Alright, I blame the Sasuke-Naruto reunion in this chapter entirely on my frustration at the apathetic Sasuke, the obviously brain dead Naruto, and the oh-lookie-it's-Sasuke-kun-I'm-gonna-stare-as-he-kills-my-captain-and-teammates Sakura of around chapter 308-ish. I mean, what kind of reunion was that? Sasuke! Show more emotion! That's your best friend, you moron! Naruto! Get off the damn floor and say something intelligent besides the boy's name! And Sakura! What the hell are you doing? Kick the crap out of him already! -hides in corner and sulks-
Oh, and this, like my last chapter, is unedited. So, forgive any spelling mistakes or horrendous grammar or general errors. Now why couldn't someone tell me that Anbu was ANBU before? 49 chapters in and this is the first time I hear about it..
----
For the Love of my Friends
Chapter Forty-nine: And the Ball Begins to Roll
by Foxie
----
Only four days until the finale of the Chuunin Exam and Konoha's finest (and some of the worst, admittedly) ninjas were still running around, making sure that everything was perfect. The final exam was more than just entertainment. It was also a massive political gathering of lords and nobles from all throughout Fire Country as well as some pretty influential people who were not of royal blood.
The fact that the Kazekage was going to see the exam as well was a matter of pride to the ninjas of Konoha. They, to word it very simply, wanted to show off. They were proud of Konoha and wanted to show everyone else that it was truly the best of the hidden villages, even out of the top five.
So when Team Eight, Naruto, and Jiraiya walked through the gates, they almost instantly lost track of each other in the crowds of people. Paranoid about how many people were suddenly in Konoha, Naruto jumped out of the crowd with a push of chakra and landed on a roof. He happened to land next to Shino, who had the very same idea.
"Why the hell are all these people here?" Naruto said, raising his voice so it could be heard over the loud conversations of the crowd below. He didn't remember it being as crowded the last time around. But, then again, he had been training most of the time and was distracted by that as well as thoughts of fighting Neji. Fighting Neji obviously didn't even reach the top hundred of Naruto's worries at the moment. He didn't even think it was qualified to go on the list in the first place. Neji was small fry compared to Orochimaru.
"I would imagine it's for the Exam finale." Shino said blandly. Naruto glanced over at the tense genin and wondered if it was as hard for him to be surrounded by so many rowdy people as it was for Naruto, who worried about whether the people around were just civilians or Sound nins in disguise. Shino never did seem to like crowds. Or people. Or anything really. Naruto grinned. He liked Shino. Smart guy.
"Hey." he called out quietly, waving his arm to catch the stoic genin's attention. Shino looked over at him, an eyebrow arched. Naruto stuck his hand out towards him. "You know, if we don't see each other before the exam, I just wanted to say.." he paused, looking down at the crowd. It was very possible that they wouldn't see each other for a while, not when there was so many people milling about. He looked back up at Shino. "Good luck with your match."
Shino looked at the hand proffered to him with little to no expression on his face, then took it in his own. "Yes." he said, a bare hint of a smile appearing. "You as well, Naruto."
---
Sasuke stared critically down at his sandals. Part of the material had been ripped off, a mild consequence of his heavy training for the last few weeks, leaving more foot showing than he was comfortable with. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out if it was bad enough to have to buy a whole new pair or if he could just grin and bear it. Or.. brood and bear it.
He glared down at the small patch of a pale foot that showed through the cut of the material. Was buying a whole new pair worth it? Would any one of his opponents in the exam even notice? Thinking of his first opponent, he immediately shook his head. Rock Lee had no clothing sense at all. But then again, neither did Sasuke. No one really expected that the only Uchiha that really counted (as Naruto had come to call him) would be so vain about his shoes.
It's so.. his thoughts trailed off when he couldn't find a word to define the disgust he felt for not wearing proper shoes. It wasn't just disgusting(who knows what you're stepping in), it was also improper, shameful.. His expression relaxed. That's the word. It's shameful. I'm not a savage. I'm an Uchiha.
Of course, for someone who should be training to kill his older brother, worrying about a tiny and unnoticeable rip on his sandal was more more than a little silly. But Kakashi had told him not to train and Sasuke wouldn't put it past the man to check up on him frequently. So he was stuck and had nothing to do.
And Sasuke was extremely bored. Once he had moved past his fixation with his sandals, he would move on to critically examining his nails, then to fretting over the length of his hair before wondering if his left arm was a tiny bit longer than his right arm. Which was, naturally, unacceptable because he was an Uchiha and thus had to be perfect.
I bet Itachi's arms are the same length. He made a face, dusting some dirt off of his black shorts, one of the few he owned and had pulled from the back of his closet for the Chuunin Exam. When he was made chuunin over everyone else, he wanted to look like it. He didn't want to look like a genin.
I bet chuunins don't fuss over sandals. A nasty voice in the back of his mind spoke up. He ruthlessly squashed it, his attention once again zooming on the tiny patch of flesh so indecently exposed.
He knew very well that he was being silly. But he had made up a perfectly good excuse for why he, an Uchiha, would indulge himself in these silly activities. It was all because he was in serious lack of a moving punching bag or kunai target (such as a certain missing dobe). He'd think about this for a while before he'd huff angrily, brood a little more, then go back to staring gloomily at his shoes.
So, since he was deep in serious thought, he was very irritated when he was promptly glomped by a warm female body. He gritted his teeth and kept on walking, ignoring the way that the girl was hanging off his back.
"Oh, Sasuke-kun.." the girl breathed into his ear with a high pitched giggle. The look on his face soured. He'd rather spend some more quality time with his shoes. "I have a present for you."
"Too bad." he said snappishly. "I don't want it." Unfortunately, his acknowledgment of her presence only encouraged her instead of making her back off. At least Ino, with her wandering hands and habit to tackle him whenever she saw him, would have backed off by now. That was the only positive thing that he could say about the blonde, really.
"I know you missed me." she whispered in his ear, trying to be seductive. Sasuke couldn't think of anything more pathetic than a twelve year old trying to seduce another twelve year old but, before he could repeat this train of thought to her, a familiar and welcome person ran up to them.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called out with a wide smile, waving at him. Without even thinking about it, Sasuke started to smile back but the oh so heavy weight on his back ruined the moment by making a disgusted noise.
"Hey, lookie Sasuke-kun." the girl said snidely and just loud enough for Sakura to hear her. "It's the mutated forehead." The surprised look on Sakura's face changed into a look of death. Sasuke tossed his head back, glaring at the girl. If looks could kill, the combined teamwork of Sasuke and Sakura would have knocked the girl six feet under already.
"Do I even know you?" he stated boredly. She giggled again, as if she thought he had made a funny joke. Sasuke's irritation grew at an alarming rate. He knew there was a reason why he hated girls.
"Get off of him, Ami!" Sakura snapped out, her green eyes flinty.
The girl, Ami he supposed, sneered at her. Now that he thought about it, she did look a little familiar. Perhaps she was from the Academy, one of the many who never made it to genin because of the difficult test. Sasuke knew that Team Seven themselves had barely passed, and that most of their passing rode on Naruto and his efforts. A fact that never ceased to annoy him when he thought about it. Back then, how was he supposed to know that teamwork was better than working alone?
Ami's shrill voice rang in his ear as he wondered if most girls possessed only half of a brain. Anyone with sense would know that screaming in your love's ear would not endear you to him. Not unless he had severe brain damage. "What? You think you and your overly large forehead are better company than me? Ha!" she tossed her purple hair over her shoulder. "I think not!"
Sasuke saw Sakura's eyes flash with pain and decided that enough was enough. He pivoted his shoulder, making the girl loose her grip on him. "A cockroach would be better company than you." he said coldly to the girl, walking towards Sakura as he spoke. His teammate looked up at him in shock. He didn't care.
Sasuke was well aware of the interest in him that many girls had displayed over the years. He was aware of the silly rumors and what the girls thought he 'liked best in a girl'. It annoyed him because one, the only way that they would know what he liked or not was if they asked him (not that he would have told them) but they never did, and because two, the conditions were so stupid and completely unlike anything he would think what would be a good quality in a girl. Not that he.. cared or anything.
Who the hell cared about the length of a girl's hair anyhow? Make-up, foolish styles, hair length, even the scent of their shampoo.. none of these mattered to Sasuke because he was aware of one universal and irreversible fact. None of that stuff could disguise complete and utter stupidity.
Okay, so maybe he did care about and pay attention to the qualities in girls. But only a little! Just enough so he could use it against them. Naruto had told him he was a sadist at heart. And Sasuke believed him. He would use the girl's stupidity against her and not feel a twinge of regret.
He turned, looking at the surprised girl. He smirked. "Besides, I only go for girls that made genin. Anyone who failed that simple test is beneath me." he said venomously. The girl flamed red. Making sure the other girl saw it, Sasuke gently touched Sakura's shoulder, making it clear who he preferred over Ami. "Come, Sakura." he said softly, seeing Sakura's pink face out of the corner of his eye. Her shoulder was oddly stiff under his hand.
They walked away, leaving a crushed girl behind. After a moment, when they were completely out of sight, Sakura elbowed Sasuke in the gut. Hard. Sasuke winced and took his hand off of her back. "That was mean, Sasuke-kun!" she chastised, trying so hard to keep a scolding look on her face. Her face was flushed pink but he couldn't tell if it was from anger, embarrassment, or something else. Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction when she let out a muffled curse. Turning abruptly towards him, she spoke again, keeping her voice down so that no one save for Sasuke could hear her. "You used me, you.. user!"
A small smile tugged at his lips. She amused him to no end. "Your point?" he said just as quietly. "She had a big mouth. Someone should have stuck a gag in it or something." Sakura's attempt to chastise Sasuke crumbled at an amusing memory of her early Academy days. Sasuke glanced over when a muffled snort escaped her. He was surprised by her amusement, having expected her to scold him some more. Something about manners and whatnot..
"Ino." she explained to him simply with a wide grin. Her eyes glowed brightly in mirth. "When we were in the Academy, Ami was making fun of me and Ino gagged her with flowers." Sakura smiled warmly at her fond memories.
