Sakuya came home angry. Not the kind of anger where you're mad at the world or mad at your family, but the kind where you carried home a frustration you felt towards one person. It was noticeable, even as she attempted to hide it with a smile. That very thing was brought to the surface, even as she sat down to eat something meager for tomorrow's early morning test.
Kakashi exchanged glances with Sakura whom shrugged with a clueless look in her eyes. Sighing, the scarred Shinobi looked over and asked gently to the steaming Sakuya as she dug into her flavored rice.
"Sakuya, how did your team assignment go? Everything go alright?"
"Yeah, everything was fine," She replied with a groan, her eyes rolling. Poking and prodding some meat on her plate, she mused aloud. "If it wasn't for that bi-"
"Language!" Sakura interrupted, causing Sakuya to meekly avert her gaze in apology.
"Who?" Kakashi, less alarmed at Sakuya's direction of tongue and more curious whom made his daughter so furious.
"This girl named Sarada Uchiha transferred in. Some special exception, Sensei Shino said," She growled, poking her plate and spinning what remained of her meal. She hadn't bothered looking up at them as she looked down at her food with fumes she visualized coming out of her ears. "She just treats this whole thing as just a time killer, having no desire to do anything useful as a Kunoichi. What a pain! Why did I get stuck with such a moody...GRAAAH!"
Scratching her head with frustration, she only now realized there was no commentary by her parents. Calming down her eyes opened to look at a soured mother while the father looked a little nervous at his wife. It was obvious the name had brought up bad memories, but she had no idea why.
"Well, I'm sure she's just feeling a bit lost and in that odd place you kids get when you don't have a purpose in mind," Her father suggested with a wave of his own chopsticks. "I mean, my team had these compelling goals that set us all apart and made us a strong group. Even if we didn't get along, it's what kept us growing and moving forward. If she doesn't have a goal well...that can considerably hurt her ability to grow up, let alone get better as a ninja."
"I know, right?!" Sarada explained, stopping only when she saw her dad raise a hand for her to dial it down.
"But," He continued, lowering his hand once he was satisfied with her silence. "It's also possible she'll learn something about herself and possibly get a good idea where her life should go from this point on. Who knows? Maybe being her teammate is exactly what she needs. Being supportive for her now is far more beneficial for her than being critical, isn't it?"
"So, what, I have to stick my neck out for her?" She asked almost exasperatedly.
"Sweetheart," Sakura answered with a softer tone, her eyes carrying a weight to them as her green eyes met her daughter's. "Being selfless is the hardest thing to do, but it is also the right thing. That is what being a Ninja is about. Putting your comrades and the mission above yourself, as a team and not as selfish individuals. Understand?"
"I guess so," Sakuya begrudgingly agreed, knowing there was sense in what her parents spoke. She may not liking bending her knee to someone so high and mighty like Sarada, who had no motivation in contributing anything. Even Boruto who seemed to develop a moody attitude when it came to growing up or aspiring to being like his dad was getting on her nerves.
But that wasn't important. What was of course had to be the test that their Jōnin, Konohamaru, had in store for them. Returning to her meal with this in mind she'd get as much rest as possible for whatever came of tomorrow. She'll give her all, she just hoped her teammates would do so as well.
Chapter 2 - The New Generation
Sarada was tired. It was expected, given she had to get up extra early to get her things ready and get a head start to the training field. Her mother had ensured she had her things ready and her uncles, strangely that were awake and active at this time of day, gave her their wishes for luck on the test. She was sure this wasn't anything to be worked over.
Arriving at the field before the Sun even rose up, she was certain she was the first person on the field. Instead, she found the one annoyance she became acquainted with to her chagrin the other day.
Sakuya Hatake.
She asked about her the other night, but her mother either was hiding something or seemed genuinely clueless to the name. Jūgo remained tight lipped and Suigetsu didn't remark on it either. Sighing, she did her best to keep her emotions under wraps this time as she approached.
