Much thanks to Tavina and drowsyivy for beta reading.

I twisted around Naruto's outstretched fist and kicked his legs out from under him. He landed with a thud before launching back onto his feet.

I was still trying to figure out exactly what was going on when Kakashi's voice cut in, bored sounding. "Alright, that's enough. Good job today, everyone."

"How was that good?" Naruto complained, before he moved in closer and hooked his fingers against mine. "I kept getting my ass kicked."

"Your strengths aren't going to hold up in a friendly taijutsu spar against them," Kakashi said, his visible eye looking between the two of us. "You're badly matched against the other two because you rely too much on trying to physically outlast or outnumber your opponent. Sakura-chan's too smart for your tactics and Sasuke's too fast."

"We all train together; how am I supposed to get better against them in those things?"

"Well, I could see if you can join Gai's morning runs... "

Naruto blanched. "No thanks!"

Kakashi shrugged. "Then I guess you'll just have to continue training with us then." Naruto groaned, but Kakashi ignored it. "Now that we're done, we need to head to the administration building."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Why? You already said we aren't taking any missions yet."

"That's not for me to tell you," Kakashi told her.

"It's past two," Sakura pointed out. "We've been training since seven! We only took a break to eat lunch. You normally don't bother to show up until it's after ten." She crossed her arms. "We're all gross and sweaty and stink. Are you really going to drag us to something with us like this right now?"

Kakashi blinked, as though this had never occurred to him before, and he stepped towards us, ducking his head down over us, pulling the edge of his mask down enough that from this angle I could see some of the bridge of his exposed nose. He shuddered and took a step back. "You know what, you're right."

Sakura looked stunned. "I am?"

"Go home, take showers, and meet me in front of the administration building in a half-hour." There was a brief pause. "Oh, and Naruto? Wash your jacket." With that, he fled.

Naruto frowned. "I wash it! It can't be that bad, can it?" He unzipped it and yanked it off, sniffing the collar. "I can't tell." Without warning, he turned it inside out and he shoved it in my face. "What do you think, Sasuke?"

I gagged as the unexpected smell hit me in the face. While it wasn't the worst, it was definitely in the beginning stages of teenaged smelliness. "Invest in deodorant," I told him, backing away.

Naruto didn't seem to believe me. "Sakura-chan, can you—"

She wrinkled her nose. "Nope!"

I took off before I was asked or forced to sniff anything else.

I couldn't tell if the village looked more put together than it had at the end of the last dream or not; judging how things appeared in daylight against the middle of the night didn't work so well, but what I could see were the occasional swaths of ongoing construction in pockets, which featured not only obvious construction workers but older teenagers and occasional younger twenty-somethings that looked out of place against the workers. I vaguely recognized some of them from the first exam. Sometimes it was made more blatant since I would sometimes see them standing on the side of a partially fixed or constructed building, carrying a load.

I let my feet take me to Sasuke's apartment while I let myself get lost in my thoughts, only getting distracted to self-consciously wave hello to Team Asuma when Chōji shouted hi from where they were training. At least, it looked like it was supposed to be a training ground, but Ino and Chōji were to one side watching what looked like some kind of argument between Asuma and Shikamaru.

Chōji was probably happy to not be in the hospital anymore; at least, I assumed he was. I remembered being that way to an extent myself, though it had been more bitter.

Once I was in Sasuke's apartment, I reluctantly grabbed a change of clothes and headed into the bathroom, shucking everything into the hamper there. After the hell dream that was Wave, I had— not that I liked it— figured out a methodology. Turn on the water, grab the soap, close my eyes, and scrub while thinking about anything else.

Drying off was the same deal, and I got dressed and was out of there soon enough. Sasuke had deodorant.

I wound up running into Sakura before we reached the administration building. She was tying off the end of a loose braid, her hair still wet. "Do you have any ideas, Sasuke-kun?" she asked.

I didn't even know what day of the week it was supposed to be. I shook my head.

"I just hope none of us are in trouble," she murmured. "It feels like we've been near the center of everything since we graduated."

I couldn't help snorting. "You think?"

"It's not funny," Sakura insisted, before pausing. "Then again— oh, Sensei! Naruto's not here yet?" Whatever else she had to say would have to wait, it seemed, since Kakashi had walked out of the main doors to the building and down to greet us. He looked shiftier than he usually did.

"Not yet," he answered, shoving his hands into his pockets. "We could go in without him, but I want all of you together for this." Something about this wording was suspicious.

Sakura had caught on as well. "Together for what? Did something happen?" She wrung her hands together nervously.

"You'll see."

"Hey!" Naruto's voice called from behind us. By the time we turned around, he was closer than he had sounded. "Sorry I'm late," he said, once he stopped in between me and Sakura.

Even with the mask, Kakashi's full face crinkled up, twitching before he started to cough. The scent hit the rest of us a moment later, and Sakura and I joined him in coughing, and giving me a sudden and violent flashback to taking the bus in middle school when an older boy had Axe bombed it right before he had gotten off at his stop. That kid had caught a bus ban for that.

"Naruto," Sakura said, gagging, "what did you do?"

Kakashi body checked me before I could grab Naruto, and in the blink of an eye had taken Naruto from where he was standing in front of us to deposit him about ten feet away.

"I got a body spray," Naruto said. "I used it on my jacket so it wouldn't smell bad."

"New team rule," Kakashi managed to say, "No body sprays or perfumes or anything else that's that strongly scented for anything we do as a team." He pulled the top of his mask outwards and fanned air towards it with one hand before letting it snap back against the skin. "Those are supposed to be used sparingly. Hold still."

"You're not going to hose me down again with a water jutsu, are you?" Naruto asked, eyes squinted at him.

"No."

