DISCLAIMER: Naruto, its story and its characters do not belong to me. They are the property of the great Kishimoto Masashi-sensei. Only the plot of this fanfiction, and the original characters are mine.

WARNING: Some parts of this story may contain violence and bad language. If you don't like this, then feel free to press the back button.

III

SCARY! THE WRATH OF FUYUKI

"Oh shit."

That was the first thought which ran through Ookami's head the moment she saw her companion's darkened features. Her fear increased even more as Fuyuki stood up, angry red flames surrounding her--like Ookami's flame, except that they were made of aura.

I gotta do something! The wolf-girl thought to herself in a panic. Calling off her own flame and quickly making her way to Fuyuki. Forcing a grin, she placed a hand upon the midnight black-haired girl's shoulder. "Ne...calm down, Fuyuki-sama..."

"My ramen..." The girl growled, her voice dreadfully low.

"Don't worry about about it, you were almost done eating anyway--"

"I'M NOT DONE YET!!" Fuyuki snapped, her fiery aura burning all the more, causing the wolf-girl to yelp, run, and hide behind Uzuki, who still held Squi-chan in her arms.

"Uzuki-chan..." Ookami whined, her eyes brimming with tears. "Fuyuki-sama's scaaarrryyy..."

Contrary to the half wolf, the green-haired girl stood calmly at her place, with no expression of fear at all. "Ookami-san, you should know by now that this is only temporary."

"...only temporary?"

The two girls turned their heads towards the direction of the unfamiliar voice, and found that it belonged to a silver-haired man from the next table. Although his attention was focused on Fuyuki, they knew the question was meant for them. Uzuki noted the protector upon his head, as well as the vest he wore. She noticed that his other companions had protectors on their heads as well. She tilted her head slightly. A...ninja?

"You're saying that as if she's been possessed by some kind of demon," Kakashi continued, leaning back against his chair.

Uzuki stared back at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Perhaps she is, though not technically." She turned back to Fuyuki, who was currently beating the living hell out of the two subordinates. "Normally, she's not one to get angry so easily, except when someone messes with her food..."

"...then she will get pissed," Ookami finished, her tail wagging wildly behind her. "And believe me, you'd rather be dead and buried six feet under than face her wrath."

Kakashi placed his elbow against the back of his seat, leaning back. "And then when she snaps out of it, she won't remember."

The two girls glanced back at him. "How did you know?!" Ookami asked, her eyes wide.

The silver-haired jounin only closed his eyes and made a noise which sounded like a slight chuckle. Sasuke, who sat beside him, stared the man, raising a curious eyebrow. Familiarity perhaps? The dark-haired boy thought to himself. ...but wait, there was something about what they said that didn't fit...

"...wait a minute," Sakura and Naruto cried out simultaneously, staring back at the two girls, emerald green and blue eyes wide as saucers. "Did you just say...'SHE'?!"

Ookami slapped an exasperated hand on her forehead, while Uzuki stared back at the blond boy and pink-haired girl. "Fuyuki-sama is female." The green-haired girl said.

Sasuke almost choked and fell out of his seat at that surprising statement.

Sakura suddenly felt her body go limp, a dark cloud hovering over her head. "Female...female...female..."

Naruto, on the other hand, burst in laughter. "Ahahahahahahaaaaa!!! Is that so?!" He then glanced back at Sakura, grinning teasingly. "My Sakura-chan, have you suddenly flipped over to other side? Fuzzy Eyebrows will be so shocked!!!" Though he was answered by another hit to the head, the blond boy still couldn't stop laughing.

Sasuke turned his head, shifting his attention back to Fuyuki. "A...female..."

---

BAM! SLAP! WHAM! WHACK! In a matter of a few minutes, the poor beaten subordinates were made into a crumpled heap on the floor.

"Had enough?!" Fuyuki stood over them, hands on her hips and her eyes glinting threateningly.

The subordinates stiffened accordingly, and they quickly shifted their bodies with their knees on the ground, simultaneously bowing down in front of her. "We're sorry!!! We're sorry for damaging your ramen!! Forgive us!!!!"

"Hrmph," The amethyst-eyed girl snorted. "You'd better not do that again. Now GO!"

