Hello, everyone, I'm back and I have the newest chapter of the "the Demon and the Ghost". Enjoy!
* Review response:
Still Not Dead Yet, precognition will be explained this chapter. Haku was tied up and brought by Hayate and Yuugao to Konoha. And Naruto's always protective of those he cares about.
Reishin Amara, nobother, Elemental Dragon Swordman, Tristan76, eclipseX, Badboyzkg, thecrazyfatguy, thank you!
ChaosLord SilverLink310, Kiribuki Houchou will be brought back to Kiri sometime later in the story. As for Haku's fate, look at me response to Still Not Dead Yet's review.
Hakkyou no Yami, I will think more about adding Kagerou in this story. But she already got her own piece of Naruto (my read "Ethereal" story). And I'm starting Naruto/Kagerou/Mei story soon...
* Jutsu list:
Killing Intent - projection of the fearsomeness aura onto the area. It can also be directed at a certain person. Strong KI may paralyze, cause visions of death, do psychological damage or even kill (if the target has weak heart)
Shunshin - (D-rank) change of body stance - 'teleportation' jutsu.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Naruto" in any shape or form.
"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using yoki / jutsus / Iruka's 'demon head' speaking"
'thinking of higher beings'
chapter 7: Approaching exams
After they returned from the Wave, for a week team five took only D-ranked and C-ranked missions that didn't take them outside the village walls – they've already gotten their dose of the dangerous missions for now... With the money they were paid for the successful A-rank mission, Naruto and Sachiko could furniture their house easily. They bought beds for their rooms, wardrobes, shelves for the books and scrolls they owned, normal tables and chairs for the kitchen and dining room. All in all, two ninjas now had their house almost completely made.
It was an early morning and Naruto was having his breakfast that consisted of a plate of cereal, some bread with bacon and a glass of apple juice – while the Kyuubi jinchuuriki still loved ramen, early in his academy days Sachiko made it clear for him that eating just noodles isn't healthy and he won't be as strong as he could be, should he eat more healthy food... Hearing footsteps on the ladder, Naruto looked through the kitchen's door-frame and saw his white-haired teammate and cohabitant, clad in only oversized T-shirt, that left one of her shoulders bare, and a pair of simple white panties, her hair in a disorder from sleeping... Yawning, Sachiko sat at the table and reached for her own portion of cereal, while rubbing her sleepy eyes with her other hand.
"Mornin', Naruto-kun." She said with another yawn.
"Good morning, Sachiko-chan." The blond jinchuuriki replied as he took another seep of juice from his glass. Besides this greeting, their breakfast was spent in silence... Half and hour later, Naruto and Sachiko, ready for the day, left their house and headed to the training ground twenty six where they were to meet Iruka-sensei.
Not surprisingly, Sai was already there, drawing one thing or other in his album. The trio exchanged greetings and continued waiting for their sensei to arrive. Iruka arrived five minutes later.
"Good morning." He greeted them. "Today we're going to continue working on your taijutsu and armed-combat. But before we start, Naruto, I was forgetting to ask you this since the battle with Zabuza: how did you know back there where his clone was in the mist? You said that you have some kind of precognitive ability, can you elaborate?" Naruto sighed.
"OK." He paused for a moment. "When I was five or six, I was struck by a lightning during a storm." Sachiko placed her hand on his shoulder, hoping that this will help him fight against memories he didn't want to relive right now. "I don't know what happened with me that night, but ever since then my body generates a small electric field around itself, and when something moves inside the field, I can feel it."
"So, it's like you have a bubble around you?" Iruka-sensei asked.
"More like... I'm a spider in the center of a web." Scarred jounin nodded, accepting the analogy.
"Good, but you said that you 'web' is rather small. I take it, it isn't like forty meters in radius." Naruto nodded.
"I can extend it up to five feet radius from my body." Anticipating his sensei's next question, the young jinchuuriki continued. "But because of the thick mist over the clearing, I could feel an approximate direction of where something was moving in the mist. Guess, we were lucky that Sachiko-chan hit that water clone with her first attack." Jounin nodded, accepting blond's explanation.
"Now, let's start working!"
In the afternoon, team five entered the briefing hall in the Hokage tower, but before they could pick the mission themselves, chuunin was sitting there, picked four scrolls from the table.