The crickets chirped loud enough that her footsteps weren't so loud for her approach to be heard...or so she thought, till the silver haired Kunoichi turned to look at her over her shoulder.
"Oh, you decided to approach me," She spoke expectantly, though with a hint of surprise. Hands on her lap she was resting in a waiting pose on her legs as she awaited her sensei to show up, along with Boruto. "Here I thought you'd try and avoid me. Guess I was wrong."
"Hm," Sarada murmured out, walking up to be a meter away, looking around at the field with a stump not far away and a river not too far off either. A memorial stone was seen across the body of water near the end of the meadow this field presided, making it somewhat more significant than one could assume. Exhaling out, she realized that from what she could sense, no one was around yet.
"I hope they don't take too long. It'd be a pain if they end up showing up way late," Sakuya spoke to herself, trying to fill the dead air with something resembling a conversation.
"They'll be late," The Uchiha girl spoke assuredly. "It seems in character for both of them."
Turning to look up at her, the silver haired girl scrunched up her face with query, "How do you figure that?"
"Our Jōnin seems to make it a habit to be tied up doing favors for people, thus making his mainstay responsibility his least priority. That boasting boy, Boruto? Yeah, he seems to have his own goals confused with what's important," Sarada analyzed, finishing with a shrug. "That's my best guess anyways."
"I've known both of them for awhile. Well, at least Boruto," She replied to her, earning an interested gaze from Sarada. Smiling, she explained with a few gestures of her right hand. "Boruto can slack off when he's not motivated, but I'm sure he'll arrive not too long after us. After all, if he's invested, a challenge is always right up his alley to show off. Sensei Konohamaru on the other hand just seems to always be active. It's not that he doesn't know how to prioritize, it's just he always likes to do things, regardless what they are."
"You sound like you respect the two," The young Uchiha stated with a glint of intrigue in her eyes. "They aren't focused like you. You are a visionary, even if it's not to my fancy, I envy that. But why would you be friends with people like them?"
"It's not that I have to be alike in order to enjoy people who are different. Just so long as we have an understanding, common interests and a mutual love of something we can get along," She answered, smiling sincerely towards the invested Kunoichi. "Boruto's moody, but I think he's a great guy when it comes down to his heart. He's also a real genius, so I think he's kinda cool for being so good at what he does. Everything comes to him naturally, so hard work is almost a foreign concept, haha!"
Smiling partly, Sarada chose to sit down next to Sakuya regardless of her initial impressions of her. She didn't think she was entirely over what she said, but she began to get an inkling why she spoke the way she had.
"Perhaps I may like being her comrade after all," The Uchiha thought as they began waiting for the rest of their team to show up.
True to Sakuya's word, Boruto showed up not more than an hour later. He was far too grumpy, however, to make good chit-chat like the other girls had. The Uzumaki did notice they weren't nearly as hostile as before. Fortunately for all of them, the Sun would begin to rise and that was the cue for a smiling Jōnin approach from the woodland clearing beyond the meadow.
Seeing the three Genin rise in attention made the Squad Leader grin ecstatically.
"I see most of you are calmed down now. Going to approach this like mature adults?" Konohamaru asked pointedly.
Snorting, Boruto just points with a bold proclamation, "It doesn't matter how I approach this. I'm going to Ace this test and make you look like a sap, Sensei!"
Sarada sighed while Sakuya just slapped her palm against her inclined face, letting out a groan of embarrassment. Despite the show of non-unity in motivation, the older Shinobi just laughed heartily. He appreciated the gusto of the face of Team 7.
"He's the spitting image of you, Naruto. Has my attitude to boot. This will be fun," He thought as he reached into his pocket, retrieving a set of jingling bells. Raising them up from his bent fingers, the objects breached an odd sense of déjà vu to the otherwise clueless young Ninja. Chuckling, he made them clink against each other as he debriefed his team. "This is test is both simple in theory but hard in practice. Enemies will often hold an object of interest, making it difficult to acquire. In order to overcome that goal, you may even need to confront an enemy that is both stronger and more experienced than you. How you decide to get these bells is up to you to decide. Just remember, if you fail to meet my expectations, it's back to the Academy with you so you can try to figure out what you didn't understand about this test."
