Voices echoed through the tides, causing ripples of chartreuse yellow to shine down onto the boy's face.

"Naruto…that's a nice name."

He could hear the whispers of a woman's voice but they felt so far away he wondered how they were even audible. Naruto began to snap up from his place on the floor, rubbing his head slightly. He didn't know where he was, but it was incredibly dark. The only source of light seemed to be he himself, and even then, it was only bright enough to make his skin seem monochromatic at best. However, the coloration wasn't the strangest thing about this room. That would be the large river that ran along the above him, perfectly illuminated.

Naruto squinted looking at it, trying to decipher the rippling flashes of long stored away memories that crawled into its tides. They went by so fast, only sending him occasional hints. Words, colors, yellow, orange, red. Naruto didn't know what they meant, so he stopped caring. Instead, he lay back, tilting his head to the side when he saw it. The one other thing in the room that was illuminated was a towering metal gate. Behind that gate lay a pair of eyes, bright red and piercing in their villainy. The way they were shaped would indicate joy if their scarlet color had not been so prominent.

A laugh began to ring out through the desolate landscape, demonic and harsh in its jagged sounds. Naruto just rolled back onto his back, staring back at the surreal river that ran over the ceiling. His eyes curled up into a lazy incline, mouth pouting as the symphony of the creatures laugh echoed through the nothingness.

Yep, I'm dreaming.

"Oh, you're dead." Sasuke commented, as he watched the two boats become lodged in the water. Kakashi still wasn't back from his lunch retreat, so the two had taken the chance to play a game of rafts. The designs were identical to the ones they had previously used, with Sasukes being a lopsided abomination that included a rock as an offensive weapon while Naruto had a small, light watercraft that could easily be destroyed by said rock. The only difference was that Naruto had stuck leaves all over the center of his. He'd said their purpose was to "block the rock" which had made Sasuke snort in laughter, because Naruto had stuck literally four of them on. It certainly wasn't going to be enough, especially with how thin they were.

Sasuke was basically smirking as he watched his boat collide with Naruto's, tipping itself over and sending the rock hurtling down at the Uzumaki's light wood frame. However, instead of sinking the ship like he intended, the rock simply sunk into the leaves. Naruto's boat was completely unscathed.

"What?" Sasuke exclaimed.

Naruto grinned, realizing his plan had worked to perfection. With the rock strategy self-destructing in on itself, his smaller boat was able to break free of Sasuke's harpooning and sped to the finish line. As the two boats surfaced, the ploy became revealed. Naruto had built a small cage underneath the leaf trap (which explains why, when he showed Sasuke the design, he was clutching the underside as a concealing method). When Sasuke's boulder trap (which he'd used in almost every rafts game they'd played since the one on Family Unity Day) was sprung, Naruto's cage caught it.

The Uzumaki boy turned to his friend with the absolute dictionary definition of "shit-eating grin" plastered on his face.

"Ha! Totally sucked in! dattebayo!" Naruto yelled, gleeful in his victory. The fact that he'd actually managed to outsmart him pissed Sasuke off enough, the interjection of his little catchphrase did no favors.

"Bullshit." He grunted, which sent Naruto's levels of smugness soaring to a level beyond what was once thought possible.

"It's not bullshit just cause you're losing." He hummed, words dripping with fakeness. Sasuke's eyes briefly became rigid in anger, contemplating whether he should smack his friend over the head but he managed to rule against it for the moment. Instead, he just crossed his arms and looked up at the sky. Kakashi had been gone for a while, leaving in the morning and it being the mid-afternoon now. It was par for the course at this point and Sasuke, while critical of him for not acting like an adult, couldn't blame the man that much. He had to cover the dreary night shift, so it was understandable that he might want to try and get something done in the daytime (even if "getting something done" in his case was just gorging himself on café food).

"Hey, Sakura! You wanna play?" Naruto asked the girl, who was stationed to the left of them.

"No thanks. I don't think I'd be that good at it." She said, tone at first sweet before becoming haughtier as her face twisted into a slight smirk. "I could still probably do better than Sasuke though."

Sasuke immediately started to smile at the playfulness of the insult, while Naruto burst out into laughter.

"Oh! She's got you!" He cried, punching Sasuke in the shoulder playfully. The Uchiha took no notice of the gesture, setting a goading look back at Sakura.

"Big talk. You better be able to back that up."

Her cocky composure fell slightly as Sasuke returned it in full, confident smirk wobbling into a unsure grin.

"Well, maybe- "

"Come on Sakura! If you're gonna talk shit, you have to play." Naruto prodded at her, dramatically thrusting out a finger.

