Soulmating

Well, here it is. I have read the entire first part of the manga again to remember exactly how it all went down, because for now, I want to stay pretty close to that. Therefore, a part of this, and probably also the next 2 chapters or so, is not really new information for most of you, but it was necessary to include, because some important parts of my story go down during these events. Nevertheless, the writing itself is getting easier and easier with every chapter, and I must say that I am pretty satisfied how this chapter turned out. I felt that I had excluded Sakura for too long, after all, she is an important part of team 7, and therefore also of the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke.
Revies make me happy, replies to them are again at the bottom of the story. Enjoy!

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The next few days were pretty much the same. They practiced their techniques and teamwork every day, they shared the same dream every night. They had grown a lot closer after their argument, both boys' understanding of each other becoming a lot better. They now really saw each other as best friends, a change that hadn't gone unnoticed by Kakashi and the Hokage.

"It seems you were right Kakashi." The third said. "They needed to talk to each other on their own."

"Of course. I know my team members better than they think. Hell, I even know them better than they know themselves." Said Kakashi with a smile on his face.

And then there was Sakura. Naruto had dreaded talking to her, thinking she would be mad that he was spending so much time with Sasuke and not she. However, her response was different than expected.

"Naruto!" she said, as she ran into him after the last day of his training with Sasuke, to which she had not been allowed for safety reasons. "How are you? I take it that your training with Sasuke-kun went well? Listen, I would like to ask you a favor."

"I'm great, our training was awesome, and Sakura-chan, you can ask me for a favor anytime." the blonde responded, hoping that she would finally ask him out.

"I was wondering, now that you and Sasuke-kun have grown so close, if you could gently persuade him to go out with me. He is probably too shy to ask me out without a little advice from a friend."

"Uhm, well I could try, but I must warn you, Sasuke isn't really in to dating at the moment. He has a lot on his mind, you know. I, on the other hand, would feel honored to go on a date with you."

"Not in a million years. Will you try for me?"

"Fine."

"You're the best, Naruto." Sakura said. She then pulled back her fist, and hit him in the face. "That was for kissing Sasuke-kun again. And thanks Naruto." She then smiled, and walked away.

"Pfff... Women..." Naruto thought.

---

A few days had passed, the only noticeable event being meeting three weird ninja's from the Suna. One of them was particularly weird, and scary too. Of course, all three member of team 7 had temporarily forgotten about this, when Kakashi had told them that he had signed them up for the chunin exams. The first test had at first seemed a little difficult, but when Naruto and Sasuke decided to use their connection, it had all been very easy. Sasuke had told Naruto to use the sharingan to copy the movements of people writing down the answers, and they had both shared the answers they had retrieved with each other. Sakura, being the smart one of course, had just solved all the problems herself, a feat which gave her the admiration of both Naruto and Sasuke, though the latter would never admit this. But now, the real test was about to begin.

"I'm going to the ladies room, you guys. Be right back." Sakura said, while she gave Naruto a look as if to say: 'Now is the time.'

"Ahum. Sasuke, I wanted to ask you something. Why don't you go on a date with Sakura? I mean, she's a really pretty, smart girl, and one of your goals is to repopulate your clan, isn't it?" Naruto asked hesitatingly.

"Well, I thought about it, but I had more reasons not to do it, than to do it." Sasuke responded.

"Why then?"

"First of all, I cannot get involved romantically before I have killed my brother and avenged the clan. It is a task that requires no distraction, and romance is the ultimate distraction. Secondly, she annoys the living hell out of me. Seriously, I can't see why you like her so much other than her looks. And lastly, although also a bit problematically, I recently discovered that I'm just not that into girls."

"Well, I can understand the first reason, on the second one we'll just have to agree to disagree. And the third... Wait... Does that mean that you're, you know... Gay?" Naruto said, whispering the last word.

"It's a possibility, though I think I'm too young to know yet. I don't really like girls, never have, and perhaps never will, and as for boys... Well, I haven't found anyone yet so I really can't say for sure, but the idea seems better than a girl. The only problem is that it will make it hard for me to make, what is it you say, Uchiha-babies. But that is a problem to deal with later on."

"Uhm... I'm a bit surprised here, so I don't really know what to say." Naruto said, with a look of shock on his face.

"Hah, Uzumaki Naruto at a loss for words. I didn't think I'd see the day. Anyway, here comes Sakura, I would appreciate it if you didn't tell her. The entire village would know in less than an hour."

"Sure, I guess."

---

"The second test of the chunin exams begins now!" Anko yelled.

---

They had already ran into a little trouble with some rain nins, but nothing they couldn't handle. Now they had just decided a code word, which, of course was too difficult for Naruto to remember. Not that Sasuke needed the codeword to know that the person in front of him wasn't Naruto.

