Title: Between Sun and Moon.

By: Kaara.

Disclaimer: … Do I have to go through this mundane routine again? Fine. I don't own Naruto. Happy now?

Warning: Serious lack of explicit fighting scenes. I love them. I hate writing them. You can't make me write them. Live with it.

Miss me? I missed YOU! (tackle-glomp combo!)

Is finally inspired to write this chapter by GenocideHeart's latest instalment of 'Twisted Fate'. And also after rereading 'Black Destiny' and 'Foxhound' for the gazillionth times.

And to cevgar-san, I demand a two page review as a late Christmas gift!

Enjoy, dearest!

xxx

Chapter Ten: Rhapsody

xxx

It was a pleasantly sunny morning, with the sweet smell of blooming flowers drifting lazily in the air and the chirps of birds resounding around Konoha.

A morning that should be enjoyed with loved ones, beautiful and peaceful as it was.

However, being an antithesis of normalcy as she was, one Yamanaka Ino was currently very much pissed off.

"There must be more in being a ninja than weeding some rich sod's garden," the platinum blonde snapped, chewing vindictively on her sausage as she waved a hand in wild gestures. Team Seven was sitting (well, Ino and Naruto sat, while Sasuke leaned against a tree closest to them) inside the training ground, where Kakashi-sensei had promised to meet them exactly at eight. He was currently two and a quarter hour late, which meant that they still have another fifteen minutes to kill. They were starting to enjoy the three hours of team-bonding by now, though quarrels or the occasional fights broke out during those times. Ino turned to direct her wrath towards Naruto, who was happily digging in the breakfast bento that Saeki had prepared for him. "I can't believe that I'm going to spend my entire genin year doing measly works when everyone else is out there kicking butts. We can handle higher-ranked missions, right?"

Naruto swallowed the remains of his scrambled egg and nodded vigorously. "Of course you're right, Ino-chan."

He had known better than to argue with the girl, especially after their 'forced lunch' experience. It was downright scary to see Ino in the midst of her homicidal fury, when even seasoned jounins like Kakashi and Gai could do nothing but to meekly follow her in a tow towards the barbeque restaurant. The food itself was excellent, just like what she had told them, but the atmosphere had been a tad too hostile for his taste. Ino kept jabbing at the pieces of meat with this malicious grin on her face, before glaring at the group of men and boys accompanying her as if indicating that she would treat them just like the barbequed meat if they did not do her bidding. The unspoken threat was perfectly understood by them and they got through lunch in a quiet, almost civilised manner. Even Sasuke had not uttered a word of disgruntlement.

Naruto shuddered at the memory; Ino's mood had improved since then, but she was still scary.

"Look at us," she shot an exasperated look at Sasuke, and slapped her bandaged thigh with her free hand to emphasise her point. "We're waiting for our sensei, who is always late and a shameless pervert, with nothing to look forward to except for a list of more stupid missions."

"But Iruka-sensei said that genins didn't get to do any real mission until we got promoted," Naruto said, closing the bento box and tossed it towards Ino. "Thanks for the breakfast anyway, and tell your mom that it's really good."

"Everything edible is good to you," muttered Ino, loud enough to be heard by practically everyone. She placed Naruto's and her own boxes into her backpack, before turning to stare expectantly at Sasuke. "Well, what do you think?"

The dark-haired Uchiha merely shrugged. "He's a pig after all."

Ino clamped down a hand onto Naruto's shoulder to stop the boy from jumping Sasuke then and there, before shaking her head. "No, not about Naruto's eating habit. I mean, do you think that we should get tougher mission than babysitting and tending gardens?"

A light shade of pink coloured Sasuke's cheeks for a split second, before returning to its old pasty complexion. "Oh, that. Sure."

"Sure what?" she sighed at Sasuke's inability to string a proper sentence. Being a proclaimed genius as he was, he should've realised that he was required to make sense once in a while. She could not afford to waste her free times deciphering his half-assed sentences. "Sure we should, or sure we shouldn't?"

