Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters therein. I am not profiting off of this story in any way.

A/N: Here's a new update for you. Thanks for the continued support! The end of this chapter is kinda dark, and I felt kinda creepy writing it. But hey, it makes the story interesting. I tried to balance it with some lighthearted, Team Seven bonding moments. Also, Team Seven is getting stronger! And Sakura isn't falling back! Naruto is trying to learn subtleties, and Sasuke seems really lonely right now. Bonds will continue to grow. Characters will get stronger.

As always, let me know what you think!

~Hecate's Slumber

A loud growl erupted from the forest to Hatake Kakashi's left. His two male students taunted each other as they struggled and failed to reach the top of their respective trees without using their hands. A splash in front of him alerted him to the fate of his third student. She had sank into the water after he had sent her skidding back across the length of the lake with a single push. With a smirk, he observed her as she managed to finely tune enough chakra to sloppily jump back to the surface of the water and balance precariously on top of it.

Wet, now darker pink hair clung to her forehead, and Sakura forced back a shudder as the evening wind slashed through the lightning produced holes in her already soaked clothing. Her ankles wobbled as she concentrated chakra into the soles of her bare feet and raised a kunai in front of her face. Green eyes narrowed into slits as she shakily bounced across the water to charge at Kakashi.

Kakashi stood in the center of the lake with one hand gripping a small book. His single, unconcealed eye did not look up at Sakura as she approached. He drew a kunai from his pouch and effortlessly deflected the girl's strike. She sent a timid, strength-deprived roundhouse kick to his hip, and he caught her ankle. "Faster, Sakura" he intoned before dropping her ankle.

The girl grunted and swiftly ducked under a lazy punch he sent towards her. She almost submerged herself again as her weight shifted dramatically from the move.

"Widen your stance, girl."

She nodded and moved her shaky legs farther apart. Quads and calf muscles strained against the tiny amount of chakra she forced herself to use to stay at the surface of the water. With her limited reserves, she did not know how much longer she could last. Yet, she had asked for this special training. When she had succeeded on the tree climbing chakra exercise on her fist attempt, she had annoyed Kakashi to teach her more. Remembering a technique from one of her textbooks, Sakura smirked as she thought of a way to maybe impress her sensei for once. The woman behind the technique stood as an inspiration to Sakura and numerous kunoichi alike. To gain extra power, Sakura growled a loud battle cry, sprinted towards Kakashi, leapt into the air, directed a tiny bit of extra chakra into feet, and sent a jump kick to Kakashi's jaw.

The Hatake smirked. So she was already infusing chakra into her taijutsu attacks. Very Tsunade. Interesting. Still, the girl did not have enough chakra to sustain such attacks. In a blurred motion, he sidestepped her attack. Her momentum carried her crashing down into the water two meters behind him. This time, her entire form went under.

Sakura swam to the surface and coughed while swiping hair out of her eyes. Her lungs and legs burned badly. Somewhere during the fight, her ponytail had also become undone. Long strands of pink hair tangled around her arms.

Kakashi glanced upwards towards the rising crescent moon. He had stopped running with his students at sunset. One more day of running at that pace would take them to Fuhai. Four days of similar running had already passed. On the first night, he had not even tried to train them. His lightning had burned several holes through their clothes and produced minor burn marks across their delicate battle-deprived flesh. Naruto had taken the brunt of the nastier lightning-induced wounds. However, as the days progressed, he noticed that their collective pace and reaction rates were gradually improving, despite the fact that he had continuously drove them to the brink of chakra exhaustion every night. On the second night, he had started teaching them chakra control exercises. For the boys, that meant tree climbing. For Sakura, learning to fight on top of water seemed more worthwhile. It was slow progress for Kakashi, but they needed to learn the basics. He turned back towards Sakura as she shakily jumped onto the surface of the water again only to plunge back in. "That will be enough, Sakura."

He walked across the lake and onto the forest floor. Amusement sparked in his grey eye as he noticed that his student had chosen to jump haphazardly across the water after him instead of simply swimming ashore. The girl was stubborn. He had to give her that. Though such foolishness could end her life. He thought of Rin, and his amusement died out. Once ashore, he went to check on his male students.

