Changes for the Better

"Hey!" Sasuke joined the morning spar by tackling a Naruto clone. It was five days after the lunch at Naruto's, and life for the three genin was getting better. Sasuke all but forced Naruto to move in with him, Which so far was working out alright, as Naruto had automatically started to work on the yard and landscape.

Sakura was still reelling from the discovery that Naruto liked to garden. Most of the pictures of Itachi were locked up in said brother's room, as no one wanted to deal with that bit of history just yet.

As for Naruto, his comments about the nature of Sasuke's shirts, founded by the fact he thought they looked ridiculous, prompted Sakura to become the new fashion police for the two boys, with the help of Fang. Clothes that weren't donated to a thrift store were checked out on Sasuke, who gaained several turtle-neck shirts, and a couple Kakashi-like masks. (Naruto and Sakura also destroyed several pairs of the awful white shorts, which Sasuke took in stride.)

Which prompted him to jokingly buy a red mask for Sakura and an orange one for Naruto. Sakura's wardrobe also gained more capris with red and black designs, along with several black T-shirts. These were kept in the Uchiha estate to ward off questions from her mother about the emotional state of her daughter. She'd found a store that sold ninja sandals, and managed to get a red pair for herself, as well as another gag gift of white sandals for Sasuke and orange sandals for Naruto. Naruto's response to both gag gifts was to give them two packs full of smoke bombs that gave off different color smoke.

There were still secrets being held, but too much at once would probably do more damage than good. For now, Practice in the morning, Lunch, then the group worked on the Uchiha estate, cleaning and straightening, with a group of clones from Naruto helping out everywhere. If they ate quick, they went shopping for more cleanin suplies and yard equipment. They were enjoying the time together, so much so that boundaries were being crossed daily. Some unintenionally and ending with both boys hiding from Sakura. (Sasuke insisted his entering the bathroom was unintentional and Sakura should've locked the door. Naruto argued that he was worried when both of them started shouting and came rushing to check on them. Sakura didn't talk to either of them for the remainder of the day.)

The only one unhappy was the half wolf dog that followed them. Kakashi's attempts to activate the sharigan in view of Sasuke and the others had failed, and Sasuke only had the basic level of the sharigan so while he would have seen the chakra, he wouldn't have seen it in enough detail to figure out anything. And Kakashi was relieved that at least the memory of his current team was holding, though it was probably due to constantly being near two out of the three of them at all times. He wouldn't even remembered his own name if the Sandaime and the genin didn't use it so much.

"I see you're all doing well this morning. I have a new chakra excersise for you. As well as to give some information to Naruto, seeing as he hasn't realised it himself yet- Naruto, did you teach them Kage Bushin?" The sandaime saw two dopple gangers of Sakura and Sasuke vansih along with the Naruto clones.

"Yes?" Naruto looked unsure of himself.

"I've been meaning to ask about that, How come Naruto is the only genin to know it?"

"Come along and I'll tell you." As the walked, the sandaime told them the story about Mizuki and the scroll, editing out the part where Mizuki spilled the beans about the Kyuubi.

"What were you thinking stealing from the Hokage?!" Sasuke almost jumped out of his skin as Sakura shouted at Naruto, who decided using Sasuke as a shield was a good idea.

"How was I to know he wanted it for himself? He was one of the nicer teachers." Naruto retorted. "Besides, if you'd failed the test for the third time, wouldn't you do most anything to pass and not get stuck?"

"Yeah and since you didn't have anyone to act as your common sense . . ." Sasuke smirked as Naruto scowled at him. It looked more like a pout or he was sulking than anything mean. "Face it Naruto, you don't have a mean bone in your body. you and Sakura both were worried about that rabbit in wave." Naruto shoved Sasuke.

"This coming from a guy who's hair sticks up in the back like a chicken's butt."

"Hey! I can't help that it sticks up like that! I'm trying to grow it out." Sasuke scowled. "On a side note, Saukra, your hair looks good in a braid."

"Bet he'll ask what shampoo she uses next." Naruto, in a whisper everyone could hear, commented to Kakashi.

"I walked into that didn't I?"

"No, but you did make the opening." Sarutobi smiled as he walked with the three, though it faded a little when he looked at Kakashi. There was a week travel delay on news, and whether Asuma, Kurenai and Gai could get the information remained to be seen.

Clearing his throat, he explained more about the Kage Bushin, and it's uses in learning Jutsu. "Lastly, I have added to our group for today, as a certain genin team apparently causes trouble without their instructor, and I thought some interaction with other teams might be good for you." In a clearing next to a pond, sat teams Ten and eight. The last team had a girl that Sakura recognized as well as a scowling Hyuuga, and an over-energetic boy with bowl cut hair and a green spandex suit.