"Iruka-san, Hokage-sama asked me to give your team this mission. This is a C-rank delivery mission: you are too deliver three of these scrolls to the Fire Daimyo-sama's court in the capital, Lord Makinawa-sama, who resides in the Ontambo Gai city and to Lord Momiji-sama from Hamaki city." Scarred jounin was thinking for several moments: his time might not really like to leave the village, but they were ninjas and needed to follow the orders. Plus, if everything went smooth during the mission, it will show the team that not always there will be such difficulties that they faced in the land of Waves.
"We accept this mission." Iruka said to the chuunin, before turning to his students. "Pack for a two weeks long mission. We will be leaving in three hours. Meet me at the southern gates. Dismissed." Three genins nodded and left the room after their jounin shunshin'ed away.
/ *** \
In the early afternoon two days later team five finally saw the walls of the capital of the Fire country. From the distance, the city looked to be much bigger than Konoha was, but then again, Hidden Leaf village was still military settlement, while the capital was mostly for the civilian population... When the team approached the gates, a group of eight samurai stopped them.
"Halt. State your business in the capital." Samurai captain said in an imposing voice. Iruka gave the man their mission scroll. The samurai looked through the scroll and nodded, returning it to the scarred jounin. "Your identifications, please." Samurai collected the ID's from all four shinobi of the team five and checked them. "Everything is all right, you can enter." The captain said to the whole team, before addressing to Iruka specifically: "Kimba will escort you to the Daimyo's palace, shinobi-san." One of the samurai nodded and stepped forward.
"Follow me." He said.
"Thank you, Kimba-san. And good day for you all." Iruka said to samurais. "Let's go." He then addressed to his team...
The streets their samurai escort led them through were wide, laid out with paving-stone and with people and merchants on the every step... It took them an hour of walking to reach the walls that surrounded Daimyo's palace. They stopped in front of another samurai guard. Iruka took a message scroll from his pouch and gave it to one of the guards.
"Hokage-sama sends a message to Fire Daimyo-sama." The samurai nodded and opened the scroll, checking it for any kind of traps. Finding it to be just that, a message, the samurai nodded.
"The message will be passed to the Daimyo-sama. Do you need his reply?" Scarred jounin shook his head.
"No, we do not." The samurai guard nodded, accepting the answer. Kimba looked at Iruka.
"Shinobi-san, will you be leaving the capital now?" Jounin shook his head.
"No, we will stay at the hotel overnight." He replied, and then, looking at his students, added. "Konohagakure no Sato owns hotels at the important cities of the Fire country, where you can spend time resting for free, provided, you have your ID with you. I want you to remember, where such hotel is located in the capital." All the genins nodded, before Iruka led his team towards their destination. The hotel Iruka was talking about was a rather plain-looking three-store building in the center of the city with a large red kanji for fire on its facade. Inside the shinobi hotel too was a bit plain, but still had everything one would need to relax, including small indoors onsen... Needless to say that everyone, even Sai, though he didn't show that, were happy to spend the night there, instead of tents somewhere in the forest clearing...
/ *** \
Delivery of the other two messages too went without any problems, and before long team five was back to Konoha. Iruka gave him a day of rest, and promised to up their training after that... After sleeping in till the midday on their free day, Naruto and Sachiko decided to have lunch at the barbeque restaurant Akimichi clan owned. Unfortunately or not, team ten – Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji and Yamanaka Ino under jounin-sensei Sarutobi Asuma – were there, and the only free table at the restaurant was next to their. Both Naruto and his white-haired teammate ordered some beef steak and apple juice, and while they were waiting for their food to arrive, they involuntary listened to the latest gossip Ino was retailing to her teammates.
"...And I heard from Forehead that they've completed C- turned B-rank mission, who knew that that slimy bandits had a rogue chuunin among them. And Sasuke-sama killed that ninja. He's so cool!.." Naruto wanted to yell that they were on what turned to be an A-rank mission, along with team eight, but Sachiko silenced him with a brief kiss on his lips.
"Shh... Ino's a gossip queen. Do you really want her to know that?" She asked the blond jinchuuriki, who was blushing from her kiss. He shook his head. "Good. So just stay quiet." They without any interest listened a bit more to Ino's gossip, as it was the loudest sound for them, before their orders arrived. Unfortunately, the platinum-blond kunoichi noticed what Sachiko ordered and decided to investigate...
"Hello there, Sachiko-chan." Ino said, completely ignoring Naruto. "I see you're eating this much meat. Is this you day off the diet?" The blond girl said leaning over the white-haired kunoichi. Sachiko sighed.
