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Chapter 40: Arc 4 - Brawling in the Streets
🕑 Added 2024-06-03 02:22:07 +0000 UTCNaruto gets the details on the mission while Kakashi explains to the boys what's actually going on.
This is also the last I have of the outline.
Yeah... I really didn't use that week off very efficiently. I mean, it was very important for my mental health but as far as outlining goes, total failure.
I outlined more of Arc 6 than I did Arc 4.
Oh well.
My new apartment has a few odd issues. The bathtub drain came pre-clogged so I haven't been able to take a bath. I have an owner inspection tomorrow which feels a little odd since I just freaking got here but, you know, I imagine it's an every 3 month thing and I just happened to move in on the 6th month.
Please enjoy the chapter!
See you all tomorrow.
Or Tuesday, you know I can't be trusted.
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“So, you’re in charge.” Sakura can’t help the incredulous expression that overtakes her - as she’s recently learned is somewhat cute - face. Her finger points towards the Hyuuga pretty boy, but she can’t believe what she just heard for a second. “You’re actually being put in charge of this mission? I don’t think my team could agree on a mission leader no matter what the stakes were. That includes Kakashi.” Officially he’s obviously the mission leader, he’s the jonin sensei, but the reality is that he doesn’t give a lot of direction at all. They can’t count on him to actually lead anything, it’s mostly them doing what they think is best individually.
The only thing they’ve really cooperated on was that dungeon, and even that was kind of just them all thinking it was a priority at the same time.
“Yes, well, we’re far superior to a rookie team, and I would appreciate it if you would recognize and respect that.” The boy scoffs at her, putting up airs in a way that makes her feel somewhat gross just to be near. She didn’t agree to have to put up with him, but it seems she has to anyway. She’ll definitely be reporting his attitude to the Hokage in her mission report, maybe he’ll care, maybe he won’t, not her place to decide that. “Tenten doesn’t like you, that already puts you on thin ice as far as I am concerned.” He huffs at her, as if reading her mind.
She knew the Hyuuga had wrought iron poles up their poop chutes but she had no idea it was this bad. To say she’s surprised would be, well, accurate is a pretty good word for it. It turns out the mission she’s been assigned to is not going to be run by Gai Maito and his absolutely stunning smile, no, that’s being relegated to Neji Hyuuga, the team’s resident dick. “Yes Master, my apologies for daring to compare you to the likes of lowly me.” She mocks him, rolling her eyes while they walk from the training grounds towards the front gate of Konoha. “I just meant, I thought your Jonin sensei would be leading.”
“He will be around.” Neji answers, a tick mark clearly appearing on his forehead at her reply. It’s quite visible, and somewhat violent. He should maybe get that looked at. “He is taking the opportunity to observe while training his rusty stealth skills. By law, a superior officer does still need to be present whenever a mission is taken by genin that will leave the village proper.”
“But he won’t be doing anything.” Sakura clarifies.
“He will not.” Neji’s at least willing to answer her. When she had originally started trying to ask questions, Tenten had hissed at her, and Lee - as she’d found out mini spandex was named - wouldn’t stop blushing and looking away from her. It’s kinda hard to answer her question when he’s practically catatonic because she looked at him.
Months ago she would have had no idea what was going on, she’ll admit a week ago she would have been confused, but finally reaching nineteen charm has done wonders. There’s a lot of cool concepts that she wasn’t aware of before that suddenly smacked themselves into her brain full force. Like how people’s emotions on entirely different matters than what is currently happening can alter their reactions, or how someone is not necessarily talking about the thing they’re currently talking about.
Basically, she’s deciphered that this boy is in love with Tenten but feels bad about how his love is treating her. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the boy has chosen to check out. It’s the honorable thing to do if she’s fair. “And our mission is?” Sakura asks.
“Your sensei didn’t even bother to tell you what we were going to be doing?” Neji growls.
“Oooh, yeah, I’m with you there, he’s a dick.” Sakura agrees with a nonchalant wave of her hand at the air itself, as if expecting it to respond in likeness. She can kind of imagine what a wind nod would look like. “My sensei wouldn’t tell me what was going on if there was a reward for doing just that. I’m still not sure how many jars… mostly because instead of telling me he put the exact number in my closet and I’m not counting that. Still, answer given…”
“What are you prattling on about?” Neji looks back at her mid-stride, clearly he’s not very happy with her. “Forget I asked, it is no matter. We are heading to a village by the name of Chokuri. It's been taken over by missing ninja and it is our job to get it back by any means necessary so they can start paying their taxes to the firelord again. This kind of thing happens a few times a year, genin and academy students from foreign lands decide the Leaf is weak and set up shop somewhere without much protection. As we’ve already discussed, our team is rotating leadership on low Bee rank missions to prepare for when we become chunin, and Gai Sensei will not be there to lead us.”
“Ah…” She trails, “um, so wait, are we sure there won’t be chunin or jonin? What do we do if we encounter some?”
