Chapter 5

Raito really does look bad... maybe she was just that tired yesterday...' Sakura thought when she saw Raito and Haku in the forest. She only caught a glimpse of her for half a second, but it was enough to see the worn look on her face and the tired circles under the other girl's eyes.

"Oh come on, Raito, you're being slow again... that's no fun."

"And yet, you're still not winning." Raito's voice, despite her appearances, sounded full of life and energy.

"We both know I'm not really trying. Hey! you almost got me!"

"Wasn't that the point?"

"Gotta run fast, gotta run fast, gotta run faster, faster, faster faster faster..."

"Shut up."

"Why don't you make me?"

"You're such a brat, you know that Haku?"

"That hurts, Raito, really."

"Ok, ok, you win."

The sound of rustling leaves stopped abruptly. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto looked for the duo, but didn't see them. Even the birds were silent, but they had been scared out of the area long ago by Haku and Raito training. All the same, it was eerie.

"Good morning. Do you want us to leave so you can train on your own?" Haku asked.

"Nah, you're fine!" Naruto answered, still searching the trees for them.

"Where are you?" Sakura asked.

"Right here," Raito answered. She was sitting on the crook of a tree, one leg on the branch one leg dangling off. Haku was crouched next to her. "Where's Kakashi?"

"He's always late," Naruto answered. "He probably won't be back for a while. What are you doing?"

"Brushing up on our fighting skills, but I lost, so now I have to do dishes this week." She stuck her tongue out at Haku. "Though I do wonder..."

"That would be rather interesting, wouldn't it? But do they have that much potential?"

"Only one way to find out."

"What are you two talking about? Unlike you two, we can't read your minds," Naruto said grumpily.

Raito's answering smile was just a touch creepy. "We wonder who would win if we were to fight. Haku and I against you, Sasuke, and Sakura. Three days from now, here. What do you say?"

"You're on! We're going to beat you, believe it!"

"Beat who?" Kakashi asked when he entered the spot chosen for their training.

"Oh, we'll see about that. Haku and I are full of surprises. Until then, sayonara," Raito said before darting off into the forest with Haku.

"Naruto, you idiot! There's no way we're going to be able to beat them! They've studied all over the place, and graduated from multiple academies! There's no way we can win!" Sakura did her best to look menacing, but Naruto only laughed in response.

"It's not a problem, Raito can't use jutsu, remember? They don't stand a chance against us!"

"Well, I guess we do outnumber them too..." Sakura admitted with defeat.

"Raito, are you sure it was such a good idea to challenge them to a fight? We're outnumbered two to three, along with going against an Uchihah and the nine tailed fox. Not to mention the fact that Kakashi is their sensei. We don't stand a chance."

"Sure we do. Both of us have more battle experience, neither of them have tapped into their true power, and probably have already labeled me as less of a threat than you. Besides, we have more knowledge about fighting than the three of them put together."

"That would be reassuring, if I didn't already know that you're an optimist."

"Ah, but I'm a depressed, logical optimist so we're all good."

"Isn't that a contradiction?"

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you."

"And you call me a brat," Haku said teasingly. "By the way, this does not get you out of dishes."

"...damn."

Sakura wasn't quite sure what to make of Raito. When the two had first met, Raito hadn't even shown any sign of noticing her. Sakura came to the conclusion that Raito labeled her as "Ino's friend" and left it at that, but then she went and made friends with Naruto. In some ways, it had made Sakura jealous, someone had noticed Naruto over her. Not only that, but after knowing his history, she chose to be his friend. 'So what did that say about me?' she asked herself. She didn't know the answer to that one, for once. Normally she would have brushed it off and disregarded it completely, but Raito and Haku had made themselves a part of their lives, at least for the time being. Enough that Sasuke would want to do them favors, anyway. Sakura would be lying if she said she wasn't completely and totally jealous, but Raito wasn't making anything of it. As far as she could tell, the girl didn't even like Sasuke. That was crazy enough.

