Chapter 3

Teammates

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Naruto jumped from side to side, up and down, screaming and spinning wildly around in circles, declaring to the entire world that he was going to become Hokage and no one could stop him. Hinata stood shyly gazing at him with admiration for his undefeatable attitude; she aimed to follow in his steps as she pressed the little bell inside her fist.

Sasuke Uchiha struggled against the ropes that bound him feeling fury more intense than he had ever felt before in his entire life. He shook with rage as he watched Naruto rub it in his face that he possessed the little bell in his hand while Sasuke was tied to a log just as Kakashi had warned would happen if they failed their survival training.

"Who is the loser now huh? Huh?" Naruto taunted from a few steps away, dangling the bell before Sasuke, making it jingle. "The last ones will be the first ones, DO-BE."

"Just shut up!" Sasuke grunted. His sinister mood made everything around him seem darker. "This doesn't prove anything!"

"It proves I'm better than you. Loser." Naruto stuck his tongue out at him.

Sasuke wished with all his heart that he wasn't tied to that trunk. He would have beaten him to death had he been free.

"Send me a post card from the Academy." Naruto went on as Sasuke fumed.

"Ok, ok… That's enough," Kakashi said, sighing as he stood in front of the three kids. "Let's see… what do I think of this whole exercise?" He placed one of his hands over his chin as he carefully thought about what he was going to say next. "Naruto is loud, very noisy, he doesn't know how to perform anything except for clones and his impulsive behavior could put the entire team in danger if he doesn't learn how to control it."

Naruto crossed his arms defiantly. "Even so, I still got the bell."

"On the other hand, Hinata is too nervous and she gave up even before we started. However, something made her change her mind as the training went on. By teaming up with Naruto they were able to trick me, something I'll try to erase forever from my memories. Well done, Naruto, Hinata. You may eat now." He gave each of them a little wooden box that contained food. "Sasuke, you can watch them eat, because… well… you failed."

"An Uchiha doesn't fail!" he bellowed, completely infuriated by his words. There was a limit to the things he would put up with. "Fight me now! I'll show you I'm much more talented than those two!"

"I don't doubt you are." Kakashi admitted as he shrugged lightly. Naruto's face turned blue. "You are much smarter than Naruto and way stronger than Hinata. Do you even understand why you are tied up to a log and they aren't?"

"Why don't you just say it yourself and stop wasting my time with riddles!" He screamed back at him.

"You said… 'I'm not like those two', when you tried to take the bells away from me," Kakashi continued, standing in front of Sasuke, leaving Naruto and Hinata behind him. "And it's true. You are better skilled, far more clever and intelligent, stronger, faster, and more determined than your teammates. However, you assumed that those two would be a nuisance if they worked with you and so you went ahead and did everything on your own. Ninjas that work like that, alone, with arrogance, forgetting about their teammates and depending only on themselves… are trash."

"Say that again!" Sasuke dared him.

He wasn't going to take anyone calling him trash. Naruto had to cover his mouth with both of his hands to avoid laughing out loud and Hinata watched the entire scene filled with sadness. Sasuke hated the way she was looking at him.

"Itachi worked by himself his whole life and he was the best ninja of his entire generation!"

"And those are the steps you want to follow? Become like Itachi Uchiha? Resemble the man you dream about killing?"

The question made Sasuke feel like there was a burning hole in his chest. The images of his dead parents and the shadow his brother cast over them still haunted him.

"They have a bell and you don't for one simple reason: Teamwork."

Kakashi closed his erotic book and put it away. It was the first lesson he was going to give as a teacher and he wanted his student to pay complete attention to his words.

"They both saw their own weaknesses and teamed up to deceive me. If you weren't so stubborn and obsessed with beating up your teammates instead of helping them become stronger, you would have seen the obvious." He pointed his thumb at Naruto's direction and sighed. "Naruto can make a great number of shadow clones that would have been hard to defeat all at the same time. My attention would have been focused on avoiding getting hit by them, and I would have been distracted." He stared at Hinata's direction and a soft expression crossed his features almost as if he was smiling, making the young kunoichi blush. "Hinata is smaller than the two of you, so she can hide better. She barely makes any noise and from what I read in her file, she is pretty good at using taijutsu. That's why while Naruto was attacking me, Hinata snuck towards me and managed to take the bells from my waist. They were able to use their best skills perfectly. They took a while to see the obvious, but they did it." He closed his visible eye and turned his face toward Sasuke. "And that's where you come in, Sasuke. You have the intelligence to have been able to use those elements in your favor and come up with a plan much quicker than those two. But you didn't. In a real battle situation, by the time they'd figure out what to do, you would have been killed, the three of you".

