Sunlight streamed in the window, shining brightly on the white styrofoam of a crushed ramen cup. Little crumbs of dried noodles spilt from its split seams, though the glue holding the waxed paper lid on had held surprisingly firm.

A head full of dark hair appeared in the window, looking in.

Sasuke clung to the outside wall of the apartment building with his chakra, looking in cautiously. The window was open about four inches, allowing fresh air to circulate inside, indicating that Naruto had at least gone home once. Flushing the stale air from his own apartment was the first thing Sasuke had done as well.

His eyes had slowed their bleeding that night, though he'd still had to wash his eyes carefully to get them open when he'd woken that morning. He'd run through the forest around the village for hours after he'd left the hospital, and he could still feel a portion of the amazing power he'd summoned lurking deep in his coils, making him walk taller, lighter, stronger. His three white tomoe spun lazily as he scanned the room.

A small low table leaned against one wall, ragged splinters dangling around a hole near one edge. Clothes, dishes, and cooking pans lay scattered about, mixed in with a spill of instant ramen cups from a paper bag overturned on the kitchenette counter. A bowl lay undamaged atop a pile of sodden ramen at the center of a large wet spot in the center of the room, reconstituted vegetables decorating the edge like flotsam washing up on the edge of a lake. Despite the mess, there was no actual sign of a fight, as he could easily guess the path of destruction, starting with spilling the ramen, punching, then kicking the table, then on from there. The rest of the path was harder to read. Unrecognizable scraps of several shredded articles, plus a couple of shirts, were tossed haphazardly around.

At first there was no sign of Naruto, but there was a flash of something out of the corner of his eye, a bit of chakra hanging motionless at the top of a thick comforter piled in one corner. He blinked, and the deep blue of the chakra resolved itself into a hand, slender and graceful and clutching desperately at the blanket, the only part of the body that wasn't covered.

Sasuke had been astonished when he'd first looked in the mirror after he'd drew on Naruto's power. He still had the mature, three tomoe sharingan, yes, but before he'd performed the summoning, his tomoe were black, just like they were supposed to be. But now, now they were white. And he could do something he couldn't before. The sharingan gave him the ability to predict and copy motions and techniques, and also to see through and understand illusions. Now…

He could see chakra.

He'd tried to use it like Hinata, to see through walls, or expand his field of vision, or to see deep into someone's body, but it didn't seem to work like that. It was just like his regular vision, except now, he could see the insubstantial. But Sasuke didn't mind the limitations.

Naruto had given him a power he was sure his brother didn't have.

For several long minutes he hung off the side of the building, wavering in indecision. Hinata had asked him to find Naruto. He'd found Naruto. Naruto apparently wanted to be alone, he wanted to respect that. But something was wrong. Hinata trusted him to take care of any problems, but you did not intrude on someone's weakness.

Suddenly wings were flapping against his head, and there was a sharp, painful tug. Nearly falling off the side of the building in shock, he waved his hand madly over his head. "Wha-getoffameyoufuckingbird!" he cursed indignantly, shaking his head and twisting, trying to see the infernal flying rat.

Despite his efforts, his fingers never so much as brushed the feathers of the incredibly agile bird. It was a very stealthy bird, too, gliding in on noiseless wings to steal a quick mating with the gorgeous glossy black female that, for some strange reason, insisted on riding around on the head of one of the small humans.

The pigeon back winged in midair, hovering briefly as it decided whether the sweet, sweet loving was worth the risk of being in close proximity to the human, and Sasuke snarled in rage as he slipped a shuriken out of a hidden pouch and prepared to commit avicide.

He watched carefully for a moment as the pigeon hovered, a move the normally lazy fliers rarely performed. He could see each beat of its wings before it happened, able to tell its next move from the stressing of its feathers and the tension in its wings. The prediction ability of his genetic gift was actually the most deadly of all its possible uses, and he used it to the fullest, throwing the shuriken in one smooth motion at the exact spot the pigeon's movements said it was going to be.

Suddenly the wing beats quadrupled in speed as the shuriken spun from his fingertips, yanking the bird upwards just as it was about to slip backwards into the path of the weapon, which now sailed harmlessly underneath to bury itself in the side of a building across the street.

Sasuke blinked in astonishment. He'd seen exactly how the pigeon was going to react to the throw, but the speed of its movements was such that he'd been unable to correct his aim in time. The pigeon was fast. Gritting his teeth in rage, he readied three more shuriken as the pigeon cut across a breeze drifting down the street, then flung them with all his speed and accuracy, bracketing the most likely paths of infernal bird's evasive movements as well as its probable next location.

