Chapter Text
It was a bright and peaceful morning. Everything was still in the frozen winter weather. The sun cast a glowing orange shade on the slowly awakening village, contrasting with the long blue shadows of the buildings. A few shinobi on patrol ambled along the streets.
But for one child in particular, there was a buzz in the air. Saria was up long before the sun began to rise. Sleep evaded her in her excitement to see Team Minato. She eventually gave up her pursuit of rest and decided to do her morning workout. However, even after she finished, there was still extra time. When she scrounged around for something to consume her attention, she ended up repeatedly reviewing her plans for saving Obito and Rin.
Save Obito plan (combined with Save Rin plan):
- Become close to Obito & Rin
- Reason: This way I will have influence over him and persuade him to improve himself; he was too weak in the original story
- Methods: Meet with Rin at the hospital often, use friendly honorifics, give compliments and gifts
- Make Obito competent enough to avoid endangering himself and teammates by the time of the Kanabi Bridge Mission
- Reason: That way even if he travels alone to save Rin, he won't put himself and Kakashi or Rin and danger and need to sacrifice himself
- Methods: encourage him to train more, awaken his Sharingan(?)
- Make Rin stronger so she can avoid being kidnapped
- Reason: If Rin is stronger, then she might not be kidnapped in the first place, which would save a lot more trouble than if Obito was stronger but still needs to rescue her
- Methods: encourage her to train more, have her focus on improving strength rather than medical skills first…?
- Change Kakashi so he's not a prick and will save Rin without hesitation
- Reason: The rescue mission may have gone a lot more smoothly if Kakashi decided to rescue Rin from the beginning. If he can change to the point where he will unhesitatingly do so, Obito might not have to sacrifice himself and fall into Madara's clutches
- Methods: make him believe that Sakumo was admirable, show the practicality of teamwork, have him complete exercises and drills with Obito
Judging by her notes, there wasn't really much she could do. She was more inexperienced than them by many years, so it's not as if she could act as a second mentor of sorts. Her best bet at preventing Obito's death was targeting Kakashi. He had the clearest problem: his attitude. Fixing that could lead to a large increase in his team's survival.
Obito's strength was lacking in comparison to Kakashi now, but she had no idea what she could do to increase his strength besides forcing him to awaken his Sharingan early, which was unlikely.
Based on her memories, Rin seems to be the weak link in terms of combat capability. That makes sense because she is training to be a medic, but a field medic that puts their teammates in danger because they're too weak is just a burden.
The Kanabi Bridge mission also didn't really require much specialized medical attention except when Kakashi lost his eye, which wouldn't happen if Rin wasn't kidnapped. So until that fateful mission, it would be better for her to focus on field utility rather than medical skills.
The clock indicated it was only seven. One more hour until eight, but Saria was impatient. She had read and reread her plans enough to have them memorized word for word, and she was growing dissatisfied by only being able to write out useless plans without testing to see if they would work.
She decided to head for Training Ground 8 now, leaving even earlier than she usually would for her training. The walk was only thirty minutes at most, so she would still be half an hour early. They probably wouldn't mind, right?
Upon nearing Training Ground 8, she saw that it looked like many of the other training grounds scattered around Konoha. There was an open dirt clearing with some tall trees around the border, providing shade and privacy, and some training dummies stood proudly off to the side. A small sign next to the road introduced the area as training ground 8, but even without the sign to tell her where to go, the characteristic forms of the members of Team Minato were already there. Kakashi and Rin were doing some light stretches while Minato stood to the side.
Giddy excitement filled her bones so she picked up her pace, shouting, "Rin-onee-san!"
The three of them turned to look at her. Rin walked over to greet her, "Zumi-chan, you're early!"
"Yes I was excited to meet you all!" she beamed.
"That's great! Let me introduce you to everyone first: This is Minato-sensei," Rin gestured and Minato responded with a wave, "and this is Kakashi-kun." The silver haired boy grunted, but didn't stop his exercises. "You've met Obito-kun, but he's not here yet."
"Nice to meet you all! I'm Uchiha Izumi, but you can call me Zumi-chan," Saria greeted with a shallow bow just like her mother had taught her.
Minato enthusiastically welcomed her, "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Zumi-chan. Rin-chan told us you would be coming. We're glad you could make it!"
Saria had to stop herself from bouncing in place. She was a grown woman, for goodness sake, but hasn't everyone imagined meeting their favorite characters at least once?
