A/N: This came to me in a dream... Blame my allergy medication. Blah. Also, there is slight Kakashi-bashing, but it is necessary! I like Kakashi, but that's just how it goes. Eh... If you want a second part to this, for when he comes back, I'll write it. I have an idea for one, anyway.


It had been a few weeks since Sasuke had tried to go to Orochimaru and Naruto had brought him back. Both had been in the hospital in those short few weeks, and Sasuke had just woken up from his coma. When that had happened, Sakura went straight to his hospital room and completely ignored Naruto. Even Kakashi seemed to stop visiting Naruto (as if he rarely did anyway) and went to visit his other student. It had been a week since the almost traitor had woken up, and Naruto had not had any visitors.

It showed with the dying flower.

"Hey, brat."

"Ero-sennin."

Said man gave the boy a confused look. "What's with you, squirt? Aren't you happy that you brought Sasuke back?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know... I was kind of hoping Sakura would thank me or something... But she hasn't and everyone is ignoring me." His fists clenched at his sides and his eyes shut tightly to block out the unwanted tears. He could not show weakness in front of the sannin. "Is there a reason you are here?"

"I was wondering if you would like to train for two and a half years with me," Jiraiya replied, still sitting on the windowsill. "Get out of Konoha, you know?"

The blond thought about it for a moment, staring at his still bandaged arms. "When would we leave?"

"I have a few things to take care of, so maybe a month."

A slight nod was his silent reply.

"Great." Jiraiya stood up and walked closer to the bed. "I already told Tsunade that you wanted to go."

"You mean you hadn't asked him yet?"

"GAH! Tsunade-hime! Wha-What are you doing here?"

"...I work here."

Jiraiya looked away for a moment, looking sheepish. "...I knew that."

Tsunade rolled her eyes at her former teammate before turning to Naruto. "I'm sorry I haven't been around. With all this Sasuke business-"

"It's all right," Naruto interrupted her, waving a hand carelessly. "Really. It's fine. It doesn't matter."

Tsunade and Jiraiya stood silently for a moment, waiting for someone else to say something. After a few- awkward- moments, the doctor spoke up.

"You will be able to leave tomorrow." When the boy did not respond, she tried a different tactic. "Are you excited about going with Jiraiya to train?"

Naruto nodded, a grin adorning his face, making him seem more like himself. "Yeah! I can't wait for next month. I'll finally get some one-on-one time with a sensei!"

"Training for the Chuunin exams didn't count?"

"Pfft! No! You told me to do something and left me to my own devices."

"Your point?"

Blue eyes rolled skyward at the remark. "Hey, Tsunade? Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, brat."

"C-Can..." Blue eyes darted to his lap. "Will you teach Sakura-chan? Kakashi-sensei is going to be busy with Sasuke, and he won't teach her..."

Tsunade ruffled his hair lovingly. "We'll see, Naruto. I will come with you to training tomorrow and observe her. How does that sound?"

Uzumaki Naruto grinned happily at the older woman. "Great! Can I go tell Sakura right now? I promise to stay in the hospital, and I'll be right back!"

"I guess." The doctor sighed as the boy jumped up. "If you care, Sasuke is also getting out tomorrow. And if you see Kakashi, tell him that I need to speak with him- and it is urgent."

He nodded, not questioning her motives. He knew when not to ask questions. "I'll see you later, Ero-sennin!"

Before the old man could say anything, however, the blond dashed out of the room towards Sasuke's room. It was just a few doors down from his, and he knocked rapidly on the door. He slowly peeked his head in the room and saw the rest of his team in the room. Sakura looked up and gave a small gasp.

"Naruto!" She seemed quite surprised to see him. "Did you get out of the hospital already?"

He shook his head. "No. I get out tomorrow, along with the bastard over there." Said raven glared menacingly at him. "I... I just needed to talk to you, Sakura. Just right quick; privately."

The pink haired girl looked back at Sasuke, then at Naruto. After a moment, she frowned. "Why can't you tell me now?"

Naruto bit his bottom lip. "Fine... Uhm... I asked Tsunade if she would be willing... to... teach you. She said that she would have to watch you tomorrow while we train."

"Why would she do that?"

Naruto fidgeted at this. "Well... This is why I wanted to talk in private..." He slowly stepped into the room and closed the door. "I figured that Kakashi would spend most of his time training Sasuke, like he always does, so... I just... kind of thought that you would want your own teacher."

Sakura gave him a smile. "That was nice of you, Naruto."

