Hey hey, I've been procrastinating again. Whoda thunk it?
Ne wayz, thanks for your reviews, you have no idea how much appreciation I feel.
Hm. I'm too lazy to come up with a new story title for this one. I'll just make it Return to Konoha, Part 3…
Chapter 12
Naruto stood, silent and still, as Sakura sobbed into his shoulder. Comprehension had dawned on him after he saw the faces of his friends. Of his family.
"Shhh…It's ok Sakura," he whispered in her ear, gently caressing her head. Sakura slowly began to calm, her sobs becoming less violent. Eventually, she looked up into Naruto's face, her eyes red and still moist.
"Naruto…can you forgive me? I…I understand if you won't…"
"Sakura…How could I not forgive you?" Naruto gave her one of his genuine smiles. At these words, Sakura paused, her eyes shimmering. After several moments, she burst into tears again.
Naruto looked down at the mop of pink hair that had once again buried itself into his shoulder. He looked up at his old friends with confusion, and perhaps a little bit of desperation. He had no idea what to do. He had never been very good with girls…So he brought up the first thing he could think of. Food.
"So…anyone wanna get some ramen with me?"
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Jiraiya stood in front of the Hokage's desk, his arms crossed and head bowed, apparently deep in thought.
Tsunade sat before him, apparently annoyed. He had been standing like that for the last five minutes. "Hey! Jiraiya! I asked you how strong he is now!"
Jiraiya looked up slightly, one eye still closed in concentration. "Hold on Tsunade…I'm still thinking…"
"How can you still be thinking? It's a simple question! How. Strong. Is. Naruto!"
"Depends on what you mean by strong."
"What kind of statement is that?!" screamed a red faced Tsunade, her temper flaring. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"
"Well, his genjutsu sucks. A genin has better skills at it than him. Course, at least he can detect it now…I basically put him under genjutsu as often as possible, at random times during our training, and he could usually detect it…"
"Well, that's pretty much always been the case with Naruto. Doesn't have the patience, like us more experienced ninja, hm Jiraiya?"
"Hah! Yeah right! Like you have more patience than Naruto! That's a riot!"
Tsunade's vein began pulsating, as she held her fist down at her sides, clenched and ready to destroy.
Jiraiya continued, oblivious of the danger in front of him. "Sooo, continuing on…Naruto's ninjutsu has improved drastically. After identifying his two elemental affinities, Naruto learned a lot more jutsu. His control is still shaky, but I would say it's probably around chunnin level. Probably his most useful improvement in his ninjutsu would be his sand."
"Sand? Ah. Wind and earth. Got it. Continue please." Tsunade calmed down and rested her chin on her folded hands, listening to Jiraiya's analysis with interest.
"Yeah. He can control it, but it's nothing like Gaara's stuff. Naruto has to mentally will his sand to move, not the automatic defense stuff. Regardless, it's still pretty effective."
"But I'm pretty sure what's improved the most is his taijutsu. He's pretty damn strong."
"…"
"…"
"That was the worst analysis of taijutsu skills I've ever heard."
"Ah, fine. The kid beat me, ok?! God…"
Tsunade's eyes widened a little. Jiraiya's strongest point wasn't taijutsu, granted, but to defeat one of the sannin in hand to hand combat…Not many could boast that. Tsunade whipped her attention back to the white haired pervert before her. He was in the fetal position, apparently very ashamed of his defeat by his student.
"What about those swords he had on his back?"
"Um…" Jiraiya started to sweat. It probably wouldn't be wise to bring up the demons in them. One demon was enough to tarnish Naruto's reputation. Three would cause a civil war. "He sucks at kenjutsu too. He just swings 'em like baseball bats. No control at all."
"Hm…I see."
"So are we done here? I have some very important…research…to conduct!"
"One more thing Jiraiya."
"Yeah?"
"I need your opinion, taking everything in your evaluation, is Naruto ready for chunnin rank?"
Jiraiya froze. Right before he started rolling on the ground laughing. "AHAHA! CHUNNIN! THAT'S RICH! AHAHAHAHA!"
Tsunade could feel her vein throb again, ready to knock some sense into the perverted old hermit. "I don't see what's so funny."
"Of course he's ready for chunnin! I thought you were gonna ask me something hard! Like, is Naruto ready for ANBU captain, or ready for sannin! Chunnin! Hah!"
"So…yes, he's ready for chunnin, right?"
