Aaaand here is the 3rd chapter, ladies and gents!
I'll take this time to thank pretty much every review, follow and favorite this story has received. You guys are really making me push myself to continue this – I'm usually extremely lax with my writing, and I'm trying my best not to let you down.
Stephanie: Thanks!
theIrishWriter: Exactly; I wanted to paint Naruto in a very harsh light because I feel he is too romanticized in the early stages of the manga – he needs to have his breaking points too. I'll be playing with those here and later on in the story. About the academy records: I think people are gonna be shocked when the Chunin exams start and they see the difference between Team 7 on paper and the real Team 7.
Captainsatire: :D Well, there you go – I'm updating (I know, I'm surprised too)!
Buterflypuss: Thank you :)
Poppy Grave Dreams: I'm glad you're enjoying this. I am a bit of an attention-to-detail freak, which helps in some ways, I guess. About Sakura: She'll be using up a lot of my dedication these first few chapters, simply because I need her to evolve in leaps and bounds physically and emotionally, much more than Sasuke, Naruto or Kakashi, to reach the goal I have set for the four of them.
Guest1: Lol, the puppy eyes – sadly, I'm pretty sure I'm keeping this away from NaruSaku territory. I'm sorry! And NOPE, Mori Obasan had pretty much nothing to do with Morino. It'll be a surprise ;)
MuffinMan9223: Thank you, muffin' ;)
Guest2: thanks
Guest3: You are awesome for reviewing. Thank you very much.
Jayley: I love writing Kakashi's POV, too, so I guess we agree!
Guest4: Thank you!
Hershey Rocks: awesome name. So sad you won't be able to beta me :( Sakura's position in the team will be discussed next chapter, so look forward to that! And I do very much want to keep them all in character (which is a little bit hard, at times).
Prescripto13: Thank you very much for noticing that and pointing it out. I do try very hard to make a slightly fantastical plot, and universe, be relevant to many of us. Kakashi is a genius ninja with almost magical abilities, yes, but he's also human. They all are.
Love is a Myth: Thank you very much! I'll PM you to discuss the next chapter once I'm done with it. I decided to publish this because I felt it had been too long since the last one, though.
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Without further ado, I present:
Chapter 3: The Complicated Rivalry Between Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto
Spring.
The restaurant was filled to the brim, with costumers seated in all of the 20 tables the humble establishment provided. Light filtered in through the rim of the closed door; due to the overwhelming amount of people, the owner was forced to, temporarily, close the entrance. From it, looking in, the room seemed filled with cheer and laughter, the sounds of chuckles shooting towards the off-white walls, crashing against the tall frames of the windows and settling into the corners of the strong, pine-wood floor. The large rectangular room ended in a half-wall that separated the kitchen from the main room and, to the right, a small screen that gave way to a private dining room.
In there, Sarutobi Asuma was getting wasted.
"And then that lazy-ass Shikamaru just laid there, like he was playing dead or something! Who the hell just decides to take a nap during a battle!"
Yuuhi Kurenai chuckled. "It was only a friendly spar, Asuma-san."
He shook his head and felt disoriented for half a second. "No! That is no excuse for that sort of behavior! I swear that kid will give me more grey hairs than my own nephew. What if he dies in a mission because the fool just decided it was too troublesome" and here he mimicked the teenager's monotone, "to even run away from an enemy?"
"Well, I'm sure he won't be such an idiot, Asuma-senpai. He's a Nara, right?" To this, Sarutobi nodded. "Well, isn't he supposed to be smart? I heard he had the best grades in the whole promotion." Sora, a jonin instructor who had taken another team from the same grade as the rookie-nine, scratched his neck. "Ami-chan is always gossiping about how unfair that was."
Shiranui Genma, on the other side of the large rectangular table, spoke. "Why? Was she competing with him for the spot?" He grinned, the toothpick between his teeth tilting upwards. "She must have known it would be stupid to go against a Nara."
The brown haired jonin sighed and bowed his head low. "No, she-" He hesitated, and then, "She was claiming he stole her Sasuke-kun's spot as the most intelligent in their grade." His head lowered even more as laughter broke out throughout the room.
"Seriously? Man, girls were so much more interested in the shinobi arts back in my day…" Asuma slumped down, banging his empty cup of sake and trying to serve himself another one before relenting and letting Yuuhi-san serve the next round. "Ino is more concerned by the shine in her hair than the one on her kunai. When I was inspecting their packs, hers had the dullest blades. If she only took care of her equipment half as much as her appearance..."
