"Could you do it here? I am really curious of your method." Kakashi asked when the clone was about to lead Sasuke away.
"Well, I can, but it would've been better if we handle it in private. Well, whatever." the clone said, then picked up a handful of pebbles. "Actually I just wanted to bully him a bit, because he was so useless today it makes me want to puke. I need to blow off some steam." continued the clone, then hit Sasuke's forehead with one. He wore his headband, so the pebble just bounced off of it with a really loud metallic sound. Even though he was protected, the hit hurt Sasuke a bit. The next second he was hit again, this time on the back of his head, with less force, but due to lacking protection, hurting more.
It was possible simply because Dix's speed, even in clone-form, was so great that he was able to throw two pebbles with a second difference from two opposite directions. Sasuke only managed to understand what was happening when he was hit the third time, on his calf muscle. He got really angry and tried to look for his tormentor, but was unable to follow them with his eyes.
"Ahhh! You said you'd help me, why are you doing this to me?!" Sasuke shouted out by the time he was hit 7 times.
"Just as I said, because it's fun. You really are only good for this." came the reply from an unknown direction, together with another pebble.
"Naruto! St..." Sakura was about to shout out, but was interrupted by another clone that was placed behind her to silence her in case this happens. Dix himself was fairly close to Kakashi who had the same idea, but wanted to move instead of shouting. He suddenly felt Dix's hand on his shoulder, looked back and saw two honest eyes without any cruelty or bad intentions.
"I... see." he said with a nod and sat back down, completely understanding the situation.
All the while the clone kept tormenting Sasuke. That one already tried running towards his 'enemy', tried to throw pebbles, even some kunais at him, but nothing worked. He wasn't able to reach the clone and was forced to do nothing while he suffered from the tiny hits. After more than 20 little black-purple little spots were present on his body he couldn't control himself anymore and blew up in anger. He started screaming and cursing, swearing at many things, Dix, Itachi, his life, this world, and many other things.
In his last desperation he looked at the clone when he stopped to throw another pebble, locked eyes with him, at which it started grinning, and threw its projectile. That time, Sasuke was somehow able to feel the movement of the pebble, and was able to dodge it. He felt power welling up inside him and with a swift movement he grabbed a pebble himself and threw it at the next stopping point of the clone with full force. That one, instead of throwing another, just caught the incoming pebble between his index and middle fingers, then let it down without preparing for another throw. Sasuke was expecting some sort of retaliation, but was surprised to hear the clone talking instead.
"Congratulations. You are now in possession of your own sharingan. From now on you will be able to consciously use it without my help."
Sasuke was caught off-guard by this, and was hesitating a bit, but then he pulled out one of his kunais he didn't throw away and checked his eyes in the reflection. Dix was right, he really unlocked his sharingans. Then at the same time he understood the point of what he was subjected to, and felt really really stupid. He has gained what he wanted... but at what cost? Still, he looked towards the camp, as the clone already cancelled itself, moved closer to Dix that was lazing around with his back to a tree, and bowed his head while saying:
"Thank you, Naruto. It seems I am indebted to you."
"Don't worry about it, I was just helping a teammate." he said with a wave of his arm, then stood up. "Now, we should continue our travels. It won't be long now before we arrive."
Kakashi nodded and gave the 'official' order to break camp and move out.
Just as he said, by the end of the day they managed to get to the village where the bridge construction was already started. It was only waiting for Tazuna.
The rest of the journey was uneventful. Nobody tried to attack them, so they were able to arrive without any complications. They were the guests of Tazuna's house, that's where they spent the night, and accompanied Tazuna to the bridge where he was guarded at all times. Dix didn't want to spend months there, because the bridge seemed to be huge and the Land of Waves was way too poor to get the resources and hire many workers at the same time. At all times he had almost a hundred clones summoned that would help with the constructions, next to a few more that were stationed around the village to look for potential enemies.
The bridge was around halfway done, when the culprit behind the attempts on Tazuna's life showed up at the construction site. It was a tiny but monetarily very powerful man that exploited the Land of Waves. It was because of him that this land was so poor, and the bridge building would've endangered his position. Dix sensed his arrival, so he 'coincidentally showed up' at the bridge when the boss, whose name he couldn't be bothered to remember, arrived with more than a hundred lowly criminals around him. He threw a tantrum about Zabuza failing him, and that he had to take matters into his own hands. He was fucking annoying.
Dix wanted to see how much destruction he can cause with his new sword, so he didn't even summon anything, just grabbed the weapon, threw it on his shoulder, then activated the body seals and opened three gates in his body. At this point his speed was almost impossible to track without a sharingan, so right after he summoned a clone for it to stand to the side and record what he does, he threw the sword in the middle of the huge group of enemies.
For the others it seemed like he was trying to do the same as Zabuza, but he rushed after it, as it culled the enemy in his way. He caught up to it, grabbed it and cleaved everyone in half around him with a 360 degrees circular slice at around hip-height. This already killed almost half the enemies, so he summon two clones and broke up the battlefield into three parts. Every Dix got one. This helped cleaning up the remnants way faster.
The boss was so small, that even though Dix threw the sword at around normal hip-height, it was still higher then him, so he managed to escape the first attack, but after that he died sometime along with the rest of the goons.
The 'battle' ended in a minute, but it left a huge mess, so Dix had to summon even more clones to clean it up. Well whatever, he had fun, and was satisfied with the weapon. His companions were once again surprised by his ferocity, but didn't comment on it.
The bridge building continued, and finished after a few weeks of hard work of the clones without any more hurdles or problems coming up. When it was finished they said their farewells to the village they settled in for the last month, then walked back on it to the mainland that had a direct way back home. This time they were able to run instead of walk, considerably shortening the travel time.
Back home they gave their report and burned everyone's brain down in the Hokage's office by the fact that Dix alone handled a ninja that was recorded as S-rank in the Bingo Books.
With the report Kakashi simultaneously gave in the team's application for the chuunin exams that will be held soon in Konoha. The team was somewhat surprised, except of course for Dix, and was glad to see that their leader acknowledges them. The application was approved immediately and they were given the date and place where they have to show up at. It will be held many weeks later, so they were given a few more D-class missions to do.
During these Dix felt like he was playing some sort of shit MMO again. They had to do fetch-quests and gathering missions, catching more cats or babysitting. These were so boring they didn't even manage to get into a filler episode in the anime. Unfortunately someone had to do it, so he didn't complain.
After a few weeks of fucking around, it was finally time for them to attend the exams.
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