A/N: An update, as promised. THANKSIE to all my reviewers, as little as they may be.
disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I jus like playing with plushies. :)) But I do own this fic. NO STEALING.
Sasuke sat alone at the former Uchiha compound, not exactly enjoying a sleepless night. Something—no, someone—was bothering him.
"Get to know her better."
What did Kakashi mean "get to know her better"? Sasuke was a loner: it took a long time for him to build that reputation. And now, his deranged perverted sensei wanted him to get to know a girl better? As if.
He had to study her. Her every move—walk, run, skip, word, hug, hi-5, hair flip—was important evidence and a step closer to figuring out her techniques.
He will find out the secret of her ways, the techniques she used, to ensure that it would never happen to him.
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Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura sat on the pinkette's couch, sitting in excitement as they watched the new episode of Gossip Girl. It was late afternoon, and they enjoyed this unwinding session after a long week shinobi-ing.
"I hate Blair." Sakura commented. "She's…bitchy, and yet she and Chuck would do anything to protect Serena."
"Do you think Nate's cute?" Ino asked, ignoring Sakura's comment while popping another piece of cheese popcorn into her mouth.
Sakura did the same as she pondered on the question. "I'm not sure. He has this strange charm but has this bad guy kind of thing going on."
"Speaking of bad guys… do you, Haruno Sakura, think that your teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, is hot?" Ino asked, smirking at the thought of Sakura gushing about her teammate. The blond was so over him—she deserved better than that lame straight-faced genius anyways.
Outside the window, Uchiha Sasuke sat, eavesdropping on the girls' conversation. At that point, nothing could hint her secret to power—or that she was powerful at all.
Maybe Kakashi just gave her the bell. Maybe he pitied her being the only girl on the team, especially with the Kyuubi container and the Uchiha survivor with her.
"No." Sakura sternly but calmly answered.
Ino sighed. If only Sakura knew how pretty she was, she would have the confidence to actually like a guy. "Nevermind," she breathed out. Suddenly, she jerked upright. "Forehead, what date is it today?"
"Friday the 16th. Why?" Sakura questioned innocently.
Ino quickly jumped off the couch and grabbed her jacket. "Shit! My grandparents are supposed have dinner with us tonight!" The blond quickly ran to the doorway, just barely stopping to shout a goodbye to her friend. "See you tomorrow Forehead! ILY!"
Sakura was left alone, sitting on the couch. She switched off the television and started cleaning up the popcorn and soft drink cans.
Sasuke watched intently, knowing that her silence always gave away a hint of seriousness.
Sakura finished clearing up the bowls and glasses off the coffee table. She exited the room, but returned again with great speed—with her kunai at hand.
"I know you're there Sasuke." She said, looking out the window.
'Shit. How'd she know?'
"I can sense your chakra. If you really want something, all you need to do is ask."
The Uchiha had too much pride to show his face to Sakura, but his dug for a pad and pen. He scribbled legibly his question and let the paper fall gently onto her windowsill.
What did you do to get the bell from Kakashi?
"I used my ninjutsu. Duh." She spoke to her invisible teammate.
Another paper fell in front of her.
WHAT jutsu did you use? They were different.
Sakura stared at the paper intently before reproaching. "Why do you want to know?"
Because.
She took a deep breath, trying to fight the tears before the explanation. "It's my family's technique. Sort of a kekkei genkei. I would tell you more, but that's all I'm allowed to say."
And the window shut closed.
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Catching a cat was a D-ranked mission. Catching Tora could've been S-ranked. 3 hours spent on tracking a kitten was too—in Shikamaru's words—troublesome.
"I'm in position." A low, calm voice spoke over the communicator.
"So am I." A soft, feminine voice added.
"I got a lock on the target." The third voice, a trying-hard-to-be-cool one, answer.
"Ready."
"Ready."
"HIYYYYAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A flash of orange pounced onto an unknowing cat in the middle of the street. Tora, the cat, ran away just in time before Naruto was able to catch her.
Tora put up a good fight, causing Team 7 a huge workout around the village. Eventually, after angering pretty much all of Konoha, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke caught Tora.
"Why do we have to do bogus missions like these?" Naruto complained in front of the 3rd Hokage. Tora's owner had just left, completing another D-ranked mission.
Sasuke and Sakura secretly agreed. The three genin—and even Kakashi—were getting tired of all these petty tasks. Sure it earned them money, but they needed experience as shinobi outside the village, not just random chores a simple civilian could do.
