Do You Hate Me?
Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add.
Response to reviews at the bottom be sure to read the A/N's.
Chapter 7 – Consequences:
"What in the hell are you smiling about?" Was the greeting Naruto received when he sat down on the couch opposite Kankuro.
After making sure Sakura got home safely he went back to the house he now shared with the three Sand siblings. Things were good as far as the blonde boy was concerned. Not even the sight of a disgusted 'puppet-using good for nothing fatass', as Naruto lovingly called Kankuro, could spoil his mood. He had gotten himself a girlfriend this morning and got back on good terms with a certain pink-haired Kunoichi. Yep, things were definitely on a roll.
Grinning broadly, Naruto looked at the brother of his new girlfriend. 'Oh man that is so gonna piss him off' He thought and his grin got even larger if that were possible.
Now, Kankuro was used to the horrors of battle; chopped off limbs and gore splattering on his black ensemble didn't faze him much. But the grinning Genin who sat in front of him disturbed him greatly on a whole new level. "Stop looking at me like that damnit!" He shouted, desperate for Naruto to stop that icky grinning of his.
"Wouldn't you like to know doll-boy." Said a very amused Naruto and watched Kankuro scrunch up his face in barely suppressed rage. With that said he got up and hopped merrily to the staircase and up to his room. When he heard a loud roar downstairs he quickly opened the door, stepped in his room and closed it. Standing still for a few seconds he finally couldn't control himself any longer and dropped on the floor laughing. He clutched his sides and rolled over the floor as tears of mirth appeared in the corners of his eyes. Bumping in the desk that stood in his room something fell down and hit him squarely in the forehead. "Ow!" He cried out and got up rubbing the now sore spot of his head. Naruto looked down at what had hit him and picked it up. It was the scroll his sensei had given him the night before.
Opening the scroll he saw the technique Kakashi had developed for him. The blonde boy blanched as he read it and felt his happiness leave him like someone pulled a stopper in his stomach to let it all drain away. He nearly dropped the scroll when he heard someone knocking softly on his door. Thinking quickly, he rolled the scroll back up and threw it in one of the drawers of his desk. "Y-yes come in!" Naruto said a little shakily and tried to look innocent. The door opened and revealed a smiling Temari. "You shouldn't make him so mad you know. What did you do to him anyway?" She had heard Naruto come home and the roar of her brother but decided to wait to say hello until her new boyfriend was inside his room next to her own.
"Oh! Well I didn't do anything. He just wanted to know something but I didn't tell him." The blonde boy answered and stepped aside to allow her entry to his room.
"You won't be hurt when I say I don't believe you, right?" Temari said as she looked around at Naruto's bedroom.
"Hehe, not at all. But it's the truth though." Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head. "So what's up?"
The sandy-haired girl turned on her heels and looked slightly downwards at Naruto as he was slightly smaller in stature. "Well I know it sounds silly but I kind of missed you."
The blue-eyed boy blushed as the full realization of his current situation dawned on him. A girl in his bedroom. His girlfriend in his bedroom and she said she had missed him. His still developing hormones raged and planted several scenarios in his mind that his perverted white-haired sensei would gladly to put in his books. "I... uh, missed you too." He croaked and nervously clasped his now clammy hands in front of him while he swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat.
"Good." Temari said simply and before her boyfriend could figure out what she had meant by that she grabbed his face and pushed her lips on his.
Naruto's knees turned to jelly as the absolutely wonderful kiss went on for ages and ages. When the new object of his total and utter affection finally pulled back he was only able to make odd gurgling sounds. "Gurrr... Gah... Whoo...?" He then blinked stupidly several times as his mouth tried to form a coherent response.
Feeling quite pleased with herself, Temari grinned. "Good night Naruto- kun." She then gave him another soft kiss on the lips and left his room, leaving behind a bewildered boy whose mind had shut down and wouldn't work properly until a full hour later when night had fully taken over.
"Shikamaru, get up this instant!" A woman shouted through a door and banged her fist forcefully on it.
