A/N: Well, I get the feeling that this is going to be an action-packed chapter! :D What with the… training… and the little skirmish with Team 7… I'm just as excited as you are to see it unfold! :D It's just that… I get to see it first ;) Hahah x3 Anyhow, enjoy the chapter and please, PLEASE review! I need them… they provide me with sustenance and they usually give my story a little bit more of an "oomph!" because I end up in an extremely good mood after just getting a review, let alone reading it. I'm so simple minded… (Teehee, thank you scarecrowscreams for always reviewing almost every chapter :D) –Ame

For xXDeiHinaLuverXx123- Hahah, I gave her permission a while ago too xD I'll see what I can come up with for your one-shot, okay? I'll be working on it in between working on this and my next story, so it might take a while for it to come out, but it'll be here within a week and a half ^.^

DISCLAIMER: Amegasuki. Has. Nothing. To. Do. With. The. Creation. Of. Naruto. Or else Orochimaru would have been a lot more… creepy-old-guy-that-makes-me-feel-like-there-might-be-a-pedo-moment feeling to him. And that's not cool . *shudders*

Frustration

::~~~~~~~~~~::

"Frustration and stress is most easily relieved through distractions and a good, long session of swinging fists and punches." –Anonymous

::~~~~~~~~~~::

A knock at the door pulled me out of my musings. Standing up and giving myself a stern, quick lecture about thinking of something I couldn't solve, I headed towards the door. Looking through the peep hole, my eyes met the familiar brown hair that belonged to Hijino. With a small smirk about being able to hold the power over whether he got into my apartment or not, I took my time undoing the lock and opening the door- just a crack, though. He seemed slightly irritated about everything I had just done, and it made my smirk widen.

"What's up, Hijino?" I asked lightly, amused.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go train with Morita and me now…" he trailed off as I quickly ran away from the door and came back within a few seconds.

In my hand was my pouch full of my weapons, bandages, and medical equipment that was useful for basic things such as cuts and broken bones. Around my neck was my headband, which I had placed back on after taking it off from arriving in my apartment. My white and green jacket that I had found in the closet was on me as well- over my standard white tank top and green skort that seemed to be the uniform the people who filled my closet wanted me to wear. Quickly slipping on my sandals I walked out the door and Hijino moved to make room for me. Locking the door I turned and looked at Hijino.

"You came to get me first instead of getting Morita?" I asked him.

"Well your room is closer and Morita will say yes as long as we both agree. I didn't lie," he defensively said, noticing the slight disapproval in my eyes.

"Who knows if he'll say yes? It's not guaranteed. He might have something else he needs to do instead this time. Don't just drag him into things without checking first," I lightly scolded him, heading over to Morita's apartment.

"Okay, okay, I won't do it again Boss," Hijino sighed behind me and I giggled.

Boss. I could get used to the sound of that, I thought with a grin. I knocked softly on Morita's door and it opened right as I pulled my hand back. Morita peered down at Hijino and I and I smiled up at him.

"Do you want to go train with us?"

Slowly, he nodded and went back in, keeping the door open and motioning for us to head on inside. I glanced at Hijino and we shared a grin, entering at the same time. His apartment was similar to mine- actually, as I looked around curiously I realized that they were exactly the same. Well, it'd only be natural- this is an apartment, and if the rooms weren't the same it would make some of the residents kind of irate with the landowner… I thought. Morita came back out of what I assumed was his bedroom, considering that our rooms were exactly the same and that was where mine was placed, carrying both his pouch of weapons… and the bird that had been on his shoulder before we started the treasure hunt.

"How did the bird get all the way here?" Hijino asked, mouth agape.

"… It followed us... We could use her as a scouting bird after training her, if we wanted…" he replied slowly, letting the bird hop onto his shoulder.

"W-well then, shall we go?" I asked shakily, astonished that the bird had been able to follow us the whole entire trip to the Hidden Leaf Village.

Morita nodded, and we all headed towards where the training grounds were, with me leading the way. It seemed that the village hadn't changed that much since leaving, considering everything was still in the same place.

