11

Time to Get Serious

"From the beginning!" Naruto and Sakura both yelled at me at once.

I winced as my head hurt from the loud voices.

"Alright, alright, stop yelling," I said, putting my hands up. "Let me start from when I left Naruto's place. I walked home, ate dinner... wait, did I eat dinner? I don't remember," I said, scratching my head. "Anyway, that's not important. I probably ate dinner and then started working out."

"Working out right after finishing a mission?" Sakura asked, ready to scold me.

"Wait, wait, I wasn't tired. I swear, I wasn't pushing myself," I said, trying to placate her. "After I finished working out..."

[A few moments later]

"And then I told Naruto to go get you, and that's how we're here," I finished reciting my tale.

A heavy silence hung over our heads as Sakura wiped away a tear and Naruto sat on the floor beside the sofa that I was laying on.

"Why..." Naruto said and I looked over at him. "Why is it always you!?" he asked, and I realized why that sentence sounded familiar. 'Why is it always Gaara!?' he had asked after rescuing Gaara's dead body from the Akatsuki.

I smiled, elated that he would care so much for me.

"It's alright, Naruto," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. "I don't care what I have to go through... as long as you two are safe." That might've sounded a bit cheesy, but I needed the trust between us to be stronger if I wanted us to survive the chunin exams.

Both their mouths slowly dropped open as they looked at me in disbelief.

"I'm serious. I didn't mess with Kakashi and the Hokage just for the heck of it," I explained. I did have a lot of fun doing it, however, that wasn't my primary objective. "I challenged their authority so that they would finally get serious and realize that we – especially you two – need proper training. The status quo – the power balance of the hidden villages, current or future, isn't gonna maintain itself. We, the future of Konoha, are going to have to be strong enough to protect it."

Once more, silence descended as the weight of my words sank in.

"Anyway," I said, breaking them out of their thoughts. "Let's go to sleep now, shall we? It's gotten pretty late and I'm pretty sure Kakashi, being the dickhead that he is, will make us do more D-ranks." I grimaced in pain as I slowly sat up properly on the sofa.

"I'll walk you home," Sakura said and I looked up in surprise.

"Huh? Nah, don't worry about it. I'll be fine," I replied.

"I wasn't asking. There's no way I'm letting you go home alone like that," she said and pointed at my bandages.

I paused for a second before a smile slowly floated up on my face. Sakura's progress was really something. She was no longer just a mindless fangirl. Team 7 was finally shaping up.

"Got it. I'll be counting on you, I guess," I said.

...

"UUUUUUGGGGHHHHH..." I groaned, dragging my feet along the ground on my way to our usual team meeting spot.

"Morning, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as I reached my destination.

"Calm down! You're too loud, too early," I said, trying to rub the sleep off my face. It was still slightly swollen but thankfully didn't hurt as bad as it did last night. And Sakura had done an amazing job of patching up my wounds, so my torso was also feeling much better now.

"How're you feeling?" Sakura asked.

"Better than last night, that's for sure. Still a bit sore, though. Did you two get enough sleep? I felt really bad for keeping the both of you up till late last night," I said.

"Yeah, don't worry about it! You can come to us anytime!" Naruto exclaimed with a big smile with Sakura nodding along.

"Thanks, guys," I replied as the conversation devolved into mundane everyday banter.

...

"Yo!" Kakashi said as he poofed in, standing on the small bridge nearby.

"No way..." Naruto said in disbelief.

"What the hell?" Sakura said.

I, on the other hand, was absolutely speechless. There he was, Kakashi Hatake, standing in front of us... Only fifteen minutes late! Is the world ending?

"Haha," Kakashi chuckled. "Yeah, I know, I know. How am I so early? Is it an emergency? Is the world ending? The answer is no. No, the world is not ending," he said with his usual eye smile. "In fact, I have something to say today," he continued, sounding unusually serious.

"What is it, sensei?" Sakura asked with trepidation.

Kakashi immediately bowed at a ninety-degree angle, surprising us all. "I am very sorry," he said.

"Wha—" I couldn't help but make a noise.

Kakashi stood up straight once more and continued.

"I'm going to cut to the chase here without mincing my words," he said, taking the time to look each of us in the eye. "The fact is that I didn't take your training seriously until now... And I realize my mistakes, thanks to Sasuke," he said, nodding towards me with the smile still on his face.

I nodded back slowly whilst still bewildered.