"There were just two bells!" Sasuke complained. He couldn't understand the point of that whole exercise. If they had gathered to work together, one of them would have failed anyway.

"Why do you think you are divided in groups of three when you graduate the Academy? Because three is a magic number? Missions are done in groups for a reason!" Kakashi sighed. He had never passed any student without them first taking the bells test. "If you can't see the answer to that question, then it's no news that you failed to see the point of this survival exercise."

"Ha. Ha. Ha." Naruto laughed pointing at Sasuke with his finger. It was the first time he met someone who wasn't kissing the Uchiha kid's feet. He was starting to convince himself that Kakashi was cool. "Sasuke is a failure".

"Naruto! You weren't that good either," Kakashi turned his back to Sasuke and glanced at Naruto. "If you weren't looking reasons to fight Sasuke all the time you would have seen that his skills are far better than yours and you would have at least tried to learn something from him." After that his visible eye focused on the Hyuga girl. Hinata felt as if she was paralyzed by his intense gaze. "And you, Hinata, you just worried about Naruto during the entire exercise and not once tried to help Sasuke. The three of you failed in that matter, only, Sasuke failed with honors".

The three of them stood silently when Kakashi was done talking. They looked at each other understanding somehow that they were a team from that moment forward. They would not make progress at all if they each continued focusing only on themselves without understanding or helping one another. Naruto crossed his arms and gestured with disdain towards Sasuke as he frowned. On the other hand, Hinata realized that what her instructor said was true; Uchiha-kun frightened and intimidated her a lot, but he was also her partner.

"Sasuke! You don't need to go back to the Academy. In your case you should just give up the idea of becoming a Ninja."

Kakashi's voice was severe. Sasuke eyes flew open as he felt as if he'd been hit in the stomach.

"How can you even say something like that?" He asked lowering his head, his hair partially covering his eyes casting a shadow over his face. He was biting his lip so hard he tasted the metallic bitterness of his own blood. "Do you actually think that just because I couldn't get a stupid bell that I will give up?"

"You are just a kid. You think being a ninja is easy just because you are able to do a couple of ninjutsus. Do you think being a ninja is just about you taking vengeance for your clan? If your motivation for being here is killing your brother, then you are an idiot and I won't be your teacher!" Kakashi took a few steps towards him, feeling all the hatred that was radiating off Sasuke. The boy was so tense, so full of anger and frustration. He leaned slowly towards him. "Don't carry so much weight on your shoulders Sasuke… It will end up consuming you." He stood up straight once more and stared at his other two students. "Hinata, Naruto, take your bentos and have lunch. I'll give Sasuke another chance to prove he can take one of the bells this afternoon."

Kakashi turned his back on them and began walking carelessly, as usual, into the forest. Naruto opened the box his lunch was in, sniffing it as his eyes filled with tears. Hinata, normally too shy to eat in public, wondered if it would be prudent to do so in front of the person she admired, especially with the way Sasuke was staring at them.

"This smells delicious!" Naruto said inhaling the wonderful aroma of the food in the box. "Itadakimasu!" He split the chopsticks and started to eat his rice in an exaggerated manner, always commenting on how great the food was. He was becoming more loud and annoying with each bite.

Sasuke's stomach began growling. He frowned, irritated by Naruto's behavior. As if it hadn't been enough to have his pride demolished by everything that Kakashi had just told him in front of two individuals he considered completely inferior to him. On top of that, he was now forced to listen to that blond idiot make fun of him for being hungry and not being able to do anything about it.

"This is delicious, isn't it Hinata?" Naruto asked with a smirk, staring right into Sasuke's eyes. He was sure enjoying this moment. "This rice is like a little piece of heaven." Sasuke lowered his face and sighed with annoyance as he promised himself that if he managed to undo the tight knot on the rope, he was going to beat Naruto senseless. "And these vegetables are seasoned perfectly…" Every bite of food he took in front of Sasuke made him more and more furious. "And this chicken…"

"Shut up already!" The Uchiha screamed at him as his stomach growled over and over again and his cheeks slightly blushed.

"Are you hungry, Sa-su-ke?" Naruto asked grinning as his eyes narrowed. "All you have to do is ask and maybe I could give you some of my delicious lunch."

