Much thanks to drowsyivy and Tavina for beta-reading, and thank you to everyone reading and commenting!

I stared in disbelief as Naruto wrestled with the large cat that was trying to escape from his grasp.

"I repeat: are you sure this is the target, Tora?" Kakashi's voice filtered into my ear.

I internally crushed the desire to swear as a mix of thoughts and memory metaphorically smashed into the back of my head, all around the efforts we had gone to towards catching this cat. 'We'.

"Yes," I finally answered through a clenched jaw, speaking into the headset.

What the fuck. While I was becoming resigned to these dreams, suddenly knowing what 'I' had been up to and even thinking right before this was... I resisted the urge to shudder. I wasn't sure why, considering that Naruto was busy struggling with the still-writhing cat and Sakura was trying to help without getting scratched herself. They probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Good. The lost pet 'Tora' search mission is complete," Kakashi responded. The headset crackled slightly. "I'll meet you at the rendezvous point."

Back to the mission desk, he meant. A small part of me hated that I knew that.

I looked over at the ongoing struggle between jinchuuriki and housecat, before I stepped over closer. "Here, let me take the cat, and then take your jacket off so we can wrap Tora up in it," I told Naruto.

Both the cat and Naruto stopped for a moment to stare at me in surprise, before the cat started fighting against Naruto even more, yowling.

"Ah!"

I reached in as quickly as I could, yanking the cat out of Naruto's arms and squashed Tora against my chest, doing my best to prevent the upset animal from pushing its legs out to try to shred me in turn. It really was a desperate cat, which made sense, considering what awaited it. "Naruto! Your jacket!"

Naruto had already sat back up, and was fighting with the zipper pull. Somehow, cat fur had managed to get stuck along the zip in the earlier struggle. "I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!" he said. Not too long after, he managed to force it open, and he flung the jacket off, one sleeve turned inside out in the rush.

"Sakura, hold the jacket out," I gritted. Tora managed to force a paw out, and reached out to claw at my face. I pushed the cat away just in time to avoid it, and in the direction of the now waiting jacket.

After a short moment of flailing, we had the cat firmly and tightly swaddled in Naruto's jacket, only with the head popped out. Tora gave all of us a narrow eyed expression of feline displeasure.

"Wow, I can't believe that worked." Naruto grinned and wiped his face with the back of his hand, but not before I realized that there were a few droplets of welling blood mixed with the glisten of sweat. His face, on the other hand, showed no signs of scratching. Huh. It was also a bit weird to see him without the jacket. Underneath, he was wearing a blue t-shirt with his usual spiral, embossed in white in the front.

"I'd hope it worked," I muttered.

"That was so smart, Sasuke," Sakura said, fluttering her eyes at me. She looked a bit bedraggled, from her own earlier attempt at grabbing Tora before we had finally given up on separate approaches.

I couldn't believe this one cat had taken so much effort, but it made sense, if Tora was regularly trying to escape from Madame Shijimi. The daimyo had shinobi as well, after all, and it wouldn't have surprised me if some of them had ended up dragged into attempting to capture the cat at some point or another, slowly pushing Tora into developing enough evasion skills that the cat would rarely be able to be captured by anything but ninja. It was just Tora's luck to try and mount an escape in the middle of Konoha instead of the capital or any of the daimyo's homes.

I didn't like the fact that some of those thoughts had floated into my head like they were facts.

"Not really," was the only answer I gave Sakura.

"Now we can get Tora back and get a better mission!" Naruto pumped his fist. "No more of these stupid D-ranks!"

Sakura looked dubious while she picked up our balled-up cat captive. "Do you really think we'd get something better so soon?" Tora yowled piteously.

"Are you kidding? Kakashi-sensei's been murdering us with training! We're so far beyond this!" he declared. He started to walk, hands behind his head.

"I wouldn't bet on that," I said with a shrug, as Sakura and I joined him. "It still took us time to find a cat." One that had been inspired by unworldly forces, considering how long it took us to find her, but I didn't want to think about that or the fact I even remembered that. Was remembering things from inside a dream from before dreams started even a thing? How the hell would you even look something like that up?

The walk from this forested section within the walls to the administrative center that shared the academy's building didn't help my mood any.

Sakura and Naruto's chatter tried to pull me into their separate tracks of conversation a few times, but I ignored them.

Instead, I only found myself taking everything around me in. It was with an unpleasant start I realized that even with the rarer aspects where the anime or manga would pan or give focus to Konoha, it wasn't really comparable to this, as we walked down a main thoroughfare. Storefronts on the ground floor took the attention of most of the foot traffic, with the windows of the floors above providing hints to the people who lived inside. My head was just filling way too much in for it to be just the show. Was I going nuts? Retreating more and more into an imaginary mindscape in my dreams?

Even the size of the building— more of a grouped complex, with multiple added sections of slightly different styles and age— that housed the academy and what was the shinobi side of the village's administrative system was large, I realized. Much larger than it would need to be if it was just a single class of genin graduating every year.

Kakashi was waiting up ahead for us, just in front of the doors. He had his book out. Even from this far away, we could see the occasional civilian filter in or out, giving him a wide berth as soon as they realized what he was reading.

I pulled off the headset and clicked it off, as we reached him, scowling as I realized that I had known how to do even that unconsciously.

He tilted his head slightly as he took in the wrapped-up cat in Sakura's arms. "A bit unorthodox, but I can't say I'm surprised." He held his empty hand out. "Headsets, please. They took my name down for checking those out, and I'd rather not have to fill out more paperwork than I have to." There was a thoughtful pause. "Of course, I could teach you three to do the paperwork."

Sakura gave him a disgusted look. "You're the one who's supposed to do all of that! You aren't shoving your work onto us more than you already do."

"Ah, but it's not my fault the trap course you three came up with is so effective, is it? It's much better than anything I could have come up with," he rejoined.

I somehow doubted that, and I dropped my headset into his hand before taking the balled-up cat from Sakura so she could remove hers.

Tora seemed to realize deliverance was soon upon her, and was at this point yowling loudly.

