Chapter 11
"You will have to give it your all, Sasuke. Because from what I can see, you have the toughest opponent left to face," Kakashi said as I followed behind him. We were jumping from rooftop to rooftop, heading… well, I had no real idea where.
After all the matches ended and the final contestants were chosen, I had to come back to my home in a hurry and pack my things for a month-long training session.
"From everything we've observed and the intelligence I've gathered, it goes without saying that Gaara of the Sand is extremely unstable. That thick, uncontrollable killing intent he radiates, it's not just for show. He's far more used to killing his opponents outright than giving them the chance to surrender," Kakashi continued, his voice low and serious, the usual lazy drawl completely gone.
I already knew far more than he did about my opponent in the Chunin Exam finals. I knew exactly how dangerous Gaara could be if I didn't prepare properly, or if I decided to rely on my hidden trump card. Which I wouldn't. That particular card would put me in far more danger than facing Gaara ever could. No thanks.
"At the very least, I need a technique that can get through that automatic sand defence of his," I said, thinking back to the two fights I remembered from the canon timeline and current timeline: the one against Lee, and the one against Choji. In both cases, Gaara's sand shield had been the biggest headache, moving on its own, blocking almost everything before it even got close.
It was troublesome enough that I wasn't sure plain Fire Style would be able to overwhelm it, let alone injure him through it.
And yes, the fight Choji lost against Gaara and Tenten won against the Kin girls from the Sound Village.
"That's exactly the thing," Kakashi said, a faint glint in his visible eye. "I've thought of a perfect technique that should let you pierce straight through that sand defence, efficiently… if you can master it in the month we've got left, that is."
He was clearly trying to poke at my competitive side, the way he always did when he wanted me to push harder.
"You don't have to use those little tricks to motivate me," I replied, letting a touch of sarcasm slip into my tone. "Even without you prodding, I'll do my best. Anyway, where exactly are we going? And what about training Naruto or Sakura?"
My question seemed to catch him off guard. He didn't answer right away, and for several long seconds we just kept leaping across the village roofs in silence.
"…Well, it seems you really have changed a lot, Sasuke," he finally said, sounding almost thoughtful. "Asking about your teammates' training situation. That's not something I ever expected to hear from you."
He paused again, like he was weighing his words. "Don't worry about Naruto. I've already arranged for a perfect teacher, someone who can help him fill in all the gaps in his foundation and make it rock-solid from the ground up."
I gave a small hum, acknowledging that, and waited for him to go on. When he didn't, the silence stretched out again.
"And Sakura?" I pressed anyway, even though I saw him wince slightly at the question.
"She… can take a bit of a break for now," he said, half statement, half question, like he was hoping I'd just let it drop.
I didn't say anything. I just kept my eyes fixed on the back of his head as we jumped, making it very clear with my silence that the excuse wasn't good enough.
Kakashi sighed. "…What can I say? In this short window of time, I didn't manage to find anyone willing to take her on for specialised training."
I interpreted that the way it was probably meant: he hadn't really tried. He was just being his usual lazy self. I wasn't disappointed, I'd known for a long time that Kakashi's work ethic was… selective. Still, I thought for a few moments about who might actually be a good fit for Sakura.
"Why don't you let her train under Kurenai-sensei for a while?" I suggested after a couple of seconds. "After all, she can't really teach Shino much about his clan jutsu anyway. Besides, it would give Sakura some solid genjutsu basics, and she'd get to see how a female jonin actually operates day-to-day."
We both fell quiet again. The only sounds were the wind rushing past and our feet hitting tile and then dirt as we finally left the rooftops behind and entered the training ground areas on the outskirts of the village.
Kakashi tilted his head slightly, considering it. "You know… that's actually quite feasible. I'll have to ask Kurenai for a favour."
He sounded almost surprised that the idea had come from me.
We touched down lightly on an unfamiliar rocky terrain of Training Ground 73, the entire place on top of a mountain zone. A smile appeared on my face, knowing what training I was about to start.
+ Hiruzen Sarutobi +
"Was it really necessary to make it so obvious?" Asuma asked, irritation thick in his voice as he stood across the desk from his father.
