Chapter 27: Questions and Answers
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That mask. Kakashi thought, eyeing the mask that the person right in front of him had. He narrowed his eyes at the person, analyzing what they were doing.
"You're a Hunter-nin."
The said Hunter-nin looked right towards Kakashi and nodded their heads right towards him. It seems like Kakashi was correct at the statement that he just made.
"You are correct. I am a Hunter-nin that has been trying to find and take down Momochi Zabuza for quite some time now." Kakashi slowly and just slightly nodded at those words.
"Thank you for assisting my mission unintentionally. I'll be taking Zabuza away to dispose of him." Kakashi nodded, seeing the Hunter-nin slowly pick up Zabuza and disappearing with him.
This person should be around their age just by hearing and seeing their voice and height. Kakashi thought, looking back at Naruto and the others as they went closer towards him.
"It seems we are done with fighting. Good job everyone." They all nodded. It was now time for them all to continue on with the mission that was still on-going.
Just a few seconds after they started walking, Kakashi crashed right on the damp ground.
"Sensei!"
~~~
Kakashi slowly opened his eyes and seeing a. . . ceiling? He groaned as he tried getting up and moving around — that didn't work at all for him.
Suddenly, a person came walking in and looked at Kakashi. He raised an eyebrow, wondering where he was at.
"Hello, I'm Tsunami. I am Tazuna's daughter."
He nodded, now soon realizing where he was now at. He was now at Tazuna's home place. It was quite the large house that he was living in. It was kind of surprising for someone who likes getting drunk.
He had at least expected something much more. . . shit. No offense to Tazuna, but he seems like the type of person to just waste money on booze and drinks.
He probably is.
"Oh, sensei." Sakura came walking in alongside Tazuna. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, seeing that she was the only person aside from Tauna who had came walking in the room.
"Gee, the other must hate me," said Kakashi, sighing now that Hiruzen's theory on Naruto being an Uchiha was all correct and that he was truly an Uchiha.
Though it seems he was forced to do it because of the situation. But I saw it in his eyes, the fear the overshadowed his own intelligence and skills. How did he overcome it? Does this mean he is hiding something else? Probably. But it's not good to pry in and interrogate him like Ibiki. Kakashi thought, wondering about the enigma named: Naruto.
"Ah, well, Satsuki-san wanted to talk to Naruto about something important. They are just right outside in the woods. Don't worry, they said they won't be gone for too long." Kakashi nodded, knowing what Satsuki wanted to talk to Naruto about.
"I see, Sakura. Then I guess we should leave them be for now. We wouldn't want to enrage a fox and its vixen." Sakura got a confused look right on her way.
"What does that mean?"
"Ah, you'll find out once you're older. It doesn't really have much of a definition, but it will make sense."
~~~
Naruto followed right behind Satsuki. She had said that she wanted to talk to him. . . privately. They then decided to talk go and talk in the woods that was just right outside the docks.
Naruto stood right behind right behind Satsuki with his hands right inside his pockets.
"What do you want?" Satsuki turned right around, glaring right towards Naruto and into his inner and deep soul. Oh, those were the wrong words to use.
"What do I want? That's the first thing you ask me?" Naruto stared at her with his blank face and lifeless eyes. He lightly shrugged, not knowing how to deal with a girl as messed up as Satsuki.
"Sure. Though I do guess that the words that are spilling right out of my mouth are everything but helpful and good." He heard Satsuki scoff at him. She then looked right down to the ground.
"Why? Why? Why didn't you at least tell me? Why couldn't you at least trust me with your secret?" Naruto felt a lump right on his throat that needed to be swallowed.
He did.
"I. . . don't know. I'm a secretive person, Satsuki. There are things about me that nobody in this world knows about. I'm not really good with talking to people. Sorry."
Naruto looked at the ground that Satsuki was staring at. There were tear drops right on the short and grassy ground that the two stood right on.
Satsuki looked up at Naruto, 2 lone tears rolling down her face.
"If only you had told me from the beginning. . . maybe we wouldn't be like this. Maybe I wouldn't have felt this. . . lonely. We're friends, you know — best friends." Naruto slightly widened his eyes, turning his gaze away from her.
"Maybe. But that is only possibilities, huh? We won't really know for sure unless we really did it." Satsuki wiped one of the tears that threatened to roll down her face.
"I guess," said Satsuki, getting a slight sigh from Naruto himself. He looked right at the teary-eyed Satsuki that was currently right in front of him as of right now.
"You know, I thought you would be throwing a fit that I didn't tell you that I was an Uchiha. Guess you do care about my own feelings." Naruto felt a slight punch to his arm.
"Shut up, Naruto. You're a bitch." Naruto shrugged, patting the top of her head. He saw another tear fall down on the grassy ground that the two Uchihas stood on.