"Once again, I apologize for my uncaring demeanour towards all of you. I do regret my actions and have thought over how I could make up for my shortcomings." He took a breath. "As such, I have come up with a plan to train all of you properly and I promise you this: by the start of the chunin exams, I will make sure that the three of you, individually, are at the same skill level as an experienced chunin, and as a team, will be experienced enough to be able to successfully take down a novice jonin."

The three of us continued staring at our sensei, still trying to process the new information. Kakashi's face slowly changed into an even more serious one as he continued talking.

"I understand that this is very out of the blue and hard to believe... But I ask that you put your trust in me just one more time. All I ask in return is that you never complain about the training that I make you do – unless it's for health reasons, of course – and that no matter what happens, you three will stick together as a team. Can the three of you promise to standby these two rules?" he asked.

"Yes," the word was out of my mouth before I even had the time to think about it. "Yes, sensei," I said, letting a small smile show on my face. At last, it was time. I still didn't trust him too much, but I admit, something changed. He was starting to shape up finally and my respect for him as a sensei definitely just grew a little bit.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto also yelled out, while Sakura nodded along enthusiastically. "We won't complain even if you work us to the bone, sensei!"

"Perfect," Kakashi said, smiling again. "Here is your first assignment: rest for a week."

I nodded. It made sense that he would tell us to rest and recuperate after the mission that we had. Not to mention that this would give me enough time to practice and master the Rasengan... hopefully.

"Aww, but sensei!" Naruto tried to say before being interrupted by Sakura.

"Naruto! No complaining!" Sakura admonished him.

"Hah... fineeeeee, I guess we'll rest," he said.

"By rest, you mean to tell us to rest our bodies, right?" I asked. "Can we still keep learning by reading and chakra control training during the week?"

Kakashi pondered my question for a moment before nodding. "Yes, you may."

Perfect.

...

A defeated sigh escaped my lips as I threw aside another wasted rubber ball. I had been practicing since Kakashi dismissed us around early afternoon and it was evening now and I still hadn't succeeded. And if I didn't succeed soon, I fear I'm probably going to drop dead. After all, I hadn't eaten anything and had taken about three chakra pills. What was the recommended dosage again? Two in a day max? Meh, whatever. I'm an Uchiha.

I don't understand why it wasn't working though. I got the chakra flowing. I got it spinning. I added more and made it spin faster. But in the end, all I ended up with was three long cuts on the side of the ball. What the hell was I missing?

I raked my hands through my hair as I pondered over that question. Maybe I need a fresher perspective on this. Maybe I need to think about it on a smaller scale than just 'BOOM goes the ball'.

Smaller scale… What small thing explodes?

A grenade? No. I need something smaller.

Actually, what is an explosion in the first place? It's just when something undergoes a super fast volume increase, right? That means that to increase the volume quickly, I need to increase the energy quickly and overload it.

But…

What is the 'it'? Chakra? That seems like the 'energy' part to me. So what is the chakra stored in? The rubber ball, but the rubber ball is empty… Or is it!? It's full of air. So that means that I need to rapidly increase the amount of chakra in the air.

I picked up another ball and held it. My Sharingan activated by reflex as I slowly let chakra flow from my hand to the air inside the ball. Faster, my instincts told me and I let a massive amount flow while still trying to rotate it quickly. The ball started to vibrate and show some signs of the rubber starting to form needles, almost as if it was a ferromagnetic fluid. I pumped more and more chakra until the spikes got bigger.

All of a sudden, a loud bang rang through the room and I let out a small chuckle. Finally, I did it. Now all that was left was to practice the containment part or whatever it's called. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, was the last thought that went through my brain before I collapsed.

...

"Ah!" I exclaimed quietly as I bandaged my right arm the following morning. Last night I hadn't really noticed the pain because all my attention was focused on the one goal: make the second stage work.

Now though, it's caught up. I hissed again as more pain shot up my arm. This is why you shouldn't overwork yourself. Hopefully, though, I can get this healed up in the next couple of days because I really only have about six days left before the training starts once more and I needed to figure out how to do the full Rasengan before then.

...

Obviously, I couldn't practice the Rasengan anymore tonight because of my arm, so I decided to take the day off today. An actual day off. Just relaxing and stuff. No work whatsoever…

But that didn't mean I wanted to do this!

"C'mon, Sasuke!" Naruto's whisper-shout got my attention again. "Hurry up or we'll lose him!"

"Ugh…" I groaned, rubbing my hand on my face. I walked towards their hiding spot in one of the alleys and crouched behind one of the shop's signboards. "Guys—" I was about to say.