"Say, Asuma-senpai…" Sora said, feeling vindictive.
"Hmm?"
"Isn't your genin kunoichi also enamoured by Sasuke? Ami always talks about her. Apparently she's known by a lot of the girls."
Genma had a mischievous glint in his eyes as he turned to look at his right-hand side companion. "Well, would you look at that? Seems one of your genin is pretty sought after, Kakashi." He grinned as he looked at the man who had his head buried in the orange book. "Weren't you also very popular when you were young? You still are, even with half of that face covered up… Mah… that's not fair. You two are gonna get all the chicks, whether young or old!"
Kurenai glared at him. "Genma-san, to say such an improper thing…!"
He laughed, propping his arms against the floor behind him. "Kurenai-chan is so uptight! Relax, I wouldn't go for girls; I like grown women such as yourself, sweetheart." He winked and hid a grin as, simultaneously, she blushed and Asuma glowered at him from behind his sake. He sent a glance in Kakashi's direction, chuckling. "Besides, this bastard doesn't give a shit about what I say. I could say he's a pedophile and that his books are actually about old men fucking pre-teens and I doubt he'd even hear me in the first place... Ain't that right, Kakashi?"
Everyone went still, holding his or her breath. It was one thing to joke about it, but to directly disrespect the Copy Cat Ninja did not spell good news. There was silence. Then they all heard the sound of a page being flipped, slowly and meticulously, the grains in the sheets rubbing against each other softly, until it rested against the opposite side of the open book.
Shiranui Genma giggled. "Every. Damn. Fucking. Time." He took a swig of his strong sake, feeling it burn all the way down. "I'll get you someday, you bastard."
Then he got up, threw his part of the bill on the table and stormed out.
"… Genma-san is dealing with some issues, isn't he?" A blond kunoichi threw a worried glance at the door behind her.
Asuma sighed. "You've been working for a long time in the Hokage Tower, but I guess you're relatively new to our sad little group, Miyuki-san." He saw her curious glance and conceded. "It's nothing you should poke your nose in, though. He's struggled with some past events for a long time. It's best to let it rest."
Kurenai doubted that was the whole story, but she figured Sarutobi had reasons to keep Shiranui's past a secret. To each his own, she thought, even as the blond administrative excused herself and practically rushed through the door. She'd probably search for the troubled shinobi, thinking she could fix him. Women like her always think they can fix broken people.
Not me, though, the red-eyed instructor thought, I've learned my lesson.
Which was why she'd thought twice about the Hokage's request to continue being Hinata's sensei. The little girl had so many self-esteem issues Kurenai had to wonder whether she'd ever be able to overcome them. Whether she'd ever find a way to help her in some way.
Up till now, it hadn't been working out the way she'd wanted it to.
"Say, how has everyone else's' week been? Now that it's only us instructors left in here, we can discuss pretty freely our students, right?" Asuma grinned.
Another jounin, who'd been silent until then, sighed. "You've been talking about your team since we got here, Asuma-senpai."
"Yeah, we've kinda gotten tired of hearing about them, already…" Another spoke.
Asuma puffed his rosy cheeks, flushed from the alcohol, and yelled, "Fine then! Oi, Kakashi! What about your team?"
"Hmm?" The silver haired man murmured, never lifting his eyes from the book.
"Tell us about your team! We've all been sharing and you've just sat there with that perverted book of yours!"
"Mah…" He crinkled his eye as he lifted his head, scratching his neck with his left hand. "There's not much to say…?"
Kurenai frowned. "What do you mean, Kakashi-senpai? It's been a week since the initiation exam. You're telling us there's nothing interesting about the first team you've ever passed?"
Kakashi laughed quietly, conscious of all the eyes looking at him now. He'd never meant to come to the restaurant to celebrate the week-anniversary, as Asuma had put it, of their debut as instructors, but then he'd been dragged by a very conniving Shiranui Genma and Asuma, who while sober were actually very capable of holding their own against a distracted Kakashi. He thought he could get away with sitting far away from the others and appearing immersed in his book, but apparently that had not lasted very long.
He sighed under his breath, ready to bullshit his way through the conversation.
"Well, they're OK, I guess. They don't like D-rank missions though." He smiled, closing his eye to give the impression of genuine joy. "They're a bit too… energetic."
