Expectations of Development
-o-
Promition
-o-
"You want what?" Tsunade asked. Her eyes wide open, just as expected, really.
"I want to become your apprentice." Sasuke repeated his request. He knew how weird that seemed. He really, really did. But at the same time, it made perfect sense to him.
Tsunade regarded him like a strange animal that had somehow wandered into her office. "And why, do you want to become a medic nin?" She asked dubiously.
He could see Shizune in the corner, looking at him just as strangely as Tsunade.
"I... want to help people." He said after a few seconds. Well, he assumed that's what she wanted to hear and it had a certain amount of truth in it. After seeing Naruto wake up, knowing his rival wouldn't become a cripple for life... that had felt good, very good. And he would like to spread that feeling. To make other people feel like that. To have himself feel like that when he patched his teammates up, his teammates and his friends.
Tsunade watched him silently, an eyebrow high above her left eye.
"Well, that and I want to become stronger." He admitted, nothing wrong with that, right?
"At least the second part was honest." Tsunade sighed.
"I did mean the first part as well." He quickly protested, he did mean it.
Leaning back Tsunade regarded him with narrowed eyes. "Medic nin aren't exactly front line forces, your job will be to hang back and make sure your teammates pull through after they have been injured."She leaned towards him again. "That means, you stand back, you make sure that you don't need a medic to heal you, which means you don't get involved in the fight at all!" She stared at him, hard.
He resisted the temptation to take a step back. He hadn't thought about that aspect of a medic nin. He would have to hold back in fights, that could be inconvenient...
But Tsunade hadn't finished yet. "And that isn't even getting into your chakra control."
He pushed the other thing back, he had decided and he wouldn't let something like that put him away from his path. It just meant he would have to be a bit more subtle than expected, nothing more.
"I can..."
"Haruno I would accept without a second thought." Tsunade ran over his counter argument as if he hadn't even opened his mouth. "You? You aren't exactly the most concerned with chakra control. And that's the most important thing as far as medical jutsu go. Power is nice, but we need absolute control." She glared at him. "Don't think it's as simple as your waterwalking. Medical jutsu are an art. Much more elegant and demanding than anything you have done before."
Sasuke frowned at that, fighting to hide his smirk. If she thought she could dissuade him with that, she didn't get him at all. "I can do it." He ground out. "I will learn how to control my chakra better."
Tsunade snorted. "Oh? You still think it's easy do you?"
"Is that a challenge?" He smirked at her, causing her to blink. From the corner of his eyes he could see Shizune, smiling behind her hand.
Tsunade grumbled something about realizing who she talked to and shook her head. "I would still prefer Haruno, she is more suited to this kind of thing."
"She's also not interested... lately she's more interested in breaking people, instead of putting them back together." Sasuke countered. Especially after they had returned. After Naruto had woken up and she had told him everything about their fight with Orochimaru and Itachi, she had wandered off, searching for Anko. Sasuke shuddered as he remembered the look in her eyes. She planned something, something nasty. Whether that was for herself, or for others... he didn't want to know.
"And here I thought the same went for you." Tsunade observed dryly.
He coughed, only a month or so ago she would have been very right. Only two weeks ago she would have been right. Now though...
"I... realized that I won't be able to take Itachi with brute strength. He's not the type to fall to that. If I want to defeat him it will have to be through subtler means. Something medical jutsu can give me." He explained,
"I'm not exactly sure how to feel about that." Tsunade answered.
"Also, as a medic nin I'll be able to recover from injuries rather fast, even from a totally destroyed chest." He grinned at her. "That seems very useful in any sort of combat. Never mind all the hard training I can get done because I can heal the damage right in place. And I'll get twice the practice since I use chakra to heal myself and my sparring partners."
Tsunade regarded him seriously, tapping a finger against her chin. "I see." She said.
"Also, thanks to the sharingan I'll be able to see where somebody is hurt, instantly. I'll be able to learn really fast, what with the near photographic memory." He went on, trying to sell her on the concept.
"Learn? Or commit the books to memory and then forget about them, until you need the information, making it far too slow to use." She asked, disdain clearly evident in her voice.
He grit his teeth. He had heard that criticism of the sharingan a few times, even from Kakashi. Especially form Kakashi. And the man had been right, there was a rather large difference between learning something and knowing it.
Of course, he had also explained that only knowing a jutsu didn't mean you shouldn't perform it. But you shouldn't depend on it. There were situations where such a jutsu would be useful, but you should always be aware that you didn't know the intricacies as somebody who had learned the jutsu.
On the other hand, you couldn't learn every jutsu you stole with the sharingan. Not every jutsu suited you after all and some were plainly not worth knowing anyway. Best to focus on learning a few techniques you were really interested in and perfect them.
"I meant learn. The sharingan helps there as well." He glared back at Tsunade.
"Even with books?"
"Well, not as much as with body movement and chakra, but still pretty well." He conceded.
Tsunade frowned at him for a while, before she sighed. "I suppose body movement and chakra would be important part of your apprenticeship." She admitted. "But speaking of the sharingan. Don't you want to control that more? It's a rather important part of who you are after all."
"I... had assumed you would be rather busy most of the time, what with being Hokage and thought I could learn that from Kakashi." He looked away from her.
"My apprentice, going to somebody else for training, even while he received training from me?" Tsunade looked positively appalled.
A bit too appalled really. "You would approve of that then?" He asked.
She rubbed her chin. "You would also learn from Shizune, and you would have to go on the occasional mission of course, you do need some money after all."
And he had her, she had practically agreed already. A look at Shizune confirmed it, she looked a bit surprised.
"Hmm... one month." Tsunade said, looking directly at him. "One month of you learning as much as you can from me. Then I'll decide if you have what it takes to be a medic nin. And much more importantly, if you have what it takes to be my apprentice. Even if you could be a decent medic nin, I don't need decent. I need exceptional."
He smirked and nodded. A challenge he could deal with, a challenge was something to overcome. "I won't disappoint you." He promised.