"Hmph." Sasuke murmured, relaxing a little. So maybe there was two things that he liked about that clingy blonde. "She must have recognized the wide target."
Sakura was quiet for a moment, her smile fading as she contemplated over something. He could tell by the way that she was fidgeting with her hands that she wanted to ask him something. "Have you ever.." she trailed off for a moment, looking up at him. Suddenly, as if she was too embarrassed to look at him, she turned her gaze to the ground. "Have you ever considered getting a girlfriend? You know, to get them off of your back?"
Ah, so that's how it is. Sasuke mused, pretending indifference. "Yes." she looked up at him, almost holding her breath. "But I will never have a girlfriend." he finished blandly. He was gladdened by the disappointed look in her eyes. It meant that, though she had changed very much from the girl back in the Academy that clung to him so much, she still liked him. He had to hide a cocky smirk, feeling oddly pleased with himself.
"Oh." she said, trying to be indifferent as well but failing horribly. Sakura wasn't the one to hide her feelings. "Why is that?"
He looked over at her in all seriousness. She looked up and met his eyes. "Because.." he said quietly, leaning towards her. "The rest of the girls would kill her. And that would be a damn shame."
For a moment, she stared at him in shocked silence. Then, she started to laugh. "Ha, then you should get yourself a strong girlfriend!" she teased with a grin.
"Or one terrifying enough to scare the rest of them off." he added lightly, leaning away from her once more.
Sakura shot him a smirk. "Sorry, I don't think Anko's single."she said slyly. Sasuke's eyes widened in memory of that crazy woman and also at Sakura's bold comment. Just the thought of her even mentioning a possible relationship between the much older woman and Sasuke was enough to make the Uchiha laugh briefly. Sakura was forever corrupted. And he knew exactly whose fault it was.
"You know, you shouldn't hang around Naruto so much." he teased, a smirk on his face. "You're starting to lose that pristine good girl image." Sakura grinned at him with a blush but then snapped her fingers.
"Oh, Naruto!" she said, suddenly remembering something. "That's right! He's the reason why I was looking for you!"
Sasuke's attention was immediately captured on her at the mention of his rival. "Naruto?" he said, doing what little he could to suppress the excitement he felt from coming out in his voice. He wanted to show Naruto what he had learned while he was gone on the mission. Naruto was going to be so jealous that Sasuke was now the second user of the infamous chidori technique. He couldn't wait to rub it in the blond's face. His sandals were completely forgotten. "What about him?"
Sakura smiled brightly. "He's back!"
---
The first thing that Naruto did once he parted from Shino was bang on his old sensei's door loudly. Iruka, not wanting to disturb the neighbors, opened the door very quickly even though it was obvious that Naruto had woken him up from a nap. More than a little grumpy, Iruka stumbled through getting his clothes on as Naruto pushed him out the door to an unknown destination.
It was only when a steaming bowl of freshly made ramen was placed in front of him did Iruka really wake up. He blinked at the smiling chef before looking down to the stool to his left which, as per usual, was occupied by a blond heartily slurping down some noodles.
"It's been a while since I had this." Naruto revealed around some noodles when he realized that Iruka was looking at him. He grinned widely, slurping up the rest of the noodles. "It tastes better when you're with me." Iruka smiled for the first time in days and picked up his chopsticks, following Naruto's example.
Between bites and ramen bowls, they discussed a wide range of topics, most centering around the Chuunin Exam. Surprisingly enough, Naruto had more questions about who was going to watch the exam than the ninjas actually involved. Iruka was able to tell him a lot, being on one of the many committees dedicated to making the visitors' stay as comfortable as possible.
After a moment, Iruka finally got the reaction he had been expecting from his old student: irritation. He almost smiled when Naruto shoved some more noodles into with his mouth with a snort. The boy swallowed, then turned to face Iruka more fully, his face pulled in a frown.
"Isn't that just stupid?" he asked, dropping his chopsticks with a thud. Iruka started to reach for money to pay for his student's meal only to watch Naruto yank out his froggie wallet and slap down some money.
Wow. Iruka thought. That's the first time that he hasn't tried to con me into paying. Now that he thought about it, Naruto only had one bowl. That paled in comparison to his average of five to ten bowls per meal time. Iruka wondered if his old student was sick.
Naruto wasn't sick but he definitely was stressed out. It affected him to the point where his favorite food tasted like sawdust in his mouth. He tried to explain himself to the older ninja, feeling a need to express his irritation. "I mean, having so many people come for just one silly exam? I thought this was a hidden village."
Iruka smiled at the annoyed look on the blond's face. "If we were truly hidden, then we wouldn't get any missions, now would we?" he mentioned reasonably. He was surprised when Naruto shook his head.
"No, that's not what I meant." the boy said, bracing himself on his knees. He didn't look at Iruka. "If.. hypothetically.. something bad happened during the exam, like uh, maybe an attempted invasion, wouldn't just the massive amounts of people here just end up making the situation a hell of a lot worse?"
Iruka frowned, an ominous feeling passing over him. When someone asked about something hypothetically, it rarely was ever hypothetical. For not the first nor the last time in his life, he wondered what Naruto had gotten himself into this time. "If, hypothetically, something was to happen.." he paused, thinking about it. On a normal day, something like an attempted invasion or an attack by a large group of ninjas could easily be brushed off, if they followed their three step plan of removing threats.
First they would make an attempt to nip the problem at the bud with the forces closest to the problem in question. If that did not work, all of Konoha's attention would move towards evacuating as many civilians as possible out of the danger zones. The last and final step was, of course, to bring out the elite and take out the intruders. The last step never failed. The elite were truly the elite. There was little that they couldn't do. And, in all of Konoha's history, the only thing that they couldn't do was kill a rampaging fox demon.
Iruka absently stirred his noodles as he contemplated. But following such a plan right now.. he thought, biting his lip as he imagined it. It would be damn near impossible to take out the intruders without massive amounts of casualties. There was just too many people. Konoha ninjas would end up stretching out their forces as much as they could to protect as many people as they were able to and then, much like a stretched out rubber band, would all too easy to break.
He looked over at Naruto, who waited patiently for a response. "Hypothetically.. yes." he turned back to his noodles, leaving it at that. It was simply too horrible of a notion to linger on. Iruka didn't think such a thing would happen but then again.. even the great Yondaime couldn't have predicted that the Kyuubi would have come to their village or that he would die in the battle. "Having so many civilians in Konoha during a time of crisis would make the crisis turn into.." he trailed off with a shrug, trying to think of a word.
"Pandemonium." Naruto supplied, his eyes growing dark. He remembered the Chuunin Final Exam. There really wasn't much of a finale in the first place. Gaara and Sasuke had been fighting, and then something had happened and he fell asleep along with nearly every other person in the stadium.
But even when Sakura had woken him and Shikamaru up, and they had chased after Sasuke with Pakkun, Naruto didn't realize how bad the fighting was. All he had seen was Kakashi, Gai, and many other assorted jonins kicking the asses of the Sand and Sound nin invading forces.
It was only afterwards, when Naruto had heard that the Sandaime had been killed and after he had been patched up by a tired looking medic nin, that he had realized exactly how bad the attack had been. It had shaken Konoha to the core and broken its spirit. Even Gai had found it hard to make his enthusiastic youth speeches.
"You know, Jiraiya wants to tag me with an ANBU." Naruto mentioned quietly, seeming to change to subject randomly. Iruka would never know how much the hypothetical invasion and the upcoming topic were related.
Iruka looked at him with surprise. "Why would he want to do that?" Naruto felt an odd sense of pleasure at the outrage in Iruka's voice. Though he could understand why Jiraiya wanted to have him babysat and (had he not been the charge in question nor had not known how much more powerful the Akatsuki was compared to the average ANBU) would have wholeheartedly agreed, he still was glad that someone agreed with him.
"It's about my uh-" he looked around, as if he was expecting to see another genin or friend of his. Iruka frowned at his carefulness. Naruto leaned slightly forward. "It's about my furry friend." he explained in a quieter voice. "The Akatsuki- you know, Uchiha Itachi and the like- want him for some bizarre and probably illegal reason." The chuunin was shocked by the blond's nonchalant tone.
"That's horrible!" Iruka whispered, his eyes flashing protectively. Naruto smiled a little. And this is where he suggests more baby sitters.. he predicted.
A determined look passed over Iruka's face as he clenched his chopsticks. They snapped in his grip but he didn't even notice. "Hey, is one ANBU even enough?" he asked fiercely. Naruto smirked. He had his old sensei pegged.
Before they could continue on with their conversation, a very irritated medic nin in training walked in. Though Naruto pretended to be surprised and enthusiastically greeted her, he had been aware of her presence for five long minutes, accompanied by a much subtler and subdued presence that he had written as one of the many vaguely suppressed chakras in the village. Her presence, unsuppressed or hidden and shining like a beacon to anyone who cared to look, had been the main reason why he had been a little reluctant to talk about Kyuubi so openly.
Without even giving him a proper greeting, Sakura yanked him off his stool and pulled him outside, ignoring his protests. Iruka, when Naruto pleaded for assistance, only saluted him with his broken chopsticks and a smile.
The flaps on the stand fell and Naruto was suddenly jerked to the side. "Say something to him!" Sakura growled in his ear. It took a moment for Naruto to realize that 'him', the owner of the muted chakra that had been accompanying Sakura outside of the stand, was Sasuke. Naruto blinked owlishly at the expressionless boy. "He's been a pain in the ass the whole time you were gone!" With that, she shoved him forward.
Sasuke looked him up and down, his face carefully indifferent. Naruto wondered why he hadn't recognized his chakra and promptly realized that it was because he had been expecting to feel the evil taint of Orochimaru's chakra. He couldn't help but feel a little smug about that, since it had been because of his actions that Sasuke's chakra remained pure, but under that unreadable gaze, even that small sense of pride wilted.
"Uh.." Naruto looked at Sakura. She made encouraging sounds, gesturing for him to say something. Naruto, scratching the back of his head, looked back at Sasuke. "I'm back from my mission." he stated the obvious, clueless as to what he was supposed to say.
