Third Person's P.O.V
Two Uchiha boys were strolling down an unoccupied street. They were getting farther away from the center of the village as they made their way to a training ground. One of them was at the age of 7 while the other one was more than ten years older than the first one. The smaller one held the older boy's right hand with his small fingers. A tranquil silence occurred over them as they walked side-by-side.
They had come to an abandoned park that was rarely occupied by people when they heard a soft humming. They could easily discern that the voice belonged a very young girl. They turned their heads to the park since the source of the voice was coming from there.
There they saw a small girl crouching down in an empty field somewhere in the park. She was holding a small, thin stick and drew something on the ground while softly humming to a song. She had a short black hair that reached her shoulder with bangs partially covered her forehead. She had a pair of purple eyes, and judging from her petite form, she looked to be in the same age with the young boy among the two Uchihas.
The older Uchiha boy only stared at her with a vacant look; while the younger Uchiha's cheeks suddenly took on a bright, pink hue as he observed the girl's face from a far distance. He couldn't deny that she had quite a cute appearance for a young kid. The girl was still unaware of the Uchihas' presences.
The youngest Uchiha looked up to the older one, still with the pinkish hue on his cheeks as he stated, "Nii-san, she's cute."
The older boy shifted his gaze down to his younger brother. He could easily notice the pink glow that blossomed on his cheeks. The younger boy wore an infectious grin which somehow caused the big brother to smile as well. He replied with a gentle gaze for his brother, "Indeed, Sa-"
***
"-SUKE!!! WAKE UP!!!"
As if being electrocuted, Sasuke Uchiha's onyx eyes snapped open that instant. His eyes looked around frantically until it landed on Naruto's face which was so close to his face and wore a wide grin of mischief. The ravenette immediately realized that the blond boy had roused him just for fun.
Sasuke grunted in annoyance while an arm wrapped around Naruto's neck from behind and pulled him backward roughly. He watched with an irked expression on his face as Sakura put Naruto in a headlock and tightened her grip, scolding at the now-choking boy, "Naruto, you baka! How dare you wake Sasuke up! He had stayed up all night to be on guard while we're sleeping! We should just let him sleep in peace!"
"Sa-Sakura-chan!" Naruto choked out, tapping Sakura's arm repeatedly to give her a message to loosen her grip on him for his sake, "I-I'm going to-"
The pinkette cut him off again by rebuking him loudly. Sasuke began to tune out these two as he scanned the whole area, curious about what had happened when he's asleep. He immediately spotted Kazuki – who was still wrapped up in bandages on some parts of his body– and Kaito. They were sauntering towards them, seemingly engrossed in conversation. Kaito was holding a fishnet with six motionless fishes in it.
The Uchiha survivor looked around once again, conscious of the fact that a certain person was missing. His gaze finally landed on a certain form that had laid down a meter away from him.
It was none other than Ayuda, of course. She lied down in a pose called 'recovery position'; her body facing towards Sasuke. Her eyes were closed, her face muscles relaxed and her breathing was so slow with her chest rising up and down. Her black locks were sprawled on the ground behind her.
Sasuke immediately remembered what had happened last night. He and Ayuda had agreed to pull an all-nighter to guard the area. They knew that they kept their own scrolls with them. To make sure that none of the teams would get to steal the other team's scroll, they came to a conclusion and that was they had to stay up all night together with their scrolls in their hip pouches. When Kaito, Naruto, Sakura, and Kazuki had woken up approximately around 5 a.m, Ayuda handed their Heaven scrolls to Kaito while Sasuke gave their Earth scroll to Naruto. Then the two of them headed to an empty spot and slept.
"Minna (Everyone)!" Kaito called as he held up his right hand – which held a fishnet of six fishes – high up in the air for the others to see, "I've caught some fishes! Let's eat our breakfasts, shall we?"
Kazuki pointed his index finger at him, "He's very hungry now."
Naruto, who had been previously released by Sakura, turned to the two boys who stood behind them. Before he had the chance to produce a voice out of his mouth, a loud growl was heard coming from his stomach, attracting everyone's attentions, except Ayuda's. His cheeks were scorched with embarrassment as he put his right hand on his stomach, "Yeah, we haven't eaten anything ever since the second exam started..."
"Then we should build a fire then," suggested Sakura.
"Yes!" concurred Naruto, "Sakura-chan's right! Let's build one right away! I'll pick up some woods around here!"
"And...." Kazuki's left hand rose to point out his index finger at a certain thing behind Sasuke. He asked, "...what should we do with her?"