Startled awake, the black-haired Chuunin fell out of bed and landed harshly on the floor with his head while his legs were still entangled in his bed sheets. He frowned at the door upside down through half opened eyes for a moment and allowed his brain to start the thinking process. 'What the hell did I do now?'
Before he could answer that question, the woman shouted again. "Get your lazy butt out of bed right now or I'll drag you down the stairs by your hair and show your underwear to your girlfriend!"
'GIRLFRIEND?!' Shikamaru thought panicked and picked himself up from the floor quickly. "I'll be right there, jeez!" As he got dressed and washed up haphazardly he had only one thought on his mind, who in the world was downstairs and had the gall to call herself his girlfriend? Stomping out of his room and down the stairs into the living room moodily he got his answer.
"Now I know why you always pull your hair into a ponytail, Shika-kun" A familiar female voice giggled.
Grabbing his hair and roughly bundling it on the top of his head, he growled with a pink tinge on his face. "Stop laughing damnit!" This earned him a hard whack over the head from his mother as she lectured him on cursing in her household. He should have known who the visitor was though. It was... "Ino, who the hell told you that you were my girlfriend?" Shikamaru said and winced as his mother once again whacked him on the head and glared at him.
"I didn't say that." Ino said and had the grace to look slightly embarrassed.
"Oh sorry dear, that's my fault. I thought you were. You'll be staying for lunch, won't you?" Shikamaru's mother said airily, apparently not aware of the embarrassment she had caused.
"I'd love to ma'am." The blonde girl said to quickly steer away from the subject of girlfriends. But deep down she had to admit that girlfriend didn't sound all that bad when she looked sideways at the grumpy looking Chuunin.
After a hearty meal which consisted mainly of dumplings and a steaming bowl of miso-soup, Ino and Shikamaru found themselves near a field lined with high fences where the Nara clan raised and cared for their deer.
Coughing slightly, Shikamaru broke the silence. "So what do you want?"
"Well, I was wondering if you could tell me about what happened when you were all sent to retrieve Sasuke?" Ino asked and looked off into the distance at nothing in particular.
The black-haired Chuunin sighed and fed a sugar cube that he had fished out of one of his pockets to a deer with huge antlers that had approached them silently. "Not much to tell. Me, Chouji, Neji, Kiba and Lee got beaten up but we managed to beat those Sound creeps with the help from the Sand trio. Naruto roughed up Sasuke pretty bad and that's it." He said and threw his head backwards so he could look up at the sky.
"You got beaten up too?" Ino asked him disbelievingly.
"Well that crazy bitch I fought used some freaky summons which I managed to take over with my shadow manipulation but then she used some sort of Genjutsu so I had to break my own finger. In the end I got saved by that girl with that dumb oversized fan of hers." Shikamaru answered, still a bit angry that a girl of all things had saved him.
Ino gasped. "You broke your own finger?" And grabbed Shikamaru's hands to inspect them. "It doesn't hurt anymore does it?"
"No of course not." The lazy Chuunin said and tried to pull his hands away but Ino held them in place with a firm grip. Still, her hands felt kind of good and soft. 'For a girl anyway.' He thought and looked down at the small perfectly manicured hands holding his own slightly larger ones.
"You know, I never got the chance to thank you..." Ino said softly and trailed a delicate finger down Shikamaru's calloused palm and looked up to stare in to his eyes.
Seeing those sparkling warm blue eyes look into his own dark brown ones he was slightly unsure of what to say. "Why would you thank me?" He asked and a faint red started to stain both their cheeks.
Yamanaka Ino never got to answer that question as a boy with spiky brown hair and a blue scarf around his neck came running and screaming past them. The two of them quickly took a step back from each other and saw a group of girls shrieking 'Chouji-kun, wait!!!' as they rampaged in the direction the screaming boy was headed, leaving behind a cloud of dust. Ino giggled and Shikamaru scowled.
"It seems Chouji has his own fan club now, doesn't it Shika-kun?" Ino said and giggled yet again.
The Chuunin scoffed. "I told him to end his fight with that Sound-nin without using the last pill. Bah this is too troublesome. Come on, we'd better check if he needs help."
