Team seven moved silently through the foliage as the group proceeded at a good pace towards the small town of Asahi. Kakashi couldn't help but feel slightly concerned about his students as they remained silent throughout the trip, each one deep in thought.
He was genuinely concerned for the group (minus Sasuke after the prank he pulled) as they would be getting their first kills on this mission. The first kill was always the hardest, he had no doubt that Sasuke would be capable of coping, he had already experienced something far more traumatic than that by the time he had turned eight.
However neither Naruto or Sakura had that experience to help them, Naruto may have suffered from isolation but that was the worst that had happened to him, while Sakura had lived a sheltered upbringing and had never had anything bad happen to her... well outside of the training her silver haired sensei had put her through but that didn't count.
The one thing he hoped was that their adrenaline would keep them going when they killed their enemies, he really did not want his team killed because they froze in combat, oh how much easier it would've been if they had been assigned an escort mission.
"So my first mission as a Konoha ninja… Kyūbi, if I begin to freeze up, would you be willing to take control until I've regained my senses?" Naruto asked the vixen sealed within his mind.
Silence reigned within his head as he awaited the bijū's answer, unlike the other occupant of his mind he was unaware of the look of dumbfounded shock present on the kitsune as its brain tried to process what the boy had asked of it.
"I believe Kyūbi-san would be prepared to assist you should you require any help,"Hōgyoku stated calmly while the red furred vixen remained in her state of null mind.
"Why isn't she answering me herself then?" the young 'shinigami' asked, unable to understand exactly why the fox wasn't speaking to him right now.
"I believe your request may have shorted her brain, it is not something that one would expect after she attacked your home," the ancient orb told him seriously, causing realisation to spread in his mind, though he managed to show nothing, he really didn't need to tell his comrades that two beings of immense power had taken up residence in his body.
"I see… but despite her past, I believe she isn't the raving beast that most of Konoha believes she is," Naruto told the orb with conviction noticeable within his mental tone.
"Then why haven't you told the Hokage more than you did that night?" obviously the little foxes mind had finally rebooted and she had managed to process that last statement.
"If I did, do you honestly think he would accept it? Unlike me he hasn't met you, he hasn't spoken with you, he has only ever fought you and that is why I believe he will always be biased against you," the blond explained to the vixen, unaware of the softening of the foxes expression as it listened to the boy's words.
"I guess you're right, humans don't tend to forgive or forget do they?" she said, her voice filled with a hint of an emotion that the boy hadn't heard a lot in the vixen but recognised none the less… sadness.
Noticing the emotion in the kitsune's voice, he couldn't help but get the feeling that she was sad that humans kept holding grudges… and that he was human. His mind began to wander with that link. Did Kyūbi actually trust him? Humans weren't known for their honesty, they were known for their vindictiveness and their cruelty… if that was the case then did the fox know that the only way he made people suffer was through pranks?
It didn't take him long to start wondering if the whole reason Kyūbi appeared to try and distance herself from him was simply fear of the human nature, it would make sense, humans weren't exactly known to be the most forgiving creatures on the planet, nor the kindest.
"Some of them do, it's just that most of them wouldn't even accept you as anything more than a mindless beast hell bent on destruction… something we both know you aren't," the spiky haired boy told the kitsune as he continued his travels through the trees, still trying to keep any hint of changing emotion hidden as he followed his sensei.
"From what I've witnessed, hatred is the most common human emotion," Kyūbi stated with a hint of regret.
"What makes you think hate is the most common emotion?" Naruto asked, his mind beginning to wonder what the fox had witnessed to come to such a conclusion.
"The number of humans that thrive off of it, the most notable being that clan you call the Uchiha," the vixen informed him, causing him to break his emotionless mask with a small sigh.
"Is something wrong Naruto?" Kakashi asked his young student upon noticing him sigh, he didn't know why the boy had done so but he was thinking that it probably had something to do with the orb embedded in his chest, he might not have been told by Naruto, but he had been thoroughly briefed on this so called 'Hōgyoku' and knew that it communicated with the boy.