Cooing in alarm, it darted forwards even faster than it had before. Two shuriken buried themselves to the last point in wood, and the third slammed through the glass of a window, followed immediately by a startled scream.

Hurriedly, Sasuke slid the window up in its tracks and slipped inside.

After all, he needed to find out what had happened with Naruto, and you were supposed to take care of your own.

Sasuke deliberately slid his leg across the windowsill, then scuffed his feet slightly on the floor, a courtesy to announce his presence if Naruto was asleep. There were no sounds, no movements from the corner.

Now inside, he could see details that he hadn't before. The ramen had been spilled, but the pool of broth was one sided, as if part of it had landed on something else which had been later removed, then the table had been punched, as if Naruto had been in the process of sitting down at it when he'd fumbled. Several pieces of broken chopstick lay under and around it, probably clenched in the fist that had made the hole. Small drips of water and vegetables made a trail to the kitchen, ending at the sink, where Naruto had probably washed off some of the scalding broth. Probably the grocery bag had been knocked over then, and Naruto had later stepped on one of the cups.

He picked his way across the room to the corner where Naruto sat, avoiding the clothes on the floor.

Cautiously, kneeling on one knee beside the comforter, he spoke. "Naruto?"

Still, he got no answer.

Carefully, he lifted the topmost corner of the thick blanket and peeled it back, revealing a shaggy mop of blonde hair, the same shade as Naruto's, but longer, done up in two deliberately cutesy pigtails.

Ah. Naruko.

Her face was buried in the comforter covering her knees, her legs drawn up to her chest, one arm apparently around her shin, the other higher, clutching the blanket she'd wrapped around herself.

He hesitated.

"Hey," he said, this time more softly, reaching to touch his now female teammate on the arm. "Naru… ko?"

She didn't look up, but she did shift slightly, squeezing her knees tighter to her chest. Something that might have been a whine, might have been a sob, choked off, emerged from her throat.

Fuck.

Scowling in irritation, he twisted and sat beside her, his back to the wall, one leg tucked beneath him and the other knee upright.

The apartment didn't look much better from this angle, since the cheery beam of sunlight threw the obvious signs of misplaced rage into stark relief.

Sitting so close to Naruko let him focus on her, though. Little signs he'd missed across the room, like the slow movements of her breathing, which were regularly interrupted by the tiniest of hitches, or the infinitesimal clenching of her one visible hand.

Apparently, she was crying.

Such weakness was disgraceful, but, he also had to admit to himself, it also slightly scared him. This was Naruto. Naruto mocked his enemies' corpses, Naruto didn't flinch under the knife, Naruto faced down… Sasuke shook his head, shying away from the memory. What could make him cry?

But, he realized, sitting there, watching in morbid fascination as his teammate and fri… teammate huddled in the corner in abject misery, this wasn't exactly Naruto.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," she whispered into her knees, her normally breathy voice laced with pain.

"Sorry about what, Naruko?" he asked, looking away.

She shifted slightly and looked up, tearstained cheeks and dark circles framing her deep blue eyes.

"…everything."

"Taking credit for everything is a bit self centered," he said, forcing his tone to be light.

"Mnnnnn," she whined, burying her face back in her knees.

Sasuke closed his eyes in recrimination. Damnit. He tried again.

"You just need to be a little more specific. If you're the one who made them quit making tamarind flavored pocky, let me know now, and I'll make your death painless. Otherwise, it can't be that bad."

She chuckled twice before it turned into obvious sobs, and it was a moment before she stopped. A very long moment in which Sasuke regretted having intruded on this mess.

"I-I just want to say I'm sorry for being so pathetic," Naruko said shakily. "I'm sorry for some of the things I've said and a lot of the things I've thought, I'm sorry I wasn't… I just wasn't enough. I'm sorry I'm so damned stupid."

Sasuke sat in silence for several moments, considering her words.

"I admit, I'm not sure exactly where you're coming from," he finally said thoughtfully.

"I know," she replied, misery in her voice. "And I don't want you to, either."

"Hm."

Naruko let go of the blanket long enough to paw in frustration at her eyes, red from her tears.

"Why?"

She sniffed. "Because you'll hate me. With good reason. And I've put too much time and effort into trying to make you like me, and I don't want you to hate me."

He stared at her until she looked up, guilt in her eyes.

She wavered, fresh tears welling up.

I thought you were stupid.

I lied to you.

I manipulated you.

I thought about killing you.

I only wanted you for your power.

I only pretended to want to be your friend.

I couldn't save Midori.

