A/N: Sorry for taking so long… I have no excuse. But now it’s summer and I’ll try to write more.

Now, Sasuke torture time. I hate him so much… he’s so hard to write.

-
-

Chapter the Third

-
-

Although Team Seven’s first mission had (essentially) been successful, Kakashi could already see a very obvious problem. Just as everyone had expected, Inuzuka and Uzumaki were far more willing to work with each other than with Sasuke. Not that Kakashi blamed them, frankly. Both were loud, outgoing and friendly, but both were also very put-off by the Uchiha’s attitude.

It seemed like Kakashi would have to take matters into his own hands. Divide and conquer was the theme.

Most likely, it would be easier to start with Uzumaki. She and Sasuke would work best in a partnership of mutual reliance, where both acknowledged that the other could do his/her share of the work. In theory. As long as Sasuke stopped insulting the blonde, she’d tolerate him long enough to start really believing that he was a teammate. And once Kizuna decided you were her friend/teammate/partner/anything, she’d go to hell and back for you. And maybe, on some level, she could understand Sasuke’s loneliness.

Kakashi had even found the perfect mission for them. Now the only problem was how to get rid of dog boy.

Fortunately Inuzuka solved that problem himself. When Kakashi appeared at their meeting spot the day after the end of their first mission, the first thing Kiba did, after yelling “You’re late” and “Liar,” was ask him if it would be alright for him to miss a week of training.

“My mother is going to be home for a little while and she agreed to teach me the basics of Tsuuga,” he explained. Kakashi nodded agreeably. This was actually much better than sending dog boy on some pointless errand. Tsuuga, and Gatsuuga, were staple Inuzuka techniques, used by even the jounins and also the basis for many of the more advanced jutsus. To start learning it a week after graduation was pretty impressive. Or it would be, if he managed to master it.

“Go ahead. It’s fine. I’ll find something to occupy your teammates meanwhile.”

Glancing at the two genin in question, Kakashi felt positively evil, in a good way. Kizuna had just retrieved the kunai she’d greeted her errant teacher with, and seemed to be considering throwing it again. Sasuke stood apart from the others, arms crossed, expression neutral.

They had no idea what was coming.

‘Mwa hahaha…’

-
-

Next morning, Kizuna and Sasuke waited for three hours in front of the Hokage tower. It was a very tense wait, especially for the blonde. The Uchiha’s attitude annoyed her to no end, even when he was silent and distant, but at the same time, she was wary of starting a fight right in the middle of the street, especially since just about every other person passing by was a ninja. There was no question of whose side they’d take if the two members of Team Seven started fight.

When Kakashi’s “Yo!” finally came, she whirled around to face the approaching jounin and prepared to throw her greeting-kunai.

“Now, now, please don’t do that,” Kakashi said far too cheerfully. “Dodging while holding this would be a little complicated.”

‘This’ was a large white box with a row of round holes on each side, two-thirds of the way up. Kizuna stared at it for a moment, then looked at the jounin, before focusing on the building behind him.

“Why were you coming from the Hokage Tower?” she demanded. “Why keep us waiting if you got here early?”

Kakashi shrugged, though the motion was distorted by the box. Moving to stand in front of his students, he held it out to Sasuke. “Here,” the jounin said when the dark-haired genin made no move to take it. “This is your next mission.”

“A box? And why the hell are we doing a mission without Kiba?” Kizuna questioned, suspicious.

Kakashi waited until Sasuke took the box, then turned to Kizuna, holding out a sheet of paper. “Your mission is to deliver this box, or more precisely, what’s inside of it, to Kikami village, which is a day’s travel from here. This is a map, just in case, though all you need to do is stay on the road and follow the signs. It’s D rank, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“You’re not coming with us?” Kizuna looked at the paper with apprehension. Frowning, she glanced at Sasuke. “And how come he gets to carry it? And what’s inside anyway?”

Kakashi laughed lightly. “Well, you see, I have some things I want to do…” He trailed off, quailing slightly under the blonde’s glare. “What you’re delivering is very fragile and delicate. You can’t move faster than a jog while you’re holding, and you can’t drop it, or shake it. I think Sasuke is the better choice for the one to carry it, considering your history…” Kizuna twitched, almost blushing at the mild jab.

