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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden, only the OC's.
"Hey Sasuke-kun do you want to go out on a celebratory date?" Sakura smiled sweetly at her crush. Kakashi-sensei had just left after telling them that their first day of training was tomorrow. Sasuke frowned at the girl, and without a reply walked off. He had better things to do like training instead of going on a date with what could possibly be his biggest fangirl.
Naruto sighed as he saw Sakura's smile immediately deflate. He didn't know which was more pathetic, her repeated failed attempts of reaching the last Uchiha's heart or her horrid shinobi skills. Seeing as he cared not for her love life he opted with the latter.
"Sakura, if I may ask what's the reason you've become a ninja?" Naruto asked. The pink haired girl immediately looked at the strange boy, wondering where the question came from. "Why do you ask?" she answered his question with a question.
Naruto glared at her suddenly causing the girl to squeak. "If you're only a ninja to impress Sasuke then do this team a favor and quit. As your comrades we entrust you with our lives to have our backs in missions and if your head or heart's not really in the place you'd only get us or yourself killed." Naruto stated in a matter of fact tone.
Sakura fiercely glared back at the blond. "Sasuke-kun isn't the reason I want to become a ninja! How dare you try to judge me like you're some accomplished ninja, last I knew I graduated the academy just like you!" she spat, the nerve of him!
"Being a ninja isn't a game, I'm not going to watch you play ninja while putting all your focus on a relationship that isn't even there. If you put that same devotion in training then maybe you'd be a skilled shinobi." Naruto said folding his arms.
Sakura shook with rage. He who had been the deadlast for the first two years of the academy had no right to judge anyone's skills! Sakura smirked, "Throughout the entire academy I've been ranked ahead of you, even when you seemed to pass majority of the class I still had higher points than you, so how can you talk of my skills when you can't even compare" she spoke up smugly.
Naruto unfolded his arms, "hmph, well then how about a spar. If you can land a hit I'll take it all back, but if I'm right then everything I said is true" Sakura scoffed. "As if!" she thought nodding with a determined glint in her eyes "This'll be a piece of cake".
Both got into their respected fighting styles. Sakura tensed her muscles as Naruto looked almost unfazed. They stared at each other for a few seconds as Naruto made a come hither motion with his fingers as Sakura came rushing in.
"Chaaaa!" Sakura yelled immediately launching a power punch towards the Uzumaki's head. "sloppy" Naruto easily sided throwing a solid punch to the girl's open ribs. Sakura eyes widened as Naruto followed up the punch with a solid kick to the stomach that easily catapulted her backwards.
"Y-You hit m-me!" Sakura glared struggling to stand with her aching ribs and stomach. "Of course, we're ninja, when you engage a male enemy do you think their going to avoid hitting you because you're a girl?" Naruto asked. Sakura had a lot of reevaluating to do. Being a ninja was nothing like the little movies she's been watching on tv. Sakura ignored the question, clutching her fists.
"Try again" Naruto uttered, the girl Immediately rushed the boy, "I will get a hit!" she thought determinedly. She quickly launched into a series of fast strikes towards the blonde's face with the boy easily siding. "You can't side every attack!" Sakura shouted suddenly switching up her style of attack throwing a sweeping kick towards his legs.
Naruto immediately jumped over the girl's legs as she whipped out a kunai. "Clone jutsu!" Sakura yelled, two clones of Sakura appeared by her side as they all charged for Naruto all the while switching positions to confuse him.
"Nice tactic, but I won't fall to this illusion" Naruto thought quickly jumping back whipping through hand signs. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" he shouted. A powerful compacted burst of wind slammed into Sakura and her clones easily disrupting the illusion sending the girl careening into a tree in the clearing.
"Argh!" Sakura shouted out in pain. She weakly tried to stand up, however before she could move a kunai was pointed at her. Naruto shook his head, "This is over". Sakura immediately lowered her head in shame.