"Oh.." Sasuke said softly. There was a pause in which Sasuke looked at him with that same annoyingly emotionless face. "..You were gone?" To Naruto's surprise and growing annoyance, Sasuke looked away, a bored expression passing over his face. The next sentence set Naruto's temper off like nothing else could. "I didn't even notice."
Sakura had to physically haul Naruto back when the blond started to lunge at Sasuke. "You prick!" he yelled, shaking his fist at the now smirking boy.
"Really, Sasuke-kun.." Sakura said, surprised at how much force it took to hold Naruto back. She would have figured that her training with Tsunade would have at least made her a little stronger but it seemed like she still wasn't stronger than Naruto. "That's.. not exactly how friends are supposed to act.."
"Yeah!" Naruto said loudly, stomping his foot for emphasis. "What she said!"
Sasuke's attention was drawn by Naruto's foot which, as it had been for the last few days, remarkably sandal-less. He grimaced, reminded of his own sandal predicament. "Where's your shoes, dobe?" he said, looking at Naruto with distaste. At Naruto's mumbled confession that he had lost them, Sasuke smirked again. "How utterly distasteful. And so you." Sakura had to restrain Naruto again.
Even though Sasuke smirked just out of Naruto's reach and Naruto shouted obscenities and flailed, both of them smiled to themselves, reveling in a feeling of content that both had felt before when they realized that the other was just as lonely. But now it was less about the knowledge that they were alike and thus not as lonely as they thought.
Now, based on more than just knowledge of each other's pain, they smiled inwardly, understanding the message that the other was sending to him.
I'm home, Sasuke.
Welcome back, Naruto.
---
There was no better day than a day where he had nothing he needed to do. Sure, the others had tried to rope him into joining a committee and help out with the Chuunin Exam, but Kakashi was much smarter than that. He begged off the duty, using Sasuke's training as an excuse.
It still surprised him how much influence the Uchiha name still held. When mentioning Sasuke, everyone immediately backed off, agreeing that he should train the only remaining Uchiha that really counted.
Hehe.. Kakashi grinned to himself. He liked that tag on and had to applaud Naruto for thinking of it. Sasuke, after all, wasn't really the last Uchiha. Itachi was still lurking about and no doubt his pride would be wounded if he found out that everyone consistently referred to Sasuke as the last Uchiha. Kakashi smirked grimly.
Of course, he hadn't mentioned to the committees at all that he had given Sasuke the last week off. Kakashi had told the irate boy that he needed to be in top form before being pummeled by Rock Lee, which meant letting his body heal from his training.
Kakashi grinned at the memory of Sasuke's reply. The boy had been angry at the thought that Lee would defeat him, and even more so at the thought that Kakashi believed that he didn't have any chance at all.
It was called reverse psychology and he was surprised that Sasuke, as smart as he was, didn't catch on. Though it was all well and good to have people believe in you and believe in your inevitable victories, it wasn't good at all to get a big head over it. Big heads make big targets, after all.
He had noticed that Sasuke had grown overconfident of himself over the years of the Academy and, while placing him in Team Seven had knocked him down a peg or two, he still had an annoying tendency to always believe that he was going to win.
Kakashi's comments stating otherwise had two purposes. One, and the most important one of them all, was so that if Sasuke did lose, he wouldn't feel as dejected with the loss. No other person on the continent could pout and sulk like an Uchiha could and Kakashi would rather not have to face that again.
The second purpose was slightly selfish. Kakashi wanted Sasuke to win. Badly. Gai's student fighting his student? There was already a large bet going on over who would win the fight and Kakashi had placed a large sum on Sasuke, despite his own beliefs that Sasuke couldn't match Lee in strength, speed, or taijutsu. Talk about blind faith..
If Sasuke thought that others believed that he had no chance, the boy's pride would shove itself to the surface and demand that the Uchiha prove them wrong. A person fighting to prove others wrong was a better fighter than an arrogant fool who thought that the match was already decided in his favor, but only by a little.
The jonin decided, putting aside all bets and rivalries, that he was very worried about Sasuke and the boy's overinflated ego. After all, wasn't pride one of the deadly sins? Kakashi had to wonder what would happen to Sasuke if his pride increased to the point where he no longer cared, or worse, if his pride was crushed underneath the heel of more powerful ninjas. Either way, Kakashi was sure that Sasuke would not be able to survive such a thing.
He didn't worry about this as much with his other two students. Despite her determination, Kakashi had found that Sakura was seriously lacking in pride, something that had alarmed him, especially when he had first believed her to be in abundance with it. After all, who would tackle a scowling boy without first being comfortable enough with herself to do it?
Sakura had steadily grown in self confidence over the last few months, mostly because of her medic nin training. Kakashi wasn't quite sure where that hobby had started, nor would have ever predicted it as a path for her, though he should have because of her nearly perfect chakra control. Because she knew that she was weaker than the rest of her team, but she knew that she brought something value to them as a medic nin, her confidence in herself stayed at a very manageable level, for this Kakashi was very glad.
He was used to dealing with arrogant boys(having been one in his youth), not arrogant girls. That was way out of his field of expertise.
Speaking of boys, Kakashi thought back to one of the most confusing and mind boggling boys he had ever met. When they had met, he had mistaken him for being an arrogant brat who thought too highly of himself and had gleefully anticipated crushing his confidence. After all, who really snapped out that they were going to be the Hokage and show the rest of them what Hokages really were supposed to be?
Now that Kakashi thought back, he realized how blandly Naruto had proclaimed his dream. Sure, it had been loud as one could have expected from a blond, but it lacked spirit. And Kakashi realized how much of Naruto's perceived arrogance lacked spirit as well.
Like a well practiced script, Kakashi thought, frowning a little. His expression tensed a little more when he thought on how Naruto and Sasuke interacted with other. They seemed to have a dangerous rivalry at times. And other times, they almost seemed to be best friends.
Though Naruto has been unusually careful in messing with Sasuke's ego. On numerous occasions, when the two boys sparred, he had seen Naruto pause in the middle of battle, as if checking himself. This only happened after Sasuke fell too far back or couldn't block an attack all the way.
Even worse, he had seen Naruto's eyes widen in worry if Sasuke didn't get up fast enough, then had watched the boy loudly proclaim that Sasuke had broken his hand and retreat to nurse over his imagined injury. This naturally prompted Sasuke to smirk and insult Naruto's punches, even though that Kakashi knew the boy was hurting from the blows. Either way, Naruto's behavior was highly suspicious. It had gotten to the point where Kakashi actually asked Naruto about it.
The boy had feigned ignorance, something that was painfully obvious to Kakashi's eye, since a guilty look had passed over his face right before he lied. So Kakashi didn't ask any more and mused to himself. Why did Naruto hold back? Why didn't Naruto follow through with the fighting words that came out of his mouth every time that he and Sasuke verbally sparred?
At first, he was ashamed to admit that he thought that Naruto wanted to hold Sasuke back. The point of having a team was to have other people push you to become an even stronger ninja. By not fighting Sasuke with his fullest capabilities, Naruto was essentially making Sasuke weaker.
Then came the mission in Wave Country and Kakashi suddenly knew why Naruto never fought Sasuke with his all. He felt stupid for not realizing it at first, not when it should have been so obvious. It was clear in the sudden way that Kyuubi's youki had wrapped around him on the bridge he nearly died on and the bizarre way Naruto had acted afterwards, moody and unwilling to fight anyone.
Naruto was terrified of hurting Sasuke. And, Kakashi mused, had all the reason in the world to be. One, he was the host of a powerful demon and there was no telling when youki would bled into Naruto's chakra and make Naruto monstrously strong and deadly. Two, he was unnaturally strong even on his own. And three... Kakashi sometimes worried about number three. Sure, he could get over the Kyuubi and the effects that came with it, since Naruto seemed to have decent control over the fox, but the third reason why was what made the situation even worse than it had to be.
Not only did Naruto have the strength and the energy to kill Sasuke if he wanted to, but he also had the experience. Kakashi couldn't count on his hands how many times Naruto had made a motion as if to perform a killing blow, only to stop short of it. It was a very subtle movement but Kakashi had been a captain of the ANBU. Kakashi didn't miss much, no matter how subtle or hidden it was.
He noticed it almost immediately and it scared him. For many reasons, obviously. Where had Naruto learned to kill? Kakashi certainly didn't teach him it. Jiraiya condoned killing unless it was absolutely necessary so it wasn't him either. And Kakashi seriously doubted that the almost motherly chuunin Umino Iruka had taught him how to kill either.
Killing itself was easy. Certainly it was much easier than subduing, as it meant the difference in skill that it took to immobilize a person for a long time, or to break their neck in a span of a second. But dealing with the emotional backlash from killing was something that had to be taught in order for one not to become insane.
Naruto's actions reminded Kakashi of a killer but Naruto's words reminded him of an idealist. How could two completely contrasting characteristics lie in one person? "I know a ninja must kill. Some people must be killed in order to keep the balance between powers. I am not naive enough to believe I can live without killing someone." he had said before and Kakashi wondered how much of what he said was spoken from experience.
Kakashi had put this in the back of his mind to chew on later, having no explanations or answers to his questions at the time, a tactic that he found worked quite well. And, forgetting himself and everything that he had figured out about the blond previously, he had chastised Naruto on the same arrogance issue that he found himself struggling with because of Sasuke.
"You know, you can't win every battle." he had commented. It seemed fairly innocently due to the context. They were on a mission, searching for another lost animal of the Fire Lady. This time, it wasn't a cat but a huge tiger.
Kakashi had idly wondered if the Fire Lady's constant misplaced animals had less to do with a conveniently 'open' gate and more to do with the utter terror that the animals had of her suffocating hugs. Team Seven tried to coax the tiger out of a tree and calm the poor creature down. The tiger, being surrounded by a bunch of strange people, was far from being coaxed and lashed out at the closest target, Sakura. The girl had screamed immediately, tearing Kakashi's gaze away from his book.
But before Kakashi could move to defend the girl, Naruto had already stepped between her and the huge cat, taking four thick claws in his back. The tiger, seeing the space created by Naruto's lunge to save Sakura, immediately darted out and back into the woods once more.
