Naruto: The Secret Songs of the Ninja

by Arcane Azmadi

In the wake of the battle in the Land of the Waves, Uchiha Sasuke never opened his eyes. Devastated by the death of their teammate and friend, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura are forced to begin again with a new teammate, a new mission and a new destiny. But even a small rock thrown into a still pool creates ripples- and ripples may become waves that can drown the unwary...

2. Chapter 2

NARUTO: THE SECRET SONGS OF THE NINJA.

Disclaimer: Seriously, what is the point in repeating something you already know and already knew before you even started reading the first chapter? Would ANYONE possibly be naïve enough to believe that I own Naruto? Of course not. You're much more intelligent (not to mention handsome) than that.

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Chapter 2- The Song of the New Path.

It was 7:57 in the morning and the sun was rising on the hidden ninja village of Konoha. Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura were already waiting at training area three as they'd been instructed to the night before by their instructor, Hatake Kakashi. The time for the meeting was 8, but -as usual- the two had arrived early.

And now they had arrived they were pondering their realisation that Kakashi-sensei would -as usual- be late.

The two young ninja sat apart, facing away from each other. Apart from a cursory greeting when they met, they hadn't said a word. They hadn't spoken to each other in days in fact, ever since they'd left the Country of the Wave. Sakura had been too absorbed in her grief and Naruto too stifled by his guilt for them to talk during the return journey and they hadn't run into each other in the time since. Today however, the air between them was somewhat different.

Naruto was sitting with his back against one of the wooden logs used as shuriken practice targets, humming distractedly to himself. Ever since his talk with Kakashi-sensei the night before his mind had been abuzz with thought. The jounin had been reluctant to answer his questions, but Naruto had pressed him until he knew the full story behind Sasuke's dying words- about Sasuke's traitorous brother Itachi and the massacre of the Uchiha clan. It made his head spin simply thinking about what Sasuke must have been through. Naruto had always thought he'd had a tough life, growing up as an orphaned outcast who everyone despised because of the legacy of the Kyuubi, but he'd channelled his frustration into determination to succeed without letting anything get him down. Now he realised that there were other kinds of suffering that were just as painful. Since he'd never had anything, Naruto had no idea what it would be like to lose everything. He'd never felt the burning desire for revenge which he now understood had driven Sasuke to fight and to excel. Compared to the one person you trusted and believed in most destroying everything -and killing everyone- you ever loved, Naruto's own betrayal by Mizuki seemed like little more than a spiteful prank.

The other thing that had been bothering him was Sakura. He glanced at where she was sitting on a flat-topped tree stump which served as a makeshift seat. Although he was happy to see her more like her old self than she had been in days, he still found himself unable to talk to her. Although it pained him, Naruto was forced to admit that Sakura had loved Sasuke more than he had ever realised. He knew from the moment he'd faced her on the bridge that what had happened would make her suffer even more than he could imagine and the sound of her despairing cries of grief had been like a blade being twisted into his heart. But Naruto knew the two of them were -or had been- part of a three-man genin team. If they were to continue on as ninja then things couldn't remain like this.

As this brought Naruto on to his THIRD concern, which was the one that finally drove him to break the silence."Uh... Sakura-chan?" Sakura didn't look at Naruto, but she did at least slightly incline her head towards him to indicate attention. "What d'you think is gonna happen to us now?" She didn't respond but at least seemed to be listening, so he plunged on. "I mean, we were a three-man team, right? But now-" he faltered briefly before continuing "-there's only two of us. They won't send us on missions like this, will they?" Sakura tilted her head in the other direction, as though contemplating his words. "Will we be split up and put into new teams?" Naruto wondered aloud. "Or maybe..." a nasty thought struck him, "...maybe they'll send us back to the academy!" He shuddered at the thought.

Still Sakura didn't say a word. The silent treatment was starting to make Naruto really nervous. I wonder if she really hates me now? he wondered. Crap! We'll never be able to work together again if it's gonna be like this all the time. He gritted his teeth. If we can't be together any more then maybe they really WILL send me back to the academy! No way! Naruto gripped his head between his hands as he began to panic. Nowaynowaynowaynowaynowaynow a-

"Good morning you two!" Kakashi's cheerful voice interrupted Naruto's private panic session. Startled, the young ninja looked up to see the Copy-ninja strolling towards them, giving them a languid wave. Naruto and Sakura blinked in surprise as they realized Kakashi-sensei had –for the first time in their entire association with him- actually arrived on time. He slouched to a casual halt in front of them, slipping his hands idly into his pockets. "I've got someone I'd like you to meet."

To their further surprise, the two noted another figure walking a few steps behind their sensei. At the sight of him, their eyes widened. He was definitely one of the most unusual ninja they'd ever seen.

Although he appeared to be roughly the same age as them, the youth was unsually tall, yet lanky to the point that he could almost be described as gangly and his head was topped with a thatch of messy brown hair sticking out above his forehead protector that made Naruto's wild blond spikes look almost neat by comparison. Like all genin he apparently chose his own outfit, but even by ninja standards his clothes were eccentric. He wore a pair nondescript grey pants and jacket similar to Naruto's, albeit in a much more subdued colour, wrapped by countless leather bands and straps that crisscrossed his chest, ran along his arms and twisted around his hips. Numerous pouches hung from these, far more than the average ninja would wear. A large straight metal blade, nearly four feet long with a ring at the end like a giant kunai, was slung on his back like a sword, bringing uncomfortable memories to the two young ninjas' minds of the huge weapon wielded by the late Momochi Zabuza. He gave off a faint metallic jingle with every step he took, as if his pockets were crammed with loose change. But his most striking feature was his eyes. As well as the eyes themselves being slightly wider than normal, his hazel irises were unusually large, each taking up almost the entire surface of the eyeball so that almost none of the scelera could be seen. Combined with his proportionately larger pupils, the effect made him look slightly like a bird of prey.

As Naruto and Sakura stared, the young ninja came to a halt beside Kakashi-sensei and bowed politely with a loud metallic jingling. Now that he was closer, Naruto's eyes widened further as he realized what all the leather straps were for- they were bandoliers. Shuriken were tucked into them in neat overlapping rows which ran all over the newcomer's body. The jingling sound, he also noted, was coming from the pouches hanging from the bandoliers, which they guessed were also full of shuriken. This ninja was a walking arsenal of throwing weaponry.

The two genin both arrived at the same simultaneous conclusion:

What a weirdo...

"This is Keiji-kun," Kakashi-sensei introduced the metal-studded eccentric. "He's a genin from last year's graduating class." That made him Sakura and Naruto's senior. The boy bowed again as he greeted them formally.

"Kyoshun Keiji," he introduced himself. His voice was cheerful and he spoke politely. "Pleased to meet you." The genin smiled pleasantly at the two young ninja as Naruto pushed himself from his sitting position to his feet.

What the heck, Naruto thought. He may look kinda weird, but he seems like a nice guy. Returning Keiji's smile with a grin of his own he stuck out his hand in a friendly manner. "Uzumaki Naruto. Pleased to meet ya." Keiji nodded and reached out to take Naruto's hand.

He missed.

Naruto blinked in surprise as Keiji's hand closed on empty air about three inches to the left of his own. Totally unfazed by his own mistake, the other boy withdrew his hand and tried again, this time clasping Naruto's now limp hand and shaking it enthusiastically. Kakashi stood back from the exchange with a somewhat bemused expression on his face. Sakura, on the other hand, just looked perplexed as she approached them. Keiji turned to her as she stopped beside him. "Haruno Sakura-san? Pleased to meet you too." Taking the initiative this time, he stuck out his hand in the girl's direction.

A shriek of rage and a noise like a piece of steak being walloped with a tenderizer rang out, followed by a sound like someone upturning a cutlery drawer. Kakashi and Naruto both winced in sympathy.

