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Finding the Way - Part 2
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"Are we sure this is the right way?"
Team 7 hadn't raced through the desert for long before doubts rose amongst them. Naho glanced back at the sun that was rising behind them, following them.
"I'm also not sure if footprints are enough to trust. I mean, the desert is dangerous. What if we get lost?" Sakura agreed with her teammate.
"But the compass also said this was southwest, right?" Naruto didn't stop while they were discussing the matter. And neither did the others. They kept pushing forward. "Besides, there is absolutely no one else around. So whom else should those traces belong to if not Kakashi-sensei or Gai's team?"
Sasuke too started glancing backwards now. "But it is weird. You'd think we'd meet more travellers on the main road between Konoha and Suna. There isn't even a real road here."
They slowed down as they were suddenly less and less convinced they were on the right track.
"I don't know. I've never been to Suna before. Is there supposed to be a road?" Sakura tried to remember when the road they'd been on had ceased to exist. But she could barely remember. Gai-sensei had them run so much and do sit-up after sit-up that she didn't have time to pay any attention to where they were going. They all blindly followed their teachers. But now their teachers were gone. And they were alone, in a desert.
"Come on, guys. Does anyone of you still see Gai's team? Because I don't. They'll win this challenge if we don't hurry up!" Naruto urged them to pick up the pace again. But Sakura punched him so hard on the back that he stumbled over his own feet. The soft sand underneath didn't help regaining his balance. Naruto stumbled and fell. And so they all came to a stop.
"We also won't win the challenge if we run in the wrong direction," she lectured Naruto. "Besides, we are at least a day's marsh away from Suna."
"I might be imagining this, but…" Naho looked back at the little hill they'd passed on their way with Kakashi and Gai. It was far away already. The sun towered over it. "We came from over there, right? From past that hill. But the sun rose straight behind it."
"Yes, we definitely passed that hill. It's really the only landmark around here," Sakura said.
"If the sun rose there, that would mean that east is that way. So we'd have come straight from the east," Sasuke added.
"But we were supposed to always be going south-west. Are we… lost?" Sakura looked around.
"I think you guys are overthinking this." Naruto pulled out his map again, even though he didn't know what good it would do him. But looking at maps sure made you look smarter. "Why would Kakashi-sensei go the wrong way? Sure, sometimes he's a bit out of it, but Gai-sensei would have noticed."
They all thought about it for a moment, until Sakura said: "Maybe this is a test. To see if we find the right way? You know, during the bell test, Kakashi-sensei also said the goal was to get the bells. But in reality, it was to show teamwork."
"I don't care what his intention was," Sasuke said. "I'm not blindly running into the desert based on some footprints. Do you know how big the Country of Wind is? We need a plan."
Naruto pouted, but agreed. "Fine," he gave in. "So what's the plan? How are we supposed to find out where we are?"
"Give me your map." Sakura didn't wait for him to hand it to her but grabbed it instead. She searched her own backpack for a pencil and some thread.
"What are you doing?" Naho asked, but all her teammates were eying her up as she drew a circle on the map.
"Well, the line of this circle should approximately show where we could possibly be right now, just judging from our average traveling speed and the time that has passed since we left Konoha. Obviously, we can rule out most of these places since we definitely went westwards and are in the Land of Wind right now."
"So we just need to find out where we are exactly on that line you drew through the Land of Winds. Maybe we should split up and search for villages and other landmarks nearby?" Sasuke said, already looking if there was anything nearby on the maps that could help them navigate. "We should also be north of Suna, right? The Land of Rocks would be north of us." He traced the path they would have taken with his finger.
"If we are north of Suna, we'll just have to go south instead." Naruto said. His muscles itched to keep moving.
"Isn't there a way to make sure we are on the right track?" Naho looked around, but there was nothing but desert and a mountain, which was not tall enough to be marked on any map.
"I guess, but…" Sakura put the map away and looked around them once more, at all the sand. "I don't think splitting up is a good idea. If one of us gets lost in this desert…" She didn't have to end her sentence for everyone to understand that the desert meant death.
"Checking all the possible landmarks one after the other could take days. We are still part of a competition here." Sasuke too still cared about winning. Gai's words were very much present in his mind.
