Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue; I do not own, so please don't sue.

Chapter Six
Heart of Madness

"My head is killing me," Sasuke said and stopped to rub his eyes. We were on our way to the Academy to finally get our team assignments—and thank god that was finished and done with. "I have a headache, I am dirty, I stink and I think that last dose actually killed my chances of awakening the Sharingan."

I lightly shoved him with my shoulder and laughed. "Lightweight."

I, Kakashi and Sasuke had been on the Crooked Kunai until it closed. The Hokage had responsibilities and needed to call it quits early, but we weren't even genin yet for fuck's sake—except Kakashi, but he couldn't give less of a shit about that too.

After that, I let Sasuke crash on my couch because he was looking like death warmed him over and sent a Shadow Clone to his mother to tell the lady about him staying with me, without mentioning that I got him drunk as a cheap whore, of course.

Mission accomplished, I went to sleep.

Though I still had the suspicion that Mikoto knew all too well about what we were up to and only let us off the hook when I said some words about my birthday, the team, and the talk we had. She had rolled her eyes and said, Sasuke will be his own damn punishment for doing that anyway.

How right she was.

Simply put, Sasuke was looking like shit. I could hear the hearts of every girl on the class breaking in despair, already.

"Oh, do shut up, you cheat with your healing thing," he said. "I am still having some flashes of that night, so I will ask you right and straight now—did you, perchance, began a riot on that place tonight?" Sasuke raised his hand to my eye level. "Because I have fucking bite marks, Uzumaki, and the distinct memory of you powerbombing someone through a fucking table!"

Wait, what? Did I really?

"Hell are you talking about, you wanker? Oh. Oh. That," I said, connecting the dots and lazily stretching my arms over my head. "Boy, ain't had no riot there. These shits we kicked the teeth in were the relief squad—you know how it goes."

"Matter of factly, I don't. Relief. Squad," Sasuke repeated, stressing each word. "Explain."

"Sure. Way I heard it, there is that dude who built the Crooked Kunai, right? He is an ex-shinobi and a nice fella, the strong and silent type. So, he was making the bar and stopped to think—this is a bar for shinobi, so should I ban civilians from entering?" I snickered. "It's when he has a brainwave, do you know what do you need in a ninja bar? People for these ninjas to punch. So, he opens the bar for everyone and says, let the gods sort 'em out."

Sasuke didn't answer. He just stood right there, looking at me with the strangest expression on his face like he was weighing if I had been bullshitting him with the whole story or something like that. I wasn't. Konoha always had been just crazy enough for things like that happen.

I couldn't hold it anymore and my snickers dissolved in full-blown laughter. "Bloody hell man, let's think about it like a civvie. Only the craziest civvies or morons with something to prove would willingly hang out with us."

Sasuke looked at me almost for a full minute in silence, then he shook his head and leaned on a tree. I let him call the tune of our talk and crouched to pet a little dog who was running around us, the cutest little thing.

"I can't believe it—no, that's a lie, I can, but I really don't want to. Relief squad. Relief fucking squad, " he said, putting his head in his hands and sighing aloud. "You shinobi are the strangest people in all the whole world."

"We, Sasuke," I gave him a big shit-eating grin. "Not you, we shinobi. Graduation's today."

"Isn't that right?" Sasuke muttered, then kicked a pebble and began walking again. I gave the dog a goodbye and followed him. "Fuck, I would give my right arm to just go to my own bed and sleep until tomorrow. Let's go and be done with it."

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uchiha Sasuke will be the Team Seven under the command of Hatake Kakashi," Iruka said. I was looking out of the window, bored out of my mind, so I never saw him walking up to me and slapping my head before he talked so low only I could hear. "Couldn't you show even a bit of surprise, for god's sake?!"

I waved my arms over my head without a shred of enthusiasm. "Whoop-de-hoo!"

Iruka gave me the look and walked back to his spot on the front of the class—probably already thinking bad things about me. By my side, Sasuke smirked and promptly got back to his sleep while Hinata just shook her head and paid attention to the selection.

Bored out of my mind, I tuned the world off again. 'Two hours?'

"No, I think he will wait for at least three," Natsumi said. "Making an impression and all."

'I think he already made an impression on Sasuke yesterday when he kicked that dude in the balls so hard he fainted, but you have a bet,' I answered the vixen with a grin.

Without Natsumi to talk I would probably have already gone ballistic and punched everyone at least one time—two, in Kiba's case. Don't misunderstand me, he wasn't a bad person or anything, he was just a fourteen years old boy greener than a fucking leaf who liked to brag.

Everyone could talk the talk, I would've liked to see him walking the walk.

'What I really want to see is the kind of test he will give us,' I said, muffling a yawn as the people around the room began going away with their new senseis. 'Remember the one he did because I was leaning too much on my healing factor?"

"Oh, I remember that alright," Natsumi laughed. "He doused you in gasoline and gave Dragon a bunch of matchsticks, I still can see their face when you just sat there and took it."

I muffled a laugh. 'Must've forgotten I am fireproof.'

Someone nudged me on the shoulder and I turned to see Sasuke giving me a glare.

"Where is Kakashi?" he asked and waved in the directions of me and Hinata. "We're the last ones here already and there's no signal of the man."

I shrugged and picked a cigarette from my pocket. "Kakashi is always two hours late for anything short of a mission," a snap of my fingers and it was set alight between my lips. "He is the closest thing of an immortal I know because he will be late for his own fucking funeral."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "What we will do while we wait, then? I can't sleep on this desk anymore and you should have known that he would be late."

"Oh, I knew alright—a minute here, give me a bit of space sweetheart," I said to Hinata and got up from my chair. I walked up to Iruka's empty desk and picked the thing from the ground with only one hand, the other one holding the cigarette while I waved to Sasuke's direction. "You be a pal and pick four chairs, yeah?"

Sasuke did what I asked for and put the chairs next to the table. I sat on one of them and motioned for them to do the same.

When they were all seated, I smiled and turned to Hinata. "Say, Hinata-chan, have you ever played the cards?"

"Ano Naruto-kun, I can't say I did. My clan frowns on betting games," she folded her hands in her lap, looking every bit the polite girl she was in comparison to me and Sasuke. "Why do you ask?"

"Because, Hinata-chan, you will now," I said and picked a battered deck of cards from my pocket. Sasuke had an eyebrow raised, his interest picked—I had got to him before and now he had a taste for the game. "Let me explain the rules. First, the dealer," I created a Shadow Clone and gave him the cards, "gives you your hand, then…"

Okay, my first impression of you lot is—what the actual fuck?" I heard Kakashi's voice and turned to see him poking his head inside the room. Surprise turned in amusement and he shook his head. "Naruto's idea?"

