Rockman Naruto – Reloaded
Chapter Three: The Team
Naruto awoke slowly the next morning, feeling a large headache from god knows where...until he remembered what happened last night and bolted up from his bed, ignoring the pain that came with it.
He remembered last night...
That strange voice...
Rockman?
Was he really a shell for the Kyuubi no Kitsune?
He tried to shut out what that fake Iruka's taunts and words were drilling into his head when he recalled Iruka's words...
"You aren't a demon...you are human, just like me...you are Naruto...a new genin of Konoha, you can't be anything else than that...you were always saying that you wanted to be Hokage...I believed that Hokages are great beings, human or not. I know that you are human in my eyes..."
With those words, Naruto gained back some of his failing sanity and reinforced his mind to take on another day. Naruto looked at the date today...
It was the day for team selections!
Naruto grinned widely and started to get ready for his initiation to ninjahood!
Konoha 2000
Academy Entrance
Sasuke Uchiha was walking down the road to the academy, skillfully ignoring the stampede of "stealthy" ninja wannabe fangirls. He used to be afraid of them when he was younger, but since his family and clan were massacred, he thought no more of them than the air in the world.
He was one step closer to avenging his family from that traitor, and it was always around him, the stink that tells people he is related to that traitor. Somehow, the general populace didn't despise him for it, instead, they treat him as he was the last treasure in the fucking world!
…
He hated it, he hated it all.
The only ones that didn't seem to give a damn were the Hyuuga clan, half of the ninja and Naruto Uzumaki...but he didn't count, everyone hated him for his buffoonery and overall stupidity compared to the normal idiot.
Sasuke glanced forward, never noticing he bent his head downward toward the ground to see Naruto dashing by. Normally, he wouldn't care but it wasn't everyday he was actually not screaming for attention in those stupid orange rags he calls clothes.
Today, the boy wore blue...
Maybe he wised up and decided to become a ninja seriously? Sasuke shook that thought away, he didn't give a damn anyway.
Sasuke tried to remember what he heard about the standards of the ninja...
He knew that they were put in groups of three, under one sensei. Who the sensei was assigned to them varied by group and year.
Trying to remember who told him that, he froze when he remembered that he said that to him, so long ago.
"Argh! He haunts me still to this day! Will he ever stop?" Sasuke seethed quietly, ignoring the "silent" squeals of "affection" that his oh-so stealthy fangirls were trying to do...
He continued down the road to the academy, blocking out any sayings he would say to him...
Naruto Uzumaki was kinda stunned with himself when he decided out of the blue...well to wear blue.
He tried to ignore the little voice in his head screaming 'blue, blue!' when it used to scream out 'orange, orange!', but in the end after too much nagging, he gave in and looked for the most remotely blue thing he had in his closet and found something that was interesting at least, almost forgotten it was there.
A few years ago, he got a set of clothes from an anonymous donor on his birthday but it was a little too many sizes too big for his small body, but they were a rich blue color with an orange cloth inside the blue suit, the only reason that Naruto didn't throw it away was because of the orange.
Now, years later, he found that it fit him quite well and tried it on. Needless to say, he looked smashing in it, but decided to at least add some outward orange later on, but not now.
Now, all he need was his headband...wait, where was it?!
Naruto looked frantically around his room. He searched the bed, the little bookcase, even his pile of dirty laundry before gazing at the desk. On it was a note, and a slightly darker blue headband on top of it.
He picked up the note and found it was from the old man Hokage himself!
Naruto,
In light of your service done for me in the dark hour yesterday evening, I decided to reward you with this very special Headband. This shows others that you have gained the appreciation of the Hokage and it will lead you to great things.
Wear it well and proud Naruto,
The "Old Man" Hokage.
Naruto smiled widely when he finished reading the note, he got some good standing with the Hokage with his special alter ego last night and this Headband was supposed to symbolize the good standing he had with the Hokage, an honor in itself.
Wearing the Headband, he found that it complemented the outfit and decided to try and buy more blue things, but he would always wear orange, no matter the outfit.
Finishing up and collecting necessary gear before he left, he walked out into his balcony, and smiled for his first day as Genin Naruto, an official Ninja of the Leaf Village.
