Their first stop in the forest was the snake pit. The few snakes that had been lining the pit, soaking up the morning sun, gave warning hisses before taking shelter in the pit. That was fortunate for them, because Naruto was quick to summon a kunai from his wristband. Naruto had been doing that a lot, using any excuse to jump and summon a weapon from his new bands, from supposedly feeling like they were being watched upon leaving the apartment to a bird that had taken flight two steps into the forest. Sasuke wasn't sure if he was really concerned about a possible attack or if he just liked using his new seals. Either way, he didn't want Naruto attacking one of these snakes and had warned him not to do so before they had come within sight of the pit. The entire point of marking this location with a teleportation seal was so he would have easy access to something Terra liked to eat.

Naruto edged further from the pit, still holding his kunai with a twisted grimace. "That entire hole was filled with snakes? I knew this forest was infested, but that hole is huge. That would take hundreds of snakes. Maybe even a thousand. Where do they go? Are they in the trees? Or the grass?"

"Probably both," said Sasuke. "You're unlikely to ever run into one unless you're shoving your way through the underbrush. They'll hide or warn you off if you approach one. There is no reason to be afraid of them."

"I'm not afraid, I'm disturbed. And really creeped out at the thought of there being that many of them, staring out of every shadow. That's horrible."

"If something is staring at you from every shadow it's more likely to be a squirrel than a snake. There wouldn't be such a large population of snakes if this forest wasn't infested with squirrels."

"Maybe, but squirrels are warm and soft and fluffy. They're too cute to be food for horrid snakes. Those poor things."

Sasuke scoffed as he searched the tree for a place to hide his seal. "Squirrels are filthy furry-tailed rats. Most are covered in fleas and the rabid ones are more likely to attack you than a snake."

"Squirrels have fleas?"

How could he not know that? He shot him an exasperated look. "Most wild mammals do. Have you never been forced to forage? One benefit of snakes is the lack of parasites. Even birds tend to have mites."

"I never foraged for squirrels," Naruto said in a disgusted voice. "Or birds. I might go for a duck if I spotted one on the ground, but that's never happened. I've only foraged for fish, and a rabbit or two but I hated doing that. Rabbits are even cuter than squirrels. Why do you know so much about foraging, anyway? Was it your clan being too cheap to keep you in provisions or was it the people hiring you?"

"Neither. I was always supplied with enough rations to survive, but on extended missions dried meat gets old fast. I learned to supplement those rations as needed. Most of the people I worked with did the same. If you have never needed to do so, consider yourself lucky. Or," he flashed him a taunting look over his shoulder, "consider yourself inexperienced. A shinobi should be able to identify and locate the best food source in any given environment." Since Naruto didn't eat raw vegetables he probably knew nothing about finding edible plants, either. "Does your academy not cover foraging when teaching about traps?"

"There was some of that," Naruto admitted, "but I already knew how to catch fish. I was more interested in the shinobi traps than the traps meant to be used on cute little furry animals that no one should be eating in the first place."

Sasuke let it go. Naruto obviously hadn't done any extended missions that required living off the land.

He cut his palm and then set the teleportation seal the same way he set his storage seal. That allowed him to make it much smaller without drawing it out. But would it work? He jumped out of the tree and crossed the clearing. The teleportation took him to the branch right below where he had hidden the seal. It was an awkward place to land. He would have to remember that and be ready to catch himself next time.

"So?" asked Naruto. "Does this prove you can use that with any seal? I still don't see why you made me do all that work drawing out the storage seal when you were just going to have me use a jutsu to set it in place. Why draw out any seals if you can just use a little blood and hand-signs? Drawing that seal was a total waste of time. All that stressing for nothing?"

"Not for nothing," Sasuke told him. "Drawing that seal out by hand first was necessary. If you can't draw it out, you can't visualize it well enough to set it in place without errors. I was able to set this seal in place without drawing it out first because I have experience at doing so. Kakashi still made me draw out the original teleportation seal by hand. And, as far as I know, this method of setting a seal only works with blood. That means only the person who set it can use it."

"So I won't be able to teleport to this spot even if you tell me the handsigns?" Naruto was clearly unhappy with that.

"No. And I can't summon or store anything with your wrist bands because you used your own blood for those. That's why you had to learn to make them yourself. Had I made them for you, they would have been done in ink, accessible to anyone who got close enough to touch or steal them. They would also have been bigger. Setting a seal in blood allows it to be drawn much smaller without losing details. This," he moved the branch aside to reveal the small seal he had made on the trunk of the tree, "doesn't prove that any seal can be set this way. But it does prove that the teleportation seal can be set this way. That means either Kakashi lied to me, or we were talking about two completely different things."

"What do you mean?"

"I asked him if there was a way to set a teleportation target without drawing out the seal and he told me many people had tried and failed to find a way to 'abbreviate' that seal. I was asking about a method like this, setting the seal in place without drawing it by hand, in a way that makes it much smaller and easier to hide than anything hand-drawn would be. Either he was talking about something else or he was lying."

"He must have been talking about something else," Naruto said quickly. "Kakashi lies a lot, but only about stupid things. Usually excuses for why he's late. Like, he'll say a little old lady stopped him and asked him to rescue her granddaughter from a tree, only once he got in the tree he found out it was actually an ugly cat that climbed higher to get away from him and then led him all over the village before he finally caught it - and then the old lady said she had found her granddaughter and that wasn't her cat, anyway. His lies are almost always a bunch of drawn out nonsense. He only tells lies you aren't supposed to believe."

"He tells lies that aren't meant to be believed?" Like that 'thousand years of death' technique he had used on Naruto? And the man was a teacher. Sasuke shook his head in disgust. "Why would he do that?"

"To be funny?" Naruto shrugged. "Me and Sakura used to go nuts at some of his excuses. Eventually we learned to just wait till he was done and then call him a liar. He's weird. But a lot of jounin are weird. Or eccentric, if you want to be nice about it. If you think Kakashi's bad, wait until you meet Guy-sensei."

"Lee's teacher?"

"That's the one," Naruto grinned. "He's a great teacher and has a great relationship with Lee. But he'd definitely be one of a kind if Lee wasn't like a mini clone of him. Eccentric doesn't even begin to cover Guy-sensei."

After hearing some of Lee's 'theories' that didn't surprise him. He had already assumed Lee's teacher had to be as strange as he was.

Sasuke jumped down from the tree and returned to him. "Assuming it was miscommunication rather than a lie, does that mean your father's technique is different from a normal teleportation jutsu? Kakashi said only your father had found a way to 'abbreviate' that technique." He pulled off his forehead protector and showed Naruto the back of it. "All I see with the sharingan is a hint of chakra, yours I assume. There is no clear mark, certainly not a visible seal. Did he show you how he set that up?"

