I've been pretty busy lately so I'll probably skip next week's chapter. This is also one of the last 'training arc' type chapters in this fanfic, things will start to get moving in the next few chapters.
Two days later, Naruto and Ino were walking down the streets of Konoha, on their way to pick something up for Kakashi.
"Naruto, how did you sleep for 36 hours, I don't believe you," Ino said.
"I'm not lying, really. I must have been tired from popping the water balloons." he yawned.
"But that would mean you went without eating for more than 3 hours, that's hard to believe too."
Before Naruto could reply, Ino had stopped and turned into a shop, apparently this was their destination, "Oh Tenten's family owns this place? I've never seen it before."
"We can look around a bit then, I'm sure Asuma and Kakashi won't mind."
They walked around the shop, through the isles and observed the uncommon tools that lined the shelves. "Woooaaahh, this shuriken is huge, and it has six points!"
Ino wasn't about to let their previous conversation fizzle out. "Naruto, I was actually sort of wondering about the other night, what was up with Jiriaya and Tsunade?"
"Hmm? Oh that. Well, I don't think the sannin have the best relationship with each other, I mean one of them is Orochimaru so it makes you think y'know."
"Yeah but Tsunade said something weird, like she was talking to Jiraiya about her brother and some other dude, and she was comparing them to you. . ."
"I don't really know who they are, Pervy-Sage only ever told me she had it rough."
Ino narrowed her eyes, not convinced.
"I swear I don't know anything else. I've never even talked to that cranky old-hag. She just spied on me while I was trying to pop the water balloon, probably drunk."
How Naruto's answers always managed to give her more questions, Ino didn't know. Before she could pry any further someone interrupted them.
"Naruto,"
The pair turned to see Neji Hyuga looking back at them. A strange person to casually talk to Naruto. Ino wondered if he was bitter about the outcome of their match, he seemed awfully confident Naruto was going to lose. Was he going to ask for a rematch?
"Uh, hi Neji," Naruto replied, equally as confused as Ino.
"Forgive the intrusion, I just hadn't had the opportunity to speak to you, we haven't been assigned on any missions together."
"Yeah Jiraiya is picky sometimes, most of my missions are with my own cell, or Team 10."
"So that's it. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you."
"Uhhhh, thank me?"
"Yes, when we fought I spoke about fate. Telling you it was foolish to try and defy what I identified as your fate. All the while I had spent my life trying to defy my own. You showed me my hypocrisy, and ever since then a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I no longer hate myself for trying to escape my fate, and I no longer hate Hinata for also having trouble conforming to her own, although it may be awhile before she can forgive me. Regardless, I'm grateful to you for that."
Naruto was shocked by Neji's sincerity. He smiled as he understood everything Neji was trying to tell him, "Don't mention it, when I become Hokage, I'll do everything I can to stop the Hyuga from doing that to you guys,"
Neji smiled back, "Very well then, I'll let you two continue,"
Ino followed Naruto as he picked things from the shelves, making idle talk about Neji Hyuga's more approachable demeanor. When Naruto had finished they went to the counter where they met Tenten, who rang up the items and announced their total.
"Huh?" Naruto responded confused.
"Is there a problem?" Tenten asked.
"I thought it would be much more than that. The other shops always charge me more," Naruto mumbled as he retrieved the money.
"Our shop is actually one of the higher end ones in this district. I'm not sure why the others are charging you so much, but don't worry Naruto, I'll always give you a good deal here."
"A good deal just for me?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah of course," she said cheerily and leaned in to speak quietly to the pair, "Ever since you beat Neji he's been a lot nicer to all of us. I don't how but you flipped some switch." Tenten retreated back behind the counter, " So don't worry about those other shops Naruto, just come here."
"Thank you Tenten," Naruto did his best to seem normal, but wasn't used to the barrage of niceness he was receiving today. His happy mood had almost made him turn around and leave the shop, but Ino brought him back to reality.
"Wait dummy, we didn't come here to shop remember,"
"Oh right. . ." he replied sheepishly, "Kakashi-sensei told us he ordered something from you guys and asked us to pick it up."