"You three!" Kakashi suddenly appeared, emerging from the trees suddenly enough that Naruto physically jumped back in fright. Even Sasuke, who was more of less desensitized to minor shock, had his eyes shoot open wide in surprise at the copy ninjas apparent apparition.

"God damn, Kakashi-sensei! You scared the fuck outta' me." Naruto groaned, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"I don't care. I just wanted to stop by to tell you that I have received the forums that show declaration of intent for the chunin exams. You should probably sign them now, just to make the process fast."

Sasuke immediately raised an eyebrow upward, while Sakura looked at Kakashi confused.

"But sensei, me and Naruto don't even know if we want to do them."

"Yes, but this is just a statement of intent and isn't binding. It just helps the organizers properly figure out an estimation of team spaces and prepare accordingly."

This statement sent both Sasuke and Sakura from tepidly confused to straight-up suspicious. It simply wouldn't make sense for the organizers of the exams to prepare around a number of participants that could change at any time, especially with how massive the chunin exams were as an event. It wasn't just some rural sports event that could switch locations on the fly, they were a big deal to even the elemental nations that weren't participating (Kiri and Kumo had long since split from the event due to tensions with the leaf, while Iwa had their own system in place for evaluating ranks, so it the exams weren't even applicable).

"Naruto, how about you sign first?" Kakashi said, handing a pen and paper to the only person out of the group that was dim enough to not become distrustful of what he was saying. Sasuke couldn't help but feel that was intentional.

"Sure thing." The Uzumaki popped the pen's cap of with his teeth, eyes scrolling the page until he found the blank space where he needed to sign his name. He did so quickly, handing the paper back up to Kakashi who vacantly stared at it for a few seconds before becoming enraged.

"You did it, didn't you?!" The man's demeanor became positively venomous at the sight of the writing, voice cranking up to a volume that none of the genin had seen him use outside of high-stress situations.

"Huh?! Did what?!" Naruto yelled back, taken off-guard by Kakashi's sudden spike in aggression.

"This matches the handwriting of the spray paint that defaced the fourths memorial."

Shit. Naruto inwardly thought, a notion that was echoed by both of his teammates. He gritted his teeth, attempting to come up with some sort of response but only producing blanks. Luckily, Sasuke was significantly quicker on the rebound (although maybe this was because he wasn't the one under any real scrutiny)

"Seems like a stretch to me, Kakashi."

"It absolutely isn't. He's got the same noticeable flick on the edge of his "Zs" and the same uneven middle of his "ms"'

"Oh, come on Kakashi-sensei, that's bullshit! Just because me and the guy who did it have similar handwriting-"

"Don't lie to me Naruto, I know it was you! Just look!" Kakashi reached a hand out at the boy, sharply enough in its motion that Naruto legitimately thought he was going to be on the receiving end of a beatdown. He flinched accordingly, only to calm down as Kakashi simply pulled the jacket off his body. Unfortunately, his panic would only skyrocket as he noticed what the older man's actions had revealed.

"Paint stains, the same exact shade of yellow as graffiti." He showed, running a finger along Naruto's sleeve. The stains were clear as day, and completely irrefutable proof of Naruto's guiltiness (unless you wanted to try and argue that a man with an ocular dojutsu misjudged the color of the graffiti), but Sasuke still tried to throw up one last line of defense anyway.

"Those are so faint; how can you even tell if the shade's similar?"

"Sasuke, your defenses are both uncharacteristically weak and frequent. Is it possible that you assisted in the act?"

This was clearly bait, but as soon as it was deployed, the result of the discussion became a foregone conclusion.

"He didn't do anything! It was all me sensei, honest!" Naruto yelled, tone quickly subsiding to a grumble as he realized he'd just given up any defense he had. Normally, admitting to a mistake usually led to your accuser calming down somewhat, but this did not happen here. Instead, Kakashi just seemed to get madder, being at a temporary loss for words before burning up into a blazing inferno of rage like none the genin had ever seen before.

"Are you stupid?! Do you know how much trouble you could get in if you got found out, which is clearly quite easy to do?"

"I painted over the Hokage rock and, like, nothing happened then! Why's a stupid picture frame any different?!"

"You were an unranked minor at the time Naruto, there was little responsibility entrusted onto you. You're a genin now, which means your mistakes come with harsher punishments!"

Naruto frowned, crossing his arms as the unfortunate reality of his actions began to bear down on him.

"That's not even to mention the fact that drawing a mustache on Lord Seconds face is a lot better than calling The Fourth "fox bait.""

