Hey guys! I'm back, and it hasn't even been a month. Damn am I good or what? All joking aside, this chapter might get a bit more serious at one point and may be a bit lacking in humour. I appreciate the reviews, it gives me a tingly feeling in both my heart and my pants. Anyways, here's the next chapter!
Story Go!
"Sensei? Why are you on the ground?" Naruto enquired, it wasn't as if his teacher had just went toe to toe with an A-rank missing-nin and was feeling a tad tired from the whole ordeal.
"Using the Sharingan for long periods of time requires a lot of chakra," Kakashi explained between pants, "I'm just suffering from chakra exhaustion."
He turned his head to Tazuna, "You said your house was nearby, right?"
"Yes, it's just a few miles away," the bridge builder answered.
Sasuke who, along with Sakura, was on the sidelines listening to the conversation, decided to butt in, "About the Sharingan, I have a few questions..."
"Wake me up when we get there!" was Kakashi's answer, before he closed his eyes and started to snore in an obscenely loud manner.
"Hnn..." Sasuke complained, reverting back to his usual, talkative self. He was angry at his teacher for not wanting to answer his questions.
"Let's go guys, no point in delaying!" Naruto exclaimed, "Sasuke, you can carry Kakashi-sensei to Tazuna's home."
"Hnn," Sasuke hnn'ed.
Naruto, after being in the black haired boy's company for a while, had started to understand his teammates strange groans that sounded like repressed sexual energy, "I don't know, and I don't care, how you're supposed to carry him! You're the genius, figure it out! You can drag him by his hair for all I care!"
After Naruto's poor choice of words, an Akimichi learning that there was an all-you-can-eat buffet at the other end of town wouldn't have been able to keep up with the black and silver blur that was Sasuke. He merrily ran down the road, glad at the chance to have revenge on his sensei, jumping over puddles, small rocks, animals, anything solid really, his incapacitated teacher closely following behind him.
Tazuna stared at the dust trail that the boy had left, "He does know that that's the wrong way, right?"
"He'll find out soon enough, let's get going!" was Naruto's nonchalant answer.
"I'm home!" Tazuna exclaimed. The group had just arrived at their destination, Sasuke having joined them some time along the way. Kakashi looked like he had seen far better days, his hair was missing in several spots, and a family of chipmunks seemed to have taken up abode in his kunai pouch.
"Father!" a black haired woman exclaimed as she ran out of the house to hug Tazuna, "It's so good to see you again, I was so worried!"
"There was no need to worry, Tsunami, I hired a team of shinobi to protect me, "Tazuna chuckled.
"These children? How could they possibly protect you?" the newly named Tsunami asked, turning to face the assembled Team Seven, "Why that blond one can't be older than Inari!"
"You fucking what?! I am tired of hearing insults on my height! I should jam a-" Naruto started to rant before he was stopped when Sakura slammed a fist on his head.
"I'm sorry for my teammate, Tsunami-san. He's just fatigued from his recent battle," Sakura apologized with a smile, all the while planting her fists into Naruto's face hole.
"I thought so too, Tsunami, but I can assure you that I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them," Tazuna reassured his daughter.
"If you say so..." she replied, before noticing Kakashi laying on the ground, "Oh my, what happened to him! Bring him in, he needs medical attention!"
She quickly dragged Kakashi into her home. The trio exchanged looks before shrugging and following her.
"Ow, ow ow," complained Kakashi, rubbing his head, "Where am I and what the hell happened to my hair?"
The ground suddenly seemed very interesting to Sasuke.
"You're in Tazuna's home, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura helpfully answered, completely avoiding the second question.
"Yush!" added Naruto, his face a breathtaking amalgam of red, blue and purple with bruises covering the near totality of it. It was almost as if some pink haired girl had slammed her foot numerous times into his fleshy visage, but that was ridiculous. It was also her fists and elbows.
"I see..." Kakashi muttered.
Tsunami entered the room, a platter of food in her hands, 'Oh, you're awake! How are you feeling, Kakashi-san?"
"I'm doing well, thank you," he replied, "You have my gratitude for taking us in."
"Nonsense, if anything, it should be me who's thanking you. You did, after all, protect my father," Tsunami responded, flustered.
"Only doing my job," Kakashi said.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto asked, his injuries having healed sufficiently so that he wouldn't sound like he had a mouth full of cotton balls when he spoke, "How long will it take for you to recover?"
The injured man thought for a moment before replying, "It'll be a week before I'm back to fighting capacities, but I should be able to walk around in a day or two. I just need to recover my chakra. You guys should also take the day off, I'm certain you're all tired too."
"You got it, sensei!" Naruto said before slamming onto the floor, dead asleep.
Sakura and Sasuke shook their heads at their blond teammate.
