IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL PREVIOUS READERS AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER! PLEASE READ! There are also some responses to questions/concerns- one being about the pairings for this story.
As much as Sasuke was glad that Team Seven was working together faster than they did in the original timeline, Sasuke was still annoyed at the D-ranked missions they had to do. Sasuke was also painfully reminded of how sharp the claws of a cat were. Team Seven had been doing D-ranked mission after D-ranked mission for about a month now, and the frustration of it all was finally taking its toll on the team- especially Naruto.
Teams Seven had just completed a mission of walking a large group of dogs and were currently sitting at the local BBQ house for dinner- Kakashi being forced to pay. Naruto was stuffing his face while Sakura was casually eating. Kakashi wasn't eating- he said he was going to eat later. Naruto and Sakura looked a bit put off at this. Sasuke assumed that they wanted to know what was under Kakashi's mask. The raven-haired time traveler gave a chuckle to himself. He remembered the self-assigned mission that the three genin went on to discover the secret of the mask- only to find out there was another mask underneath.
After dinner was over, Kakashi paid and disappeared with the Body Flicker jutsu, and Naruto ran off yelling something about needing to talk to Iruka. Sasuke was going to head home too, but Sakura stopped him.
"So, Sasuke-kun," Sasuke looked up at the call of his name. "I was wondering if you wanted to spar with me tomorrow since we don't have to meet up with Kakashi-sensei until noon." Sakura nudged the ground with her foot nervously.
With a shrug of his shoulders Sasuke nodded his head. "I won't go easy on you just because you're my teammate. Get there at the usual meeting time though." He said before walking off. Behind him, Sasuke could hear Sakura jumping up and down while holding back cheers.
As soon as Sasuke got back to his flat, he kicked off his shoes and stretched out on his bed and reflected on the past few weeks.
The team's dynamics with each other were much better than when the three first were out together in the original timeline- though they still weren't the best. Sasuke and Naruto still fought on multiple occasions, and Sakura still didn't have much confidence in Naruto's skill and was still putting Sasuke and her appearance first. At least she was eating properly now.
Rolling over, Sasuke pulled the notebook he wrote in before out from under his bed. Flipping through the pages, Sasuke found the entry about the fight with Zabuza and Haku in the land of Waves- it was soon. He couldn't remember exactly when the mission was assigned to them. It could be in the next week, or the next day. They would only get the mission if they could get Kakashi to agree to ask for a harder mission.
Sighing Sasuke tossed the book to the floor. He wasn't that worried about the book being found because it was written in a code that Sasuke and Itachi had created when they were kids. No one knew how to decipher it except for them. Still, Sasuke was going to make sure to burn the book as soon as he could use his Sharingan to memorize everything since he didn't want to risk forgetting something important.
Besides the dynamics of the team being improved, Sasuke was also working hard to get his body to function in the way he was used to. His chakra reserves were much larger now, and Sasuke was also proud to say that he had gained complete control over his chakra now. Well, it wasn't the same as at the control he had over it when he would use his Chidori Stream or Kirin, but it was strong and Sasuke could control his jutsu properly. Sasuke had also spent some time practicing the basics of his clan's signature jutsus again as well as a few other simple fire jutsus he created. He didn't want to try to force his body to do a high level jutsu in case it backlashed at him.
Sasuke found taijutsu to be the most frustrating He was used to being able to move at speeds that rivaled Lee and Gai, but now he was slow. Slower than he was when he first entered the chunin exams, and definitely slower than when he was sixteen.
With a sigh, Sasuke pulled the covers over his head and fell asleep.
OOO
The next morning Sasuke arrived at the bridge at eight o'clock to see Sakura already there. She was sitting on the bridge's railing and was dangling her feet above the water. Sasuke noticed that she seemed to have taken extra care of her hair that morning and let out a sigh.
"Why do you put so much effort into your looks? You're a shinobi; your priorities should be on training and getting stronger. The enemy isn't going to care what you look like."
"Sasuke-kun, I… well…" Sakura trailed off clearly embarrassed. Sasuke didn't need to be a genius like Shikamaru to know why.
"Come on, let's spar already. You ate right?" Sakura nodded. "Good, let's go."
Moments later Sasuke and Sakura were in the clearing next to the bridge. Only giving Sakura a split second of warning, Sasuke lunged at the girl and swung his arm back to punch her. Sakura closed her eyes and brought her arms up to shield her face.
