Ok, before you read this, keep in mind that this story isn't about Sakura bashing. She will come into her own eventually, as soon as she gets a little wiser any way. If you want more details, just e-mail me or something.
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Chapter 10:
Naruto was awake, but he didn't open his eyes. He had learned that the best way to avoid drawing attention to yourself in these situations was to make people believe you were still asleep. Before he did anything else, Naruto reached out with his senses and knew that there were two people in the room, and he was in the hospital. Naruto opened his eyes and wasn't surprised to see the Hokage and Kakashi.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he saw that Naruto was awake, though he was pretending to be asleep. He could tell by the slight killing intent that always seemed to radiate off Naruto. Both he and the Hokage noted that even though Naruto had just woken up, and he was obviously trying to gauge danger level and counter it if possible, he was calm. And it wasn't that he was just keeping his cool either. Naruto's average heart rate was forty-five beats a minute, it didn't change. In fact, Naruto was hooked up to a lot of equipment that in turn showed up on a number of monitors next to his bed, none of them read out that he was in any way stressed out.
Kakashi just shook his head as he looked at the Hokage who had noted the same thing. 'The machines can not read Naruto correctly; they were designed to react to the stress of normal people, not monsters like Naruto.' Kakashi and the Hokage visibly winced at the thought, apparently they were thinking along the same lines as each other. Then Naruto opened his eyes.
"So, I guess that I'm alive?" Naruto asked in an almost comical tone as if he didn't believe it. The Hokage gave him a warm smile and nodded.
"It was close, but you will actually be out of here by tomorrow morning. Just in time too, because of the shadow clone, which was a very nice touch by the way, you technically pass, so you're a genin now." The Hokage finished with a smile as Naruto was now slack jawed in his bed. Naruto just sighed and closed his eyes.
It wasn't all that hard to pull off. Naruto didn't have the real scroll; he had actually a blank one. In fact, the Hokage and Kakashi were the only ones that knew of it. When it was brought up about how to get Mizuki to buy that it was the real scroll without him opening it, Naruto proposed that he just show him something that could only come from the scroll itself. The idea wasn't so completely foreign to Naruto, it made sense to him. It was just like when Naruto saw someone buy drugs, or watched some kind of deal go down. You just needed to show a sample and the other party usually assumed that the rest of the goods were there.
Kakashi let a smile slip. At the moment, Naruto looked like a normal boy who had gotten a present. The smile disappeared however as Naruto's face got a serious look to it.
"I spoke to the Kyubi last night." Naruto stated with a blank stare. Both the Hokage and Kakashi froze up for a second, no matter how they had tried, they couldn't prepare for this. "We didn't speak long, but I want to know, why didn't you tell me after I signed the contract?"
Naruto was unnerving right now, he didn't seem mad at all. Sarutobi took a deep breath, "we didn't tell you because we didn't know if it would like it or not. There was a reason that it kept its identity hidden, and we didn't want to piss it off." He said with sincere honesty. Naruto studied him for a moment and nodded.
"So, how long have you known?" Naruto asked hoping to get some insight on as to why his whole life was predestined to be hell, or if it was just chance. The Hokage nodded to Kakashi allowing him to tell Naruto. Kakashi took a deep breath and adopted a sad face.
"Well, we've known your whole life. If your wondering as to if it was just chance, it wasn't." Naruto's eye brow rose at this. "You were chosen personally by the fourth for a couple of reasons. We can't go into them right now, perhaps when you're older, but what I can tell you is that among the reasons you were chosen, one of them was that he was sure that you could take it." Kakashi said this looking Naruto strait in the eye. He wasn't lying either, it was true. You had to be careful when dealing with Naruto, he was practically a human lie detector, he needed to be told the truth, or half truths. Obviously this hurt Naruto as often as it helped him, but in Naruto's eyes it was worth the trade off. Naruto had never had any actual friends, so he never got the concept that people needed to keep secrets, and you needed to be okay with it. In Naruto's world, you had secrets for a reason, and you either openly shared them, or took them to the grave with you. There was no drama bullshit about letting on to the fact that you did have a secret. That was just asking to be tortured.