Sakura stood over Keiji's sprawled form, breathing heavily in fury with her arms crossed protectively across her bosom. With the young man too dazed to apologise, Kakashi decided it was time to intervene before Sakura got too worked up. "Now now, Sakura," he said soothingly, "he didn't mean to do that. Keiji has rather bad eyesight and he was just a little careless." Sakura threw a vicious glare in his direction, causing the hardened jounin to take a step back, raising his hands placatingly, but she took a deep breath and lowered her fists again.

Rubbing his head, Keiji pushed himself upright and climbed to his feet. "Sorry, sorry," he apologised, "my fault. I should know better by now." He brushed down his clothing and gave Naruto and Sakura a sheepish grin. "I was born with, um, 'imbalanced' eyes. I can see distant objects really well, but have a lot of difficulty with anything closer than fifteen feet or so." He gave a resigned shrug and sighed. "Even when things are right in front of me, I basically have to guess where they actually are. It's difficult, but it's about all I can do." He bowed again, apologetically this time. "Sorry about that, Sakura-san. You were about nine inches closer and a few more to the right than I thought." He straightened up and gave an embarrassed smile.

Awkward seconds passed as Naruto and Sakura stared at the young man. Then Naruto couldn't help it any longer and his face split into a grin. He didn't mean to laugh at Keiji's disability, but watching Sakura struggling to maintain her indignant expression in the face of Keiji's guileless innocence, even as a nasty bruise started to darken on his jaw, was just too funny for words. A snort escaped his lips, quickly swelling into open laughter. Keiji's rueful grin widened and he started to chortle as well, evidence of a boy with a good sense of humour. A quiet chuckle even slipped out from behind Kakashi-sensei's mask. Sakura glared at the three males frostily, but a few seconds later her mouth had twitched and curved up into a smile and she let out an small giggle.

Even so, Sakura was the first to stop laughing and by the time the laughter had ceased a few seconds later she'd already been doing some quick thinking. "Um, Kakashi-sensei," she asked hesitantly. "Why have you brought Keiji-san to meet us this morning? Would he possibly be…?" She trailed off helplessly, but Kakashi understood her meaning easily enough.

"Good guess, Sakura," their leader nodded. He clapped his hand on the shoulder of the boy standing next to him. "Keiji here is going to be the third member of Team 7, your new teammate."

"Eh?!" Naruto yelped in surprise. "'New teammate'? You mean… this guy's supposed to replace Sasuke?" Sakura had already drawn this conclusion ahead of Naruto, but her doubt also showed on her face.

Kakashi sighed inwardly. This would probably be the hardest part, getting the two to accept their new partner and work as a team again. "No, Naruto," he explained patiently. "Nobody could ever 'replace' Sasuke and we wouldn't want them to." Somewhat abashed, Naruto nodded his agreement. "But you can't function as a three-man genin team with only the two of you and if you don't complete your training in a genin team you can't be ninja. We have a team that is short one genin; Keiji here is a genin that is short a team. The Hokage approved his assignment yesterday. This will be best for everyone."

Sakura's brow furrowed. "Sensei… why isn't he on a team if he graduated last year? Was he an odd student left over after the teams were formed?" It was certainly possible, she thought. There was no guarantee that the number of graduating students in each year's class would be a multiple of three and she had no idea what happened to any kids left over. Then she noticed a pained look creep across Keiji's face and Kakashi-sensei shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Sakura gave a quiet "oh" as she put two and two together, but didn't say any more.

"That's… something best left for Keiji to explain to you," the jounin answered evasively. "The three of you should take some time to get to know each other while you do some training together. I've got an important meeting with Hokage-sama this morning, so I just needed to introduce you to Keiji first. I'll come and find you again this afternoon. Just consider this free training time, OK?" With that, their leader formed a seal and vanished in a burst of smoke.

Naruto and Sakura stared blankly at the spot the man had occupied only a few seconds before, then turned to look at their new teammate. The boy shrugged helplessly and there was another awkward moment of silence. Then Naruto stepped forward and clapped a friendly hand on Keiji's shoulder. "C'mon Keiji. Let's go do some training."

The awkwardness vanished from Keiji's face and he smiled with relief at this initial show of acceptance. Naruto returned the grin without reservation. Even if the cause their meeting was tragic, it was always a good thing to meet new friends, especially ones who didn't seem to hold his circumstances against him. The two boys turned to the third member of their team. "Let's go, Sakura-chan." Naruto invited her cheerfully.

As the girl visibly hesitated, Naruto felt his heart sink. You didn't have to be a master interrogator to see her reluctance to accompany him, or a trained psychologist to work out why. Whether it was because of him or because of their new teammate, Sakura didn't want to go with them. A feeling of helplessness started to rise in him as he realised he didn't know how to deal with this. The only things he could think of to say were the wrong things.

"Sakura-san?" Just when Naruto was about to succumb to panic, Keiji spoke up. "I'd like the opportunity to train together with the two of you." He smiled wanly. "I haven't worked with a team since… well, it's been a while now and I want to see how we can work together."

Sakura was trapped and she knew it. Intentionally or not, Keiji had phrased his invitation in a way that left her with no way out other than openly refusing to work with her new teammates- and that was tantamount to quitting as a ninja. The young kunoichi sighed internally. She didn't even know where this reluctance was coming from- she thought she'd worked everything out yesterday after her clash with Ino, but apparently there were still some things she hadn't quite straightened out yet.

Looking up at the boys again, she gave them a weak smile. "OK then," she answered. "What shall we do first?"

Keiji shrugged. "I don't mind, really. Naruto-kun, what would you prefer to do?"

The blond frowned and folded his arms while he thought. "Hmm… well normally when I'm training on my own I warm up with some practice at the target range. How does that sound to you, Keiji?"

The older boy's face lit up with a smile. "That suits me just fine, Naruto-kun! Shuriken practice happens to be my favourite form of training."

Sakura looked him up and down again. Judging from her best estimates of the contents of all his bandoliers and pouches, Keiji must have been carrying in excess of two hundred shuriken on his person. "Really?" she deadpanned.

oooOOOooo

As usual, Kakashi was the last to arrive at the Hokage's office, although not too late- even the infamous Copy-ninja wouldn't dare keep the leader of Konoha waiting more than a few minutes. All the other jounin team leaders as well as a number of administrative chuunin and special jounin were already waiting when he arrived. Kakashi gave the room a general nod of greeting as he entered and moved over to stand by the other rookie team leaders, Yuuhi Kurenai and the Hokage's son, Sarutobi Asuma. "Sorry I'm late, Hokage-sama," he apologised shortly. This really wasn't the time for one of his patented ridiculous excuses so he left it at that and waited for the leader of Konoha to speak.

Sarutobi Hiruzen gave Kakashi a quick nod of acknowledgement before leaning forward in his chair to address the room at large. "I'm sure most of you know what I've called you all here for. It should be obvious just from looking at who I've called."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "It's that time again already, is it?"

"The word has already been sent to the other villages," Shiranui Genma put in, talking around the ever-present senbon in his mouth. "We're already seeing the first teams start to arrive."

The Hokage nodded and took his pipe out of his mouth. Tapping the last few glowing embers out into his ashtray he set it aside and folded his hands together. "Within the next few days I will formally announce the beginning of the Chuunin Exam." He nodded in the direction of the rookie team teachers. "I will now hear nominations for entering teams, starting with this year's rookies."

Kakashi kept his face expressionless under his mask as he stepped forward. "The Kakashi-led Team 7, consisting of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Kyoshun Keiji… I nominate them to take part in the Chuunin Exam under the name of Hatake Kakashi."

Kakashi wasn't entirely surprised to hear several indrawn breaths and some hushed comments from the others behind him. Beside him, Kurenai and Asuma were both staring at him in what appeared to be shock. Even the Hokage had his eyes locked on Kakashi from under furrowed brows. It was Kurenai's turn next, but she seemed to have been struck speechless. "Kurenai…?" he prompted her.

