A.N.: As you may have noticed, I've split the original Chapter 1 of Appreciation into four chapters. Additional content will be coming soon.

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Appreciation,

A Naruto Fanfiction,

By Aleh

Chapter Two: Of Kitsune and Kaijuu, Part Two

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Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the series used or referenced in this story. Said series are the properties of their creators and/or publishers.

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The next morning I again met my team at Training Ground Five. Naruto was the first to arrive, his facial expression alternating between smiles and thoughtful frowns as he sat on a nearby log. His arrival was shortly followed by Sasuke's. I idly noted that Sasuke seemed less constipated than usual and hoped that he had thought about the questions I had asked him the previous day.

When Sakura sedately approached the group and greeted both of her teammates, I decided to reveal my presence and appeared in a plume of smoke.

"Yo," I greeted, an exaggerated smile gracing my features as I waved to my students.

Due to the fact that my students all greeted me at the same time and in considerably different manners, I couldn't make heads or tails of their reactions beyond the actual content of what they said, which was, basically, "Hello."

"So," I said after a moment, "Let's get started. We have a long day ahead of us. I'm going to begin by teaching you a bit about what it means to be a shinobi, after which we're going to be doing our first D-rank mission. Frankly, that bit will suck, but we need to finish a number of them before we can move on to more interesting missions, so it's good to get them over with."

Naruto jumped up and moved to object. I just silenced him with a gesture.

"Questions later," I told him. "After that," I continued, "I'll teach you a bit about ninjutsu and a training exercise that also doubles as an extremely useful technique. If any of you manage to complete it before we break for the day, I'll teach you something else. We should split up around dinner; I have to talk to Sasuke about something, so I'll handle it then.

"So, any questions?"

Sasuke and Naruto both spoke up at the same time; I silenced both of them with a brief burst of killing intent.

"One person at a time, please," I corrected them. "Naruto-kun, you go first."

"Why do you say that our mission is..."

"Going to suck?" I interrupted. "Because it's D-rank. D-rank missions are the lowest, easiest, most boring, most inane tasks that are still technically missions for ninja. Since we're just beginning as a team and you are just starting as official ninja, we're stuck with them until I can beg, scheme, scam, bribe, or blackmail a better mission out of Hokage-sama."

Sakura moved to object. "But, Sensei, that's-"

I just waved her off. "You have no idea how much D-rank missions suck. You'll learn. I won't do anything too objectionable, but I don't want us to have to do even one more of those things than we absolutely have to. Besides, it's something of a tradition to do something like that before getting your first C-rank mission. My own genin team got ours when I stole the Hokage's collection of porn and threatened to burn it if I had to weed one more garden as a so-called 'mission'."

Of course, that happened after Kei got frustrated with the last garden we had to weed and torched it with a katon jutsu, starting a fire that burned down several city blocks and caused almost two thousand ryou in miscellaneous property damage. Sarutobi had been rather sympathetic with my plight, all things considered, although he did make me buy him the next volume of Icha Icha and rant at me for threatening Jiraiya's so-called literary masterpieces.

I honestly wondered what Sarutobi's reaction would be to Lady Chatterley's Lover if I could ever get it translated into Japanese. It was far better than Jiraiya's work.

I mean, really. Icha Icha was so unimaginative.

Forcing my thoughts back to the task at hand, I noticed that Naruto seemed torn between being disappointed and amused while Sakura seemed just plain disturbed. Sasuke, on the other hand, seemed to be actively upset.

"How will this help us get stronger?" he asked.

"Honestly?" I replied. "It won't. I'll try to make the missions into a form of training, of course, and D-rank missions are low-risk and usually don't take too much time, so we'll have plenty of time for other things. Still, putting up with a few D-rank missions is part of being a ninja... and never forget that, in this world, ninja have real ultimate power."

Of course, I said that last bit in my native language, confusing my students. At seeing the expressions on their faces, I just started snickering. It would have been especially fun if I had continued by telling them that the purpose of being a ninja was to flip out and cut people's heads off.

If Naruto wasn't a concern, I might have done just that... and it was true, after a fashion, although I preferred filling my targets' bathtubs with liquid sarin... even if I might have gone a bit overboard when I tried that strategy with that so-called business magnate's swimming pool.

Oh, well. At least I didn't have to worry about contamination issues -- the nuke took care of that rather nicely, and most people understood when I pointed out that he'd been trafficking in little children... or parts of them, anyway.

Thinking back to that discovery always killed my sense of humor rather nicely, especially when I remembered that Danzou had had dealings with the bastard.

"Don't worry about that last bit," I dismissively instructed. "It was something of a joke. Maybe I'll explain sometime."

Seeing that the last bit put off my students somewhat, I decided to change tracks. "So," I stated, "you're now ninja. I'm not sure how much the Academy taught you about just what that means, and every time I think I've gotten that bit straightened out, someone comes along who makes me really think over what I thought I knew. Accordingly, I'm going to share a bit of that with you. This is probably going to be the most important lesson I have for you, so pay attention. We'll be revisiting it periodically, but feel free to ask questions... I want all of you to understand this. Naruto-kun, that's especially true in your case; if you want to be Hokage, you'll need to understand every bit of it. If I say something you don't understand, I want you to ask me what I mean."

Naruto nodded enthusiastically while Sakura assumed a relatively normal attentive posture and Sasuke looked disinterested.

"Sasuke," I chided, "I'll get to what we talked about last night before we start on our mission, but understanding this will help you kill your brother."

Well, that brought him out of his funk and caused him to lean forward eagerly.

"Right," I continued. "Let's begin with the nature of power; this ties in nicely with the question of why we fight, so I'll use it as a starting point. Over the years, the issue of just where a shinobi's strength comes from has been rather widely and... vocally... debated. The simple truth of the matter is that there are a number of answers, many of which are more accurate than others. It's not a simple issue, and there are many factors, but the most important one is motivation. The more you want to become strong, the more you do. Each hidden village has its own philosophy about what motive is best. In Kirigakure, for instance, they believe that the desire for survival is the best motivation, and regularly confront their shinobi with the choice between becoming stronger -- with a rather twisted definition of 'strength' -- or dying. By contrast, Otogakure believes that the best motivation is the desire to please a fifty year old pedophile with a thing for snakes."

Sasuke snorted, while Sakura looked shocked at that last bit.

"I'm not kidding," I added. "They actually believe that."

Naruto started chuckling.

"It's not funny," I corrected him. "I wasn't joking."

Eventually, I managed to get them to understand, although it took pointing out that they meant a specific fifty year old pedophile with a thing for snakes.

"Anyway, now that we've calmed down," I continued, "I suppose I should mention Konoha's philosophy... or, rather, our lack of one. Officially, our philosophy is that the best motivation is to fight to protect the people important to you, which, ideally, should be your comrades.

"Unfortunately, a good part of Konoha's shinobi are hypocrites in that regard, so I had to find my own answer. Personally, I believe that true power comes from unleashing ridiculous levels of overkill against people who threaten the legacies of those who died protecting you. Consider that my first lesson to the team. Oh, and Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked up, meeting my gaze as Sakura looked somewhat disturbed.

"Your brother qualifies."

Sasuke got an evil grin on his face as he considered what I meant.

"Ne, Sensei?" Naruto asked, "What does 'overkill' mean?"

Ah, a student after my own heart. "Don't worry; if you hang around me long enough, you'll understand. For now, though, just remember that I believe it's a good thing."

Naruto nodded in comprehension while Sakura's disturbed expression deepened somewhat.

"Anyway, while the motive is important, it's also important to realize that while your motives generate emotions which you can focus into becoming stronger, those emotions can also cloud your judgment. If you allow that to happen, the strength you derive becomes an illusion, and actually makes you weaker. Take anger for instance. If you use it, focus it constructively, and make it your tool, it can become a great strength. If you allow it to consume you, it can blind you and cloud your judgment, making you weaker than you would be without it. The same goes for your other emotions.

"Many shinobi will tell you that ninja should be without emotions, simply tools to be wielded by their masters. They are fools, and those who strive for that ideal are ticking time bombs who will eventually become a danger to their allies. It's all too common and a frequent source of missing-nin."

Naruto moved to ask a question. "Ne, sensei, what are missing-nin?"

As Sakura and Sasuke began to wear what I interpreted as expressions of disgust I moved to interrupt. "Essentially, ninja who have betrayed their village. It's a bit more complicated than that, of course -- not every missing-nin has actually done so. Regardless, anyone who has been declared a missing nin is regarded by their village as a traitor... officially, at least."

"Officially?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, officially," I responded. "Some missing nin have been declared such as part of infiltration missions, or as cover for other assignments. Also, Kirigakure is infamous for classifying any ninja who fails a mission as a missing nin. It's part of what gives their ninja a reputation for never quitting -- after all, if failure on a mission means being hunted down and killed by your village..."

Both Sakura and Naruto looked sick at that idea.

I grinned. "Kirigakure is nicknamed the 'bloody mist' for a reason, after all... and that's only part of it."

Sasuke actually looked interested. "Che," he said. "Sounds interesting."

