Chapter Four - "The Elder Brother, The Doubtful Heir, The Scornful Lady, and The Orphan"

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Has anybody even spotted the theme for the chapter titles and story title yet?

If anyone wants me to add any detail on any specific stuff to previous chapters, I probably can. I updated chapter three twice, once with more Saisei details, once with more on Naruto's rant over Hinata.

Just an FYI for those who have a story alert for this - since for whatever reason won't bump my story to the top of the list if I post a new chapter and I already had a new chapter earlier in the day, I WILL post chapters as soon as possible, but if I get a 'two-in-one-day' situation then I'll just pull the last chapter at the end of the day and repost it when the clock rolls over. I need mah new readers, y'know.

Don't forget, review at the end of the chapter, plox!

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Naruto hated Uchiha Sasuke.

He could pity Sasuke, to a degree. After all, his brother, Itachi Uchiha, had slaughtered over 70% of the Uchiha clan when Sasuke was eight, including Sasuke's father, before going nukenin. Sasuke didn't even know why Itachi had done it - over two thirds of the remaining Uchiha had been under the age of eight, while the rest were people who had been hesitant or against the coup d'etat that the Uchiha clan heads were planning against Konoha. Those latter people weren't telling anybody about it, intent on letting their dirty secret die out with them in an unspoken agreement between them and the Sandaime and the Elder Council. He couldn't really call Sasuke gullible for accepting his 'it was done to test my capacity' line when the younger had confronted the elder brother before he left. After all, it wasn't as if this was some alternate universe where Itachi killed everyone who was five and under and therefore completely unable to fight back and defend themselves at all before feeding Sasuke that nonsensical explanation.

Naruto could almost cackle. Itachi had wandered around the Elemental Nations for three years, collecting information while working as a mercenary, and sending it to Konoha using Jiraiya of the Sannin as an intermediary. A year ago, Jiraiya had asked Itachi to join 'this fishy rogue organization that has some S-Class ninja in it and find out what they're up to', which was Kakuzu's gang of bounty hunters. Itachi had done so, only to secretly double-cross Jiraiya once he found out the group's true motivations. Yahiko-sama had brought him into the fold, knowing beforehand that Itachi was most likely a spy who had killed most of the Uchiha either on the Hokage's orders or on his own - after all, one of the few remaining Uchiha adults was one of the original spies he had recruited in Konoha, one of those who had been against the coup. Itachi had been a child born during the beginning stages of the Third Great Shinobi War, and had been five when the Kyuubi attacked. He knew what war was, he knew terror and death, and he was realistic. He changed sides quickly and gave Yahiko-sama as much information as he could.

Itachi had so far delayed sending off a report about the 'Akatsuki' as Kakuzu also named his group, but would soon send out a heavily edited report. From what Yahiko-sama had told Naruto, Jiraiya would soon be reading a document telling about a 'group of nine S-Rank nukenin with several lower-class mercenaries and spies intent on capturing the nine jinchuuriki for purposes I have yet to decipher'. Naruto didn't even doubt that Jiraiya would be fooled all too easily - the old toad still thought Ame was under the control of Salamander Hanzo for crying out loud, something which hadn't been true for a decade and a half.

Sasuke hated his brother, and Naruto could accept that. Sasuke was a bit of a recluse and introverted, Naruto could definitely understand that. What Naruto hated Sasuke for was the rest of his personality. Sasuke constantly degraded anyone who showed weakness. If somebody did something better than him, he would hound them persistently, trying to prove that he was better than everybody there, not in the sense of friendly competition, but trying to prove himself superior - his pride simply couldn't accept that anybody was better than him in ANYTHING. He always went past what was respectable decorum in spars, aiming not to knock someone out, or push them out of the fighting arena, but to injure, hurt, and cripple, often cutting deep if he managed to get a kunai in front of someone's throat. He demanded things, he never requested or asked politely.

