Disclaimer: I do not own this.
Ch. 6
Sasuke blank-blank, as he had decided he liked that better than no-name, scowled at the evil rock that he had rather carelessly tripped on. It wasn't his fault, not really. He had clearly as anyone could see been distracted by, uhm. What had he been distracted by again? Sasuke wasn't quite sure, but he knew he'd been distracted by something. It was the last day before break and Sasuke was in terrible spirits. No plan had magnificently revealed itself and no strange Anbu that stalked him had taught him awesome ninja moves, cough cough Itachi. Instead, Sasuke was rather bored to death along with being in a foul mood. Hibachi was currently strutting around the playground with an admiring group of clanless watching.
Hibachi proclaimed pretty loudly, "We won't stand for this! We'll go no matter what! Those clan losers can't stop us! We're way better than them anyways," he gave a powerful nod as if to add emphasis before continuing, "We can't let them stop us! No way!"
Other clanless were nodding their heads in agreement, but Sasuke was stifling a yawn. Hibachi, Sasuke had quickly realized, was an even more idiotic Kiba. He was either complaining or bragging and was always surrounded by his so called friends or as Sasuke dubbed them wannabees. He'd never bothered to learn their names, merely referring to them as Hibachi's wanabee 1, 2, and so forth. If they followed that idiot then they weren't worth the effort of learning their names. Hibachi was in Sasuke's opinion an idiot and a coward. Currently he was complaining yet again about the summer sessions that the clanless or at least most of them would not be able to gain entry to. Sasuke didn't understand why Hibachi didn't try to do something about it instead of just talking. He really was an idiot.
Apparently someone else was in agreement because she plopped right down next to Sasuke and whispered into his ear in an annoyed tone, "He's a complete idiot".
Sasuke quickly spun around only to see Ami standing behind him looking at Hibachi in complete disgust. He gave a jerky nod of agreement before looking her over and commenting with a sarcastic tone, "Oh my! Ami without her followers! This is one for the books!"
Ami raised her eyebrows in surprise before snorting and lifting her nose in false contempt, "My followers? Fuki and Kasumi? Them? Hmph, you act like I always have to be with them! Why can't I just hang out with you?"
Ami was now glaring at Sasuke rather fabulously and Sasuke felt himself panicking slightly. He didn't know how to deal with an angry female! Luckily for him Ami's glare quickly turned into a smile before she asked rather pointedly, "I can spend time with you? Can't I?"
Sasuke grinned at her slightly before nodding. For some reason Ami had slowly grown on him throughout the year. Maybe it was because she was so blunt. She never held back her opinion on anyone even when she probably should have. Sure, most of what she said was negative, but Sasuke didn't think she really meant it in a mean way. It was more her observing the world out loud. They had lately bonded over the stupidity of their classmates such as Hibachi and their mutual belief in conspiracies inside the village. One of Ami's more farfetched theories, that Sasuke secretly thought was hilarious, was her idea that the fourth had never really died. Instead he had been deaged and was now growing up again as their very own classmate Naruto. As Sasuke pondered his bizarre relationship with Ami; recently they had run through the town spray painting all the anbu they could find and catch because clearly the anbu were part of some mass conspiracy, he came to the scary conclusion that he and Ami were actually friends, maybe even best friends.
He sat for a moment in shock, blinking slowly, trying to clear his thoughts before he looked up at Ami and blurted out, "We're friends? Aren't we?"
Ami stared at him before giving him a blinding smile quite different from the frown she normally wore, "Of course we are, Sasuke! Glad you can finally admit it!" here she scowled before continuing, "Just took you a while. It's not like we spend every minute at the academy and outside the academy together."
Sasuke grimaced at her clear sarcasm. Now that he thought about it he and Ami really did spend a lot of time together just walking around commenting on the world and hanging out. How had he not noticed? Whenever he wasn't by himself he was with Ami. No wonder he hadn't been able to find a way to get into the summer club. He'd constantly been distracted by being with her! Weren't you supposed to notice when you were becoming friends with someone? Sasuke wouldn't really know as Ami was his first real friend, but shouldn't he have realized before now that they were friends? Now that he thought about it, it had started long before Sasuke had submitted his idea of summer training to the class.
