Understand.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Naruto or any of the characters, yadda yadda yadda.

A/N: Errr…just an old fic I had lying around so I decided to post it. It's not the surprise I was talking about, but I'm just tossing some things out there just for the heck of it.

Another angsty little one-shot my dark mind thought up. I hope you enjoy it, if not, oh well.

And yes, I am working on chapter 13 of Situational Hazard, but work is kickin' mah ass, so it's taking a bit. Sorry guys, but finals are also pending, I hope I can get enough done in time.

Naruto smiled brightly, waving to his teammates who looked like they would rather be anywhere else but where they were. Sai looked plain as usual and Sakura looked dog-tired. But then again, she would, considering it was 5am. Their sensei had an unforgivable habit of arriving late, and not just fashionably late, but HOURS late.

Naruto didn't mind, in fact, he had hoped he could get a little more time to himself before their teacher showed up. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and the big tree about three yards away looked very tempting. He shuffled wordlessly over to the tree and leaned against it, sliding down the rough bark until he was sitting on the grass. Routinely, this was his favorite tree to sleep against, and sometimes he would come to their meeting field at night to lean up against the tree and sleep, that was, when he could find the time to sleep.

"YOU'RE LATE!!!" Sakura screamed, her voice the only one echoing in the clearing. Usually, Naruto joined her in pointing out their sensei's tardiness but he was currently rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and shuffling to his knees, rudely awakened by the kunoichi's loud, sharp voice.

Sai took his hands out of his pockets and glared at her. "Sakura, it's obvious he's late, you don't have to shout it out every time he doesn't show up on time. The last thing we want to hear is your annoying voice this early in the morning."

Sakura looked hurt for a moment, her green eyes flashing with confusion, wondering what it was that she did to make him so angry with her. Sai was pissy as usual, but this morning it seemed like something crawled up his ass and died.

Naruto stood up, stretching and yawning. He could readily agree with Sai this morning in particular. Sakura was being far too loud for his liking.

Kakashi looked at his students carefully, sensing the agitation was more pronounced than it usually was and decided to provide them with an excuse to break the tension.

"Ah well, there was traffic in the trees and I---

"Can we just do this mission and go home? I don't care why you're late, let's just go."

Naruto ran over to them and past Kakashi, already well on his way down the path. Sai had the right idea. All he really wanted to do today was finish his boring C-Rank mission and crawl back home where nobody was waiting for him.

They failed their mission.

Tsunade wasn't pleased, but she could tell by the exasperated look on their faces that her complaints were in vain and dismissed them without further argument. Even Naruto looked washed-up, like he had all he could take from the day. She sighed and spun in her chair toward the window. She supposed the mission had been a bit out of their league for a C-Rank, but for all her hopes, they still weren't able to handle it.

Shizune watched her master quietly. She felt sorry for her; the blonde woman had practically been forced to be the Hidden Leaf Village's Hokage. It wasn't a position a woman of her personality was originally intended to have and once again, Shizune silently cursed Jiraiya for forcing such a responsibility on woman with the kind of luck Tsunade had. It wasn't right, her master should have been on the road, running from her losses and leaving behind useless IOU's, not sitting in a high-back chair more than half her size, worrying about whether Kakashi Hatake's team had what it took to make her job a little bit easier.

"Shizune, don't let it bother you. They need me." The blonde woman gave her subordinate a brilliant smile. "Besides, it's nice, in a…. stable kind of way."

Shizune gave her a small smile and turned to leave, the day's workload already taking its toll on her delicate fingers. She wasn't used to the kind of work being a Hokage's assistant demanded, but for Tsunade, she would. She only wished the Genin teams pulled more of their weight instead of piling the strain of upholding a village on her unlucky master's shoulders.

Kakashi didn't think he would be running into anyone on his way home, but passing by his student's training grounds, he spotted a patch of orange and gold down below. He stopped, crouching low on a thick branch to zero in on the figure lying on the grass like a homeless person.

Naruto snored soundly, curled up beneath his favorite tree. Kakashi watched him for a while, wondering why the boy was sleeping outside to begin with. Curiosity got the better of him and he swooped down stealthily, landing a few feet from the blonde.

"Naruto, what are you doing out here this late at night?"

Normally, at even the sound of the wind blowing the wrong way, a Shinobi is to be alert and fully focused, but Naruto slept on, snoozing away peacefully.

"Yo, Naruto. Get up."

Naruto didn't respond. Kakashi stepped up to him, toeing his leg until the boy rolled over and crack his lids to see what woke him up.

Kakashi eye narrowed. Naruto's eyes had ugly, dark half-circles around them. He certainly looked like he had seen better nights.

"Why are you sleeping out in the woods like some sort of animal? Get up and go home, Naruto."

Naruto squinted up at his sensei through his tired blue eyes and groaned, lying back down and rolling over again. "You're not my father Kakashi, you could care less why I'm out here. You can just go on about your business and go home."

The Jounin frowned inconspicuously under his black cloth mask. Rude indifference was the last reaction he expected to get out of the brat. He calmly backed up and stared down at his blonde-haired charge, trying to figure out why the boy was suddenly acting like Sasuke Uchiha.

