Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Zabuza needs a drink. He’s been zoning out, letting Kisame take over the debrief of their latest mission, nothing major but slogging through mud for three weeks tracking a group of missing nin was not fun.

“Zabuza.” 

He focuses back in, 

“Yes?”

“I’m assigning you another mission,” Mei pulls three files from one of the many stacks on her desk, “I’m giving you a Genin team.” 

“No.” 

Mei raises an eyebrow, ignoring Kisame as he tries and fails to hold back his laughter. 

“This is an order, Zabuza.” 

Fuck. 

“It’s not graduation season,” He points out, though if Mei has decided to assign him a genin team pointing out she shouldn’t have one to assign him won’t do him much good. 

“It’s not,” Mei acknowledges, “However, this team’s jounin sensei didn’t make it back from one of his patrol missions,” 

Zabuza rolls his eyes. No jonin worth their salt should be dying on a routine patrol mission. “And I’m the best candidate to replace him?” 

“I wouldn’t be assigning the team to you, if you weren’t,” 

Zabuza opens his mouth to protest, but Mei’s icy glare silences him. Old friends or not, Mei is still the Mizukage, and her word is law.

“Now, go over your genin’s files. They’ll be expecting you at training ground 6 the day after tomorrow at eight.” 

With that, she turns her attention to the paperwork in front of her. Taking the hint, Zabuza follows Kisame out into the hallway. 

____________

“Well, c’mon, what’s the damage?” Kisame asks, taking far too much delight in this whole scenario. With Zabuza’s team assignment any possibility of getting a drink after that bitch of a mission was squashed, and Kisame, in commiseration, or more likely, looking for a source of entertainment, had followed him back to his apartment. 

Grimacing, Zabuza flips open the first file and immediately wishes he’d said fuck preparation and gone for that drink. 

“Haku, the last of the Yuki clan.” He reads out dryly, and Kisame winces. 

“He’s unlocked the basics of his bloodline limit, average ninjutsu, average taijutsu, average genjutsu, above average accuracy, above average intelligence and average kenjutsu. Oh for fucks sake, standoffish, struggles to connect with peers, uses teamwork only when necessary, never by choice.”  

“Well, shit,” Kisame sips at the tea he’d procured from who knows where, “that’s a hell of a way to start.” 

Zabuza snorts, tossing Haku’s file to the side. “Kid totally has a superiority complex. His old sensei probably fed into it, too.” 

“Alright, next up we have…” Zabuza flips open the file, “Hozuki Suigetsu,” 

“Mangetsu’s baby brother? That Suigetsu?” Kisame asks, sitting forwards

“You know of any other Hozuki Suigetsus?” Zabuza retorts, rolling his eyes, “Let’s see here… above average ninjutsu, taijutsu, kenjutsu and genjutsu, average accuracy and intelligence. Egotistical, unwilling to cooperate with others'' 

Kisame shrugs. “Sounds about right. Who’s the last one?” 

Tossing Suigetsu’s file atop of Haku’s Zabuza opens the last file. “Fuck.” 

“That bad?” 

“Haruno Sakura, her parents are first gen immigrants, her mom runs a bakery and her dad does manual construction labor.” 

Two clan kids, and one first gen from the lower casts. Her academy teachers obviously didn’t expect her to go far. She might as well be canon fodder. 

“She’s not expected to succeed,” Kisame voices. “What’s the rest of her file say?”

“Average everything, no extra notes.” Zabuza reports grimly, “Not sure I trust that though.” 

“Well,” Kisame stretches and lounges farther back on the couch. “Better you than me. I’m taking a nap.” 

Zabuza is going to kill him.

—-------------

“Man, what’s taking so long?” 

Sakura glances over to where Suigetsu is sprawled on the ground, his arms crossed behind his head.

“It’s only eight now,” Haku placates from where he’s perched in a tree, pausing in wrapping his long hair up in a bun, “Arata-sensei had a tendency of showing up early. We can’t expect the same of our new teacher,” 

“Damn right you can’t,” 

Sakura jumps, whirling to face the speaker. 

“I’m Momochi Zabuza and as of today, I’m your jonin instructor. Now, gather around, and let’s talk gear.” 

He sits down, and Suigetsu drags himself up into a sitting position as Haku finishes putting his hair up and hops down from the tree, kneeling down on the ground. Sakura copies the two of them in a daze, because their new jonin sensei is Momochi Zabuza, one of the legendary seven swordsmen, the demon of the mist, and the hero of the resistance, and he looks the part, his lower face wrapped in bandages, wearing a sleeveless shirt like Suigetsu’s, except instead of having a kekkei genkai that makes him naturally tolerant of the cold, she’s pretty sure the cold just doesn’t dare to bother him. Sakura’s of the opinion the other two are taking this in stride far too easily. Then again, they are clan kids. This probably isn’t all that out of the ordinary for them. 

“First off, empty out your pouches, I want to see what you carry with you on a day-to-day basis.” 

They empty out their belt pouches and Sakura notes with a small hint of shame that hers’ hold far less than the other two’s. 