"Shh!" Sakura interrupted, shushing me. "Keep your voice down, Sasuke-kun," she whispered. "He'll spot us otherwise."

… Idiots. These guys were idiots.

This time, I decided to humour them and whispered. "Guys, sensei probably already knows we're here and following him," I told them.

My teammates immediately looked at me. "What? How?" Naruto whispered back.

I sighed at these two dumbasses again. "He's a jonin, not to mention he used to be an ANBU captain. You think he doesn't know that three genin are following him?" I asked.

Sakura and Naruto both looked at each other and then looked at me.

"I… guess you're right," Sakura said.

"But then why hasn't he told us yet?" Naruto said, gesturing to the now empty spot where Kakashi was standing.

"Because I wanted to see how long you guys kept on following me," came the usual smooth voice from above us.

Instantly, all of us looked up. There, sitting on the roof of a shop was Kakashi, gazing at us with a mirthful expression.

"Oh hey, how's it going sensei?" I asked with a wave.

"Not too bad. What about you, Sasuke?" Kakashi said.

"Meh," I shrugged. "I got dragged out by these two, so I'm sure you can imagine," I replied as I pointed at my teammates with my thumb.

"Hmm, yeah I can," he answered with sympathy.

"Hey! What does that mean!?" Naruto asked, indignant.

"It means," I extended my hand towards his forehead. "That you're a dumbass for thinking he's not gonna notice us," I said and flicked him hard.

"Ow! Teme!" Naruto growled and pounced. He held my collar and reared his fist.

I made no move to block or parry his punch, mainly because I deserved it, but also because I knew Sakura and Kakashi would jump in to stop him.

Or, well… So I thought. But I guess I was wrong. Naruto went through with his punch and clocked me right in the jaw. My vision blurred while I stumbled back for about a second before steadying myself.

"Oww!" I said, rubbing my jaw. It hurt, but not as much as I expected it to. "Why didn't you stop him?" I asked, looking at Kakashi.

"Why didn't you stop him? You could've blocked that one easily," Kakashi questioned back.

I shrugged my shoulders. Yeah, he had a good point. "Yeah, that's fair," I said. I kind of wanted to gauge Naruto's current strength as well, so whatever, I guess.

"Anyway, why were you guys following me?" Kakashi asked.

"We wanted to see what's behind your mask, sensei," Sakura said shyly.

"Oh, you should've just asked!" Kakashi said cheerfully. "I'll show you right now—" he declared, about to pull down his mask but I quickly interrupted him.

"NO!" I almost yelled, startling quite a few people around us. I cleared my throat as I looked around in embarrassment. "No, sensei," I spoke in a proper tone of voice this time. "We didn't want to see what's behind your mask. We wanted to see what your face looks like," I clarified.

"Eh?" Naruto said, looking at me confused. "Isn't that the same thing?" he asked.

"What if his mask had another mask underneath?" I asked back.

Naruto's eyebrows shot up as he said, "Oooh, I didn't think of that."

"So, sensei?" Sakura said again. "Will you show us what your face looks like?"

Kakashi closed his eye for a second before opening it and poking me in the forehead with one finger. "Why does it feel like you can sometimes see the future?" he asked with a curious expression.

Oh… SHIT.

"Uh… Maybe I can? These eyes are pretty powerful, y'know," I said with a smirk as I shrugged my shoulders. I just decided to play it cool instead of worrying about it too much. What's the worst that could possibly happen? Plus, it's not like he's going to really believe that I can see the future anyway, right?

Kakashi merely chuckled and shook his head.

I didn't realize it before, but I liked this version of him so much more than the previous one. He usually always puts on a carefree act in front of everyone, but the Kakashi in front of me now seemed so much more… relaxed. Almost as if he'd stopped giving a fuck about what people thought about him.

He looked at us as we looked intently at him. Finally, Kakashi sighed before saying, "on one condition."

Bro, what the fuck? My eyebrows shot up in surprise. Truly, this was something I had never expected. I thought he'd just straight up say 'Nah piss off ya wankers lmao' or some shit. This was an interesting development.

"What condition?" Naruto asked.

"If the three of you place within the top three in the next chunin exams, I promise I will show my full face," he said to us.

My stomach dropped. Goddammit! Why would he do that!? I was planning on forfeiting once we cleared the Forest of Death! SHIT! All my plans went down the drain. Wait, maybe Naruto and Sakura won't care too much about his challenge.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto yelled out from beside me as he made a victory pose. "I'll be the champion of the chunin exam!"