Naruto had quietly been listening, arms crossed in front of him, nodding at everything his teammates said. "Don't worry, guys! I know what to do," he eventually exclaimed with a bright smile on his face. "I'll just summon as many shadow clones as we need. They can run into all directions, and we can check them all at once without having to split up!"
"That is… actually a good idea," Sakura admitted and they put their plan into action.
Naruto summoned clone after clone, and with every clone, he could feel his chakra levels dropping and the red chakra from his seal spread more and more in his body to substitute it. He stopped summoning clones once the red chakra threatened to overtake him. He could almost hear the ninetail's voice in his head, could almost feel emotions that weren't his. Hate, envy, desperation. Naruto eventually put one of the paper seals Kakashi had given him on his belly. Secretly, not to worry anyone. He wasn't going to risk anything.
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Every time a clone dispelled itself, Naruto and his team gathered more information on their surroundings. Naruto suddenly knew of little villages and travelling nomadic tribes, of stone formations and rivers. But every time a clone dispelled itself, Naruto not only got information, but also thirst. His bottle of water was soon dry, and the bottles of Naho and Sakura followed. Some of his clones had been running for hours while team 7 sat in the shades, filling their maps with information and waiting for the heat to pass.
"Do you want us to die in this heat? You can't just drink all the water!" Sakura eventually scolded him.
"I can't help it. It feels like I didn't get a single drop of water in days," Naruto said, grabbing a bottle again, but it was empty. "Wait, was this the last?"
Sakura jumped up. "You drank all our water?" she yelled at him in disbelief. "We are still a whole day away from Suna, what are the three of us supposed to drink now?"
Naho looked at her teammate, wondering, "You know water jutsu, right? Couldn't you just… fill the bottles up again?"
Sakura looked back at her, wondered herself, and suddenly turned even redder than she already was from the sun. "I'm not going to spit water for you guys to drink!"
But hour after hour, the four Genin became thirstier and thirstier, even from just sitting around.
"Man, this sucks. Is the night ever coming?" Naruto was lying in the shades, his lips dry. "I really hope my other clones find some water and drink it. I can't take any more thirst."
Sakura could barely swallow herself. She'd never been this dehydrated before, and she couldn't believe just how fast the desert sucked every last drop of water out of you. So she reconsidered what Naho had said, and eventually decided to give it a try.
She formed a sign and seconds later, spit fresh water into her bottle. It surprised her just how easy it had been.
"I want some too!" Naruto immediately begged.
Sakura's first impulse was to punch him away from her water. But he did look awfully thirsty. "You don't mind that I… made this?" she eventually asked.
Naruto shook his head and she decided to share after all. Teammates weren't of much use when dying of thirst. She asked Naho and Sasuke if they wanted some too, trying to sound as casual as possible. After all, water was water. It didn't matter where the water came from. Naho gladly accepted. But Sasuke showed the reaction Sakura had feared.
"I'm not drinking your spit." He frowned.
Sakura instantly flushed red. It didn't help that Naruto was giggling next to her, acting like they just had their first kiss. "I make sure you guys have water to drink and this is how you thank me?" She hit Naruto and grabbed the water bottle from him. "Grow up! It's just water," she scolded him, but couldn't get herself to look at Sasuke. It hurt her heart more than she wanted to accept that Sasuke refused her water.
But as time went by, even Sasuke reconsidered and gave Sakura's water a try.
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When the sun was setting and temperatures were cooling down, team 7 finally managed to cover a good amount of distance again. They were pretty sure about their location, and it seemed that the two teachers had, in fact, led them into the wrong direction. Instead of being east of Suna, they were north of it.
The feeling of accomplishment spurred them on. They had figured it out. They found the right way. They moved so fast that inevitably hope came back in all of them that they could still make it before Gai's team, that Gai's team had followed the wrong way. In all of them except for Naho. She was missing the competitive drive that pushed the others further ahead. To her, it made no difference whether they won or lost a race against another team. Tenten being part of the other team didn't change anything for her either.
Sasuke didn't care much about the race either. To him, it was only a "stupid race across the desert" as he called it, one that wouldn't improve his skills or help him get closer to his goal. That is, it would be just that if Gai hadn't told them Kakashi might reconsider allowing them to participate in the Chuunin exams if team 7 won the race. Of course, Sasuke was aware this was mostly a joke from Gai. But if there was even the slightest chance Kakashi would reconsider after all, Sasuke would give it his all. He wanted to be part of those Chuunin exams.
