This chapter has now been revised for your reading pleasure. YAY!

Chapter Three

Fulfillment and Skeletons

On principle, Uzumaki Omoide wasn't prone to eavesdropping. Sure, he could do it pretty well, shinobi were expected to be capable of covert surveillance missions after all, but when it came to everyday life, he didn't make a habit of getting into other peoples' business, mostly because they're problems were boring. All the same, when he heard something about someone who interested him, he tended to pay attention.

"Hey, did you hear about the Uchiha?" "Yeah, it's a disgrace. What's the Hokage thinking putting him in charge of children?" "I don't know, but if my son gets put on his squad, I'm pulling him out of the force."

Omoide frowned to himself. 'That was weird; the only Uchiha still alive is Sasuke-oji. He's taking a squad? Also, can a parent pull a child after they graduate? I might need to read up on that…' Omoide shook the thoughts from his mind; he had to focus. If either thing was true, he'd know soon…

With his thoughts thoroughly dashed, he walked through the doors of the Academy. This was the culmination of all his efforts, the graduation test. By the end of it all he might, no he would, be a shinobi of Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Maybe then people would start to see him for the person he was, and not for who his parents happened to be.

He took a seat in his usual place next to Hiruzen and said a brief greeting. The boy in question was muttering snippets from history textbooks and the occasional bit of jutsu theory under his breath, eyes slightly wider than usual. They both passed the following half an hour doing the same thing, though Omoide managed to keep his muttering to a minimum. He managed to get through most of the major events in Konoha's history and a good deal of jutsu theory before Tenten arrived to start the test.

"Alright, kids, sit down and shut up!" There was a mad scramble as the various almost-genin complied with their sensei's request. Her early-morning scowl was replaced with a smile at the quick movement. "Alright, you all know what we're doing today, I hope you all studied and practiced because we are not making any exceptions: if you don't meet expectations, you're coming back next year. We'll be doing the written portion first, so stow anything you brought with you and get ready. Pencils will be passed out along with the test…"

And with that, they were off.

-G

"WOOHOO! YEAH! WHO'S A NINJA!? I'M A NINJA! SUCK IT BITCHES!" Omoide watched incredulously as Inuzuka Shirogane literally danced her merry way out of the testing room, followed by her infinitely calmer ninken, yelling her own praises and being generally as disruptive as possible. As the girl walked triumphantly out of the room, another not-quite-as-loud proclamation joined hers: "Sarutobi Hiruzen, you're up next!"

Hiruzen smiled shakily and Omoide gave him a supportive grin. With an expression as stoic as he could muster, his friend walked into the testing chamber, leaving Omoide alone in the classroom. With a sigh, he leaned back and calmed his surging nerves. He would be fine and so would Hiruzen; if he hadn't been such an idiot about sleeping and studying, he might have been in the running for rookie of the year. This was one of the few times Omoide had actually seen Hiruzen's confidence lapse. Come to think of it, he'd been acting sort of subdued all day, not in a depressed way, but he was definitely preoccupied.

All the same, the test should be a piece of cake for him. The teachers all said they'd never seen a henge as detailed as Hiruzen's and he was at the very least solid on everything else. Omoide on the other hand, was definitely not the best, but he was also far from substandard. His chakra control and reflexes just weren't precise enough to go that extra mile, likely as a result of his large reserves. His mom said he must have gotten that from his father; apparently it had run in his family.

His father. Omoide hadn't always been so bitter on the subject, hell he'd been practically ecstatic to hear that his father was a hero as a little kid. But then he'd started to get older and he'd noticed something. Everyone pitied him, and he hated it. Every single one of them was guilty: the adults and the kids, all except Hiruzen: the boy who understood perfectly.

It was almost creepily convenient how perfectly set up they where to become friends. Omoide had stayed with Kurenai and Hiruzen while his mother was away on missions so they could keep their somewhat comfortable lifestyle. Both of them had never met their fathers, heroes of the village. Their complementary personalities had gone together perfectly. A few years had passed, they'd entered the academy together, and now here they were, ready to graduate.

Hopefully.

His musings must have taken longer than he'd expected them to, because they were suddenly interrupted by the door creaking open. Hiruzen was clutching his shiny new Konohagakure headband so tightly that it was a wonder it hadn't bent under the pressure. His eyes were wide in a sort of delayed reaction happiness. Omoide's face broke into a grin "Congratulations." Hiruzen nodded and gestured generally towards the door, not blinking once, as though he thought he might wake up and find that it was all a dream. "They told me to send you in, last one and all. I'll wait around." Omoide nodded in thanks and smirked a bit. "Relax, man, it's not a dream, you did it. Now, I'll go in there and pass, and then we'll both be ninja. This won't take five minutes."

If only the confident words had been echoed by his mind. As he stood in front of Tenten-sensei and Iruka-jiji, he could feel his heart beating so hard he was sure everyone could hear it. Resolutely, he placed his hands in the correct seals and performed a transformation.

Several jutsu later, he walked out to the classroom only to be tackled by a hug from Hiruzen, whose forehead now bore an etched Konoha Leaf. Omoide tied his headband around his neck and grinned back. Hiruzen celebrated all the way to his house and, stoic as he tended to be, Omoide couldn't keep the grin off of his face.

