Hello guys.
I'm sorry it took me so long to finish the next chapter. University and exams came along and robbed me of my life for the past few weeks. -.-
When the sun fell through the window and blinded me in my sleep, I grunted in displeasure. I was way too tired to accept my waking state and could feel my sore muscles from my run to Wave. `Never again! This was more activity then it could ever be good for me. Next time I'll just jump through dimension or use a teleportation-jutsu´ I humoured in my mind. Let's face it, I was not able to go into any other dimension like a normal summon was able to and I also would never be able to use great Jutsus even if teleportation to the degree of traveling was possible.
But since I was a bit uneducated in the way of ninjas and theory, I didn't know better. Being here for not even one year, I found a good excuse for my ignorance in knowledge.
`Maybe if I need to use this stuff, I will learn about it.´ This time I let out a huff of amusement. Knowing that this was more unlikely than Uchiha smiling and laughing openly, I was sure to not start inventing or learning stuff I would never be able to do.
Suddenly a knee in my stomach got me fully awake and I hissed in pain. Naruto was still sound asleep and didn't know about the rough wake-up call he gave me. My body, being sore as it was, didn't appreciate his manhandling and I hated to move to get away from his knee.
Last night I didn't let him hug me like always, because I was petty at them for having too much fun giving me a bath.
Now I got the payback in form of a knee in pyjamas.
Grumbling I pushed myself up and went over to Kakashi, who was the only one being awake this early.
"Moring", I pressed out and let myself fall next to his legs, laying my head on his thigh.
"Good morning, Tenko-chan. How are you?" I let out a humourless snort at his question.
"You just saw Naruto and me. Your question is misplaced and I am tired and sore and hurt and-"
"Of course", Kakashi interrupted me quickly and let his fingers stroke through my fur.
"Today I want you to practise with us. And you still have to tell me how you got the control over your chakra." His voice superficially sounded as bored as always, but thanks to my ears I could hear the subliminal tone he wasn't able to suppress. No human was. And this time he sounded interested but also knew the urgency to find out about the Kyuubi's chakra. Maybe je was worried about how exactly I gained control, but would he suspect me of doing bad, bad things for the fix demon? Nah, if he was, I weren't allowed to walk around and train with them.
So I nodded.
"Yeah, I kind of forget about it yesterday. I'll tell you when Naruto is awake enough to hold a conversation."
"You mean when it is only the three of us."
"That too. It is a more… private matter, after all." Kakashi gave an understanding hum.
"We'll talk about it at lunch, I can send Sasuke and Sakura to get our meals and not make them feel excluded."
Raising an eyebrow, I looked up at the sitting man.
"You really put effort into their teamwork. Didn't expect it, actually. Well, you always seem bored and not interested into anything, but you still are." I cackled. "Of course, you have some interest in working with the team you got assigned to."
"Sure." Kakashi ended our conversation and I could hear the runt stir under his blanket. I couldn't lie, I was impressed with Kakashi and his talent to read people while making it very difficult to be read. He must have noticed some indicator that the Uchiha was waking up or something cool like that!
"Yo, Sasuke-kun. You really wake up the same exact time as always." The Jonin greeted his student.
Or not.
...
Breakfast was uneventful when ignoring Naruto and the runt who started a fight about beating the other one at tree climbing/running and generally being better than the other one.
I kept silent and just observed the Genin, since I really had no idea how they acted in a team and how to join in. Admitting that Kakashi was right, I wasn't going to tell him.
Naruto somehow managed to get under the Uchiha's skin with his provocation and thereby talk with the blonde boy.
"Oi, Tenko! Tell the teme that he is wrong. It is obvious, that I am the best ninja." 'Great, Naruto. Pull me into your stupid fight when I just want to see you guys interact without saying anything myself.'
I let out a sigh and then searched for help from Kakashi.
"Yeah, Tenko-chan. What do you say to that?" Bastard. If he was testing me and my attitude towards his team, I didn't like it. I just looked away and finished my piece of fish.
My little Uzumaki did not seem to understand my implication of excluding myself from the argument and poked into my side.
"Tenkooo, we are talking to you. Tell the teme that I am the best!"
I chewed harder on my fish and used the time to eat to overthink a possible reply.
'Shit, was should I do? I can't take on one side and influence their teamwork. If I agree with Naruto and say he is better than the runt, I'll have him and pinky against me. And then they will be peeved at Naruto. But if I agree with Uchiha, Naruto will be sad and the runt's ego is nothing to feed even more! Sometimes it is bigger than the Hokage Tower and I don't want to give him any future opportunities to remind me of this fact. What do I do?! Can't I just say something without- Oh yeah, diplomatic talking!'