Sasuke huffed. "Of course it is, the bastard is robbing me blind and Hinata is picking the leftovers straight from the bone," he turned back to Hinata. "Is this really the first time you play poker?"

"It is, Sasuke-san, and I call," she stared unflinchingly at him and I was surprised to see such a daring look in her eyes. It suited her alright.

Sasuke threw his cards in the air. "I am done here. Fold."

"Got you here, Hinata-chan," I said and put the shurikens we were using as chips on the center of the desk. Our eyes met and she smiled as Kakashi sat next to me. "Last chance, you sure?"

"Of course I am," she nodded and the dealer revealed the last card. Seeing it, Hinata smiled brightly and revealed her hand. "If I remember the combinations right, it's a Full House! I think I won this round, Naruto-kun."

"Maybe," I grinned and tilted my head back to breath a plume of smoke, then turned my cards one by one, "maybe not, I see your Full House and raise you my Royal Flush, Hinata-chan. Are you in for the next hand, Kakashi?"

Hinata crossed his arms and made an undignified pout that I had a hard time not laughing at.

"You do know I need to follow the proper procedure here as your sensei, no?" Kakashi said, scratching his chin. "Oh hell, let's just say I did and be done with it. How are you, Sasuke? I remember that guy biting—"

"Let's not talk about that," Sasuke hastily said, looking to Hinata. "You don't want to know, trust me."

Hinata just tilted her head to the side and looked at him for some seconds before she shrugged. "I wouldn't want to pry on you boys business either way," she said and suddenly her eyes went wide. "Oh! I had almost forgotten. Happy birthday, Naruto-kun!"

The next thing she did caught me with my metaphorical pants down. She threw herself into a hug so strong that it almost broke me in two. It felt pretty nice, though.

"Oooh, she has some fire on her!" Natsumi said.

'Why every woman in my life must have some fire is anyone's bet,' I thought and returned Hinata's hug the best I could—I still wasn't all that much accustomed with hugs. "Thank you, Hinata-chan, but I still need to breathe."

Hinata let me go and bolted back to her seat, her face red. "Sorry, I should have controlled myself more, what would the people on the clan think about that—"

"Hey," I cut her ramblings and put my hand on her shoulder. "You are among friends here, Hinata-chan, you can act in whatever way you want. Hell, it's not like any of us has any manners, so you're still ahead by a mile."

"Talk for yourself," Sasuke said, raising his nose up like a snob. "I still have pride in being more polite and educated than you people."

I snorted. "Sure you do, big fella. Why I still remember you lining the shots and saying—"

"Shut up," he ordered. I smiled and shook my head as he turned to Hinata. "The thing is, Naruto is a rude and unpleasant person all around, but he's right. Yesterday's night was… Hinata, I don't know you all that much, but I was surprised by what I saw, in a good way, mind you. Just for that, you already are much, much better than any other of these girls on my books."

"He has that straight," I said, my hand still on Hinata's shoulder. "We are a team now, Hinata-chan. No clan business or shit like that holding us, you can relax and be that crazy chick who shouted orders to my face and the Hokage all you want."

Hinata looked at each one of us and must have seen that we were saying the truth because she relaxed a little bit. It was not obvious to the untrained eye—her shoulders slacked, she had a small smile on her lips and put a hand on mine. For me, though, it was plainly obvious.

"While we are on that note," Kakashi began, "you all want to introduce themselves? You know, your names, dreams, likes and dislikes, these things. I think it would be good for building camaraderie here and—"

He stopped talking as I threw the butt of the cigarette on his face and Sasuke gave him a look that could freeze molten steel, even Hinata put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

Kakashi dodged the projectile and sighed. "Yeah, I thought so."

"Reckon that bottle yesterday scrambled your brains something fierce, sensei."

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively at me, then coughed one or two times and began talking again. "Only one thing, as your teacher, I need to tell you that we are meeting six in the morning tomorrow at Training Ground Seven for me to give you lot your tests," he said, picking the cards from the desk. "Just protocol, you see."

You had to know Kakashi to recognize the glint he had in his eyes.

His mask stretched around his lips in what I thought as a rather sinister smile and he had that kind of aura that made anyone's thinking of messing with him to think again. Suddenly I wasn't too damn sure if we had done the right thing in avoiding that heart-to-heart talk he wanted us to do.

"Now, my cute little genins, with all being said and done," Kakashi sorted the cards and looked right at me, the gleam on his eyes almost doubling in intensity, "who is in?"

Shit. Maybe I shouldn't have had thrown that cigarette at him.

Oh well.

The rest of the day went damn good if I could say so myself.

Mikoto gave me a little get together on her house for my birthday and, after she berated Sasuke and me for drinking, she relaxed and it became a pretty good party. I made a Shadow Clone take a picture of us, Sasuke with his arm over my shoulders and Mikoto on the other side, the Hokage smiling, Kakashi ruffling Sasuke's hair and Tomoe in my arms, even Hinata was here, looking all prim and proper.

The big smile she had betrayed her posture, though.

That picture would be on my nightstand for sure, just next to the only one I had of my mother and the others—like the day when Jiji made me wear his hat. I treasured them all.

I shook my head to clear my mind of these thoughts, but that smile wasn't going off my face anytime soon. Now, though, I was sitting on the grass—still wet from the rain yesterday—with Sasuke and Hinata, while we waited to Kakashi to show up on the Training Ground Seven.

We hadn't to wait for much. It was highly unusual to him to be on time and it sent a bad feeling to my gut, but it could be easily explained by the fact that he had the team lives in his hands now.

Kakashi could be lazy but he was hardly incompetent.

"Yo, good to see everyone there," he waved to us and I saw he had brought a stack of papers with him. I couldn't ask him what they were because he was already explaining. "First order of business, if I will be training you three, I need to know more about you. So, chakra natures, where to begin?"

Kakashi paced before us.

"Your chakra natures are the elements that you can turn you chakra more easily into. Someone with a Suiton element can do Doton jutsus, but they are harder and cost more chakra. Doesn't come naturally to them, you can say. I am Raiton, but if I want, I can do this anyway."

Kakashi's hands flew through signs and he slapped it on the ground. From where he had touched, a pillar of stone and earth soared up until it was bigger than even his own body. Without giving any pause and with another flurry of seals, lightning cracked around his hand.

Then he touched a finger to the pillar and it was blown apart.

"We generally don't go into elemental transformations until you master the basics and become chunin, but I don't care about that and I will get to it sooner than most," Kakashi said, looking at each one of us. "Tomorrow we will begin the exercise of tree-walking, so I want everyone here who don't know how to do this to search for information about it. No excuses, the library is open all day and night.

Sasuke and Hinata agreed and I gave a sly smile. "Or you could ask me."

Kakashi shook his head. "No. I don't know how you do your things but they are far from the norm as it gets, so library it is. Okay, now this," he waved the bunch of papers again, "is chakra paper. Just pump a bit of chakra in them and I will know your chakra natures. Who's up first?"

