Shatterpoint I. Return
It took us four days to return to Konoha, and to be honest, I was somewhat glad to see the familiar silhouette of the village again. Something comforting about it which I could not seem to place, though I soon put that thought to the back of my head in favor of that which was coming next.
Of course, that would come later. First thing we did after we had checked in with the village gate guards was to report to the mission desk regarding the special circumstances of our mission. It was standard village procedure, though I could not help but feel a small shred of annoyance that I could not report to father immediately and tell him about the new developments that had occurred.
Especially what I had suspected that had gone through during Haku’s and Kakashi-sensei’s conversation.
Well, nothing I could do about it anyway, so might as well get it over and done with.
Still, it stands to reason to assume that due to the complications that had arisen during our mission, the debriefing would probably be much more different than usual. Standard procedures merely require that we report our mission accomplished, receive our respective paychecks and then be dismissed from the desk. However, due to the unforeseen circumstances that had plagued our team’s first ever ranked ‘C’ mission, it was evident that mission desk would want to interview us during our debriefing to learn of what exactly had transpired during the course of our assignment.
Sandaime Hokage merely took one look at the scroll that Kakashi had received from Haku before gesturing at our sensei to follow him into an adjacent room. Meanwhile, the three of us were beckoned into another room where we were instructed to fill in a bunch of forms before we were to write a report on what exactly had transpired.
With the exception of Naruto, who was grumbling at the amount of paperwork which we were forced to finish, the rest of us, namely me and Sasuke, finished our work as quietly as possible. Mostly because there were two other chunin wearing the T&I (Torture and Interrogation) Department’s standard grey uniform watching over us. Well, Sasuke might not know who they were, seeing that he didn’t even recognize Kakashi-sensei, but even he could tell that they were the sort of people who could make your life a nightmare.
At least they didn’t seem to mind the noises and groans that Naruto made wherever he ran into a word which had a meaning that seemed to elude him.
Though I couldn’t really blame him, as the person who had made the forms probably was a sadist of the highest degree, I mean, asking for information as detailed as the food that we had consumed over the duration of the mission? That was rather excessive if you would ask me.
Well, here’s to hoping that it wouldn’t take too long. I sighed as I looked upon the stack of papers before me.
“And that concludes my report Hokage-sama.” Kakashi said. He was alone with Hiruzen Sarutobi in the Hokage office, with his three genins waiting in the other debriefing room where the mission desk chunins had brought them. If he were to tell the truth, it would not be an understatement to say that he was expecting some sort of ruckus to break out soon. Still, he had every confidence that the lone kunoichi in his group would help keep the boys in line, even if she did seem a bit more tired today.
“I see.” Hiruzen nodded, his eyes never leaving the scroll that Kakashi had handed him, the very same scroll that the hunter-nin boy, Haku, had passed to him. “And how reliable do you think that the information is?”
“The informant and his deceased superior was noticed to be very adamant on not seeking a conflict with Konoha, at the very least.” Kakashi replied. It had puzzled him at the start too, but the comment from Kyoku, the rather insightful little girl, had all but confirmed it. Throughout the confrontations they had during the mission with the nuke-nin, Zabuza and his little protege had seemed rather insistent on utilising non-lethal methods despite having ample opportunity to kill off his team.
Considering that this was the Demon in the Mist that they were talking about, the only reason why he would not resort to his preferred method of killing was probably because he had orders from somewhere which he had to follow. Kakashi had his suspicions as to who would give Zabuza those orders, but he would much rather leave that to the Shinobi Council to deal with.
Politics was such a pain, after all.
“Very well.” Hiruzen muttered. “I’ll be passing this off to intelligence,” he nodded at Kakashi, “and the ranking of your mission will be re-established as an A-ranked with the payment of your team accordingly increased.”
“Thank you, Hokage-same.” Kakashi nodded, before adding, “Though I would also like to inform you that the financial situation of the Wave Country is in rather dire states right now. Extracting a proper payment from them might prove difficult.”
“Don’t worry.” Hiruzen smiled, a smile that Kakashi had long since recognized as one the Hokage wore whenever he already had a solution to the problem. “We’ll work something out.”
“Understood, Hokage-sama.”
Hiruzen nodded, “now go have the rest of the day off. Consider it part of the rewards from the mission.”
“Thank you, Hokage-sama.” Kakashi bowed, before exiting the room. Rest of the day off? Sounds good to him. That’s just more time to read the latest release of Icha Icha Tactics, though he had a couple of things to see to first.
Closing his eyes, he listened closely for the voices of the subordinates. Sure enough, he found their voices reaching him from behind the door just three rooms down, mentally preparing himself, he strode down the corridor and pushed open the wooden edifice, striding into the room.
“Sensei!” Shouted one of the voices, predictably. “What did the Hokage say? Did you tell him about Zabuza? Haku? Did you tell him what we did?”
