Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Have the second chapter of this thing. I wrote it in the middle of exams and I think I put a bit too much of my frustration in this.
Kakashi thought deeply lying in his apartment that night.
He hadn't given them the second part of the bell test as a test in itself. He had left before he could see the chunin's face crumble in shock and slight trepidation as the three returned to the Academy.
He really didn't want that team.
So next morning when he woke up and flitted to the memorial stone for his daily activity he was stunned to the core to see three students there ready and waiting.
Naruto held up the crossbow and the yarn twanged. Kakashi caught it out of the air and used it to pin Sakura to a tree by her dress as she tried to attack him from behind. Then there was fire and Kakashi had to sigh because this was boring and very soon Sasuke was out for the count too.
"Are you going to attack again?" He asked Naruto who gave him a look.
Well it was a far better performance than yesterday and he could actually see a hint of team work in it now. Incredible. Too bad it was too late. He flicked a glance at Sakura to release her and froze. The scarf around her neck had slipped and he ripped it off feeling slightly regretful at the slight yelp.
Deep, livid red scars curved down both sides of her neck in the clear impression of teeth. Kakashi stared at it in disbelief. That had not been there yesterday and he met Sakura's glaring eyes with a silent question. When did the girl have her throat ripped out exactly?
Sasuke stirred and his eyes alighted on Sakura's scars and to Kakashi's diminishing surprise he looked away without the slightest shred of concern or surprise. Sakura wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck and folded her arms across her chest refusing to answer.
This trio was going to give him a headache.
….############################################################################...
It happened again the next day.
And the day after next.
For two weeks it continued with the three of them continuing to attack Kakashi as he went to pay his respects with more and more elaborate plans and teamwork. They had actually hit his standard for teamwork in fresh genin a few days ago and by now he was just being curious at what they would come up with next.
Naruto tried to kill him. Sakura watched them all with jaded slightly mistrustful eyes. Sasuke had yet to speak a word not for his jutsus. If he kicked their bodies into getting bruises upon bruises by forcing them to compensate and testing them personally it was because he was curious at their potential. He did not have a team. It was not going to change.
He spied Sasuke blowing fire until he choked up ash in great hacking coughs. He saw Sakura run laps and throw kunai until her fingers bled and blisters formed. He saw Naruto almost lose himself in the Kyuubi's foul chakra night after night always just stopping short of being engulfed.
One day Asuma asked him why Kakashi never ordered D ranks for his team and Kakashi could not snap back fast enough that they were not his team. The look of surprise on Asuma's face was actually quite insulting.
Tired of being mistaken as a Jonin sensei (And because he had a mission that day) the next morning he dragged all of them back to the Academy and left them there. For the first time in weeks Kakashi saw the flicker of something monstrous over Naruto's face and the sharp edged desperation in the other two's faces told him that they had noticed it too. Kakashi paused by the doorway listening to the Chunin chew out the three for always being late and wasting a Jonin's time.
For some reason they kept seeking him out. After he had made it perfectly clear he was not going to accept them as a team. He could understand why Naruto hunted him down but the other two as well?
They were terrified. And there was something in Kakashi's throat at the fact that two kids he had met for less than an hour trusted him enough to run to him for protection against their third team mate. There was a dark murmur in the back of his mind that Naruto was the one responsible for Sakura's scar and his fist clenched into a ball.
Kakashi cursed his sentimental heart (when did he get so soft) and exhaled. Snatching a pen and a scroll from his pocket he scribbled down an instruction and threw it to Sasuke.
If they could do what he asked of them then he would reconsider his decision.
….###########################################################...
Sasuke was not one to run away from challenges. But he was one to keep a wary eye on them and bomb the hell out of them when they were distracted. That was plan number 2. Plan number 1 was guaranteed a fail because Naruto's interest was never going to wane due to that man snapping one night.