"You're right. I'm not your father, but I am your sensei and it wouldn't do any of us any good if you showed up for a mission coughing and sneezing, now would it?" He explained in a rather bored tone.

He could hear the boy's snicker against his arm. "No, I guess it wouldn't."

A gray eye narrowed further in thought. It wasn't like he never paid attention to the kid, like he didn't notice the change in him that day, and now here he was once again, trying to put his finger on what it was that was making the boy sleep so often as he was. All day Naruto's focus had been wavering, unnoticed by his peers, but not by Kakashi. He shrugged it off then, thinking that the boy was staying up too late at night and that in the next few hours he would go home and relax. Except, Naruto wasn't home and he still looked like he could relax.

Kakashi Hatake was the kind of man that would beat around the bush for as long as he had to, even if he weren't doing it for himself. He wasn't going to outright ask the young ninja what was wrong. Instead, if Naruto felt like it, he would tell him. In any case, if it was something that was going to hurt the team, then he was going have to find out some way or another, because as it was, Naruto wasn't exactly the kid he had been 4 years ago. He was still loud and somewhat obnoxious, but there was a maturity in him that told the silver-haired Jounin that he had learned something while he was away. He wasn't any less hated by the people of Konoha, actually, he was hated even more now than ever.

Once villagers got wind of him being a Jinchuuriki that was capable of lending that Akatsuki the power to destroy the 5 hidden nations, they glared a lot harder, cursed him a lot louder, and their hate for him grew a lot stronger. Now it was all the kid could do to let it not get to him, and Kakashi supposed that maybe, Naruto wasn't as brave as he let on. He really did care what people thought of him, obviously he lost sleep over it.

"Naruto, I could care less if slept underwater, but when we're on our missions, you can't keep spacing out like that. If you don't gather your strength then you could bring the whole team down---

"Oh, about that. I quit."

"What?"

Naruto sat up and sidled against the tree, yawning again and rubbing his head.

"Yeah, I decided that you guys don't need me. There are plenty stronger ninja that could take my place. After all, I can't do what I wanted to do. I'm a demon, remember? Godaime won't allow me, as much as she claims not to mind, to be Hokage. I'm….dangerous. Or so they say."

Kakashi didn't know what to say. It was all true. Tsunade had to have the village's best interests at heart, no matter if she had forged a friendship with the young Chuunin. Naruto had limited control over his rage, and if left unchecked, he could bring Konoha to its knees. To give a person like that the power of the Hokage was just…well….stupid.

"Is that the reason you're sleeping outside in the cold instead of in your warm bed?"

"Actually, I've been thinking about it for awhile. You know, nothing's holding me back. Nobody likes me, nobody cares about me. Iruka-sensei hasn't really spoken to me since we got back from Sound and….I'm really tired. I used to think that if I tried hard enough, I could forget that I wasn't normal like everyone else. I thought that maybe I could gain recognition by being outspoken and carefree."

"Naruto…" Kakashi still had nothing he could say that would take that frown off of Naruto's face. He didn't know how to handle things to this degree. He had never dealt with a person like this before. He didn't know what to do. He was starting to think that maybe it would have been a good idea if he hadn't come down from the trees to check on the boy. The outcome would have been the same.

"I hoped….I….that when I went home at night…I wouldn't mind being alone. I thought I could get used to it. But then it just got so overwhelming that when I did go home, I wished I was someplace else, anyplace else but there. But now I'm too tired to keep fighting, I'm too tired to keep acting like it doesn't bother me it. I'm too tired…" He gasped out finally.

Kakashi wanted to tell him that it was worth something if he tried, but he never was very good at lies. He could only tell the boy that he was wrong about one thing: there were people who cared about him, people who actually looked forward to seeing him, people who gave a shit whether he lived or died.

"Don't be ridiculous, you have a lot of people who care about you. The----

"Why?"

"Why what?" Kakashi unfolded his arms and let them drop to his side. He had a feeling that this talk wasn't going to end nicely.

"Why do they care?"

Kakashi sighed. "Well, let's start out with the most important people. Iruka Umino. Don't you think he cares?"

"No. If he did, then he would speak to me when his superiors tell him not to. He would visit me on my birthday and the holidays. He would be there, he would let me spend at least ONE NIGHT with him. He would tell me."

Naruto's face suddenly cracked into a huge, misplaced grin. "Iruka doesn't care and you know it. Whether or not he used to care is irrelevant. Since we're starting off from the most important, let's go with Sakura. The moment she laid eyes on me, she hated me. I wasted so much time and effort trying to show her that I was worth liking, that I was every bit as cool as Sasuke. Four years later, and it still means nothing to her. Nothing at all. Next, Jiraiya, he barely knew I existed. That pervy bastard paid more attention to nude women than to his own student. I had to beg him and even then he was always wary about how much I knew, and how much power I had. He had already informed you of ways to keep me in check, instead of just…trusting me. With me, it was always the worst case scenario, just like it is with everybody else. Maybe people respect me, but nobody cares about me. I've never had anyone that I could honestly say made me go home at night with a real smile on my face. Nobody ever walked me home in the afternoons when I was dog tired from a mission and really needed a helping hand."