Sakura was walking down the commercial area to the academy with a hint of pride in her step. While her parents were confused at her choice to become a ninja, they were nonetheless proud that their only daughter had passed with flying colors. Her father was praising her achievements and boasting that she'll be able to become one of the best ninja in the village.
Her mother was fretting over her and telling her to pack extra medical things like bandages and gauzes with her every time. Of course, she was always a worrywart to the point where she was annoying, but Sakura loved her the same each time.
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost run into her rival, Ino Yamanaka.
"Watch it, Forehead!" Ino said with her eyes half lidded, as if she was mocking her sense of detection. Continuing on, she added.
"If you can't even watch where you're going, I guess I have to rethink on how you ever passed the academy and actually become a ninja in first place!" Ino finished with a laugh.
Sakura growled, this had gone past the civil line and into touchy territory. She knew she was from a civilian family, but Ino rarely ever went that far in their arguments.
"What do you want Ino? Don't you know the retirement home is thataway?" Sakura pointed toward the opposite direction of the academy, to where some elderly people were fighting about something. Ino glared, her age was a level five security secret! Even though she was the same age as Sakura.
Suddenly, Ino flipped her pony tail in Sakura's direction and scoffed.
"I don't have time to deal with you, I am heading to the academy for my team placement. I just know I'm getting placed with Sasuke-kun!" Ino said with a dreamy finish. Sakura glared at her rival's bimbo attitude.
"Oh no! I'm getting the place with Sasuke-kun! I'll prove it!" Sakura declared. Ino laughed, now this was interesting!
"And how are you going to do that, Forehead?" Ino taunted. Sakura was startled a bit, but Ino didn't notice.
"Um...ah I know! I heard that they place teammates by order in which they get there!" Sakura said as she started to walk faster than her regular pace. A few seconds later and a shout of "What?!" Ino was walking even faster than Sakura in her bid to become Sasuke's teammate.
The general populace was confused when a dust cloud zoomed past by them with two glaring girls making the cloud just by speed walking all the way to the academy...
Konoha, 2000
Academy Entrance
Naruto was slightly trailing in front of Sasuke toward the classroom for the last time as a student, having stopped running a while back. He stopped in front of the classroom door, remembering all the hell he caused here before his apparent success at the final exam the other day.
He would have continued on with a flashback montage if not for Sasuke pushing him out of the way and entering the classroom without so much as an "excuse me!" to him.
"Hey! What the hell, bastard?!" Naruto shouted at him before coming up to the door again. He was about to open it when he felt a faint rumbling. He looked around to see a glaring Ino and Sakura mad dashing toward him...toward him?
"Wha-" Naruto couldn't even say anything as he was violently launched toward the end of the hall by the sheer force of Ino's and Sakura's strength of their mad dash for god knows what reason to Naruto. He probably guessed it was something to do with Sasuke though...
Grumbling in his mind, Naruto just took the first seat available to him, ignoring the world around him as he thought back to last night.
Who was he? What was he? Naruto pondered these questions with uncharacteristic seriousness. For twelve years, he thought that he was a normal kid, with an abnormal life. He was glared at, hurt even by some of Konoha's supposedly upstanding citizens. Even with complaints against them to the local police division, the civilians always had better credibility with some of the most outlandish bullshit they spewed out of their mouths.
He didn't know why, but he surely found out last night.
He was a container for the most fearsome monster in the world, the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The thought alone might've been enough to shatter his mind, but he was always strong willed and a second revelation shocked him.
Despite his "Demonic" origins, he was also given the "True Form" power that Flameman boasted he had, the Rockman Form as he had come to call it. It was almost ironic, really.
A demon with a hero's form? So preposterous, but it was true.
Naruto grinned slightly at the irony. He also wondered if that was true? Was he really a container? Hell, if not for Iruka's sayings, he would've kept questioning if he was human at all when that fake Iruka told him of what he was!
It was then when he felt the "million deaths" glare in large quantities directed at him and he looked around in reality for the first time.
Naruto almost fidgeted when almost all of the females in the room started to glare at him and he had no idea why, well not for long as he turned around and saw why.
