Chapter 10 hit 1000 even faster than Chapter 9, less than 6 hours this time. I don't expect this one to match a Friday afternoon posting like the previous two chapters but I have been on a roll with this while Will Born in Fire hits a major writer's block. Its loss is this story's gain
Rage of the Uchiha
Naruto was very quiet once the team left the Hokage's office. His mind went back to the last time he had seen Sasuke; the day he had failed the genin exam. Sasuke had just sneered at him and walked past muttering, "Loser" He had tried to make himself the rival of Sasuke back then but no matter what he did, the Uchiha had a counter for it. It never looked like Sasuke was even trying very hard either. He would leave Naruto lying in the dirt and go back to his trying to do some fancy move.
Sakura noticed Naruto's funk right away and knew why. She had been such a shallow girl back then. No matter what happened she would take Sasuke's side and degrade Naruto after a failure. With how she taunted the blonde, she was surprised he still had always tried to impress her and treat her well.
Sakura quietly spoke up when the team got to a training field. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I was such a bitch to you back in the Academy. You didn't deserve anything I said to you then."
Naruto smiled weakly to his friend. "Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan. I forgave all of that a long time ago. You're not the same immature person you were then. We both learned from our mistakes and are better than we were then."
"Then how about tomorrow we show that primadonna just how much better we are when we pull that stick out of his butt and beat him with it." Sakura said with an evil grin.
Naruto was shocked to hear Sakura talk like that but his smile was one of the most honest and grateful Sakura had ever seen on his face.
Kakashi looked at his team, "Why don't we skip practice today? Be here in the morning at 7:30. The Hokage told Sasuke to be there at 8:00 for his tryout."
Sakura and Naruto both nodded. He turned to leave when Sakura called after him, "Naruto? Do you want to grab something to eat and discuss what we are going to do tomorrow?"
"Sure," Naruto said with a grin.
A few minutes before 8:00 the next morning, Uchiha Sasuke was grumbling as he entered the training field. 'I hope this team is not as much of a pack of losers as the last team,' he thought as he looked around. 'No one here. Someone should at least be waiting for me to arrive.'
In the trees that bordered the training field, five eyes watched him closely. The three people using those eyes were not even well hidden but they were still unnoticed. "His awareness is terrible," Sakura commented. "Even Naruto could have spotted us by now."
Naruto looked over at her and she smiled and stuck her tongue out at him. Naruto smiled back. He knew she was kidding and her comment held no malice.
Kakashi spoke up, "Let's get this test going, shall we?"
He pulled out a kunai with an explosive tag attached and hurled it at the unsuspecting Uchiha.
Sasuke noticed some movement in the trees and focused on a kunai speeding at him. He jumped off to one side and looked back to see the tag explode.
He was shoved from behind. "Remedial Lesson #1. Don't watch a tag explode. Look for the person who threw it," a muffled girl's voice said as he whirled around and drew a kunai. He only saw a glimpse of a leg as the person moved around behind him again. On the ground was another explosive note. He jumped backwards only to take a kick to the spine as he landed. The blow made him drop his kunai.
"Remedial Lesson #2. Never move without looking if you don't know what is there when you are going to land," a boy's voice spoke.
Sasuke was getting angry and spun to see a glimpse of blonde hair vanish into the trees.
He growled at being attacked like this and his hands began flashing through signs and ended with the Tiger. "Katon: Gou … argh!!!" Pain lashed through his thigh as something hard rammed into it which gave him a charley horse and collapsed his leg. "Remedial Lesson #3. Never stand still in the middle of a battle and cast an obvious jutsu."
Sasuke rolled back to his feet to see the pink haired Sakura standing there with her arms crossed and his dropped kunai in her hand. Her smirk was an obvious copy of his from the Academy. He was about to lunge forward when a kunai pressed against his neck. A voice behind him said in his ear, "Remedial Lesson #4. When opponents are equal, proper teamwork will always trump individual effort. You're dead."
"That's enough Naruto. I think the point was made," Kakashi said. The jonin noticed the sneer on Sasuke's face. "At least I hope the point was made."
Naruto stepped back out of arm's reach from Sasuke and put his kunai away. The blonde then circled around to Kakashi. Sakura moved from the other side. The entire time they moved they never took their eyes off Sasuke or moved close enough for a quick attack from him.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the trio before him. "You mean I am going to have two Academy failures and the jonin who failed my first team as my new team?"
