Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it! Actually, I don't know of a country that doesn't ... Anyways!
Big thanks to my Beta: Itooshii Koneko!
Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors! I searched high and low for them, several times, so hopefully there aren't any.
I hope you guys enjoy!
At five in the morning at one of the Hidden Leaf's various training grounds, two of the three members of Team Kakashi were walking towards their meeting point: the three logs in front of the Memorial of Hero's. One of them was Sakura, who looked half asleep as she stumbled while rubbing her eyes. The other was Sasuke, who had a cold glare on his face as he walked.
"Morning, Sasuke-kun," she yawned, holding both arms above her head as she stretched.
He didn't answer, instead he looked around several times, "Where's Naruto?"
"Naruto?" Sakura furiously tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes as she looked around for the blonde. "Looks like she's not here yet."
His expression got harsher at the thought of her being late and risking failure for the rest of them, but he said nothing.
In the absolute darkness, the two preteens waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.
The sun was high in the sky and they were still waiting. Sakura looked ready to punch someone's lights out as she sat on the ground, and Sasuke was impatiently pacing back and forth.
"Yo," Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves, looking as aloof and carefree as ever.
"You're late!" Sakura angrily stood up and pointed at him.
"Well, you see a black cat crossed my path this morning. I had to take the long way around…" he seemed to be smiling sheepishly behind his mask while running his right hand through his already-messy hair.
"Liar," the pinkette huffed and crossed her arms, while Sasuke just stared.
"Are we ready to begin?" the jōnin asked, taking off his backpack and setting it down.
"Naruto's not here," the Uchiha announced.
"She's obviously irresponsible and doesn't deserve to be a ninja. Right, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura grinned and looked over to her love, but he completely ignored her.
"Hm?" Kakashi looked around for a minute before stopping to his right. "Naruto, you didn't let them know you were here?"
To this, the two pre-genins whipped their heads to where Kakashi was looking. Lounging in a tree was none other than Naruto herself. Sporting the loud orange jump suit, her hair was back in pigtails except for the shorter rogue strands that framed her face. The Hidden Leaf headband was tied around her forehead, but was practically covered up by her locks.
She jumped over to them and answered, "I can't help it if they suck at observing their general surroundings."
"No need to be so harsh," Sakura mumbled, while Sasuke continued to observe.
"Let's get started. For your test … Hm? Naruto, what're you doing?" Kakashi stopped mid-explanation as he watched Jiraiya's student pull a kunai knife out of her weapons pouch.
"Oh, I'm going to stab myself," she answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Why would you do that?!" Sakura was appalled as she watched her, her right hand guiding the kunai closer to her left palm.
"You're not the real Naruto, are you?" Kakashi sighed.
"Not the real Naruto?" the other kunoichi stared over the Naruto before her, not understanding what her Sensei was talking about.
"You're a Shadow Clone," Sasuke stated.
"Bingo," she nodded and shoved the knife through her left hand. The moment it happened, the Naruto burst into a puff of smoke.
"She's a clever girl," Kakashi mumbled while watching the remains of the Shadow Clone disperse. A moment later, Naruto appeared eating cup ramen.
"That took a while," she slurped some noodles into her mouth, watching her assigned jōnin and two teammates stare at her.
"You sent a Shadow Clone in your place? On top of that you're eating, which I said not to do," Kakashi crossed his arms and watched her finish off the rest of her meal.
"I thought I'd scope the situation out first," she shrugged, holding the cup upside down and letting the last drops of soup fall into her mouth. "Glad I did, looks like you have time issues. Also, I'm not so afraid of throwing up that I would skip a meal. Especially before a mission."
As soon as the words left her mouth, you could see the realization hit Sasuke and Sakura like they had been smacked into a mountain side.
"Kakashi-sensei, I don't understand though. Why would Naruto send a Shadow Clone in her place? Why did it stab itself?" Sakura asked.
"I don't expect you two to know much about it … Basically when a Shadow Clone is destroyed, all the experiences of that clone are transferred back to the original. I assume she sent it in her place so she herself wouldn't have to show up early, with the orders that when we were about to begin to pop itself. The only way a Shadow Clone pops though is if it gets damaged, for instance stabbed. Once it stabbed itself, the original Naruto regained its memories and showed up. Shadow Clones are mainly used for infiltration, but they're also good for a number of other things," he explained.
"Wait," Sakura accusingly peered at Naruto, "how do we know you're the real one?"