"You're Namikaze Minato, right? The Yellow Flash? Right? Oh, oh… hold on a second let me grab it…Here, could I please have your autograph!" She extended a sheet of paper and pen to him.
"Sure," he chuckled as he took the paper and signed it.
"Yeessss! You just fulfilled a lifelong wish of mine! Ah, could you maybe sign another one? I want to give one to my friend if that's okay?"
He laughed again and quickly scribbled a second signature, "Here you go, and may I ask who this friend of yours is?"
"His name is Itachi and he's actually my sparring partner. Unfortunately, he couldn't come, but I promised to get him your signature," she explained.
"A sparring partner, how fun! Rin-chan mentioned you were training already. It's great you have a partner to train with, it makes training less boring doesn't it?"
"Yeah! He and I compete to see who can learn kata faster. I'm nearly done learning the advanced genin level, so I'm winning," she boasted.
"That's impressive! Although just because you know all the forms and techniques doesn't mean you've mastered them. Keep up the work and I'm sure you'll make a wonderful kunoichi," Minato said.
Saria held in a squeal. She was just complimented by one of her favorite characters! Of course, what he said was generic, but it's the thought that counts!
"So, is it true you can teleport? My dad told me that one time he was on the battlefield and saw you in action, and you were zipping across the field like lightning! Taking down bad guys left and right!" she rambled.
Minato chuckled, "Well yes, I guess you could call it teleporting."
"So you can really teleport? Can I see?"
He shifted his weight. "Hmmm…Sorry, we're in the middle of training right now, maybe another time," he apologized.
"Pleeeaase? It shouldn't take too long right?" she looked up at him. He shook his head and politely declined. He was being more stubborn than she thought he would. It was time to pull out her ultimate weapon then.
She cupped her hands and tilted her head. Then, she recalled with perfect clarity the time she realized her parents have given up, which caused her eyes to tear up.
This was one of the reasons why she cursed her blessed memory. Everything she ever saw was recorded exactly. Whenever she remembers something, even the emotions she felt at the time are as strong as when she first experienced it. Nothing fades with time.
However, her memory was useful for situations like these when she needed to act. All of the emotions she displayed are genuine, just misplaced.
Minato fretted over her for a moment before he pursed his lips and sighed. "Aah, fine." He squatted down to her level and whispered, "I'll show you only once, so watch carefully alright?"
"Okay!" she bobbed her head swiftly, shaking off the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. He took a few steps back and stood with his hands on his hips.
"Here I go!" he brought his hands in front of him, forming the seal of confrontation.
"5…"
"4…"
"3…"
"2…"
"1…!"
In a flash, he was gone. Her head darted around quickly in search of him.
"Here I am!" came a voice. Saria staggered forward in surprise. Whipping around, the image of Minato casually smiling down at her filled her view.
"Woah, no way! You teleported behind me so quickly!" she exclaimed out of genuine enthusiasm and curiosity. Being able to instantly maneuver behind your opponent at will in battle was a very overpowered ability. She had better grasp of how beneficial such a technique was now that she had more experience with how shinobi fought. If she could use the Flying Thunder God Technique, she would always win her spars with Itachi.
"How did you teleport? It just looks like you did a hand sign and poof! Now you're here. It looks so easy! Are you sure you didn't just move too fast for me to see and call it 'teleporting'? If you did teleport, how does that technique work? Could I learn to do that one day?" questions spewed forth from her mouth as soon as they entered her head.
"Slow down there Zumi-chan," Rin interrupted her, "I don't think sensei can answer all of those questions at once. Ask them one at a time."
"Sorry, I got a little carried away," Saria scratched the back of her head. She thought about which question she wanted to ask first, then settled on the most pressing one: "How does teleporting work?"
Minato dug up something from his pockets and showed it to her. It was Minato's classic three-pronged kunai.
"A kunai? But how does a kunai help you teleport?" she asked again.
"Technically, it's not the kunai that is doing the teleporting, but the stuff wrapped around the handle." He moved it closer so she could get a better look.
'So this is fuinjutsu,' she mused. She carefully studied the strange writing. 'It's ridiculous how some ink on paper can create a teleportation machine. All the famous physicists would be rolling in their graves if they knew. Well, time to dig up some more information.'
"But what's so special about the handle? It looks like there's some writing on it. What is that?"
"This is called fuinjutsu, and it's what allows me to teleport," replied Minato. Not a very helpful explanation.