She started out of her reverie. "Uh… oh! Um… The Kurenai-led Team 8, consisting of Inu-"

"Hold on!" someone shouted from the crowd behind them. Surprised at the interruption, the two jounin turned to see Iruka-sensei shoving his way through the crowd. The chuunin was glaring at Kakashi. "Kakashi, what do you think you're doing? You can't enter them in the chuunin exam!"

Kakashi raked the younger man with his single eye, but Iruka did not flinch. The jounin had a healthy regard for the academy instructor's competence and owed him for helping Naruto the day before, but he needed to know when to mind his own business. "And why shouldn't I enter them?" he challenged Iruka coldly. "It'll be a good experience for them and I believe they have the ability to make it through. They meet the requirements- Naruto and Sakura have completed seventeen D-ranked missions each and one C-ranked mission that was subsequently upgraded to A-rank and Keji has twenty-six Ds and three Cs on his record."

Iruka gritted his teeth his teeth. "Are you mad, Kakashi? Naruto and Sakura have only just met their new teammate today. How can you expect them to survive something as dangerous as the Chuunin Exam with someone they've never worked with before?" The angry chuunin strode closer, staring Kakashi boldly in the face. "And while I'm not questioning Keiji's abilities, in case you've forgotten the third and final of those C-ranked missions he has on his record is the one where his previous jounin sensei overestimated what his team could handle and got himself and both of Keiji's teammates killed! Are you really that eager to make a similar mistake so quickly?"

That touched a nerve. Kakashi struggled to keep his voice level, but couldn't prevent himself from snapping at the younger man. "Iruka! While I appreciate your concern, you should stay out of this. They're not your students any more, they're my soldiers, under my command and if I-"

"Kakashi!" This time the interruption came from the Hokage, causing the silver-haired ninja to snap his mouth shut immediately. The old man was glaring at him now from under the brim of his conical hat. "I'm sorry to say this, but Iruka is right. The Chuunin Exam is not something to be undertaken lightly, nor is it something that can be passed with improvised teamwork." The old man shook his head regretfully, his expression softening somewhat. "I'm going to have to reject your nomination until the three of them have completed at least eight missions together. They'll have to wait until the next one for their chance."

There was complete silence in the room. This was unprecedented. Kakashi couldn't believe what he was hearing. He took a tentative step towards the leader of Konoha. "But… Hokage-sama, I really do think that-"

"I'm sorry, Kakashi," the old man cut him off again. "To be completely blunt, your invitation to this meeting was really only meant as a formality. No-one expected you to nominate your team under these circumstances. I know you're sure that this is in their best interests, but I cannot agree. Again, I'm sorry."

There was a long pause. No-one made a sound. Kakashi stared at the old man with his one good eye, mixed emotions boiling inside of him, then he sagged slightly. "Very well, Hokage-sama. If you think so then you're probably right." He glanced sideways again. "Sorry about that, Iruka-sensei."

The younger man gave him a startled look, then smiled apologetically. "No, it's OK Kakashi-sensei. I know you mean well for them. But… no-one can be right all the time."

The Hokage nodded as he finished refilling pipe with tobacco and fumbled for a match. "Very well then. Kurenai, if you would pick up from where you left off?"

oooOOOooo

The new Team 7 walked away from the training grounds back towards Konoha in a thoughtful mood. It had certainly been an interesting training session.

Having graduated from the academy a year after him, Naruto and Sakura used the session to evaluate Keiji's capabilities, as well as to familiarise him with their own skills. They'd started by practicing with their kunai and shuriken, using the logs at the training ground as targets. And then the two rookies learned the first thing about their new teammate: he was the best shuriken-user they'd ever seen. And that wasn't restricted to just their age bracket either.

Standard practice range began at ten paces from the target, which was where Naruto and Sakura started. Keiji started at twenty paces and rapidly increased the distance as the training went on. Naruto had watched in unreserved awe as the older boy had alternately worked at improving his range, speed and accuracy. First he continued increasing his range until he was hitting the target from so far back his teammates had to shout for him to hear them. Then he would square up to the target and fire off rapid continuous barrages of shuriken, his hands moving in a blur that left his target studded with more steel than Naruto could count in only a matter of seconds. Finally he would work on his precision, aiming more deliberately to mark a straight line down the middle of the target so precise that it was as if the weapons had been carefully nailed into it by hand. It was practically supernatural. Keiji had mentioned that the postive side of his "imbalanced" vision was exceptionally good sight at a distance, but even discounting that he also seemed to have an inherent instinct for aiming his shuriken, taking wind and drop distance into account and hurling them with such force and precision that he could strike with killing force at distances where most ninjas would struggle even to find the range. He could even throw them in wide, curving arcs that swung through the air like flights of banking swallows, striking the targets from a far wider range of angles than a normal ninja could even attempt. Shurikenjutsu was a basic part of every ninja's training, but most only thought of shuriken as tools to be used together with the other arts of taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu. Keiji had taken it to a whole different level that most shinobi weren't even aware existed.

Surprisingly, Keiji did not use kunai, nor any other kind of weapon. He specialised in shuriken to the exclusion of everything else. In fact, Naruto had persuaded him to have a throw with one of his kunai just for the hell of it and his aim with it had been no better than Naruto's. Keiji explained it as being because of the completely different weighting and aerodynamics of kunai- with all the training he'd put in with shuriken, trying to use another weapon was like a right-handed person trying to write with their left hand (although being ambidexterous himself, he admitted the simile wasn't exactly the most appropriate).

For his grand finale, the boy had drawn the huge weapon from his back and unfolded it. As the giant blade divided into four, Naruto realised it was a massively oversized, straight-edged version of the shadow windmill Sasuke had used in the first clash with Zabuza. Fully unfolded, the weapon was even bigger than Keiji was tall and Naruto couldn't even see how the lanky boy could even manage to lift it.

But lift it he did, winding up, spinning around and hurling the weapon over his head with startling force. The blade roared through the air and his two teammates winced as it smashed into the log on the right, splitting it nearly in two along the diagonal.

Keiji frowned as he jogged up to his new friends. Naruto picked up his jaw from the ground. "That was amazing!" he burst out. "I can't believe you were able to throw something that big so easily!" Sakura nodded mutely, momentarily lost for words.

The older genin only shook his head regretfully. "No, I still need a lot more practice," he admitted.

Naruto blinked. "Why would you need more practice?" he protested, pointing to the remains of the target. "Anything you hit like that won't be coming back for more!"

"Yes," Keiji replied, his expression rueful, "but I was aiming for the target on the left."

Sakura looked at the targets. In that case, Keiji had missed his target by at least a dozen feet. While it was still an impressive trick, it was also more than a little worrying. She fervently hoped that he practiced with the weapon, which he called a 'Deathwind Shuriken', a bit more before he tried to use it on a mission. Preferably when she was a long way away.

After that, Naruto suggested they do some taijutsu practice. Keiji had seemed less than enthusiastic about it, but had reluctantly agreed. And it was then that they learned the second thing about their new teammate: his taijutsu was awful.

Naruto had opened his first bout with Keiji enthusiastically, going in full force, only to find that he was able to overwhelm his opponent with surprisingly little effort. Keiji exaggerated his blocks and dodges, making it hard for him to counter and his strikes were simultaneously linear and badly aimed. He fought with the awkwardness of someone who hoped never to be forced into hand-to-hand and Naruto suspected that if an opponent ever managed to make it through the barrage of shuriken his teammate could lay down, Keiji would probably be in for a world of hurt.

