Disclaimer: I do no own Naruto nor do I make any money off of it.
=O=
Hello, my good friends! I am incredibly sorry for the late update! BTW, if you swear at me in the reviews, I'll probably have deserved it! Really sorry! Anyway, thank you especially to those who answered my question, and regular thank you to the other reviewers. Honestly, I never thought that my story would get any reviews, so I'm surprised at the feedback I'm getting. Big thank you! I should probably stop talking now. Here's the chapter!
=O=
Team seven sat at the bridge, doing their usual. Usual being, Sakura was fawning over Sasuke, Sasuke was being emo, Naruto was fake sleeping, and Kakashi was, well Kakashi was muttering strange things to himself.
"Set thousands of traps all around town? No, don't want collateral out from the shadows with a chidori in hand? No, too loud. Or I could make a sound barrier…"
Team 7 sweat dropped.
He's been trying to find a way to get back on Naruto forever! Sakura thought, shaking her head.
Meanwhile, Naruto mentally smiled in triumph. He'll never get back at me!
=O=
Sakura
Sakura closed her eyes, lost in thought. Ever since the Demon brothers attacked, her self esteem sank lower and lower, as she watched Naruto and Sasuke handle situations expertly, even when under pressure. Granted, Naruto and Sasuke were both above the level of any normal genin, but that didn't make her feel much better. All she had done was stand in front of Tazuna with a kunai, ready to piss her pants at any moment.
Sakura wasn't an idiot, she knew that she would have to sacrifice her soft skin, and probably break a few nails, but anything was better than what she was feeling now.
She guessed she could ask Kakashi for help, after all, he was her sensei. The pink haired Kunoichi thought for a moment.
I guess I could ask for genjutsu training. After all, Sensei did tell me that I'm more than adequate at chakra control for my age, and it does take up a small amount of chakra. Genjutsu it is.
Gathering up her courage, Sakura walked up to Kakashi.
"Er, Kakashi Sensei?" she asked
"Hm?" Kakashi din't even take his nose out of his perverted book.
"Can you teach me genjutsu?"
"Hm?"
Developing a twitch in her eye, Sakura asked again.
"Can you teach me genjutsu?" She asked a little more impatiently.
"Wow, an orgy! So Ichigo and Orihime are finally doing it!" Kakashi cried gleefully.
Sakura became surrounded by a fiery aura, with her hair rising in the air. Fire hot enough to burn the strongest of metal raged in the kunoichi's eyes as she cocked back her fist.
"FOR ONCE! TAKE YOUR NOSE OUT OF YOUR STUPID PERVERTED BOOK!"
Sakura slammed her fist into the side of the scarecrow's face. Poor Kakashi flew at least a hundred yards off the bridge before he finally pitifully dropped into the water.
=O=
Naruto
On the other side of the bridge Naruto and Sasuke both snickered as they fist bumped.
"Too bad there's no popcorn," Naruto sniggered.
Sasuke snorted in agreement.
"I know right! I can't believe I didn't bring a camera." Sasuke fumed.
=O=
Back to our regularly scheduled program: AKA Sakura's POV P.S. It's One Hour Later P.S.S. They're still at the bridge
Sweat dripped down Sakura's face as she panted heavily.
Damn, when I asked Kakashi for Genjutsu training I never knew it was that hard! I thought genjutsu was supposed to take up really small amounts of chakra!
"Mah, mah, Sakura, if you can't put me under the genjutsu by the end of the hour I really will call you useless," Kakashi said.
What Kakashi was teaching Sakura was an extremely basic D-ranked genjutsu. All it did was blur vision and provide with a small headache. The genjutsu only worked when the opponent was tired, when they would think that the symptoms were from fatigue. It was extremely easy to break though, once the opponent realized that they were in a genjutsu, they could break out of it, no sweat.
Sakura closed her eyes and concentrated again, bringing her hands together to make a tiger seal. She sensed Kakashi, and slowly distorted his chakra. She heard a groan, and then a thump. The tired kunoichi looked up.
Kakashi lay on the ground, unconscious. One hand clutched the latest edition of Icha Icha like it was the only thing that mattered in the world.
Wow, this could really come in handy. Sakura thought.
