He hoisted himself off his back with support from his arms and stared around dumbly, something he was perfectly content with being able to do considering all that happened. He realized his sandals were gone, but his sword was still sheathed at his side.

Taku heard a burst of laughter erupt behind him and turned to see the yellow haired ninja bent over pointing a finger at his orange hair that taken the shape of a flame at some point during his flight to Konoha. it’s a curse of mine… he thought glumly. “Look look,” he pointed out incredulously to his teammates, “it looks like his head is on fire! I caught a meteor!” he sent a smug glare towards the raven-haired boy. “I bet you couldn’t catch a meteor, Sasuke-teme!” he gloated.

“Hn,” Sasuke grunted, “A dobe like you might actually believe he was a meteor.”

“Of course he could catch a meteor, Naruto-baka!” Suddenly shrieked the pink haired ninja Taku had met earlier as soon as she realized Sasuke wasn’t about to beat the shit out of him. She stormed over to Naruto, her fist raised threateningly. Naruto cowered back and laughed nervously, yet he still tried to convince ‘Sakura-chan’ otherwise.

He saw their sensei Heion standing behind them in the background casually watching the scene in interest and lighting a cigarette. He heard a loud bang and quickly darted his eyes back to the clash between Sakura and Naruto. A huge dust cloud was left as evidence of the girl finally whopping Naruto in the face.

Heion’s face contorted in a sudden rage as if he was reminded of something. “OI, SHUT UP!” he burst out angrily at the top of his lungs, causing the area to shake and his cigarette to fly out and hit Taku in the forehead, “FIVE EXTRA HOURS OF CHAKRA CONTROL TRAINING TOMORROW!” His eyes shifted around the area; looking slightly worried, “you’ll get me in trouble again…” he added in little more than a mumble and quickly lit another cigarette. Based the traumatized expressions on the two ninja’s faces and the immediate halt in their battle, Taku assumed it was probably the most boring training they could ever be asked to do.

“YOU WERE JUST LOUDER THAN US!” roared the two in unison, suddenly banding together and creating an even more heated argument.

Sasuke muttered under his breath something about getting stuck with these idiots, as he referred to them, and offered Taku a hand to assist him in standing up. He picked his jaw up off the floor and blinked for the first time in minutes and gladly accepted the gesture.

“Just what is the meaning of this?” unexpectedly inquired an old, gravelly, yet significant voice a minute later which carried throughout the area effortlessly.

Everyone stopped; the two ninja confined in a choke hold underneath Heion’s arms looked at each other in triumph. Their sensei’s face drained of color as a man in a white robe and cloak with a hat gradually appeared before him through swirling leaves. Heion quickly released his grip and began ruffling his students’ hair and patting them playfully, though probably more roughly than he intended, in a complete change of character.

“You know he is serious if he forgets his pipe,” Sasuke muttered with a grin, more to himself than to Taku.