*Chapter 8*: Chapter Seven: Repercussions

Foreword: Got it finished a day before schedule! But before anybody gets all happy and bouncy or angry and flamey, I would like to point out to everyone that this is NOT, I repeat, N-O-T a yaoi fic. There will not even be a yaoi pairing. I refuse to write such a thing, it is NOT my style and not at ALL to my tastes, nor is there any real indicator except for maybe one or two characters that any of them are in fact homosexual. Reason for this disclaimer is in the chapter. Also, Naruto is not really an emo- he just discovered early on that he couldn't keep a scar very well, and the idea of a tattoo hasn't yet occured to him. For the first time, I try to reveal a little bit of the psychology that is driving Naruto. So bear with the flashback- I think it conveys the situation fairly well, even if it is a little derivative.

Additional note: Forgot an important piece of exposition, have made changes to the chapter. Would probably serve you well to reread the Hokage's conversation with Kakashi. Thanks to dragoon-zerox for finding this ommission! I haven't made any personal thanks to anyone yet but I will start with him, as he's been here since the beginning and has been the reason for many of the necessary explanations by him pointing out what wasn't specific enough. He's been instrumental in helping me improve the quality of this work.

Previously: Zabuza makes his move against Tazuna, and team seven finds the workers at the bridge slain and wounded. Naruto intercepts several of Gato's henchmen tasked to kidnap Tazuna's family; then heads to the bridge. After a fairly devastating battle, Zabuza is defeated, and Haku captured. Under a ruse, Naruto gets close enough to kill Gato, and the village unites to drive off the bandits. Now, the bridge completed, Team Seven returns to Konoha to learn, that every action has its consequence...

Chapter Seven: Repercussions

The office was, as always, spartan and somewhat sterile. No more in it than needed for the job being done.

Not first the first time, Kakashi wished for something a little bit more... interesting in the room. Maybe a bookshelf with the Icha Icha series on it. On the other side of the desk, sat Sarutobi patiently.

"So. How did it go?"

Kakashi sat back in his chair slightly. "He's... fairly complicated. One moment close to somber, the next pretending as though he hasn't a care in the world."

"How was his performance?" The Sandaime continued. "He practices some... unorthodox methodology, according to your written report. What is your impression of him?"

"In battle, he's terrifying. Adaptive, innovative, unpredictable." Kakashi said flatly. "I watched him fight an A-class bingo book Nuke nin to a stand still with no fore warning, a Nuke-nin who had me captured at the time. Admittedly, his movements were curtailed at the time, but despite this Mamochi Zabuza is... was no slouch. And the second encounter with Zabuza, Naruto took him on virtually solo, and defeated him soundly." Belatedly, Kakashi chuckled as he realized he'd made a pun.

"What's funny?" Asked the Hokage.

Kakashi shook his head. "Naruto is quick on his feet. Despite his scholastic lackings, in the field he possesses a unique talent for innovating and making creative use of even his most basic talents. Against Zabuza, who was relying on his ears, going so far as to attempt to deprive us all of our sight to seize the advantage... Naruto turned this tactic against him- by yelling."

"Yelling?" Said the Hokage.

"Yes... all two thousand of him." Kakashi said wryly. "My ears still ache just remembering the noise. And I can only picture how devastating it must have been to Zabuza- he didn't have six feet of stone bridge between him and the roar."

"Heh." Chuckled the Sandaime. "Soundly indeed." The Hokage turned to look out the window. "How about the others in team seven? How are they dealing with him?"

"They've taken to him surprisingly well." Kakashi said, following Sarutobi's gaze out the window to the Hokage Monument Mountain. "Even, interestingly enough, the captured nin we brought back with us, Haku. Haku seems to have transferred his admiration of Zabuza to Naruto instead. Although technically a prisoner of Team Seven, he seems to believe he is personally the prisoner of Naruto. At least, by his actions, at any rate."

"As to the others, in the short time we were gone, prolonged exposure to Naruto seems to have had a profound effect on their motivation and their growth. The most remarkable development, however, is not in written form, for... reasons we are both aware of."