Tsunade merely raised an eyebrow. "We'll see." Her warm smile took a lot of bite out of it though. "Well, can't say I'm sad to get to know you even better... if this works out of course, I'm still not really convinced."
He nodded quickly. Actually he wasn't all that sure himself. It sounded reasonable, going for the subtleties of medical jutsu instead of the flashy jutsu Kakashi used... hmm, that chidori of Kakashi, if you used that speed with a chakra scalpel... Sasuke smirked as he bowed to Tsunade and turned around. No, medical jutsu weren't a mistake if he could pull them off. Something like that... well who expected that the fist coming at them with high speed would rip their hearts to shreds?
"Oh Sasuke? Can you find Sakura and tell her to come to me? I have something to discuss with her. If you see them, this concerns Shikamaru and Tenten as well." Tsunade said before he closed the door.
He looked back and nodded quickly.
-o-
Sakura looked curiously at Tenten and Shikamaru. Sasuke had found her ten minutes ago, preparing for another session of mind-scarring, bone-crushing training with Anko.
Actually the training mostly scarred her mind and left her bones intact. After she told Anko how they had run into Orochimaru again Anko had started a minute long rant about what a bastard Orochimaru had been to her and how much he deserved to die. Painfully. In a pit of Vipers, with spikes and other more and more improbable torture devices.
Sakura got a nice collection of new words out of the rant.
After that Anko had looked down at her, frowned and stepped up her usual training regime. Naruto hadn't been released yet and Sasuke had some soul searching to do, if Sakura interpreted the expression right, so she had decided to tell Anko about her adventure and ask for more training.
Alone, since she needed it, if she ever wanted to catch up to Sasuke or Naruto. At least enough that her cheating like hell and back actually had an effect.
She could hit herself over her stupidity with Kabuto, she had once again gambled everything on one move, but this time, finally, it hadn't paid off. Instead it backfired horribly and could have killed both her, Sasuke, Jirayia and Shizune. Tsunade would only have been enslaved by Orochimaru. Which probably would have been much, much worse.
She shook off her revery and focused on Tsunade, who watched the three of them carefully. Actually she watched only Shikamaru and her carefully, Tenten she had only glanced at once.
"You are probably wondering why you are here." She open up finally.
Tenten nodded once, Shikamaru shrugged and Sakura blinked.
"Well, congratulations are in order, you three made chunin." Tsunade said. She immediately handed Tenten a west, who took it with something coming close to awe.
"From what I heard you did a good job in the tournament and, much more importantly, in the invasion. Good work Tenten." Tsunade smiled at the older girl.
Then she turned back to Shikamaru and Sakura. Shikamaru didn't look as if he liked the attention on him at all. Tsunade studied them some more.
Sakura for her part didn't know how to feel about this, she didn't mind the pay rise, that would actually be really nice. However the added responsibilities that came with the job, the very real possibility of sending somebody to their deaths...
"Actually only Tenten is really a chunin. The two of you are somewhat probationary chunin." Tsunade added.
Before Sakura could sigh in relief however she continued. "Of course, that just means you can be busted back down to genin if your performance isn't up to it. You'll have all the responsibilities and rights a normal chunin has. I'm just not sure how well you'll handle yourselves under stress. But as my advisers have pointed out, the best way to learn is to do it."
Sakura disagreed with that, she would much prefer to train for it first. Seemed much safer.
Still, Tsunade handed each of them their vests and there wasn't anything they could do about it, really.
Tenten smiled at them. "Congratulation you two, you did rather well in the exams."
Shikamaru frowned down at his vest. "Actually... Ino should have this. If it weren't for her I would have lost the first match, no questions asked. If she hadn't pushed me to train." He shook his head.
Tsunade nodded. "I've read the reports, but in the interest of international relations we'll wait for the next chunin exams. She'll have some added responsibilities regardless. Just like other genin who have distinguished themselves in the invasion." She looked down at a paper on her desk. "And afterward."
Sakura frowned at her vest. Hopefully she wouldn't be tasked too hard yet, her last foray into responsibility had been rather... unpleasant.
Tsunade leaned back and caught their attention again. "You should go out and celebrate a bit, today is the last day you'll have free time. From tomorrow on, you and your teams will have to take over the slack, Konoha lost a lot of nin and we need to use genin to spring in for more experienced teams wherever possible.
"That will be your responsibilities, your jonin will be taking some of the more dangerous missions, alone, while you are doing C-Rank missions and similar. I would have liked to spare you that a bit longer, let you grow into the position, but we really don't have the time for that."
Tsunade looked each of them in the eyes. "You three have shown that you have what it takes to be chunin, make me proud."
-o-
Sakura walked uncomfortably, the unfamiliar weight of the west throwing her balance of slightly. Or maybe she just imagined it, the vest seemed far more heavy than it should be. She could almost feel the responsibility dripping off it.
"Honestly, Ino should get the vest. If it weren't for her pushing me so much I'd never have... beaten Naruto. Or hell, the judge should have just let Naruto do his thing. I'm sure he could have pulled through a slit throat." Shikamaru continued his rant. Sakura guessed he wouldn't stop until he ran out of air. She could sympathize though. When she had entered the exam she honestly hadn't expected to actually succeed. Bah, her plans never worked as she... planned them.
"You just got a promotion, you should be happy Nara." Tenten chided him, an amused smile on her lips.
"Easy for you to say, you actually wanted the position. Ino just pushed me around till I resigned myself to it."
Shaking her head Tenten groaned. "Seriously. What's wrong with you Nara? You get a pay-raise and more recognition in the village. That should make you happy."
"Well, you don't have to order Ino around either." He quickly retorted.
"Nope, just Neji and Lee." Came the cheerful, much too cheerful reply.
Shikamaru shuddered and shut up. "Point."
"What about you? You don't seem all that happy yourself Sakura." Tenten turned to her.
She shrugged. "Ehh, it's the responsibility. What if I make a mistake? What if I get somebody killed? It worked out last time, barely. But what about the next time?" She sighed.