Naruto's chest swelled slightly in pride before he winced in pain. He would probably never admit it to anyone else, but he was proud. He admired the Fourth Hokage for a great many things, but not the all of the same reasons that everybody else did. Unlike everybody else, he wasn't obsessed with the whole Kyubi thing alone, though he did see it in a new light now. Taking away that the fourth was powerful enough to seal the Kyubi; a lot of people sacrificed themselves that night, what made him so special? Instead, he admired the fourth for the other things he had done. Mostly it was his actions in the last great ninja war. He read of the fourth's legendary flying thunder god technique, him being able to slaughter entire armies with it. While he was sure it was being made a spectacle of, he was also sure that most of it was hidden behind truths. And historical facts did not usually lie. Well, not when you looked them up from as many different sources as Naruto did. The point being, that Naruto was very proud and excited that the fourth had not only known who he was, but apparently thought that he was tough enough to handle the Kyubi.
Kakashi and Sarutobi watched all of this in silence, not really sure of what to do or say. Kakashi for once was thankful for Naruto's social stupidity. If Naruto was a little more socially adept, he might find it strange that the fourth Hokage was apparently ok with sealing the Kyubi in a totally random baby. And the fact that Naruto grew up in the worst possible of conditions practically no help from anyone, even though he now knew that they had always know about the Kyubi, and what could happen if it was ever released. Apparently, it all made sense to Naruto. Kakashi just shook his head, 'we've got a long way to go.' He thought to himself.
Naruto stayed in a blank and thoughtful stupor for a few more minutes while the Hokage and Kakashi waited patently until suddenly Naruto's face got panicky for a second.
"Is Iruka alive?" Naruto asked sounding scared. Kakashi nodded with an eye smile, happy to see that Naruto cared. "Yes, he will be in the hospital for a while, but he will make a full recovery." Naruto sighed in relief.
"What about Mizuki? I remember a needle in his neck so I assume that he is still alive. If he still is, can I execute him?" Naruto asked with a little bit of giddiness in his voice. 'He probably already has it planned out.' The Hokage thought.
"I'll pass it along, but I doubt it. Mizuki is a ninja, and we have to follow protocol." Sarutobi said with honesty. Actually, Sarutobi would be ok with it if Naruto did kill Mizuki. He very much disliked Mizuki, and Naruto gets to fulfill his need for a little while. But it was true; they did indeed need to follow protocol. Naruto just gave a shrug. Most people would have hated Mizuki, well Naruto did but in a different way. Naruto had been dealing with assholes like Mizuki his whole life, and nothing that he said or did was anything special, not really anyway. Naruto understood that while Mizuki was telling the truth, all he was trying to do was hurt Naruto, and that was already familiar and boring to him.
"So, what now?" Naruto asked getting strait to the point. The Hokage cleared his throat.
"Well now, you come by my office as soon as you're healed to get your forehead protector and be officially sworn in as a leaf shinobi. Naruto gave an honest smile at this.
(Ill go into the whole Konohamaru thing with a flashback later on.)
Naruto had just finished a shower and was sporting a brand new scar right between his third and fourth rib on his right side. Like all of his other scars it wasn't very big. In fact this one was hardly noticeable. Ever since he had signed the contract with the Kyubi his healing powers had steadily increased and it was harder for him to get scars that lasted. But right now that wasn't what Naruto was thinking, he was confused.
First thing was Naruto was not used to feeling this many emotions, in fact Naruto wasn't used to feeling much at all. But ever since that day he failed the exam, he started to feel other emotions that he still couldn't identify. For the first time in his life he wanted friends, he wanted what normal kids had with each other, he wanted companionship. Actually, Naruto had wanted these things his whole life, he just didn't know it; this just happened to be the first time that he was consciously aware of it though.
All of those emotions running through him, the idea of letting other people in, of truly exposing himself to someone, of taking the risk of getting truly hurt. Naruto wasn't afraid or ashamed to admit that it scared the shit out of him. As Naruto examined himself in the mirror of his bathroom, examined the scars that were too many to count, he started thinking. All of it was evidence of a life that he didn't regret. Every single person that he killed, he enjoyed it, and wasn't sorry for any of it. But what bothered and scared him was the thought that no one would want to get to know someone like him. That if he actually did start letting someone in and telling them about the real him, that no one would want to be around him anyway. All in all, Naruto was afraid of being alone for the rest of his life. Naruto's gaze drifted back up, over his scared neck, over his deadly looking mouth, and into his dangerous looking eyes. "Who am I? Who and what can I become?" Naruto asked himself out loud with a solemn look.