"I rather die before asking for something from you." Sasuke answered turning away from Naruto.

It was right about then that he found Hinata's eyes staring at him and Naruto's words started to make sense to him. All he had to do was ask.

Hinata stared at him in confusion as she split her chopsticks and chewed the rice slowly, embarrassed because of Sasuke's glance. She swallowed heavily and looked back at him, her cheeks burning. Why was he staring at her like that? Was there some rice on her face or something?

She focused her eyes on her bento once more, grabbing some vegetables and raising them to her lips. But she could still feel Sasuke staring at her and she could hear the way his stomach growled. She thought about offering some of her lunch to him, but he would only yell at her or lecture her about not being anyone's charity case. That's why, when she heard her name coming out from Sasuke Uchiha's lips, she couldn't help but look at him in shock.

"Hi…Hinata…" Sasuke started. "Humm…" He didn't know how to put it out there or how to ask. He'd never needed anybody's help or favors before. Starting now seemed very strange to him. "You… could you…?" His cheeks started to blush, he could feel it, which made him even angrier. "…I mean, if I'm going to try it again... with the bells and all… I can't…" His stomach growled once more.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and started laughing.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here, the great Sasuke Uchiha asking for a girl's lunch. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled. "Aren't we supposed to be teammates?"

"It seems we're only teammates when it's in your best interest, right?" Naruto asked stoically. He was dead serious as he rang the little bell right in front of Sasuke's face. "'Hyuga is weak, she doesn't have the skills needed for this. She will only die or get us killed if she is our teammate'," Naruto said trying to imitate Sasuke's voice. "Wasn't that what you said when she wanted to give up? You bastard."

Indeed he had said that when Hinata asked to stay out of the test before they even started it and now that Naruto was repeating it he understood how pathetic it was to ask something from her.

"If you have a point I suggest you get to it." Sasuke said.

"My point is that you don't even know us and you dismiss us, as if we weren't good enough for you or something. You treat us like nuisances in your way." Naruto answered getting more and more serious as the words left his mouth. He wasn't making fun of him anymore. He had never got along with Sasuke Uchiha, but he firmly believed there was more to him than the rest of the people could see. "Like it or not, we are part of Team Seven, Hinata, you and I. Start acting like it."

Sasuke turned his face away completely aggravated. He wasn't going to take it that a loser like Naruto Uzumaki had started lecturing him about the way a ninja was supposed to act. Was he serious? That loser in front of him had failed the final exam, three times! He had the worst grades in the class; he was always trying to show off and saying he was the best while everyone else laughed at him. And… that guy… was lecturing him?

He was about to lose it, but right before he could open his mouth to yell everything he thought of him, a sweet and shy voice interrupted them.

"U..Uchiha-kun… I…" Hinata swallowed heavily and offered him her bento. "Please, accept my lunch."

Sasuke stared back at it coldly. The girl couldn't even keep eye contact with him more than a few seconds before she looked away frightened.

"Don't give him your lunch Hinata. Don't you remember what he said yesterday?" Naruto asked, noticing how unemotional Sasuke's reaction was to Hinata's kindness. "He said that if you don't eat well he would start treating you as poorly as he treats me…"

"We'll share." She said almost whispering. "If… if Uchiha-kun doesn't have anything to eat… he… he won't be able to… and we won't… we won't be a team."

She stared at Naruto with sadness. The possibility of the three of them no longer working together made her feel forlorn. She had gotten used to the idea of being alongside Naruto and Sasuke. She didn't want to see one of her teammates fail just because he was too proud, even if that meant having to accept his constant belittling.

"Naruto-kun, Kakashi-sensei wants us to get along. I… I will do everything in my power to make it so."

Naruto and Sasuke reflected on her words. The blond boy shook his head slowly and Sasuke lowered his eyes. Staring at the grass under his feet he understood what the girl meant with that. It wasn't going to be a picnic working with them and being a team, but they were one now. It didn't matter how strong he was by himself, he was still just one person. If shinobi missions were done in groups of three, then part of his own growth so he could come closer to his goal meant working with them.

The whole issue annoyed him and he clenched his teeth. He really didn't care about going on missions or even becoming a shinobi for that matter. What he really wanted was to test his own strength, to have someone train him as far as he could go. That was the only way he could get closer to Itachi. He had to be at that level; he needed to learn the proper way to use his sharingan; he had to look for a way to make his brother pay for everything he had done. And that was the part he HAD to do by himself. What was the point in being in a group of three then? Would he become stronger if he had two teammates that would just slow him down on his way to reaching his objective?

