Well, Yori never claimed to be perfect. She never had. No matter how much those piercing Uchiha eyes accused her. She had never claimed that her plan was perfect- nor had she ever said that it would work out well for them. No, she had simply made an educated guess- a hypothesis!- that perhaps, maybe, if they set traps and ate before the 'survival training' things might work out better for them.
It would almost always be futile of course- Genin against Jounin; preposterous!- but she didn't get why the Uchiha had to look at her like it was all her fault their Jounin Sensei was seemingly always a step ahead. She was almost ready to snap at him- their cover underneath inconspicuous shrubbery be darned!
"Yori! Why are we hiding, just let me take him, I can-"
"You can what?"
Yori barely resisted screaming. Crouching right behind Naruto was their perverted, chronologically late Sensei. His bright orange book of porn perched delicately on his hand, in front of his face. Sasuke, like her, managed to hold it together- and although he had gone taunt as a bow string, he was not panicking. As for Naruto, well unfortunately, the same could not be said. He had screeched and launched a handful of shuriken at their unexpected guest. Jumping out of their bush like a cat on fire, he spun and vaulted about looking for their now once again disappeared Sensei- the shurikens had only hit a log, not a pervert.
A shame.
Yori tsked.
Before she could say anything however, Naruto screamed louder than should be possible for a 12 year olds lung capacity. With a great crash and a sucking 'fwoom'- the sound of all the oxygen in the nearby air being set aflame- Naruto disappeared in a pit of ninja wire and fire. Yori rested her head in her hands. She would be worried if it weren't for the fact that none of their traps were really lethal. Well, lethal to Naruto.
She shot a glare and muttered darkly in response to Sasuke's disgusted 'Dobe'. Seriously she knew for a fact that that trap was made by Sasuke- ninja wire and fire, please- and she also knew that he had not informed them the specifics of any of the traps he had made. He had only revealed the locations- words that were painfully extracted- and that was because they were hard to keep secret.
Honestly she would have to beat it into his skull the meaning of the word teamwork. Sighing Yori had to admit- even though she loved Naruto like no other- knowing what the trap did and its location would probably have not helped him avoid it. He was ridiculous and single minded.
"Wheeeew, look-it that" Their Sensei whistled, now he was right above them on a conveniently placed branch. Sighing again, Yori went to grab Sasuke, they needed to reconvene and regroup. They needed to make a new plan; not that they had ever really had one in the first place.
Yori grasped air and growled when she looked over to see emptiness where there was once a scowly Uchiha. She barely glanced up in time to see Kakashi dodge a punch and shuriken. Still looking at his book, he missed the explosive tag attached to one of the weapons. Yori admitted to being impressed when her vision of the fight was obscured by smoke. When it cleared though, a doubtful looking Sasuke was all she saw.
Even though it was impressive for a Genin, it was still Genin- perhaps it could have thwarted Chunin, but Kakashi was a retired Anbu captain. As she was contemplating this, she felt something- someone- grab her ankles.
Oh. Crap.
Of course.
She'd spent too much time lollygagging. Now up to her neck in dirt, Yori watched as her new Sensei floated out of the ground, that infernal book still clasped in his hand. Not a scratch on him. Damn. Now what?
Looking toward Sasuke, she realized that the chances of him being any help at all, whatsoever, was almost nilch. Indeed, with her watching he started attacking their Sensei.
The Sensei still standing next to her head.
That bastard!
Not sure herself whom she was referring to- her teammate or her teacher, as both qualified- she fought not to close her eyes and flinch in the face of flaming projectiles; all of which her new Sensei dodged and left to land where they may. As far as she was concerned they were both being rather irksome. As Sasuke launched himself from his perch- the very same conveniently placed branch their teacher had occupied- she felt one of his flaming projectiles slice through her cheek.
Damn. Now a burn and a scratch. Keeping her eyes on the squabble before her, because a battle it was not- Sasuke was clearly out classed- Yori felt blood flow down her cheek. Head wounds of any kind were particularly annoying for the sheer amount of blood that accompanied.
As Sasuke set up a block against Kakashi's punch, the Jounin disappeared. She knew it was a ninja thing but it was honestly getting very old, very fast. Sasuke, the impulsive moron he is, after figuring that their Sensei was nowhere to be found, decided to set everything on fire. She watched as he did the required seals, and for this she clenched one eye and attempted to turn away. Had the moron completely forgotten that she was right there?!
Excuse her language, but not really!
Thankfully for her- not so much for the irritating idiot- Kakashi caught hold of Sasuke's ankles- and down, down, down he went! A sense of vindictive pleasure went through Yori as she saw her pompous teammate meet the same fate as herself. Mayhap he would learn some empathy. Their Sensei once again seemed to float up out of the ground around him, not a speck on him in spite of his submersion.
