Me: I don't own Naruto!
Naruto: Dattebayo!
Me: -_-ll What are you doing here?
Kasumi: Be nice now.
Me: Ah! And take a look at my Gemstones blog! The link's on my profile.
lifethroughanother'seyes: Thank you for answering and reviewing! I think you're pretty much right on the mark!
Hinata18809: Oh, thank you!
Bella-swan11: It was very good guesswork! You've given me a lot of ideas, but the romance between Sasuke and Kasumi will take a while to develop, yet. Thank you for reviewing!
Randomness-sama: Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it! Naruto is an awesome manga, just so you know! I missed a bit in the plot? Well, my story is structured through moments in the plot, so yes, sometimes I do miss some things in the plot. I do my best to get the important part though. Thank you for reviewing!
kawiikitsune2004: Well, now, that would have to depend on whether or not she studies under Tsunade. Thank you for the review, dear!
Habit
It quickly became a routine. They would arrive on the bridge at the correct time and spend the first hour sparring against each other.
Kasumi and Sasuke corrected Naruto's taijutsu.
Naruto and Sasuke helped Kasumi become stronger.
Kasumi and Naruto provided Sasuke with a worthy challenge for him to pit himself against.
At lunchtime, they would get together to get ramen or barbecue or sushi. Mostly ramen though, to Sasuke and Kasumi's exasperation. Around that time, Kakashi arrived and they would spend hours doing D-ranks missions. Their sensei generally left after five in the afternoon.
After Kakashi left, Sasuke and Kasumi took over the job of stuffing a few years of Academy teachings into Naruto's thick skull. Kasumi helped Sasuke on his jutsus and he let her borrow a few of his clan's scrolls. Naruto and Sasuke nudged Kasumi into being a little more social, if only because she needed to be the peacekeeper. Around sunset, they would leave for home with only a few insults thrown in by the boys.
Small differences. Big differences.
Fences
"Naruto-san... what happened to your face?"
He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck, only succeeding in getting more paint on himself. "I... umm... accidentally... tipped some of the paint on me?"
"Hn. You're such an idiot." Sasuke commented, but it was more amused than downgrading.
"Oh yeah?" A mischievous twinkle appeared in the shorter boy's eyes and they both tensed. Both Kasumi and Sasuke were familiar with that look from their Academy days. It generally signaled an upcoming prank at someone else's expense.
Without warning, Naruto lunged and tackled Sasuke to the ground, getting the white paint all over him in the process.
The Uchiha spluttered in outrage, eyes wide.
Naruto smiled smugly. "Who's the idiot now?"
Sasuke's eye twitched and right in front of the fence they were supposed to be painting, the boys started to wrestle.
Kasumi - damn being professional - laughed until she cried, even when they ended up completely demolishing the fence.
Sitting underneath a tree, Kakashi eye-smiled and casually turned a page in his orange book.
Naruto-ese
"Ugh!" Naruto screamed, throwing his book at the ground. "I don't get this!"
Kasumi frowned and set the weights she had been lifting on the ground. Walking over, she sat down next to Naruto. "What don't you get, Naruto-san?"
Naruto took a deep breath in and let it back out, trying to calm himself down. He didn't like bugging Kasumi-chan or even the teme because he didn't get the stupid Academy stuff, because they were trying so hard (In Sasuke's own special abrasive way) and being so patient (Mostly Kasumi), but he simply did not get the information!
"I don't know." He said miserably. "I just don't understand it!"
She nodded understandingly and picked up his abused textbook. "Alright. Don't panic now. Show me where."
Naruto took another deep breath and started to flip through the pages again.
Kasumi reached for the stopwatch on her wrist and casually focused her eyes on an incoming navy blur. As soon as Sasuke ran past her, she stopped the timer.
"Two minutes and thirty seconds." She told the panting Uchiha.
He exhaled sharply and sat down beside them, grabbing an icy water bottle.
"It's ten seconds better than yesterday." Kasumi said while he took a long sip.
"Yeah," He screwed on the top and put it back down on the grass. "But your time is one minute and forty seconds."
There was a blatant gap.
She smiled. "And you can lift almost 25 pounds more than I can. I think that evens things out a bit."
He gave the classic Uchiha grunt, but didn't disagree.
"Found it!" Naruto declared triumphantly. He shoved the textbook over to Kasumi and Sasuke. "Here it is!" He pointed to a large text session.
"... Hunter-Nin?" Kasumi read.
"Yeah. What the hell are they?!" Naruto scowled and crossed his arms.
"Hmph. Hunter-nin are basically the shadow cleaners of a village, dobe." Sasuke said, not unkindly. By his standards, anyway. From anyone else, it would have been downright rude.
"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"Okay, you know what missing-nin are right?" Kasumi asked patiently.
"Yup! They're ninja that have left their village... right?" Naruto replied, somewhat uncertainty.
"Yes." Kasumi nodded, eyes dark. "They are traitors who don't return to their village; ninja that have no alliance to any village and are considered criminals."
"So consider them the trash." Sasuke picked up an with ease born of hours of teaching alongside the cream-haired girl. "The hunter-nin are the ones sent out by the hidden villages to dispose of them quietly so they don't let the secrets of the village out or become a hassle like killing innocent civilians everywhere they go."
"Oh." Naruto frowned, brow furrowing deeply in his concentration. "The hunter-nin are the dumpster people...?"
Kasumi and Sasuke exchanged a look. Good enough, they agreed wordlessly.
"Yeah." Sasuke said. "Just remember that they always kill the missing-nin as soon as they're defeated and bring the head back as proof."
Naruto gave them a blank look. "Why?"
"Uhh..." Kasumi bit her lip. "Well, you know how the dumpster people have to bring back proof to their boss to show they did their work?"
Naruto nodded.
"It's like that. The workers only bring back a form of where they went and how much trash was collected. They don't actually bring all the trash to their boss, do they?"
"Oh!" Naruto's eyes lit up with understanding. "It's like that! I get it now! Thanks Kasumi-chan. Thanks teme." Nodding to himself, he went back to reading his textbook.
Sasuke frowned as a sudden realization struck him. Horrified, he paled. Eyes wide, he turned to Kasumi and said, "What does it say about me that I now know how to speak Naruto-ese?"
For a second, she stared at him blankly while Naruto's head snapped up, spluttering in indignation. And then, she threw back her head and laughed in pure delight.
Eyes wide, Naruto's mouth fell open. Sasuke wasn't much better, his eyes unconsciously tracing the elegant lines of her long, slender neck.
They had never heard her laugh like this. Oh, she had giggled and chuckled before, but this... this was different. This laughter was unrestrained, pure and genuine as it had never been before. A warm and gentle laugh that quietly coiled around him in a long forgotten ease.
Kasumi looked back at him, eyes filled with happiness, a faint flush on her cheeks, and a sweet smile on her lips. For a second, the Ice Prince felt his heart stutter. "Don't worry, Sasuke-san. I'm sure you haven't lost all your 'coolness'."
He glared at her, unsure if he did it because of her comment or whether he did it to regain the composure he had lost at the impact of her laughter. "You talk like I want all of my fangirls!"
"Who's to say you don't?" She retorted innocently.
Sasuke choked on air.
Improvement
"Kasumi-chan! Look, look!"
Drawn by Naruto's cries, Kasumi leapt off the river with a burst of chakra and walked on over to the trees.
Where she craned her neck- really craned her neck- to see her teammates.
"We did it!" Naruto crowed from the very top of his tree.
Sasuke smirked at her, also from the very top of his tree.
Kasumi blinked in surprise before smiling warmly. "Congratulations, you two. You have now mastered the tree-climbing exercise." And earlier than she had expected to boot. She had thought that with Naruto's outrageously massive chakra and Sasuke's stubborn pride, they would have had to practice for at least two more days. Then again, she hadn't factored their competitiveness in and that was a major factor.
Naruto cheered loudly, throwing up his hands in his excitement.
Sasuke managed a small, rare smile for the occasion.
"Now..." Her smile turned wicked. "You get to move on to the water-walking exercise." The two, with their arguing and bickering, had caused her to fall into the river countless times. Kasumi believed in a little harmless revenge.
Naruto fell silent, face paling.
Sasuke grimaced slightly.
They had both seen how that could turn out. Kasumi had ended up soaked in the mornings for days before she mastered that exercise and more than once, one of them had to go and fish her out of the river before she drowned.
"Good luck~" Kasumi sang gleefully.
"You're evil." Sasuke stated.
She crackled in response.
Sasuke-ese
"What do you think we should do today?" Kasumi asked Sasuke one morning as they waited for Naruto to arrive. They were both leaning against the railing, but on opposite sides.
He tilted his head to the right by about two degrees. (Train, of course.)
"It's our no-training day." She reminded him, shaking her head.
When they had started to train, both of the boys had suggested training everyday with no letting up. Kasumi had first hand experience on how that would go and had immediately put her foot down. An hour of debating later - she was a very effective debater - and they had all agreed that for one day of their week, they would have a no-training day.
