Chapter 4:
Atarashi Yujin:
A/N I want to thank, unifrog1331, Sidewinder566 , and Saga Pyykknen for following this story! I know it doesn't seem that crazy, but it means so much to me. Thank you guys, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Sakura stood with her back turned towards the retreating Uchiha. She watched as his form was slowly sliding out of her view with every step he took. She didn't like this view of the raven haired boy. She couldn't explain what she was feeling but she didn't want Sasuke to be alone. She hated having to turn down her friend. Frankly, she did want to train longer for their tournament, but as of the moment she felt much too worried to really concentrate. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with her sensei. Although Kakashi and herself were never extremely close, Sakura still considered him family. She felt safe around him, she always knew he would protect her and if she ever needed someone to just vent to, someone who wouldn't judge her feelings and just listen, Kakashi was one of her favorite choices. She could tell whenever she talked about her feelings to her sensei he was often not paying the most attention, continuously reading pages of his favorite book, but it was obvious that he gave great advice and that he never turned her down albeit him having more important things to do. She appreciated her sensei and admired his will power and ability to hide his emotions. She was never good at hiding what she was feeling. Now, Sakura never wore her feelings on her sleeve but the pinkette liked talking about things and getting to know people on an emotional level. Sakura didn't know what was going on with her sensei but she wanted to figure it out, she was mentally contemplating how dumb it would be to try and tail the gray haired man, when Naruto's very un-whisper like whisper broke her concentration.
"Psst Sakura….Psst….. S-a-k—u-r-a!" Naruto attempted to discreetly whisper in fear of Sasuke over hearing.
Sakura snapped her head in his direction and gave him a disapproving look, "What" she mouthed silently.
"It was so lucky no one asked where I was going to be today, ya know?" He gave a childish grin afterward.
Sakura rolled her eyes, and smacked him on the head, "Naruto! He can probably still hear you!"
Naruto rubbed his throbbing skull, and gave her a shrug and a sheepish smile. "That Baka can't hear us from all the way over here" He giggled like he was holding in a huge secret. Sakura glared at him and crossed her arms much like a mother would.
Naruto immediately frowned and Sakura could practically see the cogs in his head trying to figure out why she was mad, she looked over her shoulder to make sure sasuke was gone and when she was certain that he was out of ear shot, she gave Naruto a serious look.
"You Dolt! Why didn't you ask sasuke?" Her voice held a small amount of anger, but her eyes held disappointment and worry. Naruto tilted his head, Sakura could tell he still wasn't understanding her even when she said it so plainly.
"Naruto…." She said slowly.
Naruto snapped his head toward her and she was surprised to instead of finding a silly facial expression to see a very thoughtful one. "Yeah, I know I should have invited him…..I'm sorry" he hung his head slightly and averted his eyes from her gaze.
"Then why didn't you? It was the perfect time!" Sakura was confused and agitated. Naruto lost all of his short timed seriousness, and squinted his eyes at his teammate, "HEY! You don't have any right to be angry with me! You could have easily asked him to hang out! At least I actually have a reason why I didn't!"
Sakura's eyes widened, she turned her head to the left and crossed her arms in a poutish way. She wasn't in the mood to deal with Naruto. She couldn't possibly invite Sasuke to hang out. She was going to have a sleepover at Ino's that night, sure she had the rest of the dya, but she wouldn't know what to do with him. As far as she knew, all sasuke did for fun was train, frankly she didn't want to get a surprise free day off and spend it training. She was hoping to go shopping for Naruto's birthday present and maybe help Ten Ten with a new wardrobe she was planning on getting. She had been forced to turn down both Ten Ten and Ino because she was trying to be a more responsible ninja and now she had the chance to go hang out with them without missing out on a mission. Sakura didn't feel obliged to explain all this to her blond teammate and she definitely didn't feel like going into to detail on how awkward inviting sasuke to hang out would be. I mean it's not like she could talk about how she was going to win sasuke's heart to sasuke himself!
Naruto on the other hand was having very similar thoughts. His face was scrunched up in both anger and firmly set in decision. He couldn't understand why it should be his job to invite Sasuke. Sure sasuke was his friend but he was often made everyone uncomfortable like he was just going to explode if someone said something wrong, not to mention he was always so cocky and arrogant. Naruto thought it was great during training but when he was hanging out, it wasn't all that awesome to always feel like he had to try and outshine the Uchiha. He assumed that Sasuke wouldn't come if he asked him anyway. Naruto didn't feel like being rejected, and he thoroughly believed if Sakura asked Sasuke to hang out that she stood a much better chance of getting a positive answer. Naruto also was trying to imagine the outcome if Sasuke said yes to his offer, now naruto wasn't often one to think ahead, but he was picturing a very messy conclusion. Naruto was having a guy's night. Iruka was letting him invite all his friends over for the weekend and they were all going to play the new game, The Shinobi War X. Naruto could barely contain his excitement, it was brand new and followed the story line of his favorite book series, which reminded the blond that he needed to get to the store and buy the game before it sold out. Naruto really doubted if "Teme sasuke" even knew what Shinobi War X was about. He figured that Sasuke would never read something so fun, and he would have bet his ninja headband that the prideful uchiha wouldn't want to come over to his house and play a game with all of naruto's friends. So frankly, Naruto didn't feel too guilty about trying to keep it a secret from the raven, he had been planning for this weekend and didn't want Sasuke to come and steal all his attention and possibly even figure out some horrible way to ruin his favorite book. Sasuke was an analyzer, he would suck the fun out of his weekend and Naruto really couldn't handle that. He believed sasuke would have better things to do, probably something strange like training or maybe staring off into space…
Naruto then looked back to where his angry teammate used to be standing. Sakura was staring off in his direction also, both her and naruto's faces held a look of concern. They both knew that Sasuke was their friend and they had a strong bond with him no matter what, but he was very distant despite both of their efforts to become closer to him. It's not like they hadn't asked him to hang out before, he always turned them down. As of late he had been even mopier than usual. It had been hard to be around him ever since he had trained with Kakashi. Unless they were training or forced him to be with them, he would disappear from the area. The Uzimaki didn't understand his teammate's actions. If he was lonely than why didn't he just surround himself with people who cared about him, people who would be his light in the darkness.
