Whine of help
"*Cough*!"
"Again!" an old Uchiha requested.
"
"Once aga-"
"Stop this, you old fool!" Kaname barged in, interrupting the elder.
"How dare you! It's not a place for the likes of you! I'm training our future Clan's Head!"
Kaname flashed her Sharingan, and she concentrated some bloodlust she gained at the battlefield, "Do you want me to do this the fun way? Scram!" she yelled out.
"Guh… Fugaku-sama will be informed of your insubordination!"
"It's okay Itachi-chan, I need to talk with your mother, can you show me where is she?"
"*Wheeze* Thanks Neesan. Follow me."
The boy led her towards the kitchen. Before the two entered, Kaname caught his shoulder, "Itachi-chan, I need to talk with your mommy privately. I will meet with you in five minutes, okay?"
"Sure, I will go wash my face."
"Thanks," Kaname entered the kitchen.
"Damn aunty, you got voracious appetite! Is this a big box of ice creams, and four empty ramen bowls?" Kaname asked.
"What's up, Kana-chan. I'm not sure - I felt like eating something."
"Okay, whatever. I have got results, and it's worse than I thought. The blood I saw didn't come from Itachi-kun's mouth, it had some traces of his lungs fluid. I need to ask: when did he start training with the Great Fireball Technique?"
"*Sigh* I told him that it's a bad idea... Fugaku-kun was adamantly pushing Ita-kun's training with the Council backing his plans. They wanted to 'create' a perfect clan head. Itachi started training this jutsu when he was three."
"Motherfuckers."
"I know it's bad, but what will happen with Itachi?" Mikoto asked with a half-eaten tuna sandwich in her hand.
"You don't understand, there is a reason the ninja academy starts when a child is eight years old. The organs of a child are very delicate, the first elemental jutsu child learns, is after at least a year - when they have at least a small amount of chakra control. From your face, I see you understand, with their early start, the fire element did microscopic damage to Itachi's lungs. If we don't stop this, those minute injuries could lead to terminal sickness of Itachi's lungs, his life would end in the next fifteen or so years..."
"*Growl* I will kill him!" Mikoto growled, finishing her third sandwich.
"No, let us talk with Fugaku-san. If you want to save Itachi-kun's life, we need to shield him from the Elders. As a clan's head, I think he can help us."
"FUGAKU! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE! RIGHT NOW!" Mikoto shouted out.
Ten seconds later, Fugaku has shown himself looking like a poor animal that knew he messed something up.
"Yes, dear?" he asked.
"*Growl* I feel sick looking at you, I will let Kana-chan talk."
"Yeah, with all due respect Fugaku-san, you are an idiot."
"What?!"
"*Sigh* You almost killed your son. You started to train him at a very young age, and now Itachi-kun is on the brink of contracting a new terminal illness, better now?"
"Oh that, but the elders said that it would-"
"I don't give a shit about them. If you want your son to live past his twenties, then I need your help!" Kaname interrupted him.
"... I understand. What do you need of me?"
"Good, no more training for at least six months, the damage is minimal, and the chakra in Itachi-kun's body will slowly repair it. And, if any of the elders have got something to say about that - you can kill them." Kaname directed.
"*Sigh* I'm not sure about killing, but I will protect Itachi. I'm sorry Mikoto-chan, it was my fault, I will correct everything, I promise." Fugaku hugged his wife.
In response, Mikoto barfed all over his chest.
"Hmm, wait a minute aunty," Kaname requested, putting her hand on Mikoto's belly and using the
"Hahaha, I have some news, you will have a second baby. Congratulations!" Kaname laughed out.
"Not again…" Fugaku fainted.
"So that's where this appetite of my comes from, I started eating like crazy with Ita-kun as well. Thank you, Kana-chan, for the great news." Mikoto hugged the young teen.
At this moment, Itachi entered the kitchen, his eyes seen a rather bizarre image of his father lying unconscious on the floor with barfs all over his body, and his mother and older sister hugging and laughing. He left the room and entered again, 'this genjutsu is a persistent one...' he contemplated seeing the same scene again.
-------------
Three days later, Kaname was called by someone in the middle of her shopping spree.
"Hi, Kana-chan, I was looking for you!" a white-haired Sannin shouted out to her.
"Hello, Jiraya-san. How can I help you?"
"I have some news from Minato-kun, he wants you to meet your new teammates. In an hour, go to the Training Grounds 15, I will meet you there."
Kaname prepared her combat gear and went towards the meeting spot. She effortlessly discerned the white-haired and blond-haired men with two barely breathing bodies lying on the ground.
"Hi… What happened here?" The Uchiha questioned.
"Hi, Kana-chan!" Minato greeted good-naturedly with a calm smile on his face.
Jiraya being tallest among all of them - rose both lying bodies by the scruff of their collars.
"You know Genma," he jolted his left arm, waking up her new teammate, "Your third companion is Raido Namiashi," Jiraya said, shaking the body hanging from his right arm.
Raido had a standard jōnin uniform, first thing Kaname noticed was a weal-like scar on his face, it ran across the left side of his face ending on the bridge of his nose. Raido had brown-spiky hair and dark eyes.
"Hi Genma, and nice to meet you, Raido-san." both men just barely gave a nod of their heads.
"What has happened to them? Do they need medical attention?" Kaname asked.
"Nah, they just did a one-v-one spar against me. Now it's time for you, Kana-chan." Minato answered.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Jiraya-san, on your signal!" Minato answered, pulling out his unique kunai.
"Start!" the Sannin shouted out.
