"What wait… since when?" Karin shouted at the top of her lungs, seeing Sukuna walk in, but there was a slight difference to his normal get-up today.
"Today, they just called me, asked a few things, and handed this over, stating, 'We hope you keep working hard for Konoha.' Basically stating they expect me to be an even better workhorse." Sukuna grumbled. It was clear how much he liked this decision.
"Well well… seems like my dear little ducklings are climbing the social ladder, huh?" Izumi grinned, now a lot more frank and open when dealing with Sukuna than when she first got reincarnated, after learning what kind of man he really was. Most of her suspicions of this Sukuna being the same one she recalled in the JJK world were dashed a long time ago.
If Sukuna heard her, then he didn't reply, just ignored the annoying woman until she changed her target. She doesn't even know he had to lie to the entire upper management of the village today for her. Some might think that she ought to show some gratitude towards him.
Of course, Sukuna neither mentioned what he did for her nor stated that the higher management of the village was gunning for Izumi after what stunt she pulled with Terumi Mei.
Yes, she didn't ask to be here, but neither did any of them, and now that she was here, it was important she learned about this place's politics and history before she took any drastic action.
That exactly why he didn't plan to say anything. He wasn't actually saving the Uchiha clan or Izumi for that matter, he was just withdrawing from any involvement. That would at least make this irresponsible woman think before acting.
Not that he had any right to say anything about that, if people knew what he did with the Raikage or Killer Bee.
"Hm… Congratulations, Sukuna." Kakashi nodded at him while his trademark Icha Icha book was still in his hand, one eye turning into crescent moon shapes.
Sukuna nodded back with a smile. At least dealing with a few individuals was still as easy and non-troublesome as usual.
"Huh… wait, what? What happened? Tell me too." Naruto was the only one completely confused. He just gawked at everyone being surprised at Sukuna's entrance out of nowhere. The blond took a deep look at the pink head who not so long ago had beaten him in the Chunin Exams with a suspicious glare like Sukuna had committed mass murder.
Nope, his brain, full of being Hokage and ramen, couldn't find anything wrong with the pink head.
"You idiot… how come you are even a genin if you can't tell in one look why it's a big deal?" Karin felt like hitting him again, but afraid of making him even dumber, she restrained her impulses. No wonder Sakura hit him so much, such an idiot.
"You idiot, Naruto… look at his clothes, don't you think there is something different?" Karin pointed out.
Naruto squinted his eyes at that, observing Sukuna from head to toe, but he couldn't find anything different…
"Oh wait a minute, that vest. How come you have a vest like Kakashi-sensei now? Did you buy it from somewhere… no fair, Sukuna, I wanted one too. Tell me where they are selling…"
Before poor Naruto could complete his sentence, a fist came raining down right at his forehead with a mighty thump.
"You're hopeless." Karin glared and then ran to Sukuna to admire the new addition to his wardrobe.
"Sakura-chan, what is wrong here with everyone, why is that vest so important?" Naruto felt wronged, so he turned to the only person who could actually explain what was going on, even though it came at the cost of getting hit a few more times.
Sakura, however, didn't seem to hear him, her eyes were entirely on Sukuna.
He was the same old stupid brother, but somehow today he looked way more handsome.
Her eyes roamed from his messy short pink hair to his striking red eyes, which he once again had hidden behind those glasses he still sillily liked to wear, to his toned muscular body.
And that vest added a charm which was hard to deny even for her…
Her cheeks felt like they were warming up seeing him directly look at her, a knowing smirk appeared on his face, the same smirk he had last night in Tanzaku.
Memories of their last night's adventures came flooding back to her, and she felt like her legs wobbled a little.
'Baka Oni-chan…' she murmured under her breath, recalling the kisses and those thrusts that made her so turned on that she actually started moaning under him.
Not even a single cloth was shed last night, but she felt like her heart was racing a million miles a second. She quickly looked down to hide the blush coming to her face…
'How can I be so shameless.' Her blush turned atomic the more she recalled, from moaning his name to clinging to him desperately, asking him to do it again…
'OH KAMI… just kill me already.'
