Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Chapter 2:
Ripples

There would be no funeral or memorial service.

Keeping up the pretense (or really, truth) of Sasuke being a missing-nin when he died required that he not have one, nor would his name be added to the Memorial Stone. Naruto had strongly protested (yelled) when Tsunade had visited the first time and told him, until the Sannin had put her foot down. Literally. There was now a rather large indentation in the floor of room 324.

The Hokage had simply told him it was this, or he would be charged for murder of a fellow ninja, resulting in him being sent to prison or even executed. There was no in-between, as the civilian population of Konoha would be more than glad to pounce on any little weakness or loophole they could find. And so, there could be none.

That didn't mean Naruto didn't hate it though.

Instead, Sasuke had been cremated and his ashes were placed with his clan-members in their ancestral mausoleum before Naruto had even woken up.

The only thing still intact was his eyes.

The Sharingan eyes that now sat, ever whirling, within Naruto's skull.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun." Hinata said, stepping through the door to the boy's hospital room.

He turned towards her at the sound of her voice, red orbs watching her face. "Hey, Hinata-chan."

"I, um, I brought you something to eat…" she said. In her hands was a large paper bag with two plastic bowls inside of it. She'd barely managed to sneak it past the nurse that was patrolling the hallway, but she also knew that it was worth it. He needed anything and everything that could make him feel better right now.

And nothing made Naruto feel better than ramen.

Naruto perked up, smelling the scent of warm broth that leaked into the air. Hinata walked over to his bed, sitting down in the chair that she had moved to be next to it yesterday, putting the bag down on the floor and reaching in to pull the top bowl out, placing it and a pair of chopsticks on the small overhanging tabletop-like object that sat over Naruto's lap.

"I-is this Ichiraku-jii's miso ramen?" he asked slowly, as if disbelieving.

Hinata nodded in response. "I know you like it… and I thought it would be alright, even if you're still supposed to be in bed…" She got her own bowl out of the bag and placed it on the side-table on her right.

"Thanks Hinata-chan!" he said, grabbing the chopsticks in front of him, cracking them apart and pulling the lid off of the large bowl of soup. Hinata flushed slightly and smiled at his enthusiasm, glad that she had managed to pierce some of the dour moroseness that he had been displaying until she'd left last night.

Naruto began eagerly sucking at the noodles, chewing and then swallowing with a contented sigh. "Ichiraku's really is the best…"

Hinata broke her own chopsticks and began eating, if a bit slower than Naruto (which wasn't very hard to accomplish). She savored the flavor of the broth while she ate, allowing it to warm her from the inside out.

Last night she had had a few missteps in her resolution to be stronger and more confident, all of which had involved her father, but in the end she had been able to live up to them for the most part. She knew this would not be an instantaneous thing. Years of habits could not be broken overnight. But there were things she could do. Stopping and breathing before talking when she felt like she would stutter. Forcing her eyes to stay on someone instead of allowing them to slip and wander down to the ground. Halting her nervous tic of tapping her fingers whenever she noticed it.

All of this would contribute to deconstructing the meek image and air that had built up around her. And if she gave off the sense of being more confident, even if she wasn't quite yet, she knew that her own confidence would slowly rise on its own. Positive self-reinforcement.

The branch member on guard duty had said that Kurenai-sensei had visited the Hyūga compound this morning, to tell Hinata that team meetings were temporarily postponed until Shino returned and both Kiba and Akamaru were fully recovered. Hinata had gone to Kiba's hospital room first this morning, but he'd been asleep, so she had left soon after, going to Ichiraku's after having the idea to get Naruto-kun lunch, and then coming back to see him.

It had obviously been the right decision.

Naruto slurped up the last of his golden broth, placing the bowl down and leaning back with a sigh, looking at the ceiling.

"… thanks, Hinata-chan. I, um… I really appreciate you visiting me." Hinata nodded in acknowledgment. "Now… now I kinda wish I had visited you more when you were here after that fight with Neji. 'Cause now I know how boring this is."

She giggled, and he turned to look at her. "Seriously! All you can do is just look at the walls or sleep. It's terrible."

