Why is ramen so delicious?-thinking
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu-jutsu
YOU LITTLE BRAT/you little brat- demon speech/Inner Sakura
Singlehandedly
Chapter 3: A Snake and Some Sand
Mitarashi Anko was not a nice woman.
She was infamous throughout Konoha for being Orochimaru's former apprentice. She was ostracized, shunned and treated like trash. Those were probably the reasons for her sadistic behavior in Konoha. She did manage to make friends among her colleagues who respected her as a kunoichi and her best friend was Yuuhi Kurenai. She also had a love for dango as great as Naruto's love for ramen. She had an equal love for the Forest of Death.
That was why she was trying to find the culprit responsible for the disturbances in the Forest of Death and torture him within an inch of his life.
Yep, not a nice woman.
Doesn't mean she can't be impressed.
She tracked the unknown troublemaker through the gate he took. After a little while, she reached a clearing that looked like a fight had just occurred. From what she could see, it was a taijutsu battle, one against a group. But there were no bodies left or signs that the losers had picked themselves up, so the person must have used a cloning jutsu to provide opponents. There was no excess mud or water which only left one option; Shadow Clones.
From her deductions, the perpetrator was at least low jounin.
She pressed on and met the charred remains of what seemed to be some insect-like creatures. Upon close inspection she was that they were scorpions and let out a low whistle.
"This must have been caused by a very powerful katon jutsu."
Then she came across the tigers, lying in a puddle of water.
"Hmm, there are scorch marks on the tigers but only an idiot would use a suiton jutsu followed by a katon...of course, a raiton jutsu."
A ninja capable of using Shadow Clones, Katon, Suiton and Raiton Jutsus...definitely a jounin.
She pressed on a came across signs of another fight with Shadow Clones.
"How much chakra does this ninja have? Is he a freaking reservoir or something?"
Then she tracked the ninja into a clearing where she saw an incinerated bear lying in front of a blond kid in an orange and blue jumpsuit.
"Wait a minute...all that was caused by this brat? Must have fainted from chakra exhaustion."
She moved to pick him up but the boy stirred and sat up, rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken up.
"WTF!"
The brat got up and stretched a bit before finally noticing her.
"For a ninja, you sure are perceptive...not!"
The kid just yawned and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Then he his eyes widened as if he realized something before he turned to look at her.
"Sorry, I've got to go."
He took to the tree branches and ventured further into the forest. Anko was a bit perplexed but she suddenly began to steam.
"I don't care who this brat thinks he is, NO ONE IGNORES ME LIKE THAT!"
She let out an evil grin that promised a lot of pain and disappeared in a flurry of leaves.
Naruto stopped and checked his surroundings. Then he saw what he was looking for, signs of a trap. His shadow clones were still functioning. He stood still, waiting for his clones to make the first move. He was not disappointed.
A log fell from above, intending to crush him. He quickly leaped forward and landed on a concealed net of ninja wire on the ground. The clones released the ends of the wires and they sprung at Naruto, wrapping him tightly...or so they thought.
Naruto burst into a poof of smoke to reveal a log. The clones cursed the inventor of the Kawarimi(1) and began searching for Naruto. None of the clones noticed when the log poofed into smoke to reveal a mouse. It crawled out of the wires and poofed to reveal...Naruto.
Whistling, he rolled up the ninja wire and stored it in his weapons pouch. Then he took the treetops and climbed the highest one. He looked around and saw his clones making another trap. But before they finished a swarm of snakes burst from the ground beneath them and bit each of them. When they dispelled, Naruto received memories of the snakes venom flowing through their systems.
"I am not sticking around for that."
From the treetops he could easily see Konoha.
"Well, the shortest way home would be...as the crow flies...Henge!(2)"
He transformed himself into a crow. He flapped his wings and flew into the air, towards his favorite stop; Ichiraku's ramen.
From her position, Anko cursed loudly. This kid was escaping via a strange transformation and, unless she wanted to kill him, she couldn't try anything.
"We had better not meet again gaki, you might not be so lucky."
She disappeared in a shunshin.
Naruto dispelled his transformation a few blocks from Ichiraku's and continued his journey on foot, fantasizing all the way to his stand.
"First, two bowls of miso followed by three bowls of beef then...HEY!"
A small boy in a yellow shirt, blue shorts, a gray skull cap and a scarf too long for him had run right into Naruto.
"Where is the fire, Konohamaru?"
Konohamaru looked scared out of his wits.
"It's that girl with the huge forehead on your team! She was bad mouthing you to her friend and when I defended you, she attacked me!"
Naruto hid Konohamaru behind him as Sakura stomped around the corner, rage burning in her eyes.
"Naruto." she said in a voice that promised pain. "Hand him over."