"Sakura…"
She was brought back from her la-la land at his voice. She gulped and looked at him with dodgy eyes.
"What, you're not happy your dear Oni-chan became a Special Jonin?" The teasing in his voice was evident, which almost made her retort. However, before she could do that… Karin interrupted her.
"Wait… you were directly promoted to Special Jonin?" Her eyes widened even further.
"What!" Naruto's expression mirrored Karin's to a tee, even though he wasn't certain what the difference between a normal Jonin and a Special Jonin was. But, it has special in it, meaning he is special even among Jonin now. Is he even better than Kakashi-sensei?
"Yeah…" Sukuna nodded, rather calmly as if this was no big deal.
'How can you be so calm about this?' seemingly everyone wished to know that, but none questioned it. Sukuna had quirks; they all had come to embrace that fact a long time ago.
"I guess that calls for a celebration." Izumi grinned.
"I'm afraid the celebration has to wait for now…" Kakashi intervened.
"Huh, why?"
"The village is short on manpower, extremely short, so all of us are going to get a bombardment of missions from now on, until the village stabilizes again."
"Oh man, you're no fun, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto pouted.
"And how come he is the only one who gets promoted? Not that I'm not happy about Sukuna being promoted, but we did a lot of work too, ya know. Don't you think I deserve a promotion too…" Naruto rubbed his hands and looked at Kakashi as if she was handing out promotions.
Karin at that scoffed. "Last I remember you lost to Sukuna in the Chunin Exam, it's only natural that he gets promoted before you." Karin stuck out her tongue and took one of Sukuna's arms and stuck to it like glue.
Sakura's eyes narrowed at that, but she didn't showcase her dissatisfaction.
"Kakashi-sensei is right, Naruto… I wasn't joking when I said they wish to make me a better workhorse. Alongside the promotion I was handed an entire list of missions, which I mostly have to do solo as a Special Jonin now. I only came here to inform you that from now on I might not be available for Team 11 all the time." He especially said this while looking at Izumi.
"Wait what."
"No way…"
At that both Karin and Sakura reacted at the same time.
"Why do you have to be the one who does all the work here?" both chided.
"I'm not the only one, everyone will be assigned more work from now on. The village will need more financial aid to rebuild, not to mention taking more missions will send messages to the other villages that even after the invasion and losing the Third Hokage, the village is still strong, so they don't have any malicious thoughts about the Hidden Leaf at our time of weakness." That was the textbook answer Tsunade gave him when he complained about the increased mission load.
Since their great synergy and coordination, both Team 11 and Team 7 are often paired for more dangerous C or even B-rank missions. So even Sakura's declined mood was justified, seeing she would get to spend even less time with her idiot brother.
Naruto looked down too.
"Meaning, you don't work with us anymore?" Both Karin and Sakura asked. Karin's hand tightened around his arm while Sakura looked equally sad.
"I never said that… I only have to work solo for the recent surge in missions. Once the village is back to normal, I most likely will be assigned back to Team 11."
"Really?"
"Yup…" he nodded.
"And that quite nicely brings us to why both teams are gathered here." Kakashi took it from there.
"Since Sukuna is leaving for a while, and all of us Jonin-sensei have to as well for the same reason… you Chunin from now on have to take missions alone."
That brought a big 'O' to their mouths as if they were asked to do top-secret S-rank missions.
"Since Kiyomi Uchiha is also unconscious currently, we have decided that the temporary genin of both Team 7 and Team 11 will merge and work together."
"Eh… there is something like that."
"Yeah, make sure you tell this to Sasuke as well when you visit the hospital, he must be with Kiyomi." Kakashi nodded.
"Leave it to me, I had to go and check on Kiyomi's condition anyways." The pink head added.
Kakashi nodded and turned back, however, before leaving he reminded the rest of the members, "Make sure to pick up your missions from the Hokage's office, and take care. I believe in all of you." And he was gone.
"Well, that was anti-climactic. I thought he'd give a speech or something about the Will of Fire, sending his dear genin on missions alone for the first time." Izumi chuckled.