Naruto eagerly pulled his off, dropping it into Kakashi's palm in a way that resulted in the wires getting wrapped around the rest. Kakashi's visible eye momentarily squinted into a wince. He deserved it. Maybe not whatever chuunin was inevitably in charge of the communications equipment Kakashi was going to return, but still.

I stuffed my fingers down past the gap we had left for Tora's head and grabbed at what scruff on her neck I could, before adjusting my hold to turn the rest of the cat around. "You should probably take the jacket off before we get accused of mistreating the Daimyo's wife's cat," I grumbled.

Naruto eyed the cat, and began to delicately untie the sleeves. Tora screamed.

I was really beginning to dislike this cat.

One jacket removal later, we finally entered and headed for the mission area, where we were immediately swarmed by Madame Shijimi herself, who immediately snatched the cat from my hands.

"Ohh! Tora-chan! My cute little Tora-chan!" She was completely ignoring the cat's increasingly desperate yowls and attempts to escape as she smashed her face against the cat's. I didn't quite feel guilty enough about returning the cat as I probably should have.

Once the mission completion was finalized and Madame Shijimi paid the chuunin clerk, we watched as she shoved Tora into the cat carrier she brought with her. "Thank you so much for the job your lovely genin did, Hiruzen-san!" she called over to the hokage, before she left. "Tell your son hello for me!"

Well, at least we weren't the only ones who got to have some residual embarrassment from that whole mission. Even Iruka, who was helping with the clerical duties, looked awkward at having to witness that one-sided exchange. Was he off from the academy for awhile since his class had just graduated, or was this just a part of some regular additional duties for him?

"Anyways..." The Sandaime managed to feign a cough around his pipe when we walked over. "The next missions on offer that your team is eligible for are..." he lifted a scroll, which was marked with a 'D' at the top. Existing in the context of being a Japanese series, that part made sense, but within the world itself, trying to think on it just gave me a headache. "An elder's grandson requires babysitters-" Leaving the question of exactly what sort of hell-child required three genin to watch it. "-shopping in one of the outlying villages-" Boring, but possibly not too bad, but could also be just as painful. "-Or to help with potato digging." To plant potatoes or to harvest potatoes? That one was clearly just manual labor.

"No! No more D-ranks!" Naruto protested. "I want to do something actually cool for once! Find us a better one!"

Kakashi audibly sighed and Sakura looked annoyed.

Iruka stood up and slammed his palms on the desk. "You're just genin!" he shouted. "Everyone starts off with simple duties and missions! You're supposed to work your way up from D-ranks!"

Naruto looked ready to burst. I figured now was as good a time to ask as any. "How does that work for you since you're an academy teacher?"

"I don't-" Iruka blinked as he realized he had started to go off on the wrong genin, expecting Naruto to respond instead. "Uh. It's my off-cycle?" he tried to answer. "We aren't immediately given a new class after our old one graduates, outside of extenuating circumstances. I wouldn't be a very good teacher if I didn't have a chance to do some work outside of the academy to refresh my skills," Iruka explained. "We all do some clerical work, missions, and rotate through a few different departments for a few months before we take on a new class."

The Hokage nodded in approval at Iruka's explanation. "Which is why D-ranks have the variety they do."

"They're still crappy missions," Naruto grumbled, though my question and Iruka's answer had partially satiated his complaints.

"They're supposed to give you time to develop your skills before moving on to more difficult missions!" Iruka swatted Naruto's head with the B-rank scroll.

"What do you think we're doing every day!" Naruto shouted, covering his head. "We go and train and risk getting caught on fire and hit with kunai because Kakashi-sensei decided our stupid obstacle course was a great idea, and then we have to go and catch cats and weed plants and shop for old grannies!?"

Iruka's attention switched to Kakashi. "Fire jutsu already? And you're throwing kunai at them!? They just graduated!" Iruka actually looked like he was seriously considering a throwdown against Kakashi.

"Technically they're throwing the kunai at themselves, since it's all trap based," Kakashi answered, lazily. "They came up with it; I just thought it was a good idea to keep up. Besides, they have an Uchiha on their team; they have to get used to a little bit of friendly fire."

I didn't know how I felt about that, besides mildly insulted, which I was also somewhat uncomfortable with being.

The Hokage pulled his pipe away for a moment. "Recently-graduated genin receive D-rank missions. That's the policy."

"Yeah? Well, maybe it's a dumb policy!" Naruto insisted. "We can do better! Give us the chance to prove it! You might think I'm still the same troublemaking brat I was before, but I'm not! I'm a ninja now, and so are Sasuke and Sakura!"

"Fine." The Hokage returned his pipe to his mouth and gave it a strong puff, sending an o-ring of smoke into the air. "I'll give you a C-rank."

While I was expecting this, Kakashi didn't seem to be. He actually slumped over.

"It's a protective detail." Hiruzen's eyes glanced down at the scroll of C-lists; I already knew which one it was, but apparently it was distinct enough that Iruka began to go through the paperwork on the desk in front of him without needing further details.

"Really?" Naruto jumped in excitement. "Who? Who? I bet it's someone cool, or- oh! Is it a princess?"

The Hokage snorted. "Calm down."

Naruto looked somewhat deflated, but to my surprise didn't argue back, if only likely because it'd defeat the point he just made.

"Let him in," the Hokage said, not to anyone in particular that I could tell.

The door on the other side of the room opened, and the gray haired bridge builder entered, already taking a performative chug from the bottle he had. My interest was piqued more by the fact that before the door closed behind him I was able to see that it was some kind of waiting room. It made sense to have some kind of waiting area.

"You're really saddling me with a bunch of brats?" Tazuna announced, louder than necessary. I wondered if he was actually drunk or just playing it up. If it was the second, he was doing a good job of it, and none of the experienced ninja nearby were giving any hint on their faces that they suspected it was otherwise. "And what's with the the short one with the stupid face? Are these kids even ninja?"

