"The Uzumaki do not hold back a mighty river with a great dam. We stop the river with the touch of a single feather. Precision over power."

Mito Uzumaki, arguing with the Apostate shortly after the founding of Konohagakure

-O-

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Naruto blinked. "I came over to apologise to you!"

"But I'm the one that embarrassed myself by losing so easily?" Hinata mumbled, looking about as confused as he felt.

"I was too aggressive. I was in a bad mood and let it out on you, and now Kiba and Shino and Kurenai are angry with me, and I feel bad about it." Oops. He hadn't meant to mention Hinata's team pressuring him to apologise.

She was quiet for a moment, and he wondered what she was thinking of. Her voice was low but steady when she spoke. "Look, when we spar, we're training for real fights. The harder we train, the more likely it is we win later. That's why I feel bad for not doing well – I took away your chance to improve. And that's why you shouldn't feel guilty. Besides," she smiled, "it's an opportunity for me to practice some healing techniques."

Naruto scratched his head, not sure when he'd lost control of the conversation. "Erhm, well, I guess that's good?"

"Yes," Hinata said, her lips quirking up at the corners. "It's the one thing I'm good at and enjoy."

"Nah, you're good at loads of things! You have super cool eyes, and you can do special taijutsu, and you're better at tree-climbing than me." This topic was more familiar ground, and Naruto felt something in his chest loosen a bit as Hinata looked at him gratefully. "Believe it! You're gonna be a great ninja when you put all your talents together."

"Oi!" Kakashi called over from where he was leaning against a boulder, watching the other genin cling to trees. "Enough slacking off, get back to training!"

"He's pretty much an asshole, but he means well. I think, anyway," Naruto told Hinata earnestly. "But I really wanna catch up to Sasuke, so I'd better get back to it."

"Sure. And... thanks." Hinata walked over to her own tree and they both made another attempt to reach the canopy.

Naruto soon lost track of how many times he'd tried. It was hard work and he was developing a headache, but each time he managed to climb a little higher, he felt good. He felt powerful.

The soft dirt was slowly being churned up by his footprints as he wore a groove into the ground. Naruto was starting to recognise some of the crevices in the bark; he'd clung to them enough times for them to become familiar. He put one foot in front of the other, attaching and releasing in a steady rhythm. Step after step he climbed, powering through the wobbles, until his foot slipped and he fell back down. Landing on his feet was gradually becoming second nature.

Naruto figured if he complained about the lack of teaching from Kakashi, the man would claim that learning to fall properly was part of the training. The man had a habit of being slippery like that.

So instead he tried again, and again, and again. It was hypnotic. He was ready to go on forever, until all of a sudden an outstretched hand was blocking his path.

"Naruto? We're stopping for the day. Weren't you paying attention?" Kakashi looked a little concerned, and that was enough to set alarm bells ringing for Naruto.

"I can do a little more," he protested, but his heart wasn't in it. When had it started to get dark?

Naruto started to walk to where the others were sitting around a small campfire, eating bowls of soup, but Kakashi pulled him aside. "I've seen people – good ninja – who used training to forget about traumatic events. It's a better coping mechanism than some others, but in the long run, it will destroy you just as surely as drink or drugs." Naruto caught a whiff of alcohol on Kakashi's breath and shivered a little.

And then Kakashi smiled, his one eye crinkling up. "Just bear it in mind, okay? It's better to talk about it than bottle it up. But if you just want to train some more, and maybe catch up to the others, that's fine. Just make sure it's for the right reasons."

Kakashi's soup was more of a stew, really. Naruto scarfed down three bowls one after the other, lingering over the fourth to just enjoy the taste. It was much better than his own attempts to cook, he had to admit, even if it didn't look like much. Kakashi didn't much care about presentation – apparently that extended to his cooking as well.

After he'd finished eating, Kiba said, "Man. Three months ago we were still at the Academy. Now we're all genin, out travelling the world."

"Some of us are better than others, though," Sakura sniped at him. Kiba stuck his tongue out at her, and Naruto started laughing.

"I used to think being a genin was about training to be a better ninja," Sasuke said. Naruto could just about hear him over the crackling of the flames and the sounds of the forest. "I guess it is, but not like I thought. Like, if I were put in charge of a mission right now, I'd have no idea what to do."

"Who'd put you in charge of a mission?" Naruto asked, trying to get a rise out of his team-mate. Sasuke was looking all introspective and depressed, and a nice argument could shake him loose. "Maybe if the stew had some bad meat in it, and everyone was throwing up and couldn't do anything, and you were the last one standing. Even then, I'd take Akamaru over you."

Akamaru barked in agreement – or at least that was what Naruto assumed the barking meant.

Sasuke interrupted, seeming keen to finish his thought. "But after the last few missions with Kakashi, I thought I'd be less clueless than when I was a new genin. And that after a few more missions, I'd be able to lead some on my own."

