Warning: Strong language ahead. Blame Genma.

Disclaimer: Naruto not mine.

Genma crouched in the trees, melting silently into shadows. The scroll he had been sent to collect pressed painfully into his side beneath his armor. He could hear them coming closer, and as they paused three trees away, he stopped breathing.

Naruto and Raidou discussed chakra at lunch. Or rather, Raidou learned just how much Naruto didn't know about it. "It's not chatara," he said patiently. "It's chakra. You need it to do ninjutsu, and genjutsu, stick to trees and increase your strength." To stop someone's heart with two fingers in the wrong place (although at a different spot Raidou could do it without chakra, too). "It's energy," he continued, glossing over the methods of silent murder. "Physical and spiritual. You need to train to increase how much you have, and to increase your control over it. Did you hear a word I just said?"

Naruto looked up from his plate, a strand of noodle hanging from the side of his mouth. He sucked it up with a slurp and nodded energetically. "Chatara is energy and you have to train lots and lots!"

"Chakra."

"That's what I said."

"Chakra, not chatara."

"But they sound the same!"

Genma clasped his shaking hands together in a seal, and pulled at his chakra. He was drained, and black spots were dancing in front of his eyes. The chakra seared his nerves as he ripped it away and focused it in his hands. He didn't waste time to wonder if he would make it home. He only regretted that he had left without really saying goodbye.

"So before you learn jutsu, you have to control your chakra." Raidou had nothing else to do, so after lunch it was back to training.

"Why?"

Raidou hesitated. Why indeed? "Because you can't use it otherwise," he said, a little redundantly. He pushed on before Naruto could notice the lapse. "So, watch this." Hands together, first two fingers of each hand raised. Chakra danced on his fingertips.

"Cool!" Naruto breathed.

"You can't normally see chakra," Raidou explained, dropping his hands. "But if you focus on turning it into light, that seal can become visible." It was a basic technique, and took very little chakra. ANBU mostly didn't use it however, because light gave away your position, and the seal tied up your hands. "The other basic chakra control exercise you can do is sticking to things." Raidou pointed at a nearby tree. "How would you climb that if I tied your hands behind your back?"

Naruto frowned. "I don't know," he finally decided. "Why would you do that?"

"For the sake of training," Raidou answered tartly. "You'd climb it with your feet." Raidou walked over to the tree, and put a foot on the bark. Keeping his body parallel to the ground, he walked slowly up the trunk, and then back down. Naruto gaped. "You focus chakra in your feet, and use it to stick to the tree."

Naruto nodded excitedly, then hesitated. "But where is my chakra?"

That stumped him. Where is my chakra? Raidou could feel it, flowing constantly through his body. He knew automatically where the invisible energy was and how much he had. It just was. This is why I'm not a teacher, he mused, and felt a rising respect for those chuunin who could answer a question like that. "Naruto, are you enrolled at the Academy?" he asked suddenly. He hadn't ever seen the boy go there, but he was old enough.

The fire jutsu engulfed his hiding spot, and Genma leapt out of the way barely in time, landing hard on the vertical trunk of a nearby tree. He felt his ankle give way, again, and shoved more chakra into the crushed joint. The bastard with the fire turned to sweep the area, and Genma dropped to avoid it. He landed in a roll, because his ankle wouldn't take the pressure. And then they were on the ground too, surrounding him.

"No," Naruto said. "I asked Sasaki-san once, and she hit me."

Oh. Well. That certainly covered it. "Well, chakra is in your body," Raidou said slowly. "It's energy, and if you do seals, or focus on it, you can move it around." Not helpful, idiot. He tried again. "Close your eyes." This probably wasn't going to work. "Can you feel your hands?"

Naruto's eyes opened. "Of course I can. That's a silly question."

"Close your eyes, and just answer."

"Yes."

"Can you feel the muscle inside your hand?"

Naruto clenched his fingers. "Yeah."

"Can you feel the energy inside the muscle?"

"Yeah," he whispered. "Yeah, I can. Is that chatara?"

