A/N: Whew! So sorry guys, I forgot to upload this here as well. The updates are coming slower now, I know, but I still hope that you guys are on board and read this.

Fourth Year part one

-Orochimaru-

"You know, you could send one of your well-trained dogs to check on my progress. No need to come here personally." Orochimaru placed the scalpel on the worktable behind him, wiped his bloody hands on a too-often bleached towel, and turned to look at his impromptu guest.

"Your progress, or rather your lack of progress, is not why I am here," said Danzo. He stepped into the fluorescent lights, his cane tapping rhythmically on the tiled floor. "Although it makes me wonder whether you are delaying my plans on purpose…"

"I wouldn't dare," said Orochimaru with a smirk, his serpentine eyes glowing with mischief. "But as with all good plans, patience is key."

"Hiruzen is embarking on a delegation to Suna next month. One would think this would be the right time to put something in motion," said Danzo.

"One would, but I will not."

"Are you defying me?"

Orochimaru cocked his head to the side, his lips stretching in a rictus of a smile. "That would imply I am working for you, which I assure you, I am not. I will get the job done, but on my terms. My dear old teacher deserves something with more… impact."

"You will not act without my permission."

The smile widened, yet Orochimaru did not rebut Danzo's order. "So, what brings you here?"

"Your expertise regarding Uzumaki artefacts."

"Oh?"

"My protégé has uncovered what lay beyond the sealed door in the Uzumaki temple."

Orochimaru's eyes glowed with interest. "No one has broken that seal, not even Mito herself." He paused, measuring Danzo. There was no mocking inflection in his tone, nothing to suggest that he came here to brag. "What was sealed there?"

"Masks."

He had studied the lore, knew the legends, and had even found several ancient coded texts, but Orochimaru could not suppress the burst of surprise washing over him upon hearing that one word. "Masks. I take it you cannot use them."

No, of course he could not. Hiruzen had sealed Danzo's chakra, which was another reason Danzo was pushing for his death. With his chakra sealed, Danzo was nothing more than a civilian; a civilian with an army of blindly loyal shinobi at his beck and call. But if what he knew of the masks was real, then there was no way Danzo could harness their powers.

"It's not like you to mince words, Danzo. Tell me what you want."

"Test subjects with different chakra pools. Skill and control do not matter, just give me subjects with a deep chakra pool."

"That's it? What do I get? These are priceless artefacts, you can't bait me like this and then leave me out."

"Keep your end of the deal, bring the plan to fruition, and you will have your reward."

"I'll send the subjects over by the end of the month."

-Naruto-

Nervousness coursed through him like an electrical current, making his muscles clamp and his teeth chatter. What if he failed? What if all the training, all the time he spent trying to be better, to do better, was wasted? Doubt clamped its clammy hands around his heart.

"If you don't stop fidgeting and looking like you're going to get your head chopped off, I swear I will gut you."

Naruto's sky-blue eyes widened and regained their spark. Sasuke's words washed over him like a stream of ice-cold water. You don't get it; he wanted to yell. He was smart and skilled, the best rookie of their generation. Sasuke didn't have to work hard, he just got it on the first try. And yet… he did. Although he always executed the shuriken jutsu perfectly, Sasuke cursed and deemed it not enough. He was perfect, yet considered himself a failure. Well, better that than a real failure. Nononono, he could do this! Yeah, he could do this!

"Uzumaki Naruto."

He could not do this. He was so screwed, he was so going to —

"You'll do just fine," said Sasuke and gave him a quick pat on the back, pushing him toward the chuunin proctor.

Naruto went into the examination room with a bemused expression on his face. Uchiha Sasuke, his friend who could do a perfect shuriken jutsu and knew more ninjutsu than allowed for their age, had said he will do just fine. Coming from Sasuke, that had to count as some high-class praise!

"We will now test your ability to create a clone of yourself. Are you ready?"

"Oh, you better believe I'm ready, Iruka-sensei!" He'd been practicing this for a while with Kaito. He had the hand- signs memorized, his chakra already pooling deep in his belly. Now it was time to impress.

Shadow clone jutsu!