Naruto winced. "I watched him do it, but I have no idea what he was doing. He just showed me how to feel it out and teleport to it. I don't know if it's a type of teleportation jutsu or something completely different. It doesn't take any special hand-signs. I just focus on it, focus my mind I mean, and then I concentrate my chakra until I go there. I don't know what's harder, using the right amount of chakra or keeping the image in my mind. I have to use two clones and have all of us focusing at the same time to do it. And even then," he shot Sasuke a guilty look, "I end up right in front of you. Dad says I should be able to feel your chakra once I'm on my way so I can control where I arrive, right next to you or further away. I haven't figured out how to do that yet. It's one of those things that's easier for those who go the toad sage route. Without that, he says I'll just have to practice until I get it right."

"If you do get it right, would he be willing to show you how to place that seal yourself?" Sasuke had no intention of letting the Hokage place a permanent version of that seal on him, not if it was his choice. But he might consider letting Naruto do so, if a permanent seal was required before he would be allowed out of the village.

"You mean teach me his technique?" Naruto's eyes widened until he suddenly laughed. "Oh, no, Sasuke. Don't get the wrong idea just because I learned two seals. What my dad does is totally unique. If he could teach it to just anyone then Jiraiya and Kakashi would know it by now. This isn't like the rasengan. I bet you could learn the rasengan if you wanted to. This is like..." He squinted and folded his arms over his chest. "Like having the byakugan so you can see and pinpoint chakra from really far away, having the sharingan so you can memorize a hundred different seals and remember where each one goes, and then having kyuubi's chakra so you can go from one to the next in a matter of seconds without breaking a sweat. That technique is one of the reasons he's Hokage. He has the toad sage ability to sense chakra, the mind to keep all his 'targets' straight, and the chakra to use the technique freely. They called him the Yellow Flash during the war because of his technique. It's not something I'll ever be able to do."

"Unless it doesn't require a new seal for each target," Sasuke pointed out. It did sound like a completely different technique from the normal teleportation jutsu. He tied the forehead protector back in place. "I told you, there is no visible seal on this. His technique may not rely on seals at all. If it's just a matter of placing a bit of blood or chakra on your target then the only thing you're missing is this toad sage ability to sense and distinguish the targets you mark. Just because you want to focus on Kyuubi first, doesn't mean you can't do the toad thing as well. Later," he acknowledged, when Naruto grimaced. "Eventually. In the meantime, if it's just a matter of practicing you should be doing that. Can you have clones do it while you're doing something else?"

"No," Naruto admitted. "I need two clones to help me pull it off. Maybe if my clones were using Kyuubi's chakra they could do it without me, but I haven't experimented with that. And I don't want to right now," he said quickly. "I can practice any time if you don't think it would annoy you."

"It won't annoy me because I won't be wearing this when you practice. I can leave the forehead protector with one of your summons and you can practice going to it. If it's a matter of sensing the chakra of the person near it, then you may even find it easier when it's your own summon that you're sensing."

"But the point is to get used to sensing your chakra."

"No, the point is getting used to sensing chakra. Any chakra. And just getting used to the focus and chakra usage it takes to perform the teleportation in the first place. It shouldn't take you two clones to do what your father does on his own. You do have as much chakra as he does, don't you?"

"I have more chakra than he does," Naruto admitted sheepishly. "That's not even counting Kyuubi. What I don't have is his mind. I'm not good at using chakra, not like he is."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that. "Sakura says you're very good at using chakra."

"No way! Why would she say that? She knows I'm not. I never have been. She was in the academy with me. She saw just how bad I was at-"

"She thinks you are," Sasuke informed him. "And your easy usage of the kage bunshin jutsu tells me you are. You just need practice."

More confidence wouldn't hurt, either. Naruto came off as a self-assured braggart more often than not. It was surprising to find that he had so many doubts about his own potential. It was a contradiction that Sasuke was curious to get to the bottom of.

He turned and started off toward the place where he and Lee had been attacked. Naruto followed more slowly, sending him wary and suspicious looks until Sasuke dropped back alongside him.

"What?" asked Sasuke.

"You haven't said how it went with Ibiki this morning," said Naruto. "Was it bad?"

"It could have been better," he admitted. "He wouldn't confirm if any of the Rain shinobi I showed him were entered in the exam. He also couldn't discuss the forbidden technique I asked him about. That's why he sent Kakashi to warn me against speaking of it. Because," he grimaced, "as the teacher for 'Team Seven' only Kakashi can discuss such a thing with me, and only in order to prevent his 'student' from being led astray."

He shot Naruto a disgusted look. "When did I become his student? And this team business? There is no Team Seven at the moment. Sakura works at the hospital and you and I can't even leave the village. It's politics, just as I suspected."

"We'll always be Team Seven even if Sakura and I never get to do a mission outside the village together," Naruto said firmly. "And you're my partner so you're my teammate. Three-man teams are a Konoha tradition so me having two teammates makes the three of us a team. And Kakashi was our teacher even when it was just me and Sakura, so technically that makes him your teacher, too. You're part of Team Seven now, Sasuke, like it or not."

Sasuke sent him a look that made it clear how much he didn't like it. Naruto grinned back.

"But you're right," Naruto said after a moment, "this does sound like politics. I told you, Ibiki can't make you keep secrets from me. Kakashi definitely can't. What technique did you ask about?"

He had decided that if he didn't like Ibiki's answer he would ask Naruto. It still felt wrong. Information could be deadly. If Naruto didn't know about that technique there could be a very good reason. But he didn't believe that Naruto didn't know about it. Someone in line to be the next Hokage had to know. "The reanimation technique that Orochimaru uses."

"Oh."

One look at Naruto's face was all it took. Guilt and worry and not a hint of confusion. Sasuke sighed. "You can't discuss it with me."

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't be," he said. At least Naruto knew about the technique. It was just politics preventing him from discussing it. "I'm glad to know that Ibiki wasn't lying. This is something I can only discuss with Kakashi? So be it. I assume you can also discuss it with Kakashi. So if the two of us sat down together with Kakashi and only addressed our words to him, would that be the politically correct way for us to discuss the topic?"

Naruto snorted. "That would be so stupid. Talking to him and pretending the other one isn't right there hearing everything? There's no way we'd have to do that. Even politics can't be as stupid as that. I'll ask my dad."

"Not right now," Sasuke said quickly, before Naruto could make a clone. "It can wait."

"Are you sure?"

"It isn't that important," he admitted.

He was making it important simply because he didn't want to accept that he was wrong, that he had made faulty assumptions that had led him to the wrong conclusion. He was hoping that discussing it with Naruto would reassure him that he had been right all along. Why? It had nothing to do with the fact that Sand shinobi committed suicide when captured. If they were weak enough to be captured in the first place then their corpses would make weak additions to some undead army. If Konoha really was hurting their allies by keeping them in the dark that was their business. He had mentioned that technique in his report to his father, so the clan knew it existed. They were the only ones who really mattered to him. The rest were just excuses, reasons to continue believing he was right because if he could be wrong about a simple technique he might be wrong about Itachi. And he wanted to be wrong about Itachi. That was a very dangerous path to go down. And it was irrational. Being wrong about one thing didn't mean he was wrong about everything.