Hinata knew he was trying to make light of it, but she understood what he meant. He was glad she was there, because it kept him from thinking about everything that had happened, kept him from falling into a depressive spiral of guilt.

But that was why she was there in the first place.

To support him now when he needed it the most.

Shikamaru Nara was not calm.

If anything he was the opposite of calm, his emotions so turbulent that he'd be lucky to last even five minutes against his old man in a game of shōgi right now.

Both his best friend and two of his fellow teammates had been in critical condition, barely hanging onto life because of his decisions. All had survived their immediate treatment, and were now recovering on their own.

But just as bad was that he'd been the one that'd had to tell Ino the news. Suffice to say, she hadn't taken any of it well; 'troublesome' wouldn't even begin to describe it. She'd already been in tears on hearing that Sasuke had abandoned Konoha, but then on hearing about his death…

Well, Shikamaru had learned to leave the Yamanaka to do what they did best when it came to matters of the mind.

Crying girls were definitely not his field of experience.

He sighed, staring at the fluffy clouds floating in the blue expanse above him. Even his usual past-time wasn't doing anything for his state of mind. Closing his eyes, he tried to push some of the overwhelming feelings aside, just calming down.

Technically Hokage-sama had declared this mission a success. They had brought Sasuke back home within the parameters: alive or dead.

So why did it feel so much like a failure?

…

Because he hadn't done his best? Hadn't gotten the best result?

Because until he had fought that red-haired flute girl, all he'd been doing was sitting back, relying on the actions of the others?

Because it had all ended in the death of a person that he had known for years?

"Are you just going to lay here all day or what?" a feminine voice above his head said.

Opening his eyes, he looked up at the girl who was towering over him, leaning so that she was blocking the sun's rays from reaching his face.

… troublesome.

"This isn't the guy I went up against in the finals. What the hell happened to him?"

Shikamaru sighed, closing his eyes again.

"Uh-uh!" The end of a large black battle-fan whacked him lightly in the side of the head. "I asked you something!"

Ow.

"…" He stared up into her eyes and she stared back, as if just daring him to dismiss her again.

Hahhh. Troublesome woman.

"We succeeded… so why does it feel like we failed?" he asked rhetorically.

She moved next to him and sat down on the grass to the right, her fan between her knees.

"Damn, you leaf-nins are soft." she responded. "Then again, bringing home someone you knew from your own village in a body bag… and I hear the kid who did it was on the same team too…"

"Naruto." Shikamaru supplied flatly.

Temari turned to look back at him and nodded. "Yeah, Naruto. The loud one who got my brother back. I could understand him being really messed up over this…"

Naruto. Shikamaru had avoided his room so far. Unable to go and face him. Unable to go and see the expression he would make.

Coward.

His father's words repeated in his ears. That's what it means to be a real companion. You coward!

Was he? Was he really just a coward?

"Your father was wrong." Temari said, as if reading his mind. "A coward wouldn't have been able to beat me like that. Or lead a team of genin against those four and get as far as you did. Missions go bad. It happens. The thing that tells you if you're really cut out or not for this is whether you can come out of it stronger than you were before, you know?"

Shikamaru's mouth quirked into a ghost of a smile at her attempt to cheer him up. "Yeah."

"In Suna, we have a saying: 'You can't control the sand while it blows, only while it's still.' It means you can't affect the things that aren't your actions, but that you can still decide how you react to those events." she looked back at him. "A good leader isn't someone who knows the right decision to make all the time. They're someone who can adapt to the things that are out of their control."

He blinked. That was almost scarily insightful coming from her.

"C'mon. Now I want to go see how that kid's doing, and you're going to be my excuse." she said, standing up and turning around to face him.

"…" He felt a drop of sweat form on his brow.

Women are so pushy…

Naruto stared at his bandaged hands, watching the yellow energy that flowed around his body like water.

His chakra.

It was strange seeing things like this. Seeing things with these eyes. He only had to think about remembering something, and he could. He knew where people would move to before they did. He could see the nurses walk around outside of his room just from the chakra signatures.

It was really cool.

…except for why he was able to do it. How it had happened.

Sasuke had died. Was dead because of him.

Even though there was a sense of closure because of their final fight, there also wasn't.

