Chapter 6
The Bad and The Good

Naruto huffed and angrily crossed his arms over his chest when his dad dumped him on his hospital bed. Being carried around like a sack of potatoes was fun when he was two, but it wasn't all that fun now that he was twelve. And his dad just had to do it in a public place, in front of his friends and some of their dads.

"What was that for?" Naruto pouted furiously.

"I need to talk to you and that seemed the fastest way to get you out of there." His father slid shut the door and shrugged. "With other visitors to distract them it seemed like the perfect opportunity."

"What do you need to talk to me about?" Naruto asked warily.

His dad didn't immediately answer. Instead he pulled a small notebook and pencil out of his pocket and settled down on the chair that he'd permanently parked next to the bed. He looked calm and serious—very Hokage-like.

Uh-oh…

"I wish that I didn't have to ask, but I've put this off long enough," he sighed. "Naruto, I need to know what happened after Shikamaru-san fell back to engage Tayuya up to when Rock Lee took over the battle with Kimimaro, and your pursuit and fight with Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto shivered and hugged himself. He didn't want to remember. It was so awful. And he was just starting to really feel normal again…

But after he told his dad, the Hokage, about it, he could forget it and never speak of it again.

"Okay." Naruto took a few deep breaths and got started. "So Shikamaru sends me on alone after this creepy Kimimaro guy and…"

Shikamaru leaned back in his chair and thought hard. His dad was napping, Ino and her dad and Chouji's dad were chatting with Chouji, and Kiba had shuffled back to the wheelchair he'd rode in on and had Akamaru back in his lap. But he tuned it all out in favor of thinking about Naruto and the Hokage.

It was absolutely bizarre that the Hokage would stop by in person at all—and for no reason other than he seemed to feel like it. That alone was enough to get him thinking. Then Naruto goes and invites him to join their game. That didn't seem too unusual, considering Naruto's total lack of respect—or just lack of proper respect—for authority figures. But the fact that the Hokage accepted, even seemed excited to play with them—kids, genin and a chuunin—didn't quite seem to fit.

Then there was the way that the two interacted. They spoke easily, like they talked together all the time (although, considering Naruto's penchant for pranks back in the Academy, maybe they did talk all the time…). And when the Hokage mentioned some village official that he didn't like, Naruto knew who he was talking about and had even tacked on a mildly insulting nickname: the Mummy Man. When would Naruto have ever met this Danzou character to give him such a moniker?

And to top it off, there was the way that the Hokage had left with Naruto. He tossed the kid over his shoulder like a piece of luggage. It was like watching a dad mess with his kid…

Naruto lives in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. He and the Hokage get along like family. …And they look freakishly alike.

Shikamaru frowned.

If Naruto is related to the Hokage, why don't any of us know about it? Why isn't Naruto yelling it from the rooftops? He certainly won't stop boasting about how he's going to be Hokage someday…so why not add: "just like my dad"?

…Damn it, Naruto! Everything I come up with leads to more questions! Troublesome kid.

When Naruto hit the Valley of the End in his story, he couldn't look at his dad anymore. He dropped his eyes to the tile floor and recounted the events as clearly and calmly as possible. If he didn't, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get through the whole thing.

He also was scared. He'd drawn on a lot of the Kyuubi's chakra, more than he ever had before. The chakra had done something that it hadn't done before. It made him worry that he would be in trouble.

Naruto went over everything that happened. He related what Sasuke said to him. He talked about getting run through the shoulder by the Chidori, getting his neck broken, Sasuke's freakish form granted by the second level of his curse seal, and the final clash in front of the waterfall. And then when he hit the end, he closed his eyes and waited.

His father's calloused hands slid under his arms and lifted him off the bed and plopped him on his lap. Naruto blinked, suddenly staring at the dull green of his dad's flak jacket, and felt arms hugging him. Something shivered inside him, then broke. He choked, he sobbed, and he couldn't stop.

"Naruto," his dad whispered gently. "Shh, it's over now, shh."

"Daddy," Naruto choked, "Sasuke, h-he t-t-tried to k-kill m-me! And-and he s-said th-that we were f-friends!"

"I know, I know."

"Why?" he sobbed, clutching at the edges of his father's Hokage coat.

His dad said nothing, just held onto him and let him cry and get tears and snot and spit all over.

Eventually Naruto wore himself out and quieted down to the occasional hitched breath or watery sniff. He felt sick, his stomach ached and his head throbbed and he could barely breathe through the tears and snot. His father just held him and rubbed his back and said nothing.

