Blanket Reply to Anon. Reviews to my note: Thank you for being (mostly) supportive. And even those who expressed disappointment are appreciated—I'm glad you like my story enough to complain when I say I'm going to leave it off for a while.

Suspicions

Shikamaru was lying on his back beneath his favorite tree, staring up through leafy branches at the ever-changing patterns of wispy cloud in the sky. His mind, however, was not on those clouds.

That Sand-Gennin… why did he do so poorly against Naruto? He crushed an entire Mist-team with no trouble, but barely put up a fight against the dead-last of Konoha. And what was that purple chakra of Naruto's in the middle of the match? I've never seen human chakra that color before…

Whatever was going on, it was clear that the Jounin-sensei had a reason to warn them away from the blond and his team. But what had gotten them to do it?

Shikamaru sighed, glaring at a helpless branch. "This is all so troublesome…"

xxxx

"All right! We're all going to train together, like it or not!" Naruto's near-shout had Kankuro and Temari sending worried glances in their brother's direction, and they were relieved (and a little surprised, despite recent events) to note that he seemed indifferent to the announcement.

Sakura shook her head and Sasuke snorted, "Dobe."

"What? It'll do them some good to learn a few new tricks. And Sakura could learn a few of Temari's—she's got the control for it."

"Not the affinity, though," Sasuke pointed out. "You're the one with the wind affinity—Sakura's earth, remember?"

"And you're lighting, and Gaara's fire, and Kankuro is earth. So what? I don't think Temari is a wind-element, either, really. Isn't she fire, too?"

"How am I supposed to know? And isn't Gaara earth?"

"No, Gaara's fire. Shukaku is earth. Kinda like I'm wind but Kyuubi is fire, so I can use both. And you can train to be just as good with any other element as you are with your affinity—it's just easier to learn your affinity, and it takes a little less chakra to use. It doesn't make you better at it."

Sasuke sighed a bit, ignoring the amused look he was receiving from Gaara and the blatant puzzlement from Sakura. "How is it that you know all this and still managed to nearly fail the Academy?"

"Hey, you know as well as I do that my grades were sabotaged. I figured I might as well only work as hard as the grades I'd be given regardless. Anyway, we need to make a training schedule, and work out who's learning what from whom—yes, whom Sasuke, don't give me that look. I do know proper grammar, you know."

"Very well," Gaara broke in before turning his green gaze to his brother. "Kankuro, you will train with Naruto—without your puppet. You need to learn how to manage without it. Temari, you will work with Sakura. Teach her smaller versions of you fan-jutsu, so that she will have a few… surprises for her opponents."

"Right," Sasuke agreed, "Sakura, you should help Temari with her control—she wastes more chakra than she needs to when swinging that fan around. Naruto… try not to beat up Kankuro too much. We do want him to learn, after all."

Naruto nodded, suddenly serious. "That leaves you and Gaara. Endurance training, the both of you—Gaara's got a good bit of chakra endurance, thanks to Sandy, but needs to work on physical endurance. And Sasuke…" Try and figure out if you can switch your Sharingan back to three-tomoe instead of always having it Mangekyo… that thing wastes all sorts of chakra.

"Yeah, yeah, I know…" You forgot the part about 'ruins your eyesight'.

Did not—you haven't been showing any signs of that.

Sasuke blinked. Now that Naruto mentioned it… he hadn't. Huh. That's… odd.

The silent conversation was broken by twin thumps to their respective heads, courtesy of Sakura. "Quit that, you two! It's annoying."

"Uh… heh, heh, sorry Sakura…"

"I'm not," Sasuke said unrepentantly. "That was a private conversation that needed to be held."

He got another whack for his troubles.

xxxx

Kakashi was getting a bit frustrated. He'd been looking for his team, as all three of them had passed their prelims, for the past three hours. He'd not been able to find any trace of them.

He spotted Kurenai and her team—none of them had passed, but they were back to training already as none of them had been severely injured. "Kurenai," he greeted.

"Kakashi! It's nice to see you," she said politely, indicating to her Gennin that they could rest for a while. "Where is your team?"

Kakashi sighed dramatically, "I haven't a clue," he waved a hand at the forest beyond the training ground, "I've been looking for them all morning."

"You can't find them?" Red eyes blinked disbelievingly.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, his visible eye closed in an abashed smile, "We did quite a bit of training in disguising or hiding chakra signatures and now I can't sense them unless I'm already within three feet. It's a bit embarrassing, really. Could you help me?"

"I guess you really can't find them," Kurenai muttered before raising her voice, "You want my help?"

"Well, yours and your team, really. They don't have to rely on chakra signatures…"

The Genjutsu master laughed, "You'll owe us a favor for this, if everyone agrees."

xxxx

Two hours later, Kurenai was starting to understand why Kakashi had asked for help. There had been no trace—and it wasn't as if Team 7 was inconspicuous.

Then Akamaru started barking and Kiba went pale. He turned to his sensei, looking vaguely sick, "Akamaru says he smells the dobe—with that kid from Sand."

"Hinata?"

The girl activated her bloodline and nodded faintly. "I see Team 7 and the Sand team… it looks like they're training." A trace of disbelief echoed in her voice. Sure, the Sand Gennin had lost rather spectacularly to Naruto, but why would he need to train? They'd seen what he could do…

"I see. Kakashi?"

Kakashi gave a shrug that could have meant just about anything. "Aa, well… Let's go see, then."

Kurenai almost told her team to wait there, but decided to let them follow if they wanted as she joined her fellow Jounin in the direction her Gennin had indicated.

xxxx

"Sasuke! What have I told you about that blasted Sharingan!?" Naruto yelled across the clearing, sounding irate.

