AN: Hello there! It's been a while, sorry about that. But things have happened in my personal life and there's always school that tends to be in the way. This has reduced my free time and writing this fanfiction isn't my highest priority. Thus things have gone kind of slow for the fic.
Anyways, it's here now and it's quite a bit longer than the previous chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it!
Note: Surnames are said first just as they are in Japan (and because i watched the anime in japanese this is how i prefer it).
Note: "..." = Thought
Note: "..." = Speech
Note: "..." = Special speech (e.g Nine-tails)
Note: ~:~ = Flashback (indicates the beginning and end of a flashback)
Chapter 2: Training grounds of Konoha
Obito sighed. "These guys... What are they doing?", he thought as he saw an angry Naruto charge towards Sasuke with a fist high in the air, only to later get punched by Sakura in the stomach, sending him flying right across the classroom; only coming to a stop as he bumped into the legs of Obito. Naruto turned his head to see Obito standing dumbfounded above him.
"Oh, hey! Are you our new teacher?", Naruto asked casually, as if nothing had just happened.
Sakura quickly retracted her arm that she just used to punch Naruto with, fixed her hair, seated herself and smiled.
"Why did he have to come now of all times? Will he think I'm some sort of sadist?! AHHHHH THIS SUCKS!", thought Sakura.
Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and seated himself.
Obito let out a short and uncomfortable laugh. "Uhmm... Nice to meet you. My name is Uchiha Obito...". Naruto (who had also taken a seat), took notice of the Uchiha name.
"So he's from the same clan as Sasuke. I hope he's not a prick like him, he does seem nice though", he thought.
"Sasuke-kun and him are from the same clan?", thought Sakura, who also had taken notice of his surname.
Sasuke couldn't care less.
"...As you know, I'm gonna be your new teacher. I'm thinking we should start with getting to know each other a bit better. I'm sure you're tired of being here. So let's go to the roof and introduce ourselves there!", Obito finished and turned his back to leave the classroom.
"So, why were you late by the way?", asked Naruto.
Obito froze.
"Yeah right. I'm late. What should I say, what should I say, what should I say?!".
"Were you like on an epic mission or something?!", Naruto asked enthustiastically, hoping to hear an exciting story.
"Yes, that's right! I was on a mission. Thank you Naruto!".
Obito cleared his voice. "Yes, yes, that's right. I was on a mission and there were slight delays because of unexpected reinforcements from the enemy. We fought hard and long, many were injured and people's lives were put at risk, but thankfully we all made it out alive". Of course this wasn't the truth. In reality he had overslept and stopped on his way to help an old lady with some groceries, but that would seem like a pretty lame reason to be running late. Naruto was impressed by the exciting story, but Sakura and Sasuke doubted the legitimacy of his excuse.
"Ohh! That sounds epic! Can you tell more?! I want to hear it!", Naruto said.
"As much as I'd like to, I can't. You see it was a S-ranked mission. I'm afraid I might have said too much already", Obito responded. Sakura and Sasuke visibly cringed.
"What a show-off!", proclaimed Inner-Sakura.
Obito gave a sigh of relief, he had received a good response, or at least that's what he thought.
The newly formed team had gathered at the roof, the wind soothingly cooling them down a bit, in contrast to the classroom which had become pretty warm throughout the day. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke sat patiently on a wooden bench while Obito had seated himself on the railing of the roof.
"Hi again!" Obito said with a smile on his face. "As I've mentioned my name is Uchiha Obito, my interests are being on exciting missions and also spending time with loved ones and friends. As for dreams, I'd like to be hokage one day! And... well that's about it I suppose. You can introduce yourself in the same way as I just did. Let's go from left to right", he said and pointed to Naruto who was sitting on the left.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I'm interested in food, especially ramen. My dream is to become the best Hokage and be acknowledged by the village!", Naruto said.
"He's definetly grown in an interesting way", thought Obito and smiled gently.