Ami, starting from the first week of the academy, had started training with Sasuke or just talking to him. They lived in the same area and often ended up walking home together. It was no wonder that at the middle of the year she'd been one of the few people whose names he actually knew. And somewhere along the way now that Sasuke really thought about it she'd ditched the followers. By the time the clanless vs. clan spectacle had happened he and Ami were already going on escapades around the village uncovering supposed conspiracies. Ami probably hadn't, as he had cluelessly thought, been hanging around him because he was the second in the class and for protection, but because she really wanted to and because she thought they were friends. That had, after all, been the week they had explored the Hokage's monument inside and out looking for the secret test labs that they were positive existed.
As they sat on the ground in the playground during break Sasuke found himself glancing at Ami. So, it was true they really were friends, maybe even best friends. Even though altogether it'd been a bad day and he still had no way to get into the summer training sessions Sasuke couldn't have felt better. He couldn't contain the grin that he was sure was covering his face as he thought about the fact that he had a real friend! God he probably looked like Kota glowing with excitement, but Sasuke didn't care. He had a friend!
"Hey, Ami! We're not just friends are we? We're best friends, right?" Sasuke asked grin still firmly in place.
Ami stared at him for a moment before laughing, "Of course doofus! I think you're the last one to realize it, too."
Sasuke felt a light blush appearing at her words because thinking back on it she was kind of right. People tended to group Ami and him together. He'd never really noticed, but then he had been so preoccupied with his training. Maybe the training wasn't that important. Not when he was missing out on important things like this. How lame was it that he was the last one to realize of their class that he and Ami were best friends? Sure the academy was pretty big on rankings, but Sasuke had lost himself so much in his training, become so obsessed with it, that life had started to pass him right by without him even realizing. He really was a doofus! Who cared how the stupid blonde was doing? It didn't matter because he had what he had always wanted, a best friend! Someone had finally truly acknowledged him.
He grinned at Ami and whispered quietly, "Maybe that summer training isn't all that important after all. Huh?"
Ami looked conflicted and she flicked her hand through her purple hair in thought before stubbornly saying, "It'd still be cool to go, even if it was only once."
Sasuke stared at her and shook his head before sighing, "Yah. It would still be cool to go at least once."
"Especially since it was your idea to begin with," Ami's face had taken on a hard seriousness and Sasuke gravely nodded in agreement.
That day as Sasuke left school he had a skip in his step. First off they had passed their first year which wasn't actually all that difficult, but whatever. Yakumi-sensei had even praised Sasuke's creative usage of trip wire while creating traps which was another plus. Sasuke had begrudgingly given Yakumi back the sensei on the end of his name. After all, even Sasuke couldn't hold a grudge forever. As he and Ami began the walk back to their respective homes Sasuke thought that life couldn't get much better than this.
That is until a yellow blur almost ran into him going the other direction. Sasuke scowled at Naruto while Ami gave him an annoyed look. Naruto merely grinned, brushed his hair with his hand, and gave an awkward laugh. Ami allowed a small smile to grace her face, but Sasuke's glare just increased.
"Hey, Sasuke, Ami! You guys are just the people I was looking for! Ne, Ne I've been looking all over for you, but you just seemed to disappear!" Naruto said breathlessly.
Sasuke for his part gave Naruto an incredulous look. He'd been looking for them? Why? Ami on the other hand looked pleased to hear that the prized Namikaze had been looking for her.
Naruto continued, "Yah Yah! I wanted to go over some stuff with you Sasuke, and my ka-san really wanted to meet you," here Naruto pouted before continuing, "Course you can come to Ami!"
Naruto was again wearing a shit eating grin and Sasuke could feel his eyebrows rising in surprise. Naruto wanted Sasuke to come to his house? Why?
"We're not friends," he told Naruto rather harshly. Ami gave him a vaguely annoyed face before glancing at Naruto's devastated face.
"But that doesn't mean we don't want to be friends with you, Naruto! Of course we'll come!" Ami said in a strange cheerful voice that did not sound anything like her own. She gave Sasuke a look that clearly said don't you dare disagree. Sasuke's shoulders slumped before he looked at Naruto and told him of course they'd be happy to go with him. Naruto's whole face perked up. Sasuke scowled.
As they were walking towards the Namikaze's house Sasuke angrily whispered into Ami's ear, "Why are we going along with this?"
"Oh, relax! Think of all the awesome things his house might hold: secret scrolls, jutsu, hidden secrets, conspiracies! Don't you want to see that?" Ami argued before her voice lowered and she whispered solemnly, "Also, this is our perfect chance to get access to at least one of those summer sessions. Naruto's the best in our class. All we have to do is have him teach us something to get in. It'll be a breeze!" Sasuke didn't agree. He didn't want to learn anything from Naruto. This was probably just a waste of time.