Yes, Naruto would freely admit to anyone that he really trusted that he hated parts of Konoha almost as badly as Sasuke loathed Itachi. But he didn't go about being a jackass to innocents in the meantime. That was the difference between him and Sasuke - the raven-haired boy was a grade-A prime asshole. That, and because Sasuke, being the heir to the Uchiha clan, was offered private training, free scrolls and weapons - and he turned it down in favour of training on his own, as if the reason Itachi had managed to become an ANBU at eleven wasn't because he had over half a dozen tutors each being the best at their own specialized field. Naruto knew that if he had never been whisked away by Yahiko-sama's agents that he would have jumped at the first chance for a private lesson and immediately got to work on what the tutor said to do, read the scrolls and absorb all their knowledge, or practice with the weapons over and over again until they wore out. That was why he hated Uchiha Sasuke.

And now he was on a team with the prick. Brilliant. Bear it, Naruto told himself. Bear it for the sake of Yahiko-sama's plans.

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The flaxen-haired boy had gone off with Choji and Shikamaru to a local BBQ place, the latter two understanding perfectly why he wouldn't want to eat with his teammates, and his platinum-blond female counterpart Ino had come along in the name of the solidarity of the newly-formed Team 10. They had made light talk, with Naruto giving Ino the same explanation as he had to the shadow-user when she asked how he had graduated.

Here he was now, back in the classroom, waiting. All the other teams had already left, leaving only Team 7, who was perhaps the most dysfunctional unit ever. By now, three hours had passed, and Naruto was slowly beginning to lose his patience. One could only take so much of Sakura nattering on and on about her day and how true her love was to 'her Sasuke-kun!' and 'Where is that sensei of ours?!'. There was only one person who his sensei could be, fitting his psyche profile perfectly: Hatake Kakashi. Naruto wasn't sure if Hatake even knew if he was the Yondaime's son, but if he did, he would be getting his revenge, slowly but ever so sweetly, twelve years after the fact. After all, there was a good saying: revenge was a dish best served cold.

Finally, he snapped, and got out of his chair, having had enough of Sakura's non-stop chatter, and shouted out, "Sakura, SHUT UP!"

It was a textbook Haruno response as Sakura turned around with a sickening 'I'm superior to you so know your place!' look plastered over her face, as she yelled back in response, "Shut up Naruto-baka!", all while striding across the class room and letting out a punch aimed right at his face, letting out a "CHA!" in the process.

Naruto had no idea where the 'Cha' onamatopeia came from, but one thing was for sure - he most definitely wouldn't tolerate somebody punching him in the face. This was demonstrated as he caught Sakura's wrist in mid-punch and twisted it enough to produce pain. "We're Genin now, Haruno. That means that when we go out on missions, we have to be quiet, or else an enemy ninja will be able to track us from a mile away." He began tightening his grip on her wrist, and a look of anguish began to show up on her face. Hmph, weakling, Naruto thought. I had a higher pain tolerance than that when I was FOUR. "If you can't accept that, perhaps you'd like to speak to the Hokage about why you felt the need to assault a fellow ninja?"

"Sh-shut up, Naruto-baka..." Sakura cried out, her self-assurance that she was better than this no-name loser because she graduated as top kunoichi quickly shattering. "You're trash, you orphan!"

Sasuke, who had up until this time been sitting at his desk in his brooding pose, elbows stretched out while his chin rested on his clenched hands, barely paying attention to the commotion except to be thankful that Naruto had distracted Sakura away for even a few minutes, jumped up at that last sentence. He didn't like Naruto either, but Sakura had definitely gone over the line making fun of Naruto by calling him an orphan, and he wasn't surprised to see that Naruto's face began to darken.

It was this scene that one silver-haired Hatake Kakashi walked into. "Hmmm," was all the sensei had to say, getting the impression that the team was a disaster waiting to happen, "First impressions...I don't like you." Here, Sakura glared at Naruto, laying the fault for her indignation at his feet. "Meet me up on the roof in five minutes."

