A/N; Hope you guys are still enjoying this fic. Big thanks to tavairussanchez, NightWithMoon and for the reviews. They keep me motivated when someone takes the time to write a review. R&R!
C - Rank?
Kakashi arrived at the Hokage's office, hours after the Jonin meeting would have ended. The Hokage was waiting for him, hands tight in front of his mouth.
"Hokage sama", Kakashi said bowing to the old man. "Team seven passed with flying colors."
Sarutobi leaned forward and spoke softly, "What happened to the bell test?"
Kakashi's eye curled up showing his smile, "Naruto had passed my test long ago. I would have only failed the other two if they had refused his help or not come to his aid."
Sarutobi leaned back in his chair frowning for a moment, "I see. I must say, I was impressed that they'd stepped up to fight after the beating you gave the boy. Was that truly necessary?"
Kakashi's smile faded and he looked out the window to the Hokage monument. "I needed to know if they'd fight for him. That in the face of over whelming odds and threat of severe pain they would move to defend their teammate. You know as well as I that war with Kumo is immanent."
The old man sighed and leaned back, "We don't know that for sure. Rumors and hearsay are hardly a declaration of war."
"And what about Iwa? He's looking more like his father every day. If Kumo sparks a war with us, Iwa will join them for the sheer pleasure. As much as we try to stop it, genin always end up fighting, and he'll need to be as strong as possible."
Sarutobi turned to look out the window. "Kakashi, just be careful. Inoichi will be here within minutes of seeing his little girl's face."
"I doubt it." Kakashi said and then moved closer to the window. "I should probably go though."
The third gestured to the couch. "Oh no, my boy. You have a seat right there. He shouldn't be long now."
Naruto
It was late in the day when Naruto peeled open his eyes. Crusted blood made the motion much more difficult than normal. His body ached and his head began to swim when he pushed himself up. He took a few deep steadying breathes, resting on his knees. He looked over to his teammates and saw them laid out where they'd been hours ago. He reached into his reserve and grimaced. He was still extremely low, and not for the first time he cursed the limiter seal.
'Everything seems so much more difficult and tiring now. I don't have chakra for another shadow and even my wounds haven't quiet healed yet.' He glanced at his weights and laughed lightly.
"Guess I'll just leave those there for now. I think even sealing them could drain me more than I could handle, and still get these two home."
He dragged Hewit next to Ino and began the awkward dance of pulling each one over his shoulder. He tried to grab Ino after putting Hewit over first shoulder and dropped her. She hit the ground and he held his breath.
"Shit."
Ino moaned and then jolted awake as if to shield herself.
Naruto crouched down next to her and set Hewit down. "Afternoon Hime."
She groaned again, "What happened? Did we pass?"
Naruto smiled, "Yeah, we passed. We need to report back here at 5 am."
She shakily sat up, "That was brutal. I can't believe you were able to fight like that. I – don't even know how you were able to do that."
Naruto looked at her seriously, "Ino, I've done my best to keep my abilities hidden and I need for you to keep quiet about what I can do."
Ino stared at him for a long while, before nodding her head.
Naruto stood up and offered his hand. "Come on Hime. I've got to get Hewit home. You wana come along?"
Ino continued to stare at him. "You're not like I thought you were."
"The Second Hokage said, a ninja must always look underneath the underneath." Naruto said with a smile.
Twenty minutes later they were walking into the village proper. He'd asked Ino to unseal a cloak and reseal his weights. Luckily, it seemed she was more interested in all the other storage seals and what they contained than why he wanted the cloak. As they came to Hewit's shop, his legs and arms were burning, trembling from the extra strain. It was made worse from the heat of the winter cloak and it seemed like Ino had finally noticed how slow he gotten. When they actually reached the shop door he couldn't wait to get the kid off of himself.
"Oi!" He yelled at the closed door of the shop. "I have Hewit Jin here. He was hurt during training and –"
The door swung open and a black haired man eyed him for a moment, before examining Ino. His gaze fell on the Hewit and he sighed, reaching out to roll the boy onto his shoulder.
