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o o o RED BLOSSOM o o o

o o Chapter 4: The Crossing of Swords and Seas o o

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

At first the three Genin merely stared at one another, each one's gaze darting between his or her two potential opponents. Then Sasuke and Naruto locked eyes with each other, and the previous tense mood returned. A slow grin spread across Naruto's face.

"Hee hee," he chuckled ominously.

Sasuke was smiling, too, although it was a smile that implied he was feeling inclined to mix a little murder in with his training.

The two boys rushed at each other, each one leveling his boken at the other's chest.

At that moment Shikyo burst into the courtyard, flinging aside the sliding doors with a loud bang. In a flash he had leaped off the wooden terrace and into the long grass, positioning himself between the two charging Genin and stopping their boken with either hand. He surveyed the area with sharp blue eyes, taking stock of the situation, and then his gaze turned upward as he noticed Kakashi seated on the roof.

"Kakashi-san!" he called out. "They have---"

"Oh, I know," Kakashi interrupted, vaguely gesturing the matter aside. "But they're about to beat each other senseless. Come watch."

Wearing an expression of acute disapproval, the Rain ninja cleared the space between ground and rooftop in one bound. He seated himself cross-legged beside the white-haired Jounin, folding his arms across his chest and looking displeased.

"This will not help their training," he remarked, frowning down at the Genin on the grass below. "At any rate they require discipline . . ."

"Well, then let's make this even more fun," Kakashi suggested, raising one hand to his chin. His three subordinates peered up at him with great misgivings; there was a familiar ominous gleam in one eye, very much like one he'd worn at the end of the bell test he'd once given them. "How about . . . The last one standing gets to go to bed. The other two get to keep practicing boken exercises with meuntil you either pass out or I get bored." He paused, producing the sequel edition of Icha Icha Paradise from a pocket in his vest. "And believe me," he added, in sepulchral tones, "I will not be bored."

His three students gaped up at him in abject horror. Shikyo stared down at the book in the Jounin's hand with one eyebrow raised; Kakashi's affinity for novels of questionable nature had obviously not been mentioned in the dossiers.

'He's---he's using this to punish us!' Sakura thought, shutting her mouth and swallowing hard.

Sasuke's jaw clenched, as did his hands around the hilt of his boken. Naruto, in the meantime, pointed a finger up at Kakashi as realization hit him.

"Ero-sennin's book just came out!" he exclaimed loudly. "All hell broke loose in Konoha, and he still managed to publish that dirty stuff?"

" 'Ero-sennin'?" Kakashi murmured, scratching his head in bemusement.

In the garden below, Naruto's two fellow Genin had no idea what he was hollering about, and neither did they care. Slowly, their heads swiveled his way, their eyes full of Death.

'That Naruto . . .' Sasuke thought darkly. 'This is . . .'

'His fault . . .' Sakura finished the thought.

Naruto was lying prone on the ground before he even knew what hit him. It didn't take him long to figure out, however, because no sooner did he manage to roll over onto his back to see what had befallen him than his teammates moved in for the kill. Sasuke's first blow had caught him directly in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. Sakura's had caught him from behind, jabbing the vulnerable soft spot at the base of his skull and temporarily causing his vision to go dark.

"He'still moving!" Sakura exclaimed, jabbing the downed Genin in the gut with the tip of her boken. "Just pass out already!"

"Ow!" Naruto wheezed, rolling swiftly to one side just in time to avoid being pummeled in the head by Sasuke's blade stabbing downward. The dark-haired Genin's blow was so forceful that the weapon sank a good two inches into the damp earth beside its target.

Naruto rolled and sprang onto his feet, shaking his head to clear the stars currently orbiting it. Fortunately, his hand still maintained a death-grip on his boken, because by instinct alone he managed to raise it in time to block another blow from Sakura, aimed for his stomach. As Sasuke suddenly lunged toward him from behind, Naruto aimed a vicious kick in his direction, which Sasuke arrested with one hand just in the nick of time. The Sharingan, now wheeling red in Sasuke's eyes, had given him the foresight needed to stop Naruto's foot from connecting with his mid-section.

'That's right,' Sasuke thought, clenching his teeth. 'Kakashi never told us no taijutsu . . .'

With his left hand he chopped downward with his boken, aiming for the nerve in the back of Naruto's knee which, if struck properly, would cause Naruto's entire right leg to go completely numb and useless. The blow connected. However, at the same time Naruto ducked into an awkward sort of somersault, planting one hand on the ground and arcing his boken around in a circle aimed for Sasuke's ankles. With lightning speed, Sasuke pushed off from the ground, avoiding the blow. He was still clutching Naruto's foot, so that he dragged Naruto with him. A good ten feet up in the air, Sasuke flipped the practice sword in his hand so that his fist gripped its hilt while its wooden blade pointed earthward. As Naruto attempted to somersault mid-air to bring himself upright, Sasuke stabbed downward.

The blow caught Naruto directly in the throat. His jaw clicked shut and his head snapped back with the force of it. Together they plummeted toward the earth. Just before they hit the ground, Sasuke stamped downward, planting both feet on Naruto's middle and slamming the Genin into the grass. It was a downsized variation of his formidable "Lion Combo." He landed in a crouch atop his comrade, blade poised above Naruto's face in case Naruto had any fight left in him. But Naruto was quite finished, lying passed out and blank-eyed amid the damp grass, with spittle trailing from one corner of his mouth.

Wearing a faint smirk, Sasuke allowed the Sharingan to fade from his eyes. Then he remembered Sakura, and rose to his feet again. She stood not five feet behind him, arms dangling at her sides. She still held her boken, but as he turned to face her Sasuke saw her grip on the two hilts loosen so much that he thought she might drop them.