Naruto, interestingly enough, made a face immediately. "What!? I'm not short and I'm not stupid!" Apparently not, since something had changed enough for him to realize he was the one being insulted. "I just haven't got my growth spurt in yet!"

Sakura and I ended up exchanging a look over the blond's head. Kakashi clamped his hand down on Naruto's neck, warningly.

"I'm the master bridge builder Tazuna," he said, taking another swig. "I expect you to guard me with your lives until I return to Wave and complete the bridge I'm working on, even though you're all brats."

I half expected Naruto's temper to flare up this time, but instead after grinding his teeth together he met Tazuna's eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and if you think you're gonna get to me like that, you're wrong! We're gonna do our job, even if it kills us!"

"It's a C-rank," Kakashi reminded him, dragging Naruto back. "No one's dying here," he said, boredly. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, Tazuna-san, and these are my students. We will meet you at the gate in an hour."

Tazuna seemed satisfied enough by Kakashi's introduction and gave a brusque nod before he left the building.

"What a jerk," Sakura said under her breath.

The jounin gave a half-lidded look at the Hokage and Iruka. "Mission details?"

Iruka already had the full paperwork in hand. "Tazuna-san requested capable ninja for body-guarding for his return to Wave and for the time it takes to finish a bridge he is working on. Listed concerns are robbers and highwaymen."

"Robbers and highwaymen..." Kakashi repeated, under his breath. "It will do." He turned his attention to us again, letting go of Naruto and giving him a slight shove towards me. "Standard load-out for a week," he told us. "I'm not checking your bags; use your own discretion. I'll meet you at the gate."

Kakashi eyed the Hokage speculatively, and before the elderly shinobi could even say anything, darted over to one of the windows, opened it, and bolted out.

The Hokage sighed and looked at us. "Don't pick up his habits."

"I'd rather die first," Sakura told him.

He didn't seem to know how to take that response.

Naruto pumped his fist, doing a little stamping dance where he stood. "Yessss!" He stopped, stood as straight as he could, and tossed a sloppy two fingered salute towards Iruka. "Just watch, Iruka-sensei! We're gonna come back from this one experienced, and then you'll just have to give us more C-ranks! I'm gonna out-rank you in no time!"

Iruka laughed, sounding amused. "We'll see about that," he told Naruto, good naturedly. "Just make sure you pay attention and come back safely."

"Yeah!" Without any warning, Naruto dragged Sakura and I towards the door out, only stopping in the middle of opening it to turn towards the Hokage and shout, "That hat is gonna be mine soon, old man! Believe it!"

Even from this distance, I could see the Hokage's eyes roll before the door closed behind us.

Sakura heaved a sigh as she shoved Naruto's arm off her, before she started walking. "Since we're supposed to meet the client there in an hour, we're going to just have enough time to pack," she said. "I hope my mom is home. I don't want to just leave a note before we go..." Sakura looked thoughtful. She started to think out loud. "If we're packing for a week, and we're heading to Wave... Ugh, I'm going to need a couple changes of clothes... I don't even know how many kunai I should bring..."

Naruto scuffed the side of his sandal self-consciously at Sakura's comment. "You think Kaka-sensei's actually gonna show up on time?" he asked. "I mean, it's not like he's shown up on time for anything as it is."

"He can get away with being late with us," I said, finally speaking up, as we walked down the main street leading away from the building. "And with D-ranks, since genin can do those alone." After the first few, he had actually started to only show up roughly half the time we were supposed to meet for a D-rank. Again, creeping horror edged up the back of my neck at the fact that that knowledge and the annoyance that came with it had just come into being like that. "I doubt he'd pull it with a client that's going to take us out of the village, much less into a different country." I couldn't keep the frustration out of my voice.

"Sasuke's right," Sakura added. "Make sure you're actually packed properly this time, Naruto." She eyed him. "If we do this fast enough, we can at least double check each other's gear. Meet at my house?"

"Yeah!"

I silently nodded.

Despite my conflicting feelings and thoughts, as we split off in different directions, I found myself briskly walking, mostly on main streets and through the occasional side path, heading 'home', until I reached a sizable apartment building. It wasn't too far away from the academy, and also was on the same side of the village as the Uchiha compound was. Roughly halfway between both locations, I realized. Deliberate. It only soured my mood further, especially when I came to the door that I realized was supposed to be into 'my' apartment and immediately unlocked it without hesitating. Not mine. Sasuke's apartment.

I closed the door behind me and pulled the sandals off.

Inside, it had a sort of organized neatness to it I wouldn't have expected from most kids this age, much less a boy. It was actually in less disarray than my own apartment was, at this point in the semester. And yet... it was probably because of the sparse, almost empty feeling to it.

This was not a very lived in apartment, even for being a one room style studio. The desk near the bed was nearly bare, with only an organizer tray of pens and pencils, a single notebook, and sharpening tools.

An uchiwa in the clan colors was on the wall above the bed.

I inhaled, fell face forward onto the bed, and screamed into the mattress.

"Sometimes, letting it all out was supposed to help" was my counselor's advice. In this case, it did not make me feel any better that I was apparently losing my damn mind. For dreams.

I finally rolled over and stared blankly at the ceiling before I sat up.

I could just give up and wait until I woke up, but everything about the past dreams just told me that would be an interminable, potentially dreadfully long wait, and I had no idea how long this one would last. I hated this.

I walked into the bathroom, slipping feet into the slippers at its door and looked at the mirror. I had no idea what I was expecting. The features of Sasuke's face looked back at me. Pale skin, dark eyes, dark hair that was thick yet feathery enough that only the bangs at the front had enough length and weight to them to naturally stay down. Puberty had not yet widened the jaw of the face I saw reflecting back at me. I ran fingers across the engraved Leaf symbol on the hitai-ate. It felt cold.

"No," I said out loud. It was still the young undeveloped voice of a preteen boy.

Even alone, I was still Sasuke. I inhaled and stepped back away from the mirror before I punched it. It wouldn't do me any good. I left the bathroom and its slippers behind.

Why the fuck did it have to be Sasuke?