Problem was Naruto never seemed to be distracted. Oh he looked it certainly, whistling a small sombre tune into the distance or fiddling with something from his pocket but every time Sasuke checked him out as a threat Naruto made sure to lock eyes with him each and every time. The little smirk would play on his lips and the vicious satisfaction in his eyes served to strengthen Sasuke's resolve to not get caught next time.
He waited until Sakura went to get some food and met Naruto's eyes squarely.
Smiling slightly Naruto slid into a seated position.
"What point was there in killing her?" Sasuke asked abruptly. He had got the third worst shock in his life when he had literally and ungracefully tripped over his temporary teammate's corpse that night. If he hadn't left the house to go dump trash she might have frozen to death.
Naruto stared then sighed as if the question bored him. "Did you know she ripped my stomach apart?" He spoke half admiringly. "That kind of viciousness can't be lost. So I kept it alive by tying her to me in a way that she can never forgive me for." This time the smile was edged with slight sadness.
"You called her beautiful once." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"I am cultivating that beauty." Naruto tilted his head back looking utterly relaxed. "Do you not see how it's tearing her apart?" His voice grew cruel. "The urge to be grateful to me because I saved her and the urge to hate me for what I did to her is warring within her."
"What did you do to her?" Sasuke pressed voice hard. What he had done to Sakura could be done to him too and he did not fancy that idea in the least.
Naruto laughed at him. "Would you like to die as well and find out?"
Sasuke shut up.
…..##########################################################...
Sasuke stared in horror from his perch.
Sakura let out a small choking sound as Naruto fell over fifty feet. He hit the ground in a splatter of bones and blood and Sasuke had to turn away in order not to be sick. Then he remembered what Sakura had told him and cracked an eye towards the sickening sight.
The blond boy shook his head and the shards of his skull were sent flying from where they nested in his hair. With a hand he pushed his white ribs back into his body breaking them further in pieces. This couldn't be real.
Sasuke hadn't quite believed Naruto couldn't die until the point he saw the deed himself. Then his gaze turned to the tree.
Black rotting bark marked the progress Naruto had made up the tree trunk. It oozed a clear fluid and stank of something awful. Some of them caved inwards and flies were already being attracted. The branch Naruto had stood a tiny bit too long on was hanging off in a nearly vertical position rot spreading over the joint.
What was wrong with Naruto?!
Naruto's serene smile countered the blistering rage in his eyes. Very deliberately and very slowly he pressed his palm to the magnificent tree trunk and from the point of contact black rot spiralled outwards.
"Don't kill the tree!" Sakura called out in disbelief. "It's not the tree's fault you can't do this."
Naruto's eyes blazed through the fifty feet separating them and Sakura reeled back in her perch as if struck.
The great tree creaked and groaned piteously as its foundation completely rotted through and with a final creak it toppled sideways and hit the ground in a thunderous smash. Sasuke watched the rot turn the tree into a pile of black goo and then watched the boy glare at the next tree with enough force to incinerate it.
This was really bad. If Naruto didn't get this down Kakashi wouldn't take them on and their only protection against Naruto would be gone.
A foul heavy chakra suddenly polluted the air and Sasuke gagged. It tasted rancid and spoilt and he hurriedly closed his mouth.
"Oh." Came a voice from the air ten feet from him. "You're quite sensitive to that."
Disbelievingly Sasuke turned his head sideways. Naruto stood (floated) in mid-air grinning smugly.
Air didn't rot.
Naruto had turned the air under his feet solid instead of sticking to the tree trunk. Sasuke dragged his jaw back up, it was easy to forget that the boy really was a very dangerous opponent. How long had it taken him to work out this issue again?
With a wicked smile Naruto touched the tree trunk below Sasuke with his toe. He immediately went on full alert as his own perch wobbled with the rot spreading.
That sonofabitch.
Sasuke leapt out of his tree the very second it all went down in a shower of leaves and rot and bark. His hand caught on bark and he skidded down hand burning from friction as he tried to apply the technique so his hand wasn't blasted off. Twenty feet from the ground he managed it but the stop dislocated his shoulder and the pain caused him to lose the grip he had and he plummeted. He crashed into a laughing Naruto while a shrieking Sakura dropped out of the sky.