Sasuke had been trying to kill him with that last attack. And Naruto had retaliated with one equally powerful to counter it.

But while Sasuke's Chidori hadn't even left a scar on him, Naruto's Rasengan had done its job perfectly, grinding through the flesh and bone of the other boy, tearing his insides to shreds.

After seeing the beginning of his attack land, the ball of swirling amber colliding with Sasuke's midsection, Naruto couldn't remember anything. He'd blacked out.

If it had been Naruto who died, he knew that dying like that, at the hands of his best friend, going out fighting to the bitter end, was a death that he would have accepted and even been alright with.

Is that why Sasuke had changed in those last minutes like Kakashi had said? Because his death by then had been inevitable, so there was nothing but to accept it and the feelings that Sasuke had understood from Naruto's strike?

Is that why he had died with a smile? Because he had died at the hands of the only person he could accept death from?

It was so complex, and left Naruto in a state of turmoil that he just didn't know what to do with.

Hinata had held him as he had (embarrassingly) cried for almost an entire hour yesterday, something that he didn't think he would have ever been able to do in front of anybody else but her. Naruto put up a strong front around Sakura, trying to prove himself to her, and Kakashi-sensei wouldn't have had any idea what to do.

But Hinata-chan…

He'd used to think she was weird. Always red. Like she had a fever or something. And stuttering.

But at the Chūnin exams, she'd proven herself to him. And now he saw her as something more than that. As a person who was strong, and yet still kind and caring because she didn't want to hurt her own family.

Naruto admired that.

It was two now, and she'd gone to visit Neji and then Kiba, so he had been passing the time so far by looking at the ceiling, just waiting for her to return like she had promised before slipping out.

He'd gotten bored of the ceiling quickly.

So instead, he was staring at his hands and thinking, watching the chakra flow that was now visible all the time.

A knock on the door drew his attention away, towards the now-opening entrance to his room.

"Yo, Naru–" Shikamaru halted, his eyes widening at the sight in front of him.

Naruto sighed inwardly. The only people who hadn't shown any surprise at his new eyes and appearance were Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-baachan. Even Hinata had been shocked when she'd seen the bandages come off of his face, but she had quickly recovered in seconds and acted like nothing was unusual, not making a single comment.

He'd truly appreciated it.

The first time Sakura-chan had seen him, she had quickly closed the door instead of entering like she had intended. But because of his new vision, he had been able to record in pristine clarity the tears that had been falling from her face as she backed out of the room.

That had cut deeper than any words would have been able to.

She'd later come and apologized, but there was nothing to forgive, because he understood exactly how she felt. It was how he had felt the first time he had seen them too, after all. His eyes would be an ever-permanent reminder of the missing fourth member of Team Seven.

Naruto turned his gaze away from Shikamaru back to the yellow haze around his hands.

"Hey, Shikamaru." he said softly.

The chūnin recovered gracefully, and finished stepping into the room, another pair of footsteps following afterwards that Naruto didn't look up to see who they belonged to.

"Haaahh. Jeez. That's unexpected." he said, walking towards the bed and sitting down on the side. "Sasuke's?"

"… Kakashi-sensei said he asked for it." Naruto responded quietly.

"Asked for what?" a female voice from the corner asked, causing Naruto to look at the speaker. Temari. "…Oh." she said dumbly at the sight of the spinning red irises.

Naruto turned back to his hands in his lap.

"Well… everyone else is going to be fine now…" Shikamaru told him, unsure what to do about the awkward silence that covered them like a blanket.

The blonde nodded minutely. "Hinata-chan told me. She's visiting Kiba and Neji right now."

"It's not your faul–"

"Stop saying that! Everybody keeps saying that!" the blonde yelled, startling both Shikamaru and Temari "Everyone says that it's not my fault! But it is! It is! So why won't anyone just say it?" Tears started trailing down his face. "It'd be easier if people just said it…"

"…you're wrong." The three of them turned towards the source of the new voice. Hinata stood in the doorway, and walked over to Naruto's bed, sitting down in the chair she had been in this morning. "I-It's not your fault… It's not your fault that Sasuke-kun decided to run away, or to fight you, or any of this."

