Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Genin ❯ Chapter 2: A Little Bit of Yesterday ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Nor do Sakura, Sasuke, or any of the other characters mentioned or described herein. I haven't even bothered to get permission from their great and august creator. Feel free to sue me if you wish, but you won't get anywhere. Not only do I have no money, but as a college student, I have LESS than no money. That's right. A negative net worth. Have fun, Mr(s). Lawyer! Also, I will be using adult language in this fic. If you're not supposed to read such language, GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

" " = Talking

/ / = Thinking

Genin

By: Flashfyre5

Chapter Two: A Little Bit of Yesterday

"You're kidding me, right?" Sasuke said, annoyedly. "You asked Dobe-kun to join us for the jounin test? He's not even a chuunin!"

"Hey! Don't talk about me like I'm not even here!" Naruto shouted, slipping back into familiar patterns with Sasuke, despite the fact that the two of them had deliberately avoided each other for the last two years.

More than a little of Naruto's annoyance with Sasuke at this particular moment was linked to more than the Uchiha youth's sneering comments. Naruto could see the way Sakura was looking at him, and found himself again jealous of the raven-haired boy's looks. Sasuke had cut his hair shorter, and while it was still long enough to be wild and swept up and away from his face, he no longer had the bangs that had characterized him for so long. The boy's eyes had only grown darker as time had progressed. Now, they were such an inky dark shade of chocolate brown that they were virtually indistinguishable from the black of his pupils. He wore a blue scarf, which covered his face up to just above his mouth. The tail ends of the scarf trailed off down his back, hanging just above his rear. Sasuke also wore a light gray zippered jacket. It had black piping along all of its' seams, which fed very well into his pants, baggy black affairs that appeared to be made out of denim, but Naruto wasn't sure.

"Then challenge me," Sasuke taunted, his grin looking more like a sneer. "I'll put you in the hospital again."

"Bring it on!" Naruto shot back, his eyes glinting. "And I'll show everybody that your victory was just a fluke!"

"Guys, quit it," Sakura commanded, stepping between the two. "Sasuke, we need a third person to be eligible for the jounin test. Naruto's it. That's just the long and the short of it." Sasuke turned away with a harrumph, but didn't audibly protest any further. "Naruto, just try not to get into any fights with Sasuke. At the most, this should only be for a couple of weeks. After that, you won't have to see each other again."

"All right, Sakura-san. I guess he's just not worth it," Naruto sighed, turning away from Sasuke as well.

"You looking to get hurt? I'll drop you like a sack of bricks." Sasuke growled, turning back. His eyes were cold with anger at Naruto's comment.

"No way!" Naruto cried, sliding into a fighting stance after facing Sasuke again. "You only won last time because you cheated. The San Bubun Azarashi no Jutsu is only good against me, and learning a technique that only works against one person aint fair!"

"Fair is surviving. Fair is winning. Your corpse isn't going to care weather or not its' life was ended fairly or not." Sasuke shot back, his hand sliding behind his back for a kunai.

"For the love of God, you two are ridiculous!" Sakura shouted, stepping between them again. "Sasuke, go off and train. We'll meet at ten tomorrow to register for the exam. And show some of that legendary self-control next time you meet up with Naruto so that it looks like we could actually function as a team!" Sakura commanded, shoving Naruto bodily away from Sasuke. The dark-haired boy sighed and walked away, not saying anything further.

"That's right," Naruto started, sending a snipe out at Sasuke, but Sakura whacked him on the side of the head.

"You're not any better than he is, you know," Sakura admonished, and Naruto finally relaxed. Sakura let up on her shoving. Fortunately, Sasuke either hadn't heard or he hadn't cared. "You've really got to learn how to pretend to like him, at least, or we'll never get accepted tomorrow."

"I know, Sakura-san," Naruto sighed, looking down. "He's just so… you know," he continued, motioning for Sakura to walk next to him as he walked away from their meeting point with Sasuke. /Why is it always Sasuke that gets everything that I want without even trying?/ Naruto wondered, feeling defeated, though his opponent hadn't thrown a single punch.