At the same time Naruto had been animating their conversation with talks of his house, his mom, jutsu, the academy, whatever he seemed to think of at the moment. As long as Sasuke nodded and allowed Ami to comment every once in a while he didn't even really have to listen to the blonde's rants.
"And then the crazy lady chased me with a kunai! She almost hit me too! It's not like I meant to eat her dango." Naruto grumbled as they finally arrived at the Namikaze household. It was a nice house Sasuke noticed. It had two floors and a training ground in back. It was much nicer than his own apartment. Sasuke's dark mood increased.
"Ka-san! We're home!" Naruto shouted as they walked through the door and began removing their shoes.
When Namikaze Kushina formerly Uzumaki walked downstairs Sasuke wasn't sure what to expect. A part of him thought she would be just like Naruto, talking a mile a minute. However, he'd been sorely disappointed. Upon walking downstairs she had frozen. A pale look had immediately crossed her face and she had stood transfixed staring at Sasuke. Sasuke frowned. Maybe he should just leave. He shouldn't have come in the first place, anyways. Clearly he wasn't wanted here. He was used to people looking at him funny anyways, either that or not looking at him at all. He wasn't sure which was worse. Maybe he should just go.
"Ka-san?" Naruto asked questioningly, "Are you okay?" That seemed to snap her right out of it as she quickly shook her head before affirming that of course she was okay and ruffling Naruto's bright blond hair.
"You must be Sasuke! And you must be Ami! It's so nice to meet you!" She smiled encouragingly at them before herding them into the kitchen for an afternoon snack. Sasuke found, surprisingly, that he did like Naruto's ka-san. She didn't talk too much, well at least not as much as Naruto and she seemed genuinely pleased to meet them which Sasuke found a bit suspicious after her earlier shock upon meeting them.
Ami seemed to have fallen in love with Kushina. She hurled her with questions about being a kunoichi, the fourth, whirlpool, and anything she could think up. The women had clearly become her new role model. Kushina seemed embarrassed by all her attention and also faintly pleased. Sasuke thought Ami was a suck up. He told her so. She stuck her tongue out at him and Kushina laughing at their antics shooed them outside. As they settled down outside, though, Sasuke couldn't stop the prickly feeling of being watched. He glanced back at the house only to see Kushina hidden in a window staring at him with a grave expression on her face. He scowled.
Naruto grinned at them both before telling Sasuke he'd invited him here so they could plan their lessons for the summer. Sasuke stared at him blankly.
"Wait what?" Sasuke asked in confusion. He looked at Ami for support, but a mischievous look had begun to cover her face. She knew what was going on, Sasuke thought annoyed. Naruto looked perplexed.
"For the summer training! You know your idea. I thought we should go over how we are gonna run it. Or how you are going to run it, as it is your idea," Naruto told him before continuing earnestly, "Of course I really wanna help too! Maybe we could like co-run it or something!" Naruto looked over at Sasuke for confirmation, but Sasuke felt shocked. He was supposed to be running the summer training? But he had no idea what to teach. He could feel panic slipping in. Oh no! What was he supposed to do? Again he looked at Ami for support, but she was looking pleased beyond belief and didn't even notice his panic stricken face.
"Um, yah! That sounds like a perfect idea. Um, how about we, um, just make up a schedule and have people sign up for a day they want to teach a cool move or something. You have to, um, sign up for a day if you want to be part of the class. How's that?" Sasuke asked nervously. Naruto looked pleased and happily agreed. Sasuke found himself secretly relieved. He'd just sign up for one of the later days and by then he'd hopefully have something to teach.
Ami and Sasuke stayed at Naruto's for a while longer playing games before they had to leave. As they walked out Sasuke had to admit that Naruto wasn't as bad as he once thought.
That is until Naruto shouted, "You'll take the first day? Right, Sasuke? As it was your idea. I'll take the second so people have plenty of time to sign up!" He then waved good bye. Sasuke felt himself panicking again and turned to Ami with fear. She merely laughed.
"Relax Sasuke. You're the second in our class. I'm sure you can pull something out of your butt," Ami told him. She didn't seem concerned for his fate. Instead she began talking about how great Kushina-san had been and how she wanted to be just like her when she grew up. Sasuke groaned and muttered something about uncaring supposed friends. Ami happily ignored him and continued relating how she was so going to die her hair the same color orange as Kushina's. Eventually they parted ways with Ami still spouting about Kushina and Sasuke mumbling darkly to himself.