-0-

Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other. Naruto sucked in a breath and tried to force himself to be calm, as Sakura had instructed him to. He closed his eyes and breathed in the evening scent of musk, wet leaves, and the smoke from a freshly started fire. He silenced his thoughts and imagined himself alone in the forest, surrounded by an endless expanse of green and drowned into the quiet, intricate noises of traveling animals. After a few brief moments, his eyes opened. He stepped back from the tree and did not glance to Sasuke. With a final exhale, he channeled chakra into his feet and ran towards the tree. He made it up three feet. Then halfway. Three fourths. He felt his control beginning to slip. He ignored the feeling and did his best to tighten the chakra. With a final burst of energy, his fingers narrowly gripped the top branch of the tree just before he would have plummeted to the bottom. With an ecstatic grin, he pulled himself up onto the branch. "Ha! I did it! Suck it, teme! I got up here before you did!" Naruto called giddily.

"Look to your right, dobe" a flat, empty male voice sounded.

Naruto turned his eyes to the source. In the tree next to him, Sasuke sat on the highest branch of his tree as well. Naruto glared. "What!? When did you get up there teme!?"

Sasuke smirked. The expression irritated Naruto. "I got up here when you were meditating."

"No way! There is no way you beat me!" His hands curled into fists. So far, he felt like the weakest link on the team. Sasuke was a prodigy and had already mastered fire jutsus that Naruto could barely comprehend. Meanwhile, Sakura's chakra control was so outstanding, that she had completed this exercise on her first try and had had private training lessons with Kakashi for the past three nights. He had finally thought that he didn't finish last at something….only for his hope to come spiraling down. How could he become Hokage when he could never seem to finish as anything but last?

"Just face it deadlast, you're a disgrace as a ninja" Sasuke taunted. He effortlessly jumped from the height of the tree and landed unscathed at the bottom in a crouched position. He had just barely kept ahead of Naruto in that exercise. How close he had come to be the last of his team to master the exercise scared him. He was an Uchiha. Naruto and Sakura, as far as he knew, were civilian born. Yet, Naruto had chakra reserves that might easily outmatch his own. He had watched Naruto over the last couple days. The other boy seemed to have an endless supply of chakra. Even after running for a solid twelve hours whilst evading Kakashi's lightning balls, and even after wasting much more chakra than necessary while attempting to master tree climbing, Naruto would only act tired for a few minutes before bouncing back into an eternally energetic state that annoyed and angered Sasuke. Meanwhile, Sakura's chakra control shamed the both of them. For once, Sasuke was not entirely convinced that he was the absolute strongest genin on even just his team. If he could not best civilian born genin, how could he ever compare to Itachi? He flipped his hair out of his eyes and started to walk towards the fire that Sakura had started building near their camp.

"Teme! You'll pay for that comment! I'm going to beat you so bad one day!" Naruto growled. Sasuke made no response. Naruto jumped clumsily from the tree and landed in a tangle of limbs at the bottom. He rested his head against the grass and made no move to rise. He sighed.

A pair of sandals stepped in front of Naruto's line of sight. The blonde boy glanced up to see Kakashi standing over him.

Kakashi's single visible eye stared down at Naruto. "Get up, Naruto. Sakura and I caught fish for dinner earlier. Surely, you want to eat?" His tone was nonchalant.

Naruto mumbled a short statement about rude temes before rising to his feet.

Kakashi eyed the jinchuriki. The boy would be a lethal weapon in time. In time, that is, if the boy kept working hard. "You and Sasuke completed the tree climbing exercise within seconds of each other." The statement hung in the air with no congratulations or well dones, or heartfelt consolations. Kakashi simply stated a fact, but it was a fact that Naruto needed to hear.

"Within seconds?" The boy echoed.

"Mmmhm."

Blue eyes lit up with renewed hope.

-0-

Once all four members of team seven seated themselves around the fire and took in their helping of fish, Kakashi glanced up from his meal and eyed his three weary students. This night was far colder than the last two. Wind bit against their faces. Sakura visibly shivered, despite the fire having somewhat dried her clothes and hair. She sat huddled against Naruto. He had taken off his orange coat and wrapped it around her shoulders and sat before the fire in a black T-shirt. Sasuke sat farther away from his other two teammates but not near Kakashi either. The team sat in a strange triangular formation around the fire. Kakashi frowned. Sasuke remained ever distant. Perhaps the training in Fuhai would amend such a distance. He took out his book and barely glanced at his students. "Tomorrow, we will reach Fuhai. Once there, your training will fall into the hands of an ally in the city."