"Sorry Kakashi-sensei, I was just thinking… and I think I forgot to water by plants before we left," it was a very simple excuse which caused his teammates to roll their eyes, from what they remembered the boy was quite fond of horticulture so they simply decided to avoid talking about it.
"I see… well let's just get this mission finished quickly so you can go back and water them," the Jōnin stated with an eye smile, he doubted that was what the blond was really thinking about but he would just have to leave it until they were alone.
"Since when have you ever cared about us?" Sasuke asked, wondering why the man had suddenly decided that they were worth caring about.
"Just because I was hard on you doesn't mean I don't care… call it tough love if you will," the silver haired ninja stated with an eye smile.
"So you love us? That would make you a bisexual paedophile," Naruto muttered earning a tick of irritation from the more experienced ninja.
"You know what I meant smartass and if you carry on like that you'll find yourself helping out T&I as a practice dummy," the cycloptic man informed the young blond while the other genin let out a small giggle.
"Hai Kakashi-sensei," the young blond replied before deciding it would be best to just shut up before he seriously pissed off the man that had trained them over the past month.
XXX XXX XXX
Several hours passed while the group moved at a good pace, covering most of the distance to the small town even though they had been forced to stop several times for the pink haired member to catch her breath and to give them all a chance to get a proper drink instead of just a quick gulp while they ran.
The sun had gone down a couple of hours ago and the group was growing tired from the nearly constant running they had been made to endure, sure they had been slow compared to most other ninja teams that worked outside Konoha but they already knew that Sakura was closer to a civilian in terms of conditioning and they had already been pushing her hard at the sedate pace they had been sticking to.
"Alright team, it's time we stopped for the night, set up your tents and I'll deal with the fire," Kakashi ordered the genin before making a hand seal none of the genin had ever seen before, when a single copy of himself appeared in a puff of smoke next to him.
Immediately the two Kakashi's each went their own directions with one beginning to set up his tent while the other proceeded to start collecting firewood as the genin decided it wasn't worth focusing on and proceeded to start setting up their own tents.
It didn't take long for the trio to finish setting up their tents and when they turned back to their sensei they saw that unlike them, he hadn't finished with his tent, making them wonder why he was taking so long.
"Kakashi-sensei, why haven't you finished setting up your tent yet?" Sakura asked in curiosity, he had started before them and was going to be finished after them as well.
"Oh that's simple… I'm just taking my time, no point in rushing when I have all night to do it now is there?" and once again he gave one of his infuriating eye smiles causing the team to give him blanks stares all round, "plus I haven't had to put up a tent in several years so I've grown rusty."
"Why haven't you had to set up a tent for so long?" Naruto asked, wondering what had caused him to avoid tents for so long.
"Two reasons, reason one is that I usually manage to reach a town before having to stop which meant I could just book a hotel," at that the team gave each other a series of looks that said they would have to do that as well, "and reason two is that when I don't get a hotel, I'm usually on a team with Tenzo so he always dealt with our 'camp'."
"Who's Tenzo?" the entire group asked simultaneously, causing the man to let out a sigh.
"A friend of mine in ANBU, due to his… unfortunate background he possesses the mokuton kekkei genkai and tends to makes temporary houses for his teammates at night," the silver haired Jōnin told them, causing the group to look at him blankly before Sasuke and Sakura turned to face their blond teammate.
"I've gotta learn how to do that," was all Naruto could say upon hearing that there was a guy that could make houses instead of having to set up tents.
"Yes you do," the other genin agreed causing them to turn on the Jōnin, making him wonder what they were planning.
"When we get back, Naruto had better meet this Tenzo guy, do you understand Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke stated, he would much rather stay in a building than a tent like he was currently expected to.
"I'll talk to him about it," Kakashi started only to get cut off by the Uchiha.
"You WILL get him to teach Naruto that trick or you WILL lose your book for real," the raven haired boy stated seriously, before showing off his Mangekyou once again to let the man know he meant it.
"You wouldn't dare," the cyclops stated sternly, earning a narrowing of eyes from the young boy.