The next day Sasuke decided to go find a big empty field as it was more likely the Anbu would come out if no one else was around. Sasuke had little faith in his plan as it would involve both the elusive Anbu coming out into the open and then such elusive Anbu agreeing to teach him an awesome cool secret Anbu move. It probably hadn't helped that he had been antagonizing the Anbu as of late with Ami's help of course. He frowned and waited in the field silently. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a couple minutes Sasuke saw a dark figure walking towards the hill. His heart rose in elation! This was his chance. Excitement coursed through Sasuke's veins, only to turn into extreme disappointment. It wasn't an Anbu!
"What are you doing here?' Sasuke asked his disappointment clearly shining through. Shikamaru gave Sasuke a bored look before lifting his head to the sky. He then settled down to cloud gaze. Sasuke glowered.
He told Shikamaru angrily, "You were supposed to be an Anbu!" Shikamaru's eyebrows rose slightly and he glanced at Sasuke in clear surprise.
"An Anbu?" he asked softly before closing his eyes and turning away. Sasuke stared at him and thought about kicking him in the side.
He informed Shikamaru grumpily, "I thought you were one of the Anbu who stalks me. An Anbu could've taught me awesome moves". He gave Shikamaru a disgusted look so Shikamaru would be aware of just how much he lacked when compared to said Anbu.
Shikamaru was confused. He hated being confused. An Anbu stalked Sasuke? Weird. And why? Ugh, now it would bug him. And why did Sasuke want to meet with him? It was something about awesome moves.
He gave Sasuke another bored look before commenting dryly, "You don't have anything to teach, do you?" Sasuke looked ready to make a fierce denial, so Shikamaru raised his hand to stop him.
"Hmm, just teach everyone a chakra control exercise. They're simple. For one of them all you have to do is float a leaf on your face with chakra. We're going to learn it next year anyways. Might as well teach it early," the Nara said while shrugging lightly. Sasuke stared at him for a moment before running off with a fierce look of determination. If Shikamaru were a betting person he would have said Sasuke was off to go float some leaves on his face. Instead he sighed and turned back to looking at the clouds with a bored expression on his face.
Sasuke was nervous. Today he was going to teach everyone the chakra control exercise. At least he was supposed to. But, Sasuke had never mastered it himself! His chakra would randomly flair up and the next thing he knew the leaf was long gone. It was supposed to be easy, damnit! But Sasuke couldn't seem to do it for the life of him! His stupid chakra! Why the hell wouldn't it cooperate? He scowled fiercely at the sky. There had to be something he could do. For a second he had contemplated asking the hokage's help or even Naruto's, but his pride wouldn't let him. No way was he going to admit defeat especially not to that blonde idiot.
As Sasuke scowled his way through the village Itachi watched in boredom. He had seen the boy try to master the chakra exercise and fail every time. At first the boy's attempts had been entertaining especially the excessive swearing that inevitably followed every failure, but by now it was just pathetic. There was no way he was an Uchiha now. Uchiha's half his age could do the grand fireball technique without problem and he couldn't even balance a leaf on his nose. Itachi sniffed superiorly. Of course the boy couldn't have been an Uchiha anyways, but this just proved it. What a waste of space this Sasuke was. Itachi was sure his little brother would have been able to do the grand fireball technique by now and much more.
Itachi was distracted by the boy cursing again. A purple haired female was accompanying him now and was laughing at his clear distress. She led him about the village clearly trying to cheer him up, but the boy was stuck in a melancholy mood. Itachi glanced at the boy. He hadn't really given him a chance, just because he was bad at the leaf exercise didn't mean he was bad at all jutsu. He could still prove himself worthy of Itachi's little brother's name. Maybe Itachi could give him a test. A possible way to prove beyond all doubt that he wasn't just his brother's usurper, that he deserved his name. After cementing in his mind a plan to make such a test possible Itachi continued stalking the boy and female waiting for the perfect opportunity. When it appeared he jumped off the building, grabbed the boy, and took off with him at a run. The purple girl shrieked and tried to give chase, but Itachi paid her no mind. He quickly outran her until she was just a dot in the distance.
