A/N: Boogaloo. By the way, no pairings decided, though I've got a few ideas. I'd welcome any input. Within the next five chapters there will be a time skip. Admittedly, I can't say I enjoy writing about young teenagers preforming ridiculous feats of combat. I prefer them at least 16 or higher, so their reach is longer and muscles more developed. I'm thinking 6 months, but a year would be better. Three years, what I'd prefer, is straight out. Too large a time to just leap over, too many character changes possible. I'd lose you guys in what I intend their characters to be like in the end. I might, might make a two-year jump, but that's a bit of a stretch. Speaking of which, I feel I made a few leaps development wise this chapter, drop a review if you feel so and I'll see if I can edit it. Recommendations are greatly appreciated.

This is the chapter where characters really begin changing. So, cut me a bit of slack. I know I'm rushing it but would you rather this drag on for the whole three years?

Chapter Three

To Protect and the Value of Lies

Let it be known that power is a burden. Seek not to be bound by its chains.

Line Break

Naruto panted heavily, sweat pouring down his brow and splashing onto his orange jumpsuit. He was leaning with hands on knees, glaring at the disappointed looking Might Guy standing a few feet away from him, his arms folded in front of him, still clad in green spandex like the day before. Today had started out similarly to day one, only without the near drowning. A fact for which he was grateful.

"Yosh, start from the beginning." Guy commanded in his ever-exuberant voice.

Naruto followed the order, straightening up and started the kata again, his tired limbs going through the motions, which by now were fueled with more determination than strength. Four hours. Four miserable hours he'd been going through various martial arts stances under the keen eyes and bushy brows of Might Guy. Jujitsu, Rock Fist, Muay Thai, Karate, Kung Fu, and names of forms Naruto couldn't even remember, they drilled them all. And Naruto had to face the reality that he wasn't nearly as good as he should be.

He could partially blame his lack of skill on the poor instruction he'd received at the academy. However, after four hours under Guy's guidance, Naruto had to admit that he'd never put much effort into hand-to-hand combat.

Just like now. Naruto rebuked himself, focusing on the kata's movement.

"That will due for now. A very youthful display!" Guy said, stepping up to stand beside Naruto, handing him a water bottle.

Naruto took it, gulping it down greedily.

"I didn't do good enough. I could see it on your face." Naruto bit out in between swallows.

"Nonsense!" Guy said in denial, waving a dismissive hand as he laughed heartily. "Your form is crude but youthful. Fan your flames of youth and you'll sprout into a glorious ninja!"

Naruto eyed the spandex clad ninja. He still wasn't sure what to think of the man. His instructor shouted far too often for Naruto's taste, and he still hadn't figured out what Guy's obsession with youth was. Certainly, it wasn't harmful, but it certainly stuck out.

"Though I would recommend a change of clothes." Guy continued, oblivious to Naruto's scrutiny. "Even with how youthful your own display is, I'm afraid it isn't very practical for youthful clashes."

Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise. Was he hearing the spandex wearing, youth spouting instructor correctly?

"There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing." Naruto said petulantly. He was rather proud of his jumpsuit. It was made of the best color possible.

"If you must wear the youthful color, then make it tighter to your body." Guy suggested, settling into an open stance, legs apart and hands raised, one in front of the other with the fist closest to Naruto open, palm to the ceiling. "I'll show you why."

Naruto followed suit, mimicking the Open Fist's opening stance his instructor preferred.

"Yosh!" Guy exclaimed signaling the start of the bout.

Naruto moved forward, flaring his chakra in his chest so it burned comfortably, enhancing his movements to give him increased speed and strength. Once Guy came into range, he struck forward with a powerful fist, using his hip to increase the power of the blow as he'd been taught. With a grace Naruto wouldn't have believed possible from the man had he not seen and experienced it first hand, Guy danced around the attack as though it were child's play, simultaneously launching a back-handed counter attack.

Naruto reflexively blocked it, curling up and locking his joints to brunt the blow as best he could. Might Guy didn't look it, but the man's lightest blow could topple Naruto as a toddler would knock over a stack of blocks just to see it fall. Before Naruto could counter himself, Guy opened his hand, rotating it and grabbing ahold of the loose jumper fabric, wrenching Naruto off his feet and tossing him across the training area as though he weighed no more than a feather.

Naruto hit the ground, rolling with the motion and leaping to his feet. Hastily erecting a defense to block a blow he knew was coming. He wasn't disappointed. Guy was already bearing down on top of him, spinning kick already in motion. Left with only one option, Naruto stepped into the attack, pushing his own center of gravity into Guy's as he'd been instructed, attempting to overwhelm his instructor with the unexpected move and undermine his defense.

"Yosh!" Guy exclaimed, surprising Naruto as the man seemed to wrap around him with his legs, ensnaring his clothing once more and flinging him with a back handspring.

Naruto swore as he flew, desperately trying to regain his orientation as he flipped through the air. He hit the ground, his arm cracking under the impact, forcing a cry from Naruto's lips from the pain.

"My most youthful apologies!" Guy cried, hurrying over to where Naruto was curled up on the ground and clutching his limb.

Naruto growled as he clutched at his right wrist, pain pulsing from the join in hot waves. It wasn't broken. He knew that from his many experiences with damaged bones. It was most likely fractured, a diagnosis made more certain by the swelling already occurring.

