Sealed

Sealed

II



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Author: Ms. Trick



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Note: Reviews make my life. No seriously.



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Chapter 2



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Even after months of being his sensei, Kakashi still wasn’t completely sure he was the one to be instructing Sasuke in ways other than combat skills. Nevertheless, here he was, tying the kid to a tree to get him to listen.



He paused to allow what he had just said to sink into the mind of his revenge-driven student, whom he had securely tied to a tree trunk. Informing Sasuke that he had already lost everyone important to him seemed to have diffused some of the boy’s indignant anger.



“Well, I’ll say we’re both unlucky people. That’s a fact,” he continued, one hand in his pocket and the other effortlessly keeping the wire tight around Sasuke. “But we’re not completely out of luck. You and I have important friends now, don’t we?”



A vision of Naruto and Sakura grinning warmly at him floated over Sasuke’s hanging head like a ghost. The anger was melting some, only to be replaced with a general miserable feeling.



“You understand because you lost important people. You were given the power of the Chidori because you have made valuable friends.”



The wire slide off Sasuke’s form and returned into the coil in Kakashi’s hand.



“That power isn’t used against friends or for revenge. You should know what that power is for. Think very carefully about whether or not what I said is off the mark.”



Sasuke didn’t twitch when Kakashi vanished. He didn’t even look up.



- - - - -



Jiraiya had nearly physically winced when Kakashi had mentioned that Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship was like his own with Orochimaru. How much like his relationship with Orochimaru?



He picked a strategic place to wait for the blonde and tried not to think about how he still couldn’t fully define what he and Orochimaru had had.



A few seconds later, Naruto neared where he was leaning against the fence. The genin was walking down street in his direction, a scowl on his face and...was he going to just stalk by and not acknowledge his presence at all?



That brat, Jiraiya thought. “Oi! Naruto!”



He trudged on. Jiraiya’s eye twitched—he didn’t like being ignored. Kakashi’s words again entered his mind and he remembered that his recognition meant little or nothing to Naruto next to Sasuke’s.



They’ll either destroy each other or fall in love, Jiraiya thought. He sighed and reluctantly made to follow after his apprentice.



“I’ll buy you ramen,” he called.



The boy stopped and turned to look at his teacher.



“...okay,” he said finally and with much less enthusiasm than his favourite food usually inspired in him.



Nevertheless, he accompanied Jiraiya to Ichiraku’s and plonked down on a stool, still lost in his thoughts. When Jiraiya called out for two orders of miso ramen with barbeque beef Naruto perked up a little.



“You must really want to say something, Ero-Sennin, if you’re tempting me with ramen,” Naruto said, his smile slowly creeping back.



“Right...remember how Kakashi said that rivalry’s a difficult thing?”



“Sorta.”



“Sorta?” Jiraiya said incredulously as their food was placed in front of them. “You were ten feet away!”



Naruto looked thoughtful as he pulled apart his chopsticks. “Yeah, well. I wasn’t really listening. Itadakimasu!”



Naruto had inhaled half the bowl before Jiraiya got back on topic.



“Anyway...rivalry is a difficult thing. It’s a slippery slope. Sometimes you end up being worst enemies and other times...mah, things can get even more complicated.”



Naruto’s blue eyes regarded him blankly. “Sasuke’s not that complicated. He’s just a bastard usually.”



“No, I mean your relationship with him could change into...something more.”



“Huh?”



Jiraiya sighed and good-naturedly realised that even if Naruto didn’t get it now, he’d pick up on it eventually. He hoped. He glanced at the boy, who was ordering another bowl of ramen with gusto. He really did resemble the Yondaime sometimes.



He must really be old, he thought, to remember having trained three generations.



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Sakura had been curled into a ball on the small balcony connected to her room for the last few hours. She absently watched the shadows cast by the afternoon light as she reminisced about the tumultuous year she’d spent as a member of Team 7. Her thoughts turned melancholy as she replayed this afternoon in her head. When had the cracks in their team begun showing?



She sat up straighter, fed up with feeling sorry for herself and her team mates. She would need to somehow get the three of them back to cooperating. She stood up, deciding that she’d start by talking to Naruto. Sasuke would be more difficult as she really wasn’t sure what was wrong and was nearly positive that he wouldn’t tell her anyway.



“Sakura!” A familiar voice called impatiently.



The pink-haired girl spun around to find Ino waving up at her from the street.



“Come on! They’re posting who everyone’s going to marry!”



“What? Oh, I completely forgot!”



Sakura turned and sprinted down the stairs, hollering a goodbye to her mother. She paused for a split second, remembering her vow to fix Team Kakashi, and resolved to find Naruto as soon as she could. Then she raced out to join her friend.



