Chapter Text
Sakura breathed heavy and hard after sparring— losing —with Sasuke for the past hour. He was amazingly good and Sakura felt like she chose the right boy to crush/have a one-sided rivalry with.
Sakura always assume Sasuke didn’t talk (like, at all) because…well, it was the cool thing to do. Why was that cool again?--actually, scratch that, Sakura didn’t care about the reason, it was hot , or as much as a twelve-year-old could describe something as hot from hearsay (she was “too young” to know that stuff but whatever). But yeah, rethinking her thought process of liking Sasuke, she was, frankly, dehumanizing him. She didn’t want to do that. In a world where ninja were meant to be emotionless and dispassionate, she didn’t want her ideal relationship to be that way, too.
So she decided to actually pay attention. She took Sasuke painfully off his pedestal and found, shockingly, humanity.
He was really, really socially awkward with absolutely no conversational skills (so that whether or not he wanted to participate in a conversation, he looked like he was, albeit aloofly), but he could be surprisingly soft . She knows, she was just as surprised as you. At first, Sakura hadn’t meant to stare, but when she stumbled upon him gingerly petting a rabbit, then contentedly feeding the ducks, nursing a bird with a broken wing back to health and giving stray cats some milk Sakura couldn’t help but gape in wonder .
There was a heart beneath all those walls. A heart that he wasn’t trying to hide so much as people were trying to not notice it.
“I’m tired of D-ranks,” Sasuke said with a huff.
“Yeah, me too. They don’t teach us anything, and we only have two people on our team, how does Lord Hokage expect us to pull out all of the weeds in a field by ourselves ? Kakashi-sensei doesn’t count, he doesn’t do anything, anyway.”
Sasuke agreed with a grunt. Sakura sometimes felt that and “Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!” were the only words in his vocabulary.
“Hey! You know what? We should ask Hokage-sama this afternoon when we get our mission assignment for the day! I think I’ll go insane if I have to catch that damned cat--”
“Tora.”
“Huh?”
“Her name is Tora.”
Sakura laughed, “Yeah, if I have to catch Tora one more time or babysit another brat, then I’ll rip Kakashi-sensei’s arms off and dye his hair blue!”
Sasuke would never admit it (not that he’d deny it either, just never dignify the accusation with a response), but Sakura heard him snort under his breath.
“Uh, excuse me, Lord Hokage,” Sakura began, horrified by the current listings of D-ranked missions he provided.
“Yes?” he replied, lifting his unamused gaze to match hers.
“W-we’d, uh,” dammit, where’d that courage from before go? She cleared her throat before continuing, “we’d like to take on a higher level mission, if that’s alright.” If this works, no more D-ranks, at least for now, remember that . That made her confidence rise.
“We’re obviously not ready for a B-ranked, we’re genin, but D-ranked are too simple and never challenge our skills in a way that is...beneficial to our progress.”
Sasuke agreed, stepping up from behind her, “We understand the importance of supporting the village, but we need actual experience if we ever want to get anywhere.”
Kakashi raised an eyebrow (or maybe two, but Sakura couldn’t actually see the other one) when Iruka, who was sorting through papers beside the Hokage, interjected, “Sakura, Sasuke, are you sure about this? You practically just graduated, and all together you only have three of a four-person team.”
The Hokage seemed about to side with Iruka before a figure from behind the Hokage butted in, “Aw come on, Old Man,” the figure began, and Sakura could distinctly tell they were a he, if a little older than them--wait, did he just call the Hokage “Old Man”? Sakura felt like she might faint-- “Remember when I came here asking the same thing? I didn’t even ask nicely and here they are, all proper and giving you reasons . How could you turn them down? Look in their eyes, they’re ready.”
Sakura could tell something was off about this ninja. He was too loud, too lively, too human .
Was he an Anbu? He certainly didn’t wear their conventional armor, and was in the open , having a conversation with the Hokage that consisted of actual words. But he had the mask and Sakura hadn’t even noticed him even though he was standing right in front of her.
It took her aback.
She didn’t mind though, if it meant she didn’t have to go on another D-ranked mission.