Over the last couple of years Naruto had gathered a decent amount of money. Growing up the way he did, he was smart with all of it and kept it safe. The Hokage opened up a bank account in his name, so instead of moving to a bigger and better apartment, he just saved it all. Naruto did however, gradually though, buy the rest of the armored plates that fit into his shirt and pants. He still wore his old regular forest green cloak, though it was a little too small for him now.
Naruto was currently back in his apartment trying to decide if he should finally start wearing his 'combat ready' trench coat, that was pretty much a one piece plate armor anyway, on a regular basis. He decided to go with it as he was finally going to start needing it soon. Looking at himself in the mirror, wearing everything with his sword strapped on, he just smiled as he put on his forehead protector. He finally looked the part that he was meant to be. He knew it would still be a couple of months before the real missions came in, but he was still excited. All he had to get through now was the last day of being in the academy as he was waiting to be assigned to a team. At that thought Naruto frowned. He really didn't want to be stuck with other kids his age; they all pissed him off by just being around him. 'Well, I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I was teamed up with Sasuke, he's not bad, and at least he takes this seriously. And I guess Hinata isn't so bad either.' While Naruto and Hinata didn't talk a lot, as Hinata was still very shy around him and prone to fainting, she was probably the one person that he was totally fine with being around. Something just soothed and calmed him down whenever he was in her presence.
As Naruto thought about this, another thought came to him about a promise he had made to himself. 'But still, whoever I am teamed up with, they will be my team, and will be until I can make and qualify for ANBU. And besides, I promised myself that I would at least try to make friends. And what's more, I owe it to Iruka to try and better myself, at least after what he did for me.'
Naruto was standing outside the academy gaits, and getting some strange looks too. It was clear that he wasn't entirely welcome here, not that that was much of a surprise to him. But something was different today; he was actually getting nods from some of the parents from ninja clans. The only reason that he could guess as to why, was that news of his recent actions had gotten around in certain circles. Naruto just returned these nice gestures with nods of his own. This in turn got him even more looks of bewilderment, and for the first time, Naruto felt a little self conscious. Naruto took a deep breath and started to his classroom.
As Naruto walked in, everyone got quiet. Naruto didn't bother to look around. Instead he walked over to Hinata and took his usual seat next to her.
"H-hello Naruto-kun, I see that y-you have an f-forehead protector, d-did you pass t-the exam a-after all?" Hinata asked in her usual shy and soft voice while she was doing her finger thing. The whole class got quiet again and Naruto just sighed as he knew that everyone was going to listen in on this conversation.
"Ya, I got another shot. But it's a long story and I'd rather not go into it right now, but maybe another time, ok?" Naruto said with an honest smile to which Hinata just blushed deeply and nodded. Naruto also head an audible groan from the entire class. 'You're going to have to get your gossip somewhere else.' Naruto thought with a smirk.
After a couple of minutes an unfamiliar instructor walked in. Naruto was relieved as the stares and whispers stopped and he was all but forgotten.
"Alright, Iruka was unfortunately not able to be here to congratulate you again and assign you to your new instructors and teams, so I will be doing it today. Alright, team one will consist of…" Naruto just kind of tuned him out until he heard his name being called. As he took a glance at the rest of the class, he caught a glimpse of Kiba with an interested look on his face. 'Scratch that, I really hope that I don't have to put up with him for the next however many years.' Naruto thought glumly.
"Team seven will consist of Sasuke Uchiha,"
This caught Naruto's attention as Sasuke was probably the only one in the class that could give him a real challenge. 'Remember Naruto, that's a probably. If I were part of a ninja clan I wouldn't want my clan's unique techniques being shown off and given away by children.' Naruto thought to himself. Naruto was incorporating another lesson that he learned growing up, the lesson being that it was very wise to keep whatever advantages you had a secret so they could actually be used as advantages, and not give your opponent a chance to prepare for it. Also Naruto knew that anybody could in fact kill anybody at any time. All that you really could do was become stronger to improve your chances of survival.
"Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto and Sasuke nodded at each other, both apparently ok with the paring. "And," Naruto heard an audible intake of breath from almost every female in the room. At this both Naruto and Sasuke took a nervous glance at each other, and then at Ino, both apparently again thinking along the same lines as each other. "Sakura Haruno." The instructor finished with a smirk after a moment to build the tension and make the whole thing a bit more dramatic. There was a moment of silence before the screaming and groaning started.
