Unfortunately for her, the three men present seemed blind to her feminine charms.

Kakashi's clone felt some frustration -- he did not want to lose to these genin of his. For Sakura to be the first to grasp this technique... It meant that it should not be completely impossible to replicate. He resolved to observe the process of learning that would follow for the two young clan heirs and learn the gist of it -- he would have the original practice it properly later.

Taking a deep breath, Kakashi hollered, "Good work, Sakura! Now come down before you run out of chakra!"

Sakura peered down from the dizzying height, carefully walking down the waterfall as she slowly approached the foamy white region below where the water reached the pool that fed the stream that flowed towards the deep blue seas in the distance.

She blinked a few times as she felt her vision double.

Ah... It seemed Kakashi's warning had come a little late.

As her chakra levels plunged dangerously low, Sakura's foot slipped off the waterfall.

She fell, her body accelerating as it made its descent.

Before Sakura could cry out, Naruto and Kakashi were already in action. The former had slowed her fall with the aid of Fūton chakra while the latter had reacted by springing off the ground. Kakashi's clone had dispelled timely, causing the lazy jōnin sensei who had been slacking off and reading Icha Icha to leap out of his hiding place (a small nook in the side of one of the two cliffs that the canyon had been formed from). This movement was timed to utmost precision -- or perhaps Naruto had controlled the wind chakra to match Kakashi's speed -- and the silver-haired jōnin managed to catch the pink-haired girl in midair. However, he could not change the trajectory of their flight while holding the genin (even if the child in question was underweight due to her fixation on maintaining a slim figure).

They were bound to hit the face of the cliff on the other side.

"Kakashi-sensei! Use Kawarimi! There's a log!" Sasuke yelled at their sensei (who no longer had his dignity as a teacher in front of his students).

Of course, the two did not need to know where the log had appeared from.

Kakashi managed to spin himself around in midair, spotting the mysterious chunk of wood that had seemingly popped into existence next to Naruto.

Smoothly executing the jutsu without hand seals or incantation, Kakashi appeared safely on solid ground beside Naruto with Sakura in tow.

The freshly conjured log replaced Kakashi in sailing towards the cliff along the projected route, smashing into smithereens as it impacted the rocky side of the canyon.

Sakura, still lying in Kakashi's arms, felt cold sweat running down her spine as the loud sound reached her ears.

It might not be the first time she had come close to death, but it was jarring nonetheless.

Kakashi gently placed Sakura on the ground -- the usually-fussy girl did not complain about the dirt for once -- and stood by to supervise the two remaining genin.

Perhaps it would not have been disastrous for the young kunoichi, who had only graduated with this batch of genins to make up the numbers, to die during a mission, but Hatake Kakashi hoped that he would no longer lose anyone from his team. Even if Haruno Sakura was not important to Konohagakure, Kakashi wished that his genin team would thrive and that the three children will not have to confront the pain of loss so early. It would be best if Team 7 could become chūnins at the same time, never having to be torn apart by separation.

Turning their backs on the pair now that their teammate's safety had been guaranteed, Uzumaki and Uchiha returned their attentions to the task of scaling the waterfall.

"Caught it?" Naruto queried, strolling towards the waterfall.

Sasuke followed suit, humming in concurrence, "Hn."

The duo stopped at the bottom of the waterfall, ignoring the spray of water as they each placed a hand on the water's surface to gauge the three-dimensional movement of chakra necessary to oppose the flow of water.

Sasuke stuck a second hand onto the water and began to climb up the waterfall.

Naruto could not hold in his snort.

"This is the waterfall walking exercise. Why are you using your hands?" he asked in exasperation.

Sasuke tried to glare down at Naruto, but the uneven cascade of water meant that a moment of complacency would cause the water pouring down to douse him.

Spitting out a mouthful of water and flicking an errant fish that had swum down the waterfall off his head, Sasuke grumbled, "Why don't you give it a shot then?"

Naruto was inadvertently tickled by his sight and muffled a laugh.

"Certainly," he agreed magnanimously, removing his hand from the sheet of water and stepping a foot onto the vertical water.

He swiftly climbed several steps, repeatedly adjusting the movement of his chakra in an attempt to perfect his technique. He would slip slightly with every few steps he took, then regain his footing without missing a beat. This happened several times -- until he no longer stumbled. When Naruto reached the top of the waterfall, he was already walking stably -- as if the curtain of water he had scaled was no different from a paved road.

Naruto bounced down and landed next to Sasuke with nary a splash, grinning impishly as he looked at the latter.

There was no need for words between them.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and he, too, staggered up the waterfall with wobbly steps, his fumbling gait gradually easing as he got the hang of the technique. He did not slip -- though he almost propelled himself off the surface a few times when his chakra fluctuated in response to his agitation -- and finally reached the top just like his teammates before him. He walked down calmly and without accident, reaching Naruto's side as he stepped onto the horizontal plane of water.

"Show-off," Naruto scoffed jokingly, giving the raven-haired boy next to him a playful shove.

Sasuke glanced meaningfully at Kakashi.

