Grey Fabrication brought up a good point. In chapter seven, in the desert it is quite hot in the day, but really cold at night and I made it sound like it was hot all throught the whole day. Though, I do know this,but just forgot about it all together. However, what made me feel really stupid was the fact that I should have really have remembered to put that fact in because I freaken live in the desert and forgot about it!
And I would like to thank everyone that reviewed and made me feel better about my story. It got my self-esteem about my writing up. However, even though everyone made me feel better and I thank you for the reviews, I do have to specially thank Vree and kma3000 for they made me laugh, even if it was unintentional, it was what I needed.
After being dismissed, Obito ran after his little cousin and caught up with him easily. The two walked in silence, knowing that there were prying ears everywhere since everyone was curious about the only two surviving Uchihas that weren't traitors. However, that didn't mean Obito wouldn't find out what was wrong with Sasuke. No, it just meant that he would wait until they got to the Uchiha compound and they could talk alone in privet. Once there, Obito could finally pester Sasuke all he wanted. Which was exactly what they did when they took their first step into the Uchiha compound.
"So Sasuke, what's with the moody and angst-y attitude?" the man pestered.
"Hn," was the only sound to come from twelve year old boy. He didn't even acknowledge that his cousin had said anything.
"You're rookie of the year, come on, what could be wrong?" the hyperactive Uchiha whined. "Hell, I was the dobe of my year and wasn't all moody and angst-y like you, I was actually happy!"
"Hn."
"Does it have something to do with the academy?" Obito persisted.
"Hn." Still nothing.
"Something to do with your teammates?"
"Hn." Nothing, not even a twitch of an eye.
"Something to do with the cherry blossom head?"
"Hn."
"Have a crush on cherry blossom head?"
"Hn." Well at least there was a little emotion in that one, even though that emotion was anger.
"Have a crush on Naruto-kun?"
BANG.
"Ouch," Sasuke mumbled from his place lying in the middle of the pathway. The dobe of his year turned around and raised one of his eyebrow. He really meant his last sentence to be a joke of sort, but it seemed to hit the nail on the head. And he did what any other irrationally person would do, he busted out laughing.
"I was right?!" Obito said in between gasps of laughter. "Oh, Kami-sama! I can't believe you have a crush on Naruto-kun! I've got to tell Kakashi this! So what happened to make you like him?" The boy mumbled as he pushed himself back up, but the words couldn't be made out clearly. "What was that?"
"We kissed," the blushing boy quietly said, before added in haste, "BUT it was an accident! Someone pushed him into me!"
"But you liked it, didn't you?" the man asked, trying to make Sasuke see what he was getting at. The boy didn't say anything but nodded his head blushing profoundly all the while. "YES! I knew it! You have a crush on Naruto-kun!"
"You've already stated that," Sasuke growled out. Then a thought occurred to the boy and he looked at his cousin. "Doesn't it bother you that I might be gay? Or at least bisexual? And how do you know Naruto well enough anyways, you even put 'kun' at the end of his name."
"Am I bothered that you might be gay? Nope, not at all! Hell, Kakashi is gay and do you see me doing anything about that? I think not," Obito replied. Even if he had a gay best friend there was another reason why that Obito wasn't freaking out that his cousin was gay, cause truth be told he was bisexual himself. Though he hadn't told anyone that, as of yet. "As for how I know Naruto-kun, well I hang out with him out when I see him while your training alone and don't want my help. But you don't have to worry, I won't be trying to take Naruto-kun away from you, I am too old for him anyways, nor will I tell him you have a crush on him. Sound good?"
"Hn," was the boy's reply, though it had less of an effect than before, since he was blushing still.
"Let's go have dinner," Obito said seriously, before he turned back to his child like self and shouted, "CURRY HERE I COME!!!"
Naruto didn't know what he was going to do and didn't know what he should do. He would usually go to his brothers for help first, but since they weren't there to help him, he went to the next part of his mismatched family. That being the immortal part and maybe the Tenshi part as well if he decided to summon one of them. Going home, Naruto and Kyuubi had quick bite to eat before going outside and waiting for the immortal part of their family to arrive. They didn't have to wait long.
A few minutes after they started waiting, the bushes rustled and four white foxes bounced out of the clearing followed by the two divine beings in their true forms. In the years that had gone by, nothing on had changed on neither the two nor their foxes. Thought what could anyone say? They were immortals. Sure they could be killed by other immortals, or humans with immortal blood, but they didn't age. The same could be said for the Tenshi, but the fact was, they couldn't die at all until their mission was complete. Yet none of it mattered to Naruto, they were his family and it didn't matter what any of them looked like. The could be ugly for all he cared as long as they were the same person on the inside.
"Inari-kaasan, Inari-jiji, your finally here!" Naruto shout with excitement as Kyuubi started frolicking with the white foxes. The foxes then pounced on Naruto, all playing around with the boy. It had become the usual routine for how they all greeted each other. Naruto would first greet the gods and Kyuubi would greet the foxes. They would then pounce on Naruto before Naruto would greet each of the foxes as well, which he now took upon himself to do. "Hello Reimei, Dei, I see you two have particularly shinny coats today. And hello to you too, Yuuyami, Yabun. You all seem to be in a good mood today."
The four foxes yelped their greetings and thanked the blond for his compliment. Naruto just smiled and petted each one of them in turn. After petting the four foxes and Kyuubi once again, the Pure One stood up and ran inside before coming back out. In his hands he carried a small pot with three cups. Setting the cups down on a relatively flat area on the ground, the boy processed to pour the freshly brewed tea into each of the cups. Handing each of the Inaris a cup, Naruto took the last one for himself and made himself comfortable on the ground as the other two did the same.
