At Any Cost

Chapter 1

Losing your sensei is confusing. Losing your father hurts.

I don't own Naruto, or any characters therein.

I only watched the anime of Naruto, never saw the manga.

---------------------------

A year had passed since his second failed exam, and Uzumaki Naruto sat as quietly as he had since that day. He stared at the teacher in the front of the room, not really seeing the chuunin as he described the test, and why would he? He would pass this exam because the hokage had ordered it, though he wasn't supposed to know that.

The class avoided him, except for the insect-user Aburame Shino. Orange-clad sat next to the thoroughly disguised kid ever since one month after he failed, until that day he had been a bit more unstable than normal, forcing cheerfulness that everyone now saw was fake, that everyone believed now had always been fake. This sudden disbelief freed him from having to maintain his desperate façade, and he quickly turned into the same kind of recluse as Sasuke and Shino, the only difference being that he never focused on the class, he just stared ahead at their instructor.

If he'd had a friend, they might've tried to bring back that spark of life he'd possessed before, but those he'd run with in his younger days let him sink into whatever funk he'd gotten into, they didn't even try to understand what it was, though Shikamaru had a guess. He knew that Naruto was close to Iruka, he knew that acceptance and personal ties were far more significant to the once boisterous and thoroughly troublesome child than they were to most of their classmates. Logically, the Nara child deduced that it was Iruka's death that had put Naruto in such a sorry state.

Oh yes, Iruka's wounds were far more significant than had been initially supposed, one of his lungs had been punctured by the shuriken Mizuki had hit him with and a fragment of the rib that had broken as a result had compressed his heart against the deflated lung. He'd never gotten out of the hospital, he hadn't even woken up again.

What Shikamaru couldn't puzzle out was why Naruto had dismissed their new teacher so coldly when he tried to extend courtesy and friendship to the child. Rather than worry about it, the lazy trainee ninja decided to catch up on his sleep.

---------------------------

Genin exams, time for those again, a whole year had gone by and he'd scarcely noticed it. Oh well, not like I can learn anything here… He took Iruka's death hard, and blamed his inability to move faster, his lack of strength, and his dependence on others. Though he'd never admit it to himself, Naruto just wanted to throw himself completely into his training so he could avoid feeling anything towards anyone else ever again.

As with previous years, he remained dead-last in all their tests and exams, he never had the attention span now, even if the techniques were becoming a second nature because of his new sensei's training methods. Sensei's too strong a word I think, trainer? Seems more appropriate… Hatake Kakashi hadn't once said anything about his impotent anger over Iruka's death, something for which Naruto was eternally grateful, though he had done one thing vastly inappropriate…

Kakashi knew that Naruto was more or less the same as he was, and that was why he trained him. He knew that the boy thought too much about his failings, and so he gave him the same item that helped him forget about what he hadn't done, it didn't hurt any that they were both massively perverted. Icha Icha Paradise, a book the blonde had steadfastly ignored for six months, became his favorite possession over the span of a three-day weekend and there were no end to the occasions that his fingers itched to hold the book while he sat, numbly staring ahead.

"… uto. Hey, c'mon kid get movin'," some random teacher had come in to pull in the next recruit. Whatever. The indicated genin-to-be stood, noticing that apart from that Ino girl and a few others he didn't remember, he was the last one. Hmph.

Naruto followed after the teacher, whose name he never bothered to learn, down the hallway to a classroom with his normal teacher, whose name he'd never bothered to learn. His guide took his seat and his normal instructor spoke calmly and evenly.

"Now Naruto if you could get your mind with us for one minute instead of with Iruka, please create at least three clones," this particular sensei knew precisely what buttons to press to get the best out of a student. He had saved this trump card against Naruto for just this exam, and it worked with frightening efficacy.

It was frightening because the trainee's eyes went bloodshot and immediately the dozen or so shadow clones he had just created (without the use of a seal, though at a massive expenditure of chakra) cracked their knuckles menacingly, amplifying the dreadful feeling created by his outpouring of killing intent. With a withering glare he reigned himself in and dispelled the clones, nodding at the barely whispered 'pass' before taking his hitai-ate and leaving the room. Still holding the plate in his hand he stopped at the unexpected wall of grayish-blue coat in front of him.

Azure eyes barely containing his pained rage drifted up and came to lock with the shaded eyes of the Aburame genius. Of all the people in his class, Naruto might've considered Shino the closest thing to a friend, this year had seen the Aburame evidence genuine concern for his well-being on his worse-off days. As ever he barely spoke in these displays, and so what he did surprised the Uzumaki greatly.

The pale hand drifted out of his pocket and latched firmly onto the blonde's shoulder. "He'd be proud of you right now," that was also 'congratulations' and 'continue to live in the way he would approve of' for the reclusive insect-user. As usual, the words shocked most of the melancholy out of Naruto's head, and he gave a bitter, but genuine smile.

"Right. Thanks Shino," also meaning 'I'm going to go train' and 'see you tomorrow'. The two spoke in what others believed to be code, but for the two, they just understood each other more than one would think natural, one above emotion, the other totally absorbed in it, it was their distance from the average that put them at the same level.