Sakura and Naruto both wanted to win this challenge to be the best, even when it was only a "stupid race across the desert". Because being the best earned you acknowledgement, and acknowledgment was something they both yearned for.
And so they ran and ran, and Naho followed them, simply because she didn't want to hold them back. She wanted to win this race too. Not because she cared about winning, but because her teammates cared. And she wanted to see them happy.
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They stopped halfway through the night in an area covered in tumbleweed. Naruto still had to go relieve himself every half an hour because of all the water he'd drank, and the others took the opportunity to rest for just a moment.
Sasuke checked the map again. Sakura calculated the remaining distance to Sunagakure.
"Careful, Sakura!" Naruto yelled as he came back.
Sakura didn't know what she was supposed to be careful of. She didn't see anything, nor hear anything. Yet Naruto dashed towards her, lunged at her, and grabbed something on the ground next to her.
A snake flew through the air. Naruto had grabbed it by its tail to pull it away from his teammate. The snake turned in the air and chose to attack the person holding onto it. Its two spiky teeth vanished in Naruto's hand.
He let go of it again as quickly as he'd grabbed it, throwing it away from them towards the bushes. The snake happily vanished in them.
Sakura almost immediately grabbed Naruto's hand to look at it. "Were you bit?" she asked, but the two small red dots near his thumb clearly showed her he was.
"Yeah, but don't worry. It hurts a bit, but I'll be fine." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, somehow embarrassed at the sudden worry his teammate showed for him.
"But what if it was venomous?" Another thought suddenly crossed her mind. "We have to catch it! Don't move, Naruto!" She immediately ran off to where the snake vanished to.
Sasuke eventually did manage to catch the snake. Or at least he caught a snake. A kunai stuck in its head, pinning it to the ground as the three of them approached to inspect it.
"Does it have a red cross on the head?" Sakura asked, trying to get a better look without actually having to touch it.
"Maybe? It's hard to tell with the kunai stuck in there," Naho said.
Sasuke quietly pulled the kunai out and lifted the dead snake at its tail. "So what are we going to do with it now?"
Sakura jumped a few steps backwards as he held the dead reptile in her direction. "Well, uh… I read a bit about snakes and their venoms before we departed. In order to treat a snake bite, you have to know what kind of snake it was."
"And why should there be a red cross on its head?"
"The most venomous snake in the Land of Wind can be identified by a red cross on the head. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't that one, because…"
"Because?" Naho eyed the head of the snake again. This time without the kunai.
"Well, it's rather deadly. People that are bitten die in a few hours if not given the antidote immediately."
All three stared at the snake.
"That's not a red cross, right?" Naho said.
"There is something red on the head though," Sakura noted.
"Don't you have more info? Like, any other characteristics?" Sasuke asked.
"I mean, I'm not a snake expert. I only read about the red cross."
"So how do we get the antidote if it really is that venomous snake?" Sasuke asked again.
Sakura dropped her gaze. "I suppose Sunagakure should have some."
"But we are still at least half a day's march away from Suna." Naho's voice got quieter as she realised Naruto was coming over to them.
"What's taking you guys so long? We should continue or we won't beat Gai's team in the race." His eyes fell on the snake. "Oh, you caught it?"
"Why did you come here? I told you not to move. The venom will just spread faster!" Sakura immediately exclaimed.
Sasuke dropped it. It wasn't of any use.
"Venom? Does that mean it's poisonous?" Naruto asked. He wasn't too worried yet. After all, he felt fine.
"Venomous," Sakura corrected Naruto, but then realised this probably wasn't the right time and place to teach Naruto new words. "Well, we are not sure. It might be. We should play it safe and expect the worst."
Naruto started to worry when he found out that worst case scenario was that he'd be dead in a few hours.
"So what do I do know?" he asked, panic started to rise in him. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I'll suck the poison out." He grabbed a kunai, ready to cut the bite open.
Sakura stopped him. "What are you doing? Idiot, that won't do any good."
"Why not? I can suck it out!"
