"Every strike you make against me is fuel to the fire that will consume you."

Madara Uchiha, the Apostate, shortly before his desertion.

-O-

Sakura woke up relaxed and refreshed. The sky was almost unbearably blue and she heard birds chirping in the trees.

"Nice to see you're not sleeping the whole day away," Sasuke said.

She could tell from his tone that he didn't really mean it. Perhaps he was still off-balance because of yesterday's events, she realised, holding back a giggle. Who'd have thought that Sasuke would be more emotional than her?

"I figured I couldn't leave you three without supervision any longer," Sakura replied, grinning. "Hey, Naruto, Kakashi, are you guys around?"

"Yup," Kakashi said quietly from right behind her and for crying out loud, why did he have to keep doing that? "After breakfast, let's have another little chat, alright? Just to make sure you're doing okay."

"I'm fine. Honestly, you need to just relax a bit." Sakura took a deep breath, enjoying the faint smell of forest, but he kept watching her with one inscrutable eye. "Oh! You mentioned breakfast, right?"

"Over here," Naruto called from next to a small campfire. It was some sort of bland porridge, but after she added nuts and dried fruit she quite enjoyed it. She scarfed down the first bowl but took her time with the second.

"You're chirpy today," Sasuke remarked.

"Yes, she is," Kakashi said. "And our conversation will have to wait, because in about two minutes we'll be getting visited by Team Eight."

"How do you know?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi's face was a stern mask. "Beyond a certain point, it's futile to ask how a jounin knows something."

Naruto snorted. "Cut the crap. If you don't want to tell us, just say so."

"In that case... I smell one adult and three children in the forest over there. Their position and speed tell me when they'll arrive. Two smell like women, and another is an Inuzuka with a dog. There's only one squad like that in Konoha."

"Wow." Naruto spoke for all three of them in that moment, Sakura thought.

"Now ask yourselves this: if I can know all that over such a distance, how much do I know about you three?" Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "Sometimes it's better not to ask questions. You might get answers, after all."

They waited in silence after that, contemplating the futility of keeping secrets in a ninja village. Well, Sakura did, anyway. Probably the others were thinking along similar lines, she decided.

"Yo!" Kiba shouted as he leapt into the centre of their camp. "Fancy meeting you lot out here."

"Hey Kiba," Naruto said, his smile like a sunbeam. The rest of Kiba's team landed around him, Akamaru perching on his head. "Hey Hinata, Kurenai, Akamaru... Shino."

Sakura smiled shyly at them. She didn't know any of Team Eight that well, since she'd been mostly focused on Ino and Sasuke at the Academy, but she could at least match names to faces. Kurenai's appearance was new to her, though. The jounin looked fairly young and vaguely maternal, like a cool aunt or something. It was also completely unfair how pretty she was, to the point that her face was almost like a painting.

Kurenai and Kakashi glanced at each other, and then Kakashi clapped his hands. "Right! That's enough catching-up. Today, you genin are all going to learn a very valuable skill, and that's how to climb trees."

Kurenai raised her hand to silence Naruto and Kiba, who had both started babbling about how they already knew how to climb trees, they were really good ninja, and so on and so forth.

"Observe." She strolled towards the nearest large tree, a smooth conifer free of branches, and continued walking at the same unhurried pace up the side of the trunk. "The trick is–"

"–Now that's pretty cool!" Kiba shouted over her. Sakura expected him to get yelled at, but Kurenai just smiled serenely.

"Now you lot try," Kakashi said, pulling his book out of a pocket. "Good luck."

Kurenai gestured them all closer to her, rolling her eyes at her fellow jounin. "Here's some advice. Focus your chakra into your feet – use a hand seal to help, if you like – and stick your feet to the treetrunk to walk up. If you overload the technique it will blow up in your face, literally. And running up can help you get higher."

Sakura had been walking on air ever since last night, and she wasn't surprised in the slightest when she took two, three, four steps up the tree, and kept going. It got easier as she climbed. A little chakra to reinforce her back and stomach, and she didn't even need to tense her muscles much. She reached the top and turned around to see six shocked faces.

