The tale of two teams, a naruto fanfic

A Konoha story: the tale of two teams

It was a very calm day in Konoha. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Two ninja one male and the other a female could be seen, sitting under a moderately sized and shady tree next to one another as a gentle breeze flew by. The two were in a park like area; there was nothing but grass around them with a few trees placed in various places in the field

"It's such a beautiful day, don't you think Asuma?" the female inquired.

"I certainly think so Kurenai" Asuma replied.

The two smiled and Kurenai rested her head on Asuma's shoulder. Asuma's body was rested on the tree. Recent work had been particularly harsh for the two, especially since their students suddenly began demanding harder missions and longer, more rigorous training sessions.

"You do realize this is going to end soon, right?" Kurenai asked him

"Why? I thought this was going well… did I do something wrong?" Asuma asked slightly taken aback

Kurenai simply chuckled as she adjusted herself and leaned back on the tree.

"No," she replied, "I mean… You do have to meet with your students as well right?"

Asuma was slightly shocked as he had just remembered his promise from the other day.

Ino's certainly not going to be happy, he thought as he scratched his head and leaned back on the tree.

While Asuma and Kurenai were relaxing, teams 8 and 10 were waiting near edge of town in different areas. Both groups where expecting to train with their respective Jounin; however they were all beginning to loose patience.

"How troublesome," Shikamaru of team 10 said as he began to tap his foot repeatedly on the ground. Team 10 was in a bushy field like area. There were leafless trees scattered about and training posts in front of them, however they were not in the mood for working on their aim or taijutsu.

"Ino, I think you scared him away," Chouji replied standing up, as he reached in his bag of potato chips and took a bite into one.

Ino looked at both of them slightly disgusted; however she did not make a reply. Shikamaru was sitting next to her on a long log with his head rested on his hands, bored. And Chouji was to the side of him standing, munching away on food as usual. She stood up off the log momentarily seemingly lost in her thoughts; however the repeated crunching from chouji's munching began to ware her nerves.

Ino screamed in disgust and quickly snatched the bag away from Chouji.

"Give me those," she said quickly before throwing them on the ground and stomping on them.

Chouji watched in shock and reached out his arms futilely, as Ino continuously stomped on his second early afternoon snack.

"We're training Chouji," was Ino's reply, "there's no time to fatten yourself, the Chuunin exams are nearby. Don't you want to Pass, fatass?"

Shikamaru wasn't fazed by his female teammate's harsh tone or actions. She hadn't been getting as much sleep as she had before her chuunin exam training began. Asuma usually pushed his students to their limit during their training sessions, and then Ino had to come home and tend the closing of her family flower shop and do chores at home leaving her in a state of exhaustion by the day's end. The only things pushing her where the fact that her rival Haruno Sakura was moving ahead of her due to her training with the Hokage and that her experience in the previous exam was terrible and scary.

Ino began taking her training very seriously even some times asking for more rigorous exercises, unlike Shikamaru or Chouji, she often became annoyed at their lacksidasical attitudes. Though she was tired she had more than enough energy to push around her teammates, in fact since her lack of sleep Shikamaru felt that she had even more energy than before.

Chouji still hadn't completely recovered from Ino's actions, he was shaking with shock and anger, however he began to clench his fist and started to walk quickly towards Ino. Ino hadn't gotten the reaction she expected, so she even further provoked him into an outright rage.

"Yeah, that's right come at me…fatty" Ino said somewhat calmly.

What is she thinking? Shikamaru thought.

Chouji was out right heated at this point, his eyes were ablaze and he began to charge at her. Ino prepared herself for a fight as well.

Ino winced and put up her arm in front of her as Chouji's fist neared her face. Suddenly, however she began to feel paralyzed and numb.

"I…can-'t move…" Chouji struggled to say as his body was stuck in his attacking position, his right hand curled into a fist mere inches away from Ino's face. Behind them Shikamaru was in a tense stance and his shadow had been elongated and was touching both Chouji and Ino at their feet.

"Enough's enough, that's it you guys!" He said.

"Sorry," the two replied sighing, as Shikamaru released his shadowy hold on them.

Geez, Asuma, where are you? Shikamaru thought as he sighed and began to scratch his head and look up towards the sky.

Team 8 awaited their instructor as well. The three students sat on some grass, waiting in a field full of trees. Unlike Team 10's instructor, team 8's instructor had them wait in an area that did not have training posts.

Hinata stood up. "Umm… Kiba-kun perhaps we should begin training with out Kurenai?" she asked shyly while fiddling with her fingers.