I couldn't protect you.

"I almost killed you," she finally whispered. "And… and everything… I was pr- I was proud of some of it, and I didn't know I was supposed to feel guilty about it all because I'm stupid and… and…" Her pretty face twisted as she started crying again. "And I hate, hate not knowing all this stuff I'm supposed to know."

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "How-"

Her eyes widened, realizing that she really didn't want to answer some of his potential questions. "Uh… uh, Sasuke, when you used the summoning jutsu… That's not really how that's supposed to be done, I went to the Hokage and I tried to make him show me a better way to do it and that was a really really really stupid thing to do and now he's pissed at me and you and Hinata's eyes are fucked up and its all my fault and I was gonna come up with something on my own and damn the risks cause I didn't really care-"

"Naruko!" Sasuke interrupted, his eyes wide. She was more upset than he'd thought.

Her jaw snapped shut. In a much smaller voice, she said, "I forced my chakra into you."

He just looked at her.

"I forced my chakra into you, and it could have killed you," she repeated meekly. "Just like I did with Hinata. I took my chakra and I rammed it into you and I didn't want to stop because it tasted good, like everything good that's ever happened to me crammed into an instant. I could, I wanted to kill you, to just keep forcing power into you until you popped like a balloon, just because it felt good. And when you did that summoning jutsu it felt good, too, only you're doing it wrong and it's dangerous and the bleeding eyes thing should have given that away but I don't want you to stop and I think I'd do anything if you'd just keep doing it and that scares the hell out of me but I think I'd do it anyway-"

Sasuke stopped her with a hand on her head and she burst into silent tears, burying her face in the comforter over her knees again.

"I'm going to do you a favor," he said seriously. "Stop talking."

Her silent tears changed to sobs, and Sasuke watched, keeping his expression carefully neutral. So this was Naruto stripped of his control. No carefully chosen words, no artful acting, no hidden agenda. Just when he was starting to think he was made of iron, he finally got to see the chink in the armor. Here sat his teammate, the careful plotter, the decisive leader of their team, now a girl crying in the corner.

Part of him wanted to turn away in disgust. Part of him sneered at the display of weakness. Part of him was fascinated by Naruto finally telling the truth. Part of him wanted to exploit that for all it was worth.

But another part, a part he thought he'd thrown away long ago, understood. And he knew what he had to do.

"Naruko," he said finally, rubbing her bare shoulder in an attempt to be comforting. "You know, I think you're actually more messed up than I am." He gave her a wan smile. "It's okay. I've got your back."

Her sobs grew to wails in an instant and she latched onto his arm, abandoning the blanket as she fell forward and sideways, clutching at the comfort of his arm.

Sasuke's eyes widened at the sudden burst of movement, and he nearly pulled away…

But…

Awkwardly, he sat there as she clung to his arm and cried, messy, no holds barred crying with sobbing and hiccupping and tears and snot and drool that she was getting on his shirt and his arm, but he still didn't pull away as she curled her legs beneath her to one side and clutched at his shirt.

She was naked, he realized, because his arm was pressed to bare flesh between her breasts and he could see down the curve of her back to her butt and she wasn't wearing any clothing, but he kept as stoic an expression as possible considering his naked teammate was bawling her eyes out against his side. It didn't make any sense, he'd fought a climactic battle then ran through the woods to Konoha at full speed carrying both Hinata and Naruto while they were all naked, but even as he tried to reason away his embarrassment he finally had to just give up on it all altogether and kind of pet his friend's blonde hair while he waited for her to calm down.

And she did calm down after a while, snuffling and wiping her nose with the back of her arm, but Naruko didn't pull away, still holding onto his arm desperately.

"Why?" he asked.

"Why what?" she asked back after a moment, her usually sweet voice raw from her sobs.

"Why did you want me to like you?"

"Because…" She hesitated, looking down. But... he deserved to know the truth. "Because you were the best student at the Academy. Because you were a genius from a powerful clan. Because everyone liked you." She hesitated again, and looked up. "Because you didn't seem to like anyone. Because no one liked me."

He'd started to frown as she talked, but finally found himself staring down at her upturned face in confusion.

She sighed, looking away.

"Lots of reasons, Sasuke. When I was still pretending to be an idiot at the Academy, I hated you. I was just as good as you were, but you flaunted it in everyone's faces, and they loved you for it. They scorned me for being an idiot, but they really hated me when I was smart. And then we got put on the same team and I got to know you. I'm a better killer, you're a better fighter. People believe me, people trust you. I want to lead people. People want to follow you."

She shrugged wryly, and he did his best to ignore what that felt like around his arm.