Guy crouched down to his right, peering at the injured limb, but retained his good senses and didn't try to wrest the limb from him. Naruto did not like other people near him while he was injured. It was weakness, and even if he had resolved to be more trusting, this was one thing he was not going to budge on.

"Will you remain youthful?" Guy asked with concern. That seemed to be the man's way of asking if he was all right.

"It's just a fracture. I'll heal." Naruto grit out through clenched teeth.

Guy hummed, "You'll be out of it for a few days, my friend," He said consolingly, "as long as the medics get a good look at you. I'll have an ANBU take you to the infirmary."

Naruto snorted in amusement, despite the pressing pain he was in. "I'll be fine in a couple of hours." He said. "I've always been good at healing, never gotten sick in my life. Pretty useful for someone who grew up on the streets, ne?"

Guy blinked in surprise, large eyes staring intently at the limb whose swelling had already disappeared.

"I'd heard one of the ANBU telling my youthful friend Ibiki about it the other day, but I didn't think much of it. A couple of hours?"

Naruto nodded, carefully prodding the angry bone to make sure nothing had splintered off. That'd happened once after a particularly bad beating at Korin's hands when he hadn't managed to pickpocket enough coin that day. The beating had broken his arm in such a way that a chink of bone had separated from the main body. His arm had healed just fine in the couple of days, but it hadn't healed correctly, leaving the sliver lodged in his muscle. He'd been forced to cut open his arm and dig it out. With his skin constantly trying to close around the crude blade he'd been using, it had made the process particularly unpleasant. Whatever fueled his healing only what was necessary to make him operate and didn't distinguish old from new. It was a wonderful ability, however it had its fair share of drawbacks.

"Yosh, if you are fine, then do you understand what I was trying to tell you?" Guy asked, a question Naruto nodded to.

His jumpsuit, the future of style, was too bulky for close quarter fighting. It was easy to catch on to and use against him in the middle of battle. The way Guy had used his own clothing against him twice had been skillful, presenting very little opportunity for countering. As loathed as he was to admit it, he needed to change his wardrobe a bit for when he was expecting combat. The color stayed, that wasn't going to change, but he couldn't allow the jumpsuit to be a liability in battle.

"Then I am sorry." Guy said heavily, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "But your life is going to become much less youthful for a time."

Naruto cocked in head in question at the Jōnin.

"I'm sorry." Guy repeated, the man's large eyes reflecting misgivings about something.

Naruto felt the gut wrenching sensation that signaled he was being moved from one training ground to another. Did they expect him to practice tree climbing even while injured? He reoriented himself quickly, by now an old hand at being yanked from place to place. The problem was that he was not in the tree filled, waterfall area.

Instead he was in a small wooden chamber, a single, high-backed chair in the center. The chair was ordinary in all respects except for the metal shackles around the arms and legs, a leather strap hung down from the headrest. The metal was thin, intricately woven, and probably nearly unbreakable.

"Welcome to Sheol, Uzumaki." A familiar gruff voice said from behind him.

Naruto turned to face Ibiki. The large man stood by the open door he must have just come through, his large body barely leaving room on either side of the frame, his trench coat brushing the metal as he passed.

"We talked last night. Seems a bit odd to be welcoming me now." Naruto responded, skipping the pleasantries. He was never much for small talk.

"I was in a hurry and didn't get a chance to welcome you properly, Uzumaki." Ibiki answered, stepping forward to and past Naruto, coming to a stop by the chair, laying a large hand on the wood. Beside the bear-like man, the chair appeared tiny.

"You told me a story." Naruto said in amusement, the pain of his wrist forgotten for the moment.

"And then I left immediately after. I was pressed for time but you needed to be straightened out. You were going to destroy your chances here within the first blasted day."

Naruto regarded the man for a moment. How much did the man know? Probably everything. But still, Naruto was not fond of talking about his feelings.

"What am I doing here?" Naruto asked, his eyes darting to the chair before returning to Ibiki.

"We are going to push you to your limits, Uzumaki."

Naruto was immediately on alert, his mind finally putting the pieces together. Everyone's talk about his healing, Guy's apology, and worst of all, the chair sitting in the middle of the room, its frame suddenly seeming much larger and more imposing.

He stepped back instinctually. His eyes widened as his back pressed up against a wall were a door should have been. The disappearing and appearing doors were quickly getting on his nerves.

"You can't be serious." He said.

"Remember what I told you about prices and demands?" Ibiki asked.

"Yes," Naruto barked, pressing himself even harder against the wall, "but you didn't mention that I was going to be tortured."

The large man hesitated for a moment, deep brown eyes holding Naruto's with a dispassionate, analytical gaze that bore into Naruto's very soul. The stare was similar to the one he'd given Naruto just a few days ago when they sat almost exactly like this one.

"Isn't Torture below Konoha? Aren't we better than that?"

Ibiki's seemingly ever present frown deepened. "You won't beat the Uchiha or the Hyuuga. Anyone with a bloodline will crush you as you stand at the moment." Naruto flinched, unprepared for the large man's brutal candor. "You are too soft. Konoha above torturing? We hold morals, however, compromises and exceptions are always made for the greater good and the security of our home."

"I don't see how this will help." Naruto said, his voice sounding a bit high pitched to his ears.

"You have an ability to heal broken bones in hours." Ibiki stated bluntly. "Do you consider this a normal ability, boy?"

Naruto hesitated for a few heartbeats, the question unbalancing him.

"Is it connected to why people hate me?" Naruto asked.