I breathed out. All I had to do was... just go along with things until I woke up, for however long. And maybe stop sleeping entirely? Or at least partially? I might not be able to pull 74 hours awake for papers or just because I could like I did back in high school and my first years in college, but a little bit of sleep deprivation couldn't backfire that badly.

Going along with things still meant I had to pack. Standard load-out... I walked over to where the gear bag was sitting on the floor by the window, and opened it up to take a look. It was filled the same as from Kakashi's test, but the kunai and shuriken within had seen much better days. The trap based obstacle course must have really been doing a number on everything. Some looked overly dulled from abuse, and there was even a surprising quantity that had that particular reflective quality of metal unevenly heated, some of which had scorch and soot marks. Most looked like they were probably in good enough condition to take, but there were enough that would need to be sorted out.

Instead, I turned the bag out and dumped all of its contents on the floor and went searching. If I used weapons that had a high turnover rate enough to warrant regular replacement, where would I store extras in here?

I found Sasuke's weapon stash the first place I looked, in a drawer under the bed. As useful as that was, I wasn't very happy that my first instinct was right. I pulled out a few still tied-together braces of kunai and shuriken, setting them on the top of the bed before I closed the drawer.

In less time than I had expected it to take, I ended up having everything laid out on the bed, ready for packing. A few changes of clothes, a medical kit I had found inside the closet that was far beyond what I would consider for normal first aid, weapons, and an ultra lightweight kit for camping. A short look through the tiny kitchen found rations, which I also had thrown into the mix.

Nothing seemed off to me, so I quickly went through what I had dumped earlier, separating out what was too dulled from abuse and would need time to be sharpened, and any shuriken that had been bent or warped enough to ruin their shape. Some of those I slotted right into the leg holster, rather than put with the rest.

Packing after that was, disturbingly, almost automatic. Practiced, and I wasn't consciously making choices as I put everything in. I eyed the filled pack with discomfort before I closed it up.

I wondered what it said about me, that I was giving into the details even with everything.

I pulled the bag up onto my shoulders. As I walked towards the door to the outside, I paused as I passed by the bathroom, staring at the mirror again. The face might not have been mine, but the sour expression was.

I left the apartment in a sulk, letting my— Sasuke's— legs take me to Sakura's, hands jammed into my pockets.

It was a slightly different route, and I would have preferred being on my lonesome, but it seemed that wasn't going to happen, because I heard excited shouting behind me.

"Hey! Hey! Sasuke!" Naruto's voice called to me.

I stopped and turned.

The blond boy hurried to join me. His bag looked overstuffed, and he had barely managed to close it shut. "Isn't this great? A C-rank! And we're leaving the village!"

I smiled wanly. "Right."

He was so excited that he barely seemed to notice. "We're going to show everyone! Do you think Sakura's finished packing? I bet she is, but then again she's got to make everything perfect but..."

I tuned him out as it turned into only rambling.

Eventually we came onto the residential street that the Haruno family lived on. Sakura was leaning against an outside wall, her bag not in sight. "There you are!" she said, when she spotted us.

Without warning, she stepped forward, grabbing me and Naruto by the wrists, pulling us towards her front door, and inside from there.

"Kaa-chan, Naruto and Sasuke are here!" she called, before removing her sandals and stepping away from the genkan.

Sakura's house was cheerily lit inside, with a lived-in atmosphere. From where we were, we could see into the kitchen, where Sakura's mother was, washing dishes. She stopped, and looked at us for a moment. While she looked cheerful, her gaze seemed to pause on Naruto, almost cautious, before she finally said anything. I could feel Naruto freeze up next to me, and saw him pause with one hand in the middle of taking off a sandal. "So you're her teammates!" she said, putting on a smile. "Sakura's said so much about you both!" She brought up a sudsy hand up to her face.

"It's nice to meet you," I said, slowly. I glanced at Naruto, whose earlier cheer seemed to have melted away. While Sakura's mother wasn't treating him with disdain or cruelty, that moment of caution still probably stung. I elbowed him.

"Uhm, yeah," Naruto said, not quite steeling himself. His usual confidence and boisterous had left him, leaving just the lonely orphan. "It's nice to meet you too! Sakura's a great teammate!"

"We're going to go check our gear before we leave!" Sakura announced. She put her hands on her hips, and looked at us. "I have everything in my room. If you've forgotten anything, I might be able to lend you something, but you better give it back!" She walked towards the stairs, turning slightly to beckon us over. Naruto darted immediately to follow, sticking close to her, and I trailed behind.

It was just enough of a delay that I heard Sakura's mother let out a small sigh as we went up the stairs. Her own caution over Naruto being inside her home seemed to have had an impact on her as well. It wasn't until I was at the top of the stairs that she called out "Leave your door open!"

"Yes, Kaa-chan!" Sakura called back, resigned, before she opened her door. Sakura's room, while small, was the essence of pre-teen girl, between the light colors, plethora of mementos, and the soft stuffed animals that rested respectfully at the top of the bed.

Her own bag sat on top of the bed, flap open. She had only half-packed it, to make it easier for double-checking.

"We'll switch, and double check," Sakura said, deciding without letting us have any input. "I'll check Naruto's, and you can check mine, Sasuke?" She barely turned it into a question, rather than a demand. She had been so close to her forgetting her crush. "And you'll check Sasuke's bag, Naruto."

I shrugged, and set my bag down where I was.

"Sounds good to me!" Naruto said. His voice was absent its usual cheer, but he was attempting to be louder to make up for it. He stepped back before he set his bag down, so there would be slightly more room for everyone. We walked past each other, and Sakura slipped over towards Naruto's bag, giving it a sidelong look before she opened it.

To be more precise, she at least attempted to open it. When she let loose the straps, the flap burst open on its own, everything inside no longer restrained. "Naruto, what's with all of this?!"

His bag was, if anything, overpacked . Besides a few shirts balled up that were the only evidence of any clothing, he had gone overboard on weapons, the giant folded Fuma shuriken catching my eye the most. I remembered with a sudden start that those had shown up in the story for this mission. Naruto had some, but so did Sasuke, didn't he? And I hadn't packed any.

