A/N: Thanks for waiting~ This chapter is a bit longer. I hope I can actually keep the following ones this way too.
Please, enjoy!
"How long are you planning to continue this?" Sasuke said evenly.
"Er, sorry, Sasuke-kun, I was just..." Sakura muttered, trying to come up with a proper excuse. She really was staring at him openly just now, and he noticed it, how embarrassing. 'He caught me, oh no, what do I do?' ran through her mind.
'That's your chance to confess, silly!' Inner Sakura screamed at the opportunity. 'Say you stared 'cuz you like him! C'mon, go for it, Sakura!'
The girl gulped nervously, hesitating to follow her inner self's advice. "Sasuke, I..." She began.
"Not you." The Uchiha cut her off midsentence. "I'm talking to the one hiding in that tree."
Just as he pointed at the branch where, he supposed, somebody was watching them, the foliage rustled and a person jumped down the tree in a not so graceful manner, probably also taken off guard by being discovered.
Sakura rushed to look at the intruder, mentally thanking them. However, as she realized who it was, her gratitude was quickly replaced with annoyance.
"A-h, no way! Why are you spying on us, Ino-pig?" Sakura cried out in surprise, leaning over the edge of the roof and almost slipping down in the process.
"None of your business, big-forehead, " Ino retorted to her best friend. She dusted her sides and combed her tousled hair, pulling some leaves out of it, to look a bit more presentable.
"I came to ask you something, but~ You seemed so fascinated, sitting alone with Sasuke-kun so, I simply couldn't spoil such a sweet moment," Ino said in a sing-song voice and smiled mockingly. "That's the closest you can get to him anyway."
"Shut it or I'm so getting down to teach you some manners, Ino!" Sakura hissed in indignation.
"Yeah, yeah. Climb down the roof and go take a walk or something, I'd be more than happy to chat with Sasuke-kun all alone," the blond girl suggested, effectively managing to enrage her friend even more.
"As if he wants your company, get lost!" Sakura, completely losing her balance or rather forgetting to maintain it properly in this situation, flopped on the ground. Thanks to the years of kunoichi training in the academy which she rarely missed, Sakura landed in a crouch allowing her to retain her dignity and pretend that she'd actually planned to jump down all along.
Meanwhile, Sasuke, whose presence seemed to be totally ignored, was seriously considering sneaking away from the girls. He really did not want to witness a brawl between them, and it was obviously going to end up in a fight between the two. He might as well have stopped them, as the situation was getting more and more heated up with them switching from just teasing each other to swearing and threatening, but he decided against it. Drawing the two stalkers' attention was not a wise decision, especially if you were the subject of their interest. Each of the fan girls was quite annoying on her own, but if they joined forces or, even worse, competed with each other to get him, it would not mean anything but trouble to him. Thus, Sasuke was just sitting quietly, trying to look composed.
He was not really listening to them, though, he must admit, some of the words caught his attention. He doubted that even Naruto for all his badmouthing had ever used such ones. To hear it from the girls was disturbing. Eventually the Uchiha decided to retreat while it was still an option. However, when he was about to jump from the opposite side of the roof, Ino uttered something that made him froze to his spot. He even edged closer to their side to listen to the upcoming conversation.
"I'll make you eat dust at the Chuunin exam, you just wait, Sakura!"
"What exam?" Sakura's frown was replaced by a confused look.
"Huh, you really don't know or have you just chickened out?" Ino asked in a less high-pitched voice.
"Tell me already, would you." Sakura inquired, crossing her arms.
"Well, I might as well do it, I guess," Ino replied. "I came to ask you about it anyway."
"You should've said it earlier, what's your problem!" Sakura reproached.
"Whatever." Ino sighed calmly, which put Sasuke at ease, assuring him that she was not inclined to continue their heated argument. "Just make sure you're listening now."
"Alright, alright," Sakura agreed in resignation.
Both girls gradually calmed down, feeling tired from their exchange, and came therefore to a mutual agreement to finish their talk peacefully.
Ino then explained a few of the things she herself knew about the Chuunin exam. It would be held in Konoha this year, and more importantly it was almost time for it to begin. She didn't really know what it would consistof as each time the rules were somewhat different, but no doubt there were going to be fights. The Chuunin exam along with its obvious aim also served as a means for the Great Nations, and possibly other countries whose shinobi villages were strong enough to pass the preliminaries, to measure their strength without actually waging wars against each other. Thus genin who managed to get to the final stage of the exam would be honored to represent their respective villages.
"Still why haven't you heard about it, I wonder. As a shinobi you have to be better informed, you know," Ino added on finishing her rough explanation. "But anyway, I guess it's just that Asuma-sensei was quick to tell us."
"I see if we were supposed to learn about the exam from our teachers, no wonder, Team 7 still has no clue." Sakura sighed, defeated.
However, just this once their oblivious to punctuality teacher was not to be blamed. In the confusion that Naruto's sudden arrival from the future had brought, anyone could have gotten distracted.
"I pity you really. Still, just make sure to take part in the exam. It's not the last exam or anything, but as far as I know all of the rookie teams are participating in this year's one, so if you don't do it you'll just end up lagging behind," Ino warned.
"And why are you telling me this? I thought you'd prefer to see me being the dead last," Sakura asked warily, noting to herself, as a matter of fact, that even in the worst case she would not win over the title of the dead last from Naruto.
"Nope, I don't want it this way. That's just boring. What I really want is to fight you!" Ino stated, pointing her index finger at Sakura. "That way I'll finally be able to win against you and prove that I'm stronger."
"Oh, we'll see about that," Sakura replied with a slight smile. "Thanks anyway."
