Guest-who-thinks-because-secrets-are-revealed-story-will-be-short: Nope. I play the long story game. This will probably be around oh... 200,000 words? At the least? Don't quote me on that if we end up going past my guesstimate.

Disclaimer: You guys all know it by now. I'm just not even going to bother with this any more.

Chapter 3:
Bonds

Naruto's heart pounded like a drum, the adrenaline in his veins forcing him to full awareness in microseconds as he stared at Itachi.

This was the man that Sasuke had attacked with his strongest technique, yet Itachi hadn't treated the attack like it was anything but a nuisance.

The blonde would have no chance. In a odd sense of thoughtfulness for him, he decided that running away would probably be the best thing to do.

Naruto looked around the room rapidly, searching for a route to escape. The window to the left of him was closed, and Itachi was right next to the door.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time that window had gotten broken.

He jumped at it, throwing his full weight behind the motion, attempting to ensure that the glass would be broken so he could fall and roll onto the roof below it. But instead of connecting with the pane of glass, a hand held him by his arm, halting his motion only inches away from the possible exit.

"There is no need for that, Naruto-kun. I'm not here to harm you."

The utter confusion that Naruto felt must have been apparent on his face, because Itachi sighed, and pulled him back over the bed so that he wouldn't just fall onto the hard wooden floor when released. The hand let go, and Naruto bounced slightly on the mattress as he landed. His kunai was still in his right had, and he held it out in front of himself defensively, even though he knew the small knife would be no match against the man in front of him.

"I'm here to talk."

"Ohhhhh." Naruto lowered his weapon, shifting to a cross-legged position on his bed.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so comfortable?" he asked, curious at the blonde's immediate lowering of his guard.

"'Cause. There's no way Sasuke's brother could get in my room and want to talk to me, since he's trying to capture me. And if he could get in my room, then he'd have already gotten me. So you've gotta be a dream." the boy explained, nodding to himself in satisfaction with his reasoning.

Itachi's eyebrow dropped. "Your logic is valid, but unsound."

"Huh?"

"You assume that I'm trying to capture you." he answered.

Naruto squinted at him. "You're weird, dream-Sasuke's brother."

Itachi sighed slightly. "I'm not a dream, Naruto. If you think I am, wake yourself up."

The boy was thoughtful as he considered the man's suggestion, and then reached over and pinched his left arm.

Hard.

"OWW!" Naruto looked around the room. Itachi was still there.

"Y-y-you're not a dream." he said, lifting his kunai back up with a shaky hand. The adrenaline that had been keeping his mind clear before was now gone, and he was feeling the full effects of the fear he held towards the man in front of him.

"Yes." Itachi confirmed.

"W-what do you want? A-are you here to take me? Are you going to kill me? I-I didn't mean for Sasuke to die, I swear!" the boy stammered out.

"No. I said that my intentions are not to capture you. And I'm already aware of what happened concerning my brother's death."

"Huh!?"

"I saw your fight, and heard my brother's final words." Itachi lied. It hadn't actually been him. Zetsu had been watching and then reported what had happened only seconds after Kakashi had left with Naruto and Sasuke's body. But it had taken three days for Kisame and Itachi to travel from where they had been to somewhere close enough to Konoha for Itachi to have a chance to find the boy.

Those three days had given him much time to think of the events and the situation. He first reactions (although he had not shown it) had been a combination of sadness, resignation, and then regret. He had known he'd wanted to see Naruto immediately after hearing the news, but it hadn't been until hours later that he'd actually determined the source of the impulse.

"Y-you were there!?" the blonde exclaimed.

"Yes."

"B-but then, why're you here!?"

"To warn you." the man told him earnestly.

"Ehhh?"

"My brother decided to entrust you with both his eyes and his final wishes. And I will trust his decision as well."

If Sasuke had given Naruto his eyes willingly, as he had, there was a deep significance to the action for an Uchiha. Their Sharingan were their pride, the very representation of their clan. Giving those to a person, especially when the Uchiha in question was on their deathbed, was the equivalent of declaring the receiver their successor in ideology and that they trusted the person to carry out their wishes without a doubt.

Sasuke had truly acknowledged Naruto as his brother in everything but blood in those last moments, a role that Itachi had willingly, foolishly, given up in his selfish quest for redemption. Oh, he had deluded himself with excuses such as he was making Sasuke stronger, strengthening his ties to the village, or giving him the opportunity to achieve closure.

