I smiled as I casually levitated a kunai around my hand. My telekinetic control had definitely gotten better after that little incident. How long had it been since then? Two weeks? Probably.
A small shuffling in the bushes to my right. Silently, I grabbed the kunai as I steadied myself on my perch on the tree. I kept my eyes and ears wide open, as I crouched, alert and waiting.
I was not disappointed.
A trio of shurikens shot out from the bushes. Pouring chakra into my eyes, I tracked them as they flew towards me, before smacking them out of the air with my kunai. It was a nifty trick that Kakashi-sensei taught us, very useful to conserve chakra when needed.
A small prickling at the back of my neck was the only warning I had before I noticed somebody behind me. Ducking down, I narrowly avoided a horizontal sweeping kick from the orange figure behind me.
“Nice try, Naruto!” I crowed, one of my legs kicking out behind me, landing squarely in his chest causing him to disappear in a puff of chakra smoke.
I dashed away, since my initial position had been compromised due to that clone finding out where I was. There was no doubt that a multitude of clones were now converging on my last known position, and I, for one, do not relish fighting them, considering that Sasuke was still nowhere to be found.
Or maybe he had already been found and the two of them were already engaging each other.
Nah, impossible. A few days ago, we had decided to change up our training a little bit. Expanding our training ground to cover the forest, the three of us would then try to take each other out using subterfuge and brute force. Preferably the former, but most probably the latter.
It was an extremely effective training exercise, one that Kakashi-sensei approved of recently by coming a little later than usual so that we had more time for it. Though I presumed that he was merely using that as an excuse for not turning up on time, as always.
And we actually managed to teach Naruto the meaning of patience. (That might have been a lie, but at least he was no longer yelling in the forest for us to fight him face to face)
Unfortunately, I was found out as a group of orange blurs caught up to me. Stopping at a branch, I gripped tightly onto it with the chakra on my foot and kicked out at one of them while simultaneously tossing the kunai at another. Both connected, but the remaining Narutos were not deterred as they dashed onto me.
One, two, three, four clones remaining. Too much for me to handle at the moment, especially considering how good Naruto had gotten in the recent week. Ever since he had let slip that his Shadow Clones could transmit their experiences back to him, Kakashi-sensei had drafted up a training regime for him, where he could increase his rate of training by using more shadow clones. Of course, his finesse with the Konoha Katas were still a far cry from mine and Sasuke’s own fighting style, but he was improving.
Not to mention that four shadow clones would be too much for me to handle, especially since I didn’t exactly want to use any of my spells now. Arcane Bolt was a useful spell, but to use it on a clone? It’d be a huge waste.
I formed a series of handseals, completing the technique just as the clones all converged on me. Reaching out with my chakra towards another tree, I swapped places with one of its branches right before the clones’ attacks connected.
“What the?” I heard one of them say.
“Tch! Kyoku-chan~!” Another called, “Stop hiding!”
“Fan out and find her!” A third said.
Guess he had been learning, I noted from my hiding spot in the foliage. I took a deep breath, drawing my chakra in on me to make it harder to detect me even as I cast a life-seeking spell. Information flooded into my eyes as I pinpointed the various life signs around me.
Forty-eight lifesigns that were big enough to be humans. Looks like Naruto had not been slacking off with his clones, considering how they were moving all around the place.
A certain group to the north of me were darting around too erratically to actually make sense. Which meant one thing, combat. My suspicions were confirmed as the other groups began converging on that location.
I ended the spell and moved out as well, leaping from tree to tree as silently as I could.
It took me awhile, but when I arrived at the scene, it was a sight of utter chaos. Narutos were everywhere, darting from point to point as they tried to catch the black figure darting about them.
His eyes were still black, so no Sharingan. Knowing him, he was probably stalling Naruto and trying to cause a commotion for me to take notice of, probably because he was hoping to take both me and Naruto out at the same time.
Clever, but I had a plan for that.
I fished out a flashbang, one of the cheaper ones, and slung it up into the air even as I dived into the clearing. While there were a lot of Narutos, one in particular stood out to me, not moving and not attacking, merely studying everything before him. I landed squarely on top of him, to his surprise and flung him into a nearby tree. He impacted just as the flashbang went off behind me. Turning around, I sped towards Sasuke who was staggering about among the clones, clearly not expecting the flashbang I had set off, and kicked him squarely in the chest.