Kakashi simply nodded, unconcerned. "Kurenai, I would appreciate it if you took Sakura aside and gave her some genjutsu guidance. She's obviously talented when it comes to chakra manipulation." When Kurenai agreed, Sakura strode back down the tree, trying to ignore the stares from the other genin.

"Way to go, Sakura!" Naruto said, patting her on the back as she walked past.

Sasuke didn't say anything.

As she followed Kurenai a short way into the trees, she heard Kakashi telling the others to get back to practising unless they wanted to fall even further behind her. She blushed a little at the thought of Sasuke seeing her as a worthy rival, but at the same time she wanted him to like rather than challenge her.

They found a few boulders to sit on, and Kurenai started talking – lecturing, really – about genjutsu. "Genjutsu is the manipulation of someone else's chakra pathways to induce phantom images, or the creation of non-solid chakra constructs that project those images physically. These two disciplines are... yes, Sakura?"

Sakura lowered her hand again. "Um, I already know all this. I'm not a complete novice."

"Then show me what you can do." Kurenai said shortly. Sakura realised she should have been a bit more diplomatic with her interruption.

She formed the necessary handseals for her own illusion, the one that had allowed her to sneak up on the female chunin yesterday. The one that was supposed to keep her safe. Since she'd experimented on Naruto, it had slowly become more potent, although she knew she could do more to perfect it.

Sakura sent out thin strands of chakra that landed, feather-soft, on her target. She met Kurenai's eyes for a second, and with that one instant where she knew exactly what Kurenai was seeing – after all, it was the same picture Sakura saw in the mirror every day – Sakura had a starting point. She gently drew Kurenai's attention towards her peripheral vision. Whatever faint movement was happening there would suddenly seem much more pressing than the dull and unimportant scene in front of Kurenai.

The genjutsu didn't work on the jounin, of course. Sakura wasn't that capable – yet, anyway. Kurenai kept looking straight at her, and after a few seconds, Sakura felt the technique break. She wasn't sure how it had been dispelled; it was a completely different way of countering illusions, like gently brushing aside her chakra without having to really touch it, and Kurenai hadn't even needed handseals.

"That was definitely interesting, to say the least. I assume you're trying to conceal yourself?"

Sakura nodded, brow furrowed. It was almost as though Kurenai had severed the connection, which should have been impossible... unless she could see the chakra. Their eyes met, green against red, and Sakura thought she understood.

"And I'm guessing it isn't working properly?"

Sakura nodded again. "I can do it if it's only one person, and if they're not already paying attention to me, but otherwise it only distracts them. I'm not really sure how to improve it from there."

"I'm fairly sure you won't find a way to improve it." Kurenai smiled sympathetically. "It's not something that–"

"–In that case, I'll make a way," Sakura interrupted, and found she meant it. In that moment, she would have happily taken on the entire world. Confidence filled her to the point that it overcame her nerves at interrupting her tutor, which was a heady feeling.

But Kurenai laughed, a free and happy sound, and Sakura scowled. The last thing she wanted was another doubter.

"Don't look so offended, please. That wasn't aimed at you. It's just that you remind me of, well, me when I was younger. By all means, make a way. I'd love to see it if you manage it. But there've been a lot of attempts in the past, and no-one's figured out a way to get that particular trick to work. There are invisibility techniques, hiding techniques, camouflage techniques... but they all have counters, like the Byakugan. Theoretically, you could get the human mind to not notice you at all. In practice, it doesn't work that way." Kurenai shrugged, as though she hadn't just ruined Sakura's hopes of safety.

"I guess it does seem incredibly strong. It's almost unrealistic, in a way." Sakura was sinking back down to earth now, and she hated losing that sense of weightlessness. Why couldn't she just get an instant win technique while she was still a genin? Then she realised she was starting to sound like Naruto. She shuddered.

