The Third Uzukage by Dark-Nate18

Chapter 17: The Wave Mission

The sun was high in the sky, the sound of children laughing echoed through the calm air. The calls of salesmen were mixed in the sound of shop bells dinging. Naruto and the rest of team seven walked down the high street. Naruto was leading the way with Sasuke in the centre, Sakura was following Sasuke closely trying to coax a conversation out of Sasuke, and Kakashi had a cat in his arm and his orange book in his other hand. Naruto's face was a picture of pure calm as he walked, his hands relaxed in his pockets, his spikes and horns blowing ever so gently in the breeze. His boots kicking up a little bit of dirt and dust, his silver eyes were looking at the sky, every so often his head would look to see where he was going but it spent most of the time looking at the clouds. He finally saw what Shikamaru was talking about, he felt calm and at ease. He could ignore the whispers about him, the blatant stares of fear. He knew most of the town suspected him of being the Kyuubi, his hair colour and style seemed to cause many to instantly jump to that conclusion. Naruto tried not to find it funny; they were all scared of the Kyuubi, yet he knew he had the power to crush this village in an instant without the Kyuubi, of course he knew, at his current level he would be destroyed in an instant, but his capabilities, if trained right. Naruto knew he would be able to protect those he cared about. Kakashi watched his team with a critical eye, through the month they had been officially team seven, he had watched the precarious balance of friendship fall into complete disarray. Sasuke had goaded Naruto into a small spar, in which Naruto had wiped the floor with Sasuke. Sakura had instantly snapped and belittled Naruto to extreme proportions; Sasuke had got up and stormed off and from there, the communication dropped to a drastic nil. What bothered Kakashi most was Sasuke and Sakura seemed to have isolated Naruto, and the change in Naruto was worrying Kakashi. He had begun to silence himself; he never spoke unless spoken to around his team. And it was beginning to translate into his everyday life. Iruka had come to Kakashi, he had fretted like a mother hen; Kakashi could see Iruka was a healthy brother for Naruto. Iruka had told him Naruto had changed completely, he wasn't as expressive as before, and his face was always a mask of calm.

Kakashi could also see the stress Naruto's first kill was having on him, he had dark bags under his eyes, in the mornings he was tense and irritable. Kakashi had yet to find the time to talk to Naruto, but he knew out of everyone in the group, Naruto was the only one who would be able to back him up in a fight. Sasuke had taken his loss harshly; he trained to exhaustion every night and because of his over-training, his skills were declining instead of improving. Kakashi instantly knew Naruto and Sasuke's work ethic were completely different. Naruto was much like his father and Kakashi himself, he was a natural, he worked hard yes, but when it came down to it, he was able to process information at a super fast speed, Naruto was a genius. Sasuke was more in tune with others of his battle excelling clan; Sasuke was only learning when he was in battle, he had improved slightly after his fight with Naruto, he was quick with his eyes, he knew where to look, and exploit an enemies flaws. But it seems Sasuke had met his match with Naruto.

"The prodigy and the genius, both advancing to a point one has to stop growing. I hope for all of our sakes, they don't try to kill each other in the process" thought Kakashi. Sakura looked at Sasuke with a frown; he had become so cold, ever since his loss against Naruto, he had become bitter. Throwing himself into his training to extreme measures, a couple of times a ninja had met the in the morning and informed them that Sasuke was in hospital from chakra exhaustion. Sakura had broken down, and when she had turned to see Naruto's reaction, he just stared at the sky shaking his head. she was furious, he acted so superior, she had to admit he had beaten Sasuke fair and square, but to just flaunt it in Sasuke's face by not even acknowledging him. It made Sakura's blood boil. Sakura had then put all of her efforts into proving to Sasuke that she cared about him.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are we doing after this" asked Naruto softly, Kakashi looked up from his book and eye smiled.

"You will see soon" said Kakashi, Naruto rolled his eyes and smiled slightly