Bright Orange

by Thephantomprince

I was never much like Naruto Uzumaki. Where he was reckless, I was cautious. Where he was loud, I was quiet. Where he was a hero, I was...decidedly not. So what cosmic entity thought it would be a wise idea to pluck me up and put me in Naruto Uzumaki's body? Self-Insert

12. Five

Bright Orange

Chapter 12: Five Months

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Nineteen Days A.I, October 29th, a Saturday

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For all of his talk of not wasting time, Sarutobi didn't walk any faster than the average civilian, and Sasuke and I plodded behind him as we traversed the village, slowly making our way to the Hokage Monument. However, just because we weren't at the training grounds didn't mean that we weren't doing anything. The plastic bag holding our ramen swung from my hand, as I had somehow been turned into the pack mule once again.

"So, how are you two taking to your new teacher?" Sarutobi asked. He smiled gently to a couple who waved to him and continued walking, seemingly not notice the two balk when they saw the unlikely duo of Sasuke and I meandering behind him.

Sasuke grunted, hands in his pockets as he kept pace with me. "She's crazy." He said succinctly.

The old man let out a dry chuckle at Sasuke's comment. "I think you will find, young Sasuke, that many shinobi who manage to make it past genin have their eccentricities. And Naruto? What do you think about Ms. Mitarashi?"

I mulled over my thoughts for a while, trying to find the right balance of positive and negative. For me personally Anko Mitarashi was a godsend, but for others… "I like the change in subject matter, and she's certainly passionate. But I couldn't help but notice that a lot of students are dropping out thanks to her."

It was true. When I had initially woken up in Naruto's body, there had been close to forty students in my class. Now there was only twenty-six, me included. Luckily, the Konoha Twelve (or rather, the nine that were in the class) all stuck it out.

Sarutobi hummed, and I saw his hand twitch towards his pocket where I knew he kept his pipe, but he didn't take it out. "Whether or not students decide a shinobi life is for them is entirely their choice, my boy, and if Ms. Mitarashi helps them decide that we cannot fault her on it." He cautioned.

"I know but…" I waved my hands in a circular motion as I tried to capture the words I was searching for. "Well, the first thing she did was blast us with killer intent. Isn't that dangerous?"

To my surprise, Sarutobi chuckled. "Ah yes. Although I would say that taking out your sword and charging your teacher is arguably more dangerous. That was quite an amusing report to read." Heat sprang into my face at his words, and I glanced away. Sarutobi continued. "Your heart may be in the right place, my boy, but it is necessary. Killer intent is something that most shinobi will have to deal with in the field. For those who don't want to be shinobi, it is an important wake-up call. For those who still wish to join our ranks, it helps build resistance."

I could almost feel Sasuke's head snap towards the Hokage at those words. "You can build up a resistance to killer intent?" He asked hungrily.

Oh yeah, that was right. In canon, being exposed to killer intent had nearly made Sasuke kill himself, and from what I remembered, he hadn't reacted well to Anko's little demonstration either. Maybe Itachi had used it on him during the Massacre? I couldn't remember.

Sarutobi gave us a look over his shoulder, and I could see churning thoughts in his cool gaze. I suddenly realized what the purpose of this little talk was. He was probing us about our academy learning to see what we most needed to learn. Shrewd old man. I felt a slight swelling in my chest that took me a moment to identify as respect.

Shit. Gaining respect for a man that was probably going to die was not something I had any interest in.

"Yes, it is." Sarutobi said, unaware of my suddenly turbulent emotions. "The proper way to build up a resistance to it is to have someone expose you to killer intent in a safe environment, but there are problems with that."

Nodding absentmindedly, words leaked out of my mouth. "It must be hard to muster a lot of hatred for someone when you're trying to help them."

"Yes, exactly." Sarutobi gave me a smile, and I felt a warm glow of satisfaction for a moment. Damnit…. "Though of course you can always make yourself angry, it will likely not be a match for the killer intent a true opponent could muster. In addition, most of your classmates and even many shinobi up to the chunin level are unable to consistently produce killing intent, and most jonin have better things to do unless they are your sensei."

Sasuke scowled. "So, I can't do anything about it then."

"Unless you act like a dick to a bunch of people and make them want you dead." I pointed out helpfully. "But that could never happen. You're far too polite and amicable."

"There is actually another way." Sarutobi intervened before Sasuke could retort. "Though it is less effective, learning to utilize killer intent makes you more able to resist it in the future."

A thoughtful look came over Sasuke's face. "Is that something that you could teach me?" His tone was casual, calm. He totally wouldn't mind if Sarutobi turned him down. Not at all.

Sarutobi turned to me and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged, trying not to show any excitement. Learning how to disable your opponents without even having to lay a hand on them? Yes please. "Sure, I guess."

The old man smiled. "Good. Then today we will focus on learning how to use killer intent…after you show me what you can do. Academy reports are good and all, but that's no substitute for seeing something with your own eyes."

Our slow walk had taken us through one of the more popular shopping spots, and my stomach soured as I heard a familiar voice. "Yooohoo! Bag bearer! I could use some help over- Sasuke?"

"Do they ever use a weekend for anything other than shopping?" I muttered in disbelief. It was, indeed, Ino Yamanaka and her posse of Academy friends, all of whom were gossiping themselves into a frenzy upon seeing Sasuke, whose face had gone completely flat once he saw the fangirls.

Ino started to walk over, her head held high and a confident smile on her face. I could almost see the next few seconds play out. She would come over here, try to flirt with Sasuke, which would either make him shut down entirely or drive him away, and then she would turn to me, pouting, and ask for my help carrying bags, so I would have to make a Clone to go with her, probably more if her last trip was any indication, and I would rather keep the chakra.

Yeah, I was not going to do that. Snapping my head over to Sarutobi, who had raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the blonde girl walking over, I stumbled over my words. "Bet I could beat you to the training grounds, old man!"

Sarutobi's other eyebrow rose to join his brother, and he chuckled. "You're a few years too young to challenge me-" I didn't hear the rest of his words, wind was already whistling by my ears, and once I glanced over my shoulder I saw Sasuke closing in rapidly.

The Hokage remained in his position for all of five seconds, and then he was gone. I turned my head back to the street in front of me to find Sarutobi almost thirty feet in front of me, his stride effortless, his white robes flapping in the air.

It went a long way to show how accustomed to living in a ninja village the people of the Leaf were that no one really looked startled as we blurred past them, merely moving casually out of the way. Sasuke began to inch past me, his face determined, but I wasn't going to let him get past easily and began to pump my legs faster.

The beautiful, verdant scenery of the Leaf was a green blur as I put all my energy into keeping up with Sarutobi, who managed to keep the same distance from me no matter how much faster I ran, and we were quickly out of the city limits and into the surrounding forest where most of the training grounds were.

But we didn't stop anytime soon, and the ground started to slope higher and higher, putting a large dent in even my prodigious stamina. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that Sasuke was a few feet behind me despite his best efforts, face drawn and sweating copiously.

Finally, finally¸ Sarutobi came to a stop in an empty spot surrounded by trees that were tall even by the Leaf's standards. He waited in the center as Sasuke and I slid to a halt, gulping down breaths of sweet, precious air.

"Well, that was a nice jog." Sarutobi said serenely, hands tucked into the folds of his robe. Despite his calm words, there was a sheen of sweat on his face, and his chest seemed to be rising and falling a bit faster than normal.

"At least it got us away from that girl." Sasuke got out, trying to capture the same unaffected air as the Hokage and failing.

"You said it." I agreed. "I help her out once and she keeps trying to rope me into doing it again. Running away was the safest option." I left out that she had managed to get me to waste a Clone at least two other times to help her with picking outfits.

"I never thought I would need to say this to you, my boy, but you could simply tell a girl 'no' if you don't want to do something with her." Sarutobi advised.

I rolled my eyes at him, both for the potshot about girls, and due to his advice. "That would be rude."

The old man's mouth quirked up into a half smile. "And running away when you see her isn't?"

"Not the same thing." I got out, still trying to catch my breath. "If someone asks for your help, you do it. That's just…that's just how things work."

A peculiar expression came to the old man's face as he digested my words, and I briefly wondered if I had screwed up. "That is an…interesting approach to take." Sarutobi said finally.

"So, are we going to get to training?" Sasuke asked brusquely, wiping the sweat off his face discreetly. Privately I was glad for the topic change.

Sarutobi clapped his hands. "Ah, yes. Now, what would you say are your greatest strengths?" He asked, suddenly intent, looking from both Sasuke and I.

We exchanged looks and somehow managed to silently agree that he go first. "My strength, speed, and stamina are all above standard for a genin." Sasuke said formally, as if reading from a sheet of paper. "I am proficient with the Academy Three, advanced kunai usage, and a variety of fire Jutsu."

Sarutobi nodded sagely. "That is a decent summation of your abilities." He agreed. "But that's not what I asked. What do you, Sasuke Uchiha, think is your greatest strength?"

The prodigy paused, considering his words. The seconds stretched on as silence reigned in the forest. "Once I unlock my Sharingan, that will be my greatest strength." He said finally. "All of my other skills will be enhanced by it."

Wasn't that the truth. The Sharingan was bullshit overpowered, even before the Mangekyo stage, and I expected Sarutobi to nod and accept that. But he didn't.

"Most Uchiha unlock their Sharingan within the first year of them being genin." Sarutobi said aloud, as if reciting from a scientific paper. "Though there is a small percentage that don't unlock it until they are chunin and go into more dangerous situations. That means, best case scenario, you will probably not gain your Sharingan for six months. So, what will you train in the mean time?"

"I don't know." Sasuke snapped. "I'm equally good at everything. Don't know if you've heard, but I'm basically set to be Rookie of the Year. I don't have any specialties."

Involuntarily, I winced at his tone. Somehow I had expected him to be more formal with the Hokage, but that wasn't panning out. However, instead of taking it badly, Sarutobi turned to me. "Naruto, what do you think Sasuke's strengths are?"

Shit. Heaving a sigh and sending a glare at Sasuke, I thought it over and slowly started to say, "Well, I agree with most of what he said. His strength, speed and endurance are nothing to sneeze at." I didn't mention that I was faster and had more endurance than him. It wouldn't really help. "But what I think really sticks out is that he has a good grasp of fire Jutsu at such a young age." He was better with lightning Jutsu, but he didn't know that.

Sasuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and his eyes went glossy for a moment. I wondered if he was having a flashback. "Not a strength." He grunted.

Sarutobi and I both raised an eyebrow and stared at him. He weathered the dual looks for a few seconds before giving in. "Knowing fire Jutsu is part of Uchiha tradition." He said clearly, his tone almost without inflection. "It's expected, not exemplary."

Ah shit. He wasn't reacting as badly as maybe he could have, but I knew that was a sore issue for the boy. His father had expressed disappointment in Sasuke for not being able to manage the Great Fireball Jutsu as quickly as Itachi had. Of course, it was still impressive for him to know and I was mostly sure he knew that (humility was not his strong suit after all) but some part of him was still that little boy who knew in his bones that even if he was a prodigy, he wasn't nearly at the same level Itachi was.

"Not my point," I continued on, drawing the attention of the two back to me. "My point is that you're able to use it at all. I've seen you use one of your fire Jutsu, that has to be at least, what, a C-Rank elemental Jutsu? Those suckers take a lot of chakra. Old man, how many genin can manage something like that and still fight?"

"Almost none." Sarutobi said, taking my words in stride. "Most don't dabble in elemental Jutsu until chunin, and when they do it's normally a sign that they are getting ready for jonin. Both because of the amount of time that it takes and yes, because of the amount of chakra they use."

Bullseye. Kakashi had made a remark that Sasuke had an inordinate amount of chakra for a genin, which I knew was due to being a reincarnation of Indra, and put him opposite to Itachi, whose only real weakness was his small chakra capacity. Well, that and a fatal illness.

Sasuke frowned his thinking frown (as opposed to his grumpy frown or his hungry frown), absorbing the words. "So, I have larger than average chakra reserves." He said slowly. "And so, I could focus on both increasing that and on chakra control, which would allow me to use a broader range of elemental Jutsu."

"Which would pair nicely with eventually awakening your Sharingan." Sarutobi added.

