A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY

ACT III
~ BIMBO, BROODY, & BONEHEAD ~

"Eh? Are you sure it's okay?" Naruto asked, slightly taken aback by Sasuke's request.
"Yeah! Naruto and I eat a ton of food Sasuke!" Ino informed him warningly.

Sasuke nodded.
He was already aware of how much food the two could consumne given the chance.

"Dad already told me to bring you two over after we finished. I guess he already knew we'd be put on the same team..."

Naruto was slightly amazed by this statement, and wondered if Mr. F could perhaps see the future.

"Whoa, that's creepy! It's like that weird lady who tells fortunes near the dango shop!" Ino asked as they made their way out of the academy gates.

"Says the girl whose family read's minds like books" Naruto retorted.
"Shut up! It's still weird!!"

"Weird or not, do you really think we should listen to him about the no breakfast thing?" Sasuke asked.

He was in two minds about the whole thing; he got the impression it was part of the strange Jonin's twisted payback scheme for the 'old' comment.

"I'm not missing out on breakfast! I love my breakfast! Besides, I tend to die of starvation if I don't eat something in the morning. So no, I'm not listening!" Naruto stated.
"Idiot, if he says no to eat then don't eat!" Ino yelled. "He's a Jonin! He knows what he's talking about stupid"

Sasuke considered this but found himself siding with Naruto. He liked his tomato pancakes at breakfast damn it!

They parted ways with Ino, agreeing to meet up at the entrance to the spice avenue. He accompanied Naruto to her house, waiting outside the small apartment while she changed. She emerged in her scruffy black t-shirt and orange shorts, and they were soon waiting for Ino outside one of the spice shops.

Naruto's eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement as she watched the trades haggling back and forth, arguing of the prices of cinnamon and saffron. Sasuke imagined that had she not become a ninja, she would have taken up an apprenticeship with one of the merchants. They didn't seem to mind her as much as the other villagers, in fact, they were downright friendly.

Sasuke guessed this was because of the wide variety of people the met through their sales. He'd seen some people from one of the desert countries past Wind Country once; the men had been covered in body-paint and the women had strange rings around their necks, stretching them upwards. It had been one of the oddest things he'd ever seen.

Since the merchants here had to deal with such a wide variety of people on a daily basis, Sasuke figured they were more open minded than the other villagers - though why they should be in the first place he didn't know.

"Oi, Naruto!" one of the merchants yelled, waving them over. Naruto was gone before Sasuke realized she had heard him; the noise of the sellers was deafening. It was a food stand similar to Ichiraku's; the smells of spice issuing from the small stall made his mouth water.

"Heya Masashi!" Naruto greeted the man exuberantly, giving him a suffocating hug.

The old man laughed, ruffling her hair.
"How are you kid? Haven't seen you around here in a while"

"Been training!" she pointed at the forehead protector she had strapped to her arm instead of its usual position around her neck.

"I passed the exam! That Mizuki git tried to fail me on a technicality that no-one cares about, but dolphin showed him where he could shove it!" she grinned.
The old man smiled.

"That's great news, have you had your test yet?"
"Na, its tomorrow, scarecrow's lazy, he was three hours late this morning!" she fumed.
"So you're in Kakashi's group; I pity you kid. He's supposed to be a real hard-ass with his tests"

Sasuke wondered how a civilian knew so much about the ninja set up, and about their new teacher, but decided he would ask Naruto at some other time.

"Pft. All I have to do is steal his porn and he'll be putty in our hands!" she grinned.

Sasuke had the distinct impression she would probably forget to give him the book back if she did steal it from him.
If fact, it was really a matter of waiting…

"Oh, this is Duck-Butt! Remember I told you about him? He's my team-mate, Ino too!" Naruto pulled Sasuke into the man's field of vision.

He had been hovering just outside the shop, hoping to avoid notice. The man grinned and Sasuke got a close up of him. He wore an eye patch, and seemed to have a wooden pole for a leg. One of his hands looked like it had been reattached at some point, and the opposite was missing his two outer fingers. Burns and scars were evident on his face and on the skin of his chest not hidden by his short burgundy haori.