Ibiki smiled, his grin showing a full head of white teeth that seemed to sparkle in the dimly lit room. "That's the question, isn't it, boy?"

"Does it change anything?" Naruto asked.

Ibiki shrugged. "Everything. Nothing. Can't say until we test it. Will your healing ability get better with practice? Can you control the rate at which you can heal? Are there any side effects? There are many variables with abilities as volatile as healing. Knowing your own secrets can mean holding an advantage over an opponent."

Secrets - that magical word. Naruto stepped forward, slowly approaching the chair as though it were a viper. He had made a promise the other day, to himself. A secret if you will. He was going to protect. He was going to protect everyone because that's what the Hokage did. A leader looked after his own.

"Let's get this over with." He muttered begrudgingly, seating himself on the chair with trepidation. He had experienced pain on the streets. He'd just grit his death and bear with it.

Ibiki withdrew a kunai from the folds of his coat with his left hand, Naruto's eyes latching onto the cold steel with the fervent intensity of a priest.

"Will I need to bind you, boy?" Ibiki asked, testing the sharpness of the blade with his right index finger.

"I'll try not to move." Naruto said, his voice most certainly higher than before. Two days ago he'd been afraid of the prospect of injuring himself with the blade the masked ANBU had left for him during his first test. Now he sat here, willingly about to be stabbed, slashed, and attacked without striking back. Sheol changed a person.

"See that you don't." Ibiki said. "If you move and hurt yourself further, you might not recover properly and be dropped from the program. I won't lie to you, boy. This is going to hurt. Bravado has no place here."

Naruto gulped, eyeing the dagger. "Tie me up, then." He said.

Ibiki did so quickly. He expertly manipulating the leather straps to wrap around his shoulders, gagging his mouth so he didn't accidently bite his own tongue off and drown in the blood. The metal clasps fit around his wrists perfectly, as if made specifically for him. In fact, they probably had been made specifically for him.

"Are you ready?" Ibiki asked steadily.

Naruto did his best to nod, the motion made difficult by the restraints.

The pain was immediate and consuming. He tried to scream through the gag, his eyes rolling in his head as felt the knife inserted into his shoulder, driving through the muscle and into the bone, jolting off the bone. The metallic scent of blood filled his nostrils and Ibiki twisted the weapon, withdrawing it and burying it again, in his right leg this time. The smell of blood intensified. He had experienced pain. But not like this. Never like this.

Naruto felt his leg twitch, desperate to escape the penetrating tool. What had possessed him to agree to this? He had been arrogant beyond belief to assume he could endure this. He wanted to go back, to escape and curl up somewhere no one would find him.

Three pricks in quick succession, two in the left leg, and one in the gut. His vision blurred but everything became clear. He was being murdered. Ibiki was no different from the others. He hated Naruto and had led him along with small tidbits of information, getting him to trust him, even if slightly.

An inexplicable primal anger that was not his own rose up inside him -it was animalistic in its intensity and inhuman in potency. Anger so powerful that Naruto's world was devoured by it, squeezing and blacking it out completely.

Line Break

Sakura sat on her cot alone. She hadn't bothered to turn the lights on full, preferring to keep them dim. Her body still trembled from her experience with Anko. The woman, if she could be called that, baffled and terrified her. The snake mistress, a moniker the purpled haired woman reveled in embodying with her serpentine summons, flitted from emotion to emotion with all the steadiness of a leaf on the wind. One moment she would be praising Sakura's chakra control, the next belittling her for her poor stamina.

Sakura's hand twitched towards the pen and paper that rested on the cot beside her. She'd written a list of apparently random supplies on the request form. She knew how to assemble them into something workable. Indeed, her parents, gods rest his their souls, had seen to it that his little girl knew how to properly construct a still.

She hated them.

Her family was part of the reason she joined the academy. She had escaped them, and their wasteful, idiotic, penniless ways. They couldn't keep a cent between them, always gambling, drinking, or partying with their drug buddies before returning home and collapsing on the floor like soaked rags, too drunk to carry themselves to their dirt-stained beds.

She had been happy at the academy. It was a relief. She could act just like everyone else. Moon over boys, talk about make-up, titter over a dress. She could be just like everyone else. No more cleaning up after her parent's messes, no more worrying about if they were going to make ends meet. She'd run away from that life.

For a moment, Sakura felt a pang of worry for her parents. She'd been the one to make sure they got to work on time. Where they even still alive? She'd taken a room at the academy's bunk when she couldn't deal with her reality anymore.

Taking a breath, she lifted the slip of paper and stood, making her way over to the request box and placed the paper into the slot. She closed her eyes and breathed out a held lungful of air she hadn't known she'd held. It was done. She was just like her parents after all. But maybe she could manage it better than they had. Maybe she'd find balance.

Sakura sighed. Why was breathing so difficult all the sudden? Poison? No, it couldn't be. Anko had claimed to remove all the toxins after their training. Was it her conscious? Had guilt consumed her? It was possible. She had to get stronger. That was what she was here for. Guilt had no place for a ninja. The books she'd read had been quite clear about that. If she could just numb herself enough so that-

The door opened and two Jōnin dressed in green vests and black trousers entered, dragging a red… something, between them. They turned on the lights and carried it over to one of the furthest cot and tossed the mass onto the canvas. The thing was a mess of color, red, orange, black and blond. Sakura felt her eyes widen when she realized what it was.