Was that even possible?

For whatever reason, it didn't even make Sakura feel better. She should have been happy that she didn't have any more competition, but Raito still managed to make her feel threatened. Maybe it was because she fit beside Haku so perfectly, and

Sakura couldn't get over the feeling that she was holding the team back more than Naruto was. Maybe it was because she knew that a two man team with Sasuke and Naruto would work, and Sakura would be useless and left behind in their dust.

Or maybe it was because Raito didn't like Sasuke, and Sakura didn't trust that. But why Naruto?

Speaking of which, where was he?

"Sakura! I thought you would be asleep by now." Had they been wrong to shun him? No, that wasn't possible, he had the nine tailed fox sealed inside his body, and he was a trouble maker on top of it. She hadn't made a mistake there, but where? Had Raito been right when she said that they were blaming him for things that were out of his control?

Sakura shrugged. "I'm not tired yet."

"Oh. It is pretty, isn't it?"

"What?"

"The city. It's nothing like Konoha, but it's pretty in its own way don't you think?"

In that second, Sakura could see what exactly Raito saw in the blond. He had the biggest heart, and saw the best in everything. Then that second was gone, and Sakura saw the same kid she had grown up with. The silly kid who had no structure in his life and was a big nuisance, but somehow managed to get to the heart of the situation anyway, when she was left on the outside.

The kid, who despite his low grades and foolishness, still left her in the dust.

"Yeah."

The next morning, there was a sense of excitement in the air that was infectious. Even Sakura was looking forward to the upcoming fight. Breakfast was eaten in a hurry, and they were out the door quickly.

"We're going to beat them, believe it! Raito and Haku won't know what hit them!"

"Haku! I can't find my choker!"

"Raito, we're going to be fighting. I doubt you need a choker of all things."

"But it's lucky."

"No such thing as luck."

"But there is such thing as having more confidence because you think you're lucky and therefore doing things you might not have done before that work anyway. Just like Captain Jacksparrow."

"That was a fictional character, of course he gets to disobey the laws of physics."

"If he can, then so can I, because I'm Raito and I say so, so there."

Haku plucked the choker from the end table, where it was left, and handed it to the girl. If something left her hand for more than... no, if it left her hand at all, it would be lost. "You're such a child."

Raito covered her mouth and laughed. "Really?"

"Shut up. We better get going, or we'll be late."

"Ok."

"Raito! Haku! We thought you had chickened out and weren't going to show!"

"You wish," Raito retorted. She put a hand over her mouth to cover her smirk. "We sound like a bad movie about gang wars. Hey Frankie, let's show these punks what's what," Raito said in a heavy accent that would have been Italian, had such a place existed. As it were, it was more like the slums of the Hidden Mist Village.

"Raito, do us both a favor, and shut up."

"Yeah, Boss," she said with the same accent.

Naruto leaned towards Sasuke and whispered, "what are they talking about? And who's Frankie?"

"How would I know?"

Kakashi smiled at the joke, being one of the only ones who understood it. "Hey, don't talk about the business in front of these guys, eh?" His accent was just as bad at Raito's, probably on purpose.

Raito started snickering behind her hand, and Haku found it amusing as well. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto just looked confused. "Right, Boss, whatever you say, Boss," Raito agreed.

"Weren't we going to fight?"

"Anxious, aren't we Naruto? Kakashi, would you mind acting as ref?"

"Of course. I'll stop you as soon as there is a clear winner. On my mark, begin."

Raito smirked when she saw that it was intended that she go against Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura went after Haku.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!"

Narutos surrounded her. Senbon slipped into Raito's hand, and she caught a kunai between her teeth. All of the Narutos sprang at her at once, but it didn't take long for her to reduce them to puffs of smoke. During a back flip Raito slid her calf under Sakura's feet, tripping the girl. Haku took the opportunity, and almost as if he had been expecting it, pinned her to the ground with senbon to show that he was capable of killing her. During this, Sasuke seized the opportunity to clip his cheek with a kunai.

