Salut! I'm still alive! Thanks to Azura Soul Reaver and Jestie Uchiha for their review and thanks to all the lovely readers of this story out there, I love you all!
Today's my brother's birthday, so happy birthday, bro! (Not that he would ever read this, but who cares) And happy birthday to me, I got 17 this week. ^^ Yeah, this month many people I know have birthday, about 6 friends or so. Whatever. Here's chapter 8 so enjoy!
Sins and Sunshine
Chapter 8: How to survive the survival training
What happened last time:
"Oh, and skip breakfast, you'll might throw up."
Who cares, I still ate breakfast 'cause I was hungry. Nothing can get me to skip my meals!
"Morning." I mumbled still dead tired from falling out of bed at 4 am. Heck, the sun didn't even rise yet! Why would anyone want to meet this early?
Of course Sasuke was the first one there, slowly I wonder if he ever goes home… However I was too sleepy to ask him about that, so I didn't. Instead I went to the nearest tree and leapt onto a branch that looked comfy enough to sleep on. And yeah, there are differences in the comfort of branches!
After I made myself comfortable the last thing I saw was Sasuke leaning agains my tree before I drifted off to sleep.
"Hey, You're late!" I heard two voices shout.
Unfortunately that startled me out of sleep quite rudely which resulted in me falling backwards from the tree. I waited for the hard impact with the ground, but all that I felt was a little jolt of being caught by someone. And that was Sasuke who held me bridal style and carried me to where the others were standing.
I sleepily gazed to the sky. The sun already rose and I estimated it to be around 8 am. Judging from the shouting before our sensei seemed to be 3 hours late. Someone cleared their throat to jolt me out of my thoughts and my gaze from the sky. Sakura was glaring at me impatiently stamping with one foot on the ground. Only now I realised that I was still in Sasuke's arms but he didn't seem to really mind. He then let me down so I could stand on my own. I straightened my kimono and looked at Kakashi-sensei with an completely innocent expression.
"What took you so long, Sensei?" I then asked him.
"A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way." He replied with such a serious expression, what left me stunned. If I'd bring such a lame excuse, I couldn't even say it probably without braking out in laughter.
The sensei cleared his throat and walked to an alarm clock. He then explained to us that we'd have to steal three bells from him until noon, otherwise we wouldn't get anything to eat and had to watch him eat lunch. Good that I already had breakfast unlike my team mates judging from the growling of their stomachs.
Then Pinky asked the most important question.
"But we are four. Why are there only three bells?"
Nicely observed, Sakura, as expected from a ninja!
Kakashi answered smiling, that this way at least one would fail and had to be sent back to the academy.
Furthermore he told us that we could use all kind of weapons against him, but our oh so kind-hearted couldn't-even-kill-a-fly-Sakura complained that weapons were too dangerous. Yeah, as if she would ever beat a fully trained jounin. If she's afraid of weapons, why did she even choose to become a ninja?
Naruto remembered the scene with the eraser and started to laugh. Then sensei insulted him as looser and dead last and all and Naruto stopped laughing to glare at him.
"When I say start, you can begin." He said totally ignoring the blonde that now took out a kunai to charge at him. But before we even knew what happened Kakashi already grabbed Naruto's arm and let the kunai point at the back of his head.
"I didn't say start yet."
We all tensed and watched the jounin carefully. He was fast, so fast that we couldn't see a thing. This test is anything but easy! Alone I'd never be able to get one of the bells. But maybe with the help of the others…
"But you're finally prepared to come at me with the intent to kill. He he, it seems I'm beginning to like you guys. Okay let's get going. Ready." We took up a stance.
"Begin!"
In the wink of an eye we jumped away from him and hid in the proximity. I was on a tree. Next to me I heard a soft rustle. Looking in the direction of the noise I saw Sasuke. He chose the same hideout as me. Further afar I recognized Pinky under a bush. Blame the pink hair for being too flashy.
Well, for me this was the perfect chance to convince the others to work together.
I sneak to Sasuke, who shot a glance at me and looked back to Kakashi after he recognized me.
"Listen, Sasuke-kun." I whispered.
"Just now you saw how strong he is. If everyone acts on his own, we'll never be able to get a bell."
"And what do you suggest we do?"
"Work together."
"No."
"Why not?"
"They just hold me back."
"We could distract him, while you try to take the bells from him."
"We'll only fight over who gets one."
