All right, first of all, extreme apologies for the absolute lateness of updates because I've pretty much been busy with real life and was rather deep in a writer's block funk. But I thank all of you for your patience and your wonderful words of encouragement and support.
So here's the latest chapter of To Be the Best. I'm trying really hard to update my other stories as well, but I still feel a bit dissatisfied with my writing. Even this chapter didn't feel so hot. Hopefully, the next ones will be better.
As always, read, enjoy and review. Please and thank you.
Chapter 3: Meeting Old Foes
As expected, Kusagakure was smaller than either Konoha or Suna. The foliage was undeniably more abundant than either village and the air was thick with humidity. Once a village that had been caught in the middle of a war between the Fire and Earth Countries for so long, it was plain to see that it had been unable to cope very well economically during the aftermath.
But it was also obvious that the village had decided to spare no expense for the upcoming event. Buildings had been repainted, streets newly paved and merchants eagerly showcased their goods, their loud and cheerful welcomes clamoring for the visitors' attention. The Tournament, Sakura observed, was undoubtedly an economic boom for the villagers.
She kept close to her husband and Naruto, her eyes closely following the representative from the welcoming committee as he led them to the village's administrative center. She knew that with her pink locks, Naruto's colorful sense of fashion and Kakashi's masked face, they stood out like a beacon amidst the busy town. Already the street vendors were calling out to them while little children trailed after them, smiling and giggling when Naruto turned around and made funny faces as he waved at them.
"You're certainly good with the children," Sakura remarked, smiling at the sight of the cherubic faces.
Naruto shrugged. "I like kids, but I'm not ready for my own." He shot his best friends a sly glance. "When are you two gonna make me an uncle? I wanna make sure I get to them before Sasuke turns them into tiny versions of his emotional self."
Said Uchiha reached out and punched the blonde's upper arm. "You're never getting near them, numbskull."
"Oh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, blue eyes twinkling. "Does that mean there's already an Uchiha spawn in the oven?"
Sasuke merely punched him again while Sakura blushed slightly. She didn't miss the questioning look her husband gave her, to which she simply shook her head. The hand on the small of her back stiffened momentarily before it relaxed into a light but firm pressure on her covered skin. She wasn't sure if that meant he was disappointed or relieved, but either way, she believed that neither of them were ready to be parents yet.
A few minutes later they were standing by the reception desk in the administrative building. The pretty redheaded receptionist greeted them with a cheerful smile, handing over forms each member of the team were required to fill. Sakura didn't miss the way the receptionist's eyes traveled speculatively to her husband and quickly nudged Sasuke toward the table where the other members of their team were already seated, jotting down basic information about themselves. She had long gotten used to the inevitable fact that women, young and old, found her husband extremely attractive and had learned to temper her violent displays of jealousies. But she'd always been rather sensitive about redheads, despite Sasuke's firm reassurances that the rumors she'd heard about him during his self-inflicted exile from Konoha were completely false—and a stupid thing to spread gossip about, he'd added with an impatient sigh. I was too busy trying to kill my brother. Do you think I had time to even consider messing around with a teammate?
"This is stupid," Naruto grumbled, chewing on the other end of his pen. "Why do we have to fill in these forms?"
Genma frowned slightly. "I was talking to one of the staff—"
"You mean you were flirting with her," the blonde interjected.
The special jounin merely shrugged nonchalantly. "As I was saying," he continued, "I was talking to one the staff and it turns out that the reason for all the checkpoints and these forms is to decide the order of the teams going into the competition. The first team to arrive in Kusa goes first and the last team goes last. That way there won't be any accusation of favoritism."
"Then what about the Grass shinobi team?" Naruto asked.
"They'll go first, of course. No favoritism at all," Genma added sarcastically.
"What's our position on the list?" Sakura wanted to know.
"I don't know," Genma replied. A crooked grin formed on his handsome face. "The staff member wouldn't say no matter how much I, ah, charmed her. She was one tough cookie. Maybe I'll ask her out. I've always loved cookies."
"We're not here to pick up women, playboy," Naruto jeered.
"Of course not. You're here to pick up men," the senbon-user shot back.
