seventeen
Naruto trudged to the meeting point, hugging his bag close to his chest, the aroma of ramen rising gently to caress his face. He didn’t want to be here. All he wanted was to inhale his ramen and sleep for a week; but no. He had to come and sit a dumb test that determined if he got a team that he didn’t even want in the first place.
Interrogation had kept him for hours and then finding the damn cat had taken even longer. He’d thrown the beast at the fucker who’d inflicted it on him and expressed in no uncertain terms what he would do to the cat if he ever got assigned that mission again. He had savoured the fear on that chunin’s face but it hadn’t been enough to balance out the irritation and exhaustion from the night’s events. The bridge finally came into sight and he saw Sasuke trying to ignore the fangirl.
“You’re two hours late,” Sasuke called out to him.
“I did tell you Kakashi would be at least three hours late,” Naruto called back. “Why did you bother coming here earlier?”
“I wanted to train but then you didn’t show.”
“I was busy debating the merits of murdering a cat.”
Sasuke scowled at him and Naruto grinned mockingly back. He slumped to the ground beside the Uchiha, back against the bridge’s railings, and dug his first bowl out of the bag. Ichiraku ramen was exactly what he needed after last night.
“Kakashi-sensei said not to eat!” Sakura sniped.
“He also said to be here for 5am,” Naruto pointed out, shoving a massive pile of noodles into his mouth. “Lesson one, don’t listen to Kakashi outside of training.”
She looked disgusted as Naruto chewed around his words but he wasn’t bothered. He was starving.
“Did you eat?” he asked Sasuke and the other boy didn’t look bothered, far too used to Naruto antics to care.
“You did say to,” he nodded and Sakura’s face fell.
“You’re going to get in trouble,” she looked genuinely worried for Sasuke and Naruto snorted. He swallowed his latest mouthful and pointed his chopsticks at her.
“This ain’t the classroom,” he said directly. “This is the real world. You would eat for missions or training; even if you thought you were gonna puke. You don’t know where your next meal could be coming from and if you ain’t eating, you ain’t performing your best.”
Gai-sensei had been the one to really drive that into his skull. Food wasn’t the most abundant for him growing up and he’d learned to ration it appropriately. When Gai-sensei had found out, he’d gone on a three hour long lecture about the role of nutrition in health and training. It had prompted Naruto to raid the library for recipes that he could afford to make. He ate a lot better now and only had one cup of instant ramen a day. The ramen was non-negotiable.
“I have to maintain my figure anyway,” Sakura sniffed and Naruto frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know, my weight,” Sakura said slowly. “I’m on a diet.”
Naruto didn’t know. Why did her weight matter? Did it affect her training? She wasn’t an Akimichi as far as he knew.
“Diet?”
Sakura looked at him as if he’d asked what colour the sky was. Naruto shoved in another mouthful, still pretty confused. He knew that having a balanced diet was important but she made it sound like purposefully eating less was good. Naruto had many times in his life where he didn’t have enough to eat and it definitely hadn’t been good.
“Are you intentionally being dense?” she demanded and his mood soured.
“No,” he snapped, slurping the remains of his bowl and starting on the next one. “I just don’t get how starving is a good thing.”
He knew she was going to be annoying.
“So what happened last night?” Sasuke broke in, arms crossed. “You look like that time you had to clean the Hokage Mountain all night.”
Naruto groaned at that memory. The painting part had been fun but not really worth the punishment after. Next time he was using water-soluble paint.
“You heard the alarm?” Sasuke nodded. “I caught the guy but then they thought I did it so they brought me in and then I had to go find a cat.”
“Why the cat?”
“You’ll find out,” Naruto muttered. Every genin team had to do the Tora mission and his wouldn’t be an exception, even with his threats. He should call in sick that day.
“Good morning my cute little genin!” Kakashi announced as he appeared in a puff of smoke.
“You’re late!” Sakura screeched as she pointed a finger accusingly.