Mistake one.
Sasuke changed the nature of his attack, and swung his feet across the ground and sent Sakura onto her back. She gasped out in pain and surprise, but showed no quick reflexes to get up.
Mistake two.
Sasuke grabbed Sakura by the arm and flipped her onto her back, effectively pinning one arm behind her back and the other under her own weight. Sasuke took his knees and placed them at her sides to prevent her from rolling around, and hooked his lower legs over hers to prevent her from kicking. Sakura let out a bit of a scream and the sudden force and weight on her back. She remained still- Sasuke could feel her arm trembling under his hand.
"Mistake three. You're out." Sasuke said in a low tone.
"W-what are you talking about, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked hesitantly, turning her head around to try to get a better look at Sasuke, only to wince in pain. "C-could you get off me, please? It's starting to hurt."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and got off of Sakura and sat on the grass and stared at her as she sat herself back up. Sakura was rubbing her shoulder with a face that showed her pain clearly.
"You made three mistakes. First, you took your eyes off of me and covered your face when I attacked you. By doing so you cut off all sight you had thus making you extremely vulnerable. Second, you didn't seem to make a move when you fell to the ground. If you were thinking of moving it had to be done quicker. Every second counts in a battle. Though, you could have avoided landing on your back if you had your eyes on me. I was going slowly; you would have seen the change in my attack. Third, you let yourself be caught. If I was an enemy ninja I could have easily killed you."
Sakura was silent while Sasuke was speaking, and now that he was done she was still silent and twisting the hem of her dress. Sasuke decided that he might as well continue on talking.
"As a shinobi you need to make sure you're ready for everything. This life is dangerous and deadly; full of death, blood, and tears. Every second counts because a single split second can be the difference between life and death, and not just of you, but the life of your teammates. A lot of the missions you will be put on will be three or four person teams. If you don't even have the ability to protect yourself, how do you ever expect to protect your teammates?"
Sakura continued to stay silent and Sasuke could see tears forming in her eyes. Maybe he'd gone a little too hard with his lecture. The Sakura he remembered from their brief encounters and from word of ear around taverns was strong willed, powerful, and always ready to protect the ones close to her. Not only that, but was a fierce opponent in battle. Sasuke had to remind himself that this Sakura- the one currently trying not to cry in front of him- was not the same one. This Sakura hadn't gone through any training with Tsunade, she hadn't faced fear or death head on yet, and she still didn't understand the true meaning of what it took to be a Konoha shinobi.
Sasuke sighed and pulled a cloth from his pocket. "Here, dry your eyes. Tears don't suit you. What would your enemy think if they saw you crying? It shows weakness, and while having weakness is good- it keeps your humanity- you can't let them show on the battlefield." Sakura took the cloth and dried her eyes, still looking down though.
"Sakura," Sasuke said, and once he had the pink-haired girl's attention he continued, "You have potential. You have the best chakra control out of our entire graduating class, but you let thoughts of me, your looks, and your fears prevent you from achieving your full potential. You need to focus more on training if you don't want to drag your teammates down. You need to understand this, or maybe the path of a shinobi isn't right for you." Sasuke knew that was a blunt lie, nothing was better suited for Sakura than the life of a shinobi, but at this current point in time Sakura didn't know that quite yet. She needed an extra push to get het going. An extra push that wasn't him leaving the village and nearly killing half their friends.
Sakura's reaction to the last statement was immediate. "No!" Sakura shrieked out in a panic. "I want to be a shinobi! I want to be able to fight, to be strong, to be brave, and skilled." She looked down at her hands, "To not be useless."
Sasuke smiled proudly; standing up, Sasuke held his hand out to Sakura. "Good, then let's get to work. You have a long ways to go if you want to reach your goals."
Sakura smiled up at Sasuke and nodded before taking his hand and letting him pull her to her feet. Immediately, they got into a fighting stance and their sparing session continued.
OOO
Sasuke finished sparring with Sakura around eleven. He told her to go home and clean up since she had taken quite a beating during their spar. Sasuke wasn't lying when he said he wasn't going to go easy on her. Once Sakura left, Sasuke sat himself down against a nearby tree and thought to himself.
Even in the short time spent sparing, Sakura was already showing her genius. She was learning fast, retaining all the corrections Sasuke told her, and wasn't giving up. She was definitely going to turn out like the strong kunoichi he knew.
