An Eye For An Eye Chapter 10
"Character Talking"
'Character Thinking'
"Kyuubi Talking"
Commentary
Jutsu
-With Someone/ Someplace-
-Flashback-
Hey everyone so I would love to say that I'm writing, because I was really aching too and that it was bugging me to no end. Unfortunately that's not the case. I'm actually writing because I hate the way Naruto ended, and for some of you, you might be sharing my feelings. So hopefully this will fuel my fire, and will encourage me to write this story how I think "Naruto" should have went...kinda.
Anyways haha thanks to everyone who is reading this story and putting up with my lengthy gaps between chapters, but as always I would appreciate any criticism or input you have on my story, and I always greatly appreciate reviews.
So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. =]
A blonde haired genin quietly made his way from tree branch to tree branch trying to make as little noise as possible.
He stopped for a second as a voice came through his earpiece.
"What's the distance to the target?"
The blonde knew he was the closest to the objective, and knew that any noise from this location would ruin the mission. He didn't have to speak, however, as another voice responded.
"It's about five meters for me, but about one for Naruto. I'm ready when you are."
Naruto heard the final, and only female, voice of Team 7 in his ear.
"I'm ready as well."
Instantly Naruto heard his sensei yell, "Go!"
The blonde threw himself around the tree, accompanied by his four clones that were scattered about. It took roughly five seconds for Naruto to have the target by the tail. He looked at it with a dead expression as it thrashed about.
"Stupid cat is more trouble than it's worth."
Naruto's teammates, soon after, joined him on the ground. They watched as the cat frantically tried to slice their blonde teammate into pieces. Naruto however was out of harm's way, simply because of the way he was holding it.
Team 7 slowly walked back to the clearing directly outside of the woods where they had just been. Kakashi was sitting on a tree stump reading his favorite book.
"Well done guys! It might be hard to believe, but this is by far the hardest D-Rank mission we have. You're the first team I've ever seen complete it without a single scratch...literally."
Naruto watched as the cat refused to give up the fight, and was trying to find any way to come in contact with his skin. The blonde let out an annoyed sigh as he started walking back into the village.
"Come on, let's turn this stupid cat in and finish this mission."
No one argued as the rest of Team 7 followed closely behind.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at the Hokage's office, and it took even less time for the owner of 'Tora' as the cat was apparently known to arrive, and take the burden off of Naruto's hands.
Naruto stared blankly as the obese woman strangled the cat to death with her love.
'No wonder it ran away...'
The woman quickly paid for the mission and left leaving only Team 7 and the Hokage.
Hiruzen started looking through some papers on his desk, and as soon as he found what he was looking for he glanced up at Kakashi.
"Well, now that you're done with that mission...you have your choice of helping old man Shinjiro buy groceries, walking Miss Tankura's dogs, or help-"
Hiruzen was cut off by the only person on Team 7 he wasn't expecting it from.
"Hokage-sama with all due respect, I believe that my team is ready for a mission that takes a little more skill."
Hiruzen smiled slightly at Team 7's sensei as he quickly picked up another piece of paper.
"So you finally think they're ready Kakashi?"
Kakashi nodded in response, Hiruzen chuckled slightly at the shocked expressions on the young genin's faces.
"At your recommendation I do have a C-Rank mission. It's a simple escort mission into the Land of Waves."
Kakashi glanced over at his team, "Does anyone object to this mission?"
Hiruzen couldn't help but smile at the reactions from the three. Sakura was nodding furiously, Sasuke was now wearing a smirk, and Naruto...well Naruto just stood there, but Hiruzen knew him well enough to know that the young blonde was jumping for joy on the inside.
Kakashi gave his famous eye smile as he looked back at the Hokage.
"We'll take it Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen gave a nod of recognition as he turned his attention towards the door.
"You can come on in now."
Team 7's attention was instantly drawn to the door as it slid open and an elderly man holding a bottle of sake walked in.
"What the hell is this? You're giving me a bunch of little kids? How am I supposed to feel safe at all? One of them is going to give away our location every single time! She has pink hair! There's no way people won't notice us!"
Sakura's eye twitched as she grit her teeth, while Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. Naruto, however, wasn't going to take this guy insulting them.