"What do we do now?" Sakura more whispered to herself than the blond, but Naruto heard her and just stared at her. For a couple of stressful seconds nothing was said, until Naruto grinned the way that comforted sakura and told her to relax.
"Naw" the blond shook his head, "stop your worrin' the bastard will be fine" He gave a goofy sideways smile, "He probably would just tell us we were botherin' him if we try to find him now. He'd probably want us to go have a good time."
Sakura listened to naruto and tried to convince herself that there was nothing wrong with sasuke. She had known that sasuke was having problems ever sense the attack in the Chunnin exams but she didn't think the bite on his neck was the thing bothering him as of now. It was different, the look in his eyes, they were plainly broken if one just looked close enough. She couldn't explain it any other way, than that of a reflection of broken glass. It was like he was seeing something that wasn't there, she knew he was hiding what he was feeling, to be frank, when didn't he, was the real question, but he always put on a strong face for them. That thought alone gave the pink haired girl comfort. It meant he hadn't lost himself. It warmed her to the core the fact that he was fighting to be strong for their team. For Naruto, Kakashi, and herself, she liked that thought…
She shook head hard, Now is not the time to be thinking like that, she scolded herself.
"Yeah, your right naruto, he would probably just say I was annoying, that jerk" she smirked and punched naruto in the arm. "Thanks, I was going to feel guilty for leaving him, but we've been doing that a lot lately and he seems pretty fine." Which was true, Sakura had been trying to respect the Uchiha's wishes and bugged him less, the three of them hadn't hung out socially sense…. Had they ever actually hung out in public, well, she thought, if you count that party last night, but we had to force him there?
She remembered how sasuke had acted after speaking to Danzou and she didn't like it, she usually respected her superiors but the cold root leader rubbed her the wrong way. She couldn't exactly put her finger on what, but there was definitely something very iffy about the man.
Naruto's face softened as he looked at his friend. Sakura was always amazed at how many emotions Naruto could have in less than five minutes.
"He'll be fine, you go have fun." Sakura said pushing Naruto in the direction of the village.
"Yeah, Yeah, you go do your girly shopping thing or whatever." Naruto said antagonizing.
Sakura smirked but didn't say anything. She knew if she was going to catch Ten Ten before she made plans to go out with someone else, then she couldn't stand around all day and talk to Naruto.
"Bye Sakura, I'd better get going then, I have to help Pops set up. He'll be happy to hear that he doesn't have to do it alone." Naruto said as he began to trot down the opposite side of the road that Sasuke went down.
Sakura smiled, she was very pleased Naruto had found himself a family. Even if it was just Iruka Sensei and himself, they were whole. They both had lost their families and now they found happiness and love with each other, something that both of the two, truly deserved.
Sakura turned towards sasuke's direction one last time, and then ran off towards the village. She was not going to worry. The pinkette headed towards her home, she'd have to find Ten Ten and Ino and tell them she was off for the day.
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"OOhhhh, you love him, don't you?" Ino all but shouted at the top of her lungs as she danced around her bedroom wearing her bright pink and yellow polka dotted Pj's.
Sakura's eyes went wide and her face turned a beautiful shade of pink. Naruto is my friend, but I definitely don't feel that way about him, she mentally slapped Ino for even saying something so absurd.
Sakura had easily found her best friend after she left the bridge that day. The cherry blossom knew all of Ino's favorite places and she found Ino exactly where she thought she would.
She had found the blond girl in the Noha community gardens. It was a dingy, very scruffy place but Ino loved it with her life none the less. She spent most of her days off in the small underused and less than cherished place. Even despite her parent's constant nagging that the old garden would never amount to anything, she still visited as often as she could. She spent long hours there trying to pull weeds and grow even just a smidgen of life, but even with all her effort the garden was just too much work for one girl. No one seemed to volunteer at the garden besides herself, so ultimately the garden would most likely never flourish. The constant missions she was given kept her away from the garden for such long periods of time, that by the time she returned, everything she had accomplished before her leave, was back to the way it was after all the work.
Sakura had asked her many times if she wanted help, even though she would probably be useless, never quite having a green thumb herself. Surly she believed she could water or pull weeds when Ino needed her to though. But Ino never agreed, always having the excuse that Sakura was just as busy as herself and that Sakura didn't really care about the garden and was only being a good friend.
After finding Ino crouched down on the ground covered in sweat and mud, obviously pulling pesky weeds, Sakura decided she should take her out for a late breakfast, and then they could find Ten Ten together.
They had done so, talking and gossiping all the while about Asuma's personal life and how he was most definitely in love with someone, but who, remained a mystery. Sakura didn't bring up Kakashi nor Sasuke. She didn't want to dampen the day with complicated thoughts such as those.
Finding Ten Ten was a much harder challenge but they eventually found her hanging around the seamstress's market, believing that it might be fun to take up sewing and create her own wardrobe. She turned the idea down though with some helpful persuasion from both her friends. They all agreed that none of them really had time to start useless hobbies.
Sakura lied down across Ino's princess styled bed, and thought of her wonderfully relaxing day. She hadn't had a day free since before the Chunnin exams and she reveled in how nice it was to just hang out with her friends.
Ten Ten giggled while looking into the full length mirror that was standing on the right of Ino's bed.
"Why does everything in your room look like it was made for a princess?" Ten Ten asked while grinning at Sakura who had squished herself into the soft mattress and let out a content groan of comfort.