Kakashi smiled at the arrogant boy, "Actually, we are going to be testing you to see if you're good enough to be joining THEIR team."
Sasuke sneered. "I doubt these losers could keep up with me."
Naruto chuckled, "Why would we want to go backwards? You're the one who needs to catch up to us if you want to be on our team, Sasuke."
"Anytime, anywhere, Naruto. The only way you have a chance against me is a sneak attack like you just made," Sasuke growled.
Kakashi held up his hand. "No fighting between you without my permission. There will always be a third person to judge or be able to get help. Is that understood, Sasuke?"
Sasuke just crossed his arms and grunted, "Hn"
Kakashi stepped closer to Sasuke, "I asked, Is. That. Understood. Sasuke?"
Sasuke glared. "Yes," he finally said after some thirty seconds passed.
Kakashi nodded, "Since you are being evaluated, we can move right into the daily exercises."
Sakura and Naruto nodded and immediately took off jogging at a fast pace. Sasuke continued to stand there with his arms crossed. Kakashi looked at the dark haired boy, "Waiting for a personal invitation?"
The Uchiha glare had no effect on Kakashi so Sasuke finally started moving after the other two.
Naruto and Sakura led the jog on a winding course toward the training center they were very familiar with. Sasuke followed along and got slightly winded at the pace the pair set. Kakashi followed along behind Sasuke humming a happy tune. Once they reached the obstacle course, the pair stopped and waited for Sasuke and Kakashi.
There was a new class of Remedial trainees at the course. Naruto and Sakura both bowed respectfully to the healed Ito. Ito nodded his head in reply and walked over. "Come to keep in shape?"
Naruto smiled, "I come almost every day. I want the course record."
Sakura spoke up next, "We are evaluating a possible new teammate. We need to know what he can do so we know how much training he needs."
Sasuke came up puffing. Kakashi had stopped him and told him he couldn't use chakra to bolster his metabolism while running. Naruto and Sakura weren't. If he was using chakra while running, it was considered cheating during exercise. Ito looked over at Sasuke and commented, "Wasn't he rookie of the year for your class?"
Naruto gave a small nod.
"Wow, low standards up there in Elite for clan folk," Ito said. He looked back at his class who were just watching this. "Pushups!" he yelled at them. The entire class got down and began doing the pushups and counting off in synch.
Sasuke had caught his breath by now and grumbled, "What are we doing down here in the military ninja section?"
Sakura muttered, "How did I ever like this fool?" She turned to face Sasuke. "This is the next part of your evaluation. All military ninja have to complete this obstacle course to pass. Since you are so much 'better' than us, how about you do it to prove it?"
Ito understood what Naruto and Sakura were doing now. "Class, that's enough pushups. I want all of you to stand and observe how Uchiha Sasuke completes the advanced obstacle course."
Sasuke flushed red and looked over the course. He had no clue how to do this thing. They were doing this to intentionally humiliate him.
Sakura walked past Sasuke, "I'll go first and you can see how it's done." She started walking up the 20 ft. vertical wall to ring a bell then backed down at the same speed. Next, she walked across the water pool and lay on the platform on the far side before crawling across the water in a different direction under some bars. She came to a rope and took hold of it with her hands and lifted her legs out straight in front of her body. Then she climbed the rope like that using only her arms. Sakura rang a bell at the top of the rope before dropping to another platform. She descended down a series of two inch wide vertical poles by stepping on the top of each one. The descent could be jarring as each pole was three feet away and three feet lower than the previous one. Once on the ground, Sakura needed to jump and grasp a horizontal bar, do a single chin up and then drop until she had straight arms. Once there she needed to pull herself back up and hook a leg over the bar and get on top of it to stand and jump to another horizontal bar higher up and repeat the process four times up to the top of a tower. A rope descent over the water pool with her hands pulling and her ankles linked over the rope got her back to the ground. At the final obstacle she had to lift her feet and hang from a platform via chakra in her feet and do twenty vertical sit ups counting off each one. After finishing the final sit up she dropped to the ground and sprinted for a bell to signal completion.
Sasuke just stared like an idiot. How the hell did that FANGIRL manage to do all of that? She had not just walked across water; she had crawled across water and not gotten wet.
