Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road I Take ❯ Outsmarted by Pure Fluke ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?!”

Both of their mouths had fallen open at the Hokage's suggestion. I mean, who wouldn’t be surprised if the Hokage had just suggested that the young venerable girl stay with the one of the village perverts.

“You’ve got to be kidding, right?”

Iruka had recovered first from the shock. Kakashi looked hurt, but everyone knew he was only playing.

“What’s wrong with me?”

Tsundae was only too amused at the reaction of the two, fighting it out over her suggestion. Iruka was looked incredulous that she wanted to keep Ritsuko under the watch of the young jounin.

“Iruka-Sensei, you did say that you couldn’t look after her anymore, especially since that your students were coming up to their exams and it would be a time when you would be needing to spend after school time with your students. Ritsuko and Kakashi already have met before and she’s also just recently become a genin, am I right?”

Iruka nodded. He didn’t like the idea of her being left in Kakashi’s care very much, but then again, he didn’t actually know him very well and he found he was scolding his self for being so judgmental over the young man.

“Hai. Her skills were above exceptional and I found it necessary to finish her schooling there. I was going to sort out a sensei tomorrow, but I don’t know if she should become a ninja. It’ll only make it easier each year for her to kill herself.”

There was silence at that thought. It was a very serious suggestion to make, but he did really have a point.

“It’s nothing we can’t handle for awhile. Who knows, this might turn out for the best and she might be able to finally be able to put it behind her. If we leave her with Kakashi, she can tag along with his team until something can be sorted out.”

Upon that they had all agreed, knowing it was the best plan that could give her the best options if she were to recover. Tsundae had swiftly taken her leave after that, leaving them both with instructions on the treatment for Ritsuko’s coming cold and an ointment for the small injuries she had gathered.


She awoke to a pounding in her head. She groaned, sitting up with a hand on her head wondering what was going on. Taking a quickly glance around the room, she quickly found herself lost ‘Where the hell am I?’‘ She stared around the small, cluttered room for any clues. There was a slight light coming in from the closed curtains and she guessed that it was still the early morning. Turning around on the bed, she spotted two photos on the bench behind the bed and she leaned in to get a better look.

Kakashi was in the first one, standing over behind the three kids she assumed were his genin students, his eye creased in a sign of joy. The one on the left was totally unimpressed, arms crossed, his expression showing he didn’t think much of the belittling hand on his head belonging to the tall jounin. Next to him smiling gently was a pink haired little girl, happy to be in the photo along with the blonde haired boy next to her, smiling smugly at the boy across from him, basking in the knowledge that the other boy clearly didn’t like where he was. The one next to it was similar. Except Kakashi was actually the kid on the right instead and his teacher had a hand on his head. There was a boy and a girl next to him. There was no rivalry between the two boys unlike the other picture.

She stared at them for a while, her mind wondering. She suddenly realised where she was ‘Kakashi’s house! How the hell did I get here?!’ No sooner had she thought that images flashed though her head, making her gasp, and her eyes widened at realisation of all that had happened the day before. Silent tears rolled rapidly down her face, her faced scrunched at the building of sobs within. There was a knock at the door. She turned a curious face to the doorway and found Kakashi standing there, serious eye watching her carefully through his lazy gaze. It had suddenly become very uncomfortable and she turned away, wiping the tears from her face.

“Who’d thought we’d meet again, Kakashi? And under such circumstances”

There was slight amusement in that tone as she reached out and touched the edge of one of the photo frames. Kakashi had been filled in on the girls past. Although there were many blanks there she refused to speak about it and when she did, it was very brief and rarely showed any information of any use. There had never been anyone able to follow up the case because of the lack of information and so it died off. He smiled. He was glad she hadn’t turned into the dead shell of herself that he had heard was known to happen to people that had gone through terrible traumas and such.

“Let’s not worry about that all, how about we go get some breakfast?”

She quickly agreed and picked up the large bag of clothes on the floor of hers, there were so many questions running through her head at that moment. She picked out her most worn gear, being her everyday clothes, suitable for almost anything.

He had waited awhile and found out why when she stepped out from his room, sliding the door closed behind her. Her stomach had been totally bandaged, from her hips, up to underneath her top, which parted out from beneath her breasts, hiding most of her ribs from view. From her hips she wore a long skirt that spilt into four points, starting from half way down her thighs. She wore spandex pants her shins covered by guards of shiny metal as well which matched her arms, black spandex protruding from under the puffy shouldered top finished with silver gleaming hand and forearm guards. It was an interesting show of style. He was almost embarrassed to think he was going to spend an afternoon with this girl tagging along behind him.