"You can ask him tomorrow if you want to," he said dismissively. "I have other plans for your chakra today."

"Oh, that sounds kinky."

"It's not."

Naruto sulked until they reached the burned area. Sasuke made him remove all of the weapons he had stored in his wrist bands, storing some in his own weapon pouch when they wouldn't all fit in Naruto's. Although Naruto had stored a mix of kunai and shuriken he had only been able to summon kunai so far. That was something else he would have to practice unless he wanted to store kunai in one band and shuriken in the other. He suggested Naruto start out with two trees from the top of the burned pile. They weren't as big as the ones on the bottom, but they were more intact. He watched as Naruto pulled his bands around so the seal was on the underside of his wrists. That explained why Naruto had wanted stretchy bands he could wear on the outside of his jacket or on his wrists. He wouldn't have been able to rotate them with the sort of arm cuffs Sasuke was using. Once Naruto had stored a tree in each, Sasuke retreated to a tree at the edge of the burned circle and pulled his shirt up over his nose. This was going to be messy.

Naruto got as high as he could on the other side of the circle and then used a series of clones almost as stepping stones until he was a worrisome height right above the center of the pile. He let out something between a war-cry and a whoop before releasing the trees one after the other. Definitely destructive. Flying limbs and shards of wood from the impact, and then the weight crushed the burned trunks beneath into a billowing cloud of ash. Sasuke squinted through his eyelashes at Naruto's falling form, wanting to see the exact moment he realized the flaw in this plan of his. Naruto let out a yelp and then performed a summon.

Gamakichi also let out a yelp as he scrambled for footing, sinking sideways until only the tip of his back was visible above the rising ashes. Naruto bounced off that back and vanished into the rubble. Sasuke snorted and moved off to where there was fresh air. Judging by the coughs and the yells it was going to take a while for Naruto to explain himself.

.-.

He had Naruto draw his teleportation seal on the bottom of the rock he had used to prepare the snakes. It would be hidden in plain sight, but it was a large flat surface. Naruto still had trouble getting it just right, partly because he was busy complaining. Sasuke ignored him until he was finished, and then took the stone to the edge of the clearing so it could dry out of the way.

"Now you can wash off," said Sasuke.

"I wouldn't need to wash if you had helped me," Naruto grumped. "You knew that was going to happen. Couldn't you have swung in on a wire and caught me? I could have broken every bone in my body!"

"You were too far from the nearest tree. You should have considered your landing before you jumped up so high."

He sat on the bank and washed the ash off his own arms and face while Naruto took a quick dip. Naruto was still complaining when he surfaced.

"Why did I have to draw my teleportation seal with ink? Couldn't I have done it with blood like you did? That's not fair that I had to draw mine out and you didn't."

"The point of yours is that it can be used by anyone you want to share it with. We could probably make a joint one if we mix our blood and both set the seal in place at the same time. We can try that at the house. For now it's good to have a place in this forest that any of your friends can teleport to. Do you think it will bother Sakura to return to this clearing?"

"I doubt it. We just camped here and had fish. But Sakura wouldn't come back to this forest for anything. It's a shame Lee can't teleport. This would be a great place to spar."

"We'll find out soon enough," said Sasuke.

"You want to spar here? Now?"

Finally Naruto was cheering up. Sasuke snorted. "If we're going to dance, it might as well be on water."

And it was like a dance at first, irritatingly slow and uncomfortable. He wondered if this sort of exercise was what his instructor had been referring to. It did rely on trust, trusting that both would stick to the 'steps' and not take advantage of openings. He severely disliked throwing a punch that Naruto knew was coming, blocking a blow he could easily have evaded, and all for what? Practice? It wasn't until Naruto began picking up the pace, increasing the strength of his blows, that he started to see some use in this sort of thing. It did help Naruto get used to actually hitting him. Sasuke could certainly stand more practice at blocking rather than evading. Naruto was quick to point that out.

"It helps build your defense muscles," said Naruto. "You can use a boring training post for offense muscles, but for defense you need a partner. That's why Lee likes sparring with anyone who will accept. Sure, he could dodge most attacks but that doesn't build those defense muscles."

"Do you mean literal muscles or Lee's 'muscle memory' theory?" Sasuke asked with amusement.

"Both," Naruto grinned. "It builds the muscles so they're stronger against an impact, but it also builds your reflexes so you're used to moving that way. The idea of muscles having memories sounds weird, I know, but it makes sense if you think about it. Muscles have to remember things or how else would you be able to do simple stuff like standing up without thinking about all the different muscles involved? I can be half asleep and still stand up and walk my way to the bathroom. No thought involved in that unless it's the muscles doing the thinking."

Politics was like a dance and muscles really did have memories. Naruto did have a lot in common with Lee. He was able to think his way into turning the nonsensical into some sort of sense. Sasuke was impressed despite himself. "Is it just your father and Lee or do you do this with everyone?"

"What?"

Sasuke picked up the pace just a hair, pleased when Naruto automatically matched him. A spar was no place for talking, but this wasn't a spar, it was a dance. If talking distracted Naruto into holding back less then he would encourage him to talk more. "You take things that I consider incomprehensible and translate them into something resembling logic. Does that come from knowing Lee so well, or do you do that with everyone you meet?"

"It might just be Lee. I thought his way of looking at things was weird at first, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. With my dad I have to work harder to see things his way. Sometimes I just can't no matter how hard I try."

"So you act as if you do," said Sasuke. He caught Naruto's fist in his palm with a blank face. That impact actually stung a little. Naruto was definitely holding back less.

"I try to," Naruto frowned. "Most of the time."

And he felt bad when failed. Sasuke threw the expected kick, just a little faster, and wasn't surprised when Naruto was a bit too slow in getting his arm up. He pulled back rather than letting the blow land on his elbow. There was another reason to do this sort of taijutsu exercise. It let him get a better feel for Naruto's speed.

"That's enough," said Sasuke. "Call up some clones. It's time for a real spar now."

"What?" Naruto asked, with a surprised smile. "Had enough dancing?"'

"Yes. And you should now have an idea how hard you can attack me without fear that you'll injure me. I don't know that I agree with this 'defense muscle' concept, but I'll do my best to block more and evade less. At least to start with."

Naruto looked less than confident about that, but he was quick to summon his clones. Sasuke lured them onto the bank and took the first opportunity to try taking a cluster of them out with his feet. It wasn't an exact replica of Lee's technique, but it was close enough for Naruto to burst into laughter.

"Oh, you copy-nin!" Naruto exclaimed. "You stole Lee's moves? You're as bad as Kakashi!"

"That's insulting," Sasuke growled. He let himself be pushed back onto the water. Naruto's clones were holding back a little more than he had been during the 'dance,' too much to injure him, but enough to make blocking something he'd prefer to avoid. He made it a point not to avoid. That actually made it easier to get in his own return hits.

