Team 7 (2) – Part 12

Kakashi looked at the four young Genin in front of him and said: “Let’s start with introductions.”

Sakura asked in a rather fake voice(clearly trying to get on his good side): “And what do you want us to say?”

“Hmm ... how about, your name. What you like, what you dislike and your dreams for your future … things like that?” Kakashi said.

“Actually, pink-hair, you start.” Kakashi said while looking at Sakura.

“O-Ok.” Sakura was clearly surprised, but still started anyway. “My name is Sakura Haruno. I like … (looks at Sasuke) … uh, my plans for the future (looks as Sasuke).”

While she was still fawning over Sasuke and squealing to herself, Kakashi said: “And your dislikes?”

“The twins! Especially Naruko!” Sakura shouted.

Naru winced at her annoyingly loud and shrill voice.

“Okay. Naruto, you are next.” Kakashi said, acting as if nothing happened, but slightly annoyed at Sakura’s childishness.

“Hmm. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My likes are … Naru, ramen, training and sleeping? My dislikes are … people that hurt my sister. And as for my dreams for the future? I want to become Hokage. Mainly to become influential enough to have the villagers respect me and Naru, but also to create a real home for Naru and me.” Naruto said with a determined expression on his face.

“Hokage, haha, you? The villagers will never accept a DEMON as their Hokage!” Sakura laughed, as if it was funny.

Naru turned to look at her, letting a bit of killing intent seep out. Instantly Sakura stiffened, her hairs standing up and not even daring to breathe anymore.

Sakura looked into Naru’s eyes and they seemed to scream: “Say any more … and you are dead.”

Kakashi clapped, dispersing the tense atmosphere instantly.

“Sakura, you have no right to meddle with other’s dreams. That is for them to decide.” Kakashi said, looking at Sakura with an extremely stern expression.

Sakura slowly nodded, not daring to look at any of them.

“Naruko, why don’t you continue?” Kakashi says, looking at Naruko’s golden orbs.

 “Sure.” Naru nodded. “My name is Naruko Uzumaki. I like my Nii-chan, ramen, playing in the forest, sleeping, wearing cute clothes and … oh, I also like dango! I just tried it today and it’s really nice!” Naru smiled.

“I’m glad that she likes dango. I’ll make sure ask her if she wants to go eat them with me later … maybe even without Naruto? Though that’ll be her decision to make.” Sasuke looked at her with an especially kind and warm smile.

“Oh? I mean … I certainly noticed that there was something between them, but I didn’t know that Sasuke was already that far gone? Haha~.” Kakashi observed and chuckled in his mind, not showing any actual expression on his face.

“What do you dislike?” Kakashi asked.

“Oh~ … hmm … loud people, I guess? Oh, and I also dislike crowds and people that hurt those that I love!” Naru said while smiling at Kakashi.

“What about your dreams?” Kakashi said as he motioned for her to continue. He was especially interested in this. Would she say something along the lines of wanting to help her brother achieve his dreams, like he predicted, or would she say something else entirely?

“I want to help my Nii-chan fulfill his dream! And I’ll make sure to … (deal with Kurama-nii’s seal, so that he can join our little family!)” Naru did not say the last part out loud, people did not need to know this about her plans for the future. She would tell her Nii-chan about it sometime soon though. She felt that the seal in Naruto’s body was already quite close to being weak enough for Kurama to contact him.

“What will you make sure to do?” Kakashi asked, clearly interested.

“Nothing~” Naru giggled.

Kakashi looked at her for a while before sighing: “Sigh … alright. Duck-butt, what about you?” Kakashi asked, looking at Sasuke.

“Duck-butt~? Heh~?” Naru snickered in her mind, clearly amused at the new nickname Sasuke had just gotten.

Sasuke’s expression warped in mere seconds, but he still started introducing himself.

“His serious expression is so handsome~.” Naru thought, not being able to suppress a soft laugh.

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha. My likes are training, becoming stronger, training(A/N: intentional), dango and … (looks at Naru). *cough* Anyway … my dislikes are weak people that do not work hard to become strong. As for my dreams for the future … no these aren’t dreams. I’ll certainly kill the one that killed my family. I’ll kill my brother, Itachi Uchiha.” Sasuke said with a hate-filled expression on his face.

“I knew that he wanted to kill his brother, but I didn’t know that his hatred for him was this intense?” Kakashi thought.

“Revenge, huh?” Naruto thought, he had been quietly listening all this while, not really feeling like interrupting his new teammates’ introductions.

