What's going on with Team 7?
Disclaimer: This belongs to the series, Naruto. None of these parts are mine and are only written for entertainment purposes.
Shikamaru scratched his head in annoyance as he followed Ino who babbled on and on about Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. Sighing out of irritation, he opened his mouth.
"Will you ever shut up?" he asked.
"No! I mean, two weeks ago, Ten-Ten said that Kakashi, Jiraiya and Hokage-sama took Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura as apprentice, respectively! I want to see how much stronger Team seven have gotten since Naruto came back yesterday from training! I heard that there's a faster method…" Ino continued on prattling.
Shikamaru sighed as he tuned her out and stared at the sky, wishing to be anywhere else but with Ino.
"Shut up, Ino," said Chouji, eating chips, "can't you see that Shikamaru doesn't care what you're talking about?"
"But you two should take this seriously!" snapped Ino, stopping in front of them.
Ino's abrupt stop caused Shikamaru to crash into her slightly and moved a few feet away from her. He sighed again, shrugging his shoulders.
"Fine, where are they at?" asked Shikamaru.
"It's not much further," Ino replied.
Satisfied with herself, she turned around and kept walking, followed by two reluctant boys.
When they arrived, the three stopped walking and stared, their eyes growing bigger, trying to comprehend what they were seeing. The team seven was moving faster than they used to be since the Chuunin exams. Ino watched them for few moments in awe, unable to take her eyes off them.
"Am I seeing things or are they all using a bunch of different new jutsu?" asked Ino, crouching forward toward a bush, followed by other two. "And their speed! She commented.
Sakura punched the ground, causing a mini-earthquake towards the two boys on the battlefield. Naruto jumped up and landed on a tree branch upside down, concentrating and caused the area around Sakura become windy and sucking the oxygen out of the vortex she was in. Sakura jumped out of the area to escape before she blacked out from lack of oxygen. Sasuke filled his hands with electricity and grabbed the tree Naruto was standing on, jolting Naruto.
Naruto fell to the ground, yelling in pain, losing feeling in his body. Sakura and Sasuke stared at each other, not moving a muscle as Naruto's body twitched.
Sakura jumped up the moment Sasuke moved his arm and she threw three kunai at Sasuke who blocked each with his fireball jutsu, melting the metals into liquids. Sakura glared and fired water at Sasuke who barely dodged and hit his back, creating a hole in his shirt.
'That's going to be a bruise! Damn you, Sakura!' thought Ino. 'How can you hurt Sasuke!'
"Hm, they are getting stronger," said Shikamaru, leaving the area.
Ino snapped to Shikamaru, her face slacked and her muscles tensed again, raising a fist.
"What, hey you!" said Ino, going after him, followed by Chouji.
"Just because I leave, doesn't mean you have to follow me," Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes. "I'll see you some other time. Bye Ino, Chouji."
Ino glared at him as he left the two there. Chouji shrugged and walked a different direction, leaving Ino alone. Huffing to herself, she walked away.
'Well, I did get to see how much stronger Sakura has… and so did the other two teammates. I hope this will motivated my team good!' she thought. 'Sakura… I can't believe how much stronger and confident you have gotten. I wonder what it's like to train under Hokage-sama?'
She frowned, wondering how she was going to get stronger if they only had one master for themselves to get stronger. Ino began to wish for a one-on-one training, to be an apprentice of someone. Sighing, she shook her head.
'I can seek Shikamaru and Chouji to gain power with. I'm sure Asuma-sensei is enough to train us. We'll have to ask him to work us harder than ever. If we don't… how will we ever keep up with Team seven?'
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Shikamaru stopped on the hilltop, overlooking the village. He sat down and lied on his back, watching the clouds drift by. He sighed, closing his eyes, feeling the warmth of the sunrays on his face. He opened them, glaring at the sky, rolling to his right side, his hand on the ground with his right fist supporting his face.
'I guess Ino has a point, those three are getting stronger. From this, I guess Ino and Chouji will want to get gain more strength and speed or we'll be left in the dust,' he thought and sighed. 'Why do things have to be so hard? This is a peaceful time, damnit!'
He thought back to the Chuunin exams and sighed.
'Perhaps not peaceful, per se, but it's as peaceful as it can be… If that's true, then why are the team seven's masters training them so hard? What is their purpose? If they know something is going to happen, then why don't Hokage train us all of us?'