"Then you'll train your own squad, and not help out with D-ranks, and read porn all the time, and drink on the job..." Naruto clasped his hands together, theatrically peering at a brighter tomorrow.

"Shut up, Naruto," Sasuke said, but he was struggling to hold back his own laughter.

Hinata filled the break in the conversation. "I'd like it if I had more chances to learn medical things. I'm not very good at genjutsu, but I like healing people. And I really like Kurenai. She's kind, and she cares about us, and puts lots of effort into training us well."

"And she's super hot!" Kiba interrupted. "Like, seriously. How is that even possible?"

Sakura leant in, gesturing for them to come closer. "She's using genjutsu to cheat. Watch." Her face bulged outwards until it resembled the proportions of Kurenai's own head, her hair lengthening and changing colour too. Her skin turned pallid.

Naruto shuddered and looked away, but after a few moments his curiosity overwhelmed his disgust and he watched her again. Shino wordlessly handed Sakura a mirror. She looked into it and tweaked her illusion, warping her face until it was less nightmare-inducing. In fact, Naruto thought, she looked beautiful, with a pale porcelain face offset by deep green eyes.

It was almost enough to make him forget the corpse-like creature she'd been a scant few seconds ago.

"Know what?" Kiba said. "Even if it's not real, Kurenai's still really hot. It's just, I don't know, special makeup or something."

"She's definitely better-looking than Kakashi, that's for sure, and probably a better teacher to boot," Sakura agreed, letting the genjutsu fade away.

Naruto felt defensive of their, he admitted in the privacy of his own mind, objectively mediocre instructor. "Kakashi's not bad, just weird. And some of his training sessions are great, even though Sasuke doesn't always show up."

"I was doing some private training," Sasuke said sternly. Naruto snorted.

Hinata leant over and stage-whispered in Naruto's ear. "He means when he and Ino go and–"

"Hey, I can still hear you!" Sasuke interrupted, flustered now. "It's nothing like that, we just train together. As friends."

"Wait, you and Ino train together?" Sakura's voice grew more shrill. "And you didn't tell me?"

"I saw them going to Sasuke's house once–" and Hinata shut up as Sasuke made shushing gestures, but it was too late.

"So," Naruto said over the sound of Sakura arguing with Sasuke, "what are you guys doing here?"

"We had a mission to deliver something, but we're on our way back now," Shino replied. "And you?"

Naruto didn't want to start an argument, so he tried to put aside his dislike of Shino. "We had a mission too, but it went kinda wrong. Turns out the guy we were supposed to frame for smuggling was secretly trading slaves."

Hinata gasped and Kiba looked furious. Shino never showed emotions anyway, so Naruto wasn't too surprised when he just sat there, as placid as ever.

"Yeah. We got him anyway, but he had two Suna-nin as guards. We had to fight them off before we came here."

Kiba looked impressed. "We still haven't seen Kurenai fight. Did Kakashi kick their asses? What does a jounin look like when they're fighting?"

"Kakashi wasn't there. It was just us three," Naruto gestured at the members of Team Seven, "I think if we hadn't surprised them, they could have..."

In that moment it hit him again; the terror, the uncertainty, the shock of narrowly-avoided death. The events played out again in his mind - broken pictures, moments frozen in time. Sakura had a kunai stuck in her head, and it wouldn't go away. Blood dripped down onto Kiho's corpse, a red so deep it looked black. Sasuke looked on with the same expression he'd had then, his eyes dark pools in his pale face. There was so much anger, almost enough of it to hide his terror.

"Are you alright?" Hinata asked. Naruto blinked a few times and stood up, his hands trembling at his sides. He needed to be alone.

"Sorry guys. I'm gonna take a walk." He left the circle of firelight, nodding to Sakura and Sasuke.

"–just because you're my teammate doesn't mean you get dibs on me or something, like what the hell?"

"But you could have told me that you and my best friend were sneaking around together!"

Their voices faded away as he slowly made his way into the woods, following the sounds of a stream. He sat on the ground next to a small waterfall, trying to wrest his emotions back under control.

It was calm and peaceful here, and he focused on his breathing. Soon the gasping sobs of air he'd been taking in were replaced with a regular inhale and exhale, and he stood up to go back to the others.

Kakashi walked over to him, handing over Naruto's toothbrush. Naruto knelt next to the stream and brushed his teeth, taking his time. There was something soothing about the mundane task, and he took great pleasure in scraping every surface in his mouth clean. When he was done, Kakashi turned to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "How are you doing?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Naruto replied.

"Okay." That was all Kakashi said, and Naruto was grateful for it. They walked back to the camp together.

"Time for bed, folks," Kurenai said when she saw them arrive. The other genin were already dressed in their pyjamas, and Naruto grabbed his own and got changed in one of the four empty tents.

