A.N: I know, I know. It's shorter than usual! I am planning to update sometime over the weekend, to make up for this small chapter. I would of written more, but I feel like you've waited long enough for this, but I've been too busy with studying for my finals. I hope you'll enjoy this and don't destroy me later on for this. I believe this is the shortest chapter I've written for this story yet; since it's not even over 2,000 words. Oh well, not much I can do. I actually took off some of my studying time to finish this, so... I'm sorry, it's not what you expected. Enjoy, and review though!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Tough
Chapter Nine
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Kakashi teleports into a tree a few feet away from his team and sigh, shaking his head. He jumps down from the tree and walks up behind them, resting his elbow lazily on the stomp and tilting his head to the side. Instead of finding irritated children, he found them all sleeping - in each others arms - much to his surprise. He shakes his head lightly and glances down at them. Naruto Uzumaki has his father's crazy blond hair and bright blue eyes; his outfit is horrible for a ninja though. An orange jumpsuit with the Uzumaki seal on the back, blue ninja shoes, and his headband on his forehead. Sasuke Uchiha has a chicken butt hairstyle with black hair - that has a blue tint to it. He has white shorts, a dark blue high collar shirt, blue ninja shoes, and his band is also on his forehead. Sakura Haruno has long light pink hair that is in two low piggy tails with her bangs covering her left eye, and beautiful green eyes that usually change in shade depending on her mood. Her headband is on her left upper arm.
"Oh, you finally arrived, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura yawns out, using the back of her hand to wipe her eyes. "You tell us to arrive at five, and you just now get here?" She looks up at the sky narrowing her eyes, "Five hours later." She sits up and groans, feeling Sasuke's arm tighten around her.
"Sorry, I ran into a black cat, I had to come here the long way." Kakashi lies smoothly, grinning under his mask when he heard her groan, "Someone doesn't want you up, eh?" Sakura rolls her eyes and gently slides out of Sasuke's grip before standing up. She walks over to Kakashi and pouts
"Kenji-chan told me that we met before. You were the old pervert who always read that weird orange book. Not to mention you locked me inside my room just so I can't get into trouble. Too bad for you, I snuck out and you got in trouble, so ha!" She grins walking over to Naruto and kicking his side gently, "Naru-kun, get up." She orders, using the nick name to wake him up. Naruto immediately wakes up. He wipes the sleep away from his eyes while Sakura goes over to Sasuke. "Sasu-chan, you gotta wake up now." Sakura whispers into his ear after leaning down, her lips brushing against his ear. Sasuke's eyes open slowly.
"Now that you all are ready, we will start the test." Kakashi informs them, placing a clock on top of the middle stomp, "This test is really easy to understand. All you have to do is get these bells from me. The two who get them pass while the third one gets sent back to the academy." Kakashi instructs, holding two silver bells in his hand, shaking them. "You all can fail and be sent back to the academy though. Another thing, if you expect to get these, you better come at me with the content to kill, or else you will be in danger." Kakashi closes his eyes, forming an upside down 'U'.
"There are only two bells, how is that fair? Unless you are trying to tell us that one of us have to fail." Naruto whispers, his eyes widening, "No way! How can you put a team against each other? Aren't we suppose to work together?!" Naruto shouts.
"Only two of you will pass, Naruto. It probably won't be you though, you are the loudest, after all." Kakashi smiles, "Ready...set..." Naruto immediately pounces at Kakashi, only to get pushed on the ground and sat on, "I haven't even said go yet, Naruto." Kakashi mumbles, "I'm starting to like you now though!" He stands up and puts his foot on Naruto's back, "Ready set, go!" He yells, forming a hand sign and disappearing, leaving a cloud of dust.
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Kakashi leans against the tree with his arms crossed over his chest, and his eyes in his perverted book. He looks up every once in a while, making sure one of his students aren't trying to pull a sneak attack. Heh, how weird. Usually the teams are fighting against each other. Every attack they've done so far has been together, even though it's just something as little as throwing a kunai knife at me. Which Sakura did... Kakashi thinks, shaking his head in defeat. He closes his book and puts it in his pocket, smirking lightly. If they aren't coming to me, I'll go after them, heh. Kakashi closes his eyes and finds their chakra signatures after a few seconds. He nods once to himself before taking off, heading towards Sakura, determined to catch her off guard.
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"He's coming, guys." Sakura mumbles to her friends through an ear piece, hearing them reply back, "I think he's heading towards me, we are going with plan red, okay?" She hears them reply once more before stopping, a kunai knife landing in front of her. "Is that all you got, Kakashi-sensei?" She asks, smirking up at Kakashi while lazily flipping to get distance between them. "I'm kind of disappointed, Kenji-sensei has been better than this..." Kakashi's eye twitches lightly at the thought, making her giggle. "Oh, boys are always so over sensitive when it's about their rivals!"
"Sakura..." Kakashi grumbles, reaching into his weapon pouch and pulling out his favorite book, "Well, aren't you going to attack? You talk big but don't do anything to back it up. Oh yeah, I forgot, you get your boys to do everything you want." Kakashi taunts, staring down at his book and reading one of the famous smut paragraphs.
