Chapter 5

"You're going to get us into trouble!"

"He deserves it for being so late!"

"What if he punishes us? What if-"

The door opened, and the eraser Naruto had jammed in the top dropped down onto a silver head in a puff of smoke.

"Ha!"

Sakura was frozen, waiting for the response. Sasuke just looked slightly surprised, and Naruto's face was slowly changing from excitement to horror.

Kakashi bent down and picked up the eraser, examining it.

"Naruto…"

"Uh, um, that's, I didn't-it wasn't-...it was Sasuke?"

The eraser hit him square the in the center of his forehead, knocking him over.

Sakura jumped as Naruto hit the ground, stared at him for a moment, and then took a few steps forward and bowed.

"It's nice to meet you Sensei!"

Kakashi smiled under his mask. "It's nice to meet you too, Sakura." He glanced up at Sasuke, who just inclined his head in greeting.

"Um...have you met...already?" Sakura asked nervously.

"I've spent more time with the orange one," Kakashi said, stepping past her and over to the groggy Naruto. "But yes, I've met both of them." He grabbed Naruto and threw him over his shoulder. "Come on you two, we're not going to stay in here all day."

"Put me down…" Naruto muttered.

"No. Sasuke, I will carry you outside too if you don't get moving."

There was a pause, and then Sasuke's chair scrapped backwards as he stood up.

"Good," Kakashi said, leading the way out of the classroom as Naruto struggled on his shoulder. "Let's go have a nice chat."

Naruto was overly bright, Sasuke was overly dark, and Sakura was a teenage girl. Great.

He was being unfair, of course. Sakura didn't know what else to say-she wanted to do well, but she didn't yet have lofty dreams, or was dominated by a single ideal or goal.

She was normal. It was something downright alien to the rest of them. He couldn't imagine Rin ever behaving like this-but Rin had grown up under the shadow of war. She wouldn't have been the same girl if she had been raised like Sakura had.

Naruto had seized onto the highest ideal that he could find. The Hokage was the leader and example to the village. To become Hokage would mean earning the respect and adoration of the entire village.

Saying he wanted to be Hokage was so much easier than saying he wanted to be loved.

And Sasuke was exactly what Itachi had wanted him to be. Why Itachi would want his brother to be a broken, brooding, angry mess of a boy was beyond any of them. Just because Sasuke had a target for his rage didn't mean he was well off. Sitting there, watching them, he wondered if he ought to listen to Rin. The boys, opposites as they were, both in appearance and personality, could be friends. Chaining them together until they got along was a bit extreme, but he could work in the spirit of the suggestion.

"What about you, Kakash-um, Sensei?" It was really going to take Naruto some time to get used to this.

"Naruto, if it's that hard for you, just call me 'Kakashi-Sensei.'" Naruto nodded, but was still looking at him expectantly. "What about me?"

"Wow, you really did zone out there. Ouch!" Sakura had punched him.

"What he's trying to ask," She said sweetly, as Naruto held his head in pain, "Is what your dreams are?"

Kakashi crossed his arms, thinking. "What my dreams are?" She nodded, leaning forward curiously. Naruto looked up, his expression mirroring Sakura's. Sasuke looked utterly disinterested, but he'd had the same expression on his face the whole time.

"Well...I suppose protecting the village. My friends. You lot. It's my job as a Shinobi."

"Aw, come on, that's boring!" Naruto narrowly dodged another punch from Sakura, holding his hands up pleadingly. "I mean-I mean that's true for everyone!"

Kakashi held up a hand to stop Sakura, who apparently had decided to make generous use of Kakashi allowing her to hit Naruto.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, like you said," Naruto answered, casting a fearful glance at Sakura. "That's a Shinobi's job. We're all here because we want to protect people." Sakura looked thoughtful, while Sasuke let out a contemptuous snort. Naruto shot him an angry glance, but kept talking. "I wanted to know what you want to do. Like, you know, something personal."

It occurred to Kakashi that if he didn't come up with an answer now, Rin probably would later, and he had no way of knowing what that answer may be. And it was a good question, too.

Problem was, he couldn't think of anything.

"Uhm…" They were all watching him curiously now, which really wasn't helping.

He wasn't competitive like Naruto, or had a grudge like Sasuke. He couldn't think of of anything shallow to just throw out, either. He hadn't had to think so hard about wanting to protect people. And he knew why.

