Hello, everyone! I finally got around to update this story too. Sorry, took me a lot of time to do so... Well, anyway...
* Review response:
Elemental Dragon Swordman, well, I planned Naruto and Sachiko be good enough (not super, but still good and all...).
eclipseX, OverLordRevan, Evil E. Evil, OBSERVER01, thank you!
Still Not Dead Yet, true... and, also, any and all jinchuuriki and almost everyone with jounin-level reserves have enough chakra to create a dozen of shadow clones. Just most of those won't have chakra for anything more then.
Hakkyou no Yami, one or two stories? show them to me! plz!!! Anyway, I'm still not sure if I want to add Kagerou to the Naruto/Sachiko pairing... But she definitely will star in the stories that are coming soon. (in june, though... I have exams starting just 18th may...). And, well, Iruka's team will mostly be on the same level as the Sand trio. ;)
Tristan76, well, by birth they are fraternal twins, but, yes, Kyuubi's yoki made them much different even in terms of genetics. Sachiko has jinton (DUST! element = wind x earth) kekkei genkai while Naruto is stuck with no bloodline.
* Jutsu list:
Shunshin - (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu.
kage bushin - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.
AN: Before you ask, I know that what Sachiko tried to do with Naruto in the park would accomplish exactly the opposite from what she intended to do, but, hey, she's twelve and (sometimes) stupid. He's not any better, though.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Naruto" in any shape or form.
"speaking"
"speaking through sign language"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using yoki / jutsus / Iruka's 'demon head' speaking"
'thinking of higher beings'
chapter 5: Genin days
Large black and white jaws swung shut around one certain cat. Then the drawn giant bulldog ran back to its creator, all the time wobbling its short tail. Sai made the dog open its mouth, and frightened Tora the cat jumped out of it straight into Sachiko's arms. Naruto's eyes traveled for a moment towards his teammate, who was holding Tora to her chest, before he blushed and looked away. Noticing that, the girl gained a slight pink on her cheeks too. That didn't mean that she was annoyed with his recent behavior, though... The things between those two were awkward like that for several days already, ever since Sachiko and Naruto had their small visit to the river to bath. The thing is... Sachiko had no bathing suit with her and she also wore no bra, so as the were bathing, blond jinchuuriki got several nice eyefuls of her nicely developing breasts...
"Objective completed, sensei." White-haired kunoichi exclaimed as she held resisting cat tighter.
"Eighteen minutes and forty seven seconds... I think it's a new record. Nice job, team." Jounin laughed. "Now, let's head back to the tower." And the team five started running towards Hokage tower to mark this mission, their fifth D-rank, as completed. After Tora was returned to the daimyo's wife and Hokage dismissed them, Iruka too let Sai free for the rest of the day, but asked Naruto and Sachiko to follow him. Several minutes later they ended in a small park a block away from the Hokage tower. "I don't know, what's going between you two..." Scarred jounin said. "...But this shouldn't interfere with your teamwork. Normally, we'd have a team training now, but instead I give you until tomorrow to solve whatever problem you have." Then he did a one-handed handseal and disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves. Sachiko sighed.
"Look at me, Naruto-kun." Blond in front of her blushed a bit, but refused to do as she said. Deciding that desperate times call for desperate measures, she reached for him and placed her hands on his cheeks, before pulling him into a bit one-sided kiss. Surprised, Kyuubi jinchuuriki looked at her with wide eyes. Sachiko broke the kiss and backed away a bit then. "Now, that's better." She said with a blush that pretty much mirrored Naruto's. As he was still looking at her wide-eyed, white-haired girl continued. "I'm flattered that you find my body attractive, but we're friend, are we not?" Naruto tried to look away, but she held his head firmly. "Look at me." Leaning over him, she whispered into his ear. "You saw me topless, so what? It's not like I'm angry with you... Actually, if you ask nicely, I may show them to you again." She said with a wink.
"B-But..." Kyuubi jinchuuriki doddered, all while blushing crimson.
"Oh..." Sachiko moaned. "Stop it, Naruto-kun! Stop acting like you did something bad." Pause... "What do I have to do with you so that you will act normally around me again?.. Maybe I should..." Sachiko trailed off as Naruto raised his eyes at her. "Now, that's better..."
"And there we have the dobe and his whore." Unmistakable voice of Uchiha Sasuke sneered behind them. "I think I'll have to kill them before they create more useless idiots to fill the village in." He laughed, and two banshees of his teammates laughed with him.
"What are you thinking, slut, Sasuke-kun will be yours if you show him that you allow even the scum to touch you? Stupid. Sasuke-kun will pick a decent girl like me!" Blue-haired fangirl named Amy added her two cents.
