Hey everyone

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer that we've been having; it's hard to work on the garden when it keeps raining.

I know last week and this week has been later than my usual posts, I haven't had much computer time as I would like.

This chapter is mostly Sora, but has a bit of Itachi in it.

Enjoy

I don't own Naruto


Chapter 8

Walking with his hands in his pockets, Sora decided to head to one of the training grounds in order to release some tension he had been feeling since meeting his new sensei. He was slightly peeved that there had been a second test to being a genin (he would get Shisui for that), and even though Inu had apologized for the accusation from earlier, he still needed to vent out his frustration.

'Here's a good place to train' Sora decided to train in body building for now, and got into a taijustu position before striking at the wooden posts. After half an hour of this, he began to do about 200 push-ups, then jumping squats of 20, switching to 30 second planks, and back to jumping squats until he did this set of 10 times. Once he finished, he switched to V-sit-ups of 300. Feeling fatigued, he checked his watch and saw that he still had about two hours before meeting up with the trio after the academy. Sora decided to lie down, satisfied that the tension that he felt earlier had left, and slowly closed his eyes. He breathed deeply to lower his heart rate back down, not realising that by doing this; he had gradually started to drift to sleep. Once fallen asleep, the shadow that had been following him earlier came out, and looked down at him.


Neko had felt annoyed when her two teammates attempted to beat the crap out of each other that morning, but was happy when the two came to an acceptance before meeting with their jonin sensei. She wanted the three of them to be able to work together and be friends. While her older brother was great company to have, having her strict and rarely at home father would just ruin the atmosphere. It was why she decided to be a ninja instead of following in her father and brothers footsteps; she wanted her independence and freedom. Being a ninja gave her that fair amount. After their sensei stated another test in order to become genin, the annoyed feeling returned. When he left, she had originally wanted to see if the two had wanted to hang out before retiring for the day. Sora had immediately left before she could ask, and Inu had not even made a sound when he did. She really didn't want to go home yet, so she decided to follow after Sora, hoping not to interfere with whatever plan he had. When she followed him to the training grounds, she had become curious, and hid to watch what he would do. She had been surprised for the most part of his workout; it seemed he was venting more than focusing. Once he had lain down and passed out, she slowly made her way towards him. Looking down, she saw the fatigue and bruises. His hands had been bleeding it seemed, and deciding that it wouldn't due to have him injured before tomorrow, had lowered herself into a sitting position, taking his hands, and concentrated on healing. She had been practicing for two years on healing, but there weren't enough chances to using her medical ninjustu, so she had to completely focus on it in order not to mess up. She kept her eyes closed while healing him, not realizing that she had a pair of eyes watching. Once she felt satisfied, she opened her eyes, examining his hands to make sure nothing was missed, and then looked back at his face, startled that his eyes were open. They just stared at each other for a few minutes, before one of them decided to break the silence, "…thank you for healing my hands. They were stinging a bit."


"…thank you for healing my hands. They were stinging a bit." Sora had been startled when he felt his hands being held, waking him from his 10 minute nap or so. When he had opened his eyes, he had been surprised that Neko was there, with her hands glowing green. It looked like she was concentrating strongly since he could see a beet of sweat trickling down her brow. When she had finished and they had locked eyes, he was surprised that he felt nervous. He slowly got up and examined his hands. Once he was done, he looked back at her, "Why are you here by the way? Did you want to ask me something?"

Averting her eyes, she answered him, "well, I originally wanted to know if both you and Inu wanted to hang out, but Inu and you left right away. I was able to follow you since Inu seems to hide his chakra when he moves."

Sora snorted, "I bet he got tired from all those girls harassing him and, decided to mask his presence so he could avoid them. He may have a tough attitude, but I can understand not wanting to be bothered like that." Sora looked at her after speaking, and realized what her first sentence was. The feeling of nervousness coming back, he started scratching his head, "I don't mind hanging out, but I was planning to meet my group after the academy finished. If your okay with it, you could join us."

A small smile appeared to form on her face, "I would love that."

Nodding, Sora got up, held his hand out, and Neko took it. They started back to the village, chatting for a bit, before returning to the academy.


As Sora and Neko approached the academy, Sora saw Taichi (9 years old), Zono (10 years old), and Zed (11 years old) walking out and in were conversing that got all three of them to laugh.

"Yo, Taichi, Zono, Zed, over here" Sora called out and waved to them. All three turned their heads towards him, and ran up to him. They all brought their fists forward, and Sora bumped fist with each of them.

"Sora! We all thought that you would be busy today doing missions as a genin" Taichi said.

"Heh, well it was just meeting up today, tomorrow is the actual mission. By the way, this is one of my teammates, her name is Neko Kami. Neko, these are Taichi, Zed, and Zono Uchiha." Sora introduced to each other.

The three Uchiha's got a good look at her, then bowed, "It's an honor to meet you Neko Kami" the three of them said in unison.

"Hey" she waved off, "none of that, it's my pleasure to meet you all. Would you like to join us for some dango as a snack?" Neko polity asked.

The three of them looked at each other, and then looked at Sora, then smirked, "We would love to, but today were planning on studying for a test coming up. The test is to decide if were ready to continue to the next grade before the semester is called. Afterwards, we'll take you up on that offer" Zed said.

Sora had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to it than that, but he decided to look into it later.

"That's alright. Perhaps next time my other teammate will be with us when we all meet up" Neko said, watching them leave.

