It had been a day and a half since team 7 had arrived at Tazunas house, Kakashi had been out cold since he fainted in the forest. Squad 7 and Tazuna walked into the room where Kakashi had been resting. Miki had been using her medical ninjutsu to try and speed up the Senseis healing process and was only now getting a chance to take a break.
"Look, the Sensei's coming around." Naruto said once they had seen that he was awake. "Listen, Sensei, your Sharingan is amazing and everything, but if it puts that much strain on you, maybe it's not worth it." Sakura told the man while sitting next to him. Kakashi simply let out a tired, "sorry."
"Huh. Well, you did take down one of the most powerful ninja assassins, so we'll be safe for a while." Tazuna spoke up. "right, but you know that boy with the mask, what about him?" Sakura asked.
"He's from the elite tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist. Those masks are only worn by the most elite shinobi." Kakashi explained to the pink headed girl. "What exactly do they do?" the pink haired girl then asked.
"The Anbu Black Ops, also known as The Inferno Squad, destroy all traces of a rogue ninja's corpse. The Shinobi's body contains many secrets: Ninjutsu, chakra, special medicines used on his body. These are the secrets of his village. If his enemies find them, his people will be in grave danger." Kakashi said, looking at all of his students, who had now all sat down, before continuing, "For instance, if I were to die at the hands of an enemy, he would try to analyze my Sharingan. In the worse case, my entire jutsu could be stolen and used against our home village. It is the sacred duty of the shonobi trackers to prevent this, to keep the village secrets safe. If a ninja betrays his village, the trackers hunt him down, eliminate him, and obliterate every trace of his existence. That's their specialty."
Miki stared at the white haired man almost in awe. The red head had never known what she wanted to do with her future until maybe this. She never wanted to be the center of attention like Naruto who wanted to become Hokage, she wanted to be a ninja but also have her own life outside of that. being an elite assassin protecting the Village from the shadows, How cool is that?
Kakashi put his hand to his face, Miki immediately jumped up to check on him, "Kakashi sensei? Are you okay?" Miki asked placing a hand on his shoulder and inspecting him.
Kakashi looked up at the girl and smiled under his mask, trying not to worry the girl. It was obvious she hadn't slept since they had arrived. The red head now had dark circles under her eyes and her skin looked paler than usual. "Hm? Oh, yeah. To finish what I was saying, tracker ninja deal with the body immediately, on the spot, so there's no room for error." Kakashi the finished.
"Is that really important?" Sakura asked.
"Think about it. Do you remember what that tracker did with Zabuza's body?"
"We don't know what he did. I mean, I guess he took it away somewhere."
"Exactly. But why? He should have worked on Zabuza right there, as quickly as possible. Think of the weapons he used for the takedown. Do you remember what they were?" Kakashi asked the 4 students.
"Throwing needles. No way." Sasuke spoke up.
"Exactly. None of it adds up."
"What are you all yammering about?" Tazuna asked confused, "You demolished that assassin."
"Here's the truth." Kakashi began. Miki mentally sulked thinking she was gonna have to listen to another one of his long speeches, "Zabazu's still alive." Tazuna, Sakura, and Naruto all screamed. Miki was surprised to hear the news as well however, seeing as Kakashi wasn't still talking she internally cheered.
"But we saw his body! Believe it!"
"Kakashi Sensei, you checked him yourself. You said that his heart stopped."
"His heart did stop. But... that was just a temporary state to simulate death. The weapons that tracker used are called senbon. They can pierce deeply, but rarely kill unless they hit a vital organ, not in the neck. They're modified from needles used for medical treatments, like acupuncture. Trackers are trained to know every detail of the human body. Causing the heart to stop temporarily while keeping the body alive is an easy matter for them. First, he carried Zabuza's body away, even though it's much heavier than he is. Second, he used senbon which have a precise effect but are rarely fatal. From these two factors, we can conclude that the tracker wasn't trying to destroy Zabuza. He was trying to save him." Kakashi explained to the group, hoping they would finally understand.
"Come on, you're overthinking this, aren't you?" Tazuna asked.