-Sasuke-

The beginning of a headache was threatening to ruin his day. What were they thinking of putting together their team? It looked almost as if they were tired of making logical decisions and just plucked their names at random. Team 8 was clearly a tracking team, with Hinata's eyes, Kiba's sense of smell and Shino's tracking bugs. Team 10 was inevitable; the Ino-Shika-Cho combo was almost a tradition in Konoha. But what were they supposed to be? He could have speculated that they were an assault team. Naruto had, if anything else, true grit and endurance, not to mention more energy and chakra than all rookies combined. And Sasuke knew that his particular skills were suited for combat. He had no interest in tracking, infiltration, or information extraction.

But then, what of her?

His charcoal eyes slid toward Sakura's bright presence. She was borderline eyesore with her pink hair and red dress. She was loud, clumsy, and simply weak. So why place in what looked to be like an assault team? Maybe they hadn't thought she would make it so far and they just had to place her in a team.

"Sasuke-kun, isn't it just lovely that they put us in the same team?" she asked.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, his headache crawling comfortably between his temples. "Sakura, you are weak. You are a paper shinobi and will be lucky to land a nice desk job in the future. You have no place in this team." He ignored the crestfallen look on her face. Better she hear the truth now than think she would amount to something and get killed later.

"Oi, Sasuke! No need to be so rude! Sakura-chan's an amazing kunoichi!"

Of course, Naruto would jump to her aid. His stupid crush on the girl ignored all logic; and all insults she threw his way. Sasuke tuned out Sakura's biting remark and focused on the door. They were the last ones there, waiting for their future jounin teacher. Who would it be? A muscle twitched in his jaw at Naruto's attempts to impress Sakura by planning a prank. Really, even someone as socially inept as he realized that the bookish square kunoichi in their team would not be impressed with Naruto's rule breaking tendencies. If he really wanted to get into her good graces, he should start doing his equations right.

"Naruto…" he said with a sigh, putting as much exasperation into his voice and seriousness in his gaze. It would not do to antagonize their future team leader on their first day. "Sit down."

"You guys are so boring," he whined, then quickly realized his mistake. "But not you Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke sighed loudly. The boy was a lost cause.

"Hello there."

Alarms went off in Sasuke's head, his chakra levels spiking dangerously. From the corner of his eye he saw Naruto in a similar state of distress, his body buzzing with the accumulating energy in his body. To her credit, Sakura remained in her seat, but the whiteness of her knuckles betrayed her own state.

There was a man in the room, leaning casually on the wall furthest away from the door. A man that had clearly been there for some time. And none of them noticed him.

A shiver ran down Sasuke's spine. This was a jounin.

"I am Hatake Kakashi," said the man casually, his lips barely moving underneath the dark mask he wore. His hooded uncovered eye regarded them with bored dislike, as if they were nothing more than flies circling his food. "I am your jounin teacher and I will tell you on the get-go that you three are useless. Meet me on the rooftop so we can get these formalities over with."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. They were not off to a good start.

-Sakura-

Sakura stared at the two boys on her team with awe. She was on her belly, hiding in the underbrush and waiting for… what? At this rate, she will definitely end up being tied to the post. Naruto and Sasuke had impeccable teamwork, with coordinated moves which spoke of many hours of training with one another. They have been attacking Kakashi left and right until he actually had to put away that lewd book he'd been reading. As for her? Sakura sat there and watched. What could she do? Her ninjutsu was below average, her taijutsu was just passable and her shuriken jutsu… she would rather not mention it. All she was good, as was theory, planning and memorizing. Compared to them… she might as well give up.

Her eyes widened as yet another Naruto clone launched itself at Kakashi while the original barraged him with kunai, herding him toward Sasuke. A few more paces and — was that a fireball jutsu? That was a chuunin and above technique!

A giant wave of water extinguished Sasuke's jutsu, filling the clearing with steam. As the steam dissipated, the clearing remained empty.

"Sakura."

She jumped, shivering at Sasuke's voice, so close to her ear. "Y-yes?"

"What are your observations?"

Her what?

Sasuke turned to look at her, his eyes narrowing. "You've been following the fight so far. I know you scored really high at the analytical skills, so what are your observations? You cannot fight, so what can you do?"

What could she do? She could think, she could calculate, she could plan. Yes, that was something she could do.

"Ummm… you and Naruto have good teamwork, but you don't play on each other's strengths. It's like you're competing and not really complementing one another. For example —"

"Sakura, I meant about Kakashi."

