Bonds of Brothers
Chapter 2: A Price Too Much
By Saphireshade
It rained in Konoha on the day of Sakura's funeral. To Naruto, it was fitting, just like when it snowed in the Wave country at Haku's funeral. More people showed up to the funeral than Naruto thought.
Their entire graduating class showed up.
Sakura's mother had a strong dislike for Naruto, but it wasn't because of the Kyuubi. In fact, when Kakashi told her and Sakura's father that it was Naruto who had reduced Haku to the brink of death, both of the Haruno's lost all hatred towards Naruto. Now only annoyance was there.
Very few words were said before Sakura's body was buried. With the funeral over, the guest split up until it was only Team 7, Sakura's parents, and Ino.
"Ja ne, Sakura," Kakashi said as he turned and walked away, leaving only five to stand in the rain.
"See yah, forehead," Ino whispered, holding back sobs before she left with Sakura's parents.
No one knows how long Sasuke and Naruto stood at her grave before they went home. But the rain didn't let up, until each was well away from the grave.
Sakura's tombstone read:
Here lies Haruno Sakura. Died at age 12 on a C-rank mission turned A-rank.
She is forever the Hero of the Wave, and a great friend.
She was a member of Squad Seven led by Hatake Kakashi, along with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.
R.I.P.
Sasuke swore as he entered the Uchiha's old meeting room. He lifted up the mat and descended the stairs to the hidden library. Without think he grabbed all the scrolls from the Katon and Fuuton sections that he could and left the house. It was going to be a long night…
Naruto went home and grabbed all the training scrolls he had. As dawn broke the sky, he and Sasuke were found by several ANBU passed out, all their scrolls lying next to them. Ten feet from them lay a large crater, still smoking in the cool morning air…
The morning that was two days after Sakura's funeral, Kakashi appeared at training ground 7 to look over the K.I.A. memorial stone. He was startled to find Naruto and Sasuke training… together.
"What are you two doing?" he asked.
"Working on a jutsu!" Sasuke called out and preformed at set of hand seals. "Katon: Karyu Endan!"
Kakashi's eyes widened at the complete jutsu that Sasuke conjured up.
Then Naruto made a set of handseals. "Fuuton: Sakura no Ken!"
Kakashi was now stretching his mask out as his mouth was hanging open. Naruto had created a wind sword using cherry blossom leaves.
"Almost got it," Sasuke smiled. "Now, we just need to add a blast of chakra, that's similar to the Kayru Endan!"
"I know!" Naruto shouted. "Copied the sword yet?"
"Yeah. Fuuton: Sakura no Ken!" Sasuke shouted and the sword appeared. He threw it up into the air before making the seals for the Kayru Endan but stopped before the Tora seal. He let out a burst of chakra at the sword. As soon as the chakra hit, it surrounded the Sakura leaves and pushed them forward. The sword exploded and the cherry blossoms sliced through a nearby tree like it was nothing. "Fuuton: Kayru Sakure no Jutsu!"
By this time Kakashi was on the ground twitching.
The next few weeks passed with a few D-rank missions and a lot of training. Team 7 had all perfected the Fuuton: Kayru Sakura no Jutsu, and each were working on expanding it in their own way. Sasuke could now perform the jutsu just like and fire jutsu. Naruto made exploding Sakura shadow clones. And Kakashi had even tried the jutsu with his Raikiri. The result had left him in the hospital for minor chakra depletion and many, many cuts. Many.
Kakashi looked up as the Team walked back from a D-rank mission, the infamous cat named Tora in Sasuke's arms. A hawk flew over head and dropped a feather down in front of Kakashi. The shinobi caught it and sighed.
"Okay, you have the rest of the day off once you return Tora to the tower. I've got a Jounin's meating that I have to go to," without waiting, Kakashi shunshined to the jounin meeting place.
Kakashi stood at the front of a large room along with the small group of rookie sensei. Behind him stood other jounin, and before them all stood the Sandaime Hokage.
"I have called you here to talk about the upcoming chuunin exams, and to find out who will be entering the exams. Will the rookie sensei please start. Yuhi Kurenai?"
A dark haired woman with red eyes stepped foreward. "I nominate, Genin squad 8: Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba to participate in the chuunin exams."
"Next?"
A dark haired man with a cigarette stepped forward. "I, Sarutobi Asuma, nominate Genin squad 10: Nara Shikamaru, Akamichi Chouji, and Yamanak Ino to participate in the Chuunin exams."
All of the other jounin were whisper now.
"Kakashi-san?"
Kakashi stepped forward. "I, Hatake Kakashi, nominate Genin squad 7: Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke to participate in the Chuunin exams."
"Hang on!" a voice yelled from the back of the room and Iruka appeared out of the crowd.
"Yes, Iruka?" the Hokage asked.
"Hokage-sama, I beg you not to let the rookies participate in the exams. They are fresh genin who have just graduated. They aren't ready for the troubles of the exam."
"Iruka," Kakashi warned. "They are our students now. Not yours. They've grown so much more than they did under you. So with respect, back off!"
"Iruka, if they think their students are ready, then they are ready."
"But, Hokage-sama… what about Team 7, they have two remaining members!"
"Two can still compete," the Sandaime said taking a puff from his pipe.