But by far the largest reason had been because of Itachi's unbelievable guilt and wish for release from it. However, he could not take his own life. He was a tool of Konohagakure and could still be useful to them until his time came, whether from his brother or the disease that even now ate away at his organs.

Now, however, he recognized that taking that choice from Sasuke, forcing him onto the path of avenger and effectively destroying any chance at regaining a somewhat normal life or childhood, was wrong. Something he should not have done.

"B-but didn't you hate him? He hated you! All he wanted was to kill you!" Naruto asked in confusion.

"I never hated my brother. I loved him. I only pushed him towards that path in hopes that he would grow strong enough to be able to kill me, strengthening his ties to this village." the Uchiha explained.

"That doesn't make any sense!"

Itachi shook his head. "Not everything can be understood at once, Naruto-kun. Only once you have all of the pieces will the picture resolve itself. My brother's death because of his desire for power at any cost was my doing, and I now realize that it was wrong to force that decision onto him. Because Sasuke has passed on his will to you, I will ensure that you live so that his will does not die and I might atone for some small part of my sins."

"A-and so what? What does that mean?"

"It does not matter right now." he said stoicly, unwilling to reveal everything at once. "I am here to tell you that the Akatsuki are moving forward with their plan. The five-tails jinchūriki has already been captured, and the bijū sealed. The next is the seven-tails in eight months. You are intended as the last, in four years. You have four years to-"

Naruto cut him off. "They killed one of us...?" He looked up at Itachi, his eyes spinning wildly.

"Yes."

"..." Naruto's irises began circling faster as he subconsciously pushed more and more chakra towards them until they changed shape, morphing into a six-pointed star.

Mangekyō!?

How...!? He was sure Sasuke had not gained the Mangekyō Sharingan, which meant Naruto himself had unlocked the eye's evolution. A non-Uchiha. That was unheard of.

You truly are one to watch, Naruto-kun.

The boy growled, the whisker-marks on his cheeks becoming darker, his pupils becoming slits embedded perfectly within the pattern of his eyes. "Where?"

"...where?" Itachi asked, not understanding.

"Where are they!? The next one!" he rumbled, his voice sounding like it came from his chest.

"I only know they are located in Takigakure." the man answered honestly. "Are you concerned about them? You don't even know-"

Naruto glared at him, the Mangekyō pattern in his eyes glowing dangerously, his face shrouded in darkness. The silver light of the moon behind him highlighted his golden hair, making him look almost ethereal. "We're the only ones who understand each other. Who know what it's like. They're precious to me, even if I don't know them."

Meeting Gaara had changed him. Naruto had realized that it was possible that the others like him could have it far worse than he had, and be in just as much need of a friend. Nobody deserved the treatment they got as living seals. Living sacrifices. Nobody was willing to help them when they needed it. Or in Gaara's case, even be a friend.

It made his blood boil.

This group was hunting down the people who were practically his siblings through circumstance, those that had been condemned to their fate without a choice, a life of holding the tailed beasts. Eventually, the Akatsuki would even come for Gaara and him. But he was not going to stand by doing nothing, knowing that the others could die for some stupid reason he didn't even know.

Not if I can do anything about it. he thought angrily.

Sasuke had given him these eyes, this power, to protect the people he cared about. What good was it if he didn't use it? He had made a vow. And he would keep it, no matter what.

"... I see." Itachi paused, deciding to change the subject to keep the conversation on-topic. "That's only the first thing I'm here to warn you about. The second is potentially more dangerous. You must beware the roots beneath the tree, Naruto. You've gained a power that will make them nervous and even seek to destroy you. Your rapid development and progress will only make them more wary. Watch your every step, and be aware of those who you trust."

"W-what!? What do you mean?" Naruto asked, not understanding metaphor that the man had used.

"A man named Danzō Shimura, Naruto. Do not trust him." Itachi's voice was deadly serious. "He will seek to use you and break you, turning you only into a shell of what you are. Do not let him. When he discovers that you won't bend to his will, he'll turn to trying to eliminate you."

Naruto nodded slowly, his eyes morphing back to their original three-tomoe state as he calmed down. "O-okay."

"Good. I'll be watching you, Naruto-kun, to ensure that you uphold my brother's will and that you live so long as you are. Don't tell anyone of this meeting."

Naruto gulped. He could hear the implied or else.

The Uchiha turned, as if to leave.

"W-wait!" the blonde said, reaching out with his left hand, the one without the kunai. "Why... why did you do it?"

"...?" Itachi looked at him blankly.

"... kill your family. You... you don't seem like you're a bad person ...now. S-so why did you do it?" he asked.