And never had he used a euphemism as big as that one. Energetic did not cover the shitload of trouble his team got into. After the test on Friday he'd sat them down to talk about what their training schedule would be, from the regular stamina exercises to the reinforcement of Academy katas. They'd all shown varied degrees of interest, but in the one thing he could see they absolutely saw eye to eye was D-rank missions. The three children seemed to abhor the meager labor as if though every single mission required them to pick up dog shit from around the village – which they did on Tuesday, and Kakashi quickly bolted so as to not die from the pungent smell. Whether it was Sasuke and his holier-than-thou attitude ("Hn. I'm not cleaning up your dog shit." "What did you say, young man?"), Naruto and his reputation in the village ("Get that child away from my garden! I'm not accepting a team with that monster!") or Sakura and her hair… and Naruto (Splash. "Oh shi- heyyy, Sakura-chan, I didn't mean to-" "DAMMIT, NARUTO, MY HAIR!").
Kakashi's past week hadn't been fun at all. Honestly, from what he could tell from the other jonin's stories, it seemed he'd gotten the short end of the stick. It was one thing to have a problematic ninja, or teenage girls obsessed with boys but…
He hummed distractedly while Yuuhi Kurenai spoke about her team's success in a D-rank mission. It had been bugging him throughout the whole week, really, since he'd first witnessed Naruto get beat up by Sakura and walk away from it grinning; observed Sasuke watch it all with a lazy bloodlust and a slightly sadistic smirk; heard Sakura mumble under her breath "In, Sakura, reign it in. Shut up. IN, all of it- I said. Shut. Up."
He was starting to realize his genin weren't exactly… sane.
"-kashi? You there?" Asuma's red face was inches away from his, and Kakashi blinked lazily, staring up at him.
"…Hmm?"
"Dammit, how'd you pull away from us? You still gotta share you're 'xprience with the brats! You got an Uchiha and that loudmouthed kid-" And they all heard the unspoken Jinckuriki, "…so you gotta spill, K'kashi!"
Kakashi glanced at Yuuhi, asking her silently to make sure the Sarutobi didn't collapse on his way home. She nodded, smirking slightly, and he turned back to the man in front of him. He said, "Well, I will say that they've got a lot of potential. They're still just brats, but I'm pretty sure I can make something of them." He shrugged. "We'll see."
A jonin at the other side of the room laughed. "Only you, Kakashi-senpai, could talk about the sole heir to the Uchiha and that demon as if though they were just children. Only you."
While mostly everyone laughed with him, Kakashi only smiled tightly under his mask and clenched his fists below the table.
After all, weren't they? No matter how insane, wrecked or broken, weren't they all just…
Children?
Sakura's legs trembled as she went up the stairs of her apartment's front porch. She silently took out her key and stabbed at the wood around the keyhole until it jammed into the metal and entered sluggishly into the groove. She rested her whole body against the door for a few seconds, feeling the clean wooden smell enter her nostrils and fill her lungs, before turning the doorknob and walking into the hallway. Then she shuffled her feet forward and stumbled up the stairs.
Kami, she was so tired.
Halfway up the stairs her dress, which had until then only been covered by grass and manure, got caught in one of the sharp corners of the banister and ripped when she kept moving forward, not having noticed. She swore.
Well that model is outdated anyway. When are we going shopping?
Shut up.
That was the phrase Sakura had become most used to muttering mentally. It had become clear the first few days after the bell test that the voice that plagued her was manifesting itself much more freely, though she didn't exactly know the reason. She figured she was being exposed to too much of Naruto's idiocy.
She sighed and turned to look at the door to her left.
Apartment 401. Home.
By the time she'd closed the door, the kunai was already imbedded in the wall by her shoulder. Sakura reacted as quickly as she could, ignoring the strain on her cold muscles as she crouched and swiftly pulled out her own kunai, turning to face her –
"Otou-san!" She let the kunai drop to the floor as she vacillated between running towards him and staying where she was. She never knew whether he was in a mood for displays of affection.
"Yōjo*." He opened his arms seconds before she launched herself at him and collapsed against his chest. He smelled like tree bark and incense, like Dad. Her legs trembled, not only because of the strain on her muscles. She had missed him.
"Sakura! What did you do with your dress?!" Her mother's shrill voice broke through the moment and Sakura reluctantly moved away from her father after he let go of her. She looked down at her feet while her mother continued berating her for the state of her attire. She sighed softly when she heard she wouldn't get a new one, no matter the rip.