Didn't mean the boys liked the agreement. Sasuke grunted. (We should just train anyways.)
She shook her head in exasperation. "Talk, learn, or relax?"
He lifted his right shoulder up a bit. (Don't care.)
Kasumi sighed. "Useful, Sasuke-san." Sarcasm dripped off her voice.
A corner of his mouth lifted up. (Touchy, touchy.)
Before she could respond, a bright voice interrupted them. "Hey, guys!" Naruto called, walking over.
The brown-eyed girl smiled at him. "Good morning, Naruto-san."
Sasuke inclined his head slightly. (Morning, dobe.)
"Whatcha guys talking about?" Naruto asked curiously, leaning next to Sasuke on the railing.
"What we're going to do today." She told him quietly.
"Oh, right! It's no-training day, today!" Naruto tensed in surprise. And promptly went into full-on depression mood. "That sucks..."
Sasuke half-smirked, aiming it at Kasumi. (See? The dobe agrees with me.)
She determinedly ignored him. "Talk, learn, or relax?"
"Hmm, how about we talk today?" Naruto suggested. "We've been really busy this week."
"Sure." They both look at Sasuke.
He shrugged. (Fine.)
"Alrigh-" Kasumi started.
"Hey!" Naruto cried out suddenly, staring at Sasuke. His teammates stared at him. "I just realized something!"
Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. (What?)
"Me and Kasumi-chan..." He paused for drama. "... are both fluent in Sasuke-ese!"
Kasumi blinked and Sasuke twitched.
Naruto and Kasumi looked at each other.
The Uchiha scowled. He knew what was coming next.
They started to smile.
He glared at them.
And they burst out laughing, though Kasumi was considerate enough to try and muffle it against her hand.
Sasuke did his best not to flush. He wasn't particularly successful.
Upgrade
It happened during one of their training sessions. It was Sasuke versus Naruto and Kasumi and he was having some trouble.
Kasumi had quickly figured out how to exploit Naruto's ridiculous reserves of chakra and his mass shadow clones. The end result was Sasuke being tackled by an entire army of orange-clad knuckleheads while the strategist of their group did her best to send him flying into a tree with ninjutsu.
It worked out perfectly for them. What Sasuke needed was some combat experience and a challenge and he was certainly getting that. Naruto needed to practice his taijutsu and Kasumi needed to practice her ninjutsu. Win, win.
Except Sasuke was close to being overwhelmed.
"Hah! Take this, teme!" One Naruto all but shouted in his ear, drawing back a fist while the clone opposite him drew back a leg. In front of him, one prepared to slug him in the face and behind him, one aimed a kick towards his stomach.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, bending backwards to perform a handstand, kicking out with his legs. The four Narutos dispelled and he pushed himself back to his feet even as 10 more rushed at him. He went through them speedily despite his weariness, making several notes to himself about flaws in Naruto's stance that needed to be fixed.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" The familiar voice rang through the clearing and Sasuke grimaced as he rapidly anchored himself to the ground with chakra.
Currently, Kasumi was experimenting with the size and strength of her wind jutsu; trying to narrow the range and increase the strength at the same time. Unfortunately for Sasuke, it was working. When asked, he had bluntly told her that being hit by her jutsu felt like a tornado coming at him full speed. Her serene grin had been more than a tad frightening.
The gust of wind crashed into him with the force of an out of control cyclone and Sasuke staggered, but held his ground. More than a few of the Narutos weren't so lucky. They were flung up into the air, crying out loudly, and eventually dispelled when slammed back down against various hard surfaces.
The jutsu churned the clearing, spinning leaves and branches and other random and strangely pointing stuff around. Sasuke scowled. He already had countless cuts and bruises on his body courtesy to the aftermath of his female teammate's brutal attack.
It was pretty damn hard for his ego to accept that he was getting beat by shrubbery of all things. Strengthening his resolve, he got to work on avoiding the annoying, and sharp, projectiles that were hurled his way. The remaining Narutos flung themselves at him once more, fists and feet slicing through the air. The fighting became mechanical after a while and he found to his surprise that it was becoming easier.
'Improvement at last, perhaps?' He thought optimistically and then paused. He had been spending way too much time with Naruto, he would never have had such a thought before.
Finally it was over and Sasuke stood in the clearing by himself. There was a heartbeat of silence. Then another.
He quirked an eyebrow. "Oi. Dobe. Kasumi."
Woven in with his words was an ever so slightly irritated question. Why were they stopping? He had been getting into it!
Naruto crawled out of a bush, his eyes wide with confusion. A mere second later, Kasumi dropped down from a high tree branch, her face entirely blank.
Sasuke tensed. Something was wrong. He had spent enough time with the understanding girl to know that when her face held that expression, nothing good was going to come out of it. "What is it?" He demanded immediately.
Kasumi didn't answer instantly, choosing to walk closer instead. Only a few feet away from him, she stopped and inspected his face closely, head tilted. Sasuke resisted the urge to fidget under her examination. He was used to girls checking him out, but this was different. Her brown eyes were cool, practically clinical. It was a look that made him uneasy; he was more used to her kind and patient nature.
Dimly, he was aware of Naruto joining them, but Kasumi held his eyes, all but commanded his attention. Her gaze was unrelenting, eerily penetrating.
Without warning, apparently satisfied with her observations, Kasumi gave him a small, quietly pleased smile. Not saying a word, she reached behind her to undo her headband from around her neck. His brow furrowed. What was she doing?
Slipping the symbol of her loyalty to Konohagakure off her neck, she held it in front of his eyes. Sasuke inhaled sharply, shock coursing through his veins.
Reflected in the steel in front of him, were two single-tomoe Sharingan eyes. The Uchiha Legacy.
"Congratulations, Sasuke-san." Kasumi whispered into the silence. "You've awakened your bloodline."
Girl Power
"Free for all?" Kasumi suggested one afternoon. "So we can see how we've improved?"
"Yeah! This'll be awesome!" Naruto shouted with a grin, pumping one fist in the air.
"Need you ask?" Sasuke smirked at her.
She smiled slyly.
"Okay..." Kasumi said when they were all ready. "Ready... set... go!"
Immediately, Naruto leapt for Sasuke, creating a crowd of clones in the process.
Unfazed, Sasuke began the long task of dispelling each and every one. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the point of view, the taijutsu training Naruto had been going through seemed to have been effective. His stance was less shaky and his attacks were more coordinated. Plus, his group of shadow clones no longer got in each other's way.
Didn't mean Sasuke had a hard time destroying them though. One high kick to the face sent a clone flying into his peers and dispelled five, another punch got rid of three bunched up clones. He didn't use his Sharingan; they had all agreed that the dojutsu used up too much of his chakra and he needed to adjust to it first.
Naruto devoted all of his attention to pummeling Sasuke into the ground and Sasuke devoted all of his attention into pummeling Naruto to the ground.
Just because they weren't as antagonistic to one another as before didn't mean they weren't rivals anymore.
Neither of them paid attention to Kasumi
Said girl narrowed her eyes and smiled slowly. 'I'll make them regret that...'
Bringing up her hands, she rapidly ran through hand-seals. Having taken Sasuke's advice to heart, she had begun practicing her hand-seals every night before bed. It proved to be quite effective.
"Wind Release: Divine Wind!" She shouted, producing a gust of wind that formed several small tornadoes that tore through the training grounds and caught both of the boys by surprise. She had never used that jutsu on them before, but then again, Kasumi firmly believed that a girl should always have at least one secret trick up her sleeve and she had hammered that into them as well.
Not that they had particularly listened to her, as evident by the 'Oh, Crap' looks on their faces.
"Shit." Naruto muttered.
"Damn." Sasuke agreed.
The jutsu hit and instantly, all of the Naruto clones were dispelled, and the real Sasuke and Naruto were thrown up like rag dolls to be tossed into the trees.
Before the two could recover, Kasumi was doing more hand-seals. "Water Release: Wild Water Wave!" She blew out a wave of water straight at Naruto who promptly went flying.
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke got to his feet and went through his own hand-seals. "Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"
This time around, Kasumi didn't bother trying to counter it. She simply pushed some chakra out of her feet and launched herself up and over the attack. Landing on her feet, she tilted her head at Sasuke.
He smirked at her and crossed the distance between them in a burst of chakra.
'Taijutsu, it is then.' Kasumi thought to herself, centering herself before he reached her.
It was a fast, brutal battle that Sasuke started with a quick punch to the face. Kasumi ducked under, countering with a kick to his solar plexus that he blocked.
Sasuke was still much stronger than Kasumi, but she had gotten stronger. She was still much faster than Sasuke, but he had gotten faster.
A quick burst of punches and kicks were issued from both sides. Kasumi landed two hits on Sasuke's left side, he really needed to work on that, and he landed a hit on her stomach.
Hissing in a breath, Kasumi flipped back and sent a barrage of kunai at Sasuke. He narrowed his eyes, dodging some and whipping out his own kunai to deflect the rest.
What was she doing?
She sent a flurry of shuriken at him that he deflected. She sent some more kunai at him. He had had enough. Why was she stalling?
