Key
Normal – Self-explanatory
Italics – Thinking, emphasis and/or flashbacks/chapter names.
Bold – Techniques, Demons/Summons, and/or title
Disclaimer: I don't Naruto Uzumaki or Naruto. If I did, -insert infallible statement here-
Naruto blinked hard, and blinked harder once more. His stare was strong upon the girl's blushing face.
Though knowing how hard he was staring, she was probably blushing more in anger and embarrassment than... something else.
"So... did I hear you right, or it's all the years of chasing after you coming back to make me feel stupid?"
The girl blushed again, and started muttering, "I said 'Would you like to eat lunch with me?' A simple 'no' would suffice instead of embarrassing me like this."
"I'm not saying I don't accept!" Naruto waved his hands, "It's just... it's so out the blue!"
The female sighed, "Just answer stupid. Is it that hard?"
"No. Just shocking."
"Nevermind." She shook her head. "This was a waste of time. Have a nice day." He could clearly hear the slight hurt in her tone.
Naruto frowned and grabbed her short sleeve. "Now hold on. I didn't say we couldn't now. I would like to go."
"Y-You would?"
He gently smiled. "Of course, Sakura-chan. You're a good friend of mines."
She sputtered for a second, before settling for a frown and an accusing stare. "D-Don't think it's a date or anything!"
Naruto laughed, "That never even came into my mind."
Stop The Future
Chapter 11, Unwind
"You said what?"
"I said I will help you train-"
"Bullshit."
"What was that?" Kakashi's eyebrow raised into his hair.
"I don't need your training." The boy snarled.
Kakashi frowned largely under his mask, "I think you do."
"No, I don't."
"If you wanna dent that tree, yeah, you do." Kakashi grinned, amused at his own joke. Sasuke was not.
Sasuke's ire gained newer levels of ferocity. "So you're done training the dead-last so you can give me pointers on how to dent trees? Oh, thank you Kakashi."
Train... the dead-last? Naruto?
Ah, that's why he was mad.
"How do you figure I was training Naruto, Sasuke?" Kakashi calmly said, neither denying or agreeing with the black haired snarling teen in front of him.
"You speak like you did." He scoffed. "How did you know he can use shadow clones?"
"How do you know I didn't just ask his teacher of his skills?"
The rhetorical question made sense, he acknowledged that somewhere down the line but it was nothing when Sasuke first heard it. Excuses. It was excuses. "Why would you be interested in his skills?"
"Jealousy and a mixture of envy, Sasuke?" Kakashi again rhetorically asked, knowing saying that would not help at all.
"That's what you been doing this week when you dropped us with Gai, huh? Training Naruto!"
"No. I seriously had a mission." Kakashi was patiently saying. He then sighed, and shrugged. "However, the mission was with Team 8."
With Sasuke's newer reaction, he kinda wished he didn't say so.
Sasuke's eyes widened. Team 8 – a mission? Why would they-? What right did they deserve a mission and not him? Because of the spar they got a good word with the Hokage or something?
And what kind of mission was this to call upon the help of Kakashi? A jounin? What mission could it be? C-rank, B-rank, A? How? How could they get a mission that high up in rank?
"Why?" Sasuke growled out.
"Why what?"
"Why did they get a high-ranking mission?" Sasuke gritted his teeth, and bit his tongue from screaming.
"And you figure it was a high ranked mission because...?"
"Don't fuck with me, Kakashi. Why would they need you on the mission then?"
"Perhaps they just needed me to be there to tell all the latest jokes!" Kakashi eye smiled, grinning under his mask despite the serious situation at hand.
"I can't believe it – the dead-last got a mission all because Team 8 beat us in a spar." Sasuke scoffed. "Didn't know the Hokage and jounin play favorites now."
"It sucks being on the receiving end huh?" Kakashi ignored the scorching look from Sasuke. "The fact that you said Hokage-sama plays favorites is about the time this argument got petty, don'tcha think?"
