Authors Note (and disclaimer): I do not own Naruto, obviously. Second of all, this is the chapter where things start to get pretty confusing. In fact, I'm pretty confused myself, hence the long-wait. Right now, this fic is at a slow-paced state. So, SasuSaku fans and etc., please be patient. Work at school has been an overload lately and I've just come out of a writer's block.
Today's Konoha (the setting) is a mix between our world and theirs. So…we might have their history (or the ones I've made up), but our religions and cultures. I hope this clears the whole issue up.
On with the fic!
Chapter 3
Itachi's POV
Jiraiya. That name sounded familiar. But where I heard it I had no idea. Seeing that the sun was now fully up, I headed home. When I came in the front door, Aunt Ingrid was busy making pancakes. She looked up at me as I entered the kitchen and asked me to set the table. As soon as I did, Sasuke, Ino, and Uncle Van entered, all of them looking sleepy.
"You're an early riser," Ino observed. Sasuke raised his eyebrows at me. Normally, I would be asleep until the afternoon or something. I had a feeling he was accusing me of smoking, but then again he had a point. Smoking to me nowadays is a usual thing.
When breakfast was finished, Ino went up to use the bathroom. She came down half an hour later, looking fully refreshed.
"Meet me outside in an hour," she instructed Sasuke and me. "I have to go somewhere." An hour later, Sasuke and I were waiting for her in the front yard of the Yamanaka house. When she arrived, she was half-dragging a sleepy looking Sakura and Naruto. I had a feeling she was going to continue yesterday's events.
"Why did you have to drag us out of our beds so early?" Naruto whined.
"Because Sakura's shift is in the afternoon and by that time you'd be stuck playing soccer with Kiba and Shika-kun." She answered.
"What the hell is going on?" Sasuke asked. Ino grinned wolfishly at us and answered the question.
"What do you think's going on? We are gonna study the history of Konoha during the time of shinobi!" No one said anything for a long time and then suddenly, for no reason at all, I found myself saying, "Jiraiya." Naruto's head shot up.
"You know him?" he asked.
"Know him? Yeah, I guess," I answered. I just met him this morning." Naruto's eyes were as round as dinner plates.
"YES! HE'S BACK! LET'S GO TO HIM, GUYS! HE KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT THE HISTORY OF KONOHA DURING THE TIME OF SHINOBI…!"
"Shut up, dobe." Sasuke warned. "You'll wake up the whole neighborhood." Too late. A man's head had popped from a window and told us to shut up.
"There are people trying to sleep here, you know," he finished admonishing us and closed the window with a slam. Sakura faced me.
"Was Jiraiya holding a big sack?" she asked. I thought about it. Come to think of it, the old man was holding a big sack of something. I nodded. Sakura turned to Naruto.
"I don't think we should disturb him," she said. "He probably just came back from his trip and wants to rest." Ino shook her head.
"With Naruto with us, I don't think he'd refuse." She stated. "Itachi, what time did you meet him?" she asked me. I shrugged.
"'Bout fifteen minutes before you were up." I told her. Naruto rubbed his hands together.
"Excellent." he cried. "If we go to him now, we'd probably find him studying a scroll or something."
"How do you know?" asked Sakura.
"He always does at this time," Naruto answered. "Now let's go!" Sighing, the rest of the group followed the hyperactive blond around the alleys and streets of Konoha until we reached a house that was apart from the other houses. Naruto jogged up to the front door and pressed the doorbell multiple times.
"Open up, old man!" he shouted. "It's me, Naruto!" Soon, we could hear footsteps and someone muttering loudly, "damn kid." The door opened and I saw the man from this morning.
"I knew I'd find you here sooner or later. And it looks like you've brought the rest of your friends here as well," he said, looking at us. He paused for a minute to look at Sasuke and me. Sakura bowed politely.
"We're sorry to disturb you," she apologized.
"No need!" Jiraiya announced and told us to come in. He led us to the living room and told us to sit down on the couches or armchairs while he gets some tea. His house, it seemed, was decorated with Chinese drawings, ancient-looking scrolls, books, and small clay sculptures of frogs. On a table in the middle of the living room, there was a table which had an open scroll on it. Naruto had been right: Jiraiya had been studying a scroll.
