A/N: AHA! Chapter 3!
Chapter 3
Sakura saw her two teammates approaching. They met exactly at the middle of the clearing, exactly at 5:30 am.
"Ohayo!" Sakura smiled sweetly, waving to her two disgruntled colleagues.
Naruto was groggily dragging himself across the grass, trying to wake himself up. It was too early to be awake! Is it even legal to be up this early?
Sasuke, on the other hand, was casually walking, hands stuffed in pockets, backpack harnessed across his chest. "hn,"
"So, where's Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked drearily. He saw his two teammates shrug in response. Obviously, they didn't know. He plopped down on the ground butt first. He couldn't keep his eyelids open. They were drooping, wishing for some sleep.
Sasuke watched as the fox boy fell asleep on the morning dew. 'Weakling.'
Sakura saw Naruto on the grass, laying down as if it were a silky soft bed. He curled up like he was hugging a pillow, and she watched as his dreams droned on. 'He needs the sleep.' She thought with a kind heart. She looked at her other teammate, standing up adjacent to her. He was looking out into oblivion, deep in thought. She watched, observing his agony. He lost as much as her. He lost his parents to death, his brother to power. What more, he lost himself.
Hours passed. Reactions arose, like "Where the hell is Kakashi-sensei!" and "Shut up dobe." followed by groans of pain or distress.
At about nine'o clock, Hatake Kakashi bunshined right in front of his student. "Sorry I was late, I got lost on the path of--"
Naruto and Sakura collectively released their anger on the word "LIAR!", pointing to their tardy teacher.
"Anyways."
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Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura stood, listening attentively to their sensei.
Kakashi lifted up two bells. "The gaol is to get one bell from me before noon--or else."
"Or else what?" Naruto asked innocently.
"Or else--no lunch." He said darkly.
The blond Kyuubi container gasped in surprise.
"Ready?"
Naruto lunged at his teacher with a kunai, only to be caught swiftly and twisted to have his own kunai at his neck.
"I didn't say 'go' yet."
He released the orange clad genin.
...
...
...
"GO."
Three flashes of the colors blue, pink and orange leaped into the forest.
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Sakura watched Naruto's foiled attempt to head on attack their jounin sensei. He was now hanging upside down from a rope on a tree.
"No fair! I can't believe it!" and other stuff like that, rolled of the blond's tongue.
"Well, you should have thought that out first." Kakashi said, not bothering to look up his little orange book.
Three shuriken spun towards the silver-haired teacher. 'Nonono! You took it too far!'
Smoke billowed from where Kakashi once stood. In his place, there lay a wooden tree log.
...
...
And a pink haired kunoichi, staring at a blond shinobi sprawled over the dirt.
"Naruto...do you plan to get up anytime soon?" She asked innocently, offering her hand.
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Sasuke saw everything.
Naruto was hanging upside down. Kakashi was totally off guard--or so he thought. His shuriken were thrown with accurate precision, but Hatake had to use substitution jutsu.
And how did Sakura get there?
He jumped out, armed with a kunai. He lunged at his teammate, hoping to knock her out. His foot collided with something., hopefully her jugular.
"TEME, WHAT THE HELL!?"
It wasn't. His foot was in her hand.
She twisted his 360 degrees in the air. She played around with a few hand seals, causing the wind to gather beneath him--catching him, letting him fall softly on the ground.
"Sasuke, if we want to get a bell, don't target me."
And she was gone.
'Dammit...when did she get so good?'
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Kakashi rested on a high branch, out of reach of his three students. In his hand, he held his naughty orange book.
No way any of his genin students would get him now.
Then, a flash of pink flew through the forest and collided with him with an 'oof'.
The pinkette looked at her silver-haired teacher innocently. "Ohayo, sensei." she smiled, bending down to inspect him. His seen eye was closed, to the point of believable unconsciousness.
WRONG.
Another substitution jutsu.
'Damn.'
Sakura saw the log in front of her, tracing back on Kakashi's behavioral instincts.
Another poof of smoke formed behind her. She pivoted, trying to kick the attacker. He was gone in an instant.
She stod up straight, analyzing her surroundings. Kakashi wasn't anywhere. She looked up, left, right, behind her. Nothing.
"Wind Cyclone Jutsu!" She shouted, being lifted in the air by twenty feet. Just in time, she thought, seeing a gloved hand pop out from the ground.
Kakashi was up on the ground in another poof of smoke. 'This kid is good.'
Sakura was still in midair as she formed another sequence of hand seals. "Snow blossom: Cutting Edge Jutsu!" in a moment, Sakura dissapeared in a whisp of petals. Kakashi's eye widened: no way a genin could do that even with proper training!
He dodged petals that were as sharp as knives floating through the air with awesome speed. Even with his own amazing speed, the petals followed him through the forest, cutting through the trees and branches.
A clean cutting sound was heard. The petals halted, falling limp on the ground. Another gust of wind, Sakura's body regain shape.
Kakashi looked at his student with awe and wonder: she was the smallest, the weakest, the most frail...she was teammates with an Uchiha and the Kyuubi boy! And yet, she rose to the top, seeing that a little silver bell hung from her finger. 'And under an hour.'
"Gotcha Kakashi-sensei." She smiled, flashing a peace sign at him.
"Good job Sakura." He said, smiling behind his mask. "Why don't you head on to the clearing while I continue with Sasuke and Naruto?"
Sakura nodded and headed to the clearing obediently.
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Sakura sat in the clearing, adniring the trees from below. She sat like a little child, sprawling her legs out and leaned backward, supporting herself with her arms. Her pink hair flew freely as her head was hung backwards, as she watched the sky in a daze.