"YES! TRUE LOVE PREVAILS!" Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs. Sakura did catch a horrified look on Sasuke's face, but she ignored it and passed it off to Ino who was now screaming something about Sakura rigging the placements. Sakura did however take a nervous glance at Naruto; he could be a problem to her. At first Sakura had just been pissed off after he had hit her on the first day, but that soon changed to fear. After Naruto had openly admitted to killing that kids brother in their first year, rumors started spreading. And what was worse was that it was usually the parents who started the rumors.
Sakura was an intelligent girl, and she knew it. She knew that almost all rumors were full of shit. But statistically, some of them had to be at least somewhat true, or at least based on truths. To add to that was the fact that adults were taking part in it as well, that only increased the probability that Naruto was in fact a monster. But the icing on the cake came when she asked her mother about Naruto. Sakura would never forget that day; her mother had looked truly frightened. Her mother was a civilian, and therefore unable to truly defend herself. She had told Sakura that Naruto himself was one of the main reasons she had enrolled Sakura in the ninja academy, she told her that she believed Sakura would have to become stronger if there was someone like that around.
Sakura had taken that conversation to heart and avoided Naruto at all costs. She had even told her rival Ino to watch out for him and stay out of his way. These fears only intensified as Naruto answered questions that no one really wanted to hear the answers to. She did believe it when Naruto said it as well. She believed that whatever else Naruto may be, he was not a liar. And when he said that he killed people, and he liked it, she believed him.
All of these things were going through her head as she just sat in a contemplative state. 'I don't care; it's worth it to be with Sasuke. And besides, it's not if we're going to be alone, we will have a Jonin instructor with us at all times.' Sakura thought to herself with new found determination. But still, the idea of being teamed up with Naruto was still scary.
Naruto was disappointed to say the least; he was hoping to have Hinata on his team. As now he would hardly ever get to see her, not that he spent a lot of time with her anyway. But she was the only one that he could imagine spending time with outside of ninja stuff. Then Naruto realized that he would like to be her friend. Naruto turned to look at Hinata to just ask her point blank as he had no idea on how to make friends anyway, but she wasn't sitting there. He looked up to the front of the class room and saw her standing with Inuzuka boy and the very quiet kid with sun glasses, and a woman with red eyes who he assumed was their Jonin instructor.
When Naruto made eye contact with Hinata, he gave an apologetic look. Hinata was blushing as usual but she also had a small smile on her face. What Naruto didn't know was that Hinata was very pleased that it appeared that Naruto thought enough of her to at least want to be on the same team as her. However, Kiba caught it and looked back and forth between Hinata and Naruto a couple times before smiling. He walked up to an already blushing Hinata and put his arm around her looking straight at Naruto. Naruto's killing intent spiked putting almost everyone in the room on edge. While Kiba was trying not to look intimidated, their Jonin instructor quickly guided them outside.
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It had been almost three hours, and they were the only three left in the room. Sasuke was busy somehow managing to have both a dark brooding look and a miserable look on his face as Sakura never stopped trying to talk to him. Naruto had thought briefly of trying to strike up a conversation, but decided against it as he wasn't yet ready to talk to Sakura. And besides, he was pissed off. Naruto took out a kunai and twirled it around his finger in apprehension. This had an imitate effect on Sakura. She shut up and gave a worried look at Naruto. Naruto just smirked, he loved making people feel uncomfortable, and he was good at it too. Something else that Naruto smirked at was that Sasuke also had a smirk on his face. 'Hm, maybe we do have something else in common besides being good fighters; Naruto thought pleasantly. That would make things much easier.
Naruto did have a problem with Sakura though. As much as he wanted to at least try to become at least some semblance of a friend, he couldn't stand her. All he had to do was look at her and he would get a headache. Then Naruto smiled at a thought, 'she needs to wise up and mature a little. And no better way to do that than watching people killed or better yet, killing them yourself.' Naruto wasn't too far off either. He just decided to put his relationship with Sakura on hold until she had seen death and matured a little bit. Though a big part of Naruto was hoping that she would die before he had to try to deal with her.
It was almost three hours exactly now and all three of them were pissed. Sakura for the first ever was not afraid of Naruto being mad, at least because it wasn't directed at her. Sasuke had adopted a sleeping pose to get Sakura to stop trying to ask him out. Naruto knew he was awake though. If he concentrated hard enough, he could hear Sasuke breathing like he was agitated, that is, short harsh, aggressive breaths. So unless he was having a dream that was pissing him off, he was awake.
Suddenly the door opened and Naruto reacted by throwing his kunai as hard as he could at whoever was there, consciences be damned. They all saw someone stick their head in and just as quickly pull it back out as the kunai buried itself in the door frame.