I shrugged. "Sure, if you like psychotic ninja who are more dangerous to their comrades than to their enemies," I acknowledged, "or constant civil wars... or being forced to slaughter your classmates as a graduation exam... or there's always the way they treat people who have kekkei genkai."

Now Sasuke looked really interested. "Oh? How do they?"

"They slaughter them," I cheerfully replied, causing Sasuke's interest to suddenly dissipate. "Or, more accurately, it's not uncommon for parents to kill their own children if they're born with one and didn't know their spouse came from a clan with one. After that, of course, they kill their spouse and any other children. They even have a name for the practice -- 'bloodline divorce'."

Sasuke's expression had changed to a look of disgust during my explanation, while Sakura's had grown steadily paler. Naruto was actually trembling a bit.

"Sensei," my normally hyperactive pupil asked, "what's a 'kekkei genkai'?"

"Basically, a hereditary ability unique to a certain clan or family. To give you a few examples, the Kaguya clan could manipulate their bones before they died out, while the Sessui clan could easily manipulate water and could eventually learn to create and manipulate ice. Here in Konoha the most famous kekkei genkai are the Hyuuga clan's byakugan and the Uchiha clan's sharingan."

Naruto's head suddenly turned to Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun hasn't activated the sharingan yet, Naruto-kun," I told him. "As for what it does, I don't know all of its powers but its most famous ability is the power to copy ninjutsu -- an Uchiha can learn most jutsu just by seeing them used once while they're using the sharingan. It's a pretty useful ability, but it does have weaknesses. Unfortunately, though, we're getting off track. We don't have time for a detailed analysis of the sharingan if we're going to accomplish the rest of what I have planned for today. If you ask me later, I'll tell you more about it... and, Sasuke, that goes for you, as well. I know some things about the sharingan that not even your family did, although I hardly know everything."

Sasuke was staring me with wide eyes as I finished that last sentence.

"Now," I continued, deciding to try to bring the topic back on track, "where were we? Ah, yes. Motives. While every village has a different philosophy as to what motive is strongest, not every ninja in each village holds their village's ideal motives. Similarly, each ninja fights for a different purpose, which may or may not be the same as what they or their village believes to be the ideal..."

I dropped off, noticing that Naruto looked confused.

"Naruto-kun," I said after a moment, "think of it this way: you might think that something is the best way to do something, but not actually do it that way. I'm just saying that a person's reason for fighting isn't always what they or their village says it ideally should be."

"Okay," Naruto said while nodding in understanding.

"Good," I replied, smiling. "Loyalty is much the same way. Ideally, each and every ninja should love their village and be loyal to their village's interests, as personified by their village's leader and as set forth by their leader's orders. In other words, the common belief is that Konoha ninja should be loyal to Konoha and, accordingly, follow Konoha's leader -- the Hokage -- without question, trusting in him to protect the village and to look after the village's interests. Similarly, ninja from Sunagakure should follow the Kazekage, and so on."

My students nodded in comprehension, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"The simple truth of the matter, however, is that this is not the case. Very few ninja are actually loyal to the village as a whole. Ideally speaking, the next best thing is personal loyalty to the Hokage, but... well, there are surprisingly few who fit that description."

I had let a good bit of my disgust and frustration leak into my voice during that last sentence, as evinced by my sole female student's reaction.

"Sensei?" she asked hesitantly. "Why do you say that?"

I shrugged. "You'd think that more people would have honored... or at least tried to honor... the Fourth Hokage's last request than actually did. In the end the sum total was four people, one of whom was the Third Hokage, and he faced considerable political opposition in trying to do so... and none of his supporters in the matter were ninja. In the end, the Third reluctantly decided that ensuring the Fourth Hokage's dying wishes were granted was not politically feasible and settled for a compromise of sorts."

Sakura looked sick. "You mean..."

I chuckled. "I was one of his supporters on the issue," I replied, "but I wasn't a ninja at the time. In a way, that event is part of what made me become one."

As Naruto was practically jumping out of his seat in his enthusiasm to warn me away from the current topic, I decided to acknowledge his point. "However, there's a lot I can't tell you about that story. As Naruto-kun has been trying to point out, I'm skirting the edges of a state secret as is, and the penalty for telling you without permission is death."

Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened as they turned towards my hyperactive student in shock.

"Naruto-kun knows the secret because a traitor -- who was a chuunin, by the way -- decided to taunt him with a rather... twisted... version of it before killing him," I added. "After Naruto-kun defeated the traitor, the Hokage and I decided that it was best to simply tell him the truth of the matter."

"As if the dobe could-" Sasuke began before being cut off by a reasonable amount of killing intent.

"Don't talk about things you know nothing of," I hissed, glaring at the Uchiha survivor. "I already told you that Naruto-kun's training was actively sabotaged. Are you so insistent on maintaining your idiotic belief that Naruto-kun has no potential that you are willing to ignore the facts of the matter? I assure you that there is no way in Hell that a delusional brat will be able to defeat Itachi, so if you want to accomplish that goal, I strongly suggest that you get your head out of your posterior and wake up."

Seeing that both Naruto and Sakura were shivering and had retreated nearly twenty feet from me while Sasuke was starting to have difficulty breathing, I took a breath and calmed my aura.

"Sorry about that," I apologized to the two of them. "It's a rather sensitive issue for me. Besides, we've gotten rather far from the topic at hand."

Naruto started to cautiously approach me, although his hands were still trembling a bit. Sakura seemed much more severely effected, something that I'd have to work on. Taking a moment to calm my aura further, I approached her and tapped her shoulder.

She jumped nearly a foot up into the air, something that was rather surprising from a kneeling posture, and screamed, falling back onto her rear. I just sighed at the display, realizing that I'd have to offer her extra lessons on resisting that sort of attack.

"Sakura-kun?" I asked, trying to project a reassuring tone into my voice. "I'm sorry about that. I'm afraid that I lost my temper a bit there and let my aura show a lot more strongly than I wanted."

Her teeth chattering, she tried to stand up, only to fall back into her previous posture. "S-sensei," she asked, "wh-what..."

I sighed. "It's called 'killing intent'," I answered, "although that's a somewhat deceptive name. It's really just negative emotions projected through your chakra... things like hatred, anger, frustration, annoyance, or the desire to kill. In the field shinobi tend to focus on the last one, but this time it was more like a mixture of the middle three. I was frustrated, annoyed, and more than a bit angry, and the last few days have been more than a bit taxing, emotionally speaking. I just meant to intimidate him a little, but I underestimated how upset I was and used more than I intended. Again, I'm sorry about that."

Sakura was still shivering although Naruto seemed to have fully recovered. Still, I judged that they could both use something to calm them down, so I removed a scroll from one of my vest's pockets and opened it, smearing a little blood on a section of it to unseal its contents.

Unfortunately, Sakura jumped back at that, visibly calming as soon as she noticed the four steaming cups of green liquid that were revealed after the smoke cleared.

"Tea?" I asked, offering her a cup. "I find that it helps me calm my nerves."

Of course, it also kept me from sleeping for several hours, but that was beside the point. As Sakura cautiously took one of the porcelain cups and took a sip, I turned towards Naruto and offered him one of the others.

After he took his I took a cup for myself and approached Sasuke, pouring the remaining portion over his head. My actions elicited a cautious chuckle from Naruto and, surprisingly, Sakura.

I felt that it was a rather clear and encouraging sign that Sakura might be getting over her crush on the last Uchiha.

Seeing that what I had done didn't elicit a reaction from my dark-haired student, I removed a black marker from one of my jacket's pockets and doodled on his face, taking care to draw horns and write out various forms of "arrogant" and "jerk" at various locations.

As he was still not responding, I turned back to where Naruto was visibly stifling his laughter. "Right," I said, knowing that my arrogant student wouldn't be forgetting what I had told him anytime soon, "he's going to be out of it for a while."

That was enough to push my best friend's son over the edge. I watched his good humor for a moment before joining him in his laughter; after a moment, even Sakura gave a small smile, although it was a bit strained.

"Well," I commented, "there go my plans for the day. I doubt we'll be ready for a mission for at least a few hours, and that'll be too late. Hopefully, Sasuke-kun will have recovered in time for some training... I'll have to write off the rest of this talk for now; we can finish it tomorrow."

Naruto smiled hesitantly while Sakura looked like she wanted to talk, but was restraining herself.

"Go ahead, Sakura-kun," I told her, opening the scroll I'd pulled out earlier to a different section and smearing some blood across a different symbol, causing a rather large blanket to appear in a puff of smoke. "We have a while to talk and to get to know each other while Sasuke-kun recovers."

Sakura took another drink of the tea.

"You like it?" I asked, opening the blanket and preparing to spread it over the ground.

Sakura just nodded, apparently not trusting her voice.

"I really am sorry," I apologized. "It's just..." Another sigh escaped my lips. "Well, a lot of things have been bothering me, really... and what Sasuke-kun said managed to press a lot of buttons that have been rubbed rather raw as of late."

I turned to Naruto. "You might want to try the tea," I said, noting that he had yet to drink some. "Gyokuro isn't exactly cheap."

Sakura's eyes widened as she looked at her cup in something approaching awe while Naruto looked at me in confusion.

"Gyokuro?" he asked.

