Naruto : Fate

The Next Morning

"Hey Sasuke, is Kakashi still out of it?"

"Yes, he hasn't even moved."

"Want to..." I look at Kakashi, his eyes are closed, "this could be our best chance to see what's under his mask."

"Hn."

"So yes? I'm going to take that as a yes." Slowly, I reach towards Kakashi's face. This is the moment! The one that every Naruto fan dreams of, the holy grail!

The first thing I notice is that my face is in the floor. That's not supposed to happen.

"I wouldn't try that again. Never wake a sleeping nin by reaching towards their face if you value your life." Ah shit, Kakashi is awake. "You are lucky I recognized you. I didn't stab you too deeply."

What? Now that I think about it, it does feel like the back of my neck is being pinched. Did he almost kill me? For waking him up?

"Y-yes Kakashi-sensei. I will never do that again." A droplet of blood rolls out of the wound. I wipe it off my neck.

"Good!" Withdrawing his kunai and sitting down on the bedroll Kakashi asks, "So, where are we? Last thing I remember is Zabuza being carried away by that hunter nin. And why do I feel like I fell on my face five times?"

I freeze. Sasuke glances between me and Kakashi.

"I have no idea. You passed out after the hunter nin took Zabuza and we got you to Tazuna's house. You've been out all night. Sakura said you have chakra exhaustion. Probably from that eye of yours."

Sakura walks into the room. "Kakashi-sensei! You're awake! How do you feel?"

"Like someone dropped me on my face five times." Sakura glances at me nervously. I vigorously shake my head no, pleading with her.

"Well... maybe it is a side affect of chakra exhaustion? I don't know what it feels like." Thank you Sakura! I owe you one. "Anyways, you all have to meet Tsunami! I helped her make breakfast for us all." With the promise of food, we make our way to the kitchen. Next to the sink there is a pretty lady with black hair and eyes and a nice smile.

"So you are the shinobi who protected my tou-san? Thank you! I'm Tsunami!"

"Kakashi."

"Sasuke."

"I'm Alvarcus, and what these morons meant to say is it is nice to meet you."

Tsunami laughs. "Enough pleasantries. We can talk more after we eat."

Tsunami is an amazing cook. Her food is delicious. It was such a nice breakfast, even when Tazuna wandered in. Then Kakashi had to ruin it all.

"Everyone, I have bad news. It is very likely that Zabuza is still alive. A couple things bothered me about his death." Dead silence follows. No one dares to breath.

"The hunter nin." Startled, Kakashi looks at me. He gestures for me to continue. "Hunter nin are supposed to destroy the body on site and bring back something to prove their kill. 

Usually a head. You could argue in this case that bringing back one of the seven legendary swords of Kiri would be good enough proof that Zabuza died since he wouldn't part with it willingly."

"That was a legendary sword?" Sakura asks.

"Yeah. You have to train for years to use it properly. Back to Zabuza. The hunter nin used senbon to kill him. Why senbon? Senbon are small and tricky to aim with, a hunter wouldn't use senbon when a kunai would get the job done. It just doesn't make sense."

"But we saw Zabuza go down." Sakura exclaims. "Kakashi-sensei even said there was no pulse!"

"That's the thing about senbon, a skilled user can cause effects like that. Senbon are just glorified needles. If placed in the right spot senbon can cause someone to appear dead, and the neck is a prime spot for that. Where was Zabuza hit? His neck. I'd bet that Zabuza is still alive and that hunter nin is on his side."

"That was exactly what I was going to say. I'm impressed. Very observant Alvarcus."

"Thanks." I totally cheated. I knew what happened already thanks to my foreknowledge.

"Just like he said, Zabuza is still alive. So we need to get you gennin up to a certain standard. You all need better chakra control. Thankfully I know the perfect training exercise for this. You're going to climb trees."

"What." Sasuke grunts out.

"Everyone outside!" Kakashi hobbles out the door on his crutches. How does that even work? Chakra exhaustion makes you need crutches? I'll have to ask a medic nin later if that is a thing or if Kakashi is playing a joke on us.

Grumbling, us gennin follow Kakashi outside.

"Now, to do this exercise you can't use your hands."

"But Kakashi-sensei! That's impossible!"

"Just watch." Without a care in the world, Kakashi walks strait at a tree. Then up the tree. Then he walks upside down on a branch. Show off. "That is how you are going to climb the tree."

"How do we do that?" Sasuke demands. He looks very eager. I can't blame him, we finally get to learn how to wall walk.

"Simple, channel just the right amount of chakra to your feet, and you will stick to the tree. Too much and you will push off, too little and you won't stick."

Kakashi throws three kunai into the tops of three trees.

"There. Once you all can get a kunai your training is over. Good luck!" Kakashi hobbles back into the house, leaving us on our own.

"Well no time like the present." Walking up to the tree I plant a foot on it. I channel some chakra and give my foot an experimental tug. It stays. I put the next one on the tree. No problem there.