Haku pulls about four dozen senbon from his sleeves, in addition to two dozen explosive tags, a dozen kunai and a dozen shuriken, plus a basic first aid kit, and a couple of ration bars. Suigetsu brings out two dozen kunai, shuriken and explosive tags, a whetstone, some rations and his water bottle. In comparison, Sakura has three explosive tags that she won’t be able to afford to restock for another month, ten kunai, twelve shuriken, and a makeshift first aid kit her dad had given her for her tenth birthday.

Zabuza sighs, and Sakura stares determinedly at the ground. 

“Alright, let me see your swords.” 

Sakura can’t help the spike of jealousy when Suigetsu draws his katana, because it’s a really, really nice sword and when the team had first formed she had asked him how much it cost and the number was one she would only be able to afford in her wildest dreams. It has a simple black and white hilt but its blade is a hue of blue that can only be achieved by the best forgers and it gleams in the sun, obviously well taken care of. 

Zabuza gives him a nod of acknowledgement before turning to Haku, who pulls out his tanto. Haku’s tanto is more ornate than Suigetsu’s katana, with delicate light blue flowers decorating its white sheathe, and a silvery hilt, but its blade is the same blueish color as Suigetsu’s katana and Zabuza only raises an eyebrow before turning to her. 

She pulls out her wakizashi, her cheeks warming. The sheathe has been sloppily patched in a couple of places, and the hilt has been worn down so there’s barely any thread on it. The blade isn’t badly forged, but it’s nowhere near the quality of Haku and Suigetsu's swords. There are a couple knicks in it she hasn’t been able to sharpen out, despite her best efforts. 

“Okay,” Zabuza starts, and Sakura uses that as an excuse to put her sword away, painfully aware of the boys’ scrutiny, “Let’s talk improvements.Suigetsu, you need water purification tablets and a first aid kit. Get some arm guards. Haku, water purifications tablets, if you’re gonna wear sleeves like that,” he gestures towards the bell sleeves of Haku’s dark blue shirt, “There gonna have to be a bit shorter, those are just long enough to potentially hamper you in a fight. Using a sash instead of a belt is fine, but get one with more pockets, for fucks sake. If your leg warmers aren’t armored already, make it so that they are. Both of you need to carry more rations. Sakura…” 

She winces and looks down at her pathetic pile of supplies as Zabuza sighs. 

“What can you feasibly afford?” 

“Um,” She bites her tongue, squinting at nothing, “If you keep us on the same D-rank schedule as Arata-sensei of one low-paying job a week-” 

“He had you doing one D-rank a week?” Zabuza interrupts, 

“Is that unusual?” Haku asks, tilting his head to the side, his resting-bitch-smile in place as always. 

Zabuza snorts “New genin teams should be doing at least one D-rank a day, not one a week. That’ll be changing.” 

Sakura nods absently, running the calculations in her head. 

“Well, it should take me four more D-ranks to buy more explosive tags, 10 D-ranks after that I’d be able to get more kunai, and then about 11 for more shuriken, three to restock my first aid kit, and,” Sakura looks up, her brow furrowing, “Do you have an estimate for how much water purifying tablets cost?” 

Zabuza shrugs. “You can get 50 for about 136 ryo,” 

“That’s another D-rank then, so in total, that’s 29 D-ranks to stock up my kit,” 

“And gear?” Zabuza asks. 

Sakura tilts her head to the side, “Is that not all the gear I need…?” 

Suigetsu snorts. “I mean, not that baggy clothing that only fits because of bandages isn’t a look …” He trails off gesturing toward Sakura’s outfit, and she flushes, painfully aware of the fact that her red sweater was at least two sizes too big, and she had had to use bandages to keep the sleeves out of her way, excess fabric drooping over. She’d had to do something similar to her pants, bandages wrapped around her waist and ankles. It seems especially pathetic in comparison to Haku’s outfit, with his matching shirt and leg warmers, oversized gray pants that fell to mid-shin, and black sash tied around his waist. 

“They’re the thickest clothing I could find, and armored cloth is expensive,” She mutters defensively, “But I should be able to get something actually suited to ninja work with about 8 D-ranks pay,” she says the last part a bit louder, addressing Zabuza. 

“Right. We’ll worry about your sword after you’ve got that taken care of. Now,” His eyes crinkle up in a grin, a bit of what Sakura thinks is killing intent dripping off him, “ get running .”

Chapter Text

Zabuza’s hopes of being able to get a drink were once again, squashed. After reviewing the genin’s equipment, which, all in all, could have been worse, he started testing their physical limits. Every exercise he ran them through lowered his opinion of their deceased sensei further. While the Hozuki and Yuki were at the very least able to complete the number of repetitions he assigned, it was only barely, and only due to the extra training they did at home as clan kids. Haruno, on the other hand, could only complete half of the twenty laps he’d assigned around the quarter-mile training ground, thirty of the hundred pushups and sit-ups, and her katas weren’t up to standard. It was obvious their old sensei had spent more time sucking up to Hozuki and Yuki than actually training them. One D-rank a week? Seriously? So here he is, writing up conditioning plans, because his predecessor was fucking useless. 

“Ooooooh, that’s a scary face.” 

Zabuza shoots a glare towards Naoko as she dumps Kabutowari next to the table where he’s sitting in the jonin lounge and heads towards the pantry.