Naruto had returned home.

"Take care of him." One of the Jōnin, a short and stalky man with short hair, said in a high-pitched voice as he brushed past Sakura's paralyzed form, heading for the door. "The medics on staff were called out on an emergency, we have to go as well. Bloody bad timing if you ask me. Good luck."

They left, the taller of the two dropping a medic bag by her leg as they departed. Something about that excuse seemed off to her. They'd had plenty of resources at their disposal up until now, what had changed? She didn't have time to think about it. Naruto wasn't moving and there was so much blood staining his clothes.

Sakura grabbed the bag, rushing over to where Naruto lay prostrate, eye cloths and skin deathly pale, not even noticing that her trembling had stopped. She had to force down a gag as the smell of blood hit her like a hammer blow. There was so much of it. How did a body contain his much? She shook herself, snapping out of her stupor. She had to focus; Naruto's life may depend on her keeping a level head.

Snapping the bag open, she reached inside, fingers scrabbling among the collection of strange tools. Eventually, she found a roll of linen and a tube of disinfectant. She was familiar with basic first aid, her parents were not graceful drunks, but the array of injuries before her was beyond her skill. Slashes, cuts, stabs, at least one or two fingers were broken. Someone had already set the bones into place. She had to splint them before they were knocked back out of alignment.

Sweat beaded on her forehead as she set to work. Carefully, Sakura picked the jumper apart with cautious fingers, being sure not to touch the wounds. The once bright orange cloth was now more a collection of red and orange strips that clung to blond's body out of sheer obstinacy rather than design. Once she'd pulled and cut the top half of the jumper away from Naruto's body using the scissors from the bag. There was large gash across Naruto's chest, an angry red already outlining the wound.

Infected. Sakura thought, a corner of her mind analyzing each wound as she dressed the larger wound on the chest, running a strip of linen dipped in the vial of cleaning alcohol around the edges of the injury. Clean well and run a silk thread that'll dissolve as the wound heals.

Pulling out a run of thread from the bag, she quickly unwound a strand and hooked it through a needle and began to knit Naruto's flesh back together. How like a doll humans were. They could even be repaired in the same way.

She wasn't a doctor, but she had read books from the academy on first aid during her first few months at the academy. If she had washed out early then she would have needed to care for her parents better. The words she'd read on those pages were as clear in her mind as the day she'd read them. She'd always had a good memory when it came to remembering what she'd read. Photographic memory, it was called, useful to a librarian or some scholar, but not so much for a ninja.

Sakura had to repress a wince at the thought of her weakness. If she had winced, she might have only hurt Naruto further. The past two days had been a reality check for her. A few days ago, had someone asked her what being a ninja was like, she would have responded with a arrogant smirk and talked them half to death about how being a ninja was a noble path, full of glory and honor. She would have told them about how she was the top of her class, one of the best Konoha had to offer.

Now all she would have done is look them dead in the eye and say "Perdition."

Sheol. It was such a fitting name. She knew what the word meant, hell, and it was apt. The instructors didn't seem to care about their wellbeing. Who used poison on their students as though it were ordinary or safe?

She sighed as she put made the final tug on the stitch, cutting the thread and making a knot so it didn't come undone at the slightest of movements. Threading another needle, she was about to set onto one of the smaller gashes but froze. It wasn't there.

She blinked, trying to reconcile her memory of the state Naruto had been in when he'd been drug in, and the Naruto that lay in front of her. The one that was lying in front of her was most certainly healthier than he had been before. Reaching out, she took hold of Naruto's hand and lifted it, inspecting it once more. The fingers were no longer broken. Her eyes trailed Naruto's body, his skin no longer as pale as it had been, many of the cuts nothing more than a memory. There was the occasional line of red, not quite a scar but not an injury either, that marked where a wound had been.

Naruto, Sakura realized, wasn't nearly as large in body as his baggy jumpsuit suggested he was. He was dangerously thin, obviously malnourished, though he retained limbs dense with muscle. She could easily count his ribs from where she sat and figured that if she were across the room she could be able to count them just as easily.

"What a life you must have had." Sakura muttered, suddenly feeling ashamed.

She had mocked Naruto in the academy because of his status as an orphan, though she wasn't far off herself. She had felt a false sense of superiority because she, even what little she had, still had more than he did. He was even more wretched than she was and therefore she could deflect the self-loathing she'd felt for herself onto him. And somehow, he had withstood it. Taken it all in without protest, just a flat stare and sometimes a smile.

He's better than you are. Sakura thought morosely. He's obviously trying harder if he's pushed himself so far as this.

She was envious. How did he have the fortitude in the body and mind to push to this degree? She knew she couldn't have done it. She just wasn't cut out for this kind of stuff.

Line Break

Naruto was in pain, so much pain he couldn't move. Why was he in pain? He hadn't disobeyed Yutin. Had been caught looking at Yutin's painting? The canvas depiction of a blond haired warrior fighting a red creature so large it overshadowed the village. But no, that was years ago. So why had he been beaten? Naruto tried to remember but failed. The agony was like a solid wall, impenetrable and vast. On the edge of the pain he could make out fuzzy vibrations. Voices? Focusing in on them, he could just barely make out what they were saying, though recognition of those voices was beyond him. That required memory. Memory he didn't have at the present.

"He tapped the creature's power. It wasn't hard to suppress, the boy barely scratched the surface of what it's capable of but it made retaining him difficult." A gruff, short voice said.