Naruto couldn't understand why anyone would do something so terrible. Before it had seemed like Itachi was crazy. But now, it felt to him like the man was just... alone.

"..." the ex-ANBU captain stared at him. "Because I had no choice. To protect the Will of Fire."

Without any warning, he broke apart into a murder of crows, flapping and cawing as they dissolved into the inky shadows of Naruto's room.

He had no choice? What did that mean?

Naruto was left completely lost, staring at the place that the man had been until he finally became too tired and lay down, surrendering to sleep.

The sound of birds chirping woke him the next morning, and Naruto yawned widely before remembering the events of the night.

Itachi.

He had been here, and what the man had told him only served to raise more questions.

Why hadn't he captured him?

Why had he warned him of those things?

Allegedly to protect Naruto himself because of Sasuke's death and Itachi's wish to honor his brother's wishes.

He had said he'd only pushed Sasuke to kill him because of he wanted Sasuke to be closer to the village. But that made no sense.

Had everything so far been an act? And if he was as sane and even... normal as he had seemed, it made no sense why he would have killed his own family.

The only clue Naruto had was that it was to 'protect the Will of Fire', which Naruto didn't understand at all.

Thinking about it made his head hurt.

And then there was the fact that the other jinchūriki were being captured and killed.

He hated it.

They were seen as demons by the civilians, and weapons by the shinobi. And this group was going around and killing them like they had no right to live.

It made him furious.

Itachi had told him where their next target was. Takigakure. That gave him a lead, plus ero-sennin would probably be okay with doing anything that got him more information about the Akatsuki.

Naruto would not let another one of them be killed.

He was bored.

After a breakfast of plain toast and some eggs (he didn't eat ramen all the time) , he had tried to decide what to do for the day. Tsunade-baachan had made him promise not to do any physical training or ninjutsu for a week to make sure his body had completely healed. But that left him able to do almost nothing.

Only that sealing stuff. And it was hard.

Hinata-chan had helped him with his calligraphy (his clones were practicing around him in the field of the training ground he was using), and Naruto was trying to read the following chapter to get an idea for what was next. But reading was getting him nowhere. He'd been staring at this page for the last half hour, and still had no better idea what it was talking about than when he'd read it the first time.

It kept talking about character types and elements and weights and influence and balance. It left him in a sea of confusion that he was struggling not to drown in.

Hinata had shown him a "simple" exploding tag and what Kurenai had taught her about them. It turns out you can't just write "This should explode". There was all this stuff about blast size, radius, delay, rate of burn, and even how the chakra was converted into a rapid exothermic reaction that caused the explosion itself.

It was not "simple". He had been lost until she had started explaining it using simpler words.

Yes, his new eyes allowed him to remember what it had looked like, and probably even let him reproduce it with some effort at drawing the characters, but he didn't want to just remember what a seal looked like.

He wanted to understand them.

And that was why he was forcing himself to stare at this page of unintelligible words at seven in the morning, trying to divine their meaning.

... Which was doing nothing.

Where was Kakashi-sensei when he needed him?

"Yo."

"AHHHHHHH!" Naruto jumped, startled from the unexpected intrusion, and looked to the left, staring wide-eyed at the silver-haired jōnin.

"Mah. No need to get so excited Naruto, I already told you it was just you and me from now on." Kakashi said.

Naruto slowly settled down, calming his pounding pulse. "...right."

Now was about the time when they were all supposed to meet to do their training together. Except Kakashi had never shown up any earlier than nine.

"I see you took my advice on the clones." he commented, looking around at the veritable ocean of blondes, all with scroll, ink, and a brush. "Smart of you to have them do calligraphy." Naruto smiled at the praise. The jōnin turned back to him, eyeing the book in his lap. "But you look like you're not making much progress, hm?"

"It's all these weird words!" Naruto defended.

Kakashi shook his head. "It's because you learn better by doing instead of just reading. I knew you'd have trouble with just the book, which is why I'm here. I can go over things with you and show you how they work in practice, which should help you understand the concepts."

"Oh. Thanks, sensei."

The man smiled and waved it off. "It's what I'm here for, right?"

Anko twirled a kunai around her finger, facing Hinata. "So. You're getting better about evasion and learning when to strike and when to dodge. But you're still too predictable in your attacks and counters. You know anything besides Jūken?"

They stood in a field close to Training Ground 44, the Forest of Death, which was where Anko preferred to do their training. She said it was more about nostalgia than anything, but Hinata had a suspicion that there was more to it.

