Note: Don't get all excited about this update. I know it's a small one, and I'm sorry, but I ran into a bit of a problem that it took me a while to figure out how to deal with.
That problem is that I screwed up when writing the Hyuga clan. I know this, and I thank those of you who brought the error to my attention. Next chapter should reveal my method of damage control on that score, but even if it falls a little bit short of making perfect sense, I ask you to cut me a little slack on it.
I suck at rewriting, and it took me a whole bunch of false starts to just say "Screw it, I'll try to fix it in future" rather than rewriting the last couple of chapters.
Now, with that explanation out of the way, enjoy this small chapter, and I hope it leads to more new chapters for this story.
Don't forget to R&R!
Chapter 10: The Plans Proceed.
Sasuke staggered slightly as he made his way down the street, wondering precisely why so many people had decided to get in the way of his goals recently. It was true that he had slowly begun to master the Chidori, but he'd been randomly attacked by three people in the past two days, and hadn't been able to learn any techniques that he was capable of using from any of them.
What was worse, somehow he'd managed to be defeated by Shikamaru and Choji, the later of which caused his eyebrow to twitch just through the remembrance of being run over like a squirrel in front of a supply cart. Putting one leg down wrongly and wincing as it reminded him that it had been heavily bruised in his last fight, the last loyal Uchiha had to wonder if something, somewhere was telling him something.
Coming to a stop in front of a small restaurant, white cloth hangings over the door, he stared in to see that the place was mostly empty, save for a couple chatting at the corner of the bar. He stared in for a moment, before reluctantly stepping past the hangings and up to the counter.
"Hello, welcome to Ichiraku, is there something I can get you?" A brown haired girl, only a few years older than the Uchiha, asked cheerfully from behind the counter.
"Ramen," he ordered, deadpan, sitting on one of the stools and staring at his hands.
The woman looked down at him, about to ask what kind of ramen he wanted, but decided against it as she noticed his disconcerting, black eyed stare. "Right, ramen," she nodded, turning to prepare some plain noodles.
Sasuke ignored her, continuing to stare and think. He'd been beaten, twice in the span of two days. Granted, his Chakra was much weaker than he was used to due to the seal, and he'd been training hard to master his new technique, but the first challenger had been just plain better than he was, not that surprising given his age. That hadn't really been what bothered him, though. He was relatively confident that he could beat both Choji and Shikamaru, even at the same time, but the two had attacked in coordination, and by surprise, never letting him recover from his off balance state at the beginning of the fight and constantly bombarding him.
He would like to say that it was an unfair, cheep shot, but he was a ninja, and like all ninja he'd had most of that beaten out of him at the academy. While recovering from his second fight, a thought had struck him. He'd thought that he could train, and eventually get good enough to defeat his brother in a battle, to avenge his clan, but…
"Who says he has to fight fair?" He muttered, causing the brown haired woman to twitch a little, as she set a bowl down in front of the boy. Taking his chopsticks and bringing some of the noodles to his mouth, his eyes widened. That, of course, meant that he really had no obligation to fight fairly either, though the thought of not taking his vengeance in a one on one fight left a bitter taste in his mouth. He would have to think more about this, and hunt down the old man who had fought him the first day, as well.
For one thing, he would still likely be a good source for techniques, and for another the last loyal Uchiha would rather not go and deal with his two current 'team mates' while he was as banged up as he was.
HR.
'No, that one won't work very well either,' Ranma thought, as she observed Sakura, who was running along the side of the training field as quickly as she could.
'What won't work?" The pink haired girl thought, rather thankful that she didn't have to open her mouth and screw up her breathing to talk to Ranma. 'And can I stop now?'
'It's not important, and no, another five laps,' The redhead ordered, letting her hands flow through several hand seals and recalling what the end result was supposed to be, before shaking her head.
'I think she's going to die,' Kura-chan contributed, worriedly, from where she was sitting and watching Ranma's hand seal practice as well as Sakura's endurance practice.
'She'll faint first,' the redhead disagreed. 'And that shouldn't be for another hour or so.'
'You know, you're such a caring person,' Kura-chan drawled, and Ranma rolled her eyes.
'Look, she'll be fine,' the nominally older girl disagreed just as the Kunoichi missed a turn, smashing into a tree at the edge of the clearing. 'Okay, so maybe I was wrong,' she conceded, beginning to channel chi into Sakura to help her recover.
"That's great," the pink haired girl panted audibly, "I smash myself into a tree and she agrees to help."
'Y'know, ya coulda just asked to stop,' Ranma rebuked, causing Sakura's eyebrow to twitch.
Across the field, TenTen and Neji sat on a bench, observing the Haruno girl. "She's as nuts as Lee," The weapon user proclaimed, sighing and tossing a short blade into the air, only to catch it on the rebound just before it went through Neji's kneecap.
"Hn," he muttered, staring across the field, and the girl shook her head.
"You've been staring at her all day," she noted. "Is there something wrong?"