Sakura returned and got a high five from Naruto. Her time was a good fifteen seconds below the posted maximum allowed time and she had not even been pushing herself. "Nice time. Not close to my best but you never push to beat that," Naruto said with a smile. Sakura blushed lightly at the praise.
"Your turn, Sasuke," Sakura said smiling at the 'genius'.
Sasuke got an angry look on his face. "You're trying to embarrass me, aren't you?" he hissed.
Ito sent the class off to do laps so they would not hear what was going to come. He nodded to Kakashi and took off after his charges.
"No, they aren't," Kakashi said once the Remedial class had left. "They are showing you how much you need to do to catch up to them. Things you should have learned over the past six months under you jonin sensei but that you refused to do. You just were focusing on high ranked jutsu and fancy kunai tricks. I looked over his evaluation on your skills. You are behind even the most basic military side graduate right now. Your chakra levels have barely changed since the Academy. Your control is a bit better and that allows for your fire jutsu strength to increase and make you think you are getting stronger. But since you refuse to do the physical things that increase chakra, you are falling further and further behind your peers."
"But I need strong jutsu to beat my brother!" Sasuke yelled. "I need to activate my Sharingan and defeat him to avenge my family!"
"So, you want to be strong enough to beat an ANBU level ninja who killed an entire clan of Uchiha but you don't want to work hard at making yourself better? That is never going to happen, Sasuke. Eyes are only as good as the body they are a part of," Kakashi continued. "Your arrogance and superiority complex hold you back. You focus everything you have and everything you are on the pipe dream of killing your brother. The fact that you refuse to see is that you are not even on the same level he was at the age you are now. Now he is another five years older and another five years better and you still haven't matched his age 10 level. If you trained properly you might have. If you asked for help, you might have. Making your Fireball jutsu stronger will not defeat Itachi. Making fancy knife throwing tricks will not defeat Itachi. Blaming others or saying they are holding you back are excuses you're making, Sasuke. The only person holding back Uchiha Sasuke is Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke was red faced and growling at Kakashi now. The man had to be lying. "SHUT UP!!" he yelled. "You're trying to confuse me. You're just trying to hold me back like everyone else is."
"When I failed Team 7, I recommended that you get treatment for mental issues, Sasuke. Itachi did something to your head when he left. You were in a coma for a week after he killed your entire clan. Then you never took up a single offer for help. You never said what he did to you."
Sasuke was holding his head now as the words of Itachi were beginning to sound in his mind.
"You are not even worth killing. Foolish little brother, if you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me, and survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life. And one day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me."
"He said I need to have the same eyes he did, the highest level of Sharingan. When I had it I would be able to face him," Sasuke finally admitted. "Now you know why I need to get stronger. That is why I need strong jutsu and training!"
Naruto was barely keeping himself from jumping this supposed genius in front of him. "Strong jutsu is useless unless you have the basic skills to back them up," he said instead.
Sasuke turned to look at Naruto still red faced from yelling at Kakashi. He didn't have to take anything from the dead last. "Then fight me and I'll prove I have the skills to back it up!"
"Not yet," Naruto replied. "With Kakashi-sensei's permission, I want to ask you five questions that you have to answer truthfully and completely before I'll fight you."
Kakashi thought for a moment before nodding his agreement.
"Sakura saw the kunai throwing trick Kakashi-sensei mentioned. Why was he learning it and how long have you been trying to duplicate it?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke grumbled, "I don't know why he was learning it I figured it was a special attack. I just saw him doing it and I wanted to learn it to show I could be better than him. He was doing it before he killed the clan so close to five years now."
Kakashi's visible eyebrow went up. "Sasuke, didn't you realize that kunai trick had only 1 purpose? Itachi was assigned to obtain a document and the only way to disarm the traps without the master key was to stop them all at once. He took two months learning that one time use trick and eventually completed his mission."
Sasuke was in shock that his prized 'attack' had been nothing more than a way to disarm a trap. All of his training at his brother's 'special attack' was a meaningless waste of five years of effort. He glowered and looked at Naruto, "Four more questions."
"Do you know any non Academy jutsu not related to fire and if so, why not?"
"No, I don't. My team leader wouldn't show me any good ones."
Naruto was about to speak but Sakura motioned him to silence. "'Good' as in what level of jutsu was he showing you?"