"Encountering suspicion, the ninja prepares quickly. Hesitation leads to disaster. Every Shinobi knows this saying." Kakashi said seriously.
Miki, who looked bored of her mind, was secretly memorizing every word he said. She really needed to have a conversation with everyone about these long speeches they liked to do.
"Sensei, you said prepare quickly, but how can we do that when you can barely move?" Sakura asked another question but instead of getting a reply, Kakashi just began to laugh.
"I can still train you."
"Hold on. A little last minute training won't make us strong enough to fight Zabuza. You could barely defeat him, even with your Sharingan. We have to be reasonable about this." Sakura quickly protested.
"Sakura, why was I able to stop Zabuza? Because you all helped me. You've grown. Naruto, You've grown the most."
"So you noticed, Kakashi Sensei."Naruto said, chuckling at the white haired man's compliment, "Now things are gonna get better. Believe it."
Suddenly their conversation was interrupted, "I don't believe it! And nothing's gonna be good!" Inari, Tazunas grandson, shouted at them resulting in a hum to come from the other 4 children in the room.
"Who are you?" Naruto shouted at the boy while pointing a finger at him.
"Inari, where have you been?" Tazuna asked the boy seeing as he hadn't been home in a day and a half. Inari quickly ran to the old man for a hug, "Welcome back, Grandpa."
"Inari, that was very rude. These ninja helped your grandpa and brought him here safely." Inari's mother, Tsunami, who Miki had gotten to know pretty well, scolded the boy.
"It's okay. It's okay. I'm rude to them too." Tazuna laughed while defending the small boy while everyone stared at the interaction.
"Mom, don't you see, these people are gonna die. Gato and his men will come back and find them and wipe them out." Inari said seriously.
The boys words caused Naruto to jump up in anger, "What did you say, brat? Listen up. You know what a super ninja is? Well that's me, only a lot better. I'm gonna be Hokage. This Gato or Blato or whatever he's called is no match for a real hero like me." Naruto shouted confidently.
"Ha. There's no such thing as a hero. You're just full of stupid ideas."
Naruto paused for a moment not knowing what to say while Miki stared at the two, feeling her eyes begin to feel heavy. "What'd you say?" Naruto shouted getting ready to run at the boy only to be stopped by Sakura holding him back while they both yelled.
"If you want to stay alive, you should go back where you came from." Inari said before walking away. "Inari, wait. Where are you going?" Tazuna asked the boy, his protective mode kicking in. "To look out at the ocean. I wanna be alone." Inari stated.
Once Inari had left the room Tazuna turned to look at the visitors staying in their house, "Sorry about that."
~~~~~~~~~~
Later that day, Kakashi decided it was officially time to start training. He tried to tell Miki to stay at Tazunas house to sleep and get some rest but she simply refused and followed them despite Naruto and Kakashi telling her to stay. Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke could visibly see how tired the girl looked. They had barely talked to her the entire time they had been at the land of waves, simply because she was to concerned about their teacher, feeling like it was her responsibility to help him seeing as she knew some medical ninjutsu.
Sasuke hated to admit it but he was worried about the girl. He wished she would just listen to the two and get some sleep but he knew how stubborn she was.
"All right. Training starts now."
"Right!"
"First, we will begin with a review of chakra, The ninjas basic course of power. Understanding chakra is essential." Kakashi explained.
"We know that." Sasuke stated.
"He's right. A long time ago, we learned about... uh, cattra." Naruto said matter-of-factually.
Miki internally groaned. She had explained chakra to the boy more times than she could count, but it never seemed to stick in the boys brain.
"Chakra." Kakashi corrected the boy resulting in him sweat dropping. "Go ahead, Miki."
Miki sighed, "Like i've explained a million times Nii-San, Chakra is the elemental life energy a ninja uses in jutsu. It's the source of all his power. Chakra energy has two forms, physical energy, which exists in all the cells in the entire body, all working together, and spiritual energy, the primal source of power, which is intensified through training and experience. These two types of chakra must be drawn out and brought together in order to perform jutsu. Notice the interplay between physical and spiritual power. that the key! Finally, hand signs focus and unleash the chakra." Miki explained as simply as she could. being able to control your chakra was one of the key elements in medical ninjutsu so Miki was relatively good at it.