"Ok, I guess I might be a little late, but was that really warranted?" Kakashi said with his weird eye smile at Naruto.
"What the fuck?! You're our Jonin instructor?" Naruto asked his shock obvious. Kakashi just nodded his head and looked at the other two kids.
"Hm, well I guess it could have been worse, I get a raving fan girl, a brooding emo, and" at this point all three of them were pissed off, and Naruto was fingering another kunai in warning. "a homicidal midget." Suddenly a kunai was imbedded in his chest, but before Sakura could start screaming, he poofed into a note that was subsequently pinned to the wall. 'Meet me on the roof in five minutes.' The note was also complete with a drawing of comical form of Kakashi flipping off a tied up Naruto, who also happened to be very small.
Sasuke just laughed at Naruto's expense, and Sakura was trying to suppress a giggle. Naruto glared at the two, but after a moment of thought, decided to let it go. With a sigh Naruto collected his kunai and left for the stairs with the other two members of his team, both of whom were in a mild form of shock that Naruto didn't do something in retaliation.
On the roof a few minutes later, all three of them were sitting in their respective spots wondering if they were going to have to wait another few hours. Then he popped into existence with a poof of smoke. The only one of them that didn't react or get startled was Naruto who was expecting something like this.
"Ok well, I suppose we should get started." Kakashi said in a bored manor as he put away an orange book. At the same time Kakashi gave a nod to Naruto who simply returned it out of habit, the earlier offence already forgotten. This was not so uncommon. Part of Kakashi's plan to 'indoctrinate' Naruto into society was to get him to not only be able to take and be ok with a joke, but also to learn to play them on people without truly hurting or just killing them at the same time. Kakashi had learned that Naruto didn't distinguish between a practical joke, and an actual trap meant to kill you the hard way. If Kakashi didn't have the reaction time that he had, he would have been dead.
'I am going to have to ask him how he managed to get that giant spider in my apartment some day.' Kakashi thought to himself with a mental sigh.
"Well, why don't we get to know each other, tell about your selves and all." Kakashi said with a slightly lifted tone in his disinterested way as if he had come up with a failsafe plan.
"Well, why don't you go first, that way we know what to say?" Sakura said. She honestly didn't know what he wanted to know and she wanted to make a good impression on her instructor.
Kakashi just shrugged, "my name is Kakashi Hatake, I have various likes and dislikes, I have a few hobbies, and my dreams and ambitions for the future, well, I don't feel like telling you that." Kakashi finished with a yawn. This had various reactions, Sasuke and Sakura were both clearly annoyed, and Naruto somehow had an amused and annoyed look on his face. 'I guess it's also in his genes to find new ways to use facial muscles to make brand new expressions.' Kakashi thought with another mental sigh. "When you do it, make sure you add something about why you 'truly' chose this path, the reason behind the reason. Alright, you go first pinky." Kakashi said in an offhand way. By the look on Sakura's face, and the size of the tic mark on her forehead, she was defiantly pissed.
Sakura kept her cool though, with a deep breath she started. "My name is Sakura Haruno, I like Sasuke-kun," she cast a sidelong glance at Sasuke who just shuddered. "I really despise N…" Sakura was half way to looking at Naruto before she realized what she had almost done.
Her eyes were wide as she caught a genuine death glare and killing intent from Naruto. Naruto would try to get along, but he would only put up with so much. And there was no point in trying on a girl that despised him anyway.
"I uh, never mind," she said turning back to Kakashi who to most people seemed indifferent. But he was actually ready to grab Naruto incase he decided to rip her tongue out for insulting him. "And my dream for the future is to marry the man I love." Sakura said with a blush looking back at Sasuke who had a horrified look and audibly groaned. Naruto coughed which sounded suspiciously like a disguised laugh. Sakura paid none of this any heed though. "And I chose to become a ninja because I want to be closer to Sasuke." She said with a smile. What Sakura didn't notice was a look of absolute disgust from Naruto, the only reason the same look wasn't on Sasuke's face was because he had not yet realized what this meant, and how much of a risk Sakura would be. While Kakashi didn't express it openly, he actually agreed with Naruto in this. 'Oh well, just one more thing to talk about after they are all tied up.' Kakashi thought as he filed it away for later.