Naruto sniffled, disbelieving. He was so used to having people blame everything on him. It was all he knew. But now, with the biggest mistake he'd ever made, people were unwilling to place it on him.

He didn't know how to react. What to do.

Shikamaru looked thoughtfully at Hinata, and then turned his head further to the left so he could see the blonde. "She's right, Naruto. It's like in shōgi, when one of your pieces is captured by your opponent and used against you, it's not your piece anymore… Sasuke was like that. You can't be held accountable for his actions."

The boy nodded silently, staring at hands. "It's just…" He trailed off, unable to think of anything.

The Nara turned forward and sighed. "Yeah. I know. You feel lost."

They all sat there for a few minutes in silence, until Shikamaru glanced up at the Suna girl over on the side. "I gotta go visit Chōji and then get back home or my mother's going to give me an earful. I'll come back later if you want, okay?"

Naruto nodded.

"Great." He slid off of the bed, and walked towards the door, Temari trailing after him. "Oh, and Naruto?" The jinchūriki looked up at him. "They look good."

He smiled and nodded.

Temari punched him in the arm as soon as they were out of the room. "Look good? Look good?"

"H-hey, it was the best thing I could think of, okay? And it got him to smile!" he defended.

She huffed, seeming to accept the excuse as they walked towards the elevator that would take them to Chōji's room. "That blue-haired one seemed different than I remember…"

"Hinata? Yeah. She's normally bright red around him. And all shy and stuttering. I wonder what changed…"

"I think I like this better."

… of course you would.

Sakura Haruno stared at her ceiling. Like she had been for the past five hours.

She was wallowing.

And she knew it.

But it was just… so sudden. All of it. Sasuke leaving. And then… his death.

She still felt slightly numb. But there was also a feeling of emptiness in her chest.

Both Sasuke's defection and then death had brought a lot of her emotions into question.

She'd told him she loved him, that night.

But was that a desperate cry in the dark, to get him to stay? Or was it really true?

She rolled over onto her side, staring at the wall on her left.

Sakura had realized in the past few days that Naruto had become like a brother to her, despite all of his attempts to go out on 'dates'.

But Sasuke…

Sasuke had been the subject of her admiration? Infatuation? Crush? Love?

And if it was love, was it romantic or platonic?

He was amazingly attractive, even Naruto would admit that. But that wasn't exactly a stable base for a relationship. Neither was one-sided admiration. He'd never seen her or even acknowledged her as worth his time romantically.

Then there was the fact that before the chūnin exams, they had all been friends.

And… she had actually been satisfied with that.

Which hinted at the possibility that she hadn't actually been in love with him, only the idea of being in love with him. And that all she had wanted in the first place was to be his friend, someone who he could rely on, like Naruto had come to be for both of them.

Naruto… Seeing his eyes had shaken her.

She'd known that it had happened. Kakashi had told her that Sasuke had asked for his Sharingan to be given to Naruto. To protect the people he cared about. To make him stronger so he could do that.

But it had still shocked her, and she hadn't been able to stop the tears that had come out, closing the door and leaving to go to the roof of the hospital to cry.

Even worse, she had seen the look of hurt and pain on Naruto's face as she had done that.

Kakashi had asked her to be there for him. And she had failed that in less than twenty-four hours.

What kind of friend did that make her?

He'd said he'd understood, once her tears had dried up and she'd gone back down into his room like she had planned originally, but she could still see his sullen mood, and the remnants of the pain that she had caused.

It only made her chest hurt worse.

She still blamed herself for this situation. Where Naruto had had to fight Sasuke, who he cared so much about, and would go so far for. For this ending, where Sasuke had become so obsessed with power that he had tried to kill Naruto to get it, and the blonde had had no choice but to defend himself against Sasuke's attacks. And they had eventually gotten so bad that it was just like that day on the roof with the water towers.

Except this time, she hadn't been there. There had been no Kakashi to stop their blows from connecting.

It was her fault.

If she had been able to stop him from leaving. If she had been stronger, maybe even stopping him by force, this wouldn't have happened.

Instead, she had been sucker punched with a single pressure point to the neck.

Taken out in a way that was pathetic for a ninja. That was how ninja took down civilians.

