ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

The bell test p.4

Naruko blushed slightly as she got up and lightly smacked his arm, "That's different!" she defended, blush still present on her cheeks. "And it's training! It's supposed to be fun!"

Naruto laughed as he patted her head, making her pout. "Alright, you win. Ramen after the test as an apology, what do you say?" he asked with a warm smile, making her nod happily as she cheered causing him to laugh lightly.

Sakura shook her head slightly at the scene in front of her with a giggle. Watching the Uzumaki sibling's lighthearted bantering was actually cute and refreshing to see, and it made Sakura forget about her inadequacy as a kunoichi for the time being. It's just something about their aura and presence that makes her want to smile and laugh with them. It was warm, bright and calm . . . like a small sun that seems to pull the people around them.

Naruko smiled as she turned to Sakura. "So, what do you say?" she asked with an eager expression, one which Sakura was currently seeing instead of the usual glare or look of annoyance that she was accustomed to. It felt . . . nice, like she was being accepted by the blonde girl, which secretly made the Haruno girl happy.

Sakura just smiled, acceptance and gratitude was reflected in her eyes. "What do I need to do?"

This time it was Naruto who stepped forward as he offered his hand to her, one which she accepted as he pulled her to stand.

Naruto nodded. "I'll tell you on the way, but right now we need to go see if duck-butt's okay," he said, "Can't have his royal pompous ass left behind in the ditch, right?" he joked.

Sakura frowned and was about to retort when Naruko lightly slapped him upside of the heat, making him hold the spot in mock pain. "Language Onii-chan." She chided.

"Sumimasen . . ." Naruto apologized sheepishly.

Sakura sighed as she decided to let it slide for now for Naruto's derogatory remark of Sasuke, but some part of her actually found it pretty funny. "Alright then, lead the way."

The three of them only took less than five minutes with Naruko in the lead since she's the best sensor of Team Seven to reach where Sasuke was, and Sakura had to clamp her mouth down tightly to avoid screaming at seeing only the head of Sasuke on the ground, glaring daggers at the three of them in annoyance. After calming herself down, she looked on to see Naruko giggling while Naruto arch an eyebrow in amusement.

"What's the matter Uchiha-san?" Naruto asked with a small grin, looking down on Sasuke from his height, "In over your head?"

Sasuke growled at Naruto's attempt at the joke as he glared bloody murder at the blonde boy. "Normally I would make you eat those words, dobe." he growled out, "But I don't have time for this! Get me out!" he yelled.

Naruto sighed as he closed his eyes to master his growing annoyance. "I'll get you out, but first are you willing to work with Sakura and Naruko-chan as a team?" he asked carefully, knowing the egotistic and hotheaded Uchiha would more than likely refuse such a request.

Sasuke scoffed, as predicted. "Why would I? They'll just slow me down, besides," he sneered, "I don't need your help; I can get the bells on my own as I've almost gotten them when I fought Kakashi."

Naruko narrowed her eyes at Sasuke's arrogance along with his rudeness for addressing their sensei without the honorific. It's just some of the qualities that she despised in Sasuke; and that was why his every attempt in wooing her ended up in failure because she repeatedly shot him down. Naruko had no problems being as his friend, but nothing more. Besides, he still needs to get his stick out of his butt in order to fulfill even that requirement for being her friend. If she were given a choice between choosing Sasuke or Naruto as her friend, she would choose the latter any day without a single thought.

Naruto opened his eyes and stared down at him as his gaze hardened slightly. "It's that your final answer?" he asked lowly.

Sasuke merely held his head up, even in his position while staring up defiantly with his own onyx eyes and one could almost see the sparks flaring between them as they stared each other down, Sasuke glaring while Naruto merely adopted a neutral expression.

After a minute or two of tense silence, Naruto was the first to break it as he sighed. "If that is your wish, then I will honor it to the best of my ability." He said politely, earning a shocked gasp from the two females and a smug grin from the raven haired boy. He then turned to his two other companions. "Let's go, we're wasting time here." He said and was about to walk off when Sasuke shouted.

"Hey! What about getting me out of this, dobe?!"

Naruto grinned as he continued walking. "You said you didn't need our help, so help yourself out of that hole, Uchiha-san." He said with mirth in his tone.

Sakura was about to protest when Naruko just grabbed her arm and pulled her along roughly, leaving a fuming and cursing Sasuke behind as they walked away – his string of curses were so colorful that it would make a sailor blush. Once out of hearing range, Sakura finally asked her unasked question with barely contained anger, "Why did you leave him behind?! We should've helped him!"

Naruko sighed as she turned to Sakura and spoke seriously, "To teach him a lesson." At Sakura's angry questioning look, Naruko continued, "He has to be willing to work with other people if this team is to work. We're named Team Seven for a reason, and that means teammates work together." She explained.

Sakura pointed at Naruto. "But your brother's not part of Team Seven, so why is he helping us?" she asked.

This time it was Naruto who answered. "Simple, because I don't care we're not even in the same team; we are Konoha shinobi, we look out for each other." He explained with a small smile. "My parents entrusted me with their Will of Fire, which is the desire to protect those precious to me and this village. Konoha is the tree and we are the leaves, and each leaf is connected by the branches; in short we are one big family."

Sakura was in awe as she listened. She was amazed by the maturity in which he spoke, and the deep understanding of their village's philosophy. She had heard from the older adults about the Will of Fire, but she herself didn't know much of it besides it encompassing the way of life of every Konoha shinobi. Her respect for the brother of her teammate grew a little after that, and she couldn't help but get jealous of her lucky blonde haired teammate.

Naruko just beamed proudly at her brother when he spoke. This was the Onii-chan she knew and love.

Sakura nodded as she turned serious, "Okay, I understand why you left Sasuke-kun behind . . ." he said begrudgingly.

Naruko placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry, Sasuke will come out of it, I'm sure. If not, well . . ." she said mischievously with a devilish smirk, making Sakura shudder slightly in fright, "Pray to Kami that he will come about, okay?"

Naruto shook his head as he heard that as his sister's animosity towards Sasuke was even greater than his was back during his time. "Okay, listen up, here's what we're going to do . . ." he started to explain his plan to Sakura, who just quietly listened and nodded every once in a while, and when he was done, Sakura was cracking her knuckles with a sickening sweet smile on her face.

"It's payback time for making me wake up that early . . ." she ominously said, making Naruko grin as Naruto inched away from her in slight discomfort, reminding him way too much of the Sakura in his time. Naruto cleared his throat before the trio leaped into the tree line, heading in the general direction of their sensei to set their plan in motion.

Kakashi looked up from his book as he sensed the approach of one of his students, and to his surprise it was Sakura heading in a straight beeline to where he was at. He had not expected the weak link of Team Seven to charge him head on since she was so laughably weak in all aspects of shinobi combat. But still, Kakashi admired her gutsiness to continue, even if it was futile. Besides, he was getting bored just reading for another hour, not that he would mind. He idly wondered where the rest of his students were at . . .