He then promptly disappeared. Again. The silence that followed could have been comical if it wasn't so inconvenient.
"Well." Yori said. Sasuke, ignoring her existence, just squirmed his head.
"Ignoring me isn't going to get you out of your hole. Now, what we need to do is figure a way out, then before noon, acquire the bells together. Together, as in teamwork. Now, how we will decide who gets the two bells is useless if we don't even have any to begin with. After we free ourselves we can reunite with Naruto, and then we might stand a chance together. If you had not learned your lesson already that we stand no chance individually." She pointedly examined him, the ground around him and all, to be sure he understood what she was referring to. He only ignored her more fiercely, but seeing as there was no way he could avoid hearing her, she had his full attention.
"Now while you were throwing sharp implements at your teammates, I was wiggling my way into an idea to get out of these things."
"As far as I've been able to tell there is little dirt covering our shoulders as we still have our heads, thankfully. Now… If we.. Can ju..st … Ah-ha!" Shoving up with as much force as she was able, Yori managed to release one shoulder from the dirt. Looking up in excitement, she saw Sasuke now looking over with interest. Feeling her pride surge at the attention as well as the success, she worked harder to get her other shoulder out.
Now both shoulders free, Yori faced the problem of getting the rest out. Wiggling her body left and right- looking like a fool she paid no mind to- as she worked her butt off trying to loosen the dirt around her. If she could just release one hand… Yori was almost down her torso now, and she was getting more frantic as she got closer and closer to releasing a hand. Just a hand, just one would be enough- she was filthy and was cratering the earth around her, it was in this situation, Sasuke also having finally released his shoulders, Naruto found them.
"Damn pervert, I'll show him, then he'll be beggin me for forgivene- Yori?!" Immediately, because Naruto was the most amazing thing to ever happen to this team- to the Village- he began to help dig her out. His mouth was also going mile a minute as he did,
"YORI! That damn Old Man! We'll get him, Yori! Shit, look what he did to you- your face! That asshole! God damnit!" Seeing as it hadn't taken long at all to get one of her hands out, then her other, Naruto used one of his to gently wipe at the blood on her face. Being careful that his dirt encrusted skin never made direct contact with her wound.
Thankfully the flow had ebbed but she was absolutely filthy. The side of her face- cheekbone down to her neck was absolutely coated in her own sticky smelly blood. Finding it best that he not know the true perpetrator of that particular scratch, she smiled- more like winced- and grabbed the hand touching her face. Holding it cupped to her cheek.
"Yeah, we'll get him won't we? We have to show him we're better than they think- and that we definitely will not be going back to the academy." Unsaid- for her at least- was the fact that no Hokage of hers was going back to the academy after finally becoming a genin- not on her watch. Looking into steely determined blue, Yori almost got lost. Naruto needed to stop with the perfection that was his cerulean eyeballs. No, looking over she saw a somewhat squeamish Sasuke. Not guilty- because heaven forbid an Uchiha do anything worthy or deserving of guilt!- but certainly he was showing subtle signs of remorse.
It was in his stock still form- no longer flopping like a fish to get out of the dirt. He also refused to look their way, instead pretending to examine the beautiful nature around them. Yori huffed in amusement.
"You too, Sasuke. We're all going to show that pedophilic dummy that we're more than just any old Genin." She pushed to get the rest of her body out of the hole, Naruto assisting by pulling up under her arms- when the dirt finally gave and she was released, the combined forces of her and Naruto sent the both of them backwards in a heap. Pushing herself up off of Naruto's sweaty form, Yori crawled the short distance over to Sasuke. She ignored Naruto- who was still on his back.
Scooping handfuls of dirt up, Yori focused on releasing first his right hand, as then they could both get at his left. When finally he was uncovered to his hips, Yori, -Naruto as well, as he seemed to get over whatever had kept him- pulled while Sasuke pushed. With one great heave, he was freed. Unlike Yori however, he managed to retain his dignity and not fall forward- how he managed not to loose his pants would forever baffle her- while she and Naruto both fell back onto their bums and into each other.
Shoulder pressed firmly against Naruto's, Yori grabbed Sasuke's wrist, interrupting his- useless- efforts to brush the dirt from his person, and pulled him down so that they made a little circle. Sasuke, who while not touching Naruto was still pretty close, looked put out when she beckoned him in closer. Now, formed into a tight circle, Yori looked the both of them in the eye in turn, then said,
"Alright, now here's my plan; give me your input as we go please."
Disclaimer- don't own recognizable things
AN- Well hell. Wonder how I'm gonna pull that next chapter out of my butt. I might just wimp and do a time skip. Straight to the D-rank Tora the cat mission I'm thinkin