Sasuke and Sakura both winced at the words, realizing that Naruto may have gone a teeny tiny bit further than he should've. The boy himself continued to sit with crossed arms, attempting to make it seem like he didn't care about what Kakashi was saying. To be fair, he was far more concerned about Kakashi being mad at him than he was about the potential consequences of his actions, so to say he was only "attempting" to make it seem like he wasn't bothered was poor phrasing.

"Are you gonna grass me in to Lord Third?" Naruto asked, voice low.

"No."

The other two genin breathed a sigh of relief that the possibility of their friend serving jail time had been nipped in the bud. They hadn't really thought that Kakashi would've brought it up to the Third, but due to how inexplicably furious he had been at the action, they couldn't help but feel like it was an option.

"As punishment, all three of you will be working the night shift with me. At least until ten o'clock."

The sigh of relief was quickly sucked back in as Kakashi brought the hammer down upon not just Naruto, but all of them.

"What?! Kakashi-sensei, that's not fair! They didn't do anything!" Naruto yelled, standing up in a sudden spike of energy.

"You're right, they didn't, but this is the only way you'll learn. See, you're perfectly fine with staying up late by yourself, you could even get some late-night practice in, but now you'll be forced to face the fact that your actions can, and will, affect others, which you care significantly more about. Are we clear?"

"But- "He attempted to protest, waving his hands around in a futile effort to drum up a decent response.

"No buts. If you really think you have a chance of becoming Hokage, you'll take the punishment and the scrutiny that comes with it."

Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds, before his response came in the form of a simple head nod. His eyes became devoid of the liveliness that usually bounced through them, bright blues becoming muddied by shadows as he tipped his head down in shame. Upon seeing how legitimately bad his friend obviously felt, even the slightest resentment Sasuke had towards Naruto fizzled away. He was going to practice his taijutsu after the day ended anyway, so it was probably better that he had actual people to spar with instead of just running speed drills.

Sakura, on the other hand, had started to turn deathly pail. No one else really noticed it, as their focus was completely on Naruto and her throat was too hitched up to mutter anything. The problem was simple, she'd forgot to do the laundry. It sounded so benign when it was put that way, to the point that if she were to vocalize it, she would most likely be laughed off yet it was enough to drain the words from her lips. Her mother had asked her to do the laundry by this afternoon, meaning the older woman's germaphobia had reached critical mass. If Sakura didn't do the laundry at five o' clock sharp, she'd be forced to meet a side of her mother that only came out every few months. Yuamochi was usually irritating and demanding but when the intangible yet cold grasp of misplaced dread began to grab at her throat, she became scary.

Sakura barely spoke for the rest of the day.

The hum of the night was incredibly prominent as the genin walked through the stretch of forestland that orbited around the river. It was a little bit before ten o'clock now, Kakashi having sent them off slightly early when it became clear the frolic planter was once again a no-show. As harsh as he could be, even Kakashi realized that keeping the trio behind for five minutes more was completely pointless (this was also around the time he truly comprehended how absolutely mind-numbing Naruto and Sasuke's arguments could get if you were exposed to them for long enough).

The positivity that each genin had could become visually distilled from just a look at how they were walking. Naruto strode forward with his arms tucked around the back of his head, simply happy to take into the shimmering moonlight that glistened through the harsh pines of the forest. Sasuke lingered behind the group, hands locked in his pockets while his mind began to divert it's focus to events far displaced from where the trio were now while Sakura was practically stumbling over herself. Her bizarrely brisk pace occasionally overtook Naruto, while her fingers clenched over each other and her eyes became weighted towards the leaf-stricken ground beneath her. The conversation between them was strangely stalled, lull only breaking when Sasuke happened to catch Naruto being illuminated by the moonlight.

"You really need to do your laundry."

Sakura turned to him with an expression that spoke on not just her emotions, but also her racing heartbeat. Sasuke took notice of this, his own expression splitting between embarrassed and confused.

"Not you. I'm talking about him."

"Oh, what?" Naruto exclaimed, arms immediately breaking from their relaxed position.

"You look like a dumpster baby in that jacket, there's dirt stains all over it."

"Yeah, because we were sparring!"

"Just because you can explain why it's dirty doesn't mean you don't have to clean it." Sasuke pointed out, slightly aggravated that this was a thing he had to explain.

"Whatever. I'll clean it when I feel like it."

"Well, get in the mood soon cause you stink."

"What, like Kiba-bad?"

