Lazyfox: To all my reviewers I like to apologize to you all for my neglectful absence and breaking my promise to update at least once a month *bows head in apology* On a brighter note as of today I have 10 days left of school before I graduate ^w^ I'm almost college bound and I'm super excited to start college, but sadly I must wait a few months before I begin taking my college classes. Now moving away from my personal life let's move on to the real reason everyone is here and that's the brand new chapter I have created for all you lovely and patient fans :) One last thing before I shut up and let you all read the chapter is that MagicStilesLover has been working on two new stories with me being his beta-reader and as a small favor to him I like to ask you all to read and give feedback to his stories. They are 'Welcome to Osaka' a Pokémon Oc story and 'Kalos Here We Come' a Pokémon and Naruto crossover. Again thank you for your patience and please enjoy the chapter~
Random: Hold on I'm getting to say something after such a long bout of silence dang it! LazyFoxLover doesn't own Naruto or any of the characters she just borrows them to write this story. Hmph now you can go read the chapter
Lazyfox: *rolls her eyes affectionately at her best friend* Thank you Random for blessing us with your special voice *giggles* See you guys later ^w^
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The dark depth of the water surrounded him, choking the air from his lungs as the unsuspecting victim tried to escape his watery prison. He struggled and fought the dark water trying to find his way out before the cold took over and he drown alone in this unforgiving prison of water. "Where am I? What's happening to me?!" the drowning man thought as they were pulled further under. "Am I really going to die like this?"
Just when the man had lost his will to fight any longer and gave in to the suffocating grasp of the icy water, he felt the warm embrace of another and felt like he was being dragged to the surface. "Someone saved me?" the man wondered as he felt his mysterious rescuer drag him to shore. "I feel weird? Like I'm lighter than I usually am or is that just the aftereffect of me nearly drowning?" the man asked himself feeling so dazed and confused as he lay on the shore. Soon the man didn't feel light headed anymore, in fact the man felt better then okay, he felt normal like he didn't almost drown.
"Weird I feel normal again" the man said looking at his body before looking down to see himself standing over a pale and barely breathing blond. The man's eyes widen in realization that he wasn't the one who was drowning, but was feeling what the girl felt and was overcome with fear and worry for the girl seeing as she held a very special place in his heart. As the man bent down to help save the girl he jolted back when he saw a hazy and shadowed figure stand over her vulnerable form.
"Stay away from Naruko! I won't let you hurt her!" the man yelled trying to lunge for the shadowy figure only to pass through the figure and watched in stunned horror as the figure leaned over Naruko's still form and kiss her.
The man was overcome with intense rage as he watched the figure kiss the girl that meant the world to him and was ready to lunge at the shadow figure again when the dream world he was in begin to fade out. In the distant realm of his mind he could hear someone yelling his name and could feel a small sting of pain, but it was ignored as he kept his eyes locked on the figure and the blond. He watched their images disappear before he was brought to the world of the waking with the ear splitting yell of his name.
~XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX~
"SHIKAMARU! WAKE THE HELL UP ALREADY!" Ino demanded slapping her lazy teammate repeatedly until she heard him groan at the sting in his cheeks. Huffing Ino threw him back on the bed placing her hands on her hips. "Finally! I have been trying to wake you up for the past ten minutes."
Shikamaru sat in his bed rubbing his now stinging cheeks as he glared at his blond haired and feisty teammate. "Geeze Ino did you have to slap me like that?" he grumbled rubbing his sore cheeks as he tried to shake off his tiredness and the vision of his dream.
"Yes I did. You wouldn't wake up and we have to meet up with Asuma-sensei today for practice. So stop dreaming about your girlfriend and get your ass in gear" Ino ordered storming out of Shikamaru's room missing the shadow user's incredulous look as she left.
Shikamaru groaned as he flopped back onto his bed. "Man I have to many troublesome blonds in my life."
Sighing to himself, Shikamaru decided to get up before he received another tongue lashing from his hot headed teammate. Moving sluggishly across his bedroom floor the spiky haired youth threw his gray mesh undershirt, his green lined short sleeved jacket, and gray pants on while securing his ninja tool holster to his right leg. "What a drag~" he groaned as he walked out his room to where Ino was waiting for him. "I'm ready to go" he said walking past her bidding farewell to his parents with Ino following after him.