She coughed, catching his attention. She was getting the after effects of yesterday’s activities and already he could see the tinge of heat on her cheeks from the coming sickness. They walked a little way down the street and off to one of the small coffee shops down town and had a quick breakfast. She was amazed quickly he had eaten. She hadn’t even seen him remove his mask before it had all disappeared. She ate quickly, trying not to seem like she was being a nuisance by delaying him and made small talk, letting her mind relax over some time to ask questions that had been hanging on her mind.

“So… Why was I in your house?”

“Tsundae-sama and Iruka-Sensei think it’s best if you stay at my place for awhile for close observation. We don’t need any more needless deaths in this village.”

She was embarrassed at that, she didn’t know why. Maybe it was because she was ashamed because of what everyone must think of her. They must be disappointed that she would be so weak as to give into something like that. That it would hurt her that bad. Yeah, right. As if they all cared. They were just doing what they thought was right by taking her in. None the less she still felt this way and it was something she had to try to sort out and get over. Wait a minute. Did he say what I thought-? No way.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just say I’m going to be staying wit you for awhile?”

“Hai,”

“For how long?”

He paused for a moment, thinking of what to say with it sounding too committed.

“Until Tsundae-Sama or Iruka-Sensei says otherwise.”

“Why don’t I just go back and live with Iruka-Sensei?”

“Because he too busy with schooling to look after you properly.”

“He’s never had any problems in the past”

She was a little hurt that he would brush her off onto someone else so easily without even consulting her.

“He hasn’t had to look after a suicidal exceptionally good genin in the past. He hasn’t got the time to take a chance of getting hurt from an emotionally unstable child”

She knew he was saying it that way on purpose. Taking jabs at her while she understood he was trying to get her to get over her problems by belittling her. She understood this but took the bait anyway.

“Hmph. What would you know? You have no idea.”

It was left at that she demolished what was left and they both headed out the door silently. She sulked quietly, which only made her worse, telling herself silently to quit the baby acting. Without warning, something occurred to her and it made sense, it shoved the glumness from her mind and calmed her flaring spirits. Revenge. Revenge would set her free. That’s why she couldn’t die, because she had to kill whoever had killed her family, her village, her life. It was something she was chosen to do. She immediately felt her spirits rise and pushed herself into a steady stroll, prepared for anything for that was in store her that day.


He rolled his eyes, down at her, feeling the air around her change. ‘What bought on that?’ He thought to himself, looking curiously over before quickly looking back to the road ahead of himself. He was the master of disguise. He was extremely observant, even though he never let it on, he could notice a dozen things about a person or place before anyone would even suspect that he knew. That was one of his specialties and it also assisted when it came to being the sly dog he was.

They walked in silence for a while, coming up over a slight hill to a bridge. In the middle of the bridge stood three people Ritsuko recognised, but couldn’t remember where from. As the small group of three started coming closer into view and more pronounced against the trees on the other side of the bridge, she remembered where she had seen them before. The photo sitting on the head of Kakashi’s bed had him and those three in it. They must be his students, which meant either she was accompanying them on their daily mission or she had no idea…

The blonde haired boy was an energetic mass, jumping around, furious at his sensei as we approached. Pointing a finger at him accusingly he shouted at him.

“You’re late again!”

The girl behind him was more or less the same, but not quite to the same extent.

“Kakashi-Sensei, can’t you ever be on time!?”

The other boy was watching, clearly irritated but if it were the volume two screaming balls of fury or at his Sensei. On the other hand it could’ve been both. He chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

“I was helping a damsel in distress”

He noticed their unbelieving looks they had shot at him.

“Really. Look, I’ve even bought her along”

He moved all attention to her. She realised he was pushing the light onto her. ‘Sly bastard’ she thought to herself, while receiving all of the surprised stares from his students.

“Kakashi-Sensei, does this mean you have a girlfriend?”

The pink haired girl looked like she was going to explode with the look of adoration of the supposed relationship. The other two watched with interest. Even the quiet boy was staring at his teacher, waiting for an explanation. He waved his hands in front of his face.

“No, no. She’s just joining our group for a while, while she gets settled into her Genin status. She graduated two days ago and we’ve got nowhere to put her so she’s going to be joining our team for awhile.”

He explained it carefully, to try to get their minds away from the relationship part of the conversation that had taken place and yet again, shifted the attention back to her. The dark haired boy piped up in interest.

“She looks a little old for only just becoming a Genin”

Kakashi looked sympathetically over at her, where she had found a nice spot in the trees across the bridge to look at. He didn’t know how much to say. He left it at a minimum just in case.

