I'm so sorry about not updating, I really suck. I really. Suck. I do. This is the last chapter. I lost interest in this story and decided that I really didn't want to continue it, so sorry about the super choppy ending. It is super choppy. Not kidding. Yeah. Have fun? I might write more Team 7 in the future. Might. There's a 40% chance of that. On that note, I want to write an Avengers fic if anyone's interested. Last installment. If you've enjoyed this weird thing, thanks!

UPDATE 5/23: I apologize for any misconceptions, but this story is finished. It is not an incomplete story. Part 4 was meant to tie up all the loose ends that I'd left. Originally, this was supposed to be longer. Part 4 is simply a condensed and less realistic version of many more chapters. The end is Naruto making his decision, leaving the reader open to interpret Team 7's happy future from there, or if you want, another tragic and unsatisfying future, and that this is simply another different prologue. (I prefer the former.) Sorry for any confusions.

{sentinels of a childhood long past}
the heroes that have fallen
(and the birth of new ones)

The weight of the metal in his hand is heavy, and slightly unbalanced. It's nothing at all like any of the kunai he has ever held before, nor does it look like any other. Three-pronged and slightly inefficient seeming, the special kunai really doesn't seem much.

The only thing about it that interested Naruto was the sealing formula wrapped around the handle— complicated, intricate, and barely discernable as a sealing formula at all. To any other, the symbols on the handle would simply look like four kanji, but the citizens of Konoha knew their brilliant young Yondaime better than that. How else could he teleport himself so fast?

Brilliant, yeah right, Naruto thought to himself bitterly as he threw the artifact to his other hand. What sort of a brilliant person (such a bright young man he was) would seal a monster into his own son? Why, a genius of course, he answered himself, perfectly content with the answer. Geniuses in shinobi life are, more often than not, skewed in the head. (...so sad to see him go...)

So here Naruto stood, in front of a cracked up shed with the same formula imprinted on the rock placed just outside the door.

Before he had gone to Kakashi-sensei—Naruto was late, very late, but he still went—Naruto was here, cursing the kunai that he now held in his hand, for tripping him and sending him tumbling headfirst into ferns and other itchy plants. The discomfort stopped soon enough, but he was still here, studying this broken down shed and this un-broken down kunai.

It occurred to him, at one point, that he had somehow missed a sign somewhere because this area was more or less abandoned and untouched for a least a decade. It was untouched for a decade. This must have been one of the Yondaime's stakeouts for his transportation technique, he realized.

Stories and tales of the Hiraishin, he had heard countless times in his excursions around the village (oh, the Yellow Flash was so fast), so often that Naruto couldn't help but label the man as his idol. (quite the looker too) But what now? His idol, the one that had condemned him? Worse, his father, the one who had condemned to this horrible fate.

Truth to be told, Naruto couldn't think of a time when the fox had actually done anything to him, but it had razed the village almost 13 years ago. That had to count for something bad

But no, Naruto thought, as he backed away from the shed, tri-pronged kunai in hand. He leaned against a tree and slid down to a sitting position. That's not why I'm angry. Naruto tucked his chin into his knees and wrapped his arms around his legs. I'm not angry because of the fox. His clothes were ripped in several places, nothing he couldn't fix with a needle and some thread—but a part of him, a masochistic part of him, wanted to leave the rips there. (Memoirs of this truth-bearing day, child.)

There was an empty hole in him, more significant than it had been in so long—that's not why I'm angry—an unignorable need, desire—that's not why I'm angry—craving for something he couldn't reach. Something he never had.

Naruto had deluded himself at one point that he was never truly lonely as long as nature was with him, but here he sat, in the overgrown grove of vines and ferns and behemoth trees, where everything was silent. Not a single windsong, not a bird or cricket—but that's not why I'm angry.

So he sat there, in the stillness, thinking to himself of one word, putting it into different phrases and giving it different meanings, metaphors similes comparisons synonyms. They all meant one thing anyway, the one thing he was that almost no one else in the Academy was.

Suddenly, he understood why Sasuke was so cold.

Naruto wasn't angry because he was alone—that's not why I'm angry—not exactly.

He was angry because it was the Yondaime, his idol, his own father that had left him. He left him.

In the end, he was still the one that had left him alone.

(So alone.)

Contrary to popular belief, Hatake Kakashi was a man of very little self-esteem.

It first started when Rin died. When Rin died, three major things were going on in his mind: the loss of another teammate at his own hands because he wasn't fast enough, his inability to protect a precious comrade when he was so sure that he would and could because he wasn't strong enough, and the ultimate betrayal of his first and last promise to Obito because he just wasn't good enough.

