Third POV
Team 7 had just returned from their mission in the land of waters. Of course, the third hokage was furious to see that Naruto had managed to get himself nearly killed again.
"Honestly, Naruto-kun, you really have a bad talent of getting hurt or almost killed." Hiruzen grumbled while flipping through a stack of paper. Naruto chuckled nervously, the old monkey did have a point. "Sorry, Jii-Chan." Naruto's head faced down as Hiruzen smacked him on the backside of said head.
"Anyway, I'm giving team 7 a break. Dismissed!"
"Hai!" Naruto Said before anyone could speak, then grabbed his sensei and teammate's arms and teleported them to training ground 7.
"So, I lied. These 2 are still genin level, but I did train them a lot more." Naruto admitted, before getting a bonk on the head by a pissed-off Kakashi.
"No more lying to me. Deception sure is the way of ninjas, but deception that doesn't help is completely useless and will pull down the team." Kakashi fired away at a grumbling Naruto.
"Well, what's going on here?" An unknown female voice said.
Team 7 turned to the source, which was in the form of Tsunade Senju. "Baa-Chan!" Naruto ran over and gave her a light hug. She hugged back, then held him out at shoulder's length, "You haven't hurt yourself again, have you?"
Naruto sighed in defeat, while Tsunade huffed. She really was tired of Naruto getting himself hurt.
"Well, since you trained them, I've decided to enroll you 3 into the Chunnin exams! I feel like you guys can do it and become spectacular Chunnin."
"Then Let's train!" Naruto said with a grin on his face. Little did the other 2 know that he was about to pummel and train them till they hit the earth.
//time-skip to the Chunnin exams 1st test day//
A/N: They have already passed the genjutsu thing, so they are in the exam room.
"Woah, look at Sakura, she grew in weight! Did she eat too much, She might look fat and ugly too. Sasuke-kun and I just MIGHT HAVE A CHANCE AHHHHHH!" Ino squealed while her teammates both face-palmed.
"Oho, look! It's Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura! Look, Sakura has some muscles on her arms!" Kiba ogled.
"Kiba-kun, she must be training hard now. I think Naruto-kun changed her from a fangirl to a real kunoichi." Hinata stated. She already knew from Naruto telling her that when he came back to the Hyuuga compound one day. Plus, she could just tell that Sakura was finally training. The girl indeed had muscle on her arms, but the main reason why Hinata knew was because of her womanly intuition. All people have some 6th sense that tells them a specific thing. Hinata was blessed with the ability to know if something has changed.
"ALRIGHT! QUIET YOU LITTLE PIECES OF POND SCUM!" Ibiki roared as he entered the room. Everyone immediately scrambled to obey, they — especially the Konoha gennins who knew Ibiki — all didn't want to deal with a sadistic interrogator.
//time-skip because I'm so lazy, to the 10th question//
Naruto: Already knew the answers being ANBU and all, also, very smart.
Sakura: Book smarts made her glide like a swan though the test.
Sasuke: Used the skills of the sharingan to copy the writing instrument movements of the person who was in front of him.
Kiba: Asked Akamaru to peak at other's papers.
Hinata: Used Byakugan to see through a person at their test sheet.
Shino: Used his insects to look at other's answers.
Neji: Same as Hinata.
Tenten: (A/N: I DON'T EVEN KNOW PEOPLE SO USE YOUR IMAGINATION OR LOOK IT UP).
Rock Lee: Same as Tenten.
Ino: Used her mind transfer jutsu to the person in front of her and memorized the answers.
Shikamaru: Was smart, so he didn't need help.
Choji: Ino transmitted her answers to Choji.
A/N: BACK TO MY NORMAL WRITING
"Alright. Now is the last question. Those who wish to withdraw may do so now!" Ibiki boomed. The whole of the rookie 12 didn't move a muscle, mostly because Naruto — who was right next to Ino — used her jutsu to threaten the rest of them.
//Tiny flashback//
IF ANYONE QUITS, I WILL PERSONALLY COME TO YOUR CLAN'S OR PARENTS' HOUSE AND ASK FOR YOU TO BE DISOWNED. AFTER THAT I WILL MURDER YOU IN THE MOST PAINFUL WAY. Naruto growled with unbearable bloodlust.
No one dared to object.
//Flashback end//
//I'm unbearably annoying and lazy, so Imma skip to when team 7 is INSIDE the forest of death looking for a heaven scroll. I'm gonna Change up a lot of things, so yeah.//
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were all jumping from branch to branch. Soon, they found a heaven scroll lying on the floor of the forest.
Sasuke smirked, Looks like another team of idiots dropped their scroll. This is almost too easy.