“I saw a black cat on the short path so I had to take the long way around.”
Naruto swallowed the rest of the broth and chucked the bowl back into the bag. He sealed it into one of his scrolls to dispose of later and looked up, finding that everyone was looking at him.
“I did recommend you avoid breakfast,” Kakashi said lightly, but Naruto could tell he was a little annoyed.
“So?”
Naruto could tell that Kakashi would make him regret that later. Oh well, it was a stupid recommendation that was meant to trick them or something. He’d known Kakashi long enough to know that he had look underneath the underneath and that translated into eating breakfast. Not his fault that he hadn’t fallen for it. He bounced to his feet to listen to the explanation of the test.
Sasuke ran for the trees the minute the test began. So he and Naruto just had to get a bell; there was no chance Sakura was going to get one. Naruto knew the jounin so he should have an idea of some weaknesses they could exploit. He landed among the branches turning to observe the jounin and groaned as he spotted Naruto standing opposite, arms crossed; Sasuke just knew he had that dumb look on his face. Naruto liked to taunt his opponents and it appeared Kakashi was no exception.
He wasn’t sure what to make of the jounin yet. He was dressed in the typically jounin uniform and his wild, spiky silver hair was held back by a Konoha hitai-ate that was slanted to cover one eye. A mask covered the rest of his face and Sasuke itched to see what was beneath it. He’d been pretty deadpan, borderline bored, every time he’d spoken to them so far.
“I’m going to punch you in the face,” Naruto announced.
“Aren’t you supposed to be going for a bell?” Kakashi replied, hands in his pockets. Was he even taking them seriously?
His eyes widened as Kakashi pulled out an orange book out of a pouch on his belt and proceeded to completely ignore Naruto. He wasn’t taking them seriously at all! Naruto made a hand sign and clouds of smoke appeared around the clearing and Sasuke blinked at the field of orange. Naruto liked to use a clone but Sasuke hadn’t seen this many before. The army of Naruto’s yelled and ran towards the jounin, being taken out as fast as they could reach him. Sasuke startled at the tap on his shoulder, whipping out a kunai and swinging it as he spun.
“Watch where you point that thing,” Naruto dodged the weapon with ease.
“I thought you were going to hide in your clones,” Sasuke replied, stowing the kunai.
“That would never work against Kakashi. We gotta come up with something way better. He may not look like it but he’s super strong when he bothers to try.”
The clones were quickly diminishing in numbers and Sasuke took out a couple of shuriken as the man exposed his back to them, occupied by the Naruto clones climbing onto his back. He flung them out and grinned when they struck his shoulder, spraying blood on the last remaining clone. The clone started to shout about how gross it was before it vanished and Kakashi was replaced by a log.
“Kawarimi,” Sasuke cursed under his breath as he and Naruto moved from their tree to move further in the forest.
“Did you really think that was going to work?”
“Shut it.”
There was a distant scream. Kakashi had found Sakura then. He looked back at Naruto but the blond didn’t even blink, deep in thought. Sasuke had an idea of his own. He stopped and pulled on Naruto’s hoodie before he could continue to the next tree.
“We need to set a trap.”
Naruto’s eyes glittered.
“Now you’re talking.”
“Where do you think you’re going, boys?”
Naruto watched Sasuke leap down from the branches to face the jounin in the small clearing. Sasuke’s plan was pretty good; he knew the Uchiha also wanted to show his worth to their jounin-sensei so he was happy to take a step back and let Sasuke take the lead. He wanted to see how Kakashi would react and if Sasuke could distract him enough for Naruto to get a swing in, then all the better.
“I’m not like Sakura,” Sasuke hissed.
“Not mentioning Naruto?” Kakashi turned a page. “I am interested in how you to know each other.”
For someone who pretended not to care about anything, Kakashi was one nosy bastard.
“Naruto’s not here,” Sasuke snapped. “I’m here and I’m going to be the one to beat you.”
