Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns them
all. And possibly part of my soul.
A/N: This actually makes
me cringe a little. I like the end a bit, but the rest is bordering
on third rate... But nonetheless, I'm not sure how to change it so
here it is for now.
"Maa... When's Kakashi-sensei gonna get here? He's later than usual," Naruto said with a yawn.
And with that Kakashi was perched on one of the bridge supports, "Yo."
"YOU'RE LATE!"
Kakashi waved them aside, "My last tissue got carried away in a gust of wind right before I sneezed so I had to chase after it. But that's not the point. I won't be able to train with you today, so you three get to work on your target practice. Ja!"
Just as suddenly as he had come, he was gone. Naruto frowned at this, he had been hoping to actually learn something new today.
"I bet he's only going to go read his pervy books," He said as he shuffled off the bridge.
Sasuke said nothing as he walked towards the training grounds with his hands in his pockets. Sakura, who inwardly agreed with Naruto, noticed and went to catch up to him.
The first hour went rather well. Each of them actually worked rather diligently at improving—or in Naruto's case, besting Sasuke. Then Naruto got bored and started idly chucking kunai and shuriken any which way he felt.
"Oi, dobe, if your aim were a little better I would actually think you were actually going for the target."
"Teme!" was all the warning there was before Naruto viciously pulled a weapon from the tree and threw it straight for Sasuke's head. Sasuke easily dodged and threw something back at Naruto.
It quickly escalated into a three way war when a deflected shuriken almost hit Sakura. It was almost sundown before the three agreed to stop. All of them were worn out and sported scrapes and cuts from the vicious battle. Sasuke stood bent over, supporting himself with the trunk of a tree. Naruto was sprawled out on the ground, breathing hard. Sakura sat with her knees bent at the base of another close by tree.
"Almost had you there, didn't I? Eh, Sasuke?" Naruto rasped out with a grin in Sasuke's general direction.
"Naruto! Don't say stupid stuff like that. I saw you almost get hit when you were up in that tree. And then you tried to cheat with kage bunshin!" Sakura turned to Sasuke, "Ne, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke picked his head up to look at her and opened his mouth to reply.
"Ssasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun, wake up," hissed a voice too raspy to be Sakura's and too deep to be Naruto's.
Sasuke's eyes flew open, sharingan wheeling. He saw blonde hair over a face wrapped in bandages. The lone uncovered eye crinkled into a look of amusement.
"We're going to be doing a little target practice today. You won't want to miss it." Orochimaru turned and exited the room, leaving Kabuto to close the door after him.
Sasuke supressed a shudder as he dragged a hand over his face. Since he was living in a nightmare he supposed it was enough that he didn't have to experience them when he was asleep too.
Sasuke supressed a pang of longing as he got dressed for the day. Power and defeating Itachi came first.
Later in the day, during training, Orochimaru's blonde hair became Naruto's blonde hair as Sasuke sent a senbon flying towards his neck.