Sasuke glared at Sakura but decided to answer anyhow, "Worthless D and E level jutsu. He said they were standard knowledge for military ninja. They were not worth my time."
Sakura shook her head, "I'll remember that if we are ever on a mission and your canteen runs dry or you have to ask for help to conceal a campsite."
Naruto spoke up again, "What other taijutsu styles have you tried to learn?
Sasuke sneered. "There is no style better than the Uchiha style. Once I unlock my Sharingan I will have it mastered," he said smugly.
"I think the Hyuuga would disagree but you both are entitled to your fantasies. Next question. Do you honestly believe you can defeat your brother once your eyes are developed when you cannot even reach the same rank he did?
Sasuke crossed his arms and glowered at Naruto again. "Once I have my eyes unlocked, nothing will be able to stop me. I just need people to stop holding me back."
Kakashi shook his head while Sakura muttered, "Arrogant much?"
"One more question, Naruto. Then I show you how far below me you still are," Sasuke said.
Naruto put on an exaggerated thinking pose for several seconds before snapping his fingers. "Got it. First we'll go out onto the sparring ground before I ask since you are likely going to attack once you answer."
The blonde led the way to the sparring fields nearby with Sasuke following closely behind. Kakashi and Sakura followed a little further back. Once Naruto had moved to the center of the area he smiled at Sasuke.
"Okay, final question. Are you aware that your hairstyle looks like a cockatiel's butt?" the blonde said with a grin.
Sasuke's face turned white before quickly turning red then purple as his rage grew. Kakashi took a couple of steps back from the teenage boys and motioned at Sakura to do the same.
Sasuke rushed at Naruto with a kunai drawn intent on killing the blonde for his disrespect. The blonde just stood with that stupid grin on his face even when the blade cut deep into his stomach. Sasuke frowned at how easy it was until Naruto turned into a leafy branch. Another kunai touched his shoulder. "Replacement technique. You're dead again Sasuke," said Naruto.
Sasuke swung his arm around and hit Naruto in the chest with his fist. Naruto grabbed Sasuke's wrist and held it as he slammed the metal plate on the back of his hand into Sasuke's elbow. The Uchiha grunted in pain as he lost feeling in his hand for a few seconds. His use of jutsu was gone for several minutes since his fingers on that hand had clenched into a fist.
The blonde punched Sasuke hard in the stomach. The dark haired Uchiha gasped until a fist knocked his head back with a slight bit of blood mixed into the flying spit. Sasuke swung back drunkenly but got a punch in the lower back as a counter. Sasuke grabbed onto Naruto's gray jacket to try to slow down the fight.
Naruto leapt back from Sasuke only for a moment before charging in again. Sasuke tried defending against Naruto but the blonde never gave the dark haired boy a chance to rest. Naruto made random blows and kicks in no particular style. Sasuke gave a better defense but his moves seemed delayed as if he were waiting for a clue to Naruto's attacks. The self taught Uchiha clan taijutsu was not working well for Sasuke without an active Sharingan to let him know where the blows were coming from.
"You fight the same way you did in the Academy, Sasuke. The only problem for you here is I'm not," Naruto commented as he attacked. "You're style needs something you do not have. If you are up against a style you don't know you will lose trying to use just your clan's style. Then you knew where and when an attack would come from since everyone has a single style to use. Different clan styles or Academy style didn't matter because you had seen them and knew how to counter them from practice."
Sasuke didn't respond but jumped away to flash his hands through hand signs ending with a Tiger, "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu (Grand Fireball)," he yelled. The fireball spread out over a good portion of the field in front of Sasuke. He blew for several more seconds before letting it fade. He stood looking around and not seeing anyone before hanging his head while panting.
A kunai tapped on his shoulder twice this time. "You really should not do that in a fight, Sasuke. People might think you were actually winning. Oh, and you're dead again," Naruto said.
"How did you avoid that?" Sasuke demanded as he kept panting.
"It was quite easy," Naruto said while shrugging his shoulders. "You telegraphed your move, shouted it at the top of your lungs and spent so much time posing afterward that you never noticed I had gotten around the fireball and behind you. While you were busy just working on your jutsu to make it a little bigger, I was working my butt off to get better. Everyday I was run into the ground and made to build up myself physically. Then I was forced to do chakra control exercises everyday. I grew to hate that obstacle course. I learned how to harness my energy which kept growing the stronger I got physically. I still suck at chakra control believe it or not."