Tenten grimaced. "Ugh, you two take all the joy out of this promotion. We were supposed to celebrate it, not to mope around about it." Tenten shook her head. "Seriously, you two. Can't you just be happy about it?"
Sakura smiled at her. "I suppose I should be happy. I mean I can afford more and better ingredients now. And more wire. Hmm..." She tapped her finger on her lips absently. "Maybe I can even upgrade to some of that razor wire, the really sharp one." She grinned wickedly.
Shikamaru grimaced and looked at her arm, the bandages were off for now, until she had time for new ones. But the lines crossing all over it reminded her why razor wire might not be that good an idea.
Tenten looked away from the arm as well. She had a few scars as well, nothing so obvious though. "I suppose. Anyway how about we go, forget about work for a day? I heard you had a neat little party going on before the finals." She grinned at them.
Shikamaru groaned. Sakura smirked at him. "You had fun, admit it."
"I'll not respond to that. You three as drunken harlots were scary." Shikamaru replied.
"Ohh, I didn't hear about that!" Tenten grinned at them, her eyes wandering from one to the other. "Come on, tell me."
Sakura coughed uncomfortably. "We just... you know kinda hooked up Hinata and Naruto." She blushed bright red. "You know, because Naruto needs a sledgehammer to get something like that into his head."
"Oh, what are you talking about?" Tenten leaned even closer.
Now, that she was sober, what she had done seemed far less like a good idea and far more like the worst idea ever. How to get out of this... "I just remembered I promised to visit Naruto after training, since I've skipped training I have to visit him now! Just ask Shikamaru!" She dodged Tenten's hand, as the other girl went for her arm and sped off.
A quick look over her shoulder revealed a laughing Tenten, who quickly latched onto Shikamaru, effectively preventing his escape.
The story would come out now, but at least she wouldn't have to suffer through the embarrassment of telling it herself.
Instead she went to the hospital. She had promised to visit Naruto there, even if he would get out tomorrow already. With his chakra coils healed, his normal regeneration had kicked in again and whatever damage remained rapidly decreased.
She quickly arrived at the hospital. It made quite the different picture now, that most of the wounded from the invasion were gone. Only the worst remained and those were in private rooms. She nodded at a few doctors she remembered from her own stays after various training exercises. Anko really wasn't gentle, not gentle at all.
Quietly she opened the door to Naruto's room. He sat on his bed, legs crossed under him, eyes closed and breathing slowly.
She raised an eyebrow and slowly snuck up on him. Naruto, meditating? When had he picked that up? She had seen him attempt it, he never lasted more than a minute or two.
"Hey Sakura." He greeted her before she came anywhere close to him. She stopped in surprise, he had actually been paying attention to his surroundings? She knew he could do that, but that he had managed it while attempting to meditate?
"You've gotten better at that." She admitted as she pulled a chair beside his bed and sat down.
"Thanks. One good thing about being trapped in your own mind with nothing but a demon for company. You learn a few tricks to keep yourself occupied." He grinned at her.
"You're a bit quiet. Kinda scary actually." She admitted to him.
"Hmm? Would you prefer if I screamed how good it is to see you?" He waggled his eyebrows comically. "Maybe ask you out for a date?"
"You've got Hinata for that." She reminded him quickly. What had she set him up with Hinata for if he forgot that constantly?
"Ehehe, I know. I'm just kidding." He unwound himself and let his legs dangle from the bed. "Still can't get used to it though. I mean... why would she care about me so much?" He frowned a bit. "Her father even visited me. Glared a bit down at me, then said I did a good job and I could visit the Hyuuga compound sometime. It was weird! And Hinata nearly fainted again." He looked at her. "Why would he do that?"
Sakura had a good idea. With Naruto getting better standing in the village getting him into the family became more and more attractive. Thus improving the relationship with Hinata would be a worthy goal.
She didn't mind that actually. Naruto marrying into such a clan could only be good for him... and his manners. Smiling she ruffled his hair. "It means he likes you and approves of you dating his daughter... just don't do anything to upset him, or Hinata, like flirting with another girl."
He blinked. "Like me? Approves? Flirt?" Then he shook his head. "Oh well, I'll figure it out."
Slowly a frown spread over his face. He pushed himself off the bed and walked over to the window. "But, that reminds me of something." She hadn't heard him that serious... ever. She had heard him angry, but not serious. And maybe a bit hurt?
"You know, before we came across Gaara?" He didn't look at her, instead he continued to stare out of the window.
"Uhh... yeah?" She asked, wondering what this was about.
"I... really didn't like that." He said, no growled.
"What?" She would have expected him to be angry about her sending him to his ill fated distraction of Gaara, but what had she done before that?
"You know? You revealing the Kyuubi to everybody!" He had finally turned around and glared at her angrily.
She recoiled, she had totally forgotten that. "I... it worked out right?" She quickly defended herself.
"Maybe, but what if it hadn't?" He didn't shout, she noticed he simply glared at her.
"Well, then they wouldn't have been very good friends would they?" She shot back, careful not to shout herself.
"Or they just didn't have the chance to get to know me yet! You can't just expect anybody to accept something like that out of the blue." He countered her calmly. Where had that Naruto come from? He should shout loudly.
"I... I needed to know where they stood, I needed them not to freak out!" She tried a different track. "I couldn't afford for them to focus more on you than on Gaara when you used that chakra."
He didn't stop glaring, but he nodded. "That's not even the problem. I accept that you needed them to know. But that you didn't even ask me about revealing that." He stopped glaring now. Instead he looked hurt, making her want to hug him. Though she suspected it wouldn't be appreciated at the moment.
"You didn't mind with Sasuke." She muttered petulantly. "And there I actually told him, without giving you the choice of telling him."
He snorted. "That's different, he's my teammate. He's... different." He finished lamely. Sakura didn't see how, but he hadn't finished. "And anyway, you didn't really give me a choice did you? You knew I couldn't not reveal it." He balled his fists. "That hurt you know?"
She looked away. "I needed to..."