"The tea," I told him, my voice taking on a slightly amused tone. "I know you don't have much experience with the less common types of tea, but they do exist, you know..."

"N-naruto," Sakura said, regaining her voice as the effort forced her to used it, "gyokuro is one of the highest-grade, most expensive types of tea in the world."

"In Fire Country, anyway," I cheerfully agreed, laying the blanket to create a nice little picnic area. "You have no idea how hard it is to get a decent cup of tea around here... everywhere you look, it's green tea, green tea and more green tea, and most of it's bancha and low-grade sencha. I may like green tea, but there are times when I'd kill for a decent Ceylon white or an oolong."

Sakura looked confused for a moment before her eyes widened as she looked at me in shock, while Naruto just scratched the back of his head.

"Ne, sensei, what are those?" he asked sheepishly.

"Different types of tea that I used to like," I answered, smiling sadly. "I haven't been able to get any of those types since I first came to Konoha, so I've been making do with what I can get."

I'd actually tried writing a summoning contract for tea, but it simply didn't work; for some reason, it was impossible to write a contract for a food item or a beverage. Every now and then I'd revisit the attempt, but it wasn't worth the blood loss since every attempt I made to create a contract failed. Besides, I had a good idea as to why it was impossible, and, as annoying as I found the consequences, I had to applaud my predecessor's idea.

Naruto nodded his head in understanding before taking a sip of the beverage. His eyes widened slightly at the taste before he took a much deeper swallow.

"It's good," he told me, smiling as he continued to drink.

"I'm glad you like it," I responded, chuckling a bit as I took a sip from my own cup.

A few minutes later, when Naruto had finished his cup, I suddenly became a bit serious. "Naruto-kun?" I asked.

"Yes, Recca-sensei?"

"Would you mind telling the Hokage that we won't be taking a mission today? It shouldn't take long and there's something I need to talk to Sakura-kun about."

Naruto nodded in confirmation. "Sure," he responded before running off in the direction of the Hokage's tower.

That left me alone with my lone female student; Sasuke was so out of it that he wouldn't notice if I poured a cup of hot tea over his head... literally, as I'd confirmed a few minutes earlier. Just to be sure, I used a minor genjutsu on him that would prevent him from hearing our conversation. It would be easy to break, but at his level he'd need to do the seals to do so and I'd notice that.

After a moment of awkward silence I decided to speak up again. "I need to apologize to you about something else as well," I confessed.

Sakura looked up from where she was appreciating her tea; I supposed that it was a rare treat for her. "Umm... sensei, you don't..."

I shook my head. "No," I replied, "I really do." I sighed. "I'm afraid that your aunt is a bit of a... sensitive issue for me, and it's hard for me to think about her without getting emotional."

Sakura shook her head and looked down into her cup. "It's alright," she reassured me. "I understand. I... talked to her yesterday, after..."

"She told you, didn't she?" I asked, sighing and looking down at my own cup.

"Yes," she answered, nodding her head. "For what it's worth, I'm..."

I shook my head, cutting off her apology. "Don't apologize for your aunt's actions," I lightly chided her. "You were an infant... it was hardly your fault."

"But..."

I sighed again. "Mai-san hurt me, yes, but you had no role in that. I don't believe in holding people accountable for their relatives' sins... that just leads to more hatred... needless destruction... It's an endless cycle that I want no part of."

That much was true. On the other hand, the youth of Konoha were every bit as guilty as the adults when it came to mistreating Naruto.

Sakura looked up. While I wasn't actively trying to put it there, I had relaxed my control over my facial expression slightly, and I supposed that the pain-filled, haunted expression that showed through had an impact on my student before I once again tightened my control over my expression.

"I hope you didn't have too much of a fight," I told her. "Family is... important."

Again, it was the truth. A breach between Sakura and Mai wasn't in my plans quite yet. If it came now, her family would likely blame it on me and my influence... or, worse, on Naruto. If it came later, however, with something else as the trigger... if I merely undermined the relationship, letting her family's own actions destroy their bonds... that would make the pain they experienced when the final separation occurred even stronger.

Better yet, by appearing to be trying to salvage the relationship, I reduced the chance that her family would deduce that my efforts were actually intended to undermine it. If they believed that they lost their bonds with Sakura entirely through their own actions...

My revenge would be truly sweet when my patience paid its dividends. I fully intended to savor their guilt over what their actions had wrought when they finally realized just what kind of scum they truly were.

I had been staring off into space for a few moments as I considered things, although I rather strongly suspected that just what Sakura thought I was considering was rather different than what I actually was. "I don't suppose you can truly understand...," I explained, "no one who's never lost theirs can... you don't really understand the value of those things until you lose them..."

I visibly shook myself out of my forced reminiscence. "Sorry about that," I apologized. "Anyway, I'm sure that Mai-san has her positive qualities... I'm just not the best person to tell you about them."

Actually, I was fully aware of Mai's positive qualities. She might have been an annoying, hypocritical, backstabbing bitch, but at least she had good taste in tea. Well, that and she was reasonably well-stacked.

"I understand," Sakura replied, again looking down into her now-empty cup of tea.

"Would you like another cup?" I asked, projecting a sympathetic tone into my voice as I changed the subject. Sakura almost started in surprise.

"But..."

I waved my hand in dismissal. "I don't mind," I said, quickly unsealing another cup from my scroll and handing it to her. Sakura just looked at me in surprise.

"I have a bit more tea than I know what to do with," I admitted sheepishly. "I don't mind if you drink some."

That was also true, but I didn't want to tell her that I'd gotten that tea by looting the base of a group of bandits who had been raiding caravans around the Fire/Tea border. I'd sold most of the plunder to add to the bounty on Danzou and provide money for my... projects, but I'd kept the tea.

"Thank you, Sensei," she replied, taking the cup and smelling the aroma of the tea while I sealed her old cup into a space of the scroll designated for that purpose. I'd wash it later.

We sat there in silence for a while before Sakura decided to speak up again. "Sensei?"

"Yes, Sakura-kun?" I inquired, wondering what would come next. I was, after all, in a critical phase of my plans. This conversation could change everything.

"You knew Naruto-kun's parents, right?"

I smiled wistfully, lowering my teacup. "Yes," I confirmed. "I did."

Sakura's next words, however, managed to shock me. "Who were they?" she asked.

I nearly dropped my teacup as my head snapped to face her. "Why do you want to know?" I asked, perhaps overly harshly.

Sakura blushed, refusing to meet my gaze. "It's just... Naruto-kun mentioned that he didn't know much about his parents... only what you told him about his father..."

I nodded in confirmation. "Go on," I instructed her, my voice holding a commanding tone.

"I just thought that maybe... I was thinking about how I treated him back in the academy... if I could find out about them... it might make a decent apology... and I couldn't find any records of anyone named 'Uzumaki'..."

As my pink-haired student trailed off, I relaxed my posture. That was... well in advance of my expectations. Perhaps more relevantly, though, for her to have looked up those records, it would have had to have happened shortly after our conversation the previous day. In other words, this idea of hers had formed shortly after we talked the previous evening.

"I see," I replied, relaxing my posture somewhat as the wariness dropped from my features. "Unfortunately, you've stepped into something of a hornet's nest."

"What do you mean?" she inquired.

I shrugged. "Uzumaki Kushina was a kunoichi from what used to be known as the Whirlpool Country. After she died during the Kyuubi's attack the Third Hokage decided to give Naruto her name as a... misdirection... of sorts." I turned my cup around in my hand, staring into the green liquid it contained. "Naruto knows what I've told him about his father," I replied, "but that's all he knows about his family. You were right that 'Uzumaki' isn't his real family name... but Naruto-kun doesn't know that."

"What?"

Sakura's eyes widened in shock as she looked up at me. "Why?" she asked, her confusion showing in her voice.

I shook my head, still looking into my tea. "His father had enemies," I stated simply. "The Third Hokage decided to conceal that information in order to protect him. I... did not agree with the decision... I believe that Naruto has the right to know, even if others don't... and it's not like concealing his true identity protected him from assassins anyway."

Glancing up, I noted that Sakura was looking at me in undisguised horror.

"Regardless," I continued, "the identities of Naruto's parents are not common knowledge. I want Naruto to know for several reasons... not the least because it would help him understand certain things... but there are those who are politically afraid of what Naruto-kun could do if he found out and decided to step forward as his father's heir, and one of them was in a position to block me from being assigned as Naruto's teacher. That put me in a bit of a predicament, really... the next choice was someone who is perpetually late and would rather read porn than actually teach..."

Sakura had been taking a sip of tea as I reached that last bit, presumably to soothe her nerves, and promptly spat it back up.

"Worse, I doubted that any of the other candidates would treat him fairly. So, we reached a... compromise of sorts. Danzou promised not to prevent me from being assigned a team if I promised, in turn, to not tell Naruto-kun who his parents were. Fortunately, the wording of the promise doesn't prevent me from telling him about his parents and hoping he figures it out on his own, but it does prevent me from telling someone else without making them make the same promise."

Sakura sighed. "I see," she said, before lapsing into silence as she stared at the ground. After a few seconds, though, she looked up. "Sensei," she asked, "why was Danzou afraid of..."