"You saved me and Hinata despite being hurt yourself. You ran all the way back to Konoha carrying us, naked, ignoring everyone who saw, and you didn't stop until the job was done even though you nearly died of chakra depletion. You woke me out of a coma."

Sasuke smirked at her. "I overheard a rumor that they're trying to make 'Naked Sasuke Day' a holiday."

Naruko snorted laughter. "And here you are, ignoring the snot on your arm, making me feel better."

She sighed and rubbed at his arm, he brushed her hand away and wiped at it himself with the hem of his shirt.

"You're even a better friend than I am. So, no, don't ask me why I wanted you to like me."

He shrugged, feeling magnanimous. "I'm better looking, too, but don't sell yourself short. You're a better liar than I am, and you have better hair."

Abruptly, her pensive face turned into a pout, her bottom lip protruding cutely. "That's the kind of crap I'm talking about. You're too good to be true. I call bullshit."

He blinked, surprised. "Huh?"

"I call bullshit on you! No one real is so damned… you! Either you're hiding something huge, or you're a great… big… fake!" Naruko said accusingly, poking him with her finger with each word.

"Hn. My innate superiority is often hard for others to accept."

"Oooohhh yeah," she said, touching her lips with her finger. "I'd forgot about the whole 'you're a complete asshole' part."

"Get off me," he growled, pushing her and her giggles away as he stood and put some space between them.

Naruko continued to giggle for several more moments, her blue eyes bright with merriment and unshed tears. She leaned against the wall, her legs still folded to one side, which preserved some modesty, but she made no effort to cover herself.

He gave her an exasperated look. "Why are you naked, anyway?"

She pressed one finger to her lips and cocked her head cutely, managing to look both thoughtful and vapid at the same time. "Ummm… Because I'm totally hot like this?"

He narrowed his eyes.

She held her hands out as if to ward him off, squeezing her breasts together enticingly. "Fine, fine." She sighed. "I spilled ramen all over myself and was taking off my clothes and…" she waved her hand vaguely, indicating the scraps of cloth and the general mayhem. "I was going to put on something else, but kinda didn't get around to it."

"Hn." That would explain it.

"So why'd you come looking for me?" Naruko asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Hinata asked me to."

"Ah. She still at the hospital?"

"No, some of her cousins came and took her back home. She sent a kage bunshin to ask me to look for you, something about not being able to keep one going for more than thirty minutes."

Okay, that was a tiny fib, she'd actually said ten minutes, but he was curious if Naruko would react to the much longer time.

She did react, but not how Sasuke expected.

"Her family came and got her?" Naruko cried, jumping to her feet.

Sasuke winced. Damn the sharingan for copying movement perfectly. That was a sight he was literally never going to be able to forget. Naruko, leaping up, her adult sized breasts sagging with inertia, making her pink nipples point at the floor, then rebounding healthily so they actually, briefly, pointed at the ceiling, round hips, golden downy fuzz, her pale, perfect skin flushed with emotion. Naruko had a body clearly meant for mid to late teens. None of the academy girls were that… gifted… even Hinata.

"What the fuck, Sasuke! Do you have any idea what her family might do to her now that she has her eyes sealed?! We've got to protect her!"

Naruko, leaping up, her adult sized breasts sagging with inertia, making her pink nipples point at the floor, then rebounding healthily so they actually, briefly, pointed at the ceiling, round hips, golden downy fuzz, her pale, perfect skin flushed with excitement...

"Her position as future clan leader was already shaky, and now it's really in doubt, and she can't even see at all unless she takes off the hitai-ate! They want to put a seal on her and move her to the branch family!"

…leaping up, her adult sized breasts sagging with inertia, making her pink nipples point at the floor, then rebounding healthily so they actually, briefly, pointed at the ceiling, round hips, golden downy fuzz…

"Damn it, Sasuke! You should have kept your eye on her, not me! Sasuke! SASUKE! Damn it, are you even listening to me?!"

Oh, yeah. Naruko was upset about something. He should probably listen, since she seemed to think it was important.

"Yeah, I'm-

-breasts rebounding-

"-listening. Look, I don't know what kind of seal they're using-"

-golden, downy hair-

"-but they can't do it in five minutes, Naruko. With the seals on her at the hospital-"

-Naruko was naked-

"-plus her byakugan permanently active-"

-naked, flushed, blonde jiggling in anxiety right before him-

"-they're not going to seal her until they figure out what the side effects might be, right? Right."

Nodding in self satisfaction, he crossed his arms and let the superiority of his logic stand on its own.