"My family does not teach anything other than taijutsu and chakra manipulation techniques." she answered quietly.

"Huh. That must suck. And Nai-chan hasn't tested your affinities or anything?" the tokubetsu jōnin asked.

Hinata shook her head in denial.

Hyūga family techniques were all pure chakra. No elemental transformation at all. It made it easier to teach everybody the same thing, since there was no training required in which one person could be better because of an affinity.

"Looks like we got something to do then. I'll have to get some chakra paper. But for now..."

The kunai that had been twirling aimlessly around the woman's pointer was now flying quickly at Hinata's forehead.

She had learned early on that Anko did not pull punches. Every attack she made was able to inflict serious injury in some way, but at the same time, she never made lethal attacks unless she was sure Hinata could defend against them. The Hyūga had also quickly discovered that blocking was much more taxing than just leaning a few inches to avoid an attack. She'd stopped intercepting things yesterday, instead using flexibility to avoid strikes and weapons that aimed for her, trying to take those openings to attack the purple-haired woman.

Anko had told her not to hold back, that she could take Hinata's attacks. She... wasn't too sure about that and still avoided using a complete chakra touch when attacking.

Hinata leaned four inches to the right, not even shifting her feet, allowing the kunai to sail past her.

"Good. You've learned that blocking is a terrible idea when you can avoid." Anko commented. "But chakra techniques aren't going to be some sort of complete solution to your predictability." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, staring off to the right of Hinata. "Mmmm... I wonder if we could integrate some of Hebi into your style without making your clan go apeshit about 'destroying their sacred art'. You can't all use the same style, 'cause everybody's a little different. You're pretty flexible, so it would work well if we could do it."

The Hyūga tapped her fingers together nervously before noticing what she was doing and shoving her hands behind her back. "A-ano. I don't know if that would be a good idea..."

Her father would probably react just like Anko had described, declaring it sacrilege to their ancestors and the style that had been passed down for generations.

"Yeah, well, I've never given a shit about what people think. And you shouldn't either, girly. Being what people expect just weighs you down. You can't be anything special if you do that." the woman said. "And you want to impress that boy of yours, don't you...?" Hinata blushed, and struggled to keep her eyes from going towards the ground. "Ahahahahaha! I don't think I'll ever get tired of that. But c'mon, get over here." The blue-haired girl eyed her cautiously. Anko had tried more than once to lull her into a false sense of security. "Smart, but I won't attack you this time."

Hinata walked over to the tokubetsu jōnin, still wary.

Anko rolled her eyes. "Relax girl. You won't be able to get this if you're so damn tense. The first stance is this..."

"Yo, Naruto."

The mentioned blonde turned around at the mention of his name as Shikamaru pushed aside the cloth sign of Ichiraku Ramen. "Hey Shikamaru! Whatcha doing?"

The Nara looked at him with half-lidded eyed. "I was watching clouds. Then Temari found me and told me to go do something other than just lay around all the time. She's almost as bad as my mom. I went and saw Chōji, but he's still recovering and can't even get out of bed yet. So I was just walking around. What about you?"

Naruto didn't have a bowl of ramen in front of him, which was so out of place that Shikamaru did a double take. Instead of a bowl, there was a scroll, while Naruto held a brush in one hand.

"Oh! Sealing stuff! Kakashi-sensei's teaching me. I'm supposed to solve this thingy, and then I can get ramen! Teuchi-jiisan won't give me any unless this one matches the answer he's got. Kakashi said something about 'incentives'."

That... was downright devious. Fūinjutsu was notoriously difficult to learn. But when it came to Naruto and ramen, nothing would stand in his way.

Shikamaru got onto a stool to take a better look. The seal was simple, only six characters. At least, so far.

"This one's broken. I'm supposed to fix it so it lights up when you use it." Naruto said. "Sensei said I had to do this one 'cause it won't blow up if you get something wrong." The blonde chewed on the end of his brush thoughtfully, screwing up his face as he stared in front of him. And then his eyes landed on the glowing red-hot electric burner over in the corner. "Ah! I got it!" Shikamaru watched him as he wrote the character for 'heat' in a missing spot in the collection. The blonde channeled chakra into the tag, looking at it anxiously before the circular area in the center of the seal started glowing white. "Yatta! Hey old man, bring me a bowl! I finally got it!"

