Haku was, as usual, the first one up that morning between himself and Raito. Naruto had decided that he was going to get up before the two of them though, and was making breakfast. When Haku came downstairs he snatched the milk carton away from Naruto and threw it in the garbage.

"Hey! I was going to drink that!"

"It was expired. You would get sick, but by all means, you still have that glass left."

Naruto made a face and washed it down the sink. "Are you guys ready for the exams?" he asked cheerfully.

"I forgot. Those are today, aren't they?" Haku grabbed the toast from the toaster and spread some butter on it. "Damn, Raito and I are going to have to come up with something good."

"Why? Normally they just tell us what kind of jutsu we're doing."

"Raito can't use jutsu. For whatever reason, she can't use her chakra while awake."

"You mean she can do it in her sleep?"

"She only did it once, but she got up while I was fighting... I still feel bad for those guys. As it would turn out later, she was sleep fighting, completely unaware of what she was doing."

"Oh. She probably won't pass then."

"No, she will, provided she get down here today."

Despite the training Haku and Raito had been putting him through, Naruto was still nervous for the exams. He hadn't tried to use the clone jutsu since he had begun his training, and wasn't sure if what they had taught him would be of any use. He got up anyway, and did the hand seal.

The clone looked exactly like him, down to the smallest detail. There was complete and utter silence.

"Well? Did I pass?"

The clone looked at Iruka too.

"Yes, Naruto, you passed You did know that you only had to make an illusion, right?"

"YES! I did?"

Iruka sighed and shook his head. "Raito, it's your turn."

"Fight me."

"What? Raito, that's not the task..."

"I know I can't use jutsu, so let me prove that I can graduate. Fight me, hand to hand combat, weapons, whatever. I'll even let you use jutsu. Fight me."

"Ok, I guess, but you can't win," Iruka scratched the back of his neck. "I'll be nice, anything goes, but no help."

Haku face palmed. "Poor Iruka sensei..." he muttered.

The fight didn't last very long. It was a huge mistake on Iruka's part to say anything goes, and then not use whatever he had to his advantage. Raito hit the point on the side of his neck, and he fell over after she demonstrated some of her hand to hand combat expertise.

"Don't worry, he's not dead, just sleeping. He'll wake up in a few minutes."

Raito took her seat next to Haku. "You went overboard."

"It was fun, I haven't fought like that in a while."

"Show off."

"You've known me for how long?"

"True," Haku conceded.

"Raito! We should get ramen to celebrate!"

"Actually, I have an errand to run, but feel free to go, you two."

"Are you sure, Raito? It's ramen," Naruto enticed. Raito shook her head.

"No thanks."

"If you're sure then..." Naruto promptly dragged Haku away, in the direction of what he proclaimed to be the best ramen place in town. Raito started walking in the opposite direction, to the Hokage. If possible, she wanted Naruto to join her and Haku under Gato. He would make an excellent addition to their team, and it would give him a chance at greatness at the same time.

"No."

"As he is, the need to prove his worth is going to drive him to..."

"The answer is no, Naruto stays under my custody, here in Hidden Leaf Village. You are dismissed."

"At least let me tell him..."

"That's forbidden. You may have diplomatic immunity, but you've still a lot to learn. I can send you home at any time, and it's my understanding that if I do send you home, Gato will drop you from consideration."

"I'll find someone else then. He's far from my only option," Raito countered.

"You don't play around, do you?"

"Not a chance."

Raito walked out with a compromise in her favor. Of course, anything other than a flat out "no" was in her favor, but in this case she was satisfied somewhat. Naruto still wasn't allowed to join her team, but she had convinced the Hokage to let her tell him why he was a pariah. How she was going to work that to her advantage to do damage control, she still didn't know, but she would deal with that when the time came. The deal wasn't without her own sacrifice though, she was responsible for any damage he did, and for keeping him under control.

"Raito, I thought you would be celebrating with Haku and Naruto."

She berated herself for not noticing that he was standing there before. She was busy trying to figure out how she was going to tell Naruto why he was constantly ostracized. His weird behavior, talking to her first, didn't even register in her mind.

"Huh? Oh, I had other things to do. What are you doing here... Sasuke, right?" Perhaps she would somehow imply that he should really join herself and Haku... but she couldn't give away the real reason they were here quite yet...

"Um, I wanted to ask you a question," he replied, kind of nervously. Again, this went right over her head. "Are you even paying attention?"

"What? No, not really to be honest. I've kind of got some other things to think about... but I suppose you could have my attention for a few seconds."

"How generous of you," Sasuke said sarcastically. "If I help you, will you listen to me?"

"You can't help." 'I can't really afford to make enemies with the Hidden Leaf Village, so there's no way I can have Naruto leave. That part is simple, it's making it so he would join us if the situation ever arose that's the hard part... no, that's not possible either... well damn, there really is no win with this one...'

"Don't underestimate me, what is it?" 'A lot of girls would kill to have me pay this much attention to them, and she's completely disregarding it. The one time it would actually be useful...'

"I'm telling you, you can't help and you don't want to get involved. What is it that you wanted to ask me?"

"Just tell me what it is," Sasuke replied, dead set on getting her to... he wasn't even sure what he was trying to do. He had no reason to want to help her, and it would be easier if he just ignored it.