Next up was Sakura. "My name is Haruno Sakura, and I'm interested in... someone. I don't have any particular life goal... or, I do... revolving someone...", she said whilst blushing and shyly glancing over at Sasuke.
Lastly it was Sasuke's turn to introduce himself. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I'm not really interested in anything and there's little that I enjoy doing. I have no goal or dream", Sasuke said, whilst giving Obito a bit of a glare
Obito sighed. "So we didn't get to know anything more than his name. And he seems angry at me. Well I guess it's not all too surprising considering what happened with him way back".
"So now that we've introduced ourselves, let me go over some important things. First of all, you've got one final test to go through before you are officially Genin".
"WAIT WHAT?! We just had a lot of tests, why is there another one?!", Naruto exclaimed.
"If I can't stay with Sasuke-kun because of this, you're DEAD!", said Inner-Sakura. Although agreeing, Sakura tried to not show this violent side of her. "Why wasn't this test included in the exam?", she asked instead.
"Don't worry, don't worry. The test shouldn't be too difficult. It will focus on a skill that is very important for all Shinobi, so it's important for me to personally see how you perform", Obito responded. "If you pass it, we will start going on missions. These are divided into 5 different ranks: the D-rank, the C-rank, the B-rank, the A-rank and finally the S-rank. We will start off with the lower ranks and slowly move upwards. That was about all I had to go through. I have some things to take care of, so the test will be tomorrow morning, seven o' clock. I'll see you then, we'll meet up at training ground number 7", Obito said and later jumped off the railing he was previously sitting on and dissapeared.
Naruto was excited, he was finally well on his way to becoming a shinobi, it wouldn't be long until he would start going on exciting missions now that he was a genin (well almost) and was part of a team. His thoughts about his teammates were mixed. Of course he was very happy about being in the same team as Sakura, but the other member of the team was a problem. Not only did Naruto think of Sasuke as an annoying jerk, it also happened that Sakura had a big crush on him, making things difficult for Naruto.
Either way he couldn't do much about it, instead he decided he should try and spend as much time with her without Sasuke as he could; so he decided to find her and ask her to grab something to eat. Because they were on the same team, he was hoping she would agree to it.
Naruto caught up to Sakura, who he saw walking ahead of him, already having left the academy. "Sakura-chan! Wanna have some ramen?", he asked kindly with a smile on his face. To his dismay, Sakura didn't look very happy about his invitation.
"Why would I eat ramen with you anyway?", she asked.
"Well, we are on the same team now and all", Naruto said, still smiling.
"What's the point if Sasuke-kun isn't with us? We won't be the full team otherwise; and he didn't want to eat with me when I asked him earlier. So no, I don't want to eat with you", Sakura responded, turned her back and left.
"Wait Sakura-chaan...", said Naruto, but she ignored him and had soon enough gotten far away from him. Naruto let out a heavy sigh and kicked his foot at a small rock, making it bounce a couple of meters away.
"Sasuke this and Sasuke that! Why is he so important to everyone?", Naruto thought, kicking the rock once more and watching it slow down until it stopped beside another rock, making it hard to disinguish between the two... Suddenly an idea popped into Naruto's head and he took off the same direction that Sakura had gone.
Sakura was sitting on a wooden bridge arching over a serene river, surrounded by bright-pink cherry trees, whom's petals gently fell, cascading down the river. It was a location she found herself visiting whenever she wanted to be alone. The locations beauty, the shade it provided from the sun and the lack of people in the area really made it a great place to relax.
Sakura gazed down into the river, seeing the swaying reflection of her face. Her eyebrows pushed together, picking up a stone she threw it at her reflection, making her reflection disperse in the water, only to reapear again seconds later. She sighed and let her chin rest on the palm of her hand.
"Does my forehead really have to be this big? Isn't it enough that my curves are below average? If it was a little smaller, maybe Sasuke-kun would pay a bit more attention to me? Or maybe he's into big foreheads... maybe he asks me out... and then he kisses my forehead... Kyaaa!", thought Sakura, fangirling over Sasuke, until she stopped and sighed. "Like that'd happen...".
