Chapter 5- Training and a date?
The next morning, I got up late, but that was ok. Kakashi said I didn't have to do the training that the others had to. I took a shower and then looked at my face in the mirror. The wounds were gone by now, so I didn't have to put new bandages on. I heated up some dumplings and sleepily ate them. I eventually made it into my ninja gear and tied my headband around my neck. I then wrapped the blue scarf around it and grabbed my weapon pouches. I made sure I had plenty of senbon needles and kunai and paper bombs and then attached them to their proper places in my right leg and belt. I checked the clock and saw that it was about 10:45, and decided to head to the training grounds. I yawned on my way and ignored the people around me.
"Hikari-chan, you're here!" I heard Naruto shout when I got to the grounds. I saw that the three of them were just sitting around bored out of their minds. I waved to Naruto and sat on one of the stumps behind them.
"Why are you late?" Sakura asked. I yawned again and scratched my ear.
"Kakashi-san said I didn't need to be here for your training, but from the looks of it, he hasn't made it here either." Just as I finished talking, Kakashi appeared in front of us and made some excuse for being late, to which Naruto and Sakura started yelling at him. I yawned again and tuned them out, already tired of the day's events. I repositioned myself so I was laying on the stump.
"Hikari!" I lazily rolled my head and looked at Kakashi.
"What?" Everyone sweat-dropped at the fact that I hadn't been listening again.
"You're helping me with their training." I sighed and stood up. I stretched and cracked my back and suddenly I was wide awake. I jumped down next to Kakashi and he held out a bell to me. I took it and tied it to my belt. He then explained the exercise in detail to everyone and then told them to begin. Sakura and Uchiha instantly hid while Naruto just stood in the open. I sighed at his stupidity.
"I'll be seeing you," I said to Kakashi. He nodded and I teleported to a tree that was behind Sakura. I noticed that she was actually pretty close to Uchiha. I inwardly sighed at her obsession. I quietly pulled out four senbon and threw two at Uchiha and two at Sakura. Each one landed right between fingers that were splayed out on the ground. I saw them both tense and Sakura turned to try and find me. I crouched behind a clump of leaves and she didn't see me. Uchiha saw Sakura searching and decided to ignore Naruto getting his butt kicked by Kakashi and look for me too. I saw a smirk on his face, and knew that he thought he could take me. I gritted my teeth at his arrogance. He wouldn't get the bell from me.
"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" I turned around with a start and smirked. He'd made a clone before I moved over there. I quickly dodged and weaved some handsigns and he looked at me in shock.
"Burning Phoenix jutsu!" A small fleet of fire birds shot off at Uchiha. He dodged them and I used the distraction to activate another jutsu. When Uchiha landed, he looked around for me. At one point I thought that the jutsu hadn't worked, but he looked right through me. I smirked and silently walked up behind him. I hit him in the back of the head and he passed out. I chuckled as he fell to the ground.
"Sasuke-kun!" I sighed and turned and looked at Sakura. She was staring at an unconscious Uchiha. I undid my invisibility jutsu and she stared at me.
"How do you know that?"
"I read, Sakura. I read." I picked up Uchiha and teleported him to a different spot, set him down, and then went back to Kakashi. Naruto was charging at him again.
"Ah, Hikari, finished already?" he asked lazily. I nodded and Naruto was flipped on his back.
"Hikari-chan, how are you so good?" Naruto whined. I crouched in front of him and poked his forehead.
"I trained a lot with a special someone." I giggled at his expression. I then stood up and stretched again. My shoulder popped and I yawned again. "Kakashi-san, I'm tired." He sighed and gave me a look. I stuck my tongue out at him and he sighed and ruffled my hair.
"You're going to be interesting to work with." I giggled again and then kicked Kakashi off of Naruto.
"What in the world?!" Naruto yelled.
"Well, I may be his partner, but I'm also working with your team on missions and everything. It puts me in a unique situation." He looked at me confused and I sighed. I moved and the bell jingled. Naruto's eyes snapped to it and I shifted my weight just ever so slightly in a direction away from him. He lunged at me and I almost escaped but he was too fast, which surprised me. I didn't know he was so fast. He tackled me to the ground and I used a substitution jutsu. I landed in a tree while he cursed. I giggled and Kakashi appeared next to me.
"So you know teamwork. That's good." I nodded and then checked my belt. The bell was gone.
"Shit, Naruto knocked it loose." I looked around the tree and saw it near the base of the tree. I cursed under my breath and searched my pouches for rope or wire. I found some and set up a series of nooses. Kakashi then put one of rope on top of them.
"No one should go after that," he said, which made me laugh.
"You don't know Naruto. He'll go after the easy path if he can. So oblivious." My stomach growled and I frowned. I was rarely so hungry so soon.
"You ok?" I looked up at Kakashi and saw worry in his eye. I nodded and looked around for the others. I couldn't see any of them and I motioned towards where I took Sasuke.
"Uchiha is in that direction," I muttered and spotted Naruto walking towards us. I shooed Kakashi off and sat on the branch and watched Naruto. He spotted the bell and sprinted towards it. He stopped when he saw the rope, and then cut it. He laughed as he stepped inside the near invisible wire snare I'd set. He set it off and was pulled halfway up the tree.