Tenten disappeared into the back of the shop and reappeared with a box in her hands, "Here you go, special order for Kakashi," and handed the box to Ino. The two said goodbye to Tenten and headed out of the shop. They were going to head straight back, but Naruto insisted they drop his stuff at his apartment. Ino scolded him for buying too much before they walked in the direction of his apartment.
"The Hokage was right, Naruto. You should move closer into town, this is taking too long."
"Relax, relax, we're already here,"
Ino and Naruto reached the top floor and Ino watched Naruto fumble with his keys before unlocking the door to his apartment. Anticipation filled her mind, none of her friends lived alone, and she'd never been in another boy's place alone before. Naruto opened the door and everything looked. . . . normal. Ino didn't know what she was expecting. Probably a ramen stand instead of a kitchen, but there was nothing of the sort, only a plushie instant ramen cup (where did you even get something like that?). Before Ino had realized it, Naruto had disappeared into his bedroom, leaving Ino standing in the living room, holding Kakashi's box.
Without thinking, Ino placed the box on the dining table and walked towards Naruto's bedroom. "Naruto don't just disappear on me like that," she said as she walked into the dark room. Not seeing a soul, she walked past the open door from which she heard mumbling behind.
"Where did I put that thing?" Ino found Naruto sitting on the floor, an assortment of shirts sprawled around them and Naruto looking for something among them like a toddler looking for a toy it was going to shove up its nose.
"There you are–" she started, but by the time she had seen the glint of the head band under her foot it was too late. She slipped on it, and then tripped on Naruto's feet, and then fell on Naruto. Shirtless Naruto. Who had instinctively put one of his hands on her shoulder and the other on her waist when trying to break her fall.
The air was heavy and only Naruto's impulsive voice could break through it, "Bet you imagined your first time in this position would be with Sasuke and not me, huh."
He had enough decency to not act surprised when Ino slapped him.
Asuma watched intently as Kakashi opened the white box Naruto and Ino had fetched for him. Inside of it were two familiar looking kunai. The blades resembled his own chakra blades, except for wood on the bottom of the hilt. Kakashi had pulled out the ink and brush included in the box, and wrote a seal onto the wood, letting it dry before running his chakra through it.
"Copying me and your sensei, not a good look Kakashi," Asuma joked.
"I am the copy ninja after all," Kakashi replied as he felt the weight of the kunai in his hands.
"Tell me then what's the point of these, I mean doesn't regular metal–"
"already conduct electricity?" Kakashi finished for him. "Yes it does, but these are special. The wood has pathways to push chakra through the entire blade."
"Not only must it be incredibly expensive to create synthetic chakra pathways, I don't have a clue what you'll use that for."
"A demonstration is best," he replied. Kakashi ran chakra through the blade and instantaneously, violet plasma engulfed the entire thing, and the familiar chirping noise of Kakashi's lightning blade could be heard.
"It made your Chidori purple?" Asuma asked unimpressed.
"No, the purple is because I've altered the chidori. The only unique part of the metal is that it can withstand higher temperatures, so the lightning won't ever melt it. The real magic is in the wooden seal. Watch." Kakashi spun the electric blade around his finger, before throwing it straight ahead of him.
Asuma didn't even have time to track it with his eyes, and only knew where it was after it made contact with a tree, leaving an awful exit wound. As well as one on the tree behind, and the tree behind that one, and the one behind that one. Eventually Asuma couldn't hear it anymore.
"That's nothing short of horrifying Kakashi, that thing is good, in fact it's too good. Now you're gonna make our poor students look for your fancy kunai." he said as he watched Shikamaru try to figure out what had woken him and mutilated the tree next to him.
"Do you mean this kunai?" Kakashi asked.
Asuma was even more dumbfounded to find the kunai in Kakashi's hand, as if he had never thrown it.
"I should have known the seal would do something like that. Now you're just making me feel inadequate, what else does it do, light my cigarettes for me?"
"When thrown, it takes one-fourth the chakra of a chidori charge of the same distance."