"Sure we should," said Uchiha mumbled crossly, as if aware of the thought that had crossed Ino's mind. He shifted from his position by the tree and regarded the blonde girl with a dark frown. "What's so important about this? You complained before, but not to this extent."

"I'm touched that you actually took notice of my existence," Ino flashed him a sickeningly sweet smile and batted her eyelashes in mock flirtation. Heaving yet another sigh (Naruto lost count at 20), she hugged her slender legs to her chest and rested her chin on top of her knees. "Dad just went back from the Hidden Mist, and he was telling me about that village. I could just picture the place from his description, but what I want to do is to go there myself on missions, like he does. I don't want to be stuck in Konoha for my entire life."

Sasuke's frown softened at the sight of her petulant pout. "You won't."

"I damn well hope not!"

Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed loudly. Grinning at the astonished expression on Ino's face, he gave her a thumb up and confidently said, "Don't worry! When Kakashi-sensei got here, we'll just force him to give us tougher missions!"

"You're going to force who to give you tougher missions?"

"GAAHHH!"

Naruto jumped back in surprise, narrowly avoiding a collision with an equally-shocked Ino. Kakashi had materialised out of nowhere for the umpteenth time, though he had not announced his arrival with a cloud of grey smoke like before. Waving nonchalantly at his speechless students with the look of intense boredom etched onto his masked face, the jounin drawled out, "If I was an enemy, you would've been dead by now."

"I didn't even realize that you were there!" shouted Naruto in defence, scowling at Kakashi-sensei.

From the look on Sasuke's face, neither did he.

Kakashi lifted a finger and simply said, "And until you do, you'll still be a genin."

"What's with the early sermon?" Ino interjected. She had both her hands hooked on her hip. "The Hokage finally realised that you're useless and fired you?"

"Ah… Ino," the grey-headed menace turned his creepy one-eyed smile at her. The platinum blonde wisely took a step back. "Nice to see you too. Did you wake up at the wrong side of the bed today?"

"At least I woke up early and got here on time," she retorted, cocking her head towards the jounin. "Unlike /someone/ that I know…"

Said jounin ignored her last comment and spun to address his last two students. "We're going to do a bit of a training today, seeing that you're getting out of shape."

"Hey, I'm not getting out of shape!" cried Naruto indignantly, shaking a fist at his grinning teacher.

Sasuke snorted and raised an eyebrow at the blonde. "Says the pig."

"You bastard! Take that back!"

Before the two could wage an all-out-war, Ino smacked them back into senses, leaving behind two identical bumps on both boys' heads.

Kakashi sighed at his only female student's violent tendencies and grinned in sympathy at Naruto and Sasuke. "You guys should really get a good insurance policy by now."

"As well as a brain transplant," Ino spat out, rubbing her knuckles with an evil glint in her eyes that promised more pain in the future.

"Forget insurance," mumbled Kakashi, carefully scooting away from the murderous aura that was radiating from Ino. "I know a good coffin maker around here. He'll give you thirty percent off if you're killed by a ninja."

"Sasuke started it," whined Naruto and glared at the Uchiha, who was also nursing his abused head.

The dark-haired boy returned the glare, though triple in intensity from the 'I-Hate-You-So-Much-That-I-Wish-You'd-Drop-Dead' Scale.

"So… shall we begin our training session for today?"

xxx

Ino waited as Kakashi instructed Naruto and Sasuke to engage in a match, tapping one of her sandaled feet onto the ground impatiently. There was something mightily annoying about the way the grey-headed jounin conduct his students; like he was expecting them to absorb his every words like a dry sponge and be able to process it on their own. She had heard that he was a genius of somewhat, but in truth, the jounin was one hell of a crappy teacher. Whenever Kakashi explained a technical detail concerning a certain jutsu or techniques, he always had this sense of obviousness in his voice, as if they should have known what he meant before he said it. That, and his infamous 'look underneath the underneath' crap. Would it kill him to be bloody straightforward? In one occasion, Ino had to explain to Naruto the whole concept of properly channelling chakra to his tenketsu, after the boy shyly confided to her that he didn't understand what Kakashi was talking about.