All around Ino's room was decorated pieces of furniture to match that of a fanciful castle. The window on the far left side of the room was draped with cheap looking linen that was laced at the bottom. The walls were pale pink with an odd shade of gold trim, and the floor had a huge rug stretching across it with intricate designs threaded all around. The rug looked handmade or possibly passed down from long ago, from the shapes on it, one could easily assume there was an ancient language of sorts on it. The lace on the edges of the rug, were a little too yellow to be considered anywhere near new. Sakura had been to Ino's home many times before and new what the floor beneath the rug looked like. Underneath were old and quite worn floor boards that were an ugly shade of orange. It was plain throughout the whole room, that Ino had wanted a much more fancy appeal, but her parents really didn't have the money to support that cause. Ino had improvised as best she could, and her bedroom ended up looking like a kind of tacky princess's room, but sakura would have never told her friend that.
Ino snapped her head from where she had been dancing fluently like a ballerina, and gave Ten Ten a smirk. She skipped over towards the brunet and tiptoed in front of her.
"What? Are you jealous?" she grinned and tapped the half shocked half disgruntled Ten Ten on the nose.
Sakura leaned up on her elbows to be able to see her two friends better.
Ten Ten to Sakura's relief just shrugged her shoulders, "Eh whatever you say 'No No'" Ino growled at the little nickname but walked away from her friend's side anyway.
She plopped down beside Sakura and leaned on her elbow in a very bored way. She groaned out loud when no one immediately attempted to entertain her.
The Kunoichi from across the room rolled her eyes, and then started pulling at her hair that was, as usual, wrapped up in two perfect buns.
"We could style Ten's hair? At least that would be interesting." Ino suggested after a minute of silence.
Sakura glared at her friend. Ino constantly tormented Ten Ten about trying a new hairstyle and she received the same answer every time.
"No. I know you don't like it, but at least it makes me look half way like I'm not just some little girl who can't fend for herself."
Ino turned over to her stomach and gave a small scream into her pillow, while Sakura rubbed the back of her head gently.
This was how it had always been. The three girls would, after gossiping about all they could, run out of things to do and talk about.
"Well I learned this new fighting move and?" Sakura tried to start but Ino cut her off by putting up her hand.
"Save it."
Even though Ino plainly didn't want to speak of ninja work, the girls couldn't come up with anything else going on in their lives. And that's how all three ended up with heads crouched together on Ino's twin sized bed, speaking in whisper of the day's strange events.
"Yeah, and Kakashi, he just left, without saying anything else. He seemed so distracted." Sakura explained to her two friends.
Ten Ten pursed her lips in obvious thought, while Ino began to fidget and worry her bottom lip.
"What?" Sakura asked but the blond kept her lips closed and shook he head dismissively. After a couple more attempts from Sakura to get her friend to speak, she finally gave in.
"Okay!" she said exasperatedly, "It's just….well Asuma gave us the weekend off also…..He said that we deserved the time off and I just assumed he wanted some time to mourn the third's death…. She trailed off, but then snapped her head back to reality and looked Sakura in the eyes. "Do you think Kakashi needed to mourn also?" Ino asked questioningly. She had had a hard time speaking of Sarutobi's death and it was even worse trying to talk about her sensei's feelings on the matter, due to him being so close to the Hokage and all.
The girls continued to talk of this theory, when the 'oh so silent' Ten Ten finally spoke.
"No it's not that….. She stated defiantly.
Both younger girls' looked to the brunet with raised eyebrows.
"Why not?" They asked in unison.
Ten Ten pushed some stray pieces of brown hair behind her ear before she elaborated on the matter.
"Well, I think I finally put it together." She looked at her two friends, and they could see the surprise in her eyes, looking as if she just figured out a puzzle. "You see, it was really strange when Gai sensei gave us the weekend off, but of course, I thought nothing of it…
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Sasuke didn't run, an uchiha would never stoop to running from something in fear, but yes sasuke did walk away from his old home as quickly as wouldn't look suspicious. Many emotions were running through the young boy, no one could have guessed of course, for his stare remained blank and almost lifeless if you didn't look too closely.
Sasuke stopped walking when he felt he was far enough away. He hadn't realized but his breathing had quickened to fast, almost hyperventilated pants. He now took a moment to just get his breathing and heartbeat under control.
He glared at the sky which was gray with many swirling clouds. He hated how he felt when he was close to his childhood home. He hated how he couldn't control himself no matter how hard he tried. It made him feel weak and pathetic. The raven haired boy growled under his breath. He hated that he couldn't stop him! He lunged at a nearby tree punching it with as much force as he could muster. He wished he was stronger! He punched the tree yet again and it shook all the way down to the stump. He didn't want to be powerless. He didn't want to have to be protected by others, why couldn't people leave him alone like he deserved! Again and again he punched the tree until his fist was bleeding and leaves were falling from the branches. He didn't deserve peoples' protection, why did they feel they had to save him, why did the hokage have to care about him. Sasuke had never helped him before!
Sasuke was furious, as he slammed the bark with his bleeding knuckles not caring how much each splinter of wood cut into his fist. Guilt was eating the boy alive, and he didn't know what to do. Everywhere he looked he saw her face. Recent events with the hokage had brought back the memories he had so thoroughly buried and now he was consumed by anger and misery.
He threw one last punch before slumping down to the ground, and breathing very hard from how much force he used. He looked down at his bleeding hand where finally, the pain started to creep up on him. His eyes widened at the amount of blood coming from his beat up hand, a flash of a memory flooded through his mind. He tried to block out the thought but he couldn't seem to stop the images.