"Sakura is disqualified," Kakashi said.

Sakura stood up and walked out of the battlefield to sit with Kakashi. His head band was pulled out of the way so that he could watch the fight, Haku was moving that fast. Sasuke was taking hit after hit with the senbon, Haku moved between the trees like lightening. Raito was using a complex fighting style that Naruto didn't have a chance of understanding, as it was a blend of everything that Raito knew. Suddenly the senbon attacks stopped, and Haku appeared behind Sasuke. At the stop of the sound from the senbon cutting through the leaves, Naruto dropped his guard for a second, and Raito landed a hard kick to the face. Naruto was knocked off his feet, and crashed into a tree. At the same time, Sasuke punched Haku in the face.

Raito's head snapped in their direction.

"Haku, you ok?"

"I'm fine."

Her brief distraction was enough for Naruto to gain the upper hand, and he relentlessly attacked her with his feet and fists. To the surprise of everyone except Haku and Raito, she started laughing.

"Why are you laughing!" Naruto yelled, and started increasing the intensity of the attacks. Raito responded in kind, and grabbed Naruto's arm, and used him to feed the velocity of the kick she aimed towards his jaw. He stumbled back a few steps, and

Raito allowed him the time to recover.

"You're tougher than I thought you were, no hard feelings for that, right?"

"Right."

Sasuke was finally beginning to keep up with Haku's movement with his eyes. He blasted the edge of Haku's pants with fireball jutsu.

"I told you! Lucky pants!" Raito yelled in a clear voice.

"Shut it," Haku responded. "Your pants have nothing to do with it."

"So you're saying you just genuinely suck then?" Raito commented playfully.

"You said..."

"I never said to get your butt kicked."

"Show off."

Raito would have started laughing again, but was too busy keeping on top of Naruto. While she was only using her body so far, he was using anything he could, and waiting for the opportunity to use his Shadow Clone jutsu. The difference in fighting someone without jutsu, he learned, was that they never gave him time to use it himself. She kept both hands busy at all times. He almost wished he had taken Haku instead of letting Sasuke do it.

Then the two seamlessly switched. Instead of almost punching Raito, Naruto found his arm fully extended and being held by Haku. Sasuke felt a slight breeze over his head, and Raito landed with one leg bent, the other extended, and a hand on the

ground in front of her.

"Scared, Sasuke? You got lucky this time, Haku hardly even used his jutsu."

"Maybe I hadn't beaten Haku yet, but you should be easy."

Raito's smirk widened into a full fledged grin, "Whatever you say."

Fighting Haku was completely unlike fighting Raito. Instead of having to keep up with her movements in order to block the next punch, Naruto was forced to figure out where Haku even was. As soon as he created shadow clones, Haku would take them all out with his senbon. He didn't see how he was supposed to keep up with this guy, and he couldn't distract Sasuke long enough to switch with him. He could see Sasuke was having his own problems with Raito.

She wasn't even trying to remain hidden. She could hold her own in plain sight, Naruto knew. She didn't give Sasuke time to do anything other than block, and occasionally try to land a hit himself. He was desperately trying to make her mess up so he could use his jutsu, but Raito didn't give him time for any of that. She dutifully dodged anything he threw at her, while using the fact that his hand was occupied reaching for his weapons to her advantage.

Sasuke set off a smoke bomb as an attempt to buy him enough time to use his fireball jutsu. Since he knew where Raito was because of the clinking chain she was wearing around her waist, why he had no idea, she wasn't using it or anything, it should have been a good tactic.

He thought he was going to get a hand over her, when his feet where kicked out from under him and there was sharp pain in his shoulders. Raito had moved silently behind him, tripped him, and pinned him before he could finish the seal. What's more, she had him by the pressure points in his shoulders. His arms were already growing numb, she had her entire weight on the arteries that supplied the blood to his arms. A kunai held in her teeth was pointed at his jugular, even if he couldn't really see it, he could feel the razor metal nick his neck when he breathed. The majority of her face was hidden by her long bangs, which tickled his throat. Even if she hadn't had the kunai, there was no way for him to get up, her calves forced his to the ground.

