"..." Normal chat.
ABC. Thought.
Chapter 15
Sitting beside her, Naruto's also perked up when hearing the good news, as he must have known those daggers hold a special place in Nina's heart.
Knowing him well, it's obvious to Sakura that Naruto's also worried about Nina's feeling. However what she's seeing right now doesn't really add up to it.
Both of them sit as far away as each other as possible, although it's Naruto who has picked his seat at the end of the bed, while Nina's been staying in one place from the beginning.
He doesn't talk much today or being enthusiastic as he's always be either. And Sakura realizes that Nina's acting somewhat awkward, especially toward him. Whenever she speaks up, Naruto will stops talking immediately and vice versa. If their eyes meet, they turn their faces away instantly. And Naruto's posture stiffens up for no reason.
I wonder what happened to them.
Sakura's head tilts in thought. And Sasuke, who is standing against the wall next to Nina, has also noticed something abnormal between them.
She has a feeling that the boy's curious, but since this is Uchiha Sasuke, he's not going to bother butting into other people's affairs. Unless it's going to affect him in some way.
Then Sakura sees him glances at her, his eyes movements seem to be telling Sakura to let those two sort things out by themselves. Since having her jumping in would only turn it into a worse mess than it already is.
After an hour or so, everyone decided to leave to give Nina more time to rest. While on their way home together, Naruto mentioned that he had something to do and parted way with them. A few more steps and Sasuke also excused himself, disappeared out of sight.
Unbeknown to them, he's making his way back to Nina's house as there's a several questions about yesterday incident that he wants ask her, in private. And Sasuke figures right now would be a good opportunity to do so.
However once finding out Naruto's also here, instead of stepping in, he hides behind the wall near the windows to wait. Also eavesdropping their conversation in progress.
"Yesterday... I shouldn't have said those things to you. I'm sorry."
And the first thing Sasuke hears is Nina apologizing to Naruto about something, which he has yet to know. Hopefully Naruto will be the one to reveal what it is.
"Despite knowing how dangerous it is, are you going to keep using it?"
Too bad it's not the case as Naruto ignores it completely and starts talking about another topic, Nina's power, which is also fine to him since that's the main reason he's here.
As expected, the girl refuses to gives up on it just like before. Although this time there's an additional requirement that if the team 7 is involved, similar to how things has happened to them at the forest outside of Konoha, she will also not hesitate.
"I do not expect any of you to do the same to me in return. Especially you, Naruto."
"Even if it cost you your own life to protect us?!"
Much to their surprise, Nina nods in response to Naruto's question.
Isn't that a bit much for someone who isn't even blood related and only met for no longer than a month?
Sasuke finds it quite odd while listening to her reason. He starts recalling to the time she's used that power to save him against the bandits for the first time. Wondering whether Nina's being way too kind to strangers or just being plain stupid.
"But why?!"
Baffled by her unwavering determination, Naruto asks her. Hoping that there's a good explanation for this crazy idea she's carrying in her mind.
In Nina's defense, it's obvious that her responsibility is to keep the whole team 7 away from any unidentified threats. As the only thing they have encountered are the robots, but who knows what else the enemies are going to bring up later on.
"It's also because..."
Suddenly Nina looks away, hesitate to speak for a moment.
"You will be the one who lead us to the future, Naruto. Therefore I will not let you sacrifice yourself for my sake, in whatever circumstances."
What?! Both Sasuke and Naruto are shocked by Nina's confident statement.
Naruto's eyes completely widened and he doesn't know how to react. Usually, he would get pissed off and argue loudly that this is not the time to be joking. However the moment he looks into those determined topaz eyes before him, Naruto can tell that Nina's serious.
Is it because that Nina's taken his words to heart about him always wanting to become the Hokage? Is she believing in him that much?
Leading us to the future?! Naruto she said?!
For a moment Sasuke had seriously thought that Nina had gone crazy. Suddenly out of nowhere claiming that this idiot Naruto would one day become incredibly strong and save everyone's life. But more importantly, what make her so confident that it's going to happen?
