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Capítulo 103: Chapter 17

Tamayana Kara awoke once. Everything hurt. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't. She tried again…and this time whatever muck held them shut gave way.

She wasn't outside anymore. She didn't see that horrible rubber ninja.

Her teammates or her sensei must have come for her.

She tried to turn her head, but that hurt, too. What had happened to her that everything hurt?

Then she felt it. Her skin was on fire, her stomach felt like it was going to burst. Oh Kami. Number Two groaned in pain.

Then Taro…err, Number Four came into view. And Naruto, the blonde boy who was so handsome, so strong. Her sensei was here in person and was operating his puppet at the same time. She felt grateful…and nervous that so much help was necessary for her.

They were doing something to her. Number Three was at her feet. Number One was holding down her head. The pain, it hurt worse. Didn't any of them learn any medical jutsu? It felt like they were tearing her apart.

Her eyes fixed on Naruto. He was looking at her. He was terrified. She kept staring up at him…hoping…praying.

As the blackness swirled at the edge of her field of vision, she could only think of Naruto.

She had gone from being an idiot student to a powerful ninja because of him. She had left her home and her family behind without a thought because he asked it. She had walked and run and swam from one end of the Elemental Countries because he asked it.

If she survived this, if she lived, she would tell her sensei how she felt about him. She had counted on him to save her…and he did. He was always there, always strong, always a pillar in her heart.

She swore to herself. 'Let me live so that I can grow stronger for my sensei, so that I can be what he needs from me.'

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto walked over to the bed where his student was recuperating. He had felt so guilty about her injuries that he set her up, after field triage, in the safehouse he currently inhabited.

It had been three days. She looked better and was drinking fluids. But she was still awfully pale.

This whole thing was a vivid reminder of one of the main benefits of serving a ninja village: proper medical services.

Everything had been cobbled together. She had nearly died twice because Naruto and his team didn't know what they were doing…and didn't have basic supplies. Her bandages were stolen from a clinic in the nearby village. The antibiotics were stolen from a veterinarian. The jutsu used to repair some of the damage had also been stolen, much earlier, from Hidden Leaf.

It was sheer audacity that Number Two was still alive. She was their primary healer. Naruto only had rudimentary healing skills…and Number Three was scarcely any better. Number One knew as much as any civilian hunter out in the woods.

Naruto sat on a stool and looked at the girl's easy breathing. She was finally sleeping well.

They'd kept infection out, even though her intestines had been cut. Number Two was very lucky, foolhardy but very lucky.

Naruto looked over the saline drip. It would need to be changed within the hour. He made to stand up when a hand snaked out and grasped his.

"You're awake," Naruto said.

"I was tired of sleeping," Number Two said.

"Your body needs the time and energy to heal."

"Stop lecturing. I know you've never taken to the healing arts."

Naruto smiled. "True enough. But I've had my fair share of injuries. Some heal slowly…some never heal at all." His students still didn't know about his main weakness, his missing leg. That Naruto would keep hidden for as long as possible.

"I'll be good as new, Nar…err, Number Four."

Naruto was confused for a moment. His student had known his true name for some time now, but she'd never used that name. If she addressed him by name, she said, 'Taro.'

"Is there anything I can get you? I have several jutsu scrolls you've never seen before. I won't allow you to practice them, but you can read them…."

Number Two smiled. "That sounds nice. My brain feels like it's rotting."

Naruto stood up and walked into his sleeping quarters. He kept a stash of scrolls there. It took just a few minutes to find a few interesting scrolls. Naruto walked back to the room where his student was staying.

"Here you are."

"Thank you. Would you do me another favor, Number Two?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sure. What can I do?"

"Call me Mokuren, sensei."

That took Naruto back. It wasn't her true name. The jounin council back in Grass had informed Naruto of the name of each of his students. But he had never used them…and he didn't know what this new name meant. She wasn't delicate like the flower name she had just adopted. She was stronger than the thickest tree in the forest.

"I will call you Number Two."

"Please sensei. Call me Mokuren."

Naruto leaned away from his student. Something was going on here. Something odd, something off….

He was caught off guard when Number Two's hand reached out and snagged Naruto's hand. She had his hand to her lips before he could react.

It felt strange. Warm, wet.

The lips on his hand were the first time he'd been touched by another human…in a long, long time. Doctors teaching him to use his prosthesis in Hidden Leaf? That Suna ninja who had kicked Naruto out of an early model Taro puppet?