"Ino, I'm not dieting." She said simply, taking a bite of the roasted beef under Chinese sauce. Not a good thing to say to a gossip queen as Ino immediately asked her more questions.
"But... How? Your figure's so great, Sachiko-chan. How can you keep it like that without dieting? Maybe you'll tell me your secret, so that I can win Sasuke-sama's heart?" Unlike Sakura, Ino was at least clever enough to understand that Sachiko didn't want to be with the last Uchiha. The white-haired girl turned to look at Ino and deadpanned:
"I train." There was a pause. "Ino... If you want to be a good shinobi, you need to train. And if train a lot, you will be both strong and keep your figure no matter what you eat." Stars appeared in Ino's eyes as the platinum-blond thoughts wandered towards 'her' Sasuke-sama. "Speaking of training. Asuma-san." Sachiko address to the jounin of the team ten. "I know, you are a wind user." The man nodded. "Can I ask you for a few tip to help me with this?" The white-haired kunoichi asked, showing Asuma the stilettos Naruto gave her some time ago. Bearded jounin looked at her with some interest.
"You're a wind user too, Sachiko-chan?" He asked.
"My element is jinton, actually, but as it is based on earth and wind, so yes." Talking around Ino about such ninja stuff was safe as the platinum-blond kunoichi, who already returned to her seat, was airhead and paid no attention to others jutsu. If that other one wasn't Sasuke, of course...
"Jinton?" Asuma asked in surprise. "I heard that only Sandaime Tsuchikage's clan could use it... But that's besides the question. I will help you with channeling wind chakra though weapons if you pay our bill today." Sachiko beveled at this, but, knowing that she will benefit from such training greatly, decided to bargain.
"I'll pay for you, Asuma-san, Ino and Shikamaru." Seeing that the jounin wanted more from her, she hastily added. "And half of Choji's bill." This time bearded jounin nodded.
"Deal." He paused for moment, going over his plans for the next several days in his head. "You can come to the training ground ten tomorrow in the afternoon. If not, send me a message somehow, we will arrange you training at a later day." The white-haired kunoichi nodded.
"Thank you, Asuma-sensei." Naruto, who was all this time sitting quietly and eating his meat, looked at her, silently asking her a question 'why?'. Sachiko took a sip of her juice. "Naruto-kun, up to now I concentrated on my dust element and learned only a couple of useful jutsus for wind. I need to be better with my wind and earth elements if I want to be successful..." She made a pause. "Oh, by the way, will you teach me some of your doton jutsus, Naruto-kun?" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded.
"Of course, Sachiko-chan." The white-haired kunoichi immediately wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a kiss. Somehow, this felt right for them.
"Thank you, Naruto-kun." She said after they broke the kiss several seconds later.
/ *** \
Later that day, jounins of the current genin teams were gathering for a meeting with the Hokage.
"But, Iruka-kohai!.." Certain silver-haired jounin moaned quite pathetically as he was dragged into the Hokage's office. Iruka sighed tiredly.
"Kakashi-senpai, you can't keep being late to important meetings if you know what's good for you." Scarred jounin said. When he finished, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, stood up up from his seat.
"Good day, ladies..." He said looking at the only female jounin present, Yuuhi Kurenai. "...And gentlemen, as you may know, chuunin exams are held at Konoha this year. So I gathered you there to ask you, which teams will you nominate. Let us begin." There was a long pause, before Asuma stepped forward and nominated his team ten. Then Maito Gai did the same for his 'youthful trio'. Kurenai followed the suit too, as did some other jounin-sensei. Finally, Kakashi stepped forward.
"The Kakashi led team seven: Ami, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke, under the name of Hatake Kakashi, I nominate them to take chuunin selection exams." He said, before returning to reading his orange book. Scarred jounin stepped forward.
"The Iruka led team five: Sai, Sachiko and Uzumaki Naruto, under the name of Umino Iruka, I nominate them to take chuunin selection exams." After finishing the short 'speech' Iruka stepped back into the line. Kakashi looked at him.
"I thought that the only promising genin on your team was that girl, Sachiko, Iruka-kohai, and even she wasn't the best in the academy. Are you really going to send your brats into the exam this time?" Iruka sighed. For someone who used 'underneath the underneath' principle so much, Kakashi seemed to take academy reports by the face value.
"You might be surprised, what my team can do, Kakashi-senpai. They might not pass the examination, but it should be a good training for them." He answered quietly.
