Disclaimer: Naruto and pretty much everyone in it belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my OCs.

Chapter Three: Stuck Together! Team Training!

Hatake Kakashi and Takumi Haiku were in a very, very dangerous position.

Their wrists were bound with chakra shackles (more precisely, Kakashi's left hand was tied to Haiku's right hand). Chakra shackles were like handcuffs, only that they absorbed chakra when someone tried to use a jutsu to get out of them. Also, they were unbreakable unless the person who put them on in the first place took them off with their chakra.

As punishment for acting like two Academy Students in the middle of the glaring heat and in front of basically MANY of the shinobi, the Hokage, being the clever geezer he was, bound them together for a duration of three freaking days. THREE. FREAKING. DAYS!

"This is basically punishment for the both of you to get along," the Hokage said calmly, "Getting along is crucial for peace, especially for the pride of Konohagakure. If the two of you do not get along by the end of the three days, the binding will extend."

"H-Hokage-sama!" Haiku gaped.

So basically, they were stuck together for three days or more.

"What about our teams!" Kakashi demanded with restrained anger.

"As if you goddamn care, Hatake! You're late for everything!" Haiku shot back at the white-haired jounin. "You dipshit..." Kakashi glared at the green-haired sadist.

"You will arrange the timings for your teams together and arrive together at the designated area, which I will provide at Training Area 42," the Hokage continued, blatantly ignoring the two arguing jounin.

At the Tsuki Compound

Neji had carried his friend's sister in his arms, walking back to the Tsuki Compound and ignoring many of the civilians' curious looks, worrying his mind about Ren's condition. What will Hiroto think?

Not surprisingly, Hiroto was standing by the doorway, arms folded; his shoe tapping on the dent on the ground and continuously glancing at his watch, which showed the time: 5: 45 p.m.

Earlier during the day on Hiroto's day off, he became slightly tense when it struck lunchtime, then dismissed it quickly at the thought of Ren having lunch with some of her friends. Though after two fucking hours and no contact whatsoever from his sister, he began grinding his teeth and trying to watch TV trying to take his mind off of her safety.

He had many options on what might have happened: 1. Ren was raped 2. Then she was kidnapped 3. Sold to some stinking perverted douchebags. Later he remembered before reporting to the Hokage that Ren could kick a Chuunin's ass in ten minutes.

He thought again. 1. The test was so tiring that her chakra reserves were depleted 2. Basically helpless, she was injured by enemy shinobi. Then he remembered it was impossible that enemy ninja would be skulking around Konoha preying on young rookies.

After minutes of hypothesizing, he built up the courage to check outside to see if she had came back at that moment. Horror overwhelmed him when he saw his best friend Neji carrying her and walking towards the Compound.

He felt relieved and angry at the same time. What in hell's name had happened to his beloved imoto!

"Neji! What happened!" he demanded running up to his friend and immediately checking her unusually pale and cold face. She whimpered before snuggling into Neji's warm shirt. "She was sexually assaulted," Neji said, trying hard not to blush.

"By who?"

Neji shrugged his shoulders. Later, they heard a murmur from Ren. "Uchiha..." she croaked, "...Sasuke."

Hiroto snapped. He immediately pulled up his sleeves and attempted to make a dash towards the Uchiha Compound to beat up the screwed up bastard who 'almost' took away Ren's innocence when Neji placed a firm hand on his friend's shoulder to prevent him from doing anything that he might regret later in life.

"This may sound exasperating but you need to CALM DOWN," Neji said with inhumane calmness, "There is a possibility that someone Henged (transformed) into Uchiha to assault her or she was put under Genjutsu the minute she entered the forest."

Hiroto paused and grudgingly stepped down. He cursed his friend's intelligent reasoning.

"Right now we have to worry about Ren," Neji said in a kinder tone. Handing over Ren to Hiroto, the two went back inside the Compound and shut the door firmly behind them. Hiroto lay her down on one of the couches in the living room and shot up the stairs to her bedroom to retrieve her blanket, Neji went into the kitchen to get a towel and some hot water. After a few minutes, Ren's head was gently placed on a comfy pillow with a warm towel on her forehead and a blanket over her shivering body.

Hiroto glanced at Neji and bowed quickly, "Thank you so much for finding my sister, Neji."

Neji turned an interesting shade of ochre and stuttered, "I-It's alright. I was w-worried as well when I came over anyway."

Hiroto beckoned Neji to the couch directly opposite of Ren's with a tall coffee table in between the two couches. Neji sat down uncertainly, a little uncomfortable with the setting. He shifted his legs together, uncharacteristically nervous. Well, who wouldn't be if they were inside their crush's house and they were willingly inviting you in?

Hiroto abruptly sat down beside him, a mask of absolute determination. Neither of them spoke a word as they looked after the distressed, naive girl. But seeing there was no conversation going on, Neji decided to go back 'home', "Ano, Hiroto, I'm going home..."

Hiroto's hand shot up and grabbed the tense Hyuuga by the elbow. Neji shivered in Hiroto's warm touch, even his practical, emotionless, iron-hard Hyuuga glare softened. "H-Hiroto?"

Not as gently as what 'Sasuke' did to Ren, Hiroto's iron grip on the Hyuuga's elbow tightened and he harshly pulled him in. Their lips crashed together and Neji felt like he had just smashed into an iron wall. The pain subsided though when Hiroto took a softer approach and gently pulled Neji closer, one hand around his neck and the other around his waist. The blushing protégé of the Hyuuga didn't need to be told twice as he willingly gave in. This was exactly what he wanted from him.

"H-Hiroto," Neji moaned softly as his lover's fingers caressed his flowing brown hair with expertise. Hiroto, taking advantage of his cute uke's vulnerability, started massaging Neji's sensitive outer folds with his skilled tongue. Neji started to moan even louder, arousing Hiroto. Playing affectionately with his uke, he nipped Neji's ear, in turn the Hyuuga blushing fifty shades of red.

