Chapter the Twelfth.

“So how do you plan to make signs with only one hand?” Jiraiya drawled, gingerly rubbing the bump on his head – earned by peeking when Kizuna arrived.

“You can too make signs with one hand,” Kizuna protested. “I saw a guy do it.” Well, actually, Sasuke saw and told her, but whatever.

“Yeah, but do you know how?” Jiraiya shot back.

“You can’t teach me?” Kizuna taunted.

“I only agreed to one technique.”

‘Cheapskate,’ Kizuna thought. “Well, can’t I do it without signs, like Kawarimi (replacement) or Henge (transform)?”

“Are you that advanced?” Jiraiya asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Are you gonna teach me or not?” Kizuna demanded, losing her patience.

Jiraiya waved her temper off. “Fine, fine. So what’s your affinity?” All he got was a blank look. Sighing, he pulled out a piece of paper and held it out to her. “Alright. There’s five elements, and if I’m going to teach you an elemental technique, I might as well teach you the element you’ve got a predisposition for.”

“It split in half,” Kizuna declared flatly.

“Wind,” Jiraiya nodded to himself, having expected this outcome and already mentally running through his (impressive) Fuuton repertoire.

“Well, that’s alright, I guess,” Kizuna said reluctantly. “But I kinda wanted water or earth…”

Jiraiya stared at her for a moment. “For offense, wind is the best element,” he pointed out. “Why water or earth? Fire, I could see…”

Kizuna shrugged. “Fire, and lightning too I guess, is a kind of energy, so you’d change the, uh, nature of your chakra into it, but I want to learn how to put my chakra into an element. So water or earth. It’s kinda… research.”

Jiraiya nodded slowly. “Well, it’s not that simple, but we’ll go with that. Wind is the same. Most techniques will use the air that’s already around you, instead of, say, water, where you might have to create your own. Wind is strong against lightning, but bad against fire, since it’ll only strengthen it. Though it combines well if your allies use a fire jutsu in tandem.”

Kizuna nodded, her expression attentive, making Jiraiya cough into a fist. He’d forgotten what it was like to teach and be the focus of some young, malleable mind’s attention, having them absorb every word. “Well, anyway, we’ll set the goal at Fuuton: Kazekiri (Wind Release: Wind Cutter)… but you’re going to need the basics first.”

“Alright, that’s enough for today,” Kurenai decided, gesturing to her students. Nodding to the others, Shino left quickly – probably to continue training on his own or with his clan.

Giving Touka a faint smile, Kurenai asked, “Going to the hospital?”

Touka nodded, returning her smile for the first time since the results of the Chuunin Exam’s preliminary third round became known. Having the normally pleasant boy so morose had been very disconcerting, and Kurenai was glad her “apprentice” was feeling better.

“Ino-chan woke up yesterday,” he said.

“That’s good,” Kurenai replied honestly.

Touka half-bowed, his smile turning apologetic. “I’m sorry I’ve been missing our usual genjutsu training. I’ll make up for it, sensei.”

“It’s alright, I understand,” Kurenai assured him. “Having a friend injured is always difficult. And no one really expects to get much done before the exam ends.”

“Yes,” Touka agreed, his smile somehow menacing.

Sure, Ino had woken up. But Ino was his first and closest friend. Touka would never forget the tiny blonde girl who had ruffled his hair and said she thought the color was perfect. He would never forget the willful kunoichi in training who had declared his pleasant, perpetual smile annoying.

If he was angry, he should be angry, she said. Always be yourself, because your self will always be worth more than a pale imitation – whether an imitation of a saint or a devil.

And Touka was spectacularly angry.

Sharingan or not, genius or not, Touka was going to make Uchiha very sorry. Genjutsu specialists were especially vicious, after all.

“You’re planning something nasty, aren’t you?” Ino said flatly, eyeing him from where she was propped up against several pillows. “You’re not going to try to get revenge on Sasuke-kun, are you?”

