Chapter 8: Land of Waves

Wow, it's been a while! I've never forgotten about this story though. Over time I've even built up ideas for it in my head without losing track of any of them. I also finished the next chapter before this one; Land of Waves is mostly a filler, which almost bores me to death just to put into paper. Still, it's just as important as any other so I have to be serious about it. Whenever I read stories, this type of chapter makes it or breaks it for me a lot of the times. I know myself, and I wouldn't want to write something I'd just skip right over. So without further ado, my long awaited (neglected) follow-up begins!

All three members of the newly formed Team Seven took their walk home to digest such a massive surprise. They passed by failing!

Of course, once Kakashi explained how he was testing their teamwork it all made sense. But making sense doesn't mean they immediately believed it. Especially after the same silver-haired man who tricked them this way also taught them one of his favorite sayings: "look underneath the underneath". Trying to be grade-A students they immediately put the saying to good use.

The underneath of the underneath in that test was that Kakashi Hatake is a massive troll.

"He coulda just told us he wanted teamwork! Or something!" Naruto argued once the silver-haired jonin had left the clearing, waving his hands up and down.

"But then we could fake it." Sasuke stated matter-of-factly, to which Sakura nodded. In her mind, Inner Sakura swooned over him for his brilliance at saying exactly what she was about to say.

"Gah, why does it have to be so complicated?" Naruto kept complaining, making Sasuke look at him sternly.

"Hey, you asked to be a ninja and this is it. You're even whining more than you do at our spars." The raven-haired boy replied, finally annoyed at the blond.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, taking offense to that and walking with his arms across his chest but unable to say anything back. After a few seconds of silence Sasuke noticed this and the smirk on his face didn't fade all the way to the Uchiha compound.

It was then that the two boys realized Sakura had followed them there.

"Uhh…" Sasuke looked at Naruto as if asking him for answers, while the blond shrugged and gave a nervous smile instead of words. Sakura blinked and his eyes flickered between them until finally settling on Sasuke with a clueless gaze.

Said boy grimaced.

"I… guess you can stay with us for training, Sakura?" he half-said, half-asked. The girl in question was already nodding her head profusely at the word 'can', which was making Sasuke consider making a run for the Forest of Death and handle Anko instead. At least she was simple to deal with.

He was fine with Anko as long as he dodged her senbon. And her snakes. Simple.

Instead he was stuck inside his own dojo looking at two super-excited genin that he swore could be twins if their star-struck eyes were genetically transmitted.

Sakura had finally stepped into the house of her idol/future husband.

Naruto finally had the chance to show off at front of Sakura.

Sasuke couldn't avoid a sweatdrop down his forehead at the sight.

"Yahoo, we can train together as a team! This is awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement. Sakura did a slightly better job, though Sasuke was starting to get worried about her neck after her non-stop nodding.

"Naruto, we have to eat first." the Uchiha declared, resisting the urge to face-palm. He thought the blond would be the first out of the trio to flip out at their hunger, but he had been wrong.

Of course, now that he mentioned food Naruto's stomach started growling louder than a Raiton jutsu.

"Heheheh… yeah, you can say that again." Naruto sheepishly agreed, scratching the back of his head. Sakura tried to be more discreet and simply mhm'd, but her own stomach was having none of that.

"Alright then, you should what to do by now." Sasuke declared, then looked at Sakura. "You can sit on the dining table, we shouldn't take too long getting it ready." he added, making her nod before she even registered what he meant.

And when she did, her face was the same color as her face.

"D-d-d-do you mean you'll cook?" she stammered, making the boy in question shrug.

"It's my house, so yea." he said like it was the most natural thing in the world. Naruto gave her a foxy grin. "And I'll help!" he added, hoping to impress her.

Unfortunately for the blond, had stopped working.

It took the girl a few seconds to finally blink and mutter an "Oh.", before taking a seat at the dining table to wait for the boys.

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other and shrugged, unable to understand her behavior. Figuring it was 'girl stuff' that neither of them could understand, they focused on making Naruto's beloved ramen while Sakura hurriedly re-applied her make-up and perfume and could think of nothing else but the fact Sasuke was cooking for her at that very moment.

'Suck it Ino, I'm one step closer to being Sasuke's wife than you ever will be!' Sakura mentally celebrated, barely able to keep her thoughts from spilling out into the real world.

Sasuke sneezed, and he could had sworn this was the thousandth time to do so. The Uchiha mentally blamed Sakura's excessive perfume. Seriously, how did the scent of it suddenly get so much stronger anyways?