Kakashi's hands quickly sped through a few hand seals, faster than I could process, and in the next split second, Naruto was getting buffeted by a gale of wind that was strong enough to make him change his footing to stay standing.

Naruto's still-wet hair was completely swept back by the time it was over and he was rubbing at his eyes. He didn't look very happy.

I got prodded in the back, obviously to go check. I reluctantly went over.

It was still on the strong side, but it didn't smell like Naruto had used a whole spray can on his jacket anymore.

"It shouldn't kill you anymore," I told Kakashi.

He didn't seem very impressed. Instead, he shook his head a little. "Let's go in. We don't want the Hokage to be waiting any longer than she already has."

After the last dream, not to mention everything else, Kakashi had very good reason to not want to make Tsunade wait, even if it had apparently been Jiraiya's idea to begin with.

The short walk inside was unexpectedly tense; Sakura and Naruto were clearly not sure what to expect, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the interior— from the main room where missions were assigned to the winding corridor that led up to the Hokage's office— was overwhelmingly busy.

Once we got to the right door, Kakashi knocked.

To my surprise, the door was opened by Kurenai.

"Ah, you're here?" Kakashi asked, suddenly awkward.

Kurenai only gave Kakashi a smile. "For now." She turned in, which gave us a glance of another wall. The Hokage's desk wasn't visible, but another smaller desk positioned right in front of the door, already piled with paperwork and scrolls. That was different from the series. "Hokage-sama, Kakashi and his team are here." Was she seriously working as a secretary? Kurenai was a jōnin and supposed to be in charge of a team. Something about the whole thing was uncomfortably sexist.

"Send them in," Tsunade's voice called from out of sight. It wasn't muffled.

We were let in, where we could see that the wall was splitting the room in half from the center out, and from Kakashi's curious glance at it as we went around it to the other side, it must have been new. It felt like the other side took up more space, because there wasn't that much clearance between the wall and the front of the desk.

Tsunade's desk was just as covered in paperwork as it was in the show, and she stood up from her chair, which only had effect of making Naruto and Sakura become even more antsy than they already were. "You took your time," she told Kakashi as she went to stand in front of the desk.

He only shrugged, but he had straightened up out of his usual slouch. His hands weren't even anywhere near his pockets.

Shizune gave them an encouraging smile. It didn't help.

Naruto looked between Kakashi and Tsunade. "Did something happen? Are we in trouble?"

Tsunade let out a scoff. "I'd ask what your team is getting up to, but I already have a good idea from Jiraiya. No, you're not in trouble." For some reason, the fact Jiraiya had filled her in on whatever he knew concerned me more than the idea of being in trouble. She motioned to Shizune, who went over to a box that was against the desk. As the other woman opened it, we could all see a peek of green in the same shade as Kakashi's flak jacket.

Sakura's breath caught and Naruto's eyes widened.

"One of my responsibilities as Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure is to assure the growth and development of our forces, including promotions," Tsunade began, half-sounding like she was going off an internal script. She grabbed the Hokage hat from where it was on the desk, setting it on her head. "This begins from the moment any genin is given their hitai-ate at the end of their time in the academy. Uchiha Sasuke, step forward."

I hadn't expected that. Sasuke hadn't been promoted in the series, and had run off to join Orochimaru.

"Go," Sakura urged in an excited whisper, and she pushed me, and I had to move so I wouldn't stumble from it. I walked over to stand in front of Tsunade.

"Are you willing and able to take on the responsibilities of a chūnin of Konohagakure?" she asked. Her expression was as serious as her tone, accompanied with a small frown. She was trying to not make it obvious, trying to be serious about it, but she wasn't happy about this.

Of course I am. I could feel my heart beat faster. "Yes," I said, the response automatic, even though I didn't mean to.

"Then I appoint you as a chūnin."

As Sakura and Naruto cheered, I felt a sudden heavy weight drop onto my shoulders that forced my arms close to my sides. Not exactly pinned, but a flak jacket had been plopped over my shoulders without any concern for the fact that I had arms. It was heavier than I would have expected.

Tsunade frowned even more, attention snapping to above my head. "You're supposed to help him into it, not drop it on top of him," she said, chidingly.

"Oops," Kakashi went from behind me, not sounding all that apologetic. "This is how they did it with me."

She only sighed, but Kakashi picked it back up and helped me put it on properly. It was still heavy.

It also probably looked completely stupid with the high collar most of Sasuke's shirts had, but it wasn't like I had that much say in his sartorial choices.

The moment I was able to, I retreated backwards, towards Sakura and Naruto.

"I think you're gonna need new shirts," Naruto said, which only confirmed it. "But hey! This is great! We should go celebrate!"

"We're not done here yet," Tsunade said, cutting him off. "Haruno Sakura, step forward."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Me?"

"Yes, you."

She let out a surprised squeak, and Naruto pushed her to move. It was a bit harder than it needed to be, but it didn't look like it was deliberate. He had shrunken in on himself a little the moment Sakura stepped away and everyone else's attention was on her.

Tsunade asked her the same question, and Sakura responded affirmatively, still looking shocked while Kakashi helped her put on the vest.

There was one noticeable difference, however.

While mine was on the slightly large side, and still fit decently enough to not be awkward, Sakura's was at least a full size too big for her, and obviously so.

"Hmm." Kakashi bent down, pulling the back collar away to look at the inside. "You'll have to requisition a new one if you want to wear it, but it isn't mandatory to wear it all of the time."

"It isn't?" I couldn't help but ask. That was obvious from Shippuden, but thinking on it, there were plenty of ninja who constantly did wear it or had specific uniforms, so there must have been reasons.

"Not outside of mandated events or larger scale field actions, no, and even then there are exceptions."

