In The Leaves | A 'Naruto' fan story | SasuNaru

No effect

The weather was calm on the way to their destination. Their mission was to escort the master bridge-builder, Tazuna, to the Land of Waves. 

It was Team 7's first C- rank mission, and of course Naruto was hyped to fight enemies. 

But that didn't last long when chunins appeared causing Naruto panic, and get struck by one of the chunin's poisonous metal gauntlets. 

Sasuke ended up taking them down in Naruto's absence, and found out they were the Demon Brothers. 

Sasuke rubbed it in by one-upping of Naruto by calling him a scaredy-cat. 

Once the attackers had been restrained, Naruto bled out the poison he had received by stabbing his wound with a kunai , swearing upon the pain in his hand never to freeze up and leave his friends to fend for themselves ever again.

 Sasuke felt a hint of care in his stomach when he saw Naruto stab himself, but brushed off the feeling quickly to not mind it. 

Kakashi, his suspicions raised by the attack, asked Tazuna for the truth about the circumstances of the mission. Tazuna explained that the Land of Waves had been taken over by a shipping magnate called Gato, who had effectively bankrupted all the people of the country, and that the only way to revitalise the economy was by building a bridge to the mainland that could render moot Gatō's shipping monopoly. 

However, Gatō did not want that to happen, and used shinobi gangs to assert his control. Team 7's actual mission was to support and protect the bridge-building efforts that had been balked this far.

On the way to the Land of Waves, Sasuke kept peeking at Naruto at the corner of his eye, and turned away when the boy looked at him. Sasuke almost allowed himself to feel the butterflies that was building up inside of him, and bit down on his own tongue to get rid of them. 

There was no need to get all caring for Naruto Uzumaki, he doesn't need a friend. All he cares about is killing Itachi Uchiha and avenging his clan. 

When they arrived at the Land of Waves and on the way to Tazuna's home, Naruto, bent on outdoing Sasuke, threw a kunai at a bush, surprising the other ninja and putting them on guard.

Sasuke tried to ignore his behavior, but Naruto wasn't making it easy to ignore him when his idiocy could be sensed.  

Once it was clear that it was nothing, Sakura yelled at him for his obvious mistake, but Naruto threw another kunai at a bush in the other direction. Sakura hit him on the head this time, though Naruto swore he had sensed something. 

As it turned out, he had sensed a snow rabbit, which was now scared out of its mind due to the kunai only an inch from its head. Naruto apologized to and sympathized profusely with the rabbit, picking it up and hugging it to hard-if he hugged the rabbit anymore. It could suffocate.

"Only Naruto is capable of accidentally killing rabbits by hugging it." Sasuke scuffed at the thought. 

While the others dismissed his foolish behavior as Naruto's usual idiocy, Kakashi noticed something strange about the rabbit: its fur was white. Snow rabbits are only white during winter, meaning that this rabbit had been raised indoors and therefore belonged to someone nearby.

Sasuke held back a laugh that was about to escape his lips. Naruto was being his usual self, and still managed to get to Sasuke without much effort. 

No effect at all and he's still a loser to Sasuke. 

"Everyone! Duck!" Kakashi shouted. 

Everyone ducked as told, and a giant sword spun past them. If Kakashi didn't notice it-it would've nearly killed them all.