"It's okay, Naruto. He's not the same person that he was before the first chuunin exam. He's just so much… darker, more filled with rage now. Sometimes I just don't know what to do with him," Sakura agreed. Naruto found himself looking at her with a measure of surprise; he'd never heard words come out of Sakura's mouth concerning Sasuke that were anything short of glowing. "I mean, normally, he's the same Sasuke that I've known forever. Sometimes, though, he turns into this… other person. It's like there's two of him, or something," Sakura explained, and Naruto's hopes crashed as soon as they'd been formed.

"Kinda like you, huh?" Naruto joked, covering for his own disappointment.

"Hey, now," Sakura replied, punching him lightly in the arm. "I'm different. The other me is actually normal. Kind of. Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I just remembered. She's been bugging me to talk to you. Give me a second here," Sakura said, stopping to summon up her chakra while closing her eyes. She then performed three quick hand seals, and called out, "Jinkaku Kokan no Jutsu!"

Sakura's eyes eased open, and they were different, as Naruto had come to expect. The most obvious thing was that they had changed from their previously pale green to an almost shockingly bright blue. Also, they weren't as… soft as they had been before. They had a hardness, and a mischievousness that hadn't been there before.

"Hiya, Naruto-kun," Sakura said, her voice deeper and silkier than it was normally. It had taken Naruto a while to get used to this after they'd developed the Jinkaku Kokan, but he now knew to take it in stride.

"What's up, Sakura-chan? I haven't seen you in a while," Naruto said easily as the two made their way into the business section.

"Not too much. I've been wanting to thank you for all the help you've been with my training. I really owe you one for spending all that time with me when you didn't even know the weapon that well," Sakura said, smiling. "So I've decided to treat you to lunch," she continued, pointing at the Ichiraku Ramen bar. Naruto looked at it, then looked back at her.

"Have you cleared this with the other Sakura? I mean, it's her money, technically," Naruto asked. Despite the caution of his words, he could not hide his excitement at the prospect of getting a free lunch at Ichiraku… a treat that he couldn't enjoy very often.

"Yeah, it's cool," Sakura replied, leading Naruto into the noodle bar. Naruto paused for a moment to shake his head at how easily he and Inner Sakura got along, once they had actually met. That had been the purpose of developing the Jinkaku Kokan- Ino had told him about Sakura's `second person,' and he'd been intrigued. When he asked Sakura about it, she had admitted that sometimes she felt like there was another person inside of her, thinking and doing things that she wouldn't even think of. It had turned out that Inner Sakura, or Sakura-chan as Naruto called her, was very similar to him in terms of personality. She was determined, mischievous, and rather reckless. She was fun, however and, surprisingly, much better than normal Sakura at taijutsu. On the other hand, Sakura-chan was just hopeless at ninjutsu and genjutsu.

"What're you waiting for, Naruto-kun?" Sakura called. Naruto shook himself out of his reverie and joined her in the noodle bar.

The chef took one look at him and said, "I know you're a good customer, Naruto, but no more until you pay off your tab!"

"Sorry," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. "Payday isn't until tomorrow, but Sakura-chan here said that she'd pay for me today." The chef looked at the pink-haired girl, who nodded to him and patted the seat next to her for Naruto to sit on.

"What'll it be?" the chef asked, pulling out a pair of large bowls.

"Miso ramen, please," Naruto said happily. The chef looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, looking like he was expecting a larger order from the youth, but he kept quiet.

"And you?" he asked Sakura, moving to pull some freshly cut noodles out of the refrigerator and put them in boiling water.

"Beef and pork ramen, please," Sakura ordered, smiling. The chef nodded and put more noodles in the boiling water, while he prepared the broth and fixings for the two orders.

"Sakura-san's gonna kill you for that," Naruto cautioned, knowing how closely Sakura-san watched her diet. /Girls,/ he thought with a grin.

"No, she won't. She'll kill me for something else," Sakura said cryptically. Naruto was about to ask her for more details, but then decided that it was probably in the best interests of his health not to ask.

"Okay," he agreed, shaking his head. "So, what does the jounin test consist of?" he asked, changing the topic.

