CTG part Eight

CTG part Eight

Part Eight… Darker Truths

“What do you mean?” Sakura spoke now.
“Michiyo has already passed similar tests. That’s why.”
“How is that possible?!”
“Simple. She’s part of an old organization that died out utterly a little over 200 years ago.”
“What?” The faces before them grew confused.
“I’ll explain what I can.” Kakashi walked over to the ramen stand pushing Michiyo along with the kunai’s flat side. He walked over to a stool adjacent to Sakura. Prodding Michiyo to that seat, she unwillingly sat on it as Kakashi withdrew the kunai to sit on the next one.
“K-Kakashi-sensei, why did you put a kunai in Michiyo’s vest?!?” Sakura gasped.
“What?!!” Naruto, shocked, leaned over to see Kakashi put the knife away.
“!!!” Sasuke remained however, silent.
“She was about to run away,” Kakashi stated. “And I was never going to hurt her. If I could, that is.”
“If you could…?” Naruto prompted.
“Actually, another factor in why she was named jounin…” her teammates and the shopkeeper leaned closer. “…was because she really knows how to fight!”
‘???’ The faces before Kakashi grew confused.
“While I was keeping watch on you three, I sent a clone after Michiyo during the exercise when I said I would take her hostage. Remember?” He looked over at the three who nodded.
“To test her skill, my clone set up a decoy to ambush her when she got close.”
“You did WHAT?” Sakura looked horrified.
“Calm down. Listen to this.”

“Before my clone even knew what happened, she had me immobilized with my own kunai at my neck the instant she realized I was there.”

All of the genins’ jaws dropped simultaneously.

Michiyo heard the shopkeeper mutter curses under his breath from burning himself.
‘She…did… WHAT?!?’ Sasuke leaned over his ramen, his thoughts whirling.
‘How the HECK-!?’ Sakura was reeling back.
‘Wow, she’s way better than I thought… wait. How is that even POSSIBLE!?!’ Naruto’s thoughts were whirling similarly to Sasuke’s.
“And about three minutes later, even though I was freed, she knocked me out very efficiently.”
Kakashi turned to Michiyo, rubbing his jaw.
“That really hurt, especially from a hand like yours.”
“You were asking for it,” Michiyo muttered.

Kakashi considered that.
“
Well, yes, as a matter of fact I was…”
“What did you do to him?” Sasuke asked.
“…Uh…” Michiyo looked at Sasuke surprised.
“She backhanded me… hard.”
“Yaaargh!!”
Michiyo’s incredulous face was copied by her fellows as the watched the shopkeeper attempt to pick his ladle out of the pot, burn himself, and then trip over his own feet making for the first-aid kit.

Michiyo bit down her giggles.

“Hey… you alright?” Kakashi peered over the counter.
“I-I think so…” came the strangled reply.
‘I’m gonna pass out laughing at this rate…’ Michiyo bit down her tongue before leaping over the counter.
“That burn isn’t so bad, but I bet it hurts,” she observed. “Want some help with it?”
“Yes…please…”
“Okay, roll over.”
The shopkeeper rolled over to his back and raised his hand for Michiyo. She concentrated chakra in her hands and converted it, as she remembered. Putting her bright green hands onto the shopkeeper’s, she concentrated. Suddenly the chakra encircling their hands began sparkling with blue and white light.
‘What…the…’
“Wow…”
‘What’s going on here? That’s not how chakra’s supposed to look…’
Then, the burn started to shrink and disappear from inner light, making Michiyo’s mouth drop open.
‘According to medical ninjutsu, that is NOT supposed to happen…’

