OMG I'M SOSOSO SORRY! I't's been like two weeks sense I've updated? I kinda got all caught up in homework and stuff and I kept having to put off writing!
Heh...
*Runs away from the pitchforks and torches*
Anyways, thank you sososo much to the following people for reviewing/adding my story on alerts/favorties:
.loveable.95
LDub
AnimeLover5125
Shifuni
kitsumeshadow
Yup! I love those people! :)
Here's my disclaimer! Ok, well I don't exactly own Naruto (But if I did...MUAHAHAHAHAHA!) But I do own my character Sen and her life story. (Which I am slowly but surely revealing)
Well Here's chapter four! It's a little long! Enjoy! :DDDDDD
Squad seven, well, three-fourths of squad seven, sat slumped on the ground. Naruto was tied to a post and grumbling to himself about fairness. Everyone, except Sen of course, because the last thing on her mind was food, was starving.
How about failure with a side of embarrassment?
Kakashi stood in front of them with those emotionless eyes of his staring them down. Sen felt ashamed. Not only was she being sent back to the academy, but she had said some pretty bold things to Kakashi and her teammates earlier. She could feel Sakura's "I told you so!" energy pulsing around, straining for her attention, like unwanted bugs.
"Uh oh, stomachs grumbling." Sen glared up at Kakashi. "Well, that's too bad."
Sen kicked the three box lunches in front of her. She really didn't need this from Kakashi.
Kakashi smirked at her through his mask.
"Oh, and by the way, about this exercise, I've decided I won't send any of you back to the academy." Sen bit into a nail. This had to be a lie. There had to be some sort of catch like, "I won't send any of you back to the academy if you all walk around naked for a day." Something stupid like that.
"What?" Sakura started. "All I did was faint and fall over, does that count for something?" In Sen's hate book, maybe.
"Hn." Why did Sen save Sasuke again? Oh yeah, she's an idiot.
"So, so that's means, that means all four of us…" Naruto flailed his legs and repeated himself before giving up on making a complete sentence and just grinning like an idiot.
Sakura started to annoyingly jump up in down and scream. She stopped in mid jump when her eyes glanced towards Sen's death glare and instead of jumping back up, she tripped on her feet. Catching herself on Sasuke's shoulder, she hesitated a bit before, thankfully, sitting back down.
Sen smirked. "Whoa there Sakura, I wouldn't want you to faint again." Sakura glared at Sen. Her face was as pink, if not pinker, than her hair.
"For your information, Sen, I tripped." Sakura stuck her nose in the air.
This was just way too easy, Sen thought.
"Oh of course, because air is pretty tricky to walk through without falling. My mistake!" Sen spat sarcastically.
Sakura whipped her head back around and opened her mouth to say something, but whatever petty response she had come up with was interrupted by Kakashi's monotone voice.
"Okay, that's enough. Yes, all four of you are being dropped from the program. Permanently." Naruto stopped grinning. Sen's suspicions were now confirmed. There was indeed a catch, a horrible, nasty catch.
"Dah!" Naruto was beside himself. "Drop us from the program? That means we can never become ninja! You said if we didn't get the bells we would be sent back to the academy! You can't just change your mind and kick us out! Why would you do that?" Naruto slurred, making his words barely comprehendible.
Kakashi rolled his eye like the answer was obvious.
"Because you don't think like ninja. You think like little kids." Sen was appalled. Little kids don't constantly day dream about murder, they think about unicorns and puppies. Kakashi was wrong.
Sasuke made it a point to announce his disagreement, because he jumped up and charged towards Kakashi, making Sakura gasp.
There was a giant dust cloud that billowed up from the ground. Sen and the others strained their eyes to see the outcome.
When the haze finally cleared, there sat a triumphant Kakashi squishing the young avenger with his large derrière. As Sen expected.
"And you, you think it's all about you." Kakashi stated calmly.
"LET SASUKE GO! YOU CAN'T STEP ON HIM LIKE HE'S SOME BUG!" Sakura screeched, earning a glare from the squished ninja and the squisher himself.