"Looks like I'll have to train harder too, huh?" Sakura said from the other side as she wore a look of determination and crossed her arms over her chest.

Dammit.

"For fuck's sake…" I whispered as I facepalmed.

Now, I didn't like doing things for others. Especially when I'm being pressured into doing it… But these guys are my teammates; they're my surrogate family. If I can't support them in their endeavours, who else can they rely on?

I was an asshole, but not that much of an asshole… Or was I… No, no, I wasn't!

"Can you change the condition a little bit?" I asked Kakashi, hoping for a little bit of leniency.

"Nope."

What the hell!? He didn't even ask what I wanted to change!?

"Dammit," I said, downcast.

"Don't worry, Sasuke!" I heard and felt Naruto's hand on my shoulder. I looked over at the blond ball of sunshine giving me a sparkly smile with a big thumbs up. "I know you can do it! Believe in yourself!"

I smiled back. Bruuuuh, this innocent, pure soul. I knew I could do it too! I just didn't want to showcase my skills to the entire world, you blinding ball of happiness!

Ah, whatever, I guess. I'll put in as little effort as possible. That's all. Nothing more, I swear.

"Fine," I said with another sigh. "But I'm gonna complain and whine about it all the way through the exam!"

Kakashi shrugged. "I'm fine with that. Your teammates are going to have to put up with you. Not me," he said with a chuckle.

AHHH! This guy was still an ass!

But just as I was about to say something to him, an ANBU flickered into existence beside us. I recognized her. She was the same purple-haired one that stabbed and beat me up: Yugao. "Sasuke-san?" she said.

I looked at her with squinty eyes. "The fuck y'all want this time?" I asked, still immensely pissed off about the whole Hokage meeting, torture, interrogation bullshit.

She paused for a second, probably thinking about how she should proceed, before continuing professionally again. "The Hokage summons you," she said, straight to the point.

Nope. I wasn't doing this shit again. "Yeah? Well, you go tell him to go suck my balls cuz I don't wanna see him," I replied, ready to run if need be. I knew I wasn't gonna get far, but I could always make it as hard as possible for them.

"EH!?" Naruto and Sakura both yelled out at the same time while Kakashi just sighed.

"Sasuke... " Kakashi said, looking at me with a pleading look.

"Hell nah, I don't wanna hear it," I replied to him. "And you," I pointed at the ANBU, "can piss right off like the assface that you are and go suck a dick!" I said, and turned around, to walk away.

Immediately, I felt a hand clamp like a vice on my shoulder. I looked back at Kakashi, who was holding me in place. "What is it?" I asked.

"You need to go see the Hokage when he asks for you," he said.

I breathed in deeply. Nah, this wasn't going to happen today.

"No," I said simply.

"Sasuke, c'mon," Kakashi was practically begging me now.

"After everything that happened!?" I asked him. "Fuck that old burnt broccoli-looking ass, human rights-violating piece of shit!" I said. I didn't even understand the insult that I said, but it sounded stupid and I liked it. That's all.

"I can take you by force if need be," Yugao said in a monotone voice, standing beside Kakashi now.

"You can deepthroat my dick if need be, ya spherical cunt!" I replied and smiled as I saw her shoulder twitch a little bit.

"Spherical cunt…?" Naruto said from this spot. Sakura and he had still not moved and opted to just watch this whole fiasco play out, it seemed.

"It's cuz no matter what side you look at this fucken vegetable from, she's still a cunt!" I replied to him.

"Ah, what's a cunt?" he asked innocently and a devious grin split my face.

"It's a—" I tried to explain but two strong hands tightly clamped on top of my mouth before I could say anymore. "MMH!" I said, looking at Kakashi and Yugao. Kakashi was still in front of me and had one of his hands on my shoulder and the other on my mouth, while Yugao was behind me, holding me tightly against herself, and had one of her hands on my other shoulder and the other hand on top of Kakashi's on my mouth.

"No! He doesn't need to know!" Kakashi said.

And after a second of contemplation, I could see his expression turn into dread as I smiled deviously. OH! YESSS!

Immediately, I began my struggle for freedom, kicking and punching the two elite jonins that were holding onto me, just so that I could explain to Naruto what a 'cunt' was. But alas, since they were obviously much stronger than me, it only ended in my defeat.

I wasn't worried though. I'd have other chances to… Educate him.

Yo! Not dead yet! Enjoy the update!