He snorted to himself, 'Stupid, that's why we have a jounin sensei for each team! So, why then, are Jiraiya, Hokage and Kakashi necessary to train each one-on-one?' he wondered, studying the shape of each cloud.
'Still, Ino does have a point. I don't like the idea of Naruto getting stronger than me. Though, he'll never have my smarts. Hell will freeze over if he even got any smarts,' he thought and chuckled and stopped when he saw the image of Sasuke.
'Sasuke… that bastard. My first mission was all about him. I don't think I can ever forgive him for betraying Konoha in the first place. If it weren't for Naruto, my mission would have failed.'
'Though, that fight just now, Sasuke somehow got more power enough to melt the kunai. What power is that! It's insane. What's driving him now? Why did he need to seek Orochimaru in the first place… for power? Couldn't he have sought us out instead? Probably not, we're too peaceful, I'll give him that.'
Sighing again to himself, 'I'll have to talk to Asuma-sensei about training us harder, even though I don't like the idea. They will. After all, watching that fight was rather inspirational, if I have to admit it.'
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Chouji munched on the chips as he sat down on a bench facing a tree. He narrowed his eyebrows together in thought as he ate each handful of chips separately. His mind turned to the battle royal the Team Seven was having and remembered each move committed by each member. He frowned in thought as he compared himself to Naruto.
'Of the three, I thought Naruto was the weakest. And in that fight, it's true that he was down for the count. Nonetheless, he already began using his nature of chakra. When did he even begun training that? What kind of training method Ino mentioned that Naruto used? Oh yeah, speed method or something,' he thought, swallowing his food.
'That fight, if we saw was just a fraction of the battle; then how much of that have we yet to see, learn and know? Are we, as genins, being left in the dust?'
Chouji groaned, rubbing the temples of his head and sighed.
'Too much chips and probably strained my mind. I need to fight. I can't let that mission about getting Sasuke back to the village get to me. It sure was a wake up call to train harder than ever. But now seeing Team seven already stronger, we need to, as well.'
He paused his hand inside the bag, watching a butterfly float by and smiled.
'In any case, I need to find Asuma-sensei.'
Chouji stood up and began his way to Asuma's house to ask about being trained harder than ever. He found Shikamaru and Ino there, looking for something.
"Have you seen Asuma-sensei?" Ino asked, frowning.
"No," Chouji replied, "I'm looking for him too."
"Oh really? Why?"
"To ask if he can train us harder. Or at least me, if you two don't…"
"Oh yay!" Ino cried, clapping her hands together, "So do I!"
Shikamaru smirked, "That makes things easier, I was going to ask Asuma-sensei the same thing too."
"Ah, so that's why you three are gathered here," someone said, appearing from the trees behind them. "So, you three want to get stronger?"
"Yes please!" said Ino. "I showed them that Team seven is getting stronger and now I want to catch up to them."
The boys nodded in agreement.
"Hey Asuma-sensei, do you know why Team seven needs to get stronger?" asked Shikamaru.
Asuma exhaled a smoke and shook his head.
"Yes and no. Only those working with Team seven know the exact reason. So that's Jiraiya, Kakashi and Hokage-sama herself," he replied. "I do know the basics, and they're training to complete a classified mission."
"What mission is it ranked as?" asked Ino.
"A S-class rank," Asuma replied.
"What! But they're still genins!" Ino exclaimed, clutching both fists in front of her.
"I know…" Asuma said, closing his eyes. "Everyone said the same thing."
"Well, isn't that dangerous?" Chouji asked.
"Couldn't Hokage-sama send a competent ninja team to do whatever the S-rank mission is?" asked Shikamaru.
"Most of us jounins asked that as well as some of the ANBU members, Shikamaru. Hokage-sama or even Jiraiya won't budge. Whatever it is, I think it's a personal issue that the three genins have to deal with," Asuma replied.
Shikamaru frowned in thought at the reply, and nodding.
"It is probably a personal issue that deals with the mission. If it is, shouldn't ninjas be free of emotions when given a mission? Better yet, why give a mission to a ninja that he is personally involved in with?"
"That's enough questions, Shikamaru," Asuma said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"But, at any rate, we'll train harder than ever!" Chouji said, clenching his fist in excitement.
"Good," he said, grinning, "now start the warm ups!"
Shikamaru let out a groan and the other three chuckled as they began their exercises.