In her bag of cosmetics, a pink-colored vial of such scented liquid suddenly suffered a crack that Sakura would only find hours later once she was home.

"Hey, don't tilt it!" Sasuke cried out from the other side of a huge pot, struggling to keep it from spilling. Naruto freaked out and suddenly pushed it up, making the Uchiha scramble to do the same. 'What are they doing...' Sakura wondered while watching the bizarre combination of two prepubescent kids carrying a pot almost as big as them miraculously carry it all the way from the kitchen to the dining room.

She felt like a couple of the comedy shows she'd seen when she was younger started with something like that.

She also felt a sweatdrop go down her totally normal-sized forehead.

"Ahh, finally!" Naruto let out in relief once the pot rested in the middle of the table, oblivious to the pissed off Uchiha on the other side of it.

"You almost spilled it pushing it like that you idiot!" Sasuke cried out, pointing a finger at the now outraged blond.

"Nuh uh, you just suck at carrying stuff!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"How do you even suck at that?"

"How do you?"

"CAN YOU IDIOTS JUST SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Sakura suddenly exploded, finally having enough of the two boys' bickering. Both their mouths hung open as their fingers stayed fixed pointing at each other, before they both hung in defeat.

Sakura blinked, then the realization hit her.

She just called Sasuke an idiot.

She just called Sasuke an idiot.

The pink-haired girl could already hear Ino's sweet words showering Sasuke in words of love and praise, making the Uchiha pick up the blonde and carry her to an altar where the priest waited with an open book ready to marry them. Purple petals fell from the air as many well-known villagers and family members of Ino covered the seats in the beautiful chapel Sakura's mind conjured, and suddenly a force pushed her out the huge wooden doors as Ino's smirk was being covered by Sasuke's lips. The doors closed on her face with a huge ring from the chapel's bell, signalling the pinkette's defeat.

'NOOOOOOO!' Inner-Sakura shouted in horror, falling to her knees in despair while Sakura's jaw remained flat on the Uchiha Mansion's dining table with her eyes wide open in horror.

Neither male paid any attention to the drama occurring to their pink-haired teammate, instead looking down in shame the moment they were called out with their shoulders hung in defeat.

The dark clouds summoned by Team 7 during that dinner covered all of Konoha until the last drop of ramen was inhaled by Naruto, who was the only one to fully recover from their earlier disaster.

Sasuke still couldn't believe the blond had cracked his character so much that even one of his fans called him out on being an idiot, and Sakura could still hear Ino's faint witch laughter inside her head while unconsciously eating more than she usually allowed herself to. Her blush was still as pink as her hair too, and she tried to hide the former with the latter when Sasuke of all people called her out on it.

He blamed it on Naruto, but ever since he befriended the blond he always needed to one-up everyone he could. And that meant making Sakura embarrassed of her blush. It was only fair, since she called him an idiot. So he "innocently" asked Naruto if he saw the same shade of pink on her cheeks that the Uchiha was noticing.

At the end of their dinner all three genin stood under the Uchiha Mansion's wooden doorframe, and after each said their goodbye's only one was left while the other two walked their way back home. Sasuke waved at them, feeling absolutely weird of having to do such a thing. He never used to send off guests in the house, since that was usually left to the adults.

By Konoha's standards, Sasuke was recognized as an adult the moment he put on the headbang. That in no way made him feel like one. He wasn't sure if that was his own messed up head, or Konoha's messed up sense of what an adult was.

He then tried to picture his teammates doing adult things, and saw no wrong with them drinking or smoking. But then he thought of Naruto slowly undoing Sakura's clothes as if he was seeing one of the scenes from his favorite anime, but he instantly regretted it and a chibi Sasuke appeared in his thoughts to burn it all with a Katon jutsu.

It was up to him to handle the dishes so he walked back into his dining room to deal with it.

He wasn't even surprised at seeing Anko stare in shock at Naruto's empty plate.

"How the fuck does he eat so much?" she asked, dropping the knife and fork she had eagerly grabbed when she thought there'd be food for her.

"If a jonin doesn't know, hell if I can figure it out either." Sasuke said with a shrug, but didn't move.

It wasn't the first time Anko had casually appeared inside his house. He had tried being freaked out, then completely casual about it. She threw a kunai at him both times.

Maybe she'd always throw a kunai at him, but he had hope there'd be a way out of her sadistic hell.

Then he had to dodge a kunai.