"Hey Sakura".
The sudden voice calling out her name caught Sakura completely off-guard. She lost her balance and almost fell down the river but got caught by the person behind her. Sakura knew who was behind her judging by the familiar voice, it was Sasuke without a doubt. Sakura turned around revealing her blushing face to Sasuke.
"Sa..Sasuke-kun?", said Sakura, surprised at his presence.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you", said Sasuke. Sakura blushed, as even this simple statement was strangley intimate for Sasuke, even if he was acting unsual. Sasuke's unusual behavior wasn't a coincidence at all, it actually wasn't Sasuke, but Naruto who had used the transformation jutsu to look like him. Naruto sat himself down beside her. "What's up?,"
"I'm fine. Just sitting here and... thinking about you", Sakura responded, emerald eyes seemingly gazing into his soul, leaving Naruto speechless, blushing like crazy. But he didn't want her to see how beautiful he thinked she looked, as he didn't want it to seem like Sasuke was into her. Therefore Naruto quickly broke their eye contact, much against his will. Sakura was left feeling dissapointed about the lack of a response. She averted her eyes back into the river and was once again reminded of her forehead that she disliked so much.
"Sasuke-kun?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you... Do you think my forehead is ugly?".
"Not at all, I think your forehead is cute. Makes me wanna kiss it", thought Naruto, but came to realise that he had said it out loud when he saw Sakura's cheeks hit a deep shade of red. "Crap..."
"Something Naruto could say, right?", he said, laughing uncomfortably; trying to save the situation. Sakura was once again left dissapointed.
"Speking of which... What do you think about Naruto?," he asked her. She looked at him for a second, wondering where the question came from.
"I find him annoying. He's always acting so childish and selfish and always manages to interfere in my life. He doesn't understand me at all". Naruto cringed, he didn't receive the response he had hoped for.
"I don't care about him. All I want is for you to pay attention to me", she said and looked at him with longing eyes. Naruto gulped, not able to keep blood from rushing up to his face. When she started moving her face slowly towards him he couldn't help but do the same. They got closer and closer, until their faces were only centimeters apart.
"... Sasuke-kun", Sakura whispered quietly.
Naruto quickly pulled away.
"Uhmm.. I–I gotta go, see you later", Naruto said hastily and quickly started running away.
"Wait, where are you going?!... Sasuke-kun?", Sakura asked, but he had already disappeared.
"Did we... almost kiss? Me and Sasuke-kun? OH MY GOD! I don't know where that came from and I've never seen Sasuke-kun act that way, but I like that side of him. BUT WHY'D HE HAVE TO GO?!". Sakura let out a dissapointed sigh.
"It was so perfect too... Well, it's still a win for today!", Sakura said to herself and started humming cheerfully.
Naruto kept running until he was far away enough to be sure that Sakura wouldn't be able to see him. Once he had gotten his breath back, he dispelled the transformation and let out a sigh. "Man, that didn't go very well, she called me annoying again and if anything I just made her like Sasuke more... I nearly kissed her, which was great and all, but not as Sasuke!". His eyes cast downward, but he soon came up with a new idea. "Wait a minute... what if I make Sasuke look stupid instead?", he thought, grinning as he came up with a plan.
Sakura sat waiting at the bridge, hoping that Sasuke would return eventually. But after having waited for a while, she was assuming that he wouldn't return and decided to start heading home instead. Just as she was about to start walking home, she noticed Sasuke walking by, happy to see him, she quickly ran towards him.
"Sasuke-kun! Where did you go?", Sakura asked when she had catched up to him.
"Huh? What are you talking about?", Sasuke said, irritation prominent in his voice.
"Can't we just sit down and talk again?", she asked putting on a cute voice.
"Did you join in on a prank of Naruto's or something?".
"No, of course not! I hate his pranks. Just because he's lucky to not have any parents around to ground him doesn't mean he can just do whatever he wants all the time. My parents would never forgive me if I acted like him, it makes me jealous of him sometimes".
