I Will Become the Wind

CHAPTER 2 | Orochimaru's Footsteps

By the time Kakashi dismissed them for the day, Naruto and Sakura were completely exhausted. But it wasn't like the night before when they dragged themselves out of the banquet. This was the unique kind of tiredness that came from a good day of training.

"Now that you understand the basics, you should keep training to get a feel for it," Kakashi said. "There's no substitute for practice when it comes to this first step. Once you can generate your element without having to think about it, then you can move on to learning how to shape its form."

"Are we gonna meet tomorrow and work on it some more?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi shook his head. "Since the team is on hold indefinitely, I have another mission to do. Yours is probably going to be longer term, so the rest of us have to pick up whatever we can. Just keep at it." He turned and raised a lazy hand. "Well, see you later."

Naruto and Sakura were left standing in silence for a moment after he left.

"I thought you were just training," Sakura said. "Are you... going after Sasuke? Is that your mission with Jiraiya-sama?"

Naruto shrugged. "Not exactly. But I'm definitely going find him if I can. We're hunting down Orochimaru, and if Sasuke's there, I'll do whatever it takes to bring him back."

Sakura wiped her forehead with her arm to avoid smearing her face with dirt. "Orochimaru? Why?"

"Ero-sennin wants to find him, so it's the best chance I've got."

"Oh."

Only partly true. But Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Tsunade didn't want anyone else to know about the future Orochimaru and his ability to summon people through time. At least, not until they decided everything Naruto learned was true.

The more people knew about it, the higher risk of the Time-Spanning Incarnation existing in this world. That was their reasoning, anyway.

Sakura hesitated. "I need to be getting home. See you later."

In the future, he was always the one out of the loop. Sakura, along with Kakashi and everyone else, had hidden future events from him as long as they could. 

It wasn't fair. But it was understandable.

"Sakura-chan, wait," Naruto blurted out, trotting over to Sakura.

She paused to look back at him. "What?"

Naruto's mind went blank for a second as he tried to figure out where to start.

"Um, listen. I know everybody keeps saying we don't know what happened to me, but that's not true. I know, and so does Baa-chan and Ero-sennin—the Toads—and Kakashi-sensei. They're the only other ones who know. At least here."

"Huh?" Sakura looked confused.

"It's a really long story, and it's kind of hard to explain." Naruto looked down at the ground. "Maybe you won't even believe me, but I think they do. That's the real reason we're going after Orochimaru. I mean, I still want to find Sasuke, too. But that's what the mission is about."

"A-Alright," Sakura said with a question in her voice. She seemed taken aback by his serious tone, but she put down her backpack and sat. "So, what? You're saying Orochimaru is the reason you were in a coma for three months?"

"Yeah. He—well, a different him—you know how Kakashi-sensei said Orochimaru summoned the dead Hokage to fight for him? He learned how to do that with people from the past, too. Or the present, really, 'cause it was him from the future that did it."

"What you just said made absolutely no sense, Naruto."

"Ugh, I know!" Naruto rubbed his hands through his hair in frustration. "Okay. Long story short: my soul went into the future while my body was left back in this time. It was because Orochimaru in the future developed a jutsu that could do that."