Chapter 7
Tadaa – next one. Didn’t take too long this time, but I still haven’t quite gotten my groove back.
The scene feels like déjà-vu.
In numb fascination Hisana watches Naruto’s face twist up into the same hopeful expression that his teacher wore not half an hour ago. She flattens herself against a thick branch, eyes fixed on the ninja below. Nerves make her breath come heavy and she muffles it against the crook of her cold elbow. Come on, Iruka-sensei, she thinks as Naruto trustingly walks towards his former teacher. He looks so happy, so convinced that an adult he trusts couldn’t possibly lead him astray. It hurts to know that his face will fall in realization soon enough. Hisana really wishes the night could be over already.
Ran quietly creeps up her back, blunt claws digging into her back. It’s the only warning Hisana gets before Iruka-sensei crashes into the clearing. His chakra signature is completely suppressed now, and his face is so livid that she can only imagine what it would be like otherwise. Acid, she thinks, not quite able to believe that he could be capable of such a thing, despite his livid expression. He crashes into Mizuki without a warning, and Naruto’s resulting squawk of surprise is loud enough to startle a few birds into flight.
“Iruka-sensei!” he cries in confusion, scroll still clutched tightly, as if afraid someone might snatch the ticket to his promotion right out of his hands. “What are you doing, is this still a test?”
“Noisy,” Ran scoffs quietly, sharp little teeth scraping against Hisana’s neck as the summon yawns.
“Naruto! Run, this isn’t a test –“ Mizuki’s elbow viciously catches Iruka-sensei across the face. The boy recoils from the scene, before taking an instinctual step forward. He wants to help, Hisana thinks unhappily. Even though he has no idea what is even going on. Mizuki’s control seems to have snapped entirely at this point. He rips his arm out of Iruka-sensei’s grip and throws a kunai at the jinchuuriki that only barely misses.
“Monster,” he jeers, eyes alight with the desire to hurt, to inflict pain on those he thinks wronged him. It’s disconcerting to watch. Mizuki-sensei has never been the most genial person; he was a harsh teacher who picked favorites easily and had no trouble squashing undesirable behavior with questionable methods. But he was still a teacher. There were still students who looked up to him. He still cared about some of them, Hisana is sure of that. But this man, half pinned under Iruka-sensei, his friend, is a wild, hateful creature. She wonders what made him lose composure so dramatically. Was it the hopelessness of the situation? The fact that this time around, Iruka-sensei had somehow found him first and destroyed every chance he had to return a hero? The vitriol that spills from his mouth turns Naruto’s face pale.
“Iruka is the same! He also hates you!”
Heartbreak is not something she ever wants to see on Naruto’s face again.
This needs to end quickly. Hisana isn’t sure how long Genma can keep the other idiots busy and right now Mizuki’s sadistic streak is keeping things from progressing. After a moment of hesitance Hisana drops from the tree with a loud thud. For a moment both adults freeze – and Naruto bolts like a frightened deer. The struggle starts anew as Iruka-sensei calls out to whoever just found them and Mizuki fights free with renewed vigor. Only after he manages to claw his way out of Iruka-sensei’s chokehold to take off after Naruto, Hisana steps out of the shadows.
“Hisana-chan - …”
There’s relief in Iruka-sensei’s eyes, but she doesn’t move to help him.
“He was your friend, right?” she wonders aloud, voice mild but pointed. Iruka-sensei flinches. She throws him a bottle of Nara-issue soldier pills, watching patiently as he fumbles to catch it.
“Take care of this,” she tells him, tense fingers hooking into her neck guard to keep busy. “Because if I do it, I’ll kill him.” The bottle still clutched tightly, he looks as at her as if he’s never seen her before. How surreal it must be, Hisana thinks, to hear your student talk like this about your colleague. Mizuki was Hisana’s teacher too. But then he nods jerkily, struggles to his feet and starts running.
The next scene she walks in on is the aftermath of Naruto’s kage bushin. Trees have been uprooted, grass trampled, and in the middle of it all two figures sit huddled together. The blonde’s face is turned into Iruka-sensei’s chest, small hands clutching at his chuunin vest as he rides out what seems to be a small panic attack. Above Naruto’s head their eyes meet and Hisana nods at him carefully. Then she takes hold of Mizuki’s collar and unceremoniously hoists him over her shoulder with a quiet grunt. Fatass, she thinks uncharitably, pumps chakra into her legs and leaves them to it. Those two need a few moments alone and she needs to go home and repress the memory this whole horrifying night.