"Are you trying to kill him!?" Sakura screamed at Naruto. The blond boy's chuckles turned mirthless and he shoved Sasuke's shoulder back in place without a warning. Sasuke's own snarl got cut off partway.
Instead he grabbed Naruto's shirt and dragged him close. "If you ever do that again." He whispered. "I will break every bone in your body and keep breaking them until you beg for mercy. Is that clear?"
And it's only then he thought he may have made a mistake by reacting when the interest in those blue eyes turned absolutely gleeful. Sakura was there instantly to drag him away and the odd feeling of camaraderie he felt was tight against his ribs.
"Maybe death isn't such a big thing to you." Sakura's voice was trembling but strong despite that. "But we live once and die only once."
Sasuke would have missed it if he had blinked at that moment.
A flash of hot bitter regret and shame curdled those eyes. It was always Naruto's eyes doing the expressing even when he was laughing or frowning. He thought for a second that Naruto might actually apologise but Naruto closed his mouth into a grim line and stalked away eyes darker than anytime Sasuke could remember them being.
Maybe the blond boy really hadn't realised…
And that was the most chilling thought Sasuke's had ever since meeting Naruto.
…##############################################################...
"You look like them you know."
Sasuke threw a kunai on instinct at the unexpected voice. Naruto dropped from the window into Sasuke's house and ducked the kunai lazily.
"Like who?" His voice was sharp. "And get out Naruto, you're not welcome."
Amazingly the boy looked away imperially surveying the house with cool disinterested eyes. One slender finger pointed at Sasuke's hand which was wrapped in bandages.
"I came to fix that." The blond boy offered stiffly.
Sasuke laid the scroll he was studying down on the table. "I don't want your help, now answer my question and go away."
The blue eyes turned back to him. "Like your family of course." Naruto stated like it should have been obvious. Sasuke stiffened.
"I see why I was told not to come near here." Naruto murmured brushing his hand over the wooden wall. "The sheer death in this area is dizzying."
Naruto could sense the dead? Sasuke's teeth hurt from being clamped together.
"Then." Naruto offered, "If you refuse my offer of medical aid, perhaps you'll appreciate this one more."
Sasuke sat bolt upright in his chair as a heavy corrosive chakra leaked into the air.
"What are you doing?!"
He did not want any of that unnatural happenings in his own home dammit.
The shadows in the corner of his house darkened out of the corner of his eye, when he turned to look at them they seemed normal but then the other shadowy corners started acting up. He had to keep blinking to keep a normal range of vision. There was a heavy musk in the air.
Like some wet and bloody predator was curling around the room and growling low enough to make the room shake. His heart was stammering in his chest and Sasuke backed away from Naruto. The boy himself was stock still and glaring at the ground with such intensity Sasuke thought he was trying to strip back the carpet.
His light flickered in static and abruptly went out.
His mouth went dry.
And there was the screaming.
His house was filled with it. Women screaming for their children, men screaming for mercy and children screaming in pain and terror at such a pitch that Sasuke had to clamp hands over his ears.
"Mercy! We swear we won't do it again!"
"My child! My lord…Please!"
"Mummyyy! It hurts!"
Were those the voices of the dead? Had he really been living in a house with the dead screaming for mercy for years? An irrational fear took hold of him but he stood his ground. This was his house.
With am almighty crack the glass frames of the Uchiha in the shrine he kept shattered into brilliant pieces of glass edged in darkness.
"Stop it!" He howled at Naruto. "Whatever you're doing, stop it!"
A cold hand squeezed his chest. Now he was recognising some of the voices; the kind aunt who gave him sweets when his father wasn't looking, the man who gave him discounts on whatever he wanted to buy, the boy next door he had played with in the park once…Those were his family screaming for relief. Sasuke half screamed and half choked in a strangled gurgle which he would deny later at all costs.
