Told you I'd have a new chapter out before next week. Here we go on a new chapter of Sounding. I hope it lives up to expectations now that we've hit 200+ reviews! Thank you all so much for that; you have no idea how much that means to me. This is mostly a Sakura/Ino angst chapter so I hope you guys don't mind. Naruto and Tayuya have some airtime so it's not too bad. As always; read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer no Jutsu: Don't own Naruto!
Chapter 8: When the Devil's Away the Demons Will Play
"So, the trick is the pool the chakra into your feet and use it to stick to the tree." Kakashi stated from his upside-down perch in the tree. The Jounin was teaching his charges the basic skill of tree climbing in preparation for the more difficult water walking skill they would be learning in the next few days. Sakura and Ino seemed to be taking to his lessons with a humble want to learn; Sasuke was barely tolerating the lesson.
"Ok, so if we use too little we'll fall out of the tree and if we don't use enough we'll bounce off? The trick would be to find a balance, right, Sensei?" Sakura asked. The Jounin smiled under his mask; there was at least one kid in his group who was talented. Ino stretched her legs before cracking her knuckles.
"In that case we should be able to find the balance though trial and error! Come on, Sakura-chan!" she declared before running towards a tree. Sasuke and Sakura watched as she got a good ten feet up before having to back flip off of the tree trunk to avoid falling. "Darn, this is harder than it looks…"
"It was still a good try, Ino-chan! We just have to have very good chakra control." Sakura said before moving her hands into the classic 'chakra-focus' seal. A few moments pass before a faint glow formed around her feet and she took off for the tree beside Ino's. She managed to run half-way up the tree before loosing her concentration and falling…unfortunately she was a good thirty feet up. Sakura started to panic until she felt a pair of arms catch her mid-fall. Sasuke-kun caught me!
"You need to be more careful, Sakura-chan!" Sakura nodded absentmindedly while she was reveling in the soft, delicate arms of Sasuke… 'Wait…soft and delicate? Since when is Sasuke-kun soft and delicate?' Sakura fluttered her eyes open expecting to see Sasuke but instead found a concerned Ino looking down at her as they landed.
"Ino-chan…you saved me…" Sakura said, a bit surprised.
"Uh…w-well, who else would have! You can't rely on someone to catch you every time you fall, forehead-girl!" Ino stuttered. A few moments passed with the two girls still just staring at each other; Ino with mock-frustration and concern and Sakura with gratefulness and embarrassment.
"Um…girls; we need to get this training done…" came a voice from above. Ino and Sakura both snapped out of their moment and suddenly became all too aware of their respective positions; Ino was still holding Sakura bridal-style and Sakura had her arms wrapped around Ino's neck. The blonde konoichi abruptly dropped her pink-haired friend and the two separated like they were allergic to one another.
'What the hell was that!' was the thought mirrored by four different people at the same time. Kakashi decided it would be best to ignore that particular situation for now and concentrate on the training exercise.
"Um…well…Sakura has the right idea; gather your chakra first then try to climb the tree." Seeing that his charges had the basic idea down, Kakashi dropped from his perch and landed in front of his students. "Ok then, I'll take first watch at the bridge while you three practice." Kakashi said as he walked past his students. Right as he was about to teleport away, he got a very cruel idea; he just couldn't resist.
"Sasuke, I'm putting you in charge here!" the Jounin said; when Sasuke looked as close to confused as he was going to get, Kakashi grinned. "That's right! You're in charge of making sure Sakura and Ino don't waste too much training time flirting with each other." After that, the Jounin was gone in a swirl of leaves.
"HENTAI!" was all the Jounin heard while he fled from two very angry, very embarrassed, konoichi.
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"Tayuya-chan…did you just hear a couple of girls call someone a pervert?" Naruto asked his partner as the two ate their continental breakfast in the hotel dinning room.
"Uh…no." Tayuya answered as she ate a spoon-full of cereal. "You shouldn't stay up so late, it affects your brain." Naruto tilted his head in thought before shrugging.
"Maybe…anyway, what do you want to do today? We can go shopping or something or we can go check in on the target." Naruto suggested as he poked his burnt toast with his finger; he frowned when it turned out to be hard as a rock.
"Target? You mean that bridge builder, right? I thought we were going to skip the job this time! Make up your mind, jackass!" Tayuya scolded. Naruto bared his two fangs and smiled; that always freaked Tayuya out, who has fangs like that?
"I let them go one time and one time only. Like you said, it's a bad mark on our performance. Besides, I really want to have a little fun with that Jounin; I think he could give us a good fight." the white-haired boy replied with a feral grin. Tayuya thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"We can do that later! I got into the vacation mindset last night and your ass is going to make sure I have fun, you got that? I was all business yesterday but you wanted to be lazy; I'm not going to go out of my way now just because you're bored." the redhead replied. Naruto looked crest-fallen but reluctantly nodded.