While another couple was chasing after a certain screaming boy, Sakura was quite literally flying through the air with her back bent backwards in a graceful arch. Only to impact the dirt a few seconds later with a loud and sickening thud. She grunted and ever so slowly picked herself up from the ground to stand shakily on her legs. Wiping the blood that trickled out of the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and wincing from the various bruises on her body that were undoubtedly going to be very sore in the morning, she glared at the figure that had sent her flying. It was not that he hurt her, oh no. It was that he started to panic and running over to make sure she was ok. She felt herself getting extremely angry. She was sick and tired of people treating her like a fragile little glass ornament that would shatter at the merest touch.
'Damnit'
"Sakura-chan! I'm so sorry! Are you alright? Did I hurt you?" Lee shouted as the questions came rolling out of his mouth like a never ending waterfall, not giving the pink-haired Kunoichi a chance to answer.
"Lee-kun! Be quiet!" She yelled angrily and inwardly sighed when the boy with the extremely fuzzy eyebrows cowered in front of her.
Today they both had decided that they would have a sparring session and Sakura held herself pretty well. Only Lee went a little overboard when he kicked Sakura hard under the chin. The stamina training from the past week had really paid off for Sakura but she was still absolutely no match for Lee when it came to Taijutsu.
As the black-haired Genin saw the blazing fire in the eyes of his crush he stopped cowering. Sakura didn't want any babying and that made him proud. If he was going to do everything in his power to get stronger himself, why wouldn't she? He stood up and put his left hand behind his back while his right hand was stretched forward in his standard battle-pose.
"Let's try this again, Sakura-chan." Lee said and smiled at the trembling but determined figure in front of him.
"Traitors!"
"Go back to your own home!"
"Murderers!"
"My friend got killed because of you bastards!"
"Just ignore them." A boy who was carrying a large gourd on his back said to his brother and sister. They were just walking down a small market place back from another meeting with the other teams from the Hidden Sand, when they were surrounded by an ever growing mob of people. Trying not to provoke any attacks, they stood silently in the middle of a jeering crowd as they shouted insults at the three siblings.
"You'll pay you brats!" A young man with black hair yelled and threw a rock he had picked up seconds before at the siblings. It struck Temari hard on the side of her head with a loud crunch. She looked confused for a moment and then fell down on the ground unconscious as a small trickle of blood ran down her left temple. Kankuro had fights with her all the time but he loved his sister very much even though he would never say that to her face. Snarling and cursing he hovered over her to check if she was alright.
Gaara's eyes blazed for a brief moment, before they locked on the man who had hurt his sister. Walking up to him, Gaara summoned his sand to gather around the arm the man used to throw the rock. "Sabaku Kyuu (Desert Coffin).You will never use that arm again." With that statement he lifted an outstretched hand and squeezed it into a fist. "Sabaku Sousou (Desert Graveyard)." The man screamed in agony as the sand compressed and obliterated muscles and bones alike staining the ground with crimson blood that spewed forth.
The crowd erupted into a fit of panic as they saw this gruesome scene unfold in front of them and ran in all directions to get away from the two brothers that would have no qualms about killing them in an instant.
Beating down the killer instinct of the raccoon demon, Shukaku, inside him, Gaara was still itching to finish the job. He wanted to turn the man who had hurt his sister into a puddle of goo as he sat there whimpering and clutching the mangled and bloody piece of flesh that used to be his right arm.
"You shouldn't have done that." A voice suddenly said.
"You!" Kankuro said from behind his little brother. "You're that bug using freak!"
"My name is Aburame Shino." The boy said calmly from the rooftop he was sitting on. He jumped down and crouched in front of the rock throwing offender and turned to look at the two brothers through his sunglasses that covered his eyes. He still wore his oversized gray jacket with the high collar that covered half his face, the standard open-toed sandals and grey slacks. "I'll have to report this to the Hokage."
Gaara nodded, his face devoid of any emotion once again. He motioned his brother to pick up their sister. "If someone hurts her again, I'll kill them." That said he walked away with Kankuro close behind as he carried Temari in his arms.