"So you two are his new teammates I gather. Who's your Jonin commander?"
"Hatake Kakashi, sir." Naruto said trying to get his breathing under control.
The man raised an eyebrow at this and nodded. "He's one of the best. Next time, you might as well pitch a tent at the training ground. I'll sent a few with Hewit tomorrow, on the house of course."
Naruto smiled at the man, and Ino paled.
"I'm sure we'll be in better shape next time." Naruto supplied with a smile, already feeling better without his burden.
The man let out a hearty chuckle. "I doubt that, most of the Jonin captains like to run their genin hard in the beginning. Thank you for bringing him home."
Ino stepped forward eye wide, "You mean this wasn't just for the test?"
The man smiled widely at her and closed the door in their faces.
Ino gawked at the act and walked away a few feet. She stood in silence before turning to look at Naruto over her shoulder.
Naruto shifted a bit, giving Ino a small smile. "It is what we wanted. To get stronger right?"
Ino scowled at the thought, tilting her head to stretch her muscles, "I just didn't think it'd be so hard, or painful." Her hand came up to rub at her neck, and she started to walk away.
After a few feet she half – turned to Naruto. "You're going to let a lady walk home by herself?"
Naruto smiled widely, jogging to her side, "Of course not hime."
Day 9
Naruto was drawn from a heavy sleep when the light clicked on in his room. A moment later he was being shaken.
"Genin Uzumaki, get up." A gruff voice, the first thing he heard that morning.
He begrudgingly opened his eyes to see his sensei looming over him.
"Outside, ten minutes, dressed and ready to pay."
Naruto looked wide eyed to the clock next to his bed, 3:45 am.
'Shit.'
By 3:55 Naruto was stumbling out of Yamato's house.
Kakashi stood, arms crossed outside his house. Naruto jogged up to the jonin and stood at attention in front of his commander.
"Why do you want to be a shinobi?"
"Because I want to be Hokage."
"Why?"
Naruto's response rolled in his mind, 'So everyone in the village will acknowledge me?'
'Because…'
"Because the fourth entrusted me with the safety of this village. I inherited his will of fire the day I was born and the second's the night I became a ninja. I will become the greatest Hokage ever."
Kakashi eye smiled at Naruto, "Yon daime was my sensei. I will do my best to fan –." Kakashi's eye twitched. Then his whole body shuttered.
"I will help you do it." Kakashi said softly, with his eye closed.
Naruto nodded at his sensei, fighting the urge to step back away from the man.
"Thank you sensei."
"Now, no chakra, jump as high as you can."
Naruto stared at him for a bit before jumping into the air a few feet. Kakashi crouched down to pull up Naruto's pant leg and looked at the weights on his ankles and wrists, "Seriously?"
Kakashi looked at him with a squinted eye.
"How good are your seals?"
Naruto stared hard at the man.
"Good enough."
"So, you know about directed force seals and feed-back loops?"
Naruto squinted his eyes at Kakashi, "In theory, but my direct interests have led me elsewhere in practice."
Kakashi eye smiled, ripped the weights off and slapped small bracelets in their place.
"Yon daime, always said that there was promise for complex systems with feedback loops. You think about that and let me know if you'd like an introduction."
Kakashi made to stand and paused, "And if you touch my pretty seals I'll make you wish you hadn't."
He gave Naruto a fierce look and stood up.
He put a necklace around Naruto's neck and held the small charm on it. Suddenly Naruto could feel a small amount of his chakra start to flow into the charm and his body became increasingly heavy.
Kakashi stood back and said, "Again."
Naruto jumped into the air about the same height.
Kakashi reached forward and pull more of his reserves into the charm.
"Again."
The weight was now oppressive and when he jumped, he only got a few inches into the air.
"Good, follow me."
Kakashi took off at a slow jog, and Naruto began the most difficult run of his life. The air seemed to grab hold of every part of him and he grit his teeth to "run". Kakashi jogged back around and motioned for him to swing his arms up and down with his steps and soon he was doing more, an exaggerated march than anything else.
