Much thanks to the ever lovely Tavina and moderately bruised Okita-san Daishouri for beta-reading.

I opened my eyes to the ceiling above Sasuke's bed. I had fallen asleep only to wake up as him. Not even segueing into anything happening. I rolled over and screamed into the mattress until I could feel my— his— throat start to feel ragged and hoarse. Am I going insane?

Nothing about this was fair. I had fallen asleep early, exhausted. I hadn't remembered waking up and heading to the couch yesterday night, or watching more of the stupid, stupid anime, but apparently I had, bingeing through enough episodes to get a decent amount into the Chuunin Exams arc. I had stopped watching that first night midway through Wave, before all these dreams started and hadn't touched them since. By now it was over a week since it started.

After a while, I sat up, resigning myself to taking everything in. Going from the light streaming through the window, it was mid-morning. Somehow I knew that Team Seven was supposed to meet up this afternoon, with no 'morning' training, even though Kakashi rarely showed up that long before noon. Great, I can spend that extra time feeling sorry for myself.

I rolled out of bed, half-guiltily enjoying the fact that outside of actually getting hurt in these dreams, I didn't feel any of my usual chronic pain at all. No need to be careful with which leg I set down first, what hand I used to grab something heavy, or how to sit and stand to avoid aggravating my shoulder or knee. It was only half because it also annoyed me— no, scared me.

I let habit take over, making the bed and pulling clothes out from the wardrobe with some dismay. He really didn't have that much of a variety, mostly the same kind of wide high collared shirt in dark blues or black, though that was probably due to my own imagination being limited on what he would wear. The one piece outfit I remembered for the Chuunin Exams arc was also in there, carefully folded. That was new.

It was still slightly more varied than I knew some real guys wore, if not by much.

I ended up picking one of the black shirts, and changed as quickly as I could, fiddling with the clasps on the arm warmers. I eyed the rest— the leg wraps and kunai— with some ambivalence, before I sighed and got that over with as well.

I left the apartment, after grabbing Sasuke's gear bag, at a loss for what else to do.

In the end, I decided to wander the village. By complete chance, after almost a full walk that had me returning in the direction of my— Sasuke's— apartment I ran into Team Eight, absent Kurenai, in the middle of eating near a cluster of ground-floor eateries with outdoor seating.

I really didn't have the opportunity to decide whether to ignore them or not, because Kiba stood up on his chair, and waved at me with both arms, before finally shouting to get my attention with a laugh. "HEY! Uchiha! Where's ramen-for-brains? Shouldn't you be with your team?" Nestled in his jacket, Akamaru barked along with him.

For lack of anything better to do, along with the fact he was probably going to keep this up if I tried to move on, I walked over.

He got yanked down by Shino and Hinata before he could say or do anything else. Hinata looked flushed with embarrassment because of the attention Kiba had attracted when she looked around. Shino just looked inscrutable. Akamaru, on the other hand, took his cue from his partner when it came to the use of distractions, and the dog jumped out and onto the table, stealing a skewer of kushiyaki from Kiba's plate before hopping off and hiding under Hinata's chair to eat it.

Kiba stopped laughing, diving off his chair, going after his ninken partner. "Hey! Hana says you aren't supposed to have any of that! She already chewed us out the last time you got into sugary stuff!"

Hinata quickly sat up from her chair, avoiding being jostled off of it when Kiba bumped his head on the underside of the seat with excellent timing.

I decided to pretend the dog versus boy scuffle on the ground wasn't happening. So far, Akamaru looked like he was winning. "We have the morning off," I said, directing my answer to Shino and Hinata instead. "We aren't supposed to meet up until the afternoon."

"Interesting. Kurenai-sensei gave us the morning off as well," Shino commented, thoughtfully.

"Sasuke-kun, I heard your team was on its first C-rank outside of the village?" Hinata started. Though it was phrased as a question, she didn't stop there. "How was it? Did everything go alright?"

I suddenly had the feeling that all of Shino's attention was focused on me, despite the sunglasses and high coat collar. "How did you get a C-rank so fast?"

"Naruto happened," I said, feeling more pressured than I expected or even thought possible under the circumstances. "It turns out the Hokage will give in if there's enough pressure, even if it's from a genin." After saying that, I had the sudden feeling I had just given out some terrible information. Middle school aged kids didn't need the knowledge that even unrelated adults in positions of power were susceptible to being pressured into giving in if they didn't know it already. I tried to reassure myself that this was fine.

"Naruto-kun convinced the Sandaime?" Hinata asked. She lightly blushed.

"Yeah," I answered. I had the feeling that while I was getting away with not answering her questions for now, it wasn't going to last— especially not with Shino standing right there. At the same time, in spite of wondering how it would turn out, I didn't feel like spilling the secrets around the Wave mission. "The mission was just escort and guard work. If we weren't doing that, it was training," I ended up going with. It wasn't wrong, and it didn't touch on the fact it had been reclassified at all. "We learned how to walk up trees."

Hinata visibly relaxed; I hadn't even noticed that she had been tense in the first place. "Oh, that's good. I thought I had heard..." Her voice went quiet, and she trailed off, looking away.

I didn't have the chance to ask what she had heard, because there was a thump and a swear as Kiba smashed his head against the underside of the table, before he bounded back up to stand again, holding Akamaru against his chest with one arm, and a now-chewed and meatless wooden skewer in his free hand. The dog looked as smug as was possible for a dog to be. Kiba set the skewer on the table, pouting. "If you have diarrhea inside the house again, forget about Hana, Kaa-chan's gonna kill me."

Akamaru barked.

"It's not my fault!" Kiba protested. He must have noticed my staring, because he turned and looked at me reproachfully. "Don't judge me."

"You're the one who got outsmarted by a dog," I pointed out, before deciding to ignore him. I returned my attention to Hinata. "What were you saying?"

She looked surprised."Oh, um, it doesn't matter, really," she answered.

Kiba rolled his eyes.

"Yes it does," I said. "You must have heard about it from somewhere. Unless you're the kind of person who makes things up?"