"It's not petty! You would rather spend time teaching Naruto's team than-"
"-Than teaching you, Sasuke?" Kakashi didn't even wait for Sasuke to vigorously nod his head or something akin to that – he felt a headache awaken itself already in his head. "You tell me."
"You're worthless of a teacher, Kakashi."
"I guess I am, seeing as I'm getting lectured by a brat with a silver spoon in his mouth." He shrugged.
"Take. That. Back. NOW!" Sasuke bellowed. "You don't know how hard my life is, so don't you dare-"
"I do not? You think you can act like a pampered punk because you had tragedy in your life?" Kakashi's annoyance was starting to become tangible as more time passed. Sasuke's angry visage did nothing to become cold and aloof again. "Sasuke, I don't care if you had a bad life."
"You motherfucker." Sasuke whispered, all too loudly.
"Is that it? You want pity? You came to the wrong person."
"I don't need you to train me. I will find my own way." Sasuke scoffed, giving up finally on the verbal fight.
"Oh, I don't think trying to dent trees will help, Sasuke-kun." Kakashi put his hands in his pants pocket.
"I don't want your sudden attention. Maybe you should go and stay where Naruto puts you at."
Kakashi's face stayed aloof and thinking as much as it could stand for any longer. Sasuke needed someone to punch the crap of him. Now. Whenever he agreed to this training, he would definitely be receiving one. Seriously. He wouldn't pull any punches tonight if that was so.
"Sorry about Naruto and all, but he's not the only one who I gave pointers to."
"Oh? Pointers huh? And who else did you give 'pointers' too?"
"You, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hinata and Naruto actually to be exact, just in case you forgotten, young master." Kakashi's deadpan and sarcasm were heavy as Sasuke's.
"Why did you give Team 8 training when you have a team already?"
"Because they needed elemental training. Their sensei found out their elemental chakra-"
"And you couldn't do that with us?"
"'Us' meaning you, Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi blankly said. "Who said I wasn't planning to? Who said I wasn't going to do it tomorrow? After Gai takes his team."
"Now you wanna pay attention to us?" Us again meaning "him".
Kakashi shook his head. "I thought I did. Just because I haven't taught you guys any specific techniques yet does not mean I'm not teaching at all. I wanted Gai to increase your stamina and he did, did he not? You're getting much in taijutsu, you seen different styles and how they are, and slowly, your pools are growing. You also are gaining better chakra control so you don't waste that much chakra on one technique, so why are you saying that I'm not paying attention to you? Hmm? Are you still chasing that pipe dream?"
Sasuke growled, "Don't you dare-"
"Call it like I see it. It's a pipe dream now. If you wanna beat him, you're gonna have to work together with your team."
"There you go again." The boy scoffed throwing his hands up.
"What? What did you expect? Do you want me to drop to my knees and beg you to work with your team? It doesn't work like that. With your attitude, you're more a liability than a strength to this team." Kakashi didn't bother sugarcoating it.
"I'm a Uch-!"
"A what? A brat? A whiny baby who still desires something he can't achieve as of yet? What would you do if Itachi Uchiha came here right now?"
Sasuke's tongue was held back in his teeth and his eyes widened, seeing Itachi's katana swoop down at his neck...
Kakashi sighed, snapping Sasuke out of his daydream. "Did you hear what I said?"
"What did you say?"
"I said, I'll help you unlock your Sharingan."
"You... what?"
"Don't let me repeat myself, Sasuke."
"How could you possibly-"
And his throat caught in his throat.
There in Kakashi's right eye, laid the gift he had yet to receive.
How?
How could the man have the Sharingan?
How?
"Why? Why do you have the Sharingan?" Sasuke had demanded loudly. Kakashi sighed, and put a small, sad smile on his face under the mask.
"Call it a parting gift from my dead Uchiha teammate." Kakashi had said no more at that.