"I would have agreed to reveal it, if you had actually asked me!" He interrupted her harshly.
She shrunk back, but rallied valiantly. "I didn't have the time." She tried one last time.
He shrugged. "Maybe. But a simple question on the way would have been enough, instead of just shouting it out, for all to hear." He took a deep breath. "I had a lot of time to think about it you know? Inside my head... it... it seemed as if time went by slower. Nothing to do but think."
She shuffled her feet uncomfortably. This was another of those responsibility things Kakashi talked to her about. And damn it, if she wanted to lead her team she would have to regain his trust. And the first step to that would be to admit that yes, she had been wrong to not even ask him.
"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I'm sorry about just revealing your secret... and... and not even asking you. I should have been more considerate."
"Eh, waters under the bridge." Her head shot up and stared at his grinning face. "I mean I would be a whole lot more angry if people had reacted poorly, but hey everything worked out all right."
"Wha? Wha? What the hell? What was all that about me not asking you then?" She screeched, not caring who heard her this time.
"Well, I did want you to apologize for it." He shrugged. "You know, since it's so rare that I do get an apology when somebody else does something wrong for once."
She raised her fist to hit him, though when he turned away, still grinning she changed the hit into a hug. "Idiot, that's because it's mostly your fault."
He shrugged again. "Maybe, but not always." She quickly slipped out of the hug again and ruffled his hair instead. "Sorry again. I should have been more considerate."
"Eh, as I said. It worked out in the end, so I shouldn't complain too loudly." And he couldn't stay angry with her as well, but that had nothing to do with it, she was sure.
Suddenly he blinked and stared at her in confusion.
"What?" She asked.
"You made chunin!" He shouted excitedly. Finally showing that yes, this actually as Naruto, not a convincing fake. "And I didn't!" He glared a bit at her. Totally unfair in her opinion, she didn't really want the position after all.
"You are so buying me some ramen for this." He nodded to himself. "And more ramen for the Kyuubi thing. And then some just because."
She stared at him for a few seconds, shaking her head, before she couldn't hold in her laughter anymore. "Fine, fine. Do you want the ramen now, or tomorrow?"
He scrunched up his face in thought. Finally he nodded. "Tomorrow is good. This Tsunade lady is scary."
Sakura nodded. "Oh yeah, that she is, as we told you."
-o-
Ino frowned as she watched the older man work. Jirayia had arrived with Sakura, Sasuke and the new Hokage. And before that he had trained Sakura.
She couldn't exactly fault his results, but she didn't entirely trust him working on Gaara. She didn't really trust anybody working on Gaara. The poor boy had entirely too many people regard him as a tool already.
She grimaced, she had become far too attached to the boy. He had attacked Konoha, had crippled Naruto. Though Naruto had recovered. And would have killed them all and enjoyed it, if he had been given half a chance.
The only reason they were still alive was that they had defeated him. So why did she feel so protective of him?
She looked down, at the peacefully sleeping boy. Oh right, because underneath the murderous exterior rested a scared little boy who only knew betrayal. And Konoha would send him back to Sand, where he had experienced all that betrayal. Ino grumbled at that, he should stay here, where she could take proper care of him.
"It's done." Jirayia stood up and moved away from Gaara. The circle of weird symbols around him had disappeared, instead he sprouted a new tattoo on his shoulder. "He'll have a bit of trouble controlling sand and a lot of the stuff that came instinctive before, he'll have to actually train to use. But there shouldn't be any voices talking to him."
Ino nodded and bowed to him. "Thank you."
Jirayia shrugged. "He'll also be unable to pull Shukaku out, unless he somehow manages to break the seal. Which should be nearly impossible, at least without me around." He grinned at her. "Can't have him attempt a repeat can we?"
She sighed and shook her head. "He wouldn't, but I suppose the Hokage thinks it's better to be safe than sorry."
"Exactly. But don't worry, if Sand behaves this shouldn't be a problem. Maybe he'll even be allowed to visit." Jirayia patted her head. "In any case, he'll need sleep, the seal is rather draining. And I need to get some rest as well." He waved and left the room. Gaara still wouldn't actually leave it, not until the delegation from Sand showed up and picked him up. She frowned at the thought. If those bastards were cruel to Gaara...
She sighed, picked him up and deposited him on the bed. If they were cruel she would have to stand by and watch, since she couldn't allow an international incident.
"Geez, you are a lot of trouble you know that?" She grumbled at the boy.
"Hmm, that coming from you... it's refreshing." Shikamaru said, leaning against the cell door.
"Huh? Shika what are you doing here?" She asked, leaving Gaara alone for now. "Just came here to tell you I made chunin... and to thank you for making it possible." He shot her an evil glare.
She smirked at him. "See, told you could do it."
"Yes, thank you. Luckily you didn't escape entirely. Since you did push me and did as well as you did with Gaara you'll be next." He grinned at her.
She raised an eyebrow. "Only you would think that's a bad thing."
"Sakura as well, she realized what being a chunin means." He smirked at her.
She looked back at Gaara, she wanted to be there when he woke up... then again, if given half a chance he would sleep through most of the day anyway. She could probably just wake him up whenever she wanted.
Quietly she closed the door behind her and gestured for Shika to follow her.
"What do you mean?"
He sighed. "I'm now responsible, not just for myself but for all those I've been given command over. I'm just glad that Sakura knocked me out in the tournament. I might have been given command then... and who knows what would have happened." He shuddered slightly.
"You would have done fine." Ino assured him.
"Maybe, but would I have insisted on bringing all of you? Would that have made a difference? I went over Sakura's report again and again. I wonder if you realize just how close that fight actually was." He looked at her.
She nodded, she had a good idea of how close they all had gotten to dieing. "I know. But you would have found a way."
He looked away. "Maybe. In any case, we don't have much time for training, we've got the day off, but starting tomorrow we'll have C-Rank missions to look forward to. Our jonin will be busy with A- and B-Rank missions."
She grimaced, that would mean no time for anything, like seeing Gaara off. Well, not unless they were chosen as an escort for him.