"Heh," he snorted, relaxing his stance. "Don't think I'm going to take it easy on you because you're a girl."

Sakura started slightly, her eyes widening. She was still reeling from the recent strike of realization: by aiding Sasuke in dispatching Naruto, she had precluded the possibility that she and Sasuke would have to fight. And she didn't even have the nerve to land a kiss on Sasuke's face, let alone a blow

She didn't drop the boken.

But neither of them moved.

"Oi, you two." On the roof, Kakashi was leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "A staring match does not count as sparring."

Sasuke's pale face hardened into a look of grim determination. Nervously, Sakura tightened her grip on the boken, hands turning white at the knuckles.

'He's . . . he's seriously going to . . .'

"I am not spending the night being punished alongside that moron," Sasuke informed her in a low voice.

Sakura shut her gaping mouth, sinking into a defensive stance. She could see clearly that there was no way out of this. Sasuke lifted his practice sword and turned it sideways, clearly taking aim for what he felt would be a swift end to the match. His concentration was now focused solely on her.

It was a grave error; he never sensed the blow coming.

That moron's blade rammed into a pressure point between his shoulder blades-one which temporarily caused the lungs to freeze. Yet the part of Sasuke's brain driven by instinct compelled him to complete his attack. Even as Naruto's blow buffeted him to his knees, he managed to lunge forward with superhuman speed, striking low at Sakura with the boken still clutched in his hand.

However, instead of striking the inside of her ankle and toppling her to the ground, the flat of his blade only struck her slantwise across the shins. This caused her to gasp with pain and to stumble backward, beyond reach of any further assault. Of course, at this point the chance of him launching any further assault was quite slim. It was rapidly becoming difficult to breathe, and his vision was going hazy. Behind him, Naruto yelled, "Hey!"---presumably because Sasuke had hit Sakura-and suddenly he found himself planted prone on the ground with a mouthful of grass. Mouthing a curse, Sasuke spat out the grass, attempting to throw off the weight pressing him down.

'What the---?' he thought, but thoughts were beginning to flow disconnectedly through his brain.

Then there came a loud crack, and a sudden jolt above him. Something landed hard across his back, forcing his head down into the weeds again. And then . . . silence.

Sensing that no further blows were coming his way, Sasuke turned his focus inward to his lungs, fighting the lingering effects of Naruto's pressure-point strike. Then, just as the stars were beginning to fade from his vision and the strength began returning to his limbs, he heard Sakura's voice close by.

"Uh . . . are you alright, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke blinked away the last of the stars, straining to lift his head. Sakura was kneeling in front of him, peering down at him in concern. She had cast her boken aside, apparently the better to wring her hands in worry.

"Yeah," he grunted irritably, trying to sit up. Yet his body felt strangely heavy, as if a great weight were keeping him pinned to the ground.

Then he heard a familiar noise behind him.

"Owwwwwww . . ."

"Get off me, dumbass!" Sasuke snapped, abruptly losing patience with the dead weight across his back. Wrenching his shoulders to the right, he managed to roll onto his side, dumping Naruto onto the ground. Naruto lay where he'd fallen, apparently stillseeing stars from the blow Sakura had dealt him after he'd struck Sasuke down.

Up on the roof, Shikyo averted his gaze in disgust.

"You should know, Kakashi-san," he said in a low voice, "that had it been my choice I would have brought you alone, and left these children at home. It's a sign of sheer obedience to my lord that I've respected his adamant wish and brought your team as well."

Kakashi, who was watching the proceedings in the courtyard below with folded arms, merely frowned and offered no reply. Shikyo sighed, running a hand across his brow, displaying signs of weariness for the first time along the journey.

"They're skilled at long-range combat and move well in difficult terrain," he conceded, "especially the Uchiha boy. But they lack the disciplinefor what we'll be facing. The girl's the only one who seems to have any common sense," he added, nodding toward Sakura below. "She waited for the other two to beat each other down before making her move."

Kakashi finally spared him a glance.

"They're stupid," he agreed calmly, unfolding his arms. "But they're also full of surprises."

Shaking his head, the Rain ninja leaped down from the roof, landing easily in the courtyard. His sandals squeaked in the wet grass as he rose to his feet.

"I read the dossiers," he told Kakashi without turning around. "I know what they're capable of. But Mizutou has its own surprises. The Mist Ninja are . . ." He broke off, seeming unsure of how to word it. Finally, he gave up and shook his head again, looking up at the Leaf Jounin on the roof. "I hope you understand the delicacy of the situation."

Kakashi nodded slowly, his one visible eye unreadable as he stared thoughtfully at the man below him.

"I think I understand quite well," he murmured.

When it became apparent that this was all Kakashi had to say, Shikyo turned and headed across the courtyard toward the opposite terrace.

"I'm tired, Kakashi-san," he called sharply. "I'm going to bed. I leave them to you."

Kakashi watched him go in silence, but his uncovered eye narrowed, and beneath his mask he wore a frown.

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

The Hidden Village of Sound

Kabuto walked briskly through the narrow, walled streets that led to his master's headquarters. Behind him, the four Akatsuki members who had elected to enter the Village moved with purposeful stride, swift and silent as ghosts. They appeared to be taking no interest in the village itself, for which Kabuto was somewhat grateful, but he could feel their eyes boring into the back of his skull, and the feeling raised the short hairs on the back of his neck. When the Sound Village was formed, Akatsuki had displayed no real interest in it, but he sensed that this was only because they didn't perceive any of its denizens as a threat. He supposed that they did perceive Orochimaru as a threat, but the news of the Sannin's injured arms had no doubt reached their ears swiftly and assuaged any concern they might have had.