“What is it? Well…” The jounin rubbed his chin, then shrugged, smiling. “That’s a secret.”

This time, Kizuna had no reservations about throwing several kunai at him.

-
-

“What do you think it is?”

Although Sasuke didn’t believe that he needed two teammates in the first place, he still wished that he had been placed in a cell with Aburame or Nara instead. There were, he supposed, genin even worse than Inuzuka and Uzumaki, but the two of them were well near the top of his ‘annoyance’ list.

Inuzuka was loud, brash and stupid (he was last in the class, after all) and took everything as a challenge. Although he was only a second-rate shinobi, at best, and relied far too much on his dog, Inuzuka continued to pit himself against Sasuke, trying to prove that he was superior.

Pathetic.

Uzumaki, also, hated Sasuke with a passion. She’d made no secret about it in the Academy, and routinely set traps for the rookie of the year. She was loud, brash and stupid, as well as the owner of a fine temper and zero self-control.

Pathetic.

Frankly, Sasuke was surprised that she’d remained silent for the first three hours of their (pathetic) mission. That, he supposed, was because she’d been too busy gawking. How pathetic was it that she’d never been out of the village before?

And now, after a few minutes of staring intently at the ‘mystery’ box, she was looking at him with increasing annoyance.

Sasuke ignored her.

The kunoichi began to growl quietly, then took and a deep breath and tried again. “It’s got to be something important, right? And fragile!”

Sasuke gave her a flat, bored look. “This is a D rank mission. Obviously, the object inside is of no real value.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” she mused, tilting her head to one side. Didn’t she notice his absolute lack of desire to converse? She was even dumber than the fangirls. “But then, I wonder why Kakashi-sensei was so bitchy about how we treated it.”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her description of the jounin. ‘Bitchy?’ He snorted. At the (admittedly minor) sigh of emotion, the kunoichi grinned impishly. Sasuke closed his eyes and sped up.

Unfortunately, although Uzumaki was lacking in many aspects, she had plenty of stamina and caught up with him easily. The Uchiha scowled.

“He was certainly adamant that you should not be allowed to handle it. So, what record was he referring to?” Without turning, he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Just what did you manage break?”

“Eh…” Uzumaki blushed finely, looking away in embarrassment. “Well there was that time with the vase… all three of them… and the tea set… and the window… a few dozen times…”

Sasuke snickered, in spite of himself. It was just so pathetic, it was funny. The blonde mock-glared (he’d been at the receiving end of her real glares enough times to know when she meant it), pouted and stuck out her tongue.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke smirked slightly.

“Some kind of low-level seal was placed on this container,” he contributed, surprising even himself. “I can feel it.” And he could. The damn box was humming just a little, a sure sign of a cyclical, semi-self-maintaining seal. “It may be to keep the box shut until it is delivered, but there appears to be something else as well.”

“Ah…” Uzumaki stroked her chin in an exaggerated imitation of Kakashi’s earlier action. She was silent for several moments, then declared, absolutely straight-faced, “I can’t think of anything.”

Grimacing, Sasuke stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. “Idiot.”

“Am not!” she yelled back.

“You are,” he insisted coolly. “Very much so.”

Uzumaki glared, though much less potently than usual. “I’m so a better shinobi than you,” she declared.

Sasuke snorted. “In your delusions maybe. Also, you’re not a shinobi, you’re a kunoichi.” He eyed her critically. “A very bad one, granted.”

Crossing her arms, the blonde turned up her nose and sniffed. “Yeah, whatever. And I don’t give a damn about being a kunoichi. I’m going to be a great shinobi!”

“Having an identity crisis?” he asked sarcastically. “Of course, you’re so crass, it is admittedly difficult to remember that you’re a female.”

“Shut up! At least I look my gender!”

“And just what does that mean?” he demanded.

“You’re girly!” Uzumaki declared triumphantly.

“I am not!” What the hell was he doing, arguing with this idiot like a child?