Naruto understood Sasuke's intentions right away.

"Kakashi-sensei, we did it! We'll run a few laps so that Kakashi-sensei can see it clearly," Naruto announced, already beginning to jog up the waterfall.

Kakashi could only watch as his "thoughtful" students pranced up and down the waterfall, giving their hapless sensei a demonstration of the waterfall walking exercise that Kakashi had invented.

Kakashi was aware that the two were doing so purely out of spite. He did not blame them, though. Even he thought that this exercise was truly ridiculous. It was commendable that the three did not merely make a perfunctory effort before giving up.

The activity was interrupted by a loud growling noise.

Naruto and Sasuke halted their footsteps, the former extending his senses warily -- could it be a wild beast?Sasuke was sure that he did not sense danger, yet that noise seemed to come from... The two reincarnated individuals blankly studied the forms of the silver- and pink-haired shinobi by the foot of the waterfall.

Judging by the embarrassed flush on Sakura's face, it seemed that the sound came from her.

Kakashi eye-smiled, kindly informing, "It is past lunchtime now. You three should return to Tsunami-san's home and ask if she has prepared lunch for us."

"Ah, I wasn't thinking about it before but... If all four of us are gathered here, who is looking after the bridge-builder?" Sasuke asked, sharply catching on to the oddity.

Kakashi's eye-smile did not falter. "How could I leave my cute genins alone? I sent a ninken with my clone to the site."

"How irresponsible," Sasuke snorted. "You're slacking off during work."

Kakashi shrugged. "It doesn't matter if you put it that way. Sakura was in danger before. Would she have lived if I were far away and unable to help?"

"We could have saved her without you," Sasuke scoffed, disdaining their jōnin sensei -- such a clumsy attempt to gloss over the truth was not going to mislead them.

Besides, the Uchiha seriously considered, how oblivious did this man have to be if he had failed to detect Naruto's chakra during his rescue of Sakura? Naruto never tried to conceal the fact that he had used Fūton chakra to increase their drag. If he had not sensed Kakashi to be nearby, they would have been able to rescue their teammate much more straightforwardly. Whether it would be Sasuke jumping up to grab her or Naruto compressing chakra to catch her, Sakura's untimely demise would have been avoided.

"Of course," Kakashi answered indulgently.

Sasuke felt his eyelid twitch.

It felt bad to have his declaration so blatantly dismissed. Never has anyone straightforwardly dismissed his skill as Kakashi did. It felt insulting. It would have been alright if Kakashi was just poking fun at him, but the jōnin had made light of his capabilities. He had always been hailed as a genius -- no one dared presume that he would not be able to do something. Who was Hatake Kakashi to judge him inferior?

"Your ego is flaring," Naruto stage-whispered, only half-joking.

Sasuke snapped out of it and blinked.

Although he would not go as far as to say that those thoughts were not his own, even he felt that he had been overreacting.

"The curse of hatred," Sasuke muttered in agitation.

"A relapse," Naruto concurred, then sprang off the waterfall.

He landed on the ground in front of Kakashi.

"Good job, Naruto," Kakashi commended, lightly.

Sasuke was too far away to hear what the scarecrow shinobi said to his brother.

As such, only Naruto heard the double meaning in Kakashi's words.

He beamed, as innocent as could be, and accepted the credit.

Kakashi was not ignorant. He was an ANBU captain once, and a prodigy who graduated from the Academy at age five and became a chūnin at age six. The ongoing war was a factor, but Kakashi's talent was not to be denied. His unprecedented promotion speed was well-deserved, even if this also caused the child to end up traumatised from being thrust into war at such a tender age.

"Let's break for lunch," Naruto decided, beckoning for his pink- and raven-haired teammates to follow as he trekked up one side of the man-made canyon.

Sakura trailed behind him, still red-faced, and Sasuke crossed the waterfall horizontally to join the others in walking up the canyon.

Kakashi, the only one remaining in the canyon, rolled up his sleeves and eyed the formidable height of the waterfall.

His genin team did it, he self-hypnotised, so he could do it too.

Kakashi marched onto the stream and tried to walk up the waterfall directly...

And lost his balance when his feet were dragged down by the downward flow of water.

He fell into the water with a quiet splash.

A Kakashi with slightly drooping silver hair resurfaced with one thought in his mind.

'This would take a while.'

~~

Naruto surveyed his female teammate ponderingly as he munched down on one of Tsunami's homemade bentos.

Speaking of the bridge-builder's daughter, her culinary skill was not that bad when she was not going out of her way to cook the food the people of Nami deemed luxurious. The presentation was appetising enough and the food was delicious, even if not the most nutritious or balanced. Naruto was not opposed to eating her cooking for the remainder of their stay in the bridge-builder's home.

Sakura focused on her meal, taking no notice of Naruto's scrutiny.

Naruto retrieved his gaze in time, and Team 7 diligently arrived on the half-built bridge to guard their client after returning the lunchboxes to Tsunami.