Raidou didn't bother to correct him. "Yes. Now, can you feel it everywhere else too? Follow it up your arm, and into your chest." He was following along in his own body, flexing the chakra pathways lacing through himself. "Can you feel it?"

"Yes."

"Now, pull some of it towards your hands. Okay? Remember that seal I showed you?" Naruto fumbled for a moment, and Raidou bent the child's fingers into the correct positions. "Imagine that the chakra is light, like a fire. The energy is fire." Nothing happened for a moment, then Naruto's hands lit up like a miniature sun. "Open your eyes, Naruto."

Genma jerked forwards as the kunai caught him in the shoulder. There were six surrounding him, and he couldn't watch them all at once. They didn't bother to demand the scroll back. They'd take it from his corpse. He didn't have enough chakra left. Not enough goddamn chakra.

"Wow," Naruto gasped. "I didn't know I could do that."

"You've got a lot of chakra, Naruto, to make it so bright." But I wonder if it's all yours... Raidou shifted uneasily. It was too easy to forget the Kyuubi inside the little boy.

"Yeah! It's brighter than yours!" Naruto lost control of the jutsu in his glee.

"Well, how much you have isn't everything," Raidou admonished. "So let's work on control." Soothe my ego a bit. "Instead of focusing to your hands, put it in your feet. You need just the right amount, and a steady flow, otherwise you'll fall off. Try climbing the tree."

Genma bared his teeth. He was fucking ANBU, he wasn't going to just die. A flicker of chakra and a lance of pain through his whole body, then he was behind the one who threw the kunai. A burst of chakra to cut through the spinal cord, and the man's head rolled at his feet. Blood sprayed against his face. One down. His vision flickered black.

Raidou did pushups while Naruto tried to climb the tree. Fifty-nine, sixty, sixty-one, sixty-three, wait a minute, was that right? Stupid high numbers always tripped him up. Fine. He'd list ways to kill people. Stupid numbers... Kunai in the kidney, kunai in the jugular, sever the spinal cord, garroting wire, burn them with katon, femoral artery...

Naruto was about four feet off the ground. Not bad, for the first day. Not good, either. Inhaling poison, Suna-4, Konoha-13, Iwa-9 damn I hate that one, hurts like the devil and you can't stop puking, Yuugao's green goop she calls dinner that was uncalled for. Sorry Yuugao. Forget to cauterize a wound, infection, gangrene, Naruto's gotten another foot up. The wood cracked. "Keep the flow steady, Naruto." Mis-dosing pain meds, contaminated soldier pills, poison in your food why do I keep coming back to poison? Shuriken in the jugular does that count? I already did kunai. Stepping on an exploding tag, wire traps, nerve cluster in the neck.

By the time Raidou began listing pressure points, Naruto was several body lengths above the ground and starting to get tired. "Look, Raidou-nii-san," he called from a wide branch. "See how high I got!"

Raidou cut off his silent recitation and stood up. "Good work, Naruto." He looked around and realized it was getting dark. "Let's go in for dinner."

"See, I'm a super-good ninja already," Naruto exclaimed, bouncing around the older man as he strode sedately back to headquarters. "I'm so cool!"

"Hatake was already almost a chuunin at your age," Raidou informed him. "So don't get too cocky."

They reacted faster than he had hoped. But the young one wasn't confident, and hesitated at the last moment. Genma slid under his thrust, pressing his body close against the enemy. A sharp rip upwards and the boy was slit open from belly to neck. Hot blood soaked Genma's chest where he touched the other. Four left.

The cafeteria was more crowded than last night. Raidou squared his shoulders, and prepared to introduce ANBU to Naruto. "Hey, Kinjo, this is Naruto. Naruto, Kinjo."

The short, dark-haired man nodded politely. "Hello."

"Miyagi, I want you to meet Uzumaki Naruto."

"Leave me the hell alone, Namiashi." The pale, thin man glared at him, and Raidou moved on quickly.

"Yo, Raidou."

They were too fucking good. He was on the ground with a knife at his neck before he could push the body away. It bit deeply, slicing through matted hair and skin and blood vessels before Genma got the second kunai up and into the man's chest. It scraped against ribs, then found cartilage and the soft give that meant he hit a lung. The blade stopped trying to decapitate him. But he was bleeding more and there were still three left. He stumbled to his feet.