The Hyuga just shook his head and stood, shading his eyes. He narrowed them, noting that Sakura had picked herself back up and was jogging towards them, looking annoyed for some reason. Unfortunately, ever since he had reported his findings to the clan elder, the Hyuga branch house member hadn't seen any evidence of the tremendous, gentle fist based fighting ability that the girl had shown in her battle with Gai-Sensei. It was almost as though she knew he'd seen her, and was hiding her skill for some reason.
"Look, Neji," TenTen said with a grin as she saw where her team mate's eyes were focused, "If you want to ask her, just do it." Much to the weapon user's surprise, the boy looked at her oddly for a moment, and then nodded.
TenTen was right, Neji decided, even if he had no idea how she'd figured out what he was doing. He would find out during the battle what was going on. Stepping forward, he began across the field to the still jogging Sakura, and TenTen slowly got up behind him, gaping.
"I was… joking?" the black haired girl asked, as the Hyuga boy walked off.
HR.
"I see," Kakashi mumbled, looking over a file in his hand and frowning. It was a testament to how much paperwork he'd acquired that he had taken this long to find out about something this important, and now he really wished that it had stayed buried under the shop owners' association's requests to tear down a training center because it was obstructing access to a side street.
Putting the file down, the face of a female ninja could be seen on the front page, her forehead protector baring a scratched out symbol of the village hidden in the sound. "Can we verify any of this information?" He asked, calmly.
The ANBU before him shook his head. "Other than easily found details on the suddenness of the Sound's formation, nothing truly leaps out at me as obviously verifiable." He looked down at a few papers he was holding in his hand, and continued. "Apparently, a Genin by the name of Kiba Inuzuka identifies that a leaf ninja named Kabuto tried to take the woman's life after she defected, and these reports claim that he is one of Orochimaru's closest allies."
Kakashi nodded, though he was in a bit of a bind at the moment. The woman was possibly a gold mine of information, or a traitor trying to infiltrate the leaf village. There were large problems with the second idea, such as how she would be compromising the Sound's integrity in order to become a spy for them, but it was still a possibility. "She leaves the hospital in two days, correct?" The interim Hokage asked, looking down at the file. At the ANBU's nod, he sighed. "Assign her an apartment, and inform her that she is strictly Prohibited from entering any training facilities or military assets," he decided. "Also, ensure that there is a guard put on her at all times."
The ANBU looked uncomfortable, and Kakashi noticed. "Is there a problem?" He asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"No, sir," the man responded quickly, before vanishing. Kakashi sighed, wondering precisely what else could go wrong.
HR.
"You what?" Sakura asked, surprised, as Neji stood in front of her, giving less evidence that he could possibly be joking than usual.
"I want to challenge you to a fight," Neji repeated himself. "To test my skill against yours."
"Yeah, that's what I thought you said," Sakura muttered, before looking from the boy to the girl standing behind him and back, noting that TenTen was looking at the both of them with a look of dumb shock on her face.
'Well,' Ranma chipped in. 'I doubt you'd really have a chance to beat him, but if it's just a harmless spar, we could learn some of his moves and see how far you've come.'
"What do you mean I don't have a chance to beat him?" Sakura burst out, and seeing the other two looking at her strangely, she laughed. "I mean," her head drooped. "Never mind."
Neji seemed to shrug off this odd outburst, and continued. "Do you accept?"
"I guess it won't hurt anything," Sakura decided. "I really don't think we should do it now, though," she noted, as her body reminded her through almost falling over that she'd spent the last hour and a half running laps.
"Tomorrow," Neji agreed. "There's a training arena at the Hyuga compound."
Sakura nodded, before turning to head for the benches at the side of the training ground, and her lunch. As she drifted out of earshot, TenTen walked up and slapped Neji on the shoulder. "You've really got to work on how you flirt with girls," she noted.
HR.
"Hey, so then I said, 'I'm a famous Ninja,' 'n she just tossed my drink in my face and told me ta get lost! Can you believe that? No respect sometimes, I swear!" Sasuke sighed, as he looked into the bar, noting the person he'd been searching for sitting on a stool, and speaking loudly while waving a mug around. He also had a sketch pad in front of him, and was jotting a few things down in it as he stared across the room at a group of Kunoichi chatting in a corner booth.
Firming his resolve, the last loyal Uchiha walked across to the bar, taking a seat next to the white haired man with the red cloak and clearing his throat. The man didn't seem to notice him, so he cleared his throat one more time, and getting no response, reached out and waved his hand in front of the old man's eyes. "Hey now, you're blockin my view!" The man objected, swatting the black haired boy's hand away, though he did finally turn to face him. "Hey, if it isn't the lumberjack kid."
"Lumberjack kid?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask, rather bemused.
"You know, you were cutting down all those trees," The man explained, before removing his gaze from the young Uchiha, and returning it to the Kunoichi.
Sasuke just snorted, before deciding to get to the point. "I want to ask you for training," he said, almost not believing that he'd said it, given the state his perspective teacher was in at the moment.