A soft sobbing caught Shino's attention and he looked down. "You shouldn't have done that either." He said and helped the man stagger towards the hospital where it undoubtedly would be amputated.
"Neji!" A girl yelled with two black buns bobbing dangerously on the top of her head as she ran towards a boy with pupil-less aquamarine eyes.
"What is it Tenten?" Neji said. He might have loosened up a little but he was still the haughty bastard as ever. He didn't consider anyone that couldn't hold their own in battle worthy of his respect. He looked at his teammate who wore her usual pink Chinese styled vest, black pants that ended just below the knees and her feet that were in open sandals with two straps.
"Did you hear what happened?" Tenten said, slightly breathless.
Neji's eyes narrowed in slight annoyance. "Hear what?"
"The Genin team that the Hidden Sand sent to help us was attacked by the villagers. But that red-haired guy who fought Lee managed to scare them off when he crushed some guy's arm." The black-haired girl said.
"Gaara."
Tenten continued. "Yeah. It seems the girl I fought in the Chuunin exam got a concussion when a rock hit her in the head. Gaara was reprimanded but Hokage-sama is going to punish the villagers that attacked them."
"The villagers are like a herd of cattle. Easily scared, dumb as the back end of a pig and to make it worse they hold grudges like no other." The Hyuga said contemptuously.
Tenten giggled. "I also heard that Naruto went ballistic when he heard. I wonder what's up with him."
"He lives with them in one house." Neji explained.
"Really? I didn't know." The weapons specialist frowned. "Well I have to go and run some errands for my mother. Bye Neji!" She said and smiled at her teammate and ran towards one shop or another.
"Bye." Neji muttered. He was lost in thought as he wondered why Naruto would get so upset from that girl getting injured.
When Kakashi walked onto training field four he could feel a palpable presence of powerful chakra emanating from the center of the field. He saw Naruto beating the heavy training logs to cinders with his fists while he was encircled by a raging hurricane of red chakra. 'I guess he heard about Temari.' The silver-haired Jounin thought. He wasn't worried that Kyuubi would escape since he had heard that the blonde boy had controlled its power during his fight against Neji and Gaara and of course when he went after Sasuke. 'Not to mention he's too pigheaded to be controlled by the demon fox.' He continued in his mind and smiled beneath his mask.
When the Jounin came closer, Naruto turned to his teacher with burning red slitted eyes. He could feel the fury the boy radiated like a liquid heat wave that splashed against him like an ocean would against a jagged shoreline. "Yo." He said simply.
"What are you doing here Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said in a feral growl.
"I wanted to talk to you, that's all." Kakashi said and squatted on his heels.
The blonde boy resumed his beating of the log. "I'm busy right now sensei!"
Kakashi shrugged. "No use in getting angry, Gaara already made sure the guy lost the arm with which he threw the rock with."
"Well I'm going to rip off the other arm and strangle him with it." Naruto said and with a punch enhanced with red chakra he reduced the poor log he was targeting to splinters.
"That would be a bad idea." The Jounin said, clearly amused.
"I don't care." Naruto said dejectedly and sat down next to his teacher, his eyes returning to normal and panted heavily.
Kakashi closed his visible eye in a happy crinkle. "But your girlfriend would." He said which earned him a hard shove from the younger boy.
Propping himself on his elbows as he laid back, Naruto sighed. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Have you read the scroll I gave you for your birthday?" Was the reply.
"Yeah I have, what's the big idea with it anyway?! Can't you develop something that I can do on my own?" The blonde boy snapped.
"Don't be an idiot, if he's in your body he might as well make himself useful." Kakashi explained. "If you develop techniques using Kyuubi's chakra you can become even more powerful."
"I'd rather be strong using my own chakra..." Naruto whined.
"Look. You have a crazy amount of stamina. With Oni no Kiba no Jutsu (Demon Fang Technique) you'll be able to use that more efficiently." The older man said. (1)
"But I've never fought with a katana. How am I going to learn?" Naruto said, still resisting slightly.