"He really wasn't kidding about us being monitored as we train…" I murmured, staring at Eimon who was sitting in the tree above us silently.

"Of course he wasn't, you all were missing nin for quite a long time- even though it is highly unlikely you all could be spies," Eimon began to explain. "It's only natural that you all would be monitored and that training would be limited. You all have 3 hours. You might want to start soon."

Sighing, I turned back to Morita and Hijino, who were eyeing Eimon wearily. Shaking my head and pushing my hair out of my eyes, as the action made all of my hair decide to block my vision, I motioned towards Morita.

"Well, let's get going. Taijutsu first, since we aren't as good at that as our ninjutsu and genjutsu. Then we'll switch to genjutsu the next hour and ninjutsu the last, unless either of the first two need some serious work. We'll all switch in twenty minute intervals. Morita, Hijino- you two will fight first. Then Morita and I, since he has a little trouble keeping up his endurance and stamina. Then it'll be me and you, Hijino. We'll decide on the genjutsu after we've finished this hour. Okay guys, go at it," I strategized, heading over to the tree that Eimon was in and leaning against it, watching as Hijino and Morita began to train.

Morita's fighting style for taijutsu was to aim for disabling the most important parts of his opponent. First he would go for the person's arms, of course- and for the main one, too. Hijino happened to be left handed, something that most ninja weren't. Of course he could still function just as well with his right hand, he just preferred to use his right. It was more… comfortable. Morita, knowing this, immediately aimed a punch at Hijino's right side, knowing Hijino would most likely block with his left. As Hijino did as Morita predicted, he quickly grabbed that arm and twisted it slightly, inflicting a small amount of pain on Hijino. They both separated and Hijino tied his arm behind his back with some rope that he had in his pouch.

The thing is, when we trained, we made sure not to actually disable or severely injure our teammates, as they were our only training partners. We did the actions that would lead up to the disabling, and when it was obvious to both of the fighters- whether it was Hijino and Morita, Hijino and I or Morita and I- we would make it so we couldn't use the part of us that would have been taken out. It made training that much more difficult for us, and showed us what would happen- and how dangerous- it was to get into these situations. Hijino almost always did the same thing, and was always the first one to become disabled- which was deadly in battle. That is why he usually fought first and last, to reflect on what actions he does and practice not having those reflexes all the time- alternating in a random order to keep the opponent guessing. He almost always lost the ability to use his arm in each taijutsu battle, though.

As time went on and the twenty minute mark was almost up, Hijino had lost his left arm, his right leg, three fingers on his right hand and his left ankle. Morita wasn't that much better- his right hand was completely useless, his right knee was out of the picture and his left eye was, figuratively, gone. Not only that, but he was beginning to tire. Morita was definitely not someone who would last long in a long battle- after about three and a half hours he was pretty much dead meat. He had slowly been improving, though- in the beginning, he could only last about thirty minutes.

Hijino and Morita went at each other again, tied up interestingly and Morita with his left eye closed, and kicked at each other, biting and swinging their arms- err, arm in Hijino's case- as hard as they could at each other, and rapidly. Hijino had a bit of an upper hand since he was smaller and a lot faster, but his strength was lacking. Not only that, but Morita was so big that his attacks were a little… less powerful when going against all of Morita's hard muscle. After a few more kicks and swings, Hijino got kicked hard in the stomach and he flew backwards, quickly flipping backwards and landing on his feet, although not gracefully. I stood up and stretched- the twenty minutes were up.

"Time for a five minute break and then a switch- you both need it, both of you are completely starving and parched. There's water in my bag and a few sandwiches, help yourselves," I said, a canteen of water in my own hand.

Morita and Hijino, panting, quickly undid all their knots and ties and headed straight for the bag, pulling out the water and two sandwiches each. I leaned back against the tree, closing my eyes. The way we were going, our training was definitely efficient. Through those twenty minutes, Hijino had started to rely on his right side more- in fact, he had practically been throwing his right side at Morita, and using those feints to attack harshly with his left side. Morita had been pacing himself well, and had used only as much force as necessary when he was attacking, reserving more of his energy.

"You guys are improving a lot," I praised them, smiling as they grinned at each other.