Narrowing his eyes, he leapt forward and snapped his foot up. It collided directly with the side of her head and he froze, staring at her in shock.
What the hell? She hadn't even tried to dodge or block and he knew damn well that she was faster than that! She wasn't too hurt, was she?
Letting out a soft cry, Kasumi slammed into the ground from the impact.
Sasuke righted himself and was turning with an are-you-okay on the tip of his tongue when a bloom of smoke filled his vision that dispelled to reveal a log. His eyes widened. Replacement Jutsu?!
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" A voice called out behind him.
Right before he was blown away by a ruthless gale, Sasuke growled, "Fuck."
He tore through two trees before exhausting his momentum. Hitting the last tree head first, he slid down slowly, groaning.
Landing on the floor none too gently, he was telling his brain that 'no, trees do not grow horizontally and the clouds are not supposed to be there' when a kunai rested itself gently on his throat.
"Yield?" Kasumi floated into view, her brown eyes concerned.
He sighed in resignation. "Yield."
She smiled softly and grabbing his hand, gently pulled him into a sitting position against the base of the tree.
"Hold still." She said. "I think you have a concussion."
Sasuke had no intention of moving.
Quickly making hand-seals, she placed her hands together over his head. Green chakra gathered around her hands and he found himself closing his eyes as healing chakra flowed into him.
"I didn't know you know medical ninjutsu." He murmured into the silence.
"Only a little," She replied, a smile in her voice. "I'm far from a certified medic nin, I'm afraid."
Sasuke snorted. "If I recall correctly, that's not exactly your goal in life."
Kasumi laughed sweetly. "I suppose you're right."
"I thought medical ninjutsu required extreme chakra control." It was really more of a question than a statement.
She stilled for a moment before continuing. "I learned this jutsu when I was six years old. I've had a lot of times to practice it."
He frowned and would have pushed as to why a six year old would be learning complicated medical ninjutsu, but at that moment, Naruto chose to jump down from a tree and land beside them.
Sasuke opened his eyes and Kasumi glanced up for a moment before returning her focus to what she was doing. "Welcome back, Naruto-san."
Naruto took in the scene and chuckled, sitting down next to Sasuke. "Guess you beat us both, Kasumi-chan." He was smiling though.
Kasumi's own smile was a trifle smug. "If you two weren't so focused on each other, I wouldn't have stood a chance." She scolded mildly.
The blonde grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. Guess we should work on that."
Sasuke grunted in agreement.
Kasumi finished healing Sasuke a few minutes later and folded her hands in her lap. "It's getting late." She noted, looking at the sunset.
It was an impressive sight, filled with crimson red and yellow sunlight and hot pink.
Naruto hummed in agreement. "Yeah. But let's stay here for a bit longer."
And they did and it was a rare and precious time of peace.
Team
As time went on, little by little, Kasumi could feel the deadly cracks in her team mending. She could feel their brittle teamwork becoming better, the rival between the boys becoming more healthy. They were becoming more than a mish-mash of genins. They were becoming a team.
"How's Team 7?" Chouji asked one early morning, passing her a chip.
Kasumi paused in her game of shouji with Shikamaru. She thought about the start of her team, the fighting and tension and unwilling cooperation. And she thought of the friendly teasing and quiet pointers and easy camaraderie now.
She smiled. "We're getting better." Kasumi told her first friends. They smiled back at her.
Notice
Kakashi noticed the change in his students, of course. It was subtle but he was a jounin. He had been an ex-Anbu Captain for God's sake.
It was in the way the boys listened when Kasumi spoke. It was evident in how Naruto and Sasuke didn't give off killing intent every time they were in the same area. It was the teasing but friendly bantering that occurred between the three.
It was the brightness of Naruto's smile even in the streets where the villagers glared at him. It was the relaxed shoulders and faint respect in Sasuke's eyes. It was the light laughter of Kasumi during an argument between the boys. It was how their teamwork was fitting, like pieces to the same puzzle.
Kakashi didn't understand it, but the change was good so he didn't question it that much. If his students were getting along better, then who was he to disrupt that process?
Next time:
"I am the super expert bridge builder, Tazuna." The old man said bluntly. "I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge."
Kasumi sighed and placed a hand on her waist. The nagging feeling in the back of her mind was getting stronger and something was definitely wrong. How the hell had she managed to get in this much trouble in only the first few days of her genin career?
Review! Reviews are like hugs and kisses and love all in one. Give me the affection! I admit it, I need more self-confidence.
And thanks to my beta, ChaosEmperorNex!
Question: What do you think will happen in the Land of Waves arc?