"Do you know what mission we'll have tomorrow?" She asked quietly.
"No, as I said, I have the day off today to celebrate." He snorted. "As if."
Ino rolled her eyes. "You really should just relax. It's not that bad. You knew what that you would have to do this one day, right?"
"Yeah, just not this early." He grumbled.
"You and Sakura both." She muttered, remembering Sakura's planning for the future.
He shrugged. "Let's go, find Choji. Didn't have a chance to tell him yet."
-o-
Temari smiled and barely managed to suppress her elated shout as they left Suna behind. She loved her village dearly, for all it's faults, but not having to worry about her decisions and how they would affect it? Bliss.
"Should I worry about you being so happy to leave Suna?" Kankuro asked an eyebrow raised.
"Hehe, no. Just glad that I won't have to make any decisions until we reach Konoha." She replied easily.
Baki nodded behind her, accompanied them once again, officially as a team-leader. Temari suspected it would be to evaluate her work in Konoha. But for now they simply settled into their old, familiar pattern. Only Gaara's absence put a damper on her spirits.
"It's weird." Kankuro spoke up. "With Gaara here, I was terrified, now that he isn't here it feels weird. And we weren't a team for all that long." He looked around, as if searching for him.
"I know what you mean." She replied. "And... I still feel bad for leaving him in Konoha."
"We are getting him out of there. And he shouldn't have been treated too badly, he's too valuable a bargain chip to waste like that." Baki added, watching her closely.
"I know. It doesn't change me feeling bad though. We abandoned him, just left him behind." Temari sighed.
"Well... he would have done the same to us, right?" Kankuro asked.
"Probably." She conceded, not that it helped any. She prided herself to be better than Gaara, not the same.
"Don't worry, we'll make it up to him. I mean with you as the Kazekage we can start with not sending assassins after him." Kankuro grinned at them.
Both her and Baki studiously ignored him. What was it with him and Konoha, whenever they approach the city his I.Q. seemed to drop. Maybe it was the heat of Suna? Made him smarter?
Or the city itself, seeing as they were still in the desert?
Something she would have to figure out, she couldn't afford to lose her best adviser, not on a mission this critical.
-o-
Sakura finished her morning session, her long hair styled perfectly, her skin perfect, beside the scars hidden beneath the bandages, her teeth brushed. She looked into the mirror and pulled on her new vest. A small whimper escaped her.
She was a chunin! She had been given the lead over her small team, she would have to make sure they didn't do anything stupid, like getting killed following her orders.
She took a deep, deep breath. Calm, she had to be calm. Another breath followed. She could do this, hell she had done it. Leading Naruto and Sasuke should be easy, just make sure they don't kill each other, use Naruto for ideas, use Sasuke to shoot down the obviously stupid ones, refine the rest or use her own ideas where applicable.
Yeah, she could do this, no problem!
A few minutes later she stared at Sasuke. No, no she couldn't do this, not at all.
"What happened to your hair?" She asked, almost begging him not to explain the frizzled and burned mop of hair on his head.
He looked away. "Accident with the hair technique... I might have tried too hard."
Sakura sighed, she had no idea why he would do that, but she wouldn't let him run around like that. "Come here." She ordered and quickly went to work on his hair. She frowned, it took a lot more effort than her own, even though he had far less hair than herself.
After a few minutes his hair had however returned, if not to his usual standards then at least something presentable.
"This exercise is about control, not power." She lectured him, geez he should have gotten that the first time, really.
"I know." He grumbled moodily.
"Hey! Sakura, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted grinning widely at them. "It's good to be outside again! You won't believe just how much being stuck in your own head sucks!" He whirled around them, running to and fro, constantly doing something. Sakura could feel a headache coming. He looked like a squirrel on far too much coffee, as he leaped from tree to tree, jumped up along the trees, then down again and back to them.
She narrowed her eyes. He couldn't face Tsunade like that, so she had to do something about him. "Well, since you have so much energy, how about a little spar? To get back into the swing of things?"
With Kakashi not showing up, they had plenty of time before they had to arrive at the mission office, they usually only showed up at 12, it was eight now, plenty of time for some training. Sadly Anko had to prepare for a mission at the moment, Kakashi had already gone on his mission and she hadn't seen Jirayia anywhere, probably searching for inspiration. Which she didn't mind, anything for more Icha Icha after all.
Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other for a few seconds, before frightening identical grins sprouted on their faces. Maybe she should have thought this through better.
A second later the boys clashed and it became readily apparent that Naruto's enforced rest had left him in Sasuke's dust, he had been catching up, slowly to the other boy, but after the two weeks of training Sasuke and her had gone through Naruto had a lot of ground to cover.
She frowned, but at the same time... he moved smother, just a little bit more elegant. And even with all the pent up energy he displayed, he seemed... calm, far more sure of himself. She frowned thoughtfully, combined with his excitement even though Sasuke moved faster and hit harder, Naruto could keep up. Somewhat at least.
"Hey! You aren't joining the fun?" He shouted at her. "Think you are too good to train with us? Now that you made chunin?" He taunted her, ignoring the little tick under her left eye. "And don't forget you still owe me some ramen!"
Oh, right... well there went her first chunin paycheck. Maybe she should ask Iruka for advice, she had seen him feed Naruto on occasion.
"Hmpf, she just knows she would get in the way." Sasuke joined in the taunting. When had he developed a sense of humor anyway? She would need to beat that out of him again.
"I need to observe you, to get an idea where you stand and what my team is capable of." She countered them. "Nothing more."
Hmm... maybe she could make them fight shirtless? Or would that constitute an abuse of power?
"Fine, coward." Naruto sniped, even as he dodged a punch from Sasuke, who nodded in agreement.
"Oh, for that I'll try to get the most disgusting D-Rank missions I can get and make you do all the work!" She shouted back, noting their flinches with satisfaction.
Sasuke leaned back and let a kick from Naruto sail harmlessly over his head. "Please don't Sakura we're sorry! Right bastard!" Naruto shouted back. Sasuke used the distraction to drive a fist into his stomach.