"I want us to be prepared!" Naruto insisted.

"You heard Kakashi-sensei! It's a C-rank! We might not even have to fight!" Sakura tried to argue. She yanked one of the folded blades out, holding it up. "What are you even going to do with this?"

"Throw it at people?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed at him, and she lightly tossed it at him, casually aiming for his head. Naruto squawked, but still caught it, setting it down when he dropped into sitting cross legged on the floor.

Naruto began rooting through what I had packed. When he came across the medical kit, he squinted at it, holding it up. "Uh, isn't this a bit much to bring with us?" he said, as though he hadn't just been accused of going overkill himself. "You don't think we'll get hurt that badly, do you? Because this is one of those really fancy expensive ones and-"

"I want us to be prepared," I said, dryly, before he could keep on rambling. An idle look through of Sakura's things showed that again, she probably wasn't straying from whatever 'standard' meant in this case. Rations, gear for camping outside, tidily packed weapons, and just enough clothes. Exact and precisely packed and balanced.

He made a face at me.

"Ugh, boys ..." Sakura grumbled under her breath. She was only looking more frustrated at Naruto's bag. "Naruto, how are you planning on even carrying all of this if your bag won't even close properly? And instant ramen isn't a ration! Didn't Iruka-sensei dock you for this once?"

"Sure, it is! And he isn't our sensei anymore, and this isn't for a grade! It's fine!"

"We can redistribute things around," I said, before he could argue back. "It'll save us time and that way we don't have to leave anything behind." I looked at Naruto. "Except the ramen. That's not going to be enough unless you want to feel like you're starving half the time. Unless you plan on hunting for food on the way there and back?"

Naruto hung his head. "Fine..."

Sakura pulled out a full stack of instant ramen styrofoam cups- somewhat dented from how they had been packed- and set them on her desk, and then replaced them with ration bars. The bag looked less likely to burst at its seams now, at least, but still overfull. "How did you even manage to fill it up this much?" she wondered.

"Practice!"

"Pass me some of what he has and I'll put it in your bag," I said. "You still have room to spare."

Sakura nodded.

It didn't take long until Naruto's bag was less offensive to Sakura's sense of what was right and orderly, and her own actually looked more filled.

"Hey, Sasuke! Do you mind if I put this in your stuff?" Naruto held up the folded Fuma shuriken Sakura had tossed at him earlier.

"Go for it," I said. I didn't actually care that much.

Naruto's method of packing only left questions. Sakura's neat and organized approach hadn't actually managed to pare down on the worst of the bulk in his, and how I had packed shouldn't have left enough room for something that large. Naruto still managed to slip it in with everything else.

"If I ask you how you even managed to do that, it's going to be the same answer as before, isn't it?" Sakura asked.

Naruto beamed.

She sighed before clasping her hands together. "I think that's it?" Sakura asked, looking around, double checking everything. "If we leave now, we won't have to worry about being late."

"Sounds fine by me."

"Yeah!"

Grabbing our things and heading back down the steps, Naruto followed me to the door. Sakura went over to her mother, who embraced her in a strong hug. "Look at you! Already leaving on longer missions! It feels just like yesterday you and Ino were still playing with dolls! Soon you're going to be old enough to leave home!" Sakura looked self-conscious, even as she hugged back.

"Kaa-chan, that won't be for ages," Sakura said, when she stepped away, trying to be consoling. "I'll see you and Tou-chan when I get back first thing!"

"Please take care of my daughter," her mother said, actually directly looking at Naruto and me. She seemed to have resolved her earlier Naruto-related feelings, at least. "I'm sure your sensei's showing you everything you need to know!"

Well. "Sakura's skilled enough to look out after herself, too," I answered, in the middle of putting my sandals back on. Sakura flushed pink.

"Yeah!" Naruto seemed less out of his element, with Sakura being the topic. "She's great and real smart!"

"Oh, I see how it is," Sakura's mother said, looking amused. "Is this the boy-"

Sakura's blushing turned into a completely red face. She ran for the genkan, shoving the door open with a smooth action as she quickly picked up her own footwear and hooked her arms around ours with unexpected agility. "Bye Kaa-chan love you tell Tou-chan I love him too we're going to be late bye!" With that, she dragged us out of the house, letting the door close behind her. Whatever else her mother had to say would be a mystery. She sighed in relief.

"Hey, what was that about?" Naruto asked, looking confused. He still had one sandal in one of his hands.

Mine— no, Sasuke's — were at least on.

"Nothing," Sakura insisted, still red in the face. "Nothing."

The blond puffed his cheeks out. "Fine," he answered. "But next time give us a warning!"

"Hmph!" She looked away as she pulled her own sandals on.

I sighed. "Let's just get going."

From here, the gate wasn't that far away at all.

I ended up looking at all the buildings and everything properly this time, as we walked in that direction.

While the show and series had always only shown bits and pieces of the village, it had generally been enough to show that it was fairly built up, and its architecture unique compared to real cities, with the rounded off buildings, presence of ledges and walkways everywhere, densely packed.

My head had apparently added that up to realize it made the place a maze if you weren't familiar with its streets. While there were straight thoroughfares, not all of them were. Mixed with the blocks of buildings were pockets of dense woods, and some buildings had unobtrusive entrances on second or even third floors. In some areas, I wouldn't be surprised if the residents there would ever even need to come down to the ground level streets. The ninja certainly didn't, but this was all built with them in mind. Everything about Konoha— that I was seeing, at least— would be a free-runner or parkour artist's extremely nerdy dream. Then again, this was my apparently extremely nerdy dream that my unconscious mind had stuck its tenterhooks into and was refusing to let go of.

Soon enough we crossed onto the main street that ran from the gate area, and we were able to see Tazuna. He was being boisterously drunk at one of the gate guards on duty.