-jiggling breasts-

Naruko gaped at him in silence for a moment, her jaw working, but no sounds coming out. Finally, she sighed, and that made some interesting additional movements as well.

"Alright, Sasuke, you're probably right. But still. Hinata doesn't like being with her family much, so we need to go rescue her. Carry her shopping or something. I'm pretty sure we all need gear and weapons, and it's probably a good enough reason her family won't stop us."

Sasuke frowned. Girls, shopping. He'd never been with them, but he'd heard stories. On the other hand-

-naked, flushed, blonde-

-these were his teammates, and they tended to care more about killing enemies than personal appearance, so maybe it'd be alright.

"Okay, it's one plan," he allowed.

Naruko nodded decisively. "Right. We should get going."

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "You're the naked one."

Naruko blinked, then looked down at her own bare breasts. "…point. Okay. I should get dressed."

Sasuke almost closed his eyes when Naruko started rooting through her clothes and putting them on.

Almost.

But hell, it was just his teammate. Not like he hadn't seen her naked before. But…

"You're going as a girl?" he finally asked, nudging a subdued orange t-shirt with the toe of his ninja shoes.

Naruko paused, pulling a pair of her usual orange jumpsuit pants on, her top still gloriously bare. "…oh, yeah. I'd forgot." She shaped a seal, and Naruko faded into Naruto in a few seconds, losing some height and her curves, but ending up stockier and more solid looking. He was shorter, the shortest in the class, but Naruto was also one of the most solidly built, with well defined muscles speaking of considerable strength. No wonder he usually wore such baggy clothes, anyone who saw exactly how toned he was would immediately consider him a threat.

Sasuke flicked the shirt at him with a swift twitch of his foot.

Naruto caught it and put it on. "Alright. We should go." He hesitated, looking at the floor, the looking back up at Sasuke, who stared at him evenly.

"Sasuke?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

Sasuke shrugged, as if it didn't really matter. "I watched you stab an acolyte in the back without him ever knowing you were there. Then you cut out his liver, dropped it on an altar, and jokingly called him an organ donor while you hid the body. Don't worry about your dignity with me."

Naruto nodded once, meeting Sasuke's eyes.

Respect.

Finally, he looked around one last time.

"Hold on a second, I need to clean up this mess," he said, forming a different seal and making a kage bunshin.

The clone popped into existence to one side and looked around. A mischievous look crossed over its face, and the clone quickly transformed into Naruko, complete with a kimono, a frilly apron, and a rugbeater. She started 'cleaning up', really, deliberately bending over and displaying her posterior to Sasuke as she picked up clothes.

"You are a sick man, Naruto," Sasuke commented, walking over and looking out the window. A middle aged woman was out there, washing the sidewalk.

"Yeah, but I have nicer breasts than you," he replied with a grin as they left the apartment and walked down the stairs.

"But I have a nicer ass."

"No way!" Naruto cried vehemently. "Did you even bother looking at my ass in that kimono? It's round and tight and perfectly heart shaped! It's all I can do to keep from molesting myself! Sure, I'd protest at first, but I know I'd want it."

"…you're a sick man, Naruto," Sasuke repeated after a moment. "But I do so have a nicer ass than you, and I can prove it. Let's ask the first person we see, that'd be fair, right?"

"Fine!" Naruto replied.

A moment later, they exited the front of the building, right across the street from where the woman was dipping water out of a bucket with a ladle and wetting the sidewalk.

"…Damn it, Sasuke," Naruto said tiredly.

Sasuke just smirked.

-tits-

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx

"Yeah, Shino isn't so bad. Once you get past the bugs deal, he's actually a great teammate." Sakura waved her had vaguely.

Since their respective jounin teachers seemed to enjoy spending an inordinate amount of time together, their schedules were synchronized more often than not. And since neither one of them were making any progress in getting into Sasuke's pants, their oft stated rivalry had largely subsided. Best friends forever! they would loudly proclaim, each one knowing full well that forever lasted until one of them managed to score a date with Sasuke.

"But isn't he like, really quiet? In the academy he hardly said a word. I'd think he'd be kind of boring as a teammate."

Sakura smirked. "Yeah, he's quiet, but he's really smart. He acts all logical, so you'd think he wouldn't have a sense of humor, but you can't just assume that. I swear, he takes delight in messing with Kiba's head."

Ino smirked. "And Kiba falls for it."

"Every single time," she confirmed. "And then he turns around and plays a practical joke on Shino, and the next thing I know, I've got to step in to keep them from killing each other. Honestly. Boys. Kurenai-sensei says that it's good training for me as a kunoichi."

