Rivals, Friends and Lovers (part 2 of 13)
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A/N: I give you the second chapter. This chapter contains mostly conversations only so bear with it.
Italic text is when a character is thinking
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You want us to do what???
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Sakura and Ino have been called in the middle of the night to a meeting with their sensei's Kakashi and Asuma for unknown reasons. The only thing they have found out is that it was about something important. What are the true reasons for them to be lead here? An explanation was greatly needed.
"Important?" Sakura asked and Kakashi responded to her.
"Yes, you might say that," he answered with his usual lazy tone. "Or I should say it is important for two special people"
"Who are you talking about Kakashi-san?" It was Ino's turn to ask, this time it was Asuma's turn to answer.
"You two of course." He said through the cigarette in his mouth.
"Huh?" the girls said at the time, looking a bit confused.
"What has this got to do with us? Why have only me and Ino been summoned here?" Sakura demanded.
"Patience...we will get to that. Just have a seat" Asuma pointed at two free wooden chairs by the table in front of them.
The girls hesitated a bit and looked at each other before sitting down, waiting eagerly for the explanation. They did not have to wait long to hear it.
"Now, I will explain why you girls have been called here," Kakashi said, clearing his throat before beginning.
About freaking time...
Was Ino's first thought as she folded her arms impatiently.
"As you both know, a Shinobi must perform dangerous missions sometimes on his or her own, but usually with a three man team. However, the bigger and more dangerous missions can sometimes require two or more teams to work together." Kakashi stopped talking to instead let Asuma take over from where Kakashi stopped.
"Lets say in the future, team seven and team ten are to work with each other to do a class B or A mission. Needless to say, both Kakashi and I know that the mission would surely fail or go utterly wrong"
"WHAT?" Ino immediately protested. "Why do you say that?"
"Because of you two." Kakashi stated calmly.
Now both girls looked a bit pissed off, taking the comment from Kakashi as a personal insult direct towards them. Raising her voice a bit, Ino protested to defend herself.
"What's wrong with us?" She demanded. "Are we too weak or something? We are both qualified chuunins, dammit!"
Those were the same words that Sakura wanted to say as well, but didn't want to speak up to appear rude to her sensei. So instead, it was Ino's morning temperament that was heard. Asuma gestured for Ino to calm down and just listen.
"Two ninja teams need to be able to work and trust each other with their lives as if they are just one team," he continued. "We would never think about pairing our teams because we all know it wont work...you two will see to that."
"But you haven't explained what's wrong with us!" Ino said, her irritation was clearly growing.
"It is a question about cooperation, trusting and friendship. You see, Sasuke and Naruto have no problem working with Chouji and Shikamaru. You two however, can barely go near each other without starting to argue and fight, which could risk both the mission and the lives of your team mates. This is why you two have been gathered here" Asuma stopped talking to take a long drag on his cigarette.
"Are we going to get punished?" Sakura asked hesitantly. Kakashi shook his head, followed by a question from Ino.
"Are our teams going to train more together?"
Kakashi shook his head again as he answered Inos question.
"Then what are we going to do?" Sakura asked, now Asuma took over the explanation again.
"You are going to learn to work together, to trust and be able to cooperate, to remove the rivalry and bickering between you two."
Ino's and Sakura's eyes widened and they looked at each other in silence. For the first time since they got here they really did not know what to say, still Sakura managed to ask a question.
"You mean... just me and Ino are going to train together with you?" she wondered.
"Not exactly," Kakashi spoke up "You two aren't going to be training in fighting, you will be learning to trust each other instead. We are doing this so that one day you two are able to cooperate with out fighting or arguing."
"And we or anyone else will not be with you." Asuma interjected. "You shall do it completely alone, just you two together."
"But when?" Ino cried. "And where are we going to be doing this?"
"Just be patient," Kakashi said lightly, pulling out a large scroll. "Take a look at this."
Kakashi unfolded the scroll it out across the table, revealing a big map of large green forest.
"This is a map of the forest of Life. It lies about 20 miles away east from the Leaf Village. It is there where you are going to work on your friendship and teamwork."
A/N: I know that's a silly name for the forest but it was the best I could come up with
Both Sakura and Ino examined the map closely, seeing that it looked to be mostly forestry. To the north of the forest was a fairly large mountain area, a river running to right of it through the forest to a lake in the middle. There were no signs of buildings or any other kinds of civilizations.
"But Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura protested gently. There was one odd thing about the forest. "The forest lies over 20 miles away from the village. You expect us to walk back and forth every day? And why do we have to go to a forest when we can just do this in the village?"
"Ah, you don't have to worry about that," Kakashi answered. He could not help to bring up a weak smile as he continued "You will be staying there."
"WHAT?" Ino cried out in horror. "Stay there? For how long?"
"One week."
"ONE WEEK? "Ino's mouth dropped in shock. "You mean we have to survive in the forest with each other?"
"Ah, just look at it as a camping trip," Asuma interjected, taking another drag from his cigarette
"Are you trying to get us killed?" Ino asked angrily, folding her arms. "I've had enough of forests from our last chuunin exam..."
"Calm down, Ino," Asuma said warningly with a commanding voice. "This forest is different. There are very few predators and dangers, but still you should have quite the challenge...maybe you two will learn something new about yourselves."
Ino and Sakura were speechless again, unable to believe what they had just heard. Spending a week together, alone in a forest!? Sakura have had just about enough.