"Yes!!" The men squeaked, running (or limping) away from the restaurant as fast as they could go.

As Fuyuki watched the men run with half-lidded eyes, a slow clap sounded from behind her. She turned, and saw the fourth (and probably the most arrogant, other than the GL himself) member of the GL team. The side of his lip turned up in satisfied smirk, the cigarette bouncing as he did so. "Bravo, bravo. What a great performance."

She stared back at him still with half-lidded eyes. "What do you want?"

"A match," He answered, his smirk widening. With a swift motion of his hand, he took off his business suit, revealing a white short sleeved jacket over a black long-sleeved shirt, and black cargo pants. Wrapped on his left bicep, is his protector bearing the mark of the Kirigakure. "With me, Asano Fukashi, a former Chuunin of Kirigakure!"

"A ninja, huh...?" She said. Then she shook her head, and turned towards her table. "Sorry, but not interested."

But before she could reach the table, the Kirigakure ninja blocked her way, stepping on the ramen in the process. Fuyuki's eyes widened, and she turned her chin up to glare at him. "HEY! Don't step on the food!"

---

Kakashi raised an elbow upon the back of his chair. "Your friend is rather predictable to provoke though," He said to Ookami and Uzuki.

Ookami shrugged. "Yeah well, food has always been her sensitive spot."

"Sounds like a certain idiot here," Sakura said, jerking a thumb towards Naruto.

"SHUT UP!"

Uzuki chuckled. "Well, our Fuyuki-sama is also a bit of an airhead..."

"A bit?" Ookami snorted, her left ear twitching. "More like a COMPLETE airhead, if you ask me."

---

"If I stop, you will have a match with me?"

"Like I said, no." The amethyst-eyed girl answered without thinking. She knelt down on the ground and started scooping up the spilled food.

Fukashi crossed his arms and twisted his foot, adding weight on the food and causing it to break. Fuyuki breathed in sharply, and held out her hands in a stopping motion. "No, stop! You'll ruin them!!"

The former Kirigakure ninja jeered. This brat is just so easy... "A match," He said again. "Or I'll make sure your delicious food will be crushed into bits." He twisted foot again, causing the food to break even more. "Take that!"

"Eeeek noooo!!" Fuyuki squealed, for once sounding like a real girl.

Then with his other foot, he stepped on the rim of the ramen bowl, causing it to fly up in the air. He pulled his feet back and kicked the bowl towards Fuyuki's face. "And this!" He said, his smirk widening. Hah! Maybe I'll defeat her just by doing this!

But before the bowl reached her face, Fuyuki lifted up her hand and caught it. "Fine," She said, her face hidden beside the bowl. "If that's what you want."

Fukashi grinned. "Glad that you see it my way."

Just then, Fuyuki raised her hand, showing two fingers at him in a v-sign. "But first, two things."

"Oh, what is it, boy?"

"One," She began, "We're doing this outside. This restaurant has been damaged enough already."

"Fine."

"And two," She tossed the bowl she caught earlier up and down, smirking. "You're going to be defeated by this."

---

Sakura's eyes widened upon hearing this. She glanced up at Ookami and Uzuki questiningly. "Is she serious?!"

"Well," Uzuki said, patting Squi-chan's head with one hand. "Fuyuki-sama's always making up weird things when she's going to fight."

"Squi!" (That's right!)

"Ne, ne, they're going outside!" Naruto said excitedly, pointing towards the restaurant entrance. "Let's go watch!!"

Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly. "Why not? We've got lots of time anyways."

Sasuke, on the other hand, was already making his way outside, following closely behind Ookami and Uzuki.

---

Once outside, Fukashi raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Cocky, aren't we? It's YOU who's going to be defeated."

Fuyuki continued to throw the bowl up and down with one hand, while she held her bow in the other. "Come on, let's just get this over with so I can finish eating."

"I don't think you ever will!" Raising his hands, he began doing a hand signal and muttered something under his breath.

Almost immediately a dusky pack of mist enshrouded the area. Fuyuki stopped playing with the bowl and took a step back, her senses coming into full alert. She needed to, as the hazy cloud was doing a good job of obscuring her view.