Hinata blinked in surprise, looking unsure. It was a bit mean of me to box her in like this. "N-no…"

"I thought so," I said, sounding more confident than I felt with Kiba and Shino staring at me. Even the dog was giving me a dirty look, now. "What did you hear?"

"I…" she faltered, before restarting. "My cousin mentioned that your team went on a month-long C-rank, when he asked why we didn't have one yet…"

"Your cousin's an ass," Kiba said, loudly. "You heard Sasuke, the only reason they even got one was because of Naruto. "

Hinata looked uncomfortable, possibly of Kiba's declaration— even though it wasn't wrong— but continued on, pressing her fingertips together nervously. "He, um… His jounin-sensei gave them the morning off today, too. Otou-san and all of the jounin in the clan left early this morning…" I was wrong, then.

Shino shifted on his feet, glancing around, before speaking. "Tou-san was already gone when I left this morning…"

The grin slid off of Kiba's face as he looked around our surroundings.

I felt a distinct sense of unease, one I couldn't place. That couldn't be for the chuunin exams, could it? I looked over at Shino, who looked back at me.

"I think it would be wise if we stopped talking about this," Shino said, slowly and gravely, coming to the same conclusion as me. "Enjoy the rest of your morning, Sasuke."

It was as clear a dismissal as they came. I nodded at him. "You too."

I walked away. As I did, I noticed that the streets were slightly emptier than they should be. The knowledge hung over my head, dangerous. I didn't want to acknowledge it, and yet… It was hard to not, now that I let it sneak in.

I let myself drift, and eventually wound up near the training grounds that my head knew were the ones we were using lately. In spite of the fact that it was too early for meeting up— a couple hours ahead of the dictated time, which meant it would only be even longer before Kakashi would show his mask— Sakura was already there, sitting in one of the taller trees that was part of a small copse straddling the path that served as a boundary between this one and the one on the other side. Her pink gear bag rested at the foot of the trunk.

"Sasuke-kun!" she called.

I looked up. She was waving to help get my attention— even though she really didn't need to, sticking out like she did with all of the leaves behind her— and while normally Sakura looked happy to see me—I don't need to know that, why do I?— today she didn't.

I joined her in the tree after dropping my bag next to hers.

"Ino stopped by my house to tell me there was something going on," Sakura started, awkwardly, as I sat down on the branch. "She said she saw you talking to Team Eight, on the way."

"Did she?" I hadn't seen her. I was fine with not having to deal with another girl with a crush on a one on one basis. Hopefully she hadn't taken up stalking, but I guess she had moved on.

"Mmhm," Sakura nodded. "I haven't spoken to her since we all graduated. I didn't think we were ever going to talk again." That was some middle school hyperbole, but I could tell what she actually meant. The thought of losing a friend over something as dumb as a boy eventually stung, if it didn't in the first place. She swung her legs, looking down at them and the ground below.

"Hinata said all of the jounin in her clan left together for somewhere this morning," I said finally. "Shino's dad, too."

After a while, Sakura wrapped her arms around herself, and turned to look at me. "I think we really messed things up," she said, biting on her bottom lip.

We sat in uncomfortable silence, and it stayed that way until we could make out Naruto running this way. Even from this distance, I could tell he had his backpack with him, and it was bouncing on his shoulders with each step he took.

Sakura stood up, trying to get a better look. "Why is he running?"

I shrugged.

Eventually, we could tell that he was shouting and waving at us. Whatever it was, it was unintelligible from his flailing and how far away he was.

"We can't tell what you're trying to say, Naruto!" Sakura shouted, once he was closer.

Naruto stopped running to laugh at himself, self-conscious. From there, he ambled to the tree, and dropped his bag next to Sakura's before he walked up it.

"There's stuff happening," he announced, as he dropped into a sitting position, next to me.

Sakura leaned forward to look across at him. "What do you mean, 'stuff'?"

"I went up to the Hokage rock when I woke up, and there were a bunch of people in the stadium," Naruto answered. "All lined up."

"What were you doing up there?" I asked.

Naruto ducked his head, as though he didn't want to entirely admit the reason, but answered anyway. "I like to go up there and think sometimes, yeah? I don't know what was happening," Naruto admitted, "But I don't think it's a good sign."

Sakura locked her eyes on the view ahead. "I think it's because of us," she said, softly.

Naruto's eyes widened "What, like—-" he started loudly, before cutting himself off and looking around suddenly. "Because of the mission?" he asked. I didn't even know Naruto could actually get that quiet, instead of it coming out as more of a faux-whisper.

"I think so," she whispered back. "Before we were reported to the Sandaime, he told us to let him take the lead. He only let us talk if it was something he wasn't there for."

"Yeah, the only thing he didn't lie about was, uh, about how many people Sasuke killed." It wasn't until after he said that that he realized he said that out loud, and gave me a look that was a combination of horror and embarrassment. I tried to ignore it, wiping my hands on my shorts.

Sakura's lip quivered, and tears actually started to well up, filling me with a sense of alarm. I barely managed to deal with people who were upset enough to cry when I was awake. I didn't deserve it in a dream, too, especially when it was a crying teenager. "Do you think he's in trouble because of me?"

"Uh—" Naruto began, but before he could say anything, I pressed my hand against his mouth, ignoring his muffled protests.

"If he is, he's the one who made that decision," I answered. Naruto licked the palm of my hand, and I was unable to resist making a face of disgust as I pulled it away. I aimed a light kick at Naruto's closest ankle before I wiped his saliva off on his jacket. "He didn't have to."

"He said his priorities were to keep up safe and to train us to make chuunin," Sakura said, sounding stricken. The tears were beginning to make their way down her cheeks, in fat drops and splotches. "Did he throw his career away on me?"