It was a boring task. Without Akatsuki's support, Gatō was of no threat. Even if Gatō's forces had assembled to attack, any genin team worth their salt would be able to take down the bandits. As the Yondaime Mizukage regained his senses, the missing-nin of Kirigakure that defected whether for their own safety or out of rebellion against their tyrant ruler gradually trickled back into their home village. Now, there were few missing-nins available for tasks of this nature. Amongst those willing to take up assassinations for a commission fee, the Akatsuki clearly stood out. Willing to take any mission regardless of difficulty as long as money is handed over, the Akatsuki was the most convenient sword. They were responsible -- the task would definitely be completed if the money was handed over.

Gatō was foolish and unlucky.

He insisted on paying after the task was completed, foolishly hoping that he might not have to hand over the money. He was clueless to the fact that the Akatsuki was entirely comprised of S-rank missing-nins, that backstabbing these hired hands would result in his miserable demise. It was because of this that Hoshigaki Kisame had been willing to step back when Itachi's illusions snared him. These madmen's sole principle was that results will be delivered if the job was paid for in advance. Since Gatō failed to pay up, he was exempt from this guarantee.

The three watched the dull and repetitive work for a few hours, then followed Tazuna back to the house at sunset.

~~

There were three spare rooms, and they were allocated as follows: Kakashi and Sakura each had a room to themselves and Naruto and Sasuke would share.

After retiring to their own rooms for the night, Naruto and Sasuke finally had some semblance of privacy.

The walls were thin and the door was not a perfect fit to the doorframe, but soundproofing was not an issue when one had fūinjutsu.

With a single seal, the words that they spoke could no longer be heard by the other habitants of this house.

"Her chakra control is admirable. Since she has talent in this area, genjutsu will be a good choice for specialisation," Naruto mused, voicing the thoughts that came to mind during chakra control training.

Sasuke furrowed his brow. "You want me to teach Sakura? Unfortunately, my illusion skills are subpar. I never delved into genjutsu as Indra or Madara."

Naruto sighed regretfully, "It's a pity that she is unable to go under Yūhi's tutelage. That young lady is a rare budding talent in this age."

Sasuke understood that Naruto was lamenting the fact that Sakura was being undervalued -- it was obvious that Hiruzen had sacrificed her future for Hyūga Hinata's sake. Still, he inexplicably wondered if this was also influenced by Naruto's desire to keep Shikamaru by his side. The Nara was indeed a better fit for their team, but the mixup and subsequent reshuffling of the teams did not make much sense. It was obvious that Naruto had seen fit to bribe the Hokage to get things done his way, though that had gone awry due to unforeseen circumstances.

He recalled Naruto's aggrieved look as he complained about Hiruzen going back on his promise.

He shook the image out of his mind. Naruto was not that type of person. He has never resented anyone for bigger transgressions, much less this minor grievance against an old acquaintance. Naruto was broad-minded, unlike his petty self.

Remembering the matter at hand, Sasuke agreed, "She's a prodigy and Konoha's number one genjutsu user. It is indeed a shame. We might have been able to learn something new if she had been assigned to our team."

Bobbing his head vigorously, Naruto added, "Her abilities are wasted on Team 8. None of them has the endowments to receive her teachings. Only Hinata meets the minimum conditions, but she isn't the type to venture into an unfamiliar field. She would firmly stick to the Jūken that she learned from her clan, even if it isn't suited to her. How regrettable. A Hyūga genjutsu user would be a very formidable opponent."

"You still think from the perspective of the Hokage," Sasuke remarked, fond.

Naruto repressed a shudder and smiled weakly in response.

He did not appreciate being reminded of his former occupation.

Naruto was determined not to let the role of Hokage continue to haunt him.

He agilely led the conversation back on track, "That leaves only one genjutsu master."

"Itachi-san,"Naruto called out through the connection of the seal."I have a favour to ask."

Half a minute passed without a response.

Naruto realised, belatedly, that he might have been too hasty. While curfew might have arrived for them, he failed to check if Itachi was alone before contacting him. Perhaps Itachi had been occupied with something and could not reply immediately.

Just as he was about to apologise for bothering the other and retract his chakra from the seal, he heard Itachi answer in a relatively unsteady tone.

"Naruto-kun."

As Itachi's voice transmitted through Naruto's mind, the latter sent a slight probe to scan Itachi's surroundings.

A pool of heated water.

"Ah, did I interrupt you while you were in the middle of a bath?"Naruto asked, contrite.

Itachi had managed to compose himself before speaking, but Naruto's observation caused him to feel a bit self-conscious. He stepped out of the bathroom -- Naruto felt the perspective change as a bed appeared in Itachi's immediate vicinity. It was a fairly luxuriant hotel suite.

Naruto could guess that it was rare for Itachi to have the opportunity to stay in a hotel.

"Iwagakure,"Naruto noted, consciously smoothing Itachi's ruffled feathers. "Has the Tsuchikage hired the Akatsuki again?"

Itachi relaxed, answering concisely but truthfully, "Yes."

Naruto's lips quirked upwards.

"Very honest," he murmured.