“Genin team that bad?” She asks, grabbing a bag of crispy shrimp potato chips. 

“Yes.” Zabuza turns back to his work.

“Oh, c’mon, you’ve gotta give me more than that,” She complains, “At least tell me who’s on your team?” 

Zabuza ignores her. Of course, because Naoko has never taken a hint in her life, she meanders over and peers over his shoulder at what he’s working on. 

“Conditioning routines? Shouldn’t they have those already? We’re a couple months from graduation,” Her words get muffled towards the end as she stuffs more chips in her mouth. 

Zabuza continues to ignore her. Maybe someone else will come in the door and she’ll bother them instead.

When Kisame enters a couple of moments later he takes it back. 

“Hey, Kisame, you know anything ‘bout Zabuza’s team?” Naoko asks as he leans Samehada against the wall. 

“Enough to know I’m glad I wasn’t assigned them,” Kisame tells her far too cheerfully, “Why, he won’t tell you anything?” 

“No, he’s too busy making conditioning routines ,” 

“Wow,” Kisame grins, “their previous sensei really was incompetent,” 

“So, who are they? Bastard won’t tell me who’s on his team,” Naoko complains, leaning on the table across from Zabuza’s. 

“Yuki Haku, Hozuki Suigetsu, and Haruno Sakura,” Kisame reports, his grin spreading. 

“Hozuki Suigetsu? Mangetsu’s baby brother? That Suigetsu?” Naoko seems far too happy about the current set of events in Zabuza’s opinion. 

“You know any other Hozuki Suigetsus?” Zabuza asks, ignoring that he had this very conversation with Kisame two days ago. 

Naoko cackles. “And there’s only one Yuki left, isn’t there?” 

“Haku is the last one,” Kisame confirms. Naoko’s laughter, which had just died down, bursts out again. 

“This has got to be some sort of karma,” She says, once she’s calmed down. “Who’s the last one? Haruno Sakura?” 

Kisame and Zabuza both grimace. 

“She’s from the lower caste,” Zabuza says, “Her parents are first gen immigrants, mom runs a bakery, and her dad works in construction,” That’s all he was going to contribute to the conversation, but dammit, if they're going to bother him he should at least get to complain a bit. “Their old sensei had them doing one D-rank a week, and from what I can tell spent his time sucking up to Yuki and Hozuki instead of training them, and completely ignored Haruno.” 

“Well, that explains the conditioning routines,” Naoko remarks, crumpling up her empty chip bag and tossing it in the garbage. “Glad I'm not the one who has to fix that mess.” 

Zabuza is surrounded by traitors .

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sakura is nervous. No, that’s putting it mildly. Sakura is terrified. She knows she underperformed yesterday, she wasn’t able to complete the bare minimum repetitions of the exercises, and there is a very real possibility that Zabuza-Sensei will quite simply kick her off the team. After all, the other two are clan kids, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find a replacement for her. 

She’d gotten to the training ground early in her nerves, but it’s not long after her that Haku arrives as well, and Sakura can’t help the pang of jealousy that he’d been able to get a whole nother training outfit without having to worry about his budget. 

His previous shirt has been replaced by one a slightly lighter shade of blue, with short bell sleeves that don’t quite reach his elbows, and a slight v-neck. The shirt is tucked into long, baggy, light gray pants that are in turn tucked into knee-high armored ninja sandals. His black sash has been replaced with a light brown-ish yellow obi wrap. Completing his look are armored arm warmers that go all the way up his arms and are the same shade of gray as his pants. 

“Sakura,” He greets. 

“Hello.” 

They spend ten minutes in silence and Sakura can’t decide if it's awkward or not before Suigetsu shows up, his signature purple tank top and gray pants accompanied by a pair of armored arm warmers. 

“Jeez Haruno. Why do you look like you're on death row?” he asks, sprawling out on the ground. 

Haku shoots him a look, but turns to her. “While that's not the best way to bring it up, you do look rather anxious. Did something happen?” 

Sakura hesitates. On one hand, she should probably tell them, work on the whole team part of being on a team together. On the other, the two of them couldn't understand and Sakura didn't particularly want to put in the effort to try and make them at the moment. Haku is the last of his clan, people basically worship the ground he walks on, and with his kekkei genkai the village will do basically anything to get the strength of his ice on their side. The idea of him being cast aside is laughable. Suigetsu, too, could never understand where her fears are coming from. The younger brother of a swordsman of the mist, a member of a powerful clan, and the user of a kenkai genkai his success is basically guaranteed. In the end, she is spared from making a decision by Zabuza-sensei’s arrival.

“Let's get one thing clear right off the bat,” he says as they turn to face him, “your old sensei did you lot exactly zero favors. You two,” he points at Suigetsu and Haku, “Whatever preferential treatment he gave you, whether you noticed it or not, ends now. I sincerely hope that you don't think the sorry excuse of training he gave you will continue. And you,” he points at Sakura, “Are so far behind I’d think you hadn’t been on a genin team the past couple months at all.” 

Sakura flinches back and thinks this is it. This is when he kicks her off the team.  

“I am going to be giving you training routines. Follow them. I will know if you don’t. After you work through these,” He tosses each of them a scroll, “Yuki and Hozuki are going to spar while I work with Haruno on katas.” 

