Master of the Arts

(Minor) Arc 2: Preparation Part 1

Chapter 6: Doubt.

Summary: After Naruto and Sakura lose their best friend, they go to extreme measures to get him back. Shikamaru tries too hard to reach into Neji's past and ends up uncovering secrets about himself along the way. Remember kids, everything is connected and it all leads back to the man who started it all. This is a journey for everyone to bring back the people they love.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Um um this is really really short and the next chapter will probably be short as well, but... After that, the action begins and hoo boy am I excited for that! (and maybe even a lil' bit terrified).

"Mm, Sasuke?"

"What dobe?"

"Why are you," yawn, "in my tent?"

"I'm not in your tent. Just go back to sleep."

"But Sasukeee."

"What?!"

"You're sleeping right next to me."

Sasuke's eyes quickly shot open and were met with the blue pair of eyes from his teammate.

"What the hell are you doing in my tent, dumbass?"

Naruto stared back for a moment before laughing nervously. "I must have… um. went into the wrong tent after taking a, uh, bathroom break last night."

"Get out."

"But it's warm Sas-"

"Get out," Sasuke practically growled. Naruto's hands went up as he hurriedly tried to mitigate the situation. "Okay okay, I get it, calm down," he stammered and quickly shuffled out of the tent.

Sasuke and Naruto had both agreed to staying on the training grounds to get some more last minute sparring practice so that they could use the last few days to prepare for the competition.

But ever since Naruto came home drunk from that party a few days ago… well… their relationship had been more than a little strained.

Sasuke would avert his eyes whenever the blonde was in close proximity and essentially just ignore Naruto whenever he tried to strike up a conversation.

This annoyed Naruto to no end. He hadn't a single clue what Sasuke's problem was and it was driving him nuts! Naruto couldn't remember what happened on the night of the party and when he tried to ask Sasuke, the emo bastard would just shrug it off as 'not a big deal'.

But it was a fucking big deal to Naruto since Sasuke still somehow made him feel responsible for it.

Naruto was the victim this time!

How could Naruto apologize for something that he didn't even know he did?!

Stupid, grumpy Sasuke-teme.

Naruto took his sneakers off and dipped his feet into the pond he found earlier while walking around trying to get his mind off of Sasuke.

That obviously didn't work.

He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the sky. It was a pretty day today. It was neither cold nor hot which, to Naruto, was a perfect temperature.

"Dobe!" Naruto heard Sasuke call out from somewhere in the forest. "I'm by the pond!" he shouted back.

Sasuke soon found his way to the pond and also placed his feet in the cold pond water. "Why'd you run off?" he absentmindedly asked.

Naruto gave him a 'really?' look and said, "Oh boy, I don't know. Maybe because you were about to lose your cool? I'm just takin' a guess here," he said sarcastically.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "Look, dobe," he replied, "I've just been a little bit on the edge since it's almost time to leave. It has nothing to do with what you think."

Naruto ignored him and asked, "Did I say something weird to you that night?"

"What did I just say, dobe?" Sasuke hissed back.

Naruto shrugged.

"You know what? I don't have time to deal with this with, what? Only 3 days left until we leave? Grow up, Naruto," Sasuke snapped.

"Me?" Naruto said incredulously and looked behind him to make sure Sasuke wasn't talking to some other Naruto. Naruto looked back at Sasuke. who had already stood up, and pointed a finger at his chest. Notably his middle finger.

"You're telling me to grow up when you won't even tell me what I did wrong! Sasuke, what the hell?" Naruto stood up and gestured unceremoniously.

But what Sasuke had done next was nowhere near what Naruto had expected Sasuke to do. Ever.

Sasuke walked up to Naruto, firmly placed his hand on both of his shoulders and pulled him in.

Not for a hug.

But for a kiss.

...It was not at all unpleasant and Naruto wasn't so sure that he disliked it either.

Sakura looked up at the bright blue sky and deeply sighed.

What do I do?

She had less than a week to figure out whether she wanted to stay in the competition or back out.

"Of course I wanna stay in the competition!" she had said to the boys who looked at her questioningly that day when Kakashi told them they weren't obligated to take the exams.

And Sakura was 99% sure she wanted to stay in the competition. But then days went by, then weeks, then months, and now it was already November and the scheduled time to leave for the competition was this week.

And Sakura was more than a little doubtful.

