X-Training ground 3-Team 7 meeting area-X

After getting to the bridge, where Team 7 met, at 6:56am, Naruto walked over to the nearest tree and jumped up to a branch about 3/4 the way up. After settling on a wide branch, he fell asleep almost immediately. At exactly 6:00am, Sasuke walked onto the bridge with Sakura trailing after him and chattering nonstop.Sasuke ignored her as usual and went to lean on the bridge railing to await their sensei, who was probably going to be 3 hours late. Again. After about 30 minutes of waiting, there was a poof of smoke. The smoke cleared to reveal their silver-haired sensei holding the ever-so-famous orange Icha Icha Paradise book.

"Yo!" was his casual reply to his students suspicious glares."Hmm? Where's Naruto?"

"I think I have a clue to how to find him. Just shut up, be quiet, and listen."Sasuke replied to his question. So they did just that. After about a minute, they heard a light snoring sound.Sasuke turned his head about 16 degrees to the right and he heard the sound louder to his left. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction he heard the sound the loudest. He looked at a tree. Then he looked up and saw a blonde color that only Byakugan could see besides his and Kakashi's Sharingan, but Kakashi wasn't even looking. He was reading his book again.

'Found him.' Sasuke thought to himself. He walked over to the tree and started gathering chakra in his leg.

"Sasuke-kun, what are you doing? You're supposed to be looking for Naruto, too." Sakura shouted to him(he was about 6 meters away)

Sasuke just looked at her, backed up 3 steps, and kicked the tree so that it shook very hard. A small "eep" was heard, then a few crashes and falling branches came from the tree. Suddenly, Naruto came falling down, and looked like he was going to land on his back but he twisted in

mid-air and landed on all fours, much like a cat.

"What the fuck was that for, Teme?!" Naruto screamed at Sasuke from his crouching position. He stood up and brushed himself off.(Some branches and bark had fallen ontop of him) You could see a bruise already starting to form on his upper arm from a branch he hit on the way down.

"I woke your ass up, dobe.What's with the outfit? You're usually wearing neon orange."Sasuke responded.'Crap. He got hurt. I really hate it when he has wounds on his body.'Sasuke thought to himself.

" sigh Baa-chan bought me some new clothes, saying I looked a lot better in dark colors like blue,red,white,black,and purple. She cleaned out my old clothes and replaced them with ones like these even though I don't give a damn about what I look like. She did by me some clothes with orange on them, mostly the Uzumaki spiral, just to make me stop complaining.sigh...I seem to be sighing alot today. Kami-sama, i'm overworked." He explained. He glanced at the rest of his team. '...Oh fuck it. I'm too stressed. I need a cigaret.Now.'

Sasuke watched as Naruto pulled something out of one of his many pockets. He had been thinking about what Naruto meant about being overworked when he finally realized what Naruto had just put in his mouth and lit. He was about to ask him what the hell he was doing, but Kakashi beat him to the punch.

"Uh, Naruto, when did you start smoking?"Kakashi asked.

Naruto took a drag before taking it out of his mouth and answering."Kakai-sensei, you remember that time you were teaching Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme to water walk and told me to sit out and meditate?" He asked.

"Yes. About a month and a half ago." Kakashi replied.

Naruto took another drag."I was tired of you treating me like I was too worthless to teach, so I hung out with Asuma and Shikamaru. I found out that I can learn alot more from them than I thought. I learned strategies and how to play shogi from Shika. I learned more about my element affiliment and how to relieve stress other than destroying a training ground or bloodying the first person to get near enough to me. I see why Asuma-san smokes now. Hell, I even destroyed their asses in poker. Shika's pretty good for a first-timer." Naruto said.

"You're a damn good player yourself. I still haven't got over the fact you beat me at last year's tournament. I'll have to figure out how you did that, too."Kakashi stated.

"Hahahahaha! You can't say I cheated. I don't cheat and poker is about 2 part tactical, 3 part luck, and 5 part guts."Naruto managed to say through his laughter at the memory of Kakashi's face when he beat him and won 1st place."The look on your face when I won was priceless! I still have a copy of the tape of our match, too!Hahahahahahaheeheehaha!" Naruto collapsed on the ground, holding his stomach and laughing his ass off.(Yaoigirl94The poor cigaret has fallen into the river.)

After about 15 minutes Naruto finally calmed down enough to listen to what their Sensei had for them today. "Okay, we will be meeting with Teams 8 and 10 will be sparring with them today. But we will sparr a bit here first.Sakura, with me, and Naruto with Sasuke." Kakashi said. He expected to hear Naruto complain about the lack of missions recently. What he did not expect was what came out of Naruto's mouth.

"Kakai-sensei, can I sparr with you or Sakura instead? When I sparr with Sasuke-teme, he uses a lot of Katon jutsus that are dificult for me to dodge at my current speed. I get hit by most of the jutsus on my legs and arms, as well as my back. Im not fast enough to dodge most of them yet. But that's not what's worrying me. I can heal myself pretty much like Kabuto can, except I have no limit like he does. But there is a wound that I can't heal like cuts and bruises. I can't heal burns. I still have some of the burns that I got from Sasuke at the Valley of the End, and that was almost 5 months ago." Naruto revealed to them.

"You didn't say anything because WHY, usuratonkachi?" Sasuke asked the blond, showing no emotion on the outside, but inside he was ashamed of himself that he didn't ask him about why he was moving slower.

"Because of two reasons, teme. Reason 1: I've been getting Baa-chan to heal them for me but we've been really busy with paperwork and I didn't want to put more stress on her. Shizune-neechan has also been busy at the hospital. Reason 2: None of you would give a damn if I did tell you. Kakashi, you would just tell me to sit out training and go see Baa-chan when you get done with Sakura and Sasuke. Sasuke, you wouldn't care because you only care about yourself, getting power, and killing your brother even though I think what Itachi did might have been because the Uchiha's were planning to overthrow the old man, or that they were planning to kill you cause your father thought you were worthless and a hindrance to Itachi. Sakura, I wouldn't DARE come to you, because I know that you would just make my wounds worse because your stupid obsession with 'Your' Sasuke even though he's NOT yours and very obviously does not like you, makes you think that i'm getting in between you. Sakura, your the one member of this team that needs to really learn teamwork. At least Sasuke makes an effort and actualy works with me. Sakura-chan, you better get yourself in gear, because brains aren't everything. If you don't get over your obsession with boys and your obsessive rivalry with Ino, your going to die a lot younger than you could ever imagine. Now, I believe the meeting for the Rookie 9 is at noon, so in the meantime, i'm going to help out Iruka-tou-san at the Academy. Think about what you have learned about me today.Oh, and Sasuke? I'm being trained by the Godaime to become the Rokudaime. The council has given their consent after I dragged your ass back from your attempted betrayal. See ya!" Naruto gave them a fox grin and walked towards the Academy.

The other three were all thinking the same thing: 'How did I not notice something was obviously wrong with his happy-go-lucky attitude?'

Owari!...TBC