"So what's got you so worked up today that you seemed so impatient to see us?" the god asked sipping his tea.
"I kissed Uchiha Sasuke today," Naruto said, rather bluntly, wincing as he waited for the reaction and he wasn't disappointed. The tea that the god had just sipped came back out and he looked disbelieving at Naruto.
"Nani?!" Inari almost stuttered out, but managed to save what dignity he had left and actually didn't stutter. Turning to his sister, Inari noticed that she was just sitting there, sipping on her tea, acting as if nothing had been said. "Sister Dear, isn't there anything you have to say?"
"Actually, yes there is something I must say, Dear Brother," Inari told her brother. Turning to the blond boy, she took another sip of her tea before talking to him. "How did this come about?"
If Inari wasn't sitting on the ground, he would've fallen over. He had expected his sister to say something, anything, else, but not that. He had expected that his sister would start stuttering and slurring all of her words trying to get them out in a hurry, but she didn't. All she wanted to know was what had happened and that…that was actually very sensible thing to do. Not what he was currently doing. So he quieted down and listened to the boy as he told what had occurred.
"But I really don't get why I felt strange after I kissed him. I know that it is not normal, but I still do not know what it was," Naruto told them after he finished retelling the story of what happened earlier on that day. "Does it have something to do with me being a mortal Tenshi or because I am the Heir of Foxes?"
"I'm not sure," Inari said as she though about what he had just said. "It doesn't have anything to do with you being a mortal Heir of Foxes if that's what you are wondering. Do you have any ideas about this Dear Brother?"
"I can't thing of anything that would make Chibi One feel that way," Inari said softly, "maybe we should contact Shina-san and ask her if it has anything to do with being a mortal Tenshi and our Heir, because I don't think that it has anything to do with being mortal."
Nodding his head in understanding, Naruto put his cup down and moved away from the group. Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood while gathering his chakra, a light blue color, the boy started through a set of hand seals. Finishing the last seal, the blond used his bloody finger and drew the kanji for Tenshi in the air. Strangely, the blood that flowed from the open wound while drawing the kanji didn't fall to the ground, but stayed suspended in air. Gathering raw chakra, this time a pure white color, in his hand, Naruto slammed the chakra into the floating kanji. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
Unlike other summonings, there was no sound, no poof of smoke, nor any kind of entry like that. Instead, the blood kanji glowed a bloody red before slowly fading away along with the blood and gold dust like particles fell to the ground. Once all of the dust particles hit the ground, they all glowed like the blood, but this time it wasn't a bloody red color but a pure golden color, and once they began glowing one could see that the particles fell to the ground to form another kanji. Open.
A bright light was released, though the others didn't even bother to look away since they'd seen the blinding light too many times to count already, and when it faded away, one could see Shina standing where the glowing kanji once resided.
"Shina-sama!" Naruto cried out as he tackled the angel with a big hug. Even though the boy had tackled her, Shina didn't even waver at kinetic energy force behind it nor looked like she was even thrown off balance in the less. Instead, she just hugged the blond boy back before the boy released her and ran back inside. While the boy was gone the angel saw the two immortals, Shina raised her eyebrow wondering what was going on.
Naruto came running back out, with another cup in his hand and poured some tea for Shina. He handing the cup to the Tenshi, the two sat down on the ground next to the immortals, whilst Naruto retrieved his own cup of tea. "What do I owe this pleasant summoning too?" the highest angel asked the group.
"We need your help with a little dilemma," the fox goddess explained to their mutual friend. During the years that had past, the immortals and Tenshi had become good friends with one another as they trained Naruto and his brothers. Though it had taken awhile for their friendship to form, they had finally gotten though each other's barriers and became friends. It was hard not too when a little blond boy that shall remain unnamed at the moment, but was currently sitting next to them, was constantly trying to get the two types of mythical beings, to the mortals of Earth, to become friends and was constantly pushing them together one way or another.
"And what might this dilemma?" Shina questioned which Naruto was happy to retell the story of what happened to him that day to the angel in great detail. The angel let the boy tell her what happened without interrupting him, so she might get all the facts. Yet she did have to laugh when the boy told her of the fox god's reaction to him kissing another boy, which earned her and the boy a glare from said god since the boy told her what happen and she had laughed. Once the story was finished, Shina sat quietly thinking about it for a moment before speaking. "I understand why you needed to summon me. However, this has nothing to do with Naruto being a mortal Tenshi."
Noticing the disbelieving stares directed towards her by one of the immortals, Shina had to sigh. Sometimes the fox god needed to look outside the box and not what was inside of it. He had just assumed that the problem wasn't something to do with the immortal part of Naruto that it had something to do with the Tenshi part and just threw out the thought of it having something to do with Naruto being mortal. At least the man's sister could look at the box itself and not just what laid within it, yet she too didn't really look outside of the box. Luckily for her, Naruto did.
"So if it has nothing to do with me being neither part Tenshi nor immortal, it has something to do with me being human. Though there's more to it than that, right?" Naruto concluded out loud as he took a sip of his tea and Shina smile at how right the Pure One was.
"That's right," the angel replied as she took a sip of her own tea, "Since Naruto is one third immortal, one third Tenshi, and one third mortal he has a portion of each of the powers. He can talk and communicate freely with canines because he was both of your Chosen One before he became your heir," Shina explained directly to both of the Inaris even though Naruto was listening too. "After he became the Heir of Foxes, Naruto could use your type of chakra, a light orange or blood red color depending on his emotions at the time. Then the powers he gained from being part Tenshi were that of the wind as well as our gold kind of chakra. Yet the wind had talked to him even before we meet and he listens, it is his familiar for the Tenshi part of him as Kyuubi is his familiar of his immortal part. Naruto also has the moral chakra, a blue color.