Sasuke tilted his head to the side.

"Is that nii-san?" Sasuke whispered.

He was careful to keep his volume down, as though afraid that the person on the other side of the connection would be able to hear him

"What do you need? I will fulfil any request of yours, Naruto-kun,"Itachi stated calmly.

Itachi knew that Naruto's requests were never excessive. The Uzumaki never asked for anything that was beyond his capacity to satisfy. Thus, Itachi would almost reflexively oblige every time Naruto asked something of him.

It was now Naruto's turn to feel self-conscious. Did he ask for Itachi's help more frequently than he had thought? The way the other replied to him now was almost too practised.

Despite his reservations, Naruto resolutely trudged on.

"I'd like you to teach my teammate genjutsu. She is Haruno Sakura, a civilian-born kunoichi. She is good at memorising and theory, but she has no combat experience. She has yet to learn useful ninjutsu techniques but has excellent chakra control. Her overall chakra capacity is limited but, notably, she has a decent chakra nature lineup of earth, water, yin and yang."

Sasuke could not resist. "Why don't you teach her Mokuton?"

"She does not have enough chakra to even grow a single tree," Naruto replied wryly.

"So you want to entrust a little girl who can do little more than cry on me?"Itachi inquired, now curious.

"She's your little brother's admirer. She's skilled in the three basic Academy ninjutsu and passed the taijutsu component in the graduation test. I've been training her situational awareness lately so that she would not be taken by surprise so easily too,"Naruto listed Sakura's merits, not at all subtle.

Itachi got the hint. "Sasuke's admirer? How high are the odds of my foolish otōto accepting her courtship?"

"Non-zero,"Naruto proudly declared.

Sasuke, only hearing half of the conversation, was puzzled.

"What do you mean by non-zero?"

Naruto did not answer Sasuke's question.

"That's all well and good but how do you expect me to teach a little genin from Konohagakure?" Itachi queried, straightforwardly raising the issue.

Indeed, it was impossible for a missing-nin on the road to sneak into Konohagakure regularly to guide Sakura's learning.

"I'll teach you a technique I've derived from the Yamanaka clan's hiden ninjutsu. With it, you can step into your little sister-in-law's mindscape and interact with her through dreams."

"I'm not marrying Haruno Sakura!" Sasuke exclaimed shrilly.

Naruto hummed noncommittally.

The memory of Naruto's threat to make him give birth asexually seemed to play on repeat in Sasuke's mind.

He wisely swallowed the protests that were nearly blurted out.

~~

Naruto stared at the ceiling, mindlessly counting the number of wooden boards.

Down, then across.

Up, then diagonally.

He could hear the whistles and cries of the trees outside, babbling incessantly. They occasionally hushed each other, silenced themselves and then began chattering away again, like children who failed again and again while playing Silent Conversations. Naruto was not bothered by these noises. As clamorous as they were, Naruto had long since grown accustomed to tuning out the sounds that filled his waking hours.

'It would be nice,' Naruto thought dully, 'if I could decide not to be able to hear them.'

Whether to listen was a choice, but he could not stop himself from hearing the plants after they established communication.

His mind was a mess.

His skull felt hollow, but the numb feeling of aimless thoughts as ceaseless as the voices of the trees just beyond the window pounded through his mind.

He knew, vaguely, why he could hear them.

Florae were always talking, whether or not anyone could perceive their voices.

Perhaps it was loneliness. Perhaps it was his affinity for natural energy. Perhaps he just realised how similar they were to people.

It might be all of that, and yet he thought that it was because he was just like them.

He could articulate his thoughts; he could speak on and on. He might know that this was not how it should be.However, no one would listen. He dimly realised that must have been how his lifetimes have passed. He initially rejected ninjutsu -- despised it. It was a perversion of what his father had imparted to the people. It was a misappropriation of ninshu, with the original slowly being lost to time. Chakra -- a powerful energy that his father shared with humans -- was meant to connect the people. His father's ideals were gradually distorted and chakra became a tool in the hands of humans, a weapon that increased the scale of war.

All of this happened too quickly.

Indra had died before Asura during their first life. He did not witness how humans, greedy for the godlike power wielded by the Ōtsutsuki family, intentionally twisted the words of their father. He did not know how difficult it was for Asura to hold on tightly to the Rikudō Sennin's teachings, to retain his morals in a world of shameless thieves who plundered, fought and deceived. Asura did not remain celibate for life -- he married a woman who had a rare purity in her eyes that the foul world could not stain, had two children with her and adopted all of the orphans he encountered who were left homeless in the wake of war. Indra must have done the same before his death -- the adoption ritual incorporated their bloodlines into those of the children who were adopted by them. TheŌtsutsuki bloodline was a mysterious thing.

He remembered educating those children, teaching them that they were in no circumstances to join the petty battles of humans. He did not wish for his descendants to become embroiled in all of these messy things. He felt that it was his inaction that caused the situation to decline rapidly and that he might have been able to stop the war from breaking out if he reacted more quickly. They did not listen to him, the outsider when he later dissuaded them from going into conflict.