"There." Naruto's voice was so distant, like he was speaking to someone far away. There was a dissonant serenity on his face, a peace and a sense of belonging that felt warped and twisted by the time Sasuke interpreted it.
And his world narrowed to two voices calling for their son.
Sasuke broke down and cried for the first time in years reaching for his parent's voices.
…..#################################################################...
Sakura opened the door at the frantic banging intent on giving the person a piece of her mind.
Sasuke stormed in with a duffel bag, eyes haunted and slightly red. Sakura snapped her mouth together and let him pass.
"My house has a slight infestation problem." He called back and if his voice wavered slightly Sakura did not point it out. "I'm borrowing your floor for a bit." He stopped and faced Sakura slightly. "Has anyone ever died in your house?"
What an odd question.
She shook her head and the lines of tension around Sasuke's mouth relaxed slightly. With a nod he headed upstairs and she bounded after him to show where he could sleep.
"He's not human." Sasuke told her suddenly. There was a curious mix of contempt and grief warring in his voice as he sunk down by her bed post. His hands flexed slightly as if searching for something to do. "Never invite him in Sakura. Never even say his name in your house. It gives him an opening to exploit."
Between two fingers he pulled Sakura's collar slightly to the side to reveal the livid scars. His gaze grew tight and Sakura left him in her room staring into the distance like he had seen a ghost.
…..##########################################################...
The next morning Naruto wasn't there.
Sakura stared at the patch Naruto usually waited for them with an unreadable smile and sharp eyes. She shared a look with Sasuke who seemed to be on the verge of suspicion and relief.
Finally she spoke. "If Kakashi gets back and Naruto's not here, we won't pass."
Folding his arms over his chest Sasuke grunted. She took that as agreement.
I don't know where he lives." He offered curtly.
It took them a while to track down where he lived. No one seemed to want to share any information on the enigmatic blond boy. Eventually they wrangled the information out of a rude eight year old with a scarf too big for him.
Sakura pushed the door open and it crumbled and sunk beneath her fingers as the wood succumbed to rot. Holding a sleeve to her to block out the smell she continued into the apartment. Sasuke silently closed the door behind them. They had found the apartment in an isolated part of Konoha with peeling paint and broken glass littering the streets. Not many people lived there due to the deteriorating conditions; Naruto must have had quite a lot of space to himself when he was a child. A dark part of her did mutter how many times child Naruto had died falling off edges as rickety fences gave way. How many times had the floor given way under his feet and he had broken his spine on the landing.
There was a sickly sweet smell in the apartment that wasn't present in the rest of the building. Sakura turned the corner to see flowers everywhere. Some were rotting, some were in fresh bloom, some were in desperate need of food but the water levels were consistent Sakura noted with a critical eye. It gave the rundown apartment a macabre feeling with the bright splashes of colour dotted in with the sweet smell of decay and flowers dying. They were everywhere, shoved in cupboards, in vases, clippings half-finished were sprawled across the main table and she could see the places where they had withered to husks and instead of throwing them out Naruto had just hidden them with more flowers.
There was a groan from the room adjoining. Sasuke slid past her and into the room as she set down the white tulips and followed.
Naruto looked awful.
Ironically he looked more like a corpse now than when he had actually died. His skin was white and drawn like wax over his bones. It had a blue white transparent sheen and sweat beaded his skin. His lips were dry and as red as dried spices and the contrast was startling against his face. He shivered and wrapped long twig like arms around his knees even though the room was boiling with all the windows closed. There was a flower crown on his head that had long been crushed.
Only his eyes were the same. No.
They were more.
The second they locked to the duo they blazed with rage. His eyes shone out Naruto's face like a fire lit them from within and Sakura suspected he had a fever. The fury shown by those eyes far surpassed anything he had shown them in the past.
"Get out." Naruto smiled and it was too terrible to look at directly. When they didn't listen he snarled ferociously and the bubbling growl caused Sakura to step back reminded of the wolf teeth.
