the sacrifice



Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. And I don't own the songs included here – Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Greenday and My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion.

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 Chapter 1: THE FIRST MISSION IN SUMMER
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Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test, and don't ask why.

It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.

I hope you had the time of your life.

=====

"Oh I can't believe this!" Naruto exclaimed as he stood up from his Indian-sit sitting position. It was Wednesday and he, together with Sakura, Sasuke, and his new teammate Rekka, were waiting for Kakashi to arrive at their meeting place. It has been twenty minutes since the "time" but the jounin-sensei hasn't shown up.

Rekka, who seemed to have been taking a nap, looked at Naruto's direction. *Ever since she and Sasuke had arrived, she hadn't muttered anything (since there's no one to greet anyway). She just sat on the ground, leaned back at the tree, and let her red baseball cap cover her face as she closed her eyes. Sakura arrived next and greeted Sasuke cheerfully like always. She was about to say hi to Rekka but decided against it since it seemed to Sakura that Rekka was sleeping.*

Sakura also stood up, impatience written all over her face. "Late again! I don't understand why he's always late!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "I wonder if he'll put up with his usual answer of being lost in the journey of life…"

Rekka smiled when she heard Naruto's pathetic voice. "Does the sensei always do this?" She inquired.

"Yes!" Naruto and Sakura answered in unison, looking angry.

"And knowing this fact still makes you come here on time, right?"

Naruto and Sakura nodded.

"And why do you do that?" Rekka asked.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but no words escaped his lips. Sakura, on the other hand, kept quiet and started to ponder for an answer.

Rekka sighed. Closing her eyes once again, she spoke, "… because you're responsible students." Then, she covered her face again by her red baseball cap.

Naruto and Sakura didn't know what to say. They just stared, and then smiled at the black-haired girl who was currently dozing off once more.

=====

Kakashi-sensei arrived at their meeting place an hour later, to Naruto's and Sakura's dismay. Then, he announced the day's mission— Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Rekka were going to baby-sit in an orphanage in a nearby village. He explained that the lady host of the orphanage was out for the whole day to buy supplies in the surplus market.

Upon arriving at the orphanage, the lady host was already waiting for Team 7. After some talks with sensei-Kakashi, she said goodbye to the youngsters and left.

"Now look after these kids," Kakashi told the four teens. Then, he went outside and started to read.

=====

There were ten little kids having different ages which range from two to five. They were quietly staring at the four strangers in front of them.

Naruto smiled at them and told his teammates, "This is not bad after all! They all look cute and nic—…"

A little boy, two years old in Sakura's estimation, began to cry out loud.

Then, the other nine lads cried also.

"Look what you did Naruto," Sakura said in an angry tone but not loudly. "You scared them with your voice…" Then, she approached the kids nearest to her and consoled them.

Naruto made funny faces in attempt to silence the little ones. Fortunately, he succeeded and made the kids giggle. But when he stops making funny faces, the kids started to cry again.

"Just post your funny face and they'll shut up for sure," Sasuke commented.

Naruto threw Sasuke a brief glare. Then, he did a hand seal and said, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" As a result, many Naruto replicas appeared and surrounded the kids. These replicas made funny faces which made the kids happier than ever.

Sasuke smirked. Then from behind, two Narutos instantly appeared – one grabbed him and the other one pinched and stretched his cheeks. He tried to free himself but he couldn't.

One Naruto, probably the original one, laughed out loud as he sees Sasuke's version of a forced funny face.

"You baka!" Sasuke said.

"You're doing a good job of making these lads happy," Naruto announced.

Sakura, with a four-year-old girl in her arms, walked over to help Sasuke. She purposely stepped on the foot of Naruto (who stretching Sasuke's cheeks). 

The replica disappeared.

Sasuke, then, gave a blow on the stomach to the Naruto behind his back.

The replica disappeared.

Chaos ensued in the room between Naruto and Sasuke, along with the cries of the children.

Meanwhile, the two girls were starting to get mad at the two boys. Just like in anime, Sakura's and Rekka's vein in the side of the head was becoming more evident as each second time passed. At last, their patience had reached its peak and their annoyance and irritation erupted!

"SHUT UP!" they both yelled.

Sasuke and Naruto, who had been fighting, chasing, and running at each other, stopped short with whatever they were doing. The children kept silent, too, and stared at the red-faced girls in front of them.