"Now, why are you here?" he asked when he came back with a try full of tea.
"We wanna know the history of shinobi Konoha." said Naruto, who was fiddling with a rubber ball on an armchair next to where Jiraiya sat. Jiraiya narrowed his eyes.
"Put that down," he told Naruto. "It's very old and I don't want you breaking it…yet." He turned to the rest of us. "So…I know all of you except for one." He nodded his head up at Sasuke.
"I'm Sasuke," he introduced himself. Jiraiya gazed at him for a minute and then closed his eyes.
"So you want to know about Konoha's history at the time of shinobi…," he said, taking a sip of his tea. His eyes were still closed in thought. "Hmm…If I told you the whole thing, then we'd still be here by next year. It'll have to be summarized to a manageable length."
We all leaned towards him.
"But you don't want to learn about that, do you? Kakashi Hatake told me you might be more interested of the history during the time of the Fourth Hokage to the Sixth Hokage."
"What we really wanna know is about the Uchiha clan, the Sixth Hokage, their friends, and so on…" Sakura told him. Jiraiya opened one eye at her.
"I'll get to that part," he said, opening the other eye. "The shinobi part of the history you're interested in began when a demon fox named Kyuubi attacked the Hidden Village of Leaf Country. The fourth Hokage defeated it by sealing it into a young orphan baby named Naruto Uzumaki." We all glanced at Naruto, who stared at Jiraiya.
"Naruto grew up hated and shunned by the village people because of the demon inside him. He never knew that though, and tried to be accepted by causing mayhem and mischief. The first person to understand him was a man named Iruka, a chuunin who taught at the ninja academy. Iruka, I suppose, was basically the father figure to Naruto. When he finally graduated from ninja school, Naruto's class was separated by teams. Naruto was placed in Team Seven, along with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."
Jiraiya paused for a moment, letting those words sink in. Then, he started speaking again.
"Team Seven was placed with a jounin, an elite ninja, named Hatake Kakashi. Through his training, each member became the one of the strongest ninjas in his or her field. Sakura, a medic nin, Sasuke, head of the ANBU assassination squad, and Naruto, who became the sixth Hokage…"
"Yes, but can you tell us the details of their lives…?" Ino asked.
"No. None of the records about their daily life made it to present day Konoha." Jiraiya answered. A disappointed expression traveled from one face to another. I myself was pretty disappointed.
"Well, thanks or sharing us the information, Jiraiya." said Sakura, standing up. "But I really have to go now. My shift at the café starts soon. Bye!" She went to the front door.
"What?" cried Ino. "Now? But it's only 11:02. I thought your shift started at two in the afternoon or something." Sakura shook her head.
"No, they've rescheduled me for the day." Sakura informed us. From where I was standing, I could see that she was lying. It looked like she had her own plans for the day.
"Bye, Sakura!" Naruto said. Sasuke just nodded and muttered "See ya." I followed Naruto's suite.
"Right, bye!" Ino said.
"Well, okay, Sakura." Jiraiya said, sipping on some tea he brought from the kitchen. "Have fun!" he waved at her and turned to us.
"I have a fun game for you guys to play." he said, grinning evilly. He brought us two bells. "This game was the game that brought Team Seven together. It's a shame Sakura couldn't stay any longer." We all leaned closer to him.
"The game in those days, however, was a test. Most failed. Apparently, Team Seven happened to be one of the teams which passed. Let's see if you can keep up to them or not…"
Sakura's POV
After I exited Jiraiya's house, I didn't go to the café. Instead, I went to the temple. The temple happens to be my favorite place to concentrate and meditate. Unlike any other normal temples, however, this one is mix of Asian Buddhist architecture. I love this style.
Sitting under the sakura tree, I close my eyes and relaxed. It was windy in this area of town and the wind blew my hair into my face. I opened my eyes to see someone gazing at me. She had silvery-blonde hair and although she looked many years, was beautiful. She raised an eyebrow at me.
"I've never seen you before," she said. I smiled a bit.