"You went too far." An old voice said sharply. "You nearly killed him."

"No." A younger, if not by much, voice said, his voice urgent and pressed. "We need to press them harder. Did you learn anything?"

"His healing ability grows better the more it's used." Naruto knew that voice. It was… It was... somebody. "The healing slows as his chakra runs dry. It's as though it learns what must be done and improves, though I don't see it getting much stronger than it already is. The boy's had a hard life and already pushed the ability to his limit. I suspect it's the main reason he survived. He won't be able to regenerate from anything that would ordinarily kill instantly, such as a blow to the head. But killing the boy won't be easy."

"Push them all harder, then." The urgent voice said. "I may have to step in and help with their training. My spy network can manage itself for a while. Whoever killed Tsunade was strong enough to-."

Naruto couldn't keep his attention focused on them any longer. The pain was growing more insistent and it was all he could do to just to retain his awareness. He let himself float, not pushing at the wall of pain but not shrinking away from it either. For what felt like an eternity he just was.

The wall crumpled, crashing down and allow him to surface once more. Opening his eyes, he found himself lying on his back, artificial light cutting into his eyes. Looking around, he found that he wasn't in Ibiki's torture room. Naruto winced as a hazy memory of the event returned to him. He almost preferred it when he couldn't remember.

"You're awake." a tired female voice said from beside him.

Naruto turned to find Sakura sitting on the cot beside him, head cupped in bloody hands. Her eyes were red from exhaustion and black bags hung under her eyes giving her grim countenance.

"I must have done something right for once, then." Sakura continued, lifting her head and stretching her neck.

Naruto tried to sit up but was quickly stopped by the pink haired girl.

"Don't," she said, "You'll pull the stitches and it took me long enough to get those in you. I'm not going to do it again."

Naruto blinked. Stitches? He looked down and, indeed, there were stitches, neatly dressed along a wound that stretched from right color bone to left hip and still hadn't healed. What had Ibiki done to him while he'd been out? He tried to sit up again to examine them but was forcibly stopped by Sakura, who'd stood and pushed him down by the shoulders.

"If you don't lay still, I'm going to knock you unconscious again." She said with agitation, holding up a clenched fist to illustrate her point.

Naruto obeyed reluctantly, resting his head against the pillow once more.

"What happened to you?" She asked, sitting back down. Though she was perched on the edge of the seat and ready to leap forward once more should he prove untrustworthy.

"Training." Naruto grunted, closing his eyes. He was tired, despite just waking up. Being tortured into unconsciousness didn't make for restful sleep and he didn't really feel like talking at the moment.

Sakura arched a delicate eyebrow at the non-answer.

"You know, I could just decide that I wasted my time sewing you together and revoke my charity." She said threateningly.

Naruto's eyes darted to her briefly before seeing the bluff reflected in her emerald eyes. She wasn't going to hurt him. A judgment quickly proven wrong when leaned forward she flicked him on the chip with chakra enhanced fingers, the force of the blow snapping his head back slightly.

"I'm not in the mood to play twenty questions." She said dourly. "We've both had a rough day."

Once his eyes stopped rolling around in his head, Naruto reassessed the situation and came to two conclusions. One, she was willing to hurt him. Two, he resolved earlier that he wanted to get on with his teammates. This was as good an opportunity as he was likely to get.

"I've begun to get a very good idea what Sheol is going to be like." He said. "I've not got much going for me." Naruto paused, not enjoying the admonition of weakness. It went against his raising. But now, he didn't see that he had much choice. "I don't have the natural abilities that comes from being of one of the noble clans. The only thing I've got going for me is my determination and the fact that I'm pretty good at healing." Sakura felt her eyes widen in surprise at Naruto's words. She had a very sickly sinking feeling she knew where this was going.

"So I have to do what must be done to match them. I can outlast them. I have more stamina and once I get better I'll grind them down. It'll have to do for now. I'll get better, sooner rather than later, if I have my way." Naruto hesitated. "Can you do me a favor?"

Sakura nodded mutely.

"Can you get me a request slip?"

She did so. Naruto accepted the paper and pen, quickly jotted down a few items, one of which was a new set of clothes, and handed it back.

"Thanks." Naruto murmured.

"An introduction to Sealing?" Sakura asked after taking a quick glance at the list. Raising an eyebrow at him in question, she shot him a look. "Isn't Sealing difficult to learn?"

Naruto flushed at the implication. He knew that he wasn't a genius like the Uchiha or have perfect scores like Sakura did, but he was not stupid. He was just… average. Painfully, disappointingly average.

"I'll get it." He grunted, glancing down, idly noticing that the slash across his chest wasn't nearly as inflamed as it had been a few minutes ago. "I'm just full of surprises."

He was surprised when Sakura didn't contradict him, as she would have just a few days ago. She just sat there, hands idly twiddling with her torn skirt, eyes unfocused from thought.

"I suppose." She said eventually. "Who am I to say otherwise, eh?"

Naruto frowned. This was not the Sakura he was used to. The Sakura he knew was brash, angry, and had a mean left hook, but most of all she was overwhelmingly self-confident. He brought his fingers up in a handsign.

"Release." He said, pulsing his chakra to dispel a genjutsu. Nothing changed, not that he was surprised. He was dreadful at dispelling illusions.

"What was that for?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Sorry." Naruto said, frown still in place. She had touched him, so that meant she was probably real. Not to mention this would be a pretty stupid illusion for someone to put on him, now that he thought about it. "You're not usually like this." He said.