He was sitting to Sasuke Uchiha...oh.
Not seeing another seat that wasn't surrounded by glaring girls, he stayed put and held his ground (and his seat) by looking somewhere else.
Seconds later, a body had sat next to him and he turned around again to see the girls' glares had faded away and were doing whatever they did during the day. He also noticed that Sakura was sitting next to him, not looking at him, per say, but almost looking through him. Probably fantasizing with what to do with boy wonder next to him.
When he was younger, Naruto had a large crush on Sakura, back when she was seen by him being bullied by an older girl that he couldn't remember what her name was nowadays. He wanted to go help her up, but by then, his instincts were more jaded and were telling him that she was like the rest, hating him for reasons unknown to him.
His indecisiveness allowed a short haired girl that would later be known as Ino to help her up and shared a tight bond that would be loosened heavily by Sasuke later on. That was the start of a drastic transformation of the girl. She became shy and sweet and open...to taunting, amorous and generally ambitious, all for the Sasuke dream.
As soon as she started changing from the sweet shy girl he was attracted to in his boyhood, to a completely unrecognizable fangirl, well he started to see her kinda differently.
Of course, he tried so hard to find the qualities she had so long ago, but after an especially hard scene he had to watch her do, he gave up in a sense.
Naruto shook his head, that wasn't a memory he liked going back to at all...
Of course, he might've held old feelings for Sakura, but she wasn't his Sakura. Then came another thing, something that never really went away from him.
The reputation of being Sakura's "fanboy" never really went away from the school's chatterboxes and gossipers in the years after his decision, so practically everyone thought he still had the hots for Sakura.
Eventually, a teacher's assistant came in with a list of names in his hand. He didn't seem too noteworthy, as he had plain brown hair in a short style cut. He didn't wear any Chunin rank vest or uniform, so must've been a civilian equivalent of the ninja teacher.
"Attention! Today, you are here to learn your team number and team members. Listen up for your name and your team." The somewhat stuffy aide said. With his non-so-happy attitude towards them, he probably was a ninja dropout or something.
"Team One..." He began and Naruto tuned him out. All he needed was his name and then he'll wake up.
The teacher droned on and on when he started sneering all of a sudden. Naruto took it as his customary greeting by the local populace and came to the conclusion that he was next.
Rather than announcing the demon's name, he skipped over his team and continued on, naming the next team's arrangement.
Naruto's eyes narrowed, he was sure that he was next, and now because of his "evil origins", his team was probably skipped over for others.
"Team Eight is..." The man started to say when a voice interrupted him. A voice that surprised Naruto, as he thought he was still in the hospital with that injury.
"Excuse me, Hadara, but what about Team Seven?"
The teacher's assistant was also surprised that Iruka was there, in crutches maybe, but for all things concerning, he seemed all right.
"Again, Hadara...what about Team Seven?" Iruka asked the paling teacher's assistant, eyes narrowing as he tried to justify himself with mutterings of demon and his hypnotized team of minions.
"Thank you, you may be excused, Hadara. I will file a complaint on your performance today, goodbye." Iruka said before shutting the door on the stammering aide. After breathing and counting to ten seconds, he faced the confused class.
"Ah, sorry, he's a bit of a newbie, so he doesn't know the routine well. Now, lets see...Team Seven. The team members are...Sasuke Uchiha." No more than five seconds than that Sasuke's name left Iruka mouth did the entire Sasuke fanbase leaned over their desks and listened intently for their name to go with him.
It didn't seem like it, but the boys were interested too, who would work with the prodigy of their year was an interesting subject on this day. Naruto was eager, but for a different reason.
He did NOT want to be on the bastard's team, it was cruel, it was inhumane, it was-
"Naruto Uzumaki..."
It was right within his luck...damn it...
The boys soon grew disinterested once again, seeing that the usual formula was boy, girl, boy.
Naruto groaned, and Sasuke didn't seem to change emotion any time soon either.
"The last member of Team Seven will be..." Iruka trailed off to the agony of the waiting fanbase, it was complete torture in their minds. Questions were running rampant. Would they be the lucky girl? Would they scorn or praise the chosen one? Will being on the same team mean total harmony with the handsome boy?
