Naruto : Fate

I wake up to the smell of dog and a weight on my chest. I open my eyes and see a pug wearing a blue vest and a Konoha headband happily snoozing away on top of me. Cute.

"Excuse me friend, but I need to use the bathroom. Could you let me up?"

Grumbling to himself, the pug says, "Fine. But you better come back. You make the best personal heater." He gets off of me.

"Thanks." I walk to the bathroom. I do my business and then I go back to the couch. "So. Talking dog. That is a new one. Either I'm tripping on some crazy drugs, or you're a summon."

"Ha-ha! I'm Pakkun, Kakashi's summon. No one has reacted to me like that before! Usually it's 'AH! A talking dog!' or 'Wow, you have soft paws.' I do have soft paws. Want to feel them?" Pakkun holds out a paw for me.

"Maybe later. I believe I was being someone's personal heater?" I lay back down on the couch. Pakkun climbs back onto my chest. "So, shouldn't you tell Kakashi that I'm awake or something? I doubt he summoned you here without a purpose."

"You were crying in your sleep. He didn't know what to do, he doesn't have puppies of his own, so he called me. I just plopped down on you and you stopped crying. Sometimes all you need is a good snuggle." He's absolutely adorable.

"Ah. I would appreciate it if you kept that between us. I have nightmares a lot, ever since my first mission outside of Konoha. They have a direct relationship with how good my days go. If I have a bad day, I get a bad nightmare. And yesterday, I had the mother of all bad days."

"I'll only tell Kakashi. That's the best you're going to get." Pakkun says while circling around on me, trying to get comfortable. Finally he lays down. "I swear kid, you put off more heat than anyone else I've ever met. It's the best."

I wonder if that could be a by-product of the Jiongu? There is a lot I don't know about it.

"Go back to sleep. I'll wake you if Kakashi comes in."

"Thanks Pakkun."

I drift off to sleep.

...

"Kid. Wake up. He's back"

"Don't wanna." I mumble to Pakkun. "Five more minutes."

"I've got this Pakkun." Kakashi clears his throat. "Sakura, can you wake up Alvarcus?"

"I'm up!" I fly off the couch and land on me feet in a defensive stance. "Don't hit me! I'm up!"

Pakkun snickers. "Effective."

I look around the room, and notice a miraculous absence of pink.

"Kakashi-sensei you suck! Sakura isn't even here! I can't believe you'd do that to me! I swear her fists are made of metal."

"I needed you awake. Now you are. You can go back now Pakkun." Poof! The cute pug is gone. "Care to tell me what you were doing on my couch?"

"Sleeping?"

"Alvarcus. You know what I mean. Why are you here? What happened? Did your parents kick you out again?" He sounds very concerned, with a hint of absolute fury.

"I told my parents about Orochimaru." Like a broken floodgate everything pours out. "They didn't take it well. Turns out they've met him before too, and he did something to me when I was just a fetus. They let it happen. That's why I look like him, and they thought I was a mini Orochimaru. That made me angry, very angry. So I showed them my eyes and scars and asked if they think I'm still like him. I left them, told them I was moving out and that they never had to see me again. Then I came here, I had nowhere else to go." It feels good to tell someone else that. To share my problems.

Kakashi doesn't know how to react. I don't blame him, that is a lot to take in. He picks the safest thing to talk about. "What scars? You've never been wounded badly enough to leave a permanent scar."

That's right, he hasn't seen them yet. I guess my shredded shirt didn't reveal that much during the preliminary round of the Chunin Exams. He must not know that the Jiongu has to rip and tear through my skin to be used. I forgot about it too, until I ripped open my chest during my fight with Kiba. That hurt.

I hesitate. "I can... I can show you. If you want. It's bad, really bad."

"I've seen worse, I can promise you that." With Kakashi's consent, I remove my shirt. "Although, this is right up there." I show him my back and the pulsing heart lumps. "I rank you at 23rd for the worst scars I've seen."

"Twenty third? That's it? You've seen some terrible things. Do I outrank Ibiki?" I consider it morbid curiosity, but I want to know if I beat him. That's a sad thought, I might have worse scars than Ibiki.

"I wouldn't know. I've never seen his scars."

"Damn, guess I'll never know." Ibiki's scars make him look badass. Maybe I can use that too? "I can use this as an intimidation tactic during fights. Either take off my shirt, or let it get ruined. You've gotta admit, I look scary."

"It's an idea." Kakashi responds. "Do you really want to let attacks get that close? Close enough to ruin a shirt?"

"Why do you always have to ruin my ideas? First you thought chakra strings was pointless to learn, then you tell me I'll never be able to use my fire whips in combat for a sustained period of time, and now this?"