Sasuke was the first, ever-so-curious to learn—even more if it was about himself. The paper in his hands began crackling in the second he activated his chakra and a piece of it erupted in flames after that.

That was kind of new, Uchihas generally had fire as the principal affinity.

"Raiton and Katon," Kakashi said, narrowing his eyes and scratching his chin. "Atypical, but interesting. I have a bunch of jutsus for you, Sasuke, but it will come later. I will need to round you three in the basic shinobi arts before we begin with jutsus anyway."

Sasuke nodded and it was Hinata's turn. I perked up from my position, curious to see what it would turn to as she picked the sheet. Soon as she let a sliver of her chakra inside it, the paper dampened almost to the point of dissolution.

Kakashi looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Suiton, and a very strong Suiton affinity—atypical as Sasuke's own affinity. The Hyuuga Clan generally have very strong Doton basis, which is good as they can want for their fighting style."

Hinata looked somewhat dejected for being again the black sheep of her clan.

Pure nonsense, if you ask me, so I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. No words were necessary to pass the feeling that I was proud of her anyway and that sadness almost vanished from her eyes, that fierce look I learned to like appearing on them instead.

"Want a go?" Kakashi asked, waving the last one over my face with humor finally back in his voice. "Who knows, maybe you're a Suiton too."

I gave him a dry look. "Gimme that, you wanker."

I wrenched the paper of his hand and looked at it, pumping a small amount of yang chakra in the thing. It suddenly straightened itself, glowing in a crimson that was almost black and with the edge looking sharp enough to cut bone.

I switched to yin chakra and that fucking thing flashed into ashes in a split-second.

"Something that vaguely resembles Katon and I don't have the faintest fucking idea of whatever the hell that one is," Kakashi declared and eye-smiled. "I think an exorcism is in order for you, kouhai—Sasuke, fetch me a priest and three ounces of holy water, fast."

"Aren't you a laugh?" I said with a roll of my eyes and set my cigarette alight.

"Oh, I know," Kakashi said and then pointed to the middle of the training ground, "For today, we'll do a one on one spar so I can gauge your level and deal with you accordingly in my training. I'll begin with Hinata." he declared, motioning for Hinata to go.

"Raise hell, Hinata-chan." I cheered for her.

"It's still not too late for me to pick the holy water," Sasuke said without turning back to me, watching with enraptured attention these two in the arena. "Seriously now, how do you think Hinata will do there with her Byakugan and all?"

I sighed. "Good for a genin, I reckon, meaning nowhere near Kakashi's level. He is a though fella and one of the stronger ninjas in Konoha, Sasuke, if he gets serious no one of you can hope to even touch him. Just as he said, it's only a test."

"You can, though?"

I didn't answer him and looked back to where Hinata and Kakashi stood. She wasn't looking all that confident and, sadly, she shouldn't. A jounin against a genin is overkill no matter from where you look at it and her opponent was Sharingan no Kakashi.

They meet in the center of the arena and bowed one to each other as a cold breeze blew through the training ground, no more jokes, no more talking, nothing. It was time to fight the good fight.

"Byakugan!" Hinata yelled, adopting the standard Gentle Fist stance and attacking.

It was painfully obvious that Kakashi wasn't even trying too hard to win. Hinata made attack after attack rain over him, targeting his chakra points one blow after another, but it was for nothing. Kakashi dodged and blocked every one with ease, just slapping her elbows, wrists, and knees away so they would barely miss him.

Hinata couldn't keep up and it showed.

Kakashi threw a sloppy jab in her direction and Hinata swayed to the side, making it go past her harmlessly, then she raised a leg to kick him in the belly. He parried the blow, pushing her away and getting out of reach.

Hinata pressed the offensive, obviously trying to overwhelm him using her natural flexibility to deal a sequence of punches and kicks from every direction. What surprised me was that she was shedding the constraints of the Gentle Fist to do so.

She really was trying to conquer any advantage in the exchange and was now giving him much more trouble than in the beginning. Even I could see that her real power wasn't in that traditional and static fighting style.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!" Hinata yelled and sprung against our sensei in a blur of fists.

"Two palms!" Kakashi just sidestepped the attack. "Four palms!" and again. "Eight palms!" now Kakashi kicked the ground and flew off her reach. "Thirty-two palms!" she jumped in his direction, faster than before, but the jounin still got out of the way.

She inhaled a deep breath and shouted the final strike. "Sixty-Four palms!"

Kakashi wasn't dumb enough to stand in the way of that shit, so he parried the arm away with his Icha Icha and rolled to his other side. The sheer strength of the attack broke a tree in the way of Hinata's palm and mangled the soil under it, yet Kakashi just appeared behind her and put his hands on each side of her neck.

He said only one word. "Dead."

And in a real fight, she would be. He could snap her neck with ease from this position. Defeated, Hinata's arms fell limply to her sides and she looked down, panting and trembling from the effort.

Kakashi saw that and messed her hair up. "Don't be ashamed, it was a nice showing and one which made me reach a conclusion—you're flexible and agile as you chakra nature hints and, for that, the basic Gentle Fist doesn't suit you at all," her head snapped up, looking at him with wide eyes. "The only time you made any advance at all was before the Sixty-Four Palms when you began to act by instinct."

Hinata shook her head. "But the Elders instructed me to—"

Kakashi cut her with a sharp look. "I'm not the Elders. Take everything they tried to tell you, crunch it in a nice little ball and tell them to fu—" he stopped himself and coughed. "I mean, throw it away. You're not the Hyuuga heiress here, Hinata, you're my soldier and, for my life, I will make sure that you survive in the field."

I could see the willpower burning behind his visible eye. "And no Elder will be in my way as I do that, I can assure you."

And they ask me why I respected that man.

To disregard the Hyuuga's teachings like that—to the heiress' face, no less, hell. Balls of steel, people, balls of steel. Hinata was a little happier when she sat at my side again and I tried to find any kind word to offer support to her.

I had never been very good at it, but hey.

"Nice going, Hinata-chan."

Hinata shook her head. "I couldn't even touch him."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and answered for me. "Of course you couldn't, you're a genin and he's a jounin—he could take all of us at the same time and win," then he looked to me, "maybe not all of us, no. So, you know, he's our teacher—just pay attention and you will be much better in no time. I know I will be."

My expression soured remembering exactly Hinata had said before. "Just one thing. Kakashi is completely right—fuck the Hyuuga's traditions. You need to adapt, Hinata-chan, to learn jutsus outside the clan, even a new fighting style. You don't have to submit to them."

She didn't answer us, just nodded and fell into a thoughtful silence.

"Sasuke," Kakashi called, "your turn."