No one thought of any of that though, as Naruto and Shino walked down the hallway in opposite directions. They just noticed the creeps talking again, and didn't bother much more than that, indulging in that fabulous human tendency to ignore the obscured.

---------------------------

Naruto brightened immediately after leaving the school grounds, the whole place was Iruka to him, and while even away from it he could be hurt by his reminders of him, it wasn't the same omnipresence that he felt on the school grounds. He went at speed to the training grounds he always met his trainer at, the same place he trained his static genjutsu on by hiding Kakashi's training scrolls. And… the place where he knelt before a bizarrely shaped stone, offering a silent prayer and a free ramen certificate to his departed father-figure.

He wasn't surprised to see Kakashi there, also praying for his former teammate. Naruto looked at him and realized that in just that one year, he had lost his father, gained a friend and an older brother, and lost sight of his reasoning. Yeah, Iruka-otousan, I promise that after today I'll move on. I'll punish the sinner again, and I'll get strong, I will become strong for your memory.

The genin-candidate folded his legs beneath him and stood up, he looked to his trainer again and spoke up. "Kakashi, after today, I'm leaving Iruka here. I think that everyone else here will be able to keep him company… What do you think?"

Kakashi didn't take his eye off of the one name on the stone. It held his mind and his presence captive, bastard Obito actually won out in the end. "That's good… I think it's time to start your training now isn't it? Oh and congratulations on passing," in his traditional fashion, Kakashi danced around the actual question, prompting a brief incredulous look and a shrug.

"Yeah I guess, but Kakashi…" He turned into the little boy from over a year ago again, somehow turning from somber to insane in a blink. "I'm not gonna go easy on you anymore, I'll take my full share of the Kyuubi's power when we spar from now on, so give it everything you've got!" Kakashi blinked briefly at his student, and then his eye curved upwards.

"Well since you've been holding back on me, let's see where you're really at!" He leapt away from his student again, slipping into a loose defensive stance while the blonde locked his hands together and began to wrap himself in bands of blazing red chakra. Mmmm… Maybe I shouldn't have done this…

Before he could get out another thought, Naruto exploded from where he stood, burning red enveloping his body, his crappy chakra control irrelevant in the face of the impossible quantities of chakra he was throwing around. This was his style of really fighting, impossible for anyone but a demon vessel, and more destructive than Gai's style using the eight celestial gates, because it burned out the fine web of chakra paths in the body, it scarred tenketsus and rendered them useless… unless a demon was healing your body as it fought.

Kakashi was having a hard time, not because Naruto was skilled at taijutsu, or because his fearsome ninjutsu threatened to vaporize him, or because a skillful genjutsu awaited him at every turn. None of these were things Naruto had or could do, no, just the fact of how fast and powerful each punch or kick or slam was.

That said, his moves were so predictable that he didn't even need his Sharingan to evade the moves, or neutralize them before they got off. Of course that was an issue of not being able to ever really practice this style, or develop it at all from the rudimentary and frenzied swings that it utilized. Kakashi though couldn't help but notice now just how much his on and off student was slowing down each time he swung and how his expression belied the pain in his body that grew with each motion enhanced by the demon's strength and speed.

Fuck. This. Hurts. Why. Can't. I. Hit. Him! Kakashi threw out a fist but the blonde held onto the appendage by enveloping it in chakra. While his sensei was still surprised the blonde leapt forward and landed a red-glowing fist into the masked face of his opponent, sending the grey-haired man flying away into a tree.

"HELL YEAH!" Naruto cried out to no one in particular shortly before falling backwards and struggling to breathe, more than a little exhausted by his strenuous routine. As he passed into blissful sleep, Kakashi roused himself and gingerly caressed his battered face. He walked towards his fallen student and looked him over curiously before giving a shrug and picking him up.

---------------------------

Kakashi grumbled a little at the heavy load of his sort of driftwood student, and was quite thankful when he found opportunity to set the kid down on his couch. A quick glance at the clock told him he had twenty four hours of reading time, and Naruto had only twenty hours to sleep, assuming he wanted to get to class on time. A part of Kakashi wished that the blonde wouldn't care about getting to class on time anyway, perhaps even showing up an hour or two late like his sensei?

Bah, not like that'd ever happen. The graying shinobi shucked his burden off from his shoulder into a couch in the aforementioned blonde's home. Quickly he'd moved away from the child to look in the bookcase, comparing his collection with the blonde genin's. He was mildly surprised that each of Naruto's books were even more lovingly worn-out than his own were, but there were much fewer of them. Kakashi decided this was likely from Naruto's difficulty when it came to buying things.

For reasons that the jounin had yet to decide on, his student was frequently found to be paying several times the actual sale price of items. He knew the blonde contained the Kyuubi, and some very sinister portion of Kakashi believed that the shopkeepers overcharged him thinking that he was one with the ancient demon. The majority of Kakashi's mind was actually quite naïve, and discounted the notion.

He left behind a few of his older books, ones Naruto didn't have it seemed, and left the apartment to let his student sleep off his exertion.

End Chapter 1 At Any Cost

Uhm… there were thoughts I had… But I'm really sleepy right now…

Aidis: TOM CRUISE FOR PRESIDENT!

Islagatt: Down with the whole system, autocracy! Furious D for the indisputable governor of north and south America.