"Naruto-kun's father was one of Danzou's more... notable political opponents," I told her, giving her a somewhat reserved smile that didn't manage to reach my eyes. "As such, Naruto-kun's existence was... inconvenient... for him. Danzou took advantage of the fact that most people weren't aware of Naruto's parentage to argue publicly for Naruto to be killed, although he used a... different set of reasoning in doing so. Were his true motives in those actions to become widely known... or were even that he's been knowingly trying to have Naruto's father's only son killed to become widely known, it could become a... very substantial political setback for him."

"Oh," Sakura answered, looking somewhere between disturbed and depressed.

I shook my head, deciding to take a risk. "That being said," I finished, "if you still want me to tell you, I will... you just won't be able to tell Naruto-kun. I was originally planning on having you help him figure it out, but if you want to help me with dropping hints instead, that's fine as well."

Sakura just stared at me.

"Hey," I defensively stated, "Naruto's in danger if his father's enemies find out who his parents were. You aren't one of them, and the knowledge might even help you understand him. The main reason I'm reluctant to tell you is that I think you'd probably pick up on the clues before he would. There are advantages to both approaches as far as I'm concerned, so I'm passing the decision on to you."

"Oh," she replied, looking down again.

We sat there, drinking our tea in silence for a few more minutes before an orange-clad form arrived in the clearing, a scroll in hand.

"Hey, Sensei," my most hyperactive student greeted, handing me the scroll. "Ojiisan wanted me to give this to you."

I smiled, looking up. "You delivered the message?" I rhetorically asked.

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "The old man got a strange look on his face and wrote this out before telling me that he'd alert the medics. Ne, Sensei? Why did Hokage-ojiisan think we'd need them?"

I snickered. "He probably thought that I'd tried showing you some of my original jutsu before the mission," I told him. "Some of them have a tendency to... blow up in your face if they're not used correctly."

"Oh," he replied, nodding in a manner that he probably thought looked thoughtful and serious, despite the fact that it was actually rather ridiculous. "I see."

I chuckled, opening the scroll and reading it. It was a fairly typical note from Sarutobi, really. It informed me that we would start missions the next day and asked me not to destroy Konoha while teaching my students -- nothing too serious. The bit about trying to avoid serious bodily harm to the genin under my care wasn't really necessary anyway. It wasn't like I'd kill them or anything. Give them lots of heavy ordnance and teach them how to use it to blow up small villages, sure, but I had plans for the kids -- they were rather pointless if my students wouldn't survive the training... and that was discounting the fact that one of my students was Naruto.

"Well," I said, drinking the last of my tea and resealing the cup before removing the genjutsu on Sasuke, "we might as well see if Sasuke has recovered enough to start training."

With that, Naruto suddenly turned his head towards the most arrogant member of our team, his jaw dropping as he noticed that the Amazing Wonder Emo was still slumped against the log he'd been... resting against.

"Hey, Naruto-kun," I asked, my good humor clearly showing, "would you like to see one of the exercises that I use to train?"

Naruto nodded eagerly, probably thinking that what was coming would be good. Sakura, on the other hand, simply looked confused.

"Well," I explained, walking to Sasuke, holding a hand in his direction and gathering my chakra for the exercise, "I'm not terribly good at suiton ninjutsu, so I've been trying to improve. One of the exercises is to use your chakra to seek out nearby sources of water, like that puddle over there, and gather the water, like so..."

With that, water from the puddle in question began to slowly rise and form a sphere in front of my hand. As my hand was pointed towards Sasuke, that meant that the sphere was directly over his head.

"... while trying to hold it stable. The idea is to try to gather as much water as possible and hold it steady, but I'm still working on that."

At that point, I stopped trying to control the water, which led to gravity reasserting itself... with predictable results.

Sasuke started and spluttered a bit, turning towards me in shock. I heard laughter and subdued giggling from my other students as I raised my hand again, drawing the water up into a sphere again and moving it to the side before dropping it.

"Welcome back, Sasuke-kun," I greeted him. "You might want to wash your face."

Seeing Sasuke's panicked expression as he saw his reflection in the newly-created puddle more than made up for my earlier mistake as far as I was concerned.

--

After Sasuke spent a few panicked moments trying to remove the writing from his face, I decided to have mercy and gave him a specially-developed wet-wipe that took care of the problem. Restored to what passed for normalcy in the life of the Amazing Wonder Emo, he quickly calmed down... although he seemed to respect me quite a bit more than he had before.

It took a few more moments to prepare my team for the lesson on ninjutsu that I had planned before I removed a small scroll from my vest.

"Right," I said, grinning, "who wants lunch?"

Seeing that Naruto was looking at me strangely, I decided to elaborate. "Remember the tea?" I asked. "I brought some food in another scroll."

Naruto nodded in understanding while Sakura decided to speak up. "Sensei?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you being so..." Sakura paused for a moment, searching for the words, "relaxed?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not like this normally," I confessed, "but over-exposure to killing intent can cause some pretty nasty psychological trauma. I figure that it's best to let you recover a bit before I start pushing you again, and I'm being more friendly and relaxed to keep you from becoming actively afraid of me. Ideally, I should be a mentor-figure to the three of you, even if my job requires me to be a harsh one at times, so you fearing me is counter-productive." I chuckled. "Fear of getting me angry is another matter, of course," I confessed, "but that's something else entirely."

My students reacted to the explanation in radically different manners. Sakura nodded in understanding, while Sasuke gave a monosyllabic response that I interpreted to be of contempt. Naruto, on the other hand, just looked confused.

"Let me put it this way," I explained, looking at him. "I scared you pretty badly, but I don't want you to be afraid of me because that would make it harder for me to teach you, among other things. It's okay if you're afraid of making me angry because I can use that to help you learn, but there's a big difference between that and being afraid of me."

Naruto nodded. "Like Iruka-sensei?" he asked.

I grinned. "Exactly," I told him. "Iruka-kun and I are different in a lot of ways, but I did teach him a bit about teaching."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. "But you're..."

"Very different people with very different teaching methods?" I asked, interrupting him. "That's true, but I only taught him a little, and he was even younger than you are now. We've both changed since then."

Seeing Naruto nod, I smiled. "So, about lunch?" I asked, glad that my favorite student understood. "We can chat... get to know each-other a bit. It'll be good for teamwork, if nothing else."

At Sasuke's snort of disdain, I looked at him sharply. "Genin are assigned to three-man teams for a reason, Sasuke-kun," I chided. "There are quite a few of them, actually."

"Feh," he replied. "Just don't let them slow me down."

Careful not to release too much killing intent, I glared at duck-boy. "Actually," I corrected, "I'm more worried about you slowing them down."

"Explain," Sasuke demanded, returning my glare for a moment before breaking off and shivering.

I felt like smirking but forced down the reaction. If I could intimidate him even without my killing intent I didn't have to worry about how I'd manage to shut him up if he went into an emo-rant after I taught him how to resist it.

"Let's start with your evaluation of their potential as ninja, shall we?" I began, sliding the scroll that I'd sealed our lunch back into my jacket. "Even disregarding the fact that Naruto's training was actively sabotaged, standing in the Academy doesn't really mean that much in the field. Have you ever heard of a ninja named Jiraiya, by any chance?"

Sakura spoke up, causing me to glance back to her. "You mean the Toad Sennin, one of the Legendary Three?"

"Precisely. He was also the Fourth Hokage's jounin teacher. More to the point, though, he was also the dead last in his academy class. Now he's one of the strongest ninja Konoha has ever produced."

He was also an author of horrendously derivative and cliché smut. I had no problem with porn, really, but I had standards. On the other hand, trying to bribe him with old issues of Playboy was a rather entertaining hobby.

I was saving the illustrated copy of the Kama Sutra for something special, like getting him to teach Naruto... well, it would also make a nice visual aid in case I ever had to give Naruto the Talk. Speaking of which...

"Back to Naruto-kun, he shows some basic understanding of psychological tactics, although I have to wonder about just how much information he was working from when he created the oiroke no jutsu."

"Ne, sensei, what do you mean?" the aforementioned blond asked.

"Naruto-kun," I replied, "do you know what the phrase 'sexual intercourse' means?"

Sakura suddenly spat out a large amount of tea while Naruto just scratched his head sheepishly.

"Well, that's about what I expected," I commented. "You haven't had anyone to talk to about that sort of thing, so I didn't know if anyone had taught you about it."

Naruto chuckled weakly, still scratching the back of his head.

"I'll explain later," I finished, "but I need to get back to my explanation to Sasuke-kun, okay?"

At Naruto's nod of affirmation I turned my attention back to Sasuke. "Anyway his tendencies as a prankster and a class clown were also shared by at least two of the more famous shinobi of our time. Actually, you've probably heard of one of them -- his name was Namikaze Minato, although he is better known as the Fourth Hokage."

Both Sakura and Naruto started at that news.

"Incidentally," I added, "he was never at the top of his class academically, either, although his scores were higher than Naruto-kun's. Then again Naruto-kun was operating with several handicaps that Minato-senpai never faced."

