It has been 2 hours.
My arm is numb from the toxin in the dart.
Naruto is carrying me like a bag of potatoes while I try to flush the toxin outta my system.
Apparently, we are being chased by a hoard of angry bees.
Lots of bees or maybe wasps.
I can't cast a futon because of the paralysis and I don't have any toll that can make that much fire.
Naruto made clones to disoriente the bees, but the clones's unwillingness to sacrifice themselves is understandable.
While I'm running out of tools, chakra, and limbs to use, Sakura-san's tactics seem unlimited.
But me and Naruto know this forest like the back of our hands. So, avoiding her traps, even if difficult, is not entirely impossible.
We know when a tree looks wrong, We know the smell is too pungent.
But slowly even that is getting out of hand, as if she is pitting the forest itself against us.
I'm done flushing it out. With quick hand signs, I cast the futon.
The bees scatter.
For a second, there is silence.
We land on a bush and try to breathe.
It seems her plans did not involve me recovering that quickly.
This gives us a chance.
It rained yesterday. So, there is still mud.
"I've got an idea!"I huff as I scan the area.
"Spill," he says.
"We hide in the mud," I say with a sign, not trusting my voice to keep our position hidden.
I feel faint chakra .....then again it's gone.
She....kinda has to breathe now and then. Like.... it's not suppressing... more like stopping.
What's she stopping? I wonder. Chakra flow?
That is just not possible.
Naruto grimaced at the idea.
Bit agrees.
We cover ourselves in mud and hide deep underneath it.
And we stop breathing.
Not completely but somewhat reduced.
We focus our chakra around our jugular, which causes congestion in the upper region. Causing a reflex to occur, where the heart pump is reduced. So we need less air.
As long as we maintain the congestion, the heart will beat slowly.
The blood flow decreases.
The body temperature drops.
It's risky, though. In Naruto's case, the Kuyubi chakra heals any cellular damage or corrects ischaemia.
In my case, I just control my chakra well enough to not overdo it.
It has been 2 more hours.
I feel a flicker.
I see her.
Standing along a tree trunk.
Like a predator.
She doesn't dare to touch the ground.
Sakura knows we are here....but can't pinpoint us.
Scanning for any traps, she relaxes a bit.
Cause there are actually no traps.
Jumping down on the ground, she splatters the mud on herself accidentally.
"Ohh!!!" and a click of the tongue.
With a handkerchief, she wipes the mud off her tights on her thighs.
Is she the real one? A clone? An illusion?
I can't run my Sharingan in this state. So, there's no way to tell.
Naruto is twitching. I guess he is itchy.
He will give our position away.
The winds flatter the leaves, and a bit of red sunlight seeps through.
The light goes through Sakura, not making a shadow.
Not the real Sakura.
I hear a sigh.
And a "thump."
Sakura is right on top of us.
"Did they leave me here?" she wonders to herself.
She scratched the back of her head. Weirdly looking at her kunai. Feeling awkward.
"I....should've gone easy on them," she speaks out loud.
"This always happens," she throws the kunai away. It just carelessly flops away.
A massive killing intent spikes up.
It's so big, I feel nauseous. Naruto stops twitching.
Then, just like always it's gone.
There stands a sobbing Sakura kneeling on mud holding her elbow.
What she? A kid? Bullied kid?
Did they leave her while hide and seek?
That's....the worst thing someone can do to a kid.
She is supposed to be the strong scary one san.
Still.....she took advantage of Naruto to win.
I will too.
I hope this is not a trap.
Signalling Naruto I prepare my axe.
I slowly rise from the mud in front of her.
Naruto behind.
The axe....at first thought of holding it against her throat.
But the mood is sour now.
So I just extend my hand, hoping it won't be cut off.
It didn't get cut off.
Moving her locks away I look at her green eyes.
Sad.
Then she looks at me.
"Kiiiiyaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!" Sakura screams.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!", Naruto screams.
"Iiiiyaaaaaaaaa", I scream.
We were still covered in mud.
Sakura crawls away and I choke on the mud.
Naruto wipes his face and tries to calm Sakura down.
Shit....aghh!haaaaagh!!!!
I can't breathe.