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Sasuke wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting in that tree, his heart knocking back and forth like a metronome, but it was probably a while. It was true; he had learned over the last year to value Sakura, Kakashi, and, unfortunately, even Naruto. Sasuke shut his eyes for a minute, remembering the electric tension of anticipation before the recent fight on the rooftop. On the other hand, Sasuke could not just ignore the deeply rooted hate he had for Itachi.



Somehow, he had gained friends and had learned how to live life along principles other than mere revenge. There had even been times where he had marvelled at how little anger he had had in him at that moment. These were odd instances, far and few between. Some occurred during downtime, like the quirky lunch breaks he shared with his team mates, some occurred during combat, like when he had protected Naruto to the point of near-death in their first mission to Wave Country, but most of these moments were with Naruto.



Sasuke’s lips twitched. That idiot always managed to provoke him to the point where just for a little while he could do nothing but react.



The bustle of a large group of people drew his attention away from his confusing thoughts. He watched the group move past the tree and belatedly remembered that he was to be shackled to someone. Sasuke tch-ed irritably but decided that he might as well go learn who. He figured he wasn’t coming to any solid conclusions about where his life was going and his bad mood couldn’t get much worse. He did his best to ignore the dread in his stomach as he stood up, stretched, and leaped out of the tree onto the street.



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“You could be paired with your little friend, Sakura,” Jiraiya said conversationally as the two slowly made their way towards the Hokage mansion.



Instead of lightening Naruto’s spirits, as the frog hermit had hoped, the blonde frowned.



“I’m not really happy with her right now. I don’t think I like her anymore,” he said, sounding all of seven instead of twelve.



“Oh?” Jiraiya said with a laugh. “That didn’t take much.”



“She interfered with me and Sasuke and nearly got herself killed. What if she had died? She doesn’t understand power, not like...”



“Sasuke?” Jiraiya supplied.



Naruto frowned again. “Well, yeah.”



Jiraiya eyed the large crowd gathered around several sheets of paper posted on the side of the Hokage building. The noise level was quickly going up as couples hugged each other or avoided each other or yelled at each other.



“Well, you’re on your own, kid,” the frog hermit said before vanishing.



Naruto sighed before resignedly pushing himself into the swarming mass of people. Bits of informative conversation floated towards him as he tried not to get trampled on.



“Why were certain people told to see Hokage-sama personally?”



“Some people have intervillage marriages or weird circumstances I guess.”



Naruto hurriedly ducked under some girl flinging herself into her boyfriend’s arms. You’d think his outfit would make him easier to notice and thus less likely to get knocked into but, as Naruto was finding, that just wasn’t true.



The noise got louder the closer he got to the message board.



“Wait! Who was paired with Sasuke?!” Some girl shrieked.



“Where is he?”



“THERE HE IS!”



Naruto paused and looked over his shoulder to see Sasuke walking calmly and untouched through the crowd. He looked like a man walking to his death, Naruto noted with a snicker.



“Who was paired with him?!”



“Is he in his pyjamas?”



Naruto fell into step with his dark-haired team mate (who hadn’t bothered to change out of the comfortable clothes he’d been wearing at the hospital...or put on shoes for that matter), taking it as a sign of good will when Sasuke didn’t punch him away. They both gave each other heavy sideways looks but neither made a move to escape the other’s presence.



“Sasuke.” Naruto said, and then fell dead silent for once. He really had no idea what to say. He certainly wasn’t going to apologize.



“This is a bad deal for us,” the dark-haired boy finally said, indicating the list of soon-to-be spouses.



“Huh? You mean getting married?”



“Neither of us has family.”



“Yeah, no stupid rules to follow,” the blonde said, accepting Sasuke’s unspoken peace-offering. “I mean, you should hear everything Neji’s gonna have to memorize.”



“But we’re left in the same low position. We don’t get much priority in selection.”



“But I wanted to be with Sasuke!” Someone yelled.



“You won’t have too much of a problem I’m sure, Lord Uchiha,” Naruto said, sticking his tongue out at his friend.



They both caught sight of a head of pink hair scanning the list intently.



“Sasuke’s bride isn’t listed!” Sakura called out loudly, trying to shut up the horde of frantic girls jostling her. Oh, she thought, I’m not either. Maybe there’s hope! Wait...neither is Naruto...or Lee for that matter.



She glared at the list until Ino elbowed her out of the way. Scowling, Sakura retreated to a safe distance and found herself near Shikamaru, who for all appearances, had no intentions to move through the crowd. He sighed.



“I’m with Ino,” he said, watching said blonde run her finger down the list.