Asuma couldn't believe the implications of this. Kakashi managed to practically triple his chakra in the last few months with training and that sharingan trick. Now he had just watched the man take his already dangerous jutsu, and solve all its imperfections. Minimized the chakra cost and no more vulnerability of the tunnel vision, forget tunnel vision, his body was no longer involved in the charge. Asuma took a long drag from his cigarette; so this was a determined Kakashi Hatake, he was thankful to be on the man's good side.
Shikamaru awoke more violently than he ever had before in his short life. The sound of a thunderstorm nearly blowing out his right eardrum. When he finally caught his bearings he had looked to the right and found the remains of the tree next to them. It looked as though it had been stabbed through with a huge searing knife.
"Kakashi." said the dull voice of Choji.
Shikamaru sighed in relief, allowing himself to collapse back onto the grass. The academy failed to teach them about modern politics or famous shinobi. He had caught to the disproportionate clout Team 7's sensei carried, and eventually sized him up to be quite a bit stronger than any regular jounin he had met. He thought little of the lazy but stoic demeanor of the man, after all his father had been just like that. But upon further examination, he realized Kakashi was just as eccentric as the sannin were. Teaching Sasuke of all people his murder move, allowing his Team to go forward with a mission that should have probably killed them. The man had fended off Itachi Uchiha and somehow didn't die immediately. Rumor had it he had even threatened Orochimaru during the chunin exams and gotten away with it. Basically, he was a literal psychopath who somehow continued to survive situations he simply shouldn't have.
So when Ino (she had been a great source of information on more than just Naruto) told him that he was actively getting stronger. Shikamaru's understanding of Team 7 clicked completely. The awful team dynamic, their questionable at-best mental health, constant attraction of trouble, and yet somehow incredible success. All of it was a projection of their sensei, and now Shikamaru was caught up in their web, forced to watch the exhausting way they lived their lives. How did they have the energy for all of this? Wasn't there a law against being so troublesome all the time?
"Look at us, two teams training together, and yet it's still just you and me sitting here." said Choji.
"Some things never change Choji."
"So what do you think?"
Shikamaru's eyes darted towards Choji, "About what?"
"Them,"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Shikamaru replied as he watched the clouds drift by. Of course, he knew exactly what Choji was asking about.
"You know who," Chouji replied in exasperation.
"Naruto and Ino, or Sasuke and Sakura?" Shikamaru replied.
"Huh? Of course Naruto and Ino, Sasuke and Sakura are just sitting there."
"They've been talking ever since we stopped training. Not just today either, I saw them do it the last time we trained with Team 7 as well."
"All I see is Sakura sitting by the shade Sasuke is in. He hasn't moved, neither of them have raised their voices once." he argued.
"That's because they're talking, if they weren't talking they wouldn't be sitting together. Sakura doesn't like awkward silences, when Sasuke rejects her she always leaves soon after. Sasuke also doesn't tolerate people he doesn't want to be around, he'll tell you to fuck off when he feels like it, but they've been both sitting there and Sakura's mouth has been moving. They're talking."
"You were asleep."
"Doesn't matter, they were doing it before I fell asleep and they're still doing it now I'm awake. He's also more comfortable around her, they walk and stand closer to each other."
"You pay attention to a lot more than you let on Shika. . . . Anyway, you never answered my question,"
"I don't care, I'm just glad she's not talking about Sasuke all the damn time anymore." Shikamaru said.
"It's all the same Shika, now it's Naruto she talks about."
"It's interesting though," Shikamaru rebuttabled.
"I know, something about Naruto never added up. You're telling me you haven't figured it out?" Choji asked.
"I have some suspicions, but I don't know if I should say something like that out loud."
"It's still kinda annoying," Choji added after a bit of a silence.
"Getting jealous Choji?" Shikamaru asked slyly.
"Not like that Shika. I just think they should figure it out soon, it's too quiet when it's just you and me the whole time."
Shikamaru put his hands back behind his head and closed his eyes again; he wouldn't admit it, but he agreed.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Naruto asked awkwardly.
"No."
The entire walk had been awkward, after Naruto and Ino had untangled themselves from each other, they had difficulty making eye-contact the entire way back. After many unsuccessful attempts at conversation they had settled on silence, but Naruto was finally becoming sick of that silence. Thankfully a violet blade of death interrupted the silence once more.