"Team Seven sleep in here, Team Eight over there," Kakashi said, gesturing at the two larger tents. "No staying up late to talk. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

Naruto crept into one of the sleeping bags laid out on the floor of the tent, quietly grumbling about having to share a tent. There was something nice about sleeping near other people, but he'd be damned if he admitted it. He was already half asleep when he heard Sakura whisper "Are you two still awake?"

"Yes," he whispered back, and "No," hissed Sasuke.

"I'm scared," she murmured. "Not of anything in particular, but just... scared. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yes," Naruto said. "I know."

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "No."

After a few seconds, though, he breathed out a faint "...yes."

Naruto reached out and pulled Sasuke and Sakura closer to him. He wrapped his arms around them both, ignoring Sasuke's quiet protests, and drifted off to sleep with a teammate on each side, held tight, as though they could disappear at any moment.

The next morning, Naruto woke up first. He crept out from between his teammates, feeling warm and happy. More than that, though, he was also filled with an almost overwhelming urge to do something.

Looking at the two of them, deep in sleep, he knew that – no matter what – he'd protect them both. And to do that, he needed to be stronger.

By the time Sasuke and Sakura left the tent, Naruto had gained another two yards and was more than halfway up the towering pine that had defied him yesterday. They ate breakfast together with Team Eight again; they were much quieter now that the jounin were around. Naruto found that he missed the easy camaraderie of yesterday.

It was nice to feel like he belonged.

After eating, Kurenai took her genin and left, going back to Konoha. Naruto waved goodbye before going back to work.

"How long are we staying here?" Sakura asked Kakashi, and Naruto slid back down, wanting to hear the answer.

Kakashi had his book out again now that Kurenai was gone, and Naruto shook his head, exasperated. The man was a complete pervert. "I don't want to have to walk back to Konoha, so we're staying until you three have learned to travel via the trees. This way's quicker in the long run, anyway. But the earliest we're leaving is tomorrow noon because I'll need to go tie up some loose ends this evening."

Sasuke nodded and ran up 'his' tree. Naruto was about to do the same when he realised that Sakura and Kakashi were still talking.

"I can already climb trees. What should I do?" she asked, slightly impatient. Naruto wished he had the same problems as her - it must be nice to run out of things to do, he thought.

Kakashi scratched his chin through his mask. "I was thinking I'd gather some extra food, since I have a bit of time. I'll show you some of the basics of foraging and hunting."

"Can I come?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I can do more chakra control training on my own, but I can only learn special jounin hunting skills from you."

Kakashi considered it for a moment but then shook his head. "Getting you and Sasuke mobile is more important right now. I'll teach you two when you're both that far, whether it's during this mission or the next one."

It made sense, but that didn't mean Naruto had to like it. He made another attempt, the tinge of anger he felt throwing him off a little. He was just a few steps off the ground before his chakra control failed. Once his emotions were disturbed enough to hinder his tree-climbing, the situation would feed on itself, spiralling out of control. He knew it from bitter experience. Naruto sat down, trying to calm himself with deep breaths.

It was going to be a long morning.

-O-

The sounds of Naruto's frustration faded away behind them as Sakura followed Kakashi deeper into the forest. He strolled over to a tall elm, then up the trunk and stood on a wide branch, waiting for her. She did the same, and they looked around at the other nearby trees.

Kakashi hopped to another tree, lightly touching down on a thick limb. Sakura did the same, sticking herself to the landing spot as soon as her feet touched down so she wouldn't fall. He hopped onwards, and she followed, keeping pace as he sped up. Soon they were hurtling through the forest, leaping from branch to slender branch. It was a heady feeling.

Leaves and twigs whipped past Sakura's head as she hurtled through the forest. Her heart was racing as she tried to keep Kakashi in her sights. All she could make out amongst the foliage was a small speck of silver-grey that stayed tantalisingly out of reach. For a single heart-stopping moment she fumbled a landing, but then she bounced off the side of another tree limb and recovered.

After that, Sakura settled into an almost meditative rhythm. She enjoyed the spectacular view as she travelled. Once Kakashi stopped on a thick branch, she dropped into a crouch next to him, just a little out of breath. Her legs were burning but it was the nice kind of burn. She was feeling the aftermath of a pleasant run rather than a panicked sprint.

"That was fun!"

Kakashi smiled. "Yeah, it's one of the perks of being a ninja."

Sakura agreed. The speed, the power, and the sheer freedom felt incredible. "How far did we come, anyway?"

"Probably around five miles in ten minutes. You can see why it's so useful." Kakashi jumped down to the ground, and Sakura followed him by walking down the side of the tree.

"So we're hunting and foraging, right?" Apart from long-faded deer tracks and the occasional sign of a rabbit burrow nearby, Sakura couldn't see anything to eat, but she trusted Kakashi to point anything relevant out to her.

