Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden in Plain Sight ❯ Bruised ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2: Bruised

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Yamato/Tenzou was, she found, a great - if sometimes merciless - teacher. There were many ins and outs of ANBU society that she'd never have even considered; the sum of it was more than she'd be able to absorb in the limited time frame they had, so they stuck to the basics. If she came across other ANBU out in the field, there were many things she could explain away as being a new recruit, but there were some things that were just understood among the ANBU, some things that would be a huge faux pas to do or not do, and she didn't want to be drawing any undue attention to herself.

Things like how often people actually wore their masks.

Technically, according to the letter of the law, masks were supposed to be worn at all time while on duty. In reality almost no one adhered to that, at least not on missions. In town things were a bit tighter, but then again a typical guard-type shift only lasted ten hours or so. On a mission, when someone would be out for days at a time, masks would come off to eat, occasionally to sleep, and often to socialize.

There were many regular camping grounds on the way in and out of Konoha from any direction, and when happening upon another group - which was more regularly than one might expect in the wilds of the forest - they often wouldn't bother to keep up the barrier.

She hadn't made the connection before as Kakashi hadn't made a habit of using the common campgrounds, being as unsociable as he was. But, she reflected, the few times they had come across ANBU, the operatives had generally taken their masks off if conversing for more than a few minutes.

Of course, keeping her mask on was vital for her. She couldn't change her face without using chakra, and doing so could be disastrous in its own right.

That was why Tenzou had come up with the idea that she'd have to play the brand new recruit, too scared of the rules and the higher ups to risk bending them.

Usually newbies warmed up to the 'unofficial' rules right away, but every now and then there was a stickler who was just too by-the-book and took a while to chill out. That was going to be her angle.

Still, that had all been established within the first hour. Now they were working on chakra shielding. The particular method she was working on could more accurately be called chakra blocking, but most people were uncomfortable with that term.

"This is the most foolproof way of making your chakra undetectable," Tenzou had explained. "Building a shield around yourself requires you to not only match the frequency exactly - which given the fluid nature of chakra means leaks are likely - but it requires you to expend chakra to maintain it. Easy to drain yourself that way if you're not careful."

He would teach her shielding as well as blocking, but she was only to use it as a last resort. They could not risk her being compromised.

Chakra blocking, on the other hand, involved literally stopping the flow of chakra in the body. Thus there would be no signal for an enemy to pick up on.

"I can only teach you this," he'd commented, "because of the level of chakra control you exhibit. It takes understanding and skill to focus in and isolate each chakra point in your body and put it into stasis."

He'd explained the basics to her, which were simple enough, but infuriatingly told her there was nothing else he'd be able to do to help her with this method. It was all internalized, something she'd have to figure out the feel of for herself. The only thing he could do was tell her when he felt her chakra signal fade at all.

It had been half a day and she hadn't even made the remotest headway. It was so frustrating; she could see the chakra port in her mind. She'd focused on the one in her left shoulder, reasoning that when that one was out of commission those further down her arm would be easier to block. Using that reasoning she'd almost started in her core, but figured those were too strong for a first attempt.

She exhaled slowly, allowing herself a short break. She didn't open her eyes though; she didn't want to lose the chakra point in her mind's eye and felt that keeping its location fixed would prevent her from losing her progress...if she'd made any.

"You know," she said absently, "I bet those damn Hyuugas are just fantastic at this. Naturals, even. Not only can they actually see chakra points, but some of their specialized attacks are based on isolating and blocking them. It's not quite fair to us normal shinobi. Don't you think so, Yamato-senpai?"

Seemingly out of nowhere, a branch struck her in the back, knocking her from where she'd been sitting on her knees so that she almost caught a face full of dirt. Coming up gasping from the impact, Sakura scowled in Yamato's direction.

Automatically she reached back a hand to heal the massive bruise that was already forming on top of all the other half-healed bruises. At first she'd hesitated about healing herself, wasting her chakra when focusing so much on training. However she'd finally decided that maybe lowering her chakra would actually help - so she'd be trying to dam a stream instead of a river.

Besides, she was getting hit so much the growing discomfort kept breaking her concentration.

And Yamato - Tenzou, TENZOU! her mind screamed - held that his beatings were supposed to help.

"You're a sadist, you know that?" she grumbled.

Tenzou just smiled serenely, not that Sakura could see it. "It's the quickest way to learn."