"GAH!" I giggled and he looked up at me. For some reason I blushed and so did he. I wanted him to pass this test. He had to. I cut him free and then he fell into another snare. I sighed at his stupidity. As he struggled to get free, I went and watched Kakashi battle Sasuke and Sakura. He easily caught Sakura in a genjutsu and then Sasuke didn't even think of watching his feet and Kakashi pulled him underground. I sighed at their lack of teamwork, but I'd expected it, to say the least. I teleported back to the stumps just in time to catch Naruto trying to steal some lunch. I was about to hit him when I got an idea.
"Oh Naruto," I sang. He turned and gaped at me. "Sexy jutsu, Yami style!" I transformed and he instantly got a nose bleed and dropped the lunch when he passed out. I giggled and transformed back and picked up the bento. I then took the liberty of tying Naruto to the middle stump, which I sat on afterwards. Eventually the timer went off and Kakashi dragged the other two to the stumps.
"What?! You were here the whole time?!" Sakura shouted. I glanced at Kakashi.
"A ninja must see through deception, Sakura dear," I said sweetly. She pouted and sat to the left of Naruto while Uchiha sat to the right. Kakashi then went into a long speech about teamwork and how they'd failed it. Naruto had woken up for that and then Uchiha and Sakura got lunch. Kakashi offered me a bento, which I took, before he teleported away. I opened it and took a couple bites and then held something down in front of Naruto's mouth. He gladly thanked me and ate it.
"Hikari, Sensei said-"
"He's not my sensei remember? Plus Naruto needs to eat or he won't be strong enough for this afternoon." Uchiha looked at me and then held out some food for Naruto too. Sakura just stared at us in surprise and then joined in with feeding Naruto. Suddenly the sky grew dark and Kakashi appeared. The others jumped out of their skins while I just looked tiredly at him.
"You pass," he said calmly. They started asking him questions, which he explained answers to, while I just looked at the clouds that were floating by. I wonder where spirits went when they left the body. Did they go to the sky and fly with the clouds? I felt something nearing me and my hand snapped up to catch a kunai and I swung around to kick the person in the stomach, but Kakashi stopped me.
"Was that a test?" I asked. Everyone just looked at me.
"You weren't listening?" Kakashi asked. I shook my head and his eye widened. "Well, yes it was a test, sort of. It was to show what a ninja should be able to do when sensing danger." I let go of the kunai and my leg was released.
"Oh." They were all still staring at me. "What?" Naruto shook his head and grinned at me.
"Hikari-chan would you like to-"
"Go out to dinner with me," Uchiha cut him off. I blinked in surprise and I saw Naruto glaring at Uchiha. The anger in Naruto's eyes made my face turn red, but that was misinturpretted by Sakura.
"Don't you dare take Sasuke-kun from me," I heard her mutter. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair and looked at the sky.
"Naruto, maybe some other time. Uchiha, never. Besides, I have my own training to do." I looked at Kakashi and saw him reading his book. He glanced up at me and nodded. I clapped my hands together. "There you have it. Go home and enjoy your day, 'cause missions start tomorrow!" I smiled at them and they nodded and left. Well, Naruto didn't because he was still tied up. I untied him and he hugged me and then jogged home. I stood there frozen while tingles spread through my body.
"So, Hikari, do you really want to train or were trying to keep peace?" I looked at Kakashi and my face heated up. He chuckled and then put his book up. "I see. Well, you still need training. Everyone does." I nodded. "So let's see what you've got.
~~~~~
I yawned as I trudged home. I'd never been so tired after training. My arms were sore and my feet felt like lead. I fumbled with the key to my door and stumbled when the door opened suddenly. I fell on my face and just laid there, too tired to move. I heard someone freaking out but I tuned out the noise. I was then picked up and came face-to-face with an orange jumpsuit. I looked up to see Naruto's face contorted in worry. I lazily reached a hand up and patted his hair, and I saw a faint pink rush to his cheeks. He carried me bridal style over to a couch and sat me on it.
"Hikari-chan, are you ok?" I nodded and yawned again.
"Training," I said simply. He nodded and awkwardly sat next to me. I saw him playing with his hands and noticed that his gaze was trained on the floor. Then something occurred to me. How come he was in my house? I asked him this and he looked at me in surprise.
"Hikari-chan you walked to my house." I blinked in confusion. I could've sworn I'd turned down to road to my building, although it did look a lot like Naruto's. Wait, did that mean that we lived on the same floor and with the same apartment number?
"Oh, well, I should get home. Sorry," I muttered as I stood up. I suddenly got really dizzy and my hand flew to my head. I stumbled foreward a few steps, but managed to catch myself before I fell on the floor again.
'You tired yourself out too much while training. Your body can't handle that yet.' I sighed at the voice in my head and went to take a step towards the door. I was stopped by a pain that shot up through my right leg to my head. I gritted my teeth, not making a sound, and fell to my knees.
"Hikari-chan, please just stay here and rest for a little bit. You look too tired to go home." I turned to look at Naruto and smiled slightly. I nodded, giving myself a headache, and crawled back onto the couch. I curled up in a ball and closed my eyes.
"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun," I whispered.
"For what?"
"For making you worry about me." I felt a warm hand on my arm. It moved up and down my arm a little and familiar tingles ran down my spine. I yawned again and then giggled. I was going to enjoy being with Naruto for a while.
"Good night, Hikari-chan," I heard him whisper after a while. I felt something soft brush across my cheek and then the wonderful darkness of sleep consumed me.