"Like what?" Sakura asked, perking up a bit.

"You're not usually so," Naruto floundered, gesturing at her vaguely with two hands, "droopy."

"Oh." Sakura said, wilting again, "that. I've been… disillusioned."

Naruto's frowned deepened. "Isn't that a good thing?" He asked. "Who placed the Genjutsu on you?"

Sakura chuckled weakly, a small smile playing along her lips. "Not that kind of illusion, idiot. What I mean is being a ninja isn't entirely what I thought it'd be. It turns out, I'm not very good at it."

"You too, huh?" Naruto asked, understanding where she was coming from. Looking down, he inspected the stitching. "You know," he said slowly, "This is rather good work."

"It's sloppy and uneven." Sakura said with a snort, not looking up at him. "It's nothing like what the book I read a few years ago described.

Naruto stared at her incredulously. A few years ago? Had he heard that right?

"Growing up where I did," Naruto said, forcing a light tone. He didn't like talking about his past, but it seemed like Sakura needed someone to talk to at the moment. "I've had to do my own fair share of stitching. If any of them were anywhere near as close to as good as this is, I might not have been through as many scars as I have."

"I didn't see any scars on you." Sakura said, eyeing him.

"I told you, I heal. Everything fades in time, even scars. What I'm trying to say is that you've got a talent in this."

"Healing people is hardly what ninja do." Sakura pointed out.

"Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the Sannin a medic-nin? And aren't we training here to – I don't know, replace them or something?" He knew full well that one of them was a medic. He'd been reading history the other day and the author had gone into painstaking detail on how they helped win the war. His statement had the desired effect in making Sakura pause in thought.

"Do you think I could be like her, like Tsunade?" She asked, unable to keep the hope from her voice.

Naruto wasn't surprised that she knew the Sannin's name. She seemed to know just about everything. It was one of things that initially had attracted him to her.

"Of course." Naruto said with a grin. "I don't think you've ever felt one of your left hooks before. You're already half way there!"

Sakura narrowed her eyes and Naruto's smile vanished faster than a leaf in flames. In the excitement of the moment he'd forgotten. He'd forgotten whom he'd been talking to and how quickly Sakura's temper could turn. He bit his tongue. Talking too much had been one of his problems on the streets. He acted like he didn't like people, hiding behind so-called weakness, but in truth he loved people. He enjoyed what made them tick. Their likes, dislikes, their dreams for the future, what their past was like, he liked to hear it all. And he'd been beaten for it. So he'd had fun at the academy while he could, doing stupid stuff for a laugh but remained quiet outside.

Naruto put his palms up in a gesture of surrender. "I didn't mean it like that, honest."

Sakura relaxed, smiling.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hit someone who is injured."

"Not anymore." Naruto said cheerfully, sitting up and picking at the stitches still in his skin, though his wound had disappeared, leaving a white scar in its place.

"That's not possible." Sakura said, eyes wide.

"What can I say? I'm a surprising guy." Naruto commented, finally succeeding in getting a grip on the thread and began to pull it out.

"It looks like me becoming a medic is rather useless to you." Sakura said blandly, almost sounding disappointed.

"Nonsense." Naruto replied dismissively. "If you hadn't helped, it would have taken at least a day for this to heal. The dirtier the wound, the longer it takes to recover I find."

"Makes sense." Sakura said. "The less bacteria in the wound, the less your body has to work to heal." Sakura's face took on a thoughtful expression, tapping her chin with her index finger. "That's a really useful ability, almost like a blood line. Uzumaki, I've never heard of them before."

Naruto shrugged, discarding the small thread he'd successfully pulled to the side. "I haven't either. If I was part of a clan, we must not have been important. I never knew my parents." Naruto shot a look at her. "As you made a point to rub in."

Sakura winced, her face flushing in shame.

"I'm sorry about that." She said softly. "I-I don't really have an excuse."

"Don't worry about it." Naruto said heavily, leaning back on his bed, tucking both hands behind is head. There was little point trying to cover his chest up. He couldn't access his chest yet to get a change of clothes, and what remained of his shirt was gone. "Everyone hates me. Why should you be any different?"

Sakura's flush deepened. "But why do they hate you?"

"I haven't the faintest idea." Naruto said airily, covering up just how much it really bothered him.

"That doesn't make sense."

"You're telling me. I-"

The door opened, cutting Naruto off, drawing the two's attention. Sasuke entered, his head held high as usual, black eyes staring forward with a confidence Naruto was surprised to see still intact here. The only thing that gave away that he wasn't just out on an evening stroll were his torn clothes, thin scratches just visible through the opened fabric. He also had an involuntary twitch in his left arm.

"Anko use her poisons today?" Sakura asked, surprising Naruto with the small trace of venom in her voice. Apparently she'd really meant it when she'd hinted that she was jealous of them for being combat types. Sheol had really changed her.

It's not like you've haven't changed a bit yourself. Naruto mentally chided himself. Protecting people? Stupid for someone to make that resolve on the streets, dead stupid. But I'm not on the streets anymore. I'm in Sheol. The rules don't apply here.

Sasuke cast them a level gaze, contempt barely repressed under the carefully calm expression. Naruto felt his dislike of nobility flare inside of him again, but this time he made more of an effort to suppress it. Snapping at the Uchiha would do little to bring them together as a group.