When his father had died, reality hit him like a ton of stones. Kakashi knew that he was always serious and too perceptive for his young age, but none of that could have prepared him for his father's suicide. At five years old, he went into the position of genin smoothly, thinking that he could be ready for the horrors of the shinobi world with his premature mindset. A year later, the accursed mission happened and he stood by, watching his father slide deeper and deeper into madness and the side of shame and failure. Nobody told him about this side to the shinobi life, hidden beneath the eulogies of great heroes on the battlefield.

Despite his strange seriousness, he was still six, and with that age came the naive thoughts of having parents that were invincible.

Another two months passed and his father was at his feet, bleeding and cold on the dojo floor.

Kakashi had continued his life, more or less stunned into a lasting numbness. His blind devotion to rules and the code took root, more firmly than anything else before in his life, so stubborn that no one could pull them from the lifeless dirt under his feet.

Soon enough a man of bright sunshine came, another hero of the stories that Kakashi heard in darkened corners lit by cigarette lighters.

Namikaze Minato, fastest man in all Five Great Nations and beyond, the most legendary ninja since the Hokages themselves. Unlike his reputation had cited, Namikaze Minato had entered Kakashi's life quite subtly, warm and caring like a ray of sunshine.

Try as he did, Namikaze Minato could not uproot Kakashi's beliefs.

Three years later brought Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito. All three of them were nine by then, due to the demand of a war that they couldn't quite understand yet, but Kakashi had already been a chūnin for three and a half years.

Rin was just as subtle as Minato, perhaps even more so, because her attempts were as effective as chipping steel away with rose petals.

Four years passed in a blur of missions, constant arguments and disputes, and rules. Between all of that, however, there were small glows of warmth and welcome. Sitting by a campfire on a starry night, getting pushed about in piles and piles of fire leaves, listening to loud stories with soft commentaries and calm chuckles, sipping at the scorching ramen soup to the side after particularly long escort missions. That fell apart all too quickly, however.

The adults around them were getting tenser, and the happy, laughing children of the academy were sporting constant frowns. Everything was stressful, and rumors of Iwa and Kiri overwhelming Konoha were beginning to get on everyone's nerves.

Kakashi could remember getting sent to warfronts as a chūnin, leaving genin Obito and genin Rin behind each time. Then came a time when he came back to chūnin Obito and chūnin Rin. He could remember feeling so proud of his teammates, for a few seconds, before the normal indifference overcame that and took over again.

Months later, he passed the coveted, secret tests to become a jōnin and stood by his teacher's side on equal rank. Kakashi still resented his giving in to Minato's alluring suggestion of mission captain.

In the end it was not Minato with his warming sunshine and Rin with her pretty rose petals that had torn down Kakashi's wall, but the idiot Obito he had barely paid attention to, the useless nothing that was always late. The moron with his undying morals.

Half-an-hour later, and it was Obito behind him, crushed under rocks and unbreathing.

It was one extreme to the other, so to speak.

A stupid boy with larger-than-life dreams, an innocent girl that was forced into becoming a jinchūriki, and a man that was as good as he was great, all of whom gave their lives for the village and their loved ones. And him, the least-deserving one, still alive. Here. In the village they gave their lives to save.

Kakashi stared bitterly as he stood in front of the memorial stone, looking at all the names of people he couldn't help in front of him. Who was he kidding? Was it even possible to help these three genin? They were so utterly hopeless at this point.

If he couldn't help his old team, who was he to say that he could help these?

Naruto hesitated, and walked into the restaurant, heading towards the head of white (silver? grey?) hair and that familiar chakra—tense, coiled like a spring and calm, lulling. Kakashi-sensei did not seem to react on the outside, but Naruto was pretty sure that he'd already noticed his presence in the shop. The barlady at the side of the room shot him a look not meant for him to see, but didn't bother raising a fuss.

He paused, then sat down across the table from Kakashi-sensei, who was looking at him questioningly.

"Uh," Naruto started, hesitant on continuing. "Sorry about my little fallout the other day. I was just.."

"—in shock? Yeah, I get that." Naruto's eyes widened in relief and a weight fell from him instantly.

"You do? Oh, that's awesome—I couldn't really describe it anyway, so yeah," he ended awkwardly. Kakashi chucked exasperatingly in reaction.

"Well, alright then." Tone still lighthearted, Kakashi continued, "If it makes you feel any better, you dad was a great man." Naruto fidgeted in his seat, uncomfortable about the change in direction.