“You so are! You’re prettier than Ino-pig! If your hair didn’t stick up like a chicken’s, you’d look totally like a girl!” Uzumaki leaned toward him a little, tilting her head in a way that made her grin look both predatory and playful.

Raising his chin slightly, Sasuke looked down at her from the corner of his eye. In the back of his mind, he knew the pose was a little too exaggerated to be taken seriously. “A shinobi has no need to be concerned with his physical appearance,” he told her haughtily.

Uzumaki snickered. In another girl, that would’ve been a giggle. Her eyes narrowed almost into slits and her grin was impish. The gestures, the words… part of him had just done it automatically, slipping into an easy banter…

The other part of Sasuke recoiled at the thought. Forcefully, he scowled, ripping away the good spirit of their argument.

“Maybe if you spent less time staring in the mirror, you’d be less of an idiot,” he sneered. He knew she could tell that this wasn’t a game any more, that he meant it. Uzumaki’s expression shifted almost seamlessly into a glare and a scowl.

“I’m not an idiot! And I’m stronger than you!” she hissed.

Viciously, Sasuke drove the knife deeper, twisting the imaginary blade with every word. There was a kind of bitter satisfaction in reminding his ‘teammate’ of where they stood. “Someone like you could never be stronger than me. You’re weak. You’re always going to be weak.”

“No way! I’ll get much stronger, definitely! I’m going to be Hokage!”

“As if! You’ll never get anywhere. A foolish dream like that will never come true. You’re just too dumb to realize it.”

“I’ll make it a reality! There’s no reason why-”

“There’s no reason why they would choose you. Just what do you have to offer? No bloodline, no connections, no heritage, no strengths, no skills – just a worse-than-average kunoichi, and the village pariah, at that!”

That last part, what the hell was he doing, mentioning something like that? For all her excessive cheer and quicksilver emotions, Uzumaki always held a sense of old pain and a deep secret. Everyone hated her, and no reason was given. Flaunting that was like someone intentionally bringing up the Uchiha massacre, and then telling him… what?.. that the only reason he ever achieved anything was because everyone pitied him.

Well, that certainly got her attention. The line had been crossed, and they wouldn’t be going to friendly banter now. Shaking, fists clenched, Uzumaki growled, “Put it down.”

Even as he began to move, bending to set the box on the ground, the kunoichi shifted the strap of her messenger bag off her shoulder and dropped the pack to the ground.

Sasuke smirked grimly. “Guess even you’re not dumb enough to forget about the mission. What a surpri-”

He didn’t get a chance to finish as Uzumaki lunged for him, fist pulled back. Pathetic, broadcasting her moves like that. Sasuke dodged easily, stepping to the right, then ducking under a kick as the blonde spun around on her right leg and tried to hit him in the head with her left. Smirking, he swept her legs out from under her, but Uzumaki flipped, landing on her hands, pushed off and regained her feet again, about a foot away.

In the moment it took her to right herself, Sasuke threw two shuriken, forcing the blonde to leap to the side. His next barrage had accounted for that, however, leaving the girl no time to dodge. Pulling out her kunai, Uzumaki deflected them deftly, catching one as it fell and launching it back at him.

Sasuke dodged the shuriken, and the kunai that followed almost immediately, letting the throwing knife embed into the tree behind him with a dull thunk. He hadn’t taken his eyes off his opponent, just like they’d been taught, just like an Uchiha was supposed to. That was exactly why he completely missed the explosive tag attached to the kunai.

It exploded almost instantly, throwing him forward. A chuck of wood hit him in the back as he braced against the force of the blast and tried to regain his balance. Sasuke grit his teeth, narrowing his eyes and trying to stay focused. He barely dodged Uzumaki’s next punch, stumbling a little. The next attack, a back fist to the face, hit him full on.

Damnit, she really did hit hard, like getting nailed by a sledgehammer. The blow completely lifted him off his feet, and Sasuke felt himself sail through the air before plowing into the ground. Using his momentum, even as the back of his head, neck and lower back screamed, Sasuke flipped backwards onto his feet. Just in time, as Uzumaki drove a heel drop into the place his had just been. A small crater and a spiderweb of cracks spread outward from the place of impact, making Sasuke grimace for a moment. He wouldn’t be able to take too many hits like that.