Kiba simply sighed and put his hands under his face while he rested his elbows on his legs.

"I'm tired of waiting for that woman," he replied. "Let's just go home. I can pass the exam without her help!"

Shino merely sat in silence with his arms folded.

"Well, even if you guys aren't going to leave, I am" Kiba stated as he stood up. "Come on, let's go Akamaru."

"Don't even think about it, Kiba" a woman's voice called, as a cloud of puff appeared in front of him.

"After all," Kurenai stated as she appeared. "You're the one who wanted this training the most, right?"

"Well, it's about time" he stated, with his arms folded and his left foot tapping the ground.

As Shikamaru looked above a voice called from behind him. "Good job, Shikamaru, I'm proud that you can take care of things when I'm gone"

"Asuma?" Shikamaru asked as he turned behind him. Ino and Chouji turned to look behind them as well.

"I'm sorry I'm late" He replied

Ino screamed franticly in anger and stomped her way towards her teacher.

"You've got a lot of nerve Asuma-sensei, not upholding your promise!"

Asuma could only muster a smirk as Ino reached him and clenched her fist.

"Heh..." he grinned sheepishly

Ino attempted to punch her teacher but he grabbed her fist. She then fell on her knees and he let go of her hand.

"You said you'd be here to help us with early training sensei. You promised! But it's already afternoon. Do you want us to die during the exam, huh?"

Shikamaru merely rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I don't want things to go the way they did last time," Ino said as she sighed and put her head down with her hair covering her face. She was almost ready to cry due to her memories of the last Chuunin Exam and after Sasuke ran away she promised herself that she would become stronger, even stronger than what Sakura promised she'd be after her training with the Hokage.

"But Ino," Chouji stated as he picked up the bag of smashed potato chips and began shaking it and putting a few crumbs in his mouth, "the exam is almost over a year away."

"You guys will do fine," Asuma replied, "probably don't even need much training, and to prove it I've arranged an A-rank mission for us." He said as he let go of Ino's hand

"Really?" Ino asked in excitement wiping her face with her freed arm, "I'll finally prove to that big forheaded girl and the rest of the village that I'm a good ninja and a beautiful woman"

"I'm sorry, I haven't been as helpful as you'd like," Asuma continued. "However I've been rather busy with something important…"

"Come to think of it," Shikamaru started, "You've been acting odd for the past few weeks, you're present at our training sessions but it's as if you weren't here mentally, as if your mind were on something. Your attitude has changed somewhat as well… What is it, are you hiding something?"

"No…" Asmua replied slyly while scratching his head nervously. "Come on, let's go receive the mission"

The squad then headed to the Hokage's office to receive their mission.

"You guys go ahead," Asuma told his students when they had arrived at the door to the Hokage's building.

"What business do you have outside…?" Shikamaru turned to him and asked, looking intensely at his face.

Asuma sighed and stared upwards. "Tsunade has stated that she hates it when I smoke inside her office. There are papers and books all over the place as well; I don't want to start a fire or something…"

Shikamaru turned around and walked inside with Ino and Chouji following behind him.

"It's not nice to lie to your students," Kurenai's voice called behind Asuma. He turned to her and she walked closer. The two held hands and began to walk towards the building their students were in.

"We...can't walk in like this" Kurenai suddenly replied as she pulled her hand back, "You didn't tell your students either, did you?"

"How could I… I wasn't ready, besides, I don't want them bothering me about it"

Kurenai sighed "They're going to have to know eventually."

"I know," Asuma replied. "I'm just not ready to tell them."

The couple distanced themselves and walked into the building.

Inside of Tsunade's office teams 10 and 8 were making an uproar at what they were hearing. Kurenai and Asuma had told their respective students that they were receiving an A-ranked mission to work out independently however Tsunade told the group otherwise.

"What!?" Kiba yelled as he slammed his hand on Tsunade's desk and pointed to team 10 who were to the right of him. "You mean we have to do a mission with them, and it's only a C rank?"

"Asuma promised us an A-rank mission," Ino spoke up, angry as well.

"Well that's the way it is" Tsunade replied, "these are very important clients; a large caravan of traders located in various villages. We need a large group to work with them. And if you think you're mad right now, I'll show you what anger really is" Tsunade suddenly put an evil smirk on her face and stared directly at Kiba while clenching her fist.

"Yes ma'am," Kiba gulped nervously as he sweatdroped.

The teams received their mission papers and met their teachers outside of Tsunade's office.

At the gate of the village, team 8 and 10 stood in front of the village awaiting their commands.