Sasuke was tired and he needed a few more minutes to regain his chakra enough to fight some more so he played for time. "How can you suck at it? I'm exhausted and you're not even winded after all we have done."
Well, when it comes to chakra, if they gave leadership to whoever has the most you are looking at the person who would be leader. I have more of it than maybe 4 people in the history of the village. My control of it is one of the worst in history as well."
"How did you get so much chakra?" Sasuke demanded to know.
Naruto frown was the first the Uchiha had ever seen on the blonde. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you. I think its better that you don't know right now. This fight is over."
Naruto turned to leave when Sasuke yelled at him, "Don't you turn your back on me, Loser! I'm not done with you yet!"
Naruto glared back. "You lost the moment you came out here. You think that because you have a family name and a potential doujutsu that you're special? I looked up Uchiha stats in the open records, Sasuke. As Uchiha go, you're average and nothing special. Your brother was the prodigy, not you. You go on and on about your eyes this and your eyes that and taking everything that the village gives you like you deserve it because people treat you special."
The blonde pointed and a liquid sprayed into Sasuke's open eyes. The dark haired boy grabbed his face as he shouted in panic as they burned slightly. "That's how an enemy would react to your precious eyes, Sasuke. Just how special would you be without your eyes, Sasuke? That was just lemon juice but an enemy would be using acid. Maybe its time you opened your eyes instead of just using them as a crutch."
Naruto turned and began to walk away when Sasuke opened his eyes wide and went through his hand seals for his great fireball once more but was felled by a blow to the back of the head. Sasuke rolled to see Sakura standing there and lowering her foot.
"In spite of everything Sasuke, we are still willing to give you a chance. But you need to work for it. We can do great things as a team but only if we are all working together. Naruto's point however childish is that you need to stop acting like you are so special and better than everyone. Let go of your anger. Back at the introductions for Team 7, you said that you wanted to restart your clan and kill a certain man. There is no way you can accomplish either one on your own. You'll have to accept help sometime, Sasuke."
Sakura held out her hand to her former crush. He looked at her hand then looked away and climbed to his feet on his own. Sakura just shrugged and turned to walk after Naruto. She only paused to toss a bottle of water onto the ground at his feet. "So you can rinse the lemon juice out of your eyes. I already know you're not going to say thank you," she said as she continued walking.
Sasuke picked up the bottled water and tasted it before rinsing out his eyes. He glared after the departing pair and noticed Kakashi still standing there. "Are you going to do anything to them for that?" he asked.
"No, they were testing you Sasuke. You need to earn their trust. They had to rub you face in your own flaws before you would let yourself see those flaws. I will tell you this. Those two work extremely well as a team already. If anyone is going to make this team fail at anything within its capability, that person will be you.
The team met every morning for training for the next week. Each day they would try to show Sasuke things they had learned during their Remedial training but Sasuke kept up his arrogant airs. Inside, he raged at how Naruto and Sakura had gotten past him in skill but he knew he had to listen and learn to get back in front of them. His pride would not let him stay weaker than anyone.
He quickly got the step by step method to tree climbing and within a day had nearly mastered it. Water walking took an additional two days. Water crawling was taking a lot longer. Kakashi even participated in the training exercises to build up a sense of oneness but Sasuke resisted it. He could not let go of his anger after so many years. It was all that he had left. It had become his existence.
The Sand village was concerned about the condition of the Kazekage's son. They had requested that the comatose boy be moved to the Sand village will all speed but Sarutobi prevented it from happening. Both Gaara and Yamanaka Ino went into seizures when the boy was approximately 200 yards away from the girl. Hyuuga Hiashi discovered a thread thin string of chakra between the pair. Somehow, the girl's mind was trapped within Gaara's mind but they were now linked by it. If they were moved too far apart, both would die. The Sand village reluctantly agreed the boy would remain in Konoha for now.
After the week of training, the team was sent on a relatively easy C rank to deal with reports of some bandits in the north of the Fire Country. 'At least there are really bandits this time,' Sasuke thought. Kakashi was all business from the moment they left the village. He treated them all like professionals and not students. Sasuke actually thought that was an improvement over the previous jonin. He was even surprised at the actions of Sakura and Naruto being very competent in the field. They had pulled out head cloths they tucked under their headbands to hide their brightly colored hair. They kept trying to get Sasuke to try pulling his weight on the mission but he either did not know the things they did or did not try to do them. The teamwork was not there.