"But it just looks like some writing. How does that help you teleport?" she persisted.
Minato chuckled, "That's a lot more complicated than I could explain and you could probably understand."
Saria paused at that comment. She took a second glance at Minato's face, doubting if he was serious or not.
'Did that man just imply that I'm stupid—?' she scrutinized him. 'How insulting! I could definitely master fuijutsu given enough time and resources. First I need to acquire some example seals, photocopy them, and run a few programs. They should be able to find a pattern in the fuinjutu script. After all, how different could it be from normal language or a secret code? I'll need supplies too. Doesn't it use special paper and ink? I'll have to ask my father if he is willing to buy some. Or I could use my own funds—'
"Zumi-chan, is something wrong?" Rin's voice snapped her back into the present.
Right, she's here, she scolded herself. Not in a lab or on duty, or anywhere else modern.
"…it's nothing. I guess I was just a little disappointed I wouldn't be able to teleport."
Minato chuckled, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, it took me years to learn how to do it too, so it's not easy."
Saria sighed. It must truly be difficult if even a genius like him needed a few years, or rather it was ridiculous that it only took him a few years to obtain teleportation. Her previous world still hadn't managed to achieve it and it had thousands of years of history and scientific development.
"Sensei, I'm done," a new voice spoke from the side.
Minato turned around, "Ah, good job Kakashi-kun. Obito-kun hasn't arrived yet, so please work on something while we wait."
She heard him scoff, "How does he end up more than half an hour late? What an idiot," he muttered.
A sigh came from behind her. Glancing back, she saw that even Rin seemed exasperated. Whether that was because Obito was late or Kakashi's insult, Saria didn't know.
There seemed to be a lull in the conversation with the mention of their missing teammate.
"You guys are talking about Obito-kun right? He came and visited me at the hospital one time and seemed pretty nice. Is he always late?"
Kakashi scoffed again, "'Is he always late'? He's never been on time, not even for missions!"
'Yikes, that's pretty bad. Such chronic tardiness wouldn't last a day in boot camp. What is Minato even teaching his students?' Saria shifted her eyes towards the said man. 'Something is weird here, though.'
"If he's always late, then there must be a reason for it. Maybe he has other responsibilities," she pointed out.
Everyone seemed to freeze for a moment, like the programming in their brains crashed. Saria could imagine the sound of crickets chirping, or maybe there really were some critters singing away in the nearby forest.
Kakashi broke the tension with a click of his tongue, "It doesn't matter. He's baggage anyway, a black sheep."
"That's untrue and really rude!" she chastised him.
"How am I wrong? The idiot is weak and always late, like today. He can't do anything right," Kakashi griped.
She took a good look at him and concluded one thing: This kid needed to learn some manners. "That was mean too, and Obito-kun's not an idiot just because you're smarter than average. But seriously, it's weird he's always late. Could something be holding him up?"
"As if it's anything important. Just wait until he comes and he'll have some lame excuse again. He always does. That's why he's weak, making excuses to himself and others all the time. He wouldn't drag us down if he at least followed the rules and was on time."
Saria was randomly struck by the feeling of familiarity.
His tone reminded her of someone, but not because she knew Kakashi as a character from an old anime. But who was it?
Kazuto, the angsty teenager who did PT with Ikurato as well. He was understandably upset and probably traumatized because he lost a forearm, and his comments reflected that. What did Kakashi have going for him to act like that?
A memory surfaced.
A father, bloody and lifelessly splayed on the tatami mats with his own sword through his stomach.
Saria took in a deep breath, counted to five, then exhaled.
In stories, it's common for characters to have tragic pasts to get sympathy from the audience. She had considered Kakashi as just that, an object of pity. But that thinking was wrong.
Here he was, a living, breathing kid. A sob story before meant real trauma now.
Time to reconsider then.
She could be the one to offer him some help.
"Okay fine, let's say that you're right because the shinobi rulebook says so, and I agree with what it says a little bit. Being late is not a good habit for many reasons. But you also said something very wrong before."
Kakashi was looking at her now, clearly not expecting her to mention the rulebook that he was so loyal to.
"Aside from your disrespectful words, it does matter that he is always late. The rulebook says that building trust and teamwork between shinobi is also important because if there is none, in-fighting could cause a mission to go wrong," and one mission had certainly gone very wrong, even acting as the catalyst for the main antagonist of the series and the start of Kakashi's miserable life.
Kakashi reluctantly acknowledged her words so far. That's a good start.