"Well, I know that it's three parts, just like the chuunin test. And I know that they'll be designed to evaluate us in areas that would be important if we were to become jounin. Aside from that, I couldn't tell ya. They change the things every year, so…" Sakura trailed off, shrugging. "Whatever they are, they'll use jounin, and not just Leaf jounin either. They hire out jounin from other villages that would be specifically difficult for certain candidates to defeat. It's a pretty brutal test."

"Wow," Naruto said, impressed, then smiled. "Sounds like fun," he grinned excitedly.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura agreed, pumping a fist into the air.

"Ramen's up," the chef said, sliding a bowl across the counter to Naruto, then another to Sakura.

"Itadakimasu!" Naruto said cheerfully as he pulled apart his chopsticks. Sakura followed suit a moment later, and just as Naruto was about to start gorging, he noticed something that surprised and pleased him. "Hey," he said to the chef, "you gave me an extra naruto. Thanks!"

"Don't mention it," the chef replied, waving at Naruto over his shoulder. Sakura chuckled at the exchange as she ate her ramen eagerly, savoring the rarely stolen treat of an illicitly fatty meal at outer Sakura's expense. Naruto charged into his ramen, devouring the noodles fairly quickly. He then fished out one naruto and tossed it into his mouth, chewing the treat slowly before swallowing, then grabbed the other with his chopsticks and did the same.

"Eating the naruto is the best part," he said happily after he swallowed the second naruto. Sakura was finishing off her own noodles as well, and watched as Naruto drank his broth. Suddenly, she got a truly evil, horribly terrible thought. She wondered for a second as to weather or not she should do it, then grinned. /Of course,/ she thought deviously as she fished out her own naruto with her chopsticks.

"You know, Naruto-kun, she said, turning to face him. She paused for long enough for Naruto to put down his bowl and turn to look at her. Slowly, she raised the squashed fish patty to her mouth and breathed, "eating the naruto is my favorite part too." As she said this, she took a slow, sensuous bit out of the little red-and-white fish patty. Naruto twitched for a minute, then fell over backwards off of his stool, blood leaking in a little rivulet down from his nose. Sakura couldn't take it any more and burst out laughing. When Naruto picked himself up off of the floor and glared at her for the bad joke, she only laughed harder. (If you didn't get this, see Side Note 1)

"That was horrible," Naruto muttered as he slid back onto his stool. Sakura had finally calmed down somewhat, her laughter subsiding.

She looked at Naruto for a moment, grinned, and said, "I know." Naruto sighed exasperatedly and shook his head, while Sakura picked up her own bowl and drank the broth.

"So, is that what outer Sakura's going to kill you for?" Naruto asked once she'd finished.

"Nope," Sakura replied, setting the bowl on the bar in front of her. She then rose and fished a bill out of her pocket, then handed it to the chef. He quickly made change for her and handed it back.

"You're kidding me, right?" Naruto asked, rising from his stool and nodding his thanks to the chef.

"Well, she's gonna be pissed about it," Sakura agreed, pocketing her leftover money. "But this is gonna make her a lot more uncomfortable." That said, she leaned in towards Naruto until her face was only a hair's breadth from his own. Naruto froze, staring at the slightly taller girl. "I don't know why outer Sakura likes Sasuke any more," she whispered into Naruto's ear. "But I've definitely gotten to like you," she finished, punctuating the sentence with a light, almost fleeting kiss on the cheek. Then she pulled away and said, smiling widely, "See you tomorrow at ten at the headquarters! Don't forget!"

Naruto stood, frozen in place, as Sakura ran off into the marketplace. He heard the chef chuckle behind him, but it didn't really register. His mind was racing, thinking about what Sakura had said to him. /Shit,/ he thought suddenly, remembering just who had said that to him. /I don't even know if she was being serious or pulling another prank on me./ Naruto sighed deeply, then pushed aside the cloth that hung over the entrance of the Ichiraku ramen bar and stepped outside. /This is gonna keep me up all night tonight. How troublesome,/ he thought, turning to walk home. Then he stopped for a moment and chuckled to himself, and thought, /I sound just like Shikamaru. Damn. Oh, well./

As he walked home, buried in his own thoughts, he didn't notice for once how almost every other person in the village moved to get well away from him as he walked.