The Sandaime nodded, grimacing. Yes... The council, most especially, Danzou. "So what is it, that was... accidentally omitted from the report?"

"Naruto has learned to activate both Byakugan and Sharingan at the same time." Kakashi replied.

"Then he's tamed it." There was no question in Sarutobi's voice.

"Yes. I believe the Kyuubii is fully under his control." Answered Kakashi.

"Another thing it is best the council never finds out about." The Sandaime said with a sigh.

"You're leading up to something." Kakashi said. It was not a question.

"Kakashi, the records of this mission have been sealed by order of the council."

"Why?" Kakashi asked, startled.

"The council looked over the mission report- understandable, as Naruto has been a great concern of theirs over the years. You will be happy to learn that they no longer wish to have him eliminated." Sarutobi said. He took Kakashi's silence as a signal to elaborate. "They were impressed with his attempts to save his team, putting himself on the line for both client and comrades, but were most shocked by his victory over the nuke-nin Mamochi Zabuza. They have overviewed a training session including yourself, and the other two members of team seven, and have conceded that not only is he a very powerful individual but that his influence has begun to bring out the fullest potential of his two team mates. Under your guidance, the council has conceded that you are creating the newest Sannin."

Kakashi sat back, fully stunned, now. "That's... quite a compliment."

"Something of a compliment, maybe a touch of flattery, but more importantly a piece of political prevention. If word got out of the force that team seven is becoming, especially Naruto, there would almost assuredly be... attempts to eliminate a future threat." The Hokage narrowed his eyes as he looked at the monument and stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I wonder if I should shave this."

"So in essense, you have no choice but to accede to their wishes." Kakashi said. "In truth, it's a very good idea. But why do I get the feeling you have misgivings about it?"

"Danzou is a tricky bastard." The Hokage replied. "And I'm acquiring an ingrained response to anything he promotes, that I should be against it. So far, it has been fairly reliable. The Irony of it all? If this trend continues, Naruto may well and away become the most powerful shinobi Konoha has ever seen... and despite this, he may never be recognized by his peers enough to take my office after I'm gone."

"Academic." Kakashi said. "There has never been a jinchuuriki Kage, and no village would ever look past the surface to allow it. It will never happen."

"Do you still think of him only as a jinchuuriki, after all this time?" The Hokage replied with some surprise. "I thought better of you than that."

"No." Said Kakashi in response. "I see him as Uzumaki Naruto, a worthy and devoted Konoha shinobi. Possibly the best and brightest of his generation, a beacon of decency, as we sit here in your den plotting politics around him. And I also know that there is no force on earth that can overpower the might of ignorance and idiocy all marching in the same direction- not even that of his good heart backed by the strength of the Kyuubii within him. The villagers, no matter the words of a few who've had the fortune of meeting him, will believe what they always have, because it is easier for them and less damaging to their egos than to admit they have been wrong for fourteen years."

For a few minutes, there was no more conversation as the two men looked out the window at the Hokage Monument. Four carven faces in the wall of the mountain, the greatest shinobi of Konoha's history. But for an accident of birth, Naruto might well have someday been up there on that mountain.

Finally, the Sandaime broke the silence. "Your report says he is ruthless to all adversaries. How many did he kill?" "Oddly enough, only as many as he had to... I think. Including Gato, he killed three for certain, and possibly a fourth."

"Possibly?" Asked the Hokage with a raised eyebrow.

Kakashi's visible eye looked thoughtful. "We never recovered Zabuza's body. After what I've seen I can't picture how he survived. But Zabuza was also once a Hunter nin. If there was a way for him to have survived, I'm certain he would have found it."

The street was largely abandoned. A few late night pedestrians were going about their busines of trversing from point A to point B, but here on the rooftops, Hakue was for all intents and purposes alone. This was much as he preferred it. It gave him time to think.

("And the few who dare, ask only if they have the money to pay. A rich woman with a runaway cat would get help before a poor one wrongly accused of theft. And I... I can't accept that.")

