[7] - Team 7

WARNINGS!
= OOCs
= Wrong Grammars and Spellings

DISCLAIMER!
~ I DO NOT OWN NARUTO ~

"Talking"
'Thoughts'
Previously / Flashback

"Hokage-sama, I am Sasuke-san's messenger ninneko, Meji. Uum... His Jounin-sensei fall unconscious after informing him and his teammates that the Kirigakure's Seven Seven Ninja Swordsmen they fought was actually still alive. All of them are injured so Sasuke-san sent me to request back-up and hopefully a medic too in his sensei's stead," the ninneko informed.

.

"I am Uzukaze Tooru, pardon my intrusion," Tooru gave Tazuna a nod as she entered the house last before she turned to Sakura. "Sakura-chan," she called, immediately taking the girl's attention. "Please sit down. You too, Tazuna-san. I need to check your injuries before going to Kakashi and your teammates," she waved towards the chairs.

= 3rd Person's POV =

"I hope you don't mind that I heal Tazuna-san first, Sakura-chan? Seeing that he is a bridge-builder, he will need his feet to be in a proper function," Tooru smiled apologetically towards the pink-haired girl, who immediately shook her head. "No, it's fine! Mine's are only scratches and bruises so Tazuna-san's injury is worser than mine," she replied.

Tooru smiled before turning her attention towards Tazuna's ankle. "By the way, do you mind telling me what happened? The only information I received was you all encountering one of Kirigakure's Seven Swordsmen and all of you are injured. You can start from when you encountered the swordsman," she asked without turning her head towards Sakura.

"Okay," Sakura nodded. "Uum... After Kiri nuke-nin, Momochi Zabuza appeared, Kakashi-sensei immediately engaged a battle with him using a Sharingan on his left eye after asking us to stand back to guard Tazuna-san," she started. "Sensei got slashed across his chest when he tried to dodge Zabuza's sword after a battle of Mizu Bunshins in the middle of a jutsu that creates a mist to blind us," she continued. "When sensei dodged the sword and gotten the injury, he was kicked away and fell into the water, which Zabuza then trapped sensei in a water prison."

Tooru was silent when she listened to the Genin telling her what had happened and inwardly frowned when she heard Kakashi receiving injury before gotten trapped, rather than successfully dodging it before gotten trapped in the water prison.

"We panicked after that when he created another Mizu Bunshin and kicked one of my teammates, Naruto away. Sensei immediately told us to run the moment he saw that. Naruto being Naruto, rushed at the man to get his hitaiate back when it has fallen off from the kick and got it back," Sakura said before continuing, "My other teammate, Sasuke-kun and Naruto were planning to attack him together when he attacked Sasuke-kun. He received bruises on his chest and stomach areas because of that," she said.

Tooru inwardly hmm-ed. That part about Sasuke's injuries was the same as her Sasuke.

"Then Naruto used his Kage Bunshin to surrounded the man but he dispelled them all with his large sword, Naruto got a long gash on his shoulder and was thrown near Sasuke-kun before he threw a Fuma Shuriken for Sasuke-kun to throw at the real one," she said.

'That ...was different. I didn't get hurt from that,' Tooru thought.

"Zabuza managed to grab it but he didn't see another one hiding in a blind spot. Both Sasuke-kun and Naruto didn't seem to be worried at that time when he dodged it and turns out that shadow shuriken was Naruto henged into one before he threw a kunai to Zabuza, forcing him to release Kakashi-sensei," Sakura exclaimed.

"Then sensei and Zabuza engaged each other in a battle of water jutsus before sensei managed to copy his movement and finish a strong jutsu first, throwing Zabuza away! Well, actually all of us was thrown back, that's where mine and Tazuna-san's injuries came from," she added the last part sheepishly.

Tooru chuckled as she patted the old man's knee. "You are fine now. You just sprain your ankle and it only looked worse because you are putting too much pressure on it which I am sure came from you forcing yourself to walk," she said, staring at the man who gave her a sheepish smile after the last sentence left her mouth. "While I already healed it, to be sure, try not to stress it and walk too much. You'll be back to normal by tomorrow morning," she smiled.

"Thanks. It feels much better now," Tazuna sighed as he turned relax on the chair. He could finally sit down without pain erupted from his ankle.

Tooru nodded before he turned to Sakura. "Okay, your turn now, Sakura-chan," she smiled and moved to the girl, who nodded gratefully. "You may continue telling me what happened, Sakura-chan," she added as she slowly took the bandages off.

"Okay. Uuh... Where was I? Right, Zabuza was thrown away. Kakashi-sensei was about to attack him again when a hunter-nin from Kiri killed him by throwing senbons to his neck," she started again. "Kakashi-sensei said he was dead when he checked his pulse then the hunter-nin carried Zabuza's body away. Because the fight was finally over, Kakashi-sensei immediately collapsed so we had to carry him all the way here," she continued.

