Author's Note: This chapter gets dark. I'm gonna put a trigger warning here, but I can't get specific because I feel like it would spoil the story but it's a pretty natural extension of Kakashi's story given what he went through as a child.

XOXOXOXOX

XOXOXOXOX

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Couldn't the clock move any faster?

Naruko balanced a pencil between her lip and her nose. She was bored, bored, like really bored. The first thing they'd done for Tsunade's training was come to a classroom in the academy and take a test! Why'd they have to study and take tests just to become... doctors. Right... Okay fine, maybe it did make sense, but Naruko still hated it. When would they be learning to put people in bacta tanks, or how to grow some sensu beans? Or maybe learn to punch really hard like The Old Hag? What good would knowing the heart from the liver do in a surgery… Right… Naruko would just buckle down, and pay attention, and study hard, no matter how boring, how lo-oong, and how schooly it all seemed.

Shizune combined the tests into an organized, rectangular pile and tapped them together on her desk. She was done grading. "Sakura Haruno," Shizune said loudly, handing the test back. "Not only did you get the best score in the class, you got the best score since Lady Tsunade was a student herself. Congratulations! I'm expecting a lot from you."

Sakura blushed.

Naruko jumped to her feet in excitement, "Great job…" She stopped herself, and clapped politely along with the rest of the class as Sakura hurried back to her seat by Ino. Things had been weird with Sakura since Sasuke had left. Not that Sakura was upset with her or anything, she was just sad and stuff, and it made Naruko feel really… Ya, know, kinda… Just weird alright! Naruko didn't like it at all!

"Ino and Hinata," Shizune announced happily. "You both did well too. You should be proud of yourselves."

Ahh, good, something else. Naruko grinned, while Ino's smug face could choke on some dango for all Naruko cared, she was happy for Hina-

"I knew you could do it Hinata!" Kiba clapped loudly. Naruko had been kinda surprised to see Kiba here, everyone knew medical ninjutsu was for girls, but like, it was pretty cool that he'd come here just to support Hinata. That was like, really sweet, don't ya think?

"Thank you Kiba," Hinata said, her smile all big and goofy, like she wasn't scared she'd trip over her own shadow for once. Daww… Naruko was totally rooting for the two of 'em!

Shizune discreetly handed Naruko, Tenten, and Kiba back their tests without saying anything. And ya know, it wasn't as bad as she'd been expecting. Sure there were lots of red exes and slashes, but also encouragement about what she'd done right. Naruko immediately peeked at Kiba and Tenten's scores. No way?! Her grin widened.

"I beat you Kiba!" Naruko shouted proudly, grabbing his test, standing on her desk, and showing the entire class her victory. "Look everyone, I'm not last this time! I got a better score than Kiba!"

Kiba snatched back his test. "What are you so proud of? You're still second wors-"

"Maybe study harder next time Deadlast," Naruko gloated, pointing at the questions on chakra scalpels. "And maybe one day you can be smart like me."

"I don't wanna hear that from you dumbass," Kiba said, laughing.

The class was split, with Tsunade teaching Sakura, Hinata, and Ino how to heal a fish, and Shizune teaching Naruko, Tenten, and Kiba how to separate coffee and milk with their chakra.

Naruko threw her milk-coffee out the window when nobody was looking, and filled her cup with milk. "All done," she gloated, holding up her cup of milk.

"Don't believe her Miss Shizune," Kiba said gleefully. "She's a cheater. She threw her milk-coffee out the window when you weren't looking! She's just trying to show she's alpha enough to keep up with a badass like me!" He presented Shizune with his cup of black coff-

Naruko narrowed her eyes, and pointed at the milk-coffee he'd poured underneath his desk. "Don't believe him Miss Shizune, he's a cheater. He's still angry cause I kicked his butt on the test!"

Tenten gazed longingly at Tsunade's table. "I can't believe I'm with you idiots."

Naruko and Kiba shared a look. Truce.

"Takes one to know one," Naruko taunted Tenten cruelly. She felt a little bad, but Tenten had totally asked for it.