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Hatake Kakashi looked at the assembled cast of genin-potentials sitting across from him. Before coming here, he had visited the homes of his new team, and looked at the profiles the academy teachers had made up for him, and...really now, what the hell was the team planner smoking? Naruto's file he expected to be a load of crock, but it was made quite clear that he loathed both of his teammates. Sakura was a diehard Sasuke fan, and putting her with the object of her obsession would only make it harder to break her out of her habits, and she hated Naruto back. Sasuke had shown troubling attitudes towards his fangirls in the past, and Kakashi shuddered to think of what he would do now that he was forced to work full-time with perhaps his most dedicated (not in a good sense) fangirl, and he had a hard problem with accepting that somebody could be better than him in anything.

Kakashi just sighed. He couldn't begrudge Naruto - after all, the child had only just been born when the Yondaime scooped him up to seal a demon into. However, even if he respected his sensei's sacrifice and didn't want the lone legacy left behind by him to go through life directionless and weak, Naruto would most likely play second fiddle in the team. There were far too many officials pressuring him to train Sasuke as the only jonin-level ninja with a Sharingan who was actually in the ninja force (there were a few other talented Uchihas, but they were all in the Military Police Force, not willing to risk any more adults until the clan could rebuild), and so he would likely have to give Sasuke most of his private training time, with only a small amount for Naruto and Sakura.

He wished he could fail this team right here. He could, in fact, and he would be justified considering the display that had been going on when he came in, but then those same officials would be on his back again. He wondered if it would be possible to request the Sandaime for a chunin or tokubetsu jonin's assistance with the team - between Sakura's temper and fangirl obsessions, getting Sasuke out of the shell he had drawn himself into and teaching him, and just trying to help Naruto out, he didn't think he had enough time to do all that was needed on his lonesome.

"Hmm," Kakashi started off, repeating the beginning of when he walked into Iruka's classroom, "Why don't we start off by introducing ourselves to each other. You know, your name, your likes and dislikes, hobbies and dreams?"

It was Naruto who spoke up first. "Uh, sensei, could go you first please? We three knew each other from class, but we know nothing about you."

That was a reasonable request, and so Kakashi complied. "Hmm, very well. My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes?...well, I like people who take care of their comrades in and out of a mission." Normally, he wouldn't have said much, but the situation here probably required that he stress they needed to work as a team from the get-go. "My dislikes are the scum who abandon their teammates." If that wasn't direct enough, he didn't know what was. "My hobbies...well, you don't need to know, and my dream?....hmm, I never really thought about that." That was enough for now, he thought, as he pointed at Sakura. "It's your turn next."

Sakura was enthusiastic, as she started off, "Well, my name is Haruno Sakura, and my likes are..." Here, she looked over at Sasuke, and a light red flush appeared on her face as she began to giggle. "My dislikes are Ino-pig and NARUTO-BAKA!" Here, she glared at the yellow-head male. Kakashi frowned behind his mask. Definitely a team that would fall apart at the first opportunity. "My hobbies are..." Again, she blushed and giggled while looking at Sasuke, "And my dream is..." Repeat.

Kakashi saw a chance to lighten the tension and make fun of his kunoichi pupil. "So your likes, hobbies, and dream are to blush and to giggle? Interesting, that..." Getting a twinkle in his eye at Sakura's look of mortification, he pointed as Sasuke. "It's your turn next."