'He looks like he's been through the interrogation unit three times over!' Sasuke exclaimed to himself.

"Nice to meet you kid, mind telling me your real name? Kiddo here seems to have a distaste for them" he nodded towards Naruto grinning.

The girl pouted.

"Sasuke Uchiha"
"Uchiha huh? I used to know… hey, you look like Mikoto! You Fugaku's kid?"
"Yeah…" Sasuke replied somewhat warily.
This guy knew his mother?

"You know Mr. F Masashi?!" Naruto asked, clearly just as shocked as he was.
"That'd be telling wouldn't it?" he grinned.

Sasuke noticed this man had the same sadistic streak as Naruto and Ino did occasionally; He presumed this man was the scource of it.

"Listen, I've been working on a new recipe and I want to test it out before going public with it. You got time to try it out?" he asked.

Naruto's face fell
"Whaaat? This is such bad luck! Were going to duck-butt's fro dinner! Can you put a rain check on it Masashi? I promise I'll come back and try it! Please please please please please!!!" she wheedled, putting her hands together in a prayer sign.

Sasuke caught sight of those eyes she sometimes used unconsciously; the ones even his father couldn't resist for long. Those eyes were truly fearsome. He shuddered to think what should happen if she figured out how to use them on purpose.

Masashi laughed.
"Sure kiddo, just be quick about it! No hurry up and get going, I think Ino's about to pull her hair out, and you know what she'll be like if that happens."

Naruto paled and hurried away from the shop towards Ino; she really was beginning to pull her hair. There was a garbled 'see ya' later!' over the roar of the crowd. Sasuke felt like pulling his own hair out; he said goodbye to the merchant before hurrying after her.

"I pity you; being assigned to Kakashi-Sempai was not an experience I'd hurry to repeat" Itachi stated seriously after the three future genin had completed recounting their tale of their first team meeting.

Naruto noted that Fugaku seemed unusually withdrawn; even he would normally have some sort of comment to make. Apparently Ino noticed this too.

"Is Scarecrow really that bad Mr. F?" she asked, trying to chew through what was supposed to be a weird flat meat called a burger.
Apparently it was popular in lightning country; Sasuke's father had picked some up on an excursion there. Naruto didn't find the meat particularly appetizing, but that could have been Fugaku's cooking instead of the actual burger.

"He has… high standards. He also has punctuality issues" Fugaku stated.

He gave his own burger a disgusted glare.
"This thing tastes nothing like those sold in Kumo."

"Wait, you mean being three hours late is normal?!" Ino asked, clearly horrified; weren't ninja supposed to be prompt?
"Usually its four hours; he must have decide to be early since it was your first meeting" Itachi mused.

Ino seemed to be growing ever more unimpressed with their new teacher by the second.

The rest of the dinner was uneventful; Naruto and Ino near forced the three Uchiha's into conversation, but that was to be expected. It was so uneventful that Ino and Itachi grew bored. That was a bad thing; a bored Ino usually meant some form of sadistic torture (Ino called it 'fun') was to be dished out to those in the immediate vicinity. A bored Itachi usually meant some form of mind-game that was only enjoyable to him.

They were a formidable team when they formed an alliance in the valiant battle against boredom.

As Fugaku, finally so disgusted with the 'meal' he had to find some other form of nourishment, was kept busy in the kitchen Ino gained a dangerous glint in her eye as she watched Naruto holding conversation with Sasuke; a somewhat jittery Sasuke. Ino made a show of trying to cut up the burger until her fork pinged across the table and onto the floor, landing beside Naruto's feet.

"Jesus this thing isn't even organic, it's like rubber; can you pick up my fork for me Naruto?" she asked.

Not noticing her friends plotting, Naruto did as requested. Sasuke watched her bend over to pick up the fork from its position on the floor between their chairs. Itachi, who had been watching Ino with a raised eyebrow, saw Ino make a pushing motion.
He frowned in confusion, not quite understanding her plot.

