"Uhm, Naruto?" asked Sakura as she walked along behind Kakashi and fidgeting a little at Sasuke's regard. He kept staring at her. Was it because she was now adult-looking compared to how she really was? Was it because she had had to be wound up by him? Was it because she was in a mechanical body and he was repulsed by the unnaturalness of it? Rather than dwell on that, maybe a safer subject?
"Yeah?" asked Naruto, glancing back from where he was apparently walking along without a concern in the world.
"When I was being rebuilt by Rockbell-san," said Sakura, her voice hesitant. "I looked up your file when she didn't shut down her connection."
"Oh?" asked Naruto.
"Oh?" asked Sasuke. "Anything interesting?"
"Well," began Sakura.
"You do realize that you might have stumbled across S-Class secrets that are best not bandied about in the open?" asked Kakashi, his single visible eye coming to rest on the team's kunoichi.
"Oh," said Sakura.
Kurochan's tail lashed a few times. There were secrets about Naruto? S-Class?
"So..." began Sakura, hesitant in the silence following Kakashi's warning. "What can you tell us about Wave? I don't remember a lot about it being mentioned in the Academy."
"Ah," said Tazuna. "Wave Country is a poor nation, located between Water Country and the Land Of Fire. Years ago, we were part of the Land Of Whirlpools and we had the ninja village of Uzushiogakure. Now, alas, we do not and have to hire ninja from the Land Of Fire for assistance."
"Uzushiogakure?" asked Naruto.
"Yes, that's the symbol of it there on the back of your jonin's vest," said Tazuna.
"The Land Of Whirlpools was very close to the Land Of Fire, there was a great friendship and many ties between the two groups," said Kakashi. "You're not nearly old enough to remember that though."
Tazuna gave a short bark of laughter at that. "Yes, I suppose so. It HAS been many years. It has been a few decades, hasn't it?"
"Huh," said Naruto. "That spiral thing in the Leaf symbol is because we were friends with some other group? What happened?"
"Their ninja were especially skilled in fuuinjutsu," said Kakashi eventually. "Other ninja villages, particularly Water and Rock but several others as well, attacked it. It was a case where the war wasn't formally declared - a diplomatic party within the walls were actually jonin level ninja. They were backed up by more forces who'd managed to get in position and maintain their secrecy by slaughtering entire civilian villages. It was the start of the Second Great Shinobi War. The other nations might have stood down as they claimed after the destruction of Whirlpool - but Konoha responded anyway. That's why some people blame the Second Great Shinobi War on Konoha."
Tazuna grunted. "Our land was never one of great wealth, but we were doing better before then. I've seen the ruins of once-prosperous villages."
"In the Academy," said Sakura, "they said something different. That twenty years after the First Shinobi War, some nations were getting wealthy while others were becoming poor. That factions were formed and that it was those factions that led to the war."
"Well, to some people's views perhaps," said Kakashi. "I've read up on it, and mainly read accounts of it that my father and my sensei left behind."
[Danger]
"Oh, you noticed?" asked Kakashi as he passed a puddle.
"Where?" asked Sakura. "Oh."
Sakura considered the puddle, the dry ground around it, and came to the now-obvious conclusion.
chukumf went her arm housing.
"Uhm," began Kakashi, his visible eye widening.
BUKUM! BUKUM! BUKUM! went several pulses of white light into the puddle.
"Why are you shooting -?" began Tazuna.
Two smouldering wounded ninja leapt out of the puddle.
"oh," said Tazuna in a quiet voice, deciding to shut up now.
The two leapt forward, brought their chain around Sakura, and then leapt away to tighten the bladed chain around her.
CHUNK!
"You shredded my clothes!" realized Sakura as the little barbs slid on her skin. "You IDIOTS!"
Ka-SPANG!
The two enemy-nin went stumbling as their chain was abruptly broken into pieces. Apparently some survival instincts went into play because they tried to run.
Sakura simply grabbed one by the shirt, made a quick spin on one foot, then hurled the one ninja against the other.
Both enemy-ninja went down.
Sasuke blinked a couple of times, realized he was gaping, then straightened up and coughed into a fist to recover his composure as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
"...but I wanted to whomp them with 50,000 volts," complained Naruto.
"Well, maybe the next enemy ninja ambush," said Kakashi with a fair heaping of sarcasm in his voice.
"Promise?" asked Naruto.
"Hey, what about me?" asked Sasuke, frowning at the idea that HE wasn't going to do anything awesome.
Kakashi sighed and shook his head as he trudged over to the groaning heap of ambushers. "You two, stay still. Or I'll let Sakura hit you some more and then maybe have the other two use you for a jutsu demonstration."
"My clothes," complained Sakura, fingering where her outfit was now ragged strips from the bottoms of her breasts to just below her waist.
"Don't pick up the pieces of chain, you two, there's a strong poison on it," said Kakashi without looking at his genin.
"What about me, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.
"You might gather them up, Sakura, since you're immune to poisons," said Kakashi. "No point in leaving little pieces of poisoned metal around to inconvenience travellers."
"What... what the hell is she?" asked one of the two.
"A genin of the Leaf Village," said Naruto.
"We should interrogate these two," said Kurochan. "I think I remember something of an interrogation technique involving thirty centimeters of string, and a small fruit. Does anyone have a small fruit?"
Tazuna looked at the cat as if it were crazy. So did Sakura for that matter.
"You know many things, Kurochan," said Kakashi. "Alas, that particular torture method is forbidden as being needlessly barbaric in the treaty that ended the Second Great Shinobi War."
"Oh, pity," said Kurochan. "I heard that was really effective."
Sakura blinked, making a little squeegee sound in the process. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Considering the way the two enemies turned pale and sweaty when it was brought up," murmurred Sasuke. "I want more details."
"It... It's the Uzumaki Fruit Torture," said one of the enemy nin. "Like you said, it's forbidden."
"Well," said Kurochan. "I think magical familiars didn't sign on that treaty, so I could probably do it."
Sakura noticed that pale look on the ninja and wondered about that torture, not to mention why it was named after Naruto of all people. "Naruto, you're an Uzumaki. Do you know..."
"HE'S AN UZUMAKI?!" screamed the two enemy-nin.
"We didn't know," said one enemy-nin.
"It's standing orders in Mist," said the other.
"If you see an Uzumaki, do not engage, run," said the first enemy-nin.
"If you're nice and tell us what we want to know, we'll keep the Uzumaki from doing anything... bad to you," said Kakashi, knowing how to milk it when Fate handed you something useful.
"Haven't we come far enough?" asked Tazuna four hours later.
"I suppose," said Kakashi. "We'll use that old waysite there to the left."
"Do you want me to do an area search, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto.
"Sure," said Kakashi. "Sasuke, there's a stream over there."
"Right," said Sasuke, fanning a brace of kunai in one hand to indicate his understanding.
"Good," said Sakura. "I could use a good winding-up for the night."
"Uhm," said Tazuna as Naruto produced a hammer from nowhere, struck the ground and sent six balls of lightning out into the evening.
"Just take a seat," said Kakashi, sitting down on one of the logs near the firepit. "This is the sort of thing that is a task for minions."
"Sounds like it can be handy," said Tazuna. "Having minions, that is."
"It has its moments," admitted Kakashi.
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(Posted Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:28)
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