Sakura looked over at him, rubbing her sore ribs slightly.



“Huh? You haven’t even checked the list yet.”



“It’s easy enough to figure out,” Shikamaru said. “Most of the arrangements already draw on already existing compatible relationships, a.k.a. within our ninja squads. And since Chouji’s family will want him to marry a foreigner, the logical answer is that it will be me and Ino.”



“I thought teams were arranged solely on grades,” Sakura mused thoughtfully.



Shikamaru shrugged. “That’s part of it, I’m sure. But most of the teams are based on if the Hokage thinks we’ll fight well together.”



“That makes sense, I guess.”



Sakura felt a surge of pride that she would be considered compatible with Sasuke. And, if she was being honest, with Naruto too. He’d gotten much stronger recently. Mainly by protecting her, Sakura thought a little embarrassedly.



It was then that she noticed both boys idling not too far to her right. She was unsure how they would interact after the earlier drama, but was cheered when they appeared to be talking, though a little more stiffly than usual. She hesitated for a minute before wishing Shikamaru luck with Ino and making her way towards her team mates.



“The three of us plus Shino, Chouji, and Lee have to see Tsunade later tonight,” Sakura announced as she approached them.



“What? We’re marrying foreigners?” Naruto asked.



“I don’t think Tsunade-sama’s stupid enough to entrust a political marriage to you, Naruto. She probably just has something weird planned,” Sakura deadpanned.



“You’re really mean sometimes, Sakura-chan,” Naruto said.



She laughed good-naturedly to show him she was kidding. The three of them stood there in a semi-comfortable silence and watched Kiba wrestle his way to the message board.



Thankfully the Sasuke craze seemed to have moved away from the uninformative list, so Kiba had less of a trial getting to it. Akamaru was nestled in his usual place in his coat and since it was warm out, Kiba had his hood thrown back.



He studied the list and his eyes widened a little when he found ‘Hyuuga Hinata’ written next to his name. He grinned and moved away from the wall, a warm feeling spreading through his chest. He had long since had a bit of a crush on the shy girl. He had always thought she was pretty and after working on the same team as her, his affection had only increased.



“Do you smell Hinata anywhere?” He asked.



His little dog barked a negative so Kiba looked around for her, searching for her familiar white eyes in the crowd. Though he did find a pair, they belonged to Neji, who was standing awkwardly next to TenTen, who was blatantly staring at something to her left.



TenTen nervously tried to ignore the silence. She knew she was lucky. Any girl would be glad to marry Neji. He was handsome and smart...she just hadn’t let herself think of him that way before for fear of throwing off their team’s dynamics. Any member of a three-man squad learned quickly that favouring one team mate over another was the quickest way to deteriorate group cooperation, which meant making mistakes, which meant putting lives in danger.



It wasn’t that Neji didn’t like TenTen. Quite the opposite. She was exactly the type of girl he could respect and appreciate. And as a member of the Hyuuga clan, a betrothal had been in his future regardless of the Hokage’s input. So he really had no problem with his upcoming marriage to his team mate. Now if only he could think of something to say to her.



He breathed slowly and watched Kiba scan the crowd for Neji’s cousin before making his way towards where Team 7 was relaxing.



“Oi! Kiba!” Naruto yelled out in a loud greeting, not noticing that Sakura and Sasuke both winced slightly. “Who’re you marrying?”



Kiba grinned and stuck his thumb up. “Hinata.”



“You’re marrying into the Hyuuga?”



“What? No! Hinata’s becoming an Inuzuka, dumbass,” Kiba said, folding his arms. “Have you seen her anywhere?”



“Yeah,” Sakura piped up. “She was heading towards the Academy.”



“Thanks,” he called as he broke away from the group.



It took little to no time for him to navigate the familiar path to their old school. Images of red triangle tattoos resting under warm white eyes danced in his head. He made his way quietly into the courtyard, not seeing anyone. Then he heard it, a very hushed sound that caused his heart to constrict.



He approached the large tree silently and peered around its massive trunk. Sure enough, Hinata was sitting on the old wooden swing, crying to herself as quietly as she could.



Cold spread through Kiba and he backed away, stung. He left the scene as discreetly as possible, knowing the only reason his miserable future bride’s eyes hadn’t picked up on him right away was because she was too caught up in her emotions to focus.



Kiba clenched his fists. He needed to hit something. He knew Hinata well enough to know why she was crying. She had realised that she’d never be with Naruto...but was marrying Kiba really worth tears?



He scowled. Akamaru yipped comfortingly from his place against his master’s chest as Kiba ran at full speed towards the training grounds to let off some steam.



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