"Just stay still for now so it doesn't spread. That is, if there was any venom at all. Maybe this snake was completely harmless."
Naruto wasn't good at staying still. He wanted to act, do something. But he still obliged to Sakura and carefully listened as his teammates discussed what to do next.
"We definitely can't continue like this. Even if it wasn't the red crossed snake, there are still many more that are venomous in this country. Naruto should rest," Sakura said.
Sasuke frowned. "We are in the middle of nowhere. At least in Suna they could treat him."
"But he wouldn't make it there." Naruto now frowned at Sakura's words, wondering if this really was the end.
"What if one of us runs ahead and comes back with a medic?" Naho suggested.
"That would take too long as well. Snake poison usually only gives you a few hours." Sakura tried to remember the article she'd read. Making an antidote took long, years sometimes. That was definitely not an option. But she remembered that there were other options. None that were proven and taught to medical shinobi, but those used by old desert tribes. Snake venom often clotted the blood, so there were certain herbs those tribes used as blood thinner. It wasn't necessarily a cure, but aimed to treat the imminent effects of the venom.
"There are some herbs that should grow around here," Sakura explained to the others. "We should collect some, just in case."
Naruto switched his body weight from one foot to the other, trying to remain calm. "No," he said. "We should just keep going. I feel fine. If we stop now, we won't be able to beat Gai's team. We'll lose."
There was silence. They all knew that Naruto was right. If they decided to rest and search for the herbs, it would take hours away, a whole day even since they couldn't continue their journey when the sun was up.
"Don't be stupid," Sasuke eventually said. "I doubt Kakashi would give us the win if you ended up dead for it. So let's get these herbs."
The two girls immediately agreed.
Naruto didn't object. He didn't say anything, but he felt a warmth spreading inside of him. They were worried. He felt bad holding them back, being the reason why they would lose this. But he also felt glad, happy that he now had teammates who valued his life more than the win in a race. This was why he'd chosen to stay with them, to learn how to control the ninetails instead of quitting.
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They set up a small camp with a fire. It was still dark, though the full moon in the sky bathed the sand around them in white light. But the moon barely offered any warmth, and the desert became awfully cold at night.
Sakura had prepared a salve with the herbs they collected and Sasuke had even managed to hunt them some dinner. Now all they could do was to sit by the fire and wait.
"Naruto…" Sakura's voice was soft. He'd never heard her speak his name in such a manner. Usually it was accompanied by annoyance and anger. "Thank you," she added.
He looked at her, unsure what she was talking about.
"You were bit because you wanted to protect me."
"Oh. It was nothing, really. We are a team, aren't we? We are here to watch out for each other." He wasn't quite sure where the sudden need to downplay his action came from, but the fact that Sakura thanked him was weirdly embarrassing. He'd always wished for recognition, dreamed of being a hero. But now that Sakura was thankful, he didn't really know what he was supposed to say.
He turned towards her a bit, but Sakura instantly scolded him for moving.
Naho sneezed.
"It's pretty cold all of a sudden," Sakura noted. "How can it be this hot during the day and then be this cold at night?" It wasn't really a question she expected an answer to. She already knew the answer. She knew the theory behind it, but it still surprised her. Experiencing something first-hand was different from reading it in books.
"Your hands are really cold too." Naho took her hands into hers. The two girls instinctively scooped further together, seeking each other's warmth.
"How are you doing, Naruto?" Naho asked, one of her arms wrapped around Sakura.
Naruto's hand and arm were tingling, almost like they were going numb. But he didn't tell them. He knew they would worry. "Maybe we should make a bigger fire," he eventually suggested. All of them felt the chill of the night. And none of them wore clothes that would protect them from the cold. Naruto was the only one with a jacket. He'd wanted to give it to Sakura or Naho. He heard it was something expected of men, to give their jacket to a girl they like. But the two girls both refused to take it.
But Naruto didn't mind. He'd often tried to share his things with classmates and other children in the past. They had never accepted his pencil when they forgot theirs or agreed to share his sweets. They always ran away, pretending he had some sort of contagious disease they would catch. It had left Naruto sad and frustrated, to the point when he stopped trying to share.