The owner of the restaurant poked his head out of the back, looking around the corner. "Oh you did, did you? Well let me see it first." he said, walking to the counter and pulling out a scroll which he unrolled in his hands. Naruto turned his own paper around so that Teuchi could see it. The older man nodded in satisfaction. "Good job. One bowl, coming up." He rolled the scroll up and put it in his apron as Naruto did the same, shoving it into a pocket of his jumpsuit.

"Would you like anything?" Teuchi asked Shikamaru, placing a large bowl in front of the blonde on his right, who eagerly snapped the accompanying pair of chopsticks and started slurping noodles up.

"Ehhh. I'm fine." he replied. "I already ate." Troublesome mothers. He turned to Naruto. "So you're learning sealing, huh? And not just the small stuff, but all the way."

The other boy nodded, swallowing. "M-hm! All the Hokages knew it, so I've gotta know it too."

Ah. So that's how he'd been convinced. Shikamaru couldn't imagine someone like Naruto just randomly trying to learn something like fūinjutsu and actually keeping with it without some deep personal reason. Which he obviously had.

And when Naruto decided to do something, he didn't give up until he'd done it.

Everybody knew that.

Sakura stared at the whiteboard in the front of the room as the instructor at the front droned on.

When she'd asked to be Tsunade's apprentice, she'd expected to, you know, actually learn from the woman.

But noooo.

Instead, she had to go through the year-long iryōnin program. They didn't even start working with animals until three months in. And they wouldn't even touch living people until the ninth month.

She sighed. She'd already gone through the textbooks, looking at everything they would cover. Everything from basic cellular biology to human physiology to genetics and bloodline limits. It was a lot of material. She could understand why they did it. And even agreed with the requirement Hokage-sama had given her. But that didn't make the classes any less boring than they were.

Sakura wondered what Naruto and Kakashi were doing. She hadn't seen either of the two for the past two days, since Naruto had been released from the hospital. It was only then that she'd realized she didn't even know where the blonde lived, and therefore couldn't see how he was.

She was still wrestling with her feelings over Sasuke and his death, but there was nothing to be done about that.

She had a feeling she would be doing it for a while.

The professor stopped talking, and looking at the clock, Sakura noted that it was 3:00, the time that classes ended for the day. Picking up her bag, she walked out of the classroom, through the halls of the Academy (who'd have thought she'd end up here again less than two years after graduating), and out the door, breathing in the fresh air of the outside.

She found herself wandering towards the training area where Kakashi had given them the bell test. Walking through the trees to the clearing where it had all started, she was shocked to find the swathe of yellow that greeted her in the form of hundreds of clones seated on the ground.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" one of the Narutos said. On hearing his words, all of the others turned towards her in waves, red eyes looking up at her from under blonde hair. Sakura repressed the impulse to shiver under their gaze. The scene was just creepy.

"Uh, hey." she said weakly. "I didn't expect you to be here. What are you doing?" It looked like all of the clones had a scroll in front of them and a brush in their hands.

"Practicing kanji!" one of them said. "We're learning sealing! Isn't that cool?"

Sakura blinked, dumbfounded.

Sealing!? This was Naruto, right? What the heck could motivate him enough to learn something as intellectual as sealing?

The collective seemed to be waiting for a response. "Y-yeah. It is pretty cool." she responded.

The Narutos nodded vigorously in agreement. "It's really hard, but Kakashi-sensei is helping us. He even gave us his book! It was the Fourth Hokage's!" one in the front said excitedly. "It's confusing, but Kakashi said that's just because I learn by doing stuff instead of reading."

Yeah, that was more like the Naruto she knew. Which meant the world wasn't coming to an end like she had feared

Thank gods.

"You're with Tsunade-baachan now, right?" the same one asked, which appeared to have become the designated speaker. The majority of the others not in her immediate vicinity turned back to their work, leaving only a circle of about a dozen or so actually paying attention to her.

"Not... really. I have to go through the standard medic-nin program first. " she told him. "Which is a year."

They looked at her with surprise. "That's kinda long, ne?"

"Yeah..." Sakura sighed, leaning backwards against the tree she was standing in front of. "But she told me I have to do this if I'm going to be her student. She'll still do a few things with me, but until I've graduated I won't officially be her apprentice."

Some of the Narutos nodded in sympathy. "I wouldn't go back to school even if you paid me. It sucked."

She smiled slightly at the thought of Naruto willingly going back to school. That really would mean the world was ending.

Those days at the Academy seemed so far away. They'd been so naïve and innocent back then. But hearing about the things that happened to ninja and experiencing them first hand were totally different. She'd known that the death-rate of newly minted genin in their first year was anywhere from fifteen to thirty five percent of a graduating class. That decreased as ninja got older, but only because the ones who survived got stronger and learned from the experiences.