Sakura was praying to the gods that Iruka will name her and Ino was closing his eyes with her fingers crossed saying her name rapidly.
"Sakura Haruno." Iruka finished with a smirk. Almost all of the adjacent classrooms and even further still heard a shriek of happiness and several screams of disappointment and crying all around for the girls that weren't picked already in other teams.
Naruto was sure the sheer volume would leave the guys deaf for quite some time, what with Kiba Inuzuka looking like someone used a high pitched sound to his enhanced hearing is by any scale. The poor kid was writhing on the floor. It was rather amusing to watch, Naruto thought idly.
"Now, Team Eight will be...will someone pick Kiba up from the floor? He really shouldn't be on that dirty floor..." Iruka said concernedly. A few moments later, Kiba was picked up from the floor by a coat wearing boy and was quietly thanked by the usually loud boy.
"Thank you Shino, you are showing teamwork already, as Team Eight will be Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga!" Iruka said cheerfully. The three aforementioned students looked at each other and nodded, well Kiba and Shino nodded, Hinata just looked dejected for some reason...
"Team Nine will be Osamu Bika, Abumi Shelko, and Kenji Komuri." Iruka kept going on as three non descriptive students looked for their teammates.
"Team Ten will be Chouji Akimichi..." A rather portly young boy shifted to pause in his snack munching to listen up for his teammates...he had already a good guess that his buddy will be with him anyways.
"Shikamaru Nara..." Iruka continued on. Shikamaru Nara barely shifted in his sleep to acknowledge his team placement as Iruka continued.
Ino sighed, her luck couldn't be any crappier. She lost to Sakura in the race, and now she wasn't in Sasuke-kun's team! What next?! She being on Shikamaru's team?!
"And Ino Yamanaka!"
Ino cursed the man, and damned her luck forever to be bad. Ino just put her head down and tried to forget this ever happened. Maybe she is having a bad dream?
Ino pinched herself.
The pain was there, so nope! This was real...
"Well, thats it! You will be contacted by your Jounin Sensei later on in the day, so class dismissed. Oh, forgot one thing, your sensei's will be expecting you in this room, so come back in at least half an hour from now." Iruka waved goodbye and left the room, probably going back to the hospital for his injuries.
The room was silent until a few of the earlier teams' members left the classroom, probably to get to know each other more. Team Eight, Team Ten and Team Seven however, were talking among themselves however and sometimes with each other as well for the wait.
It was until Kiba broke the ice on Naruto's new clothes did things get slightly interesting.
"So, Naruto...whats with the new clothes? Finally found out that Orange was completely stupid for a ninja?" Kiba said with a large smirk. Naruto just narrowed his eyes, no one...absolutely no one knocks Orange!
"Hey! Don't knock Orange, bone breath!" Naruto shouted and a glare fest erupted between Kiba and Naruto, but to the rest, it was a common scene, given their somewhat unusual rivalry.
"I-I think that Naruto looks really nice in his new clothes..." Hinata softly said as she started to blush while looking away from Naruto, who really did look handsome in his new clothes.
"Well, yeah, he looks kind of decent in his new clothes. At least he tried to improve Kiba, he will be harder to spot while your terrible smell will alert the Stone Village even if they were wearing nose plugs!" Ino laughed as Kiba tried to discretely smell himself. Surely he didn't smell that bad...could he?
Soon, everyone's stomach gave them the silent signal that it was lunchtime and everyone departed to eat, presumably together.
Naruto thought about asking Sakura to lunch to try and clear up about his feelings for her but thought better of it, she probably bought that he was her number one fan and tried to ask her out in disguise.
"So...want to get some lunch?" Naruto asked openly, he figured that a group invitation was better and he could try and talk to Sakura about it better. Of course, he was expecting them to reject him so he wasn't too surprised when they did so.
Sasuke just walked off without a word or even acknowledging that he heard Naruto and left to wherever he usually ate. Sakura couldn't resist rejecting him more personally however.
Sakura just knew this was a ploy to get her to ask her out on a date! She just knew it! She wasn't deaf, she heard from everyone that he had a major crush on her and was constantly stalking her! Sure, she had no proof of him ever stalking her, but eyewitness accounts from her friends were surely more credible than proof, right?