"None," she said, shoulders slumping. "It's like he sees every move you make and expects it. There were no blind spots I could see, no weaknesses. He's too good."

"Then I have to be better," said Sasuke.

A fire burned in his eyes and for a moment Sakura gave into her tendency to swoon at Sasuke's cool attitude. But something inside her grabbed her by the metaphorical scruff and gave her a good shake. He was selfish and had been downright mean to her. She might not be strong or have lots of chakra, but she was not useless.

"You're wrong," she said, and it took all her willpower to stand by her words. All her life she'd been told that no man likes to be told what to do, that no man wants a disobedient wife. And that might be true in the civilian world, but Sakura was a shinobi now and had no intention of going back to being a civilian. "This test is not about each individual, it's about the team."

"There are only two bells," snapped Sasuke, as if explaining it to a dense toddler.

"Precisely. The test tears the team apart. They drilled us in teamwork and its importance the entire last year, because this is the basis of all genin squads. The whole matters more than the individual."

"The mission matters, Sakura. And our mission is to get the —"

"Exactly, our mission is to get the bells, but Kakashi-sensei never said we have to do it alone. You and Naruto were focusing on the wrong thing. We must look at the real motive of the test. Genin can only function in a team, by combining their strengths to take on bigger opponents."

Sasuke gave her a long look, a spark of something shining in his onyx eyes. "You might not be so useless after all."

And then Sakura forgot she was talking to her crush. She forgot to sound meek, deferent and all the things her mother taught her a proper young girl should be. She even forgot to cling onto the meagre compliment hidden in his words and blush at being acknowledged. Sakura simply said what she felt deep inside.

"Just because I'm not as strong as you or Naruto doesn't mean I'm useless, so watch your mouth!" she slapped a hand over her mouth as soon as the words left, but watched with fascination and Uchiha Sasuke actually adverted his eyes in shame and muttered an apology. It made her feel good, worth something.

But for all their talk, they still failed to get even one bell by noon. Sasuke and Sakura sat in morose silence, their lunch boxes untouched. Naruto had no qualms to eat, but even he looked subdued.

"You three are uncoordinated, arrogant, rely too much on techniques you have no real grasp of, and are all in all downright useless," said Kakashi above them.

Sakura hunched her back even more, wishing for the earth to swallow her up. Even with their planning, even when they tried to work together, they failed. They were simply too different. Naruto and Sasuke were too hot-headed to follow a plan to the end, and she was too weak to be of any help in field. How were they to even work together in a real mission if they couldn't even agree on how to get a damn bell?

"You pass."

What? She looked up at their sensei, gawked at his crinkling eye-smile and tried to grasp the meaning behind his words. We —

"Yatta!" Naruto jumped toward her, knocking Sasuke over and pulling them both in a crushing hug. "We did it, Sakura-chan, we did it!"

-Itachi-

His vision was deteriorating, he was sure of it. What began as a mere nuisance was turning into a full-blown problem that throbbed between his temples, turning his greatest weapon against himself. How dreadfully ironic.

"What's gotten into your pants? Or rather, who hasn't gotten into them?"

From a distance, all Itachi could see was the slightly blurry shape of Deidara. His charcoal eyes narrowed. "I assure you, it is not your concern."

The blonde explosive master stepped closer, bringing his tousled hair and thoroughly kissed lips into focus. His cloak was open, displaying a pale, lean chest and a pair of gray pants hanging precariously low on his hips. The satisfied, drowsy look combined with Deidara's provocative nature made quite the erotic picture. Itachi envied him. Deidara was honest in his desires, in his words, in his actions. He ran either hot or cold, exploding one moment and sounding calm the next. Deidara had no secrets. He did not need to lie, had no double role to play and when he wanted something, he simply took.

And judging by the heated look in those sky-blue eyes, it dawned on Itachi that Deidara had decided to want him.

"You could use some… release, Itachi. It ain't good for you to always be so tense."

Itachi's throat was dry, the hallway suddenly too small. His chakra spiked involuntarily, rushing to his eyes and activating the Sharingan, granting him the sharp vision he craved. His weakening eyes had missed so much. The slight flush to Deidara's skin, the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, the trail of straw-blonde hair disappearing in his low-hanging pants.

