Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I wish I did, though. That would be awesome, to be able to draw like Kishimoto-sensei… sigh…
--
"Grandpa! Grandpa! Tell us a story, grandpa!" Four little children were pulling on an old man's trousers as he read a book in the den. He was sitting in his oldest and favorite chair, and there was a comforting fire lit in the hearth. The children were all dressed in their warmest clothes and had on thick, woolen stockings to help shelter them from the biting chill of the cabin.
"Grandpa, tell us a story! Please?!" the children continued to pester the man, who was trying (and failing) to ignore them.
"Grandpa!!" they shouted.
"Hmm?" he said, looking up from the pages as if he had just noticed them. "Well, what do we have here? What do you young terrors want? Can't you see I'm trying to read? Go bother your grandmother and leave me be." Despite his harsh words, the kindness was plainly evident in the old man's voice as he scolded them.
"But, grandpa! Grandma can't tell any good stories!" one of the little boys insisted.
"Sure she can."
"Not like you do, grandpa." a little girl tried to flatter him.
"Huh … I suppose you have a point there."
"Just one story?" the other little boy begged, with a pleading look in his eyes.
The old man looked thoughtful. "If I tell you a story, do you promise to calm down a little?"
"Yes, yes, we do!" the first boy promised enthusiastically.
"We'll be like little angels." The last little girl said in her most charming voice, and she swirled the hem of her dress around her legs.
"Well…" he left off his sentence halfway.
"Well…?" the children all asked.
"Alright." The old man said with a smile.
"HOORAY!!" the children all shouted. They began to jump up and down while cheering, "A story! A story! We're gonna hear a story!!"
"Whoa, whoa, wait just a minute, now! I can't tell a story with all of this hooting and hollering!" the man said in an attempt to control the children. Almost immediately they all sat down, in order to thwart the threat to their story-time.
"All settled down now?" the man inquired, to the response of vigorous nodding. "Okay. Now for that story. It all started on a hot spring day, a long time ago…"
--
The sun was bright and shining. The birds were twittering away. The clouds were slowly rolling across the morning sky in the breeze.
And three ninja were on their way to the forest training area.
The first was a tall, dark, handsome young man. His raven-colored hair shone in the sun, and his piercing onyx eyes roved across the landscape around him and his two companions. A small drop of sweat ran down his neck and over a small, black curse mark on his shoulder to continue down his back. Underneath his dark blue shirt he was boiling, but he didn't show it. Uchiha Sasuke rarely showed any emotion.
The second was a young kunoichi. Her short pink hair was tied off of her forehead with her hitai-ate, and her bright green eyes sparkled as she stared at Sasuke. Her red jumper flapped around her blue shorts as she tried to keep up with the Uchiha heir's long pace. She often daydreamed of having a romantic dinner with him, sitting beneath the candle light and sipping on the finest wine…
"Oof!" she cried out as she tripped on a rock in the path. Sasuke looked back at her.
"Are you always this clumsy?"
So much for that dream, she thought.
"Hey, Sakura-chan, are you okay?!" The young shinobi's voice behind her was filled with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
She looked back at him. The man was her age, 16, and a fellow chunin. Dressed in his usual loud orange jumpsuit, he leaned down and offered his hand. She stared at his boyish face, the three distinct whisker-marks on each cheek, his cerulean eyes, and his spiky, unkept blonde hair. Everyone in Konohagakure recognized his face, and the trouble that came along with it.
His name was Uzumaki Naruto!!
--
The ninja were walking while they ate lunch. Naruto began to unzip his jacket while he led the way.
"Man, it's hot! And would you guys hurry up back there!?" he yelled over his shoulder.
"Naruto, we're meeting Kakashi. No matter when we show up, he'll still be late." Sasuke remarked.
"Yeah, Naruto, Sasuke's right! We're not in any rush." Sakura told him.
"Doesn't mean we have to let the snails pass us up! Hey look, there's one now…" he stared at the little slug on the path as it slithered by.
"Shut up, Naruto." Sakura was beginning to get irritated.
Ignoring her, he asked, "What did Kakashi want to see us for anyway?"
"Said he wanted us to meet somebody…" Sasuke mumbled.
