Chapter II – Kashiko drops in and Gai-sensei lectures?
[Very good point, angelwolf oO; That little detail will be fixed. And unfortunately, things will be a little confusing for at least the next few chapters or so... Sorry if it's a little confusing and strange; just don't
want to rush things too much, you know? Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.]
Naruto was walking home with his arms folded behind his head, his face vulpine-like and in thought. It was true that he did enjoy eating his lunch beside Sakura but Sasuke, in Naruto's words, gave a stupid half-assed reason why their sparring session was over. Not to mention that some strange teenager was following ever since he left the Ramen stand... It could have very well been Konohamaru but Naruto decided to worry about the more pressing matters...
"Baka Sasuke..." Naruto muttered, a slight pout on his face. "I bet Kakashi is secretly training him... again... Stupid girl thinking she can just punch me and get away with it... This day can't get any worse!"
He just heaved a heavy sigh and decided to put the disappointment to the side as he walked up to the door of his apartment. He reached for the doorknob to open it but the wooden door slowly creaked open by itself, causing Naruto to blink in surprise. He was sure that he locked the door before he had left that morning... pretty sure. He peeked inside of his house, seeing his kitchen table bare since all the things that were sitting on it had been knocked to the floor. Now Naruto was certain that he hadn't left a mess before he left for sparring this morning. He may have been hyperactive but he certainly wouldn't be that irresponsible. He heard something fall to the floor in his bedroom and he looked over his shoulder, blinking a few times.
"Oi! Sasuke! You better not be in there!" Naruto yelled as he ran towards his bedroom.
He ran into his room, finding it more of a mess with the dresser drawers pulled open, his bed sheets thrown to the floor and a few things tipped over. He looked around, seeing no one there as he walked in a few more steps, still suspicious that Sasuke could have been there to catch him off guard.
"Hmph..." Naruto started picking up things that were sprawled on the floor , muttering under his breath.
Unknowingly to the hyperactive ninja, Kashiko was hanging onto the ceiling of his room by focusing her chakra on her hands and feet. She watched him with a smug look on her face, seeing the blond looking quite aggravated as he started remaking his bed. She crawled as silently as she could across the ceiling, trying to get a better look but could only take a step more before she lost her control over her chakra. Naruto started putting the pillow back on his bed before he heard someone curse, causing him to look up.
"Nani?!" Kashiko came crashing down on Naruto from the ceiling.
Naruto started clawing at the floor, trying to get up frantically as the weight on his back continued to sit there. Kashiko muttered something as she rubbed her backside and got up, a foot on Naruto's head.
"O-Oi!" Naruto's yell was muffled, his face forced into the floor.
"Eh?" Kashiko looked down, pretending to look surprised as she raised her foot slightly.
"What's the big idea?!" Naruto yelled, rubbing his face as he started to get up. "YOU! You're the one that's been following me-OI!"
Kashiko put her foot back down, reintroducing Naruto's face to the wooden floor. "Aren't we rude today. Nice place you got here."
Naruto managed to sit up and rubbed his sore face once again. "Why the hell are you here?!"
"How rude..." Kashiko said as she sat back on the bed, glancing around. "I could get used to this..."
"This is my place! You can't just break into here and expected to be welcome!" Naruto jumped up and pointed accusingly.
Kashiko glanced behind her shoulder at the window, completely disregarding what the hyperactive ninja had said. "Nice view. Akina would probably hate it for sure and go on and on about the damned windows though..."
Naruto growled for a moment and then he suddenly remembered something. "Oi! You know who that person is?!"
"Ne, who does she think she is?!" Naruto yelled, shaking a fist. "I become a Chuunin after the second Chuunin exam from last year and she thinks she can just punch me! I don't care if she's a girl, she's not getting away with this!"
Kashiko took it upon herself to push one of the windows open and look out at the street below. "What's your name anyway?"
Naruto blinked and then stood proudly. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm definitely gonna be the next Hokage! No one is going to stop me from that! Not that baka Sasuke or that person who punched me!"
Kashiko looked back, blinking lazily at Naruto. "You... the next Hokage... Hah, not with that attitude..."
"Nani?!" Naruto fumed, glaring at the other. "You shut up! I will become the next Hokage!"
"Yeah, yeah... sure..." Kashiko said as she looked out the window again, seeing a blue-haired teenaged boy. "Oi! Kaori-kun!"