It was cold, not the kind of cold where you are you feel like dying, but the crisp kin, that is just bitter enough to make your skin turn red from being outside and you feel a horrible misery from the temperature. Small buildings claimed the land, but not in an unnatural way. The tiny homes that lined the streets were shingled dully, and were quite inferior to beautiful land surrounding the town. It was almost like the houses didn't leave an impact on the town.The buildings were unusually small, and many of the homes looked about ready to fall apart.Large gates sat at the prison like entrance to the town, and a very iconic crest of a hand-made fan adorned every wall. It was obvious, the pride the residents took from being from the secluded clan.
Wind blew harshly on all the tiny window of each feeble structure. But despite the cold weather every home was warm with the fire from the many different kinds of jutsu the people who lived there knew. No person with any common sense would be found outdoors on a day like this, but for a very young boy this was not the case.
He had a small frame but his body despite being young, was defined from every angle. He stood delicately, although his shoulders were slumped forward in an obvious sign of exhaustion. The boy stuck out of the dull empty scene like a sore thumb. His jet black hair was spiked sideways and glistening with sweat even albeit it being much too cold to work up much perspiration. He wore shorts and a t-shirt, they had burn mark everywhere through his clothing and any sensible parent would have told the boy to change his clothing and put on clothes that were actually fit for the harsh weather. The boy was shivering uncontrollably, but there was no sign that he looked as if he might stop anytime soon. His eyes held gray circles and his face set in a small frown of concentration. His eyes, although very tired looking, were a mesmerizing all the same. Onyx colored eyes that matched every other member of his family shone bright within his gray surroundings. They held a spark. Something that couldn't be acquired but only born with, it was the spark of a survivor. If anyone took the time to actually look at the boy, it was plain as day the determination, and strength in his gaze, but not only that but the wisdom that no young boy his age should have.
A loud voice shocked the young boy out of his motionless state. His back straightened almost immediately and his eyes widened. He listened carefully to a harsh voice instruct him,
"Worthless brat, can't even throw a simple punch the right way…. Did I tell you, you could stop?... Get back to training, you obviously need it."
Sasuke bowed his head low, and turned back to the tall stone in front of him. He put his fist up and began hitting the rock with all his might, wincing every now and then when his hand would bleed more profusely than before. the reason behind his strange way of punching was that his wrist had recently broken from a very cruel training session with his father. Now, whenever he straightened his wrist the right way, a shocking jolt of pain shot through his whole left arm.
Sasuke remembered that day, actually not that day in particular, but the series of training sessions that followed his constant failures. The pain was drilled into his brain and so were his father's words. The words of Fakagu Uchiha played throughout Sasuke's head. Sasuke glared at the ground taking a deep breath. He rubbed his wrist unconsciously at the thought of how many times it had been broken from the mere effort he put into his training.
The raven haired boy heard a drop of something, like the sound of a faucet. He looked down and saw that his blood was beginning to puddle on the ground. He clutched his hand to his chest. He realized begrudgingly, that he would have to wrap it, unless he wished for it to become infected.
Sasuke turned on his heal and started towards the training grounds. He knew they carried stock of medical gear and planned to wrap up his wound when he got there. He had learned long ago how to take care of wounds properly and he made sure to put a significant amount of pressure on his hand as he walked.
While he walked he let a hollow emptiness take over his face, so no one dared to try to speak to him. He didn't feel too social at the moment and he was starting to feel glad that sakura and naruto weren't trying to find him. He was sure his façade would break in the face of the caring sakura or the everlasting kindness of his blond teammate. He truly liked their caring nature towards him, the way they acknowledged his existence and didn't just take him for face value, but he knew that it couldn't last. After speaking to Danzou he knew he was a danger to everyone around him, he couldn't risk hurting anyone else. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle loosing anymore people in his life. The guilt alone would eat him alive. He believed it was best this way. At least alone the only one who would be hurt would be himself, which gave immense comfort to Sasuke. He could hold out alone and become strong that way, no one would even think about having to protect him, they might fear him, but sasuke believed he could live with that.
He arrived at the training grounds and he didn't stop. He made his way straight to one of the many healing huts and wrapped his hand with gauze after cleaning it. He hoped no one asked how he had gotten his hand hurt. He smirked, "oh I just punched the heck out of a tree because I was so angry at the world" he forced the smile to leave his lips, but the thought continued to amuse his mind.
Sasuke decided to train seeing at he was already there at the grounds.
The raven liked Konoha's training arena. It rivaled the one of the uchiha compound tenfold. The place was set up in sections of which you wished to improve yourself upon. If you were a healer, there were many huts with all the medical supplies you could wish for. If it was speed and agility you wanted to accomplish a higher standard to, the area to the left and a little ways down the road was perfect. It was designed like a super huge obstacle course. Sasuke had seen Naurto many of times try and fail to actually run through the whole thing. Sasuke felt a small sense of self pleasure as he thought back to the times he had gotten through the harsh maze of obstacles. He had to give the dobe credit though, for sasuke was slightly smaller than his blond teammate and he had always had a very well developed sense of body control.
He frowned when he started to remember the downfall to his smaller than average frame. He imagined Naruto and himself in the dueling arena. Ugh! It had been quite awful. The arena was like a large circle with invisible strings around all the edges. Anyone on the inside of the lines was stripped any chakra. The occupants were forced to use pure strength to win against their opponents. Sasuke couldn't even activate his sharingan in the small stadium. The young uchiha never thought naruto would throw such a hard punch! His jaw was bruised purple and an ugly green color for a good couple of days before the swelling subsided. To say the least Sasuke had the crap beat out of him that day, he had actually started to contemplate eating ramen as much as the blond, he had to get his amazingly powerful strength somewhere?
