Hey everyone, so here's the promised new chapter of Raven or Crow: A Battle for Love. I feel like it's much better than the original, but you guys will be the determining factor if I continue it or not. Like I said in the "Announcement," I'll be taking bits and pieces from the Naruto time-line to where it fits in the story. Everything will be smooth even though I'm picking and choosing. I do not have a beta, so there may be some mistakes. I tried my best. Let me know what you think!
Raven or Crow: A Battle for Love
(Revamped)
Chapter 1
"Come on, Teme! Keep up! Don't want the enemy's catching up!" The boisterous blonde yelled to his dark haired counterpart.
"You don't have to worry about me, dobe," the ravened haired nin said after securing his trap. "Go up ahead! The trap's all set up!"
Red eyes saw all as the enemy approached, completely ignoring the glint from the sun all around them. The nin took a deep, cleansing breath closing his eyes. It did his lung good, considering he was just about to inhale smoke. Their medic would kill him when she found out the damage he was about to do. But fire was in his blood; it defined him, just like it defined his clan.
The sun's rays poked through the green leaves, heating the area on his back. A two part fan marked his clan's heritage. The bottom part was whiter than his pale skin; the top part red as his deadly eyes when they snapped open.
His skin tingled as the enemy was now within range. His fingers soon lit up a bright, iridescent blue as his life force surged forth, trapping his prey securely. A smirk pulled on his usually serious face as he heard the cries of those who dared to try and ambush his team. A blur of hand signs and a burning of his throat indicated exactly what he planned on doing to them. They struggled in vain, trying to become free; but there was no escape.
He left the burning mess behind, deciding to catch up with his teammate. It felt good to extinguish his enemies. He felt powerful holding their lives in his hands before ending it. It was their fault for daring to mess with him. After all, you don't mess with a man on a mission; even if his mission is far away still.
"And what's your excuse this time, Mr. Hot Shot?" The nurse shouted angrily at him as she placed her hands on his bare chest.
"Hn. I did what was necessary." The nin replied as her felt the cooling of her chakra invade and heal his burning lungs.
"That jutsu is too hard on your lungs. I've told you this a million times!" She said exasperated as she focused mostly on healing him.
"Sakura," the nin said sharply, causing the pink-haired medic to flinch slightly. "They were too close to the village to engage in hand to hand combat. This was the only option to swiftly take them all out."
Sakura frowned at that, still not satisfied with the reason as she finished her patient. "Fine, fine." She huffed and removed her hands. There used to be a day where Sakura would have died having just touched her teammate's chest. Her mentor had clearly beaten that out of her since she wasn't doing her happy dance.
"Naruto, get over here! You're next!" Sakura yelled turning to her other teammate.
"Aw, but, Sakura! I didn't sustain any injuries! We only came in here for teme!" The blonde complained.
"Naruto," now it was Sakura's turn to be sharp. "Get. Over. Here."
The blonde nin cowered at the sound of his usually friendly teammate. "Okay, okay." He said and came by her.
Sakura placed her hands on Naruto's chest and did a quick look. He was right; he didn't receive any severe blows. Satisfied with her work, Sakura nodded and sat back in her chair.
"You two are good to go. Tsunade-sama's probably waiting." She said.
"Baa-chan will understand. She'd prefer us to get checked up anyway." Naruto said grinning.
"Considering you two come in pieces most of the time, yes she does." Sakura said nodding. "Alright you two, get out before all hell breaks loose in here." She said trying to get them out when a nurse bumped right into them.
"Excuse me, Sasuke-san, Naruto-san." The nurse said looking past them to their shorter teammate. "Sakura-sama, we need you in the emergency room. A team just came back from a pretty bad mission."
Sakura nodded and pulled both her teammates out of the way by their collars. "Outta my way! Make sure to close the door when you two get out of there finally! Be sure to report to Tsunade-sama! Oh, and no fire jutsu practice for two days, Sasuke!" Their teammate yelled back as she rushed down the hall.
The two males watched their teammate go down to save another team's lives.
"How long you think she'll be here for?" Naruto asked.
"Probably all night. You know she doesn't rest until they're all out of critical condition." Sasuke responded.
"Yeah… but that's what makes her the best!" Naruto said proudly. "Well, second best. The best is Baa-chan. Speaking of; come on, Teme! Let's go report to her and get outta here!"
Sasuke merely nodded and followed his teammate to the Hokage Tower.
"Baa-chan! We're coming in!" Naruto yelled.
"Naruto, hold on!" Sasuke whispered sharply trying to grab his partner.
It was too late, Naruto shoved the big, wooden doors open.
"You idiots!" They heard Tsunade shot as the room was engulfed in smoke.
Once the smoke cleared, the two nin were faced with a very angry—and very powerful—female. However, Sasuke sensed whoever was originally in the room had been the one to cause the smoke because they were no longer here. It was definitely a foreign chakra; someone outside their village.
"Naruto, you need to knock before being allowed to enter!" Tsunade exclaimed at him.