Sasuke had been saying that she was no better than one by doing that.

Honestly? She had to agree with him.

She had been dead weight on the team. She had only ever begun to actually fight and win in the Forest of Death. And that had been for less than ten minutes, not even involving her taking down her opponent.

She was weak.

And because she was weak, this was the result.

If she had been stronger, they might have been a tighter team, closer with one another. If she had been stronger, she and Naruto might have been able to sway him from his path to try and cut his ties with everyone. If she had been stronger, he might not have died.

But she wasn't.

So what was she going to do now?

Did she still want to be a ninja?

She knew the answer to that question immediately. Yes, she did.

If she continued being a ninja, how would she prevent this from happening again? How would she stop the people she cared about from getting hurt?

She had to get stronger.

But Sakura wasn't a ninjutsu or taijutsu type. She was mediocre at best with weapons and aim.

However, she had control over her chakra that even Kakashi had praised her for.

She was a genjutsu and medic type. But they weren't strong. They had to rely on others to protect them. They had to stay back from the fight.

She just couldn't let that happen. Wouldn't let that happen.

But there was one medic who had managed to defy that.

One person who had turned her weakness into her strongest ability and strength.

One woman, who had defied all odds.

If Sakura was going to become someone that was strong enough to fight side-by-side with her teammates and comrades, the only way to do that was to study under the strongest medic that had ever existed.

Hokage-sama herself.

Hinata was on a mission.

Not a shinobi mission, mind you. Just a mission. A personal mission.

She was trying to find Kurenai-sensei.

She'd decided if she was really going to do this whole 'more confidence' thing, her sensei would be the best person to help her out and reinforce better habits.

Her father was not even a consideration.

So she was walking down the road the Kurenai usually frequented around this time of afternoon, trying to find the genjutsu mistress.

… until she walked right into someone.

"Hey, Kurenai-chan, isn't this one of your kiddies?" The woman she had walked into slung an arm around Hinata's shoulder and dragged her over to a dango stand on the side of the road without giving the Hyūga a chance to react. "She didn't even see me just standing there waiting for her. You've gotta teach 'em to be more observant than that."

Kurenai turned towards the pair and and sighed. "Anko, please let Hinata go." The woman complied, releasing her head-lock on the girl and walking over to a chair next to Kurenai, pulling it out and sitting down, leaning back in it. She motioned at Hinata to take the third chair, and the blue haired girl did.

"Hey. One order for me, yeah?" she said to one of the people running around.

Hinata regained her wits and remembered why she was here. "Um. Good afternoon, Kurenai-sensei. I was–" Breathe. "I was wondering if you could help me get better with my self-confidence… overall. And to help me get stronger." Hinata asked calmly. The genjutsu mistress blinked owlishly. "Because both Shino-kun and Kiba can't train, I thought it would be better if we used the time we had…"

Kurenai looked shocked. "Hinata, what made you…?"

"Naruto-kun needs me." she answered firmly, allowing no room for discussion. "And I need to be stronger to support him."

Anko whistled and nudged Kurenai with her elbow. "That's some dedication, huh?" A plate of dango was set in front of her, and she began eating the sweets eagerly.

Hinata blushed and fought the desire to shrink and tap her fingers.

Kurenai began smiling. "I'd love to help, Hinata. What do you want to work on?"

"…my voice. And standing up for myself." And others "And being able to say what I want."

Anko finished off her first stick of the confectionery and smirked. "Heh. I like this one, Kurenai-chan. She's got guts." The purple-haired woman closed her eyes, thinking. "Hm… What would you think if I–"

Kurenai turned her head to look at her and cut her off. "No. You're not honestly considering taking someone pure like her–"

"You know, I think I am." Anko stuck out her tongue at the genjutsu mistress and then looked back at Hinata. "Hey girl. How'd you like to work with Konoha's one and only snake mistress herself? I guarantee we'd get those little problems worked out real fast."

Kurenai sighed, resting her head on her palm. "You're just trying to corrupt my genin, aren't you?"

Anko picked at her teeth with the end of her skewer. "Mayyyyybeeee." she responded with a wide grin. "But I don't like to think of it as 'corrupting' so much as 'molding and improving the future generation'."

