Yah! The test wasn't so hard. It was just reading and writing, nothing too difficult. And I actually uploaded this on time… how interesting. Remember, it's double upload week, so I shall die, I love you all so much!

Enjoy!

Chapter 17

So Close

Months have past with Asuka's team, Neji kept his word and exceptionally became a better leader; understanding his team's weaknesses and strengths better now. Lee usually does the distractions, and Asuka hides with Hatsuharu to do a sneak attack. He even helped Asuka with her training, giving her advice and seeing her grow stronger with each passing day he helped her.

Guy was impressed with the teamwork his team had developed over the months of training together and coming up with strategies for each C rank mission they received. Lee and Neji seemed to get into less fights, and whenever they did, Asuka would break it up and take the lead for a while.

Naruto has also grown well, and graduated a few weeks ago. Along with Kiba and a few others Asuka knew and enjoyed being around. She was surprised to hear Shikamaru pass though, considering he's too lazy to do a lot of things. But was happy for him anyways.

ooOoO0OoOoo

It was summer time in Konoha, the flowers were still at their prime, trees gave the perfect shade, peace and quiet could be found easily in the forest. So Asuka went to the forest, away from her team and in the embrace of sweet nature. Not too far into the forest she found a cute looking brown cat with a bow in its ear.

"Aren't you sweet?" She happily said as she petted the cat.

The cat purred with delight and rubbed up against her legs.

"You sure are cute, wanna walk with me?" She asked as she pointed to her shoulder.

The cat hopped onto her shoulder and rested on her shoulders as she began to walk off.

"LET GO OF THE TARGET ASUKA!"

She heard screaming from behind her, so she whipped around and hopped back as Naruto lunged at her.

"What are you talking about?" She queered.

A girl with pink hair came from behind and so did the infamous Uchiha Sasuke, looking as bored and 'not amused' at all.

"That cat! We need that cat! Believe it!" Naruto shouted.

"You could lower your voice and just kindly ask you know." She stated as she took the cat off her shoulders by the scruff of its neck and handed it to Naruto.

The cat screeched as soon as Naruto got a hold of it and started clawing his face.

Sasuke held his ear piece down, "Yah, it's the cat, it has the red bow." he stated plainly.

"Out of all the people, Naruto get's stuck with him. I can't see why girls like him..." Asuka mumbled under her breath.

"Hey!" The pink haired girl raised her voice to Asuka. "Don't you talk about Sasuke like that!"

"... Hi, my name is Asuka, and who might you be?" Asuka jokingly asked.

She growled and clenched her fists. "My name is Haruno Sakura... Did you even hear me!?" She yelled at her.

"Well, I don't see the 'great' Uchiha standing up for himself." She retorted as she glanced at a un-amused Sasuke.

Sakura's cheeks puffed with air and her face turned red.

Asuka laughed and poked her cheeks, making her release the air she held. "Have a good day noob." She chirped as she waved them good bye and left.

How annoying, I can't even go on a walk without being disrupted in my own train of thoughts by a Sasuke fangirl. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose; making her way out of the forest.

"Hey," Asuka stopped and turned on her heels. "I have a request."

She straightened up and stared up at the tall figure. "Yes Kakashi sensei?"

"If you're not busy with your team, could you help my team?" He queered.

"Um... with what? And could I bring Hatsuharu?" She asked as she scratched the back of her head.

"Teamwork, I think they'll understand why they need experience to get strong, especially Naruto. And sure, seeing you two work together in sync may get them to understand the importance of teamwork."

"Ah, alright, I'll show them why experience is a good teacher." She nodded happily and gave him a toothy grin. "What time and where?"

"Around noon, training grounds toward the east, see yah there." He waved off and walked to his loud team (manly Naruto...)

ooOoO0OoOoo

Asuka sighed as the cool, dry breeze brushed through her dark purple hair while she leaned up against a big tree in the training grounds. She looked over to her companion, he was taking nap. It had been nearly a full hour past noon, and she's already done her stretches to get prepared to spar with his team.

"Hey! What are you doing here!?"