Sakura started at that. "Minato... senpai?" she asked, obviously wondering about my form of address. Well, it was fairly unusual.

I smiled wistfully at her. "One of the running jokes between us involved the nature of our relationship," I told her. "We were friends and we'd joke around about honorifics... mainly because neither of us was entirely comfortable being addressed with them." I became somewhat teary-eyed as I remembered those days, Minato's cheerful smile as he insisted that I get out more, his good-natured cursing about how he couldn't get people to stop using honorific language around him... "He was probably the only Kage in history who routinely told people not to call him 'Hokage-sama'... although very few people actually listened. It became something of a running joke in the city, really... and besides, he was my senior in the ninja business."

"Oh," my pink-haired student commented, somewhat surprised at my show of emotion.

"Anyway," I continued, trying to bring the subject back on track, "that story ties into what I was talking about earlier. In my case I know how much it hurts to lose people who are important to me, and I would rather die than feel that pain again. In the end, that's the largest flaw in Kirigakure's theory about what the strongest motivation is for a ninja... and that's why Konoha is the strongest of the shinobi nations."

I grinned. "It's also a large part of why genin are assigned to teams," I added, turning back to Sasuke, "and a source of power that Itachi will never be able to truly understand."

Sasuke's eyes widened marginally at that.

"In the end, that's one of the weaknesses I mentioned earlier, Sasuke-kun," I told my dark-haired student. "Don't you remember what he told you about his eyes?"

This time Sasuke's eyes were truly wide as his 'stoic' mask slipped, his shock showing clearly in his expression.

"To gain the power he held in his eyes, the power of the mangekyou sharingan, you must kill your closest friend," I stated. "That's why he killed Shisui-kun." I smirked. "However, in doing so, he cut a bond that could have become a source of great strength for him. He stunted his growth, lowered his potential... all in exchange for a power that, in the end, is also his most obvious weakness."

Well, that statement caught the Emo-duck's attention.

"I could get into an analysis of Itachi's abilities and how to defeat him, but I'm getting off-topic," I told my dark-eyed, vengeance-obsessed student. "To many people their genin teammates are their closest friends. Some ninja are closer to their genin teammates than they are to their families... and, for some, their genin cell becomes a surrogate family of sorts. After all, if the strongest motivation for a ninja is to protect those who are important to them, and they regularly fight alongside those people, the need to become stronger becomes greater... the determination to not fail those precious to you becomes a burning need, continuously pushing you to greater and greater heights."

I trailed off, seeing that Sasuke got the point.

"That's also part of why I told you that you were a fool for listening to Itachi's advice," I added, "but, again, that's somewhat off-topic. When I said that I was more concerned about you holding your teammates back than vice-versa, I was referring in part to that factor. Now, the other part was your evaluation of their potential in relation to your own. I think that I've already established that class standings don't mean that much in the real world, so should I give you a frank evaluation of your teammates' potential?"

Sasuke nodded silently, lost in thought.

"Sakura-kun has exceptionally fine chakra control for her level and is highly intelligent. She has the lowest reserves of the team, but uses her chakra in an unusually efficient manner. In short, she has very good chakra control, but little stamina. This combination, however, is not rare amongst freshly-graduated genin, and, were I to compare her to others of that type, she has deeper reserves and better control than most. Her control, however, isn't her greatest asset, although that will help her make full use of it. That honor is reserved for her intelligence. She may not have a great strategic mind like, say, Nara Shikamaru, but she soaks knowledge up like a sponge, and retains a ridiculous amount of it. Her potential with most ninjutsu is only average, but in the areas of genjutsu and medical ninjutsu it's... considerable. I wouldn't be surprised if, with the right training, she could surpass Tsunade-san in the latter art."

Sakura started, looking at me with wide eyes.

"If you combine those talents with my techniques... you have the makings of an absolutely frightening kunoichi. On the other hand, several things have been holding her back from that potential... and most of them are or were psychological in nature... which is why I've been trying so hard to get her over those blocks."

I nodded to Sakura, giving her a small smile before I moved on to Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, on the other hand, is nearly on the opposite end of the spectrum. He uses his chakra in an almost ridiculously inefficient manner and, quite frankly, his control sucks, albeit through no fault of his own. By contrast, however, he can afford to do this because his chakra reserves are, bluntly, just short of insane, as is his physical stamina. In fact, I think it would be best if I told you a little story to give you some idea of just how much chakra Naruto-kun has."

As I said the last bit I again took out my lunch scroll and opened it on the blanket I had spread earlier.

"This will take a while, so we might as well eat," I said, unsealing the food I had prepared. "I sincerely hope I don't have to tell you what is for whom."

Considering that the lunch I had brought consisted of several bowls of Ichiraku's ramen and three bento, one of which prominently featured umeboshi and another of which had the rice arranged into a fan-shape, my students not realizing which one was theirs was a distinct non-issue.

Taking my own bento, I sat down and removed my chopsticks as my team followed my lead. "Have you ever heard of kage bunshin no jutsu?" I asked Sasuke, figuring that it would be a good place to start.

"Hn," he grunted, nodding in confirmation.

"Right," I confirmed. "You might want to talk a bit more when answering. What do you know about it?"

Sasuke shrugged. "It's a jounin-level version of bunshin that creates solid clones."

"That's it?" I asked.

Sasuke hesitantly nodded.

"Sakura-kun?" I inquired, wondering if she'd know more.

"Isn't it considered a kinjutsu?" she asked.

I smiled. "Yes," I acknowledged. "It is -- mainly because it's easy to die from chakra exhaustion by overusing it." My smile turned to a vicious smirk. "It's also Naruto-kun's specialty."

Sakura nearly spat out her rice, while Sasuke momentarily lost his superior posture as he turned to look at Naruto in shock. I just sipped some tea and took a bite of my onigiri. At least Naruto-kun couldn't do much while devouring that...

Oh. Right.

"Anyway, seeing as Naruto-kun just managed to finish four bowls of ramen in less time than it took me to eat an onigiri," I commented, "I think that a demonstration is in order. Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah," he replied, putting his hands into a cross-seal. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

"Anyway," I explained, "those are solid clones. They're capable of fighting, but they'll dissipate after a single solid hit."

Sakura and Sasuke nodded, one in understanding and the other in what looked like envy.

"Now, to give you an idea of how much chakra Naruto-kun has, I think the best place to start would be to tell you just how he learned that jutsu... although I'll have to add that there's a major part of the story that I'll have to leave out -- namely the secret that a certain traitor decided to taunt him with a twisted version of. Naruto-kun, do you mind?"

Naruto looked at me, his reluctance showing in his eyes. "Sensei," he asked, "are you sure..."

"As long as I don't tell them that secret, I don't think there's much of a problem and it would also provide a useful lesson in life as a shinobi." I shrugged. "Besides, it's best not to keep more secrets from your team than is necessary. I told you before, didn't I? To many ninja, their genin team is the closest thing they have to a family... and even those who have their own families are often closer to their old genin cell."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"I think it has to do with shared experiences," I explained, figuring that Naruto could use the knowledge and that it would only help Sasuke. "People change a lot once they're exposed to the real world, once they start learning what being a ninja is truly about. Because there are so many life-changing experiences in so little time, I think that people naturally grow closer to the only people who were there with them at the time, the only people who were with them throughout the process -- in other words, their teammates. There are secrets shared, life-changing experiences that are lived through but never spoken of... in short, it's much the same process which accounts for the closeness between siblings, only more intense and without the blood-relationship. In a way, I suppose, it's rather like what happens with adopted children..."

I trailed off, noticing some tears forming in Naruto's eyes.

"Tell them," he stated, a determined glint shining through his tears.

I gave Naruto a reassuring smile before turning back to Sasuke. "I suppose I should begin with why Naruto-kun failed the graduation exam. Essentially, Naruto-kun has so much chakra that the basic, Academy-level bunshin jutsu is nearly impossible for him at his current level of control. It's not a common problem, but there are supposed to be measures in place at the Academy to detect it." I chuckled for a moment. "Of course, if the teachers are trying to sabotage a student's progress..."

I trailed off, pausing for a moment to let Sasuke reach the needed conclusion.

"Regardless, detecting that particular problem would have been Mizuki's responsibility."

I detected a bit of motion in my peripheral vision as Naruto started at that.

"As Mizuki wanted Naruto-kun to fail, well... I think you can figure out what happened. Naruto-kun never received the instruction on control that would typically be given to someone like him. It's worth noting that a number of added control exercises are typically given to people with considerably lower reserves than Naruto-kun's."

I paused for a moment. "Actually, Sasuke-kun, there's a note in your file regarding them. Your reserves are high enough to justify being given them, but they're typically given to people whose chakra capacity outgrows their control. As this wasn't an issue in your case, it was felt that additional intensive instruction on control would be counter-productive."

"But, Sensei," Sakura interjected, "how...?"

I grinned, turning to her. "Basically," I answered, "there are only so many hours in a day."

"So," Sasuke elaborated, seeing what I meant, "they felt that it would be better if I just went on as I was, and that the extra training would just distract me."