"Push him!" she mouthed at him across the table.
Itachi's eyes shone with humour, and he moved his knife across the tough meat of his own burger; his elbow made a slightly enforced contact with Sasuke's back.

Sasuke felt himself falling towards Naruto as she pulled her head back up to above the table. She had been back in her seat for but a second before an abnormal weight sent her crashing to the floor. The chair smashed to pieces underneath her and she felt something soft crash into her lips; something weird ad slimy had found its way into her mouth.

Focusing her eyes, she saw a pair of soft charcoal eyes staring at her own in shock.

"Good God! What on earth is going on in here?!" Fugaku yelled from the doorway.

"See you later" Sasuke said quietly as she left the house. Naruto stood waiting for him at the gate and Fugaku watched their interaction closely. He had been worried that little prank from Ino and Itachi (he couldn't believe Itachi even knew what a prank was) would have caused a rift between them but it had done the opposite; Fugaku didn't know if this was better or worse, he wanted them to get along of course, but he'd been noticing they were growing closer than he was comfortable with latley.

This could all be avoided if simply told them the truth, but he couldn't do that. They were too young to be brought into the messier side of life just yet; and that's exactly what Fugaku would describe the whole scenario as, a mess.

Itachi emerged from the bathroom, hair dripping from the shower and loose.
Fugaku had his suspicions that the Yamanaka girl would have been grinning manically had she been around to see it.

"Has Sasuke left for his test already?" he asked.
Fugaku nodded. He was about to leave his son to his own devices but then he remembered his part in that little accident the night before.

"Itachi, take care that no miss-haps such as that which occurred last night take place from now on."

His son's genial aura disappeared before his eyebrows had moved into the frown now decorating his face. Fugaku didn't like that frown; it told him Itachi was getting more suspicious than he already was.

"I can't see how it would be a problem father, Naruto is pretty much family anyway; she and Sasuke have been close for years, this was bound to happen eventually. You have no problems with her, you are her sponsor! I can't see any reason as to why she and Sasuke taking things a step beyond friendship should bother you so much"

Itachi knew that neither of the two had actually said anything to each other yet, but like he had told his father, it was simply a matter of playing the waiting game. He could already tell Sasuke was growing increasingly frustrated with the stalemated they were locked in.

"I don't have the time to discuss this; just don't let it happen again" his father snapped in reply before moving briskly down the hallway towards his office.

That was different; he must be very on edge if he was snapping at him. It took a lot to put his father on edge. Apparently Naruto's relation to his father was much more complicated than he had originally thought. As his father slammed the door of his office, Itachi made a silent promise to find out just what skeletons his father was hiding from them, and what Naruto's relation to those skeletons were.

Ino Yamanaka was in a very good mood when she was left in charge of the flower-shop. She had landed an afternoon shift, and that meant she had time to sit back and read up on some of the family techniques she didn't know yet. Afternoons were always quiet for some reason. For other shops it was the other way around, but apparently people wanted flowers in the morning.

Her team had passed their test with flying colours. Well, eventually at any rate; Kakashi still had to tie Sasuke to the tree stump though. The boy was smart, but he still suffered from being to full of pride sometimes. She and Naruto had force fed him though, and his somewhat reluctant chewing had saved them from repeating the academy again.

She had noticed that he and her best friend had left together in the direction of the graveyard, somewhat closer than normal. That had almost made her jump up and down with glee. Her little match-making plot had worked perfectly! Then again, those two were somewhat easy to manipulate with this sort of thing. If only it were that easy with Itachi…

Ino's thoughts trailed away from the pair and towards Sasuke's older brother. Having once been a Sasuke fan girl herself, she couldn't understand what she had been doing chasing Sasuke for those few years when his older brother was just plain sexier. Not to mention, after getting to know him better, she'd discovered a wicked sense of humour that matched her own almost perfectly! Only Naruto had managed that feat!