It seemed that the great Sharingan Kakashi was not as perfect as the rumours said.

Hmph. Just her luck to be stuck with him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," the jounin in question happily sauntered towards her, glancing back once as Naruto multiplied generously and started attacking Sasuke. "Remind me to tell Naruto not to rely too much on his Kage Bunshin; he's getting too attached to a certain assault pattern."

The blonde girl nodded her head thoughtfully. "And it will be easy for his opponent to predict what he's going to do next, right?"

"Quite an accurate observation, Ino," Kakashi congratulated, his one visible eye curving into a crescent. He brought out a kunai and tossed it towards Ino, who caught the weapon with practiced reflex. "Now, do you understand why I decided to separate you from the two boys back there?"

A sudden explosion distracted Ino for a split second, as she witnessed a giant fireball decimating a huge number of Naruto's clones. Realising that her teacher was expecting an answer, she turned her attention back to the jounin and grinned apologetically. "Um… what was that again?"

Kakashi sighed, one hand rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Lesson number one; do not get distracted during missions and fights. It can cost you not only your life, but the lives of the people that are working with you."

"Sorry, sensei," the girl mumbled, her cheeks reddening. "Won't happen again."

"You had better make sure of that, Ino. I'd hate to have an incomplete team." Kakashi patted her head and smiled. "And I'm sure Naruto and Sasuke will somehow blame it on me, and then, I'll have two megalomaniac teenagers out for my hide."

Ino giggled at the faked horror on her teacher's face. "Not to mention the fact that I'm going to haunt you for the rest of your life."

"Yes, that too," nodded the jounin. He waved a hand to indicate that their little banter was over and stared pointedly at the blonde. "Anyway, do you have any idea what I'm going to ask you to do?"

"Sensei, I might be a Yamanaka, but I sure as hell am not clairvoyant," Ino retorted, feeling the old annoyance that she had towards Kakashi-sensei growing again.

The grey-headed shinobi slipped out another kunai and held it in front of her face. "Well, we're going to do something different today. I figured that having you three sparring against each other will just be a waste of time since one of you would've had to stay out when the other two is fighting. I do not tolerate such waste of time."

The platinum blonde snorted and narrowed her eyes at Kakashi. "Then, what do you call the three hours that we had spent waiting for you every single day?"

"That three hours?" Kakashi winked at her and said, "It's for team bonding. Useful, isn't it?" Without waiting for Ino's answer (which would have been somewhere along the line of extremely sarcastic or plain sharp), he continued with his impromptu lecture. "I want you to concentrate in improving your accuracy with thrown weapons. I don't expect you to be perfect; Kami knows what'll happen to me if you managed to do so, but I anticipated that you'll be able to hit the targets by today."

"Where are the targets?" Ino craned her neck in the attempt to see any object that could resemble a practice target. Kakashi's creepy one-eyed smile warned the girl of the impending danger. "Sensei?"

"Naruto and Sasuke."

Ino knitted her brows in confusion. "What about them?"

The creepy smile widened. "They are your targets."

"WHAT?" the blonde gawked at her teacher, brain furiously trying to process the information. This must be one of his damned 'look underneath the underneath's. "But… but they're moving! And fighting against each other! That big ass fireball from Sasuke could kill me if I get too close!"

"Do you think that the enemies are going to stand in the middle of the battlefield and do nothing while you kill them?"

"Of course not! But…"

"I'll give you an hour. I've already briefed them about what you're supposed to do and one person will be punished when the time's up. It's either the boy that you struck out or you, for failing to complete the task," Kakashi drawled on, ignoring the glare of utter indignation from Ino. He grinned and wriggled his fingers at the furious girl. "I've got other things to do. Bye."

With that, he disappeared into the trademark cloud of smoke.

Ino blinked and began making a mental list of the horrible, horrible things that she's going to do to Kakashi once he reappeared.

