Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered ❯ Stealth ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: I don't own them. If I did I wouldn't have to worry about college tuition.

 

 

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Chapter 5: Stealth

 

“He's been in there for almost two hours!” Naruto was growing impatient and it was starting to irritate Sakura. She was starting to get a headache.

 

“The Hokage needs to know what he was doing for the past three years.” Kakashi was leaning against a wall with is eye closed. Naruto's constant whining was starting to give him a headache as well. He knew Tsunade was always thorough with her interrogations. But truth be told even Kakashi was wondering what they could be talking about. Sakura had already informed him on what Sasuke had been up too, and it only took her 15 minutes.

 

All three turned towards the door as it opened. Sasuke walked out looking very tired. He looked at them and walked down the hall to the bathroom. Tsunade knew everything now. She knew about the Sound, about his travels and about his fight with Naruto three years ago. She knew every intimate detail about his life. He had never told anyone the things he told her, but he couldn't lie to her. Not telling her everything or lying to her would just make it more difficult for him to stay.

 

“Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura get in here!” Tsunade was still sitting behind her desk, looking equally as tired. Talking to Sasuke was more draining then she expected. It took her a while to get him to open up, but once he did she couldn't stop him. He dumped everything on her. He told her things that she never wanted to know about, but had to know. She knew why he did it. It was the only way she could understand why he did what he did. She knew what it was like to have a black stain on the soul. “We'll wait for Sasuke to come back.”

 

Naruto was getting nervous. Sasuke had told her more then he had told them. He wasn't sure what Sasuke could be hiding, but he knew better then to push for information. Sasuke would most likely clam up. He heard the door close behind him and a moment later Sasuke was standing between him and Sakura. Looking over at him, Naruto noticed that Sasuke had washed his face and looked more composed.

 

Sasuke turned his head slightly and raised an eyebrow at Naruto. “What?”

 

“Nothing.” Naruto turned to look back at Tsunade.

 

Tsunade was resisting the urge to smile at the scene before her. She couldn't remember the last time all four of them stood in her office. She also couldn't remember the last time all of them looked happy. Especially Naruto, his eyes once again shined like they did so many years ago.

 

“What am I going to do with you?” She asked to no one in particular. It didn't surprise her when no one answered. She lowered her head to look at her desk. Should she let Sasuke stay, or should she punish him for leaving? But she already knew the answer to that question. Heck she knew the answer last night when she saw them standing together.

 

“Do you want to be Team 7 again?” She looked up to see Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke nod sheepishly.

 

“Kakashi, do you still want to be their sensei?”

 

“Must you really ask a question you already know the answer to?”

 

“Well then that settles that. Kakashi I want to speak with you privately.” The three genins turned and walked out leaving Kakashi and Tsunade alone. She would offer for him a seat, but she knew he would refuse.

 

“Do you think that can work together again?”

 

Kakashi sighed heavily and took a moment to think about the question. “It's still to early to tell. They might still have some deep embedded anger for him. Give me a few days to evaluate them.”

 

“You have one.”

 

“Hai.” Kakashi turned and lazily walked out the room. `One day. Damnit I'm going to need some help.' As he exited the office he saw that his team had waited for him.

 

“Meet me in the training ground in ten minutes.” Before anyone could question his order he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

 

“I hate it when he does that. Well let's get going.” Naruto got up and started to walk out.

 

“Naruto you know he's always late.” Sakura knew Kakashi was always at least an hour late for everything. She could have lunch and still make it to the training ground before him. Gods was she hungry.

 

“Sakura he was serious this time. He might actually be on time.”

 

“He's gonna be late, dobe.” The word slipped out of his mouth before Sasuke could stop it. He shouldn't have said that, it was too soon. His worries disappeared when he saw Naruto giving him an all too familiar glare.

 

--

 

They had been waiting for almost two hours, and still no Kakashi. Naruto and Sakura were sitting on the ground and Sasuke stood next to them. Sighing heavily Sasuke shifted his weight from one leg to the other.

 

Naruto looked over and glared at Sasuke, “Don't say a word.”

 

“Man, I knew I should have eaten lunch.” Sakura's stomach suddenly growled. It was then that Kakashi entered the clearing with an angry looking Jirayia walking behind him.

 

Naruto promptly stood up and yelled, “You're late!”

 

“Ha, gomen.” Kakashi waved off the anger radiating from the team. Some things never change. He motioned to Jirayia, “I had a hard time getting him to stop researching.”

 

Sakura stood up and started dusting off her pants. “At least you have a good reason.” She knew about Jirayia's research sessions so she couldn't blame Kakashi for being tardy.