Touka positively beamed.

Ino sighed. “Don’t get so angry on my behalf. You really like Sasuke-kun, and I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret because of me.”

“It’s not that I like Uchiha-kun,” Touka said. “I just thought… we’re kind of alike. People always see whatever they want when they look at us, but they don’t know what we’re really like. So in that sense…” He frowned. “But no matter what I think of Uchiha, I can’t forgive him for hurting you.”

Ino sighed again. “Don’t be so hard on him. I don’t think Sasuke-kun wanted to hurt me. But he’s connected to something… there’s something in Sasuke-kun that’s not Sasuke-kun, and it’s… evil.”

Touka’s smile slipped into a thoughtful look.

“Ino-pig woke up? That’s good. I’m glad,” Kizuna said, giving Hinata a sunny smile.

Hinata returned the smile tentatively. “How is your training?”

Kizuna scowled. “Che. That pervert just ran off and left me here!” She was crouched on top of a still shallow at the edged of a narrow river, holding a leaf in between her palms. Angrily, she brandished the greenery at Hinata. “Cutting leaves! Can you believe it? To learn to use wind techniques, I need to cut a leaf! A leaf! It’s barely frayed!”

“Um…” Looking up, she met Hinata’s activated Byakugan. “Maybe ... you should try it another way,” the Hyuuga suggested. “I mean, Kizna-kun, you’re n-not very good at delicate things…” Kizuna gave Hinata an encouraging smile as she momentarily trailed off. “S-so maybe it’d be better to do it Kizuna’s way – like, um, we did with the trees.”

“O~h,” Kizuna drew out, brightening.

“Trees” was their short hand for the incredible fiasco of Hinata teaching Kizuna to mold chakra… Kizuna being Kizuna, this included destroying a lot of trees.

(Well, more accurately, Hinata hadn't really known how to explain molding chakra, but she couldn't work up the courage to tell the loud blonde cheery girl that. Instead, she'd tried to explain how she’d learned, which was through Jyuuken... It was kind of the same, right? You just expelled pure chakra from your hands, and it was like molding, really. There hadn't been any people to practice on, so they'd stuck to hitting trees... which Kizuna at first managed to crack so extensively that they collapsed. Of course, being impaled by pieces of wood and hit by falling branches had been good motivation to learn control. Overall, both Kizuna and Hinata saw this as a great teaching success.)

"Heeyy, that's a good idea," Kizuna agreed, warming up to the plan, of sorts. Thinking for a moment, she stuck the tip of her leaf in her mouth and pulled out a kunai. As Hinata gasped and tried to form a protest, Kizuna hooked the edge of the blade under her cast and roughly sawed through it. Pulling off the remains, she swung her arm around carefully.

Beaming, she made a thumbs-up at Hinata, who could only let out a shaky breath.

Kizuna threw the leaf into the air and drew back both hands, gathering her chakra. As she clapped her palms together, she released everything she’d accumulated in one go, chanting to herself, “Cut, cut, cut.”

Focusing too much on her technique, Kizuna lost concentration and dropped into the water.

Well, the leaf didn’t… really get cut. More like, it was torn apart, leaving a kind of thready paste between her palms. Releasing it, Kizuna winced. Her hands burned, as if she’d ground them over a rock or something. It was kind of like rope burn, actually.

‘It must the friction from too much chakra,’ Kizuna realized.

Shaking her hands, she waded out onto the shore and sighed. "Okay, that's a start," she decided. "Wind’s supposed to be all sharp and cutting, but I guess I’ll just have to work on that...”

“Is this really okay?” Hinata wondered.

Kizuna picked up another leaf. “Sure it is. I’m even healed already.” Now she just had to get it more focused. And preferably not affecting herself. It would take a while.

At the half way mark of the month, Tsume told Kiba to take a day off and all but kicked him out of the house. She probably expected him to loaf off somewhere or just go to sleep in a tree. And normally, she’d be right.