He decided to train in a place that he didn't quite lack in and more so just wanted to practice. He made his way towards the right of the training grounds. He walked until he saw a single stall. The walls weren't higher than a foot of the ground, just enough high enough so you could tell when you were inside the stall. You could see and watch anyone else training in the stall if you wished, for the wall was barely a foot off the ground, leaving the rest of it open. Sasuke often avoided this place for that very reason. He hated to be watched while he did anything but especially training. People seemed a little too curious to scrutinize "The Uchiha Heir" and his technics. He settled himself into the stall and sat down on a small stool, deciding to fill his pouch on his calf with the provided weapons sitting on a small shelf to the boy's left.
The stall was about 50ft long and 20ft wide, at the far end of the small area was a high glass wall. The sun was continuously rising on the other side and the heat magnified from the glass right into sasuke's face. He didn't mind though, he was always cold and he wanted his body warm for the exercise he was going to perform. He always had better aim when he could focus on the target rather than what his body was feeling.
He picked up a shuriken from his pouch and stood facing the glass wall. He took a deep breath and pressed a small button on the floor with his left foot.
His muscles immediately tensed and he squinted his eyes in concentration. He took a calming breath and stepped his right foot back in an attack position.
Almost as if on cue, a ticking of a clock could be heard and the uchiha wound pack just a little farther, his eyes darting to top of the glass where a virtual clock appeared and started counting the seconds.
Sasuke's eyes then scanned the area he was in. He was starting to feel glad that he chose to come here. No one usually came to the training grounds at this time. The Uchiha assumed it had to be around 12:00 for the sun was right above him and anyone with common sense would be eating lunch.
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the beginning of movement, he positioned his body to identify the movement and when it came into view he threw the Shuriken with lighting speed and accuracy. The floating object disappeared into the air but Sasuke didn't have even a second before more virtual targets came at him.
Sasuke watched as targets appeared in thin air and started to move and fly around him. The uchiha moved with amazing agility, hitting every target as they appeared. He struck them right in the center of the circular loops. He soon became bored with this, and again reached over with his foot and hit the button. He checked the clock and it read five minutes, 63 targets hit. He smiled to himself.
Just as fast as everything turned on and he started to shoot targets, everything stopped. He reached toward the ground with his hand. His fingers brushed over the soft grass that was under him. He reached forward and touched the button he had used to turn on the simulator. He gripped it within his fingertips and turned it in a full circle.
He jumped to his feet and grabbed another shuriken from his pouch. At lightning speed, everything seemed to start at once. The clock began ticking again, sasuke's breathing quickened and the real challenge began.
A blue form of wispy air started to take shape in front of the raven. It morphed until it resembled that of a ninja and then began to jump around. Sasuke trained his eyes on it, never loosing sight of its motions. It jumped and flipped around in a very agile way, although sasuke could see that the movements were obviously planned, it was still hard to follow.
He threw his shuriken at it, hitting it directly at the virtual ninja's chest splitting into a hundred little sparks.
This was by far sasuke's favorite training station at the grounds. He always found it fascinating the way it was programmed to create virtual ninja that you could train with, when you had no one to spar with you. He felt like the simulation was made for him.
He tightened his grip on another throwing star, and readied his stance. Four more virtual ninja appeared and began leaping in different directions. One landed right behind him, and he just barely avoided the kunai that the ninja behind him threw. Eight blue glowing ninja were now in the small arena surrounding sasuke. The raven had nearly been hit with a hundred different weapon attacks and sasuke began to sweat from the effort he put into dodging. He tried to make an attack several times but every time he steadied himself to throw, he would have to jump or flip out of the attack zone.
The ninja were getting smarter and started to sense sasuke's counter moves and began planning for him to move out of the way. Sasuke bit his bottom lip. He felt his body start to shake from the anticipation from what he knew he was going to do. He focused his chakra to one source and felt the flood of power flow through his veins. He opened his eyes wide and growled in his throat. He could see everything so much clearer, the attacks, the ninja, even the blades of grass that had dew on them from earlier that morning. His senses now magnified; everything seemed to make sense. Sasuke's eyes were blood red with the power of the sharingan, with a small black tear shaped drop on the right of his pupil.
Sasuke began his attack throwing shuriken left and right. His attacks were exactly on point, hitting the ninja right in chest where they would then turn to sparks. More continued to appear and his heart was beating fast as the strain of the sharingan took place. He felt a dull pang in his neck when he had activated it, on the spot Orochimaru had bitten him, but now it was almost like his neck was continuously being burned with fire. The pain would subside when he closed his eyes, but it would start all over again every time he opened them. His limbs felt like jelly, it was taking all his strength in just the attempt to keep standing instead of curling on the floor in pain. If it was any other young teen they would have done just that, but Sasuke learned at a very young age to never let pain get in the way of what you were doing.
He held his breath as the pain continued on, beginning to shoot up his spine and he had to stop fighting for just a moment to regain his bearings. He contemplated turning off his sharingan to take a break but he felt a cold wave shoot through his core. He opened his closed eyes in shock and stared down at his stomach. A blue kunai was struck through it, he felt a swirl of nausea for a moment because he thought the kunai was real, but he soon realized he wasn't bleeding and it was obviously one of the ninja that hit him. The machine turned off and all the ninja disappeared. Apparently he had lost the simulation. He frowned deeply at his score. He was about to break his record of 101 ninja hit, in less than an hour and half, but he had to go and let the pain get the best of him.
He was grouchy as he trudged out of the training grounds and down the road. His mood was far better than when he came of course, so he could call it win. His stomach was growling persistently but he still didn't feel like eating. He knew he would pass out from how much chakra he used if he didn't find something to eat. Wanting to stay out of the house and the fact that sasuke only had instant ramen; he made his way towards the civilian side of the village to get something to eat. It wasn't too far from the training arena because it was located right in the center between the two sides of village.
Sasuke could still feel the impact of the kunai in chest where he was hit. It was cold, and hollow, the kunai was fake of course so it didn't cause any real damage, but every time sasuke was hit he did feel strange afterward. He checked his front pocket that held his money. He counted up around 5,000 yen, which wasn't to impressive considering he hadn't spent money on anything besides rent in the last four weeks.