In the end, only his little redheaded daughter's descendants who became the Uzumaki clan had obeyed their ancestor's instruction.

Hashirama's life was proof of how the Senju clan overlooked their ancestor's will. Perhaps they had attempted to stay out of it, but human nature was unpredictable. They could have been dragged into the war against their will -- or so Asura wanted to believe.

Asura had always considered himself a human.

Regrettably, no one else seemed to think the same way.

Asura was the demigod son of the Rikudō Sennin, Hashirama was a walking gene bank and Naruto was a demonic kitsune in human form.

They never saw him as a person and his words never seemed to hold any weight. Even when Konohagakure was established after Hashirama and Madara underwent many trials, the world was not at peace. The safe haven they created with their own hands was once again tossed into conflict.

After Hashirama died, he could not stop himself from asking, 'Why?'

He always loved humans, had their best interests in mind and wished to protect them.

How could they ignore him every time and plunge themselves right into the depths of disaster?

Then, together with Indra, Asura decided to work towards a different future -- his hope for humanity was rekindled at last.

Hypocritical, violent and reckless, yet kind, compassionate and lovely humans.

They hated, tormented and guarded against him, but he never thought to abandon them or wish ill upon them. This was because, in this cruel world, there were still humans who loved, believed in and relied on him. It was the duplicity of humans that was most charming. Within humans is a capacity for callousness and mercy; an aptitude for destruction and healing.

It was just that these misguided humans were having their darker sides urged into action by a certain catalyst hidden within civilisation.

Zetsu.

The white noise whirring through his mind had evolved into philosophical dialogue and Naruto could no longer sleep.

His mind was awake, and he knew he had to move. His body itched for action. He abruptly sat upright and slapped down a silencing seal, blocking out the unintelligible blur of sounds beyond the room.

The peaceful quiet welcomed him, and Naruto could finally make out the rise and falls of the breath of the person sleeping next to him.

"You can't sleep either?" Naruto spoke up.

He surprised himself with the hoarseness of his voice.

Sasuke did not answer, mutely lowering the covers and rolling around to face Naruto.

His raven hair blended in with the inky shadows, his face half-cast in the moonlight that filtered through the window. His lips pursed, as though tasting the unspoken words still trapped in his mouth. Weighing them, rolling them over, then swallowing them back.

Naruto was not blind to the brief struggle that Sasuke had.

He knew Sasuke was concerned about him -- that he had noticed something was amiss.

And yet, how could he tell his beloved aniue that he was no longer that radiant and optimistic child who only saw the light in people?

He mulled this over. Could he? He did not want Sasuke to pity him. He did not want to be faced with his brother's disappointment. There should have been no pretences between them, but he did not want to reveal this until there was no other way.

Was there another way? Could the dark smears on his soul truly be washed away? Would he ever revert to that innocent and pure self that Indra and Madara remembered?

He could not.

"I'm... not the child you remember," Naruto confessed, suddenly compelled by an impulsive urge that keeled him over.

He almost laughed -- there was a harrowing sense of liberation when the truth rang through the void.

He felt his sanity slipping -- if Sasuke did not accept him...

No, that possibility did not exist.

Slowly and heavily, Sasuke sighed.

The sound caused Naruto's mentality to tremble, and he almost wanted to take those words back.

"I know," Sasuke admitted, reaching out to Naruto.

Naruto did not move towards Sasuke, remaining just out of reach.

Sasuke frowned, half-rose and threw himself at Naruto, forcing the other to hold onto him.

"What are you..." Naruto groused, then halted mid-sentence as Sasuke's face appeared an inch away from his own.

"I knew," Sasuke repeated himself evenly. Though in reality, his emotional state was in turmoil just from seeing how Naruto condemned himself, he continued to maintain this cool facade. "I know that you aren't as happy as you pretend to be. I know that you've experienced many years alone, years that I have no recollection of. You lived longer than me as Asura, and you can even bring up the things that happened between us after my death as Madara and before my birth as Sasuke. I don't know what happened to you and I wasn't there to protect you, but I'm with you now. I'll support your choices and discourage you from doing anything stupid. We're together, whether for better or worse -- though I hope it's the former, and I don't care even if you might have grown a little since the times when we were still close. I'm not such a shallow person. I'm your brother and you're not getting rid of me."

Forced to look into Sasuke's eyes for the duration of his impromptu speech, Naruto hummed lowly, "Mm."

He tightened his arms around Sasuke, hugging his brother close for comfort, and placed his chin on Sasuke's blue-clad shoulder.

"Let's go kill Gatō," Sasuke suddenly declared, stunning Naruto.

The touching moment was disturbed and the heartfelt exchange left no traces on the scene.

Although Sasuke was the one who wrecked the atmosphere, Naruto noticed the awkwardness in the sudden tautness of the muscles on his back.

With a chuckle, Naruto removed his chin from Sasuke's shoulder to return to their previous position and headbutted the dolt who was his brother of many lifetimes.

At first a brother, then a sworn brother and now a blood brother.

