Accidentally in Love Chapter 10: I, Kunoichi, a naruto fanfic

Chapter 10 up.

Enjoy.

A c c i d e n t a l l y i n L o v e

Summary:AU) She worked as a servant for the Uchiha family. There, she catches the eye of a certain Uchiha, and both of them fall accidentally in love. (SasuSaku. NejiTen, ShikaIno, and NaruHina)

Rating: T (PG-13)

Genre: Romance/Drama

Standard disclaimer applied.

Chapter 10: I, Kunoichi

Her lips quivered and her green eyes filled with tears. "I-I couldn't just leave you…" She took a step forward, and surprisingly, the Sound nin stepped back as if anticipating her next move.

"No." He snapped. "Stay back. I will only accept help from a fellow shinobi." He refused to be helped by someone who wasn't in his profession – help from a servant? No way in hell

"But…"

"Look," he replied bitterly. "If you're going to help me, then…"

He didn't need to finish, she understood. Her eyes flickered from his battered form to his hitai-ate, lying on the ground. She bit her bottom lip, a habit she put into action when she was nervous or scared.

With shaking hands, she reached down and picked up his hitai-ate…

…and tied it around her own forehead.

He smiled, just a tiny upward quirk of his lips. 'Finally.'

He stood up from the ground and handed her a kunai while he unsheathed his sword. "Let's go."

In the midst of the pandemonium in the wedding, a long-haired man smirked, some of the skin on his face peeling off to reveal glinting gold-yellow eyes. The illusion of a civilian next to him vanished and a gray-haired man with glasses appeared, smirking.

"She has decided to become a kunoichi."

The long-haired man smirked in a self-satisfied way.

…

"All according to the plan… excellent…"

"Get them!" the Sound ninja snarled. Heeding the nin's words, the other opponent shinobi ran at the two.

Easily, effortlessly, Sasuke slashed through the air and sent electricity flying toward them.

They fell back, badly electrocuted.

"Listen to me," Sasuke said to Sakura, who ducked from an oncoming kunai. "This cliff has virtually no hand holds. There is no way an amateur can climb up. The only way to escape is to fall into the water first."

Sakura nodded, halfheartedly slashing at an enemy nin and closing her eyes at the sight of the blood.

"We don't need to kill all of them," the Uchiha said in an undertone. "Just stay close to me."

Slowly, they let themselves be driven closer and closer to the edge of the cave.

"Wait!" Another enemy ninja shouted. "Don't let them escape–"

Too late. Sasuke had already wrapped an arm around Sakura's waist and blown a huge fireball into the interior of the cave. The two were thrown back by the force, and they flew out of the mouth of the cave, plummeting into the cold water.

There was a little drawback, however. Sakura, who was wearing a kimono, was being dragged down into the water.

Sasuke had already resurfaced, gasping for air. However… where was…

"Shit," he swore, taking a deep breath and diving into the water once more.

Underwater, he activated his Sharingan and let a thin coat of chakra protect his eyes from the water.

He swam carefully, letting his eyes take in everything… looking…

There. She was about ten feet from him, her hair undone. Damn, her eyes were closed. Quickly, he swam toward her and tried dragging her upward.

She wouldn't budge.

"Damn," he tried saying, but only a couple of bubbles escaped from his mouth.

He had no choice. Fighting a blush down, he used his Kusanagi to cut her obi and removed the first couple of layers to her kimono. To keep it together, he used his hitai-ate on her forehead and tied it around her waist.

After a considerable amount of clothing had been removed from her, it was easier to drag her upward.

He finally resurfaced with Sakura, who was choking. Though Sasuke had taken a considerable amount of clothing off of Sakura, she was still hindering him. In a second, they'd be going down into the water again.

And they did.

Once again, they were surrounded by nothing but the cold water, bubbles streaming out of their mouths.

'Katon... Goukyakku no Jutsu.'

The sheer power of the fireball shooting down into the water shot both him and Sakura up into the hair.

"There they are!"

His eyes were still bleary, and his hands were wrapped around her waist to keep her clothes from falling apart. The cliff, where all the festivities were being held, was just too far...