At this point, Neji had toppled over and was lying on the couch, looking helpless but surprisingly seductive to the seme Hiroto, who was a sadist in torture as well as sex.

Taking it to another level, Hiroto traced the hem line of Neji's tan shorts with his index finger all the way to his bony but soft stomach but not touching his erect nipples even slightly. Neji flushed in embarrassment and protested, "Stop teasing me!"

Showing off his sexy smile, Hiroto started to tantalizingly lick Neji's neck, slowly with his moist pink tongue until Neji let out a half-moan and bucked, his groin crashing into Hiroto's.

It was a pleasurable moment for the two of them as Hiroto decided that they go even further by unzipping Neji's pants only to be rudely interrupted by the doorbell. Both of them creatively cursed as Hiroto quickly got off Neji in an instant, Neji following him as they went to see who abruptly stopped their session.

Hiroto yanked the door open out of anger that Neji flinched slightly but still tried to look like a professional shinobi. He didn't need to go through all the trouble though because as soon as Hiroto nearly wrenched the door of its hinges, two fully grown men were fighting it out on his doorstep. And not just any men. Shinobi.

One had spiky white hair that made it look like he hung himself upside down just to get that look and one had crazy green-colored hair and penetrable red eyes that gave Hiroto the shivers.

They were still continuing to brawl like a bunch of kids until they stretched Hiroto's patience as much as it could take and the annoyed Tsuki grabbed the two shinobis' vests and wrenched them apart, but not completely, as they were bound - what looked like - with chakra shackles.

The white-haired jounin shouted (at the green-haired one), "What the **** was that for you screwed up sadist!"

The red-eyed one retorted, "I only told you to watch out for traps, usuratonkachi (idiot of idiots)!"

They were both cut off by the killer intent emanating from the pretty pissed off genin, who had first intended to knock them out with his Raven Eyes before continuing his session.

"Calm down, Hiroto," Neji said, reverting back to his Hyuuga-style stoic manner.

Hiroto nodded in respect as he released the two jounin on the ground, the two instantly standing back up with expressions as if nothing had happened. "My name is Takumi Haiku and this idiot here is Hatake Kakashi," the green-haired jounin introduced, earning a glare from the white-haired jounin, "And who might you be?"

"I am Tsuki Hiroto, older brother of Tsuki Ren and this person is Hyuuga Neji from the Hyuuga Clan," Hiroto said blandly. Kakashi tilted his head for a moment and pointed to Neji, who hadn't yet realized that his hair was loose, "Girlfriend?" Kakashi questioned.

Neji gave him the famous Hyuuga Glare that brought most civilians down to their knees and growled, "I'm a boy!"

"Meh, they always say that," Kakashi muttered under his breath.

"That is not why we are here though," Haiku said with restrained politeness, giving a glare to Kakashi to shut the hell up before he punched him straight to the skies, "I am the jounin sensei of Tsuki Ren and I need to talk to her for an...arrangement."

Hiroto nodded, spot-checking the two jounin before he led them inside, Neji returning back to the couch, his face completely expressionless to the eyes of the visitors.

Haiku was slightly surprised to see his student lying on the couch with a blanket over her and a towel on her forehead, looking helpless and weak unlike the healthy, strong kunoichi he had seen earlier. Even Kakashi seemed curious as they sat as far apart as possible from each other. "What happened to her?" Haiku asked, quite concerned for once.

Neji decided to explain as Hiroto would go off in an hour-long rant about killing Sasuke, who might or might not be Ren's attacker. "Apparently, Uchiha Sasuke sexually assaulted her, but it is very unclear." Kakashi spit out his saliva purposely at Haiku's face before yelling, "EXCUSE ME!"

Neji flinched and asked, "Pardon?"

"Sasuke will never assault someone and a girl of all human beings –" Kakashi was immediately cut off by the pissed Takumi who was slamming him on the head with his fist, "Hatake! Control your kids from assaulting mine, would you for once!"

"It is very unclear," Neji repeated loudly.

Kakashi smirked as Haiku winced. Hiroto interrupted, "Do you want to wake her up?"

"That would suffice," Haiku said through gritted teeth as he tried to hold back by the injured jounin from screaming into his ear.

Hiroto sat down beside his healthier-looking sister and gave her one of his pokes. For a moment, no sound came from her; then she groaned loudly, "Nani (what)?"

"Wake up, Ren-chan, your teacher is here," Hiroto said softly. With another groan, Ren willed herself to sit up straight. She felt groggy and dizzy like a drunk and her hair was an eternal mess. Her back hurt as she rubbed her eyes slowly. Neji came over to her side and patted her head, "Feeling better?"

Ren gave him a soft, weak smile and replied, "Yes."

Kakashi's and Haiku's eyes widened, was this Ren? She looked like she was only six years old!

She turned towards the opposite couch and for a few seconds, her eyes went wide at the sight before her. Her sensei, tied to another man, her sensei….tied….to….another….man. She exploded into peals of laughter and mad giggles which put the four shinobi off guard, tears appearing in her eyes and her cheeks regaining their color as she held her stomach tightly, almost falling off the couch if Hiroto didn't catch her. Her laughter subsided as she took a few deep breaths, choking with ecstasy, "Soooo makes up for you ditching us…."

She reformed to her former self and asked loudly, "Why are you tied like that Haiku-sensei?"

Before Haiku could answer, Kakashi butted in and said, "Thanks to your sensei for making a ruckus at the Hokage Tower we're bound by these chakra shackles for three days as punishment."