"Come on, sit down." Naruto called, waving the raven-haired Uchiha over. He caught a glimpse of Sakura giving him a unidentifiable expression out of the corner of his eye. "Join in our… debauchery."

"What?" Sakura exclaimed, a flash of surprise crossed Sasuke's face before he got it under control again.

"I'm guessing that was the wrong word to use." Naruto grumbled. "Keeping languages straight is frustrating."

"How many do you know?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Dunno," He replied, "A few the names I know of, others I don't. You pick things up where I was raised. All sorts of people collect there."

"That's impressive." Sakura said. "I wouldn't have thought that of you."

Naruto shrugged again. "I've said it once, I'll say it again. I'm a surprising guy."

"What happened to your clothes?" Sasuke asked tersely.

Naruto smiled widely. "A regular day at Sheol."

Sasuke hesitated for a moment, and then nodded curtly, accepting the answer. For once, Naruto was grateful for the Uchiha's direct manner. He hadn't relived the experience for Sakura, and he certainly didn't want to go though it for both of them at once.

"You were never supposed to be here." Sasuke said confidently. "You don't have a bloodline, nor are you talented enough to make up for it. You will fail."

Naruto let his grin grow even wider. "We'll see about that. I'll show you that one day I'll become Hokage."

Sasuke leveled a cold stare at him.

"Prove it."

Line Break

Sasuke sat stiff backed in his chair, the blond Yamanaka lounged in his seat across from him. The room they were in was small, but comfortable in a homely kind of way that made Sasuke edgy. It was very unprofessional to have personal items in a workspace environment, like the pictures of his family on the desk and the crudely drawn artwork on the walls, signed by an Ino Yamanaka – age five.

"So how are you today, Sasuke?" Inoichi asked pleasantly, the lack of formality between them causing Sasuke's eye to twitch in annoyance. It was the end of the week interview. Time had slipped away from him, and this interview came far sooner than Sasuke would have liked.

"Can we skip the phyco-babble introductions? I haven't the energy for it and I know it just as well as you. I am fine. My training goes well. I have made efforts to… connect," He bit the word off as though it were filled with something unpleasant, "with my bunkmates. They are crude, uncivilized, and has no concept of what it means to be a ninja." Inoichi nodded with each word as Sasuke spoke, though his expression was unsympathetic.

"You came awfully close to dying your first day here." Inoichi said lightly, as if commenting on the weather.

Sasuke froze, being sure to keep the feeling of icy dread off his face. If he died then there would be no one to avenge his family and his brother's crimes would go unpunished.

"Yes," Inoichi continued. "You didn't think that we wouldn't be watching as we shoved a bunch of fresh recruits into a room steadily filling with water, ready to intercede? I must admit; I was disappointed that you had to be cajoled into helping your bunkmates. I had to nudge young Naruto into saying a few things."

Sasuke grit his teeth. Now it made sense why Naruto seemed to have knowledge of things he shouldn't. This insufferable man was tugging the dobe's strings as well.

"At the time I had thought them worse than useless. I was wrong." Sasuke said stiffly, displeased at having to admit his fault, but the psychologist wasn't going to accept anything less. And if Sasuke's suspicion that Inoichi could read his surface thoughts was true, there was little point in denying his faults.

"Oh?" Inoichi asked prodding.

Each evening after dinner, Naruto is always wearing a new set of clothes. He tries to hide it by wearing similar clothes, but he cannot fool my eyes."

"I wasn't aware that Kakashi had succeeded in awakening your bloodline." Inoichi interrupted.

"Even without the Sharingan, an Uchiha's eyes are not to be underestimated." Sasuke sneered. "Though they try to hide their after-hours studying from me, I know that Naruto's been reading books on Sealing and Sakura's been reading medical texts."

"They are preparing." Inoichi said plainly, placing both of his hands on the table. "You know that the scoring starts in only six months time. The eliminations will begin a year or so after that. "They've undergone some rather interesting changes already since they've arrived here, though I doubt they've realized in themselves yet. Sakura has realized what she wants to do and Naruto has redefined his purpose in life. It is only you in the grouping who hasn't changed."

"I don't need changing." Sasuke said stiffly.

"I must admit that your determination to become your brother fascinates me."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke snapped, his father's voice roaring in his head.

Don't take that disrespect from him! Show him that Uchiha are superior to everyone. Do not tarnish the family name!

Sasuke was about stand and do just that before Inoichi spoke and halted his movements.

"You say you're nothing like your brother, but I'm having a hard time seeing the differences. You hide your emotions behind an emotionless face. You carry on your family's prejudices. And worst of all, you view everyone else as simply a tool for you to gain power. That seems very similar to what your brother did so many years ago, don't you think? Isn't that why he slaughtered your family? For some idealistic form of power? I said it last time, but you didn't seem to get the message. This time I'll be more direct. You are heading down a road that will leave you exactly the same as your brother. You'll try and kill him to avenge a nearly extinct clan using the exact same methods of gaining power as he one you're trying to kill? Supposing you do kill him, then what? After you've discarded every opportunity given to you all you'll have left is nothing but a hollow sense of satisfaction that the dead can rest easily."

Sasuke was about to protest but was cut off by a small voice in his head. A familiar voice. A dangerous voice. The voice of his brother.

Live your life in unsightly hatred. Become strong enough that one day you can take your revenge.