Sasuke jumped to his feet and calmly walked to the center of the field. I admit that I was curious to see how he would do, after all, he was the one I sparred with time and time again.

Kakashi began the altercation with a punch, which Sasuke blocked and returned fire with a kick against his mid-section. Kakashi parried it by raising his shin and began an exchange of strikes that the Uchiha was hard pressed to block or dodge.

Again, the Interceptor Fist showed his weaknesses without a Sharingan.

Sasuke wasn't going down easily, though. After a few seconds of fighting, he took an elbow on the chest and understood that a frontal attack wouldn't do shit against Kakashi. He jumped back, making some hand-seals and inhaling deeply.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He yelled and spat a big ball of fire out of his mouth, the flames burning brightly while they roared in Kakashi's direction.

His fireball was smaller than I remembered from Itachi but still, damn impressive for his age and chakra reserves. A move like that could maim or kill almost all the genins I knew—too bad that Kakashi-sensei wasn't a green little genin.

While the fire was raging on, Sasuke went into the offensive again by throwing a number of shurikens in the direction he thought Kakashi was—I could even see the wires attached to them. When he felt it making contact, he pushed the wires with his mouth and made them tighten, preparing yet another jutsu.

"Stop," Kakashi's said and appeared by his side with a kunai pointed to his neck. The fire died down and a carbonized log was lying there, cut by the wires that Sasuke had used to make the trap.

Defeated, Sasuke sighed and let the wires fall from his mouth, bowing to his sensei before he went to pick them and Kakashi passed his judgment about the fight.

"It was the Interceptor Fist, no? Good style, but too heavily based on the Sharingan. We could make a few tweaks here and there to make you more efficient with it, but I want you to read about the Shunshin no Jutsu," Kakashi said and gave him a thumbs up. "Good thinking about the trap, though."

Sasuke just grunted, pocketed his wires and shurikens and sat again at our side. Kakashi looked at me, then at the field, and made a gesture. Almost lazily, I extended my hand to the fire still burning in the ground and closed it in a fist, snuffing the flames out.

"Now, the firecracker," Kakashi said with an eye-smile.

"Showtime's on, then," I said, grinning viciously at him and going to the center of the field.

There was no order to go. He came at me with a kick and I picked his leg under my arm, trying to elbow the knee to disable him. Faster than I could react, Kakashi spun and clashed a foot on my neck with his other leg, the sheer impact making me roll to the side.

He tried to stomp me while I was down and I rolled to dodge, then tried to kick his thigh. Kakashi must have seen it coming, because he jumped and fell all over me, using the momentum to slam an elbow on my solar plexus.

Coughing, I sent a weak punch in the direction of his head—a punch he dodged before he jumped back to his feet. When I stood up, still out of breath, Kakashi was already attacking back—almost everything I tried, he just blocked or dodged, and every strike he sent in answer connected inside my guard.

Backing down, I shook my head to clear the cobwebs and ran in his direction, trying to tackle him in the ground where I could subdue him.

Kakashi weathered the charge with his own strength, stopping my momentum and punching my ribs. I saw what he was doing, then—he knew that my natural strength was leagues ahead of his, so he was using chakra to make himself stronger, faster and more resistant

Before I could escape, he kneed me in the belly and took the breath out of my lungs for the second time along with some ribs. He bent down, picked me by the waist and lifted my body out of the ground—then spun and slammed me face-first in the earth.

I still stood up after that, wiping the blood from my forehead.

Kakashi stopped the fight for a second, though. He touched the bark of a tree and whispered something, then a dome of energy went up around us—trapping the part of the field we were away from the part where Sasuke and Hinata were.

I looked at them, Hinata with her hands crossed over her mouth and wide eyes, Sasuke with a bead of sweat trailing down his forehead. They weren't prepared to see that.

"Stop taking it easy," Kakashi said and began lifting his headband. "Didn't I teach you anything, Naruto? You must come at me with the intent to kill or you will lose. Where is that fire, that rage? Come here!"

"I will fucking show you," I said as my broken ribs resettled with a click.

"This is it!" Kakashi said, exposing his Sharingan fully to me for the first time that day. "No kiddie gloves anymore, time to let it go and show me what you've got, boy, because I am not impressed yet!"

"Then burn!" I shouted and twisted my hand in his direction, letting a column of fire thick as a tree trunk eat its way to him. Kakashi looked like he would be hit—then he disappeared.

I closed my eyes.

Kakashi was leagues faster than me—he was the student of the Yellow Flash after all. Even then, I could still hear him. I could feel the heat of his body moving, I could pick up his scent and, every movement he did, I felt the air moving from it on my skin.

I rolled to my side and punched the ground to create a barrier of Adamantine, stopping the hail of kunais and shurikens coming at me—they clinked as they slammed on my defense, falling harmlessly to the ground. Then I blocked a kick from Kakashi with my forearm.

It hurt—no kiddie gloves alright.

Trying to locate him by his smell and sound, the only clue I had of where he had gone after the first attack was the punch I felt on my back. I turned to his direction, creating a kunai to attack him, but he was already moving.

The heel of his sandal slammed on my gut with the power of a battering ram, making me roll until I crashed on a rock. Shaking my head, I created a bunch of Adamantine chains with my chakra and threw against Kakashi—he dodged every one of them, breaking some with a hand coated in Raiton, then came to my direction again.

Kakashi began his offensive with a kick against the side of my body. I blocked it, but the strength of the attack made me stumble—so I jumped back just in time to avoid a punch and created a spear of Adamantine, which I threw to his head.

Kakashi picked it up with ease.

"Got you, bastard," I said and commanded the form of the spear to change, now being something like a tentacle that began snaking around the hand and arm he used to pick it. He gave me an almost amused look and made a fast round of hand-signs, which he finished by holding the wrist constrained by the Adamantine tendril.

I heard the chirping of a thousand birds.

"I know your Adamantine is weaker if it isn't in contact with your body, Naruto," Kakashi said and pure Raiton chakra flared alive in his hands, destroying my construct like it was nothing.

"But now I can hear you coming," I said, smiling as I focused on the Chidori's sound.

"You can," Kakashi said and the Chidori shone brighter and brighter. "Even more because this isn't a normal Chidori and I am surprised that you can't see the difference. See, the thing about lightning is that if you do a little change here and there…"

The brightness was almost blinding and just keep rising, more and more, the sound going up in volume along with it. I hadn't seen that before, maybe a new jutsu? It was looking more and more dangerous with each second.

"You see, lightning is just one thing," Kakashi said, "the prelude of thunder."

I screamed when the energy in his hand detonated like a thunderclap. It was too much—too much light and sound ripping my eardrums apart. I feel to one knee, my eyes hold shut and my hands over my ears as I felt blood dripping through my fingers.

How fucked up someone who can't hear his own screams must be?