Lord Hokage also seemed taken aback by the impromptu exclamation, but Sakura could tell the Hokage had made his decision.
“Fine,” The Third Hokage said, exasperated, “Fine, I’ll give you a C-ranked mission. Send in our visitor.”
Sakura...wasn’t impressed.
“This man here is Tazuna,” the Hokage began once more, “Recently, the Land of Waves has had a resurgence of the son of a former criminal network headed by a man named Gato. Tazuna here wants you to guard him and his family, then locate the hideout of Gato’s son. You are not to engage and will immediately send word once you have located it. I repeat, you are not to engage . It is a bodyguarding and intelligence gathering mission, nothing more. Understood?”
“Understood!” Sakura said, enthusiastic.
“Understood.” said Sasuke, unenthusiastic.
There was...something. On his chest. A small, maybe soft thing? And another...warm(?) thing almost petting his face. A...what?
Drowsily, Naruto peeked one of his eyelids open that, in his humble opinion, should stay sealed shut for at least a week further. Woe was he, certainly.
His eyes decidedly didn’t focus on the weight occupying his chest, and honestly, he couldn’t blame it, inclined to agree with its course of action and drifted off once more with a satisfied sigh.
But by then it was too late, as the weight had caught his brief lapse in his almost comatose state and took it in stride.
It bit his face.
He shot up gracefully—gracefully goddammit— as if a fire was lit under him, and he tumbled elegantly out of bed.
“Ow, ow,” he said, rubbing the afflicted area with an expression of utter mourning before retracting his hand only to find it covered in slobber .
Naruto gave a cry of anguish and with the proper amount of dramatics from being woken up to his face having been someone’s human chew toy said “I’m up, I’m up !”
The perpetrator of said offense, leisurely sitting on the bed, tail wagging unhurriedly in the late afternoon sun, paid his obvious distress no mind.
Naruto—who already had an idea of who this fiend might be—had his suspicions proven correct by the gruff voice of, you guessed it, Pakkun.
“Naruto,” was all he said before jumping onto Naruto’s lap, raising one side of his head as an invitation. Naruto had half a mind to just throw him out the window (in the most un-animal abusive way possible, of course, but just to be sure he’d have to make sure there were no witnesses), yet that was merely a half a mind, and the other half conceded immediately, quickly followed by the other to pet the ninja dog.
“Kakashi sent you?” Naruto was much more awake now, but there was a fine line between awake and alert and Naruto was nowhere near the latter.
Pakkun turned suddenly serious, and, no, it didn’t help Naruto to wake up, but it did cause his eyebrow to raise significantly, “Ever heard of the Demon Brothers?”
“From the Hidden Mist?” Naruto wasn’t keen on memorizing the listings in the infamous Bingo Book of missing ninjas and potential threats, until it became apparent that he wasn’t allowed to see it, thus he knew them all by heart, more or less (mostly less, but something was better than nothing, he supposed).
Pakkun nodded, “They attacked Kakashi and his genin earlier today.”
“Huh? Seriously? He has the Uchiha on his team, right? Oh wait, hasn’t he not developed his sharingan yet--”
“They were after the client.”
That made Naruto pause, and, looking ponderous for a brief moment, said with a sigh, “What does this have to do with me again? Shouldn’t you be reporting this to the Hokage?”
“You’re the back-up, idiot.”
“What, why?!”
“Less paperwork.”
And Naruto had to agree with him there.
Naruto understood Kakashi’s concerns; he was worried about protecting the client, his students and himself all while defending against a foe that was, well, realistically, at least a jonin-level threat. Even so, the Chūnin Exams were coming up and Naruto was going to be a proctor , not some off-the-records-but-still-kind-of-in-the-records-because--the-Hokage-assigned-it hiding in the shadows to make sure no one was killed during the Chūnin Exams, actually participating .
The Chūnin Exams were stressful, annoying, a hassle and an all-around pain in the ass, but they were...special to him.
He himself was kinda just made a chūnin because no one quite knew what to do with him. His genin team, well… he didn’t want to think about that. He never quite felt like he deserved to be a chūnin, but here he was.