"If this is about the investigations we did, I'm really, really sorry! We didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Please don't kill me!" Sasuke shouted at him desperately. Itachi ignored him and continued running until they reached a secluded training ground in the village. There he put the boy down and a scroll down. Sasuke immediately prepared himself for a fight that he knew would be lopsided.
Unfortunately his opponent just stared at him for a while before finally telling him in a monotone voice, "I have decided to test your potential to see if you are worthy. Do not fail." And then he abruptly disappeared. Sasuke could feel his heart beating and fear overwhelming him. What was going on? Was the Anbu going to kill him? He'd always gotten on pretty well with the silent weasel Anbu. What had happened?
A voice that came from nowhere and everywhere told him, "You will have one hour to learn a technique from that scroll before you. Prove yourself worthy." Then the voice disappeared and Sasuke wondered what the consequences would be if he didn't master one of the techniques from the scroll in the hour. He gulped before shaking his head to clear the thought and stared desperately at the scroll in front of him. He opened it with shaking fingers only to stare at it in shock and dismay upon seeing its contents. The directions were in a different language! Even if the directions were in the right language Sasuke doubted he could learn one of these advanced jutsus or taijutsu moves in an hour He quickly scrolled through it hoping to find even one technique in the correct language. As he got farther and farther into the scroll with no technique showing up Sasuke could feel his panic beginning to well up. What was he supposed to do? As he continued in the scroll looking at all the impossible techniques Sasuke was filled with questions. How was he supposed to do a crow clone jutsu? The directions were clearly listed, but he couldn't read the strange language!
"Yes!" Sasuke shrieked with elation. There was finally a technique where the directions were in a language Sasuke could understand. It was called the grand fireball technique and as Sasuke looked at the directions it definitely seemed possible for him to master. He sat down to read the directions and fiercely began practicing.
Itachi was shocked. He had not expected to find a beaming Sasuke, bruised up and weary, but with an impressive grand fire ball technique one hour later. The boy had succeeded beyond belief. If he were an Uchiha this would have been his coming of age moment. Itachi stared at the boy some more. He kind of looked like an Uchiha with his pale face and dark hair and eyes, Itachi mused, before dismissing the ridiculous thought. Either way the boy had proven himself worthy. Still he wasn't quite worthy of Itachi's little brother's name yet, but at least now Itachi could be assured that the boy wouldn't be shaming it. Yes, clearly this jaunt had been a success.
Sasuke stared at the Anbu wearily before announcing, "You did this on purpose, didn't you? So I'd be properly motivated, so I'd have something to teach the other kids! Thanks! You really are my favorite Anbu!" Itachi shrugged. If that was what the kid wanted to believe then that was fine. Itachi would know the truth. If only he could ignore the warm fuzzy feeling growing in his chest at the boy's words. Why should he care if the boy liked him? If he was the boy's favorite? The kid wasn't anyone special! No way. It was, Itachi decided, time for him to leave before he tried to convince himself for the billionth time that the kid was an Uchiha when he clearly wasn't. Yes, that's exactly what he would do.
Sasuke stared off at the Anbu's retreating back with eyes filled with admiration before heading back to the center of Konoha. He, after all, had a lesson to teach today and there was no way he was going to miss it!
After finding and calming down a disgruntled and scared Ami they both headed off towards the training ground Naruto had gotten special permission to use. Sasuke, however, refused to tell her exactly what had happened. He wanted to surprise everyone even her with his awesome new jutsu. That didn't stop her from prying, though.
"You're in on the conspiracy now, aren't you? Sasuke, tell me!" she sniffed unhappily. "If I was the one who the Anbu informed of their plans I would tell you about it," here she gave Sasuke a pleading look which he ignored, "Hmph. Fine! Be that way. I'll get it out of you soon enough, anyways!" she promised. They continued the rest of their walk in silence with Ami shooting Sasuke the occasional glare.
As they approached the training ground Naruto shouted out, "What took you so long? We were beginning to think you were a no show!" Kiba grumbled in the background about how annoying Sasuke was, but Sasuke was too elated to bother glaring back. He, instead, looked around at all the people. It looked like anyone who was anybody from their grade had shown up even Hibachi. He probably thought he could get away with at least getting in the first few lessons before anyone called him on the fact that he had nothing to teach. There was no one from outside their grade, but that wasn't really surprising. They were the youngest grade and who would want to learn from kids younger than them?