"Like what?" Sakura asked, looking down at the edge of the vest. She was running a thumb down one of the zipper edges.

"When it doesn't fit," Kakashi answered. "They must have run out of smaller sizes. They don't make very many of them. I couldn't get one that fit until I was fifteen. It's just easier to wear the uniform since it means less laundry."

Sakura was still looking a bit dazed when she walked back towards us.

"Understand that this marks a large step in your careers," Tsunade began. "Chūnin have greater expectations placed on them than genin and—"

"I didn't get promoted, did I," Naruto interrupted. "Why didn't I make it?" His fists were clenched by his side, and he was visibly fighting to not show his upset on his face. So far, he was losing. "We went through the same things."

Kakashi turned to look at him. "Naruto, this isn't the time—"

"No," Tsunade cut him off. "All of them deserve to know. I didn't agree to any of the promotions that came from this examination round, but I was overruled." That explained it. "Especially in your team's case. The chūnin exams aren't supposed to be what you went through."

"I'd hope not," I muttered. To my surprise, Sakura stepped on my foot. Softly, but the fact she had done it at all was new.

Tsunade ignored my comment entirely, which was fair. "There's also the matter of how much attention your team has garnered in the last few months. It's not normal."

"Gaara's dad said something like that, too," Naruto told her reluctantly, biting his lip in thought. "About how leaders from other villages know who we are and that it isn't normal for that to happen to genin."

"Gaara is the Kazekage's youngest son," Kakashi told an expectant-looking Tsunade who was now staring in his direction. "We discovered he's the container for Shukaku. Naruto made friends with him while their group was here." While he didn't look like he wanted to sink into the floor, and his tone was neutral enough, Kakashi was still eyeing the window behind Tsunade. I couldn't blame him for it.

"Of course they're friends," Tsunade muttered, before inhaling. "This is exactly what I'm talking about. The Kazekage was right, it isn't normal for genin to get this much attention. The most any of you should be getting at this point in your careers is a C-rank to pretend to defend a member of the Daimyō's family at some function and have to deal with getting cooed at and told how young you are to be doing such a serious job."

Naruto and Sakura grimaced, and Kakashi's visible eyelid fluttered, as though he was trying to block out an old memory. Going from Tsunade's tone, it sounded like he wasn't the only one with personal experience with that kind of mission.

"Does catching Shijimi-dono's cat and returning it to her count?" Sakura asked.

"She lets the cat get loose in the village on purpose and puts out D-ranks before she leaves to show she's supportive," Tsunade answered, folding her arms under her chest. "She's very proud of 'meaningfully contributing' to the training it gives genin." That explained a lot about Tora, actually.

"Oh."

Tsunade sighed. "This is a mess. It's far easier to shield genin than chūnin from their actions because people have higher expectations of chūnin," she said, eyes focused on Sakura. "Jiraiya told me the real sequence of events regarding the bridge to Wave. You're lucky Kakashi covered for you and claimed it was all him."

Sakura's face paled. "I—"

"If you had more time as a genin and if Kakashi didn't have the background he has, that report would have fallen apart," Tsunade's voice was firm. "You would not be standing in front of me right now, much less in that vest, which is one of the reasons I disagree with this set of promotions."

Sakura flinched like she had been slapped.

"Leave Sakura-chan alone," Naruto spoke up. His eyes narrowed. "You don't have to go after her just because I asked."

Sakura was blinking back tears as best as she could. "Naruto, you don't have to—"

Tsunade cut her off. "The main reason she was promoted was because of you."

"I— what? What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto's confidence faltered.

"Sasuke's promotion was all but demanded by the Daimyō. Because of that and his performance during the tournament, he would have had to immediately do something completely idiotic to not get promoted."

Sakura and Naruto's eyes nervously flicked towards me, and I felt like I had missed a memo or something. Maybe a complete volume.

"Stupid things done while concussed don't count," Tsunade clarified. "You're the village's jinchūriki, Naruto. That's why you weren't promoted."

His face crumpled.

Tsunade sighed. "Most of the village is still unhappy that you were made a genin in the first place. I've read the reports from the chunin who were working the tournament as well as reports from the attack and afterwards. People still remember the night the Kyūbi got loose and attacked the village. Sand's jinchūriki losing control in the middle of everything didn't help."

"I stopped him!"

"You helped transform one of Jiraiya's toads into a giant fox," Tsunade pointed out.

"I—" Naruto's voice cracked, and he ducked his head, rubbing at his eyes.

"You fended off serious damage to the village, but the way it unfolded just reminded people of what they were afraid of in the first place. Some of the people who make suggestions on promotion evaluations think that if both of your teammates are promoted over you they'll have control over you." Even though her tone hadn't been harsh at all, she was now two for two in making kids cry.

Sakura's eyes grew wide, and the tears drained away from them, finally streaming down her face. "That's what Orochimaru told us when we were in the forest," she said, mostly to herself. "That Sasuke and Sensei were— That I was—" she kept cutting herself off, conscious of where we were and the rebuke she just received.

Kakashi stepped closer to Sakura's side, but hung back, unable to fully commit.

"Orochimaru is a missing-nin, not an idiot," Tsunade said, after a heavy pause. "He would have had a better insight than most into the uglier parts of the village than most before he ran. Whatever he said might have been correct, but it doesn't mean that it's right."

Naruto exhaled a ragged breath; he was trying to calm himself down.

"Ah, Naruto," Kakashi spoke up, voice light, and the tension in the room warped before it broke like a soap bubble. "You understand that it's just a rank, yes?"

Naruto looked up at him, scrubbing his face. "Huh?"

"It's more complicated than whether someone deserves to be a chūnin or not," Kakashi continued.

"I've improved," Naruto insisted. "You've said as much."

