Believing
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.
I don't think you'll be able to comprehend what I felt when Iruka-sensei first picked out Team Seven even if I tried to explain it to you a million times. It was a unique feeling, you know, having the girl of your dreams and the guy you hated most in your genin team. I didn't know if I felt so happy I can jump off the academy roof or so ticked off that I wanted to pummel Iruka-sensei. I mean c'mon, did he really think that I could work with that teme? It was the most impossible notion, in every sense of the word. I felt like someone up high hated my guts, specially when, for some cruel twist of fate, someone shoved my face to his just a few minutes earlier. That really hurt my male pride…and my physical body. Boy could the girls in my class punch!
But yeah, that's how Team Seven was formed! Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and yours truly, the great Uzumaki Naruto! Man, I really felt that we were already legends at the time, like we were already somebody. We were wearing our hitai-taes already! What could've been cooler than that? Of course, the obviously dysfunctional characteristics of our team started to come out even before Kakashi-sensei decided to grace us with his first tardiness. Sasuke-teme was really quiet, then again when wasn't he? Bleh! He thinks he's some hot shot! How I hated the guy back then! Sakura-chan was fiddling with her hair while oogling at the teme with that annoyingly cute expression of hers. Hey, don't get me wrong, Sakura-chan was cute. If only she paid more attention to me at the time.
It was way later that day that we met our Jounin sensei, Hatake Kakashi. He was a weird. I mean what kind of teacher reads romance/porn books in front of his twelve year old students? I remembered huffing and thinking that this guy was a nutcase, that he's not good enough to be my teacher.
Man, was I wrong….
Kakashi-sensei was awesome. Even now, I still think he's the coolest shinobi I've ever met. I kinda feel embarrassed saying that I thought he was just another perverted teacher like Ebisu. Kakashi-sensei was way more than that. He taught us a lot, in own his weird and demented way. Not just in ninjutsu but also in getting the notion that you have to be on time for everything. I think Sakura-chan called that, hmm, reverse psychology. Oh well, I don't even know if she really think it was, per say, teaching because he did the opposite. He was always late! It annoyed the hell out of us! It was one thing to be late for a couple of minutes because that was what I called, fashionably late, but being late for 3 hours? Kakashi-sensei gave all of us headaches, especially when it was right smack in the middle of summer and we were stuck there in the meeting place waiting for him. That was when we learned that being late annoyed people.
If it was a form of teaching, it really worked.
After learning that Kakashi-sensei was the Copy Ninja that I kept hearing and reading about in newspapers and radio, I really believed that we're legends in the making. With Kakashi-sensei teaching us all the jutsus he had copied, who can go up against us?
The answer was simple. We went up against each other.
Okay, that sounded wrong. We never tried to kill each other…okay maybe I did try to stab that teme every now and then, but that was because his cockiness really flared my temper. He was lucky that Sakura-chan was always there to break the fight up, although it did irked me that she almost always took sides with Sasuke, that bastard.
Anyway, I think that's why I loved Sakura-chan, you know. Her temper was funny (but it did hurt on my part), she was always there to practically baby the both us, me and the teme alike. Now that I think about it, she had always been angel…albeit violent one. It was really easy to get her pissed, half the time I don't even know why she was so pissed off at me. And a pissed off Sakura-chan hurt as hell.
Sasuke-teme was, I think, the most stuck up person in the whole world. He's conceited about his prowess and, unfortunately for me, he had power and skill to prove it. I hated him, I really did you know, but later I just thought of him as someone I will beat one day. He became the standard that I'm determined to surpass.
That was how we were. We were like this trinity of some sorts. Well at least that's how I saw it. It's like none of us could exist without the other two. To me, Sakura-chan was my comfort and the teme was the one that makes me strive to do my best. We were a trinity and as long as I looked at it like that. We had harmony.
Sakura-chan once told me (this was way after those awesome, cool and really wild genin days) that I was the one that had always held the three of us together and that Sasuke was the one who made us walk forward. When I asked her what she was in our trinity, she said that she didn't know. I told her that she was our pillar, our support, the one that reminded us how important we were. The one that made us realize that even though we were considered outcasts, we were important to her.
And frankly, only her opinion mattered to either of us.
The three of us went through a lot together and here I was thinking that the chuunin exams would've been the hardest trial we have ever faced. No, I think fate decided to give us a harder obstacle. It wanted to test us, to finally determine if we could hold on to the friendship that we had forged over the few months that we had been together. Funny really, first day of being a genin, I only saw Sasuke and Sakura-chan as my playmates, as people that I would have fun with in my training to become the next Hokage. Even before the chuunin exams, it was then I realized, that they went from being my classmates to being the two people I could depend my life on, the two people I would willingly throw my own life to protect.
We weren't just classmates, we were a team and nothing stood in our way.
Of course I wouldn't deny that we became this weird family of some sorts. Sasuke, being the ass that he was, would just shake us off, called us burdens and all that. Sakura-chan always told me that I was a nuisance then after five minutes she would be laughing along with me again. I always tried asking her out, but she just hit me. I always challenge Sasuke but I always lost. Sad really…but, you know, I wouldn't have it any other way.