The three of them stand there a moment, staring at him. This is so different from training under Arata-sensei Sakura feels like she’s gotten whiplash. 

“Well?” Zabuza growls, killing intent leaking out, “ Get working. ” 

They scramble to comply. 

—---------------

Suigetsu is fairly certain that all of his limbs are going to just, completely fall off. He hasn’t felt this tired since Mangetsu had been put on a forced month of medical leave and had decided to pass the time running Suigetsu to the ground with training. Not that he’d complained, spending time with his brother is always nice. But still. His limbs. 

After running through the routines Zabuza-sensei had given them, with the understanding that they were to complete them every morning, Zabuza-sensei had taken Sakura to the side to work on her katas, making a shadow clone to keep him and Haku from killing each other while they spared. Zabuza-sensei’s words, not his. 

The thing with fighting Haku though, is the bastard is way too good with those senbon of his. Through the course of their spars, he managed to completely immobilize Suigetsu’s left arm, and while over the course of their lunch break he’d regained the movement in it his arm is still mostly numb. Which, on its own, would be fine. Training injuries happen all the time, and it’s not like this is remotely severe. The problem is that once Zabuza-sensei had confirmed his arm would be fine, he set the three of them out on D-rank immediately . Suigetsu didn’t know it was possible to hate digging trenches this much. 

His arms, the once he can actually feel at least, is fucking burning. He’s covered in mud, and Haku, the bastard, has the audacity to appear mostly unaffected. He’s somehow managed to keep from getting completely covered in mud, which Suigetsu calls bullshit on, because they’re digging literal trenches, how is he not covered in mud. Sakura, at least, has the decency to look as terrible as he feels. Though, as they stumble back to the mission turn-in desk, she somehow manages to perk up enough to exchange pleasantries with the chuunin manning the desk. Hell, after dividing up their shares of the earnings and going their separate ways Suigetsu could swear he saw her fucking skipping on her way back to her house. 

When he gets home and collapses in the entryway, because the floor is actually quite comfy, thanks, and he cannot be bothered to walk any farther, Mangetsu just laughs at him, the bastard. 

Chapter Text

Sakura can’t believe how much of a difference just two weeks under Zabuza-Sensei has made. While her physical conditioning still needs a lot of work she’s starting to be able to tell the difference, though that may just be wishful thinking, and her swordsmanship has rapidly improved. Apparently, there’s some things you can’t completely learn from books. And now with her substantially increased regular income, she’s finally been able to completely stock up her kit, as well as get clothing much more suited to the shinobi lifestyle. 

She had spent much more time than she’s willing to admit scouring the various shops, comparing prices and gawking at incredibly cute, but also incredibly out of her price range, outfits. One of the stores’ employees had even been willing to explain the difference in fabrics (Usually the amount of mesh armor woven in) and their purposes (different types were recommended for different specialties) and what makes them so much more protective than civilian clothes (the mesh armor is made out of a material that not only resistant to blades but also increases the fabrics durability and the more pricy options even have fire-resistant options, without seals ) to her! 

In the end, she decides on a dark forest green hoodie (without the hood, no need for such a grab-risk) with black sleeves, that she plans on wearing over one of the many tank tops she had back home, and a pair of black pants that, while the mesh armor fit likes leggings, the fabric itself was looser, cuffing at her waist and ankles, with little slits in the sides at shin-height, showing the mesh underneath. She had to compromise on the quality of the armor, unfortunately, as well as color, grays and blues would be better for Mist’s environment but the green and black hoodie had been cheaper, to be able to afford the entire assembly; however, she had been able to get a new belt for her supplies, and her granny had made her a dark gray bun covering for her hair, kind of like what Haku uses! 

All in all, Sakura is basically floating when she arrives at their usual training ground. The feeling persists, even through her warm-ups, Suigetsu’s snark, and Haku’s indifference, only to come crashing down when Zabuza-Sensei arrives. 

“Gather ‘round, brats!”

The three of them scramble to comply, although Suigetsu and Haku are far less out of breath than she is. 

“Good timing on the new gear, Haruno. Despite the uselessness of your old sensei, you lot are still three months from graduation, which means you need to get at least one C-rank under your belts. We’re heading out on a patrol tomorrow. Pack for a week.” He shunshins away as Suigetsu lets out a triumphant “Fuck yeah!” and starts towards the village. Haku follows behind him, his smile looking a hint more genuine than usual. 

The two of them vanish into the distance and Sakura still does not move. The mist, trademark of the village and usually a comfort, seems to thicken, sinking through her new gear and into her bones. Sakura is not ready for a mission out of the village. She can barely hold her own in the team spars for two minutes on good days, and she is not so naive as to think life and death scenarios will be even remotely similar. She also happens to know that there is no official deadline for a team to take their first C rank. What there are, however, are powerful clans who want their children to get as much experience as possible as soon as possible, and an interest in the advancement of those with kekkei genkai. The powers in the village would not be concerned either way whether a civie born from the lower caste is ready for a C rank. Haku and Suigetsu are, and that’s all that matters. 

The wind shifts. 

Sakura still does not move.