--
In a small clearing nearby, a young girl was practicing her aim. Several targets were set up around her, and she was deep in concentration. She stared straight ahead as she prepared to throw. The muscles in her arms bulged as her grip tightened around the handle of her kunai. And just before she threw – she heard footsteps.
Approximately 35 meters east/northeast … two men – no, three – no, two, one's a woman … walking slowly … and coming this way! Oh, shit – I have to get ready!!
The girl's mind raced as she hastily began to gather all of her training equipment. The sound of the footsteps grew closer as she finished packing away the targets and feverishly began setting traps for whoever was approaching. As she finally disguised all signs of even walking through the area (let alone having weapons practice), the footsteps nearly upon her and the voices of the ninja clearly audible, she finally was able to escape into the cover of the branches above her.
And through the trees came – who else? Cell Seven.
"I'm telling you, I could beat the Chidori!!" Naruto was shouting angrily.
"And I'm telling you that the Chidori cuts through anything!! That includes whatever lame technique you can possibly think up, you drop-out failure!!" Sasuke shot back.
"WHAT'D YOU JUST CALL ME!?" Naruto was just about an inch away from killing Sasuke right then and there.
"Would both of you knock it off!?" Sakura was not in the mood for another Naruto vs. Sasuke death-match, thank you, not after what happened the last time they fought. The building and repair costs still made her shiver.
"Not until Lord of the Emo over there takes it BACK!!" Naruto jabbed his finger in Sasuke's direction.
"Why? Too scared of the truth?!"
"I said, KNOCK IT OFF!! We are NINJA, so start acting like it!!" Sakura yelled again, to no avail.
"I'll take you on right here –" Sasuke began, only to be cut short by the sharp point of a kunai. The only thing that saved his head from being skewered was his lightning-reflexes – he felt the breeze as he whipped his head back and the knife instead went harmlessly past his nose.
"What the hell –" Naruto was interrupted as well as dozens more rained down upon the unexpecting ninja.
"Tsk, tsk – fighting with your own teammates. I thought only schoolchildren did that. Shame on you! You call yourselves ninja?" a voice above them scolded them as if they were just that – schoolchildren.
"What about you?! Why don't you come out and face us like a man instead of hiding in the trees like a coward?!" Naruto shouted back.
"Because fortunately, I'm not a man." The young kunoichi jumped down from the trees.
Sasuke looked mildly surprised, Sakura looked shocked, and Naruto looked absolutely dumbfounded. His jaw was hanging open, and he had not the will to close it.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" the kunoichi asked coolly. She was calmly twirling a kunai on her finger. Her eyes were closed and a smile hovered on her lips. She obviously thought that the shinobi in front of her did not present a threat. She had long, golden-brown hair, and her skin was so tan it looked like she had to have been from another country (although, they couldn't be sure – she wore no hitai-ate). She was wearing a dark blue fitted t-shirt and long, kakhi cargo-shorts, in which she stored several kunai and scrolls. Her sandals were different, too – instead of the normal blue, opened toe variety, hers were more like flip-flops in the sense that they had a thong between the first and second toe. The soles were also unique – there wasn't any sole at all in the bridge of the foot, only under the ball and heel. She was younger than all of the others by at least a year, and she wasn't very tall, but the way she stood there – she actually had he audacity to just stand there like that, and not even look at them – it was really pissing Sasuke off.
"Just who do you think you are to be lecturing us? Don't you have any respect for authority?!" he questioned her.
The girl looked thoughtful. "Hmm … can't say that I do." she stated with a shrug.
"Well, it's about time someone taught you some manners!!" Naruto interjected. He swiftly bent down to pull a kunai out of the ground, and started walking toward her.
"No." Sasuke thrust his hand out in front of his teammate, halting his advance. "This one's all mine." He smirked as he took the kunai from Naruto's hand. The battle was about to begin.
"Sharingan!!" he shouted. Suddenly, his eyes went from their former piercing onyx to a threatening blood-red hue. He had activated his kekkei genkai.
"An Uchiha, huh? Well," the girl opened her eyes, "this should be fun!"
For a moment, all of them, even Sasuke, were taken by surprise.