"Oh god no Naruto, no one aside from Kiba is Kiba-bad. I sat half-way across the fucking room from him and I could still smell essence of wet dog radiating through the halls every morning."

Naruto loudly laughed at this, Sasuke himself even having to hold back from giggling. He soon managed to quash any humor in his voice however, resuming his ire towards the Uzumaki boy.

"Seriously though, I'm begging you to clean that jacket."

"I already said, I'll do it when I feel like it. You're not my dad, you can't tell me what to do."

This response was decently bland in its delivery, with Naruto's words not even being dispatched in their usual loud tone. For the blond-haired boy, it was noticeably subdued yet this harmless phrasing was all it took to snap Sakura out from her practically mute state. Her teal eyes flashed red for a brief second as she shot a withering glare at her friend, one that he had not been at all prepared for.

"If your dad was still here, he'd tell you to clean the jacket. Do your fucking laundry Naruto."

The actual volume of Sakura's insult was menial at best but in her tone was were the venom lay. Her speech's nastiness had been so obviously intentional that instead of birthing playful banter, Naruto just gave her a look that sat somewhere between perplexity and apologia before turning back around to face the front. The group exchanged nothing more that platitudinous farewells for the rest of the night.

Don't make a fucking sound. Creep upstairs, get your forty winks done, wake up early and creep out of the house.

This would at least delay the verbal beat-down she was about to get for the short-term, but Sakura was unsure that simply avoiding her mother would help the situation. In fact, if you tried to follow the woman's thought process, the germs on the laundry would only have time to fester and multiply which would make her more pissed off by the time she got ahold of Sakura. That being said, Sakura didn't really care about the long game right now. All she cared about was making sure she didn't have to stay up late handwashing a bundle of clothes like a street-rat from the slums.

Stowing her ragged breath in an attempt to keep quiet, Sakura gently twisted the door knob open. She entered the house on the tallest of tiptoes, eyes scanning over the floorboards with laser-like precision to make sure she didn't knock over any of the clutter that littered the floor (a feat easier said than done when you realized how dark the Haruno household was when there was no lights on). Normally, she could make it from the entrance of the house to her room in around thirty seconds, but in this instance, she was only halfway near the staircase in that time. Her mothers' room was just to the side, so even the slightest sound could serve as an impromptu statement of arrival.

Remember what Kakashi said about stealth. Keep on the balls of your feet if you're tip-toes start to slip.

Sakura did just this, shuffling around bits of stray paper that lay on the floor. The scraps positioning was like a siren's calls, imploring her to pick them up and tidy the floor but Sakura held strong. She made it through the front stretch of the house making as much noise as an insignificant bug attempting to do the same thing. In around a minute, she had made it to the bottom of the staircase. If she'd been less focused, Sakura would've taken this as an opportunity to breath a sigh of relief but she knew that wasn't an option at the moment. She took a short step onto the first stair, only to immediately panic when she felt her foot hit something very different in texture to the wood that made up the stairs.

Sloppy.

She tried to pull away but it was too late, the sole of her sandal sinking into the soft cotton of its landing pad. A few days ago, Sakura had noticed she'd misplaced her stuffed rabbit Kanna but had wrote off a scavenger hunt as she was busy with the mission. She was regretting that decision now that Kanna was sat on the first step, lifeless button eyes staring back at Sakura with an almost-mocking quality to them. The kunoichi felt her foot sharply press down on Kanna's stomach, which was a problem because no matter how fast Sakura withdrew the step, she had already lost.

SQUEAK!

The sound radiated loud and clear from the bunny's chest, bouncing around the room at a volume that was only amplified due to the natural quiet. Sakura's teeth came crashing down against her lip, hoping in deluded desperation that luck would be on her side and her mother wouldn't hear. Unfortunately, these hopes were completely dashed as the sound of rough footsteps began to crack through the floorboards. From the dark abyss of the house, Yuamochi emerged, silent but so obviously furious that her anger was almost tangible. Her washed-out hair dangled down her face in messy curls which only served to intensify this.

"You little fucking bitch." She growled, practically charging over toward Sakura with clear disdain in her eyes. "Did you forget something?!"

Sakura immediately launched into apologetics, holding her hands up as her mother got closer.

"I was going to do the laundry when I came home but my teacher held us back because some idiot decided to- "

"Bull fucking shit! You went out with those two boys, didn't you?!"

"No! I didn't, I swear!" Sakura pleaded upon deaf ears. Admittedly, the timing of her asking to stay out with her friends, being told no and then staying out was kind of suspicious. It also didn't help that the years' worth of evidence that Sakura was a self-conscious child who wouldn't even think of stepping out of line without asking thrice had approximately zero value in the eyes of her mother.