Hiruzen didn't flinch. He had been Hokage for more than three decades, nearing four, and he had long since developed the kind of thick skin that let accusations like that slide off without so much as a blink. He simply reached for his pipe on the desk, packed the tobacco with practised fingers, lit it slowly, and took a long, deliberate puff. Only then did he finally meet his son's eyes.
"…Aren't you taking your job, and what it truly entails, a little too lightly?" Hiruzen replied, turning the question back on him with calm steadiness.
Asuma's jaw tightened. "That doesn't mean you have to put my students against—" He cut himself off, brows knitting together harder. "Why did you put Choji up against an unstable, dangerous ninja like Gaara?"
"There is no question that the matchup was unfair to Choji," Hiruzen said plainly, holding his son's gaze without wavering. "But it wasn't meant as some kind of deliberate cruelty. It was a reminder, one you needed to hear. You will not always be able to stand beside your students. And thankfully, it didn't turn fatal. You stepped in and stopped the match before it could go any further."
"You mean before my student was almost crushed to death by sand?" Asuma shot back, voice rough with barely restrained anger. "They're still young, Father. They have years before they have to stand completely on their own."
Hiruzen exhaled another thin stream of smoke. "And yet I recall telling you, and all the other jonin, when you nominated them, that they were ready for this exam. Did you not think of the danger of the Chunin exam? Especially, I had even pointed out the fact that they were still rookies and had time to prepare before entering such a dangerous exam."
There were a few seconds of silence, and both looked into each other's eyes, not backing down.
"I saw great potential in them then, and I still do. I can see them surpassing even their parents one day, becoming the next true Ino-Shika-Cho trio. But potential means nothing if they can only shine when they're fighting side by side. Their parents managed to take care of themselves when it mattered. Your students need to learn the same."
Asuma opened his mouth, but Hiruzen raised a hand slightly to stop him.
"And don't give me the excuse that they're too young. I want you to be serious for once, Asuma. Teach them properly. Push them. Because far more is riding on this than you seem willing to believe."
He paused, letting the weight of the words settle between them.
"And before you storm out complaining about the other matches, don't. I gave your other two students fair chances. In Ino's case, especially, her improvement has been… lacking. You know that as well as I do."
Asuma had already turned toward the door. He stopped with his hand on the handle, shoulders stiff.
"I don't want any part of that so-called 'important matter' you keep hinting at," he said without turning around. "Unlike my elder brother, I have no interest in getting dragged into your grand future plans for the greater good of the village."
He took a breath, then added more quietly, "I understand I need to work harder for my students' improvement. As their teacher, I will do that. And only that. Nothing else."
With that, he opened the door, stepped through, and shut it behind him with a firm click that echoed in the suddenly quiet office.
Hiruzen remained seated for several long seconds, staring at the closed door. Then he let out a long, weary sigh that seemed to come from deep in his chest.
"If I had any real choice in the matter," he murmured to the empty room, "I wouldn't burden you with any of this… You don't understand how heavy it is to carry the weight of this village when there is no one left willing, or able, to help shoulder even a small part of it."
The words drifted into silence. Behind them lay not just fatigue, but something heavier: the quiet, unending loneliness of a man who had spent decades trying to hold everything together alone.
+ Third person perspective +
Several kilometres beyond the border of the Land of Fire, deep within the tangled forests of the Land of Grass, two shinobi moved swiftly through the undergrowth.
The leader was an older man, his face marked by several thin scars that spoke of years of survival rather than glory. His clothing, practical, patched, and bearing the subtle insignia of a Grass Village jonin, made his rank clear. He ran with the steady, economical pace of someone who had long ago learned to conserve energy even in a friendly territory.
A few steps behind him struggled a red-haired girl wearing glasses. She was breathing hard, legs trembling under the strain, barely managing to keep up. Sweat plastered strands of hair to her forehead, and every few strides she looked as though she might stumble and fall.
The jonin glanced back, eyes narrowing in irritation. "Speed up! I don't want to waste any more time here!"
He muttered under his breath as he faced forward again. "Can't believe only she made it back alive. Those bastards call themselves great ninjas and couldn't even pass the second stage of the Chunin Exams. And they had a walking, talking blood bank right there with them."
"And the rest, complete waste of—" He broke off mid-sentence. Something felt wrong.
He stopped abruptly and spun around. The path behind him was empty.
No red hair. No stumbling footsteps.