The initial concern for Naruto's back wearing off after the boy had insisted that the barely sliced past skin, Sasuke had berated him for moving out of the formation. "Now we have to go find that stupid thing again." the boy had fumed, even though Kakashi knew he would have been in front of Sakura and protecting her before Naruto could, had he been in the right angle to do it.
Naruto mumbled something like an apology as Sasuke angrily walked away, Sakura, after a small apologetic glance towards Naruto, on his heels. Naruto had looked so dejected by this that Kakashi stepped forward, actively participating in the mission for the first time in the last three hours.
"Let me see your back." Kakashi had asked and had immediately been appalled by the sight. Naruto shrugged off his shredded vest and shirt, revealing four long and bloody gashes going down the length of his spine. It looked absolutely horrible but when Kakashi had started to gather chakra to heal it, Naruto backed away from him.
"No point." he had explained, pulling back on his shirt with a wince as the material rubbed against his raw back. "They'll heal soon anyway." He had looked away then but Kakashi still could see his defeated expression from what little was exposed of the boy's face.
"You know, you can't win every battle." Kakashi had mentioned. He then prepared to go into a rant, or possibly story mode to teach Naruto about the old phrase 'you win some, you lose some'.
But Naruto had turned to him with the most heartbreakingly sad smile that Kakashi had ever seen in his entire life. His entire rant died in his throat. "Yeah." the boy said quietly. "But it seems like the battles that you do win never truly are a real victory while the ones you lose only make everything harder in the long run. Or make the long run itself an impossible concept." He stuck his arms through his vest, his eyes focused on nothing. "But that's the life of a shinobi, isn't sensei?"
Why was it that only the people he viewed as being weaker or less intelligent than himself (he would never have called Naruto an idiot but he had called Obito one, numerous times) were the ones with the insights on life that he, surprisingly, could find himself agreeing with?
Wasn't Obito's bold declaration about teammates from what he based his entire life from then on? Wasn't he walking towards the very stone that reminded everyone who cared to understand about what the pain of being a shinobi was, what Naruto had revealed was the bittersweet victories and devastating losses that came from living the life of a ninja?
Obito's death had been a devastating loss, for him at least, while the sweet victory of Konoha against the rock nins had been tainted with sorrow. Everywhere he looked, every real victory was tainted with loss. Why couldn't there be a circumstance where they would win without pain? Why did life have to be so damn hard?
Without Kakashi's knowledge, his feet had started to walk a very familiar path towards the memorial. While he had noticed it halfway there, he didn't bother to stop until he was only twenty feet away from his usual spot. Between him and the stone, a lone figure knelt on the ground, gently running a thin hand past the numerous names etched on the face of it. He was about to go away, not wanting to intrude on another's mourning but he recognized who it was.
Instead of leaving, he took a step forward. And then another and another until he stood right next towards the figure. Well aware of his presence, the kneeling figure continued to look at the stone with detached eyes.
"..He would have been happy." the first words to come out of the figure's mouth were not harsh but soft. Her fingers lingered on the name 'Uchiha Obito'. Kakashi glanced over, his eye swiftly moving over the familiar female features with more than a little pain. It had been quite sometime since he had seen her, after all. "He always.. wanted to be acknowledged for something." A bitter laugh escaped her. "Well, at least he is acknowledged in death. I'm sure that's more than he hoped for."
"He would have been happy that you're here, Rin." Kakashi corrected quietly. The medic nin shot him a vaguely annoyed glare. It confused him, seeing her as if she barely had enough energy to feel anymore.
Obito's death had affected him deeply but Rin had reacted like a piece of her soul had been dragged off along with the Uchiha's. There was times at which Kakashi had wondered if she was suicidal but, seeing as she had been away from his supervision for more years than he cared to remember and she was still alive, he figured that he should have given her a little more credit. She might have been in serious emotional pain but she wasn't a coward. No student of Yondaime could stand the thought of being a coward.
"How can you.. do this?" Rin questioned him, her eyes narrowing. "How can you stand it here, knowing that he had died for this village and all they gave him and his name was a tiny place on a stupid stone?"
Kakashi sighed, shifting from one foot to another. "I suppose.." Many reasons went through his head. Most went out the window. He doubted that Rin would appreciate his long hidden hope that Obito would walk through the gates one day, all in one piece and pissed off that they had left him there on that battle field to fend for himself.
Every time that he went through this particular fantasy, the jonin could never come up with a good pretend reason why Obito had taken a year (then two, then five, then ten years) to find his way back to Konoha but Kakashi had always teased him mercilessly about it, no matter how late in coming that the reunion was.
Kakashi couldn't find a good answer for Rin's question. Why did he stay in Konoha? After all the disappointing victories and devastating losses, why did he still stay a ninja? Why even bother with life at all when it was too damn hard to deal with?
"Because." Kakashi said finally. Rin's eyes narrowed a little in confusion. Kakashi decided to be more specific. "Because.. he was here. Because I like Konoha and I like the people who live here. Because I like being a ninja. Because this is where I'm needed and because the people of this village give me a purpose." His voice was light in tone but he only spoke the truth. "That's why." he said with a nod, smiling a little.
Rin looked away after a moment. "I wish.." she murmured, her eyes fixed on the name of her long dead beloved. "I wish it was that easy for me." With a sinking heart, Kakashi watched as she stood up. With a sense of desperation, Kakashi grabbed her arm. With utterly blank and dead eyes, she looked up at him, not even bothering to yank her arm out of his firm hold.
Kakashi had to swallow before he could finally speak. "Before you do anything you might regret, like leaving the village for good or something.." he said quietly, resisting the urge to shake sense back into her. "Can't you.. give me a chance to prove that staying here isn't the worst possible thing in the world?"
Rin frowned at the plea she could hear in his voice. "That chance may have come and gone already." she said neutrally. Something in her eyes changed and Kakashi felt hope rise up in him once more. She wasn't beyond reach after all.
Being up in the mountains with little to no human contact save from the other people training there with her had left her with too much time to contemplate her past. Rin wasn't a cold person and that's probably why she had been affected so heavily by Obito's death in the first place. Kakashi needed to remind her of all the things that she had loved and probably still did about Konoha. He had to remind her of all the small things that she had adored, all the people she had missed, and most of all, why she had become a ninja in the first place.
And he knew what his first plan of action was. He smiled when Rin shot him a suspicious look, most likely sensing his amusement.
It was about time that Rin met Team Seven.
---
The boy bounced up and down on his feet, trying to look everywhere at once but sadly lacking in another pair or three of eyes. His hand was clenched tightly by his mother's. It was fairly hot in the village, hotter than what he was used to, and he wanted to let go of her warm hand but she was too worried that he'd run off and get lost. He wasn't that stupid..
"My, it's so crowded here." his mother murmured to his grandfather. His grandfather only took a large gulp of water from his bottle before nodding. "Was it this bad when you were here?"
"Nah." his grandfather said, idly rubbing the boy's head affectionately. The boy tried to twist away. It was so hot that he had abandoned his hat. As much as he loved his grandfather, he didn't want to share body warmth in a place that was hot enough as is. "Konoha has a pretty big population but this exam thingy must have brought in people from all over."
"Like us!" the boy piped up, once again excited. From his angle, he could just barely see the famous mountain he had heard so much talk about. But then a huge man stepped in their way and he couldn't see anything once more. Rats.
"That's right." his mother said with a smile. She leaned down to address him more specifically. "We're here for your birthday but you're going to have to say thank you to Kakashi-san. It's because of him that we were able to get in to see this exam, after all."
His grandfather sniffed. "I don't know, I hear that this exam thing is extremely violent. I'm not sure that it's the best thing for Inari to watch. In fact- Oh, look! Food!" the old man immediately ambled quickly towards a food stand and took his place in line.
Inari pouted. As far as he could see it, he and any innocence regarding violence had been ruined for life. Too many things had happened to them and their village for any hope of the boy to not be effected by it. His grandfather was saying it more out of principle than anything else.
And his mother was against violence and didn't want him to see more danger than he had to. She was initially opposed to him going to the exam, but she also knew that he might do better to learn from ninjas than any sort of negative role model he could find in Wave Country. Everyone in their village was far too passive to understand why he had taken to patrolling their village with his crossbow in hand. She didn't want him to get hurt if he did something stupid but she also wanted him to be able to defend himself if the situation called for it.
She knew better than to ask a ninja to train her son but she thought that he could learn a thing or two by watching the exam. And, as a plus, she'd be there at his side, ready to tell him which one of the things that he had learned would get him grounded for life if he even thought about doing them.
Inari grinned and wiped his hand off on his shorts when his mother finally let go. It was about time. He grabbed on the material of her dress and looked around. The village was as awesome as his friends had described it. Excitement surging through him, he looked up, wanting to see the ninjas that one of his friends said always loitered the roofs.
The boy hadn't believed him at first, as being on top of the roof got him grounded by his mother, but, seeing two ninjas lightly land on opposite roofs and run off into an unknown direction, he couldn't help his giggle. Lee hadn't been pulling his leg.
His mother distractedly patted him on the head as she tried to explain to her father exactly why the climate was so hot in Konoha. With a grimace at the all too hot touch, the dark haired boy twisted away, stumbling away from his mother and the line. She didn't notice his absence.
Inari started to walk back to them when a shine on the floor caught his attention. Curious, he walked over to it and hunkered down to get a closer peek. It was a well worn shuriken that had extremely dull points. The boy, as he picked it up, remembered that one of his friends had told him that only the dull ones were used for training while the sharp ones were used for killing. It was a rather blunt statement but the older boy wasn't exactly the type of person that his other friends felt comfortable in correcting.
Save for Naruto, of course. He never really seemed to be afraid of anyone, let alone Neji. Naruto was so cool. Not as cool as Neji or Sasuke of course, but still pretty cool in his own right.
The boy stood once more, the shuriken in his hand as he looked around for who could have dropped it. Obviously they needed it back if they wanted to train, right? He needed to give it back to them! With this good intention in mind, he started to try and find a ninja to ask but couldn't tell the average citizen from the average tourist from the ninja.