"Yet it's because Naruto is a Pure One that this is all happening." There wasn't any noticeable reaction from the Inaris, but Naruto had his head tilted to the side, fox like, and was looking at Shina curiously whilst all the foxes mimicked the boy's gesture. It looked cute in Shina's opinion. "Pure Ones are pure and innocent, but they are also more in tuned with their souls than any other human. So when they form a bound with someone, a Pure One can feel it in their soul and draw on the person in different ways through that bound. That's why, even though Naruto only has a wind affinity, he has a connection to water and earth as well. Since Naruto gains his water connection through Haku, who has an affinity for wind and water, and the earth connection through Gaara, who has an affinity for wind and earth."
"But I also have a connection to fire and lightning too," Naruto spoke up, "and I don't have a bound to anyone with a fire nor a lightning affinity that I know of."
"That's where you're wrong," the angel said drinking the last of her tea and handing the cup to the blond for more. The cup was soon returned to her full with more tea. "Since you are more in tune with your soul, you'll only feel like half of a whole until you find your other half. In other words, you are half of a whole and Uchiha Sasuke is, and always will be, your other half, your Soul Mate. Someone that you can't bare live without. And if I'm right, that means that Sasuke has an affinity to fire and lightning and that's where you get your connection to fire and lightning from."
"Uchiha Sasuke, is my Soul Mate?!" the blond boy wailed, "but I'm not into that kind of thing yet!"
"Well it is very unusual for one to find their Soul Mate so young," Shina commented, "but don't worry, you'll defiantly grow into that kind of thing."
"I can't believe it, Chibi One's gay!" Inari whined to the world, but all the good that did was earned a thwack upside his head from his sister. That caused him to start pouting in the corner while his sister and the high angel started to talk about what a cute couple Naruto and Sasuke would make when they grew up some and Naruto and the foxes had started to play around, bored with the conversation already.
"There's just one thing I'm curious about," Inari told the Tenshi.
"And that would be?" Shina asked the woman.
"Do you think Chibi One would be the seme or the uke?"
"I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!!" a strong mature, but sounding childish at the moment, male voice could be heard ringing out through the forest surrounding Konoha coming form the male deity.
It was twenty minutes after seven in the morning and half of Team Seven still weren't there. Naruto, who had been the first to arrive at the training ground around six in the morning, was slightly dozing off leaning against one of the tree stumps with Kyuubi in his lap. Sakura was looking around the clearing worriedly for any signs of the missing half of the team, but wasn't having much luck and Rin was shaking her head wearily as she watched the girl from the tree she was sitting in. Occasionally, Rin would look over towards her sensei to make sure he wasn't about to kill anything since he was in a foul mood at the moment.
Arashi, who was pacing back and forth in front of the dozing duo, a.k.a Naruto and Kyuubi, was muttering incoherent threats under his breath. He had specifically ordered Obito not to be late and what does the Uchiha do? Not only is he late, but now he made his younger cousin late as well. Then there was the fact that Kakashi was also not there yet, very unlike the jounin, which added to his already bad mood.
"ARASHI-SENSEI! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"
Those were the first words out of Obito's mouth when the man arrived ten minutes later. However, one would have to admit that in Obito's case that would be early for him, considering he was usually two to three hours late. However, that wasn't what caught Team Seven's attention. No, what caught their attention was that the older Uchiha was dragging a hogged-tied, teary eyed Kakashi behind him by a rope and younger Uchiha following in the drag marks of the silver haired man with his hands in his pockets and an indifferent look on his face.
As soon as Sakura had seen Sasuke, and completely ignoring the tied up jounin, she bolted to his side and started to fawn over him. Rin, on the other hand, had just jumped from the tree and landed gracefully on the ground before walking up besides her sensei who was currently standing in front of Obito, Kakashi tied up on the ground next to him, with a strange look on his face, which clearly said 'what the hell?!' As a consequence to all the noise, the dazing duo woke up and stretched their legs before Naruto joined Rin on the opposite side of Arashi, Kyuubi on his shoulder, wondering why Obito had a crying Kakashi hogged-tied on the ground.
"Do I even want to know?" Arashi asked curiously, eyeing his silver haired student. Obito just rubbed the back of his head with a silly grin on his face and his eyes closed.
"It's like this, Sasuke and me started heading here around six thirty, because of Sasuke's nagging me to come," Obito stated, pointing towards Sasuke, which only earned him a glare from the raven, but he ignored it. "Along the way we spotted Kakashi-teme standing outside of the bookstore with his face glued to the window. I called out his name, but he didn't even respond at all and as we came closer to him, I saw why. It seemed that a new Icha Icha Paradise had been released and the story wasn't going to be opening until seven. Long story short, we fought and I had to hog-tie him and drag him here just to get here, but it took me longer than I thought to drag him here."
At first Rin and Arashi looked doubtful until Sasuke spoke up to defend his cousin, after he dislodged Sakura from his arm. "It's true Arashi-sensei, we were going to be here earlier, but Kakashi-sensei was being stubborn and slowed us down."
"Thank you for your help Sasuke," Arashi said smiling at the raven haired boy. Turning back to his hog-tied student and the prankster, the Hokage grinned evilly at the man former. "Obito, you're off the hook. As for your punishment Kakashi, I think that it's fair that you have to administer the bell test to the team as the three of us," Arashi pointed to himself, Rin, and Obito, "take the day off and relax. Everything is already set up, so have a good day and hopefully we'll see each other tomorrow."
With that the Hokage disappeared in a puff of smoke and his two untied students looked at each and shrugged. Before they too following his example and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The three, hopefully, soon to be genin all looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders and sat down in front of their hogged-tied sensei and waiting for directions.