"Huh. Maybe this isn't that difficult?" I mutter to myself. In the anime it took Naruto and Sasuke a week to get this down. Well, Sakura got it really easily. Maybe I have smaller chakra reserves like she does?

Aw that would suck! That would mean I can't throw around ninjutsu like it's going out of style!

"Would you look at that. A kunai." I pull the kunai out. "This is actually a disappointment. Kakashi-sensei finally decides to teach us something on his own and I get it on my first try." With a heavy sigh, I walk down the tree. Looking at Sakura I see her smiling and twirling her kunai around her finer.

"That was super easy! Kakashi-sensei made it sound like this was supposed to be a challenge!" I need to stop this. If Sakura continues talking about how easy this is it could hurt our relationship with Sasuke.

"Well, you know about the inverse theory of chakra control vs chakra capacity right?"

"That the more chakra you have the less control you have? What about it?"

"The reason we picked this up so quickly is because we have small reserves, so our control is better. But we will never be able to throw around ninjutsu without a care, because we don't have as much chakra."

Sakura pauses, considering what I said.

"If you think about it, we will never be ninjutsu type shinobi. Statistically, kunoichi have smaller reserves than their shinobi counterparts. You probably have average reserves for a kunoichi your age. But me? I have to be on the small side. 

There is no way that I could have average reserves and pick up tree walking that quickly. It's a shame, I really wanted to throw fireballs around like Sasuke did against Clone-Zabuza, but I will probably never have that much chakra."

"Yeah. That is a good point. Sasuke-kun must have really big chakra reserves to be able to use that many fireballs like he did!" Perfect. That was the best thing she could have said for Sasuke's ego.

"I know right? That was awesome! He saved my life a few times with those. But that means he is going to have a terrible time learning tree walking."

Throughout Sakura and my conversation I was discretely watching Sasuke. At first he was angry at himself for blowing up the tree. Once he noticed both Sakura and me with our kunai in hand already he got even more angry at himself for failing where we succeeded. 

It went downhill from there, with Sakura talking about how easy it was. Instead of being angry at himself, he was angry at us. As the conversation progressed, he realized that it wasn't a bad thing. 

In fact he looked rather smug at the end of our conversation, he must have been happy knowing he can use way more ninjutsu than Sakura and I combined. I'm glad he realized that, because an angry Uchiha is an annoying Uchiha.

"Hey Sasuke, how goes the tree walking?" Careful Alvarcus, this could blow up in your face very easily.

"I am having difficulty." What. Just. Happened. He admitted he was struggling. "That's okay though, I heard your conversation with Sakura. Want to know the difference between me and you?" Well that sounds extremely arrogant.

"Sure. Self reflection is a good way to find your weak areas and improve them."

"You were right about our reserves. I can throw ninjutsu around a lot. You can't. That's just how it is. You picked up tree walking quickly, and I didn't. The difference is that I can learn tree walking, and you can't learn to throw ninjutsu around like me. Your chakra supply just can't handle it."

I knew I was going to be insulted. "Wipe that smug grin off your face! I can kick your ass any day of the week!"

"Hn. We both know that is a lie. I have the upper hand when we spar."

"Yeah well you smell funny!" Childish I know, "I'm going to get Kakashi-sensei to teach me how to make fire chakra, then we will see who wins the next spar."

Sasuke gulps and turns very pale.

"That's right! Picture it! Picture your burning defeat!" With those parting words, I scamper inside Tazuna's house.

"Kakashi-sensei! I got the kunai already."

"Did you cheat and use a chakra string to pull it down?" Kakashi accuses me.

"What? No! I don't cheat during training. That would be counter productive."

"Prove it. Walk up the wall."

Sigh. "Fine." I walk up the wall and onto the ceiling. "That good enough proof?"

"Yes. Well done. You're done training for the week. Enjoy the break."

"No! You said you would teach me how to make fire chakra a month ago. Now is the perfect time. You can't run away and I need to improve. It's perfect!" I have him cornered!

"Okay, okay, fine. Just don't go burning down any forests."

"I promise nothing."

Kakashi glares at me. That is a serious scary glare for only having one eye visible.

"Okay I promise to at least not attempt to burn down a forest. If it is a by product of a battle, so be it."

"That is the best I am getting from you, isn't it?"

"Yep! Now, fire chakra time! How do I do it?"

"Form a tiger hand sign."

The tiger hand sign requires the thumb, index, and middle fingers to point up while the ring and pinky fingers interlock.

"Correct." Kakashi snags a leaf out of the air and sticks it between my two index fingers. "Channel chakra into the leaf."

The leaf bursts into flames.

"Yes! Got it in one! What's next?" That was so easy. He should have had me do this a month ago.

"The next step is to steadily burn the leaf for 5 minutes straight. This task requires you to mold the correct amount of fire chakra to keep the leaf burning but not burn it to a crisp. Come find me again when you have that complete."

Burning leaves slowly. That is how I am going to learn a fire elemental chakra change? Then I better burn some leaves. I'll have this down in no time!

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