“You can consider missing nin, on average, to be about half a rank lower than their rank would normally indicate, due to a lack of village resources to upkeep their training, and poor nutrition and breaks.” Neji answers. “The four of us should have no issues if we encounter one or two chunin.”
“And if there’s more?” She asks.
“Gai sensei is still there.” He reminds her. “He will get involved should anything, irrational, occur.” Despite his condescending attitude, Sakura can’t help but feel pretty great about actually having someone that explains things. It’s kind of awesome if she were to admit it. Not that she would admit it, at least not to this asshole. “Besides, that is why we have back-up, so that there are four of us and not three. Gai Sensei wouldn’t have said you were strong if you wouldn’t be helpful.”
If nothing else, he’s very honest with his opinions. They seem rationally bound too, if a little presumptuous. “And uh, we’re completely sure it’s acceptable to just head out on this mission?” She asks.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” He glares back at her.
“Well, uh, shouldn’t we report my involvement to the Hokage?” She can’t help but ask, a little nervous about it all.
“Your sensei will have already done that.” He points out. “You should not worry about pointless things.”
She is gonna worry, oh hell she’s gonna worry. Kakashi, actually being helpful?
Legal requirement or not, she’s willing to bet she gets taken into custody and interrogated when she gets back because she got labeled a missing ninja over Kakashi forgetting…
Well, no, probably not. But only because Kakashi will have been interrogated before that about where his ninja went, and he’ll spill then to get out of the conversation.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
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“So, uh…” Naruto’s more than a little unsure about this. It feels weird getting ice cream without Sakura, even if the chocolate flavor hits his tongue in a way he can’t deny makes him very happy. “Sakura…”
“She needs time with other ninjas.” Kakashi explains, slurping on some mint chocolate chip through his mask like some kind of monster. “You two are way too hard on her, she needs to understand that it’s okay to be herself.”
“We’re not that bad…” Naruto looks at Sasuke, who shakes his head at him. Sasuke’s got some vanilla, the boring bastard. He seems to be enjoying it though, maybe Naruto’ll try it next time. “Are we?”
“You’ve made her feel guilty for being different.” Kakashi explains.
“It’s something I’ve been worried about.” Sasuke speaks up, stunning Naruto for a long second. “She’s brutal, and disturbing, but Wave got out of our hands very quickly. We likely wouldn’t have survived if she was a different person. I don’t know if she knows that we appreciate her.”
“But…” Naruto ponders, looking into the soul of his ice cream. “I don’t want her to feel bad, I just, she scares me. I don’t want to be scared.”
“That’s part of learning to be a ninja.” Kakashi says, “everyone worth fearing is valuable. If another ninja doesn’t scare you, either your ego went to your head, or they’re not fit to be a ninja.”
“Wait, so I scare you?” Naruto asks.
“Nope.” Kakashi shakes his head.
“You bastard.” Naruto growls.
“Besides,” Sasuke decides to continue out of nowhere, “if she is to kill Itachi with me, I’d prefer her as she is, not as she pretended to be back in the academy.”
“That’s true.” Naruto sighs a little, remembering the deranged girl that passed by each day like a ghost. He remembers crushing on her quite hard, if only because she was able to hide her true self better than he ever could. Her mask was a hundred times better than his, and not because it was showing off some powerful fake emotion like he tried, but because it seemed so completely dead most days. He admired that, and felt like she was something to aspire to be.
Finding out it was because she never slept and was just really, really tired was a bit of a reality check that threw his brain for a loop the likes of which he’d never expected to be thrown. It was a weird reason to like someone in the first place, but now he’s grown to like her for a hundred other reasons.
Too bad she’s his sister now, he’s not exactly sure how to deal with those feelings.
Or maybe it’s a good thing she’s his sister now. It kind of simplifies it all for him. She’s not his love interest, she’s his cute sister who’s slowly becoming a person right before his eyes.
Not that he wouldn’t mind it differently.
He shakes his head, and licks his ice cream.
“You’re all going to undergo training to get used to people like Sakura.” Kakashi says. “The next few weeks I’m going to treat you with the most killing intent you’ve ever felt, you’ll be put in what feels like real life or death situations constantly until you grow to appreciate how she’s handled them for you up until now, and you’ll grow less sensitive so the chunin exams don’t pose a threat.”
“Do I need that?” Sasuke asks.
“If you want to have even the slightest chance of killing Itachi, yes.” Kakashi affirms. “The training will start when we’re done with our ice cream, and end when Sakura gets back. You’ll be happier to see her than you’ve ever felt seeing anyone in your entire life.”
Comments
Christopher Cummins
Jeez, you flew through them. Glad you enjoyed the story. Tell your friends.
Einar Strandberg
Kakashi, I love you so much
Dopplerdee
Man I'm glad Kakashi is fixing that messy bit. Also kinda neat that Naruto is like "my feelings are complicated but shes by barely a person sister so I don't need to think about it!" The line of her becoming a person right before his eyes was powerful and kinda sad. Because she is a person, just not a "normal" person. Also is Gai using this to teach his students about crazy ninja?