Grumbling to herself, Ino stomped towards her two sparring team mates and stood just a few feet away from them, appraising the situation. The first few lessons that Iruka-sensei had stressed on was to know your opponent's and your own limit. Never jump into a fight that is way above your level, and never underestimate an enemy. To her surprise, Naruto and Sasuke were quite advanced, being genins as they were. One had mastered Kage Bunshin, while another knew Gokakyuu. Impressive. Of course, Sasuke was an Uchiha after all, with a clan full of dead overachievers. But Naruto… he was the class clown, the infamous dead last. How did he learn the jounin-level jutsu? More importantly, who could've had the time and motivation to teach the jutsu to Naruto?

She would have to punch/bribe that information out of the boy later.

Focus, Ino chastised herself mentally, reaching a hand into her weaponry pouch. I'm not going to be the one facing Kakashi-sensei's wrath later.

xxx

Kakashi's visible eye curved cheerfully as he faced his students, after popping out of nowhere after his allocated one hour. "I can see that nobody killed anybody. How did training go?"

"I hate Ino-chan," Naruto declared childishly, bandaging his right leg.

Sasuke glared at the girl and muttered spitefully, "Make that two of us."

Ino shrugged from her place next to the grinning Kakashi-sensei, unperturbed by her team mates' reaction. "It's not my fault that you're both pathetic. Besides, there's no rule stating that I can only attack one of you."

"Ino's right, you know," the grey-haired jounin chimed in, amusement dancing in his eye. "Care to tell me how you accomplished the impossible, Ino?"

The blonde girl giggled cheekily and squared her shoulders, grinning at the sulking boys. "Well, you did tell me that Naruto's movement becomes predictable after some time, so I just have to wait when he's on the defensive side. It's easier said than done, though, because he kept on bouncing around avoiding those little fireballs that Sasuke spat out. But while I was waiting for the right moment, I realized that Sasuke was also moving with this distinct pattern."

"I did not," grunted the Uchiha from somewhere to her left.

"Let me finish," snapped Ino, scowling at said boy. "So, as I was saying, even Sasuke became surprisingly predictable after some time. I realized that he often avoided to his right whenever Naruto punched or kicked him, before following up with a spin or a high kick. I dunno how I noticed; it just came to me, I guess. I made a bunshin, moved to the other side of the field discreetly and waited. When Naruto showed a little slip when Sasuke kicked him back, I ordered my bunshin to throw a kunai towards Naruto. As I expected, when Sasuke saw the kunai struck Naruto, he quickly moved to his right. And that was when I attacked him with my own kunai."

Kakashi clapped his hand against her shoulder appreciatively. "You have a keen sense of observation, Ino. And you've also exceeded my expectation."

"Aw, you don't need to compliment me," the blonde girl exclaimed in a strangely pleased voice, her lips stretched into a wide grin. "You're making me embarrassed."

"It's not fair!" yelled Naruto, jumping up onto his two feet. "I was preoccupied with Sasuke-bastard!"

Ino flashed him another one of her wide grins. "You can't use that excuse forever, you know."

"It was a mere miscalculation," Sasuke silently offered his piece of mind, still wearing that dark frown as he stared at Ino. "And I almost deflected the kunai."

"The keyword here is 'almost'," the girl retorted coolly, refusing to be intimidated by Sasuke's apparent fury.

Their jounin sensei effectively put a stop on whatever war they were about to engage in by cuffing both boys' head. Ducking from the oncoming attacks from said boys, Kakashi said loudly, "I was summoned to the Hokage Tower today." He flipped over as Naruto tried to impale a newly-sharpened kunai into his arm. "And I was told that we have a mission." Sasuke almost hit him with an axe kick, though the jounin simply sidestepped the attack. "C-Rank, I heard."

The attack ceased immediately.

"That's great!" Naruto started doing a weird war dance, hooting and howling ecstatically. "Woohoo! A C-Rank mission!"

Sasuke, though he said nothing, was actually pretty pleased. Weeding garden wouldn't help him to surpass his missing brother, after all.