"Which is why it's worth pursuing, despite how hard it would be to achieve," Kurenai continued without a trace of a smile. being serious now, vermilion eyes staring out of a ghostly face and straight into Sakura's soul. Sakura wondered whether that was a genjutsu. "You know the main weakness of illusions – to properly spoof someone else's senses, either you need to be really familiar with the fake image or see it as you make it."

"And so if I wanted someone to think they were tied up, I'd need to put the same illusion on myself. So that I also feel all the little details, and make sure they're right," Sakura said. Going over Academy lessons, even advanced lessons, was a complete waste of time. She already knew all this, and Kurenai should know that. Sakura had expected much more from a jounin genjutsu specialist.

Kurenai continued talking."Unless you're so familiar with your illusion that you no longer need that crutch, that's basically correct. Imagine if you made someone think they were chained up, but the metal had the texture of wood. They'd immediately know it wasn't real." Sakura forced down the urge to roll her eyes, and kept listening, looking for scraps of meaning she might have missed the first time around.

"But if you hide yourself, it's not a double-edged sword. You care about seeing them, and they care about seeing you, so the symmetry is broken. You understand?"

"I... think so," Sakura said. Either Kurenai was talking about something completely obvious, or Sakura was entirely missing some complex detail. She'd have to think about it some more.

Kurenai grinned. "Don't worry, you'll figure it out eventually. And I can definitely give you some broader help with genjutsu, even if this particular project of yours isn't likely to bear fruit anytime soon. For example, there are a few tricks to getting smoke to look right..."

-O-

"This is hard," Naruto whined. No, he corrected, he wasn't whining. He was the future Hokage and he was giving a slacking jounin some valuable feedback on his training regimen. "Can't we do something better?"

He took another run at his stupid tree, with its stupid bark and stupid trunk and stupid leaves, and managed a mere five yards before sliding off. At least he was making steady progress, even if it was slow.

"You planning on giving up?" Kiba taunted from the next tree along. His best run so far was only half a foot higher than Naruto's, and Naruto noted with bitter satisfaction that he was closing the gap.

"Naruto never gives up!" Hinata shouted. She was slightly further away, but flinched away and hunched her shoulders as everyone turned to look at her. She was near the top of her tree but was struggling with a particularly smooth part of the trunk.

Naruto grinned at her. "You've got that much right. I'm gonna make it to the top, and that's a guarantee." He tried once more, getting another step higher before he lost control and tumbled down again.

"Maybe you're right, Naruto," Kakashi said. He turned another page of his book and sipped from a bottle he'd seemingly pulled out of thin air. "Why don't we have a friendly little spar?"

"Sounds fun," Kiba said. Akamaru barked in agreement. Naruto had no idea how much the dog actually understood, but it was probably at least as smart as Kiba. Then again, most dogs were, even regular ones that couldn't use chakra and peed all over the lamppost outside Naruto's apartment.

Shino seemed in favour as well, and even Sasuke looked interested.

"Since Sakura isn't here, we'll do some one-on-one fights. Who's the best at taijutsu on Team Eight?"

Shino and Hinata both turned to look at Kiba. "Definitely me," he boasted, clearly proud of his team's silent endorsement.

"Sasuke, you can go against him. No ninjutsu, no genjutsu, no weapons and no serious injuries. Stay in the clearing. Now start."

Naruto wandered over to Hinata as he studiously avoided looking at Shino. He wasn't talking to the bastard, and in a moment he'd hopefully get to pummel him. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Kiba circled one another, neither willing to move without an advantage.

"So how've you been?" Naruto asked. Hinata startled, clearly not noticing his approach.

Kiba darted forward, and Sasuke stepped back – once, twice – and grabbed Kiba's fist, flipping him back and flat onto the ground. Kiba bounced back to his feet, seemingly unhurt, although Naruto had heard all the breath whoosh out of him.

"I've been fine, mostly. I want to learn some medical techniques soon. And you?"

Sasuke kicked Kiba in the face but took a punch to the ribs in exchange. They grappled for a few seconds, each trying to get a firm grip on the other, then broke apart.

