Ugh, this chapter gave me hella trouble. It's really canon-heavy in the latter part, so I'm sorry about that, but I wanted to introduce characters.
A big thanks to TheRedConverseGirl, who helped me brainstorm a little for this chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and the other proper entities.
Summary: Sakura had been by his side since he lost his family, following him around since they were seven years old, trying to ease his loneliness in whatever way she could. He didn't even know why he allowed it. He just silently allowed her to claim the seat next to him at the beginning of every term.
Rating: M
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairings: SasuSaku / eventual light NaruHina
Rays of Spring Sunshine
Chapter Ten
Sakura was uncharacteristically quiet after Kakashi gave them the chūnin exam applications. She trailed behind the boys as they made their way through the village, staring at the piece of paper in her hands.
Sasuke stopped at the corner where he would turn to go home; Naruto, oblivious and chanting to himself about how he was going to become a chūnin soon, kept going. When she realised that Sasuke was looking at her, she paused. "What is it?"
"Don't look like you've already failed." He said brusquely, shoving his hands in his pockets.
She grimaced, looking back down at the paper. "I just don't think I'm ready." She murmured. "I can't even keep up with you and Naruto… I'm always dragging the team back."
"No you're not." He huffed.
"Yeah I am." She smiled sadly, meeting his gaze. "I know Kakashi-sensei doesn't really have much hope for me. There's a reason he only trains you guys."
"Sakura," he said in exasperation.
"It's fine, Sasuke-kun." She said with false cheer. "I've just been thinking about it a lot lately, is all. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
He watched her go with a frown.
Naruto was practically vibrating with excitement as he waited for his team outside the academy the next afternoon. He'd spent the morning polishing his hitai-ate to perfection and perfectly printing his name on his application, and now there was nothing to do but wait. He'd even gotten there early, watching the other applicants file past.
Sasuke arrived first, coming to stop silently beside him while Naruto was trying to figure out which village a group of nearby participants belonged to.
"They're Kusa-nin." He said blandly, making Naruto jump.
"Geez, Sasuke!" He complained. "What the hell? You didn't have to sneak up on me!"
"Pay more attention." Sasuke snorted. "You're supposed to be able to tell when there's someone around."
Naruto felt his face burn and bit his tongue. He was in a good mood, damnit, and he wasn't going to let the asshole ruin it.
"Where's Sakura?" Sasuke asked, instead of pushing the issue.
"Not here yet." Naruto shrugged. "Neither is Kakashi-sensei, but he's always late."
"Hm." Sasuke was frowning. Naruto was just about to open his mouth to ask what his problem was when the other boy turned around and glared.
Naruto followed his gaze, finding the three genin from Suna from the other day. The guy with the face paint had spotted them and was scowling almost as fiercely as Sasuke was. "I hope we get to kick their asses in the exam." Naruto growled.
"I want to fight the one with the gourd." Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the redhead. "Gaara."
Naruto shuddered. "Man, that guy gives me the creeps." He complained.
"Who does?"
Both boys spun to find a grinning Sakura, standing with her hands clasped behind her back. Naruto caught the way Sasuke looked her over, as if assessing her; her grin dimmed a little and she shrugged at him in a silent exchange that Naruto couldn't decipher. Then Sasuke looked at Naruto, clearly expecting him to speak.
"Uh, that Gaara guy!" He pointed toward where the Suna-nin were.
Sakura tsked and grabbed his arm. "Don't point! It's rude!" She hissed. "But yeah, he's a bit weird." Her eyes flicked toward the group and back.
"Tch." Sasuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Are we going in or not?"
"Hell yeah!" Naruto cheered, punching the air. "C'mon guys, we've got an exam to ace!"
"You've never once aced an exam in your life." Sasuke reminded him, moving toward the academy doors. "You barely managed to pass any of them."
"You shut your mouth!"
Sakura was acting weird. Normally she trailed behind the two boys, but today she was positively dragging her feet. Sasuke made Naruto stop to wait for her at the top of the stairs, where dozens of other genin were assembled. When she reached them, she frowned and looked around; but she skipped over their fellow genin. Trying to figure out what, exactly, she was looking for, Sasuke cast his eyes around.
And then he realised. They were in a genjutsu.