Looking around Sasuke noted that Shikamaru was there with his hands in his pockets. He'd probably been dragged here by Chouji. Ino and Sakura had of course shown up together. Bug boy hid in the back ground observing while Kiba loudly talked about how Sasuke probably had nothing good to teach them. Ami loudly shushed him, but Sasuke didn't notice. He was too busy staring at the shy Hyuuga who looked like she wasn't quite sure if she should be here. He was really surprised Hinata had shown up. He hadn't thought she would come at all. Naruto had probably convinced her. Fuki was there, but Kasumi was noticeably missing. He vaguely wondered why before dismissing the matter from his mind. It didn't really matter anyways. It was time to call this lesson to order.
He began by explaining the schedule system. Everyone would sign up for one day and they would go from there. Sasuke then reminded them that if they had nothing to teach they were better off just leaving right now. Ami gave him a dirty look which Sasuke pretended not to see and Hibachi's chest puffed up in false bravado. He probably believed the false show of confidence would convince everyone he had something to teach. Kota looked nervous and vaguely nauseous. He probably wasn't really cut out to be a ninja.
Hinata in the corner looked petrified of the idea of having to stand up in front of everyone and give a lesson. In direct contrast Ino and Sakura were arguing over who would give the better lesson their voices high like banshees. Sasuke was vaguely surprised that Kiba didn't attempt to join their fight, but he was preoccupied trying to get Shino to show some sort of facial expression. Shikamaru was sleeping on the ground and Chouji was complaining about the lack of food. Fuki was attempting to flirt with Naruto, but Naruto was too busy going around with the signup sheet for the days to really notice. Sasuke sighed. This was going to be a long summer.
"All right! Pay attention now. I'm going to start with a demonstration!"Sasuke yelled over the class.
Once he had everyone's attention he loudly yelled, "Fire release: Grand fireball Jutsu!" A huge fireball ripped out of Sasuke's mouth and scorched a path down over the lake where it wouldn't light anything on fire. The response was immediate. There were oohs and ahhs everywhere. Everyone was telling Sasuke that it was so cool he could do that and that they totally wanted to learn.
Ami stared at him for a minute before winking and whispering to him, "Told you, you would pull something out of your butt". She looked faintly pleased with him and Sasuke smiled back. Naruto then ran up to him eyes ablaze telling him how amazing it had been. Sasuke could feel himself beginning to blush before frowning. What the blonde said didn't matter! He glared at Naruto. But it was what Kota said next that really threw him.
"Wow! How'd you learn that Sasuke? It's so cool! That's the jutsu the Uchiha use for their coming of age test! Once you can do that jutsu you're considered a man in their clan! How'd you learn it? You should show Yakumi-sensei!" Kota blurted out enthusiastically. Sasuke blinked. Wait, what? He hadn't known that at all. Of course he didn't stalk the Uchiha quite like Kota did in the first place, but still the Uchiha coming of age test? What the hell? The Anbu said he had been testing his potential, right? So, the weasel Anbu must be an Uchiha. Weird. He'd always kind of imagined the Anbu with blonde hair and green eyes for some reason, but clearly that didn't fit anymore. Stupid Anbu, had to be an Uchiha, and ruin Sasuke's mental picture of him.
Sasuke shook his head at the thought before continuing the lesson by going through the hand positions and exactly how one went about converting their chakra to fire. By the end of the time, though, Sasuke felt very frustrated. No one had gotten it! Naruto had come close once with a feeble fire ball. He didn't seem to upset that he hadn't mastered it as he knew he was wind natured like his dad. After hearing this Ami had given Sasuke a knowing look. Sasuke already knew that this little detail had been added to the growing list of evidence that incriminated Naruto as actually being the Yondaime. He rolled his eyes at Ami.
Everyone else was getting pretty upset by this time too. Kiba was cursing and even Shino was openly glaring at anyone who dared invade his personal space. The lesson was wrapping up and Naruto was beginning to notice the disappointed faces. He couldn't let the first lesson end with such disappointment!
"Yo! You guys relax! This is like way above our level! It's amazing we can even get it a little. We won't even begin learning stuff like this until we're genin. Sasuke only learned because of extensive training. He just thought it'd be something cool to show on the first day! You know?" Naruto told the group. Sasuke's eye twitched. Extensive training? What extensive training? Before he could say anything Ami's hand lightly touched his shoulder and she shook her head. He stared at her. Why had she stopped him? As the group left in much better spirits with Hibachi pompously telling everyone what a show off Sasuke was Sasuke turned to question Ami.
