Chapter Five: Deep Feelings

Naruto stood next to Sakura, they waited patiently for Kakashi to show up. For the past two weeks, they had worked on endurance training and taijutsu combat. Sakura was slowly catching up to Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto's taijutsu was cleaned up a bit, and now he can perform smoothly.

Sasuke walked towards his teammates, his glare more evident than ever. He was angry, the conversation he had with Kakashi was replaying in his head. Sasuke would be lying if he said he didn't notice the improvement his teammates were making. They were still behind him. Sakura couldn't fight Naruto for twenty minutes before getting winded. Naruto's skills in taijutsu were so horrendous and sloppy.

The more he's on this team the angrier he becomes. Those two were nothing but a bunch of laid-back losers. Sakura doesn't have a care in the world and hasn't taken her ninja training seriously until recently. Then there's Naruto, the class clown, and dead-last whose skills need a lot of work.

"Hey, Sasuke how are you," Sakura tried to make small talk. She and Naruto make an effort to try and include Sasuke.

He "hn'ed" and turned his nose up. Sakura felt her eye twitch and sighed through her nose. She regrets having this huge crush on the jerk. He constantly belittles her and Naruto while training. Sasuke doesn't even give them critiques, he just complains all the time!

Their blonde teammate looks at Sakura and places a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Naruto notices that the pink-haired girl didn't have a lot of patience for Sasuke and he tends to play peacemaker among them. Naruto knew that Kakashi has been talking to Sasuke about his issues, but he doesn't think it's working. Sooner and later Naruto knows that this team is going to crash and burn.

"Hello, my cute genin," Kakashi appeared and smiled at his students. He then saw the tension between Sakura and Sasuke. He frowned, he couldn't keep making them do trust work exercises. Sasuke knew when to put his pride to the side to work with others. He's just a little asshole about it.

Good thing he had a plan b for today, "Since we talked about what you guys wanted to do in terms of individual skill. That's what we're going to do."

Sasuke's eyes lit up in excitement, this is what he been waiting for. Some training that he can thrive in. He looked over to see Naruto and Sakura smiling. He couldn't help but be curious to see what they wanted to do.

"Sasuke you said that you wanted to train with the sword, I know a few stances and can teach you the basics before I send you to a teacher,' Kakashi ushered his students to sit down.

He then turns to Sakura, he was glad to see her take initiative for her training, "You said that you wanted your main focus to be Genjutsu while you dabble with poisons and Iryō Ninjutsu. I have three teachers for you. "

"Naruto, I've thought about what you said, and yes it's possible to incorporate Fuinjutsu into combat. We'll also need you to start practicing your calligraphy asap. I can teach you the basics before having our resident Fuinjutsu master help."

Sasuke wasn't expecting Naruto of all people to work on Fuinjutsu. It's a complicated art that only a few can master. The Uchiha knew that Naruto was apart of the Uzumaki clan, and they were great at it. Maybe the idiot does have a talent for it. Sakura does have perfect chakra control, she's always the first to complete the exercises. Sasuke then notices how his teammates put deep thought into what they want to specialize in.

There's also the fact that Sasuke hasn't unlocked his Sharingan. He couldn't lag behind his teammates, not if he wants to reach his goal. As Kakashi brought out the materials, he saw that there were mostly scrolls.

Naruto felt somewhat confident in his calligraphy skills. His handwriting was neat and he enjoyed writing too. It helped calm him down, he was excited to learn about fuinjutsu. When he found out that his parents were Fuinjutsu masters, he wanted to follow in their footsteps. Naruto turned to look at Sakura and saw that she was happy.

He knew the girl wanted to practice Iryō Ninjutsu because of her grandmother. Other than Tsunade she's was one of the top specialists. She was one of the main reasons why she wanted to do this.

Turning his attention to Kakashi he knew if he wanted to be anywhere near his parents, he had to start now.

The sun was setting and training was over, which means Sakura had to get to her grandmother's soon so they couldn't hang out together. Naruto looks to see Kakashi pointing his finger in Sasuke's direction and told him to follow.

It was pointless, Sasuke doesn't want to work with anyone. He's selfish and always thinks of himself. It's always about Sasuke's goals for the future, how fast and long should the team train to benefit the last Uchiha. Naruto took a deep breath and walked away from the training grounds.

He then saw the villagers stares. Some of them indifferent others disgust. It felt refreshing knowing why you made the whole populace mad. Naruto then walks further to see Shikamaru, laying down watching the clouds. He hasn't seen the boy since he was placed on team seven.

"Shikamaru!"

The brunette opened one eye to see Naruto walk over to him, the blonde smiled and waved. Shikamaru sighed and patted the spot next to him. He had been meaning to talk to the blond-haired boy.

"Hey, Naruto how's your team?"

Naruto told the boy about the genin test they took, and how he and Sakura are close friends now. Shikamaru listened the entire time, thinking. Naruto is a lot calmer than he had been in years, he's more relaxed and confident.

"I would say you had changed but, that's not the case isn't it?"

Naruto looked at the taller boy's face, he always knew Shikamaru would find out and already knew, "No it isn't"

"You're a lot more comfortable, calmer. Something happened didn't it?"

Naruto looks at the clouds, he hasn't even told Sakura about the Kyuubi. He's scared that she'll turn out like everyone else. What about Shikamaru? Would he turn his back on Naruto?

"I-"

"Don't tell me until you're ready, alright."

Shikamaru turned to see his friend, whatever Naruto was about to tell him, was something big. He's okay with waiting, the blonde-haired boy needed this.