It was strong enough that they wouldn't be able to break it just yet, but she'd still noticed. He doubted he would have had she not.
Which meant that they were on the wrong floor.
"Please, just let us pass!"
The two older kids guarding the door sneered as one of them struck the girl who spoke—so hard that she fell backwards, next to another kid in green. They didn't seem to be much older than Sasuke or his team.
"You might as well give up." The one who had hit her scoffed. "Trust us, we've failed this exam three times. If you can't even get past us then there's no way you're going to pass."
"Chūnin are stronger than all of you; they're assigned more difficult missions and are often mission leaders." The other added. "None of you are fit to be responsible for a whole squad."
Sasuke shouldered through the crowd, leading Sakura and Naruto with a jerk of his head. "Them, maybe." He forced himself into a relaxed posture, hands in his pockets as he looked the boys up and down. "But you're going to let us through. And you're going to release the genjutsu; we're on our way to the third floor."
"But, isn't this the third floor…?"
"Genjutsu?"
"The heck is he talking about…?"
He ignored the hushed chatter behind him and cocked his head toward Sakura. "You noticed it a while ago, right Sakura? You've become better than me and Naruto at noticing genjutsu."
Sakura's cheeks coloured as she blinked at him with wide eyes. Then, she grinned. "Yeah, I did. This is the second floor." The whispers behind them raised in volume as others began to notice, now that it'd been pointed out. The genjutsu melted away, revealing the numbers 201 on the sign above the door.
"Not bad." One of the guards grinned. "But all you did was see through it."
Sasuke raised his knee to kick out as the older boy kicked at him. He was prepared to meet him blow for blow; but the ridiculous-looking kid in green stepped between them, catching both legs in his bare hands.
Sakura stared at the spectacle in front of her. The shock was plain on Sasuke's face as the boy released his ankle, taking a step back and staring. The strange boy was chastised by his teammate, before turning to face Sakura.
"Hi." He strode forward. "My name is Rock Lee." He announced. "Yours is Sakura-san?" She nodded carefully. He took a deep breath, and then, sending a ripple of shock through her, grinned widely and said, "Will you go out with me? I swear I'll protect you until I die!"
She couldn't help the face she pulled; the guy was the most ridiculous looking boy she'd ever seen. Large bushy eyebrows and a bowl cut, plus a green jumpsuit…? "Uh, no."
"Sorry, man," Naruto snickered. "She's already got a boyfriend." He pointed at Sasuke.
"I see…" the boy's enthusiasm evaporated, his entire frame drooping with disappointment. Sakura's face burned. "I'm sorry to bother you, Sakura-san."
"Naruto!" Sasuke kicked the unsuspecting blond in the lower back, sending him crashing to the ground, his cheeks the faintest of pinks. "How many times do I have to beat it into your thick skull—"
"I was joking!" Naruto cried, raising his hands to ward off the follow up kick. "Just joking! I swear!"
Sakura hid her face in her hands. It was bad enough that she had been in love with Sasuke since before they were even friends; to have Naruto constantly teasing them about it was mortifying. She was good at pretending, most of the time, that Sasuke's rare smiles didn't make her stomach do flips, or his occasional praise didn't make her heart flutter. She had gotten good at ignoring the way her skin tingled any time he touched her. She was happy being his friend.
At least, she was until Naruto started making his stupid jokes. Then it was just painful.
She hid the pain by rounding on Naruto, who had just climbed to his feet and was watching a furious Sasuke warily, and punching his shoulder. "I keep telling you to cut that out!"
"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan!"
"Let's just go." She huffed, grabbing his and Sasuke's wrists and pulling them toward the stairs for the third floor. They were making a scene and she wanted to get as far away from the stares of the crowd as possible. "We're going to be late."
Sasuke was so shocked that he couldn't even take the fall properly; he crashed into something soft and floral-smelling, and realised that Sakura had raced to catch him. He felt the bruise blossoming across his jaw and spat out blood, staring at Rock Lee as he was scolded by a… talking turtle?
"Are you okay?" Sakura asked him in a low voice, concern bleeding into her tone.
He wiped a smear of blood off his chin with the back of his hand. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"Hey…" Naruto, who had finally woken up from the blow Lee had knocked him out with, crept over. "That's a turtle, right?" He asked, as if he wasn't sure exactly what they were seeing.