Throwing her weight forward, Uzumaki threw a straight right, but Sasuke was ready this time. Sidestepping the attack, he moved closer and drove an elbow into the blonde’s solar plexus, followed by an upward palm strike to the chin.

Sasuke didn’t pause in his attacks, realizing that his best chance was not to let Uzumaki recover. He hated to admit it, but she wasn’t half-pathetic in combat. Both she and Inuzuka were so low in the class rankings mainly because they failed utterly in all things academic. Uzumaki though, had a certain advantage over dog boy. She was fast enough to avoid most single attacks, and she could both take and deal a lot of damage.

Grabbing a fistful of her t-shirt, he dragged the girl down, throwing her further off balance. A knee to the stomach, an elbow across the face – Uzumaki stumbled away, trying to put some distance between them. Sasuke landed a spinning kick, flashing through the hand signs for Goukakyuu even before he had set his foot down again.

The Grand Fireball engulfed the area, setting a nearby stand of trees on fire. As the smoke cleared, he could just make out the figure of his teammate. Uzumaki had managed to avoid the epicenter of the technique, but had still been caught in the outer edges. Her shirt was singed, and the skin on the left side of her face, her left arm was quickly turning an angry red. Her left eye was squeezed shut, and her scowl had a hint of pain in it.

For a moment, Sasuke froze. He’d never seen what his fire techniques could do to a person. For all his purpose, he’d never caused injury with anything except taijutsu, not even shuriken or kunai. And yet, somehow, even without thinking, he’d been fighting with the intent to seriously injure his opponent… his opponent who wasn’t a real opponent. She might be pathetic and annoying, but… ‘You might as well kill them yourself,’ Kakashi warned.

There was only one person he wanted to kill, and no matter how he looked, Sasuke couldn’t see him in his short, short-tempered, annoying teammate.

In the moment that he had been thinking, Uzumaki had recovered enough to continue, lunging at him. She didn’t seem at all phased by the turn their fight had taken, as if having an ally attempt on her life was completely normal. But up close, he could see the damage from Goukakyuu clearly. Second degree burns at least, the Academy-trained part of his mind catalogued automatically.

What would it have been like if she hadn’t dodged? If Kizuna had been Inuzuka who had worse reaction time and less speed?

He dodged her initial attack, but was too slow, too preoccupied to get out of the way completely. Grabbing him by the collar, Uzumaki shoved the dark-haired genin back, against a tree that had managed to survive their battle.

But she didn’t attack, really. Didn’t hit him hard enough to knock him out and break bone, though she definitely could, didn’t pull out a kunai and stab him in the vitals, though he wouldn’t have been able to dodge just then.

“I’m not weak,” she hissed, her face only inches away from his. “And I’ll get stronger.”

He swallowed down the bitter taste in his mouth, watching his teammate warily. At least some of his thoughts must have shown on his face because, after a moment, her glare lessened, shifting into an annoyed and questioning expression, asking clearly, ‘What the hell is wrong with you now?’

They stared at each other until she snorted and rolled her eyes, letting go of his t-shirt and backing away a little. “I’m not weak,” she told him again, daring him to disagree.

Sasuke nodded, more reflex than anything. Definitely. ‘And in any case,’ he told himself, ‘she is certainly not physically weak.’ And more than that, anyone who could meet a serious, malicious attack with appropriate force and then suddenly stop when that opposition vanished was definitely not entirely weak-minded.

Kizuna eyed him suspiciously. “Right,” she finally allowed, then shrugged. “Same to you.”

Same to him? Was she only now admitting that he wasn’t weak? Wasn’t it obvious when he graduated top of the class?

“You’re still a jerk though,” she added.

Laughing at his expression, which hadn’t really changed, Sasuke knew, but must have shifted just a little, Kizuna turned away and began to walk to where they’d left their things, running a hand through her hair. “That’s okay though, as long as you’re not too annoying. Not to worry, though, ‘cause I’ll beat it out of you if you get too-”

Sasuke paused in his glare, watching the blonde warily as she suddenly stopped moving.