"Wait a minute! Why would he end with you? Sasuke-kun will chose me!" Another banshee that went by the name Sakura yelled. Naruto and Sachiko, both boiling with anger, looked at each other.
"Shall we kick their asses?" Kyuubi jinchuuriki asked. His white-haired teammate nodded.
"Definitely."
Next morning Naruto and Sachiko entered training grounds together. Sai wasn't there yet, but Iruka-sensei could be found leaning against one of the trees.
"I see, you two are again as you were the day I met you." Jounin commented. Naruto grinned: teaching Sasuke and his side-kick fan-banshees how to be respectful towards his peers was definitely a good way to solve the problem. Sachiko only smiled lightly. "Good." Just several minutes later the third genin of the team five arrived. "Now that we are all here, let us start the training. Normally, I'd teach you tree-climbing exercise today, but I think it's safe to assume that you already know it as I saw you all use the skill at one point of time or another."
"Yes, Iruka-sensei." Said Sai, while Naruto and Sachiko just nodded.
"So, then, we will now have 'vertical' spars, taijutsu only. After that... we'll see."
Naruto had to fight his sensei while both were standing on a trunk of a giant tree. On the tree nearby Sachiko was facing Sai. Turning his attention from his best friend back to his opponent, Kyuubi jinchuuriki prepared himself... Seeing that he wasn't attacking, Iruka sprang into the action, trying to keep himself on an low-chuunin level of skill – it would do no good to his students, if he beat his genin in just a couple of seconds. Blond shinobi ducked under his sensei's fist and caught his leg with his hand moment later. For a moment both were motionless, but the young jinchuuriki all but threw Iruka back, and tried to attack him with a powerful punch to his midsection before jounin could recover. Even with his ANBU training, Iruka barely blocked incoming attack, mostly because he was surprised by the power Naruto possessed: the boy was rather small.
"Not bad." Older ninja commented, before launching a combo of punches and kicks at his opponent, who was moving back while keeping his block up. "Good... But your tactics are flawed." Iruka said as he threw a powerful punch that, even though Naruto blocked it, almost threw the blond off the tree. "You let yourself being pushed into the corner, so to say." He tried to hit Kyuubi jinchuuriki once more, but the blond shinobi dodged it and then attempted to strike jounin's legs. Iruka, of course, saw that coming and jumped back up the tree. "That's more like it." He commented, before turning his attention to the other sparring pair, just in time to see Sachiko land a hit that sent Sai off the tree. Pale boy harmlessly landed on the ground, but his spar was lost. Noticing that too, Naruto turned to congratulate his female best friend on winning the match, but instead he got a kick to his side and too ended on the ground a couple of seconds later...
"Now, Naruto, Sai, can any of you tell what was done wrong in your spars?" Iruka asked. Of course, he himself could easily point his genin's mistakes, but it would be more beneficial to them if they themselves found their errors.
"I used incorrect tactics against the opponent who was faster and more agile than I am. Relying on dodging in such case isn't a good option." Sai said and jounin nodded.
"You are right. It would do better to try to block attacks instead of dodging them if you face someone who is faster than you are." Iruka lectured. "Blocking is faster than dodging, so if you lack speed over your opponent – try blocking. Though, if your opponent is also much stronger than you are, this won't work... OK... And, Naruto, what was your mistake?" Blond jinchuuriki scratched the back of his head.
"I paid more attention to what was happening to my teammates than I paid to my actual opponent." Scarred jounin nodded again.
"True. Remember: until you are sure that your opponents are out of the fight, never look around without having your back protected." Iruka looked up at the sun. "...It's almost half past eleven, so we will do an hour long brake for now. After that, meet me in front of Hokage tower for our daily D-rank." As his genin nodded, jounin disappeared via shunshin.
Another week of those stupid D-rank missions later Naruto, with some help from Sachiko, finally collected enough money to replace glass in the windows of 'their' house. White-haired kunoichi agreed to buy the glass, as many merchants still overcharged her teammate, while he would do the replacement. And as they had a day off, there was no problem with executing the plan, so by the sunset, the duo could finally move into the forest house. Right now they had sleeping bags instead of beds and their rooms were mostly empty, but this was still better than their previous living arrangements, especially for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki...
A month after the team five passed his test, Iruka finally deemed them ready for their first C-rank mission. So, after the team assembled at their usual spot, scarred jounin led them to briefing hall of the Hokage tower. There he asked for the mission his team will get and, after Sarutobi agreed that the team was ready for such a job, he gave them a simple escort mission: they had to protect merchants' caravan on their way back to the land of Rivers. Early in the next morning, team five met in front of west gate where the caravan stood ready to depart.
