recalling the story that I had cooked up with my father on the go. “It is my bloodlimit,” I explained as I pulled a senbon out of my holster and gripped it in my telekinesis, levitating it before Naruto’s awestruck’s expression and Sasuke’s general curiosity. “I don’t really know what it is though. I only found out about it before I made genin.” I lied. “Kakashi-sensei also knows about it though, but he doesn’t really know what to make of it.”
“Wow.” Naruto said in wonder, “think of all the things that we can do with this!”
“Hn,” Sasuke nodded in approval. Huh, they seem to be taking this rather well. Guess I don’t really need the rest of that elaborate story now…
“If you are all quite finished.” Kakashi-sensei interjected. “Mind if you start getting ready?”
Sasuke, being the most well-rested out of the three of us, volunteered to escort Tazuna for the first day, leaving Naruto and I to accompany Kakashi-sensei along to the village coastline, a place not really too far from the bridge so that we can respond wherever possible.
The first agenda of the training was chakra control. Seeing that we were able to use tree-walking to a certain degree already, sensei tasked us to work with our Water-Walking technique.
Water-walking may seem similar to treewalking at a glance, but in truth, it was a completely different style of chakra control. While you use your chakra to form ‘hooks’, in a manner of speaking’, to grip the surface of trees and walls so that you can walk on them, when it comes to a water body, it was more solidifying the water beneath you such that one can walk on it without sinking.
I can manage it just fine, though as sensei had left mid-training, in the end, it fell to me to help Naruto with his technique. Chiefly me standing next to him as he tried his best and giving him pointers wherever possible while trying to simultaneously levitate a dozen senbons about me with my telekinesis. Thankfully, Naruto and Sasuke had stopped bugging me about it once I had presented them with a levitating senbon which I had then flung straight off into a tree.
Still, now that they knew about it, it meant that I could practice my magic freely about them, and more practice was always a good thing. It took me two years of secret practice for me to even build my mana pool to the level that it was right now, and to develop some of my more basic spells, like telekinesis.
“Hey Kyoku?” He asked, face scrunched up as he was concentrating, trying his best not to sink into the water below.
“Hmmmm?”
“That Zabuza guy, he said that you killed before.” He continued quietly.
I almost lost my concentration then and there, but managed to gather myself quickly enough before I could drop into the water.
“Where did you hear that?” I asked, grabbing him. Apparently, that broke his concentration and he sank into the ocean with a ‘plop’.
“Blurgh! What was that for?” Naruto spat water as he resurfaced. At any other time, I might have had an ounce of sympathy for him, but now? I was too preoccupied with what he had told me.
“I said, where did you hear that?” I hovered over him, I was glaring, I know, but this was something I did not want people to know about. I thought back to the short exchange of words I had with the water clone. Naruto wasn’t there, his clones were, but Sasuke was also there. Did Sasuke tell him? “Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun told you, didn’t he?”
“Tell me what?” Naruto looked up at me suspiciously.
Sasuke did not? Then how did Naruto know? Only his clones were there, if I recall properly.
His clones… No… Wait… No way…
“Naruto-kun, tell me,” I grabbed him and pulled him back to the coastline. “How did you know Zabuza told me that?”
“Uhhh…” Naruto mumbled. “I don’t know, I just know, I guess?”
That just confirms it. Sasuke did not tell him, so either he has enhanced hearing, or it’s the other possibility...
“Naruto, can you help me with something?” At his curious prompt, I continued, “lend me one of your shadow clones.” A poof of chakra smoke and two Naruto’s were standing before me. “Now can I have the shadow clone follow me aside, please?” They both gave me quizzical looks.
“Uh, so what do you want us to do?”
“I’ll tell you afterwards, just have the shadow clone follow me please.”
Sure they might not understand what I was doing, but if my suspicions were correct, it would all be worth it. All that was needed was just to see if my hypothesis was correct with a simple test.
“Right.” I told the shadow clone. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to ask you a question, and then I’m going to see if your original knows what I ask and what you answered, okay?”
He nodded.
“Do you like Sakura-chan?”
The clone stiffened and blushed. I suppressed a smirk.
“Stay here,” I ordered as I made my way back to Naruto.
“Kyoku-chan!” The original Naruto whined as soon as I came back into hearing range. “So? What was it that you were doing?”
“So you do not know?” Huh, I was wrong? I had thought that the clones and Naruto would share a hive-mind or something.
“No,” He replied incredulously, “I was here the whole time!”
“I see.” I muttered, disappointed. I would need to think about this more later. “Well, it was nothing important. Let’s just get back to training before Kakashi-sensei returns.”
“Awww….” Naruto pouted, but formed a handseal all the same to dispel the clone. Then his eyes lit up.
“Naruto-kun?” I asked, a little worried. Did something wrong happen when he was dispelling the clone?
“Y-you…” He blushed and pointed at me. “You asked me if I like Sakura-chan!” He wailed.
I blinked. Huh, that was easier than I thought.
“Hey Naruto.”
“Yes?” He replied, still blushing furiously.
“Can you teach me the shadow clone technique?”
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I’d love to be able to use the shadow clone jutsu, Naruto’s version, not the academy’s version.
so this will be ending ether good or bad. don't know witch.
Always glad to see a new chapter! Thanks!
poor girls gonna eat through her chakra reserves is she aint careful with the clones.
I love it please make more!
Good fic, waiting for the next chapter