Considering that in the series, Kakashi didn't get in trouble for how Wave turned out— or at least enough for it to matter— I doubted it. At this point, I decided my brain was just doing its best to fill in what could have happened after Wave and before the exam arc started. "Someone like him? No." I briefly tried to imagine Kakashi the way he was in this dream and in most of the story as a missing-nin. The idea fizzled immediately.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, nodding. "And he's famous, right? Zabuza was all 'I know all about you from my handbook', and Haku said Zabuza left years back, yeah? There's no way every jounin from a village is well known enough for that kinda thing. There's too many of them! So since he's probably still been doing missions and stuff, it's not like the Hokage can just throw him into the trash, right?"

The actual answer to that was actually that yes, he could, and there were even plenty of characters who he had done just that to or let it happen to, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. That wouldn't solve the problem of dealing with a crying girl, it'd just make it worse.

Sakura sniffled. "I hope you're right."

Naruto did his best to give her a grin. "If both of us are agreeing, it's gotta be, yeah? Believe it."

She gave him a watery smile. "Yeah." While not great, at least she was no longer crying.

We stayed in the tree, quietly hiding from everything else, until it was about time for when training was supposed to begin.

In spite of the fact that there was really no sign that he was going to show up on time— especially with what we were guessing was going on on top of his usual tendency towards tardiness— Sakura stood up, squaring her shoulders with determination, and dropped down from the tree first.

Naruto and I looked at each other, before he shrugged and followed suit, leaving me alone in the tree until I jumped down as well.

Sakura looked between us, clearly thinking about something, before she pointed a finger at Naruto. "I need to get better. We all do. Fight me."

"What?" Naruto's eyes widened. "Why me? Sasuke's the best at taijutsu."

"He's also the one better at making calls, since Sensei's not here," Sakura pointed out. "You get distracted the second you're bored."

"Yeah, you're right," Naruto admitted. He grimaced, not looking particularly excited about fighting Sakura, even with it being a friendly practice match. "I need to practice, anyway. Just taijutsu?"

She nodded.

Still not looking all that enthused about this idea, Naruto approached her. They looked at me expectantly.

Not exactly sure what they were expecting, I nodded, hoping it would be adequate enough.

They each brought a hand up in a two-fingered sign— the Seal of Confrontation— and shot off.

Their faults became obvious, very quickly, even to my relatively untrained eye.

Naruto's sloppy and broad movements broadcast every single punch and kick he tried to aim, along with the ones I eventually realized were him trying to not hit Sakura after he did land a hit.

Sakura, on the other hand, kept pulling away at the last second. While her technique was fine… Her followthrough was completely ineffective. She was more likely to end up getting hurt like this.

Watching this ineffectual back-and-forth with neither of them showing any evidence of either of them actually taking this seriously— in spite of Sakura's own declaration— was beginning to drive me nuts.

I finally lost it when Naruto purposefully threw a punch right past her and Sakura veered away from taking advantage.

"Will you two get over yourselves already!? Naruto, how are you supposed to become Hokage if you can't even hit a girl?" I shouted in frustration. I had no idea what sort of incentive would work for Sakura but… "Sakura! STOP MESSING AROUND AND KICK HIS ASS!"

Both of them stared at me in disbelief for a moment. Sakura's expression hardened, and Naruto had just enough time to process this radically new development with barely enough time to go on the defense.

Sakura had taken my words a bit too close to heart.

I couldn't really blame Naruto for being put on the backfoot; he was still busy processing her new aggressive approach. "I thought this was just supposed to be a spar!?"

Sakura's punches were beginning to show serious carry-through now, and while Naruto was actually doing his best to block them now, tightening up his defense— his blocks were now more precise, abandoning the sloppy movements of earlier— he had stopped returning attacks at all.

"SHANNARO!"

I watched as Sakura belted Naruto in the gut, dropping him.

"What a display of Youth!"

I turned to face the direction I heard that come from.

Team Gai I had expected, hearing that. Kakashi ambling along next to Gai with his hands in his pockets, in his usual slouch, was not included in those expectations.

Sakura looked embarrassed, ducking her head to let her hair fall around her face. She offered Naruto a hand up, and they hooked their fingers together, formally ending the spar.

"Wow, Sakura, you really got me," Naruto said, wincing as he rubbed his stomach, before turning towards the newcomers. "Hey! Sensei! Who are these weirdos?"

Only one of the aforementioned 'weirdos' looked like they took serious offense at Naruto's lack of tact. Then again, it would have been hideously out of character for Neji to be anything except offended by a comment like that, at this point, I supposed.

Kakashi didn't look particularly shamed by Naruto's behavior. He lazily raised a hand in greeting. "This is Maito Gai and his genin team."

"So you're Kakashi's genin team! I can see why he must be proud of you!" Gai beamed.

I took a step back, towards Naruto and Sakura. There was a difference between reading or watching him be overwhelmingly optimistic and then experiencing it in some way or another. And in that sense, I felt that dreaming counted for this. At least half-way. I couldn't imagine being around real strangers who were this high energy and exuberant like this. Right now it was barely tolerable and only because Sakura and Naruto also looked dubious of him, though that was probably because of Gai's proclamation.

"Uh, thanks?" Naruto said, looking between Kakashi, Gai, and then us. He dropped his voice into an attempted whisper. "He really is a weirdo."

Sakura wasn't even trying to correct Naruto. "It's... nice to meet you, Gai-sensei?" She looked at Kakashi, clearly wondering why he had decided to inflict this on us, while trying to give Gai a polite smile.

Kakashi shrugged.

At least Team Gai— well, Tenten and Neji; Lee was looking on in admiration— looked embarrassed at having to witness this as well.

"I've known your sensei since before our academy days," Gai said. He jutted his thumb at himself and then Kakashi. "People consider us 'Eternal Rivals'."

"Only you say that," Kakashi said, almost immediately. "We're training with Gai's team today."

"Right now, we're perfectly tied. Forty-nine wins, forty-nine losses." Gai gripped one hand into a fist.

Sakura's smile started to grow desperate, and she turned towards the other genin. "I'm Haruno Sakura, it's nice to meet you all."

Tenten, at least, immediately caught on to the attempted change. "It's nice to meet you too, Sakura-chan. I'm Tenten." She lightly elbowed Neji, who was only looking more annoyed as time passed.