Asuka lazily looked up at the person shouting at her.

"I'm here by our sensei's orders to spar your team." She said as she shifted against the tree to get into a more comfortable position. "Keep your voice down Naruto, you're too loud sometimes. I'm sure Kakashi sensei will tell you once he gets here." She perked up and looked around, sensing a familiar chakra presence. "Speak of the devil, Kakashi, what took you so long?" She queered.

"Oh you know... got lost on the path of life." He answered while averting his eye.

She laughed silently to herself and gently kicked Hatsuharu. He got up and stretched out his tired joints.

"Why is Asuka here!?" Naruto shouted to his sensei.

"She's here to teach you a lesson about teamwork, and experience." He answered as he pulled out his book. "You're always saying that you're going to be strong one day, right? Well, for one to be strong, they also need experience. You can't just read and expect to be a good ninja. They're are ninja out there who are younger, and stronger than me."

"Whoa! Seriously?!" Naruto was surprised.

"Asuka is here to teach you how strong a Genin, such as you, can be, but only through fighting, understood?" Kakashi finished explaining.

"No, not really..." Naruto answered as he scratched his chin.

"You idiot..." Sakura insulted. "We have to work together to beat her, if we lose, then we learn. If we win, then we have the satisfactory of beating somebody. It's a win-win."

"You seem to be on the right track..." Kakashi acknowledged as he turned a page in his book. "Asuka, while you're fighting them, I want you to tell them what they're doing wrong."

She nodded, "Yes Kakashi sensei." She turned to her opponents. "Are you guys ready?" She looked at them with a challenging smile.

"Hell yah I'm ready! Believe it!" Naruto cheered.

Sakura just nodded as she got in her poor fighting stance.

Kakashi has a lot to teach these guys... Asuka thought regretfully.

"Let's get this over with..." Sasuke said as he wiped the dust off his shorts.

"Ladies first." Asuka winked at them.

"Why you!" Naruto got angry and charged at her with a punch.

She sighed and easily grabbed his wrist and threw him over her shoulder and into a tree.

"You need to observe you're opponent, if you have no idea what they're battle style is, then try distracting them and hide to see what sort of things they'll use to find you." She told him. She looked down at her partner, "If they're all like this, then I don't need you to fight with me till later like we discussed, understood?"

He nodded and sat down next to Kakashi, who was leaning up against a tree and reading his book.

"This is just sad... I'll make my move then, I'll be using taijutsu, so be prepared." She eyed the other two who seemed to observe her movements like she told them. She smirked and vanished into thin air.

Naruto gained his bearings and got back up while rubbing his head. The other two stuck together and looked around frantically for her. The only difference between the two was that Sasuke looked more relaxed and collected.

Asuka came from Sasuke's right side and went for an uppercut. He blocked it and tried countering with a low sweep; he failed at his attempt as she didn't budge.

"Good work Uchiha, I guess I should actually try going faster." She smirked at him and disappeared again. "Sakura... was it?" She hid in a tree a few yards from them. "Try being more calm and collected, like Uchiha. All three of you get back-to-back, if you have no idea where the enemy is coming from, it's best to have each other's backs at all times, this is called the 'triangle' defense, remember this." She sped off to the other side as Naruto got to his position with the rest of his team.

Sasuke pulled out a shuriken, while his partners pulled out kunai instead.

"Tighter formation! Or else you're enemy will get behind you all and kill you!" She ordered as she sped off and appeared right behind them. "Told you."

She grabbed Sasuke and Naruto's foreheads and slamming them together, nearly knocking them out by hitting them in the back of the head. She turned to Sakura and quickly got her off her feet and to the ground.

"This is just sad, truly." She mocked them.

She herd the familiar puff of smoke go off and turned her head to see that Sasuke's place was taken by a wooden log.

Should have seen that coming...

She immediately put up her arm and blocked a kick aimed to her head. She grabbed his foot and slammed him to the ground.

"Naruto? Then where's..." She looked around and saw a giant fireball heading her way.