"You nominated you team even though you don't really think any of them will pass?" Silver-haired jounin asked. Iruka said nothing. By this time, all other jounin-sensei were finished, and Hokage sent his assistant chuunin to them forms for their genin. When it was done, Hokage adjourned the meeting and dismissed jounins.
/ *** \
Next day happened to be sunny, but cold and windy with small clouds in the sky. Iruka trained them till the lunchtime. He and two of his stone clones were overseeing their progress, as Naruto was working on conjunction of his earth-style ninjutsus with his taijutsu style, Sachiko was trying a new fuuton jutsu and Sai was training with his ninja-to. At noon Iruka called his team together. When all three genins of the team five were there, the scarred jounin produced three pieces of paper from his pouch.
"Naruto, Sachiko, Sai, remember the last C-rank mission we took?" Having all three genins nod, the jounin continued. "I think I can tell you something about the messages as this regards you too now. Remember, that under normal circumstances you are forbidden to disclose such information." He stressed. "Anyway, as you know, every six month, there is a chuunin selection exam held at different hidden villages. This time, chuunin exam will be held there, at Konoha. The messages we delivered to the Fire Lord and his vicegerents, were the invitations to the final part of the exam." Iruka said.
"You said, this concerns us too. How's that?" Sachiko asked.
"Well..." The jounin gave each of his students a form. "I felt that you are good enough and nominated you to take the exam. All that you'll have to do is to fill this forms and bring them to the room 301 at shinobi academy next Friday." He made a small pause. "Of course, you may not fill the form and take the exam later." All three genins nodded. "Unfortunately, Hokage-sama asked me to take a mission this morning, so I'll leave the village in the afternoon and be away till Wednesday. So, you'll be training on your own in the mean time." Iruka said. "Now, remember, whether you chose to take the exam or not, I'll be proud of you... I think I will go now. Team, dismissed." And the scarred jounin disappeared via shunshin. After a short discussion, all three genins of the team five decided that they'll participate in the exam...
In the afternoon Sachiko went to train with Asuma, while Naruto stayed at the training ground and worked on his doton jutsus some more. Sai just disappeared and was most likely drawing somewhere... In the evening, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and his white-haired teammate had a dinner together at their house. After that, they decided to go call it a day as they had a difficult training planned for tomorrow... Naruto was surprised, when Sachiko knocked on his door.
"Yea?" He asked. His surprise only increased when the white-haired girl entered his room, already dressed in her oversized T-shirt she slept in and caring her pillow with her.
"Naru-kun... It's cold in my room. Can I sleep with you tonight?" This partially was true as she had the biggest room on the floor, which had two walls of windows and was on the north-west side of the house. But the excuse was rather poor as they slept in much colder environment during their missions outside the village. Still, Naruto nodded.
"It's not much space there, but OK." He said, blushing bright red, edging away from the wall so that the girl could lay down there. Sachiko threw her pillow there before laying down next to the blond.
"Thank you." She said, before kissing him a good night.
Naruto woke up first early the next morning. He ended sleeping on his left side with Sachiko behind him, holding onto him possessively, with her arms around his midsection and her legs wrapped around his right one. And despite two layers of clothes between them, Naruto now knew that his white-haired teammate had a pair of nice, and sizable for her not yet thirteen years of age, upper B-cup breasts, normally hidden by her ninja attire... And as much as he wanted to just stay in bed with Sachiko, they had a plans for today. Maybe he was still very much sleepy, but he turned around in her embrace and kissed her. Surprisingly, this easily woke her up, and she returned the kiss, bringing it to the level they'd never reached before.
"Good mornin', Sachiko-chan." Naruto said, as they broke the kiss, blushing profusely. Sachiko untangled herself from him and sat up on the bed.
"Good morning you too, Naru-kun." She said and then stretched forth bending her body back, making her T-shirt, oversized it may be, give him a glimpse of her waistline with her panties and some of her flat stomach to Naruto, making him blush more... Absentmindedly, the blond shinobi noted that her skin was no longer pale, somewhat even tanned now, and it seemed that she had no tan lines... "I slept so well tonight..." Sachiko purred as she got out if his bed. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki had to agree, sleeping together with her felt good... "Can we sleep together from now on?" She asked, making him choke a little.
