Sorry for the delay everyone, I'm a freshman in college and it's been a bit stressful lately but not to worry, your favorite author is back! ^_^
Again, thanks to everyone who had followed/read/favorited my story and a special thanks to the ones who gave me feedback on how to improve on my story! I really appreciate the feedback and would like to encourage you all who read to give me feedback to help further improve on this story.
Without further ado, let's get back to The Lost Ninja Chapter 3!
"Sasuke if you don't mind me asking, how'd you learn to use a Katana? You slightly surprised me when I first saw it not knowing you even knew how to use It." said Kakashi truly interested.
Sasuke stayed quite for a while questioning himself on what to say. Finally he quietly said, "My brother." Making no room for more questions as he paid for his meal and had excused himself. 'Crap, I didn't mean to make him angry' berated Kakashi to himself. Getting up and paying for his meal Kakashi left intent on apologizing not without telling Naruto and Sakura to meet him at Training Ground 7 tomorrow at seven in the morning. With their sensei gone, it was a little awkward between the blond jinchuriki and the pink konoichi. Sakura trying to get know Naruto better decided to talk to him. "So… Naruto, wh-…" she didn't get the chance as Naruto shishuned away having already paid for his meal, leaving her by her thoughts. She simply sighed, before she too paid for her meal and left Icihraku's going back home to tell her parents of the good news.
Naruto walked down the street not really caring on where to go, just letting his legs guide him. After ten minutes, he was in front of Tenten's shop. Looking up he thought, 'That "spar" with Kakashi didn't even make me break a sweat. Now that I'm a genin I guess I can take up Tenten's spar offer.' Shrugging he walked in. Upon entering the store, Naruto saw a Chinese man who looked to be in his late 30's but was extremely muscular and looked to be a possible ex-shinobi, given the scars on his arms and face. "Hello sir, can I help you?" he asked the freshly stated genin, smiling. "I'm looking for Tenten, do you know where she is?"
"Oh? What business do you have with my daughter? Mr…"
"Uzumaki Naruto" sounding proud of who he was. "Your daughter promised me if I became a genin she would spar with me".
"Well Mr. Uzumaki. The name is Ken and my daughter is out with her team right now but I'm sure she should be done very soon, if you go to training ground 10 you could catch her there." "Thank you sir" said Naruto as he quickly got out the store going to training ground 10.
"So that's the kyuubi kid huh?" Ken asked himself, watching Naruto's back as he leaves the store. Ken grins, "This'll be interesting".
Kakashi followed Sasuke all the way to his compound. Sasuke looked pretty upset to what he had said earlier as he vigorously trained with his katana and had performed many giant fireballs to let out his frustration. Seeing the skill of which Sasuke effortlessly pulled was quite impressive even for his age and it reminded Kakashi of himself after he lost his father which made Kakashi equally determined to help change Sasuke's way of revenge as that path would only bring more pain and suffering for the already broken minded child and to those around him.
Walking up behind the slightly tired teen who had sensed his presence when he got out of the tree. He decided to speak first as he got in front of Sasuke. "Look Sasuke, I didn't mean to bring up such a sensitive topic for you. You didn't have to tell me if you didn't want to, I understand how-…" "How would you know, HUH!? You didn't see it… you didn't see it, what he did to my clan….our parents". After Sasuke's outburst he longed toward Kakashi intent on inflicting some pain.
"Oi! Sasuke, I do und-…" he couldn't finish as he had to avoid several fast and deadly swings from Sasuke's katana. Sasuke's sharigan was active and spinning wildly finding an opening to attack. Kakashi wasn't trying to inflict harm to him and he knew he couldn't fight on par with him, yet.
"Sasuke stop it, if you continue I'll be forced to disarm you." The tone Kakashi said was low and steady, promising if this "spar" was to continue further it would end with Sasuke's defeat, even his sharigan could foresee it. "Tch" outweighing his options he sheathed his katana, sealed it in the scroll and put in a way. "Leave. And never speak of Itachi in front of me again." Was all Sasuke said before he started walking to his home.
"Sasuke I do understand how you feel. I heard your little conversation about me with the other two before our spar this morning." Hearing this Sasuke stopped. "It's true I lost everyone I ever cared about when I was young like you, and I was in the same position you are in now but the best path to take isn't revenge I should know Sasuke, it's to stay here with your friends and comrades of the Leaf and together Naruto, Sakura, You and me as Team 7 can help you defeat Itachi!" Kakashi was openly pleading, a jonin pleading to a genin, but under the circumstances of determining Sasuke's future he would gladly help him choose the right path.