At least at the Chūnin Exams, no one was too strong and it was one of the few times he ever felt like his opinion was worth something. While watching the proceedings on the side of the Old Man, he’d always ask Naruto during consultations of promoting former genins if he’d recommend any, from any part of the exam.
He’d always had a few. A few select individuals who he felt would be excellent, but then he over-thought it; they weren’t in war, they didn’t need chūnins fast, and if they couldn’t make it to the final rounds, then, as far as Naruto was concerned they wouldn’t make it out there. A few months (or years) for more training wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?
(He wasn’t going to have someone’s blood on his hands because they weren’t ready for chūnin.)
With all this in mind, he was, frankly, ecstatic for the Chūnin Exams, and might break his self-proclaimed “Ninja Way” (trademark, Naruto Uzumaki, thank you very much) and murder Kakashi if he makes Naruto late to this, too.
That being said, Kakashi had already signed Team 7 up for the exams (yes, Naruto was surprised, too, seeing as they were short a member and barely genin), so he couldn’t possibly let them be late, right? Right?
(Naruto was sure Kakashi was late for absolutely. Everything. Just to make his life a living hell.)
Rubbing her eyes, Sakura sighed as she eased down next to the fire, trying to calm herself from the day’s events. She did well , but almost died , the wound in her hand seemed to throb in response, and she sighed. At least Kakashi had said he was retrieving backup in the form of “Uzumaki Naruto,” so she had at least that to look forward to.
A long while ago, Sakura realized she would have to be the “leader” in interactions if she wanted any form of relationship between her extremely social-inept teammate and teacher, so--as she did in most conversations--she began, “So, Kakashi-sensei--”
But was cut off with a “Oh hello there Naruto.”
And she didn’t have any time to process this statement because a horrific face spoke with an equally horrific voice from right behind her, punctuating every syllable, “Hello Sakura.”
And, uh, Sakura punched it. In the face. Really really (reallyreallyreallyreally) hard.
When Kakashi had discussed with them the...predicament of one Team 7’s formation, Sasuke at first was...concerned, for lack of a better word, expecting it to simply kill him. Well maybe not kill him , but most definitely Sakura.
Kakashi had enthusiastically (in which he means, as enthusiastic as a jonin of his caliber could articulate; it honestly somewhat took Sasuke aback as to how he could display his excitement in a way at all visible to a genin like Sasuke. He decided to take it as his ability to read people growing, as Sakura didn’t seem to notice it at all) suggested that he could recommend a low-ranking chūnin to replace the empty spot in their team.
(During that time, the two had danced around the idea, never really confronting the problem, until the day before the week period Kakashi had given them to think about it, seeing the looks of consternation the topic brought upon them.
Sasuke just supposed they weren’t going to talk about it, which was fine. He didn’t care either way.
“Sasuke,” Sakura said, resolve surprisingly apparent for something besides courting himself or her rivalry with the Yamanaka girl, “I...I won’t be so naive as to say I know you, or even know you at all, for that matter, but we’re the top of our class, godammit, and we don’t need some nobody chūnin to-to sink to our level in order to be the best team out there, so I’m telling Kakashi-sensei no, and-and you’re not going to stop me!”
Sasuke raised an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless. He agreed with her, even if he didn’t quite understand her anger; after all, they were lucky to not have gotten with the dead last. Wasn’t it the dog boy for this year? Yeah, Sasuke would choose Sakura any day over him.)
Analyzing the moment now, Sasuke realized that Kakashi was most definitely talking about this particular chūnin, of whom Kakashi seemed to have an oddly...familial relationship. It was disconcerting, and made him, as most things did--for he never truly could forget about it--, think of his family. It also made him realize that Sakura must have seen Kakashi’s excitement, but misinterpreted it as him being patronizing (no doubt a feeling fueled by a particular blonde-haired, blue-eyed kunoichi).