"Um, yeah. About that—"

"No," he interrupted. "Let me finish talking. This is what you came here to talk about in the first place, right? Just know that the Yondaime loved you very much. If he didn't, why would he do what he did? That may seem like a dumb question to you, but the only reason why he did that was because you were the only person he trusted to carry such a burden. Got that?"

Naruto nodded tentatively. "I got that, but how would he know that I could hold it?"

"Do you want the long answer or the short one?" Naruto shrugged.

"Okay then. If you want a factual answer, then it's because your mother's clan had large chakra reserves and strong vitality—they didn't go down easy and it was apparent that you had inherited that also. If you want the other answer, then it's faith."

"Faith?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, faith." Kakashi grinned. "We may be shinobi with our chakra and powers and everything, but I don't believe in some deity up there, watching us and keeping us 'safe', but I do believe in having faith in something that can't be seen. Your father, he had faith in you. The same way I have faith that you'll come to a team meeting tomorrow."

Naruto scowled. "You're guilt-tripping me, sensei."

"It's a part of the job description."

"Phooey." He fidgeted again. "Faith?"

"Yeah, faith."

Naruto squinted at his teacher, looking for any take-backs in his face. Kakashi stared back as calmly as he pleased.

"Okay. I'll accept that." Naruto reached into the pouched at his hip and drew out the tri-pronged kunai. "I suppose you can keep this until the time's right?" Kakashi looked at Naruto, surprise showing through for the first time.

"It was your dad's. Keep it." Grinning, Naruto stuffed the weapon back into his pouch.

"I guess I'll stop interrupting your meal, sensei," Naruto said. "I'll be coming tomorrow!" He darted out of the restaurant, a whirlwind of relief and resolved issues. (Good job, kid.)

"Here's the thing, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said as she sat down across from Sasuke on the grass. "Naruto's weird, and we both know that." Sasuke nodded slowly.

"Is that why you called me here? To discuss Naruto?" he asked, a little affronted by Sakura's overbearing presence.

"Uhh, well," she stalled, twirling a lock of pink hair around her finger, "kinda. Yeah, yeah I did." She lifted her chin and crossed her arms. "We need to talk about His Supreme Idiocy and all the strange quirks that he has."

"Starting with that weird reaction to a weird kunai the other day," Sasuke interjected. Sakura nodded happily.

"Yeah! That. Now that was totally strange. And then coming back for a team meeting days later? Weird. You know what's weirder?"

"His sudden smartness?"

"Yeah! I was so not expecting that. I mean, seriously. Uzumaki Naruto? He was such an idiot in the Academy, but come team assignments, and he's suddenly great. Not as annoying either! I mean, who would have thought that he was so calm?"

"Right."

"But that's not why I'm here." Sasuke stared at her, shaking his head a little.

"What? I thought we said—"

"No, you shut up. I never said that. Nope. Never. My point is, let's agree to always be a team. I can feel the sheer vibes of awesome already. Naruto's cooler than we thought, you're like a genius and whatevs, and I'm going to be awesome because my intuition's never wrong."

"...right." Sakura rolled her eyes and looked at Sasuke authoritatively.

"Don't give me that attitude. You know it's true."

"Yeah, okay," he laughed. Sakura grinned and unfolded her arms, reaching a hand out.

Sasuke shook it without question.

What would be the point in chasing down Itachi?

He killed your family, Uchiha.

But really, he's ruining my life. Why would he just snap and kill everyone anyway?

Haku didn't have to die, Naruto thought as he sped on the path back to Konoha with his team.

And neither did Zabuza, he tacks on. Both of them were good people, hidden by their own delusions and insecurities—but they were good people. But in the end, it doesn't matter how good or pure you are. All that matters is your power.

And that just is not fair, Naruto thought as he raced through the trees.

"I'd hate to lie to you guys, but this is what a shinobi does." Kakashi gestured towards the horizon where the dead bodies of the battle would be rested.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't—

"—fair," said Sasuke. "Why did that have to happen to them?" Kakashi slowed down a little, pondering the question.

"Well, we—"

—couldn't control what happened!

Do you really think I could have at all? He was a jōnin already, and I was still in the Academy!

True. Is it even worth it to kill him?

He's all the family I have left.

It's because of him that I have no more left, though.

He's family.

He's a sinner.

He's your brother.

So it's not worth killing him?

Yes, it really is—

"—not worth it." Iruka finished with a deadpan. You, who tried so hard to become a shinobi, are wondering if it's not worth becoming one."

"Yeah," Naruto nodded uncomfortably. "There's no justice, and it's all dangerous, and people die out there, and I'm going to be a part of others' deaths."

"Uzumaki Naruto is telling me that he's scared of a little danger?" Iruka asked, astonished. He set down his chopsticks and shoved the ramen bowl to the side a bit, shaking his head in laughter.