"Are you trying to hint on that I'm a whore, Kakashi-sensei?" She asks sweetly, shutting off her ear piece, "If so, I am sorry to say this, but you'll about to regret ever taking that book out in front of me. Pervert." She taunts back, taking a small step towards him before pulling out her own kunai knives and tossing it at him carelessly; Kakashi immediately dodges them.
"Easy," He mumbles, turning the next page. Sakura stares at him before smirking, her eyes dancing with happiness. He's underestimating us, and the other boys will be here soon enough. They better hurry though, I really can't wait to see sensei's face... She thinks to herself before chuckling.
Suddenly, Kakashi jumps back, watching as the ground explodes underneath him. He turns his attention to the two males running up at him.
"So you were waiting for them." He says calmly, dodging some of the attacks the Uchiha threw. Naruto, however, snuck up behind him and held him into a headlock while Sasuke tackled them both to the ground. Sakura calmly skips over to them and kneels in front of Kakashi, picking up his perverted book out of his hand.
"Let's go, boys." She orders, sending Kakashi a smirk before jumping into the trees and running away, leading them towards a spot with a fire. After the boys left, Kakashi sighs. Why the hell did she take the book and not the bells?! Kakashi gets up and follows after them.
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"Kenji-chan! You should of saw his face, it was priceless!" Sakura giggles, sitting down and eating dinner with her friend. "He was in anime tears I tell you! Then he muttered how he will avenge his book," She rolls her eyes, "Stupid, isn't he? He shouldn't be reading about smut in front of his innocent little students. He's lucky I didn't do worse to the book." Kenji chuckles, shaking his head in amusement. His 'daughter' came home and told him how her team passed, soon after Kakashi was banging at his door, demanding money to buy a new book. Apparently, Kakashi said something to piss the cherry blossom off, and she ripped the pages in front of them while throwing it into a fire.
"I think you're turning into a sadist, Sakura." He comments nicely, giving her a thumbs up, "You are doing great!" Sakura grins brightly, nodding.
"He deserves it! He's been insulting me everyday!" She whines, crossing her arms over her chest. "I have to go to sleep now though." Sakura stands up and exits the kitchen, heading towards her room. She lays down in her bed and slowly closes her eyes, drifting off to sleep.
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Sakura walks around a dark forest nervously, observing the grounds all around her. She has no clue how she got here, but she knows one thing for sure; It isn't safe. She can smell the blood in the air, and hear the screams of children. Welcome to my home, Saku-chan!~ Inner purrs out happily, stepping in front of Sakura and blocking her view. I am happy to have you see where you'll be stuck at when I take control. Inner giggles, I can take over your whole body, and make you do whatever I wish. That is why my master put me into you, after all. Sakura narrows her emerald-green eyes at her, growling lightly under her breath, "Why don't you shut up, Inner? What is your name anyways? You can't tell me it's inner Sakura anymore since you admitted someone put you inside of me for a reason! Explain!" Sakura demands, only to feel a kunai knife hit her cheek painfully. In this world, I am in control, you better remember that well, freak. I've been stuck inside of you for years, and I'm sick of it. I will get out, and when I do I will destroy your precious friends. After kissing them possibly, you have a lot of cute friends; I'll ruin Hinata's determination, too. Sakura glares, "How the hell do I get out of this place?" She asks. "You will not touch anyone I know! I will destroy you, demon." I'll believe it when I see it, Sakura-chan! I would like to give you a welcome home gift though. Enjoy. Suddenly, Sakura passes out, blood seeping out of her head.
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Sakura wakes up the next morning, groaning in pain. She puts her hand behind her head, feeling a bump. She sniffs the air and smells her own blood. What the hell did she do? Sakura asks herself silently, sitting up and grabbing her clothes, heading towards the bathroom. She enters and quickly takes a shower; she walks back into her room dressed and picks up her blankets, planning to clean them up.
"Sakura, what's with the blood on your blankets?" Kenji asks curiously, watching Sakura turn bright red and running off, heading towards the laundry room, "Oh, did she start..?" He asks, his eyes widening, "And Kakashi thought he went through hell yesterday..."
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Kakashi groans quietly to himself and sits up, rubbing the back of his head. He can't believe he actually passed his team; a bunch of idiots, in his own opinion. He closes his eyes and rubs his left eye, sighing loudly. His female teammate burnt his favorite book, in front of him, and laughed! He was going to get pay back on her, and it's going to be worse than what she did. He was sure of it. Kakashi climbs out of his bed and changes into his clothes, heading towards the memorial stone. He has to pay respect to his former teammates, and tell them about his new team.
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Anyways, there it is! I'm hoping the next chapter is better, I know what's going to be in it, I just have to sit down and actually have time to type it, you know? I'm not going to lie to you guys either, I actually started another story, for The Prince of Tennis. So I've been working on that (Even though I haven't published it yet. I'm hoping to get further in this story, and get to at least chapter five before publishing. Um.. I can't really think of anything else to say except I hope to update over the weekend! Thanks, and please remember to review!
Before I forget, I would like to thank the following for reviewing: Splitheart1120, Black n' Blue sun, Guest, MiyatheEarthninja, Neko-Renku, Dina Sana, Guest, Angelpanda-chan, Poobear07, Guest, Guest, Maria Winchester!
Kimi-the-writer