The Land Where a Hero once Lived
"ARRRGGH!" Naruto shouted as he fell on his rear end, panting heavily before waving his hands and feet around. "Why is it so hard?"
Sasuke panted heavily as well, looking up at the tree to see how man marks he had made with Kunai so far. Naruto glanced over at him with glare, Sasuke doing the same before they both got back up, glaring at each other a little longer before running forward and up the trees. Kari was up in the same tree she had climbed up the day before, resting on the branch while watching Sasuke and Naruto both fail at trying to reach the top. She had been here most of the day with them, just watching them practice, though she was beginning to wish that the sensei had let her gone with Sakura and Tazuna to the bridge. Kakashi had asked her to make sure they didn't try to kill each other, so she had no choice but to comply. They had been here since the morning and the sun was already beginning to set, yet they were both still going at it.
Naruto fell back down, landing on his feet this time, while Sasuke was still climbing. Sasuke slashed the tree with the kunai before falling back down to the ground, landing on his feet. Kari clapped, smiling down at them from her place in the tree. Naruto stood back up, and closed his eyes, looking like he was deep in concentration before he was about to run off to the tree. He only got one step in before he was stopped.
"Hey! Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, Naruto falling flat on his face, earning a giggle from Kari.
"GAH! Sasuke! What're you doing? I was trying to focus my chakra!"
'Well, at least he's headed in the right direction…' Kari thought as she jumped out of the tree and back to the ground.
"Well, uh…" Sasuke began, "Y'know, the thing is…"
Naruto frowned. "Ugh, the thing is what?"
Sasuke looked away, a bit of a frustrated look appearing on his face, his left eye twitching slightly. "You-you know, you asked Sakura for advice when she was here? So what did she tell you?"
Naruto stared at him blankly for a minute before he laughed slyly, a smirk coming onto his face. "I'm not telling you…"
Kari sighed as they both glared at each other, stepping in between them. "Okay, I think it's time to call it quits. Let's head back to the house so we don't miss dinner!" 'At least during that they won't be trying to beat each other at something…'
Dinner time~
"Ha-ha, it's been ages since we've had so many guests around our table!" Tazuna stated, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
Kari watched in disgust as Sasuke and Naruto both stuffed their faces with food, her eye slightly twitching. At the same time, the two stood up, bowls in the air. "I want some more!" Both exclaimed, looking to glare at each other before sitting back down, turning around to puke. Kari scrunched up her face in disgust since she was seated next to Sasuke.
"EWWW!"
"DON'T EAT SO MUCH IF YOU'RE GONNA PUKE IT UP!" Sakura said, glaring at both boys angrily.
"I have to eat." Sasuke stated.
"And I have to eat more than him. It's the only possible way I'll get strong enough to beat him." Naruto said, smirking slightly.
Kakashi nodded in agreement. "That's true…but puking won't help you."
Kari was thankful when dinner was over, hoping that she would never have to witness Sasuke and Naruto stuffing their faces ever again. Tsunami made some tea for everyone, Kari sipping it happily while Tsunami washed the dishes in the sink. "Thanks for the great dinner, Ms. Tsunami! It was delicious."
Tsunami sent Kari a smile. "You're very welcome!"
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes, sipping their tea, until Sakura piped up. "Excuse me, this picture is torn. Is there some reason for that?" Sakura turned around to glance at the table. "Inari, you kept glancing at it all through dinner. It looks like there was someone else in the picture, but they got torn out. I mean, that's kinda strange, isn't it?"
Everyone was silent for a moment until Tsunami spoke up. "It's my husband."
"They used to call him a hero in this land." Tazuna said quietly.
Kari glanced at Inari as he got up from his spot next to her and walked began to walk out. Tsunami called after him, yelling at her father before going after the younger boy. Kari sighed, resting her head in her arms, closing her eyes. She listened as Tazuna began to explain what had made Inari so sad, nearly falling asleep shortly after he explained how Inari's father, Kaiza, was killed by Gato's men, and how everyone looked up to him as hero. Kari's eyes shot open when Tazuna said that Inari watched his father die right before his eyes, memories coming back to her.
"Momma, don't close your eyes…"
"Promise me you'll take care of him…"
"I promise…"
"I'll always be with you…Hikari…"
"Momma, don't leave me! Please don't go! MOMMA!"