After a long moment of silence, Nina speaks up again. "Naruto, I don't intend to die just yet, when there's a lot of things out there for me to do. So... I'll be careful, okay?"
"You promise?" Not going to buy it easily, Naruto asks her to stay true to her words and she nods, even offering him a pinky swear, which kids usually do to each other. Only then Naruto's finally be able to relax and returns to his old self.
As childish as ever.
Then Naruto remains for a little chit chat. Sensing the atmosphere between them has changed to much positive vibe, Sasuke figures that the two have made up. And after about half an hour later, Naruto finally leaves.
When Naruto has gotten out of sight, it should be the perfect chance for him to step in. However Sasuke no longer feels the needs of doing so.
How strange, there has been something is stirring up inside his chest for a while now. Yet he doesn't know what or who causes it. And the only thing he wants to do right now is to get away from here. As fast as possible.
Around 5:00 PM in the afternoon after his usual training, Sasuke walks home alone and passes by Naruto, who is carrying a take away bowl of Ichiraku ramen and grinning to himself like an idiot.
This is a normal sight of Naruto. Still, it irritates him a lot for some reasons.
"Huh? What do you want?"
Suddenly out of nowhere the Uchiha appears and gets in his way. And the next thing Naruto knows, they are already standing at the third training ground, facing against each other.
"Bastard! Why the heck do you want to spar at this hour? Can't you just wait till tomorrow?!"
Obviously Naruto's annoyed, as the bowl of ramen he has bought for Nina is about to get cold. And Naruto has no idea why Sasuke's so determined to have a match with him today. To the point almost dragging him here by himself even if he has to.
"Stop asking and just fight."
Sasuke charges forward with multiples of Shuriken in his hands, and Naruto has no choice but to return his favor.
The match starts and gets serious within seconds. At first Naruto thought it's somewhat similar to their match yesterday, when they had to fight for their prides. Except this time the Uchiha doesn't hold back.
Several screams and shouts later, Naruto ends up to be the one lying on the floor. Panting heavily while Sasuke remains standing, hands inside his pockets. Their clothes are messy, faces full of dirt and injuries.
"I win," Therefore the Uchiha declares to his friend and walks away, still hearing Naruto cursing him from behind.
Just what exactly... Did she see in this idiot?
Sasuke cringes by the thought. It feels as if the more he gets to know about Nina, the more he doesn't understand her. Including the fact that she's paying too much unnecessary attention to this bastard.
"You will be the one who lead us to the future, Naruto."
His eyes frowns when recalling to those words. It doesn't make sense to him at all. But then again...
Why did he have to take it so seriously? For what reason did he get all so work up for? And since when did he care about what other people think?
"What are you looking at?" Annoyed when constantly being stared or glared at for no reason, Naruto asks him. Brushes dirt off his ears and gets up, ready to demand for a rematch.
However Sasuke's turned around and walked off. "Nothing much. Ultimate loser."
Ultimate loser? Naruto's dumbfounded by his new nickname for a moment before finally remember about the bet they've made.
"Hey, bastard! That's not fair! You didn't say anything about it when calling me out here!"
A few days later
In the morning
Since there's still no response from Kakashi about my withdrawal request, I have to continue playing my role as a member of team 7 and attending missions with them like before.
Once done preparing, I make my way toward to our usual meeting spot for the next mission. The moment I arrive, both Sasuke and Sakura have been here, while Naruto is yet to be seen.
"Ah, Nina-chan."
"Hello, Sakura. You guys sure are punctual."
Sakura greets me immediately, while Sasuke stays as quiet as ever. And somehow he's acting a little off, being much more grumpy than usual.
"Hi, Sasuke."
"..."
"Uh... You okay there?"
"..."
He keeps staring at the floor and doesn't respond to any words I say. It almost feels as if Sasuke's trying to ignore my existence.
I don't recall doing anything upsetting him nowadays. More like cannot since I've been stuck in bed ever since last incident. Did he eat rotten tomatoes before coming here or something?