"What!? But Sasuke-teme and I just mastered tree climbing! And we still gotta read the scrolls umm Michi-san gave us!" Naruto stared at his sensei.

A held up palm attempted to silence Naruto. "My ally will teach you certain valuable shinobi skills with greater ease than I could. And you will read your scrolls tomorrow and gain a general understanding of your two new jutsus prior to meeting my ally." He placed his book down and pulled a scroll out of his pack. After biting into his thumb just hard enough to draw blood, Kakashi spread the blood across a seal over the scroll. A ragged, greyish-brown cloth bag emerged. "Reach into this bag and pick out an item. These items will be the only nin-tools you will be allowed to keep while training under my ally, and they will inform my ally what type of training each one of you will specifically partake in." He extended the bag to Sasuke first.

Black eyes narrowed as a pale hand dug into the sack. He felt something hard. Running his thumb along the edge of the hard object, he felt a sharp point. In fact, it was really sharp. His hand gripped the object. It seemed sturdy. Compared to the other objects in the bag, he mused that this would do. He pulled the object quickly out. Black eyes widened. In his hand, Sasuke held an ivory white bone with one of the ends sharpened to a point. The size of the object made Sasuke wonder if the bone was human. He thought initially back to the massacre. All of the bones protruding from all of the bodies. He dropped the bone before he could even register his grip slackening. He pulled his knees to his chest and sat there in silence.

"What teme? Can't handle a bone what kind of ninja are you?" Naruto taunted, still somewhat sore from Sasuke's earlier jab.

"Naruto! Shut up" Sakura hissed and elbowed the blonde boy in the ribs.

Sasuke made no response and stared blankly out into the night.

As Naruto watched the black haired asshole in front of him, his expression softened.

Kakashi held the bag in front of Naruto next. The jinchuriki reached into the bag and he pricked his finger on a sharp point. He yelped and hastily withdrew the offending object. He awkwardly stared at an empty syringe in his hands. "What's this for?"

Kakashi did not answer and held the bag out to Sakura next. "As you have chosen last, you get the final two items, Sakura."

She raised a suspicious eyebrow to her sensei. Was she being given some kind of accommodation because he thought she was weaker than them or because she was a girl? She bit her lip and plunged her hand into the bag. She gripped two relatively soft and pointless items. One seemed to be some sort of cylindrical tube and the other had a silky texture. Upon withdrawing the items, her eyebrows furrowed as she found herself holding a long red ribbon and a tube of purple mascara. "Seriously?"

Naruto snickered and crawled around the fire to playfully clap a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. A still wide-eyed, silent Sasuke turned to face Naruto. Naruto pointed at Sakura's hands before cupping his own hands over Sasuke's ear and whispering. "Aren't we lucky we didn't choose those? We'd look ridiculous wearing girly makeup and a ribbon!" Naruto's intended whisper came out as more of a yell.

Sasuke winced and pushed Naruto away from his ears. "Dobe."

Sakura seethed at Naruto's comment. She turned to Kakashi. "Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? This was so rigged…"

Kakashi's eye crinkled into what Sakura could only identify as some sort of amused smile. "Those will be your tools. As for what was rigged, in the ninja world, chance, if present at all, is always your enemy. Look underneath the underneath and you'll discover just why you have the objects that you do. But now, we'll go to bed. Goodnight." With that, he shunshinned off to a distant corner of their campsite.

Sakura growled with frustration while Naruto continued to snicker at her and try to get Sasuke to join his snickering.

Sasuke had already deciphered part of the underneath. The bone referenced the massacre. His sensei was a ruthless asshole to bring that up. The ribbon and makeup represented Sakura's former obsession with looks and what he deemed "useless girly things" over being an actual ninja. As for Naruto, he could not decipher what the syringe meant. Something medical? Something experimental? Maybe Naruto got his weird endless energy from some kind of weird drug? That could explain why the old woman had insinuated that Naruto was a monster as well as why the general public seemed to dislike him. If it was a powerful enough forbidden nin-drug, maybe he had to do bad things to get it? He stared at Sakura in an attempt to communicate his suspicions with her. She was the smartest kunoichi in their class. She had to know something.

