a village with(out) me ━ naruto fanfic

3.

Chapter Three: 

Kakashi conceals his chakra and hides atop a tree not too far from the training grounds. He makes himself comfortable and pulls out his beloved icha icha series. "Maa, a few chapters won't hurt," he tells himself, already opening the book to his favourite page. 

It's about thirty minutes later that Kakashi has to forcibly pull himself out of the main character's inner monologue. It's a shame that his pups have begun to fight, Kakashi was rather enjoying being lazy. 

"Congratulations," Naruto praises Sasuke, "you've summoned air." 

Sasuke is quick to defend himself. "Oh, like you can do better, dead last?" 

"Well maybe if you'd let me actually try instead of hogging the scroll all to your lonesome━ " 

Sasuke swiftly grabs Naruto by the front of his orange jacket, lips pulled back into a snarl. Naruto flinches at first, blue eyes wide, but then he quickly schools his expression, snarling back at Sasuke in a way that has his fangs flashing dangerously in the sunlight. 

"Get off," Naruto hisses, full of venom.

Sasuke's brows furrow and then he's gritting his teeth in frustration and releasing Naruto with a shove. 

"Are you two done?" Sakura asks, tone unimpressed. "Because I'd like for us to try together. No offense, Naruto," the girl says, flickering her gaze to the blonde, "but if Sasuke, the top student of our class, can't summon a ninken by himself, what makes you think you can?" 

"That's right," Sasuke smirks, looking smug, "after all, you can't even make a basic clone." 

A tick mark appears just above Naruto's jawline. The boy bites the inside of his cheek to stop himself from lashing out. "Fine,'' he says, "let's summon a ninken. Together."  

They do not summon a ninken, not even by combining their chakras. 

It's getting late and the once blue sky is slowly turning into soft shades of pink and orange. Long gone is the overbearing heat from the day, now it's just a soft warmth that comes with a gentle breeze. 

Sakura wipes the sweet from her brow. "I'm low on chakra,'' she says. 

Sasuke nods stiffly, agreeing. He can't quite come to the terms of not being able to do something. 

"Fuck it," Naruto curses. He goes through the hand signs, smears whatever blood he has left on his thumb along the scroll and then places one hand over Sakura's and the other over Sasuke's. "I've had enough of waiting. I want to get stronger." 

"Naruto, what are you…" Sakura's words die in her throat, green eyes widening in wonder when she sees chakra flickering all around Naruto. There's a swirl of orange amongst all the blue and then there's a cloud of smoke exploding from within the scroll, stopping her from seeing anything else.  

The three genins close their eyes, so close to the impact. Slowly but surely, the smoke clears out and when the genins open their eyes once more, it's to the sight of three large canines, much bigger than your average dogs, with rows of sharp pointy teeth and dangerous golden eyes━ 

"Oh my god," Sakura's mouth falls open in shock. 

"Naruto," Sasuke's hand trembles underneath the blonde’s, "you idiot." 

"I'm sorry," Naruto quickly apologises, raising his shoulders to his cheeks, "I didn't mean to do anything wrong━" 

There's a swirl of leaves behind the three kids and a hand softly touches the top of Naruto's head, stopping him from further talking. Kakashi smiles, "yo," he greets.