The sound of the door scraping open broke the peace of the room and Naruto peered blearily over his shoulder to see a startled nurse standing there. She was holding a lunch tray and had probably been the one to draw the short straw at the nurse's station to bring the Kyuubi-brat his lunch. But to see the Hokage there, that she was clearly not expecting.

"Hokage-sama!" she sputtered and half-bowed. "I-I didn't expect to see you here."

"Hello," he nodded politely to the gray-haired woman. "You can leave that on the table."

The nurse immediately obeyed and started to leave, but hesitated at the doorway. "Is everything alright…with him." The forced concern in her voice was painfully obvious.

"I can handle it," his dad assured the woman and waved her away.

When the door clicked shut, Naruto sagged against his father's chest. "Can I go home now?" he whimpered.

"I'll see if I can pick you up tonight," his dad answered. "You're doing so much better, I can't imagine that Tsunade-sama will say no."

"Okay." He felt better knowing that his hospital stay was finally drawing to an end. "Do I have to eat that?" he muttered, glancing distastefully at the lunch tray across the room. "I'm not really hungry right now."

"You don't have to eat it right away, but I'd like you to eat at least half of it before you go running off to cause chaos in the halls. Can you do that for me?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "I guess."

"Good," he grinned. "Do you feel a bit better now?"

"Yeah," Naruto shrugged.

"Would it be alright if I left for a while? I need to interview Kiba today too."

Naruto swallowed a sigh and nodded, "Uh-huh."

"You sure?" his father asked.

"Yep." He wormed out of his dad's arms and crawled back onto the hospital bed and laid down, his back towards his father. "My head kinda hurts…I think I'll take a nap."

"Alright." His father stood up and patted his back. "I'll see you tonight."

"Bye," Naruto waved.

There was the sound of the door opening and closing and then he was alone.

Naruto lay on his side for a while, staring blankly at the yellow flower that Hinata had given him the day before. After a while he sat up and grabbed the lunch tray that the nurse had brought and half-heartedly picked at it. But he really just wasn't hungry.

Why can't it be tonight already?

Orochimaru was very displeased. He'd sacrificed a great deal—Jirobou, Kidoumaru, Tayuya, Sakon and Ukon, and Kimimaro—to acquire Uchiha Sasuke. And it had all been for nothing.

The Sharingan had almost been his. That most precious kekkei genkai—the ability to see through genjutsu like glass, to predict the moves of his opponent before they made them, to be able to copy any jutsu just by seeing it performed once. That power which he coveted most of all was torn back out of his grasp by a bunch of foolish Leaf genin.

Konoha always got in the way of his ambitions. First it was Sarutobi-sensei's denial of his great talent by handing the title of Hokage onto Jiraiya's student instead of him. Then there was his expulsion from the village due to a few little experiments that he'd been quietly conducting. And now the beautiful and recently endangered Sharingan was kept from his hands.

He hadn't needed Sasuke's body immediately. His darling Kabuto had been able to repair most of the damage that Minato had done to him during the failed Sand-Sound invasion of Konoha. But the sooner he could woo his desired vessel to his side, the better. And after the horrible disappointment of his little strike at his former home, it would've been nice to have a new apprentice…that would one day house his soul and prolong his life.

The Sannin critically studied his bandaged arms with a faint scowl. Minato had used his devastating speed to try and slay his foe, but only succeeded in maiming his arms. Kabuto had used his medical genius to save them, but they were covered in scars and didn't function as wall as they once had. And with Tsunade's refusal to use her greater medical skill to restore him, and Sasuke out of reach for the moment, he only had one option left.

"Kabuto," he purred in his low, silky voice. "Go through the test subjects and find me a suitable replacement vessel, would you?"

"Of course, Orochimaru-dono." Kabuto shoved his round glasses further up the bridge of his nose, and departed.

Orochimaru smiled and ran his long tongue over his lips in anticipation.

In the long run, it didn't matter that his invasion plans had gone awry and that he'd lost a good many ninja who'd joined his cause. It didn't matter that his "hidden village" was little more than a series of holes in the ground in various small countries that he bounced between to avoid being rooted out by other stronger ninja groups. With his kinjutsu to move his soul from body to body, he had all the time in the world to get it right…

Naruto wasn't terribly surprised when it was Kakashi-sensei who showed up to take him home. He was a little disappointed; his dad had been showing up so often that maybe he could pull it off one more time. But it seemed that Hokage business was running late again (like always) so it was one of his teachers to the rescue.

"You look much better, Naruto," Kakashi smiled…or at least it looked like he was smiling. It was hard to tell sometimes with the mask he always wore over most of his face.

