Naruto's heavy eyes shot open with haste, only to become lazy as they rested on the large, blurry waterbody that sat above him. Even though it was a visually-impressive sight, Naruto had come to associate it almost completely with negative feelings. Not only was his slumber now interrupted, but it meant he had to interact with him.

Laughter rippled through the seemingly endless landscape, Naruto shuffling around onto his side to see a pair of red eyes peering back at him from behind a gate. The gate stretched on as long and ostensibly infinitely as the murky abyss itself, only adding to the surreal feel of the area. The creature's crimson eyes were the only thing aside from Naruto that contained any color in the landscape (though even that was debatable with the scenes monochromatic lighting making even his own skin look dimly yellow). Naruto distinctly groaned, stepping up to his feet with an obvious weight behind the action. He noticed the floor underneath him jitter slightly, ripples extending across the flooring, stretching on for god knows how long until they either subsided or simply feel out of view. Any light in the "room" seemed to radiate from Naruto specifically, so anything past a certain distance may as well have been invisible.

Naruto felt his head start to fog up with the thick dreamlike smog that radiated from every square inch of this place. His actual cognitive ability here was somewhat lacking (even more so than usual), every action being met with a megaton of thoughts attempting to remember if he had indeed done the thing he had just done. It made navigating the area a chore, with Naruto having to desperately cling onto even the slightest bit of lucidity if he wanted to traverse the plane properly. Luckily enough, there was one thing that he could use to completely clear his mind while here, that being the spike of anger that swelled up when he heard the caged beast's rigid laughter. It somehow sounded so far away, yet also like it was being sent directly into

"Hey you! Can it, I'm trying to get some sleep before my big mission tomorrow!" Naruto growled, wandering towards the front of the gate. Light bounced off of him, slithering up the gate before further illumining the creature behind it. With the burden of light being place onto it, the beasts true form was revealed. He was distinctly fox-like in his shape, with ears as pointy as kitchen knives and fur as scarlet as newly forged metal. His body was disgustingly boney, with ribs and other assorted parts of his frame being so prominent, Naruto thought they might be breaking through the skin. The imperfections that lay on him didn't stop there though. His aforementioned fur had been left in an utterly disgusting state. Patches of it went unmatted, sticking up in clumps only to trail down to smoother streaks, too soft for their own good. You could just about make out patches of his skin from under them, the fur formerly used for protection beginning to malt off to a small degree. Despite all of that, his face remained locked in the same repulsive smile. It showed off the state of his teeth, each one pearly white and long enough that they stretched out his gums. His eyes, in the meanwhile, were sharp and mocking, contorting in a cruel, scornful gaze that balanced on the midway point between anger and hilarity.

With all that into account, what Naruto found the most unnerving about the fox (even on his dozenth or so time seeing him) was his overwhelming size. The fox was physically bigger than the massive gate that kept him at bay, having to slump downwardly if Naruto was to see his face. Speaking of the gate, Naruto was incredibly glad that it somehow existed in this world because if it wasn't, there was no doubt in his mind that the fox could kill him with little but a swipe of his paw. If this fox was somehow able to escape from his mindscape, he'd tower over a majority of the Konoha skyline even when on all fours.

"Uzumaki Naruto…" He murmured to himself, though even a murmur from the beast was louder than the biggest yell Naruto himself could muster.

"Other way around, my name's Naruto Uzumaki dumbass. Can't you read?" His tone was strong with its language, reasoning that he could talk as much shit as he wanted. If the fox was able to kill him, it would've done it already. That being said, his voice quickly lowered in volume though it was not because of the gargantuan eldritch terror that was in front of him but because he had just realized what he'd said. "Wait, obviously you can't read, you're a fox."

"I assure you Uzumaki, I am far more well-read than you are and ever will be." The fox spat out with clear distain in his voice. Naruto looked back at him with a slightly-faltering smirk.

"Oh yeah? What's this say?" He paused for a second, riffling through the pockets of his track jacket only to come up empty. "…have you got a pen?"

The fox said nothing in response, letting the absolute stupidity of the question speak for him. Naruto, noticing this, awkwardly shuffled his hands into his pockets to make it seem like that's what he'd been doing instead of trying to will a pen into existence. His mouth screwed up into a pout as he tried to regain his train of thought, eyes gazing down at the ground.