Sasuke's eyes darkenend as he glared at her.
"Sakura. You're annoying", he said coldly and walked off. Sakura was left unmoving, his words repeating themselves in her head. Her head fell and she quietly sat down on a bench, her mood having significantly subsided.
"I'm annoying?... Is that what he thinks of me?", she thought and was suddenly reminded of how many times she had called Naruto the same thing. "Maybe Naruto felt this way too... Maybe I should try to be a bit kinder to him in the future...".
As Naruto made his way back to Sakura, he encountered Sasuke on his way, looking slightly irritated. He didn't think anything of it and passed by him. He found Sakura sitting on a bench. She was fidgeting with her fingers absentmindedly, her head tilted down. Naruto walked up to her to see what was going on, deciding to ditch his plan.
"Sakura-chan.. are you okay?".
"Oh, Naruto... yeah I'm fine", she answered with an unconvincing smile and then stood up. "I have to go home now, see you at the test tomorrow", she said and walked away. Leaving Naruto confused over her strange reaction.
"I wonder what happened?".
Another day had come and this time Naruto had been sure to wake up in time after the threat that he had recieved from Sakura. He laid his alarm clock far enough away from the bed so that he would have to walk out of the bed to turn it off, thus forcing him to get out of bed. After he had gotten ready for the day he headed to their meeting spot, training ground number 7. He came 20 minutes early, which was a new record for him. Besides him there was only one person there, which to Naruto's dismay was Sasuke.
"Yo, Sasuke-teme".
Instead of responding Sasuke decided to ignore him, which was very effective in pissing Naruto off.
"Arghh... So you're going to ignore me huh?! Well I don't care!", Naruto said.
Sasuke still didn't respond.
"ALRIGHT! Just stay quite then!", Naruto said and walked a couple of meters away from him to seat himself underneath an oak tree to get some extra rest. The weather was very good that day. The sun was brightly shining, with just a few clouds drifting in the sky. There wasn't much wind, but enough to provide a cooling breeze every now and then; and make the leaves on the trees gently move. Naruto enjoyed the relaxing weather, so he let himself lay on the grass and watch the sunlight pass through the leaves. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted to sleep.
Naruto woke up when he heard a familiar voice. As he sat up, he saw Sakura talking to Sasuke. Whatever had happened the day before didn't seem to bother her anymore, as she was smiling adoringly at Sasuke.
"–and I was thinking that maybe you wanted to go together with me? Do you want to Sasuke-kun?", she said, hoping to convince him, but unsurprisingly Sasuke declined.
Naruto walked over to the two. "Hey Sakura-chan!", he said.
"Hey, Naruto", she responded, but went back to talking with Sasuke again. "Sasuke-kun, do you think the test will be hard?".
Naruto sighed. "I guess she's not very interested in talking with me", he thought and then sat on a boulder close to the two of them.
"It doesn't matter, I'll pass either way. I sort of doubt if you two will though", Sasuke responded to Sakura's previously asked question.
"Are you kidding me?! You think I won't pass, but you will? We both know I'm way stronger than you!", Naruto said.
Sasuke huffed. "Keep dreaming".
Naruto grunted and crossed his arms. Sakura sighed lightly. They remained in silence for awhile, until Obito came to the training ground shortly after.
"Good morning! I hope you all slept well", Obito said to his students who had surrounded themselves around him to hear what he had to say. Obito began explaining the rules and implications of the test. "This test might take some time, but the rules are pretty straight-forward: your goal is to get a hit on my body, if you do, you win. If you want to continue being genin shinobi, you will have to succeed. If you approach me and continuously fail to land a hit, I'll return you here", Obito said and marked the position in front of him with a kunai. "Again, pretty staightforward... are you ready?", he asked his students who nodded, prepairing for the test.
"The test will begin... now!".
Naruto immidiatley darted towards him, his fist driving towards Obito's body. Naruto made an impact, but noticed the surface was significantly harded than that of a body. Where Obito just had been, there was now a log.