"Hyuuga Neji," he said, shortly.

Naruto squinted in Neji's direction. "Hey, are you related to Hinata? She was in our class."

Neji's demeanor managed to become stiffer than it already was. "We're clan members."

Tenten gave Neji a sidelong look, before sighing. "You're the kid who vandalized the Hokage Monument not too long ago, aren't you?"

Naruto grinned widely. "Yeah! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to become Hokage!"

Neji scoffed, but not loud enough to be actually heard over the "YOSH!" that erupted from Lee's mouth. "What a wonderful dream to have! My name is Rock Lee! I can't wait to see what you achieve!"

Gai clapped a hand on Lee's shoulder. "Lee! You're such an inspiration!"

"No, Gai-sensei, that's you!"

As they embraced each other, Kakashi idly spoke up. I didn't catch what he said; I was too busy staring at the free show.

"I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to train you as part of my genin team!"

"Gai-sensei! You're the one who made this happen!"

It occurred to me that Lee's name made no sense.

Tenten's eyes met mine. "Lee goes by his family name," she explained, carefully, before she clearly mouthed 'I don't know either'.

Everyone's attention drifted towards me, and I realized I was expected to finish the round of introductions. I shoved my hands into my pockets. "Uchiha Sasuke."

Both Neji and Lee's gazes lasered in on me.

"Wait," Sakura went. She stared at Kakashi. "You were put on what?"

"Ah, you caught that? I was put on probation," Kakashi explained, as though it wasn't important in the least. "For the near future we'll have supervision from another jounin during training."

"But not on missions?" Naruto asked, sounding confused.

"Ninja on probation don't get assigned to missions," Kakashi said, examining his nails. "I suggest you three carefully budget your expenses against the minimum monthly stipend for genin."

Naruto swallowed. "Right. We can do that." He did not actually sound sure of himself, as he looked between me and Sakura.

"Gai decided to join us for today. He's kindly offered to lead today's session if you're willing to accept," Kakashi continued to explain. Without changing his tone at all, only shifting to straighten up and raise an eyebrow, he managed to convey how he felt about that idea. Unseen by her sensei, Tenten shook her head, motioning with a chopping motion across her neck.

"We could spar," Neji said, staring directly at me.

"What an excellent idea!" Lee agreed, also looking at me.

I wasn't used to being looked at like a piece of meat like this. It was off putting in a new and different way, and I wasn't the only one who felt this way, from the looks of things; Sakura, Naruto, and even Tenten looked unimpressed by Tenten's teammates.

"Hm," went Kakashi, unfolding to his full height, as he observed me and the genin.

"We usually set up and run an obstacle course," I said, doing my best to sound casual.

"Yeah!" Naruto said, enthused. "It's great."

"Why not this? We set it up, and you run the course with us," I suggested. "Last team still in the trees decides what we do after. If you hit the ground because of a trap or someone else, you're out. If you win, we can spar one on one."

"It sounds fine to me if they're up for it," Sakura said, as Naruto nodded in agreement.

Tenten looked at us with a thoughtful expression, and opened her mouth to speak. Before she could, Neji interrupted her.

"We'll do it. It can't be that hard."

Lee crossed his arms, and nodded. "Not after our training with Gai-sensei!"

Tenten sighed. "I guess we're in. How does your obstacle course work?" she asked, sounding like she regretted the fact she didn't have the chance to ask earlier.

Naruto's eyes lit up. "It's trap based! We set up a bunch of rope triggers and now ninja wire ones even though that was before we left for a month along to trigger shuriken and kunai and normally Kakashi-sensei chases us through it for a few hours so we have to evade both him and everything while we run through the course and sometimes he kicks us out of trees if he catches up on us and sometimes he'll throw in a fireball jutsu and other stuff which kinda sucks since you can't always tell if they're real or just genjutsu and..." Naruto's volume gradually lowered, before he ran out of air and had to breathe again.

Tenten stared at Neji as she untangled what Naruto was rambling on about.

"We've had to pay fines for chuunin who have been caught by left-behind traps a few times," Kakashi commented. "They've gotten better at dismantling the whole thing."

"Amazing," Gai said. "Their teamwork must be incredible already! We've mostly worked on team exercises and sparring. I'll be excited to see how my wonderful genin do."

Tenten's expression looked increasingly horrified. "Sensei, you haven't had us do anything with traps yet." She shot a betrayed look at Neji.

"I have faith in the ability of my Byakugan," Neji defensively answered.

"Yosh!"

Tenten made a strangled noise, and dragged her hands down her face. I really couldn't blame her. Soon enough, she straightened up. "If you're the only ones who know where the traps are, it isn't really fair. We can pair up," she said, apparently deciding to work with the situation as best as she could.

"That works," Sakura replied.

Tenten looked between her team and us, before speaking again. "I'll go with Sasuke-kun," she decided, which I absolutely had no problem with. "Lee, why don't you work with Naruto-kun, and that leaves Sakura-chan with Neji." Tenten was putting obvious effort into trying to limit any problems from developing, which was more than could be said for either of her teammates or even Gai, who seemed to be ignoring the brewing tension and desire for a fight from Neji and Lee.

"Fine," Neji answered.

Sakura seemed distinctly unimpressed by Neji. I was starting to wonder exactly what her standards were. Was it black hair? Then again, she showed active antipathy towards Lee's crush when he announced it to her in the series, so appearances clearly played a huge factor. On the other hand, attitude problems didn't seem to be a problem for her.

Naruto looked like he had far more mixed feelings. He was clearly thriving off of the sheer wordless enthusiasm radiating from Lee at working with something new that was arguably one of Naruto's favorite things. At the same time, Lee was definitely one of the 'weirdos' by Naruto's standards. Eventually, he shook his head, and gave Lee a wide grin. "Let's get started!"

Lee punched a fist into the air. "Yes! Show me this talent you have such Youthful passion for, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto laughed.

I shrugged at Tenten. "I'll go grab my bag. Everything's in there."

She nodded.