As the two teammates left the Nara compound behind Shikamaru began to analyze his dream, "Why did the dream feel so real to me? I've never felt like that before when I dreamed so why this time? Why was this dream so real? Could it be I dreamed something that was happening or happened to Naruko? If Blue-eyes did suffer through that is she okay Or did that bastard hurt her?" the young shadow user wondered as the millions of questions raced through his head about the well-being of his best friend/girlfriend. "Man why can't you stay out trouble you troublesome girl, making me have visions of you and knowing I can't be there to protect you. Awww man even if I was there you chew me out for being so protective of you, but can I not worry when you attract danger like a moth to a flame. Great I'm having an inner mind dialogue with myself what a drag this day is turning out to be" he thought sighing deeply to himself only groan in pain as Ino whacked him over the head.
"Shikamaru Nara! I swear to Kami if you keep ignoring, growling, and sighing at me I'm going to beat so far into the ground no one will ever find you!" Ino threatened keeping her fist balled shaking with repressed anger as she glared at her teammate. "It's bad enough we're late, but for you to just space out on me like that is just plain rude."
"Man Ino you don't have to clobber me like that. I was thinking about how team seven is handling their c-class mission right now" Shikamaru tells his female teammate hoping to pacify her so he could escape another attack.
Ino just huffed turning her back to him. "I knew you were thinking about Naru-chan. Just face facts and tell her you love her when she gets back. I mean it's so obvious you two have feelings for one another" she stated.
Shikamaru blushed slightly, but quickly hid it. "What a drag. You don't know what you talking Ino. Blue-eyes is my friend and that's it" he tells her. "Well, I already did that so I have more reason to worry about her, but Ino doesn't need to know about that."
"Whatever you say Shikamaru. Let's just hurry up and get to the training grounds" Ino huffed picking up the pace to make up for lost time. "I wonder what Asuma-sensei will teach us today?"
"Probably a new formation or he'll give us a new mission" Shikamaru drawled out as the duo continued on their route to the team's usual training filed.
Soon the two teens landed in the training filed greeted by their other teammate and sensei. "Shikamaru, Ino glad to see you guys could make it. I was wondering if I needed to come track you down" Asuma teased ruffling his students' hair.
Said teens waved their sensei hands away. "I wouldn't be late if it wasn't for Shikamaru being such a lazy-love sick fool" Ino huffed rolling her eyes at the lazy glare Shikamaru sent her while she gave him a playful and teasing smirk as she stood beside Choji who muffled his laughter with eating more BBQ chips.
Shikamaru just rolled his eyes and sighed. "Today is just going to get more troublesome before the day is through" he mumbled ignoring the teasing and amused faces of his team he turned to address his sensei with a bored lazy stare. "Okay Asuma-sensei what troublesome assignment do we have to do today?"
"Shikamaru not everything I do is troublesome or a drag as you see to label them. Today I want you guys to practice on your families traditional Ino-Shika-Cho Formation. This technique has been used for many years in our village and now it's time for you three to carry on the tradition." Asuma said proudly getting excited cheers from Ino and Choji and a tired sigh from Shikamaru.
"I knew it, such a drag" the young Nara heir groaned running a hand through his hair.
With that being said Asuma started to instruct his students through the motions of what they each needed to do for this formation. They each worked at their specific task, but even though Shikamaru tried to focus on his part of the formation the young heir just could not focus. When he tried to focus his thoughts would go back to his dream and that caused him to start worrying about Naruko and that cause him to lose his concentration making the entire formation fall apart. Ino reaching her breaking point was about to start yelling, but Choji pulled her away before she could leaving Asuma to talk to his friend while he cooled the hot headed blond down.
Asuma scratched his head not understanding why his student was having such a hard time picking up the technique when he remembered Ino's earlier teasing and sighed. Walking over to Shikamaru the chain smoker tapped the boy on the shoulder. "Follow me Shikamaru I have something for you to do" he tells the sulking and heavy distracted teen.
Sighing Shikamaru followed behind Asuma taking this time to try and regroup his thoughts. Asuma led his young student to his house where he instructed Shikamaru to sit on the porch as he went inside to grab his shoji board before coming back out to set the game up. "I hear you like to play this game, so I figured you and me can play it for a while."
Shikamaru gave his sensei a small grateful nod before he made his first move finding the game was a good way to organize his thoughts while Asuma sat back and watched his young student play. The Jounin watched as his student zeroed in on each of his moves and found it intriguing with how Shikamaru's eyes went from lazy troubled blanks to excited browns as he played. Taking his student's new mood for a good sign Asuma began talking.
"So Shikamaru you mind telling me what had your mind in such a shamble this morning and don't give some bull excuse like it's too troublesome to explain" remarked the ex-fire temple guardian.
"Man what a drag. I don't even know what was going on this morning, but I guess it's me worrying about Blue-eyes," stated Shikamaru.