Kakashi had picked Sakura from her grandmother's house. The girl was confused to see Sasuke with him. It had been almost two months since they started to train in their individual skill sets. During that time Sasuke had been even more unbearable to corporate with. The green-eyed girl was still angry at Sasuke for almost ruining the missions they had done. He continues to piss her off and it's making the team clash.

"Before we request a mission today, you two are going to spar. No weapons strictly taijutsu," Kakashi said sternly. When he got his team he expected Naruto to constantly fight Sasuke, Sakura surprised him.

The two teens got into their stances and waited for their sensei to say go. Sakura knew in terms of speed and skill Sasuke was better he also has a katana now, but she was better at coming up with strategies and she hits harder. Taking that into consideration, she started to form a plan.

Sasuke glared at his teammate, she was annoying. She constantly fights with him, because he wants to better himself. He's tired of doing D-rank missions. Maybe beating Sakura will show her that she needs to listen to the leader of the team.

"Begin!"

Sakura quickly grabs three shurikens and throws them at Sasuke. The Uchiha jumps back to doge them. He then raced towards the girl with his katana ready to strike. The girl leans back narrowly missing the blade and kicking Sasuke's right forearm.

Kakashi watched making mental note of what to improve. He notices that Sakura is trying to disarm Sasuke from his weapon. He sighs when he sees Sasuke not knowing he was following her plan.

With the katana out of his hand, Sakura snatches the weapon and throws it in Kakashi's direction. She then raced towards Sasuke with her fist cocked back and ready to punch. Sasuke moved in time to avoid breaking his nose but his left cheek hurts. Sasuke knew Sakura's punches hurt but he didn't think it was this bad.

Snarling he aims to kick the pink-haired girl's head. Sakura brings her left arm up to block. Sasuke smoothly spins around brings his right leg up and kicks Sakura, forcing her to fall down. Rolling away the girl stands up and looks at Sasuke's legs.

If she immobilizes them, he won't be able to move fast. She puts her hands on her hips,

Sakura smirks, "Is that all you got pretty boy?"

Sasuke's tempered flared, how dare she come in here thinking she had a chance. Rushing Sasuke punched Sakura in the throat. The girl quickly recovered and aims for a pressure point in Sasuke's leg.

"That's enough!"

The two students glared at each other, Sakura taking shallow breathes. Sasuke sitting down holding on to his leg. The boy knew Sakura was smart, he needs to watch out when it comes to fighting her.

"I hope this relieves some of the tension you two have. I need you two to be on your a-game today," The silver-haired man said as he sees Naruto walk towards them.

The boy looks flustered, "I'm not late, am I?"

Sakura shook her head and smiled at her friend. Naruto notices that Sasuke was glare at the girl, and said girl was cradling her throat. Kakashi then ushered his students to follow.

"Lord Hokage, we request a c-rank please," Kakashi said professionally. Even though Sasuke and Sakura hate each other guts they can get the job done, and he's very proud of the improvement they had made. They can handle a few bandits.

Iruka shoots up hurriedly, a worried expression on his face, "But they just graduated?! Do you really think they're ready?!"

"In fact, I think they are. I trained them, I know their limits. My team can handle it."

Iruka's nostrils flared, ready to continue his arguments when the Hokage raised his hand up to silence them. He looked at squad seven, he can see they had improved. A simple bandit mission wouldn't hurt them, and if something were to happen Kakashi will be there with them.

"There's this escort mission, that seems to be simple. Bring the client in!"

Squad seven were excited, a c-rank after three months isn't unheard of but, they're proud of themselves. Naruto and Sakura whispered amongst themselves wondering who their client was.

An elderly man walks with deep tan skin with a mustache that connects into a beard. You can tell he works in the sun for a long time. He had small glasses and grey hair, he also reeks of alcohol, and his cheeks rosy. Naruto and Sakura deadpan. This was not who they were expecting.

"Are these runts my guards? They look like they couldn't even defend themselves, especially the small blonde one," The old man burped and ranted. C-ranks weren't cheap, and the fact that he is paying for children to protect him isn't sitting right with him.

"I assure you, we can take care of you and ourselves," Naruto spoke calmly, the persona he made would have shouted talking about how he'll be Hokage. Now he didn't need that.

The man snorted a laugh and then held up his bottle of sake in the direction of the teens, "My name is Tazuna the bridge builder and I expect you to protect me with your life."

*a/n*

Good morning/afternoon/night guys. I know Sakura seems like she completely changed her personality but I think it suits her canon part. Sakura is short-tempered and can't handle jerks and people with superiority complexes well. I feel if she didn't have any romantic feelings for Sasuke, they would have hated each other. As for Naruto's dynamic with Sasuke, once Naruto had calm down, he wouldn't need to have this rivalry with Sasuke.

I also wanted a realistic approach in terms of how the team acted with each other. Sakura would've been the one to really clash with Sasuke in my opinion. Naruto would try to be a peace-maker since he really doesn't have the time and energy to argue with Sasuke.

I wanted Kakashi to have a nice relationship with his team from the start. Like how he trains them and they already know chakra control exercises. I also didn't want him to enable Sasuke's behavior as I see in other fanfiction so many times. I also want Sasuke to have a superiority complex but not to the extent as to where he wants every little power Naruto has (like in numerous fanfiction out there).

There's something else I wanted to talk about, the thing is ships. I want to do straight and wlw and mlm relationships. Also some lgbtq+ characters, so if you have any ideas just tell me.

I also have another idea for fanfiction, I love the idea of combat medic Naruto. I might do that as I'm further along with this story, if you have any ideas for that book just let me know.

Sorry, this author note is long, Have a good day/night! See you next time!