To be fair, Sasuke wasn't exactly sure what they were looking at, either. The talking turtle was going on a tirade; Lee stood before him, shoulders drooped and head hanging. Sasuke couldn't believe he'd lost to such a… freak. It made him grit his teeth despite the pain. Even the sharingan hadn't been able to help him—he'd seen the moves coming, but Lee was right; without the speed to match him, there was nothing Sasuke could have done. It made his gut twist and his blood boil. He still wasn't strong enough.
"Isn't that obvious?" Sakura snapped. Now that her attention wasn't on him, Sasuke winced and unclenched his jaw. That kick had hurt.
"Then… is that his sensei?"
"It's a turtle!"
And then, as if the day couldn't get any more bizarre, a man poofed into existence atop the turtle, wearing the same green monstrosity as Lee.
Sasuke stared. Naruto and Sakura's bickering halted as the three of them took in the scene.
"Oh gods," Sakura said faintly, "his eyebrows are even worse than Lee's…"
"He looks fuckin' weird." Naruto agreed.
"Hey! Don't insult Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted.
Sasuke couldn't even find the words. This man looked like something out of a circus show—he was obviously Lee's sensei, judging by the lecture the boy was getting. Sasuke thought he might just end himself or his teammates if they ever started to copy Kakashi's style the same way Lee had this freak's. It was… disturbing.
And then they were hugging.
Ugh, I think I'm gonna be sick.
"And you three… you must be Kakashi's students!" He disappeared from the other side of the room. Feeling the air move behind them, Sasuke whirled on his feet to see a huge, pearly-white grin beaming down at them. "How is Kakashi doing? Youthful as ever, I hope!"
"You… know him?" Sakura managed faintly.
The man laughed, booming and loud. "Know him?! Of course I do! We're eternal rivals, after all. I've beaten him, fifty to forty-nine." He winked. "You could say I'm stronger than Kakashi."
Sasuke fought the urge to take a step back. If this guy was a sensei then, impossible as it seemed, he must be a jōnin. And he was so fast. Stronger than Kakashi…?
"I'm sorry about Lee." He was going on, addressing Sasuke directly. "I swear on my youth that it won't happen again. At least, not outside of the exam!" He boomed with laughter again. "Anyway, you kids should get to the classroom. You've got ten minutes before the deadline!"
Sasuke found himself looking at Lee as he redid his wrappings. His hands were covered in old scars that were obvious even from a distance.
"I'm sorry." Lee approached them, tucking the edges of his bandages in. "I lied to you before, when I said I was the strongest genin in the Leaf; I'm not, but that person is on my team. I entered these exams to fight him, but I also look forward to meeting you in a proper match." He gave Sasuke a thumbs up and then gave Sakura a flirtatious wink that she hid from behind Naruto. "We'll meet again, Uchiha Sasuke!" He promised, taking off toward the classroom where the exam was to be held.
"Guess the Uchiha clan ain't worth much, these days." Naruto said lightly crossing his arms behind his head as they moved to follow him at a more sedate pace.
"Naruto—!" Sakura began, glancing at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye. He was always testy when his clan was mentioned.
For once, Sasuke ignored the slight. "I'll beat him next time." He swore, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Yeah, right." Naruto teased. "You just got your ass kicked!"
"So did you!" Sakura reminded him, slapping the back of his head.
"Ow! Sakura-chan!"
"Stop picking fights, Naruto! We're going to be late!"
"You saw his hands, right?" Naruto asked him at a lower volume, making Sakura look between them as Sasuke nodded. "He's probably trained pretty hard. And he wasn't in our class, so he's been doing this longer than we have. That's all it is."
Sasuke was… grateful, he supposed, for Naruto's attempts to cheer him up. He smirked. "This should be fun." He mused. There were bound to be even more strong people like Lee in the exams—people that he could test himself against, to see how strong he was getting. "Come on Sakura, Naruto."
Naruto thrust his fist into the air. "Yeah, let's do this!"
Again, sorry about the canon-heavy chapter. I hope I changed enough to make it interesting, but I really wanted to introduce Gai-sensei and Rock Lee this chapter.