"Her eyes … is she a Hyuga?" Naruto asked.
"No, even Hyuga eyes have a silvery color, but hers are sheer white!!" Sakura's voice shook slightly as she answered. She wasn't even looking at him when she said it. She was just staring into those eyes – the eyes of the young girl before them.
"She's right. I'm no Hyuga. Those are the ones with the Byakugan – the all-seeing eye. But I'm afraid my eyes aren't all-seeing. In fact, I can't even see at all." She told them.
"You're blind?" Sasuke asked. He deactivated his Sharingan. All thoughts of fighting were temporarily banished from his mind, replaced by curiosity. "And yet, you are a ninja? How?" his voice, once loud, was now as soft as one trying to coax a small kitten out of its hiding place.
"Fight me, and maybe you'll find out." she replied, none too politely.
"Humph … I'm not going to fight a blind little girl." He said, tossing the kunai in his hand down at her feet. "I believe this is yours." Sasuke turned and began walking away.
"Why not?" the kunoichi asked. Unlike before, when her voice was calm, taunting them, now it sounded as if he had disappointed her -- like a child who is promised, but never receives, candy. Her smile had now disappeared, replaced by a slight frown.
"You can't see, while I can see better then anyone here. Also, out of the four of us, you are the shortest, while I am the tallest, naturally making me stronger than you, and probably faster, as well. And let's not forget that I was the top rookie genin in my class, as well as the current top rookie chunin. You are obviously foreign, so I don't know what kind of training or education you have, but I've dealt with a lot of foreigners before, and I know all the main techniques of each shinobi village as well as how to counter them. So, in almost every way, whether it be strength, speed, rank, jutsu –" at this point, he had turned around and jabbed her in the forehead, "– or eyesight, I have the upper hand. It's a certain victory in my favor. I would be shaming my honor as both a ninja and an Uchiha if I took advantage of you like that." Smirking, he once again turned away, and began walking over toward the rest of his team to where he had dropped his backpack.
"Your honor as a ninja?" she tried to keep her voice calm, but it was evident that Sasuke had struck a nerve. "How about this? I, Ichino Rosuto, challenge you, the Uchiha, on the honor of my nindo!" She spat out the word Uchiha as though it were poison on her lips.
Sasuke looked back at her.
"Now, to uphold your honor as a ninja and an Uchiha, you must accept my challenge, or become a coward in the face of your teammates!"
"Fine." He said calmly. "And by the way, my name is Uchiha Sasuke."
Naruto frowned as he whispered to Sakura. "What the fuck is going on here? I mean, one minute, she's all cool and stuff while Sasuke's pissed off, she tells us she's blind, and now the tables have turned! Who the hell is this chick, anyway?!"
"Well, obviously her name is Rosuto, she just said that! Weren't you listening?!"
"Uhh … maybe?"
"BAKA!" Sakura promptly smacked him upside the head.
"Yeah, yeah, what I meant was, what's her deal? She's so weird … for instance, how many ninja have you heard of that were blind? And what village is she from? What kind of techniques would she be able to use, being blind and all? And how did she know we were even coming in the first place?"
"Duh! It wasn't exactly hard to hear you two arguing! She's blind, not deaf!!"
"But, Sakura-chan, she must have known at least fifteen minutes in advance in order to be able to set up all of those kunai – she didn't throw them, it was a trap, and we sprung it. Plus, she probably set up more traps than just the one. This whole clearing is probably one death-pit waiting to happen."
"It's like she said before, I heard you." a voice behind them whispered.
The two ninja turned around to see … Rosuto?
"B-but – you were just over –" Naruto began to stutter. They both looked back over to where Sasuke was standing, about twenty feet away. He was too focused on his opponent to notice their whispers. Wait, that can't be right, his opponent is Rosuto!
"Kage Bunshin!!" Naruto suddenly realized that they had just fallen for another trap.
"That's right!" Four more clones stepped out from behind.
They are so screwed, Rosuto thought.
We are so screwed, Sakura thought.
That idiot is so screwed, Naruto thought.