Or I would have, if he had not dodged at the last second. As he sidestepped my attack, I could just see the smirk on his face even as I flew past him.
“Tch.” I glared at him as I landed, “you noticed, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” He smiled even as he flung himself to the top of a tree, putting himself out of the reach of some of the clones. “Knew you were going to do that.” He called down.
“Hey, don’t forget about us!” The clones called out as they surged forward, then stopped. They looked at each other, before one of them shouted to the rest of us.
“Kakashi-sensei has arrived!”
Ah, the clone that was at the meeting place must have dispelled himself then.
“Guess we should stop.” Sasuke muttered as he dropped down from the tree.
“Yeah.” I nodded as the clones dispelled themselves, the real Naruto walking out among them. Seeing as how he wasn’t even blemished, I guess the one I tossed into a tree was just another clone.
Clever.
Dashing back to the meeting point took us less than ten seconds, though Kakashi-sensei was less than impressed when we landed right in front of him.
“You’re late.” He deadpanned. Oh the irony.
“Shut up, sensei!” Naruto snarked. “We were here first!”
I smacked him across the top of his head, shutting him up. While Kakashi-sensei was generally tolerant of us, I had no wish to find out the limits of his patience. Hopefully never.
I’d leave that to them for when I’m no longer on the team, thank you very much.
“So what is the agenda for today, Kakashi-sensei?” I asked.
He looked at me funny for a bit before smiling. It was kind of weird, to be honest. Ever since that situation two weeks ago, I had noticed that Kakashi-sensei had been paying more attention to me than normal. On one hand, he might be looking out for me more, but on the other… He might be on to me.
Still, Shiratama and I had put our activities on hold for two entire weeks already. Was he still suspicious after all that?
“Well, it’s just missions as usual.” Sensei replied as he turned around to begin walking. “Follow me.”
“Right!” Naruto pumped his fist into the sky. “Let’s get this started! Sasuke! You know the rules!”
“You are an idiot.” I told Naruto, who had a multitude of scratches on his face. Three guesses as to which mission we got for the day.
“You should know better than to grab it like that.” Sasuke admonished from his corner of the food stall that we had decided to rest so that we could get Naruto’s wounds bandaged up.
“Shut it, Sasuke!” Naruto retorted, but he winced a little when I tightened the bandage on his face. Sure I could have used a plaster, but this was much better at shutting him up. “Owwww, Kyoku-chan, that hurts!”
“Then stop doing something so stupid,” I sighed. Sure, he was kind of dependable in most situations, but would it kill this boy to think for a moment?
“Oh, if it isn’t team seven!”
We looked up as one, and took in the four figures that approached us.
“Hello!” I waved at Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji, who were accompanied by a bearded ninja with a cigarette in his mouth and dressed in the standard Konoha Jounin uniform that could only be their team leader, Asuma Sarutobi.
“Hey Kyoku-chan!” Ino waved back, before squealing like she always used to around Sasuke. “And Sasuke-chan, I missed you!”
I chose to ignore her, instead focusing on the other two members of the team. “So, what brings you here?” I asked as I pasted a plaster soaked in disinfectant upon a scratch on Naruto’s hand.
“Finished our missions for the day,” Shikamaru yawned, “heading to the training grounds for extra training.”
“How about you, Kyoku-chan?” Chouji asked, eating from his ever-present bag of chips.
“Eh, just bandaging my teammate up.” I gestured to Naruto. They looked at him questioningly, so I decided to elaborate. “Tora.” They winced, evidently understanding the pain that we had gone through.
“Oof,” the jounin commented as he took a puff of smoke from his cigarette, “Sounds rough. He tried grabbing it around the belly, didn’t he?”
“Yup.” I replied.
“By the way, who are you?” Naruto asked, squinting up at the bearded shinobi who was towering over all of us.
“Ah, Asuma’s the name.” The jounin replied. “Leader of Team Ten. And you must be Kakashi’s genins.” He looked at us with a discerning eye before smiling. “Nice to meet you!”
I waved a hand as a waft of his cigarette smoke blew over to me. That thing just smells nasty. How could he stand it?
“By the way,” Asuma said, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and using it to point behind us. “What’s that over there?”
