Hey, guess what I'm back! I tried not to take too long this time, and while I did want to make this chapter long, I basically decided to cut it in half. That does mean the Chuunin exams start on Ch. 10, and I know I've been stalling on those for quite a while! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you at the end!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Naruto… Yes, I do own Caruh and everyone else that is not originally a part of Naruto. Therefore, you cannot sue me.
Asuma stopped on the edge of another training field not far from the one Cell 7 was still using. Naturally, I stopped beside him. "I'll go in there first," he told me, sounding like we were on a scouting mission. Without giving me a chance to respond he was gone from my side, and in the clearing talking to his team. Well, what was left of it with Choji absent. That was almost depressing to see, but oh well.
Within moments he was back at my side, telling me it was time. This man had a gift of making me feel like I was somewhere I wasn't. This time I felt like I was being led to my execution, not to meet my new team. Still, where he led I followed, and he led to the middle of the clearing.
Even though I knew these two from my television set, it was the same as with everyone else. Meeting them in person was almost surreal; until they spoke.
"Caruh, meet Cell 10, your new team for the next few weeks. This is Ino," Asuma introduced her first, probably hoping we would hit it off. Obviously, that wasn't meant to be.
The first words she ever said to me were, "You came from Cell 7? If you like Sasuke Uchiha don't expect us to get along."
Luckily for me I wasn't really expecting us to get along anyway, at least not right away. Asuma sighed, and looked at me, probably expecting a full blown 'I love Sasuke more than you do' fight to break out. He was surprised to see me shrug and look away. I was above arguing over a boy, especially one I really didn't care for in that way.
This struck Asuma as a relief, and a joy, as he smiled at me before turning to Shikamaru. The lazy-ninja hadn't really been paying much attention to us up to that point, so when the introductions happened this time he looked up for a moment, then lay his head back down and sighed. "How troublesome."
What could I expect? It was Shikamaru after all, ever girl he'd ever met was 'troublesome'. I wasn't likely to be any different, high maintenance or not. Besides, I'd taken the place of his best friend on the team, even though Choji had made himself sick. It didn't change the fact that I was the one here and not Choji.
So, instead of being insulted by either of them, I calmly sat down and said hello to both of them, then turned to Asuma to await orders. There wasn't much else I could do, except plot how best to annoy Shikamaru and pester Ino to death. After their cold reception, that sounded like so much fun.
Now thrown for a total loop, Asuma merely smiled at all three of us, and then spoke. "We should train to learn to work as a team, however the Hokage has a mission for us. I'm sure this will bring us together anyways, so it'll be for the best I'm sure. The Hokage knows what he's doing."
"If you say so," I spoke, pulling grass blades, wondering why the Hokage would bother to give us a mission seeing as how we'd only just now become a team.
"I do," he went on, not sure if I was being sarcastic or not. He'd get used to it soon enough. Within moments we had the full details of our new mission, which happened to be C-ranked because the Hokage couldn't find anyone else to do it. I think he felt bad that only Cell 7 had had a decent mission so he was allowing Cell 10 to do one as well, even though this one wasn't destined to become B-ranked. Either way, we were to deliver a package to the leader of Kusagakure, the Grass Country.
It would be simple, seeing as how we were allies with them, and they were so close to us. There were people who wanted the package however, and the man who had paid for a team to take it had taken it this far and was in no shape to continue with it. Just a little foreboding, but we went to the Hokage's office and picked up the package. Then we set off.
The initial idea was that we would trade off carrying the package when we were tired of carrying it. Ino, however, was still angry with me so she refused to take the package. Shikamaru and I traded it off as we leapt through the forest when something occurred to me that seemed remotely familiar, though I couldn't quite place where from. Instinctually tense and untense legs just as you land, which would make it easier on your legs and quicker to move.