Ino shrugged. "Yeah, it's a lot like that on my team, except completely the opposite. Shikamaru and Chouji NEVER fight. So instead of stopping them, I have to get them moving. At least they've learned to listen, and I get more time with Asuma-sensei when they're lounging around. My taijutsu is really improving."

"I guess that's good." Inwardly, Sakura grumbled to herself. Ino was already strong as hell in taijutsu, and could beat her nine times out of ten. At least she wasn't skilled enough in seals to throw off Sakura's best genjutsu.

"Oooooh, Sasuke-kun," Ino said abruptly.

Sakura's head snapped up.

Two boys were running towards them, not a full blown run, but the casual lope of someone too impatient to walk. Blond hair as pale as Ino's caught her eye, and with a start she realized that it was Naruto running right beside, and a little in front of, Sasuke. He wore his usual pants, but his customary jacket was missing, and instead he wore a tight shirt the color of an unripe orange, which was much easier on the eyes than his usual shade. More astonishing was that the shirt clung to him like paint, revealing muscles larger and more defined than any she'd seen in the academy. Naruto was short, noticeably shorter than Sasuke, but he was broader through the shoulders, like he spent serious time lifting weights. Gone was the goofy, silly look on his face he'd worn throughout school, instead he looked serious and confident.

Of course, Naruto paled beside the perfection of Sasuke's tall dark form. He wore shorts and a dark, loose shirt, which was sort of disappointing. He had the lean, whipcord body of the ideal ninja, loose limbed and quick as a mongoose, but she'd only gotten a good look of his bare body from the rear, and, except for his ass, only a sliver of his back through the gap in the hospital gown. Sakura desperately wanted to see more.

"Oh, hey, Sakura, Ino," Naruto said with a casual wave, slowing to a stop beside them. Sasuke stopped as well with a slightly sour expression on his face. "Missions this morning? And how's the training coming?"

"Good!" Sakura blurted out. "I learned two genjutsu!"

"Asuma-sensei has helped with my taijutsu. Forehead girl here doesn't stand a chance in hell against me these days," Ino quickly added, not about to be outdone by her rival. "We're on our way to team meetings, what about you guys? Are you recovered yet?"

"Mostly recovered, but we're on leave right now," Naruto replied easily, flashing a couple of hand signs at Sasuke fast enough they couldn't make them out.

Encourage them to train.

Sasuke sighed, as if he was being put upon.

"It looks like it'll just be training for us for a while, unless they find some missions we can take without a jounin sensei. But that's okay, right? Training is important. Right, Sasuke?" Butter wouldn't have melted in Naruto's mouth.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and finally relented. "Yes, you'll never be worth anything unless you train hard and get powerful. You can do it, I believe in you, and all that."

From the tone of his voice, it was abundantly clear that Sasuke did NOT believe in them, nor did he think they could ever be worth anything.

"Thanks, Sasuke!" Ino cried, overjoyed at his encouragement. "I'll work hard and I'll show you what a Yamanaka can do!"

Sakura hesitated, not as willing to accept his words at face value as Ino was.

Naruto clapped a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, where it was quickly brushed off. "Oh, don't mind him. He's just still grumpy because of the whole nearly dying thing and Hinata getting hurt really bad, so he's worried about her. You know, she really improved a lot and fought hard on our last mission. Saved our lives, even. I've never seen a girl kill a chunin level fighter that fast, while injured, even."

Again, Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's antics. That guy was hardly a chunin. Hell, he wasn't even a ninja, even if he could do that thing with the ichor and the ball lightning.

"Yes, we should go see Hinata," he prodded.

Let's go, Naruto.

"I-" whatever he was about to say was quickly shut off by Sakura's shout.

"Incoming!"

Three genin scattered, leaving a disappointed pigeon to loop quickly through the air and retreat. Sakura didn't move, knowing what the 'threat', or lack thereof, was, and Ino was too startled to do anything but get out of the way. Two shuriken from Naruto and one from Sasuke, his last one he'd grabbed that morning, flew after the bird. One of Naruto's hit a flowerpot and shattered it with a rain of ceramic shards and dirt. Sasuke's hit a cat lounging in the morning sun, which yowled loudly with its last breath.

"Damn that thing is fast," Naruto said in wonder, tracking the blur through the sky.

"No kidding," Sasuke said bitterly. "That was the fifth shuriken I've thrown at it this morning. That pigeon ain't natural."

"What the hell was that?" Ino demanded. "A bird?"

"Ah… I think it's a descendant of one of Konoha's carrier pigeons," Sakura said hesitantly.