Naru looked at Sasuke in worry and thought: “His hatred is strong. He needs to make sure not to lose himself in it … otherwise he’ll never be happy. It’s too tiring to hate all your life. It’s not worth it. I should know that after hating the world’s cruelty for so many years …”

“Alright … now that we have that done, tomorrow we wi-“ Kakashi started, only to be interrupted by Sakura who had by now recovered from her day-dreams.

“Sensei, won’t you tell us about your likes, dislikes and dreams too?”

“Hmm, oh~, I totally forgot about that. I have some things that I like, some things that I dislike. And as for my dreams … you don’t really need to know.” Kakashi said while giving them a close-eyed smile, at least they thought that he was smiling … they couldn’t see most of his face after all.

“You didn’t really say anything …” Sakura mumbled.

“So?” Kakashi asked her.

“No, but …” Sakura mumbled again.

“Just meet me tomorrow at the training grounds assigned to our Team. Make sure to arrive early … hmm, around 5 am should be fine? And make sure not to eat breakfast, you’ll only puke it out! Take your ninja gear with you, you’ll need it!” After saying that, Kakashi shunshinned away, leaving behind only a slight gust of wind.

Naru sensed that something about his words was not right, the way that he seemed to randomly decide the time for their meeting seemed weird … but she couldn’t pinpoint the exact thing that bothered her.

Just as most of them were lost in thought about what their sensei had said before leaving, they heard a loud voice saying: “Sasuke … don’t you know that those two are the fox’s incarnations, they are monsters! You really shouldn’t be with them … especially that Naruko! If you saw her eyes then-“ Sakura screamed before being interrupted by a slightly deep, but still youthful voice. You could hear that this voice, once matured, would become incredibly husky, which would make many people feel intimidated or charmed.

“Shut up. You have no right to tell me who I want to be with … especially not you. You are extremely weak, stupid and useless. You shouldn’t have been in this team, if you don’t start training yourself, you will only serve to hold us back. And make sure to never talk about Naruko like that again, I’ll make you regret it!” Sasuke said, looking at the pink-haired girl in anger, usually only appearing on his face when he talked about his brother, the one that killed his clan.

Sakura was clearly surprised by his sudden outburst, she had clearly believed him to wake up when she told him about the twins true selves. But … instead he had defended them and told HER to shut up? He must be crazy … no, her Sasuke … can’t be crazy … then maybe it was her instead? Were the twins not like what she was taught that they were? I mean sure, she never really bothered getting to know them, or giving them any kind of attention in her life … but, if Sasuke said that they weren’t like that … then it must be true!

“Sasuke got angry for me? This feels … really nice actually …” Naru thought while looking at Sasuke with a slight blush covering her cheeks.

Naruto just thought: “Perhaps he isn’t too bad, Naru seems to like him quite a bit too. It’s probably worth it to get to know him.”

A few seconds later, Sasuke stood, clearly not intending to spend another minute on the roof with the annoying pink-haired girl.

He looked at Naru and Naruto: “I’ll see you two tomorrow?”

“Mhm~” Naru bobbed her head cutely, still slightly blushing.

“Sure, see you tomorrow.” Naruto said while also giving him a smile. Those that were kind to Naru, were good people. He’d try to get to know them.

Soon after, Sasuke turned around and descended from the roof. Seconds after, Sakura also left, not intending to spend another awkward minute on the roof with the twins she had just insulted.

As soon as both had left, Naruto also stood up and looked at Naru, who was still sitting on the stairs: “Want to go train in the forest? And maybe eat some ramen for dinner?”

“Sure, let’s go Nii-chan~!” Naru said as she stood up and took his hand.

Soon, they disappeared from their spot and reappeared outside of Konoha at their usual training spot. Around here, several trees were already completely destroyed or cut by swords. There were dummies prepared for throwing shuriken or kunai, most of them looked rather worn already.

There were also some rather hard to hit targets placed between trees and other forestry, making for rather interesting practice targets.

 

…

 

“Kagebunshin no Jutsu.” I say while smoke rises around me.

Soon, 20 clones that look exactly like me appear around me. All of them held a training sword, though 10 of them soon exchanged that for shuriken and kunai they had taken out of the pouch at their waist.