They were my important people and those really strange ways we did just made it even more memorable.
But then, I should've known that it wouldn't last.
I wasn't really surprised that Sasuke would be the one to break out of our family. I said family because there was not other word that could what we were. So anyway, like I said, it didn't surprise me that Sasuke would be the one to break out he had always had his own agenda. This oh-so-important agenda that Sakura-chan and I didn't deserve to know. Okay, maybe Sakura-chan knew because it was so obvious that, try as he might, Sasuke-teme wouldn't be able to resist finding comfort in her. Sakura-chan was Sakura-chan there's nothing else to it. What had me shocked at the time was Sasuke actually dared to break apart. It was then that I felt practically worthless…I know Sakura-chan did to. The teme leaving made us feel like we were never enough for him, that all those life and death situations (however countless they may be) we had shared as Team Seven were nothing but stepping stones for him. Too small stepping stones, you know what I'm saying, that he had to find and even betray his own village for.
Realizing and letting the fact that he had abandoned us for the sake of his vengeance (I never did believe in the word for I believe in justice) that was way beyond his twelve year old hands hurt like a son of bitch.
I got mad at him at the time. I was thoroughly convinced that he was the smarter one. I really thought that he would use that smart ass brain of his to think logically. But he didn't, he still left. And what hurts the most, the one that really stabbed me on the chest, was when Sakura-chan tearfully asked me to bring him back.
Hurting Sakura-chan was the one thing I would never forgive him for.
I made a promise that fateful day. A promise of a lifetime, that's how Lee called it. I promised her that I would bring him back. It was a stupid spur of the moment promise. I wasn't even sure at the time that I would be able to pull it off. She had told me that he didn't listen to her and that she had tried to stop him the night before. She was the last person to see him leave those gates. She told me that she had tried and now I'm the only one that could bring him back. So I promised I would.
Looking back it now, I feel so foolish. But, what can I say? I was a twelve year old boy back then.
I never would've thought that keeping a promise would've been so hard, you know. It didn't even help that whenever I looked at Sakura-chan, after the teme had left, all I see was sorrow. Sakura-chan was never made to be sad. Everything about her screamed happiness and to see trails of tears down her cheek when I can back beat up and bruised after fighting with Sasuke and losing, it was very hard to watch.
But then she told me that she cried for me. It was at the moment that we decided to let our world revolve around each other. It was that moment that we really called ourselves a family. Nothing was said, of course, we just felt it, deep within ourselves that if we ever had the chance to bring the third piece in our puzzle back we'll have to do it together.
We're Team Seven damn it!
Ironically enough we ended up separated after that. At first I thought it was wrong, that we should stick together and to become stronger together. But we ended going different ways, I went with Ero-sennin, (Jiraiya if you really want to know his real name) and Sakura-chan asked for the tutelage of Tsunade-no-baachan, the current Hokage.
It never truly struck me until I was in the middle of my first year in Ero-sennin's training that Team Seven would soon to become the Second Sannin. Sasuke, after all, was with Orochimaru, the third Sannin.The gut feeling I had when I was twelve, just out of the academy, that we'll be legends was coming true. And deep inside, it scared the crap out of me.
I fought Sasuke once (or thousands of timesif you counted all those meaningless squabbles we've had) before going under Ero-sennin's teaching. I also saw the Sannins duke it out in epic proportions. That one night just after I mastered the Oodama Rasengan, I was made to think. Will that be us in a few years? Would we be so separated that we'll end fight each other? I sincerely hoped not, even though I still wanted to punch Sasuke's face in due to the stupidest thing he had ever done in his life.
When I met Sakura-chan again, after two and half years of training under Ero-sennin, we had the chance to talk of what we should do…what we could do at the time. She just said to keep moving forward. Keep moving forward while holding on to the beautiful memories we've had in the past. I found new respect for Sakura-chan when she told me that. My boyhood crush on her had all disappeared but in it place was a new found realization that I loved her. She had always given so much but received so little. You know, if you looked at her in the eye in the moment she said that, you'll understand.
We didn't say anything. I never spoke a word and she never whispered a breath. We just knew. Our bond just works that way. I think if Sasuke had been there, he would know too. He would know that we we're not giving up on him. He would realize that whatever wall, whatever obstacle, fate would throw at us, we will reunite Team Seven. I knew that he felt the same way about what we had, you know, because he had lost his family. I knew that we were his second family, that in his heart of hearts Sakura-chan and I were there just like he was in ours.
Sakura-chan and I knew that our path in finding Sasuke again would be hard, but we never thought it would be this treacherous. There were enemies in every road we took. I think that we should've expect it we are shinobi after all. I guess we did like thinking about things in the simplest way possible, it was easier that way, no hurting chests afterwards.