Still, it was kind of sweet...she knew that it began when they were much smaller and not just instantly like her friends were saying it happened. She sensed someone nearby when she was smaller and got a glimpse of a younger him trying to approacher her, but was scared of her for some reason. It was all for naught when Ino came to her and she promptly forgot all about his advances for friendship from him, relying on word of mouth to guide her judgment.
counting that, she civilly rejected him for what she believed to be the final time.
"Naruto, I know that you like me, but I just don't feel the same way. I like someone else and I hope that you don't ever bother me again with these type of things. I'm sorry, but you are just being annoying with your attempts recently." Sakura walked out of the room and hoped she could catch up to Sasuke-kun, her rejection speech already fading from her mind.
Naruto stood stock still at her rejection. It seemed that irony loved playing in his yard because change a few words, it was almost the exact same speech he wanted to give to her.
Guess the grapevine took a stronger hold on her than he thought, but in the end it was for the best as well, not counting the faint pain he suddenly felt in his heart...
Sighing in relief and a bit in hurt, he left towards his favorite Ramen place, Ichirakus...
In the shadows, A tall man was looking at the scene in sadness. This was going to be hard for his team to pass at all, given that they weren't connecting very well at all from what he saw right now...
Naruto returned to the classroom, angry at that fake Iruka even more so. The bastard just had to make it personal, didn't he?
Reason? He burned down the restaurant that he usually ate in just for kicks! Ichiraku was sitting by the wreckage drinking heavily and his daughter Ayame was crying over discovering the horrible scene.
After promising Ayame and her father to do everything he can to help rebuild the restaurant, he ran back to the academy, before realizing he was still hungry and the time limit was almost up, hence his mood right now.
He came face to face with Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke was the same as usual and Sakura was looking a bit sad at him somehow, probably trying to correct her wording, Naruto concluded.
Well, what was said was said, hindsight was always 20/20 after all...
Naruto internally sighed, maybe he would hear her out, but right now wasn't a good time.
"Where's everyone?" Naruto asked the duo. Sasuke looked at him blandly before answering.
"Where do you think? Everyone left with their sensei and ours hasn't arrived yet." Sasuke looked away after that, seemingly to ponder something deep and strong. Sakura tried to get his attention to no avail, just like always. She tried to say something to Naruto, but seemed to think better of it, to the relief of Naruto.
He wasn't sure he could hold back in his tired and hungry state.
One hour had passed and still no teacher for them, could he probably be running late? They thought unanimously.
Two hours had passed and Naruto was getting annoyed, Sakura still had hope that their teacher was busy and Sasuke didn't seem to know that time had passed.
Three hours had passed and Naruto was getting close to going ballistic. Sakura gave up hope and started to glower at the door as if willing her teacher here by mind power. Sasuke was barely starting to get annoyed himself.
Finally after five whole hours, Naruto lost it and started to twitch madly in hunger and anger. Sakura seemed to go perfectly still and Sasuke was outright scowling at the clock.
The negative feelings suddenly evaporated when they heard the door opening and a man entered the classroom.
He was a rather tall man, well tall enough without the gravity defying silver hair anyway. He seemed to have a lazy look in his eye, as most of his face was covered by a lower face cloth mask and his left eye was covered by a slanted Headband. He was wearing what they considered to be Jounin uniform wear, so this was probably their teacher...
He didn't seem like much, but he probably didn't reach Jounin rank by being lazy like he was being now, so they gave him a bit of respect.
The man looked around, as if searching for something. Then he called out to the near empty classroom.
"Team Seven?" The three people just glared, that little bit of respect they had for the guy was rapidly dwindling into nonexistant.
A few minutes later after searching the room, his gaze laid upon them.
"Oh! There you are!" The man exclaimed happily.
Yep...reaching rock bottom fast...
"Well...my first impression of you is..." He looked at them appraisingly. His plummeting respect paused for a moment to see what he would say next.
"Hm...I don't like you at all..." The lazy looking man said with such conviction that if you would closely hear in the silence, you would hear a glass crack and shatter as his student's respect of the man just imploded on the spot.