I concentrated on this for a while, until I had the hang of it, and was moving much easier than the rest of them. Asuma was confused, but I didn't bother to try to explain it, not yet anyways. Watching me, Shikamaru got the hang of it quickly, and together we left Ino and Asuma in the dust, although Asuma didn't seem to mind so much. He knew we'd be waiting for them up ahead. Ino, on the other hand, was furious and she didn't get what we were doing to move so quickly.
Really, by the time we stopped to wait for them towards the edge of the Fire Country, I didn't feel like I'd moved much at all. Instincts, once allowed to kick in, were incredibly helpful.
Given a few moments of peace, Shikamaru and I started talking. Of course, I had to speak first to get any response. "So far so good."
It was enough to get a response, and he looked at me, a bit curious. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means we haven't had to fight anyone yet," I say, looking up through the trees.
"You don't want to fight?"
Before I could answer him, I looked down at my palm where the senbon scar still remained from Haku. Without noticing, Shikamaru was at my side and he noticed the scar as well. "How did you get that?" he asks, sounding genuinely curious.
I almost lost my balance in the tree noticing he was there, which meant I would have to work on chakra detecting. Instead of letting him know I had nearly fallen, I told him, "Saving a life that didn't want to be saved."
I think, after that, he figured out why I didn't enjoy fighting. Instead of giving me a response, though, he just went back to his branch on a nearby tree and cloud gazed.
"I think we should make clones for later on, they can track us and if anything happens they can be there to help us," I thought out loud, and the next thing I knew there were two Shikamaru's on the tree branch. I made a clone of myself, and the two leapt into the trees to wait and follow us when we got moving again. The boy looked at me and nodded, a slight smile on his face, then he dazed off again.
"You know, Shikamaru," I said, getting a small "Hm?" in response. "I'm not replacing your best friend by being on your team. Choji will understand that you needed someone to get into the Chuunin exams."
Just that little bit of conversation caused him to look me, and he granted me a small smile. "Maybe you aren't so troublesome after all." That compliment felt quite good, maybe not as good as Kakashi's, but it felt good anyway.
As Asuma and Ino showed up, I couldn't help but smile as I thought, 'That's probably a good thing, because you have a habit of falling for the most troublesome of women.
A moment later, we had trouble; trouble in the form of five rogue ninjas.
"Give us the package the girl is carrying, and we shall leave you in peace." I remembered then that Shikamaru had given me back the package moments before and I shrugged.
"Unfortunately," Asuma spoke, keeping an eye on me to make sure I wouldn't do anything too stupid, like hand over the package I was holding, "you won't be getting this." If he thought I was going to hand it over, he had very little faith. I, however, had no time to show him the error of his ways, before we were attacked. Asuma took two of them, and the others went after the three of us.
A clone of mine I'd had tracking for a while, attacked from the trees behind the man I was fighting, and he turned to fight her, taking his attention off of me for long enough to hide the package. When he turned back, I had both hands free and a pair of kunai twirling on my fingers. He was mad that I no longer had the package he wanted and turned his attack up tenfold. I was hard-pressed to keep up with him, when I realized Ino was fighting near me.
A plan started to form in my mind, but I needed her to work with me, and at the moment the only thing she was working on was fighting her own ninja. Without interrupting her concentration, I had to get back to back with her. Slowly, without it being obvious what I was doing, I moved over towards her, getting my back against hers while continuing to fight the man that was furious with me and getting angrier with the moment. "Ino," I whispered, waiting for her to blow up at me. Shockingly enough, she just kept fighting, but gave me a quick look to show that she was listening.
"Ino," I said, in a more even tone, "I need you to help me."
"Help you? Why should I do that? I have my own problem!"
"If you'll help me, I'll help you," I told her, not phased by her apparent anger.
"I don't need your help, you're my rival."
There was the truth of the matter, and I had to quell this breach of teamwork now, before it got out of hand. "Look, Ino, I don't care about Sasuke like that. He's more like a friend to me, okay? I mean honestly! I couldn't really care if he fell down a ditch!"
(Meanwhile, Sasuke was walking through town, not really paying attention to where he was going, when he fell into a ditch.