Naruto formed a quick series of katas, then put his hands into the final position, with his index and middle fingers crossing each other and his other fingers and thumbs forming partial fists. He grinned in such a fiendish way that it would make any normal adult cringe in horror.
"You're not the only one here who has a few tricks up their sleeve! KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!"
Got 'em, Rosuto thought.
With a large puff of smoke, Naruto's reinforcements materialized around them, easily outnumbering Rosuto's doppelgangers. The mysterious kunoichi chuckled as most of the clones around her dissipated, leaving only one standing in front of them and one in front of Sasuke (who was still oblivious to what they were doing).
"Let's take this somewhere else, shall we?" Rosuto smirked back at him as she vanished into the forest canopy.
(Meanwhile)
Sasuke stared at his foe. How, how, did she have the nerve to stand here before him, in open defiance?! Most enemies cowered in fear when they heard the name Uchiha.
"You must be either very brave or raving mad." He voiced his thoughts out loud.
"Is there a difference? If a shinobi tries and succeeds, he is brave. If he fails, he is insane. Either way, he is simply a desperate shinobi."
"Heh. Funny kid. But you must be a very desperate shinobi if you wish to challenge me, especially knowing my reputation as an Uchiha."
"Sasuke, right? I've heard about you. The lone survivor of the Uchiha clan. Well, not exactly. Not from what a certain man tells me." She smirked at him.
"Huh?" Sasuke let out a short gasp. She couldn't mean …
"That's right. I've met your brother. And Itachi seems to think very differently than you do, Mr. I'm so much taller and faster and better than you are. In fact, he told me the exact opposite of what you said. He seems to think that you are weak, and you disgrace yourself and all of the Uchiha clan. And from what he told me of your last battle, your attacks aren't exactly as powerful and wide-ranged as you claim them to be."
Sasuke let a low growl escape his throat. Damn that bitch – she's probably known all along what I can do based on what Itachi told her. But the battle she's talking about happened nearly a four years ago, and I've gained a few new skills since then. Sasuke dropped into a fighting stance, and pulled out some shuriken from the holster tied to his right leg.
"You really shouldn't believe everything you hear, you know. You might find that in the end it will only come back to haunt you." His hand was merely a blur as he threw the shuriken straight at her face.
"Chh." she smirked, and suddenly appeared two feet over toward Sasuke's left. "Is that all you can come up with? A few shuriken?"
Temporarily flabbergasted, Sasuke said nothing. How could she have dodged his shuriken? How?!
"Alright, just to make things interesting, why don't we play a little hide-and-seek?" she asked him.
"Huh?" was all he managed to say.
"This is how it works: you go and hide, anywhere you want to within a 50-meter radius, and I try to find you within a minute."
"What's the point in that?"
"Just so I can prove my skills to you. Obviously you think that I can't take care of my self and it's impossible for me to be a good kunoichi, so I'm going to prove you wrong. Your stealth versus my technique. We'll have three rounds, and at the end of the third round, we get down to business and have a good old-fashioned brawl. If I win, you take back everything you said about me and admit that you're not all that simply because you're an Uchiha."
"And if I win … ?"
"I'll do whatever you want."
"Whatever I want, eh? Heh heh heh …" Sasuke licked the edge of his knife. "That does sound interesting."
Perve, she thought.
"I'll give you to the count of ten. One, two …" Sasuke had already taken off at "one". He was hidden well enough by the time she said "five". He didn't put much effort into it; after all, she was blind. Not much she could do seeking-wise if she didn't have anything to seek with.
"… nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!!" she declared cheerfully. She quickly disappeared into the trees off in the other direction.
Sasuke couldn't help letting out a small chuckle. That idiot has no clue what she's doing. She'll probably run smack into a tree!
"Found you!" a voice behind him said happily.
"Whoa!!" Sasuke fell off of the branch he had perched on in surprise.
"Ha ha ha!! Can't even keep your balance, eh? How do you expect to win at this rate?!" she mocked him.
Sasuke merely grunted in reply.
"All right, time for Round Two! And this time, pick a better hiding spot!" she commented. "It's no fun when you make it too easy!"
The kunoichi began to count once again. So strange, she was staring right at him with those unnatural eyes. How did she even have a clue where he was? It just didn't make sense. She couldn't see him or his footsteps on the forest path …
All of the sudden, her words flashed through his mind.
