AN:Well after a long break I'm back!!
Sry, I know I've said I was only taking a short break. But it seems that fate decided that it needed to be longer. Hopefully I'll be able to make updates more frequent. I also noticed that quite a few more people put me on their alerts, hopefully this means more reviews!! As always, I don't have a Beta reader, this way I can get updates posted faster. But you'll need to tell me if there's any errors in grammer of spelling.
"Speech"
'thought'
"Jutsu"
'Voices in head'
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters, except my OCs.
Naruto of the Steel
Chapter 8: Calm Before the Storm
Kakashi felt like he was in a bed, but that wasn't right. He was supposed to be on a mission. He slowly opened his right eye. He looked around, he was in a unfamiliar room. The air felt damp, almost like the house was near a large body of water. He also felt a cold towel on his head.
Before he could look around a bit more, a women in her late 20s or early 30s had walked into the room carrying more wet towels. She had long blue hair and blue eyes.
"Oh, you're awake.", she said.
The five of them were sitting in the living from of Tazuna's family. It had been two days since their encounter with Zabuza. They each took turns watching Tazuna in groups of two, one rotating off every now and then to make sure he was safe. They were still supposed to watch him, sensei or no.
When they weren't on duty they did whatever they wanted. Naruto practiced with his swords outside the house just in case he was needed by Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter to do something for her around the house or in case there was an emergency. Sometimes he would get dragged off by Ai to do things with her. Sasuke trained in a nearby forest. Sakura helped Tsunami around the house, and when she was off at the same time as Sasuke she just watched him train. Nobody knew what Hideyo did, he just seemed to disappear when he wasn't watching Tazuna. Ai always wanted to be around Naruto, whenever she wanted to do things like look around the village she always brought Naruto, she even hung around him when he was on duty.
"So when do you think he's going to get up?", Ai asked Naruto.
"Don't know. I don't even know what a sharingan is, so it's hard for me to say when he's going to recover from using it too much.", Naruto replied.
It looked like Sasuke was about to say something. But before he could start Kakashi walked into the room with crutches. All eyes were on him.
"What are you all looking at, it's like you never seen a man with crutches before.", Kakashi said.
Nobody said anything until Tazuna walked in.
"You're up! We were afraid you wouldn't wake up again.", Tazuna said in a joking voice.
"It's no big deal. Anyway, I need to speak to my students so do you mind giving us a minute.", Kakashi asked.
"Sure, just be sure to be done soon. Dinner is almost done.", Tazuna said as he left the room.
"Sure.", Kakashi replied with a smile on his face.
As soon as Tazuna left the room his expression changed into a serious one.
What came out of Kakashi's mouth shocked everyone, "I think Zabuza's still alive."
Everyone, except Hideyo, eye's shot open. Showing how shocked they all were.
Naruto was the first to say anything, "How can that be?! We saw him get killed by that hunter-nin!"
Everyone had recalled how the hunter-nin skewered Zabuza's neck with senbon.
"I know what you all saw, but that could have all been staged. I have a feeling that the hunter-nin was his accomplice. I know how hunter-nins operate. They would have just cut off the head and burn the body, to prevent anyone from learning their village's secrets from it."
After Kakashi had finished talking the room went silent, they could all hear the waves hitting the shore outside.
This was broken when Tsunami yelled from the kitchen, "Dinners ready!".
"Well I'm not sure, so no point in worrying about it. So let's go eat.", Kakashi said a he made his way into the kitchen.
"..."
"You want us to what?!", yelled Naruto.
"To walk up a tree.", Kakashi said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Are you are crazy?!", Naruto yelled, showing no signs of calming down. This annoyed Sasuke and Sakura, since they were standing right beside him.
Kakashi sighed, "Well I guess a demonstration is an order."
Slowly Kakashi made his way towards a nearby tree, it a lot longer than usual since he was on crutches.
When he at the base he put his crutches on the tree, and slowly lifted his good leg up too. Slowly he made his way up the tree, eventually hanging upside down from a branch.
"And that's how it's done.", Kakashi said.
Naruto was just looking at this seemingly impossible feat.
"Now Hideyo and Ai are not my students, so I don't have any right to be teaching them. But if you would like to try you're more than welcome to.", Kakashi said as he made his way down.
When he was on the ground Kakashi sad, "Now if you are ready, pick a tree and let's get started. Remember to use a kunai to mark how far you made it up the tree."
All five of them lined up in front of tree's, remembering what they had just been told.
"Go!", Kakashi shouted.
Though only three of them ran, Hideyo and Ai just walked. Naruto walked the first to fall, followed by Sasuke. Naruto didn't even stick, Sasuke made a few steps up but the bark on the tree collapsed before he could get further.
Both of them were expecting to hear a few more thuds land beside them. But were surprised when they didn't hear anything. They looked up and saw Sakura was sitting on a branch, Ai was on another branch higher up leaning against the tree and Hideyo just kept going up.