Heh. Sucks to be you.
You are I, remember?
…
Stupid.
"Are you LISTENING TO ME, young girl?" Sakura felt the cold fingers on her ear before her mother pressed hard and yanked her away into the kitchen. "You'll have to wear some of my tights – if we sew it up, you can still wear the dress as a shirt. You'll have to do all the laundry for the house for the rest of the month, though. I don't care how hard you've worked in that genin team of yours, you should have taken better care of your clothes!"
A few hours later, Sakura had finished helping her mother cook and after changing into cleaner clothes they all sat down at the dinner table. It had been a week since her parents where home, and hopefully when her mother had the time to inspect the house, she'd find everything to her liking. She always got mad when Sakura didn't clean up properly.
"So?" Her mother looked at her from above the salad bowl she was using to serve her plate. "How's your team? Who're your teammates? Your sensei?"
"Mebuki." He father's gruff and amused voice broke from the other side of the table. "She'll tell us after she's swallowed her food."
"Oh!" Her mother blushed and stabbed at her salad. "Yes, of course."
Sakura figured she painted a strange picture to her parents, who'd never seen her so enthusiastic about food, but she was simply too hungry to think it through. The past week had been a terror, especially because she couldn't justify buying too much in the market when her parents had left her just enough to follow her diet. With Kakashi-sensei's training, though, the diet simply starved her in a way she hadn't felt made her skinny or pretty. It just made her feel a little bit diseased and very, very tired.
Kami, she thought, I've missed Okaa-san's meals.
When Sakura finally felt full enough, she had finished her whole plate of food and a little bit more. She quickly felt nauseated though and figured it had to do with the size of her stomach. She'd never eaten that much in one meal before.
"So?" Her father prodded, happy to let the increase in appetite just be. Her mother seemed more inclined to question her but, ultimately, her curiosity over her past week won over.
Sakura sighed into her tea. "Well, I passed the exam our instructor gave us; which… you guys didn't tell me there was one." She frowned at them, feeling a little resentful.
Her mother shrugged. "We didn't know about it when we had ours. Didn't see why you should, either."
Sakura kept frowning, but continued, "Well, my sensei is a little bit lazy, but he's nice enough, I guess. He has… worked us pretty hard." Her muscles still hurt.
"Good. You need some meat on your bones."
Sakura frowned. She realized she wasn't the most athletic girl in their classroom, but she'd never thought her physique was lacking. This past week, though, her sensei had made sure to beat that notion out of her mind. It seemed he wanted to work her harder than the other two boys, too: whenever they ran 10 times around the field, she had to run 20 times. Whenever they did 200 sit ups, she did 400. She tried accusing him too, but then he would force them all into more team-building games and Sasuke-kun would glare at her, like it was all her fault for exercising her right to protest.
She wouldn't mind it all so much if she knew why. Why did she have to work harder?
"His name's Hatake Kakashi."
Silence. Her father's eyes widened, and her mother looked at her in surprise. "Hatake… Kakashi?"
Sakura eyed the both of them and, ignoring the twist in her gut, nodded meekly. "Yes. I remember you spoke of him but… you never told me he never had a genin team. It came as a surprise for me too."
"Well… well." He lowered his eyes to his plate. Her mother coughed into her napkin.
Sakura tapped the edge of her plate. "That's… that's good, right? You always said he's a great shinobi, so if I have him as my instructor, then-"
"And who are your teammates, Sakura?"
She blinked, having expected more of a reaction to her sensei's identity and shocked at being interrupted. Finally, she answered, "Uzumaki Naruto and," she blushed, "Sasuke-kun."
Her mother's fork stabbed against the ceramic plate and screeched as she dragged it, and suddenly Sakura felt very uncomfortable in that room. It felt as if the temperature had dropped a few degrees, and she realized she could hear her own breathing.
Breathe in… and out.
Her mother was trembling as she got up from the table; the door, slamming against the frame as she left the room.
In… out.
Her father telling her he'd be retiring to bed, too. Asking her to tell her sensei to meet them for dinner tomorrow night.
In…
Stepping away from her when she moved to kiss him. Leaving without hugging her goodnight.
… and out.
A few minutes later Sakura collected the dirty dishes, turned towards the kitchen and started washing.
What… what has just happened?
