SUMMARY: The adults get the spotlight.
Kurenai might worry about her Genin team.
She might wonder what they are doing.
Might hold herself back from razing their 'workplace' down to the ground.
Just because she cannot use chakra here, it doesn't mean she cannot do any damage.
As Anko says "Chakra-enforced techniques are for the weak".
They are useful but too many Shinobi rely solely on chakra.
Without it, they are useless.
Kurenai takes great care to avoid being dependent.
That would be stupid.
She has someone(s) to come back to now.
Many Shinobi see themselves as nothing more than tools.
They are loyal to the village above all else.
The Uchiha weren't like that.
Kurenai remembers.
This Uchiha doesn't seem to attached either.
Kurenai of before would have balked at the idea.
The Kurenai who chose to wear a blindfold.
She's taken it off now.
She's pretty sure she is meant to be the teacher but she has learned a lot from her Genin.
As it should be.
But she thinks she had taught them things too.
Either way, they make her happy.
And she doesn't know it for sure but she thinks she makes them happy.
(She does.)
And Kurenai is vicious.
Under that calm demeanour, lies a predator.
Perhaps she is the lioness protecting her cubs.
Perhaps not.
It does not matter to Kurenai as long as they are protected.
So she stares down Gai, the man who is so much wiser than anyone sees.
The man who (apart from Anko) is the closest thing she has to a friend.
And when she threatens him -
There is a reason she is a Jounin and he is not quite one.
- he laughs.
Anko seems to take that as a positive sign.
Gai starts another rant about Youthfulness.
Perhaps he is insane.
Aren't they all?
But he meets her eyes and she sees it.
He loves Lee, fiercely, like a son and Tenten and Neji too and he will protect what makes them happy.
Kurenai cannot ask for anything more.
And then, the moment evaporates and Gai is running from a murderous Anko.
As she watches, Kurenai feels unexpectedly light.
Baki has made his choice.
Now he has to live with it.
As he looks at the crumpled body of Hayate Gekko, he frowns.
Kabuto Yakushi has long since left.
Perhaps if his Genin had not told him of all the teams, he would not know who the boy was.
As it is, he does.
He picks up the crumpled body - a worthy opponent, truly - and decides to dump it for Gaara's new friends to find.
The Kazekage wished to send his children a message.
Baki must be the deliverer.
He fists the scroll in his pocket and makes his way to the Kazekage.
He is but a loyal weapon of Suna, after all.
Sometimes Baki forgets himself.
For his purpose is to serve.
To serve his village.
To obey.
He cannot be anything else.
He doesn't know how.
With a quiet apology, he continues on.
Anko cannot think when it comes to Orochimaru.
He is her Achilles heel, her main weakness.
Anko is determined, not stupid.
Of course she has more than one weakness.
But when she thinks of Orochimaru, her blood boils in rage.
She loved him, once.
He was her Sensei.
He cared about her.
Helped her.
And Anko knows she didn't make up all the moments he looked after her.
Her Sensei was cold and awkward not cruel.
Anko doesn't know what happened.
She hates him.
He was so kind, like the parents she always wanted.
He pushed her hard because he cared about her.
Anko is scared that she deluded herself into thinking so.
She was wrong back then.
He didn't care about her.
He cared about her success.
She was an experiment for him.
He watched her like a scientist watches the results of an experiment.
He helped her so the experiment could continue.
Anko doesn't know what to believe.
He was her anchor.
Not anymore.
But he didn't kill her.
That moment in the forest - he did not kill her.
Anko knows that is probably because he was interested.
If there is one thing she knows about Orochimaru, it's that he never does anything without reason.
He did not need to threaten her.
Did not need to tell her that Konoha could not stop the exams.
Did not need to reveal himself.
Logically, she knows that he did it for a purpose.
Perhaps to test her reaction upon seeing him.
To mentally torture her.
Perhaps to check on his 'failed experiment'.
Perhaps to...
Anko doesn't want to dwell on it.
Sumire dragged Tenten in with her and although there was an element of the seal that they could not quite remove, at least without damaging her chakra coils, the Cursed Seal is gone.
Her 'Sensei' will never be able to activate it like that again.
Anko almost misses it.
She shouldn't.
It was a horrid thing, sapping at her willpower, disabling her at critical moments but she has had it since Orochimaru left.
It feel strange to not have it there.
She is glad it is gone.
But...
It was her last link to her Sensei.
And it was sick and twisted like him.
But somewhere, deep down, she still loves him.
And she hates him for it.
Hates that despite everything he's done, she still cares for him.
Hates that the minute she thinks she is actually getting her life together, he appears.
She hates him.
But she loves him too.
And she detests him all the more for it.
One day, she will kidnap Kurenai and the brats and find somewhere isolated to live.
But that day will not be soon.
It most certainly is not today.
Iruka cares about all his students.
But there is one that he was a little more concerned about than the others.
Naruto Uzumaki.
The demon boy.
The Kyuubi if you asked some of the villagers.
Iruka should hate him.
Should hate him for all the lives lost.
But he cannot.
Because Naruto, the prankster, the good-natured boy with two shadows, was not the Kyuubi.
Iruka is far from stupid.
He cannot blame the boy.
Cannot hate that small, cheerful child.
But when he sees the boy for the first time since his graduation, he is not the Naruto that Iruka cared for.
He is not the same.
So Iruka buries his affection like he buried the bodies of his family.
It will do him no good to love a shadow.
He says goodbye to Naruto.
It is the end of their story.