"Do you really want to risk it?" the staring match carried on for several minutes before a familiar white coat got between the two.
"Look, you two staring at each other won't do any good, so how about we get the rotation for the watch before you two die of old age?" Naruto interrupted, causing the two sharingan holders to accept that the boy was right, staring at each other would do nothing.
"Alright, the watch will be split into four two hour blocks, I'll take one of the middle shifts, does anyone want to volunteer for the other?" Kakashi stated calmly, it was a simple arrangement, they would each get around six hours sleep as long as they actually slept when not on watch, the only problem being the two middle shifts which would split the sleep of two of the members so they wouldn't get as good a rest as the others.
"I will volunteer Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, earning a curt nod off the older man, he understood why the boy had chosen a middle shift, even before merging with the orb he had always been a person that didn't sleep as much as others and he knew it.
Once the order had been settled, the group proceeded to gather around the newly started fire, Kakashi's bunshin dispelled as soon as the fire was ready.
The meal was nothing special, just simple cans of beans or soup, with a cup of instant ramen that they had brought with them for this exact situation, in the end it was enough for them to survive off of and that was all that mattered to a ninja on a mission… why else do you think they ate the field rations they were given in times of desperation.
Once they had finally finished their meal, the group packed up the dishes they had used before a simple Suiton ninjutsu from the Jōnin extinguished the fire and the group headed to their tents for the rest they were going to need.
XXX XXX XXX
Sasuke couldn't help but feel a tad lonely as he sat in a tree, he had been given the first watch and would be followed by Naruto.
It felt strange to him though, during the academy he had felt nothing but anger, hatred and loneliness and now… now he only felt a hint of those former emotions. He had finally managed to get friends, not fangirls or social climbers, but people that he actually considered his friends, people he could share his feelings with and that shared their feelings with him.
Not once did they ask him for money or a public date with him (though Sakura would still occasionally ask him she no longer cared about people seeing her with him like she once did), they simply treated him like a normal person and he would admit, it felt good.
His mind began to wander back to the academy, now that he had grown close to certain others, he could no longer believe that he had managed to endure what he did during the academy, the constant praise, the undeserved attention and the feeling of isolation that it gave him.
They had always made him out to be 'Uchiha-sama' or 'the last Uchiha' the natural born genius, never Sasuke, the hard worker that put his blood sweat and tears into his training, hoping that one day he would fulfil his goal and kill his brother.
Kill his brother… it was something that he had never questioned before but now he did nothing but question it and it was all thanks to Naruto, the boy had started the new trend that only ninja and the ramen family tended to do… get to know him as opposed to put him on a pedestal and simply look at him like some sort of target or goal.
Finally letting his mind leave that train of thought, he pulled out the book he had brought with him, his father's journal was in his hands and hopefully would contains hints that would lead him to a conclusion… why had Itachi killed the clan? Why had he spared him?
Starting from the front, he began to read the entries, each one was boring, offering him nothing more than the comfort of knowing that despite his father's apparent lack of interest in him, the man had loved him more than Itachi.
The man had been proud of his older son's accomplishments but the boy had never been what the man had wanted in a son, the boy had simply been too detached for the clan head to get close to.
Slowly moving further forward, he began to see patterns emerging, patterns involving Itachi and several other clan members. From what he could figure out, his father had been suspicious of the youngest ANBU operative and had actually believed he might betray the clan at any moment.
Then others became frequent entries in the book, including the Hokage and a man named Danzō, apparently his father was having some form of negotiation with these people, though the journal didn't tell him what these negotiations were about.
Sasuke was beginning to feel as if he wasn't getting the whole picture, that there was a lot more going on within the clan he had been unaware of when he came across a single entry that shocked him to his core, the words written shattering his ingrained image of the massacre and his brothers intentions as the final piece of the jigsaw was put in place, finally letting him see the big picture.
"Shisui was found dead, there may have been a suicide note but a man doesn't remove both of his eyes before killing himself. We have reason to believe that Itachi is working for the Hokage and his council… our hand is being forced, the coup will be staged in three days."