"..."
"Sasuke. I am really the only one who could train you with the Sharingan." Kakashi had already put back his Sharingan eye under his special headband.
"So now you wanna train me." He snarled. "Now you want me to be your apprentice."
"Don't get me wrong. Right now, I don't think you're worth of anything. But..." Kakashi sighed again. "You're gonna need it."
Sasuke huffed, his anger starting to subside.
"So get your little knickers out your butt and come at me with the intent to kill, Sasuke-chaaannn." Kakashi grinned, cheerfulness of a mad man coming out again.
That irked him. Come with the intent to kill huh? He would definitely be just that.
"So, how's training?"
"Good." She nodded, filling her mouth with the noodles from the ramen bowl. She packed it down, and sighed, "Ramen is good, actually."
"Hehe, welcome to the club."
"Hm. So yeah, my training is going good. I... listened to what you said."
"Oh?" Naruto slurped on his spicy chicken ramen and drank his water as the spicy ramen fired up his tongue. "Ahhhh! That hits the spot."
Sakura giggled a little. "Yeah. I decided to step up my training. I want to become a better ninja."
"Well, that's great! I imagine Sasuke's gonna have another rival in the making."
"Yeah..." She somewhat frowned at the boy mentioned at the table.
Naruto picked that up, and smoothly changed the subject. "You want some pointers?"
She huffed, thought it wasn't like the last time she scoffed at his invitation. "Sure, whatever." She blushed a little to herself while pouting.
It was kinda cute, Naruto remarked to himself. "You know your chakra affinity yet?"
"What?"
"Most ninjas have affinities to at least one element." Naruto explained. "I'm a wind release type user."
"You can use wind?" Sakura exclaimed, in awe.
"Sure." He shrugged, not knowing what the big deal was. "Didn't you see Sasuke use fire before? That's his type." 'Though it turns out he's also has an affinity for lightning as well.' Naruto added to the sentence to himself.
"That's makes sense." Sakura mumbled unladylike with food in her mouth, remembering the fire techniques Sasuke could use. "So my type could be wind, water, fire, earth or lightning, right?"
"Yep. That it could be..." Naruto smiled, forgetting to slurp at his food for once. "I don't know where to get some chakra paper at but heck, I can show you a chakra control exercise. You guys know how to walk on water yet?"
"Water? No."
"I can at least show you that. And maybe spar with you." Naruto shrugged. "Nothing much I could help with so far."
"Ah." Sakura nodded, going at her food again. Naruto grinned and followed suit. She swallowed the salty food, remarking to herself she would have definitely have to work it off and looked him again for conversation. "When do you wanna train?"
"Whenever is good for you. How about after this and then I treat you to dinner?" Naruto smiled.
"Alright." She smiled back, a little blush developing in her face. She quickly tried erasing it. 'Gah, blushing to Naruto of all people. It's not even a date, not so much of a training day... with a boy.' It's funny she would be dreaming this with Sasuke. Not like she like Naruto or anything... but she could admit he was a little handsome though.
"Alright. This is the water walking exercise." Naruto walked on the surface, without so much trying. "The water walking exercise requires you to constantly change the amount of chakra poured into your feet because water changes and moves, unlike bark on a tree. You gotta keep changing it. Too much and you'll fly out the water. Too little, and you're gonna fall in. Simple right?"
"Yep. Let's go-"
"Wait." Naruto shook his head. "Despite what I said, or how I'm making this easy, it's really not. You gotta keep changing your chakra. You might not get this so quickly."
"So... what?"
"Take off your dress."
"W-What?" She screamed back.
Naruto almost dropped in at her reaction. It was kinda funny, but seeing how he could practically sense her chakra flare up in anger, Naruto was glad there was water between them. "I'm not saying it like a perv!" He blushed a little realizing the sentence could easily been seen as so. "I'm just saying if you rather not get wet, you better take off your qipao dress or else-"
She scoffed, "I'm not gonna fall in then."