Jiraiya sighed. "Right."
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Naruto strolled down the street, surrounded by his friends. He was currently telling them the story of defeating Buotoko. At first, they didn't believe it. Not that he defeated this shinobi, just that a man's name would be the equivalent of "ugly".
As they continued on their way down the street, Naruto's eyes caught something in the window of a store. His feet continued to walk, but his head stayed in the same place, stretching back until he stopped. His friends continued to walk, laughing and chatting amiably, until they noticed something was amiss. Looking around for what was missing, they noticed the departure of their blonde headed buddy.
They spotted him a block behind them, engrossed with something inside the shop. As they made their way back towards him, they saw Naruto look through the window, then at his body, then at the people in the street, slightly shaking his head from side to side. As they approached him, Sakura cried out.
"Naruto-kun! What's wrong?!"
"Huh? What? Oh…uh, can I borrow some money? I'll pay you back as soon as I can."
"What? What for?"
"Just…I need some money, ok?"
Neji reached into his pocket to retrieve a pouch of bills and coins. "Here." He monotonously replied, handing a wad of bills to Naruto.
"Thanks! I'll be right back!" Naruto flashed them a grin as he ran into the store, leaving his confused friends outside.
5 minutes later
"Where is that baka! I'm goin in there! Stop it Ino! Let me go! I'm gonna beat some sense into that blonde idiot!" Sakura was pulling with all her might to enter the store, but Ino kept her firm grip on her friend's arm, preventing any violence.
"Hey guys!"
They all froze at the sound of Naruto's voice and turned around. Sakura stopped tugging, and Ino dropped her arm. Everyone just looked at the return of Konoha's number one surprising ninja.
Naruto came out of the store a new man. Or that was what he felt like. He had replaced his old clothes. Gone were the ratty, tan colored robes that protected him from the sun and sand in Suna. Naruto gave them a thumbs up at the group inspected the new look.
When Naruto saw the clothes in the window, he knew he HAD to have them. Simple, yet attractive. He wore a skintight black, short-sleeve shirt that hugged his muscles and showed off his wide shoulders. His arms were toned, and his stomach was defined, causing every girl present to drool in their minds. Complementing his tight shirt, he wore a pair of baggy cargo pants. They were covered in pockets, perfect for holding scrolls and weapons. Again, his two swords were strapped to his back in an "X", both sheathed, but their hilts shone in the sun.
"Whaddya think?" Naruto asked, turning around to allow them to see his new outfit. As he turned, he gave the girls a perfect view of his butt, making them feel like the weather had just gotten a little warmer.
"I-I-It's great Naruto-kun" stammered Sakura, a slight pink blush on her face.
Naruto stepped forward, throwing his arm around her neck. "Aw, thanks Sakura-chan!" Feeling his muscles, no longer covered or restrained by his baggy robes, pushed up against her body made Sakura feel a little faint, as all of the blood in her head rushed to her cheeks.
Holy crap! This guy has the body of a greek god! Thought all of the girls present.
The guys were just a little jealous. And by a little, I mean a lot.
"Ok! Let's go! Ichiraku's, here we coooome!" Naruto held out the other arm, not draped around Sakura's neck, and pointed forward, to the general area of their destination. He marched forward, pulling Sakura along, still too stunned at her teammate's body to do any activity.
As the men, and Sakura, walked forward, the girls remained, looking at the spot Naruto had previously stood. Shaking their heads, Ino and Hinata threw off their awe and captivation, and perhaps a little lust, and ran to catch up.
"Hey…wait up guys!"
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As the group of twelve sat, eating, they related stories, told jokes, and, of course, at ramen. Naruto had a whopping seventeen bowls, while the rest mainly held themselves to one or two.
But not everyone was having a good time. Sasuke, sitting in the corner of the booth, was brooding. As usual. How did he stop the Raikiri?? HOW???????? He wailed in his mind.
"Yo. Naruto." Sasuke drawled, his voice cold as ice.
Naruto looked cheerfully at his old teammate. "Yeah Sasuke?"
"Those are some cool looking swords…can I see them?"
Naruto paused. Everyone turned to look at Naruto, who was currently frozen in mid-slurp. Nothing made Naruto stop eating ramen. Nothing.