"My, that was surprising.", Kakashi said calmly.
Naruto and Sasuke just nodded.
When everyone was back on the ground, they were all sitting in front of Kakashi.
"Well It seems there's more talent in this group than I thought. In team seven it seems like Sakura is the best at controlling her Chakra in team 7."
At Sakura looked at Sasuke and saw that he looked a bit ticked off
'Why'd you have to go and say a thing like that!', Sakura thought.
"And on Team 13 it seems that Naruto is the weakest link."
"I'll show you weak!", Naruto shouted and ran towards a nearby tree.
'That worked a little better than I thought.', Kakashi thought to himself.
After bringing himself out of his musings he noticed that Ai, Hideyo and Sakura were looking at him, he said, "Right, orders. Hideyo, Ai, Sasuke and Sakura. You three will rotate off guarding Tazuna, First will be Ai and then Sakura. You are free to do whatever you wish when you're not on guard, but I suggest you either rest or train."
"What about me and the idiot.", Sasuke asked.
"Well you two need some work, so follow Naruto's example and train.", Kakashi said.
"Fine.", Sasuke replied, as he walked off to a tree a little further away from Naruto.
After the Sasuke left Ai headed towards Tazuna's house to take the first watch. Sakura stayed behind and nobody really knew where Hideyo went.
"DARN IT!!", could be heard throughout the forest.
The shouting came from a certain blonde shinobi. Both him and Sasuke were looking worse for wear. They had been at it for several hours, having several cuts and bruises from the constant falling down.
Naruto looked up his tree, he had made it up only five feet. Then he looked over at Sasuke's tree, he had made it up eleven feet.
'Gah! Why does this have to be so hard!', Naruto thought to himself.
He took a moment and sat down. Trying to figure out an easier way to go about this.
"Idiot."
"What'd you say!", Naruto shouted as he faced Sasuke.
"Sasuke took his attention away from his tree and looked at Naruto.
"Are you going crazy now?", Sasuke replied.
After looking at Sasuke's eye's he saw no hint of any lies.
"Uhh..Nothing never mind.", Naruto replied, and turned around.
"Idiot.", Sasuke said.
As much as Sasuke's comment annoyed him Naruto had other things on his mind. He knew he had heard the voice somewhere, he just couldn't think of where. Deciding to ignore it for now, he looked at the sky.
He didn't even realize that it was almost dark, when he looked up he could see the first stars coming out. He wouldn't willingly say this to anyone else, but he liked stars. They twinkled brightly in the dark sky along side the moon, giving light in complete darkness. They reminded him of his superhero fantasies he had when he was a kid.
"SUPER NARUTO TO THE RESCUE!!", Naruto shouted without thinking.
After realizing what he said he looked to his side, Sasuke was giving him one of the weirdest looks ever.
'Yeah. He is going crazy.', Sasuke thought.
Then Naruto heard a giggle. he looked up, Ai was there sitting on a tree branch.
"Ah! Save me "Super Naruto"!", Ai said as she pretended to be falling of the branch.
"Shut up!", Naruto said as he looked away, his face redder than a tomato.
Ai let herself fall back and hung there with her legs on the branch and her hands behind her head.
"You look good in red.", she giggled.
This just served to embarrass Naruto even more.
"Aren't you supposed guarding Tazuna?", said Naruto, desperate to change the subject.
"My shift ended, that's why pinky isn't here.", she said.
"Pinky?", Naruto asked.
"Sakura."
"Why the nickname?"
"You really don't know why?"
After thinking for a second the name made sense.
There was an awkward silence between them, which is weird since the both of them liked to talked.
Naruto shifted his feet, more or less to make some sort of noise. The only noise that could be heard was th noises of the animals in the night, it seemed thay Sasuke took a break too.
Ai looked at both his tree and Sasuke's tree she said, "Wow, you guys sure are making progress!".
"What do you mean?", Naruto asked confused.
"Well on the first day of this kind of training with Tsukiko-sensei me and Hideyo didn't make it up this high. Hideyo was at four feet, I didn't even stick."
After hearing this Naruto felt proud.
"Well I'm just that great!", Naruto said with pride.
"But it looks like Sasuke is still beating you."
Naruto instantly deflated.
Then a thought had popped into Naruto's head.
"Hey do you think you could tell me a few pointers?", Naruto asked with a smile on his face.
"Hmm. Well I suppose I could, but your going to owe me a favor later, whatever I want."
"Okay! Sure!", Naruto said, not thinking about the consequences.
"Then let's begin!", Ai said with a sweet smile on her face.
Naruto didn't know what he was getting into.
So what'd you think? I actually had the first half written since a few days after the last update, so it might sound a bit different after. The poll on pairings is still up, so you can still vote, in a review or in a pm. The first seven have already been decided, but if you want your favorite female in there get voting!! But the poll on whether Zabuza lives or dies has already been decided, but you'll just have to wait to find out.
Remember to R&R!!