Naruto brought her right hand up to her mouth, put her thumb between her canine teeth, and bit down, "Shadow Clones don't bleed," she answered, holding her hand out as blood freely dripped from her thumb.
"Are you a masochist or something?! You seem to have no problems with hurting yourself!" the pink-haired kunoichi nearly screamed.
"I've been through worse," was the blonde's response.
"Ok, ok, that's enough," Kakashi intervened, "We're going to get started now, this is how it's going to go," he set an alarm clock down on the middle trunk and pressed the button on top. "You have until noon," he pulled two bells off his belt, "to get these bells away from me. Those who fail go back to the Academy."
"But Sensei, there are only two bells!" Sakura interjected.
"Excellent observation! It means a maximum of two will become real genins. So one of you could pass, two could, or even none. Those who get a bell get to have lunch, and those who don't will be tied to a trunk while the others eat. If all three fail, I'll tie you all up and eat right in front of you."
"So that's why you didn't want us to eat," Sasuke monotoned, now regretting his decision of listening to Kakashi.
"It was part of the lesson. While on real missions you might have to go for days without food, but you still have to complete your assignment. The opposite is also true too, you can't be so concerned with how your body looks that you'll forsake a meal," he particularly glared at Sakura with that last statement. "Now," he jingled the bells and put them back on his belt, "let's get started, come at me with the intent to kill. Don't worry, none of you will be able to inflict any real damage on me. Ready, set, start!" and the three of them scattered.
Kakashi pulled a book out of his weapons pouch and started to read it, casually tracking Sakura and Sasuke's movements, but frowned when he couldn't sense Naruto anywhere.
Sasuke split apart from the rest of the group and hid up in a tree, concealing his chakra and slowing his breath.
'How am I going to catch a jōnin off guard? I need to hurry up and get one of those bells, that idiotic Sensei was so late it's only about an hour and a half until noon,' he scowled, trying to form attack plans as he observed Kakashi. 'It's going to be hard on an empty stomach,' his stomach violently demanded food.
'I have fifteen kunai and thirty shuriken on me … If I can get away without being detected I can lure him into a trap and use one of my fire jutsus. It seems like the best idea at the moment to – wait. Is … Is he reading a porn book?!' his eyes widened when Team Seven's leader pulled out an orange book covered with hearts and a huge cancel sign on the front. 'Is he even taking this test seriously?!'
He wanted to groan at the frustration this goof of a jōnin was bringing him, but that would mean getting spotted by said jōnin. Sasuke was careful in his getaway, running off to set up a few traps and lure in the perverted bell holder.
'Safe!' Sakura had successfully hidden herself under a bush, peaking out at her surroundings. From the angle, she could only see Kakashi reading some sort of book. 'Is that …? Kakashi-sensei, you're a disgrace to women everywhere! Cha!' she was fuming, but didn't risk voicing her opinions. At the same moment, Kakashi coincidentally sneezed.
'That doesn't matter now, I can scold Sensei later! I should go looking for Sasuke-kun and team up with him! I can't believe I listened to that thing about breakfast, I didn't even eat dinner last night!' she made a quick escape and started to look for Sasuke, all the while pulling leaves out of her long hair and trying to ignore her body's request for a meal.
After thirty minutes of silence, and standing in the brutally hot sun, Kakashi started to stroll around while continuing to read.
'This chakra … I'm getting close to Sasuke,' when he looked up a few moments later, he saw him. "Yo, Sasuke. Fancy meeting you here," Kakashi greeted him, never taking his eye off his book.
"Fight me seriously, Kakashi-sensei. Put the book away," he demanded.
"I want to know what happens next," was his answer, causing a tick mark to form on Sasuke's brow. The pre-genin threw a kunai knife behind him, which cut through a rope. A large log came hurling at Kakashi, but he simply jumped over it and landed back on his feet.
"Not bad," he noted.
Seconds later, half of Sasuke's shuriken were flying at him from behind and the rest were coming from the front.
"Oh?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, and jumped high into the air to avoid them all.
'There!' Sasuke started to weave hand signs, and feeling the change in his chakra caused Kakashi to stop reading mid-air and look at him.
'Those signs … No way, he shouldn't be able to perform that jutsu,' he put his book away, as if to protect it and its precious contents, and paid full attention to the boy in front of him.
'Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu,' Sasuke circled his lips with his fingers and blew fire. It took the shape of a massive fire ball that was heading straight for Kakashi.
'He purposely got me in the air so I wouldn't be able to move, that's good planning. He's probably has capabilities of at least a chūnin depending on his taijutsu skills.'