Haiku growled and was about to attack Kakashi when Hiroto and Neji held him back with all the strength they could muster, "Screw you guys! Can you stop fighting for my sister's sake!" Hiroto shouted with a tick mark on his brow.

Haiku paused, taking a few light breaths before diverting his attention to his confused student, "Because of our predicament, Team 15 and Team 7 will meet at Training Area 42 at six o' clock sharp for team training."

"Is that all?" Ren asked; a little annoyed that they woke her up just for that reason. Seeing that she was getting more violent by the minute, Neji said, "No. We're also going to discuss about your….earlier encounter with Uchiha Sasuke."

Ren's expression became tense and Kakashi noticed the look in her eyes that resembled something like cloudiness. Neji quickly continued, "There is a possibility that someone Henged into Uchiha to frame him for assaulting you or that you were put under Genjutsu the minute you entered the forest."

Ren's gaze on Neji hardened and replied, "I think so too, usually for an Uchiha, leaving a battle while it is undecided will wound their pride."

"My guess is that someone Henged into Uchiha as even without Raven Eyes, a member with Tsuki blood would be able to recognize a Genjutsu in any situation they are in," Hiroto said, "so in conclusion, someone was really intended to assault Ren-chan but change into someone she knew so he wouldn't get into trouble."

"For now, let's just assume that Sasuke is not the culprit," Kakashi said. He glanced around the room. It was a tense silence, he knew that, and it was better if they left now.

At the Inuzuka Compound

For the brash and normally rugged Yakuza-like Kiba, he was in huge trouble, and not just any trouble. Girl trouble.

Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba's mother, who was known to be very rowdy, tough and strict, had this odd feeling that she should check up on Kiba, who, she had found out later, was still out with his friends. So, deciding to do something in her free time, started to clean up his messy bedroom.

Ever seen a boy's bedroom before? Kiba's was ten times worse. For one, his clothes stank like dirt and moss and his towels were filled with little dead bugs, but what shocked her the most was the objects underneath her son's bed.

She fingered the crinkly papers under the mattress and quickly pulled them out. She had absolutely no idea whether to congratulate Kiba for achieving his manhood or scold him like there was no tomorrow for being a pervert because the crinkly papers were photographs….of a cute and petite girl with raven locks and gorgeous electric blue eyes.

She looked through them with growing irritation. One was the girl walking down the streets of Konoha at the age of five or six, another was her with her hair down, the next was her in a revealing blue bikini and the last one nearly made Tsume hit the roof as it was her in the shower.

Men, she mentally growled, all of them are perverts.

She made a resolution to check for any Icha-Icha Paradises.

Back to the Tsuki Compound

Eventually, Kakashi and Haiku left (arguing, again) but Neji hesitated to leave, only convinced when Hiroto took him aside and sexily whispered into his ear to come back again when Ren wasn't around to have some you-know what (A/N: If you guys didn't like yaoi, don't bother reading this fanfic).

Before Neji left, Ren ran up to him at the doorway and grabbed his shirt tightly before giving him a kiss on the cheek near his mouth. Neji flinched and blushed twenty shades of red...hell, she even tasted like her brother...

"I want to thank you for looking after me, Neji," Ren gave him a slow, shy, sexy smile she always reserved for the people who she thought deserved it, and made most guys turned on...Neji blushed harder and tried to form words, unsuccessfully. "I-It's...great - I mean - fine! Um..."

Ren giggled and gave him a short hug before waving good-bye to the still dumbstruck Hyuuga, who basically forced himself to walk back to the Hyuuga Compound. Tsk, tsk, poor Neji.

When Ren returned inside, she asked a question that made Hiroto jump out of his skin: "Is there anything going on between you and Neji?"

"NOTHING! THERE IS NOTHING BETWEEN US!" Hiroto yelled hysterically, waving his hands in a panic.

Ren didn't say anything for awhile so Hiroto turned to look at her passive face. She was smiling slightly and her cheeks had a tinge of red; she spoke so softly that without Hiroto's honed animal senses, he would never have caught those few words.

"That's a nice friend you made."

Hiroto stopped in his tracks, a small, minuscule smile on his face. "Yeah, I know."

Ren, smiling genuinely for the first time since 'Sasuke's attack, missed dinner and went to sleep.

(A/N: Sorry if this part sounds stupid but being a yaoi fan and all I just HAD to write something M-rated to release my sexual urges...probably shouldn't have said that...-_-" and I really love Neji being the uke...)

The Next Day with Uzumaki Naruto

Naruto, of course, was woken up by the warm, tingly rays of the sun shining through his window, egging him for a fresh new day with his jounin sensei, his one-sided crush, an his bastard rival.

To boot, thanks to the two jounin senseis being bound together, he now got to see his 'lovely girl' for the next three days or more if the two senseis kept fighting/ not getting along. Oddly, it reminded him of he and Sasuke.

In the end, he reheated his Cup Ramen.

With Haruno Sakura

She must have blow-dried her hair for too long because when she patted it down, it nearly fried her hand. She gave a squeal of pain but suppressed it so her mother wouldn't know what was going on.

Why was she going through all this? Well, surely a hottie like Sasuke would like a girl to look pretty and strong, right? Well, that was what Sakura thought of course. Women have to suffer for their beauty, she said haughtily, inspecting herself in the mirror. Of course, some don't have to suffer, Sakura cursed, seeing that bitch's face in her mind just made her want to beat someone up. And of course, everyone knows who that 'bitch' is.

Oh, she's the goodie-goodie and everyone loves her, Sakura thought sourly, even Sasuke-kun seems to like her.

What does it take to make him love me? Sakura questioned herself bitterly. She was stuck for awhile, but obviously, not for long, as her forehead-sized brain sparked a brilliant, fool-proof yet petty/selfish idea.