"S-sure Sasuke…" Naruto nervously unsheathed his two blades, handing them off to Chouji, who was sitting to his right. Chouji gawked at the two swords, before handing them off, continuing down the row until Sasuke got them. Naruto continued eating, laughing at a story that Chouji had told, involving Shikimaru, a treadmill, and duct tape.
Sasuke focused his attention away from the blonde, and down to the two swords in his hands. One was light. Its blade was silver, and was long and thin. In the middle of the double-bladed sword, was a long slit, removing the center of the sword blade. This gave the sword its incredible weightlessness. Its hilt was long and silver, with streaks of gold in it. And the hand guard was even more beautiful than the rest. Beautiful, silver wings, with gold tipped feathers, erupted from the hilt at the base of the blade, spreading out and shining in the afternoon sun. Sasuke, inspecting it, decided that this was not the blade that Naruto had used to block the Raikiri.
Moving his attention to the next sword, he recognized it as the sword that had humiliated him. It was not as pretty as the previous sword. It was crude, the handle looking very normal. But the blade was unique. Also a double-blade sword, it was very wide, almost six inches wide. Its length was as long as the silver one, about four feet. The metal that made up the blade was black, with red characters engraved on it haphazardly. The black metal was met by a black hilt, its hand guards very thick and strong.
Sasuke remembered that right before he struck out with his Raikiri, he saw blue chakra being pulled from Naruto's body into the sword. His Sharingan had recorded this moment, and Sasuke sat, reliving it and shaking in rage. How could his ultimate technique be defeated? There was no way that he could defeat his brother with his technique that was defeated by a dobe.
He must have channeled chakra into the sword to fortify it…it still should have broken though. It also didn't seem as if Naruto was sending his chakra into the sword…It wasn't purposeful. It was more like…more like the sword sucked the chakra out of him…
Sasuke continued brooding, oblivious to the fact that Naruto had finished his marathon of eating, laughing along with everyone about his appetite. He focused on the blade, calling upon his Sharingan. Sasuke began to channel his chakra into the blade. Maybe he could activate this ability, just as Naruto had. Suddenly, everything went black.
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"Like a black hole Naruto…" Shikamaru shook his head in amazement. "You are so troublesome…"
"Haha! Yeah, well, I haven't had Ichiraku's since noon!"
Everyone paused. "You had some for lunch too?" gaped Kiba, shocked.
"Yeah…hey, where's Hirameki and Fumetsu…Oh shit." Naruto's eyes widened, seeing Sasuke slump to the ground.
"Shit! This guy is gonna be the death of me, I swear!" Naruto dashed to Sasuke's side, grabbed the hilt of Fumetsu, and channeled chakra into it.
"I'll be right back guys" Naruto grinned, giving them the thumbs up, right before he too collapsed onto the floor beside Sasuke, gripping the sword with all his might.
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Sasuke woke up on the ground. He rubbed his head, as he had been lying on some particularly hard rock. He looked around to see that the landscape had changed. Is this some kind of genjutsu? He wondered, looking around to map out his location. The entire landscape was rocky, nowhere was there any sign of vegetation. It was all dark, and in the horizon, Sasuke could see what he assumed to be several volcanoes.
Shrugging, Sasuke began to walk. Aimlessly, he began to explore this new land he had been put into.
Suddenly, he couldn't move. Just like that. He hadn't felt a presence, hadn't been able to react.
"Don't say anything," a familiar voice whispered.
"Naruto?" gasped Sasuke. Naruto! He had captured him so easily!
"Shhhh. I don't know where that bastard Fumetsu is, but we need to talk before we do find him. Or he finds us…"
"Fumetsu? Isn't that your sword?"
"Um…you could say that. Ok, listen closely, I'm not going to say it again. Your presence has screwed us over. Every time a new person activates one of my swords, they are tested."
"Tested? What kind of test?"
"Depends. Depends on how they're feeling at the time…" Naruto trailed off.
"Wait. It depends one how WHO'S feeling?"
"Him." Naruto gulped, whipping around, pulling Sasuke with him, still immobilized.
Sasuke almost screamed. Almost. Naruto let him go, and Sasuke rubbed his arms, trying to get the feeling back into them.
"What is that…?" cried the raven-haired boy, pointing at the new arrival.
"That? That's…Fumetsu." Before the two shinobi was a giant scorpion, it's plated carapace black as night, outlined in red.