I grinned, taking his answer as a sign that my brooding student was, hopefully, getting over his emo tendencies and becoming a somewhat more social rabid attack dog as I turned towards him. "Pretty much," I confirmed. "But we're getting off track. When the genin test came around, Naruto-kun attempted the bunshin no jutsu and only partially succeeded, failing the test. He didn't know any of what I've told you about why he failed -- and I have further suspicions on the matter that I'm going to have to investigate later -- and he had put forth his best effort. The end result... disappointed him, to put it mildly. It's worth noting that Mizuki made a show of protesting Naruto-kun's failure on the grounds that he had managed to partially perform the jutsu as part of an attempt to appear sympathetic to Naruto-kun."

Seeing that Naruto seemed torn between shock and depression I decided to address him for a moment. "For what it's worth, Naruto-kun, I'm pretty sure that Iruka-kun never sabotaged your training and really did try to help you. The problem comes in when you consider that he was only one teacher out of several, and you were only one student out of many. Additionally, Iruka-kun used to have a bit of a tendency to be... overly trusting, shall we say? I don't know if he's changed since then, but I suspect that he believed that his fellow teachers were doing their jobs properly and missed some of the evidence to the contrary."

"Oh," Naruto replied, looking downwards.

"Don't worry," I reassured him. "You managed to graduate anyway, and correcting for a known quantity is a whole lot easier than correcting for something that's not known. I told you that I believe that you have what it takes to become the Hokage, didn't I?" I gave my favorite student a comforting smile, hoping that it would help cheer him up.

Seeing that Naruto did perk up a bit at that reminder, I looked towards my other students. Sakura seemed to be in some kind of horrified shock while Sasuke... damn. I couldn't figure what the heck was going through his head. Thinking back to Minato's lessons on the subject and reflexively suppressing the emotional pain that came with the memory, I focused on his features. Contempt? Confusion? Anger? Whatever it was, he was carefully schooling his expression, hiding his emotions to the point that I couldn't make them out, although I still caught a flicker every now and then. Normally, I'd wonder how a genin fresh out of the academy learned that skill, but... well, Sasuke was an Uchiha.

Oh, well. The best thing to do was just to press on.

"Anyway, after the tests were over, Mizuki approached Naruto and told him that there was another way to pass." I paused for a moment. "Before you think that Naruto-kun was overly gullible, Mizuki had maneuvered himself into the position of a sympathetic figure who Naruto-kun had no reason to mistrust. Additionally, there are other ways to graduate the academy... the method Mizuki suggested just wasn't one of them."

"Oh?" Sasuke asked. "How?"

I shrugged and started counting the methods off on my fingers. "The instructors, at their discretion, can recommend a student for special consideration. If they do so, the case is passed on to the Hokage for a decision. He usually delegates the review and choice to one or more jounin, but the decision is technically his... and the instructors have a certain amount of leeway in regards to what constitutes a 'pass' anyway. Additionally, a jounin can make the same recommendation or ask to take responsibility for a student; in that case, the new genin is usually apprenticed to the jounin in question. Lastly, the Hokage can directly override pretty much anything; if he thinks that a student should graduate or be instated as a genin, well, they will."

Sasuke curtly nodded, while Sakura seemed deep in thought. "Sensei?" she inquired. "Why didn't you..."

I sighed. "Make a similar request in Naruto-kun's case, you mean?" I frowned. "It's... complicated. Basically, I couldn't. Well, no, that's not true... I did... I was just overruled. Several times, actually... and told not to bother trying again."

"But... why?"

"I can't tell you that. There's-" I tiredly began, before being interrupted by Naruto.

"Please," he said, seeming somewhat morose. "Just drop it, Sakura-chan."

"But..."

"Just listen to the story," he responded to Sakura's interrupted protest. "Maybe... maybe later..."

I turned another regretful smile to Sakura. "Naruto-kun and I have already talked about several things," I told her. "If I'm not mistaken, he has a pretty good idea of what happened. I just can't tell you because it involves a certain state secret."

"The one..."

"Precisely."

"Oh."

"Anyway," I continued, "Mizuki's fake exam was pretty simple: he described a scroll in the Hokage's office and told Naruto-kun that if he took the scroll and learned one of the jutsu from it that Iruka-kun would have to pass him."

Sasuke snorted at that.

"I see that Sasuke-kun has figured it out," I said. "Mizuki was just using Naruto to steal the scroll... but I'm getting ahead of myself."

Sakura started somewhat, to my disappointment, while Naruto was uncharacteristically silent.

"Naruto-kun proceeded to enter the Hokage's office, knock out the Third Hokage with his oiroke no jutsu..."

Sasuke snorted at that while Sakura seemed perturbed.

"Like I said, it's a valid psychological attack -- it just has... shall we say... problems." I smiled at my pink-haired student. "Don't worry; I'll talk to Naruto-kun about it later.

"Anyway, he took the scroll and headed into the woods to train." I chuckled. "Of course, he wasn't 'supposed' to be able to actually learn any of the jutsu according to Mizuki's plan -- he had Naruto steal the so-called 'scroll of forbidden seals', a scroll that contains some of the most dangerous jutsu ever developed."

Well, that caught Sasuke and Sakura's attention.

"Of course 'dangerous' and 'powerful' aren't the same thing. Sure, some of the jutsu on there are powerful, but they're forbidden for a reason. I should know -- I developed several of them."

Now Sasuke seemed really interested in the story.

"For example, the third to last jutsu is something called 'Hiroshima no jutsu', named after an ancient city that was destroyed... oh, around ten thousand years ago. Actually, Hiroshima no jutsu would produce results somewhat different than what happened in that city, but the general effect is the same -- a giant fireball that would literally burn as hot as the sun. If someone were to use it in Konoha not only would Konoha be destroyed, but the surrounding forests would be as well, not to mention many of the nearby villages. People as far away as Kirigakure would be able to feel the heat."

"You developed this?" Sasuke asked, leaning forward.

I shrugged. "Yeah," I admitted. "Unfortunately, it's a suicide technique that takes two kage-level shinobi to properly execute. That's why it's forbidden, by the way, not the power of the jutsu."

Of course, I had largely developed it as a theoretical exercise; designing a jutsu that allowed a ninja to initiate a fusion reaction had been rather challenging. In the end, however, it had required greater control than would be possible for any single ninja in the form of four separate, simultaneous forms of nature manipulation and required enough power that there was no way for a single ninja to generate it, even if they were a jinchuuriki or were they to open the hachimon to provide energy. In the end I had managed to develop it into a workable technique, but it still required two ninja with kage-level ability to open all eight of the hachimon to provide the jutsu's power.

I grinned. "Most of the jutsu on the scroll are forbidden for similar reasons. Mizuki, of course, made the rather unfortunately common mistake of equating 'dangerous' and 'powerful', and felt that the scroll would give him the power to achieve his ambitions."

Oddly enough even the idiot's ambitions were amazingly pathetic. Really, betraying your village so that you could "be somebody"? It had been... fun torturing the moron.

"So it's a scroll of suicide techniques?" Sasuke asked, having resumed his normal sitting posture.

"Nah," I answered. "It's a scroll of dangerous techniques. Only about half of them are suicide techniques. Omote Renge, for instance, just leaves the user injured, exhausted, and unable to move effectively for a while as a trade-off for a temporary boost in strength and speed. It's a good finishing or desperation move, but... well, being injured, exhausted, and unable to move effectively can be a bit of a... problem... in combat."

Seeing Sasuke nod in understanding I momentarily turned my attention to my other students. Both seemed to be following my conversation but they also seemed to be rather horrified.

"In any event, when Naruto opened the scroll to learn a jutsu, he started with the first jutsu on the scroll, something called 'tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu', which is a derivatave of the more standard kage bunshin no jutsu.

"Kage bunshin, in turn, is a... refinement, I guess you could say, of the standard bunshin technique. It was developed a while back when someone decided that instead of using chakra to form an illusory copy of themselves, they could use more chakra to create a solid clone. Of course the clones would collapse after a few seconds, which wasn't long enough to be of much use. As such they sought a solution, which was to create a perfect clone, complete with its own chakra circulatory system."

Sakura gasped at that, catching the implications. Judging by Sasuke's lack of reaction, however, he still hadn't.

"In short, to create a kage bunshin, you need to divide your chakra evenly between yourself and the clone, effectively halving your chakra supply... and that's after you provide the chakra to form the clone's physical structure. If you don't have enough chakra left to survive after doing that... well, that's why it's considered a jounin-level ninjutsu."

Sasuke frowned, probably trying to figure out how to use the jutsu himself. "Why divide it evenly?"

I shrugged. "Like with bunshin no jutsu, you're forming part of your chakra into a shape it wants to enter -- which happens to be your shape, complete with a perfect duplicate of your chakra system... and the bunshin forms from the inside out. Use less than half of your chakra and the kage bunshin collapses in on itself; use more and the extra chakra is wasted."

Sasuke nodded in understanding.

"Of course, if you're making more than one bunshin, you divide your chakra in more directions. If you're making two, each gets a third of your chakra. If you make three, each gets a quarter, and so on."

