Note: THIS DISCLAIMER APLLIES TO ANY AND ALL CHAPTERS OF THIS STORY. I don't want people to review telling me about how horrible I am for not putting disclaimers in each chapter; I simply don't want to waste valuable reading space.
Disclaimer: Naruto and all affiliated characters belong not to me, but to Masashi Kishimoto. If I did own anything, Sasuke wouldn't be such a massive douche (he'd still be a douche though) and Uzumaki Kushina would still be alive. Since neither of those are true, I must not own it. The only thing that I do own is my OC, Oniryoushi Sango.
Now that that's out of the way. . . let's begin, shall we?
"Do you really hate me that much?" His head was bowed and his fists were clenched as he asked that question of the three people who were supposed to be closer to him than even Iruka-sensei; the three people who were supposed to be his family. Sarutobi was silent as the boy ─no, young man─ standing beside his chair trembled in fear and rage and sorrow so deep, he could taste it on her tongue. He placed a hand on his arm, hoping that allowing a small amount of healing chakra to run through his system would help to calm him as his teammates stared at him in gaping shock.
"What? Naruto, no," Sakura exclaimed, surging forward with a hand outstretched, "how can you say something that stupid? We're a team!" The girl appeared baffled as the blond tilted his body away from her reach.
"I say what I say based on the actions of everyone I know, not on your petty words!" Naruto snapped. His sharp tone invited Kakashi to speak.
"Well then, what do our actions tell you?" he asked, his visible eye intent upon his blond student.
Naruto sneered at his team leader, and the flinch that crossed his sensei's eye as the blond looked fully at his team for the first time since they had been called into the Hokage's office sent a grim bolt of satisfaction through his system. "It tells me," he drawled as if to a slow child, "that I'm better off being either on a different team, or moved out of the village to anywhere but here, and right now? I'm really hoping that jii-san agrees to the latter, but he'll probably just send me to a different team instead."
"Dobe, no one can change their genin teams once they've been assigned," Sasuke scowled. Why the hell was the moron being this moronic all of a sudden? It had been nearly four months since they'd been assigned to Team 7, and this was the first time the Uchiha had seen Naruto looking genuinely hateful towards anyone.
Come to think of it, this was the first time Sasuke had ever seen Naruto looking hateful, period. The other male was usually so happy that Sasuke had developed a tendency to tune his rival out. Now, however, his full attention was on the Uzumaki, and Sasuke couldn't help but think of how disturbingly serious his teammate looked with that little snarl of derision on his face.
"Oh, is that so?" Naruto widened his eyes in mock surprise, before turning to face the Sandaime. "Hokage-sama," he said respectfully, which led the others to realize how truly serious he was, "I wish to formally request the transfer of one Uzumaki Naruto to the team of one Maito Gai-sensei. I have with me the documents necessary for this transfer, and have asked Maito-sensei and his genin team to speak on my behalf in this unusual case. I also have a recommendation for a genin replacement to Team 7."
Sarutobi looked searchingly into the face of his favorite resident of Konoha, then at the other members of Naruto's team; they appeared stunned, which surprised Sarutobi, for he'd been expecting this about a month after the genin teams had been assigned. Quite frankly, the Third Hokage was impressed that Naruto had stuck it out this long.
Sarutobi sighed, "Very well, Naruto-kun, but I doubt I'll need Gai's testimonial; hand me your paperwork and tell me who you would recommend to fill your place on Team 7."
Naruto promptly handed the Hokage a scroll and said, "Hokage-sama, I respectfully recommend that Oniryoushi Sango be given my place. She is part of the most recent genin graduates who was not assigned a team, due to the fact that all other jounin were out on missions. She was in the top quarter of her class, regularly placing over the eightieth percentile; she is primarily a close to mid-range fighter, choosing to work mainly in taijutsu and genjutsu, but is proficient in a number of Suiton and Doton jutsu; her temperament will compliment both Uchiha and Haruno, and make Team 7 into an excellent heavy combat team." Sakura cracked as the uncharacteristically deep speech came to an end.
"Stop it," she shouted, "just stop it! Stop pretending to be smart, or that you're leaving the team! This is the worst prank that you've ever played, it isn't funny at all!"
"Hokage-sama, I must protest," Kakashi said mildly, but his visible eye was tense, "his father would've wanted me to be his teacher. After all─"
"Stop," Naruto interjected quietly. "The man of whom you speak is not my father. Don't look so shocked, Kakashi-sensei; of course I know who he is. Jii-san told me after I asked him when I was thrown out of the orphanage. He may have had some stake in my creation, but he cursed me, and while I may understand why he chose me, it doesn't mean that I have to like or appreciate what he did.
"Secondly, this is not a prank, Sakura," the blond continued, "and you're right, it isn't funny, but this is real. I've tried, oh, how I've tried to make being on a team with you guys work, but it isn't working. Kakashi-sensei doesn't really train us, or if he does, he's focusing on Sasuke; Sasuke shunts the two of us off to the side instead of working as a team to better all of our skills because he's too obsessed with the idea that he doesn't need help to fulfill his goal, and he believes we're useless; you only train when Sasuke's around in an effort to impress him, and you give up when he's not.
"And here, I offer you proof: Sasuke, how many jutsu has Kakashi-sensei taught you?"