“Say that after you get one of these bells.”
Naruto knew that there was no way Kakashi didn’t know he was here. The man took after his summons. Naruto had skipped out on ninjutsu training once to prank some civilian council members and he hadn’t even gotten to the glitter when the man appeared out of thin air.
He watched Sasuke fling shuriken at Kakashi which the man easily dodged. He grinned as he watched the same projectiles tear through the hidden rope, unleashing another barrage at the jounin and forcing him to put the book away. He landed and Sasuke was on him immediately, swinging a leg directly into Kakashi’s face. The jounin easily blocked and caught the fist Sasuke swung at him. Sasuke twisted in the man’s grip, bring his free leg on top of Kakashi’s head but Kakashi managed to block with his forearm. Naruto was pretty impressed; Sasuke had used this move on him before but it looked way cooler from the outside. He hadn’t been able to stop the second leg but thankfully the bleeding had stopped within minutes.
He leaned forward eagerly as the soft clink of a bell reached him. Sasuke almost had it! Take that Kakashi! The jounin threw Sasuke off of him and he rolled, standing to face their jounin-sensei once again.
“Well, I have to say you are different from the others in your class,” Kakashi called. “I’ll grant you that.”
Sasuke huffed and flashed through the hand seals. Naruto grinned. He started on his own and knew the clones they’d placed around the area were doing the same.
“Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!”
“Fūton: Daitoppa!”
Naruto release the stream of air from his mouth, chunking a bunch of paper seals into it to carry them along. Identical attacks appeared in a circle around Kakashi, leaving no room for escape. Sasuke immediately ducked for cover as the massive fireball collided with the wind techniques, the entire field bursting into flames. Kakashi disappeared from view as the fire raged, the explosive seals catching light and exploding all over the field. The sound could probably be heard back in Konoha. It eventually settled down as the fire ran out of fuel and all that was left was a blackened field. Naruto’s eyes narrowed as there was no sign of Kakashi.
“You didn’t say there were going to be explosive seals, dobe!” Sasuke appeared at his side, the edges of his shirt slightly charred.
“I wanted to put my own flair on it,” Naruto grinned.
He looked away to search for Kakashi again.
“That was a good try but you still have a lot to learn, my little genin.”
He turned, an untouched Kakashi waving his Icha Icha at them. He didn’t think that would finish him off but he would have at least liked to see the man slightly charred, maybe burn the book a little. He scowled as the distant sound of an alarm clock sounded.
“It was a good idea,” Kakashi continued but Naruto didn’t want to be patronised.
He didn’t even get close to punching him; just a few more minutes and he could have had him. He’d been forced into a ninjutsu battle and he knew that underneath that stupid mask, Kakashi was being all smug about it. Gai-sensei would have at least fought him with taijutsu instead of being all evasive with that pervy book. He barely even got to fight at all! He scoffed and began stomping his way back to the field.
Sasuke sat next to a grumpy Naruto, Sakura tied to a log for some reason. He hadn’t seen her during the test at all. He was annoyed that he’d managed to get so close and still failed but Naruto was in an even fouler mood. He hadn’t spoken a word since the alarm went, preferring to glare at the ground. Whatever, he would beat the answer out of him later.
“So about the exercise,” Kakashi held up a finger. “I’ve decided that the pair of you are being dropped from the program, immediately.”
Sasuke startled. He couldn’t be serious; he was being lumped in with Sakura! He’d touched a bell while she hadn’t done anything! Fury welled up within in and he charged at Kakashi blindly. The world shifted and he was forced onto his stomach, the wind knocked out of him and his arm twisted painfully behind his back.
“Let go of Sasuke-kun!” Sakura strained against the rope. “You can’t step on him like he’s some sort of bug!”
Naruto hadn’t even flinched, just looking at them unimpressed. He could go screw himself; he didn’t have to worry about being sent back to the academy!