Team 7 met up at an old red bridge under which a meager stream ran through. That stream later flowed into a bigger river that crossed halfway through Konoha Village and carried on outside the village into the outer Forest. Sasuke didn't think much about it except that it was conveniently close to the compound and that the water was always clear. Naruto thought it was too far from his apartment and even farther away from Ichiraku. Sakura just thought it looked pretty.
Kakashi didn't ever tell them it was where Minato used to take Obito, Rin and him, because they didn't need to know. Better it just be a simple red bridge than a reminder of all he'd lost. Better fill it with good memories of his current team.
Not that it was working out the way he'd planned.
"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto yelled yet again, looking up at him as if he'd stolen a bowl of ramen from him.
Kakashi smiled, trying to look even slightly apologetic. Out of the corner of his eye he spied Sasuke flinching and raising a hand to his ear.
"Dobe, shut up. You're destroying my ears."
Naruto turned, incensed, towards Sasuke. "Oh yeah? Well how about I destroy your-?"
"Naruto, please don't finish that sentence." Kakashi sweat-dropped as he placed his hand on the blond child's head. "I'm sure Sakura-chan wouldn't appreciate your treatment of your teammate."
The brat cringed and ducked his head, lifting his arms to protect his face and closing his eyes, expecting a blow. After a few seconds, he opened one of them, and slowly relaxed his body while turning towards the girl. The two boys and the man stared at the distracted child, who was slowly rubbing a few hair strands between her fingers, chewing on her bottom lip and gazing into the stream.
Kakashi frowned. He'd never seen her so out of it and he was frankly lost as to how to deal with it. She looked genuinely concerned about something, and as the genin with the least baggage in his team, he honestly had no clue what could be such a pressing concern that she'd pass out on a chance to bash Naruto and unleash some of her fury.
When he accepted a team he'd never imagined having to deal with their issues – in his experience, jonin instructors taught, they didn't attend to their student's needs. He realized he'd have to speak about some important matters with both Naruto and Sasuke – if there were any two children who desperately needed someone to talk to, it was them – but he figured that would occur farther down the road, when they were older or rather, when he was more willing and much more prepared. He'd be damned if he knew how to treat children their age.
He cleared his throat loudly. And again, after Sakura didn't show any signs of noticing either him or the other boys. On the third time, he gave up and nodded towards Naruto. He shrugged, got as close as he dared to her, and then,
"SAKURA-CHAAA˜AN!"
"ARGH!" She gripped the railing, settling into the ground after jumping in fright. She turned furious eyes at her teammate. "What?! Would you like me to break your spleen?""
Kakashi grinned under his mask, closing his eye until it turned up around the corners. "Good to have you back Sakura-chan. You seemed to have left us for a while."
She blinked, staring at the three of them for some time, before blushing a deep pink and stammering out an apology. He shrugged his shoulders, silently telling her it was ok, before looking at the three of them and saying, "Right, my little genin, today, we won't be doing any exercises."
The reactions were varied: Sakura's eyes gleamed a little, but was otherwise composed, while Sasuke frowned and seemed overall even less enthused about being around them all.
Naruto was a ball of excitement, all bouncing feet and shaking arms. "What are we gonna do then, huh? I bet it's a full on important mission that'll take us outside of town. Is it really difficult? Is that why we have all day? Are we gonna catch some bad guys?"
Kakashi smiled, "Well, it is very important, it will take us all day and we'll be outside of town."
This time, the three of them looked curious. They stared at him with hopeful eyes, and Kakashi felt so bad about breaking their tiny little hearts.
…It was also slightly satisfying to be on the other side of the fence, watching his team eye the weed-addled crop field in front of them. What goes around comes around, he guessed.
"…I'm feeling a lot of dislike foryou right now, Kakashi-sensei."
"Hn."
Sob. "My nails…"
He grinned, taking out his book as he settled onto the fence, lazily cocking his head to the side. "Well, D-ranks are very important, Naruto, we are outside the village and…" He gave his best innocent smile, "I do believe this will take you all… day."
Sakura's shoulder twitched, telling him he was getting very close to her anger limit. It had never been unleashed onto him, even though he liked testing out her boundaries, just like he loved poking fun at Naruto's height and lazily staring at Sasuke when he felt glared at, which just exacerbated the intensity of the death glare.
If he knew it was so much fun to fuck with his genin, maybe he'd have accepted a team way earlier.