Something about the chūnin, named Uzumaki Naruto, was off, somehow. Oh wait, yeah, he’s absolutely, utterly, unbelievably obnoxious. After near scaring Sakura into the Pure Lands with the rest of his clan, resulting in the subsequent beat down of Uzumaki, and Sasuke and Sakura’s eyes meeting for one, agonizing moment in realization of what just happened, Kakashi slightly--ever so slightly--lowering his book (which did not scare Sasuke almost as much as Naruto did to Sakura at all ), another agonizing moment of staring, them thinking Kakashi’s going to kill us, isn’t he? , the two genin rushing to ask the feigning-dead looking Uzumaki “Are you alright!?”, Uzumaki quickly shutting down using Uzumaki to refer to him, “Just call me Naruto, you know?”, Sasuke questioning why anyone would want to be referred to something that sounds like fish cake roll when they didn’t absolutely have to , accidently thinking said question aloud, Naruto (he supposed) laughing loud and warm, almost killing Sasuke from barely restrained embarrassment and Naruto and Sakura hit it off.
It was like something clicked between the two, and a pitiful swirl of envy churned his gut, the way in which the two seemed so normal? Sasuke had never been able to connect with someone like that, and now he actually had a kinda-sort-of friend and the minute a new kid strolls along Sakura’s more friendly with him than she'd ever been with him. Though, he supposed he had only himself to blame for that.
The real problem, though, was that they looked like, well, friends. Was it so hard to ask for a genuine friend? Not some overzealous fangirl.
But then the words of him came back; he’d have to kill his best friend. How could he ever possibly do that? If he could, first off, ever get close to someone to admit that they were his best friend, the act in it of itself would be tarnished by the fact that he intended to kill them soon after. But… he didn’t want to do that. He really didn’t.
And he didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse that Uzu— Naruto had decided to force him into the conversation, shoving him one of his trademarked “Uzumaki Naruto Speciality Bento” stressing the O’s, that he had pulled out of a scroll, abruptly cutting off his dark thoughts in favor of wishing he was part of his collar.
Almost right off the bat, Naruto mixed up Sakura and Sasuke’s names.
“They’re so similar!” Naruto whined.
“Barely,” Sakura scoffed.
“What? No way!” He looked pleadingly to Sakura-- no, Sasuke, dammit Naruto-- who just gave him an unamused glare, before sighing and turning to Kakashi, and with hands outstretched and squeezing as if Kakashi would give him the support in a physical form, begged “C’mon, back me up here!”
Kakashi sighed, and said without looking up, “No, you’re just stupid.”
“What the hell, you closet perv! You did the exact same thing when you first told me about ‘em! I got the habit from you, you know!”
Naruto was loud, annoying, boisterous and noisy. But Sasuke and Sakura decided individually they didn’t mind this “nobody chūnin” hanging around.
“Well,” said Sakura, “here’s a good way to remember: my hair’s pink like cherry blossoms.”
“Oh yeah!” Naruto said enthusiastically, jotting it down in a small journal Sasuke didn’t realize he had.
“Uh huh! And Sasuke, he has black hair, like soy sauce .”
Naruto nodded vigorously, spending far too long writing what appeared to only be “Sasuke = soy sauce hair,” and Sasuke didn’t know if he was a fan of that imagery. But the penmanship was beautiful. He had not taken Naruto to be interested in the arts.
Kakashi, noticing Sasuke’s interest explained, “Naruto’s a very special type of ninja,” setting his book aside (which was... wow ) to examine said calligraphy, nodding almost proud, “he doesn’t specialize in ninjutsu or taijutsu, not even genjutsu for that matter,” he briefly handed the paper over to Sakura--much to Naruto’s chagrin--before she handed it, thoroughly impressed, back to Naruto, who quickly pocketed it on the belt adorning the organized chaos that was his outfit, “it’s called fūinjutsu.”
Naruto made some vain attempt at dissuading the attention from him, before sighing and sulking to the outcast of the group, Tazuna--who was drinking (or maybe sulking, as well, probably both) at the base of a tree away from the fire--and, handing him a bento, Naruto sat down next to him.
