Peaceful Waters

I want to apologize for the tardiness of my chapter but I had it half written and then my desktop had a fatal crash and I lost everything. We’ve been trying to recover the info so I was holding out to see if I could get it back but it’s been like three weeks now so I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and rewrite the whole thing on my brand new laptop! Word of advice, buy the full warranty on laptops when you buy them, it’s totally worth it! “free” new computer! Yay! Ok on with the story!


Sasuke had slammed the door behind him when he realized that running into his room like a little girl throwing a hissy fit might not be very manly and he had already had quite enough manliness stripped away at this point. Thinking quickly like the genius he was, he grabbed his weapons pouch and ran back out before Genma could leave.


“Shiranui, wait,” he called loping over the tokubetsu.


Genma turned toward the Uchiha prodigy and raised an eyebrow in question swirling his senbon in his mouth.


“You almost killed me you know,” Sasuke began.


“I didn’t think the kiss was that bad,” Genma pouted eyebrow raised as he flashed another senbon from his pocket and dancing it across his fingers.


“NO! No,” Sasuke growled trying to avoid the confusing emotional storm that was threatening to break any minute if chatter about that, well, that thing that had happened, that he had let happen, was allowed to continue, “I meant the other day at dinner. I want know how you did that


“Oh,” replied Genma contemplatively, scratching his head “Well I don’t know if you can.”


“Try me,” smirked Sasuke as red flashed across his face, this time in the form of the sharingan and not a heated blush, which he was determined to see would never ever happen again. Ever.


“Well that’s not what I mean. Of course I could teach you the points that I hit with the senbon, in what order at what depth and all that but I’ve never really been able to explain how I do it,” Genma answered contemplatively “ Anyone can learn pressure points and chakra points and what they mean but usually they have to study the person before they strike or have Byakugan to make it feasible. I don’t know, the sharingan might work to correct this, but maybe not.”


“But you’ll try,” Sasuke answered, not asking.


“Sure I’ll try anything once, or more,” Genma purred moving his senbon in an obscene way. Seeing Sasuke shudder slightly, probably in combined horror and disgust, he decided to change gears a bit, “Seriously though, sure, let’s give it a whirl.”


“Great, lets go,” Sasuke suggested moving towards the door.


“Um, mind if we get some clothes first? This robe’s a little drafty,” Genma suggested waving absently at their bathrobes.


“Right, sure,” Sasuke answered quickly slightly embarrassed, “I’ll meet you outside then.”


Genma just smile and waved with the back of his hand as he left closing the door behind him. Sasuke went back to his room and started to change into his uniform, pleased that he had succeeded in putting this strange thing with Genma into something that he could handle. Genma was in utter mystery to him. Fro assassin to idiot to sex freak to guidance counselor, who the hell was this guy? But Sasuke was determined to put the relationship back on terms he could deal with. If it couldn’t be ridicule and condescension which he was supremely talented at then sparring and learning weapons techniques was defiantly a more comfortable fit then gay sex. And Sasuke was grudgingly willing to admit that this “special” jonin was just that.


Sasuke left his room slipped his sandals on and went to go meet Genma who was already leaning against the door to his cabin wearing only his dark blue shinobi pants and shirt, no vest, with his weapons pouch strapped to his leg and his familiar backward hitai-ate.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him in question and Genma replied to the unspoken question at his lack of full gear.


“This will mainly be explanations and weapons, not too much sparring for today, I just got patched up remember? Besides I’ve got to go shopping with Sakura later and I wouldn’t want to be overdressed to go into town. Scare the civi’s and all,” Genma smiled arrogantly as they walked down the pathway.


Sasuke merely “hn-ed” and followed behind Genma as they walked away from where the hot spring was and over to a part of the resort that has a small field surrounded by trees and picnic tables which was probably used for outdoor games and festivities. As they walked Genma smirked and reached over patting Sasuke on the shoulder and laying his arm across them in an older brotherly fashion, “I bet it’s really digging at you how I was able to ‘kill’ you at the dinner table isn’t it?


Sasuke turned his head to the side sniffing indignantly.


“Don’t feel bad.,” Genma began almost evilly, “Now let’s go through it step by step.”


He removed his arm from Sasuke’s shoulders, senbon appearing in his hands seemingly without movement. “ You came at me around the table, you had your sharingen activated right?


Sasuke nodded listening carefully.