All those thoughts twisting through his mind were torturing him, when suddenly, as he stared at the floor, he saw two chopsticks and a piece of salmon in his vision field. He raised his head and saw Naruto offering it to him, avoiding looking at him.

Sasuke leaned forward and ate it from the chopsticks. He didn't thank him, but he heard Naruto snort loud enough. He was sure it had been a big blow to his own pride to have to share his lunch with him.

He heavily sighed. Accepting help from other was something he didn't like, at all, but he knew there was nothing he could do to change it. If he wanted to become a better, more efficient ninja… he needed to learn how to work on a team.

"Uchiha-kun." Hinata indicated him her bento. Sasuke noticed she had barely touched her food.

"Hinata is such a good person." Naruto whispered with teary exaggerated eyes.

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was about to say.

"Th-Thanks." He swallowed heavily. He wasn't the type of person that would thank people period and having to do it now didn't please him at all, in fact it deeply embarrassed him. His cheeks were still flushed. "Could you…?" How was he going to ask her to feed him. "My hands…"

Hinata understood without the need of him explaining with further details. Grabbing her chopsticks she managed to form a little ball of rice and took it close to Sasuke's mouth without looking. He wasn't staring at her either, completely mortified by the whole situation.

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Hinata went to bed that night with a soft smile on her face. Everyone in her team had passed and no one would have to go back to the academy. Apparently they were ready to start missions under the surveillance of Kakashi sensei.

She hugged her pillow feeling uneasy; she wanted to do everything she could to make Naruto-kun feel proud of being her teammate… and well, she didn't want Uchiha-kun to scream at her anymore either.

She smiled thinking of her new comrades as Kakashi sensei's words came back to her. Sasuke had passed his survival mission just by accepting their help. That had been his personal test, something as simple as to stop thinking he could do everything on his own. It had been a tough lesson for her teammate to learn, but she was sure that lesson had brought them together in a very special way for the rest of their lives, hers and Naruto-kun's and Uchiha-kun's as well.

She fell asleep with the sound of crickets singing outside her window.

She was startled awake by a loud noise right beside her pillow. Someone was tapping his shoes impatiently against the tatami with the clear purpose of waking her up. When her eyelids opened, she found a pair of black eyes staring at her from above, arms crossed and an unfriendly expression on his face.

She grabbed her sheets and covered herself completely, embarrassed that he had seen her that way.

"Uchiha-kun, Wha-what are you doing here?" It was simply impossible that someone had let him in her bedroom just like that. He was a boy and she was a girl, and things around the Hyuga complex were very traditional. If he had knocked on the door, they would have made him wait in the tea room just like any other guest. "How…?"

"I came in through the window," He answered evenly. "Get dressed. I'll meet you outside in five minutes."

She had so many questions on her mind in that moment. How did he get through the Hyuga compound walls? How had he gotten inside her room? How come no one had seen him? What was he doing there? Had something happened to Naruto-kun? Was there an emergency going on? But she couldn't get an answer to any of them. She just stood up from the futon and got her jacket on and then took her sandals in her hands to put them on when she left the house. She took her backpack that she had already packed before bed and she started running down the halls of her house without having breakfast.

It was then she noticed it wasn't even dawn yet. Everyone in her house was sleeping and the nocturnal crickets were still singing. There wasn't any life in the Hyuga district at that hour, so she wondered exactly what time it was.

When she left to the main road she saw Sasuke standing against one of the wooden pillars, with the same expression he always had, barely illuminated by the street lights. He turned around as Hinata rubbed her eyes, still sleepy, hampered by her backpack.

"Uchiha-kun… uhmm… what's going on? Why do we have to leave at this hour?" She was really starting to get worried. Something told her there must have been a grave situation for Sasuke to take her out of bed in the middle of the night.

"We are going to train." He said without paying any more attention to her as he walked down the street. "Let's go."

"Whe-Where?" She asked confused.

"Konoha's memorial, where we took the test yesterday." He answered coldly. "Do you always ask so many questions? Hn." He stuck his hands inside his pockets. "And here I was thinking you were a quiet person."

"I'm very sorry." She apologized almost instinctively thinking Sasuke was going to get mad at her again. "What about Na-Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked. If they were going to train, didn't he have to be there as well?