"Dammit, a substitution! And that hurt like hell!", said Naruto whilst rubbing his knuckles that had gotten a slight bruise after the impact.
"Naruto, charging in like that will get you nowhere. Do you really think he wouldn't be able to avoid your attack if you make it that obvious?", Sakura said.
"That was just a test to see his skills, ya'know", Naruto said unconvincingly, receiving a sigh from Sakura. "Anyways, where did the guy go? To the left, to the right, I can't see him... I'll go look towards the water stream and search for him there".
"I'll go this way", Sasuke said and started walking the opposite way that Naruto had. "Leave me alone, I don't want any disturbances". Sakura choose a random direction and started searching that way.
After minutes of searching Naruto's patience had run short. "Aaaahhh! Where is he?! This is hardly a fight when he just hides like this, dattebayo!".
"I'm right here", said a voice behind him, startling Naruto. Naruto turned around and was met with Obito. He backed ever so slightly to have space to kick towards his torso. His kick was blocked by Obito, as he took his leg and threw him off balance. Naruto fell to the ground, but quickly managed to get up. Naruto jumped back a bit and started doing hand signs.
"Shadow clone jutsu!". Three clones of Naruto popped up, making it four of him. Obito was left impressed, not thinking Naruto had mastered such an advanced technique. Naruto and his clones charged towards him, two of them going to the left and right whilst the other two ran straight onto him. The clones and the original Naruto all attacked at once, but all of the attacks failed. Obito had stepped back to his left, taken the arm of one of the clones and swung it at the other versions of Naruto, leaving the clones destroyed and the real Naruto on the ground.
Naruto grunted, but stood up again and ran towards him. When he had just gotten close to him he saw Obito doing hand signs. "Rope lock jutsu!". Naruto felt ropes wrap around his body, throwing him off balance and causing him to fall to the ground.
"Hey, that's unfair!", Naruto said with a frown on his face.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get you back to the start point", Obito said as he picked a struggling Naruto up from the ground and led him back to the marked area. "It's time for me to take care of the rest of your team. See ya, Naruto!", he said and walked away.
Sakura was wandering around in a forest, a little lost upon what to do. "I can't find him.. I guess I should go back to the marked area and see if anything is happening over there", Sakura thought and turned around to walk back, only to see Obito approximately 8 meters away from her up in a tree, his back wide open for her. "Yes! This will be my opportunity, I've just got to sneak up behind him and then I'm set", Sakura thought and then started executing her plan.
She silently got up into a tree, a couple of branches above him. She slowly made her way closer to him and stopped on a branch right above and slightly behind him. She jumped down towards him, trying to land a kick on him. As she came close to impact, all of a sudden she saw two pair of red eyes. Her kick, much to her surprise passed right through Obito as if he was a hologram. Obito then disappeared and Sakura tripped, as her kick hit the branch at a weird angle. When she fell her surroundings turned black and she landed on a white flooring.
"What is happening?! Is this a genjutsu? I heard of those in class once, they are a technique used to confuse or trick your opponent". Standing up, her surrounding was nothing but black, the white flooring stretching endlessly. "I'm really lucky though that he made the genjutsu this obvious. If only I remembered how to escape it. What was it that you had to do? I can't remember. It was something about your chakra–. Oh, right! To escape a genjutsu you have to make a disturbance in your chakra system. Then all I have to do is make my chakra flow uneven". Sakura sat down and charged up chakra and started channeling it throughout her body in inconsistent waves. This gradually made the effect dissolve and she found herself opening her eyes.
Sakura found herself sitting at the marked spot.
"Oh, Sakura-chan you woke up! Obito came here a while ago and dropped you off here", Naruto said who was sitting beside her, still wrapped in rope.
"Dammit, I guess genjutsu can manipulate the targets time perception even. It's pretty amazing", Sakura thought. She then looked over at Naruto. "And what happened to you?", she asked.
"The bastard used some sort of rope tying technique and put me here! I'm going to get him though, when he gets back here!", Naruto exclaimed.