"But-" He tried to warn but he was silenced by her hand.
"Don't worry. I got this."
His frown was replaced by a lighter grin. "Well, you're welcome to try."
She harrumphed and put a foot to the surface of the water.
Naruto laughed on the water, rolling, while still keeping himself on the surface. Sakura Haruno stepped head first in the water, and rose out of it to see the boy laughing his head off at her failure. "Naruto..."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He knew she was pissed at him. He stood up again, and smiled a little. "Well, now you know I wasn't kidding."
"Hmph." She huffed. Thought she did wish she did listen to his advice... much to her own chagrin.
In the end of two hours of trying and trying again, Sakura got standing on the surface down to its end. It came much to Naruto's own happiness.
"Nice. You got it faster than I did."
"I did?" Sakura blushed a little at the praise.
"Mmhmm. I spent days trying to get down, but you got it down in hours." Naruto grinned at her.
"The way you're doing things, you wouldn't even know." Sakura said back, still in awe Naruto ran circles around her when she was still trying to stand.
"If you get standing, running, and walking down, you won't even know you're trying." Naruto encouragingly smiled at her. "Okay. Let's try running now, Sakura-chan."
"Right!"
And Naruto was right; Sakura's chakra control was much better than he knew. By the time he knew it, the girl already learned how to run on water. Walking was shaky for her, but she still got that down too. In one day. Wow. Well, in the end it wasn't too surprising. She did have superior chakra control – even now it had been better than his before. She probably would always have better chakra control than him anyway. Definitely a medical ninja in the making.
He should try learning them – them being medical techniques – so he could show them to her. He wasn't too sure Kakashi-sensei had enough time to teach Sakura and the mutt if he had Sasuke on his hands – not that he truly blamed him. Kiba already had training probably at home as well, and Sasuke needed it in order to unlock his Sharingan. He gotten over it a long time ago – it wasn't favoritism if he actually needed to. Sakura would no doubt be tutored under Tsunade anyway. He had found his own strength. The only person who probably would get the shorter stick would be Kiba really. However from what he seen, Kiba already been good at what he shoulda been good at and that was his family techniques. That balanced it out anyway.
Sakura was honestly exhausted, he could see it. He gave her a solider pill to replenish chakra and stamina, so she could at least get back to land without falling in again and getting herself wet.
He could say the training went well.
Sasuke almost wished he didn't have Kakashi come down and force him into training him.
The very same man did not pull his punches and kicks, and kicked two shits out of him there, while kicking the third one while launching him with a spin-kick to a tree. There will be much need for bowel movement tonight.
So, this is what Kakashi meant when he said he would help him dent trees.
By using his body to do so.
How painful.
"Come on – get up. That Sharingan isn't gonna unlock itself now." Kakashi smiled, oh that evil smile of his.
He didn't want to get up honestly however, he hobbled to his feet, gasping at the pain in his ribs and back. He was hoping all the fuss he made before was all worth this pain.
Sakura launched herself at Naruto and immediately regretted it. He dodged her decent hook with ease that almost scared her, and send a sweep at her legs. She barely jumped before he sent an elbow to her chest. She went skidding across the dirt. Her dress that was already damp was not caked in dirt. She did like this dress. Maybe it was time to get more battle-oriented clothing, she gandered, while picking herself up. She sent a slide kick right as soon as she did get up, but noticing Naruto grabbed her heel and performed a handstand on it. Interesting to say the least, but she didn't wait in awe. She sent a punch to his stomach. Interestingly enough, Naruto grabbed her fist with his legs, holding her arm instead of the heel. Her other hand was free however, so she smacked him silly from her arm, freeing everything she had.
Naruto fell back but quickly flipped back to his feet, and stood in a fighting stance, shrugging off the pain in her attack.
"Boy, you can throw a punch, Sakura." He shook off more of the pain and returning back to his stance. "Alright, let's go again."