Sasuke watched the fire ball engulf his Sensei, and wasn't surprised when there was no sign of him in the air.
'Where is he? To the left? Right? Above?' he frantically searched for him, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand grab his left ankle.
"I'm where you least expect me," came from underground. "Earth Style: Head Hunter Jutsu!" the next moment, Sasuke was reduced to being only a head.
"Nice try, Sa-su-ke-kun," his 'decapitator' was kneeling in front of him and patted his head.
"Hn," Sasuke was pissed because a) he was trapped, and b) this jōnin wasn't taking him seriously at all.
"If you see Naruto, send her my way. I'm off to mess with Sakura," Kakashi waved to him as he walked away with one hand, in the other was his book.
'Damn it! I should've tried taijutsu first … Wait, he said to send Naruto his way. Does that mean he doesn't know where she is?'
'Got to find Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, where're you?! Don't tell me … did Kakashi-sensei get you?! No, please, no!' Sakura was running wildly throughout the training grounds, her sole focus was to find the love of her, and many other girl's, lives.
"Sa – Sakura," came a weak voice, and she abruptly stopped. Looking to her right, she saw a kunai and shuriken skewered Sasuke.
Never, in any of The Leaf's history, was a scream heard so loud and so wide-spread.
"Sakura, you were at the top of your class with Sasuke, I was hoping you'd be able to see through a simple genjutsu," Kakashi sighed as he watched her from his spot up in a tree. The 'dying' Uchiha dissolved into mist and now he had no clue what to do. Sasuke wasn't going to be mobile for a while, Sakura looked like her soul left her body, and he had absolutely no idea where Naruto was.
"I guess I'll just hang out then …" he mumbled to himself, leaving a dead-looking Sakura behind. He didn't bother to read his book, instead he focused on finding Naruto because now it was really getting on his nerves.
"Hmm? What happened?" Sakura yawned and sat up, snapping her legs closed when she realized they were wide open. "Where am – Sasuke-kun!" her head snapped around violently when she remembered the events leading to her unconsciousness, looking for a body covered in weapons. "Sasuke-kun! Don't leave me here all alone!" she cried out, running in random directions looking for him.
"Sakura?" a voice sounded to the left of her, after she ran around for a while, and when she looked down a head sticking out of the ground.
"Sasuke-kun's body-less head is speaking!" she screamed, before passing out again.
He raised an eyebrow at this, but then focused on getting free.
"Oi, wake up! Sakura, wake up!" Sasuke finally managed to free himself from that stupid jutsu, after at least an hour of trying, and now he was trying to wake the girl that had feinted a while ago.
"Sasuke-kun?" she mumbled, opening her eyes and seeing none other than the owner of that name right in her face. "Sasuke-kun!" she swooned when she realized she was in his arms.
"Get up," his words sounded like ice, but at this point he was furious and almost out of time.
"Are you going after Kakashi-sensei again?" she pulled herself up, Sasuke had let go of her the moment he ordered her to get up.
"I engaged him in ninjutsu first, but I haven't tried taijutsu yet. I'm going, whether you follow me or not," he was about to run off, but stopped when Sakura called out to him.
"Sasuke-kun, it's basically already noon," she looked up to the sun, which was nearing the center of the sky. "Let's just give up, alright? We can't beat him, he's too strong. We'll just go back to the Academy together and try again next year, ok?"
"I can't afford to wait any longer!" he snapped at her, looking back slightly. "He's so strong … He was much stronger than me, even when he was my age. I can't wait another year, I'm not going back to the Academy!" he ran off.
Sakura followed him without a second thought, 'Is he talking about Kakashi-sensei?'
They found Kakashi reading by the three logs. Sasuke instructed Sakura to keep quiet, as he snuck up on him from his blind side.
"Have either one of you seen Naruto?" Kakashi asked, not taking his eye off his book, and his attacker froze.
"Naruto? No, I haven't …" Sakura answered.
"It's not just me then, alright," he stood up and put his book away, turning to the boy who failed in his ambush-attempt. "You want to try once more, Sasuke?"
Kakashi was answered with a kick to his face, which he easily blocked. Sasuke's other leg swung around too, but he stopped that as well. A punch was directed as his jaw, but Kakashi leaned back to avoid it. When he did, he saw the smirk form on his attacker's face. The raven reached with one of his free hands and lightly touched a bell, causing it to jingle, but the next moment greeted him with his face being slammed into the ground.