Suddenly, a cloud of smoke formed in front of her. There was Kakashi. "Well done Sakura. You were the only one who got a bell." She clapped his hands lazily, his eye in it's upside-down U position.
"Thanks sensei." She said, getting up and rubbing invisible dust off her dress. She heard leaves rustling, and next think you know, Naruto and Sasuke jumped out of the trees.
"Well, I see you guys barely made it." Kakashi commented, seeing his two male students panting heavily.
"SAKURA-CHAN! WHY ARE YOU HERE SO FAST??!!!" Naruto exclaimed.
Sasuke stayed silent, but was as shocked at the Kyuubi container. She was there, standing with arms crossed casually, smiling radiantly and smelling like fresh grass and cherries. What else, she didn't have a single scratch on her. He looked at himself and Naruto--Pating heavily, tired from random sparring incidents with teacher or teammate, running through the forests and manuevering against their teacher's jutsus.
"You guys look hungry." Kakashi piped up, napping them out of their trance.
Both boys nodded as their teacher pulled out the two bento boxes from out of nowhere.
"Too bad. you will be tied to those," Kakashi pointed to the three logs behind him. "While Sakura eats this bento box right in front of you two."
Sakura gulped. She couldn't stand her teammates, but that didn't mean she could torture them like that.
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"AIYYAAAA!!!! KAKASHI-SENSEI!!! THIS IS SO UNFAIR!!!!!!!!!" Naruto cried out as he was strapped on to a log. Sasuke was in the same position, tied beforehand, but all he did was grunt and scoff...a lot.
Sakura watched from her seat by the memorial stone. Her teammates looked weird tied to the logs...not at all high and mighty and powerful at all. It was actually quite entertaining.
"It's weird, ya know." Kakashi said, putting on his funny-teacher-lecture-y voice. He gave a dark chuckle as he continued. "Seeing that the only one who came back with a bell was the girl in this team." He paused, letting the message sink in. Naruto was awkwardly silent, and the Uchiha glared at his teacher with as much hatred as he could possibly build up. "I think I know the one person in our team who is one step closer to becoming Hokage."
"Shut up." Naruto commented dryly.
"And whatever happened to 'the Great Uchiha clan?'"
Sasuke bit his toungue, trying not to comment fiercely on that.
"Do you know why you failed? Do you even understand why you were put into teams? To look out for each other! To work TOGETHER!" He emphasized.
All three genin bowed their heads in guilt. All were criminals of breaking the shinobi law.
"Well, seeing that you two are way too bent on your dreams for giving up, I'm gonna give all of you a re-test."
'Aw man! We have to do it again?'
"But if Sakura's the only one coming back with a bell, ALL of you will be taken off the shinobi program permanently."
GULP.
The grave words dug deep into the threesome. No way Naruto would ever become Hokage. No way Sasuke could ever kill his brother. No way Sakura...
She can live normally...like a citizen, right?
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Shortly after she sat down and ate, a grumbling sound came from Naruto's stomach. "OWIEE!" he cried.
Sakura blinked. Kaka-sensei told her not to feed any of the boys, no matter how hungry they seem.
Then again, they were still her teammates, and even though they were mentally disturb, stuck up idiots, they were still human (to a point) and needed food.
Logic versus common sense.
'Logic...'
'Love.'
"Naruto..." She said, appearing right in front of the log he was attached to. She picked up her chopsticks and held a salmon sushi roll. "Open."
The blond obeyed. He chewed as she pulled her finger to her lips. He followed her direction as she pivoted to her other teammate.
"Don't. Naruto needs it more." He refused. Uchiha Sasuke wasn't to be offered food by a girl!
"Don't be such a loser Sasuke. Open."
Thunder crashed and lightning struck above them. The ground started shaking and grey skies plagued the once sunny day. "YOU DISOBEYED ME SAKURA." Kakashi appeared behind her, bellowing in his scariest voice. His eye showed an angry expression as the silver-haired jonin held his hands on his hips. "NOW ALL OF YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE EXPELLED FROM THE PROGRA--"
"NO!" Sakura cried. "I had to feed them! They're my teammates!"
Kakashi blinked as his student ranted on.
"I couldn't let them go hungry, even though I think they're idiots, they're my teammates! We're all teammates!"
"And teammates stick together!" Naruto added.
"And will always think of their comrades before themselves." Sasuke said with a scared/smug look on his face.
The thunder grew louder and the lightning glowed brighter in the background. The earth shoke beneath their feet, as their teacher's eye got angrier and angrier...
It was coming. Doomsday. They'll be expelled. They'll be laughed at, ridiculed.
"You pass." The day suddenly grew brighter at Kakashi's simple two words.
"Wha-what?" all three geinin seemed to stammer in unison.
"You pass. Is that so hard to understand?"
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Kakashi strolled by himself in the park, 'Icha Icha Paradise' at hand. His students already left. His very first students.
He examined them again. Naruto was...and idiot. Although he was a very important person in the village. He's very high-spirited. He can go far if he put his heart to it--and he usually did.
Sasuke was a loner, a silent-and-mysterious type...a genius that any girl would fall for. A survivor, extremely powerful.
Sakura. a kind, sweet, adorable girl. Loving and selfless. It wasn't questionable though, why she was a shinobi. Her family's power in one little girl was overwhelming.
So why put two geniuses in one team?
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A/N: review please!
sorry for the late update...my internet was like on, off, on, off the whole week.
again. REVIEW. NOW.
-Bella