The guard was sitting at a table, near a building right at the inside of the gate, inspecting a small booklet in his hand, which he was looking through while ignoring whatever Tazuna was saying. After a while, he came to a page, and popped a metal cylinder out from one of his flak jacket pockets, and turned around to look at the inside, calling in to whoever was in there.

Another bored-looking guard exited, with a metal block in hand, and what looked like a closed compact. The first one set the booklet on the table, as his compatriot opened the compact- showing a bright red interior- and pressed the block against it, before pressing it onto the page. Even here, we could see the red symbol left on the paper. It was a stamp, then. Or a seal? The first ninja pressed his own into the ink as well, before superimposing his on top, and the second went back into the building.

"Huh. I wonder what that's about?" Naruto asked.

"Foreigners who don't live within the village have to present a passport with their credentials and be checked in and out of the village," Kakashi's voice answered, coming out of nowhere.

"Ah! Where'd you come from!?" Naruto startled, twisting around before he finally saw the jounin. He wasn't the only one.

"That's a long story," Kakashi said, deadpan. His backpack was slung over his shoulders, and was probably the only thing keeping him from being in a complete slouch.

Naruto stared at him. "That's not what I meant! Couldn't they just get a second passport or something?"

"They could, but it'd be difficult," Kakashi answered lazily. "Each country's capital handles them for civilians. As a system it's not just useful for us, but for the various daimyo's governments as well."

"What about for us?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi patronizingly patted her head, and she visibly bristled under his hand. "You won't have to worry about that unless you're going to another hidden village, and that won't be happening anytime soon."

"There you are!" Tazuna had finally noticed us. He slipped the booklet into a side pocket of his own pack and walked over towards us, bottle still in hand.

"Here we are," Kakashi echoed. I wondered if he was going to end up being bored enough to pull his book out.

"Let's go!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically. His momentary insecurities from earlier seemed to have vanished just by being near the gate.

Sakura gave him a quizzical look. "Are you really that excited for this mission?"

Naruto laughed self consciously, but it didn't remove his eager expression. "I've never left the village before. This will be the first time!" As if to underline this, he consciously stepped forward, stopping right at the demarcation line where the gates would close, and then stepped past that until he was clear of the wall's border entirely. He pumped his fist.

"We could have picked any kind of D-rank for that..." Sakura said quietly under her breath, staring at him in disbelief.

Tazuna gazed doubtfully at Naruto, before giving Kakashi a derisive look. "Am I really going to be safe with this brat?"

"I'm a jounin, you'll be fine." Kakashi flapped one of his hands, as though physically dismissing the older man's concerns.

Naruto glared, but, surprising me yet again, didn't burst into a full onset of temper. "Yeah, well, one day I'm going to become Hokage! And you'll remember saying all of this and doubting me, and you're gonna have to acknowledge me! Believe it!"

Tazuna scoffed. "Even if you did, I wouldn't."

Naruto made a face, but only grumbled under his breath.

After that, we walked, mostly in silence except for the occasional sound of birds and the rustling of wildlife in the trees beyond the road, rotating who took the lead. Occasionally Naruto would aim a squinting look at the back of Tazuna's head, which would result in Kakashi quietly grinding Naruto's hair into his head. After the third or so time, he stomped off to take point from Sakura.

Sakura gave Tazuna a considering look. "Tazuna-san, you're from Wave, aren't you?"

"And?" He took a swig from his bottle, giving her a challenging look.

Sakura turned her attention reluctantly to Kakashi instead. "Kakashi-sensei, does Wave have ninja too? I know they don't have a hidden village, but..."

He shook his head. "No, they don't. Most other countries do."

"You said that Konoha checks foreigners' passports earlier, right?" She waited for acknowledgement from him before she continued on. "Do we get that many people who come from other countries?"

Kakashi nodded, blasé. "Mission prices, distance, and reputation play a role in which hidden villages or even unaffiliated ninja clans clients will hire," he said, starting a bored explanation. "Konoha's reputation— and prices— mean we get plenty of clients who travel will travel into Fire, even if they have a hidden village or ninja clans nearer who might be more convenient." This had taken an unexpected turn.

Naruto twisted back to look. "Wouldn't it be easier to go to whoever's closest?" he asked, confused.

"Sometimes, but economic factors play a role, especially for merchants." Kakashi shrugged. "The various daimyo usually feel obligated to hire shinobi who live within their country's borders, but they're generally the exception, not the rule."

"What do you mean by economic factors?"

"The things that impact how people buy and sell things," Kakashi explained. "All businesses need to make a certain amount of money in the long term to survive, because the people who run them need to be able to eat and have somewhere to sleep too."

"Oh! Like how Ichiraku's costs more than instant ramen, cuz they have to make it there and pay for everything?"

"Sure," Kakashi said, "Like that." I felt like I could almost hear a piece of his already shriveled soul crack off at the comparison. "How things are priced are more complicated than that, but basically. Let's use the hidden village system as an example. Because Konoha is as large as it is, we can afford to send more ninja on missions, and charge less than other villages. While we aren't charging as much as we could, the amount of clients we get in return make up for it."

Naruto squinted, clearly thinking. "If we're getting all these missions, doesn't that make other people angry at us?"

"That's why alliances are important," Kakashi said. "Besides for other things. When war happens, trade slows down or sometimes stops entirely, but with an alliance or at least neutrality, it means we can usually guarantee some safety within those shared borders. Otherwise, merchants will decide it's too risky to take goods to and from our villages entirely."

"So... If we drop our prices too low and end up taking another village's missions from civilians to the point where they get desperate... they could get angry at us for being successful, but if we don't take enough missions, it's bad for us too, and if we end up at war... the civilians stop hiring anyone and the merchants stop selling things?" Sakura looked confused. To be fair to her, this wasn't exactly basic material. It wasn't like it was something most people really knew, even as adults. I had ended up working in financing in my last job before returning to school, and even most of the people I worked with barely understood it. "How does that help anyone?"

"It doesn't," Tazuna said severely, cutting in. "Trade is important for everyone, not just ninja. The bridge I'm working on will connect Wave to Fire and be important for my whole country."