Naruto glared at him while Sakura stared at the Uchiha in surprise. "Hn?" 'I just said that out loud, didn't I?'
Naruto nodded before landing a solid fist to Sasuke's head, the latter obviously dodged. "Stupid Uchiha pride," Naruto muttered for the others to hear, Sasuke grunted in annoyance. "That's what caused their downfall." Naruto whispered the last sentence so no one heard.
"if you keep saying these things, you're going to get us jinxed." Naruto grumbled out loud again.
And so, of course, their supposedly simple path through the forest of death was impeded by a certain snake pedophile.
The 'woman' jumped right into their field of vision so suddenly that all three almost fell off the branch they landed on if not for Naruto, the god of quick reflexes.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked cautiously.
"Why, there's no need to know me. All that you 3 need to know is that you shall die soon." The woman replied laughingly before licking her lips with her disgustingly long tongue.
And she lunged.
(A/N: I'd like to say that is the end of the chapter because that's an awesome cliffhanger, but even I know that it can't be enough, so I'm giving you people some more story.)
Naruto grabbed his Male teammate by the collar and his female teammate by the waist and jumped out of the way of the snake woman. "She's fast." Naruto murmured. He knew from the beginning that this was Orochimaru.
Naruto gasped as the newly identified Orochimaru appeared out of nowhere at Naruto's back, grabbed their earth scroll, and delivered such a harsh kick to Naruto's stomach that the latter spat out a mouthful of blood. His teammates managed to grab onto some branches and stay up at Orochimaru' s branch's level, but the poor blonde was head butted into a branch much lower, and he was out of commission for a while.
Sasuke took it onto himself to protect his teammates. He wasn't as strong as Naruto, and he wasn't as brainy as Shikamaru, but he had some of both to credit himself with.
Sasuke battled Orochimaru as Sakura Jumped down to find a very injured Naruto. She used what medical ninjutsu and chakra she had to heal him to the best of her ability, while Kurama worked hard and fast to make sure his kit didn't die.
Naruto POV
I could barely see anything because of the pain.
I swear, at this point I think I'm getting hurt WAY too many times.
I quickly thanked Sakura and Kurama once I was able to see, then got up, picked Sakura up, and jumped to where Sasuke was fending off Orochimaru. I put her down, then ran into the battle and tried to help Sasuke fight. I mean, I was an A-rank ninja only because of my speed and Ninjutsu, same reason for me being an ANBU. I may be strong to some extents, but I couldn't hold off a Sannin for too long. Orochimaru wasn't called that for nothing.
"Sasuke!" I yelled at my duckbutt-haired teammate, "You take the right I'll take the left!" Sasuke yelled back an incomprehensible answer, but I took that as a yes as Sasuke did what I asked.
Third POV
Both tied strong ninja wire to the trunk of the tree behind them, then went their separate ways, and ran in circles around Orochimaru so much that The snake Sannin was covered in wire. Then Orochimaru decided enough was enough. He could not allow these youngsters to continue. The snake first escaped the wire by shedding his skin (which was so gross that Sakura had to go throw up), then extended his neck to bite Sasuke, which was his whole goal of being here.
"ARGHHHHHH!!!!" Sasuke screamed in pain as the Sannin bit him.
"NOOOOO!!!!" Naruto and Sakura yelled.
Naruto quickly grabbed Sasuke and Sakura, then quickly made the super long Raijin jump to Naruto's room in the tower (he used to visit Anko so much that she set up the top room in the tower for him.)
Luckily, Naruto had cleaned this room of everything related to his personal life before, so it looked just like a normal room.
"Sakura-Chan, I can't stay awake any longer. Wake me up if Sasuke awakens. And if someone ambushes us. And this is the key to the door." Naruto handed Sakura the key before falling breathlessly on the bed, out cold.
Sakura POV (A/N: bet you didn't expect that, huh?)
Naruto-kun gave me the keys and then passed out on the bed. I feel so bad, I barely did anything while my teammates did everything!
But right now, I couldn't sit and regret anything. I had to help my teammates. I first carried Sasuke-kun to the bed and lay him next to Naruto-kun, who I straightened out.
Then I went to the bathroom, found 2 small towels, dampened them, then placed them on the foreheads of my teammates.
Third POV
Sakura did everything she could to keep her teammates safe and let them rest.
Then she locked the door, cursing herself for forgetting to do that in the first place. Then she could take some rest too.
//time-skip//
Pain seared in Sasuke's neck, and he slowly groaned his way back to life. "Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelped in surprise.
She quickly patted Naruto's cheek to wake him up, but Sasuke stopped her, "Let him sleep. He must be tired." Sasuke murmured, but quickly was stopped as Naruto groaned back to life.