Kakashi nodded and motioned Sasuke to start. Sasuke didn't hesitate and just started. "I don't like very many things; I hate a lot of things. My ambition is to kill a certain someone." Sasuke said all of this in dark manor, while apparently the idea that Sasuke was devoting his life to kill someone seemed bad to Sakura, Naruto just had a smirk on his face while he studied Sasuke intently. "And I guess the reason that I want to become a ninja is to get power."
Naruto was now looking intently at Sasuke with a serious and yet interested look on his face. 'I knew it; he's a lot like me. Not in the same way, but still. He defiantly has the hate, a different kind than mine, but it's there.' Naruto was honestly excited about this, apparently you needed to something in common with someone to become a friend, and hate seemed as good of a thing as anything for Naruto.
"Naruto?" Kakashi asked as he was waiting for Naruto to snap out of whatever thoughts he was having about Sasuke.
"Oh, sorry, is it my turn?"
Kakashi just nodded. Kakashi knew what Naruto was going to say, mostly anyway. But it was important that the rest of the team get a better understanding of Naruto right away. Even if it scared them and ruined Naruto's chances at friendship, this wasn't just about him, this was a team, and being on a team was something Naruto was going to have to learn if he wanted to become a ninja.
"Well, I like ramen, fighting, and killing people." Naruto added with a smile, happy that he was doing well so far. "Um, I hate most people and I especially hate spoiled kids that don't appreciate what they have. My dream is to make ANBU because they are the elite, and I also want to kill a lot people, and…" Naruto stopped and adopted a confused look. 'What is the reason behind the reason of me becoming a ninja?' Naruto thought to himself. He had never given any of that any kind of thought before, it didn't really matter all that much anyway, at least to him. Naruto's face became a furrow of concentration as he dived into his own subconscious to try and figure himself out.
Naruto was silent for almost a full minute. Sasuke looked genuinely interested, and when Sakura was going to interrupt him she was silenced by a deadly look from Kakashi. Kakashi knew that Naruto really needed to figure this out and know this; at least he would later on.
Naruto started off softly, but finished with conviction. "I guess the real reason I want to become a ninja is so that I can become so powerful and strong that no one can ever hurt me again." Naruto said looking back up at Kakashi who just nodded.
"Alright, that's enough of that for today. All of you are to meet up at training ground seven tomorrow morning at six a.m. sharp. Oh, and don't eat anything tomorrow morning either." And with that Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Sasuke was the first to leave as he wanted to get as far away from Sakura as possible. Sakura left next surprisingly in the opposite direction that Sasuke did.
'I don't get it; I just don't know what to think anymore.' Sakura thought to herself as she walked home in deep thought. 'I know deep down Sasuke is a good person, he can be saved. There is something to work with, something to help get better. Or at least something to save after he has killed whoever it is he wants too. But Naruto seems to want to kill people just because he enjoys killing people. But again, that thing at the end, for a moment he almost sounded, lonely. What the hell is he?' Sakura was on her way to developing a migraine as she was thinking about her two new team mates.
Sasuke, while interested in Naruto a little, put it out of his mind as he left to train. Naruto had almost the exact same thoughts about Sasuke. Because Naruto did not yet realize what he had discovered about himself, he just put it out of his mind, and he just preferred to not think about Sakura. It was going to be hard enough not killing her without him thinking about her when she wasn't around.
Kakashi had just handed over his report to the Hokage and was waiting, patiently for once, while he read it. The report detailed the psychological state of this possible new team.
"So," Sarutobi said as he closed the report and looked back at Kakashi. "That's the official report that will go in their files, what your personal take on it?" Kakashi sighed.
"Well, I got just about what I expected from Sasuke. And I do believe that if Naruto does get 'better' they could be positive influences on each other." Kakashi stressed the 'better' part because they both knew that there was no curing what Naruto had, they could only try and help him become more sociable, and the rest was up to him. "Naruto on the other hand, well you read the report, it's an accurate description. Whatever else was said, I believe we finally have legitimate proof of progress." Kakashi said with a smile. The Hokage just nodded at this with a smile of his own.
"Well, that's it for today Kakashi." Kakashi just nodded and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
A few hours later, in some deep dark lair, Danzo was reading that same report with interest. Plotting and scheming plans that were now long in the making.
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That's it for now. I have been told that the last chapter kind of sucked so I hope this one was better. Oh ya, I know that I said the bell test would be in this chapter, but it just got away from me. Before I knew it I was already at five-thousand words. And besides, I figured that you guys would like an update anyway.