"There isn't a win for me with this one, and it's not important. Listen to me, I'm so selfish," she shook her head at herself. "This is the last time that I'm going to ask, what was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"How did you get Naruto to improve overnight? I don't get it."

Raito blinked owlishly. "Wow, I can't believe I didn't see that one coming. How sad, I must be losing my touch already... it wasn't overnight, these kinds of things take time. Let me think about it, ok? I might have to do some severe damage control for the next few days, and I don't want to promise anything if something comes up."

"Let me help with the damage control, then. If you still don't want to teach me, fine, I'll leave you alone."

Raito thought about it for a second. If he was really that hell bent on learning from her... "I'm telling Naruto that he has the nine tailed fox sealed inside of him. Are you sure you want to be there?"

"That's strictly..."

"I guess not then. I guess I'll..."

"Yes, I'll help."

Raito was slightly surprised. She hadn't expected him to still agree that readily. "No commentary then. I don't want him to flip out."

"Fine. When are you planning on telling him?"

"As soon as he gets back from eating ramen with Haku. Come on, let's go."

"Raito, where have you been? You missed... what is he doing here?"

"Chill, Naruto, I made him promise to be nice. Now I want you to make me a promise in return."

"I still don't know why Sasuke has to be here..."

Haku was already slightly nervous. Raito's body language said she was prepared for the worst. The only thing that she could think Naruto would react to so badly that she actually brought in back up would be... how did she manage that?

"Are you going to promise me or not?"

"Ok, fine, what is it?"

"You are not to flip out, got it?"

"Why would I..."

"The reason people don't like you is because the nine tailed fox is sealed in your body. Sasuke's here because I don't want you to lose control."

"You're lying."

"No, I'm not. I don't know why the hell they would do something like that to a kid, but it's the truth. The seal on your stomach proves it."

"She's telling the truth," Sasuke confirmed. He wasn't sure if Naruto was going to believe him or not, but it was the truth.

"You're lying to me. You pretended to be my friends just so you could play a prank on me. I'm not falling for it."

"That's a lie and you know it. We're your friends because both of us know what it's like to be ostracized from everyone you know. When I first met Ino, two days ago, that's what she was telling me. It's cruel and unfair, but that's the truth. Life is like that sometimes." She looked at Sasuke. "There should be four bowl's worth of icecream in the freezer."

"You and Haku don't know what it's like to be all alone, you have each other."

"Actually, I know a kind of jutsu that my village condemned, and when they found out, no one would talk to me," Haku answered. "Raito's been making it on her own since she was seven. We didn't meet until three years ago, when we were both ten. We didn't always have each other."

"But you two act so close, like you've known each other forever. It's creepy, really. I bet you know how to read each others' minds or something."

"We're a team. Circumstances have made it so we have to. It's not without effort though, the first time we did that exercise I ran Raito into a pole."

"So I led him into a pool."

"Across traffic."

"Around a construction zone. That was funny."

"Was not. I thought you were going to get me killed."

Sasuke came back with three bowls of icecream. "I'm leaving, I think you guys can handle it."

"Nope, you are staying, and you're having icecream. Sit."

"Raito, I appreciate the offer, but..."

"Who said I was asking? Now come sit down before I make you."

"No, I'm going... hey! Ow! This is not necessary!" Raito had swept Sasuke's feet out from under him, planted a foot on his back, and grabbed his wrists. If she pulled, it would hurt. Haku went to go get the duct tape.

"Apparently, it is. If you had just accepted the icecream like I told you, you wouldn't be in this position."

"Your phone is ringing, in order to get it, you're going to have to let me up."

"Naruto, who does it say it is?"

"Uh, Hidden Mist? Raito why..?"

"I don't know, I haven't answered it yet. If you leave, the answer is definitely no," she informed Sasuke before taking the phone. "Hello, this is Raito speaking. I see. No." Raito hung up the phone. A look of anger swept across her features as she talked. "Excuse me for a few minutes. When Haku gets back, please tell him that I'm calling Gato." Raito promptly left the room.

"You wouldn't have any idea what that's all about, would you?"

"Not a clue."

"Hey, where's Raito?"

"She wanted us to tell you that she's calling Gato."

"Oh, that's never good. Did she look upset?"

"Yeah... I thought she was going to break the phone. Who's Gato?"

"Long story that I probably don't have time to tell. We're probably going to have to leave immediately."

When Raito came back in, she was quivering with rage. Her entire demeanor had shifted into aggression. "Thank you for letting us stay with you, but we have to go now. I'm not sure when we'll be back, if we come back. As you can guess, the answer is no at the moment, Sasuke. Let's go, Haku."

The duo darted out the open window and into the cool night air. "I wonder what happened to make her so furious... I've never seen her so mad before."

"They were here for a total of three days, of course you haven't, idiot."

Naruto felt the emptiness of the house more than ever that night.

"Team 7 will be Naruto Uzamaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha..."

'Yes! I get to be on the same team as Sasuke! True love will prevail! Wait a minute, aren't we missing some people? Where are the new kids?'

"... and Choji. Later this afternoon you'll be introduced to your sensei..."

"Iruka sensei, what about Raito and Haku? You never put them on a team."

"Haku and Raito left last night, they won't be back for a while, believe it!"