Years.

Naruto blinked twice, three times. Then he remembered the lips, the aggressive lips, on his hand. He snatched his hand back.

"What are you doing?"

"Sensei. Sensei, we're alone."

"Number Two, I don't know what you want…."

"I want you, Naruto. I thought you were so cool and powerful when I just saw your Taro puppet, I'd have followed you anywhere. I owe you so much. I admired and respected you, but you're my age. You're beautiful. I don't just have to admire you, sensei. I want you, Naruto. I want to be yours…."

Naruto's brain almost shut down at that declaration.

No one had ever claimed to love him, to want him. Naruto didn't know what to do. He was so advanced as a ninja, but his mind had never turned to girls. He thought of himself as broken, as damaged.

This didn't make any sense.

"I don't…understand, Number Two."

She sat up in bed. Naruto wanted to push her back down so she wouldn't injure her stitches…and then he thought again. He wanted to get away from this…girl who was causing his head so much pain. He didn't understand. It didn't make sense.

She reached out to grab his hand again.

"Please, sit back down. You're going to reinjure yourself, Number Two."

"No. Let me explain. My fondness for you, my admiration – it turned to love, Naruto. Now, you're nursing me back to health. I…I can't imagine anything more romantic."

Naruto stood up and headed for the door. "I'll be back in an hour. Read your scrolls, Number Two. We shall not speak of this…this again."

He was gone before Number Two could say anything.

She spent the next hour sobbing.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Time passed slowly in Naruto's current stronghold. Numbers One and Three didn't stay long before fleeing back out into the field. They could feel the tension…even if they didn't understand it.

Naruto took to climbing inside his Taro puppet and leaving on missions with Numbers One and Three. He left a Shadow Clone behind to tend to Number Two.

No one said anything…but it all unraveled. Years of working together was gone. The comfort of being a team was disrupted. They were back to their raw genin days.

Attacks against Rice Country targets slowed to a halt. Naruto's plan to fully blood his students…and himself…slowed. Before he could truly become strong as he'd promised to do, he needed to perfect his present skills.

But if he couldn't keep his students safe…if he couldn't fulfill his obligations to them…if he couldn't even stand to be touched, then what value was power?

It was a most uncomfortable month.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto managed to resume their raiding five weeks after Number Two had been injured.

His female student refused to look at Naruto or the Taro puppet. They began the raid, but no one was really into it. The magic was gone.

Indeed, in the thirteen hours they traveled between Wave and Lightning, the only highlight was running into some kind of caravan of Sound ninjas carting the last Uchiha, Sasuke, off to meet with Orochimaru.

Taro stayed his team while he deployed a special series of micropuppets, the ones that carried a special poison developed by Kabuto. Here, finally, was a worthy test subject. An Uchiha being willingly led away from Hidden Leaf.

Sasuke didn't seem to notice the pain of a few micropuppets injecting him with a small dose of an optic nerve poison.

Taro gestured for his team to attack, but he singled Sasuke out for safe passage. The poison took time to take hold. Naruto wanted to know the true effects. Sasuke would live today; who knew what tomorrow had in store for him?

Taro signaled. The brutal attack rained down on the Sound ninja.

Number Two held nothing back. She used every horrifying, lethal type of medical perversion she could think of. Arms exploded; hearts and lungs liquefied; gashes self-cauterized themselves across torsos.

Number Three showed just why he would eventually be classed an S-rank ninja…within a few years his repertoire would be well known and feared. Skin burned; ninjas were cut in half from a great distance; steam batted powerful ninjas around like they were toy ships in a storm.

Number One preferred to demonstrate his sword and dagger skills on a night like this one. He hadn't been on the field long enough to prepare any significant traps, but he had a few quick surprises ready. He was about to test out some new types of distraction traps when two wounded ninjas managed to grab Sasuke and flee the field.

Taro signaled that they wouldn't be pursuing. He had a test to run, after all. He wanted to see the effects of the new poison on the Sharingan.

Hours later the group arrived at the safe house in Lightning Country.

Naruto crawled out of Taro. He expected to have to explain about his order concerning the Uchiha.

Instead, Number Two dropped a bombshell. The Uchiha was the last of their concern. "This was my last mission, sensei. I believe I have learned everything you have to teach me."

Her voice was strained and brittle.

"No, Number Two. I am sure there is more that all of us can help you with…."