"Ballsy to try and deny it when you're caught red-handed! You just didn't want to do your laundry, lazy brat!" Yuamochi snarled, a wilting glare of death flickering from her eyes. "Seriously! The congesting germs on your pile could fucking kill me if I got too close to them. I'm getting old Sakura, take some goddamn responsibility because I'm getting real tired of having to babysit you into your teens!"

For the second time that night, a phrase triggered something in Sakura's brain that made her usual well-spoken nature melt. Once again, her mouth moved full-speed ahead without even the slightest consultation with her brain.

"You're not old, you just feel like you are because you were dumb enough to get pregnant at nineteen."

Sakura's words hung in the air for a nauseatingly long amount of time. The statement itself wasn't much, being only the tip of the iceberg of insults Sakura had compiled about her mother but it was still more push back that Yuamochi had ever experienced from her daughter with Sakura's expression having transformed from the usual frightened one to an illustration of complete spite. This was until she noticed Yuamochi's hand shot upwards, in which she began to instinctively brace. Time slowed to a crawl as Sakura became completely convinced that she was about to eat a sharp slap to the face.

But then there was nothing. Yuamochi was more than smart enough to realize that even the smallest slap would leave her embroiled in an investigation should Sakura decide to squeal on her, so it came as little surprise to Sakura when she lowered her hand down to her hip. Her finger's clenched so hard into each other that the joints became punctuated with a pale wight markings. The intent was clear in this action, making her mother in that moment seem that little bit scarier to Sakura. It was one thing to have a mindless brute for a parent, who would put their hands on you with little-to-no hesitation but it was another entirely to have one who was smart enough to pull back.

"Do you have any idea how much I had to give up to raise your ungrateful little ass?"

The delivery of the words was barely coherent considering just how hard Yuamochi's teeth were being clenched, but they hung in the air all the same. The sound of crickets chirping through the dead of night became the primary background noise as both daughter and mother fell silent. Sakura distinctly remembered how faded the old photographs that adorned the upstairs cabinets were.

"Do your laundry right now Sakura." She said, tone somehow at the same time blank but filled with malice.

"But mum, it's late- "

Yuamochi's needed not even speak to silence her daughter, simply shooting the young girl a glare of shriveling malevolence that sucked the air from Sakura's lungs. Sakura mumbled something of an apology before making her way over to the laundry. Her mother didn't move for a while, even after Sakura had passed her. It was clear she was now completely locked away inside her own head which didn't surprise Sakura. Any squabbles she had with her mother were no more than one-sided beat downs that Yuamochi had been waiting years to participate in. Every "this is what I should've said" that her mother had come up with about her father in the years after his departure was unloaded onto a teenager who had little knowledge of anything to do with him. It made sense that her mother would freeze up to try and revel in an emotional catharsis that she'd been deprived of ever since Hayato had left.

Wow, didn't realize you were a psychologist now. Must've missed the part where you received anything past basic education.

Inner-Sakura's voice boomed through her head, gutting any self-respect that Sakura was attempting to deride from the situation. She tried to block it out as she entered into the cramped laundry room, immediately cringing upon the smell of old detergent burning through her nose. She gripped onto the string that connected to the lightbulb, pulling it down only to remember that the bulb had broken a few months ago. This was great, the next hour of her life would be dedicated to hand washing her clothes in the dark where she couldn't fucking see the things she needed to clean. One singular thought had been circling around the back-reaches of her mind for a little bit but with this incident, it became lodged in the front of Sakura's brain. It was one her and her inner-self could agree on.

This is all Naruto's fault.

Naruto's hands scuffled through the overcrowded shelves of the market, plastic crinkling as he did so. The packets of crisps had been packed together so tightly that the condensation of their neon-color schemes was starting to give Naruto a headache. He pulled a pack of the shelf with little regard for the flavoring. He just wanted an excuse to rip his sights away from the disgusting amalgamation of color that was the snack-food shelf.

He slung the crisp packet under his shoulder, its edges creasing against a soda can that he had priorly put in the same position. In all honesty, Naruto didn't really want to be here right now. The only reason he was, was because every other shop near him was shut right now and he wasn't going to make a trek halfway across the villiage for some chips and some soda. The issues he had with this shop stemmed entirely from the workers. At first, he'd thought they were distant or just plain rude, which was to be expected, after all Konoha didn't have the highest appreciation for retail jobs such as the ones they worked. However, after the incident with the scroll where he'd learned about his own nature as the nine-tails jinchuriki, Naruto had realized just why the staff here seemed so put off every time he tried to buy something.