Kakashi nodded. "I want to start by seeing how much you know already. So have a look around, take your time, and tell me what you'd do if you needed supplies."

She peered at the faint path on the ground, trying to spot any fresh tracks. There! Some sort of small hooves had passed by, going towards... Sakura concentrated on her ears for a moment and heard the distant sounds of water splashing over stone... the stream to drink. She could follow the tracks and maybe hunt down the deer. Kakashi nodded as she told him what she'd noticed, firing up her pride, until he punctured it with two sharp words.

"What else?"

Looking more closely at the path didn't bring any new insights, so she looked around the forest. There was a rabbit track running through the brush, and she could rig a wire snare there. A few bushes would hold berries in the autumn, but they were only blooming at the moment. The stream would have some sort of fish, perhaps some freshwater shrimp or crayfish as well.

"What else?"

One of the trees was a birch, and during the spring it could be tapped for fresh tree sap. Sakura had tried some once before, and it was sweet and energy-packed. The bark was useful as tinder in case she needed to start a fire. There were a few plants with edible leaves, but they would need to be washed and cooked first.

"That's good, but I think we're starting to hit the limits of what you know," Kakashi said, "so I'm going to tell you the single most effective way to hunt. Yes, it's good to have good observational skills and know how to recognise spoor, and spot edible plants, but what you should be doing is hunting efficiently. We have a few hours, and so you can afford to look for the lazy way to do things."

Sakura frowned. "What do you mean?"

"There's a path here, but it's not made by humans. Look at the low branches hanging over it – this is an animal track leading to the stream you heard earlier. That means there'll be plenty of game coming through here, although I expect most of that will be at dawn and dusk. The smart way to get food would be to wait here for something to come through and then kill it. You're pretty much guaranteed to have a deer, or maybe a water buffalo, pass by in the next hour."

If she'd had a notebook with her, she'd be writing this down, Sakura thought. Perhaps she should write a reminder to herself to bring writing materials next time? Then she caught herself and laughed.

"So you're not teaching me how to track, or anything? This is just some hunting, and not 'hunting but also teaching you important lessons about ninja techniques'?" Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. She wished she was more surprised, but Kakashi's teaching was always pretty flaky. Sometimes she would walk away with a whole new understanding of something important. And sometimes… sometimes he was like this.

He nodded. "You'll learn all that other stuff too at some point, but I'll teach you when Naruto and Sasuke are around. I don't want to go over everything twice. For now, let's just wait in the trees and see if anything comes by."

And that was Kakashi in a nutshell. Talented and lazy and unconcerned with what she thought of him.

Sakura slipped into the crown of a nearby beech, and Kakashi sat on the branch next to her. He stretched and pulled his book out again, but his nose twitched occasionally and she realised he was trying to smell out anything approaching their position.

She settled into a comfortable position – as comfortable as she could be while halfway up a tree, at least – that gave her a good view of the killing ground right below her. The thought of a deer wandering past, unaware of its impending doom, wasn't exciting enough to stop her from zoning out after a few minutes.

Rather than risk falling asleep, Sakura played around with some genjutsu. She had a small pocket mirror with her and spent a solid quarter of an hour messing around with her nose. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her when she overlaid her real, slightly stubby, nose with a majestic elephant's trunk but she just giggled.

Eventually, she got bored of making her face as outrageous as possible and tried sculpting it into something beautiful. She let the illusion fade for a moment to look at the base material she was working with - a too-wide forehead, pointed chin, angular nose, narrow lips, pudgy cheeks, and a base complexion that was somehow both too pale and too dark. Sakura got to work fixing herself, moving from her skin to her mouth and then her nose.

She was halfway through deciding whether or not she wanted to quirk the end up when she spotted a wild boar trotting along the path. Its trunk was almost shaped like a teardrop. The thick bands of muscle around the neck and shoulders made it hard to find a mortal blow, but Sakura was already running through other plans for quickly and effectively dispatching it.

Beside her, Kakashi shifted a little but kept reading. His gaze flickered over to her and she nodded. It was reassuring to have someone who could step in if she messed up, but she didn't think it'd be necessary.

She stowed her mirror away, careful to make as little noise as possible, and drew a pair of kunai. As the boar passed under her branch, Sakura hurled the first knife straight at the centre of its back with all her might. The tip of the heavy kunai went through the creature's spine, and it squealed in pain and shock – an almost human sound, Sakura thought detachedly. She dropped down next to it and flipped it onto its back, deftly avoiding the flailing forelegs. Its rear half was paralysed by her first attack, and so she slit its throat without any issues.

A spurt of dark blood rushed out as she sliced open the boar's windpipe and the surrounding arteries. As it bled out, its kicks faded and eventually stopped altogether. Kakashi landed next to her when the beast was still. "Good job."

