Then she was confronted by a woman with bright red hair looking down at her. "You look a lot different from how I pictured you, Naruto."
Sakura quickly picked herself up. "Me? That idiot? Hardly!"
The woman twitched once and the smile seemed a little forced. "Oh. Are you his girlfriend then?"
"HAH! As if! He's such a worthless moron that - WAGH!"
The woman had moved faster than Sakura would have expected, locking her head with one arm and giving her a noogie that BURNED with the other. "What were you saying about my son?"
"Kakashi," called out Sasuke at the doorway. He then indicated that there was something the jonin should see.
Kakashi glanced inward in his usual lazy bored manner. Then he dropped his book.
The woman striding forward had long red hair and piercing eyes. For some reason Sasuke was immediately reminded of his own mother when she wanted to "have a little discussion with your father and here's a few coins to go buy yourself something at the candy shop."
"Kakashi Hatake," said the woman.
"You're... dead," pointed out Kakashi.
"I left a mask here with an impression of my self and some chakra," explained the woman. "Now, what am I hearing about you being my son's sensei?"
"I am! He's a very promising ninja!" said Kakashi.
"I- oh. You look familiar. Are you Mikoto's little boy?" asked Kushina.
"Yes ma'am," said Sasuke, as he would NEVER 'hn' his mother and there was definitely the same sort of vibe coming off this woman.
"I'm one of your mother's best friends, Kushina Uzumaki," said the woman with a smile. "Or at least, a sort of recording of her."
"Ah," said Sasuke. Who then stopped. Wait. Uzumaki? As in the ones whose shrine this was. Who the class loser was apparently related to?
"This can't be," said Kakashi.
"Excuse me. Uzumaki. Fuuinjutsu. What part of that DON'T you understand?" said Kushina. "Right now the little girl who decided to put on the mask and then insulted Naruto repeatedly is sitting in a corner of her mindscape wearing a dunce cap."
"Uhm, she's all right?" asked Kakashi.
"I'll have to end this before she collapses from chakra exhaustion," noted Kushina aloud. "Otherwise she'll be fine."
"Oh that's good," said Kakashi.
"Now, what exactly have you been teaching him?" asked Kushina. "Come on. A mother wants to know about these sorts of things."
Sasuke mused on the concept this his mother and Naruto's mother had apparently been friends. Small village.
"Well, a bit of this, a bit of that," said Kakashi.
Sasuke would later blame this on spending too much time with Naruto. Otherwise he would never volunteer information to get his sensei in trouble. No, never. Not him. "He taught us tree walking."
"Oh, and?" asked Kushina.
"Well..." began Kakashi.
"That's it," said Sasuke. "After six months."
"What?" asked Kushina.
"Teamwork. Definitely teamwork lessons," said Kakashi.
"And that was on a C-Rank mission where we were facing two missing-nin assassins that bumped it to A-Rank," provided Sasuke, just as casually as he could.
Crack crack went Kushina Uzumaki's knuckles.
"Gottagobye."
"Hmph," said Kushina to the swirl of leaves that Kakashi had left behind. "Don't have enough chakra to pursue. Sasuke, can you tell-"
Kushina Uzumaki shrunk and faded until Sakura was standing there, holding a mask in her hands.
Sasuke thoughtfully rescued the mask and found a place to seal it away. Potentially useful.
Crackle
Sasuke blinked. Purple lightning?
THOOM!
Why was Naruto now dressed in armor? And taller? With a black sword in one hand?
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked his sword.
"Tired. Let me sleep a couple of days and I'll get back to you."
"Okay," said Naruto, letting his new reflexes slide the sword into the scabbard.
"Naruto?" asked Sasuke as the blond exited the temple.
"Yeah. What's with Sakura?" asked Naruto, noting that Sakura was sprawled out on the floor.
"Girls," said Sasuke.
"Yeah, I hear ya," said Naruto, scooping up Sakura and setting her over one shoulder. "Finish making notes?"
"Hn," said Sasuke, raising an eyebrow.
"Okay, Kakashi's gone so maybe we should just turn that in and call it a day?" suggested Naruto.
"Hn," agreed Sasuke, pushing off from the wall. He eyed the battered-looking ninjato in the back-sheath on Naruto's back. If he hadn't seen the sword go in there, he wouldn't have suspected that the real sword was bigger and considerably less battered than what he now saw. But fuuinjutsu was routinely used for storage so it made sense that way.
Sasuke smirked just a little.
Things were getting a bit more interesting.
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(Posted Tue, 27 Jan 2015 08:40)
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