Sasuke winced but did not cry out from the pain.

Both of them had matching bruises on their foreheads that were starting to swell.

"What's there to be shy about?" Naruto teased.

Sasuke gave Naruto the stink-eye. "I thought you were crying. I was courteously changing the topic!"

Naruto chuckled, sounding a bit giddy.

Sasuke gave up and did not struggle anymore. "Fine. You win."

"I'm happy, aniue. I'm really happy. I won't let the curse of hatred control you anymore, okay?" Naruto spoke, gazing at Sasuke expectantly.

"Okay," said Sasuke.

It felt a bit heavy, but Sasuke did not mind that much.

In the lifetimes that have passed, he was a burden on his brother. Being needed by Naruto for a change was not unpleasant. He might have troubles too, but they could rely on each other now.

It was a thousand, no, a million times better than fighting against the world alone.

"I'll be with you no matter what. We'll be together, forever," Sasuke asserted.

Naruto closed his eyes.

"Forever is a long, long time," he started, distant.

Sasuke's heart jolted.

"But I think we can face it. So, don't leave me alone again," Naruto resolved.

Sasuke thought of the book that absorbed chakra and clenched his fists.

Naruto's previous suggestion to give up his chakra for natural energy had been plaguing him.

With this promise, Sasuke could finally feel at ease.

'Don't give up your life like an idiot,' he wanted to add.

In the end, he did not dare to say it.

"Let's go kill Gatō," Naruto chirped, yanking Sasuke out of an endless abyss of dark thoughts.

The two geared up and swept into the night.

The next morning, outside a bounty collection station at the edge of Hi no Kuni.

The manager of this station arrived punctually at dawn, only to come face-to-face with a mountain of corpses... He realised the bodies were still moving, and that they were bound in a coarsely-woven cord. This was his first time encountering such a scene, but he had received the baptism of gossip and managed to return to his senses in time. The ghostly bounty hunter of urban legend struck again! It also seemed to be such a large bandit gang.

He diligently inspected the clothes of one of the bandits and realised this was one of the lowlives that ran rampant under the protection of the shipping magnate Gatō.

"The winds have turned!" he crowed.

Gatō's known operations were always bordering between legal and illegal, and some of these bandits must have evidence of his nefarious acts beyond the scrutiny of the public eye. There would most definitely be a good price for these bandits from headquarters after their crimes were weighed. This achievement might even put him in a good light if he investigated clearly! His promotion seemed to be in sight.

"I will absolutely fight to get you a ton of money!" the manager shouted joyously into the forest.

He did not notice the trees around him sway at the mention of money.

If he could understand tree-speech, he would have heard them cheering.

"It's money, money, money."

"Tsuchigami-sama will be happy."

"Tsuchihime may be able to repay her debts this time."

"Will I be praised?"

"I worked hard too!"

"Send the message to those on the other side."

"Share the news!"

The plants that were more articulate have already said all of this while slower trees were still thinking of why they were happy to get money.

In a week, all of the plants of the Hi no Kuni would know this. In their shared happiness, many of them started flowering out of season. The humans who were affected were all surprised by such a sight -- spring returned early.

Naruto also heard the news and finally discovered what the plants have been calling him.

In horror, he tried to correct them but to no avail.

~~

A high-pitched shriek rang through the wooden house, causing those who were asleep to wake with a start and those who were awake to rush towards the source of the scream.

Within a minute, everyone was assembled in the sitting room and was surrounding a lump on the coffee table set on a scroll.

Only Tsunami, the origin of the scream, had fallen on the ground, her wide eyes unable to be shifted away from the object on the surface that was facing her.

From every other angle, the object merely seemed to be an ugly dirty-brown ball of fur.

Kakashi, with his experience, recognised the object on the scroll immediately and identified the culprit with a glance at the matrix on the scroll.

Inari, with the boldness of a child, went to investigate the object of his mother's terror.

Tazuna and Sakura, to not be beaten by such a young kid, circled around the coffee table with their advantage of longer legs and took a closer look at the thing before Inari could.

Tazuna let out a strangled cry and fell onto his rear next to his daughter.

Sakura recoiled in horror. This was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, thin upward-slanting brows, small monolid eyes that could no longer be closed, a sleazy grin permanently affixed to his greasy face and a thin pointed moustache. Circular metal-rimmed sunglasses were perched on his nose and, below his head, only a small slice of a thick neck was visible. If she had not been mistaken, at the nigh seamless junction of scroll and neck was a hint of scarlet!

"This is Gatō!" Inari identified the head on the scroll eagerly.

The naive child did not know what the adults were so solemn and terrified for.

He reached out and plucked off Gatō's sunglasses with a triumphant shout, "You aren't above us anymore, now are you?!"

That was when Inari realised something was wrong. Being stared at by those dead, empty eyes, an alien sense of horror pervaded his instincts. His sight flickered down against his will, tracing the damnable face of the man who had killed his stepdad that he wanted to kick so badly, then onto his neck and... There was no more.