But Kiba felt that, in one sense, he’d gained a better understanding of his teammates since the Chuunin Exam. Now, he understood their obsessive dedication to getting stronger.

Now, Kiba was a dedicated shinobi, so instead of wasting the day away, he went to check on his teammate… and pump her for info.

His first opponent would be Neji. It would be too much to hope that Sasuke would agree to trade slots with him, so if Kiba wanted to avenge Kizuna, he’d have to go through the Hyuuga first. And Neji was no push over.

“Hyuuga fighting?” Kizuna mused. “Eh, they’re mostly close-combat with their special Juuken, Gentle Fist, style. It, uh, uses the Byakugan to see the special weak spots in your body and hit them precisely. They force chakra out of their hands to do internal damage…”

Kiba nodded. “Yeah, I saw in his fight with Lee. He’s fast and pretty strong. But I’m more worried about this move he did… He spun around really fast to make this chakra shield, kinda.”

And it was a really strong move too. It had knocked away Lee, even when he used his Lotus technique, though just barely.

Kizuna didn’t reply right away, instead picking up another leaf, tossing it in the air, then clapping her hands over it. Grimacing faintly, she opened her palms and let the pieces fall down. She was getting something like cuts now (which also, incidentally, bit into her palms), but they were like a dull knife and not always all the way through the leaf.

“Um, yeah. I saw it once…” Kizuna’s expression made it pretty clear she’d done something improper to cause the demonstration. Probably, it had involved the Hyuuga clan and sharp, pointed things, or maybe paint, or eggs. “It’s a kinda ultimate defense move. They release charka from all over their body and spin to give it momentum, so it can knock stuff away. The spinning part’s important, I think…”

‘Spinning chakra,’ Kiba thought to himself. ‘That’s kind of like Tsuuga, but in one place…’

“You’re just going to leave?” Kiba demanded, baring his teeth. “Kizuna still hasn’t woken up!”

Sasuke turned away, shrugging one shoulder. “I need to get stronger. I don’t have time to waste.”

Kiba stared at him for a moment before scowling fiercely. “You think Kizuna’s weak! She’s not!”

He hadn’t really been thinking that. Or maybe he had been. Sasuke wasn’t sure what he thought about Kizuna’s defeat, but he knew that the one who beat her would be his opponent, and he needed to get stronger, especially with the Cursed Seal constantly interfering.

“Kizuna’s not weak!” Kiba pressed on hotly. “She might have lost, but she won’t lose a second time! She’ll get stronger and stronger! She’ll never give up!”

“Never give up,” Sasuke repeated to himself as he launched into another taijutsu sequence. Kakashi had left him to his own devices, promising to return later to continue teaching Sasuke his prize assassination technique, but for now, Sasuke had a few hours of solitude… which he, of course, used to train.

Suddenly, a wave of killing intent washed over the area, making Sasuke freeze for a moment. Regaining his senses, he spun around to face his opponent and came face to face with Gaara. The two locked stares and stood at an impasse.

“Uchiha Sasuke,” Gaara said slowly. “You are my prey. Fight me.”

Sasuke scowled, but the expression made him think of his teammates. “Contestants aren’t allowed to fight before the third exam,” he replied. “We’ll be disqualified.”

“I don’t care,” Gaara declared. “You are my prey. Fight me.”

“Why are you so fixated on me?” Sasuke asked instead. “Go fight someone else.”

Gaara’s flat gaze didn’t waver. “No. You… you felt the same hate and betrayal as I have. Your hate… makes you a strong opponent. Now, show me the power of your hate and pain.”

Although he tried to keep his face expressionless, Sasuke couldn’t help shuddering a little at Gaara’s words. Betrayal, hate, power – it was all too familiar. Shaking his head, Sasuke began to back away slowly. “No,” he bit out. “I’ll fight you in a week, but until then, I don’t want to see your face again.”