The camp was much larger than they had anticipated. It appeared several smaller groups had come together under a single leader. The camp was too big for a single team of near chunin to take out. They would have to scout for information and report back to the Hokage. Kakashi pointed out sentry posts surrounding the camp to the teens. The posts were manned in pairs and within sight and sound range of each other. The organization was better than Kakashi expected for mere bandits
Kakashi had proposed an ambush of a scouting party of bandits to get information on the main camp. The team agreed and sat in wait for some of the bandits. Hours passed and Sasuke was getting more and more impatient. Kakashi had long experience at waiting. Naruto and Sakura had learned the self discipline needed to wait during Remedial. Close to sunset a small group of five bandits was spotted heading for the campsite. Kakashi signaled to the others that they would go for a quiet ambush.
The path through the trees was almost a road due to repeated traffic so the bandits were not paying much attention to their surroundings. Kakashi appeared silently behind the rear guard and vanished with him. The next one was a larger man so Naruto dropped down behind him and chopped his neck just like his training taught him. The only sound was the slight scuff of dirt underfoot. Sakura took the next one slightly better than Naruto did.
Sasuke growled under his breath. Two left and Kakashi signaled he would get the one in front. Sasuke knew he could get them both. He dropped down behind the back one and chopped him better than Sakura or Naruto had done but instead of catching the man, he allowed him to fall to the ground and moved on the remaining bandit. The unconscious one fell to the ground with a loud clang of weapons and alerted the remaining bandit.
The man was no coward but looking back and finding his comrades gone and a teenager wearing a ninja headband running at you was a frightening thing. He screamed loud and shrill, much like a 5 year old girl who spotted a bug. Sasuke knocked him out but the damage had been done. In the distance they could hear shouts of alarm as the sentries for the main camp heard the scream.
Kakashi cursed and signaled to the team they were leaving. Naruto and Sakura complied. They picked up their captives and took to the trees. Kakashi glared at Sasuke and pointed at one of the fallen men. Sasuke grumbled as he picked up the bandit and leapt into the trees. Kakashi performed the headhunter jutsu on the man in the path except no trace of the bandit remained above ground.
Pakkun; Kakashi's favorite hound summon; watched from concealment as the bandits arrived a few minutes later. One pointed at the tracks in the dirt and a conference ensued. One bandit left and returned in fifteen minutes with a man in a gray camouflage outfit and a ninja headband. The pug watched as the ninja performed a jutsu and the body of the bandit was pushed out of the ground. It was too dark for Pakkun to see the symbol on the headband but he could tell it was not slashed like a missing nin's would be. Pakkun returned to his summoning point in to wait for Kakashi to bring him back to this plane to report his findings.
The quartet of ninja moved silently through the trees with their burdens. After they had gone a good distance, they stopped to discuss their next move. Kakashi kept quiet as Naruto and Sakura checked the bonds of their captives. Sasuke had merely dumped his on the ground and left him. Kakashi was on the point of anger now but he kept his cool. He was glad that his mask hid his expressions as well as his appearance.
"Sasuke, check your prisoner's condition and bindings," Kakashi ordered in a low voice. Sasuke had a look like he was being inconvenienced but did as he was told. Once he was finished, Kakashi motioned the team together for a conference.
"We need to report back to the Hokage. That camp was much better organized than any bandit camp I have seen since just after the last war," Kakashi told them.
"We could have taken them out," Sasuke said. "We're ninja and those were just bandits."
Kakashi glared. "Sasuke, the next time you open your mouth had better be in response to a question you were asked or to report some information. Your opinion shows how much more you have to learn. If all three of you were jonin or ANBU I might consider something against that camp but you're not. A direct assault by this team on that camp would lead to all of us dead and some of the bandits dead."
Naruto and Sakura could feel the cold fury in Kakashi's voice. Both had been told by Cat that Kakashi was a former captain in ANBU and now neither one doubted that information. The Captain was in full force here and both were glad his anger was not directed at them.
Sasuke was shocked to hear Kakashi talk like that. It was not just the fact that Kakashi felt he was wrong but that the leader made it sound like he was speaking down to a child. Sasuke's pride was taking a pounding.