Ino was instantly suspicious. She said nothing though, because she knew better than to burst the extremely happy bubble that Naruto was in at that time. They followed Kakashi with the air of overflowing glee (mostly attributed to the blond, war-dancing git), sandaled feet trudging lightly on the gravelled path as they headed towards the looming tower in the middle of Konoha. Once convinced that Naruto and Sasuke would not notice her absence, Ino slowed her pace and fall in steps with Kakashi, who had whipped out his infamous book of dirty porn and was reading it with customary patches of red colouring his masked cheeks. The platinum blonde glanced warily at her two team mates, before staring pointedly at his appear-to-be-innocent teacher, which told her that he was completely on the opposite.

Deceiving asshole.

"You angled for the mission, didn't you?" it was more of an accusation, instead of a normal question. "Did you bribe or blackmail Sandaime-sama?"

Kakashi blinked his one visible eye and turned the page of his orange book. "I have no idea of what you're talking about."

"Bullshit," Ino hissed under her breath, grinning like a sly cat at the jounin. "Iruka-sensei wouldn't allow Naruto to take on a C-Rank mission. Not this early, anyway. And don't give me the crap about the Hokage acknowledging our potential as a team; we barely scraped through. So it must be you."

The man shook his head and chuckled silently. "Why can't you just be as gullible as Naruto, Ino?"

"You flatter me," she sniped, before the mock scowl was replaced by a grateful smile. "Aa, thanks. For believing in us."

The jounin turned to another page and kept the smile to himself as Ino raced forward, laughing along with Naruto and grinning gallantly at an unusually smiling Sasuke.

That Yamanaka girl was indeed something else.

He would've to thank Iruka later for chucking her into his team.

xxx

But of course, the excitement considerably died down when Team Seven realised what their much-anticipated C-Rank mission was all about.

"These three brats are going to protect me?" the old man critically eyed Naruto, before backing off and grunted in disdain. "They don't look capable to even defend themselves."

Iruka-sensei's polite smile seemed to be a bit more forced than usual.

Ino bristled at the comment, annoyed that he had the nerve to imply that she was weak. She'll show him who's weak! Before the blonde girl or Iruka-sensei could say anything, the Hokage himself sashayed into the spacious floor, donning his usual ghastly attire that made him look ten years older than he actually was. The old man tilted his angular hat-thing and addressed the rude old man politely, "Tazuna-san, I understand your doubt, but I assure you that it is unnecessary."

The 'Tazuna' person snorted. "How am I supposed to feel secure when I'm in the hand of those kids?"

"They are certified genins of Konoha," the Hokage calmly explained. "And their jounin sensei will come along to supervise. There's no need for worry."

Tired of being ignored, Naruto jumped into the conversation. "Hey, we're good enough to take this mission!"

"I don't trust any of you," the old man snapped, taking a swig from the bottle in his hand. "Especially the shortest one."

The three genins exchanged stares for a few seconds, an invisible line dotted meticulously just above each respective heads.

Naruto screamed in fury a split second later.

Ino raised an eyebrow in distaste. Knowing her crummy luck, she should've anticipated this sort of outcome. With a hand straining Naruto from mauling their prospective client (she had been doing that so much lately, that she felt her muscles had developed), she directed her most unnerving glare at Tazuna, grey blue eyes blazing threateningly. "You better watch what you're saying, old man, because you can never judge a book by its cover."

"That's so… corny," she heard Sasuke mutter under his breath behind her, before elbowing said boy's gut.

The Uchiha winced in pain and retaliated by kicking her shin.

Iruka-sensei stood from his chair and planted both hands firmly on the table. "Please believe in them, Tazuna-san. If we feel that they can take the responsibility, than they are ready."

The man rubbed his nose, before shrugging. "It's up to you, then. All I know is that I better arrive safely."

Kakashi nodded and turned to his team. "Alright, I give you thirty minutes to pack. Bring only necessities and we'll regroup at the front gate. Don't be late."

"But I can't pack all my clothes and makeup in thirty minutes!" Ino cried out, inviting a collection of huge sweat drop suspending from everyone's heads.

"You just cut your packing time into half just for saying that, Ino," the jounin announced cheerfully. "See you in fifteen minutes."

TBC

Review or I'll spit furballs towards you for the rest of your life. RAWR!

Kaara