"He didn't open the door when I knocked. I guess he's still sleeping." Sasuke frowned just remembering it. He didn't like to lose time and he felt that looking for Naruto to train had been just that, a waste of his time. "I left him a note, when he wakes up he'll join us."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. There were plenty of times Hinata wanted to say something, but honestly, Uchiha Sasuke really intimidated her. His voice had a disturbing similarity to her father's when he was upset; with the difference that Sasuke was her age. She had always been shy with everyone around her, but with him… with him it was quite different.

There was a simple reason for that; Hinata was convinced Sasuke hated her for something she didn't even comprehend. They had encountered each other in the academy more than once and she had greeted him as she did with all of the rest of her classmates, just to listen his typical "Hn" as an answer. Or he would ignore her completely and keep walking.

She sighed remembering it, feeling nervous because they were alone with each other. She lowered her eyes and walked staring at her feet, slowly, step by step behind Sasuke.

When they got to the training spot she noticed the sun was going to come up any second now. The sky wasn't dark, but it looked barely blue, colorless. Hinata left her backpack beside one of the huge logs, just where Sasuke had been tied the day before. He did the same thing, putting bandages around his hands.

"What are your skills, besides hiding?" Sasuke asked as he tied his shuriken bag around his waist. "Can you use the byakugan yet?"

"How… how do you know about the byakugan, Uchiha-kun?" Hinata asked, quite surprised.

"Listen up, we are teammates now. Drop the formalities around me. I don't like them."

"I'm sorry"

"I'll take that as a no." He said rolling his eyes. "Have you at least tried to activate it?"

Hinata looked to the side and frowned, feeling rather miserable. She had tried alright, many times, but for some reason the byakugan was something she couldn't manage to control perfectly like the rest of the clan did. She knew how to make the hand seals, and her sight did turn more accurate, but… what happened with her eyes wasn't the byakugan and she knew it. That was one of the main reasons her father was always so upset with her. Hanabi could use the byakugan already and therefore, the gentle fist, the Hyuga Clan secret Taijutsu.

She had been trained in the gentle fist's style all of the life, and she could perform it at an acceptable level, but without the byakugan it was really ineffective to hit someone in a life or death situation. Neji could see and hit even the chakra coils with a surgeon's precision, while she couldn't even distinguish the chakra circulatory system. She was pretty sure that she could try as much as she wanted to see them and still fail. After all, her father would constantly tell her she was a nature's mistake. Still, she refused to give up on it. Watching Naruto all of those years sucking at everything he did, failing miserably and still not giving up had inspired her to follow his example.

"Ok, attack me." Sasuke ordered her severely staring right into her eyes. He didn't even take a defensive stance. "Are you deaf? Now, Hyuga."

"Before tha-that Uchiha-kun, may I ask yo-you something?" Hinata started playing with her fingers as she stared at the ground; she didn't want to look at Sasuke's face. She interpreted his silence as a positive answer. She barely moved her eyes to stare at his for a second and asked. "Why do you… do you want to train with me?"

"Naruto might be an idiot, but he can take care of himself. I can't say the same thing about you."

"I see." A lump formed in her throat. She could never speak up when someone called her weak, in fact, she was already used to hearing those kind of comments.

"Don't get me wrong, it's not like I care about you precisely." Hinata already knew that, she didn't get Sasuke's point by saying it. "However, if we are going to be a team, I'll make sure we are the best one," Hinata nodded sadly, she really didn't want to be a nuisance for anyone, anymore. Why didn't they recognize how much she was trying to change? "Are you ready?"

"Yes." She answered getting in the Hyuga fighting pose.

She gathered a small amount of chakra in her hands which made them glow in the middle of the dark environment.

Sasuke was a bit surprised. He had never seen the gentle fist style from so close before, not even when everyone would practice taijutsu in the academy; Hinata had never used it with them.

However, her posture was full of mistakes and weak points; she had gone right to him with her palms extended trying to hit him at the shoulder. Sasuke had no problems dodging her first swing and side-stepping as the girl passed by him. He just had to hit her hard enough in the back to destabilize Hinata with her own momentum and make her fall to the ground.

"Ow…" She complained as she sat down, coughing because of the punch.

Sasuke really didn't care if it had hurt her or not.

"Again." He ordered, stepping back.

Hinata stood up in pain and ran against him once more with her palm extended to him, only this time Sasuke took her by the wrist and hit her in the stomach with his knee.