“Are you planning on standing here much longer?” A voice asks behind her and Sakura whirls around to see- 

Long hair, white mask, is that a needle? Oh kami their oneofthesevenswordsmen 

“I-I’m sorry, I was just leaving!” Sakura gives a choppy bow and races down the path towards the village. 

The running helps to calm her down, forcing her to take deep breaths, and the rhythmic pounding of her feet on the ground helps to calm her racing thoughts. Is she ready to go on a C-rank? No, but she's going on one anyway, and there's nothing she can do about it. 

Sakura slows to a walk as she passes into the main part of the village and sets off towards home. She'll just prepare as best she can. 

**********

“Oi, Kisame!” Zabuza calls out, the swordsman in question looking up from where he’s- 

Working on a crossword puzzle. Of course he is. 

“Zabuza! Done with your genin already?” 

“I’m calling in that favor you owe me,” Zabuza tells him, ignoring his question. Fucker can infer for himself. 

Kisame straightens up from his slouch. “ What's so important you need to call in a favor?” 

Zabuza slides into the booth opposite him, waving a hand. “Nothing quite as dire as last time.”

Although given that the last time Zabuza called Kisame on a favor it was to overthrow the government, that's not saying much. He steals Kisame's beer, drains it, and continues. 

“The powers that be want my squad to get their first C-rank done with.” 

Kisame makes a face. “Not much I can do about that, I can't go against both the Hozuki Clan and the village elders, and you don't have a clan backing,” He says, his voice taking on an apologetic tone towards the end, but Zabuza shakes his head. 

“That's not what I'm asking for, I know there's no going against those fuckers on this, especially not on the behalf of one girl from the lower caste. What I want is for you to come with us.” He sighs, sinking lower in his seat. “There's a reason I'm rarely slatted for escort missions.” 

“You're shit at them.” Kisame nods sagely and Zabuza levels him with a glare. Kisame ignores him, continuing blithely, “ I take it this means you want me to help make sure the brats make it back alive?” 

Zabuza shrugs. “That’s the most of it, yeah.” He stands, clapping Kisame on the shoulder as he passes. “We leave tomorrow, so get your leave quick.” 

“What-”

The door of the restaurant slams behind him before Kisame can finish. 

Chapter Text

Sakura can’t help but feel an awful lot like she’s walking to her execution as she trudges to the village gate, wakizashi on her hip and a probably over-packed mission pack on her back. As the gates and the figures standing at their base come into view she feels another spike of panic, and it’s only the thought that turning tail and fleeing because there were too many powerful people talking to each other at the village gates would definitely get her kicked off the team that keeps her walking forwards. 

She is, unfortunately, the last one to arrive, the masked swordsman from the day before nodding to Zabuza-sensei and shunshining away, while the rest of the group, including another swordsman, turn towards her. 

“Alright,” Zabuza-Sensei crosses his arms, “Listen up. Haruno, it seems like you’ve already figured this out, but if I had it my way, I wouldn’t be giving you three a C-rank mission for at least another month. Unfortunately, you two,” he jabs two fingers at Haku and Suigetsu, “Have several powerful people pulling the strings who aren’t satisfied with that timeline.”

Sakura would probably be preening at being right, right now if it weren’t for the fact that basically all of her worst fears about this assignment were just confirmed. She barely notices as Haku bows slightly.

 “Apologizes, Zabuza-sensei.” 

Zabuza-Sensei scoffs. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. This is Kisame,” he jerks his thumb in the other swordsman’s direction, “He’s here to help make sure none of you die doing something stupid while I’m busy dealing with any combatants we encounter. You three will not engage. Clear?” 

“Clear,” The three of them chorus back, and Sakura dares to relax the tiniest bit, though out of the corner of her eye she swears it looks like Suigetsu is pouting.

“Alright, let’s get going.” 

And with that Zabuza-Sensei leads them out of the village.  

—

They walk the first part of their journey mostly in silence, with Kisame-san and Zabuza-sensei holding a quiet conversation upfront. The three of them fall into a diamond formation, with Haku and Suigetsu on the side and Sakura at the rear, Zabuza-sensei being the spearhead. Even with each step ratcheting her anxiety up higher and higher Sakura can’t help but be just a little bit bored.

When they hit the coast at noon, Zabuza-sensei brings them to a halt. 

“Alright, grab lunch, and then we’re gonna talk about how the rest of this is going to go.” 

Hurriedly, Sakura pulls out a ration bar, trying not to grimace at the taste. Haku and Suigetsu do the same, though, she notes with some embarrassment, not at nearly the same rushed pace. 

“From here on out we’re going to be going from island to island, mainly on the lookout for pirates, but also be on guard for any missing nin we might encounter, basic patrol procedure.” He looks between the three of them for their understanding. When he gets it, he continues. 

“We’ll be in a linear formation. I’ll be taking the lead, and Kisame will be bringing up the rear. I’ve already said this, but I’m repeating it again: do not engage unless absolutely necessary,” he gives off a spike of killing intent and Sakura barely suppresses a flinch, “Am I clear?” 

“Clear,” Haku and Sakura parrot back, Suigetsu muttering an “As crystal,” and earning himself a glare from Zabuza-sensei for his efforts. Sakura thinks she hears Kisame let out a snicker, but she chalks it up to her imagination.  