"Watch where you're going kid! We're doing road construction here!" A man shouted, rolling his eyes. "And you call yourself a ninja.")
Ino glared at me with those words.
"I'm sorry, Ino, I don't mean I want him to be-" I was cut off from saying the word 'hurt' when I myself was hurt. A kunai was shoved into my shoulder, and I hissed in pain, denying myself a cry as I knew it would only distract me more. That got Ino's attention, and Shikamaru's and Asuma's, and I pulled the impaled object from my flesh and used the man's own weapon to return the attack. I aimed at the man's neck, attempting to slice his throat, but he dodged quickly and I managed to cut down his chest. I wasn't paying attention to what was going on around me, and as the man fell, I stood ready to fight again. Turning, I noticed Ino was about to check on me, and lose her own concentration.
Without a moment's hesitation I was at her side and the two of us took the man down together, though this one didn't have to die, we merely knocked him unconscious. Asuma was done with his two and Shikamaru had finished his own battle by the time my mind cleared enough for me to register that I was in pain.
My blackout had also managed to block the pain, but as I stood there, realizing I was done fighting, the pain returned. I dropped the kunai and grabbed my left shoulder with my right hand instinctually. Ino moved forward to help, but Asuma stopped her. "I'll help her," he said, walking over.
"Wait." He stopped, and looked at me curiously, with my hand raised to stop him. I had bought new clothing since I'd left the hospital, and the lower half was mostly bandaging. I pulled a layer off of both legs, revealing from my knees to my ankles and bandaged myself. I knew those would come in handy sometime. Once that was done, I returned to where I'd hidden the package with Shikamaru's clone, and then went back to my team. "Should we continue? We haven't finished our mission yet."
"What about your shoulder?" Asuma asked.
I turned to him, and shrugged my good shoulder. "A team is only as strong as their weakest link, I will not be that link."
He had nothing to say to that, so we left to finish up what we started.
Not much after that we reached the border town, where we were going to stop for the night. Asuma insisted that I see medics, and he walked me there, with Shikamaru and Ino following behind us. It struck me as odd that they were already worried about me, but it must have made sense to Asuma, because he smiled at me, and at them. Into the hospital we walked and Asuma explained what had happened. A nurse nodded and told me to follow her.
My second time in a hospital now, and this time I knew Kakashi wouldn't be waiting for me.
PLEASE READ THIS!!!
Okay guys, this is what I have for you. I'm sorry it isn't as long as I would have liked, but before I can finish this chapter I have a bit of a dilemma. Seeing as how you all are my fans, however many of you there are, I would like your opinion on the matter. Originally, yes, this was meant to be a Caruh and Kakashi pseudo-love fic, not all love, definitely tons of drama, but some romance in there when the mood is right. Unfortunately, I've been having second thoughts on the grounds that he is at least ten years older than her. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but lately I've been lusting after a certain love-starved, red-head… you know the one. If you don't, here's another hint, he's the medium for Shukaku, and his name's Gaara. There, straight-up.
I don't plan on being fickle throughout this whole story, and I have ideas for her and Gaara that just would not have worked with Kakashi. So, here's my idea. Her and Kakashi try it out when she gets back from this mission (at the end of the next chapter) and realize, probably by the end of the tenth chapter that it just isn't right, or maybe even at the end of chapter nine. So, they form this, big brother little sister relationship. Her and Haku (in case anyone was thinking there could be a romance there) would be best friends, and the whole reason he's still alive and what happened there will be revealed in due time.
What I need from all of you is this, tell me what you think of that. Or, if you want it to be a Caruh/Kakashi fic. If enough of my fans decide on Caruh/Kakashi, over Caruh/Gaara, I might write two versions of the fic. However, the Gaara version will most likely be longer. Thank you those of you that took the time to read this and who are willing to give me straight answers. I appreciate your time. I hope you liked this chapter. If you didn't, well, it'll get better soon.
Arigatou and ja ne minna-san!!