Ah, a chance to fish for information! "Wouldn't you just focus on fine tuning your chakra control?" I asked, frowning myself. "If increasing chakra capacity was something you could just do, wouldn't everybody do it?" I wasn't completely clear on whether or not repeated chakra use would increase the amount of chakra you generated, as looking inward only gave you a rough gauge of how much you had rather than hard numbers.

Sasuke snorted and crossed his arms. "Not surprised you don't know, Iruka talked to us about it before you started paying attention." He taunted.

"Well, since you seem to have a handle on the material, would you mind enlightening Naruto, young Sasuke?" Sarutobi asked serenely, smiling in a grandfatherly way.

Under the Hokage's trusting, kind eyes and my own amused smirk, Sasuke once again broke and started talking, albeit grudgingly. "Fine. People with small chakra reserves can increase their reserves, but at most they can move up to having average reserves. However, people with larger reserves from when they're young have a much easier time increasing their chakra amount, for some reason. It's generally accepted that the larger reserves you start out with, the easier it is to increase your chakra reserves by repeatedly exhausting yourself."

Well, that was depressing, but sounded true. All of the powerful people that I could think of had larger than average reserves that meant they could throw around A and S ranked Jutsu like candy. Well, there was Sakura, but even her at her most powerful had to store lots of chakra to use her strongest technique, and it was generally accepted she was among the weaker main characters.

"While I would approve of seeking a ninjutsu oriented path for you and agree with your explanation, young Sasuke, I must warn you that going overboard with attempts to increase your reserves can lead to chakra exhaustion, not something that a normal person can easily bounce back from."

Heh. While that was a good tip for a 'normal person', it applied less to someone with a healing factor. I had been regularly exhausting my reserves day after day with dozens of Clones. Now I just needed to find out a way to measure how much chakra one had to see how quickly it was going. I had no intention of running out of chakra in the middle of a fight.

"Now, what about you, my boy?" Sarutobi turned to me once Sasuke grunted an affirmative.

"Ah, pretty much the same thing." I shrugged. "I have lots of chakra, and it would be good for me to get both more control of it and more of it in general."

To my surprise, both Sarutobi and Sasuke frowned the same type of frown at that. "What? What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"You have those Clones that probably use lots of chakra." Sasuke said, as if talking to himself. "But they were uncoordinated. No clear plan. If you had a better grasp of tactics it would've been a much tougher fight."

"Yeah, but I thought the point of this was to figure out where our natural strengths are." I protested, looking at Sarutobi. "Right, old man?"

"My first sensei was the Second Hokage." Hiruzen said, not answering my question at all. "Do you know what most people associated with him?"

Creating the Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Flying Thunder God, and having a sweet-ass helmet, among other things. "Water Jutsu?" I hazarded a guess.

Sarutobi nodded. "Yes. From a young age he had unusual skill with Water Jutsu. Do you know what most people associated with the First Hokage?"

"Wood." Sasuke said succinctly.

Sarutobi nodded again. "What about the Fourth?"

"Speed." I said, catching onto what he was going for.

Sarutobi spread his arms. "And what about me, the Third Hokage?"

Silence reigned in the forest for several seconds. "…Monkeys?" I guessed.

Sarutobi chuckled, and even Sasuke's mouth twitched upwards. "The fact that you don't know is because my talents are less visible and less impressive than being able to call up forests or teleport across battlefields." Sarutobi said.

I eyed him speculatively. This man was hailed as the God of Shinobi, the Professor, the man who had trained the Sanin! What the hell was he talking about?

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he mouthed something to himself inaudibly. "Your memory." He said suddenly.

Sarutobi clapped his hands together, smiling. "Quite correct, young Sasuke. From a young age, I was noted for my extraordinary memory. It would be an exaggeration to call it eidetic, but it is quite impressive all the same."

My frown deepened. Sarutobi hadn't gotten much time to show his skills in Naruto canon, and having a good memory was an important skill, but to place it on the same level with the Fourth's speed or the First's Wood Release?

"I see that you're not exactly convinced." Sarutobi said, smiling gently at me. I shrugged and averted my eyes, feeling vaguely guilty. "How about this; I remember every book I've ever read. If I see my son Asuma shift his right foot backward three inches I know he'll pull out his left knife and deliver a horizontal cut, despite the fact that I've never fought him. However, I did see a fight he was in seven years ago, and so I know it."

Wow. That was pretty damn impressive. And having a photographic memory was the go-to excuse in television and books for having someone be an 11 PhD genius at age 25. But I still didn't really see how that helped me. Everyone knew that Naruto's thing was his enormous reserves. Well, that and Kurama.

Sarutobi turned to Sasuke. "Now, young Sasuke, what would you say is Naruto's greatest strength?"

I half expected Sasuke to say 'nothing' with a straight face, but instead it was clear he was giving it serious thought. "He's conniving. He fights dirty. He's manipulative." He said finally.

"Thanks, man. Love you too." I said, my tone deadpan. Despite my sardonic tone though, my stomach clenched as he outlined my 'strengths'. He was right, but that wasn't anything to be proud of. "And those aren't exactly things that I can train, even if I did want to focus on them. I've got lots of chakra, that's my thing."

"Young Sasuke's words are not untrue." Sarutobi said sternly. "Though the words that I would've chosen would've included how you managed to steal into the Hokage Tower and escape."

"So…" My brows furrowed as I tried to figure out what I was saying. "What? I mean, I had help with getting into the Hokage Tower. Besides, I don't really want to focus my efforts on stealing things." I really didn't have a choice; I needed to be able to take down people like Akatsuki, learning to sneak around and pick pockets wouldn't exactly help with that.

Sasuke and Sarutobi looked at each other and Sasuke gave a slight shrug that the older man returned. "Alright then, if that's what you want." Sarutobi acquiesced. "But keep it in mind while we train. Speaking of which…" He shook out his hands and took a low stance, throwing his hat off to the side.

My jaw didn't drop, but it did take an effort of will to keep it in position. "You want us to fight you?" I got out.

Sarutobi waved a hand, still looking ready to move at any moment. "No. Well yes, you will be attacking me, but I expect that it will not be much of a fight."

He was goading us, of course. So that we would fight hard even if we knew it was hopeless.

I traded a glance with Sasuke, whose face was a mask of concentration, but I could see something that looked like excitement glittering in his eyes. My hand instinctively twitched toward my sword hilt, but instead I brought my hands together in their normal cross seal.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" I called out. My chakra roared out of me, and smoke exploded into the clearing. I leapt back toward the tree line so I could watch my Clones fight, but several choked screams broke out, abruptly cut short. Splinters of new memories flew into my mind, but I didn't stop moving, quickly scaling a tree in my traditional method.

I managed to find a perch in the upper echelons of a tree with dark leaves, and pulled my hood over my hair to obscure the bright yellow. Then, awkwardly hugging the branch that I was chakra-stuck to, I waited to watch the fighting.

It only took a few moments for the chakra made smoke to disappear, revealing Sarutobi still standing in the same position. I had set a dozen Clones to attack him in the fog, but none were present. A shiver went down my spine as I reviewed my new memories, realizing he had taken all of them out in the first few seconds of their existence.

The man was the Hokage for a damn good reason. However, at the moment he seemed content just to wait, eyes flicking idly over the forest.

Sasuke also wasn't in the clearing. I would need his help if we were going to have a good showing, but rather than sending Clones to look for him, I let my chakra seep into the air around us, and then with a twist sent it rippling around the forest, brushing leaves and bark as it went.

Closing my eyes, I let the forest come to life around me, rapidly sketching a tactile map all around me. It wasn't exactly analogous to actual sight and I had to devote a lot of focus to it, but my wind-sensing was growing my leaps and bounds every day. It damn well should be, considering that I devoted a whole battalion of Clones every day to developing it.

Cloth and hair brushed against my awareness, crouched in the bushes thirty feet away.

Okay. I was restricted in what Jutsu I could use because Sarutobi didn't know that I had a copy of the Scroll of Sealing. So, no Solar Flare and no Kinetic Burst. But I had Clones, my winds, and my sword. Meanwhile, Sasuke had his various fire Jutsu and kunai tricks.

Nodding to myself, I created a Clones that silently began clambering quietly down the tree to talk to Sasuke. Sarutobi wouldn't know what hit him.

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Well.

That hadn't gone well.

I had at least expected to force him to use a Jutsu, or pull out a staff, or something. But no. The man was simply too fast, even for Sasuke's Fireball Jutsu, and he could easily weave around my Clone's swords. Once he began engaging Sasuke, the prodigy had lasted all of twelve seconds (I counted) before he was knocked out, and by then apparently Sarutobi had decided that he didn't want to wait for me to send more waves of Clones at him.

The forest floor was mercifully cool against my warm, bruised skin. Even knowing that all of my injuries would be healed by the end of the day didn't help with my current pain. It felt like he had managed to hit each of my muscles individually, making them quiver and shake with such intense agitation that I currently lacked the ability to stand.

On the upside, Sasuke was in no better of a position. He had managed to get back up again while Sarutobi was systematically taking me apart but had fared no better than before. That time it had taken Sarutobi seven seconds to send him to the ground.

Hey Kurama, I don't suppose you could heal me any faster? I hopefully thought, trying to aim my thoughts into the seal somehow.

No answer. No flood of demonic chakra either. Though I wasn't sure if that was because he was being pissy or because he couldn't hear me.

Despite the fact that my face was currently smushed into the dirt and I was curled up in the fetal position, my wind-sense was still going strong, so I could 'see' Sarutobi silently summon an ANBU. A quiet mutter drifted to my ears, the syllables too blurred for me to make out, and then I 'saw' the ANBU leave.

Sarutobi walked over to me. "Your Taijutsu is atrocious." He said bluntly, but not unkindly. He sounded disappointed, and I felt it like a punch to the gut. "Your plans would've been very effective if you had actually managed to land a hit, but your skill with a blade is almost as bad as your Taijutsu."

My abdomen and legs nearly gave out as I rolled over to look at him looming over me. "I've got…" I wheezed out. "The basics…"

Sarutobi raised a greyed eyebrow. "Do tell."

Unbidden, a smile stretched my face that was so broad it hurt my cheeks. "Stick them with the pointy end."

Sasuke let out a long, low groan that for a single, heart pounding moment I thought was because of my Game of Thrones reference, but instead I could 'see' him trying to push himself to his feet. Sarutobi and I both waited as seconds stretched on and he managed to get to his feet.

Damnit. If he had stayed on the ground I would've been happy to lie here, but I couldn't take that lying down, so to speak. A grunt of effort became a low whine of pain as I tried to mimic the Uchiha's actions but my muscles simply spasmed and dropped me back to the ground.

Leaves crunched underfoot, and then there was a grip on my arm pulling me up. The sudden blood rush left me dizzy, but luckily my legs locking kept me standing, albeit barely. I let out a garbled breath of air as thanks to Sasuke, and he nodded curtly, looking like he was also having trouble standing.

The Hokage turned to Sasuke, his face inscrutable. "I noted twice when your kunai hit and dispersed one of Naruto's Clones. Do we have to worry about your aim in battle?"

Sasuke grunted out a denial. "I fought Naruto's Clones earlier today. After their skin is pierced and they die there's no resistance. I threw my kunai fast enough that it wouldn't deter the accuracy."

Huh. That was actually pretty damn smart. I knew because I had considered the same, but my aim with throwing weapons wasn't good enough yet. Your enemy suddenly erupting into smoke and ejecting a weapon from their stomach was a good surprise.

"And what if the Clone that you picked to be that sacrifice was the actual Naruto?" Sarutobi pressed.

Sasuke snorted. "I was pretty sure it wasn't." He sounded almost offended.

"Well in the future," Sarutobi said, his voice hard, "I would advise against doing something like that unless you're completely sure."

"Ah," my voice said, getting ahead of my brain, "I tend not to go in with my Clones. Less chance of that sort of mistake happening." The world swayed for a moment, but I took a few disjointed steps and regained my balance.

Sarutobi turned to me. "Which may explain why your Clone's fighting style is so dismal. Your Clones took no efforts to mitigate the damage they took because, after all, their death wouldn't hurt you."

I nodded and swallowed the flash of injured pride that came with his words. "Right."

"And that same strategy had impacted your own abilities." Sarutobi said, eyes focused on my own.