"What was I saying? Oh yeah! Look, Kuwama- "

"Kurama."

"Whatever your name is! You've got to stop waking me up at night! I go to sleep to go to sleep, not to stay up late and talk with you." Naruto explained, rather casually considering he was speaking with a literal demon that slept inside him. Yet again, however, Kurama refused to speak, instead peering down at Naruto with the same contemptuous "Cheshire cat" smile he always did.

BANG!

His paw came shooting forward, serrated claws squeezing through the gaps in the gate. While he was at no actual threat thanks to the distance, the sight of this eldritch horror taking a stab at him to send Naruto stumbling back with fear in his eyes. The Uzumaki boy's balance was so put-off that he ended up falling backwards onto his ass, an action that Kurama found most amusing (yet at the same time he weirdly looked disappointed). A few seconds passed, ripples from Naruto's fall bouncing through the water-like flooring. It wasn't until he realized that he was far out of Kurama's potential range that he managed to stand back up again, face flaring up with irritation.

"What the fuck'd you do that for?!" Naruto screamed, throwing a pointed finger outward for no real reason. Kurama didn't reply immediately, instead shutting his eyes (small victories) and laughing to himself. It wasn't the same laugh as before, the organ-like bellowing that served to taunt and alarm Naruto. No, this time it was a small sharp giggle that was only direct towards himself.

"You're incredibly disappointing Uzumaki boy. For all your big talk about becoming Hokage, I would expect you to have a little bit more self-confidence. At the very least keep the flinching to a minimum."

"How do you know about, like, any of that?" Naruto asked, voice still shaky from Kurama's scare tactics. It wasn't like he could really recall having a conversation with the fox ever, let alone one about his goals and aspirations

"You complete fool. I see everything you see and feel everything you feel. For all intents and purposes, I am the physical manifestation of your subconscious being."

Naruto stared at him blankly for a few seconds, before his face shifted into a determined scowl.

"Yeah, well, if you're just in my head, then why should I give a single shit about you? The Fourth put you inside of me and that's where you're gonna stay for the rest of your life."

"Let me shatter the illusion of my lifespan outright Uzumaki. The very nature of my existence is a topic far beyond your comprehension but I will tell you this. I was birthed into the world before you were even a concept and I assure you I will still be here on the day that you die."

Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine, fear running through his blood and freezing it cold. He knew it would only be a few seconds before that same fear began to eat at his face and turned around as so to make sure Kurama couldn't feed on the proverbial "blood in the water". He thrust his hands back behind his head in a transparently fake attempt to look relaxed, masking his features from the creature behind him.

"Good stuff Big K, real cool chat. I'm going to go back to sleep now, so if you don't mind- "

"Oh, I very much do Uzumaki. I mind that you think I am a bad dream that will drift away with the tides of slumber, but I very much am not. I am as much a part of you as any goal or relationship your dimwit brain could conjure up."

Naruto waved a hand back at him, still not willing to show Kurama his face.

"Whatever."

While Naruto's voice was obviously wobbly in its pitch, his apparent disregard for the situation did phase Kurama enough that he felt it was time to pull out one of the cards that he'd been saving for these moments. See, Naruto had only recently learnt about his true nature as the nine-tails jinchuriki, and had only even more recently started interacting with Kurama in any fashion at all. Even then, those interactions served as little more than staying on his back and trying to go back to sleep while Kurama laughed. This meant the fox had had thirteen years' worth of observation and knowledge on Naruto which conversely meant thirteen years' worth of masterfully crafted insults and manipulation.

"I can show you her, you know?"

Naruto stopped on his heel, arms falling to the side. Kurama's full smile somehow extended even further up his face at the sight. The water that glided over the two of them began to echo with words and memories too distorted to hear, muted streaks of red becoming slightly visible in it's current.

"Just come a little bit closer." The nine-tailed beast goaded, eyes beginning to slant with sinister intent. Naruto turned his head back, the edges of his eyes just barely being visible to Kurama, but even that small sliver of the soul's window gave Kurama all the satisfaction he'd been hoping for. It was obvious Naruto was at least considering it, and while Kurama didn't think it would be this easy, he certainly wouldn't complain had it been. Unfortunately, his initial thoughts were reaffirmed as Naruto turned his head back away from him.

"I don't know how that big gate works, but I'm not going to fuck around and let you out. I'm not stupid."

"You could've fooled me."