Keiji had done his best to bear the experience stoically, but Naruto could tell he was embarassed by his performance. At the start of the fight he'd made with a few cheerful, good-natured jibes at Keiji's mistakes, but as the extent of the boy's inability had become increasingly obvious these had quickly tailed off into an awkward silence. After Naruto had knocked his opponent on his butt for the seventh time in a row, he hadn't been able to take it any longer and had suggested they take a break, to which Keiji had gratefully agreed.

Sakura hadn't shown any interest in taking Keiji's place so the three genin decided to head back into Konoha to get some morning tea. As the three of them walked down the road back towards the centre of the village, Keiji and Naruto got to know a bit more about each other. On the other hand, walking a few steps behind them, Sakura remained stubbornly silent.

"No, it's not a bloodline limit," Keiji explained. "It's just a unique deformity in my eyes, optic nerves and brain. I can't 'turn it off', it doesn't use chakra, it's just the way my body is. The doctor who diagnosed me said my eyes are actually more like those of a bird of prey, only they can't focus properly to compensate for things closer to me."

"Wow, that's weird," Naruto said thoughtfully. Behind him Sakura winced at his tactlessness. Stepping in front of Keiji and turning on his heel, the blond continued walking backwards while he held up his hand about six inches from his teammate's nose. "So, how many fingers am I holding up?"

Keiji sighed. "Three, Naruto-kun," he replied patiently. "I'm not that bad." Naruto had the good grace to look embarassed and stepped back to keep walking beside the myopic boy.

"Must be hard to get by," he commented. "Do you bump into things a lot?"

This time his appalling lack of tact drew a vicious glare from Sakura, but Naruto didn't notice. Keiji was starting to get used to it, though. "No," he answered. "I don't have any problems getting around stationary objects. If I can see them from a distance I can mark their positions relative to myself so I know where they are even when I get closer to them." He shrugged. "It's something I had to train myself to do when I entered the academy. It's only moving objects, like people, that I have trouble with." His two teammates digested this information. That was a pretty useful skill, actually.

"So… do you…" Naruto hesitated as he approached the subject, one he personally found somewhat awkward. "Do you live with your parents?"

Keiji's steps faltered for a moment. "No." Recovering he continued walking, his voice calm and level. "I'm an orphan. My mother died when I was a baby and my father passed away about four years ago. Since I was already over half-way through my academy studies, I was just made a ward of the village until graduation and I've been living alone since then."

"Oh…" Naruto's voice trailed off and Sakura gave Keiji a sympathetic look. Then the blond suddenly smiled, sadly but sincerely. "You're kind of like me, then. I've been without parents for as long as I can remember. I don't even know who they were."

This time Keiji did stop and looked his teammate in the face. There was an awkward moment of silence, then the boy warmly returned Naruto's smile. Keiji put his hand companiably on Naruto's shoulder, missing only twice before connecting and continued walking. After a pause, Naruto and Sakura followed him. Nothing more really needed to be said.

oooOOOooo

By the time lunchtime rolled around they were still waiting on Kakashi. Naruto suggested they go to Ichiraku together to eat, but Sakura had finally had enough and begged her leave. Naruto sighed inwardly as he watched her depart. He hadn't been imagining it after all; Sakura was definitely trying to avoid him. The more Naruto thought about it, the worse things between them seemed. He couldn't blame her for not entirely trusting him considering the circumstances surrounding Sasuke's death, but he'd been hoping she'd be pragmatic enough to put any personal feelings aside enough for them to at least work together.

At least Keiji had been happy to go with him. To his pleasant surprise, his new teammate was also fond of ramen and had even been to Ichiraku more than a few times in the past. Teuchi greeted the pair of them cheerfully, surprised to discover that two of his customers were now on the same team together. He took their orders as the boys settled down to chat.

"So," Naruto started as a steaming bowl of chashu ramen was placed in front of him. "I was wondering why you didn't have a team until today?" He took a pair of chopsticks from the jar in front of him and separated them with practiced ease. "Kakashi-sensei said it was something you should tell us yourself."

Keiji flinched slightly at Naruto's tactless but innocent question. He'd known that he'd have to address this eventually, but he was a little surprised that Naruto hadn't at least picked up on the fact that it was a rather sensitive topic for him. Still, by now he was starting to get used to the fact that reading the signs of social interaction wasn't exactly his new teammate's strong suit.

Stirring his ramen absently with his chopsticks, Keiji wondered where to start. Might as well get straight to the point. "My old team was wiped out," he said bluntly. Naruto froze, noodles hanging from his mouth. "We'd just completed our third C-ranked mission in a town called Kikone, about three days travel from Konoha. The mission had been easy, we just had to catch some vandals who our client suspected had been hired by a business rival to sabotage the construction of his new trading house at night. He didn't even need us to deal with the rival, just catch the men before they could demolish the site again." Keiji stopped to scoop some noodles into his own mouth, snapping Naruto out of his shocked state. Slurping up the ramen still dangling from his lips, he found his own appetite for once unusually diminished and set his chopsticks down to give the other boy his full attention. "We caught them easily. Hagimura-sensei positioned me in my usual lookout position, set an ambush at the site with Mio-chan and Shinji-kun and the men walked right into it. They weren't expecting ninja, even if we were just genin, we just rounded them up no problems and delivered them to the local authorities."

Keiji paused and had a sip of water. "After that, we all went back to the inn we were staying at for the rest of the night. In the small hours of the morning we were woken up by a disturbance coming from outside…"

oooOOOooo

Keiji jerked awake as a scream shattered the silence of the early morning. Throwing off the bedclothes, he sat up, his ninja instincts burning, his ears listening for any further clues as to what was happening. On the other side of the room he shared with Kamura Shinji, he heard his teammate moving as well and a second later the room was lit up as Shinji found the light switch by the door.

The two genin looked at each other. In accordance with their sensei's orders, they were sleeping still mostly dressed. Hagimura-sensei had insisted that in the aftermath of any mission that might provoke a possible retaliation the team should remain ready for action for at least the first day. From the sounds of things, with more terrified screaming echoing through the night, that may have been a wise precaution.

Without a word, the two boys slipped out of bed and readied themselves for the possibility of combat. Keiji shucked on his jacket, zipped it up and began strapping his bandoliers into place as quickly as he could, while Shinji slung the scabbard of his ninja-to across his back and slipped his armoured vambrace onto his left arm. Before they'd finished there was a banging on the door of their room. "Boys, get out here," Hagimura Tetsuro commanded them through the door. "Something's going on outside. We should check it out."

Thirty seconds later the members of Team 5 were all standing outside the inn. Rather than dying away, the panicked screaming and cries of confusion had only spread further and the streets were rapidly filling with confused, distressed civilians, milling about under the uncertain illumination of the overhead street lights.

Hagimura-sensei, a stocky, humourless jounin with a neatly-trimmed beard and moustache, pointed down the street towards the large, traditional-looking manor building in its own compound near the town square. "By my estimation, the source of the screaming is the mayor's manor. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's an assassination attempt- and not a very subtle one. It sounds like the perpetrators are just butchering everyone in the entire household. We have to do something."

Keiji exchanged worried glances with his two teammates. Shinji's expression was a mixture of fear and exhilaration, eager for more action in the wake of their too-easy mission earlier that night. Mio, on the other hand, looked perturbed. Her eyes –one jade green, the other sapphire blue- met Keiji's and she bit her lip. Keiji had been friends with Hirotsu Mio ever since they'd first started at the academy together more than six years ago and she had never stopped worrying about him. Even with their jounin-sensei leading them, the idea of intervening in an assassination mission by an unknown enemy force was disturbing for a team of genin who had only been out of the academy for eight months. While Team 5 coordinated well together and Hagimura-sensei often praised their individual abilities as being above average, Keiji knew that there were many old ninja and many reckless ninja but very few old reckless ninja.