She'd just never expected those statistics to affect them.

With Sharingan Kakashi, Sasuke Uchiha the clan prodigy, Naruto the loud-mouthed stamina freak, and... her. Well, she honestly would have expected it to be her out of all of them.

But instead it had been Sasuke. And now she was studying to become one of the apprentices of the strongest ninja, resolved to never let another teammate die, while Naruto was visibly more subdued and thoughtful, approaching things with a level of seriousness and commitment she'd never expected to see from him.

"We've really changed, haven't we?" she commented softly.

The clones became downcast. "Yeah... It's different..." the speaker said, trailing off.

without Sasuke. was the unsaid ending.

Without Sasuke, there was a hole in their life. In their team. But nobody around them seemed affected. Everybody's life went on like normal.

When the Third had died, everybody had been somber for a few weeks following, like a cloud had descended over Konoha. But Sasuke wasn't nearly as important to as many people as the Third Hokage had. No. He had only been that important to the other members of Team 7.

You were an idiot to throw that away, Sasuke-kun. she thought sadly.

And now their team was down to three, never knowing if something might happen to reduce that even further before they were strong enough to prevent it from happening again.

"...Hey, you want to go out and get lunch sometime?" Sakura asked. The collection of clones stared at her. "Not a date. Just friends." she clarified.

"I figured..." he said, staring down at the ground. "I... I don't want a date. It's like... we're family now. It'd just be weird, ya know?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

Itachi blinked as the memories of his shadow clone returned to him almost a day after he'd sent it out.

... Mangekyō?

Yes, with something like that it would best to keep a closer eye on Naruto-kun.

"What's wrong?" the blue-skinned man on his left asked.

"Nothing."

The paper in Hinata's hand crinkled.

"Lightning?" Anko questioned incredulously, staring at the square. "Well, shit. I was sure you were going to be Fire. I don't know the Lightning transformation exercises. Hrm." She stood thinking for a second. "Ah! Come on, I know just the guy we can bug about this."

She ran off, leaving Hinata standing there before she hurriedly followed her rather explosive sensei.

The Hyūga caught up with her just as they exited the training ground.

"...Knowing him he's probably over at the Stone. If he's not, I'll just get one of my snakes to track him down since the place is practically covered in his scent." Anko explained as they jumped between trees. "It's not too much farther."

They broke out of the foliage, greeted by a sea of Narutos who stared at them with wide eyes. Well, stared at Anko. Hinata blinked at the sight while the snake summoner jumped down to the ground and went up to the closest one. "Hey brat, you seen Kakashi?"

The conglomeration pointed further on down the mass towards a tree where the silver-haired jōnin sat with another blonde. More than likely the real one.

Hinata followed the purple-haired woman as they made their way over to the man. "Hey Kakashi!"

He turned his head and eye-smiled. "Hello, Anko."

The blonde in front of him whipped his head around. "Crazy snake lady!?"

"Hey brat, how's it going? Miss me?" He shook his head quickly. "Aw. I'm hurt."

"Hello, Naruto-kun." Hinata greeted from her spot on the purple-haired woman's right.

"Hey Hinata-chan!"

"What do you need?" Kakashi asked, looking at the tokubetsu jōnin.

"Jeez, Kakashi. Can't I just say hi?" He stared at her with a single half-lidded eye. "Alright, alright." Anko pulled Hinata in front of her, a hand on each shoulder. "Girl here has a Lightning affinity. And I got nothing for that. Think you could show us some stuff to start her off? Give her some tips or something?"

The man turned and looked at the boy next to him whose Sharingan circled slowly before returning to face Anko. "Actually, yes. It'd be a good lesson for Naruto as well." The boy perked up, curious. "Are you staying?"

"Eh, sure. Why the hell not." She sat down heavily cross-legged, and Hinata repeated the action.

"Has Anko told you about chakra natures?" Kakashi asked.

The Hyūga shook her head. "But we went over them in school..."

"Well, I'll go over it again for Naruto's benefit, then." He looked at the boy on his left and held out his hand palm facing up. "Here, Naruto, let me see that."