"– Your stealth against my skill –"
That's it! He had the answer!!
--
It was a high-speed chase through the foliage.
Naruto and Sakura could barely keep up with Rosuto as she leaped over branches, around trunks, and through various shrubbery.
The foreign shinobi reached into one of her many pockets and produced several shuriken, which she promptly threw without even pausing to turn around and face them.
"Whoa!!" Naruto exclaimed as he barely managed to dodge her attack. "How'd she do that!?"
"I've already told you, she can hear us! That's how she targets us – when we speak or move, the noise we make lets her know exactly where we are!!" Sakura explained as she tried to dodge several more shuriken. One bit painfully into her left shoulder and she let out a gasp as the wound twinged.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?!" Naruto's usually happy-go-lucky features were now full of concern for his female teammate.
"Yeah, it's not too deep – it only grazed me."
"Okay – will you be able to take care of yourself for a minute?"
"I already told you, it's not that deep!"
"Good!"
Naruto put on a new burst of speed as he caught up to his quarry, leaving Sakura behind. Rosuto sped up as well, until Sakura lost sight of them both. She stopped.
"Oh, well. I'll just bandage this wound then." she mumbled to herself as she pulled a small roll of bandages out of her kunai holster. She hadn't told the total truth to Naruto before – the wound was at least an inch deep, and would require stitches, but she wasn't prepared for that and she didn't want him to worry over her all the time. He got worried even when she tripped and scraped her knee. It was quite annoying, actually. She was a chunin now – she could take care of herself. But a deeper part of her realized that he only worried because he cared, not because he thought she was weak.
Odd, a shuriken wound shouldn't be that deep at all. They aren't heavy enough to cause that much damage, she thought. Sakura looked around until she found one that had hit a tree trunk. Careful not to cut herself on the edges, she pulled it out of the bark and examined it. Suddenly, her face was covered in shock. These weren't regular steel shuriken at all – they were made out of lead. Not only that, but there were traces of something on the edges ...
She dropped the shuriken as her right hand unconsciously leapt to her shoulder. If my hunch is correct, then I need medical treatment, now! she thought as she turned back. But wait – what about Naruto?
Sakura sped off as fast as she could in the direction that Naruto had taken.
--
Rosuto couldn't believe this kid. He had been barely keeping up with her before, but now he was almost completely caught up! What's with him, anyway? I barely hit that chick and he's getting all freaked out about it. Sheesh!
The kunoichi began to run faster as Naruto got closer. They were nearing the forest training grounds now, were Naruto officially became a genin. Once they got there, he would punish her badly for what she did to Sakura! His pink-haired teammate said she was okay, but Naruto knew from that gasp of pain she had let out that it hurt more than Sakura was letting on.
As soon as he caught up with the shinobi in front of him, he would make her pay!!
--
Author's note:
Yeah, so here it is – my first fanfic.
In the story, cell seven are now all chunin, and 16 years old (this fic was started just after the sound-sand joint invasion when Tsunade is appointed Fifth Hokage, so anything after that in the cannon doesn't affect the storyline). Their old teacher, Kakashi-sensei, asked them to meet him at the forest training area where they all became genin. But of course, he's not there yet. Don't worry, though, he'll show up next chapter.
Rosuto is a character that I made up. Her personality is based off my own. I'm not blind, but my vision does suck, big-time. Everything else about our personalities is similar, but her abilities, background, and history are all made up. Obviously.
I came up with the idea for this story after a long conversation with my best friend about what we would be like if we were in the world of Naruto. You might see her character next chapter, or maybe the one after that. I'm not sure yet. But it will be hilarious.
Anyway, back to the story. Sasuke has no idea where the rest of his team is, Sakura might have been poisoned, and Naruto is headed straight for a trap. None of them knows who is fighting the real Rosuto. AND WHERE THE HELL IS KAKASHI DURING ALL THIS? Late, of course.
Please review! If I don't get enough reviews I might quit writing it, and you'll never know the ending! HAHAHA! But in all seriousness, tell me if you enjoyed it.
Now get reviewing!!