I blinked blearily. "What are you talking about? I've been working on my Taijutsu specifically to avoid that." Well, I was just on bringing my Taijutsu up to a non-shitty level in general, but that should've helped with what he was talking about.

Sarutobi shook his head. "No. When I was fighting you, the real you, your fighting was exactly the same as your Clones. If I had been a real enemy, fighting your Clones would've given me all of the information that I needed to completely deconstruct your Taijutsu style and kill you with one hit."

Angry words born from weariness and a wounded ego rose up hot in my mouth, but I got them down before they could leak out. "Understood."

The Hokage's face softened, and he put a hand on my shoulder that nearly made me collapse. "On the other hand, that kind of blitzkrieg would've been very effective in taking down many genin and lower level chunin. And you did not hesitate to go for the win, which is something that normally takes many months for genin to develop."

Heh. By 'go for the win' he meant 'go for the kill'. I couldn't exactly to anything less and expect to do well against a freaking Kage. Sarutobi turned to Sasuke and proceeded to compliment him too, but my attention flickered in and out, not helped by my continued wind sense, slowly being diluted but not ignorable.

Then, the ANBU reappeared, so fast that my wind-sense barely helped at all. The ANBU was a slight man with what looked like a panda bleeding from the eyes as his mask. Gross. He handed the Hokage an envelope and disappeared.

There was silence for several seconds, which was all the time that it took for my patience to come to an end. "So, are you going to tell us what you just got there, or are you just going to wait for us to ask you?" I asked, sarcasm tinging my voice.

Rather than answering right away (the bastard), Sarutobi opened the envelope and pulled out two small white pieces of paper, handing one to me and one to Sasuke. My fingers left dirty smudges on the paper, making me wince.

"Both of you used elemental Jutsu in your attacks on me." Sarutobi said. "Sasuke, you obviously have great skill with the Great Fireball Jutsu, but I saw that it took you longer to mold the chakra than many others I have seen cast that same Jutsu. Naruto, your managed to summon gales of wind that, while not very strong, are almost unprecedented for a student your age."

"What does that have to do with these papers?" Sasuke asked bluntly, rubbing the paper with his fingers idly. Of course his hands were clean somehow. "And what do you mean my molding was slow?"

"Channel some chakra into the paper." Sarutobi suggested. Instead of answering directly. Again.

Sasuke grunted, and then there was csh-sch-csh as the white paper suddenly crinkled in his hand. The boy cocked an eyebrow and looked up at Sarutobi, who was nodding sagely.

"You have a lightning affinity, rather than a fire affinity like many of your family did." Sarutobi said gently. "Managing to learn a single Jutsu outside of your elemental affinity is quite difficult for someone your age. I expect that it took you quite a while to learn the Great Fireball Jutsu."

Had he not been so tired, I doubt Sasuke would've shown any hint of being off guard. As it was, his eyes moved back to the paper and I saw his jaw repeatedly clench and relax as he worked through whatever emotions he was feeling.

Letting Sasuke think, Sarutobi turned to me. "Have you used one of these before, Naruto?" He asked.

I shrugged and hoped that I wasn't too tired to lie convincingly. "I was just playing around with my chakra and found out I can make gusts of wind. So I figured I have a wind affinity."

Sarutobi hummed. "My son also has a wind affinity, but he tends to use it to make things sharper. Perhaps you could use it on that sword of yours." He waggled his eyebrows.

Yes! Thank you, whatever entity that brought me here! Rasenshuriken here I come!

I channeled chakra into my paper, holding it between my thumb and forefinger. With a csh-crink, the paper split down the middle….but only about half of the way to the bottom. Frowning, I channeled more chakra into it, and the paper separated into two pieces, as it should've. I looked up and found Sarutobi's eyebrows had climbed up to his forehead.

"So…what does this mean?" I asked.

The old man shook his head. "I'm not sure, my boy. I'm not sure…" Then, a smile captured his face and a shiver worked its way down my weary spine. "Luckily for us, we have a couple of months to figure it out. Lots of sparring between you and me to obtain data."

My throat muscles constricted in an involuntary gulp, and I gave the old man a shaky grin. "Why do I have a feeling that this won't be a pleasant process?" I muttered, half to myself.

"Because it won't be." Sarutobi reassured me. "But then again, what in life-?"

Sarutobi's words of wisdom were cut off as Sasuke interrupted. "So, are we going to get to killer intent training?"

"I would like to second that." I said quickly. Being instructed by the Third Hokage had to be less painful than sparring with him. Then again, one of the few things that I had found that was more painful was Clone overload, so my perception was a bit skewed.

The Hokage didn't look overtly irritated by Sasuke's interruption and lack of respect, instead raising an eyebrow in Sasuke's direction and saying nothing.

Sasuke sighed. "Can we get to killer intent training…please?" He asked, tacking on the 'please' grudgingly. That, more than anything else, showed how much he wanted to be able to resist the fear compulsion.

Sarutobi dipped his head minutely and folded his hands back into the sleeves of his robes. "Very well." He acquiesced graciously. "Perhaps we did get a bit off track. We will go over killer intent, however, I expect you to have put some serious thought and effort into your specialties by next week."

He gave me a look as if expecting me to complain, which I was all too pleased to ignore. All I had to do was offload the work to a Clone, and then continue doing what I was already doing. He seemed to think my true specialty lay in the true virtues of a real-world ninja, but I considered the Rasengan as a bit more important than lock-picking.

"Alright. Well, the first thing you must understand is how emotions influence one's chakra…"

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The sun was on it's slow downward march, not enough I could see any streaks of orange or red in the sky, but enough that it was becoming a bit nippy in the air. And easily late enough in the day that my stomach was making an active effort to start digesting my pancreas.

Still, Sasuke hadn't uttered any word of tiredness, and so I didn't either. Plus, it wasn't as if I was running low on chakra. Using killer intent was more chakra intensive than I had thought it would be, but it didn't even take up a third of the chakra necessary to form a Shadow Clone, so I still had around…three fourths of my reserves left?

Tasting the sweet evening air as I took a deep breath, I focused on Sarutobi and began to pull on every memory I could that evoked anger or hatred. It wasn't an instant process, especially considering how sluggish my thoughts were after hours of training, but after a few moments I could feel my breath coming harder, and my fists clenched at my sides, fingers aching.

You know how, when you're angry, a common expression that's used is 'blood boiling'? Well, that's sort of the idea behind killer intent. It's essentially an unstructured genjutsu, forming an illusion in the target's head. But where a genjutsu would be formed and then essentially be 'inserted' into the target's body, with killer intent you force your own chakra to take on your rage and hatred, then chucked it at the other person.

However, while chakra is emotionally responsive, it normally doesn't retain that quality after it leaves your body. It required either a lot of skill, or a lot of hatred. If you had enough hatred, it could linger around even after you had stopped projecting killer intent.

My chakra thrashed within me, begging me to use it, to lash out against my enemy, and I ground my teeth together as I tried to keep concentrating both on the hatred evoking thoughts and direct my chakra out of my tenketsu.

That was the other problem. When chakra was stimulated with such powerful emotions, it became much harder to control. But, me being me, I had chakra to spare.

With a pained grunt, chakra blazed out of my weary tenketsu, and my tenuous grasp on it sent it towards Sarutobi, who had been standing in the same position for several hours, eyes closed peacefully. The man didn't so much as flinch, and I sagged in disappointment.

"That was better. I almost felt unnerved." Sarutobi 'complimented', his eyes still closed. And even though I could see that there was no smirk on his face, I could tell he was smirking at me.

I couldn't sense Sasuke's chakra as it passed by, but I could see Sarutobi's quiet amusement fade. He didn't flinch, but the lines of his face grew deeper. I made a point of not looking over at Sasuke, but I could hear his labored breaths.

Yup. Sasuke was much better at killer intent than me. But I didn't envy him for that ability. The boy had a lot of hatred, and I could only imagine how easy it was for him to conjure up the image of the one man he hated more than anything to fuel his new skill.

My pity for the mentally damaged boy was shoved back as my stomach let out a loud gurgle. Sarutobi had used a bit of fire manipulation to heat up our to-go Ichiraku, but that had been several hours ago. I could've pushed for us to go get something to eat, but something held me back, and it wasn't just pride.

Eyelids fluttering closed, I thought back to every Thanksgiving dinner I had ever eaten, every meal my father had cooked me while I was sick, every cookie that I had snuck off the rack while they were cooling. Fat sizzling off of perfectly browned meat, melted cheese and tomato, golden rolls of bread with butter…

Even as phantom scents assaulted my nose and my mouth began to water too much to be proper, I felt for my chakra, responding to the ancient need of hunger and survival. It's familiar eddies and flows were frenzied, panicked.

I let it burst out of me, not even directing it at a particular person, just a wave of chakra rippling out into the world, driven by my own ravenous hunger.

Almost at the same time, twin growls of empty bellies sounded off. Sarutobi opened his eyes and stood, audible cracks coming from his joints as he stood, making me wince. "I don't know about you younglings, but I could use some food." He announced.

Sasuke grunted an affirmation as he walked over, trying to look like he wasn't suffering from a myriad of bruises. "I could go for some food." I said casually, my tone neutral. Neither Sasuke nor Sarutobi had sent me a knowing look, or otherwise indicate that they knew what I had done.

We all began trudging out of the forest, in no mood to run back to the village. While they weren't watching, I made and dispersed a Clone. I hadn't wanted to disperse the groups of Clones back at the Great Naruto Lake for fear of disrupting my training, but now I had to catch up.

"So, young Sasuke, why the interest in resisting killer intent?" Sarutobi asked. His tone was an interesting mixture of knowing, gentle prod and casual indifference.

The boy didn't stiffen. I suspected it would hurt too much to do so. But he did slow for a moment, and was silent for a long few seconds. I almost piped in, but decided to stay quiet, let the question hang in the air. It was only because of how intimate I was with Sasuke's history that I suspected I knew why.

"The less an enemy can get into my head, the better." Sasuke said. Despite his best efforts, his voice couldn't help but deepen into a snarl when he said 'an enemy', and both Sarutobi and I knew who he meant.

"Good thing Ino is on our side, then." I joked, sticking my hands in my pockets and shooting a tired grin at the Uchiha.

Sasuke gave me a blank look, and it took me a few seconds to realize that was him asking a question. "Wait a minute…you do know who Ino is, right?"

"She's…the one with the brown hair." Sasuke declared. I shook my head in disbelief even as my mouth curled into a grin. Typical. Just typical. She's head over heels for him, and he literally doesn't know who she is.

"I do believe that young Ino takes after her father in terms of hair color." Sarutobi provided.

"What makes you think that would help him at all? If he doesn't know a girl in his class, why would he know her father?" I asked the older man pointedly. He just spread his arms helplessly and tried to look like an innocent old man, but the slight curl at the edge of his mouth gave him away, and I sighed. "She's the girl that we ran from today."

Sasuke's brows furrowed. "Why on Earth should we be glad that she's on our side?" He asked. To his credit, there was only about half as much disdain in the question as I'd expected.

"The Yamanaka specialize in Jutsu that affect the mind." Sarutobi explained. "In fact, her father puts his skills to use in our Interrogation Department."

Sasuke's frown evolved into a full-blown scowl. "So, she can get into our heads?" He demanded.

Sarutobi turned to look at the boy seriously. "Young Ino would not do anything to negatively affect you or any other Leaf Shinobi. In fact, the Yamanaka family Jutsu are often used more often to help our fellows. Your sensei, young Mitarashi, was once suspected for the actions of her sensei, but young Ino's father helped clear her by entering her mind and proving that there was nothing that would affect her behavior."

My skin suddenly felt very warm, and a scorching cold bead of sweat rolled down my temple. Note to self: avoid such a situation under any and all circumstances.

Sasuke's scowl lightened into a thoughtful frown. "I think it would help if he knew that Yamanaka Jutsu could be resisted like killer intent." I suggested, hoping that Sarutobi would let something slip about doing just that.

But instead, the old man shook his head. "If it's possible, it would only be known to the Yamanaka." He said. "Even I don't know." Both Sasuke and I frowned, but for different reasons.

I wondered if that was true. If I was Hokage I would make sure that any of my men who had body-puppeteering capabilities couldn't control me.