"Yes." He said blandly afterward, making sure Naruto couldn't retaliate.
"Apology..." She started to say haughtily, until she whipped her wires up and around the two, forcing them together and making them an easy target for her fists. "denied!"
Their eyes widened in panic as they struggled to get out of the wires, with little success obviously. "Bwahahaha! That will teach you to ignore your surroundings!"
A few minutes later she let the lightly bruised boys out of her wires. "Well, ready for round two?" She grinned. "This time with paying attention to what's happening around you?"
They nodded, glared at her slightly, but turned to each other. She watched them lazily, through half closed eyes.
Another nod, this time at each other, almost imperceptible. It was all the warning she got, as they suddenly rushed her, Sasuke moving ahead of Naruto, sharingan in full effect. She tried to look away, but she just knew he had caught her in a genjutsu. Quickly her hands flew into the familiar seal. It took some effort to break through it, but for her not too much.
Of course, the delay cost her, as Sasuke's fist met her face, sending her flying. Naruto followed almost immediately, the smile he wore telling her that ramen wasn't quite enough to sate his lust for revenge. And in a sparring match he had the perfect excuse to let out some steam.
"Eeep!" She whimpered, desperately blocking his punches. Maybe she shouldn't have attacked both of them at the same time.
-o-
Team seven stood before Tsunade in the mission office. She had decided to watch the proceedings here for a while, to get a feel for things and because Sarutobi had done it as well, as often as he could. It was a good way to connect with your ninja as well.
She raised an eyebrow at the state they had shown up in. Sakura had a black eye, Sasuke limped slightly and only Naruto appeared to not have suffered any injury at all. But then, she had seen how fast he could regenerate when she worked on him. As soon as she had managed to remove the worst damage his body had done the rest.
All of them were dirty as well. "What happened to you three?" She asked slightly incredulous.
"We sparred a bit and forgot the time." Sakura said quickly and slightly guiltily.
"I see, well good thing your mission doesn't require you to be presentable. To ease you in it's just a D-Rank for now, there's some fields on the west side of Konoha, they have some trouble with pests. You go and clear them. Afterward you clean up yourselves, once that's done you come back and I'll give you a C-Rank." She smirked at them. "And Sasuke, once that is finished we'll start with your training. Don't think you'll get out of it just because you've been busy all day."
He narrowed his eyes angrily, affronted by the implication that he wanted to give up. "I'll be there." He growled.
She actually wondered if he had another way to communicate, beside growls, grunts and one line statements. Oh well, she would just have to beat it into him.
Sakura on the other hand had sagged in relieve at the mention of a D-Rank mission. Nervous about her first official command eh?
The blond brat on the other hand seemed disappointed at the D-Rank mission, well and confused by her telling them about Sasuke's training, the boy hadn't told them about it apparently.
"Huh, what's she talking about Sasuke?" He asked his teammate.
"Hmm... I'm her apprentice." Sasuke explained quickly.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Huh... I would ask why you decided that, but I suppose I get why." She had a far away look in her eyes. "That was incredibly awesome after all."
Tsunade preened under the praise and noted with satisfaction that Sasuke had the same far away look as Sakura.
Naruto looked from one to the other and sighed. "Man I wish I had been there, I wanted to see that too."
Sakura patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, you were pretty awesome as well, doing your Kyuubi impression."
Kyuubi impression? Hmm, she would have to look into what exactly he did with the Kyuubi chakra, she didn't have the time to hear the details yet. "Well, you brats have your mission, off you go, we wouldn't want our clients to get the wrong idea now would we?"
They all shook their heads and quickly went away. Tsunade blinked, shouldn't they have been here way earlier anyway? She looked at the chunin beside her. "What's with them showing up so late anyway? You seemed to expect them so late."
He shrugged. "They are Kakashi's bunch, they are usually this late, so we just save them a scroll."
"So... even with Kakashi absent they are late?"
He blinked. "Damn... he rubbed off on them."
Tsunade could just tell that she would regret coming back. And much sooner than she had expected.
-o-
Hinata fell into her bed, utterly exhausted. Shino might not have been promoted to chunin, but he had been given leadership of her team, while Kurenai was on her B-Rank mission. And he pushed them hard, very hard.
She smiled into the pillow. She actually liked that. Kurenai did coddle them a little bit, not enough to hinder them, or slow them down, just enough so they didn't burn themselves out. But with the way things were going they might need every edge they could get.
She thought back to the many evenings she watched Naruto laying in his bed, utterly motionless.
Which brought her inevitably to Naruto waking up. And it also brought her to the invitation father had given Naruto. She could feel the blush creeping onto her face.
If Naruto came over then she would have to show him the compound, and the house... and her room. Her blush increased in intensity.
And once she had introduced him to everybody, they might go to her room to talk. And then Naruto would want to ki... ki... kiss... and then maybe he would want to...
She was out like light a second later, slipping into pleasant dreams of Naruto cuddling up to her, holding her and being awake and with her.
-o-
Naruto whistled slightly as he walked home. The day had been good, sure the D-Rank mission had been lame, the pests were easily dealt with and Sakura just coordinated them... without doing anything herself. But she did feed him afterward, so all was forgiven.
The C-Rank mission hadn't been more of a challenge really, patrol the outskirts of the village. It involved nothing but walking around the village wall, making sure nobody tried to sneak in. At least they were outside the village this time and Sakura had allowed them to spar every half hour for a few minutes. Though one of them had to be on guard at all time.
All in all though the day hadn't been bad. He got to move around, he finally had somebody beside the fox to talk to and he got to see something beside the same boring walls every freaking day.
Yes, it had been a good day.
"Hey brat." A familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. Jirayia leaned against a wall watching him amused. "You look as if you had taken a bath in the dirt."
Naruto shrugged, you got dirty when you sparred, especially when you sparred outside. "Well, me and my teammates did spar a lot today, gotta get stronger again.. Sasuke and Sakura had some time to improve I didn't have." And damn it that just wasn't fair! He should have gotten some training too.