For a moment, the tantamount goal ahead of them was laid out clearly. Get the bells from their Jōnin and possibly succeed. It wasn't about beating him, but clearing an objective. Nothing in it said they had to defeat him or about them working alone or together. To most it was obvious that defeating a Jōnin, no matter how gifted the Genin, was like climbing a mountain with no gear or preparation.
But most people weren't Boruto Uzumaki.
Kicking off the ground, the pineapple headed boy moved with surprising speed in a blitz towards Konohamaru. With a hand reaching out to grasp the bells, the older Shinobi simply sidestepped away from him. Looking as if he was going to fall flat on his face was nothing more than a feint, his outstretched hand grasping the ground timely...
...just so he could spin around to spin a kick at the Jōnin's jumping legs, evading him in an effortless show.
"Hey now, I didn't say go," He warned, landing adeptly a few meters away, smile ever-present.
"Did you see that?" Sakuya asked lowly, already crouched in readiness just as Sarada had. Only earning a small grunt with no vocal acknowledgement, the Hatake narrowed her eyes sharply at the man not far away from her close friend. "Boruto's no slouch when it comes to speed. But he just saw him as if it was telegraphed ahead of time. Our Jōnin is the real deal."
"We have a bigger problem," The Uchiha pointed out, earning a turn of Sakuya's eyes to hers, following the pointed finger towards Konohamaru's upraised hand. A pair of bells still were open to see but out of reach. It occurred to her as Sarada observed it out loud. "There's only two bells. Either he's baiting us into splitting us up, or only two of us can complete this test."
"That's impossible!" The silver haired girl exclaimed under her breath. "Teams only operate in four. One Jōnin and three Genin. If one leaves, the whole team fails! There can't just be two winners if our team is to stay intact."
"Then it is more than likely the former as a mind game," Sarada concludes, exchanging a glance with Sakuya. "Boruto obviously wants to show off and complete this solo, but you're his friend. Think you can convince him to work together on this one."
"It's not impossible, but I say he's every bit as stubborn as I am and then some," She explained, huffing with a turn to look at Boruto's slowly rising form. "But sure, I'll give it a shot. It won't hurt to have him humbled a bit as we observe Sensei Konohamaru's strategy first."
"Point," The young raven haired girl agreed quietly, deciding to wait for a moment to see what Boruto decided to do next.
The son of Naruto may be confident in his own abilities, but he knew how to rein himself in for a little bit to analyze his opponent. Sharp blue eyes stared at the jubilant master, watching him stand lackadaisically before his junior teammate. He ran through half a dozen strategies quickly, deciding on a course of action in less than a minute.
Fishing out a kunai, the boy threw the knife towards Konohamaru's waist with a tag attached to it. Not giving a chance for the Jōnin to observe his missed shot he'd toss a handful of shurikens in a bodily clockwise spin, clasping his hands unseen in the turn to perform a Jutsu. In a cloud of exploding smoke what was a handful of spinning razor objects became enormous in proportion, easily being half the size of the target as they spun in opposing angles to become a wall of rotating metal.
Wolf whistling at the sight, Konohamaru grasped the scarf wrapped around his neck and whipped it out. In the unseen line of Chakra wrapped around the threads came a whistling sharp blade, cutting through the enlarged Shurikens, sending them into smaller pieces scattering around him. With his trusty scarf spinning around with one hand while keeping a grip on the bells with the other, he watched Boruto perform another Ninjutsu.
"Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He declared, creating two perfectly manufactured solid copies of himself in a pair of smoke puffs.