Sasuke made a pained sound before Kakashi stated bluntly, "You don't know what it means to be ninja." Sen was offended. "You think it's a game, huh? Why did you think we put you on squads? Did you ever consider that?"
"I-I don't know what you mean…" Naruto mumbled, confused.
"You never even guessed what this exercise was about, not even close." Sen did. It was all making even more sense to her.
"What it's about?" Sen swore Naruto's brain was made of ramen.
"Yes, that determined whether you pass or fail."
"B-but I wanted to ask you that from the very beginning…" Sakura said defensively.
Sen couldn't take anymore of this stupidity. "Use your head, baka." Sakura turned towards her. "Four people on a squad; why do you think he would do that?"
Was the answer still unclear to them?
"AH! How are we supposed to know why he picked four people to be on a squad, we didn't make the rules!" Naruto flailed his legs again.
"It's so basic…if Sen figured it out, you other three really are dumber than you look." Sen was horrified at his comment.
"Excuse me, teme?" Kakashi ignored her.
"Teamwork." Was all he said without even looking the fuming ninja's way.
Well no fricken duh!
"Just working together, is that what you mean?" Uhm, isn't that the definition of teamwork? Wow, Sakura sure scared Sen sometimes.
"That's what I mean. Well, it's too late now. If all four of you had gotten over your petty quarrels and come at me as a team, you might have been able to take the bells."
"Wait a minute…you set it up with only three bells but only four people. That's not fair" Sen rolled her eyes at Sakura and chose to speak once again.
"That way we would be pitted against each other. Kakashi wanted to see if we could get over the fact that one person would be sent back to the academy and help each other out anyways." Simple.
Kakashi seemed to become very annoyed with her constant interruptions.
"Sen, you let your hatred for Sakura get in the way of saving her when she cried out for help. But for some reason, when Sasuke did too, you charged into the forest and forgot all about the paper bombs you had set. Then after thinking it through, you decided to turn around and leave, only to be caught by Sasuke when you were trying to abandon them. You seem to have an explanation for everything; do you have one for that?" Sen blushed and looked down. She said nothing.
"That's what I thought." Kakashi turned his attention from Sen to Sakura, who gave a small yelp and swallowed hard. "And you, Sakura. You obsessed over Sasuke who was gone and didn't even think to help Naruto when he was right in front of you. Naruto, you do everything by yourself. Everything."
Kakashi took a minute to shove his foot harder down on Sasuke's head who was still pinned to the earth.
"And you, Sasuke. You thought the others were so far beneath you they were worthless. How arrogant. You then ended up needing someone's help after all when Sen had to help get you out of my head-hunter jutsu. You all put yourselves before the squad, which no real shinobi would do. This could not only lead to failure, but death. For example," Kakashi pulled out a kunai and held it to Sasuke's throat.
"Sakura, Kill Naruto and Sen, or Sasuke dies." Naruto gasped.
As if that would ever happen, Sen thought.
"That's what happens on a mission." Kakashi pulled the kunai away. Sasuke looked relieved.
"Oh boy, that was really scary." Sakura spoke her thoughts out loud.
"If the enemy takes a hostage, then you have an impossible choice." Kakashi got off of Sasuke and turned his back to the group. "Someone ends up dead. On every mission your life is on the line." Sasuke let out a defeated sigh and dropped his head to the ground. Sen thought the way he just gave up and the way he was slumped on the ground looked…depressing…
Once again acting against her better judgment, Sen quickly walked over to Sasuke and held out a hand. Sasuke, who was now sitting in an upright position, looked up at her with a baffled expression which turned into a glare. Nonetheless, he still took her hand and allowed himself to be helped up. Sakura, trying to one-up Sen, also ran over to him and tried to help him up, even though he was already standing by then.
"Hn." Sasuke pulled away from Sakura's grabby hands and shoved his own in his pockets. He turned and walked back to a tied up Naruto without saying a word. Sen guessed that was a thank you of some sort, so she let it slide, too tired to get into another useless fight. She and Sakura walked back to the posts, Sen slightly in front of an embarrassed Sakura.
Sen stopped walking and turned around. Kakashi was standing in front of the K.I.A. Rock. He gently touched the many engraved names and sighed.