Sakura frowned at Naruto, most especially. She was blaming Naruto for what happened, basically.

Sasuke let go of Naruto's shirt and Naruto let go of Sasuke's foot.

"Now," Rekka said, breaking the silence, "since lunch is coming pretty soon, someone ought to cook food for these kids. There should be at least two persons to cook…"

"I will," Sakura said.

"And who else?"

"Sasuke-kun," answered the blushing Sakura.

"Any objections?" Rekka asked, looking at Sasuke, then at Naruto.

"Sasuke doesn't even know how to cook!" Naruto said, feeling hurt since once again Sakura chose Sasuke over him.

"He'll help me as I cook our lunch," Sakura explained, emphasizing the 'I'.

"Sasuke?" Rekka asked.

"Hn." mumbled Sasuke and walked towards the kitchen door.

"I guess that's a 'yes' then…" Rekka muttered. She walked towards the kids and started to pick up their toys.

Sakura followed her love, her heart rejoicing.

=====

Naruto was sulking at the corner.

Rekka noticed his lowly spirit and thought of something.

"Hey Naruto," Rekka started.

"What is it?"

"What do you say, um, we wash these kids?"

"Huh?"

"It's time for their bath. Look at this," Rekka said as she showed her the schedule of today's mission given by the lady host. "Besides, it's quite hot today."

"All right," Naruto said with a smile. He stood up and become lively once more.

=====

"Taste this," Sakura said to Sasuke.

Sasuke tasted the soup Sakura was cooking.

"What do you think, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.

"Too salty," Sasuke answered. Then he went back to the chopping table and read the cover of the soup pouch.

Sakura added a cup of water to get of the excess saltiness Sasuke was talking about.

"And let it boil for five minutes," Sasuke said. Then, he walked out of the kitchen.

Sakura sighed. She thought she could now get her hands on her love… but, well… her love wasn't around. She sighed again. 

Then, she wondered what Naruto, Rekka, and the kids were doing. /*I need to do my best to make this taste good so that the kids will be satisfied and won't be crying anymore… and my Sasuke-kun will realize how much I am fit for him, and thus he will love me now and always…*/ She told herself with a hopeful look.

=====

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf of good health and good time.

Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial,

For what it's worth, it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right.

I hope you had the time of your life.

=====

Sasuke went out of the kitchen to see what was happening to the kids, Naruto, and Rekka. /*Where are they?*/ He asked himself as no one was in the living room. Then, he heard shouting, laughing, and giggling outside the house.

He went out of the house to see what was going on and he found Naruto getting wet as one of the ten kids splashed water all over him.

"Ahhh!" Naruto screamed like a girl. "I'm soaking now with water!"

"Ha ha ha!" Rekka laughed loudly as she stopped shampooing the hair of the little girl to have a look at Naruto. "Maybe he wants you to take a bath, too, Narut—ugh!"

She hadn't finished saying 'Naruto' for one of the little girls pointed the water hose to her.

Naruto laughed. "Now we're in the same state!"

"Why did you do that?" Rekka asked the girl.

"You haf bubbles on your cheeks," was the honest answer of the little girl.

Naruto doubled over.

Kakashi, who had been there observing them all along, chuckled, too.

"Me shampoo your hair," another girl said to Rekka as she was about to grab Rekka's long hair with her hands full of bubbles.

"No, no," Rekka pleaded and distanced herself from the little girl. She hid behind Naruto.

"Rekka-chan doesn't need to shampoo her beautiful hair," Naruto said, shaking his head at the little child.

SPLASH!

Naruto was wet once again.

SPLASH!

Rekka's clothes were dripping with water.

"YOU!" Naruto and Rekka both said, pretending to look mad and angry. Then, they chased the mischievous lads that did the 'splashing'.

Sasuke sighed with relief because he wasn't assigned to wash those kids. He decided to quietly slip out of the scene unnoticed, and go back to the kitchen with dry clothes on, but…

SPLASH!

Someone hit him with water from the hose.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Sasuke said in gritted teeth. He glared at him.

"It was an accident—," Naruto explained with a sheepish grin. He was holding the hose.

"Yeah!" Rekka agreed. Then, she grabbed the hose from Naruto and pointed it instantly at Sasuke, and said, "It was an accident like this." 