"Just these thanks." He mumbled, placing the items on the counter. The employee said nothing in return, grabbing the items and reading the prices off their back. His beady eyes blinked and swirled as he quickly did the calculations, one hand holding up the items while the other scratched up and down the patches of fuzz that cluttered his chin.

"It's 300 ryo." He said, not even attempting to hide the fact that he did not want to be having this conversation at all. Naruto fished through his wallet, finding the appropriate amount of money and placing it on the counter. The employee quickly snatched it up, obviously not wanting to make skin-to-skin contact with Naruto in any shape or form. To amplify this, he then shoved the snacks across the table, imploring Naruto to pick it up himself. He did so with a slight scowl, scooping the food into his arms and quickly making his way onto the Konoha streets.

From there, he made his way up onto the rooftops, ignoring the gazes of ire that he'd receive from the passersby. It was strange, he thought as he climbed up the back ladder of some old shut building. He didn't know if he preferred not knowing why people ignored him so much or knowing but not being able to do anything about it. Any way you sliced it; Minato had started him off with a pretty shit hand. No guardian and an inbuilt people-repellent that also happened to be a literal demon. Cool. The anger that came with these thoughts flowed through to his hand, the boy clutching his soda can with enough force to dent it somewhat.

A light breeze began to flow in, putting a cap on his anger for the moment. While it wasn't quite as nice as the view he had from the abandoned "night patrol" building, he still appreciated the sight of the Konoha city scape being bathed in the night sky. The burning, fizzy sensation of the drink bled out from the can, running over his lips as he took a sip from it. He had no regrets about smashing that stupid fucking picture frame.

The bags under Sakura' eyes were essentially invisible to everyone else but to her, they felt like they were heavy enough to drag her down to the spirit realm. She smelt like washing powder and bleach, that much she could tell because Naruto had pointed it out to her rather rudely. She'd wanted to snap on him but held back for the moment. There should have been extra emphasis put on "the moment" because Sakura felt like she was ready to go off on the other boy at any second. Every laugh, joke and scream that had once been charming was suddenly irritating, pushing Sakura further and further to the point of blow up.

She had always been quiet but today she was uncharacteristically so. No phrases that were greater than two words ever escaped her mouth, each time she spoke being linked to a direct interaction from one of her teammates. Though it was selfish, she couldn't help but get even more frustrated at the fact that no one seemed to really notice (or care) that she had come out to the lake looking like a vampire and smelling like sun-dried soap. Naruto and Sasuke were too busy playing their stupid boat game and Kakashi had been going in and out the whole day, with little attention being placed onto Sakura herself.

It wasn't until Kakashi sent them on their way again (this time at five on the dot) that she fully let go. The prelude to her path of destruction was plotted out in obvious, "car crash in slow motion" fashion. The three were walking back through the forest stretch in a similar way to how they were the night before. This time, however, Sakura was trudging along the back, shooting functionally invisible glares at both Naruto and Sasuke. The two boys weren't exactly on the right foot with each other either, with their usual petty arguments having devolved into something more serious.

"Wash your fucking jacket." Sasuke snarled, glowering at Naruto with enough sharpness that the Uzumaki boy couldn't help but feel his friend was about to rip the piece of clothing off his body.

"I'm telling you, it's just gonna get dirty anyway!"

"So what, do you not brush your teeth either? They're just gonna get dirty anyway so why bother."

"Yeah, but I don't need clean clothes to be a good ninja. I probably need a decent set of teeth though."

"Doesn't change the fact that you smell like shit."

"I do not "smell like shit" dude, you're just being an asshole."

"The jacket is literally more brown than orange at this point."

"Yeah, but that's dirt not shit!"

"I wasn't saying it's literally shit, moron! I was saying you smelled like shit." Sasuke said, the constant dead ends he was running into obviously beginning to take a toll on his tone.

"Same difference in the end!" Naruto fired back, intent to not see the point of what Sasuke was saying.

"It's really not. All I'm saying is that you need to go to the goddamn laundromat, because you stink."

"Make me then!"

"That's it!" Sakura's voice came piercing into view, sending both Naruto and Sasuke spinning around to face her. Before either could react, she'd unzipped Naruto's jacket and tore it off his body before throwing it on the ground. From there, she proceeded to rain down a hail of stomps onto it, the force of which sent leaves fluttering up into the afternoon air.

"What the fuck?!" He exclaimed in anger, obviously shocked from seeing Sakura's abnormal display of fury.

