Disclaimer: I do not, have never, and never will own the Naruto Anime OR Manga; this is merely a fan fiction.
Summary: Sasuke returns and a tournament is held amongst people approximately 15-16 years old from Konoha as well as 3 certain Suna Shinobi with the reward of an automatic Rank up and S-class mission pay for the winner. (Possible spoilers for Shippuden manga/anime)
Pairings: Im starting to think of adding them in to this story, if you want pairings, tell me and give me some ideas, but NO Yaoi/Yuri, Naru/Hina or Sasu/Saku.
Ok, sorry, but I wanted to wait a bit again…. Still nothing though… but I will post 4 AND 5 as well as tell you that Im almost done 6… I would be done but I'm doing Exams, so Im a bit busy… oh well. Enjoy, and maybe you could review eh? I want to know if anyone is actually enjoying this. I will wait again if necessary. Untill then, Later!
"Ramen" –talking
'Ramen'-thinking
"Ramen"- Kyuubi talking
(Somewhere at some time) – Setting of the scene (I know I didn't put any in the last chapter…. I forgot, lol)
Katon-Jutsus
Snake-hand seals
The Tournament
Chapter 4: Getting things straight
(Uchiha mansion 7:00)
Sasuke's morning went fairly well, he got up late, had a nice shower and went down to see if he had any damn food in his house. But, as he was walking downstairs, he heard something going on in the kitchen,
'Oh god damnit, don't tell me its one of my old fan girls cooking me breakfast because she thinks she's my wife again…' Sasuke thought irritably, that used to happen all the time before he left. When he got downstairs, he saw none other than Haruno Sakura cooking breakfast.
"Um… Sakura? What the hell are you doing?" Sasuke asked in an exasperated voice.
Sakura looked over and gave Sasuke a warm smile, " Im cooking you some breakfast, I knew you wouldn't have any food here so I bought some and brought it down", She replied, still smiling
Sasuke sighed in relief, that wasn't nearly as creepy as the crazed fan girl thing. " Well… um… thank you" was all he could manage.
"Well, I was also hoping we could talk" Sakura said, looking intently at Sasuke
"What about?" Sasuke asked looking confused
"What happened between you and Naruto?"
'DAMNIT!' rang through the Uchiha's head "Um… what about me and Naruto?" (AN: bad grammars!)
Sasuke questioned, dreading the answer no matter which one it was
" I want to know what really happened between you and Naruto three years ago… when you left us and he chased you" Sakura stated bluntly
Sasuke's face became very serious very quickly, this was something that he really didn't want to talk about, but she did have a right to know. " Sorry, I don't seem to remember beating Naruto at all, I remember him clearly showing me he could have ripped my head off, and me only knocking him out, he could have killed me, but he didn't, I was lucky the…" Sasuke paused; did she know about the Kyuubi?
"The what?" She asked, "Are you talking about 'it' what the hell would be lucky about that??"
Sasuke sighed, now at least he wouldn't have to think of a way to tell the fight without telling about the Kyuubi. " Well, even if I hadn't pulled my hand back into a fist at the last second, without the Kyuubi, he would have been very badly hurt" Sasuke explained " but to be fair, if we both tried to kill the other, he would have healed his chest while I would have had no head… so I really don't think I was the winner"
This morning was getting less fun the more he had to talk about this.
Sasuke continued as Sakura seemed strangely silent " in fact there are two times when he would have died without the fox: once, was when I put my Chidori through his chest, I missed the heart only because he deflected it, but he still would have bled out, the second time, I gave him a piledriver off of a cliff, Id say it was about 100 meters or so, broke his neck."
"Ok, I think Ive heard enough now" Sakura stopped him before he could continue, she was beginning to feel a bit sick, Naruto never mentioned almost dying two or three times.
"Yeah, I don't think I was the winner" Sasuke kept going anyways, he wanted this point very clear, "at the very least it was a draw, but since I was trying to kill him and he was holding back, that makes it seem like he won to me."
Sakura looked like she was going to say something but stopped
"I have a question for you now Sakura" Sasuke said looking at her " What did you say to him anyways? He was all 'Sakura-chan' this and "promise' that, I want to know what you said that would make him be willing to die to fulfill some promise to you, I know it was to bring me back but, what was he willing to die for? What was so important? He was more than willing to die to make you happy Sakura… what did you say?"
Breakfast is ready" Sakura chimed, obviously looking for a change in subject. She placed the rather large breakfast in front of Sasuke, who gave his thanks, before she walked towards the door
"Eh? Where are you going Sakura?" Sasuke asked with a bit of toast hanging from his mouth " you didn't even answer my question!"
" To go see Naruto, I need to talk to him, Ill see you at noon ok?" She replied putting on her shoes.
"What for?" Sasuke enquired, dropping the topic, this was probably important "is there something going on?"
"Did you not get an invitation?" Sakura asked looking confused " There's a big tournament going on and the preliminaries are today!"