My eyes are dark. My ear is ringing.
The mud is clogging my throat.
Sakura notices it and rushes towards me.
Holding me up in her arms.
I will die.
I'm gonna die.
My eyes are bulging out.
Oh my god...I don't wanna die...not like this.
"Sasuke kun!!!!", she sceams.
"Oi!!! Hang in there man....!!", Naruto screams.
Then suddenly Sakura is shoved away.
A larger man holds me from behind and compresses my stomach violently.
With a "bleh" the chunk comes out.
I flop down completely, but the man holds my body gently.
I try to look at the guy who saved my life.
"Kakashi sensei!", I blurt with a wide smile, I'm high. Him with his upturned-eye smile.
Sakura has a red face and Naruto is hyperventilating.
I prop myself up and try to straighten my back.
"Okay...guys... I'm okay", I say.
With a last cough, I say," Sorry for the trouble".
"Man....we thought you were gonna die!", naruto huffed.
" it will take more than that to kill me,ei?", I say with a wide smile.
Sakura sighs in relief.
Then an angry scowl appeared on her brows.
" someone's awfully late" " she says at Kakashi sensei.
"Maa....I was lost ...."
"In the way of life....!", I finish his sentence with my eyes closed, pointing at the book tugged in his pocket.
Kakashi looks at me wide-eyed.
"That's what Icha said to Taku in chapter 7", I say with a proud smile.
Kakashi then remembers the scene that followed the said line.
Me too.
"He he he he he he ....", A slow laugh starts to achoo in the forest.
Kakashi and I laugh with red faces.
Naruto faces plans.
Sakura just looks at us confused.
I see Kakashi has stopped laughing and is now looking at me.
"As much I don't appreciate, 12-year-old kids memorising adult content, I can't help but praise your efforts today. It was a great job doing those tasks quickly. You did missions that take a regular genin whole day, within 4 to 5 hours", he says.
"So..so...do we get to do something bigger? We proved ourselves, right? Give us tougher missions", Says an excited Naruto.
I grimace at the thought.
But the look on Sakura's face says she agrees with him.
What the heck?
"So we will be doing double the amount of missions!', Says a smiling Kakashi.
Naruto rolls his eyes.
I sigh in relief. Sakura has a furrowed eyebrows.
"What? Sasuke? Don't you feel disappointed as your teammates?", He says with eyes narrowed.
What? Was I that obvious?
"Wha.....what? Yes ....Ehm...sensei I am very angry at the current circumstances...", I cross my arms and stomp my feet on the ground.
Sakura has narrow eyes.
A confused Naruto looks at Sakura first, then looks at me eyes narrowed.
With a huff, I break the act.
"Well....sensei....not gonna lie....I just wanna get as much as we can of THIS . It's not like I don't want a cool c rank. But....."
I reflexively look at the ground.
"Once we are out there, there is no way of coming back", I say.
"Or maybe you are just a pussy!", Naruto scoffs.
I go red.
"Ideat...who you calling pussy? Huh? Don't push yar luck ass, I will send ya to Jesus!", I angrily say.
Sakura keeps us separated.
"Don't worry, I will protect you Sasuke Kun!", Says a smiling Sakura.
The statement takes a bit to register in my mind.
I feel a blush coming to my face. I hide my face away.
"Oh...! I will protect you then...Sakura-chan", Says Naruto with a grin.
Sakura looks at me.
I look away. Oh! I feel like a maiden in distress.
With a smile that stretched wide was forced on my mouth.
Kinda like "Shin Chan"
"I will be in your care Sakura Chan!", I say with my index fingers touching while wiggling.
Naruto cringes.
"All right! I will see what I can do!", Says Kakashi.
What? ... ha!
"You guys seem ready enough to me, I will go talk to Hokage about that", he says in response to my face.
"But you do need at least 30 D rank record. so better get to it", Says Kakashi.
Naruto regains his grin at Kakashi's state.
"Don't you wanna train us? Like before I go and venture?", I say with a deadpan.
"Oh..what do you wish to learn?", he asks.
.. .. .. .. ..
I....don't know...I have no idea.
"Exactly! So...do those D's, then we will talk", he vanishes into whirls of leaves.