With Uchiha Sasuke

Sasuke had everything organized. He polished his kunais, took a good breakfast and cleaned up afterwards, wore on his shirt with the Uchiha crest on it and his comfortable white shorts and arm warmers. Oh, he couldn't forget his weapons now, could he?

After hearing from Kakashi and Haiku about the new arrangement, he became more...focused. Hell, Ren was going to be there, the top female rookie Ren. If he ever sparred with her, he made sure that he was going to win no matter what. He smirked to himself, but he wiped off that smirk when he remembered Haiku's coldness and Kakashi's suspicion towards him.

Flashback

He had just finished his dinner of rice, vegetables and curry chicken when the doorbell rang. Quite frankly, the sound of hearing it scared him shitless. What if it was Sakura or Ino who found out where he lived and decided to stalk him and probably capture him for their evil devices?

He readied his kunai and shuriken and cautiously opened the door, when he saw a flash of silver and two jounin vests, he calmed down, then he felt like laughing like there was no tomorrow when he saw what state Kakashi was in.

Kakashi was tied to another jounin with weird green hair and red eyes with chakra shackles, ANYONE would've laugh their asses off until they bust a gut but Sasuke was more composed, he was adamant in NOT laughing for his clan's naturally emotionless pride.

The jounin hesitantly told Sasuke his name, which was Takumi Haiku, then Kakashi told Sasuke, "Because of our predicament, you will go to Training Area 42 at six o' clock to have double team training with Team 15."

Sasuke nodded impassively and was about to close the door when Haiku's hand shot out and stopped it, "Where were you from three o' clock to five o' clock?" Haiku questioned with recognizable coldness in his tone.

"Training," Sasuke attempted to close the door again when Kakashi stopped it this time, "What did you do after training?"

"Weapons practice!" Sasuke growled before giving the door one good slam which almost sliced off the jounin's arm.

Feeling highly annoyed, he went to wash the dishes before showering and went to bed. Though tired from his training and weapons practice, thoughts were hindering in his mind. He understood hostility towards Naruto but the green-haired jounin seemed to act hostile to him, Uchiha Sasuke, who, in his whole life, had never met him. And even his teacher, Kakashi, seemed wary of him for some reason.

He brushed away his doubts before dozing off with dreams of kicking Ren's ass.

Flashback End

At Training Area 42

This place isn't bad, Kotarou commented, glancing around at the arena-sized training with Natsume, who was drinking some water from a plastic bottle.

Unlike Team 15's training spot, which obviously was in the goddamn forest where anyone without the help of Natsume's sensory skills would have easily gotten lost, it was in a beautiful terrain where it could be found by possibly any civilian or shinobi if they just 'wandered off in the path of life' for just a few minutes.

Though easily spotted and desired for, the Hokage banned anyone from entering the area as it was only used if a large group of shinobi needed a place for training, the high possibility of it being spotted was because it was near Konoha's Great Waterfall, which was near a hot springs and was sort-of a hot springs itself.

Its great gushing waters were always crystal clear and reasonably warm, Konoha Legend stated that anyone who bathed there would be relieved of all physical, emotional and mental illnesses and stress and possibly gain 'heightened awareness'. To boot, the bather's body would strengthen against all internal injuries due to the 'special substances' in the water and gain more focus.

Only a handful of shinobi - and only with the Hokage's permission - were allowed to bathe there after strenuous missions, but very rarely, as not many high A to S-ranked missions were posted around lately. Konoha's Great Waterfall was so famous that even Kotarou and Natsume heard of it during their time at Kusagakure.

"We'll be so lucky if we're allowed to bathe there," Kotarou said dreamily with his bishounen (also known as 'pretty boy') face on.

"Dream on, Kotarou," Natsume called from the tree he was leaning on. Kotarou was affronted and asked from his place near the wooden dummies (or whatever they're called), "What do you mean 'dream on'?"

"We're only allowed to even step inside there if we're assigned a high A-rank to S-rank mission and complete it," Natsume emphasized the second last word, "and the Hokage of all people will never let a couple of genin take it."

"We'll just have to get ready for it then," as usual, their attention was diverted the tired-looking, annoyed Tsuki princess.

"I'll take a guess that you're a really, really bad morning person," Natsume said blandly. "No shit, Mr. Ice," Ren made sure to give him the coldest glare she could summon.

And, like Kakashi/Haiku and Naruto/Sasuke, they had a glare war.

Kotarou sweatdropped and attempted to calm the two down when a very annoying voice stopped him.

"Ohayo! Kotarou-kun! Natsume-kun!"

Natsume stiffened; his skin turned paler than usual and looked like he had just stuck himself in the freezer for three days.

Ren waved slowly with a light, effortful smile on her face which was directed at, of course, Haruno Sakura, biggest Sasuke-fangirl in all of Konoha (besides Ino), "Ohayo; Haruno."

Sakura stopped in her tracks and muttered a soft 'ohayo' back to Ren.

Ren's eyebrow raised, if she was wrong – and she was sometimes – there was a flash of guilt in Sakura's eyes, but it disappeared fairly quickly.

Sakura started talking rapidly to Kotarou who kindly felt that she should – in his mind – shut the hell up and leave him alone. Ren tried to stifle a chuckle as she gradually went to lean beside Natsume, which surprised him slightly as he crushed the plastic water bottle in his hand and dumped it in the grass.

"Where did you get those katanas?" Ren asked. This question surprised Natsume even further as Ren was the last person he thought would actually ask him a typically boring question like that because his two crimson red katanas were normally hidden from view ever since they met.

"Kotarou's clan's armory," he explained, "after the Iwa vs. Kusa war, I panicked and went to see if Kotarou was alright; he told me that if we wanted to survive, we should pick out some katanas from one of the meeting places the Hideki Clan took control of and grab some swordsmanship techniques scrolls so we had a dimmer chance of getting killed by enemy ninja."