It was actually quite fortunate that Naruto's kage bunshin didn't include a duplicate of the seal and its... contents. That would be... problematic. Fortunately, neither was technically part of Naruto, and his chakra recognized this... which I always thought of as odd, given that kage bunshin would create duplicates of clothes and weapons. On the other hand it was consistent with how it behaved with other fuuinjutsu, so I supposed that it worked out.

"So why don't you just form less chakra into a bunshin?" Sasuke asked.

"Because the human body is hideously complex," I replied. "I tried modifying the technique to let you do that; it's also on the scroll, but it ended up being unworkable in most situations. It took the Fourth Hokage almost fifteen minutes to form a single bunshin using that method, and that was after he spent several days trying to bring the time down. Additionally, kage bunshin are capable of a certain amount of independent thought and have several other advantages."

I grinned, seeing that all three of my students were following the discussion. For Naruto most of this was just a rehash of what he'd learned from the scroll but several details were new, and I would bring the lecture to a close soon enough; I didn't want to risk running over his attention span.

"To get back to the point, the amount of chakra required to form the kage bunshin's physical structure is roughly equal to the amount required to perform gokakyuu no jutsu at the level you're capable of," I told my emo pupil. "That should give you a basis for comparison."

"Required?"

"I've observed your technique," I commented. "You waste about an eighth of the chakra you use. Learn better control and you won't need to use quite as much. In other words, the minimum amount of chakra required to form a single kage bunshin is about eighty five to ninety percent of the amount of chakra you use when going all out with that technique."

Sasuke's eyes turned towards Naruto in shock.

"Of course, Naruto-kun's control is worse than yours; he wastes around three quarters of the chakra he uses. So, for creating a single kage bunshin, figure that he uses about three and a half times as much chakra as you do when using gokakyuu to your full capacity, wastes about three quarters of his remaining chakra, and then divides his remaining chakra evenly between himself and his clone."

Sasuke's look quickly changed to what I interpreted as contempt, something which I couldn't let stand.

"The point is that Naruto-kun has enough chakra that he can afford to do this."

Sasuke's head quickly turned to glance at Naruto. Taking my attention off of him for a moment I noticed that Sakura was also staring at Naruto, who seemed... almost withdrawn. Sheepish? No... embarrassed? Possibly...

I'd worry about it later.

"Fortunately, you regain a portion of the chakra invested in a kage bunshin's chakra system when you dismiss it. The energy invested in its physical structure is still lost as is any excess chakra wasted in the bunshin's creation, but you regain most of the chakra it 'carried' in its chakra system. If the kage bunshin is 'killed', you regain substantially less, but you still recover a good bit of the clone's chakra. That actually has some pretty important implications, since that chakra carries with it the clone's thoughts and experiences. When that happens you suddenly 'know' everything that your clone saw and did. Because of this kage bunshin no jutsu is primarily used as a scouting and information-gathering technique, although it has other advantages as well."

"Like what, Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Well, once the bunshin's fully formed it has its own mind and its chakra adapts to its situation. It no longer has to perfectly mirror the real 'you'. As such a kage bunshin is capable of using jutsu. Additionally, most bunshin techniques that form solid clones are limited in range -- kage bunshin are not; they can travel as far from you as needed, although their distance from you when they disperse does effect the amount of chakra you recover."

Sakura nodded.

"Anything else?"

"Recca-sensei?" Naruto asked, surprising me. "You said that the clone's chakra carried its thoughts and experiences?"

I nodded.

"Well, does that mean that my chakra..."

"Carries your thoughts and experiences as well? Yes. Chakra is a combination of mental and physical energy. As such, your chakra is a reflection of your mind and body... well, unless something else changes that, anyway," I said, thinking of the purification elements of the seal on his navel and of nature manipulation. "Fortunately, though, that really isn't useful to most people. It's possible, in theory, to view your memories and peruse your experiences by examining your chakra, for instance, but the human mind is an almost ridiculously complex thing and every mind and soul is different. Trying to read someone else's thoughts or memories from their chakra is a bit like listening to someone speak in a language that you don't understand; the best you can really manage is to feel their emotions."

"So earlier..."

"My killing intent?" I inquired, waiting for Naruto's nod of confirmation.

"Yes, that's basically what it was -- some of my emotions, carried through my chakra, although that technique does involve filtering my chakra to 'remove' certain things and focusing it so that you could feel them."

Of course, I had to do very little filtering by then, and the focusing part was so 'natural' to me that I actually had to concentrate to not do it.

"Ah. I understand," Naruto replied.

"Actually, most experienced shinobi have trouble suppressing their killing intent, especially when they're feeling strong negative emotions. It's one thing to look for when detecting ambushes and the like."

It was more of a problem for me than most, but... I had a stronger killing intent than most to begin with, and negative emotions... well, ever since Minato...

I forced myself out of my reminiscence once again.

"To get back to the story, the first jutsu on the scroll that Naruto-kun took is not kage bunshin no jutsu. It's a variant of it that was created when someone came up with the idea of using shadow clones in melee combat. Basically, to use kage bunshin to create a number of spare bodies that they could use to gang up on an opponent."

I smirked. "Like many things that seemed like a good idea at the time, it didn't work out all that well. Most people who try that strategy die from chakra depletion, and there are a lot of more efficient ways to use your chakra. Nonetheless, the attempts produced a number of useful notes for the use of kage bunshin in combat, which is why the technique is on the scroll. Still, that's the technique that Naruto-kun learned. After taking the scroll he trained for several hours on one of the most chakra-consuming techniques in existence, and was visibly exhausted when Iruka-kun found him. I'm afraid that I can't give you too many details thanks to certain laws, but in the resulting confrontation Mizuki taunted him with a... twisted version... of a state secret, Iruka-kun said some things that have probably endeared him to Naruto-kun for the rest of his life, and when Mizuki attempted to kill Iruka-kun to get the scroll, Naruto-kun proceeded to create over a hundred kage bunshin..."

Sakura let out a gasp at that, while Sasuke managed to lose his composure.

"...and use them to beat Mizuki into a pulp," I finished. "I might add that, according to the report, each and every one of those clones was actively using chakra to enhance its movements."

I smirked at my gaping students. "Naruto-kun wasn't even winded from the effort." And, with that comment, I resumed eating my bento.

Seeing the expressions on my students' faces was worth it.

"Is that even possible?" Sakura asked, stunned.

I grinned, swallowing some rice. "Sure, if you have enough chakra," I confessed. "Naruto-kun has plenty."

Of course, he also recovered his chakra at a stunning rate thanks to the seal and when he was feeling a strong emotion some of the chakra normally bound into reinforcing the seal would be released to his use. Since kage bunshin didn't duplicate that portion of his system, that chakra wouldn't have been touched during his training and thanks to his recovery rate the conversation with Iruka and the confrontation with Mizuki was enough time to recover most of his supply anyway.

"But..."

"Naruto-kun also recovers his chakra more quickly than usual, and his supply of it fluctuates with his emotions. His emotions were running particularly high at the time and his chakra supply followed suit. The changes in his capacity will make it harder than usual for him to learn proper control, but it's not like anyone's even tried to help him do that before."

Naruto shook his head at me. "Iruka-sensei..."

"The leaf exercise? The one where they tell you to stick a leaf to your head with chakra?" I asked. "I know he taught you that one, but that's more of an exercise in concentration than an exercise in control. As I said, Mizuki is the one who should have taught you those."

"But..." he protested.

"Naruto-kun," I said, "Iruka-kun had almost thirty students to teach in your class alone. He tried to do what he could to teach you, but he couldn't make up for the other teachers'... deficiencies... on his own, and he couldn't correct for problems that he didn't know about."

I smiled kindly at him. "The Academy records are surprisingly thorough on the subject of what exercises have been covered with which students... probably so that jounin teachers can get an idea of where their students are." I paused for a second. "Well, they're supposed to be, anyway. Tanaka Juushiro's evaluations of you consisted mostly of caricatures of your mutilated corpse."

Torturing that bastard had been fun. Ibiki was still periodically stopping by my apartment to beg me to tell him how I'd broken Tanaka, but how the Hell was I supposed to tell him that I had forced him to watch a twelve-hour Barney marathon? It wasn't like Barney had seen any airtime in at least nine thousand years on this world.

Well, unless Ami or one of my predecessors had been a closet fan, but the lack of an existing summoning contract for the purple menace suggested otherwise. Maybe locking Tanaka in a room with the Teletubbies for a week had been rather cruel, but it wasn't like I'd starved him or anything -- I had been sure to give him a freshly prepared haggis every day via a special delivery system.

And it wasn't like I'd done any permanent harm to him -- the doctors at the Konoha Mental Hospital estimated that he'd stop hugging himself in the corner of his cell and singing that song in a frightened tone of voice any decade now!

The fact that Tanaka Juushiro had actually understood English had only helped.

I broke myself out of my reminiscence to see a horrified expression on Sakura's face, while even Sasuke seemed to have a crack in his normal emo façade, giving us a glimpse of the emo underneath. Naruto, on the other hand, was again seeming almost withdrawn, wearing the same unreadable expression on his face as earlier.

"That's..." Sakura began, "That's why..."

"Why he was removed as an Academy instructor?" I asked. "That's part of it, anyway."