The genin boy below them looked up, blinking his dark green eyes as he gave a somewhat salute-like wave to his teammate. "Kashiko-san, I was just about to get you."
"Nande?" Kashiko asked, climbing out of the window and landing on the street below. "What happened now, are we goin on another boring mission already?"
"Not quite... Kato-Sensei wants us to meet him somewhere but I haven't found Akina-san anywhere..." Kaori scratched the back of his head.
"I bet she's still pissed off," Kashiko folded her arms behind her head boredly. "You know that Uchiha guy, right?"
"I've only heard of him..." Kaori admitted with a sigh.
"Well, you'll hear a lot more about him if Akina decides to put a full out grudge against him. Somethin happened cause of him and that guy up there," Kashiko nodded towards Naruto, who was still perched on the windowsill. "He got Akina's little sis hurt and yadda, yadda, yadda... You get the point."
"It wasn't my fault!" Naruto protested, jumping down from the windowsill. "I thought someone was sneaking up on us!"
"Sure... Whatever you say... Anyways, let's get movin, Kao-kun." Kashiko smirked when she saw Kaori visibly wince from the nickname.
"Right." Kaori nodded and leapt up onto a roof, running across them.
"Well, it was a nice meetin and all, Naruto-kun, but I gotta see what's goin on. Ja." Kashiko leapt after her teammate.
Elsewhere in the village, Akina growled as her sensei was using her head as an armrest jokingly. She almost glared at her brunette Jounin instructor out of the corner of her eye as he talked with another.
"You're the infamous Prodigy that Gai's been talking about, hm?" Kato asked, watching the bored-looking Kakashi with his navy blue eyes. "Well, at least you're not as... well... crazy is not the word to explain Gai... Overly expressive?"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, looking at the other Jounin instructor. "You not around here much, are you?"
"I'm sort of busy with this one," Kato pointed to the scowling Akina. "And the rest of my team... Two of them definitely have problems getting along, you know? That and I've been trying to talk to you for a while demo... Gai has so many ways to explain you and it takes quite a while..."
"Mhm..." The silver-haired Jounin didn't seem too interested. "So what do you want?"
"Well, we all sort of have to talk about this. I was speaking to Gai about this little... I guess a special training session and I don't want to ruin the surprise for any of our teams." Kato looked down at Akina who made a 'tch' sound and looked away angrily. "Anyway, you up for it?"
Kakashi shrugged. "They could use the practice... Naruto and Sasuke are going at it again, even as Chuunin..."
Akina tensed at the sound of Sasuke's name and she crossed her arms over her chest, turning away. 'That bastard...'
"Okay then! We'll just meet in one of the field training zones just outside the residential area. I'm sure Gai is already there." Kato explained. "Akina, I'm expecting you to be there."
"Iie..." Akina muttered under her breath, a bit louder than she intended.
That comment earned her a sharp slap upside the head, causing her to grab the back of her head and glare at the ground as she scowled. That seemed to happen more often since Akina refused to do things but ended up cooperating anyhow. Muttering once again, the angered Genin watched as the two Jounin instructors disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving her on her own. No sooner as Akina put her arms back to her side, she felt a heavy weight land on her back and nearly throw her off balance. She stumbled forward a few steps and glared behind her, finding Kashiko sitting on the ground with the same smug look on her face.
"Hah, you nearly jumped out of your skin there..." Kashiko snickered.
"... Whatever..." Akina muttered as she leapt off to the decided meeting place, the rest of her team following.
After a few moments of traveling and nearly giving Kashiko a black eye, the team made their way to their destination. Much to Akina's dismay, Sasuke was there as well and she growled, sliding to a stop. Sakura and Naruto were there as well and they looked over to see what the commotion was about.
"Oi! Watch it!" Kashiko nearly rammed into the other girl. "Warn us next time when you want to stop like that!"
Kakashi, Gai and Kato were talking a little distance away while the rest of the teenagers stood around, seemingly bored... except Rock Lee, of course. He was literally jumping for joy, yelling the occasional "Yahoo!". The teenager hadn't changed much over the past year, still wearing his expressive clothing of his sensei and the hairstyle was left unchanged. He was particularly excited today and all the jumping around was starting to worry some of the other teenagers, since they knew about his deadly leg and arm injuries.
"Lee!" Gai called over at his apprentice.
"Hai, Gai-Sensei?" Lee stood as straight as a plank, saluting.