Sakura sighed. "But that's against the rules, isn't it? Besides, I don't think you will be able to, I'm sure Sasuke-kun can, but not the two of us. I mean isn't it a little odd though that they put a highly trained Jounin shinobi against academy graduates? Of course we'd be inferior, this feels like an impossible test to be honest", Sakura said.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, yeah, you're right Sakura-chan", he said approvingly.
Sakura shrugged it off after that as she didn't have the care to think about it.
"Maybe you need some help with that rope?", Sakura said and cut the rope with the help of a kunai.
Naruto took off the rest of the rope and stretched himself. "Thank you, Sakura-chan!"
"I wonder if Sasuke-kun is fine. I'm sure he can get at least one hit on him though", Sakura said.
Sasuke had been searching for Obito for a while, but had yet to find him. He sighed and started walking back to the marked spot, hoping to find Obito there.
After a minute of walking he had finally arrived, he saw Naruto and Sakura sitting at the marked area. He started walking towards them, hoping they could tell him where Obito was.
"Sasuke-kun, behind you!", Sakura shouted from her position.
Sasuke turned around and found Obito behind him. He took out a kunai and ran towards him. When he had gotten as close as 2 meters from him, he threw the kunai at him. Obito easily dodged by going left, but a kick came flying from Sasuke from his right. He blocked the kick with one of his arms. Continuing his attack, Sasuke swung his fist towards Obito's face, which also got blocked by Obito's other hand. Sasuke then attempted to kick Obito with another kick, but missed when Obito backed away from it. Sasuke made some distance and made hand signs.
"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!". A big fireball came flying towards Obito. But was extinguished by a wall of water, that Obito made appear. Obito was catched by surprise however when a kunai came flying through the water, but he easily flicked the kunai away. Sasuke came charging towards him again, and saw Obito doing signs with his hands.
"Rope lock technique!", said Obito. Much like with Naruto, this resulted in Sasuke being wrapped around with rope and losing his balance. Sasuke struggled, trying to escape the ropes, but failed. Obito walked over to him and cut loose the rope with a kunai. "Good work, but that won't quite do it", he said, receiving an angry frown from Sasuke.
Obito brought Sasuke back to the marked spot with Naruto and Sakura. The three of them sat quiet beside each other, clenching their fists in frustration and waiting for what their teacher had to say. Obito cleared his throat
"So. This was an exercise to test a certain ability; can any of you guess what that ability was?", he asked the three of them. Sakura raised her hand.
"It was supposed to be a general test in fighting ability, right?".
"Well, you could assume that, but no. This test was supposed to test your abilities in teamwork", Obito answered. His three students looked rather surprised. "It's rather questionable that three students would go up against a jounin don't you think? The only way you would have any chance was if the three of you had worked together! The real test wasn't about 'getting a hit on my body', but to show team effort in trying to do that", Obito continued.
"Couldn't you tell us that from the beginning then?", Naruto asked.
"I shouldn't have to. Teamwork should be a given. Why do you think you are divided into three man teams? Anyways, I will give you a second chance though. Just because I'm a cool guy", hope shined in Naruto and Sakura's eyes and even Sasuke showed slight signs of relief. "I'll give you 10 minutes to think something through, then we'll do it again, but this time you'll work as a team and this time you'll really have to hit me".
The three of them surrounded themselves in a circle to discuss battle strategies.
"I knew that we should have done the test as a team. I should of told you", Naruto said, but not fooling either Sasuke or Sakura that he was speaking the truth. "Anyways. Do you have any ideas?"
Sasuke took the initiative to start the strategy talk. "It's safe to say that Obito-sensei has a superior quality than us in terms of skill. We have more quantity however and that's what we should try to take an advantage of".
"OH! He talked, I didn't know he could do that!", Naruto said with attempts of mockery.
Sasuke sighed with a tone of irritation. "I just want to get graduated and get this over with. If that means I will have to endure the pain of being in a team with you two, then so be it.", Sasuke said, pissing Naruto off and saddening Sakura. "...But if you mess things up for me. I won't forgive you". Naruto then crossed his arms and huffed, deciding that the discussion was over.
