Naru: Misty Eyes (A Naruto Fanfic) [Complete]

Chapter Twenty: So It Begins

"... Anyways, that's how this works. Get moving!"

Naru sighed. She really didn't want to do this. Why was she here? Oh, yeah... To support her wonderful teammates.

"Pay attention, dobe," Sasuke hissed under his breath, no doubt glaring at her.

"Whatever, teme." Naru shrugged, surging forward with the crowd of prospective-chunin around her. Once they were inside the training ground, Naru heard the gates screech closed. How comforting. "Alright. What are we doing?"

Naru heard Sakura facepalm and sigh. "We're trying to find the opposite scroll to the one we have."

"Which is?"

"An Earth scroll. We need to find a Heaven scroll." Sasuke sounded annoyed. Of course, Anko had just detailed the purpose of the exam, so Naru should've known what was going on. Except she hadn't been paying attention.

"We have an Earth scroll too," Temari said, the three Sand nin making their presences known. "Might as well work together to get a couple Heaven scrolls."

"No way," Sasuke said, probably frowning in what he thought was a menacing way.

"Really? Doubling our numbers, adding another healer, and having Gaara's defensive and offensive abilities helping us instead of working against us sounds like a bad idea to you?" Naru shook her head with a shrug of her shoulders. "Kids these days."

"We're the same age!"

"Yet I'm seeing so much more reason than you." Naru smirked. "I know! I'm gonna go with them. You can come or not, but you need your whole team to finish. Byeee!" At least she'd listened to part of the instructions...

"Fine! We'll work together. Happy now, dobe?"

"Oh, immensely," Naru laughed. It was too easy to rile Sasuke up. It made him easy to manipulate. Perhaps she should warn him about that... later.

"Be nice, Naru," Gaara chided lightly. "He is your teammate."

"What if I don't wanna..." Naru pouted, arms crossing and staff tapping her leg.

"You said you'd do anything for me," Gaara reminded her teasingly, slinging an arm around her shoulders. Already, she could hear Temari and Kankuro snickering at the comment. "Play nice with your Leaf nin teammates. Pretty please?"

"Fine, fine. That's so mean of you, using my words against me."

"As if you haven't done it a million times to me, Naru."

"Alright, that's fair." Naru laughed again, smiling. She felt a lot better about this entire exam now that Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari were with them as well. She liked Sasuke and Sakura, really, but they could get to be too much for her at times. Hopefully having the Sand Siblings around would counteract that.

"Great. Can we actually get started now?" Sasuke asked, sounding for all his life as though he were bored. Well, almost. Naru heard the excitement underlying his supposed boredom.

~*~

That evening, they had a total of four scrolls, two Heaven and two Earth, and were about three quarters of the way to the tower. Naru wasn't sure why, but she felt uneasy. Everyone else seemed happy. Sasuke and Kankuro were in a temporary truce and had fallen into easy banter. Sakura and Temari were talking, exchanging thoughts on each other's techniques and how to maximize their abilities while minimizing chakra use. They were talking way too fast and animatedly for Naru to really keep up with the conversation though. Gaara was next to her, quiet but not apprehensive. If even he wasn't bothered, Naru wondered what was making her feel so ill at ease.

They reached the tower no later than midnight, and still nothing had happened. Naru's sense of dread was increasing by the second. Should she say something?

"Naru, what's wrong? You've been on edge all night," Gaara suddenly spoke up from beside her, making the entire group pause.

"I don't know. Something just feels... off." Naru shifted uncomfortably, knowing she couldn't name what was wrong and therefore would likely be written off.

"There doesn't appear to be anything wrong at the moment," Sasuke said. There it was. "We'll be sure to stay ready, though, just in case. Getting caught unaware, especially after being warned, would be pathetic." Oh... He was actually taking her seriously.

"Right," Sakura agreed, sounding determined. "We're almost done here, Naru. Don't worry too much; we'll all be sure to stick together, especially if anything happens."

Naru smiled, small but still a smile. "Thanks, you guys."

"Whatever, dobe. Let's just get inside."

"Right. Lead the way, teme."

As they walked into the building, Gaara leaned over to whisper in her ear. "You have good friends here, Naru." She just nodded her head. Yes, she did.