"I've got him."

And Uchiha Sasuke never thought that he'd be so overjoyed to hear Sabaku no Gaara's voice. He felt the soft sand forming underneath him and Sakura, making a platform. His muscles and nerves, knowing what the sand could do, screamed in protest, to jump off the sand, but he resisted the instinctive urge.

And then he was on the ground (was it Ino that had pushed him down?), Ino working to return his body temperature to normal, to fish all the water out of his lungs...

"Haruno," he croaked.

"She's safe," Ino replied tearfully, removing her hands from his chest and collapsing into the arms of a waiting Shikamaru. "Tsunade-sama's taking care of her."

He turned his head and saw the Hokage personally tending to the girl.

"Sasuke," Shikamaru suddenly appeared in his range of vision. "What happened?"

He looked into Shikamaru's eyes. "She's a kunoichi."

"You're doing well! Now, push some chakra into the brain – no, that's too much, you don't want to overwhelm it – yes, good."

The large fish jumped to life, slapping its tail fin into a surprised Haruno Sakura's face.

Grinning, Tsunade picked up the fish effortlessly and dumped in into the tank. "Excellent, Sakura! Excellent!"

Wiping a thin layer of sweat from her forehead, Sakura smiled tiredly. "Thank you so much, Tsunade-sama."

The blonde smiled back at her student. 'That girl, she's a medical prodigy.'

"I have to go back, I have my chores to do, Tsunade-sama," Sakura was saying, jolting Tsunade back to reality.

The woman dismissed the young teenager with a wave of her hand. "Go ahead. Same time tomorrow, okay?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama," Sakura replied dutifully, leaping out of the window gracefully.

Tsunade sank into her chair and sipped at the cup of tea that Shizune had provided her with at the beginning of Sakura's lesson.

"That Sakura will make a great kunoichi," Tsunade sighed contentedly. It had only been two months and Sakura had already learned the basic ninja arts and was already progressing quickly through Tsunade's rigorous medical training program. She had shown a great aptitude for genjutsu and chakra control.

She looked out the window. 'It's like another... us.'

And she was left alone to let the past consume her in the little moment of weakness.

Haruno Sakura.

Age seventeen.

Green eyes and short pink hair.

Servant of the Uchiha family.

Kunoichi.

When the news of Sakura becoming a kunoichi spread throughout the Uchiha turf, and eventually the whole village of Konoha, there was a full-blown scandal. For the first couple of week, Sakura had always been the center of gossip and fingers, people whispering about how she messed around with the younger Uchiha to retain her job as a maid while still receiving kunoichi training.

However, her friends stuck with her to the end. Wherever she went, she was always flanked by at least two of her friends and sometimes even Sasuke himself.

But she wasn't the only servant in the Uchiha household. Even as she used to do chores, the more prying and gossiping maids tended to shoot her scornful or even jealous glances/glares.

And frankly, Sakura was getting sick of it.

Even as Sakura retreated to her cot in the servants' quarters, to change into her uniform, she still got weird looks. Though Tenten had advised Sakura to keep her cool and just ignore them, it was kind of hard to do when Watanabe Ami was sitting in her cot.

"Ami-san," Sakura said calmly (or at least tried to), "You're sitting in my cot."

"That I am," Ami replied snottily.

"Can you please get off? I'm going to be late for my chores."

"Just leave Sakura-chan alone, Ami," one of the nicer and older servants called out impatiently.

Ami ignored the other servant and kept her eyes on Sakura, looking her up and down. "I don't see what Sasuke-sama sees in you."

Sakura blinked. "What do you mean?" 'Damned girl, you have ten seconds to get off my bed, stop crinkling my uniform, and get the hell out of here before I reveal what I've learned early. Ten...'

"I mean, you're so scrawny!"

'Nine...'

"And look at your pink hair. I mean, c'mon, pink?!

'Eight...'

"And you have no body at all."

'Seven...'

Unconsciously, Sakura altered her normal standing position to a fighting one, both her knees bent at a tiny angle and the right leg behind the left.