From where he was currently, Sasuke couldn’t quite tell what was going on, but could see Tazuna’s movements get sloppier and sloppier, the more and more of the bento he ate. Sasuke looked down at his own, worriedly, but felt no such affliction. Kakashi saw this as well, and blinking, said “Oh, don’t worry about that, he’s just making sure Tazuna doesn’t get in the way in case something happens on our way to Wave. He won’t do that to you unless you ask him to.”
It still made Sasuke feel uncomfortable, though, “Did Naruto ask him ?”
“Yes, he’s not a bad kid, trust me.”
Sasuke nodded and rubbed the sore spot at the back of his neck that thrummed with constant aches ever since it appeared (it was now just a nervous tick he hated, though), then continued eating when Sakura interrupted, “Um, excuse me Kakashi-sensei, did you say fuinjutsu? That’s just sealing things, isn’t it? I, uh, didn’t know you could specialize in it.”
“Oh well, many people can’t. You’re lucky enough to meet one of the very few skilled fuinjutsu ninjas alive today. You’d be surprised by what someone can do with it.”
Sasuke watched, half-listening, massaging his neck (had it been hurting more this trip, why?) as Naruto pulled a small scroll from his belt full exclusively of the same sized, same colored scrolls (sans the journal, of course), of which he opened to unseal a lot more scrolls. After he opened one—wait, could it be? More scrolls? Who could’ve imagined. Naruto mentally debated between the same colored scrolls in different sizes (oh yes, some much needed variety) before finally settling on a fairly large scroll, rolled it out, and, with streamlined reflexes and precision, plucked a hair from the unconscious Tazuna’s head, slammed the hand with the hair down on the center of the scroll, muttered something Sasuke couldn’t make out, and, in a poof, Tazuna was gone.
Well Sasuke hadn’t seen that before. Sealing a living person in a scroll, huh.
“Hey, Kakashi-sensei,” Sasuke asked, forcing himself to stop rubbing his neck, to which Kakashi acknowledged in a slight tilt of his head, “What’s your relationship with him, Naruto I mean?”
Kakashi sighed, “It’s...complicated, and I’m not up to explaining it, either.”
Sasuke just glared.
“Why’d you knock him out?” Sasuke asked to Naruto after he had re-sealed the seals inside the seals (not confusing, not at all).
“Huh? Oh, uh, sealing a living thing can be quite... uncomfortable. For the person and the scroll.” Thus, Naruto put them to sleep, sprinkled on a teeny genjutsu and bam! The weird darkness and vertigo and loneliness of being in a place beyond time and space were gone. Free of charge!
Naruto’s genjutsus weren’t bad , totally not, in actuality, he had heavily considered changing specialities and becoming a full-time genjutsu-user. He loved the harrowing process of trying to weave his chakra into the mind flowing and turbulent mind of the target. Like using a blanket in lieu of string for sewing. Absolutely terrific.
Soon after, Kakashi “offered” (as much as “I’ll take watch” could be an offer) to take the first watch, but Naruto immediately shot him down. He all but shoved the insufferable man into his sleeping bag, all the while said insufferable man insisted that “gravity was increasing on him,” and refused to stay upright, falling into the blonde with the most zeal Naruto had seen on him (second only to when he lost his book a while ago, horrifying).
Sasuke and Sakura (like soy sauce and cherry blossoms, remember that) went to bed without a hitch, with the exception of one pinked-haired kunoichi not-so-subtly worming her way to one Mr. Dark-And-Gloomy who promptly even more not-so-subtly wormed his way away from said pink-haired kunoichi, to which she begrudgingly sighed in defeat.
Aw, so little Sakura has a little wittle crush on the little Uchiha.
Naruto didn’t find it would quite work out. Of course, when reviving a clan from near extinction, one can’t be picky, but the infamous “Last Uchiha” couldn’t just marry (if, of course, Sakura’s end goal was marriage) anybody , if he really wanted to revitalize his clan, it would be smarter to wed with someone with a higher position. Integrate into a larger clan and bring the Uchiha name back to its former glory.
But Naruto could tell Sasuke didn’t care for such a thing; Naruto had the distinct feeling that he might just marry Sakura out of spite to keep from sinking to the level of “needing help” from anything else except his fists and kunai.