“I bet you even saw me holding the senbon and where I was going to place them, but my guess is that you could see they weren’t going to hit anything vital and you figured there was no way that I would or could really hurt you. Even if they hit you’d look like the big bad shinobi having me in a hold or something and not even noticing those stupidly placed senbon right?” Genma asked smiling darkly.


“I did see where they were going, yes,” Sasuke answered carefully.


“I want to apologize about that by the way. I was too tired and starving to death and I pushed too hard and went too far. You just really pissed me off. I’m sure you can understand how someone calling you weak can affect you when you’re not entirely well,” Genma said sincerely, “Anyway the thing is, I’m older than you and I have years of experience dealing with different kids of people with different abilities. I pretty much knew exactly what you were going to do before you did it and so I adjusted my approach. I knew that you would see the senbon so I aimed them for places that I was pretty sure you wouldn’t recognize as dangerous.”


“But you said earlier that hitting those points require study or the Byakugan so how did you hit them on me from behind?” Sasuke asked as they reached the center of the field and stood facing each other.


“I said most people need to do that,” Genma replied, “That’s what I meant about having trouble teaching people. I seem to be able to sense chakra better than other people, or differently I guess. I can recognize and remember chakra from someone almost instantly and I can… I don’t know how to explain it. I can feel it in them. I can feel where it’s flowing, almost like an echo in my own body. I can also read people really well because I can tell where their chakra is. As peoples emotions change, or they lie, or get sick I can have some sense of it. When it comes to attacks I’m almost always right. Emotions, and lies I would say 60-85% of the time.”


“I’ve never heard of something like that,” Sasuke said thoughtfully.


“I know, no one has. I haven’t even explained it well but that’s the best I can do. It’s like explaining to someone who can’t hear what sound is like. I was really surprised when I started at the academy that other people didn’t sense chakra like I could. I heard from my father once that this chakra sense was what made a real ninja so I assumed all ninja had to have it,” Genma explained, “My guess would be I inherited this from my father but I can’t be sure since I haven’t seen him since I was six. That was when I found him slaughtering my mother, so needless to say we haven’t spoken since.”


Sasuke nodded in understanding, his eyes growing dark, “Did you try to stop your father?”


“Hell no! I was 6! I wasn’t even training to be a ninja at that time. I ran like a little girl, crying, straight to Konoha and vowed to become a ninja so that if I ever did find him I could return the favor,” Genma answered darkly.


In an instant that was almost invisible to Sasuke’s normal eyes Genma had a fist full of senbon peeking through his fingers and was standing in a relaxed fighting stance, eyes bright with the excitement that only the knowledge of a true test of skill can bring to a shinobi’s eyes, signaling the beginning of the training., “So let’s get started. Activate that sharingen of yours and let’s see if you can pick up the trick.”


Sasuke could only nod, feeling a sudden kind of, almost . . . kinship with this strange man. He smirked and his eyes flashed as well, instantly a bright crimson.


Senbon twirling through his fingers Genma swished the one in his mouth to the other side saying only “Let’s begin.”


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“Soooo, Sakura-chan!” Naruto started happily scooting next to the pink haired shinobi as she crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes.


“Soooo Naruto how’s HI-NA-TA?” Sakura answered back over emphasizing his girlfriends name trying to get the blond to think of his girlfriend and not her.


“I don’t know, you know we haven’t received any letters on this mission,” Naruto answered looking at Sakura as if SHE were the idiot, then brightening visibly added, “We’re going out on a date when we get back!”


“Where are you taking her?” Sakura asked as if she didn’t know the response would be-


“Ichiraku Ramen! And then we’re going to see a movie. She was going on a mission too so I’m just going to go to Ichiraku every night at 6:00 until she meets me,” Naruto informed cheerfully.


“And that would be different from any other day how?” Sakura breathed smiling slightly, glad that her friend had found happiness with someone.


“Well usually I go at 5:00 but . . . Wait a minute! Come on Sakura! Ichiraku ramen is the very best food you can eat!“ Naruto started before Sakura could cut him off.


Ramen rants could go on for hours, from it’s texture to the different flavors of ramen to ramen at different times of year to how it tasted in different weather conditions and goodness knows what else because she had never been able to let him go on longer then that without clobbering him.


“You should be taking Hinata-san somewhere nicer then that little ramen shop,” Neji cut in, “If Hiashi-san knew that you took her somewhere so cheap-”


“Ichiraku is the best ramen in the whole world! Hinata-chan LOVES going there with me!” Naruto bellowed.


“She likes being there with you. Do you honestly think she enjoys eating at that shack?” Neji cut in eyebrows narrowed.