"Do the D's", Naruto repeats.
"Yeah, the D's", I repeat.
"What part of D am I not understanding here, boys?", asks a confused Sakura.
Oh!....sometimes I forget, we have a lass in our team now. Naruto sighs.
I guess he is getting tired of playing the straight man.
"Just embrace it man!", I say to Naruto.
He shakes his head. The guy is tough.
"What!!!!???", asks an even more confused Sakura.
Her scream echoes in the woods.
It's time we head home.
######
It's evening, I light a candle, and say my prayers to the dead.
It takes 3 minutes to recite all their names.
Such a long list.
Make dinner, eat, wash dishes.
I whip out the old guitar.
Play a tune. It hurts my hand a bit.
Sakura really played rough today.
The mosquitos bite here and there. It's annoying, yet I'm so thankful for it.
The bites mean that I'm alive, that it's not some bad dream that I can't get up from.
Mom, Dad.
I .....starting to forget their faces.
There are pictures in the offering shrine, but...I can remember how she smiled.
Can't remember how she smiled when she laughed.
For the love of God, I can't remember.
I wish I had Sharingan then, I could record it all in my mind.
Obito, Danzo, Madara, Itachi, Jetsu,
Daidara, Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzo, Pein, Orochimaru.
A long loss of names.
The room is riddled with seals, scrolls, papers and ink.
Didn't have time to clean up.
I touch a string, and do a c sharp.
A seal glows bright red.
Do a another.
Another seal shines bright blue.
It works at least. Seals that activate to specific sounds.
"Verrreennnn!", I stroked the guitar.
The room flashes in the rainbow.
This is fun.
All fun and games aside.
My testing with seals isn't going well.
For the most part, I know the basics.
How it works, how it can be made and how can I make money with it.
But, there is a part of it....that is well out of my reach.
Most of the just in the forbidden scroll require a seal.
For example, the edo tensai or flying raigin, reaper death seal, strength of a hundred seal, or cursed seal of heaven and earth.
They all are the most OP jutsu and require seals and loads of chakra.
It's like.....they are over-engineered versions of something.....like my drying jutsu.
I can't put my finger on it.
These are ...imitations? I don't know.
But I'm not smart enough to figure it out....but Minato Namikage did. He cracked the Flying Rain that the lord 2nd made and used it to kill thousands of battle-hardened shinobi. A seal that even its creator couldn't master.
I look at the seal written on the floor.
It's the Reaper death seal.
A seal that can call forth the shinigami herself, at the cost of caster's life.
But Lord 3rd, used it 3 fucking times.
How did he do it?
Minato also used it two times?
Then how the heck did he install part of his and Kushina's soul in the seal, if that's the price you pay to call the fucking shinigami?
The problem is that the shinigami is like a grasshopper. Which eats the heads off of whoever she mates with.
In this, case she opens her belly open.
The "forever maiden Shinigami, the possessive being shall keep hold of your inner soul for eternity", is what the scroll says.
It's a contract. More like a marriage contract.
Where we marry the Shinigami.
The recitations and hand signs involved indicate a striking similarity to it.
I ... I have to figure it out.
I have to do something.
I almost died, choking from a fucking mud.
I could've easily flushed it out. A solid self-punch to my chest would've done the job.
Yet a part of me just....wanted to let go.
I'm scared.
So scared.
I can't protect them. Naurto , Sakura, The villaige.
Maybe... it's not the soul that's involved?
Is the soul a chakra?
"Breath! Mother fucker! Breath!", I order myself.
These are not topics I can just figure out by sitting around on a tatami mat.
"Ha!" I sigh.
I smell wet soil.
It's raining.
That time of the year.
There sky roars and small lighting keeps on striking. The wind seems a bit strong.
I run out and get all the chickens inside the house.
When I brought them here I made a makeshift shed for them to stay.
It won't hold.
The chickens panicked and jumped around here and there.
Then they settled down. The chicks cuddled with their mother.
These jutsu, most of them are made by Lord 2nd.
But I'm inclined to think otherwise.
Light bulbs were invented long before Tomas Alva Eddison. We got light bulbs, cause he wasn't burned to a stake.
The room gets cold and cosy.