"Skill and ability don't have as much to do with rank as people like to pretend," Kakashi told him, shifting on his feet. He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I should know."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I was promoted to being a chūnin when I was six," Kakashi answered, voice tight and filled with awkward self-consciousness. He was doing his best at digging deeper into his pockets than they were ever meant to go. "Chūnin serve as the backbone of the village. They're supposed to help lead teams. No one's ever wanted to put a six year old in charge of anything remotely important, and I wasn't a special case there." Kurenai came up to his side and set a hand on his shoulder. Kakashi stiffened for a moment before visibly forcing himself to relax.

"At six?" Sakura stared up at him. "No wonder yours didn't fit…" It also explained why he had just dropped it on me, at first. Six year olds were short little things and didn't weigh that much.

"There are plenty of genin who never made it to becoming chūnin who should have become chūnin or even jōnin if it was just a matter of skill," Kurenai added, smiling encouragingly. "Power isn't everything. There's a lot of chūnin in the ranks who haven't pushed to be promoted but could be tokujō or full jōnin if they wanted." She smiled wryly. "In comparison, I had to fight for being evaluated to make jōnin."

Shizune nodded. "I'm being forced to provide an evaluation of my skills later this week since I've been out of the village for so long."

"The promotion system isn't fair, and it's more complicated than it seems," Tsunade agreed. "Even Orochimaru became a jōnin before I did and he barely had any interest in it."

There was very subtly another conversation going on now. It was the same kind of crosstalk I remembered from my mother and aunts at the kitchen table and in usually roundabout comments from female faculty members during undergrad that had become less circuitous in the last year. I had a strong feeling that Kakashi and Naruto had no idea, and that Sakura would probably recognize it in the future when she was older.

If this was real, of course.

Tsunade's attention flicked towards Naruto, dismissing the other conversation for now. "Keep working with your team and try to not stir up more trouble than what's already coming."

Naruto wiped his nose across his sleeve and managed a weak smile. "Yeah. I'm not going to give up. I still want to be Hokage. I can't do that as a genin. And I thought that both of them being promoted meant I'd get left behind." He scuffed his sandal across the floor, voice a bit softer when he spoke up again. "They're my first real friends."

Kurenai nudged Kakashi, who cleared his throat. "Genin teams are rarely permanently disbanded even once all its members are chunin or even jōnin, if they're all alive and still active. It doesn't make sense to break up a working unit if you don't have to."

Tsunade nodded. "I was regularly going on missions with my team for over twenty years."

"While Sasuke and Sakura might be chūnin now, they don't have the same experience even older genin will have," Kurenai explained. "It'll take time for them to develop leadership skills and the experience expected before they'd be leading any teams of their own, at least in normal circumstances. Your team won't be splitting apart for different duties anytime soon."

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura asked. She was focusing her attention on Kurenai and Kakashi entirely; Tsunade's words clearly were still stinging and making her reluctant to ask the older woman anything. At least the tears had subsided, though there were still streaks running down her face.

"Manning is tight right now," Shizune said. "While it's not as bad as it could be…"

"We're still stretched thin because of everything that's happened," Tsunade finished. "Before we got back, reinforcements were sent to the borders and capital to make sure no one else had any clever ideas. The three of you will be helping out with the reconstruction work and filling in where it's needed for the time being. You two should at least be capable of giving genin basic instructions with some supervision." She looked at me and Sakura.

Naruto looked between her and then Kakashi, frowning. "What about Sensei?"

"I'll be heading to Wave with Zabuza's group tomorrow," he said.

"What? Why? Can't we go with you?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I'm going as the Hokage's representative and I'll be escorting a diplomat from the Daimyō's court. The original Mist held off on doing anything that could spark war with us while they were pretending to be here for the exams, but we lost our ground from the attack. While they won't try anything here, Wave is close enough and weak enough that they might press their advantage to prevent an alliance from being confirmed."

"That can't happen here?" Sakura asked.

"When it's just a matter of influence we'd push for it to happen here, but the situation with both Mists, Wave, and Water is precarious enough that it's better for everyone for it to be handled over there instead," Tsunade explained. "We're the stronger power, but if negotiations happened here or in the capital it would be too far away from Wave to react in time if Water took advantage and launched an attack. Sending Kakashi and a few other jōnin to Wave will make them have second thoughts but it wouldn't be guaranteed."

Sakura frowned. "So we'd just get in the way."

"You wouldn't necessarily be useless, but you would still be potential targets of interest if you come along and something does happen."

Naruto bit his lip, clearly wanting to protest. "Okay. I get it," he settled on instead.

Tsunade rounded her way to the other side of the desk. "Now that that's over with, I need all of you out of this office so we can actually get some work done. Sasuke, stay behind please."

I didn't know what to make of that, but Kakashi didn't seem surprised. He nodded, and with Tsunade's verbal dismissal, he had mostly relaxed. "We'll wait for you outside," he said, and went around the wall breaking the room up.

As Sakura turned to follow him, Tsunade spoke up. "Before you go. Sakura, come here," she ordered.

Sakura froze, face filled with fear before she steeled herself and went to stand in front of the desk. Her hands were pressed against her sides. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade pulled open a drawer, and pulled out a package of facial wipes, and opened it, pointing the wipes at Sakura. "Take one."

She blinked, twisting to look over at me and Naruto as if to see if she heard Tsunade's words correctly. "What?"

"You can't go out there with tears marked on your face," Tsunade firmly said. "What I said wasn't meant to be a formal reprimand. You're a chūnin now, and you'll have to act like it. You've shown that you think things out more than just genin are supposed to do, but from this point on when you make decisions, you'll be expected to own not just them but the consequences. Do you understand?"