Naruto began to walk away once more, attempting to put off how angry it was. He wasn't exactly what you'd call "rational" but he was at least smart enough to realize getting outwardly madder at the fox would be an effort in pointlessness. Instead, he just did what he should've done from the very start of this meeting: lay on the ground with his arms stretched out under his head. He didn't know the specifics of going to sleep while you were already technically asleep but he knew that most of the time it worked and that was enough. Enough at least, until he heard Kurama laughing. Against his better judgement, Naruto flicked his head up and looked back at the monster.

"Whatever you're laughing at can't be that funny."

"Indeed, it is." Kurama said, with a glint in his eye that was even more unnerving than the one usual present. "Big things are on the horizon, Uzumaki Naruto. Things you cannot even hope to predict or grasp. Events that will shatter and twist your worldview until it's an unrecognizable shell of itself, demented by your own ambition and greed. I just want you to know that when that happens, I'll be happy to take charge."

Naruto tried to block out the fox's words, laying sideways on his left ear but couldn't help but feel the knots start being tied in his stomach. Kurama was scary. Really scary.

The effects of the night were present in the eyebags that Naruto had been sporting the following day. The fatigue didn't really do anything to bother him though, the boy's natural energy being more than strong enough to fight through any weariness for the moment. Afterall, it was a mission and not only that, but a travelling overnight mission so his excitement was even more palpable than usual. To be honest, the actual contents of the assignment weren't anything special. Konoha was running low on effrayed, a herb that was grown primarily in the mist and the lightning and could be used to treat symptoms of fever. You didn't need to go as far as the aforementioned villages to find it, but due to Konoha's naturally warm temperatures, it didn't start to appear naturally until you were decently far out from Konoha. Team Seven had been put on the duty of retrieving the herbs, a burden that required two- or three-days' worth of travel.

Luckily for them, the first day already seemed to have flown past if the setting sun was any indication. The team had set up camp upon a short stretch of turf that extended just outside of the forest they had been wandering through. It was mostly made of rock, with a layer of fresh-smelling green grass glazing over its surface. As it stretched onward, its stone began to erode in the face of the powerful lake that ran along with it. This erosion caused the very edge of the turf to transform into something that resembled a makeshift pier, only just taller than the tide itself. The setting sun had begun sending out rays of amber-tinged sunlight through the air. This was its desperate last gasp for life before the moon swallowed it for the day, though it would soon return to go through the same process the next.

Kakashi balanced on the lakeside jetty, taking in the chilling air that ran past him constantly. He guessed that must were probably close to the plant's location, but didn't bother to pull out the map he'd been given. With as many years of experience as a shinobi as he had, Kakashi's mind essentially came equipped with a high-functioning GPS.

"Hey, sensei!" Naruto screamed, gaining the man's attention. He could immediately tell the boy was going to ask him a stupid question from how Sasuke was grimacing and Sakura was close to breaking out in laughter. Because of this, Kakashi couldn't help but sigh as he focused a bored eye on Naruto and the other two that were bunched up around the campfire.

"What?"

"If a guy with arms for legs and a guy with legs for arms got into a fight, who would win?"

"Obviously the guy with legs for arms, the one with arms for legs wouldn't be able to walk properly." Kakashi said, actively feeling stupid for even bothering to answer.

"Told you." Sasuke said, trying intently to make it seem like he wasn't taking vindication in his senseis answer. Naruto, on the other hand, twisted his face up into a scowl.

"No no no! You guys aren't taking into account the flexibility factor."

"The flexibility factor is nothing Naruto. Just because a hand can make an "o" shape with its fingers doesn't mean it can do anything in combat when it's stuck to your leg." Judging from Sasuke's response, Kakashi could guess that the other two genin had been fully informed on the ins and outs of "the flexibility factor".

"It does! Why can't the guy just make a flat shape with his hands and walk like that?"

"Because the foot is designed for walking, the hand isn't."

"What if he uses his fingers like tippy toes?!"

"Unless this guy has fat fucking sausage fingers, they would break immediately!' Sasuke growled, showing an unusual amount of emotion. This display was enough to send Sakura off into a laughing fit, while also somehow not dissuading Naruto from continuing to argue the benefits of "the flexibility factor". Kakashi just looked back at the river, attempting to block out any semblance of the conversation from his brain. He almost couldn't believe that these were the kids that he'd entrusted the responsibility of the chunin exams too, but he supposed judging them purely on a stupid conversation would be unfair. God knows he and his friends used to be the exact same way….