 

“So what do you want us to do?” Sasuke didn't want to beat around the bush. He knew Kakashi never did anything without reason.

 

“Straight to the point as always Sasuke.” Kakashi reached into his pouch and pulled out one bell. “We're going to train.”

 

All three of them started at the bell with some confusion. It was Naruto who spoke up first though, “But we already know the answer.”

 

“This training session is different from the first time. Not only will you have to work as a team, but you will also have to do some information gathering.”

 

“Information gathering?” Sakura was confused, why would they need to gather information? All they had to do was take the bell.

 

“Yes. You'll have to figure out if I have the bell of if Jirayia has the bell.” Kakashi wanted to see if they could honesty work as a team. Teamwork was more then just being able to overwhelm a person. Besides it gave him a reason to have Jirayia around. Kakashi knew he wouldn't be able to handle an angry Naruto and an angry Sasuke at the same time. Better safe then sorry.

 

“Aww man, Ero-Sennin is gonna be training with us too.” Jirayia frowned at the comment. He was never going to get used to being called a pervert.

 

“Oh, well this should be easy.” Sasuke smirked at Sakura's comment. At least one of them was confident. He had no idea what level Kakashi or Jirayia was at. He wasn't even sure what level he was at. This was a good opportunity to test out his skills.

 

“Now if you don't mind.” Jirayia pulled out a smoke bomb and detonated it. When the smoke disappeared Kakashi had his hands in his pocket and Jirayia had his arms crossed.

 

“Begin.”

 

Sasuke and Naruto immediately disappeared from sight leaving Sakura standing alone. She stood there just looking at them with a smirk on her face that could rival Naruto's. Jirayia raised an eyebrow at her, `what the hell is she doing?”

 

“You both have bells.”

 

If it were physically possible for a jaw to hit the ground, Jirayia's would have. Kakashi almost burst into laughter when he saw the face Jirayia had made. Off in the distance they could hear Naruto yell “Cheaters!” followed by a colorful array of curses.

 

“Nothing gets by you does it Sakura.” Kakashi reached into his pouch and pulled out another smoke bomb.

 

“One of you better have a bell the next time or we're gonna beat the crap out of both of you.”

 

Kakashi simply smiled at her as he threw the bomb to the ground, “I'd expect nothing less.” When the smoke cleared she was gone.

 

Both men stood in the clearing, listening for any sound, watching for any movement. Jirayia caught some movement out of the corner of his eye, but upon turning he realized it was Kakashi. He was reaching up to reveal his sharingan.

 

“Oooh, getting serious so soon.”

 

“I don't take my students lightly.”

 

Jirayia pulled out a kunai and deflected a kunai that had been aimed at his head. “Neither do I.”

 

--

 

Sakura and Sasuke were waiting in the bushes for Naruto to return. Sakura had sent him to throw the kunai to confuse the men about their actual location.

 

Silently Naruto approached the two and whispered, “Great Kakashi is using the sharingan.” He looked over at Sasuke who was also using his sharingan. “Oh, never mind.”

 

Sakura had been running through a number of possible strategies in her head. Finally settling on one she moved up to sit between the two boys. “Okay this is what we're going to do…”

 

--

 

“So what do you think you're students are going to do?”

 

“I don't know. But I think we'll be finding out soon enough.” It was at that moment that kunai and shuriken rained on both men causing them to move dodge. When they looked up Naruto was standing in front of Jirayia and Sasuke in front of Kakashi. Sakura was still hiding in the bushes. She was to watch the fighting and try to determine who had the bell.

 

No time was wasted as the fighting began. Naruto decided not to hold back on the old man. But he soon realized that Jirayia was holding back on him. Jirayia wasn't putting up much of an effort. Looking behind him Naruto noticed that Kakashi and Sasuke were having a heated battle. `That must mean Kakashi has the bell.'

 

Naruto knew he was supposed to wait for a signal from Sakura before the decision to double team was made, but he couldn't wait. He grabbed Jirayia's arm and kicked him square in the chest throwing him back into a tree. Before Jirayia could register what had just happened Naruto disappeared.

 

“Where the hell did he go?” Jirayia voiced what Sakura was thinking. Jirayia got up and started looking around. Naruto had completely vanished into thin air. `Two can play this game.' He too disappeared into the trees. He would wait Naruto out. When it came to patience Jirayia always won against Naruto.

 

Sakura was starting to get worried. First Naruto disappeared and now Jirayia. This was not a part of the plan. She was still in the process of deciding who had the bell when Naruto disappeared. How could she decide if one of the possibilities was now hiding? She looked over at Sasuke and Kakashi, who at the moment were having a stand off.