She nodded silently, after knocking off some pieces of grit off her elbows and kicked fiercely at Naruto while doing a little war cry of her own. He ran circles around the kicks, and more. His stamina was huge, compare to her. She might have gotten one good hit at him, but it didn't look like he was tiring any time sooner. He was also faster than her. He practically teleported behind her. She knew he had to be stronger. He pulled a lot of his punches, slowed down at least for her. She didn't know whether to feel happy for the gesture or angry at the part he thought she couldn't handle his punches.
Still, the idea of Naruto beating Sasuke wasn't too far-fetched anymore than it first seemed. Naruto probably still wasn't as fast as Lee or Neji though – maybe a close second. Or maybe he was slowing down for her? Dammit, the problem of getting a feel for someone's power when they held back. Blah. She couldn't wait for when shecould hold back.
But suddenly, as she felt Naruto loom over her, she saw Naruto defend himself against a flurry of an attacks by a certain Hyuuga.
Hinata was here? Did she see them train? Did... she see earlier? She blushed a little – she had a lot of explaining to her, to reassure her that she wasn't trying to steal her crush. Honestly, she wasn't trying make any moves on Naruto. But, that probably would have to wait. Naruto would have trouble with two females now, shannaro!
Hinata Hyuuga did not feel well with Sakura Haruno so damn close to her Naruto-kun.
Why? Why were they even friends? Last time she knew, Sakura didn't even like Naruto-kun, so why?
She... She had to see.
That's why she went down there, and launched herself at Naruto-kun, who seemed to smile easily at her.
Did he already know she was there?
That didn't quite shock her as much it should have. Naruto-kun was always so damn keen. That's why she liked him.
She never ceased to be surprised by him.
Naruto didn't mind it too much that Hinata came out to fight them. It was much helpful. Maybe she could show Sakura some pointers in fighting as well. Three heads were always better than one. She then attack him, having almost no mercy in her attacks. Good. That was always good. Plus he could take a few hours of his chakra points being closed or whatever, or at least until he forced chakra out and countered the chakra hole punching moves those crazy Hyuuga nins do. It seems Sakura and Hinata formed some secret alliance against him, fighting fiercely at him. He was sure that was a reason to step up his speed. He spun away from at least a good ten furious Gentle Fist strikes from Hinata, and two decent right and left hooks from Sakura, before spinning behind them, summoning a shadow clone. Him and the clone perfectly sent kicks to the supple backs of the young girls. It went through the two girls.
He quirked an eyebrow interest – the girls did the Clone Technique? And Body Replacement with it? Interesting. Seems like something he would do. Hinata came quickly out of nowhere, doing some akin to Kiba's Passing Fang Technique, only with her being visible and with less spins.
She dubbed it, "Tenkiri". Interesting name: "Heavenly Spin".
Sakura didn't quite quit as fast as he guilty thought. The girl preserved as far as Hinata did against him. Really, both of them were doing well against him. The clone threw him up in the air, while he came down with an almost over-exaggarated diving kick...
With quite an over-exaggerated amount of chakra.
After he saw the results, he was glad they weren't anywhere close.
Seems like his wind chakra was sharper than he thought.
The wind cut like a blade into the ground, and seemingly even uprooted the ground right under his feet by one kick.
The ground crumpled to the wind, as if lightning struck.
All Naruto could say "Whoops" with that one.
"Oops, guys. Looks like I over did it." He had the decency to blush and rub his head in an embarrassed manner.
"What the fuck Naruto?" Sakura all but yelled, almost falling onto her butt at the uprooted ground now separating her from Naruto and Hinata, which was good in her opinion.
"N-Naruto-kun...?" Hinata hesitate asked out, also looking at the uprooted ground warily.
"Uh, sorry guys. I guess I poured too much wind chakra in my kick." He tried getting over the newer pillars of ground he created to get to the pink haired girl and the blue haired girl who joined Sakura just now.