Sakura and I ended up walking to the tree our bags were together. "I can't believe he thought he could just slip that through without actually telling us," she said quietly. "The only plus side to this is we're going to get experience training with other people ahead of time." She looked over at me. "Are you going to be okay, Sasuke-kun? Both of those boys look too ready to fight you."

I shrugged. "They were a whole year ahead of us," I said. I wondered why that particular phrasing felt important to specify before I decided to ignore it. "They must have run out of easier targets."

"You'd think they'd go after older genin, then," Sakura grumbled. "I've heard about the Hyuuga boy. He's Hinata-chan's cousin and is supposed to be some kind of genius. Some older girl actually tried to give him a graduation gift when his class became genin and he made her cry." That was impressively callous, even for pre-teens. Between this and the conversation earlier with Hinata's team, I was beginning to suspect not very many people liked Neji.

When we reached the tree, she slung her bag over her shoulders and sighed. "It figures Kakashi-sensei would be friends with someone like Gai-sensei and get us roped into something like this."

"Hey, hey, think we could get them to take us out to eat if we win?" Naruto asked, as he loped over to us. "Idunno about you two, but without any missions for however long, I'm gonna be broke." He made a face.

"Is the stipend that low?" Sakura asked. "I thought it was supposed to be enough for a single genin to live off of if they were independent."

Naruto looked at her in surprise. "Oh, yeah, you live with your family," he said, as though that hadn't come into consideration. "You can live off it, yeah, but barely. That's how much I used to get, after I was moved into an apartment. At least since it's warm out cold showers aren't that bad right now an' I can just keep a window open until it gets too hot for that." He looked thoughtful. "Do either of you know how much electricity a fan uses?"

Sakura gave him a baffled look. "What?"

I shook my head.

"I'll just have to find Iruka-sensei and ask him," he decided.

Sakura sighed. "Tell Iruka-sensei hi for me if you do, I guess. We should get going before they accuse us of collaborating or something." She started walking back.

Over with his team, Neji was staring at us.

I grabbed Sasuke's bag and followed after her, Naruto trailing after me, speculating out loud on what he should try to stock up on for the time being.

Tenten split from her teammates to join me before I actually reached them. "Your sensei's still making you guys haul everything around like that?" she asked, taking in the bulky bag. "Using seals for storage is more effective."

I didn't know how to answer that particular question, so I shrugged. "Does it matter for this?"

"It can," she answered, though she didn't look entirely sure how to explain it. As we reached the beginning of the treeline, she looked over at me. "You're the one who came up with doing this. How do we start?" In spite of her teammates overriding her before she could counter the idea in the first place, Tenten sounded actually interested in learning. It made sense that she would be, since she actually used weapons on a regular basis. It at least ran parallel to her specialty.

After we were entirely under the canopy of leaves, I looked around, scoping things out, not entirely aware I was doing it until I realized I was slinging the pack off my shoulders and pulling rope and kunai out in one continuous flow of motion.

"Naruto's the best at this," I found myself saying. This wasn't actually wrong, and I let myself just go with the actions instead of trying to fight it.

"After his explanation and your sensei's comments, I figured," Tenten replied, sounding amused. "But I bet you must have picked some of it up besides the academy basics if your team's doing this often enough."

I let myself nod, and got to work.

Like before, I ended up listening to the thoughts that had opinions on what to do and how, and after the first couple of snare traps to catch at unwary arms or legs, I became confident enough to diverge from the suggestions of the dream, and started to try adding things I thought would work, Tenten watching carefully.

After I started to experiment, Tenten began to ask questions, mostly to do with the intent or goal of the various ones I had already set; they were all surprisingly focused on the 'why' rather than 'how', but she must have gotten a good enough idea of that while watching me set them up.

Soon enough, she joined me in setting a few up, and we began to stretch it out further and further from the original part of the woods we started, until I was starting to very carefully edge ours into where I could tell Sakura and Naruto had their own up. I could occasionally hear Naruto and Lee shouting enthusiastically.

The first time we heard them, I looked at Tenten, whose first reaction was to shrug in return. "They sound like they're having fun," she said, thoughtfully, after awhile. "Lee usually likes training no matter what, though."

I shrugged back, trying to ignore the utter silence from the trees Sakura would be in with Neji. She didn't seem to like Neji's behavior, and Neji had only shown serious contempt for all of Team Seven up to and including Kakashi, so it was probably a good thing that it was quiet, instead of filled with shouting and yelling.

In the end, we had ended up creating a series of traps of increasing complexity weaved between the branches, with mostly-safe paths that frequently led to dead ends or would result in zagging suicide runs that ran the risk of being dangerous without enough sustained momentum. For someone who had shown doubts at first and claimed they hadn't done this much, Tenten had caught on quickly. I could only guess that it was because she was supposed to be familiar with most ninja tools by this point, even if in some cases it seemed like some of it was just theory.

I motioned to Tenten to signal that it was the last of what was in the bag, and dropped down from the branch we had wound up on. She followed right after me.

Looking straight up from the ground, it was possible to see the occasional glint of metal among the treetops as the leaves occasionally swayed in the day's warm breeze, letting the sunlight in.

Tenten's smile stretched into a grin as she looked up at it as well. "If this goes well, I'm going to see if I can convince Gai-sensei to let us do this on our own, too. This will be a great way for studying arc movement and practicing blocking with some rigging." She sounded like some of the engineering grad students I knew, right before they were going to try something that had a higher than usual chance of blowing up, breaking down, or destroying itself. By now I recognized the more destructive ones on sight and tried to avoid sitting near them at events, even if free food was on the line.

Maybe Tenten was not so reasonable after all.

We left the cover of the trees. In the time we had spent, the sun had moved across the sky, and Kakashi and Gai had moved to be under the trees covering the path. Kakashi was leaning against one of the tree trunks, facing this way. Conspicuously absent, a stray thought trailed through, was the complete lack of book, before I dismissed it. Sakura and Neji were already ahead of us.