“Hey, Uchiha,” she began, “where’s the box?”

He glared again, calculating quickly and turning toward the place where he’d left it. “It’s right-”

Except that it wasn’t there.

Somehow, the mission had just gotten even worse.

Shaking off their stupor, both of them jogged, somewhat stiffly, over to the place where the box should have been. Sasuke stopped at the exact spot where he’d been standing then, while Kizuna moved over to her bag.

“Hey!” she exclaimed. “Someone went through my stuff!”

Moving quickly, the kunoichi checked through her bag, then packed up her belongings and stood up. “Well, my normal food is gone, though the emergency rations are still here,” she commented. Making a face, she murmured, “Wouldn’t want to eat those either, yuck, yuck.”

“Concentrate, will you!” Sasuke snarled, looking up for a moment before returning his gaze to the ground. He cursed mentally, already knowing he wouldn’t find any tracks. He just hadn’t paid more than minimal attention to things like that in class. And Uzumaki was even worse.

Shit. What were they going to do now?

Okay, he had to be calm since Uzumaki definitely wasn’t going to be the voice of reason. Whoever it was hadn’t gone too close to their battle, so that already eliminated half the possible directions. The best way to go about this was to split up. For a D-rank mission, foreign ninja wouldn’t be involved, so either of them would be perfectly capable of handling the thief.

“Alright,” he began, nodding sharply, “we’ll split up. You, search that way, and I’ll go this way,” he indicated two directions about ninety degrees apart. “If you find it, toss an explosive tag in the air.” Uzumaki frowned, instantly balking at the idea of actually obeying orders. Sasuke gave her his best “you have a better idea?” look.

Well, wasn’t that progress? Before this mission from hell, he would have gone for the “I’m so better than, how dare you argue” look.

Baring her teeth and huffing angrily, Uzumaki spun around sharply and took off. Sasuke watched for a second longer, just to make sure that she didn’t turn around and fill with kunai instead, then began his search.

This had about a one-in-a-million chance of working.

-
-

The thief licked her face again, his fur tickling her face. Kizuna sneezed, then giggled quietly, stroking the inquisitive striped muzzle.

That’s right, folks. They, two Konoha ninja, had gotten robbed be a raccoon. A raccoon.

Yeah.

Uchiha was going to blow a blow a casket. Kizuna grinned, imagining the stoic boy’s reaction. Served him right. And she was the one who found their thief, too.

Well, that was more luck than anything, but still…

Holding the animal up, she asked playfully, “And just what did you want with a silly box anyway? Food, I can understand, but a big white box? I hope you didn’t jostle it too much…”

The raccoon tilted its head to one side, large dark eyes regarding her curiously. He was really a magnificent creature, large and healthy.

Still not a match for the great shinobi Uzumaki Kizuna, of course.

“But really, where is that jerk?” she asked the raccoon, frowning slightly. “I sent up the signal ten minutes ago. He couldn’t have gotten that far. Jerk.” The raccoon yawned and began grooming its muzzle. Kizuna snorted. “Not interested in Uchiha’s face, huh? Oh well. I guess I better go look for him.”

Picking up the box, Kizuna climbed to her feet. The raccoon ignored her. “No need for you to come,” she told it flatly.

She decided to head back to the clearing where they started first. From there, she could retrace Uchiha’s path. And if she couldn’t find him, then… Well, she’d think of something if it came to that. It wasn’t like she cared what happened to the stupid bastard anyway.

Still, as she arrived at “crime scene” and, sparring a short glance to their devastated battlefield, headed the way Uchiha had planned to go, Kizuna began to feel worried. He might have been stuck up, self-centered, arrogant and just plain annoying, but Uchiha was a teammate. Sort of. And it was duty as a shinobi to protect her teammates. Sort of.

So it was her duty to-

Kizuna backpedaled abruptly, trying to stop, and almost fell off the branch she had landed on. There. On the next tree over, several small spots of something dark. Moving to the spot, she crouched and examined the substance. It was blood, dry now. Uchiha’s? But why..?