"I suppose…" They all leaned in slightly, and he was glad the mask hid his smile. "I suppose I want to...how to put this? Live up to the expectations people had for me. Those that are gone now."

They all sat and thought about his answer.

Sasuke's face was a mask again, no information readable there. Sakura looked like she understood, and Naruto seemed troubled.

"Uh, who, Sensei? Who do you mean?"

He couldn't say. He actually couldn't say-that was one of the Sandaime's conditions for them to be around Naruto. So he stood up, feigning roughness in his voice.

"That's enough for today. Meet at the training field tomorrow, for your first exercise."

Let them think him sensitive about it. It'd bar future conversation on the subject, for a while at least.

"Bright and early, mind! No breakfast!"

He could hear Naruto's horrified "What!?" but ignored it, and was out of sight in a flash. He was really going to have to work to get the hang of this whole 'Sensei' thing.

Sakura walked down the road to her house slowly. That had been...awkward. She doubted Kakashi would show the boys any kind of special attention, but it bothered her that they already seemed to know him.

She heard people talking ahead of her, and looked up to see a man with spiky black hair talking animatedly to a woman with shoulder length brown hair. She'd seen them walk by her house plenty of times before. Despite the headbands marking them as Shinobi, they rarely seemed to be out of the village.

"I know what he said, but I still-oh! Hey!" Sakura jumped when the woman yelled at her, instinctively glancing around to see if she was yelling at anyone else.

"Sorry!" The woman had walked over to her, her face red. "I didn't mean to startle you. You're Sakura, right? Sakura Haruno?"

"Y-yes, I am."

"I'm Rin! And this is Obito." She gestured to the man beside her. "We're Kakashi's old squad mates!"

"Oh-oh!" She felt her face flush as she hurriedly bowed. "I'm sorry! I had no idea!"

Rin laughed. "Oh, don't worry about it. Of course you didn't know."

"How'd it go today? You're out kind of early," The man-Obito-asked.

"Oh, um...well...it was…"

"Awkward and boring?"

"Not...boring?" She shrugged slightly. "He hit Naruto with an eraser. That was fun."

They laughed, and Sakura felt herself relax.

"Why did he hit Naruto with an eraser?" Rin asked.

"Naruto wedged the eraser in the door so it fell on him when he opened it."

"Oh that's just uninspired." Obito seemed annoyed. "If he's going to take the time to do something like that, he should at least have gotten a bucket of water or something. And chalk dust on Kakashi's head? Who would even notice!"

"If you're going to critique Naruto's pranking ability, maybe go talk to Naruto," Rin told him. "Because I promise, we aren't very interested." Sakura hid a grin as Obito considered Rin's suggestion.

"...No, probably not a good idea to encourage him. Who knows what Kakashi'll throw at him next. I should go check on Sasuke though. Make sure he's not off killing puppies, or whatever he does with his free time."

"Oh!" Something had abruptly clicked inside Sakura's mind. "You're Obito Uchiha!"

"Err...yeah?"

"I mean-I just-um...never mind." She'd heard very little about the only other survivor of the Uchiha clan, save that he existed, and that Sasuke, for some reason, wasn't overly fond of him.

She remembered a day, not too long after Sasuke had returned to school. She'd been waiting after class for her parents, who wanted to take her out to dinner that night, and had watched Sasuke leave. He'd been met at the gate by Obito, and while she hadn't heard anything they'd said, it hadn't seemed pleasant, and Sasuke had left on his own afterward. What stood out to her, more than the argument, was how Obito had followed Sasuke, presumably to his home-staying just out of Sasuke's line of sight.

"Sakura?" She jumped, realizing she hadn't been paying.

"What? I'm sorry!"

"Oh, you're fine," Obito said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I was just saying bye."

"Oh. Uh...bye." She knew her face was scarlet by this point, but Obito just laughed.

"I'll probably be seeing you around. No way I can resist messing with Kakashi during this."

"No way he's going to even try resisting," Rin corrected him, arching an eyebrow. Obito just grinned, and then he was gone, with nothing more than a gust of wind. Sakura let out an involuntary noise of surprise, and Rin rolled her eyes. "Show-off. Do you mind if I walk with you?"

