Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Akira walked through the forest, paying close attention for any sign of their teammates and pushing all thoughts of failure from his mind, but his brother’s question had brought all his fears to the forefront of his mind.
What if one of them failed?
The idea was inconceivable, but the possibility was very much real. All their life, the adults around them had jumped at any chance of making them suffer and fail ―with the only exception of jiji-chan, Iruka-sensei, Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan. All because of what they held inside them.
The odds that Kakashi-sensei would be any different weren’t exactly in their favour, yet he held onto some hope. The j―onin had yet to treat them in any demeaning way.
Still, even if Kakashi-sensei proved not to be like most adults, they were still likely to fail. Sasuke was the last of the Uchiha Clan in addition to rookie of the year and Sakura was top kunoichi. That left them as the most likely candidates to failure.
He knew it would devastate his brother to fail this test after how hard he’d worked to get to this point. The blonde may be a prankster and prone to skipping class, both because intellectual pursuits weren’t his strength and because he knew the teachers would not appreciate any effort on his part, but he knew how hard Naruto had tried to master the Bunshin and practiced the Henge and his aim.
Going back to the Academy now would be a blow he didn’t know if his brother could take, as much as he’d try to brush it off if it did happen.
But there were as many porobabilities of Naruto failing as of him passing. Akira’s grades weren’t much better than his and the redhead also wasn’t as physically strong as the blond. Nobody would want the Uchiha genius paired up with the weakest of the ‘Kyuubi-brats’.
And Akira was sure that failing would hurt him just as deeply. Since he understood what shinobi were, he’d known he’d be one no matter the cost. That his brother chose the same career only cemented the idea.
At the same time, they’d both taken definite roles, working as a team. Naruto was the one that always defended him from bullies, standing up for the both of them when the villagers were especially rogue and making sure that they always had a reason to smile and laugh. In return, Akira was the one that kept them anchored to reality, the one who provided the solution to any problem they faced and any trouble they got into and kept them pushing forward. Together.
And now… now he wasn’t able to do what he was meant to. He wasn’t able to see an outcome to this test that was positive for both of them.
the twelve year-old shook his head to rid it of such thoughts. As he’d told his brother, there was no way for them to know who would fail. They had to focus on the test.
As it was, it was fortunate that he managed to centre himself because he soon needed to concentrate as he noticed an increase in the number of leaves falling down from the trees at the same time as a tingling sensation spread through his body. It wasn’t exactly a tingle as much as it was a sudden awareness, his mind unable to come up with a more appropriate word.
A second later, even as he prepared a counter, his body froze. Not like when one was tied up and they could feel the bindings even as they struggled against them. No, it was like his body had gone numb and he couldn’t feel it at all, couldn’t command it to move, to fight. But he’d been prepared for something of this nature; he knew: his body didn’t need to fight anything. It was his mind.
Disrupting the chakra flow within his body was easy enough after years honing his chakra control, only made a bit harder by the lack of a seal.
As soon as the illusion depriving him of mobility disappeared and the chakra flow through his body returned to normal, which took admittedly longer than he liked, he jumped backwards and fell into a crouch as he brought out a kunai.çWhen the expected attack didn’t come, he frowned.
He debated whether to cut a hasty retreat or push onward and decided on the latter, aware that the clock was ticking and there wasn’t long left. Covertly replacing the clone that vanished when his chakra was disrupted, he walked on.
His efforts were rewarded as he came across Sakura sitting on a clearing, her back to him and her hands clenched in her hands.
Making sure to make some noise as he approached, her head snapped up, eyes wide and teary.
“Sakura-chan, Naruto and I have been looking for you. Are you alright?”
“I- I saw… Sasuke-kun… there was so much blood… and- oh, kami-sama…”
Akira frowned, looking around and seeing nothing of the sort. It didn’t take him long to connect the dots, his recent sort of anti-climatic encounter still fresh in his mind.
“Calm down, Sakura-chan; it must have been a genjutsu. Sensei almost got me with one a moment ago. Sasuke-kun is probably alright.”