("I think it's time for me to forge my own path." )

("Naruto... did I do... ok?") ("Yeah- just remember as an archer, you shoulda been in the back. Let the guys in the front hold em off while you poke holes in them. But yeah, good to see you're a fast learner.")

A shinobi is a tool. Haku thought to himself. A tool doesn't decide how it is to be used, it simply does its job... right? ("I understand that there are things more important than what the villagers think of me.")

How can one still be a shinobi and still feel?

("I believed that if I worked hard enough, got better than anyone else, that they would accept me.") ("It was the dream of a child.")

("I understand that there are things more important than what the villagers think of me.")

He doesn't hide behind it. That's his secret. He knows what he does, every second of it, takes responsibility for everything he chooses. How can he stand it?

("I think it's time for me to forge my own path.")

Haku wasn't certain why, but he felt the urge to look in the window. He edged his way closer to the apartment, trying to catch a glimpse inside.

Naruto was there. He was brushing his teeth while walking from one side of the room to where Haku could only assume was the bathroom. Almost unbidden, a smile rose to his lips.

Faintly, Haku could hear the sound of water running. After several seconds, the water shut off, and Naruto came out of the bathroom. Haku suddenly felt warm as Naruto pulled out a nightshirt and cap from beneath his pillow. Haku froze, uncertain, knowing Naruto probably wouldn't appreciate being watched like this, but he couldn't tear his eyes away.

Haku's eyes widened as Naruto pulled of his shirt. His upper body was slim, with just a hint of the man that he would someday become- a thought that made Haku's head swim and his heart beat faster.

Haku's eyes noticed something on the lower left side of Naruto's chest, a scar of some sort. Haku wondered at the kind of injury that would leave a scar so large- it was about the length and width of the palm of a man's hand.

Haku was about to move closer to get a better look, when the skin on his throat informed him of the presence of something cold and sharp resting across his jugular vein. Helooked slowly to his left to see Naruto standing there, still barechested, holding a kunai to his throat. "..."

In spite of the kunai at his throat, Haku found his face geting warm and his pulse elevating at Naruto's nearness.

"..." Naruto's continuing silence was almost eloquent.

"..." Haku's silence was punctuated by the slow development of a deep blush.

Finally, Naruto broke the silence. "Haku, um... You know, I dunno what you were doing out here, I don't have a clue where I should start in asking about it, and I'm not even sure I wanna know."

Haku's blush intensified. "N-Naruto san..."

Naruto grimaced. "So, what ARE you doing out here?" He asked, pulling the kunai away before concealing it somewhere on his person. Certainly not in his shirt, as he wasn't wearing one.

Haku blinked; it was a moment before he had an excuse, as he himself wasn't even certain why. "I wanted to see... the scar... on your chest."

Naruto looked down, and Haku followed his gaze. From this close, Haku could see that the scar formed the kanji for

"Trust."

"Who did that to you?" Haku asked.

Naruto's eyes darkened. "I did." He said. "And I still do."

Haku was confused. "What... what do you mean?"

Naruto cocked his head slightly to the side. "I don't keep scars very well. I heal too fast. So every morning, I... reinforce it."

Haku looked at the scar in dismay. It was large, and carefully drawn. To brand oneself with something like this, not just once, but every day...

"Please leave me, now." Naruto said, turning his head away. "I'm sure you have others you would rather spend your time with."

Haku was torn, uncertain what to do or say. He watched helplessly as Naruto went back inside, shut the window, and closed the blinds.

"We need an incident." Said Danzou.

Gendo turned to look at his superior across the desk, confusion on his face. "Sir?"

"The trouble with this new Naruto is he doesn't draw enough attention to himself." Danzou said.

Gendo frowned. "I... I don't understand, sir." He admitted.

Danzou limped over to the window. "Do you remember the day that Naruto defaced the Hokage Monument? The day before he left for so long?"

"Yes sir. As I remember, you laughed for hours." Gendo replied with a smile.