=O=
Naruto
The blonde enjoyed his breaks from guarding the bridge builder by training.
He jumped, then threw 50 junai in all directions. 50 trees just got a painful scar smack in the middle of their trunks.
Training gave Naruto peace of mind. It helped him calm down, and also let him bring down his mask. His mask, that kept people thinking that he was more or less a normal kid, who, despite his rough childhood, had made it through relatively unscathed. No one ever noticed the mask because he had never let his real face show. The mask covered Naruto's exessive amount of unhealthy grudges, his anger, and most of all, his sadness.
His mask was good, obviously. It had held up his whole life, after all. But it still needed a break. Otherwise he would lose himself to his mask's personality.
The blonde had crossed paths with Danzo many times, too often. Danzo had his sights set on Naruto. He had his sights set on a jinchuuriki who could create an emotional mask so believeable that no one noticed it for 12 years.
What Danzo didn't realize, however, was that a mask that complex required emotion. Emotion, which Danzo had wiped clean from all of his personal ANBU.
Naruto gracefully landed on his feet.
Maybe that's enough training for today. Zabuza ould come any minute. I shouldn't overwork myself.
As he walked back to Tazuna's house, he sensed that something was wrong.
The forest seemed disturbed. Scratch that, it looked disturbed. The bush he stood in front of was plowed right over. Naruto walked further, just to come across a corpse. It wasn't human, thankfully, It was just a boar, but it had slash marks on it. The slash marks of a sword.
Cursing, Naruto sprinted to the house as fast as his legs could carry him, just to hear a shrill scream when he arrived at the house.
Naruto entered the door to see a sight that would've terrified most people. One tough, muscled ronin held Tsunami by the neck, and another, skinnier ronin raised his sword, about to strike Inari.
Thunk. Thunk.
Two shuriken lodged in both the ronin's heads as they fell to the ground. Inari stood behind the two dead ronin, shaking, with a kitchen knife in hand.
Inari ran towards Naruto, sobbing and thanking him.
"Hey, Hey, it's alright, no one's hurt. It's okay," Naruto said gruffly.
I don't know how to handle kids, mask or not. That's for sure.
Tsunami smiled at him greatfully.
"Thank you. I can't say how grateful I am for that," Tsunami said.
Naruto fidgeted. He actually felt uncomfortable. The great jonin level at age 10 Naruto felt uncomfortable.
"You'll be okay, right? I have to get back to my team. They're probably in trouble right now."
Tsunami blinked.
"Of course. Thanks again. If your teammates are really in trouble right now, you should go now."
Naruto nodded in acknowledgement. Then he turned to Inari, who had alrady dropped the knife to the floor.
"Hey, kid. You did pretty good."
With that, he left the house, sprinting toward the bridge at full speed cursing at the rotten timing.
Back at the house, Inari let out his first genuine smile in a long time.
=O=
Sasuke
Sasuke, cursed, trying to figure out why the word "cursed" sounded extremely overused, even though he hadn't even said it before in the entire fanfiction.
The raven haired genin had been fighting the hunter-nin for some time already, but he just couldn't seem to make any progress.
Kakashi was fighting Zabuza, and having a hard time of it too. He was out of the picture. Sakura looked like she was about to piss her pants. For some reason, that phrase seemed overused too.
What's with overused phrases today, anyway?
Naruto was on break, so he probably didn't even know that they were under attack.
A senbon pierced him in the shoulder. Dammit. Sasuke thought up a plan. If he could just get some light somewhere. With a dome of ice mirrors all around him, the light would continuously reflect off it for nearly a minute. It would blind his opponent so he could escape the stupid dome of mirrors and destroy it from the outside.
Then he thought of it. Of course! If he could just make a fire! But it would have to be hot enough to emit a large and focused amount of light. Hell, something like that would take almost all of his chakra. It would probably even be enough to melt off half of an ice mirror. Doing the hand seals for the fire justu, Sasuke performed his modified Gokyaku with all his might. He heaved a huge amount of air then blew it out in a continuous thin stream of white, near blinding fire. When it hit one of the ice mirrors, the mirror steamed, and a thick sheet of ice melted off.
"I have already told you. Something as weak as that will not penetrate my Ice dome," Haku said solemnly.
