Happy? By MyLastResort
Disclaimer: I still do not own Naruto! So feel free to shut up about it.
Determined
Training seemed to drag on forever. Kakashi-sensei had the three genies doing nonstop practice. They ran obstacle courses, practiced combat routines, worked on controlling and focusing their chakra, reviewed battle tactics, and sparred. At the moment Naruto was trying to get up after hitting the ground hard due to a forceful kick delivered by Sasuke. "Lucky shot." Naruto grumbled, his head spinning. The fact is that the blue eyed ninja was right. Naruto had caught Sasuke off guard with a low kick and an uppercut at the same time and was less then a second away from lashing out with a punch aimed at Sasuke's unprotected stomach when Naruto suddenly he felt his nose start to itch. Sasuke wasted no time when he saw the opening; he stretched back his leg and swung it at Naruto's head. Naruto sneezed and was kicked in the side of the head at roughly the same time, spots of light flooded his vision, and he fell crashing to the ground.
"Great. Fricken, great." Naruto fumed to himself. "I'm so close to getting the best of Sasuke and I end up getting my ass (well actually my head) kicked. And why? Because I had to sneeze! Yep, that's just my luck, finally get a chance for some payback and I sneeze! Now my head hurts enough so that even thinking loudly causes pain." "Well I think that's enough practice for one day." Kakashi-sensei announced. "I'm going to be busy tomorrow so the three of you will have the day off." Under other circumstances Naruto would have cheered at hearing this news, but he was too distracted by his throbbing head and the feeling of shame and frustration at being beaten like a first class amateur at the hands (and feet) of the Uchia heir. He had given up on trying to get up off the ground and was now just lying on the grass, limbs spread, looking up at the sky. "Naruto, are you ok?" Sasuke's asked. Naruto saw Sasuke standing by Naruto's feet looking off into the distance. "Like you care. You're just lucky, because if I hadn't sneezed you'd be the one on the ground right now!" Naruto snapped. Sasuke shrugged and walked away. Sakura shouted,"Hey, wait for me Sasuke!" as she scrambled to her feet after sitting against the trunk of a large oak tree, and rushed after Sasuke.
Naruto was now left alone in the forest clearing left with nothing but his thoughts and a headache. He slowly started to feel better, but when he tried to sit up the pain come back in full. Naruto sighed to himself. "Well this sucks. I looked like a total weakling and right in front of Sakura too. She must have thought I looked like a fool. I wonder what she's doing now." Naruto sighed again."I should probably go back to my apartment take something for my head and lye down there." After five more minuets of doing nothing but thinking Naruto finally made up his mind and started to drag himself back to the village.
From his hidden location high up in one of the trees, Sasuke watch his teammate stumble away, his eyes showing no emotion. Even when Naruto was out of sight Sasuke stayed up in the tree alone with his thoughts. Eventually he decided to wander around the forest seeing as he had nothing better to do. He spotted a small stream after about ten minuets of walking aimlessly. He went over to it, set his footwear off to the side, and soaked his feet in the cool water. He leaned back onto the grass and rested his head on his hands, with his feet still in the water. "Sasuke!" Sakura's voice drifted through the trees. The dark haired ninja dragged a hand down his face and thought, "Not Sakura, that's the last thing I need right now." Quickly he pulled his feet out of the river, grabbed his shoes, and ran for cover behind a thick tree. If it had been Naruto he probably would have stayed and endured whatever the blond had to say(or yell), but it wasn't and Sasuke didn't feel much like talking with anyone else right now, especially Sakura.
Sakura reached the spot by the stream where she could have sworn she had seen Sasuke. "Um Sasuke?" she said quietly. She searched the area around the stream until she was certain Sasuke wasn't there. "Well this stinks. I was really hoping to find Sasuke here." She thought to herself.
Later that night Naruto went to bed early even though he didn't need to be up early the next day. He pulled the covers up to his neck, got himself into a comfortable position, and fell fast asleep. The next day he opened his eyes and wondered, "Wha?" then he realized how tired he was last night, and how relaxed he felt right now. For several minuets he felt like he never wanted to get up, that is until he noticed that his stomach felt like it wasn't there and a gapping hole had taken its place. He yanked off the covers and threw his legs over the side of the bed and went to get himself a cup of instant ramen. While he stuffed his face with the ramen, Naruto wondered what he should do with his day off.