"Bad Uchiha, leave some for me next time!" she ordered with a pout, her arm still outstretched from her kunai throw.

"If you knocked on the door like a normal person maybe I could..." he spit out between his teeth, a tick mark on his forehead as he pulled the kunai out of the wall right next to his head.

A wall made of very expensive wood.

With a few kunai holes in them.

If his accuracy was jonin level, she'd be sharing some of them. Since it was not, he could only take a deep breath and hope she wasn't sadistic enough to tear down his whole house just because he disliked seeing her do so.

Of course, when he finished taking his breath she was no more interested in his feelings than before. She just wanted something to eat.

"..."

"I'm hungry."

"..."

"I'm hungry!"

"...I'm not cooking again." Sasuke finally replied, making Anko draw out more kunai and glare at him with a very obvious threat.

Sasuke simply turned around to leave, closing the door as it stopped the tokubetsu jonin's kunais and fury.

"Y'know what passing means, right? You're an adult now gaki!" Anko gleefuly informed Sasuke while passing him a shot of something he knew was alcohol. The glass shot slid perfectly on the bar-like table, stopping right at front of the Uchiha who glared at the purple-haired kunouchi. "Like I didn't know that already, and no thanks." he sarcastically replied, but politely refused the drink by slowly pushing it back to its real owner.

It wasn't the first time Anko led him back to her usual dango-serving place. He hated it, and not only because she kept trying to pass shots at him.

Of course, this wasn't the first shot she tried passing to him. It was the first one she didn't spike with something, but he would never know that.

"Awww c'mon spoil sport, why don'tcha try it?" Anko whined, slurring somewhat and it was tough to tell if it was at purpose or not.

"Because I don't feel like it." he responded with a flat tone, glaring at her as if challenging her to disprove what he said.

"Bah! Fuck it, I'll do it myself then..." she grumbled and downed the shot in one go, letting it slide down her throat. "Gah… See? That's how it's done!" she exclaimed while putting down the glass with force.

Sasuke had the audacity this time to clap once, and only once. Sometimes she would buy him out with a sandwich, but he was full from the ramen so it was a moot point.

Anko quickly came to learn how Sasuke often hated any place that didn't serve either something with tomatoes or ramen. There were very few other things he liked, and if she was honest with herself she didn't give a shit either.

But even Anko had enough sense to keep Sasuke away from dango. He tried to burn it with a Katon jutsu once when she first blindfolded him and tried feeding it to him. She was just trying to be nice, starting her BDS- err training slow, but no! How he'd knew the sweet delicious dango was almost reaching his tongue she'd never know, but without her jonin-level speed the dango would had been burnt.

He didn't know why she kept dragging him along, and she was already running out of excuses to do so. But of course, getting him drunk to celebrate his hitaite was an excellent one.

That sass of his was quickly killing the mood, though.

"Hey jackass, few people can do that kinda shit!" she bellowed, insulted that he would make fun of such mastery of the alcohol drinking discipline.

Sasuke simply shruged.

Anko could feel her fellow drunkards in the back already ready to laugh at the situation, nosy fellows that they were.

And the Uchiha knew it too.

"I've seen better." he replied, and took a small sip of his water bottle.

"OOOOOOHH!" everyone in the back explained, and Sasuke looked at Anko.

While smirking.

The little shit is smirking.

"THAT DOES IT!" she screamed, flipping the table to the side and grabbing Sasuke by the shirt. "YOU WANNA TAKE THIS OUTSIDE?" Anko challenged while pointing to the door, her right hand more than powerful enough to keep the boy in her grip.

To her surprise, Sasuke merely smirked wider.

"What's the matter, Fuschia Princess? Can't take it like you drink it?" he replied with the most trashy tone that has ever come out of an Uchiha mouth, and the entire place looses it in cheers and laughs.

Some of them knew the raven-haired boy was about to die, but no one cared. Messing with Anko's hair was a death sentence, but it was amusing when someone else picked on her like that. Especially someone with such a smug face as his.

Then they both vanished in a shunshin.

Sasuke didn't sleep in his own house that day, but barely clothed and alive while hanging down from some vines in the Forest of Death.

Yet when he woke up there was only one thought in his mind.

It was so worth it.

After beating up the two familiar snakes Anko left around him during the night (she usually kept a boa and a viper around him whenever she forced him to stay overnight) and going through all the traps she left in his way, Sasuke quickly took a shower then put on new clothes.