An hour later, they reached team seven training ground and started doing circles around the perimeter. Soon Hewit and Ino arrived doing their own forced march around the training ground, led by another Kakashi.
Two of the Kakashi shadows walked off and one went to stand in the center.
"Kakashi sensei", Ino snuck out between deep breaths and stomping feet.
"How long are we going to do this?"
"Until I tell you to stop." Kakashi said, casually pulling an orange book out of his pocket. He stood there reading and soon giggleing, pulling his hand up as if to stifle the laughter.
An hour later Hewit's legs were shaking violently. He fell to a knee wheezing, and Kakashi put away his book.
"Alright! Warm up is over. Sip some water and cool down in the shade."
Naruto walked over and helped Hewit up. "Whew, I wouldn't have lasted another second."
The boy smiled at both gestures, "Thanks Naruto."
Ino gave Hewit an appreciative look and dragged her feet slowly towards the tree line.
Kakashi came over by and stared down at them, from over his book. He put it way and formed a few hand signs. Green light glowed on his hands as he crouched down in front of Hewit. He ran his hands over the major muscle groups and lingered for a moment, before moving on. After a moment Hewit smiled up at Kakashi, "Thanks."
Kakashi did the same for Ino, but when he got to Naruto, there was no warm healing chakra flowing into himself.
His initial thoughts were reminiscent of how he was treated at the academy. Before he opened his mouth to say something, he remembered that the Kyuubi was already healing him.
'Kakashi's trying to level the playing field, so that my teammates can grow as fast as me.'
Kakashi stood up and said, "Naruto, your break is now over. Leave a shadow and continue running."
Naruto nodded, made the hand sign and said, "Kage bushin no justu."
The shadow came into existence next to Kakashi, whom made two shadows of his own.
"Ok guys, you each get a personal training session with me, to assess your skills and figure out where you need to improve. Afterwards, we'll be looking for your chunin specialty. Each chunin has one particular specialty that they excel in and a tokubestu jonin is one who's mastered their specialty. I need to see that you've almost mastered your specialty before I even think about entering you into the chunin exams. As you know it is the most prestigious way to advance to the chunin rank. I expect to be able to sign each of you up for it next year. Work hard and prove to me your worth fighting next to me as a shinobi of the village. I will do the rest."
Each of the Kakashis took a genin and walked off.
And they trained…
Day 35
Ino stood against the side of large building in a less than favorable residential district. Her large white overalls contrasted harshly with the deep red coating she was lathering the building with. She'd stopped to wipe her brow and check again to make sure her clothes were still clean.
Naruto whispered in her ear. "That seal's not going to fail Ino."
She jumped around in a spinning kick. He leaned back towards the wall and she thrust the mope – like paint – brush out at him. He threw himself down away from the assault, griped the wall with his hand, a few feet down, and swung himself around beneath her. She let herself fall hoping to catch him with a swing of her brush.
He could feel her chakra try to grasp at his mind and he flexed his chakra to push her away. He grit his teeth as the brush was much closer then he'd thought. He tapped the wall and took off, far from her reach.
"Naruto!" Ino cried out, catching herself after sliding down the wall a few feet.
"I told you to stop doing that!" she continued, face red from anger.
"You have to take that up with Kakashi." Naruto said with sly grin. "He's the one that said your situational awareness was bad. Naruto let go of his grip on the wall and leaned back away from a short javelin whizzing by his head. His fall took him into the shocked face and wild eyes of Hewit. Eyes which shut tight when Naruto's back hand roughly tapped his face. Hewit fell for a moment before another javelin shot out from his waist, and impaled the wall. Hewit grabbed the line and swung back up to perch next to Ino. Both javelin zipped up and snapped into Hewit's hands.
"I still don't understand why you can't make a couple shadows to help us bust this out quicker, or even train? If you remember what they do, you could be learning everything twice as quickly, with just one clone. This stupid rule about your clones is bullshit."
Naruto frowned and jumped down to the ground.
"Hey, you know there's probably a good reason he can't talk about." Ino whispered to him.
Hewit squinted at her, "You know don't you."