Asuma nodded in understanding already guessing the young blond was the boy's problem. "And what about Naru-Hime has you so troubled besides her being out of the village?"
"Well, besides her being out of the village I had this really bizarre dream last night. At first it started out with me drowning, but when I started to lose consciousness I was rescued or more like I was brought back into my own body. Man it's too troublesome to describe, but it felt like I was drowning, but then I wasn't and the next thing I knew I was staring down at Naruko who looked like she had just been drowning" explained the confused boy as he paused in their game to stare at the board finding himself to be stuck on his next move. He then moved his hands to his usual strategy thinking formation.
Asuma listened to Shikamaru explain his story and found it to be interesting the more he listened as he watched his student go into his thinking position. "I get it you think Hime's in trouble and that's okay considering how close you are, but you don't have to worry so much about her Shikamaru. Hime may not look it, but she's stronger than most people give her credit for. You're a good friend to care about and look after her Shikamaru, but don't worry Hime going to come home in one piece. Besides she's probably more worried about you being too lazy to do your missions and training so cheer up and have faith in Naruko."
Shikamaru listened to his sensei and thought he was right, so deciding to wait for his troublesome blond to return home he resolved himself to focus on his training and his missions. "Man that troublesome girl is going to cause me to go into early retirement" he sighed dropping his hands as he made his move on the board.
Asuma stared at the board with a puzzled face not knowing what to do next. "Are you sure you haven't done so already? You act and play like a retired old man already" the Jounin joked glad he was able to free his student from his troubling thoughts for the moment.
After that Sensei and student spent their day playing Shoji and other thinking games to pass the time.
~XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX~
"I think I over used my Sharingan. I won't be able to move for a week if I'm lucky" Kakashi grunted out feeling the negative effects of his Sharingan taking over. Sensing eyes on him he looked over at his two female students giving them a tired smile. "Hey don't worry I'll get better soon especially having two qualified nurses looking after me."
Hinata and Naruko both cheered up a bit as they moved back to his side. "Nii-chan do you mind if I use you as a practice dummy for Hinata?" Naruko asked
"Practice dummy? Should I feel insulted you called me a dummy and what is this about?" the injured Sharingan warrior asked.
"I want to learn medical ninjutsu from Naru-chan and she said the best way to learn is by watching and practicing" Hinata said softly.
"Exactly, Grandma-Kaede taught me like that and you are a dummy for over doing it so much in the first place. So do you mind Nii-chan?"
"No, I don't mind and having two teammates with Medical ninjutsu abilities doesn't sound like a bad idea. Good thinking girls" Kakashi said complementing his students for their good judgment.
Hinata and Naruko smiled at him before Naruko turned to Hinata with a serious look. "Okay Hina-chan the first three techniques I going to teach you is the Kyuukyuu no Jutsu, Kekki no Jutsu and the Shoudokuzai no Jutsu which are the basic skills of all medical ninjutsu, but it still takes great chakra control and stamina to perform them. The first one I think we should work on is Kekki because that one will relieve some of Nii-chan's exhaustion, but it'll cause you to feel a little tired afterwards, so are you okay with that Hina-chan?"
"That's fine Naru-chan. I'm here to learn so if you think this one is best then that's okay with me too" Hinata tells her.
"All right, the first step is to place your hands over Nii-chan's chest like you would if you were going to administer CPR" Naruko directed as she placed her hands over the sternum of their sensei watching Hinata copy her, but noticed her friend hands were too tight. "Relax your grip a bit, there ya go. Okay next thing is to focus your chakra into your hands then you focus on moving that chakra out and into Nii-chan" she explained as she let a soft blue glow surround her hands letting the glow flow into Kakashi.
Hinata nodded listening to Naruko's direction she relaxed her grip on her hands before she focused her chakra into her hands like she would if she was going to use her gentle fist causing her hands to become surrounded in a dark navy blue color. "Like this?" she asked.
Naruko shook her head as she stopped her technique. "Not exactly, Hina-chan you're pouring too much chakra into your hands. The color you should have surrounding your hands is like a warning to medical ninja if they're using too much or too little. For example to know you're using the Kekki right the glow around your hands need to be a light shade of blue. Since your hands are a dark navy blue it shows you're using too much chakra and if the glow was a light lavender color that means you were using too little" she explained. "Try it again Hina-chan."
Kakashi smiled at his Imōto seeing she would make a good teacher like her adopted father. "What does this Ninjutsu do Imōto?"