“I’m going to see if my clothes are back from the cleaner!” Sakura informed the boys interrupting this fascinating conversation she wanted nothing to do with and waded away with a pained smile and much hand waving.


Neither ninja spoke since they were too busy staring daggers at each other to busy themselves with such things.


Sakura chuckled as she made her way back to her cottage. She was extremely pleased when she found her laundry already folded and carefully placed on the coffee table in their common room. She practically skipped to her room as she grabbed her clothes, toweled her hair dry and finally got her own underwear back on. No more Ino-style bindings for her! She put on her pants and shirt leaving off her vest since she was going into town with Genma. Thinking of Genma she noticed that he wasn’t back yet and she hadn’t seen him or Sasuke on her way back. She began to feel a little worried and decided to take a walk and look for her missing boys.


Sakura fumed a bit as she searched. Sasuke could be such an ass, well most of the time. And what about Genma? They’d better not be fighting. She had just patched them up and she didn’t want to spend the whole week here doing nothing but damage control. She wanted some fun outside of medicine this week. As she turned a corner she thought that she heard the sounds of fighting and fearing the worst she hurried her pace until she cleared a small stand of trees and saw Sasuke and Genma standing in the middle of a field baring senbon at each other.


She strode to the middle of the field and yelled “What do you two think you’re doing?! I finally got you to the point where you can walk around and now you’re trying to get knocked back down!” she said to Genma then turning to Sasuke, “ And you! I healed you earlier on this mission, I don’t want you re-damaging your ribs!”


“We were just training Sakura, Sasuke wanted to learn how I ‘killed’ him the other day,” Genma answered smiling slightly at the cuteness of the little pink medic, “ I promise we’ve been taking it easy. It’s all conceptualizing and study. I think that we’re good for now though. You look as if you’re all ready to go, so do you want to go ahead and head into town?”


“Sure!” Sakura answered happy that they hadn’t been fighting seriously. It looked like however pissed off Genma had been about Sasuke’s comment earlier, it wasn’t that big a deal anymore.


Genma waved goodbye to Sasuke and said, “Keep using your sharingan to see if you can figure out where the chakra is and practice hitting those points we talked about. I’m sure once you get a feel for it you might figure something out.”


“Hn,” Sasuke answered stretching and putting his senbon back in his pouch and closing it.


Genma’s senbon magically disappeared back as he reached out to hold Sakura’s hand and they made their way back towards the path.


“I just want to find Kakashi really quick before we go, he’s the one who saw the sign about this dance and I want to find out where we can get the information,” Genma told her.


“Sure, I think he and Sai are in his cottage,” Sakura answered as they turned to go that way.


“I know, I can sense them,” Genma answered lightly.


“From here with their chakra levels low?” Sakura asked slightly impressed.


“But of course, you’ve made me well. I’ve got full use of my facilities again,” Genma smirked pulling Sakura closer to him as they walked.


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“Wait-wait-wait, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Kakashi replied rubbing his forehead wearily, “After all Genma doesn’t know his family, heck your brother could be his brother or an unknown cousin or not related at all.”


“Perhaps,” Sai replied with his emotionless face, clearly not buying a word.


“Ok let’s think about this logically, how old was you brother?” Kakashi asked attempting to sort this all out.


“I do not know his birth date, none of us know exactly. But as I understand it he was less than a year older then me, he had proceeded farther in ROOTS than I had before he died, which is why I consider him an older brother,” Sai responded.


“And you’re about 16 now,” Kakashi muttered as Sai nodded the affirmative, “ So that would mean that your brother would have been about 17. Genma’s 33 so he would have had to have fathered this kid when he was 16, possibly 15.”


“Is that unlikely?” Sai asked.


Kakashi sighed and rested his head wearily in his hands, “No, it’s entirely possible as far as that goes. Let me think for a moment here.”


*see note
Kakashi leaned back in his chair and threw his mind back 17 years. That was around the time of the Kyuubi attack. There were a number of orphans at that time for obvious reasons. But what about Genma? Surely if he had fathered a kid he would have mentioned something. Maybe he didn’t know? Well that would be highly unlikely Genma didn’t get around THAT much at that age and surely if a girl was carrying his kid to full term he at least should have noticed something or she would have said something.


Ok this was all speculation and was getting him nowhere. Facts Kakashi, facts. What was Genma doing at that time? He, Kakashi, was around 14 or 15 and had been quite introverted after the death of Obito. Needless to say although he had remained in touch with Genma they hadn’t been terribly close. Would Genma have confided in him about such a thing? No. Not at that time. Now what was Genma doing around that time-


“Oh my God,” Kakashi uttered chokingly, “I think you’re right.”