The blonde handed his brush over and Kakashi turned the scroll so it was facing him. "So there are five basic elements. Wind over Lightning. Lightning over Earth. Earth over Water. Water over Fire. Fire over Wind." he said, drawing the characters for each respective element in a circle with a line pointing to the next one. "This is the diagram of strengths and weaknesses. It means that if you have two techniques of the same power, one which is Fūton and the other which is Katon, the Fire technique will always overpower the Wind one. Understand so far?" The two genin nodded. "Everyone has at least one affinity, a nature that they are more in tune with and is easier for them to master. You can still learn other techniques, but they won't be as powerful until you master that nature as well. For example, I have a Raiton affinity, but can still use Suiton techniques, like you saw in Wave."

"Um... but Haku had those Ice-mirror things..." Naruto said. "And that's not an element, right?"

"Right. That's a kind of kekkei genkai which allows the user to combine two chakra natures instinctively and create a new one, called a recomposition" Kakashi drew more lines on the paper, arcs and lines that would intersect. "Hyōton is created from Water and Wind. Similarly, Mokuton, the Shodai Hokage's Wood element, is composed of Water and Earth. There are a number of them, but those are the two you already know about. Recomposition can be done without a kekkei genkai, but it takes decades of practice with control and the component natures to do that without the bloodline."

The blonde sat, his face scrunched up, while Hinata looked over the diagram on the scroll.

"...But what about Shikamaru's shadows? Or Chōji's giant-body stuff? Those aren't elemental things, but they're still chakra, right?"

"Those are Yin and Yang. They're a bit... complex, but basically, Yin is form without life, while Yang is life without form." The man noted Naruto's blank look. "Yin is tied to your mind, while Yang is connected your body. For instance, Yin is used in genjutsu, to manipulate a person's perception, while Yang is used by the Akimichi to enhance their bodies."

"... Okay. I think I get it."

"It's not really something you need to worry about right now, anyways. We're only going to be focusing on one of the basic elements. Lightning-natured chakra is created from high-frequency vibration. Here... I'll demonstrate. Both of you should be able to see this, Hinata, you'll need your Byakugan." The girl nodded, and the veins around her eyes bulged as she activated her dōjutsu. "Since this is just alteration of chakra, it doesn't require any hand signs."

Kakashi held his palm out and began creating Lightning chakra in the center, which sparked wildly in the air until he stopped. "Did you see that?"

The blonde nodded. "It was like your chakra was moving really, really fast and went all bluish and sparky."

"Right. That's the vibration. I did it slowly so you guys could see it. The best way to practice is to do what I just showed you, creating arcs in your palm until you get them to be about six inches long. Does that help?" he asked looking at Anko and Hinata.

"Yeah, that's perfect. Thanks Hatake, I owe you one."

"Mah. It's fine ...Naruto, have half your clones start practicing trying to convert their chakra to a Lightning nature."

The boy created a cross with his fingers, forming a single shadow clone, which then dispelled immediately. Half of the blondes in the field split off and started staring at their hands.

"Pretty fancy." Anko commented. "That's a hell of a training method you've got there, kid."

"Naruto's really the only one who can use something like this, but we've found it helps his progress ...a lot."

"I can imagine. Well, girl, you want to try what he told you now?" Hinata nodded in response. "Alright then. I'll leave you here to work with them since it's just about time for me to get back to work. Don't do anything I wouldn't while I'm gone, you hear?" she said, standing up and winking at the Hyūga. Hinata blushed. "Haha, see ya." The woman vanished in a swirl of leaves and a flash of purple.

"Hey, Hinata. What'd she mean by that?" Naruto asked.

Her face turned a whole new shade of red.

Two weeks later

A loud 'fump' went off from the direction of Training Ground 3, causing people to stop, and then shake their heads as they thought they had only imagined the sound.

"Okay. Well. That's not how a storage seal's supposed to work." Kakashi said.

Naruto and his collection of clones eyed the large fifty foot crater that had just been formed. Not by an explosion, but by his first storage seal imploding and absorbing everything around it in a radius of twenty five feet, the piece of paper that had the seal written on it floating through the air towards the bottom of the pit.

"Well, even though it's a failure, you should probably still remember how you made it. That might be pretty useful someday..." the one-eyed man commented, getting all of the blondes to nod in agreement.

One of the clones slid down the large depression to the bottom, picking up the piece of paper and staring at it for a moment to memorize it. "Okay! Got it! I'm going to try unsealing it now!" The clone channeled some chakra into the paper...

And was promptly crushed by two million pounds of soil.

The Narutos collectively winced as the memories of that clone's last moments came back to them in perfect detail. "Well, we know that it works, right?" he said, looking sheepishly at Kakashi.

"I guess that's one way to put it... but you should try and make a storage seal that actually works." he replied, prompting murmured assents from all of the clones. "Where do you think the problem was?"