"I'll be going then." Ino said, starting away. "Don't waste my explanation and make sure to come."
"Don't worry; I'd never miss a chance to fight you," Sakura said, waving goodbye.
Still smiling, the pink headed girl turned around to look for her teammate. Spotting him still sitting on the roof, though, somewhat closer to the edge, she also climbed back up.
"Um, Sasuke-kun, so did you hear about the exam?" Sakura addressed her now particularly grim looking teammate, assuming, somewhat to her dismay, that the Uchiha must have listened to their conversation. "I guess I might be taking part."
Sasuke nodded slightly and then added: "I can't miss it either." That exam seemed like a perfect opportunity to estimate his strength, but more importantly it was bound to make him even stronger. So that he would be at least one step closer to that man.
"Yeah, I guess the three of us should try it," Sakura agreed. "I wonder if Naruto would care to join us, though."
Sasuke frowned. "He would."
/o/o/o/o/o/o/Scene shifting line/o/o/o/o/o/
Older Naruto smiled at his younger self, who at last was willing to cooperate. He sat on the ground beside the boy, contemplating from where he should begin. Younger Naruto asserted his future self's countenance patiently, but, seeing how thoughtful the latter appeared, he decided that maybe he could try asking him something first. That is to shape their conversation a bit, as he wanted to learn some facts of the future rather than simply hear what he wasn't supposed to do.
"Say," Younger Naruto began, his heart still pounding at the notion of him actually being capable of becoming the leader of the village one day.
He would be more than happy to hear how exactly the Konoha's higher-ups chose him to be a Hokage, what everyone's reaction was, whether they organized a fancy ceremony for him and so on. However, he thought it better to avoid the seemingly touchy subject for now. Though, what else to ask? Although there were a hundred of questions on the tip of his tongue, he, at the same time, could not formulate properly even one of them. 'Think, there should be something he'd eagerly tell you, without starting this don't-become-hokage talk. Sure, I do need to know the reason, but I'm not letting him persuade me. I'll still be the one to decide whether to risk it or not,' younger Naruto thought, determined to stand his ground. There were still a lot of other interesting things to learn, which might actually help him understand his shortcomings and act somewhat different from his future self, escaping in this way the drastic consequences, as the other put it, of him being a Hokage. Then, to estimate his strengths the best thing to ask would certainly be...
"Hey, what techniques you're using?" Younger Naruto questioned with genuine interest. He had been made a Hokage for a reason, right, meaning he had to be very powerful.
"Huh?" Older Naruto stared.
"C'mon, you've learnt a lot of kick-ass jutsu, didn't you? So what are they?"
"Ha-h, not really." Older Naruto chuckled. "After leaving the academy I've only developed a couple or so. That's nothing to be proud of compared to Kakashi-sensei and even Sasuke."
"What, that bastard? I can't believe he's still ahead of us." Younger Naruto scowled. "Anyway, half of his techniques must be lousy. You can't beat quantity with quality!"
"Um, are you actually siding with Sasuke?" Older Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"Of course not! Why?"
"It's vice versa then," Older Naruto corrected the boy. "You can't beat quality with quantity."
"Oh... yeah, that's what I meant," Younger Naruto confirmed, but, after giving it a thought, added, "But that doesn't count for my kage bunshin, the more there are of them the better."
"Yeah, they're really handy and in more ways than you think." Older Naruto admitted, smiling.
"Like what?" Younger Naruto's eyes shone with excitement.
"They've helped me a great deal when I was trying to complete my Rasengan."
"Rasengan?" Younger Naruto repeated, dying to know what kind of deadly technique it might turn out to be.
"That's..." the older one began, but caught himself, realizing that the explanation would eventually lead to the story about Jiraiya and his parents. He felt nervous and hesitant for a second, but then, on reminding himself that revealing his past to the younger Naruto was one of his objectives all along, he assured himself there was nothing wrong in doing so.
"Have you heard the name Jiraiya?"
"I doubt so," Younger Naruto replied thoughtfully.
"Well, he's the one who taught me the Rasengan. I'll tell you about him, so listen carefully, because he's bound to become your mentor one of these days," Older Naruto stated, patting his younger self on the shoulder.
"Wow, then who is he? Is he great?"
"He's more than that. Jiraiya is one of the Sannin, meaning one of the three strongest shinobi in the Leaf," Naruto explained with pride audible in his voice. "Besides, he was the Third Hokage's student. He's amazing."
"I think I'd really like to meet him soon," Younger Naruto said, grinning. "But how come he started teaching me?"
"Oh, well, that's a long story really," Naruto muttered, a tint of red crossing his cheeks. Come to think of it, his first meeting with Ero-sennin was accidental and quite embarrassing to say the least of it. It still made him wonder how such a great shinobi could have been, to be frank, a drunkard and a womanizer. However, even this disrespect to the three rules a good ninja should protect, namely, avoid women, gambling and drinks, could not make him lose respect for Jiraiya. In a sense if Naruto had not lost his parents he would have eventually met the sennin anyway, as the man turned out to be his Godfather. However, he was grateful that he had an opportunity to meet Jiraiya without knowing a thing about him and their connection, but having a chance to voluntarily arrange a place for him among his precious people. He was just as eager to meet Jiraiya as his younger self, and, he supposed, it wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. "But well, anyway. He must be somewhere around, so maybe I'll just try to find him later."
"Then he'd train me?" Younger Naruto asked expectantly.
"Well, I hope." Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously. "If we're able to persuade him, I mean."
"Do we have to fight him first or something?"
"Not exactly. You'll see when it comes to it," Older Naruto replied in a mysterious voice, contemplating which of his sexy-no-jutsu he should use against his mentor.
TBC
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