Instead of immediately replying to her, Naruto watched Kakashi's reaction. By the way he somewhat tensed, Naruto guessed that the Copy Nin knew he was telling the truth. "Yeah. I guess." He found that he was somewhat sad that no one asked about himself.

"Then what about you, Naruto?" Sakura asked after a moment of silence. "As you said so yourself, you'd be training alone."

His spirits slightly picked themselves off the floor. "I'll be all right," he replied. "I can train by myself, like I have before. I still need to work on Rasengan anyway."

Lies, his mind told him. He forced a grin to show he had no inner turmoil. He could show them he was not lying.

"Oh. Okay."

Lie accepted. Just like that.

"Tsunade wanted to talk to you, Kakashi," Naruto told the Jounin, eager to get the topic away from him. "She said it was urgent."

He pushed away from the wall and strode towards the door. "Where was she at?"

"My room, the last time I saw her."

With a nod, the man was gone.

"So... Naruto," Sakura said, if only to break the silence. "How are you feeling?"

The blond only shrugged and turned towards the door. "It doesn't matter. I'll leave you two to be alone."

Sasuke still glared at the blond, angry with him for more reasons than one. Sakura seemed joyous at the suggestion and waited impatiently for the boy to leave.

With a small wave, Naruto left the room to go back to his. Upon reaching it, he realized that the older shinobi had moved off somewhere else. His single room was silent, and it unnerved him only slightly.

He couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.


"Ready to come to our training, Tsunade-baa-chan?" Naruto asked excitedly as he bounced around in the Hokage's office. "We have about five minutes to get there-"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she replied as she signed one last paper. "Lead the way, brat."

The two quickly made their way towards the training ground and found that they were the last to arrive- besides Kakashi of course. However, he came not too long after Naruto and Tsunade had arrived.

Naruto figured that Tsunade had threatened him to come early or something.

"Sakura and Naruto, I want you two to spar. Sasuke, come with me," Kakashi ordered, moving away from the other two.

The blond boy gave a look towards Sakura, as if saying, "See? I told you so."

However, the two Genin moved into position and silently started their sparing.

Before they could get too far, Tsunade stopped them. "Your forms are terrible. What has Kakashi been teaching you?"

Both students looked at each other, then back at Tsunade. "Not much, really. We didn't even learn Chakra control until the Wave mission."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "I asked Ino when they learned Chakra control, and she said it was one of the first things that they did."

The doctor glared at the spot where Kakashi and Sasuke had disappeared. "Naruto, remember to tell Jiraiya to work on your form. Sakura, I want you to show me your Chakra control. Naruto... You might as well work on your Rasengan. I'm sorry that I can't tell you what you are or are not doing wrong, since I can't do-"

"It's all right," Naruto told her with a blinding smile. "Really. Just work with Sakura. I really want you to teach her. She has potential."

"Fine." Tsunade sighed and motioned for Sakura to move towards the trees. "Show me what you've got."

Naruto smiled at the two, then went to his own little section of the training ground to work on his technique.


Kakashi and Sasuke came back near noon to find Naruto missing and Tsunade looking up at a tree with a smile. He looked up at the tree, but saw nothing but bark and limbs and leaves.

"Where are my students?"

Tsunade turned to the Jounin with a smile. "Naruto went to get lunch and Sakura is practicing her Chakra control.

"That's not what I told them to do."

"That's what I told them to do."

Kakashi scowled. "I was led to believe that I was their teacher."

"And yet you aren't teaching them."

He could not argue with that fact.

Sakura dropped from the tree and landed in a crouch. "Shouldn't Naruto be back by now?"

"Sorry I took so long!" Naruto jogged into the area with a plastic bag filled with ramen containers. "Jiraiya stopped me. He just wanted to make some final plans with me." He brandished the bag- though carefully- and smiled. "I have lunch!"

"Don't you get tired of ramen?" Sakura asked as she took the bag from her teammate.

He shook his head with a grin on his face. "Nope!" He took his container from her hands and held it towards the heavens. "It is the food from the gods!" With great ceremony, he broke apart his chopsticks and shouted, "Itadakimasu!" before eating his lunch with vigor.

The other quickly followed his example, though less enthusiastically.

Suddenly, Tsunade spoke up. "Sakura, I am willing to become your teacher. You will start taking lessons next week, but you will still train with your team. Naruto, did you get everything sorted with Jiraiya?"

"Yes." This confused the other members of Team 7, but they would not ask with Tsunade there. "Is there paperwork?"

"There's always paperwork, brat." She ruffled his hair and gave him her unfinished ramen. "Here. Speaking of paperwork, I still have some. Come by my office when you are through here."