Sakura then raised her hand to show that she wanted to say something. "I was thinking that maybe the best way to get him would be by attempting to trick him. Like maybe we could use the transformation jutsu to confuse him of who is who. Or something like that"
"Great idea, Sakura-chan", Naruto said
Sasuke nodded lightly in agreement. "I think I have a plan".
A couple of minutes had passed and the three were ready. They turned around to face Obito, signifying that they were done.
"Alright! It seems like you are done. I will give you a countdown, when I say zero, you'll be free to attack me. Good luck!", Obito said and then began the countdown. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One... Zero!".
The moment the word 'zero' left Obito's mouth Naruto started doing the hand signs for the shadow clone technique. He managed to clone approximately 20 versions of himself. Obito was attacked by all them from left, right and in front of him. He smoothly started to take the clones out one after one, but he was interrupted when a fireball came towards him from above. To escape from this Obito had to jump backwards and, thus he had entered the forest.
Behind him he noticed Sakura charging at him with her fist. Obito skillfully evaded her attack by grabbing her wrist and moving her aside, causing her to fall to the ground and later be trapped by Obito's rope technique. Obito returned to Naruto's clones, who were running towards him. He evaded their attacks and took out one after one until only the real Naruto was left. Naruto charged towards him a couple of times but his attacks were all evaded by Obito. Obito then decided to use the rope technique on Naruto as well.
Lastly, Obito was attacked by Sasuke who had charged in from his left. Sasuke went after continuous hits on Obito, driving him further into the forest. After multiple failed attacks from Sasuke, Obito used the rope technique on him aswell.
"Well, seems like you guys failed again", Obito said to his students who were surrounded by him, laying on the ground wrapped in rope. He then started casually stretching his back. Just at this moment however he was surprised when he saw the three of them vanish in smoke. "Wha–?!". Obito then felt a heavy impact on his upper body and fell to the ground. He turned around revealing the three of his students, grinning at him.
"HAHA! You fell for it! We tricked you!", Naruto said to Obito with the greatest smile of pride plastered on his face.
Obito let out a sigh of defeat. "Yeah, you got me alright... Hmmm... So I'm assuming you used Naruto's clones to distract me from you guys?". His students nodded.
"We used Sasuke-kun's fireball techinque to drive you into the forest, where we had climbed up in some trees. Naruto transformed two clones to look like me and Sasuke-kun. When you thought you had defeated us, we made our attack", explained Sakura.
"Well done. Strategy is really important to gain an advantage in a fight", he said as he dusted off his clothes.
"So!? Does that mean we officially graduate? Are we genin now?", Naruto asked, jumping in excitement.
"Yup".
"YEEEEESS! FINALLY!", Naruto exclaimed in happiness.
Obito chuckled. "Tomorrow you will have your first mission. We meet here at 8'o clock tomorrow. Until then, team seven dismissed!"
Next chapter: Chasing cats and pulling weeds
AN: There you have it, chapter 2! Hope it was an enjoyable chapter.
I've been trying to change the behaviours of characters ever so slightly. For example, I've tried to make Sakura a little more self dependant and not all about Sasuke-kun and also a little less "bitchy". I didn't want to over do it though since I still want the character to be "him/herself". Please tell me if this was overdone or if there are other ways I can approve upon the characters.
Edit: I remade some parts of this chapter to make the characters more like they are in the original manga (which was something I tried to change initially). I think it's better this way since it will give more opportunity to develop the characters and I also really like how the characters go from their flawed self and then seeing them grow as people; I want to keep that in this fanfic, instead of abandoning parts of the characters' development. I realise this chapter is very similar to the manga, but I felt like I really wanted the characters to be established in the same way as canon. I will slowly divulge more and more from the original manga, so it's hopefully going to get increasingly exciting and interesting.
Other than that, I would like to thank you for reading. Reviews and such are highly appreciated!