Their fight. Right. He’d gotten hit pretty bad by pieces of that tree she’d blown up.

Standing, Kizuna scanned the area, looking for more blood. Yeah, she could see it and smell it too. Pushing away a few half-formed imagines of Uchiha dying of blood loss (complete nonsense anyway), Kizuna followed the trail.

A little further a long, the trail turned, and Kizuna guessed this was the point where she had set off the signal, making Uchiha change course. The blood was more frequent now, and a little fresher.

It was a few more minutes before she caught up with Uchiha. He was slumped against a tree, and for a moment Kizuna thought he had passed out. But then, the other genin looked up and glared at her, dispelling most of her concern.

Setting the box down gingerly (carrying the thing had almost given her a nervous breakdown), she kneeled next to Uchiha and opened her bag. Since she healed so fast, Kizuna didn’t really use medical supplies for herself, but years of training as a good, support-oriented kunoichi had drilled the need to carry a first aid kit into her.

Pulling out a roll of bandages, medical tape, several packs of gauze and a jar of salve, she regarded her patient. Considering the look Uchiha was giving her, Kizuna felt a little wary of approaching. He looked ready to tear her head of if she so much as hinted that he needed help.

Should she knock him? Kakashi-sensei would not approve. Should she glare him into submission? That would take the rest of the day. Should she negotiate? Ha. Ha. Yeah, right.

Uchiha spared her the effort of deciding and spoke first. “Don’t bother,” he gritted out, staggering to his feet. Kizuna twitched, her mouth twisting in annoyance. “I don’t need you help.”

Dropping her supplies on top of the box (better than the ground), Kizuna grabbed double fistfuls of his dark shirt and pulled the genin down again. “Good for you,” she declared. Pausing only for second to savor his shocked expression (although it wasn’t really all that different from all his other expressions), Kizuna yanked the shirt up and off.

As she had planned, Uchiha was caught completely off-guard and only began to resist when the shirt was almost entirely off his body. As a result, the material got tangled around his arms, tying them together.

As her teammate squawked incoherent protests (and was that a blush she saw?), Kizuna moved to the side so that she had at least a peripheral view of Uchiha’s back. It wasn’t too bad, just really bloody.

Pulling out her canteen, the blonde unceremonially dumped the contents onto the wounds. Uchiha visibly bit down a shriek and only winced, glaring murder. Using the lull in his protest and struggles, Kizuna deftly applied the salve and taped on patches of gauze over the wounds.

“You-” Uchiha began, finally recovering his voice.

“Don’t bother,” she cut him off. “I’m almost done.”

He glared but didn’t protest further, and Kizuna quickly wrapped bandages around his torso. She grinned impishly, watching Uchiha in the tense silence. He was blushing. Not used to baring skin around a girl, huh? Oh, his fan-club would die of envy.

Securing the end of the bandage, Kizuna relayed this thought to her teammate.

The look he gave her was priceless.

“Just think, this is two points I’ve got over them!” she gloated. “Not only did I share lunch with Sasuke-kun” (he twitched at the overly girly way she said his name) “but I even got to see him half-naked!”

Uchiha snarled, pulling his shirt back.

As his head emerged from the ridiculously large collar, Kizuna tossed an energy bar at him. Uchiha caught it deftly and glared, ready to make some stupid comment. The blonde frowned, suddenly tired of his attitude. Was she like that? Certainly not. Probably. There was a fine line between independent and obstinacy…

“Just eat it and let’s go,” she bit out. “You’re carrying the stupid box, by the way.” He wasn’t that injured anyway. After a moment, Uchiha unwrapped the bar and began to eat carefully. Watching him, Kizuna abruptly realized how hungry she was. They had left Konoha hours ago, and she hadn’t eaten since hours before that.

Pulling out another bar, Kizuna bit in and shuddered. It was so disgusting. But she was hungry enough not to care. As Uchiha watched, chewing on his own ration expressionlessly, she devoured it in a few large bites, grimacing in between.