"Perfect transformation and multiple Clones? You got a lot of talent, Boruto," The Jōnin praised him. Despite his sincere declaration, he didn't hide an air of mischief as he raised the bells to jingle next to his face mockingly. "But you've yet to make me even drop one of these. How are you going to get me with just three of you?"
"That's not what they're here for," The pineapple headed Genin declared boldly, inwardly counting the seconds that had went by since his first attack. While the senior Shinobi was about to ask, the two doppelgangers grasped their original and tossed him high up into the air, flipping forward in an arching motion.
The sudden hissing sound alerted the older ninja from the tag attached knife behind him. Turning around he watched the edge of the paper catch aflame, leaving him but a second before the whole of the projectile exploded violently. Far enough away that he was bough enough time to leap away from the fireball that ripped asunder the beach to the river.
But in his ascent, he watched the clones that were discarded from the ground reformed in the air, used as platforms to Chakra accelerate the point their sandals' soles connected. In a burst of expertly timed discharge, the blonde boy zoomed straight towards Konohamaru's bell holding hand. Fingertips grazed the metal and the jingling pair were slipping straight into his grasp...
...until he felt a scarf snake out like a serpent to coil around his arm.
"N-No-NO-NOOOOO!" He let out a strangled cry of frustration as the Jōnin whipped him away with prejudice to land straight into the river's surface. The crash was enough to make a large upheaval of water while the adult Shinobi righted himself in midair and landed in the middle of the hissing crater of the prior explosion.
"You know what they say about the tallest nails," Konohamaru sighed aloud, placing the bells around one of his flak jacket's buttons. In the few seconds he spoke, a handful of kunai were seen darting out of the buckling waves, straight towards his back. Without even batting an eye, the whip of blue fabric deflected the projectiles while barely looking over his shoulder the underwater Genin lied. "They're always hammered down the hardest."
Sarada and Sakuya were stunned. With just one hand and a scarf at that, the Sarutobi proved his mettle against a fairly well put together plan by their team's genius. Despite falling nearly into perfect aim of losing the prize, he redirected his attacker to precisely miss his goal and do so without using hardly any energy.
"Hey you two!" Rocked out of their thoughts, the two girls recomposed themselves as Konohamaru cupped one hand around his mouth to call out to them. "Your teammate decided now is a good time to start. Just grab the bells before noon and you pass. Easy as that, right?"
"Yeah. Easy. Right," Sakuya drawled out twitching a bit with annoyance. "Looks like we'll just have to settle any differences aside and settle this ourselves."
"Looks like," Sarada dryly sighed. Bending her knees and leaning her upper body forward, she briefly whispered out. "I'll mess up his balance, you go for everything above the waist. The more movement he makes, the more likely those bells will get loose on his jacket. Ready?"
"Ready."
A silent agreement was made to go, and the pair rushed off in their own swift sprints. Using Chakra under the soles of their sandals they moved at accelerated velocity, reaching their instructor in heartbeats. With Sarada wielding a pair of kunai in each hand, she slashed and jabbed quickly while keeping low to the ground to make Konohamaru make nimble hops and skips to avoid her attacks. Sakuya leaped up to launch a series of sharp jabs that were blocked and caught with one hand, twisting her around with only a few upper body motions to twist around to avoid her retaliating kicks and elbow thrusts. Batting her aside with an arching motion of his scarf that caught both girls sent them both in a sprawling tumble away ended the struggle at once.
Hopping from one foot to the other, Konohamaru grinned cheekily as he twined his scarf around his left arm and kept his hands cocked near his hips with eagerness.
"C'mon, I won't break a sweat at this rate," He laughed at them, making Sakuya grind her molars and visibly seethe. Sarada had creased her face into a frown, causing her to stand up at once with her teammate. Once he got a good look at the angry expressions did the Jōnin sweat nervously, stopping his hopping onto his left foot. "Hey, don't do anything rash, alright?"