"I refuse to," she said stubbornly. "There's no way! I am not spending that much time with her, especially in a forest!"
"My words exactly," Ino agreed
"We can't force you to do it...however..." Asuma trailed off, glancing at Kakashi, signalling him to continue.
"If you don't do it..." Kakashi was quick to resume. "Then we will forced to demote you two back to genin level!"
The comment hit Ino and Sakura hard on a critical spot. Throwing herself up from the chair, Sakura stood up, slamming her palms onto the table in frustration.
"You can't do that!" She bellowed, infuriated by the unfairness of it all. "It's not fair!"
"Yes we can," Kakashi answered sharply. "We have already discussed this matter with Godaime, she agreed with everything. Allowing missions involving team 7 and 10 to screw up is not what we want. You two have to cooperate until you have settled things between you."
"Well...we don't have much of a choice do we?" Sakura asked irritably with a deep sigh.
"Yes you do. But you are the ones to make it, not us," Asuma said, flicking his cigarette butt in the ashtray. "If you choose not to do this, you will have to go through a special, extra hard exam to become chuunins again, since you two have already reached chuunin once before, so it will get a lot harder. Think about it."
Sakura took a deep breath to calm herself down a bit as she sat down in the chair again. Both the girls thought heavily about the two options they had to choose from.
Spend seven days with her? Or become Genin and go through another Chuunin exam that will be harder than the last one? Heck the last time I went through an exam I nearly died!
Ino thought about it. Memories of her last Chuunin exam came back to her mind. She had nearly been killed by wild animals, fought powerful opponents, getting stung and poisoned by insects but in the end she finally made it through and got promoted to Chuunin. Something she was still very proud about and she never got tired of telling everyone that story. She secretly wished that Sakura would not pass the exam so then Ino would have a great victory over Sakura.
Sakura was thinking the same exact thing.
I rather starve for 7 days than being with her a single hour in that forest...however I might be able to find out something about her that I can use against her in the future...
Sakura grinned slyly, turning to face Ino.
"Ino..."
"Sakura..."
And they both nodded.
"We accept it." Sakura's tone sure did not sound happy or positive about it.
"I knew you would." Kakashi could not help but to smile.
"So when are we leaving?" Ino wondered. Asuma rolled up his sleeve to check his watch.
"In exactly...24 hours and 35 minutes," He answered. "That's all the time you should need to prepare your things and say good bye to your friends."
"How typical," Sakura muttered. "They want us to leave while it's dark and cold. They could at least wait until it gets a little brighter and warmer..."
"Now I shall tell you some rules," Kakashi spoke up.
"This just keeps getting better and better," Ino said crossly, leaning against the table to put her head in her hands.
"The first rule is that you must always seek a new place to camp every day for the night," Kakashi continued, ignoring Inos comment. "You may not stay at the same place two nights in a row. There are plenty of places so this should not be a problem."
"The second rule is that you may not go home at any time until you have spent exactly 168 hours in the forest together." Asuma said. "Those are the only 2 rules"
He then took another drag on his cigarette. "If you break any of them you will be punished. There's one more thing...when you get home you must write at least ten pages about what happened in the forest and what you have learned about yourself."
"I guess that's all we have to say, right Asuma?"
"Indeed Kakashi. So, you two may now leave but don't forget to pack your stuff and be here at six in the morning ready to go."
"Ok," they said reluctantly at the same time, nodding in agreement and rose up from their chairs slowly.
"Take care now," Kakashi advised. "Tomorrow it will begin and you may have a tough challenge up ahead of you."
The pair of girls waved good-bye and walked out of the door, closing it behind them. The moment they had left, Asuma turned to Kakashi and smirked.
"Kakashi," he started. "You said that they would be demoted to genins if they would decide to not go to the forest. What was that all about anyway?"
"Heh," Kakashi smirked back from behind his mask. "Do you really think they would accept it if I hadn't told them that?"
"The power of words..."
"Yes, a mighty weapon in the right hands." Asuma and Kakashi chuckled together.
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Outside the closed gates, Ino and Sakura stood there, about to say good-bye to each other, but hesitating since they really didn't know what to say to each other. Their minds were overloaded with all the information they had received today.
"Did all that make any sense to you?" Sakura asked her blonde rival, who simply shook her head.
"No.," She answered. "They expect us to remove our eight year old rivalry in just one week...and in a forest?"
"Seems very suspicious if you ask me." Sakura agreed.
Another short silence took place, seemingly for eternity.
"But we really need to do it," Sakura said, breaking the silence. "I don't want to be demoted to genin again."
"Neither do I!" Ino agreed. "But we already have accepted it so now we have to do it."
"I'd better be off, Ino," Sakura stated. "I'm hungry as hell and we both need to pack our things and prepare ourselves for tomorrow morning."
"Yeah...later then."
Both of them walked away to the gate where they had entered from, splitting up to walk separately to their homes. Ino could not resist but to look at Sakura as the distance between them grew longer and longer.
Dammit. This is going to become a nightmare for me. I can't let Sakura find out about me
When Ino looked away, it was Sakura who looked upon the back of her friend and rival, and she too sighed.
Ino... Ino... Ino... let's hope this little trip will not be troublesome for neither of us as I think it will be.
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End of chapter 2
A/N: Ino and Sakura, bitter rivals together in a forest for a week? How is that going to work? Keep reading and follow this story and you will find out. And if you intend to keep reading it, then make sure to drop a review along the way too )
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