Sakura held up the ribbon in front of her face and sighed. It reminded her of Ino and that terrible moment where Sakura had ended their friendship because of Sasuke. Sakura missed Ino greatly. She decided to amend their friendship when she got back. Suddenly, the bare skin on Sakura's arms and legs prickled. She instinctively glanced up to find two black, abysmal eyes staring at her from across the fire. The intensity in his eyes made her breathing stutter. She shivered. He nodded to her and glanced towards Naruto's hand. The syringe? She nodded as well, having no idea what their little interaction was supposed to indicate at all. Did he want her to take Naruto's syringe? She bit her lip as she thought of their conversation the previous day. Underneath the underneath…both hers and Sasuke's objects obviously reflected their pasts. But a syringe? Maybe it was a clue to understanding Naruto. But what could it mean? And is that even what Sasuke was trying to tell her? She glanced back up to him and tilted her head to the side.

He met her gaze with a steady, unrelenting stare. What had she figured out?

It was Naruto's turn to put out the fire for the night. He rose and gathered water from the lake to toss onto the fire. The night wind howled against the three figures. Unlike Kakashi, they had not packed for the trip. This left them without bedrolls because of course their sensei could not be bothered with providing them with something as simple as decent comfort.

Sakura curled against the base of a tree. She had surrendered Naruto's jacket and was still shaking slightly due to her still wet hair and clothes.

Sasuke curled at the base of a different tree.

Naruto glanced between his two teammates and sighed as he hefted on his jacket. "Guys, this is stupid."

Sakura's teeth clattered as she opened viridian eyes to squint at azure. "W-what is stupid?"

"It's cold, and we don't even have blankets. This might sound weird, but we should just sleep next to each other and stuff."

"I am not cuddling you, dobe." Sasuke responded while drawing his arm protectors further up his arms to provide more warmth.

Sakura giggled. "Well…you guys did kiss…" She stuck out a pink tongue at Naruto. She felt an angry wave of dark chakra hit her instantly. She flinched and whipped her head over to face Sasuke. She bit her lip and timidly stuck her tongue out at him as well.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled. "It was an accident! And no, teme, I don't want to cuddle you either."

Sakura turned to Naruto and giggled again. "So what? You want us to just sleep kinda near each other? That won't help much with warmth."

"What if you're in the middle, Sakura-chan, and both of us go on either side of you?" Naruto asked. His blue eyes looked hopeful.

Sasuke remained quiet.

Sakura thought about cuddling between two boys and blushed. It would be the first time boys had ever been that close to her. Another roll of the wind caused her to shiver again. "Well….um…sure…I guess that could work. If Sasuke's okay with it?" Her gaze darted to her third teammate.

"Hn." He stood up and walked over to Sakura. "If this is the only way we'll get any sleep" he murmured as he laid down behind Sakura. His front pressed firmly against her back, and his hands rested at his sides. It was logical. Necessity.

Sakura flinched again and could feel her cheeks burning. His larger form could engulf her. And it was warm. Oh so warm and dry. And pressed against her. Sakura halted her thoughts before they could get naughty. Fangirl or not, Sakura was a pervert.

Naruto grinned. "Alright, he's clearly up for it." Naruto bounded over and crouched down in front of Sakura. "Um…I'll keep my back to you so it's not like…um awkward or anything…cause I mean if we laid face to face…it could…um you know…" Naruto scratched the back of his head as a bright pink crept onto his face.

Sakura hid her face with her hair and nodded. "Um, yeah. Great. No problem."

Naruto laid down in front of her. "Is this too awkward, Sakura-chan? Lying between me and teme?"

She noted that his voice was softer when he was embarrassed. "No, totally fine. I mean, we're a team. Stuff more awkward than this is bound to happen eventually." She felt Sasuke's muscles tense against her back.

Naruto laughed shakily. He felt Sakura's hands curl up against his back. He was laying with his crush. Practically spooning. He never really anticipated being the little spoon though. Still, that barely mattered. He felt giddy and almost squirmed with excitement, but stopped himself.

"Hn. Don't snore, dobe" Sasuke sounded.

Naruto instantly felt less giddy.

The three eventually fell asleep.

Hatake Kakashi smirked. It seemed that his team was at least bonding somewhat. On the first night, all three of them would have blatantly refused. He glanced towards the little cluster. It was adorable. Such cute, cute little genin he had. He almost felt bad about the training he was sending them into. It was a less extreme version of ROOTS training. Re-subject them to their emotional baggage and strip away the impairments of that baggage. Of course, the baggage could never be fully eliminated, but training could lessen its impact in a battle, and that could either save or slaughter one of his precious students.

