Hope
Shuriken thudded dully into tree trunks, causing several leaves to fall from their places. In the center of the clearing Naruto crouched, panting and glaring at the shuriken that missed their mark. Tied to a particular tree was a dummy in a blue shirt with pointed bangs and spiked, black hair. Not a single scratch was placed on the dummy.
Cursing, Naruto grabbed up several kunai and flung them sharply and angrily at the dummy. His breath caught as he thought one hit the dummy straight in the head, but on closer inspection the kunai had missed by just a few inches, not even severing a lock of hair. A deep growl left the boy as he stomped over to the dummy tied helplessly to it's spot.
After pulling the kunai from the tree he put it to the dummy's throat. An image of Sakura came to mind, crying and asking for the safe return of her dear friend. And he promised…the promise of a lifetime that he would come home…that everything would be okay.
That there would still be a team seven.
A shaking hand held the kunai as steady as possible against the cloth before falling to his side once more. Glaring the hell out of the dummy, Naruto backed up to his previous spot and aimed for a different spot than before. Taking time and poising himself perfectly, the kunai hit just above the pointed spikes of the dummy and embedded deeply into the wood. A grin erupted on Naruto's tired face just before he started yelling and jumping around in happiness at his success.
…
Such a late night…so late…so much booze…so many girls…too much booze…not enough girls…. Just after ralphing behind some tree of other, or maybe it was a trash can…or a mailbox…or some person on the street…Jiraiya finally made it back to their campsite at a very late, very too-late-to-be-alive hour. Due to poor Naruto being depressed still about Sasuke and his non-ability with training, Jiraiya had taken it upon himself to go out and bring the boy some sake. But…where had the sake gone? It wasn't in his hand…or…in his pocket…maybe someone stole it from him…yeah, that was it.
Upon entering the clearing, he expected to hear cursing or yelling or crying or something. But there was nothing. Just the normal sounds of the night. It seemed that Naruto had gotten tired enough to pass out sitting against a tree. Across the clearing, opposite of Naruto was a dummy tied to a tree, a dummy that looked distinctly like a certain ex-member of team seven. The dummy itself was completely unmarred, but at it's every edge nearly touching it were kunai and shuriken.
To say the least, Jiraiya was disappointed, and a little worried. Sasuke was a traitor to the Leaf Village and Naruto was supposed to hate him for that. But this proved there was still a part of Naruto, if just a small part that still believed Sasuke could be retrieved. The poor boy was living in daydream. But the kid's heart was just too pure to ever hate Sasuke, or any evil doer. He supposed he would have to deal with that and stop trying to force Naruto to hate. As long as he had hope…maybe Naruto actually would be able to change Sasuke. There was always hope. So instead of slapping the boy awake, Jiraiya patted him on the head for being so pure of heart and promptly passed out by his own tree.
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A/N I'm pretty sure that's how you spell Jiraiya…. That's what it says in the manga I have anyway. :P Been so long since I even read Naruto. I've been out of the fandom for so long. Anyway, this is supposed to be inspirational and stuff, since I've been writing pretty drab, sad things. This is such a short oneshot, I am almost ashamed. Ah well. Just sold some of my artwork for the first time today, so I'm excited, thus a happy fic for once. :) Hope you've enjoyed this rare occurrence. Please review so that there will be more happy fics :3 it will also make Naruto happy ~^-^~