"Not really," Sakura admitted, before correcting herself. "Well, I understand that part. Kakashi-sensei got in trouble because of me when he didn't have part I don't get is why you're being nice to me now." She hesitantly took a wipe.

Tsunade let out a breath of amusement. "While Naruto's going to have his own set of difficulties ahead of him, so are you. You'll have plenty of time to cry and get upset at everything later. For today, put aside what I said for now and go celebrate with your friends and family."

"You're right. It's busy out there. I don't want to go out there looking like I cried." Sakura managed a weak smile and started wiping her face.

"What about me?" Naruto asked. His face was still blotchy.

Tsunade laughed. "Why not," she decided, and she held the package out again.

He darted over like he was expecting Tsunade to change her mind, and before he could grab a wipe and step back, Tsunade grabbed him by the wrist, taking the wipe out herself.

"Huh?" Naruto looked completely confused, too much to even try to pull away.

"There are people who want to see you succeed, Naruto," she told him, blotting at the red on his face. "Both in and out of this room. You just have to give us the opportunity to handle the people who don't want to allow it."

"Um, okay?" He looked uncomfortable, but didn't jerk away and waited until she let him go, stepping back.

"Your team wasn't the only one from your class to have someone promoted to chūnin," Kurenai said. "Shino did as well."

Naruto stared at Kurenai. "Huh, really? That guy made it? I mean, I guess he is pretty smart and his bugs are scary… He can do a lot."

"You all should go congratulate him; I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

Naruto squinted at her. "I guess?"

Sakura looked at everyone in the office. "We should go so she can talk with Sasuke-kun," she decided. She grabbed Naruto by the wrist and pulled him away.

"Wait, hey, we should stay just in case she gets scary again! Sasuke will need back-up!"

"We saw how well that worked earlier," Sakura muttered before going around the wall, and I could hear the door open and slam behind her as she yanked him out into the hallway.

Tsunade snorted, and I felt all the attention in the room focus on me. "You don't talk much," she commented.

I shrugged. "Should I?" This was something new for these dreams. I had gotten used to Sakura and Naruto usually being nearby to fill everything up with their chattering so I wouldn't have to. It helped me ignore the fact that Sasuke was thirteen, if I let the real kids get up to their own antics. Sasuke was supposed to be a quietly angry thirteen year old. I was thirteen over a decade ago. I had been quietly angry at that age myself, but I couldn't truthfully say I had totally outgrown it. I almost had, but I had gone and slid right back into that well-worn groove after the accident.

"Your other two teammates do plenty of talking on their own to make up for it," she agreed.

There was a firm knock at the door.

Shizune frowned. "I made sure everyone knew your afternoon was reserved for the promotions," she told Tsunade.

Tsunade looked over towards Kurenai. "There are only a few people who think they have the right to ignore schedules," Tsunade said. "Make sure we have privacy for this conversation. I don't want Sasuke to feel pressured to make a decision."

Make a decision on what?

The earlier encouraging expression Kurenai had on when helping Kakashi with his explanation had vanished entirely, the smile gone from her face. "I'll take care of it." She slipped to the front of the room and out of sight, blocked by the dividing wall.

"I'm sure you're already aware that the Uchiha clan were the other founding clan behind the village besides the Senju," Tsunade began. I found it hard to focus on anything else, like everything was tightening in on just the two of us.

"Yes," I answered, because I felt like it was expected before she would continue.

"Back when the village was still young when my great uncle became Hokage, he put into place charters that gave different clans authority over different, important aspects of the village."

I was beginning to have a distinct feeling about where this was going.

"I don't need to tell you this part either, but the Uchiha were placed in charge of the police force."

I could feel my heart beating in my chest. "What does that have to do with me?" What didn't it have to do with Sasuke? He was the last one in the village. It was a stupid question, but I was asking it despite myself and I didn't know why.

"The village can't rescind it unilaterally, not without the Daimyō's permission, and that wasn't granted when Lord Third requested it a few years ago."

I ignored the twisting feeling in my chest. Her words were making sense and weren't at the same time.

"I'm not my teacher," Tsunade said, evenly. "I read over the original documents. The role of police chief is able to be filled by an Uchiha chūnin if no jōnin are available."

I had no response.

"You don't need to make a decision right now— I don't want you to— but I'd like one before the end of the year. That will give me time to make plans with the various department heads and commanders so we can adjust manning. Right now, village policing is randomly assigned to chūnin and jōnin who are in their off-cycle from missions out of the village. It's not an ideal situation for anyone, because it means none of them are adequately trained for the job and don't spend enough time on that duty for it to be anything but an interruption to their careers."

"What happens if I say no?" The idea itself was horrifying. It'll be so much work.

"Then we would formally end the charter and I would look into other options to find someone to reestablish the police force. If the Daimyō wants a replacement clan in charge, I'll be approaching the Fūma clan, since they're distantly related to you."

I didn't want this. Naruto was already upset about the idea of our team breaking up. He's going to freak.

I didn't want anything to do with the police, whether real or dreaming. I still want this, I can't let this opportunity go.

My dad chose his stupid career over us. My ex proved to be the exact sort of asshole wannabe cop Xochitl always said he was. My parents would be proud, wouldn't they?

A sharp pain jagged through my head interrupting my thoughts, my vision whiting out. I staggered.

I found myself sitting on the floor with Shizune and Tsunade checking over me, both women frowning severely. My head ached like something was splitting it in two.

I blinked. What happened?

"Can you hear me now?"

I carefully nodded, just in case it would make me feel worse. I had learned better from the concussion.

"You blacked out and weren't responding," Tsunade said. "What's the last thing you remember?"

