The Fourth Hokage's Secrets

Chapter 12: Confusing Passing

"Where are we?" Sakura asks, looking around the Fourth's yard with wide, curious green eyes.

"My dad's house," Naruto says illusively. Sakura turns around sharply to stare at him with wide eyes. She looks between Naruto and Sasuke, who still stares at her with impersonal indifference. While Naruto on the other hand, just looks a little happy.

"No offense," Sakura says slowly, "but I didn't know you had a father... er, I mean, I didn't know you knew who your parents were..." She runs a hand through her hair, working out the tangles in the long locks. "Uh, sorry. That sounded really bad..."

Naruto shakes his head and walks over to her. "Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan, I get it. I didn't know who my parents were until just recently. So, back to why we are here." He turns toward her, looking at Sasuke over her shoulder. Sasuke shrugs, hands stuffed into his pocket. Naruto pulls his eyes back over to the pink haired girl. "So we have a jutsu that will make learning more much easier, even getting more chakra which will encourage sensei to teach you more."

Sakura wilts a little. "So you noticed huh? I just... I don't know what to do."

Naruto smiles. "You just haven't found your niche yet."

Sakura shrugs a single shoulder and walks around a little, looking at the field. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is hung open. "This place is amazing! Is this why you and Sasuke are so good? You trained here?" She turns around to look at them.

Naruto and Sasuke both nod.

"Yeah, and we got a little help from my old man, he left behind a secret training technique. We should see if you can learn it," Naruto says, grinning broadly. "It's like an A ranked technique."

Sakura's eyes are as wide as saucers. "No way!"

"Wait, Naruto," Sasuke says, finally speaking. "We don't even know if Sakura has enough chakra to perform the technique."

Naruto tilts his head in confusion while Sakura deflates. "So, Sasuke?" Naruto says.

The young raven rolls his eyes. "I remember Kakashi-sensei saying that Sakura, while having the best chakra control of the three of us, has the lowest amount of chakra." Naruto stares at him blankly. Sasuke sighs. "If Sakura's control isn't enough and she ends up trying to use this technique without sufficient amounts of chakra, she could be hospitalized, or worse."

Naruto stares horrified. "What could be worse?"

Sasuke stares back deadpanned. "Death."

Naruto and Sakura both share identical looks of terror.

"What do we do, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asks.

Sasuke looks between the two of them before rolling his eyes again. "Simple, the same thing we did when we were getting ready to learn how to do that jutsu ourselves." He stares expectantly at Naruto.

"We did a lot of things trying to get ready to learn that damn jutsu," Naruto says, eyebrows pulled together.

"Get Hinata!" Sasuke snaps. Naruto jumps running out the door and out of sight. Sasuke rolls his eyes again before turning back to Sakura. "Until they get here, I'll show you the basics." Sakura listens with rapt attention as he explains the Shadow Clone Training Technique. Sakura nods in understanding, adding a quiet, "The more advanced version of the clone jutsu" to which the last of the Uchiha agreed to. Sasuke then shows her what she needs to do.

About ten minutes later, Naruto and Hinata make their way through the gate and toward the two other people in the yard. Hinata smiles lightly at Sasuke, who nods back at her in greeting, before she turned her attention to Sakura.