"Right on all points." Kakashi complimented, receiving a smile from Miki. "Iruka Sensei really did have some excellent students."
"What's the big deal with all these complicated explanations? The whole point is to learn the jutsu, isn't it?" Naruto asked.
"Nii-San being able to control your chakra is one of the most important things to know when learning new jutsu." Miki told the boy.
"Hm. Naruto's right for once. We're already using chakra energy in our jutsu." Sasuke spoke up. He hated admitting that Naruto was right but thinking about how it might tick Miki off if he disagreed with her and Kakashi made it worth it, which he was right about. As soon as Miki had heard his words she sent a glare his way.
"No. You have not mastered this power. You've barely scratched the surface of it." Kakashi corrected the two boys. Miki stuck her tongue out and put her thumbs in her ears to mock sasuke, who simply glared at the girl with tinted cheeks.
"What do you mean?" Naruto shouted.
"Calm down and listen." Kakashi scolded and then began to explain, "It's just like Miki said. You have to draw on physical and spiritual energies and then combine them within yourself. But... How do you do that? Each jutsu requires different types of chakra in different proportions. You must select and combine them in exactly the right way. Up to now, You've just guessed at the proportions, hoping they'd come out right. Even if you produced a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's all worthless. The jutsu won't work at all, or it'll just be a joke. You waste so much energy that way. Then you're out of chakra and you can't fight at all. You're just a target."
"Uh... So how do we change that, heh?" Naruto asked.
"Training so hard that controlling your chakra becomes second nature. To achieve this goal, you must be ready to put your life on the line."
Miki felt good knowing that Naruto and Sasuke both just got proved wrong. They must be so embarrassed. wanting to shove it in their faces, miki pointed at Sasukes face and began to laugh, "Look at your face" Miki said between laughs, "You look so annoyed." Miki whipped a tear from her eye, "How does it feel to admit you're wrong and I was right, huh Sasuke?" Miki shoved it in his face, Sasuke pushed her hand away and grunted ignoring the girl.
"What do we have to do?" Sakura asked.
Kakashi laughed for a second, "Climb a tree."
"Climb a tree?" The three students questioned in unison. Miki Had done this exercise many times. The Hokage had helped her with it when she had told him she wanted to learn a bit of medical ninjutsu. Sure Miki didn't wanna be a medical ninja so she never went to far into learning it, besides the basic healing techniques she does know, so she never had to go further than climbing up trees. Despite this she knew quite a bit on chakra control and how important it truly was. Miki had always wanted to get even better at her chakra control and knew the next step after that would be to walk on water, which is supposedly way harder than walking up a tree.
Miki hadn't even realized she had zoned out until her thoughts were interrupted when Kakashi threw 4 Kunai knives down from the tree at them. "Use the Kunai knife to mark the tree at the highest point you can climb without using your hands. Then, try to get past that mark the next time and the next. At first, you'll need to run at the tree so your momentum can take you as high as possible until you get used to it." Kakashi paused for a moment, "Ready?"
Naruto quickly grabbed the kunai knife in front of him, "I'm more than ready. This is gonna be no sweat all the way. Believe it!" Naruto then pointed up at the Sensei, "Remember what you said, Sensei, I'm the one who's grown the most."
"You're definitely the one who talks the most. Now get focused and do it." Kakashi said annoyed.
Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke all began to focus their chakra's to the bottom of their feet, as Miki watched. Miki took several steps towards her tree not caring to take the kunai knife with her. Miki quickly focused on her chakra. After only a few seconds she then ran up the tree without even trying and then stared down at the three, "Kakashi Sensei I could do this by the time I was 9 pick something harder to do!" Miki whined while also trying to show off just to make Sasuke mad. She knows she's trying to be nicer to him but it's just so hard to when he always has an attitude.