Her facial expression was calm as she jumped over the fireball and gracefully landed on the ground. She smirked and jumped a few yards back.

"Very impressive, but not good enough." She formed hand seals and barley put any chakra into it. Water raised to the skies as she completed her seals. "Water style: Stone rain jutsu!" She jumped from the branch and punched the ground, forming a small crater as the water formed into big rain drops and rained on the team. Sakura screamed in pain as she tried to avoid the jutsu.

Maybe I still put too much chakra into that...

She shook the thought out of her mind and went for Sasuke again, seeing as he's the only one who came close to landing a blow on her. She sensed more chakra around her from behind, she turned around to see five Naruto's coming at her.

The shadow clone jutsu? I'm impressed.

She averted her attention to the clones and focused on the movements. His running needed a bit more work when it came to form, but other than that, good speed and concentration on the target. She readied herself and took out a Kunai Claw; swinging it around several times before throwing it to one of the clones, wrapping the chain around his waist and swinging him to the side. Knocking out the other shadow clones including the one in her chain grip.

Where's Naruto?...

Three shuriken sunk deep into the side of her arm out of nowhere it seemed like. She stumbled back and held her arm and looked at the thrower.

"Good job Sakura, but not good enough!" Asuka taunted the female Genin with a smirk.

She pulled out the shuriken, knowing it would only handicap her only slightly. Naruto came at her and grabbed her injured arm and twisted it behind her back. Pain thundered through her arm, she gritted her teeth and bared the pain as she stomped on Naruto's feet and used her other arm to grab Naruto's hair.

"Hurry up!" Naruto shouted to his teammates in frustration.

Sasuke came from above and kicked her head downwards. Her body combusted into water and they heard laughter from the trees.

"Damn, I thought we had her..." Sasuka cursed.

"You haven't even seen my true strength yet." Asuka teased.

"Come out and fight like a ninja then!" Naruto yelled out.

"As you wish." She complied and sped off to them.

She kicked Naruto in the back, sending him flying towards Sakura. The pink haired Genin dodged her teammate's flying body with ease and glared at her teasing opponent. Asuka sped off again and made Sakura fall to the ground again. She then went for Sasuke, knocking him off his feet and surprisingly caught him.

She stared deep into his eyes and smiled, "I've heard your first kiss was stolen from Naruto, that's too cute." She winked and inched closer to his face, wrapping her arms around his waist with his arms tucked inside. "Can you take my first kiss then?"

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY SASUKE!" Sakura scolded as she ran at Asuka, fists clenched, aiming at her face.

Asuka laughed under her breath, "As you wish."

She waited for Sakura to get only feet away from her and disappeared, letting Sasuke take the punch to the face.

"Gah! Sasuke! I'm so sorry!" Sakura apologized as she tried helping Sasuke up.

He shoved off his teammate's caring hands and got up on his own. He looked at the pink haired ninja with a menacing glare. "You're such an idiot."

Sakura's face grew pale, her eyes were completely white as she looked down with sorrow.

"Sasuke! If your partner messes up, encourage them, don't insult them!" Asuka told him as she stood on a branch. "If you insult them during battle, you are sure to fail! Allow me to demonstrate teamwork." She whistled and Hatsuharu quickly came.

She hopped off her branch and landed right next to her companion. "For those who don't know, this is my partner, Hatsuharu. He is considered a ninja tool, so in the future Chunin exams I'm able to use him."

"How will you demonstrate teamwork with a mutt?!" Naruto asked annoyingly.

"Simple, I can use water element jutsu, while Hatsuharu can use earth and fire. The only problem is that he can't use more complex jutsu like the Phoenix flower jutsu. That's when I form the hand seals necessary for that jutsu, then transfer it to him." She explained.

"How come you can't just use the jutsu yourself?" Sakura asked.

"Because I can't use fire element too well..." she said nervously while scratching the back of her head and laughing insecurely. "Now, with Hatsuharu by my side, I want all of you to have the intent to kill, or else you won't succeed in defeating me today! Understood?"