* * * * * *

Sasuke stood alone in his own one-room apartment late that night. He was tired and sweaty from a full day of training- it had taken him that long to get over his annoyance at Naruto. He unwound the scarf around his neck, and draped it over a hook on the wall. He then unzipped his high-necked jacket, and hung it on the same hook that his scarf hung on. Clad only in his pants and a sleeveless undershirt, he looked at himself in the mirror for a moment, then looked away. Where there had once been a single seal around the damned curse seal that Orochimaru had given him, there were now five rings, each bigger than the last. The largest of these rings extended all the way around his shoulder blade and left pectoral. It wrapped around underneath his arm, and formed a band on his bicep. More notably, it extended up his neck, the highest spire of the seal edging its' way onto his cheek. In the middle of it all, the three comma-like dots of the curse seal spun, as always, glowing a bright red-orange

Kakashi had noticed that his first seal hadn't been enough a little over three years ago, and had added a second seal to the first. When that too had failed to keep the curse seal completely contained, Kakashi had approached Tsunade, who had placed the next two rings of sealing on him. Even that hadn't been enough to completely hold the damned thing, so Tsunade had called in a favor from Jiraiya a little over two years ago. Sasuke had been present when she'd asked him, and even now he wished that he hadn't. An argument had exploded between them, which had lasted for a full three hours before it had come to a climax.

Jiraiya was incensed that Naruto had been passed over for promotion so many times, and Tsunade was pleading helplessness, even while she accused Jiraiya of being completely biased. Sasuke was of the opinion that, though he was good, Naruto just didn't match up to himself or the other chuunin, especially since he got to cheat and use the demon fox's power for himself.

He had learned of Naruto's seal one day while they were training with Kakashi. Water walking for chakra control or some such. Anyway, Naruto had stripped down to a pair of swimming trunks, and Sasuke had seen the four-point seal on Naruto's stomach… so much like his own seal. It hadn't taken much work to pry out of some unsuspecting villager the real story behind the demon fox's attack. After that, he'd only had to ask Kakashi for instruction in the art of temporary combat seals. He'd managed to develop his own variety, a three-part seal that would completely scramble the chakra flow of anybody it was placed upon… so long as that person had chakra of a type not his or her own. Considering that he'd created the skill on his own in little more than a month, Sasuke had been rather proud of himself. When he'd actually successfully used the technique on Naruto, he'd been elated, but he hadn't anticipated that it would burn out all of his own chakra to use. Even as such, he was better than Naruto in straight taijutsu, and had been able to beat the blond-haired boy without too much difficulty.

When Jiraiya had stormed out of the room, he'd shaken himself from his reverie. Tsunade sank back into her chair, looking tired and old. She held her head in her hands for a while, and Sasuke chose not to disturb her silence. Eventually, she raised her head to look at him.

"Jiraiya will put the fifth seal on you, but he's leaving the village afterwards. As long as Orochimaru doesn't do anything more to you, the curse seal will be contained permanently, and it won't be passed on to any children that you might have," she addressed him wearily, her head still supported by her hands. "Hell, by the time you're fifty or so, the damn thing might actually be gone," she said with a harrumph. "The seal will work by keeping the seal activated constantly, but it will shunt the energy out of your body. It will also reinforce the other four seals to keep the curse seal contained," Tsunade explained, then rose to address him properly. "Go home. Jiraiya said that he'd be ready for you in a week."

Sasuke shook his head, bringing himself back to the here and now. True to his word, Jiraiya's seal had worked perfectly. After two full years of functioning, the diameter of the curse seal's spin had shrunk in size by a full millimeter from all the energy it had been forced to expend. Sasuke had taken to wearing high-necked clothing and scarves immediately after the sealing ceremony, to continue to hide the abysmal mark that dominated his body.