-0-

When morning came, Sasuke was the first of the genin to wake up. He opened his eyes to find himself consumed by a world of cotton candy pink. He blinked several times in confusion before realizing it was hair. Sakura's hair. He felt something soft and warm beneath his hands. He was gripping her. His hands slid up and down two inches in an effort to try and discern what part of her he was holding onto. He met nothing but flat expanse. He concluded he was holding her waist. Okay. He opened his eyes and moved backwards from her after untwining his hands from around her. His dreams had been pleasant for once. In them, he was a child again. He had been playing some game with a strange blonde boy and a vague girl who smelled like cinnamon. He glanced at the bone next to the campfire with apprehension. Whatever their sensei was planning was cruel, but something inside of Sasuke told him that he needed to face death again. He had to become insensitive to it. He had to kill one day, one man.

The morning air was still cold. Sasuke stretched with the rising sun and watched his two teammates sleep. Sakura huddled further into Naruto. Her tiny hands circled his shoulders and clasped in front of his chest. Naruto hummed a noise of contentment and squirmed slightly in front of Sakura. That same awkwardness he had felt throughout the trip settled again. His teammates seemed so close, and he seemed so far. Sasuke turned his head away and stalked into the woods to practice his taijutsu.

-0-

After another day of dodging D ranked lightning attacks through the forest while traveling, the genin of team seven were motioned to halt at the edge of a tree line. Beyond, they could hear brusque voices screaming at each other. Different prices, different exotic goods being offered. The overwhelming smell of piss, shit, and smoke filled their lungs and almost gagged them.

Naruto pinched his nose. "Is this Fuhai?"

"Yes" Kakashi answered. "Take out your scrolls and read them while we wait for my ally. You can try to work on them as well."

The phrase "my ally" struck Sakura as strange. It was not "friend" or "acquaintance." And he never used a name. Who was this person? She reached into her pack and first extracted the genjutsu scroll. The technique did not seem particularly impressive at first. It was an illusion to make the user's movement seem slower than it actually was. Teisoku no Jutsu. She smirked though. With her fight style, this could work. Especially if she utilized her terrain well enough. She quickly memorized the instructions on the scroll before moving onto the second one. Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu[i]. Her smirk widened. She had been worried that she would have been provided with useless techniques, yet so far she was satisfied. She read over how to burrow underground, grab an opponent's ankle, and then trap him in the ground with only his head sticking out.

Sasuke read the elemental jutsu scroll first. His brow furrowed. Raiton: Denki Senbon no Jutsu. It was too subtle for Sasuke's tastes, yet he supposed it could work. An opponent would think ordinary senbon were approaching and would not realize that these senbon were made of lightning which would hurt much worse and could send the victim into shock or paralysis, depending on the strength of the lightning. The second scroll proved to be a less than thrilling taijutsu style attack sequence that could also double as a defense sequence. Still, he supposed it could come in handy.

Naruto opened both of his scrolls at once. Both were elemental jutsus, as that was a huge part of ninjutsu. He received a Futon: Senpu Taegatai. Unrelenting whirlwind. Naruto mused that it sounded pretty damn cool. He quickly read it over and immediately attempted to perform it to no avail. He tried again with a similar result. He groaned and hastily read the second scroll. Futon: Ridairekuto. This one was defensive. A wind attack to block and redirect projectiles. Again, he tried. Nothing happened. Naruto frowned.

-0-

Hours later, each of the genin was able to produce a little bit of each of their techniques. However, none of them had mastered the new jutsus. Naruto sat sulking under a tree while using large amounts of chakra to try to get the techniques to work, Sasuke reread his scrolls for the umpteenth time, and Sakura kept patiently practicing.

Their efforts stopped when they heard the sound of heavy shoes crunching against the grass. The three genin stilled and trained their eyes on the edge of the forest. Who was this ally of Kakashi-sensei? This person did not walk like a shinobi. Too heavy. Yet, the steps seemed deliberate and carefully timed. The weight shifted between each step was precise and monitored. Each genin was suspicious and slightly scared. They clutched their "nin-tools" selected from the previous night, although Sakura could come up with no real way to use her objects. At least Sasuke and Naruto had things with pointy ends that could be used for stabbing. She almost snorted at the thought of a ninja attacking someone with a mascara brush.

