team tēm noun - two or more people working together

synonyms - group, squad, company, party, crew, troupe

antonyms - team 7

"Now my students," Kakashi began, fumbling with the edges of his gloves. "I've been thinking about teamwork, specifically this teams lack of it, and have come to a conclusion,"

The man paused to get a look at his students, who were staring dumbly in his direction. Sasuke held his hands together under his chin and scowled, his eyes narrowing with every passing second. Sakura was sitting cross-legged and playing with the hem of her dress, her eyes occasionally glancing towards the brooding Uchiha. Naruto was sitting with his legs folder underneath him, his hands moving from his lap to the ground up to his face and back again. His eyes darted from one person to the next and by the look on his face, everything he heard was going in one ear and out the other.

"What kinda of conclusion?" Sakura asked, tilting her head to the side. Her overgrown bangs swept into her eyes, making Kakashi cringe. She desperately needed a haircut if she wanted to be taken seriously.

"Well now it wouldn't be fair for me to ruin the surprise," Kakashi eye-smiled, earning three very distraught faces. Naruto tapped his foot, which was seemingly annoying to the other students, but they chose to ignore it.

"When will we know what this...surprise is?" The Uchiha asked, giving Naruto a firm kick to the shin in the process.

"What was that for teme?" The blonde shouted, his hands curling into fists and aiming towards the brunette. But before he could throw a punch, Sakura whacked him upside the head.

"Idiot!" She yelled, hitting him again for good measure. "Don't hurt Sasuke-kun,"

Said boy remained silent.

"And this is why we need this training," Kakashi mumbled. Luckily none of the students overheard him, seeing they were in their own world.

"Guys!" The jōnin yelled, clapping his hands. That brought attention to his students, who turned their heads at the loud noise. Sakura's arm was around Naruto's neck, nearly choking him, while her other was holding onto Sasuke's wrist. Naruto, who's face was become more pale with every coming second, had both arms thrown out at Sasuke. Said boy was trying to shake off Sakura and glaring at Naruto.

"Meet me at our spot tomorrow around seven. And please," He rose, shaking his head as Sakura released the blonde, who then gasped for air and let out a few coughs. "wear something that will be appropriate for a ninja. That goes to all of you,"

Kakashi was wise and shushined away before he could get bombarded by complaints, especially by a certain boy clad in orange, about their clothing being awesome.

Sasuke Uchiha never really considered his clothing to be impractical. He had worn the same style of clothing since he was a small child and it never got in his way, so he figured it must be sensible. But, then again, the fact that he had worn practically the same outfit since he was eight was a sign he was due for a change. After dodging Sakura's attempts to ask him out on a date (could that girl really not take a hint) he trudged in the direction of his house.

Sasuke took his time walking home; his home, his district, as much as he hated to admit, scared him. It may have been four years, but time does not heal all wounds. Only three rooms in his house ever seemed to be used. His bedroom remained int he same spot it had always been in, second door from the hall. Most of the furniture and knick-knacks from his room had never been moved. He still had certificates from the academy hung on his walls and small figurines on his windowsill. The bathroom was still in use, the same soap dish and cup lay next to the sink, and his mothers old basket of perfume laid on top of the toilette. The kitchen was the only bit of the house that had changed, with a new table and a small TV set up on the counter.

The rest of Sasuke's house had been "off limits" for years now. The doors to his brother's and parents rooms had been closed, along with the two guest rooms (which were always reserved for Shisui and his father.) The living and family rooms were full of photographs Sasuke felt he would rather not look at, and his father's study was out of the question. Sometimes, just for a brief moment, Sasuke would step into their old training room, just to glance at the kunai left in the wall from the last time Sasuke had trained with his brother.

Sasuke dug around in his closet, trying to find something to wear for their newest mission. He had always been fond of his white shorts and blue t-shirt, but when he thought about it, they were very useless for holding weapons and other items he may need to keep close at hand during missions. The boy found a tight fitting blue shirt, one that didn't flare out around the neck, and a black cargo vest that had many pockets. After digging around a bit more, Sasuke found that all of his shorts he owned were either just like the pair he was currently wearing, or too small.

It took him three tries, but Sasuke finally built up the courage to walk into his brothers room. Everything was exactly as he remembered; books and scrolls on a shelf above his bed, weapons laid out on his nightstand, his covers crumbled near his floor. Everything in the room screamed Itachi and Sasuke wanted to leave, but he found himself walking to the closet, pulling out various clothing items. Before walking out with three pairs of black ninja pants, Sasuke grabbed one of his brothers old scrolls.

It may just come in handy some day.

Sakura was slightly disappointed to find that out of all the clothes she owned, there was not a single pair of pants. She had skirt after skirt after skirt, and after a half hour of digging around and no luck, she found herself wandering to her living room.

Sakura lived in a nice civilian house consisting of four bedrooms, each of which was occupied by one of her sisters. Her parents were surgeons and worked all day and sometimes into the night, and her sisters worked, meaning she would come home to a quiet house after training. She enjoyed the peace and sometimes just liked laying on the floor in her living room and staring at the ceiling. She didn't think about anything for hours and just lay there, wondering endless 'whys'. Why did she want to be a ninja? Why were her parents so disappointed in her life choices?

Why didn't she own a single pair of pants?

"Sakura-chan," Said girl opened her eyes to the sound of her sister Yui, who was placing her purse and keys on the coffee table. "What are you doing on the floor?"