"Now," Asuma began, "you will break up into groups of two and go to your respective villages to escort your client to where ever they wish to go. I am going with Kurenai, team 8's instructor. The rest of you need to choose someone who you think you can work with."

Asuma handed a piece of paper to Shikamaru, Shino, and Ino. "The locations you can choose to go to are circled on these maps choose one and move out."

"Asuma-sensei, wait…" Ino called as he and Kurenai vanished out of sight.

"They sure were in a hurry," Kiba replied.

"How troublesome," Shikamaru stated.

A little bit more than a day later, Asuma and Kurenai had both complete their mission. It was sunset and the two had arrived at the Konoha village gate.

"That was fun." Kurenai stated as she began chuckling.

"Yeah, you make an excellent partner for a mission." Asuma replied. The two began walking into the village.

"That was a nice plan Asuma, having our teams do an easy mission together and arranging it in a way that we would have the mission to ourselves."

"I even arranged it so they would have to travel a longer distance as well; we have the village to ourselves for a while. You wanna have dinner together? I know a really nice restaurant downtown"

Kurenai nodded her head. The two continued walking until the reached downtown Konoha, where they saw Kakashi sitting on a bench and reading a book outside a small restaurant ahead of them.

"Yo," Kakashi called out as he walked to them, "Are you two on a date?" he asked, interested.

Kurenai nodded her head and Asuma smiled.

"What about your kids?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh, Kakashi," Kurenai replied blushing "we aren't at that point yet…"

"I meant your students. But it shows what you're really thinking about," Kakashi said jokingly as he winked and scratched his head.

"Speaking about our students, we don't know where they are, do we?" Asuma asked nervously. The sun went lower into the sky and he began to feel somewhat panicked. "It's almost dark, and they haven't returned."

"If they don't return, I'm sure Konoha will send some ninja after them," Kakashi said as he pulled out his favorite novel and walked past them. He then turned around and waved, "Well later."

"Yeah," Asuma turned around nervously and waved to Kakashi.

By the next afternoon, team 10 and 8 arrived at the village gate.

"Are we the first ones?" Shikamaru asked Kiba.

"Looks like it," he replied.

Suddenly Hinata, Ino, Shino and Chouji appeared.

"Alright," Shikamaru said slightly angry, "Let's report the mission…then have a long talk with our senseis..."

Shikamaru personally sought out Asuma who was not with Kurenai that afternoon. After searching around the village Shikamaru decided to go downtown to buy himself lunch. While walking he passed a small shop where he found Asuma leaning on a table, looking at a small ring intently. He turned to the door and entered, preparing to speak to his teacher.

"I wouldn't expect to find you here, sensei," Shikamaru called as he opened the door causing a bell to ring, alerting the sleeping shopkeeper, a elderly and bald man with a solemn look wearing round and black glasses with blue robe on.

Asuma turned to look at Shikamaru as he came closer and looked slightly shocked.

"Oh," Asuma said as he cleared his throat.

"What are you doing here?" they both said simultaneously.

"What's going on Asuma-sensei?"

"Just looking around, I needed a break today"

"This isn't like you at all sensei" Shikamaru said with a slight alarm in his voice

At that moment Asuma thought over what he was about to do. Offering Kurenai such a gift while expressing the possibility of marriage so soon might not be such a good idea, I better leave. Asmua left the ring on the table and walked to Shikamaru.

"Thank you Shikamaru," he said as he patted his student's head and walked out.

Shikamaru looked ahead of him with a blank stare, sighed, turned around and walked out of the shop. Something's defiantly wrong, and I'm going to find out tomorrow.

Around the same time, Kurenai was sitting by a lake, tossing rock in the water. Hinata was watching her from behind a tree.

Sensei would have definitely noticed me by now. Hinata thought while poking her head slightly out from behind the tree. She had initially intended to talk to her teacher about yesterday's mission but was afraid to question her sensei's methods of training.

It had just occurred to Hinata that there was possibly something wrong with their teacher. Why else would she divide her team up and journey with Asuma, someone who Hinata had never seen with her teacher. And why else would she seek time to be alone by the lake in the park? Hinata waked away from the tree and from her teacher. She decided to tell her teammates of what she had discovered.

Hinata met up with Kiba and Shino in a clearing not to far from the lake. They had sent Hinata to talk to their sensei, but weren't surprised when she told them she didn't.

"Um, Kiba-kun, I believe there is something wrong with Kurenai." Hinata said. She then told them about what she saw and believed was wrong with their teacher.