"Sachiko-chan..." He said after he cleared his throat. "You... you really... want that?" The white-haired girl nodded eagerly. "I guess... if we permute the furniture there, we can move her bed into the room and make a double bed ...for us." Sachiko all but pushed him back onto the bed, before giving him one hell of a kiss.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Naruto-kun!" She said rapidly. Then there was a short pause as the two were looking at each other blushing bright red. Then the Kyuubi jinchuuriki broke the silence.
"Sachiko-chan... We live together... We ...kiss and hug... And now we slept in one bed... Does this make us ...you know, boyfriend and girlfriend?" He asked, blushing a deeper shade of red. The question was more than valid, as up to now they considered each other to be just best friends... Sachiko looked into his eyes.
"Is that a proposition, Naru-kun?" The waited for him to blush even more, before diving him a hot kiss. "Of course, I'll be your girlfriend, silly!" These words were followed by another kiss. "Now, I remember, someone promised to teach me a couple of earth-style jutsus." The white-haired kunoichi say in a teasing voice...
After the quick breakfast, the duo headed through the village towards one of the less used training grounds. But halfway there, when they were walking through one of the central streets, they heard something happened in one of the adjoining streets. Deciding to investigate, they found a large boy in black clothes, a couple of years older than them, with something large, wrapped with bandages, strapped to his back holding a young boy, whom Naruto identified as Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru, by the collar. There also was a girl in white battle kimono with her hair made into four tail with a large fan on her back standing indifferently by the black-clad boy. On the other side of the street, there were a boy and a girl of Konohamaru's age, Haruno Sakura and Ami. Up in the tree, sitting on a thick branch, there was Sasuke himself. As Naruto never saw the girl with a fan and the boy in black, he decided that they were from the other village and came to take part in the chuunin exam.
"I suggest, you let Hokage's grandson go." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said, making the black-clad boy turn around and send a glare at him and Sachiko. Naruto noticed Suna hitae-ate the boy wore.
"Great, they keep popping up from every corner." The boy said, making Naruto sigh.
"Even though Konoha and Suna are allied, the relationship between the villages is strained. I suggest, you do as my teammate says, or there may be an international incident of yours creation." Sachiko said. To make sure that the boy in black listened to them this time, Naruto send a wave of concentrated killing intent towards him. And because of the malevolent yoki he contained, Naruto could create at lest jounin level of KI... At the same time Sasuke decided to intervene too and threw a stone at the boy's arm that held Konohamaru. So, for Sakura, Ami and Sasuke it seemed that it was Uchiha himself, who freed the little boy. The said little boy immediately ran to his friends, while Sasuke's two fangirls cheered for their 'hero', who jumped down onto the street.
"I'm sorry. This is our first time in Konoha and my brother seems to be a little jumpy because of that. I'll make sure that this won't happen again." The kunoichi with the battle fan said to Naruto and Sachiko. She was about to berate her brother, but a redhead with large black circles under his eyes, too with a Suna hitae-ate, appeared in swirl of sand behind Naruto. His arrival made two other Sand ninjas stiffen.
"Kankuro, you are a disgrace for our village." The red-haired boy, who was wearing black and light-gray clothes and had a big gourd of sand strapped to his back, said in an absolutely emotionless tone. The kunoichi was about to say something, but... "Temari, shut up, I will deal with him myself." This made Kankuro cry from fear.
"Y-Yes, Gaara." Temari said, barely containing her fear of this ninja.
"Now..." Gaara looked at each of leaf ninja present. "What is your name, the strong one?" He asked. As Naruto and Sasuke were standing almost on the same line for him, Sasuke, of course, assumed that Suna ninja was asking him.
"I'm Uchiha Sasuke!" He said proudly.
"Not you, you do not interest me. I asked the blond one." Gaara elaborated, making Uchiha boy seethe with anger: how dare this stranger call him weak? On the other side, Gaara's comment about interest made both Kankuro and Temari look at Naruto, like he was going to die at any moment.
"My name's Naruto Uzumaki." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki introduced himself.
"Sabaku no Gaara." The redhead did the same. "I hope that I'll get a chance to fight you." There was a short pause. "Temari, Kankuro, let's go." And the Suna trio disappeared... Sasuke stormed towards Naruto, fully intent to prove his superiority to the blond, his cheerleaders in his stead, but as neither Naruto nor Sachiko wanted to deal with them right now, the blond shinobi flashed them with his most powerful KI. When Sasuke and his fangirls unfroze, no members of the team five were seen in the street...
That's all, folks. Read and Review!