"Of course we are, you're a wonderfully strict and nice coach!" Hijino exclaimed, his green eyes wide and glittering with adrenaline and excitement from fighting.

Morita nodded in agreement, his own blue eyes slightly brighter than usual. I heard a cough from above me and looked up into the fox masked face of Eimon. He jumped down next to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"They're right- I've never seen any of the genin- or chuunin, for that matter- train like this. Tying yourselves up whenever it was apparent that you would have been disabled in any way would force you to realize that it was a dangerous situation, and make you quickly think of other ways of fighting to make it so your opponent would come out worse for wear than you would and eventually lose the fight… it's simply brilliant, and so simple at the same time," Eimon praised me, causing my cheeks to turn slightly pink. "Where did you come up with this idea?"

"Um… I had been doing it ever since I was little after hearing stories from my… parents… about the many battles they've fought and the mistakes they made that almost cost them or their comrades their lives… and so, I decided that if there were handicaps in my training then it would sort of be like the situations they had been in and I could learn from them and prepare for real fights with enemy shinobi," I explained, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

I didn't really like explaining my ideas to people I didn't know very well. It made me feel like… I was giving away secrets that needed to be protected. Sure, it was perfect for when I was with complete strangers and would hopefully hold up in torture situations, but it was kind of hard to do when I was with people that I knew and were higher up than me… and posed no (known) threat to me.

"That was extremely smart. No wonder you did so well in the Academy," Eimon said, ruffling my hair.

It felt… weird, annoying and strange… but it wasn't exactly unpleasant. This must be what it would feel like if an older sibling did this to me, I realized quickly. Hijino and Morita grinned at me, proud to know that the person Eimon had been praising was their one and only team leader. It made me happy to know that they were so proud to have me lead them and direct them. They were the most loyal shinobi I had ever met in my life- and they were on my side. It warmed my heart.

Suddenly, I felt a tingle of a disturbance in the air around me. A shinobi was nearby, and it wasn't someone I knew. Glancing around, tensing slightly into a defensive stance, I moved forward slowly. There wasn't a killing intent from the chakra… it was more like… curiosity. I stood straight and turned to my left, staring at the faint orange and pink shades within the bushes.

"Come out, I know you're there. You aren't hiding very well- well, at least, the one in the orange and… the pink haired… … Sakura? Looks like you haven't gotten better at anything since I left," I sighed, putting a hand on my hip.

Great. Just great. My first day back in the village and I have to deal with Miss Wanna-be-know-it-all. She's probably still infatuated with Sasuke. I snorted. The kunoichi in this village really needed to shape up if they were going to do anything in this village as shinobi. Fawning over the local heartthrob would get them nowhere except to a quick and extremely painful death in the future.

The orange and pink bodies moved out of the bushes, heading towards us. Sakura hadn't changed at all since I left- she was still arrogant, rude, long-haired, and fawning over Sasuke. I could tell by just looking at her. Her eyes still held the same contempt for me, and when she looked over at Sasuke who had come down from the tree above them where he was hiding, her green eyes were filled with awe and adoration. And she really is dense. If he hadn't responded when they were little, that wouldn't change now. Especially with Itachi completely enveloping his every thought, I rationalized. Obviously, Sakura lacked the logic and reason that I held. Sometimes I feared for my gender, I really did. Not even her outfit had changed- it was still the annoying, red Chinese-style dress with white lining, black leggings that only went to her knees and a bandage on the right side holding… probably her soldier pills, since she wasn't too stupid, and her blue sandals. Not that she didn't look good in what she was wearing, it was just… it seemed like it wasn't the most efficient thing to be wearing while fighting.

"Yeah, it's nice to see you again, too, Amaya," she said snottily.

"When did I say it was nice to see you? It isn't. You're still infatuated with Sasuke, who I know for a fact won't ever return your fickle feelings, you're still rude and arrogant- which I highly doubt that you should be, considering how weak you are- and you're still lacking logic and reason. You make me fear for the future of my gender. Why would it ever be nice to see someone as idiotic as you? You really frustrate me."