“Why do you think we put you on three-man squads?” Kakashi pressed down on his back. “Did you consider that for even a moment? You just abandoned a teammate to die, not even attempting to see if she was okay. We put you on three-man squads, not two, for a reason.”
“How is our problem that she can’t look after herself?” Naruto rolled his eyes and Sasuke tried not to wince as Kakashi’s grip tightened. “We’re not her babysitters.”
“I thought you had it when I saw you working with Sasuke but teamwork involves everyone! Even people you don’t like. If I asked you to kill Sakura now or Sasuke dies, what would you do?”
“Kill her,” Naruto didn’t even hesitate, ignoring Sakura’s sob. “Sasuke is way stronger and wouldn’t hold me back.”
Kakashi released Sasuke roughly and he scrambled away from the furious jounin.
“That attitude of yours is going to have to change,” Kakashi said darkly. “I am going to give you one last chance. Eat lunch now to build up your strength but Sakura doesn’t get any. If anyone tries to feed her, they will immediately fail. I make the rules, you follow them; got it?”
He vanished from view, leaving behind only the sound of Sakura’s sniffling. He jumped when one of the bento boxes was thrown his way. Naruto had already dug in and Sasuke wondered sometimes about the blond. While Naruto’s apathy was something he appreciated, sometimes he wondered if the blond was actually capable of caring about anyone. Well, other than Gai.
“Would…would you really kill me?” Sakura’s voice was smaller than Sasuke had ever heard it.
Naruto looked up from his rice.
“If it came down to you or Sasuke…” he shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much. It’s nothing personal though, plus I would have thought you'd be happy to sacrifice yourself for Sasuke-kun.”
Sakura’s sniffles became louder and Sasuke sighed as her stomach rumbled even louder. He piled some rice on his chopsticks and held it out to her.
“Sasuke-kun, I can’t…”
“Just take it,” he shoved the chopsticks forward. “Kakashi’s gone and we need to get those bells as a team otherwise he’s just going to fail us again. You didn’t eat breakfast; you’ll be too weak to be useful if you don’t eat.”
Naruto didn’t say anything as Sasuke glared at him. The blond pointedly looked away until Sasuke chucked a rock at his head. He turned back with a scowl.
“What?”
“Give her some of yours, dobe.”
“Why should I?”
“She needs it more than you do.”
“I thought she was on a diet anyway.”
Sasuke threw another rock at him.
“Fucking fine but she’s still going to be pretty useless…and I’m only doing this to piss off Kakashi!”
Sakura hesitantly took the rice from Sasuke, her tears glistening on her cheeks. Naruto shoved one of the mini sausages in her mouth straight after, causing her to choke. Sasuke was still impressed that he even did it. The blond was so territorial about food at the best of times. He’d gotten the other genin his groceries for years, he’d seen what he was like.
There was a burst of smoke and a furious Kakashi appeared in front of them.
“You broke the rules!” he accused. “I hope you’re ready for the punishment!”
He flipped through unfamiliar hand signs and dark clouds appeared above their heads, rain starting to fall. He heard Naruto mutter ‘dramatic asshole’ beneath his breath.
“We’re all on this squad,” Sasuke spoke up, meeting Kakashi’s grey eye without flinching.
“Yeah, that’s right!” Sakura backed him up.
There was a moment of silence.
“We can’t kick your ass if one of us is weak,” Naruto finally added, although his reluctance was palpable.
“The three of you are one, that’s your excuse?” Kakashi leant over to meet them at eye-level. “You…pass!”
Sasuke froze for a moment as those words sunk in. They passed?
“You’re the first squad that ever succeeded,” Kakashi continued. “The others did exactly what I said and fell into every trap. In the world of shinobi, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.”
They’d passed. Sasuke didn’t know how this team was going to work or what was going to happen, but for now they’d passed. He was officially a genin and one step closer to his goals.