"What the hell?" Sasuke asked, now feeling more annoyed "Ill go down and ask the Hokage about that one"
"OK, see you later Sasuke-kun" as she walked out the door, she stepped on something, looking down she saw and envelope, " Hey hold on, this might be it here." She said looking at it. " Oh well, I have to go"
"Hn" was all he said in response. Looked over and sure enough, at the bottom of his door lay a small envelope addressed to him
"Oh…"
(Ichiraku Ramen, 8:00 AM)
Naruto sat down at his favorite Ramen stand for a nice little breakfast before the tournament.
" Aw man I can't wait for this thing to start, I wonder who Ill be fighting?" Naruto thought aloud while waiting for someone to come out to take his order, "Oi, Old man, are you there?" He enquired starting to get impatient.
Soon Ayame came out from the back looking rushed " Sorry Naruto-kun, but he's not in right now, but don't worry, I can take care of it for ya" she said putting on a smile
"ALRIGHT!" Naruto exclaimed, " I'd like 5 bowls of Miso Pork Ramen please!"
"Coming right up!" she said as she walked into the back.
While Naruto was waiting, she heard a familiar voice call out to him,
" Naruto!" Sakura waved as she ran down to where Naruto was and hugging him abruptly, " I knew I would find you here, we need to talk"
Naruto was feeling two very strong emotions at the moment, confusion, she never hugged him … and embarrassment, she WAS hugging him.
" Sakura-chan?" he asked incredulously, putting his arms around her cautiously, "um… hi?"
Sakura realized that she was acting odd and promptly let go of Naruto muttering an apology under her breath.
"Its ok… but… what did you want to talk about?" Naruto asked
Sakura fixed him with a steady gaze, "I was talking with Sasuke-kun about your little fight 3 years ago…. Why didn't you tell me it was so bad?"
"Oh… well, I didn't want you to worry about Sasuke, I hurt him in that fight-"
"No Naruto, not Sasuke, you." She cut him off, still staring intently.
"Me?" Naruto asked feeling himself get red again, " what about me? I was fine he didn't get me that bad, he just beat me, plain and simple"
"Yeah just plain and simply almost killed you 3 times!" was the retort from Sakura, who was looking slightly distressed
"Hey, come on Im here now right?" Naruto tried to calm her down, " Ive almost died lots, its no big deal."
Realizing after he said it may have been a bad choice of words.
Sakura looked like she was about to cry, " Yeah, always because of me…." She said before bursting into tears
"What?" Naruto yelped, " No, its not your fault, Im just careless is all"
" No Naruto!" Sakura said between sobs " its because I keep making you do things, you almost died saving ME from Gaara, you almost died fighting Sasuke 3 times because of MY selfish request, you almost died so many other times looking for Sasuke because of ME" She said sobbing harder
" Come on Sakura, I cant stand to see you cry," Naruto put an arm around her shoulder to comfort her, fully expecting a punch in the face, but instead he got almost the exact opposite, she just grabbed on to him and sobbed.
"And sob I never sob even say thank you!" she wailed into his chest.
"No thanks are needed, Ill do anything to make you happy, or alive, whichever it happens to be at the time." He said cracking a small Naruto smile (AN so just a GIGANTIC one)
"That's exactly my point Naruto! Why do you do that?" Sakura asked still clinging to Naruto as if he was going to disappear any second now.
"Because Sakura-chan," he paused not sure if he should say it, " Because I-"
"RAMEN'S READY NARUTO!" Ayame came bursting out with 5 steaming bowls of Ramen.
Sakura jumped away from Naruto and walked away quickly, looking embarrassed, not nearly as embarrassed as Naruto…. But embarrassed none the less.
"Thanks Ayame-chan" Naruto said looking fairly put off as he reached for the chopsticks
"Um…. Did I interrupt something there?" Ayame asked awkwardly rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
"No…." Naruto said not even touching his ramen, " I don't think so"
(Chuunin exam stadium, 11:50)
"Alright!" Tsunade called out to the 16 contestants in front of her, " I will now show you the preliminary matches, which were randomly selected earlier this morning" She pulled out a list with 8 matches on it,
1st match: Naruto vs. Sai
2nd match: Sasuke vs. Kankuro
3rd match: Kiba vs. Choji
4th Match: Ino vs. Shikamaru
5th match Hinata vs. Sakura
6th match: Gaara vs. Shino
7th match: Rock Lee vs. Temari
8th match: Tenten vs. Neji
"Now! The winners of the preliminaries will move on to the later rounds, which will be held one week after the preliminaries end, you have 10 minutes to prepare before the preliminaries begin, starting…. NOW!"
Ok people next chapter will be Naruto vs. Sai and maybe Sasuke vs. Kankuro as well, depends on how long I can make the preliminary fights (Im not to sure what to do with Sai, the only fighting Ive seen him do was with those ink animal things…. That's not much to work with) they probably wont be too epic… but Ive got some plans for the future that'll make for some entertaining fights.
Untill chapter 5,
Read and Review
Later!