"Youuuuuuu!…Narutoooooo…you've come back to this place…with a friend too! I will enjoy sucking the marrow out of your bones children!" And with that, the scorpion flew forward, its eight legs moving like black blurs. It whipped its tail down, and Sasuke dodged right, only to be met by a pair of deadly looking claws. He cringed, ready to feel pain, but was surprised as he only felt air rushing through his hair. He opened his eyes to find himself in the arms of Naruto.
"Let me go dobe!"
"What, no thank you?"
"I would have been fine."
"Right. Your closed eyes would have saved you, right?"
"Shut up."
"Silence! Both of you! Your incessant rambling annoys me!"
"What's the test Fumetsu?" Naruto asked, exasperated.
"Hmph. Ruining my fun again brat. Fine. The test will be like last time…survive for ten minutes."
"Okok, lets get this baby goin'."
Naruto jumped back about ten feet, putting some distance between him and the large arachnid. Sasuke followed his example and landed beside him.
"What's going on Naruto?"
"Ok, listen up. Fumetsu? He's a demon. We have to survive for ten minutes, or…well, we die. Kinda redundant, but yeah."
"A demon?!?!"
"Yeah, he's been sealed in my sword, and when you tried to activate it…well, you activated this whole ordeal. Good job, by the way."
"Ten minutes…forget that. I'll just take him out now…"
"What? No, stop! Don't!"
But it was too late. Sasuke grabbed his arm as lightning and chirping filled the air. He dashed forward, showing impressive speed, streaking towards his target. Fumetsu only laughed, pulling his tail back, ready to strike. As Sasuke neared, Fumetsu screamed:
"Fatal Strike!" His tail flew down, crushing the rock that Sasuke had been standing on milliseconds ago. But that was milliseconds ago, and Sasuke was upon him. Thrusting his hand forward, he yelled, "RAIKIRI!" The lightning erupted on the scorpion's black plated body, but soon died out. Sasuke blinked, and was batted away by a strong swipe of Fumetsu's claw.
"Shit…why didn't I even scratch him?" moaned Sasuke, as he struggled to his feet. His head was still spinning from that hit.
"I told you to stop! But do you do what I say? Noooo, you arrogant prick. Fumetsu gives my sword its power! His armor is impossible to penetrate! And his attacks can't be blocked! Just keep dodging, that's our only hope of survival!"
"What? What a cowardly strategy," sneered Sasuke.
"Better a coward than being dead dumbass."
Sasuke reluctantly saw the reason in this. He acknowledged this with a slight snort.
"Fine, we'll do it your way."
"Here he comes…" Naruto spread his legs apart slightly, ready to move at a moment's notice. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and prepared himself, physically and mentally, to combat this demon.
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"Naruto! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura ran towards her two motionless friends, kneeling down beside them, checking their pulses.
"Their alive at least…what's going on?!"
The rest of the group crowded around the two shinobi, wondering what on earth could have happened to the two boys in Ichiraku Ramen.
"They're unconscious…Ino, do you think you could see what's going on in Naruto's mind?"
"Um…" Ino recalled the last time she had attempted to invade the blonde's mind. "How bout I do Sasuke instead?"
"Ok, just go!"
"I'm going, I'm going…" muttered Ino, as she too kneeled down beside Sasuke. She placed her fingertips gently on his temples, closing her eyes in concentration.
"Here we go…"
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Ino opened her eyes. She was in Sasuke's mind, seeing what he saw, feeling what he felt. But she was limited to just that, what he could see and feel. She saw nothing but dirt for a while, until she…or Sasuke, the technique caused a headache if you thought about it for too long, looked up. Naruto ran by, smoothly grabbing her arm…or Sasuke's…it really did get confusing.
"Get up! Get up! Aaaaaah!" Naruto started screaming, partially smiling. He was obviously enjoying this thrill, this excitement. Ino felt Naruto's hand release her arm, as her legs began churning, glancing over her shoulder. At that moment, Ino saw something that chilled her to the bone.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The massive scorpion lashed out again and again with its tail, smashing through boulders, whipping towards them, coming within a hair's breadth at some times, his claws just as dangerous, embedding themselves into the hard rock floor. The entire landscape was filled with similar craters. The scorpion was huge. Its claws were the size of full grown men, its tail like a twenty foot long whip.
She turned around to face it, looking in the corner of her eye to see Naruto standing beside her, breathing a little harder than usual.
"That all you got bastard?!" yelled Naruto, obviously just trying to rile the scorpion up.