Instead of vocalizing that opinion, I slung a shoulder around Sasuke's shoulders, which nearly made him stumble to the ground. "Well, look at it this way. All you need to do is marry Ino, and you can find out how to resist them yourself! I call being best man!"

Sasuke tried to shove me off of himself, but he was too tired, and I let out a long, purposely annoying cackle of victory. I pretended not to notice the smallest hint of a smile that was on his face as we made our way back to the Leaf Village.

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Forty-four days A.I, November 23rd, a Saturday

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Tenten was bored, and she reveled in it. Most teenagers would hate being bored, especially if they were stuck manning the counter all day of her parent's shop. But while Tenten loved being a ninja, being around her teammates for long periods of time, such as during training or on long missions, quickly wore away at her patience. It was good to have an opportunity to just…enjoy the quiet.

Well, not exactly quiet. Tenten hummed tunelessly as she delicately traced a perfectly curved line into her scroll. Even on her days off (which this technically qualified as), she couldn't just stay away from her skills! And one of the great things about sealing was that as long as you had your tools, you could work on it anywhere. It was a meticulous process, sealing. Small improvements over time. Hopefully this one would have a 7% higher carrying capacity, if she did it right.

With storage Seals, there were two ways to go about increasing the pocket dimension that it was connected to. The first was just to force more chakra in. The second required brains and dedication.

Tenten took the second route.

The bell affixed above the door jingled, and a couple that Tenten vaguely recognized walked in. They were both chunin, she remembered, although she hadn't seen the woman for quite a while….Which was probably explained by the baby stroller that the man was wheeling in.

Tenten exchanged smiles with the couple but didn't say anything. They were familiar with her and with the shop. She half-kept an eye on them as she continued tracing out her seal for the first few minutes, and then her awareness of them retreated as her focus returned in full to her sealing. Even the sound of the store's bell ringing again didn't draw her out.

"Who's a handsome boy? You are! You are!" Tenten's awareness of her shop came back as a vaguely familiar voice hit her ears, and she looked up.

The chunin couple had left their stroller parked near the entrance, close enough that they could see the baby but far enough away that they could test out the weapons without worrying about skewering the innocent kid. Tenten wondered why they had even brought him if they were planning on coming here.

The couple were in the far back, and apparently didn't notice the boy leaning over the stroller and…cooing at their child.

Tenten watched in bemusement as a young blonde boy babbled nonsensical pleasantries at the tiny brown-haired baby, who wiggled and made grabbing motions with his chubby little hands. The blonde waggled his fingers in the baby's voice, tickling his nose and making him squeal happily.

"The baby's going to be 5,000 ryo." Tenten called to Naruto, hoping that he would try to pretend like she hadn't just caught him playing with a baby and generally acting very un-masculine.

She was disappointed, however. He looked over at her and grinned. "Naaaaaaah. I think I'll wait for the next model. Ideally, if I get a baby, I want it to shoot lasers."

While Naruto's attention was diverted, the baby got a hand around one of the older boy's index finger and promptly stuck it in his mouth.

Now he reacted like Tenten had expected, jumping back and wiping his now wet finger on his clothing.

The baby whined and looked at Naruto with impossibly wide eyes. The boy rolled his eyes with a fond smile and let the baby continue gnaw on his fingers with his toothless gums. "You're lucky that I washed my hands before coming here." He scolded the child. "Not all strangers have clean hands."

The baby didn't respond, too delighted with his new playthings to pay Naruto's words any attention.

Tenten rolled her eyes and propped up her head against her hand, watching the blonde Academy student play with the baby. He was clearly recognizable as the boy who she had 'saved' in the forest (thinking of that incident made her wince), but he had undergone a radical clothing change, now dressed head to toe in blue civilian clothing. Of course, the sword on his back and kunai pouch at his hip denoted his status as a ninja, or rather a ninja-in-training. No headband yet, though he did have on a pair of sunglasses for some reason.

Then, Naruto's head jerked up, and he backed away from the baby, pulling the blue hood up over his head and nestling his face into the scarf/bandana around his neck. Between that and the sunglasses, there was very little of his skin visible at all.

The shinobi couple were back, having picked out a few braces of kunai and a handful of flash bombs, a standard purchase for shinobi who weren't weapons oriented. They didn't pay any attention to Naruto, who busied himself with looking at one of the weapons on the wall.

The baby whined, making grabbing motions towards his playmate, but the parents didn't pay him any particular attention, and Tenten snapped back into a professional demeanor as she rang up their purchases and watched the couple head out the door with their child in tow.

As soon as they were gone, Naruto pulled back his hood and removed the bandana/scarf from his face, sighing in relief, walking over to the counter. Tenten arched an eyebrow. "You want to explain what that was about?"

Naruto waved a hand vaguely in the air. "I used to prank a lot of people, and not too many of them were happy about it. I didn't want to roll the dice that they'd recognize me and think that I'm indoctrinating their son somehow."

Tenten frowned as she thought over his words, and reached back in her memory. "Wait a minute, were you the one who drew all those crude pictures on Tomura's Grocery Corner?" She demanded. She had gone there the day after it happened, and the pictures had been juvenile in the extreme.

The boy shrugged. "Hell, if I know. Maybe? I lost track after a while."

"Too bad. It was so genius that I was going to offer a discount to the person who had done it." Tenten gave him a dazzling smile.

"In that case, it was me. Full credit, 100%." He said immediately.

Tenten snorted and shook her head. "Why are you here, Naruto? This is a business, after all. You're going to need to buy something."

"I want to learn Sealing." Naruto said, his blue eyes flickering down to her scroll and then back to her face. "And you're the only one I know who knows how to do it."

Tenten arched an eyebrow. "Really?" There was a mixture of eagerness and curiosity that leaked into her tone. Then she recalled who she was talking to: a guy. "Well, you can just buy explosive tags if you want them." She pointed to the section where they were sold by the stack, but Naruto was shaking his head.

"No, I mean want to learn actual Sealing." He stressed. "It seems really neglected for such a potentially powerful subject." He grinned crookedly. "Though I can see the value in blowing something up occasionally."

Her fingers idly tapped against the tabletop as she narrowed her eyes at the boy, digesting his words. Sealing wasn't something to be looked into idly. Even just rote memorization of the formula to make a basic sealing scroll or explosive tag required hours of practice and a deft hand. And if you really wanted to be good at it, chakra infused ink was a necessity, which didn't come cheap.

"I don't know how it is at the Academy now, but we actual ninja don't have a lot of time to devote to teaching others." Tenten said, coming to a decision.

Naruto let out a sigh, a slightly bitter grin making its way to her face. "You want money, don't you?" He asked.

"Smart boy." She smirked at him.

The blonde boy clicked his tongue and reached into his pocket, pulling out…a purse that looked like a frog. Her mouth twitched, but she was a true kunoichi, and she did not break out into giggles.

"Alright, how much?" Naruto asked, popping the frog purse open clumsily.

Tenten juggled the numbers in her head. Her free time was limited, and teaching him would cut into that, which would drive up the rates. Plus, Sealing wasn't something that was commonly taught, so by the laws of supply and demand, that also sent the rate up.

As Tenten juggled the numbers in her head, the blonde boy in front of her stilled. He took a deep breath in, as if collecting his thoughts…and when he let it out, a subtle wave of chakra washed over Tenten. She had had training in identifying and dispelling Genjutsu but had not been trained in resisting a more esoteric use of chakra manipulation.

A swell of compassion and warm camaraderie suddenly swept over her. The boy seemed genuinely interested in a subject that she couldn't really talk with anyone else about. Plus, she wished she had had a good teacher to learn from at her age with her varied interests. The price dropped in her head.

She told him, and the boy winced, but he didn't back down. "Fine." He agreed. "I guess it's a deal…Sensei."

Tenten smiled at the boy, the expression feeling oddly predatory on her face. "Excellent." She said, drawing out the 'x'. "I have time off next Saturday, we'll start then. Have the money ready by then." She let out a theatrical sigh. "I wish my parents gave me enough allowance to buy training when I was your age."

Naruto snorted. "First of all, you're probably only a few months older than me. And two, I don't get an allowance. Orphan's stipend."

Ah.

Fuck.

Couldn't she have just one interaction with this kid where she didn't screw up? "Sorry." She apologized, trying to figure out what more to say.

He waved her off. "It's all good. Can't blame you for not knowing. Besides, our Academy teacher has done way, way worse. Like, actually mentally scarring stuff. So you're good." He paused for a moment. "Although maybe be more considerate in the future. Others might not react very well."

"Heh, yeah." She could only imagine if someone had said something like that to Neji. Something occurred to her "You're not using your stipend for this training, are you?" If so, she would have to decline. She had a few friends who had been on it and had sometimes complained that they had to cut back on necessities to afford ninja gear, rent, and eat properly.

"No, you're good. I have a little…side gig." His face twitched.

She blinked in surprise. "Side gig?" Most businesses wouldn't be willing to hire an Academy student, as it would be understood that either they became a ninja, in which case they couldn't work for the business any more, or they failed, and tended to put more hours into graduating next time.

"I kind of…write a little bit." He shifted uncomfortably. "You know…books and stuff. Sort of."

She was getting an odd feeling off of this. He didn't seem remarkably amped up about his side gig. "What do you mean 'sort of'?"

He let out an explosive sigh and rubbed his face, pushing up his sunglasses in the process. "I wrote a couple novels and sent them to the publishers we have in town. Do you know how many publishers we have in the Leaf Village?"

"More than three, less than twelve?" Tenten hedged.

"Yes, actually, though you cheated. Eleven. Two are magazines, three are newspapers, and the rest are novelists." He winced. "Which I didn't know. I just handed them off to anyone who called themselves a publisher."

"I take it that didn't go well."

"No, it did not. Apparently, being in the same business, they know each other, and it got sent around that I was 'unprofessional' and 'didn't do my research'." He said, miming the quotes with his fingers. "I only managed to get two of the actual publishers to look over my books."

He paused, obviously waiting for a reaction. When he didn't get one, he pushed on. "One just told me that I my writing was underdeveloped. The other called me in and gave me an exhaustive dressing down of the problems I had with characterization, pacing, and general plot structure."

Tenten quirked an eyebrow. "I'm not sure how this translates into you having a job."

Naruto drummed his fingers on the desk with irritation, and his mouth turned downwards into a scowl. "She still thought the book had merit, though. I just needed to become a better writer. And apparently one way to becoming a better writer is to take a step back."

He spat out the final words with derision, and Tenten couldn't help a twinge of disdain for the boy in front of her. "Hey, it seems like this publicist whoever she is still wanted you to succeed. And you still got some sort of job and a way to improve out of it, right?"

The blonde boy gave her a heavy look from behind his glasses. "She had a friend with The Leaf's Shade. That's where my side gig is."

Tenten had never choked on air before, but she suddenly found it within her capability, and she doubled over laughing. Naruto glared stoically at her as she fought desperately for breath, needing to brace herself on the countertop.

The Leaf's Shade had started out as a small-time gossip magazine in the Leaf Village, focusing mainly on hotbed civilian issues. However, fifteen years ago it had spontaneously taken a different direction and began focusing both on ninja affairs and on nationwide events.

Frequently, they would cover serious, life or death issues…all with the same syrupy, salacious tone. Kami, there was a section just called Outright Lies, and it was one of the most well-liked sections! It had exploded beyond the domain of the Hidden Leaf and was insanely popular.

"Hah…..hah…..I'm-I'm good now. I'm good." Tenten reassured him, wiping tears away from her eyes.

"It's legitimate." Naruto immediately defended himself. "Doing research and short, to the point articles help with communicating emotion and making characters pop. Some of the people at the magazine say if I get good enough to write a series of connected articles that it would help me with plotting."

She had the urge to laugh again, but she held it back…barely. "I think you're being taken for a sucker." She said reluctantly.

The blonde boy swelled up for a moment…and then deflated. "Yeah." He admitted. "Yeah you're probably right. It all seemed so reasonable when they were saying it." He perked up. "But apparently if I do well enough, she'll reconsider, and even then she'll put in a good word for me with the other publicists. And hey, I do get payed."

Tenten wondered how he had the time to do this on top of his ninja training but didn't mention it. Everyone had their hobbies. "Still seems like you're being taken for a ride. If you get good enough, won't publicists want to have you anyway?"