Orders were orders, though, and the only thing they could do was trust Hagimura-sensei to get them through this. The Konoha jounin turned and pointed at a nearby iron tower topped with a huge water tank about sixty feet from the outer wall of the compound. "Keiji, take your usual position on that tower. Keep watch on the manor in case the enemies try to slip out. If you see them, pin them down and we'll find them. Shinji, Mio, with me. Stick close and don't engage anyone alone. First priority is to try and get any civilians out alive."

Because of his personal abilities and handicaps, it was the usual plan for Keiji to be assigned away from the rest of the team in any combat situation. This time, however, Keiji hesitated. He didn't know why, but he had a really bad feeling about this. "Sensei, I… Are you sure I shouldn't come with you this time? I think…" He trailed off as his teacher replied with a curt shake of his head and sighed. Hagimura-sensei was generally considerate, but sometimes he resented being treated like a special-needs case.

Shinji grinned. "Hey, don't worry about us, Keiji. You just spot 'em and mark 'em for us and we'll handle the rest." Mio's face, on the other hand, only grew more apprehensive.

"Move out!" their leader barked and the team sprinted down the street, ducking around the fleeing civilians. When they reached the point where Keiji would need to split off from the others to reach his observation position, Mio and Keiji both hesitated.

Awkwardly, he judged the distance carefully and put a hand on her shoulder. "Be careful, Mio-chan."

She smiled weakly at him. "You too, Keiji."

The moment passed. As the pretty young kunoichi turned to follow the other two through the front gates of the compound, Keiji sprang up onto the roof of the nearest building, racing across the rooftops and launching himself up onto the water tower.

From his observation point he could see the mayor's manor spread out below him- but not terribly well. Most of the building was dark, with only a few of the rooms illuminated. There was no sign of movement or evidence of destruction and his teammates had already disappeared into the building before he'd reached his post. By now the screaming that had woken him had ceased and the compound was silent, all of the remaining noise coming from the confused mob in the streets below.

For almost a minute the young shinobi strained his eyes, peering into the darkness around the compound for any sign of enemy ninja sneaking through the shadows. His racing pulse had begun to settle. Maybe the enemy had already completed their mission and escaped before Team 5 had even arrived?

His heart leaped into his mouth as another scream split the night. It was a scream he recognised. Mio-chan! A boy's yell and a man's roar of rage followed and Keiji stood paralysed by indecision, torn between following his sensei's orders and leaping off the tower to join his team. Suddenly one of the manor's walls that faced onto the open courtyard in the centre of the compound exploded outwards as a man-sized figure was sent smashing through it, tumbling along the ground for a dozen feet before coming to a halt in a crumpled heap. Another, smaller figure sprang through the hole after it, running to the first person's side and helping them to their feet. A few seconds later a glowing ball drifted up high into the air above the two figures and exploded in a brilliant light like a flare that illuminated the entire scene. Keiji recognised the technique as one of Hagimura-sensei's and indeed the man that had used the technique was Keiji's teacher, being supported by Shinji, one arm a mangled mess awash with blood.

Stooping to fit through the hole Hagimura-sensei's expulsion had left in the wall, a terrifying figure stepped through after them. Keiji's breath caught in his throat at the sight of the man. He was the largest ninja the boy had ever seen, well over six feet tall, dressed in a sleeveless black vest and trousers. Even under the bright light of the flare, his skin was a dull bluish-grey and Keiji's vision was able to pick out a selection of frightening details- his dark spiky hair, his small, predatory-looking eyes, the dark lines on his hollow cheeks and his mouth full of teeth that had been sharpened to razor points. The forehead protector he wore, attached to a set of headgear that wrapped around his head, bore the symbol of Kirigakure, but was scarred by a line scratched straight through the middle of it- the unmistakable sign of a missing-nin. But the most notable thing about the man was the massive weapon he held in one hand. It looked like a sword made of hundreds of overlapping thorns, wet with blood and –Keiji's stomach heaved- shreds of torn flesh.

For a moment time seemed to stand still as the huge missing-nin levelled his weapon threateningly at the bloodied jounin and the young genin who was supporting him, grinning evilly with those needle-like teeth. Shaking off his terror, Keiji pulled two pairs of shuriken from his bandolier and hurled them at the enemy as hard as he could. The range was in excess of seventy-five feet, but the weapons sliced through the air with pin-point precision, one heading for the man's throat, another for his forehead, the third for his chest and the last for the vulnerable joint of his elbow. For a split-second, Keiji thought they were all going to connect, but somehow the missing-nin managed to sense the tiny weapons coming even through the half-lit shadows of the night. The oversized blade flashed sideways faster than he would have believed possible for a weapon that size and deflected all four shuriken.

The distraction was enough for Hagimura-sensei to thrust himself upright, shaking off Shinji's support. His hands flashed through four sets of seals and dove into one of his pouches to pull out a pair of kunai. Taking one in each hand, he flung them in the direction of their menacing opponent, one flying wide to either side of the missing-nin's body. Keiji knew this trick. There was eight feet of chakra-conductive wire strung between the two kunai, almost invisible even under normal light, which would wrap around the opponent as they passed, discharging the powerful electric charge his sensei had inbued them with just before releasing them. Most opponents never saw if coming. Taking heart, the genin hurled another barrage of shuriken, hoping to take advantage of the jutsu's effect, as Shinji dashed around the side to flank the enemy, ninja-to in hand.

As the kunai flew past the giant man, he brought his sword up defensively in front of him, catching the wire on the barbs- whether accidentally or by design, Keiji had no idea. It didn't matter though, as long as the wire touched his body somewhere, the lightning chakra would knock him flat. Shinji sprinted in ready to take advantage of the opening, his short blade levelled at the left side of the man's rib cage, ready to pierce his heart. As the wire contacted the weapon the kunai wrapped around behind the opponent, bringing the wire into contact with his bare arms.

Nothing happened.

The shock the team had been counting on never eventuated, as though the lightning chakra infused in the kunai had simply vanished into the aether. Snapping the entangling wire with a casual twitch of his weapon, the enemy took one broad step to the side, avoiding the incoming shuriken with ease and lunged with terrifying speed. Shinji had barely realised that their sensei's attack had fizzled out with no effect in time to abort his reckless attack, but it was too late to evade the missing-nin's counter. Once again the insane barbed weapon swung through the air faster than seemed possible, smashing aside the young genin's feeble attempt to parry, tearing into his chest, shredding clothing, skin and flesh and crushing bone. Shinji didn't even manage to scream as the blow flung him away to smash into a wall. His body fell to the ground and didn't move.

Keiji couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He couldn't even blink. It felt like something had reached inside his chest and was squeezing his heart as his enhanced vision took in every detail of his teammate's shattered form. He barely realised the enemy nin was turning in his direction now, the beady eyes seeking him out even at the extreme range he was at.

Hagimura-sensei's enraged roar snapped him out of his paralysis. His despair began to turn to panic as he saw the murderer sweep his teacher's furious attack away with ease, sending him stumbling backwards. What should he do? What could he do? The missing-nin followed up on his counter by hurling his outlandish weapon after Hagimura-sensei, forcing him to desperately throw himself backwards to avoid being shredded. The enemy took the opportunity of having his hands free to form a series of seals with incredible speed, then thrust his hand out in Keiji's direction.

The terrified boy flinched and dropped low, flattening himself against the surface of the water tower roof in the hopes of avoiding whatever jutsu the enemy had just used on him. For a moment he thought nothing had happened. Then he felt a trembling coming from beneath him. Had the man used an earth jutsu to shake the tower?

The realisation struck Keiji in an instant- an instant that saved his life. The missing-nin was from Kirigakure, it was most likely to be a water-type jutsu- and here he was, foolishly clinging to the top of the biggest reserve of water in the town! Desperately Keiji rolled to his feet, took three sprinting steps and hurled himself headlong as the tower exploded beneath him with incredible force. Chakra-infused water and shattered iron panels smashed into his body, sending him tumbling through the air, completely out of control. He tried to get his feet under him, to brace himself for landing, but it was futile. The best he could hope for was that fate would spare him.

