Naruto : Path of Wind

"Alright, that's enough," Kakashi says, laughter in his voice. "I'm not made of money. Let's save some of those for tomorrow." I bare my teeth at him, seated amidst my pile of broken balloons.

"I hate you."

"Yes, yes," he dismisses, reaching into one of his flak jacket's pockets and pulling out a small slip of paper. He holds out to me. "Before I forget, here's your pay for our mission." He doesn't get past "pay" before I snatch the voucher from his hand, quickly unfolding it and zeroing in on the amount disclosed.

"Holy shit," I blurt, gaping at the string of numbers. "This is almost as much as my stipends!" If this is how all missions pay, I might be able to finally get that sword I've been looking for. Hell, if I save up for a while I could actually get a goodone. Actually, the old man mentioned something about a bounty, didn't he? And that's for a B-rank nukenin. That has to be worth at least twice as much as a genin mission...

"I would hope so," Kakashi says, breaking me from my gleeful musings. "Considering you won't be getting those anymore."

Suddenly the amount on the voucher looks very, very small. "Excuse me?" I ask incredulously. Kakashi nods, hopping off his log and stretching.

"When a shinobi takes their first mission they're officially taken off the roster of dependents, so no more financial support."

"But I can't live off this!" I cry. My stipends are barely enough for my little apartment as it is, and "almost as much" is still less.

"That's why you do more missions," he says easily. "And if you ever get the opportunity while on said mission, you collect a bounty. Intentionally or otherwise." He smirks at me.

"What happens if I get hurt and I don't have enough money to hold me over until I can do more missions?" I ask. Kakashi shrugs.

"You get a civilian job, or you find a really good medic."

"... Wow." I lean back against my log, considering that. Looks like that sword isn't going to be happening anytime soon after all. Sigh.

"I'm making it seem a lot worse than it really is," Kakashi suddenly says, to my confusion, sounding almost sheepish, "Keep in mind, you three are just getting your feet wet right now.

Once you're all up to par and we get into a rhythm it won't be unusual to complete five to ten missions a month, depending on the traveling required. Pay for missions also significantly increases as you climb the ranks, so if worst comes to worst I can always loan you some money."

"Really?" I ask, surprised.

"Well, yes," he says, regarding me strangely. "I'm your sensei."

I avert my eyes from his, embarrassed for some reason. I scan the training grounds again, hoping to escape the jounin's piercing stare, and see Sasuke hunched over by a tree, panting while his Kakashi lectures him on something or another. Meanwhile, Sakura... is in the same spot as she was this afternoon, scribbling on her scroll. Kakashi is sitting next to her now, pointing at something on it.

"What is she doing?" I ask. Behind me, Kakashi sighs.

"I'm not sure yet," he admits. "She started working on it a couple days after she was released from the hospital. It's some sort of seal, but it's an extremely odd one. I still can't figure out what she wants to do with it."

"And she's been working on that the whole day?"

"She won't pay any attention to me when I try to teach her," Kakashi replies, and the concern in his voice is genuine. "When I tried taking the scroll away from her, she took out a kunai and started carving in the dirt."

"So what are we doing about this?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

"There isn't much we can do for now," he says. "It's frustrating, but the hospital has already deemed her physically and mentally fit for shinobi duties, so there isn't technically anything wrong with her. For all we know, this could be some great breakthrough that occurred to her while in the hospital." Sakura's tear-stained, haunted face appears in my mind's eye.

I... I...

"You don't actually believe that, do you?" I ask bemusedly. Kakashi shakes his head.

"No. I don't."

"This sucks," I groan, fisting my hair. "What kind of jutsu does something like this? And how has this never happened to anyone before? It isn't like that stupid nukenin wasn't anything special- if he could learn how to do this, it can't be some super secret thing."

Kakash shrugs helplessly. "Your guess is as good as mine. Have you tried talking to her about it?"

"Yeah." I... I..."It didn't go well."

"Seems we'll have to wait and see how this seal of hers turns out, then," He says, clasping me on the shoulder reassuringly. "Don't forget to cash in your bounty. From what I've read in my Bingo Book that Raiakuzu should be a nice little bonus." That said, he promptly disappeared in a cloud of smoke, confirming my suspicions of Sakura's being the real copy. Climbing to my feet, I walk over to where Sasuke is still recovering, his copy likewise dispelled.

"Have fun?" I ask, grinning. He wipes some sweat from his forehead and nods.

"Tons," he confirms, his voice slightly strained but smug all the same.

"Tch. Enjoy it while you can. As soon as I've recovered enough to do Taijutsu again you're going right back to number two."

"Who says I was ever there in the first place?" He asks challengingly. My grin turns feral.

"You wanna go there, Uchiha?"

"Maybe once you're strong enough to travel faster than a brisk walk," he replies, smirking. My eyes narrow.