He thought back to that time now, and a smile appeared on his lips, despite his arm throbbing in pain. Because he knew life had changed. They didn't refuse his jackets because they hated him. They cared about him.
"If you are cold, you can come here too," Naho said, pointing at the spot next to her. "We'll be warmer together."
Sakura's first impulse was to tell him off and shoo him away. But she changed her mind before saying a word. "That's a good idea, Naho. We can warm each other!" Her eyes glanced at Sasuke sitting at the other side of the fire. "You should come too, Sasuke-kun."
Naruto didn't hesitate to move closer to Naho and Sakura. But he did hesitate to snuggle up to them. He wasn't quite sure where to put his hands and how close he really was allowed to get.
"I'm fine over here." Sasuke didn't budge even a bit.
Naruto couldn't understand how Sasuke never appreciated the care and admiration people had for him, especially Sakura.
"It's actually kind of beautiful, isn't it?" Naho said, looking up at the sky. Being in the middle, she felt both Sakura's and Naruto's warmth. "There is not a single cloud up there. I never knew the sky had so many stars."
Her teammates looked up too, even Sasuke. Sakura and Naruto immediately agreed. The night sky above the desert was the most beautiful they had ever seen, like a whole ocean full of sparkling lights.
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Kakashi had never been quite as enthusiastic about sending his Genin out into the desert alone as Gai had been. He'd also never been quite as convinced that they would manage to find the correct way. He could see them walk into the wrong direction, straight into the eternal nothingness of the desert, and be lost forever.
So Kakashi used a little cheat.
One of his Shadow Clones had been quietly following team 7, observing their every move. He wasn't going to interfere, but at least he would know if he could expect them back in a day, a month, or not at all.
And now that the Shadow Clone was watching the four kids, three of them snuggled up against each other, he didn't know whether to dispel the jutsu or continue his observation. If Naruto was dying of snake venom, the real Kakashi would want to know. And maybe he would even be able to deliver the antidote in time. After all, Kakashi and Gai had long arrived in Sunagakure.
But the clone knew there was another option. He scanned the area, and soon found what he was looking for. A good distance away from Naruto and the others were the Anbu, Naruto's guards that followed him everywhere – even into the desert.
"Yo." Kakashi's clone appeared next to them to greet them. Neither of the two showed any reaction to his greeting, almost like they hadn't noticed him. But of course, they had noticed him a long while ago.
"You guys would prevent Naruto from dying of a snake bite, right? Just asking, you know, out of interest. You seem quite relaxed."
Komachi only glanced at him. "You seem quite relaxed yourself. Too relaxed around us, actually. Leave."
The Nara man laughed while playing around with some sort of puzzle cube. "Naruto's fine. That snake was barely venomous."
"So it's not the one they think it is?"
He shook his head, absorbed in his game. "They look very alike. But one's deadly, the other makes you feel a bit uneasy at best."
Kakashi nodded, somewhat relieved. The Nara didn't care much about the clone's presence, unlike the Yamanaka woman.
"You aren't needed here. Go dispel yourself or I will do it," she told him.
"I would still like to see how they are doing. I'm their teacher after all."
Komachi snorted. "Then do that somewhere else."
Kakashi's clone respected her wish and left to search for his own private spot. If there was someone understanding that someone wanted to be left alone, it was him. But there was still a soft smile on his lips. Naruto was going to be fine. His whole team was going to be fine. All they had to do was to continue on to Suna.
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Kakashi quietly watched Gai and his team. Gai and Lee were dancing to celebrate their victory, while Neji and Tenten watched them with raised brows.
But Kakashi wasn't upset he lost.
He's eyes were locked on Suna's main gate as hours passed. Kakashi's Shadow Clone hadn't been released yet, so he could be pretty sure that nothing too bad happened to them. Yet he didn't know. He didn't know what his clone was seeing or feeling. At least not yet.
Kakashi was still sitting in the shades of the wall surrounding Suna, nothing but sand beneath him, when he felt a sudden change in his body. It was a familiar feeling. His muscles twitched as new information was sent to them, just enough for him to notice. It was a soft and subtle feeling, telling him that his clone had dispelled itself. The feeling was gone again as fast as it had appeared. Kakashi thought of his team again, and suddenly, he simply knew that they were fine. He knew that they had figured the correct way out quickly, he knew that Naruto got bit by a snake. He knew his teammates took care of him, put his well-being over winning. He could see the picture of them sitting next to each other, all cuddled up against each other except for Sasuke.