Kakashi, who had expected this from her, secretly planned this. He was a little surprised just at how well and how quickly she was able to control it though, seeing as she had so much chakra due to the fox within her. But, now that she knew she wasn't missing out on anything too important she could hopefully get some sleep. Kakashi never wanted to admit it but he cared for his team a lot more than he let show.
Sasuke stared at the girl. How did she do that? His cheeks went warm though when he seen her smiling down at them, her hair delicately blowing in the wind. Shoving his thoughts about her away he focused back on his chakra.
Miki's brother and two teammates then began to charge at their own trees, all of them falling almost as soon as they began to run up it. Sakura ended up getting to the top only on her second try. This really impressed Miki as it had taken her a full day to master the technique. Sakura has so much potential, she so lucky. She thought.
"Well, looks like the women of the squad have the most advanced chakra control. Well done Miki, Sakura." Both girls giggled at the Senseis words.
"Yeah way to go, Sakura. I always knew you were awesome. Believe it!" Naruto shouted to his crush.
"Whatever." Sasuke muttered at Sakura's abilities.
"Well, not only does Sakura and Miki understand Chakra, They can control and maintain it as well. We spoke about someone becoming Hokage one day, didn't we? Seems like they have the best chance of that, wouldn't you say?" Kakashi said to Naruto, then directing his attention to Sasuke, "And as for the great Uchiha clan, maybe they're not so great after all."
"Shut up, Sensei. You talk to much." Sakura said trying to defend the black haired boy she loved.
Miki smiled at her team then looked at Naruto, "Don't worry Toto i'll never take your dream away from you even though i'm the strongest person alive. See look at my guns." Miki teased the blond boy, while flexing her arms.
Naruto chuckled at his sister, even though he was slightly annoyed, he knew she was only joking. "All right. First, I'll match Sasuke. Then i'm going all the way to the top. Believe it!" Naruto shouted.
~~~~~~~~~~
It had been several hours since their training had began, Miki decided she would supervise the three (seeing as she had the technic mastered for several years now) so that Kakashi could continue to rest and heal despite him refusing to at first. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were beginning to feel worn out. with Sakura, laying under a tree trying to catch her breath, naruto who was severely scratched up and had two large bumps on his head, and Sasuke who had scratches all over and was out of breath as well.
Sasuke and Miki watched as Naruto got up and walked over to Sakura to ask her for advice. Miki was a bit offended that her brother didn't decide to ask her for advice, seeing as she was more advanced but knew he just wanted to get closer to the girl.
Feeling a tap on her shoulder she jumped only to see Sasuke sitting bedsides her. "Sorry your face scared me." Miki lied, putting her hand to heart acting like she was trying to calm it down.
Sasuke rolled his eyes at the girl and stared at her expectingly for a moment, realizing that she didn't know why he was there he said, "How does it feel to know not even your twin wants help from you."
Miki glared at his words. "What do you want?" Miki asked trying to keep her composure. She was trying to be nicer to the boy after all. yeah... 'nicer'.
"Come on... you know." Sasuke said not wanting to admit he needed her help. but seeing as she was still looking at him with a cute confused look he decided to just whisper it, "Can you help me?" he said quietly.
"Huh? Sasuke, I could barely hear you." Miki said bluntly.
"Can you help me??" Sasuke whispered quietly once again.
Miki blinked at the boy still not hearing him, "Sasuke, i'm sorry but, you need to speak louder."
Sasuke sighed and stared at the girl with and annoyed look. "Can you help me?" Sasuke said just above a whisper.
Miki grew another irk mark. "Sasuke. I'm sorry but repeat your self one more time." She said.
"I said can you help me!?" Sasuke suddenly shouted at the girl making her jump.
"Aww is thee Sasuke Uchiha really asking me for help?" fanning herself acting as if she were fangirling, "I never thought i'd see the day. Oh sasuke. how i've waited for this day." Miki said purposely raising her voice several octaves.
Sasuke stared at the girl. God she's so annoying as always. "Just help me." Sasuke said not asking anymore.