“Let’s just say, her past made it difficult for her to become a ninja. And she has only just over the last couple of years, been well enough to study and take up her ninja status.”

This had sparked all of their curiosity even more but they dropped the subject. Her hands were bawled into fists, suppressing the memories triggered by his words. She turned her uneasy sorrow into anger and determination, setting the determined smile on her face, looking at her newfound teammates. There was a new strength of pride that flowed through her and felt like she was up for anything they threw at her. She bowed.

“I hope it’s not too much of an intrusion. I will do my best to assist the team in any way possible”

Meanwhile, Kakashi was feeling more and more left in the dark then he was this morning. This morning he had thought her knew what was going on and how she felt. But he noticed while walking to the bridge to meet up with his students that she had totally changed. It was un-nerving him that she was now as unpredictable as a stranger.

“Hai, hai. I believe introductions are in order. Team, this is Ritsuko Sohma, a terrific Genin ninja according to her teacher.

He looked down at her almost doubtfully.

“Ritsuko, this is Uzumaki Naruto, the number one loudest ninja in the village.”

Naruto grinned.

“And the one who is one day going to be Hokage!”

He yelled in a determined tone. The dark haired boy added onto the end of his statement.

“And dead last in the graduating class.”

She laughed nervously at the verbal fight that had broken out between the two students along with Kakashi.

“The other boy is Uchiha Sasuke, the number one Genin rookie in his graduating class.”

She looked at the dark haired boy glaring at the yellow ball of fury that was Naruto. The girl jumped out and hit Naruto over the head, demanding he use some manners and turned quickly back to pay attention to the introductions, being made.

“And this is Haruno Sakura. He finished at the top in all theory skills in her class.”

She bowed politely at her introduction, by the bored Sensei.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

Ritsuko nodded in response.

“It’s nice to meet you too. Are those two always like that?”

Sakura blinked and looked back to see Naruto with a bawled fist in front of Sasuke. Naruto yelled again at his team mate as he looked on with a steady gaze. She sweat dropped. So much for a good first impression.

“Uhh, yeah. Don’t worry about them. They’re always at each others throats.”

Ritsuko nodded. It was like they were related. Bickering like brothers usually would. It might have seemed strange at the time, but they had something, a type of friendship, that no one would probably ever understand. Not even them.

Kakashi put a hand on each of the two boy’s shoulders, effectively stopping Naruto from lunging at Sasuke as he said ‘Dead last’ again for something like the fortieth time.

“Go, go, it’s time for training.”

Suddenly Naruto had forgotten all about Sasuke and was now once again full of energy of excitement. He walked at the front of the group, walking briskly in a hurry to get to the grounds while the others attempted to keep up. Sakura walked next to Ritsuko, chattering idly to her about what they had done so far as a team. It was a rather entertaining story about tracking down a ran away cat, where Naruto had a difficulty in trying to control the animal and promptly received many battle scratches from a irate tabby.

They came to a large clearing. The green grass was cut short and the trees surrounding the field swayed merrily in the breeze. There were several posts at certain parts of the field, pegs poking abruptly from several places in each of the posts. They halted at the edge of the clearing and Naruto turned to face their teacher.

“What training are we doing Kakashi-Sensei? Are we learning a new technique? Or are we practicing Jitsu’s? What?”

He constantly nagged at the Jounin until Naruto finally screamed at him, his nose still firmly in the book her was reading.

“YOU AREN’T EVEN LISTENING, ARE YOU?”

He sighed. Unable to concentrate to anymore, he placed the book into the safety of his hip pouch and looked toward his student in intense consideration.

“Hmm, I hadn’t really thought about what to do.”

He glanced over to Ritsuko in a wondering manner. He had been curious about he abilities ever since she had been introduced to him as a Genin student. Well, he might as well do it again. It would give him some more time to read his book, which was a plus. He was eager to see what would happen next to his favourite character. He put a hand into his pouch and pulled out the two bells he kept from the last test showing them for all to see.

“Try to get the bells. If you can.”

He then swiftly disappeared with a puff of smoke. There was some confusion for a moment in the group. Ristuko stretched bending over to stretch her muscles one, by one and then began walking off towards the forest. The team looked on after her, Naruto jumped up, running over to her.

“Hey, hey, you can’t do it by yourself! We need to work as a team, we know, we’ve done this already. It’s the only way we can possibly try to get a bell from Kakashi sensei!”

Blinking, she looked down at the hyperactive boy, considering his information. They had plenty of time though. She wanted to test herself against the Jounin and if She was unsuccessful, then she would come back to plan a team strategy. Yep, she knew what she was doing. She smiled and put a hand on the boy’s head, ruffling his hair slightly. He was confused.