Being a genius wasn’t always the great thing most people would think, in an unwilling flash the pieces came flying together and the picture wasn’t a pretty one. Memories of the night Genma had gotten wasted and dragged him and Anko to the Tattoo parlor for that supposedly ‘cocky’ tattoo. His insistence that they hurry up and return from the mission they had been on just before the Kyuubi attack. In fact that was why they had been back in time to help fight the Kyuubi in the first place. After the attack everyone was depressed and out of sorts, but as he recalled Genma had been particularly out of sorts at that time for someone who hadn’t lost any family or close friends. He had remained down and out of sorts until about a year later when he had finally broken. After that though it seemed he had finally gotten himself together again, dating once more. However Kakashi remembered that that was about the time that Genma had started going out with men more often then women.


And there were more memories, more clues and as much as he didn’t want to think about it little bits just kept coming to him all adding up and making too much sense. But how would Genma’s child have wound up in ROOTS? Who was the mother? Kakashi had no idea about who her identity could be.


If there was one thing Kakashi knew about Genma he was extraordinarily careful about birth control and was very harsh about people who fathered children and abandoned them. Kakashi always assumed that was because of Genma’s experience with his own father, but perhaps there was more to it. Perhaps Genma had abandoned his own son into ROOTS to become an emotionless puppet of Danzou.


He needed to get to the bottom of this somehow. The question was how. The answers to the questions spiraling madly in his head could possibly tear their life-long friendship apart. He couldn’t just go right up to Genma and say, ‘Hey, I was talking with Sai over here and we were wondering if you fathered his brother and then abandoned him into a ruthless offshoot of ANBU?’ Until he figured the best way to approach him Genma deserved at least the benefit of the doubt. After all nothing was proven no matter how probable it might be. Genma was a good friend, one of his best. This was most likely an incredibly painful topic to the man if it was true and it would do no good to destroy him over speculations and accusations.


“Sai, I don’t want you to say anything to Genma,” Kakashi said firmly looking the young artist in the eye.


“Kakashi-san, I have kept this book with me ever since my brother died. For the longest time I did not know why. Until Sakura told me that it was my connection to my brother that I didn’t want to lose, even though I didn’t understand it. This bond was important to me, and when my brother died I almost lost it forever. Thanks to Naruto-kun and my team I have been able to make new bonds even if I don’t fully understand them. But if what we suspect is correct and Genma-san is my brother’s father, I feel that that is an important bond that I need to have,” Sai explained to Kakashi, the fake smile that he had plastered on his face seeming all the more so from the unknown pain in his eyes.


“Sai,” Kakashi said gently, “I don’t mean ever. I just mean right now. This is a very sensitive claim to make and if your brother was Genma’s son we don’t know how Genma will react to the news that we know about it. Let me see what I can do this week to find out gently. I don’t want to see either of you hurt. If we go the wrong way about this, the chance at an important bond may be lost forever.”


“I will concede to your knowledge of bonds, Kakashi-san,” Sai nodded replying seriously.


“Thank you,” Kakashi responded already deep in thought about how he could go about digging out the secrets of his best friend.


*Old note: I’ve had an awful time with the whole age thing because the Naruto series seems to be off as well. For instance Naruto had the demon fox tied to him as he was born before the umbilical cord was cut so he being 12 at the start of the series would mean the Kyuubi attack was 12 years old. However, Kakashi being at the most 24 would mean that he was 12 himself when the attack happened which would have been impossible because the fourth was his teacher when he was 13 and was promoted to jonin and obviously at that time not the fourth. So seeing as how that is just one of the messed up age things with Naruto I hope that you will forgive my fudging a bit on ages in this fic. In other words NO FLAMES ABOUT THE AGES PLEASE!

* New note!
Ok so this is why I need to edit before I post stories. As I was quickly reminded Kakashi was 26 at the beginning of the show (which I swear I did know but messed up) not 24. I confuse myself because in the Kakashi gaiden offshoot it said “10 years ago” Which would have made Kakashi 16 when he was working with Obito and Rin which we all know is wrong because he was 13 when he became jonin. I wasn’t thinking and just added ten years to this age which of course messes up all the other characters ages. So now I’m back on track I think. Thank you all for your help!

OK that may have been a bit heavy but it will be more cheerful and witty the next couple of chapters I promise! As always R&R!