 

Without warning Sasuke pulled out some shuriken and threw them at Kakashi. Kakashi jumped to the side and was about to throw some of his own shuriken at Sasuke when he heard Sakura scream.

 

“NARUTO!”

 

Kakashi looked back to see Naruto embedded with the shuriken that Sasuke had just thrown. Naruto just stood there, blood flowing from his wounds. Kakashi would have been worried about Naruto had it not been for the death glare Naruto was currently giving Sasuke.

 

Sasuke just stared wide-eyed at Naruto. `I didn't even know he was there.' He felt the killer intent coming off of Naruto and took a step back. Everyone noticed when Naruto's eyes went from blue to red. Kakashi had just enough time to grab Sakura as she ran past him toward Naruto.

 

Naruto began to slowly walk toward Sasuke. He would have continued walking but Jirayia jumped in front of him.

 

“He didn't mean it Naruto! No one knew where you were!”

 

“Move old man.” The words came out as a growl. Naruto was flexing his hands, which now looked more like claws at the moment. His eyes never once left Sasuke's face.

 

“Snap out of it!” Jirayia kicked Naruto in the chest and threw him back in the same tree he had been thrown in a few minutes earlier. The impact broke the tree in half and left Naruto sitting on the ground with is back against the bottom half of the tree trunk. Sakura slipped out of Kakashi's hands and ran toward Naruto. She began to pull out the shuriken, knowing that as soon as they were out the wounds would heal.

 

“You must getting really good at stealth.” She was desperately trying to lighten the mood. Usually inflating his ego worked, but she wasn't sure if it would work this time. Naruto gently pushed her aside and stood up. He looked over at Sasuke who was still frozen in place. Naruto instantly felt guilty over the whole thing. He knew it was his own fault. Looking at Kakashi, Naruto threw a bell at him.

 

“Here.”

 

Kakashi caught the bell, and Jirayia started patting himself down.

 

“When the hell did you..?”

 

Before anyone could ask any questions Naruto turned and started walking away. No one knew what to say anyway. Sakura knew Naruto felt guilty over the whole incident. Sure, he managed to get the bell, but still. She would have rather failed the training, then pass it and have Naruto hurting again. This training didn't help strengthen any bonds. She wanted everyone to be happy again, she wanted things to be like before. She turned to see how Sasuke was dealing with the whole thing. She barely had enough time to register his presence before he took off running in the opposite direction as Naruto.

 

She moved to go after him when Kakashi grabbed her wrist. “They need some time alone.”

 

--

 

Tsunade was looking out her window when there was a knock on the door.

 

“Come in.” She noticed how tired Kakashi looked as he walked up to her desk.

 

“I take it you've already evaluated them. So how did they do?” She was a bit surprised to see him take a seat. The training session had taken a lot out of Kakashi.

 

“Their teamwork is good, but there is still some anger there. Particularly from Naruto.” Tsunade walked over to her desk and sat in her chair.

 

“What happened?”

 

“Sasuke accidentally injured Naruto.” Tsunade sighed and looked down at the paperwork on her desk.

 

“Do you think they're ready then?”

 

“Honestly?” Kakashi paused weighing all the pros and cons. “Yes.”

 

Tsunade smiled at Kakashi as she handed him the paperwork on her desk. “I trust in your decision.”

 

Taking the paperwork Kakashi walked out the office. Tsunade was alone for just a few moments before the door opened again. She looked up to see Jirayia walking up to her desk.

 

“I saw the paperwork you gave Kakashi, do you really think that's wise?”

 

“I trust his decision.”

 

“What about Sasuke? Is it wise to let him come back so easily?”

 

“Who said anything about easy.” At the statement Jirayia looked at Tsunade shocked. He didn't quite understand what she was getting at. Sometimes she could be more insightful then he could be, but he would never tell her that. “Sometimes it hurts more when one isn't punished.”

 

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Uh-oh someone got mad. I said I was going to test the relationship, and here's test number one. I have a lot more in store for these guys.

 

Oh someone mentioned that they were unsure what character I was going to focus on. Well actually I'm going to focus on Team 7. They're really interesting people. I'm not going to pick one person to write about.

 

Lastly about the line Tsunade says at the end. I got the idea from Fruits Basket. It's something Yuki tells Kyo as he's walking away, “Sometimes it hurts more when I don't hit you.” Punishing oneself can be more hurtful and devastating then when someone does it for you.

 

Anyway, next chapter…..LEE!! So remember to leave comments, reviews, mail bombs.