That being said, the two furiously launched into an argument that brought up a misunderstanding from two years back, forcing Kakashi to interfere before Naruto wrestled the special jounin to the ground. The bickering caught a lot of attention from the people lingering in the reception hall, especially when out of irritation, Sakura bashed their heads together, telling them what they could do with their disagreement in a way that would have impressed even the saltiest of sailors.
"And they call you a delicate flower," Genma mumbled, rubbing his bruised forehead.
"More like a weed," Naruto snorted and received another meeting with Sakura's fist for his comment.
Sasuke looked over his wife's form as Naruto moaned in pain and nudged her when he noticed a mistake.
"Where?" she asked, refocusing her attention, her green eyes still blazing with exasperation.
"Here," Sasuke pointed out. "You wrote your name out as 'Haruno Sakura.'"
"Oh," Sakura said sheepishly as she corrected her error. "Heh. Guess I'm not used to my new name just yet."
Sasuke looked as if he were about to say something but Naruto beat him to it with a snicker. "Shyeah. Ne, Sakura-chan, didn't you use to write 'Uchiha Sakura' on everything when we were kids just to see how it'd look like? You were so obsessed with it and made me call you Mrs. Uchi—"
The pink-haired medic narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Do you want to die?" she hissed.
The blonde quickly shook his head, apologizing profusely. While Sasuke scared him sometimes, he freely admitted that it was Sakura who really scared the shit out of him. He looked as if he were about to jump and make a run for it when Sakura suddenly stood. When she merely excused herself to the ladies' room, however, Naruto let out a long sigh of relief and relaxed. "Damn, Sasuke, your wife can make me piss in my pants when she wants to."
The Uchiha merely grunted, unwilling to admit that she had the same effect on him.
There were only two stalls in the ladies' room and one was broken. The other was currently occupied by an ancient-looking woman who moved so slowly, mold was beginning to form on the bottom half of her cane. Too impolite to rush the elderly and unwilling to use the broken toilet and not flush, Sakura decided to use the men's room. It wasn't like she'd never done it before—sometimes you just got to go and dear God, women peed a lot when they were in a bar—and she'd long gotten used to sight of the male anatomy to be bothered (Sasuke had taken this the wrong way when she'd told him, choosing to forget she was a medic).
Nonetheless, she kept her eyes forward as she walked into the men's room. The two men present shouted in surprise—please, please, do not turn around and splash the floor—but she ignored them and dashed into an empty stall. Her business done, she left the stall and smiled politely at the man beside her as she washed her hands. He was giving her strange looks—not surprisingly—and finally said, "Must have been one hell of a surgery."
She grinned, not bothering to correct his misconception. "Hurt like a bitch," she declared cheerfully as she turned around and walked out of the restroom.
She was still giggling under her breath when she made her way back to the reception hall, only to find her teammates gone. Impatient idiots, she thought. She looked at the receptionist, who looked back at her as if she were a rodent. "Your husband," she sneered the word as if it were a bitter taste in her mouth, "and his friends are outside. Two of them were making too much noise."
Meaning Genma and Naruto had started up again and had been forced to leave the building, Sakura deducted with a silent groan, wondering where the small end table that had been in the sitting area was. Sighing, she made sure that the stuck-up receptionist had been given their papers—"your husband was very meticulous"—and was told that a guide had been dispatched to show them their lodgings for the duration of the Tournament.
Her team wasn't directly outside the building, but Sakura understood what the scuffle marks on the ground meant and sure enough, could hear Naruto's shouts mingling with Genma's mocking laughter from somewhere in the distance. She sighed, knowing that Kakashi was probably standing at the sideline, the retched book in his hand, while Sasuke would be looking on with narrowed eyes, one second away from spitting fire out of his mouth—literally.
She was so intent in following the direction of her teammates' voices that she almost didn't notice the small group approaching her. By the time she finally did, they were standing in front of her, leers on their faces. She wasn't worried. She had assessed them from the corner of her eye: three men, their height ranging from just barely above hers to taller than the average human. This last one was built like a bull and reminded her of Juugo, from Sasuke's former they-served-a-purpose-and-will-you-guys-just-get-over-it team.
The reminder wasn't so strange, though, considering the men were from Sound.