Sakura nodded, and they slowly walked toward her house, talking about what had happened that day.

"But how do you all know Naruto?" She asked, after recounting the day's activities. "I mean, I'd guess you'd all meet Sasuke through Obito, and Sensei did say he didn't know him very well, but where does Naruto come into it?"

Rin didn't answer for several seconds, clearly deep in thought. "I don't know...he was always on his own, you know? I just wanted to look after him. There are some...special reasons Obito and I are kept in the village. So we'd always be around and see him on his own, and then one day I just...had enough, I guess. And the next day, I walked with him." She shrugged. "And the rest is history."

"That was kind of you," Sakura said quietly. "I knew-I just never thought of him like that."

"It's easy not to," Rin said, smiling at her. "And he doesn't really help himself much, does he?" Sakura didn't laugh, and Rin seemed to understand, resting a hand on her shoulder. "He's lonely, but he's not alone. It's easy to feel bad, but that doesn't help anyone. I know he's not your favorite person, but just give him a chance, ok? The goofballs grow on you, trust me." Sakura smiled and laughed, feeling better.

"Thanks, Rin."

"Anytime. Have you thought about how you're gonna prepare for tomorrow?"

The question caught her off-guard. "Prepare?"

She could practically hear Rin think 'uh-oh'. "You didn't think Kakashi was going to give you a paper test tomorrow, did you? It's a practical exercise."

She had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, and it must have showed.

"Why don't you tell your parents you won't be home for dinner tonight, and I'll wait for you at the training field?"

She took off running without hesitation. "Thank you!" She called back, to where Rin was standing, watching her with an amused expression.

Naruto dropped to the ground, exhausted. Kunai and shuriken littered the ground around the training post, as many or more jammed in the wood.

"Ahhh…man…" He shook himself slightly, catching his breath. "This sucks…"

"What a winning attitude."

"GAH!" He jumped to his feet, lost his balance, and fell on his butt, his head bumping against Kakashi's legs. He looked up into Kakashi's amused eye.

"You're evil."

"And you're not paying attention to your surroundings." Kakashi stepped back and offered Naruto a hand up, which he accepted, dusting himself off.

"Thanks." Kakashi walked over and sat down on a nearby bench, motioning for Naruto to join him.

"Sorry about earlier," Naruto mumbled, sitting down next to him.

"I'd say we're even, so don't worry about it." Kakashi's tone was light, and he ruffled Naruto's hair affectionately. The blonde recoiled slightly, as he normally did, hands reflexively reaching up to swat Kakashi's away.

"At least you didn't do that in front of the others…" He muttered, lowering his hands and glancing over.

"Of course not. But it's good to know you don't want me to," Naruto stared at him, and Kakashi elaborated. "It means I can blackmail you."

"Hey!"

"Kidding, Naruto. You were one of my squad members there, but there's no Sensei here." Naruto smiled, and relaxed. He hadn't seen anywhere near as much of Kakashi as he had of Obito and Rin-Kakashi was always out on a mission, or resting after one-but the odd day here and there Kakashi had time with him stood out in his memory.

"Was there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, I was going to ask why you were abusing the poor training log."

Naruto felt himself turn red. "What are you talking about? I was training!"

"You were dulling those weapons, is what you were doing. Standing 10 feet away from a log and furiously throwing kunai is barely training your arm muscles, let alone aim. Why didn't you ask someone to train with you? You have squad mates now."

Naruto looked down. "Like either of them would want to train with me." He felt Kakashi rest a hand on his shoulder.

"Did you ask?"

"What's the point?"

"Because you're their squad mate too, Naruto." He looked up at Kakashi, trying to hide the small kernel of hope he felt. "Sure, Sasuke's standoffish, but I'm sure he wishes he was training with you right now."

"Huh? Why?"

He could tell Kakashi was smiling under his mask. "Because he's stuck with Obito."

It took a second, and then Naruto started to laugh.

"You're right-he's way worse!" Kakashi wasn't laughing, but he patted Naruto on the back.

"What about Sakura?" Naruto asked, his laughter dying down.

"Well, I didn't look too closely, but I think Rin's teaching her how to use explosives."

"Rin's teaching her how to what now?"

"It's part of the reason I'm here. I was worried you'd feel left out."