Inari squatted down, looked under the coffee table, and then back at the head of the tyrant who had ripped their family apart.

Shuddering, he turned to look at his mother beseechingly.

"Kaa-chan, isn't this is Gatō? Why don't I see his body?"

Tsunami embraced her son, not knowing what to say or how to explain it.

"That's the Gatō all of you wanted dead," an indifferent voice uttered from the top of the stairs.

His uncaring manner was in stark contrast to the moods of the others present and this odd dissonance cut through Sakura's confusion.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura greeted, finding the mental barrier against the idea of this man's severed head being placed on the coffee table disappearing with ease when she looked at the handsome face of the person she liked the most in the world.

"Mn?" Naruto appeared next, leaning sleepily on Sasuke. "What's with all of the noise? Haven't you seen a head before?"

Kakashi eye-smiled with difficulty, lecturing stiffly, "Maa, maa, it's in bad taste to leave such unsightly things in plain view."

"I thought it would be a delightful picture for those who hated him," said Naruto, tilting his head to the side contemplatively -- as though he did not understand what he had done wrong. "You've mentioned wanting to see Gatō dead. Here he is."

Naruto inquisitively peered down at the three civilians huddled on the floor together, seeming to find their behaviour very bizarre indeed.

Kakashi was left a bit speechless.

Did the Sandaime Hokage never teach this boy common sense?

"Wanting to see someone dead is a manner of speech," Kakashi painstakingly explained. "Many people who use this expression lack such resolution and do not actually wish to see the corpse."

Inari struggled free from his mother's arms and asked, "And the body?"

"Disposed of," Naruto assured.

"We burned it and scattered the ashes in the sea," Sasuke elaborated.

Kakashi nodded in approval -- his students were exemplary to follow protocol so completely.

He briefly recounted the information in the handbook on protocol...

It really did seem that these two didn't do anything wrong in leaving the head where the client will definitely see it? The proof of the kill was supposed to be presented to the client upon the successful completion of the assassination task. Though the Hokage was the onewho issued a task for the death of Gatō, Tazuna was the original client and had clearly expressed his wish to "see Gatō dead". If his genin had gone a step further and placed the head in Tazuna's bedroom instead, the old bridge-builder might have gotten a heart attack when he saw the severed head on his bedside table in the morning.

"Well done. The positioning of the proof of completion as well," Kakashi praised, burying his sense of reluctance. "However, I have something to criticise about your behaviour as your team leader."

He was upset by the assignment of an assassination task to his cute little genins, but he was not able to change the Hokage's mind. As such, he had no choice. He could only treat this matter as allowing his genins to gain some field experience. Even so, he felt it was still too early for his little genins to stain their hands with blood. Disregarding his feelings, the two troublemakers actually snuck off and crossed this milestone without his knowledge. All of his plans to gradually ease his genin team into the idea of killing fellow humans and then orchestrate a scenario where the two would take their first kill without being tormented by the guilt of ending a life... were shattered, just like that.

"No matter what, you have to report your actions to the team leader before the fact. This is also written in the shinobi handbook," Kakashi explained, forcibly maintaining his level-headedness.

He comforted himself with the thought that, at least, Sakura is a good girl who will not run off to murder someone without telling him about it in advance.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted noncommittally.

"I understand," Naruto replied airily.

Kakashi deliberated on the pros and cons of trying to drill this information into their heads, 'The pros include... Umm, I'll list the cons first. They probably aren't going to pay attention to what I say anyway, it's too much of a bother to repeat myself, Naruto might be too sleepy and could end up pasting some prank seal on me again intentionally or unintentionally...'

Kakashi was scared by his own imagination.

Forget it. It did not matter if they missed his explanation this time. He could just mention all of the shinobi regulations in passing on their journey back to Konohagakure. A displeased Uzumaki was a frightening existence. He did not want to be subjected to Naruto's ire.

Team 7 conscientiously guarded Tazuna's construction project as the bridge was completed in fervour by the re-energised workers before making their departure.

The "ornament" that had adorned the coffee table for the past days was removed and packed to be brought along.

"It's a souvenir," Naruto laughed when Inari asked about it. "I'm giving this to Hokage-jiji."

Inari then retreated half a step. "You ninjas have weird tastes."

"Naruto-kun," Sakura piped up, cautiously expressing her disapproval, "this child doesn't understand your jokes."

"I have to deliver this as proof to Hokage-jiji to complete our mission," Naruto corrected himself peaceably.

Inari could not help himself."Then it's really a souvenir?"

Sakura choked on air.

She turned around and proceeded to chide, "Look at what you've done. This child was led astray by you!"

Treating Sakura's complaint as background noise, he nodded at Inari. "Yes, something like it."

The Great Naruto Bridge was unveiled before Team 7, and they became the first to officially cross the new construct. The villagers had grappled over the naming issue for quite a long time. They contemplated calling it "Great Sasuke Bridge", "Seventh Leaf Bridge", "Great Sasu-Naru Bridge", "Nami-Konoha Bridge" and many other variations of the above. Eventually, due to the timely intervention of one Uchiha Sasuke, the bridge was named as such. Oddly enough, those villagers were originally leaning towards calling it the "Great Sasu-Naru Bridge". He had an intuition that... it would not end well for him if the bridge really ended up with this name.