"Oh," Ren said, "because they look seriously cool."

Ren unsheathed her own katana, Ying, and let Natsume inspect it. Natsume - suprisingly - was quite impressed by its flawless quality. The blade was fine, sharp and seemed to have been polished recently until the blackness of the katana shone; a tip that would draw blood in a single touch, and a comfortable hilt - in a sense - that it could be easily maneuvoured with a twist of his nimble fingers.

"I am not supposed to be the true owner of Ying," she said broodily, "as my grandfather said, I am not cold enough like the opposite of Yang, which rightly belongs to my brother who possess all the qualities of Yang."

"Then why did he let you have it?"

Ren gave a bitter laugh that attracted Kotarou and Sakura, as well as Naruto, who had just arrived and apparently missed Ren. "There is no freaking owner worthy of Ying. So who would rather have it than Great-Grandfather's precious princess?" Ren's eyes had darkened and had this eerie insane feeling in them which made Natsume slightly wary of her...eccentricities and bipolar antics. But he could guess that she had been shunned by some of her family members before because of her great-grandfather's treatment towards her - favouritism - and damaged her loyalty towards her clan.

"You're crazy," Natsume sweatdropped in the end. Ren merely smiled.

"REN-CHAAAAN!" amazingly like lightning, Naruto shot towards Ren and tackled her to the ground - missing Natsume by a few inches - taking the surprised/demented/crazy kunoichi by surprise. Once she realized who was snuggling her like a little puppy, she gave a little laugh and mussed his spiky blonde hair affectionately, "Ohayo, Naru."

"Oi, dobe, you're making a racket," now that voice took Ren by surprise as well - a really, really bad surprise - that made her lightly push off Naruto with apologies and stare into the deep, vengeance-filled eyes of Uchiha Sasuke.

"Ohayo, Uchiha," Ren said flatly.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and nodded at her with acknowledgement. He went away then with more doubts in his head. Now Ren was acting cold to him. What the hell did he do to get on her bad side!

As Natsume, Kotarou, Sakura and hell, even Naruto noticed the tension in the air was a lot heavier than before - before Sasuke arrived - and wondered what was the problem. The heavy tension didn't last long though, when you-know-who(s) poofed right here and then.

"YOU JACKASS SADIST! I WASN'T READY YET!"

"HAVEN'T YOU REALIZED THE TIME YOU GODDAMN PERVERT? WE'RE ALREADY TEN MINUTES LATE!"

"YOUR WATCH IS RUNNING FAST, BASTARD!"

"SENSEI!" Naruto, Sakura and Kotarou shouted. This stopped the jounin from arguing like a bunch of brats and gladly removed the tension Sasuke and Ren applied on earlier. To completely erase it from the atmosphere, Naruto's comment made everyone besides the two jounin chuckle, "Wow, Kakashi-sensei! You should be with Haiku-sensei more often so you won't be late for training! Dattebayo!"

"Urusai (shut up), Naruto!" Kakashi shouted angrily.

After the Confusion

"Right, Team 7 and Team 15," Kakashi said back into his composed manner, "Today, we will be sparring against each other."

Kakashi and Haiku gauged their students' reactions: Sakura was crestfallen, Naruto looked pumped up, no surprise, and much to Haiku's chagrin, Sasuke looked a little too confident to his liking. He didn't have to guess his own students' reactions though. Ren was still wary (of being matched up with Sasuke), Natsume looked as impassive as ever and Kotarou seemed pretty bored.

"First match up, Haruno Sakura vs. Natsume," Kakashi called out.

A minuscule grin passed his features; Natsume gave his crimson blades to Ren, who - slightly surprised - took them without a word. "I'll go easy this time," he said with a crack of his knuckles, "No katanas. Just shuriken and kunai."

"Don't be too cocky, Natsume," Kakashi scolded, "you're underestimating Sakura's abilities."

"You haven't even seen my abilities!" Sakura protested, not wanting to be pummelled to death by her new one-sided crush. Ren sighed as she gave Natsume a pretend pat on the back when she was actually pulling his shirt slightly and whispering in a hushed tone, "Just go for 30% of your power, please, getting Haruno beaten to the pulp will not make you look good."

Natsume gave her a look of surprise and nodded, rudely shrugging her off as everyone backed off and Sakura stepped forward, kunai in hand.

Kakashi and Haiku, apart as far as they could as usual, glanced at both participants as Kakashi called out, "Hajime (Start)!"

Most of them were blown away when both Sakura and Natsume dashed across each other with normal ninja speed (though it was easily seen that Natsume was faster than Sakura), leaping into the air when the angle was perfect for Sakura, she threw her kunais with perfect precision but was easily blocked when Natsume performed some hand seals:

Tora (Tiger) - Ushi (Ox) - Tora (Tiger)

"Earth Element: Earth Wall!" a huge wall made entirely of rock-solid earth shot up from the ground and Sakura's weapons basically stuck onto the wall. Haiku smirked at his sworn enemy, who was screaming mentally in his head, How did a genin do that!

"Nani!" Sakura shouted as Natsume, using the incredible confusion as an advantage, jumped into the air, chakra in his feet and grabbed a smoke bomb from his kunai pouch and threw it near Sakura. She shrieked as it went off. The others backed up into the trees, including the two jounin who (almost) didn't make it because they were running off in different directions.

Sasuke was scowling from the tree (Sasuke - top branch, Ren and Kotarou - one branch lower, Naruto - fell into a bush), he mutually hated the other brunette genin from the start and didn't like it that he was also able to use Elemental Chakra. His pride - unimaginably - dropped, his Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu didn't seem so grand to his eyes anymore.