The jonin nicked his finger on a hidden point and rubbed blood on his palm. He made hand signs and summoned Pakkun.
"Yo," said the small dog.
"What did you see, Pakkun?" Kakashi asked.
"Those bandits are well organized. I counted over 100 separate scents. There is at least one high level ninja in that camp but he didn't look like the boss. He found the body you buried and pulled it out. That takes a high level earth technique to accomplish. He had on a headband but I couldn't see what village. He wasn't a missing nin, Kakashi."
Kakashi nodded then ordered the team to take up the captives. They would go back to Konoha and let T&I deal with the captives. The mission had just gone bad and was far past C rank parameters.
Sarutobi was told by one of his guards that his private team had returned early. He looked out his window to see them walking up to the Tower. He took in their body language from a distance and even he could see that team would not work out like he had wished.
Sakura and Naruto were walking on the opposite side of Kakashi from Sasuke. The Uchiha had a look of disgust and arrogance on his face while Kakashi actually looked angry. Something bad had to have happened to pull that off. He would have to reshuffle some of the Elite teams after the Chunin Exam finals anyhow. If they held together until then, it would help but somehow he doubted it would happen. He would move his next option onto the team and see if a more laid back boy would fit in better.
The Uchiha boy had unbalanced every team he had been with so far. Maybe he should just apprentice the boy to someone who would beat the arrogance out of him.
Kakashi stood in front of the Hokage making his initial report as the team stood behind him.
"We came upon the bandit camp and it was obviously too well organized to be just bandits. We waited and took a patrol captive and brought most of them back with us. I was forced to kill one but a ninja with the bandits discovered the hidden body," Kakashi said.
Sarutobi stroked his thin beard. This was bad. Jiraiya had come back to town as well with dire information about the new Sound village in Rice Fields Country. He stood and went to a map of the region and pulled it out. Visual references might be more useful right now. He unrolled it on the desk and looked it over. The Hokage pointed at a spot on the map. "You place that camp somewhere about here?" he asked.
Kakashi looked it over. "That is about right, Hokage-sama."
Sarutobi noted the point he was holding his finger at was about halfway between the village and the border with the Rice Field Country to the north. He frowned that his dreams of lasting peace might be coming to an end.
Next Chapter: The Sound of Snakes
End Notes:
I know a few people are going to want to write how OOC Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi are during this. Picture a jock in high school who was the king of the school, popular, good at sports and teenage girl crush object. Now have two of the people he lorded over in high school join the military and go through basic and come back after and see that the guy who was king is still at the same level he was then, doing the same things and hanging out with a similar crowd and thinks he is still better than everyone else after turning down a sports scholarship. Honestly, anyone who has been through military training and come back to see their old high school jock buddies might feel a similar disgust to what Sakura and Naruto are feeling towards Sasuke in this chapter.
As far as Kakashi, he had it told to him flat out by his boss he was a screw up and then proceeded to 'rip him a new one'. Kakashi took that and it made him see how far he had let himself fall over the years. He is trying to bring himself back and while the team is not ANBU they are no longer just raw genin needing a jonin to teach them everything. Kakashi is able to work closer to his comfort zone that way. Later adventures in canon do show he is an effective field leader but says little about his teaching skills
Review Notes:
The whole Team 8 in the hospital subplot will be addressed soon. I was surprised to see so few comments on the threat to Hinata or sympathy for Ino
Yes, I got rid of Gaara temporarily. Jiraiya will be appearing next chapter and deal with the sleeping pair. Sand will need to explain a few things and Konoha will not like the answers.
To use the Matrix, There is no Sai. Sai / Gashi is not available for now.
I really did want to have Sasuke pounded into the ground but that would have doomed any chance for teamwork right away. I honestly have not addressed his post arc future.
On a Personal Note:
My inner geek was having a giggle fit all weekend (yes, inner geeks are allowed to giggle). jgktarel messaged me to tell me that I have gotten noticed by the Viridian Dreams Forum and they started a thread about MY stories. Viridian Dreams was started by S'tarKan, writer of 'Team 8' and people posting there felt I was worthy of discussion.
I hope I stay worthy
Stats at posting Chapter 11
Words = 45,316
Hits = 62.939 (it passed Lost Ninja)
Reviews = 369
C2's = 84
Alerts = 662
Favs = 510
Chapter 11 posted 6/02/09