Hinata was awake, and sunlight filled her room. But instead of getting up she was lying in her bed with the sheets pulled up to her neck. She had been this way for almost a half hour, and she still had no intensions of stopping. On a rare occasion her sensei had giver her squad the day off, and at the moment she could see no reason to get up. Eventually her thoughts wondered to Naruto. "I wonder what he's doing now. Maybe I could go and watch him practice, or does he have the day off too? Oh, who am I kidding, even if Naruto did have practice today I would never be able to work enough courage to do that." Hinata thought to herself miserably. "In any case I should probably get up. After all I've been lying here for quite some time." After Hinata had showered, dressed, and eaten a very late breakfast she headed out the door. Eventually Hinata found herself in the part of the village where you would find Naruto's favorite ramen stand, and where you would often find Naruto. Hinata looked around and saw several people she knew, Kiba, her teammate was one of them, but Naruto was not. She approached teammate and said, "Hi Kiba." The dark haired ninja smirked and responded, "Hey Hinata."
"Um, you wouldn't happen to know where Naruto is, would you?" Hinata said voice barely above a whisper. At the mention of the blond ninja, and Hinata's interest in his location, Kiba's lips twitched and dropped into a scowl. "No, I wouldn't." came Kiba's blunt response. "Why do you want to know where that loser is anyways?" "Don't say things like that Kiba! Naruto is not a loser." Hinata snapped. "And I was just curious, that's all." "Ya, whatever." was Kiba's choice of words to respond to Hinata's outburst.
After that Hinata walked away mumbling something about Kiba's attitude.
Sakura was alone in the woods, absentmindedly twirling a flower between her fingers. She stared at the flower as it spun, watching the colors blur together. Sakura started to hum tunelessly to herself. After a minuet or two of humming and flower spinning, Sakura decided to lie down on the grass and look up at the sky. Soon she noticed something in the corner of her vision that seemed to go against the natural color of the forest. The pink haired ninja looked to her right and noticed a very calm looking Sasuke sitting on a branch of a tree. Sakura could feel her face reddening as she asked, "S-Sasuke, how long have you been there?" "Long enough." was Sasuke's reply. Sakura blushed even deeper and questioned, "Sasuke, why are you here anyways?" "Because I wanted to ask you something." Sasuke answered truthfully. The Uchia locked eyes with Sakura and asked, "Why do you like me so much?" That was one of the last questions Sakura had ever thought she would hear, especially from Sasuke. She was caught completely off guard and blushed deeper then she thought was possible. Sakura managed to stammer out, "Well, I um… it's just that, er, no I mean, you… no, I…" Sasuke watched his teammate continue on like this for a moment before silencing her with a glare. Sakura let out a small yelp at the glare before slapping her hands over her mouth. His expression changed back into its usual emotionless state. "Just one other thing, do you like Naruto?" Once again Sakura was thrown by the question, except this time she didn't blush. "Naruto? Well of course I like him; he is my teammate and all. But no, I don't like him anything more then that. He's just too loud, too hyper, too, too Naruto!" Sasuke only nodded in reply and then without a single word of parting, he sped off through the trees, in the direction on the village, leaving Sakura alone again, looking very confused.
Sasuke's form whipped though the trees on his way back to the village. He was almost out of the forest when suddenly he saw a dark haired figure standing directly in the path of the young ninja. He skidded to a halt about a dozen feet in front of the other figure. They stared at each other in silence; blank expressions on their faces, the only noise came from the rustling of leaves around them. "Drop the jutsu." ordered Sasuke. "I don't see why I should." replied Sasuke. Both Sasukes looked at the identical copy across from them. Slowly they began to circle each other. Neither of them missed a single beat. They matched down to the very time their feet left and hit the ground. They continued on like this for several minuets; one Sasuke would move and the other would do the exact same.
Sakura arrived at the spot where the two Sasukes were having their stand off. She saw one Sasuke and asked, "Sasuke? What was with you…" then she noticed the second Sasuke across from the first one. "What's going on here?" The first Sasuke said, "This doesn't involve you." The second one said, "We will handle this ourselves." Neither of them had taken their eyes off the other the entire time. Both were determined not to break, not to give up, not to let the other win.
It's done! Chapter 2 is finally done! sigh I thought I would never have it done. I had serious writers block when I was writing this… Well… least it's done now. Sorry if the ending of this was kinda confusing… but if you read it carefully then I think it makes some sense…. Once again pleeeeeez comment on this story! And if you don't then I'll go and hide in my basement and cry to myself and I'll never write again! runs off dramatically