I ate the last kappa-maki from my bento and took out my storage scroll again, accidentally hitting my hand against something else that I had put into my pocket.

"Oh, yes," I commented. "That reminds me." I removed the container of pills from where I'd put them and tossed them to Sasuke. "These are a kind of medicine that I figured might help you improve a bit."

Catching it, Sasuke gave me a curious look.

"It's called 'Prozac'," I clarified. "It might help you overcome one of the more substantial obstacles to your growth."

That was true enough; his emo tendencies tended to make him rather hard to put up with.

"Sensei?" Sakura asked. "You're a medic-nin?"

I shook my head. "No. Besides, that's a medicine that hasn't been manufactured since the Second Age of Magic, anyway. Most medic-nin haven't even heard of it."

"But... then how..."

I smiled. "When you live as long as I have, you pick up all sorts of interesting pieces of knowledge. I just happen to be Konoha's foremost expert on ancient history, among other things, and happen to know people who are qualified to prescribe that... as well as the manufacturing process. I'm more than just a cranky old man with a shotgun, after all!"

Of course, I'd summoned the medicine; starting a pharmacology company would be too much of a pain.

Naruto just stared at me. "But, sensei, you don't look that old!"

I turned towards him, my bento and storage scroll lying nearly forgotten at my side. "I'm older than I look," I confessed.

"Oh?" Sasuke asked, apparently out of curiosity.

"Yeah. Most ninja die before they reach my age," I answered somberly. "Of all of your classmates' jounin instructors, I'm the oldest."

"Umm... sensei?" Sakura asked. "You don't have to answer or anything, but..."

I grinned. "I was born in the year 1982 Anno Domini, if that means anything to you."

Sakura just shook her head.

"And, to tell the truth, I had never heard of the P.C.T. calendar before I came to Konoha. So..."

"You don't know the answer, do you?" Naruto asked.

"Not exactly," I confessed. "But that's a pretty personal question and we've really gotten off-topic anyway."

"Sensei?" Sakura inquired. "When you say 'before' you 'came to Konoha'..."

"I mean before I came to Konoha. I'm fairly unusual among Konoha's ninja for a lot of reasons, but one of them is how and why I became a ninja. Maybe I'll tell you the story sometime, but there's a state secret that you don't know that's fairly important to the explanation."

"Oh," Sakura replied.

"Anyway, to get back to the point," I said, addressing Sasuke, "that story should give you some idea of just how much chakra Naruto-kun has. Now, can you imagine just how strong Naruto-kun could become if he were to learn to fully harness and control that power?"

Sasuke's eyes widened as he contemplated that point.

"But that's not the end of it," I continued. "He's got me as a teacher. When I said that I thought that he could become Hokage, I wasn't joking. By the time I'm through with him, he'll be able to take on armies and win. By the time I'm done teaching him, his enemies will be more afraid of him than they are of my old genin team... and that's saying something."

My students' expressions again varied. Sasuke was... confused? Sakura was staring at Naruto, and Naruto was... damn.

"Naruto-kun," I said gently, "your enemies being afraid of you isn't a bad thing. I know that you don't want to be seen as a monster, and you're not one, but in the end a Hokage protects the village with everything he has, including his reputation. I'm not saying that you'll be seen as a bloodthirsty monster or anything, even by your enemies -- just that you'll be a powerful ninja that they won't want to meet on the battlefield."

That cheered Naruto up nicely.

"Regardless, Sasuke-kun," I finished, "Naruto-kun and Sakura-kun both have considerable potential as ninja and are at least open to becoming a true team. You also have considerable potential, but are, apparently, not. As of when they were assigned to my team, both of them had psychological weaknesses that could be problems in the future. I've done what I can to address those and both of them have made progress in regards to those issues. You also have a substantial psychological weakness, but... well, I haven't seen nearly as much progress from you as I have from them."

"Explain," Sasuke snapped.

"Sakura-kun has, until now, had a rather sugar-coated vision of what it means to be a ninja. I have done my best to show her the truth and to get her to take things seriously. I call it a psychological weakness because it could have left her vulnerable, either to ambushes or to some of the more... underhanded... tactics shinobi often use.

"Naruto-kun is a bit of a more complicated case. He's grown up alone, to put it bluntly. Very few people have accepted him as who he is over the years and even fewer have actually shown him any form of affection. The fact that he's grown up with almost no emotional support has helped him grow stronger in some ways, but it's also left him... starved for affection, I believe is the best way to put it. I call this a weakness simply because enemies would -- and will -- try to exploit this in order to gain his trust, leaving him open to betrayal.

"The solution was and is quite simple, really. His problem stems from the fact that he's starved for acceptance, attention and affection. Accordingly, I gave him what he needed. The fact that I genuinely care for him made that almost pathetically easy to do, although I'm limited by the fact that showing him favoritism would hardly benefit him in the long run, the fact that I, alone, am hardly enough to from a decent support network, and the fact that I am hardly a substitute for friends within his own peer group. That's also part of the reason why I've put greater emphasis than normal on the portions of teamwork that are not directly related to field performance and part of why I've spent as much effort as I have trying to encourage you to become friends as well as teammates."

Glancing towards Naruto I saw that he was... subdued. Betrayed? No, thankfully, that wasn't it, but... damnit, it didn't matter.

"Naruto-kun," I said, trying to project a comforting tone into my voice. "All I really said was that I was worried that someone might take advantage of your loneliness to hurt you or the people you care about, that I tried to address that by showing you that I cared... and that it was easy to do since I do care. Most of the rest was about how I felt that you needed friends your own age."

Naruto silently nodded, apparently lost in thought.

"Sensei?" Sakura asked. "What did you mean about your old genin team?"

I just grinned. "Let me put it this way. My old teammates and my jounin instructor have been patrolling the border with Earth Country for the past three years. Because of their presence, Stone has ordered its ninja to avoid approaching within three kilometers of the border."

Sakura frowned. "So? What does..."

"They've been the only ninja patrolling the entire border," I clarified.

"Oh," Sakura replied, leaning back in surprise while Sasuke nearly did a spit-take and started looking at me far more seriously.

Of course, the reaction was perfectly understandable. Between Jin-sensei's paranoia and Kei and Yuri's... well, tendency to leave a trail of devastation and desolation behind them that actually managed to eclipse my own, the Tsuchikage had decided to keep his ninja the hell away from "those three lunatics". The fact that the occasional missing-nin still tried to cross and usually wound up blasted into smithereens (along with a few dozen hectares of farmland and the occasional mountain) didn't exactly hurt.

"Sensei?" Naruto inquired, still hesitant.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?"

"If... if I hadn't... would you still have..."

I sighed. "You're trying to ask if I would have approached you like I did if you hadn't been so lonely throughout most of your life?"

Naruto just nodded.

"There probably would have been some differences," I admitted. "I went out of my way to let you know my stance on several issues and to be as friendly as possible. I've also spent some time trying to teach you things about interpersonal relationships that you would probably already know were that the case and trying to help you out in ways that you would normally rely on friends your own age for." I shrugged. "The simple truth is that had you grown up differently you would be different in some ways because of it."

"But... what you said..."

Suddenly, everything clicked.

"Naruto-kun," I instructed him, "look at me."

As Naruto did so, I responded the only way I could.

"I do not lie," I firmly stated. "It's a policy of mine. You can ask almost anyone who knows me and they'll confirm that. Every word I told you was the truth. I have every confidence in your potential as a ninja and I know that I can depend on you as a member of this team. The only thing I did was to put more effort into showing you that because I felt that it would help you. That's all there really is to it. I would sooner kill myself than betray someone who is important to me and you certainly qualify."

Naruto seemed nearly on the verge of tears; the relief in his eyes would have been noticeable even if I hadn't specifically been looking for it.

"Naruto-kun," I continued, "most ninja are taught to hide their feelings. Many do so by reflex and many suppress them to the point that they themselves are no longer aware of them. Those ninja lose their humanity and often become little more than unfeeling killing machines. That's why I plan on being very careful with how I teach you those skills. It's true that you need to be able to control your emotions, to not let them get the best of you, but..." I sighed. "Being a ninja is dangerous. The risk of losing yourself is just part of it."

I shook my head. "Regardless, the point is that my own teachers were not nearly as... nice... about such things. I was trained by people who believed that you should never let your emotions get in the way of what needs to be done. In this case I interpret a large part of my job as being to help you -- and this goes for the two of you as well, Sakura-kun, Sasuke-kun -- to achieve your dreams and to help you accomplish your goals. Tell me something, Naruto-kun. Would you hurt someone you care for if you could avoid it? If I'd thought that telling you what I did would harm you somehow I wouldn't have done so, no matter how much it would have hurt me."

I had promised Minato that I would look after Naruto, after all.

Looking up I noticed that Sasuke had a look of barely-disguised contempt on his face while Sakura was actually glaring at him.

Damn. That was promising.

On the other hand, Naruto wore a look of understanding mixed with his earlier relief. I just gave him a smile.

"Anyway," I finished, "finish your lunches and we'll move on to today's training, OK?"

With that, there was a flurry of activity as Sasuke and Sakura followed my instruction while I sealed my bento and Naruto's bowls back into my scroll.

--