That night, Team Seven had their first, warm meals in days. Tsunami had made a delicious meal of food. Kakashi had been dragged down to the table to eat with them. Tsunami's son, Inari, also joined them. He was a small boy with black hair. Team Seven joked around during the whole meal, and aside from an incident where Sakura nearly killed Naruto with a spoon at one point, they had a good time. That was until Inari slammed his small fist on the table.
"How the hell can you guys be so happy?! Don't you know Gato is going to kill you all?!" he yelled, eyes blazing, before running to his room.
The happy atmosphere was quickly shattered.
"Damn, Sasuke. He almost has as much angst as you!" Naruto commented.
"I'm sorry for Inari's behaviour. He's been acting like that ever since he lost someone very dear to him," Tsunami said.
"No need to apologize, Tsunami-san, we've all lost someone important at one point in our life," Kakashi waved her off, his eyes suddenly growing distant.
They quickly finished their meal and headed off to bed.
True to his words, Kakashi was up and about the next day, albeit with the help of crutches. Beckoning to his students to join him, he walked out of the house.
"What are we doing, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"Training, of course!" he answered happily.
"But Kakashi-sensei, we're in the middle of a mission!" Naruto complained.
"Nonsense, Naruto! A true shinobi will take any time that he has to train!"
"A true shinobi, my ass," Naruto grumbled, "You're just sadistic."
"Today, we'll be training your chakra control," Kakashi said, completely ignoring his blond student's pining, "I noticed that some of you could do with better chakra control."
Here, Kakashi shot a look at Naruto, who rubbed his head sheepishly, the numerous times his experiments went wrong flashing through his mind.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Sakura said.
"Easy!" Kakashi replied, before walking up to a tree and then walking up said tree like a one eyed gecko, crutches and all. Completely horizontal to the tree trunk, he continued to walk until he reached a tree branch and was hanging upside down. Looking up, or was it down, to his baffled students below, he started to explain.
"This is the Tree Climbing exercise, a technique used to improve your chakra control. It involves sending chakra to your feet and using it to climb up the bark."
Kakashi threw down three kunai that landed with a thunk in front of the amazed students.
"Use those kunai to mark your progress," Kakashi told them.
Naruto was the first to recover from the awe inspiring sight of his teacher scaling the tree so casually.
He walked up to a tree, and tentatively placing his foot onto the bark. He channelled a bit of chakra into his feet and felt them stick a bit to the tree.
"Hey, this isn't too bad!" he exclaimed, applying a bit more chakra to his feet.
Now, Naruto, as previously attested, has a veritable fuck ton of chakra. He had enough to rival most jounin, and then some. The problem with having such a large reserve of chakra was the control, or rather the lack of control. With chakra reserves the size of Naruto's, trying to perform any jutsu was like performing heart surgery with a sledgehammer. It didn't wield the best results, and usually ended in screaming and open wounds. That's why Naruto failed so many of his exams. And that's also why, Naruto's definition of a bit was anything but.
And so, when Naruto applied a "bit" of chakra to his feet, he was sent flying backwards like an ambitious cork from a champagne bottle, directly onto Sasuke's tinkle berries. They both gave out a loud yell, Sasuke from being hit in the delicates with the force of a thousand men,and Naruto from having his head smacking into Sasuke's special parts.
Sasuke rolled on the ground, tears in his eyes, and a glare that could wither plants directed to the blond that was furiously ripping hair out of his head.
"Oh, I forgot to mention, if you apply too much chakra, you'll be pushed off the tree, and if you apply too little, you won't stick!" Kakashi helpfully informed them.
"Tad late, don't you think?" Naruto griped, before calling out to his upside down teacher, "How am I supposed to control my chakra output, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Don't you control your output when making your seals?" Kakashi questioned.
"Nope! I just give as much chakra as I think they need!" Naruto happily replied.
Kakashi nearly lost his control at his student's idiocy.
"But that could overload the seals and... You know what, never mind. I'll let Sakura explain it to you," Kakashi muttered.
Sakura cleared her throat before she started to explain, "Chakra is the basis for all..." With her droning, high pitched voice, Naruto stopped paying attention almost immediately, but her voice demanded to be heard and he couldn't ignore it. It assaulted his ear drums like a small child with a high sugar level and a stick. He clutched his head in an overly dramatic fashion. He rolled on the ground, seriously contemplating seppuku via rusty and blunt kunai.
"End my suffering!" he cried out, "I can't take it anymore! Kami, have mercy on my soul!"
Sakura was broken out of her monologue by the loud screaming of the blond hellraiser.
"If you find my lecture that boring, you can figure it out yourself!," she said in a huff.
"Fine by me!" Naruto said, jumping to his feet with a smile.
'If I can't stick to the tree, I'll just...' he thought before setting off into a dead sprint towards the tall tree like some sort of demented squirrel thirsting for the blood of his enemies and acorns. He tripped right before reaching the tree, his face slamming onto the unforgiving wood.
