Chapter 27: New Team Six Arc: Four

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Kishimoto should keep Naruto. He's done a good job of making the timeline make no sense whatsoever.

I'd forgotten, after years and years of living in Konoha, that there is another person besides Danzo that I never want to see in my life. But, as luck would have it, I run into him in the street. Or well, I've got my head in the clouds while considering Tou-san's scroll of earth jutsu, and I trip over an uneven bit of paving and go flying.

I'm caught by a cool hand. "Thank you very much-" I trail off as I actually look up at the man. He has long dark hair, unnaturally pale skin, golden slit pupiled eyes.

"It was no trouble Inuzuka-chan." His hand does not move, and I feel my soul tremble. What does the infamous snake Sannin want with me? "Would you mind walking with me for a bit?"

Yes. Hell yes I would mind. "Not at all, Orochimaru-san." I plaster the largest smile I can muster onto my face for the occasion. "Where are we going? Sensei's expecting me for dinner at his house." Sensei actually isn't expecting me, and there are a million and one places that I could be and it'll probably be until midnight til Kaa-san begins an active search for me.

If he wanted to take me, I suddenly realize with a horrified pit in my stomach. He could manage it with minimal effort.

"Oh no Inuzuka-chan. It's just down the street to the tea house. You know the one." He wants to go to Mufu-an? Why? We've never met before. He makes a vague gesture in the direction of the side street. "If I didn't know any better I would think that you're afraid of me, Inuzuka-chan."

You think so? "Oh, no, Orochimaru-san. I'm just surprised that you would care to speak to a lowly genin." The fact that I'd rather run away as fast as possible has nothing to do with this.

He smiles, and I almost wish aloud that he'd stop it, because it feels as though there are an army of ants marching down my spine in tingling succession. "Not so lowly to have graduated so early, Inuzuka-chan. You were nearly chunin by age eight. That's quite an achievement."

Left with no choice, I walk down to the tea house with him, his hand on my shoulder the entire way.

Orochimaru already has a table reserved in one of the private rooms in Mufu-an and we are shown there silently as the matron sees us coming. "You come here often with your team and your sensei, don't you?" His tone's almost pensive.

"Yes." I reply. "Rather frequently." Why does he know anything about me? Why has he commandeered me for anything of this nature?

He sits me down. There's tea left steaming on the low table and mochi. Practically no one knows that I like mochi more than dango. "Ah, yes, I'm well aware that you care for mochi a slight margin more than dango." He chuckles at my expression and sits down himself. "I do attempt to know enough about a person before I talk to them."

The strangest thing that I can understand about the surreal experience is that he is wearing the standard Konoha flak jacket. "Why are we sitting here, Orochimaru-san?"

"The Hokage wants me to take another genin team. I attempting to figure out if the experience is going to be worthwhile." What? Wasn't Anko the only person to survive his teaching methods?

"Why me?" The words pop out of my mouth, and to cover my discomfort, I pick up the tea and blow on it without taking a single sip. Orochimaru had been almost a normal human being so far, but there is no way that I'd actually eat anything that he offered me.

"You happen to be an excellent example of the type of person I can stand." He tilts his head in my direction, and takes a sip of his own tea. "You are neither particularly chatty or vapid. You are not concerned with violence or blood lust despite being fairly good at both. You are remarkably level-headed and talented for a member of your clan." I take back what I said earlier. The most surreal part of this experience is sitting here listening to Orochimaru of all people, praise me.

It is surreal enough that I really needed to cut myself on a kunai to figure out if it is actually happening. Unfortunately that option is a bit impossible.

"Thank you." It is only polite to thank him, after all, he'd done nothing particularly wrong. Having tea with one of the Sannin is probably an envious activity in all honest. It just made me very uncomfortable given what I knew of the man. "But I'm not sure that you should be in charge of a genin team, Orochimaru-san?"

His expression is displeased. "Why do you say that, Inuzuka-chan?" And when Orochimaru of the Sannin is displeased, the very air is heavy with killing intent.

"Well." I whisper, and slide my fingers down the length of the table. "If you must find a genin to figure out if experience is to be worthwhile, perhaps you do not wish to lead a team of genin?" I look him in the eye when the air is no longer so tense. "After all, students do best with teachers that want them."

"I did want them." He stands and stalks back and forth. "I did."

"You don't any longer?" His emphasis on the past tense had to mean something, and if he is going to pace back and forth and rant about it, then I might as well ask.

