GEESUME CROW, GUYS, I AM SO SORRY IT'S BEEN MONTHS SINCE THE LAST CHAPTER HERE! I passed my semester in college and got a job, so I've been very busy; I'm a bit also not feeling like this chapter is good. If people think so too, I'll re-edit it. but for now, WELCOME BACK TO THIS STORY! 8D

Let's continue...

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Barely escaped Naruto and his clones, Sasuke panted as temporarily found a quick hiding space. Naruto was looking around, angry.

"Come on! Where did you weasel away to now, Sasuke!?" he screamed.

The Uchiha slowly took and breath and calmed down. He needed time to think. None of what Naruto was saying made sense. He talked about how he would come back once the Nine-tails was out of him, yet doesn't want to come back because of the village?

"He's making things up... there's got to be a real reason why he's leaving. Let's see... according to Kakashi, I hurt him really badly... wait, that's it!"

Suddenly, flashbacks flew into Sasuke's mind as he remembered all the times Naruto said he'd never stop until he'd get his approval. The goofball's dream was to become Hokage so that he could be respected, but he knew that he was one of the people who was most important on being acknowledged. That would explain everything... like that one time...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A flashback let a gust of the beautiful wind blow gently throughout the Leaf Village. A wonderful day was developing in Konoha as the training field's river glistened brightly in the sunrise. Team 7 laid on the ground, panting and very exhausted as Kakashi stood in front of them, reading his book. He watched the three slowly get up, all exhausted with Sakura wiping her forehead and the boys wiping the blood from their faces.

"Well... you three did much better than I thought, but still, you have a lot of work to do," Kakashi said, not even looking at them, "Although you three showed incredible strength and will during Orochimaru's attack, we'll need you further train you."

"Freaking damn it!" Naruto pounded the ground with his right fist, "We were so close!"

"Tch..." Sasuke scoffed and gritted his teeth behind his lips, at this point back in time, still in his black Chunin outfit.

"There's no way we're gonna be able to beat Kakashi-sensei at this rate," Sakura stated barely, gasping through every other three words.

"We almost did! If Sasuke didn't get it my way, I could've whopped Kakashi-sensei before he could even see it coming!" Naruto yelled, doing his famous 'blame Sasuke for everything' routine and pointed at him.

Sasuke closed his eyes frustratedly and turned his head away, "Don't howl, loser. You're the one who royally screwed up."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, SASUKE!?" Naruto roared, but was cut off with a yelp as a familiar fist pummeled into his head.

"NARUTO! DON'T TALK TO SASUKE LIKE THAT!" Sakura yelled at him as the boy struggled to regain his senses after they were pretty much rocked out of his ears.

"Owww, Sakura...! Why do ya gotta hit so hard? You always take Sasuke's side on everything..." he whined as he looked down and leaned his head near the ground.

Kakashi simply sighed silently and watched the drama the three would do almost every day. It was like he could simply record this and it would sound exactly the same from beginning to end. He closed his book and put it in his bag.

"Well, you three have fun; I gotta go and do some errands around the Leaf Village. I trust you three will be okay on your own; later."

With a flash of quickness, the Jonin left the three alone. Sasuke and Sakura struggled to get up as they heard their teammate giggle.

"Hey, guys," Naruto said, grinning at them, "I guess in a way, we all did a lot better than last time! So, what do you think, guys? Have I gotten any stronger?"

Sakura folded her arms and closed her eyes, smirking, "Well... I gotta say, you have maybe gotten a bit better, but you're not as good as Sasuke."

Sasuke hmphed with a bit of a grin, "Tch, come on; you think this was better? What happened to that strength you had against Gaara of the Sand? I guess that was just a one time trick, loser."

As he turned, he and Sakura began walking away to the exit of the training field. She watched her crush casually put his hands on his pockets and walk calmly away from their other teammate.

"So, Sasuke, um... Do you wanna hang out together?" Sakura said, her hopes up with a blush on her face.

"Nah... I've got some things to do," Sasuke said, annoyance and part of disgusting emotions on his face.

He knew she never gave up so easily as she kept saying, "Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to do something maybe later... heeheehee, so, maybe we can?"

As the two had their somewhat one sided and awkward conversation, they realized that a certain orange obnoxious ninja was not ever near them. They turned around to see Naruto on the ground still, covering his face with an arm. Both looked at each other with a concerned yet confused face; none of them had seen Naruto act like that. The two then walked back over to Naruto as Sakura bent down to him.

"Naruto? Hey, are you okay?" she asked.

A jerk from his body caused him to look up at the two. He quickly covered his eyes with his arm, rubbed them, and then put on a cheerful face. But for a split second, Sasuke could've sworn his eyes had tears in them...

"O-Oh, sorry, I didn't hear you," the goofball grinned his signature smile, rubbing his head.

"How could you not hear us? We were standing right next to you; geez, I swear, Naruto, you're hopeless," Sakura sighed, shaking her head.

"Didn't mean to make you worry, Sakura. Come on, let's g- Aaugh!" Naruto said, trying to stand up, but suddenly collapsed on the ground, back on his knees.

Sakura and Sasuke flinched at the scream of pain he made, dropping to his side. Quickly scanning his body for injuries, they found the one that was the cause; his right foot with its ankle badly cut up and his foot looked slightly out of joint, considering it was pointing a bit in the wrong direction.

"Darn it... that hurts...," Naruto gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

Sasuke looked at it, a bit hard on his eyes to look at it, "You must've screwed your foot up during the last few blows you took from Kakashi. He must not have noticed it."

"We need to get you to the hospital, Naruto. That doesn't look broken, but we should be careful just in case," Sakura said.

"No, I'm fine," Naruto bared his teeth as he stood up as he could, his injured foot a bit twitching, "I can walk; there's nothing to it."

"Naruto! You can't walk and that's final!" Sakura said louder, concerned, "You need to sit back d-"

"I SAID I'M FINE!"

The sudden shout caused Sakura and Sasuke to flinch back in shock at the sudden roar of Naruto's voice. He never screamed at Sakura like that, and not with that much anger. Both saw the pure frustration and annoyance on his face, but after a few blinks, he realized his error and looked down much more sad. He soon raised his face to the girl he yelled at and made an awkward and small smile.

"S-Sorry, Sakura, didn't mean to burst out like that; I meant, I'm fine. I'm just needing a break, that's all," he covered for himself.

"...O-okay, but uh... if you need anything, you let us know, all right?" Sakura said, slightly smiling, but was shaken up.

With a nod, the boy stood up and began walking ahead of them to the entrance of the training field. But as he passed Sasuke, he couldn't help but look at him. The Uchiha widened his eyes at what he saw; nothing but pure disappointment and heartbroken emotion was on the boy's face. This wasn't like Naruto; he'd never act like this. The sore and saddened expression of his teammate confused him as Naruto turned away and limped out of the training field, out of view. It was only moments when Sakura joined him by his side.

"What was that about...?" Sakura asked, looking at Sasuke.

He didn't answer, but at the time he didn't really care for he needed to train for his next encounter with Itachi. But now that he looked back at it with the other flashback...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sasuke panted as he hid behind a huge boulder. He had been really going hard on this fight, and these memories were effecting him in a huge way. He realized how much of such a giant impact it was for Naruto to get him to notice his strength. What was just minor teasing were humungous insults to his friend. It must be the reason why Naruto was leaving. Closing his eyes, he suddenly heard footsteps very close to his right. His eyes flew open in shock as he looked to his right to see Naruto turn right behind the boulder with a punch ready.

"Gh! He already found me!?" Sasuke thought as he readied to move.

Quickly jumping back as Naruto missed, the boy jumped out onto the water and watched his opponent smirk and join him.

"Heh, you get me so riled up for this fight, now you're playing hide and seek with me? Seems your tough talk is backfiring, Sasuke," he said, mocking him.

He noticed he quickly slipped a kunai out of his sleeve into his hand. He twirled it before he got a perfect grip and held it ready to attack.

"Hehe, you ready for yet another round? I'm surprised you want your butt kicked so badly," he grinned at Sasuke.

"You want me to acknowledge you, don't you?"

"H-Huh?"

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Sorry for the lack of not making stuff, guys; real life as a college student is hard! Be back shortly!