I looked behind, smirked and returned my gaze to him. “Just a bunch of kids that had been following us around.” In a box that was painted grey with two eye holes in the front. Talk about obvious. I had told Naruto and Sasuke to ignore it, mostly because I was curious if the people within would actually follow us around.
“What!” A voice shouted incredulously from within the box. “How long have you known?”
“Since the start, Konohamaru.” Naruto grinned. “Now get out of there.”
A few seconds later, us seven ninjas were staring down a trio of midgets, two boys, one with a ridiculously long scarf, and a girl, all of them wearing goggles on their foreheads.
“If you had known all this time, why didn’t you just call us out?” The one with the long scarf ranted.
“Eheh.” Naruto grinned before he pointed to his forehead, “by the way, what is with the goggles?”
Konohamaru grinned as he gripped his goggles. “We’re copying the old you, my rival!”
A group of kids that admire Naruto? I blinked. Somehow, I felt kind of weird thinking about that. Was the world ending already?
“Troublesome.” Shikamaru muttered as he eyed the kids. I nodded in agreement, though I could not help but feel left out knowing the fact that I was the only one among my team without a fanclub of some sort.
“Konohamaru, are you making trouble for your grandfather again?” Asuma asked.
“None of your business, uncle!” Konohamaru declared. “I am settling things with my rival here!”
I blinked as I processed that. He had just called Asuma ‘uncle’, and considering that Asuma was from the Sarutobi clan… this kid was the Hokage’s grandchild?
I shuddered as another realization struck me. Naruto knows that Hokage’s grandchild?
“You’re thinking too much,” Shikamaru said, breaking me out of my thought process.
“Right.”
“Shogi later?”
“Should be fine.”
“Ah,” Asuma interjected as he looked at me, “You play shogi too?”
“Uhh, yeah?” I replied.
“You normally play at the Naras, right?” he grinned. “I’d drop by later, then.”
“Asuma-sensei just wants an opponent that doesn’t beat him all the time,” Shikamaru translated.
“Hey, I’m not that bad!” Asuma protested.
“It’s okay sensei.” Ino chirped from her position beside Sasuke, before her eyes light up, probably because she had thought up some devious scheme or whatnot. “Actually, why don’t we all go to the Nara compound today? We can have a good old outdoor dinner!” She squealed, “Like the old times!”
“I’ll pass.” Sasuke deadpanned as he tried to find a way to extricate himself from Ino’s iron grip without hurting the other girl.
“Spoilsport.” Naruto frowned. “What time though?”
“After training.” Asuma declared. “Which is probably after seven.” He smiled at the three of his genins, “That means we have four hours. Which means if you want to make it in time and get some proper food for the dinner, you better put your backs into it!”
“Right!” Ino cheered. A cry Chouji echoed rather enthusiastically.
“Don’t I get a say in this?” Shikamaru protested.
“Don’t worry, Shikamaru,” Asuma patted him on the back, “I’ll talk to your dad. Have a few favors I could call him upon.”
“But…” Shikamaru’s protest died in his mouth as he slumped back down in defeat. I patted him consolingly along with Chouji and Naruto. Sometimes, things just get out of control.
I should know.
In favor of not wasting time, Team Ten hurried off to do their training. As I eyed them moving away, I couldn’t help but smirk.
“Sneaky man.”
“Huh?” Naruto asked, as the three midgets and Sasuke looked at me. “What do you mean?”
“Asuma-san, or Asuma-sensei.” I snorted, “he used us as bait.”
“How so?” Sasuke asked.
“He used the dinner later as an opportunity to motivate his students.” I explained. “Just now, the three of them looked so unmotivated after their mission, but when Ino suggested the dinner, didn’t you notice how quick he was to jump on that idea?” I shook my head in exasperation when they answered in the negative.
“But how is that using us as bait?” Naruto asked, tilting his head quizically.
“As Ino suggested the dinner, she would take her training later seriously so that she wouldn’t be late for it as it would look bad for her as the one who suggested it. Shikamaru wants to play Shogi later, so Asuma-sensei used that as a way to get him motivated in the training later so that he could hurry up and slack off. And Chouji just likes good food, so it should be pretty obvious on how to get him motivated.”
Or at least, that was how I had interpreted that. Well, no harm done if I was wrong, no?
“Wow.” Konohamaru said in wonder as he looked at Naruto. “Naruto-nii, your girlfriend’s really smart!”