"Yeah, I'm feeling good, ya know? Like, it's a nice day, I get to watch Sasuke take a few hits, and I don't have to act like a civilian anymore. It's sunny, too." And it was true. He really did feel better and yesterday's events seemed a lifetime away, as if they belonged to a completely different Naruto. He felt hungry all of a sudden. "Hey, why are Kurenai's eyes so weird?"

Kiba launched into a jumping kick, which Sasuke blocked with both hands. They traded punches, neither landing a solid blow as Sasuke steadily pushed Kiba back into a corner. Both were breathing heavily now, but Sasuke seemed in better shape.

"I-I don't know... It's a technique she uses, I think. Maybe she makes more blood flow through her eyes? That might make them stronger, and explain why they're red?"

Naruto laughed. "Maybe. I have no idea, really. It's just strange because the rest of her looks so pretty."

"Oh," Hinata mumbled, hands fidgeting in her lap.

Sasuke stumbled and Kiba took the bait, darting forward to take advantage of the fake opening. Sasuke swept his legs out from under him and sent him tumbling. Kiba landed on his face with Sasuke sitting on top of him, ready to rain down punches if needed.

"Sasuke wins," Kakashi declared, sounding bored. "Naruto and... Hinata can fight next."

"What?" Naruto shouted, hands curling into fists at his sides, face flushing red. "I want to fight Shino! He and I have unfinished business!"

"That's another reason to put you against Hinata." Kakashi looked at him like he was an idiot. "I want to see some nice practice here, not a schoolyard feud you haven't put behind you."

"Fine," Naruto muttered with a scowl. "Come on, Hinata. I don't want to hurt you, but I won't go easy on you."

"I should hope not, that would defeat the point." Kurenai walked back into the clearing, Sakura trailing along behind her. "Hinata, this is your chance to impress us. And impress Naruto as well."

The whole situation was infuriating. He was still angry at Shino, and now he couldn't even work out some stress by beating him up. Besides, Sasuke had won his fight, so if Naruto didn't win now, the bastard would have indirectly beaten him. Again.

"Hurry up, Naruto. And don't embarrass Team Seven." Sasuke was clearly back to his usual irritating self. Naruto bit back a choice insult. I'll show him.

Naruto and Hinata faced each other in the middle of the dirt arena. Kakashi put his book away now that Kurenai was back, so that was something nice. She was looking disapprovingly at the open bottle in Kakashi's hand, though. "Same rules – pure taijutsu, stay in the ring, don't injure each other. Go."

Immediately, Naruto focused on Hinata's feet. Those would move before any real attack started, he knew. She sunk into a low stance and made a weird handseal, even though it was supposed to be a taijutsu-only fight. Her eyes bugged out and he took a half-step back in surprise. Nobody else said anything, so he assumed it was allowed for some reason. He could feel the weight of the watchers' stares on his back.

He raised his hands into fists, setting one leg in front of the other. Hinata was quite weak, he remembered from the Academy, so Naruto decided to end the fight quickly. He leapt forward, whipping his back leg around in a powerful kick – and Hinata swayed backwards, letting it pass by. Her hand lashed out, slapping his calf and sending a powerful jolt into his leg.

"What the hell, that was definitely chakra!" he shouted, testing his leg. It burned and was going slightly numb, but it still bore his weight.

Sakura answered his unspoken question. "It counts as taijutsu. It's juken, the traditional Hyuga taijutsu style, that they use because of their bloodline." She frowned at him as he rubbed his leg, trying to get the worst of the pain out.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asked gently, and that bit of pity pushed him just a bit too far.

"I'm fine," Naruto snapped. "Let's get back to it."

"Imagine knowing that little about taijutsu," Kiba shouted, laughing. "Hinata, you're gonna beat this clown, no problem!"

Naruto pushed his anger aside, more determined than ever to win.