"For years, Naruto's pranks and mischief helped to fan the flames of sentiment against him." Danzou said, sipping from his tea cup that he held loosely in one hand. "The constant support of the Hokage, shielding him from the worst of the villagers responses, protecting him from outright violence- that support had begun to solidly and all but inextricably link Naruto to the position of Hokage. Naruto Uzumaki, troublemaker, monster in human form, created by the Yondaime Hokage and nurtured by the Sandaime. He was a catalyst- one I worked for year to create. How much do you know about psychology, Gendo?"

"Not much, sir."

"Human beings crave community. It's in our blood, our marrow, it's tied to our very souls. We crave the notice and approval of people around us. We need to belong to something. Especially children. Isolation causes an increasingly desperate and outspoken attempt at garnering that attention, eventually manifesting itself in acting out, pretending good cheer, anything to get noticed. Better even disapproval and resentment than outright indifference. And Naruto responded absolutely perfectly to this. A few rumors here, a drunken reminiscence about the calamity inflicted on us by the Kyuubii every so often... It was perfect, went perfectly according to plan. And he was such a perfect tool for the purpose of stirring a subconscious resentment against the position of Hokage." Danzou's fingers reached out and touched the glass of the window, as though he thought he could reach out and touch the Hokage monument with his hands. "But the type of resentment it takes to depose a Hokage cannot be built overnight. Like a forge, the flames of hatred must be fanned long and steadily by a determined and devoted hand to do their work."

"Their resentment of the Hokage and their hatred of Naruto must leave them uncertain at the moment of truth, must leave them unsure as to which side they should choose. Otherwise, we take the risk of martyring the Sandaime." Danzou's grip tightened ever so slightly on the cup. A civilian would have noticed nothing, but it had not escaped Gendo's attention. "I was forced to place an emergency seal on the records regarding this last mission to Nami no Kuni. If word of Naruto's part in the mission becomes public knowledge, the Hokage's part in sponsoring him becomes completely validated."

Gendo mulled this over in his mind for a minute. "You were the one that arranged for the timing of Tazuna's request processing, were you not, milord?"

Danzou smiled thinly. "I wondered if you had noticed that."

"Then... You arranged specifically for Team Seven to receive that mission. You knew of the involvement of the Demon Zabuza?" Gendo asked. "If so, then you intended for their mission... to fail?"

Danzou sighed in frustration. "Naruto's ego has always been easy to flick. I had such hopes after his first explosion at Tazuna before they even left the village. I always knew the boy was mercurial, but Imagine! Threatening the life of your first paying escort client within minutes of receiving the mission! I was CERTAIN he'd botch it. I even arranged for the chakra tracer planted in Tazuna's pack, so that any who had been keyed to it could home in on it unerringly."

Danzou's face reflected his growing agitation. "Once the mission had failed, we could have gone public with the details. It would have severely discredited the Sandaime- had it not been for his special dispensation, Naruto would never have made genin to be on this mission in the first place. In fact, we could have pinned the loss of Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye on Naruto- from the mission reports, Zabuza nearly killed him in their first encounter. We could have called it incompetence or even outright sabotage."

Gendo noticed that Danzou's hold on his tea cup had tightened to a knuckle whitening grip. "Instead." Danzou said in a voice growing progressively more hoarse. "Instead, that little jinchuuriki teme saved the mission. Repeatedly. THE GREAT NARUTO BRIDGE!" He roared, and Danzou's arm blurred, flinging the tea cup to smash against the wall. Tea dripped in a hypnotic pattern down the wallpaper, darkening the trails as it soaked in. "How the FUCK do we use that?" Gendo began to sweat. He'd never seen the head of ANBU Root like this.

"That little MONSTER is putting years of effort to NOTHING!" Danzou yelled. "What kind of jinchuuriki doesn't REVEL in slaughter? What kind of monster IS he, that he can make people respect him, that he can work so hard to PROTECT people? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE?"

Gendo cleared his throat. "A... decent person, milord."

Danzou glared at Gendo for a moment. "We need an incident. Something to brand him anathema to the village. And I mean to have it."