Sakura also receives the same treatment, but not as severe since he replies to her from time to time. It doesn't matter what kind of topic, interesting or not.
Few minutes later, Naruto arrives to the spot. Once seeing Sasuke, both of them instantly exchange glares with each other before turning their heads away. The atmosphere between us grows even more awkward and Sakura too, probably is screaming inside right now.
So I decide to stick with Naruto while waiting for Kakashi. And our conversation soon turns into something about him bragging to become the strongest shinobi or the best Hokage no one has ever seen.
I realize that he's become much more hyped up and arrogant than usual. Perhaps it's because of what I've said to him before. To be honest, I have no regret telling Naruto a little about his fate. As long as Naruto understands that his life is important, for himself and for the sake of this world.
Suddenly, I feel chills running down the back of my neck and notice Sasuke's glaring at us from afar. Right, I almost forgot about that guy.
No doubt that Sasuke's life and his decisions are also crucial to the future of Konoha. Though I have a good feeling that he will be doing just fine in the future without being told what to do. Not that he is going to listen to anyone anyway.
Ages later and our lovely mentor finally appears before us, much to our annoyance. The following scenes play exactly the same to the story. Except there's one thing I have yet to understand.
"I'm not going to lose to you!"
For some reasons Naruto and Sasuke are burning strong in fire of passion. Strange, Zabuza's incident is like ages ago, what are they still competing for?
First mission: Weeding.
"Hey, Naruto? You may want to be careful with that."
Not wanting Naruto to get into trouble like he would in the story, I warn him beforehand but the boy's too focus on winning against the Uchiha to listen.
Figure that simply saying to him won't work, I decide to help Naruto with his job after finishing mine. And the moment I approach him however, the boy has already plugged out more than half of the area he's in charge with.
Oh boy, this is definitely not going to end well...
Quickly, I ask him to stop working and Naruto looks at me, somewhat confused but obliges anyway. Then I proceed telling him how to distinguish between weeds and herbs. Also carefully showing him which one should be plugged and which not.
"So... Who is the one that need help all the time again?"
Suddenly Sasuke appears right behind us and just have to mock Naruto for his poor performance, because why the hell not.
"I-It's okay, Nina-chan! I can do it myself!"
Thanks to Sasuke's *encouraging words*, Naruto refuses my help without a second thought and returns to his weeding business. And I can see that he's still mindlessly removing the herbs along with the weeds and throws them all into a huge pile next to him. Despite having been told how to his job properly just seconds ago.
"Fine. Just... Slow down and don't plug everything out, okay?"
Hearing so, Naruto gives me a confident thumb up while I groan in annoyance, trying hard not to glare at that damned Sasuke, who is enjoying his easy victory with the usual smug face.
In the end, the result's half as bad as the original but Naruto still get scolded by the owner. At least he doesn't earn any hit to the face, so I guess it's something...
Second mission: Collecting trash in the river.
"Watch your step, okay?"
And the moment I finish talking, the boy trips over a rock and fall into the river. Hopelessly crying for help while being carried away by the strong current.
"Naruto!"
I try to catch him but failed as he's moving too fast. Then I remember at this point of the mission, Sasuke should be jumping out of water to catch Naruto with his Shinobi tools.
However when I turn to him, Sasuke remains at his spot with a basket on his back and a trash tong in his hand. Casually watching his friend getting carried toward to the waterfall up ahead of us.
Without an option, I yell to wake him up. "What are you standing there for?! Help him!"
It's not until Naruto's almost reach to the water below that Sasuke's muscles finally begin to move and save him within seconds. Talk about close call...
Third mission: Dog walking.
Naruto grins widely when seeing me picking a dog that is about the same size as his. Responding to the confused look on both Sakura's and Sasuke's faces, I shrug and pat Naruto by the shoulder.
"Well, I figure that if you're going to be stupid, why not just be stupid together."
Playing it safe too much can be quite boring. Making some changes once in a while isn't going to hurt, or so I thought.
For Naruto's part, he doesn't get offended for being called stupid and actually happy to have someone staying in the same boat with him.