She snorted, then opened her eyes just so she could glare at him. She figured she deserved a break anyhow.

"Scoff if you want, but it's true," he continued. "Even if you don't remember to use the correct address for me, your body will. You'll wince or tense up before you can even get the first syllable of 'Yamato' to leave your mouth."

"Isn't that how they train dogs? Punishment for good behavior and rewards for good?"

Tenzou's smile turned slightly smug. "Hey, if it works..."

Sakura threw a handful of grass at him and he shielded his face, laughing. "No, really, it's because it works. And it does so well because it's not a mental or even conscious stimuli. Your body trains itself and the mind follows. It's crude but efficient, and the best option when time is limited."

Sakura muttered something unkind under her breath. "Well, then what happens if it works too well? What if I call you Tenzou when I'm me instead of whatever alternate ANBU persona you cook up for me?"

They'd decided that Tenzou would pick everything for Sakura's cover identity- from her ANBU mask to her code name - to prevent any bit of her preferences or personality from leaking through.

"That is much better than the alternative," he said seriously.

They were both well aware of what the consequences could be if she misspoke his name while undercover. Her identity would likely be compromised - after all, how many people called him Yamato on a regular basis? In turn she'd put both herself and the mission in jeopardy. But she already knew that, and Tenzou knew how hard she was working specifically because of that. There was no reason to reiterate the point.

"If you call me Tenzou as yourself, however," he continued, "you can use all kinds of stories to cover for it. You could say you're around Kakashi too much, and hearing him repeatedly calling me by my other codename just got it stuck in your head. Or you could say you've started calling me that on occasion just to harass me. There are plenty of scenarios that could lead to you calling me Tenzou, and you think well enough on your feet so I don't think it'd be any problem for you if you do slip up."

Shrugging in attempted nonchalance, she couldn't quite hide the way her face flushed in pride at his belief in her ability. Then again, if she didn't have so many people who believed in her she wouldn't be able to be in this situation to begin with. Sometimes she wondered how easy it would be to let them all down.

She flopped onto her back and stared at the shifting blue of the sky. It was in moments like these that she could understand Shikamaru just a little bit better. Watching the scuttling clouds made her - made everything here on the ground - feel small and insignificant. Even her worries and frustrations.

"Let's spar," she announced suddenly.

Tenzou sent her a curious glance. "While I'm never one to turn down a spar, you're supposed to be concentrating on your training."

"I know," she said, sitting up. "But I keep thinking that if my chakra reserves were lower then it'd be easier to figure out how to shut down one of the points. It would at least give me the feel for it so I'd know how to do it from then on."

Tenzou nodded, even though he said, "Actually that depends on the person. Having lower chakra helps some, like you said, but for others its a detriment - they need to be at full power to focus and channel properly. When we're training ANBU in this we normally don't mention it for exactly that reason. You're the ones who know your bodies and systems the best, so if you thought of it then that's a good sign it actually will help."

"Great!" Sakura enthused, jumping to her feet. "I was tired of getting nowhere."

Shaking his head, Tenzou rose to his feet more slowly. "Don't be so hard on yourself," he chided. "This is only your first day of training."

"Yeah," she said absently flexing her fingers and cracking her knuckles. "But I only have two weeks to master this, not to mention perfect my disguise, relearn my habits, and hopefully have time to start learning that second method of chakra shielding you told me about. That doesn't give me much time to be lenient with myself."

He hummed. "Is that so? In that case maybe I'll go easy on you and let you get a few punches in. Then you can heal me and we'll make sure you're good and depleted before continuing your training."

She laughed at him. "You wish, old man."

"Old...man?" he gasped in mock affront. "That does it, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Apparently this not-so-old-man needs to teach you some manners and show you what kind of difference experience makes."

Grinning, she goaded, "Bring it on."

Face turning serious, Tenzou abruptly crouched low and made a series of handsigns in a blur of motion too fast for Sakura to catch, but she already knew what was coming.

Trees sprouted from the ground all around, unnaturally long limbs racing toward her, but Sakura'd had quite enough of being pummeled by branches today. Still smiling, she wove and danced her way through the advancing line and headed out of the clearing toward the tree line, where there would be more obstacles for him to deal with.

It had been a long time since she and Tenzou had squared off against each other. She had some new tricks up her sleeve that she was just dying to try out on him.

This was going to be fun.

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