An Itachi Fanfiction [EDITING]

A New Chapter Begins - Chūnin Exam

After returning to the village from the Land of Waves mission, things slowly started returning to normal.

Well...

As normal as Team Seven could ever be.

We went back to handling smaller missions around the village, though something between Naruto and Sasuke had definitely changed after the Land of Waves.

They had become unbearably competitive.

Everything turned into a challenge.

Who finished missions faster.

Who trained harder.

Who could eat more ramen.

Honestly, it was exhausting.

At least Sakura and I had started getting along slightly better after the bridge incident. We still argued occasionally, but there was less bitterness behind it now.

One afternoon, Kakashi-sensei dismissed training early with an exhausted sigh.

"You all still lack teamwork," he muttered while shoving his book back into his pocket. "Especially you two."

He pointed directly at Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto immediately started yelling.

Sasuke looked offended that he'd been grouped together with Naruto at all.

I buried my face in my hands.

Definitely the two idiots' fault.

As Sasuke and I started heading home together afterward, Sakura suddenly called after him.

"Sasuke, wait!"

We stopped.

Sakura smiled nervously. "Maybe we should do something together sometime. You know... to improve teamwork."

I rolled my eyes instantly.

Sasuke turned toward her with complete indifference.

"I swear," he said flatly, "you're almost as bad as Naruto."

Naruto gasped dramatically in outrage somewhere behind us.

"If you spent less time flirting and more time training, maybe you'd actually help the team improve."

Sakura froze.

Then Sasuke delivered the finishing blow completely mercilessly.

"Honestly? You're worse than Naruto."

He turned and kept walking like he hadn't just emotionally destroyed someone.

I stared at him in disbelief before quickly glancing back toward Sakura, who looked absolutely devastated.

"...Yikes."

I offered her a genuinely sympathetic smile before hurrying after Sasuke.

"Sasuke," I hissed once I caught up beside him, "you weren't wrong, but did you really have to say it like that?"

"Hn."

Which, translated from Sasuke-language, probably meant:

I said what I said.

A while later, we heard shouting nearby.

Recognising Naruto's voice immediately, we followed the noise until we found him, Sakura, and Konohamaru cornered by foreign shinobi.

One of them — a tall guy with purple face paint and a giant wrapped bundle strapped to his back — had grabbed Konohamaru by the scarf.

Sakura looked furious.