The sparring match between Gaara and Sasuke stopped, as did Sakura's session with Temari. Kankuro still wasn't sure how to react to the apparently MPD orange-and-black kid that his brother's demon was afraid of, so was more than willing to halt his own training to observe.

Sasuke winced as Naruto in 'Hokage Mode' stalked across the clearing. "Sorry, Naruto."

"Don't do it and you won't have to be sorry, teme. Turn it off and try again. You need to learn to do this without those cursed eyes."

"Hai." Sasuke wasn't going to argue that. He'd been placed in situations where his Sharingan was rendered useless before and Naruto was right. It was better to learn things the normal way—it resulted in a fuller understanding, among other things.

Suddenly Naruto's 'Hokage Mode' got crossed with his 'Kyuubi' and 'Prankster' modes.

Sasuke started to get a bit uneasy.

"Actually," Naruto drawled, a very Kyuubi-influenced smirk crossing his face as he deliberatly flashed his eyes red for a moment, "I've got a better idea."

ANBU Captain or no, Sasuke did not like the sound of that.

Naruto's hands flashed through seals he didn't recognize and a flare of purple chakra swamped Sasuke's vision.

It didn't leave.

"What the—Naruto! What is this?" Sasuke shook his head, reaching up to touch the thing hampering his vision. It felt hot, almost burning his fingers, while against his eyes it was merely warm.

"Chakra blindfold," the Rokudiame sounded smug, "You can't take it off by normal means and won't be able to use any of the usual dispelling techniques on it—unless, of course, you manage to outlast me'n'Fuzzy's combined chakra." He paused for effect, "Now start again."

Sasuke could hear the smirk. "Sometimes I really hate you, Naruto," he informed calmly, even as he turned to do as ordered. So long as Naruto was serious—and, despite the method of applying the blindfold, he was serious—Sasuke would do it. And, he admitted grudingly, probably learn from it, too.

Naruto laughed.

Sasuke, predictably, snarled.

Naruto only laughed harder.

Temari cast a confused glance towards her training partner, and Sakura shook her head. "Mind link. I think Naruto heard something Sasuke didn't want him to."

Temari decided not to ask.

Gaara wasn't so reserved. He erected a temporary sand-pen around his blindfolded opponent and turned an inquiring gaze on Naruto. "Could you repeat the jutsu fo this… mind link?"

Naruto blinked. "I—maybe—but I was trying to get rid of a chakra overload—"

"What does that mean?" Sakura asked, slightly puzzled. It was a problem she hadn't haerd of before.

"Ano… my chakra was building up too much, too fast. The jutsu for the mind-link is… dangerous. To the user. Because of how much chakra it requires." Which meant he could still do it, now that he could handle most of his full reserve, he and Sasuke (and probably Gaara, though he hadn't asked) only needed to siphon off extra chakra avery few days, and then only if they hadn't been using any. But Sakura didn't need to know that.

"And you did it anyway?" Sakura demanded, her voice rising to a near-squeak halfway through.

"Well, I had to drain off all that chakra somehow. And it worked, didn't it?"

She shook her head, glanced at the blindfolded and sand-shrouded Sasuke, and sighed. "I suppose."

"Great! Now get back to work!"

xxxx

Kurenai frowned at the nearest tree when she felt Kakashi dampening his chakra down to almost nothing, as though he was on a mission into hostile territory. "I think you and your team should wait here until I've assessed the situation."

Red eyes sharpened with alarm as they flicked towards the white-haired Jounin. "Is it that dangerous?"

Kakashi shrugged one shoulder, turning an oddly serious gaze in the direction of his team. "Naruto and Sasuke… they're good. And Naruto… well. You don't want to be against him when he's serious—Sasuke's bad enough. For a Gennin, even Sakura's pretty good—maybe even low Chuunin."

"Why do I get the feeling that Sakura is not the best in your little crew?"

"Gaara of the Sand is easily Jounin level. Easily. When he's not paying any attention, he can take on a small army of Chuunin and crush them. Literally. When he is paying attention, he could do the same to a much larger army of Jounin. I believe he could take on the Hokage and win."

"He's the one Naruto faced?"

Kakashi gave a short nod. "He can do those things… because he is Jinchuuri to Shukaku, the Demon of the Sand. And he cannot fight Naruto because Shukaku fears him—and his tenant. So he takes out his bloodlust… elsewhere." He kept his voice low, so that Kurenai's team wouldn't hear from their position further back.

Kurenai looked a bit dubious. "And you're trying to sneak up on them?" she shook her head, "I don't think that's a very good idea, Kakashi. My team said that a Mist team snuck up on them during the practical… and that Gaara kid killed first and asked questions later."

"Naruto has already introduced me under the 'kill and die' list. Besides which, I make a habit of trying to 'sneak up' on my team. They'd be less likely to recognize me if I wasn't masking my chakra."

Kurenai made a noncommittal sound and shrugged. "Fine. But if you get yourself killed, I won't be held responsible."

Kakashi turned a happily squinted eye in her direction briefly before vanishing to the north.

xxxx

As soon as he was out of sight of Kurenai and her team, he slowed down and frowned slightly. He had the feeling he'd said too much to the Genjutsu mistress—undoubtedly she would be getting even more suspicious.

Kakashi winced slightly, knowing that his team—especially Naruto and Sasuke—would not be happy at having to deal with a closer watch. Less so with their Jounin sensei for getting them into that mess in the first place.

Well. Time to face the music.

xxxx

I live! More quickly than expected, too. Aren't you proud of me? Well, I'm switching this in, so I don't know if it will show up as a chapter alert, but at least it's written. And posted. At any rate, the next chapter may be a bit of time in the making—I've got school piling up.