"It won't work on any nin with experience. We're all used to scars, most of us have our fair share. I did give you the 'you are the kunai' idea, so you can't say I didn't help you."

"Oh yeah, thanks for that by the way. It saved me from being eaten four times. I owe you a fruit basket or something."

Kakashi raises his eyebrow in question.

"Orochimaru summoned giant snakes in the forest." I bluntly say.

"Ah. That would do it. Anyways, we have a team meeting at noon today."

I glance at the clock. "Kakashi-sensei, it's three in the afternoon."

"So it is. We ran into a black cat?"

I laugh, "Sure. Black cat it is."

While wiping a tear out of his eye Kakashi tussles my hair fondly. "My favorite student."

...

Training Ground Seven

"You're both late!" Sakura shouts at us.

"You see," Kakashi starts to make an excuse. I cut in.

"There was a black cat in our way here. We had to take the long way around. We wanted to avoid the bad luck and all that." Kakashi vigorously nods his head.

"No! Kakashi-sensei infected Alvarcus with his lateness and lame excuses! Sasuke what do we do?"

"All we can do is avoid them." Sasuke answers, "And pray we don't contract the disease. I didn't know it was contagious."

I understand why Kakashi does this now, its funny!

"Alright team." Kakashi uses his business voice. No more kidding around. "Well done in the exams. Two of you passing to round three is amazing. I thought you all would fail your first time through." Thanks for the boost in confidence. 

"Sakura, you did very well in the exams, but you've been eliminated. I need to focus on your teammates if they want a shot at passing. 

You have the next month off, but that does not mean you can slack on your training! It just mean you won't have someone forcing you to train." Kakashi turns to Sasuke next. 

"I'll be taking you out of the village. I'm going to teach you the Chidori and work on your speed, it's the only chance you have against that Sand shinobi." He turns to me. "I've called in a few favors and got you a teacher lined up. He'll work with you."

"No." I say. "I don't need a teacher. I need to figure out what the Jiongu can do. It works similarly to chakra strings, so I just need to practice."

"Don't rule him out yet. At least meet him first. He should be here soon."

"I'm here now Kakashi." A new voice says. I look at the newcomer. "I'm Yamato. Which brat am I taking? One of the two girls?"

Sakura and Sasuke snicker. Kakashi giggles. Giggles.

I pin Kakashi with my best glare. "Really? This is who you asked? He can't even tell I'm a guy."

Yamato takes a step back and points at me in disbelief, "YOU'RE A GUY?"

Sakura and Sasuke burst out laughing. Kakashi just giggles even more.

"Yamato, Alvarcus. Alvarcus, Yamato. Play nice now!"

With a huge sigh, I turn to Yamato. "Do you have any skill with chakra strings?"

Suddenly nervous, Yamato replies "No."

"Have you ever heard of the Jiongu?"

Gulping, he says, "Isn't that one of Taki's kinjutsu?"

"Do you know jutsu from all five elements?" Kakashi zeros in on me when I say that. Uh-oh, I said something wrong. He must not know the Jiongu grants affinities.

"I am okay with water and earth. I know a few support jutsus of each." Yamato starts sweating.

I pull out the scroll Orochimaru gave to me. "See this?" Yamato nods. "This scroll has all those things. Right now, this scroll is a better teacher than you. Convince me, why should I let you teach me?"

Yamato musters up his courage. "I know what you are going through."

"No you don't. You have no idea what I am going-"

"Wood Release: Flower Field!" Flowers spring up all around us. Every kind imaginable is here, every color is here to. It's beautiful, I never knew ninjutsu could be so elegant, I've only seen it destroy. "Did you really think you were the only person to survive Orochimaru's experiments? You're not. I survived too."

Oh. Yamato. He's that Yamato. The wood release, gotten from the First Hokage's cells. He does know what I am going through, in a very loose sense.

"Okay. You can at least be present while I train. That way if I mess up you can carry me to the hospital."

Yamato nods his consent. "Fine by me. If you have questions, feel free to ask." That has a double meaning. He wants me to know I can talk to him. Kakashi picked the best person possible to train me.

"Glad you two came to an agreement." Kakashi claps his hands together. "Let's go Sasuke, no time to waste." They leave.

"I better get going to. I have plans with Ino soon." Sakura exits.

Its just Yamato and me now. I turn to face him, "I'll be here at 9am everyday. Show up if you want to." I leave.

On the wind I can faintly hear Yamato say, "This is going to be a long month."

You have no idea how right you are.

...

If you enjoy story, could you please throw some power stones, to climb the ranking I need your support and it would mean the world to me.

...

if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :

 p atreon.com/CarriePoppins