"Anyways… I have been given my own list of missions. Gotta start moving then… I just came here to check on you guys and break the news to you all, thankfully Kakashi saved me a lot of effort. Take care, all of you, and don't die." She said, and she was gone as well.
Sakura, Karin, and Naruto then looked towards where Sukuna was standing. After the Jonin-sensei, by default he was in charge all the time.
Unfortunately for them, the boy just waved his hand towards them and disappeared after saying, "Keep my kunai with you guys, use it if it's necessary. And don't do something I would do when no one's watching."
And then he was gone.
"That it…"
"We are all on our own now."
"Man, that's so not fair… I wanna be a Special Jonin too…" Naruto pouted.
-x-
Konoha Hospital.
This was the third time Sasuke had stood in this exact spot, watching his sister lie unconscious in a hospital bed she had no business occupying at all.
First when Kiyomi was attacked by Itachi outside the village. Second was in the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams, and now after the Chunin Exam.
He blamed himself for it, for all of it. Same as he had the first two times. He hadn't been strong enough to protect their parents. Now he hadn't been strong enough to protect Kiyomi either, and the pattern of it made something twist hard in his chest every time he let himself think about it for too long.
Pressure seemed to build in his eyes as they turned into the three-tomoe Sharingan that he had out of pure instinct at the sight in front of him. He wanted to imprint this sight in his mind, to never forget this weakness he was feeling today.
He'd wanted to kill Itachi for years now. That want hadn't changed. What had changed, painfully, was how far away that goal actually felt. During the invasion he'd fought a genin and won without much trouble. In that same span of hours, Sukuna had fought a full tailed beast, defeated it outright, and then cut through more chūnin and jōnin than Sasuke could even get an accurate count on.
His fists clenched tight, the gap suddenly felt so massive now that he even began to wonder whether he would ever be able to fill it.
He'd told himself for months, no, years, that he was getting stronger, and he was, but the gap between himself and Sukuna hadn't closed at all. If anything it felt wider now than before the exams had even started. And if he couldn't catch Sukuna, someone his own age, training under the same sun — what hope did he actually have of ever catching Itachi?
'Damn it… damn it, damn it.' He cursed under his breath, biting his lip to make no noise, but he wished to scream.
He gritted his teeth, staring at Kiyomi's still face, and felt something harden inside him that had nothing left of excuses in it.
He would get stronger. Starting now. Starting with the person directly responsible for putting her in this bed in the first place.
Neji Hyūga.
The anger came up fast and ugly the moment he let himself remember what had happened in the first round — Kiyomi cut down by some technique he still didn't fully understand, and himself nowhere near in time to stop it. If he'd only been faster. If he'd only been there.
He decided it right there, teeth clenched hard enough to ache. He would beat Neji Hyūga first. Then he would close the gap with Sukuna. And only then would he go after Itachi.
He turned and stormed out of the room, momentum carrying him straight into someone in the hallway before he registered who it was.
Sukuna.
"Yo… how have you been doing? Any sign of your sister waking up? I healed all the injuries on her, but she still seems to be out of it." Sukuna greeted nonchalantly as usual. He did notice the increased negativity inside Sasuke, but he didn't care for it for now. He couldn't babysit all of them all the time, and he was busy. He was here to check on Kiyomi.
Sasuke, however, his eyes caught the vest before anything else. Chūnin green, sitting easily on Sukuna's shoulders like it had always belonged there.
His mind took a momentary pause, the earlier gap feeling like it had widened even further.
He was still a Genin, while Sukuna had turned into a Special Jonin…
'Damn it, how big is the gap.'
Before Sukuna could get a single word out, Sasuke shoved past him and kept walking, leaving nothing behind but confusion and the sound of his own footsteps disappearing down the hall.
"Sigh… I had to tell him about the new genin formation."
xXx
A/N : A slightly bigger chapter, not much is happening here but writing this smaller point is also important in the story, though I can only focus on the story entirely if you guys want me to. Tell me what should I do.
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