I opened my mouth to respond and immediately ended up closing it. Whatever it was supposed to be, it was now escaping me. I knew better than to try and force it, at least right now in front of her. I adjusted my expectations to be lower and for something I was sure about. "A knock at the door," I settled on.

She didn't seem exactly happy at this answer. "That was several minutes ago."

I only shrugged.

She sighed. "Do you feel up to standing?"

"Yes." I wasn't an invalid. I had gotten enough of that.

Shizune offered me a hand up. I reluctantly took it.

"I wasn't expecting to have to repeat myself, and I don't have the time right now," Tsunade told me apologetically, walking back to the desk. She picked up a small and tightly wound scroll, which she handed to me. "This covers everything I said in more detail. If you need help understanding it, I'm supposed to be fully scheduled for the rest of the week and it will have to wait unless you're fine with asking Jiraiya or Nara Shikaku. They already know the details."

I wasn't able to resist grimacing. I didn't trust Jiraiya, but I also didn't want to ask Shikamaru's dad for more help. "I'll figure it out myself." I gingerly unsnapped one of the scroll holders and slid the scroll inside of it, snapping it close with a click.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You're doing well enough to have an attitude, so I'm going to let you go before Kakashi starts lurking outside the windows. Whatever you do to celebrate, make sure to call it an early night." She huffed. "At least you're too young to drink," she muttered.

I was struck by the confusing thought that I did want alcohol, which I batted away as I walked to the door. Why would I want something I never had?

I paused at it to turn around. Kurenai gave me a small smile, pressing a finger to her lips, and behind her, Tsunade was already settling down at the desk again, pulling a sheaf of papers toward her.

Shimura Danzō was standing outside when I opened the door. I resisted the urge to grab a kunai from my holster. Attacking him in the middle of the administration building would only go badly for me.

He didn't spare me a look as he hobbled in. "Tsunade, I have some suggestions for you…"

I was already halfway through the building when I realized it was yet another impossible thing. I had no idea who he was or why I had the urge I had.

I forced myself to not stop and to just keep walking until I was outside.

"Sasuke-kun! Is everything alright?" Sakura had started closing in when she called my name, but backed off at the last moment, frowning. In the time they had been waiting, she had unzipped the flak jacket. It still looked too big for her, but it looked a bit less worse unzipped. It didn't help that the olive green vest clashed against her red dress and pink hair.

"I'm fine," I lied. "She just wanted to talk."

Kakashi's eye lazily traced over me. "Well, while you were in there, these two decided on somewhere to go."

I glanced at Naruto— who didn't look like he was completely back to his normal self— and then at Sakura— still stricken looking, even though it'd pass as shock to anyone less familiar with her— before up at Kakashi again. "Is it ramen again?"

I usually didn't care that much, and my head was still aching enough that I wouldn't fight it, but if it ended up being Ichiraku's again, I would probably admit I had a headache and go home.

Sakura shook her head. "Sensei suggested Yakiniku Q so we could invite others. Ino goes there with her team."

I looked up at him. Kakashi just shrugged. "Sakura-chan's parents," was all he said. "It's able to hold crowds."

"I want to invite Haku," Naruto spoke up. "Zabuza's going to be promoting him anyway, and I don't think he's gonna be able to celebrate in Wave."

"Probably not," Kakashi agreed. "The three of you should go congratulate Shino and then change into some off-duty wear. I'll meet you all there at five."

Sakura looked him over from his sandals to his hitai-ate. "You have other clothes?"

"...Yes, actually."

Naruto's brow furrowed. "I know Shino's sensei said we should go and congratulate him, but why are you saying we should?"

Kakashi walked off without answering the question. "You three let Haku know. I'll see you there."

"He's acting weirder than he usually does," Naruto decided.

"Well, it'd still be polite to go congratulate Shino, even if Sensei's being a bit weird about it."

I thought back to Tsunade's office. "I wonder if it's to do with Kurenai?"

Sakura's eyes widened. "Do you think he has a crush or something?"

I grimaced. "I hope not." Kakashi was sometimes weird. He also didn't really like me. I didn't want to think about what he'd get like if he really did have a crush on someone.

"I mean, that book he likes is by Ero-sennin and it had a lot of women wanting his autograph… Maybe it's filled with mushy romance, too? I guess we should go find Shino," Naruto said. "Where would he even be?"

"Probably at home," Sakura decided. "If Kurenai-sensei is with the Hokage right now, he must have the rest of the day off, if he isn't celebrating with Hinata and Kiba."

The whole walk to the part of the village Shino lived in was spent with Sakura consciously egging Naruto on into speculating over what kind of non-uniform clothes Kakashi even had until he seemed like wasn't lingering on what we found out as much.

Keeping Naruto under control…

Whoever thought that Sakura or I could make him do anything he didn't want to do were idiots. The only thing that had come with his friendship was his usually loud and obnoxious behavior.

If I had the Sharingan… but I didn't. It was looking like it had skipped over me entirely.

When we started to see more people who were obviously Aburame clan members around, Sakura asked one of them for directions.

This part of the village was heavily wooded, to the point it had never occurred to me there were houses past all the trees before now. There were plenty of pockets of forest left inside the village. I knew a lot of Aburame clan lived in this area, but I thought it was in the surrounding buildings.

Every so often we passed by houses with fully glass-lined porches that were visible from the street until we reached the right one. Shino's house was much larger than all of the others. I knew his dad was the clan head, but we hadn't seen any other houses on the way that were remotely approaching this size. Even my old family home didn't have this big of a difference between it and the next larger ones.

It became obvious why it was so large when Sakura knocked on the door and it was answered by more younger kids than I could easily count, with more piling into the entranceway and looking at us from around the edges. Most of them were obviously Aburame, with a few that probably weren't.