"I've just started coming here a few weeks ago." I admitted. She sighed.
"Good." she said. "I actually thought you were someone a…friend…of mine sent to tell me something. Now that I see you're not, how 'bout a cup of hot chocolate?" I shook my head.
"No thanks," I said. The woman shrugged and pulled out a canteen and a straw. She started drinking her hot chocolate.
"So…" she said. "What's your name?"
"I'm Sakura." I answered. She nodded, eyeing the tree behind me. I swear I saw a smirk on her face for a slight second.
"I'm Tsunade." she announced. Seconds passed as we said nothing to each other. The wind had calmed and Tsunade finally put her canteen down.
"Tell me about yourself, Sakura." she said, getting in a position ready for listening to a story.
"Umm…" Oh boy, this is gonna be long. "Well, I like this temple, I work at a café…I…"
"You're one of those average people on the street." Tsunade commented.
"Well…yeah," I agreed. I cocked my head to one side, then back again, studying her facial expression. She was obviously not one of those old people you fell asleep listening to when they talked about the "old days."
"Why don't you tell me about yourself?" I asked.
"I don't feel like it."
My eye started twitching. I was ready to leave.
"Well," I said, getting up. "It's almost time for my shift at the café. I have to go now. Bye!" I walked away as fast as possible. When I looked back, she waved at me with a knowing smile.
I didn't know I was going to have to deal with her for another long time.
Naruto's Journal
Oh man, was I hungry at lunch today. Usually, I'd be sitting in a ramen shop, eating delicious ramen. Today, however, I was hiding in a bush. Yep, a bush. About ten meters away from me, I could hear Ino sneeze. I sighed. What the hell was I doing here anyway? I focused on my target: An old man sitting on a tree stump, reading a scroll. He held three bells in one hand. He looked unaware of his state. Tired of waiting, I leaped out of the bush and ran towards him.
"YAAAHH!" I shouted. He faced me and leaped out of my way. Damn. I fell on the stump. Standing up as quickly as possible, I turned around to him. He had put away his scroll and was now standing up. He looked at me straight in the eye and beckoned me to come. Alright! It's kickass time!
Suddenly, as planned, Sasuke jumped out of the tree behind him and charged right at the old man. Then, Ino came running out of a bush from his side and charged towards him with all her might. The old man looked startled, but none of us were fooled. We all continued charging at him.
"DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Ino's battle-woman cry rang through out the forest we were in along with my battle cry and Sasuke's. It looked like victory.
However, at the last minute, he dodged into the air and we ran into each other.
"My nose!" Ino cried. I clutched my forehead which Sasuke had punched accidentally. He himself was dealing with an injured neck.
We turned to the old man who chuckled at our glare.
" Jiraiya, this game sucks," Ino complained. He grinned at us.
"Sucks for you losers." He smirked. Tired, Ino sat down. Concealing a grin, I followed her suite as did Sasuke.
Jiraiya looked surprised at us.
"Giving up already?" he asked.
As soon he said that, Itachi ran out of a bush behind him, grabbed the bells Jiraya was holding and sprinted towards us. We reached out hands towards him as he dropped the bells in our hands and stood behind us.
"We'll NEVER give up!" I shouted. Behind me, the rest all nodded. Jiraya smiled.
"Good." He said. "Now come one, let me treat you all for lunch. You four have just passed the test – or shall I say game? – that Team Seven had to redo. Congratulations."
Ino yelped happily and posed. I punched the air joyfully. Sasuke and Itachi just smiled.
Overall, it was a nice day. Oh! The ramen just came. I'll write in this thing later…
Thank you to :
XRulerofChaosX: Glad you like ths fic...I dunno if it's gonna get any weirdo, tho!
Green-Mamba-89: I hope the note above clears a few things up for u...When they were at the museum, they noticed that their ancestors happened to have the same names they had.
Koori no Tenshi, nkitty29,waterfox9,kuMi-iZ-Miii, Maya: Thank you so much for the reviews:D
amy: yeah...after a while i realized that u wouldn't really be able to notice the mark on super-old gravestones...oh well, they don't call this fanFICTION for nothing, lol.
Lady Snow Blood