Kakashi kicked me in the chin and I was sent flying through a tree. If I could pinpoint the moment, that had been it. Something just snapped inside me—I stopped thinking of Kakashi as a person, I stopped thinking of him as my sensei just as I felt my throat reverberating with a growl.

Enemy. Prey.

Spots danced on my vision as I got to my feet—the rest of it being a red haze. I saw three Kakashi coming at me. Clones. First one who went closer I punched a hole in his chest, then swung it to break the second. The third I caught by his neck and let out a stream of flames, hot enough to pulverize the stone it was made of.

Iwa Bunshin. No smell, no heat—just stone and earth. Clever.

Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, but I didn't care. I roared to the sky and shoved my hands into the ground, feeling my raw chakra coursing through them. A maelstrom of fire engulfed the field as I raised my hands—ripping apart everything as far as the eye could see in a tornado of heat and destruction.

I ripped the forest apart and was just too mad to care.

I let the fire die down when the smell of burned meat didn't come to me. My eardrums went back to working order with a pop and I looked around, teeth bared and my hands balled into fists. The entire field was nothing but ashes now, but still no Kakashi.

When he came from under the earth, I had his scent. I didn't let him even fully get out of the ground and pounced, my hands holding his neck—which made a cracking sound as soon as I got there and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Shadow Clone—these had a scent.

The Shadow Clone disappeared, but the Exploding Tag it was holding didn't. It detonated—more light, more sound, not enough to do the same as that Chidori, but enough to add fuel to my anger. More, even, when I saw the real Kakashi leaving the earth far, far away from me.

"You are angry, no? That's okay, I want you to be angry," I heard him saying even as I speed in his direction with the fire around my hands tearing trenches behind me. "I don't want the ANBU Kitsune, I want the beast you have deep inside—the monster, the reaper of Aogashima. Come here!"

He slapped his hands on the ground and created walls of earth between us—I barreled right through them, dust and shattered rocks scattering all around me. After the last one, there were two jounins—more clones. Adamantine chains exploded from my back, ripping through one version of him and whipping the other with their barbed end.

Both went up in smoke.

"I didn't come to fight you without being prepared Naruto," I couldn't pinpoint where Kakashi's voice was coming from. "I know that, one on one and in close quarters, in a battle of attrition, you are practically invincible—but we are ninja. We never fight one on one and we never let the enemy choose the ground."

The real Kakashi appeared behind me, stabbing his kunai in my back more times than I could count. Blood welled up my throat as I lost focus and my chains disappeared. I turned to him, a fist raised to pummel that fucker down, but he caught my wrist and his kunai worked its magic on me—stabs under the sternum, then between the ribs, then the neck. Shoulders. I screamed as I felt the blade ripping me apart.

As he was coming and closer to carving my face, I put all the strength I still had behind the arm he was holding and, even within his grip, I brought it down—right on his face. The impact sent him shooting back, breaking a tree in half before he could substitute himself with a log, his kunai now lying on my feet.

"Still want me angry?" I roared, the blood dripping down my face and chest as I felt my organs regrowing and skin knitting together, it hurt. "Still want the monster?!"

"Yes," I heard his muffled voice—broken jaw, probably— saying in the distance. "Exactly what I want. Anger only cloud your mind, Naruto."

Something began sizzling at my feet and I looked to the kunai he let fall, still red with my blood and bits of me scattered all around. Then I saw all the Exploding Tags around the handle.

No, not Exploding Tags. Stunning Tags. Light and sound.

"Oh you motherfucker—" I began, but they went on and I heard no more. It was the same thing he did with the Chidori, fucked up the insides of my ear, fucked up my eyes, but I wouldn't take it lying low anymore.

I didn't hear myself roaring, but I still could smell. He was close.

I went after him. Clone after clone appeared in my way and I tore them apart, uncaring if they were the true Kakashi or not. Walls of earth were raised and I broke them with my own body, I needed to reach him, I needed to catch him—to hurt him. Prey.

When I heard a Chidori, I knew I was close—so I jumped in the direction of the noise.

I tore through another clone before I felt an excruciating pain on my back as his hand went through my chest—ripping through sternum and heart and arteries. I regained my vision and hearing just as my thorax exploded open, his hand going through my insides like a knife through butter.

"I wanted you angry because when you are angry, you stop thinking," Kakashi said in my ear as his hand still crackled with electricity. "Because when you are thinking—when you have your head on the game, you are dangerous. In this state, though, you are just a beast. A powerful beast, but an easy one to take down nonetheless, because you stopped using your fucking mind, Naruto! You lose."

Blood went through my lips to drench my throat and I made a gurgling sound. It took some seconds until my throat reformed enough for Kakashi recognize the sound as a laugh, my smile almost splitting my face in two.

"What are you laughing about?"

I looked at him the best I could from the corner of my widened eyes.

"No, no loss, sensei," I said, my laugh being more a cackle than anything. Just as the chain I had created and sent under the earth came behind Kakashi and poked him in the back of his neck. "Ain't no need of my spinal column and my body to control them, sensei—I will survive the Chidori, but can you survive this? Wanna to raise me your aces?"

The lightning from the Chidori doubled in intensity and I growled through gritted teeth as more blood came from my mouth. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me screaming—my enemy. Enemy. I needed to win.

"Stop with that, Naruto," he hissed, his free hand holding my jaw and forcing my head to the side. He was panting and sweating, but still strong—strong enough to break my neck.

Or to make me see how Hinata and Sasuke were, both pale and banging on the barrier while screaming things I couldn't hear. "The fight is over! Do you want them to see you like that, Naruto? Like a damned animal? You can be one of the best, the best, but you need to think!"

He brought his hand back from my chest. "Can you see I want to help you, brother?"

He stepped back and let my body fall to the ground, his words being worse than the Chidori to the chest. As I felt the pain of my heart and my skeleton growing back, nerves flaring alive and sending signals of white-hot agony through me, I closed my eyes.

"You're right," I said, my voice calmed and barely shaking. "You won, sensei. I am sorry."

He closed his eyes, breathing deeply. "I know, Naruto, I know. Let us meet our friends back, yes?" Kakashi said, his voice now sounding far away to me, to where he was taking the barrier down—what was I thinking, I hadn't know if the barrier could take that maelstrom of fire in stride or how they would see it.

It was just my luck that they couldn't hear me, or see my face until now. I didn't want to scare them.

Hinata was the first reach me. "Naruto-kun! Are you alright?"

Sasuke came to my side, putting my arm around his shoulder and helping me back to my feet.

"I am good, Hinata-chan, I am good," I said, my hand covering the almost-healed hole in my chest. Couldn't cover all the blood and ripped pieces of me scattered all around us, though, but it was a beginning. "Now I am good."