"Katon," Sarada formed the necessary hand signs faster than the Jōnin preferred, inhaling back to spew forth a considerable fireball towards his way. "Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
"Crap!" The Sarutobi swore comically, gesturing with his left arm to unfurl the fabric to spiral in a corkscrewing pattern towards the encroaching tongues. Forming a single hand sign with his right set of digits, he blew Chakra from his pursed lips to set ablaze his own scarf, causing the piercing spear to disperse the wall of flames in a sizable collision. In the shockwave that blew apart the Uchiha girl's Jutsu, it masked the single leaping frame of Sakuya, fist pulled back already catapulting towards his face.
"SHAAAAANAAAAROOOOOO!" She let out a yell as her fist nearly reached its target, caught by an open palm with a cushion of Chakra that buffeted the one she let loose. The Jutsu was cancelled, but the technique was strong enough that it sent him flying several meters back before he skid over top the river's surface.
"Damn, that could've hurt if I wasn't careful," Konohamaru spoke warily to himself, feeling his arm shake from the impact. What he didn't count on, was the pair of hands wrapping around his ankles from below the rocking surface. Blinking, he looked down to see two Clones almost blue in the face from holding their breath. It only occurred to the Jōnin that the young Genin had been holding his breath this whole time, waiting for an opening.
Coming up like a propelling rocket, Boruto's fist soared upward, aiming to smack him dead across the chin. With a scarf wrapped fist connecting into his ascending face, Konohamaru sent the body flying across the air like a ball to a bat. Seeing it crash into a tree not far away, it was only through a brief puff of smoke that made him gawk with cold realization.
"There was a third clone!" His thought raced along with the sudden feeling of a fourth body wrapping around his back from behind, a small hand grasping his bells in the process.
"Gotcha!" Boruto laughed heartily, gasping for air all the while as his other two Clones finally relinquished their grip on the starkly surprised Jōnin. Leaping back before his instructor could swipe them, he hopped around till he returned to Sarada and Sakuya. Breathing heavily, he held them up with a giggle that only made the other girls laugh with disbelief. "Hey! Looks like you two managed to get him back over to the river. If you hadn't, I would've had to come back up for air and this could've lasted all day without an opportunity like that!"
"You're actually...thanking us?" Sarada acted almost dubiously at what she could almost assuredly see was a braggart.
"Hey, I'm still awesome, don't let my hard work go to your head," The pineapple headed boy snorted as he puffed his chest out and dangled the bells before the two.
"Tch, you knucklehead," Sakuya lightly punched his shoulder, grinning broadly at seeing him pull through. "You fooled us too. Here I thought you just wanted to do it all on your own, but you were trying to make yourself the focus of attention so that he'd forget about you and let us coordinate together."
"Eh, I did try to do it on my own, but I knew I'd have to be patient and hope you guys would pull a miracle. Guess ya did good after all!" The blonde Uzumaki admitted with a laugh, making both girls roll their eyes at his blatant initial disregard for teamwork.
"YOU THREE!" Konohamaru yelled out, making the three Genin turn with fear. Despite the loud shout, the Jōnin was holding his gut with barely suppressed laughter. It came out as snorts and giggles of his own as he covered his mouth with one hand while wrapping his scarf back around his neck with the other. Standing upright, he grinned and gave them a thumb's up to them. "Be proud, you just passed my test and in record time! I failed the last few teams for the past few years using this tactic. Consider yourselves gifted to pulling off a surprise team victory."
A weight of relief lifted from the three recently graduated ninja. Most of them had realized since a night of anticipation for today that what they had argued was simply a waste of energy and a fruitless venture. Despite them having flaws and differences, they still had a creed to uphold the team above each other's own personal views.
Boruto looked genuinely pleased, something that made Sakuya smile happily. Sarada too held a sense of accomplishment in her eyes, even if she came off as more reserved than the other two. Acknowledgement from a peer, especially from a high rank in the Hidden Leaf, meant a lot to the newcomer of Konoha.