“But- are you sure?” asked the pink-haired girl, taking a deep breath as if to steady herself.
“Pretty much. Sasuke-kun’s supposed to be tough, right? Come on, Naruto is looking for you right now, but he’ll bring Sasuke-kun if he finds him. We’re meeting up with them up ahead.” he said, feeling awkward at his poor attempt at comfort.
The girl blinked her tears away and nodded firmly before standing up from the forest floor.
“Why were you looking for us?” asked Sakura, obviously trying to distract herself from whatever she’d seen when trapped in the genjutsu.
“We’ve figured out that, if we want to beat sensei, we’ll all have to work together.”
“But there’s only two bells.” pointed out Sakura, confused. “Why would we all work together when it means two of us will fail?”
“It’s illogical to expect a genin to defeat a jonin, so it makes sense that we’d all have to work together. We can’t control who passes and who fails, but we can all do our best so that, at the end of this, we can all say we did our best.”
“Aren’t you afraid that you’ll fail? I mean,” here Sakura blushed a bit. “your grades aren’t exactly the best. What if we all work hard and it’s you and Naruto who fail?”
‘You’d like that.’ he thought, but didn’t say.
“Konoha teams operate as three-member squads. Three of us will pass.” he said with certainty. “And of course I’m afraid I’ll fail, but right now we are a team for a reason and that reason is getting those bells. We can worry about the rest later.”
For a second, there was only silence. When he looked over at the girl, he found her staring at him with an expression he could not place.
“You’re more mature than I realised.” she admitted softly.
Akira blushed and looked away.
“I hope Naruto has found Sasuke.” he said to change the topic. “We don’t have much more time to finish and I’d rather not go without lunch.”
“Yeah, I’m regretting skipping breakfast.” bemoaned the kunoichi with a grimace.
Akira looked up at the sky through the leaves as he let the regret he felt at having split apart to cover more ground show on his face.
“Aha. And it’s not like toast covered in clotted pig blood was a filling dinner.”
“You ate what!?” shrieked Sakura.
“It’s actually a long story.” he snickered, lips twitching. Good, that’d cover any other reaction that might’ve been gleamed from his expression. “Suffice to say it wasn’t actually what the name implied.”
“Right.” she muttered doubtfully.
As Sakura looked forward, he took perfect advantage og the chance to use the Kawarimi no Jutsu. He immediately hastened to put his plan into action, intending to win as much time as he could.
Upon reaching the meeting point, he came to a halt when confronted face to face with three other genin, amongst them a dead match for himself. Or more accurately, a dead match for his disguise.
He considered the possibility of them being real for almost a full second: two of them, he knew on good authority, were currently incapacitated. And even if the blond had managed to find their two teammates, he doubted he’d had enough time to free them and bring them here. As if that weren’t enough for someone as paranoid as him, he could tell that Sasuke’s and Sakura’s body languages were off. The only one he actually had any doubts about was Naruto.
He could keep up the pretence, play along with this charade and see where it went or he could drop his act altogether and get down to evaluating the child. He had proof enough of his intelligence already, he’d like to see what else the child hid.
Hoping to throw him off, he spoke:
“What gave me away?” he asked lightly.
Rather than being surprised at also being caught, the redhead tilted his head to the side and released the technique. Before his very eyes, the hinged bunshins flickered out, confirming his theory and leaving only Akira and him in the middle of the clearing. Kakashi released his own henge, the one that should’ve made him pass as Sakura perfectly. He was curious as to where he’d failed.
“We all shared breakfast this morning.”
Kakashi sighed. Such a small detail… But of course those were always the most likely to out you, especially when you were not familiar with whoever you were impersonating. Looking back on it, he could pinpoint the exact moment the redhead had worked it out and how well he’d hidden his reaction.
‘Why didn’t he confront me immediately? What is going through his mind? He knows the purpose of the test: was he trying to win time until his brother and teammates returned?’
They both stared at each other, neither making the first move.