After fussing a bit over my wounds, Hinata turned back to Kakashi, her voice cold and with an edge sharper than any blade. She had her hands on her hips and was looking each inch the heiress she was. "What are you thinking, sensei? You were ripping into each other here! I was thinking that Naruto-kun was deaf, or blind, or even dead! And you! I had my Byakugan on and thought he had killed you!"

"You sure you are alright?" Sasuke whispered to me.

"I am alright and I think it's the best moment of my life."

I spat a mouthful of blood on the ground and shook my head, scratching my chest and the new skin over there.

Kakashi looked at Hinata as the glow of the medical jutsu he was applying to his face disappeared. He sighed but didn't give an inch. "I wanted to show you a fight like that—like what I will prepare you three for. Prepare you for the people like him that are outside our walls and for fights like these," he then pointed to the horizon. "Our enemies are out of there, Hinata, with their hands itching for fresh blood—your blood. I will train you, I will teach you, I will make you three in the meanest soldiers I can, and I will do that because I will be damned before I let anyone here die."

Kakashi then looked right at me. "And now, you see why I need to."

After he said that, there was silence.

I knew why he had done that—first, to show them how the things were out of here, a battle to death just because he knew I could take it. The second option was a suspicion I had since the night I told them my story—he did that for dominance. Kakashi wanted to show why he was the team commander and not me, as I can look damn fucking invincible when I am telling the story.

He needed to show them the error of their ways. Kakashi showed that even a more powerful opponent can still be fought with tactics and cunning.

Now that I had my mind back into my control, I was grateful to him for that. Grateful and ashamed, because his idea of an unstoppable, maddened, and unkillable monster was me.

I gave my teammates a blood-stained smile and felt Hinata forcing a canteen of water through my lips, just as Sasuke gave me a pat on the back. I knew my role on the team, now.

I was to be their monster, through and through.

Looking to Hinata's worried look as I drank mouthful after mouthful of the water she gave me—no matter how you look at it, regrowing a heart could make someone very thirsty—it wasn't too bad. Not by half.

Even if only so I could protect them from people like me.

Time went on. Weeks were gone past faster than we could think about them, dissolving in a haze of training and D-rank Missions. The team was coming together nicely, now that they finished the tree-walking and were working on the water version. Kakashi focused my training in polishing my Taijutsu and meditation, something I really needed to work on.

Deep inside me, though, I still had a bunch of bad feelings about him.

I resented Kakashi. For that fight, for that humiliation, because he made me scare Hinata and Sasuke just so he could teach a lesson to them.

Because he made you lose, a voice I was trying to ignore repeated, because he put your weakness on display.

I took a drink of my beer and did my best to bury that idea.

"Hey Genma, how are your team going?" Asuma asked the jounin who had just arrived at our table in the Crooked Kunai. Genma was a young, twenty-something, brown-haired guy who had a reputation of being deadly with weapons and always had a senbon hanging from his mouth.

Genma sat with us and made a gesture for the barman. "A fucking catastrophe. I gave them a chance after they blew up the test, but I will need to send them all back to the Academy. Waste of time, I tell you."

"Can't be so bad," I said, drinking a bit of my beer. "Can they?"

"Not a damn wart on the devil's arse of a chance for 'em," Genma took a long drink and swirled the senbon around his lips. "I took Kakashi's idea and did the bell test, see, so when they band together right before me, I am here just thinking—oh bollocks, they can't be so dumb to think they can take me down in an all-out fight."

He stopped talking for a second to rub his eyes, I picked up a cigarette with Asuma and waited for the dude to come back from his funk. "But they are, oh they are. One cocky little shit even said that I shouldn't fight with my senbon here in my mouth, the bloody wanker."

I snorted and Asuma laughed as Genma waved his hands for us to let it out before he got back to the story. I will never, ever, understand why a genin would be so damn stupid to think he could win a fight with a jounin.

Asuma was the first to control himself enough to ask. "What you answered him with?"

"Spat the senbon right on his bollocks. Lightly, mind you, just a prick on his prick."

"Oh fuck you," I shouted and slapped my hand over my eyes. "This joke just stinks."

"The lady at the hospital must have thought the same about the kid after he shat himself," Genma smiled and swirled the sake in his cup, taking his time for Asuma to stop laughing. "What's with you, big fella? How is the life going with the Ino-Shika-Cho brats? They measure up to the old gang?"

Asuma shrugged and exhaled a plume of smoke. "Can't say yet, but I know they are good people. That guy, Shikamaru, is smart as they come and I think I can get Ino out of her fan girl state—she raved and ranted all the time on the first day because Sasuke was looking like a corpse on the graduation."

"My fault," I raised my beer to him. "First time I brought the fella here, had a bit too much."

"Yeah, I had my suspicions," Asuma said. "Chouji is a bit on the meek side, but I think they can be good to go after some workout and when they come into their roles, yes."

I didn't doubt him. I hadn't had much experience with Ino except getting the hell away from her, but Chouji had a good heart and Shikamaru was just scarily smart. He could give you a look and understand exactly what you would do, ten steps ahead of everyone.

"And you, red eyes?" Genma brought me out of my thoughts. "Troubles in paradise with Team Seven?"

"You really should be asking Kakashi," I answered, taking a sip of my beer.

Genma scoffed. "Oh, we all know he is the boss, but you aren't exactly a genin, are you?"

"Look, fellas, I shouldn't—hey Kakashi!" I waved to him as I caught his scent entering through the doors. Kakashi walked in our direction, waving his book lazily as a greeting. "We were just talking about you."

"All lies," he said, picking up a chair and closing his book. "Yo, Genma, Asuma."

"Kakashi," Asuma said and Genma raised his cup to him. "Naruto was just saying how he couldn't talk about his team and all without you go-to order, so spill—how are things shaping up within Team Seven?"

I called the barman to bring a beer to Kakashi and set alight the cigarette Asuma gave me, waiting for our sensei to answer. Kakashi scratched his chin and looked at Genma with an eye smile.

"Can't complain, they are learning fast. We are already with the basics almost down and you all know what we can expect from this one here," Kakashi said, picking his beer and waving it in my direction. "I am thinking that after a week or two from now, they will be ready for me to blood them."

"What's is that I am hearing about bleeding?" someone shouted in a loud and chipper voice. I knew who she was and cursed under my breath for being distracted enough to miss her coming next to us. "'Ruto! Look at you, it has been ages!"

Mitarashi Anko glomped me like a freight train and almost knocked me out of the chair. "You keep getting bigger and bigger! How will ol' little me keep calling you brat if you are taller than Kakashi?"

"His own fault he is a midget," I said, my voice muffled by her… assets.

Anko was very easy in the eyes, what with the mesh and that trenchcoat of hers. She had purple hair and strange, but beautiful, brown eyes without pupils. We had met in the Forest of Death a long, long time ago and our status as outcasts made for a fast friendship between us.