"…I haven't known you guys for long, but I would guess you guys don't get along, even during simple missions. That's a future disaster waiting to happen. So, whatever is going on with Obito-kun's lateness is important. Like you said, his habits are dragging down the team. But when I met him, he seems like he is serious about becoming Hokage, even if no one else believes him. He is self-determined and dedicated. That's not enough though, actions speak louder than words after all. He must know that being late all the time is bad for the team yet he still does it anyway. That's really weird. There is probably something bigger going on and as part of your duty as a teammate, you should help him rather than just criticize him all the time. Who knows, maybe you might become friends."
A silver glint flashed by in his eyes as they sharpened into a glare. He looked about ready to give her a piece of his mind.
"Alright, alright settle down," Minato stepped in front of Kakashi.
He squatted down to eye level with her and lowered his voice, "Zumi-chan, your advice was very helpful, but Kakashi-kun can seem a bit… aggressive to people who don’t know him. Don't take it personally."
The said girl gave the yellow-haired man a bright grin.
"Don't worry! I'm not actually that upset. I wasn't the one that was insulted after all. I just hope he considers my words."
She heard the sound of someone clicking their tongue from behind Minato.
"She acts like a know-it-all. Who does she think she is to lecture me?" Kakashi muttered. Saria raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to respond. Rin tugged her aside. "Zumi-chan, we need to get started with our training. Feel free to watch! I can show you some of the exercises we do and give you some tips for your own training."
Taking the grace given, Saria went along with it, "I want to see some cool jutsu!"
It was Minato who responded, "Of course you'll get to, but be patient for now. Usually after warming up we spar, then conduct a team exercise before working on individual skills at the very end. We were in the middle of sparring when you arrived. So we will continue from there."
She stayed silent, not wanting to interfere with their routine. Rin and Kakashi moved out into the sandy clearing and got into position.
The conditions for the spar were no ninjutsu or genjutsu and no using chakra enhancement. It was a purely physical confrontation then.
Kakashi was the first to move. He threw a kunai at Rin while bolting toward her. Rin calmly deflected the kunai using her own and shifted into a defensive crouch.
Kakashi had unsheathed his father's tanto and clashed with her; they entered close combat with sparks flying and piercing collisions ringing out.
Saria observed them spar with focused interest. What stood out to her most was their speed: she struggled to comprehend each motion they made. Her spars with Itachi probably looked like playfighting to any skilled shinobi since they were so slow.
Still, she reminded herself, Team Minato were officially chuunin, and Kakashi was a known prodigy. Her body was three. It wouldn't make sense to hold herself to the same standard even if she had her extra memories. There was no way she could keep up with such a battle.
In reverse, however, that made Team Minato's current feats impressive. They were moving at speeds faster than even Olympic or world-class athletes of her previous life, and they were pre-teens!
Upon reflection, even her own speed, strength, and stamina would place her as that of a teenager even though her body is much younger. Her arm strength is already greater than her mother's.
Saria supposed humans in this world have astonishingly high physical potential.
How fast was Minato, a skilled jounin and future Hokage? Could he move fast enough to dodge a bullet? If he could, then that means he could move at supersonic speeds.
No, she promptly decided, shinobi in the anime never left sonic booms whenever they moved, so they were subsonic. The only way a shinobi could dodge a bullet would be to predict the trajectory and move beforehand. It would be too late for them to react after a gunshot because most bullets travel at supersonic speeds: they would get hit before they hear the gunshot.
That conjecture needs to be tested though. If Minato could visually confirm the bullet's location as it traveled towards him, he may be able to use Hiraishin to dodge it, since it seemed to be a near-instantaneous teleport.
A shout from a distance brought Saria out of her speculations. On the gravel road leading to the training field, an orange and black dot grew larger as it approached.
"Sorry I'm late! I had to help an old lady carry her groceries," Obito panted as he sprinted over.
Kakashi and Rin stopped their spar upon their third teammate's arrival.
"See, he gave a lame excuse for being late," Kakashi smugly stated.
"What! It's not some lame excuse! I really did help her carry her groceries! You could even ask her to confirm it!" Obito defended himself.
Kakashi clicked his tongue, "So what if you helped her? You're more than half an hour late!"
Obito's mouth snapped shut as if he had swallowed a lemon.
Saria greeted the boy to cheer him up, "Hi Obito-kun! You finally made it!"