Suddenly Sasuke decides to swap his Chihuahua to something 3x bigger. Shocking us all with his bold move, especially Sakura. And in his defense, Sasuke explains that he wants to try something much more challenging.
As expected, Sasuke's dog and mine follow Naruto's dog footsteps and lead us straight toward to the Trap field. Different from the original that Naruto will be the only one to suffer, this time there will be three of us.
Although it soon turns out to be a competition between Sasuke and Naruto. As whoever triggers the landmine more than the other will be the loser. And sadly, it's Naruto who gets hit the most and become the loser of this round.
After all the ruckus between Naruto and Sasuke about their unsuccessful teamwork, Kakashi's departure for the meeting with the Third, Sakura's threatening to end Naruto's life for being too annoying. They decide to parts our way to do their own things, however Sasuke stops Nina when she's about to go home.
"Come with me."
"Huh, me? To where?"
Surprised by his sudden request, she points to herself and Sasuke frowns. As if she's just asked something stupid.
"Yes, you. Off to the training ground."
Needless to say Sakura's shocked after hearing his answer. Since this is the first time Sasuke officially asks a girl to train with him, alone. Her expression then turns sour, but doesn't say anything to object. Since she knows the exact reason behind his doing.
It's because Nina's stronger and better in fighting than she does.
Meanwhile Nina's dumbfounded by his ridiculous mood swings. What's wrong with this Uchiha? First he treated me like air and now asking me to come training with him.
"Why me? There's Sakura, you know?"
Nina tries to push the *heavy responsibility* into Sakura's hands. Also reminding him that she will not going to use her special power in friendly matches. Hoping that Sasuke will somehow change his mind and pick Sakura instead.
"Because her abilities are even lower than Naruto."
Sasuke answers bluntly, stabbing Sakura's ego with his piercing words and urges Nina to get going. "Hurry up. I don't have all day."
Disheartened, Sakura turns around and goes home. While Nina's still standing there, debating whether she should follow him or not.
Not that I mind about the whole training things but... If we use a whole day to train together, then Sasuke will miss his chance of meeting Gaara and end up messing the whole plot. So I definitely cannot let that happens.
After spending a few minutes thinking over, Nina refuses to come along and uses Naruto as an excuse. Much to Sasuke's irritation.
"Sorry, I can't go with you. I've already promised to treat Naruto ramen today."
Again with Naruto... Figures that he cannot change her mind whenever Naruto's involved, Sasuke clicks his tongue and walks off.
"Fine, whatever."
When I return to our old spot, Sakura has already beaten Naruto and Konohamaru to pulps. Now she's chasing them down for calling her having big forehead and lacking of feminine.
And what's coming has to come, Konohamaru bumps into Kankuro and falls.
Irritated by the sight of kids, Kankuro grabs the boy by his scarf and pulls him up. Threatening him and insulting us at the same time. His rude speeches and actions, of course, angers Naruto greatly.
"Hey! If you don't let go of him, you're going to get it from me! You idiot!"
Afraid that Naruto's provocation will end up having us all killed, Sakura quickly grabs him by the head to shut his mouth. "You're the idiot one! Don't just provoke him!"
"What should we do, Nina-chan?"
Sakura whispers to me, the girl seems to be quite nervous after witnessing the strange technique he uses on Naruto.
And I ensure her that Konohamaru will be fine. Sakura looks confused by my answer at first but decides to trust me anyway.
"We already apologized to you, didn't we? How about letting the boy go and we will pretend none of this has happened."
I step in and ask everyone to calm down, also reminding the sand shinobi that they literally gain nothing if picking a fight with the leaf shinobi inside their base. However Kankuro's too stubborn to listen to logic, no, it's more like he actually enjoys being the bully here.
This asshole. If it wasn't for the plot convenience, I would have beaten him to pulps.
To be honest, I'm more concern about Gaara who is lurking extremely nearby than these harmless threats from Kankuro. Still, it's hard to turn a blind eye to the fact that there's a boy being held hostage right in front of your eyes. Plus this is Konohamaru, not some unknown NPC you usually pass by on the street.