Ino sighed and walked up the wall. Hewit walked quickly to stay close, "Some of the villagers say he's a murderer."
Ino paused and looked down at Naruto putting on his painting equipment. "Naruto wouldn't hurt anyone."
Hewit leaned in and whispered, "I know that, but why him? I've even heard the other civilians calling him a demon. The other day a person at the shop apologized to me for having the bad luck of being teamed up with the monster, and told me to stay strong."
He paused, looking a Naruto compare the large brushes. "There is some kind of secret about Naruto that must be classified. You know he's got to be the strongest ninja in our age group."
Ino felt Sasuke's name on the tip of her tongue, but she'd been warring with herself about their relative strength since their first spar with Kakashi. She nodded at him and they shared a ponderous moment.
Naruto's breath was on their faces, huffing inches away from them, "What are we talking about?" He whispered loudly.
Ino jumped a bit losing her chakra bond to the wall and screamed while falling towards the ground, "Naruto!"
Three hours later and they were walking back to the Hokage's office. Naruto was wearing his customary oversized cloak while Hewit eyed the villager's faces watching to see if anyone recognized Naruto.
Kakashi appeared in the road ahead and gestured to the roof. After another person briefly blocked their view of him, he was gone.
Naruto's heart eyes gleamed at the stealth the man had and was leaping after his sensei moments after he lost sight of the man. Hewit and Ino arrived moments later on the roof. Naruto was rising from his 'Ass kissing bow' as Hewit liked to call it.
Kakashi squared off with his team and spoke.
"I'm calling an early day today. We've pulled patrol duty with team ten, and you need to pack and prepare. Shift call is 8 am. Pack to be gone for two weeks. Questions?"
Ino's eyes glazed over as she started to think about Sasuke.
"Which Boarder", Hewit called out, Naruto already unsealing a small map from a flap in his arm bracer.
"Land of Rivers."
"OOooo spooky", said Hewit.
Naruto looked up at Kakashi from his map. "Have you ever met a river folk person?"
"No, but I've heard enough to respect their boarders. Anything else?"
Hewit jumped up, "This is going to be great right? It's C rank correct?"
"Yes, this will be our first C rank mission. We'll be going on patrol every four months, in rotation with the other genin teams. Now that should be good enough for now. You two head out. I need to speak with Uzumaki for a moment, privately."
Hewit and Ino gave clipped bows to their sensei and said their good byes.
Kakashi watched his genin leave, and then focused on his remaining student.
"Your designs were… elegant. I'm not sure what the applications are, but I would suggest talking to Hewit about it."
Naruto looked like he'd taken of bite from something questionable.
"Hewit asks too many questions."
Kakashi leaned in close, "Then answer them and be done with it. I chose this team for a reason. Don't let your insecurities stop this team from being the best shinobi squad since the legendary three. We both know he'd figure out something to do with those seals, and it could be a great breakthrough for this village. Also, a huge step in the direction of being acknowledged for your positive contributions, aside from being a great killer."
Naruto stood stone faced, eyes down cast.
"In addition, I'm deeming this mission the test for you to operate without the limiting seal active. I don't want you making hundreds of clones for training. I just need to know, that if the unforeseen occurs, I can count on you to step up."
Kakashi put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and the boys eyes came up to meet Kakashi's.
"You can count on me, sensei." Kakashi nodded and spoke, "If anything happens on any mission, where I'm incapacitated, you have full operational control. I've cleared this with the other Jonin Captain and he's agreed to sign off on your secondary orders."
Kakashi slid a scroll into Naruto's vest pocket as he walked passed the boy. "Don't touch that until the moment arises. It has orders for this mission should things go bad. Each mission we go on I'll be giving you one to hold and return should things go bad. I assume you already know how temporarily disable the limiters seal."
Naruto turned to face the man and he was gone.
'Sensei.' He thought gazing over the roof tops of the village.
'What if they fear me?'