He turns to me with a foreign emotion swimming in the golden depths of his eyes. "They died." He says flatly. "I wasn't there and they died." Um...who exactly died? "You're too young to know." He turns away. "This was an exercise in futility. My apologies for wasting your time, Inuzuka-chan."

Orochimaru vanishes in a swirl of leaves.

"Hey, Orochi-" I turn around to find yet another member of the Sannin in my presence.

"He left, Jiraiya-san." I point to the pile of leaves. "He was behaving rather oddly before he left. But he left."

Jiraiya considers me. "Aren't you a bit young to be interesting to him?"

I raise a very unimpressed eyebrow and cross my arms over my chest. "Orochimaru-san was referencing genin teams. Thus, he had to find a genin. I happened to cross his path this morning."

"Ah." Jiraiya nods almost to himself. "It's that time of year again." What time of year? Does Orochimaru do this song and dance with another genin every year? What? "I thought he'd stopped since he was so obsessed with one of the Inuzuka this year." Jiraiya turns to me. "Do you happen to know if Inuzuka Hana is..." He giggles. "Pretty enough that my teammate would care?" What. My expression must have not been very complimentary because Jiraiya laughs awkwardly. "Vital research you know." That makes this entire thing worse.

"Jiraiya-san." I begin, and feel a hopeless wave of despair. "I'm Inuzuka Hana." And then I stalk past him because he's gaping like a fish.

I don't think Jiraiya-san construed Orochimaru's interests correctly. As far as I'm aware the man doesn't care about...romance? Especially not with eight year old girls? But still, the fact that Orochimaru had been...obsessed...isn't a good thing. He'd worked with Danzo already by this point, didn't he?

So by the time I run into Hisae-chan, the morning I'd been having largely revolved around whether or not I am going to get kidnapped in the near future. I had to admit, my future prospects did not look good if I am going to get kidnapped, but then I didn't know if Orochimaru saw anything important in me to kidnap.

"Hana-neechan?"

I stop and turn around. There aren't that many people who call me 'neechan.' "Hisae-chan? What is it?" She also didn't leave the Aburame compound from what I understood about her life. Hisae-chan's perfectly happy to live in the happy confines of her family house and the hives.

She shifts awkwardly from foot to foot, her kikaichu buzzing audibly in the dusty street. An middle aged woman with a small child crosses the street to avoid us, and I want to slap them for making her aversion to the outside world worse. "I wanted to talk with you."

"Sure." I wrap an arm around her shoulders and we walk back towards the Aburame compound. "What did you want to talk about?"

"It's Muta-nii." Her admission is quiet, like all of her admissions. "I'm not sure how to begin."

My mind instantly jumped to the fact that Muta could be injured, he could have been hurt while on a tracking mission..."What happened?"

"Oh, nothing's happened. He's just different." She looks up at me, and I'm sure that there is earnestness reflected in her golden eyes despite the fact that I can't see them. "He's not like he was when he was a part of Team Six. I hoped you could talk to him." Quieter still. "He loves you so, you know. You and Tokuma-kun." The words warm my heart.

"Well, I love him too." I state simply. "He's my teammate. My brother. That's why you call me neechan isn't it?"

She smiles at me, a slight upward curve of her lips. "Yes."

I find Muta in one of the hives. He's mechanically feeding the kikaichu larvae, and doesn't turn around when I enter the dark space.

"Mu-kun?" I come to stand beside him in the darkness. Distantly, I realize that he's crying. "What's wrong?"

He turns to me in the dark, his golden eyes glowing faintly. "I don't want to talk about it." My hand stops, hovers an inch above his shoulder and I no longer know if I can put it down. It had only been a month or so since he'd become a chunin, but I didn't know. Not anymore.

"What's wrong?" The sight of him crying and loosened something in me. "Why won't you tell me?" I thought we were friends for life, Mu-kun?

"I said I don't want to talk about it." He knocks my hand away. "I already told Tokuma that he could go away. I don't need you to come and ask me about what happened too." Muta...only called Toku by his full name when he is annoyed.

"I'm not here to argue with you, Mu-kun." I tilt my head back just a little so I can see his face. "I just wanted to know why you were crying."

"Go away." He turns back around his shoulders shaking. "Just go away, please Hana-chan."

He'd made himself clear. I go, but not before I stop in at his family's house to figure out what was going on.

"I'll respect Muta-kun's silence, Hana-chan." Aburame Nao pats my shoulder. "He'll talk to you when he's ready. He always does."