She wasn't feeling apprehensive… okay maybe she did have some qualms about the future. She wasn't so much worried about dying than worried about not being an asset to her team. Yeah she was strong and pretty damn sick at kickboxing, if she did say so herself, but Sasuke and Naruto outmatched her in basically everything else.

But if she wanted to be a help to her team she'd have to go with them, right? She'd wasted too much time thinking about leaving that if she were to actually leave then Sasuke and Naruto would be without a partner unless they could find one in only a few days… and even that was impossible for the almighty Sasuke and Naruto.

So here she was. Stuck. Not just figuratively but literally stuck outside because her pig (or best friend as she liked to call-oink- herself) roommate locked her out on the balcony in their shared living space.

"Are you done sulking, forehead?" called her self declared best friend.

"I'm not sulking, pig."

"Then have you made up your mind?"

"...Not yet."

"I'm not letting you in."

"But Ino," Sakura pleaded. Ino sighed and unlocked the door to walk onto the balcony beside her roommate. "Sakura, why are you being like this?"

"Like what?" Sakura requested, genuinely confused.

"Like a wimp! You've never been like this before and I don't think you'd have to start now."

"I'm not a wimp," Sakura sighed. "I'm just… I don't know… You know what I'm saying?"

"You don't even know what you're saying, forehead." Ino gave Sakura a comforting pat on the back. "The boys don't think you're a burden to their team."

"How do you know?"

"I just know okay? Can you at least trust me when I say you're going to be completely fine? And if you're not at stage 2 by the time I get there who am I going to get into pointless arguments with?"

Sakura giggled and Ino smiled feeling proud of herself for cheering her best friend up. "Besides, don't you wanna show the other teams who the baddest bitch is?"

Sakura grinned and clenched her fist. "Hell yeah."

"Show them no mercy!"

"Shannaro!" Sakura cried out and ran back into the living room closing the door behind her.

"Sakura wait-" the door locked.

Ino stood there clueless for a moment before her mood dangerously took a turn for the worst and she started yelling colorful profanities at the pink haired girl in front of her.

Sakura just shrugged. "You said to show them no mercy so…. I'm starting with you!" Sakura cheered, giving Ino a big haha in your face thumbs up and ran away before Ino found a way to break the glass.

After Sasuke had randomly kissed him out of the blue he immediately fled leaving an incredibly bewildered Naruto behind.

All that Naruto kept thinking was What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck.

Naruto wasn't too sure when he finally regained his composure but it must have been a while since the mud on his feet was already dry and cracking.

"Shit," he muttered to himself.

Naruto decided to just forget about it- he was doing a lot of forgetting lately- and just move on.

Naruto grabbed his shoes and went back to where they had set up camp.

While cleaning up his stuff- he wasn't going to clean up the bastard's stuff 'cause he was mad at him- his mind started to wonder.

Or maybe he wouldn't forget about it… which is something else his mind had been doing a lot lately, too.

Did he like Sasuke?

Lol, Naruto thought to himself (no, really, he actually said lol in his head), what am I thinking? Stupid brain.

He gave his head a playful slap and came to the conclusion that he was doing too much thinking lately.

Naruto packed all of his stuff into his bag and began his trek to his dorm room.

He'd worry about this later when Sasuke got back home.

Home, hm?

Sasuke was mildly amused at the expression on the dobe's face right after he kissed him. It wasn't a gentle kiss either. But once realization of what he actually did dawned upon him he immediately fled and cursed himself for being so foolish.

What the hell had he done?

He just went all out without thinking clearly and Sasuke was really starting to wonder if his imbecile of a roommate was rubbing off on him.

Sasuke always thought before he acted and what he just did certainly was not thought out.

After what happened on Halloween, Sasuke, well, didn't really have a clue what to say to Naruto. Sasuke had been simpleminded to think that Naruto mewling, whimpering, and whining had to do with him liking Sasuke.

Sasuke silently berated himself afterwards for thinking of something so stupid. Really? Naruto having feelings for him? Sasuke had briefly wondered if he was the intoxicated one that night.

Really, he needed to chill the fuck out. Naruto was drunk. Anyone could have acted like him if they were that inebriated. Completely filled with disbelief that day, Sasuke made up his mind to ignore the blonde for as long as he could get away with it.

Which had obviously not been a long time since Halloween had only been 4 days ago. Sitting down, Sasuke silently chastised himself once more when he realized that his foolishness would affect their teamwork during the competition.

So Sasuke decided that he had to settle this once and for all before the exams started.