Every pair of eyes turned to the figure that was still in the same pose. Ayuda was sleeping like a log noiselessly and calmly, definitely oblivious to what was happening around her. Her bow and arrows were seen placed next to her body.
Sasuke began to open his mouth to speak when Kaito beat him to it, "I'll wake her up."
After handing the fishnet of six fishes to Naruto, Kaito ambled to the sleeping figure and crouched down in front of her. He placed his left hand on Ayuda's shoulder and gently shook her, saying, "Ayuda, wake up."
Nothing happened. Ayuda hadn't moved even an inch, excluding her chest that was rising up and down so slowly but surely. Kaito tried once again, shaking her a little rougher than before, "Ayudaaaa, we are going to eat breakfast. So wake up, you sleepyhead."
Finally, Ayuda stirred around, shifting to change her pose. She was now lying flatly on her back, her right hand was put on top of her stomach and her other hand on the ground next to her head. Her eyes fluttered open, each revealing one purple orb that was slowly coming to live. After adjusting her eyesight, she rose up, sitting and rubbing her right eye with her hand.
"What happened?" she slurred sleepily.
Kaito answered, "It's time for our breakfast. We have caught some fishes just now. All we need to do is to build a fire."
"What?" the drowsiness in Ayuda's eyes had greatly decreased upon hearing Kaito's last words. Her words were no longer slurred, "Isn't that dangerous? The opponents will see the smokes coming from this area and will ambush us for our scrolls."
The corners of Kaito's mouth lifted up into a smile and he shook his head, "We will be just fine. If they attack us, then we will fight back. All of us are six people in total, so it'll be alright."
"Hmmm..."
***
Ayuda's P.O.V
"Does it still hurt?"
"Well... since you're touching it, I no longer feel the pain now."
"Kazuki-kun, I am serious here."
"I am telling the truth. Your touches soothe my pain, Sakura."
I rolled my eyes in annoyance while making sure that they didn't see it. I took a short glance at Kazuki and Sakura – who were sitting on my right side – while they're giggling for whatever reason. They looked like a sweet couple even though they were actually not. And here I am, sitting next to them, looking like a damn third wheel. Why am I here in the first place?
Kaito volunteered to collect woods and chose Naruto and Sasuke to help him with the task while he told Kazuki, Sakura, and I to stay here and guard the fishes. I asked for Kaito's permission to let me join them with collecting the woods, but he refused because he said that there must be at least one strong genin in each group. In the 'collect the woods' group, Sasuke was the strongest. In the 'guard the fishes' group, I was the strongest. Sasuke believed that, by following this strategy, each group would have equal strength and would be able to fight off enemies that will probably ambush us. I had no choice but to agree.
A few minutes later, my face lit up as I caught a glimpse of Kaito, Sasuke, and Naruto returning with woods in their arms. I quickly got up to my feet and helped them with setting up a campfire. After Sasuke blew his Fire Jutsu, we began roasting the six fishes; each one of us picked one fish to eat just to be fair.
***
Thirty minutes later...
"Sasuke," I called to the one boy who was sitting all alone under a tree. Naruto was busy arguing with Kazuki of who will get Sakura's affections first while Kaito and Sakura tried to calm these two. Sasuke glanced at me with an emotionless look, waiting for my next words. I said, "There's something I want to talk to you about."
The ravenette had probably noticed the seriousness in my voice since his eyebrows had risen quite a bit. He picked himself up from the ground and looked fixedly at me. I took that as a yes. I spun around and walked slightly deeper into the forest. I was planning on taking him to a spot where we would have some privacy and away from our teammates. I could hear Sasuke's composed footsteps as he followed me from behind.
I halted when I've realized that we were far enough from our teams. I turned to face Sasuke who now had his hands inserted into his pockets. He gave me an impassive stare, but despite that, I could see in his onyx eyes that there was some interest and curiosity dancing in there. He spoke up monotonously, "What is it?"
I reached my right hand down to my hip pouch, clasping my fingers around a familiar thick object. I took it out and handed it straight to Sasuke. It was a scroll and there was a kanji word for 'Heaven' written on it. I immediately observed his face. He looked pretty much shocked at the sight of me handing the Heaven scroll to him. He averted his gaze away from the scroll and to mine. He queried, "What is the meaning of this?"
"Just take it," I replied, moving the scroll in the air a little, "My team has two Heaven scrolls. We obtained the extra one from a team that we had defeated yesterday. Since your team has an Earth scroll, I'll give you our extra Heaven scroll so you could head to the tower immediately."
