If Naruto's father turned out to BE Uncle Genma, Sasuke decided that he needed to go off on a long long vacation. Alone.
Things used to be so simple. He could dedicate himself to vengeance, hunt down and kill his brother in dramatic and bloody fashion, then find some girl who was NOT a useless fangirl and resurrect the Uchiha clan.
If he couldn't find a girl who wasn't completely freaking insane maybe there was a jutsu that would allow him to use all of them to replenish the clan. That way he didn't have to associate with any particular loon for very long. Maybe the looniness would breed out. One could hope.
Now Naruto was mastering hijutsu that included healing and enhancement buffs. He'd done a very good job of healing the burns and tears on Sakura. Sasuke had understood that the materials for the repairs had come from Sakura's own reserves and body - and that was one reason that Sakura had ended up resting in the hospital afterwards.
Sasuke looked up as he reached their meeting place in front of the Hokage Tower and saw their temporary team mate.
She was older than either of them, perhaps nineteen or so. Looked to be the stoic type. She was wearing clothing atypical of the ninja village, in that most of the ninja didn't wear armor. Blue cloth visible, but armored gauntlets and breastplate and leggings. Blond hair and blue eyes, unusual but where Naruto somehow looked goofy - the combination looked right on her.
Then there was the sword. A two-handed broadblade.
"Begin," said the woman.
"Coeur Blanc," said Naruto, holding his staff up.
[Yes, My Master. Blade Form.]
The staff shrunk and a blade of white-blue light formed at one end.
Sasuke frowned. Saber had a sword. Naruto had a sword. How did HE not rate a sword? Might have to look into getting one.
The two started fighting, if you could call it that. Naruto was moving around all over the place, Saber stayed in one place. No matter what angle Naruto was attacking from, Saber blocked with apparently no effort at all.
It became more impressive when Naruto used his multiple shadow clones as she continued to do the same thing. Each movement was the minimum necessary to block him, and seemed completely without effort on her part.
"Enough!" said Saber after a few minutes of this. "Naruto. You have not learned anything new, have you?"
"Well, I can't do too much," said Naruto, jerking a thumb to the side. "Too many witnesses and I don't want to reveal everything I can do."
"Ah," said Saber, putting her sword away.
"Hmph," said Sasuke. If the girl knew how to wield a sword that well, he might be able to learn something from her. Not that he expected those skills to be of any use when it came to picking potatoes.
"So, you must be Sasuke Uchiha, the prodigy," said Saber, inclining her head in greeting.
"Saber, the swordmaster," acknowledged Sasuke.
A brief wind blew through the street.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed some girls, completely breaking the mood. "SASUKE, YOU CAN'T!"
"They really are annoying aren't they?" asked Saber.
"You have no idea," said Sasuke.
"Oh, I can deal with that much at least," said Naruto. "Coeur Blanc, Barrier Wall."
[Ok. Barrier Wall.]
"That's a pretty weak barrier, it wouldn't keep out more than a sparrow," said Saber.
"Yeah, but it's enough to keep his groupies away," said Naruto. "I can keep it up at this strength for awhile."
"Yes, I realize that," said Saber, glancing towards Sasuke. "Barrier Wall is normally used to secure a campsite from insects and other vermin. It gives a mild shock to those who try and cross the boundary."
ZAK! went one of the girls trying to poke her finger through the faint yellow wall. "YIKES!"
"I really need to learn that one," said Sasuke as he watched the girls getting discouraged.
Kakashi showed up later, determined that the yellow dome was a minor Thunder technique, and figured out four weaknesses and four uses for it before he finally addressed his genin. "Well, are you ready for today's mission?"
"Are we playing farmers again today?" asked Sasuke wearily.
"No, actually, there's a weaponsmith who hurt his hands, we get to help out in his shop thanks to Naruto demonstrating some basic skill.
Sasuke glanced at Naruto and inclined his head. Not that he had anything against doing hard manual labor, but working with weapons was definitely more his style.
"All right!" Naruto set to the tools under the eye of the weaponsmith. "I have to do this sort of thing all the time."
"Hmph," said Sasuke, sitting down and watching. Repairing kunai wasn't a big deal.
"I thought you knew how to do this," said the weaponsmith. "You're not even setting up the firebox."
"Coeur Blanc," said Naruto.
[Heat Metal]
The weaponsmith blinked as the kunai arranged on the anvil slowly turned red.
Naruto merely grinned, checked out the various hammers and rasps, and set to the task with a pair of tongs.
The weaponsmith watched after awhile, then went over and got a sword out of the pile. "What about this?"
"Hmmm," said Naruto. "Looks like the metal stressed. Best to melt this down and recast it."
Sasuke wandered away. Sure, he had some interest in weapon repair - but it tended to be very specialized and to master it would be very time-consuming.
Saber was leaning against the front counter and glanced up at him as he approached. "Talking shop?"
"Yeah," agreed Sasuke.
Saber nodded. "It's good to have skills outside direct confrontation. A lot of problems can be solved with a suitable direct application of violence, but not all."
"You're a mage too?" asked Sasuke as he briefly eyed the swordswoman and then started looking over the weapon racks.
"Yes, though not to the extent of some," said Saber. "I'm not able to fly for one thing. I can Flash Step and do short range teleports, but not fly."
"Naruto can fly?" asked Sasuke.
"Oh yes, Coeur Blanc is best at Healing and Support type spells, but he also has access to some Movement and Craft magic," said Saber. "However he's still too slow, not coordinated enough, relies on tricks when he should go for power, and relies on power when being tricky would actually be to his benefit."
"Sounds like him," admitted Sasuke, drawing the long knife he'd gotten from Naruto the previous day. "He made this."
Saber nodded. "When he gets really frustrated or stressed, he goes off and makes things. He's only been doing it for a few months though, so there's a lot he has to learn."
"He was gone a year?" asked Sasuke.
"He showed up on a world called Earth, was put into a hospital by a girl named Vita, recovered, joined in the fight," said Saber, eyes looking at the ceiling as she tried to remember details. "I think he was actually with the TSAB for one year and ten months or so."
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(Posted Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:21)
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