"I warned you about what you signed up for, Naruto. This is it. Being a shinobi may mean death and destruction, yes. But think about all the lives you could save, and then come back to me about this."

But how do you know he's dangerous enough to kill people?

Are you freaking kidding me right now.

No, I meant, does he want to hurt people?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Thinking of revenge is making me sick. What's this team doing to me?

I don't know. Should I know? They're pretty damn important, though. Family for the next few years, remember?

Yeah. Team first. Itachi can come later.

I can be better than him.

Stay in Konoha.

Don't be a dirty rogue like him.

Team first.

Team first.

Sasuke opened his eyes to meet darkness, and then light outlines as the Sharingan whirled in. "Yeah," he said to himself quietly. "Team first."

The festival was a huge event as always, with the civilians and shinobi mourning those lost in the Kyuubi attack, and the bright lanterns everywhere to act as guardians against the Kyuubi's darkness.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi had just gotten off of another tedious D-ranked mission far out in the countryside of Konoha, and barely made it to the beginning of festivities. They were rather hurriedly dressed in plain kimonos of different colors, Sakura being excited and pushy for the three males to pick up their dragging pace.

As they walked through the streets, Sasuke couldn't help but pick up the animosity directed at Naruto, and one glance at Sakura told him that she'd noticed too, for all her flowery smiles. Kakashi was standing nearer to Naruto than he usually stood to anyone in the team. Naruto himself was twitchy.

Sakura, devilish manipulator she was, maneuvered them all to a goldfish stand where they attempted to catch the fish. Kakashi didn't bother, but Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were all having trouble at the game.

"Why is this not working? We're shinobi, for heaven's sake!" Sakura whined. Kakashi smiled evilly.

"Maa, don't get mad, Sakura-chan. There's a jutsu being used to make the fish go faster for the higher the chakra levels of the person are. I learned that lesson years ago."

It was all fun and games, Sasuke reflected days later, but he did remember the sudden, violent slashing down of light from a lantern, and then—

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!" the man screamed as Kakashi stood there calmly, holding the assailant in a twisted position with a kunai to his throat.

(Could he even help these kids?)

"Please!"

(Another team, probably another tragedy.)

"You know," Kakashi hummed pleasantly, "I could report you to the Hokage and have you put in jail for that."

(It's worth trying.)

"—a wife and two children, please, they need me—"

"Then maybe you should have thought about that before you pulled an astonishingly stupid and illegal move. You're not worth my time. Get out of here." Kakashi shoved him away, and he fled wildly, the flickering remains of the lantern left crushed on the floor. Sasuke and Sakura stood there, shocked, barely sure of what had just happened, and simultaneously turned to find Naruto.

He was standing there, blinking after the man, and—

"Man," he laughed, shaking his head. "That was weird."

THE NINE-TAILS SECRECY LAW

I. Excepting the Council of Shinobi, the Hokage, and any persons granted permission, no civilian or shinobi is allowed to reveal the status of jinchūriki in one Uzumaki Naruto to Uzumaki Naruto.

II. Excepting the Hokage and one Uzumaki Naruto, no civilian or shinobi is allowed to reveal the status of jinchūriki in one Uzumaki Naruto to any other civilian or shinobi.

III. Any excessive acts of violence towards Konoha's jinchūriki on the Tenth of October are strictly forbidden.

"So the chūnin exams are coming up," Kakashi remarked. "I'm thinking of entering you three." Naruto and Sasuke jumped up in astonishment, and Sakura dropped her kunai in surprise.

"Sensei, are you serious?" Sakura said seriously. Kakashi laughed.

"Of course he is, airhead," sniped Sasuke. Naruto punched Sasuke in the gut and ran in a circle, hollering in glee. Sasuke stumbled and went chasing after him, and they skittered around.

(There's still one more thing you have to do, kid.)

Kakashi held out three slips of paper with stamps printed across them. "These are the applications. If you're sure you're ready, turn them in by the end of the week."

"You'll be amazed, Kakashi-sensei. We're definitely ready," Sasuke smirked.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura sang.

"We'll do better than you did, sensei, count on it!"

Naruto stumbled into the restaurant.

"Sensei, I need to talk to you about something…"

Team 7, a hell of a mess in the beginning, now stood in front of the Academy once more.

The last member of a once powerful clan, one civilian-turned shinobi girl with large potential and a larger ambition, and one very special kid who got more than he bargained for at birth. There was interconnection, and Naruto felt it.

"Hey guys," Naruto piped up. "I have to confess something...about who I am, actually."

And he knew he'd be okay.

END