Sakura's back stiffened, recalling her last encounter with Sound nins, Sasuke's entire retrieval episode aside. That Tayuya bitch had forced her to cut her hair. Granted, she'd grown more from the experience, but that still didn't make her forget the hours she'd spent in the bathroom, crying over her shorn pink locks.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" one of Sound shinobi said, smirking at her. He was obviously the leader, the gray yukata he wore made from expensive fabric, his stance just a little bit prouder, his air just a little more dangerous. He was nearly as tall Naruto, his dark hair spun into a braid that fell over one shoulder. He was handsome, she supposed, if one couldn't see the nasty glint in his brown eyes or hear the false sincerity in his voice.
She studied him closely; while one of his colleagues might have seemed like a mammoth, hovering next to him, she knew that he was the one she had to be careful of. "I don't want any trouble, boys," she said quietly, straining her ear to listen for her teammates.
The leader grinned. "That's a pity. You sure look like the kind of trouble I'd . . . enjoy."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Kami, save me from bad lines in this trip," she groaned, tugging on the ends of her ponytail.
The third man in the group, a rather short, unintimidating-looking fellow snickered like a hyena and said, "I think she's just insulted ya, Raido."
"Yeah, Raido," Mammoth Man agreed gruffly.
"She wouldn't dare," Raido sneered, though the tips of his ears were slightly red. He looked at her, his eyes moving slowly over her. "Leaf, huh?"
Amazing powers of deduction, Sakura thought sarcastically. "Yeah. What about it?"
He sneered. "What are you, their cheerleader? You're awfully small to be competing."
She fumed. This was the second time an enemy had commented on her size! Did they want to see her crack a hole in the ground? "And you're awfully ugly to be talking to a girl like me," she shot back. Okay, yeah, that wasn't such a witty comeback, but there was no point wasting the good ones on him.
Nonetheless, Raido took offense to her words and narrowed his eyes angrily. "Big mouth for a small girl," he hissed. "Who are your teammates, bitch? Are they all as weak-looking as you?"
Oh, he did not just say the W-word! Her hand lifted before she could stop it, but to her shock, gigantic fingers wrapped themselves around her wrist, holding her so strongly, her feet were almost off the ground.
Her wide eyes zipped over to the Mammoth Man, who stared back at her impassively, before returning to a pair of brown ones that gleamed smugly at her. "You should watch yourself, babe," he chuckled. "My teammate might be a bit too slow in the head, but he's really fast with his hands."
Sakura glared at him, biting back her wince when the giant tightened his grip. "You should probably tell Moby Dick over here to let me go," she warned, gathering chakra in her hands. "Or I might just a tear him a new one." The corners of her mouth suddenly tilted upwards. "Or . . ."
"Or what?" Raido snapped.
Sakura smirked. "Or my teammates will do it for me."
No sooner had she spoken those words, a black blur appeared in front of her and her captive let out a pained cry. He quickly let her go and she landed neatly on her feet, her gaze filled with the sight of the Uchiha crest as her husband stood in front of her.
"Keep your fucking hands off of her," he hissed and she nearly swooned because really, what girl didn't dream of that kind of line?
"Sakura?" he said without looking back.
She knew what he was asking and touched him briefly before taking a step back. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Naruto asked as he appeared beside her. His hair was mussed and there was dirt on his face, but he looked almost as scary as Sasuke.
"I'm fine," she stressed. "I could have handled it, thank you very much."
"We know," Naruto said, patting her head and making it obvious that he was merely indulging her. She opened her mouth to bite his fingers.
Raido and his teammates had apparently gotten over their shock and were now staring at Sasuke, recognition on their faces. "Uchiha Sasuke," Raido murmured.
"Sagara Raido," Sasuke returned.
"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto interjected, his hand hidden behind his back, protected from his teammate's teeth. "Now are we all done with the introductions? You want to tell me what the fuck you were doing touching my friend here?"
"I heard they let you come back," Raido said to Sasuke. "I guess Konoha's desperate enough to take any Tom, Dick and Traitor back these days."
"Oi, don't ignore me, asshole."
Sasuke smirked. "I'm surprised they let you come here, Sagara," he said, his eyes showing his mirth. "You were always the weak one. Couldn't even hold your kunai properly. Did your father bribe the Committee, or does Sound just lack competent shinobi?"
"You should know, bastard" Raido spat angrily. "You killed almost all of them."