She didn't wait for them to reply; she did some hand seals and placed her chakra filled hand on Hatsuharu. He jumped up into the air, his mouth filled with flames, just eager to get out. He opened his mouth and released the jutsu, little fireballs spread around and nearly landed on the rookies. They all dodged the attack, walking out of it with a few singe marks.

Naruto made more shadow clones and went after her. Sasuke appeared from behind her and aimed a kunai to her head. She turned around in time to knock the kunai out of his hand and slam him into the ground, then dodged Naruto's shadow clones. Sasuke then grabbed her ankle and knocked her off her feet, making her fall to the ground. Naruto then dog piled her; she used a substitution jutsu and hid in a tree. She saw Sakura, and she saw her.

She sped off to her and appeared right behind her, holding a kunai to her neck.

"You lose, sorry." She vanished again and let Sakura walk off the field and sit next to Kakashi. "One down, two more to go." She looked at her remaining opponents, seeing them as no challenge. "I'm still trying to teach you, but it's hard if you prove to be not a challenge to me."

"Shut your trap Asuka!" Naruto scolded as he advanced to her, but Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, we have to come up with a plan." He glared at her, "Are you a Chunin?" He asked her.

"Nope, I'm a Genin, just like you guys. But you know, I'm more experienced than you." She teased. "What's wrong Uchiha? Having trouble defeating me?"

He gave her a menacing stare, and then whispered something to Naruto.

"Making scary faces at me won't do you any good." She winked and stuck her tongue out.

Naruto made more shadow clones and came at her again.

"Again with this Naruto?" She rolled her eyes and formed hand seals. "Water style: Water fang fist!" water formed around her hand, it looked a lot like a wolf head ready to attack.

She charged at Naruto's clones and quickly took out the clones. She observed the battle field, not able to find neither Naruto nor Sasuke.

"You know I'll find you, right?" Hatsuharu ran to her side and sniffed the air. He barked to the trees toward the south. "Over there huh?" She formed more hand seals and placed her hand on Hatsuharu. A giant fireball formed and went to the trees.

To her prediction, they jumped out and vanished again. Then came from her front and behind her, kunai flew to her, she dodged them, but one got her in the calf. Hatsuharu jumped onto Naruto and put his canine teeth on his neck.

"Naruto, you lose." Asuka stated as she pulled out the kunai and stopped the bleeding only in seconds. "Uchiha, it's only you and me now." She gave him a devilish smile and sped off to him.

She tried landing a few blows on him, but he was faster than he appeared to be. He did a successful low sweep and knocked her to the ground, he pinned her to the ground and held the kunai to her neck.

"You lose." He stated with a smirk.

"Not quite." She winked, another Asuka appeared behind him and held a kunai to his neck. The Asuka under him dissolved to water.

"You lose, Uchiha." She smirked and helped him up.

"Looks like it's my turn." Kakashi told her as he put his book away.

Her happiness immediately turned into a ghostly face as the color flushed from her face. "Uh oh..." She took a deep breath and nodded. "I understand."

"Good, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, pay close attention to this." He walked into the field and just stood there. "She didn't really get a good chance to show you teamwork at its prime, so I'll be her opponent."

"I'm going to die..." she whispered to Hatsuharu.

"What was that Asuka?" He asked, knowing what she said.

"Nothing Kakashi sensei!" she straightened up and got into her fighting position. "Ready... do you have the intent to kill like last time?" she asked timidly.

"No, not this time." he answered plainly as he observed her and Hatsuharu.

She sighed with relief and relaxed her body, ready to move just in case he made the first move.

"That doesn't mean I'll go easy on you." He remarked, making her tense up again.

Before she knew it, he threw a kunai at her, as expected; she dodged it and sped off doing hand signs for her partner. Kakashi knew of this and made sure to keep them separate by using a shadow clone. He went after Asuka and kept to the close combat.

She was no doubt nearly as fast as him, maybe even faster if she'd take off the weighted jacket. Hatsuharu got rid of the shadow clone and sped towards Asuka, and knocking Kakashi back. She quickly placed her chakra filled hand on her partner. Several flames bursted out of his mouth, nearly landing on Kakashi. But he easily dodged it as she formed more hand signs. A water dragon came at him, she managed to hit him and keep at it with the water hitting his body. Hatsuharu got in the middle of it and bit down on Kakashi's torso.

