10

"Again!"

"Naruto, try to actually dodge your opponent's attacks!"

"Sasuke-Kun! You're so amazing!"

"Hn, Dobe, you're so pathetic. I can't believe you were even allowed to graduate from the academy."

Naruto and Sasuke were sparring for their training, with Kakashi and Sakura watching. Kakashi was "coaching" from the side, while Sakura was a little cheer squad for the Duck. Said Duck was being a sassy ass and believing that he was better than everyone. Naruto, of course, was hiding his true abilities. For some reason, even after everything that had happened that day, when Naruto had blown up at them, nothing had really changed. Sasuke was still a cocky asshole, Sakura was still a loud, annoying fangirl, and Kakashi was still a horrible teacher.

At least, Kakashi appeared to have not changed. Really, he was observing his student's behavior. After what happened, he was worried about what might make him snap again. Every insult Sakura threw at him, every time Sasuke taunted him, Kakashi was nervous that it would be the one to send Naruto over the edge, maybe too far over the edge. He didn't know how far the drop was, but he was worried it was similar to his father's. Especially after what he'd been told in the meeting, the true meaning behind Naruto always wearing that jumpsuit jacket, no matter the time of year. However, he didn't explain it to Sakura and Sasuke yet. He didn't think it was right to tell his other students the third's secrets without permission, especially if he wasn't sure if Naruto was even aware he himself knew them.

So he kept quiet for now. Watched from the sidelines, and attempted to be as indifferent as he could. (Which wasn't as difficult as he made it out to be.)

Naruto was knocked down once again, and Sakura cheered on the Duck-ass. Sasuke simply grunted, before looking down at the "idiot" before him, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Give up, Dobe, you're never going to win against me."

"Go, Sasuke-Kun!"

Naruto just looked up at the Duck standing over him, no expression whatsoever, which threw the two off. He decided to tell them what Shikamaru had brought up a few days ago, the real reason behind him failing the graduation exam, specifically the weapons portion.

"You really think I can't win against you?" Naruto asked, slowly getting up from the ground. His blond hair was in his face, preventing anyone from seeing his expression.

"Obviously, Usuratonkachi. Don't you get it? You're just a useless loser who can't even hit a target right."

That was the opening Naruto hadn't even expected, but was grateful for.

"You wanna bet?"

Sasuke smirked. "Don't even need to. I don't think you could hit the target even once from 2 meters away."

"Deal. But if I win, you have to buy my groceries for 2 months."

"And if you lose?" Sasuke rose an eyebrow at the blond.

"If I happen to lose, then you can use me as a punching bag for 20 minutes straight, without me retaliating."

"That doesn't seem very fair. How about if I win, you have to do whatever I say for 2 months?"

"Deal. Where's the target?"

Kakashi had taken the chance, while they were determining the wager, to get a target from Iruka, with a promise to return it when they were done with it. Now he put the target up on a tree, and drew a line with a fallen branch two meters away from it.

"Oh, Sasuke-Kun, I know you're going to win this! You're just amazing at everything!" Sakura praised. Sasuke ignored her.

He stepped up to the line first. Before he threw he turned to Naruto. "How many are we throwing?"

"The same as during the exam, ten of each," Naruto replied, knowing full well that Sasuke was going to hit the target perfectly no matter how many he said.

Exactly as he thought, Sasuke threw ten Shuriken and ten Kunai, and each one landed near or inside the bullseye in the middle of target. He looked at Naruto with a smirk on his face once again, like he was saying I know you can't do better than that.

He stepped way from the line, and Naruto took his place. He pulled out his Kunai first, and just like during the exam, he missed every single time; however, there was also a very clear thunk like the weapons hitting a tree farther away. He threw the Shuriken after, and also missed them as well.

"I think it's pretty clear who the winner of this contest is, don't you?" Sasuke said with obvious distaste in his tone.

"Winner: Sas—!"

"Wait!" Kakashi was just about to call the winner when he was interrupted by Naruto's shout. "Before we declare the winner, don't you think it fair to find out exactly where my shots all ended up? Just to see how off I was? It could be a learning experience, and I could figure out where I went wrong in my throws."

Kakashi considered it, then nodded in agreement, leading both Sasuke and Sakura to where the weapons sounded like they had impacted.

"What the hell..." Kakashi said slowly, eye growing wide in disbelief.

Just like Shikamaru had described, about 30 meters away from the original target stood a tree with all 20 of Naruto's weapons embedded in its trunk, matching the shape of the target completely, including one of each weapon also in the middle like a bullseye.

"How... how is that possible?" Sasuke asked, just as awestruck.

"It-it's not... at least it shouldn't be... nobody I know could hit a target 32 meters away without even being able to see it, and with such accuracy...."

"That's gotta be a trick! A fluke! Naruto can't be that good at hitting targets to create his own!" Sakura screeched, almost sounding like she's trying to convince herself as much as the others.

"I-I don't think that's the case Sakura. But just to be sure, maybe we should tell him to aim for the target..."

"Y-you think he wasn't even aiming here?"

"It's quite possible he wasn't aiming at the target. Or he was aiming to avoid it, and this just happened to be the result."

Kakashi lead the two back to the training grounds, and found Naruto, sitting there resting against the target tree.

"Naruto," Kakashi called, gaining the blond's attention. "Were you missing the target on purpose?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Kinda. Shika said that I was good even when I missed, so I wanted to see if it was true."

"I now want to see what happens when you don't try to miss. Here, I gathered your kunai and shuriken for you."

Naruto nodded after taking the proffered weapons, and stood up, moving back to the 2 meter line Kakashi had drawn. He took a deep breath, and threw each weapon, two at a time. When he was finished, he looked at Kakashi for approval.