I looked up and let my gaze wander over Team 7, fixing on Naruto afterwards, before I opened my mouth.
"I think you will be a great Hokage when you are older, but I don't think you are the best ninja right now. There is always someone better than oneself and you are just starting and so are your teammates."
I mentally patted my own shoulder for this great statement. Naruto took a second to actually think about it, as did the other children. Then my sun on two legs looked up at me again.
"But who of us is the best?" He pointed between the runt and himself and now they waited for my decision again. 'Great, Naruto…'
"Oh, look at the time! We have to get ready and do some training, before lunch time. Let's go, guys!" I chirped and quickly left the house. '2 Points for my conversation skills' I thought ironically and went ahead to the nice clearing Kakashi made his team train at yesterday. When I finally arrived I let myself slump down at one of the trees with a groan.
My muscles ached and I looked up at the sky, following the clouds with my eyes. They looked so near while being far away, white and fluffy when they were nothing but water.
"Could I still walk on them if I had not met Naruto? Could I get back up there?" I asked out loud, knowing that only the birds would hear me. This started a train of thoughts I had ignored for some time now.
I knew that I fell out of the clouds, as strange as it sounded. I also knew that every being had to start existing at some point and grow up, myself included. Even a summon started young and small so I should have memories from before my walk in the sky. Sadly, I never recognised anything in the past months and everything I saw was new to me. 'Did I lose my memories? How?'
Tap.
I wrinkled my nose at my lack of knowledge. Generally, I didn't mind not knowing everything, but this was different. I did not know anything about myself, my own person. No birthday, no name, age, preferences, my life as a (hopefully functioning) summon, skills and abilities. I had no Idea why I had a second form as a human or how to transform myself, nor did I have chakra.
Tap, tap.
In this world the principle was simple: You have chakra, you live. You have no chakra anymore, you die. So how did I end up in the sky with no chakra or physical body?
Kyuubi was no help and so wasn't Hokage-sama. The only thing I could do was to make sure to not loose my chakra or let Naruto and the damn fox die.
Avoiding any danger would be a reasonable choice, but thanks to Naruto's profession this was out of question and impossible. Making him stronger and resilient was the only thing that came to my mind.
And I had to keep an eye on this Danzo-person. He was just waiting for me to do a mistake…
Tap, tap, tap.
Mentally groaning and pulling at my fur I remembered my stupid decision to leave the village, because a demon told me so. This put the old man in the guise of getting rid of me for committing treason against the Hokage.
Curse the one-eyed geezer!
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
The more I thought about my situation, the more frustrated I became and I started tapping my tails on the ground. 'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! This situation will just make me nuts!'
"Tenko, what's wrong?" The loud voice of my blonde friend interrupted my inner turmoil and when I looked up, I saw that everyone from Team 7 was present and either ignoring me or looking at me in question. I pushed back my thoughts and slowly got up.
"It's nothing really. Just planning my revenge for the bath" I joked and Naruto cringed at my response. He knew I couldn't be angry at him for too long, but once in a while I reminded him that even a knee-high fox could have a temper. He scratched the back of his head and gave me a wry smile.
"You don't mean that, Tenko-chan. Right?"
I had to stop a grin from forming and gave the blonde boy a serious look. That made him gap at me before he got a troubled expression on his face and cried out with flailing arms:
"It was Kakashi-sensei's idea! He deserves your revenge!"
This time I couldn't keep the amusement out of my face and I cracked a sly grin at him. "He'll get my wrath, too."
The runt and pinky gave me judging looks. I was pretty sure the Uchiha saw my proclamation as threatening as the bark of a stumbling puppy, but his loyal fangirl looked between her sensei and me before taking a small step back.
"Ne, ne, Kakashi-sensei. She bites… You don't allow her to hurt us, do you?" The man directed his bored eye at her.
"Hm? Why do you think Tenko-chan would hurt us?"
Sakura deadpanned, let out a frustrated sound and stomped away to the trees.
"Why do I have to be on this team?" she whined and messed up her hair when she buried her fingers in her pink mane.
Kakashi finally took over the role of the teacher and instructed us to practise this tree walking exercise they had started doing yesterday. The fangirl clearly had the best skills out of the four of us and quickly joined our sensei on a high branch to have a conversation.