He shook his head. "Nah. I'm writing under a pen name. Want to have the writer and the ninja separate, you know?"

….Damn it. She had to know. "What's your pen name?" She asked innocently.

"Arashi Kazuma." He admitted.

Tenten nearly thought that she was going to break down again, but instead she just gaped at the boy. "Kami in paradise…But he's super bitchy! And cruel! And…and…and…"

"Pretty damn popular on the Outright Lies section, I know." He puffed up his chest, the opposite of how he had been mere minutes before. "My piece on Kakuzu and the First Hokage being gay lovers was pretty good, wasn't it?"

"That was incredibly stupid!" She burst out. This was her student?

He snorted and crossed his arms. "Why? Sure, talking shit about the First Hokage is going to rile some people up, but the Outright Lies sectionhas crossed that line before. I read some of the old stuff, they implied that the Daimyo blew guys in the reception hall and got away with it."

"You're provoking an S-Rank ninja! I've read his bingo book page, he's absolutely insane!" Tenten protested. Her head was starting to hurt. Maybe hanging around Lee and Neji wasn't so bad.

She wasn't sure behind the glasses, but she was mostly sure Naruto blinked at her very slowly. "Tenten…do you really think that Kakuzu the missing ninja, the man who rips out people's hearts…reads The Leaf's Shade?"

"For your sake, I hope not."

"I guess you're right. On the other hand, the fact that you know my material lets me know that you read The Leaf's Shade, something a kunoichi of your caliber probably wouldn't want to be public knowledge. So how about we revisit how much my Sealing lessons will cost?" A predatory smile slid across his face.

"How about we keep the price the same and I don't tell your entire Academy class about your little 'side gig', huh?" A no less threatening one came onto Tenten's face, and she girded herself for battle.

The negotiations (and black mail) continued. Tenten liked to think she won them in the end.

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Seventy six days A.I, December 25th, a Wednesday

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Naruto Uzumaki was…strange.

It was saying something that 'strange' was the best word a genius like him could come up with to describe the boy, but it was an apt descriptor all the same. He was consternating, vexing, and annoying as all hell, yes, but above all that, he was strange.

Let it be known that Naruto was not Sasuke's friend. He allowed Naruto around him at the Academy to ward off the deluges of countless fangirls, and he was a frequent sparring partner after school, but that was it.

Alright, so often sparring led to hanging out as they recovered, and frequenting Ichiraku Ramen to chat with Ayame Ichiraku, but that was it. Naruto was convenient. It was through the boy that he was receiving training from the Third Hokage, the same man who had trained the Sanin.

Perhaps Sasuke would've respected the boy more if he didn't seem hell bent on humiliating himself on a daily basis, and often dragging Sasuke into it one way or another. It boggled the mind. Sasuke could see that when Naruto was embarrassed or humiliated, and yet he continued to do stupid things, somehow finding a way to bring him into it.

The contests resumed with a vicious intensity, and Naruto readily admitted that it was to help pay for Sealing lessons from an older ninja, and had offered half of the profits to Sasuke, which he turned down. He was not some performing monkey.

However, he didn't object when Naruto started picking up the tab at Ichiraku more often.

Nevertheless, as Sasuke spent more time around the Dead Last, he became more aware of little things to indicate his mood. Nail biting when he was annoyed and trying to figure something out. Bravado when he was confused or didn't know what to do.

And, of course, homicidal rage when something didn't go his way.

Most people wouldn't recognize it, but in the few instances that Sasuke had seen the boy actually angry, he went still, and his blue eyes turned glacial behind those damned sunglasses. Later he would spend hours slicing the trees deep in the forest until he couldn't hold his sword any longer. Sasuke had stumbled upon it a few times.

It was…concerning. If one cared enough to be concerned, which he didn't.

It was this knowledge that let Sasuke sense that Naruto was burning out. It took him several weeks to figure it out, but each day the boy seemed to lose a bit of energy. As the days got colder and night fell earlier, Naruto's mood soured. He was actually much more effective in driving away others than Sasuke himself, staring at people with dead eyes and lashing out at them verbally when they irritated him.

It frequently involved deconstructing people's fashion senses, but that somehow was more effective than Sasuke's normal glares. And had the benefit of being much more amusing to him.

He heard whispers from the other students, and knew that they just thought he was being a dick for some reason. But something about Naruto's increasingly negative behavior resonated with Sasuke.

When the date of that night came up, Sasuke's rage and sadness threatened to drown him, and he threw himself into training, to the point that he drifted through his days in the Academy for weeks afterwards.

But Naruto didn't seem to be training any harder than normal, at least when Sasuke was around. And as far as Sasuke knew, Naruto was an orphan of the Nine Tail's attack, so why would he be like this in December rather than October?

No, Naruto Uzumaki was not Sasuke's friend, and he definitely didn't care why the boy was becoming quieter and quieter with each passing day. After all, even as he stopped talking, his fitness as a fighting partner increased, and thus Sasuke could improve more from fighting him.

Of course, that didn't do much in the way of explaining why Sasuke was trekking through the forest late at night looking for him.

Naruto hadn't come to the Academy that day. He wasn't in their normal clearing where they sparred, nor was he at the training ground. He wasn't at Ichiraku ramen. He wasn't at that weapon shop he kept recommending to Sasuke.

It had only been two months since the blonde had invited him to train with himself and the Hokage, but now something seemed off without hearing his constant jokes or snide remarks during class and going back to just training his Taijutsu without a moving opponent felt like a waste of time.

Naruto didn't like his house. He had never said it, but he spent all his time outside of the Academy in the forest. When the occasional poetic mood settled over him after training, he would drone on and on to Sasuke about the beauty of nature, or grouch about how unfair it was that he couldn't make trees like the First Hokage.

Thus, the forest. Naruto was here somewhere, he just knew it. Sasuke had been out here for a few hours, until the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, but his feet wouldn't stop moving, even as he started to wonder whether he had just been walking in circles this whole time.

"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when…"

It was a familiar voice, but multiplied to dozens of the same voices, overlapping in a quiet, somber chorus that nonetheless carried the words through the branches despite the low volume.

He immediately looked towards the source, squinting through the trees, and saw a spark of light in the distance.

"But we'll meet again some sunny day…"

Now that he had a clue, he could pick up the speed, and it only took a few minutes to get there. Sasuke looked around the clearing, disguising his curiosity and confusion. Everything was seemingly built around a large fir tree, which had been decorated with dozens of meaningless shiny baubles that were affixed to the branches with small hooks.

On top of the tree was what appeared to be a five-pointed star made of shoddily worked wire. There was a large bonfire that crackled merrily off to the side that immediately began soaking the Uchiha with heat even from several feet away. There was a giant open container of cookies next to it, and a thermos that Sasuke could smell was filled with drinking chocolate.

Sitting in front of the giant fir tree was Naruto Uzumaki, but if Sasuke didn't know the boy's features so well he might not have recognized him, especially since he wasn't wearing the glasses that had become a near permanent fixture. The boy's bright hair was hidden under an odd red cap that had cotton hastily stitched to the brim, and a poof of cotton at the tip.

Something about it changed the boy's features. His whiskered cheeks were sunken with exhaustion, and dark marks had gathered underneath his glassy eyes, which were staring at something he couldn't see.

The Clones standing around the clearing, which had been singing that disquieting song and had fallen silent when Sasuke had appeared, silently poofed away into smoke, and Naruto let out a long sigh, eyelids fluttering closed.

"Sasuke." Naruto murmured, not turning away from the tree. His eyes were still shut.

"Dead Last." Sasuke plodded up to stand beside the boy, looking at the tree. "What is this thing?"

"Christmas tree."

Those words didn't mean anything to Sasuke, but they clearly meant something to Naruto. Now that he was closer, he could make out the shapes of the things hanging on the tree. "…Lots of birds." He noted, wincing at the awkward remark. There were a lot of them. Jeweled birds hung from the branches, doves and robins and owls.

He wondered where Naruto had gotten them.

Naruto let out a laugh that was half hiccup. A shock went through Sasuke's body as he saw signs of irritation around the blonde boy's eyes. He had been crying.

"Christmas…it's a family holiday."

Ah. That explained it. Sasuke felt a swelling of rage and sadness in his chest but he pushed it back with the ease of long experience. He waited for the other boy to talk, but he didn't. That wasn't right. Naruto loved to talk. "I've never heard of it before." He said finally.

The Uzumaki snorted. "I would've died of shock if you had." He muttered. A few moments passed in silence. "It's a religious holiday. Resurrection. New life. Goodwill to men."

"Hn." Sasuke shifted his weight imperceptibly. He had gone to a few shrines, and of course knew about Kami, but had never felt a connection to anything supernatural. "I never knew you were spiritual."

Naruto's lips twitched. "I'm not. For me it's about family. Togetherness." The hint of the smile faded from his mouth. "It's traditional to give gifts to your family members and put them under the tree."

Sasuke tried not to look at the bottom of the tree, where there was nothing but dirt and fallen fir needles. He felt the sudden impulse to put his hand on the boy's shoulder, but held back. He searched the boy's face, looking for some sort of explanation in his features. Finally, he couldn't hold back. "Why?"

"Why?" Naruto echoed. He opened his eyes and met Sasuke's gaze, two lifeless blue eyes in the sunken pits of his face.

Sasuke swept a hand at the tree, at all of the preparations around them. "Why torture yourself like this?" They both knew Naruto was an orphan, like Sasuke himself. When even a casual reference to family togetherness could sting, why celebrate an obscure holiday devoted to it?

Whatever Sasuke had expected, it wasn't a laugh. It started low, and then turned hysterical, bouncing off of the trees and dissipating into the forest. He briefly wondered for a moment whether the blonde boy had gone insane, and wondered how he would explain it to Hiruzen if it were so.

Naruto eventually calmed down and brushed tears of laughter (at least he hoped it was tears of laughter) away with his hand. The redness only further emphasized the utter exhaustion in his eyes. "I have to, Sasuke." He said. "I have to. I can't think about this any other day of the year, if I do then I'd break down. But it's…my…. I can't…"

Something clicked in Sasuke's head. "You think that they're out there somewhere." He had heard horror stories before, of families who abandoned children after catastrophes for various reasons, but he had never considered that something like that could've happened after the Nine Tails attack.

To Naruto, would it seem better to believe he had family out there that had abandoned him than to think that they were dead?

"I don't know." Naruto's words were more of a snarl, desperate and angry. He tore his gaze from Sasuke, staring at the Christmas Tree like he could light it on fire with his mind. "I don't know if they're out there and they miss me, or if I'm…" His breath hitched. "…if I'm just dead to them."

They stood in silence for several long minutes. Sasuke struggled for words, but none of them came. Then he noticed the slight shivers that wracked Naruto's form as temperatures continued to drop. Who knew how long he had been out here with only his clones for company?

"What was that song you…r clones were singing?"

"An old song. We'll meet again." His breath hitched. "It was…I remember it. My father."

"It was…nice."

A snort. "You know, I'd seen people use solid Clones before. I always wanted to learn to use them…a one-man choir." Silence reigned for several seconds. "I haven't had a lot of time to sing lately."

Sasuke could hear the blonde grit his teeth, and Naruto's eyes glittered wetly. Something wretched sideways in Sasuke's chest, nearly robbing him of breath.

The thermos with the drinking chocolate in it was warm from the fire, which was still burning strong despite not being tended to, and when Sasuke glanced into the box he saw it was filled with sugar cookies that had been poorly painted with bright frosting.

It only took a brief pressure on his shoulder to make Naruto sit down, and once he passed the thermos to the other boy it only took a moment before he started taking sips. Sasuke took a bite out of the frosted cookie and handed another to Naruto. The boy wouldn't eat if Sasuke wouldn't eat too. It was one of his quirks.

It was shaping up to be a long night. Sasuke hadn't gotten any training done today, and if he stayed up too late tonight, he might be too tired to train tomorrow.

The only time he got up was to add more logs to the fire from the pile by the bonfire. He didn't look away from the decorated tree when the boy began sniffling, despite how quickly the sight of the tree was burned into his eyes.

"Merry Christmas, Sasuke." Naruto said, the first words that he had spoken in hours, his voice low and hoarse.

"Merry Christmas, Naruto."