"Hm. It's been two minutes kid. Time to take it up a notch." The scorpion was covered in a strange, dark red aura, sending out killer intent and chakra. The chakra whipping around the scorpion began whipping around dust, rocks, and other debris, causing her to shield her eyes and face from the storm that she had just been trapped in. When it ended, she looked up, only to find that the scorpion had grown a second tail.
"Hahaha….that feels better. Eight more minutes kids…for the last two minutes, you'll have to take me on, with all five of my tails. Here I come!"
The scorpion propelled itself forward with surprising speed, lashing out with one of its tails in a vertical swipe. Ino felt her body dodge to the left, only to see the second tail come from her side in her peripheral vision. It connected heavily in her side, causing her to scream in pain (in her head, of course), as the tail entered his side.
"Fatal Cross!"
"Gyaaah!" Ino heard Sasuke scream out. She clutched her side, blood running freely. She looked up, seeing the tails coming down. But they never connected.
She winced as another body came colliding into hers…Sasuke's…causing the two forms to roll out of the way just in time.
"Dammit Sasuke! You've got poison in your system! It's not gonna do anything in your mindscape, but your injuries here are real! Your body back in the real world is gonna die unless you get some attention…" Naruto was briefing Sasuke as he carried him away from the crazed scorpion. Ino, hearing these words, screamed in her mind, "KAI!"
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"Oh my God! He's bleeding! What the hell! It looks like he just got run through by a freakin sword!" yelled Kiba, hyperventilating. He was never real good in situations like this.
"Shit!" Sakura screamed, rolling Sasuke on his side and ripping his shirt off. Sure enough, there was a round, circular hole in his side, gushing blood. Her hands began to glow the familiar green healing chakra that she had become so accustomed to.
"He's gonna be fine guys…" sighed Sakura, finding that no internal organs or critical areas had been affected.
"KAI!" screamed the Ino, sitting jolt upright, eyes wide in fear and anxiousness. "Sakura! Sasuke…"
Sakura cut her off, smiling. "Don't worry Ino, I patched him up, he's fine!"
Ino's face did not change, still looking on in horror. "No! He…it…they…Oh my god…ohmygodohmygodohmygod…" Ino was clutching her head, muttering the words over and over.
Sakura rushed to her blonde friend's side, grabbing her by the shoulders, forcing Ino to make eye contact. "Ino! What's wrong? What's happening to them?"
"They're…they're fighting this…this scorpion! It was huge! Like…like one of the boss summons! It…it got Sasuke with one of it's tails…Naruto told him…he told me…him…that…he's poisoned! If he doesn't get the anti-venom soon, he's going to die!" sobbed Ino, rocking herself back and forth. She still couldn't get over the shock and horror of not only seeing a scorpion that large, but then being stabbed by it. When she was in Sasuke's mind, everything was real to her. Sights, sounds, tastes…pain.
"Shhh, you're ok Ino," Sakura whispered, embracing her friend, trying to comfort her.
"Sigh…take care of Sasuke, I'll take care of Ino," said a voice above the two kunoichi.
Sakura looked up, seeing Ino's teammate, Shikamaru, looking slightly disgruntled, but at the same time, concern showed in his eyes. Sakura nodded, sliding back over to Sasuke, her hands again glowing green. Shikamaru took Sakura's seat, placing his arm around his childhood friend, allowing Ino to throw herself into his arms and cry into his shoulder. He had seen what mental trauma could do. It had happened on multiple occasions, the worst being when Ino had been in someone's mind when they died. She still hadn't recovered completely from that.
Sakura, meanwhile, was concentrating her chakra, trying to identify the poison in Sasuke's blood. Her brow was scrunched up in concentration, a few beads of sweat appearing on her forehead.
Don't give up Sasuke-kun!
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"Ungh!" grunted Sasuke, as he was thrown back by a particularly nasty swipe of Fumetsu's claw, feeling one of his ribs break. Knowing that his rib had probably broken in real life, he decided that he had to avoid such attacks.
"TWO MINUTES KIDS! Too bad my fun will end…either way, with your death's or when the time runs out…But it'll be way more fun if you die!" Fumetsu grew yet another tail, showing off his five tails in all their glory.
"Tail barrage!" Sasuke watched in horror as Naruto was assaulted by a veritable whirlwind of strikes, but Naruto was able to weave and dodge every attack. After the attack ended, Naruto jumped back to join his raven-headed friend.