"Aaah…" Hinata whined as she doubled over in pain.

Sasuke lowered his leg and jumped back twice, retreating. He lifted his hands in a defensive pose.

"Again. Get serious!"

Hinata managed to recover some of the air that had left her lungs and grabbing her stomach with one hand she ran in Sasuke's direction trying to hit him with her palms. Sasuke managed to avoid her several times just to watch and study the way she moved, but after she failed hitting him a fourth time, he tripped her by bending the articulations behind her knee and Hinata lost her balance, falling to the ground on her butt.

"Ouch…" She complained once more.

"That's all you got?" he asked as he smirked, looking at her from above.

"Uchiha-kun… I…" He throat completely closed because of that frustration knot that had been there for several minutes now. She was trying, she really wanted to become better, but Sasuke was too agile for her. She could feel the tears forming on her eyes, threatening to make her cry any second now. "I can't…"

"Are you giving up?" He asked seriously. He sounded like he was about to lecture her. "After what? Three tries?" Hinata remained silent, lowered her face and one by one tears started to run down her cheeks. "Maybe your father was right and you are useless after all…" The crickets kept singing in dawn's light as she quietly cried her pain away, just like she had all her life. "That's what everyone believes right? That you are weak and useless. Do you believe that too?"

"I..I don't!" She answered back as her voice cracked.

She stood up quickly and tried to hit Sasuke again, only there was much more chakra on her fists than before and this time she was aiming for his face.

Sasuke barely managed to miss her fists. It seemed Hinata wasn't as weak as she looked.

"Better." He answered as he tried to kick her in the ribs, but to his own surprise, the girl managed to avoid him by moving her feet in a very peculiar way, as if she was dancing over the grass. Was that movement a part of the gentle fist style too? "Much better…" He said with a small grin on his face. There was something about fighting that always made him feel happy. "Next time you start crying when we are training, I'll hit you so hard you'll beg me to stop. Understood, Hyuga?"

"Yes."

Naruto arrived later that day, just before midday. He watched them as they trained taijutsu, cheering Hinata over and over again screaming, "You can do it Hinata!","Give it your best Hinata!", "Don't let that bell-less bastard hit you!" and all sort of comments like that. Hinata felt really happy with his presence there, she wanted the person she admired to watch her do everything in her power to catch him, follow in his steps and never give up.

On his part, Sasuke just felt annoyed listening Naruto's voice cheering for Hinata, as if that was a tournament match or something.

As they trained, Naruto made a small fire so he could heat some water up and then he took some cup ramen from his stuff to have lunch. It was just about then when Hinata and Sasuke decided to take a break so they could rest and eat something too.

Sasuke was carrying some onigiris in his backpack and Hinata accepted one of Naruto's cup ramen with a shy smile. The boy gave her his precious noodles as if he giving away a diamond, asking her to enjoy it because it was really worth it.

Sasuke watched them smile at each other feeling a little bit distant. Even though it was him who had been training with her since dawn, it was Naruto who got her attention and appreciation for being there. Sasuke ignored them, but deep down he felt somewhat frustrated. There he was, trying to do something for someone else for the very first time in his life and he didn't even get recognition for it. He shook that irritation from his mind and stopped thinking about it, discarding all of those thoughts as the result of being tired. He didn't care about Hinata, they were barely teammates, much less friends.

Then it was Naruto's turn to train and fight Sasuke. The whole thing escalated quickly and it became a bit more serious than the training done before.

Hinata watched them go at each other from the side. The Uchiha boy began to look more and more entertained each time he managed to hit Naruto's shadow clones and they disappeared. The Uzumaki kid would shout and scream in frustration, warning Sasuke he would pay for it. He in turn would laugh it up calling him a loser over and over again, especially when he managed to tie up his feet with invisible threads and Naruto fell face first to the ground. Sasuke laughed loudly and taunted Naruto when he told him that this time he definitely was going to hit him and instead he ended up punching a log (Sasuke was really good at using the replacement jutsu).

Evening came sooner than they expected and the three of them were exhausted. Naruto and Sasuke took off their shirts, sandals and socks very casually and went into the river clothed only in their boxers. Hinata covered her face horrified. She had never seen anyone wearing so little clothing and the fact that they had just undressed like that in front of her almost made her faint.

Naruto didn't understand why she was making such a big deal out of it and Sasuke grunted from the water that she was exaggerating things, inviting her to join them. Hinata quickly shook her head, covering her eyes until they were both covered by the calm water of the river.