However, Ami beat him to the punch line and told him in an annoyed tone, "Oh relax Sasuke! Naruto was just trying to make everyone feel better. He didn't want everyone to go home on the first day unhappy and disappointed. And you were a bit of a show off". Sasuke pouted at her, but she resolutely ignored it.
By this time he, Ami, and the blonde were the only ones still left at the training ground and so all three began to walk back to Konoha. This inevitably led to Naruto inviting the three of them back to his house for dinner. Sasuke had sent a pleading look at Ami, but she had coldly ignored it and had of course happily accepted the invitation. She had wanted to see Kushina again and if Sasuke had to be sacrificed to do it then so be it. As they walked into the Namikaze's house, as Sasuke had failed at creating an appropriate plan for escaping and was now stuck with the blonde and family for dinner, Naruto and Ami chatted happily and Sasuke mumbled incoherently. So, started an eventful summer.
Everyday the group would meet up at the training ground and someone new would teach the group something. Some lessons were interesting, some boring, and some weird. Naruto taught everyone how to manipulate kunai with wire which was really cool. But then the next day Ino attempted to teach seduction moves, boys included. That involved a lot of laughs, but not a lot learned. Hinata taught the group where pressure nerves were located and thanks to Naruto didn't faint once, though it was difficult to hear her. Sakura taught a chakra control exercise that Sasuke failed horribly at. Ami wouldn't let it go for days. She was finally better at something than Sasuke ninja involved.
Perhaps one of the most interesting lessons much to Sasuke's chagrin was Kiba's. He went up and taught everyone how to use chakra to increase all their senses which was really cool. Suddenly Sasuke could hear and smell way better than before. However, when he went to send chakra to his eyes he found he couldn't. Instead he got a mild headache for his effort. When he brought it up to Ami and Naruto later they seemed surprised. Apparently that had never happened to them. Sasuke scowled again. Why didn't it work for him when it worked for them? He was still grumbling about it later that night when they went out to dinner. It was Ami's turn to treat.
That was another side effect of the summer training. Their age group had gotten a lot closer. Sasuke finally felt like he truly belonged. He looked forward every day to the long hours spent at the training ground hanging out under the burning sun with the people he had begun to dub as his friends. They were always looking at him as the leader of their group. When they had questions or just wanted to talk they went to Sasuke for his advice and ideas. It made Sasuke feel like he was needed and gave him a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of his stomach. People were acknowledging him! Ami warned him in a joking tone not to let it get to his head.
At the same time another friendship was developing. Because the summer training had been his idea, but pulled off by Naruto he and Naruto shared the responsibility and it had slowly driven them closer together. It had become a bit of a tradition through Ami's maneuvering to go get dinner together afterwards just the three of them. Sasuke and Naruto also began working together a lot more to teach lessons on days when no one else had signed up or just to add something in. Ami encouraged the friendship as much as possible. When Sasuke questioned her on her motives she would just claim it was to gain more evidence on Naruto being the Yondaime. Due largely to Ami's constant interferences which foiled all Sasuke's escape attempts, Ami and Sasuke found themselves at the Namikaze household so much that they could walk in and get food for themselves with no one even giving it a second glance. Before the summer was over it had stopped being Sasuke and Ami and somehow had turned into Sasuke, Ami, and Naruto.
Much like Ami had, Naruto had slowly wormed his way into Sasuke's heart. He was no longer the annoying blond Sasuke had secretly or not so secretly always been jealous of. He had strangely turned into a friend, though Sasuke was loath to admit it.
As Naruto, Ami, and Sasuke passed an ideal summer by lounging in the training ground and out at the restaurants cementing their friendship, Kushina fretted and worried. She didn't know what to do. The boy, Sasuke, who was quickly becoming her son's best friend was tormenting her. First, he served as a reminder of everything that could have happened to her son and reminded her of Minato's death. Then, he also bore an unearthly resemblance to the Uchiha. It frightened Kushina more than she would ever admit and she had no idea what to do. She was positive she hadn't imagined the conversation outside her hospital room. The boy had to be an Uchiha. Should she confront Mikoto and Fugaku about this? But, Mikoto really seemed to think her son was dead. Maybe Sasuke's appearance was just a coincidence. She couldn't bring it up with no evidence! It would only serve to hurt Mikoto more. She'd have to stick to just observing now and if she attempted to force him to activate his sharingan at the same time, then so be it.