"Rekka!" Sasuke bellowed in a controlled manner.

Rekka stuck her tongue at Sasuke. "Behhh!" she teased. "You think you can go back to the kitchen without being noticed, huh?"

=====

/*Why is Sasuke-kun not back yet?*/ Sakura wondered.

She has finished cooking and was washing the utensils she had used. After finishing the chores in the kitchen, she went out and found her love, along with Naruto and Rekka, washing the mischievous kids at the front yard.

The clothes of the three were very wet at this time. Well, at least they had stopped messing around with each other…

"Sakura!" Rekka greeted as she noticed her watching them.

"Hi Sakura-chan!" Naruto said. "Have you finished cooking our lunch?"

"Uh-uh…" was Sakura slow answer. She was staring intently at Sasuke… or at least, at what Sasuke was doing.

"I can help you there, Sasuke-kun…" Sakura offered kindly. She walked over to where Sasuke was, and got the hose…

"I can handle this," Sasuke said coldly.

Sakura stopped walking to Sasuke's direction. He let her down once again.

/*You jerk!*/ Naruto glared at Sasuke. "Sakura-chan, you can help me here if you want…" he said.

=====

Rekka felt sad for Sakura.

She shot Sasuke at mean look/glare (whatever you want to call it) and she didn't put it down until Sasuke has seen it. /*You've really changed a lot…*/ She wanted to tell him.

=====

After eating lunch, it was time for the kids' afternoon nap.

While Sasuke and Naruto were washing the dishes, Sakura and Rekka were preparing the beds of the ten kids. The two girls decided to divide the work to themselves, that is, each would have five kids to handle for aw while. 

"I can't sleep," announced the chubby young lad.

"Why not?" Sakura asked.

"I'm not sleepy," was the answer of the little boy.

"Just close your eyes and before you know it, you're already sleeping…" Sakura told him.

The boy closed his eyes for a moment, and opened them again. "It didn't work…"

"You close your eyes for a longer time, okay?"

"I will... If you sing," the boy said.

"S-Sing?"

"Yeah!" the other boys answered excitedly.

/*What have I gotten myself into?*/ Sakura asked herself. /*Oh well…*/

"Okay, I'll sing… but you all have to promise me, you'll sleep afterwards," she said.

The five children she was handling nodded.

Sakura coughed. Then, she started to sing,…

"Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you…"

The children yawned after sometime, and they didn't realize that they were sleeping already.

Sakura stopped singing. Then one by one, she covered them with blankets. Reaching the last girl in Rekka's row, she saw that Rekka also dozed off to sleep as well, beside the little girl.

Sakura grinned. She hasn't met anyone who sleeps during the missions… until now.

=====

"Thank you sensei-Kakashi for bringing these youths to look after the kids," the lady host said.

It was half past five in the afternoon when she had arrived.

"No problem," Kakashi said.

After bidding each other goodbyes, Team 7 left the orphanage place.

TBC

That's it for now, folks! Now, it's time to give my shout-outs to people who reviewed this story's Prologue.

asa-chan – Thanks for your honesty and for pointing out my grammatical error in the summary. I changed it already, so you can drop your review/comment/suggestion if want to say something. Thanks again!

Lenny() – Thanks for the compliments. And as for the 'Sasuke/Rekka' thing, I can't tell you right now. Hehehe! Just continue reading, and I hope this chapter can imply something about it.

Copy-Nin-Kakashi – Well, Sasuke and Rekka are indeed related to each other, but not as brothers and sisters. You'll find out about it in the next chapters. Their relationship is quite interesting and complex, though…

kernel-popcorn – Here's the new chapter. It's also a long one, but I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Wormkaizer – Hinata's confession will come out pretty soon. Promise! Thanks for the compliments. I hope you like this chapter even though there's no Hina/Naru scene here.

Cookie6 – Thank you very much!

And to everyone reading this, please don't hesitate to click the 'Go' button below and submit a review. It'll be a big help for me to continue writing this story. As I have written in the Prologue, "[…] it's up to you if this story will be continued… I mean, if there's no reader of this story, what's the point of posting a new chapter? So tell me… [sic]."

Bye for now and have a nice day!
Poprice
31 March 2004
11:22 pm