"So what are we going to do today, oh princess of Oto?" Naruto said with mock-respect. Even though she knew he didn't mean it, Tayuya found herself turning red at the nickname. Naruto must have noticed it because he regained just a hint of his grin; he wasn't going to let an opportunity like this slip by.
"W-well, I want to go shopping first. Wave has a few good places to shop and Hidden Mist is known for their weapons; since Hidden Mist is so close some of their stock has gotta spill over here." Tayuya said. Naruto agreed with that logic and stood up from the table.
"Well, that sounds like a plan! We can get a decent breakfast while where out." the boy said as he slipped on his dark purple cloak. Tayuya finished off her orange juice and got up from the table to join Naruto who was headed out the lobby door. She was mildly surprised that he waited and held open the door for her. 'Heh, jackass must be learning some manners.'
"After you, Tayuya-hime." Naruto said with a smirk. Tayuya cursed under her breath as she walked out while trying to hide her red cheeks. 'Then again, he could just be trying to piss me off…'
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'Darn that pervert, Kakashi! I can't believe he said me and Sakura were flirting!' Ino thought angrily as she tried to climb her tree yet again. She just couldn't concentrate now; she was just too mad! 'Like I would even want Sakura; she's totally not my type…' Ino stopped in her tracks and mentally slapped herself. 'Not that I would want to date another girl in the first place! Argh, damn you, Kakashi!' Ino tried her best to clear her mind but still sneaked a glance at the pink-haired konoichi. Sakura was already 3/4 of the way up her tree and looked to beat both Sasuke and Ino at tree climbing. 'She's gotten better about landing on her feet; I guess I won't have to catch her anymore…' Ino sighed at herself and wondered why that was such an unwelcome prospect…
"Arg! I can't believe this!" Sasuke's self-gripping brought Sakura out of her training mindset. The raven-haired boy had only made it halfway up his tree and was becoming very annoyed. 'And even more annoying; you don't see me or Ino complaining like that.' Sakura thought bitterly. 'But Sasuke-kun is still the greatest…right? I mean, at least he's not giving up.' Sakura tooka quick look at her other teammate and found that Ino had actually lost progress in the last few minutes. 'How did that happen? Man, she's gotten a lot worse…' Sakura stopped gathering chakra and walked over to a concentrating Ino. The blonde girl didn't even notice her presence until she tapped Ino on the shoulder. Once the blonde saw who poked her she twisted away like she was burned.
"S-Sakura! U-uh, what is it?" Ino asked from her new position several feet away from the confused pink-haired konoichi.
"Uh, I noticed how much trouble you're having with this, I thought I could help?" Ino let out a deep breath and walked slowly back over to her teammate.
"T-thanks, Sakura-chan; I've gotten worse at it, haven't I?" Ino asked. Sakura noticed the other girl's forlorn expression and tried to bridge the subject as delicately as possible.
"You were doing well at first! I think you just got distracted or something; you have to have concentration to gather your chakra precisely. Is something bothering you, Ino-chan?" Sakura asked innocently. Ino flinched and looked away as she suddenly found it hard to look her friend in the eyes.
"O-of course not! I was just thinking about Sasuke-kun! Why don't you go back over to your tree and keep up your own training, forehead-girl!" Ino didn't mean for her voice to come off that harshly but she just needed Sakura to giver her some space so she could sort all this out; said pink-haired konoichi honestly looked hurt and it made Ino feel even lower than she already did.
"Fine, Ino-pig! Let's see if you get anymore help from me!" Sakura huffed as she stormed off. Ino watched her until she went back to training. The blonde girl clenched her fists and ran at her own tree making it twice as far up as before. Anger, even directed at oneself, was a good thing to concentrate on. Sasuke noticed her new progress and decided to find out what Sakura had told her; whatever it was gave her an edge on the exercise.
"Ino." the Uchiha said suddenly. Said blonde turned to him with a mildly surprised look; since when did the mighty Sasuke talk to one of his teammates?
"What is it, Sasuke?" Ino asked. Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed at the lack of an honorific but he let it slide for the time being.
"Tell me what Sakura told you." he demanded. Ino blinked at him...several times...before frowning.
"Why the hell do you want to know that?" she growled. Sasuke was shocked at the tone one of his fan girls was using towards him and he was mildly amused. He kept his steel glare, however.
"Look, tell me or I go ask her." he said. Ino gave him an incredulous look before clinching her fist; the Uchiha was really pushing his luck.
"It.is.none.of.your.damn.business!" she hissed though clenched teeth. Again, Sasuke was taken back; why was she protecting training secrets so fiercely?
"Hn." the Uchiha grunted as he moved to get around Ino. Said blonde konoichi saw this and blocked his path with a growl.