"…" Sasuke…was…confused. Never had he thought an S-ranked ninja would plead with him to stay in Konoha. Honestly he was flattered but Konoha may be his birth home but ever since his whole clan was slaughtered by his older brother, he feels disconnected to this place village.
"Power". Sasuke said barely above a whisper. Kakashi was barely able to hear thanks to his shinobi training. "Power, is the only thing I care about anymore, how can I achieve such power when I'm stuck here playing ninja!?" Kakashi had to choose his words carefully, the wrong words and Sasuke will be lost forever. Kakashi sighed.
"Sasuke, power can be achieved easily alone by sheer willpower and determination, even if we're titled as Geniuses. Just look me, your brother, Orchimaru and you and Naruto even though he's not considered a genius by his peers." Sasuke scoffed. "But when you work together with comrades and you have precious people to protect, that's when you become truly powerful, and it took me a long time to figure that out and I want you to think about what I've said and please chose the right path, also who do you think I am? I'm an S-rank ninja, who knows thousands of Justus's and tactics I'll be sure to teach Naruto, Sakura and you some of my best techniques so don't worry about power."
Kakashi walked up to Sasuke who was looking right back at him and Kakashi simply shuffled and patted his head before shishuing away leaving Sasuke alone yet again. Well not quite as Naruto is behind the walls of the entrance of the compound lowering his chakra to the point where he can't be detected. On his way to see Tenten he had passed by the Uchiha compound to take a faster route but heard Sasuke yelling with an older man who turned out to be Kakashi and when Naruto got close he heard the pleading in Kakashi's voice and the rest after that. While it was none of his business as far as what Sasuke chose to do with his life, Naruto couldn't help but feel Sasuke and him we're connected somehow and even though Naruto didn't care for Sasuke personally he knew Sasuke was a perfect asset to have when the time came in battle.
Sasuke however was still lost in thought when he was kicked back into reality by a familiar voice. "Ooooooi, duck-ass, Can. You. Hear. Me?" It was Naruto who suddenly appeared in front of Sasuke. "N-Naruto! What are you doing in my compound, get out!?" "Well, I heard your little chat with sensei just now..." "How much did you hear?" angrily responded Sasuke for the dobe eavesdropping on a private conversation. "Oh you know, hear and there… but the important thing is that I wanted to tell you that what Kakashi said was true, and I mean everything single word."
"WHAT!" Sasuke was in Naruto's face in less than a second. "Sorry to break it to you Uchiha, but living the lone wolf life won't cut it, having people to protect is key to real strength. Look at me, I've lived a pretty screwed up life and hell, I wanted to leave just as bad as you do but having the Hokage in my life made me realize that I'm happy to be alive." Sasuke couldn't speak, all he could do was look at his feet. "Besides Sasuke-Chan, you'll make a fine shinobi and hey, maybe even be on par with me someday." Naruto said giving a rare smile to his comrade. Sasuke simply stared at Naruto until he started laughing. "Hahaha, what dobe you being stronger than me, hah please." "Let's bet on it than, we'll work twice as hard to better ourselves and Sakura too," Naruto stuck his fist out to Sasuke, Sasuke returned the fist bump intent on thinking this over the night.
While Sasuke went inside to his house, Naruto simply thought, 'damn you Kakashi, because of over hearing your speech it made me think of Hokage-jiji, is my path I set for myself wrong too?" Naruto was confused too just like Sasuke. Ever since the incident when he was 5 it left a lot of scars on him physically and mentally.