Team 7 appeared at the horizon, running towards the gates of Suna at full speed. A loud and lively discussion broke out as soon as they realised they hadn't won. Gai's team had. Sasuke blamed Naruto, Sakura blamed Naruto too, and Naruto did his best to defend himself, pointing out all the useful things he'd done along the way. But in the end, all of them were simply happy they had done it.
"You did good, all of you," Kakashi said, patting Sakura and Naruto's heads as they were closest to him. "You might not have won, but I'm still proud of you guys. Gai and his team already went to a barbecue restaurant. We should go too." Kakashi was actually prouder than his monotonous voice would suggest, but he wasn't really good at showing it. Still, after the disaster of their last mission, he was glad that his team still knew what teamwork was supposed to look like.
"What about those documents we were supposed to deliver here. Were they just fake?" Naruto asked while following Kakashi. But his eyes soon drifted off as he walked down the streets of Sunagakure, a village so different from his own. The houses looked different, a lot smaller and more simplistic, and all of them had the same brown colour. The people he met wore different clothing, covered their heads and shoulders with scarves. They all stared at him as he walked past them, not because he was a Jinchuuriki – they didn't know – but because he was clearly a foreigner. His headband told them, his clothes told them, and even his way of speaking did.
"No, Gai really was supposed to deliver those documents. Our team simply joined." Kakashi too noticed the people staring at them. They soon spotted Gai and his team, who were already sitting at a barbecue stand, ordering meal after meal and having a good time. Lee was still recounting the events of their journey and the experiences he'd made. When they noticed Kakashi's team, Gai and Lee put on airs for a moment before congratulating them in good sportsmanship.
"We were totally running into the wrong direction for quite a while." Tenten laughed. She pointed to the spot next to her for Naho to sit. "But I guess you guys did too."
Naruto was about to start bragging how his team never got lost and that they all figured it out right away. But Lee had something to say himself.
"Actually, Sakura-chan, there is something I have meant to tell you for a while now. And with this win, I feel confident enough to have earned the right to tell you this!" Lee rose from his seat, his eyes filled with determination. Neji only sighed, covering half his face in his palm, but Gai vocally cheered for his student. "I'm in love with you, Sakura-chan! Please become my girlfriend, I promise I will protect you with all my life for the rest of my life. For you, I would run across the desert not once or twice, but a billion times!" Lee's voice echoed through the whole shop. The kitchen chef coughed into their direction with a frown on his head.
"Yes, Lee! That's the spirit! It's so inspiring to see this young youth blossoming," Gai added in a similar manner as Lee.
"What are you doing, bushy-brows? I thought you and I were buddies; I had my eyes on Sakura first! She's my teammate!" Naruto protested.
"You've lost two times to me. You should work on yourself first before you can think about the responsibilities of having a girlfriend," Lee lectured him like a grown man knowing what he was talking about.
Tenten grabbed his arm and pulled him down again. "Stop it, Lee. This is not how love works," she said.
Sakura punched Naruto. "Don't talk about me like you can just claim me. You know well enough my heart belongs to one person only. And that person is not you." She shyly smiled at Sasuke.
Kakashi decided to end the conversation. "Maybe we should leave for Konoha again, now."
"What? No way! I want to taste some Suna-specialities! Who knows when we get to come here again," Naruto protested. He'd just gotten around to looking at the menu.
"I really don't think we are wanted here," he said, looking at the kitchen chef again, who still stared them down.
Gai now looked around too, and only nodded. Lee on the other hand felt crushed. He couldn't understand how his confession ended up being ignored by almost everyone except for Naruto.
"I noticed too," Neji said. "People here seem very suspicious of us. The people in that shop over there have been staring at us all this time. And no other customers ever entered here after us."
"Huh, why? We didn't do anything." Naruto still hadn't given up the hope of a good meal in a Sunagakure restaurant. Lee's confession had already left his mind too.
Kakashi grabbed Naruto's menu and put it back on the table, signalling them all to leave. Naruto complained all the way out of the village.