Sasuke didn't mince words. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I have few likes, and many dislikes. My hobbies are training, and my dream, which is more of an ambition...is to restore my clan to greatness, and...to kill a certain man." He said all of this without moving out of his brooding pose at all. Kuso. He had hoped against hope that Sasuke wasn't obsessed with killing Itachi, but that small glimmer of hope had just been crushed. Did nobody ever think to send this kid to a psychiatrist? Setting that aside for later, Kakashi pointed at Naruto next, indicating for the presumed Kyuubi vessel to go.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto shouted out. Good, at least someone on this team had a bit of positive enthusiasm. "My likes are training, ramen, rain." He had grown to appreciate rain in Ame. "My dislikes are the three minutes it takes to cook ramen, and a few certain people." Although Hatake didn't realize it, Naruto meant a lot more than Sasuke and Sakura. "My hobby, I guess, is star-gazing." He appreciated the stars even more when the rain had let up on the occasion during the nighttime. "My dream...to join the ANBU, I guess."

Hmm, he certainly grew up in an interesting way, Kakashi thought, but whatever happened to his dream of becoming Hokage? Perhaps it was a momentary thing. Naruto had picked that up and then given it up in the space of about two years, so he had probably just changed his mind as four, five, six-year-olds are wont to do. The part about ANBU was a bit disturbing, though. Not many people actually dreamed of going into ANBU from an early age. Those who did usually wished to escape society...not that he was surprised that Naruto might want to.

"Alright," Kakashi said. "Meet me at Training Ground 7 tomorrow at 5 am with all of your ninja tools and equipments. We're going to have survival exercises." He ended off by chortling.

"Survival exercises?!" Sakura screeched out in disbelief. "But we already did that in the academy!" And she had done miserably on them.

"True," Kakashi said, "But what the instructors don't tell you is that after you graduate and get put on teams, the sensei has to give you a test to make sure you pass their own standards. And guess what?" Here, his eye curved up in what disturbingly seemed to imply that he was smiling underneath. "The failure rate for this test is 66%! Any questions?" He added quickly.

He expected Sakura screeching about how they had worked so hard to get to where they were. He had expected Sasuke to stop brooding in shock as he saw his dreams go up in flames. What he didn't expect was for Naruto to catch what he said right at the very end and ask a question. "I have a question, Kakashi-sensei." Once he saw that he had caught Kakashi's attention, Naruto continued on. "Are you always as late as you were today, or was today just a one-time thing?"

Hmm, Kakashi thought. Very perceptive. He might have some decent potential. However, he wouldn't give away the fun so easily, so he just flashed Naruto another eye-smile, and said, "Maybe. See you tomorrow, my little genins! Oh, and before I forget, don't eat breakfast or you'll throw up!" before getting up and using a Konoha Shunshin to get away quickly, leaving a whirlwhind of leaves.

Naruto didn't want to stay there to hear or see what Sasuke or Sakura would do or say in light of Kakashi's revelations, so he quickly ran down the stairs back into the building as well.

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Naruto was glad to have finally gotten away from Team 7. He honestly was surprised that he hadn't killed any of them, though Kakashi hadn't been so bad. Unless he knew Naruto was the Yondaime's son and hadn't bothered trying to help him in his early life. In which case he wouldn't allow himself to put any trust in Kakashi, ever.

Making sure he had a clone in place to 'live' out his off-team hours and live in the apartment that the Sandaime had gotten him, Naruto turned in the opposite direction, going south, to the slums of Konoha. With the Kyuubi attack, a thousand shinobi had been killed, but several thousands of civilians had also died, many having had heart attacks, strokes or aneurysms from the sheer killing intent. As such, many of the buildings that had been destroyed by the force of the earthquakes that the Kyuubi had caused close to Konoha had never been repaired, as there was nobody to use them, with many parts of the north vacant.

It was here that a few years ago Naruto had began to dig a tunnel down underground using a few ninjutsu imported from Iwa that could transport dirt and rock. The jutsus had no use for battle, but it served a practical use for creating a foundation for buildings, or building trenches on the front lines of a war. Naruto had used it to dig deep underneath the slums, carving out an underground chamber more than forty meters below the surface, placing the entrance inside one of the ruined buildings. It had cost even him, the vessel of the most powerful bijuu on the planet, even when he had absorbed a lot of said bijuu's chakra, quite a lot of energy to work through the whole project, but it was worth it. The bunker had a couple of main uses - visiting members from other Akatsuki branches or Ame would stay here, and any spies that were outed from their position would also come here, operating on guerilla warfare wherever they could. In additional to several bedrooms and a large pantry and kitchen as well as a central lounge area, there were also several training chambers reinforced with seals so they wouldn't fall apart from heavy abuse, as well as a library.