“10 of you practice throwing at targets, gradually increase the difficulty. The other ten of you do mock fights against each. Make sure to train your reaction speed and your instinctual responses to random attacks. Also try to conceal your intent to attack. If we can someday succeed in that, then we can attack others that have honed their senses to a high level and still land an effective blow on them without them even noticing. We can already perfectly conceal our chakra aura, but … our attacking intent is still radiated to the outside and good close-range fighters can easily sense it.” I say to my clones and they, having received their orders, nod and jump away, quickly busying themselves with their respective orders.

“These shadows clones are really usefull~. I’m glad Nii-chan learned this jutsu and taught it to me. The memory sharing function is especially effective when training any kind of jutsu or technique. All the fighting experience the clones have gained whether that be in mind or body, is transferred to the caster after they dissipate. Also, the almost perfect copy of the user’s chakra signature is extremely useful against dojutsu users. Even Hinata couldn’t see through them with her byakugan when we showed our clones to her.”

“So … what will I do today? Hmm~, I think I’ll just go and watch Nii-chan again!” I smile to myself before closing my eyes and extending my senses, after some time I start moving towards the place where I sensed my brother’s chakra.

Actually, my unconscious ability to sense hostility and chakra signatures does not extend past 10 meters in range while I’m in my human form. It’s only if I focus on it, that my ability range becomes nearly endless as long as I feed it enough chakra. In my giant fox form, my chakra beast aura is very hard to conceal and if I let it run free, my sensor abilities skyrocket without me actually doing anything.

I soon arrive at a clearing, in which I can already hear kunai and shuriken hitting their targets.

My brother usually trained his taijutsu and his weapon throwing skills through his clones. He had already reached a high amount of accuracy in his throwing skill, even higher than I had. Our taijutsu skill for the academy style had long reached its peak. The only thing we could train in were our instincts and our reflexes. Those could only be built up over time. I’d say we are doing quite well training them. Though, Nii-chan’s body strength had also soon reached his young body’s limit long ago, perhaps only through special training, could he break through his limits (A/N: 8 Gates? And weights?). He would usually train his body, even though it had reached its current limit, while his clones trained his other skills.

“I’m not going to lie, Nii-chan you look really handsome~!” I giggle while looking at his sweat-covered form doing pushups and several other exercises. Actually, all this muscle training wouldn’t really contribute much to his fighting ability. I had taught him how to infuse chakra into his strikes long ago, that was several times more useful than some stronger muscles. But he liked training his muscles, it made him feel satisfied. If he didn’t do it, then he wouldn’t be able to sleep well at night, or so he said when I questioned him about it.

“I’m sure Hinata would love seeing you train~” I say with a teasing smile watching him blush and nearly fall to the ground.

…

 

[A few hours later, at Ichiraku’s]

“Oh, my favorite customers! Finished training for today?” Teuchi, the owner of Ichiraku, asked us with a smile as we sat down.

Naru and Naruto nod before opening their mouths to tell Teuchi what they’d like to eat today.

“The usual, right?” He smiled, receiving a nod from the twins. “Coming right up!” Teuchi said with a smile before buying himself together with his daughter Ayame. Soon, the twins first servings of ramen were prepared. The steaming bowls looked incredibly appetizing.

It was only after Naru had devoured 3 and Naruto 5 bowls of ramen that they stopped eating.

“Thanks for the food(x2)!” The twins say before getting up from their seats, paying and finally leaving the ramen stall.

As soon as they arrived at their apartment, Naru asks her brother: “Do you want to go through with what Kakashi-sensei said about not eating any breakfast?”

Naruto shook his head: “No, to be honest, even though his eyes said that he was not lying, I somehow get the feeling that he is trying to trick us. What do you say, should we just go with it?”

“Sure, we(you) need the energy from the food to fight, so even if we puke it out, it won’t really matter much. Don’t you think so too?” Naru asked her brother, wearing a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Mhm, I agree, that’s reasonable. Let’s just eat a simple breakfast tomorrow morning. What do you say? Sleep now~?” Naruto asked her with a smile.

“Sure. Good night, Onii-chan~!” Naru giggled while giving him a tight hug.

After stopping their embrace, they both entered their respective rooms and slept until the early morning of the next day.

After properly washing themselves, getting dressed and eating a simple breakfast, they leave for the training ground especially designated to Team 7.

They arrive at around 5 am, only to see that Sakura and Sasuke were already there.

 

…

 

A/N: Next time … bell test! I quite liked the bell test scene to be honest.

Thank you for reading this chapter and please do tell me what you think of it. Were how the characters acted believable or did they seem heavily OOC?