"I killed only those that deserved it," the Uchiha said coolly. "And I'll kill you if you ever touch her again."
The words would have seemed corny if they hadn't been delivered with such calmness. Raido scowled, his eyes roaming over Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura. "Well, well . . . an Uchiha, a blonde loudmouth and a pink-haired girl . . . you must be Team Seven." The Sound shinobi snorted. "The rumors must not be accurate then." He raised an eyebrow at Sakura and Naruto. "You two don't mind working with this turncoat? From what I hear, treachery runs in the family."
Sasuke stiffened while both his wife and best friend took a step forward until they flanked him on either side, their faces drawn into a menacing glares.
"Watch what you're saying, punk," Naruto growled.
"Or you'll find out firsthand that the rumors are accurate," Sakura added bitingly.
"Go ahead, woman," Raido challenged.
"No." Sasuke raised a hand, halting his teammates' progress, earning him surprised looks. "We'll deal with this in the Tournament. We're not here to start another War."
"Afraid, Uchiha?" Raido sneered.
Said Uchiha calmly turned around to face them and the Sound shinobi physically withdrew when they saw the redness of his eyes. "Don't tempt me," Sasuke said dispassionately. "You know what I can do." To his teammates, he said, "Let's go."
The two followed suit as Sasuke walked away, Naruto shooting smug looks over his shoulder at the Sound shinobi. Standing several feet away was Kakashi, his pose languid, but all three knew that their former sensei had been very much alert, waiting to intervene if necessary.
The silver-haired jounin pocketed his book as they approached him. "Genma's distracting our guide. It wouldn't help our image to start a fight so soon," he said. He glanced at Sasuke, whose eyes had returned to their color. "Very mature of you."
Sasuke grunted. "Can we go now?" he demanded impatiently.
"You were the slow ones," Kakashi pointed out.
They found Genma talking to a Grass official, making sure that the representative's back was facing the rest of the Konoha team members. The representative, a short young man, greeted them eagerly and made small talk as he guided them to their accommodations. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto remained quiet as Genma entertained the official, showing interest as the latter pointed out various hot spots around town.
Their temporary residence, surprisingly, was not the hotel they had expected, but rather a modest-sized bungalow nestled among the lush greenery nearly twenty minutes away from the bustling town. The building, one among several identical ones located in the area, looked new, the rooftops stilly shiny, the paint still all but wet. The Konoha emblem gleamed proudly on the front gate of the compound and looking at the houses, the team saw the other villages' symbols as well.
"Looks like no expenses were spared," Sasuke muttered as they entered their lot.
"I just hope that officials will be patrolling regularly," Sakura said. "These houses are too close for comfort. I think Rock is our neighbor."
"We'll set up traps," Kakashi assured her, careful to stay out of the Grass representative's hearing.
"I call the master suite!" Naruto crowed as they entered the traditional single-story house.
"Actually, Uzumaki-san," their guide began, "all five bedroom units are the same size, so there is no master suite. Here is the main room, and the kitchen is through there. There are two bathrooms and the garden is . . ."
The guide trailed off, eyes widening as he realized that he was standing alone in the main room. He stepped into the hallway, growing uncomfortable when Uzumaki-san and Shiranui-san were standing in the doorway of one of the bedrooms, arguing with each other.
"I was here first," Genma stated triumphantly.
"He's right, Naruto," Kakashi said. "Pick another room."
"But I like the view in this one!" Naruto argued.
"Pick another one," his former instructor repeated firmly.
"You never take my side," the blonde whined childishly. "Oi, Sasuke, Sakura, switch with me, will ya?"
The couple, who had decided to take the room at the end of the rouka, thus affording them the most privacy, gave their friend incredulous looks. "Piss off, idiot," Sasuke replied in a bored tone as he went into the bedroom.
"Don't be difficult, Naruto," Sakura pleaded before following her husband.
"Fine," Naruto grumbled and stormed into one of the two remaining rooms, sliding the shoji shut with a force that shook the wall.
"The accommodations are very satisfactory," Kakashi told the Grass official pleasantly, raising his voice to be heard above the banging coming from inside Naruto's bedroom as the blonde made his irritation clear.
The guide left quickly after that, recalling some of the rumors he'd heard about this particular team and not wanting to learn if they were true.