'What an idiot...' was the unanimous thought of all present.
"Fuck me that hurts," Naruto said, holding a bleeding nose.
After that, Sakura and Sasuke joined their teammate in is endeavour to scale a tree, but in a much calmer fashion. Naruto had to change trees several time, having grown frustrated at his inability to climb a fucking tree and took out his anger by detonating said tree.
Sasuke was having better luck, having reached the halfway point several times. He had resorted to using Naruto's tactic of running towards the tree for extra momentum, minus the face planting however. As he fell once more in a failed attempt, he looked over to Naruto, who was furiously stabbing his fourth or fifth tree.
'At least I'm not as bad as him," he glanced at the markings of his most volatile teammate. Naruto had resorted to jumping as high as he could and slashing. The results weren't very high.
Sasuke turned his head to look at Sakura's progress. She was nowhere to be found on the ground when a voice called out to him from above.
"Sasuke-kun! Look at how high I am!" Sakura yelled. She was startled by the glare she received from her crush.
'How can a fangirl be better than me? An Uchiha!' he thought, furious from being outdone.
"Very good, Sakura!" Kakashi said, glancing up from his book, "You have an excellent grasp on your chakra control."
'It's probably from her low chakra reserves,' the man thought to himself, 'She has the opposite of Naruto's problem.'
"How about continue practising the exercise a few times. In addition to helping your control, it also increases your reserves!" Kakashi said with a smile.
"Alright, sensei!" Sakura replied.
This continued on for a good part of the day. Naruto eventually got the hang of directing the right amount of chakra to his feet. He still couldn't stick properly to the tree, but he was making progress. Sasuke was in the same boat, and the two had developed something of a rivalry to see who could climb the highest. Sakura, for her part, continued doing the exercise, occasionally taking breaks. She retired an hour before dinner time, to look presentable for her unwilling lover.
Sasuke and Naruto didn't stop however.
"Where are those boys," Tsunami asked, having prepared the table for dinner.
"Still outside training, I suspect," Tazuna answered, digging into his food and taking a swig from a bottle of sake.
"Dad, what did I say about drinking at the table?"
Tazuna was saved from his scolding by the rambunctious sound of Sasuke and Naruto walking into the room, arm in arm.
They were covered from head to toe in dirt and scratch marks, but they were laughing nonetheless.
'What the hell happened to them?' Kakashi thought, not believing his eyes. It was easier to think that the Hokage wasn't a pervert than it was for Naruto and Sasuke to get along. Usually when they were together, Naruto was an inch away from committing a felony.
Flashback
Naruto and Sasuke were still going at it, running at trees and making slash marks at the highest point. They were neck and neck for the highest point. They were both exhausted from the day's training and knew that their next attempt would be their last.
They looked at each other, and nodded their heads in respect and recognition, their gazes resolute. They both set off in a dead sprint, set to be the one to climb the highest. Right as they felt their grip weakening, the kicked off from the tree, not forgetting to make a slash mark. They landed in a heap together, panting.
Naruto looked over at Sasuke, who lay beside him, "Hey, teme."
"Yea, dobe?" Sasuke answered.
"Let's make a promise."
"What sort of promise?"
"That one day, I will be stronger than you..." Naruto said.
"...And I you," Sasuke finished.
Naruto grinned at Sasuke, before turning his face to view the darkening twilight, the grin softening to a small smile, "The sky is beautiful tonight."
Sasuke chuckled.
"What is it?" Naruto asked, "Did I say something weird?"
"It's not that, I just never took you for the type to appreciate beauty."
Naruto also started to chortle, "I guess you're right."
Their chuckling soon turned to chortles, then full blown laughter. After a while, Naruto picked himself off, and stood up. He extended a hand towards Sasuke.
"Come on, Sakura and Kakashi are probably getting worried," he said.
"Yea, you're probably right," Sasuke replied, taking the hand offered to him.
Flashback end.
That night, something had changed in their bond. Something that would affect the fate of the world. That night, their bond changed from that of rivals to one of brothers.
They just didn't know it yet.
And done! Short chapter, I know. But I wanted to get some sort of development in the relation between Sasuke and Naruto. I'm sorry if this chapter lacked humour, but I didn't feel like it was the right thing for it. Worry not, the next one will go back to my usual crass style! Huzzah. Anyways, I've already made plans for how the story will unfold, but I won't tell you. Wouldn't do to ruin the surprise now would it? While I may not reply to reviews directly, I do read every single one, and they're all greatly appreciated! I just don't want to make these already lengthy author notes any longer. Anyways, you know the drill, leave a review, don't. I don't care, but your thoughts on the chapter, especially the ending would be welcome with open arms! Author, out!