The damaged mirror quickly rebuilt itself, and soon it was like nothing had ever happened.
Sasuke smirked.
"Who said I wanted to destroy the mirror?"
Had Sasuke been able to see Haku's face, He would've seen a surprised look, and then a scrunching of eyes.
The blinding light continued to reflect on the mirrors, making it harder anad harder to see.
It was his only chance.
Sasuke ran to an opening between the mirrors, exhilarated that he had outsmarted a jounin level shinobi.
"Do you think I see only with my eyes?"
A surprised Sasuke suddenly earned three senbon lodged in his back. They were painful, but they were just flesh wounds. Hearing and smell could only do so much. Haku couldn't hit a pressure point without his sight. Without warning, two, tomoes appeared in each of Sasuke's now bloodred eyes. His senses sharpened, much to his confusion.
4 more senbon lodged in Sasuke's back, 2 in his leg, 3 on his shoulder. Sasuke was limping now, he had almost reached the opening. A needle whistled as it shot across his body, missing it by less than a milimeter. His clothes were sliced, it was that close.
With sudden horror, Sasuke realized that he couldn't move forward. A string was blocking his way. It was that senbon! Sasuke quickly duck under the string, but by then it was too late. Haku had earned his sight back. The Uchiha suddenly realized that his chance to escape was over. He was doomed.
Dammit. If Naruto was here they could kick this guy's butt all the way to Kumo.
"Dammit. Naruto. If you were here-" Two senbon hit him in the neck. Sasuke collapsed in a heap.
"Speak of the devil, and the devil shall come," Naruto said ominously.
"Suiton: Suikoodan no Jutsu!"
Naruto slammed into the dome of mirrors at full force, shattering the whole thing instantly. Millions of glistening shards flew in all directions at once, like a bunch of tiny daggers.
Naruto got Sasuke out of the way in time, dodging all of the miniature blades.
Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief.
"Keep your eyes on your opponent idiot!" Zabuza brought his sword down.
Kakashi dodged in the nick of time.
Haku slowly stood up. The broken shards of the mirrors had not harmed him, he controlled ice, after all.
Naruto set Sasuke down on the ground as he got into a stance. He smirked at Haku.
"I'm gonna kick your ass all the way to Kumo."
=O=
Omake
Naruto scratched his chin, wondering why his last phrase in the chapter sounded overused. He also wondered why the overused phrase joke sounded overused. It seemed that there were many mysteries in the world to be discovered.
=O=
Omake
"Gotta catch 'em. Gotta catch 'em. Gotta catch 'em all! Pokemon!"
Naruto sweatdropped.
Inari had been "singing the new pokemon theme song for a while, and man, it did a number on his ears.
Meanwhile, far, far, away on the planet Namek
Picollo traded earth shattering blows with the ridiculously powerful Frieza. Without warning, his sharp ears detected detected a horrifying sound.
"Gotta catch 'em, gotta catch 'em, gotta catch 'em all! Pokemon!"
"AAAAARRRRGH!"
Picollo exploded in a huge supernova, destroying anything within the reach of five galaxies. Everyone died, and Frieza died too! Yay!
Back on Earth, Master Roshi celebrated.
"Yahoo! Frieza's dead! Now we can just use the deus ex machina, known as the dragonballs, to revive everyone and live happily ever after!"
=O=
My friend showed me one of the newer pokemon theme songs. It sucked! Me and him had a good laugh over it. BTW, I was reading some really good fanfics, and I realized that they were all written by adults or college students. Have any of you guys experienced the Holy Shit I'm surrounded by adults feeling? Holy Shit some of you might be adults. Weird. Anyway, if any of my old reviewers are still even here, I love you. You guys are awesome if you're still reading my fanfic. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you.
Fieryknight scratches his chin.
Why the hell does thank you sound so overused?
Ha ha! Bad jokes! always the best! :D
See you guys later! (hopefully in less than 4 months?!) BTW, I'm still really sorry for that. BTW, BTW means by the way. BTW, why does BTW sound so overused? :D
Ba jokes! Bye!
P.S. Please review. I know there's something missing in this chapter I just can't find it. Shoot. If you find something tell me because it's frustrating me.