It was an action that went unnoticed to Ami, who was still listing off Sakura's "flaws". However, the few servants that had a bit of actual experience as kunoichi watched, bemused. After all, Ami was just one of those fangirls that had applied for a job because of Uchiha Sasuke.

"You probably can't even fight as a kunoichi for your life..."

'Zero. Screw this.'

The muscles in her thighs and calves stiffened as Sakura readied herself to pivot on her left heel and swing her right leg around three hundred and sixty degrees for a spinning kick, and–

"Sakura-chaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!"

But it was Uzumaki Naruto that had flown through the open window where Sakura was facing Ami, and it was Uzumaki Naruto that had met Haruno Sakura's heel, flying at 40 miles per hour.

Silence.

"Geez Sakura-chan, that's a killer spinning kick," Naruto's muffled voice came from the bed he had been thrown into by the power of Sakura's kick.

"Ohmygosh, Naruto, I'm so sorry!" Sakura exclaimed, leaving a shocked looking Ami and running over to the blonde struggling to sit in the bed. Gently she laid a hand on his cheek, utilizing what she had learned from her mentor. Almost immediately, a soothing green medicinal chakra spilled from her hand and Naruto's swollen and bruised cheek returned to its normal state.

Naruto grinned impishly. "A millimeter higher and you would've broken my cheekbone!"

"That's not a good thing, Naruto," Sakura scolded.

"Just be glad that you didn't kick any higher," someone drawled from the doorway. "The dobe has enough brain damage as it is."

"Sasuke-sama!" Ami snapped out of her shock and, disregarding the giggling maids, ran up to Sasuke and grabbed his arm. "She... She tried to kick me!"

Sasuke didn't even blink. "And she kicked the dobe."

"But... she tried to–"

"She obviously felt my chakra signature, Ami!" Naruto said cheerfully. "Tsunade-baa-chan's been going off about how perfect Sakura-chan's chakra control is!"

Sasuke snorted and easily stepped forward with a powerful stride, shaking Ami's arm off. "Sakura, you have a mission."

The said teenager blinked. "Me? But..."

Sasuke shrugged. "Tsunade told be to bring you to the training grounds."

Naruto grinned cheerfully. "Not to worry, Sakura-chan! You're going on a mission with us!"

"You're here," Tsunade said briskly upon the arrival of the three teenagers. "I'm giving you a mission."

"But Tsunade-sama, I'm an inexperienced– "

Tsunade raised a hand and Sakura stopped talking. "That's why I'm assigning Uchiha and the loudmouthed idiot to be your partners. And your team leader will be... hey, where's that guy?"

"You mean Kakashi," Sasuke deadpanned.

"You called?"

"YOU'RE LATE, KAKASHI-SENSEI!!!"

The man appeared in a puff of smoke, his eye covered with his hitai-ate and a mask covering half of his face. Sakura found it odd that a shinobi could be reading while on a mission, she assumed that he was a powerful jounin that taught Sasuke and Naruto when they were genin.

"Yo, Sasuke and Naruto." A hand was raised lazily in greeting, and then the lone eye landed on Sakura. "Ah, and you must be Haruno Sakura, the final member of Team 7. It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Hatake Kakashi."

"Glad to meet you," Sakura fumbled with her words as she shook Kakashi's outstretched hand.

"Yeesh, why do you greet her so nicely?" Naruto grumbled irately. "When you first met us, you told us you didn't like us."

"That was because you dropped an eraser on top of his head," Sasuke said flatly. "Moron."

"Teme!"

"Yes, they'd go at it forever if they could," Kakashi said amiably, completely ignoring the boys' bickering.

"Enough!" Tsunade roared at Sasuke and Naruto, a muscle jumping in her jaw. "You, the ones with more experience as shinobi, can't even behave yourselves in front of Sakura?!"

There was no reaction from Kakashi except for a chuckle and the flipping of the page of his suspicious-looking orange book. Sasuke "hn"-ed and fell silent while Naruto stuck his tongue out at Tsunade, who promptly whacked him over the head.

"So what's the mission?" Sasuke asked impassively.

Tsunade looked up at the sky briefly. "The Chuunin exams. I want you three – four – to be proctors."

