Hush
To Kill a Certain Man
xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"
xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn’t belong
to me. Probably wouldn’t be nearly as popular if it was anyway…
Summery: AU. Mizuki escapes
confinement and his revenge on Naruto has disastrous
consequences. What will happen when the loudest ninja in Konoha
suddenly isn’t anymore?
Warnings: Gore(especially
prologue), violence, possible future Shounen-ai
and/or Shoujo-ai. And
-written “speech”-
/sign language or other forms of code/
‘mouthed words’
Hush
Chapter 3
To Kill a Certain Man
color:black'>Naruto
color:black'>,
curled up like a kitten on Sasuke's lap and much to
the latter's annoyance, shivers in his sleep and clutches Sasuke's
knee tighter. Sakura, sulking against the teacher's desk, sends a tired glare
in Naruto's direction and groans, "Where's our
sensei? All the other teams have left already. I want to get this over
with." So I can go home and cry is left unsaid.
Sasuke
color:black'> scowls and drops his hand to Naruto,
first pulling at Naruto's clenched hand and then
subsiding, "Ch'"
Seconds later the door opens and
hair much to the comfort of the still sleeping boy. Sasuke
scowls in return and snatches his hand away from Naruto.
Kakashi shrugs it off, "Yo."
"Sensei! You're three hours
late!" Sakura, a bundle of nervous energy and frustration turned to anger,
stands with one hand on her hip and her finger pointing accusingly, "What
kind of jounin are you?! You look lazy and stupid and
I had to watch those two all this time and arg!"
Kakashi
color:black'>, unfazed by her assualt, tilts his
head, "Hmmm. . . My first impression of you three is. . ." Both
"I hate you."
Sasuke
color:black'> and Sakura both jerk at the unexpected insult and
glare. Sasuke returns the glare, struggling to hide
his own embarrassment. Then as Naruto takes in the
situation confusion covers his face and he blinks at Sasuke
and Kakashi.
Sasuke
color:black'> rolls his eyes, "That is our sensei. You'd think that you
didn't know we three are on the same team." When Naruto's
confusion deepens Sasuke frowns, "You didn't
hear Iruka-sensei call my name did you?" When
guess, Sasuke smirks, "You should be aware of
your surroundings at all times, dobe."
Kakashi
color:black'>, forestalling further argument, puts up his hands, "Now
then, let's go outside and get on with the initial meeting."
~
Iruka
color:black'> sits across the desk from the Hokage,
sipping at a cup of tea. “Um, Hokage-sama?”
The Hokage
looks up from behind a pile of scrolls, “Naruto will
be in the hospital for some time. It is in everyone’s best interest that he is
kept busy. This is a collection of things that he will certainly find useful.”
Iruka
color:black'> looks through the pile of hand written scrolls and books the
He looks up startled, “ANBU codes?! But Hokage-sama.
. .”
The old man shakes his head,
laughing, “Don’t worry. I just copied a couple of basic ones that
dangerous.” He picks up a last scroll and hands it to
that Naruto may find quite useful. Now that he has a
chance to improve his stealth. . .” Both men share a frown, “Anyway, bring
those to Naruto when you go visit him tonight.”
“Yes, Hokage-sama.”
~
Kakashi
color:black'> settles on the railing facing his three new students. Sakura,
fidgeting, settles on the steps next to a now composed and stoic
attempted to sit next to her. The tension between the three is palpable and
then. Let’s get started by introducing ourselves, name, likes, dislikes,
hobbies, dreams.” He tosses Naruto a notepad and
pencil, “You forgot these. Write yours down and I’ll read it to the others.”
turns to Sakura, “You first while we wait.”
Sakura frowns, “But what about you
sensei?”
“Me?” Kakashi
poses thoughtfully, “I’m Hatake Kakashi.
There are some things I like and some things I don’t like. I have a few
hobbies. My dreams I keep to myself.”
“But all we learned was your name!”
When Kakashi doesn’t respond Sakura huffs in
annoyance and plasters a fake smile on her face, “I’m Haruno
Sakura. And I like. . .” She glances at Sasuke and
blushes “Well, the person I like. . .” Sasuke, not
paying attention to her, leans towards Naruto in an attempt
to read over his shoulder and Sakura bursts into tears.
Kakashi
color:black'> sighs, and sounding rather disappointed says, “And what about the
things you hate?”
“Naruto!”
Naruto
color:black'> turns a hurt look on her and then scowls, attempting to hide the
notepad from Sasuke. Kakashi
sighs again and speaks to Sasuke, “Your turn.”
