Chapter 1: Yamato

Yamato. My new team member. I had been assigned to his three-man squad since two months ago. We had gone through a few missions together, yet I felt secluded. Kakashi was back with Team Seven while he was assigned a new team with me and Inuzuka Hana, yet he was distant. It was like his heart was still with them and not with us.

He was Team Seven's captain. Was. It was never his place to begin with. It was Kakashi's. He was just a replacement for the copy-nin. Now that Sasuke had come back, Kakashi had resumed his position with the original Team Seven. The other replacement member of Team Seven, Sai, had also been re-assigned to a three-man squad with Uzuki Yugao and Uzumaki Karin, the red-head who was tagging along when Sasuke came back to Konoha. Sasuke brought back another two shinobi with him; Juugo and Suigetsu. Those two were not assigned a team, but put under supervision of Mitarashi Anko. When I came to Konoha for the first time, I too, was put under surveillance for quite some times. It was Naruto who convinced the Godaime Hokage to accept me as Konoha shinobi.

In between missions, sometimes I caught him looking at Team Seven in a longing that seemed pitiful. Sai was seen a few times hanging with Team Seven because his teammate Karin was fond of Sasuke and would do almost anything to get closer to him, and because Naruto was a great friend to anyone he came upon with. Yet to me it seemed like there was no place for Yamato in that group. The team was already a complete one, even without him as an addition.

Yesterday, he treated me and Hana to some ramen. I knew he had missed his time there with Team Seven, and I decided not to say anything about it to him. Hana noticed that too, of course. And we chose to let him be.

Today, Tsunade gave us a joint mission with Team Seven. We were to escort a group of merchants from Konoha to Nadeshiko Village and acted as the intermediary between the women in the village and the merchants.

I knew that Yamato and Naruto had been there once, which was why both teams were chosen in this mission. If it was me, I would only choose Yamato, Naruto and another shinobi who was familiar with the village instead of putting our two teams together. But then again, I was not the Hokage. And I did not know the reason on why she had chosen two teams to undergo this mission. Seven shinobi would not make the mission stealthy.

"Yamato-taichou, do you think they will force me to fight them again?" Naruto was grinning when he asked Yamato that question. All eyes in the room averted to him. I saw curiousness in everyone present.

"Do you wish them to?"

"Nope. I don't want to marry any one of them."

"What? They want you to marry one of them? You?" Sakura was laughing. She seemed to think lowly of him compared to Sasuke, the star of the team. Even Sasuke was smirking at the thought of that. I hated the double standard she was showing to Naruto, though she seemed oblivious to that fact herself.

"What? Do you think I'm not attractive enough?" Naruto pouted. He turned to me as if asking for my opinion. "Guren, do you think I'm attractive?"

"Well..I would sa-" My words were intercepted.

"Enough! You're to be at the rendezvous point in an hour. Go back and prepare for it instead of chatting here!" Tsunade, the Godaime, slammed her fist on the desk, splitting it into two. Silence filled the air. No one dared to speak, not even Kakashi.

"Baa-chan, you don't have to be so serious. We get it. See you later." Naruto was the first to break the silence. He walked out from the Hokage's room, and we followed him.

"Naruto, I know you've been to the village before. What happened?" I asked him, curious of the event. Hana was walking silently by my side.

"Oh, nothing much. They wanted to fight me because I'm Ero-sennin's student. If I win, I'll have to marry one of them. I already forgot the woman's name though." Naruto explained while we were walking in tow.

"If I'm not mistaken, you're with Yamato at that time." Kakashi decided to join the conversation. I noticed a slight uneasiness in Yamato's demeanor.

"Senpai, we were only there to re-stock our supplies. Besides, Guy and Aoba were with us." Yamato explained as if he was trying not to make Kakashi mistook him. I did not know why though.

"Chill, Yamato. I'm only stating the fact." Kakashi replied, but I sensed venom in his voice. What was wrong with the copy-nin? Why was he being so all high and mighty in front of my teammate?

"Please call me Tenzou, senpai."

I did not hear the rest of their conversation as I was indulged in my thought. It seemed that there were a lot of things that I was yet to grasp. Konoha was the first choice that came in my mind when I thought of a place to return to. Because this was the place Yukimaru was buried after we were ambushed during our travel. My crystal release was enough to defeat the perpetrator, but Yukimaru was poisoned while I was not looking. I rushed us to Konoha's hospital, which was the nearest, but death was unavoidable. And I had been here ever since.

"Guren!" Someone called my name.

"Guren!" Hana shook my body, pulling me out from my thought.

"Huh? Wh-what?" I was startled.

"What was that?" She asked, pointing to the crystallized camellia in my hand. The only memento left of Yukimaru. I did not realize that I put it out unconsciously.

"This..It's a memento." I felt forlorn saying the words. "Wait, where's everyone?" I noticed that we were the ones left.

"They were already gone. We'll meet at the gate in twenty minutes. I'll see you there." Hana left after saying that to me. I just nodded and saw her leaving.

In twenty minutes, we would have our missions. I would get to see Yamato reunited with Team Seven, like he had longed for. But, was it for the better, or for worse?

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