And that. That’s what’s been bugging him about Sasuke! He’s too stubborn to ask for help, the little stinker!
Naruto chuckled to himself as he jotted down these notes for a future conversation with Kakashi.
He’d like to help Sasuke, he really would, and this was currently the best bet he had.
His original idea was to force Sasuke into long-range fighting or maybe support (he wasn’t holding out any hope for the latter, Sasuke was a powerhouse, needing to be front and center of everything)—not wanting him to get the...uh, bloodthirstiness that Naruto felt he would on the front lines—he was brutally efficient in all ranges, after all. But that would also leave Sakura as the close-ranged fighter, and she wasn’t very much a fighter yet, was she?
He could tell she was proficient in earth, water and has killer chakra control. But that would be expected: smaller chakra reserves, easier control. She had quite the potential. He jotted this down, and, after a moment of contemplation, added “ice techniques.”
He could help her with that, easy.
But back to Sasuke. He thought of it in Sasuke’s point of view. If he wasn’t damn near dying at every opportunity, he would feel useless. He needed to be on the front lines. Thinking about it, Sasuke must have been coddled his whole life, forced in the back from either pity or fear. He’d gotten the suspicion that the village feared his deviating, so he wouldn’t take the route the village did; “if you’re not sure about the motives, suppress them,” wasn’t a good rule of thumb in his book.
No, Sasuke needed to be trusted. He needed to be close-ranged, to look back and have a teammate covering him. He needed to feel like he was... wanted . Not feared or pitied or needed . He needed a friend.
Sasuke was physically strong as an ox, not so much mentally.
That...would be harder to help with, but he’d be damned if he ever went back on his word.
Of course, he...hadn’t actually given his word, and he wasn’t a part of Team 7, but it was Kakashi’s team and—you know what? It’s not even worth the thought, he was going to work these “cute little genin” into the dirt!
Certainly, he’d have to nail the idea of Sasuke and Sakura working together —yes, absolutely crazy right?—so they can move comfortably around each other, then there’s always consecutively a close-ranged and mid-ranged fighter, seeing as Naruto planned on them both having, the majority of the time, heavy hitter roles. Oh well, looks like Kakashi’s going to be backup this time, poor thing.
Looking down at his extensive notes, Naruto couldn’t help but feel a teeny bit of excitement kindling, before returning back to his duties of the night watch.
Or, he would have, seriously , he would have, if not for some rustling—something trying to stay silent—piqued his ears, raising his hackles as he switched impressively fast from “the doofy dork who owns an inn” to “shinobi.”
Naruto didn’t have the Byakugan, but he could damn well sense chakra, and those three jōnin level signatures in the distance was not something he could ignore.
He’d leave some shadow clones, just in case.
They had been trailing Kakashi and his team, from what Naruto could gather, based on their equipment. But they weren’t talking, which was Naruto’s only form of information gathering in this situation, other than observation. There wasn’t much to observe though.
They carried light, looked exhausted and wore headbands from a village he couldn’t identify. They didn’t have a slash through them, so likely they weren’t rogue, but since when was there a hidden village with a music note as it’s symbol?
There were only three that he could distinguish, it wasn’t great odds, but in case anything happened, he would release one clone and the other would wake up Kakashi who would either use the scroll Naruto gave him to summon him back or reverse summon himself here.
He wasn’t too worried about himself, no. Naruto was worried about who sent them. Who they were after. They were ninja, unknown ninja. An entire team was only a few days outside the Leaf Village and, as far as Naruto was concerned, no one knew about it .
Less paperwork his ass.
Naruto had begrudgingly accepted that this mission back to Wave, the country of his first “C-ranked” would go as good as it did last time. He wouldn’t fail Team 7 like he did his own team, though.
God, Naruto wouldn’t be surprised if Zabuza and Haku crawled out of the grave to have that rematch Zabuza had promised.
Deciding that he had waited enough—he was only going to get the ninja stationary once, as far as he was concerned—, Naruto silently went through a series of hand signs before whispering “Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors.”