"Is he gone?" Naruto demanded crossly as he stepped into the central room, where Genma and Sasuke were already seated around a table while Kakashi lounged on the porch revealed by the opened fusuma, his back against a partition.
"Congratulations, Naruto," Sasuke said sarcastically. "You've officially scared a Grass official. That didn't take long."
"He's annoying me," Naruto declared vehemently, pointing at the smiling Genma. "He's worse than Sasuke when were Genins."
"That's because you're still as retarded as you were as a Genin. Maybe even more so," Sasuke sneered.
"That's enough, boys," Sakura interjected as she walked out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of cool drinks. "The way we argue, I won't be surprised if word has already spread that the Konoha team hate each other."
"Word probably has spread that the Konoha team hates everyone, considering that little show you three put on with the Sound team," Genma remarked, rolling his senbon between his fingers.
"Speaking of which . . ." Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Why did you stop us? We would have so kicked those bastards' asses."
The Uchiha prodigy shrugged. "It isn't like Kakashi said—sure, it wouldn't have helped our image, but I don't give a fuck what people think. More importantly," he added, "we weren't the only teams there, Naruto. We shouldn't let our opponents see our abilities before we're ready."
"Well said, Sasuke," Kakashi approved. "Some of them know what we can do, some of them only think they know what we can do. Why spoil the surprise?"
"Who were they anyway?" Sakura asked her husband as she handed a drink to her former sensei.
"The one in the middle was Sagara Raido. His family is old-money in Oto and used to be one of Orochimaru's financiers. They're rich, but not very skilled in fighting. Raido's only a second-generation shinobi. The last time I saw him he was adequate, but not good enough to be in this competition so I don't know how he's progressed," Sasuke informed the room. "The short one was Aritsu Han. He comes from a shinobi family. He doesn't have a bloodline limit, but there's a special jutsu in his family that's been passed for generations."
"What kind of jutsu?" Naruto wanted to know, unfazed by Sasuke's knowledge about Sound.
"It's . . . strange," Sasuke answered, frowning a bit. "I've only seen it once. It's as if he taps into a part of his body that's able to produce an endless amount of chakra."
"So it's chakra-orientated," Kakashi observed, glancing at their leading chakra manipulator.
Sakura chewed on her bottom lip. "Maybe it's like the Souzo Saisei jutsu. I have to see it in action," she said thoughtfully.
"So who was Gargantuan?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke's dark eyes flashed briefly before he responded. "Mamoru. Just Mamoru. He was an orphan that Orochimaru took in. He was . . . experimented on."
The rest became quiet at this, understanding the Uchiha genius's implication. Before his untimely death at Sasuke's hands, Orochimaru had been infamous with his experimentations in trying to create the perfect breed of fighters. Most of the experiments had botched, but others, like Kimimaro and Juugo, had produced extremely dangerous results.
"How bad?" Kakashi spoke quietly.
"He's slow in the head. Can't think by himself. A real soldier—won't even eat unless he's being told to. But he's useful in combat. He doesn't do ninjutsu or genjutsu, but relies on pure strength. And he's fast."
Naruto's bright blue eyes widened at this last one. Though it irked him to admit it, but when it came to speed, there was no denying that Sasuke was the best. The bastard could move to several spots in a blink. So when he declared someone was fast, you had to believe that this was no turtle he was talking about.
"He really is," Sakura agreed softly, unconsciously rubbing her wrist.
Sasuke turned to her, his gaze watching her closely. "Did he hurt you?"
His tone implied that if her answer was anything but a negative then he wouldn't hesitate to dole out some pain of his own. Not wanting to make a big deal out of what was basically a normal spat between competing villages, Sakura shook her head. "No. He just surprised me. I didn't expect a man his size to be able to move so quickly."
"He's weak if you manage to hit him," Sasuke confided. "If you can bring him down, then keep him on the ground. His size is more of a hindrance than an advantage."
"Should we be worried about this, teme?" Naruto asked. "They'll be gunning for us."
"Everyone will be gunning for us," Kakashi corrected matter-of-factly, without any arrogance. "Some even more so because of personal grudges. It won't be easy, but we'll fight."
"We'll fight," Sasuke echoed quietly.
To be continued . . .