Gathering her things, Kizuna stood. A moment later, Uchiha followed suit, only the slightest shift in his features giving away his discomfort. Kizuna refused to feel guilty. It was his own fault for saying things like that and pissing her off.

“Don’t,” she began, frowning and looking away, “don’t write us off as useless baggage.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Uchiha pause. “If Kiba had been here, he would’ve tracked the box down in no time. ‘Cause that’s what he’s good at. And… even though I hate things like that, I can patch up wounds and set up traps and stuff like that…”

She turned back toward Uchiha, suddenly feeling as if the distance between them was too much. “Don’t you get it? We’re teammates. That’s just the way it is! I want… I want to work with you! I want to know that I can count on you! I want to know that you can count on me…”

She trailed off. All she could see was Uchiha’s back, his tattered shirt, with the white and red crest torn almost completely off. He hadn’t looked back or given any sign that could hear her, understand what she was saying.

Kizuna slumped slightly, eyes turning down to the ground. Well, what had she expected? This was pointl-

“Take it.”

The girl looked, blinking in surprise. Uchiha frowned, holding out the box gingerly.

“Take it,” he repeated, sounding more annoyed at her silence. “It’s your fault, in any case, so you should carry it.”

Carefully taking the package from him, Kizuna smiled faintly.

I can trust you with this.

-
-

“Can you believe the nerve of that guy!” Kizuna complained, gesturing wildly. “He actually had the nerve to tell us we were late!”

“We were late,” Uchiha pointed out flatly, not even bothering to look at he blonde.

Kizuna continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “Like he had any right to complain!”

Trying desperately to stiffen his laughter, Kiba looked between his two teammates. After a week of grueling training, he had returned to the rest of Team Seven. Now, the other two genin were relaying their bizarre mission to him. Well, Kizuna was relaying, with Uchiha making snide (but true) comments now and then.

“Sounds like you had an interesting mission. Damn, figures I’d miss it.” He scratched his head for a moment. A raccoon stealing an important package? Getting lost between Konoha and Kikami? It was almost too crazy to believe. “The only thing I don’t get is, what was in the box? Something cool, right?”

Kizuna smiled suddenly, looking very girly and blushing faintly. Cupping her face in her hands, she swayed her hips and cooed. The boys gave identical looks of disbelief. Kiba turned to look at Uchiha, horrified. The number one rookie rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Kittens,” he provided.

“They were so cute!” Kizuna squealed.

Kiba was dumbfounded. “Kittens?” he repeated. “There were kittens in the box?” No way…

“Yeah! The wife of the lord of fire country has a bunch of cats and one of them gave birth. She wanted the kittens delivered to her cousin in Kikami, but they were put under a hypnosis technique for the trip,” Kizuna explained, still beaming.

Kiba snorted and burst out laughing. The blonde stuck out her tongue, while Uchiha just looked away. After a few minutes, the dog used finally managed to calm down and looked between his teammates.

“What I really don’t get,” he began, smirking, “is how you two managed to get lost between here and Kikami.” Both of them twitched. “It’s like a straight path, with a nice large road. Even a six-year-old could make it!”

“Shut up!” KIzuna yelled, knocking him across the head. Kiba retaliated by tackling her. Uchiha gave them the “touch me and die” look. Of course, they just had to attack him after that.

Watching from a safe distance, Kakashi snickered.

Kids.

-
-

end chapter the third.

Bio Note 3: Sasuke’s abilities. Sasuke is, of course, very proficient at taijutsu and ninjutsu, and if they had kept going, would have probably won. But really, think about it. He’s never fought “for real” before. And now he almost seriously injures a teammate, after all of Kakashi’s “teamwork!” speeches. So yeah, Sasuke is better than Kizuna, but not by too much.

-
-

This chapter was even worse than the last one. Damn you, Sasuke!

But I’m finally done. I was thinking of doing a chapter to introduce the other teams a bit more, but now I don’t think I could manage another plotless chapter. So we’re moving on to the Wave Country Arc. Haku! No, don’t die!

-
-

Next chapter: Team Seven finally gets a real mission. But things aren’t all sunshine and daisies as the ugly truth about the ninja way begins to show…

-
-