Six | The Chuunin Exams And A Difficult Mission!
About a month later perhaps, team seven went through the difficult chuunin exams next, meeting another team, team Guy, Neji, Rock Lee and Tenten, and a team of siblings from the Village Hidden in The Sand, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, as well as a helpful man named Kabuto.
In the middle of the exams, Sasuke was bitten on the neck by a snake-like man, named Orochimaru. A mark appeared on his pale skin near the bite, and the creepy snake guy had said Sasuke would come searching for him eventually.
Sasuke had fallen into a deep sleep after, and Naruto had too, due to another seal being added to his current one on his stomach.
Sakura ended up cutting her long hair while being attacked and Lee came to her rescue.
- I promise to protect you with my life - She recalled him saying their first time meeting.
Sometime after the second test, there were some fights to exclude extra genin. After the winners were chosen, they were given a month to train before they had to do the third test.
Naruto had met a new sensei (because Kakashi needed to train Sasuke and Sakura had already lost), a pervy toad sage named Jiraiya.
During the exams, after the fights to exclude some of the genin but during the third test fights of skill, Konoha was attacked and the third Hokage was killed by Orochimaru, his student.
But sometime later, after Orochimaru and the Sand intruders had retreated and after Hiruzen's funeral, although the exams were not completed, Sasuke and Naruto ended up having to fight Gaara in his one-tailed form. They won, and the village was being rebuilt and everything was okay for now (but at some point Naruto found out that Kabuto was working with Orochimaru).
Kakashi smiled behind his face mask when he reached his team, Jiraiya following. They were at the ramen shop, Naruto eating, Sasuke looking a bit bored and Sakura trying to get the Uchiha's attention.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura," Kakashi uttered, his getting the attention of his team.
"Kakashi-sensei, Pervy Sage!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning.
"Hey kid," Jiraiya said with a smile, rubbing Naruto's head (which the genin did not like very much). "And hey, what'd I tell you about calling me that nickname in public?" He whispered, blushing, and Naruto chuckled.
"What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, tilting her head.
"You have a new mission," Kakashi told his students.
"That's right," the sage smiled, patting Naruto on the back.
"What is it?" Naruto asked excitedly. "What's the mission gonna be?"
"You are going to accompany me on a trip to find a woman," Jiraiya told them, and Kakashi nodded.
"Lady Tsunade," Kakashi continued, smiling lightly. "We need her here at the village."
It was true, they needed Tsunade at the village, but they also needed Naruto out for a little while. Kakashi, Guy, and two jounin – the leaders of team eight and team ten – fought with Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother, and another, a shark-like man named Kisame. Itachi had said he needed Naruto – well, more specifically, the Kyuubi – and was planning to kidnap him.
And plus, they needed Sasuke gone too, in case Itachi showed up to take Naruto while Sasuke was there. Things would not go well if the two faced each other.
Itachi was the one who massacred the Uchihas, after all.
And Sasuke just wanted to kill his brother. He wanted revenge.
"Okay, when do we leave?" Naruto asked, a bit confused but still excited to go on a mission.
"Immediately," Kakashi replied. "But I'm not going with you. I have other things to take care of."
"Okay," Sakura said, smiling. "Well, I guess we should pack!" And with that, she ran off to her house.
"Hn," Sasuke muttered, getting up and walking in the direction of his home. Naruto did the same after saying bye to Kakashi and paying for his ramen.
Soon enough, team seven and Jiraiya were at the entrance to the village. They all set off, a long journey ahead.
–
When it got late, they stopped to make camp. They got a fire going (with the help of one of Sasuke's jutsus) and got three tents set up.
Three. And there were four of them.
"Well, here's what we'll do," Jiraiya began. "Sakura will have her own because she's a lady, Sasuke can have his own because he started the fire, and Naruto can just bunk with me."
Naruto scrunched up his face in distaste but didn't say anything, and they all set off into their respective tents to sleep.
But during the night, Naruto found something out. Jiraiya snored. Extremely loudly, if he might add.
Deciding he could not possibly sleep with the sage snoring so irritatingly loud, he got up and left the tent.
'I have two options,' Naruto thought to himself, squinting. 'I can either climb in with Sakura and risk her aggressively hitting me and thinking I'm a perv, or I can stay out here and sleep by the fire and hope something doesn't come out to eat me, OR, I can sneak in beside Sasuke and risk getting that glare from him, and probably get killed after…'
Naruto pondered this for a moment.
"Well… fire it is."
But when Naruto looked down, the fire was almost out. And it was not warm enough out at night for him to sleep outside of a tent.
'Well, I could go back to Pervy Sage…'
Naruto glanced back at the tent, where the loud snores were coming from.
'Dammit, why can't the fire be lit…? Ugh, okay then… Sakura, Pervy Sage, or Sasuke…'
Naruto shifted from one foot to the other.
'Sakura, who will definitely think I'm a perv or something and will kill me, Pervy Sage, who will cause my future insomnia which will lead to my death, or Sasuke, who will attempt to kill me with that damn glare of his…'
'…'
"Let's try Sakura…"
He snuck over to her tent, opening the tent. "Psst, Sakura," He said quietly. When she didn't wake, he called her again, and she stirred.
Blinking, she realized who it was peeking in and she glared. "Get out, you pervert!" She hissed, and reached forward to hit the blond, but he ducked away in time.
Standing outside her tent, he squinted again.
"Sasuke it is then," he decided, and began to make his way to the Uchiha's tent.
He pulled back the flap and stared inside. "Sasuke," he whisper-yelled, reaching in and shaking the raven.
Sasuke immediately woke, sitting up with a kunai in his hand, ready to fight.
"Sasuke, teme, it's me!" Naruto said quietly, panicked. He put his hands up and the Uchiha sighed, glaring at the blond as he put his kunai down.
"What do you want, dobe?" He asked irritatedly, rubbing one eye.
"I was, um… I was wondering if I could sleep in here with you…"
Sasuke blinked. "No," he said, and lay back down on his side.
"Please Sasuke-"
"I said no. Go sleep next to that perv."
Naruto pouted. "But Sasuke, he snores too loud and I can't sleep-"
"Not my problem."
"It is your problem if I get no sleep and I just start complaining all day, because you'll have to listen…"
Sasuke glared at the side of the tent. "Just sleep by the fire."
"It's practically nonexistent."
Sasuke gritted his teeth and silently cursed the blond. "Usuratonkachi-"
"I even tried Sakura, but that didn't go too well…"
"Look, dobe, I don't care what you do, but just go away and leave me the hell alone," Sasuke growled.
"Sasuke, please… It's cold out here, and… I promise I'll be quiet!"
"Dobe," Sasuke warned. Naruto was pushing him past his limits.
"Please, Sasuke, please…?"
Sasuke sighed out agitatedly. "Tch, whatever, just shut up already."
Naruto grinned and climbed inside. "Thank you…"
"Hn," was the reply the blond received.
Naruto lay down in the small tent beside his teammate, smiling still. After a few minutes, he reached out, brushing his fingers over Sasuke's arm.
"What are you-?" Sasuke began, but stopped when Naruto spoke.
"Goodnight, Sasuke… Sleep well."
And then his fingers had retreated, leaving Sasuke to feel a twinge of guilt at being so harsh before. But the guilt quickly disappeared and he was falling asleep to the sound of the blond's even, shallow breaths.
Hey, a longer chapter! I think I have one or two left for today, and also, I know Sasuke and Sakura didn't go to find Tsunade but this fic is kind of like canon divergence actually and i wanted them there. I hope you enjoyed !