"Another advantage of this connection. Perhaps it isn't that bad after all." Sasuke thought.

"So you noticed. You guys want our Earth-scroll, right? Then lets fight for it." the creepy Grass nin said. "With our lives."

Suddenly, Sasuke and Sakura felt overwhelmed with the killing intent in the eyes of the Grass nin. They were having a hard time breathing, and fell down on their knees.

"Damn," Sasuke thought. "This is really bad. We need to run, this guy is way out of our league." Unable to move, he saw the Grass nin raise his hand, with in it a kunai. But at the last moment, he was able to stab himself to dispel the fear and dodge."

Suddenly, as snake came out of nowhere, attacking the two Leaf nins, who thought they were safe for now. Barely in time, Sasuke was able to hit him with a kunai.

"Know this." said the Grass nin as he appeared out of the snake. "You should never let your guard down in the presence of a predator." He then stretched his body to snakelike length, as he attacked Sasuke. Sasuke himself smiled, feeling a familiar presence.

Kunais flew through the air, landing just in front of the Grass nin. "I'm sorry, but I forgot the codeword." Naruto said.

"Naruto! This guy is to strong for us to handle normally. We need to use or training, or he'll kill us all." Sasuke yelled.

"Yeah! Finally we can use it in a real situation." Naruto smiled.

"Activate bond mode," both boys said simultaneously, "twin sharingans!"

Their chakra flared, and with their left eyes, both boys could also see what the other saw. Meanwhile, the Grass nin didn't hesitate. "Kuchiyose."

The boys dashed forward, to a suddenly appearing huge snake. They ran in a formation that they had trained on the second day of their training. "Fiery shadowclones formation." they yelled. Naruto formed three shadowclones, Sasuke took over control over them and then from four mouths, "Katon: Goukakye no jutsu." was to be heard. The snake barely dodged these four fireballs, but then, from above, Naruto came flying in, with a Kyuubi-chakra enhanced kick.

"I see." the grass nin thought. "Then I'll have to up my game a bit." The snake then suddenly attacked Sasuke, who had no time to think of a way out.

Suddenly, Naruto jumped in, stopping the snake a few meters in front of Sasuke. His whisker marks were clearly visible, and he had eyes like a fox. "Geez, Sasuke. I can't always be there to save your ass."

Shocked by this sudden power in Naruto, which he then slightly started to feel in himself as well, he didn't notice the tongue coming from above, and wasn't able to warn Naruto.

After he had lifted Naruto up, the Grass nin held him in front of him. "Well, how about that, it's the Kyuubi brat. Let's do something about that, shall we? Five point sealing technique!" he said, slamming his hand onto Naruto's stomach.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shouted. "Stop acting like a coward and do something!"

Sasuke froze, but then regained his composure, and with his sharingan showing his resolve, he relentlessly started attacking the Grass nin with kunais, jutstu's, everything he had. But when he had landed a hit with his fireball, suddenly the face of the Grass nin started to melt.

"Haha. You're strong, Sasuke-kun, but nowhere near as strong as Itachi. It seems power does not run in the family after all." the mysterious nin laughed.

"Who are you? How do you know Itachi?" Sasuke demanded.

"I am Orochimaru. If you want to see me again, survive and pass the exam, Sasuke-kun. But for now, I will give you a gift." His head flew at Sasuke, stretching his neck to an almost impossible length, and then he bit Sasuke in his neck.
"You will seek me, you will seek me power. Until then, goodbye, Uchiha Sasuke." he said, as he sank into the ground.

"Aargh!!"Sasuke screamed in agony.

---

I was wondering, were you guys expecting that Sasuke would still get the cursed seal in my story? I would appreciate it if you could include that in your review, and other expectations as well, to see what you guys expect of my story.

Replies to reviews:
Golden Kitsune: Well, here you go. I hope to be able to update more often from now on, so I hope that'll keep you happy :D
Dominate One: I'm happy you like it. And well, I have to come up with new jutsu's, because the story will develop quite differently than canon later on. And of course, i have to make them extra awesome, a task in which I hope to succeed :p
Madamdragon: Thank you :D I was hoping to keep growing with every chapter, and I'm glad to know it's working.
unneeded: Well, you make a good point there. I haven't decided yet wether I'll give Sasuke fox powers or not, and if so what kind. It's a difficult decission, because if I do, they will both have almost the exact same powers, which I fear will be problematic later on though. And don't worry, I plan on following the canonverse in a lot of those things, though probably with a twist.
Mystic: Thanks, I really like writing Naruto, he's so cheerful. Hischaracter isa lot likemine, so that makes it easy for me to write him :p