The announcement that Zabuza was alive seemed to have varying levels of effect on those in the room. Sasuke was smirking, thinking he would get another chance to fight a strong opponent and prove himself as an Uchiha, as well as brining himself one step closer to Itachi.
Sakura looked around in worry, not feeling anywhere near as confident as her crush. She knew that she had no chance of helping in a fight like this.
Naruto was surprisingly deep in thought, replaying what he had witnessed in Kakashi's battle with Zabuza. He knew that he had no chance against a man who could go toe to toe with his sensei. What's more Kakashi had almost been defeated, and were it not for the timely intervention of him and Sasuke, Zabuza underestimating then and a shit load of luck, they would have definitely lost.
"Don't you think you're over thinking this?" asked Tazuna, now worried that, that really strong ninja might actually be coming back. "I mean, hunter ninja are supposed to kill missing ninja."
"One of the shinobi rules is to always prepare for the worst possible scenario," Kakashi stated. "And even if Zabuza is dead, it just means that Gato is likely to hire an even stronger ninja. Either case point to the fact that we need to prepare."
"But…what can we do?" asked Sakura, frightened of even the thought of seeing Zabuza again. This whole mission had gone from bad to worse for her, and she was starting to feel completely overwhelmed. "I mean, we're just genin, and you can barely even move!"
"Hehe," Kakashi chuckled as if he somehow found this whole situation funny, "You guys will be doing some training."
"Huh? Training!" Sakura said in surprise, "Sensei, what's a little training gonna do! Our enemy is someone you struggled against, even with the Sharingan!"
CHA! HE'S TRYING TO GET US KILLED! Inner Sakura shouted.
"Sakura…who saved me while I was trapped in that water prison?" Kakashi asked in a slow tone, the question was rhetorical but it was obvious was point he was trying to get across. "You guys have all improved a great deal," The cyclopean Jonin looked over at Naruto and gave him an eye smile. "Naruto, you've improved the most."
Naruto blushed in embarrassment as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I have a lot of people who've helped me…"
Everyone looked over at him, wondering who was helping him.
He does seem to be a lot better. Sakura thought begrudgingly. And smarter…the way he was talking, it's almost like he's a completely different person!Of couse Sakura was still convinced that Naruto was an idiot who was simply trying to act smart in order to make her Sasuke-kun look bad.
I can't believe the dobe managed to do so well, Thought a miffed Sasuke, recognizing that what Kakashi said was true. He must be getting some kind of help, otherwise there would be no way the dobe could have gotten this good. Who is it though? And why does he have someone teaching him privately, while I, an Uchiha does not?
"Obviously this is just training for you guys to get better," Kakashi continued, unaware of the thoughts two of his genin were having. "Even if I train you, you won't be able to best Zabuza without me."
"But sensei, if Zabuza is alive he could attack at any time!" Sakura protested. "So should we be training..."
"Don't worry," Kakashi assured her. "You have to remember Zabuza was injured to, more so than I was. On top of that, he was put into a death-like state. His body will take a while to recover from something like that. So we'll train until then."
"Finally!" Naruto said, breaking out into a grin. "I didn't think you were ever gonna train us sensei!"
"Ma, Naruto I have trained you guys." Kakashi defended himself.
"Yeah, in teamwork exercises, and even then you continue reading that porn of yours." Naruto shot back. "I'm talking about training to up our individual skills."
"Teamwork is important," Kakashi said with a small shrug.
"I don't deny that teamwork is important sensei," Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "However, we both know that individual ability is just as important. If we can't even fight properly on our own merits, it won't matter if our teamwork is flawless. And you know that had Zabuza not underestimated us because we were kids, Sasuke and I would have been killed before we even had time to blink."
Kakashi conceded that point with a nod. Naruto was right, individual skills were important. However, the silver haired jonin had wanted to pound the idea that teamwork was the most important aspect of a shinobi.
"Why do you guys even bother?"
Everyone turned to the source of the new voice to see a depressed looking little kid of about six to eight years of age. He had blue coveralls on over a yellow shirt and a fishing hat on his head.
"Oh! Inari! Where were you!" Tazuna asked in greeting, holding out his arms as Inari ran to give him a hug.
"Welcome back grandpa," Inari said, before glaring over at the Konoha ninja.
"Inari, say hello to these people," Tsunami said, placing her hands on her hips. "They're the ninja that protected grandpa."
"But mom, they're just going to die," Everyone looked surprised and/or angry when Inari said that. Tazuna and Tsunami just sighed. "There's no way they can beat Gato."
"Man this kid's more emo than you are Sasuke-teme," Naruto commented, grinning when he received an angry grunt from his Uchiha teammate. "Listen here kid, there is no way some idiotic, rich, midget bastard is going to be killing us! When Gato tries to get your grandpa here, I'm going to beat his ass back to the age of the Rikudou Sennin!"
There Naruto goes again, Kakashi sweatdropped at his blond student's shift in attitude. Genius one moment, loudmouth the next. It's almost like he has some kind of two people inhabiting that body or something.
"Pft," Inari huffed. "You must be some kind of idiot, thinking you can go against Gato." Inari turned around and made his way to the door, "If you don't want to die you should leave."
"Inari, where are you going?" asked Tsunami in a worried voice.
"I'm going to look at the ocean." Inari said before leaving, slamming the door shut on his way out.
"I'm sorry about that," Tazuna said in a depressed voice as he looked over at the Konoha ninja.
"Whatever, that kid needs to get his shit together," Naruto commented. "Seriously, anyone who broods more than Sasuke-teme the Emo-king of brood over here has a serious problem."
"Shut up Naruto-baka!" Sakura yelled as she attempted to hit him.
Naruto sighed as he caught the pink haired girl's fist. How long would it take for her to get he was not going to allow her to hit him anymore?
"Seriously Sakura, haven't I asked you to stop hitting me like two hundred times already. I'm not going to let you hit me anymore, I'm not your personal punching bag."
Naruto let go of Sakura's fist, seeing as how she was too shocked to do anything. I swear she never changes, even after this has happened kami only knows how many times.
In the past month his crush had been getting less and less appealing. Naruto did not really know why he no longer really cared for Sakura, except that the more time he spent with her and the more time he spent with her and Sasuke the less he seemed to like her. Of course, it could have been her abusive personality and the fact that she always hit Naruto, but he had been dealing with that for years. He assumed that it was because he was spending time with girls that seemed to actually enjoy being with him. Tenten and Anko actually took time out of their days to talk to him. Often times when he was done training with either one of them they would stay out a little longer and just talk, sometimes they would even go out to get something to eat ven though that consisted mostly of Ichiraku's.
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