A Little Kindness

That Time Already

   We find our group of heroes standing inside of the Hokage's office, just as they had finished giving their mission report. After they had finished Hiruzen looked as if he was about ten years older than he currently was. "So Zabuza double-crossed Gato, killed him, and then disappeared with his dead comrade?" Hiruzen clarified as he loaded his 4th round of tobacco into his pipe. "Yes sir, that about sums it up." Kakashi replied in his usual carefree manner. "I see, well then if theres nothing else, then I'd like to congratulate you all on your first successful A rank mission. I'll make sure that each of you will get paid adequately. Now you all are dismissed,  except for you Kakashi I need to speak with you privately." Hiruzen said as he lit his pipe, and took a long unhealthy drag on it. "Yes sir, you three take the rest of the day off and meet me at our usual training ground tomorrow at 10 A.M." Kakashi instructed his Genin as they left the room.

   "Sir, if this is about me risking their lives, and continuing the mission despite the danger, I'll take full responsibility, and deal with any punishment you see fit." Kakashi said in a serious voice. "I'll let it slide this time, as everything turned out okay. But next time it might not turn out the same. But that is not what I wanted to speak with you about." Hiruzen replied with his authoritarian tone. "Your team was in the land of waves, for about three weeks. So I would like for you to fill me in on how well they've been progressing." Said Hiruzen as he took another drag on his pipe. "Nearly three weeks huh, I guess that means that it's about that time of year again. That time already, time sure does fly when you're in life or death situations." Kakashi mused out loud. "Always does for me, but tell me Kakashi do you think that they're ready?" Hiruzen questioned, with a curious gaze at the elite Jonin. "While we were away all three of them had mastered tree walking, but Naruto and Sasuke are already able to water walk. Not needing to waste time with that, I went ahead and taught them all about their elemental affinities, and a jutsu of their respective natures." Listed Kakshi as he summarized the training he had done, which piqued Hiruzen's interests. "What are their affinities?" Hiruzen asked as he took another puff from his pipe.

   "Well Naruto's is wind, no surprise there." Hiruzen merely nodded before Kakashi continued. "I expected Sasuke to be fire like most of the other Uchiha's, but he was actually lightning." "That is surprising." Said Hiruzen, who didn't sound the least bit surprised. "But what about Sakura he continued? "Earth" was Kakashi's simple answer. "Good for defense, and support, perfect for her." Do you think that they're ready?" Hiruzen mused, before asking. "Naruto and Sasuke yes, but maybe not Sakura. However I do beleive that this could be an excellent learning experience for her. So yeah, I'd say that they are ready." Kakashi confirmed. "I see, well then that is it, you're dismissed." Hiruzen stated with a wave of his hand, as went back to work battling his greatest foe, the infamous paperwork.

   Meanwhile Naruto had convinced his teammates to join him at Ichiraku's ramen. And by convince I mean he forcefully dragged them there. Knowing that there blonde friend wouldn't shut up, til he had his fill of his favorite delicacy, they agreed to having a couple of bowls with him. And by couple I mean about fifteen in terms of Naruto. Once Naruto had had his fill of ramen, he and Sasuke decided to spend the rest of their day off by doing some training. As they left Sakura, who was in the middle of one of her 'ino-pig' rants, didn't even notice that she had been ditched. Until she got stuck with the bill. Which resulted in a shriek so loud, and so full of anger, that it would scare even the mightiest of shinobi. And if you were to ask the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi what he was doing at the time of the shriek, he would definitely tell you that he was most certainly not hiding under his desk in fear.

   Who was cowering in fear though was Naruto and Sasuke, who had realized that they made an enormous mistake. And were desperately trying to find places to hide. They weren't fsst enough however as Sakura quickly caught up to them, and literally pounced on them pinning them to the ground. As she began her verbal tirade, which made the two boys cower in even more fear, as they thoroughly believed that they were about to die. And they probably would have, if a loud obnoxious laugh hadn't of stopped Sakura mid-tirade.

   Looking behind them, they saw the source of the laughter was coming from a couple of shinobi that they didn't recognize. One of them a blonde haired female. And the other a male with war paint on his face. Upon closer inspection they saw that they were from the sand village. Which immediately put the three members of Team 7 on high alert. "What are a couple of ninja from Suna doing in Konoha?" Sasuke demanded as he activated his Sharingan. "You know that might be a little more intimidating, if you weren't just cowering on the ground like a little baby." Replied the male of the the two. You're not really one to be talking about being intimidating Mr. Makeup." Retorted Naruto. "Its war paint!! War paint!! Not makeup, why does everyone think its makeup!!!" Screamed the male once again. "Probably because you use my spare lipstick to draw it." Came the annoyed answer from the female of the group. "Temari, you're supposed to be on my side!" The male questioned in shock. "Kankuro that's enough, you're embarrassing our village." Came an emotionless voice from the left of the group, as a third shorter member with red hair and a giant gourd strapped to his back appeared from seemingly nowhere. "But they started it!" The male now known as Kankuro snitched. "And I'm finishing it, now shut up, or I'll kill you." The red haired figured said in a commanding and emotionless voice. "Y-yes Gaara, sorry Gaara." Kankuro fearfully stuttered as he shut up. "Temari what is the problem?" Gaara asked the female of their group. "They want to know why we were in their village, and then Kankuro opened his mouth." She said in a serious manner, which turned into a smirk as she took a shot at her still fearful brother.

   "Who are you two? Mother senses great power in you both." Gaara said as he fixed the two with a cold, hard, emotionless stare. "I'm Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke proudly declared. "And I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto loudly proclaimed. "An Uchiha and an Uzumaki huh. Very well, we're here for the upcoming Chunin exams. I hope to see the two of you there. Mother wants your blood." Gaara eerily stated as he disappeared in a swirl of sand. With Kankuro and Temari quickly following after.

   "Chunim exams huh, seems like it'll be fun. A good way for me to test myself." Sasuke said outloud to himself. "I'm with you on that, we should talk to Kakashi about it tomorrow." Agreed Naruto as he and Sasuke were about to continue on their way to training. Only to be stopped by a still pissed off Sakura. Who proceeded to beat her two teammates to a pulp. More so Naruto than Sasuke, which Naruto found to be totally unfair. But only got beat up more when he said it outloud.

   Once Naruto had recovered from his beating, he was sitting alone in his apartment. In a deep discussion with his first and also best friend Kurama. "Naruto the red haired boy, with the gourd is someone you to pay special attention to, and be weary of." Kurama warned, as he began to enter his lecture mode. "Why is that?" Naruto replied in a rare serious tone. Sensing that whatever Kurama was about to tell him was very important. "He is a special one, like you kit. During your conversation, I was able to sense a chakra from deep inside of him that I haven't felt in a long time. The chakra of one of my kind. Shukaku the one tail." Kurama finished as he watched Naruto's reaction. "So he's just like me huh? But at the same time he's also so different. I wonder what happened that made him turn out so much more different than me?" Naruto wondered out loud, as he he lay back and placed his hands behind his back, as he became lost in thought. When he came to he found himself back in his apartment, with a major hunger for some more Ramen.

   As he set to prepare his ramen, he couldn't help but think about Gaara, and he ended up how he did. 'There's only one way to find out I guess.' He thought as he dug into his ramen, and burning his tongue in the process. It seemed that his precious ramen was out to get him today.

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Author's note: Here's the next chapter. Sorry if it feels rushed. I wasn't quite sure, how I wanted to go about writing it. This was mostly just a filler chapter anyway. The next chapter will pick up right at the start of the Chumin exams. Til next time my fellow Shinobi.