Naruto, who did not pry during the naming process, did not look shocked or overwhelmed with favour.

Wrinkling his nose, he commented placidly, "Sasuke was the one who killed Gatō."

Naruto did not expound on the role he played in the assassination of Gatō that night.

Kakashi mused, "That lecherous smile... It makes sense now. A honey trap?"

Sakura spluttered, "They are both boys!"

Kakashi sighed emotionally, "Oh, Sakura. You're still too young."

"Get your mind out of the gutter. I used the Henge no Jutsu," Naruto admonished, exasperated.

"Classic," Kakashi noted. "From the state of the head, the pressure indicates that the throat was slit from behind. A neat kill. He likely did not even know when he died. It's just... a bit bloody."

Sasuke chimed in, "Naruto caught Gatō by the hair and held him up until the blood stopped flowing, then chopped the head off."

Sakura dry-heaved as the image of Naruto doing such a thing appeared in her imagination.

"I didn't..." Naruto trailed off, then fell silent.

He could not just explain that a nosy bunch of plants came to shield him from the splattering blood and grab onto the head of the dying Gatō, so he might as well take the blame.

"Mm, I did that," Naruto amended, poker-faced.

~~

After submitting the mission report and Gatō's severed head to the Hokage's Office, Team 7 was allowed three days of rest.

The short break ended just as quickly, and Team 7 completed a slew of C- and D-ranked missions in the days that followed.

As before, Sakura continued to stalk Sasuke with utmost devotion. Nevertheless, there was a change. While she was as infatuated as ever, she no longer opposed Naruto at every turn and did not lash out at the blond anymore. She also made no mention of the dream lessons that she was receiving, which was a good thing, but Naruto found himself suspecting that she forgot whatever Itachi had taught her when she woke up. She did not apply her new genjutsu know-how during their missions.

It was only when they faced Tora once more that Sakura acted, luring the fearsome cat that had once scratched her face up into its cage.

Seeing her marked improvement, Naruto conveyed his gratitude to Itachi.

Soon came the Chūnin Exams. Kakashi casually nominated his genin team and, without ceremony, distributed the application forms to the three the day before the start of the first segment of the Exams. He proceeded to explain the not-so-glorious history of the Chūnin Exams and lied to them, saying that they did not need to participate if they were not yet ready.

On the day of the Chūnin Exams, Team 7 marched proudly into the exam venue.

They passed the crowd making a ruckus on the second floor and filed into room 301.

"Don't they screen the competence of genin teams before allowing them to participate?" Sakura asked, confused. "Why are so many people mixing around downstairs?"

"That's probably how they decided to test the genins," Naruto guessed.

"Sasuke-kun! You're here!"

A blonde blur shot through the door and tried to latch on to Sasuke.

The Uchiha side-stepped the person warily, then used Naruto as a shield to block her further attempts to touch him. He had assumed that, besides Sakura, the rest of his fangirls had failed to become genins. How could one of them appear in the Chūnin Exams?

"Ino-pig! Can't you see that Sasuke-kun doesn't like you?" Sakura scorned.

"Why if it isn't Sakura... I see your forehead is big and ugly as always," Ino taunted back.

Sakura raised a fist, itching to punch her fellow kunoichi. "What did you just say?!"

"So you guys are taking this stupid test too?" drawled a familiar pineapple-head as he lazily strolled into the examination venue.

"Shika," Naruto greeted, holding up a fist. "Cooperate?"

Shikamaru nodded minutely, bumping fists with Naruto.

His lazy demeanour sharpened into attentiveness, interest brightening his coal-black eyes that usually seemed to reflect nothing.

If these two were involved, even the most tedious of affairs could become entertaining.

"Sasuke-kun is mine!" Ino announced, childishly sticking out her tongue at Sakura.

However, Sakura's reaction... was a bit off.

Instead of getting mad at her love rival, she looked down on Ino with disdain.

"Sasuke-kun belongs to Naruto-kun. You can't beat Naruto-kun," Sakura said condescendingly. "SasuNaru is forever!"

The objects of the conversation were close by and clearly overheard those words.

It dawned on Sasuke that this was likely how that unusual name combination was popularised among Nami's residents.

Quickly interpreting Sakura's unusual words, Naruto burst into uproarious laughter.

Sasuke's face had turned as white as a sheet as he stared at the cackling blond next to him in horror.

When Naruto's laughter showed no sign of abating, Sasuke whacked him on the head.

"It's not funny!" he hissed.

Wiping away a tear, Naruto managed to curb his amusement.

"You can't escape, Sasuke. Everyone thinks you're gay."

"And isn't that all your fault?!" Sasuke retorted.

As this transpired, Sakura undauntedly watched them interact.

A young maiden's heart seemed to have devolved into a fujoshi's in the company of this pair of brothers in all but blood.