Naruto and the runt continued with their competition. Next to running up their trees repeatedly, they also send glares to the other and snarl at the other one's achievements.
I took a moment to watch them in hope of catching on to any trick to do this, but I found none.
Carefully, I gathered chakra in my paws and ignored my aching limps when I lifted my upper body and started to walk up the tree. It took all my concentration to stick my paws to the rough surface and after five or six steps my chakra flared and gravity brought me down to the ground. I let out a grunt and hissed when my butt stopped my fall.
'Damn, this is more difficult than I thought.'
I pushed myself up again and glowered at the tree bark. I must have used too less chakra and lost my grip. This time I tried to keep my chakra flow steady, taking slow and careful steps, but after a handful I broke the bark under my paws and fell down, landing on my behind, again.
After dozens of times of failed attempts my but hurt like I got a good spanking and my frustration disturbed my focus.
Swearing like a sailor didn't help either. I already tried.
"Kakashi, I don't get it, help me!" I whined and looked up into the tree tops. Said man and his female student were observing the boys the whole time and had started betting on the number of steps I could make every single time.
"Mah, Tenko-chan. You have to try and figure it out yourself. As your sensei, I can't tell you everything beforehand." My answer was an annoyed expression and I got to the realization that Kakashi was still the good for nothing teacher he wanted us to believe he was.
"I know you care for us as your team, so be a good sensei and help me out." My new strategy was a simple argument and the wish to just convince him into action.
"Now, do the boys get help from me? No, they don't, but they still improve with every attempt."
"You shouldn't adorn yourself with borrowed plumes, sensei. Girly helped them and gave them tips. And their rivalry thing fuels them. You had nothing to do with it. But I need help and I don't have an eternal rival to push me forward." Maybe not the best arguments, but they were arguments.
"Then pick Sakura-chan as a rival if you must." Huh, Kakashi was not convinced.
"She is a fangirl."
"She is a fox."
Pinky and I complained and then gave each other a surprised look. 'Yeah, not happening.'
Suddenly Kakashi stood up and came down on his crutches.
"Alright, Team, assemble!" Curiously the children and I met around the Jonin and waited for him to explain his action.
"Tenko-chan pointed your will to compete out to me and I got a great idea to make you work together. Sasuke-kun, you will be on a team with Naruto-kun-" Both boys immediately started to complain and took a step away from each other.
"As I said, you two are on a team and Sakura-chan and Tenko-chan are on a team." The girl and I gave one another a sharp look, but we were smart enough to keep quiet for the moment.
"You are going to tie one of your legs together like for a three-legged race and then have to work together to avoid every attack."
The runt let out a humourless sound.
"You expect a pair of girls to be able to attack me? They won't be able to, even with the dope at my leg."
"Oi, teme. You are the one hindering me on showing my full potential. And don't look down on Tenko and Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled at his 'partner'.
"Hn. My thumb has more talent then both of them together."
"And the Uchiha removed every trace of humidity from their genes."
My comment brought me a glare which promised the wrath of the last Uchiha and a painful death, but it was worth it.
Sadly Kakashi gave us a short lecture about teamwork and we all were not too impressed.
"Back to our training. I don't expect the girls to attack you, because I am the one who will throw the weapons at you four."
Never before did all the colour drain from our faces at the same time and we looked at our sensei with big eyes.
"Excuse me?" Sakura squeaked. Kakashi gave his typical eye-smile and the man literally radiated schadenfreude.
"I expect you to work together and avoid shuriken, kunai, senbon and low-level ninjutsu. We will train until lunch so we have a little over an hour. Get ready." He sounded way too happy.
The next minute verged on a wonder, because team 'orange depression' and team 'pink fox' as I dubbed us worked in complete silence and tied our legs together. Pinky and I had a few problems since my leg was way shorter than hers and one long step or jump from her could seriously hurt me if there was any real speed and force behind it.
Kakashi was our solution by somehow making a short leash appear and knotting it around my belly. There was about 30 cm of leash before it was tied around Sakura's calf.
Not having any time to test out our range of movements Kakashi laid a handful of storage seals in front of him and made a small mountain of weapons appear. Pinky took a step back and I tried to hide behind her legs.
"Run" I whispered and took off into the trees. Forgetting that we were tied together, a small branch, that we both circled from opposite sides, abruptly stopped us. Sakura fell flat on the large branch we were running on and I was pulled backwards and off the tree, dangling freely over the ground. The air was pushed out of my lungs and I puked my breakfast out. The pink-haired girl got up to her knees and when she saw my breakfast leaving me, she pulled a grimace, but pulled me back on the tree.