Somewhere, deep inside himself, he hated both the curse seal and the five seals that sealed it. Were it unsealed, he knew that the curse seal could offer him great power. He didn't know what price this power would come at, but he had tasted it before… and he'd liked it. For that, he hated the protective seals.

But he also hated the curse seal itself. The one effect that nobody had been able to contain was the long-term retardation of his chakra generating skills that the curse seal had forced on him. Never had this been more apparent to him than when Itachi had returned, for a single day. Sasuke had seen him, and immediately tried to kill him. Itachi had brushed both him and his attacks aside with ease, then had ripped off his shirt to reveal the curse seal and the seals surrounding it. Even the cold, hard face of the elder Uchiha fell when he saw Orochimaru's curse seal.

"You allowed yourself to be tainted by Orochimaru's filth?" Itachi had asked coldly, holding Sasuke's left shoulder in a vicelike grip. Sasuke could only gasp and nod, his hands trying to pull Itachi's hand off of his shoulder. Itachi pulled his younger brother close to his face. Sasuke could feel his older brother's hot breath on his cheek as he turned his face away. "You have just caused me a great deal of trouble," Itachi finally said, after a long pause. "Do not waste the time it will take me to fix this." He then dropped Sasuke on the ground and walked away. Sasuke could only writhe on the ground, clutching his shoulder.

With an almost physical effort of will, Sasuke pushed the unpleasant memory from his mind, and stripped down the rest of the way, before changing into a fresh sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of new boxers. Doing his best not to think about the past at all, he pulled out his futon and laid down to go to sleep on it. He looked out the window at the moon, hanging full and heavy just above the horizon.

/Moody night tonight,/ Sasuke thought as he drifted off to sleep.

* * * * * *

/Moody night tonight,/ Naruto thought as he stared up at the stars from his apartment building's roof. Just as he'd thought, he'd been kept up that night, but it hadn't been Sakura-chan's pranks that had done it, as he had suspected earlier. Seeing Sasuke had brought back a lot of old, smoldering feelings that he thought he'd left buried in the past. Mostly, he found himself thinking about the finals of his second chuunin tournament; the only time he and Sasuke had ever fought for real.

*** Three Years, Six Months Ago ***

Naruto stood in the arena, grinning excitedly. His body was practically humming with anticipation. Sasuke, standing six feet away from him, was smiling broadly as well.

The exam proctor, some chuunin whose name Naruto had long forgotten, dropped his right arm, shouting, "Begin!" Naruto dashed to the side. He had sparred with Sasuke often enough to know that the raven-haired boy was his superior in taijutsu, but not by much. /Besides,/ he thought as he gathered chakra into his right hand. The air there began to stir, moving about faster and faster. /I've finally mastered the Rasengan!/

Sasuke was moving opposite to him, and Naruto could see that his sharingan eyes were swirling around his pupils. Sasuke was not copying him, however, instead performing a series of hand seals as he ran, keeping his distance from Naruto for now.

/Shit!/ Naruto thought as he realized that he hadn't seen Sasuke use this combination of seals before. /He's got something new too!/ Considering that Sasuke had been making seals for almost ten seconds now, it would be something powerful, too. It was just then that he felt the almost subconscious tug from his right hand that told him that the Rasengan was ready. Naruto turned and charged straight towards Sasuke.

"Rasengan!" he shouted as he closed the distance between himself and his opponent. Sasuke made a final seal, the index, middle, and ring fingers of his right hand held by his entire left hand. The three fingertips began to glow with an eldritch blue light, and the characters for `heaven,' `earth,' and `hell' could be faintly made out among the flickering light of his fingertips.

"San Bubun Azarashi no Jutsu!" Sasuke shouted, and his entire right hand exploded into blue flame. The three characters seemed to enlarge, and Sasuke began to retreat, slowing the relative speed of Naruto's advance.