"I didn't steal his moves," he informed Naruto, who was watching from the bank, "I just adopted a few of them that I'm physically capable of performing myself. Mostly it's his style and approach that appeals to me." He dropped to sweep the clone behind him off its feet, and was pleased when his hand remained balanced on the surface of the water. He wasn't ready to hold his weight and kick while supporting himself on his hands but he would get there eventually. "Had I actually copied Lee," he called to Naruto, "my chakra would be steaming and my hair would be standing on end. What the hell was that? That was ninjutsu, not taijutsu."

Naruto darted in to trade a few blows with him before edging off to make room for his clones. He was grinning. "Don't even think of copying that. That involves chakra gates, which can kill a normal person the second they try it. Only crazy taijutsu specialists like Lee and Guy-sensei can pull that off and even they could die if they overdo it."

"Is it like a bloodline limit, then?"

"Close enough. They swear they're not related but they look exactly alike and they're the only two people who can open chakra gates the way they do, so they might as well be father and son."

"They look alike?" Sasuke grimaced. An adult man who looked just like Lee? Did he wear the same stretchy green?

"Yep," Naruto grinned. "Almost identical."

That was very disturbing. Far better to focus on the fight than to think about that. He ducked under a punch and spun to dispel the clone with a kick to the gut. There weren't many of them left, but they were giving him plenty of space to fight. Did Naruto know he was inexperienced when it came to fighting on water? He turned to block another clone and spotted Naruto edging in to the side of him.

"Psst," Naruto hissed playfully. "Hey, Sasuke?"

"What?"

"You might want to start using those arm bands now. I'm about to make enough clones to dogpile you."

"Why are you warning me, then?"

"Because," Naruto grinned, "if they get you down they're gonna grope the hell out of you. I figure if you're warned you can't get mad if you let it happen. Right?"

"Wrong," Sasuke snapped.

He didn't complain about the additional clones, though. There were so many that dodging wasn't an option, but that forced him to block more and made dispelling them easier. He stuck with taijutsu until he was forced to summon a few shuriken to clear the space around him. That didn't buy him much breathing room. He spotted a clone hiding under the water and quickly moved down the stream where the water was more shallow. If he were dunked he would definitely end up on the bottom of a pile and he really had no intention of ever using his arm bands to dispel Naruto's clones on contact. That would be a complete waste of Naruto's chakra.

A few replacements and a henge had him in the middle of a free-for-all. Where that had worked fine for Naruto, it was harder for him to 'disappear' among the clones. He didn't think or move like they did. Dodging when Naruto would have blocked was enough for the nearest clones to realize he wasn't one of them. He was considering using fire to clear some space when he noticed that Naruto was no longer on the bank. If Naruto was among the clones he couldn't risk burning them. A few cuts, on the other hand, wouldn't hurt Naruto too badly.

He summoned the wired double kunai and took out a circle of clones. Instead of poofs of smoke, he was surrounded by cut logs that only poofed after hitting the water. The splashes and ripples were enough to have him losing his footing. The clones got in a few good hits before he stabilized his chakra.

"You're not the only one who can use the replacement technique," Naruto reminded him from somewhere nearby.

He ignored the taunt, only because it proved Naruto was not among the clones swooping down on him. He took them out with the kunai, the wire, and finally his fists. They continued using the replacement jutsu, only now some of the logs didn't dispel after hitting the water. Did that mean the 'clone' he had just attacked had been the real Naruto? The logs certainly made keeping his footing harder. Even the clones were stumbling over the cut logs now, though he suspected some of them were falling on purpose. When one of them grabbed at his ankles he was sure of it. He dispelled the clone with a nasty kick to the face.

"I'm here to train," he said sharply, "not play."

"Why not do both?" Naruto asked from behind him.

Sasuke turned in time to see Naruto replace himself with a clone, moving the real Naruto three clones back. He was annoyed that Naruto hadn't at least gotten a hit in before taking cover. "Have you forgotten where we are and that we walked here? We could have been followed. A few clones standing guard won't prevent a real attack."

"I don't think anyone would attack you with me around," Naruto shrugged. He grinned when Sasuke sliced through the clones separating them and waved the other clones back so they could trade a few hits. "But what would you do if someone did sneak up on us? Yeah, my clones are playing with you, but that's because you're playing with them. You set up those arm bands for a reason. Why aren't you using them?"

"I don't need to use a bunch of weapons to take out your clones. Even if they weren't pulling their punches, it wouldn't matter. I'm faster than you. In a real fight your clones wouldn't be able to touch me."

"Yeah?" Naruto drawled, his grin widening as he let himself be pushed onto the bank. "Prove it. Show me what you're like when you're serious."

"That would be a waste of clones," Sasuke scoffed. "A waste of your chakra." And a waste of his time.

"I have plenty of chakra." Naruto put his hands up and moved back until he was a good five feet away. He increased the number of clones waiting behind Sasuke and then pointed at them. "When I drop my arm my clones are going to dogpile you. No more replacements or playing, just the biggest dogpile imaginable. With groping," he taunted, "and they're not going to stop unless you say please."

"Naruto," Sasuke growled. He didn't have time to remind him that this wasn't what he had wanted to do here today. Naruto's arm was already dropping. So much for working on his taijutsu.

He reinforced the wired double-kunai with chakra and transformed it into a sword. It was lighter than he liked his swords, but it would do. He used the body flicker to get to the far side of the clones and began taking them out. By the time the survivors reacted he was on the other side of the stream taking out another handful of them. What was it these people kept saying? Fish in a barrel? That was a poor analogy. A few dead fish floating on the top of the water and any weapons thrown into the barrel were unlikely to hit the fish hiding safely on the bottom. Naruto's clones were more like a barrel of fish that had been dumped on the ground, just flopping around waiting to be stabbed. He began hesitating long enough for them to block. Had Naruto never fought someone using a sword?

"Use two," Sasuke told the clone in front of him. "One kunai in each hand."

"You're giving me tips? Do you want to get dogpiled?" the cloned laughed.

Weight landed on his back and he twisted to slice through the two clones. Then his blade was sparking against two kunai, but the hold was all wrong.

"Cross them," said Sasuke. "Make a v with them, the closer to the hilt the better. The point isn't just to counter the blade, but to catch it."

"He definitely wants to get dogpiled," a clone grinned.

"Maybe he just wants to make the real body jealous," another said.

"I'm all for that, but I want to get some groping in."

"That's only fair," the first clone agreed. He grimaced when Sasuke's blade went for his throat. He got his kunai crossed but wasn't quite fast enough. Sasuke pulled the hit at the last moment.

"Push up sharply next time," Sasuke told him, "or you'll just get a blade through your head."

"Why are you talking?" Naruto demanded suspiciously from the other side of the stream. "What are you guys doing? Stop talking and get him before he disappears again!"

"What do you think?" one of the clones asked another.

The clone shrugged, "If we don't, they will."