The man smiled, or his eye smiled as he cheerfully told them to head to the roof in five minutes. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke only reeled in the irony of that order...irony indeed.
Five minutes later, on the spot, the three arrived on top of the roof to find their teacher reading a strange orange book. Sakura had no idea what it was and Sasuke could really care less about it but Naruto instantly recognize the book and its cover.
A local bookstore had it on display as book of the month, despite its 18+ warning. Naruto just thought that the whole adult population was perverted if it that book of all things had that title.
"Ah...you guys are here, good!" The man said after five minutes of reading the book in their presence. He put the book away but kept leaning on the rail as they found him while he was reading the book earlier.
"You guys are Team Seven and I would like to be your teacher, but I don't know you at all. So lets start with introductions! Who wants to go first?" He asked while extending his palm toward his students as a cue to begin.
Sakura looked confused and raised her hand. The man pointed to her enthusiastically, a complete one eighty from his lazy look.
"Yes?"
Sakura bit her lip, unsure of how to proceed.
"Um...what do you want to know from us?" She asked finally. The man frowned a bit before answering.
"Well...that was a bit of an odd introduction Miss Um..." Sakura started to glare at him, which made no effect on the man, but he faked it anyways.
"Ok...ok, I'm joking! I just wanted to know your likes, dislikes and dreams. You know, the basic stuff!" Kakashi said with an eye smile. Sakura seemed to be pacified and began to speak again
"My name is Sakura Haruno, I like...flowers and someone...I dislike my rival, Ino and my dreams of the future..." Sakura trailed off blushing and Naruto swore that he saw the old Sakura there for a second before shaking his head and thought it was because of the Uchiha.
"Ok, who's next?" The man asked of the two boys.
Sasuke went next.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." He paused, as if he needed an introduction, when the whole damn village knew his name and clan.
"I don't have many likes and I have even less dislikes. My dream is to exact vengeance on one particular man..." Sasuke trailed off and looked away.
The man shrugged and thought he was finished. He pointed at Naruto at last.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I like Ramen, ninja techniques and..." Naruto trailed off and pointedly looked away from Sakura, who also looked away, but Sasuke and the man could see a very, very minuscule blush on Sakura's face.
Naruto continued with his intro.
"I like reading, um...I dislike late people." He glared at the amused man.
"My dreams..." Now Naruto was at a crossroads. Before, he would have said that his dream was to be Hokage and that was that, but after last night...well what could he say?
Best go with option one.
"My dream is to become Hokage!" Naruto said with confidence, not saying his ulterior dream of finding out what the hell was he for real. The man stared at him before turning his attention to the three of them.
"Well, now that the introductions are out of the way. I have some bad news for you all." The man said to them.
"Wait a tic, who are you?" Naruto asked the man. The man seemed to roll his eye as if he forgot something.
"Ah, I knew I forgot something! You don't know who I am, do you?" He asked his students. Seeing their patronizing looks, he continued.
"My name is Kakashi, Kakashi Hatake. My likes are none of your business, my dislikes would not interest you at all...and my dreams...well I forgot what they are!" He said rather cheerfully at that part.
His students stared at him incredulity, there was no way this guys could pull that off...lo behold, he did.
"Now, before I was so rudely interrupted, I've got some bad news...and worse news." Kakashi said with an eye smile. The students looked at each other and thought the same thing, there was worse news?
"The Bad news is that you guys have graduated and become Genin." Kakashi said with a tone of utter seriousness. Something that ticked off Team Seven.
"The worse news is that you are technically not ninja...huh...I wonder if that qualifies as good news?" Kakashi wondered to himself as his students were steadily getting pissed off at him.
"Well, whatever! In order to become my students and becoming actual ninja, you have to pass my test first." Kakashi said after they almost blew their top with him. Naruto and Sasuke were interested to say the least. Sakura...not so much.
"Wait...I thought the final exam was the test to become ninja?" Sakura questioned Kakashi, who sighed.
"I really wish they would stop hyping up the academy test as the ultimate test...makes my job harder to break but surprisingly easy to do." Kakashi muttered to himself.