Sakura tapped a foot on the ground as she waited for the rest of her team to turn up. The test the previous day had been…absolutely horrifying. That image of a dying Sasuke had kept her up half the night and Naruto’s casual admission that he would kill her hadn’t helped things. Her mom had been so worried about her and Sakura had had to reassure her that she still wanted to continue as a kunoichi.
It was a lot different than what she had imagined at the academy. When she’d heard she was going to be on a team with Sasuke-kun, she had imagined countless scenarios where she would impress him and he would instantly fall in love with her. She’d been the top kunoichi in their year, beating out even Ino-pig, so she hadn’t seen any obstacles in her path. She studied so hard in the academy and felt that she was prepared for anything that would be thrown her way.
Then Naruto appeared.
He was horrible and cruel and utterly ruthless and Sakura didn’t know if she could work with him. When she’d told her mother about her new teammates, she had reacted so weirdly to Naruto’s name, saying that she should stay away from him or swap teams. She wondered if her mother had met the boy; she could imagine anyone who met him having the same reaction. Sasuke-kun seemed to be exception but that just made everything even more confusing. Sasuke-kun shouldn’t be associating with someone like Naruto and she couldn’t fathom why he did. She knew Sasuke-kun better than anyone; he was calm and brave and serious and strong. He was better than Naruto and he shouldn’t even be acknowledging the blond.
And yet…Sasuke-kun had spoken more to the blond than he had anyone the whole four years in the academy. Sasuke-kun had always had this lone wolf quality to him, something she had often admired, but to find out he did speak to someone and it was this horrible, selfish boy…she just couldn’t understand. He even worked with him during the Bell test! Sasuke-kun never worked with anyone!
She heard distant voices and she quickly checked her hair. Naruto didn’t matter. She was on a team with Sasuke-kun. This was her chance to impress him and win his heart. He would see her in a new light and fall head over heels for her and then they would date and get married and Ino-pig wouldn’t be invited to the wedding and then…
“Hayate would kill me if I taught you any kenjutsu,” Naruto’s voice carried over to her and she scowled, quickly smoothing it over as Sasuke came into view. “He’s super serious about the right way to learn and the lessons and shit. It took me ages to get him to let me train with both swords.”
“I’m not asking for a whole lesson, dobe,” Sasuke said. “Just the basics.”
“Only if you teach me that move you used on Kakashi.”
“Done.”
The pair walked towards them and Sakura watched Sasuke-kun, an ugly feeling twisting in her gut as she realised he’d never looked at any of his classmates like that. Had Sasuke-kun not taken any of them seriously? She took a breath and shook her head. She had to pull it together. They were destined to be together; she just had to show Sasuke-kun.
“Good morning, Sasuke-kun!” she called out, ignoring the blond.
He looked towards her and she could see something flicker across his face before he looked back at Naruto, ignoring her. That was fine. He had never replied to anyone’s morning greetings; it just added to his coolness. It would be that much sweeter when she finally won his heart.
“I want to work on my speed,” he said to Naruto. “I wasn’t fast enough yesterday.”
Naruto grinned at him.
“If you insist.”
“I swear if you stab me again…”
“If you were faster, you wouldn’t have been stabbed.”
“Shut up, dobe.”
“Are you going to hurt Sasuke-kun?” accused Sakura, not liking the direction this was going.
The pair looked at her and she took a breath, holding firm. She passed the test; she was a part of this team too. Naruto’s whiskered face was unreadable but the way he looked at her, she felt like she was being tested like the final exam at the academy. The only problem was she didn’t know what she was being tested on.
“Not if he dodges,” Naruto finally drawled.
“What training are you doing?” she continued.
“Speed training,” he answered her. “We set up a track and throw kunai in intervals. The longer the exercise, the faster we throw them. The point is to be faster than the projectiles. It’s pretty good for learning to dodge too.”
Sakura had never heard of a training exercise like that. It sounded dangerous.
“But you could hurt Sasuke-kun!”