Her squad was exhausted. The whole thing had ultimately succeeded, but her co-captain was severely injured. She dressed the wounds by the light of the campfire. But she pulled the bandage too tight, and her friend’s muffled cry of pain escaped her closed lips.
“Sorry, sorry.”
Too tired to even sound concerned. How pathetic. They had been moving for so long though… She bit her lower lip. While they had easily evaded the search parties, it wasn’t easy to carry a wounded companion day in and day out. Cutting off a section of bandage from a roll, she glanced over at her new comrade. He was already out like a light, beyond tired. He usually was these days.
The good news to this miserable escapade was that they only had three days until they reached the haven of the Order. As she continued to nurse Fujika, she rubbed salve into her wound. Hopefully, it would heal quickly… though that was all she could do when it came to this, wasn’t it? Just hope. It wasn’t always like this, though.
She remembered how this sort of knowledge had been free to anyone, a while before she was born. But now, all such resources were near impossible to find unless you happened to be nobility. And yet only the emperor truly had any such medical resources; rumor was that he secretly had healers who could magically heal almost any wound to save a man from certain death. But such thoughts were wishful thinking right now… If only SHE could do such things. Then her friend could truly recover…
Out of nowhere, her hands started to tingle happily. Her body started to glow purple…
“What’re you doing!!?” Fujika recognized the glow.
“I swear I’m not doing anything!!” Quickly, she took her hands away from her friend, but, the purple turned a soft, lovely blue.
‘It’s not turning red…?’
Her friend gaped in wonder as well.
‘…This is different.’
Hesitantly, she put her hands on her friend’s arm. Warily, Fujika let her.
“Hey…” Fujika looked up at her. “For some reason, it feels… nice.”
Her hands started to sparkle, and immediately, her body was sparkling with white-blue radiance. This was so different from the red. The red wasn’t evil, but, this feeling that pulsed throughout her… made it seem so. It was just, so PURE. The wounds were dissipating before her eyes. Fujika would have gasped at the spectacle, if it were not for the fact she were closing her eyes in bliss. Then she felt something inside of her crack, as if she were a small, delicate thing put into rough care. Her eyes glazed over as a light filled them. Fujika looked over in time to see it.
“WHAT THE”-
Her eyes widened in their state of light, and she opened her mouth to show light escaping from inside there as well. Fujika’s own eyes widened.
“… What’s happening …? …Can’t you hear me!?”
She fought the power building inside of her, closing her eyes and mouth, bending over. But the power could not be fought. It had to GO somewhere. With a reaction violent enough to be mistaken for a spasm, she raised, opening her mouth and staring into the starry sky. Light burst from her into the stars.
She screamed from the surge, back arching. She woke her comrade, but she was unaware. All there was was the power that seemed to explode from within her, and the fact it needed to get OUT. The power, the light, it twisted her scream to sound inhuman, turning it to a low growling echoing through the night, till it rose to the roar of a dragon, but then rose drastically again to a screech that proclaimed powers that be. Terrified, her friends hung back unsure of what course of action. There was no stopping this.
The light of blue shot past the clouds, into the heavens showing a pillar of light for miles. Gradually, her voice faded, and so did the light. The last thing she could recall was the glow leaving her, her friends rushing towards her, and her knees hitting the ground as blackness enveloped her.

Startled, Michiyo pulled away from the shopkeeper. She saw that her memory was long enough to allow her green chakra to turn turquoise; it was steadily becoming lighter as well.
‘That was TOO close!!’ Michiyo ordered her heart to slow down.
The shopkeeper had sat up now; he flexed his fingers. They were now perfect, if a little too perfect… Michiyo gulped, and fought for a poker face.
“Thank you, young lady. It feels wonderful now!”
“You’re welcome.” She smiled back weakly.
Kakashi was meanwhile quiet, etching every second into his memory.
‘That’s the same look in her eyes at the training area…’
Michiyo looked at Kakashi’s own happy straight face, and the not-so-straight faces of her now-students. Man, did she mess this one up big-time.
“As a way of things,” Michiyo snapped back to the present, “why don’t you stop by tomorrow? I’ll give you a free meal if you want.”
Michiyo’s eyebrows arched. The smell wafting from the ramen here was always heavenly. Naruto’s gasp and whine of jealousy echoed her opinion.
“I’d be delighted.” She said enthusiastically.
“Okay then, but you better go now. It’s getting late, and I’m supposed to close up shop now.”
Michiyo looked at the sky and saw that it had indeed gotten late.
‘That interrogation and walk here must have taken longer than I thought…’
The shopkeeper smiled and opened a side door for Michiyo.
“So you won’t have to leap over the counter,” he explained.
‘Thanks,” Michiyo passed through the door.
“C’mon guys.” Kakashi paid for the genin’s ramen.
“Michiyo, let’s go. We’d all better go home.” Kakashi jerked his head towards the open street. “Naruto, you can wait until tomorrow for your meal. I’ll tell you all more tomorrow at the bridge in the morning. So don’t be disrespectful of either me or Michiyo starting effective tomorrow. She’ll officially be your other sensei then.”
“Whaaaaaaat?!” Naruto’s jaw was going to dislocate itself if it lowered any further.
“Michiyo? Sensei?! Ours!?” Sakura was speaking with her hands going crazy in the air.
“What, we’re supposed to call her Fujioka-sensei now?”
Kakashi flipped open his book.
“Not exactly, but you are expected to do exactly that TOMORROW.”
He started to walk off.
“Good Night!” He called. He didn’t look back.
“Good Night!!” Michiyo hurried to the roofs, like she was darting for her life.

“What, wait”- Naruto raised his hand, half expecting them to turn around.

But Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were alone. So they all walked home, full of questions and wondering about tomorrow. Though Sakura forgot when she wondered if she could get alone time with Sasuke, Naruto for Sakura, and Sasuke eventually forgot the whole thing anyway. That night it was a good thing that Michiyo couldn’t read minds.