1.) On the other side of that door
He knew those sounds. It had been a while since he was involved in making them, but he knew them. There was a time the moans and whimpers would have been his lullaby, heard from a dorm room in the ANBU underground training facility through the wall or a ventilation shaft. Eventually there would be some shouting, but by the sound of things, Yamato was taking it slow... savoring every second.
On the other side of that door was a world of pain and anger being unleashed on one of the two men responsible for Haruno Sakura's death. The whimpers and moans of the bastard should have his friend in the next room sweating by now. Smiling sadistically behind his recently re-squired ANBU Wolf mask, Kakashi opened the second door.
These two bastards would wish Sakura had been able to pound them to death.
2.) Late Again
This time, more than ever before, she wished Kakashi wouldn't be late.
She was out of chakra, only enough left to keep her conscious as the enemy closed in on her position. She could see Sai. He was three yards away to her left, still clawing at the ground, trying to pull himself towards his ink and paper. She wondered if he knew he didn't have anything left below the sternum. He would be gone once enough blood drained away. Gods knew he didn't have any oxygen being pumped into his brain anymore.
Where was Kakashi with the back-up team?
More importantly... why were they pulling her flack jacket off? She wished she could hear them speaking, but the explosion that destroyed her team mate's body had also punctured her ear-drums. She could feel the blood slowly seeping out. If only she could turn her head to look at them, she might be able to lip-read some of their words, but a piece of metal had lodged into her neck, kinking up her spine. If she tried to move her head, it might sever her spinal chord.
Did it really matter what they were saying now? She knew exactly what was happening when they yanked off her shorts. Sick bastards.
With a frown, Sakura focused on Sai's now still form, and twisted her neck sharply to the right... and neither felt nor saw anymore.
Kakashi was too late.
3.) Thunderstorm
The storms here could get bad, the locals said. That's why the buildings were all made in rounded shapes like in the desert, and of the strongest, most water tight materials and techniques that could be found or made. Even though this was considered the more dry of seasons, the storms that popped up now were also considered the worst.
Ice had pelted Sakura, Kakashi, and Yamato as the three of them raced back to the hotel where they hoped Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru were already safe. With the power lines knocked out by the strong winds, and the plumbing backed up from flash flooding, the three had few options left to bring their body temperature back up to par before hypothermia set in... as if they weren't already experiencing the first stages already.
So, here in their third floor hotel room, bunched up in one queen sized bed, the three ninja lay naked underneath both beds' blankets, curled up together, shivering, listening to one another's breath, the wind, and the thunder, their only light coming from the nearly-constant lightning through the two inch thick window at the opposite end of the room.
Sakura had been voted by the other two to be the one in the center of this embarrassment. Now she understood why, for, as their core body temperatures rose, the men's sense of touch returned... and brought up other parts of their anatomy.
"You two keep your hands to yourselves," she warned, a small smile on her lips. "Or you'll share the bed without me."
4.) Footsteps in the Dark
One disturbed leaf was the difference between life and death in situations like these. There was no wind, not even a slight breeze to carry his scent towards the enemy, but it also meant he could be heard that much more clearly. If he didn't pull this off just like his father had shown him, the man up ahead on the path would kill him.
The only way this was going to work was if both of his team mates were in place. Naoki should be to his right, on a lower branch. He would be waiting with a few shuriken. Mai should be a little farther along the path, ready to pull the trip cord. He, Kato, crouched down on the slender branch, listening carefully.
They had set this up an hour ago, knowing their target would be walking down this path soon, hand-in-hand with a date.
Everything fell into place. The loving couple were loud in their approach on the moonlit path, laughing and dancing half the time. Kato rubbed his fingers together once, the resulting spark of electricity alerting his brother and sister to ready themselves. To any by-standers, though, the spark would be easily mistaken as the glow from a lightning bug.
He gave a second flash, signaling Naoki to throw the first bout of shuriken, then turn tail and run for Mai, making sure the target could see him clearly. The target and his date both took the bait, yelling and giving chase at the ten-year-old who was out of bed so late at night. The moment Naoki was across the line, Kato dropped down behind their prey, using the target's noise to muffle his footsteps. Mai sprung her part of the trap just in time to catch the man, but not his date... again as planned.
That was when the target's date, Kato, Mai, and Naoki all three pelted the man with water balloons.
"Happy birthday, Tou-san!" the three ten-year-olds called out, their mother laughing even harder than she was earlier when she saw the look on her husband's furious face turn into a sheepish grin.
"Did you plan this, Sakura?" he asked once the children began pelting one another with the balloons instead.
5.) Complicated
"There's no way the three of you are all related!" Asama-sensei commented, looking back down at his student roster. "Distant cousins, maybe?"
"No, sir," Mai replied. "They are my brothers. We're triplets."
"Haruno is a civilian name..."
"Our mother is no civilian!" Kato scoffed. "She's Haruno Sakura!"
Asama-sensei's eyes widened a little. "I see... so two of you aren't the children of her husband... You're a Hatake and an Uchiha."
"So we all have geniuses as fathers and share the same top-of-the-line mother," Naoki shrugged. "You scared we're going to know the lessons better than you?"
The class laughed nervously.
"No," the old man smiled a little, "but I just don't think you should call your tramp of a mother a 'top-of-the-line' anything. You'll learn your places."
The two boys and the girl between them shared a look, stood, and walked out of the classroom.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"To transfer classes," Kato said, looking over his shoulder as his brother and sister passed into the hallway. "You're not worth our time... Maybe Naruto-ojii-san will let us switch to his old teacher's class instead."
Everyone knew Asama-sensei hated Umino Iruka with a passion simply because the old man's daughter was currently married to him. Their relationship was complicated, but not as much as the relationship and connections the triplets had. Little did Asama-sensei know, but word of this first-day of school discussion would even reach the Kazekage's ears. Asama-sensei would not much longer have a job... anywhere.
6.) Rivalry
Yamanaka Ino leaned back in her rocking chair, looking out the window at the people in the yard. It was the annual cookout for the Rookie Nine, their extended team mates, former sensei, husbands, wives, children... The number had grown so much over the past ten years. She wished on rare occasions that Uchiha Sasuke could join them, but then things would be so different... and Haruno Mai might not exist at all, or her brothers wouldn't.
A small circle gathered around two of the men, both former sensei and team-leaders. Gai had challenged Kakashi to another ridiculous game. This time it appeared to involved the tetherball post. Among the onlookers were Naruto and Lee, each supporting their captain. She was happy they still got along and found things to be rivals over other than Sakura, though Ino knew Lee still held out hope. She also knew Naruto wasn't exactly pleased with Sakura's choice of husbands, either, seeing as the man held a margin of control over the Nine-tails.
Speaking for rivalries, here came her one time rival, Sakura, through the door.
"You alright, Ino?" she asked, heading for the kitchen.
"Just a bit too warm outside for me," Ino answered.
"Oh, I remember those days," Sakura smiled, returning to rub a hand over Ino's pregnant belly. "Impossible to stay cool unless you're half in the fridge or right in front of the air conditioner."
"Hey, Sakura?" Ino grabbed her by the wrist. "I'm glad we're not after the same guy anymore."
"Me, too. Our men are much better to us than Sasuke would have been. They actually love us back."
Ino blushed a little, "You think he loves me? He's never said it."
"Of course Shino loves you! Why else would he give you foot-rubs and chocolates every day?"
7.) Eyes
Umino Iruka had seen some interesting eyes in his days. The many hues of the Hyuuga, he found delightful in women and odd in men. The constant red coloration of the Yuuhi clan showed the fire in their souls. He preferred not to think about the Rinnegan at all, and the Sharingan reminded him of dark days.
This set of sharingan, though, were the only ones he did not fear, not even in his dreams, for they had been used to protect him just days ago.
Haruno Mai watched as her brother, Naoki, collapsed in the mud, and her other brother, Kato, foolishly rushed the enemy, only to be thrown to the side, slamming into a tree so hard he spat out blood on impact. Iruka gathered up just enough chakra to create a clone to bring the boys together as he carefully made his way through the mine-field to Mai's position.
The girl saw him from the corner of her eye and shot at him, pushing him away from the explosion he hadn't seen coming. After a brief second of relief, he looked her over, and saw the two black marks in a sea of red.
Watching her brothers go down, the first stage had been awakened just in time for her to protect their sensei.
8.) Jewelry
The first time Haruno Naoki saw his sister wearing a necklace was also the first time Uzumaki Kenta received a broken nose. Naoki didn't approve of Kenta's advances towards his sister, and neither did his brother.
Kato walked up behind the blond boy the next time they saw him on the way to school. He set his hand on the back of Kenta's neck and gave him a burst of electrically charged chakra, momentarily paralyzing the unsuspecting boy. Naoki used the opening to simply flick Kenta on the nose, crushing it.
"Hands off our sister," Naoki commanded as their momentary prisoner's eyes began to water.
"She's better than you." Kato shoved him forward. "Got it?"
"Get off of him!" a girl shrieked from behind. It was Mai, and she was sprinting up to them, the beaded necklace swaying around her neck with each step. "How dare you two bully my boyfriend!"
"Boyfriend?" Kato questioned, looking back at the watery eyes of his victim. "He's too weak to be your boyfriend."
Mai's fist crushed his jaw. "You have anything else to say, Naoki?"
Naoki looked over his brother, then wisely shook his head and ran away. For as much as he could use his little finger to shatter a bone, and for as much as Kato could drill a precise hole through any body part with electricity, Mai could screech so damn loud she'd make your ear-drums bleed... and Mom would hear her...and she always took her daughter's side.
9. A Brief Encounter
Hatake Kakashi was completely winded. He had just been chased by every single ANBU operative, all of the Jonin, most of the Tokubetsu Jonin, half the Chunin, and several Genin, all through the village, training grounds, and over the mountain and was not caught by any of them. He had ran them in circles enough that they were now running themselves in circles. Only the smartest ones would be searching somewhere out of his established pattern this soon.
"Want a little extra chakra, sensei?"
He looked down from his perch in the window of a barn, into the bails of hay. "Why would you do that?"
"They're after your face again, right?" Sakura sat up, putting her book away in a vest pocket. "For the mountain?"
"Yes," he nodded, hopping inside with her. "You're not on their side, are you?"
"No," she smiled a little, walking up to him and placing her hands on his chest, flowing a little extra of her chakra into his body. "Not if you give me another kiss... like you did last month."
"I don't think your boyfriend would approve," he answered, despite the fact that he was wrapping his arms around her, allowing her to pull down his mask.
"I thought you both were my boyfriend, and you agreed it was okay," she countered.
"Yamato really has it in for me today," Kakashi frowned. "He's leading the ANBU in the hunt to find me right now."
"Yamato can't get passed the genjutsu I have around this area," she smirked. "He'll recognize it, but he can't break it... not unless he says please."
"Then I guess I can kiss you."