He scratched his head, and just decided that he would go to the cheapest place he knew. He walked down the streets of Konaha until he made it to a very small shop. It was decorated fancifully with little lanterns and gold tassels from the awning. He walked through the door and the bell jingled just like it always did. The restaurant was called Ichiojo's Shokudo. Sasuke had been there many of times, when he was low on money and was scraping for food.
Sasuke knew that this restaurant wasn't the best place for him to eat, for it wasn't like the ninja restaurants that provided food that held certain nutrients that helped ninja regain chakra, but it was the best he could afford, for those specific restaurants were much more expensive. Ichiojo's was strictly a civilian diner, and had no special meals so ninja wouldn't often choose to eat there. Anyone who came into the shop could tell that it was definitely a 'mama papa' joint, but that was possibly another reason why sasuke enjoyed it. They made traditional food that was always homegrown. The raven being the health freak he was, only ate food that held no preservatives and that had almost no fat.
He sat down at an empty table, which was pretty much any place he chose, for the shop did not have too much business. Despite having such low prices, Ichiojo's didn't serve the most popular dishes so the place was usually empty.
Sasuke sat at the window so could see out into the village. He was no longer angry about having lost to a bunch of virtual ninja and felt content just watching the clouds move across the sky. He saw that the sky still held dark gray clouds just like the day before, but the smallest bit of sunshine was coming through and that was good enough for him. He loved the warm weather and wished it would stay all year, but it was October now, and he knew winter would be coming soon.
He grimaced as his childhood memories of winter came back to him, he was slowly submitting the thoughts, when a voice broke his concentration. He snapped his head towards the voice because he had recognized it immediately. It was light and airy with an undertone of some kind of twang that could only be acquired by growing up around someone with the same sort of accent.
A boy, about his age, wearing a nice button down blue shirt and white kakis with a small apron over his chest, stood smiling childishly at him. The apron was light pink and had the restaurants logo on it.
The boy had bright eyes that were almost neon green and striking white hair. He looked almost fictional to sasuke with his joyful attitude towards customers, and innocent aura. Sasuke was positive he could base a comedy around him.
"Cha! Did you hear me? What do ya wanna eat sas?!" sasuke glared at the nickname but didn't comment as the boy smiled at him, 'patiently' awaiting him to order. Sasuke knew the boy fairly well. He always waited tables whenever sasuke was there. The Uchiha was pretty positive his parents or possibly some other relative owned the place.
Sasuke glanced at the unmoved menu on the table, having not touched it for he knew what he wanted, or more so what he could actually pay for.
"hn, I'll have a number 2 rice" he said without even making eye contact.
The boy let out a small laugh, "are you sure that's it?...Well okay, suit yourself. HEY MRS'S ICHIOJO, WE NEED A NUMBER 2 RICE SPECIAL!" the boy called back toward the women at the counter.
"I'M RIGHT HERE YOU DIMWIT, I'LL BE WHOOPING YOUR BUTT IF YOU KEEP SCARING AWAY CUSTOMERS WITH YOUR YELLING!" the woman from the counter called back just as loudly.
The boy in front of sasuke mumbled a quick, "yeah right, like I'm the one scaring away customers" and the woman yelled an angry "I HEARD THAT" before the boy regained his smile and started washing the already wet table on sasuke's right. Sasuke noticed that the rag that the boy was using looked very dirty and was probably hindering the table rather than cleaning it, but didn't say anything.
"So, you want something drink? Or is water not healthy enough for ya?" he laughed at his own joke, but sasuke contained his scowl and settled for rolling his eyes.
After a moment, the grouchier person in the room gave a small grunt as his yes to the water, and the boy trotted off to go get it for him.
Sasuke turned his attention back to the window. He wondered what was wrong with Kakashi and how he could possibly help him, but he smashed his own thoughts by telling himself he couldn't get any closer to the man if he wanted to keep him safe. He didn't get to contemplate too long of course, 'which was possibly for the best,' because the white haired boy returned.
Sasuke took the drink and thanked the boy who went back to sweeping the floor that looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in ages. Sasuke kind of wanted the boy to keep talking to him. It occurred to him that he didn't even know his name, but he liked the strange boy despite barely knowing him. His aura was a nice shade of light pink, the color wasn't all that wild but it wasn't quite safe either.
He began to think back to the day's events. He thought about how it started and then to his training with his team. He was very impressed by Naruto's control over the nine tailed fox, or what sasuke liked to call Naruto's gateway to winning. All of team 7 had learned of the nine tail fox within naruto after the battle in the wave. Naruto had indeed improved greatly with being able to use it at his will.
Then he thought of Sakura and how much she had gotten stronger and even grown as a person. He was amazed at the chakra control she had and all the power in her punch. He still hadn't asked the pinkette who she had been trained by during their team's brief separation. He started contemplating her not being as annoying and wondered if it had something to with her knew substitute sensei. Lately he had kind of missed her motherly attitude and bossy demeanor. He wondered if she still had a crush on him, she probably did, but Sasuke didn't know If he would ever lover her that way. Not that she wasn't pretty or kind, but he just didn't feel connected to her, but he started thinking that maybe he would never feel that way about someone, when the feeling of being watched set over him.
He glanced to his right unnoticeably and saw with almost a look of hate across his face the white haired boy. Sasuke again thought about how he didn't know his name, so when he tried to ask what was wrong, he stopped abruptly. The boy's glare at Sasuke didn't waver as he flitted around the room sweeping up dust just to put it in a corner and then move it back to another.
He kept his head turned toward the onyx eyed boy as if trying to burn him. Sasuke was not alarmed by this fact at all, for it happened much too often for it to come as a surprise. The raven couldn't wrap his head around it, but all he knew was that at one point the boy could be considered a little fairy of joy, and the next he loathed Sauske like he was some kind of murderer…. Sasuke ended that thought quickly as disturbing memories flooded his mind. He shook his head and decided to have some fun.