He carried it back to their temporary camp in silence, hefting it by one leg as he dashed through the treetops. Sakura followed him again, but she found it easier than on the outward journey. She would have enjoyed it more, she thought, if she'd had a chance to wash the thick and meaty gore from her hands.

Once they were a few hundred yards away, Kakashi stopped and used a short length of rope to hang the carcass from a tree, its head pointing downwards. He made a few more cuts around the head and soon there was a steady trickle of blood falling to the forest floor.

"It needs to drain," he said in response to her unspoken question. "We'll come back and finish in a few hours. Let's get cleaned up before we walk into camp, though."

They rinsed the blood off at a nearby stream. She broached a subject she'd been thinking about for a while. "Did you leave a scroll for me a few weeks ago? With training exercises? I thought it might have been one of the Academy instructors, but it didn't fit. I know of a few other people that got them too, and I wondered if it was from our jounin teachers."

Her hopes were dashed by Kakashi's answer, which was accompanied by his full attention and a complete lack of humour. "What scroll?"

Sakura told him about how she'd found a scroll full of training advice and a few techniques. "It was really helpful, actually, as though the person who made it knew what sorts of things I'd be good at." Kakashi didn't say anything until she was finished.

He sighed. "It sounds like someone's taken a special interest in you, for whatever reason. I'm going to tell you something that you shouldn't have to find out like this – not this early and not in this setting. Promise me you'll keep this a secret."

"I promise." Sakura twisted her hands into the hem of her dress. Her mouth was dry.

"Not everyone in Konoha is after the same goals. There are political factions and, since they're made of up ninja, sometimes there are darker methods at work. If someone ever tries to recruit you for something and tries to use that scroll as leverage, you don't owe them anything. You didn't ask for it and you weren't told of any conditions when you received it." Kakashi frowned for a moment. "And tell me. If they won't back off, I'll make them."

"Should I get rid of it?" Sakura was willing to burn the thing if it was that serious, usefulness be damned.

"That's probably not necessary. Let me look it over, and I can tell you whether it's good advice, but maybe it's just someone trying to make you favourably inclined towards them. Although it's still very strange... are you sure that there wasn't a name or something anywhere?"

"Definitely not." Sakura's voice was firm. "I've double- and triple-checked."

Kakashi nodded. "I assume the scroll is in Konoha?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we'll have to wait until we get back to deal with it. It doesn't change anything in the short-term, but I think I'll have to do a bit of snooping around as to what's going on. But don't worry too much about it – I'll sort it out."

Sakura let out a long, slow breath. Having a jounin take her seriously, and offer to help, relaxed her. "So, since Naruto and Sasuke probably haven't figured out tree-climbing yet, what should I do while I wait for them to catch up?"

"What do you want to do?" Kakashi asked, smiling at her.

"Umm... what do you think is best?"

He rubbed his chin. "Sasuke can throw masses of fire around, and Naruto has his clones. They also both have better taijutsu than you. I'm not going to waste time beating around the bush – you're better off focusing on something else, like genjutsu, than trying to match their strengths directly."

Kakashi formed a handseal, strode over to the stream, and then kept walking until he was standing on the surface of the water. "This is a chakra control exercise, but it's also the first step for a lot of water techniques. Water-based ninjutsu is incredibly versatile, and elemental training is very hard so giving you an early start is a good idea."

"...Right." Nothing practical in a fight, then, but Sakura supposed that at the very least it was an impressive-looking skill. "So how does it work?"

"Anyway, good luck!" And Kakashi took off, heading back to the camp.

Sakura muttered angrily under her breath about unreliable jounin. For a lack of something better to do, though, she considered the problem. It was a chakra-based technique, and Kakashi had used a dog seal to channel it. That made a lot of sense; that handseal was associated with water techniques.

She formed the same seal and channelled a little chakra through it. Forcing the resulting mixture to her feet, she stepped onto the surface of the water – and broke through, soaking herself up to her knees.

After getting out, Sakura took a moment to think. To start with, though, she took her sandals off and set them aside to dry. She also hiked up her skirt so it wouldn't get any damper if she fell in again.

There must have been some trick to what Kakashi had done. She'd rather not make another attempt until she had an idea, so she thought hard about the possible mechanics of walking on water.

It might be related to tree-climbing, for a start. Well, it had to be linked somehow, because both techniques involved channelling chakra via her feet onto a surface she couldn't normally walk on. Perhaps she should try to stabilise the water somehow? She could maybe raise the surface tension, turning the stream into a solid platform.

A quick test and immediate soaking moved that plan to the bottom of her list of ideas. Sakura supposed she couldn't expect to succeed immediately, but it was still annoying.