She could only watch as they swam and cleaned the sweat and grime from their bodies. She wasn't carrying a bathing suit (and even if she had been she wouldn't have dared to be around others in such a small scrap of fabric). Naruto suggested she take her coat off and swim with them in what she was wearing, even insisting that they wouldn't spy on her if she decided to get in the water naked instead.

Sasuke swiftly punched him in the head, telling him that he had no tact or respect for their partner and the female mysteries (although deep down he too didn't see anything wrong with getting in the water naked, of course, that's because he was still at that age where those issues hadn't yet caught his attention). Slightly flushed, Hinata finally agreed to sit on the edge of a rock overlooking the river and dip her feet into the cool water.

It was just then when something odd happened.

Naruto and Sasuke had never gotten along. They had never said a friendly word to each other. Yet somehow, as the sun started to set in the mountains and they continued to play in the water, they glanced at each other and understood that they were thinking the same thing.

"Guys?" Hinata nervously asked when she noticed both Naruto and Sasuke had disappeared after diving into the river. "Gu..Guys?"

"Now!" Naruto yelled coming to the surface right next to Hinata and grabbing her right leg. Sasuke did the very same thing, only with her left leg.

Hinata sank heavily into the water with her eyes wide opened, glaring at her team mates underwater. They were maliciously smiling. She understood why Naruto would do something like that but she couldn't believe Sasuke had gone along with such a childish act. Generally he was so indifferent and serious; seeing him smile and play like others his own age was something completely new to her and it seemed very likely it was something new to him too.

Hinata was mortified as they broke the surface of the water and the two boys began laughing at her. Miraculously, instead of passing out, she began to laugh too.

"Hinata-chan! Can you swim?" Naruto asked all worked up with excitement.

"Ye..Yes." she answered coughing out a little bit of the water she had swallowed when she was ambushed.

"Great! Let's go!" Naruto screamed with enthusiasm. "The three of us, lets have a race from here to that rock over there!"

"You'll never defeat me, dobe." Sasuke told him with a small half smile on his face.

"Na..Naruto-kun, I'm not… I'm not that fast".

"Are you frightened, Hyuga?" Sasuke asked swimming close to her in an intimidating way.

Hinata promptly blushed at his proximity and the intense way he was looking at her.

"It's.. It's not that… I…"

"Let's go! Let's go!" Naruto complained. "On the count of three! The loser has to carry the backpacks when we return!"

"Three!" Sasuke yelled out.

They began swiftly swimming across the river to get to the rock Naruto had marked as the goal.

When Sasuke finally slowed and pulled his face from the water, he was sure he had easily beaten them. Instead he was very surprised to see that Hinata had gotten there before him. He stared at her as he raised one of his eyebrows.

Naruto came to the surface to check who had gotten there first.

"Who won?" he asked grabbing some air.

"Hinata." Sasuke answered, suspicious as the girl moved her eyes quickly to the side.

"Really?" Naruto questioned them again, surprised that she had told them she wasn't fast and later managed to beat them. "Hinata-chan is amazing! Then, who lost?"

"You." Sasuke answered with a smirk on his face.

"Nooooo!" Naruto screamed as he held his head and sank into the water.

"Wow, that's a very pleasant way to waste some time."

Kakashi sensei's sudden voice almost caused Hinata and Sasuke to scream, as they saw him standing on the water in front of them. One of Sasuke's eyes was twitching and Hinata was stunned speechless from his sudden appearance. How did he even manage to walk over water and come right to them without being noticed?

"What have you three been doing all day?" Kakashi asked as he took out his Icha Icha Paradise book and started reading it with his visible eye.

"Training" Sasuke answered shortly "And now we are swimming".

"I have some news. Tomorrow you'll have your first D rank mission" Kakashi announced to them.

"A mission?" Naruto asked raising both of his hands enthusiastically and promptly sinking back under the water. He came up sputtering "What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it?"

"How much do you like to pick up trash and find missing pets?" Kakashi asked as he smiled under his mask.

The tortuous D rank missions had just begun.

NOTE
Just wanted to thank the amazing Ztothe9 for correcting my translation mistakes. I've been writing this fic in Spanish for a year now, and I wanted to share it with English readers too. I am sorry if this isn't a literary gem xD But I am happy if the point gets through. So, lets me know what you guys think after reading it. It would mean a lot.