"How about I take his place? You can hit me instead of him."
"Eh?!"
Everyone's shocked by my sudden offer. Except for Kankuro, who is smirking and seems to be taken interested in my idiotic heroic act.
"Are you serious? If you dodge it, I will double the amount. For you and the boy."
He asks me again to confirm my words as I step forward to face him. Seeing me nod in response, Kankuro then cracks his fingers, threatening us that he beat Konhamaru as well if I break the rule.
"Fine by me. And you have to let Konohamaru go after this." Therefore I demand a fair trade, waiting for Kankuro to finish thinking over while Konohamaru's cowering next to him.
"It's a deal."
Seconds later Kankuro begins and aiming straight at my noses, attempt to break them and send me flying away in one hit. As his fist is about to reach to my face however, I block him with my hand. And Kankuro's smug expression changes into different kind of shades before stopping at the furious one. Struggling to set his hand free from my grip.
Just my luck that Kankuro happens to be weak against close-range combat, which I'm certainly not. And that means in this battle, I have the advantage.
"Don't get so angry. From the start you never state that I'm not allowed to defend myself."
I didn't dodge any hit, meaning I hadn't broken his rule. Not my fault that Kankuro overlooked that aspect in our agreements. "Now release Konohamaru, as you promised."
"Yeah! She's right, you know!" Naruto and the others cheer for me from behind.
"You lost, Kankuro. Hurry up and be done with it. You're wasting our time." Temari chimes in, urging her brother to finish his silly game and get going before Gaara gets angry with them.
Seeing Kankuro's fuming in shame, I let go of his hand and without a choice, he has to set Konohamaru free as agreed.
"There, have your damned brat back!"
Still, he must releases his anger on us by grabbing Konohamaru and throwing him away, toward to where the others are standing. Luckily, Naruto runs forward to catch him before he lands with his head.
"Damn you...!"
Angered by how the sand shinobi is treating his little friend, Naruto's about to lunge at Kankuro before I grab him by his arm to stop him.
"Quit it, Naruto. We've had enough."
Not wanting to engage in any more trouble, I whisper to him and drag Naruto back to our side. And from behind, I hear Temari calling for her brother.
"Hey, Kankuro."
Following it is Kankuro saying something to himself.
"I never state that it has to be one hit."
Suddenly a small piece of rock flying out of nowhere and hits Kankuro's fist, which is about to reach to my face the moment I turn around to check.
This jerk, he's not going to give up, is he?
Irritated by his foul attitude, I frown, watching Kankuro holding his hand in pain. Then we hear Sasuke's voice from above.
"What do you think you are doing in another's village? Get lost."
After Sasuke making his dramatic appearance, Gaara also appears to stop Kankuro from revealing his secret weapon to us before the real battle begins.
Skipping through the reasoning and threatening between the brothers, Gaara and Sasuke staring into each other's soul. We then have the sand shinobi siblings explaining us about their reason for coming to Konoha, the Chuunin exam, which we've totally forgotten about thanks to all the chaos from days ago.
Soon Gaara leads his team away, not forgetting to exchange his name with Sasuke before leaving. Of course the sound shinobi, team Dosu, is here and watching us from above as expected.
And that means only a few days left until Sasuke receives his cursed seal and Konoha's invasion. I should be getting myself ready since it's going to be a tough battle.
"Is there something on my neck?"
If it wasn't for Sasuke saying, I wouldn't have realized that my eyes had been gluing at a specific spot, where the mark would be, on his neck.
"No-Nothing! I'm going home now, see you guys later!"
Embarrassed, I bid them goodbye and walk straight home. Almost forgetting about my promise to treat Naruto ramen today...
Next morning
"Hold on, why are there only three applications? Who isn't coming?"
Naruto's confused when seeing three papers in Kakashi's hand. As the team 7 contains four members total.
"That would be me."
And Nina's the one who responses to his question, putting her hand up. "I won't be joining this year Chuunin exam."
