I Will Always Be By Your Side Chapter 1: Dare, a naruto fanfic

Title: Men do not back down from challenges

Summary: Naruto is an idiot. Kiba and Lee are fools. Sasuke is even worse for actually joining them.

Rating: T

Prompt: Dare

Warning(s): Silliness

Notes: Short. To be expanded. Team 7 Genin days inspired by ep 101

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to its owners.

-S-

"As punishment, the Rookie Nine and Team Gai will not be allowed to leave the village for the rest of the season. They will be carrying out D-rank missions and helping out at the Academy in addition to their own genin training." Shizune read out from a scroll, a pitying look on her face. "Sorry kids."

-S-

The previous day:

"Come on. You guys are so boring, " Naruto whined, stomping his feet on the ground.

"Dobe, shut up and leave us alone, " said Sasuke as he continued pulling out weeds in some elderly's garden.

Beside him, Sakura had already given up. She simply sat in the shade of a nearby tree, her eyelids becoming heavier and heavier. Sasuke was sure she would fall asleep soon.

Naruto had walked over to Sakura and reached an arm out, intending to wake Sakura up. Sasuke had caught his wrist before he could.

"She's exhausted. Let her rest." Wow. Sasuke really was fast. He was sure Sasuke had been at least twenty feet away with his back turned. Did the Sharingan work like a pair of eyes in the back of Sasuke's head?

"Kakashi-sensei isn't here. Let's go ask baa-chan for missions." Naruto pleaded.

"Go by yourself. Last time we disobeyed orders, we got stuck running laps for two whole weeks." Sasuke countered. To be honest, it wasn't completely pointless. The challenge had tremendously improved his stamina. Kakashi had even taught him ways to conserve his energy when carrying cargo and traveling long distances. The "cargo" had been a blushing Sakura on his back and he did his best to ignore how tightly she had held on to him.

And with that, Naruto had stalked off to find allies.

-S-

Lee had eagerly accepted to accompany him on his youthful journey. And Kiba had been bored. Ino and Chouji had been curious. Shikamaru was forced to join. Hinata wanted to take any opportunity to be close to Naruto of course. Shino had decided to join his teammates. Neji had to keep Hinata safe. Tenten had tagged along for fun.

Naruto had returned to recruit Sakura and Sasuke only to find them both asleep, leaning against each other on the tree Sakura had been sleeping under when he left.

Naruto took it as the perfect opportunity to play a prank on Sasuke, having never caught him asleep. Sasuke always woke up earlier than them on missions.

He gestured to the others to keep quiet as he pulled out a pen to draw on Sasuke's face.

He slowly, carefully, inched the marker closer to Sasuke's face. Right as the marker tip almost touched his cheek, the marker was yanked out of his hand. Then his arms were tied behind his back, with Sasuke's foot resting on the middle of his back.

"Idiot." Sasuke declared before he released Naruto and went back to his spot beside Sakura. He made the clone disappear and caught Sakura's head as she slumped down. Sasuke pulled on her arms and supported her body as he made her stand.

"I DARE YOU. Teme, I didn't know you were a coward." Naruto had taunted.

"I accept! Men do not back down from challenges." Lee spoke up.

"Sakura, I know you're awake, " he whispered into her ear. Sakura had immediately tensed and then shyly separated from his hold.

"Sakura-chan! Let's go ask Tsunade-sama to send us on missions. It's not fair that we're all stuck here in the village." Naruto protested.

"Can't believe it, but I agree with the idiot."

"You're an idiot too, Kiba."

"Hey, Blondie, take that back!" he retorted, turning towards Ino.

"Please, let's not fight. We must unite for our cause!" Lee had spoken up, trying to break up the argument.

The rest just shook their heads and watched the free entertainment.

They all looked up when Sakura had started running after Sasuke's retreating form.

"Where are you going, Sasuke-kun?" They heard Sakura ask as they all followed him.

"Looking for Kakashi."

"Hey, is it true that your sensei is really ugly?" Tented had quipped.

"Don't tell me you actually believe Gai-sensei" Neji said.

"That does make sense though. He's always wearing a mask. There must be something wrong with his face." Chouji spoke up.

"Then, let's find out." Surprisingly, it was the usually silent Shino.

Everyone stared at him until Hinata shyly broke the tension with a quiet, "I agree with Naruto-kun."

"So, what are we doing? Asking for missions or looking for the weird sensei?" Tenten inquired.

"Hey, wait! This was all my idea. TEME stop taking credit for my dare!" Naruto's protests fell on deaf ears.

"I'm going with Sasuke-kun!" Sakura and Ino had said simultaneously. Sakura had quickly jumped onto Sasuke's back and Sasuke had caught her automatically, his body remembering the two weeks of running around the forests with Sakura on his back.

"Get off, Sakura." He paused and allowed Sakura to jump down, but she remained latched onto his arm.

"Let's look for him and then make him take us on a mission since the other sensei are busy." Shikamaru thought aloud. "But I don't feel like making plans for you guys. I'll just watch. I'm tired."

And so Rookie Nine and Team Gai ran around the village, making up odd schemes to catch Kakashi, take off his mask, and blackmail him into getting them a mission.

And that was how they ended up in the Hokage building. They made a ruckus outside one of the meeting doors, and out stepped some foreign dignitaries. They all stood there frozen. Tsunade was giving them the evil eye.

"I will deal with you tomorrow." She said simply, then went back to escorting the foreign dignitaries out. Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai followed them out, staring at their students.

Well, at least now they knew why their teachers were busy. One mystery solved.

And they did end up getting missions.

-S-

"Sasuke-teme! This was all your fault!"

"Hey, Dobe, wasn't this all your idea? Your dare? Don't blame me."

-S-

A/N: That didn't turn out so great… I lost my first draft, the longer version and I just hurried to finish this in time for SSM.

notesII: To be honest, I wanted to write some SasuSaku fluff.