"You're gonna have to fucking clean it now, huh?" Sakura growled animalistically, throwing the now totally stained jacket back to Naruto. It took the boy a few seconds to fully compute the information that Sakura had spat out at him before his expression began to transform to one that was even more annoyed than it was before.

"Why the hell'd you do that?!" He yelled back.

"Were you listening? Now you have to clean it." She repeated. Her words were true, with the boys track jacket now having been drenched by the residual water that clung to the dirt ground.

"Now you're getting all on my case as well huh?"

"I am, because I'm tired of getting in trouble for your bullshit Naruto! If you'd just washed your damn jacket before you graffitied the memorial, then the rest of us wouldn't have had to stay back!"

Naruto was obviously taken aback by Sakura's newfound cruelty, taking a few seconds to gauge his response. It was a quiet one, tailor made to try and scale back from the sudden animosity. Unfortunately, it would only serve to achieve the opposite result.

"Chill out. You only had to stay for a couple extra hours, what's it to you?"

Sakura saw red.

"Because I have things I need to do! I have actual responsibilities that I have to make sure are covered or my mum rakes me over the coals! That's your problem Naruto, your mind is off in the fucking clouds and you have no idea how to handle any real responsibility because you have no parents to keep you in check and even if you did, you'd hate them for it anyway!"

Naruto visibly crumpled at the insult, eyes becoming downcast while his posture became the perfect illustration for the word uncomfortable. Sakura would've felt bad if she'd been running on anything but the thoughts of having to scrub down her dress hours after she'd wanted to go to bed. Sakura sharply inhaled, preparing to unleash a barrage of abuse far greater than her prior one but she was swiftly cut off.

"Hey." Sasuke said, silencing her for the moment. His face was overall blank, but there was obvious fire behind his eyes. "That's over the line. Apologize right now."

Maybe it was the way her crush was looking at her, maybe it was how downtrodden Naruto seemed, maybe it was the air of alienation that began to pinch and pull at her throat. It could've been a lot of things, but what was for certain is that Sakura began to feel force swelling from the deepest reaches of her subconscious. Inner-Sakura had been lying in wait, itching for a chance of self-destruction, and she'd just taken the wheel.

Oh antisocial pretty boy wants to talk to me now…fuck him! Fuck him and fuck his dumb-ass friend.

"Stop defending him Sasuke! He thinks because there's no one in his life that can tell him what to do, that it's the same for everyone, well it's not! He thinks his stupid dumbass decision don't affect anyone else. They do. He just fucks things up. You fuck things up so hard that you can't even resist taking everyone else with you while you're fucking up! Now I'm a fuck up because I'm stuck carrying around- "

"Sakura?" Naruto's voice snapped her out of her ravings. Her eyes may as well have been closed since she started her rant, and now that they had been forced back open, she noticed things were a lot different. Naruto's look of shame and sadness had been replaced with one of concern and it was directed straight at her. Then she felt the warmness that was running down her cheeks. Her fingertips were raised upward to gauge the sensation, bringing back wetness in its wake. She was crying.

"Are you okay?" Naruto said. His tone was completely pure of malice but ripe with genuine concern. His eyes had shifted from demoralized to worried in the literal blink of them, with not a single drop of lingering resentment being visible. Inner-Sakura began to stir harder than she had been before, the boiling heat from her rage hot enough to set her hair ablaze.

You good for nothing, ungrateful, dumb as rocks, fake nice, piece of shit, vindictive little fucking-

"I'm sorry."

Sakura's words went unmatched by anything resembling interaction. Silence rested upon the trio's discourse, the sound of birds chirping beginning to become more and more prominent. That was until Sakura collapsed onto her knees, hands covering her face in what was a futile attempt at hiding the scattershot range of emotions that had been plastered onto her.

"Oh god, I'm sorry." The way she spoke would have been robotic had her words not been slurred by the nots forming in her throat. As soon as she hit the ground though, Naruto slid down to her side with (ironically) little care for the state of his clothes.