Something dark flashed in the corner of the boy's vision and he turned just in time to see a darkly clad person darting into an alley. It's a ninja! Inari thought happily, running over to the alley. As soon as he gave the weapon back, the sooner he would be able to eat. His mother and grandfather wouldn't miss him. He was only going to be gone for a few seconds.
"Hey hey!" Inari said, his voice echoing strangely in the alley "You dropped your weapon thingy!" Oddly enough, he couldn't see the ninja he had been chasing. "Hey, where did he go.." Pouting but determined to give the rude ninja his weapon back, he continued to walk deeper into the dark alley, ignoring the tell-tale feeling of being watched.
He couldn't see anything and could barely make out the outline of his hand. He looked up, wondering why it was so dark. He realized then that he wasn't in an alley, he was in an abandoned building. It hadn't been an alley, it was a long entrance. Inari gulped. Dark alleys hadn't triggered his alarm but dark buildings made him realize that he needed to leave. Now.
Realizing his mistake and more than a little eager to get out of the creepy place, he immediately turned around to run for a exit but collided into a warm body. Inari shrieked, falling to his rear on the ground. All of the fears that he had pushed aside in his self-appointed role as the guardian of his village suddenly surged to the surface at the sight of white eyes barely flashing in the darkness.
----
"Four more days!" Lee sang out, balancing on one foot. "I can't wait to fight Sasuke-kun!" Tenten smiled at his enthusiasm. They were resting after a last minute team training session. She sat on the ground with her back to the tree and barely an arm span away, Neji stood, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the tree. Lee was excitedly bouncing in front of her and Neji, unable to sit still.
She leaned over to Neji, who had been quiet for the last ten minutes. "And you? Are you excited for the exam?" she asked him, looking up at him with a smile. She was trying to pull him into the conversation. Neji's pale eyes flickered over to her, then over to Lee's bright grin before they closed.
"It is merely a battle, one of many that I will win." he replied, sounding bored. "The other fools-" here Lee frowned at Neji, being one of those 'other fools' "-are not opponents that I will have to exert much effort in destroying."
Tenten bit her lip. "But what about Hina-"
"Especially Hinata-sama." Neji said firmly. "She won her battle just because the sand nin underestimated her. If they fought again, Hinata-sama would lose."
Lee frowned even more, looking like a kicked puppy. He tried so hard not to fight with Neji. But sometimes the genius pissed him off to no end. They were friends, right? But why did Neji always have to look down at everyone? Tenten shot him a warning glance when she saw his hand fist.
Lee took a deep breath before continuing the conversation in an amiable tone. "Well I think Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun will be fun to fight." he said firmly. "And I thought Hinata-san fought well in her battle." Lee couldn't remember who Hinata was but he was a nice person.
Neji snorted. "It is a pity that most of the people involved with the final exam are just a bunch of rookies. The Uchiha, of course, is someone to watch out for, but none of the other rookies stood out in any other way." he opened his eyes. "The preliminaries were pathetic."
Tenten winced and looked away. Lee turned to Neji, his eyes blazing. "Everyone fought with their all! It was not pathetic!" he snapped angrily. "Everyone's fights were inspirational!"
"Please." Neji said with a groan. "You defeated that fat kid with one blow." Lee growled softly under his breath.
"Chouji-kun is a good fighter.." Tenten spoke up reluctantly in defense of the younger boy. She had met him through Lee and had thought he was a nice guy, if not a little short tempered about his weight. "And a good friend too. He just-"
"Lost." Neji cut in blandly. "That's all that matters in a fight. Winning or losing. Whatever luck managed to get the rookies this far in life will falter in the battle field in four days. Destiny will decide how each of them is beaten."
A strained silence hung amongst them. Lee was breathing very hard, trying to control his temper. He had to remember that Neji was his teammate and teammates don't try to punch each other's lights out. I hate that destiny talk! Hard work is what decides your life, not this preordained stuff! He took several calming breaths, trying to think happy thoughts. If someone caught him fighting Neji, he could be disqualified from the exam for unsportsmanship-like conduct.
Tenten was subdued. It was often up to her to keep the peace in their group, even though she often sided with Neji. But she found herself a little lost as to why she even bothered. Doesn't matter if he's cute, Neji is a real bastard. She sighed, feeling sorry for Hinata. She liked the shy girl. Even though she knew why Neji hated the main branch, she couldn't understand why he always heaped it on little Hinata's shoulders. It wasn't like she was the one who slapped him with the seal in the first place. But it really wasn't any of her business so she tried to keep out of it.
Neji was distracted by the thoughts of his own upcoming battles. That Shino is relatively unknown. He mused. Best keep up my guard. And after that, either Hinata or that weird Naruto kid. He shook his head. Neither of them would win against him. Hinata was too weak and Naruto was-
A sudden memory popped up of a blond outlined in impossibly hot chakra that formed a shell about his body. Violent yet controlled winds ripping a hole through metal, the jaw aching screech of it bending at his will-
Neji shook his head. A complete fluke. The Hyuuga reminded himself. Just like Lee and his gates. Only works once in a while, most of the time it's a liability. In a sense of heavy curiosity, he had allowed his Byakugan look into the strange red chakra and had seen it eat away at the boy's muscles and cells as well as slowly eroding his inner coils. Heavily destructive chakra that the boy couldn't possibly dare to bring out during the Chuunin Exam. Thus, making him an easy opponent.
He couldn't remember exactly who else was fighting but he knew that the only two he would need to worry about after was the Uchiha, who he was fairly certain he could bear, and that odd sand nin, Gaara. Gaara was really the only opponent that Neji felt apprehensive about. The red head wasn't just a genin, he was a real ninja who wouldn't hesitate to kill. That Sound nin girl he nearly killed in the preliminaries was brutal evidence to that.
"Um.." Tenten broke the silence. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to leave in a bad mood. She searched for a nice neutral topic that no one would conflict heavily on. "So, how's training?" The tension almost visibly broke.
Lee enthusiastically gave them a lengthy summary of what he and Gai had been up to and Neji follow with a brief explanation of his training. Curious about the Hyuuga's training, Lee asked a few questions and, without any biting remarks, Neji answered. Tenten sighed in relief. Now if only life was as easy as this..
---
Nearly succumbing to fear, it took Inari a moment to realize that the light hands on his tear covered face weren't harmful at all but were instead trying to calm him.
"Please, please stop crying." a soft female voice asked, almost sounded on the verge of tears herself. In spite of himself, the boy felt the tears slowly stop as curiosity took hold. "Ah, now see? That's much better." She grasped his hands gently and squeezed, reassuring him as much as she was reassuring herself.
The boy frowned at her silhouette, sniffling a little. Though she was much bigger than him, she looked far too small to be an enemy ninja and besides that, there was a gentleness in her voice and in the way that she soothed him that didn't remind him anything of the only two female ninjas he had met before in his entire life. They both had been really forward and kinda scary. Inari decided that she had to be a Konoha native or, like him, was just visiting.
"I saw you walking in here." she explained without his asking. "This building was supposed to be torn down but because of the exam, it was delayed. I didn't want you to get hurt so I came in after you." She pulled him up to his feet and started to tug him back to the entrance. "Come." Inari didn't resist her, dropping the shuriken to the ground as he edged very close to her side.
"How can you even see me?" he asked, very curious. He could barely see the shapes of the things in the room. Every hulking shadow looked like a ninja just waiting to pounce. He pressed himself closer to the girl.
"I can see your chakra." the girl replied. Almost as if she could feel his confusion, she explained. Her soft voice echoed in the room. "There's this.. light, deep down in everyone. This light, this energy is called chakra. I can see chakra and I can see your inner coils, so I could tell that you were there."
"So you were following my light?" he said, frowning to himself. It sounded kinda weird. And a little embarrassing. He blushed, nervously tugging at his clothes. A thud from their left made him stiffen and yelp. The girl paused in her footsteps, looking towards the direction of the sound as well.
"I.. want my mom." Inari whispered. He didn't like the dark at all. What had possessed him to walk in that not-alley anyway? The hand enclosed around his tightened briefly.
"Don't worry. We'll find her in no time at all." the girl said soothingly. The closer and closer that they got to the entrance, the more and more that Inari could see of his rescuer. She was much more delicate looking than he had expected and it only reaffirmed his belief that she wasn't a ninja. He held on to this belief for another two minutes before it was completely shattered.
Two dark silhouettes stood between them and the exit so suddenly that Inari wondered why he hadn't seen them there in the first place. He started to move in front of the frail girl but was surprised when she took a step in front of him instead.
"Please, sirs.." the girl's soft voice rang out. Inari wondered why she wasn't surprised to see them. Maybe she saw their light too? "We need to leave and you're standing in our way."
"We saw him first, girlie." one of them rasped. He made a movement that even Inari knew was threatening. He 'eep'ed and hid his face behind the girl. "He followed us, it's his own fault."
"This is Konoha. Whatever goes by your rules does not apply here." the girl said firmly, an edge in her voice that hadn't been there before. "Now, I beg of you, please move out of our way." Her feet widened slightly even as she pressed her palm into Inari's chest, pushing the boy away from her and the men. "Please do not make me have to fight you. Relations between our villages are tense as is."
Inari wanted to run outside and scream for help. The girl was going to get hurt! Inari blinked and almost missed it. The two ninjas had dove at the girl but the girl was already moving to defend. She ducked underneath a kick and blocked a punch aimed at her midsection with her arms.
She then darted forward, lightening fast, and seemed to barely touch one of the men's throats. Immediately he stared to rasp for air, dropping to his knees as he clutched at his throat.
With a roar of anger, the other ninja started to run at her, only to freeze in his tracks. The girl paused as well even though her lack of mobility wasn't forced. It took Inari a moment to realize that it wasn't her doing that had made the other man freeze. He noticed this when she looked around, seeming a little confused.
"Hey, it isn't very nice to attack a woman and a child in a dark place, you know." Inari's eyes followed the voice to see a ninja perched on top of one of the piles of boxes in the building. The boy couldn't decide whether the ninja was angry, annoyed, or just tired. However, when the ninja just sighed and hopped off of the boxes, Inari decided on bored.