"Naruto, remind me to apologize later to you." Sakura deadpanned.

"For what?"

"For complaing about that orange jumpsuit." She looked at him. "At least it wasn't . . . like that."

"And that's it for the expert opinion." Sasuke deadpanned. "Now for the weather-" Sakura laughed, gaining the attention of the other three teams.

"Sakura?" Ino blinked as she took in the newly arrived team. Sakura wore black capris with a red sakura blossom on her hip, and a red three quater sleeve shirt with black gloves. Her forehead protector was on a red cloth band, and around her neck. She was wearing the red sandals. Ino's eyes then moved to the blonde on Sakura's right, who looked a bit smaller wearing a short sleeve black shirt, black pants with orange stripes down the sides, and orange and black goggles around his neck. She recognized the whisker marks, though. Lastly, her eyes traveled to the stoic member of the team, who was wearing black short pants and a black shirt with work out bandages. There was extra white cloth around his throat, but his eyes were more focused on his two teammates. She barely even glanced at the wolf. It only took a moment for her shock to fade. "Sasuke-kun!" She ran forward as Shino and Kiba caught Hinata, who'd fainted.

"Allow me to introduce team seven. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. They're currently taking a missipn to watch over Fang here." Fang put his paws in front of himself and bowed.

"Yosh! Such an exquiste flower! I am Rock Lee of Team Gai!" Sakura needed a moment to recover from the close encounter of the Lee kind, and Naruto obliged.

"Hey back off, haven't you heard about personal space?!" As Sakura recovered, She glanced at Sasuke. He gave her a quick look with a wink, and Ino suddenly found herself holding a log. He then moved and both he and Naruto sent Lee skidding back a few feet. Sarutobi watched in amusement as Fang got into the act, standing behind Sakura and growling at Lee. Unfortunately he had to intervene before Team seven did anything else.

This is better than watching from my crystal ball, or doing paperwork. Outloud he said. "Allow me to introduce Team Gai, Rock Lee, whom you've met, Hyuuga Neji and-"

"I've met Tenten, I'm guessing that is what you were talking about?" Sakura looked at her with a smile.

"Yes . . ."

"Keh." Neji scoffed looking away. "Weak."

"Want to elaborate?" Naruto looked over at the Hyuuga.

"I said, you're weak."

"And you must spend time staring in the mirror to get your hair perfectly straight. Sasuke, I take back what I said earlier, we have found someone more emo than you." Naruto couldn't help it. Sasuke just smirked.

"YOSH!" Lee had recovered. "My Teammate has yet to find the flames of youth-" As he spoke a beach and a sunset appeared.

"How the hell does he do that?"

"Remember when I said you're the most annoying person I've met?" Sasuke looked at Naruto.

"Let me guess, he just beat me?"

"Wait until our sensei gets back. It's twice as scary." Tenten sighed.

"What happened to your wardrobe, all three of you?"

"Sakura declared our old wardrobes hideous and forced us to get new ones." Surprisngly for the other two teams, Sasuke spoke. "She also forced us to pick a color scheme- Naruto got stuck with orange and black, I've got white and black, and she has red or green and black- we've both got blue as our back up color." He leaned against a tree. "We didn't get much choice."

"What's the white around your neck?"

"A mask."

"-FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Lee finished his speech, jerking all of them out of conversation.

The rest of the day was spent learning how to walk on water, or sparring.

"Well, that was interesting, seeing the others." Sakura commented. They were at Sasuke's place, eating something Sakura had made.

"I don't like that Hyuuga." Naruto winced as he bumped his arm against the table. "He reminds me too much of Sasuke."

"Hey. I wasn't that bad . . . was I?"

"You were."

"At least Lee was nice." Sakura commented.

"He was weird Sakura. He's wearing a spandex jumpsuit and looks like the illegitimate son of his sensei." Tenten had shown them her team photo.

I thought that too. Kakashi had his head on Sakura's lap. Maybe I should ask? Kakashi gave a sigh, earning a giggle from Sakura. I hope the others are all right . . .

"We're almost there." Kurenai glanced at Asuma. Gai was right behind them.

"Soon we'll find out what happened to Kakashi . . . should've had back up." Gai kept his serious game face on. "I'll keep a low profile." The green beast of Kohona disappeared into the woods, Kurenai nodded, and used a genjutsu to disappear. Asuma sighed, absently wishing he could smoke before disappearing himself.

Heh, sorry it's taken so long. I'm thinking I'll wrap it up soon, and maybe have an epilogue, depending on how it ends. Next chapter will have more on the jounin looking for information.

As for the changes to the team, I was doodling in my notebook and actually drew a picture of the team (which then got destroyed when the paper ripped) so I was basing the descriptions off that. As for Sasuke, I had to get rid of the white shorts! Twitchtwitch.