"Okay, see that alarm clock and two bells over there?" Kakashi asked, gesturing with his head over to the stump that Naruto was sleeping against earlier. The three followed his gaze and spotted the said objects before turning back to their silvered hair sensei and nodding their heads. "Well, it's been set to go off at noon. Your challenge is to steal the bells from me before the buzzer sounds. Anyone who fails doesn't get lunch and will be tied to the tree stump while I eat your lunch in front of you."
'That why we were told not to eat breakfast,' the trio thought together unknowingly.
"All you need is just one bell…apiece," the scarecrow continued not knowing what the three were thinking, "but since there aren't enough to go around, one of you is definitely headed for the stump and who ever that is will be the first of you to fail. One of you is on your way back to the academy…and disgrace. The other rules are simple, you may use weapons of any kind and attack to kill or you'll never stand a chance. Any questions? No, good let's begin."
In stead of going off to hide, the three stood there staring at their scarecrow sensei strangely. So strangely that it finally got a reaction from Kakashi. "What?"
"Aren't you forgetting something Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked hesitantly, not really sure what to say.
"What do you mean by that?" Kakashi asked genuinely confused.
"You're still hogged-tied sensei," Naruto pointed out for his teammate who really didn't know what to say.
Looking at himself, Kakashi seemed to just notice that himself. "So I am. Would one of you mind untying me please?"
"Sure thing sensei," Naruto volunteered, taking a kunai out of his pocket and spinning it around his finger before cutting the ropes that help Kakashi. However, it would seem that no good deed would go unpunished, for once the ropes were free, Naruto found himself held with his arm behind his head and the kunai occupying that hand pointed at his neck. Kakashi standing right behind him one of his hands holding Naruto's head and another holding the boy's hand with the kunai in it, forcing it closer to his neck. Naruto and his two teammates were alarmed, not only at his predicament, but also at how fast their sensei actually moved. They hadn't seen him move at all, or at least Sakura and Sasuke hadn't, Naruto and Kyuubi both had seen it, but too surprised that their sensei would attack them to do anything.
"Lesson one in being a shinobi," Kakashi spoke out, pushing the kunai closer to Naruto's neck as the terrified boy tried to fight back against him, but wasn't succeeding and the kunai was getting dangerously close to the back of his neck, "never underestimate your opponent."
A smirk slowly soon replaced the terrified look on the blond's face, yet nobody seemed to see it. They were staring contently at the kunai that was slowly inching towards his neck and then being slightly pushed back by a shaky effort by the boy, only to repeat the whole process over again. Suddenly the kunai stopped being pushed back and forth and that's what finally caught the others attention. Looking at their teammate's face, Sasuke and Sakura saw the smirk on the blond's face, but couldn't make out the rest of his face since his eyes were being covered by his hair. Sadly, since Kakashi was standing behind him, he couldn't see this and didn't now what
"You should listen to your own advice Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said as Kyuubi, who was still riding on his shoulder, turned about and bite Kakashi's hand, the one holding Naruto's hand, without any warning. At the sudden feeling of pain and the sharp canine teeth digging into his flesh, Kakashi let go of Naruto's arm and the boy escaped his grasp before disappearing along with his fox. Looking around confused, Kakashi saw Sasuke smirking before he too disappeared and Sakura following on his heels.
'They're not half bad after all,' Kakashi thought rubbing his bleeding hand and walked over to retrieve bells on the stump. At least they didn't try and take the bells the easy way, which would be whilst he was tied up or when he was giving Naruto his first lesson in being a shinobi, one that the blond boy didn't seemed to be taught, knowing it already.
Walking around the area, Kakashi looked for the three genin and noticed that they were all very good at hiding. Yet he could still feel two faint chakra signatures coming from within the foliage. He wasn't worried about not sensing his third student seeing he might have just been deeper within the forest and couldn't be sensed that far out. He didn't understand why the boy was out that far, but he didn't take the time to think about it either. Nor did he consider the option that the boy could actually conceal his chakra. After all, Uzumakis were known for being the most surprising ninjas of all.
Pulling out his infamous orange book that his own sensei specifically told him not to bring, Kakashi began to read the book as he casually walked through the foliage not really searching for his students.
Up in a tree a few yards away from the path Kakashi was currently walking down, Arashi sat scowling at the jounin. Unlike what he had told Kakashi, him and the others hadn't left to go relax, yet the jounin already knew that. It was actually a diversion so the others would think that Kakashi was the only one testing them, when he wasn't. Sure Kakashi had the main test to see whether the group would pass of fail, but they were also testing them in their own way.
Rin was following and observing Sakura. She was to find the girl's weaknesses and strengths. See what the girl knew and didn't know so when, not if, Arashi had a good feeling about this team, they became official genin, it would be easier to teach the girl. Obito was doing the same for Sasuke, though he already knew the boy's weaknesses and strengths, he was still watching him to see if Sasuke had learned anything new by himself without the older Uchiha knowing. That left Arashi to watch Naruto and his fox, which was actually a very difficult task.
It seemed that the boy not only learned how to do shadow clones from his grandmother, but also how to hide his chakra completely. Or that's what the Yondaime concluded upon seeing that the boy and his fox were trailing after Kakashi. The older of the two male humans didn't seem to realize that he was being followed by the younger boy and his fox. Sighing, Arashi followed after Naruto who was following Kakashi who was leaving the clearing that they were currently in.
'…Sasuke…where are you?' Sakura thought running through the forest looking for her crush. 'Kakashi-sensei must have gotten to him…NO, I can't think like that! I won't think like that! Not about Sasuke.'