From the spars he had with Naruto, Sasuke could easily tell that he was much more confident in his abilities since Sasuke wasn't 'showing off'- Naruto's words, not his. Sasuke could also tell that because the bond between then two of them was more of friendship rather than just teammates, Naruto was happier in general.
During their training sessions with Kakashi they were put through various chakra control exercises as well as stamina building exercises- which mainly meant they were told to run around the village as he read his book. Sasuke was also able to get Kakashi to teach them how to walk on water since they already were learning how to walk up flat surfaces- courtesy of Sasuke.
Things were going well so far.
After a few more minutes of resting, the time traveler felt his stomach growl in need of food. Standing up, Sasuke started walking towards the main part of the village and towards Ichiraku. When Sasuke arrived at the side restaurant he was not surprised to see Naruto there. However, Sasuke was surprised to see Naruto standing there in his boxers and waving his orange jumpsuit around the air.
"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?" Sasuke questioned as he walked under the drapes.
"Ack, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled out in surprise. He took his clothes and tried to hide his frog boxers from sight. "W-what are you doing here?"
"I was hungry. A better question would be: why are you here in your underwear?"
"Ah well, you see. I had a coupon for a free bowl of ramen, but I can't find it now. I don't have any money either so I can't pay for anything."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "What about the money we got for those missions we just did?"
Naruto's nervous smiled faltered a bit, but he picked it up quickly. It didn't go unseen by Sasuke. "Well, you see. I had used it to pay my apartment rent."
"What about the monthly allowance the Hokage gives you?"
"That went to my rent as well." Naruto replied. "My landlady said that things have been tough for her recently. I think she mentioned her husband needing surgery or something. So she raised my rent a bit. She said it wouldn't be for long, but that was a few months ago." Naruto smiled widely, "I just hope her husband gets well soon. It's not fun being sick."
Naruto is the only one living in that apartment complex. And it's being paid for by the Hokage. There is no landlady. Sasuke thought to himself. He had discovered this one day when he was searching around Naruto's apartment during one of their 'find the damn cat' missions. Sasuke didn't know that Naruto was paying rent, though. The Uchiha felt his blood boil. Naruto was being ripped off, and Sasuke had a pretty good idea as to why. Sasuke would have to mention this to the Hokage later- discreetly of course. Forcing his negative thoughts aside Sasuke let out a sigh.
"Put your clothes back on, idiot. I'll pay for you, but I'm only paying for one bowl. We don't need you passing out during the mission from over a stomachache because you overate."
"What? Ah, I mean… thank you Sasuke! I guess you aren't as much of a bastard as I thought."
Sasuke glared at the blonde who just smiled in return as he pulled his jumpsuit back on.
OOO
"Where the hell is Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto yelled out in frustration. The genin of Team Seven had been sitting outside the Hokage Tower for around an hour, with no sign of their silver-haired sensei anywhere. "This is so annoying! What's even worse is that we're probably going to be assigned some lame D-ranked mission again!"
"Those D-ranked missions are essential to keeping the village running smoothly!" Sakura retorted, clearly irritated- the aches all over her body from that morning's spar probably adding more fuel to her irritation.
"I know that," Naruto pouted as he crossed his arms. "I just think that we're plenty ready to take on a tougher mission!"
"Idiot, that's Kakashi's decision." Sasuke said, "Though, I have to agree that all these D-ranks are getting annoying."
"Well, I suppose you all have been displaying excellent teamwork and improvement." All three genin snapped their heads up to see Kakashi crouching vertically on the tower's wall. "Yo."
"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura screamed while pointing at the offending man.
"Well you see, on my way here I ran into an old lady who-" Kakashi didn't get far in his excuse before Naruto hurled a rock at him- which Kakashi easily dodged. "Now, that wasn't very nice Naruto. You could have hurt me."
"Then stop spitting your lies! Let's go get our damn mission before all the good ones are taken! And you better ask for a higher level one!"
Kakashi sighed deeply. "I'll ask, but the final decision is up to the Hokage, not me. Let's go already. Iruka is most likely going to be mad that we're late."
True to Kakashi's word, Iruka was not happy to see the four shinobi walk into the mission briefing room.
"Where exactly have the four of you been?!" Iruka yelled, "You've kept us all waiting for over an hour!"
"Calm down Iruka-sensei. If anyone is to blame, it's Kakashi-sensei here. He didn't show up until a few minutes ago." Naruto said as he jerked a thumb towards Kakashi. Before Iruka could retort back, Sarutobi cut in.