"What's the deal with these stupid missions, anyway?" Naruto muttered, angrily tearing out some weed along with a bunch of good crop. He'd have to fix that…
Kakashi leaned back, pressing his back against the barn's doors. He felt the lock brush against his waist. They needed to clean up inside too, but the owner wasn't home and his wife, who was half blind, didn't know where the keys where or how to find them. If the owner didn't arrive by the time his team finished weeding the crops out, he'd have to teach them how to pick locks. He had a feeling one of them would be much more proficient than the others; it might incite the others to do better in their training.
He started. "Well, I'm sure Sakura-chan knows all about mission ranking…" At this, the girl preened, ready to launch out a textbook perfect answer, "…so why doesn't Sasuke-kun explain it to us? Hmm?"
Simultaneously, the boy in question sent a glare his way and Pinky frowned while looking ready to protest. She cowered after glancing at Sasuke though, retreating into her job of plucking weed. Kakashi frowned inwardly. He needed to nip that crush quickly… unless he found a way to use it.
He shifted his glance to the Uchiha. "Well, Sasuke-kun? Please start. We're all waiting..." He sung, smiling at the mounting bloodlust coming from the boy. It was a remarkable amount, really, for his age. If he was even slightly older, he might even find it impressive, but for now he was concerned. If he didn't find a way to focus the boy's bloodlust and channel it into a more controlled temper, he could put his teammates in serious trouble. It was one thing to be slightly crazy – almost every ninja was, at some point in their lives – but he needed them all to, well… have some sort of synchronicity in their insanity. Otherwise, they would most likely end up killing each other.
"There are five ranks in the mission charter." Sasuke's voice, gravelly and annoyed, started. "A, B, C, D and S. They move in level of difficulty from D to A-rank. S-rank missions are only for high-level jonins, ANBU and the Hokage."
"And why aren't the higher ranking missions assigned to genin?"
Sasuke frowned, looking bitter. "Because we do not have the skills needed yet."
And to Kakashi, that sounded like a promise. He coughed. "So what do you think is the deal, as Naruto-kun puts it, with these D-rank missions?"
At this, Sasuke cocked his head to the side, thinking, while Sakura bit her lip to stop herself from answering. He knew it wasn't to gain battle skills; D-ranks were usually menial tasks that could just as well be completed by civilians. If it wasn't combat experience, then…
"To gain infiltration skills?"
Kakashi smiled, "One solid advantage, yes, but not the reason, nope. You are effectively learning how to blend into a civilian crowd, and weeding, baby-sitting, cleaning, etc. will help you be more comfortable when impersonating others. However, this could all be learned outside of D-ranks and usually only trained and selected infiltration squads get the missions that require such a level of credibility. Most squads will end up completing scroll-delivery or retrieval, protection, assassination – things that require stealth but not necessarily that level of deceit." Although it wouldn't hurt them to gain some skill in that area, considering the prices on most of their heads… He nodded towards Naruto. "What do you think, Naruto-kun?"
The blond boy sat on a patch of mud, splattering onto his teammates. They glowered at him; he pretended not to notice. "Well, if it's not about improving our skills then… is it about the civies?"
Sakura frowned. "Civilians, Naruto. You shouldn't call them that."
"But Sakura-chan, I heard other ninja calling them that!"
"Hn, dobe. That doesn't make it right."
"Well how am I supposed to know that?! And who are you to say that? You're the most irrespectful bastard I know!"
(Kakashi blinked. "Maah? Naruto-kun, I think you mean disrespect-")
"Shut up, dobe – I was brought up right."
(Sakura glanced between the two. "Sasuke-kun, don't listen to him-!")
"Oh, REALLY! So they were the ones to put that stick up your ass, then?!"
("N-Naruto-baka! Don't say that-")
Sasuke glared and fumed, "Don't insult my family."
"OOHHH, I'm sooo scared! What are you gonna do? They're all gone, right?"
("Seriously, guys, don't! -")
"Shut. Up. At least I had one, you were discarded!"
Naruto felt tears in his eyes. "Fuck you! My parents died! They didn't leave me!"
"Is that what you tell yourself at night when you can't sleep? That they loved you? Cared for you?" Sasuke smiled maliciously as Naruto reached his breaking point. His blood boiled. "Do you even know what your mother looked like?"