Naruto had been rendered unconscious somehow. No one had been able to see because of the smoke.

"Haku and Raito win."

Raito got off. Now that she wasn't straddling him, he could relax a bit. Sasuke ignored the extended hand and got up on his own.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried when she saw the limp body of her team mate.

"Meh, he'll be fine. Give him an hour and he'll be good as new, right Haku?"

"Yes. It was a good fight, if you two had managed to switch like Naruto wanted to, you might have managed to take one of us down."

"Good thing we kept your back to him, huh Sasuke?"

That was on purpose? They must have planned that out before the fight even started.' "That was pretty sad, considering the training you've supposedly completed."

"Considering how much we held back... I agree, we should have done better. For a second I thought Naruto was actually going to beat me, if he had any training at all he would be excellent. Maybe I'll teach him a few tricks."

"Why?" Sakura asked quietly.

Raito pulled her hand down from her hair and twisted to look at Sakura. "Huh?"

"I don't get it, you've been nice to Naruto ever since you've met him. You didn't want to be friends with Ino, you didn't notice me at all, and you ignore Sasuke. What's so special about Naruto? It's just... Naruto. There's nothing special about him!"

"Are you bloody blind?"

"Raito," Haku said in a warning tone.

"No, this is totally deserved. I've seen the way everyone treats him. He's an outcast. You disregarded him because he had a reputation for being a trouble maker, but who's fault is that? The only way he gets noticed at all is if he's making trouble. If he had one friend he'd feel ok, and not completely and totally alone. You have no idea what that feels like, when you have to be your own best friend. Despite that, he's still bright and friendly, and still tries to be noticed. Do you have any idea what kind of inner strength that takes? Even when he gets shot down again and again he still gets back up and tries. Why wouldn't we be his friends? Of course, you don't notice because you're blinded by your own obsession towards Sasuke. Naruto might punch me when he realizes I told you this, but damn, somebody has to. You're mean and you're petty, Sakura. It's a wonder that he likes you."

"Raito, that was harsh," Haku told her. The words were like a slap to Sakura's face. Sakura stood up and walked over to Raito. She raised a hand, and slapped the other girl across the face. Raito took the blow without a sound.

"You have no right to say those things. You have no idea!"

"In other words, I'm right and you know it, but you still don't want to change. Slap me again and I promise that you'll regret it."

Tears streamed down Sakura's cheeks, but Raito held no pity for the pink haired girl. Her silver eyes held Sakura's own green ones with not a hint of remorse or regret. Sakura refused to look away.

"Ow, my head really hurts..." At Naruto's voice, Raito completely disregarded her presence. The younger girl refused to meet anyone's gaze, and sank to the ground. "What's wrong with Sakura?"

"We got into an argument," Raito answered. "Haku and I need to get going. Goodbye."

"Sakura? What's wrong?"

"Just leave me alone, Naruto!"

Naruto withdrew when Sakura got up and started running in the opposite direction than the one Haku and Raito had gone in.

"Naruto, I know you want to go comfort Sakura, but you should wait until she wants to talk with you," Kakashi suggested. "After all, the fight was over you."

"Is that why Raito left?"

"It could have something to do with the fact Sakura slapped her across the face," Sasuke answered. "I'm surprised Raito didn't hit her back."

"Sakura slapped Raito over me? What happened? Is Raito ok?"

"Both of them are fine," Kakashi said evenly. "Raito lost her temper after Sakura questioned why she would want to be friends with you, and insulted Sakura until Sakura slapped her."

"Raito made Sakura cry... but Sakura slapped her... I don't know who's side I'm on!"

Kakashi smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure it'll work itself out."