Their spar didn't even last long. She truly was a failure of a kunoichi. "You failed at getting a hit and your body couldn't even last long, most likely due to the fact you're only as fit as a civilian. At your level you probably couldn't beat an civilian adult" Naruto spoke, she was just as he had thought. Weak and a liability. He wouldn't allow a teammate of his to be so.
Sakura felt horrible. Naruto was a fellow genin, they graduated the academy together and yet him and Sasuke seemed to be leagues ahead of her in terms of skill. She felt so hopeless and weak. Naruto noticed the look on her face and slightly paused up. It reminded him of that day. How helpless and pitiful he had been feeling not being able to save her. "..That feeling you feel right now, that feeling of being not able to do anything, use it as motivation when you train now, it'll serve as fuel to keep pushing you, even if you're weak now, you don't have to remain that way, anyone can grow" Naruto spoke firmly stretching out a hand to help her up. He couldn't help but see flashes of his younger self as he looked down at Sakura. Sakura looked up at Naruto's hand biting her lip hesitating to reach for it.
"H-How come you're helping me?" she questioned timidly. There was a flash of pain as emptiness once again appeared in his eyes. "Because I know how it is to be unable to do anything. Understand we're not friends. It's just that weakness took everything away from me so it's natural for me to try to abolish it in a comrade".
With Tsezuma Azume and Miaku
"We need to get everything out of this village that's ninja related. We're on our own when it comes to learning so anything can help" Tsezuma stated. They all had backpacks they had found in the battered remains of the village. So far they only collected what they found on the dead ninja which was mostly money, kunai, and shuriken. Whatever they seemed to take from the village must've had been sealed on their bodies or already transported.
Miaku looked confused. "Our village wasn't a ninja village though" he stated, he doubt their village had anything related to ninja. Tsezuma nodded, "yeah that's true but ninja are very common and popular, I'm sure every village at least holds basic knowledge of the shinobi and their arts."
"Yeah you're right, I guess I wasn't thinking about that" Miaku spoke softly. Truthfully he wasn't thinking about much at all but how he killed all of those ninjas. The three had been walking in a tense silence, they were all on edge from the shinobi attacking them and they remained silent because as they walked through the village it was hard to remain composed.
Even though they were all orphans, the people here were kind and they had grew up here. Without parents, it was the only home they knew.
"We should check the library and archives first" Azume spoke up, "They are the most likely to have the most information although I don't know what we'll see in the archives considering that those ninja may have gotten to them" he finished with the other two nodding.
It took them about nine minutes to reach the library seeing as they were already in the general area. The building itself was halfway burnt to the ground. The front half of the store was completely ash except for the few book shelves that seemed to survive the fire.
They quickly split up searching for any books they could find. A lot of books were burnt but the ones with the thicker covers seemed to be readable although singed. After a few minutes in Miaku noticed something. "I found one!" he shouted. The book cover was burnt but the words were noticeable. It read, "The Ins and Outs Of Chakra", it was a book that detailed what chakra was, how to unlock it and a little tidbit about chakra theory.
"Nice, let's see what else's in here" Azume spoke up. It took them about 25 minutes for the flames and smoke to effect them to the point they needed to leave. They went through every book that was readable and not in ashes that they could, only being able to find a total of 3 books besides the one Miaku found.
They read, "The Art's Of Shinobi" which was a book about the different ninja arts and how shinobi used them. "Shinobi Villages And Clans" which carried basic knowledge about the ninja villages and their famous clans. Lastly, "Famous And Infamous Shinobi History" which housed info about the 3 great ninja wars and famous ninja during each era.
"Okay guys let's head to the Archives" Tsezuma said as they finished putting the books in their backpacks. The archives were a little on the other side of the village, located near the middle of the village. It took the trio about 23 minutes to get there.
What awaited them caused them to pause. "Well..I guess you were right about there might not being anything" Miaku muttered towards Azume. The entire building was burnt to a crisp.
"Well this was a no go, how about we try to see if there's any good food in the markets that we can pack" Azume said