The exact same way.

Kakashi caught himself only seconds before he plunged headfirst into a catacomb of memories that he thought were best long forgotten. He couldn't help it most of the time, they were like a drug. A temporary rush of dopamine that would let him be dizzyingly happy for around five minutes before the whiplash of it all caught up to him. He turned his head back towards the camp fire, forsaking himself to what had probably transformed into yet another stupid Naruto and Sasuke debate in order to try and occupy himself for the moment.

The soft dirt path shook and squelched under the weight of Team Sevens feet as they made there way along it. They'd departed from the camping spot early in the morning, making there way down a path which of course led to more forestland. The main pathway was large, bottoming out in between two hills, almost like a trench. Most of the rising sunlight was blocked out by the treetops, with only a few select rays managing to pierce through.

"I'm not saying the guy with the arms for legs would win, but I'm just trying to have the discussion."

"Bullshit Naruto, that's always what you say when you're losing." Sasuke spat out at his friend.

"Who's deciding I'm losing, you? You're not even taking into account- "

"I swear to god if you mention the flexibility factor one more time, I'm going to punch you in the face."

"Do it then!" Naruto yelled back, throwing his hands up in the air like he was to throw down.

"Oh! Fight, fight, fight." Sakura egged on from the side, not expecting either to get into an actual scrap ("I'm gonna kick your ass" was easily the most used phrase between the two boys, and they'd not actually thrown down once). To be fair, this was somewhat misinformed as Sasuke had actually been planning on slapping Naruto over the head and then saying "how's that for the flexibility factor?", but instead decided upon a more lingual approach to insulting him.

"I was just joking Naruto. There's no way I could punch someone who's not going to take the chunin exam, it'd be like hitting a little kid."

Sakura's mouth curled up into a smile-like "o" shape while a rain of punches (obviously not full powered) rained down against Sasuke's arm.

"I'm still thinking about it, alright?" Naruto growled, immediately growing self-conscious as soon as he pulled away from scuffling with his friend. The talk of the chunin exams finally drew the attention of Kakashi, who had been silent for a majority of the morning.

"Deadlines coming up in two weeks, so you'll have to make a choice eventually."

"Yeah, I know." He grumbled. They'd been training hard for the exam, with Naruto even having to cut out the extra practice he usually did when he got home because he was so exhausted. Taijutsu had gone from a faint outline to second nature in each of the teammate's heads, even if Sasuke was the only one out of them who was really that much above average (without using jutsu that is). All three of them could also essentially recite the "how to spot a genjutsu" text book word-for-word, which was a necessity in the current shinobi climate.

Honestly, Kakashi gauged their chances of doing well in the exam at a statistical high. Sasuke was significantly more talented than expected of an even mid-way through their tenure genin, Naruto's chakra control weak point was an afterthought when you considered how much of the stuff he had to burn and Sakura, for what she lacked in raw ability, made up for it in intelligence. Should they decide to take the exams, Kakashi would expect at least one of them to make it to the final stage.

"Hey, Kakashi." Sasuke said, the fact that he was even attempting to make conversation serving as a surprise to the older man.

"Hm?"

"You've done the chunin exam before. What does it actually entail?"

"The final stage is always a combat tournament but aside from that, everything else is randomized. Some chunin exams have had three stages, some have had twenty and the stages very rarely carry over. If they do, they are always stages from back further than the difference between our generations."

Sasuke waited a little while before asking his next question.

"In that combat tournament you mentioned. Is there a possibility that you fight your teammates as well?"

"Depending on how you do in the initial round, sure." Kakashi absent mindedly said back. Before Sasuke could even take time to think about this, Naruto was already halfway in his ear.

"You better hope you're not matched with me dude; I'll beat the shit out of you."

"I thought you, and consequently, we weren't doing them?"

"Yeah but if we did, I'd kick your ass."