Ino started to laugh, "Look at Shikamaru,"
Naruto looked at him, wild eyes, short breathing, and general distress. They were all features unusual to see on the boy, and they disappeared just as quickly as they came.
"You ever see him like that before?" he asked with a smirk.
"Not in the 10 years I've known him, not once at all," she replied.
"Hey why are they looking at us?" Naruto asked, Choji had been looking at them, and then Shikamaru had glanced at them as well, which was the equivalent of staring for him.
"Even from there they can tell how weird we're being." Ino replied.
"They'd probably feel weird too if they knew the things that we did in my bedroom."
"You seriously could have worded it better than that," Ino responded as her cheeks turned crimson.
"I could have buuuuut, you're always teasing me, so this is payback," he replied mischievously. Naruto and Ino laughed as they felt the tension in the air diffuse. Naruto felt relief wash over him as the familiar comfort came back. He didn't know when they had gotten comfortable like this, but he was glad it was back to normal again.
Sasuke and Sakura, two teammates taking their well deserved break, leaned against a tree together. Despite the fact that they weren't facing each other, both of them had been in light conversation for awhile now, about training, about missions, about little things.
"Hey, Sasuke. You think it's interesting how they talk so much now?"
"If you're talking about Naruto and Ino, then no." he replied.
Sakura was dismayed at his answer. Ever since Sasuke had begun talking to her more, she learned she had to be careful with him. His boundaries were like a proximity bomb, he'd shut back down if she got to close to them.
"Why's that?" she asked.
"Cause they're both loud and obnoxious, they're perfect for each other." he replied jokingly. She had yet to get used to his joking, having always been serious before, a playful tone coming out of his mouth was extremely foreign to her. She laughed back at his joke and silence fell over them again.
"I know you probably know this but I don't hate Naruto. I know I was rude about him when we first became a team. I was insensitive about him being an orphan, and I also didn't realize you guys have some sort of friendship. I was really stupid–"
"It's okay Sakura, I understand. Naruto is one of the only people who knows what it's like to also be alone. I'm glad that you're able to see the type of guy he is now."
Sakura fidgeted with a twig, her nerves building up because of the question she was about to ask. No matter how much she liked Sasuke and was excited about being with him, she couldn't stand not knowing why things had changed now.
"Sasuke, why did you start talking to me," she finally asked.
Silence.
"It's just that, Naruto seems to be the person you're closest with, and you don't talk with him all that much. I've always been pining for your attention, probably annoying you, and then coming back again and again. Why did you. . .decide to start talking with me like this?"
More silence. The time in which no one spoke seemed boundless, and Sakura's nerves felt as though they were being stretched, folded, twisted, and then unraveled back together again. She finally calmed down when she heard something from his direction. He took a breath and exhaled.
"Ever since the chunin exams, I had to admit to myself that Naruto was stronger than I am. He beat Gaara and saved you, something I couldn't do."
Sakura thought about what he was saying, Naruto had gotten much stronger. She remembered watching him beat Neji. The way he had come in, uncaring of the notions everyone had of him. Unwavered by the threat of someone like Neji, and ultimately turning the odds in his favor. It had made her aware of her growing admiration for him, and it was the first time that she thought that his claims about being Hokage could come true. Of course she understood how that might waver Sasuke, no matter how close in power they were.
"All this time I've kept you guys at a distance thinking it would keep me focused on my goal, but at the end of the day Naruto was way stronger than me. Naruto never kept us at a distance, always talking to us even when we dismissed him. It makes me think that I don't have to be like this. I have to be strong to avenge my clan, but I don't need to stay away from you guys to do it, that's just me letting my brother taunt me."
"I see," she replied, "I guess I didn't realize just how many different ways what your brother did affect you."
From their vantage point, they had a perfect view of Kakashi launching the blade, and teleporting it back into his hand.
"You're gonna ask him to teach you that aren't you?" she asked.
"Want me to teach you too?" he joked as he watched Kakashi explain the whole thing to Asuma.
Asuma Sarutobi groaned as his calf muscles seared, just barely escaping, from his own chakra blade. "You've gotten much better at this lately, keep it up like this and I might get you chakra blades of your own," He said with a smirk as he watched Naruto leap towards him once more.