"Oh Zumi-chan! I forgot today was the day you were visiting us! I was wondering why you were here," Obito exclaimed.
"Obito-kun, please get started on warmups, and add five extra reps to each for being late," Minato commanded, "That reminds me, Rin-chan, you need to finish too."
"Yes Sensei," Obito replied, then turned to Saria, "Sorry I don't think I'll get a chance to show you cool tricks again."
She smiled and shook her head, "I don't mind, you had something else holding you up, didn't you?"
Obito winced, "…Yeah."
"Alright Obito-kun, get started!" Minato urged, "And Zumi-chan, feel free to stay the whole practice. Maybe that'll give you some inspiration for your own training or motivate you at least."
Saria stood by Minato's side. Kakashi was working on his swordsmanship with his father's signature tanto. He whacked at a straw dummy while the sheath still covered the sword. Rin had quickly finished her warmup and moved over to the training dummies as well to work on her taijutsu.
Obito was still going through their warmups. He started with running laps (more like sprinting, her eyes could barely keep up!). Afterward, he did some light stretches, then various bodyweight exercises and positions.
All in all, it wasn't much different than what she did for her own training, but perhaps more intense because he was stronger. She expected more collaboration between them though, like team exercises or something.
"Zumi-chan," Minato began, "You asked why Obito-kun was late all of the time."
It wasn't a question. That confused her. "Yeah, why do you ask? Did I say something insensitive?"
"No, it had just made me realize something," his gaze was solemn as he looked at Obito, "I realized that I didn't know why Obito-kun was late so often either. I was so used to his excuses, but really, to have an excuse every single time is a little strange. So I can't answer if your question was insensitive or not."
Saria felt incredulous in her heart. What kind of sensei was he if he didn't pay attention to what was happening with his students? Surely as an instructor he dishes out punishment for being late, but after that happens a few times, most would expect the student would stop being late.
Yet Obito was still late despite that. That implies there's some other reason he is late even if he knows he will face punishment. But Minato didn't seem to pay much mind to it, so she assumed he knew about Obito's circumstances and was being lax. It turned out he just didn't care.
The Yellow Flash, well-respected shinobi and future Hokage, was this indifferent to his own student? Was simply an effect of the setup from the story to make Obito more tragic? None of these characters had a lot of background development after all.
She didn't know what to say to Minato in this case. "Well, what will you do when you find out the actual reason he is late?"
"I don't know, what do you think I should do?" Minato asked back.
Saria thought back to Obito's character in the series. There wasn't much information about his childhood, other than he was known for being clumsy and late. After digging through her memories for a bit, she remembered that his parents had passed away and so he was raised by his grandmother.
"Maybe he has family troubles? If so, I guess you could help him work through it? It's important that the team can work together, or at least be professional with each other. Kakashi and Obito both need some extra help to reach that point," Saria proposed.
Minato looked surprised and hummed in response. He didn't say anything after that, seeming to think about her response. Obito eventually finished warming up. Seeing that the whole team was ready, Minato gave a new set of instructions. "I've hidden 5 flags in the forest nearby. Please retrieve them and return by 12 o'clock. Get to it!"
With that, the three of them sprung into the forest. Only the two of them remained in the training ground, continuing to stare into the nearby forest where the team's exercise was taking place.
"Izumi-san is a genius," Minato drawled in a low voice, "isn't she?"
Saria unconsciously flinched.
It took her a moment to gather herself. She deflected with a shy look on her face, "Thank you for the compliment! It means a lot coming from you, but I don't think I'm that smart."
"If you insist," he enunciated with a polite smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Her heart rate sped up in response to his behavior. Cold sweat collected on the palms of her hands. She felt like she didn't fit correctly inside this tiny body, like something was smothering her, dragging her down into a quagmire. Her mind raced to think of a way to escape the situation.
"It looks like Rin-onee-san and them have started on their main drill so we'll just be tree-watching. I forgot I still need to help my mother with some chores and stuff, so I should really get going! Sorry I had to leave early, but it was a pleasure to meet everyone!" she inched away with every word she said.
Minato smirked, "Sure. It was nice talking to you. I look forward to what you'll accomplish in the future, Izumi-san. Feel free to come to visit us anytime. I would love to chat with you some more."
"Haha! I would like that too! See you sometime!" 'Sometime being never!' she finished in her head.
After a quick wave of goodbye, she spun around and high-tailed it out of there. She imagined the feeling his eyes on her back, but didn't bother to look back and check.