Walking ahead of them, Kabuto smiled thinly. If they thought his master helpless because his hands had been rendered unable to perform seals, then that was for the best. Orochimaru's immortality jutsu did not require the Sannin to perform hand-seals himself. Kabuto knew that his master was merely waiting to change bodies once he had acquired the Uchiha boy. And if Akatsuki remained unaware of this, then that was also for the best.

'Let them see him wounded here. Let them think his only ambition lies in revenge on Konoha . . .'

Some of the Sound residents crept out onto their balconies to watch the silent procession below. The village had no buildings over two stories tall; Orochimaru had purposefully constructed it to make it difficult to locate. Entrenched deep in the forest, away from all public roads and civilian establishments, it was "hidden" in the fullest sense.

Wordlessly, Kabuto led the four behind him down a long, shadowed corridor that sloped into a hall beneath the earth, like a dugout. Inside the walls were stone and sunless, and the way slanted steeper still into a flight of stairs leading down to his master's chambers. At the end of another long hall, Kabuto opened a door and held it open as the four Akatsuki members filed past. None of them spared him a glance; their eyes were now trained upon the Sannin inside.

Orochimaru sat at the head of a long table with his useless arms resting in his lap. The scroll that he'd been studying had already been shoved clumsily to one side. There was a small, round lantern hanging from the ceiling, through which a soft red glow spilled down onto the table's dark wood, and the two corners of the room behind him harbored low tables with braziers burning atop them. Beside the braziers there were bowls of hot ash, in which sticks of incense smoked gently, lending a faint tang to the air. Other than these, there was no light in the room. Kabuto knew his master preferred the shadows because his afflicted arms pained him, and also because the darkness hid from his four visitors the sweat beaded on his pale brow. Even if the Sannin's powerlessness was a temporary deceit, Orochimaru in his hubris abhorred displaying weakness in front of his enemies.

"Four I see, when nine were expected," Orochimaru said, a bit sharply. He had received word from his network of spies days ago that five Akatsuki were within close range of the Sound Village. Suspecting that they might be coming to see him, he had ordered Kabuto to meet them should they approach the gates.

"Four of us stayed outside the Village walls to investigate. The ninth was killed, yeah," one of the remaining four answered softly. "We can't let this slide, yeah."

None of them deigned to move toward chairs or table, evidently preferring to stand. There was a definitive hostile air about them, so thick it was almost tangible.

"What is it you want from me?" Orochimaru asked in a smoother tone, leaning back in his chair.

Kabuto took his seat in a far corner of the room, where he could observe the faces of all present.

"We will make this short and clear," another of the four answered, "so that there will be no misunderstanding. The organization has become aware of recent events that suggest an Assassins' Ring has been formed." A pause. "Normally, we would not pay heed to such matters, but the Ring's activities seem widespread. There is a heavy presence in the Water Country, and possibly in the Fire Country as well. There is even a . . . tenuous presence in the Country of Wind. But that is a special case-there, they seem to be pursuing only one target. A trio of Sand brats . . ."

Orochimaru's pale brow furrowed.

"What involvement I hadwith the Sand is over," he murmured. "I have no hand in this, and I have nothing to say on this matter."

The first Akatsuki member to speak stirred restlessly, flexing her fingers.

"We've seen firsthand, yeah, what methods they use. Not bad, yeah. It's the Shinkuhana jutsu."

One corner of Orochimaru's mouth twisted upward into a crooked smile.

"I know of it," he told them. "The 'technique that kills inevitably'---target and assassin. But why do you suggest myinvolvement in this?"

"The Crimson Blossom technique was developed by the Fourth Mizukage in the Water Country," the second Akatsuki member responded levelly. "Soon after, it became forbidden there, for reasons known only to the privileged few in the Mist Village. But there have been . . . instancesof its use since then. And now there are many instances." Another pause. "The technique is rare---extremely so. It takes a supremely expert amount of chakra control to wield it . . . And the fact does not escape us that there are renegade Mist shinobi under your command."

Orochimaru snorted faintly, a lock of dark, lanky hair falling forward over one cold eye.

"I take in the trash that comes to my doorstep in greed," he replied. "The unpolished Genin; the criminal Jounin---all unprivileged and weak until I take the scrap metal that they are and forge from them a newer, stronger blade. I don't take in those stupid enough to grow in power and then waste it by dying to kill someone." He tilted his head thoughtfully, causing his lanky hair to lend further shadow to his eyes. "Pawns I use as I see fit, but there's no one I fear to the extent that I would waste a fine blade to silence them."

Forgotten in his corner, Kabuto's sharp gaze flickered.

'Of course he deliberately neglects to mention Sasuke,' he thought wryly to himself. 'That is one fine pawn he would willingly sacrifice. After all, it was his lust for the Sharingan bloodline limit that made these men his enemies . . .' Kabuto's smile faded.

The first Akatsuki member stepped forward, curving the fingers of one hand over the back of one of the chairs. The lantern's light reflecting off the table illuminated the sharp features of her face.

"We're not here to talk about blades. We've come to hear your take on this, yeah. Where you stand."

Sweat began gathering at Kabuto's temples; the reason for this unwelcome visit was becoming dauntingly clear.

"If you've come to threaten me, you've made a wasted journey," Orochimaru said coolly. "My sole concern right now is Konoha. I've no care for killing Sand brats, and even less for the Water Country." He paused, and then added, almost as an afterthought, "And I've no quarrel with you."

Kabuto's attention was now riveted solely upon the faces of the Akatsuki, eyes straining in the near-darkness to gauge their reaction. Of course, there was no question that they had come here expecting Orochimaru to deny involvement. Orochimaru's near-immortal hide was very precious to him; he would deny his own mother if he thought it would keep him breathing for just one moment longer. And these men knew him; knew his selfishness and his pride very well. Of course they'd been expecting him to claim innocence . . .