Catching a brief sight of Kakashi out of the corner of her eye, Sakura quickly hid in a nearby bush. Peeking around the corner, the pink haired kunocihi looked to see if the man had noticed her. Thankfully he hadn't noticed her, or so it seemed to her at least. She was soon proven wrong when she heard her sensei's voice speak to her and it wasn't coming from where Kakashi was supposed to be located.
"Sakura, behind you."
"WHAT?!" the girl cried out alarmed, turning around to see Kakashi circled by falling leaves. The leaves suddenly started to blow her way before circling around her instead of the scarecrow. Not realizing, Sakura's eyes glazed over a little bit and became half lidded. Just as suddenly as it happened, the leaves fell to the ground and Sakura's eyes became normal again. Yet the silver haired man was no where to be found. "What?! What was that? Where did Kakashi-sensei go?"
"Sakura…" a weak, almost nonexistent voice called out to the girl from behind her.
'That sounds like…' Sakura though as she whirled around to face the speaker and shouted, "Sasuke!"
Yet the horrifying sight that greeted her wasn't one she had ever wanted to see. Sasuke sat on his knees, hand resting against the base of a tree trunk to stead his balance, wounds covering his body. Blood was pouring out of his body like a flowing river and weapons littered his body as if he were a pincushion. His left leg was twisted in an unnatural direction that by any means shouldn't, and wasn't, possible when not broken. The most horrific part of it all was the fact that Sasuke's right arm was cleanly severed right above the elbow and he hand no more right arm.
"…Sa-Saku-ra…H-help…me," the battered and bloodied Sasuke pleaded with his last breathes, before falling to the ground. The young boy's body not moving anymore, no slow and steady rise and fall of his chest nor was there any ragged and shallow breathing either. Just by looking at the raven anyone could tell that the boy was dead.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the girl screamed loud and long before screaming herself into a dead faint.
"Was that too much?" Kakashi asked out loud from his hiding place within a tree above Sakura to monitor the effects of the genjutsu as well as read his book. "Lesson two: know all the types of shinobi techniques and be able to avoid them if humanly possible. Ranging from ninjutsu, genjutsu, kenjutse, or even taijutsu know about all you can of them."
With that the silver haired sensei walked off to find his next victim, wait that wasn't right, he need to find his next student. 'Student, victim, what's the difference?' Kakashi thought as he began to walk away.
Sighing at the idiotic mistake that the young girl made, Rin was about to go collect the girl and place the girl next to one of the stumps, but didn't. That was only because her sensei was quickly grabbed her arm, almost scaring Rin out of her own skin, preventing her from doing so. After doing so, Arashi just smiled innocently at her and placed a finger over his lips to silence her. Seeing that the woman wasn't going to talk, the Yondaime pointed down and she followed his finger to the ground to see Naruto and Kyuubi walking into the clearing cautiously.
Seeing that Kakashi wasn't anywhere insight, Naruto quickly ran over to Sakura and kneeled down by her side. The boy then began to check the girl over for any wounds, or at least that was what it seemed like to the two adults that were watching him. When the boy was satisfied that there weren't any wounds, he dragged her over the near by tree, which seemed to be hard for the small boy seeing as Sakura was taller than him, and propped her up right.
Once he was finished, the boy looked around one more time before following the path that Kakashi took. The boy's fox, however, stayed behind, unknowingly to the two people in the tree. So when the other two decided it was okay to talk, they had a little kitsune listening in on their conversation. As Kakashi said, never underestimate your opponents.
"How the hell, sensei? I didn't even sense the kid," Rin all but yelled out as soon as they were sure that the Naruto wasn't near the clearing anymore.
"He's concealing his chakra, Hoshi-san must of taught him how to before she died and over the years he must of perfected it," Arashi explained his conclusion to the jounin. Sadly, it wasn't the truth, since Naruto's chakra was now hidden thanks to his immortal and Tenshi blood. Though it was a good cover up story and the Uzumakis didn't have to come up with another false story to explain to the people around them about little things that they unintentionally did. Things which no ordinary shinobi should know until they were at least chunnin or higher, no regular genin should have been able to do what he had just done.
"Damn, that's some kid, even I can't do that just yet," Rin whistled at the Naruto's accomplishments for one so young.
"I'll say, but we still haven't seen him in action, save for the fight with Mizuki, but he was injured then and didn't do much," the blond man explained.
"Well, he still has a little over three hours until the test is over, maybe we'll see something in that time period," Rin said thoughtfully as she put her finger to her chin while looking upwards. It was what Rin would do when she was thinking about something and putting the pieces to a puzzle together in her mind. This particular puzzle went by the name of Uzumaki Naruto and she didn't have all of the pieces just yet. Something seemed to snap her back and suddenly looked at the Hokage with a questioning expression. "Do you have any idea what's up with that fox of his? It follows him everywhere he as one of the Inuzuka clan's dogs would do. Maybe Naruto has a connection with his fox like the Inuzuka clan has with their dogs, what do you think Arashi-sensei?"
"It very well possible, but don't jump to conclusions until you have all the pieces of the puzzle," the Yondaime warned the girl, before he left her to trail after Naruto like he was supposed to be doing. The Yellow Flash of Konoha never did notice the little blood red fox following him to inform the Heir of Foxes what he had just heard. Sometimes it was good to be small and unnoticeable, which was why neither Kyuubi nor Naruto complained about how small they were.
'That scream I just heard,' Sasuke thought in his mind looking around warily, 'it sounded like Sakura.'
"The second rule of being a shinobi, one that Sakura must learn it would seem," Kakashi deadpanned, reading his book while leaning against a tree. The bells at his waist clinging together every once in awhile as he shifted slightly, reassuring Kakashi that they were still there.