Day 36
Naruto met the day in darkness. Roused by the slightest stirring of chakra. He rolled back off of his bed from the presence in his room. Right hand pulling his favorite, extra – long knife, from the sheath, under his pillow. The left hand snagging a slip of paper from his desk, and giving it a miniscule amount of chakra, while flicking into the air. The room burst into light with a sizzling flame from the paper slowly fluttering to the floor. Naruto, could no longer feel the presence, and the light bathing the room revealed no intruder. A shadow loomed by the door way, filling Naruto with a deep dread. He pulsed his chakra, ripping apart the delicate web of foreign chakra in his mind.
"Kage."
The room and hallway light up with bright symbols, and four shadows appeared.
Original
He pivoted around the bed to duck out of the way and pull his bracers and sandals on.
'I'm getting out this time, believe it.'
Shadow
He appeared under the bed senses on high alert. He felt wisps of chakra from the area genjutsu his feet were suddenly intruding on and dispelled.
Original
He switched with the shadow in the hallway and sprinted making three clones and closing his eyes, flipping a kunai behind himself. Two ahead and one behind.
The shadow behind him yelled to the two standing on the bed," 12 oclock, triple wide", catching the kunai. He flung the kunai, which became 20 the moment it left his hand.
The two ahead of the original whispered, "Kage", and the living room lit up in a flash, leaving a large glowing symbol on the ceiling.
The original opened his eyes after the flash, reached both hands out yelling, "Four paths."
Four shadow appeared in a square, backs facing each other, four feet apart at a side.
Shadow
He appeared on the bed crouched in a fighting stance. The room looked empty and he began to feel like he'd had a bad dream and should go back to sleep. Suddenly, the shadow that was outside the doorway flickered, and took off down the hall. Another shadow appeared, in the doorway, catching a knife and calling for a shadow kunai assault directly ahead. He thought 'kage' forming a kunai in his hand. And made to flick it. Kakashi seemed to slide from under wallpaper on the left and slipped a blade into his neck, while over 50 kunai sprayed half of the room.
Original
He eased into the moment, feeling his leg extending out for the next step in his dash. He slid back into a very similar memory where the shadow to his left was killed and he had just enough time to face Kakashi, before a kunai flew into his chest. His back leg was, again curling for another stride, in his run. The four shadow in the square still in front of him
'Three.'
Shadow
As the kunai, and its 20 friends he conjured, flew into the space in front of him, the air seemed shimmer and wave. Kakashi was suddenly stabbing a shadow on the bed and flicking a kunai at the one leaning way from the man.
He made 6 shadows in the room to spar with Kakashi and another down the hallway to focus on the exploding symbol and dispelled himself.
Original
The leg that had been curling was now rolling forward.
His mind flickered between this moment and a few, quick, losing exchanges with his sensei's lightning chakra, cracking around his fingers.
'Two, one.'
He thought as his legs continued their dance. Spinning around and sliding backwards into the human square; each of the shadow slapping down their hands and saying, "Seal."
A square of light formed around the shadows, each at a corner. The light shot up from every point, creating a box that extended to the arced ceiling.
An explosion blew apart the hallway, along with the rest of the house. The cracking of debris against the barrier caused Naruto to flinch away and thank kami, the four paths seal was as strong as it was. Yamato's room and Naruto's closet was all that was left of the house as the dust settled.
He flickered to the lives of the shadows holding the wall to watch Kakashi flash to the back of the barrier just before the explosion. Kakashi, then, slapped a disruption tag on the barrier wall and shocked the shadows into smoke as the dust was clearing. He finished replaying the memories just in time to feel his body seize up with electricity and hit the ground in a heap.
"I'd say you almost made it this time." Kakashi said casually flicking two small bolts of lightning, to dispel the last two shadows, eyeing him like they were thinking about doing something.
He rolled over to look up at his sensei, grinning. "I'm outside, aren't I?"
Kakashi looked up at the morning sky, "Mah."
He waived his hand dismissingly. "I guess it's true."
He looked suddenly towards Yamato's room, which caused Naruto to roll to his knees and look as well.