"Ino…"

Now, if only she could turn that prudish streak into a perverted one she'd have it made! Wait, was someone talking to her? Shit! How long had they been there? It'd better not be that creepy woman who lived above Naruto again; she took way too long picking stuff out. Not to mention she was just plain creepy…

"Ino? Are you feeling unwell?"

Ino looked around for the source of the voice and nearly fell of her seat when she saw Itachi Uchiha standing in the middle of her family's flower shop.
Oh dear god, he had his hair loose! And he was worried! He looked hot when he was worried…

Wait, worried? Why was he worried? It couldn't be her; he knew better than to do that unless she was dead or dying - something he'd learned the hard way. So if it wasn't her absentmindedness it was something else. She couldn't imagine him having any problems on a mission (Puh-leaase) or with women (she knew his problem in that area all too well).

That meant… something happened at home?

"Naw, I'm all good! Just off in dream land Man-Lady! So, what are you doing here? I'm presuming you want some flowers, cause if you want groceries, you need to be talking to Mrs. Haraguchi over the road"

hf for god's sake, why was she rambling?! She was supposed to be analysing him, not turning into a blob of jelly! Dam his good looks! Where was her Yamanaka pride when she needed it?! And why the hell was she using Naruto's nickname for him? That wasn't part of the plan damn it!

Itachi stared at her. Obviously her rambling had stunted him a bit. It gave her the perfect chance to analyse his facial expression. That set of the eyebrows… he was worried definitely but there was something else! Anger maybe? No, it wasn't anger, well maybe a bit of anger but not enough to be concerned about. Urgh, she knew she should have read that book on facial psychology when her brother had finished with it.

"You alright? You seem like something's bothering you…"

Itachi was stunned by her ability to read his facial expressions so easily. He had noticed her eyes flicking over him, observing everything from his stance to his hair (she seemed to have a strange stroke when she did that), but she had almost immediately picked up on his leftover feelings of discomfort after talking with his father.

He supposed this was to be expected from one of the Yamanaka, and he knew her father well enough to know he was an extremely competent interrogator. He would not have expected a Genin to pick up on it though; much less a girl as brazen as Ino. He wondered how many of her family techniques she knew. If she could get this out of him at this age she would be a formidable interrogator in the future, such was her goal according to Sasuke.

"You can tell? I'm impressed" he was alarmed when her eyes brightened so rapidly; why would a simple compliment have such an effect?
It was the truth, and he knew of no reason she should react so strongly to a few words.

"Reading a face is nothing for Yamanakas" she waved her hand in the air nonchalantly. "I'm still learning though, I keep bunking off my study time. I could only tell because I know you so well; if you'd been an enemy ninja, I'd have been completely stuck. You want to see talent at reading faces go look for Inoro."

"Inoro?" he asked unfamiliar with the name.

"My younger twin. He's a freaking prodigy at reading faces, but he sucks at mind Techniques. He was in a different class to me in the academy, so you wouldn't have met him"

Ino smirked at him then, she was perfectly aware of his little avoidance manoeuvre; she was well practiced in them, how could she not be being friends with the village prankste?. She'd never forget worming her way out of cleaning the Hokage Mountain… Naruto had been seething.

"But that doesn't tell me what's bothering you now does it?" she asked, grinning.
She frowned when she was met with silence.

"Come on Itachi, spill the beans before I reunite you with my elbow-manoeuvre" she added in all seriousness.

Itachi didn't want to be reunited with the elbow manoeuvre. That had been painful, and Itachi could tell she was being very serious with her threats. But he wasn't sure sharing his concerns was a good idea…

Then again, Sasuke voiced his concerns to him and Naruto occasionally, and it only seemed to work in his benefit (particularly if he sought out Naruto). Was it a long shot to think sharing his own concerns wouldn't have the same affect? Ino was fairly reliable, and despite her love of gossip she knew when to keep her mouth shut…

"Father is not happy with the current state of affairs regarding Sasuke and Naruto" he spoke, after a long pause for thought.
"You mean he doesn't want them to date?" Ino clarified into everyday language.