What about trying to solidify the water in all directions? It would be much more stable, for a start. This time Sakura didn't put her full weight on her foot, instead slowly putting more and more pressure on it as she built up a stronger mass of water under her. Nevertheless, try as she might, she sunk into the dense fluid. It had worked a bit, she could tell, because the water had felt more like jelly and Sakura hadn't gone down quite as fast as before.

Sakura flopped onto the bank of the stream, dispirited but unwilling to give up. If Kakashi had just given her even a little bit of advice, it would be so much easier. She wanted to hit something, to break something. Instead, she let out a calming breath and her anger fled as swiftly as it had come, although her frustration remained.

The problem was that she couldn't make the water firm enough to stand on without staggering amounts of chakra. Maybe she could also push out a stream of chakra to force herself back up? After another five minutes of fruitless searching for alternate ideas, she decided to test it.

It turned out to be impossible for her to stabilise the water and simultaneously push herself up, but it didn't matter. The water stabilisation step was unnecessary, she'd found. Now Sakura proudly stood in the stream, feet a mere inch underwater, and held herself there using only a steady flow of chakra from her soles. She laughed aloud at how easy it was.

And then she took a single step and fell flat on her face. She rose from the stream bed, soaked from head to toe, her face a thundercloud.

"Fuck this!" she screamed, punching and kicking at the water. It wasn't like she could get any more drenched, after all.

Sakura stomped back to the campsite, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind her as she hugged her sopping wet clothes to herself. By the time she arrived she was shivering from the cold, her teeth clattering together. Kakashi chuckled as he noticed her bedraggled form hurry past him, and she saw red.

She rushed into the tent and dried herself, then pulled on her last set of clean clothes. When she came outside she hunted down Kakashi, who was motivating Naruto and Sasuke by threatening to not leave them any food if he caught them slacking off.

Sakura was fairly sure he was joking, but wouldn't want to risk it if it were her. From the looks of things, the boys agreed. At least they were making steady progress. Sasuke was almost at the top of his tree, and Naruto was about two body-lengths below him. They'd both be ready to leave by tomorrow, she was sure.

But for now, she had other things to occupy herself with. She walked over to Kakashi, a sweet smile plastered on her face to mask the raging anger underneath. "Kakashi, I have a question. Do you deliberately not give good instructions, or are you just clueless?"

"Well," he said, throwing back a smile as fake as hers, "that seems like a loaded question. Am I a terrible person, or am I a terrible teacher?"

"I got drenched and filthy, and there's no way to get clean until we're back in Konoha, because you gave me no help at all," she hissed, rage spilling over.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, you did. And you learned a valuable lesson from it, or at least I hope you did. I'm willing to bet that next time you try out a new chakra-based technique, you'll be much more careful."

Sakura didn't want to admit he was right, but it did give her pause. "If that's what you wanted to teach me, why not just say that?"

"Teaching isn't the same as telling. Think about it." And Kakashi went back to watching Naruto and Sasuke struggle with tree-climbing.

"...I guess." It had made more of an impact on her, that was for sure. But why would Kakashi avoid telling them anything at all in that case? He never described or explained in any detail. Taijutsu he would correct by nudging them into the right position, and otherwise he tried to get them to learn by doing.

She considered it from another angle. Assume there's something I could learn just from hearing it. Why wouldn't Kakashi simply tell me? And then she finally understood.

"I already know most of the things you could explain to me. That's the whole purpose of the Academy, to cover that stuff, and when we're ready to move on because we've learned it all we become genin. And from then on, we learn by doing, and from practical experience. So you make sure that we definitely remember to be careful with new techniques, because there's jounin with burn scars all over their faces who didn't learn that lesson well enough." Sakura was triumphant, glad to have puzzled it out. On the other hand, she still wanted to punch Kakashi. He winked at her.

"How about you get a fire started? I'm leaving in an hour, but I'll get the meat ready first."

Sakura had soon stoked the coals into a small campfire and started scavenging more firewood from the forest. There were a lot of dead branches on the forest floor, and it didn't take long to have a sizable stack of wood ready. Sparks leapt into the sky as she fed the blaze, building it into something she could spit roast some haunches over.

Kakashi piled up thick slices of boar with a separate stack of ribs and legs. "You won't manage to eat anywhere near all of it. Cook the rest and just set it aside, and I'll feed it to my dogs when I get back. Speaking of, I'll leave you guys with a guard so you don't have to keep watch." He summoned a sleek-looking canine wearing a black ninja coat over silver fur, that dashed off into the undergrowth after a few whispered commands.

"Seeya at noon," he called back over his shoulder. And with that, he was gone.

Sakura started preparing the meat when Naruto came over. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Have you never cooked with fresh meat before?" Sakura asked, incredulous. When he didn't answer, she turned to him. He wasn't making eye contact with her, instead staring at his feet. "Oh. Well, it's like this…"

Naruto was a surprisingly attentive student, and after some quick instruction he was helping her out. "Aren't you worried about catching up to Sasuke?" Sakura asked when he showed no signs of leaving. She did appreciate the help, but occasionally turning a skewer wasn't a task that took two people, and there wasn't anything else left to do.