"Oh? Well, then you won't mind me helping you out a bit in the evening?"
Naruto blinked and quickly shook his head. "Hell yeah! I'll catch up to them in no time!" Naruto shouted excitedly. Drawing stares from everybody around. He coughed, he usually had liked the attention, but now? It made him feel kinda weird. Stupid fox and stupid time, bendy, thingy...
Jirayia didn't seem to notice his reaction to the incredulous stares he received. "Good, wanna start immediately or do you want some ramen first?"
Naruto thought about it, ramen would be good, but he needed to catch up fast...
"Training first, I can have ramen afterward." He decided quickly.
"Good decision, come on." He led Naruto out of the village to a clearing team seven had passed in the afternoon.
"I actually wanted to teach this to you before the finals. Wish I had done it really, might have made a difference against Gaara." Jirayia said as they stopped. "But the team work training is better for the overall strength of your team."
Naruto frowned as he saw the troubled look that appeared on Jirayia's face when he said that.
"In any case, it did work out, more or less at least and I can teach this to you now." He grinned, bit into his thumb and brought it down on the ground. "Summoning no Jutsu!"
Naruto stumbled back as a giant toad appeared out of nowhere, not nearly as big as Sakura and Sasuke had told him Jirayia could summon, but big enough to be impressive. Slowly Naruto turned to Jirayia, eyes shining. "You are going to teach me how to summon toads?" He asked, awed.
Jirayia laughed loudly. "Exactly brat. You'll soon be able to use them instead of an overblown henge. Still takes a lot of chakra to summon them, especially the bigger ones. But nowhere near the amount you would need for a henge that big."
"Awesome!" Naruto shouted and hugged the older man. This would be so awesome, he looked at the toad, who watched them with a raised eyebrow.
"Who's the kid Jirayia?" The toad asked. "And why do you want to give him the contract?"
It didn't seem to mind, it just seemed curious.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto said, he could have shouted it in outrage, but shouting, especially if the other person... or toad, was just curious would be impolite. He blinked, there had been at least one good thing about his imprisonment, he now had volume control!
He smiled at the toad. "And one day I'll be the Hokage."
The toad looked down at him hard. "Hmm... so you are Naruto eh? I suppose I can see it."
Jirayia nodded quickly. "Of course, he stopped Shukaku singlehandedly."
Something about how quickly Jirayia... wait singlehandedly? "I only distracted him, my teammates actually brought him down." He quickly corrected Jirayia, sure he had done a lot, but without his friends he would have died.
Jirayia rolled his eyes. "Of course they brought him down. But you actually stopped him in his tracks. If only for a short time. How many people can claim that?"
Naruto thought about it for a second. "Not many I suppose." He quickly puffed his chest out proudly.
"Exactly!" Jirayia held his thumbs up, before he pulled out a scroll. "And once you sign here you'll be a step closer to the position of Hokage. The fourth himself used toads you know?"
"What? Really?" Naruto turned to the big toad again. "You guys are so awesome!" He grinned at it and looked down at the scroll Jirayia had spread on the ground. The last name on the scroll read Namikaze Minato, the fourth Hokage. Slowly, almost reverently Naruto knelt down and bit his thumb, carefully writing his own name down. He took way more care than usual too. He snickered a bit to himself when he noticed that the fourth hadn't bothered with it and just scrawled his name down hastily.
A quick glance revealed that Jirayia hadn't been much better. Naruto frowned. Should he have been like them? They were crazily powerful after all.
But not, just because others decided to treat something like this with disrespect didn't mean Naruto had to. This would be an important stepping stone to his goals. He would threat it with the respect it deserved!
He finished, stood up and turned to Jirayia, a haughty expression on his face. "Geez you and the fourth have horrible handwriting."
Jirayia stared at him for a second, then pulled the scroll away from Naruto and glared at the impeccable style Naruto wrote his own name down with.
"The hell? I expected you to just scrawl it down as fast as possible." Jirayia exclaimed.
"Hmpf, this is an important part of my way to Hokage! Of course I would be careful." Naruto tried his best to look regal and refined.
Jirayia's fist to the head ruined his pose easily. "Don't act like that, you look stupid." Jirayia smirked at him. "Still, I suppose me and the fourth should have been a bit more... precise. But then, we were a bit... ehem out of it at the time."
"Huh? Out of it?"
"Well, once you are older I'll tell you about it. You are a bit young for the joining ritual." Jirayia looked pained and rubbed his head. "I still get a headache just thinking about it..."
The toad chuckled behind him. "Come on, teach the brat how to summon, I wanna see how he does."
Naruto frowned at the toad, something about the way he said it...
"Of course." Jirayia nodded and knelt down beside Naruto. "You've already seen most of it, it's easy really. You just use these handseals and concentrate on what you want summoned. Just think of any toad for now." Jirayia demonstrated without any chakra.
Naruto nodded slowly and went through the seals on his own. Slowly, very slowly.
After a few minutes of this he nodded and prepared himself for the real deal.
"Don't forget to get some blood on your hands." Jirayia reminded him. Nodding Naruto bit his thumb and went through the hand seals, carefully pumping chakra into them. He had noticed before, but it did come easier now, the control. Not nearly as effortlessly as in his mind, but a bit easier nevertheless.
His hand slammed into the ground and a small toad appeared. It looked around and then up at Naruto. "Hi!" It greeted him. "Do you have any sweets?"
Naruto blinked at it, then looked at Jirayia. "Uhh... that any good?"
Jirayia shrugged. "Eh, it will do for a first try."
"Better than his first try certainly." The big toad observed. Causing a twitch in Jirayia's eyes. "Why you!"
Naruto smirked. "Alright! Then this time with all my chakra!"
"Wha? No! Don't!" Jirayia whirled around.
Naruto ignored him, the day hadn't been as trying as he would have liked and using his chakra meant training it, right? His hands flowed into the seals again, but instead of pushing a small amount of it out he took everything he got and slammed it through the seals.