Itachi nodded.

"Err… Why? Naruto might as well live with you guys, them two finally hitting it off isn't going to change all that much"

"I had reached a similar conclusion; I suspect my father is withholding information of importance concerning Naruto, and this information is the source of his unease. He has never given a proper explanation as to why he chose to be her sponsor, and I can only think he knows something we do not."

Ino frowned for a moment, replaying the information in her head. He had a point there; Mr. F had never told Naruto why he had sponsored her, and he wasn't the type to make a gesture of such magnitude without an extremely good reason. Ino had a suspicion it was all linked to Naruto's family somehow, but she put that theory on the back-burner.

"Whatever it is you shouldn't worry about them so much, they're both too stubborn to let anything get in their way, be it ninja-wise or in romance. I swear you are just as bad sometimes." Ino couldn't help but be grateful for that though; if he hadn't been so stubborn in terms of work, he'd probably be taken. That was bad for her long term plans!

Itachi was confused; he was no longer worried. Why was he no longer worried though? Was it because of Ino's words? Did his and Naruto's words have the same effect on Sasuke? This was so odd… but somewhat refreshing as well. This made it all the more strange to Itachi.

"Whatever, you want flowers for your mum's grave right?" she asked before cursing her mistake.
"How did you know that?" Itachi asked, genuinely surprised.

Ino felt like pulling her hair out. She could hardly say it was because his face always looked glum and happy-ish when he was intending to visit Mrs. M could she? He'd ask how she knew his face looked like that, and then he'd eventually find out she was a stalker-in-the-making, and that would be so bad for her confidence, and he'd think she was weird!

"Ok, I admit it; I probed your mind a little bit. I've been practicing and wanted to see if I could actually get past that Uchiha face of yours"

Score! That was an awesome save! It wasn't a total lie either, she had been practicing the Mind-Probe Technique; the fact that it still left her nursing a headache for four hours after she used it was a completely different matter. Sure, she hadn't actually used it on Itachi...
But he didn't need to know that.

"Ah, I see. I wanted carnations, the dyed ones if you have them…" he looked around the shop, presumably searching for the said flowers.

"We keep those in the back while they're absorbing the colour, but I think the last batch is done. I'll go check..."
She hurriedly dashed into the storage room at the back of the shop, and found her assumptions had been correct, before hurrying back with the tray of plants.

"Just take your pick" she instructed, laying the tray down on the counter with a thunk.

They had a lot of these for some reason, and the tray was always heavy, but hardly anyone ever bought them. Ino suspected it was her father's way of passing the time during the slow days since they always seemed to be strewn about the house in vases. Itachi immediately picked out a bunch the white flowers streaked with red. Ino wrapped them up in cellophane and handed them back.

"3 Ryo and 20 Dinari please."

Itachi handed over the money, giving her the tiniest smile of gratitude.
Ino had to grab hold of the counter top with one hand to keep herself from fainting right there.

"If you don't mind me asking, why carnations? They aren't really anything spectacular and they die pretty quickly when they've been dyed like that…" Ino gestured to the flowers in his hand.

"I agree, they are a somewhat flimsy plant, but I believe mother was fond of them…" he replied in his quiet voice.
For some reason Ino suddenly remembered her blond friend's affection for the unimpressive plants.

"Really? So does Naruto; she hates gardening with a passion, unless you can get poison or something from the plant you're growing. She says it's for wussies, but she has those things all over her apartment"

"I didn't know that" he mused aloud.
Itachi stared at her as she said this, but Ino was too busy talking to notice. He narrowed his eyes as the cogs in his head turned rapidly. That wasn't something he'd noticed before, but now that he knew of it he could see other similarities between Naruto and his mother. Qualities that existed in himself and Sasuke.

"Well, I must be going; I have a mission this evening. Thank you for the flowers" he nodded his head politely before making his way back out of the door. He paused before leaving, and turned back to the secretly flustered girl at the counter.

"Congratulations on passing your test. Till next time Ino" he stated before disappearing out of the shop door.

Ino stood paralyzed for several moments before she dissolved into a jelly-like pile on the floor.
"Shit, he's hot"

"You're serious? We don't have to chase after that rabid cat again?!" Naruto asked, hopping up and down gleefully.
Ino had a hopeful glint in her eyes, and even Sasuke had perked up at the Hokage's statement.

"Yes Naruto, I think you and your team have proven yourselves capable of handling a C-Rank" the old Hokage said smiling.
"By gaining the ability to perform at a c-ranked level, does that mean you'll let me read your Icha Icha books?"

"N-No!" the Hokage choked.
He saw the girl's teacher discreetly hide his own orange book in a different kunai pouch. He probably should have warned him about this when he first told him who his new students would be, but he seemed to have found out anyway.

It was his own fault for leaving his books where they could have been found so easily really.
He had known Naruto snooped through his drawers sometimes…

"Damn…"

"What kind of mission is it Hokage-Sama?" Sasuke asked, giving the blonde girl a withering look.
"You'll be escorting a bridge builder to the Wave Country, one of the provinces on Fire country's coastline." the Hokage replied.

He made a motion to a burn-scarred Chunin. The Chunin walked through a pair of double doors, and returned moments later with a man wearing a rice farmer's hat and carrying a bottle of Sake in a brown paper bag.

"You called for me, Hokage-Sama?" he asked. The Hokage nodded.
"We have an available escort group for you Mr. Tazuna" he motioned a hand in direction of team seven.

The man stared at them with scathing dissapointment.
"I asked for ninja! Not a bunch of bratty kids pretending to be ninja!" he objected.

Kakashi began to panic beneath his mask. If he had learned only one thing about his first team it was that none of them had good tempers, and all of them were very violent when provoked, especially the girls. It took a bit more to get Sasuke riled up, but he was sure the man's comment was one of those things! He braced his muscles, ready to grab them by the collar when they exploded. He waited for several moments but the explosion did not come.

Taking a closer look at his Trolls, he could make out a sweet, girlish smile on Ino's face. Sasuke had adopted a withdrawn, blank look, and Naruto was smiling the same cheerful smile she normally did.

Kakashi shivered.

His Genin were more than mad; they were severely pissed off. He could see the doubt in the Hokage's face already, and wondered if he shouldn't request a different c-rank instead. He really didn't want to know what kind of torturous revenge his team were planning for their new client.

"I will so be Hokage Ino! Believe it!" Naruto yelled at the pale blond, gesticulating wildly with her arms.

Kakashi wished she could shout less loudly; not only was it unprofessional, it kept him from reading his book in peace. Not that he could really get any peace with these three acting like they were. He felt sorry for Tazuna; at least he knew they were being deliberately annoying, and could ignore it to some extent. As far as Tazuna was concerned, this was their normal behavior and he would have to put up their antics for the entire journey to wave country.

Kakashi had to compliment their ingenuity though. Tazuna had claimed they were nothing more than brats pretending to be ninja, so that was what they had given him.
Poor bloke.

"No way Naruto! Sasuke's going to be Hokage, and then he's going to marry me! Aren't you Sasuke?" Ino asked in a syrupy voice, leaning towards the only boy on the team. Sasuke ignored them both. The only sound he had made since leaving the Hokage's office had been a non-committal grunt.

Tazuna was, for the record, severely irritated. He knew they were acting so irritatingly on purpose. He just knew it! He also knew that their actions would become distinctly less annoying were he to apologize for the 'brat' comment, but there was no way in the name of the five territories he was going to apologize to a bunch of twelve year olds. Well, the two girls looked about twelve; the moody boy looked about a year older.

The paled blonde noted a puddle in the middle of the road some distance ahead of them.

"Hey Naruto, lets go jump in that puddle!" she squealed. Tazuna covered his ears.
"And why should I do what you say you bimboic excuse of a female ninja? I have better things to do with my time, believe it!" Naruto replied loudly.