The feeling that I get when I walk away from the Aburame Compound is the distinct feeling of lead swirling in my stomach. I bite my lip so hard I taste blood.

"So, plan 5 then? Just a standard grab and run?" I look at both Itachi and Toku. We'd been charged with retrieving yet another artifact of note by the Wind Daimyo, and now was the time to make a move.

"Yeah, sure." Toku stands up and stretches. "Are you going to be the one to take it?"

I also stand, the plain brown civilian dress swishing about my legs. "Yes."

"I'm supposed to be part of the distraction right?" Itachi stands as well.

Toku looks over at him with an unimpressed look. "Well, that's what plan 5 means, Uchiha. It means that we're the distractions, and Hana is the one who steals stuff." Toku turns to me with a grin. "Don't worry, this is going to go off without a hitch, Hana-chan."

I glance between Itachi and Toku. "Just please don't fight with each other when we're out there." They'd been...well...not fighting exactly. Just...they did not work as well as Toku and Muta and I wasn't sure, since there would be three chunin involved in the process, if we'd be alright.

"Oh leave it, Hana-chan." Toku slings an arm around my shoulder. "Even if Uchiha doesn't get with the program we'll be able to finish everything off no problem."

I poke him on the cheek. "You do not make me confident in your teamwork abilities, Toku." Itachi doesn't look entirely pleased, and I know he isn't entirely patient enough to deal with Toku. "Well." I say, and attempt to be cheerful. "Let's get this show on the road."

I snatch the artifact off the table and take off at a chakra powered sprint. Behind me something explodes, and something else catches on fire. Oh boy. Please guys don't burn the city down.

"Hand over the artifact." A missing nin with a slashed Kusa hitai-ate appears before me.

I slide the priceless scroll of paintings in my weapons pouch and settle into a crouch. "If you want it you'll have to come and get it." We trade a succession of blows, I take a few hits with a kunai, but none of it is serious and only sets him up for Ichi to sneak up behind him and pounce.

Alas, he substitutes himself with a nearby stand of fabrics. "Katon: Great Fireball." It bursts into flames. Itachi's standing behind me with a hand still cupped around his lips. "Hana-chan are you okay?"

Ichi's leapt out of the way just in time. His fur is standing on end. "Don't do that!"

"Itachi!" I shriek as I throw myself out of the way. "You're supposed to be part of the distraction!"

In my haste I don't notice that the scroll has rolled free of my pouch. The missing-nin from Kusa scoops it up and flees down the street, and Itachi flashes through another few hand signs. "Katon: Great Fireball!"

Everything in the missing-nin's direction goes up in flames. Wait. He still has the scroll.

"No!" I shriek and run forwards. "The scroll is flammable."

I flip the charred body over-do not think about the smell of burning flesh-and paw through the ash. The scroll crumbles to pieces between my finger tips.

"Sorry Hana." Itachi whispers as he comes to stand beside me. "I wasn't thinking."

I glare up at him. "Of course you weren't thinking. I had that perfectly-"

"So. what did I miss?" Toku has the other missing nin slung over his shoulder. "And please don't tell me nothing."

I whirl around to face him. "We've failed the mission."

He raises an eyebrow. "We've never failed a mission. What's the problem?" Itachi shifts in place, and he's uncomfortable, but I don't even know what to say at this point.

I wave my hand at the charred corpse. "Well, the scroll of priceless paintings is completely ash right now, Toku. Considering that we were supposed to retrieve it at first priority instead of killing the people who stole it, I would suppose that we've failed the mission."

He catches my hands. "You have burns, Hana."

I meet his eyes and then look down at my hands. They are red and raw and only now do I notice that they hurt so very badly. "Oh." I must have burned them trying to recover the mission objective.

Toku whirls around. "What did you do?" He hisses at Itachi and advances, step by step with veins bulging even more prominently on his temples. "And don't tell me that our opponents did this to her because they're from Kusa, so I doubt they have katon jutsus to burn people with."

Itachi doesn't look him in the eye. "I'm sorry..."

"You're sorry? You're sorry?!" Toku darts forwards. "Do you even know anything about being part of a team?" There's a whoosh of air as he attempts to slap Itachi across the face. "You. Don't. Hurt. Teammates!"

The both of them freeze. Toku's hands still raised in a Jyuken stance, and Itachi's hands together in a seal. "You don't say." Sensei's sarcastic drawl sounds out across the now deserted square. "And what are you trying to do, Tokuma-kun?" Sensei turns his distinctly unimpressed face at Itachi. "And why are you attempting to burn your teammate, Itachi-kun?"