"We can sort things out after we have them."
With this Sasuke seemed to agree, now I only had to convince the other two.
But before we could do anything, Naruto jumped right in front of Kakashi to challenge him. Good bye, surprise effect…
Naruto charged at Kakashi and I took the opportunity to sneak to Sakura under the bush. She looked at me with a horrified expression.
"How could you find me?"
"Your hair is unmissable, but listen. We need to work together to beat Kakashi. Sasuke already agreed to this so-"
"Sasuke-kun? Agreed!"
Okay, that was fast…
"Okay, I'll try to convince Naruto, then we can come up with a plan."
As we looked back to Naruto's fight with Kakashi we could see him kneeling behind the blonde, making the tiger-sign with his hands.
"Naruto, run away! You're going to get killed!" Sakura screaming and jumped up.
Now he knows where we were hiding. Way to go, thank you very much, Pinky!
Meanwhile Naruto tried again to beat sensei what got pretty boring by boring so I didn't pay attention anymore. Instead I looked for a new place to hide.
As I looked back Naruto was hanging headfirst from a tree and Kakashi lectured him. Then shuriken came flying at him and hit. Seems like Sasuke took the chance to make his first move. How I knew that it was Sasuke? Pinky doesn't like weapons, of course, and I'm pretty sure I didn't do it. I think.
But sensei used the replacement-justu. From the corner of my eye I saw Sasuke running away. With this attack he revealed his hiding place.
I took the chance to help my dear blonde friend out of his misery and jumped to the ground. Then I heard a loud cry. Seems like Pinky got caught.
"Oi, Minari-chan! Can you help me?" Naruto shouted when he saw me approaching. Great Naruto. Keep shouting so Kakashi-sensei will find me!
I cut the rope and he fell face first on the ground.
"Ow, Minari-chan, can't you be a bit more gentle?" he whined.
"I could as well have left you there." I replied. I mean, is that a way to thank someone who helped you?
"Listen, Naruto-kun." I then started.
"We plan to beat Kakashi as a team. Are you in?"
"I don't think that'll help but why not." He said sitting on the floor with crossed legs and arms and nodded.
"Good. Then we'll meet with the others." I said smiling and turned to go looking for the other two. Then I heard Naruto screaming again. Did he fall into a trap again? Naah, not even he can be this stupid.
I was looking for Sasuke and Pinky as I heard a loud scream. Good, now I know where to find Pinky!
I was running in the direction of the scream. As I stepped out of some bushed I saw Pinky being out cold lying on the floor.
"What happened to you?" I asked the unconscious girl in front of me. Not very smart to talk to unconscious people, I know.
"Minari-chan?" I was looking up from the girl and to Sasuke who stuck in the ground up to his chin.
"What are you doing there?" I asked him.
"I got taken in by Kakashi." He admitted angrily.
I stepped in frond of him did a few hand-seals an stomped on the ground so Sasuke got lifted out of the hole.
How did you-?" I smiled then shifted my attention to the girl on the ground.
"O~I, Wakey wakey! Now's no time to be sleeping!" I shouted while giving her slaps on both cheeks. I blinked a few time and Sasuke bend over her. As she opened her eyes she fell him around the neck and was really glad that he was okay.
"Why does my face hurt?" she then suddenly realised.
"We didn't have water to wake you." I answered and shrugged my shoulders. She got what I meant and shot glares at me.
"Let's go. I want one of these bells." Sasuke urged us. We both looked at him with shocked expression for him saying something out of his own free will.
"But wait, where's Naruto? I told him to meet up with us." I pointed out after noticing the lack of a certain blonde.
"Who cares. We still have no chance to get the bells." Pinky whined.
"Not necessarily. Last time I already touched one." Sasuke explained. (A/N: Someone noticed that Sasuke's talking pretty much in this part of the anime?)
"Then we'd have a chance." I mused.
But as we were standing there and thought about what to do the alarm went off and announced the end of the test.
Defeated we went to the stone memorial from where we heard the alarm clock ring. There we found Naruto being tied to a post. You know, that one for training and all.
"Naruto-kun, why are you tied up?" I asked him astonished.
"He wanted to eat all by himself so I punished him." Kakashi-sensei explained after suddenly appearing out of nowhere.
"Oh and by the way. There's no need for you guys to go back to the academy."