"Yeah well, with all the chakra it takes trying to pop that rubber ball, stuff like this is a piece of cake now." Naruto twisted his body, and narrowly avoided Asuma's stab at his shoulder. Naruto took this as an opening and struck at Asuma's exposed face, but before his fist could make contact, Naruto's body was contorted into an uncomfortable position. Asuma's foot pushed down on Naruto's back, while pulling his arms out behind him. His cigarette still lit, face completely devoid of struggle. If Naruto could see Asuma right now, he'd probably look really cool.
Naruto groaned in frustration, "You and Kakashi everytime, somehow manage to get me in this position."
Asuma let Naruto free and smiled, "Well Naruto, it's not enough to just spar with your own shadow clones. The fastest way to get to our level, is to actually spar us, none of your clones will do that move on you. Even if you spar them a thousand times."
Naruto collapsed onto the grass to take a break. Asuma mirrored him and turned to talk to the boy, "How's being a chunin?"
Naruto stared straight ahead and pondered the question, "It's really hard," he admitted. "I'm glad I'm getting harder missions now, but I didn't think it'd be so stressful all the time."
"Not so easy leading is it?"
"Everything I do I have to consider the lives of my teammates. Luckily, I usually lead C-rank, but you never know what sort of shit even those street thugs can pull-out,"
Asuma laughed at that, "They all think they're shinobi after they get their hands on a stolen scroll."
"Just last week we were all the way north, just me and Choji. Some dude running from his taxes, should have been harmless. We found him in a bar, and he just pulled a fireball out of nowhere! That bar could've burned down, I barely got Choji out of the way in time."
"Don't beat yourself up over it kid, Choji's all good isn't he? You made chunin because we were confident in your ability to complete missions." Asuma replied.
"I know, but I can't get it out of my mind. Ino and I went on an A-rank with Guy. I know you and Jiriaya said she's chunin level, and Guy was with us the whole time, but I kept waiting for something to go wrong,"
Asuma took a long drag before responding. "It's probably cause of how your first C-rank went, honestly it's a good thing. The moment you get too comfortable is the moment everything goes wrong."
Naruto sighed. He moved his attention toward the Rasengan again. Luckily the rubber ball was just within arms reach, and he practiced again to burst it.
"Didn't it used to be white?" Asuma asked.
"The first one was white. I actually was able to puncture it, but Jiraiya said it has to pop."
"Leave it to those prodigy types to make everything hard," Asuma joked.
"Tell me about it, I've been at this for almost a week now. Couldn't I just have a lighter ball? I mean look at this thing," he replied and threw the ball at Asuma.
Asuma caught the ball in his hands with a loud smack, "Sheesh Naruto, where did he even get a ball this dense?"
"I dunno he must have manifested it somehow, I've never seen anything like it." Naruto replied.
"Wouldn't be surprised, those dudes become Hokage and all of a sudden they start becoming too wise for their own good. He probably has some super secret rubber manufacturing jutsu locked up in those confidential libraries."
Naruto and Asuma laughed together while they theorized all the wacky jutsu that might be locked up in the Hokage tower. Asuma wasn't his sensei the same way Kakashi or Jiraiya were, but he felt spirits lift up each time he trained with Team 10.
"So, the Third was your old man," Naruto said when their laughter died down.
"Yup," Asuma replied as he looked off into the distance.
"One day he was your dad, and the next. . . " Naruto's voice trailed off.
"Actually he was Hokage since before I was born, but yeah, he sort of had to be everyone's dad. Sometimes I really hated it. One day he came to our class, and just talked to the students, y'know. He gave us one of his little life lessons and I was mad. I'd heard it a million times and here he was recycling it, and everyone else looked at him like he was telling them the secrets to the universe. . . ."
"Then if I become Hokage one day, I'll have to do that too?" Naruto replied.
"It's the most important job there is. As a leader, sometimes you have to compromise familial bonds for the bond with your community. I'm not saying we didn't have a good bond, I just wish I hadn't taken our time together for granted. I'm pretty sure he felt the same by the end of it all."
"So that's how it is," Naruto replied, and they both sat together in comfortable silence until the sky finally turned orange and it was time to head back home.