"Tomorrow's our day off, why don't we investigate what's making Kurenai act this way?" Kiba said

Shino and Hinata nodded their head in agreement. Tomorrow they would follow their teacher without her knowing and hopefully find out why she was acting so strangely and desired to be away from her team.

The next day Shikamaru gathered his other teammates Chouji and Ino and took them to a restaurant for breakfast.

"Are you sure you can afford to feed his appetite?" Ino asked waving her left hand towards Chouji who was sitting next to her devouring all the food in sight.

"I simply wanted to talk to you guys; it was Chouji who brought us here in the first place"

"What is it that Shikamaru wants to talk about?" Chouji asked with his mouth full still chewing.

"Asuma-sensei is not the same, something's wrong with him and we're going to find out by following him around today."

"Why don't you just ask him instead of stalking?" Ino replied.

"I already have asked him, he won't give me a straight answer. This is the only way."

"This was my day to sleep in you know," Ino said frowning.

"Just think of it as a mission." Shikamaru replied.

"Now you want to train," Ino commented while smirking.

The three agreed to follow Asuma and see what he was up to for the day and walked out of the restaurant. They began to look for their teacher who was somewhere in town. By mid day they had no luck finding him. They went to the park and sat on a bench. A little distance behind the bench were several bushes and a whole forest of trees. It was actually the most isolated part of the park. In front of the bench was a crystal clear lake similar to the one Kurenai was near.

Shikamaru thought over his sensei's actions. Asuma was somewhat hasty recently, wanted to be alone often, and Shikamaru had saw him looking at rings. Asuma usually goes here when he wants to talk to someone in private, he told me that once. I'm going to assume that he wants to talk to someone now. But who?

"Hide." Shikamaru commanded his team. And they went into the bushes.

Meanwhile Team 8 conducted a search for their own sensei with little luck. Like team 10 they arrived at the park and sat at the very same bench and sat down.

"Man!" Kiba began as he folded his arms behind his head and sighed. "You'd think a tracking team would be able to find their own teacher." Akamaru yawned in his lap.

"We did. I had a bug search for her and attach itself to her neck. She's headed this way." Shino looked toward Kiba. "You should be able to smell her now."

"You're right. Everyone hide!"

Kiba, Hinata, and Shino went deep into the area of trees behind the park bench and stood, anxiously awaiting their teacher.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Kiba whispered to Shino annoyed.

"Shhh" was his reply.

"She's not even in earshot; I can smell scents from a mile away"

"Do you hear something?" Ino whispered in the bushes.

"No," Shikamaru replied softly while intently looking ahead.

"How do we even know Asuma is going to be here?"

"They're here" Chouji whispered as Asuma's voice came in range. He was talking to another voice and they were slowly moving towards the bench.

Asuma and Kurenai sat down at the park bench. They had a lovely day together, spending their time at mostly obscure spots in the village to avoid being recognized by anyone. They decided to spend the rest of their time together in an isolated yet somewhat scenic part of a park that Asuma usually enjoyed going to.

The pair sat together, initially close to on another, but by thirty minutes time they where sitting apart from one another and looked somewhat tense.

This is absurd... Shikamaru thought. They're not doing anything. He mentally gasped at the idea that the two Jounin might actually realize that they were being watched.

In the trees Hinata had activated her Byakugan so the team could know what was going on without having to give up their good hiding spot.

"She's just sitting there, with that Jounin Asuma…" whispered Hinata.

"Shino, do you think that she's noticed your bug by now?"

Shino shook his head. But responded "It is possible that she knows we're here."

Kiba tightened his fist, feeling somewhat tense.

In the bushes Ino was getting very impatient and glared at Shikamaru. He merely glanced at her that Asuma knew they were there.

"Why don't I take over one of them to stimulate a conversation, that way we can find out why they're here?"

"No! If you do that they'll know someone's watching them for sure, they'll probably immediately recognize the effects of your jutsu and know it's you."

"I'm going in," she replied as she slowly stood up on her knees and formed her hands together into a somewhat circular shape holding them in Kurenai's direction which was directly in front of her. "Shintenshin no Jutsu!" She whispered as her soul went flying towards Kurenai.

Unfortunately for Ino just as she fired her consciousness at Kurenai, Kurenai moved over a bit in her seat so she could be closer to Asuma. Shikamaru caught Ino's body and softly slapped his forehead and sighed.

When Ino came to a few minutes later, the first thing she saw was Shikamaru and Chouji staring intently over her causing her to almost scream, but Shikamaru and Chouji covered her mouth before she could do so.

"We weren't sure if you had made it, so we had to watch over your body" Shikamaru said to calm her.