"First calm down, then we can talk about this...preferably over a bowl of ramen."
"Naruto, hand him over or you will endure his punishment."
"He is just a kid Sakura. You can't get riled up over this."
Then from behind him, he heard a cry of pain. He turned around to see Konohamaru sitting on the ground rubbing his face and two ninjas standing in front of him. One was a girl in a battle dress and fishnet tights and the other was a boy dressed in a black catsuit. The girl carried a large battle-fan and the boy carried a bandage-wrapped bundle. They both wore the hitai-ite of Suna.
"Watch were you're going squirt, that hurt." said the boy.
He grabbed Konohamaru's shirt and lifted him off the ground.
"HEY, PUT HIM DOWN!" yelled Naruto.
The suna-nin merely smirked.
"Make me."
The suna kunoichi looked around nervously.
"Come on, Kankuro. Put him down and let's get out of here. He might get angry."
"Don't worry, Temari.", Kankuro replied. "I'm just going to teach the brat a lesson."
He rose his fist to punch Konohamaru.
"THAT'S IT!" yelled Naruto.
He charged Kankuro with his fist cocked back. Kankuro narrowed his eyes and twitched his fingers. Suddenly Naruto tripped and fell.
"Ha, weakling."
Then Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"NANI?"
Kankuro was punched from behind and tumbled to the floor, dropping Konohamaru in the process. Snarling, he turned to see Naruto with a smug smirk on his face and Konohamaru safely behind him.
"Weakling, eh? Not from where I'm standing, dattebayo!"
Kankuro rose to his feet and made to remove the bundle on his back but he had to dodge the kunai that came flying at him from a nearby tree. On that tree sat Uchiha Sasuke, twirling another kunai in his hand and basking in his emo-glory. He jumped from the tree and landed right between Naruto and Kankuro.
"Choose your next move carefully, it might be your last."
Temari blushed when she saw Sasuke.
"Ooh, local hottie."
Sakura was ecstatic as usual.
"KYA! SASUKE-KUN IS SO COOL!"
As usual, Naruto was not impressed.
"Damn, teme...always stealing the show."
The Konohamaru Corps totally ignored Sasuke in favor of their leader.
"NII-CHAN! YOU WERE SO COOL!" yelled Konohamaru.
Suddenly, they were blasted by a wave of killing intent. It wasn't very strong but it was enough to put everybody on guard.
However, the sand-nins were trembling as if the killing intent of a Kage was being focused on each of them and they looked like they had seen a ghost.
"G-G-Gaara." stammered Temari.
"Kankuro, Temari." An emotionless voice called out from the tree Sasuke had just left. "Why are you picking fights with the locals?"
"They started..."
"You have disgraced our village, shut up before I kill you." the unseen speaker said in his emotionless voice.
Then, in a gust of sand, Gaara appeared.
He was about Naruto's height, and younger than Kankuro or Temari. He had red hair, green eyes and his clothes were red and brown. He carried a huge gourd on his back that looked like it was made with sand. On his forehead was a tattoo, the kanji for love.
"Forgive my siblings." he said dispassionately. "This will not happen again."
They turned and started walking down the street.
"Wait." called Sakura. "Although Konoha and Sand are allies, that doesn't mean that you can enter without the proper authorization."
"Relax." said Temari in a bored tone as she pulled out her passport and other documents. "We are here for the Chuunin Exams."
Meanwhile, Sasuke had been staring at Gaara, who had been doing likewise.
"What's your name?" Sasuke asked.
Temari turned with a blush on her face.
"Me?" she asked flirtatiously.
"No, you with the gourd."
Gaara stared at Sasuke for a few more moments.
"Sabaku no Gaara. I wish to know your name as well."
"Uchiha Sasuke."
"I hope to see you in the Chuunin Exams. You will do well to verify my existence."
As he turned to leave his eyes fell on Naruto, who was upset at being ignored.
"Hello...the guy who kicked ass is right here but nooooo, they have to fawn over the...WTF!"
He had finally noticed Gaara's stare.
"I don't know the customs of Suna but in Konoha, its rude to stare like that."
"What is your name?" Gaara asked.
"Uzumaki Naruto."
Gaara continued to stare.
"There is something about him...something that make him familiar to me and yet...scary. No matter, he cannot be as strong as the Uchiha."
"I hope to see you in the Chuunin Exams as well."
Naruto grinned, that was more like it.
"Okay, but know this, I won't lose to you, dattebayo."
The sand-nins merely vanished in a swirl of sand.
A/N: I'm very sorry about the delay. I seem to be suffering from an extreme case of writer's block and this chapter does not feel very good to me. Anyways, R&R!
(1) Kawarimi no Jutsu: Replacement Technique.
(2) Henge no Jutsu: Transformation Technique