"Thank you Sakura-Chan. You did what I asked." Naruto spoke, still half-awake. "Are you alright?" Sakura asked, her voice crackling with worry.
"I-I think so. But that kick Orochimaru gave me wasn't ordinary-" Naruto was stopped as a searing inferno of pain entered his chakra coils. He grunted and turned to one side on the bed holding his stomach at the place where his seal was.
"Naruto-kun! What's wrong?" Sakura asked, now so worried a headache formed. She climbed on the bed and grabbed Naruto's hand. He squeezed her hand and grit his teeth together in an attempt to ease the pain.
After what seemed like an eternity, Naruto let go of Sakura's hand. "Sorry Sakura-Chan. That hurt real bad."
"It's okay. You did great back there. But what happened?" Sakura asked.
"It looks like Orochimaru put a sealing jutsu on me, so I can't use a lot of my chakra right now." Naruto blended the truth with lies, he couldn't reveal who he was.
"Sakura, take some rest. There's no need for a watch, no one can get into this room besides the people I allow." Naruto told her.
"Naruto-kun, we both know sleep is far away from the horrors that are reality." Sakura said while trying to comb through her tangled hair. (A/N: I don't remember if I said it was long or short in my story, please assume that after the wave incident Sakura-Chan kept her hair long.)
"For once I agree." Sasuke said while massaging a crinkle between his eyebrows. He had a pulsing headache.
"Sakura, come here." Naruto said. She sat in front of Naruto's dangling legs, her back and messy hair toward him.
"AHH! What are you doing?" She squealed in pain as her hair was tugged.
"Seriously, consider learning to use a rubber band. Your hair has turned into tangled locks." Naruto chuckled while he combed her hair with his slender fingers.
(A/N: DON'T MIND THE WAY I USE WORDS, when some of my family members put their hair in ties or whatever it is, we always called them rubber bands not hair ties or whatever.
And please excuse my terrifyingly bad grammar.)
"Oh."
Naruto finally removed all the tangles to show silky, soft pink hair to the owner. Sakura widened her eyes, her hair had never shined and glistened the way it did now, even with the best shampoos.
"How'd-"
"A magician never reveals their secrets!" Naruto answered cheekily while holding a finger to his lips.
"Now hush, I need to get to work." Naruto playfully chided before going back to the hair. He carefully separated the strands into 3 equal sections, then twisted and turned them to form a strong yet simple braid.
"What did you do?" Sakura asked curiously.
"I made a braid for you. I found that most Kunoichi that I know wore their hair in braids. That way, your hair doesn't become heavy." Naruto told her.
"Thank you!" Sakura suddenly jumped up and hugged her teammate. He hesitated for a second, then hugged back.
"Now, for that headache Sasuke." Naruto turned and moved toward the other side of the bed where Sasuke had flopped back on the pillows due to the pain in his head.
"Sit up." Naruto commanded. Sasuke did as he was told, and while his face showed no signs, his eyes dulled due to a flair of pain in his head.
"Stay still." Naruto put his left hand at the back of Sasuke's duck-butt hair and used the first 2 fingers of his right hand to press in a circular motion at the center of Sasuke's eyebrows, where he had done the same moments ago.
Sasuke closed his eyes and almost fell asleep, if not for Naruto holding him up.
"Wow, you're right Naruto-kun, it's much easier to sleep like this." Sakura murmured as she fell asleep. Naruto let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"Wow, I know it's nice Sleepyhead, but you can't sleep just yet." Naruto held Sasuke's back up as the latter almost fell back onto the bed and fell asleep.
Sasuke POV
"Why not?" I whined slightly. I wanted to sleep like Sakura was doing right now. She even made the tiniest of snores, which made it sound even cuter-
SASUKE WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??? I mentally cursed myself.
Rage, revenge, rage, revenge, rage, revenge, Itachi- The last one sobered me up.
Naruto POV
"Why not?" Sasuke whined.
I chuckled, "Because I can tell you're still struggling with the headache."
He huffed, and I chuckled again at the stubbornness. I continued to massage his head, but I lay him down. My arms were getting tired.
He sighed, then soon enough, I heard slow breathing. I checked that Sakura was deep asleep, then I dragged her more onto the bed, since it looked like she was falling off. I put Sasuke in a more stable position, so that he wouldn't fall off and he wouldn't hoard more space in his sleep.
Once I made sure they were in stable position, I pulled the blankets and quilt over us.
For the first time, I fell sleep peacefully listening to the rhyming breathing of my teammates, and didn't have nightmares interrupt my sleep.
The one bit I was able to find.
The one bit that was missing from the huge house that was passed to me from my parents.
Family