"Kakashi? When did you get back?" Raidou hurried over to the secluded table by the window, dragging Naruto by one wrist. The boy mumbled a protest, tugging at his trapped limb.

"Sometime today," the jounin answered vaguely, waving his orange book through the air. "Where's everybody else?"

"On missions. Hayate should be back tonight, though. How did it go?" He pushed Naruto into a chair, and pulled one out for himself.

"Not bad. Maa, Raidou, who's this?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto declared proudly. Raidou watched his captain tensely for his reaction.

He knew the one to the left used genjutsu. He knew that if he was caught, he didn't have enough chakra to break free. He knew that the seals the other one was hurriedly forming would create a jutsu he could not dodge. He couldn't stop the fleeting wish for Raidou at his back.

Kakashi's half-lidded eye didn't even flicker. "Uzumaki Naruto," he repeated, deadpan. "Any word on a replacement yet?"

Raidou blinked. He had been expecting some sort of reaction. Maybe disgust and rejection, maybe an effusion of love and warmth for his teacher's only son. Not complete disinterest. Which really shouldn't be a surprise, Raidou realized. Considering that's how he treats ninety-seven percent of all people. Make that ninety-nine if you discount dead people. "No," he answered automatically. "You got anyone in mind?"

Kakashi shrugged. "No."

The conversation died. Raidou toyed with his chopsticks, trying to think of something to say. Luckily, they had Naruto.

"Nii-san says you were a chuunin when you were my age. That's cool!"

Kakashi's eye slid to the side to focus on the yellow head addressing him from barely higher than the table edge. "Hn?" Then, "Nii-san?"

Raidou twitched a shoulder. "That's what he calls me."

"So since you're so good, will you teach me?" Naruto demanded, interrupting. "'Cause I'm gonna be a super-ninja!"

Kakashi stared at him for a long moment. "No."

"Pleeease?"

"I don't teach."

Raidou raised a single eyebrow. Naruto pouted.

"I kill people," Kakashi said brightly, his eye curving into a happy smile. "I don't teach."

Genma spat blood into the dirt, and felt the trailing end of saliva catch on his chin. The last bodies were spattered around the trees and he started to walk away. He heard the crackle of bone in his ankle just before he fell.

"Cut the crap, Hatake," Raidou ordered. He had no patience for Kakashi's affectations.

Kakashi gave him a pouting look. How Kakashi could pout with only one eye and three square inches of skin was a mystery Raidou had never figured out. "Don't be so mean, Namiashi-taichou." Kakashi pushed his chair back from the table, and stood up. Or slouched up. The orange book flicked open in front of his already concealed face, and he lifted his free hand in a lazy goodbye. "See you later." His bowl of rice was barely touched.

Well, that could have gone better, Raidou mused as Naruto chattered his ears off around mouthfuls of sitrfry and rice. Something about orange, Raidou noted, or maybe it's cats now. Could also have gone worse, I guess. He had chosen the people he had introduced Naruto to when they came in carefully, and the reactions had been mixed. Most had been distantly polite, a few had been genuinely friendly. Miyagi's 'get the hell away from me' was not directed at Naruto, but rather at the world in general (and Raidou in particular). Miyagi was a damn good fighter, but he had some nasty moods. But a few cold looks had been cast their way, and Naruto had not missed them. Hatake, well, Kakashi was Kakashi, and there wasn't anything Raidou could do about him.

Going out to the apartment buildings behind the main HQ, Naruto began yawning. Raidou saw him to his room, and reset the seals. He fell down on his own bed, more tired than his uneventful day warranted. As he fell asleep, he reminded himself to enroll Naruto in the Academy. Training would do him good.

Someone pounding on his door woke him. "Raidou! Raidou get the hell up!" The shouts must have woken the whole corridor.

Raidou flung the door open, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "'The hell, Hayate?" he demanded, recognizing the boy waking him up at three in the morning.

"It's Genma," he gasped out, eyes terrified. "He's home."