"I don't really give a damn what you think of us. If you want protection then we're the team you want, and if you want a testament to our strength I'd be more than happy to have you attempt to stop me as I cut off one of your hands."
The old man stared wide eyed at the blonde who glared directly into his eyes. Kakashi knew this wasn't good for the mission, but he could feel a small smile gracing his lips.
"Naruto! We're supposed to protect him! You can't just go and insult the client."
Naruto's glare died, and his features returned to their same emotionless ways.
"If he doesn't think we're qualified enough then I don't even want this mission. He can go find a different team to escort him."
Kakashi was about to retort, but before he could the old man spoke up.
"What's your name kid?"
Naruto glanced back at him, "Naruto Uzumaki."
The old man raised an eyebrow, "Why exactly are you so confident in your abilities?"
"If you apologize to Sakura over there, then you'll get to see, exactly why, on the mission."
The old man let out a laugh, "Okay you got me kid, I'm sorry that I insulted you guys. I'm the super bridge building expert, Tazuna, please protect me with your lives."
Kakashi let out a sigh as he looked back at Hiruzen. "We accept the mission Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen let out a small laugh as he looked at the genin of Team 7, "Okay everyone meet at the village gate tomorrow morning."
With that, everyone left. Naruto was making his way through the streets of Konoha when he felt a hand touch his right shoulder. He turned slightly to look, and saw his pink haired teammate standing behind him.
Sakura gave him a small smile as she walked up next to him. "I just wanted to say thanks for sticking up for me."
Naruto continued onward as he shrugged, "He didn't know what he was talking about, so I set him straight. There's no need for you to thank me."
Sakura looked at the ground shyly. "You know you don't have to be so hostile around everyone. We're your friends, and it would be a lot easier to get along if you weren't so cold."
Naruto instantly stopped and looked at his pink haired teammate. "First off I'm not being hostile towards everyone I'm just...safely, keeping my distance. Secondly, why are you giving me this lecture? Sasuke acts the exact same way and I don't see you bugging him with all this crap."
Sakura raised an eyebrow at Naruto's question. Why didn't she act this way with Sasuke? She had never really thought about it before.
"I don't know maybe, because Sasuke has a reason to be so cold to everyone, and I'm not going to pressure him into being someone he's not."
Naruto let out a small laugh as he looked Sakura dead in the eyes.
"How exactly do you know that I don't have a reason to be so cold to everyone? What exactly do you know about me Sakura? Hmm? Because unless you know my entire life story you have no right to tell me to do anything."
Sakura watched as her blonde teammate turned and started making his way down the busy street. She couldn't help but arch her eyebrow in confusion as she jogged towards her teammate to catch up.
"Well Naruto, I'm sorry to say, that had never really occurred to me. If you would tell me what happened then maybe I could help you cope with it. What exactly happened before you left the academy?"
Naruto's thoughts shot back to Azami's lifeless body, and then instantly changed to his masked attacker.
Sakura watched as Naruto stopped moving completely.
'Maybe I got through to him!'
The pink haired genin placed her hand on Naruto's right shoulder and smiled at him.
"Naruto if we talk about this it might help you get over whatever is hurting you."
Sakura was waiting for Naruto to speak, but instead he ripped his arm away from hers. Sakura's eyes went wide as her teammate turned around to look at her. She could tell that he was visibly angry seeing as his fists were clenched, and he was breathing rather heavily.
"Leave me the fuck alone Sakura! This has nothing to do with you! I don't consider you or that damned Uchiha my friends, and I sure as hell don't need any! So just go back to your little fantasy world where Sasuke is the center of attention, and stop trying to help, because I don't fucking need it!"
Sakura was so paralyzed by shock that before she could respond her teammate was gone.
Unknown to both members of Team 7 a certain jōnin had watched the entire encounter. He let out a sigh, and mentally shook his head.
'Getting this team to trust each other might be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Sasuke is one thing, but Naruto is something totally different.'
Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck as he continued on his way.
-With Naruto-
Naruto was trying to think as he dodged blows from the ten clones he was fighting at the moment. He didn't want to stop training, but he couldn't focus and his body was starting to feel the effects. After he took a couple more kicks to the side and a punch to the back of the head he sat down. The clones all stopped and stared at their creator awaiting instruction.