Genma’s group of chuunin has already returned. They look a bit sullen, but not as angry as she would have expected. Two of them are already trying to convince the Hokage that they should keep looking after all, even while Sarutobi is trying to assure them that it’s really not necessary. There’s a look of tried patience on his face, very much like an exasperated parent’s. Feeling viciously satisfied with the world in general Hisana dumps Mizuki at his feet, not even trying to be graceful about it. The beaten teacher hits the floor with a loud ‘thud’, head painfully colliding with the ground. The other ninja turn around to stare at them.
“Ah,” Sarutobi says, relieved but also a bit put out at the rough treatment of her treasonous fellow ninja, “Hisana-san. So things are taken care of then?”
“Yes,” she confirms grimly, glaring at Mizuki’s prone form. “Almost. Uzumaki Naruto has been secured. Iruka-sensei is mildly injured. This is the responsible party.”
The Hokage sighs. “Very well. It looks like we can all go home now.” He throws a meaningful look at the gathered ninja, who have the good grace to duck their heads in embarrassment. “Mizuki-sensei … how very regrettable. Ibiki-kun, if you would.”
Morino Ibiki steps out of the Hokage Tower, black coat swishing dramatically behind him, to grab Mizuki’s prone form by the scruff and hoist him up like a ragdoll. And then, from behind the big ninja’s back Shizuha darts out to slap chakra restraints on their former teacher’s wrists. She takes one look at Hisana’s face and then at bruised and black-eyed Mizuki before flashing the Uchiha a very deliberate, very serious looking double thumbs up. For the first time that night Hisana has to smile.
The Hokage’s office is only dimly lit, casting their leader’s face into half shadow. Hisana suspects it’s specifically set up that way to create atmosphere, so the normally fearsome picture only makes her feel vaguely amused. The Sandaime is a good man. Ruthless in some instances, yes, but not unnecessarily cruel and very protective of his charges. The entirety of the Uchiha clan – all pathetic three of them – are definitely among them. Naruto is too. And so she’s reasonably sure that this meeting won’t be an unpleasant one.
“Now,” the Hokage starts, igniting his pipe, “Iruka-sensei has informed me that you found him and Mizuki-sensei in the woods during their confrontation.”
She nods, unconcerned. “Yes, Hokage-sama. I encountered them in the middle of a struggle. My arrival scared Naruto off and unfortunately enabled Mizuki-sensei’s flight.”
“‘Arrival’?” he muses, eyes sliding over to his crystal ball. Ah, of course. Hisana allows herself a grim smile.
“I deemed it appropriate to leave the fight to Iruka-sensei. There appeared to be a … personal element to it. I would have interfered if necessary.”
There’s a long silence in which the old man merely looks at her, maybe testing if she’ll crack under the pressure, but then he nods.
“Indeed,” he agrees. “I’m afraid there is always a personal element to traitorous actions. You have been made aware of Naruto’s status?” The expectant look makes it clear that this isn’t a question. Again, she nods. “What do you think?”
“I think,” she tries carefully, “that the fox hat more than enough time to cause damage if he were so inclined. But in all the time I’ve known him … Naruto has spent his time playing pranks and trying to make friends. The way people treat him hurts him. There’s no way the fox would act that way. Not when he had so many opportunities for revenge already. It’s been twelve years.”
Rings of smoke rise from the Hokage’s pipe and she watches them disperse into the warm air. “Good,” he decides. “Very good.” He pulls a stack of papers out of his desk, shuffling them for an unnecessarily long time. “When Naruto-kun failed his exams, it was not entirely unexpected. Nevertheless I had to rearrange the teams a little, which has not been beneficial for many of them. Now, in the light of this very recent development – “here his wrinkly mouth curls into a smile – “I will have to rearrange them once more. Has Hatake Kakashi informed you that he will be leading your cousin’s genin team?”
Hisana huffs out a laugh. “No. It’s not entirely unexpected though.” The Sandaime makes an amused noise in turn.