Some of the clones who had been further away were pushing in and jumping over the ones Sasuke had been talking to. He cut a quick swath through them until he was on the outside again. He continued giving tips, being careful to spare the ones who were quick to respond. Finally one of the clones crossed his kunai just right, catching his blade securely. Had the clone used wind chakra he could have cut right through the makeshift sword. Sasuke released the henge, yanking on the senbon so the double-kunai on the other end of the wire knocked the clone's weapons apart. He gave the clone a quick nod before redoing the transformation and darting off to engage some more of them. Maybe this wouldn't be a complete waste of time, after all.

Once he had cut the clones down to just the ones who were more willing to listen to him than Naruto, he released his henge again and tossed the wired weapons onto the bank.

"What are you doing?" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke was ignoring him, just the like the remaining clones were. He nodded to the clones. "Taijutsu only now. Agreed?"

"We're still going to dogpile you," one of the clones warned him, after sending an uncertain look at the others.

"Maybe," said Sasuke. "If you do, at least you'll have earned it."

"This is so much fun," another clone laughed. "The real body is so jealous."

"Serves him right," scoffed another clone.

Sasuke smirked at how quick the others were to voice their agreement. He wondered how Naruto felt about having his own clones turned against him. That was Naruto's problem for not simply dispelling or replacing them.

He took up a stance on the shallow water and met the first two clones who attacked. They started out similar to that 'dance' Naruto had shown him, which let him get in some hits without immediately dispelling them. But it wasn't long before frustration started to show among the clones and then there was no more 'waiting your turn' and it became more of a mess with grabbing and shoving and, yes, groping. They were still clones of Naruto, after all. Sasuke maintained Lee's controlled style of fighting for as long as he could. Then there was no more room to throw punches, just elbows and knees and grabbing hands. He broke a few wrists before he noticed that Naruto was no longer on the bank. Were the clones aware that he had joined them? Yes. Sasuke spotted a brief scuffle on the edge of the remaining pack. The clones were still intent on having their own fun and leaving the 'real body' out of it. For a moment he was able to track the real Naruto's progress, and then a clone caught him with a kick to the back of the leg and one of his knees hit the water.

He was as wet as the clones and had been groped far too many times when he finally lost his temper. He shoved the heel of his hand over his shoulder, added a bit of lightning chakra to ensure the clone on his back was dispatched. He immediately realized his mistake. That was definitely not something to be doing on water. The currents certainly spread fast, though. Within seconds the only ones left were him and Naruto. They stared at each other for a long while. Naruto's hair was steaming. Sasuke's jaw ached from having his teeth clenched so tightly.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked finally. "Is that one of the lightning techniques you've been working on?"

"No," Sasuke admitted with a grimace. "That was a very stupid mistake. I can't believe I did that."

He tentatively got to his feet and onto the bank. It wasn't just his jaw that ached. He had fried himself almost as badly as what he had done to the man who had attacked him at the lake. He really needed to figure out how to protect himself from his own lightning. Naruto looked just as shaky when he made his way over to him.

"Well," said Naruto, "if that's not what you've been working on, I'm a little scared to see what you have been working on. You should definitely talk to Kakashi before you mess with lightning like that. I don't think it's supposed to hit you, too. You really do look like a Lee copy now."

"What?"

"Your hair is standing up," Naruto grinned. He smoothed it down for him and then pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you, Sasuke."

"For what?" He was relieved when Naruto stepped back again. He had been groped enough for one afternoon.

"For showing me what you're like when you're serious," said Naruto. "It didn't last long before you turned it into a training exercise, but, damn. You're insanely sexy with a sword. I can't believe my clones decided they'd rather learn to block than jump you."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and went over to start a fire. The sun was almost directly overhead so they wouldn't have much time to dry out.

"I'm serious," Naruto insisted as he followed him. "How were you disappearing like that? It almost reminded me of my dad, except you were taking clones out along the way so I know it wasn't teleporting. Was that some sort of speed technique?"

"Body Flicker. Mine is the same as Kakashi's. I just wasn't taught to add smoke to the technique like he does. Is the smoke supposed to make it look like he's teleporting for those who can't follow the movements?"

"I have no idea," Naruto said cheerfully. "I've never heard of that technique. I've definitely never seen Kakashi use it. When did you see him use it?"

"When he brought me to this forest, the first time he tried to test me. He didn't want me getting into the trees."

He told Naruto a bit more about that test. The fact that Kakashi had teleported to that training area meant he must have had a seal placed there. Did Kakashi think he had forgotten about that? Maybe Kakashi had gone back later and removed the seal. If not, it was curious that Kakashi had suggested he mark a spot in the forest rather than simply teaching him the seal that was already in place. Now he wondered if there was a way to locate teleportation seals that others had placed. There could be quite a few of them in this forest.

"Do you know what that means?" Naruto asked in a teasing voice. "You don't, do you?"

"What?"

"That test made you mad because you were looking at it as a repeat of your genin test. But the first thing you did was whip out a speed technique, one I bet few people know. And you made him use it himself just to keep you out of the trees. You got his hopes up right from the start and then you didn't give him anything but some henges?" Naruto laughed. "You were messing with his head even before the bell test!"

"I was just wasting his time, the same as he was doing to me."

"Because not giving him what he wanted was the best way to pay him back," Naruto insisted. "That's twisted. You were totally messing with him. No one does that. I don't even try anymore because when I do catch him in a prank he just acts all bored and bland and that's worse than not catching him at all. No one messes with him enough to get a reaction. Except you, Sasuke. And you weren't even trying!"

"At best I confused him," Sasuke scoffed. "He said I wasn't playing like a proper Uchiha and that Uchihas are supposed to impress people. Did he want me to set the entire training area on fire until I had enough cover to kill him at my leisure? To waste a gross amount of chakra on some flashy technique that serves no purpose whatsoever? It really makes me wonder what sort of Uchiha his former teammate was if Kakashi expected me to play games with him."

"But see?" Naruto sighed. "That's what I'm saying. You were playing a game with him. And you won."

Sasuke didn't bother arguing with him. "Go catch us some fish. We should have time for a quick lunch."

"We can stay here all day if we want. I really don't think anyone will try attacking when I'm with you. I can send a few more clones out to join the ones keeping watch if you're worried about it."

Sasuke found some sticks to skewer the fish on and then relaxed by the fire. He removed his arm cuffs and set them to dry. A moment later he removed the forehead protector and his sandals as well. Like Naruto, he wasn't worried about an attack. He just wanted to rest and dry a bit before their company arrived. A quick meal wouldn't hurt, either. He cracked his knuckles with a wince. He really shouldn't have used lightning on the water like that. Even the joints in his fingers felt stiff and sore. Naruto, on the other hand, appeared as limber as ever. That figured. He settled back to watch him splashing around with one of his clones as he rustled up some fish.

.-.

Naruto hadn't been exaggerating. Sasuke was beginning to suspect that hitting Sakura was as difficult for Naruto as attacking someone openly was for him. They were going through the same moves as the taijutsu exercise Naruto had taught him, slow and careful and no chance of injury. Yet even that had taken a lot of convincing from him and Sakura before Naruto had finally agreed to at least try. Now Naruto was going through the motions with a pale unhappily martyred face and Sakura was gritting her teeth. Each time she tried to pick up the pace, Naruto sped up just long enough to block and then he returned the blow with the same sluggishly begrudging speed he had been using all along. Instead of getting a chance to prove herself, she was seeing proof of just how weak Naruto considered her to be.