“My name is Uchiha
Sasuke. I hate a lot of things and I don’t like many
at all. And my dream won’t remain just a dream. It’s an ambition, one that I’m
going to fulfill, to revive my clan and kill a certain man.”
Seemingly satisfied
“Finished?” Naruto writes on for a moment and then
tosses Kakashi the notepad. Kakashi
snatches it and begins to read, voice neutral, “I’m Uzumaki
Naruto. I like ramen, especially Ichiraku
ramen that Iruka-sensei buys me, and
hate Mizuki-sensei. My dream is to become
Both Sasuke
and Kakashi fix Naruto with
calculating looks but Sakura stands up, angry, “Why do you hate
slows, voice icy, “Besides if he hurt you, you deserved it. Probably
worse.” Naruto jumps up, hands clenched and
trembling, in response and takes a step towards her.
Before he can get any further,
traitor. He attacked Naruto last night.”
Both Sasuke
and Sakura snap their attention towards Kakashi but
Sakura, looking shocked, speaks up after a moment of silence, “
Sasuke
color:black'> looks Kakashi in the eye, voice cool,
“What did he do to Naruto?”
Kakashi
color:black'> tosses the notepad back to Naruto
instead of answering, “Not my place to say. Ask Naruto.”
Sasuke
color:black'> gives Naruto an expectant look but
“Since we’ve been forced into a team I need to know your weaknesses so I can
compensate for them. Tell me!”
Naruto
color:black'>, fists clenched in rage, jumps to his feet opening his mouth to
yell. He manages to get a fist back before the coughing starts and he collapses,
cradling his throat. He stumbles into a startled Sasuke
who finds himself with a lap full of Naruto for the
second time in a single day. Naruto brings up blood,
less than earlier, and Sasuke, fighting not to show
embarrassment, awkwardly supports him.
Kakashi’s
color:black'> lips quirk into a grin beneath the mask but his voice is casual,
“Naruto. Tell your teammates your injuries. It’s an
order.”
When the coughing finally eases
and scribbles on the paper. –Mizuki-sensei cut my
throat. Everybody says I should have died.-
With a faint look of fascination
hiding the bandages.” Shivering at the touch, Naruto
nods and looks away, faint color coming to his cheeks.
“That’s impossible. No one could be
up and around just a day after having their throat cut.” Sakura scoffs, hands
on her hips, “No medic is that good.”
“He is obviously injured and the
injuries are centered on his throat. What else could it be?”
“So you’re defending him now,
annoying little idiot who can’t even do Bunshin
the class! I’m surprised he even graduated at all.” Voice cracking, she shouts,
“What does he have that I don’t?!” Both Sasuke and
After a lengthy silence
won’t be completing any missions until he is healed.” Intentionally, but
sounding like an afterthought, he adds, “And we were going to have our first
mission tomorrow too. Oh well.”
“A mission?” Sakura, troubles with Sasuke
and Naruto temporarily forgotten, asks softly, “What
sort of mission?”
Kakashi
color:black'> smiles beneath the mask, “A mission just for our team.” After a
theatrical pause he continues, “Survival Training.”
Sakura pouts, “Training? But didn’t
we have enough training when we were in the academy?”
Chuckling Kakashi
shakes his head, “I’m sure you’ll all be very surprised. This training is a
test to see if you are really worthy of becoming genin.”
At the surprised faces of the three Kakashi breaks
into actual laughter, “See? You’re surprised. It has a 66% failure rate and
those who fail are sent back to academy. You should thank Naruto
that you’re given time to prepare rather than having to face it the day after
becoming a team.”
Sasuke
color:black'> scowls, “Then what were the tests at the academy for then?”
“To show who had the potential to
become genin.” Kakashi
pauses, “So go home and train, Sasuke, Sakura, and I
will inform you when Naruto is cleared for. . .”
Naruto
color:black'> suddenly stands up, notepad thrust out for everyone to read.
–Tomorrow. We’ll take that test tomorrow and pass! I won’t hold anybody back or
let them down. . . Not even Sasuke.-
“Naruto. .
.” Sasuke’s voice dips in warning, “I won’t be sent
back to the academy because we failed due to your injuries.”
Looking bland Kakashi
shrugs, “If you insist I don’t suppose I can dissuade you, Naruto.
You’ve already escaped the hospital once. Tomorrow then.
Meet at the training grounds at 5 a.m. And don’t eat anything or you’ll throw
up.” With that Kakashi stands, “Oh, and
back to the hospital.” After a pause he adds, “It’s an order.” and
disappears.