"The formation will be like this: Sai will take the front, Naruto – left, I'll guard the right side and Sachiko will take the back." Iruka said. When everyone was in their position, caravan started on its way. The carts, pulled by mules were slow, despite being mostly empty, and so by the nightfall they covered less than hundred miles – something a shinobi by himself could cover in five to seven hours. The next day was pretty much the same: hot, slow and boring.
The third day seemed to be the same, except for a small rain in the afternoon, but about three hours before sundown, something changed.
"Something's wrong. The forest is too quiet." Naruto sent to Iruka through the language of hand signs. Jounin nodded, his gut too was telling him that something will happen.
"Indeed. Caravan might get attacked." And just several seconds after this message, large group of armed bandits appeared in front of the first cart. Another, with several rogue ninja among them – behind the last. "Go help Sai." Iruka added hastily. Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded and sped towards where pale boy's drawn animals were fighting the mass of thugs and were slowly losing...
"Kage bushin!" Blond shinobi announced his jutsu, and fifteen copies of him joined the fight, wile the original one stayed at some distance, using low level earth-style ninjutsu on bandits that got too close to the caravan, from time to time adding another batch of clones into the main fight. In the end, it took only a couple of minutes for two genin to defeat the thugs. Sai was breathing hard: this fight took a lot of him, and his chakra reserves were really low right now. Naruto, on the other hand, was just winded a little, so, seeing as the fight on the other end of the caravan was still going on, he decided to lend a hand to Iruka and Sachiko-chan. But when he was just a couple of carts away from them, he saw large ronin pin his white-haired teammate to the ground.
"You are cute, girl. Boys will like to have some fun with you." The man said as one of his hands moved to Sachiko's chest... Immediately red hot anger clouded Naruto's vision: no one dared to do that to his …friend!
Sachiko all but resigned to her fate right now as she was thrown onto the ground by a much larger man, whose one hand was on her neck, while he attempted to molest her with the other. She underestimated this man in the fight, not expecting one of the bandits to be upper-chuunin level rogue ninja... Suddenly something big and crimson-red slammed into the man's side, throwing him away from her and into the tree. Moment later a dreadful malevolent aura flooded the entire area. Turning her head to the side, white-haired girl saw the source of this aura: Naruto, surrounded by crimson glow, which mostly concentrated around his right hand and extended from there into the appendage that saved her.
"Do not dare to touch her like that!" Blond shinobi growled in a low demonic voice, his still blue, but now absolute-zero-cold, eyes with slitted pupils for a moment shot down to his teammate, but then returned back to the offender of Sachiko. The ronin could stand against the killing intent Kyuubi jinchuuriki radiated, but he no longer could fight effectively, especially against the blond, so Naruto, using his newly found strength and speed started beating the man... Only to be stopped several seconds later by Iruka.
"We need him alive to interrogate him." Jounin said. Naruto turned his head to look at him, but during it his eyes finally registered the fact that he was now surrounded by crimson yoki.
"Wha?!." Blond shinobi shouted, stumbling back. "Turn.. Turn me back!!!" Just before his panic got the better of him, a pair of soft yet strong arms wrapped around his midsection as well as a chin placed itself gently on his shoulder and a warm body was now pressed into his back.
"Naruto-kun... calm down. You saved me. I'm fine now." Sachiko said in a whisper, desperately fighting against the effects of the malevolent aura on the inside... Her words seemed to have the effect, and Kyuubi jinchuuriki started to calm down and the yoki that surrounded the blond started receding. And when it all was gone, Naruto blackened out. Iruka sighed, not really knowing what to say to his genin right now.
Naruto woke up about half an hour later, after having a dream about cracked, but self-restoring, glass with a kanji for 'seal' on it, that held the evil yoki sealed in a world that he and Sachiko with Hokage's help identified as his subconscious.
As for the rest of the mission, the last two days were quiet and the caravan safely reached the destination. Iruka allowed his team to rest there for a day, before heading back to Konoha... They were halfway back to the Hidden Leaf when a messenger hawk decided to make an appearance, delivering a scroll from Hokage to the jounin. After he finished reading it, Iruka sighed.
"Team, we have another mission: we are to help team eight under Yuhi Kurenai with their mission. They encountered a group of missing-nins and requested help. Team eight will also be given a jounin and an ANBU. Think of this as a chance to see how large-scale missions are conducted." Jounin said. "Normally, though, team eight would be given an ANBU cell or jounin-chuunin extra team, but because of the certain event that will happen in the Konoha in a couple of month, a lot of Konoha elite forces are used for security of the village and aren't sent on the missions that are outside the walls..." Iruka explained the reason for such a 'strange' decision Hokage made in regards of the support to the team eight. "We will rest now, and tomorrow we're heading to the land of Waves."
"Hai, Iruka-sensei." Three genin said simultaneously.
That's all, folks! Read and Review!