"Wooooooooooow!" Naruto's stretched the three-letter word so that it lasted maybe a minute in Sakura's head. "Is it me or did this place get really small?"

Sakura blinked, not knowing what Naruto was talking about. "We're supposed to go to the third floor to talk to a Morino Ibiki..." She looked up at the sign with the number three engraved in it and squinted. "But..."

"Yeah," Sasuke muttered. "It's a genjutsu. There's another entrance so that the participants won't get too suspicious."

The slipped quietly past the children, without attracting any attention. Even Naruto, who had a knack for making noise with everything he did, remained stealthy until the three of them had gotten through the door.

"Hey! Naruto! Haven't seen you in a while!"

Sakura was stunned by the sheer size of the man with the trench coat and head covering. His scarred face was twisted by a large grin of pleasure. "And Uchiha too! And who's this...? You mean the one that Tsunade-sama's training?"

It sounded as if he was completely ignoring her, and Inner Sakura seethed. Mustering up all her courage, she stepped forward and offered Ibiki a smile. "It's nice to meet you Ibiki-san. My name is Haruno Sakura, and it's a pleasure to work with you."

Ibiki let out a laugh. "It'll be nice working with you too, Haruno Sakura."

"Man, I look so uncool in this uniform!" Naruto whined. He had made a vain effort to save himself for the traditional proctor uniform but Ibiki would have none of that.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, looking as nice as ever in the dark color of the uniform.

Sakura smiled gently. "It's not that bad, Naruto. It'll only be for the duration of the exam."

"But that's a long time!" Naruto protested.

"God, dobe, shut up. We're supposed to stay quiet and wait for Ibiki's signal," Sasuke snapped.

Naruto mumbled an obscenity.

"S-Sakura-chan...?"

Naruto blinked. "Hinata-chan! What're you doing here?!"

The Hyuuga heiress fumbled over her words and fidgeted. "I volunteered s-since everyone else has a... a m-mission."

Naruto grinned in an almost drunken manner while looping an arm around her shoulders. "Well then, I can have Hinata-chan all to myself while Sasuke-teme can have Sakura-chan!"

This earned a blush, a flash of the Sharingan, and a smack over the head.

"TEMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Shh, N-Naruto-kun... it's time."

The first part of the Chuunin Exams were taking place, and Sakura leaned back lazily in her chair.

'It is sooooooo boring. Hey, did that genin just...?'

'Yeah... should... I...?'

But Sasuke caught Sakura's eye and tilted his head toward the genin she had been watching closely.

Morino Ibiki's words echoed in her head.

"If you know for sure, then go for it. As a proctor, you're always right."

Sakura shivered in fear as she remembered how he had said this with a smirk.

'Well... what the hell.'

She grimaced, setting her facial expression into one of a bored conviction, she hoped. And then, she quickly ran so that it'd only appear like a flash.

Since the genin was sitting at the edge, she leaned on the edge of the table, her hand on the middle of his paper so that he could not write anymore. "Three strikes, you're out," she drawled.

Sasuke watched as Sakura disappeared from the seat next to him and appeared once more, this time at the edge of the table. She regarded the genin with a displeased boredom, her short pink hair falling in front of her face, her gloved hand on the genin's paper.

"Three strikes, you're out."

This genin was the first to get caught cheating, so it seemed as if all activity in the examination room had stopped and the center of attention was on Sakura and the Mist genin that was regarding her with something akin to anger and nervousness.

"What?"

"You heard me. Three strikes and you're out." Sakura sounded very confident for someone who was very self conscious of her experience as a shinobi.

"You can't prove anything," the genin snarled defiantly.

"Please," Sakura snorted. "It was kind of obvious by your movement that you were copying off that kid." She pointed to the genin in front of him. "Your eye and head movement was your downfall. Tough luck, maybe next time."

The Mist genin's eyes narrowed. "Don't go around running your mouth off, you have no experience either, Haruno Sakura."

She froze for a split second, which the Mist nin took to let out a yell and lunge at her.

And Sasuke's eyes flashed dangerously as he made a movement, but Ibiki's pointed stare stopped him.