"'Too much'?"
"Yeah, regular wind techniques aren't suppose to cause so much umm... damage." Naruto sweatdropped at his handiwork.
'Unbelievable. I felt that chakra. That was freaking huge! How could he do that? A-And he said regular wind techniques don't cause that much damage...'
"Shit, if that's what wind can do, I sure don't wanna fuck with you on a moody day." A voice came clear from the tree tops.
Sakura whirled around and stared to see an older looking girl looking at them as she jumped from the trees. Hinata's face was strangely thinned out to a neutral frown and Naruto was at best friendly looking of the girl.
"Ah, well, looks like we got a third challenger here."
Ren Telok smirked. "What makes you think I'm here to fight a twerp like you?"
"Scared?" Naruto taunted back.
"Haha, for you, kid, I hope you prepared a strong defense." Ren smirked.
Naruto stuck his tongue out, "I hope you prepared some nice rust-away while you're at it – sometimes I like to venture out to sea."
Ren got the reference, and had the decency to blush. "SH-Shut the hell up!"
"Who the heck is this girl?" Sakura whispered to her Hyuuga peer.
"A girl we brought back on our mission." Hinata whispered back.
"You guys had a mission?" Sakura blinked. "Since when?"
"Like a week or two back, Sakura!" Naruto grinned. "And we picked up her and her zombie teacher while you're at it."
"Don't go insulting Zabuza-sensei like that!" Ren growled out.
"Wait, 'Zabuza-sensei'? You mean Zabuza Momochi?" Sakura's eyes widened, hearing the name of the legendary missing ninja of the even more legendary band of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen Of The Mist.
"I didn't know you knew of him, Sakura-chan." Naruto nodded in honest amazement that she did know of him.
"You must have skipped out on the lesson on 'missing-nin', Naruto." She scoffed, knowing the boy had a record of doing that back in the Academy, skipping out on Iruka-sensei's lessons, even when the scarred man always caught him.
"Hehehe, maybe. Well anyway, she's his student."
"How the heck did you convince a rogue ninja to come back to Konoha?"
The tallest person here scoffed. "Try to think of me as a gift."
"Wow." Sakura didn't know what to really say.
Hinata didn't say anything else. Naruto figured she was still wary of the girl, despite Ren being here in the Leaf for about a few days now. Naruto himself wasn't too partial to the girl, so he could understand.
"So uh, Ren, you still wanna fight?" Naruto asked. "No ninjutsu, no chakra, just a straight out brawl."
"Taijutsu, eh?" She then eyed the bags of goodies he had and noticed a sword laid on top of the stuff. "What about with that sword you got there? You any good with it?"
"Nah. I'm not. Why? Are you good with swords?"
"Well, a little, yeah. Not a lot of practice except the regular ANBU issue ninjato I stole once."
"Hm." Naruto didn't bother asking about that. "Alright. Let's spar then."
"Hehe, show me what you're made of, yellow head." She slipped into a loose stance, smirking confidently at him.
Naruto smirked back and rush towards the fresher Telok girl.
"Aren't you glad I finally brought you that beer, Kurenai?" Asuma grinned, putting his cigarette in the ashtray and chugged down a bit of his own pint of the good brown stuff.
"Very romantic of a first date, Asuma." Kurenai scoffed, trying her best not to cringe at the smoky smell on his lips. "For that, no kisses tonight." She almost whispered, teasingly.
"Aww." He pouted – cutely for a scruffy man, Kurenai added – still taking a swing at his cigarette. "At least I got you, Bessy." He cooed at his pack in front of him, even going so far to kiss the carton.
"Unbelievable. Trade me off for a carton of cigarettes." Kurenai's disgust didn't betray her face, but had an edge of amusement.
"Only because you refuse to kiss me."