"Should I offer myself to Orochimaru, like the Canon?", I wondered.
That's not an option I wish to explore.
I'm afraid.
Why do I have to be afraid?
I'm afraid because I'm willing to sacrifice myself, to protect.
But, that won't be enough. I close my eyes.
"Should I start making guns?"
I ask myself.
"It would ruin it", I state.
"Ruin what?", I ask myself.
"The world?", I answer the question myself.
"You really wanna put gun and ninja in the same line", I ask myself again.
I close my eyes.
"If I must".
But that's definitely an option I would like to explore.
If I don't follow canon, I will make cannons.
Should I give up on seals though?
I take one last look at the seal on the floor.
.....
Maybe I won't.
########
I look at the clouds while I cut down weeds with the sun.
I hear an army of Naruto going through the weed like butter.
Sakura is beside me, sitting there watching me work.
The lawn is done.
Then we move to the roof to scrub out the pipe blockages.
After that, in the evening it babysitting time.
We go to the requested house.
Sakura plays with the baby, I cook, and Naruto does laundry.
"Sasuke kun?", I hear a panicked Sakura.
Rushing with first aid. A confused baby sits on the counter.
My egg fizzled and the hot oil splattered on my hand.
A nasty burn.
I.....I didn't feel anything.
Sakura turns off the stove and pulls my hand away to disinfect.
Naruto comes in and holds the baby.
We are done with babysitting at night.
After giving the short mission report to the mission desk, we leave for the day.
#####
"What's wrong?", asks Sakura. We are at Ichiraku.
I raise my eyebrows.
"Nothing? Why do you ask?", I ask in return.
Naruto slurps on ramen.
It has been 3 weeks. We are almost done with our quota D ranks.
I play around with the ramen.
"You've been like....not yourself recently", she explains.
My eyebrows remain raised.
I believe that I gained focus in the past few days.
"It's just that Sakura-san...I've been thinking that I am not strong enough", I say frankly.
"Of course you aren't", she says.
What?....that was quite a flip.
"We are still genin and we have been genin for like 3 weeks now", she says to my wide eyes.
I chuckle.
"Sakura you sparred with us, do you ever fall for the same trick that I pull twice", I ask.
"Well....that depends on what that trick is, how it's....", Sakura tries to be humble.
"She doesn't ", Naruto answers my question.
I hide my face with my hands.
"All I do is party tricks, Sakura-san....how can I be a proper ninja with it .....", I whine.
Sakura looks at me in disbelief.
I see a bit of an annoyance there.
"Let him be....this guy gets like this once or twice around months", naruto says with a deadpan look.
"Shut up, you....stupid whisker ....guy....", I drop my head on the counter.
"That's not it ....is it? Sasuke kun?", Sakura asks.
I flip to the other side.
In the past few days, that we spent.....we just trained on our own, with whatever time we had left after speed running through the missions.
Kakashi shows up 3 hours late and leaves 2 hours early.
I feel like a neglected child. The whole team feels like a neglected child. But I can't say that out loud.
Will make me sound like dick more than I already am.
"Yo....!", I hear Kakashi.
"You are late", Naruto states the obvious.
"Do you have a C rank for us now that we are done with D ranks", Says Sakura.....didn't take her for the eager bunch.
Kakashi then looks at me.
"Don't YOU wanna say something?", his face says.
I defensively raise my hands.
"I just wanna hear what excuse you have for today", I say with raised eyebrows and duck lips.
"Oh...today my plant died. So, I was late mourning", Kakashi states.
What.....that's....sad actually.
"I'm sorry for your loss, sensei", I say sincerely.
"Yeah....it feels horrible. I was sad when my bazol plant died", Naruto states.
"Yeah....that tree made the freshest bazols I ever ate. God just takes the good things away first, right sensei?", I say with a sigh.
"I don't believe in Gods", he says.
"But yeah...I guess good things last short", he says with his upturned-eye smile.
Sakura sighs. I guess she is playing the straight man today. Or, woman. Or....is she agreeing with us?
We are doomed. Comedy without a straight man, is like a lady without an eye.
Or, cheesecake without the cheese.
"Okay, kids. We have a C rank, follow me!"