A silence that for once Sora didn't feel comfortable with, decided to take control, "So…do you want to perhaps hangout to get to know each other? I would ask Inu, but I think we need to cool off for today. Even if he did apologize, it looked like he was having a hard time admitting that he's wrong"

Neko just smiled and nodded. They both walked towards the dango shop.


"So you're the first ninja in the family?" Sora asked. The dango snacking and talking had been a real nice change. Not that he didn't like hanging out with his group, but speaking about something other than bringing honor to the clan was a nice.

"That's right. Neither my brother nor my dad ever had the desire. My mom encouraged me even though my dad didn't approve, but after she died, he attempted to have me removed. By then, it was too late, and the only way I could stop was by my own choice, not the choice of the guardian. My dad tried to get me to quit, but my brother stood up for me, saying if I truly wanted to become a ninja, than what kind of man would destroy ones dream. My mom said the exact same thing when I first declared that I wanted to become a ninja; that stopped him from pressuring me to quit, but he always wears this disappointment look on his face. Even after the graduation ceremony, only my brother showed up with his friends to celebrate, my dad didn't even say a word" Neko said, looking down with a sad face.

"I'm sorry, I never knew how hard it was for someone not part of a clan to become a ninja; for me, it's a given since I'm part of a clan, but my reason for being a ninja is different than why most of the clan choose to be. There's this rift between the Uchiha's and the village. I felt it based on how my parents spoke before they died, but when the group started hanging out in the village more, I thought to myself 'why is there such a rift in the first place?' The clan is part of the village, and as such, no one is going to say no to us if we want to see the village, and be part of whatever events that occurs. Everyone is actually friendly to us, and although I wasn't in the academy for long, my classmates were respectful for the most part, minus acting like kids, but so am I so why should I be complaining?" Sora says, trying to make light joking on the matter. It seemed to work; Neko was giggling a bit.

Before either of them knew it, they had reached her front porch. The nervousness that Sora thought had vanished had just returned tenfold, and was looking everywhere but at her.

Neko looked back at him, and knowing that her father won't be all smiles and fun like Sora had been, walks towards him, and gives him a gentle hug. This shocks him as he is unsure what's happening.

"Thanks for walking me back home Sora, you're a real nice guy. I know that Inu will change during our time as a team once he sees that you're just as hard working as all of us. I can't wait for tomorrow when we start our future as ninjas" Neko says, slowly letting go of him.

Sora, starting to turn red, nervously starts scratching the back of head, "hey, no worries that are what friends do, look out for each other. I'll prove it to the whole village that I care about them as much as I care about my clan" then Sora brings a more serious look onto his face, "I didn't say anything about my real dream, but it's because I first want to work on my main one. While I do want my clan to be open with the village, I wish to be hokage so the village will know that an Uchiha is no different from them. I have learned to enjoy this village, so if being a hokage will bring the clan closer, then that's what I'll do" he hears her laughing, and he shakes his fist, "Hey, I'm serious. Just keep watching me, and you'll see that I'll be the one to protect the village from danger; all of it."

Neko looked at him, and couldn't help but smile at the declaration, "okay, I will."

"Huh?" He stares, confused at her response.

"I said okay, I will. I will keep watching you, keeping both eyes open. If you plan on being hokage, then you'll need someone to patch you up after getting injured. Who else but someone who knows medical Ninjustu can do this?" After Neko said this, she waved and walked to her house, oblivious to the red look on Sora's face.

As Sora walked back to the district, he couldn't help but feel like his face was on fire, thinking of what she said in his head. 'She said she'll be watching me, keeping an eye on me. Why the hell does it feel like my face is on fire' he lightly slaps his face, and just focuses on making sure to be prepared for what's to come tomorrow. 'I really wish to talk to Shisui once the genin test is over; it's so not going to be cool if I don't figure out why I always feel nervous when Neko is around'.


Later that evening, as Itachi watched Sasuke sleeping, he was slowly starting to realize that the whole time-travel may not be as predictable as he thought when first arriving. His team, for example, were different from the team he had back in the past (not that he could remember them), and he wasn't such a loner this time around. Instead of just being simple friends with Shisu, and avoiding his clan all together, he tried to bring the other kids in the clan with him in hopes of fixing that broken bridge between the village and the clan. It was still too soon to meet up with Uzumaki Naruto since he was younger than Sasuke (by three months) and trying to get them both better prepared for the future. He would get Naruto to become friends with his brother should another failure of saving the clan occur. Itachi looks at his hands, remembering that no one else can see the ying and yang on his hands except for himself, and no one can use them except for his brother and Naruto.

Tomorrow will be the beginning of his ninja career for the second time, and he must keep on perfecting his skills so his physical energy can catch up with his spiritual one. He truly believes by making sure no one knows of his sharingan, he can at least avoid having his parent's think of him as an untouchable prodigy.

With one final look at Sauske, he heads to his own room, with no real hope of resting. 'Tomorrow, after the genin test, I should see if I can meet with my teams' families in order to strengthen my bond with them, before inviting them to my own home. I will get tou-san to break out of that hatred.' And with that, he closed his eyes, praying for easy sleep tonight.


And that is that, there will be more action in the next chapter.

I appreciate those reviews that people has been posting, gives me a good idea how the story is doing.

I'll try to be earlier next week with the posting.

Cheers

P.S. there's a chance I might make some of the missions or training for Sora's team similar to Obito's team training.