All three looked at her.

"Well, back before the first ninja war, Konoha raised homing pigeons to carry messages, but the problem was they'd get eaten by hawks raised by this clan that lived in Grass and the messages would be intercepted. So people bred them to be faster and smarter, and even use chakra, so they wouldn't get intercepted anymore."

"But we use hawks," Ino replied, confused.

"Yeah, the clan in Grass raised the hawks to keep up with the faster pigeons, so finally the Konoha message corps gave up, killed the people raising the hawks, and brought the birds back here. We've been using them ever since." She preened. They were all staring at her, impressed. She was the top student in the academy in studies, with reason.

"So that one is probably a descendant of those original pigeons. Chakra would explain why it's fast enough we can't hit it at a distance." His pride stung, Naruto didn't want to admit that the infuriating flying rat might be fast enough that he couldn't hit it up close, either. "Well, at least it's not a flying chakra bear. That would really suck."

Sasuke winced, able to imagine a twelve hundred pound flying chakra bear with a deviant interest in his head all too vividly. "Thanks for the warning," Sasuke said to Sakura grudgingly, "but I'd be a lot happier if you'd killed it instead."

Sakura wilted. "I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun, I wasn't thinking. Next time I won't freeze, I promise!" She started mentally reviewing what she knew of the pigeons and where she could find out more.

"No one has told me what the hell is up with the pigeon!?" Ino repeated, half questioning, angry at feeling very left out of the loop.

Glancing at Sasuke, Naruto stepped closer to Ino, leaning close. "You saw how fast that thing is, right? It's a food thief. Sasuke had set some pocky sticks down and it stole one of them. He takes his pocky very seriously."

Ino glanced at Sasuke, who was watching their exchange with a stony face.

"And now, we really must be going," Naruto said with a final wave before breaking into a run, Sasuke right behind him.

Ino looked at Sakura. "…pocky?"

Sakura nodded, completely seriously. "Don't ever steal Sasuke-kun's pocky."

Ino's face crinkled up. "…ooookay…" Then her expression blossomed into a smile. "Was Sasuke hot today or what?"

Sakura pressed her hand to her chest and sagged dramatically against her friend. "Ooooooh, remind me. Remind me."

After several moments they resumed their journey across town, where they would split up to join their respective teams.

"And did you see Naruto? I had no idea he was so… strong looking," Ino added after a moment. "He didn't look as good as Sasuke, naturally, but that shirt really showed off his muscles."

"I wish Sasuke was wearing that shirt," Sakura replied in agreement. "But yeah, I know what you mean. I kinda always thought Naruto was just the class idiot, but some of the things Sasuke and Hinata said in the hospital… I think he's actually really strong. Like how Shino almost never says anything, but is really smart. Or what you were saying about Shikamaru."

"Hinata loves him," Ino added. "And yeah, I think you're right. Sasuke respects him. I don't think I've seen Sasuke impressed by anyone before."

Sakura sighed morosely. "He respected Hinata, too, did you hear the way he was talking about her? She killed a chunin. That's probably why he isn't interested in us. We're not strong like Hinata."

"I kicked her ass once!" Ino reminded Sakura.

"Yeah? And how'd that work out for you? Long term?"

"…shut up, Forehead."

"She was pretty scary in the hospital," Sakura admitted, not rising to the bait. "I mean, the Hyuga are supposed to be really strong, but I always thought I could take her, you know?" she said honestly. "Like you did in the academy. You're better than I am at taijutsu but I AM working on it. But I guess she's been training really hard, too, or something. When Sasuke woke up and went into her room, she was blind and just sitting in a chair, and I don't think she said more than five words to me the whole time, but it was kinda like when Kurenai-sensei gets serious about something. Like she'd kill me in an instant and not think twice."

Ino winced, remembering how fast she'd been pressed against the wall with a scalpel against her temple, and Hinata hadn't even appeared angry. Hell, she was blind at the time. That was sort of humiliating after she got done being scared. "Killed a chunin level ninja, Sasuke said. Well, I'll just train harder, too! I kicked her ass once, I'll do it again, and then Sasuke will respect me!"

Sakura nodded abruptly, finalizing her own mental plans to make Sasuke like her.

They walked in silence, Ino shadowboxing the air as she imagined her training with Asuma, Sakura lost in thought.

"But you know, Ino, I'm really kind of jealous of her," she admitted. "Shino's okay and Kiba isn't anywhere near as bad as I thought, but she gets to be on a team with Naruto and Sasuke. I wish I was on that team."