'The question is: have they come to attack him, using the assassins' ring as a mere excuse, or do they seek information about this because it actually does concern them?' Silently, subtly, Kabuto began to call upon the chakra he reserved for regeneration in battle. If the four visitors' reasoning was the former, then the possibility that he would die right here in this room was highly likely. If it was the latter . . . then Orochimaru would continue to spout vague half-truths until they gave up in disgust. In the best possible case they would leave the Sound Village quietly, melting back into the forest from whence they'd emerged.

A tense moment passed-a moment in which the four Akatsuki exchanged significant glances. At his sides, Kabuto's hands clenched into fists, and he shifted slightly in his chair, already assessing what course of defense he might take should they choose to attack his master.

But the moment passed . . . and the Akatsuki made no move toward the Sannin at the table.

"What we desire, Orochimaru, is information, which it seems you don't have. How . . . disappointing. I believe we're finished here."

Orochimaru's expression darkened into a scowl.

"You intend to leave so abruptly?" he asked sharply. "After bringing false accusations? Tell me: what do you know of this assassins' ring? Whom are they targeting?"

"We're investigating, yeah," the female replied carelessly. "Time we leave to find answers."

He turned toward the door. His clawed hand had nearly closed around the door's handle when, in a flash, Kabuto moved between him and the exit. Then the gray-haired shinobi opened the door for him, gesturing him through with a smile that was perilously close to mocking. The Akatsuki didn't bat an eye, and filed out without further comment.

Once outside, they appeared to know exactly where they were going, but nevertheless Kabuto followed them all the way back to the gate. He found it extremely hard to believe that they had come all this way just to pay Orochimaru a courtesy call and to ask him one question. He found it extremely hard to believe that they would be satisfied with the Sannin's denial of involvement, and that they would leave so peaceably when they'd gained nothing from this.

When at last the gate had been closed behind the Akatsuki, and they had vanished into the trees, he returned to his master's chamber.

"That went well," Orochimaru remarked as Kabuto entered and shut the door behind him. He didn't even bother to look up from the scroll in front of him.

Kabuto, for once, was completely floored.

"You . . . you do have a hand in this?" he exclaimed, one hand clenching into a fist at his side. "You risked too much, then, letting them in."

This time the Sannin favored him with a brief glare before returning to his studies.

"Don't be stupid," he snapped, frowning down at the scroll. "I'm not involved in this. The last thing I want is to draw that much attention to us right now."

"Akatsuki's behavior isillogical," Kabuto insisted, moving further into the room and taking a seat at the far end of the table. "Why would they travel all that way just to ask you one question? And why were they anywhere near the assassins in the first place, when their comrade was killed? They couldn't have developed an interest in this 'assassins' ring' before his death, could they?"

Orochimaru finally gave up on the scroll, losing patience. Kabuto tensed in his chair; when Orochimaru lost patience, heads tended to find themselves detached from their bodies.

Fortunately, the Sannin was in a relatively good mood because the Akatsuki interrogation "went well."

"They didn'tcome all this way for that," Orochimaru agreed. "Akatsuki does nothing without deliberation. They were already in the Fire Country with their five members when my underlings caught sight of them. At the time, my shinobi learned that Uchiha Sasuke had left Konoha. That in itself was of minor concern to me, but then they came upon the five Akatsuki traveling northwest, and that report did concern me. The point, Kabuto-kun, is that the Akatsuki were already in the Fire Country when they were attacked. So yes, something about this assassins' ring concerns them, the death of the ninth one aside."

Kabuto ran a hand across his mouth, speculating.

"Something this widespread, commanding the attention of Akatsuki . . . shouldn't it demand our attention as well?" he mused.

Orochimaru snorted derisively.

"No. The Sound shinobi obviously aren't the targets, or with our heavy presence in the northwestern forests we would have been attacked by now. Let Akatsuki deal with this threat if they choose; we stay focused on our own goals."

Kabuto's frown deepened. He lowered his head, red lantern-light gleaming in the lenses of his glasses.

"The four were satisfied too easily," he remarked, unwilling to drop the subject. "They took your word too quickly. They musthave had ulterior motives for coming here tonight . . ."

Orochimaru went back to his reading.

"Tch, Kabuto-kun. Pay better attention. The other two---the ones who didn't speak---were Bunshin. No doubt their real counterparts were busy investigating the city while you led their clones to me."

Kabuto glanced up sharply in alarm.

"In that case, how can you possiblysay this went well?" he demanded, spreading his palms against the table's surface. "They sent spies into our midst."

Orochimaru pushed the scroll open further, seeming unconcerned.

"I'm quite confident that they found nothing dangerous," he said mildly. "Everything that could possibly be of interest to them is safely hidden in the underground chambers, the location of which is known only to the select few. Doubtless they left with the impression that this really is just another upstart shinobi village. No doubt they'll think I've grown relatively complacent." He smiled wryly at this; a private joke.

"This was a bold move on their part," Kabuto said in a low voice.

Once again Orochimaru paused in his reading, his cold, reptilian eyes narrowing to slits. "We will deal with the Akatsuki problem later," he murmured, "when we have replenished our ranks again, and the Sharingan is mine."

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

Moving swiftly through the forest beyond the Sound Village, the four Akatsuki now kept a sharp eye out for any sign of movement among the trees.

"He claims he cares only about Konoha, where we allowed him to believe the assassins weren't necessarily present," one recanted. "But they are present in the forests southeast of Konoha---heavily so. The fact that he doesn't know this proves his lack of involvement."

"So Orochimaru was telling the truth . . ." another murmured. "What a rarity."

"I could number the times that has happened on one hand," yet another remarked dryly. "But in this case, I'm surprised. Given the ones the assassins appear to be targeting, it was natural to assume Orochimaru had a hand in this."

"Then how shall we go about this, yeah? Do we follow, to investigate?"

The first speaker lowered his head.

"It seems the best choice. Given the assassins' targets."

"Then we follow, yeah."

Their course drew them southeast through the dark wood.

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

The Aoite Road

Slowly, painfully, Sasuke rolled into a sitting position, rubbing his forehead and scowling. The haziness was taking a long time to clear from his vision. To his right, he heard the soft sound of footsteps through the grass, and then Kakashi's gray-clad legs moved into view.

"Sakura's won," the Jounin said quietly.

Sitting beside Sasuke, Sakura was rubbing her legs and wincing. A long, dark bruise was already forming across her shins. Naruto was still flat on his back.

"However, all three of you will be spending the rest of the night training," Kakashi went on, looking down at the three Genin at his feet.

Sakura's head snapped up, injuries temporarily forgotten.

"What!" Her jaw dropped. "Why?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest as well, but then promptly shut it again as he looked up at Kakashi. The Jounin was notpleased. When something worried him, there was a certain subtle heavinessto the air around Kakashi that made up for the concealment of facial expressions behind the mask.

Anything that worried the easygoing Kakashi usually meant Imminent Death.

The Jounin crouched beside Naruto, briefly laying a hand to the Genin's forehead.

When the contact elicited no response, he returned his attention to the two sitting up.

"In a sense, really, you all lost," Kakashi told them, settling back on his heels. "From the very beginning I intended to make you practice for the remainder of the night. You need basics before you'll be any good in combat, and you need discipline for pulling a stunt that stupid when you know we're being hunted by killers."

Sleep deprivation and the recent tense mood had made Sakura especially grumpy, and she only grumbled in response, "It was Naruto's idea."

Kakashi elected to ignore this particular relegation of blame.

"You all lost," he went on inexorably, "because you didn't fight with skill. You went for what you thought would do the most damage instead of aiming to incapacitate your opponent swiftly. So now you're all covered with bruises and lumps on the head, which is going to make the training a lot more unpleasant. I told you---the last one standing would be the winner. All you had to do was keep your two opponents on the ground to win." He paused, scratching his head and eyeing them drolly. "But of course you lot missed that point from the beginning. You were all too keen on beating the tar out of each other."

Sasuke cast a glare Naruto's way, but then he rose to his feet, fishing his boken out of the grass again. Sakura remained on the ground, looking as if she couldn't decide which she wanted to kill more---Naruto or Sasuke.

'THEY started this,' the Inner Sakura fumed. 'BOYS and their damned EGOS!' Of course, Sakura hadn't exactly stopped Naruto from initiating the prank in the first place, but the Inner Sakura could be pretty selective in her perception of things.

"Get up," Kakashi ordered, rising to stand himself. "Pick up your weapons." He paused, looking down to his left. "Naruto, you'll want to stop faking unconsciousness, because I'm going to work with you all on a certain blocking technique that I feel is the most important."

One blue eye cracked open, cautiously at first, but then Naruto sprang to his feet.

"Really? We're done with the exercises?"

Sasuke and Sakura stared at him wordlessly; he seemed as energetic as if he'd just risen from a good night's sleep.

'I should've hit him harder,' both thought at once.

Kakashi, in the meantime, was already calmly picking up the boken their Rain ninja escort had left behind.

"Listen, you three," he said in a low voice as the Genin finished retrieving their practice swords. "Before we begin, I'll say this: I want none of you to be alone with Shikyo. Ever. Understood? If for some reason we're separated, do not allow any one of you to remain with him without another present." He made this pronouncement calmly, as if it were as trivial as discussing the weather, but the fact that he'd mentioned it at all meant that it wasn't.

It sounded like a warning.

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

The three Genin trained long into the night, and almost until dawn, when a fuzzy gray light spread thinly over the inn's roof, and the night-lanterns were finally extinguished by one of the staff. Only then did Kakashi see fit to let them stagger back to their room. The Jounin was satisfied with the progress they'd made; they were now able to use their swords to block flesh contact from every angle he came at them. There were exceptions, of course, made because of his phenomenal speed and their exhaustion-dulled reflexes, but he felt these were only temporary setbacks at worst. They were idiots, but they did learn quickly.

Having obtained an adequate amount of rest himself, Kakashi kept watch over them all as they slept. He allowed them all what he estimated to be about five hours of rest before awakening them to set off down the road again. They didn't take lunch before leaving; Shikyo felt that they'd wasted enough time as it was. Kakashi, on the other hand, felt that the delay had been quite necessary. As they traveled, he forced his three subordinates to walk in a formation of sorts, so that they could practice blocking each other with the boken. The training involved a lot of poke-and-jab, because the Genin playing the role of "attacker" had to come at his or her armed opponent with bare hands, trying to touch bare skin. The result involved everyone's arms being decorated black and blue, and more than one smashed finger.

"I think I'm going to lose this nail," Sakura observed sadly, eyeing a pinky-finger that had turned a nasty shade of purple.

Naruto, in the meantime, rubbed his arms and affected a sour expression like his friends', but his bruises hadn't lasted at all. They had disappeared almost as soon as they formed. Fortunately, he was wearing long sleeves, which helped him to avoid drawing the suspicion of his fellow Genin and possibly Shikyo as well. Naruto squinted sidelong at Shikyo; he still hadn't figured out whether the Rain ninja knew about the Nine-Tails. If not, then he decided that was how it was going to stay.