Sasuke stepped forward instead.
"What happened?" He asked quietly taking in all the signs of sickness.
Naruto laughed without mirth. "Everything has a price Uchiha. Why don't you search through that hate infested brain of yours to find the answer hmm?" The cruelty and self-loathing in that tone cut deeper than any knife.
"Why did you do that then?" Sasuke asked calmly. "You must have known."
Gasps escaped Naruto as the strain of laughing and speaking hit him.
"Monstrous is not a verb." He gasped out. "But there are times I like to prove my nature wrong." He fingered the crushed remains of a daffodil.
"Is that the reason for all the flowers?" Sakura asked quietly waving a hand.
His lips peeled back. "Ah Sakura, anyone would go mad smelling nothing but death all day." He tossed the flower regally at their feet. "Now get out. I have entertained you enough."
Sasuke made a tiny motion at her. She nodded agreeing with him.
They hated the boy, well they didn't know what they felt towards the boy but this wasn't something they could ignore.
Sasuke gave a mirthless smile of his own and gestured around the disgusting apartment.
"Are you attached to anything?"
Naruto's forehead creased slightly.
Sakura raised his closet taking all the pairs of clothes she could hold. With her leg she kicked up the duffel bursting with ninja weapons and collected anything else Naruto used on a daily basis.
"Good." Sasuke told the blond boy before kneeling slightly to scoop the sick boy up in a carry, sheets, flowers and all. Naruto looked genuinely stunned, the fury dying down under the weight of his confusion.
"Struggle and I drop you." Sasuke told the frozen Naruto before sweeping out of the apartment. Sakura followed rolling her eyes. They were all mad.
…..############################################################...
The three of them watched the apartment burn in sadistic glee. It spat and crackled in great red tongues of flame. The heat was excruciating upon their skin and sweat rolled down their backs but Naruto kept trying to lean in closer to get closer to the warmth and so Sasuke had to abide even though he was clearly very uncomfortable.
Three ANBU dropped to try and put out the fire and Naruto's glare was enough to send them skittering away.
"You know, it's very nice of you to warm me up but you have just burned down my house." Naruto remarked dryly.
"Since you like the dead so much, you can go live with them." Sasuke muttered and didn't elaborate.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. That sounded like Sasuke planned to kill Naruto, but that didn't make sense. Sasuke knew better.
…..##################################################################...
Sasuke did know better.
And that niggling thought in the back of his mind which told him Naruto had been trying to help him needed to be silenced.
He dropped Naruto without much ceremony in one of the branch Uchiha house beds.
"You're inviting me in." Naruto sneered apparently not appreciating the gift. His eyes gained a faint wicked spark before losing it to contempt. "I told you, you hatred is too weak."
"I despise you." Sasuke told Naruto calmly taking the things from Sakura and throwing them in a pile at the foot of the bed. "Fortunately for you, I can hate someone and pity them at the same time."
Naruto's face grew feral like something snapped in him.
"I don't need your pity!" He roared teeth creaking into sharp points. And Sasuke knew he was seeing the monster that had killed Sakura.
"There." Sasuke smirked. "You do react like humans sometimes. Good."
The look Naruto shot him made him fear slightly for his life for the first time since that night.
"Do you realise what you have done?" Naruto's laugh was ugly. "You have opened every single Uchiha door to me. I can go anywhere in this compound and you have no power over me here. Big mistake Sasuke." He sing songed.
"Go where you like. Dead should keep company with the dead." Sasuke slammed the door shut just in time for several kunai to slam into the wood.
"Let's leave before he finds out he's been tricked." He muttered to Sakura who nodded. There was something elated in his chest. Naruto had weaknesses after all, it was very clear who had won this round between them.
"Why don't I give the guest room to you instead of the floor?" Sakura asked dryly. "I don't think you can come home for a very long time."
….###############################################################...
Kakashi turned up to the memorial stone expecting to see three determined faces.
Thin air greeted him.
