Ehehe, I just flipped through the whole LJ community on these 20-truth things, and I thought I'd try my hand at one. I always liked them. :)

This is about the Konoha geniuses, or the few I felt like I could cover in this much space. Basically Kakashi, Neji, Shikamaru, Kabuto, Sasuke, and Itachi.

1. It has always been said that there is a fine line between genius and insane. This is true, but there are so few people on the border that it's really an irrelevant idea. And the ones who start on the border infallibly end up on the insane side eventually.

2. But insane isn't bad.

3. All the time, anyway.

4. Another thing that is true about the Konoha geniuses is most of them have no idea where they themselves fall in this categorization. Shikamaru is too preoccupied with trying to not be preoccupied by it. Kakashi thinks he's perfectly sane, which his students and really anyone else who knows him finds laughable (given his penchant for rereading the same series over. And over. And over). Neji is quite proud to be a genius, and is too proud to think that he might be the least bit bonkers. Kabuto is too crazy to care about much of anything anymore. Sasuke's too far deep into things that change him to say what he is anymore. Rock Lee was always a little bit wacko to begin with.

5. Oddly enough, the only one who is the least crazy of them all: Uchiha Itachi. The definition of insane is senseless, not of sound mind. Itachi has the most sound mind of anyone. He never acts without thinking, and he knows exactly who he is and what he wants, and he never lets irrational things get in the way of his plans. But he is also fluid, and can adjust said plans with a skill that Shikamaru will reach eventually after much hard work. He, too, doesn't care about where he falls into this category. He is completely unaddled mentally, and this makes him more terrifying than any other genius the village has spit out.

6. And also, by some people's definition, the most crazy. But in reality, Itachi isn't crazy at all.

7. Only one person has ever realized the above fact, and he shared it with exactly two people. But none of them really trust their own thinking, because maybe they're just all crazy.

8. Most teams have one girl, one oddball, and one genius. Team Gai has one girl, one oddball, and two geniuses. Rock Lee is one of the few who fits into both the category of genius and strange.

9. And everyone will grow to love him for it.

10. Yes. Even Neji.

11. Shikamaru really began by not caring at all for anyone but Chouji. Then it grew to Asuma. And then after awhile, suddenly he found himself worrying about Ino. And then it was Temari. And before he knew it, he would have willingly laid down his life to protect every last citizen of Konoha. (And Temari.) He will, eventually. His dreams of dying in old age will work out as well as his desire to have a girl first, and then a boy (his wife, who he will call beautiful every day, will bear triplets, two boys and a girl). But Shikamaru knows better than anyone else that while it's great to have a plan, things just don't work out sometimes.

12. Neji realizes he is insane one day. It's going to be the day that he realizes that no, in fact, normal, sane children really don't sit around glaring at birds all day because the birds are free.

13. Then he'll join Shikamaru on cloud-watching expeditions. Shikamaru, after all, is jealous of clouds. (Neji's pretty certain that being jealous of clouds is worse.)

14. It's pretty well-known that Kakashi sees himself in Sasuke, but it isn't that well-known that Kakashi also sees himself in Itachi. Which Kakashi prefers. He's pretty sure he's right, after all, that Itachi cares about Sasuke more than he lets on. But Kakashi's also pretty sure that no one who can't identify, even the smallest bit, with Itachi will ever, ever understand this. He also thinks that the council doesn't like him much anyway, after a couple of stunts he pulled (but it was Naruto's idea to substitute their meeting agendas with a particularly risque scene in Icha Icha Tactics), and they'd see it as treason.

15. Neji isn't quite sure where Gai's rivalry with the Copy-nin came from. He does know, however, that it has something to do with a pretty girl (A sparkling flower of youth! his sensei had proclaimed, and then realized that perhaps flowers and sparkle weren't quite meant to go together). And a pair of boxers.

16. In fact, Kakashi would tell him this story if he asked. But Neji won't ever ask. Despite the fact that he has plenty of chances to.

17. Kabuto could fix his eyes so that he doesn't need glasses anymore. He could fix the scar on his left wrist from that battle. He is so medically skilled, in fact, that he could have fully healed Orochimaru's arms all those years ago. It's just that nothing truly interesting would happen if Kabuto fixed all the problems himself. (Even though he could.) Orochimaru knows this about Kabuto. And Orochimaru appreciates this about Kabuto.

18. Itachi knows everything about Sasuke. It's his pastime, actually. The same way that Shikamaru watches clouds, or Neji watches birds, or Kakashi watches the stone monument to Konoha's fallen.

19. Sasuke just thinks he knows everything about Itachi. He'd realize he didn't if the cursed seal wasn't there.

20. As the reputations of Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru simultaneously grow, the latter two notice that their reputations all contain the same thing, the same word: genius. For awhile, they were both seperately disturbed by the fact that this only strengthened the bond they felt with Sasuke, and were worried that they were both going crazier than ever. Eventually, they realized that the other felt the same way, and relaxed again- after all, if they both felt the same way about it, they couldn't be crazy, right? Kakashi appeared, though, and completely destroyed any hope they'd had at delusions of sanity by informing them that just because the two of them felt that way, that didn't mean that they were not crazy, just that the both of them felt the same way. As they digested this silently, and wondered why they hadn't thought of it themselves, Kakashi beamed under his mask and informed them that he was just messing with them. That it made perfect sense. That it was normal, even. And that it was also normal to want to be able to bring Sasuke back even more due to that strengthening connection.

A feeling neither of them had expressed aloud.

As Kakashi walked away, whistling (they didn't know how, it must have been hard with the mask on) and idly perusing Icha Icha Tactics like he was merely an old pervert, they agreed: Of all the geniuses Konoha had ever produced, Kakashi was definitely the craziest.

Um.

Yeah.

Thanks so much for reading!

Please review! :D Reviewers get cookies. I'd especially like constructive criticism for this piece, as it's one of the few times I've ever actually tried this sort of thing.