"No," Number Two said more firmly. "I have learned everything that I want to from you. I need to map my own course now."

Numbers One and Three were surprisingly quiet. They had both wondered what had happened between Numbers Two and Four…but whatever it was seemed to be playing itself out now.

The crumbling of their team was now complete.

"Is there anything I can do," Naruto asked, "to change your mind?"

Number Two bit her lip and shook her head. "I made myself clear to you. It's too hard to be here now…."

Naruto looked sad, but he nodded. As much as he wanted Number Two to remain, he couldn't countenance what she seemed to want from him. If this was what she needed, then Naruto had to let her go. "What are your plans, Number Two?"

"I will return and visit my parents for a time. Beyond that, I do not know. I have no interest in returning to serve Grass. They were wrong then to expel you; they remain wrong now."

Number One stepped over to whisper to Number Two. Number Three looked upset, but he let the others figure it out.

"Then go with my blessing, my dear student. This will likely be a complete severing of ties, then. With your departure, I will have to destroy the safehouses you know about for our continued security…."

"I know, sensei. I would never speak of you, but it is sensible in any case…."

"Thank you, Number Two. More than setting up new boltholes, other things will have to change soon. This life I live will soon be gone, Number Two. Once you leave, I don't know that we'll ever run into each other again."

"That's alright. It's too hard staying here, ignoring reality. You helped to make me strong…and for that I am thankful. But you broke my heart, sensei. I cannot just overlook that. I have to find my own path now."

Twenty minutes later, after saying goodbye to her teammates but not hugging or touching her former sensei, Number Two left the safehouse.

Naruto suspected and feared that he would never see his student again. The truth would be far worse.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A/N: This is my long planned exploration of Number Two. Those who complained about not knowing the student's names now have one of them.

Most of the S-ranked ninja featured in Naruto seem to have psychiatric dysfunctions. Naruto, growing up the way he did and always hiding inside puppets, is just as broken as Haku or Sasori. His power, like all power, comes at a severe cost. He seems willing to pay it, even if all the people around him are not.

More crumbling to come. The golden age is over.


Capítulo 104: Chapter 18

Tamayana Kara let herself discretely into her parents' home in Grass Country. She didn't want anyone to know she was back.

"Mom?"

There was a noise from the upstairs. Kara ghosted upstairs.

Her mother was cleaning the floor. "Kara? What are you doing here? I thought you were off training…."

Kara's mother was a civilian. She didn't understand the things Kara explained. Had she been a ninja, seeing her daughter like this would have been alarming.

"I'm fine, mom. I decided to part ways with my sensei."

"Oh. He didn't try to take advantage of you, did he?"

A bitter laugh erupted from Kara's body. "No, no, nothing like that."

"Okay. I'm making my special ramen tonight. Would you like to stay?"

"Yes, mom. I'd like to stay. May I remain here for a few days?"

Kara's mother smiled. "Yes. I would love that."

"Where's dad?"

"Trying to trade our old equipment for some better implements."

Kara's family had been farming for generations. Daikon, sweet potato, onion, eggplant, and a variety of other vegetables. The conditions weren't great for growing rice here.

The pair began talking about safe topics. Kara's mom didn't understand enough to ask about ninja topics…and, for the time being, Kara didn't care to speak about her work. It was nice to just have a simple conversation, to remember simpler times.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The unusual ninja who looked more like a plant than a person grinned when he performed a routine check on the Tamayana farm. The girl was eating dinner with an older woman and man, the parents.

Sasori had asked Zetsu to conduct surveillance on a number of locations in and around Grass Country.

This was the first hit.

Sasori needed to know immediately. He had most urgent questions for this girl. Perhaps the other students were home on leave, too? Zetsu had a long night ahead of him.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Number One spent less and less time around Naruto and Number Three. It seemed that Number Two had been the glue that held everything together.

Alternately, Number Three became more focused in his training.

Naruto tried spending more time with his remaining students…time spent interacting with them directly, not through Taro or another puppet. It felt strange, unworldly to be in the room with someone who wasn't a subject for interrogation.

Everything felt so wrong now.

He had an emptiness in his chest. Naruto found he actually missed his student. But he didn't know what to do….

….so he threw himself into training. He upped his practice schedule; he spent an hour a day practicing his taijutsu while he controlled ten puppets battling each other. He refined and improved his puppetry innovations. He got sharper, faster, better.