"This jutsu allows me to channel chakra into you in order to relieve your fatigue and exhaustion, but it doesn't allow us to restore your chakra levels. It's a good way to keep the team from collapsing from exhaustion, but it does tire out newbie medic-nin because of the control and chakra they use" Naruko tells him watching as Hinata tried to control her chakra in the right way.
Hinata began to focus less on pouring out her chakra and more of letting the chakra just surround her hands and watched as the dark navy blue hue dimmed to a normal blue to finally a pale blue. "Look Naru-chan it worked!" she says excitedly before watching the blue flickered out into a lavender color before it died away completely.
"That's good Hina-chan, but you have to keep your focus on the level of chakra you use, but with a little more practice you'll get the hang of it. Practice control your chakra and the rest will come naturally" Naruko tells her as she grabbed Kakashi's hand to undo the bandage. "For now practice on control the Kekki technique today and tomorrow will work on the Kyuukyuu and Shoudokuzai" she instructs her as she allowed creates a wispy, ephemeral blue aura to cover one of her hands as she covered Kakashi's before allowing it to turn a light green that healed the small cuts on his hand before she re bandaged them.
"Okay Naru-chan. Thank you for teaching me I promise to do my best" Hinata tells her friend who rewarded her with a friendly smile before going back to treat their injured sensei. Hearing footsteps approaching Hinata turned her head to see Sasuke walk into the room with Tazuna and his daughter Tsunami. "Hello Sasuke-kun was the trip to town good?"
Sasuke sat down at the foot of the mat giving Hinata a small nod. "It was okay. How's Kakashi doing?"
"I'm doing fine thanks for asking. Did you learn anything from the town's people?" Kakashi asked sitting up in his bed with Naruko assistance.
"Nothing new except for how Gato is getting worse with his treatment of them and that there's a rumor going out that he's hired a stronger assign to kill the old man stronger than his normal goons. I guessing the town people are talking about Zabuza, but I didn't get a description of who they were talking about" Sasuke elaborated.
Hearing the ex-Mist ninja's name made Naruko tense up as the image of his dead body flashed into her mind, but before she said anything Tazuna let out gruff laugh. "Well, it's a good thing you guys took out such a strong and dangerous villain. I don't think we'll have much trouble from Gato with the likes of him gone."
Naruko gritted her teeth. "We didn't take him out that Anbu mist ninja did" she spat out still resentful of how Zabuza truly meet his end. "I know Anbu are meant to be strong, but to see a kid my age take Zabuza out like that just leaves bitter feelings inside me."
Sasuke clenched his hands together silently agreeing with Naruko and how she felt. Being upstaged and made a fool of was never something Sasuke put up with well and now seeing as Zabuza was dead he had no way of redeeming himself, but the shame he felt was only used as fuel to ignite his resolve to get stronger.
"Anbu are very elite Ninja Imōto, they are a select group of ninja designated to protect their village's secrets and Kage from enemies. If I were to fall in battle enemies from other villages could use my body to discover the secrets of the Sharingan along with stealing my jutsus putting the Hidden Leaf into a very dangerous risk. An Anbu team would then be used to destroy my body preventing our enemies from discovering our secrets. The same goes for rogue ninja, they are hunted down and disposed of by Anbus so the secrets they hold cannot fall into enemy hands" Kakashi explains before he struck with a sense of dread and foreboding.
The other occupants of the room sensed the mood change in the Silver-haired Jounin and wondered what had caused the man to wear such a horror-stricken expression.
"What's wrong Kakashi-sensei?" Tsunami asked.
"Well, usually an Anbu disposes of a rouge ninja body on the spot and if they needed the proof the kill was completed they would just take the rouge's head, but how was Zabuza's body disposed of?" he asked his students.
"We didn't see sensei. The Anbu ninja took Zabuza's body away" Hinata said confused by what her sensei was asking.
"What are you guys talking about?" Tazuna asked feeling lost to the question at hand.
Sasuke who listened to Kakashi's description and question finally caught on to what he was trying to get at. "You don't mean..."
"I'm afraid I do. There's a high possibility Zabuza is still alive" Kakashi said gravely causing Naruko, Hinata and Tazuna to freak out.
"Nii-san what are you talking about?! You checked him yourself and declared him dead!" Naruko screeched.
"It's possible that Anbu ninja was working for Zabuza and caused him to go into a momentary state of death. Considering they used simple Senbon needles to kill Zabuza its more than likely he's still alive" Kakashi explained.
"Sensei what a..are we going to do then? Y..You could barely beat him in full health what are we go..going to do against him?" Hinata said worriedly.
"Don't worry when a ninja gets put into a momentary state of death it takes them a week to recover so by the time Zabuza is ready to fight again I'll be ready too. On top of that I'll be training you all from this point on so you all will be ready for the next battle" Kakashi tells them.