"Oh, that was close. You managed to touch a bell," a weight was on his back, and Sasuke could only assume that Kakashi was sitting on him with his hands restrained and one of his feet on his head.
"What did you do?" Sasuke growled out. He was so close, so close to getting a bell, then the next moment Kakashi had him unable to move.
"It's not important, it's in the past," Kakashi brushed him off, then glanced around the area. "I still don't like that I can't sense Naruto."
"Hey, don't step on Sasuke-kun like that! Who gives you the right?!" Sakura charged at him with a kunai knife, but Kakashi's free leg flung her against one of the outer logs.
"I give myself the right, actually," he picked Sasuke up by the collar and dropped him against the log furthest away from Sakura. Using metal wire and rope, he tied up the boy before the girl. "Comfortable?" he asked.
"Hn," Sasuke looked away, obsessing over how he lost.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. I couldn't save you," Sakura sounded depressed, and Kakashi let out an extremely frustrated sigh.
"I have so many things I want to yell at you, but I don't want to repeat myself to Naruto later. Stay put, I'm going to –"
"Hey," Naruto suddenly appeared, sitting on top of the middle log, looking as bored as ever.
"Where've you been?" Sakura looked up at her.
"Around," she shrugged.
"Naruto, did you leave and come back?" Kakashi's one visible eye was scrutinizing her.
"No, I just happen to be an expert in concealing myself," she brought her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them.
"Well, I don't think I have to point out the obvious … You three fail, horribly. Back to the Academy you go! Bye, nice knowing you," the jōnin started to walk away, deciding that giving them a lecture would be pointless.
"Don't walk away! I demand a rematch, I'm not going back to that Academy!" Sasuke screamed out, surprising everyone because his actions completely contrasted his usual cool-and-collected demeanor.
"Oh, you really think you can beat me all by yourself? I'll admit you're skilled, since you touched a bell, but you're a thousand years too early to defeat me on your own," Kakashi turned around and waited to see his response.
"I don't need either of those two, they'll just weigh me down," he proclaimed.
"There lies your problem."
"What do you mean?" Sakura, considering she was 100% on Team-Sasuke, agreed with what he said.
"Did any one of you happen to think about why exactly you're on a team of three?"
No one answered.
"Sasuke," Kakashi's cold attitude was back. "You think so highly of yourself, that you don't need any help. Well guess what, that's not how it works. You're assigned to missions in squads to split the work evenly, everyone has their own strengths. You'll never get stronger unless you learn to rely on others. Sakura," he continued, "your one sole focus this whole time was finding Sasuke, and you even fell into a genjutsu because of it. Love doesn't have a place on missions, remember that," he growled. "Did even one of you think to search for Naruto? Out of all three of you, she's probably the only one who has a chance of winning against me alone. Think about it, she's been trained by Jiraiya-sama since her birth, but alas she decided to disappear.
"Naruto," his gaze was enough to turn a boulder into dust, "I'm most disappointed in you. You were trained by Jiraiya-sama, so I thought you would be able to figure this one out. In addition to that, you just vanished. You left your comrades alone while they were struggling. In the shinobi world, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum," he was practically spitting the words out, wrath licking his tone.
"They weren't in mortal danger," Naruto defended herself. "If you actually killed one of them, you'd be marked as a criminal, so I highly doubt that –"
"That doesn't matter!" Kakashi snapped. "You have the strength and power to help them, yet you refused. In real mission situations, Sasuke's head would've been cut off and Sakura would've been dead the moment she fell for that genjutsu. You're not cocky like Sasuke, but the fact that you refused to get involved infuriates me."
"I'm sorry," she mumbled looking off to the side, feeling eerily similar to when Jiraiya would seriously scold her. "It's teamwork, right?"
"Exactly. Your teamwork is the worst I've ever seen, it's not even existent. That's why you three fail," at the last syllable, even the wind around them became still.
"One more time," Sasuke broke the silence, his head downcast. "Let all three of us try, one more time."
"Why exactly should I do that?" Kakashi crossed his arms, carefully watching them.
"You're a Leaf shinobi as well. If you turn your back on us because we made a mistake, then you'll just contradict yourself."
Kakashi's eye widened, then relaxed, "Alright," he walked back over to the memorial where the lunches were. "I'm going to take this and enjoy it," he picked up a box. "If anyone touches that other lunch, or if Naruto unties either Sasuke or Sakura, all three of you will be disqualified. I'll see you in an hour or so for your second chance," he explained, then vanished in a puff of smoke.