Still, it hurt.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The ghostly images of a number of people hung in the air. Sasori was alone in his safehouse. He had left that pest Deidara elsewhere.

"Leader, I have news."

"Enlighten us, Sasori."

"It will be of interest to Itachi and Kisame. The supposed Grass jounin I've been tracking for some time…is actually our missing Kyuubi container."

That got the ghostly images moving and talking. Nothing had been heard of Uzumaki Naruto for some time…not even by Itachi who was formerly an ANBU captain in Hidden Leaf.

"Quiet," the Leader commanded. "Very tantalizing, Sasori. Could you provide us with some more details?"

"Gladly. I made the…acquaintance of a young woman who was one of this jounin's students. Our arrangement together provided me with some interesting facts, although the man's location is not one of them…."

"Stop blathering," Kisame said. "Spit it out. How can this jounin who knocked around Orochimaru be the Kyuubi container?"

Sasori smiled. "Naruto is a puppeteer, of course. He can appear in any guise he wishes. Apparently the puppets he makes are good enough to pass as human…or he independently recreated my human puppet technique."

"A puppeteer," Leader said. "That is disturbing. It would indicate he has superb chakra control, if nothing else in ninja skills. I was under the impression, Itachi, that the boy was reviled in his village. Sasori, did this information source know who trained him?"

"She did not. Indeed, she did not know her 'sensei' was a teenager until a few months ago. He's cagey, this boy of ours. It was only sheer good luck we have this much information. Had he not confronted Orochimaru – or had my spy network been less effective – we might never have known this…."

"Enough," Itachi said. "I'll pat your back all you wish the next time I see you. For now, tell me where I can find this puppeteer. What does he look like? What are his vulnerabilities?"

Sasori laughed. "Nervous, eh, Itachi? A few of your greatest techniques won't work against a puppet. No Tsukiyomi, eh?"

"Sasori," Leader warned. "Do not taunt."

"My…source told me that Naruto was destroying all the safehouses she knew about. They ranged throughout the Elemental Countries."

"What of his techniques?" Kisame asked.

"He's cagey on that. The student could only talk of what the puppets could do. The main puppet is quite a weapons user. But the things she described are not enough to drive off and then severely wound someone like Orochimaru. He's obviously hidden his true power from even his students…."

Itachi nodded. "It sounds like this one will be a challenge. Good, I like a strong ninja. I need to find a true measure of my strength. Perhaps this boy will provide it."

The Leader seemed less pleased. "Somehow the Nine Tails has learned a powerful, hidden art. We don't know how…or precisely what he does. It's strong enough to inconvenience our old colleague. The only image we have of him is of his puppet…and that blasted thing can be abandoned at any time. What are you holding back, Sasori?"

"This former Grass jounin has been the one harassing and devastating Orochimaru…and I doubt he'll be satisfied until Orochimaru is dead."

Leader nodded. "Good. This Naruto will have to pass through Rice Country with some frequency. Kisame and Itachi, you will go and greet our missing jinchuuriki. Greet him gently. Sasori, be sure your acquaintance is appropriately…thanked for her assistance."

"Already done, my Leader."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto was sure he was about to lose Number One.

He decided to confront the issue after they finished this raid. Their efforts were less and less successful. Hidden Sound was just too well…hidden. But Number Three had suggested an interesting new tactic.

"They're called Hidden Sound, right? Well, why don't we see if we can find them with sound," he'd asked.

This was their first test of that interesting question.

Naruto had worked up an Earth Style technique to send sound waves at high speed through stone and earth. Upon encountering a gap, whether a small rabbit warren or an underground building, the sound reverberated violently causing the space to collapse. In theory.

Naruto and his team should be able to see the earth bulge and then sink into the ground. It was an interesting concept…but who knew if it would work?

The group stopped in four densely packed areas of vegetation, all places easy to conceal an underground entrance. The jutsu turned up nothing the first time and only a few small explosions the second and third times…explosions far too small to be installations.

The fourth place they stopped revealed something else. A stand of vegetation erupted in a cloud of dust. Direct hit!

Within seconds, Naruto (inside Taro) and his two remaining students moved closer to the detonation site, but they all took up different untouched sections. Each of them performed the jutsu again. After moving another time and using the jutsu again, they had a good sense of the size of the facility that they had just discovered.

"Number Three, why don't you see how well your steam can clean out a nest of cockroaches?"

"My pleasure, Number Four."