Genma fell into the doors of ANBU, too exhausted hurt bleedingfuckingdying to go any farther. The metal doors opened inwards, then swung back to knock lightly against his shoulders. The rookie at the desk saw him, and slammed a hand into the red button for the medics. He flickered over to the fallen man's side, and fumbled for his dogtags. 035—he skipped the rest of the numbers, moving to the name. Shiranui Genma. Wasn't he Squad 14? A quick hand sign and a shadow clone was racing for the stairs. Hayate was 14, too, wasn't he? Shiranui was bleeding out all over the floor, and the rookie knew the medics would be too late.

Raidou dropped to his knees beside his friend, reaching out to grab Genma's hand. "Stay with me, you bastard. Do you hear me, Genma? Don't you fucking die." He had shouldered his way between the medics surrounding the injured man, ignoring their orders to stay out of the way. Hayate hovered at the edge of the commotion, uneasy. The last dead teammate, Masaru, had been closest to Hayate, of them all. He was chewing his nail, something he hadn't done since he was a child. Teeth ripped into flesh, and crimson welled against pale skin.

Genma's eyes didn't open, and the medic with his hands over his heart shouted something. Green light flared bright. "What's his blood type?" someone demanded.

"A positive," Raidou said steadily. "He's A positive." The medic reaching for the dogtags dropped them and translocated away. He was back in a flash, with two bags of blood and a needle. Raidou's eyes were burning; too dry. Fuck you, Shiranui. Don't you fucking die.

"Get operating room 6 primed."

"I'm losing the pulse, some help here!"

Hovering in the doorway to the stairs, no one noticed the head of blond hair over blue eyes, open wide and staring at the scene playing out under pale fluorescent lights on the black tile of ANBU's floor.

The rookie slumped against the desk when the medics finally rushed Shiranui to the hospital, running a hand nervously through his hair. His feline mask glared impassively at the pool of blood slipping over the tile. He suppressed a shudder, and headed to the closet behind the desk, to find the mops.

Naruto slid out of the shadows, and crouched down on the floor. He trailed his stubby fingers through the cooling liquid, and red dripped from his clenched fist. He didn't really understand, but Nii-san was upset, and Hayate-san was too, and he felt like crying. His people, his friends, his family shouldn't be like that. He wouldn't let them be like that.

Raidou was slumped in the corridor outside the operating room when Hatake arrived. Hayate had left to find coffee. "You're late," he said, too drained for rancor.

"Sorry," Hatake said, and there was genuine apology in his voice.

Raidou nodded shortly, and dropped his head into his hands. The fingers of his left trailed over thick scar tissue, and he grimaced. Fucking scars. Fucking Genma fucking dying.

"How is he?" Kakashi muttered, hands shoved deep into his pockets, not looking at Raidou.

"Don't know."

Silence. The tick of a clock. Hayate returned with coffee. Time passed.

The medics went in and out at intervals, with needles and tubes and exhausted faces and bloody hands. They didn't say anything. The ANBU didn't ask.

No one said anything when Yuugao arrived, her purple hair in disarray. She bowed as she approached, and sat silently on the bench by Hayate. The teenagers held hands, tightly. Raidou wished Hayate would pull himself together. He almost snarled at the boy. Instead, he closed his eyes.

The medics wheeled Genma out hours later, unconscious but breathing, dressed in a drab cotton hospital shirt and with too many tubes coming out of him. Yuugao stifled a shriek when the doors opened. They pushed the gurney down the hall; the body too pale, too small. Kakashi's eye watched impassively.

Pain greeted Genma when he woke. Dull throbs that spiked into immobilizing agony when he moved. He opened his eyes slowly, waiting to be greeted by Hell.

In the corner, a flicker of yellow. And Raidou sleeping nearby. Raidou's head pillowed on his arms, passed out at the foot of the bed. Not Hell, then. Hospital. Alive. His eyes drifted shut.

A/N: Slightly longer chapter. I decided to go with natural breaks, rather than try and make huge chapters. Also, the main plot is coming. I promise.

Also, tried something new with the style. Tell me if it works, or was just too confusing. (This is pretty much a one-time experiment, not throughout the story)