"No, that was just the potential test. Kinda like the grass cutter does to weeds, the potential test cuts the people going nowhere fast and keeps the worthy onto the reserve, where we, the Jounin Sensei, get assigned to each group of three to try and chop up even more losers and finally bring in nine of the best of the graduating class." Kakashi finished to the shocked looks of his students.
Naruto whistled, it was dog eat dog right about now...
"So, if you can pass my test faster than the others, you become part of the regular ninja rank and file. So, I'd try my hardest to pass the test if I were you." Kakashi said. Sakura raised her hand and looked nervous for some reason.
"What about the people who don't pass as fast?" She asked her would be teacher. Kakashi shrugged.
"I dunno, I don't tend to care what happens to them but I heard that they either go back to the academy, or drop out and become regular civilians." Kakashi looked at the sky, it was nearing sunset and he could see from the corner of his eye that Sakura was slightly shivering from the cold air settling in.
"Because its so late, I'll withhold the test for tomorrow morning. I'll just give you some..rules I guess." Kakashi paused before continuing.
"First off, its a no holds bar test and you have at least until noon tomorrow but I'm not telling you any more than that, or it'll ruin the surprise!" Kakashi said before gripping the rails that lined the academy roof.
"Oh yeah...forgot one thing." Kakashi added as his students looked at him expectantly.
"Whats that?" Naruto asked.
"Don't eat breakfast tomorrow." Kakashi said seriously.
"Why not?" Sakura asked, confused at her teacher's instructions.
"You'll just throw it up and it probably wouldn't be a pretty sight if you do." Kakashi said before flipping over the rail. Startled at his action, the three students looked over, expecting his corpse on the ground, but saw only a fading poof of smoke and the echoing words.
"Be at training ground seven at six AM!"
Their teacher was a complete lunatic, they concluded.
It was early evening and Naruto was hungry. He parted ways with Sakura and Sasuke after Kakashi left almost immediately after Sasuke left without a word to either of them. Sakura was about to follow him, but she left the other way, saying that her parents were expecting her around this time.
Naruto wasn't sure about that, but he left soon after and tried to find a place to eat while Ichiraku's was being rebuilt from the ground up after that freak's attack.
Heh, if he didn't find a place soon, he wouldn't have to worry about breaking Kakashi's no Breakfast rule.
He was so immersed with his thoughts that he bumped into someone. Naruto turned to apologize when he recognized the person.
"Sakura?"
"Naruto?"
The two people were looking shocked at finding each other here and didn't know what to do next.
"What are you doing here Naruto?" Sakura asked after an awkward moment. Naruto grinned a bit before answering.
"Just looking for a place to eat. What about you? Aren't your parents worried that you are out here?" Naruto asked Sakura, who only shook her head.
"My parents are out for the evening, they left a note saying that they went to eat somewhere and left some money for me to go eat out." Sakura showed him an envelope full of money with the scribble "to eat" on the envelope itself.
"Know any good place to eat? My place...is unavailable right now." Naruto asked with a small smile, remembering his promise to his friend Ayame. Sakura thought for a bit before nodding.
"Yeah, I think I know a place, follow me." She said and left at a slow place for Naruto to catch up. To the regular passerby, they would've thought that Naruto and Sakura were on their first date or something.
Konoha, 2000
Imabatsu Sushi
Naruto was eating like no tomorrow. This wasn't ramen, but he wouldn't be picky about food right about now. Sakura was looking at him bemusedly at his antics, but was concentrating on her own dish of great sushi.
After they were done, Sakura allowed Naruto to walk her home, as the nightlife was kicking up and some of the more...unruly events of Konoha nightlife in the commercial zone started to appear on the roads.
Sakura was at a dilemma, and didn't know what to do. She wanted to talk to him about what happened earlier today but couldn't muster up the courage to start.
"Hey Sakura." Naruto's voice startled her thoughts. She looked up to see a serious Naruto, something that interested her, as his normal antics made him look like a goofball who was always smiling and landing into mischief.
"I wanted to talk about something, something that happened today. I thought I could ignore it because it had the desired result, but its been nagging at me all-" Naruto was suddenly cut off by Sakura, as her start up conversation was started by her target.