He circled Hinata slowly. She turned on her heel, keeping him in her sights. Rather than risk being slowly whittled down, he decided to end the fight with the next exchange of blows. Her hits hurt like hell, but they didn't completely cripple him, so he would just have to power through the pain.

He stepped forward, feinted a kick to Hinata's stomach and instead slammed his foot into the side of her lower thigh, under her guard. She cried out and fell back, and he pushed forward, punching out. So far, so good. She blocked the first blow and he felt that sting again, a flash of pain that made his arm feel watery.

His other fist followed through with a heavy blow that stretched her out on the floor.

In total, it had taken Naruto ten intense seconds to overpower her, but his left arm dangled uselessly at his side. Hinata was unconscious, an ugly bruise already developing on her cheek. She looked so small as she lay sprawled in the dirt.

The victory felt bittersweet.

"I was going to suggest pitting our teams against each other, but it's probably for the best if Hinata sits this one out," Kurenai said.

"She'll be fine," Kakashi drawled. "It's not a serious injury, anyway. She'll ache for a few days but that's all. Like as not, it'll teach her to keep her guard up properly."

That only made Naruto feel worse. "I'll take a break too, I can't feel my leg and my arm doesn't work properly," he volunteered, helping a dizzy Hinata to her feet. He took her hand and she flinched back, just a little. It felt like a punch in the gut.

Kiba scowled at him as he took Hinata's other side. "You've done quite enough. I'll take it from here."

And so Naruto ended up next to Kakashi. A quick 'good job' from Sasuke and a half-hearted 'at least you won' from Sakura, and they moved off to face Shino and Kiba.

"I didn't mean to really hurt her," he told Kakashi as they watched the fight start. "I just got angry. But it's not like I did something I shouldn't have done, either."

Sasuke and Sakura were attempting to surround Shino and Kiba, but it was proving almost impossible. Kiba, at least, was faster than both of them.

Kakashi leant forward, beckoning Naruto close. "Do you want to know why I arranged the spar?"

Naruto nodded.

"So, to get the obvious out of the way – chances to spar against new ninja aren't incredibly common, so it's a good idea to take advantage of them when they come up. More than that, though, I saw you were all having issues with the tree-climbing.

"Meditation improves chakra capacity, as does physical exercise. Chakra is a combination of two energies, after all, and improving one of the ingredients makes the end result stronger. Physical energy increases pretty steadily as you train your body, but when it comes to mental energy, some experiences 'train' it much better than others."

This was a whole new side to Kakashi that Naruto had never seen before. His visible eye sparkled as he lectured away, clearly enjoying himself.

"Meditation is one example, but fighting – especially against other ninja – is the single best way to improve your chakra capacity. In general, more mental energy also makes the chakra easier to control. Right now Team Seven has improved the most out of any team that graduated this year. I know for a fact that none of the other teams have had any combat experience, while Team Seven has fought a life-or-death battle against two chunin. And that was without me present as a safety net, either.

"And that's one of the secrets of chakra. You can see why Konoha doesn't tell everyone – if Sasuke, for example, knew how much his strength could go up if he picked fights all the time, he'd do some really stupid things. But I know I can trust you with this because you'll put the information to good use."

This was what he'd imagined a jounin teacher to be like when he'd first graduated, and the lack of earth-shattering secrets and mystical lore had left him a little bit disappointed. But now he was being trusted with some seriously powerful knowledge. He grinned, feeling the sun on his face.

"So this spar will help us all get better at tree climbing faster?" And I didn't knock out Hinata for no reason other than being annoyed?

"More than that, it will make you better ninja. In the long run, it'll keep you all alive."

-O-

Sasuke spat out a mouthful of saliva and dirt. Sakura helped him up and he nodded at Kiba and Shino, not trusting himself to speak. The fight had gone poorly, with Sakura getting in his way (and, he admitted in the privacy of his own thoughts, him getting in hers). Team Eight minus Hinata, on the other hand, had been impressively coordinated and thoroughly countered him at every turn.