The powerful ninja ran toward the nearest edge of the facility and began blowing out a perilously long stream of steam. It pushed straight down. Wisps of steam erupted from other damaged parts of the facility.

As he turned red in the face and had sweat pouring off his face, Number Three stopped his attack. Whatever had been inside the structure was now thoroughly cooked.

Number Three looked pleased with himself, but Number One looked confused.

Naruto ended the experiment then. He needed to talk with Number One in a safe place. He didn't care to lose another person he had come to care about.

As dawn lit the sky, the team arrived in the far south of Fire Country. The bolthole was new, one of a half dozen recently carved out to replace the ones abandoned after Number Two's departure.

Number Three went to eat a quick meal and find a dark corner to sleep in. Naruto clambered out of Taro and then tagged Number One. "May I speak with you?"

"Sure thing, Number Four."

Naruto gestured to a pair of chairs. He poured himself a glass of water and offered another to his student. They both drank in silence before Naruto could form the questions he wanted to ask.

"I wonder if you are learning what you need to from me, from this association."

Number One shrugged.

"I remember that you wish to become a hunter nin. From what you've said of your family, I suppose you wish to honor their memory doing this?"

That earned Naruto a sharp nod. "Yes. A band of thugs, led by a middling missing ninja from Hidden Cloud, killed my parents. Yes, I do this to avenge them. These raids seemed like good training at first, but now. Now, we're hunting for a handful of needles in a haystack the size of a small country. I believe my growth has…leveled off."

"I see. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Number One sucked in breath and sighed. "I don't know. I don't think so."

"Are you thinking of moving on?"

Number One nodded.

"You liked her, didn't you?"

Number One tried to look surprised. "Who?"

He didn't play clueless very well.

"It doesn't matter," Naruto said. "I promised to help you. I stand by that promise, Number One."

"Thank you. I know that…but this isn't the same thing any more. I never thought how much I liked my team. The others in my Academy class just moaned and groaned about their teammates. I graduated at the bottom of the rankings and didn't have any room to bitch. I was from civilian stock; I had no reason to expect to become a ninja. But then we had something…magical, the four of us. With Number Two, I could almost read her mind in a combat situation."

Naruto smiled. "Until I took you as my students, I had never thought about teamwork. But it amazed me every day what you three, together, could achieve. Please let me know what I can do. If I need to let you go, then tell me that."

"I need to leave, sensei."

"Then you may go. Rest up as long as you need. If Number Three remains, then we will have to set up new safehouses again."

"I am sorry to cause you the disruption…."

Naruto waved away the apology. "Never apologize for trying to achieve your dreams, my student. If you think of anything I can do to help before you leave, please let me know."

Number One wouldn't meet Naruto's eyes. He just nodded, finished off his water, and grabbed a sleeping bag.

Naruto did not sleep well that night. He feared for Number One. Hunter nins, especially those driven by a sense of vengeance, didn't usually last that long working solo.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto rode inside his Taro puppet, walking behind Number Three. They were getting in position to run another series of nighttime raids against Hidden Sound.

They had a map and were carefully checking Hidden Sound and marking off the grids they'd touched. So far they'd uncovered and destroyed six more underground bunkers. The end was drawing near for Orochimaru.

His ninja were decimated. His food was destroyed. His economic base was gutted. Unpaid armies don't fight after all.

Now his hardened facilities were falling one by one.

The Snake Sannin would have to return to the field to confront Naruto…and this time, the Snake Sannin wouldn't be leaving alive.

Number Three was moving at a good clip…until he suddenly stopped. He then leapt off into the vegetation. He screamed.

Naruto looked…there was something over there. Something rather close to a former bolthole Naruto had used. It looked like a stunted tree or something.

Taro closed the distance, but Naruto almost lost control of his puppet when he understood what he was looking at.

"This cannot go unpunished, Number Four." Number Three's anger had already morphed into resolve.

Naruto looked at the horrible thing. It wasn't a stunted tree at all.

It was a pole planted in the ground. A bleached…skull…mounted on top. There was a horrible red scorpion carved or burnt into the forehead.

Even though the face was gone, eaten by birds or insects, Naruto knew it had to be Number Two. The clothing at the base of the pole matched what his student liked to wear.

In that moment of realization….

Number Two was dead.

….Naruto's fear of Akasuna no Sasori disappeared. The Scorpion was dead. He just didn't know it yet


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