"Thanks," Naruto sighed as he yanked a black T-shirt over his head. "I feel a lot better. They coulda let me out a couple days ago."

"I'm sure that they were just being careful," his teacher shrugged and pulled out his infamous orange book.

"Whatever," he snorted and fastened his zori sandals. "Now I can get back to training!"

Kakashi distractedly patted his head. "In a few days."

"Huh?" Naruto scrunched up his face in comical confusion as he pulled his backpack (which contained his worn pajamas and his torn up ninja clothes) over his shoulder.

"You may be released from the hospital, but you haven't been cleared for strenuous activity yet." Kakashi peered over his book with his one visible eye. "And with your training style, even light training is strenuous."

"Wah!" Naruto wailed and grasped at his hair. "How can I ever get to be Hokage if I can't train?!"

"Relax," Kakashi sighed. "I'm sure that it'll only be a few days, and you'll be out of the hospital."

"I'm going to be so bored," Naruto moaned and trudged over to retrieve his flower from the vase.

"Cheer up, think of it as a vacation!" Kakashi smiled. "I wouldn't mind getting some time off. I just got back from a mission and I'll probably leave tomorrow morning on another."

Naruto sagged. "I don't suppose that I could go with you."

"Nope." His sensei glanced up from his book curiously. "Who gave you that flower?"

"Hinata." Naruto walked over to the door of his room. "You don't have to walk me home. I know the way."

"It's no trouble." Kakashi shoved the door open and waved Naruto on ahead. "So Hyuuga Hinata gave you a flower, eh?"

"Yeah, so what?" Naruto squinted suspiciously at his teacher. "He made walking me home a mission, didn't he?"

"No, I'm doing this for free. Now what do you think of this girl?"

Naruto blinked. "Who?"

Kakashi shook his head and sighed. "Hinata, the girl we were just talking about."

"What about her?"

"What do you think about her?"

"She's really dark and timid and weird…but kinda nice." Naruto squinted at the setting sun as they walked out the front doors of the hospital.

"Oh?"

Naruto frowned warily at Kakashi's interested tone. "What?"

"How is she nice?"

"She's just a nice person," Naruto shrugged.

"But what makes you say that?" Kakashi pressed.

"She was nice to me." Naruto stopped walking and scowled at his teacher. "Kakashi-sensei, what's with all the weird—"

"Oh, hello Hinata," Kakashi greeted, looking off to the side and tucking his dirty book under one arm. "Good evening."

Naruto turned and found that Hinata was standing there, half-hidden by a telephone pole and looking very surprised to be noticed. "K-Kakashi-sensei," she half-bowed. "N-N-Naruto-kun. G-good e-evening."

"Hi Hinata!" Naruto cried. "What are you doing?"

She timidly shrank into the shadow of the pole. "W-w-well I-I w-was out f-for a w-walk and…and…"

Frustrated at her barely audible voice and eager to hear what she had to say, he scampered right up to her face and cupped his ear to hear her better. "What was that?"

The girl let out a startled squeak and stumbled backwards, her pale face flushing a fierce red. "N-N-Na—"

"Hey, are you okay?" He reached out and pressed his hand against her forehead to check for a fever. "Your face is really red. Do you have a fever?"

"I-I-I—" Her face was, if possible, getting even redder and she started to sway on her feet.

"Hey, Hinata! Are you ok—erk!" Naruto abruptly found himself yanked backwards by his shirt collar.

"Why don't you run along home, Hinata," Kakashi cheerfully suggested. "It's getting late."

The red-faced girl grasped the offered escape and bolted without another word.

"What was that for?!" Naruto howled and pulled his shirt free. "Why'd you send her away?"

"Does she always react that way when you talk?" Kakashi asked, an odd light in his eye.

"Yeah," Naruto scowled. Not that we talk much…

"Interesting." Kakashi tapped his masked chin thoughtfully before removing the orange book from under his arm and holding it out to Naruto. "Don't let your dad catch with this, and if he does I didn't give to you…but you're going to need it."

Naruto flinched away from the orange cover like it was diseased. "Kyah! Keep your porn to yourself, sensei! I'm twelve, I don't need it!"

"Suit yourself," Kakashi sighed and opened the book to where he'd left off. "If you ever want to borrow it, come see me."

"Bleah!" Naruto shuddered and stalked off towards his house. "You're such a pervert, sensei!"

Kakashi just chuckled at him. Then he giggled at some particularly juicy part of his book. Naruto shivered, scowled, and marched a bit faster.

Why me? Naruto sighed. Kakashi-sensei's such a perv, reading that stuff in front of us like that… And Ero-Sennin's even worse, he writes that stuff! …At least dad's not really into that.