In the end, he and Kiba had reversed their roles - Sasuke was pinned down and Kiba sat on him, whistling cheerfully. Sasuke wasn't happy about it, to say the least.

Sakura was also angry, complaining about what a waste of time this was, how physical spars were for muscle-headed idiots, and so on. He agreed that she was pretty useless in a physical fight, but that was because she refused to put the work in to get better. Shino had been pathetic as well, so it wasn't like she was at a big disadvantage anyway. And 'muscle-headed idiots' – it was as if she'd never seen a real taijutsu master!

"Let's have a break," Kakashi called, moving off into the forest. Kurenai followed him, presumably to discuss something, while the two teams each formed their own three-man circle on opposite sides of the clearing.

Sasuke tuned out Naruto's inane questions about Hinata's eyes and Sakura's exasperated answers. Clearly, despite being weaker individually , Team Eight had something that Team Seven did not. And after his humbling experience with the chunin yesterday, he'd feel a lot better if he could rely on his team more. He'd had a moment of pure terror – just a moment, but it had been bad enough – when he realised that his opponent would outlast him and that he had to rely on Naruto and Sakura to rescue him.

Luckily they'd pulled through, but he didn't want to rely on luck again.

He left the clearing, looking for Kakashi. The ground was mostly bare and Sasuke crept as silently as he could over dirt and loam, enjoying the challenge. After so long without any stealth practice, it was nice to finally feel like a real ninja again. He heard voices from ahead.

Sasuke was still too far away to see Kakashi and Kurenai, but the wind was blowing towards him and carried their voices. They weren't being exactly loud, but he could still hear everything they said.

I'm just going to make sure I'm not bursting in on a private conversation, Sasuke told himself. He knew that in truth, he was simply curious. Besides, they were jounin. There was no way they'd talk about anything incredibly secret out in the open.

"...becoming a problem, you know?" That was Kurenai's voice, and she sounded like she was scolding Kakashi, albeit in a lighthearted way.

"I'm still a better jounin than you, and I'll prove it by the end of this conversation if you don't let me read in peace." Sasuke knew how irritating Kakashi could be, but that was still quite harsh even by his standards. Kurenai, it seemed, didn't care.

"And yet the supposedly better jounin reads porn, drinks too much and goes home with any pretty woman that shows the slightest interest in him." Now she sounded serious, but Kakashi responded with a more amused tone.

"You're right. I remember a chunin from last year that seduced me so she could read some of the rare genjutsu scrolls in my collection."

"And it was incredibly easy." Kurenai sounded almost proud. Sasuke's face was burning with embarrassment. He hadn't meant to hear this kind of conversation! Now, though, there was no way he'd risk them discovering him. He crouched down behind an old oak, listening intently.

"Almost too easy, wouldn't you say?" And that was Kakashi's insufferably smug 'I beat you and we both know it' tone. "You weren't the first or the last to try that on me. And I only 'get taken advantage of' when I want to."

"I got what I wanted, though. I suppose it was... how do I put this? Mutually beneficial in the end. Which it won't be if you let an enemy ninja pull the same trick on you." Kurenai's voice went from amused to stern, and Sasuke was suddenly reminded very vividly of a cat playing with a mouse.

It sounded like Kakashi took a drink, and then he definitely burped. Quite loudly, even. "Thanks for warning me. I'd not considered that enemy ninja might try to take advantage of me. Without your heads-up, I'd be in serious trouble."

"There's no need to be sarcastic." Kurenai was clearly getting annoyed now, and Sasuke knew from experience how infuriating Kakashi could be when he refused to take anything seriously. That whimsical tone he sometimes used had made Sasuke see red on more than one occasion.

"There's every need to be sarcastic. I've been a jounin since before you graduated the Academy. I value your input when it comes to genjutsu because you specialise in that area. But I'll tell you something that's not really common knowledge, if you like. And you don't even need to seduce me for this bit of information."

A few seconds of silence followed where Sasuke tried to get his thoughts in order. Was this really what Konoha's jounin were like, behind the scenes? Scarlet men and women who slept around, got drunk on duty, and argued with each other?