"SNAP OUT OF IT, WOULD YA!" Sakura shouted, shaking Kari's shoulders, surprising the girl.
"Wah!"
"Hikari, are you alright?" Kakashi asked.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm great! What makes you think I'm not?"
"You spaced out…" Sasuke said, frowning slightly at the girl. 'That look in her eyes…it was a look of pain…'
Kari grinned. "I'm just tired, that's all. Well, I'm gonna hit the hay, so goodnight everyone!" Kari said, running out of the room and to the room that they were staying in while they were here. She walked over to the bed she was using, sitting down on it and grabbing her bag, pulling out the picture from yesterday and staring down at it sadly.
'I know what it feels like…to watch your parent die in front of you…it hurts a lot because you feel helpless. It really, really, REALLY hurts…'
"Once again, it was delicious, Ms. Tsunami! I don't think I've had any better cooking than yours!" Kari exclaimed, setting her chopsticks down on her now empty plate.
Tsunami smiled. "Well, thank you! I'm glad to know you liked it."
Sakura walked out, yawning loudly and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Good morning, everyone." She walked over and took a seat at the table, Tsunami bringing her a plate of food, setting it down in front of her.
"Here."
"Oh, thank you!"
"Naruto's not here? Looks like he was out all night again…" Tazuna said.
"He's gone completely crazy. He's out climbing trees in the dark." Sakura explained, a bored expression coming onto her face. "He could be dead by now. You know, from using up too much of his chakra."
"Now I'm worried." Kari said.
"Well, I certainly hope he's ok. A child spending the night in the woods alone…" Tsunami said, as if the very idea was unheard of.
"There's nothing to worry about. Naruto's a goofy kid, but he's also a full fledged ninja. He can handle himself." Kakashi assured.
"Sakura's right. Naruto's such a loser, he's probably lying out there dead somewhere." Sasuke stated, and Kari stood up.
"Well, I think I'm gonna go make sure he's alive enough to come back and eat something. You can't really train on an empty stomach." Kari said, standing up from her seat and walking out the door, heading towards the woods. She wasn't even gone for 3 minutes when Sasuke walked up next to her. "Let me guess: The first thing you're going to say to Naruto when we find is this: 'You're a loser for sleeping in the woods.'"
Sasuke smirked at her guess. "Naruto is already a loser."
"Really? Than how come he's doing better with Chakra control than you are?" Sasuke sent a glare at her and she grinned. "Ah, so it's true! Sasuke Uchiha doesn't want to admit that he needs help with something?"
"I don't need help at all."
"Then why did you ask Naruto about what Sakura told him about how to climb the tree the right way?" When he didn't say anything, she smiled. "Well, since you're pride is more important than anything else in the world to you, I'll be nice enough to just tell you how to do it without you asking."
"Why-"
"Shut-up and just listen. Ok, there's three rules on how to get to climb up the right way: Relax, Concentrate, and Focus. Relax yourself, which you haven't been doing at all when you try to climb. Since your attention is so caught up on beating the idiot, you can't climb up right. If you can't relax yourself, the chakra doesn't flow right. Concentrate your chakra to your feet and hold it there. And lastly, solely focus on the tree, since you're using chakra to climb up it. And there you have it! The three basic steps that are guaranteed to work! You're welcome!"
She began to run ahead of Sasuke, leaving him wide eyed. "H-hey! Wait up!"
Hikari ignored him and kept running, running past one person and not even bothering to take a glance at them. She stopped when she found Naruto, sitting on the ground, a frown on his face. "Woah! I've seen a lot of weird things in my life before, but this one takes the cake."
Kari laughed as Sasuke whacked the blonde on the head. "Hey, twerp, did you just forget about breakfast. You're such a loser."
Kari sighed, moving off to sit up in the tree. She leaned back and stared up at the sky. She couldn't wait until they left and got to go home.
A/N: Okay, don't hate me for this, but I'm spending way too much time with this part of the story, so I'm gonna skip ahead next chapter to when they get back to village, okay? Sorry if you guys don't like that, but I feel like it needs to be necessary. Hope you guys are still enjoying it! Leave a review please! LATER TATERS!