Naruto laughed a little, and then went quiet, thinking.

"What is it?" Kakashi asked, worried by the serious expression on Naruto's face.

The young Shinobi put a hand over his stomach, not looking at Kakashi.

"Everything since-You all knew, right? So...so did you only ever hang around me because...because you had to?"

"No." There was no pause or hesitation, and Naruto looked up at him in surprise.

"I can understand where the questions coming from, and in fairness, there was and is a general order for Jounin to keep an eye on you, but they all do it from a distance. Rin is kept in the village because of her Jinchuriki status too. You think she'd just leave you alone?" He ruffled Naruto's hair again, and the boy ducked his head, grinning. "Obito's assignment is to guard her, and they dragged me around at first. But we all looked after you because we cared about you."

"...Thanks."

"Anytime. Now, about training, why don't we-" He stopped talking, head jerking toward the forest.

"Kakashi?"

"Make a shadow clone and leave it here," Kakashi whispered, planting a hand over Naruto's mouth to silence any further questions. "And be very quiet."

Sasuke crashed into the ground and slid several feet before using the momentum as he jumped to his feet, furious. He rushed forward, but Obito merely sidestepped, grabbing his wrist and throwing him up and away. He spun uncontrollably for a second, before managing to get his feet between himself and the tree he'd been thrown at, rebounding toward Obito with his arm drawn back to punch. Obito swayed to the side, seizing Sasuke's collar and swinging up into the air again, before dropping him to the ground with a gentleness that only served to further piss Sasuke off.

"Come on, genius boy, put some thought into your attacks!"

Sasuke growled and jumped back, bringing his hands together.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

The fireball lit up the practice field, traveling across the clearing and exploding right before the treeline. He felt a hand on the back of his head, but before he could say anything, he was shoved down, hard, his face being pushed into the dirt. There was a flurry of movement above him, the clang of metal-on-metal, a horrible, sickly gasp, and the sensation of something wet hitting his cheek.

"Close your eyes." It was Obito's voice, gentle, and with some quality in it that Sasuke couldn't quite identify.

He did as he was bade, not really thinking, and felt himself being carried away from the training field. They were only moving for a few seconds before dropping down into a small clearing.

"Stay here and keep quiet until one of us comes to get you." Sasuke opened his eyes as Obito disappeared, to find he shared the clearing with Naruto and Sakura. Both of them were very pale, and apparently on reflex, Sakura reached out and wiped his cheek. Her fingers came away red. She stared at them for a second, before wordlessly curling up in a ball and staring at the ground.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look.

"Did you-did you...see anything?" The blonde asked hesitantly. "Kakashi just led me here and told me to be quiet."

Sasuke shook his head. "I didn't know anything was happening until it was over."

They could a distant clang, and then a second, and then nothing. Several minutes passed before there was a rustle in the trees, and Rin dropped down into their clearing. Wordlessly, she beckoned for them to follow, and picked up Sakura, before leading them through the trees.

Sakura wasn't sure how long they walked, but guessed it had been close to an hour, the sun now hanging low in the sky when they broke from the treeline to a small clearing with a cabin.

"A safe house?" She asked. Rin had let her down not long after they'd left their little clearing.

"Probably unnecessary," Rin answered, nodding her head to confirm what Sakura had said. "But there's protocol to follow. You'll be spending the night."

"What about my parents?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"They won't be told. Think of something."

"But-"

"There's food in the back. And a stream nearby. If you need to get water, you go together. We'll be nearby." Rin shepherded them inside without another word, and the door closed with a loud crack. They turned away from the door and looked around. There was a small table, a fireplace, and a cleared space presumably for sleeping. Sakura went over and sat at the table. Naruto rifled through the few cupboards, and Sasuke paced around the cabin slowly.

"There is some water here." Naruto's voice was oddly loud in the silent, dusty cabin. Sakura could barely keep herself from jumping. "It's sealed though."

"I know the counter-seal," Sakura said, beckoning him over.

"Thanks. I always get them mixed up." She wanted to say I know, but held her tongue. Now wasn't the time to go picking on him. She released the seal on the pitcher, and poured it into the cups Naruto had grabbed.