A massive impact smashed against his body and for Kyoshun Keiji the world ceased to exist.

oooOOOooo

"When I woke up, it was two days later," Keiji finished somberly. Naruto listened to the story in horrified fascination, their forgotten bowls of ramen rapidly going cold on the bench in front of them. "The missing-nin had finished slaughtering everyone in the mayor's household and vanished without a trace. Hagimura-sensei, Shinji-kun and… Mio-chan were… all dead." His voice choked off for a second before he shook his head and continued. "Someone had sent a message to Konoha calling for help and a medical team arrived the next day to take me home. I managed to escape with only a few broken bones and scrapes and when I made my report they told me I was lucky to still be alive. If they knew who that monstrous missing-nin was, though, they didn't tell me." He picked up his chopsticks again and picked a bamboo shoot out of the cooling bowl of ramen, popping it into his mouth. "Since then, I've just been training myself, waiting until the higher-ups could find something to do with me."

His story done, Keiji resumed eating in earnest, despite the lukewarm state of his food. Naruto was speechless. He'd thought what had happened to Sasuke had been bad, but Keiji's story, disturbing similar to his own, showed that it could have been so much worse. For a moment his mind was filled with nightmarish thoughts of Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei and old man Tazuna killed as well as Sasuke and himself forced to flee back to Konoha alone. He shuddered and a pang of sympathy for what his new teammate had gone through resonated within him.

There were a few minutes of silence as the two boys resumed their meal (cool or not, it was a sin to waste good ramen). Finally Keiji drained his bowl and set it down in front of him, then took a deep breath and turned to look directly at Naruto. "So now that you know my story, are you sure you still want me to be your new teammate?"

Naruto fumbled his chopsticks as he fished for the last few noodles in the bottom of the bowl. "Wha- huh- eh- what?" he stammered, turning to stare into the boy's unusually large eyes. "Why would you even ask a question like that? Why wouldn't I want to be your teammate?"

Despite being at least five inches taller than Naruto, Keiji suddenly looked very small. "Well… after I lost my team, a lot of the other people didn't…" He hesitated. "…didn't like me any more. They thought I was unreliable, or too weak to be a ninja. One or two even insinuated that I'd survived by selling my teammates out. I've just been training on my own for the last six months. Almost none of my old academy classmates will even speak to me any more. So I thought that maybe…" The boy trailed off hopelessly and Naruto gave him a sympathetic look.

"Hey, there's no need for you to worry about any of that, Keiji," he said softly. "I can understand. I'd be happy to have you on our team." He smiled at his teammate. "We'll show the world what we're made of, right?"

Keiji returned the smile gratefully. "If you say so, Naruto-kun. And Sakura-san too?"

Naruto's stomach sunk. He'd somehow forgotten Sakura. He couldn't for sure say that she'd be as willing to accept Keiji as he was. Hell, he couldn't say for sure she'd still be willing to accept him.

"Umm…"

oooOOOooo

Kakashi sighed to himself. It had been just over a week since his new team had begun taking on D-ranked missions together and things had mostly been successful. Naruto had complained a bit when he'd heard about missing out on the Chuunin exams, but had eventually settled down again and only occasionally grumbled about how unfair it was quietly to himself. Since then, he and Keiji worked together well to complete any tasks they were given and Sakura seemed surprisingly accepting of their new teammate as well. The girl had dedicated herself to their missions and her training with a renewed intensity that pleased the jounin, but there was still a problem. While she wasn't so blunt as to say anything outright, you didn't have to be a genius to see that Sakura was avoiding Naruto as much as possible. Whether they were weeding a garden, chasing down escaped pets, or lending assistance to Konoha's postal service, Sakura would put in the maximum effort but would politely yet firmly refuse to accept any help from Naruto, even when it would have made their task easier.

The problem was exacerbated by the fact that Naruto was being painfully obvious about trying to be as helpful as he could. Where Sakura worked steadfastly at their missions, making sure everything was done as quickly, efficiently and completely as possible, Naruto threw himself into every task as though he had something to prove, trying to do as much as he could handle himself and offering to help his teammates with almost every single job they were assigned. While his enthusiasm was heartening and he and Keiji cooperated without a problem, it was discouraging to see his every advance continually rejected by the teammate he most desperately wanted to reconnect with.

For D-ranked missions it was bearable, but Kakashi was starting to see what the Hokage meant when he rejected his team's entry into the Chuunin exam. As their teacher, it was his duty to do something if he ever wanted his students to be fit to do more than chores, but it might take more than the bell test to get them over this issue.

oooOOOooo

Sakura was training alone in the fading light of the late-afternoon after Kakashi had dismissed them for the day. She'd waved away Naruto's hopeful inquiry about whether she'd like to train with him and Keiji and had been working on her own for more than half an hour already without stopping. All her attention was focussed on the sparring post in front of her, her forearms, palms and fingers slapping against the polished wood as she repeatedly drilled herself through her offensive and defensive taijutsu forms. A fine sheen of sweat was building up on her forehead and she was starting to breathe heavily.

So intent on her training was Sakura that she didn't notice the person behind her until they coughed gently. Caught by surprise, she spun around with her arms still raised defensively to find Keiji standing a cautious distance back, watching her. Feeling somewhat awkward at reacting as if she'd been expecting him to attack her, the girl lowered her arms to her side and gave him a slightly embarrassed smile. "Oh… Keiji-kun." She'd stopped calling him 'Keiji-san' after the first few missions, although he still used that honourific when addressing her. "Can I help you?"

The older boy returned the smile politely. "Actually, Sakura-san, I was just wondering if you had the time to talk for a bit? I was just hoping to discuss a few things with you."

Sakra was suddenly acutely aware of how tired she was now that she'd ceased moving. Wiping the beads of sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, she supposed now would be a good time for a break and having a talk with Keiji might be a good idea. Despite having been on his team for a whole week, she hadn't really found out that much about the boy yet. From her work with him so far she got along with him well enough- he was polite, almost reserved, conscientious and neat, despite his occasional clumsiness. While he could never be called 'cool' by any standard, he was pleasant and easygoing enough to be nearly impossible to dislike. "OK, Keiji-kun," she replied, walking across to the bench where she'd left her bag to retrieve a drink and have a seat. "That's fine with me. What would you like to talk about?"

Her newest teammate took the indicated position on the bench beside her. "Well, I was mainly wondering how you think the team is going? Do you…" he hesitated, "think I'm doing OK?"

Sakura swallowed a gulp from her flask- a mix of pineapple and orange juice that she found energised her better than simple water. "Hmm? I think you're doing fine, Keiji-kun. You work hard, you take everything seriously, you never promise to do more than you're capable of, but you always do as much as you can." She snorted quietly. "Unlike some people I could name."

Keiji smiled somewhat awkwardly. "Um, that's good. I was wondering… did you want to know why I was assigned to your team?"

oooOOOooo

Sakura listened attentively as Keiji told her the entire story, just as he had to Naruto several days earlier. By the time he was finished, she almost had tears in her eyes. "Oh Keiji-kun… I'm so sorry," she said softly. "That… must have been awful."

The older boy gave her a grateful look. "Thank you, Sakura-san. It was awful, but… I have to carry on. If I just gave up, it'd disgrace their memories. So I'm glad that I've been given another chance here with Team 7." His expression turned pensive. "So… does that mean you trust me to be your teammate? Even after I failed?"

Sakura was shocked. "Keiji-kun, you didn't 'fail'! You did everything you could and from the sound of it I don't think there's a genin in Konoha who could have done any more. It wasn't your fault your teammates died." She smiled reassuringly at him, glad to have this chance to comfort a teammate in need. "It's OK, Keiji-kun. I trust you to be my new teammate."