She trying to pry the girl of her arm from where she had latched onto her.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" she exclaimed. "Plus Sasuke'll be completely entranced by me if he sees me covered in water!" she squealed to herself, just loud enough to be heard.
Sasuke made another non-committal grunt; though Tazuna was sure he detected a hint of disgust in it.

Whether Naruto wanted to jump in the puddle or not, which was most likely not, didn't not seem to bother Ino. She dragged the blonde girl towards the puddle at a run, and Naruto was forced into jumping into the puddle along with her. Muddy water splashed onto Ino's clothing.

"Eww! Mud! How am I supposed to look sexy for Sasuke with mud all over me?!" she shrieked.
"It was your idea!" Naruto snorted with laughter.

Sasuke made another grunting noise.

They had walked perhaps ten meters from the puddle when for some reason Kakashi was mutilated by two creepy ninjas with a long spiky chain. One of the ninjas seemed to have an ugly bruise on his face. Naruto pulled out three shuriken and whirled them towards the two ninja.

"Duck-Butt!"

"I'm already on it!" Sasuke yelled hurling three kunai in the same direction. The shuriken and kunai jammed the chain into the trunk of a nearby tree, preventing use. Ino and Naruto used the distraction to creep up and whack the two on the back of the head with a certain amount of force before joining Sasuke in front of Tazuna.

The ninja with the bruise on his face glared at Ino and Naruto.
"You're next you little bitches!"

The three Genin surrounded a stunned Tazuna; be that from the sudden change in attitude from the three trolls or from the creepy ninja was uncertain. Naruto joined her thumb to her nose and waggled her fingers patronisingly, whilst Ino pulled down her lower eyelid with one finger and blew a raspberry. Sasuke added his own 'you-are-pathetic' smirk.

"You should learn to hide your consciousnesses when you're dealing with leaf ninja!" Ino yelled patronisingly. "Some of us are mind readers you know!"
Naruto and even Sasuke snorted with laughter at the faces of the Mist ninja with the creepy claws.

Not for long though; the creepy claws I and II lunged towards them. Ino took place in front of Tazuna as Naruto and Sasuke lunged forward to meet the ninjas.
"Don't even think of taking one step in front of me you old drunk!" Ino ordered the stunned man, who dumbly nodded in reply.

Meanwhile Naruto was busy with one of the clawed creeps. She used her small stature to her advantage (she didn't like it, but that didn't mean it didn't have it's benefits) and dived through his legs, twisting upwards and ramming a kunai into his shoulder, just missing his neck. She used the momentum from the twist to propel her self over his shoulder, going full circle around him, before landing in front of him, flipping mid air to meet him head on.

This was so easy! This was so slow she could practically see his next move! She lunged towards him again, flicking three shuriken towards him, he countered them with shuriken of his own, and she jumped upwards to avoid them. She came down almost on top of him bearing several kunai. He twisted at the last second, and Naruto believed he had dodged.

Then she felt something gnawing and biting into her back.

"Naruto!"

A rush of air above her and an agonized glance upwards told her a clawed hand was swinging towards her.

Sasuke saw Naruto collapse to her knees and his thoughts of mercy towards the clawed creep ended as he saw the second hovering over Naruto, clawed arm raised. He rammed his kunai through the chest of the ninja he was currently fighting, before speeding towards Naruto. And exploding noise behind him told him the exploding tag had worked, but he was still too far way!

"Naruto!" he yelled as the creeps claw was brought down in one swift motion towards the blonde girl.

"I think that enough of that" a familiar voice intoned.
Sasuke stared at their teacher, who now stood between Naruto and the creepy ninja. The creepy ninja had a dazed look in his eyes and didn't seem to be focused.

"Next time you play dead stay dead!" Ino yelled angrily. "What the hell were you thinking leaving these creeps to us you dusty old scarecrow!"
"I am neither old nor dusty; I'm twenty four!"
"If you aren't old and you aren't dusty then why is your scarecrow hair grey?!"
"Genetics Ino, genetics"
"You lie! No-one is born already grey!"