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94 days A.I, January 12th, a Thursday

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Naruto Uzumaki was weird. Literally everyone who had ever come into contact with Sakura knew that. It wasn't as if she talked about him constantly, she didn't want to give anyone the wrong impression, but the boy was practically everywhere. Friends told stories about his embarrassing escapades. Adults complained about his pranks. Sakura was happy to contribute her own stories, about how the boy tried to ask her out despite her repeated insistence that she wasn't interested.

Then, things had changed. Sakura couldn't pinpoint an exact date when it had happened, but the boy who pestered her on a weekly basis suddenly disappeared.

At first, the reason was obvious, especially with the rumors circulating around the Academy. Ino and Naruto had been seen out and about together quite often, Naruto carrying her bags and helping her pick out outfits. Oh, Ino said that it was to help her win Sasuke, but Sakura had seen through that. Naruto's affections had clearly transferred to someone who wasn't nearly as devoted to winning Sasuke's attention.

Ironically, it was the highest compliment the boy could pay her.

For a few days, Sakura had lived in near bliss. Ino-pig had been her biggest competitor, and now that obstacle was gone, taking her biggest annoyance with her. Sasuke would be hers in short order.

And then Naruto was back. He was often by Sasuke's side in class, and they were talking to each other almost as if they were friends. Suddenly Naruto had become her biggest competitor for Sasuke's attention.

That was bad. Sakura knew everything about Ino-pig. Her likes, dislikes, fears, and dreams, they were all in her head after years of being friends and then enemies. That insider knowledge was vital to removing her as an obstacle.

By contrast, she knew comparatively little about Naruto. He wanted to be Hokage (duh), and he liked ramen (also duh). Beyond that…very little. He obviously wasn't very bright, and he had the kind of wild behavior that came from not having parents, but that was it.

Except, in short order much of that had been overturned. Once that scandalously dressed woman had taken over for Iruka, suddenly Naruto had started taking an interest in class. That didn't exactly surprise her, many of her male classmates seemed to like paying attention in class now, but to her surprise, Naruto was actually good in class.

His behavior also suddenly turned around. He was quiet most of the time, except for when he was answering questions. When not in class, he parked himself right next to Sasuke and buried himself in a book or scroll. That actually made him the subject of ridicule for quite a few weeks, as the reading he brought was meant for children years their junior, but in short order they grew in length and complexity, at a rate that Sakura knew was impossible.

"He's probably just pretending for the sake of impressing people…" Something scoffed internally.

Yes, Naruto Uzumaki was weird. But before, he had been annoying weird. Now…he was creepy weird. Shino weird. Especially since he started wearing those sunglasses.

She had caught him staring at her more than a few times. That unknown sense that allowed people to sense other's eyes on them forced her to look up and into the obscured eyes of the blonde boy. She expected him to look away, embarrassed at having been caught.

He never did.

"Kami, what a creep!"

Once she had caught on, she started observing him right back. Ino. Choji. Shikimaru. Hinata. Kiba. Shino. These were people that he stared at on nearly a daily basis, with an unreadable look on his face.

For all that she silently observed her new rival, she didn't talk to him, and for good reason. A few people tried to ridicule the Dead Last, and he responded with insults that made Sakura's ears burn just to remember them. That, combined with the ever shrinking class size, meant that there was an area around Naruto and Sakura where no one sat.

Sasuke sat in the far seat, next to the window, and Naruto sat in the middle seat, leaving the aisle seat empty for those brave enough to claim it. Occasionally one of her rivals for Sasuke's attention would sit there and try to flirt with Sasuke, but his stony gaze and Naruto's sharply edged tongue drove them away. The only reason people whose presences he didn't seem to mind were the eight who she had seen him staring at. Which, she reasoned, included her.

Class was set to begin in a few minutes, and Naruto and Sasuke had finished with their daily competition, this time a hand-stand contest. Sakura had spotted one of Naruto's weird clones with a disposable camera during the contest, taking pictures with a grimace as Sasuke's shirt was pulled down, exposing his torso.

The Clone seemed to notice her staring at him incredulously, and from his sunglasses she could see him wink at her before handing the camera off to his progenitor and dispelling.

After the contest, everyone went to their normal seats. Except for Sakura. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. For love, she said firmly in her mind.

"Yeah! No blonde midget is going to stop us!"

Sakura walked over and sat down on the stool next to Naruto and Sasuke, heart pounding in her ears. Sasuke didn't even look over at her, staring ahead with an intense gaze.

Naruto turned his gaze from the scroll laid out on the table to her. "Photos will be for sale after class." He said.

Blood rushed to her cheeks. "N-no, I didn't want to buy any photos." She spluttered, sounding a bit like Hinata in her embarrassment. Of course, she wouldn't buy any photos of Sasuke when Naruto had tricked him into that situation!

"Plus, our parents didn't give us enough allowance after we blew it all on other Sasuke stuff."

The boy's blonde eyebrows rose up on his forehead. "Really?" For a moment he seemed genuinely baffled. Then he shrugged and turned back to his scroll, ignoring her presence and chewing on the stubs of his fingernails.

Class flew by, one of the rare days when Mitarashi didn't make them fight outside, instead focusing entirely on how to identify causes of death, or indeed if someone was dead at all or just faking it. It was a morbid subject, but Sakura took notes diligently and memorized the information.

Then lunch came, and the class filed out of the room and into the courtyard, where the faint chill of winter still clung to the air but was being dispersed by the natural warmth of Fire Country. Sakura's normal group of friends was looking at her with a mixture of awe and jealousy as she followed the two reclusive boys to their normal spot beneath one of the trees in the courtyard.

"Don't look so sad, girls. You can be bridesmaids at Sasuke and I's wedding."

She settled beneath the tree next to Sasuke this time, nearly flushing at being so close to him. He stoically cracked open his bento box and began to eat silently. Sakura's own meal, a red delicious apple, remained uneaten as her stomach tied itself in excited knots.

"So, Sasuke, what did you think of Sensei's lesson today?" She asked casually.

Sasuke took a bite out of a tomato as if it were an apple, still not looking at her. "Useful." He grunted.

Sakura's heart soared. He had responded! "Yeah, I thought so too!" She said quickly. "I mean, it always seems like bad guys are pretending to be dead in movies and stuff, right? Like in that new Princess Gale movie, where Amanou gets killed when Shinji does just that! Have you seen that movie, Sasuke? Would you like to go see it sometime?"

Sasuke remained stonily quiet, the only sound being Naruto chuckling softly as he shoveled rice into his face one-handedly, the other tracing out ink on his scroll. "Yeah, Sasuke, haven't you seen the new Princess Gale movie?" He asked, a mocking undertone to his voice.

The object of her affections grunted and stood up, putting his bento box beside and strode off towards the building, still without so much as a glance towards Sakura or Naruto. As he passed, Ino shot Sakura a smug look. She raised her chin haughtily and ignored the blonde girl.

"Don't worry, he's probably just going to the bathroom." Naruto reassured her, still working on his scroll. "He'll be back, and you can pester him all you want."

"I'm not pestering him." Sakura defended herself hotly. She was wooing him! Didn't Naruto know anything about romance?

From the angle she was at, Sakura could see Naruto roll his eyes. "Oh Sasuke, wasn't the lesson fascinating today?" He mocked with a high falsetto. "Have you seen the new Princess Gale movie? Would you like to go see it? Do you want to get married on a Saturday or a Sunday? What color hair do you think our kids will have?"

Sakura's hands tightened for a moment around the apple she was holding, and she gave the boy a murderous look, feeling the urge to shove the irritating boy's scroll right up his-

Suddenly Naruto seemed to deflate, and he reached up to pull off his sunglasses and pinche the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, that was maybe a bit much." He said, suddenly sounding tired. Then he smiled at her. "I'm the last person to talk about acting a bit cringey around their crush."

Not a crush, idiot! True love!

Sakura ignored the forceful voice at the back of her head, instead studying the blonde boy in front of her. Without the sunglasses obscuring his eyes, she could make out dark bags underneath them, and there was a tightness around the edges, as if he were fighting off a headache.

It made him look…old. Old and tired.

She glanced down at the scroll that he had been doodling on, a myriad of swirls and lines intersecting and diverging. "What're you working on?" She asked, trying to dispel the awkward air before Sasuke got back.

Part of the tension at the edges of his eyes disappeared and he smiled. "Just a Sealing project I've been working on for a few…weeks I guess? Anyway, it's been a lot of experimentation, but I think I've gotten it right."

If the boy had suddenly slammed a bat into her stomach Sakura didn't think she would've been more stunned. "Sealing? You know Seals?" She questioned dubiously. Sealing was enormously complicated, everyone knew that.

Naruto nodded eagerly, pointing to one section that was free of ink. "Yeah. I'm not an expert, but if I get this whole thing right, this area right here should have gravity increased by a factor of five." He grinned, looking pleased with himself.

"And…why is that good?" Sakura asked with a frown. That did sound complex, it was manipulating gravity for Kami's sake, but what use was there in that?

Naruto shrugged. "A variety of things. If I can get it over a large enough area it would provide great resistance training. And, if I really ramp it up, I could catch somebody in an area of gravity that they couldn't escape."

"Couldn't you just…I don't know, apply the seals to yourself?" Sakura asked. The resistance training idea was smart, but meticulously drawing a giant seal over a training ground just sounded exhausting.

A grin touched the boy's face. "Good idea," he complimented. "But either it's not possible or I don't know enough about Sealing to do it. I tried to apply them to regular weights, but the amount of seals it takes it too extensive to fit on the weights and even then, if you move too quickly, they get disrupted for some reason. I think it has something to do with their position in relation to the Earth, but I'm not sure. I tried to put them on clothes, but if the fabric folds too much it distorts the lines, ruining the whole effect."

Sakura blinked. That was…extensive reasoning. And it meant he had done lots of experimentation. "You seem really devoted to this. It's not for some sort of prank, is it?" She joked.

Naruto snorted. "Nah. I just read about it somewhere, and damned if I'm not going to try it." Then he flashed her a grin. "Though now that you've mentioned it…"

"Never mind," Sakura said quickly. Then she paused for a moment, looking over at the group of girls who were still sending her mocking looks since Sasuke left. "Actually, there are a few people I can think of that might require some pranking…"

Naruto began to laugh, and it took a moment for Sakura to realize that she was as well. "See, if you make more jokes Sasuke might pay attention to you." Naruto said with a grin.

The air between them suddenly soured, and Naruto grimaced. "Sorry." He said again.

Sakura waved a dismissal, looing down at her single apple in her hands. "It's…it's okay."

It had been several minutes, and Sasuke still hadn't returned.

"Hey Naruto?" Her voice was smaller than she meant it to be.

"Yeah?"

"What…what kind of girls does Sasuke like?" Her face burned. Even if he was friends with Sasuke, if word ever got out that she had asked the Academy's Dead Last for romance advice she would be ridiculed.

Naruto was silent for several seconds and she glanced up to see his face twitching though a variety of emotions too quickly for her to pick out any individual one. Finally, he let out a sigh. "Strong women." He said finally. "Sasuke would only fall in love with someone on his level."

Her heart sank in her chest. Sakura was smart, that much she knew for certain, and she was in the upper echelons of their class, but Sasuke was the best. When Mitarashi made him the person everyone had to attack for her lessons, the only person who could challenge him was Naruto himself.

So what? We'll get stronger, and then he'll fall for us!

But how? How could she ever become that strong?

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Naruto bring his hands together, and then one of his clones sat next to him. Without speaking, it rushed off into the building, unperturbed by the new round of gossip that it had prompted.

"What was that for?" Sakura asked.

"I sent him off to the library." Naruto explained. "You had this whole 'dejected heroine in need of inspiration' look about you. So, I sent him to get some inspiration."

In the time that it took for Sakura to absorb his words and grasp for a response, the clone was back with a book and a pair of scrolls. He unceremoniously dumped them in Sakura's arms and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

At Naruto's 'go ahead' gesture, Sakura opened the book and read the first page. It was evidently a biography on the Three Sanin, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and…Tsunade.

"You think I could be like Tsunade?" Sakura asked incredulously. Tsunade Senju? The strongest kunoichi in the history of the Leaf Village?