Keiji did not smile, though. Instead he looked Sakura directly in the eye. "Then, Sakura-san… do you trust Naruto-kun?"

Words failed her. Her breath caught in her throat. Keiji had finally put into words the thing that had been eating at her ever since Sasuke's death. After Naruto had emerged alive from the same battle that had claimed Sasuke's life, she'd instinctively shied away from him without thinking. She'd avoided talking to him or doing anything with him as much as possible. And until Keiji had asked her this simple question, she hadn't even really thought about why she was doing it.

Was it that she didn't trust Naruto any more? Did she consider him no longer reliable for letting Sasuke die in battle with Haku? Was her grief unconsciously causing her to blame Naruto for what happened? Now that she'd heard Keiji's story, most especially the part about how his former classmates no longer trusted him in the wake of his team's annihilation, she could see what she was doing clearly- and what it was doing to both Naruto and to Team 7.

She looked beseechingly at Keiji, hoping he could help her find an answer, but he only returned her gaze unblinkingly. Sakura wavered, uncertain of what to do or how to resolve her confusion. Desperately, she turned to her training, running through all the rules a good ninja should follow. When she got to rule #25 she faltered as she recalled the last time she had spoken it- the moment on the bridge, talking with old Tazuna-san as she knelt by Sasuke's lifeless body. "A shinobi never shows their feelings, no matter what the circumstances. Feelings are a weakness that only cloud one's judgement and weaken one's sense of duty." For a moment she felt the echo of the tears in her eyes as she recalled her grief. "It's OK to cry," Tazuna had said, but Sakura had resolved that she would not cry again so easily and she angrily fought back the tears.

Then Sakura remembered the class where they had learned that particular rule, during their fifth year in the academy. "Shinobi rule #25 may sound harsh," Iruka-sensei had said. "For some ninja it's the hardest rule to follow. But even if you can't kill your feelings entirely, it's still an important rule to remember. The essence of the rule is that you can't allow your heart to overrule your head! You can't allow your temperament to cloud your judgement. You always need to keep a clear head and make sure you see the truth. Your emotions are a part of you, but you must not let them blind you, or lead you into making a mistake you will regret."

Sakura took a deep, shuddering breath, squeezing her eyes closed as she grasped the extent of her mistake. She'd been letting her uncontrolled feelings, her grief and her doubt, overrule her sense of reason and influence her behavior without even realising it. Naruto was annoying, loud, obnoxious and dumb, but he wasn't a bad person and it was neither right nor fair for her to treat him like this. More importantly, even if she couldn't yet call him her friend, he was her teammate. She'd been so caught up in her own attempts to deal with Sasuke's death that she hadn't thought about how it had been affecting Naruto at all. They'd survived the Wave Country mission together, but rather than Sasuke's death bringing them closer together and making her appreciate her teammate more, she'd been so wrapped up in her own grief that she'd allowed it to drive them apart.

Opening her eyes again, she looked back at Keiji again, meeting his steadfast gaze. "Yes," she declared, calmly and with conviction. "I trust Naruto." Her mouth twisted into a warped smile. "Even if he is an idiot."

The boy grinned. "That's good to hear, Sakura-san. I trust him too." He stood up from the bench. "So tomorrow we'll be able to start our missions as Team 7, working all together?"

Sakura gave him a funny look as she rose to her feet as well. "You know what, Keiji-kun? You're a surprisingly manipulative fellow." But she smiled as she said it, more warmly this time. It was well past time that they stopped being just three genin and became a team again and if it had taken the intervention of a newcomer to help her see that, then that could only be a good thing. For Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Kyoshun Keiji under the command of Hatake Kakashi, it was time for them, as Team 7, to make a fresh start.

oooOOOooo

Naruto was bewildered. Happy, but bewildered. He didn't know what had happened in the space of one day, but somehow Sakura's attitude towards him seemed to have undergone a radical change overnight.

Team 7 was out of Konoha for a few days on what Kakashi had called a "D+ ranked mission". While the job they had been assigned was much larger and more time-consuming than the mundane chores they'd been doing up that point, there would be no risk involved beyond what any person would find camping out in the woods. They'd been hired by a local apothecary who owned a thriving medicinal business to go on an expedition to collect a sufficiently large stock of herbs and rare fungi that he used in the production of his stock from the forests that surrounded Konoha, a job that had been estimated would take them four days. In order to save time, rather than heading back to the village at the end of each day's work, Kakashi had decided they'd camp out in the woods until they were done.

Once they'd reached what Kakashi had judged to be a good camping spot, the three genin had split up to collect their own share of the goods. Unfortunately, right from the start Naruto had been struggling. Each of them had been issued with a list of the plants they were meant to collect, with descriptions of where to find them and how to identify them correctly. But Naruto's knowledge of plants extended about as far as knowing to water them when they were dry. He'd started out enthusiastically enough, but when Kakashi-sensei had come to check on him after the first hour he'd been forced to discard the entire bag of random leaves, mosses and assorted foliage he'd mistaken for useful medicinal goods.

It was shortly afterwards that Sakura had caught up with him and, to his immeasurable surprise, offered to help. The kunoichi seemed to have found a previously undiscovered talent for identifying the right plants and had almost completely filled her own bag already. Apparently Keiji had been doing fine on his own the last time she'd seen him, so she'd come looking for Naruto. Although startled, Naruto hadn't questioned this sudden reversal of his fortune and had accepted her help gladly. It had taken some time, a certain amount of frustration and at least one painful knock on the head when Sakura had lost her patience with his habit of grabbing any plant that looked interesting enough and asking "how about this, then?", but together they were doing pretty well. It was almost like it was back before the Wave Country mission. No, even that wasn't true- before the Wave Country mission Sakura had pretty much ignored Naruto except to berate him when he screwed up, giving all her attention to Sasuke. This was something new.

After a few hours of rigorous searching, the two genin had decided to take a break. Naruto sat down with his back to a tree, wiping sweat from his brow and glanced across at Sakura, who had taken out her water flask and was unscrewing the lid. Although they'd been able to talk freely while they were working, now that they'd stopped an awkward silence that was depressingly familiar fell across them again.

To hell with this, Naruto decided. I'm not going to get a better chance that this to put things right between us and I'm not going to let it slip away!

"Sakura-chan?" She lowered her bottle from her lips and looked at him questioningly. "Um… thanks a lot for helping me today. It was… I… uh…" He struggled with his words for an awkward moment. "So… thanks."

There was a long pause as Sakura looked back at him, then she lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry."

Naruto blinked. "Um… Sakura-chan… what was that you said…?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto."

The boy was nonplussed. Sakura had spent the last few hours going out of her way to help him, so why was she apologising to him? He furrowed his brow in confusion. "Um, Sakura-chan, what are you sorry for? Did you make some kind of screw-up that I don't know about?"

The pretty kunoichi raised her head and glared at him. Naruto flinched at the familiar sight of irritation on her face, but at the same time he noticed something shocking. Were those tears forming in the corners of her eyes? "Naruto," she snapped, "sometimes your obliviousness is really frustrating. I'm sorry for the way I've been acting towards you recently, alright? Ever since Sasuke died I've been treating you unfairly just because of my own insecurities and it wasn't right. So I'm sorry and I'm changing that starting today." She put her flask down and wiped the tears away angrily before they reached her cheeks. "You got a problem with that, Naruto?"

Narto frantically waved his hands in front of him defensively. "No! No! No problem! It's just that…" He paused for a moment, for once choosing his words with care. "I thought… I was the one to blame, really. I've been looking for a way to make it up to you ever since we came back to Konoha."

For an uncomfortable moment Sakura just stared at him. Then she rolled her eyes in exasperation and sighed. But this time she smiled while doing it. "That is so like you, Naruto. You may be reckless, thoughtless and careless, but no-one could ever accuse you of not being willing to accept responsibility, even when you shouldn't." She shook her head. "No, Naruto, you weren't to blame here. You didn't kill Sasuke. And I shouldn't have been avoiding you." Naruto pushed himself to his feet as she walked across to stand in front of him. "We're still Team 7, right?"