"The one who calls others 'idiot' is the idiot, Idiot," Kiba said savagely. Naruko and Kiba high-fived. They'd totally cut Tenten down like a couple 'uh geniuses.

Tenten looked at them in horror. "I am not one of you. I'm going to show Lady Tsunade that I'm a kunoichi worthy of her respect! I'm gonna master this jutsu, and show that I deserve to be in The Smart Table."

"And you can do that by paying attention!" Shizune snapped, which was totally unfair to Tenten, the three of 'em had been having a private conversation during Shizune's boring, long, like really-really long lecture. "The key is to feel the milk with your yin chakra, the coffee with your yang chakra, and to split the two…"

Naruko nudged Kiba. "What's yin chakra?"

"Dunno," Kiba said, shrugging.

"You don't even know what yin chakra is?" Tenten asked, smirking. "And you really thought that an idiot like you could master medical ninjutsu?"

Right. Naruko tilted her head down. What had she been thinking? She still couldn't even do the clone jut-

"Then what's yin chakra, Tenten?" Kiba asked aggressively.

To Naruko's surprise, Tenten blushed. "Fine! I don't… I don't know either alright! Just drop it! I know... I know I'm a little behind in terms of knowledge, and maybe I'm not a genius like Naruko, but I can still do this okay!"

Kiba snorted and nodded. More quietly, he nudged Naruko. "You can't let people walk all over you. I mean, you beat me. If you act like a weakling, it makes me feel like a weakling too."

Naruko didn't even know what to say to that. It was just… Like… People could be totally awesome couldn't they?

"If you don't know the vocabulary, just ask me," Shizune said, sighing. And she explained how to separate the coffee and milk in terms Naruko could understand. So Naruko took her knowledge and applied it.

And applied it, Naruko totally applied it. And kept applying it. Until she could finally feel the difference between the coffee and the milk. You know, kinda… Maybe? Well, at least enough she said she could after Kiba and Tenten said they could. She wasn't gonna lose!

Once Sakura, Ino, and Hinata had mastered their jutsu, Tsunade and Shizune left to perform their other duties. Sakura and Ino talked, while Hinata watched Naruko, Kiba, and Tenten fail at their exercise. Well, at least Naruko could make the milk-coffee swirl with a baby rasengan, at least Kiba could make it rumble a little, but Tenten's milk-coffee was painfully still. It kinda hurt to watch, but that's how training was. If it didn't hurt, you weren't doing it right.

"Dammit, dammit," Tenten murmured, until she finally smashed her fist on the table, knocking over her cup of milk-coffee. "Dammit! Guy-sensei told me this would happen… I give up. Medical ninjutsu just isn't for me." Tenten sighed and glanced at Kiba and Naruko. "You guys should quit too. Guy-sensei told me that I'd never be able to do medical ninjutsu. But I wanted to be like Lady Tsunade so I tried it anyway. This is a waste of our time. I wasn't myself today, sorry about that. Let me treat you to some Chow-Mein."

Naruko snorted. Just how soft could you get?

"As if we'd-"

"Sure," Kiba said, getting up. He smiled at Naruko. "You should come too. Face it, our chakra-control is shit. We kept an open-mind, we gave it a shot, because why not, right? But Tenten is right, for shinobi like us, medical ninjutsu is a waste of time."

Shinobi like us. Naruko growled. Waste of time?

"I've been called an idiot all my life, a loser," Naruko said coldly, tightening her fists. "But I've never been called a quitter. I was the worst student in the academy, I had to take the entrance exams three times. But I didn't give up, I took it until I passed. Because I'm not some spoiled clan kid, I couldn't afford to just quit. I'm not some loser who tucks their tails between their legs when things get tough, like a little scaredy-cat! I'm gonna learn medical ninjutsu and I'm gonna become Hokage, believe it!"