He cursed himself, knowing her fanboys would be enraged if they ever found out what he was about to do. Naruto internally grunted to himself, putting his arms right around Satsuki.
He was now hugging her.
"You know, someone as pretty as you shouldn't be crying — It'll destroy your face."
"I hate you."
~~~
Once Satsuki was finished crying like a baby, the two made their way back towards the household that they were staying at for the next few days or more.
They saw Tsunami right on the downstairs floor and glanced at them for a second with a small and soft smile getting plastered right her face at this current moment.
"Oh, you two are back. Your sensei is now awake. I advise you to go to him and listen what he is about to say. I think it's something serious." They nodded and made their way to the upstairs floors.
The two saw the sliding door that Kakashi was currently residing in at the moment. They slid the door open, only to hearing some dangerous news coming from Kakashi's mouth.
"Zabuza is most definitely alive."
"How? I thought that Hunter-nin person killed him." They snapped towards Satsuki's voice. Sakura nodded, agreeing right along with her. There should be no way that Zabuza could be alive after what they had just seen.
"I thought about it for a little bit and soon figured out that he is without a doubt, alive." Some eyebrows were raised, curious at what Kakashi saying.
"How do you know?"
"It's simple — the senbon needles that struck Zabuza were anything but lethal."
"But the person was a Hunter-nin, were they not? Don't they knew where to hit and where to not hit?" Asked Sakura, getting a slight nod and a sigh from Kakashi in return.
"Yes, but there is a few things that you should all know. The Hunter-nin that was supposedly after Zabuza took him away from our location." Satsuki raised an eyebrow at this.
"Does that hold any significance?"
"Yes, everything that Hunter-nin did had significant value. They are not supposed to be taken away even if there is people nearby. They destroy their corpses right then and there. No hesitation needed."
"And the other?"
"Those senbon needles were probably used as a way to put Zabuza in a temporary death-like state. While senbon are indeed sharp and dangerous, they are not very viable to kill someone due to them rarely able to kill someone."
"So what do you we do? We're definitely not strong enough to defeat them head on." Satsuki slightly gritted her teeth, frustrated at her own weakness.
"We just have to prepare quickly." This caused more eyebrows to be raised at them, confused at what Kakashi was saying due to him being absolutely injured to the point where he could barely move.
"But you can barely move, sensei." Kakashi chuckled lightly at those words.
"I know, but that doesn't mean I still can't train you."
~~~
"You want us to climb on a tree? Easy." Satsuki readied herself to climb on a tree in a single heartbeat. Kakashi sighed at Satsuki's nature of being a rash individual.
"You have to climb the trees without using your hands." This caused two eyebrows to raise dramatically up in the air of the living. The two were confused at what Kakashi was asking for them to do.
"How are we supposed to be doing that?" Asked Sakura, confused at such thing.
"By applying chakra to your feet. See?" Kakashi had a pair of wooden crutches that were given to him by Tsunami. He walked right towards the tree that was closest to them.
"By doing this one simple task, you should be able to improve your chakra control as you evolve throughout this task. And as you should know, chakra control is very necessary for evolution as a fresh ninja and onward from there." They nodded, getting what they meant.
Kakashi slightly glanced at Naruto, noticing that he didn't really have much care for this exercise.
"Hm? Are you not satisfied with this exercise Naruto?" He shook his head at him, answering the question that Kakashi had asked him directly.
"I have already learned it before." Kakashi hummed, finally seeing what he was trying to say. Though this led to another question that he now had due to this.
"Do you know how to do the other one?"
"Yes." Kakashi sighed, surprised once again by Naruto. He nodded his head and pointed towards a tree that he could stay at. Naruto nodded right back and went to the tree that Kakashi had pointed to.
"Everyone else, use a kunai to measure yourself and what you have achieved." The two nodded, taking one of the kunais that Kakashi had thrown right on the floor.
Kakashi looked at Naruto and made his way towards him. "So you're one of the last few Uchihas, huh?" Naruto nodded in a very silent manner.
"Yes. Nothing special."
Kakashi chuckled lightly at the last 2 words that came out of Naruto's mouth. "Nothing special, huh? You sure a lot more humbler than Satsuki." Naruto nodded, agreeing at that statement.
"How did she take it?"
"Take what?"
"That you're an Uchiha." Naruto formed a small 'O' with his mouth, now realizing what Kakashi was asking him. He just shrugged, not knowing what to say.
"We talked just a few meters away from here. Uhh. . . she said something about how I should have told her and that I should've trusted her more to keep a secret." Kakashi nodded, standing right beside Naruto.
"Why didn't you tell her?" Naruto sighed, shrugging once more. Satsuki had asked something similar along these lines earlier. He just didn't know why.