Sasuke felt strange clasping the bone between his hand. It felt wrong. Dirty. He wanted to throw it onto the ground.

Naruto first saw this "ally" of Kakashi's. High, platform black sandals slid around dainty, lily-white feet with painted red toes. Smooth, naked legs descended upwards until they disappeared at the thighs behind a heavy red kimono-esque shirt with gold designs and a large gold obi fastened around the wearer's waist. The top of the kimono fell open to reveal ample cleavage and slender shoulders. Naruto's eyes finally met the woman's face. She had dark brown eyes and long black hair pulled into a high bun that was held in place with a rose. Her lips were painted red and dark black paint outlined her aristocratically slanted eyes. With her heels, she was only a couple inches shorter than Kakashi.

The woman half smirked at the genin. She turned to Kakashi. "Welcome, Hatake-san. These are the three you mentioned in your letter?" Her voice sounded like a snake-like purr. Venom dripping down silk. She turned and eyed each of the genin.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. I don't mean to jeopardize your long-standing…" He paused and exchanged a smug look with the woman before continuing with "…studies here, Niwa-chan."

The three genin cast wide-eyed and narrow eyed looks at each other. Naruto watched the woman. Niwa-chan. So this was someone Kakashi-sensei knew…intimately? Intimately how? He hoped that it was more of a friendship thing. But Niwa was a last name, not a first. He frowned and glanced to Sakura for confirmation of his confusion.

Sakura raised an eyebrow at Naruto, bit her lip, and glanced to Sasuke.

Sasuke caught her eyes and noticed how her teeth grazed her bottom lip. He made a nearly imperceptible nod at her and then turned to acknowledge Naruto with a raised eyebrow. For the time being, they were his allies against whatever Kakashi had put them up against.

A high-pitched laugh from Niwa regained the attention of the genin. "Of course not. The objective is the same as in the letter, no? I get these three for a week. You want me to lend them to my benefactors and for them to try to develop their own, unique…" She paused as her lips twisted into a viper smirk. "Abilities. And…information on my benefactors to aid my studies. On the final day, you would like to see them escape Fuhai, my benefactors, and of course my guards?"

Kakashi had been watching his genin interact. Interaction would aid the team dynamic greatly. His eye fixated on Niwa. "Correct."

Niwa made a low bow. "Perfect, Hatake-san." She stepped carefully up to the three genin and glanced down at the objects in their hands. She stopped first in front of Naruto. "Syringe. You will meet with Kenta-san tomorrow." She then sauntered over to Sakura. "Ribbon and mascara." Her red lips twisted into a smile. "You will work with me, child." She ran a hand through the girl's hair. "Pink. Exotic. You will meet with many, many benefactors." She placed a hand on her hip as she stood over Sasuke. "Hm. Such a pretty boy." Her hands traced the bone he held. "Too bad. You will work with Yori-san, tomorrow." Her head darted up. "Hatake-san, take their weapons, forehead protectors, clan specific markings, anything suggesting that they are anything but children."

Kakashi held out a large bag and his three students deposited their weapon pouches and forehead protectors into the bag. The forehead protector was surrendered reluctantly by Naruto. Sasuke took off his blue, Uchiha clan shirt and tossed it into the bag, Naruto took off his jacket, and Sakura awkwardly stripped off her red shirt with its Haruno emblem off. This left Sasuke shirtless, Naruto in a black T-shirt, and Sakura in a mesh top with black breast wrappings. Naruto and Sasuke avoided looking at Sakura, and she avoided looking at Sasuke. The three also relinquished their nin shoes to Kakashi.

Niwa nodded. "Well, follow me then, lovelies."

-0-

The genin followed Niwa away from their sensei and into Fuhai. The horrid scent increased as they reached the town.

Naruto visibly grimaced. "This place really stinks..." The patrons of the city were streaked with dirt and had harsh, shrill voices. They were dressed in off-white, brown, and black simple garments. Many held mugs filled with a nauseating brown substance. Some openly sharpened knives in the market square.

"Shh, Naruto." Sakura held up a hand and glanced at the numerous large, greasy men that peered at their little group. She fidgeted nervously as their gazes bounced from Niwa's breasts and butt, generally ignored Sasuke and Naruto, and then settled on her own, small, wrapped breasts for a moment before returning to Niwa.