He frowned slightly as he shaped the torrent of chakra. It didn't want to obey him, just as he expected, but he could force it into the shape he wanted it to, after attempting to control the Kyuubi's chakra in his mind-scape, this was child's play.
"Summoning no Jutsu!" He shouted, only to be overwhelmed by a sense of vertigo. He blinked as he came to a sudden stop. He towered over the trees... hey he could see his house from here! And most of Konoha. And man this looked awesome with the setting sun in the distance.
"Jirayia! Why did you summon me?" A deep voice rumbled angrily beneath Naruto. "I'm still recovering from that fight with Orochimaru."
"Hey! He didn't summon you! I did!" Naruto shouted indignantly, he did the work, no way would Jirayia... wait battle against Orochimaru? "You were the guy he summoned to fight against Orochimaru? The one with the awesome giant fireball?"
He hopped down, trying to look the toad in the eyes.
The toad blinked. "Wha? Who are you brat?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage." He said proudly.
"Uzumaki? Hmm..." The toad looked down at Jirayia, jostling Naruto badly. "He really summoned me?"
Jirayia shrugged. "I wanted to stop him, but he got over exited."
Naruto pouted, he knew exactly what he was doing.
"Hmpf. Well, I'm going again then, if it's only a brat like this summoning me for no reason."
"Hey! I didn't summon you for no reason." Naruto protested. "Who are you anyway?" He glared at one eye.
"Brat, I'm Gamabunta, the boss of all toads." The toad rumbled. "Show some respect, or I'll squash you."
Ohh, he had summoned the boss. But really, he should have expected it, of course Jirayia would only use the strongest to fight Orochimaru.
"Man, on my second try even." Naruto's grin threatened to split his face.
"What? This is your second try to summon something?" Gamabunta sounded rather skeptical.
"Believe it! First one was... uhh I can't see him down there."
"Hey dad!" A faint voice wafted up.
"But I used only very little chakra, you know for practice." Naruto preened. "So now you'll have to fight for me right?"
The eye he talked to blinked. "Brat, even if you managed to summon me on the second try, that just means you got a lot of chakra and decent control. It doesn't mean I have to obey you." He rolled his eyes. "We haven't even exchanged sake yet."
"Uhh... I'm a bit too young to drink. The last time I tried it convinced me of that." Well, mostly the headache afterward.
"Hmpf, then why would I follow your orders?" Gamabunta asked amused. "I might accept you as my underling, at least for now."
"Hey! I beat Shukaku on my own! Well, slowed him down at least." He quickly corrected himself.
"Huh? You did?" Gamabunta seemed actually surprised at that. His tongue lashed out and grabbed Naruto, setting him on the ground, allowing the gigantic toad to get a better look at him. "Hmm... well I suppose with the Kyuubi you would be able to match the one tail, would be kinda sad if you couldn't."
Naruto deflated a bit, he hadn't learned much about accessing the fox yet. Jirayia had been a bit reluctant to go much further than the most basic use of it's chakra, so he shouldn't feel too bad about only serving as a distraction.
"Exactly! So I'm the boss see!" He shouted at the toad.
The giant sword Sakura and Sasuke told him about slammed into the ground before him.
"What I mean to say, obviously, was that you are the boss, boss and I'm your unworthy underling." Naruto quickly corrected himself. After all, anybody who could use that awesome sword commanded respect.
Didn't they also say Tsunade used it to nail a snake as big as Gamabunta to the ground? He gulped, maybe he should be careful around her as well. She hadn't seemed that though to him, scary sure, but not that though.
"Hmpf, you sure are scared easily." Gamabunta chuckled.
"Scared? Scared! I've faced down the damn fox!" Though he really hoped the bastard never made it out of the seal, the way Ino and him had pissed it off. There were limits after all.
"Oh behind the seal in your own mind eh?" The toad chuckled loudly. "Hell yeah! You aren't scaring me. I'm just showing proper respect is all. But I figure you aren't worth the respect! So hah!" Naruto turned around and looked away haughtily, his new found patience and calm had it's limits after all.
He didn't flinch when Gamabunta wrenched the giant sword out of the ground and whipped it over Naruto. Jirayia stood a good distance away, watching the spectacle with something approaching embarrassed horror.
The sword came down again, this time even closer to Naruto, he couldn't stop the flinch that followed. A giant sword did just slam down beside him after all.
Slowly he turned around and glared at the toad. "I'm not scared of bullies. I've taken on Shukaku." A slight exaggeration. "I can take on you." He glared up, and up and up... he doubted the toad could even see it from his perspective.
"Hahaha. Sure you aren't Uzumaki, sure you aren't." Gamabunta shook his head. "Well, you've got some guts. I suppose I can allow you to be my underling for now."
He turned to Jirayia who breathed a sigh of relief. "Take care of my underling for me eh?" And as suddenly as the giant toad had appeared it disappeared again.
The other toad seemed to have gone with Gamabunta, since Naruto couldn't spot him anymore either. Jirayia glared down at him. "Don't do that again you hear me? Dealing with Gamabunta is a serious matter that requires perfect manners and preparation."
Naruto raised an eyebrow in response.
"Well... or unless it's a fight. And I suppose to introduce yourself." Naruto continued to stare flatly. "Ok, fine. I'm just owning him some money, just glad he didn't call me out on it."
He grinned at the boy. "But great job summoning him, definitely worthy of... " He trailed off. "Well, definitely a great job. We should go back though. There are a few things I have to discuss with Tsunade." A frown spread over his face.
Naruto shrugged, with the excitement of summoning the giant toad he hadn't notice how much the summoning had taken out of him. Not nearly as much as the super henge hat taken, not even close. But enough to completely wipe him out. "Yeah, sure. Sounds like a good idea." He yawned, he had been up and about a long time as well, so sleep really sounded good.
-o-
Thanks to ZuzVaiyo again.
Also, this will be the last chapter until Friday the 3. I'll probably start with a new chapter of Fragments. The next Friday will be expectations and switch each week.