Kaname's survival instinct instantly flared up, she used
'I need to get some distance!' she thought, jumping away from another attack. While in the air, Kaname created two shadow clones and sent them to attack. Minato obliterated them in a second, Kaname landed on the ground and repelled three-pronged kunai heading her way.
'No! That's the way of his teleportation! Fuck!' Kaname pirouetted around a Minato's kick. Jumping away, she noticed another kunai three steps left from her position.
"
"I win." she heard Minato's voice from her back.
"*Wheeze*, *Wheeze*... What the fuck was that?!" Kaname yelled out.
"Hahaha! That's the same thing I said when he has shown me this technique!" Jiraya laughed.
"Good job Kana-chan, you survived the longest of this team, full twenty-six seconds." Minato gratulated her.
"*Wheeze*, the longest thirty seconds of my life…" Kaname answered, sitting on the ground.
"Okay, as you all three now understand the upsides of this technique, I would like to teach you all a lesser version of it. It's a joint technique, it will allow you to teleport in a group. After each training session, we will spar again, I want all of you to be in shape." the blonde requested.
*Whine*
"Minato-san, did you hear that?" Kaname heard a whining of an animal.
*Whine*
"It's coming from there!" Minato teleported away.
"Kana-chan! Come here! Quick!" Kaname heard his voice from behind the bushes.
"It's Hamimaru!" Kaname saw the border-collie partner of her friend, the puppy had one eye destroyed by a slash of a blade, her right front paw was broken, blood was seeping from her belly.
"Jiraya-san! It's an emergency bring me an Inuzuka Clan member here, I will try to patch her up!" Kaname ordered.
"On my way!" Sannin disappeared in a
"*Shh* It's okay, little girl, I have got you."
"Damn, do you know what has happened, Kana-chan?" Minato asked.
"No idea, that's why I sent for an Inuzuka. They can talk with their ninken."
"How is Hamimaru? How can I help?"
"I'm not a miracle worker, I can't recreate the lost eye. But she is stable for now, the broken paw will need time to mend."
At this moment, Jiraya returned with a wild-looking woman at his side.
"Tsume-san, we need your help!" Minato greeted her with a nod of his head.
"Yeah, I can see that, good job Kana-chan with healing the cut." Tsume replied.
"Ninken's anatomy is different than a human's, I'm winging it. Can you ask her what has happened?"
*Whine*,*Whine*.
"I don't exactly understand, Hamimaru said: 'Snake attacked, traitor of the pack.'" the woman translated.
"Fuck, Orochimaru betrayed the village! Hami-chan what has happened with Maki, do you remember where she is?"
*Whine*
"Maki ordered Hamimaru to seek your help, she and her pack were taken away."
"Hamimaru can you show me where it happened, maybe there are some clues there," Kaname asked.
"Hey! She is heavily wounded, she shouldn't be taken on a mission!" Tsume tried to take Hamimaru in her arms, but she was stopped by a loud yelp.
"Minato-san, I need to go," Kaname said, putting Hamimaru on her shoulder.
"I understand, I will go talk with Hiruzen-sama, we will create a unit to track down Orochimaru. Genma, Raido, go with her. Jiraya-san, can you protect them?"
"I will show this snake face, what happens when someone betrays his friends!"
----------------
They ran full speed north, Hamimaru gave signals with barks and growls when they went right or wrong way. After two hours of running, Hamimaru whined.
"It was here?" Kaname asked.
*Woof*
"Shit! Nothing out of place. Anyone sees any traces of the combat, the snake-bastard liked to create small hidden caves here and there." Jiraya informed.
"Hamimaru can you smell Maki-chan?"
*Whine*
"Jiraya-san, I need to get high up, maybe from the top, I will spot something." Kaname requested
Atop of a giant toad's head, Kaname noticed a rock formation further west from their position.
'Maybe there are some caves out that way.' she thought.
Half-way there, Hamimaru snarled.
"What? Do you smell something?"
*Woof*
"Maki's smell?" Kaname asked excitedly.
The ninken answered with another yelp and a wave of a tail.
"Jiraya-san! Hamimaru says it's somewhere here!" Kaname yelled out.
"Hamimaru, can you track the smell?" Jiraya asked.
*Woof*
"Okay, show us the way, girl!"
Soon under the root of a tree, they found a masked entrance. Even without the Inuzuka's nose, one could smell the rotten odor of dead bodies from inside. The entrance led to a long corridor with tens of closed doors on either side.
"Shit! What this snake-bastard was doing here?" Jiraya asked.
Genma broke through the closed doors on the left. Inside there was a dead, mutilated body of a young green-haired girl.
"These are cells!" Genma said.
"Please, we need to go, there is still a chance to save my friends!" Kaname pleaded.
"Yeah, let's go," Jiraya said.
The long corridor ended in a single big chamber, with vials, scrolls, and some kind of operating table. On the table, Kaname saw a female's freshly amputated hand, with a small note.
Hamimaru jumped on the table and sniffed the hand, the ninken whined loudly, it sounded almost like a human's cry of sorrow.
Jiraya took the note and read it.
"Don't try to find me, you toad pervert! I left you a gift, a bad girl punched me, so I took her hand off! If I even hear about you looking for me, I will send you her head!" Jiraya intoned.
"I promise I will find him, and when I do, I will fucking destroy everything he ever held dear in front of his eyes! He will beg me to end him!" Kaname yelled out with tears in her eyes.
"Not so fast, Kana-chan, you're third in the queue. And you need to get much stronger for that" Jiraya hugged the crying teen.
"Genma, Raido, look for survivors. Knowing Orochimaru, there isn't much chance for them. We will bury the dead." Jiraya ordered.
[Edit: 10-08-2020]