Naruto Uzumaki. Kakashi almost wanted to sigh when he saw the state of his master’s son. He had his mother’s wilful personality, but had lacked any of the control that both of his parents had. Not that it was his fault. If anything, it was a blessing for the village that he had retained the more optimistic and forgiving traits of his parents. Still, beneath that playful personality lies a dormant but sharp mind, and one of this days, Kakashi hoped that he could awaken it.
And deep down, he also hoped that one day, he would finally be able to reveal to his genin who his parents were, with the blessing of the Hokage behind it. Not that the surprisingly stubborn jounin would ever admit to anybody.
“Naruto.” Kyoku smacked her teammate lightly on the head, shutting him up. “If you don’t let sensei speak, how is he going to tell us?”
Good girl. Kakashi smiled at her in approval. The other two boys on the team were extremely energetic and had completely opposing personalities, normally a recipe for disaster that Kakashi would much rather avoid. Thank the gods above that the Kunoichi attached to his team had one of the sharpest minds he had seen and was equally level-headed to boot. Somehow, to her chagrin and his amusement, she had become the mediator between the two boys and was also capable of diverting their boundless energy towards more productive ventures.
Heavens help him if she had been someone that lacked any form of control over the more wilful duo of his genins. Or worse, one of those girls that were extremely infatuated with his Uchiha student. Unfortunately, the girl had seemed to be hiding some rather dark secrets of her own, hopefully he would be able to shed some light on the matter later today.
“Hn.” Sasuke tsked, though whether in approval or disapproval Kakashi could never tell. There lies the problem with his third member of the team. Sasuke Uchiha was a boy who had lived through a horrifying experience kids his age should not have had to experience. The result of that tragedy was a reclusive boy who did not know who to trust, though thankfully, he had been opening up gradually to the rest of his team. However, he was still one that Kakashi would keep his eyes on, while the boy’s eyes had been regaining some of the spark that he had lost during the tragic Uchiha Massacre, it was still very much clouded by thoughts of revenge. Not exactly a healthy obsession for a twelve year old.
“Well,” Kakashi began as he pushed his thoughts out of his head. “First off, you can say that the Hokage is very impressed by your efforts.”
“Hell yes!” Naruto jumped with joy.
“The mission is to be upgraded into an A-ranked,” He continued, ignoring the jumping and posturing boy, “and you will all also get the appropriate payment for it too.”
“What about the scroll that Haku passed to you?” Kyoku, ever the inquisitive one, asked, “is it going to impact our mission results?”
“There is no scroll.” Kakashi said brightly. He watched his genins look at each other quizzically before nodding at one another, apparently getting the message. They were a smart group, he nodded approvingly. “Also,” He added, “Hokage-sama is giving you all the rest of the day off. So you are all dismissed for the day, meet me at training ground five at six tomorrow.” His eyes drifted to the ‘special’ mission reports papers that each of his genin had left on the table in the room. “Actually, eight. I’d think you’d spend all day with those.”
“Oh yeah, why don’t you need to work on these too?” Naruto demanded belligerently.
“Because I’m a jounin.” He replied brightly, which was not entirely incorrect. It mostly meant that he had more leeway to not submit the mission report unless a higher authority actually came out to demand the paperwork from him personally.
Mmmmh, that’s probably why the people at Administration hated his guts. Not like he cared anyway.
Kakashi waved goodbye to the trio of them as he left the room, before vanishing with a body flicker technique, stopping his movement right before the Jounin Headquarters. Walking in, he waved casually at the chunins at the reception as he made his way into the building. After a couple of flights of stairs and a series of winding corridors later, he found himself at the location of the second issue he decided to tackle today.
“Shiratama-san.” He called out as he walked into the administration office, causing the chunnins and jounins within to look up from their desks in surprise. It was not everyday that one of Konoha’s top jounins had deigned to pay them a visit, after alll.
“Kakashi-san!” Shiratama greeted as he stood up, shoving a stack of paperwork aside. “What brings you here?”
Asagami Shiratama was in truth, not really an outstanding ninja even if he made Jounin, with nothing especially noteworthy within his records other than the fact that he was once one of Orochimaru’s genin. Still, the fallen Sannin’s stigma never actually affected him, seeing that most of the suspicion had actually fallen on Anko Mitarashi who had been directly apprenticed to the Sannin. In fact, Kakashi would not have found him associated with the other shinobi if not for the fact that his adopted daughter was not one of his genins.
“Something with regards to your daughter, actually.” Kakashi watched the other shinobi stiffen in worry. To be honest, he did not expect that reaction from one of his fellow jounins, but he supposed that that was one of the perks that came with parenthood.
“I see,” He began walking out of the office, beckoning Kakashi to follow. “If you would follow me to the lounge? I think I would rather have this conversation in private.”
“Sure.” Kakashi shrugged, following the other shinobi out of the office and into another smaller room with a couple of couches surrounding a small table. Shiratama took one of the couches, and Kakashi took the one opposite.
“So,” Shiratama asked, his voice slightly strained. “What happened?”
“Well, as you’d probably know, Kyoku just returned from a C-ranked mission which was just upgraded up to A-ranked by the Hokage.”