"Five," the dark-haired boy muttered. Sakura looked as if she'd been hit in the face with a sledgehammer, but Naruto only nodded.
"Sakura, besides the one time when he taught us all chakra control, what has Kakashi-sensei taught you?"
"Nothing," she murmured, "absolutely nothing."
Now Kakashi was the one who looked stunned, as if he really hadn't realized that he'd been that lax as a teacher. And the sad thing, Naruto thought, is that the man was genuinely stunned. He truly hadn't realized that he'd been that bad.
"Look," Naruto sighed, running a hand through his hair, "I'm not trying to place blame on anybody, okay? I'm just trying to get you all to see what I saw."
"How, though?" Sasuke demanded, "How is it that you're the one who saw all of this?" The Uchiha was confused, but he covered it with a thin layer of annoyance as his pride dictated. He was also somewhat hurt by Naruto's assessment of him, because he didn't think they were both useless─ just Sakura, really.
Naruto smiled tiredly, and it did strange things to Sasuke's chest when he realized that this smile was more real than any previous smiles he'd seen grace the blonds' face. "Because I know close to everything about every ninja that has ever been a ninja of Konoha, not to mention most of the civilians as well. Thing is, only ten people know what's really important about me, and you guys aren't amongst them."
He shrugged, and when they looked affronted he said, "Look, does either of you know where I live?" Sakura and Sasuke glanced at each other, and then shook their heads in the negative.
"Okay, how about why I wear orange when it's a stupid color for a ninja to wear?" A second negative response came from the other genin.
"When my birthday is?" A third silent headshake, and by this point, Sakura's eyes were beginning to fill with tears.
"How old I am?" This question brought pause to the other genin.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked gruffly, "You're twelve, same as us. . ." His voice petered out as Naruto shook his head.
The blond turned his head to address the Hokage. "This is what, year eleven jii-chan?" Sarutobi nodded, and Naruto turned back to his team. "Yeah, and my birthday's not for a while yet, so I'm roughly two years younger than you."
"Why didn't we know this?" Sakura inquired, her voice cracking minutely.
Naruto shrugged, "You never asked." And that was the devastating truth, in all its simplicity. They'd never cared to find out anything about Naruto, though it seemed (if his claims were true, and right now, they had no reason to doubt that) as if he knew all about them. Something in Sasuke's stomach dropped, and his mouth turned sour with a feeling of guilt.
"Again, I'm not trying to place blame on anyone," Naruto stated. His tone had softened since the start of this mess, Sasuke considered absently. "Sasuke needs to 'kill a certain man', Kakashi-sensei needs to train Sasuke to use the Sharingan, and Sakura is a girl, and I don't understand girls at all. But you all have your priorities, and they just don't work with what my priorities are. We'll still see each other around the village; it's not like this is 'goodbye forever'. It's just 'see you later'. I'm sorry that I was so harsh on you, but I had to make a point."
Silence fell upon them, and it seemed that nobody could break it for several minutes, whether it was introspection brought on by the blonds' words, remorse, or sheer awkwardness over the situation. Finally the Hokage cleared his throat. "Yes, well, I'll have this processed right away, Naruto, and you may join your new team tomorrow. Now, I'd like you to go find Sango and deliver the news to her."
Naruto gave a slight bow. "Thanks, old man," he said, a soft smile on his face. Turning to those who were now officially his old team, he said, "I hope that one day, we can all be good friends. See you around."
And then he was gone, and the modified Team 7 was left standing speechless. Slowly, Sakura and Sasuke walked out, having heard the clear dismissal in the Sandaime's last words, and it was just Kakashi who was left behind.
Head bowed low to hide the tears in his eyes (Obito was still such a crybaby), the former ANBU whispered, "Sensei wouldn't have been very proud of me, would he?"
Sarutobi considered the man before him very carefully, one of his very childlike jounin. "No," the old man sighed, "I doubt he would be. I admit that I must accept some fault for this situation, for I am the one who finalized the teams. But you tried to succeed with Sasuke where you failed with Obito, and in doing so, you may have lost the last tie you had to Minato.
"However," he continued after a moment of observation, "you may be able to redeem yourself with this new formation. Learn from your mistakes, Kakashi, and be the kind of sensei that Minato would want you to be." The Sandaime Hokage allowed those words to hang in the air, before moving on to his paperwork. He paused, never once looking up from his work, as the jounin left the office, and sighed once the door clicked shut.
"We all failed that boy, Minato: you, me, Kakashi, this whole village shares in that blame," he said to the last Hokage portrait on his wall, one of a wild haired blond with dagger sharp eyes. "And despite our failures, or perhaps in spite of them, he is growing into a fine young man, one worthy of the position of Hokage. I wish you had been there as he grew, for he might have had a better life than the one he has now."
And as the clear skies abruptly clouded over, and a gentle mist descended on Sarutobi's beloved village, a tear slipped down an old man's cheek as he imagined the voice of his successor and predecessor saying.
Me too, old man. Me too.
So that was the first chapter of my new story, and I feel absolutely AMAZING about it. A final thought though, for you people who might review to ask why I made Naruto younger than the others: it's fanfiction, and I can.
What'd you think? Drop a review, it makes me happy!