He quickly got out of the canine's grip by using a substitution jutsu.

Asuka looked around frantically for him, she darted her eyes to the ground and jumped back, avoiding his earth release jutsu. She turned her head just in time to see Kakashi appear behind her and kicked her hard to the ground. She used a substitution jutsu and got out of it in time.

She formed more hand seals and released the first inner gate while taking off her weighted jacket. Her fists were engulfed with flames as she sped off to Kakashi again and punching his chest.

He was sent back a ways and regained control of his balance. He looked around to try to find her again, but she was too fast now, and his normal eye couldn't keep up. He was motioning to his headband and was about to slide it off his right eye. But before he knew it, Hatsuharu knocked him onto his back and had four other wolf shadow clones pinning him down.

Asuka came from the sky and fell to Kakashi's placement.

Will I finally win? This cant be true! THIS IS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

Her eyes gleamed with happiness as she fell closer and closer to Kakashi with her flame covered fist. She finally made contact to his face with her fist, leaving a giant crater and his face singed. She was so filled with joy she jumped around and fist pumped.

"I DID IT! WE DID IT HATSUHARU! WE DID IT!" She kept jumping around and shouting till she felt a similar cold touch to her throat. Her happiness faded and her eyes were brimmed with tears.

"You lose." Kakashi stated as he held a kunai to her throat from behind.

She looked over to the crater she had left to see that there was a log instead of Kakashi's body. She sighed and hung her head in defeat.

Kakashi patted her back. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get me in a few years." He chuckled as he withdrew his kunai and put it back in his pouch.

Years?! Guh... That's forever from now... She fell to the ground and just stayed there, accepting the weird stares she was getting from Kakashi's team.

"What did you learn?" Kakashi asked his students.

"That no Genin can defeat you... EXCEPT ME!" Naruto exclaimed proudly.

"You idiot!" Sakura sucker punched his head. "He's talking about teamwork!"

"If we keep fighting like this, we won't ever defeat you, not even come close. If we work together, then we could have a chance like Asuka and Hatsuharu." Sasuke said cooly as he leaned up against the tree, not making eye contact with anyone.

"That is correct." Kakashi acknowledged.

Sakura looked like she was a school girl with an inappropriate crush on their teacher, while Naruto skulked to himself.

"Is that all?" Asuka questioned as she got back up.

"Yes, thank you Asuka. I'll tell Guy that you have improved quite a bit against me." He smiled and waved her off.

She nodded and smiled back before speeding off, taking her jacket and Hatsuharu trailed behind.

ooOoO0OoOoo

Asuka and Hatsuharu were just relaxing in their apartment later that day, the sun began to hide behind the trees as the moon started to show itself and shine its beauty on Konoha. The peace and quiet from nature itself was pleasant with the soothing call of a few barn owls and soft howls of wolf packs outside the village.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The peace and quiet was rudely interrupted, but Asuka dragged herself off her couch and answered the door.

"Kakashi sensei? What is it?" She yawned and scratched the back of her head.

"I wanted you to have this, maybe you'll have a better chance of beating me if you used it, considering you didn't have a chance to use the Kunai Claw." He handed her a long, thin, and light box to her. "I'll be sure to help you train with it in the future, but Guy will have to help you with it mostly. Good night Asuka." He waved goodbye and poofed away.

She looked over to Hatsuharu and let him sniff it to make sure it wasn't another trick from Naruto. He shrugged and nudged the box open.

Asuka's eyes widened with interest and glee and she held the light, slender object. A devilish smile crept on her lips, as she twirled it in her fingers.

"Thank you for the rapier sword Kakashi."

Oh? A new toy for little Asuka? I've actually been thinking about replacing the Kunai Claws because I didn't really like it later on, so I gave her more pointy/dangerous object instead.

Follow the arrow and review please! It helps me out a lot.

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