The blonde looked up at all of them and let out a sigh, "Just fight each other, while I think."
All of the clones nodded in succession, and instantly began fighting once again.
Naruto couldn't focus at all. His thoughts kept returning memories from the night Azami died. The blonde ran a hand through his hair, and looked up at the sky.
'I'm still too weak! I don't know if I'll ever feel confident enough to take on that bastard again. If I joined the ANBU then I would at least know I'm close to his skill level, and if I became a captain then that would mean I'm one of the best. There's so much I don't know though, I don't even know what rank he was or how long it took him to get there.'
The blonde shook his head to try to clear out his thoughts.
'This will never even become a reality if I'm not strong enough. I need to get stronger, and I need to do it now.'
With Naruto's mind finally resolved, the blonde stood up and made a cross with the index and middle fingers of both hands.
"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"
Instantly fifty more clones popped into existence. Naruto stared at all of them with his normal expressionless face.
"All of you against me. Use your kunai as a weapon, and come at me with the intent to kill. If you manage to stab me then give yourself a pat on the back, because that's exactly what I'm wanting out of you."
After Naruto finished his short speech he instantly took off towards the group.
-With Sasuke-
The sun had just broken through the window of an average house in the Uchiha district. Usually when the rays of light would hit the person lying in their bed they would get up or be aware that they don't have much time left to stay in bed. When the light hit the bed of this particular room, however, it didn't alert anyone to prepare for the day. The reasoning behind this is that the owner of the bed, Sasuke Uchiha, was always awake and training before the sun even rose, and today was no exception.
Sasuke was taking a slight break as he stared at the battle worn target in front of him. Currently it had ten kunai sticking out of it, all roughly in the same area, which happened to be the center.
Looking at the target always reminded him of the days when his only concern was trying to actually hit the wooden target at all, while being watched over by his older brother Itachi.
Things were a lot different now. That brother that he once loved was now the sole reason to his existence, and he wouldn't be able to rest until Itachi was done in by his hand, and his alone.
The young Uchiha was snapped out of his thoughts by some rustling in a nearby bush. He swiftly stood up, and prepared a kunai, but relaxed when a squirrel ran out and up a nearby tree.
Sasuke figured now was as good a time as any to get ready for his mission as he made his way back into his house.
-With Naruto-
Naruto was currently sitting at the gate entrance waiting for the rest of his team to arrive. As he waited, his mind drifted to his training yesterday. He didn't want to think about it, but it wasn't something he could just ignore.
After giving the instructions for his clones to come at him with the intent to kill the blonde had lasted roughly an hour, and then everything went black. When he had come to, he was covered in cuts and the back of his head was bleeding.
Naruto stared up at the sky as he mentally kicked himself. If he would have been in an actual fight he would have been killed.
'I need to step up my training or else I'll be a sitting duck if he ever comes back...'
"Whoa, what the hell happened to you?"
Naruto's attention shot towards Sasuke who was standing in front of him.
"Training."
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as he stared at his teammate.
"You got cut up in training?"
Naruto simply nodded in response as his gaze was, once again, focused on the sky.
Sasuke leaned against the gate as he stared at Naruto.
'No wonder he's so damn strong.'
Sasuke was about to pry even further, but was cut off by the female member of Team 7.
"Hey Sasuke-kun!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes as he glanced in Sakura's direction, and let out a small grunt as a sign of acknowledgment. Sasuke's curiosity was peaked when he noticed Sakura didn't greet Naruto.
"You and Naruto get in a fight or something?"
Sakura's eyes went downcast, as her mood seemed to change.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and was about to pry further, but lost the chance as Kakashi walked towards them reading his favorite book, with Tazuna toe in toe.
Kakashi put the book into his pouch as he gave his team an eye smile.
"Everyone ready to go?"
The only answer he actually got was from Sakura, but Kakashi knew Naruto and Sasuke well enough to know that they were both ready as well.
Kakashi nodded in acceptance as he started through Konoha's main gates.
So that's the chapter guys hope you enjoyed it. To be honest it was a lot harder to write this chapter than the ones coming up simply because of lack of interesting content, but the chapters should get a slight bit longer starting with the next one.
As always I greatly appreciate reviews, and any advice you guys have to give me.
Well hope you guys enjoyed and I'll talk to you next time. =]