Book 2: Chapter 8: A Fist Bump

Book 2: Land of Sand

Chapter 8: A Fist Bump

“So wait. You’re telling me you left your team in a 2v3 just to get your butt kicked by the Fourth Hokage?” I said, trying to understand the story Kurai told me.

“What a drag… I didn’t get my butt kicked. I was taught a lesson. There’s a fundamental difference between the two.”

“And that would be?”

“Not to fuck with the Yellow Flash,” Tayuya said, laughing as Kurai didn’t deny the claim, which made the rest of us laugh at how quick he had been humbled.

It was currently just Team 9 and Kurai taking our sweet time in catching up with Kai and Kasai. Everyone except Tayuya and me was exhausted from the fighting that no one rushed as there was a hunch that the Sound Four had retreated after having their plans ruined. Or at least that was the feeling Tayuya gave us with how she assured us that rushing to them would be a waste of time and energy. Not like I would complain if they lost a 2v2; that’s on them. Alright, let’s say 3v3 since, apparently, Kabura counts as much as Ukon. I wasn’t going to count Kidōmaru since he was probably useless in the fight.

“To be fair young Kurai held his own quite well.” Hiruzen nodded. “Though I hope he learned a valuable lesson.”

“Of course, I already have the memory burned in my mind,” Kurai said with such a pure look of bliss on his face. I was almost certain he was a clone and not the real deal. Though that wasn’t my problem. However, what was—

“What took you guys so long?” Kasai smirked as he sat atop the rubble of a… demon gate? I could barely tell what it was, but I knew that all of the Sound Four had a summoning Jutsu, and Sakon’s was something called Rashōmon. An impenetrable gate of some sort. Tayuya called it Orochimaru’s shield. Which made me wonder how many forms of protection did a guy need?

“See, I told you they’d be fine,” Tayuya said as Sui began to look around the battlefield.

“Where’s Kai?”

“Over here…” Kai popped his head out of a mound of sand that happened to bury him. Then popping his head out beside him was none other than Kabura, who barked. “I don’t think they’re a mirage this time, buddy.”

Kabura barked again.

“I know I said that the last five times.”

Kabura barked once more.

“Ok… but Kasai can hear them too, right?”

“Nope, no clue what you’re talking about,” Kasai said, jumping down and immediately relaxing with his hands in his pockets. Clearly finding some enjoyment in his friend’s exhausted mental state.

“Don’t worry, I’ll dig him out,” Kurai said as he spawned two clones of himself.

“Did Kai take a food pill?” Sui asked.

“Yeah,” Kasai said, tossing her the empty wrapper. “Jirōbō and Kidōmaru was a lot for him.”

“What about you?”

“I’m fine, obviously.”

Sui looked Kasai over and could immediately tell something was wrong when I didn’t notice a thing. “You say that, but your left arm is clearly broken.”

“When did you become a medic?” Kasai said, trying to hide his arm from Sui’s gaze.

“I know what a broken arm looks like. Considering I just broke a couple hundred.”

“That bad?”

“Used my new technique and everything.” Sui gave a long sigh as she stared down. “It still wasn’t enough—”

Kasai ran his hand through his sister’s hair. “Really? Because Kimimaro was so quick to run from us, you’d think he’d been put through hell. Couldn’t have done it better myself. Good job.”

“Oh, you can thank Yuki for that one.” Sui chuckled as Kasai’s face darkened from the realization.

“You’re kidding?”

I waved some ways away, clearly listening in on the whole conversation with Tayuya, who slapped me on the back.

“Yeah, he kicked Kimimaro’s ass. Didn’t even need us.”

“What are you saying? I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”

Tayuya rolled her eyes as Kasai walked up to me. I couldn’t tell what was going through his mind considering he still gave me a cold stare. Yet seeing as none of the others made a move to stop him, and I didn’t feel any killing intent, I guess it was ok that he could just walk up into my personal space. I had never noticed it before, but Kasai was actually taller than me. I didn’t like it.

Nor did I like when he raised his right fist. “So, the plan worked on both ends?”

“Of course, my plans always work.”

“I almost died!” Tayuya said, cracking her knuckles.

“Ok, they work most of the time….” I corrected as I wasn’t ready for another Tayuya beatdown. Though with one look at Sui, I was about to get one from her. Why is she pissed!

“Yuki, I know you see it….”

“See what?”

“My brother….”

“Yeah, he’s right there. I see him,” I said, pointing at the guy while Sui pointed at his arm.

“His fist?”

“It’s broken right? We should probably get it in a cast—”

“Yuki! I know what you’re doing, and it’s not funny.”

“Alright, fine.” I sighed as I looked up at the Kasai, who still had his fist held out. He didn’t say a word, but his eyes said it all. He was annoyed. And he deserved it for all the shit he gave me! I mean, any normal person would have taken a hint and accepted he was being ignored. But knowing him, the thought didn’t even cross his mind! Hell, he probably thought it wasn’t even a possibility for him, of all people, to be the one ignored.

“It’s really simple loser. All you have to do is tap your fist against mine.” Kasai explained, proving my fucking point!

“You piece of shit, I know what a fist bump is. I was pretending I didn’t see it.”

“Oh really?” Kasai tucked his fist back in his pocket then started to walk off.

Sui facepalmed. “He was trying to make amends, and you blew it.”