"I'm not like her, I won't fall for your tricks," Sasuke said looking forward and not bothering to look behind him where Kakashi actually was. He seemed emotionless and calm on the inside, which Kakashi bought, but Obito, hidden by a genjutsu, could tell otherwise. His eyes, which were fixed forwards, but they seemed to be fighting with their owner and wanting to dart around to look for something. Or someone and Obito knew just who it was, since he was also looking around for the little vulpine like boy and his foxy friend.
"Save your boasts until you got a bell, Sasuke," Kakashi warned the seemingly over confident, though on the inside the boy was just as nervous as any other genin would be. But it wasn't that he was nervous about the test, no he was nervous about what might have happened to Naruto since there were no signs of him in the past hour and a half. "The strength of the Uchiha clan… the most elite family in Konohagakure. I'm looking forward to this; let's see how you measure up to your cousin's power level. After all he was a dead-last and look at him now, an elite jounin, but do you have the same potential as he did?"
'You'll wish you'd never said that,' both Uchihas thought at the same time, but for two different reasons. Sasuke, because he hated being compared to anyone, be it his own family name or not, and it did not help that he was always being compared to someone else ever since he could remember to make it hate even more. First his older brother and now Obito, he didn't take it lightly. He wasn't going to hide behind the name of the Uchiha clan. He was going to make his name, Sasuke, be remembered by what he did and not because of who he was; the only surviving member of the Uchiha Massacre that was there that day. As for Obito's reasoning, it was simple, he knew how much being compared to others made Sasuke mad and when he was mad, it wasn't a good sign.
'Kakashi no baka, and you say I'm the dunce?' Obito thought in his head as Sasuke spun around and threw a half a dozen shuriken straight at Kakashi without any further warning. It was a full head on assault that Kakashi merely avoided by jumping to the side, but as Kakashi usually preached; you should always look underneath the underneath.
'Hello, that's just screams trap!' Obito thought as he tried to hold his laughter in when Kakashi noticed it almost too late and narrowly avoided being made a pincushion of knives. Seeing the knives, the hidden Uchiha mentally commented to himself, 'SO that's where all my knives went!'
As Kakashi avoided the third level of the trap, Sasuke came around behind him with tremendous speed, which seemed to be in the chunnin level range, and aimed a spin kick towards his head. If it wasn't for all of Kakashi's years of training and honing his skills, he would have never blocked the boy in time. Amazing really, that the boy was already so skilled in taijutsu and it wasn't the normal Uchiha clan style of taijutsu or else Obito might have beaten him long ago if he were using it. With a few more years and some refining on the unknown style with minor changes, Sasuke's unknown style would be very formidable.
Having his ankle caught, Sasuke tried to deliver a punch towards the scarecrows head in order to get him to release him, but instead the jounin just grabbed his wrist with his free hand. Though that was just simple a diversion so when Sasuke threw his weight to kick him with his free leg, it wouldn't be noticed. Unfortunately, the tactic was discovered and blocked with an arm while still holding on to the two caught appendages, which left three appendages tied up and the free hand reaching for the bells.
Hearing the clinking of the bells being moved, Kakashi looked down just in time to see Sasuke grab hold of both of the bells. Before he could pull them off though, the silver haired man threw the rave forward while he pushed himself backwards. It was just in time too, because if Sasuke had tightened his hold on the bells anymore, when Kakashi threw him backwards he would have taken the bells with him. It was too close. They needed to find out the meaning of the test, not accomplish it individually.
"I admit it, you're neither like Sakura nor Obito," Kakashi said as both Uchihas watched him warily. Something was up and they both knew it, Obito more than Sasuke since he knew his teammate better than the boy. Though, Sasuke just smirked. He wasn't going to let what the scarecrow planned be put into action. Make a set of hand seals as fast as he could, Sasuke drew on his chakra. Kakashi and Obito both instantly recognized the jutsu, but they had different reactions.
'That skill is beyond a genin capacity, his chakra shouldn't have developed enough to perform it yet!' the scarecrow thought frantically. Obito, on the other hand, was simply bemused by Kakashi's expression and was proud of his cousin to master a chunnin level jutsu and perform it properly. He watched in satisfaction, knowing that he help the boy master the jutsu, as Sasuke inhaled a large quantity of air and released the jutsu right at the silver haired man.
"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu."
The two Uchihas watched as the flames engulfed the jounin, but were disappointed when they died away and Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. Obito knew where his rival was and was currently cursing himself for not teaching Sasuke about knowing where you enemies are at all times. The raven was looking around the area surprised, not knowing where the jounin might have hidden, since it was very unlikely that he was to flee from the battle.
'Not behind, not above, where did he go?!' Sasuke thought frantically, trying to know what Kakashi's next move would be before he could take action. "Below," he suddenly shouted out loud and was about to jump away from where he was standing, but a hand shot out of the ground and lacked onto his ankle.
"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu," and before he knew what was happening, Sasuke was buried up to his head and Kakashi was kneeling in front of him, his book out and a smile on his face. "Good try," Kakashi congratulated the boy as he ruffled the raven's hair, but his hand was almost bit off in retaliation, "but not good enough. Well" -the silver haired man continued as he stood up and started to walk away from the buried boy- "I'm off to find the last one of you, he might have better luck figuring out the meaning of this test. After all, for the dobe of your year, he's seems smarter than he lets on. Hopefully he'll figure out this test, if not, you're all doomed to fail. Bye Sasuke."