/Three part seal?/ Naruto thought to himself worriedly, then shook his head. /I'm already committed. One hit with the Rasengan and it's over for Sasuke./ Naruto leapt forward, his right hand outstretched, the Rasengan whirling furiously in his hand. Sasuke grinned, having predicted Naruto's reckless, all-or-nothing attack. He dove to the left, holding his right hand out and away from both the ground and his body. Naruto, over committed, fell to the ground where Sasuke had just been, his hand leading the way. Instead of protecting the already-formed Rasengan and risking his own health, he allowed his hand to strike the hard-packed sand of the arena floor first. The Rasengan detonated, sending sand and dust flying everywhere and completely obscuring Naruto from view.

Sasuke climbed to his feet, watching the billowing dust cloud warily. He was glad that he'd recognized the danger that Naruto's new technique had represented. If it was as powerful as his own Chidori, that would have been very painful. He glanced at his hand to make sure that the San Bubun Azarashi was still active, and nodded when he saw that it was. He then looked back at the dust cloud, just in time to see Naruto rocket out of the top. The blond-haired boy was performing hand seals, so Sasuke immediately began to run, hoping to get to Naruto's landing point before Naruto did.

"Have a taste of your own medicine!" Naruto shouted, holding his hands in a ring around his mouth. Sasuke, long a veteran of powerful fire skills, recognized the danger immediately, and leapt straight up, and out of the range of what he knew was coming; he knew the skill too, but he also knew it's weakness.

"Shinwa Hana Ka no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, exhaling into the circle that his hands formed. From them sprung fireball after fireball, five in all, that crashed harmlessly down to the ground below. Naruto's breath was soon exhausted, however, and the boy dropped to the ground, landing lightly, and stood, gasping to recover the air that he'd lost from his mighty exhalation.

Sasuke landed lightly too, and immediately charged forward at Naruto. This was the blond-haired boy's moment of greatest weakness; Sasuke knew that he'd run out of energy from dodging long before Naruto ran out of the demon fox's chakra. This moment of breathlessness was Sasuke's best chance, and he took advantage of it. Naruto had just enough time to turn around before Sasuke's fingers slammed into his belly, the middle one slipping right into the depression in Naruto's jacket formed by his navel.

"Heaven, Earth, and Hell seal!" Sasuke declared as his hand flared brightly once more, then snuffed out. Both boys collapsed to the ground. Naruto grabbed his head in both hands and rolled away from Sasuke, who was picking himself up slowly from the ground. /Wow,/ he thought, shaking his head. /That ate up ALL of my chakra. Guess this is just taijutsu now./

"Auuugh!" Naruto screamed, rolling to his knees. "What did you do to me? My head feels like it's about to explode!"

"That seal scrambles the hell out of your chakra patterns," Sasuke huffed, adopting a defensive fighting stance. "Nothing is usable. Just try and perform a jutsu now."

"Fine!" Naruto shouted, crossing his fingers in an all-too familiar seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he shouted, waiting expectantly. Bright blue, then a little red chakra flared around him, soaking into the air all around him. Naruto roared with effort, even more red chakra pouring out of him until it looked like he was the center of a raging bonfire. Still, not a single clone appeared. "What?" he said, surprised, as his aura of power died down.

"I told you already, dobe," Sasuke taunted, having gotten his breath back. "It won't work."

"You bastard!" Naruto shouted, his rage blocking out the pain in his head. The blond-haired boy charged forward to attack Sasuke. Both drew kunai, and were soon trading blows.

Naruto led with a vicious backhanded stab from above, which Sasuke batted away to the left, swaying away from the blade just in case. His left hand, unencumbered, dipped back into the pouch on his back, and emerged with three shuriken held tightly between his fingers.

Sasuke's opponent recovered quickly, almost too quickly. Naruto must have been expecting the simple defense, and the return upward slash told of it. Sasuke had to step back with his forward-facing leg so that the kunai wouldn't carve a line in his chest. As it was, the sharp kunai caught his trailing shirt, slashing it in twain from the waist to the neck. The kunai just barely missed Sasuke's face, and the darker-haired boy paid for his initial overconfidence dramatically. Naruto used the momentum gained from his upwards-and-right slash to rotate on his own forward leg, bringing forward his rear leg for a powerful kick, delivered squarely to Sasuke's chest.