When we joined them, Sakura was seething and Neji gave us a dismissive look. Thankfully, Naruto and Lee emerged from the trees just as we reached them. Neji's hostility was weirdly palpable for a dream.

"You should consider setting some terms," Kakashi said, once Naruto and Lee were close enough to hear him without the need to shout.

Naruto gave him a confused look. "Terms? Huh?"

"Taijutsu only," I said, looking directly at Neji. "Nothing else."

He snorted. "You haven't unlocked the power of your doujutsu yet, have you? Fine. Taijutsu only."

I felt a sudden surge of desire to wipe the smugness and sense of superiority out of him entirely before I did my best to tamp it down. It made no sense to me. Neji wasn't that obnoxious.

Tenten slumped for a moment. "Aw. There goes my ideas. I agree to it, too."

Lee patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry! I am sure we can try them out in the future!"

"Taijutsu's fine with me," Sakura said, through gritted teeth. Neji had apparently really rubbed her the wrong way.

Naruto nodded his head up and down. "Yeah!"

"What a wonderful example of cooperation," Gai said.

Kakashi flapped a hand in Gai's direction dismissively, before he went over everything. "Right. All of you will be going through the course. Three against three. Taijutsu is allowed, but nothing else. The only requirement is to have the last man still in the trees. Landing on the ground puts you out. Gai and I observe to make sure nothing too dangerous happens. Did I miss anything?"

He only received heads shaking at him.

"Well, in you go, then," he said, before standing up from his leaning position to shoo us towards the trees.

We split up back into our original teams and headed for the trees, with a healthy distance between the two groups.

Sakura clenched her hands into fists as Team Gai jumped into the trees a moment before we did. "Ugh. He's actually worse than all the gossip says."

"Who? Neji?" Naruto asked, just before he landed on the first branch.

"He's awful!" Sakura answered. "He's so stuck up! He started asking me about my family and then right after said he didn't understand why I was bothering to waste Kakashi-sensei's time! Because I don't have any 'true' potential." She followed Naruto.

That was impressively galling, but letting her get too keyed up would not help.

"Sakura, take the lead," I said, looking ahead. Everything ahead was trapped.

"What? Why? We just started! Both you and Naruto still have more stamina, if I take the lead now, I'll just slow us down in the long term."

"They're older than us, bigger than us and are more experienced; if it comes down to time they're going to win. We don't need stamina, we need smarts, now move," I said, before I lightly shoved her forward, to force her towards the next branch ahead; I was reasonably sure it wasn't trapped, at least that I could see.

I turned out to be wrong, and Naruto let out a yelp as he quickly lunged to follow Sakura, just barely being missed by a shuriken that shot past the two of us.

I heard a shout of triumph that could only be Lee in the distance, which meant they had crossed their first trap as well.

Sakura immediately started leading us in the direction of Lee's shout.

"Wait, hey, why are we heading right for them?" Naruto asked.

"We need them to see us if we want to try to lure them in," Sakura answered, as she ran down the length of a branch. She leapt across, and ran up the next tree's trunk, just avoiding ninja wire that shone in the light a moment that was almost too late. "They're going to be hunting us, so we need to see them first."

It wasn't long until we crossed paths, and it became clear how much being in the trees was actually in our favor.

The moment they saw us, Lee sped ahead of his teammates and ran straight towards us without bothering to take into consideration anything else, and was clipped across the thigh by a triggered kunai for his effort.

Gai might have needed to beat teamwork into his genin and all of that training meant they would have the advantage for sparring, but we had spent time being chased around, kicked and otherwise thrown out of the treetops by Kakashi while dodging sprung traps, the occasional fireball, and doing our best to avoid getting flattened by the jounin.

"Lee! Are you okay?" Tenten shouted.

Lee immediately jumped backwards, eyes widening. "Yosh!" He turned back towards Neji and Tenten. "I'm fine! I see why they suggested this obstacle course now! It's a true challenge!"

Sakura motioned to me and Naruto to fan out.

Lee turned back, just in time to see her give the command. "Beautiful Sakura-chan! After we win, will you go out on a date with me?"

Sakura did her best to not grimace. "Sorry, I'm not interested in you!"

Lee hung his head. "It was worth a shot."

Without warning, he propelled himself upwards, grabbing onto and shoving up from increasingly thinner branches that cracked and strained under his weight. Finally, he reached one that started to break entirely. From the branch I was standing on, I could see the brief moment where actual annoyance and frustration crossed Lee's face. It was a bit hard to not see his eyebrows crinkle together.

Before both he and the branch dropped, Lee closed his legs tightly together and shoved down from the branch at an angle, pulling his arms tight around him. He was aiming right in my direction, and he gained speed, alarmingly fast.

So far these dreams had been particularly awfully realistic where pain and violence were concerned, and the moment in the show where Lee dropped his weights flashed into my head. Dream or not, I did not feel like getting mildly splattered or squashed.

I bolted just in time.

Lee's momentum, combined with the weights he wore, turned out to be slightly too much as he sheared through the branch I had been on just barely a second ago and ended up making a hard landing on the ground below. Leaves, other forest detritus, and dirt blew upwards around the small crater that formed under him.

Lee stood up, looking staggered and shocked. "I missed?" He looked upwards. "Well done, Sasuke-kun!"

Naruto stared in horror. "What the fuck."

Sakura's eyes widened, and she shouted down at Lee. "Hey! This is supposed to be friendly!"

Tenten groaned.

Neji looked down at his teammate with a contemptuous expression on his face.

"We can still win!" Lee shouted back up to them. He gave them a thumbs up.

Tenten glanced over at Neji, who focused his attention back on us. In spite of myself, I was beginning to want a go at him. I didn't like holier-than-thou attitudes in anyone when I was actually awake, and I sure as hell was getting tired of pretending to tolerate it even barely in something as stupid as this, even if it was from a dumb teenaged boy.

Below me, Sakura and Naruto exchanged nervous looks, before Sakura visibly steeled herself.

Before Tenten or Neji could do anything, Sakura started running again, heading right into a thicker section of traps, leaving Naruto and I to follow after her as she did her best to weave through them all.