"We are not part of this village. They get nervous seeing us," Kakashi explained as soon as they were out in the desert again.
"But I thought we were allies?" Naruto asked. The other Genin couldn't quite understand the problem either.
"We are. But our relations have suffered quite a bit in the last few years," Gai now explained. "So we shouldn't push our luck staying there any longer than we have to. Unnecessary incidents could only threaten our treaty."
Naruto crossed his arms in front of him, pouting. He didn't even get to taste one dish in Sunagakure.
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Their way back to Konoha was a much easier one. They followed an actual road travelled by other shinobi and merchants and were soon back in the shades of the forests of the Land of Fire.
"You look a bit down," Naho noted, running next to Tenten.
"Oh, it's nothing," Tenten said at first. She looked at the boys and their teachers running in front of them, Lee and Gai at the very front, and at Sakura. "Actually, I might be a bit jealous," she eventually said.
"Jealous? Why?"
"Remember our conversation on the way to Suna? You said Sakura wants to become a medic too. It's like… She's a civilian just like myself, but everything works out so much better for her."
Naho didn't understand. "Sakura hasn't learned a single medical jutsu yet."
"She can't be less talented than I am though. At least she knows ninjutsu. I wasn't even given the chance of becoming a medic because of how talentless I am."
They were still running after the others. Naho dodged roots and stones while still trying to keep her eyes and attention on her friend. "I thought you said you found a new way for your life. Maybe you aren't talented in ninjutsu, but you are talented in other things. I don't think you have to be jealous of Sakura."
Tenten pouted. "Well, Sakura also has this pretty, feminine hair. You know, I tried make-up once and I looked like I'd fallen in a bucket full of paint. I can't even look that feminine if I try to."
Still, Naho didn't understand. And all she could think of were Sakura's many complaints of her big forehead and split ends.
"And now Lee likes her too." Tenten looked into Naho's big, wondering eyes. When she realised that Naho still didn't get it, she added, "I like Lee."
It took Naho a moment, but then the meaning of that sentence hit Naho as hard as the big stone in front of her. She stumbled over it and fell face down onto the ground.
The group came to a halt, staring back at Naho and Tenten.
Kakashi sighed. "You want to be a shinobi. You should be able to run in a straight line without falling over."
Naho apologised and got up again. After assuring them she was fine, their journey continued.
"You like Lee?" Naho asked, somewhat in disbelief, as soon as her own teammates were far enough away again.
"Is that such a surprise? Without Lee, I wouldn't be here today. He never gives up, and he showed me that I should never give up either. He's always so positive and works hard. I appreciate that. And I… really like that about him." She blushed a bit.
Naho had never seen her friend with a shy blush on her face before. "I always thought you and Neji…"
"What? No! Neji's my best friend, I would neve think of him like that." She looked more like herself again. "Besides, Neji is always all pessimistic and in a bad mood. He's the complete opposite of Lee. Sure, he doesn't have those bushy eyebrows and weird haircut that Lee has but… I actually think those are kind of cute."
Naho stared at Tenten, still slightly irritated. But then she smiled, and said, "If Lee taught you to never give up, then I guess you shouldn't give up on him either just because he likes Sakura, right? I'm pretty sure he's not exactly Sakura's type, so..."
"I guess you are right." Tenten reciprocated her smile.
Naho thought about Tenten's words, and suddenly, she realised just how much Neji resembled Sasuke, and just how much Lee was exactly like Naruto. "You know, maybe you'd actually really like Naruto too." Naho could tell from the look on Tenten's face that she disagreed. "Why not? He's a lot like Lee. You don't even know him, yet you don't seem to like him much."
Tenten dropped her gaze. "It's not that I dislike Naruto, it's more… My mother died when the ninetails last broke out and went on a rampage in the village. That time, Naruto hadn't even been his Jinchuuriki, so I know it's not his fault. But still, my father always gets so upset when he sees Naruto and is reminded that Konoha is keeping a weapon in our village that has the potential to destroy the whole village. And growing up, it just stuck with me."
Naho looked at Naruto running further ahead. He was talking with Lee, a smile on his face. She'd known nothing about the tailed beasts when she'd come to Konoha. And even in the Academy, she always thought they were more of a myth than reality. But they sure were Naruto's reality, accompanying him wherever he went. The ninetails was a part of him, a part he never chose.