Scratching the back of his head, the Sarutobi Clansman chuckled with embarrassment, "Geez, I didn't expect you guys to be this good. This new generation is full of surprises. I fully expected our ordeal to last at least most of this morning. Guess I can't pull out tricks that worked on my rival's team."
"Rival?" Sakuya asked, blinking with surprise at hearing this.
"He means my dad, obviously," Boruto sighed, placing his hands behind his head in a relaxed posture. "Those two have been thick as thieves since they were our age, him even younger. It's pretty clear that he heard all about how dad went through the same thing, just with less style than we did."
"Haha, your dad's team got thrashed big time!" Konohamaru laughed in remembrance, visualizing his old talk with Naruto recounting his humiliating defeat by Kakashi. Looking at Sakuya, he winked at her while mentioning, "Your dad, on the other hand, didn't even drop his book. He barely broke a sweat. That just gives you an idea how much this generation has grown compared to the last."
"Unless you're actually comparing yourself to war hardened Jōnin of the past, I doubt it would've been any easier facing Kakashi Hatake, the son of Sakumo," Sarada spoke intuitively, straightening her glasses while their sensei cleared his throat and nodded with brief admission.
"Yeah well, I won't ever pretend I'm on that guy's level. But I have grown strong as a rival to the Hokage, and I intend to be the next one if I have anything to say about it!" He boasted with a fist pound to his chest and an audacious laugh. "Hachidaime Konohamaru Sarutobi, believe it!"
"No," Sarada dryly retorted, looking completely doubtful at her Jōnin. "I don't."
"You can keep that chair, Sensei," Boruto groaned with a heaving sigh, already turning to leave due to the conversation souring. He'd have left, if not for Sakuya grasping him by the ear and tugging him back; much to his yelping chagrin. "OW-OW-OW, SAKUYA!"
"We're going to celebrate, Boruto, and you're going to stay in a happy mood whether you like it or not," She firmly ordered, green eyes boring into his with a threatening intensity. "Sulk on your own off time, okay?!"
"S-Sure! Okay! Let go, please!" He begged, already on the verge of shedding tears from the pain.
"You two are quite the pair," Sarada stated with an amused smirk.
"That's what happens when you end up becoming friends with one of the biggest, loudest show-offs in your age group," The silver-haired Genin retorted with a turn of her head, smiling as she released her captive. "But he's still my friend, for better or worse."
"Geez, you sound like you're married to me," The Uzumaki snorted.
"I-I am so NOT!" Sakuya turned on her heel and yelled at the pineapple headed boy, unfortunately sporting a flushed expression that ruined any denial in her voice.
"Heh, whatever you say!~" He sang out, already leaping out of the way of a retaliatory punch that hit nothing but air.
"GRRR!" She flailed, held back by Konohamaru by the collar of her uniform as she swung wildly with angry eyes.
"You three are going to be a lot of fun, I can tell," The Jōnin grinned enthusiastically, getting the feeling that their antics and journey had just begun. "Now settle down. With your test done, let's get in some practice and see what I can teach you before the lunch bell rings for us. How's that sound?"
"Awesome!" Boruto cried out.
"At least it'll keep big mouth occupied," Sakuya huffed with resignation.
"I'm always keen on learning new things," Sarada replied with a small smile of her own.
"Alright!" Konohamaru palmed a clenched fist with gusto. "Let's get started then!"
A/N: And here we go! The second chapter! I'm actually a bit excited in what's to come from this story. Not just because it's based on a cutesy Spin-Off I did awhile back about Kakashi and Sakura hooking up as a request for a friend (for the record, naysayers, I Ship Canon. But I do enjoy the the possibilities of what this scenario can bring) but if only this take of the cast can produce new story writing potential. Especially with the Arc that's coming up.
Anyways, if you have questions please PM or leave it in the Review below. Hope to see you all in the next update, and please have a Happy New Year!