"I want to try again."

"Well, whatever," Shikamaru replied, returning to his original somewhat careless demeanor. "Just scratch your head if your successful. We should be able to see movement from here"

This time Ino focused intently on Kurenai and aligned herself perfectly with her. I won't miss this time.

After taking aim for 5 minutes she finally activated the mind transfer jutsu.

"Did she get it?" Asked Chouji

"She's not giving the signal," Shikamaru frowned. "But we saw her take perfect aim, and Kurenai didn't move..."

Where am I. Ino thought. I was certain that I took perfect aim at Kurenai. Since when did she have six le-?

Ino cut off her thought. She was surprised to find that when she moved her legs more than two of them moved, she had a pair of moving objects on her head and when she opened her eyes that her sense of sight was different. Mentally screaming at this discovery she began to move around rapidly on Kurenai's body. She hadn't aimed at Kurenai but at Shino's planted bug!

Hinata who was watching Kurenai noticed Shino's bug's odd behavior and notified both Kiba and Shino.

"This may give away our position" was Shino's only reply to Kiba's dismay.

Kurenai moved away from Asuma and began tapping various places on her skin to hit the bug that was moving on her. Ino noticed the hand trying to smash her and began to run even faster on Kurenai's skin. Ino headed towards Kurenai's hair so she could have a better chance of hiding.

In team 8's hiding place Kiba responded harshly. "Can't you stop it!?" while hitting a tree with his fist.

"I don't know what the problem is, we must wait."

As Ino reached the top of Kurenai's head, Kurenai began to scratch her head.

"That's the signal, she did it!" Chouji responded excitedly.

"It took her long enough," Shikamaru stated. "Now we can get Asuma to talk and finish this."

Ino stopped moving and Kurenai gave up hunting the bug and assumed it flew away. She moved back towards Asuma and held his arm.

"You know I love you," She said resting her head on his shoulder.

Chouji and Shikamaru stared wide eyed in shock.

"So that's why she was so eager to do this, so she could hav-" Shikamaru cut Chouji off.

"No, Ino wouldn't do this…but she had to have taken over someone nearby" Was Shikamaru's reply.

Hinata turned off her Byakugan and sat down.

"So that was it," Kiba said. "Let's get out of here"

"But how," Hinata asked.

"Let's have akamaru run out of here and make it seem like we were just passing by."

Akamaru ran out of the trees and pass the bench, team 8 teleported out of the forest and put them on the path that lead to the park bench. They eagerly ran after akamaru trying to make it seem as if they hadn't spent the past hour or so watching their teacher's date.

"Hi sensei!" Kiba yelled as he and his teammates ran by, Shino gave her the thumbs up sign, and Hinata smiled and waved.

"What are they doing here?" Shikamaru whispered.

Ino woke up in her own body a second later and came to with a headache. "Who's doing all that yelling?"

"You didn't get control of Kurenai did you?" Chouji asked confused.

"No! Stupid, do you think I would tell Asuma that?" She said as she slapped him. "I became the bug that was on her…"

Shikamaru smiled. "Now that we know what's going on with Asuma we can leave, they'll tell us when they're ready." Chouji and Ino nodded. Like team 8 had done, team 10 teleported out of sight and walked pass the bench the teachers were sitting on and waved at them when they passed by.

Shikamaru gave Asuma the thumbs up sign, Ino winked at Asuma as she passed him, and Chouji smiled.

After some time had passed Kurenai and Asuma talked.

"Should we tell them we know they were here?" Kurenai asked.

"Should we tell them about us already?" Asuma responded.

"They probably already know." Kurenai replied.

"So there's your answer."

Kurenai and Asuma leaned closer to on another and kissed.

Author's notes: Yay! Second fic done and it's a decent one shot. If it had any errors, I'm sorry I finally finished this on a night where I had trouble sleeping and had a disire to write. By the way, it's rated T just in case...

So anyway I felt that like my first Naruto one shot that most of the characters are in character mostly. If you have any specific out of character instances please mention them.

I know I have a lot of dialog and it's a bit corny but seriously I'm working on my writing. My next fic is not a one shot and is seriously completely adventure/action oriented. It is the biggest project I've worked on for several years and a Shaman King fic (does anyone know if there's a shaman king info site, by any chance).

This fic takes place between the point where Itachi is searching for Naruto and the time skip. We know Kakashi comments that Kurenai and Asuma are a couple when Itachi comes to the village, and Kurenai is prego and married by time skip.

Not much else to say for now except for Read my fics! But I'll probably add something later. Add comments and enjoy.