"You just crossed the line," I intone ominously, slipping into my stance. "Let's do this." Some small part of me observes that it isn't actually fair to fight such an obviously exhausted opponent, but hey, I'm still recovering. It evens out.

"Can't," he says, pushing off his knees.

"Come on, don't give me that," I whine. "I've been fine since yesterday. You know how fast I heal-"

"No, I mean I really can't," he cuts in, tone apologetic. "I have to meet up with Itachi before dinner."

"Oh." I straighten up out of my stance. "Well, uh, have fun with that." He hums his assent and waves, taking off for the exit of the training grounds at an easy run.

Sometimes Sasuke and his brother train in between crucial Anbu missions, usually on the basics, but sometimes on more advanced things that only someone as badass as the Anbu Commander can teach in the short amount of time they have together.

It's almost enough to make a guy jealous. That one day in particular, around our fourth year in the Academy, when we were aimlessly sparring while everyone else was working on the generic Taijutsu stances and he whipped a Grand Fireballout of nowhere-

Wait a minute.

"Sasuke!" I call, spinning around, but he's already disappeared out onto the trail leading back to the village. "Kakashi-" I begin, looking over to Sakura and the real Kakashi's position, only to see Sakura sitting all by herself. I clench my fist, glaring darkly at the space he was just at.

"All elemental jutsu require shape transformation my ass!" I growl. I know for a fact that Sasuke has never learned that particular skill- else he would have told me when he saw me blundering around after I got the scroll on the Heavenly Chains. So either Kakashi was lying to my face, or there's a shortcut past all this that he refused to tell me about. Both of which warrant...

Er. What can I do to the veteran jounin, again?

"Well this blows," I mutter, sullenly kicking the tree Sasuke was leaning on. I ponder complaining to the old man for a little while, but reluctantly decide that this isn't important enough. I can poke fun all I want, but he's still the Hokage. I can't just stroll into his office when he might be doing crucial Hokage stuff to whine about being denied a (possible) shortcut. I'd beat myselfif I did that.

And maybe Kakashi has a good reason for not leaving out this particular detail. Maybe.

Whatever. I'll deal with it tomorrow. Decision made, I head over for a look at Sakura's seal. Sure, Kakashi hasn't been able to figure it out yet, but Fuinjutsu is a patchy art.

There are some things that you can't infer from previous knowledge, you have to know them firsthand. It could be that I've seen some different things than him that might help me figure out this weird seal.

It's not very likely. But I'll try anyway.

"Hey Sakura," I greet, keeping my voice exceptionally calm and friendly. The pink-haired kunoichi mumbles something under her breath, and makes a mark. "Sakura?" She bites her lip, fingers clenching the brush until they turn white, before making another mark. "Guess I'll help myself, then." I shuffle over to her side and peer over her shoulder.

And find an enormous clusterfuck of symbols and lines staring back up at me. I trace the... creation, looking for some semblance of order and sanity, and come up woefully short.

I manage to pick out several familiar subseals, the vast majority of which pertain to restriction. The subseal for physical restriction and the one for spirit, the two halves of the chakra suppression seal, are both present in several places. The only problem is that none of them are connected.

"What in the world?" I crouch down, leaning forward to inspect a dense cluster of symbols in the top right corner of the seal, and in the process cast my shadow over my teammate. She jerks back, revealing her face for the first time since I saw her in the hospital.

The bags under her eyes that had looked so dark then were nearly black now, and her eyes themselves were bloodshot. Her mouth opens and closes soundlessly as she watches me, frozen.

"Sakura?" I say warily, easing slowly back.

"H-hello Naruto," she whispers hoarsely. Her grip whitens on her brush again. "I- I still can't..."

"Yeah, I figured." I smile disarmingly. "Can you tell me about this, at least? It looks interesting." Her eyes flicker down to the scroll and then up at the steadily setting sun.

"It's getting late..."

"We've still got an hour or two of sunlight," I say dismissively, leaning over the scroll again. "So what's the deal with these subseals?" I ask, pointing them out. "They're supposed to be connected to each other, right?" She gives the setting sun one last nervous look before shaking her head.

"No, they're supplements," she says quietly, leaning carefully around my shadow and connecting each of the subseals with her finger, forming a shape that I can't even begin to put a name to.

"They're what now?" I ask, staring at the line she'd traced. I've studied a lot of seals over the years, whether briefly or at length, and not once have I ever seen something like that. It's not even remotely symmetrical, to start with, composed of all sorts of jagged lines and dizzying swirls. It looks demented.

For a long while she fidgets with her brush, an almost pained look on her face. I'm just about to tell her that it's fine, I'll figure it out, when she shudders and looks me straight in the eye. With a start, I realize that in my concern over her exhausted features I'd skipped over the fact that her eyes...

It might have been the light, but they looked almost gray.

"It's a containment seal," Sakura confides, her voice low and pained.

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