Kiba laughed nervously, and held up his hands. "Well… That's not what I meant when I said people like us... I don't think you're a loser, in fact I think you're pretty damn strong even without medical ninjutsu." Kiba winced, and looked away. "So uh… Good luck Naruko." And he scurried out of the room with Tenten, like a beaten puppy.

What the? Naruko deflated. She hadn't meant to… Why the heck had he run from her challenge? She'd thought that Kiba- if it were Sasuke, he wouldn't have just taken that! He'd have trained himself half to death to make her shut the hell up, and she'd have been right there with him!

"You really are a monster," Ino said coldly. She pointed one of her perfect, manicured fingers right at Naruko's heart. "You may be strong. You may have saved the village. But Sakura told me the truth, you got jealous that Sasuke chose her, and chased him out of the village."

Naruko froze.

"That isn't what I said," Sakura protested.

Ino smirked. "Maybe not exactly. But didn't you say Naruko returned without a scratch on her? That's suspicious if you ask me, and you know it. That's why you told me about it, right? Because you don't actually believe that Naruko did everything she could to bring him back. You think she was jealous, and just let him go."

"Tha-that's not true!" Sakura protested. "Naruko, you did everything you could to bring Sasuke back right? You just… Couldn't right?"

"I…" Naruko felt squeamish. She just… Uh… Ya know, when had those windows been cleaned? They were like, totally dirty and covered in flies and stuff and… Uh… Sakura looked like she was about to cry, so maybe not the best time to bring up the academy windows. "...Yeah…"

She'd lied again. What was she doing? She was proud of her decision! But… It was just… Sakura wouldn't understand it. She'd never even glimpsed Konoha's darker side. And if Naruko told her the truth, then she'd… She didn't want to lose Sakura too. She didn't want to be alone again.

Ino pressed her forehead against Naruko's. "I. Don't. Believe you." She turned, and glared at Sakura. "I can't be friends with you until you stop defending this lying piece of shit." And Ino stomped away.

Sakura was frozen. She shouldn't have been. Every single thing Ino had said about Naruko was true.

"Go," Naruko said softly. "You can lie about… Do whatever it takes to make up with Ino."

Sakura stumbled out of the room. "I-I'm sorry Naruko." She chased after Ino.

Leaving Naruko alo-

"Ex-excuse me," Hinata said. "I-I'll help you with the cup."

"I don't need your help," Naruko snapped. "I don't need anyone's help. I'm gonna master this myself. No matter how long it takes."

"O-okay, I th-think it's really cool that you ne-never give up. I-I always used to-to look up to you." Hinata said bowing, but she turned before she left. "Do-do you know why Ki-Kiba came today?"

Of course she did. To impress Hinata.

"He wa-wanted to become a beh-better shinobi," Hinata said simply. "And h-he saw that you were taking part in the training. He wanted to be juh-just like you. But he isn't like you." Hinata's voice got cold. And really, really scary. "He isn't strong. I know you were lying about Sasuke. And if you ever hurt Kiba like you did today, I'll hurt you."

Naruko nodded numbly, and Hinata glided out of the room leaving Naruko alone with her stupid milk-coffee. She tried to separate the two for the rest of the night.

She failed.

XOXOXOX

"Sensei," Naruko knocked on Kakashi's door. After all this time she'd learned that his apartment had actually only been a few blocks from hers, but he wouldn't answer. Maybe he was out, but she didn't think so. He'd been so… so defeated the last time she saw him, that she just knew he'd holed himself up in his apartment like some spoiled rich clan… Sensei had taken Sasuke's leaving really, really hard. Harder than Naruko. Harder than Sakura even…

But it wasn't like Sasuke had died. It wasn't like he'd killed anyone. He'd just decided to leave. It was their job to get him to come back, what good was moping gonna do?

None! Believe it!

Naruko knocked some more. "Hurry up and unlock your door Sensei," Naruko said angrily, trying to force the door open by fiddling the knob back and forth. The door swung open. It hadn't been locked. She looked around curiously, it was her first time in Sensei's apartment.