She huffed somewhat stubbornly and took a tentative drink at her glass. She ordered for something lighter than Asuma's beer, not wanting to totally end up in Asuma's bed the morning after smashed. And even if she did, she at least wanted to remember it. Still, she could not be much happier she got a little alcohol in her system. "Urgh. At least that mission was done with."
"Oh yeah, almost forgot you went on a mission." The black spikes leaned back, as did Asuma Sarutobi in his chair. "How did it go?"
"Completely smooth actually but it was just a very tiring ordeal."
"I can tell." Asuma looked at the lady smooth her hair out and blow out a huff. 'She probably needs some more rest... In my bed, of course.'
"You read the specifics yet?" Asuma shook his head. Kurenai sighed, "Well, we managed to beat five missing ninjas ranging from chunnin to jounin level, killed a multi-millionaire scumbag and freed a whole country."
Asuma widened his eyes. "I thought you told me it was a C-rank you guys got!"
"Eh." She shrugged and fingered the glass she had in front of her. "As Shikamaru-kun would put it: troublesome."
"Sounds like it turned B-rank." That sure beats his days out. The most craziness he gotten the past few weeks was explaining to a rude bystander that why calling an Akimichi "fat" meant "death".
"A-rank actually, but you're right on the money." She nodded at him, sipping at her drink again, before quietly sighing at its contents. "Crazy two weeks."
"Wow. And you guys did that yourself? I thought you played it safe, Kurenai?" He smirked.
"I do." She nodded. "But my team convinced me to keep the mission going on once we learned that the mission wasn't a simple escort mission. And it's not like we went without backup – Kakashi came also as soon as we sent for him."
"Kakashi? Aww! You shoulda called for me!" The large man frowned, pouting once again. Again, Kurenai remarked it as "cute for a scruffy man". "I would definitely been good company!"
"Oh please. You would probably be too busy flirting with me or something." She scoffed, a light blush developing on her cheeks.
Asuma grinned cheekily like a certain boy she knew. "Hell yeah! I still woulda made it fun though."
"Next time I call for back up, I'll call you then." She lightly smiled at the man, kissing him on his cheek quietly.
His grin grew bigger.
Asuma was impressed at how Kurenai and Kakashi handled the mission, but none so like to hear her students freed her and Kakashi from their water prisons and helped beat two missing ninjas all while walking on water.
Walking on water? Damn, even his students hadn't even know that.
He guessed they had been slacking. Well, he coughed to himself, he had been.
And to hear how they beat another missing ninja a week after – that part with Shino and Hinata had him almost at the edge of his seat – freed the country enslaved by the once notorious Gatou and then killed him was just a gallant story well worth the first "date" with Kurenai... kinda. He still rather make out with her instead. Konoha's so-called "Ice Princess" didn't stop telling him how much her team has come from their fresh-genin state to great examples of genin.
Shit, she sure shitted on his litter of kids, huh?
And then she admitted to trained with Kakashi's team!
"Huh? Where was I?" He almost yelled. No. He did yell.
She shrugged, nonchalantly. "I asked. You said 'Eh'. Ring a bell?"
"No way! I wouldn't say no to that!"
"I think it was the day you said you were committed to beating Shikamaru in a game of shogi that you couldn't go." Kurenai deadpanned. She was somewhat irked he never even got back to her on that but it was really his choice.
He blanched, "Crap. I missed out on some more kisses tonight, didn't I?"
"Yep."
"What kisses, my friends?" A joyous voice rang from the front of their table. Kakashi Hatake strolled in right on time, much to Kurenai and Asuma's blushes. "Well, Zabuza, here we are. The local sordid bar to drown your sorrows away and develop unhealthy habits in."
"Wait, Zabuza? Zabuza Momochi?" Asuma blinked.
"Hmm? Yeah?" Zabuza's eyes went to the son of the Third Hokage.
"You guys defeated Zabuza-fucking-Momochi?" Hissed the man to Kurenai, who shrugged again, and concentrated back on her drink.