“Wait, is that what he was trying to do?” Tayuya asked. “I thought he was going to punch Yuki in the face but was too weak to do it.”

“Ignoring that…” I stared at Sui. “A fist bump isn’t going to change the fact he’s tried to kill me three times.”

“Believe me Yuki, if he wanted to kill you, you’d know. He’s just bad at initiating friendships.”

“So, it runs in the family.”

“I’ll neither confirm nor deny that,” Sui said with a slight cough as she was no better, considering she also tried to kill me. She’s just lucky I’d forgive her for anything. I am not a simp!

I let out another sigh as I remembered that, technically, it was him that saved my life against Kidōmaru and from that sandstorm…. So, I guessed I could try to make amends, I thought as I ran up to Kasai and held out my fist.

“Alright Kasai, let’s just get this over with.”

Kasai turned around, gave me a quick glance then continued to walk away.

“You piece of fucking Hyūga Trash!” I ran at Kasai, aiming my fist at his head only for him to block it with his own fist, where he stared down at me with a smirk as the ground cracked beneath us.

“Now was that so hard, loser?”

“The name’s Yuki Uchiha, Hyūga Trash.”

“Kasai Hyūga, you’re welcome.”

“I already know your name!” I clicked my tongue as I pulled my fist back. “When fire meets snow. No wonder I don’t like you.”

“Wow, see that Kai? They’re finally getting along.” Kurai said as Kai leaned on him for support.

“Kabura you might be right. They’re a mirage.” Kai said as Kabura peeked his head from Kai’s jacket only to bark.

“The boys in my life are quite a headache,” Sui muttered, rubbing her temple only for Tayuya to charge past her.

“So that’s a fist bump… Hey Yuki! Let’s bump fists!” Tayuya raised her fist, and it did not look like a fist bump!

“Tayuya, I think you got a misunderstanding—” I ducked, dodging the demon’s fist but only barely as I felt the top of my head and… “My hairline!”

Then I felt the ground tremble as I looked behind me where Kasai was on the ground with Xs for eyes and his hands covering his—

“Big brother!” Sui cried out as she went to hold Kasai while the other guys and I gave him a quick prayer as his lineage was done for.

“Don’t worry step-bro. I’ll keep your family going—”

“I’ll kill you!” Kasai launched back up, only for the rest of us to laugh at how high-pitched his voice was.

“You know this fist bump thing is more fun than hugs,” Tayuya said with a demonic grin.

“Yeah… new rule: No more hitting above the neck!”

“And below the belt!”

“You’re all fucking pussies.”

“Well, it’s good to see that fighting those rogue ninja didn’t drain your energy. So how about we take a quick break, patch ourselves up, and continue our journey.” Hiruzen said, having gathered our things while we were busy goofing off. “It’s only a couple of hours away.”

For once, we all groaned as not even the so-called ANBU members felt like traveling. Yet that didn’t stop Hiruzen from reminding us that we were his escorts and blah blah blah we ended up doing what he said.

A/N: Heyo! (￣▽￣)/ T.K.月狐 here. So because this chapter was shorter than usual and I like padding that word count, here is an update!

First, if you made it this far 5 gold stars just for you! You really make writing my passion worth it! And I hope you've enjoyed this volume, especially the upcoming Epilogue. Yes, that's right the next two chapters will be Book 2's Epilogue as not only do I need a break (sorry folks) but I think it's a great place to end it.

Now here are some things I need to address, which are some of the fights I'm missing, such as Minato vs Hiruzen and Kurai. Now can you believe this entire journey's purpose when I first came up with the idea was for Minato to fight Hiruzen? Like we all know the episode where the Third Hokage is fighting Orochimaru, and he doesn't let the final coffin appear. Yeah, that one. I really wanted to know what would happen if they did fight. And well... I didn't have the time to fit it into the story, haha. But I will do it, I promise! Along with the other scenes in Omake Chapters over the next one to two years, give or take.

Oh, that's the other bit of bad news I will not be able to write Book 3 anytime soon. Not because I don't want to... I mean I've finally made it to the best arc of Part 1 of Naruto IMO and what I think will be the best arc in this story and because of that, I don't want to rush it. Not only am I burned out a bit with Naruto but I'm also moving to South Korea in the next week. So yeah, that's new.

Oh, I guess for those out there who haven't easily figured it out, I am American so this is going to be a huge change for me and I definitely don't need the stress of getting a chapter out in time while also adjusting to that. So apologies if things seem off. But Omake's are much easier for me to write especially since there is no self-imposed deadline haha.

Though here is finally some good news. Book 3 will take place during the Chunin Exams!!! And boy, it is going to be the best thing ever for me at least. Like the written portion, good luck. The Forest of Death oh boy, the things I have planned for Team 9. So at the current moment, it'll probably be like 120k words or something like that. So I wasn't kidding when I say this will take me a longer time to write. But it will be worth it. A little hint from the Epilogue and a reward for those who continued to read my thoughts.

The Chunin exams will have at the very least the Four Great Nations participating. So yes we will be seeing the likes of Karui and her genin teammates. Kurotsuchi and her genin teammates. Fuu the seven-tail Jinchuriki, and Karin are my current new additions to the roster. Maybe you could guess who'll be their teammates.

So yes I have a lot of plans but I don't want to rush it for your and my sake. But that's all for me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you enjoy the conclusion to the Land of Sand in the epilogue. (Which I still need to edit... send help pls...)