"Shit," the Uchiha cursed, which would have earned him a thwack upside the head from Obito if he wasn't supposed to stay hidden, as he watched Kakashi leave the clearing. He knew that Naruto was the only one he hadn't gotten yet, judging from the way Kakashi talked just then, but Sasuke didn't understand what he meant. The meaning behind the test? There was actually a meaning behind this whole game like test, or at least that's how Kakashi made it seem, given that the jounin easily took him down and made a fool of him. And what the hell did he mean that there was more to Naruto than he had let on? Well he didn't graduate the first genin exam, but still showed up anyways without any problems from Iruka-sensei. That's what Kakashi probably meant. Now all he had to do was figure out what it was.
Sasuke was finally thrown back into reality when he could suddenly move more than just his neck, but not much more. Looking in front of him, the raven saw the little blood red fox, Kyuubi his mind supplied, that his crush owned was currently digging him out. Though that wasn't all, hearing heavy breathing behind him, Sasuke swerved his head to the side and got a glimpse of blond hair. As more of himself became free, Sasuke could move more, but he couldn't get his arms free as of yet and both Kyuubi and Naruto were trying to dig him out.
"Why are you doing this? Why help me when I'll just be competing against you for a bell?" Sasuke suddenly asked, cursing himself all the while for sounding so mean.
"Because," Naruto simple said as he keep digging into the hard earth with his bare hands. It didn't matter to him that the hard rocks with their jagged edges were cutting his hands and knuckle up to shreds; he was just concerned about getting the boy out of the ground. Besides, he had Kyuubi's help and with the fox's sharp claws to penetrate the earth without getting hurt like he was, the work was going much faster.
"That isn't an answer," the raven growled, smelling a strange, but familiar scent, coming from behind him. He couldn't figure out what the scent was and it was becoming irritating, because his stomach seemed to curl at the scent, telling his brain it was bad. It was making him aggravated.
"Well it is to me, so live with it," Naruto countered as he keep on digging. The rest of the time spent digging the Uchiha out of the ground was in silence. Which was actually not helping Sasuke's mood, since his mind was stuck on the fact that he couldn't do anything while being as he was and it took Naruto almost a whole hour just to dig his upper body out of the ground. However, once both of his arms were free, the Uchiha, with Naruto's help, was able to pull himself out of the ground the rest of the way.
"Thanks," Sasuke mumbled meekly as he brushed the dirt off of his clothes, not looking Naruto's way once he was free.
"You're welcome," the boy said cheerily, "that's what teammates are for anyways, and we help each other out when things are too difficult to do alone."
'When things are too difficult to do alone,' those words rang out through Sasuke's held along with what Kakashi had said about there being a meaning behind the test. It all suddenly fit together; the whole meaning behind the test was teamwork. That's what Kakashi had meant, the bells were just a distraction to break up and cause conflicted between the members of the team. Yet Naruto hadn't been fooled by the bells, since he was helping Sasuke, but did he actually know the meaning to the test himself and that was the only reason Naruto was helping him? Or was he just helping Sasuke out because he wanted to? He'd have to find out.
"Naruto, tell me truthfully, wh-" Sasuke was determined to extracted the answer from the blond, using force even if he just had a crush on the blond, but it didn't go as planned. Like so many other things that had happened to day. For once Sasuke turned around and looked towards the blond for the first time since he had freed him, which is when he caught sight of the dark red liquid running down the boy's hands. It finally clicked in his mind what that scent was and why his whole body reacted to it so violently. Grabbing Naruto's right hand, Sasuke pulled it towards his body to examine how badly the damage was done while reprimanding the blond. "What the hell? What did you do?"
"I was just digging you out, besides they don't hurt that bad-yoew," the end of the blond's sentence turned into a yelp of pain. Kyuubi hearing the yelp, started to rub up against Naruto's right leg and whine, trying to figure out what was wrong with the him.
"What was that? Doesn't hurt that badly you say?" Sasuke sneered as he continued to clean off the blood from the Naruto's hand with one of the alcohol saturated clothes his cousin always made him carry around in his shuriken holster. However, he wasn't complaining at the moment that Obito had always made him carry the cloth. Once he finished cleaning both hands with the cloth, Sasuke put the cloth back into his shuriken holster and came back out with a roll of bandages.
"Why are you helping me?" Naruto asked curiously after watching the boy who was supposed to be his Soul Mate clean his bloodied hands before he started to wrap them with bandages. The raven looked up at him with a glare before focusing back on his work. "I mean," Naruto continued ignoring the glare, "weren't you the one complaining about me helping you just awhile ago and now you're helping me. I really don't get that. So why help me?"
"Because you help me and I am repaying the favor, I don't like owing anyone anything," Sasuke told the boy as he finish wrapping one hand and started on another.
"I don't believe you," the blond stated, causing the raven to jerk slightly but quickly tried to hide that he just did so, "but I won't ask anymore." Sasuke sighed when he heard the rest of the blond's sentence and quickly finished wrapping the boy's other hand. Once done, the blond examined both hands and smiled at Sasuke, causing his heart to speed up. "Thank you for bandaging my hands."
"Hn," was the Uchiha's brilliant reply, though the slight blush accommodating it wasn't supposed to be showing. He watched as the Naruto, picked up Kyuubi and began walking away from him and for some strange reason unknown to him, Sasuke followed him.
Opening her eyes, Sakura looked around the clearing and wondering what happened to her groggily. Gradually, the girl started to remember that she had seen Sasuke die in front of her and was instantly wake. The cherry blossom tried to bolt up, but something was restraining her. Looking down, the genin say the reason why. She was tied to a stump and sitting on either side of her was her teammates, both unharmed saved for the bandages wrapped around Naruto's hands.
"I see you are finally awake Sakura," Sakura heard her silver haired sensei and looked forward to see him standing in front of her whist reading his orange book, "so let me begin. Though Sakura, you might want to thank Sasuke for carrying you all the way here."