"I'm warning you; don't bother her with your stupid questions." By this time Sasuke was really starting to get annoyed. This girl just didn't know her place! How dare she try and impede his training?
"No, I'm warning you. If you don't get out of my way right now, I'll make you." the genius ninja tapped his kunai pouch to emphasize his point. Ino's eyes got as round as silver dollars at this but she recovered and actually whipped out one of her kunai.
"If you think you have the balls then come on!" she growled. 'That bastard pushed me too far! It's none of his damn business what Sakura and I were talking about, I can't believe him! Cold bastard is going to pay for this!'
"What the hell is your prob—" the Uchiha prodigy was cut off by Ino's battle cry as she launched herself at him. He barely had time to draw a kunai to fend her off as the blades clashed. Sakura ran over from her tree and was saying something but it didn't register to the angry Ino.
"What's wrong?-! I thought you wanted to fight!" Ino yelled as she slipped a fist inside the raven-haired boy's guard. His head snapped up as his jaw erupted in pain from Ino's uppercut.
"You cold jerk! You have no right to demand things of me!" Ino didn't let up on the attack as she dodged a half-hearted slice from Sasuke. Dropping to the ground, the kunai sailed over her head as her foot lashed out in a sweep that had the Uchiha flat on his back. He didn't have much time to recover as the blonde konoichi was straddling him while pinning his arms down with unholy vengeance set in her eyes; not even Sasuke wanted to mess with her right then.
"Listen and listen good; you have no right to demand I tell you any—" Ino was cut off as a searing pain shot thought the back of her head. She landed face first in the dirt and spit out a rock that somehow managed to get into her mouth as she looked over her shoulder to see what happened. Sakura was standing over Sasuke with her hands still in an axe-handle position.
"What the hell is your problem, Ino!" the pink-haired konoichi yelled. Ino was too stunned to say anything in her defense as Sakura helped Sasuke up off of the ground. The Uchiha roughly swatted Sakura's hand away as he glared at Ino. The blonde konoichi felt the strange anger well up again as she saw the attitude Sasuke was giving Sakura. She was about to jump him again when Sakura caught her intent and put herself in front of the Uchiha.
"If you want to attack Sasuke-kun again you'll have to go though me, Ino!" Sakura said in a steel voice. Ino's face scrunched up in anger and hurt as she watched this.
"Why are you defending him?-! The bastard just brushed you off without even showing you any gratitude!" Ino argued as she managed to put her feet under herself again. Sakura faltered for a moment but quickly regained her glare.
"It doesn't matter! You attacked him for no reason; stop being such a…a…bitch! You touch Sasuke-kun again and I'll make sure you regret it!" Sakura yelled. Ino recoiled as if Sakura's words physically hit her. 'She…she called me…damn her!'
"I-I can't believe you, Sakura! H-how could y-you?" Ino stuttered as she felt something warm run down her cheeks. She shot one last glare at the pink-haired konoichi before she took off in the opposite direction, disappearing into the forest. Sakura looked torn for a moment as Sasuke grunted and walked back over to his training tree with a scowl. Setting herself, Sakura sighed and went back to her own tree knowing full well that the Uchiha would not talk about what just happened but also knowing that some bridges would stay burnt after this…
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"So…how long has he been following us?" Naruto asked as he and Tayuya walked down one of the busier streets of Wave Country.
"He was on us the second we left the hotel. That bastard really needs to learn the specialties of his targets. I mean, trying to tail sound-nin? Come on, I can use my jutsu's to hear him all the way from the rooftops and you can feel him by the air he disrupts as he moves. Dumb prick has no idea who he's dealing with." Tayuya said confidently. The pair had picked up on their stalker a few minutes after they left the hotel and were currently leading him on a grand tour of Wave Country as neither of them had anything to do.
"Well, not everyone was trained like we were; he's still a good shinobi. I wonder who it is…I'm pretty sure Kakashi could watch without us knowing so he's out." Naruto pondered as the pair rounded a corner towards the waterfront.
"It might be one of his trash students or maybe some mist-nin that's getting jumpy that we're here." Tayuya stated. Naruto mulled this over but shook his head.
"Nah, Kakashi's team wasn't this good. Really, if it wasn't for being trained by Kimimaro-sensei I wouldn't know they were there." Naruto added. Tayuya's brow furrowed in thought before she snapped her fingers.
"How about that kid that was with Zabuza? The 'mighty' demon is on Kakashi's level so we wouldn't notice him, like you said, but that Haku guy was a bit below him. He was also more talented than Kakashi's trash." Tayuya said, obviously quite proud of herself.
"You're probably right. It makes sense; Zabuza-san would put him on us to see if we were splitting loyalties. Now that we know, what should we do?" Naruto asked. Tayuya shrugged at him and the pair turned another corner.