The dark-haired boy was sent tumbling backwards, but he held on to his shuriken and his kunai. As soon as he wasn't tumbling constantly, Sasuke threw his shuriken forward. Naruto, who had pressed the advantage, was forced to stop his charge and dodge to the side to avoid getting impaled by the three spinning throwing stars. By the time he was able to re-start his charge, Sasuke had skidded to a crouching stop. The dour boy made a few quick cuts to his tattered shirt, then ripped the remnants off, eliminating a possible point of advantage for Naruto. From behind him, Sasuke could hear a sudden collective scream of excitement from many of the females gathered to watch. He had neglected to wear an undershirt today, and his sweat-drenched torso was exposed for all the world to see. Even Sasuke couldn't help but spare a grin of satisfaction at this, but he only had that moment of satisfaction before Naruto was on him again.

Again Naruto stabbed from above and to the right, but Sasuke wasn't about to let him get away with the same feint twice. Sasuke flipped his kunai around in his hand and caught the point of Naruto's kunai in the finger-ring of his own. He then slammed an open-handed palm into Naruto's solar plexus. Naruto, his breath lost and his strength momentarily sapped, loosened his grip on his kunai just enough for Sasuke to twist his and send Naruto's spinning away. Naruto staggered back a few steps and Sasuke moved forward, flipping his kunai back to its proper orientation. He then slashed sideways at the smaller boy, but Naruto grinned and dropped down suddenly. Having feigned the stunning after the initial blow, he caught Sasuke completely off-guard with his sudden counterattack. His left leg spun around, catching Sasuke's and sending the dark-haired boy tumbling to the ground. Sasuke's kunai hit the ground poorly, and Sasuke was forced to toss it aside to avoid stabbing himself.

Naruto rolled back, got his feet underneath him, and sprung forward, hoping to tackle the prone boy. Sasuke was ready, however, and as Naruto dove onto him, he caught the smaller boy with his legs, flexed them, and shoved them out, sending Naruto tumbling away. Sasuke then kick flipped himself to a standing stance, even as Naruto clambered to his feet as well.

Almost in unison, the boys charged forward at each other. They traded quick blows with one another, scoring minor hits and blocking major ones. After this had continued for a short while, with neither boy gaining the advantage, Naruto reared back and sent a powerful punch straight for Sasuke's upper chest. Sasuke realized that he couldn't block it, considering the strength of the blow, and threw himself backwards in a desperate attempt to make Naruto pay for his gamble. Naruto, not expecting such a gymnastic maneuver from Sasuke, found himself overextended as Sasuke's hands found the ground. Naruto looked down just in time to see Sasuke's feet coming up vertically in a powerful kick. There was no time to dodge; Naruto took the full force of the blow to his face as Sasuke continued his hand flip backwards. The sheer force of the blow lifted Naruto upwards and backwards, reeling from the unexpected counter.

Sasuke found his feet quickly, and dashed forward just as Naruto began to descend from his short, and unwanted, flight. The dark-haired boy winced as his right foot touched the ground, but he had no time to think of such things. Judging the distance between himself and Naruto, Sasuke sent himself into a spinning jump, kicking his right foot out as he rotated. Just as Naruto was about to touch ground, Sasuke's foot caught him full in the chest. Naruto was sent flying backwards from the impact, falling to the ground and tumbling backwards. Then the wall of the arena was there, and the back of his head hit it, hard. Pain flared in Naruto's head for a moment, then everything went black. The last thing he had seen was Sasuke falling to the ground, clutching his ankle.

*** Present ***

Naruto sat up with a sigh. He'd learned when he woke up that the force of the impact had given him a concussion. Sasuke had overused his right leg, however, and had sprained his ankle very badly. /If I hadn't been knocked out by the damn wall,/ Naruto thought wistfully, /I probably woulda won that fight./ Then he sighed again, and swung down off the roof. He dropped four floors, then grabbed the upper side of his windowsill and swung into his apartment. He landed lightly, careful not to wake his downstairs neighbor. His bed was unmade, as always. Naruto pulled his shirt and pants off and tossed them into a corner of his room that he tossed all of his dirty clothes into. He noted that the pile was getting pretty large. /Gotta to do laundry tomorrow,/ he thought as he scratched his armpit and yawned. His alarm clock, a cheap glow-in-the-dark buzzer, declared the time to be two in the morning. Naruto shook his head and, clad only in boxers, toppled into his bed.