By late afternoon the dark clouds had come rolling in to cover the blue autumn sky, fading the forest leaves around them to dull brown and blood-dark crimson. Then it began to rain steadily-a rain which persisted and showed no sign of letting up. When the sun had finally set, Kakashi allowed everyone a break for dinner, disregarding Shikyo's now-customary impatience. The Konoha Jounin produced from his pack a sack of dumplings purchased from the inn. The rain hadn't gotten any less steady, however, and the meal was eaten cold with no fire to cook it over. After dinner there was another three hours' travel as steady and monotonous as the rain, and then to everyone's dismay they came upon no other towns and were forced to spend the night outdoors.

Kakashi enlisted the boys' aid in erecting a crude shelter, made of branches and the tarp he'd brought in his pack. Sakura, he said, was exempted from this task because she'd won the previous night's sparring. Sasuke and Naruto spent half the time holding up branches while Kakashi tied them together and half the time shooting Sakura dirty looks. Sakura was blissfully unaware of the dirty looks because she was busy trying to run a comb through her hair-which, at this point, was too soaked and filthy even to be frizzy.

The shelter proved to be entirely too small for four people in four sleeping bags to fit in comfortably, so Naruto found himself crammed in quite uncomfortably with his teacher and two teammates and four very damp, very squashed sleeping bags. Kakashi's legs were so long that his feet stuck out part-way. Only Sakura seemed happy with this arrangement, because even though they lay head-to-foot she was practically sleeping on top of Sasuke. Naruto pulled a face, squinting at her feet in the near-perfect darkness. Why she liked sleeping next to Sasuke was beyond him---they were now nearly three days out of Konoha and exhausted from training, and they all smelledlike it.

Shikyo alone remained outside, keeping watch. Naruto craned his neck to peer out at the man, who sat perched on a tree root several yards away.

"Oi," he whispered to his fellow Genin. "Shikyo-san isn't even sitting under a branchor anything.He's soaked!"

"Well, he is a Rainninja," Sakura murmured sleepily. Then she chuckled woozily at her own pun.

Sasuke merely snorted irritably. He was lying on his back, with both arms drawn in as tightly to his chest as he could manage. It was difficult being morose and antisocial when one was packed in tightly enough with one's comrades to smell onion on their breath from the previous meal.

For a while, there was silence save for the rain pattering on the leaves. Then Naruto revealed that the cogs in his brain were still grinding.

"Maybe he does like rain," he suggested. "Maybe his clan's bloodline trait is to absorb rain like food, andthat'swhy he never wants to stop and eat."

Neither Sakura nor Sasuke replied; both went silent with amazement at the idea's sheer stupidity. Naruto chose to interpret the silence as a sign that they were listening.

"Maybe . . ." he rambled on, "this whole rotten trip is all a plot by the Hidden Village of Rain to---"

"Naruto, shut up," Kakashi said, unexpectedly.

Naruto obeyed, scowling and finally closing his eyes.

Soon Kakashi was the only one left awake. He was listening intently for sounds other than the raindrops.

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

In the morning, the travelers awoke to the pleasant surprise of sunshine streaming in slantwise through the shelter. Sasuke awoke to the not-so-gentle sensation of Naruto poking him repeatedly in the head, chattering something about breakfast. He tried to scoot out of his sleeping bag, grumbling something about not wanting breakfast, only to find that find that Sakura was hugging his legs in her sleep.

Later, after he'd finally pried himself loose from her, Sasuke joined his four companions around a fire.

"Nice hair," Naruto remarked, grinning impishly and pointing across the fire at Sasuke. "You look like a cockatiel."

Sasuke's only retort was a withering look. Kakashi blinked drolly at Naruto, wondering vaguely how the boy had managed to miss the presence of the stick in his yellow hair. It stuck out slantwise, like some sort of mutant antler.

The clamor for breakfast, as it turned out, was utterly justified, for Kakashi had bought a string of fish. They were small, but once gutted, skewered, and roasted over the fire they tasted far better than cold dumplings. Everyone's spirits had lifted by the end of the meal, except for Shikyo's, which seemed to be worsening the further they traveled. If Kakashi noticed-which was likely; he didn't miss much-he chose to ignore it, and his students followed suit. Though they didn't understand Kakashi's warning, it had served to deepen the feeling of unease each of them had around Shikyo.

As they ate, Kakashi relayed tidings that made even Sasuke crack an almost-smile. The fish was fresh because it had been purchased from a merchant heading north from the ocean. According to the merchant, the sea was only one day's journey away down the Aoite Road, which to the traveling shinobi meant a temporary respite from all the walking. They would follow the road to a seaport village and cross by boat the strait between the Fire and Water Countries.

After breakfast the group set out with a good deal more optimism in their stride. No one even saw fit to grimace over the ankle deep mud that the rain had made of the road-except for Naruto, who amused himself by goose-stepping his way along. He was wearing a pair of blue boots that fit but looked as if they'd seen their better years, and he pretended to be disgusted by the splotching noise they made whenever he put his foot down.

"It's just like stepping in dog shit," he remarked cheerily. "Over and over and over again."

No one replied; it wasn't a conversation any of them wanted to start.

By nightfall they had reached the village by the sea-a small, rustic place where there was only one inn and it didn't have indoor toilets.

"The watchman's sighted the passenger boat in the distance," Kakashi announced over dinner. "We'll be taking that one as soon as it arrives. Everyone dress warmly; the watchmen also says his back's hurting him, and in these parts that passes for a storm warning."

Sasuke nodded absently, slurping at the hot tea in front of him.

"Sakura-chan, why aren't you drinking yours?" Naruto asked, setting his down to squint at Sakura, who was looking rather quiet and peakish.