Sakura giggled and stood up, looking into her sisters warm brown eyes. Yui pulled her hair of of its up-do, long vibrant pink hair cascading down her back. "Long day at work?" She asked, noticing the bags underneath her eldest sisters eyes. Yui nodded, taking a seat on the couch.

"Shou was being a real scumbag, but we managed to get everything done. Luckily I'm off the rest of the week, so I don't have to worry about any more cases," Yui worked in a civilian detective department , and her co-worker Shou was known for being a bit difficult to work with.

"Well I was wondering if maybe you could help me out," Sakura started, looking up at her sister hopefully.

"I'm sorry kiddo, but I need to catch up on sleep. Mom should be home soon, ask her," And with that Yui was off to her bedroom, the door closing behind her.

Sakura found herself preparing dinner, yet again for the remainder of her family, making just enough for her parents if they ended up coming home from work early. After she set the table, the pink-haired girl found herself tying up her hair in different ways. She tried many different styles, before settling with a high ponytail with her bangs left loose, framing her face.

"I'm home!" Came the voice of her sister Aoi from the doorway. Sakura ran to her older sister, who kicked off her shoes and threw her bags down near the stairs, running her fingers through her pastel pink hair that reached her chest. Aoi gave a smile to her baby-sister, but Sakura could tell it was fake.

"Did you cook soba noodles sis?" Aoi asked, taking a deep breath. "I'd love to have some, but a couple girls from the office wanted me to come and have a few drinks with them, so I'm gonna be going,"

Without even saying goodbye, Aoi ruffled her sisters hair and left.

Sakura found herself in Aoi rooms, digging through her clothes before pulling out a pair of white, knee-length shorts. She held them up to her waist and smiled in satisfactory before going through her sisters tops. The girl soon found a red 3/4 sleeve t-shirt with small triangular cuts on the shoulder. She grabbed that along with a white denim vest that contained a good amount of pockets before treading back to her room. Along the way she glanced at the clock - 7:34.

As she laid the clothing on her bed, she hear the sound of the door unlocking. Sakura found herself running to the door, to be greeted by her sister Nanami. Following Nanami in suit was Kaito, her boyfriend.

"Hey kid!" Nanami cried, giving her baby-sister a hug. "Kaito and I just had the most romantic dinner! We're gonna go watch a movie in my room now; he bought me the latest Ai Merashi film. Isn't he sweet?"

Nanami threw her arms around Kaito's neck, giving him a peck on the nose. Her shoulder length rose-colored hair swept over her shoulder, a tiny braid hanging in the front of her face. Sakura watched as her sister retreated upstairs, leaving the twelve-year old to eat dinner alone.

Again.

Naruto found himself lurking outside of his apartment building for the forth time that week, waiting for a certain someone to head home. But the girl was insistent that said boy would show up any time now and continued to wait. Naruto sat around the corner from where the black-haired girl sat, chewing on his thumb, and trying hard not to breath too loudly.

After what seemed like hours, and when Naruto had checked for any sign of her multiple times, the blonde-haired boy stood up and heading to the stairs of the apartment building. He took them up two steps at a time. Unfortunately, he didn't think to look around the corner for any sight of her.

"Hey Naru-chan," The girl said, throwing her arm around Naruto's neck. Her breath reechoed of alcohol and cigarette smoke, making Naruto gag.

"H-hi Aoko," Naruto mumbled, weighed down by the arm draped over his shoulder.

Naruto felt Aoko's nail digging into his neck, scraping his skin. He struggled to get away, but Aoko just held on tighter. The first few times the young-women had dragged Naruto away, he had been to scared to comprehend what was going on. But this time memories of her previous damage rung through his brain, and before Naruto knew what he was doing, he had kicked Aoko, hard, in the shin and ran up the stairs.

He slammed the door of his apartment shut and leaned against it for a good long while, waiting for the screams and Aoko and her attempts to break down his door to die down before moving to turn on his lights.

Only two of the three bulbs on his ceiling worked, and those were both very dim. This left Naruto having to squint in order to find his way to the table and sink. He took out a cup and held it under the faucet, to find that the water pressure was very low and he only managed to fill half his cup before it ran out. Guzzling the water down in a single gulp, Naruto opened his fridge, only to find that it was no longer cool.

Damn electric bills, he thought. The Sandaime had ceased giving him "allowance" as soon as he made genin, but seemed to have forgotten how awful d-rank missions paid. Naruto look inside his near-empty fridge and pulled out the cheese, milk and eggs, knowing they were beyond spoiled by now. The only think left in his fridge was a few apples and a half-eaten loaf of bread. Deciding that he wasn't all that hungry (and wouldn't be until he had enough money to afford food), Naruto headed to his closet at the opposite end of his apartment.

Naruto apartment consisted of a large rectangular room, a table, sink, stove and fridge on on side, and a bed and bookshelf on the other. There was a couch seated in the middle of the room, facing the window, and there were two doors next to it. One led to a bathroom, the other a closet.

Naruto looked around his closet, finding a pair of old cargo pants that used to fit him (he used that term very loosely; they looked about five years old) and a few old shirts he used to sleep in.

Sighing in defeat, the blonde laid down on his bed, already planning out the stupid speech he would give his sensei about how much he loved the orange jump-suit he wore.

He would do anything to avoid talking about his current living situation.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto or any recognizable characters.

A/N: I wrote this purely because I love team 7 but really wish that their relationship could have been given more time to grow. I saw the FMA episode and was kinda inspired.

xoxo,

Cinna