"H-hey.." the immobilized man got out. His whole body was trembling but he didn't move a muscle. "She attacked him first." The man who had been suffocating was lying flat on the floor. Inari had a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was the man dead? He looked over at the girl, now scared. She didn't seem much older than him. Could she possibly have what it took it kill a man?
"Psh. You think that's my problem?" the bored ninja called out. Inari couldn't see his face but he could almost imagine the annoyed look on it. "Besides, I know her and she doesn't attack anyone unless she has to. And from the looks of it, she had to." The ninja abruptly turned his back on them. "Besides, your friend isn't dead. Just unconscious." Inari felt a rush of relief.
Inari blinked as the girl turned back to him, offering her hand. He took it, more warily than last time because he had seen what she could do with it. They walked hand in hand past the two other ninjas to stop by the side of the bored looking one. The ninja looked over them and nodded, almost as if to himself, and starting walking to the entrance. The girl and Inari followed.
Once they got closer to the entrance, he could see the bored ninja's face. He looked fairly average with dark hair and dark eyes. He recognized the symbol etched on the forehead protector tied to the ninja's arm as being of one of the Konoha ninjas. Inari beamed at the familiar symbol, a symbol that he had long associated with being safe.
"Um, thank you Nara-san." the girl said quietly.
"You shouldn't get yourself in trouble, Hyuuga-san." the ninja, really just a twelve year old boy Inari realized, shot her a look. Inari blinked. For some reason, the name 'Hyuuga' reminded him of the pale eyed genin called Neji. He just couldn't remember exactly why. "Having to protect you is so troublesome."
"She was doing fine before you came." Inari piped up immediately when Hyuuga blushed. He noticed that she had the same pale eyes as Neji did and was about to ask if they were siblings but then Nara began to talk.
"So she was." Nara looked down at him, then shrugged. "To be blunt, my reasons had less to do with you and more to do with them." He pointed back into the darkness where Inari feared that the men still were, watching and lurking, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Inari loved ninjas but he figured that any ninja that wanted to kill him was definitely not one that he wanted to be in the dark with.
"What do you mean?" Hyuuga asked, noticing how Inari clung to her as he stared back into the darkness. Her other hand, the one not being griped with almost bruising force, patted the boy's head lightly.
"Didn't you see their forehead protectors? They were Sound nins." Nara said, as if it had some great significance.
Hyuuga frowned, missing the point. "And?" she asked. Inari couldn't blame her. He didn't know there was a village of the Sound. But, then again, the only ninja village he was familiar with was Konoha. Just remembering why he was in Konoha was enough for his high spirits to slowly crawl back.
Nara looked at her for a long while, as if remembering something. "Is Naruto back yet?" Hyuuga continued to frown at him, as if she was confused how Naruto and the Sound nins fit in the same conversation. But Inari hardly noticed. Naruto was a name he knew and it made all of his excitement return in one fell swoop.
"Ah, yes!" Hyuuga said after a moment. She had a sheepish smile on her face. "We were on the same mission together but since we got back, I lost track of Naruto-kun." Inari could sympathize with the disappointment in her voice. He also felt disappointment that she didn't know where he was. Now he'd never be able to find the blond!
"I need to have a word with him." Nara said with unusual intensity. As if he realized what he was doing, he blinked and snapped out of it, rubbing the back of his head. "Troublesome.."
Inari couldn't contain himself. He tugged on Hyuuga's sweatshirt to get her attention."I wanna talk to him too. Please? Can I go with you?" She would have a better chance in finding Naruto, right? With the whole able-to-see-inner-light thingy? He might as well just stick with her.
"Ah, but your mother-" the girl said with obvious concern. Inari cut her off, bouncing from foot to foot.
"I'll ask her, I'm sure she'll say yes! Please?" he shot her the best puppy eyed stare that he could manage, ignoring how Nara rolled his eyes and turned away. Hyuuga looked uncomfortable with the situation but Nara decided the solution for her, surprisingly enough in Inari's favor.
"If you want to and your mom says it's fine, then I have no problem with you tagging along." he said with a sigh. Inari pumped his fist in the air victoriously. Yes!
"Thank you, Nara-san!" the boy called out happily. The older boy shrugged.
"Whatever." he said, looking over his shoulder with a half smile. "But it's Shikamaru." he shot a look at Hyuuga who blinked at the sudden shift in attention. "And I've told you that before as well, Hyuuga-san."
"U-um.." Hyuuga just blushed, embarrassed for some reason. "You don't call me by my name either.."
Nara- no Shikamaru, Inari remembered- gave her another one of those shrugs before turning away once more. He started to walk out into the crowd of people, Inari and the Hyuuga girl right on his heels. "Fine then, if you call me by my name, I'll call you by yours." he said with finality. "Is that fine by you.. Hinata?"
The girl, whom Inari had just learned was called Hinata, smiled brightly. "Yes, Shikamaru-san!" she chirped, missing the other boy's wince at the continued formality.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes, giving up on the girl. "Hopeless." he muttered to himself.
---
Ino shot an irritated look at the group when, about twenty minutes later, they stumbled into her shop. Shikamaru brushed it off easily but Hinata blushed and bowed, immediately offering up an apology.
"I'm sorry, Ino-san!" the girl cried. "But Inari-chan looked like he was going to pass out and I-"
Ino held up a hand, a somewhat sheepish smile on her face. "It's.. fine Hinata-san." she said. It was hard to get mad at the girl. Out of all the genins that Ino knew, Hinata was the least irritating. And definitely the most apologetic.
From behind Hinata, a pale boy stepped out, his face covered in sweat and looking miserable. "Why is it so hot?" he whined tiredly. Gasping at the state of the boy, Ino ran to the back of the shop, quickly getting him a glass of water. When she came back, Shikamaru had already sat the boy on top of the counter. The boy sat there with his shoulders hunched and his face listless.
"I think he may be dehydrated." Shikamaru offered up as an explanation. "And he's visiting. It's also possible that he's adjusting to the environment here and he just didn't know that he was dehydrated."
"Where are you from, kid?" Ino asked, pushing the water into the young boy's hand. He took it shakily and gulped down the water. He coughed when too much water came down.
"W-Wave Country." he rasped out, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
"Well, no duh." Ino said, snapping her fingers. "That's right on the coast! Of course he's having a difficult time! He's used to cooler temperatures!"
Hinata immediately bowed and started to apologize again. "I'm sorry!" she said softly, sounding upset. "Inari's mother told me that they were from Wave Country! It's all my fault.."
"Hey." Shikamaru rapped her head lightly with his knuckles. He sighed when Hinata looked up with wide pale eyes. "I was there too, you know. Don't be so selfish. Half of that blame belongs to me."
"I'll be fine." Inari insisted, now looking much better that he was in a well conditioned store. They looked over at him, unconvinced by this. He turned to Hinata, the only one he thought he could win over. "Please?" he begged, "I want to see Naruto!"
Ino blinked in surprise. "Naruto?" she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"You've seen him?" Shikamaru immediately asked, his attention captured. Ino looked over at him, noticing that Inari wasn't the only one who wanted to see the blond genin.
"Yeah, he, Sasuke-kun, and Sakura just passed this way." Ino said with a shrug. She had wanted to say hello to Sasuke and, as she glomped him to make sure she pissed off Sakura, look Naruto over to make sure that he was still in one piece and the vision that she had of his death was not coming up.
The only way she could tell this was by looking at his clothes. In the vision, he had on a pair of orange pants and a black shirt with a red spiral on it. If he was wearing his usual outfit of a black vest, black shirt, and green shorts, she was certain that he was going to be okay.. at least for now.
Just when she was preparing to tackle the stoic Uchiha, she realized that it might not actually be the best timing. Naruto and Sasuke were both walking on either side of Sakura, who looked a little nervous since she was, in all but title, their referee. Naruto had been shooting glares at Sasuke while the Uchiha himself looked smug with his smirk. Ino decided to not press her luck and had sullenly went back into the store when Shikamaru, Hinata, and the little kid came in.
Ino still had not a clue how she was supposed to save Naruto but it wasn't for a lack of effort. Hundreds of crumbled up pieces of paper littered her bedroom floor with half crazy ideas how to keep Naruto from being killed. Her task was only made more difficult when she realized that she had no idea how he died, only that he did.
"Which way did they go?" Shikamaru was already halfway out of the store. A little surprised, Ino wordlessly pointed in the direction that they had taken. He immediately took off in that direction, an apologizing Hinata on his heels. Inari leapt off of the counter and ran after them.
Ino stared after them, hesitation stilling her movements. She tugged lightly on her bracelet, a frown on her face. In the matter of seconds, she had made her decision. "Mom!" Ino called out, shrugging off her apron. "I'm taking a break!" She braced a hand on the counter and hurled her weight over it, taking off after the others. She never heard her mother's reply.
---
Sasuke could see Naruto's smirk over his hands as they slid into taijutsu stances. It irritated and amused him at the same time. He could barely see Sakura out of the corner of his eye but he knew that she had a worried look on her face. She never really did like them fighting. But there wasn't much she could do about that.
Sakura knew that, and that's why she stayed close. "I can't heal much beyond broken bones, so go easy on each other!" she said, crossing her arms over her chest with a soft sigh. Boys were so stupid. Why did they always want to fight?
Sasuke's rigid stance slipped when he heard that. She can heal broken bones? He thought, awed by it. Naruto had a similar look on his face, as if he was surprised that she had gotten so far in such a short time, even though it was his fault that the genin had gotten into medical jutsu. Naruto and Sasuke shared a rare grin before they launched themselves at each other. Sakura looked away with a wince when the first hit sounded solidly.
Sasuke threw the first punch and wasn't surprised when Naruto dodged it neatly, right into his knee. Naruto blocked most of the force from the surprise second attack with his forearms and jumped back, a retreat that Sasuke ruthlessly followed him on.
Normally, having someone so doggedly shadow your steps with blood red sharingan eyes was a little daunting. But Naruto only grinned in response and showed Sasuke exactly why he had chosen him for a rival: his surprise tactics.