"Ok…here's…the plan…" gasped Naruto. The scorpion had been focusing on him mostly, as Naruto had often gone out of his way to annoy the demon as much as possible over the last year that he had the sword. "I'm going to distract him with jutsu for this last two minutes. You just keep him occupied with jutsu, or taijutsu, genjutsu, I really don't care."
"Pretty sloppy plan dobe."
Naruto turned to grin at his friend. "Yeah…no kidding…" At once, he began making seals.
"Doto…" Naruto stopped his jutsu suddenly. He looked up from his squatting position to see Sasuke, looking down intently on him, his Sharingan eye blazing, copying his technique.
"Let's not Sasuke!" Naruto cheerfully said, winking at him. As Naruto winked, Sasuke could feel his Sharingan recede, removing his powers of copying jutsus and techniques.
"What the hell…?" Sasuke muttered. He wanted to get some new techniques out of Naruto, and now was the perfect opportunity. He summoned chakra to his eyes, trying to reactivate his Sharingan which had suddenly decided to recede, but to no avail.
"Doton: Swamp of the Underworld!" Naruto cried from beside him, creating a huge swamp beneath Fumetsu, sinking his feet into it, immobilizing him.
"You are so annoying kid! But I want your blood!" Fumetsu screamed, ripping his legs forcibly from the murky swamp, barely escaping the earth jutsu that Naruto had begun to love.
"Damn! Ok, time to stall! Kage bunshin no jutsu! Henge!" About a thousand clones poofed into existence, with half of them having the likeness of Sasuke. Sasuke looked around in confusion, seeing perfect copies of him littering the field.
"THIS IS WHAT YOU DID LAST TIME KID! YOU ARE THE MOST ANNOYING PERSON ON THE PLANET! I WANT TO KIIIIIILL YOUUUUUU!" bellowed the demon, a hint of frustration in his voice.
The clones all separated, running around in circles, and Sasuke decided to follow the example. Frustrated, Fumetsu started lashing out blindly, trying to destroy as many clones as possible. But to no avail. Most of Naruto's shadow clones were quick enough to dodge the tail swipes, but a few were killed in small poofs of smoke.
Finally, after about two-hundred of Naruto's clones had been destroyed, the Fumetsu stopped lashing out.
"Ten minutes…the deal is done," came the resigned voice, as Sasuke's vision became blurry.
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Sasuke opened his eyes and found himself lying on his back on the road. He looked down slightly and saw Sakura working tirelessly to heal his wounds, particularly the large hole in his side and the broken rib he had sustained.
"Hey." Sasuke whispered, his voice raspy and unsure. The green glow of Sakura's hands reflected slightly on her face, the light dancing and caused her features to soften, bringing out her green eyes. Never before had she looked more beautiful to him.
"Sasuke?" Sakura looked down at his face, noticing he had woken up. "Sasuke-kun!" she cried, throwing herself down, putting her arms around his neck. He sat up, with her still attached to his neck. For once, he didn't seem to mind.
Across from him, Naruto was standing, sliding Fumetsu back into its sheath on his back. The group that was around Naruto noticed that Sasuke was awake too and rushed over to check on him as well. Naruto smiled at Sasuke and gave him a thumbs up.
Naruto walked over to Sasuke along with the group, peering through the opening between Shikamaru's head and Chouji's head.
"Hey, guys…" started Naruto, causing them all to turn their heads. "Where's Shino and Ten-ten?"
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Fumetsu means something like, "idestructable" in Japanese. I don't really remember what it was when I put it in the fic, and I'm way too lazy to check it.
Read and Review! Btw, if you're looking for good fics to read, all the fics on my favorites list on my profile are the best of the best! I encourage you to check em out!
Oh, and last thing. I've been reading a lot of fanfiction lately, and I've really started to like NaruIno, NaruTemari, hell, NaruTenTen, I don't care. Since I've got a lot more readers than I did in the beginning of this fic, I would like some input from you guys. What do you think?
Ok, THIS is the last thing. When the rookie nine were without Naruto, they had Lee and Neji, and TenTen, who was not present, and were aptly named "The Eleven". Now, I was going to have them, plus Naruto, called "The Twelve", but that might be a little lame, so I then thought about hte name "The Elite". But THEN, I thought, hey, I've got all these great readers, let's let THEM suggest something! So make suggestions! I'll pick the one I like for the next chapter!