I wasn't the only one taken by surprise.

"Uh, is Shino-kun home?" Sakura asked.

They all started up at once.

"Shino-nii-san!"

"Shino-san!"

"Shino-nii!"

"Nii-san!"

A light buzzing accompanied their high voices.

It didn't stop even when Shino came into sight, wading through them with experience. He was dressed casually, in a gray hooded sweater I recognized from the last year of the academy, from some of the last few days before our lessons started to demand tougher clothes.

He took in the flak jackets Sakura and I were in as a toddler tried to force themselves into his arms. He was getting swarmed. "I see you two were promoted."

"Kurenai-sensei told us you made it too," Sakura told him. "Congratulations."

"Yeah, congrats," Naruto told him. He had edged away from the door and Shino's relatives like he wasn't sure about them. The Third's grandson and his friends went out of their way to find him sometimes, usually interrupting whatever we were doing. That was different from the at least dozen little kids crowded around Shino. Konohamaru and his friends were at least academy age. Most of these weren't.

The continuous hum of insects coming from probably didn't help.

"Do you know if anyone else made it?" I asked.

"We were the only ones from our cohort," he answered. He shook himself free of one of the kids clinging to him. "We can go talk in the sun room. It'll be more private."

It raised up a wail of disappointment from the surrounding kids as he stepped over and pulled his sandals on and came outside. He had one last thing to tell them before he shut the door. "And stay out of my room, I'm not going to be gone for long."

It was odd hearing someone else say that, even though I knew it wasn't directed at me.

Shino led us around the building, where a larger glassed-in room took up the whole back wall of the house. Unlike the rest we had seen, the windows were tinted, making it difficult to see inside.

"Are all those kids your siblings?" Naruto asked.

"No," he answered, sounding affronted at the idea. "Three of them are, but the rest are mostly cousins. There are two or three that aren't. We don't breed like insects." He paused to slide open the door. "You don't need to take your sandals off in here," Shino said. "It's the only room they aren't supposed to enter without an adult."

It was obvious why when we went inside. It was muggy and hot, and there were ceramic towers with mesh walls holding in dirt and bark standing in the middle of the tiled floor. The whole room was filled with insects. Flying through the air, crawling across the windows, weaving in and out of spaces in the towers.

"Are we supposed to be in here?" Naruto asked, nervous.

"It should be fine, unless you do anything." Shino slid the door close behind us.

Naruto froze in place.

"Did she tell you she didn't want to promote you as well?" Shino asked.

"Uh-huh," Sakura said.

"Tou-san and Kurenai-sensei told me to not feel insulted by that, because it's just all of the older shinobi scheming and we're being used," Shino told us. "Which makes sense, because the two of you were promoted and Naruto wasn't. Whatever it is about him that makes the adults not like him probably played a role."

Naruto winced. "Is it really that obvious?"

"My selection was because of reporting my suspicions during the first exam," Shino answered. "That doesn't hold up very well in comparison to what you did during the attack. You're obnoxious, but the adults didn't like you even before you started acting up in class. It's clear which one caused the other." I hadn't ever thought about it before, but it was true. Naruto had started off pretty quiet in the academy. It was only a bit later that he started to be annoying in every class we had together that I paid any attention to him.

"Thanks, I guess?" Naruto looked confused on if that was supposed to be a good thing or not.

Shino only shrugged. "It's unusual that so many of us were promoted in the first place, especially with it being our first time up. The teams from last year's classes still don't have any chūnin."

"Hinata's cousin didn't make it?" Sakura asked.

He scowled at the mention. "No, which shouldn't be a surprise. He used a secret technique he wasn't supposed to know in front of everyone and took out a good chunk of my colony before we were attacked. Even Naruto and Kiba were never that self-centered in the academy."

"Thanks, I think," Naruto managed, while grimacing. "But yeah, he's a complete asshole. Kakashi-sensei had us train with his team once."

"That was a disaster," Sakura murmured, putting a hand to her knee.

"Yeah, he attacked Sakura, and Sasuke set him on fire."

"Tried to," I muttered. I shouldn't have, and it was only luck that I didn't actually catch him on fire, that I had somehow held back enough that the only casualty was his hair.

"You did? Good."

"Kakashi didn't think it was."

"Of course he didn't. The jōnin-sensei are responsible for any accidents that happen in training. But that means it's a repeating issue with him, and he attacked your teammate first. As far as I'm concerned, it's all his fault."

Sakura smiled awkwardly. "So! Are you going to celebrate with your team?"

Shino shook his head. "My mother is out shopping with my aunts to host a celebration party tonight for the clan, which is why I'm stuck with all of these children. Hinata's not in the village right now, so I imagine Kurenai-sensei will want to wait until she's back until we do something."

"She's out of the village?"

"On a mission with her father. He's taken more interest in her since the tournament."

There was the distinct sound of something glass breaking from inside, and then shouting children.

"Shino-san! Shino-san!"

"Nii-san, it wasn't me!"

He grimaced. "I need to go, I can't believe they managed to break something. We weren't even out here for that long."

"Alright. I hope you have a good time!" Sakura told him.

"Same to you."

He let us out the same way we came in, but he stayed inside, since he didn't have to go around without us.

"That's a lot of kids to deal with," Sakura said with some sympathy as we headed for the building the Mist-nin were staying in. "No wonder Shino's always so quiet."

"I wonder what it's like," Naruto pondered.

"Noisy," I answered. "And there's always something going on that you can't escape, especially—" I cut myself off, going silent. I had been one of the youngest. The most experience I had was being the needy little kid. I didn't know where that came from, but it had been like I had just known exactly what Shino was saddled with, with being put in charge of a whole bunch of kids. The headache had spiked with it.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, hesitant.