Naruto was quietly walking towards Ichiruka's, avoiding most of the villagers, when he heard a scream of pain that was very familiar.
"Now what did you do, Konohamaru?" Naruto sighed. He rounded a corner to see Konohamaru being help up by a Sand genin with three puppets on his back. "Oi! Let him go!"
The boy sneered. "Another brat."
A girl appeared next to the boy and smacked him on the head. "Drop him, Kankuro. He'll be angry."
"Shut up, Temari. Do you see him here now?" Kankuro asked and brought his fist back. Suddenly a rock slammed into Kankuro's face and he stumbled back, dropping the small boy.
"Don't hog all the fun, dobe," Sasuke said jumping down from a nearby tree. He turned to glare at Kankuro and Temari. "Why are Suna shinobi in our village?"
"Are you retarded?" Kankuro yelled out but was ignored. Temari stepped forward and smirked.
"Chuunin exams."
"Oh! I forgot about those!" Naruto said.
"How could you forget?" Temari asked, laughing.
"We… had a lot of things happen," Sasuke said darkly.
As the Uchiha continued talking to the Suna nin, Naruto noticed a brown haired genin with a large gourd on his back land on the tree. The blond tensed as the genin looked at him with cold, dead eyes.
"Sasuke! Jump!"
Without a second thought Sasuke jumped back away from a wave of sand that appeared right where he had been standing.
"Kono! Run!" Naruto shouted as he pulled out a kunai in one hand and a weapons scroll in the other. Sasuke was already in a basic taijutsu stance, his sharingan activated.
"G-gaara!" Kankuro stuttered as the genin appeared before the two sand nin in a swirl of sand.
"Shut up, Kankuro. You and Temari leave here unless you want to die," Gaara said, his voice was low, and cold. And extremely large amount of killing intent slammed into Naruto and Sasuke. The two didn't even flinch. "Mother wants your blood!"
Sand clawed at Naruto and Sasuke's ankles, trapping them. Suddenly Naruto disappeared in a puff of cherry blossoms and Sasuke broke free of the sand as the cherry blossoms cut his ankles free. Sasuke landed next to Naruto on the side of a roof. A wall of sand rose around the sand genin and charged towards squad seven.
"Taiju Kage Kunai no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted out as Sasuke threw ten kunai with exploding tags tied to them. Those ten became one hundred and the explosions kept the sand at bay. "Go, Sasuke!"
The Uchiha used his Sharingan to dodge the snad and explosions and attack Gaara. He kicked Gaara up into the air then appeared behind him. His fist went straight though Gaara's body and it exploded into sand.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out making Naruto's favorite seal. A copy of Sasuke kicked him towards Naruto just before sand crushed it. Sasuke landed on the roof, panting. Kage Bunshin wasn't his jutsu.
"I say we run," Naruto said.
Reason overpowered surprise and pride as Sasuke nodded. "Yeah."
"Raiton: Lightning Shots!"
Sasuke and Naruto froze as shots of lightning crashed into a wall of sand that had almost killed them. They drew their weapons when a girl with long blond hair and a cloud headband landed behind them.
"Gaara, it seems your thirst for blood hasn't changed," the girl said. Her eyes were the same as Gaara's but brown instead of green.
"Yugito," Gaara looked at the girl with pure hatred. "Move or die! Mother demands their blood!"
Yugito smirked. "We can't kill them, you know that. Nor can you kill me, just as I cannot kill you."
Suddenly Gaara's left eye changed to gold. "Move or die, Nibi!"
"Make me!" Yugito's voice had become demonic as violet chakra swirled around her. "Ichibi-chan!"
Naruto twitched at the name's of the first two Bijuu of power.
By now Temari and Kankuro had bolted leaving Naruto and Sasuke standing between to blood thirsty Jinchuuriki. Suddenly twelve ANBU appeared, three around each nin.
"Nii Yugito and Sabaku no Gaara, you two are ordered to stand down or die," an ANBU with a tiger mask yelled and the demonic chakra vanished from the air. Both Jinchuuriki twitched as they found they couldn't re-grasp their demons chakra.
"One…"
Yugito turned and left/
"Two…"
Gaara shunshined away with his sand.
Naruto and Sasuke sighed and fell to the tile of the roof. "Arigatou, Tora-san."
The tiger ANBU nodded. "Uzumaki Naruto, may I speak with you in private?"
"Hai," Naruto said and jumped away with the ANBU.
Sasuke eyed the other eleven ANBU. "So… any good missions lately?"
"…"
Sasuke sighed and jumped down to the street. "Could've gotten more out of Shino…"
"Naruto," Tora said. "With two other Jinchuuriki in the village it's possible that the Kyuubi's influence could get stronger. I have been ordered by the Hokage to give you three seals. One for you, one for Gaara, and one for Yugito. Use them only as a last resort."
Naruto lifted one of the seals to his eye. It had the Kanji for seal on it. "Hai. Take care, Tenzou-taichou."
The ANBU smacked Naruto across the back of the head. "It's Tora-san to you!"
The next day Sasuke and Naruto stood before Kakashi. "I'm giving you two permission to participate in the Chuunin exams. Be at the academy by three today. Ja!"
It has begun…A/N:
Woot! That's over. Once again R&R!!
Next Chapter: It's All In The Eyes!