Naruto shrugged. "Her medical Jutsu came from a lot of study and chakra control. You have some of the best chakra control in the class, and you're clearly one of the smartest people here. Her insane strength is more about timing and control than muscles. Other than summoning, she doesn't have anything you can't achieve with hard work and dedication."

"You know a lot about her." Sakura flipped to a picture of the woman, and a smirk came to her lips. "Could it be that you have a thing for blondes?"

"What?" Naruto seemed genuinely confused.

"Oh, come on," Sakura chided, most of her attention on the book. "Everyone knows you're into Ino."

The boy made a sound halfway between gagging and coughing. "Excuse me?" He demanded, disgust in his tone.

Huh. He apparently didn't have a crush on Ino. Well, that didn't mean that she was going to let up. "You don't have to lie to me, Naruto, it's okay. Of course, I'll have to educate you before I let you ask her out. She used to be my best friend after all."

"I don't like Ino!"

"She likes cherry tomatoes."

"I do not care."

"Her favorite flowers are lilies and orchids."

"I don't care, Sakura."

"She doesn't like the smell of cinnamon."

"Sakura, I will uppercut you directly to the moon."

She was having so much fun teasing the boy that she almost didn't realize it when Sasuke sat back down and settled back into eating his bento box. Luckily, she was reminded when Naruto said, "Sasuke, tell Sakura to shut up."

Sasuke grunted, refusing to say anything. A mean thought occurred to her, and she smoothed her face into an innocent expression. "Hey, Sasuke?" She asked. The boy didn't respond. "Did you know that Naruto is in love with Ino Yamanaka?"

The Uchiha froze. He turned to Naruto, and then a hint of a smirk came to his face. "Does he really?"

"No, I do not." Naruto insisted, looking nauseous.

A shark-like expression grew on Sasuke's face. "I bet Ayame would love to hear this." He said, seemingly to himself.

"Who's Ayame?" Sakura asked, leaping onto the gossip reflexively.

Sasuke smiled at her, and she thought she just might ascend to heaven. Granted, it was a mean-spirited sort of smile, but that didn't matter. "Ayame works at Ichiraku Ramen, the restaurant that Naruto insists on going to at least once a day. I wonder why?"

"Why, it sure does sound like he very much enjoys something there." Sakura agreed.

"I don't like Ayame!" Naruto barely managed to keep his voice below a yell, but it was shrill nonetheless, and it definitely reached the other groups of people.

"I didn't say anything like that." Sasuke put a hand to his chest, the perfect picture of innocence. Then a devilish smile came to his face. "The Hokage on the other hand, did happen to say something like that."

Sakura gaped. "Wait a minute, the Third Hokage is involved in Naruto's love life?"

"It's not a love life!"

"He's very devoted to Naruto's happiness." Sasuke told her sagely.

A smile similar to Sasuke's own came to her face. "Well, then maybe we should tell him about Naruto's newfound ladylove."

"Maybe we should, Sakura." Sasuke agreed. "Maybe we should."

"You two are evil. Worse than nuke-nin."

"Time to get back to learning, little shits!" Mitarashi shouted, her voice squashing anything that anyone in the courtyard was saying. "You have five seconds before I start throwing kunai!"

Everyone began scrambling back into the classroom frantically. Sakura took a few seconds to gather her new reading materials together, but in her haste one of the scrolls fell to the ground. Before it could touch the dirt, however, it was caught, and smoothly returned to the pile in her arms.

"T-thank you Sasuke." She was blushing, she knew it, but her smile refused to leave her face.

"Hn." Sasuke turned to walk back, but he didn't sneer at her. He didn't smile either, but he didn't sneer or frown, or anything like that.

Yes! Yes! We did it! Watch out Sasuke, because here comes the Love Train!

Then a kunai knocked her apple out of her hand, pinning it to the tree that they were standing under. The two exchanged looks and began running for the door.

After that day, Sakura was a constant fixture at Naruto and Sasuke's table.

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One hundred twenty-nine days A.I, February 15th, a Tuesday

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The floor was solid underneath his paws, and cool air brushed against his fur for the first time in twelve years. Reflexively, he took a deep breath through his nose. Rather than the myriad of scents and smells that the world should've offered up to him, the familiar scent of stale water and sour metal filled his snout.

He growled deep in his chest, but the mighty vibrations failed to make the bars of his prison shake.

"Hey, did it work?" The voice that had become annoyingly familiar over the past few months came from nowhere in particular, yet he could hear it as clearly as if the brat was sitting at the base of his cage like he so often did.

Kurama considered staying quiet, but that would just mean that the boy would bitch about it later when he came for his nightly visit. "No. No it didn't." He rumbled.

Through the boy's senses, he could feel his face stretch into a broad grin. Even more than that, Kurama could feel something in his chest speed up. That must be the heart.

…Dear Father, that was an odd feeling. How did humans do anything with such a constant distraction pounding away in their ribcages?

Kurama felt the brat's pleasure as he got up and stretched, letting out a groan as his tendons and muscles got the opportunity to stretch after many hours sitting still.

The Nine-Tails rolled his massive eyeballs as his host stopped in front of a body of water to admire his reflex ion. No…not admire. He could feel the boy's negative emotions, a tumultuous mixture of disgust and disappointment as he gazed at the seals carved into his flesh in a band around his head. They formed a thin but noticeable band, and Kurama could feel the stinging wounds travelling down his neck, back, and encircling the seal.

"Good thing I can just put my headband and other clothes on." His host said sardonically. "Otherwise I would just look weird."

Kurama kindly decided not to inform his host that he looked completely bizarre anyway. Humans and their vanity…

"Wait, shit. I don't have a headband yet. God damnit. Why don't I think these things through?"

With that thought done, his host padded off, his steps reverberating up Kurama's legs. The Tailed-Beast hoped that his host was going to get something to get something to eat; there was an emptiness that he could feel in his host's stomach that was unpleasant to feel.

His host made another Clone, and then there were two versions of his jailor to chatter annoyingly to each other, apparently using his prison as a means to communicate between them. He considered whether or not hearing his host's voice constantly during the day was worth being able to feel the outside world.

Then his host palmed a red fruit and took a large bite of it as he mentally chatted with his Clones, and flavor that he hadn't tasted for decades splashed against his tongue.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the simple sensation of eating through his host's senses. Yes. This was worth it.

Kurama knew why his host had spent so much time perfecting the seals that allowed this to be possible: he felt guilty. He could smell it coming off of him whenever the boy came to visit. Every time he looked at Kurama there was a flash of fear and guilt, and the fear had been steadily disappearing over the months.

His host had been all to happy to explain the mechanics of the seal on his nightly visits. Part of Kurama toyed with the idea of actually listening and somehow learning how to deconstruct his prison from the other side, but most of his jailor's babbling went over Kurama's head. The Seal, while active, formed a connection between their souls. It was why Kurama would die should his idiot host get himself killed. But his jailor had done…something. Managed to twist that connection and the seal here so that Kurama could experience everything he did, though his thoughts were still hidden unless he aimed them into the seal.

Something along those lines. Honestly, he just let the boy talk most of the time. He didn't even understand a lot of what his host said. Threatening him had gotten old over the weeks. At this point he had mostly stopped stinking of fear whenever Kurama threatened to light him on fire (though it wasn't completely gone, to Kurama's satisfaction).

Even as the boy continued making more Clones to test out the seal's communication, filling the seal with meaningless chatter, Kurama shut them out and breathed in deeply, coinciding it with a breath his host took in through his nose.

Scents bloomed in his nose. Sweet dirt, pine needles in the breeze, and all of the smells of the outside world that he hadn't smelled for years.

The boy known as Arashi was strange, but he could do some things right, it appeared.

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One hundred forty-four days A.I, March 1st, a Monday

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For once in my life (both of them), things were proceeding well. I knew that to think such a thing was to tempt fate, but it was true. To the outside world, only five months had gone by, but I had been using hundreds of Clones each day, and to me it seemed like it had been years.

And that time had been put to good use. By far the biggest advancement in my skills was my elemental manipulation. Blasts of winds had become gales of force capable of sending people flying, though Sarutobi was annoyingly good at sticking to the ground and resisting them. It wasn't air bending, once something was set into motion, I couldn't change its course, but I had gotten damn good at precision and power.

And there were some other neat things I had figured out how to do, but they weren't really applicable to combat.

Unfortunately, the slicing part of wind manipulation still mostly eluded me. Through sheer repetition I had managed to slice a leaf in half, but it wasn't instant, and it had taken me two months and hundreds of Clones to get that far.

To balance that out though…. I had Sealing. I finally could Seal things!

Well…it sounded better on paper.

I had expected Sealing to be hard, but that was putting it mildly. It was maddening. It was an unholy union between math, programming, and art, all things I was terrible at. The more I learned about it, the more I wondered what mad genius had the sheer intellect and free time to develop it.

But it was fascinating. Some of my Clones I had assigned to do other things would occasionally wander off to experiment with Seals because they had a sudden surge of inspiration or because they wanted to keep working on fixing the problem. I had to corral them back into their jobs or make more Clones to get other training done, but I understood.

One of the other reasons it was so consuming was because of how surprising it was. I had initially considered that making an exploding tag would be easier than a simple sealing scroll. After all, one created an interdimensional pocket to timelessly preserve things, and the other made things go boom.

Not really.

The exploding tag was actually an extension of the sealing scroll. To create a sealing scroll, first one had to include the matrix necessary to create the dimensional pocket and, and from there you implemented a doorway of sorts so that you could put things into the seal and take it out. Then, you invested chakra, and the pocket dimension was created. From there, by a direct application of chakra to the seal you could put things in and take them out.

The exploding tag was both simpler and harder. The first part was the same, creating a pocket dimension. After that however, you had to include a mechanism to convert the chakra you invest into heat inside the seal. The simpler seals left it off there, but with the more complex ones you would include a way for part of the chakra to go to increasing the size of the pocket dimension, that way the heat in the seal never exceeded the limits of the dimension it was occupying.

Unfortunately, explosive tags could only ever be one use items. Just because the heat was generated by chakra didn't mean that it was unbound from physics. When you triggered it, the heat manifested just above the surface of the seal, just like when you unsealed something from a regular sealing scroll. This, of course, incinerated the explosive tag, destroying hours of work.

Not that that was much of a deterrent for me. With the magic that was Clone labor, I had more explosive tags then I knew what to do with. If I ever wanted to blow up a building, I now had the means to do it.

On the continued upside, I had figured out how to get rid of Hinata's crush on me without having to actively destroy the young girl. I just had to do what I always did to make sure a girl wasn't into me: be myself!

Hinata was in love with a boy who inspired her, a symbol of perseverance, optimism, and grit. None of those words had ever been used to describe me, so all I had to do was act normal. More than once I had caught her in my wind-sense, watching me behind trees and buildings. She hadn't found her way to any of my training grounds, but when I was out around the village she would appear, watching me.

But slowly, she started showing up less and less. I caught her staring at me less and less in class.

That was good. For one thing, just the thought of a girl that age having a crush on me was uncomfortable, and it would be bad for her to pine after someone incapable of returning her interest, so it was for the best for both of us psychologically.

Also, I was messing with the timeline hard. There was always the possibility that I would end up on the same team as the shy Hyuuga, and I had no idea how to interact with someone who liked me while trying to keep her out of the line of fire. So her learning not to like me could actually end up saving her.

As for downsides: Sealing wasn't as useful as it could be. For one thing, I couldn't directly seal chakra. For a standard sealing scroll, forcing chakra into the seal just expanded the size of the pocket dimension. But that had been due to the 'programming' of that basic seal, which dictated that when chakra was added it would do just that.

However, attempts to rework that condition did not have favorable affects. I could Seal away clouds of gas, gallons of water, and of course physical objects. Hell, I could even Seal away fire itself. But I couldn't directly store chakra. Which was weird considering that Kurama and the other Tailed Beasts were nothing but chakra…

"What are you doing?" A voice snapped at me, bringing me out of my thoughts. My butt hurt rather badly, as did my back, but neither of those were why I was now frowning.

"Sage training, obviously." I said. Well, technically failing at it. I could meditate as well as anyone else, but trying to sense natural chakra often sent my mind drifting.

My Clone clicked his tongue in irritation, his face drawn into his own frown. In his hands was a yellow legal pad (which this world had for some reason) with the day's activities and notes written on one of the pages.