We fought all kinds of enemies (I knew Sasuke was fighting too) for what had strived for all our lives. We had fought for what he believed in and what was in our hearts. And without knowing it, we fought for each other. It's hard to explain, I was never really good in putting all my whirling thoughts into articulate words, Sakura-chan was the one good in that. So I won't even try. Let's just say that amidst all that had happened and all the suffering we had faced. We had fought for each other. Sakura-chan fought for people's lives in hopes that she should one day fight for both of ours (and she did countless times. I wouldn't be here talking to you right now if she haven't been there to heal me). Sasuke fought to exterminate the evils of this world, even if it meant cloaking himself in darkness. In a way, by doing that, he had fought to protect us. To protect his family, that's how I liked to put it. I, on the other hand, fought for our dreams. I fought to be what I am today and along the way, I think, I dragged both of them with me.
We never did succeed in getting Sasuke into stepping inside the village's walls again. You can say that Sakura-chan and I had failed. Actually we did fail. We failed to recognize the power of free will. We were so into saving Sasuke from himself and more suffering that we forgot the most important thing to a family. We forgot to believe. We forgot to trust him in his own decision.
Sakura-chan and I came into terms of that after years of trying to get the teme back. I was actually pissed at first because the way she said it was like she was ready to give up. After years of blood, sweat and tears spilt I wasn't about to give up. She said that she wasn't giving up, merely letting go.
It was hard to accept but we were mature enough to understand.
And so we believed in Sasuke. Believed in ourselves.
You can say that we had wasted all those time, all that effort, to just look up at the sky and say that I believe in that traitor to make his life worth while. I believe that all of us would pull through and someday look back and laugh at our stupid mistakes.
Truth be told, that's what we did.
Sakura-chan left Konoha soon after we talked about believing. In her letter of goodbye she had said that I should believe in her too. She left to be a wandering Konoha medic, along with Shizune. She would send letters now and then, asking if I'm eating right and what's been happening in the village. One of the last one she had sent to me said she had seen Sasuke, talked to him actually. It was awkward she said, to speak to the leader of the lost nins of Oto. Their talk was brief. He just asked how everything was, and was surprised that she wasn't married to me or something like that. From the looks of her letter, their talk went through amiably.
What surprised me was when she said that they had gone their separate ways later that day.
I guess it can't be helped. We, after all, are completely different people now. Sakura-chan said that she was content in seeing a half-smile in Sasuke's face when they talked. It's not much, but it was something. I would've felt the same way if I was in her shoes at that time.
Well, I have to say that our journey is far from over. We still have lots of battles to be fought and kami knows how much blood comes along with that. We are shinobi after all.
And we are Team Seven.
It's hard to believe that it was so many years ago that we had first met each other. It hard to comprehend how, in such a short span of time, we had forged a special bond that holds until now. I knew that Sakura-chan's conversation with Sasuke wasn't completely made of words. I like to believe that we all have connections. I like to believe that those life and death situations we had faced together, as Team Seven, had forged it between us.
And nothing can break it apart.
I know that now, even if we're apart, we're still family. We had merely gone our separate ways and followed our own paths. I believe that as I look at the setting sun gracing my face with warmth at the moment, they're watching too. And as they do, they could hear our laughter and our pain. They could feel the warmth we had all shared through all the smiles, bickering and squabbles we had and the suffering we had faced to reach out to one another.
I know for someone like you, who I would think never had to fight and put your life on the line for the two friends you would give up the world to protect, what I'm saying right now it hard to understand. But believe me, it's actually quite simple. We had accepted who we are during our genin days. It took us years to realize what we are.
Like what Sakura-chan had said, in our trinity, each of us played an important role. Sasuke was the one that pulled us forward, in his own enigmatic way. He was the one we followed, the one we chased after. The one that we had became strong for. He was the reason we strived to our limits.
He was the reason we cared.
Sakura-chan was the one that mediated in our squabbles. She was the one that maintained her head and thought when we couldn't. She was the one the comforted us when no one was there. She was the one the carried us on her shoulders.
She was the reason we protected.
Sakura-chan has said that I was the thread that had woven the three of us together, along with so many others. I wanted to disagree but she insisted, really hard to say no when Haruno Sakura insisted. She said that I unconsciously pull people in.
And that I was the reason we're connected.
Looking back at it now, it's hard to believe that we're alive, that we're still shinobi. It's hard to believe that we're Sannin, that we're the most powerful shinobi in this continent. But I guess it was all in due time. Yes we have fought against each other quite a few times but that's alright because I know that we may have different paths but those paths would only lead to the same finish line. Until we reach that finish line, we believe, we trust and we endure.
We, after all, are Team Seven.
Now, after all this talking, it made me hungry. I'm going to grab a bowl in Ichiraku. I still have a mission in a few hours. Ja! Thanks for listening by the way! Good luck on your article!
It's so easy to befriend a person
We are all social beings
All it takes to get a companion is ask for their name
And find out if you have anything common.
It then just takes off from there…
A friend is a different matter
For you are connected to them in another way
More intimate, trusting
That it hurts when something bad happens
But add faith and belief to the equation
And you'll have something much more than a mere friend
You have a family
We never really had anything in common
We barely see eye to eye sometimes
We were hardly intimate with one another's feelings
And trust was something that was hard to give
But we believed
We strived
We conquered our fears
And we're not afraid to face the future
Because we're shinobi
We're Sannin
We're Team Seven
What'd you think? I did try my best the capture the way Naruto would talk about his team. It was kinda hard but please let me know if I did well in your reviews!