“Are you alright, Kakashi-sensei?!” Sakura asked, really concerned for him.
Kakashi was lying on a mattress prepared by Tsunami, looking completely exhausted. I continued fanning him, like how he did when I passed out last time.
“No but I will be… in about a week…” Kakashi replied.
“Sharingan is amazing but it puts a lot of strain on the body,” I said. Sasuke smirked a little at what I said.
“But you defeated such a strong ninja. We should be okay for a while.” Tazuna wiped sweat off his forehead. “By the way, who was that boy with the mask?”
“He had the mask of a pursuing ninja from a special squad from Kirigakure’s ANBU,” I explained.
Tazuna had a confused look. “A special squad?”
Again, I took Kakashi’s part. “They are also known as the fire extinguishing unit and their job is to erase any evidence that a ninja was alive. A ninja body will give away the secrets of ninjutsu and chakra of the village it was in, any specific medicine that used on the body, along with various other things. For example, if Kakashi-san dies – no offense, Kakashi-san –, the secret to the Sharingan will be examined and in the worst case scenario, there’s a possibility that his techniques, including the Sharingan, will be stolen. In other words, pursuing ninjas kill exiled ninjas who have abandoned their village, dispose the ninja’s body and stop any secrets of the village from being revealed. They are specialists in the field,” I explained.
Kakashi nodded. “Etsuko’s right. But…” He seemed to be lost in thought.
“What’s wrong, sensei?” Naruto asked.
Kakashi sighed and shook his head. “Of course… the shinobi hunters who manage corpse disposals are supposed to destroy the bodies of those they kill at once, on the spot.”
“So… what your point?” asked Sakura. “That ANBU took the body away…” She thought about what she said. “Oh…”
“Exactly. All he needed to do was bring the head back as proof. Also, the weapon that the boy used to kill Zabuza was questionable,” Kakashi said.
“They were just long needles.” Sasuke’s eyes suddenly widened. “Could it be that –”
I nodded. “That’s it.”
“Yeah, it’s just what you’re thinking,” Kakashi agreed.
Sakura and Naruto looked at us three with a confused look. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Zabuza is still alive,” the Jounin answered in an incredibly calm tone.
“NANI?!” Naruto, Sakura and Tazuna yelled in unison.
“What does that mean?!” Naruto asked.
“But you confirmed that he died!” Tazuna argued.
“You said he had no pulse!” Sakura added.
“I did confirm it,” Kakashi said. “But he was most likely to be in a near-death state. The weapon that the pursuing ninja used has a low fatality rate unless it hits a critical spot. It’s most used in acupuncture healings and such. Pursuing ninjas know the structure of the human body very well. It should be easy for them for them to put a person into a near-death state. First, the ANBU took home the corpse of Zabuza when it was obvious that the body was heavier than him. Second, he used a weapon that has a low fatality rate. From these two points, the goal of that boy was not to kill Zabuza but to help him.”
“Maybe you’re thinking too much,” Tazuna said hopefully.
“No. Once a ninja feels that there’s something weird, he must prepare for it before it’s too late. It’s one of the ninja iron rules,” Kakashi said.
“Sensei, how are we going to prepare for it before it’s too late?” Sakura asked. “You can’t move for a while…”
“I’m going to make all of you go through some training.”
“Not that I doubt you but…” I started. “But how do you know if we will have enough time? Kakashi-san, you know I –”
“Etsuko, you do realize that you, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were the ones that saved me, right?” asked Kakashi. That caused Naruto and Sakura to grin while Sasuke smirked. I gave him a hell-no look. The Jounin ignored me and continued, “You four are growing at a rapid rate. Especially you, Naruto. You’ve grown the most.”
Naruto’s eyes widened.
“But that being said… the skills I’m going to teach you now will be an interim thing only, to tide us over until I recover enough to take over.” Kakashi turned to me and Sakura. “And to ease your worries, girls, once a person has been placed into a near-death trance… it’ll take quite some time before their body returns to its previous state of health and readiness. So we’ll begin training while we’re waiting!”
“This could be fun!” Naruto exclaimed, getting excited.
“It won’t be fun for you,” a child’s voice said from behind us.
We turned around. A boy not older than seven years old stood at the doorframe. He had black hair and eyes and wore dark green shorts, a white t-shirt and a white hat with blue lines.
“Who are you?” Naruto asked.
Tazuna exclaimed, “Inari! Where were you?”
Inari ran towards the old man and embraced him into a hug. “Welcome home, grandpa.”
“Inari, greet our guests properly!” Tsunami scolded. “These are the ninjas that escorted grandpa.”
“It’s okay, right, Inari?” Tazuna asked, patting the child’s hat.
Inari stared at us with a cold expression. He turned to Tsunami.
“But mamma… they are going to die,” Inari stated bluntly in an insulting way.
“What did you say, you brat?!” Naruto yelled, standing up.
“No one can beat up Gato and his men,” Inari said, adding more fuel to the fire.
“Believe it! Listen up. I’m a hero so is Etsuko-chan here and I’m going to become a great ninja known as Hokage. I don’t know who this Gato is but you can’t expect me to be afraid of that!” Naruto yelled, pointing at Inari.
“A hero?” Inari asked, lowering his head. “How stupid. There’s no such thing as a hero.”
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” Naruto clenched his fist and tried to charge towards Inari
I stopped Naruto. “Calm down. He’s just a kid.”
“If you don’t want to die, you should go home.” Inari turned to leave.
“Where are you going, Inari?” Tazuna asked.
Inari slid the door open. “I’ll go watch the ocean.” With that, he left.
Tazuna turned to us. “I’m sorry about him.”
Naruto grunted before leaving the room. He probably went to go talk to Inari.
I looked at Kakashi. “So about our training…”
......................................................................................................................................................
After Kakashi explained a little about training, we had to deal with sleeping arrangements.
So at the moment, I was listening to Sakura bickering with everyone about how she had to sleep in the same room as her precious Sasuke-kun… I slapped my head to get rid of the images forming in my mind.
“Okay, enough.” Kakashi sighed. “Everyone will sleep in the same room, okay?”
Since we were going to sleep in the same room, we were led to a fairly big one. There was a bed in one corner, a window beside it and a closet. We took out sheets, pillows and blankets from the closet and spread them on the floor.
It was decided that the eldest would sleep on the bed and us kids on the floor. The order went like this: (left to right) Kakashi on the bed, Naruto, me, Sasuke then Sakura on the floor. The room wasn’t so big so we were pretty much crammed together.
Kakashi was already sleeping happily, having the bed all to himself.
The rest of us? Not so much.
Sakura was extra happy to be sleeping beside Sasuke and was attempting to hug her crush form behind. Naruto kept mistaking me for a pillow (we were facing each other) and hugging me. I let it be and turned to my right, which happened to be Sasuke.
“Turn to the other side…” I muttered to the Uchiha.
“You turn.”
“Can’t. Naruto’s hugging me from behind and he’s already sleeping.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
“Hn,” he replied but still faced me. I gave up asking and closed my eyes. I heard Sakura gave out a small squeal as she finally managed to hug her crush from behind.
The lights were already off so everyone just had to sleep.
Kakashi and Naruto were snoring quietly. I could feel Naruto’s warm breath on the back on my neck and Sasuke’s cool one near my face. I slightly opened one eye and almost shrieked at the sight. Sasuke was just centimetres away from my face (down, fangirls, down!) and I resisted the urge to punch him in the face. I could see Sakura’s arms wrapped around Sasuke’s waist.
I let out a soft sigh and closed my eyes.