“Alright, finish eating, and we’re moving out.” 

—--

Two hours later, Sakura’s lungs are burning. Once they started out on the water Zabuza set a grueling pace, citing that they needed to reach the next island by nightfall.

 Another hour and Sakura swears her legs are going to give out, and she thanks Kami her chakra control is so good, that and the fact that water walking is one of the first things they learn at the academy are the only things keeping her from dropping beneath the waves. Annoyingly, Suigetsu and Haku seem to be having none of her problems, and she can’t help but wonder just how far behind them she is. Sometimes, catching up seems impossible.

A glance at the sun's position tells her they still have five more hours of this til they supposedly reach the next island, and Sakura realizes with a sinking feeling in her gut that she might not make it all the way. Drowning, she thinks bitterly, would be a rather stupid way to go. 

More time passes, and while they haven’t encountered any pirates, Sakura is now feeling light-headed, and her chakra isn’t listening to her like it should. She doesn’t chance another glance at the sun, needing all of her concentration to keep moving over the waves. 

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. They’ll reach the island eventually. Just keep moving. Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. Left foot- 

The world gives way and she’s underwater, black spots dancing in her vision as the light of the surface grows further and further away,  and she knows how to swim but she can’t make her limbs move , and the dark spots are spreading and there’s a dark figure swimming towards her, and then she’s moving towards the surface, and she can breathe again, but the dark spots are still there, and gods she just failed at water walking of all things how pathetic can she be- 

“Jeeze, kid, you’ve gotta say something if you’re about to pass out from chakra exhaustion.”

Pass out? She’s not about to pass out. The dark spots are growing concerningly large though, maybe she should say something about that? She goes to say as much, but she can’t move her mouth and wow that’s a problem, and the dark spots keep growing and then her vision goes dark. 

Chapter Text

This isn’t an update, but I’ve gotten a couple of comments about the economics system and stuff, and to be honest I was fully preparing to just brush over the economy ( when I was writing the first chapter I was fully just bullshitting my way through it) but I figured I’d actually flesh everything out since y’alls questions have confused me about it at this point. 

I am mostly going to be blatantly ignoring the economics system because if this ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Naruto/comments/19x2i5/basic_economics_in_the_narutoverse/ ) reddit post is correct genin make about 500+ USD per D-rank, and I refuse to believe anyone is paying a group of children, ninja or not, 500 dollars to weed their gardens or babysit their kids. Also, full disclosure, I have, like, a bare minimum understanding of how economics work, so not all of this may be feasible. 

Income:

Seeing as ryo can be converted to US dollars, I’m giving D-ranks the pay my neighbors and parents would give me and my sister for doing yard work/babysitting, which is between 10 and 50 dollars, depending on the job.

I’m also giving Kiri a similar tax system to the US, where the more money you make per mission, the more said mission pay is taxed, starting at 5%, going up to 30%.

Now, something we have to take into account is the social discrepancies, in kiri especially, due to it’s caste system. 

Family within clan -> pays clan head like, 3% income taxes for maintaining clan compound etc.

Clan head -> Pays village a certain fee to cover all of the clan members taxes to the village for the year (15% of average clan income) so that their taxes are not deducted from each members paycheck.

Civie borns, aka the lower caste, have to pay taxes for each missions paycheck

So, if Sakura made 10 USD on a D-rank, she’d have 9.50 USD left over after paying the tax, which if we convert to ryo (9.50 USD = 1397.73 yen, 1 ryo = 10 yen, 1398/10 = 139.8) is about 140 ryo

Non-shinobi have to pay a higher tax rate, as they “don’t serve the village” aka they can’t be sent to war as canon fodder, so their tax rates range from 15 -40%

Expenses: 

Clan members have their housing supplied by the clan head, including repairs etc., and being a member of a clan comes with free healthcare (In ninja clan -> more likely to be a ninja -> more likely to be injured in the line of duty, plus clans have political clout). So basically all clan members have to worry about is their groceries. 

Shinobi from an established line of Shinobi, but not a part of a clan (aka the rest of the upper caste), get free health care as well. 

In contrast, non-shinobi in the lower caste get no health insurance whatsoever, and shinobi from the lower caste have a limited amount of treatments covered. 

Food: 

Kiri is generally accepted by the fandom to be on some sort of island (I couldn’t find anything about this being canon) and is surrounded by mountains, so I’m working under the assumption the the soil is rather rocky, aka, not good for farming, but has a large amount of fishermen in the lower caste. 

As such, food that can be sourced easily from the ocean like common fish, (tuna and cod, mainly), and seaweed based foods, as well as the more hardy crops that can be grown in the mountains (rye, barley, oats, potatoes, raspberries) and forageable berries are the staples of the lower caste. 

Rarer/harder to get ocean foods (squid, shark, eel, less common/better tasting fish like bass and salmon etc.), as well as fruits and vegetables that have to be exported in (rice, plums, corn, cucumbers, peppers, etc.) as well as spices are more likely than not going to be found at a dinner table belonging to the higher caste. 