-G

Later, as the time ticked into the wee hours of the morning, Omoide could be found burning the midnight oil at his desk. He was thoroughly engrossed in the workings of his project and had been so for quite some time. He'd had to sharpen his pencil more times than he could remember. If Hiruzen had been there, he would have called the young Uzumaki out for hypocrisy.

His intense concentration was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on his window. There was only one person he knew who would have cause to do such a thing in the middle of the night. He quickly got up and walked over to the window.

With a heave, he lifted it open and grinned. "Sasuke-oji! For a moment, I thought you'd forgotten." Sasuke permitted himself the smallest of smiles and leaned back on the railing of Omoide's small metal balcony. "Hey, I heard you graduated." Omoide nodded his head and fiddled with the metal plate hanging from his neck. Sasuke's smile lessened noticeably. "I guess you've picked up on how I'm taking a team this year?" Omoide nodded again, "Yeah, I heard some parents talking about it."

Sasuke smirked at the smaller boy. "Only bad things I'm sure." Omoide chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, they were being idiots. How did you swing this anyway? I know the Hokage doesn't like you." Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I appealed to her sense of logic. She needs me to be visible so as to deter any enemies and I need to be more visible if I ever want to become Hokage. It was a win-win situation and whatever else Tsunade-sama is, she isn't stupid."

With a tired sigh, he turned to rest his elbows on the railing and looked out over the village. Even just twelve years after being all but obliterated, it was more of a city than a village, and it wasn't even fully rebuilt yet. There were unfinished construction projects littered between the buildings which covered the now-refilled crater that Konoha had been. "It's interesting how things seem to come full circle, isn't it? These people used to adore me."

Omoide raised his eyebrows, interest piqued. Sasuke didn't like to talk about the past, so if he volunteered information, it was probably a good idea to listen. "When me and your father were kids, we hated each other. I was a self-obsessed asshole and he was a loudmouth idiot. But even if he was the more likable of us, everyone hated him and loved me and I never once stopped to question why." He turned back to the kid behind him and smirked. "It's an interesting juxtaposition, don't you think? He's a hero now and everyone except you hates me." With another sigh, he broke out of his thoughts and tapped Omoide's goggle-clad forehead. "I'll see you sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, get some sleep; you're going to need all your wits about you for what's coming. Happy graduation." Then he turned back to the city and shunshined away.

'Dammit.' Omoide thought, frowning into the night. 'I really need to learn how to do that.'

-G

Hiruzen couldn't sleep. This wasn't especially strange; though he didn't know it, many of his classmates were just as apprehensive about team assignments the next day, or depressed by their failure to pass the Genin Exam. What's more, he didn't sleep much in the first place, tending to sit up practicing playing Shogi against himself. But Hiruzen had even more reason to find sleep elusive than usual. He wasn't even doing anything tonight; to the eyes of any observer, he would appear to be staring vacantly at the ceiling. No, tonight, his thoughts were of his father.

He'd always been proud of his lineage. His father had been a powerful member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, the teacher of Ino-Shika-Chou's second generation and the holder of a 35-million ryō bounty. All of these were great achievements for a shinobi and from what he could glean, the man had been an opinionated, blunt and, when it mattered, kind man; the kind of person a boy could look up to.

But, as Omoide sometimes reminded him, he'd never actually known Sarutobi Asuma and therefore couldn't be sure what his old man had been like. He had a man named Hidan to thank for that: a man who literally couldn't die and took pleasure in pain and death, regardless of how or why or to whom it was inflicted. The very thought was nightmare inducing. Hiruzen was fully aware of and happy with his skill as a shinobi, but for the life of him, he couldn't think how one might truly stop a person like that. And now, he might be back. '… Fuck.'

Hiruzen wasn't a vindictive person, and he knew for a fact that Shikamaru-oji had taken the death of Asuma "out of the sadistic motherfucker's ass" with exactly 2,523 precision-blast paper bombs, so at first he hadn't felt especially vindictive toward the man. Really, what more could he have done to him than what had already been done? Life as a buried head was sure to be torture for anyone, and he could think of no worse sentence… But now the body was missing and there was strange chakra all over the area, and for some reason, it changed everything. His father's killer was out there somewhere, free of his prison and likely no worse for having spent so long as a severed head. It infuriated him and he hated that it infuriated him and gods dammit, why couldn't he just stay buried!

With a groan, Hiruzen turned over and tried to fall asleep. It was late enough as it was, and he had to wake up early. Tomorrow was too damn important to miss because he couldn't keep his emotions in check.

It was another hour or so before he finally drifted off, dreams plagued by skeletons trying to goad him into a fight. It was by no stretch of the imagination a restful night.

WOOHOO, ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE!

Anyway, I'm only sort of happy with this one. I wanted to get into team assignments, but in the end, I thought this was a better ending point.

In response to the creatively named "Guest": Which parts of it are confusing? I like getting constructive criticism and if you could be a bit more specific, it would go a long way toward me improving my work. Thanks for the review and have a nice day!

In fact, everyone have a nice day!

See you next time,

Scavenger