She glowered at me and quickly pulled out her kunai, rage enveloping her green eyes in a very weak, puny, candle sized flame in the background. This girl seriously needed some help. She wasn't threatening at all. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

"Hey! Don't talk about Sakura like that! She'll beat you to a pulp, believe it!" the orange and blue wearing blonde next to her shouted at me.

I eyed him. He wasn't very tall- almost the same height as Sakura. His blonde hair was spiky and bright- just like his outfit. His eyes were a deep blue that were on the opposite side of the spectrum as Morita's, who had more of a powdery white-blue pair of eyes. On his face were six… whisker-like marks, three on his left cheek, the other on his right. All of them were evenly spaced. His loud orange and blue jumpsuit had a red swirl left shoulder and possibly one on his right. He also wore a pair of blue sandals and a bandage holding- hopefully, the kid didn't look too bright- a pack of soldier pills on his left thigh.

"You must be Naruto Uzumaki… right?" I asked him.

He grinned at me and pointed at himself with his thumb right in the middle of his chest. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I love instant ramen and the ramen at Ichiraku Ramen! I'm going to be Hokage someday! Believe it!" he announced.

"Thanks… for giving us an introduction that wasn't exactly necessary, Naruto. I could tell it was you from the outfit you're wearing. Only loud and obnoxious people would dare to dress in… orange and blue. How do you expect to blend in with the shadows for surprise ambushes? That's why you were spotted so easily. And I wouldn't be so quick to say pinky over there could beat me with her mediocre hiding skills. She's just as bad as you," I rolled my eyes at the duo of idiots.

"Hey! I'm the strongest genin in this whole village! Believe it!" he shouted at me.

"… I'm really scared for this village, then," I replied, shaking my head. "You really just insulted all other genin by saying that- a squirrel has better camouflage than you. Apparently you really don't believe in hiding when you're supposed to."

Naruto inhaled sharply and opened his mouth to shout random words and sentences that probably didn't make sense together and slap a "believe it" at the end when Sasuke, who had been standing silently off to the side, quickly interrupted. "Naruto, everything she said is true. You're really an idiot and Sakura wouldn't stand a chance against her."

Sakura gazed at him, eyes filled with hurt and shame as she looked down at the ground and nudged the dirt with her foot. Naruto glanced over at Sakura and his eyes held a tinge of sadness and concern before he turned angrily on the black and white Sasuke. Seriously, he was black and white- his hair, eyes, shirt, shorts and sandals were all black. Everything else was either pale- his skin- or white- his bandages.

"Don't talk about Sakura like that! She's a lot stronger than you make her seem! Believe it!" Sakura glanced up at Naruto in surprise before a small smile formed on her face.

"Naruto… thank you-" she started, but then Naruto said something stupid that I had been expecting.

"I mean, sure she's a lot weaker than us and most likely this… uh… this girl, but she's not the weakest out of everyone in the village! She's, like, the second! So-" he was cut off by a fist slamming into his cheek.

"You're an idiot, Naruto! Channaro!" Sakura yelled as she smashed her fist into Naruto's head again.

"Ow! Sakura, cut it out! What did I do?" he whined, holding the back of his skull and his cheek as they both began to swell.

"Hmph!" she turned away from him, arms crossed and nose in the air.

"Idiot," Sasuke muttered.

I sighed. This was a pretty dysfunctional team they made. It would be all too easy for my team to beat theirs in the battle the Hokage had planned. My eyes widened slightly and I took another look at them. They were well rested, chakra most likely completely restored from whatever activities that they had partaken in the day before and energy levels up to par. It was the perfect condition to leave on a mission, train, or spar… well, considering our case, it was more of a free-for-all battle.

"So why exactly where you all here spying on us?" I asked them.

"We wanted to see your fighting style, but you all stopped before we got here-" Naruto, once again, got punched in his face.

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, her face flushed.

Sasuke's eyes darkened and glinted dangerously as he glanced over at Naruto, who was on the ground whining yet again. Since they're this well, that must mean that we'll be fighting… will it be right now, though? I wondered.

"So you guys are here for the battle, huh? Are we going to start immediately or…?" I asked them.