Danzou turned back to the window. "Send for Sai."

Naruto opened his eyes. A quick scan of the room indicated everything was in place. Nothing was moved, none of his traps were compromised or triggered, nobody was here.

Everything was alright.

He released the Kage Bunshin in the mattress above him, and opened up the trap door that would lead him up to underneath his bed. Rolling out from underneath, he stood up and stretched, scratched his scalp, checked out the scar on his chest. It was mostly faded away.

Naruto had been performing the same ritual for more than a month and a half now- ever since the moment he'd stared down at the dying form of Iruka-sensei, listened to his words...

Flashback

It would have worked had Naruto not been surprised. But Naruto acted on reflex, instinct. The massive metal weapon flew at him as he opened the door- Naruto snatched it out of the air, used its momentum to sweep his leg around, dropping his opponent to the ground, last of the momentum of the weapon arcing up, over, and down into his opponent. "N-Naruto!" His foe gasped in a voice nightmarishly familiar. "N-nice sho-shot!"

Naruto looked in horror at the body next to him, shaking hand releasing the shuriken to stand monolithically still in his opponent's torso. The hair, the scar... "I-Iruka-sensei?" Naruto said in a tone of disbelief. "B-but... why did you... what did I... Why, sensei? What did I do wrong?"

Iruka lay there on the ground in a growing pool of his own blood. He moved his arms feebly, gasping shallowly. His chest remained almost motionless in spite of his attempts to draw air- His fuma shuriken prevented much else. It was embedded into his chest, splitting his breastbone, and embedded into the very floor of Naruto's doorstep. Iruka's legs were entirely motionless; a distant portion of Naruto's mind guessed that the shuriken had severed his sensei's spine about the seventh thoracic vertebra. Cruelly, the weapon had somehow missed the aorta and the pulmonary vascular system; Iruka was bleeding to death and suffocating at the same time, but the embedded weapon was constricting the flow of blood from the lesser arterial systems it has cloven. He was feeling every horrible second of it.

"I was... ordered by... Hokage..." Iruka said in his shallow gasps. "You... can't be... trusted... killed chuunin... council felt... I was best... chance to kill you..."

Naruto was in an almost blind panic now. "Stay calm, I can get a medic nin here!" He said, crying, holding a cloth to the sides of Iruka's injury. "I'll get you to a doctor, please, don't die, please don't die!"

"No..." Iruka whispered. "Better... this way..." Iruka gagged, gave a light shiver, and spit up a phlegmy wad of bloody mucus weakly, the gory mess dripping down the side of his cheek. Vaguely, Naruto smelled something with a reek of raw sewage; he didn't want to think what it was. Iruka continued, "You're better... than they deserve.. hokage is... protect them... even if... never hokage in... name, be one... in spirit... trust nobody... don't let them kill you..." Iruka faded momentarily, then seemed to rally himself. Naruto could feel the chakra come off his body in waves and knew time was short. "Stay Alive! In the end... if you protect them... you... win..."

Iruka's eyes stopped moving, now stared emptily. their shine was lost; his chest stopped moving. The blood stopped pumping from around the killing weapon.

A terrible pain tore through Naruto; his eyes burned and a scream ripped its way out of his chest, through his throat, tore the skin of his mouth raw with chakra and emotion. There were no words, only the primal hate and pain of a wounded cub finding itself alone in the face of an uncaring and cruel world. The scream died away; the chakra remained in his hand, and as he forced himself to focus through the streaming tears he sharpened that chakra into a burning knife, and began gouging his flesh over his own heart, writing...

End Flashback

Naruto looked at his fingernail; the spark of blazing chakra there. He'd refined his technique over the last weeks, his writing improving even upside down. The scar he left was clean and sharp. "I will protect them all, I promise you, Iruka sensei..." He murmured as he began writing. He no longer flinched at the touch of the burning; it felt comfortable, understandable. A reminder and a constant lesson to himself.

Trust brings pain.

"So, what's he like?" Asked Asuma.

"Yes, tell us, Kakashi." Chimed in Kurenai. "What is it like having him on team seven? How do the others get along with him?"

Kakashi put away his book and looked over at the other two in the jonin lounge. "Much like any other genin, I suppose.

He's quiet, much of the time, although occasionally prone to outbursts of silliness... although nothing like he used to be. He's very private. He cares about others- sometimes too much for his own good, almost to the point of martyrdom or self destructiveness. He worries me."

"Why?" Asked Asuma.

Kakashi frowned a little; it was apparent even through his mask. "In all the time I've been with him on team seven, I've never seen him let his guard down, except when he was completely unconscious- and I'm not certain it was down even then. He shows some definite signs of combat fatigue. When I watch him I'm never certain if I'm looking at the real Naruto or a clone while he hides somewhere nearby." He gave a sigh of frustration. "He won't open up to anyone except at the strangest of times, and even then, only when he's angry. But then again, I don't think I've ever seen him happy, or content. At most, I've seen him show a flicker of pride in his work, a momentary satisfaction at his results, but never more." Kurenai frowned thoughtfully. "Get him laid."

Kakashi blinked his visible eye, while Asuma just stared at her as though she'd told them to get a teenager laid. Holy shit, I think she DID say that. Asuma thought numbly.

"...What?" Said Kakashi after the initial shock wore off. "Um... That's the last thing I would have ever expected to hear from you."

"Sex is actually a pretty good therapy for relieving tension." Kurenai answered. "Not that it doesn't come with its own host of dangers and problems if not approached carefully. Like the old joke, Sex is a trap- People cause stress, sex relieves stress. Unfortunately, sex also causes people." The three jonin laughed a little. "Kunoichi are trained to use sex for a multitude of purposes- infiltration, distraction, gathering information. It's an effective tool in a kunoichi arsenal, but it also makes for a good means by which to get away from it all, even momentarily. NOT," Kurenai said with a hint of steel in her voice, "That I am interested in any one night stands with coworkers, so get that thought out of your heads." Kakashi and Asuma snorted and leaned back a little. Kurenai shook her head. "Honestly- it's that sort of response that lets us use sex against you as a weapon. Even so... I think I might know of someone who would be perfect for this particular task... IF I presented it to her as a mission."

Asuma raised an eyebrow. "Really? Who?"

Kurenai tilted her head to the side. "Hyuuga Hinata."

Kakashi and Asuma both stared at her in disbelief, before Kakashi said, "Hinata? You're crazy. The girl's a mouse. No confidence whatsoever- she'd never make it believable."

Kurenai smiled a mysterious little smile. "I beg to differ- Hinata is shy, true, and her self esteem is a bit lacking. But that would give them both a touchpoint on which to make a connection- and I know for a fact that she could make it believable, because in her case, she has a massive crush on the boy. She has for years. And I've found that she is very focused on a mission when given one- if anything could get her past her inherent shyness, I'd say it'd be that." Kurenai gave a little shrug. "Back to the original topic, Kakashi- You never did say how he gets along with his team mates."

The two men, a little jarred at the sudden change in topic, completely missed the fact that it gave Kurenai the last word. Kakashi shook his head as though to clear it, before saying, "Ah... Well, that's the strangest part, really. "To both of his team mates, Naruto is an inspiration. I read your dosier on Shikamaru, and Naruto's influence has been nothing short of remarkable. Just mentioning Naruto to him makes him train harder than you would have believed possible for a Nara to push themselves. These last two weeks, he's motivated himself, training without prompting or even warning in some cases- Half the time I check to see if he got himself a bowl cut and started painting on his eyebrows." The other two snickered at this reference at Gai-sensei's expense. Gai was undeniably powerful- possibly the most powerful jonin in Konoha after Hokage sama- but his training methods and motivational attitude were rather... odd.

"Doesn't even sound like Shikamaru at all." Responded Asuma after a moment.

Kurenai waved him down. "What about the Uchiha boy?" She asked.