"With you, it's corrupting." Kurenai replied, deadpan.

"So how about it, girl? I've still got missions and T&I shit, but I'd like to think I could take on a cute little genin like you in my spare time. And you'll be doing stuff with Nai-chan anyways, so it's not like you two can't work together then. How about it?" the woman asked.

Kurenai shook her head, prompting Hinata to say no.

But Hinata had already decided her fate. Now it just needed to be sealed.

"Yes."

Kakashi Hatake stood looking at the Memorial Stone, just as he usually did most of the time when he wasn't off doing anything else.

But this was different.

Obito. Rin. Sensei. Things have changed now.

I… I think the Hokage's right. I'm stuck in the past. Remembering the times we had together instead of focusing on the present. If I hadn't been like this, maybe…

Maybe I would have paid more attention. Seen it coming. Prevented it. Stopped it. But now another one of my teammates is dead, and the only person I have to blame is myself.

He can't even have his name put on here, because of the way he left before he died. Deserting.

The jōnin sighed. What would you do?

Probably beat some sense into me, huh?

Yeah. That's exactly what you would have done.

Now… I think I need to stop. It's been fifteen years. I need to stop coming here. To move forward. I need to look after the two teammates I have left. Who I need to protect and take care of.

You'd have liked Naruto, Obito. And now he's more like you than ever. Two Sharingan eyes. Given to him with the same purpose and intent you gave me yours. And I was the one who transferred them.

They need me. Sakura and Naruto. And I was too much of a fool to see just how much before. But now… now I know what I need to do.

So I think this is goodbye for now. It's time to look to the future, and take responsibility for my actions. To train your son, Minato-sensei. To teach him the things that you would have if you had been here. To be a sensei you would have been proud of.

Goodbye.

And with one final hand placed lovingly on the stone, Kakashi jumped away towards the village, the light of the sunset behind him.

"AAAAAAAGHHHHHH" A series of crashes and the tinkling of broken glass echoed through the room. Heavy breathing could be heard, and then a voice like velvet reached out of the darkness. "And you're sure that Sasuke-kun is dead? Because if this is not true, you will soon find yourself with one less head attached to your shoulders, Kabuto."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama. Sasuke suffered a fatal wound from the Kyūbi jinchūriki's final attack. Immediately afterwards his eyes were transplanted into Naruto-kun." the man replied.

A silence stretched through the black room before finally being broken.

"Kukukukuku. I see. And because of the boy's nature as a jinchūriki, there is no way to apply the cursed seal to him or use his body, nor are there any Uchiha left who I can use as a host."

Orochimaru's following laugh was that of a madman, one who had almost had everything, but had now lost it all.

When he had calmed himself, he turned to his lieutenant.

"Kabuto. Make sure that Itachi Uchiha is aware of this. I'm sure he'll be… interested in the fate of his dear brother."

The grey-haired medic nodded and walked out of the room.

"Perhaps this situation can at least be salvaged for some form of amusement."

"Hinata-sama! Welcome home." The branch member guard for the day bowed at her as she wearily dragged herself into her large house. She nodded at him, even as she made her way forward to her room and the bath. Today had been the first day of her training with Anko-sensei. She'd told Naruto about it, and he'd made a face at hearing who it was, but had been happy she was trying to get stronger, even if she hadn't admitted the reason to him yet. She didn't know if she could do that for a while.

The training had been torture.

Parts of her clothes were torn, her jacket ripped and dirtied. Her muscles burned from the movements they'd been put through, stretched and flexed in directions they had never gone before in the effort to evade Anko-sensei's knives and snakes.

And yet, Hinata had found herself loving every second of it.

The woman had made her talk while they were sparring. And in the middle of a fight where you were running and evading in fear of your life, there was no time for thinking of the 'proper' responses. No time for stuttering. No time for blushing or fainting. And not answering only made the attacks come quicker.

"What do you hate about your family?"

"Why are the Hyūga such stuck-up bitches about that damn seal?"

"How does your father piss you off?"

"What would you tell him if he did X"

"How long have you liked the Kyūbi brat?"

Hinata had actually gotten angry after that one, and had begun retaliating with intent to harm against the woman.