After a pregnant pause, "Naruto, why didn't you try to get a bell?" Sakura was curious, but was also trying to make conversation to pass the time.
"Personally, I don't really care."
"Why is that?"
The blonde shrugged, "Why do you love Sasuke so much?" she glanced down to Sakura, only to see her bright red and speechless. "See, it's something you can't really answer."
"It seems like it's deeper than that though," Sakura was still a violent shade of red, but kept looking up at Naruto. The other kunoichi was still in the same position, knees to her chest with her arms wrapped around them and her head resting on top, staring into the distance with eyes that just looked so … lonely. Her pigtails blew slightly with the breeze, and Sakura couldn't help but feel a heavy sadness penetrate heart when she caught a slight glance of those cerulean irises.
"Think whatever you want," Naruto looked away, but caught Sasuke staring at her with his icy obsidian's. "What?"
"Nothing," he looked off to the side, away from the two females, trying to ignore the feeling that he and Naruto were similar somehow. 'It's the same loneliness,' echoed throughout his mind.
"What…" Naruto started, which was a first for her to start a conversation, "What made you two want to become ninja? Why is it so important to you?"
Both were silent before, "I don't really know," Sakura confessed. "My parents enrolled me in the Academy, so I never really thought too much about it."
"What about you?" she looked over to Sasuke.
"I've already said it once, I don't need to repeat myself."
"That thing about wanting to kill a certain man? Revenge, huh?" she glanced up, squinting slightly from the sun. "What do you think is going to happen when you kill him? Do you think that it'll make you feel better?"
"That's none of your damn business," he was looking away, but his rage boiled in the words.
"I've seen many people fall to revenge, Sasuke. It's not pretty," she contemplated whether to continue or not, considering she wasn't used to this sort of thing – talking to people other than her guardian that is – but Kakashi's words stirred something inside of her and she found herself opening up ever so slightly, "In my twelve years with Pevy Sage, I've seen many people come after him. Every single one was hell-bent on revenge because he killed someone dear to them. He's a shinobi – a Sannin, killing enemies is inevitable, but he's not the kind of guy who likes to take lives. Each person tried to kill him with every cell of their body. They had no other purpose. They had nothing. They sacrificed everything, detached themselves from everything. Revenge had consumed them, down to the very last speck of their soul, and it's so very sad to watch someone do that to their self. It's an endless cycle of pain and hatred."
Sasuke didn't respond, but Naruto could guess that he was still thinking along the lines of, 'It's none of your damn business.'
"We all have our demons, our pasts that haunts us," she hopped off the log and walked towards the last lunch. "That doesn't mean that it defines us. Being able to move forward from it probably shows more strength than letting it become a plague that devours you," she picked it up and sat down between Sasuke and Sakura, facing them. Sakura was staring at her intently, Sasuke was glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, and both were speechless at the words coming out of the girl that seemed so closed off. "I didn't have a choice in becoming a ninja, so I don't really know the answer to the question I asked you. I want to protect the village, to become the Hokage, I know that," she unwrapped the lunch and opened it up, revealing rice, vegetables, and meat, "but that seems like a really shitty reason by itself. Maybe it falls along the lines of protecting the people who are close to me, but I only have three of those, and they're more than capable of protecting themselves.
"If I told you that I desperately want to break the cycle of pain and hatred, you'd probably call me crazy," it was Jiraiya's life mission – a prophecy that was bestowed upon him as a child – and having heard so much about it during her upbringing, she had decided to take the quest upon herself as well, "So, the question is: Do I chase after that impossible quest? Do I fight to protect the village I've barely lived in?" that treated her worse than dirt, that her parents sacrificed their lives to save, but they didn't need to know that, "Or do I fall to my own darkness?" she separated the two wooden chopsticks, picked up a clump of rice, and leaned over to Sakura. "Here, eat."
"But Kakashi-sensei said –"
"Don't worry about it. How're you supposed to fight on an empty stomach?" she pushed the rice closer to Sakura's mouth, and plopped it in when she opened it slightly.
"Thanks," Sakura spoke with her mouth full.
"Here's some for oh-so-serious too," Naruto did the same for Sasuke, who reluctantly let her feed him.
'Wait … that's an indirect kiss!' Sakura nearly passed out at the thought, but tried not to let her excitement show. "Why did you tell us all of that?" she asked, attempting to calm herself. Naruto had been very distant, just as much as Sasuke, since the beginning. She disappeared during the test, showed back up when they lost, and proceeded to spout words of wisdom that you'd expect from someone much older than twelve years old for no apparent reason.