The central lounge was where Naruto found his old sensei (though in truth Naruto had learned just about everything that Mizuki taught in class beforehand), and rolled his eyes at the man as he sat propped up in a couch, reading a familiar book. "Mizuki-san," Naruto called out to the silver-haired man, catching his attention. The older man's clone had been interrogated, but finally he was 'executed' three days ago and his body burned. Once that happened, Naruto could let the chakra holding the clone together disperse with nobody the wiser, Mizuki being officially dead.

"Hmm, what is it?" Mizuki asked, though a tiny part of him was still reading over the attention of Kachu and Kaen, Oh yes you tricky kitsune you!

Naruto narrowed his eyes, detecting Mizuki still wasn't paying full attention, but decided that it was sufficient that he had the majority of his attention focused on Naruto. "My assigned sensei is a man named Hatake Kakashi." At that, Mizuki's face, previously pointed down at a 15 degree angle to look at the illustrations of his Icha Icha novel, immediately shot up to look straight at Naruto. "I already know full well of his reputation, and habits, but I would like to hear his psyche profile for his genin tests."

Mizuki strummed his lips with his index finger as he voiced his thoughts aloud, "Interesting, very interesting." Setting his book down, he leaned back into the seat of the couch. "From what I know, Hatake has never passed a team. However, the academy usually got reports back from each of the senseis who failed their teams, as several of the failed genin will retake their final school year to improve, and we always need feedback to know how to improve our curriculum." Of course, unless Naruto was in the class or coming up to that class, in which case the administrators would do their best to tear everything apart to make sure he failed, which was why the last few years had had an unusually low number of successful graduates, with only three teams passing the second test from Mizuki's last class out of nine.

"Hatake prizes teamwork above all else, but he uses a special test called the bell test, in which he'll have two bells. The people who can retrieve a bell pass, while those who don't must go back to the academy." Here, Mizuki shrugged his shoulders. "At least, that's how he says it works, but it's a deception thing, as he's trying to cause dissension between the three genin, and see who will put their differences aside and work together. Personally, I think it's a horrible test simply because it's very rare that we get a team that clicks in personality as soon as they're put together, as we work on how their skills complement, not their personalities. Kakashi just exacerbates the situation by splitting them apart before they've had any real chance to mold a sense of camraderie."

"Hmmm..." Naruto hummed to himself, thinking. "I'd like to say I have a plan, but I really don't, considering I have the most dysfunctional team ever - Suckura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha." It was a bit juvenile to insult Sakura like that, but he really thought she deserved it. Meanwhile, Mizuki just groaned once he realized how horrible of a team setup that would be. "Thankfully, Kakashi will probably be forced to pass us anyways just because Uchiha is on the team, so he'll probably take the slightest hint of teamwork and use it to pass us."

Mizuki sighed at Naruto's analogy. That it was true was something he disliked, and the corruption that made it possible was why he had joined the Akatsuki. Naruto, seeing the conversation was over, left the lounge for Saisei's room, getting ready to play with the lovable little redheaded kitsune child who always cheered his day up. He would later begin to prepare for the next day.

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Ok, so maybe I lied last chapter about doing the bell test here, mainly because the length of my scenes get away on me. Oh well, at least the whole of the bell test will be in the next chapter.

Again, plz review. And comment on the biting sarcasm and wit I come up with sometimes!

Little cameo in this chapter that won't be picked up on until I manage to get the opening chapter of Flame and Vortex out.