Naruto at the age of 5 wanted to go to the October 11th festival to celebrate the death of the Kyuubi from their beloved 4th Hokage. Since pretty much the whole population of Konoha was at the festival it was fun and quite scary but Naruto enjoyed it as best as he could. That's until Naruto was discovered by some drunk villagers. Naruto was found later in an alley way behind Ichiraku's unconscious, he'd been brutally attacked by 15-20 villagers with many different weapons with an inch of his life left. He was discovered by Old Man Ichiraku and was in a coma for a month in the hospital. When he awoke he was a different person entirely, no more loud-mouth, hyperactive, stupid Naruto, he trained, trained till he bled, sweat and cried in the process but he continued only with one goal in mind driving him. The destruction of Konoha. Getting older, stronger, wiser and better skilled, Naruto wanted nothing more than to see Konaha in flames but was pushed into reality with Jiji coming to visit and while Naruto never said it directly he always cherished his time with the Hokage, ever since he was a baby he's been looking out for him no matter what he did, be it a stupid prank on the Hokage monument or a pretty bad fight with other kids or stealing food when he was hungry and bored of course that was before the incident. After that he was Thee Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's soon to be worst nightmare. But now, after hearing and finding no fault with Kakashi's logic he cursed the one eyed Jonin making his head hurt from all this thinking.
"I'll think it over later, now I just wanna find Tenten and spar". Determined to have a good fight he hurried to training ground 10.
(Training Ground 10)
Naruto jogged all the way to the training ground to see what appeared to be two green freaks yelling about youth at each other and excessive hugging and tears also with some genjutsu type sunset for a background for when they hugged. Okay Naruto was freaked out. He quickly saw Tenten who appeared to be talking with kid a couple years older than himself who looked to be very serious and was getting a bit annoyed with Tenten talking to him.
"Yo Tenten" greeted Naruto. "Oh hi Naruto, what are you doing here?"
"Just came looking for you to take you up on your offer." Neji looked at Naruto analyzing him, "What offer?" he said coldly. "Now now, Neji" said Tenten quickly trying to defuse any tension between the two. Tenten then looked at Naruto to see his forehead protector.
"You became a genin!?" Tenten said as she quickly grabbed the blond prisoner and started hugging quite hard making Naruto not breathe until the newly named teen, Neji got her to unlock her fierce grip. After regaining his breathe, he asked again if she wanted to spar, she quickly grabbed one scroll from her right thigh pouch and got into her fighting stance un-scrolling but not unsealing the unknown object. Naruto took the hint, also getting ready knowing not to underestimate this girl. The two green freaks came over, the short one wearing a green spandex suit, a black bowl cut and having huge eyebrows the tall one mirroring him but more muscular and louder. "Neji is Tenten about to do a youthful spar with this newbie?" asked the short one. Naruto's eye twitched. "Yes Lee, she is". Neji said quickly, interested on how the outcome will be. "Yosh! My youthful students, if Tenten doesn't win I'll do 1000 laps, no 5000!" The older one yelled. "That's very youthful Guy-sensei! I shall join you if Tenten loses but if she does lose I'll do 10,000 laps!" Lee said to the now known older man Guy. "Leeee!" "Guy~Sensaiiii" "Leeee!" "Guuy~Sensaiiii!" They embraced crying into each other's arms. All Naruto could do was look at them and think how weird they and their eyebrows where.
"Ah, you two aren't helping!" Tenten yelled at them for their antics. "Anyway, Naruto! Are you ready?" Naruto grinned cracking his knuckles, "what kind of question is that Tenten? I'm always ready" without delay Naruto applying chakra to his feet ran at Tenten, in a second he was in her face. She quickly dodged his lazy left hook and saw that his power was coming from his right arm as he threw an almost well placed hit to her jaw, smirking she jumped back gaining her space, got her scroll and unsealed all the hundred kunai coming extremely fast to the blond genin. Thinking quickly, one shadow clone came to the rescue as he grabbed the real Naruto and threw him out of harm's way a second later the clone poofed out of existence from being bombarded from the projectiles unleashing a giant smoke bomb to cover Naruto. "Damn" not wanting for the genin to leave her sight she unsealed her Bo staff that her father gave and trained her to use out and quickly pursued the fast blond.
"That was a bit too close for my liking." Naruto said as he had ran into the forest by the training ground to give him some cover and a tactical advantage. 'If anyone can hide and not be detected is me' thought the blond proudly. He waited for several minutes in a tall tree being covered from the leaves but heard and saw nothing unusual. He thought about moving but was silenced as a very sharp and deadly kunai came inches from his face as it made its way to the branch above him making two squirrels run very fast away from the kunai.
"Damn I thought that was him for sure" whined Tenten as she decided to check another area where she thought she saw him at. Once she was gone he sighed in relief, "hehe, almost had me."