"Bullshit." Sasuke replied, taking a couple of play swipes at Naruto, who quickly reciprocated them. Kakashi and Sakura both decided to take their attention off the squabbling two, redirecting it to the front of the path. There, they saw something very unusual. Kakashi held his hand out in front of the three genin, halting even Naruto and Sasuke in their tracks once they collided with it. At the top of the dirt road, stood a man. He was short, plump and old, that much was obvious, but his face was completely obscured thanks to the large paper map in front of him. He wore a bright blue robe that was pinned high on his chest, but still draped down to the tips of his ankles. A large satchel had been tied around his waist, which Kakashi suspected was made of leather from the way it looked. The hand that wasn't holding the map, was clutched onto a large paper umbrella, seemingly useless except for aesthetic purposes.

Team 7 stood motionless for a few seconds, watching the man ruffle around with the map. He was seemingly oblivious to their presence, a fact that Naruto noticed.

"Hey!" He screamed, prompting the man to tear his face away from the map. His head was round and fat, covered in an obviously receding tuft of white hair. His moustache (similar in color) also seemed to be weakening, with strands of it looking uneven on his upper-lip. This, combined with the wrinkled, dotted state of his skin made him look distinctly sickly. He smiled at the group upon seeing them, managing to look sweet despite the state of his looks.

"Hello! Do you know happen to know the way to the Hidden Leaf Village?" He asked.

Then he collapsed.

"Is he dead."

"No, he's still got a pulse. Sakura, could you fetch some more water?"

"Yes sensei."

"His face is really manky."

"Don't be rude Naruto."

"Oh, come on, I'm totally right Kakashi-sensei! Aren't I Sasuke?"

"Well…"

"Oh, come one!"

"I mean, he does kind of look like a zombie."

"Ah!" The man's eyes cracked open, sending a light that was far too bright beaming directly into his corneas. The sensation caused him to push himself upward, attempting to bring stability back to his figure, which he had realized was grounded. Before he could hope to get a further grip on the land though, a gentle hand pushed him back down.

"Woah, woah. Easy there." Kakashi said. A few more blinks and the man began to fully relax himself, an action that was easier to do when you could actually see the people that were crowded around you.

"Who are you?" The man said, tugging the collar of his robe upwards.

"I'm Kakashi Hatake, Konoha shinobi, ranked jonin. These three are part of my genin squad." Kakashi passed the man his identification card, though this was little more than a formality.

"H-hello, I'm Ookami Hitsuji."

There was an awkward pause before Kakashi raised his eyebrow.

"…And?"

"O-Oh. I'm a chakra researcher from the land of bubbles." Ookami stammered. His voice was shaky, constant emphasis being put on the wrong syllables of his words. Kakashi would've found it funny had he not just seen the man crumple like paper.

"A Kiri sect, I presume?"

"Y-yes."

"Even if you live on the border, that's still a decent journey to get here. Any particular reason you decided to take it."

The man's face folded like wet paper, even more so then it had been when he was speaking normally.

"I have a specific heart condition that I need to get checked out. Kiri doesn't have particularly good health services, and I've heard very good things about Konoha's medical ninjutsu programs."

Kakashi took a small second to properly compute the information he'd just received before explaining his plan.

"We've just travelled in from Konoha and while the path itself isn't particularly dangerous, I can't see a person who's prone to collapse being able to make it through. We're currently on a mission to retrieve a batch of effrayed and will be doing a round trip back to the leaf. I can't force you, but if you value your life at all, I'd recommend sticking with us."

Ookami immediately nodded his head, almost violently so.

"O-Of course, thank you Mr. Hatake!" He sputtered. Kakashi would of talked further with him, but spotted Sakura making her way back to camp with the waterskin.

"Oh, there she is. Excuse me." He idly said, standing up to go meet the girl and fill her in on the information he'd just received. Ookami in the meanwhile, began to riffle through his satchel, making sure his belongings were all still in place. Luckily for him they were, with even his umbrella having been placed alongside where he'd been sitting. After breathing a sigh of relief, Ookami noticed that he was on the receiving end of two dead-eyed stares belonging to both Naruto and Sasuke. It was a few seconds before either one of them spoke up, the actual dialogue being delivered by a suddenly grinning Naruto.

"Hey, if a guy with arms for legs and a guy with legs for arms got into a fight, who would win?"

Ookami was an odd man. Not in a bad way, but definitely enough that Sakura and Sasuke were watching any action of his with a demeaning curiosity. He held the umbrella up over himself at all times, as if he were in the middle of a particularly wet storm. In reality, the only thing that the sky held was the warm afternoon sun and the occasional breeze that came with it. Occasionally, he would open up the satchel and fish out a shiny brass stopwatch. Each and every time he did this, he would look at the device with dismay before plopping it back in the bag. Often times the absolute death glares he would give the watch would be enough that both Sasuke and Sakura would have to bite their tongues to suppress any laughter that was bubbling up inside them.