Sasuke blinked, his mind turning inward, reliving memories he'd avoided for years. Back then, Itachi hadn't been nearly so cold as he'd become before the end. He'd seen the distrust others had for him as Itachi had steadily cut himself off from everyone else.

I need the kind of strength he had. Sasuke told himself. But Itachi has so much of a head start.

Was there anything he could really do? If he wasn't strong enough to avenge the clan, then he wasn't an avenger. If he wasn't an avenger, then what was he? The Sasuke he'd been striving to be was merely what his brother, a man he hated more than anything, wanted him to be. What sense was there in following the advice of the person he wanted it kill?

All the insecurities he'd felt before he'd been consumed by his hatred rushed back to him as he sat there, in a room that suddenly seemed much too small. Who was he, really?

"I've got to go." Sasuke said in a voice that seemed off to him as he clambered out of his seat, lurching towards the door.

"I'll see you again this time next week." Inoichi called out after him in a voice that was far too cheerful.

Line Break

Sasuke sat on his cot in silence, hands clasp in front of him, eyes fixed rigidly ahead. Self-doubt ate away at his mind like vermin. He was not Itachi, but he couldn't deny the similarities Inoichi had pointed out. His foundation, that he was right and his cause was just, had been yanked out from underneath him leaving a chasm of… what? What was Uchiha Sasuke if not an avenger?

He couldn't find an answer. His entire life had been a lie, an illusion cast on himself without the aid of chakra. The entire world was nothing but one huge heap of lies. Truth? What was truth other than what you decided to make of it? A man could believe himself to be a popsicle, but that wouldn't make it true no matter how much he acted like one. Sasuke was a popsicle and power was his delusion.

The skin on the back of Sasuke's knuckles turned white as his grip tightened.

And what is power other than an illusion of perception? He thought, standing up and glancing at where Sakura was working on constructing her still before turning his attention to the door where the blond had left earlier. He hadn't thought her an alcoholic, but it was becoming more and more clear that he didn't know anything.

Naruto says he'll become a Hokage. The thought was absurd. The blond was weak, reckless, thoughtless and brutish. The blond was also honest in a way Sasuke never had been. Every word he spoke was from his heart and not his head. Before he'd dismissed it as foolish and naïve, but Naruto knew who he was and stuck true to it whereas Sasuke had suddenly found that he hated himself and what he'd become without even realizing it.

Looking back, Sasuke realized just how bitter he'd become. As a kid, he used to have friends, all Uchiha but that was more out of convenience than snobbery. Now, he'd closed himself off. Isolating himself from the world for… For his or their own good?

A sudden sense of mirth blossomed in his chest. What would his father say if he could see Sasuke, the last noble Uchiha, now? He'd probably have another lecture. Fugaku Uchiha never seemed in short supply of those. But his father had been a cold man, and not in the aloof yet friendly way Itachi had been…before the slaughter. No, Fugaku had been manipulative, calculating, and ruthless. Unafraid to cast aside anything to achieve what he wanted. And Sasuke had modeled himself after a combination of him and Itachi, a mix of dead and insane.

This time Sasuke did chuckle. It seemed so pathetically funny to him.

"Do you ever fear you'll become like parents, Sasuke?" Sakura suddenly asked.

Sasuke turned so that he faced the pink haired girl holding a full cup of some white liquid. She was staring into the glassy depths as though afraid of falling in. She looked up at him and he saw it in her eyes. The anguish, the frustration. The terrible nothing that clawed inside and sought to smother her. She knew. It was there, inside. She had been broken by this place.

"Expectation." Sasuke said heavily, fully aware of the uncomfortably knowing in eyes the girl looking at him. "It's what drowns us."

Sakura nodded slowly, returning her gaze to the liquid.

"Expectation isn't just about what people expect of you. It's about what we expect of ourselves."

"Do you really believe that, Sasuke?" Sakura asked, looking up at him sharply with an intensity that surprised him. He had known she could be ferocious. He'd seen it often enough demonstrated when Naruto had done something stupid at the academy.

"I do." He heard himself say. "I believe that we all expect something. Naruto expects the nobility to all be the same rich pompous assholes, and so he makes that his reality. You expect yourself to be weak, and so cripple yourself."

The realization what Naruto thought of him was an old one. At the time, he hadn't cared. But now… Sasuke closed his eyes. These new thoughts and feelings were tiresome. He wasn't entirely sure what to do with them.

"And you, Sasuke? What about you?" Sakura asked heatedly as her fingers clutched the glass in anger.

"Me?" Sasuke asked hollowly, opening his eyes to look at her again. "I believed myself to be alone and everyone else beneath me, and so they were."

"What a lofty position to look down on us mere mortals from." Sakura bit out.

"Only the throne was made of dirt and I the emperor of a grand illusion."

Sakura smiled a sick, lopsided smile.

"What a threesome we are now. I, who once chased after a cold-hearted king who suddenly doesn't know what to believe, and Naruto who detests the king because he feels slighted by his hand in life."

"Then there is only one thing to do." Sasuke muttered.

"What would that be?" Sakura asked.

"We change our expectations." Sasuke replied, moving over to the still and pour a glass. With a glance at Sakura, he downed the entire thing in one gulp with a half-spoken "To change."

The pink haired girl stared at him for a few moments, her eyes search his for any hint of dishonesty. Eventually, she held up her glass and smiled.

"I can drink to that." She said with a smile, following Sasuke's example and downing her own glass.

End of Chapter Three