Gai seemed to sigh slowly then flashed his student a sparkling smile, giving him a thumbs up sign. "This can be your chance to shine, Lee! I've told you once and again, the Lotus always blooms more than once! The youth shall always conquer any obstacle and succeed!"
Lee nodded, clenching a fist near his face as, what seemed to be, tears of joy streaming down his face. Neji and TenTen were used to the expressive words of their Sensei and chose to say nothing at all. The Hyuuga teenager simply stood there a few feet away from Lee and moved away when the other decided to jump around almost haphazardly... almost.
"Gai, can we just borrow a set of those weights that you train with?" Kato asked, interrupting the long speech.
Gai nodded, taking the pair of weights that Lee usually wore on his legs. "I don't see why not!"
"Good... Akina, hold your hands out-."
"... Why me..." Akina growled, almost demanding an answer.
"Don't you want to be stronger and be able to move much faster after you train with weights? Take Rock Lee for example. He's much faster than you." Kato explained. "Besides, you could use the practice..."
Akina grit her teeth and hunched her shoulders slightly as she held her arms out reluctantly. "... Fine..."
"Gai will put them on for a bit... I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle..." Kato tried to hide his smirk as the infamous Gai attached the weights around the Genin's arms, holding them for a second. "Okay."
When Gai let go of the weights, Akina felt like the blood circulation was cut off from her arms. Her mind started to wonder how in hell's name Rock Lee and his Sensei were able to walk around while carrying those weights on their legs. Clenching her teeth tightly, Akina tried to slide a foot forward to get a bit of balance but the weights were more than a challenge.
"Son of a b-" She hissed before she lost what little balance she had.
Kato crossed his arms, hiding a smirk again. "See? A piece of-" The weights hit the ground, bringing Akina down with them. "... Cake... Well, while you're sitting there, I'm sure Gai will be happy to lighten up your spirits a bit..."
"Has this one lost faith in herself?!" Gai jumped into another weird stance, over exaggerated tears flowing down his face as he looked at the sky mournfully.
"Hahah! I can't believe she fell for that!" Kashiko laughed, pointing at the glowering Akina. "Man, I thought this day was gonna be dull! This is great!"
"Urusai!" Scowling, Akina tried to pull the weights off of the ground but with little success.
Giving up, Akina continued to sit there as an eyebrow twitched violently. One humiliation after the other and the rest of her team, including her Sensei, were finding it amusing.
"You should never doubt your strengths!" Gai said proudly, pointing at Akina. "The youth shall always prevail! Right, Lee?"
"Hai, Gai-Sensei!" Lee flashed a similar sparkling smile.
A sharp glare was shot towards Kato as he merely shrugged 'innocently' at his very irritated student. Sasuke merely rolled his eyes and looked away, letting his thoughts drift elsewhere as he tried to ignore what was thought as normal.
"Kakashi-Sensei!" Naruto ran over to the said person. "What's the point of this?"
"Well..." Kakashi paused a moment, not looking up from his reading.
Sakura sweatdropped heavily, not believing that her sensei was reading that horrid book as Inner Sakura voiced her opinion in her mind. 'That old pervert! He still hasn't changed... How can he possibly read that! And HER!' Inner Sakura clenched a tight fist in the air. 'How dare that bitch think she can just walk over and think she can take on Sasuke-kun!'
"Kakashi-sensei! Stop stalling! Tell us!" Naruto protested.
Sighing at the Chuunin boy's impatience, Kakashi kept reading on while explaining. "You have to learn some patience, Naruto... Yelling like that isn't going to get you anywhere... But since we were planning on telling you sooner or later..."
Naruto nodded eagerly, waiting for Kakashi to continue. He saw the Jounins look at each other then looked at their own teams.
"Ne, Ne! What is it, Kakashi-Sensei!?" Naruto asked again.
"Gai-Sensei? What is it?" Lee watched his idol, seeing that he was in great thought for a moment.
The teachers said nothing as curiosity started to arise between the Genin and Chuunin. Kashiko raised an eyebrow and looked at the other two Jounin instructors before looking back at her Sensei.
"What's with all the secrecy?" She asked, mildly impatient.
"I suppose we'll tell you..." Kato cleared his throat, trying to stall a bit longer. "Well, all of you are going to be involved in..."
[Pretty good cut-off point, ne? The third chapter is being worked on... really... We assure you ]