“Not surprising, considering that Zabuza Momochi was involved.” Shiratama replied. Kakashi blinked, he was surprisingly well-informed, “though she returned alive and well, so I don’t see why you have to visit me over this, Kakashi-san.”
“Well, I was getting to that.” Kakashi shrugged, “you see, Kyoku isn’t exactly fine.”
“How so?”
“Well, it would seem that she had rather… interesting experiences prior to your adoption of her.”
“Which I had shared the details about with my superiors.” Shiratama replied.
“No, I am referring to the experiences that she had not shared with you about, Shiratama-san.” Kakashi continued solemnly.
The other ninja looked at him warily. An interesting reaction, Kakashi noted, he would have thought that the other shinobi would be more worried actually. Instead he looked rather guarded against Kakashi, almost as if he knew something.
“She appears to have experienced a form of traumatic event in the past,” Kakashi continued, carefully studying Kyoku’s foster father, “while it was not affecting her in the slightest right now, I can’t really say much about how she would be in the future, especially when she’s letting it fester.”
“I see.” Shiratama’s face was as passive as a stone wall right now as he replied neutrally.
“As such, I would like to recommend her for treatment at the Yamanak-”
“No.”
“Excuse me?” Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
“I will not subject my daughter to the counselling methods of the Yamanakas.” Shiramtama replied as he shook his head, seemingly distressed. “Their methods may be effective, but on a girl like her, I don’t think that having her past be dragged out of her would be especially productive. Especially since the trauma might affect her current psyche.”
“True.” Kakashi nodded, “but I can’t have one of my genins be possibly compromised on a mission by an unknown factor.”
“I’ll talk to her.” Shiratama assured him before looking away guiltily. “While I did adopt her, like you said, she did have a bunch of luggage that I had not gotten around to resolving.” He looked up. “I had only been providing her with the comfort of a home and family so far, give me some time and I will help her through this latest hurdle so that your genin team is not compromised.”
“Please do.” Kakashi replied. “She has a lot of potential in her, easily one of the best genins I had ever seen.” Not to mention that she possessed one of the most interesting Kekkei Genkai that he had ever seen. In fact, it had been extremely surprising that his own Sharingan could not even register the movement of her techniques during their fight with Zabuza. Something for himself to explore once he had officially registered her Bloodlimit with the administration, which should be after the Chunnin Exams.
After all, there was no sense revealing his genin’s cards to the other rival teams.
“Really?” Shiratama smiled proudly, though his expression seemed a little off. “Well, I did have a hand in training her.” The two jounins shared a chuckle at that. “Now,” Shiratama stood up, “if that would be all, I will be returning to my work.”
“One last thing,” Kakashi said, causing the other jounin to turn back to him. “I am planning to register Kyoku for that. Would you have any objections?”
He watched the other ninja closely. Carefully noting the lack of worry on Shiratama’s face.
“Well, do you think that she’s ready?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will leave her in your care.” Shiratama said, nodding to his peer as he exit the room. “Have a nice day, Kakashi-san.”
“Likewise, Shiratama-san.” Kakashi called after his retreating figure before slumping on the couch, deep in thought.
The conversation was… interesting. For a parent, Kakashi can only conclude that Shiratama was weird. While he referred to Kyoku as his daughter, there were times when his tone had almost unwittingly referred to her as a soldier or even as an asset. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Shiratama was still learning how to be a parent, but even his affection for his daughter somehow felt off… And that was coming from someone like Kakashi, who had anything but a normal functioning family.
Kakashi sighed. He was going to have to keep a closer eye on Shiratama and his daughter. Something just did not feel right about this situation.
Stats
Page generated in 0.017 seconds
Total duration
617 users online
857,342 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
10204271
Not long, thats for sure XD
10210811
Thank you!
10198859
Glad you like it!
10203003
It was a little village, near the border of the Land of Lightning
Thanks for this chapter, and I dont she the problem of first and third person because it sees a well form or writing.
I really enjoy this story. It's actually kinda refreshing to have different events than the normal Naruto storyline. Also, I really like the interactions between the Team 7 members.
In regards to this chapters First and Third person switch, I didn't mind it. I also quite liked that we got to see things from Kakashi's perspective for a little bit. It was interesting to see/read his thoughts. Keep up the good work.
I think the change in perspectives works since it marks a change in PoV. As long as it's consistent is fine.
Thanks for a new chapter!
I for one think you are doing a good job
10211181
Agreed! you're using both perspectives to great effect. keep it up!
My only thoughts are to keep doing what you are doing. This is a great story.
I agree with those that said the double person works, as it marks nicely the change in perspective between Sunest's POV and anyone else's.
I have been binging this story over the past three days and there is one overwhelming infuriating problem with that you simply must fix...
It doesn't have another chapter.
Also, have you considered giving Kyoku a connection with Hidden Sound Genin? If anything sets her against Orochimaru, it would be having friends who share her opinion of him being so casually tossed aside. (Hell, he might even try to use her as a sacrifice for the Reanimation Jutsu)
10219798
Lol, thanks.
So not even the Sharingan can track her magic?