The silver-haired Jounin ruffled Naruto's hair and looked up to the sky where the stars were twinkling merrily down at the two of them. "That's up to Kumiko. Every member of her clan learned how to be a master of swordplay at a young age. Her training wasn't completed but she is by far the most skilled in the use of swords than anyone here in Konoha."
Naruto looked quizzically at his sensei for a moment. "Wasn't completed? Why not?"
"That's up to her to tell you if she decides to." Kakashi said and stood up. He brushed off the back of his pants to remove several blades of grass that clung stubbornly to the black fabric. "Think about it." He said and disappeared in a small cloud of smoke.
Naruto found himself in a dilemma. On one hand he didn't want use Kyuubi's Chakra simply because he didn't like that overgrown fur ball but on the other hand he did want to become stronger. As he covered the various pro's and cons in his mind, he headed home. He would decide later because right now there was a certain girl that he wanted to take care of.
(1): Oni no Kiba no Jutsu (Demon Fang Technique):
Calling upon the Kyuubi Chakra, Naruto is able to make a four foot (121,92 centimeters) long katana. Due to it being created out of chakra alone, Naruto can make it as sharp or blunt as he wants at will. Its distinct feature is that it is a translucent red blade which looks like it's dripping crimson flames.
Songs that helped me during writing of this chapter:
Ah! My Goddess - The Movie OST – Try to Wish
Kittie - Brackish
Slipknot – Duality
(Cool mix of songs eh?)
A/N: Well here's another chapter for you all. I hope you enjoyed it. I had a bit of difficulty here and there but it all worked out in the end. I'm pleased to announce that I have a new beta-reader. His nickname on ff.net is: "refused!" Hopefully with his help I'll be able to make this fic the best it can be. He is also currently creating his own fic which I'll be beta-ing for him and I've already read the prologue and the partly finished first chapter. I promise you it'll blow your minds!
Well it seems that you guys would like a flashback of sorts on what happened when our three favorite siblings returned to the Hidden Sand. So the next chapter will be mainly about that.
On to the review response!
kashisenshey: Thanks for the kind words but uhm, go easy on the caps next time eh? ;)
Ice Dragon XXI: Well it won't go past a few kisses while they're still young but I promise it will become quite a bit more when they get older (no, I don't exactly plan on writing up exactly what they are doing, I don't do smut :P) Thanks for the review!
Licht Sieger: Hehe, don't we all at one point?
Gopu: Thanks!
weirddramagirl: I will in the next chapter, thanks for the review!
Grand Admiral Gin: Well here it is, I know it's a bit short but I'm sure he'll show up again in later chapters. Thanks for the review!
Karibanu: Yeah let's just say I was terribly cute when I still had a mad bush of red curls. :P Anyway I might rewrite the conversation to last a bit longer but I had to remove the hostility between them for later purposes. Let's just say, Sakura wants to find out who the girlfriend is and things won't be pretty. (No she still isn't interested in Naruto that way and never will)
Rygura: Yeah I thought so too. I love this pairing for some reason. Thanks for the review!
omnidragon82: Heh, thanks!
narusakuwooo: Thanks, I'm glad you like it. :)
MC-88: Oh I don't know if they'll be too pleased, especially Kankuro. Thanks for the review!
babowonsuni: No she doesn't like him that way and she never will probably. Thanks for the review!
Inferno-Dragonz: Hehehe, wouldn't that be something? Thanks for the review!
Crimson-Strike: Kankuro finding out? Be afraid, be very afraid! Thanks for the review!
Sirus183: He will eventually. The basis has already been laid out in this chapter. Thanks for the review!
Kirin Kage the Shadow Girl: Haha, sorry. ;) No don't worry, Sasuke will be anything than weak later on.
d-scribe: Uhm yeah, thanks. I'm not trying to be picky I just want someone whom I can also use to think of new ideas. Thankfully I've already found such a person. Give me your email address and I'll send you a list.
Kaiyu Onibaba: Thank you. Hopefully I've updates soon enough for you. Thanks for the review!
Xaerox: Thanks, hopefully I will. ;)
Well there you have it, another chapter gone by. Thanks for all the reviews, as always I really appreciate them and hopefully another bunch will be here when I finish the next chapter ;)