Naruto, to his credit, was either too dumb or too nice to really find much humor in the man's irregularities (Sakura suspected it was the latter since Naruto was essentially in stitches should Sasuke mispronounce a single word) but was obviously somewhat peeved that Ookami's presence was slowing them down. He moved about as quickly as you'd expect a fat man who's first impression to you was fainting to which meant that it started to become dark long before they reached the Effrayed patch. Team Seven launched into action, popping the rolled up sleeping bags off their backs and setting up camp in less than five minutes.

The campfire was weaker than the one they had lit the night before, an obvious side-effect of moving closer towards the mist. The genin were forced to shuffled closer to it, Sakura in particular having to tie frills of her dress into a knot to make sure they didn't catch ablaze.

"Are we all stocked up on food and water?" Ookami said in the same shaky tone that lingered in his whenever he spoke. At first Kakashi had thought it was just a side-effect of his collapse, but had quickly realized that he talked like this one-hundred percent of the time.

"We should be fine. You three all have your water skin's filled up right?"

"Yep."

"Yeah."

Sakura and Naruto both voiced their answers, whereas Sasuke simply nodded.

"Cold out here, isn't it?" Kakashi said, absent-mindedly running a kunai through his fingers. "I'm sure you're used to it though Ookami."

"Oh yes. You know what they say, it takes a blizzard to chill a Kiri resident." Kakashi laughed, though his students could all tell it was a conversational one more so than a show of appreciation for the other man's humor.

"So, the land of bubbles. Where abouts is that?"

"West Kiri, a long long way away from here. It's a just a bit up from where the whirlpool used to be"

"Interesting. See, in Konoha we don't have sects as much. It's just all Konoha." Kakashi said with a joking tone, one that was reciprocated (perhaps a little bit too hard) from the man in front of him.

"Not too surprising considering you've only ever had one democratic election in your countries history." Ookami replied.

"Well, you're coming out to see our doctors so don't knock it until you try it."

"You've got me there Mr. Hatake." Ookami said, shakiness in his voice replaced with slight humor.

"Speaking of which, it must've been a long trip if you're from west Kiri and just arrived around here. How long ago did you leave?"

"A week or two, I think." The white-haired man said, stroking a finger through his mustache as if the question was no big deal.

"Have you got any family in Kiri?" Sakura asked from the campfire, only vaguely interested in the actual information but wanting to make conversation anyway.

"I have a wife, well, had a wife." His expression went from quirkily bug-eyed to noticeably downcast very quickly. The fire crackled, its embers cracking and sputtering out much like his eccentricity just had.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Kakashi said, tone obviously sympathetic.

"It's fine Mr. Hatake. I was a young man when I lost her, I've obviously had quite a bit of time to recuperate from it." He hummed, leaning against the ground with a somber buzz in his voice. With the mention of his wife, the occasional peculiarities within Ookami's voice noticeably faded.

"How old are you now?" Naruto asked, suddenly speaking up.

"Naruto, don't be rude!" Sakura chided, gently punching his arm. The Uzumaki boy was more confused than anything at the response, face shriveling up into a pout.

"What?! If he's a gazillion years old, who cares? It just means he's had time to see shit. Nothing embarrassing about that."

Surprisingly, Naruto's bluntness actually brought a smile too the man's face. It was a goofy one that stretched along his face, displaying every single one of his old worn teeth but that just made it homelier.

"I turned seventy a few months back. How old are you four?"

"I'm fourteen, they're both thirteen." Sakura, said motioning a hand towards Naruto and Sasuke, before turning to Kakashi with faux confusion. "Sensei, you're thirty-eight, right?"

"Twenty-eight." He replied, immediate defensiveness blinding him of Sakura's joking nature. This, of course, only made the gag that much funnier to the genin. Ookami took less humor in this, turning to Kakashi with an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry about them Mr. Hatake. If there was a way I could turn back time and be thirty-eight again, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

"You have any stories from back then?" Kakashi asked, obviously at least somewhat interested in what they had to say.