Both of them have the good grace to look abashed. Sensei rubs his face with a hand as his shadow retreats back to normal. "All three of you were completely disappointing." He turns to me next. "This is the first time that you put a mission directive above the well being of your comrades, Hana-chan. Why were you digging through the ash instead of trying to figure out why Itachi wanted to protect you so badly?What? Oh-his last teammates died because he couldn't protect them.

I can't bear to look at either of them. It's too much.

The trip home is a disaster and spent in miserly silence.

"Well, I think Hana-chan knows what her problem is. She can go sit in Mufu-an and think about the consequences of being irrationally angry at a teammate when a mission is still ongoing." Ensui-sensei casts a very unimpressed look at the two boys. "You two though. You're coming with me." He sets a hand on each of their shoulders, and frog marches them down the street.

I stand and watch them until they reach the bend in the street where it follows the river, and Sensei pushes them both off of the side. Well, that is one way to cool hot tempers, Sensei.

I don't walk down to Mufu-an though. Instead, I turn down another street and make for Sensei's house.

Kiho-baachan is weeding the garden when I kneel down next to her. "We messed up, Kiho-baachan." I whisper.

She wraps a perfectly clean hand over my shoulder, little drops of water sinking slowly into my shirt. "Everyone does somehow. What happened this time?"

"I snapped at Itachi-kun. He'd pushed too much so we failed the mission, and then Toku and Itachi-kun started fighting." I feel my shoulders shake from the strain. "And Mu-kun won't speak to me and I ran into Orochimaru-san lately and I don't know anything."

Kiho-baachan flicks water at me. "You need to come in and stop hurting yourself so much over this." She pulls me up and into the cool darkness of the house. "Did I tell you about that one time when Chobee broke my dear Waste of Space's leg and Ariko-sensei was so mad with us?"

"Your team had suffered too?" The thought is almost laughably funny. The Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi are born and bred to work well together.

"Just because we knew we were supposed to be a team since very early in our childhood didn't mean we didn't have explosive arguments." Kiho-baachan giggles and dances around the kitchen pouring juice and pulling out mochi. "Ensui wasn't always so laid back, you know. He could get so angry."

"I wouldn't call me angry, Vicious Hag." Sensei's leaning against the door frame, and the boys are hovering behind him, sopping wet.

"You were angry, Waste of Space." Kiho-baachan flips her hair over her shoulder, and saunters over to the still dripping Toku and Itachi. "Now, ducklings, let's go get dried off before I make your dear Sensei dry off my wooden floorboards."

We all sit down together for an afternoon snack later. Sensei's sitting back in his chair with a pleased expression on his face. "I trust we won't have any more meltdowns of the hurtful sort?"

We shake our heads. "No, Sensei." Or at least, we really hope not.

Afterwards, Sensei retreats into the back garden, and the boys take their leave and return home.

"Sensei?" I sit down next to him, and watch the wind ruffle through the flowers. "I met someone, recently." I can't really tell Sensei that I think Orochimaru wants to kidnap me, because it won't make much sense at all at this point.

"And it doesn't have anything to do with the Hatake boy?" Sensei smiles at me drolly, and lies down to stare at the clouds hovering in the sunset.

"Oh no. I had...tea with Orochimaru of the Sannin." I join him. The clouds do happen to have a peaceful feel to them at this time of year. "He wanted to talk about genin teams?"

"He does that almost every year."

Sensei's words have me sitting back up again. "What?"

"He lost his first genin team at about this time of year." Sensei shakes his head. "It's a bit before my understanding to be honest, but every August since he's been kind of weird. After all, the first team he lost had his own teammate's little brother on it." Sensei sits up and looks down at me. "To be honest, losing Senju Nawaki is probably one of his biggest regrets."

If it's because of Nawaki, perhaps he didn't intend to kidnap me for an experiment after all?

"Oh." I say. "Why doesn't anyone ever mention it?"

Sensei shrugs. "It's old hat by this point. Who would ever?"

A.N. And yeah, Orochimaru is a difficult character to write. He does all the wrong things for the right reasons and all the right things for the wrong ones. That and explosions and fire, because I don't see Team Six meshing correctly right away. All good things come with time and they haven't had enough of it yet. At any rate, it's the first time I've taken a two day break before, so have a longer chapter than usual, at ~3800 words.

Thanks so much WhiteFang001, CasJeanne, and Snidekick for reviewing!

And thank you to everyone who favorited and followed. I'm so grateful

~Tavina