"Huh? Wh-what battle? I have no idea what you're talking about!" Naruto began to laugh nervously.

"There's no point in acting like we don't know now, dobe," Sasuke groaned, rolling his eyes. "Sometimes I wonder how a person could survive being as stupid as you." He shook his head and turned his attention to us. "Yeah, we're here for the battle. We'll give you all ten minutes to recover a bit from the training and then we'll hurry up and get this over with. Be prepared to lose- I'm plenty strong enough to cover for these two. They're not too bad, either, though."

"Hey! I don't need to be covered for! Believe it!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

Sakura grinned as Sasuke acknowledged her subtly and then turned to me, glaring slightly with a smirk on her face. Oh, so she assumed that since Sasuke praised her a bit- when basically he had been saying that they were average- that she could easily defeat me, huh? Well, she's going to get a pretty rude awakening, I thought with a grim smile sent her way.

"Alright, sounds good. Morita, Hijino, don't eat anymore- you don't want it coming back out from exertion… well, not that it would occur, but better safe than sorry, no?" I told them, smiling innocently.

They nodded and Hijino put on his trademark, cocky smirk, brushing some of his hair out of his eyes. His headband glinted when the sunlight hit it and momentarily blinded me. I closed my eyes and listened to my surroundings, making sure I memorized how everyone's body sounded as they shifted and roamed about, differentiating friend from future-or current, in Sakura's case-foe. I opened my eyes and noticed that Hijino, Morita and I were dressed in the same colors as if we already had an outfit picked for the team. Morita was wearing a green shirt- the same color as skort and my jacket- and white shorts. Hijino sported a white shirt, a green jacket and khaki colored shorts. Overall, we were a pretty good looking team- and our outfits were perfect for our fighting styles. Grinning, I counted down the remaining seconds before our team would immediately go into action.

10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… I shifted slightly, aiming my body towards Sakura without looking at her. 2… 1…

"Time to get going-" Sakura started before I cut her off with a punch of my own to her stomach.

She doubled over, gasping for air but I quickly kneed her in the face, knocking her backwards. She clumsily did a backwards flip and I raced towards her, kunai out and poised, jumping up at the last possible moment. The sun behind me and blinding her as she looked for me, I threw the kunai directly into the middle of her chest hard, purposefully missing any vital organs. She went up in smoke and a log was left in place. Substitution, huh…? Not too bad, but still academy level skills, I thought, glancing to my right when I knew she was to my left to lure her out of hiding. It worked perfectly and I quickly turned to her, forming signs and performing a genjutsu so fast that it rivaled the speed of Sasuke's Sharingan, which he was currently trying to put on Hijino.

I watched them idly, noticing how Hijino continued to drive Sasuke back towards the forest and I allowed a grin to grace my face. So, Hijino was going to perform some wood and water ninjutsu, huh? Perfect for that fire/lightning user, I thought. Turning, I watched as Morita lifted shadow clone after shadow clone of the obnoxious Naruto and threw him into tree after tree almost effortlessly. Soon there was only the real Naruto left, and Morita was on him within seconds. A fierce battle of taijutsu emerged as the two went at it in the middle of the clearing.

I glanced down at Sakura, who was beginning to shudder and twitch from the genjutsu I had put her under. I grinned, thinking about the chaos she was probably going through and the torturous scene she was watching…

Amaya ran towards me, her fierce amber eyes glinting with a malicious, violent, bloodthirsty intent as she threw kunai after kunai at me. Dodging and parrying as many as I could, I leapt backwards, keeping most of my attention on her as I glanced over at Sasuke to make sure he was okay. He was quickly beating down the brown haired guy, finishing him off with a hard kick to the head. I grinned. They were no match for Sasuke.

'Damn right! Sasuke is the best! Cha!' my inner persona exclaimed, cheering and rooting for him.

I glanced back at Amaya as I landed, watching her warily as she stood staring at me, grinning. No, I realized after sensing a presence behind me, she was grinning at someone behind me. Turning my head, I saw Sasuke and blushed as he pulled me flush against him.

"S-Sasuke…? We're in the middle of a fight…" I said, not really against what he was doing.