/Really fucking moody night tonight,/ he thought as sleep finally found him.

*** Author's Notes ***

Thank you to EVERYBODY who's given me feedback so far! I was really surprised at the sheer quantity that I've gotten, between the FFML and fanfiction.net. Thanks, everybody!

As far as new chapters are concerned, I will TRY to post a new chapter every week. My week ends on Sunday. If I miss a week… well, I'm sorry, but tough! I'm a college student, so sometimes real life trumps fanfiction. Anyway, I want to give a great big shout out to Thermopyle, who has been gracious enough to agree to preread for me. Thanks a million, man. If anyone else would like to preread, drop me a line!

Anyway, I do admit that Inner Sakura, after having trained with Naruto over the past two years or so, has come to like him, mainly due to the fact that they're very much alike. Am I going to make this a Naruto/Sakura pairing? That's for me to know and you to find out. Remember, though, Outer Sakura still is very much not interested in Naruto in that way. If you have no earthly idea what the hell I'm talking about, and haven't yet figured out what I've done to poor Sakura, read the New Techniques list below.

Thanks again!

~Flash (Flashfyre5@msn.com)

Side Note 1: The little spiky swirly round thingy in a Japanese Ramen dish is called a naruto. For a more complete explanation on my horrible, horrible pun, go here ( http://aksarah.com/naruto/ ) and click on `Name.' Very good explanation on the great big pun that is Naruto's name.

Number One Song on Naruto's Playlist:

There's a tie this week! Due to the two different time spans in which this fic is grounded this week, there is one song for each time span.

The Sasuke/Naruto Fight: Exhale (Break the Pressure), by Prodigy. I have no link for this one. It's a very nifty song, though. Lots of sword-slashy sounds.

Everything Else: Ice Capped, by MCVaffe. This is a remix of the old Sonic 3 song, "Ice Cap Zone," and is one of the prettiest pieces of music I've ever heard. This is DEFINITELY a song to download. Here's the link to the review/download site: http://www.ocremix.org/detailmix.php?mixid=OCR00240

Coincidentally, Overclocked Remix had LOADS of very very good music. Surf around, if you've got the kind of bandwidth that I only dream about.

New Moves: Over the course of four years, people learn new techniques. Here, I will explain them.

Jinkaku Kokan no Jutsu- Personality Swap Skill (Sakura). This jutsu allows Inner Sakura to come to the surface as the controlling personality in Sakura's body. Inner Sakura is very aggressive, and has considerably greater taijutsu skill than Outer Sakura. She is, however, almost inept at genjutsu.

Ninja-to- Ninja Sword (Sakura). Not really a jutsu, but Sakura now wields a ninja-to with a fair measure of skill. Inner Sakura is extremely dangerous with this weapon, and approaches mastery-level skill with it. A Ninja-to is basically a katana without the curve. It is also about 2 inches shorter than a katana.

San Bubun Azarashi no Jutsu- Three-Part Seal Skill (Sasuke). This jutsu only works on individuals that have some outside source that is augmenting their chakra to a greater level than would otherwise be normal. This seal does not require direct skin-to-skin contact to function- pressure is enough. If successfully placed, this seal scrambles the target's chakra supply completely, and rendering any chakra-based skills unusable. It does, however, drain the user of all available chakra, therefore reducing the fight to straight taijutsu. The Three-Part Seal wears off after an hour or so.

Translations: (I won't translate the new Jutsu names any more- the translations are already listed.)

Ichiraku: `One Comfort,' literally. Very cute.

Itadakimasu: A formal phrase said in Japan at the beginning of a meal. Literally translates as `I Receive.'

Shinwa Hana Ka no Jutsu: Literally, `Mythical Fire Flower Skill.' Sasuke used this skill in the battle against the Sound ninja in the canon chuunin exam.