He stared back with a grin on his face, in an almost psychotic way, watching the boy wherever he went, never blinking to make sure it was disturbing and uncomfortable for the boy.
Instead of Sasuke's plan intimidating the boy, he smiled back at Sasuke with a kind and gentle look.
Sasuke swore mentally, This kid's got to be bi- polar or something!
Sasuke returned to the training grounds after his meal, he wanted to get some more hours of ninja training before the nightfall when he had to return to his apartment.
He walked to the basic training area, where he could practice ninjutsu and possibly strengthen his chakra stamina. It was a really generic place with small individual stalls for everyone to train. It was made for the solo trainer, and taught a lot of simple jutsu and standard ninja level technics. He didn't feel like learning something new at the moment and he figured that it would be best to try and get a better handle on his sensing abilities. He usually meditated to keep them in check but as of late it hadn't been helping as much. He knew that if he ever wanted to become a higher level ninja that lead missions he would have to take down his weaknesses one at a time, starting with one that was both practical and truly important. If he couldn't be around people with auras like the guy who was at the party the night before than he knew he could never withstand the dark auras of any real threat. Being as unstable as he was would put all his teammates in danger and he didn't need any more guilt on his conscious.
Sasuke had only been to beginner area once, not having much chance to visit becaasue he had only recently been cleared to be allowed to come. Kakashi had been the one to help him get permission to train on the grounds, but really that just meant him threatening the council. Sasuke had only been allowed on the training grounds for roughly six months. The council was very hesitant to grant him access, but with a little persuasion he was finally allowed. The council strongly disliked the Uchiha family and didn't try very hard to hide it. There were many places in the village sasuke wasn't permitted to go to, all just because of his name. He never brought it up to Kakashi or anyone for that matter; he knew for a fact that his sensei couldn't change it, and although it would be nice to take some weight off his shoulders and talk about it with someone, frankly, he believed that he shouldn't burden anyone with his problems.
Sasuke took a deep breath from where he stood in the middle of a big area that was outdoors, it was close to the forest so Sasuke could hear the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. It was one thing sasuke liked about Konaha, the forests. The Uchiha compound didn't really have any trees, for they burned easily and Uchiha never worried about the landscape. They were much more occupied with their work and status. Most uchiha loved the indoors, sasuke remembered how he almost never saw his mother leave the house. She lived a simple life and Sasuke often wondered if she wanted more than that for herself. The raven on the other hand, loved being around nature. Being inside for long of periods of time made him ill at the thought, so he spent as much time as he could outdoors. It flushed out his senses and it let him breathe more freely. It was harder to sense people's aura because it floated away with the wind, and that was just the way the raven wanted it.
He started his training by just doing the 25 basics of the ninja. The students were taught at the academy those moves first. A ninja always went back to the basics to learn any new move, so Sasuke felt justified in jogging his memory of them for a warm up.
Sasuke had always had a very strong work ethic and often times pushed his limits, but he couldn't help it of course. Kakashi often teased him about it, saying it was "The Uchiha desease."
It had been close to four hours of training and Sasuke didn't feel the least bit more in control of his senses. He thought that maybe he should look around the training grounds to find a place that maybe focused on sensing, but he didn't feel like running in to any people at the moment so he stayed where he was.
Sasuke realized with a scowl, that he didn't like training alone as much as he used to. He hoped that his mind was just confused because he had for so long trained with Kakashi. He found himself missing the man's presence, even if he didn't admit it to himself. Sure Kakashi didn't talk too often, but it was just enough to fill the void Sasuke felt within himself. It wasn't annoying, and he never talked about things that made Sasuke uncomfortable. It wasn't in the "I'm trying to avoid certain subjects but I really want to ask" sort of way, but instead they had an unspoken, mutual understanding that they both had problems and that now was not the time to discuss them. For Sasuke it was nice, because he had never had someone that really seemed like he cared for Sasuke the way Kakashi did. He was supportive without being pushy, kind without being optimistic, and most of all…safe. Sasuke never felt safe, what with all the ANBU walking around and Danzou seeming to always be watching him, but with Kakashi, Sasuke felt like they couldn't get to him, no matter how irrational that was. It had only been six months, six measly months and Sasuke had already let himself get too deep of a connection with him. It was like Kakashi could see right through him, or maybe see exactly what Sasuke was underneath his façade and it scared Sasuke as much as he relied on it. The raven was close to letting his barriers down to his sensei, he had come so close many of times to opening up about his past to him, but he managed to stop himself every time right before he could form the words.
Sasuke growled. Another reason it was nice to have Kakashi around was that his mind couldn't wonder. He grit his teeth and focused his chakra to his senses and tried to retract his mind from noticing other's auras. He felt the invisible circle around him shrank slightly, as he attempted to reel it in. He was satisfied when it retracted a little more, he tried to pull it back again, but to his upmost disgust, it snapped back immediately, making a circle, even larger than before.
He crumpled to the ground in anger, rubbing his temples. He couldn't believe he had improved so little after all his training over the past couple of weeks. His bones felt like crap, they felt that if he would straighten his joints they would squeak as if he was rusted. It happened every time he used too much of his chakra. Trying to retract his ability took more effort than creating the lightning blade tenfold. He had used much too much chakra, especially after not eating breakfast and then only having a bowl of rice for lunch. He knew it was unhealthy but he figured having civilian ramen day and night was just as bad. His bones felt empty and after trying to dislodge himself from his senses for so long he was completely useless. It was like pulling a pendulum backwards and now it was coming to smack him in the face. He felt everything stronger than ever and dizziness swept over him. He couldn't even decipher whose aura's was whose anymore. He just felt a large tightening ball of explosion inside him. He had never gotten that close to breaking away and now he wished more than ever that he hadn't. His body unconsciously shook in effort to withstand the different feelings.