“Not. If. He. Dodges,” Naruto said slowly, exaggerating his words.
“There must be safer ways to train!” she argued, pointing a finger at him accusingly. “You just want an excuse to hurt people!”
Something closed off on Naruto’s face and Sakura felt uneasy. This was the same boy who had chosen to kill her without any hesitation. She’d seen how cruel and ruthless he could be yesterday but she had assumed that he wouldn’t actually hurt a teammate. He wouldn’t. That would be too far.
“We could practice with you first,” Naruto suggested with a glint of something in his eyes.
Sasuke finally interrupted them, scuffing the back of Naruto’s head.
“You can’t maim her just because she’s annoyed you,” Sasuke glared, annoyed. “We don’t have time to deal with that mess.”
Sasuke-kun had protected her. He did care!
“Hey, I didn’t say I’d hurt her! She just has to dodge! I’m including her in training!” Naruto argued back but even Sakura could tell he didn’t have good intentions.
“She won’t be able to do the training,” Sasuke rolled his eyes. “She’ll be way too slow and waste our time.”
Sakura froze.
“She probably won’t be able to do any training with us. She’s way too weak.”
Sakura didn’t even notice the tears forming in her eyes, still stuck on Sasuke-kun’s words. The way he said it…it was so matter-of-fact; like he was saying the grass was green or fire was hot. She could tell he wasn’t trying to be mean like Naruto was, he really believed what he was saying. Sasuke-kun…thought she was weak?
“Damn, you caught me,” Naruto raised his hands, laughing. “I just wanted to show her the difference between us. She’s not going to get far as she is and it would be better if she found out now. Less time hauling around a dead-weight, ya know?”
Sakura could hardly breathe.
“How…how can you be so cruel?” She yelled, tears streaming down her face. “I passed the academy too! I passed the Bell test too! I’m a genin too!”
Naruto remained unphased, raising one eyebrow.
“You’re not taking it seriously,” he replied. “You’re more worried about your hair or marrying Sasuke than being a kunoichi. I bet you couldn’t even run laps around this training ground. You’d get sweaty or dirty or something. Being a shinobi isn’t like they taught you in the academy and I ain’t working with anyone who isn’t willing to pull their own weight and put the damn training in. I ain’t here to waste time. Sasuke and I have goals to reach and we ain’t gonna be held back by someone who doesn’t even take training seriously.”
Sakura looked desperately over at Sasuke-kun but found nothing. He wasn’t even looking at her. She’d never felt as alone as she did right now. All her fantasies of winning Sasuke’s heart and proving Naruto wrong were evaporating and she didn’t know what to do. They weren’t taking her seriously; her, the top kunoichi of her year! She had been so confident when she’d graduated and now…
A puff of smoke appeared and Kakashi-sensei appeared, clapping his hands.
“Good morning, my cute little genin!”
It fell flat as the uncomfortable silence continued. Kakashi-sensei looked between them before turning immediately to Naruto.
“What did you do?”
“Why do you assume it was me?” Naruto snapped.
“What did you say to her?” Kakashi waved a hand in Sakura’s direction.
“I just made the realities of her situation clear,” Naruto crossed his arms. “She’s not taking this seriously and I don’t want to work with someone half-assing everything. She’s made the choice to become a kunoichi and she should honour that.”
“That’s not for you to decide, Naruto,” Kakashi said exasperatedly.
Sakura didn’t hear him saying otherwise though.
“I…I’m feeling sick today,” she stammered out, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. “I need to go home.”
Without waiting for a reply, she turned and walked away. She couldn’t be there right now. Thoughts were swirling around her brain in a storm she couldn’t untangle. She heard Kakashi and Naruto continuing to argue behind her but she couldn’t make anything out, not bothering to try. She didn’t need to hear more of what they thought of her. She was the weakest link of the team, even Sasuke-kun saying so.
She didn’t know what she was going to do.