Miki looked at Naruto who was getting tips from Sakura, "ugh... fineeeee." Miki said annoyedly, "but first... what's the magic word? I'll give you a hint it rhymes with peas." Miki said.
"I'm not saying that."
"Then i'm not helping you. why should I anyways?"
Sasuke grew red in the checks not wanting to say it, "please help me, Miki." To Sasuke this was the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to him. Even worse than kissing Naruto.
Miki stared at the boy not expecting him to actually say it, she then giggled at the boy, "Ok duckbutt! Since where teammates i'll help you!" Miki shouted while jumping up and extending a hand to him.
Just admit you were gonna help me from the beginning. Sasuke thought knowing she would have. She was to nice to actually refuse to help him. The boy took her hand and she pulled him up, then dragging him to his tree to explain better.
"You see Sasuke, you're actually doing pretty well. You've gotten farther and farther each time but only slightly. The trick is, is to add just the right amount of chakra.... you're not adding enough. You worried that if you focus to much of your chakra, you'll fall like Naruto, but you don't realize that you not putting enough energy is also causing you to fall. You need to spend more time actually focusing your chakra at the bottom of your feet, rather than focusing so much on beating Toto." Miki tried to explain, "When I was first learning how to climb trees, I spent 8 hours just meditating and trying to control my chakra. Obviously you don't need to meditate that long that's just how long I decided to, I can help you meditate if you'd like."
Sasuke looked at the girl, not expecting her to actually give him advice and be nice about it. Why was she being so nice all of a sudden? She even offered to help him meditate.
Miki blinked at the boy seeing as he was just staring at her intently. Feeling embarrassed she scatched her head and fake laughed, "Just kidding! why would I help you?" Miki felt her checks get redder than ever from embarrassment. why did she even offer to help? she didn't even know, it was like the words just came out without her even wanting them to. "A-anyway... good luck!" Miki said more embarrassed than ever and beginning to walk away.
Sasuke watched the girl in confusion as she began to walk away. Sasuke quickly followed after her and sat down next to her under the tree she was originally sitting under, while she looked at him with a weird look. The shade from the tree made her hair and eyes appear darker.
"Okay... I'll meditate here." Sasuke said while closing his eyes to focus. Miki let out a hum for a response and returned her gaze to Naruto and Sakura.
Naruto was now back to trying to run up the tree while Sakura glared at the red headed girl. Miki mentally sulked totally forgetting that Sakura was there and she was protective of her man.
Mikis thoughts were interrupted when Sasuke spoke up thought, "You should sleep. You haven't slept in two days." Sasuke said Sounding genuinely concerned. Realizing how it sounded he quickly added, "You being tired will only slow us down if Gato and his men suddenly attacked us" Miki sighed knowing he was probably right. The truth was that Miki was too scared to go to sleep ever since she got lost in the woods. The darkness scared her and sleep made her even more scared, But knowing Sasuke was there oddly made her feel better.
"Ok fine you win this time!" Miki said while pointing a finger in the boys face who simply pushed it away, "night night duck butt." Miki said while laying down on the grass and closing her eyes, drifting away into slumber.
Sasuke spent about an hour Meditating occasionally (every 10 minutes) getting distracted by Miki and checking on her.
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Words: 4005
AN: Hey you guys! I'm finally back!!! Sorry if this chapter makes no sense I didn't really know how to write this but i just wanted to start to FINALLY develop Miki and Sasukes relationship so i'm sorry that there's not really any sibling bonding moments. I was originally going to make Miki and Sasukes relationship develop more though the chunnin exams but like that's so far (not really but still).
ALSO idk if i should make this a full Sasuke FF or if I should change the Love interest to Neji or Garra (or someone else) I do have a lot of ideas for this story (based on who she ends up with) so just lmk who you guys want her to really end up with and i'll see what I can do!
FINALLY about my family situation just in case anyone actually cared, my dad is a lot better now he made us switch wifi providers but that's
A-OKAY And I think I should be able to keep writing for the time being! I am going to write ahead a few chapters rn though just in case I can't!
TYSM FOR 600 READS!!!