"I mean, I'm a shinobi! Why would I want to do little stuffies like that?" Naruto continued complaining, his speech droning on for another ten minutes.
"NARUTO!" Sarutobi, the 3rd Hokage interjected before Kakashi could control his hyperactive student.
Said blond looked up to the geriatric and shut up.
"If you really want something else, I can give you a simple C-class escort mission."
At his words, the faces of the three genin seemed to lighten up. Kakashi was visibly excited for some special training with his team outside the village, but didn't totally hint it.
"Mister Tazuna?" Sarutobi beckoned. Out of the sliding wooden door behind them, an old, drunken man in khaki shorts and a brown muscle shirt walked it, holding a half-empty beer bottle.
"These are my protectors? A couple of kids?" The man, Mister Tazuna questioned.
Team seven was taken aback in shock. 'This was our client?' They were tempted to shout. And Naruto gave in to the temptation.
"And the short one looks idiotic." Tazuna added.
Naruto just laughed. "Who's the short one?!"
Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other. They were both of normal height, not supposedly short.
Then they looked at Naruto who was laughing it up. "Hey, what are you guys looking at?"
"Er…Naruto?" Sakura asked, gesturing with her arm over her head and moving it over the blond boy how much taller she was than him.
The smile on the orange clad ninja's face faded away. He looked to his sensei for some reassurance, but all he did was shrug and turn away.
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Sakura, Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto and their client, Tazuna, walked away from the gates of Konoha, relieved to finally be away from the shinobi village.
It was their first time outside the village on a mission, and even though the mission was just a simple escort-and-protect type, but they were excited all the same.
Kakashi trudged along at the back, hands in pockets and head in the sky. He watched as Naruto continued ranting to his teammates 'how cool it was to be outside the village', while said Haruno and Uchiha ignored him. Tazuna was in between the two groups, humming along to his own song with a glass beer bottle in his hand.
Suddenly, three black clad nin jump out from the trees. They instantly thrust chains around Kakashi and pulled, spraying blood all over the place.
"KAKA-SENSEI!" Naruto shouted, seeing that his teacher had been violently mutilated and strangled.
The other two genin—both in shock but still sane enough—took their defensive stances. Sasuke started with an attack, while Sakura stood in front of Tazuna with a kunai at hand.
The two attackers headed towards Naruto and Sasuke, one of them scratching Naruto's hand with a knife. The Uchiha quickly hooked a shuriken and kunai onto his and one of his partner's chains and knocked them out with a simple head bash, only to find the third one trying to attack Sakura and Tazuna.
Sakura wasn't helpless. She was about to form the seal of her Earth Paralysis Jutsu, but Sasuke immediately jumped in front of her and hitting the shinobi.
'Show off.' She sneered inwardly.
"Very impressive Sasuke, very smooth." A voice from behind the bushes—an awfully familiar one—said. "You too Sakura."
"Kakashi?"
"How did you survive?"
"I used a kage bunshin from the moment I suspected something wrong." He coolly answered, and then continued, "There was a puddle in the middle of the path but it hasn't rain for weeks."
"So you knew those rogues were hiding the whole time?" Tazuna asked, finally saying something since they started walking.
"Yup." He nodded. "I wanted to see what would happen."
"So you caused all of us a heart attack just to 'see what happened'?"
"KAKA-SENSEI!? WHAT ABOUT ME?!" Naruto wailed, ignoring the whole conversation.
"Naruto, you got hurt!" Sakura pointed out, forgetting her anger at her sensei.
Naruto smiled, holding up his wounded hand. "Oh, this? It's nothing but a mere scratch."
"Naruto, those chains and knives were poisoned." Sasuke said, ruining Naruto's mood.
"We have to get him to the nearest village before the poison spreads." Kakashi suggested.
"NO! NO! NO!"
All eyes turned to the loudmouthed boy. "If we don't get you to a medic, Naruto, the poison might spread and you could die."
"NO!" He pulled out a kunai and plunged it into his wound. "This is my ninja way! I will not give up on the mission. I will not stall the mission, and I would do everything to complete it! Believe it!" The blood contaminated by the poison dripped out, cleansing the Kyuubi container's system of all the foreign material.
"Naruto," Kakashi called the attention of his youngest student. "That was really cool, what you did and all, but if you lose anymore blood, you're going to die."
Naruto frantically ran around, waving his arms all around. The group stared at him in disbelief.
"Is he really like that?" Tazuna asked.
Sakura and Sasuke nodded in unison.
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