"I don't know. I guess I never really thought of the possibility of my cover being blown and all that jazz. I managed to keep it a secret for 6 years — almost 7. I used the Sharingan many times when i was in the academy and outside of the academy. I just guess I didn't want all the attention." Kakashi slight raised an eyebrow from his lone eyes.
"Attention?"
"Something similar to Satsuki. Where people just praise her; I don't want that. I didn't want to have the burden of being an Uchiha that is always under the spotlight." Naruto looked up slightly up into the sky.
"Though my personality is much more unlikable than Satsuki. Before I came to this village because of the Pervy Sage, I was alway level-headed and not prone to acting on my feelings. Somehow that changed as I grew up in Konoha."
"Pervy Sage?" Questioned Kakashi, not knowing who this person was.
"Oh, it's Jiraiya." Kakashi nodded, understanding what he meant now. Though it wasn't very surprising that Jiraiya was called 'Pervy Sage' by a kid. A super pervert indeed.
"I did it!" They suddenly heard someone yell from up above. They shot their heads up, wondering who it was. Their eyes traveled up the two trees and saw Sakura on top of the tree, celebrating her achievement.
As expected. Her chakra control is much better than Satsuki's due to having less amount of chakra. Kakashi thought, looking down towards Satsuki. He saw her gritting her teeth with frustration.
Kakashi looked back at Naruto.
"Can you take care of Satsuki? I'll have to get Sakura out of here before Satsuki loses her mind."
"You make it sound like I'm a babysitter." Kakashi eye-smiled at Naruto, slightly chuckling at those words. "It's because I am. Cya." Naruto sighed, nodding his head as he saw Kakashi take Sakura away to the bridge.
Naruto looked at Satsuki.
~~~
It's been another few hours or two since then and Satsuki was getting angry and angry by the second. She fell down right back at the ground.
She laid down, panting due to her being tired.
"You give up?" Naruto asked, his head appearing right on top of hers with a blank stare. Satsuki widened her eyes, startled at the sudden move that Naruto had just done.
"You're seeing me upside down."
"Tch, shut up." Satsuki sat right up while panting at a continuous rate. She looked right back at Naruto. He was just blankly staring right back Naruto with a glare.
"When?"
"What do you mean?"
"When did you learn this tree climbing exercise?" Satsuki clarified, wanting to know how long Naruto has been hiding such a fact from her. Naruto didn't answer for a moment or two.
"7 years. I learned it when I was 5." Satsuki formed a slight pout with her lips as she learned of this bit of information.
"You're just like my brother."
"I get that a lot. Though I do wonder why? Do you know." Satsuki looked away, nodding her head with a slight grunting at him with some annoyance being directed to him also.
"You act like him. You talk like some ancient philosopher that knows every corner about life. Your prodigious and inhuman abilities as a shinobi. And finally. . . you're an asshole." That last one did pose confusion to Naruto.
"How am I an asshole?"
"Tch. Did you forget? Remember all those times where you refused to train me? Felt like shit. Though I guess it's fine since you're an Uchiha. And you didn't teach me how to climb on trees. Now I'm falling behind." Naruto gained a blank puzzled look on his face once more.
"Trust me, I didn't teach many more things." Satsuki growled at him.
"And you just made the situation worse."
"I really don't care. Though I am sure I am much more blunt and straightforward than your brother." Satsuki nodded, agreeing with that statement.
"Yeah, I can see that. You didn't give me a gift the few days after the massacre. You shit-talked me for a present. Felt like shit."
"I guess you're right." Naruto laid right beside Satsuki. "Give me tips," said Satsuki, suddenly startling Naruto as he looked at dead in the eye.
"For Tree Climbing?" Satsuki nodded at Naruto, answering the question that he had just asked. Naruto thought about it for a moment before answering the said question.
"Just be relax. I saw that you were acting quite tense and angry at your continuous anger. That's really all I have." Satsuki narrowed her eyes slightly, observing Naruto for a moment.
Was he telling the truth? Yes, definitely. No, he was definitely capable of lying. Though Satsuki just believed it because it was a true fact Naruto had given her. Though he noticed that she wasn't doing it.
"Hm? Are you not going to do it?"
"I'll do it later. I have time." Satsuki laid down on the ground. Naruto shrugged and did the same thing as her and laid right on the ground right next to her.
This was not a very unfamiliar thing they had done. The two would usually do this if they train together late at night for an hour or two. They Just kept. . . looking at the moon that shined through the night sky that illuminated the entire Elemental Nations.
Though the two would never admit it, they liked each other's presence. Actually, scratch that — Satsuki would be the only one that would never admit it.
The two ignored everything around them and just focused their eyes right towards the moon that was lighting up the entire Earth with just its presence alone.
"You're a pretty good person once I got to know you." Naruto hummed.
"You too, Satsuki."
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