.
.
.
Back in Konoha, team 7 was about to split up and call it a day when Kakashi stopped them.
"Sasuke," he called out to his student. "Actually, I reconsidered what I said about the Chuunin exams. You can take them if you still want."
Sasuke was as surprised as his teammates were. But he soon put on a confident smirk, acting as if this had been a given all along.
"What do you mean, Sasuke can take the Chuunin exams? What about us? We are a team, aren't we?" Naruto immediately complained.
"You guys are a four-man squad. The exams usually put you into teams of three. You couldn't all participate together anyway," Kakashi explained. He had already expected complaints from both Naruto and Sakura.
"Then how are we ever going to take the exams?" Sakura asked. She was relatively calm still, despite being alarmed Sasuke could leave them. "We are four people, so one would always be left out."
Kakashi smiled. "You don't have to take the exams with your Genin team. There are plenty of teams that get split up because usually, there are always some people on a team that pass and some that fail and have to take it again. I'm sure there are plenty of two-man squads out there looking for a third member like Sasuke to join them."
"Why is it always about Sasuke?" Naruto kept on complaining. "I want to take the exams too! Why does only Sasuke get to join?"
"I'm sorry, Naruto." Kakashi wanted to be honest with Naruto. He hoped that this way, the boy would understand his decision. "You are nowhere close to being able to control the ninetails properly. You taking the exam would be a danger for both yourself as well as your teammates."
Naruto's gaze immediately dropped.
Kakashi put a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder. "But don't worry. There are plenty of opportunities to take the exams still to come. You'll just continue working hard and maybe you can take them the next time with Sakura and Naho." Kakashi wasn't the best at sounding motivational, but he still tried.
Sasuke grinned at Naruto, but he was smart enough not to tease him right now and have Kakashi reconsider his decision.
"But… Will Sasuke be fine with two new teammates?" Sakura now asked.
"It's not optimal," Kakashi admitted. "Teamwork is often a pivotal part of the exam. But as a Chuunin, you are expected to work together with different partners and teams. So Sasuke will have to manage."
"And what happens to team 7 when Sasuke is a Chuunin? We are still in our first Genin year. I didn't even know you can take the exams this early." Sakura had always thought the day her and Sasuke would not be on the same team anymore was still far in the future. There were still so many things she'd wanted to do. She'd wanted to become closer to him, prove to him that she was serious.
"Well, if he passes, he can take my place and lead you guys on some easy missions." Kakashi smiled at them.
Naruto's face went blank. "You mean… he'll be our leader? Our superior? Ugh… I don't know, Sasuke. Don't you want to work on that Fireball Jutsu some more? They aren't really the biggest fireballs."
Sasuke snorted. "I'm done wasting time as a Genin. I want to take the exams, Kakashi."
Naruto bit his lips so hard he almost drew blood. He understood that he wasn't ready yet to take those exams. But he couldn't accept that Sasuke was supposed to be ready. And deep inside, he couldn't help but hope that Sasuke would fail miserably.
"Alright, then I'll check the applications for two-man squads and match you with someone," Kakashi said. He was ready to end the conversation at that point.
"Wait, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura blurted out just as he turned away from them to leave. "I want to participate too."
Naruto and Sasuke both stared at her, blurting out a surprised "You?!"
She ignored their comments and concentrated on Kakashi. "Please, I know I'm nowhere as strong as Sasuke yet. But I've worked hard too. And we are a four-man squad. If we split up, we should do so by forming teams of two. It makes more sense that way. We already know our weaknesses and strengths."
Sakura was ready to come up with more points to convince her teacher, but Kakashi simply looked at her with a casual look and said, "Okay."
"Really?" Sakura asked.
Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "You survived two days in the desert, you'll likely survive the Chuunin exams as well. I'm not sure it's enough to pass, but it might be a good learning opportunity."
Naruto could taste blood in his mouth. This wasn't fair at all. He didn't want Sasuke and Sakura to form a team without him.
Naho took his hand. The sudden touch pulled Naruto out of his thoughts. She was smiling at him. "I guess you and I will have to cheer for them."
Naruto returned a soft smile. He was bitter. But at least he still had Naho.