---

Naruto gasped, his bright blue eyes widening in recognition. "Hey! Isn't that--?"

"...the Kirigakure no Jutsu," Sasuke finished. It was a technique that all three teenagers, along with Kakashi, knew all too well.

"That was during our mission to accompany Tazuna-san from the Country of Waves, isn't it?" Sakura said. "...when Kakashi-sensei fought with Zabusa..." She looked up at the silver-haired jounin. He had a non-chalant look on his face, but she knew that he was thinking about the incident as well.

Naruto gritted his teeth, the hands on his sides curling up into fists. A lot had happened during that mission. It was labeled as a C-rank mission, but it quickly turned into a mission with a higher level of difficulty as they were suddenly attacked by Chuunins, which was not supposed to happen. It was there that he suddenly felt fear for the first time. Frozen at the thought of dying, he was unable to perform his duties as a ninja efficiently. He then looked down at back of his left hand, more specifically at the scar which, until now has not disappeared. But Naruto did not want it to disappear, no, because it constantly reminded him of his vow to never freeze up and leave his friends ever again.

It was also during this mission that the Team 7 met with Momochi Zabusa and his faithful partner, Haku. The battle with the two missing-nins from Kirigakure was long and hard, but Naruto had learned a lot in that battle. Cooperation. Teamwork. Courage. Strength. Wisdom. But the most important lesson he had learned was the value of sacrifice. Kaiza, Inari's foster father refused to bow down to Gaton, the greedy businessman who invaded the Country of Wave, and that cost him his life. Haku, the young boy who Naruto initially thought of as a girl, stood without hesitation in front of Zabusa, Kakashi's hand going through his body instead of Zabusa's. Zabusa, known for having killed all of his cohorts upon graduating from the academy, avenged the death of his younger partner and was consequently stabbed in the back. And...

Naruto glanced at Sasuke from the corner of his eye. His fists shook slightly as memories of Sasuke dying in his arms invaded his mind. He sacrificed himself in order to save the blond boy from Haku's attack.

"Why? Why did you do it?"

"How should I know, my body just moved by itself..."

"I hated you..."

"I hated you too..."

It was then that he realized that his relationship with Sasuke ran deeper than that of simple rivalry. It was friendship. A deep and true friendship. This was the reason he persisted on rescuing Sasuke. This was the reason he never gave up on the hope that his friend will come back.

And he did, The blond boy smiled to himself. He really did.

Naruto then glanced towards the two girls they had just met. Although Naruto did not know anything about them, he knew that their eyes held the same hope as he did back then. And he wasn't about to let that hope disappear. No fucking way.

And so, he took a deep breath, placed his hands over his mouth and yelled.

"YOU CAN DO IT RAMEN GIRL!!!!!!! SHOW THAT UGLY NINJA WHAT YOU'VE GOT!!!!!"

Author's Notes:

Hi everyone! Here's the third installment! I'm now on my semestral break, so I have more time to write this. A fight scene is coming around the corner, and to tell you the truth, even though I'm not really used to it, I'm always excited about writing fight scenes. The adrenaline's pumping, and I feel like I'm in the scene itself! And to keep myself inspired, I play the battle music from the Naruto OST. Weird I know, but I enjoy doing it. In any case, I hope you would enjoy reading this too. Please continue to review!

By the way, I'm basing the terms her on their Japanese forms so, for the sake of those who are a bit confused...

1. Konohagakure - Hidden Leaf Village

2. Kirigakure - Hidden Mist Village

3. Dobe - Blockhead (I'm not sure about this though, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

4. Teme - Bastard

From now on, since I've put this story in the Romance genre, I'll also be listing the pairings.

1. Sakura and Lee

More will be added in the next chapters.

Yay! I've received my first two reviews!! It made me so happy!!! So, a great big THANK YOU!! goes to:

1. Cyber-Porygon - Yes, I'll do my best to keep this Naruto-centric. I hope you didn't wait too long.

2. Nicachan510 - Yes, I promise that there will be SasukexOC at some points of the story. And don't worry, I do have plans to continue.

Well, that's all for today.

Till the next installment!