'Look, we don't need to do anything, she's got it under control.'

And he watched as Haruno Sakura, servant, became Haruno Sakura, kunoichi.

Time seemed to slow down as the Mist genin lunged at her, and she remembered her training with Tsunade.

He was lunging to his left, where she was. Numbly, without even realizing it, she shifted all her weight to her left leg as her left knee bent into a back stance. She also bent down to the left, her left hand sweeping the ground for balance as her right leg shot up into the air, bending at the knee. Her hook kick stopped a millimeter from the genin's cheekbone.

Slowly, she brought her foot down and, aware of the silent crowd, straightened. "Get it? Now get out."

"Wow, that was kickass, Sakura-chan!"

They were sitting in a separate room. The first part was over, and they had thinned out the participant number considerably. After Sakura had shown no remorse for the genin that had stumbled out with his team, still in shock, the other participants that got caught cheating made no effort to resist.

Ibiki had dismissed them before the proctor of the second exam got there, so Sakura had no idea of who was going to be in charge for the second exam. However, they still had duties as extra helpers for the exams, so Sakura assumed that they'd be getting more of the Mitarashi Anko Naruto was ranting about.

Sakura smiled at Naruto. "Thank you, Naruto. And thank you for almost standing up for me, Sasuke-sama."

So she had seen that small movement of his. He set his face into a grimace. "Hn."

She smiled at him.

And today, his usually throbbing curse seal throbbed with less force. The shadows of the room seemed to have been driven away.

And Orochimaru and the curse seal did not haunt him that night.

Once upon a time, death's internet died and she decided to abandon Wayoftheninja for the day and write a bit. 9 pages in a couple of hours, maybe a bit of food in between. Not to shabby, ne?

But see, death was supposed to update six days ago because she promised VWaterlily that she would update and it is all thanks to VWaterlily for PM-ing death on Wayoftheninja after she forgot to update, giving death a helluva guilt trip.

So, thank you to kumori dokuro, Cute-Killer-Gurl, Jo-yi, SeyWho, I love hershey, Da Cute Snowbunny, pink-pretty-princess-, xo M i M i, Lavender Geisha, narutocraze1233, XoSasuSakuSonAmyXo, shattered crystal heart, it'sSAOVADY, xCats4everx, Cookie Yuki, SakiraUchiha, KoolKittyKat256, BuBBly CaNis luPus, whitedeathangel03, ohemg33kellz, just a tool a lifeless puppet, Sakura-Girl 2005, dark Alley, neon kun, Amy Sanger, ShinobiOfTheDarkness, Water Queen 14, Ribs On The Run, -AbreezeofSakuraandSnow-, ForgottenLovedOne, NekoGrafic, Manga-Fanatic, teen titan girl, IllogicalFanfics, Rah794, xXbunnyholicXx, Ur2tRoUbLeSoMe90, Master Keto, Depressing Truths, Rae Ahn Mae, Shubaltz crazist, CherryBlossomAvenger, CalwynN.D.Forever, Winter Thunder, TakemenowTish, SweetKisses9, Pinkish-Bluish, asianangelgirl, Wingless-Crying-Angel, nlightnd, J.a.M.i.16, lacusclien4, Laura-chan, inurdreams21, SnowCharms, Neitzarr, french cries, gaarafaves, TaimaHawk12, CherryBlossoms016, Kawaii IceCream, Bored Konoha Kunoichi, ihearttoast09, XXRedWolfXX, Princess of drama, Freedomstar999, x 33 3alex, petite.ina, Aoi Hana9, Shinkutsuki, SasuSaku4eva18, o0 anime-goddess 0o, reader ninja, Pink Shinobi, Maylin Haruna, eleanaleone, lolsuzie, -my-name-is-V-, Nature Light, SakuraGaara, sweetcherry99, shinobihime, silentnightmares18, missyserena214, Sakura-chan1345, xokatherine229, Jester08, Co0kIeS-n-CrEAm, frienz4ever,m obliviously, furryhatlover2543, shadowriter318, and Pink Crescent Moon for reviewing for chapter 9 and for waiting patiently for this worthless story.

Until next time!