Chapter 15: Preparation For The Finals
"Cherry, un" Deidara said once Sakura enter the Akatsuki hideout, he gave her a kiss on the cheek and told her that the rest of the members are at the meeting room.
"Yo" Sakura said entering the meeting room with Deidara and Itachi on both her sides.
"Blossom you're back" Sasori said standing up and giving her a welcome back hug.
"Pinky heard you're in the finals" Kisame said grinning at her.
Sakura smirk "hai..."
"You're in the finals yay!" Konan said squealing happily.
"Who are you fighting?" Pain ask raising an eye brow.
Sakura groan "his name is Dosu... Trust me he's not worth training for."
"Seriously?" Kisame ask incredulously.
"Sadly yeah" Sakura said shrugging.
"Well at least once you finish the match and become a Chūnin you can come back to Ame for good" Itachi said studying her face trying to find the emotion he was looking for but he got none.
"Cut the crap... What do you want me to do?... Break up with him?" Sakura ask raising an eye brow but her eyes says nothing.
Pain narrow his eyes "we already discussed the issue of you dating Itachi's little brother... We're not happy with it but since we really can't do anything about it... We won't disturb or meddle your relationship with him as long as you become a spy in Konoha and not turn your back on us."
Sakura's eyes soften "I will never turn my back on Akatsuki... But I will spy on Konoha if that's what it takes for you guys to allow me to keep dating Sasuke."
"Ok then it's settled... Everyone may leave except for you Sakura" Pain said resting his elbow on the table.
"Nani?" Sakura ask sitting down on the chair.
"I think... It's time for me to train you using the Rinnegan" Pain said clasping his hand together and resting his mouth on top of it.
Sakura's eyes slightly widen "are you serious?."
"Hai" Pain said nodding his head.
"When?."
"Whenever you want."
"How bout in 4 or 5 months."
"Why?."
"I don't know instinct."
"Hai... You may leave and by the way congratulation" Pain said standing up and giving her a hug.
"Arigatō otou-san" Sakura said hugging him back.
After a few seconds they pull away from each other and Sakura left the room only to see Itachi waiting for her.
"Come on" Itachi said motioning for her to follow him towards his room.
Sakura close the door behind her and sat next to Itachi on the bed, it was a comfortable silence.
"So..." Sakura said breaking the silence.
"Hime... Start from the beginning" Itachi said looking at her.
"I'll just show you..." Sakura said activating her Mangekyō Sharingan.
The surrounding change and suddenly they were both in the forest of death, a couple of feet away from team 7 when Sasuke was explaining the code.
"What's going on?" Itachi ask looking at Sakura.
"I'm showing you a Genjutsu of my memory..." Sakura said shrugging.
"Where did you learn how to do this?" Itachi ask.
"One of the forbidden Jutsu of Tsukimi" Sakura said.
"Aa" was the only reply of Itachi.
In Konoha...
"YOU'RE THE CLOSET PERVERT!" Naruto yelled accusingly while pointing a finger at the so called 'closet pervert'.
"Ebisu-sensei a... Closet pervert?" Kakashi said scratching his temple.
"Hn" Sasuke said crossing his arms on his chest while watching the scene in front of him amuse.
"Why the hell does my training teacher have to be him?" Naruto demanded "I mean this guy is weaker than me in the first place."
"Weaker? Why?" Sasuke ask raising an eye brow.
"Because! Because! Before, this guy using my Hāremu no Jutsu- ump" ebisu clasp his palm on Naruto's mouth to shut him off.
"Hāremu no Jutsu?" Kakashi ask sweat dropping.
Sasuke shook his head smirking.
"Oh well it's nothing really hahaha" Ebisu said nervously, "I'll treat you to anything you wish later on if you shut your mouth" he whisper at Naruto.
"You better" Naruto said shutting up.
"Who'd have thought that you two knew each other..." Kakashi said.
"Who'd forget that humiliation" Ebisu thought crying anime style "hahaha well we go way back, right?" He ask patting Naruto's head like a dog.
"But why does it have to be this guy? I really don't like him" Naruto said pouting.
"The feeling is mutual, If it weren't for kakashi-sensei's request I wouldn't be here, i mean who would want to train a person like you?" Ebisu said before dogging a shuriken that was thrown to him in a nick of time.
"Sasuke!" Kakashi said shock that his student would do that.
Sasuke shrug "he deserved it... No one is allowed to talk to the dobe like that except for me and Sakura."
"Arigatō teme" Naruto said smiling at him.
Sasuke nodded and gave him a half smile.
"Anyway... Ebisu-sensei's a tutor who's specializes in teaching only the elite, he's a special jōnin you know, he's better" kakashi said assuringly, "besides Naruto in team 7 you're the one with the worst basic skills."
"No fair" Naruto said indignantly.
"Compare to Sasuke and Sakura... You lack of Taijutsu, chakra control, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu..." Kakashi said shrugging.
Naruto narrow his eyes before sighing in defeat "hai, hai."
"Well then I'll leave things in your good hands ebisu-sensei" kakashi said placing his hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"Hai" ebisu said nodding his head.
Naruto sight before turning his head to the side to look at Sasuke "I'll see you later at Ichiraku's teme."
Sasuke nodded before raising his fist and bumping it on Naruto's.
The surroundings change, Sakura and Itachi was back in Itachi's room.
"Nii-san...?" Sakura said softly.
"Like I said I'm not mad... Just worried for both you and Sasuke" Itachi said closing his eyes.