Four days later, Naruto popped the balloon. He made sure to give Jiraiya a front row seat, even if it meant literally blowing up the ball in their faces. Naruto studied Jiraiya's satisfied face when the ball popped; after all, he didn't know how many more moments like this he would have with the Hokage.
Naruto lied in the grass of the training grounds, at this point lying here was more familiar than lying in his own bed. His open jacket allowed the cool breeze to his skin, scattered all over him, the remains of countless balloons resembled confetti. Fucking balloons. It was always balloons with this jutsu. When Jiraiya had given him the empty balloon after successfully popping the rubber ball, Naruto had actually laughed out loud, convinced it was a joke. It wasn't a joke, it wasn't a prank, it wasn't even negging, he had to actually train with these balloons again.
"You formed the vortex, then you made it strong enough to pop the rubber ball, now I need you to maintain its spherical shape. So instead of popping the balloon, I need you to keep it intact now. The only time it should pop is when you stick a needle in it, and reveal a fully formed rasengan."
That's what he said, and since then Naruto had popped more balloons than he could count. In fact he had ended up buying so many the lady at the shop had just suggested he buy a jumbo pack, and his cheeks had a permanent flush on them from constantly blowing up new ones.
"Fancy meeting you here Naruto," The masked menace himself had arrived, along with the blonde menace, and an ANBU with purple hair.
"Where's Sasuke and Sakura?" Naruto asked when he noted the absence of his teammates.
"They'll be working on their genjutsu with me. I brought Ino here to work with–"
"Yugao," Naruto finished for him, and watched in amusement as the faces looking down at him lit up in surprise. He had almost made a joke to Kakashi, asking if a woman was finally okay with the face he was hiding beneath his mask, but his breath hitched in his throat at the last moment.
Yugao took her mask off and looked towards Kakashi, "You're not supposed to tell him the name's of ANBU Black Ops, Kakashi," Yugao said playfully, although there was an underlying worry behind her voice.
"I did no such thing. Seems like my student here isn't so bad at espionage, even if he wears orange all day," Kakashi replied, "You wouldn't mind telling us your secrets, would you now Naruto?" The last part sounded more like an accusation, although considering how Naruto got his genin rank in the first place, the implication had some ground in reality.
"I've seen her in civilian attire before, in the shopping district. My clones were moving debris and caught someone say her name," He replied. Of course, the truth was there was no way he'd remember something that small. He had actually seen her once again with Kakashi, after Hiruzen's funeral they were talking about Hayate. Naruto cringed mentally at the blunder he had just avoided, he would not have been able to handle the awkwardness of teasing Kakashi at the expense of a woman whose lover had just died.
"Weird thing to connect the dots on," Ino mumbled.
"Anyway, Yugao will be training Ino in her kenjutsu here, we just wanted to make sure we weren't interrupting something," he said as his eyes scanned the littered balloons.
"Ino, you slash and stab our ears with your voice all day already, are you sure you even need lessons on how to do it with a sword?" Naruto asked.
Ino kicked Naruto in the stomach and smirked as she watched him flinch, "Funny Naruto, we can usually hear your voice from across the village,"
"Yeah, yeah," he replied as he sat up, noticing Kakashi had already vanished. When he looked back up he noticed Ino's eyes had lingered to his abdomen. Huh? He thought someone like Ino would at least be more subtle if they were leering at you, but his mind panicked when he realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt under his jacket. Shit, she had seen his seal. Ino would definitely ask about it, who else had a giant sun-looking seal tattooed onto their stomach?
Lucky for Naruto, Yugao was impatient and already called Ino over to her. Crisis averted, for now. Naruto decided to sneak off for some mischief, he didn't want Ino to ask him questions.
Sasuke Uchiha smirked as he watched the look in Sakura's eyes flicker, finally he'd caught her. As embarrassing as it was to say, even with his sharingan, Sasuke struggled to compete with Sakura's genjutsu. Kakashi noted that she was frighteningly adept at commanding her chakra within a genjutsu, but it was over now. After the last strike, instead of dodging he'd chosen to grab her hands, both of them. She'd panicked and looked him in the eyes, he finally got to initiate his genjutsu.