"You carried me here, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked surprised with a faint blush on her cheeks at the very thought of her beloved Sasuke-kun carrying her here without have having been ordered to do so. To her it meant there was a big hope that Sasuke had fallen for her, though that was soon shattered when Kakashi continued on.
"Though he might not have if Naruto hadn't persuaded him to, so you might want to thank Naruto too," Kakashi said obvious to the fact that he just had crushed the girl's hope. "Anyways, as I was going to say, none of you are worth about being sent back to the academy."
"Does this mean all three of us…?" Sakura asked hopefully once again, not bothering to finish her sentence.
"…are hopeless and sending you back to the academy would be a waste of Iruka-sensei's time," Kakashi deadpanned, breaking all of their hopes. "You," the scarecrow declare pointing to Sakura, "were focusing all of your attention on to Sasuke, though you didn't know where he was. You," this time the jounin was pointing his finger at Sasuke, "decided to play solo and you," lastly pointing at Naruto who was currently playing with Kyuubi in his lap, "were no where to be found. Where were you anyways?"
"I was following you throughout the whole test," Naruto simply said as Kyuubi swatted at one of his injured hands and tried to bite it in a playful manor. The boy didn't even look up when he revealed to the jounin that he had been following him throughout the whole entire time and he didn't once notice him. Naruto just continued to look fondly down at his fox while he played with him. "Though when Sakura was knocked out by your genjutsu, I stayed behind to make sure she was alright. I also stayed behind to unburied Sasuke once you buried him. After that I enlisted Sasuke's help the get Sakura back here and by that time the alarm had already gone off."
"So you were helping your teammates," the scarecrow concluded, "but why? Why help them when you could have come after me and at least tired to pass the test?"
"Because, they both want to be genin more than I do. I've already taken and failed the genin exam three times and still managed to get here. Both Sasuke and Sakura had taken it once and wanted to be genin more than I do," Naruto explained never looking up from his fox that he had stopped playing with and was now petting gently. Naruto knew that teams were usually placed in three man cells for a reason and if one failed the whole team failed, but since his team was already not normal, having three jounin and the Hokage as their sensei, than maybe it wouldn't be that way. "Besides, genin or not, I'll always try my best and keep pushing myself forward. I don't need the title of genin to grow stronger, I just have to have a will to do so."
The group was silence for awhile, trying to digest what Naruto had told them. He was willing to give up his place as a genin for the others. Even after failing the genin exam three times running, he would still give it up for Sakura and Sasuke just because they wanted it more than he did. Maybe if it have been a valid reason, such as growing stronger to protect others, or invalid reason, such as just wanting to be on the same team as Sasuke, Naruto was willing to give that up his spot of being a genin for them.
Clearing his throat and gaining the others attention once again, Kakashi went on. "Well, since none of you actually looked underneath the underneath and found the real meaning to the test. You still all fail."
"Untrue, Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke spoke up for the first time, catching all of the others attention. "The meaning of this test was teamwork. I, however, didn't realize this until it was too late and it was only with Naruto's help, however unintentional it might have been that I figured it out."
"You're not as hopeless as I first thought," Kakashi complimented, "alright, I'll give you all one last chance, but one far more difficult than our last little game with the bells. If you're prepared to continue, you may each eat one of the bento boxes. But no sharing with Sakura. She goes hungry."
"Why?" Sakura asked, talking for her stomach that was growling and not with her head.
"My word is law," their sensei said in an evil way before disappearing.
Once Kakashi was gone, Sakura watched as the two boys in her team picked up a bento box each. Looking down, as to not let anyone see her face and how hungry she was, Sakura took her punishment in silence. She tried to ignore the rumbling of her stomach and the pang of hunger from not eating breakfast, but it wasn't working like she had hoped it would. Peeking up, Sakura saw Sasuke eat another bite of food and her stomach gave a rather noisy rumble.
The ropes, securing her body to the tree stump, suddenly fell away and an untouched bento box was thrust into her hands. "Here."
"Huh?" was Sakura's undignified reply as she looked up towards Naruto, who was the one that released her and had given her his bento box. "Bu-but Kakashi-sensei told us not to…"
"It's okay," Naruto reassured the girl, "he's probably miles away by now. We need all of our strength if we are to work together and get those bells. You don't want to be a liability, now do you?"
"No, but what about you?" the kunoichi asked the blond, wondering about him.
"It's okay; I've gone without food for longer than a day, I can live without it for now. You need the food more than me," Naruto reassured the girl before he sat down and played with his fox once again. Looking at the food and looking back towards Naruto, Sakura hesitated before picking up the chopsticks and taking a bite.
As soon as Sakura swallowed her first bite of food, a small explosion of sorts went off in front of them. Kakashi came out from the middle of the explosion soon after in went off looking angry.
"YOU!" their sensei screamed coming towards them, "PASS!"
"Hunh?!" the three all looked confused
"A true shinobi seeks for the truth underneath the underneath," Kakashi explained to his flabbergast students, "in a shinobi's world, those who violate the rules and fail to follow orders are lower than trash. However, those who do not care for and support their teammates are even lower than that. This exercise is now conclude, you all pass. That's all for today, Team Seven, your duties will continue tomorrow. Until then, have a nice day."
I know this isn't a really good chapter and it hasn't been beta-ed, but that's because, yet again, I have lost another beta. It seems I go through more betas than anyone else and I really don't understand it. I don't bug them about editing my story, unless it has been more than two weeks since I've heard from them, and even them I'm understanding if they can't get to it for awhile. I just don't understand, but it looks like I need another beta and I'm asking once again for one if anyone would please help me, I would very much be thankful for it.
And again, I have to thank everyone for their reviews on the last chapter.
Shi no Tenshi 902