I turned back to take a look as we twisted around one tree. In spite of our lead, Neji and Tenten were quickly gaining on us. They didn't have to spend the time to be careful about navigating if they just made sure to follow the exact path as us, and they were faster.

"They're catching up on us," I warned.

"I know!" Sakura shouted. She was taking this seriously, now.

We reached a small gap in the trees, just large enough that the sky was visible above and the sunlight was bright on the grassy ground below, centered on a large fallen log in the middle of the tiny clearing.

Sakura suddenly stalled, frantically motioning for us to stop.

Ninja wire glinted in the light, strung through the whole thing, before it disappeared invisible into the trees.

"Whose idea was this death trap?" I asked.

Naruto laughed. "Whoops?"

"Naruto, we just barely started working with ninja wire!" Sakura half-wailed. "You take lead, I'm not risking it."

"But I thought we were supposed to be learning how to work around this sorta thing since it's an obstacle course for training," Naruto said.

"Right now we're trying to win!" She shoved Naruto forwards to make him jump before Tenten and Neji could close in on us even more than they already had.

With a shout of surprise that midway through turned into a laugh, Naruto let himself fall down to the branch below, before turning around and heading towards the remaining members of Team Gai.

Sakura then shoved me ahead as well, and I was still processing it when I landed.

Why was she taking the rear?

Naruto ran to the very edge of the branch he was on, before he dropped off the branch to hang off of it, making it bend dangerously. He let go, launching himself with a laugh to land against the tree's trunk. The branch swung upwards immediately, once more freed from his weight, and must have triggered something, because shuriken launched outwards, making Tenten and Neji stop, just barely in time.

The brown haired girl swore as we sped off.

"Didya see their faces?" Naruto asked, laughing, as he zigged and zagged on top of and the underside of the branches, occasionally ricocheting off the sides of the tree trunks or running up them. Every now and then he would purposefully shake a tree branch or make one sway, setting off another trap that would force the other two into taking a new route or stop entirely. How he knew where he was going, I had no idea. It was terrifyingly chaotic.

Finally, their luck ran out. I turned when I heard the unexpected sharp ping of ninja wire snapping. It was just barely fast enough to see what happened.

Neji had triggered a trap by trying to brute force a shortcut. I could only guess that he had at last given in to the impatience and frustration at consistently being evaded. Tenten, just behind him, barely had time to dive out of the way, coming to a rolling stop on the grass below. Lee, who had been watching from the log, helped her up.

"That's another of them out," Naruto said, gleefully. "We've got this!"

I wasn't so sure of that. Neji's temper looked like it had completely blown, and he was still gaining on us, no longer caring about whether he was springing wires or not.

It was becoming very clear that the only thing that had kept him at a distance earlier was his teammates. Neji was no longer having to care about their limitations or accidentally causing collateral damage to them, now that Tenten was out of the picture. Instead, all of his focus was on us.

The nightmares where you were hunted by some indomitable force were the ones I disliked the most, and it was not actually helped by that particular creeping horror being disguised as an asshole ninja child with magical eyes. Instead, it was actually a bit worse. He wasn't even a creepy child. The eyes didn't really count.

"I don't think so," I said, when it was becoming clear that even with Naruto having a concerningly intimate understanding of how to navigate this wire-filled hellscape, we just weren't up to the task of keeping away from the angry teenaged Hyuuga coming after us.

We jumped, following Naruto to bound off the side of one tree to reach another one, to make a sharp turnaround. I had just reached the other side when he finally caught up to Sakura, who was still in mid-air.

"Sakura! Watch out!" Naruto shouted in alarm.

It wasn't enough. Neji's open palm shot out, striking Sakura's leg. She shouted out in surprise and pain, and hit the trunk of the tree instead of landing against it, crumpling as she started to fall.

Naruto all but blasted away from the tree he was in, shooting towards Sakura with more speed than he should have had on his own. He had shoved himself off with chakra, I realized. It was the same repelling trick from Wave, which had worked out so poorly for him then. He reached Sakura and wrapped himself around her, right before they hit the ground, tumbling and skidding in a tangle of limbs before they finally stopped.

Neji looked directly at me, his eyes meeting mine. Despite the distance between us, the bulging veins on each temple were visible. He had activated his Byakugan. His lips were contorted into a cruel looking smirk of triumph. The terms of this training game no longer mattered to him.

I wondered if they ever had.

He wasn't the only one capable of being a complete asshole. This was just a dream. Even with the rolling consequences carrying on from dream to dream, they really didn't matter. Neji was an easily solved problem.

My fingers moved from one seal to the other, and I blew out a stream of fire.

He barely moved in time to avoid the full blast.

Before I could turn to keep it directed on him, I was dragged out of the tree, the interrupted flames sending me coughing and sputtering.

"Enough," Kakashi said, before he dumped me on the clearing ground, right in front of the fallen log.

"Fine," I muttered, after I finished hacking up my lungs and stood back up. It was uncomfortably similar to the one and only time I had tried smoking.

"What do you mean, 'enough'?" Naruto asked, angrily. He was supporting Sakura, his arm under one of her shoulders, helping her over to us. "Didn't you see what that jerk did to Sakura?" The two of them had leaves and twigs in their hair still from the rough landing, and Naruto's face was smudged with dirt. There was something wrong with the leg Neji had hit. Whatever he had done, not only did it look like she couldn't put any weight on it, she didn't seem like she could hold it up to keep it from dragging on the ground, either.

"No, he's right," Sakura said, wincing from the pain. "If Sensei's on probation, it's not just going to be him they're paying attention to, is it?"

"The choices we make have consequences," was all Kakashi said in response.

Sakura glanced at me uneasily; no doubt the conversation from earlier was coming back to mind.

Across from us, just outside of the clearing, it looked like a similar conversation was playing out just out of hearing range. From here, it looked like Neji's hair had taken the brunt of the heat, and he showed no sign of contriteness in spite of the serious expression on Gai's face as he spoke to the teenager. Tenten and Lee both looked actively unhappy with Neji.