Anko had just laughed and smiled viciously, continuing the questions even more.

"Hinata. It is past the time for you to return." Her father's voice drew her from her thoughts. He sat in the front room, looking at her with stern eyes, a spread of paperwork on the table in front of him.

… why was he working in the front room instead of his office? Had he been waiting on her?

"I was training with a new sensei, father." she answered.

He searched her face, making her want to look away, to look down, but she kept her eyes locked on him. "And who is this new teacher?"

"Anko Mitarashi."

Hiashi raised an eyebrow in surprise. "The snake summoner."

"Hai." she confirmed flatly.

"I suppose you will be out late most nights then, if you are truly training with a person like her. Very well. I will permit this. But if it appears to be impacting your performance in your own training here, it will be stopped immediately."

"I understand." There was no chance of that happening. Anko-sensei worked most of the day in the T&I division, which overlapped exactly with the times that Hinata would be training with her family. It worked out perfectly.

Hiashi nodded. "Good." That was his dismissal.

He turned from her back to the paperwork that sat in front of him, the scritching of his pen sounding in the silence as Hinata walked away quickly down the hallway to her room.

And because of her haste, she failed to catch the smile that Hiashi's face had gained.

"Please! Take me on as your apprentice!"

Sakura bowed deeply at the waist in front of the Godaime Hokage, her voice pleading.

Tsunade looked at her in interest. In all seriousness, she had expected the girl to come to her before now. She was perfect material for a skilled medic-nin, and even had the control to possibly inherit some of the slug Sannin's own personal techniques.

"Oh? Why?" she asked questioningly, as if she hadn't already decided and would've reached out to the girl within the week if she hadn't come to the Sannin on her own.

Sakura stood up. "Because I need to be stronger. To protect them. The people I care about. My teammates. My friends… I'm too weak. If I had been stronger…"

Good.

The girl had taken her guilt and depression at the situation and rebounded nicely, turning it into a drive to become better that couldn't possibly be any more willful.

Sakura Haruno had proven her strength.

"I accept." Tsunade grinned. "But the next years are going to be a hell you've never known."

"Naruto?" Kakashi knocked on the door to the boy's apartment. "Naruto? You in there?"

Muffled footsteps reached the door, and it opened on squeaky hinges. "Kakashi-sensei?"

He raised a hand and eye-smiled. "Yo."

"… what're you doing here?" the blonde asked, red eyes spinning lazily. They looked so strange on his face.

Kakashi pushed those thoughts away, focusing on the boy's question.

"I heard you got discharged this morning. I'm just here to check up on my cute little genin. Sakura's studying iryōjutsu as Hokage-sama's apprentice, so it's just you and me now."

"Oh." he responded somberly at the reminder of the missing fourth member of their team.

Hm… It looked like the boy needed something to distract him. Fortunately, Kakashi had brought just the thing.

A book.

And no, it wasn't one of those books, thank you very much.

The silver-haired jōnin reached into the bag at his hip and pulled the text out. "Since you're probably not up for physical training or ninjutsu for the next week or so, I thought you might like to learn something that doesn't require any of that. And knowing your style of learning, it'll probably work out okay even if you mess something up."

The blonde perked up, taking the offered book.

"… An Introduction to Fūinjutsu?" he asked, reading the title and then looking up at Kakashi in confusion.

"The same book my sensei gave me for learning. That was the Fourth Hokage's book." Naruto's eyes went wide. Hook, line, and sinker. "All of the Hokage have been skilled in Fūinjutsu, the Yondaime in particular, you know…" Kakashi trailed off, waiting for Naruto to make the jump in his own mind.

"I have to learn this!" he said excitedly.

The copy-cat ninja eye-smiled again. "I'm glad to see you have such enthusiasm about it, as it's a difficult art. You'll need that if you're going to succeed." Just a little push.

"I'll learn it! I'll become the best there is!" And there we go. Total commitment.

"Well, if you're really that sure…" The boy nodded vigorously. "I'd suggest you try it with your shadow clones. Bad seals tend to… explode. But the shadow clone is perfect for something like this. After all, you're getting all the experience they get too…"

"EHHHHH!?" The jinchūriki stared at him with wide eyes, almost looking like they would fall out of his face.