(Full disclosure I have no idea how accurate the information about how common stuff is and its ability to be grown in Kiri’s environment. I did do some research tho, so fuck it we ball)

Your average lower caste family (3-4 people) spends about 100 USD (1471 ryo) a week on food,  whereas your average upper caste family (same size) spends about double or even triple that. 

Housing ( we are blatantly ignoring what kiri looks like in Kiri because it doesn’t fit kiri’s vibes and it’s too modern ish looking for the original naruto series in my opinion, also I do what I want): 

Both the quality/style/type of housing and the actual costs of housing differs between castes. 

Lower caste housing: 

The lower caste has cramped streets, sort of like seen here, although they are generally only paved with stones: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/979040406472303715/

(No clue the actual economic standing of these kinds of areas, they just show how cramped together I’m thinking the houses of being) 

Members of the lower caste typically live in either apartment-esque complexes (a bunch of houses, but stacked on top of eachother, basically) or above their businesses. As it appears that in canon Kiri is surrounded by at least some forest, their houses are made out of wood. 

The members of the lower caste typically own their living spaces, although they do typically have to take out loans to do so. 

The average mortgage for an “apartment” that has a combined kitchen/dining/living room, two separate bedrooms (one for kids and one for parents, all parties sleeping on futons)  ranges between 400-800 USD (5885 - 11770 ryo) a month, depending on the quality of the plumbing/appliances in the bathroom and kitchen. 

The average mortgage of a house and shop combo, with the house having the same living conditions as above, can cost between 1,000 - 1,600 USD (14713 - 23541 ryo). 

This doesn’t include bills, which cost another 200 USD on average. 

(basically, a bit less than the average costs in america)

Upper Caste Housing: 

The upper caste has larger streets, much more properly paved, and sprawling, traditional homes.

As I said earlier, all housing bills are covered by the clan for clan members, for non clan members of the upper caste, when they can’t afford to buy their house right off the bat their mortgage is typically at the lowest 4,000 USD (crap ton of ryo) but it really has no limit. 

Upper Caste bills for non-clan members tend to range between 400 USD and 800 USD, depending on how bad they are at turning off the lights, how many long incredibly hot showers they take etc. 

Ninja Supplies: 

I’ve made it so that one half decent kunai costs about 10 US dollars, making a set of 10 kunai cost 100 US dollars. (I'm assuming someone in the naruto verse would have figured out how to make them with molds or something given their high demand. IDK anything about blacksmithing tho)

This is how I’ll set up the pricing for ninja gear in Kiri: reasonable for the upper caste (they spend more on groceries ffs), but a huge ask for lower caste shinobi (kunai or a weeks worth of groceries). 

I’m mostly open to feedback on this system, so long as it isn’t just telling me to stick with the  canon naruto economy because the canon naruto economy makes no sense.

Chapter Text

 Kisame looks down at the pink-haired genin, now limp in his arms, and then up at Zabuza. 

“Did you forget to put them through CREDs?” 

“I’ve had them for two weeks, I haven’t had time to put them through any fucking CREDs. And until their physicals are up to standard, I won’t” Zabuza says, making his way towards the back of the formation, and Kisame laughs, straightening up.

“Back to the useless predecessor hmm? I’m starting to think you should just start blaming him for all of your problems.” 

“Don’t tempt me. The brat’s status?”

“Chakra exhaustion, obviously, but her control gave out before she pushed far enough for it to be dangerous.” 

“Isn’t her chakra control the thing she’s got going for her, though? Like the only thing?” Suigetsu asks, eying Haruno derisively. Haku, rather tellingly, doesn’t reprimand him. Out come the clan egos, Kisame notes. Granted, he’d had one at one point as well, but getting his ass handed to him in a spar by Zabuza had cured him of that rather effectively. 

“None of you fucks have anything going for yourselves, so shut up and let’s get moving.” Zabuza barks, turning back to the front. He leaps forward onto an incoming wave, Suigetsu and Haku following behind him. Kisame throws Haruno over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and follows suit. 

-

They reach the next island just as the sun is beginning to fall below the horizon, Zabuza having them set up camp just beyond the treeline. 

“Suigetsu, firewood. Haku, water resupply,” Zabuza barks out. 

The two genin trudge off to do as told, not even Suigetsu being able to muster up some sort of snarky response. They might not have passed out like Haruno, but they were definitely feeling the effects of the day's run. 

Kisame performs a one-handed doton to smooth out a patch of the campsite before lowering Haruno to the ground and turning towards Zabuza. 

“Not planning on heading back to the village, I take it?” 

Zabuza shakes his head, pulling some scraps of paper out of his hip pouches, holding them out for Kisame to take. He does, and lets out a low whistle. 

“Damn, whose soul did you sell to get your hands on these?” 

“I got rid of a chunin from the Inoue clan that was making life difficult for a Uzumaki refugee. He makes me seals in return.” 

“Did you get rid of the chunin before or after the refugee offered to make you seals?” Kisame asks, grinning. 

Zabuza glares. “I saw a potential asset and did what was necessary to acquire it.” 

“If you say so,” Kisame shrugs. 

“I do. Now, are you planning on standing around talking for the rest of the night, or are you going to perform the chakra transfer?” 