"What? But that isn't fair! He hurt Sakura-chan, but because Sasuke retaliated, we're the ones who can get in trouble from this?"

"Our lives aren't meant to be fair." Kakashi looked over at Team Gai. "Help Sakura sit down. Make sure that leg is extended and has as little weight on it as possible. Sasuke, come with me."

Naruto and Sakura gave Kakashi a wary look upon hearing that, but he helped Sakura over to the log, where he slowly lowered her down to sit.

Kakashi started to walk to the trees, stopping at the nearest one so he was still in sight of everyone else.

I followed, and ended up standing in front of him. He leaned against the tree.

For what felt like an agonizing length of time, he said nothing, instead staring around at everything: the sky, the ground, the trees, the shuriken and kunai that pierced the trunks and littered the ground. Finally, he pushed his hands into his pockets.

I gave in. "Are you going to say anything?" I finally asked.

"I'd rather not," he answered.

I was completely bewildered. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Maybe next time, you should figure that out." I turned, and began to walk back towards Naruto and Sakura, neither of whom were paying attention to us, since Naruto was busy fretting over Sakura to the point that she was beginning to look frazzled. Team Gai had also made their return.

Kakashi's hand shot out, faster than I could see, latching onto my arm. Apparently he did have something to say after all. "You need to be careful." That was it, and he let go. He looked awkwardly self-conscious as we walked back; I could only guess that this attempt at a talk completely failed to meet his own expectations, whatever they were.

Sakura and Naruto were bickering by the time we reached them, Sakura trying to force Naruto out of her personal space. It wasn't going so well for her.

"Naruto, you don't need to hover! I'm fine!"

"He killed your leg! What if it spreads upwards?"

"Wha—? I just need to go to the hospital, I'll be okay!" Sakura made one last attempt to shove him away. Her limited range thanks to the lack of mobility meant that Naruto was able to duck barely out of range.

"There probably won't be any permanent damage," Kakashi spoke up.

Gai walked over, giving Sakura a look over before turning his attention to Kakashi. "It's unfortunate this ended with a small training accident," he said, at his usual volume. "Sometimes genin underestimate themselves."

Sakura and Naruto stared at Gai as they realized what was playing out in front of them. While they didn't know what sort of reputation Gai had, it was obvious they were aware that none of this was normal.

Naruto opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Sakura determinedly leaned forward, and yanked him backwards towards her by the waist of his jacket, and slammed a hand over his mouth as she forced him to sit down next to him. His protests were completely muffled, and she kept her hand there until he stopped trying.

Now I was wondering what Gai's talk at his team— at Neji— had actually consisted of.

"Sometimes," Kakashi echoed.

"I'll take Sakura-chan to the hospital," Gai continued. "Unfortunately, it means we'll have to stop entirely, because of the Sandaime's orders." He looked back towards his team. "Consider yourselves dismissed for the day. We'll meet early tomorrow at three to make up for the lost time today. Make sure to rest well!"

As Gai spoke, I vaguely noticed my left arm was starting to feel cold.

Kakashi looked at me and Naruto. "I'll handle the teardown. I'll come for you all the next time we train." That was uncharacteristic.

Neji stared in my direction one last time, eyes narrowed, and then left without saying anything to anyone, walking away into the trees. Soon enough, he was out of sight.

Lee and Tenten walked over.

"I hope you recover quickly, Sakura-chan," Tenten told her, apologetically. "I'd like to spar with you in the near future. Your team seems... interesting." She glanced at Gai, as though to confirm what she said was alright. He gave her an affirmative thumbs-up.

Sakura managed a wan smile. "I think I might have to pass for now, but I'd like that."

"Me too!" Lee added. "If you don't mind, I would like to stop by the hospital to check on you before they close for the night, in case you're still there!"

Sakura blinked, clearly surprised. "Um, sure. I hope I'm not stuck there overnight, but that's okay with me."

Lee grinned, and started to head off, before he turned back. "It was nice to meet you, Naruto-kun!" There was a brief pause, before he added, "And you too, of course, Sasuke-kun." He didn't sound very convincing. He and Tenten left.

Naruto stood up, and looked between the two jounin. "Sakura's going to be okay, right? Is that why you're taking so long?"

"Of course she will be," Gai told him.

"He can't take her to the hospital until the two of you go," Kakashi said.

"Why's that?"

"I'm not supposed to be alone with any of you while I'm on probation."

"...Oh." Naruto's face fell, and he looked between Sakura, Kakashi, and then me. He was visibly torn over what to do.

"We could go to the hospital, too," I suggested.

Naruto immediately perked up, and looked at Sakura. "You won't mind?"

Things faded away in pain.

I woke up slumped over on the couch again, my shoulder completely stiff, out of position, and burning in pain from the inside out. Where the shoulder pain stopped radiating in my upper arm, it shifted over to cold numbness. To add insult to old injury, my head was beginning to throb from the lack of sleep, too.

The television was on again, the screen still black.

My phone was next to me, only half charged. My main alarm hadn't gone off yet; it wasn't supposed to for another half hour. The pain was what had woken me up entirely. Going back to sleep wasn't an option.

I shoved myself off the couch, and limped over to the kitchen. Like my shoulder, my knee was also stiff and throbbing. I set the coffee maker to run, adding more grounds than I usually did, and left to shower, dry-swallowing painkillers when I set out clothes for the day. When I got out, I poured the newly-brewed coffee back in to brew a second time.

It wasn't until the class I TA'd for was done that I actually unlocked my phone to open my school email. The internet browser was filled with dozens of different tabs from the Naruto wiki.

I picked up a fifth of Jack on the way home and slugged half of the bottle before I went to sleep.

Fun trivia: Among the United States Marine Corps (and sailors with too much exposure to marines) Non-Judicial Punishment is also called getting Ninja Punched.

If any of you are going to be doing National Novel Writing Month (where you try to write fifty thousand words in the month of November) come join me on Discord! The server invite code is: xZrqJC6