"No," The man declared, without taking his eyes off of the girls.
"…no?" Sasuke asked, surprised.
"Too busy with my research," The man answered, scribbling another line down in his notebook.
"Your… research," Sasuke said, slowly, before leaning over to read what the man had written. "34-C, brown hair, blue eyes, the cutest little freckle under her eye, and her vest is open to show her cleavage. Possibly good for third from left harem girl."
The boy's eyebrow twitched, and it then twitched again. "What in the world is this?" He asked, shocked. "You're telling me that watching girls is more important than my revenge against my brother?"
"Most likely," the old man tilted his head to the side. "Yes."
Sasuke face faulted, before dragging himself up to the stool again, leveling a glare at the old man that he seemed not to notice. Reaching out, he grabbed the book, causing the old man to turn towards him almost more quickly than he could follow. "I need training," he reiterated.
The old man's eyes narrowed. "Give me back that book, now," he growled, quietly.
Sasuke shook his head, and activated his Sharingan. The old man tensed up, leaping at the Uchiha with arms stretched wide and murder in his eyes, right before Sasuke poofed out of existence, leaving a log in his place, and began to run. The enraged shout of the old man was loud behind him, quickly followed by the man himself.
As the two exited the bar, the bartender blinked. "Hey, who's gunna pay for all the drinks that guy had?" He demanded irritably, before shaking his head. "Ninja," he snorted. "I knew I shoulda stayed in the capital."
HR.
'I can't believe this,' Sakura muttered, as she lay in her bed, staring up at the bedroom's ceiling. 'Why on earth did I accept a challenge from Neji Hyuga?'
'I don't get it,' Ranma admitted. 'It'll be a hard fight, but he does have a lot of moves we can learn, and you've improved a lot.'
Inside of Sakura's head, she could almost hear Kura-chan slapping her forehead. 'Saotome, he's a genius ninja, one of the best of our generation, and we're going to fight him tomorrow.'
'Ah, sorta like Konatsu, then,' the martial artist mused, and Sakura suddenly saw the image of what looked like a Kunoichi slashing at her with a rather vicious looking sword.
'That's it,' Kura-chan exclaimed. 'I know why you agreed to fight him.' Sakura remained silent, so her inner self continued. 'The idiot's rubbed off on you.'
'Hey, I object to that,' Ranma grumbled irritably.
'Well, think about it,' Kura-chan replied. 'Wasn't it you who couldn't ever refuse a challenge, no matter how stupid it was or how outmatched you were?'
'Hey, I always won,' Ranma shot back instantly.
'Tea ceremony with a monkey?' Kura-chan chanted, evilly.
'Shut up,' Ranma grumbled.
Sakura rolled her eyes. 'Great, so what else should I watch out for so I don't start acting like Ranma?' She asked.
'Huh, well, ya don't have more than one person who wants ta marry you, do ya?' Ranma asked, thinking.
The room dropped into a dead silence for a moment. 'I think I'm going to go to sleep,' Sakura decided, shutting her eyes tightly.
'Um, what'd I say?' Ranma asked, confused.
END.
Omake – Omake – Omake – Omake- Omake.
Sasuke stood across from his brother, his eyes narrowed. "The day has finally come," he said, his knuckles cracking. "I'll destroy you for what you did to our family, Itachi!"
Itachi snorted. "You still haven't become strong enough," he noted. "You should run back to your village."
"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled angrily. "I've got all I need to defeat you!" Holding up one hand, his fist began to crackle with black and purple energy. "Chidori!" He yelled, as loudly as he could.
Itachi braced for impact, but his eyes widened as a figure appeared from behind a rock nearby, wheeling a large crate on the back of a cart. "Don't yell so loud, Sousuke, I'm right here," the figure said, as it appeared entirely from behind the rock, revealing itself to be a teenaged girl in a sailor fuku style school uniform, her blue-green hair hanging loosely down her back.
"Thank you Chidori," Sasuke replied, leaping on top of the crate she was whealing and opening a hatch there, before climbing inside. "Now Itachi, you shall feel the wrath of FUMOFFU!"
"Wha…" Itachi asked, trying to hold back snickers at the high pitched voice that had come from the crate, before one side exploded, the girl named Chidori diving for cover, and a giant stuffed animal looking thing dove out. He was about to let his laughter go anyways, when the creature withdrew a long, shining metal tube from somewhere behind its back and pulled a leaver on one end, sending a high velocity shell into the Ninja's brain.
"Fumo Fumo Fumo FFFFUUUU!" It crowed, as Itachi lay on the ground, half of his skull missing, and it danced around him.
END OMAKE.
I'm sorry, it's just that I'm writing a FMP fic on the side, and I started getting annoyed at how hard it was to keep Sasuke and Sousuke straight. This is what happened. Before anyone says anything, I don't want to talk about the relative power levels involved. Just right it off as rule of funny, okay?