"Just forget about it."

The rest of the walk was awkward and quiet, and it was all my fault. The only consolation I had was that neither of them knew what the truth was, but… I stopped right before we reached the building. "Don't tell Kakashi about this," I said, shoving my hands into my pockets. "He already treats me bad enough as it is." He was old enough to get suspicious, and already treated me like I was dangerous. I didn't know what he'd do if he found out I was saying things like that, that didn't match reality.

Sakura looked uncertain. "He won't think worse of you for that, he isn't a bad person…"

"We won't tell him." Naruto's face grew serious, and he looked over at Sakura. "It's Sasuke's own business, and he's right, anyway. Kaka-sensei does treat him differently."

"But, if he doesn't know he can't—"

"It's not up to us to make Kakashi-sensei change his mind," Naruto interrupted. "That's between him and Sasuke. If you try behind Sasuke's back, Sasuke won't be the only one mad at you."

Sakura looked offended. "I wouldn't do that! It's just that I think that Sasuke-kun should talk to Sensei if he's this concerned so it can't get any worse."

"I'll think about it," I lied.

Naruto gave me a consternated look— it would figure this would be the one time he'd figure out I was lying— but Sakura looked appeased.

Either way I didn't have to worry about them letting Kakashi know for now, which made me feel relieved enough to realize exactly what it was I had been feeling since I left the Hokage's office. Optimism.

We went into the building the Mist-nin were staying in, Sakura greeting the chūnin at the desk. Whenever that one was on duty here he was usually working on some sort of electronic equipment, and today wasn't any different.

He looked up from the radio earpieces he was detangling and took in the flak jackets Sakura and I were in.

"If you want my advice?" I didn't, but he continued anyways, "When it's time for you to start thinking about picking duties for inside the village? Avoid Communications or Supply."

"Uh, thanks?" Naruto went.

I was just as confused as he was.

There was someone new in the lounge area by the stairs up.

The few times we had come in here, it was usually either the Demon Brothers or one of the hunter-nin pretending to hang out. It clearly wasn't, since they always had weapons with them, and whoever this strange man was, he was no different, a giant wrapped sword resting on the table in front of him. His skin wasn't a normal human color, instead a pale green, going with the inhuman eyes and markings on his face.

He gave us a sharp-toothed smile the moment he saw us, and for a second I thought all of his focus was on me.

Naruto squinted at him. "If you're sick, that's not contagious, right?"

The man laughed. "No."

What's he doing here?

His hitai-ate wasn't slashed. I didn't know why that occurred to me as something to think about.

My headache peaked.

I blurrily blinked awake as my phone's alarm woke me up. My head ached like something was splitting it in two.

Eight AM. I was supposed to meet my mother, grandmother, and one of my aunts at the restaurant at ten.

Two hours was enough time to struggle awake, brew coffee, drink coffee, shower, get my hair and makeup done, get dressed, drink more coffee, and leave.

Try to forget about this night's dream.

I shook a couple capsules out of the Tylenol bottle and finished off the last of the water from the glass on the nightstand before I shoved myself out of bed.

I felt like shit besides the headache, even though I had actually slept through the night and felt mostly rested for the first time in days.

Police.

Even in those stupid dreams, it mocked me.

Dad had picked his career over us and was about to retire from his NCIS job across the country. His second wife and my half-brothers were okay enough, but he had missed enough of my own life pursuing that badge and promotions. He hadn't even shown up for my undergrad graduation ceremony, ducking out at the last moment and sending my stepmom and the kids on their own. That had been awkward and embarrassing.

I had to force myself to not even think about Daniel before I really made myself angry.

Instead, I tried to focus myself on the idea of green Kisame. That didn't help.

I still ended up cutting my shin with my razor from fuming over the unfairness of one of the last things I wanted to deal with forcing itself on me even more than it already did.

I at least got the tattoo concealer to look natural on my skin, blending it as well as I could. I left my hair down just to make sure, though.

I ended up tossing on a cardigan over the dress I went with.

The anger was almost entirely replaced by the usual stress of anticipating a full list of questions by the time I reached the restaurant.

"Mija, there you are," Abuela said, greeting me with a kiss to the cheek.

"I told you she wasn't going to cancel, Mama," my mom told her.

I gave them a nervous smile. "Why would I cancel?" No one was allowed to know I was suffering right now. If I was going to be going crazy, it was going to be alone, without any of my extended family knowing.

"Soledad mentioned her friend Ana— you remember her, she was in Soledad's court for her Quinceañera—" I did. She spilled punch on my sequined heels on purpose during the party and 'accidentally' tried to help by blotting it with a used napkin that had bits of cake on it, permanently ruining them— "Saw you on campus and that you weren't looking well, like you haven't been sleeping."

Soledad, as far as I was concerned, was a nemesis. She had been awful the moment we moved to live here for good since I was a couple months older than her and took back the position of eldest cousin. I managed a less confused smile. "I'm a grad student, sometimes it gets stressful. Besides, you know how she is. She's filled with the bad chisme and she's been trying to get me in trouble since we were kids." Bait set. Abuela's expression started to look like she was considering the source. "I just wish she could let things go so we could move on with our lives. We're both adults now." Just enough contriteness.

Abuela nodded. "You're right," she said, finally. "She needs more to do besides looking after her children. Being cooped up in that house of hers isn't helping, no?"

It was my win this time, at least for now. Soledad and her country club membership-having husband would have to try harder.

I let the gossip wash over me when my aunt arrived and we got seated in a booth.

I was going to have to get it together somehow before someone more reliable found out and passed it on.

This chapter went up a couple weeks back on AO3 and I had been so busy the last couple weeks I hadn't realized I hadn't uploaded it here yet. Sorry for the delay!