Kakashi feigned surprise and ignorance. "You didn't know that? Shadow clones return memory and experience. It's supposed to be part of the introduction for learning the technique…"

Naruto looked sheepish. "I… uh… kinda skipped that part."

"Well, now you know, right? And with the number of clones you can make, I can imagine you learning things very quickly, since you're getting everything they're studying."

"Whooaaaa…" Kakashi nodded, pleased with himself at being able to get the boy motivated again.

It wouldn't just be fast. It would be absurdly fast. He'd seen the blonde make a collection of six hundred without breaking a sweat. If he did that for a week straight, twelve hours a day, he'd have the equivalent learning experience of… five and three-quarter years. Good gods. What had he just done? What had he unleashed?

Well, too late for regrets now.

"So why don't you try it out?" he asked. The boy nodded, and ran inside to get something. Kakashi watched curiously. In a few seconds, he had returned with a pair of sunglasses.

Smart thinking. Looks like the boy had more sense than the jōnin had considered when it came to his public image.

"Alright Kakashi-sensei! See you later!" he said, locking the door and then running past him down the hall, presumably to a training ground, as Kakashi watched, amused.

Minato-sensei would be proud of you, Naruto. You'll make a fine Hokage someday… and I'm going to make sure you get there.

"Urrrhhh" All of these fancy words and math-like things were giving him a headache. "Why is this so hard!?"

Well, Kakashi-sensei had said it would be difficult.

But all the Hokages knew how to do this!

… They must have all been geniuses or something.

But he would prove them wrong! Even if he wasn't all that smart, he'd still learn this!

Because he'd said he would, and he never went back on his word, damn it!

"Ano, Naruto-kun?" A hand shook his shoulder. "Naruto-kun?

"Hrghm…" he opened his eyes slowly, blinking in the light. "Hinata-chan?" The blue-haired girl nodded. "What're you doin' here?"

"I saw you sleeping, and thought I should wake you up. It's almost four." she told him.

"Shit! Really?" Hinata nodded.

"AGGHH. It's these damn seals! I can't understand them. They're all confusing words and weird names and stuff. I don't get it!" he complained.

She giggled. "I'm sure you can do it, Naruto-kun."

"Hey! Hinata! Do you know anything about sealing?"

"Um, just a little…" It was mostly from her family's cursed seal. But she still knew a little bit. Kurenai-sensei had showed them how to write basic exploding tags, even if they weren't as strong as the store ones.

"Great! Do you think you could help me, then?"

Hinata fidgeted, thinking. She had training with Anko-sensei, and then work with Kurenai-sensei, plus her own clan training. She was pretty busy to start seriously learning something like fūinjutsu.

But this is Naruto-kun! He's asking for my help!

She nodded, and sat down on the grass next to on his left, slightly facing him. "What is it?"

"Um… this calligraphy stuff. On the first page."

Ah.

"W-well, here, I think I can show you…"

The unnatural sense that there was someone else in his room tore Naruto from his dreams, forcing him to complete alertness at a rate that would've only been matched by a veteran jōnin.

It was a sense that had saved him more than once before from the stupid villagers.

His heart pounded as he sat up in bed, quickly pulling out the kunai that he kept under his pillow and holding it in a reverse grip while he looked around frantically, trying to see if there really was anything, or it was just a dumb squirrel, like the last time.

And then his gaze landed on the glowing red eyes in the corner of the room, a circle of three tomoe rotating around the pupil slowly.

A man stepped calmly out of the shadow of the corner, the moonlight from the window illuminating his face and the deep tear-troughs that were its most obvious feature, his black hair looking like pitch, blending with the darkness behind him.

Naruto tightened his grip on the kunai as he looked at that face.

The face of Itachi Uchiha.

"Hello, Naruto-kun."

A/N:

These scenes are so much shorter than I'm used to writing. I blame the fact that I'm working with an ensemble cast instead of my usual single character focus, and still haven't felt like I've 'dropped' into the heads of the characters yet.

Please Review! Tell me what you like, what you dislike. How are the characters? How is the pacing? Where do you see this going? Where would you like it to go? Those kinds of things.

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