“Not his girlfriend.” I stated frostily.
“R-right.” Naruto stammered. “But Kyoku-chan’s really smart!” A phrase echoed by the three midgets, two of which had yet to introduce themselves.
I’d admit that I enjoyed it a little.
Despite what Sasuke had said, he turned up for the dinner at the Nara Compound. Truth be told, he initially had every intention of not turning up, but had changed his decision at the last minute.
Mostly because he had come to terms with how narrow-minded he was.
As the top student of his class, he had hardly paid attention to the other teams, thinking that they were beneath them. This belief was reinforced when he had become a genin. His team had consisted of one of the best students in his class, Kyoku, who not only had a sharp mind but also a rather unique bloodlimit, and Naruto, the dead last who was not as useless as he looked, possessing a seemingly endless chakra pool, given how he could keep using the Shadow Clone technique and an almost admirable optimistic spirit, not that Sasuke would admit as such to him. To top it all off, they were led by the Kakashi Hatake, the Copy-nin, a possessor of the Sharingan and also apparently the best ninja in the village, according to Kyoku.
As such, he had hardly cared for the other teams, thinking them beneath him, as they were a group of the best genins who were led by the best shinobi himself. Only recently had he found out how wrong he was.
He had been extremely surprised when Kyoku had pointed out how subtly Asuma had manipulated his team into working harder, something he had hardly noticed despite it happening right under his nose. What was worse was the fact that he realized just how well Kyoku had understood the other team to make that form of judgement about them.
“Hey Sasuke!” Naruto waved from the front of the Nara compound. “I thought you weren’t coming?”
“Hn.” Sasuke snorted but nodded to his two teammates nonetheless. At least those three kids weren’t around Naruto anymore. They were annoying.
“Well, glad you came!” Naruto grinned, “Man, it has been months since I last came here.”
“You almost got yourself banned from here that one time, remember?” Kyoku snarked, “that one time with the plates.”
“Well, yeah.” Naruto muttered sheepishly, “I apologised though.”
“Hey guys!” Sasuke looked up to the sight of Team Ten walking down the streets, carrying a couple of heavy bags. They were also accompanied by a pink haired girl who he vaguely remembered being in his class but couldn’t exactly remember her name.
“Hello again.” Kyoku greeted. “And long time no see, Sakura-san.” Ah yes, that was her name.
“Sakura-chan!” Naruto said enthusiastically..
The pink haired girl ignored the blonde before flashing a smile at the Asagami. “Nice to see you, Kyoku. I had just finished my mission when I ran into Ino, and you know how she can be…” She trailed off and Sasuke stiffened when he realised that the girl was looking at him. “Um… I hope I’m not intruding.”
“Well, there’s no objections from me, and I don’t think that Naruto and Sasuke would say no eit-”
“Sasuke-chan!” Ino yelled as soon as she noticed him, “you came!” He suppressed a wince, glad that he was standing behind Naruto and Kyoku so that the blond menace couldn’t get him.
“Shall we head in?” Asuma said as he gestured to the house.
“Sure.” Shikamaru muttered. “You told my parents already, right?”
“Don’t worry about it. Your mum and dad agreed, even though it was a little on the ball.”
As they entered the house, Sasuke could not help but realise that this was the first time in a long while that he was going to have dinner with this many people.
Naruto was ecstatic.
He had always liked the Nara’s compound, especially the wide fields behind their clan buildings and the deers that sometimes grazed in those fields. It was always a fresh sight for him.
Sure, Shikaku-san and Yoshino-san had initially been uncomfortable around him like so many other adults, but recently they had become more tolerant of him, so long as he did not play pranks within the compound. The same goes for Chouji’s and Kiba’s parents as well.
Naruto was glad that he had friends like them.
The food was good too, grilled by Asuma-sensei over a small fire in the middle of the field while the rest of them talked and joked under the stars.
“So, in the end, Haku kills Gatou!” He gushed, regaling Chouji and Shikamaru with what had happened during his mission to the Land of the Waves a month ago. “He was so fast! Like, one moment Gatou was standing there talking, and then the next he had the Kubikiribocho stabbing into him!”
“Huh, and what happens next?” Shikamaru asked as he placed a piece of meat in his mouth and began chewing.