He swivelled his head in every direction, then broke into a short sprint, scanning the trees, the bushes, the trail they had just come down. Nothing. Not a single sign of struggle, not even disturbed leaves.
"How…?" he whispered, pulse quickening.
He couldn't fathom it. She had been right behind him, close enough that he could hear her ragged breathing. And now she was simply gone.
The realisation hit like cold water. If she had died during the Chunin Exams, no one would have blamed him. Accidents happened. But vanishing while under his direct escort? That was different. That was a failure on his watch. The village elders would not be forgiving.
In the worst case, they wouldn't even believe his story. Interrogation would follow, painful, invasive, possibly experimental. They had done worse to shinobi for less.
"Fuck…" he cursed quietly, already calculating escape routes in his mind.
Loyalty to the Grass Village had died in him years ago. He had seen too much of the backstabbing among the so-called elites, had been part of it himself. If it came down to saving his own skin, he would run. He would disappear.
Better a missing-nin than a lab subject.
…
Roughly a hundred kilometres from the Hidden Leaf Village, in a bustling town filled with merchants, travellers, and the constant hum of evening activity, a modest but clean hotel room stood quiet.
Inside, on the narrow bed, lay the same red-haired girl who had vanished from the forest. But she looked different now.
Her hair had been dyed a plain, unremarkable brown. The bright red strands were hidden beneath careful application. She wore simple civilian clothes, a loose tunic and trousers that could belong to any travelling merchant's daughter. Her old glasses had been replaced with a pair of plain black-rimmed frames that softened her features and made her look younger, less noticeable.
She sat cross-legged, a scroll open carefully across her lap. Her eyes moved rapidly over the text.
Suddenly, she froze as the memories of her Shadow clone finally came crashing in.
"So it really worked… just like the scroll said!"
Her whisper was filled with quiet, trembling joy. She resisted the urge to clutch the parchment too tightly, afraid of damaging it. Instead, she leaned closer, rereading the lines with feverish intensity.
The scroll had appeared in her possession without explanation, slipped into her pouch during the chaos of the exams, perhaps, or earlier. She didn't know how, and at this point, she didn't care. She had followed its instructions to the letter.
It contained descriptions of several jutsu, along with precise steps to master them. The three basic academy techniques, Clone, Transformation, and Substitution, were there, explained more clearly than any instructor had ever managed. But the real treasure was the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
The very technique she had used to fool her jonin escort.
She had created a single shadow clone, ordered it to maintain the transformation into her real self, and then slipped away while the clone trailed behind the jonin. When the time was right, the clone had dispersed on its own. Simple. And not something anyone would expect from her.
"I have to master them as fast as possible," she murmured. "Then, and only then, can I go and meet her."
Beside her on the bed lay another scroll, this one unrolled just enough to reveal neat stacks of 100,000 ryo in cash. Next to it rested a bingo book, its pages worn from use. One entry had been carefully highlighted: a blonde woman with sharp features and a diamond-shaped seal on her forehead.
Senju Tsunade.
Karin's gaze drifted back to the instructions on the first scroll.
[She is Senju Tsunade. From time to time, she will transform into her younger self, but the mark on her forehead remains the same. Find her; she is pretty much the only family member you have left. After meeting her, tell her everything truthfully. Even give her the scroll to look through. She is the only person who can truly protect you from all the dangers ahead.
Try to find her information using shadow clones. Have them transform into different objects or people to gather intel. Observe those around you. Always keep your senses open. Use no more than one or two shadow clones at a time to increase the rate of your improvement.]
There were more details, places Tsunade was known to frequent, her nickname "the Legendary Sucker," the casinos and gambling dens where she could often be found losing money, the black-haired assistant who always stayed close with a small pig in tow. Karin had memorised every word, etching them into her mind like sacred vows.
She didn't know who had left the scrolls for her. A stranger? A hidden ally? Someone who had seen her suffering in the Grass Village and decided to intervene? Whoever it was, she felt a deep, wordless gratitude.
The setting sun poured through the window, catching on the lenses of her new glasses and turning her eyes into twin points of reflected gold. Those eyes, once pale and hollow from years of mistreatment, of being used as nothing more than a tool, now shone with something new.
Hope.
And beneath it, a quiet, growing determination.
For the first time in her life, Karin felt like the future might belong to her after all.