"The names on this stone are all ninja who are considered heroes. They are all members of the K.I.A. Have you ever looked at it? Some of my closest friends' names are on this stone." Kakashi stated flatly, a hint of remorse in his usually monotone voice.
"That's it!" Naruto yelled. "I know what I want now! Some day my name is going to be on that stone and everyone will look up to me, believe it!" Sen took pity on the clueless ninja.
"Naruto…all of those ninja died…K.I.A. stands for 'killed in action'." Sen explained softly for the first time since she met him.
Naruto's face fell.
Sen held back tears as she walked up next to Kakashi and scanned the carefully chiseled ever-growing list of names until her eyes stopped on that familiar name she held so dearly to her heart.
Daichi Tatsuki
It was her grandfather's name, and the only man that had ever been there long enough for her to look up to; a male role model. He had taken the place of her father, who had not only abandoned her and her mother, but was no ninja to look up to.
Sen hated her father, especially for what he had done to her. All the lies he had fed her and she had once believed to be true, were only selfish tales he had thought up to get her to meet him.
No, he was no role model.
Not even close.
Sen's thoughts were interrupted by a hand that had been placed on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Kakashi starring down at her. Sen immediately became infuriated and shrugged the kind gesture off. She turned and stalked back to the group, looking down so her bangs would cover her tear-stricken face. She didn't want his pity, or anyone else's for that matter. She would never let anyone get close to her again, for they would surely only end up hurting her. Sen's trust was something no one could ever earn; not again.
Kakashi sighed sadly and turned back around. "Well, I've decided to give you all a second chance. But, I'm going to make it much harder. You'll have only three hours to get a bell, so eat lunch now for strength. You'll need it." He turned around to leave. "Oh, and Naruto doesn't get any lunch, because he broke the rules. If I catch any of you giving food to him, the will all be immediately removed from the program. That's all." Naruto gave a grunt of protest as Kakashi jumped into the trees.
Although his face didn't show it, Sasuke felt that the box lunch full of rice, and some other crap that was unidentifiable, was the best thing he had ever tasted. Ever.
He took another bite and held in a groan of happiness, completely lost in his bite of lukewarm rice.
His brief moment of pleasure was interrupted by Naruto's stomach grumbling. Sasuke glanced, irritated, at the tied up blonde to his right.
"This is no big deal. I can do this for days, for weeks, believe it!" Naruto's confident declaration was then shattered by his stomach's impeccable timing. Sasuke sighed and thrust his bite of heaven towards the sulking boy. Naruto looked down at him, wide-eyed.
"Here." Sasuke sighed.
"Wh-what? Really?" Naruto asked, dumfounded.
No, I'm kidding. This is all just a joke, because it's totally normal for me to make them.
Instead of saying what Sasuke really wanted to say, he simply looked away and shoved his meal a little closer.
"What! No Sasuke, you can't do that!" Sakura burst and then looked around quickly. "You heard what the Sensei said!"
"Kakashi's gone. We need to get those bells, and if Naruto is hungry it will affect our teamwork and ultimately affect the mission." Simple as that. It wasn't like Sasuke wasn't aware of the risk, he fully aware of it, he just felt it was the right thing to do.
Oh great, now I have morals?
Sasuke looked back up to Naruto. His eyes barely widened when he saw that Sakura had joined him in giving up their food to the clown.
"Here." Sakura stated in the same matter as Sasuke had.
"B-but those are your lunches!" Naruto protested, effectively hiding his appreciation.
"I'm on a diet…"
Sen snorted. Sakura glared at Sen then quickly added, "I mean, Sasuke doesn't eat as much as I do... Just hurry up and take it Naruto!"
Sasuke looked over at Sen who had said nothing, until her small snort, while they were eating. To no shock, Sen was sitting there, unmoving, as well as her untouched box lunch. Sasuke glared at the top of her head until she felt his eyes and looked up with a glare to match his own. She broke eye contact with a roll of her onyx eyes and an annoyed sigh.
She snatched the unopened meal and forced it onto Sakura's lap.
Sakura, not wanting to get into a fight when everyone was being so nice to each other, didn't complain about her sudden brashness and her lack of eating.