Yamato's angry face was protruding from the wood of his room. "Senpai!" He scream at them, "This is the last straw! I'm not going to be re-creating my house every other day! Uzumaki, you're guardianship has, effective immediately, been reassigned to your sensei." Yamato lingered a moment glaring at Kakashi, looking more annoyed than mad. Kakashi nodded to him and his head vanished back, into the tiny wood house.
Kakashi turned to Naruto smiling, "If you blow up my house, I'll maim you."
An hour later they were walking up to the main village gates. Yingi and, who Naruto assumed to be his sensei were already there. Yingi standing in the middle of the road, in his black robe and his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword. The red sheath matched his hair, and he eyed Naruto's gate carefully.
"Hatake sensei, Uzumaki", he gave a clipped bow to Kakashi and a nod to Naruto. Naruto glanced at the spot in the bushes where the large chakra source was sitting.
'He's not even attempting to hide his presence.' He thought confused.
Naruto glanced back at Yingi, whom nodded at him with a thoughtful look.
Ino and Hewit walked up together, minutes later. They gave a bow to Kakashi and Ino glanced at the hiding presence. Naruto nodded to her with a smirk and bumped fists with them both in greeting.
Naruto, Ino, and Hewit lined up in front of Kakashi and Naruto spoke. "Team seven reporting for 8 am call."
Kakashi, nodded. "Scatter and wait on my signal to leave."
Naruto, Ino, and Hewit jumped away. Naruto took a spot on a roof, overlooking the entrance to the gate. Ino slipped under an area genjustu in a tree nearby and Hewit was deep in the bushes before Naruto could get proper eyes on him.
'Damn, I can't determine his position. He's getting really good.'
Sasuke was soon strolling down the road along with a chirping Sakura. He looked pained.
Sasuke came and stood next to Yingi, Sakura in toe, both greeting Kakashi. Sasuke noticed his sensei's chakra and called for him to come out.
"Sensei, we're ready to go." He glanced over at Kakashi and asked, "Is your team normally late?"
"Mah, mah they're ready to go" Kakashi said dismissively, hand waving at the child, eyes still on his book.
Genbo Hatsu emerged, suddenly, from the bushes and Sakura jumped a bit in surprise.
Hatsu tsk'ed at his team, glanced at Kakashi from the corner of his eye and could feel the smugness radiating from him.
He looked at his genin, faintly acknowledging Sakura's protest to his sudden appearance with a half – hearted smile.
"Ok kids, line up."
The genin shuffled around a bit until they were side – by – side.
He gestured at Kakashi, "This is Hatake Kakashi, and he will be taking point on this mission. You are to follow his directions as you would any superior officer."
Kakashi snapped the book closed and spoke loudly. "We're heading south, I will take point followed by team seven, then ten and Genbo san will take the rear. Squad leaders for this mission are Uzumaki and Yingi. Devise your own inner formations while travelling."
Sasuke stepped forward and called out to the man, "I should be squad leader."
Kakashi turned to the boy and glared. "I've personally reviewed your files and came to the conclusion that Yongi has been the most level headed and professional in mission reports. I will let this slip go, but in the future, you need to remember how you're to address me. When I call orders, your job is to smile and do. Understood genin?"
"Yes, sensei."
"And stand up straight when you're called to attention, or are being address by a superior officer." Kakashi finished his voice having grown in intensity, a bit of killing intent leaking out.
He glanced around to inspect the hiding spots of his genin and signaled his team, before shunshinning out a few feet from the gates.
They ran for four hours and Naruto was feeling great. Kakashi had designated this mission resistance seals off, and his chakra felt endless. He'd known he had large amounts of chakra, but the time he'd spent cut off from most of it, showed him the reality of his reserves. Ino and Hewit seemed to be doing well but Team ten had started to fall behind an hour ago. Yingi had disappeared from his sight a few minutes ago and he whistled for a halt to Kakashi.
Kakashi dropped to the forest and team seven surrounded him on guard. A minute later Yongi and Sasuke landed and dropped to their knees gripping the ground and breathing heavily. 10 minutes later Sakura and Hatsu arrived.
"Yongi, are you aware that convoys are required to stay in line of sight of the people trailing them?"