Sakura scowled at him, which meant that she preferred to go on being quiet and peakish in peace. Truth be told, she was avoiding the tea because there weren't any indoor toilets, and she didn't want the embarrassment of having one of the Jounin follow her when she peed outdoors. "Hell no!" the Inner Sakura agreed. The Outer Sakura blushed.

She counted herself fortunate enough that she'd managed to avoid it during the day-and-a-half journey from the inn.

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

The shinobi were only allowed an hour of sleep at the inn before Kakashi roused them to board the ship. Then they shouldered their packs once again and stumbled up the gangplank.

The ship was a grander affair than the boats they'd seen in the Wave Country. It was fashioned from a darker, harder wood, which Shikyo told them grew only in the forests of the Water Country. Lanterns hung on posts at various intervals around the ship's railings, revealing that the sides of the hull were painted with the patterns of rolling waves. The hull itself was large, allowing room for its passengers to sleep on hammocks in a space nearly four feet high. As it was raining and nothing was currently being required of them, the Genin made straight for the hammocks. Three hours later, they emerged at Kakashi's behest and immediately wished they hadn't, because that was when the seasickness set in.

To distract himself from the nausea, Naruto immediately made a beeline for the prow, peering out into the darkness ahead in hopes of catching the first glimpse of their destination. The ocean below-which he could see by lantern-light-was a choppy, uninviting bluish black.

"Nothing out there but blue water and black sky," Shikyo called to him. The Rain ninja was perched on a crate nearby, busy sharpening the points of the needles he carried on a whetstone.

Naruto squinted back at him in suspicion. He took Kakashi's warning quite seriously, and he also hadn't forgotten the fact that the assassins in the Fire Country had come after them with needles. By his simple reasoning, both these things only served to confirm the negative impression he'd first received. Naruto liked people who knew how to have fun, while Shikyo never seemed to relax at all. By Naruto's count, he had never once seen the man slouchlet alone laughWherever the Rain ninja sat, he sat poker-straight, and he always looked tense and grave.

Giving up on sighting land, Naruto made his way back across the deck wearing a scowl. His stomach was churning right along with the waves underneath him.

It was still raining.

Once the entire team was assembled, Kakashi cast Naruto a brief, interested glance.

'Apparently,' the Jounin mused, 'Kyuubi's chakra doesn't heal afflictions caused by an imbalance of the inner ear.' This made sense, considering the fact that Naruto was vulnerable to genjutsu.

"In a bit I want you three resuming your exercises," he said aloud. "This is the last real opportunity you'll have to train in the way you're . . . used to."

Naruto and Sakura exchanged bemused glances; Sasuke frowned at Kakashi.

"What does that mean?" he asked in a low voice.

Kakashi motioned for them to sit, and they settled down on the deck, leaning their backs against the ship's wooden railing.

"There was a reasonbehind my making you wear plainclothes," he explained. "And it wasn't just to keep us from revealing our presence in Mizutou to the Mist Ninja. According to Shikyo-san, Mizutou is home to a unique class of warriors. By unique, I mean to say that they use only kenjutsu. They are Lord Garyu's elite guard-part of some tradition that goes back many generations in his family." He paused, his one visible eye narrowing. "They also have an unspoken tradition of hating shinobi."

Naruto's mouth fell open.

"What! Why?" Sakura demanded, planting both of her palms hard on the deck. When outraged, the Outer and Inner Sakura's tended to move in sync.

"They're jealous of our power."

The four Leaf ninja turned toward Shikyo, who was still honing his needles atop the crate.

"Garyu-sama's ancestral predecessors named them the 'Heikou Force'," he went on, without bothering to look up from his work. "I don't know much about their reasoning; they don't exactly speak freely in front of me. Even my lord claims he doesn't understand the tradition. But the Heikou are the reason why I am the only shinobi under the Water-lord's command."

After this cryptic pronouncement, the Rain ninja fell silent.

Sasuke turned back toward Kakashi.

"So we're going to hide ourselves from them?" he asked in a low voice. "Is that it?"

Kakashi studied the three young faces, peering up at him in various degrees of outrage. They were proud of what they were, his team. These were children raised in a place where they were taught to view their strength with pride. In this way, he supposed, they had led a sheltered life. Others, like the boy Haku, had not been so fortunate.

Having lived longer and seen more of the world, Kakashi knew there were places where the ninja bloodlines were feared and hated.

"You're going to keep a low profile," he corrected Sasuke. "The Heikou already know we're coming. But they, unlike the lord they serve, do not know what we're capable of. They aren't privy to any information about us at all, and that's the way I'd like to keep it. I want you to avoid displays of your ninjutsu in all but two situations: if Lord Garyu is in immediate danger, or if your own lives are threatened. Then and onlythen may you act." He paused here for emphasis, to show his students how serious he was, his gaze sliding pointedly between Naruto and Sasuke. "No more stunts," he admonished sternly. "We'rethe foreigners here, in the territory of the Mist shinobi, and if we fail this can result in not only our deaths but war between our Villages."

All three Genin nodded solemnly. Sakura and Naruto's eyes were wide as owls', and Sasuke's were narrowed as if in boredom, which Kakashi interpreted to mean the Uchiha boy was nervous as well. He nodded curtly in satisfaction; it was good that they respected the gravity of the situation. In a situation like this he needed soldiers, not children.

"Good," he told them after the prolonged silence. "Now that I've said that, you can go resume your exercises. Once the captain's sighted land, we'll be changing course to sail toward the northernmost port to dock. There you'll be sleeping a few hours on board the ship before we take the western road around the coast toward Mizutou."

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

The last round of kenjutsu training was ended prematurely by circumstances quite beyond mortal control. The rain gave way to a lightning storm, which caused Kakashi to call off the practice and send his students back down into the hull for a rest. After a while he joined them, conceding to his own exhaustion.

