"Hmph," said Sasuke.
"Don't worry Sasuke!" declared Sakura. "Even with Naruto on the team, we can manage!"
"Hmph," hmphed Sasuke, rolling his eyes.
Sasuke-kun is so cool when he does that! declared Inner Sakura. Time on the same team means the Heavens have approved of our union!
"-and so we should get to know each other better," said Kakashi. "So tell us your likes, dislikes, that sort of thing."
"Very well," said Naruto.
"You should go first," interrupted Sakura. "You're kind of suspicious."
"So, you're saying you already know everything about those on your team?" asked Kakashi.
"Of course," said Sakura.
Sasuke sighed.
Sakura admired how cool Sasuke looked like that when he sighed and rolled his eyes mysteriously.
Sakura returned her attention to the new sensei and noticed a similar but much less cool expression on HIS face.
A few years previously:
Sasuke paused as he prepared to throw more shuriken at the target, then did a partial turn as he sent the shuriken into a tree.
The sound indicated that the shuriken had imbedded themselves in the wood, and then silence for almost a full minute.
"Not bad, you detected my presence after two minutes, but that's a lot better than most of the kids our age," said a familiar voice.
Sasuke frowned as the voice wasn't what he had expected, he glanced behind him at where the voice had apparently come from.
Flipping an apple up and down in one hand briefly, the figure was dressed entirely in white - in a costume that looked vaguely similar to what a Shinto priest might wear. Except this was cut more for active behavior. That and the white fox mask were indications of who he was looking at.
"The dead last of the class, the affable idiot, is the White Fox I've heard the adults speaking of?" asked Sasuke.
"Oh ho, as expected of my rival, you've figured out my identity?" asked the White Fox.
"Your voice is sort of a give away," said Sasuke.
There was a pause before the White Fox reached up and took the mask off, then checked something in it. "Dang it. That seal keeps coming off." He adjusted something before putting the mask back on. "Better?"
Sasuke nodded. "So there's a seal that changes your voice."
"I don't think it fools all that many people though," admitted the White Fox of Konoha.
"Why bother?" asked Sasuke, thinking this was awfully childish for someone training to be a ninja.
"Because misdirection and deception are primary tools for a shinobi," said the White Fox.
Sasuke nodded, having heard that a few times himself. Then he stopped, frowned, and considered the ramifications of that. Especially coming from someone who seemed to be the friendly neighborhood village idiot on a regular basis in class.
"After all, if anyone was watching ME, whom I had reason to believe didn't exactly like me - I wouldn't want them to know exactly what I was capable of," said Naruto, explaining why he was the class clown by day and White Fox by night.
Sasuke was about to climb up and retrieve his shuriken when the idea fully penetrated.
Present:
Sasuke looked at Sakura and managed to put a fair amount of sarcasm in his voice when he spoke. "Really? You know everything about Naruto and myself?"
"Of course!" said Sakura, who then began to go over grades in the Academy.
Sasuke had raised an eyebrow when he'd asked the question. Kakashi noted that it had just started twitching.
One and a half years ago:
"Aren't you a little old to play 'hero of justice'?" asked Sasuke, though most of his class would think he was entirely alone in the training area.
"To 'play' maybe?" said a voice barely audible over the sudden breeze that stirred the leaves. "To aspire to? Not at all."
"I'll allow that you had a point earlier about not showing all that you could do, even in the Academy," said Sasuke as he resumed throwing practice. "Since the grades go home with the students, and asking around can give you an idea of what other students are doing - a spy would be able to pick up on that information fairly easily."
"Exactly," said the White Fox, leaping down out of a tree.
"How did you get up there anyway? I checked that tree," noted Sasuke.
"I might tell an ally," said the White Fox. "If we were ever on a team together, that's different."
"A team? An ally? Relying on others would just make you weaker," said Sasuke, turning his attention fully back to the target.
"Can you sharpen a sword without something to sharpen it against, like a whetstone?" asked the White Fox. "If a load is too heavy or unwieldy for one, does it not benefit to have a second person or more to help share that burden? If you fight an opponent with an advantage, shouldn't you get an advantage of your own?"
"Sounds like you're quoting," noted Sasuke as he went to the target and started wrenching kunai and shuriken out.
"I am, actually," said the White Fox. "The Academy library has the speeches of the previous Hokage written down. That was part of the speech given by the First when he was setting up the Academy and the three-genin team system."
"As long as I don't have to wear a mask," muttered Sasuke.
Apparently the White Fox had pretty good hearing. "Oh. Too bad. Here I made you one."
"What?" asked Sasuke in a flat voice, accidently dropping some kunai.
The White Fox held up a dark blue mask.
"No way I am ever putting that on," said Sasuke.
"Meh," said the White Fox. "I was hoping I could count on you to help when Owl Girl can't get away. Which is way too often."
"Never going to happen," said Sasuke.
Present:
"You don't know anything other than our grades and skill levels we displayed in the Academy," said Naruto, sounding sad.
"I know how often you asked me out, how many times I shot you down," said Sakura. "And you were dead last in our class."
"And he was the White Fox of Konoha for the past four years," said Kakashi.
"Oh, you knew?" asked Naruto.
"Everyone from special jonin on up knows that particular 'secret' or just about everyone," said Kakashi.
"That's just a myth," said Sakura. "Urban legend. If anyone was that good in class, I would have..."
Naruto was holding a white fox-mask in one hand. When he fitted it into place, he seemed to grow two inches, his clothes blurred and whitened to become something like a shrine priest's uniform crossed with an acrobat's costume. The ears flickered and moved, seeming to become real as a white fluffy tail appeared behind him and swished around once.
"Gah?" asked Sakura.
"Hmph," said Sasuke, pulling out a half-mask and fitting it into place. Shadows seemed to deepen and stretch towards him, crawling up his body and changing into an outer layer of armor that had an edgy-spiky look to it.
"Gik?" asked Sakura.
"So the 'White Fox' and the 'Dread Avenger' are both part of my genin team," sighed Kakashi Hatake.
"W-w-what?" asked Sakura.
"It's fuuinjutsu, with a preprogrammed genjutsu effect," said Naruto, shrugging and taking off the mask. His clothes shifted back to normal and the other changes faded away at the same time. "Written into the mask along with a couple of other effects."
"Hnn," said Sasuke, sounding pleased as the girl who'd claimed to know him was staring and looked as if a light breeze would blow her over. He removed the mask anyway, settling it into a side-pouch.
"Yes, well, if you become genin - I think there's a few people who are interested in learning that trick. Though I'm surprised you didn't get Sakura to join in since the training obviously had some benefits," said Kakashi.
"I tried," said Naruto. "Thought she could benefit from it. After all, Hinata could only be 'Owl Girl' maybe six times since I started the 'White Fox' training."
"Erk?" managed Sakura as her brain began rebooting. "Wait. You mean the times you asked me out?"
"Well, a few times it was just to share lunch or something, but all those 'show you something interesting tonight' ones? That was totally sounding you out for joining me and Sasuke on our quest for justice and serious training," said Naruto.
The jonin and two other genin watched as Sakura:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:54)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.