Be Careful What You Wish For

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

It has now been two weeks since the dates that lead to stronger friendships; at least it did for three of them. While Sasuke and Hinata are taking things slow on the friendship part, especially on Sasuke's part due to having to deal with an overprotective Neji and an even more dangerous Hiashi giving a look saying that he would end up the last of the line if anything happens to Hinata. Talk about scary and lethal.

Naruto and Sakura are still a different story. While they are still in somewhat speaking terms, the somewhat being that their conversations are mainly whatever answers that Naruto provides for Sakura's questions. While Sakura was slowly starting to catch up with the boys when it comes to training, she ended up learning the hard way who really is the weakest member of the team really was when she and Naruto had a little practice duel:

Flashback . . .

It was two days after the dates that Kakashi decided to have a little progress report on everybody's training. First up was Naruto and Sakura. "Okay, right now I want to see how far you have progressed through your training. This will mainly be a taijutsu only battle. Weapons are allowed, but nothing else." Kakashi explained.

"You hear that Naruto!" Sakura said, not resisting to gloat, "You can't use shadow clones or the Rasengan!"

"At least I know some jutsus, how about you?" Naruto countered, causing Sakura to get mad, while pulling out a scroll, "Anyway, since weapons are allowed, I might as well pull this out."

Her only weapon against Naruto taken away from her, Sakura was mad because like before Naruto did something she didn't like. Even though Sasuke was out of the equation this time due to him opening her eyes, she was mad because this Naruto decided to use his brain for a change instead of letting his emotions get the best of him. When she saw Naruto pull something out of a seal, "Since when did you learn about seals?" After getting a good look at what was pulled out, "And since when can you use a sword?"

"Well I've taken an interest in fuinjutsu lately for some reason and when I started out, the perv said that I seemed to be a natural at it, almost as good as the Fourth." Naruto said, while tossing the scroll to Sasuke for him to hold onto, "As for the sword, I got it special order from Tenten's family shop and I've been taking lessons here and there, as well as a few other things."

"Like what . . ." Sakura was about to insult him until she noticed Sasuke giving her a look saying to knock it off already, so she stopped.

Kakashi was paying attention and already had a good idea why Sakura would stop, "Okay, now begin match." He said, deciding that it would be better to step in whenever he felt the need to.

Sakura charged in, letting her ego take over, "I'm going to prove that even though I'm no longer trying to impress Sasuke, I am still better then you." She said, just as she decided to take a swing at him with her fist, only to become surprised when Naruto sidestepped her and "Yeow!" Slapped her hard in the butt with his sword.

"So what's the difference between then and now?" Naruto asked, not taking her seriously enough, "The only reason why you were able to beat me so many times were because I was too busy playing the fool. Now I get to show you how my version of training compares to yours."

Flashback ends

After that little battle, Sakura ended up walking away with a few cuts and parts of her body being sore from Naruto using his sword as a whip, especially on the rear. It didn't help matters any when her mother said something harsher of what Naruto said to her. Sure at first she was mad at what Naruto did, it wasn't enough to want to murder him, she was calm enough to know something that she didn't.

While she has been taking her training more seriously, right now she was still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Now that Sasuke has nothing to do with her goals, unfortunately he was just about every goal that she came up with while she was in the academy; she was starting to feel like a first year academy student. Ever since she accepted Sasuke's friendship, it felt like her eyes were opening up to things that she was too blinded to see due to her crush, from her choices made involving Sasuke to what she ignored. Naruto being the biggest part of it because until that day, she just didn't bother to acknowledge the facts that even though she was better than him on one or two things like chakra control and book smarts, he can still outperform her in everything else, which was proven during the chunin exams.

Right now she is just arriving at the Team's meeting spot, while seeing that Naruto and Sasuke are in the middle of a game of go. The one thing she was slowly getting used to was the fact that Sasuke did have his flaws, making him far from the perfect person most people in the village tend to see, and Naruto was nowhere near as bad as most of the village try to make him out to be. When Naruto won that chess game against Sasuke, if the Uchiha didn't intercept her with a date request, she would have gone all fan girl on the blonde by accusing him of cheating against Sasuke while trying to come to his rescue.

"So Hinata tells me that you are going to be having dinner with the Hyuga family tonight." Naruto said, as he made his move, "Did you make sure your will is up to date."

"Depends on how much time they are willing to give me." Sasuke said, "Anyway, what did Jiraiya wanted to talk to you about?"

"He wants to take me as his apprentice and leave the village to do some on-the-road training." Naruto explained, "In some ways, I think he wants to try and help me get ready to put up a better fight when Itachi decides to hunt me down again."

While Itachi was still a touchy subject for him, Sasuke decided to focus more on both the game and his friend more. "How long will the training be?" He asked, while making his move.

"3-5 years." Naruto said, while placing his piece onto the board, "He plans on taking me on a long world trip, part of it is Hokage training, the rest is to catch up on some of the training I've kept getting denied at the academy."

While the boys continued their game, "What!" Sakura yelled out, "You're leaving us?"

"Only for a few years." Naruto answered, before ending the game in a draw, "But I won't be leaving until tomorrow. He's letting me get my affairs in order first."

"This is always a good idea for anybody." A familiar voice rang out, causing Sakura to jump out of her skin. They all turned to see the once on time Kakashi. Deciding to answer before the question is asked, "Jiraiya was kind enough to talk to me about it."

"So since you're on time . . ." Sasuke started to say, wondering what their sensei has up their sleeve, especially since they are used waiting most of the morning on him to show up.

"Sure, why not." Naruto said, after sealing up the board game. When he got back up onto his feet, "Oh and Sakura, if you want to get to know me some more, then I'm willing to talk to you after the training."

Here is the latest chapter. Sorry for taking so long, and the chapter being on the short side, I've been busy with college and checking out things outside of writing. I'll try to bring writing back into my routine of things. Next chapter will involve major character development and flashbacks. If anybody has any coupling ideas for the final chapter, let me know. Read and Review.