Zabuza almost looked like was going to blush. "Scream it out loud, why don't you?"
"Now don't be ashamed of defeat, Zabuza!" Kakashi clapped his hand loudly on Zabuza's now jounin-vested shoulder, completely ignoring the itching hand of Zabuza reach for his massive sword.
"No one asked for your opinion, copy-cat!" Zabuza barked back.
"Be best of behavior now – we don't want Hokage-sama learning you're not acting like a good jounin now, eh?"
"Seriously, you guys beat Zabuza Momochi?" Asuma was still in shock.
"You want a friggin medal embedded in copy-cat and doll face's jackets or something?" Zabuza glared down at Asuma. "Shut up already."
"Aw, don't be like that Zabuza! Be friendly now to your newer allies! Here, lemme buy you a drink."
"If that's your way of asking me out Kakashi, fucking forget it." He huffed, and slammed some worn ryou bills on the bartender's stand. "You said this was a place to drown my sorrows away and develop an unhealthy habit, huh? Well, lemme get started on that with some 140 proof alcohol. None of that light beer shit either."
"Friendly guy." Kakashi grinned.
The other two sweatdropped and decided to stay quiet.
Kakashi rudely sat next to Asuma, and grinned, "So, how's my favorite Leaf Village couple doing?"
"You sure lack the ability to understand personal space, Kakashi." Asuma muttered, irked he couldn't sneak sweet, sweet kissy-kiss face with Kurenai now. Ah, sweet, sweet kissy-kiss face time – I missed you ever so, thought the wind user.
Kurenai too was annoyed by Kakashi but masked it well. "You know, I was just about to tell Asuma that my kids also know elemental release techniques."
"What? You gotta be shitting me." Asuma sat jaw-dropped when Kakashi sagely nodded at her. "You taught them, Kakashi?"
"Gave them pointers is more how I like to word it. Chakra affinity-finding was all on your girlfriend."
Asuma frowned, "And your team, Kakashi?"
"Eh. They know tree-climbing and their taijutsu is getting better. I mean, I did leave them with-"
"Yosh! My eternal rival in such a seedy bar as this! Of course! You and your hip ways!"
"That guy." Kakashi sweatdropped, pointing at Gai.
After hearing his explanation on why on earth would he leave his cute little brats with Gai, the father of all things "youthful", Asuma grunted, pouting to himself.
"Wow, you two pretty much shitted on my teaching skills for the last hour or so. Congrats. Feel better about yourselves?"
Kurenai shrugged, while setting down her drink, that was almost finished with now. "All you do is obsess on ways to defeat Shikamaru-kun in shogi." Kurenai shook her head. "Perhaps it's time to train them. After all, aren't you gonna get them into the Chunnin Exams?"
He frowned – another thing he forgot. "Shit. You're right. You're definitely right - I was planning to. Time I do get them into shape in the next three months, eh?"
She and Kakashi nodded, sipping on their drinks. Kakashi occasionally looked back at Zabuza. Said man was packing down his liquor like a pro in back of them. He would join, but he was still wary that Gai would punch back in again and try fighting him while he was drunk. And a drunk Gai was not pretty – no matter how much liquor Kakashi had in his system. Not pretty at all. Hm, he wondered what kinda drunk Zabuza was.
Probably just as destructive.
He would move and run for his life, but the liquor in system made him extremely uncaring of this world and its state.
Plus it really had been a nice seat.
Eh.
He'll be fine...
He woke up next morning, groaning like hell. No. He was not okay.
End.
Gasp, cliffhanger? I'm such a bastard!
Or... am I?
Hmm, shaped up Asuma nicely I do say myself. Kurenai and him all are together - yep, nothing really changed. It's just a little more known. Hahaha.
Kakashi is such a prick.
Next "chapter" is incredibly short. Like "Intermission". Ya could call it "Intermission 2" if you like. Eh.
Enjoy.