Slightly disappointed he looked around just in case they were hiding and wanted to ambush him. Had they given up at the very end? Had he sped through his mission only to be let down by three children?
Then his keen eyes caught sight of two pairs of indentations in the grass.
They had come.
And left for some reason.
He knelt next to the marks and marked the way they had gone. Why only two? Where was the third? Had he been wrong about their motivations?
Dread slid down his spine.
Where was the third?
He checked the Academy.
The Chunin hadn't seen any of them.
He checked Naruto's house and found it a simmering pile of ashes. That was when his dread turned to outright fear.
By some luck he checked the house of the kunoichi next and found two of the genin there brooding at the table.
"Academy students shouldn't skip class." He lectured sternly dropping through a window.
"We've effectively declared a war between us and Uzumaki." Sakura told him flatly. "Either help us or go away. We don't have that much time."
Now this was interesting.
It was the complete opposite of teamwork but he was starting to accept this trio wouldn't ever be normal.
"And how do you plan to win?" he asked slyly slipping into a seat, chin on the back of his hand.
Sasuke raised a finger. "We confuse him by being kind." With an eye roll he elaborated. "He'll confuse it with pity and hopefully he'll be disgusted enough to back off."
Kakashi did not miss Sakura running her hands over the indents of the teeth in her neck.
…..##########################################################...
Kakashi found Naruto cleaning gravestones. He was pale and shivering but behind him was a trail of neat and scrubbed clean gravestones.
The white haired man took a seat on one of the clean ones and Naruto spared him an irritated look.
It was a look which told Kakashi that if he made one patronising move the tenuous strand holding Naruto's temper together would snap.
"You talk to the dead." Kakashi started.
Naruto scoffed. "You make the dead. Both of us interact with death on a daily basis, don't say it such a way that it seems mysterious or charming." His scrubbing nearly took the name clean off the stone.
"Your mother couldn't talk to the dead."
And silence fell across the graveyard.
"Your mother couldn't do quite a lot of the things you do."
Naruto shook off his stillness and smiled wistfully. "Is that so?" His smile turned sour. "That's quite cruel Kakashi, telling an orphan he doesn't measure up to his mother."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "That's not what I said."
"No, it's what you meant." Naruto finished flatly throwing the dirty rag down. "I can't measure up to her as a gate, I know."
"I think she'd be quite proud of you." Kakashi spoke honestly. Because despite everything Naruto had Kushina's way of bluntly saying what was on his mind and his father's gist of drawing people in even when they didn't want to.
Naruto snapped.
"Enough!" His voice cracked as a bucket flew at Kakashi. "I don't need to know what she would have thought of me! I hate her!" Kakashi deflected the water and took a good look at the furious boy. It was when he was angry, he was most human.
"Why?" He asked calmly. "I don't think you mean that, really."
Naruto looked up at the sky darkening with rain.
"Because she was perfect." He admitted without shame. "The perfect Jinchuuriki, the perfect survivor, the perfect wife. The only thing she failed at was being a good mother."
Kakashi's heart turned to ice. Kushina had died for this boy. What an ungrateful brat!
"She went and got herself pregnant!" The blond boy howled. "She knew it was our blood that let us keep the Kyuubi trapped and she went and had a kid fully knowing that when she died the duty would fall to her descendants to keep it caged!" Naruto gazed at Kakashi apparently run out of steam. "She died because of me." He whispered. "Because of me the seal weakened and it doomed both of us. So don't you dare tell me she'd be proud of me, not when I murdered her."
With a last ferocious glare Naruto snatched up his rag and returned to scrubbing the grave.
"You're wrong." Kakashi returned not unkindly and Naruto froze.
"It is perfectly possible to reseal Biju back into Jinchuuriki who had them ripped out. The fact it wasn't done meant that Kushina was dying of an injury even her Biju couldn't cure her from."
Naruto mouthed Kushina as Kakashi continued. "The Kyuubi murdered Kushina." He stated kindly. "That's the only thing it couldn't cure were the injuries it inflicted itself. So the duty fell to you, but believe me when I say she would have died for you a thousand times without ever regretting it."