The first punch to his jaw sent him flying, and the second crashed his head into the weed. He grinned and lunged at the blond above him, shifting his weight to land a powerful leg-kick against his stomach, knocking the air out his lungs. They grappled on the floor, punching and kicking. His fist into his spleen; a knee into the gut, until their forms blurred and Sasuke lost all of his senses except for the lust for blood.
A few meters away, Sakura shook against Kakashi's hold on her arms. "Let me go! Naruto's hurting Sasuke-kun!"
His eyes hardened. "I'm quite sure they're hurting each other equally. You really should stop defending him."
"But Sasuke-kun-"
"Insulted Naruto's parents and his feelings, just like Naruto did to him. They both deserve whatever beating their getting from the other. Do you think Sasuke-kun is a saint? That he can do no wrong? Open your eyes, girl."
She shook her head, not wanting to hear it. "No, he- he was provoked-!"
"He dislikes Naruto just as much as Naruto does him, don't deny it. If they could, they would kill each other – don't you remember his goal in life is to murder someone? He likes blood, Sakura, and you're looking at his joy right now."
Sakura evaded the subject, looking away from the two boys in front of them. "Well what are we doing here? You have to stop them! They're gonna get killed-"
"No the won't. Look," He said, releasing her and turning her head towards the struggle. "They're almost done."
In all honesty, they still had about 15 more minutes of bashing their skulls left, from what Kakashi estimated, before the adrenaline wore off and they collapsed from their wounds. It was a calculated risk, letting them fight – if this was that kind of struggle, then they'd be alright, and possibly closer to his goal than before.
If they genuinely hated each other, though, as he told Sakura… then he might not have made the best decision not to interfere. Frankly, he was feeling his way around this teaching thing. If they both didn't stop in a while, he'd have to make his move, otherwise The Council would have his head in a plate. For now, he settled for forcing the girl to watch her teammates fight. She needed to be a part of this just as much as they were, or it wouldn't be the same. She needed to face this: a Sasuke far from the way her dreams painted him and a distraught Naruto embittered from what life had dealt him. She needed to see them at their most honest, primal hour.
She needed to understand that they were two angry, lonely little boys, who only knew how to make friends by beating the shit out of each other.
By the time they were done, their section of the crop fields was absolutely destroyed. Sasuke was vaguely aware that they would get punished for that.
"Oi, …Sasuke." A voice muttered to his right.
He tried lifting his head from the ground; he settled for turning it to face the other boy.
"What?"
"Your parents," Naruto said, "… they did ok. They did… really good."
Sasuke stared at the boy who had his face turned away from him. He saw his shoulders shake. Grimacing, the Uchiha turned his head to face the barn. "…Hn. You call the Hokage 'JiJi'."
"…What?" Came out the choked response.
"He cares, right? That's why he lets you get away with so much." He coughed, uncomfortable.
Sob. "…You suck at this."
"Tch. Dobe."
"Teme."
Sasuke snorted, and Naruto gave a tremulous chuckle.
After a moment of silence, broken only by the owner's voice screaming at their sensei and Kakashi trying to placate the man and ask for help to bandage some of their wounds, Sakura inched into Naruto's line of sight, a small sewing kit and a bottle in hand. She hesitated, and then started stammering out an apology to the both of them. "I'm, I—sorry, I didn't –Kakashi-sensei, he-!"
"Sakura."
"Ah! Yes, Sasuke-kun?"
"Shut up."
"Ah…!"
Naruto grinned, tiling his head towards her. "Sakura-chan! Did you see that! I totally beat his ass!"
Sasuke scoffed. "I went easy on you, dobe."
The girl in question blinked, poker-faced. "You're both bleeding onto the crop fields, and I'm pretty sure neither of you can move."
"…uhh.." Naruto looked uncertainly into Sakura's blank face. He couldn't read her right now, and that was scary.
A few seconds later, she flashed a smile. "I'm pretty sure that qualifies as a tie." Sad face. "I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. Maybe next time!"
"…Hn."
Half a mile away, Kakashi was moving the medical supplies from the owner's house out into the crop fields. He sighed. The cost of reparations would be coming straight out from his pocket.
"IT. IS. NATURALLY PINK!"
"OW! DAMMIT, SAKURA-CHAN!"
Kakashi rushed forward. He'd thought the state of the boys would stay Sakura's considerable anger when he left her to watch over them while he spoke to the client, but if she decided she could still unleash it… Kyuubi or no Kyuubi, bruised ribs hurt like hell.
When he arrived, a completely different scene from what he imagined greeted him.