"Now, now Iruka, there is no need to yell at them. You are just as aware of Kakashi's lateness as I am." Iruka glanced at the Hokage before nodding and sitting back in his seat. "With that settled, I have a few missions here for you to complete. They're simple; milking some cows, helping Old Lady Kyoko-san, and finding a cat…. again."
"Ah, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said hesitantly, "I was wondering if you were willing enough to assign my team to a tougher mission. You see, they're becoming a bit restless with all these D-ranked missions. Perhaps there is a C-ranked mission that we can do instead?"
Sarutobi stroked his beard in thought, "Hmm, I suppose there is one C-ranked mission left. It's nothing too hard either."
"Hokage-sama, I must object." Iruka spoke out, "I was the teacher of these three, and I know their skill. I don't believe that they are ready for a higher mission yet."
"That's where you're wrong Iruka." Kakashi cut it, "I have been training with these three for about a month now, and I think they're plenty ready."
"Now, you two, calm down. I don't need you two starting a fight. I think it's reasonable to assign Team Seven a C-ranked mission." The old Hokage smiled as he watched Naruto and Sakura cheer. "Now, this mission is a simple one. You are to escort the bridge builder Tazuna back to the Land of Waves. It is essential that he makes it there safely; he is currently working on completing a bridge connecting Wave to the mainland. This will be economically beneficial to all the lands. Once there, your team is to watch over him until the bridge is finished, which should be within the next week."
Sasuke watched as Tazuna walked into the room- drunk just like before- and insulted Naruto about his height. A sudden nostalgic feeling overcame the Uchiha.
This mission was the first big mission that Team Seven would do; an A-ranked mission in the disguise of a C-ranked one. Sasuke knew it was going to be tough since he was the only one aware of the impending danger that was ahead, but Sasuke had a feeling that they were going to do just fine. Kakashi was not to be taken lightly, Naruto was quick on his feet, and Sakura would mostly be more determined to prove herself to the rest of the team.
From the side of the room, Sasuke watched as Sakura tried to keep Naruto from punching the bridge builder in the face by putting him in a choke hold while Kakashi looked bored and showed no signs of breaking the two up. Sasuke was sure that they were going to be fine- no matter how much of a disorganized they appeared to be.
Seems like it's time for this story to really get rolling now. Sasuke smirked to himself.
So sorry this took so long to be posted! Raven (my beta) went out of the country for a week, so I had to wait to get this to her. I've also had a bit of some personal problems coming up recently as well as a lot of end-of-the-school-year work being put on me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR ALL PREVIOUS READERS!
I have edited the first chapter because I found a more comfortable moment in time for Sasuke to go back in. Yes, I removed the secret shinobi. It was just too complicated to work with considering the new starting point I was doing. I did have another idea for what could happen, but it would cause more headaches to try to explain everything and make it seem realistic. If I ever get the motivation, I could always make it a separate story.
I also edited it so it fits in more with the canon plot. It will have an effect on the story so I hope you go back and re-read the chapter. I may also edit a few things the chapters 2-3, but it will be so small and somewhat pointless that you won't need to re-read those chapters.
Review Replies: Some semi-important information, mainly about pairings in the story.
vincent1875: Thank you for your opinion. I did take note of some of the things you pointed out, and tried to clear them up in this chapter. Some of the others things are just how decided I wanted to write it. It is my story, but thank you for your helpful input.
Shiratsubasa: Yes, friendship stories are always wonderful. As far as romance goes, I'm not really planning on having any romance right now- they are twelve. So at this point in the story it will just be the standard childhood crushes and stuff- most likely canon ones too like SasuSaku, NaruSaku, and NaruHina. Although, depending on how I decided to portray part two of this story- meaning Shippuden- there probably will be a larger emphasis on romantic bonds between the characters. Parings for when I get there are unknown because I am not sure what I would want to do. I could go the more canon route or the more crack route. I'm fine with doing either, but I will cross that bridge when I get there. Though, I would love to hear what you my readers would want to see. Canon or Crack parings? Examples? Your pairings? Let me know in your review!
Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting! I'm glad you all like my story so much. Sorry again for slow updates, I'm trying my hardest! If you have any questions you can direct them to my tumblr- sirknightmaxy –since I'm most active there, but you can still leave them in a review or message here on FFN. Thank you for your time.