Some of the men did not glance at Niwa at all. Some of them stared only at Sakura. She could hear them grunting to each other. The word "pink" met her ears frequently. She blushed.

Sasuke felt eyes on him as well. Older women dressed in loose, short garments that barely concealed their bodies whispered to each other and cackled as they eyed his chest and his stomach. Anger rolled through him.

-0-

Niwa led them through the market square just as the sun was setting. Decrepit, rotted wooden buildings lined the square. Each was two stories high and so close to the other buildings that only narrow, lightless alleys burrowed between buildings. Some of the buildings were missing whole walls. An iron grate was slammed down on one of the open sides of one of the buildings signifying that a shop was closing. Niwa halted in front of a boisterous, loud wooden building with a second floor balcony. Numerous women dressed like Niwa leaned against the balcony and simpered as men and other women traced kisses across their necks and chests.

Naruto stared up at the interactions with wide eyes. He blushed. He had only read books about stuff like this. He had never actually seen it before.

Sasuke did not look at the women.

Sakura did her best not to cast curious looks up at the balcony.

Niwa turned to the genin. "We will go through a side door. Do not speak unless spoken to. If you let information that I do not like slip, you will be returned to your master and answer to his disapproval."

"Master—" Naruto started. A quick glare from Sasuke and an elbow to the ribs by Sakura cut off his question. Oh, Kakashi-sensei is the master. But she can't say that without giving away information. Naruto nodded to his teammates, and they visibly relaxed their muscles.

Niwa sent a shrewd, narrow-eyed, lips pursed look at Naruto before taking the three down an alley to the side of the building. They stopped in front of a rusted, metal side door. She extracted a key from her cleavage and opened the door. They emerged into a dim, sparsely lit hallway. She led them past several doors before ushering them into a tiny room with some hay decorating one corner and a swinging oil lamp hanging from one of the wooden rafters overhead. "This room will be your home for the next week, lovelies. You will eat, drink, and sleep here. It will also be the only time you are reunited with each other. Some of my benefactors will come shortly to assess you." She eyed them over. An expression of distaste contorted her pretty features. "Take off your remaining clothes. They are too garish to pass in front of my benefactors." She leaned against the door, as if waiting for them to obey her. "Also, put your nin-tools into the hay pile. You should hide them for this part."

Sasuke moved first. He quickly took off his arm protectors and slid down his white shorts before tossing them into the pile of hay with the bone.

Sakura's eyes darted to Sasuke upon his quick movement. As her brain finally registered that he was following Niwa's orders, she hurriedly glanced away with bright pink cheeks.

He turned away from Niwa and Sakura as he hesitantly pulled down his black underwear.

Naruto moved next. He took off his black shirt, his orange pants, and his green boxers in a few quick movements before tossing them into the hay as Sasuke did. He did not look at anything but the ground.

Niwa tapped her foot expectantly as she waited for Sakura.

Sakura sighed and undressed. She also tossed her garments into the hay. She sat down on the ground and curled her knees to her chest. She dared not glance at either of her teammates. Her entire face was bright red.

Niwa sighed. "Very modest. Relax more. I'll be back with my benefactors." She spun on her heel and left the room with a quick slam of the door.

"Sakura-chan?" An uncharacteristically quiet voice sounded.

"Yes, Naruto?" Sakura asked without moving her head up.

"We were just sold into human trafficking, weren't we?"

"I…yes."

"Hn." Sasuke briefly entered the conversation.

She heard movement and glanced up to see that the boys had seated themselves on either side of her with their knees drawn up their chests like hers were.

"It's only a week, though. We're ninja. We have to do this kind of stuff. We'll learn what we need to, practice our jutsus in here every night, and then impress Kakashi-sensei with our new skills" Sakura replied with a cheery fake smile. For some reason, she doubted that Ino's team was currently in a similar position. "Just, use what Kakashi taught us. Underneath the underneath. And we have to act like little, scared children too. These people don't know we're ninjas."

"Yeah! We'll make it through, guys. Believe it! Once we get to escape, these assholes won't know hit them!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Dobe, you're being too loud." Sasuke whispered.

"Stupid teme…"

They heard footsteps down the hall and loud, bragging speech. The genin quieted and huddled close together. Sakura was afraid. Whether the boys were afraid or whether they were just acting was unclear to her.

[i] This jutsu is listed as D-ranked on the Wikipedia. It's the one Kakashi uses on Sasuke during the original bell test.