"Hey, no need to take out the big guns, I get the message," said Deidara as he took a step back.

The message? What — but Deidara was already gone, closing his bedroom door behind him and murmuring sweet nothings to the naked woman lying on his bed.

Itachi deactivated his Sharingan with a sigh. He always was rubbish at these sorts of things and the Iwa nin danced through moods and social situations too fast for him to catch up. Yet even he could not deny the spike of desire rushing through his veins, reminding him that Deidara was uncomfortably right. He was too tense.

-Yahizui-

She stood before them, alone in the dilapidated temple. Her fingers itched, chakra thrumming as curiosity burned through her. Hollow-eyed masks stared back, beckoning her to touch, to take, to grasp at the power they could offer and let herself be devoured by their insatiable hunger. Yahizui took a step back. One day, she will give in and grab one of them, but not today. The gaunt face of Danzo's latest sacrifice was still too fresh in her mind.

Twenty Root soldiers had fallen before the masks so far, and the longest one could hold on to them was five seconds. Through their experiments, they found out that an indirect contact with the masks would delay the effect, but the inevitable result still came. She theorized that a confinement seal could likely keep the masks chakra devouring properties at bay, but had so far no luck in creating one. She needed more time and fewer eyes upon her.

With minimal hand signals, she conveyed her message to Nizu, whose whiskers vibrated in response before she scurried away to give Kaito her report. The agonizingly slow progress, if it could be called such, drove her mad. The seal prevented Yahizui from actively saying anything, but a small chakra concealing seal was enough to hide the constant presence of a rat summon. Whatever she heard, they would know. Problem was, Yahizui heard little these days. Danzo's trust in her was still low and they stationed her at the temple at all times. The most she could report back were the number of shinobi the masks had killed and their chakra levels. She needed to gain more freedom, no matter the cost.

"Danzo-sama, if I may add something?"

Yahizui crouched before him, careful to keep her head low and her tone respectful. Her proposal needed to be timed just right. She knew that the latest mission in Wave Country was a success and was planning to ride that wave. The slight motion to continue made her almost giddy.

"I have studied the masks as best as I could and have concluded, as I am sure you have also theorized, that the masks are keyed to Uzumaki chakra."

"Get to the point, girl."

It was not a rejection, which Yahizui counted as a success. Her plan was risky, but she had little leverage and even less to offer. It will have to do. "I can test the masks and gauge the chakra needed to operate them —"

"You think I will let you use the masks?"

"Not at all, Danzo-sama," said Yahzui without missing a beat. "I plan on building you an army that can. An elite force that would make the world tremble as they had once trembled in the days of Uzushio."

Danzo looked up from the scroll, his eye piercing through her. "Uzumaki are scarce and few in-between."

"But they exist. And I can find them."

"Prove it," he said, making her eyes widen.

She never thought he would agree so fast. The countless arguments she'd prepared were useless when faced with his quick decision-making process. Prove it. So simple, yet infinitely complicated.

"Find me one, Uzumaki, and your previous status and privileges will be fully restored. Even better, build me that squad and you will lead them."

Yahizui did not have to force or fake her smile. It stretched her lips, filling her green eyes. This was her chance to get out. She pointedly pushed away the gnawing thought that she was about to condemn other Uzumaki to the fate of a mindless Root soldier. She will save them. She will push them into the snake pit, then pull them out as soon as Danzo was removed. It was a necessary evil… she had to. "Thank you, Danzo-sama."

"Tell me, Yahizui-chan, why propose such a thing? Does it not grate on your Konoha-learned sensibilities that you will actively recruit other Uzumaki into the system?"

She expected that. For being a tactical mastermind, Danzo was quite predictable at times, his ego always begging to be stroked.

"I had time to think," she replied, her tone the right pitch between sincere and regretful, "Konoha, with all its ideals and light is good, but weak. To protect the innocence of the many, there must be those few who will dip their hands in tar. I have lived both lives, have seen both sides of the village. Root does what needs to be done, what Konoha cannot."

Her words pleased him. The lines between his brows eased and as he leaned over to touch her bowed head, Yahizui mused that this must be how a wayward pet must feel when their master forgives them.

"You may leave. I expect results in a month. And Yahizui-chan, remember: you cannot run away from me."

"Never, Danzo-sama."