"I can do it already."

Sakura did a double-take. "Really? But I thought you'd... rub it in, I guess?"

"Nah, there's no need. Besides, it'll piss Sasuke off more if I act like it's no big deal." He shrugged. "He needs to get the stick out of his ass, you know?"

"Naruto, that's a horrible thing to say about your team-mate!" But Sakura couldn't help but giggle. She pulled the first few pieces of meat from the fire, probing them to make sure they were fully cooked. Satisfied, she tore a few shreds of the steaming hot meat off with her teeth.

"Oi, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled. "The first load of food's ready!"

Sasuke was at the top of his own tree, now, and hopping down from branch to branch. When he got close to the fire, however, he blanched and turned away. "I'm not that hungry."

Sakura was about to go after him when Naruto pulled her back. "I don't know what's up, but I think he wants to be alone."

"That's... surprisingly perceptive of you."

Naruto shrugged. "I'm not a complete moron. Besides, Sasuke's not that complicated."

They ate in silence after that, struggling with the strong taste of the wild boar. Sasuke came by and grabbed some dry rations, but none of them said anything. Sakura didn't see where he went after that.

Once the meal was over, Naruto practised his shuriken-throwing and Sakura joined him. She wasn't going to try any more water-related anything until she got back to Konoha and could put on her swimsuit. The hours raced by as they went through the same repetitive motions, time after time.

Throw. The shuriken slammed into the tree-trunk. Check. It was stuck at the edge of the target she'd drawn. Replace. She pulled it out of the trunk, stepped back to the throwing line and threw again.

Apart from occasional breaks to switch the distance and height of the targets, Sakura spent the rest of the evening in a mindless daze of throwing and fetching. Her arms ached by the end, but she was more impressed by Naruto. He'd somehow gone from always hitting the tree to always hitting the target over the course of a few scant hours of practice.

At last, she put her equipment away and sat down with her back against a boulder. She felt tired, both physically and mentally, but the forest looked so peaceful at dusk. The last stray sunbeams lanced between the trees, black as pitch against the blue-grey background of the sky.

"We don't need to set a guard, right?" Naruto asked her. "Kakashi left his dog to take care of that."

All of a sudden the dense undergrowth opposite Sakura looked much more threatening. "Maybe we should take turns keeping watch anyway, just in case?" she asked.

"It's better to rest up for tomorrow," Sasuke said from behind her. She jumped – she hadn't heard him coming at all. Rather than reassure her, he just put her more on edge.

She changed into her pyjamas and lay in her sleeping bag, staring at the canvas roof of the tent. Naruto and Sasuke sprawled out next to – and partly on top of – her, and soon they were drifting off. It was… nice, she supposed, to have that warmth and weight. It was a constant reminder that she wasn't alone.

So were the sounds of the forest, albeit in a much less pleasant way. Every time Sakura's eyes drifted shut, she would hear a faint noise from somewhere outside the tent. She'd look around, as if sheer force of will could let her see through the canvas and to the soft sound she'd subconsciously identified as a threat. She couldn't help herself.

With her nerves soon in tatters, and no closer to falling asleep, she took to fiddling with her hair. Any distraction was better than worrying about what would happen if an enemy ninja found them. Kakashi wasn't there, and his dog couldn't offer the same level of protection. Sakura put a second kunai under her pillow for easy access.

Eventually she gave up and just sat outside on a tree limb, wrapping herself in a blanket. She stared out at the moon-drenched canopy and cursed Kakashi for leaving them in the forest, and herself for not being able to handle it. She fiddled with the knife in her hands.

"Hey," Sasuke called up to her. She almost fumbled the knife but caught it just in time.

"Hey," she replied.

He scrambled up next to her, perching on the same branch. "Can't sleep?"

"Am I that obvious?" she asked, bitterness evident in her voice no matter how much she tried to stop it. "You probably think I'm pathetic."

"Hey, I know we don't always get along. And I know I'm...not that nice. But you're not pathetic."

"But I can't sleep because I'm too scared. I bet Ino doesn't have that issue." Sakura was scowling now.

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "Ino's got her own problems. Besides, she's from Konoha, too. You're on the same side, so you don't need to measure yourself against her. Even then, I think you'd win."

"You'd know, wouldn't you?" She wanted to sound teasing, but couldn't quite stop her anger from leaking. She'd given up Ino's friendship over Sasuke, and now that she'd finally gotten it back it might have cost her the love of her life.

"We're just friends," Sasuke said, and he wasn't defensive or angry anymore, just tired.