"Can we stop the arguing and make sure Naruto isn't dying, maybe?!" Sasuke asked irately, finally reaching the blondes side.

"You alright?" he asked, not liking her abnormally pale complexion at all.
She nodded, standing up. Sasuke could have sworn her eyes were red for a moment, but he dismissed it when her bandages unravelled.

"Shit! That bastard cut my wrappings up!" She screeched, instantly zipping up the front of her jacket before anything could be seen.

Sasuke wasn't sure wither he was supposed to be disappointed or relieved; he chose relieved considering there were so many other males around.
Not that he was accusing them of anything but…
He couldn't be too careful.

"Aw crud! My jackets all torn up as we- Ouch!"

Naruto had tried looking over her shoulder at the medium sized rip on the back, and succeeded in agitating her wound. It was a series of four short scratches from the clawed hand, and something at the edges seemed to be bubbling.

"Urgh, this really doesn't feel right, Oi scarecrow!" She looked up at the Jonin, swaying on the spot slightly.

"I think those things are poisoned, I feel kind of like visiting Lala Land…"
"Sit down and try not to move too much; it'll keep it from spreading till we can get some… proper first aid"

Kakashi gave Naruto a meaning full glance at the word proper; she seemed to understand what he meant: sit down and let the Kyuubi heal it for the moment'.

Naruto wobbled a bit, and Sasuke immediately caught hold of her arm before she managed to trip over. He kept a hand on her upper arm knowing full well she could not, and would not; place an arm around his neck for support. Ino hurried over to join them.

"Despite a few hiccups, you did well trolls. Despite my apparent death you were quick to react to a dangerous situation and protect the client, and you didn't let your enemies' superior skills get in the way of that; Naruto, Sasuke, you two did especially well but you still have a lot to improve on. Naruto…"

He looked at the girl with a serious expression on his covered face, indicated by the no nonsense tone in his voice.

"you used your height and flexibility to your advantage, but you need to think more about your personal defence and perception; you were injured because you didn't take your enemy's own experience and skill into as much thought as you should have" Naruto nodded, having already realised her mistake.

"Sasuke, you have much the same problem. You need to remember to finish fighting your opponent before you jump to help others; that other ninja substituted himself before your exploding kunai hit him, leaving you open from behind."

Sasuke's eyes widened and he stared in the direction of where he thought he had left an at least knocked out clawed creep. A charred smoking g log lay where his in jured ninja was supposed to be. The said ninja lay a few meters away from the log, sorting a shallow head injury; Sasuke presumed that was Kakashi's doing.

"Ino, you reacted quickly, and made your mission of higher importance than my death. You were the first to realise the danger too, though I'm not sure how you managed that…" he raised an eyebrow, hoping fro an explanation.

"You know about the Yamanaka telepathy right?" she asked.
Kakashi nodded.

"Well, in Konoha I can communicate with any of my family members or anyone who is granted permission from the clan to sign some scroll. I can sense the consciousnesses of those who have trained with chakra to a lesser degree; I can't communicate with other ninja, but I can recognise their presence, their consciousnesses. I could feel two ninja in that puddle and I didn't think they were hiding there for the fun of being stamped on..."

She explained the abilirtly absentley, focused on pulling a roll of spare bandages out of her pack and handing them Naruto.

"I see. That explains things; I never knew the telepathy extended so far though" he mused.

He then turned to Tazuna, his lone eye glaring at the man.
"As for our client here, he should know that lying about the severity of a mission is dangerous not only to himself, but to the ninja's assigned to him. Mr Tazuna, you lied about the severity of this mission. Because of that one of my students has received a serious injury. I'd appreciate it if you told me exactly what were dealing with..."

Tazuna gulped.

o_O
the anime seriously has me blubbering like the girl my mother wants me to be at the moment.
Go Cloud ninjas!
Just seen New Moon: Awsomeness!
Long live Mandarin!

Nat.
xxx