"Why are you worried?" Sakura ask raising an eye brow.
Itachi gave her a look "well for one thing you're both stubborn, hard headed, doesn't know how to express you're feelings, and last both of you had a tragic childhood."
Sakura shrug "maybe we're meant to find comfort with each other... Or we're both just really fucked up."
"Just please be careful I don't want the both of you ending up heart broken" Itachi said half pleading, half warning.
Sakura nodded before yawning "I'm tired."
Itachi smile at her while poking her forehead at the same time pushing her head to hit the pillow "then go to sleep."
Sakura pouted before closing her eyes and letting her drowsiness win.
At Konoha Hot Spring
"Wwwwwooooowwww!" Naruto said clasping his hand on his mouth as he watch what was happening behind the fence of the ladies bath.
"No, no, Naruto that's the women bathing area i don't allow any shameless acts" ebisu said as if he isn't a pervert.
"Shut up you're the closet pervert" Naruto thought glaring a him "Why'd we come to a place like this? We gonna take a bath before we start training?."
"No, we will be training here at the hot spring" ebisu said fixing his glasses.
Naruto gave him a confuse look.
"Now, now here we are" ebisu said pointing at the hot spring.
"We're going to train here? What are we gonna do?" Naruto ask more confuse.
"Hehe... Walk atop of the spring water" ebisu said smirking at him.
"Nani?" Naruto ask his eyes widening.
"I've heard from kakashi-sensei you've already done the lesson to climb trees without using your hands, it's a variation of that" ebisu explain.
"What do you mean? I don't remember all that much about things that long ago" Naruto said sheepishly.
"In tree climbing, you only have to continually create the same amount of the necessary chakra and gather it to the necessary place" ebisu explain the difference between climbing a tree without using hands and walking on top of the water.
"Hmmm... I don't get it" Naruto said not getting what ebisu said.
Ebisu sigh "well in your case, it's probably better to show you how to do it... Then as you continually expel a set amount of chakra... You match it to the weight of your body..." Ebisu said demonstrating it by walking slowly on top of the water
"Cool" Naruto said watching in amazement "alright I'm going to try it too" he said gathering his chakra on his feet, "and then it was expel a set amount right."
The moment he step on the water, he sink.
"Just what I expected" ebisu said smirking.
"ITAI!" Naruto yelled emerging his head from the water.
"I forgot to tell you this bath water is 60 degrees, if you continue to fail you'll become a boiled egg" ebisu said fixing his glasses.
"I'm gonna do it no matter what" Naruto thought gritting his teeth before walking on the water, only to sink again.
"Hehe" ebisu said smirking.
"You're really putting your strength to it young shishō... This is usually the time you go to set up your surprise attack on hokage-sama, but today..." Ebisu said watching as konohamaru do push-ups, "finally my teaching method has gotten through to you hasn't it."
"I quit that kind of stuff already..." Konohamaru breathed out, stopping his push-ups to rest.
"That's right you finally understand don't you? Doing as I say is your short cut to becoming the next hokage" ebisu said proudly.
"There aren't any short cuts" Konohamaru said wiping the sweat off his face.
Ebisu gave him a confuse look.
"Naruto-niisan told me... If you want to become hokage... You'll have to accept that" Konohamaru said smirking.
"I'm beginning to get it" Naruto said struggling to stay still on top of the water.
"To think he would grasp the concept of this chakra control so quickly... Who'd have imagine you'd progress like this... It is true that there are no shortcuts no matter what you do... Looks like I was wrong about you... You were a much smarter teacher than I was and... You weren't just a fox monster... You were a proud leaf shinobi" ebisu thought.
"Oi!" Naruto said pointing at someone behind ebisu.
Ebisu turn around and saw a man peeping at the ladies bath
"Heh... I don't know who you are but... I will not forgive such a shameless behavior" he said running towards the peeping Tom.
"Geez" the man said a giant frog suddenly appearing with him on top of it.
"This is..." Ebisu said his eyes widening behind his glasses with his mouth open.
The tongue of the frog leap out of its mouth towards ebisu, sending him flying a couple of feet away and knocking him unconscious.
"Man keep it quiet... Whacha gonna do if I get caught?" The man said, he has a waist-length, spiky white hair tied back into a pony tail, with two shoulder-length bangs that framed both sides of his face, he also had red lines that ran down from his eyes and wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for 'oil', he also had a noticeable wart on the left side of his nose, and onyx eyes.
Naruto was watching the scene in front of him with wide eyes "the closet pervert lost? Who is this guy? Who is this open pervert?."
"Cherry..." Deidara whisper poking Sakura on the arm.
Sakura grab his wrist and threw him across the room, creating a hole on the wall.
"ITAI!" Deidara yelled shakingly standing up while rubbing his back side.
Sakura's eye shot open "I'm so sorry Dei" she said smiling sheepishly.
"What in the world..." Kisame said before he started laughing like a maniac when he saw Deidara's state.
"I thought you love me un" Deidara said pouting at Sakura.
"I do... But you know my reflex and instinct is active even when I'm asleep... So you know better than to wake me" Sakura said shrugging while swinging her legs on the side of the bed and standing up.
"Anyway what do you want?" Sakura ask raising an eye brow, crossing her arms n her chest.
"I just wanted to ask if you want to train" Deidara said cracking his neck.
"Hai" Sakura said smirking at him before walking away with Deidara behind her.
Well that was a boring chapter... Hope you guys stll like it.
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