"I told her this would happen," said Tenten.

Sasuke had taken a seat in a tree on the stream side of the clearing, close enough to watch but not close enough to overhear anything the two might say. Not that they were saying anything. Tenten had joined him, seating herself on the next branch over. Since Sasuke had only invited Sakura, he had ignored Tenten so far. Now he sent her an annoyed look. "Then why did she bring you along?"

"As backup in case of an attack," Tenten informed him. "I certainly didn't come to challenge you. I never had any intention of doing that."

He didn't know whether he believed that or not, but he would take it on face value for now. "Why not?"

"There would be nothing in it for me," she said, as if it should have been obvious. She didn't take her eyes off the two sparring below. "I have as much fun picking on Naruto as anyone, but that's where I draw the line. At best, challenging you might give me momentary satisfaction if I cut you up enough to pay Naruto back for insulting me. But doing so is more likely to help you improve than it is to do anything for me. Why would I do that? If Team Seven does finally become a real team, then my team is the one you're most likely to be in competition with for the best missions."

"I doubt I'll be cleared for missions any time soon," Sasuke pointed out.

He was curious what sort of missions her team did that might put them in competition with each other. Lee was a heavy-hitter like Naruto. If she was a weapons expert he might be comparable to her. But Neji sounded like the furthest thing from a medic. Able to see chakra from a long distance, able to close chakra paths - and he really wanted to know more about that because such an ability would be able to incapacitate anyone who relied on ninjutsu. That should let him disable anyone enough for Lee to have the advantage in a physical confrontation. The only thing they lacked was a medic and Sasuke had never relied on a medic, so he didn't see that as a problem.

"Maybe not," said Tenten. "But teams are supposed to view each other as competition. It isn't normal to fight with members of other teams. Helping a friend is very different from helping a rival. I see that, even if the rest of them don't."

Sakura was finally talking, whatever she said making Naruto flush and finally pick up the pace of his attacks. He was still pulling his punches far too much, but at least he was trying a little more. Sakura did know how to block, and she did something with her chakra that appeared to dampen any blows that made contact. What she lacked was experience. He wondered who she normally trained with.

"Has Lee ever sparred with Sakura?" he asked. He looked over when Tenten gave a startled laugh.

"He should," she grinned. "Sakura could use the practice. Considering what she has learned from Tsunade-sama I suspect she'd be able to take his hits better than Naruto. That would certainly alter a few of Lee's assumptions about her. Would you like me to ask him?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't support people training with those outside their own team."

"I wasn't talking about Lee. He's different. There is only so much Neji and I can do to train with him when Guy-sensei isn't available. He needs a variety of opponents. Every fight he takes part in, no matter who it's with, just makes him stronger. He could probably spar with Ino and come away from it having learned a few things. Ino isn't a fighter," she informed him. "She's more the T&I sort with just a bit of medical training so far. Chouji is the only fighter on her team. They're the ones Sakura has been training with the most and you can see how that turned out. Yes, she can throw heavy hits and block heavy hits. She wouldn't have survived two minutes against Chouji otherwise. And I'm sure Ino and Shikamaru have her great with deflections like henge, genjutsu, replacements, and traps, but her taijutsu?"

Tenten grimaced and waved a hand at the two sparring below. "Look at her. That's what comes from sparring with someone like Ino. Her reflexes are so slow it's almost criminal. At least Kakashi should have sparred with her when it became obvious Naruto wouldn't. I'd fully support her training with Lee if," she shot him a pointed look, "you and Naruto are incapable of helping your own teammate improve."

Naruto wasn't incapable, just vividly and painfully reluctant. Sakura clearly knew the steps to this 'dance' and should be able to improve with practice. Had they all begun learning taijutsu using the same 'dance' steps, perhaps in the academy? It really did seem to be a good way to feel out a new opponent. But that made him wonder why Sakura had ended up training with an entirely different team. Tenten was right. As the teacher for Team Seven, Kakashi should have stepped up to spar with Sakura when it became obvious that Naruto wasn't going to do it himself.

"Why didn't Kakashi spar with her? He doesn't appear to have taught Naruto any of his techniques, and he didn't train Sakura? Is that normal for these three-man teams of yours? What's the point of teachers if they don't teach anything?"

"Oh," Tenten sighed, "finally I see a bit of why Lee likes you. That's a relief. I was worried he had lost his mind completely." She gave an odd little smile when Sasuke shot her a quick look. "Teachers are supposed to teach what they know, but they don't have to if they don't want to. Some of them never teach anything beyond basics like walking on water and tree climbing because they don't want their students becoming strong enough to be rivals in the future. When you have a bad teacher like that you have to find teachers of your own in order to advance. Kakashi is a bad teacher."

She leaned back on the branch and smiled down at Naruto and Sakura. It was a small vaguely pleasant smile that didn't match the intensity in her eyes. "That's the consensus among the rest of us. He was a bad choice for them. He was assigned to Team Seven because he has been watching over Naruto as a part of Anbu since Naruto was born. But as far as we can tell the only thing he has done as the official Jounin teacher for Team Seven is help Naruto add wind to his rasengan. Asuma could have done that. Kakashi might end up being a good match for you, since you both have the sharingan, but he was a bad match for Sakura and Naruto. The only worse match among our age group is Kurenai-sensei. She's the teacher for Hinata's team. She's a genjutsu expert and no one in her team uses genjutsu. And they're all clan members so she can't even supervise their training because they have to train with relatives in order to keep their clan secrets. Her being assigned that team makes no sense at all. The only explanation I can see is that their skills make them a good infiltration team and Kurenai-sensei has some experience in that. But it's still a bad match, just like with Kakashi. He is the last teacher I would have chosen for Sakura and Naruto. Just because he was the Hokage's student doesn't mean he should have been placed in charge of his son's team. Kakashi has never been a real teacher for his team. Jiraiya was Naruto's teacher and Tsunade was Sakura's teacher. Everything else they've learned comes from having trained and sparred with the rest of us. We've taught them more than Kakashi ever did and we shouldn't have had to do that."

"That's normal here?"

"More or less," she shrugged. "Technically genin teachers aren't required to teach anything except teamwork and tree climbing. It does push some people to find their own motivations if they want to learn things their teachers won't or can't teach them. It isn't always the teacher's fault. Guy-sensei couldn't teach me anything about weapons beyond the basics. I don't hold that against him. That doesn't make him a bad teacher because he has devised plenty of training exercises that have helped me improve. He has also helped me to find others who can teach me things he can't do himself. That's what makes a real teacher, accepting one's limits and making up for them. Kakashi didn't even bother doing that. If Sakura hadn't appealed to Tsunade-sama herself, she would have remained a genin, never having a team or a teacher and it's bullshit."