Yongi rose to attention and shook his head. Kakashi eyed Hatsu whom seemed to fade a bit from the group.
"When you lose sight of the person behind you, you are required to call for a stop with this whistle."
He signaled to Hewit, who gave the whistle.
"All squads at ease, 1 hour respite. Naruto five shadows for perimeter, and five to gather us some forage – ables."
"Yes sensei", and ten Naruto's appeared, heading off in different directions.
Kakashi gave Hatsu a look and they both walked off into the forest.
Ino was already chatting with Sakura who was sitting under a tree sipping water.
Sasuke looked at Naruto with wide eyes, "How do you know that jutsu?"
Naruto looked at him for a long moment, watching Sasuke's eyes look over his whisker marks, and spoke, "I'm sorry for deceiving you Sasuke, but I didn't want anyone to know my true strength."
Hewit stepped away from the scene glancing back and forth between the two.
Sasuke lurched to his feet, "You… can't be him." Naruto's eyes remained on Sasuke's unable to think of anything he could say.
Sasuke darted at Naruto. Naruto flexed his chakra for a shadow, atop a branch above, whom replaced itself with him. The shadow took Sasuke's kick unflinchingly, disappearing into a puff of smoke. Sasuke looked around quickly and soon found Naruto stand on the tree above him.
"Sasuke, sparring during a mission is against protocol. And, I'm not in the mood for punishment from sensei."
Sasuke stared at him for a while, before Sakura came over to stare at Naruto. "Why are you upsetting Sasuke kun, Naruto baka?"
Sasuke ignored the girl and stared into Naruto's eyes. 'The same eyes from before.' He thought.
"You owe me a spar and some answers Uzumaki." Sasuke said before walking away.
Sakura glared at Naruto and Ino's hand came to rest on her shoulder. "You should let them take care of it themselves Sakura."
Sakura made to walk up to the tree, "I just have to remind him of how he's supposed to be treat Sasuke kun."
The grip increase on Sakura's shoulder and Ino shook her head. "The Naruto you knew from the Academy was an act Sakura. He's strong, and I wouldn't recommend you just walk up and try to strike him."
Sakura looked at Ino incredulously and turned back towards Naruto. He was calmly walking down the tree and Hewit was moving to meet him at its base. She gawked at how he was able to walk on the surface of the tree and looked to Yongi. Yongi was sitting a few feet away eyeing Naruto. He glanced at Sakura and shook his head slowly.
They were running at a much slower pace when they resumed their journey. Naruto noted the tight formation team ten was now in and Sasuke looked contemplative. After another five hours of traveling they broke camp for the night.
Kakashi went over the details of the mission and they ate a boar, Sasuke and Yongi had caught. While they ate, the team ten had sat pointedly at away from team seven. Kakashi eyed them and called for mixed team watches.
Naruto and Sasuke
Sasuke spent the first hour across from Naruto in the trees surrounding the camp ground. Naruto felt him staring at him. The fire was a low crackling flame, and Naruto's shadow clone over saw its slow diet of arm – sized – branches.
Over time Sasuke seemed to fade out of the moon's light into the leaves of the tree. Naruto wasn't sure what to say to Sasuke and was suddenly aware that he'd basically tricked him. Became his one friend and vanished, without a trace.
'I'd even hoped he would be on my team.' Naruto thought.
He jumped to the tree, close to where he felt Sasuke's chakra.
He listened until he could hear Sasuke's breath. He closed eyes and whispered "kage."
A few one – way silence seals appeared around them.
"Sasuke, I'm going to tell you an S – class secret. Divulgence of this secret by anyone other than me or the Hokage is punishable by death. Do you understand?" Naruto whispered into the darkness.
Sasuke leaned into the moonlight, so his face could be seen. He nodded, sliding back almost completely into darkness again.
"I am the village's weapon…"
A/N; I found a job and I start work on Monday. Celebration, though I might not be able to write as much for a few weeks, but who knows. I can't see myself not writing whenever I have a chance. Not sure about this last scene with Sasuke. Still up in the air how this was go down.