"Were they an ambassador from another village?" Sasuke asked trying to defuse Tsunade's anger—or use it to his advantage.
"That is classified information, Uchiha." Tsunade snapped turning her anger towards him. "You have no business sticking your nose in Hokage business."
"Actually, since teme's going to be on my council, and I'm going to be the next Hokage, we do have rights here." Naruto said catching on to what Sasuke was trying to do.
"You are not in training yet, Naruto, and you will do well to remember that." Tsunade said firmly.
Naruto sighed. "Yeah, yeah." He said glumly. "Anyway, we're here to give our report, baa-chan."
"Who do think was in there, Teme?" Naruto asked placing his hands behind his head.
"Someone foreign… and strong. That's all I could tell." Sasuke replied coolly.
"But what would Baa-chan be doing someone like that?" His blond companion asked.
The dark haired nin shrugged. "They had to have been from an alley village… nothing else makes sense." He said trying to analyze it. "And the Hokage would have had word that whoever was going to be there or the ANBU guarding her would have attacked."
"Maybe they did take out the ANBU to show how strong they were! OOH! Then Baa-chan was in trouble!" Naruto asked his eyes getting wide.
Sasuke groaned at that idea. "No dobe," he said annoyed. "If the Hokage was in danger a, she could handle herself and b, don't you think an alarm would have gone off?"
"WEEELLLL….. maybe they disabled the alarm!" Naruto tried suggesting. "What do you say to that Teme? HMMM!?"
Sasuke sighed. "Then, I'm pretty sure the Hokage would have attacked, or she would have been more relieved about us bursting in. She was pissed." He concluded.
Naruto frowned, now thinking about it. "I still think we should investigate."
Sasuke blinked and looked at him. "Investigate? When did you come up with this idea?"
"While you were giving Baa-chan the report." Naruto said.
"You know curiosity killed the cat, right?" the black haired nin recited the idiom for the idiot.
"Yeah, but you'd be the cat, Teme! I'm a fox!" Naruto said smirking gleefully.
Sasuke frowned, not pleased at all with that statement. "We'll see how lucky you are when I'm done with you." He said.
Naruto smirked at his partner as they both vanished to the nearest training ground.
There was something about sparring with the dobe that always seemed to relax Sasuke. Naruto, he knew, was the one ninja out there who at least matched him in determination and strength. They would go head to head for hours on end and not ever worry about hurting one another—in the life threatening sense. They received plenty of blows—good ones that would probably have to be seen by Sakura. But that was okay. He'd rather have those than nothing.
They were in their third hour of sparring, and they still had plenty to burn. The black haired nin was currently hiding from his blonde teammate, waiting for him to slip up. He felt a prickle on the back of his neck, alerting someone was watching him. But it wasn't the dobe. The dobe wasn't that subtle even during a sneak attack.
Sasuke darted from his hiding place and jumped down onto the groaned, looking around. His red eyes easily found Naruto who was now approaching him.
"What is it, Sasuke?" Naruto asked quietly.
"Someone's watching us… but I can't pinpoint them." Sasuke murmured back to him.
"Friend or foe?" His teammate asked crunching his knuckles.
"Neither… they don't want to attack us… they're just… watching us…" Sasuke determined.
"Well, I'm determining foe because a friend wouldn't watch us. They'd be out here already. Let's show them what we got," Naruto said.
Sasuke gave a tiny nod before they disappeared to give bring their foe to their fight.
The opposing nin had anticipated their attack. The nin grabbed hold of Naruto's leg and swung him at Sasuke. Sasuke's Sharingan saw it coming and caught Naruto's arm using the velocity of the opponent's attack to fuel their own. He tossed Naruto back at the enemy full speed. Sasuke then vanished, using Naruto as a distraction. He charged at the nin knowing the probability of them dodging both Sasuke and Naruto were slim; especially with Sasuke's chakra concealed. They had this guy cornered.
That was, until they didn't. At the least possible second, the nin disappeared; leaving Sasuke and Naruto to collide with each other.
"Darn it! I thought we had him Teme! What went wrong?" Naruto asked pushing his teammate off him.
Sasuke's face scrunched with disdain. He didn't like being outsmarted—and the dobe calling him out on it. How could have the nin known that he was there, coming at him?
"Did you feel their chakra, Naruto?" Sasuke asked changing the subject.
Naruto blinked looking at him. "Oh, yeah. It was the same as the person in Tsunade's office! They smelt the same too when I got close enough."
Sasuke nodded. "And the way he was dressed… his headband… definitely a Sand ninja. The sand colored chest plate and underclothes. A sand veil covering their face… Even their hair was covered in the same color."
"Yeah… but why would Gaara send such secretive ninja? Why some random ninja? He usually sends Temari to rely messages." Naruto said.
"This has to be specific to the ninja involved…" Sasuke concluded. He sighed. "Let's see Sakura, then let's go to the Hokage and get this sorted out."
Naruto nodded and got up with his friend to see Sakura again.