Kakashi displayed his poker face- a sign not lost on his two comrades. "His response is... Erratic. One day he'll seem to resent Naruto's strength, and the next he's almost mothering him, and failing miserably at hiding it. Sasuke..." Kakashi paused a moment, trying to find a way to articulate his impressions. "As strange as it seems, Sasuke appears to be trying his hardest, despite the jealousy, to ease Naruto's pain... And he seems to be resolving his own pain and bitterness in the process. In attempting to heal Naruto, he's working his own way back to recovery from the massacre."

"A case of the patient healing the healer..." Kurenai murmured thoughtfully. She opened her mouth to say something else, but whatever it was remained unsaid, as the room shuddered around them, as though the whole of Konoha had been shaken to its very foundations. A loud booming noise echoed from outside a splitsecond later.

"What the hell?" Said Asuma, brushing some stucco from the ceiling off his head.

"Kakashi!" Came a shout from the hallway.

The mirror nin felt a terrible sinking sensation, a feeling that he knew what was coming... not necessarily in its details, but definitely the essense of it. I do not believe in premonition, I do not believe in premonition, He chanted to himself.

"Kakashi!" Burst in Jotah, a chuunin instructor from the academy. "Come quickly! Naruto is fighting another genin!"

Kakashi's heart froze in his chest. I don't believe in premonition, He thought to himself. But apparently, it believes in me.

End Chapter Seven

-AN: Alright. I know this chapter is going to irritate at least a few people out there, not the least for the almost incessant politicking and talking going on. But when the scene with Danzou and an unnamed subordinate occured to me, I left it as it was, pretty much unchanged from its original concept, except for giving his subordinate a name.

Several people made mention in PM and review that Naruto is seemingly flipflopping. I'd like to clear up a misconception on that- it's not that he's flipflopping, he's just torn and fucked up in the head. In the one regard, Naruto is highly paranoid. He trusts nobody, absolutely nobody, for reasons already discussed above. On the other hand, now more than ever he still maintains a deep need for approval, which in his mind has been converted to a need to protect those around him. He isn't even particularly discriminating- so long as the person isn't an active enemy, he'll still move to protect them- even to the point of being semi-suicidal. Which, given how long he's been despised and disliked, he is at least subconsciously convinced that he has no real worth- this goes all the way back to the prologue, when he left Konoha for six weeks. And even though he has found a source of strength, has become a formidable individual in his own right, his ghosts are still hard to dispel. Were he someone in our own world he would only recover after years of intensive, daily therapy- and even then, he'd never quite reach full function in society. But all shinobi have their mental issues, and it is more or less accepted in Naruto's world, which means that his quirks are being brushed off as the traits of a talented shinobi, which in turn means the damage is left alone to compound itself with little chance of anyone giving him any significant degree of help. Granted, both the Hokage and Kakashi recognize there is a problem- they are both extremely intelligent and insightful- but even they don't fully recognize the depth of the problem and immediately take him off active duty until his broken ego can be given a little time to recover.

An a separate topic, I'm rapidly approaching the end of my written rough draft, mostly because I type a BOATLOAD faster than I write by hand- yes, everything in this story was actually handwritten out in a little black composition notebook that I'm even now looking at with fondness. I've emptied a pen on this notebook, and am switching to a second, five subject notebook whose first fifty pages are actually notes and references I've gathered on this story, both canon facts and little bits I've added in that are unique to this little tale of mine. I've got a rough outline of the events heading all the way up to when Gaara is kidnapped by Akatsuki in canon- an event that likely isn't going to happen here, because by then the differences between canon and this story are going to be so drastic as to bear virtually no resemblance. And I think you will all like the Chuunin exams- I have one of my most severe twists waiting for you all there, but this all comes dangerously close to being a spoiler, so I will stop at that. But I guess this paragraph is kind of a warning that chapters won't be coming out QUITE so quickly as before. Hopefully no more than three to four days will go between chapters, but that is dependant on work schedule and so forth.

Anyhow, that's about it- Please review, pass along ideas, mention issues and questions, and thanks again for reading! See you soon!

-AXENOME