"Who almost had you?" asked Tenten behind Naruto's ear sweetly. "Oh shiiii-…" Naruto not even sensing her presence and her finding him was really odd as he contemplated that with himself as he was currently falling six stories high. 'Quite impressive Tenten, never thought she knew the shadow clone jutsu but now I got to end this spar' thought Naruto as he summoned more clones to guide him down to the ground safely. Within seconds Tenten was down there with him ready to fight. "No more running Uzumaki, this is where you lose!" Tenten was very happy Naruto noticed, 'she most love to fight?' he wasn't sure of her yet but he could tell she wasn't going down without a one move hit and that what made Naruto excited about this spar.
Tenten rushed him with her Bo staff, Naruto getting his knuckle knives got into his stance. With a strong swing to the right, Naruto quickly blocked the staff with both knives, both their arms shaking from the sheer strength, both testing each other's willpower. Naruto grinned catching Tentens surprise, as he poofed and she felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder. As she looked she saw a shuriken lodged into her shoulder, dropping her staff she applied what little medical jutsu she knew, "When?" she asked. "When I summoned the clones from you scaring me to guide me down I had one stay back to switch with so I could get you, didn't want to draw blood but you kind of forced me". "Heh, that's fine it wouldn't be a spar if some blood was spilled". Tenten was not fazed by the recent injury further making two people impressed. "She's one hell of a shinobi huh, brat." Said a low, dark voice in Naruto's mind, or that's what he thought he heard. 'Who's that?' Naruto waited for a reply but heard nothing, further making him believe that he is actually going crazy. Coming back to reality he realized to late that Tenten was gone. 'Damn it I forgot about her' he looked around but couldn't find her. 'Got to end this' he got serious all of a sudden, throwing his familiar hand seals he said "Fūton: Daitoppa" causing a big strong gust of wind to come out his mouth and because of his massive chakra reserves he destroyed all the nearby trees including Tenten's hiding spot. With her out and in the open he decided to attack, putting all his chakra to his feet he quickly got to her with his knuckle knives. In a state of disoriented and confused from being blown in a circle and landing a bit hard on the ground didn't help at all as Tenten could do was watch as what looked to be a black and orange fox with these devil red eyes come rushing at her with lighting speed looking ready to kill its prey, she closed her eyes tight. When nothing came she opened them to see Naruto with his hand stuck out in front of him gesturing her to grab it so he can pick her up. Slightly confused on just what she saw she decided to just forget it for now and accept it or be rude. Getting to her feet Naruto acknowledged her power and it made Tenten extremely happy as her dream is to become greater than that of Tsunade of one the Legendary Sannin. On the way back to her team Tenten decided to ask Naruto about what she saw.
"So Naruto when you rushed me did you use any genjutsu to alter your appearance by chance?"
"No, why would you ask me that?" "Oh, just thought I saw something when I was down, but I was confused and disoriented so it's probably nothing, haha" she laughed nervously.
"Yeah probably, truthfully I'm really bad at genjutsu and have no real talent for it unless I'm dispelling them." Tenten perked up, "I'm not good at genjutsu either, well I can perform low level techniques but that's about it, besides I'm more interested in weapons anyway." Tenten said happily, 'probably got that interest from her father?' Naruto smiled slightly but quickly composed himself as he thought about what his parents where like but his train of thought was lost as he heard a loud voice calling for Tenten. "TenTen! TenTen! How was the spar!? Did you lose?" Lee came running up asking those questions to her making her obviously mad about the outcome of the spar.
"Lee! Calm down, yes I lost but hey I almost had Naruto too." She said trying to point out that she almost had the match. "Oh you must be Naruto, my name is Rock Lee! Very nice to meet you!" Lee said as he bowed politely to Naruto. Never receiving respect like this made Naruto uncomfortable which didn't go unnoticed by Tenten. "N-Nice to meet you too, the names Uzumaki Naruto." Bowing a little sloppily but nice enough to still show respect. Lee smiled very big, "So Naruto since you beat Tenten, it's only fair that you spar against me now! Now come, face me in a youthful spar!" Lee demanded as he got into his fighting stance ready to attack at any moment. "LEE!" Lee quickly turned around forgetting about the two, "Yes Guy-sensei!" Guy came running to the three stopping right next to Lee. "Lee, it's not youthful to spar with someone when they are not at their best especially if they just now finished a spar!" Guy yelled making Lee agree to him, apologize to Naruto for being rude and Guy telling Lee to run 10,000 laps around the field for Tenten's loss. "Yes Guy-sensei!"