"Oh, ho ho, you bet I do. I remember, it was one of the colder Kiri seasons, maybe autumn. This'd be around forty years back I reckon. I was with Monet, my wife, and my friend Kurta. Now, Kurta, I'll tell you, was a crazy motherfucker-pardon." He temporarily cut off the story to apologize for his swearing, but the tales continued until long into the night. Ookami rambled on, the second-hand nostalgia of his stories serving to further engross the four thanks to the warmth of the fire. By the time the old man was ready to hit the hay, Team Seven could find themselves recounting vivid memories of events long past, only to realize that it was actually a story Ookami had told with such detail, they'd subconsciously claimed it as their own for a little bit. For the rest of the night, each team member did a slight double take at every apparent reminiscence they had.

They managed to arrive at the effrayed patch around mid-morning the following day, a noticeable spring in every one's step. Kakashi quickly retrieved the large bag he'd been carrying upon his back, instructing everyone to fill it up with as much of the herb as it could physically carry. With that, they split off into three teams: Naruto and Ookami, Sasuke and Sakura and Kakashi by his lonesome. He'd have used a summoning contract to help himself out but the amount of wasted chakra a summoning used overruled his laziness in this instance.

Honestly, Sakura wasn't expecting the patch of plants to be so neatly farmed. According to Kakashi, the Leaf Village had a contract with some of the local farmers, entailing that the farmers would keep planting and nurturing assorted vegetation that didn't grow naturally in the Leaf (usually because they required cold cultivating conditions) in exchange for a year-round fee. Whatever they were paying was well worth it in her eyes, with the surrounding area having been overtaken by a stretch of lush green sprouts covered in violet bell-shaped sprouts. This was the form the effrayed took, its lavish crevasses filling out with the piercing rays of sunlight that loomed over it. Sakura looked over to Sasuke, picking one of the plants off the stem.

"Hey Sasuke, how much would I have to pay you to eat this?" She asked, taking a surprising amount of initiative within the conversation. Sasuke caused all of that to fizzle out with a single gaze. Sakura felt her heart drop as his eyes burrowed into her with a stare enriched with the pure essence of "what the fuck.""

BEEP! BEEP! Ditz detector is going off at an unprecedented volume! Seriously, what made you think that was a good idea to say?

The two became locked into a painfully awkward silence, one which lasted little more than five seconds but felt like two years (at least to Sakura). Then, out of nowhere, Sasuke's gaze softened.

"Thirty-five thousand ryo."

"Oh bullshit. I'll pay you seven-hundred." His answer was so egregiously high that Sakura didn't even have time to fawn over the fact that he was talking to her. Instead, her mind snapped to bartering mode.

"Thirty thousand."

"Seven hundred and a pack of gum."

"What type?"

"Trigs spearmint and pine."

"Fuck that. If you're going to give me spearmint and pine, you can pay me an extra five hundred ryo for the courtesy of taking it off your hands."

Sakura tried to come up with something resembling an argument but any words she had were quickly overruled by the bitter taste of the gum. Despite the fact that she had used and spat it out a few days before they'd left, she could still feel it's lingering essence of stale peppermint and cigarette smoke pine on the top of her mouth.

"That's fair."

Both she and Sasuke let out a laugh at the joke while continuing to toss the effrayed into their pockets. As the sound of humor bounced between them, Sakura couldn't help but feel a familiar slight blush tinge her cheeks. Maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see, but it kind of, sort of, totally felt like Sasuke was starting to warm up to her.

You're just seeing things.

"Picked anymore effrayed Mr Uzumaki?" Ookami asked, running a finger through the scarf that was now wrapped tightly around his neck. The crouched boy turned to him with a fist full of the violet bells, so much so that they were practically being squashed through the slits of his grip.

"You got it gramps." He said, depositing the herbs into Ookami's umbrella, which they had been using as a makeshift bucket. A beautiful bunching of blue ran up its steep curves, clusters of bells cluttering up the hard wood framing that traced over each panel of the parasols paper.

"Careful with those words child, I remember when I was your age I more than knew my way around a punch up." Ookami jested back.

"Yeah, well, you're not my age any more so I don't see how it matters."

"Ah. Nothing hurts more than the truth Young Uzumaki, I really walked into that one." The old man's words were rich with over-pronunciation (even more so than normal). After a little while, Naruto turned to him with an inquisitive look.

"Hey, gramps, what's your job again?"