The smoke cleared and Sakura - as well as everybody else - was surprised that she had not yet been attacked and the fact that Natsume was pretty much nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, while Sakura let her guard down, and from Naruto's view from the bushes, caught the sight of two kunai being aimed at her back from the tallest tree. Being the loudmouthed idiot he was, he shouted, "Sakura-chan! Watch out!"

Sakura - for once - listened to Naruto and looked behind her. Instinctively, she dodged it by moving to the left, wrong move. From Natsume's perspective, he had laid out traps in the smoke silently like a silent killer, assuming that Sakura would only move to the right, left, back or front, and quickly dashed to hide in the most convinient, highest branch of a tree so he could have a bird's eye view of everything before him.

An invisible string that Natsume always kept in his kunai pouch was placed in an intricate, complicated fashion and was obviously the trigger to the ten shuriken that shot from a variety of places. The two 'kunai' that was earlier shot at Sakura poofed and to everyone's amazement/surprise/shock, transformed into two - blood and flesh - Natsumes.

The first Natsume's fingers suddenly shot out visible chakra strings, all controlling the ten shuriken whilst the second Natsume ran to Sakura and using only one fist, slammed Sakura down. The poor girl writhed in pain as the first Natsume's skilled fingers effectively landed the kunais and pierced themselves through Sakura's sleeves, dress and ninja sandals. The second Natsume disappeared, being a Shadow Clone after all.

The chakra strings slowly vanished from the tips of Natsume's fingers as he grunted, looking disdainfully at the struggling pink-haired kunoichi who was fruitlessly trying to get out of the shuriken.

"Natsume...wins."

Haiku was shocked, this guy could use Shadow Clones and Elemental Jutsu and chakra strings! He seriously wouldn't be surprised if Kakashi had the same reaction as him. And after what he had heard from his other student, Ren, who had told Natsume to hold back...HOLD BACK! YOU CALL THAT HOLDING BACK! HE DEFEATED AN OPPONENT WITH BASICALLY NONETHELESS ONLY THREE JUTSU, KUNAI AND SHURIKEN...WITHOUT EVEN HARMING HER!

Ren had this huge, deathly urge to roll over the floor laughing her ass off, and she wasn't the only one, Kotarou had already fallen off the branch and was contorting with silent laughter.

Sasuke and Naruto were beyond amazed. He was able to defeat her without even scratching her...was he holding back? Sasuke's attention was diverted to the raven-haired heiress who was smiling with relief. He could have held back especially if Tsuki requested him not to hurt Sakura...Sasuke was in such brutal, emotional agony now. He only hoped that the bastard was only holding back a little...

Under Kakashi's Observation

He was having mixed emotions. Relief - that Sakura was not injured. Disappointment - that Sakura lost and now he had to face Haiku's ego. Amazement - obvious reasons. Anxiety - that they would be fearful opponents in the Chuunin Exams. Regret - that he had been placed in this screwed team/for even requesting a genin team this year.

Back to Normal View

Ren hopped off the tree, passed by Natsume and gave him a real pat on the back, handed back his katanas to him and muttereda soft, "Nice work" before running towards Sakura with Naruto behind her as she pulled out the shuriken embedded in Sakura's clothes and Naruto trying to comfort Sakura, who blatantly brushed him away and stared at Ren.

Ren glanced up and gave her a comforting smile. No matter how much Sakura was indifferent to her, she was still a girl who needed a bit of pep and comfort one time and then. "Next time, Haruno," Ren advised, "when you're stuck in a situation where you can't see, jump as far away as you can from you enemy and don't ever let your guard down." The other girl didn't reply so Ren walked back and dumped herself next to Kotarou, who was hugging Natsume for a job well done, Natsume blushing and muttering, "Damn you Kotarou".

"Next match," Haiku called in his smooth, strict tone, after mysteriously cleaning up the whole place, "Uchiha Sasuke vs. Tsuki Ren."

Ren flinched and gave Haiku the worst glare she had in her arsenal (only used against jerkass impassioned bastards). Sasuke, actually smiling for once, jumped off the branch gracefully like the damn perfectionist Uchiha he was. Kotarou gave her a dazzling smile and a relaxing rub on her shoulder, which Ren returned with a nervous smile as Natsume half-smiled and murmured a nearly inaudible, "Kick his screwed up ass."

Ren, like Natsume, passed Ying to the two genin before chakra-jumping three meters in front of Sasuke. "Getting a little confident, eh, Tsuki?" Sasuke smirked, getting ready in the normal taijutsu Academy stance. Ren's face - what was very common when playing poker, sparring, blackjack etc... - transformed into (obviously) Poker Face, the type of face that almost always got her winning in MANY of the things she did against her brother.

She went into the more advanced Tsuki taijutsu stance, which surprised mainly everyone. Haiku analyzed her stance. No openings. No flaws. The legendary Tsuki clan are amazing, Haiku thought skeptically.

"Hajime!"

At first, neither of them made a move. Seeing this as a fleeting oppurtunity to show off his mad skills to intimidate the Tsuki, he dashed across the ground and started engaging the girl in a fierce taijutsu battle. Their fists locked into each other's and they jumped back. Sasuke made three bunshin and attacked Ren simultaneously, who fended herself with graceful chakra punches and kicks though Sasuke managed to graze her neck with a kunai, in close proximity to her again.

Sasuke made a swipe at her legs, she merely jumped and started forming seals.

Ne (Rat) - Tora (Tiger) - Inu (Dog) - Ushi (Ox) - U (Rabbit) - Tora (Tiger)

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

Focusing the chakra in her throat, she spouted fireballs from her mouth, all aiming to the Uchiha, who was taken off guard but was still able to dodge the fireballs using minimal chakra. He was sweating - from the burning flames - and from incessant, newborn adrenalin. Shit! he cussed as a fireball nearly obliterated him, fortunately, he had flipped backwards and landed on the ground with sweat beading his forehead.

