Title: Stop…Restart It – Naruto
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi
Chapter: 18
Word Count:
Warnings:
AN: Don't forget that I have posted a new chapter story called Shifting Tides that you can check out! For now, I'm going back to writing and relaxing. Enjoy!
Watching as Naruto sat down with a can of tuna in his hands, sitting perfectly still, Sparrow suppressed a snicker as he watched his student have a stare off with Tora. He was once more watching Team Seven as they did another mission, as he had been doing for the last month and a half. He noted that they had caught Tora a grand total of ten times.
He would have to buy a small cake to celebrate learning how to get on Tora's good side.
He smiled when the pretty, if not rather large, cat trotted over to Naruto with a purr and hopped into Naruto's lap, much to the blond's amusement. Blue eyes rolled as he stroked over soft fur, letting the cat have the tuna. Sasuke walked out of the bushes, pulling off his headset with a growl as Sakura pouted and followed after. Tora barely flicked an ear at them but glared at Kakashi before going back to her treat.
"That cat really has a very strong glare for being an animal," Kakashi drawled, eyeing the happily purring cat.
Sakura snorted. "That's 'cause we make you hand him back to his owner who loves to squish him to death. Means he associates that with you," she drawled, waving a finger at him.
"Yes, and he tries to claw at you anytime you come near him, much less speak. So do be quiet," Sasuke growled, feeling a headache building behind one eye, rubbing at his temple.
Naruto snorted before standing up with Tora in his arms. "Come on, let's get this done yeah? I'm tired and have stuff to do before work," he sighed, checking his small watch. Kakashi nodded his head and took Tora, carefully holding him so that he couldn't claw before disappearing with the cat, his students following after, leaving Sparrow alone.
The ANBU sighed and shook his head with a smile. He had to admit that the three had come a long way. Granted they barely liked each other and he doubted that either boy would ever really be able to like Sakura, but that didn't really mean much. As long as the two were willing to back her up on missions, it wasn't really needed for them to like each other outside of work.
It was preferable since it made missions that much easier, granted, but it wasn't needed.
Sighing, Sparrow stood up and headed to the ANBU compound, mind turning to Sasuke. The Uchiha had apparently had had a backslide on his attitude adjustment, which wasn't all that unlikely considering who it was. He had talked with Kakashi about how to get an ANBU tutor but the man had told him that since he had so many nins just tripping over themselves to train him, he couldn't get one.
The hissy fit that had come from the young pre-teen had been explosive. His ears had rung for a good three hours after the fit and poor Naruto had ended up in bed with a migraine pounding at his head. His hearing had just gotten better as he had trained and learned his own body, and hearing the pitch and tone that Sasuke had surprisingly gotten had hurt.
Sasuke had then tried to go to one of the council members who doted on him and had been told that they couldn't do anything. The ANBU and all those connected to the ANBU only responded to the Hokage's orders at the top, and Ibiki's orders if the Hokage couldn't. He was still furious about that rejection.
But he had kept up his clan work and doing the needed paperwork that was always present. He had also been taking on a few of the nins that had time to spend to help him train, as few times as he had done so, so it wasn't looking too bad for the young Uchiha.
Sakura just annoyed them all with the way she acted, but they had seen slight improvement. Slight being the key word. It hadn't even been noticed until one day she had paused in trying to hit Naruto. He had raised an eyebrow at seeing her stopped mid-hit before chuckling when she huffed and stalked off.
She also wasn't stalking Sasuke quite as often as she had at one time, actually going home after following him home or to the store, much like the rest of the fangirls running around. She would then study or think or do some training on her own, taking advantage of the various training grounds around the village to work on her stamina.
Though that interesting change had happened when Kakashi had put Sakura through a barrage of tests to figure out where she had been. She hadn't lasted past three miles on her endurance run whereas most of her fellow graduates could run six or seven miles. She hated the fact that Sasuke could run eight miles, nine if he used chakra, and that Naruto could go on for much, much longer. Almost as long as a entry level jounin could.
He had brushed it off as something that he had already been good at and was just working on getting it better.
So she had taken to jogging and running during the mornings. Then after their daily missions and training together, she stalked Sasuke for an hour before going home to read or do some stamina exercises. It turned out to be a good change and she was happy to see some progress in being able to keep up with her teammates.
Sparrow was surprised at her willingness to train so hard, especially with her parents not liking the fact that she did have to train so hard. He had followed after her mother and listened to the woman gossip with several other mother's about how nins were always eating. And always training, taking away from the time to find a nice man to settle down with and pop out a few fat babies.
He had gagged but reminded himself it was the price that they as nin's paid so that the civilian's could live in peace.
But Naruto was the one who was really making leaps and bounds in his progress. He kept up his training with his team, and on the days that he didn't have to work or didn't have team training, he would train with Sparrow. Otherwise he trained all aspects of his body, from mental and emotional to his actual physical form, when he had free time.
And on a few memorable occasions, when he didn't really have time. Usually walking from one end of the Hokage Tower to the other, book in hand. He said it helped his spacial awareness even more than just tossing a kunai while working on something and was less likely to kill someone if he slipped. Sparrow had to admit that it worked and the desk chunins agreed that he could do it as long as he got his work done.
He surprised everyone though with the fact that in the few hours that he was there, he got a lot done. He mostly did it himself but if they had a busy day and he could do it, which was nearly always, he used a couple of clones who followed around some of the chunins. It seemed to work for the young man and his chakra control had gotten even better.
Sparrow had flat out told the Hokage and Ibiki one day that Naruto was one of his best students and he was proud to call him such.
He snickered to himself as he remembered their expression. They had looked as if he could have knocked them over with a puff of breath from twenty feet away. But it was true then and it had stayed true as the weeks had gone by. Sparrows past students, few as they had been in his time in the ANBU, had all been handed off to someone else who hadn't cared two shits about their progress within weeks. But Naruto had lasted nearly six months with him.
Landing on the wall that surrounded the compound, Sparrow chuckled to himself, watching as Naruto headed for a private training grounds to wait for him. Shaking his head, he smiled behind his mask and hopped off of the wall and towards the entryway down into the ANBU compound. He headed to the weapons room and grabbed a few new items that he wanted to try Naruto on, see if he would have any aptitude for any of them.
He idly wondered if the young man would be able to use a nagamaki or maybe a naginata. The kid was good when he got his hands on a straight stick and he had always shown an interest in the Hokage's staff.