“I just want to find out for myself how strong he is. If it’s too much, I’ll be back and I’ll help you. But I want to face him alone first to test my own abilities. Call it strategy analysing. You know the whole ‘know your enemy’ thing.”

He seemed to understand her reasoning and ceased his fight against her leaving. He walked back over to the rest of the team, explaining what she had told him and she jumped into the near by trees. A little way in she paused on a thick branch of the tree, kneeling with her head bowed and eyes closed. She concentrated her chakara into her ears to enhance her current hearing, straining for the faintest sound to assist her with the search for their teacher. She stood there for a few minutes until she caught the sound of the faintest flicker, the rustling of paper from not too far off. Staring towards the sound, she heard it again, and upon that she jumped from the branch, heading out through the forest towards their Sensei’s direction.


Ritsuko couldn’t believe it. How the hell had she managed to end up like this? It was a training session, damn it and now here she was, on the ground, under some bushes, nursing what she figured was a broken wrist. It was amazing he hadn’t noticed that she had actually managed to piss off her Sensei on her first day. It wouldn’t be long until he realised what she had done to him and came back for her. She rolled over, out from under the bush and stood up, holding her arm and jumped away through the trees, looking out for any signs of danger on her way.

After a few minutes she had made it back to the same clearing where they had started the training to find Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were still there, huddled around each other in deep discussion. It had truly only been about thirty minutes since she had left the small group and she had expected them to still be there, waiting for her re-appearance. At the edge of the tree’s she paused, using caution, she once again used her chakara-enhanced ears to try to identify where their Sensei was. She was glad she had done so and instantly leapt from the tree into the clearing, being boosted by the large explosion from where she had been just only moments ago. She flipped in the air and landed roughly on the ground, kneeling, with her feet and knees grinding back on the earth to slowing her down.

The branch that she had been previously been on before had been completely destroyed and in front of the destruction stood a fairly angry Kakashi, murderous glint in his eye. The rest of the Team was standing by now, watching the commotion with wide eyes. It was obvious they had never seen their Sensei lose his cool before.

“Where. Is. It?”

He said menacingly. Ritsuko smirked. She knew his weakness and she fully took advantage. I wasn’t quite expecting such a reaction from the usually calm Sensei.

“Where’s what?”

Ritsuko casually looked around, considering her surroundings and options she had if he attacked there and then. She was really strecting testing his control abilities and he could at any given moment, attack and she knew she was no match for him if he even got semi-serious in the matter of this ‘precious’ object of his current fancy. He was glaring at me, with pure anger and frustration. Smirking, she pulled the object of desire from her pouch, dangling it from her hand as it were on fire, burning slowly.

“What? This?”

He took a step forwards, looking longingly at his brightly coloured copy of ‘Come, Come Paradise.’ She was almost disgusting the way he looked towards the filthy piece of trash he called a book.

“Give it to me.”

She sighed, flipping it open, skimming though the pages quickly.

“What do you see in this garbage anyway?”

He glared again and she could see he was moving a hand towards his pouch. She sighed again, putting a face of defeat on and slamming the book closed abruptly.

“Fine, have your stupid book back, I’m in no condition to fight you anymore”

And as best as she could, she threw the book at him. His face was glad and relieved as the book got nearer and held a hand out to receive his pride and joy. Just seconds before it had reached him, however, it exploded, smoke filling the area where he was currently standing. She grinned. That would show him. Never underestimate your rookie, even for a second. She had secretly placed an exploding tag within the pages when she flicked though them and it was just as well. He was just as careless now as he was when she was able to steal the book from him in the first place.

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Her clones were everywhere, not making a sound as they approached the happily reading Sensei. She had figured he would know where they all were, except for her real self. She knew he didn’t know where she was, although she was sitting right in front of him, watching him carefully, studying his reactions though the expression on his face. He had no idea of any of her stealth abilities. She manoeuvred a clone underneath the branch where it split off into two ‘Y’ branches. She eyed the cover of his book, where he held it arms length, resting on his knees and grinned. She knew how to start her attack.

Slap!

She hit the book as hard as she could, downward towards her clone. Kakashi looked alarmed, looking around quickly, trying to find the source of the hit that had caused the loss of his book. Grinning I couldn’t help but play around with him a bit and I reached over and flicked him on the forehead, hard. He flinched and then reached out, groping the air blindly. I moved out of the arms direction jumped a bit back out of arms reach as he lifted his hand to his face, pulling up his forehead, pulling it up, revealing his other eye.