"Easy here, Anko," Genma said as I desperately waved my arms to someone to save me from her vice grip. She always had been quite lively with the people she liked. "You will suffocate the lad with your breasts if you keep going like that."

"But what a way to go," Kakashi said under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

Anko pouted, but let me go. I took a deep breath, dramatically.

"Hello, Anko-chan," I smiled and kissed her cheek, giving her a more sedate hug.

She smiled back and went to slap Genma on the top of his head. "Don't you go talking like that, you are just envious because no one wouldn't want to hug you like that, even if you were shitting gold and spitting diamonds."

"How rude," Genma said and laughed.

"Fuck you. So, boys, why didn't you call me to this meeting?" Anko turned to look at the other guys and crashed down on my lap. "O~oh, muscles, nice! What are we talking about here?"

"Just team talks, how the boys are going and why the village is doomed after we put it on these youngsters hands," Asuma gave me a look. I answered with my middle finger, then he took a drag of his cigarette and motioned in Anko's direction. "When are you taking a team, anyway? It's almost time."

"Heavens forbid! I am good as I am now with the Torture and Interrogation, thank you very much" Anko said, stretching herself all over me like a cat. I knew that was just a game between us, so I didn't react in the slightest. "But my friend here is taking her first one this year," she waved her hand up in the air. "Hey, Nai-chan, I am here!"

"Who the fuck is Nai?" I whispered in her ear.

Before she could answer, we heard someone coming in our direction.

"Anko, I was looking for you everywhere, here's your drink and—" she stopped talking when she saw me. Oh fuck. Of course, of course Anko's Nai-chan would be the fucking Kurenai Yuuhi, the woman I had short-changed by bringing Hinata into Team Seven.

"Uzumaki Naruto," she said. Kurenai was a bombshell—all curves and long legs, with a hair black as the midnight and red eyes that made me think of the Sharingan. Red eyes which were narrowed and appeared to be warm and welcoming as a fucking glacier.

These eyes told me, if her expression wasn't enough of a clue already, that no, she didn't like me in the slightest.

"Kurenai," I said, taking a deep breath from my cigarette. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Isn't it?" she answered, her voice still sharp. Poor Anko looked back and forth without understanding what had happened between us. "I don't generally believe in rumors, but word has it that Hinata not being on Team Eight as she was guaranteed to, has to do with you. Is that true?"

"You should ask the Hokage," I said. Anko got up from my lap and picked up a chair, looking at us with wide eyes. "I wouldn't know, I am just a genin here."

"Don't give me that crap!" Kurenai shouted, giving me a glare. "Hokage-sama has all but said that and I talked to Hinata too, I know that it was you who convinced the Sandaime to put her on your team. What possessed you to do that?"

I glared back at her with narrowed eyes. "Reckon you should watch your tone with me, Yuuhi."

"Hey people, calm down!" Genma said, trying to end things before they went ugly. "Kurenai, you can't blame him—as he said, it was Hokage-sama's decision. Even then, as Kakashi was saying to us, the team is going swimmingly. Hell, Kakashi is even thinking of letting their do their first kill—"

"Genma shut the fuck up!" I shouted a second too late.

Kurenai turned to Kakashi with hell written all over her face.

"Is this true, Hatake?" she asked and Kakashi nodded. "Are you out of your mind? They have been with you for weeks—weeks! They can't be ready for killing people yet, Hatake! For god's sake, they are fourteen, they are children! We are not at war anymore!"

Kakashi had enough.

Calmly, he raised himself from his seat and gave the woman a withering stare. "If I feel any need to hear your opinion about my teaching methods, jounin Yuuhi, I will ask for you to give it," he said, looming over her and looking every bit the Sharingan no Kakashi that people told stories about. "I will let you go off the hook easy because you're new, but don't kid yourself, I have seniority over you and everyone here who is not called Sarutobi. I know what I am doing. When they put that hitae-ate, they left their childhood behind them to become ninjas."

Their silent war went on until Kurenai looked away and took a step back. Without giving off a hint of satisfaction about it, Kakashi got back to his chair. "For you, they can be children, but when they graduated—they became soldiers. My soldiers, Yuuhi, and don't you forget that."

I couldn't help myself and smiled at the scene, satisfied with the dressing down Kakashi did.

Like she had sensed it, Kurenai turned to me, the anger from Kakashi's slap on the wrist boiling over and, in her eyes, finding someone she could take it up with.

"You are liking that, aren't you? A little genin hiding behind Kakashi's back, thinking you are so damn smart. We will see if you are still smiling when everything goes wrong because, in the field, Kakashi can't protect everyone—if you fail, just because you are too damn arrogant, your teammates will pay the price and you will have blood on your hands, Uzumaki" Kurenai said, walking closer than me.

Then she leaned over the table and looked right into my eyes. "And I will say now. If Hinata is the one who gets hurt because you saw fit to act recklessly like you are the Shodaime reincarnated in flesh, I will make you pay."

"Oh fuck," I heard Genma whispering as Kurenai jerked back like she had been burned.

"Felt that, girl? That is what happens when the Genjutsu you tried to put on me burns to fucking ashes," I said slowly, my voice barely louder than a whisper. "Oh, you are new and don't know about me, girl, but you just made a mistake here. Wanna tell me about blood in my hands like you fucking know something about it? Wanna tell me how to protect my Hinata?" I bared my fangs, a low growl going up my throat. "Fuck you."

I put my beer back on the table—bubbles going all over the bottle's neck and the liquid boiling—then felt the cigarette on my lips disintegrating into ashes and sparks as I got up from my seat and walked to Kurenai.

"Wanna know why I brought Hinata on my team? Wanna point fingers? Yeah, I point mine to you now," I said, my face inches from her. I felt a hand on my shoulder pulling me back and shrugged it off. "I did it because I don't trust you. You fashion yourself the new Itachi? I fought the old one and you don't come even close to him, barely a silly imitation with smoke and mirrors. I asked the Hokage to put her on my team because I think you are weak, girl, and you didn't prove me wrong yet with that display."

"And who are you to say that? Who died and make you the boss, genin? I am trying to protect Hinata because I know her—I don't know you, but what I am seeing here is a boy who is too angry for his own good," she shot back, sustaining my stare. "There are some problems here inside your head and you want me to trust you with Hinata? I think no."

"She is on my team, Kurenai. I don't need you to trust me with anything," I said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, your team, your Hinata, say you?" Kurenai said, taking a step forward with a scowl on her face. "Silly me, here I was thinking that Team Seven was Kakashi's team."

I growled in annoyance.

I finally heard the people on the table calling for us to stop with it. Kurenai was still staring at me with fire on her eyes and the table was smoking where I was touching it.

Genma had his face between his hands repeating fuck me over and over and Asuma was looking right at Kurenai, concern clear on his expression.