In the musty darkness of the hull, Sasuke lay awake on his back. The hammock beneath him swayed none too gently, because the rough water was rocking the whole ship back and forth. His companions were somehow all asleep despite the fact that all hell seemed to be coming at them with a hammer. Low, hard waves slammed into the wood; it sounded like it was going to break.

Even above the din from outside he could still hear Naruto snoring.

Sasuke lay there for a while with his hands tucked beneath his neck, staring up at the low ceiling above him. He listened for the deep, quiet breathing of his other companions, waiting for them to fall asleep, all the while watching the play of lightning through the cracks and knotholes in the wood.

Then he rolled deftly onto his feet and crept on hands and knees across the floor toward the ladder.

The short climb led him onto the deck, where after opening the hatch and replacing it quietly behind him he found himself nearly bowled over by the wind. Clutching a nearby mast and glancing about him, he saw the captain at the helm and the four other crew members securing the side riggings to keep the sails straight. He released the mast and made his way toward the rear of the ship.

"You're a restless one, aren't you?" Shikyo remarked mildly as the grim-faced Genin approached him from behind.

The Rain ninja was standing near one of the lanterns, peering out across the heaving sea. Sasuke rather admired his fortitude; even Kakashi hadn't wanted to take the watch during this.

"You're not just out for a walk, either," Shikyo went on without turning around as Sasuke approached him. "Well, I know what you're going to ask. And the answer's no."

Behind him, the Rain ninja heard the Uchiha boy's soft steps falter.

"'No' you don't know it, or 'no' you won't teach it to me?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Shikyo sighed, tipping his head back as a fresh gust of sea-spray blew against him.

"There's a dark look in your eye, boy. I understand what you want---or what you think you want. But the answer's still no."

The Rain ninja stood still as a statue, gazing out over the sea until at last he heard the footsteps begin a stealthy retreat. He pressed his lips together in a grim line.

'Uchiha . . . Sasuke . . .' he mused. 'This one will be useful.'

o-O-o o-O-o o-O-o

Konoha

Early in the morning-at a time to which he was highly unaccustomed-Jiraiya made his way through the crowds of early market-goers, heading southward from the inn where he was staying. In his hand, he carried the documents he'd borrowed the previous day.

He had spent all night studying them, trying to make sense of this.

And now . . . in the cool gray of morning, his swift stride carried him to the very door mentioned in the papers. There were only two living men who knew the technique known as Shinkuhana. One was away on a mission; the other answered the door when he knocked.

"Morino Ibiki?" Jiraiya said quietly. "I'm sorry to wake you, but there's something I need to discuss."

The bald-headed Jounin had come to the door in a gray, faded shirt and trousers that apparently served for nightclothes. He wasn't wearing his forehead-protector, and the ugly scars across his scalp stood out even in the faint light. He took one look at his unexpected visitor and his sharp eyes narrowed.

"Sannin-sama. Come in."

Jiraiya was concise, explaining his concerns as swiftly as he could while Ibiki listened. At the end of his tale, the Jounin nodded, his grizzled brow wrinkling.

"You want to know how I came to learn the Crimson Blossom Technique? I can't tell you anything useful. I didn't learn it from the Mist shinobi, its creators; I learned it from the Jounin Kakashi, many years ago. This was primarily for the purpose of preserving knowledge of the technique for inscription, so that it could be studied once we had safely returned to Konoha . . ."

Jiraiya frowned as well.

". . . but the Fourth declared it forbidden," he finished. "Even the scroll was destroyed; only you and Kakashi carry knowledge of it."

Ibiki's mouth twisted wryly.

"I've banished it from my memory," he said, a bit sharply. "It's more than just a danger when it's put to use."

"What do you mean?"

The Jounin lowered his head, and for once he averted his sharp gaze.

"What it does and what it does to your mind are not so very different," he said cryptically. "It's hard to explain---the strange contradiction of knowing that you can kill anyone you choose while knowing that you must die as well. You look around you, and you begin to wonder 'Who's worth it? How important does it have to be to be worth dying for?' You become so preoccupied with wasting or not wasting your life---or wasting your chance to kill someone---that it begins to consume your strength as a soldier." He looked up, shaking his head and smiling grimly. "I chose to bury it, through hypnosis and memory drugs, so that I would never use it. I didn't want that kind of power to eat away my strength of mind."

Slowly, Jiraiya nodded. On several levels, he didunderstand.

"And Hatake Kakashi?" he prompted. "Has he also chosen to forget?"

"Hmm . . ." Ibiki murmured thoughtfully. "No. Long ago he chose his purpose for keeping it, given special circumstances. He already made his choice of where and when to use it, so he won't be unraveled by the inner confusion." He paused, noting Jiraiya's questioning look. "So what was his choice? It's a great burden on him, no doubt-one that may never be lifted. But the answer is staring you in the face."

Ibiki reached across the table, laying one thick finger on the dossier in front of the Sannin. Jiraiya looked down.

The Jounin was pointing to the page where Kakashi's team members were listed.

END OF CHAPTER 4

Yamisui: The scenario with Akatsuki paying a visit to the Sound Village stretches the canon quite a bit, because I only recently found out that the Sound Village is just one year old. However, it isn't totally implausible, either---all the ninja seem to know the location of each others' "Hidden" villages, and I would think Akatsuki would certainly be interested in the one set up by their enemy. At this point it's really too late to change that part anyway, so you readers commenting on it won't help me. Just try to enjoy the story for its own sake; hopefully I've made it interesting enough to distract you from the canon holes. I'll admit this chapter's been a bit slow compared to 2 and 3, but think of it as the quiet before the storm.