“Kakashi-kun likes to play his cards close to his vest, even if there is really no need to. In any case, Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun will be placed onto his team. I am sure you already have an idea which kunoichi has been deemed most appropriate for the last slot.” There’s no accusation in his voice and she’s glad. Bringing team 7 together was pretty manipulative of her, but there are different types of manipulation and apparently a ninja village can appreciate the benign kind she likes to dish out. She still has to resist the urge to shuffle sheepishly.
“Naruto-kun speaks highly of you and your cousin,” he continues, outwardly unaware of her embarrassment. “I need to be sure that his trust in you is not unfounded. He is, as of yet, unaware that you know about the Kyuubi and there is a chance that he will tell you of his own volition. I advise extreme caution. He is an impressionable, vulnerable boy who has been hurt too often already.” Now there definitely is a warning in his voice and Hisana salutes without conscious thought.
“Yes, Hokage-sama!”
Coming home is a relief.
Now that the adrenaline has left her system, sleep suddenly seems incredibly tempting. Still, despite her eyes sliding shut every few minutes she leans a careful ear against the front door of her apartment door, trying to discern if Sasuke is already asleep. He isn’t. In fact, as soon as her ear even touches the wood she can hear him darting to the door; he rips it open so fast that she very nearly topples inside.
Sasuke’s face is a silent mask of ‘TELL ME’, eyes wide and intense as if he could pick the words right out of her brain if he just looked hard enough. “Impatient,” she rebukes, a little pleased when his cheeks flush with embarrassment. Can’t show too much human emotion, now can we? It’s interesting to see how her little cousin has matured and grown; a few years prior he would have started sulking now. ‘I didn’t want to know anyway.’
But now his back straightens and he primly reaches for her vest and gear instead of trying to defend himself. It looks like exceedingly good manners from the outside, but it’s more as if he thinks stripping Hisana of her official capacity would hurry things along. “Yes, yes,” she murmurs mindlessly, handing over her sword without protest and kicking off her shoes. “Leave me alone. Sit down, it’s not that big of a deal.” But Sasuke merely herds her towards the couch, deaf to all protests.
“Naruto got into a bit of trouble,” she’s finally forced to confess. “It wasn’t his fault and it’s handled now.” Sasuke’s expression curdles anyway.
“Dobe,” he presses out and it sounds like a curse word.
“The good news,” she hurries to add, “is that he got a promotion out of it. Who knows, maybe he’ll end up on your team after all.”
The next day Sasuke leaves the house in a mood of quiet optimism.
Today the teams will be decided and he wants to get started with training already. Hisana, who knows that he’ll have to be patient for quite a bit longer, sends him off with a smile and then goes to hunt down her asshole of a team leader.
Unsurprisingly Kakashi is hiding out at the memorial stone not far from the Academy. He looks very solemn like this, the very picture of a capable ninja. The illusion irks her for some reason. Hisana kicks a stone at him that rolls to a lazy stop not far from his foot.
“Sooo …” she drawls, carefully watching his shoulders twitch in annoyance, “I hear you’ll be holding the end of Sasuke’s leash for a while.” Why the hell didn’t you say anything?, she doesn’t say. The fact that she already knew does nothing to temper her irritation with him.
“It would seem that way,” he returns mildly, refusing to turn around for a few long moments. Then suddenly his finger wags in her face chidingly. “As I thought you’d have figured out before today.”
Hisana grits her teeth, swatting at the offending digit and missing by a mile.
“You should have told me anyway.”
He cocks his head as if to contemplate this before shrugging his shoulders lackadaisically.
“Why should I have? It has nothing to do with you.”
For a moment she can only stare at him in disbelief. Is he for real? This is her cousin, her only family – and he was her teacher once, too. This has everything to do with her. But Kakashi only pats her head somewhat condescendingly, digging his fingers into Hisana’s hair and bending down a little so that he can be at eye level with her. To her surprise his eye crinkles at her benignly, even the air he projects is still somewhat annoyed. “My work with your cousin and my work with you have absolutely nothing to do with each other.” For a moment she tries to work out what exactly he’s trying to tell her but comes up empty. “Now,” he adds wryly, “if you could trust me to keep your Sasuke-kun out of trouble, it would be much appreciated.”
I posted this chapter on ff.net and nobody seems to have gotten what Kakashi was getting at. It's really quite simple. Anyone?:)