After assuring that
Looking confident
manages to catch him, just barely, when he faints.
~
The Hokage
looks up sternly at the opening of the door, “Ibiki.”
“Hokage-sama.
Our suspicions have been confirmed.” Ibiki bows, “
level and had a deep working knowledge of Konoha.
There is also a confirmed foreign ninja among the dead from his escape. The man
had nothing linking him to any particular village on him. We believe this man
was Mizuki’s contact with the village he defected
to.”
“Continue.”
“All Konoha
jounin and ANBU have been accounted for so the
accomplice wasn’t another traitor. Mizuki has escaped
completely, there is no trail left behind and it can be assumed that his
accomplice is also away cleanly. But the second attempt to take the Scroll of
Sealing failed. Mizuki has no skills or knowledge of
crucial importance so in spite of his escape Konoha’s
losses are minimum. Now that we are aware that another
village orchestrated this we can be more cautious.”
The Hokage
frowns, “Minimum, Ibiki? Two ANBU and a good
When I agreed to allow you to keep Mizuki alive
temporarily in hopes of discovering his accomplices and contacts I expected
proper precautions to be taken. Was your gamble worth the
risks?”
“Proper precautions were taken. We just. . .”
“Underestimated our unseen enemy.”
The Hokage’s voice is faintly scolding, “You assumed
that because Mizuki was a chuunin
schoolteacher that he was being used as a tool to get the Scroll. You assumed
that our enemy would make an attempt to take the Scroll rather than rescue
rather than a very skilled ninja whose loss would hurt more than the potential
gain. You assumed that Mizuki would concentrate on
escape rather than revenge. Am I wrong?”
“Hokage-sama,
I. . .” Ibiki
face.
“Ibiki you
are an excellent ninja and an unparalleled interrogator. You have the human
psyche mapped out well enough to break almost anyone who comes before you. But
you tend to forget that the human spirit is full of surprises.” The
action was the right one, one that anybody would have taken, and we did learn
some valuable things about our enemy. I just wish the cost hadn’t been so
high.”
“It won’t happen again,
The Hokage
smiles, “I’m sure it won’t. Everyone makes mistakes, Ibiki,
even me. But now go back and look over the incident, every detail, and see what
you can learn. I value your insight.”
“Sir!” Ibiki
salutes and leaves.
The Hokage
sighs, “I hope we can discover the truth underneath the lies before it is too
late.”
color:black'>Cyber-
color:black'>“And that brings us to the end of chapter three. Tune in next
chapter for cute Naruto Iruka
interaction and the Survival Training! Ja ne!”
Review responses:
Thanks to: moonprincess90,
Shadow117, BT, slayerette0, 18, silverfox,
Erika, Saske’s Iris, april,
jadeite, kirameki, alisha,
The Daxinator, Luna, Rosemarykiss,
wolvesm0on, ntfoemy, Hiei
Girl 003, green-gold-fox, Lady Adako, blackhypnos101,
bast4, Princess Kitana, tiqqra
To Yum: Thank you for the
review. If you want to send me the thing about commas I certainly wouldn’t mind
a bit. As to Sakura’s reaction. . . well, the readers
won’t discover the depth of it for a few chapters yet.
To TenshiKaitou:
Thank you for your review. As for the ‘gentle and caring’ Sasuke,
my interpretation of the character (which is certainly faulty as I am not the
creator of Naruto) allows for moments of “weakness” where
the walls he has built around himself thin and his childhood personality, which
he has repressed, surfaces. I am aware that my Sasuke
deviates from traditional fanfic interpretation
(deviation from canon is a given in any fanfic) but I
hope he doesn’t deviate so much as to be unrecognizable.
To WaywardFate:
Thank you for your review. As for the mistakes with syntax, grammar etc I
acknowledge that I’m far from perfect. And if my beta doesn’t catch it there’s
a good chance it won’t be changed. If you point them out though, I’ll gladly
fix what I can.
Pairing note: Many reviews
ask about or for pairings. For a good portion of the fic
the main cast is too young to be in any serious relationship and therefore the
most that will be seen is crushes and maybe a little experimentation. And most (if
not all) of the crushes will coincide with canon. If (or when) this
relationships will develop. In short any actual pairing is a
long time in coming so don’t hold your breath. And I will say it once
again: any and all romance (and sex for that matter) is secondary to the plot. Those
that are reading for romance will probably end up disappointed. Thank you for
your time.