"So youthful Naruto who's your sensei?" Guy asked surprisingly more serious then he has seen him since he arrived. "Kakashi-sensei" he asked not finding any harm in talking with him even though he was still freaky. "Ooooh my eternal rival huh? Well he's a great shinobi and you'll do well under his youthful tutelage my young friend!" Guy said. "Uh Thanks" Naruto didn't know what to say, he felt Kakashi of all people wouldn't have a rival like Guy, would he? "Anyway it's getting late now I gotta get home now." Naruto said trying to leave. "Yeah same my dad is probably wondering where I am by now." Tenten said. "Yosh Alright, Neji and Tenten you may leave, LEE DON'T LEAVE UNTIL YOU ARE DONE WITH THE 10,000 LAPS!" "YES GUY-SENSEI, ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY!" Lee shouted back crossing his line in the dirt already on his 130th lap already. "Well good luck with Kakashi though Naruto, he has a really unyouthful tendency to arrive late to everything except A-rank or higher but he means well." Guy lastly said as he left shushuing out of existence. Neji already walking to his compound Tenten decided to follow him since it's on the way to her house not without saying goodbye to Naruto.
"Good bye Naruto, I really enjoyed the spar we had and hope we can have more in the future!" Tenten hugged him then ran after Neji telling him to wait up. Naruto just stood there, thinking why his cheeks felt like they were on fire. Trying to compose himself all he could hear was the panting of Lee and his feet hitting the dirt ground. 'He's going to be problem in the future' he thought. For whatever gave Naruto that intention he couldn't agree more with it. 'Sure he's goofy and doesn't look dependable at all but I'm sure he works harder than most of us to get stronger. I feel like I will fight him seriously in the coming months.' Naruto gave Lee one last glance before walking on home forgetting about what he said.
(Next Morning 7:48am)
"Where's Kakashi-sensei at? He's late and Sasuke hasn't arrived at all either, I Hope he's ok." Sakura was talking to no one in particular just asking a lot of unanswered question that got annoying to listen too as one blond genin just wanted to tear his ears out. While it wasn't unusual for Kakashi to be late as Guy had said the previous day, but Sasuke being late? Then he's either dead or he didn't set his alarm to wake up...
'Oh crap, Kakashi never told him to be here and neither did I…' Naruto thought to himself figuring out that Kakashi knew he was there eavesdropping in on the conversation he had with Sasuke and was intent fo Naruto to hear what he had to say which explains why he never told Sasuke what time to be here for training since he left it for Naruto to do. "Oi Sakura, I know where Sasuke is."
(Uchiha Compound 8:02am)
Sakura and Naruto had arrived in front of Sasuke's house inside his compound, Sakura was against going inside Sasuke's house without his permission but it didn't take long for Naruto to convince her top come even though she's still reluctant. Naruto not really caring just opens the front door and walks right in. "Oi! Naruto you can't just walk in like that what if he hears you and thinks you're a burglar!" whispers loudly to Naruto. He just turned back to her and shrugged making her sweat drop. Steeling her nerves she walked in the Uchiha Sasuke house, if it wasn't for trying to find him she would probably faint right now. Naruto using his hands to tell her to follow him upstairs and into many empty rooms made Sakura sad. "Going home to this every day, with no one to greet you, no one to feed you, just emptiness everywhere. Oh Sasuke you've lived It hard haven't you?' she said to herself remorsefully. Finally they found his room down the hall from the others. Once Naruto opened the door all they could see to Sakura's horror and Naruto's happiness was Sasuke sleeping in his bed with a cute snake plushy doll cuddled in his arms near his heart as if he was a little baby. It took all of kami and her angels to force Naruto not to unleash his laughing fit and Sakura thought it was a bit weird for a 13 year old but couldn't help but think It was pretty cute and couldn't help herself.
Imagine Sasuke's surprise as he was woken up by a loud squeal turning out to be his number one fangirl Sakura not just in his house but his room no less and Naruto being there with her didn't help as he was sporting the biggest grin as he could see and he knew in his heart that they both will not let him live down this day again as the Uchiha Sasuke was found out to be still sleeping with a plushy doll at the age of 13.
Thanks for the read everyone! Hope you enjoyed it as i enjoyed making it, i can't wait to make more for you guys and hope you can give me feedback! again thanks 3 Doug