"I have no idea. Maybe we should just kill the bastard for bothering us? I sure as hell don't want him following me all day." Tayuya said as she flicked a stray hair out of her face. As Naruto was beginning to answer, a swirl of leaves marked the arrival of a ninja. Both Naruto and Tayuya slipped into a defense stance as a familiar masked shinobi stepped out from the swirling leaves. Naruto relaxed a bit once Haku showed no intent to attack; Tayuya was still edgy.
"So nice of you to join us, Haku-kun." Naruto said. Haku gave the two sound-nin a small bow before speaking.
"You as well, Torajikku-kun." Haku then looked over to the annoyed konoichi. "It is good to see you also, Tayuya-san."
"What the hell do you want, bastard? Finally got sick of following us and decided to give up?" Tayuya said in a mocking tone. If her insult had any effect the former mist-nin did not show it.
"I mearly noticed that you seemed to know I was following you and felt I could openly approach you." Haku explained. "My mission was compromised the second you sensed me."
"How did you know we knew you were there? And what was your mission, anyway?" Naruto asked. He was a bit more laid-back than his partner and was actually amused by the entire situation. The missing-nin thought for a moment before answering.
"You are not the only gifted shinobi in the world, Torajikku-kun. It wasn't much of a feat to overhear some of your conversation especially when Tayuya-san talks so loudly." Haku explained while ignoring the righteous anger that was building up within the red-haired konoichi. Naruto gave a lopsided grin and scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, she talks loudly sometimes but that's only because she doesn't consider you a threat even if you did know we knew you were there." Naruto added. Tayuya seemed a bit surprised he came to her defense and relaxed the defense stance she was still somewhat in. Haku chuckled from behind his white mask.
"I suppose you are right. You are both very strong; that is why Gatou-san sent for you…" Haku trailed off. Tayuya scoffed when she picked up on what he was implying.
"So, that punk Zabuza sent you to see what our motives were, huh? Go back and tell him we'll do whatever we damn well want to." Tayuya said. The fact that Haku stiffened a bit when Tayuya insulted Zabuza didn't go unnoticed by Naruto.
"That is correct, Tayuya-san. He sent me to find out why you did not carry out your contract with Gatou-san and let Tazuna escape." Haku noted. Naruto shifted uneasily as Tayuya pinned him with a glare.
"Just…tell Zabuza-san that I owed that particular team a favor. I'm not planning on abandoning the mission if that's what he's worried about. We were planning on dealing with them at the end of this week, anyway. He can join us if he wishes." Naruto explained. Haku nodded his head and bowed.
"I understand, Torajikku-kun. Zabuza-sama will be pleased to hear about your dedication. I am sure we will be joining you when you attack." Haku answered as he started to form a transportation jutsu. The look Tayuya was giving Naruto was borderline homicidal and the white-haired boy decided being alone with her was not good for his help.
"Uh, wait a second, Haku!" Naruto croaked out. The former mist-nin paused his seals and looked at the sound-nin along with Tayuya. "Eh-heh…you were supposed to follow us all day right? Zabuza-san will be mad at you if you come back early so why don't you stick with us for the day? We were about to go get breakfast anyway."
"I don't know…Zabuza-san might need me soon…" Haku hesitated. Naruto sighed and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.
"He was expecting you to be gone the whole day, right? Lemme put it this way: since we're allies for this mission don't you think we should get used to each other? We can swap information, there are a few things I'd like to know about you and Zabuza and I'm sure you have some questions for us." the sound-nin argued. With a sigh, Haku nodded his head. "Great! First thing we should do is get a decent breakfast, right Tayuya-hime?"
"Whatever. As long as he doesn't bother me I don't care who tags along." the red-head mumbled as she walked away from the pair. Naruto almost did a dance in the middle of the street for having avoided the wrath of his companion but was soon proved wrong when a fist came down hard on the top of his head. "And what have I said about calling me that, you dumb bastard!" she then turned towards the masked Haku who was now backing away slowly. "If we're going to be seen together then you have to take off that ridiculous mask; I have to deal with that enough with this freak." she said as she punched Naruto once again for good measure. Haku hesitated for a moment but resigned and pulled off the mask. Naruto and Tayuya both gapped at the girlish face that was formally covered.
"W-what is it?" Haku asked as the two continued to stare. Tayuya recovered first and groaned into her hand as she walked away.
"Great, we just leave Oto and I already run into another Sakon…he would be laughing his gay ass off right about now…" she mumbled as she walked. Haku tossed Naruto a 'what did I do?' glance and Naruto shook his head.
"Trust me…you don't want to know." he said as he and a bewildered Haku jogged to catch up to their annoyed companion.
Don't you just hate me for leaving it like that? And you all wondered why this was an adventure/drama…heh. Next chapter the Oto-nins try to knock some sense into the leaf-nin and what's with a hot spring rendezvous and what will Ino do! Next chapter: Boiling Point!