When I was just dry heaving, she slowly picked me up and gave me an apologizing look.
"Just get some distance between us and the crazy man." I groaned and Sakura pulled the leash on her leg higher to carry me.
We flew through the air and topped back on the ground behind a big tree trunk.
"Are you better now?" Sakura asked and I could hear concern in her voice. 'Oh, wow. That was unexpected.' I just nodded quickly and we looked from behind our hid-out just to see (and hear) team 'orange depression' jump around the trees and shrubbery to avoid the sharp weapons targeting them. Loud curses and accusations echoed over the clearing they passed.
"This is your fault, dope!"
"What?! You wanted to 'stick around' and outsmart him, dattebayo!"
"He is walking on crutches. How fast did you think he could move around?"
"Obviously not this fast. But it is still your fault and- duck!" The runt lowered his upper body at Naruto's shout and a kunai flew past his ear. Our sensei took his role as our attacker way too serious.
"He wouldn't be this close if we had run away like Tenko and Sakura-chan did."
"Hn."
"TEME! Don't 'hn' at me when you make the mistake!"
"I didn't make a mistake, my calculation was just off."
"Sure, and I am Iruka-sensei's sister- is that vomit?" Naruto took a quick glance at my previous breakfast and made a disgusted sound while dodging a handful of senbon.
"Don't get distracted, dead last. We have to-" The Uchiha pulled Naruto at the boys collar into his side and a kunai with an explosion tag buried itself into the ground where Naruto just had been. With widening eyes Naruto tackled the other boy into the bushes when the bomb went off.
I had to grin - they were bickering and shoving at each other and made their movements look like those of mad toddlers, but they managed to get away from the danger.
"Oi, girly. We have to move. They led Kakashi right to us." The girl nodded and we ran into the opposite direction of the boys.
This time we took notice of our surroundings and dodged low hanging twigs and bushes and I always stayed near her leg. This way we managed to get away from the battle noises and hid behind a big bush.
"Alright, we have to come up with a strategy if we want to survive Kakashi-sensei's attacks. We are not as skilled and strong as Sasuke-kun is or as resilient as Naruto-kun proves to be."
I shot a serious glare at her.
"Hey! Naruto is skilled and strong, too! Just in other ways, but he is putting in more effort than any of you. And you just worry about your looks. You have no right to say something about him!" I snapped and got angry with the girl's ignorance.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed.
"Well, you aren't any better than me and you always look down on Sasuke-kun. That makes you a hypocrite!"
"I don't look down on him just because other people avoid him. I judge him on his actions and the Uchiha boy clearing thinks too highly of himself, is narcissistic and egocentric. He doesn't see any need of his team and until now I found no real trait about his personality I should like."
"Take that back! You weren't with us for over a month so you don't know anything about him or how we are as a team! Even Kakashi-sensei says so." Sakura put her hands on her hips and I gave a low growl.
'Fuck, she was right. I really didn't know much about the Team 7 of the present, but she couldn't say that he never behaved like a team player before.'
The rustling of the nearby bushes pulled us out of our argument and a second later a blue and orange blur ran us over and landed on us.
Groaning I opened my eyes after a heavy body had crushed me to the ground. Great, the runt had sailed onto me. Sakura was swearing at Naruto who tried to pick himself up as quickly as possible, rambling a flood of apologies. In the meantime, Uchiha pushed himself off me and I was able to breath again. He 'hn'-ed at me without an ounce of guilt. Arsehole!
"Ah, Tenko, you guys are okay? We have to hurry, Kakashi-sensei is following us. Let's go!"
He picked me up around the belly, grabbed Sakura's hand and started running. The runt didn't seem too keen on waiting for our sensei and hurried to keep up with Naruto.
We made a bee-line around some places where the blonde boy told us that Kakashi had placed tripwire and other booby traps. Naruto and the runt were both breathing more heavily than a few minutes ago, Sasuke was sweating, too. Thanks to the crazy stamina my roommate had, he was still fit and strong enough to carry and pull us with him.
Suddenly the boys came to a halt and Sasuke pulled a small bundle from under some tree roots. He gave Naruto and Sakura ear pieces and Naruto took a ribbon and knotted a different type of ear piece around my head.
"The teme was able to sneak our headsets with him when Kakashi-sensei got your leash. We figured that we could maybe work together and have higher chances of survival until lunch." His grin was bright and optimistic as always, giving me some strength.