Ren was cool. Ren was fearless. Ren was...so guilty of using a high-level fire style jutsu on her 'friend'.

Sasuke, seeing an opening while she was in the middle of her 'Guilt Reminiscing' Zone, leapt into the air and with brilliant accuracy, threw two kunais from his kunai pouch in an instant and pinned down the girl by the sandals. Hell, he thought, she didn't even seem a slight bit fazed!

Feeling victory in his hands, he performed the seals for Uchiha's famous Fire Style Jutsu.

Mi (Snake) - Tora (Tiger) - Saru (Monkey) - I (Boar) - Uma (Horse) - Tora (Tiger)

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

Time seemed to slow down as a huge burst of high-pressure, intensifying, blood-boiling flames escaped his mouth, aiming towards the defenseless Tsuki.

"REN-CHAN/REN/TSUKI!" Naruto, Kotarou, Sakura, Haiku and even Kakashi and Natsume shouted. After the flames diminshed, sense seemed to have knocked into Sasuke after realizing what he had done. Oh fuck, he thought, panicking, I just killed her! What in hell's name am I gonna do!

But in the fried/burnt place Ren should have died at, she seemed to have disappeared completely. There wasn't even a speck of blood or a bone or an organ, but, in her place, was a big fat log. Realization dawned on Haiku and Kakashi, who had used the jutsu the day before to dodge Sasuke's fire ball jutsu (Kakashi not Haiku)

Substitution Jutsu! they thought, extremely relieved that there had not been a death in their hands.

"Not bad, Uchiha," the voice was so chilling and frightening that it almost sent the sweating Uchiha down to his knees, "but you should've pinned me down completely. Substitution Jutsu does wonders, you know."

Sasuke swerved around as quickly as he could and attempted to stab the crazy kekkei genkai-bearing princess with the kunai but the girl easily caught it. Sasuke's eyes widened as he met her own glaring tints.

Those cheery, electric blue eyes had been switched into a pair of deathly, dark, pitless, sorrow-filled holes filled with torture and insanity. Sasuke shuddered but couldn't stop staring at those pained eyes. Only his willpower motivated him to focus. He released the kunai and used all the chakra he could summon to kick Ren in the stomach, and her dark eyes vanished, replaced with her normal blue tints.

She gave a small cry of pain as she held her stomach with one hand and the other started throwing hailstorms of kunais and shuriken with pinpoint accuracy that made Sasuke's look weak. Sasuke, almost out of chakra, attempted to dodge every single one of the weapons. There were thirty in estimation. He dodged two from the left, stepped back when one nearly cut off his cockatoo hair, jumped when three almost struck him from behind and did the same routine over and over again.

Finally, resting for only a second, a kunai cut into his arm, sending a wave of pain into his veins. His fast movements started to gradually decrease as he got scratched on the cheek with a shuriken, stabbed twice lightly on the back by kunais until he dropped to his knees when another stream stabbed his legs. There was a lot of blood, mainly Sasuke's, as it trickled down from his arm, his legs, as a pool of blood surrounded him. It irked Ren to see this much blood since the Tsuki Clan's assassination.

"Winner, Tsuki Ren," Kakashi said quickly, as the whole of Team 7 went to Sasuke's side.

"Oi, Teme! Get a hold of yourself!" Naruto shouted at his sworn rival.

"Sasuke-kun! Please speak to us!"

"Stay back," Ren ordered as he walked over to Sasuke and started to pull out her weapons despite Sakura's and Naruto's pleads. They shut up, though, when her hands hovered over to Sasuke's more fatal wounds and a sudden, soft blue glow emanated from her palms. Healing chakra, Natsume, Haiku and Kakashi thought.

The gushing of blood stopped and Sasuke's skin seemed to reform itself as she did the same technique over and over again on his legs and back. "T-Tsuki...how did you do that?" Sakura asked, her words seeming to be stuck in her throat.

"My brother Hiro-nii taught me some healing techniques," Ren said in a cool, emotionless voice, as she healed the last fatal wound. Sasuke grunted and held onto Naruto and Sakura for support, but for Ren, he gave her a look that said: What ARE you?

Haiku patted Ren awkwardly in the back and said, "Good thing you held back."

Ren didn't reply as she walked over to her comrades who were looking at her in passive expectation. "Good job, Ren-chan," Kotarou said, smiling gloriously at her. As she passed Natsume, he asked, "How much were you holding back?"

"50%, if I didn't activate Raven Eyes it would've been 80%," she whispered back, shocking the brunette as she catapulted on a tree branch and sat there waiting for her teacher to clear up the mess she made.

Later

"Last match: Hideki Kotarou vs. Uzumaki Naruto," Kakashi called out.

"Nya!" Kotarou cutely mewed as he entered stage one neko transformation. Natsume smiled and rubbed his ear affectionately, Ren patted his head. Meanwhile, Sakura had just caught Kotarou's little transformation and almost squealed her heart out at his cuteness. Natsume was as hot as Sasuke but Kotarou was just too cute to pass up!

Kotarou threw his beautiful katana to Natsume with his tail and leapt forward gracefully like a feline on all fours, clawing the ground for annoying his feet as he stretched and 'nyaa'ed some more. Naruto, of course, freaked out and shouted, "HOLY SHIT, KOTAROU YOU'RE A CAT?"

Even Sasuke seemed surprised at Kotarou's odd transformation and found a trickle of blood dropping from his nostril. He quickly wiped it away before anyone saw it. At least (hopefully) now some of his fan club members were finally leaving him the hell alone. He'd have to thank Ren for introducing them.

Kotarou's 'ears' twitched as Kakashi's eyes widened. He commented bluntly, "Reminds me of a girl from Icha-Icha Paradise."