There was a scar down his face that went over the eye and finished somewhere shortly after the fabric of his mask. He eye rolled open to reveal the legendary Sharingan vision, being red with three commas’s placed in a circular fashion. She stared in wonder, it was the first time she had witnessed seeing the Copy Cat Ninja’s trademark ability. It was after a moment that it was staring right at her and she blinked.

“Finished?”

She jumped slightly at his knowing voice. His gaze was penetrating, seeing though her technique completely. It unsteadied her how uncomfortable she felt with him staring at her so much. The Sharingan was much better than she thought, being able to see her even with such a technique used and she was impressed. I stood as he did, what he didn’t notice was that I had indeed already won, Even with his eye he couldn’t see the caterpillar that had crawled onto his belt and was eating though the thin string the bell was tied to him with. I bounced off the branch, experimenting with his actions towards his stolen book. Sure enough, he followed me, preventing me from leaving.

The caterpillar fell off, I was relieved to see the bell fell soundlessly to the ground, before a squirrel raced under the tree, picking up the bell and bouncing away through the trees. She smiled. Now. To give or not to give back his book. That was the question. She released the invisibility technique, making herself visible again. He blinked, pulling down his forehead protector again.

“A bloodline limit?”

She raised an eyebrow. She had never really thought about it before and she supposed it was a bit like that. It didn’t really mean anything to her. She just had another ability that couldn’t be copied by even his sensei and it was something unique. He stood there casually, drumming his fingers on his crossed arms waiting for something to happen. She took a kunai from her holster, attempting to create a quick strategy in her mind. She ran at him, kunai out front. He stepped aside, and she stumbled past He grabbed her wrist and in a smooth motion, pinned her to the branch, with a knee in her back and both hands holding her wrists firmly behind her. She grunted in annoyance, butting her head against the branch. ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid’ She cursed herself repeatedly.

“My book?”

One of her clones jumped onto the branch, the orange book in hand. He loosened his grip slightly and she took her chance, wrenching her wrists from his grip. One of her wrists strained as he tried to grip them again and she applied more strength to her struggle, succeeding, but feeling her a sharp pain take over her wrist and arm. Trying to ignore it the best she could she turned to attack only to be flung away off the tree as the sensei leapt at her clone. He struck it and it faded away, leaving a poof of smoke behind and he caught his book satisfactorily. She landed on the ground below harshly, skidding to a halt underneath a bush. She grinned in a knowing fashion as another clone jumped down to her, helping her up and giving her the real book before she released the jitsu, clone disappearing in smoke. She wondered how long it would take her sharp sensei to realise he had been fooled.

---------------------------------

He was still there. His face had the look of grief plastered onto it, a slightly singed hand holding onto a blackened book, a hole burnt through the centre of it. Ritsuko was confused, why was he so anguished over a book? The rest of the team looked alarmed, none of them knew what would happen now that he had lost one of the prized treasures.

“Gone. It’s gone.”

He said helplessly, looking through the hole in the centre of the book. I smirked. Victory had been a fluke because he had underestimated her, next time she knew she wouldn’t be so lucky. Knowing this, she decided to take full advantage of it.

“That’s not all you’ve lost, Kakashi-Sensei.”

She then pulled a long whistle from her pouch and blew it. A loud, low sound was produced and it echoed out into the forest. There was a silence that followed and by this time, Kakashi had almost forgotten totally about the book and was staring in her direction. From the edge of the trees leapt the small furry, friend, landing on an outstretched arm of Ritsuko. The squirrel produced the small shiny bell that tinkled as she took it from its tiny grasp, replacing it with a brown nut. She held it out by the broken string, letting it tinkle in her grasp.

“You’ve lost the game, too.”

He looked down, surprised with himself, to his belt and sure enough, there only was the one bell. His irritation magnified ten fold and his eye twitched. He directed the agitation with himself towards the girl and glared silently.

“If anything, you underestimated my abilities, Kakashi-Sensei. I know that in a real battle I would never have been so successful"

Ritsuko was troubled with the outcome. This would probably work out for the worst between them, she was expecting an uncomfortable ride for the next few days at his household.
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Another chapter on the table, finished. Im having trouble thinking of some filler events to happen, i know some major events i want to happen, its just i don't know what to put inbetween, any suggestions from the wonderful audience?

Kakashi: How could i do that?!
Rhea: You're stupid, thats why.
Kakashi:*glare and then cries* THAT WAS MY BOOOOOOK!!!
Rhea: Do you even know who writes that filth?
Kakashi: ...Now that i think about it...
Rhea: I do... And you know each other...
Kakashi: Nani!?
Rhea: Mwhahaha..