"Hmm," was Kakashi's only response to that, giving the older man a lazy look. "I thought Water was known for its ships and sailors, being an island nation."

Tazuna, rather than answer, brought his bottle to his lips again and took a strong drink instead. Evading Kakashi's probing comment was probably the only thing he could do.

With that, the conversation lapsed into silence again, with Sakura and Naruto— mostly Sakura, from what I could tell— still trying to untangle Kakashi's explanation from earlier.

We walked past a puddle.

This part was impossible to forget, from rewatches, and both because of it and despite myself, I found my fingers reaching for the holster on my thigh. Kakashi was still in his half-slouch, though he had looked at it, and the other three hadn't paid it any attention.

The only real warning was the sound of something suddenly moving through the air before chains wrapped around Kakashi, before everyone sounded off in surprise at that and the two ninja who had appeared.

Even though I was finding myself concerned at the fact that all of this was becoming increasingly detailed, it was still a dream, and I wasn't sure how I felt about how gory it looked when the two ripped 'Kakashi' apart with their chains, besides queasy. I could have done without my brain deciding to make it look so graphic and realistic.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Sakura screamed, and the Demon Brothers landed behind Naruto.

My mind blanked on what was supposed to come next. Sasuke had stepped in, but—

Naruto had originally frozen up, hadn't he?

Irrationally, a streak of preemptive guilt ran through me at the idea of accidentally letting the main series character get killed off, even though I was sure the dreams were just me losing my sense of reality.

Their chains shot out in Naruto's direction.

I lunged forward in a leap, half-aware that at some point I had ended up with a kunai and shuriken in my off-hand.

Naruto moved, twisting around in a hard skid that sent dust from the road into the air, kunai in both of his hands.

I felt like I was separated from everything as I threw the shuriken, watching it hit the middle of a link, and drive into one of the trunks of the trees, followed by the kunai driving it further in.

The moment ended as soon as it had begun, and I was left very very aware that I was now very precariously standing with one foot on each brother's head. I wound up grabbing onto their gauntlets by sheer chance, which unbalanced the two.

Naruto dove forward, running and then sliding below, slashing at the closest leg on each side. Unfortunately for him, they released the chain and burst free in unison. One of them struck out at Naruto, and he wasn't quite quick enough to block it, the metal claws striking his hand instead of his chest. They circled back towards Tazuna.

Sakura dashed directly in front of the old man, holding the kunai out in a defensive posture.

Before I could move, much less think of what to do next, Kakashi appeared in front of the two ninja. They ran right into the space he was now occupying, and were thrown off by their own inertia as he used it against them to clothesline them.

Surprise— and relief— flooded onto Naruto, Sakura, and Tazuna's faces.

"Good job, everyone," Kakashi said, as though he was entirely unaware he had two ninja flailing over his arms like particularly ungainly cats. "I'm sorry I didn't step in sooner and you got hurt, Naruto." A shift of his arms, and he smashed their heads together, and they went still.

It was different from what had happened in the show, and yet not.

The shock didn't last for long. Sakura glared at the jounin. "You played dead?!"

"Not right now, Sakura-chan," Kakashi said indulgently. He walked over to the closest tree; it was the one the chain was still connected to. "Priorities first. Their claws are poisoned. Naruto, don't move around too much. Stay still. We'll need to open the wound up and drain the poisoned blood."

"Ah! Those were poisoned?" Naruto looked down in alarm at the oozing cuts on his hand.

"Tazuna-san… We need to talk." Kakashi dropped them down by the tree, before reaching over his back and pulling out a coil of rope from a side pocket, which he started to loop around the tree. Soon, the two fended off attackers were tied down.

Looking over at him, Tazuna appeared visibly apprehensive.

Kakashi nudged their legs apart with the actual toes of one foot— a clear downside to the toeless ninja sandals— to look at the injuries Naruto had dealt, before deciding they could be left as is. "These are chuunin from Kirigakure," he finally said, speaking. Kakashi could have easily been talking about the weather from his tone. "Ninja from Mist are known for their tenacity." He eyed Naruto, who had his mouth open to begin to say something. "They keep fighting no matter what," he clarified.

One of them glared at him. "How did you know we were there?"

"The rain puddle." Kakashi said.

"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed. "Because it hasn't rained lately, there shouldn't have been a puddle, right?"

"That's right," Kakashi told her.

"Wait, if you knew, couldn't you have just stopped them?" Naruto asked. He looked at Kakashi, and then at his bloody hand.

"Not without confirming something," Kakashi answered, cryptically.

Sakura gave him an annoyed look. "Which is…"

"Their actual target," Kakashi finally explained. "Whether they were after us— as Leaf ninja— or our client."

I looked in Tazuna's direction. He was looking far less anxious than I would have thought; Kakashi was going for a strong lead-up, after all.

"We didn't hear there were shinobi after you," Kakashi continued on, casually. "Your mission request explicitly states robbers and highwaymen. So, I— and whoever was determining the mission rank— would assume gangs, at the very worst, which are still C-rank mission items." It occurred to me that Kakashi was actually trying to teach with these explanations he was giving. "Opposing shinobi being involved would not just make it a B-rank, but dramatically increase the price. We can't protect you properly when we don't have all of the information."

The older man looked contrite, but didn't say anything in response. The main difference was that he wasn't meeting Kakashi's visible eye anymore.

"Sensei, are we going to head back to the village?" Sakura asked. She looked unsure of her question even as she asked it. "Naruto's going to need to see an iryo-nin for his hand, won't he? We're already a few hours away from the village, won't it get worse?"

Naruto's eyes widened, and he stared at his injured hand, clamping his uninjured one around his wrist protectively. "I hope not! They won't cut it off or anything, would they? I just started my career as a ninja! I can't lose a whole hand!" Losing a whole arm hadn't exactly slowed him or Sasuke down that much by the series end, from what I had heard— I had only seen clips of it, when it finally ended. This wasn't even his dominant one.

"Hmm…" Kakashi gazed at the three of us. He actually looked like he was thinking for once.