"I know," he murmured, his breath fanning against my neck and I blushed even more.

"I need to beat Amaya…" I trailed off as I looked forward and noticed that she wasn't there anymore.

Glancing around, I noticed her pressed up against a tree… with Sasuke's arms around her, holding her close. She met my gaze, her golden, sickly-sweet eyes holding a hint of amusement and contempt towards me. Then she looked back up at Sasuke as he leaned down and… and…

Kissed her. Right on her mouth.

I gasped and my heart shattered as I stared at the two, Sasuke's black hair mingling with Amaya's crimson hair, both of their eyes closed and their lips moving in synchronization. Amaya's hands wrapped around his neck as Sasuke put one of his at her waist and the other tangled in her hair. A tear fell down my cheek, quickly followed by another.

"Let go of me Sasuke! Get away from her! She doesn't even really like you!" I shouted, the pain in my heart spreading throughout my body.

Suddenly, Amaya and the real Sasuke stood before me, their hands linked together. In their hands were kunai and they shared a look before glancing back at me. Sasuke pulled Amaya closer to him and they both raised their hands, burying their kunai into my stomach. I screamed and coughed up blood, tears streaming down my face.

"I told you that you wouldn't be able to beat her," Sasuke said from both behind me and in front of me.

The Sharingan was activated in his eyes as he stared down at me with loathing, the tomoes spinning quickly. He glanced down at Amaya, smiled at her and gave her a peck on the cheek. The love in his eyes that he held for her as he stared at her hurt me worse than the kunai protruding from my stomach.

"No, Sasuke, don't do this," I pleaded, blood falling from my lips onto the grass.

"You're weak and a hinderance to me. All I need is Amaya- she keeps me on my toes. I don't need a team, anyway. Besides, Amaya's willing to go to Orochimaru with me. We're leaving this village right now. No one will be able to stop us. Bye, Sakura," he told me with a wicked grin, reaching forward and turning the kunai in my stomach.

I screamed again, struggling against the shadow clone that held me still as Sasuke and Amaya quickly ran into the forest, leaving me behind while getting tortured by the hurtful whispers from the shadow clone holding me and the kunai he began to slowly insert into my back…

Sakura stopped twitching and laid still as stone on the ground. She had been fully taken over by the genjutsu. She's so… weak. That wasn't even my strongest or most convincing genjutsu, I thought, frowning at her form on the ground. I glanced back up to see that Morita had Naruto almost completely finished and that Sasuke was panting harshly, drenched and trapped in a wooden cage, Sharingan glaring uselessly at the grinning Hijino as he danced around laughing.

"Some prodigy you are. Have you really been training at all? You're nothing compared to our level- I'm the weakest one out of the whole team, and you got beaten within the first thirty minutes! Hah!" Hijino chirped happily, smiling the whole entire time.

Seems like we're going to win this pretty easily, I thought, glancing over at Eimon who was watching us all silently from his perch.

"Enjoying the show, Eimon?" I asked him, waking over to him slowly.

"You guys… are really efficient as a unit," he said slowly, glancing down at Sakura on the grass.

"Genjutsu," I said as he glanced at me in what I thought was a curious way- it was hard to tell with the mask.

"That was quick," he replied in a surprised tone.

"Yup," I said smugly.

"As soon as those two are done, I'll proclaim you-" he was cut off from a groan from Naruto.

"You win, alright? Now stop throwing me around already!"

"Well, you guys passed with flying colors. Maybe we should have you go against the other three teams…" Eimon mused, walking over to Sakura to poke her gently and wake her up from the genjutsu.

"SASUKE NO!" She got up, screaming and crying.

"I'm over here, you idiot," he hissed angrily as Sakura looked over at him, bawling her eyes out.

Well, that was fun! I thought.

A/N: And that was really fun to write. I just love picking on Sakura, she's always kind of annoyed me. It always seemed like she was doing things half-heartedly and focusing more on Sasuke and what he was doing than anything else. It really pissed me off… so I consider this revenge! I'll probably end up updating around Friday, so be ready! It's time to fight the Rookie 9! :D