"Actually Naruto, I wanted to talk to you about it, all afternoon actually." Sakura began before turning away to look at the moon. Their legs automatically steered them to an empty bench in the middle of the commercial sector, but they could clearly hear each other despite the noise around themselves.
"Oh? What is it, Sakura?" Naruto asked, wondering where this was going. He was rather curious about it as well.
"I wanted to apologize for how I acted today, Naruto." Sakura was saying that as she felt a weight begin to lift. It was freeing her, so to speak.
Now that caught Naruto by surprise. He was expecting something like how he was a brat and immature or something that Sakura would say nowadays to him. To see the vulnerability of Sakura like this and the "non-date" they shared tonight was certainly surprising to him.
"You know the saying, " Wait till you get a taste of your own medicine"? Well, I was fed a chock full of it today." Sakura continued, her voice seemingly getting fragile.
"It was after I rejected you that I asked Sasuke-kun on a date to go get some lunch with him. He said no but started talking about you. He was commenting on your achievements and faults and somehow I started talking about how you have no rules to live by and how you were lucky to have no parents to boss you around when I was given a huge reality check." Sakura said to the frowning Naruto, he calmed himself by saying to himself that she was apologizing to him.
"He told me, "You could never understand how he feels...to have no one to call family for his own, to have no one boss you around, to have someone guide you, he has none of that. You sit here talking about how annoying he is, but look at yourself Sakura, YOU are annoying!" before walking off." Sakura was starting to tear up at Sasuke's words.
Naruto suddenly felt like punching the guy for making her cry for some reason, he didn't know why though but chalked it up to his old feelings.
"The worst part of it, though, is that he's right! I am annoying, I was being such a hypocrite when I rejected you, Naruto. I went with rumors and people's sayings about you when making my opinions about you and I totally deserved what I got in the end." Sakura was softly crying at this but her eyes held relief in them, as if they were itching her to no end to get this out of her body for good.
Sakura stood up and in front of Naruto, she bowed down low to Naruto and spoke.
"I am so sorry, Naruto, please forgive me!" She said with teardrops falling from her closed eyes to the ground below. Naruto was touched by this and was happy that his old Sakura was there, kicking and fighting her way out of the mask she constructed for herself. Seeing only one choice, he smiled and put his hands on her shoulders to upright her and said one thing.
"You're forgiven, Sakura-chan." Naruto smiled warmly and Sakura thought it was the most natural smile he could ever do. Not at all like the big grins he would always put on for the public...it almost felt like it was her own personal smile, she thought with a blush.
Sakura-chan...she remembered that he always called her that until about a year ago when he suddenly stopped but kept trying to talk to her anyway. It wasn't completely bad, but it wasn't good either. To hear it again...
It felt good...kinda.
After continuing down the path to her home, Naruto was seeing Sakura shiver from this unusually cold night and did what any gentleman would do, give his coat to her. She was surprised, but accepted the new warmth immediately with a "thanks."
After bidding farewell to Sakura, Naruto went home, all the while smiling at this surprising turn of events before realizing he never asked for his coat back. He didn't want to bother her, so he continued on home for the night, he'll ask her for it tomorrow after they pass their sensei's test together.
Up on the rooftops, Kakashi let out a low whistle. Naruto may be dense, but he can be a smooth operator when he needs to be. He originally trailed them both to see if they would try to make up for that scene in the afternoon, but he wasn't expecting for an apology to become a date so quick.
Looking for a nice corner with plenty of lighting, he gazed down at his favorite book while chuckling at the turn of events. Looks like he'll have an interesting set of hopefuls this year.
Maybe he should go the extra mile and pull out all the stops for them to become ninja? He'll have to think about that...
Well, thats part one of the "Teams and Tests" arc I've planned for right now. I'm hoping to get the second part up in about three to four days tops while I try and sort out all this free time I've suddenly gotten from waiting for some late spring classes to start.
No music recommendation today as I haven't heard many good ones lately but there is one, however, I can't remember what it is right now.
I'll post it up around next chapter.
Hope you guys have been listening to my recommendations about songs I've listened that has inspired me, but hey, they are only recommendations and not demands, right?
I'll see you all later,
Terra Ace