Tenten was quick to wipe the anger from her face, replacing it with that small smile. It reminded him of the way Sakura had frowned in disapproval while her eyes were dancing with amusement. He wondered if his own eyes gave away his emotions when he was hiding behind his blank mask. He would have to watch for that.

"Yes, it is," he agreed. It was utter bullshit. And if he really was going to have to treat Kakashi as the 'teacher' of his 'new team' then it was something he would do his best to change. He had already experienced having a teacher who made it a point to teach nothing. He wasn't going to accept having another one.

He pushed off the branch and went over to break up the spar. Naruto's expression was reproachful, blaming him entirely for putting him through this torture. Sakura was visibly frustrated and disappointed and working hard to hide it. He felt bad for setting this up, but he hadn't given up yet. He realized he was trying to change them. This was no different from the time he had pushed Naruto in the forest, wanting to turn him into the sort of partner he would have chosen. He had considered that a mistake at the time, but Naruto had changed since then, or maybe they had both changed. It didn't hurt to try. If having a 'real team' was that important to them then he would at least attempt to change them into the sort of team he would have chosen to be a part of. And if it failed? No great loss. Missions outside the village were a vague concept that might never happen, anyway. He was still convinced that a medic like Sakura was more useful in the hospital than risking herself outside the village. But she was someone whose assigned teacher had failed her and he could relate to that. Naruto had also been failed by his teacher and the sooner he realized that the better. Kakashi had a lot to answer for, as far as he was concerned.

A few dozen clones with Sakura in the middle gave her a chance to display the strange and destructive way she manipulated her chakra. Naruto took his jacket off so that if he did enter the fray he would be easily distinguishable from the clones. As expected, Naruto stayed out of it until he realized Sasuke was intent on attacking Sakura directly. Her reflexes really were bad, a noted hesitation between registering the attack and defending against it. But it was just lack of experience against a fast opponent, nothing she couldn't fix with practice. He would definitely suggest she do some sparring with Lee in the future. Her defense when she did manage to block was almost an attack in itself. Concentrating chakra? Yes, and somehow releasing it on impact so that a successful block was the equivalent of a hit. He wondered if she were powerful enough to block one of Lee's tree-splitting punches. That was a display he would enjoy watching. He, on the other hand, wasn't willing to take one of her chakra-enhanced hits. He evaded, leaving the clones - and sometimes Naruto - to take her counter attacks. Naruto was intent on complicating things, either trying to prevent Sasuke from making surprise attacks on her or putting himself between them when Sakura tried to hit him back. Hovering over them both? Definitely. Naruto would have lots of bruises to show for it, too, if he weren't such a quick healer.

It was almost fun after a while. Challenging, trying to keep his speed low enough that she could see an attack coming but fast enough so she had to struggle to block. Each time he got a hit on her, Naruto attacked him with more intent than he had ever shown when it was just the two of them. If Naruto was pulling his punches with him, it wasn't by much. That meant he wouldn't have to improve that much in order to fight him all out. Sakura, however, was clearly pulling her punches with both of them. There was no comparison between the punches she destroyed the clones with and the hits she directed at him and Naruto. Her chakra control really was impressive. If she could teach even a bit of that to Naruto there was no telling what he could do.

Sasuke continued to target her back, both to force her to react faster and to rile Naruto into attacking him seriously. That became more dangerous as the number of clones decreased. It was harder to attack and get away when Naruto was so intent on interfering. He took a nasty kick to the side that he would never have risked if Sakura hadn't been a medic. But she was, and it didn't hurt that badly. They were down to a three-way spar when Naruto replaced himself with a log, appearing a few feet away with his hands in the air.

"That's enough," Naruto said quickly. "Hey! Stop fighting, you two! I mean it!"

"Why?" asked Sakura. Her face was flushed, but her eyes were bright. "If you're all worn out, you can go take a nap now."

"Very funny," Naruto scoffed. "You're sweating like a pig. And you're panting!"

Sakura made an affronted noise and whacked him over the head. There was no trace of the chakra she had used during the spar, but Naruto cringed and whimpered and held his head as if it had actually hurt. Sasuke finally accepted that she really was in the habit of hitting Naruto when he annoyed her. But it wasn't the physical abuse he had wondered about, just some weird bonding thing between the two of them. Like showing affection with insults, he assumed. He waited until Naruto was done whining and Sakura was done lecturing Naruto for being rude.

"This was a good exercise," said Sasuke.

"It was?" Naruto asked, looking suspiciously between him and Sakura.

"Yes, it was," Sakura agreed. She smiled and folded her arms over her chest.

"Really?" Naruto pressed. "Then you're not mad at me?"

"Why would I be?" she asked. "You finally sparred with me. Yes, you held back to an insulting degree and you were painfully overprotective, but..." She let out of a huff and smiled at him. "You tried. I appreciate that."

Naruto grimaced guiltily. "Because of Sasuke."

"Yes," she said, frowning at him now. "I realize that. I'm both resentful and grateful for that."

Sasuke shrugged. It had only taken him to push them into sparring because Kakashi hadn't done his job as their teacher. "At least now we know that you two can spar with each other. And," he told Naruto, "I now know that Sakura is a better sparring partner than you are."

"What?" Naruto yelped. "How? Why would she-"

"She isn't afraid of hurting me."

Sakura beamed with pleasure. It was a little unsettling. "Did I hurt you?"

He pulled up the left side of his shirt, revealing the redness around his lower ribs. "One bad hit. I doubt the ribs are broken, but I should probably see a medic."

"Nice," said Tenten.

Sasuke looked up, surprised he hadn't noticed she had gotten so close to them. Sakura let out a little laugh and came over to test his ribs with her chakra. Naruto bristled and placed himself right behind Sakura, blocking Tenten's view.

"Don't look," snapped Naruto.

Tenten laughed. "Too late. Now I see why Ino was so mad."

"What?" asked Naruto.

"Sakura told her that he looked more like Chouji than Shikamaru," Tenten explained.

"What?" Naruto repeated. "He doesn't look like either of them." He shot a confused look back at Sakura.

Sakura kept her eyes focused on the spot she was healing, but her smirk was very visible to Sasuke.

"No," Tenten agreed, "he doesn't look like either of them. But he's definitely shaped more like Shikamaru than Chouji. He doesn't seem to be as flexible, though. That's a shame."

"Stop it!" Naruto yelped. "Stop looking at Sasuke like that. Don't even think about him like-" There was silence for a moment and then Naruto lurched forward until he was right in Tenten's face. "Wait. You don't have a thing for Shikamaru, do you? You can't! What are you thinking? Lee would break him in half! Then Chouji would go supersized and squish Lee and Ino would kill you in your sleep! Neji would end up on Ino and Chouji's team and they'd drive him so crazy he'd kill them both. Is that what you want? For Neji to be a missing-nin or locked up for killing his new team?"

Tenten recoiled far enough for Sasuke to see the exasperated look on her face. "You've put way too much thought into this."