I suddenly remembered what I had packed. "Wait," I spoke up, finally. "I brought a medical kit."

Kakashi directed his full attention on me. "Did you?"

I nodded, pulling my pack off, setting it down on the ground in front of me. I opened it up, dug in, and offered Kakashi the medical kit. Kakashi, to my consternation, patted my head when he walked over and took it from me.

"I'm not a dog," I told him.

"Dogs, children," Kakashi said, vaguely, as he walked over to Naruto, opening the pack up and beginning to pull things out. "Sakura, Sasuke, come over here."

Sakura exchanged a look with me, but we walked over. Naruto eyed Kakashi warily.

"Ehehe, it'll be an antidote or something like that, right?" the blond asked.

"You're still conscious, so we'll just drain it," Kakashi answered. "Sakura, here." He dropped a long rubber cord into her hand. "Tie this around Naruto's bicep; you should know how to do a tourniquet from the academy. It'll help prevent the poison from travelling any further and will limit blood loss." Without any warning, he dropped a sealed off paper bag that was long and thin into my hands. It was light, but there was something in it. I opened it up out of curiosity. Inside was a scalpel. I guess that made sense, to have an actually sterile option instead inside of a kit. "And you'll make the incision, Sasuke." This was such a bad idea I was actually speechless.

It took about a second for what Kakashi was saying to fully sink in for the others.

"Wait, what !?" Sakura and Naruto howled, not quite in unison. Sakura was already in the middle of tying the tourniquet off.

"You're going to make them do it!?" Naruto stared at Kakashi in horror.

"I did say 'we', didn't I?" Kakashi asked, rhetorically.

"No way! Gimme that!" Before I could say anything, Naruto had stolen the scalpel and had sliced across the top of his injured hand. Soon, blood welled out of it.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted in shock.

"Well. I can't say that… won't work, but you didn't need to make that big of a cut," Kakashi said, awkwardly, as though only now realizing it probably wasn't the greatest idea in the world to tell two twelve-year olds to perform field surgery on another when it wasn't actually necessary at all. "I think… I'll just take that from you, before you have any other ideas." The paper cover still in my hand and the slightly bloody scalpel in Naruto's quickly disappeared into Kakashi's hand, and then both were gone without a trace.

Naruto looked down at his bleeding hand, then at Kakashi. "Wait. You mean I didn't have to do that?!"

"Not really, no," Kakashi told him. "We only needed a small hole to drain from. Not a long slice like that. Then again, it was a scalpel. They aren't really stabbing implements," he said, thoughtfully. "That said, while we do have to work with what we have, doing it with something sterile and sharp is the best option if there's no one with medic training. You could die from sepsis if you use your field weapons for something like this and they aren't treated, and that's not a pleasant way to go." I found myself feeling concerned for Kakashi, in spite of myself. That was a hell of a tangent.

Naruto and Sakura were looking at him with something akin to horror. "If Sasuke hadn't brought that medical kit—" Sakura started. Oh, this was going to become ugly.

I interrupted Sakura. "I think," I started slowly, looking at Kakashi, "you need to stop talking."

"Fine, fine," Kakashi said, dismissively, popping out a wrap of bandage from the kit as he kneeled, taking Naruto's hand, and, somewhat questionably, tilted Naruto's hand to let the blood run off. "I'll just wrap… this..." Kakashi trailed off, staring at the cut. It was, slowly but surely, visibly joining back together in front of our eyes.

"Uh.. I'm going to be okay, right?" Naruto asked, not sure how to take Kakashi's reaction. I wasn't sure if it was because he was already used to healing this fast— and wasn't aware it wasn't normal— or if he hadn't noticed at all with being preoccupied from Kakashi accidentally terrifying him. "Right?"

"You'll be fine," Kakashi firmly said, and he quickly finished wrapping Naruto's hand up. He tossed the now slightly depleted kit back to me.

Sakura was still glaring at the jounin. I wasn't sure she had even noticed Naruto's abnormally fast healing, considering how annoyed she was by Kakashi's conduct.

Kakashi didn't seem to notice, but he met my eyes with his visible one before glancing back at Naruto's hand, meaningfully. I had no idea what he was trying to convey. Even dreaming— and I suddenly realized with a shock that for a while I had forgotten that entirely— with a version of him in front of me, Kakashi was impossible to read. Was it supposed to be a warning about what I saw? To see if I had noticed? I shrugged back at him.

He seemed to be satisfied— possibly even pleased— by whatever the hell that exchange was supposed to be, and set his hands on mine and Naruto's heads to leverage back into a standing position. It was completely unnecessary, which probably was why he did it.

"Agh! Hey!" Naruto swatted at Kakashi's arms ineffectively. "You're really weird, you know that, sensei?"

"Am I? I had no idea." Kakashi shrugged, back to deflecting everything again, but the sharpness that had shown when he took out the Mist-nin had returned. "Now… Do we continue on the mission or not?" he asked, looking at us, intently. "We don't know what's ahead of us, and it will likely become only more difficult from here. It won't reflect badly on you as ninja if we return to Konoha, especially with this being your first mission out of the village, and one that's turned out to be far beyond the parameters we were informed of."

"We won't always get to go back though, will we?" Sakura asked. Her question was so simple, but so serious, contrasting against the innocent expression she had focused on Kakashi.

What little of his face was visible looked tangled in how to answer that. "...No, you won't."

Naruto huffed out a breath, visibly steeling himself. "No way we're going back! You just said it yourself, we can't always cut and run! It might be okay this time, but it won't be later! I refuse to ever give up!"

"I don't want to head back either," Sakura said, decisively.

All eyes fell on me.

"Well, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.

This wasn't real, I reminded myself. "We keep going."

"Well, it looks like we have a consensus." Kakashi looked over at Tazuna. "We're still accompanying you to Wave."

When I woke up, I rolled over and stayed that way, unmoving for long enough that I could see the light from the window track against the opposite wall. Eventually, I left the bed, but only long enough to grab the half-empty bottle of vodka from the freezer.