Naruto nodded happily, gratefully accepting her ramen. "Sure thing!"

Soon after Tsunade left, Sakura took this chance to ask the question the other three were dying to ask. "Why do you need to fill out paperwork?"

"Hm?" Naruto swallowed and blinked at his female teammate. "Paperwork...? Oh! Right. Well, it's nothing important. It's just about the last mission I went on."

They became silent, avoiding each other's eyes. They knew what he was talking about: the Retrieve Sasuke mission. However, what they did not know was that he was lying.

"Well, let's get back to training," Kakashi ordered once they were done eating. He turned to Sasuke and Naruto. "Can you handle a spar without trying to kill each other?"

"Hn."

"Not really."

"Too bad." Kakashi pulled out his Icha Icha book and waved them away. "Do a three-way spar. Sakura against Naruto against Sasuke. Go."


A month later, Naruto stood up in his apartment. The sun was just rising, yet he had been up for at least an hour. He still had a few things to pack in boxes to keep safe and a few things to pack in his bag before leaving. A knock at his door reverberated through the small apartment, and he quickly went over to open it. Standing in the doorway was Jiraiya with a smile on his face.

"Ready to go?"

"I just need to take my plant to the Yamanaka flower shop," Naruto replied as he slung his pack on his back. Next, he picked up a rather large plant that looked well cared for. "I asked Ino yesterday, and she said she could look after it for me."

Jiraiya stepped out of the way for his new student. "Let's go, then. Did you tell your teammates you were leaving?"

"I have teammates?"

The older of the two gave the other a harsh look. "Don't act like that. Of course they are your teammates."

"Sure don't act like it."

Jiraiya locked the door for the Genin before following him towards the flower shop. "I know they weren't nice to you, Naruto, but they were still your teammates. You should-"

"They don't care about me!"

Jiraiya was taken aback by this. He stood two stairs above the blond, but the blond looked far more intimidating. "Naruto, I'm sure-"

Naruto cut him off again. "No one does."

He sounded so... hurt, to Jiraiya. His blue eyes held anger, pain, rejection. He had never wanted to see the boy like this, but here he was, holding back tears from years of unfairness.

"I do, Naruto," the old man told him sincerely. "I'll prove it."

Naruto gave him a hard, untrusting look. "Let's go."

Jiraiya followed the boy silently, not wanting to make him blow up again. By the time they had reached the flower shop, Naruto was back to his normal, cheerful self.

So he seemed.

When he knocked on the door, a blonde girl quickly opened it. She smiled softly at Naruto and took the plant. "Do you have any special requests?"

"Just talk to the plant," Naruto replied with a small smile. "Tell it how your day was, how your team is, stuff like that. Just ten minutes of your time."

Ino smiled right back. "Will do, Naruto."

"And another thing."

"Yeah?"

"Don't... tell anyone, will you?" Naruto shifted from foot to foot nervously. "I'd rather not have people know that I talked to you before I left. Not that I am ashamed!" he said quickly as he saw her hurt expression. "It's just that the others will be angry that I didn't say goodbye..."

Ino's smiled again. "It's okay. I'll keep it secret for you."

"Thanks. I'll see you in a few years, yeah?"

"Just come back alive, all right?"

"Gotcha."

Jiraiya smirked as Naruto came out of the shop. He whistled as they walked away, glancing down at his new victim- student. "She's kind of cute."

"You're too old for her, pervert."

"I was talking about for you, brat."

"I don't know her that well."

The Toad Sage rolled his eyes. "Right."

They stopped in front of the gates, Tsunade and Shizune waiting for them. The gates were only opened part way, but just enough for Jiraiya to walk through.

"Come back alive, all right?" Tsunade smiled at her two favorite men. "And don't forget to write every once in a while."

Jiraiya just scoffed, but smiled at his ex-teammate. He walked through the gate with a slight wave.

Naruto, however, nodded with a determined grin. "I promise to write when I can."

She ruffled his hair, something he was getting a little annoyed with. Nonetheless, he enjoyed it.

"Get going before Jiraiya leaves you."

He gave her a fox-like smile and gave a thumbs up to both women. "See you in a few years!"

Tsunade sighed as the gates closed behind the two men. With a crooked smile, she said, "He has kind of changed, hasn't he?"

"Is that good or bad?" the raven replied as they walked back to the Hokage Tower.

The medic thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Not sure. He's a lot more serious than he should be."

"Maybe the fight with Sasuke changed him," Shizune suggested. "He did suffer some trauma."

"Maybe," was all the blonde replied with.