The two sank into silence for several long moments before Gaara’s eyes narrowed a little and he asked, “Are you scared?” The tone wasn’t quite mocking but the question still made Sasuke’s fists clench in agitation. His glare made Gaara shift a little, though he couldn’t be sure in what emption if any. “You are not afraid. That girl wasn’t afraid either.”

It took Sasuke a moment to realize that Gaara meant his teammate. He snorted. “Of course not. Kizuna isn’t a coward. She never backs down.”

“She hit me. But she was still weak. We were interrupted, but I will kill her soon,” Gaara said, his eyes narrowing again.

Glaring, Sasuke bit out, “You won’t. And she’s not. Kizuna won’t lose a second time. …And it doesn’t matter. Because I’ll beat you myself.” Meeting Gaara’s flat, emotionless gaze, Sasuke declared, “You’ll never get near my teammate again.”

Gaara considered him silently for several long moments, the tension building and building. “I will kill you,” he finally pronounced. “We will fight in one week, and I will kill. But first…” Turning, Gaara began to walk away, “I will kill your weak teammate.”

Sasuke’s world seemed to freeze and shudder, a million thoughts crashing through his mind. I’ll kill them first and you can’t stop me… and then I’ll come for you. What a familiar thought and promise. Yes, he’d heard that before, hadn’t he? He’d lost everyone because he’d been weak, he hadn’t even had a chance to save them. And now this freak was promising the same, all over again.

There’s no way.

Before he knew what was happening, Sasuke found himself rushing Gaara, his hand full of chakra, the wild chirping of a thousand birds in the air.

Gaara turned back, his sand rising automatically, but Sasuke’s Chidori plowed through his “ultimate” shield and straight into his shoulder. Time seemed to pause, and Sasuke realized his hand was wet, and warm.

Gaara shrieked, a high-pitched, inhuman sound. It drove a flash of adrenaline through Sasuke, forcing his suddenly-tired body to move as the sand went berserk, shooting up in spikes every which way. His Sharingan was a struggle to maintain, even the single Chidori living him exhausted, but Sasuke didn’t dare for a moment to let his blood-limit flicker out. It was the only thing keeping him from death.

All his attention was focused on keeping away from the sand, so Sasuke completely missed Kakashi’s arrival until the jounin wrapped an arm around his middle and pulled him out of the fray. Mixed with a surge of gratitude was a pang of frustration as Sasuke noticed that his teacher had no trouble keeping ahead of Gaara’s attacks.

“Blood! I’m bleeding! Mother! Mother!” Gaara screamed behind them. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

“It doesn’t seem like he’ll calm down easily,” Kakashi noted quietly. “It’ll be best to just get out of here.”

With a brief surge of chakra, he created several clones, each one holding a “Sasuke” and each one racing off in a different direction. Still disoriented by the pain, Gaara didn’t even seem capable of pursuing one, much less all of them, leaving Kakashi and Sasuke free to race away more or less unscathed.

It was a long time before Kakashi put him down again, when they reached the tree line of Konoha’s forest.

“What were you doing?” Kakashi demanded shortly. “You know you’re forbidden to fight.”

He was going to take everyone away again, some part of Sasuke thought.

But there was no way he’d say that. The thought, and his confused feelings, were buried away and Sasuke only glared. “He was going to kill me,” Sasuke said flatly. Let Kakashi interpret that as he would.

Kakashi’s single eye was serious and angry, and for a moment, Sasuke wondered if the jounin saw right through his deception – or if maybe Kakashi had been watching the entire time. “This isn’t over,” he threatened. “We’re returning to Konoha until the third round. And you better stay out of trouble this time.”

Wind Release: Wind Cutter (Fūton: Kazekiri) – A large slicing wind which can cut through the opponent. This can be used to immobilize large summons. Used by an unnamed ANBU against Pain (~spoiler?)

Short chapter this time~