Little known fact about Shadow Clones: if you used as many as I did day after day, it became harder and harder to pick out the activities of individual Clones. Tring to remember what a particular Clone had done, said, or thought just a few days ago was like trying to remember what you had eaten for lunch two months ago.

Hence, the Schedule Clone. Although I knew that many Clones called him some other, far more juvenile names. He directed our efforts, making sure we stayed on task and coordinating which groups of Clones would disperse to minimize headaches. He also didn't use much chakra, so I only had to recreate him every few weeks.

"You were supposed to be working on Tsunade's strength technique." The Schedule Clone's voice was heavy with disapproval, and somehow that managed to affect me, dredging up feelings of inadequacy and shame. I narrowed my eyes.

"Did you just use emotion projection on me?" I demanded.

The Schedule Clone shrugged unapologetically. "You were the one who wanted to become resistant to your own manipulations."

Damn him. "I did that. It didn't work out." I held up my arm, which had been poorly bandaged by myself. Not even by a Shadow Clone. My hand had been too mangled to make the appropriate hand sign, and I still hadn't worked out how to do Jutsu without them.

"Just ask Kurama for more chakra." He said pitilessly.

"I'm not doing that."

"Fuck both of you." I said maturely. The Schedule Clone snorted and wrote something down.

"How did Sage training work out?" He asked, still scribbling something down.

I snorted. "Not well. Can't get still enough, or whatever it is. It doesn't help that we don't really know the mechanics of it. We never got around to actually watching Shippuden, remember? We just read the wiki."

In the past I might have been more mindful of my words, especially since Kurama could hear me. But he had been sealed away for decades, and in his mind I came from decades further in the future. The words 'Shippuden' and 'wiki' didn't mean anything to him. In fact, he wasn't shy on telling me that my words often didn't make any sense.

"Yes, I remember." The Schedule Clone said caustically. "My whole job is to remember."

"And to be a bitch." I reminded him. I frowned. "Why did I start having you do that anyway?"

"Stupidity, probably. Or maybe you're just already this bitchy." My Clone bit out. He ran a pen down the length of his list and checked his list. "By the way, you have to be at the Academy in ten minutes."

"I am?" I checked my watch. "Shit." I jumped to my feet and winced as my cramped legs screamed at me.

"I find it pathetically charming that you don't trust me when I tell you your schedule." Said the Schedule Clone.

"You were supposed to remind me when I had thirty minutes left." I reminded him.

"Delaying your reminder will force you to go faster to avoid Anko's wrath." The Sadist Clone said unrepentantly. "Remember your headband."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it…" I muttered, my hand drifting to the mentioned piece of headwear. Like the rest of my outfit, it was blue, and in a week's time it would be replaced with the real deal. For now, though, it did its job of covering up my Seals.

I quickly pulled my sunglasses out of my pocket and slid them onto my face. After weeks of overloading my brain with memories, my headaches were pretty much constant, barely blunted by medication. While they weren't so bad in the shade of the trees, prolonged light exposure made the pain spike, hence the sunglasses.

Plus, I thought they looked cool.

With one hand, the Schedule Clone tossed me a bag that was mostly full of carefully labelled scrolls. "Nine minutes." He reminded me.

I nodded. Make sure our article gets to the Shade by Tuesday. I don't trust Writer to get it in. He's too lazy.

I can hear you! The Writer Clone protested over our connection. How about you shove your-

I cut off my Seal's receiver function and reveled in blessed silence, knowing it would take the Writer Clone a minute to realize he had been disconnected, and knowing the other Clones would find it funny too. Then I gave a nod to the Scheduling Clone, grabbed my backpack, and leapt into the trees.

The clearing where I practiced sensing natural chakra was about a mile away from the Great Naruto Lake, which itself was about three miles away from the village. Which I could cover in the time frame easily enough, except for the fact that the Academy was on the other side of the village.

My Scheduling Clone was truly a bastard.

I began to pump my legs harder, hardly lingering on any branch for a second before pushing off, occasionally blowing it off from the trunk. Unfortunate, but necessary. And even then, I might not make it, even with my wind sense and memory providing the best possible route.

The smile that grew on my face was purely an effect of the wind pushing at my cheeks, I swear. Definitely not at the chance to use one of my favorite semi-Jutsu.

Chakra flickered around my legs as I forced it to materialize and twisted it the moment I pushed off. My angle was off, and rather than acting just as a boost, my legs shot out from under me, propelling them over my head as I was blasted through the air, my face scraping along several branches as I shot through the tree line.

"PAAAAAAAAARKOOOOOOOOOOOOOUR!" I screamed. The morning sunlight had dissolved into flashes of yellow through the vague brown and green shapes whipping by my face. I could feel it in my stomach as my ascent started to come to it's end and I began to plummet like a stone.

My wind-sense told me I was about to slam into a tree, and my legs were still in no position for a landing. Instead, as the mass of bark and wood grew rapidly closer, I thrust out my hands and twisted, but instead of making it originate around my body, I threw it outwards, off to the side.

The wind violently wretched me to the side, and pushed me off of the tree I had almost slammed into, sending me twirling off in another direction and pushing me back right side up. I landed on the next branch and pushed off with another twist, and this time I did it right, dozens of leaves ripped off of their branches as my mini-windstorm propelled me far further than a simple jump would've.

The sounds leaking out of my mouth were a mixture of delight and victory as I blew through the forest, leaving broken branches and shaking trees in my wake. My limbs burned with exertion, and chakra sang through my coils.

Who would've thought that all it took for me to get over my fear of heights was doing wind-parkour through the treetops?

I was too caught up in the simple joy of running and jumping, and the branches disappeared, replaced by buildings that people would care far more about were they damaged. I couldn't use wind chakra to arrest my speed and slamming into a building wasn't an option this early in the morning.

I crossed my fingers and a chain of Clones poofed into existence, the furthest one grabbing onto a building with chakra, and the rest linking hands until they reached me. The descent of my leap was transferred into the swing of a pendulum that swung me just a few scant inches above the ground, and then back into the air again, poofing away with their mission done.

That trick had taken a lot of broken bones to get right, but it beat trying to figure out how to replicate Spiderman's webbing devices.

It took a few other risky maneuvers with Clones, sticking, and sliding before I managed to make it to the Academy.

By which I mean I slammed into the tree outside the Academy, fell through the branches, and slammed back first onto the ground in a manner that would've left me crippled had I not been a ninja.

As it was, I was mildly winded.

And I had three minutes to spare.

"Impressive entrance, Dead Last." A familiar voice drawled. "Going to have to take off points for not landing on your face, though."

"I have to agree there." Another person sniffed disdainfully. "Though I just wanted to see his glasses broken."

Sasuke and Sakura stood over me, backpacks of their own affixed to their backs. As one did with backpacks. As proven by the one on my own back.

Which was where I had landed.

"Fuck." I sat up and made sure that none of my scrolls had been damaged. There were some things in there that I didn't want just exploding out into local reality. Luckily, none appeared damaged, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good morning to you too, Naruto. It's good to see you, Naruto. I'm fine, Naruto, how are you doing?" Sakura asked, faux-politeness dripping from her voice.

"You don't get to pull that when you wanted to see my glasses broken." I responded, pulling myself to my feet and dusting off my pants. Adrenaline was still flowing through my veins, and I stuffed my shaking hands into my pockets. I couldn't repress the grin on my face, however.

So instead I just pulled up my mask and waltzed into the building with my two maybe-future-teammates behind me. It hadn't escaped my notice that they had apparently waited for me, but I didn't comment. It was nice to have people who wanted to be around you.

All it had taken was being transferred to another universe.

Sakura gave a delicate, lady-like snort. "Yeah, right. You probably have some sort of weird Seal on there to make them unbreakable or something."

I got the urge to say, 'or something', but that would be giving too much away. "If I could make something invulnerable it would have to be my feelings to weather your cruel assaults."

Now it was Sasuke's turn to give a snort, this one only slightly less lady-like. "As if you have feelings." He mocked.

We continued to bicker as we took our traditional seats in the back of the classroom, with several other students already there and chatting, or sleeping in Shikamaru's case. It only took a few minutes for my adrenaline to fade, and then I just sat back and let Sasuke and Sakura's abuse wash over me.

I had never planned for Sasuke to actually start tolerating Sakura, but after my suggestion and the girl's improvement he had really come around. She was still obviously into the Uchiha, but she stopped being quite so obvious.

It actually ended up helping me too. I used my sword more than my Taijutsu, so I hadn't considered using Tsunade's strength technique until a few months ago. During one of my Clone's daily training of my wind-sense, we had found her trying to replicate it.

Trying…and succeeding.

She wasn't anywhere near where she would be in Shippuden, but once I started keeping an eye on her training, I found that she was actually doing research. Anatomy texts, Taijutsu scrolls, chakra control exercises, all of it went into trying to perfect the technique that I had essentially figured was just "add a bunch of chakra to the end of a punch".

So, I had piggybacked off of her work. If I found myself in a close quarters situation without my sword and low on chakra, it could come in handy.

Unfortunately, Clones couldn't handle the backlash with how unrefined my attempts were, and whereas the Kinetic Burst Jutsu was all chakra manipulation, Tsunade's strength technique took into account correct positioning, form…and hardened bones that came from repeatedly attempting the technique.

It really fucking hurt. If it weren't for Sakura's almost instinctive edge on the technique I would've been worried for her health.

Sasuke had also improved too. I couldn't place things exactly but facing Sarutobi regularly was forcing him to get faster, and he already knew a handful of Lightning Jutsu. He hadn't unlocked the Sharingan (training wasn't that bad), but I wondered whether he was much stronger than in canon. Was that a good thing or not?

Well, regardless of whether it had been a good decision or not, Past Me had committed to it. Goddamn Past Me. Always making decisions without my say so.

Anko appeared in a puff of smoke, and no one so much as blinked. She did the same thing pretty much every day. Even she seemed bored by this point. "Howdy there, my cute little almost-genin!" She grinned in a way that sent an uncomfortable shiver through me even after all this time. "I trust you all have prepared for your survival exam?"

It wasn't really a question. Everyone had enough supplies to last them a week in the forest, which is what we had been told was part of their final exam. I wondered if this had happened in canon or if it was something that was only happening because Anko was now in charge.

Either way, it seemed fairly straight forward, which had the effect of making me sure it wouldn't be. I'd had it easy these past couple years…months. I mean months. I'd had it easy these past couple months, and I was sure it couldn't last.

At everyone's nods of assent, Anko grinned at us. "Very good. In that case, the survival exam will now begin! Well actually, first you'll have to get to the training ground."

Ah, there it was. Sakura stuck up a hand, and Anko nodded in her direction. "Sensei, what training ground do you mean?"

The grin on Anko's face widened. "Your exam will take place in my favorite training ground, number forty-four. Popularly referred to by it's survivors as the Forest of Death."

Cue the spooky music.

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END ARC 1

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I'm baaaaaack!

This chapter was both an experiment and an apology. An apology for taking so long (hence the length) and an experiment to branch out (hence the other perspectives). I'm not sure if I managed to capture the right feel for each of the POVs, but I wanted to show how other people would see Arashi's behavior, which is partially based on other people's accounts of my actions.

The song that Arashi was singing at the beginning of Sasuke's POV was "We'll Meet Again", popularized by Vera Lynn. In my family I sing it at Christmas if we've lost someone that year, and I've told my family that it's the song I want sung at my funeral.

Note how, after being told that he needed to learn better strategy so that his Clones would be coordinated better, Arashi instead devoted extensive time to devise a method to communicate with his Clones telepathically. It's stupid, and rather shortsighted, and quintessentially what I would do.

The Leaf's Shadow is a carry over from another Naruto fic that I had planned but canceled. Think the Onion crossed with a syrupy tabloid. It's the magazine equivalent of Icha Icha- pretty much everybody reads it, but nobody wants others to know they read it. Arashi's story of being suckered into being a journalist is also based on a true story that happened to my uncle decades ago and I just recently learned about and I liked it, both for humor and to demonstrate that even when you have concrete goals like Arashi's way of earning money, sometimes things go off track.

Thank you for reading, my beautiful readers, and always remember to FOLLOW, FAVORITE, and REVIEW!