“Well… Haku was kind of sad that Zabuza was dead, but he didn’t hold it against us. Said that there wasn’t a reason for us to continue fighting.” Naruto grinned. “So we became friends!”
“Oh?” Shikamaru drawled, “sounds too good to be true, but since you are standing here...” He shrugged. “I find it a little hard to believe that you fought this Haku all by yourself though.”
“Alright,” Naruto replied, a little annoyed, “Sasuke helped distract him while I fought him with my shadow clones.” He shot the Uchiha in the corner a glare, an extra hard one since Ino and Sakura-chan were sitting next to him.
“Yeah, I’ll take your word for it.” Shikamaru muttered as he took Chouji’s empty plate from him and placed some of the meat from his own on it before returning it to his friend. “Still, what did Kyoku do during that period?”
“Oh,” Naruto frowned as he tried to remember. “She was fighting that Zabuza along with Kakashi-sensei.” Still now that they mentioned her, Naruto could not help but notice his recent discomfort.
Naruto knows that he was not the smartest person in the class but even then, he notices things. Flashing a glance at the girl who was playing shogi with the sensei who was managing a grill, Naruto could not help but grimaced as he remembered what had happened two weeks ago.
He was the one who had found Kyoku unconscious in Training Ground Five, with all that devastation around her. Sure, he had believed her when she had said she was fine afterwards, but he could not help but notice how Kyoku had changed since that incident.
He had always pegged the kunoichi as the brains of the group, but since then, he had noticed how physical Kyoku had been. It was as if she was angry or something, and it showed. There was this one mission that they recently had in the last week, to deal with some thug named Jako who had stolen a treasure. When they attacked the bandit, Kyoku had been unexpectedly brutal in her methods, blowing the thugs away with some sort of green wind-release jutsu.
One dead, and four captured. The one that died had broken his neck on a tree when Kyoku attacked them. The other four had been so winded that Sasuke and Naruto could probably fight them all with one hand tied behind their backs and still won.
Naruto bit his lip. Something was troubling his teammate but he just didn't really know exactly what to do. Something really serious. It almost felt as if she was in really grave danger.
Still, regardless of what was troubling Kyoku, Naruto knows that there was but one thing that he knew that he could definitely do when trouble comes to her. Like what Haku had told him, he would protect all of his precious people.
Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, Kyoku and everyone else who had believed in him. He would protect them all.
Asuma-sensei was a very crafty person, I mused as I watched him move his golden general piece forward, threatening my unprotected bishop.
The fact that he could also manage the grill and engage in casual talk shows that he was a really good multitasker as well.
Of course, our casual talk was also mostly boring too, though it was of utmost importance to me. Seeing the amount of food that Asuma-sensei had bought for us, if the costs were to be split, I would probably go broke.
Surprisingly, Asuma-sensei had offered to handle the costs himself.
“Asuma-sensei,” I muttered as I pushed my lance forward to cover my bishop. “Are you sure you are okay with that?” I asked, mostly out of courtesy.
“No worries.” He chuckled as he returned his general to a safe position. “It’s a small price to pay, especially with what’s coming up.”
“What’s coming up?” I asked as I casually slid a pawn forward.
“Oh,” He grinned, “Kakashi-san hasn’t told you yet?”
“Uh, tell us what?” I tilted my head.
“Don’t worry about it.” Asuma-sensei grinned, “He’ll probably tell you soon. He’s probably hoping to surprise you. It’s what I’d do.”
True to what Asuma-sensei said, Kakashi-sensei dropped the bomb the next day in his typical nonchalant way.
The three of us had unanimously decided to skip the morning training in favor of catching up on our sleep, primarily due to the fact that we had stayed up really late the previous night bonding with Team Ten.
And by catching up on sleep, I meant that we all decided to take a nap at our meeting place, leaning on each other’s back so that we could sleep in an upright sitting position.
A motion near us got us all awake and alert in a matter of seconds, though we immediately relaxed when we looked upon the familiar figure of Kakashi-sensei.
“Sensei…” Naruto yawned. “You’re late.”
He raised an eyebrow at me, as though asking me for the reason why we were all so lethargic. I shrugged in response.
He looked at us a bit longer, and then sighed. “Well then, I actually came to tell you that there would be no missions for this week.”
Wait, what?
“Because,” He continued cheerfully, “I had just nominated the three of you for the Chunnin Exams!”