It was empty, no furniture, no posters, no food, nothing except for three things: a picture of Team Seven and a picture of Kakashi's old team. Kakashi had been really, really different as a kid. He was smiling, and Naruko could actually see he was smiling because he hadn't worn a mask. It just seemed wrong somehow, that Sensei hadn't always been the masked, stoic, cool shinobi she knew and loved. He'd just been a normal kid, who seemed pretty happy to be on a team with two girls. Left Girl looked like she had hearts coming out of her eyes gazing at Kakashi, and kid Kakashi was pining for Right Girl, who just looked annoyed that she had to be there. Above them all was a blonde man. Naruko's dead dad. So he'd been Sensei's sensei…

Naruko's nose scrunched.

Sensei hadn't moved since she'd gotten here. Hadn't even acknowledged that she'd come in. He'd just kept staring at the final thing in the room.

A hook attached to the ceiling…

...Ugh…

"Sensei," Naruko said quickly. "I just wanted to say that I forgive you."

Sensei didn't move.

"...You…" Sensei kept staring at the hook. "Forgive me?"

Look at me! Naruko thought. Look at me Sensei! Or… Anything. Just look at anything except that hook.

"For uh… For not sticking up for Sasuke," Naruko said weakly. This conversation had gone so much better in her head! "You uh… You were right. He really did want to leave. I was the one who didn't understand him."

There was a terrible silence.

Say something. Anything!

"I tried to sabotage your training," Sensei said, and Naruko let out a relieved sigh. His eyes hadn't left the hook, but at least he was tal- Wait, what did he just say? "After you fought Orochimaru in the Forest of Death I became certain that you were a prodigy. I hated that. I wanted to tear you down. I did everything I could to make sure you remained a genin, the kunoichi who everyone looked down on. You told me you'd fought a Grass Shinobi, who I knew was Orochimaru. I told you he was a weakling to ruin your confidence. But you kept winning. You advanced to the Finals. So I set you up with Kurenai, knowing you would fail. But then you found Jiraiya. Learned the rasengan. But even then I found an opportunity. I fanned a flame on a rumor that you had gambled on the chunin exams. I told everyone who would listen that you had bribed Neji. The boy's had a hard life, I sympathize with him. I was willing to sacrifice his future if it meant ruining yours. If I could permanently tarnish your reputation, I knew you would remain a genin forever. That's what I've been working for all this time. Because your father, the blonde man in the picture, got my teammates killed." His words horrified Naruko. How they were spoken, matter-of-factly, without a trace of anger. She wished he actually believed what he was saying, that would be better than his emptiness.

"The truth is, I've always hated you," Kakashi said dryly, not even bothering to look up from his hook.

Anywhere! Look anywhere else! Feel something Sensei! It didn't have to be happiness! Anger, hate, just feel something!

"That's not true! I don't believe you," Naruko shouted. "You're lying! Jiraiya offered to take me away from Konoha. To train me and keep me safe. I turned him down. I'd rather train with you Sensei."

"Haven't you been listening?" And Kakashi's eyes finally left the hook. Somehow it was worse. "I only trained you to ruin your future. It doesn't matter anymore, it's too late. Go with Jiraiya, I will never train you again. Get out."

Kakashi was staring at a bundle of rope wedged into the corner of the room.

XOXOXOXOX

XOXOXOXOX

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I hope you found the chapter compelling! If you haven't checked it out, I've started a Harry Potter fanfic called The Granger Crush that I think you might like if you enjoyed the beginning of this story, namely the lighter tone and the larger focus on humor. Anyways, onto the reviews:

CagedHeart7 - Thanks for the encouragement! I've gotta give most of the credit for Jiraiya to the reviewers. I was originally going to write him less sympathetically, but too much of the cast was unlikable, so I went with a more positive interpretation of his character.

Guest - It's definitely gonna be a team effort to clean up this mess. I'm glad you liked the ending to the Sasuke arc. Thanks for the review!

Amaterasu53 - Err… We'll see… I will promise that she'll get some cool powerups eventually. Thanks for the review!