"Woah. Easy." He said as Sakura continued to sob on the ground. He didn't get much in the way of direct communication back however, with Sakura continuing to mutter "I'm sorry" over and over again while tears streamed down her eyes. They stayed like that for a little while, Naruto watching over her in concern while Sakura offered up apology after apology. No matter how much he said that it was okay, it never seemed to placate her. The "sorrys" continued to keep on spilling out of Sakura's mouth to the point that Sasuke (from his outsider perspective) started to think they were involuntary. It was a long three minutes until she stopped talking, and four until she took her hands away from her face. Even with her eyes fully exposed, she seemingly refused to look Naruto in the eye. The place where the tears once pooled up in had become a well of shame that Sakura continued to rub.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked once more, once more attempting direct contact. Sakura offered nothing verbally in response, just staring down at her feet before nodding slightly. Silence again filled the air, neither party knowing quite what to say to the other. That was until Naruto did something unexpected. He grinned the same big grin he always did, it's brightness somehow completely unaffected by the torrent of insults that had been unloaded onto him. Sakura was taken off guard by its appearance, only becoming more surprised as the boy muttered:

"You wanna hang out?"

Sakura sipped on her water, still wiping away at her reddened eyes as she watched the blossoming Konoha nightlife. The last songs of the sun had begun to be flushed out by the oncoming luna symphony, with the bustling crowds and streetlights taking its place. It was pretty, she thought. If this is what night patrol usually entailed than she had definitely been missing out.

"Wow, your mum sounds like a bitch." Naruto idly said, both he and Sasuke having been filled in on the situation moments prior. The Uzumaki boy was dressed in a freshly washed hoodie devoid of any dirt stains or graffiti residue. Sakura laughed at his crudeness, placing her plastic bottle down on the rooftop.

"I know, right?" The relief in her voice was palpable, and for good reason. It felt nice to finally be able to talk to someone about these things, and it felt nicer that they understood.

"Your dad sounds like a bitch as well." Sasuke added.

"Maybe he was, I didn't know him for long enough to find out." She joked, completely torpedoing her self in the process. She didn't mind it too much. After her massive freak out today, she'd have to be willing to self-deprecate a little bit (although this could be considered a big bit when you realized she was no stranger to doing it in the past either, and doing it more would only amplify it.)

"When can you move out?" Sasuke asked, unknowledgeable about the laws in question for obvious reasons. Sakura looked back at him with a light grimace.

"When I turn seventeen which kinda sucks."

"I bet." He shot back.

"It's not fun living with a person who just tells you how lame you are all the time, ya know?" She muttered, jitters from the discussions uncharted territory still lingering in her voice. There was a small pause, Sasuke's face twisting slightly as he tried to figure out the words to say. He'd hadn't been good at communicating since the massacre, even in conversations with light topics so to say this was out of his wheelhouse would be an understatement. However, he still spoke, albeit incredibly low and barely louder than a whisper.

"Well, I think you're pretty cool."

Silence continued. Sakura's cheeks became flushed, the girl's mind moving at one hundred miles an hour yet still not being fast enough to find any words that would let her make conversation. Sasuke's face became a similar shade of red, though he attempted to hide it by looking in the other direction and sinking into the collar of his shirt. The pair might've gotten through the interaction unphased had Naruto not been watching with a sharp eye and a mischievous grin.

"Oh, aren't you two just the dang cutest?" He joked, which caused Sasuke's gaze to lock onto him with murderous intent.

"Shut the fuck up!" He growled, socking Naruto in the arm for good measure. The blond boy just laughed, even despite the fact that his friend had probably hit him as hard as he possibly could. Sakura in the meanwhile, took the chance to divert any attention from herself. Her gaze became cast out long towards the street, taking in the flashing lights from down below. Her mother would give her hell for this but she didn't care. She'd been berated for two nights already, what difference would a third make. Besides, it was worth it. She was out having fun with her friends.

Her friends.

She was going to take the chunin exam. She just felt like she needed too now, to prove to them, her shit-head mother and her absentee dad that she wasn't some third wheel. She was someone of her own.

Click!

"Lights went off." Naruto commented, taking a break from squabbling with Sasuke. The Uchiha in question dropped any wrath that he had been directing at Naruto, replacing it with interest in the event at hand. The nearby supermarket had gone dark.

"It's getting earlier every night."

Sakura looked at the two of them with a questioning gaze.

"What's this about?"

"Nothing much. The owner of that store down there is just a complete weirdo and the store itself keeps closing at all these different times." Naruto explained.

"It's one hundred percent a front for something." Sasuke said. If you had asked him for specifics at this moment in time, he would've said money laundering. This would be wrong, a fact that would be revealed to them the following morning when the same weirdo store owner would be found strung up by one foot from a riverbank tree. He'd been caught planting the drugs that had started Team Sevens current mission and had fallen victim to a snoozing Kakashi's trap. There were a lot of questions to be asked, namely why he decided planting illegal substances like frolic in a completely public area was a good idea, but those were better to be asked by the chunin who took him to jail. For the most part, Team Seven just laughed about it. They laughed really hard