Naruto corrected the hold of my headset and turned it on.
"How is your body doing, Tenko? I know you aren't the active type and still sore. Need any help?"
'Oh, you little sweetheart!' I thought and was touched by his thoughtfulness.
"I'm fine, just tired and still a bit sick to my stomach." I admitted and Sakura scratched her arm at the last part of my comment. Our earlier argument forgotten I wasn't angry with her. We both hadn't taken enough care where we were going to.
"But I'll survive it." I gave them a small smile.
"Alright. Do you guys have any idea how to deal with our executioner or wanna hear what we came up with?" Sakura and I wanted him to elaborate. Sasuke took over the explaining.
"We got the idea to pick up as many of Kakashi's weapons as possible and hang them all into the trees with wire. I have a wire mesh in my bag back at the clearing. We can tie it to the weapons and trap him under it. The kunai will hold him down and the wire hinders him on simply cutting himself loose."
Sakura had stars in her eyes and gave me a show lecture of admiration for her 'great Sasuke-kun'. The boys and I quickly made her shut up and then decided on their plan to be good enough for now. Sasuke and Naruto would get the weapons, simply because they had more arms to actually carry weapons (hinting at my paws being useless) and Sakura and I would get the wire mesh.
"Perfect, now we just need cool code names!" Naruto said with his excited voice.
"Oh, I already gave some to our teams. We are 'pink fox' and you guys are 'orange depression'." I put my two cents worth in.
This earned me the more or less amused expressions of the Genin and Naruto let out a snort, desperately trying to suppress a laughter.
"She's right. You are depression." Sasuke hit Naruto at the back of the blonde's head and wanted to be called something else.
Sadly for him, at this moment I caught Kakashi's scent. With perked ears I listened for the man and guessed that he was dangerously near.
"He's here, let's get going!" I whispered and was secretly impressed when the three kids got serious and we spread out to do our tasks.
The girl and I sneaked around the trees and when we couldn't hear or see our sensei, we jumped into the tree tops to cover more ground in less time. Half way there our headsets turned on and we could hear Naruto's voice.
"Orange depression to pink fox. Orange depression to pink fox. Over." I couldn't stop a snort and Sakura grinned at bit.
"Pink fox here, over." She answered and her grin was open for me to see.
"We got most of the kunai we need. Depression thinks we don't have enough, but I think he is just pessimistic. You there yet? Over." This time Sakura let out a giggle at Naruto's statement.
"We are near and the scarecrow is some way between us, judging by his scent. I can't hear him from here, but it's possible that you guys meet on your way. Over."
"I'm not pessimistic, just realistic. Scarecrow is a Jonin after all." The runt justified his earlier statement.
"He is, but at the same time does he rely on crutches. And you forgot to say over, teme. Over."
Sakura grinned at me this time. Guess, we are good now.
A single 'Hn' made its way to our ears and the pink-haired girl snorted before adding "Over".
'Right now I like her type of humour! They can be a good team… Kakashi would say something like 'told you so'.'
We reached the bags and Sakura quickly rummaged through it, while I watched out for any trace of silver-white hair. When the girl found our item, I sniffed the air.
"The coast is clear, let's go." She nodded and activated her headset.
"Pink fox to orange depression, we've got it and are on our way now. Over."
All the running and jumping was fun and great, but my body slowly reached its limits. My muscles started to burn and hurt again, now that my earlier adrenaline and the first euphory decreased. Sakura was breathing more heavily now, too, but she didn't say anything. Maybe she still had enough stamina or she just had fun and wanted to see how our plan worked out in the end.
"We are in position, too. Just come- The scarecrow is here! I repeat, the scarecrow is here! We'll distract him and lead him away. Over." Sasuke hissed and then we could hear some shouting and the Uchiha using his fire breath-jutsu before taking off with a cursing Naruto in tow.
"I guess pink fox needs to save the day." Sakura said to me and I gave her an amused smile.
Arriving at our trap in the trees we (Sakura) made quick work to tie everything together. I was on watch while Sakura showed off her superiority by having thumbs to tie knots.
Okay, she didn't really show off, but I was a bit pissed that I was useless. Training or not, not having thumbs or being able to use chakra for jutsus was not great.
"We are done. Orange depression, get back here! Over." Sakura ordered and when we got a single 'Hn' followed by an amused 'Over' from Naruto, we waited for them to lead the scarecrow into our trap.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a great week. :)