Our eyes lit up. Does this mean he wants to let us all pass? No, that can't be, there's something more behind it…
"Does than mean, all four of us…?"
"Yup, all four of you should quit as shinobi!" he said with a smile. Nice. Smiling while saying something so cruel!
Outraged we looked at him. Naruto started complaining and as Kakashi called us punks, Sasuke jumped up took a kunai and charged at him. He pinned the boy on the ground and sat down on him, securing the hand with the weapon.
"You think, it's always about you." Sensei started to lecture us.
"Why do you think you got divided into teams and are doing this training?"
That made us thinking. Then it came to me.
"Teamwork." I muttered.
"Right." Sensei said.
"The three of you working together may have gotten the bells."
"But there are only three bells. What teamwork? That just makes us fight each other!" Pinky complained.
"The purpose is to see whether you can forget about your own interest and successfully work together under these designed circumstances." He explained. "Sakura, you only cared about Sasuke, the other two were completely nonrelevant for you. Naruto, you were just running around by yourself. Sasuke, you just assumed the others would get in your way and tried to do everything yourself. And Minari, I didn't see anything of you. It seems you take this training too lightly!"
Too lightly, my ass!
"The duties are done by the team. Of course superior individual ability is important to a ninja. But what's even more important is teamwork!"
From this point on I blanked him out, until he got a kunai out of his pouch, held it to Sasuke's throat and told Sakura to kill Naruto otherwise he'd kill Sasuke. We looked at him shocked, unable to do anything. He then put his kunai away and said that this happens all the time. The he continued with his lecture about the memorial and all and again I spaced out. Who cares about being lectured by his sensei?
Then a word fell that made me perk my ears. Lunch! He could eat lunch but weren't allowed to share any with Naruto. If we do, we fail. After this we were allowed to try again with the bells. That said he disappeared.
Sasuke, Sakura and I each took a bento and ate a bit. It was simple rice. I looked from my rice to Naruto and back to my rice.
"Here." I said and held out my bento to him.
"I already had breakfast so you can have this."
Sasuke briefly looked at me than also gave his food to Naruto. The blond was looking between us and was stirred and although Pinky complained at the beginning soon she as gave him her food, as well. Unfortunately Naruto was still ties to the post so she had to feed him.
In this moment Kakashi appeared in front of us with loud sound effects.
"You broke the rules. I hope you're ready for the punishment!" he said and made a few hand signs. Clouds appeared followed by lightning and thunder.
"Any last words?"
"You said that there are four of us! That's what you said and that's why…" Naruto started and looked as us pleading for backup.
"We're all on this squad and we're all in it together." Sasuke said.
"Yeah that's right. We gave our lunch to him because the four of us are one." Sakura affirmed.
"The four of you are one, that's your excuse?"
"That's right." I said.
"You pass." Kakashi said smiling.
Instantly the sky cleared. We couldn't believe what he just said, but he repeated it so I couldn't just have imagined it.
"You guys are the first. Everyone else would just do whatever I told them. They were all just morons. A ninja must se underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules are called trash. But you know what? Those do don't take care of their friends are lower than trash." We shouted out of joy, or just smiled contently, in Sasuke's case. Then I remembered a little detail.
"But if only 9 persons can become genin, would that mean one of us gets into another group?"
"Don't worry. The hokage decided if this group passes, 10 students'll be able to become genin." Kakashi clarified and I heaved a sight of relief. I didn't want to get separated from these guys.
Overhappy that we passed, Sasuke, Sakura and I went with our sensei back to the village.
"Didn't we forget something?" I asked midway, having a feeling that we forgot something important.
"Not that I know of." Sakura answered and one can rely on her huge brain.
Meanwhile with Naruto…
"God damn it! I knew this would happen, believe it! Untie me!" he shouted while desperately trying to chase away the squirrels that seem to consider his head a giant nut or something.
But his pleading cries for help faded away in the peaceful silence of the forest…
Ya~y, they passed! Okay, would be boring if they didn't so it wasn't that surprising, but still! There's not much to say this time. Please review! It makes me really happy! Oh, there's something after all… I plan on writing a new story. The first three chapters are already written. It's about a girl that dies and gets reborn in the Naruto world, so if you're interested stay tuned! I may upload the first chapter next week or so, depending on my mood. Okay enough advertising for now…
Too lazy for preview but I'll tell you the name of the next chapter:
Let's go to the country of waves!
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