Naruto wasn't so smart.
"Hey, aren't you hungry, Sen?" Sen put her hands behind her head and fell on her back.
"No. I had a big breakfast." Sasuke was starting to see what Kakashi meant about them being stupid if Sen had figured out his test.
Sensing the change in air around her, Sen decided to explain.
"Did you actually think I would follow Kakashi's advice? This just shows how little you people know about me." And they didn't for a good reason.
"YOU CHEATER! THAT'S SO NOT FAIR!" Naruto yelled. Sen chuckled and swung a leg over her other extended one.
"I didn't cheat, and it's completely fair. You and everyone else could have just as easily ignored his advice and eaten this morning. But, I guess you weren't smart enough to see it was a trap." Sen snorted and added sarcastically, "And just when I was starting to like you guys." Directing that last comment more towards Sakura than anyone else.
As if I would ever like her.
But, to everyone's surprise, Sakura of all people blew off the insult and and ripped open the lunch's paper seal.
"Whatever."
"Oh, so Pepto does have a mature side. Who knew?" Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at, in Sen's opinion, the perfect nickname for the pink-haired ninja.
Sakura turned her head slowly and showed off the scariest glare she could possibly muster, but when compared to the Uchiha's and Sen's, was like a unicorn smiling widely. In other words, the attempted glare was a fail.
"What did you just call me?" Sakura squeaked.
Sasuke, who was growing tired of their constant bickering, decided to finally speak.
"Hurry up and eat, Naruto; Kakashi could be back at any moment." Sen smirked at the annoyed Uchiha.
"Fine, pushy. But you're going to have to feed me though, because my hands are tied…" Sakura looked to Sen with a forced smile.
Oh hell no.
"Don't look at me, Pepto. You're the one who's closest to him." She was awfully close…
Sakura, in realizing their proximity, lurched back a few inches and blushed scarlet.
"Oh, Whatever! This is a onetime thing Naruto, got it?"
"Clear as a bell, Sakura!" Sen let out a low chuckle at the irony of his simile.
Sakura ignored her and plucked a piece of rice with her chopsticks from the now cold meal and dropped it into Naruto's mouth. She opened her chopsticks for another ball, but a huge gust of wind caused her to lose her grip, and the food was blown across the training ground.
"YOU! YOU BROKE THE RULES!" Came Kakashi's usually monotoned voice from the stirred dust. He appeared and started doing hand signs that cause clouds to form above and produce lightning. "Any last words?"
Keeping her cool, Sen humorously raised her hand and waited to be called on.
"Yes?" Came Kakashi's irritated voice.
"You said we were a team, right?" She looked around at the others for support.
"Y-yeah! We gave him our food because the four of us are one!" Sakura added.
"Yeah! Believe it!" Naruto said, feeling the need to be apart in this.
"The four of you are one? Is that your excuse?" Kakashi challenged.
Well, yes, it was. Do you like it?
"YEAH!" Naruto said again, flailing his legs again.
The wind slowed down.
Kakashi smiled.
"You pass." Kakashi said, changing his tone completely.
"W-what?" Sakura looked at Kakashi like it was another trick.
"You. Pass." Kakashi repeated, this time more slowly.
"Huh?" Naruto titled his head to the side.
"You're the first quad to ever pass, because unlike them, you could think for yourselves. It is true that those who don't follow directions are scum. But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." That was true on so many levels, Sen decided. She was beginning to like this guy again.
"I'm a ninja! A ninja ninja ninja!" Naruto shouted happily.
"Our first mission starts tomorrow. Let's go home." Sen almost laughed at the corniness.
Naruto couldn't believe it. They had forgotten to untie him!
"This happens every time! You forgot to—" The ropes holding Naruto to the wooden post suddenly fell to the ground with Naruto tumbling after them.
Oof!
Naruto sat up and rubbed head.
"Hey! What was that—" Sen walked around him and began following the others, which effectively silenced him again. She had cut him loose.
Sen paused and turned her head slightly. She smirked at his dumbfounded expression and cooly walked after the others.
The knucklehead was, after all, part of her team.