"Are you thirsty, Sasuke?" She asked, shyly. She was ready for him to explode, to insist on leaving, or make some comment on how she was bothering him. The Sasuke she'd seen earlier today was very different from the one she'd known before. Angry, and brooding, and having lost that strange, mystical quality that had always enthralled her. Maybe it was because of Obito, or shock from what had just happened, but Sasuke more resembled a bomb to her now, just waiting to be activated.

To her surprise, though, he just walked over and accepted the cup, pulling back the third and only chair and sitting across from them. She and Naruto exchanged a surprised look, before focusing on their drinks when Sasuke looked up.

"I didn't even notice them," Sakura's head jerked up in surprise. She'd never heard Sasuke start a conversation. "We were sparring, and then all of a sudden…" He trailed off, sounding frustrated.

"Kakashi and I were just talking, and then he was leading me off into the woods," Naruto said. "I didn't even understand what was happening until you two showed up, and…" his hand unconsciously raised to his cheek, before he noticed and grabbed his drink again, sloshing some water out onto the table. "...and then we heard fighting."

There was another moment of quiet, and then Sakura realized they were both watching her.

"What?"

"What happened to the two of you?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, oh, right. It wasn't that different from you. We hadn't actually started practicing, she was just showing me some tricks for weapons."

"And bombs?"

"Well, paper bombs, yeah. And-wait, how did you…?"

"Kakashi told me." Naruto abruptly jumped in his chair, before turning to glare at Sasuke.

"Don't interrupt her." Sasuke growled, before Naruto could say anything. The Blonde's face went red, and he looked down at the table.

Had this been any other situation, she would have struggled to resist jumping for joy at Sasuke defending her. The subdued air was getting to her.

"Anyway, we made a couple of clones, and she used some Genjutsu to hide us from sight. But she dropped it when we were in the forest. Some guys jumped down out of a tree and...it-it was really fast. I didn't even really see it. I just knew what had happened." She looked down at the table. "I hope everyone's alright."

"Don't worry! They're the best!" Naruto assured her, grinning. "Real professionals!"

"I'm going to kill him! I'm going to take a kunai, and shove it up his-"

"Obito!" Rin snapped as she entered the room. "We don't know it was him!"

"Oh, who else do we know that is so eloquent they send a message via armed, murderous thug!?"

Rin sighed and looked over at Kakashi. "Do we know?"

Kakashi held up a note. "We do. I doubt the thug even knew this was on him. He had to go to some extremes for this."

"Yeah, like sending thugs to go kill some kids!"

"They were after us," Rin said. "He didn't know anyone else would be involved."

Obito turned to look at her, mouth hanging open. "You aren't defending him?"

"I would beat him into next week if he were here, but he's not! And right now, what happens next is more important." She turned away from Obito to look at Kakashi expectantly.

"It's a short list of names. No context." Obito walked over, grumbling and looked over Kakashi's shoulder.

"What? This is nonsense."

"It's an old ANBU code that-"

"YOU TAUGHT HIM A-" Both Kakashi's and Rin's fist sent Obito crashing into the ceiling, bouncing off of it and onto the ground, clouds of dust following him.

"Quiet! Its an old code. The ANBU overhaul their code at least once a year. Not just little changes, a whole new set. This was already out of date when I showed him."

Obito sat up, managing to look both dazed and angry. "I could've bitten my tongue off."

"And I would've fixed it," Rin said dismissively.

"You couldn't-"

"Any ideas?" Rin asked over Obito.

"No. One of them is smudged out, like he didn't have to time to cross it out. Hard to imagine him in serious enough trouble to ask for help, let alone like this."

"Probably deep cover," Rin said, and Kakashi nodded.

"I'm not even sure he knows I'm not with the ANBU anymore. It hasn't been that long." He rubbed the back of his head. "It'll be a pain to monitor those channels without giving it away."

"How many ANBU know about Zabuza?" Obito asked, standing up.

"Ibiki helped handle the case when it first came up, with Sensei. And I'm sure ROOT knows, since Danzo's got his fingers in everything. Beyond that, it should just be us and the Hokage."

Rin's sigh echoed how they all felt. "There's nothing for it but to keep an eye out then."

Kakashi and Obito nodded in agreement.

"I'll copy down the names for you."

"The kids better be left out of it this time," Obito said darkly.

Gee, I wonder if Team 7 will be left out of it?

Thanks for reading!