He was already used to this kind of routine, though he could admit to never getting used to being sore as hell. Still a small price to pay for a prank…

Sasuke shivered. Then looked at the mirror. His hair wasn't blond.

Where the hell did THAT come from?

The boy shrugged and mentally made sure to remember not to copy any more of Naruto's traits. He still felt giddy and proud of embarrassing Anko at front of her drinking buddies, something he hadn't achieved in years.

When they've seen the woman puke, strip, dance, sing and bite the stools they sat on, they've pretty much seen everything embarrassing about her. But calling her a princess was something few people managed to say before dying.

And she hated when people got her hair color wrong.

Sasuke knew the only reason he wasn't dead was because she wasn't drunk enough, and liked him enough. He shuddered at the thought of having become either a prankster or a masochist, but didn't let himself think too much about it.

Because if he asked himself if he'd do it again, it was probably a yes. And that worried him more than he wanted to admit.

When he arrived at Training Field 7 and found out what D-rank missions were all about, he almost wished Anko had actually killed him.

Sakura was perfectly okay with it. As the team took mission after mission, she always adapted the fastest to the situation.

Of course, Naruto and Sasuke were too busy complaining about how much the mission sucked to adapt to the mission at first.

Kakashi didn't help things when he deliberately picked the most difficult ones and didn't let them use jutsu to help. Even Anko thought it was cruel whenever she visited Sasuke in the evenings for training and heard the stories from the Uchiha.

'Team building my ass!' Naruto thought as he picked the tenth flower of that evening, watching as Sakura had already doubled his amount. She always did her job right away, while the blond openly rebelled at their sensei with fruitless results as he always found an excuse for the mission.

Their second mission had gone far better for the hyperactive ninja, as Sasuke had rolled his eyes and challenged him to a ramen dinner paid by whoever painted their part of the fence the fastest.

Kakashi knew Naruto would win that one, though he had to admit the Uchiha was so competitive that it was a close match.

By the tenth D-rank, all three genin felt they had grown into a routine with them; their troll of a sensei was always the biggest threat, as well as the fact that the man couldn't be bothered taking the missions during the morning. Which left them very few precious hours to do their jobs.

When they heard that they'd get to actually use their ninja skills on their next mission it was met with a lot of skepticism. On paper, it sounded like a good thing. Kakashi managed to convince them that in practice it would be just as good.

With Sasuke as their sensor, they were guaranteed an easier mission that most when they were charged with finding a black cat.

'I hate this fucking cat.' the Uchiha thought to himself as the feline had been too fast for him yet again.

"How does it keep doing that?!" Naruto exclaimed, almost too dumfounded to keep track of the small beast.

Even Sakura was about ready to give up. "That… thing must be at least jonin level." she concluded.

"No kidding." Naruto blankly remarked, making Sasuke growl at them.

"Well, figure something out! Either one of you!" he hissed, while trying his best to keep track of the cat.

"Fireball Jutsu?" Naruto suggested with a shrug.

"No killing allowed." Kakashi intervened. All three genin groaned.

When they finally delivered the accursed cat to its owner, they all winced as it was almost squeezed to death. Naruto discreetly got closer to Kakashi so he could talk without being heard by the Daimio's wife. "I thought you said no killing allowed…" he whispered, making Sasuke snort.

Sakura was horrified, and instantly regretting capturing the poor thing.

At the end of the day Kakashi stood before the Hokage, whose years of experience told him the younger man wanted to get serious. The man at the head of the entire village looked at the jonin with calculating eyes, putting the report of Team Seven's last mission aside with a flick of his wrist.

"I want a C-rank tomorrow." Kakashi spoke without being prompted, and the Hokage didn't miss the conviction in the tone of voice.

"You came at the right time then. I have a C-rank that I wouldn't want to give to a less experienced jonin. Team Seven has been progressing nicely, and I trust you're confident in this as well. Yes?" the old man concluded, accurately if the jonin's nod was any indication. "Good." he finished, and Kakashi made to leave before the Hokage spoke again.

"And, Kakashi? Good work. Minato would be proud." he said, a tone too soft for even a Hokage to use. Hiruzen smiled as the sole surviving student of his successor and predecessor disappeared in a swirl of leaves, and turned around to watch over the village. 'You're sure blooming these days…' the old man thought as he looked over the streets and buildings, puffing the last remaining embers on his pipe.

I hope y'all enjoy this one! It's on the short side, but to me there's not much else to write about at this point. At this point I've spent years trying to find ways how to fill this chapter a bit more, but it's just impossible for me.