"A few minutes after we put sensei on Tazuna-san's spare futon, he woke up, saying something about Zabuza is still alive and the senbon that hunter-nin used was to only make Zabuza fall in a temporary death," Sakura said, leaving the part where she and Naruto tried to take a peek at Kakashi's face. "Before promptly falling unconscious again without telling us anything about what we should do next," she sighed before her eyes turned to her wounds as they slowly healed by Tooru's green chakra.

"Okay. You are done," Tooru nodded as she slowly stood up. "I guess I should go check on the boys now, especially Kakashi-se-san," she smiled, which Sakura nodded at her and led her to the room the boys were currently resting in.

Tooru sighed in relief that the girl didn't catch the word "sensei" she almost slipped when mentioning Kakashi's name.

Both boys turned their attention towards the door when it slid open and both blinked at the red-headed woman. Before anyone could say anything, the blond boy immediately stood up and shouted "who are you?!" as he pointed his finger towards her.

Tooru blinked, briefly wondered if she was also that loud when she was younger, her eyes only landed on young Sasuke for a second, before landed on her younger male-self again, ignoring her longing feeling for her Sasuke.

"She must be a ninja Hokage-sama sent, idiot," the young Uchiha huffed as he smacked the blond's head.

"Sasuke-kun is right, Naruto! This is Uzukaze Tooru-san, the medic Hokage-sama sent!" Sakura screeched at him. "Uzukaze-san, they are my teammates, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto," she introduced her teammates as she waved at them.

"How would I know that?! And how did you know that?!" Naruto shouted at Sasuke as he rubbed the spot the Uchiha smacked him at.

"Are you really that stupid? No, nevermind, you are," Sasuke gave the blond an unimpressed stare, ignoring the blond's "hey!".

"Look at her neck," Sasuke sighed heavily.

"Neck?" Naruto blinked and turned to Tooru, and blinked again before he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"Sorry, Tooru-san," he smiled sheepishly. How could he not see that? The hitaiate was really visible to everyone.

Tooru chuckled when Sakura berated him for calling someone by their first name without permission were impolite. "It's fine, Sakura-chan. In fact, I do hope all of you to call me by my first name, rather than last name. Calling me 'Uzukaze-san' makes me sounds old," she said with a smile before she summoned one clone, making the three Genins blinked in confusion.

"My clone will be checking on you boys, while I will check Kakashi-san's injuries," Tooru stated, which the Genins then nodded in understanding.

She then walked to the unconscious Jounin and slowly took both his flak jacket and shirt off, ignoring Sakura's soft squeak behind her before it was replaced by a gasp. "Sakura-chan, do you mind helping me getting a towel and water to clean his wound?" Tooru asked as she lifted her head towards the pink-head girl, who nodded and ran out.

Tooru then turned her attention back to the younger self of her teacher and huffed. "You are getting dull, you know that," she commented as she blankly stared at the man as if he was stupid, her hands were rummaging her pouch for her medical gloves and supplies. "Either that or you underestimated Zabuza a lot," she added with a huff.

"Tooru-san, I brought them!" Sakura ran in, carefully not to spill the basin of water, which Naruto went and lent her a hand. "I'll help you, Sakura-chan".

"Thank you, both of you," Tooru smiled as they put the basin and towel beside her and sat nearby, just in case the red-head needed their help as they watched her work.

Cleaning the Jounin's wounds only already took some time that involved Sakura and Naruto ran in and out to change the water. The wound was deep, yes, but it was not enough to make someone bleed to death within three hours.

She vaguely wondered when did young Sasuke joined his two teammates in changing water and watching her work but immediately shrugged it off. Tsunade and her Sakura sometimes mentioned that they too would lose track of time the moment they entered medic-mode.

Tooru sighed when she finished stitching, healing and ended with bandaging the Jounin as she put away all of her medical supplies and took her bloody gloves off. "Well, now all he needed is rest. Given how strong and stubborn he is, he will wake up by the end of tomorrow and walked around though definitely with difficulties," she smiled.

The Genins sighed in relieved when she said that. Their Jounin-sensei was not going to kick the bucket anytime soon.

"Alright," she stood up and stretched after sealing the used medical items in "to be disposed" and "to be thoroughly washed" seals. "Oh, god... I never get used to sitting that long," she groaned in the middle of her stretch.

"Right, you three," she turned to the three Genins, immediately taking their attention. "Seeing that Kakashi-san is still out from the conscious world and Zabuza is still lurking around with his companion, I'll take over in training you," she smiled. "Though, I do hope he won't mind at this when he wakes up," she added.

"What kind of training?" Naruto asked, ignoring the last part. Sasuke and Sakura seemed to be interested too.

"Depends. What has Kakashi-san been teaching you for the past few months? I will start from there," she said with a smile and blinked when the Genins gave her a blank look. "...Is something wrong?"

"He hasn't taught us anything yet," Sakura muttered.

"Huh?" Tooru blinked in surprise.

"It has always been teamwork while doing chores with him giggling somewhere nearby as he read that disgusting book of his," Sasuke muttered with a sour look. Tooru seemed to hear him muttering something about "cornering nii-san to train him" under his breath.