Instead of jumping back again, Naruto dove towards the ground near Sasuke's feet. There, he placed his hands firmly into the ground and rolled with the forward movement. His foot shot straight up, connecting soundly with Sasuke's jaw. Sasuke was the one who stumbled back this time, holding his hand up to his jaw. Blood came out of his mouth, either from abused gums or an accidental bite to the tongue.
Naruto moved back to a fighting stance with almost deadly grace. "Got it memorized?" he asked, his voice neither teasing nor smug. The expression on his face was openly honest and it spoke nothing of being cocky about getting a hit in. Sasuke thoughtfully closed his eyes, moving the blood around inside of his mouth. After a moment, he spit it out and nodded.
They went at it again.
----
Despite his general dislike for humans as a whole, Orochimaru could never really say that he held a definite hatred for any one person. It was like none of them could really measure up to filling the requirements to gain his hatred, and even when he contemplated it himself, he was unsure of exactly what would make his normal feelings of annoyance and irritation rise to such a level where they could be labeled as something as powerful as hatred.
In his past, there had only been two people that he briefly thought he hated. But the feeling had passed with time, so Orochimaru guessed that it couldn't have been hatred. Wasn't hatred all consuming?
Jiraiya had been the top contender for Orochimaru's most hated person but now the snake eyed man could only shake his head. It couldn't be hatred that he felt for Jiraiya. At worst, it was an extreme irritation. The pervert annoyed him to no end but Orochimaru certainly didn't hate him, even though he didn't mind the thought of killing him. But then again, he didn't mind killing anyone, really.
At one point, Orochimaru was positive that he had hated that scrawny whelp of a Yondaime. There had been a definite sense of rage when Sarutobi had chosen Jiraiya's student over him, the older, more experienced, and stronger of the two. But he had realized later that he hadn't really hated the Yondaime. He hated being upstaged by a weakling.
Silly fool had gotten himself killed when that Kyuubi came along. Obviously he hadn't been that good of a leader. If Orochimaru was in his place, he would have either tried to make a deal with the demon or used the demon's power for his own. Either way, he wouldn't have stuck the demon in that other blond brat.
Just thinking about the Kyuubi kid made Orochimaru seethe. How could one person be so damn irritating and nosy? Not only had the brat killed one of his undercover Sound nins during the survival exam, but he also somehow managed to scare not only the three Sound genins he had hand picked for the exam, but also the ever loyal Kabuto.
Both situations made the inevitable attack on Konoha a little more difficult, seeing as his men were now skittish and the guard around Konoha was increased dramatically at the appearance of a corpse of a ninja who hadn't been signed up for the exam in the first place. But what pissed Orochimaru off the most was that the blond seemed to know (somehow) that Orochimaru was going to come after Sasuke. Why else would the fool make hundreds of copies of his team and send them off in all directions?
Chasing after the wrong teams had made Orochimaru lose the small window of opportunity to make contact with Uchiha Sasuke. Now it was nearly impossible to get near the genin. When that Hatake wasn't around, an ANBU was lingering by, a likely result of Sasuke being knocked out and placed on the stairs by a possible Akatsuki member.
Not only were the ANBU a pain to get around but Itachi had made a bold but subtle statement that had amused Orochimaru to no end when he had first figured it out. Touch my brother and you die. Now even Kidoumaru was skittish and it took a lot for the multi armed boy to get afraid. Needless to say, Orochimaru was no longer amused.
It was all because of that stupid blond and his interference. Because of him, his forces might actually have a hard time getting by the jonins and ANBU. Orochimaru might not even get a chance to kill his sensei. The snake eyed man had to wonder if the dark feeling building up in his chest that made him want to rage and kill was truly what someone would call hate. Did he hate the Kyuubi kid?
Had anyone else in his life ever screw things up for him so badly? Had anyone else kept from him what he truly desired? Had anyone dared to defy him, even subconsciously? Had anyone else provoked such a feeling of rage inside of him like the Kyuubi kid did? With all this in mind, did he hate the Kyuubi kid?
Yes.. Orochimaru hissed silently to himself, his hand clenching into a fist. He had never hated anyone more before in his entire life. He smirked to himself. Who knew that such a dark feeling would make him feel so alive?
And thus the reason why Orochimaru was thinking about hate was revealed. "Uzumaki Naruto, age 12. Genin. Teammates are Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Hatake Kakashi. One A rank and 20 D rank missions. Specialty seems to be in ninjutsu. Proficient in taijutsu but seems to have a weakness in genjutsu. Passed the Academy with the lowest score." Kabuto looked up from his cards, confusion in his eyes. "But I thought Sasuke-kun was the one you're interested in?"
Orochimaru shifted slightly, folding his pale fingers together. "He is the ideal body." he said slowly, his gold eyes narrowing. "But that demon child has been in my way every time that I've tried to get close to him." The look on his face turned dark as he remembered nearly being ambushed by the ANBU because of the boy's distractions.
Kabuto, after a moment, nodded. "Yes, it was the same for me. I don't like giving excuses but.." he hesitated, pushing his glasses farther up his nose. "I would have to say it was Naruto-kun's fault that Sasuke-kun and I didn't get the chance to become well acquainted." He slipped Naruto's card back into the pile and put the deck away.
"How so?" the snake eyed man asked after a moment. He had been most displeased with Kabuto's failure a month ago and, though taking his punishment quietly, this was the first time the young man had offered up an explanation.
"Naruto-kun reacted negatively to my presence." Kabuto said slowly, still confused over it. "I'm not sure why, and it doesn't fit in with the normal way he acts towards strangers. But he looked very angry to see me, to word it gently. I'm certain that I could feel Kyuubi's youki rise underneath the surface as well. It was very bizarre." he paused, remembering the flicker between red and blue in Naruto's eyes, and the sudden look of rage. It was almost scary. But certainly not as scary as Orochimaru had been when he found out that Kabuto had failed him.
Kabuto continued. "Sasuke-kun sensed this as well but instead of fearing it, he took it as a signal that I was not to be trusted. That is the only reason why I think Sasuke acted that way because even he is civil to strangers." He had observed the boy for a while, trying to figure out the best way to approach him. When he figured that the boy would most likely appreciate being approached directly, he had been surprised when the response had been negative. If there was something that the Uchiha siblings had in common, it was that both were fairly polite from a distance. They weren't obviously rude to someone unless they had a reason for it.
"Hm." Orochimaru thought over this before grinning. Kabuto had to suppress a shudder. It never was a good thing when his leader smiled. "Do you know that some animals can scent out predators before the predator even moves to kill? Their own desire to protect their life gives them a sixth sense, in a way. Sometimes this is amplified to an extreme when the animal has others that it wishes to protect." While Kabuto looked at him in confusion, Orochimaru only laughed, his eyes darkening. "I will enjoy killing Uzumaki Naruto."
----
Hours later, after Kakashi abruptly showed up in the middle of their sparring and told them to stop, after Shikamaru randomly popped up and tried to catch Naruto in his shadow (a task that he failed because Naruto knew it was coming), after Naruto ran away cackling and missed being introduced to Rin or being reunited with Inari, Konoha was nearly silent in the moonless night. Everyone was either at home or in a hotel of some sort, save for a few lingering souls.
Naruto was in his home, snuggled up in bed like most everyone else. His pillow had been too lumpy and had smelled weird so he had thrown it away a month ago, much preferring to use his arm as a head rest, even if it meant that his arm would hurt in the morning. His other arm was curled in front of his face, his hand lightly gripping the sheets underneath him. He had kicked off his covers in a fit of a dream but now he laid there almost silently on his stomach, save for a soft sigh or two. He was peacefully unaware of what was to come.
A soft noise echoed nearly silently through Naruto's apartment. His eyes slowly opened, his muscles instinctively tensing. After a minute of listening and hearing nothing (but knowing something was there), he rolled off the bed and landed lightly on the ground in a crouch. He shook the numbing effects of sleepiness from him and slowly stood.
Distractedly adjusting the collar of his black shirt (his favorite and most threadbare one that had an oh so original red spiral in the middle) back to it's proper position and tugging up the orange pants kept slipping down his hips, he took one step forward and suddenly knew who was in his apartment. With a low sigh, his already cranky mood steadily worsened.
He walked quickly out and into his kitchen, filling a kettle with water. He distracted himself with the task of making some tea while quickly trying to figure out how to deal with the current situation. It didn't help that Naruto was in a pissy mood and didn't want to deal with his visitor at the moment.
He waited for a minute until he acknowledged the heavy presence. "You know, if you're gonna be so rude as to enter my home without invitation in the middle of the night, you might as well pretend you still have some manners left and take a seat." Naruto's voice echoed throughout his home. There was no reply but the air suddenly seemed more tense. Naruto patiently waited, his back to the rest of the apartment.
A slow grin appeared on his face as he hear the scrap of a chair against the ground. "Good. So you did learn something from your sister after all, eh?" he took the whistling kettle off of the fire. "I can't imagine your asshole of a father would bother teaching a monster about something as inconsequential as manners." Naruto moved to take two cups out of the cupboard.
"No." The word was murmured and the voice was rough. Naruto paused briefly at his visitor's response. "He didn't even like looking at me. He was afraid of.. my existence." Naruto didn't need to see the terrifying smile that followed to know it was there.
The genin turned around with the cups in hand and slid one over to his visitor over his kitchen table while keeping one close to him, quickly preparing the tea. He didn't meet eyes with his visitor. Just as he leaned over to fill his visitor's cup with hot water, his wrist was gripped harshly.
Involuntarily, Naruto's eyes shot up and met the cold green eyes of his visitor. The other genin's voice was harsh. "Do you fear my existence.. Na-ru-to?" His name was mockingly drawn out.
Naruto yanked his arm away, spilling some of the water. "We've already had this conversation, Gaara." he said blandly, filling his cup with water. He didn't like tea very much. He doubted that he would drink it but it gave him something to do. The only thing I can do right now, when Gaara's falling apart right in front of me. What the hell did I do last time?
"About your fears?" Gaara leaned back in the chair. "You said you feared no one." A hissing noise escaped his mouth. "Lies."
"Hey I wasn't lying." Naruto defended himself lightly. "I fear stuff, I just don't fear people." He pushed himself up on the counter, having no other chairs to sit on since Gaara was in his only one. Besides, he liked the distance it gave as well as the sense of security. It was a never a good thing to stay too close to Gaara.
Gaara made a rude noise under his breath, prompting a tired glare. "Oh right, you'd fear the death of your friends!" he spat. Naruto snapped his fingers with a smile and nodded. "Why do you even bother? They'd fear you if they knew about your demon."
"Somehow, Kyuubi just isn't at the top of my list of worries anymore." Naruto admitted. He was growing more and more pissed off, and, if he was to listen to Kyuubi, that was Gaara's true aim. He decided to let some information slip. "And it's all because of that damn Kazekage of yours with his plans and shit."
Gaara didn't even blink at Naruto's hint and dropped a bombshell. "Trust me, the real Kazekage wouldn't have bothered with this foolish business at all." he snapped. Naruto nearly dropped his cup.
"What the.." he mumbled. He slammed the cup down on the counter and slid off. "You knew that the Kazekage was.. was.." he cut himself off, back tracking. There was no point in showing too many of his cards. But Gaara served to surprise him once more.
"Prematurely disposed of and replaced by another?" he questioned, looking bored with the topic. "Of course I could tell. But the real Kazekage and this one.. it doesn't make any difference."
"It makes all the difference in the world, Gaara!" Naruto exploded. "Why the hell haven't you told anyone else about this?" Didn't he understand what an impact that would have made? If the sand nins knew that their Kazekage was murdered, they would turn against Orochimaru so fast that he would get rug burn! What the hell was Gaara thinking by keeping such a thing secret from his fellow ninjas? He ignored the tiny voice screeching 'hypocrite!' in his head.
"They never asked." Gaara replied blandly. Naruto had an urge to bang his head into the counter or, better yet, kick the shit out of Gaara for being an idiot.
"No one's gonna ask you anything if you continue to act so unapproachable." Naruto said with a groan, covering his eyes with his hand. "I bet that all of Suna would want to know that their Kage is dead, Gaara. Just 'cause you don't give a shit doesn't mean that they won't either."
"It won't matter to you soon." Gaara said, standing slowly, his sand suddenly pouring out of his gourd. "You're my prey. You're not going to live for very long during our match." His eyes darkened into a goldish brown that Naruto found disturbingly familiar."Am I talking to Gaara or Shukaku?" he asked tiredly. He already knew that he was talking to Gaara but he was confused as to how much of Gaara's thinking had been warped by youki. Just that fact that he said 'match' and not 'right now' meant that Gaara still had control over himself though and he thanks the gods for small favors. "Really. I'd like to know."
Gaara blinked. Naruto realized suddenly that the sand nin was surprised. He had only asked because he was irritated and also because he was a little curious as to who Gaara thought was in control. "What difference does it make? We're one and the same." the other demon host said slowly. The sand slowly creeping towards Naruto paused.
Naruto looked at Gaara, a confused frown on his face. Is it possible that even he doesn't know which one of them is in control? He mused to himself, terrified by the idea. That loss of a sense of self.. that's.. horrible. Could their personalities be mingling to the point where it's hard to tell where Gaara starts and Shukaku ends?
Don't think too much on it. Kyuubi rumbled. That's not what happens with us. The dead blond brat made sure of it. There was a cough in the background. And I'd like to remain me, thank you very much. He added in with faint disgust.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head. Yes, best not to think about that... not until I'm more than half awake, that is. "That's not true." Naruto said with a yawn. "Shukaku's nuts. You're just a damn fool."
Without any warning, sand wrapped around him tightly, binding his arms and legs together. Almost lazily, since it was satisfied that he couldn't move, more of it slowly crept up his body, encasing him in a firm hold of sand. Naruto's half open eyes opened up all the way, his chakra raising with his temper. He hated Gaara's sand with a passion.
"You know.." Gaara imitated Naruto's lazy way of speaking. "I could kill you in a second." Naruto turned his gaze towards Gaara, his normally warm eyes as cold as ice.
Something cracked and snapped audibly, resounding loudly through the tiny apartment. Gaara blinked and suddenly the sand that had been wrapped around his prey was thrown every which way. And his prey, once leaning against the counter, was gone-
And right in his face. A steel like vise clamped around his throat and lifted him weightlessly into the air. His sand rushed to reinforce his defenses and kill the threat. More cracking noises commenced instead of the swift death. Gaara opened his reflexively closed eyes to see what he could feel.
The utter heat that surrounded Naruto wasn't youki but it didn't seem like chakra either. But it was hot enough to burn sand into glass and sear him through his defensive sand covering. Gaara waited for the kill, feeling a strange sense of nervousness, anxiety.. fear?
"And I, Gaara," Naruto's voice was low and dangerous. "Could kill you in half of a second." He leaned forward slightly and Gaara observed unwillingly that, though Naruto's eyes remained blue, his pupil was slitted like a cat's. "Do you fear my existence... Gaara?" Naruto threw Gaara's words back at him in a soft hiss. The sand nin was surprised to find that he wanted to say 'yes'.
Gaara was promptly dropped to the floor and, because he hadn't expected it, collapsed to his knees, hands gingerly feeling out his throat. Darkened green eyes looked up to see Naruto with his back to him, calmly cleaning up the mess of the tea. Neither demon host had touched their cups but Gaara's had tipped over and spilled over the table.
"Next time you feel like randomly visiting me, ask for an invitation." Naruto said, the tone of his voice giving Gaara the strangest feeling that he was being dismissed. "Or, better yet, just knock."
For a second, Gaara stayed where he was, sand slowly trickling back into his gourd. Then, with another light touch to his neck, he pushed himself off the ground and left the apartment without another word.
Gaara didn't bother trying explaining to himself why he didn't kill Naruto when his back was turned. The topic was too difficult to understand, perhaps stemming from unsolved issues of his past or maybe because Shukaku kept muddling his thoughts with his constant mantra of death, blood, and pain. He gripped his head and forced Shukaku down until the screams were faint whispers.
Either way, he had a lot to think about now. It was a good thing he didn't need to sleep.
---
TBC
..And I unfortunately do. : ) I'm really tired right now so if there was any really obvious errors, do be a dear and point them out. I'll fix them once my beta looks this over.
Preview of the next chapter:
"I know that balance stuff." Naruto said irritably, even though it was the first time it had been brought to his attention. It could have been one of the many topics that Iruka had brought up in class that he had missed because he was pranking people, and it wouldn't have made a difference. Shikamaru seemed to know this but carried on without a comment.
"Just listen." the boy said urgently. "You have no idea what you did, did you?" Naruto opened his mouth, about to defend himself when the slightly jumpy Nara shook his head. "No, listen. There's a balance, not between good or evil. Those are just values forced upon us by society. Just lies, you know. The real balance is between what is and what should not be." He slammed a roll of paper down on the ground, making Naruto jump at the noise. The roll rolled open, revealing Shikamaru's writing and strange scribbles.
"Naruto." his voice was said with such a tight voice that Naruto looked away from the paper and at Shikamaru questioningly. "You should not have been able to travel back into the past. That ruins that balance, you see? It goes under 'what should not be'. And thus, is impossible."
Naruto pulled away with a snarl. "Are we back to that shit again?" he snapped incredulously, jumping to his feet. "I'm telling you, I wasn't lying-!"
"I believe you." Shikamaru said, his voice pitching low. Naruto's rant died in his throat. "I believe you, Naruto. I do. I really do. But, you see, it's.. even worse than you thought."
"How so?" Naruto whispered, not liking the look on Shikamaru's face.
"You're not supposed to be here." the other genin said quietly, his gaze fixed to the ground. "But.. here you are. And there's only one reason why the powers that be allowed you to come back here." He looked up, seeing the confused look on Naruto's face. He clarified it softly. "Two negatives make a positive, Naruto. Something.. happened. In your future, something so bad that the gods themselves put their asses on the line to allow you to break a few laws of physics. Think!" The Nara said, his voice almost desperate. "Not about Konoha, yourself, or even Sasuke. What is the worst thing that could have possibly happened then, in a god's point of view? What would shake the very foundations of the balance itself?"
Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, deep in thought, a little annoyed because Shikamaru had a look on his face that said that he already knew the answer but was patiently waiting for Naruto to catch up. He scowled a little, then attempted to figure out what it was.
Lots of bad things had happened then. It was war, after all. But in a god's point of view? How the hell was he supposed to know what they wanted or what they thought was bad? Naruto tapped his bicep as he tried to remember something important, something.. earth shattering.
Naruto's breath caught in his throat when he suddenly realized what had happened. He trembled lightly as he remembered his last day, the sudden bold attack after months of strained peace. The utter triumph he could feel outside of the broken walls, the echoing laughter of a pleased man as they retreated like scared rabbits. The tight feeling around his heart when he had tugged and hauled Ino away from Shikamaru's dead body, the knowledge that they had lost more than just Konoha and the entire damn war..
"Oro.. Orochimaru." Naruto rasped out, tortured eyes seeking out his friend. "He.. he.." The thought was too horrifying. He fell to his knees in front of Shikamaru. "Impossible!"
"Not impossible." Shikamaru said softly. "Perhaps improbable. But it happened, didn't it? The last attack on Konoha? It wasn't because he was pleased with his new host, was it?" Naruto's head was bowed. Shikamaru prodded further. "It wasn't because he knew Konoha was barely holding on, was it? It was because he had an advantage that no.. earthy body could boast." Naruto looked up, looking so lost and worn down. Shikamaru's heart went out to him but he had to say it. He had to make sure that Naruto knew it before he continued his quest to save Konoha.
"This was never about Konoha." he continued. "It was never about you. Your duty.. your only real mission.. is to stop that thing that made the gods relent and push you back here. You need to help them regain the balance by making sure it doesn't tip in the first place." He gripped Naruto's arms tightly and gave him a slight shake when the blond's head lolled down once more. "Naruto! You need-"
"I know." Naruto looked up, his eyes hardened and his lips pulled into a tight frown. "I need to kill Orochimaru before he becomes immortal."