“Why do I have to perform the chakra transfer?” Kisame protests, mostly in jest. He’s known as the no-tailed beast for a reason, after all. 

Zabuza levels him with another glare. “Get the transfer done. I’m setting up the perimeter.” 

With that, he leaps off into the trees, and Kisame snorts, before turning back to the seals in his hands. 

It’s things like these that make it understandable why we sacked Uzushiogakure in the war, Kisame muses. Chakra exhaustion is generally a condition that needs to be waited out, as the likelihood of someone having both the chakra control to safely perform a chakra transfer and the chakra reserves to make the procedure worthwhile is basically nothing. These seals, however, make it possible for someone with large enough chakra reserves to make the procedure not totally useless to perform a chakra transfer, when usually they wouldn’t have anywhere near the required chakra control required for such delicate work. 

In this specific case, Kisame’s reserves are large enough and Haruno’s small enough that he should be able to basically completely refill her reserves while using barely a fraction of his own. 

He kneels down at Haruno’s side, laying a seal on her forehead, watching as it plasters to her skin like it had suddenly gotten wet, before gathering his chakra. 

“Let’s get this done, yeah, Pinkie?” 

—-------

Sakura wakes to a dull ache seemingly etched into her very bones. She's outside, she thinks. There's a slight breeze that would feel quite nice if she could remember how she got into this situation.

Something shifts next to her, and then

There's a hand on her neck get it off-

She jolts upwards, and her head rams into something, hard.

"Woah there, pinkie." A semi-familiar voice says

Sakura rubs her forehead, which rather hurts now, and blinks her eyes open to find herself face to face with Kisame-san.

"Sorry!" She squeaks out and tries to scooch backward, only to find herself with her back right up against a tree, which, huh? Weren't they on patrol?

"Where are we?" she asks, glancing around before common sense catches up with her and reminds her that she really should not be speaking so casually with someone so high above her in rank and societal status.

Sakura is about to blurt out another apology for her rudeness, but Kisame answers her question before she can.

"Made camp for the day. You passed out from chakra exhaustion about a third of the way to the island."

Chakra exhaustion? Wait-

"Is that why my chakra wasn't working right?"

"Ah, right, lower caste- Zabuza! Your genin doesn't know the symptoms of chakra exhaustion!"

Kisame-san says it cheerfully enough, but Sakura still shrinks down, ashamed. There always seems to be something that she's falling short on.

"She doesn't know the-" Zabuza sighs from where he's leaning against a tree on the other side of what Sakura assumes will be their campfire. "Right. Kisame, go find Suigetsu. Brat shouldn't be taking this long to get firewood."

"On it," Kisame-san rises from where he was crouched and ambles off into the woods.

"Haku, you get over here too, fuck if I know what you've missed with all your clan being dead."

"Of course, Sensei," Haku says, and it's only once he speaks that Sakura notices where he's perched in a tree on the other side of camp. She really needs to work on her observation skills.

Haku hops down from the tree and sits down about an arm's length away from her, his smile looking more plastered on than usual, while Zabuza makes his way across the campsite, leaning against a tree roughly across from the two of them.

"Right. What do you two actually know about chakra exhaustion, Haruno, starting with you."

"Um, chakra exhaustion is what happens when you use up your chakra reserves faster than your body can refill them."

There's a silence after she finished speaking, like Zabuza-sensei is waiting for her to add more, but try as she might, Sakura can't think of anything else she knows about chakra exhaustion.

"Right, Yuki, how about you."

"Like Sakura said, Chakra exhaustion is what happens when your chakra reserves run out. Early signs include difficulty controlling your chakra and lightheadedness, among other things."

"All right." Zabuza sensei sighs. "Technically, neither of you are wrong, but you're missing important details. I'll give you an overview for now, but when we get back to the village, you're both going to be reading up on it. Shits important to understand, especially with your bloodline limit, Yuki."

There, Sakura realizes, may be a slight problem with that plan. Before she can figure out how to mention it, Zabuza-sensei continues talking.

"Chakra exhaustion is what happens when your chakra reserves get low enough that it starts to disrupt your body's ability to function. Since your body's whole job is to try and keep you alive, the chakra that is left is sent towards keeping your body functioning, making it harder to manipulate. Some of the first shit that suffers is your body's ability to obsorb oxygen, which is what causes the light headedness. There are warning signs before that point though, so you two are reading up on this shit when we get back to the village, got it?"

Zabuza sensei gives them both a look, a hint of killing intent permeating the air, but before either of them can respond with an affirmative, Kisame-san ambles back into camp, a disgruntled-looking Suigetsu slung over his shoulder.

"Guess who pushed too hard practicing katas and collapsed?" He asks cheerfully, ignoring the glare Suigetsu sent him.

"For fucks sake." Zabuza-sensei sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Right, when we get back, all three of you are writing me reports on the ramifications of both physical and chakra exhaustion, and how they can be avoided on missions. Now, all of you, fucking rest."

If Sakura is reading him correctly, Haku was more than a little annoyed at being lumped in with her and Suigetsu during Sensei's rant, not that he says as much. In fact, aside from the occasional murmur from Kisame-san and Zabuza-sensei, no one said much of anything, at least, not before Sakura drifts off to sleep.