"Stay still, Naruto! You're only making it worse."
"But why did you pour so much onto it? I honest didn't mean to -"
"Don't. Say it."
Gulp. "Right." Naruto grimaced as Sakura cleaned a long scrape on his arm with more alcohol. "Why isn't the Teme being tortured, again?"
Kakashi observed the three genin before him: two of them sprawled out in the dirt, cuts and bruises limiting their movement, and the third kneeling in between them, holding a cotton ball in one hand and Naruto's left arm in the other. Beside her, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a sewing kit.
Sakura hummed distractedly, prodding the skin around the wound with sharp jabs and pondering whether she needed to sew it up. Deciding against it, she let his arm drop roughly onto her lap, and move towards his face. Naruto whimpered in pain. "You made a very wrong assumption about my naturally pink hair, so now he has to wait for me to calm down before I treat him." With her temper at an all-time high, she had a harder time controlling her inner. Who knew what she'd do if she got her hands on Sasuke-kun's body…
*Drool* Oh, you perverted little girl!
Shut up! That's not what I meant! This is your fault!
Besides, she wanted to hold onto the anger a little while longer. It was staving off the fear and shock in her bones and it kept her acting relatively normal. Since Kakashi-sensei's genjutsu her imagination had gotten quite a bit more vivid, but it was completely different from having Naruto and Sasuke quite literally tainting the floor with their bloods in front of her. They'd been emotional, of course, and she didn't think she would have reacted differently had anyone insulted her parents, but…
She saw the tears tracks on Naruto's cheek and her hand shook. She got angrier.
Naruto gulped, feeling her rub furiously at his cheek where a long cut ripped through his birthmarks. He was happy he was being pampered by Sakura-chan – he really was! – But she was being a little bit… too rough, for his battered body. "Ano… do you think you could be a little bit- gentler?"
She paused, before starting to rub harsher onto his skin. Sickly sweet, she answered, "Is this better?"
Naruto grimaced before glaring at Sasuke. The Uchiha caught the look and rolled his eyes. "Tch. Not my fault."
Before Naruto could answer, Kakashi cleared his throat loudly. "Hello, my cute, little, beat up genin!"
Sakura jumped; she had not seen him approach, with her back towards him. "Kakashi-sensei! The lady gave me some rubbing alcohol to use. Did you get the first-aid kit?"
He nodded, handing it over to her and watching as she opened it and removed several items with practiced ease. "You seem to know your way around that, Sakura-chan."
She blushed and seemed to hesitate, before answering. "Yes, my… I was taught how to use it, in case of emergencies…" by my parents.
An awkward silence descended on the group. Naruto broke it first. "Well! Good thing you learned, otherwise we'd be stuck here for longer, right Sakura-chan?" He gazed concernedly at her when she didn't answer. "Sakura-chan?"
She blinked. "Ah! Right. It's a good thing."
Kakashi clapped his hands. "Well, we'll have to go back into the Village and leave you two in the hospital. I don't think you two will be up for training this afternoon, though." He scratched his chin. Faking a bright, innocent smile, he chuckled. "Then it'll only be you and me, Sakura-chan!"
She gulped.
Well… you're fucked.
Back in the village, the Hokage pondered over the recent news that had reached his desk. The countries that were asked to participate in the Chunin Exams had all sent back their response, either accepting or rejecting the invitation.
Except one.
What was even more unsettling was the acceptance of one of the newly formed ninja villages. The invitation was sent out as courtesy, but no one expected them to agree. As a young community, they needed time to increase their strength and deal with most of the legal settlements the daimyo would force upon them.
That they were entering their genin into the public eye for evaluation spelt bad news. Either they wanted to make some grandstanding and show off their strengths, which could go either way, or they had a very specific goal with this spring's chunin exams – if they were to upset the balance of power between the main Hidden Villages things could go very wrong, very fast. Their leader was either very stupid or very cunning.
And Sarutobi never liked to underestimate anyone.
TBC
AN: Asuma likes to get waaaasteeeed. Also, I planned to cover a lot more in this chapter, but it would have ended up too long, so I decided to cut it on the short side.
We meet Kakashi's… friends/acquaintances/peoplehesforcedtointeractwith! Sakura's parents! Woop!
Also, it's pretty obvious which Villages Sarutobi is reffering to, immaright?
Please review, follow, favorite, etc etc!
Love,
Crys