I felt my hands clenching and my overpowering chakra coursed through my body—who was she to say I wouldn't be able to take care of my own? Fuck her. Fuck her. Who was that bitch to dare to say I would fail? My canines began growing. I wanted to rip that smile off her face, to show her exactly who she was messing with, I wanted to—

To show her how much weaker than me she was.

I reeled back and crashed down into my chair with my eyes wide and an ugly feeling in my chest, paler than I ever remembered myself being before. I was close, so close, to doing to Kurenai the thing I despised most in the world—to hurt her, bully her because I was strong and she was not. To prove her as weak.

I looked back to the red braid on my wrist and Kakashi's words on the end of our fight echoed back in my mind.

I needed to control myself—I couldn't let myself go off the handle. I couldn't become like these people I hated.

What the fuck was happening to me?

"That's enough, Naruto," Kakashi said, putting a hand on my shoulder and giving Kurenai a glacial stare. "Time for you to go."

His tone said everything—it was an order, for both of us. I looked away from Kurenai and took a deep breath, fishing around my pockets for another cig and trying to calm my shaking hands.

"I think I have overstayed my welcome here," Kurenai said, straightening her dress and giving me a scathing look. "There is something dangerous behind your eyes, boy, and it's no Nine-Tailed Fox. You remember what I said about Hinata and god help you all, because that what I saw here isn't something who can protect her. See you, Anko, Asuma, Hatake."

"Go," Kakashi said, his tone still low and his eye narrowed.

Kurenai had thrown the first punch and I wasn't wrong for answering in kind—just my reasons were. If it had been a fight because she threw that Genjutsu, if it had been to fight to show her how wrong she was, I would be all for it. Somewhere in the middle, though, I just wanted to hurt her. To make her know that she couldn't win against me.

Hell, it made me remember Kakashi's fight—how I had scared Hinata for nothing.

And let me tell you, Yuuhi was no Kakashi to take head-on what I could deal.

Kurenai turned to the exit and went away, her composure set again in place. She didn't look back to us. I rubbed the bridge of my nose and thought about what she said—and about what I almost had done—as Kakashi gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze and got back to his chair.

I felt a warm hand holding mine and turned to look at Anko.

"Are you alright, 'Ruto? Nai-chan was out of line there, she shouldn't have done that," she said, anger at what happened clear in her eyes.

I took a deep breath and shook my head. "No, she shouldn't."

"For what is worth, I am proud of you. You hadn't any obligation to back down after the Genjutsu, you could have destroyed her here, but for what reason? Nai-chan was just worried about Hinata-chan, she just met you today and saw an enemy here," Anko said and crouched by my side. "I love you like a brother, 'Ruto, and I am proud of you for being the better man this time. I know how it is to feel angry, to want to make people pay, but you're better than that."

She gave me a sloppy kiss on the cheek, then smiled.

"Hold it in mind, okay? Now, can you give your big sis' Anko a smile?"

I looked back to the people at the table and felt the weight of their stares upon me. Shit, I really had almost done it, hadn't I? Feeling like I was all-powerful and all-righteous, drunk on myself, it wasn't like me at all. Not at all.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, no?

"I will try to, Anko-chan, I will try," I said, giving her a small smile and pulling her closer to me.

"See that you do," Asuma said and offered me another cigarette. "Let's change the subject, yeah? What's that I heard about you, a nun and a donkey, Genma? Care to enlighten us about that?"

Genma coughed and all of them laughed as Anko spat a bunch of beer right at his face, but the laughter didn't reach Kakashi's eye—he knew me better than everyone here, and I would bet he knew how close to do something regrettable I had been. His expression held a warning—you aren't on ANBU anymore, control yourself or else.

Kakashi always did gave me much leeway but, now, he was putting his foot down.

I knew the reason, then—that fight between us hadn't happened just so he could teach Sasuke and Hinata. He was trying to teach me, to show me why I needed to be better.

Look underneath the underneath.

The bad feelings faded as I raised my bottle to Kakashi in a salute.

There wouldn't be any doubt about who was the team's boss after that.

Kakashi took his time. He wanted to make sure they were prepared the best they could be before we headed out of Konohagakure for the mission. We had cleared the air between us nicely with a round of drinks and some slapping around—men thing, you understand—and we were back on the same page again.

Even then, I was surprised when he asked me if I thought they were ready.

He took my answer to heart and was gone to talk with the Hokage. Jiji knew it was coming, how couldn't he? You don't go and put an ex-ANBU on the command of a bunch of children, especially one like Kakashi, who would protect them or die trying. At least you don't do it without being prepared to give some concessions like that.

The wind blew my hair back on the ponytail it was on. I didn't feel the cold of the night, but just because I was a veritable furnace all times—a thing my teammates had taken notice of, as they were close to me. Especially Hinata.

Not that I had any complains, mind you.

Kakashi would make a final debriefing of what we had talked about the plan he made with Sasuke and what we had trained to go—trained and trained and trained again. We all had our tactical gear with us, plenty of kunais and shurikens. Ready to put the plan into motion.

"It's your first time in a mission out of the walls of the village," Kakashi said, seriousness clear in his voice. "There will be no errors today and we will come back together, or no one will. It's a routine mission, just clearing up a small bandit camp, but I want every shred of focus you lot have with me today."

He extended the map on the ground before us. "Let us review what we have planned for this—Hinata will be with me, entering from here," he pointed to the position in the south of the map, "and Sasuke is with Naruto coming from here," then he pointed to the north of the area we knew the camp was.

"Now, raise a hand who hadn't killed someone before," Kakashi ordered and, after a second of hesitance, the only raised hand was Sasuke's own. He gave a questioning look to Hinata, who I saw almost hiding behind me.

"Story for another time, Sasuke," I whispered in his ear. "Just let it go."

Kakashi took it in stride. "Sasuke, I will not mince words here—this night can very well be your first kill. As I am with Hinata, I want you obeying every order given by Naruto and acting like what you are, a ninja, serious and with your head on the game. Can you do that for me?"

Sasuke nodded to Kakashi, his jaw stubbornly set.

"Good, the same goes to you, Hinata, and you, Naruto. If I say time to go, it's fucking time to go, I am understood? Alright. Let's pick the pace because I want it done before the sunrise. We are goddamn shinobi, people, so let's work in the shadows."

He jumped into the trees and we followed him. That was our first mission outside the village and I could smell the fear and excitement coming from Hinata and Sasuke clearer than everything else. The adrenaline coursing through their veins as we went to do our baptism of fire as a team. Because with Team Seven, it was always all or nothing, and no one would give less than his full effort into doing what's needed to be done.

There was too much in the stake for any other option.

Despite myself, I smiled.

Welcome back, Naruto, the night whispered to me, welcome home.

The world was laid bare before us and the hunt was on.

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