Just as he and his teacher reached the entrance to his neighborhood, they came across Sakura heading home. She'd apparently been to the library as her arms were overloaded with thick, heavy books. Naruto perked up at the sight of his pink-haired kunoichi teammate, but didn't expect much. She'd been so spacey lately, and with her precious Sasuke-kun's fate still undetermined her mind was always stuck on him and not Naruto.

"Sakura-chan!" he cried and waved enthusiastically. "Sakura-chan, hi!"

She paused in her labored shuffle and looked in Naruto's direction. "Naruto? They let you out?"

"Uh-huh." He skittered up to her and studied the pile of books in her arms. The long, complicated titles made his head hurt just looking at them. "What's with all this?"

"I need it to study," she informed him. "Hi, Kakashi-sensei." She would've waved at the teacher, but her hands were very full.

"Good evening, Sakura," Kakashi waved, his eye still on his book.

"Study for what?" Naruto frowned. Then he felt a surge of panic. "Don't tell me that we have a test coming up!"

"No," she snorted. "Tsunade-shisou took me on as an apprentice. I'm studying to be a medic like her."

"Oh, that's so cool!" Naruto gushed. "You're so smart; you'll do awesome Sakura-chan!"

"Thanks," she grunted and shifted the books she was holding a little. "I have to get this stuff home before my arms fall off." The girl started to walk off. "See you later, and take care of yourself!"

"Bye-bye, Sakura-chan!" Naruto waved energetically at her retreating form.

"Bye!" Kakashi added.

And then she was gone.

Naruto bounced with excitement as he continued his trek home. "That's so cool that Tsunade-baa-chan's going to teach Sakura-chan medic stuff. Our team's going to be so much more awesome now!"

"In time, yes," Kakashi agreed. "But it will take a lot of study and practice for her training to start paying off. Being a medical ninja is one of the most demanding specialties, especially in the area of knowledge."

The genin deflated slightly, "Oh."

Another damper on his spirits was Sasuke. Without him, their team was one man short. And now that Sakura was going to undergo special medic training, the team was depleted further. With Kakashi in high demand for A and S-class missions—missions that were too dangerous for genin to tag-along on—Naruto was rather alone.

"Hey, sensei," Naruto frowned as they drew near his front door. "When I'm clear to go on missions again, what'll I do?"

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked and opened the door for him.

Naruto yanked off his sandals and walked inside, depositing his shoes on the little shelf by the door. "Well Sakura-chan's probably going to be busy a lot, and you're busy a lot, and…Sasuke's in trouble…"

"Jiraiya-sama will work with you when I can't," Kakashi answered as he removed his own sandals. "And you'll probably be tacked onto some of your friends' teams as a substitute or extra member for missions." He closed the door and headed for the kitchen, his nose still in his book. "As far as the next Chuunin Exams go, if you sign up for them and Sakura doesn't, you'll probably be lumped with Ino and Chouji…if he's recovered in time."

"The next Chuunin Exams?" Naruto frowned, ditching his bag at the foot of the upstairs with the intent of carrying it up to his room later, and then chasing after his teacher. I hadn't thought that far ahead…

"The Chuunin Exams are held every six months or so, remember? With all the chaos recently with the Sand-Sound incident, the next exam was pushed back a few months…and if I remember right, the Land of Lightning is hosting the next exam." Kakashi set aside his book briefly to dig around in the fridge. "Looks like you need to go shopping, there isn't much in here."

Naruto rolled his eyes and climbed on a counter to peer into the cabinets for instant ramen cups. Selecting a few chicken and beef cups, he started to prepare them. As he was filling the first cup with water, he wondered…

"Kakashi-sensei, do I have to sign up for the next exam?"

Kakashi pulled his head out of the fridge. "Why wouldn't you want to? You did so well last time."

"It just doesn't feel right," Naruto pouted as he waited for the water to boil. "To enter with some other team."

"Naruto, it's very rare for a ninja to stay with their starting genin team throughout the entirety of their career. Unfortunately, teams don't last forever. But at least you have a good chance of working with people you know and get along with." Kakashi patted him on the head as he exited the kitchen with some leftover takeout. "Think of it as broadening your horizons. With different teams the variety of missions you go on will increase."

"I guess," Naruto shrugged and stirred up his instant ramen.

"Don't worry about it now," Kakashi called from another room, and there was the faint sound of the TV turning on. "You have time. Enjoy your days off!"

Naruto just sighed and devoured his instant ramen dinner. I wanna be a chuunin and all… But I don't wanna do it without Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme…