Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 38: Time to leave
Two weeks later
"Sasuke, you should be resting!" Sakura frowned.
The black-haired boy made a loud grunt as he got out of the pond. He then looked to his right, where his teammate had been meditating for over a week already, only moving for a bit in order to eat.
"Does he even sleep?" Sakura commented after she followed Sasuke's gaze towards Naruto.
Unlike Sasuke, who needed several days of rest in bed, Naruto had taken the bandages covering his burns off the next day and went back to the forest in order to train.
A week after their fight with Zabuza, their Sensei had agreed to teach them the next chakra control technique…water walking.
Like with the previous one, Sakura had mastered it extremely quickly, but Naruto had not been far behind. It only took him an hour before he could confidently walk over the pond with no apparent effort.
Sasuke was still trying his best and was getting close already, but still needed some more practice, as this was already the tenth time he had fallen into the pond, despite Sakura's advice to take it easy.
Just two weeks ago, he had almost died.
Both Sasuke and Sakura had matured a lot in the past two weeks. That experience with Zabuza had affected them deeply.
For Sakura, it had been a wake-up call. She knew what her job as a ninja was going to be like, at least in theory, but witnessing in person what a true battle to the death looked like was a lot more intense than what she expected.
She was still having nightmares, and they were not likely to go away anytime soon. Seeing the boy she loved almost dying before her was not helping either.
Her view of Naruto had also changed completely. The goofy boy she met at the academy was long gone. If she had any lingering thought that this 'serious persona' he had been displaying was some sort of prank or trick, that was gone after what she saw that day at the bridge.
Sasuke also had his own wake-up call, in a way. Back at the academy, he had always been the number one. None of the other students came even close to him.
So, as far as he was concerned, he was progressing quite well, and in a few years, he would be strong enough to kill his brother and avenge his clan.
How wrong he had been…
He had experienced in his flesh the difference between the current him and an actual Jonin. It was a hard pill to swallow, knowing how far away he still was.
If that had not been enough, after only being a genin for a month, he had already met two boys of his age who were stronger than him.
Sasuke could no longer view himself as a genius. Unless he worked ten times harder than now, he would only be left behind in the dust.
But he did come out with one consolation prize after going through all of that. Sasuke could feel that he was extremely close to awakening his Sharingan. He felt it during his fight with Haku. If only he had been able to last a few more minutes…
The sound of footsteps pulled them away from their thoughts.
"How are things going?" Kakashi smiled at his students. Lately, he had been making sure to make noise when he approached them. Those children did not need more surprises.
His eye moved to Sasuke.
"I'm close…I think I will get it by tonight." Sasuke said before his Sensei asked.
Kakashi nodded. "That is excellent. But I am afraid that we will not be spending another night here."
"Is it over?" Sakura asked.
He gave her a thumbs up. "It is!. The Wave Bridge is complete and our job is done."
"So, when are we leaving?" Sasuke asked.
"The townsfolk wanted to throw a party tomorrow. But I think it's best if we leave today, after lunch. There is no reason to stay here any longer."
Kakashi was in a bit of a rush. There were many things he had to discuss with the Hokage, and he also wanted Sasuke to be checked by a proper medical ninja.
"That's…sudden. We have to prepare our bags. Oh, and I need to prepare some food for the trip." Sakura took off running. "I need to speak with Tsunami!"
Sasuke stood up and after giving Naruto and Kakashi one last look, he walked away. "I better go get my things ready too…"
Kakashi approached Naruto, who had yet to move or say anything.
"And…did the sleepy boy hear anything I said?"
"The sleepy boy heard everything." Naruto opened his eyes. "Should I go get my things ready?"
"Have you completely recovered?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto opened his kimono to show the right side of his naked torso. That is where he had suffered most of the damage.
"As you can see…not even a mark." He said before closing the simple brown clothes he was wearing.
This was something that was given to him by one of the villagers since he had no more clothes to use.
"But that is not what you really wanted to ask, is that right?"
Kakashi chuckled.
"You are quite sharp…"
"You want to talk about the demon?" Naruto could already guess that his teacher had several questions about what happened that day at the bridge.
After the fight was over, they all went to get healed and rest. After that, Kakashi had not asked him anything at all about it. And of course, Naruto did not say anything either.
"Yes, I did want to talk about that…if that is okay with you."
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