001.

The entirety of Team 7 were in a rush of emotions. Their first training day since the loss of the Sandaime Hokage found a lot of them not even interested in being there.

Haruno Sakura, (ex?)fangirl of a certain dark haired Uchiha was generally sad. She hadn't known the Saindaime as well as Naruto sure, but from all of her times in his presence, he was a nice guy and gave off a grandfatherly aura to everyone else her age.

Kakashi however had accepted it. He had realized long ago that Shinobi would die like shinobi, as had every previous Hokage before him. The Sandaime was a close friend yes, but he had come to terms with his death after the funeral, not letting things weigh him down. His only mental burdens were his 3 emotionally unstable Gennin.

Uchiha Sasuke was conflicted and confused, but not because of the Hokages death. It was mainly becuause Of what a Orochimaru had said in the forest. He had been midway intrigued and the seal only boosted this curiosity. But defeating the Hokage?

This made him only rethink his options. And Naruto continuously getting stronger and doing things he couldn't achieve himself hadn't boosted his confidence in himself and in extent his training. At this rate Itachi would crush him and forget about him an hour later. 'Maybe...'

As for Team 7's Number one, loudmouth knucklehead well...

"Hello my cute little students. It seems we're missing one of you today though." Kakashi put a finger to his chin, observing the two as if trying to remember the most noticeable person in Konoha (besides a certain Spandex wearing duo).

Sakura on any other day would be yelling about Naruto being late, but practically everyone knew Naruto and the Sandaime might as well have been related. Their bond was so close she might have mistaken him for actually being his grandson. But there was no way a person so disrespectful could be related to the Hokage.

"I don't know Kakashi-sensei. I haven't seen him since the funeral. Should we go look for him?" No matter how disrespectful or rude or violent or vicious she may act towards him, Naruto was still her teammate and she cared for him the same as the rest as everyone else.

Sasuke didn't say anything, but the cyclops closed his visible eye. "Hm...I think I know where he is...stay here everyone. Sakura is in charge and don't chew before you swallow."

With that, the copycat disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the two students by themselves. Sakura turned around to see Sasuke with his back towards her walking away. "U'm, Sasuke-"

"You should probably train Sakura," he said looking back at her. His eyes were cold with no sign of care inside of them. "Naruto won't be there to save you all the time." Soon after he disappeared into the distance. Sakura sighed once he disappeared into the distance. What was she going to do with this team?

002.

'Bastard old man...' Naruto sat in front of the memorial stone that had received quite a few names since the invasion. His eyes were filled with tears that refused to fall down his face. "You're the Hokage," he whispered angrily. "You're supposed to be the strongest! How could you lose to someone like him..."

He was currently in the second stage of grief, anger. Resentment at the Hokage and resentment at the village. Where was the so called Will of Fire? Where was the happy ending? Good was always supposed to win against evil. They had won the battle, but he wasn't all too sure about the war.

"There is no happy ending," a voice said. He didn't have to look to know that it was his sensei speaking.

"I know you think Ninjas are some heroes of immense power, but in reality we are no better than Orochimaru." Naruto looked up at Kakashi, disbelief written on his face.

"What are you talking about? Of course we're better than Orochimaru! Ninjas help people! That's the opposite of what he does! Orochimaru kills and hurts people for his own selfish needs. How could you say that Kakashi-sensei?"

Naruto met his sensei's one revealed eye. It showed sympathy and a sense of sorrow at the boys naivety. Kakashi looked up at the sky.

"I might as well tell you while you're young. Naruto, what do ninjas do?"

Naruto perked up at that. He knew this question easy. "Well we protect people from thugs like Gato and Orochimaru!"

Kakashi didn't take his eyes off of the blue sky. He stared into the distance almost as if he was remembering something. "Yes, we do that. But that's not all that we do. Naruto do you remember the fourth Hokage?"

A nod at this. "Minato Namikaze was most known for his kindness and fairness as a Hokage. And his famous Flying Thunder God technique." Naruto knew all of this already. He was the fourth Hokage's biggest fan, but what did he have to do with anything? "He was also known for killing over two hundred people with this same technique."

This silenced the boy. Two hundred people? Then..."They had to be bad people right? The Yondaime was too nice to do that for no reason!"

Kakashi shook his head. "They only had the misfortune of protecting the village they had been born in." Naruto was shocked. There was no way...

" Jiraiya of the Sannin may be a pervert, but he's killed twice that by the time he was half the Yondaime's age."

"The Pervy Sage..." he had thought he was only an old geezer who picked up a few tricks in his half a century being alive.

"Ninjas aren't good people. We don't expect happy endings. We do what we do to protect our village. My point is, you need to face reality. It sounds harsh, but being a Ninja isn't fun and games. We don't do honor or fun. We hurt people and sometimes kill for money and for our village. We could have taken Zabuza's job if Gato had come to Konoha."

Naruto frowned at that. His entire life he had thought being a ninja was becoming a brave soldier who protected everyone. "What if I don't want to be like the Yondaime. What if I want to protect people. I want to be known for making lives better not making them worse."

Kakashi sighed at that. He looked down at the memorial once more. Though he seemed to be looking at different names. "Then become a Samurai. Wait...they kill random peasants on the road for little to no reason, so maybe that's a bad example. A knight would be a better option. I'll let you have the day off. I'm sorry you had to find out like this though Naruto. Ja nee."

Naruto still say there for a moment. He was handling it surprisingly well for finding out the entire reason he became a Ninja, was completely mislead. He tried imagining his team killing Tazuna and Inari for money of all things and he couldn't.

And Ero-sennin. He had seemed so goofy. Was Kakashi really telling the truth about him killing all of those people? Was this the type of Ninja he wanted to be?

Naruto sat pondering on that question the entire day, never leaving the memorial, even when the sun had came down.

Visitors had seen him there when paying respects, but only thing they knew was the next morning he had been gone.