Kakashi stood silently, listening to the boy vent. He couldn't tell Naruto that he was wrong, that all of those people ever cared. He could only listen to him, and that was more than anyone else ever did.

"Tsunade is so cautious of me, she keeps sticking me with C and D-Rank mission just so I can't build any credibility and be put in the position where I could be superior to anyone but children. Even now, my team has to suffer these boring, demeaning missions because of me."

He stopped for a minute and smiled wider at the Jounin. Kakashi seemed as impassive as always, almost as if Naruto wasn't spilling his heart out to him. Like it was just Naruto being Naruto. With a very strange smile on his face that didn't belong there at the time.

"And you." He pointed.

Kakashi's eye flashed, widening a fraction before narrowing again. He was about to defend himself and tell him that whatever he was about to say was wrong but Naruto beat him to it, holding his palm out to silence him.

"You hate me, don't you? You, especially you, of all people, should be the last person telling me ANYONE gives a rat's ass about me. When you can't even tolerate me when I'm around. You don't even give me the time of day if you absolutely don't have to and you haven't ever wanted to be caught dead speaking to me alone. Sometimes, we walk right by each other and you don't even look up. But when Sasuke, Sakura, or Sai walk by, they get a wave. That's more than you've ever even said to me. "

I remember the first time I took the Chunnin exams, you trained Sasuke and literally pawned me off on somebody else! Haha, I can't even BEGIN to tell you how much that hurt. Sasuke, that murderer, you trained him and not me. I remember asking you why and do you remember what you said to me?"

"I said…that Sasuke had more potential than you did and that he was easier to teach."

Naruto's smile turned into a smirk. "Yeah, and now look what happened to him. You contributed to that, but nobody blamed you for anything. And I tried to save him, and I don't hear any thanks for my efforts and I'm the one who tried the hardest. I'm not sure why I stayed and tried for all these years, but I'm not doing it anymore. I'm leaving, anywhere, and I'm not coming back. Of course, that has no significance to you, you could care less, but I thought I'd let you know that you'd be a little short on teammates tomorrow. But that's okay, right? I can be easily replaced."

"Naruto, feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to make people like you anymore, or care about you. You have to show them that you----

"Aw go to hell with that shit, Kakashi. You think I haven't been trying? You would, considering you don't even pay attention to me. Just go home. Leave me alone and forget you ever saw me. When Sai and Sakura ask, tell them you don't know and you don't care." The teenager got up and walked past Kakashi, but was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder.

"If you leave now Naruto, you'll never know if all you had to do was try a little bit harder. You make assumptions based on what you're used to, and apply them to everyone around you. You tell me that I don't care for you, but apparently it's you who doesn't pay attention. You can't expect everyone to fall to their knees and beg you to understand, it just doesn't work that way. Yes, you're different, but it doesn't mean you aren't important."

Narutos eyes hooded over. "Kakashi…."

"Yes Naruto?"

"….shove it." And with that, he jerked his shoulder out of the Jounin's grip and walked away calmly. Kakashi sighed, but didn't bother to go after him. It was better to let the boy leave, because it was far too difficult to make him understand.

But he was wrong. The boy couldn't have been more wrong. Kakashi cared. He cared more than he let on and sure, he never showed it much, but people normally knew him enough to gather that. Naruto however, couldn't see past his pain and loneliness to understand that some people just didn't get along like others. In reality, Kakashi had cared more the blonde boy than he had for his dark-haired counterpart, Sasuke. Naruto certainly had more potential, but he didn't have control and Kakashi didn't want to be the reason that the boy got a hold of the Chidori. Giving Naruto the chance to be stronger than the rest of the Genin was dangerous at best. Of course, he hadn't expected Jiraiya to show up. By then, he felt more inclined to continue training Sasuke, while the older Sannin took care of Naruto. He knew Jiraiya had the sense to limit the boy's training, whereas he couldn't be bothered with being cautious. With Sasuke, it was easy and…..safe. He knew it looked like he was playing favorites, but the reality was that Naruto was dangerous and that was all there was to it.

Naruto's cheerful, loud, brash demeanor certainly left little space for patience, but Kakashi was more calm with him being a ditz than the beast he turned into when he was engulfed in that scary red chakra. It made him wary, as it did everyone else, and while it did come in handy, everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before helpful turned into harmful. Having to put a seal on the boy's forehead when he got too angry was just a small sign of what Naruto was capable of. What was worse was that Naruto deliberately tapped into that red chakra to boost his power, even at the cost of losing control of himself. The danger he posed by doing so apparently didn't bother him enough. At the end of the day, the sixteen year old was dangerous and that was just something everyone in the village had to live with.

He didn't turn around to watch Naruto disappear off into the trees, he already knew that to was pointless to try and stop him. He couldn't show Naruto how much he cared, because the boy's mind was already set on how much he didn't.

He couldn't make Naruto understand.