"Chakra researcher, why do you ask?"

Naruto's expression seamlessly switched from curious to silly when presented with the question.

"Okay, I've had this question in my brain for a while but I couldn't find any books about it. Do frogs have chakra?"

"A regular frog?"

"Mm."

"No, at least not naturally. Their bodies simply don't have the necessary requirements to cultivate its own chakra network."

"Oh. Right, obviously." Naruto nodded along, trying to play it off like he'd never for one second thought that frogs could use chakra. Obviously, Ookami saw through this.

"Did you think they could use chakra?"

Maybe it was because of how dopey the man looked and acted most of the time, but Naruto wasn't even concerned enough about Ookami's opinion of him to bother lying.

"Yep." He wasn't even embarrassed, a sly smile breaking out onto his lips. "And they'd use little jutsus. Like, little tornados and stuff."

Ookami cracked a smile of his own at the Uzumaki's natural goofiness, soft sly laughter lingering in his voice. It was short lived however, the man's face lighting up with what at first looked like pain, only for his expression to settle on one closer to realization.

"We've got a lot of these flowers. Maybe it's time to hand them over to Mr. Hatake." He suggested, to which Naruto nodded. The pair made their way across the field, regrouping with Sasuke and Sakura along the way. From there, they surrendered their respective stashes of effrayed to Kakashi, having some left to spare even after they filled the bag up to the very brim.

"Welp, that's that. Unless we happen to somehow lose this massive bag, that's another D-rank completed."

Despite the missions low ranking and overall lack of prestige, the three genin couldn't help but get excited. After all, an extra completed mission on their profiles couldn't hurt.

"Once we depart from here, who knowns when the next stream is so just to check, all three of you have filled up your waterskins right?" Kakashi asked, being met with unanimous nods from his students.

"Are you sure?"

Once again, unanimous nods.

"…one hundred percent?"

"Kakashi, we've filled them up. Let's just get going." Sasuke said, annoyed.

"Alright, alright." Kakashi said, throwing the bag of flowers over his back and beginning to walk away from the scene. The trio followed after him, intent to track a similar path until a sudden obstruction was lodged in their way.

"Uh, sorry you guys. I have to go…relieve myself." Ookami said, being met with a resounding symphony of "ew's" from the genin. Kakashi shot him a look of annoyance, before waving him off with a hand.

"Do what you need to do."

The old man nodded taking a stroll out to the outer reaches of the forests. A whistled tone flew from his lips as he made his way through the depths of the trees. The forestry that ran around the patch of farmland was thick, masking the presence of anyone who orbited through it. Perfect for what Ookami was about to do. He took a short look back to where he came from, making sure that he wasn't, one, still in view or, two, being followed by one of the ninjas. You could never be too careful around Konoha nin after all.

With his privacy fully ensured, Ookami took the chance to let out what he'd been desperately attempting to hold in for the last few minutes.

"Ack!" He cried, blood pouring from his mouth and spilling onto the floor. The old man fully succumbed to the to the burning pain that had been set ablaze throughout his entire body. It was like every nerve was being shredded, every organ catching fire. Tears began to well up in his eyes from the sheer pain of it all, but he couldn't let them start to stream. He couldn't leave any marks for those bastards to see. Unfortunately, it took a solid minute for the agony to subside, its sudden withdrawal leaving him out of breath like he'd just been punched in the stomach.

He didn't have much time until they started to get suspicious, so every second had to count. The old man reached a shaky hand into his satchel, retrieving the brass stopwatch and watching it with fear. The small hand was incredibly close to reaching midnight, it's inexplicable time only layering a feeling of existing dread onto Ookami's ailing body.

Damn it all! I've only got about a day left until I lose it forever.

He looked over his shoulder studying the pattern that was slowly advancing up his own back. A massive patch of his skin had been dyed pure white; its qualities hardened like callous. Like an infectious parasite, it crawled up his skin justifying the presence of his newly-adorned scarf more and more. He knew it was going to grow like this, he just didn't know it would be this soon. His fingers grazed over the surface of the skin in an attempt to try and shot some feeling back into it. Regrettably, it did nothing of the sort. The only thing Ookami managed to kickstart was a jagged stinging sensation that burrowed through the confines of the patch of dark black ink that sat on his left shoulder.

It's final. I need the the nine tailed boy's chakra.