Naruto smiled back at her. "We'll always be Team 7, Sakura-chan. No matter what. You and me and Keiji and Kakashi-sensei. And even Sasuke will always be part of Team 7." The smile expanded into a face-splitting grin. "In the distant future, when you and I finally die of old age after two long and amazing careers, we'll meet up with Sasuke in the afterlife and we'll still be Team 7."

Sakura looked him in the eye again and Naruto was surprised to see that it looked like the tears that had threatened to make an appearance before were back again. For a moment the girl glanced furtively around herself as if making sure no-one was watching. Then, with no warning whatsoever, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his chest.

Naruto went rigid with shock as Sakura hugged him. It wasn't just the first time she'd ever done so; it was the first time she'd ever touched him for non-violent reasons. "Thank you, Naruto," she whispered in his ear. Just as quickly, she released him and quickly stepped away, blushing. "I'm never going to do that again, so don't read anything into that," she snapped. "And don't you dare ever tell anyone that I did that, OK Naruto?" Naruto could only blink owlishly, completely speechless.

A few moments later, she turned and walked back over to pick up her water bottle. "Come on, we should probably get back to work. We have a mission to finish here."

Shaking himself out of his daze, Naruto grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Uh… right you are, Sakura-chan! Let's do this!"

oooOOOooo

Kakashi smirked to himself from his hidden position above his two students. Well, that should just about do it. It was almost a pity they'd sorted things out on their own like that- he'd been looking forward to trying out this new teamwork exercise he'd been working on for the last day or so.

Oh well. There was always the possibility he'd be able to use it some time in the future if they ever started slacking off. And if nothing else, he'd be able to save this little event to tease the two kids with next time they started giving him lip about his teaching methods.

oooOOOooo

Team 7 managed to return to Konoha with their mission complete a day ahead of schedule, tired but proud. They arrived back at the gates of Konoha just as the sun was about to set, delivered their bulging bags of collected goods to the client and reported their success to the Hokage before retiring for the day. Apparently the second stage of the Chuunin exams had just been concluded earlier that day, so Naruto was looking forward to snooping out the story about it from some of his acquaintances on other teams who'd entered and managed to make it past the first round- apparently both Team 8 and Team 10 had made it into the second stage with ease, according to what Kakashi had heard from their respective jounin-sensei.

Naruto was delighted to find that, for the first time ever, Sakura agreed to go to Icihiraku together with him and Keiji, even if she did feel the need to make enquiries about the possibility of a low-fat ramen. Things really felt like they were coming together for the team and he couldn't wait to see what challenges the future would hold for them.

When they showed up at the Hokage tower the next morning to receive their mission, Naruto was practically bouncing with energy. If anything, his excitement grew even more when Kakashi told the team he was considering asking for another C-ranked misson, although this time he was going to make sure it was ACTUALLY a C-ranked mission and wouldn't feature any more murderous missing-nin.

Walking in to meet with the Hokage, Naruto noticed something odd. The old man looked extremely serious, almost grim. Team 7 lined up in front of him and saluted and he gave them a nod of acknowledgement as he sucked on the stem of his pipe.

"I have a special mission for you today, Team 7," he began without preamble. "This is a mission of vital importance."

Naruto grinned and punched the air. "Wow, really? Yes! Finally, a challenge worthy of us! What is it, do we need to rescue a princess? Find a long-lost treasure? Recover top secret documents to prevent a war?"

The Hokage gave him a Look and Naruto's grin faded slowly as he realised everyone else was gazing at him with a variety of bemused, pitying and embarassed expressions. Lowering his raised arm, he did his best to look serious and businesslike. Once he was sure there would be no more interruptions from that quarter, the leader of Konoha continued. "This mission is difficult to grade because it's unlikely to be very dangerous at all and may not even turn out to be remarkably difficult. Under normal circumstances it would most likely be considered a C-rank at absolute most. However, I must restate that the importance of this mission is far out of proportion with its difficulty, so I need you to treat it with the utmost seriousness."

He allowed his words to sink in. Naruto still looked excited, but was giving the Hokage his full attention. Sakura's brow was furrowed with concern as she tried to work out what kind of mission could possibly be easy enough to be left to a genin team, yet important enough that it required this kind of emphasis. Keiji just looked thoughtful, but attentive. Apart from a single raised eyebrow Kakashi seemed as stoic as ever. It was the jounin who broke the silence this time. "What does this mission entail, Hokage-sama?"

The old ninja took his pipe out of his mouth and put it down on his ashtray. "Your mission is to find and retrieve a missing person, one of our genin. Hyuuga Hinata has run away from Konoha."

TO BE CONTINED…

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Argh! Hate! Hate hate hate hate hate HATE! I HATED writing this chapter! I was stuck on it for so, SO long that by the end I was just wishing it was over. There turned out to be far more to cover in it than I'd initially planned and it turned out about 10 pages overlong. So much was changed along the way, so much removed and rewritten, so much time wasted on writer's block. Writing this was like pulling teeth, it was kicking my ass literally for MONTHS. Thank god it's out of the way now! Sorry this delayed the chapter so long, the next couple of chapters at least will come out a lot quicker; as I said at the end of chapter 1, I'm writing several chapters in advance to reduce delays between releases.

As I said, there was a lot of material that was removed from this, as well as a lot that was changed. Originally Keiji was called 'Kurimoto Takeshi', but it struck me that that sounded a bit too much like Kuranari Takeshi from 'Ever 17' to the point that it was affecting my mental image of him, so I changed it. Right up until the last revision before publishing he also had a more conventional vision problem, requiring him to wear bottle-thick glasses like Mousee from Ranma 1/2. Additionally, his introduction scene was actually supposed to be an action scene where Kakashi arranged for him to show off his abilities to Naruto and Sakura by bombarding them from shuriken from extreme long range while they were still waiting for him to arrive, but I dropped that because not only was it taking up too much space, it was pretty stupid. Finally, I originally replayed the manga's confrontation with the Sand Siblings (adjusted to feature Keiji in place of Sasuke) but dumped it for much the same reason- it was overlong and really rather pointless.

Keiji is my first original character and I can assure you there won't be many of them. I'm fully aware of the risks inherent in creating an OC- you have to make them interesting and likeable, but not TOO interesting and likeable, or they become a Mary Sue. Likewise, you have to make them significant to the plot, without allowing them to overshadow the rest of the cast- if you don't develop and use a character enough after introducing them, people tend to forget they even exist. Y'know, like Sai. Keiji is here to be a supporting character, but not a new protagonist, an ally and friend but not a hero. I hope I can keep him in balance because I actually kind of like the guy.

While I'm committed to remaining tight-lipped about any possible pairings in the story for now, let me just assure you that I will NOT be shipping Kakashi and Iruka. I've always considered that a complete Crack Ship with no basis or grounding in reason whatsoever, so don't go drawing funny conclusions from the scene in the Hokage's office.

This chapter is where the first big change comes into the story (other than Sasuke's death, obviously). I was always bothered by how many fanfics completely mess with the setup of the story, change up all the teams, mix up the character relationships, but still replay all the same plot events regardless. Well, Team 7 isn't in the Chuunin exam this time and you are already be starting to see the knock-on effects. This will be fun (admittedly, only for a given value of "fun").

Song of the moment: 'Rebel Beat' by The Goo Goo Dolls.

NEXT TIME:

A desperate runaway is in need of rescue, but who is it she really needs rescuing from- her enemies or herself? Will Team 7 be able to succeed in this most vital mission? Find out in Naruto: The Secret Songs of the Ninja chapter 3- The Song of the Wanderer.

- Arcane Azmadi