He jumped slightly when he felt a new presence, but much closer than he could have imagined. He whipped around behind him, trying to figure out how he hadn't noticed the person coming, but he chocked it up to being too occupied by everything else.
His eyes widened considerably when he saw who had come into the basic training area. One of the last people he imagined would have come to this area to train. This area is mostly for civilians? That's why I came here, why would someone as powerful as her be here? A girl with dark blue, almost black hair, it was chopped short around the bottom of her neck and the small amount of sun glared off it making it shimmer slightly stood a little ways off from where Sasuke was. She was covered in a layer of sweat and she looked close to exhausted. What got Sasuke's attention was her translucent white eyes. Her eyes were gazing off in the distance, but her eyebrows slightly scrunched in concentration.
Sasuke knew immediately who she was. The byakugan eyes gave away her blood line, Neji's cousin! He was shocked to see that she was alone. Neji wasn't anywhere to be found, which was weird to sasuke because they kind of came as a pair. Wherever the Huga girl went, neji followed, obviously whether he wanted to or not.
He still couldn't focus his senses to well, there was no way that he would be able to see if Neji was just watching from nearby, but that was what Sasuke assumed anyway. The raven noticed he was staring and looked away without thinking farther on the subject. He tried to concentrate on calming himself but he couldn't clear his mind with her right behind him. He didn't like to have his back turned on a possible enemy. It was true that the Huga's had, had a rough past with the Uchiha and didn't converse often. Why? Sasuke didn't quite know, but he knew that he should at least attempt to find out. He thought about heading over to the bookstore later to find a something on their history, but realized with annoyance that he didn't have money to do that, and then he almost smacked himself. There was no way a common bookstore was going to have a book on the Uchiha and Huga relationship.
Sasuke moved slightly to the left so half his face was toward the dark haired girl. He crossed his legs in a meditating position and looked over at her one last time before closing his eyes. Looking over at her wasn't very smart, having direct contact with someone even just by looking at them straight on could cause his senses to go haywire. He felt a flood of exhaustion whoosh through him, but also the feeling of determination. He wondered if it was just coincidence, but for some reason he felt like that was what the girl across from him was feeling. She stretched her thin arms out and looked as if she was training in the basic sets of ninja art just as Sasuke had been. She was going a lot slower of course, but still the same technic. The raven figured that she was doing some kind of cool down. She looked like she had some kind of plan when she came in. he wondered if she did this often, but then he remembered that he had never seen the girl here before.
Sasuke continued his meditating, every few minute glancing over to watch the Huga. He wouldn't admit it, but he was impressed with the balance and muscle control she had. It looked effortless the way she performed. He scowled in jealously in the way she didn't even falter in the swiftness of the steps. She did them continuously, never stopping to take a breath, despite looking as tired as she did.
She had her eyes closed the whole time in concentration, and effort.
Sasuke forgot he was watching her and didn't try to hide the fact that he was obviously both surprised and annoyed at how well she was performing.
Two white eyes snapped open because she must have felt the cold shock that someone was watching her. The translucent colored eyes traveled all the way over towards Sasuke's pitch black ones, what she saw shocked her and she fumble her next movement.
Sasuke felt a bone fracturing jolt run through him as she looked him straight in the eye. It was only for a split second their eyes met but it was enough for Sasuke to finally pen point her aura among the rest.
The raven hadn't noticed; much to occupied with trying to study her technic, but his senses had settled down. When her eyes met his, he got a freezing wave of a complete connection to her being. Instantaneously he stood, and started walking out of the training grounds, he felt very sick again and his brain was throbbing. It wasn't as bad as the night before, but it surely wasn't helping still being in her presence, especially with her innocent gaze.
The white eyed girl stared after him, confused but also worried. She thought about asking if he was alright, but remembered that she still had hours of the night to fill with more training, and didn't want to waste the time she had. She had not been called on a mission for the weekend and was planning to spend it the way she always did, training.
Sasuke walked quickly out of the training grounds. As he passed other people training he felt his headache worsen slightly. He almost started to run as he made his way to the exit but used all his willpower to stay as close to "in control" as possible.
He leaned against a tree when he believed himself to be far enough away from any people, and just took a moment to breath.
After Sasuke recovered as best as he was going to, he made his way back to his apartment, for once actually listening to the call of exhaustion his body was screaming.
He silently walked through the small alley on the way to his house, trying to attract as little attention to himself as possible. Sasuke had always been good a keeping quiet, unlike both his teammates he knew how to go by unnoticed. It hurt when he moved to much but he really didn't care.
Once he locked his front door he practically collapsed on his couch. He couldn't figure out why the Huga girl's aura affected him this way, but it sure touched some kind of nerve inside him. He tried to remember, now that he wasn't in so much pain, the color of her aura. He racked his brain for what color it was and how he felt when he was pulled into it, but he came up with nothing. He could only recall the throbbing pain through his insides when she looked him in the eye. He wondered if it was just because his senses had been so strong or if it was something else.
It was just barely 5:00, but Sasuke was considering just going to sleep. He didn't really wish to, for the nightmares he knew he would endure, but darkness was taking him under and he could do nothing to fight it.
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Hi everyoneJ
I appreciate anyone who has actually read this far. (I'd be surprised if you did) I'm sorry that this chapter was probably kind of confusing and sad, but I promise it will all be explained. The actual story plot will begin in the next chapter, at least part of it will. I hope you find the story enjoyable so far. I'm really trying to focus on the relationships between the characters, and hope you are not too bothered by the possible Out of Character, parts. The story will not follow the show much at all.
If anyone has any questions, you can comment or message me and I'll do my best to answer them:)