"A ninja's reasons for wanting to fight defines them, it's different from their ninja way though. I guess it's my crappy attempt to try and get to know you two better. Kakashi-sensei said that we had to use teamwork; how are we supposed to work as a team if we hardly know each other?"
An explosion of smoke shook the ground behind them, revealing a very angry looking Kakashi, "You three!" he looked like he could make armies of elite ninja run away with that stare. "You pass," his overflowing rage quickly turned into something as lethal as a newborn puppy.
"What?" the pinkette looked extremely confused, while Sasuke looked on in interest. Naruto stood up and tuned around, waiting for the jōnin to speak.
"Getting to know each other, that's a start to teamwork."
"I thought we were going to have to fight you?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"I wanted to see if you would at least make an attempt to work together, and you did, but all of you need at least a hundred more years of experience with your teamwork to take me on," he yawned. "We'll meet at seven in the morning tomorrow," he looked at all their faces, which were practically saying 'For what?', "Your first real mission. Don't be late!" he disappeared after that.
"Like he's one to talk," Sakura grumbled, still remembering her and Sasuke waiting for hours on end that morning.
Naruto set the lunch down on top of the middle log and untied the other two, Sakura before Sasuke.
"You guys can share the rest of the lunch, I'll see you tomorrow," she started to walk off, feeling too lazy to use the Transportation Jutsu, but stopped when she heard someone running up behind her. Turning around she saw Sakura with Sasuke slowly following behind. "Something wrong?"
"I just wanted to say thanks," she bowed deeply. "Without you we would've gone back to the Academy. I know it doesn't mean much to you, since you have Jiraiya-sama, but for Sasuke-kun and I … Just, thank you!"
"Uhh, please don't bow like that 'dattebayo," her verbal tic slipped out, something that happened when she was nervous, worked up, or something similar.
"I mean it though!" Sakura stood upright and her jade eyes stared at Naruto with an intensity that she never knew existed. "Thank you!"
"It's fine, really," Naruto was slightly blushing from all the praise as she self-consciously rubbed the back of her neck, her eyes not quite sure what to focus on. She accidentally met Sasuke's gaze and he gave her a nod. Considering what Naruto knew of his personality … that was his way of expressing gratitude.
"Do you want to walk home together?" Sakura asked, and Naruto's eyes widened.
"O-Oh, um ok," she nodded, getting flustered that someone other than Jiraiya was taking an interest in her. It didn't go unnoticed by the other two that she was slowly starting to loosen up.
"Coming, Sasuke-kun?" even though he refused her invitation yesterday, Sakura tried again in hopes that Naruto's speech and Kakashi's lecture about teamwork would maybe convince him otherwise.
"Hn," it wasn't a direct response, but he trailed behind the two as Sakura tried to talk to Naruto about hair products. Seems like something changed his mind after all.
From a distance, Kakashi watched the three of them walk off, a slight smile hidden beneath his mask.
Jiraiya appeared behind him, nonchalantly leaning against a tree, "She's only talked to me about that kind of stuff. It was most likely that speech that you gave them, she probably felt like the failure of the other two was her fault and wanted to try and make up for it. I don't blame her frankly, I've talked to her a lot about the importance of team work … but I didn't expect her to open herself up like that."
"I didn't expect her to disappear for the test," Kakashi countered.
"That's why I hung around, to make sure she didn't make a complete break for it. She was here, but like she said, she's an expert in concealing herself. Looks like those two might be able to crack that hard exterior of hers though," the Sannin couldn't look happier as he watched Sakura attempt to talk to Naruto.
"She doesn't act like that around you though, does she?"
"No. If you saw her when we're alone, you'd think she's a totally different person."
"Does it have something to do with what happened back –"
"Kakashi," he abruptly stopped him, "I'd rather not relive that," he winced, the memories he tried so hard to bury were creeping back up.
"Sorry," stepping back from the line that Jiraiya drew, he tried again, "So, what exactly have you been teaching her all these years? I couldn't sense her anywhere."
"Now, where's the fun if I tell you that?" the so called 'Pervy Sage' stuck his tongue out at him, and Kakashi rolled his eyes at his child-like behavior.
Please leave a review, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Just a side note: Although listed as "Naruto" instead of "Naruko", this Naruto is female! Naruko is a fandom-made name, but I prefer to use Naruto. I have her listed in the characters as Naruko so it's easier for femNaruto fans to find, but that's it!
Hope you're all doing well! See you next chapter :D