"You mean it Nii-chan? We're going to get another shot at that no eyebrow freak?" Naruko asked getting pumped at the thought of fighting Zabuza again.
"Look at you Naruko you're actually excited about fighting Zabua again." "You know I think you all will do better this time around. You all have improved greatly from when we started together and I believe you all will keep growing" Kakashi tells them ruffling Naruko's hair making her smile.
"You know it! After we kick Zabuza's butt we'll go after Gato and make him pay for hurting this town and its people" she declared.
"Are you stupid?" a small voice spoke up from a far causing a tick mark to form on Naruko's forehead as she got angry.
Growling Naruko turned to see a young brown haired boy wearing green fishermen overalls and white fisherman hat. "Who the hell are you calling stupid you little brat!"
"Inari where have you been, come give your Grandpa a big hug!" Tazuna cheered stretching his arm out wide as the boy ran into them and hugged him tight.
"Inari you should welcome these brave ninja into our home. They protected grandpa and made sure he got home safely and they are going to help get rid of Gato" Tsunami tells her young son.
Inari looked at team seven before scuffing and pointed at them. "There just going to get themselves killed. No one can beat Gato they should just go home."
"Hey you brat take that back! We're going to be the heroes that will save this town and we will beat Gato and make him pay for all the hurt he has caused this country. I'll make sure of it" Naruko declared.
Inari glared at Naruko who was smiling cheekily at him like she understood anything about pain or what it meant to lose something important. "You really are an idiot. What can you do to help this country?! You don't understand anything about the suffering we go through or the pain of losing anything!" he yelled making Naruko stiffen up and ball her fist together.
"He should have not said that" Sasuke, Kakashi and Hinata thought worried Naruko was about to snap and attack the poor boy.
Inari turned away from everyone and headed to the stairs leading to the second floor. "Inari! I'm so sorry for my son, he has been heavily affected by the torment Gato has put us through" Tsunami said hoping to reconcile for her son's rude behavior.
"It's okay Miss we understand this country is suffering so we don't hold it against him" Kakashi said, but as he spoke Naruko got to her feet and headed straight for the stairs looking pissed off.
"Naru-chan! He's just a boy" Hinata cried knowing what Naruko was planning on doing, but Naruko ignored her as she disappeared up the stairs.
Naruko headed straight up the stairs and marched down the long hallway on a mission to find Inari and putting that little brat in his place. "How dare he! That brat has no right to say that to me. I've been through more crap than this kid will ever see or know!"
As Naruko neared the boy's room she was prepared to barge in and beat the snot out the kid, but was stopped when she caught the quiet sounds of muffled sobs and sniffles. "Is he crying?" she wondered as she opened the boy's door a crack to see Inari sitting on top a desk staring out at the sea as tears poured down his face.
"Da..dadd..daddy…. Why you have to d..die" Inari sobbed as he stared down at the picture of his father causing Naruko's heart to break for the boy.
Sighing Naruko closed the boy's door and headed back downstairs deciding to let Inari's comment go for now as she refocused her mind on her upcoming training and her new mission of proving Inari wrong about heroes. "Just wait Inari I'll show you a true Hero. Believe it!"
Lazyfox: There it is folks~ again terribly sorry for the wait and I hope it was okay. To be honest it didn't feel it came out right, but I hope you guys liked it anyway
Magic: *walks in with a half dead Sasuke being dragged*
Lazyfox: What happened, Otouo-chan?
Magic: I caught this little pervert trying to peep on me!
Lazyfox: That explains everything; well let's start the...WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE!
Sasuke: Oh yippee this BS again!
Magic: Oh so you want to explain to my husband's and Nee-Chan husbands what happened, eh?
Sasuke: *whimpers* Noooooo anything but those four, I beg of you noooooo!
Magic: That's what I thought; now today's victim is, Minato Namikaze!
Minato: Hi everyone!
Lazyfox & Magic: Hiiiiiiii Minato~~
Magic: Well Minato your torture is *looks at card* to watch 10 day's worth of yaoi in the closet with
Random.
Minato: O.o uhhhhh *steps back into Random*
Random: No take backs babe~ *grabs Minato dragging him into the closet causing it to disappear*
Magic & Lazyfox: He going to be so messed up...
Kushina: Guys have you seen Minato around?
Lazyfox & Magic: *Looks at one another, then to Kushina* No!
Kushina: Ok!...Weirdoes
Lazyfox: Hehe well that's all for today folks and I hope to see you guys really soon :) So until next time...
Everyone: JAA-NEE!