The blond boy's face threatened to crumple. This was probably the first time anyone had ever given him a kind word about his parents, Kakashi knew the Hokage wouldn't have touched that subject with a ten foot pole.
Then it was gone, locked behind a mask of stone. And Kakashi cursed. He had lost the boy.
"I will never let it escape." And it resounded in the air between them like a vow. "I will die with it still sealed inside and deprive the world of the Kyuubi for at least a hundred years. It will be my last revenge to the village and to the beast itself. I will succeed where my mother failed." Naruto smiled coldly. "Are you going to stop me Kakashi?"
"I did tell you your mother would be proud of you." Kakashi murmured.
Naruto bared his teeth and growled once.
Remembering they were in a graveyard Kakashi shut up very quickly. He did not want to find out what else Naruto could do once properly motivated and at the heart of his power.
…..#################################################################...
Kakashi took them on.
Really what choice did he have? If he left them alone they would all shatter within the year out of paranoia and misplaced fear.
The most insulting thing was when he went to report that he was pulling Academy students out of the Academy as his Genin Team the Hokage merely stared and handed him a file which stated Kakashi had a team weeks ago.
"Well you said you failed them but then trained them so I took a guess." The old man puffed on his pipe without remorse. The file got crushed in Kakashi's hand.
"You've been a good influence on them Kakashi." The Hokage continued.
"Hah?" Kakashi was genuinely surprised. He had done nothing but beat them up for weeks.
"I haven't had a single report of Naruto eating anything raw." The Hokage beamed at Kakashi as if he'd done something incredible. "He's a good boy really."
Kakashi choked back the information about Sakura's scar and the reason why Sasuke was camping out at Sakura's.
"So do you want a D rank?" The Hokage gestured to the pile of D rank scrolls.
"Do you want a massacre when they find out?" Kakashi asked pointedly. "Just give me a relatively safe C rank."
…##################################################################...
Kakashi didn't tell them of course. Where would be the enjoyment in that?
Sakura offered him a bento with a mischievous gleam in her eye. Sasuke took his and Naruto stared at his like Sakura had offered him a pile of shit.
"You like your meat rare don't you?" Sakura smiled sweetly and pushed the bento forwards. Naruto held out one elegant hand and accepted the bento box.
Quick as a striking snake he threw it away, the contents spilling out and mixing with the mud. Sakura's smile flickered.
"Where." Naruto asked softly. "Is the thrill of the hunt if you wring the neck of a chicken and cook it? Even with your large forehead and brain you can't figure something so simple out?"
Kakashi coughed and distracted the budding rise of tension.
"I have a mission later in the day." He remarked casually. "I expect you to continue with your Academy Studies while I'm gone. It's a wonder the Chunin even accepts you barely turn up every day. Oh and Naruto don't waste food."
Naruto shot him an utterly unimpressed look before pressing the tip of his finger to some of the spilled food. Under his touch it wilted and blackened into a small pile of decaying rice.
Sakura looked a bit sheepish, she had forgotten the fact that most organic things seemed to decay around Naruto, sometimes voluntarily sometimes involuntarily. It was the reason his clothes were so plastic and neon, they were the only thing that wouldn't rot.
Kakashi wasn't surprised Naruto didn't eat much especially if he had started to eat and ended up with a mouthful of rotting food.
"Actually." Kakashi tapped his lips. "How would you brats like to tag along? That teacher of yours seems quite useless at teaching you the necessary things, I could probably fix a lot of your mistakes."
"Iruka-sensei is a fantastic teacher!" Sakura snapped. Sasuke glared.
"Prove it." Kakashi smiled behind his mask lazily and stretched. "Oh this will be hilarious, a Jonin and three Academy Students. It almost sounds like the start of a bad joke."
Three pairs of coldly determined eyes flashed at him and Kakashi felt like laughing.
What did you think?