Sakura swallowed her disappointment. "We're friends too, I hope. And I'd be a pretty shitty friend if I tried to tell you who you can and can't spend time with." It hurt, being the bigger person like that. But Sakura knew she'd do it again in a heartbeat, if only for the grateful look Sasuke shot her.

She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. She'd finally got some real, positive, emotions out of her childhood crush. And she'd managed it by giving him the go-ahead to spend time with her rival for his affections.

She choked back a hysterical sob – once she started crying she wouldn't be able to stop, she knew.

But then Sasuke wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in for a hug, and everything was alright again. She didn't know how long it lasted, but while he held her she felt every muscle in her body lose the tightness that had plagued her for the past few days.

She felt safe.

"Oh, look. There's Naruto," Sasuke said, and she snapped back to attention. Sakura saw Naruto look around outside the tent for a moment before spotting them. He waved and clambered up as well.

"I guess none of us can sleep," Sakura mumbled in place of a greeting.

Naruto looked stern as he faced them, dark bags under his eyes. The moonlight cast shifting shadows over his face, framing him in silver and black by turns. "You can say that, yeah. Guys. I want to tell you something and you need to promise to take it seriously."

There was a gravitas to the moment. Sakura was acutely aware of how loud her breathing was. "Yes."

"Definitely," Sasuke said, and Naruto started his story.

It was about the attack of the nine-tailed demon fox, the Kyuubi. Naruto's version, however, was much more detailed than any other she'd ever heard. She found herself listening with bated breath as he described the awful devastation, the horrific injuries and the sheer scale of the damage. She wanted to cheer as the Hokage approached the monster and turned it back, one man's power and will overcoming a nightmare of savagery and death. But where was the mention of the killing blow? And then Naruto got near the end of the tale, and Sakura's confusion turned to dread.

"...so it had to be sealed instead. Into a baby, ideally. And there just happened to be a fresh orphan around, who became its living prison for the rest of his life." Naruto's whisker marks looked deeper, more savage in the dim half-light. He pulled up his top and Sakura saw a huge circular seal on his stomach. She stared, entranced.

Sasuke reached out and poked it with his finger. "Interesting." And that was all he said.

Naruto nodded and something passed between the two of them. "That's one way of seeing it."

Sakura, however, had more questions, and a desperate need for answers. "Why are you telling us this? Isn't that classified information?"

"I'm telling you because, if it ever looks like the seal is failing, I want both of you to run away. Don't worry about me. It can't hurt me, I think." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as them. Sakura saw her own worries echoed on Naruto's face.

"You think it can't hurt you?" she interrupted. "What if you're wrong?"

Naruto smiled at her, a strange mix of emotions on his face. "If I'm wrong, there still isn't anything you could do to help me, I'm pretty sure. But the seal won't fail. The Fourth was amazing with that stuff. Just in case, though, promise me you'll run."

They both nodded. It felt strangely formal, with the three of them sat there amongst the endless rustling leaves and beneath the starry sky. Naruto lay down on the branch, and Sakura cradled his head in her lap. She couldn't imagine what it must be like for him. Not just the demon sealed in him, either; his willingness to sacrifice himself for them was terrifying in its selflessness.

Her own head was leaning on Sasuke's shoulder as she stared up into the void. She was somehow falling asleep, despite the regular sounds of a forest creature moving over the ground below. She was jerked into wakefulness, however, when Sasuke shifted the slightest amount. He stared straight ahead as he spoke in a dull monotone.

"When I was seven years old, my brother killed my entire clan. I was the only survivor. I'm going to hunt him down and kill him."

"...Oh." Naruto's response summed up her own reaction – the quiet horror, the fear, and the pity.

She reached out and hugged Sasuke to her. "I just want to keep all three of us safe," she said, voice thick with emotion.

"Naruto wants to become the Hokage, I want to kill Itachi Uchiha, and you want to stop any of us from dying. I'd say you picked the hardest goal of all." That made her laugh, at least.

They sat like that for a while, then went back to the tent. Sakura dozed fitfully until the morning.

When they woke up, none of them talked about the night before. Sakura demonstrated a little tree-hopping, and by the time Kakashi came to take them back to Konoha the other two could almost keep up with her.

On the way home, they stayed close together. The journey was a mere six hours, as opposed to the days they'd spent outward bound.

When the gates came into sight, Sakura was looking forward to a hot bath and a clean set of clothes. After Kakashi dismissed them, though, Ino ran over from where she'd been waiting near the entrance. Behind her, Shikamaru and Choji ambled along, quietly chatting about something or other.

"You guys won't believe what happened on our last mission!" she shouted, her excitement and energy infectious. "Come on, I'll tell you all about it."

"Eh, I'm pretty tired," Sakura said. "Can't it wait?"

Ino shook her head hard enough that her ponytail whipped back and forth. "No, no, this is super important, and I want to be the first to tell you. We brought Tsunade back to Konoha!"