"Of course I have!" Naruto exclaimed. "You know Lee's been psycho since you started dating. Someone has to be prepared for the fallout if you settle on anyone in our age group. Except Sai," he said suddenly, his tone going bright and happy. "You could totally hook up with Sai! Lee would never find him if he wanted to hide."

"Ew," Tenten grimaced. "And no. If I did that Ino really would kill me in my sleep."

"Ino?" Naruto blurted. "And Sai? No way! Do her teammates know? I thought-"

"They're Ino-Shika-Cho," Tenten sighed. "They wouldn't be allowed to hook up with a teammate even if they wanted to."

"What? Why not? That's-"

Sasuke watched as Tenten drew Naruto further away and out of earshot. He looked down to find that Sakura once again had that disapproving expression on her face with amusement dancing in her eyes. They really did enjoy 'messing' with Naruto. He raised an eyebrow when she finally finished.

"Just a few bruised ribs," Sakura told him. "Not too bad, but worse than I intended. I'm sorry. It was a quick fix, though, so you're fine now. I really can heal broken bones as easily as I can break them."

"I'll take your word for that." He didn't intend to put himself into a position to have his bones broken. He told her what he thought their next step should be.

She didn't like the idea of training with Lee. She wanted to continue sparring with him and Naruto. He didn't blame her for that, considering how important 'teams' supposedly were in this village. But her reflexes were bad. He could have been more gentle in pointing that out. She didn't hide how insulted she was. She didn't deny it, though.

"Naruto's bunshin can help to a point," said Sasuke, "but you need to spar with someone who won't dispel with one hit, someone who can match your speed and help you increase it without taking serious damage. I can't do both. Knowing you can heal broken bones doesn't make me willing to risk you breaking mine."

"I know," she sighed. "I didn't expect that kick to hit you. Although I can heal broken bones, it isn't good to do so repeatedly. Enough breaks and the bones never heal as strong as they were to begin with. I wouldn't want to endanger you that way. I just...would rather not spar with Lee."

"Because he's chauvinistic?" He wasn't sure he understood the meaning of that term. He assumed it meant having a bias against kunoichi, or women in general. But Lee had no problem working with his own female teammate. Was Tenten an exception? Maybe Lee was unwilling to work with females outside his own team.

"No," Sakura said, with a wincing smile. "Lee would hold back to start with, but only until he had a good idea of what I can counter. He would be more than happy to help me improve if I asked him to. I just..." She dropped her eyes with a long sigh. "Forget it. You're right, Lee would be a good sparring partner for me. I'll ask him."

Would she drag her feet with Lee as begrudgingly as Naruto had with her? If she was that set on not sparring with anyone outside her 'team' there was only one other option. "Would you rather spar with Kakashi?"

Her eyes flashed up, widened, and then she laughed loudly enough for Naruto to send a suspicious look back over his shoulder. Tenten said something that distracted him before he could rush over to find out what was so funny. That forced Sasuke to ask the question himself.

"Why is that funny?" he asked. "Isn't that what teachers are for?"

Sakura shook her head with a befuddled grin. "No. Not here. I think Guy-sensei is the only teacher who actually spars with his team, and that's mostly just with Lee. The other teachers have their students train with each other. Kakashi did try that when we first graduated from the academy, but Naruto blubbered and whined so much we gave up on that."

"Did Kakashi teach you anything?"

"Of course he did," Sakura said in surprise. "Has Naruto been badmouthing him? Kakashi-sensei mostly had us doing missions inside the village, but between those missions he taught me all about perfecting my chakra control. I doubt Tsunade-sama would have taken me on as an apprentice if it weren't for his recommendation."

Maybe the man wasn't a complete failure as a teacher, then. Pushing Sakura off to someone skilled in medical ninjutsu was no different from Tenten's teacher directing her to those who specialized in weapons. That meant it was only Naruto that Kakashi had given up on. Simply because Naruto had a tendency to whine? Nonsense. He wasn't about to cut Kakashi any slack. Sakura might be loyal to Kakashi simply because he was her teacher and that meant something in this village. There was no excuse for Kakashi not to have helped her with her taijutsu before foisting her off on someone else. And not teaching Naruto any techniques at all? Did all of Naruto's potential teachers think that way?

"You said you blamed the Hokage for the way Naruto struggled during the academy," said Sasuke. "What did you mean by that?"

Sakura shot a guilty look over at Naruto before frowning at Sasuke. "I didn't mean anything bad. I'm sure he did his best to protect him as much as possible. I can't imagine how difficult it was for both of them. I just think he might have pushed him too hard when he was too young to understand why. When Naruto joined the academy he already knew most of the things the rest of us were being taught. He was being forced to learn things when the rest of us were just...being kids. When we were learning the henge most of us were excited at being able to turn into someone else, something else. The possibilities of it, you know? Naruto acted like it was torture. You'd think it was a horrible written test instead of a chance to learn something new and exciting. I just think being forced to learn so much when he was so young made him hate trying to learn anything at all."

She brightened suddenly. "How did it go with you? The new thing you were teaching him?"

"He learned it just fine," Sasuke shrugged. "He didn't think he could, but he did. It was just a storage seal. He also set up the teleportation seal I gave you so you could come here today."

Sakura stared at him for a long moment, then her upper lip curled. "Fuinjutsu? You taught him fuinjutsu?"

What was wrong with that? "The storage seal was complicated, but the teleportation one was simple."

"But it's fuinjutsu," Sakura grimaced. "Why that? Naruto is never going to be good at seals and he doesn't need to be. Of all the things to try and teach him! That would be like me trying to teach you to do an organ transplant." She groaned and rubbed a hand over her eyes. "What a complete waste of time. I should have asked what you were trying to teach him. I thought maybe you were teaching him to add fire to his wind, something that would at least appeal to his strengths. But fuinjutsu? I can't believe you wasted time teaching him seals, of all things. What were you thinking? Haven't you learned anything about him at all?"

Sasuke walked away from her. He wasn't interested in hearing what other people thought Naruto should or shouldn't 'waste time' learning. He nodded when Naruto glanced back at him.

"I'm going back to the apartment now," said Sasuke. "I'll be heading to the house from there."

He didn't give Naruto time to argue before teleporting away. He was angry on Naruto's behalf. Naruto would probably be confused if he explained why. According to Tenten, teachers in this village weren't required to teach anything beyond the basics of chakra control. According to Kakashi and Sakura, it was normal for people to only be taught things that appealed to their inherent strengths. Very well, then. That explained why Naruto's training had hit a standstill. If that was Konoha's way of doing things then Konoha could continue doing things their way. He wasn't a member of this village. He didn't have to do things their way. He would continue pushing Naruto to learn anything he was capable of learning, whether it 'appealed to his strengths' or not. And if anyone in this village ever expected him to view Kakashi as a teacher of 'his team' then the man was going to have to start teaching his team. A teacher with nothing to teach wasn't a teacher. He was a placeholder, a waste of time. Sasuke was done wasting his time.

.-.
TBC