Sasuke's eyes darted around and he observed the chakra pathways all around her brain. He decided this time he'd try making her think she was melting, but just as he was about to start messing with her nervous system, his whole world somersaulted.
Suddenly his back was against the dry grass, the cool sensation of a kunai held up to his throat. His eyes traveled up the kunai, along a slender arm, and finally the triumphant face of his pink-haired friend sitting on top of him.
"How long have you been waiting to get me in this position Sakura?" he asked in a last-ditch attempt to throw her off, but she showed no indication that his voice even reached her ears.
"You're too dependent on your eyes Sasuke, you never anticipate they'll betray you." she replied.
Sasuke sighed in defeat, "How did you escape then, I'd already caught you,"
"That's the thing Sasuke, I never escaped, you were the one who got caught."
"Huh?"
"When Kakashi does genjutsu on someone, their eyes sort of go lifeless for a second. It took a lot of practice but I was able to replicate the look eventually," she proceeded to do it one more time for demonstration. "Once you thought you were going to perform genjutsu, it was pretty easy to make you think you actually were,"
Sasuke grumbled in frustration, "I had chakra shielding my hands though, I would have noticed if you tried to transfer chakra through them,"
"Oh but she didn't transfer it through your hands Sasuke," Kaksahi finally intervened.
"Huh? Then how far back did you?"
"Water-release," she replied, and Sasuke's mind traveled back to when she had spit a bucket's worth of water on his face. It was unexpected, he could give her that, but it was also a splash of water, it wasn't going to stop him from striking. He had proceeded to tease her about it, telling her he wasn't thirsty right now. "That water was mostly made with my own chakra, and then I waited till it seeped into the chakra pathways on your face." She finished with a grin and got up off him.
"So even with nature release you can initiate a genjutsu. . ."
"Sakura wins for today Sasuke, she exploited your arrogance perfectly." Kakashi said to him. Even now he kept being reminded what a mistake it was to keep his team at arm's length. His brooding was interrupted by an orange comet falling out of a tree.
"Come to do more spying?" Kakashi asked as Naruto recovered from his tumble.
"You can't blame me Kakashi! Who could miss out on this? I mean look at Sasuke, he just lost to Sakura!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura snapped at him angrily.
"Nothing, nothing Sakura! I swear!" Naruto's voice was suddenly a much higher pitch.
"You want some of what he had?" Sakura had begun to approach Naruto like prey, backing him into the tree he had fallen out of, "How do you know I'm not already in your head?"
"No please Sakura, don't do horrible things to me, I promise I won't ever ask you out again," Naruto had entered a complete state of panic, and it was only heightened when Sakura grew 10 times before his eyes. Some part of his brain tried to tell him it wasn't real, but it didn't get through the part of his brain that told him the earth was quaking underneath him.
Sakura's gigantic form now covered even the sun. Her cruel face twisted into an evil smirk as she slowly lifted up her gigantic foot, "We're far past that point balloon-boy," taunted the demonic voice of Mega-Sakura. Adrenaline had rapidly pumped through his body, and his horror had grown to unfathomable levels. Naruto completely devolved into hyperventilating and unintelligible pleas for mercy. The part of his ears that hadn't been completely hijacked told him that Sasuke was bursting out in laughter at him, but it still didn't take him out of the illusion, and Naruto threw his hand in front of his face in an attempt to shield himself.
But Sakura's gigantic sandal never came down, in fact that was the moment the illusion vanished altogether.
"I never thought you'd break it like that Naruto," Sakura said in shock, and Naruto finally emerged from his fetal position. He looked down at his hand and found a brilliant blue sphere. A fully formed rasengan, and no balloon in sight!
"Good job Naruto," praised Kakashi, and the only thing that soured his mood was Sasuke's second outburst of laughter.
"I should hit you with this, I'm the fourth person to ever pull it off y'know." Naruto threatened.
"Go ahead, it's not going to stop me from telling every one of your future offspring the tale of the legendary kicking-and-screaming Naruto defending himself from an imaginary Sakura giant."
From time to time, Naruto missed the days when it seemed like Sasuke was incapable of telling a joke.