"...Go on," Kurenai said in a guarded tone.

"I've had a higher live-capture bounty than an unsealed Hyuga for the last six years. I'm worth about 400.000 ryo to the right buyer. And I'm still here. You'd bring in, what, five figures? I'm still alive after all this time. Trust that I know what I'm doing." Sasuke was seriously impressed. Kakashi's boasting was quite aggressive, but it fit the man perfectly. And with that high of a bounty, merely surviving inside Fire Country was a near-miracle. That he actually went abroad on missions was–

"When's the last serious mission you went on?" Kurenai was being rude now, clearly shaken.

"It's been a few months, admittedly. But whatever my shortcomings, at least I notice when a genin is listening in. Remember when I threatened to prove I was the better jounin? Sasuke's been stood thataways since around that time, hearing everything." Kakashi still sounded fairly apathetic, but there was an undertone of victory. Sasuke froze.

Two seconds later Kurenai was towering over him, and he realised he'd fallen over backwards.

Her red eyes – almost the exact shade of red as fresh blood – pinned him in place. The beautiful pale face and midnight hair looked almost inhuman as she scrutinised him. He made his face a mask, not sure what she was looking for, but then she smiled and he relaxed a little.

"This conversation was, and will stay, private," she said – no, commanded. He nodded meekly. And then she left.

"Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, definitely not feeling nervous at all after what he'd just heard. He realised he was fiddling with his hands and quickly stuck them behind his back.

Kakashi looked up from his book, his face as vaguely cheerful as always. "What's the matter, Sasuke?"

Rather than admit that he was concerned, and unwilling to discuss the elephant in the metaphorical room, Sasuke just went with his original question. "How come our team isn't as coordinated as Team 8?"

"Well, that's a tough question. At the end of the day, it's down to a lot of different factors. Friendship is a key part of it, of course. Maybe that's all you're missing – the power of friendship."

Sasuke felt his face heat up, and was about to turn and leave, when Kakashi motioned for him to sit down next to him. Sasuke carefully perched on a fallen tree, about ten feet away, and Kakashi sighed.

"I'll tell you a story that might help. It's about a young genin, just like you, who was also on a team that didn't get along well." Kakashi put his book away – Sasuke still didn't know where he kept it – and leant back on the grass, watching the clouds. "Once upon a time, there was a boy called… let's say 'Bakashi'. He was a smart and strong young genin, even becoming the rookie of the year, and all his peers admired him.

"When he was assigned a team, he didn't know how to be nice to them, because everyone else had always accepted his cold aloofness. They loved him anyway, but now he found he didn't know how to be nice, so he hid behind a mask. Of coldness. Not an actual mask, though. That would be silly.

"Anyway, he decided to learn how to be more open and honest. Little did he know, he'd already taken the hardest step – admitting to himself that he had a problem."

Sasuke grunted, now thoroughly annoyed. He didn't know why he'd come to Kakashi in the first place. "I suppose 'Bakashi' was you when you were young, and now that you've grown up into a fine specimen of mental stability and friendliness, I should follow your example?"

"Not at all!" Kakashi said, shaking his head. "'Bakashi' ended up dying in the Chunin Exams with his team-mates, due to a breakdown in team communication. It was tragic. He was on Asuma's first team, you know?"

There was a moment of quiet as the wind blew through the trees, and Kakashi considered the falling leaves with a faraway expression.

"Besides, you know me. I've always been a bit of a bastard, and never really bothered by it."

"…Right." Sasuke wasn't sure what to think or say now.

"Anyway, the break's almost over. You should get back to training, or Kurenai will be annoyed," Kakashi said.

Sasuke got up to leave before Kakashi could drop anything else on him.

"One last thing. If you ever get the chance to have a genjutsu specialist seduce you, it's definitely worth taking. They can give you experiences that aren't physically possible. But just remember that they almost certainly look very different without all those illusions layered on." And with that last comment, Kakashi dismissed him.