The man was speechless. Even despite the mask, Naruto could tell his mouth was opening and closing, making an interesting impression of a goldfish.

Every single one of Naruto's weapons had managed to squeeze into the bullseye, and most angled toward the center. It was understandable how the man could be so flabbergasted.

"Do I win?" Naruto asked sheepishly. Kakashi simply nodded, still unable to form words. Naruto let out a cheer. "That means that Sasuke-teme has to get my groceries!"

Sasuke, who normally showed no emotions, was obviously upset, face red as his favorite fruit. He couldn't believe he lost to the Dobe of all people. The dead-last of their class. It didn't make any sense to him at all.

Sakura, however, had no trouble showing her distaste. "That isn't possible! I declare a retry! There's no possible way that Naruto-Baka was able to get more bullseyes than my Sasuke-kun! I refuse to believe it!"

"You shouldn't deny the truth, Sakura-San," a voice called from behind. The team turned around to find Iruka-Sensei walking onto the training ground, a smile on his face, practically beaming with pride. "If he hadn't been training his dodging skills during the graduation exam, I have a feeling that he would have gotten these very same results."

"What do you mean, Iruka?" Kakashi broke in, although he had an inkling as to the insinuation.

"During Naruto's exam, he missed the target with every throw, however, when I was cleaning up the target field after the exams were completed, Shikamaru and I both came across Naruto's missed throws. He had struck a tree about 30 meters behind the original target, but with such surprising accuracy he drew his own target with his weapons, and even hit the bullseye about three times as well. The skills that would've taken for someone who was actually trying to do that would be immense. The fact it happened on accident is a testament to his abilities as a shinobi."

"But he failed! If you're praising him so much for his weapons throwing, then why did you fail him?" Sasuke asked, finally breaking out of his own state of shock.

"Easy. The rule of the accuracy part of the exam was in the title: accuracy. How many times can one hit a target? Bonus points were awarded after the fact based on how close each student was to hitting the bullseye. Although we didn't tell you the scores during the exam, the true results weren't out of 20, because of the number of shuriken and kunai that were thrown. The test was truly out of 40. Each weapon was worth two points in total. Hitting the bullseye gave the full two points, while simply hitting the target was worth one. So while most students' scores stayed the same based on that criteria, Shikamaru's and Sasuke's scores actually rose even higher due to the number of bullseyes they hit."

"So based on the fact that Naruto didn't hit the target, that's why he didn't get any points at all?"

"Not necessarily, Sasuke. The thing is, after the exam was complete, and I was tidying my desk, I realized something else. Naruto had somehow hidden all of his answers on his written exam. When they were revealed, I tallied it, and he had a perfect score. That on top of how he did the throwing exam, which being a shinobi exam, would've earned extra points anyway, the only part of the test he actually failed, was the bunshin jutsu portion. Which he made up for that night, by showing a variation that had been declared a Kinjutsu by the Nidaime."

"So he cheated..."

It was a whisper by Sakura, but Naruto heard it nonetheless. It hurt that his teammate didn't appreciate all the effort he put in to graduate. But at the same time, he couldn't exactly say anything, since she wasn't the only one that didn't see it.

While they were still discussing the results of Naruto's miraculous victory over Sasuke, Naruto decided he'd had enough. He slipped away from the training grounds, and snuck back to his old house. He figured nobody would go looking for him there.

He blocked the door with a chair to prevent any unwanted visitors from breaking in, put a few poles in the windows to prevent them from being pried open, and proceeded to his dingy bathroom, closing the door behind him, just wanting to stop the pain, once and for all.

ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ=3=3=3

Shikamaru reached home a little later than usual, worn out from training. He had decided to tell Asuma about his desire to protect Naruto, though he hadn't even told the blond about it yet, but he he hadn't expected his sensei to incorporate that into his training so quickly, nor with such a drastic change. He hurt all over, and couldn't wait to curl up in bed with his blond angel.

He kicked off his sandals the second he walked into the Genkan, but was immediately concerned when he noticed a familiar pair was missing.

"Shikamaru-Kun, is that you? What took you so long to get home?" Yoshino called from the kitchen.

"Tadaima, kaa-San," he replied.

"Is Naruto-Chan with you?" That question immediately set off alarm bells in Pineapple's head. He knew he was late. He also knew that he had seen Team 7 leaving Yakiniku-Q on his way home from the training grounds, without Naruto, and he had assumed the blond had simply left earlier and was waiting for him.

"You mean he isn't here? Didn't he come home earlier?"

Yoshino left the kitchen and joined Shikamaru in the foyer, drying her hands on a towel, a look of concern showing on her face. That look said everything Shikamaru needed to know. The blond had never made it back. But what did that mean?

'Did he get taken on his way home? Did he leave his team early and go somewhere else? And why did they seem so unconcerned that he wasn't there in the first place? That didn't make any sense at all. What's going on? Where is he?'

Shikamaru, concerned for his new boyfriend, quickly slipped his shoes back on. He glanced back to his mother, and she nodded her head, putting her own shoes on as well after putting the towel down. They didn't know what they were looking for, or what they would find, but they knew that something must've happened to stop the lovable blond from returning to them that night.

(ᵔᴥᵔ)

A/N: Hello! Yes, I realize I'm kinda torturing the little blond! However, you can't really have a happy ending unless you go through some hardships in life, right? Because a story without conflict would just be rather boring, right? Now, I'm pretty sure this isn't much like my other stories, but bear with me for a bit. I'm still trying to figure out the full plot as I go. It might end soon, it might not, I'm not sure. I don't know if it will be as long as my crossover series or not. I know that it's currently longer than my original story though. And there is at LEAST one more chapter after this, if not more. So please keep reading, and tell me what you think of it! Until next time! じゃね！(*^▽^*)