"Yeah! All those chores Jiji called them missions! Kakashi-sensei disappeared somewhere with his stupid book after we got the payments for finishing those chores," Naruto added with a pout.

Tooru facepalmed as she sighed.

Perfectly the same as her Kakashi-sensei when she was younger. "Does that mean he hasn't trained you in tree climbing yet?" She asked.

"Everyone can climb-ow!" Naruto was cut off when Sasuke slapped his head as the Uchiha stared at the red-head. He knew she knew that most could climb trees already so why would she ask?

'She asked if Kakashi taught them or not so...' Sasuke thought.

"No, he hasn't, as Naruto just said, he disappeared right after we received the mission payments," Sasuke replied, making Naruto and Sakura looked at him in confusion.

Tooru sighed. "I see," she nodded before waving them outside. "He should have taught you tree climbing a month after you passed his test. Follow me," she stated as she walked out, followed by the confused Genins.

Tooru led the Genins towards behind Tazuna's house. "Okay, this training involves the used of the basis of your ninja powers, the body energies that are known as Chakra but before I started, I wanted to talk to you about it," she started and was cut off before she could continue.

"Uum... Uum... What's Chakra? I think I have heard about it somewhere before..." Naruto asked questioningly.

Tooru blinked and stared incredulously at her younger male self, he was more clueless than she was when she was younger.

"You are a ninja and you don't know that?! Just what did you learn in the Academy?!" Sakura screeched, flailing her arms around at the blond.

"Uum... I used to sleep during the lectures ...well, either that or I skipped classes hehe..." Naruto replied with a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head.

Tooru sweatdropped. 'This is bad,' she thought with a small sigh.

Sasuke, on the other hand, facepalmed, muttering something about "usuratonkachi" and "attention-span of a goldfish".

"Hey, I heard that, Temesuke!" Naruto shouted, pointing his finger towards the Uchiha, who ignored him.

Tooru glanced towards the Uchiha for a moment before she sighed. "Alright, Sakura-chan or Sasuke-kun, can either one of you explain it to Naruto-kun?" She asked the two.

Sakura nodded. "Okay," she said before she turned to the blond. "Listen, Naruto, I am going to tell you simply so please somehow memorize it," she stated as she put her hands at her sides before she began explaining.

Both Tooru and Sasuke sweatdropped at the unfocused expression on Naruto's face during the explanation.

Tooru nodded when Sakura finished explaining. "That's right. Iruka-san taught his students well," she chuckled, making Sakura smiled proudly.

"Well, whatever, I am not good at long explanations but if you could just show me how to do it, I can learn it easier," Naruto stated, showing that every single explanation coming from Sakura bounced away from him.

Tooru sweatdropped. She really wondered if she was once like this... If she was, though she was sure it's not always, blessed Kakashi-sensei for tolerating her nonsense.

"But with us being a ninja, nevermind we are currently holding the lower rank, we already employ the ninja art and techniques, so what's the purpose of this training if we only needed to learn about Chakra, Tooru-san?" Sasuke turned to the red-head, ignoring the annoying one-sided screaming drama between Naruto and Sakura, that immediately stopped the moment that question left the Uchiha's mouth.

"You are right at that but none of you has full mastery of your Chakra yet," Tooru pointed it out with a smile, making the three Genins looked at her in surprise.

"What?!" Naruto shouted out at the same time as Sakura's scream of "seriously?!" and Sasuke's soft "we haven't?".

"Let me explain," Tooru said as she raised her hand, making their questioning stop.

"As Sakura-chan explain earlier about manipulating Chakra which refers to summoning physical and mental energies, and combines them within your body, depending on the Jutsu you are planning to use, the amount of the energies you needed would vary. And right now, none of you is using your Chakra effectively," Tooru pointed it out.

"So no matter how great the amount of Chakra you summon and manipulate, if you can't maintain your balance, not only the effectiveness will be cut in half, it could also affect your intended Jutsu and make it fail to appear," she said before continuing when she saw the Genins gave her their full attention. "And because you ended up wasting your energies, you would not only be wasting your stamina, you would also be leaving yourselves vulnerable to attacks, leading to grave injuries or death," she said. 'That's if you didn't have someone watching your back of course...' she added in her mind.

The Genins gulped at the consequences she just mentioned.

"So, uuh... what should we do then?" Naruto asked in a slight panic.

"You learn to control your body through harsh training. So, go out on a limb and learn from the experience," Tooru replied with a smile.

"How ...uum... What kind of harsh training?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"I mentioned it when we left the house, didn't I?" Tooru replied as she looked at the girl, who blinked back at her.

"Do you mean the training is this... Tree climbing?" Sasuke slowly asked.

"Yes, that's right!" Tooru nodded with a smile.

Yep! Slight changes in the fight between Team 7 and Zabuza.

And also, younger Tooru is the same as Canon-Naruto, loud but is a little smarter and have more patience.

Sorry for not updating for so long.

I got a writer's block to the point I wanted to create a whole new fic regardless am going to update or not for that one... *sweatdrop*

Happy Chinese New Year!