Haiku flushed in fury and he punched the old perverted fool right between the eyes and shouted hysterically, "DON'T YOU DARE THINK OF ANYTHING EROTIC INVOLVING MY STUDENTS, HATAKE KAKASHI!"

"And who's thinking erotically, you closet pervert!" Kakashi retorted victoriously.

"Hey that's my line!" Naruto shouted from the distance.

"Can we get this started?" Natsume, Kotarou and Ren asked in unison, causing everyone to sweatdrop.

The jounin continued fighting on Haiku's 'secret closet pervert thoughts' so Natsume (chibified with those half-lidded chibi eyes) started off the match with a "Hajime!"

Unlike using strategies like Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto used - of what Kotarou saw Natsume used earlier - the seal for Shadow Clone. Immediately, twenty shadow clones appeared around the original Naruto and started running towards Kotarou.

No strategies? Kotarou sweatdropped as he launched forward on all fours, giving some of his sanity over to his animal instincts. Building up the 'animal' chakra in his lungs, he gave a deep breath as the Narutos grew closer. Similar to the flashback Haiku had used against him, the roar practically shook the leaves of the trees and everyone started to cover their ears with anything that could block out that ear-piercing roar. It was particularly difficult for Ren as she had animal-honed senses and her ears started to bleed profusely.

"T-Tsuki!" Natsume shouted in faint horror at the blood flowing down her cheeks.

Hiroto didn't stop until three-quarters of the Narutos who got close immediately evaporated on the spot.

"Fall back! Fall back!" the original Naruto yelled hysterically as the fallen Shadow Clones quickly got up and started stumbling across one another in a messy fashion, in the end, all substaining stampede-injuries and dissipating. Kotarou stopped, sending relief to the spectators as he grinned and started running with leopard speed towards the blonde shinobi. His movements seemed to fade to many of the shinobis' eyes - excluding Kakashi and Haiku - as the grass suddenly looked like it had just been ignited by a speeding comet.

He paused as he leapt into the air, claws out, and dived towards the unusually calm Naruto.

The blonde merely stood at the ready, arm reached out and started -

- Rubbing his neko ears.

At this point, most of Kotarou's human sanity had already been converted to his animal instincts, therefore he was now sitting in a catlike position, mewing and rubbing up Naruto's leg in a provocative manner.

Not surprisingly, the tense shinobi had all (those sitting on high places) fallen off their positions and were sweat-dropping. Haiku paled at the thought that his student lost because of that and Kakashi was mentally thanking God for selecting Konoha's No. 1 Maverick Ninja on his team.

Nevertheless, the genins' expressions weren't much less different only that Sakura was squealing like there was no tomorrow, Sasuke was pretty much nosebleeding, secretly hiding in the canopy of leaves and Ren and Natsume were practically banging their heads against the tree at their friend's sensitivity.

"Baka Kotarou ~" Ren moaned, blood gushing out of her head.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" Kakashi made no hesitation to announce.

Immediately, Naruto stopped petting the excited Kotarou and started jumping in the air screaming, "YATTA! YATTA! I BEAT HIM!"

Kotarou, slightly exhausted, fell flat on the ground and his ears and tail disappeared. His forehead was beaded with sweat and his cheeks flushed deep amber. Kotarou swore under his breath, though it could easily be heard by the two jounin, who were partly amazed by Naruto's clever yet sneaky victory and the kindly Kotarou's unusual ability to swear as much as his two teammates.

"Did you see, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked loudly to her.

Sakura forcefully smiled - as Ren noted - at Naruto, probably trying to make amends for her bitchiness, "N-Nice work, Naruto."

Naruto's eyes shone like stars and psuedo tears appeared in his eyes. "Sakura-chan..." he sniffed. Sakura sweatdropped.

"I want ramen," Ren suddenly said unexpectedly.

"Random comment much?" Natsume stated sarcastically. Ren glared at him to shut up.

Meanwhile with Haiku and Kakashi

The two jounin teachers stared at their students in confusion/amazement/surprise. Almost all of the anger and tensity in the air disappeared when Naruto won. They were acting like nothing happened. Was this the power of obliviousness? they wondered.

After the minor confusion, the jounin decided to (arguably) help out their students by pointing out their flaws. Ren's biggest flaw was focus, she was easily put in a daze, as Haiku put it, which gave her opponent the upper hand, Kakashi added. Natsume's flaw was underestimating people. Even if he knew the person well, Haiku lectured, it was no excuse to underestimate them.

Kotarou had two flaws, unlucky for him, one was his ears (cat ears) and the other was his lack of strategy, though he was still better than Naruto. Sakura and Naruto, much to their shinobi pride, had so many flaws that they lost count. And last but not the least, Sasuke basically had no flaws. Even Haiku admitted that his foundation was absolutely perfect and would've won if he trained ten times harder. This comment made Sasuke tick mark.

"Now," Kakashi announced, now in a minor tug-of-war for control with Haiku, "I've got a surprise for all of you."

"Nani, nani, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled.

Kakashi smiled evilly, which made Ren, Natsume and Sasuke slightly self-conscious about what was hitting them, "We will be playing Reality Check."

A/N: Phew! Five chapters! Though technically, it's three...ah who cares? Thanks to all of you readers again for taking time to read this! And just to explain beforehand, 'Reality Check' is a game I made up out of my mind (though it is possible that it came from a computer game of tv show I don't know...). It basically centers around Genjutsu: one plays a Genjutsu - a very realistic one - on their opponent, and their opponent will have to try to see if they're real or not...Forget it, I'll explain in the next chapter.

And my promise on typing more words for each chapter? Sorry, it may have to be reduced to 8000 to 15000 per chapter. This allows me to update quicker as well.

Kudos!

HinakoNamikaze99