A clone 'hm'-ed thoughtfully, and then snapped its fingers. "That sub-array thingy! The one that has to do with detecting object sizes and stuff! I think that's what went wrong!"

"That would make sense, but where's the actual problem then?" Kakashi asked. "Was it technique? Or balance? Or something simpler?"

All of the Narutos adopted a thinking pose, comparing the seal they'd drawn with the one in the book by memory.

"Ah! We missed a radical!" one exclaimed.

"Which one?" another asked.

"On that third character to the right, five from the top!"

"Oooooohhhhhhhhhh" they all said together.

"Good." Kakashi eye-smiled. "Learn from this. Even the smallest mistake can result in a seal going bad. You were lucky it only did what we expected, just in an unexpected way. Normally, it would explode from chakra overload.

"Now, try it again."

"What the hell have you been doing to Hinata?"

Anko grinned. "What, you don't like it?"

Kurenai shook her head "No, it's not bad... just, different."

There really wasn't any other way to put it.

She was still somewhat skittish at times, but now when Hinata was asked a question she would respond firmly, instead of the slight uncertainty that had always crept into her voice before. In the beginning when the response she gave was wrong she'd still retreat slightly. But by this second week she was now taking those mistakes as motivation to do better, and would only work harder when they happened. And lately there were times that Kurenai had noted the girl forcefully dragging her eyes up to people's faces, or hastily stopping the nervous tic whenever she caught herself. It wasn't a ton of progress, but she was getting there.

"Well, I think it's great." The genjutsu mistress rolled her eyes at her friend's statement and took another sip of the drink that was in front of her on the bar. "The girl's finally getting the idea that unless you say something, nothing's going to change. It only took a couple of humiliating experiences before she grew a spine and figured out she could say 'no'. Less than I expected."

"I shouldn't even ask, should I?"

"Nope!" Anko responded cheerfully.

Kurenai sighed. "Just... leave some of her psyche and personality intact, alright? She's such a sweet girl."

"Ehhh...? Do I have to?" she whined, getting a nod as an answer. "...Fiiiiineee." The purple-haired woman pouted. "But only because it's you, Nai-chan. She could have been like a mini-me..." the snake summoner said wistfully, staring off into the distance.

Kurenai shivered. One Anko Mitarashi was more than enough. Two would be a nightmare.

"I don't think Hiashi-sama would have appreciate you turning his eldest daughter into a clone of yourself." she retorted.

"Well, we'll never know now, will we?" the snake summoner said shortly in mock bitterness. A moment of silence passed between them, only the sounds of the conversations around them filling the expanse. "You know, I'm thinking of giving her the snake contract."

Kurenai turned to look at the woman on her right in shock, who was staring at the tumbler of gin in her hands, rolling it between her palms on the counter-top. "Are... are you serious!?" Anko made no sound, just continuing to rotate the glass. "Y-you really are, aren't you? But that means you'd be taking her on as an actual apprentice!"

"...yeah." was the soft response.

"B-but... why?"

Anko had sworn she'd never take on a student because she wouldn't have time to coddle some kid and didn't want to go to the trouble.

The purplette sighed. "'Cause I've decided I'd be letting that bastard snake win if all my life meant was trying to kill him. And the girl's grown on me. She's smart. She works hard. She doesn't give up. It makes me want to teach her stuff."

"... she reminds you of yourself." Kurenai said in flash of insight.

The woman next to her scoffed. "Tch. Yeah. Isn't that pathetic? Her, the Hyūga no hime."

The genjutsu mistress shook her head. "Hinata's not like that. She's had a really tough time with her family, being looked over and discarded in favor of her sister as the heiress. It makes sense that you could sympathize with that."

Anko was silent for a second before she replied. "...yeah. I know." She took a drink from the tumbler that she still held, and set it back down on the scarred and abused wooden surface that she was leaning on.

"Well, we'll have to talk to Hokage-sama about it. I'd still want her to go on missions with Team 8, at least most of them. I'm not too happy that you're taking one of my favorite students." Kurenai said harshly. And then her voice softened. "But I know what this means to you. So I'm happy that you're doing it."

Anko turned to her and smiled, even if it was tinged with slight melancholy. "Thanks, Nai-chan."

A/N:

I think I've finally hit that sweet-spot that I try to get in writing scenes and characters.

... This is the second chapter in a row where I've had Naruto eating ramen. I hope that doesn't become a recurring theme, haha.

Please review! Every little thing helps :)