"You? Hah!" Ino scoffed. "Like they'd ever put you on a team with those two. Not in a million years, Forehead."

Sakura's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I guess so."

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx

"Well, hopefully, they won't give us any trouble about taking her out of here. But Hinata's family tends to be a bunch of assholes, so don't count on anything," Naruto said seriously, looking down the road at the offshoot that lead to the Hyuga district.

"Hn."

"Yeah, we'll have to play it by ear. There's too damned many of them and they're too damned powerful for us to take in a fight. I could probably unleash the beast and give both you and Hinata all the power you can stand, and we'd probably still just end up dying together. But the Hyuga respect boldness and power more than they do anything else, so don't act weak or scared. We're young, but we're powerful ninja of this village, and we have to act like it." He clenched his fist, his expression serious. "Still, if they won't let her go… ordinarily, I'd swap a henged clone with her and sneak her out, but the Hyuga tend to be too damned good at figuring that kind of thing out, and I haven't been able to fool Hinata with a henge yet, so I don't want to try it. I guess we'll just have to retreat," he finally admitted reluctantly.

"Hn?"

Naruto winced. "If they're really preparing to seal her eyes permanently because of all this recent crap, we have to stop them, no matter how unlikely it is we'll succeed. If we can, try to give her the chance to prove how strong she is, so they'll make her the heir and not seal her. If we can't…" He shrugged. "They give up their status as potential resources and become enemies." A small, mean smile twisted his lips. "And we know what to do with our enemies."

"Hn."

Plans settled, they started walking forward casually, trying to project an air of confident purpose but at the same time not be confrontational.

Naruto scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You know, Sasuke, I think that last 'hn' of yours was quite possibly the coolest, most evil nonverbal thing I've ever heard you say."

"I'm glad you think so, Naruto. You know, I actually practice my nonverbal sounds at home for a minimum of at least one hour every night, sometimes using a tape recorder to make sure I get them right. Most people don't really seem to get the subtleties, but it's actually quite heartening that I now have an audience who cares."

"…damnit, Sasuke, you almost gave me a heart attack. You're a freak, you realize this, right?" Naruto complained.

"Hn."

"Stop doing that! You're not allowed to have a better sense of humor than I do!"

"It's okay, Naruto, you can't be best at everything. You underestimate your importance as owner of the best pair of breasts in our age group."

"You suck, Sasuke."

-tits-

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx

They were stopped once as they entered the compound, but once they were determined to be teammates of Hinata they were allowed to progress.

They didn't run into any other Hyuga until they reached the largest house in the district, clearly the home of the clan head. Hinata's father, Hiashi Hyuga, was even outside, apparently standing in deep contemplation of the whitest orchid flower Naruto had ever seen, which was growing from an ornate planter sitting on a stone base.

Hiashi looked up as the two boys approached, both boldly walking up to stop right outside of his immediate range, prudently cautious not only of the jyuken, but also the range he possessed as a fully grown adult. His eyes took in Sasuke, then Naruto, and narrowed dangerously.

"I have heard what happened on your ill fated mission," he stated, an undercurrent of contempt flavoring his words to the two boys who'd failed to protect his daughter. "What are you doing here, demon?"

Naruto stared back boldly, unwilling to back down from Hinata's bastard of a father. He was a demon when he needed to be. He had the nine tailed fox sealed in his belly, and he could let part of that power out if he had to. He'd killed before. He'd tortured before. He'd fought and killed a shoggoth single handedly. One white eyed man was nothing before him.

"I've come for your eldest daughter," he growled.

Hiashi stared at him for a moment, his expression unreadable.

"I shall have someone inform Hinata that you are here for her," he replied, and walked away.

The two genin stared after him.

"He's the evil father?" Sasuke asked quietly as soon as he was out of earshot.

"Yeah, what a bastard," Naruto said darkly, tightening the knot of his hitai-ate.

"No, I'm serious," Sasuke continued. "He just let her go without any trouble. This is a problem because…?"

Naruto gave him a look. "How uncaring and heartless do you have to be to send your own daughter out with a deceitful, untrustworthy subhuman demon such as myself who probably has designs on not only her nubile young flesh, but her purity and innocence as well? He's already completely passed Hinata off as heir in his mind, and now he doesn't care what she does. I guarantee that I'd see a lot different reaction if I got within twenty feet of Hanabi, his other daughter and current favorite."

Sasuke blinked. "So you're saying he's a bad father because he lets his girl be around you? Because you're evil and malicious and you're planning on ravishing Hinata?"

Naruto grinned abruptly. And winked at him.

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxx