A/N: I am searching for a Beta, if you are interested please send me a message
Disclaimer: I wish I could say I owned Naruto but I don't, I don't even own any Naruto items. I do however own the plot.
The Path That We Must Choose.
Summary:
On the night that the Sound come to pick up Sasuke, something happens that they didn't expect: Team 7's bond strengthens and foils the Sound's Plan. Team Seven now must choose what path they want to take in life. Team 7-centric. AU. Rated T for safety.
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Sasuke stared out of the window, his narrowed eyes slightly appearing just like Orochimaru's. His normally cold eyes filled with firey wrath making thirst for power and the anger of how his brother Itachi had gone for Naruto, the dead-last, completelly ignoring Sasuke.
From behind him he could hear Sakura's whimpering, but he did not care; at least not at the moment, he did not have time to deal with the kunoichi's fragile feelings.
He heard footsteps come near his room and stop at the doorway, Sasuke whipped his head around to see Naruto, with sheepish smile on his face enter the hospital room where his two teammates were.
--
Naruto stopped in his tracks when he saw Sasuke glaring at him, loathing and anger evident in his eyes, and matched Sasuke's glare
"Fight me" Sasuke said coldly, ending the staring contest as he got out of the hospital bed.
"What?? Here?" Naruto asked dumfounded as he looked around the small hospital room.
Amazed at Naruto's stupidity Sasuke snorted "follow me" and walked out of the room without paying attention to Sakura's pleas or waiting to see if Naruto would follow, since he was sure he would.
As Sasuke walked out of the room Sakura turned her plea to Naruto who just whispered "We have to do this." and silently followed Sasuke out of the room
Exasperated and not knowing what else to do, Sakura did what she always did and followed her two teammates up to the hospital's roof.
Up on the roof another staring contest occured between the two of the leaf genin, the third frantically looking between them.
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Sakura was praying that someone would come and stop them, it did not matter whatever punishment was bestowed on her team for trying to fight on the hospital roof, Sakura just wanted the conflict to end.
Sakura's heart sank as it became evident that help was not going to come, and the two boys ended their staring contest and charged at each other ready to fight.
The beginning of the fight was taijutsu only, and as a surprise to Sakura, Naruto's taijutsu matched Sasuke's. When Sasuke struck a successful blow, Naruto would hit him just as hard and when Naruto hit Sasuke, the raven-haired boy would hit back.
After a few minutes, the dust that had been raised during the fight had settled and the two fighting genin stood opposite of each other, both with visible wounds and bruises, and panting and heaving heavily.
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Naruto's body burned and ached. 'I do not know how long I can keep this up' Naruto winced as he shifted back into a combat stance 'I am still not fully recovered from my last battle' he eyed Sasuke's condition before adding 'but neither is he and I will not show the teme any weakness'.
Naruto put on a confident smile and was pleased as it had its desired effect and an angry scowl appeared on his opponent's face.
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Sasuke scowled as Naruto's facial expression took on a confident air; how was it that the dobe could still be confident that he had a chance of beating him when it was evident that he was struggling just to stay standing?
Mimicking Naruto, Sasuke shifted into his own combat stance and realization hit him, he was in the same state Naruto was in and as it was the battle could go to either one of the leaf shinobi.
Sasuke smirked at the thought, it was the time to finally see which one was the strongest of the two, both had waited a long time for this, what was their rivalry battle, and were almost to the point of shaking with excitement.
Analyzing the battle once more, Sasuke came to the conclusion that they both had enough chakra left for one more attack, the attack that would decide everything, across of him Naruto seemed to have realized the same thing and had summoned two kagebunshins to help him prepare for his last attack.
"Ready Dobe?" Sasuke asked, voice filled with anticipation.
"Brink it Teme!" Naruto yelled back with equal anticipation.
Both boys laced with determination to fulfill their indivual dreams charged their most powerful jutsus; jutsus that were taught to them so they could protect what was precious to them , and began running toward each other, arms extended and fully intending to land the winning blow
In the background the pink haired kunoichi watched as her teammates charged each other with attacks that could seriously injure if not kill each other; neither seeming to realize the actual potential of their attacks. Unable to think of another way to stop those who she considered her family from killing each other , Sakura ran to the center of the roof and stood in between the incoming attacks
"Please stop!" She screamed as she closed her tear filled eyes and prepared for the incoming impact. 'If I can't stop them from fighting, then I will at least be able to stop them from killing each other' she thought as she heard the roaring wind and the sound of one thousand birds grow closer as well as loud cursing from both Naruto and Sasuke.
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Naruto's eyes widened as Sakura ran in between him and Sasuke. "Sakura!! Get out of there!" Naruto exclaimed while he struggled to change his course in vain. "Damn! I can't stop!" Naruto yelled as he realized that there was no way he was not going to hit the kunoichi.
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Sasuke saw the pink-haired kunoichi jump into the path of his chidori. His eyes widening in horror as he, like Naruto just had, realized that he could not stop. "I am going too fast!" he yelled as he saw the distance between his lightning sword and Sakura decrease at an alarming rate.
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Naruto and Sasuke closed their eyes, neither able to bring themselves to watch what would inevitably happen. The three genin felt their teammates' presence get closer and closer and just as they expected the impact, they felt the presence of the fourth and last member of the team appear.
Confused as to what had just happened, they opened their eyes to see Kakashi who was firmly gripping Naruto's and Sasuke's wrists, fling the two boys off, sending Sasuke to crash into a water tank on one side and Naruto into a water tank on the other side.
Both boys slowly got up from their respective landing places and looked over to where their sensei stood over the teammate they had almost hurt, then away from their sensei's angry and disappointed face.
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Sasuke looked at the hole his Chidori had made on the water tank, he managed to smirk in satisfaction even after everything that happened when he compared it to the hole that Naruto's Rasengan had made.
It was not that he did not care that Sakura had almost gotten hurt because of him and Naruto, it was just that he needed to know he was still stronger than the dead-last for his own sanity. Since if the dead last could beat him, how could he ever hope to kill his brother and avenge his clan? That would make his one goal in life, his fate impossible to accomplish and render his life useless. He just had to know that he was stronger.
"Sasuke." Kakashi's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he faced his sensei, doing his best to keep a straight face and keep the mixed emotions of pride, power-hunger, and the ones that wanted to be shown the most: shame and an aching heart filled with guilt.
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"You could have killed Sakura" Kakashi stated simply and waited to see the youth's reaction.
Regret and guilt clouded Sasuke's eyes if only for a second or two before being hidden by his passive face again.
Kakashi mentally sighed, although he was extremely angry and disappointed with his students, the fact that Sasuke felt something meant that he was not too far gone and could still be helped to escape the future that his thirst for power and revenge was currently leading him to. Still, he needed to handle the current situation.
"Sasuke, go cool off" He said softly, then when he saw Sasuke's shocked expression before he was able to hide it he quickly added "I will deal with you later" his voice still soft, but filled with command.
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Sasuke obediently nodded, he had not expected their actions to go unpunished but it was worth it, he just wanted to reassure himself that he was on the right path, that he was still stronger than the dobe, and for that he was willing to take any punishment. Sure, he did feel guilty and like a bastard that they had put Sakura in danger, but he could not help it, he had to know.
However now that he knew, he was not going to risk angering Kakashi anymore, the jounin's current demeanor was scary enough and Sasuke did not want to find out how much scarier it could get if he angered him more. Besides, in order to avenge his family, Sasuke had to be alive and well, and he was sure that if Kakashi did get angrier... he was not going to live to see another day, or at least be able to walk.
Sasuke back flipped off the hospital roof and landed on a ledge, casually looking up to see if his sensei was still sitting on the water tank but opened his mouth in amazement at what he saw instead. Across from where he had crashed into the water tank, was the water tank Naruto had crashed into and it had a large hole on the back, much larger than the whole Sasuke had made with his chidori.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes in anger and his gaping mouth contorted into a scowl. The dobe had caused more damage than him, one of the last surviving member of the Uchiha Clan, the rookie of the year, and the avenger whose fate was to bring down his own brother, the one who had massacred his clan.
Sasuke, unable to hold his anger in anymore, punched the wall behind him and severely dented it, before heading out of the village and into the forest nearby.
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Naruto watched as Kakashi appeared sitting down on the water tank where Sasuke had landed and began talking to Sasuke. He looked at the damage that the water tank had gotten because of Sasuke's chidori and paled at the thought of what would have happened if their sensei had not shown up.
Pictures of a bleeding and maimed Sakura popped into his head, he did not need to feel the anger that Kakashi gave off in waves to know that what he and Sasuke had done was wrong.
Naruto looked at where Sakura sat, wiping off the tears from her cheeks and gazing at a group of birds that flew overhead.
"Naruto"
Naruto winced as Kakashi announced his name calmly. Naruto would have preferred that his sensei yelled or even hit him than talked to him with the calm tone full of anger and disappointment he was using now.
"Yes sensei?" Naruto muttered looking at the ground the ground, unable to bring himself to look up at his sensei.
"Look at me" Kakashi ordered leaving no room for disobedience.
Naruto sighed as he slowly brought up his gaze to meet Kakashi's
"You know what you did was wrong do you not?" Kakashi questioned
"Hai, sensei" Naruto said struggling to keep his voice clear.
"You also know that you and your teammates will be punished?" Kakashi continued.
At the last question Naruto's eyes shot up in disbelief and he glanced back at Sakura before exclaiming "Sakura too!?"
Kakashi nodded and Naruto angrily complained "but she did not do anything wrong! It was just me and Sasuke fighting, she tried to.."
Kakashi lifted his hand for silence and as much as Naruto wanted to ignore the order and continue his protesting, the glare that he was receiving made him think twice before doing so.
"You are a team. You get recognized as a team, you get punished as a team" Kakashi said sternly.
As the anger vanished from Naruto's eyes and was replaced with more than they had had before , Kakashi relented and added "though she will not get punished as severely as you two."
To that Naruto just nodded, but it was evident that a tiny portion of the guilt had gone away. Naruto looked up to his sensei obviously awaiting orders as to what to do now.
"Naruto, go back to you apartment. You are restricted to it until ordered otherwise. We shall discuss this later, and expect a visit from Jiraiya-sama."
"Hai!" Naruto saluted and jumped off the roof like Sasuke had (minus the back flip) to lan on another building's roof and headed in the direction of his apartment.
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Kakashi sighed as he watched the now distant Naruto. 'This is going to be a long day' he thought glumly,
"Jiraiya-Sama, I will leave it to you to talk to him at the moment? I will later, but I have a more pressing matter to deal with right now." Kakashi called to the before unnoticed Sannin sitting below the water tank Naruto had hit.
"Hai, I can't believe they used those attacks on each other the fools could have killed each other and Sakura!" the Sannin responded.
Kakashi nodded to Jiraiya's statement and turned to where Sakura was sitting. His eyes softened as he saw his student gazing up at to where another group of birds flew over head, but then he shook the thoughts of sympathy that had flooded him away.
It did not matter that she did not fight, they were a team and would be treated like one, besides Sakura had not done the right thing anyway.
"Sakura, come here." Kakashi called to his student, anger and disappointment had dissipated from his voice and only left fatherly concern and kindness.
"Hai sensei" Sakura said as she slowly stood up and walked over to Kakashi
"Are you okay?" he asked softly and Sakura just nodded affirmative.
"Now, while you wanted to do the right thing and stop the fight, there were other ways that would have been much more effective than what you did to do so were there not?: Kakashi paused before continuing "such as making it so that this battle never was able to happen?"
For the second time today, one of his students turned their face and looked at the floor in shame. "Hai Kakashi-sensei, it is just... I could not, I was not thinking straight Please forgive me!" Sakura said now on the verge of tears as she bowed to her sensei,
Kakashi's eyes softened and he grabbed Sakura's shoulders as he kneeled down so that she looked at him in the eye.
"Now, now, Sakura. Did I not tell you everything is going to be okay? Just like it was before? I just need you to understand that you what you did was not the best thing you could have done, and that you are going to be punished just like Naruto and Sasuke, because you are a team" Kakashi explained emphasizing the word team so that Sakura knew they were still together and this was not going to make them fall apart.
"Hai, thank you" Sakura thanked her sensei in a voice barely audible as she recalled the tears that had been threatening to spill.
Straightening up and assuming a tone of command Kakashi ordered "Sakura, as of now you are restricted to your house until given orders that say otherwise. Go there now."
"Hai!" Sakura shouted with newfound strength and like the rest of her team jumped off the roof and head towards another part of the village .
"Well, time to go deal with the brats is it not?" Jiraiya's voice sounded from behind Kakashi as they walked down the stairs of the hospital, like decent people unlike the three young genin.
"Indeed it is" Kakashi replied as they exited the hospital and turned to go towards the forest where Sasuke had headed.
"Good luck!" Jiraiya called back as he turned towards the dark and lonely road that led to the outskirts of the village, and where Naruto's apartment was located.
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A/N: Thank you for reading! I give cookies to all those that review, whether you liked it or not. I'm sorry that most of the chapter was just like the cannon chapter/episode but it was necessary for me to set the scene. I apologize for my grammar and can only say that I am getting a Beta to help
Chapter Two is ready to be typed and posted but first I want to make sure I have a couple of reviews :D
Have fun reading!
--Sand