Sasuke looked down at the scroll in my hand. He no longer had an expressionless countenance; instead, he now had a look of someone who is definitely deep in thought. Sasuke, just take it already. Do you know how embarrassing it is for me, your rival, to give you a scroll? I just want to repay your kindness for what you had done so far.
His gaze returned back to meet mine and he inquired with a small frown, "Why? There must be a reason for you to do this."
I sighed, "I actually have two reasons for doing this. One, I would like to thank you for letting us stay with you guys while Kazuki is recovering. It's not really a big deal, though. And two, we have nothing to do with this extra scroll, so I want to give you this."
"Do you have an Earth scroll yet?" asked Sasuke.
I shook my head, "No. My teammates and I have made a plan to ambush one team today if Kazuki is well enough to fight."
"Ayuda, are you really that certain to give me that? If you give me this scroll, my team and I will head straight to the tower while you are still searching and fighting another team for an Earth scroll," he reckoned.
The shape of my lips slowly formed into a soft smile. Judging from his voice, he must have thought that all of that would be too unfair for us (Team 5), even though he himself knew that the idea was actually quite advantageous for them. I replied, "You don't have to worry about me, Sasuke. I will complete this second exam before the fifth day."
Sasuke's phlegmatic expression changed almost instantly into a flustered look. He quickly turned his head away and shut his eyes closed, mumbling in almost a tsundere manner, "I am not worried about you."
I was quick to aware of the slight weariness of my muscles in my right hand which was still holding the Heaven scroll in the air. Wanting for all of this to be over quickly, I brought the scroll close to Sasuke's face. I urged him, "Just take it, Sasuke. My arm is getting tired now."
He looked back down at the scroll in my hand. I waited for any movement he made, and fifteen seconds later, I could see his right hand twitched before it rose up to grab the scroll from my hand. When his hand was five inches away from the scroll, we heard Kaito's voice not far from where we were:
"Hey, I found out that there is one team resting over there!"
Kazuki's voice joined in, "So? It's quite normal for teams to rest at the time like this."
Kaito replied, "I'm not finished yet. And the good news is... they have the Earth scroll!"
"How do you know?" queried Naruto who also joined the conversation.
Kaito simply answered, "A worm told me."
"That's bull!" Naruto – who obviously didn't know anything about Kaito's ability to communicate with animals – vociferated, followed by a light sound of skin slapping against skin. Did Naruto just lightly slap Kaito?
"Naruto!!" finally, Sakura's voice joined in, chiding at Naruto loudly, "Don't just slap him like that! Don't you know that he has the power to talk with animals?!"
"Eh?" Naruto sounded like he just knew about it for the first time in his life, "EEEHHHH?!"
I shook my head with an amused smile. There is always something funny going to happen whenever Kaito, Kazuki, Naruto, and Sakura are together. I turned my attention back to Sasuke who looked like he was pondering over something. His hand was still five inches away from the Heaven scroll.
"Sasuke...?" I called to snap him out of it and he did. His onyx spheres looked straight into my purple ones. I nodded my head to the scroll, signaling that he could take it now.
Just like that, his hand finally reached the scroll and wrapped his manly fingers around the object; his finger brushed lightly against mine. Just as I was about to remove my fingers from it, I felt him pushed the item towards me with gentle force. My eyes widened. Why is he...
I slid my gaze to his face, speechless to see a small smile curved his lips. His onyx eyes – which were usually cold and emotionless – were now soft and warm and he never took his eyes away from me during the process. His fingers got closer to mine as he continued to push it back to me. He spoke, "Keep it."
I blinked my eyes, stammering, "W-why..."
"It's not fair that you have to fight more while I go straight to the tower. Let's make it fair by searching for our targeted scrolls on our own. You search for Earth scroll; I search for the Heaven scroll. Plus, if I accept that scroll, it will make me look like a weakling to you. After all, we are rivals, right?" one corner of his lips was lifted higher than the other, giving me his trademark Uchiha smirk.
I chuckled. So he still wants to make himself look strong to me, huh? He removed his fingers from the scroll. I casually tossed the scroll into the air and grabbed it effortlessly, "Alright then. But don't blame me if you can't make it to the tower with both scrolls."
"I won't," he replied, still with his smirk.
After putting the scroll back into my hip pouch, I turned my gaze back to Sasuke. He spun his body around and walked off saying, "Let's go, Ayuda."
"Hmph," I followed him from behind, "you don't have to tell me."
After a much-needed discussion and bidding farewells to each other, we (Team 5) left Team 7 just like that. Seeing that Kazuki was well enough to fight with us, we proceeded to make our way to the one team that had the Earth scroll, according to Kaito.