Recap: After having his clan slaughtered, Itachi Uchiha is determined to fulfill his promise to Sasuke while also learning a thing or two about friendship. More troubles and trials will have to be faced on the way!

Warflower: And yeah, thanks! It'll be Hatake from now on;)

Chapter 2: We are a team! Believe it!

After doing what Itachi would've normally did, he went downstairs and went to the kitchen. 'Kakashi told me not to eat didn't he?' With breakfast out of the way, he was already out of his apartment and walking down the streets of Konoha to the red bridge where the newly establish Team seven would meet up.

Konohamaru Sarutobi, or honorary grandson as everyone called him, tripped on his long scarf, dropping all of his magazines to study his new jutsu from.

Itachi picked up the magazines. 'What is a kid doing with porn magazines?' He handed it to the kid. "Here you go, Konohamaru." Itachi said, he started to walk again before once again stopped by Konohamaru.

"Hey, Mister! You're the guy that Naruto-bro always complains about!" Konohamaru pointed out.

"Oh is that so?"

"Although, I've always imagined you as an actual weasel."

"...that's just my name."

"Your name is weasel? That must be tough to live with."

"No it's Itachi, which means...my name does translate to weasel."

"You know what? That's it! Itachi, from now on, you're the boss' handy-man!"

"Handy-man?"

"Every boss needs one ya know."

Itachi continued walking, finally ending up at the bridge. He saw Sakura and Naruto already there, however, Kakashi proved to be late.

"Itachi! You're here!" Sakura squealed, running down to hug him.

"Humph! I don't know what you see in him, Sakura. I think he's really annoying." Naruto stated, crossing his arms and turning his head.

"So what? Itachi doesn't wake up everyday to impress you." Sakura shot back, defending her crush.

"But uh...I wake up everyday to impress you, Sakura!" Naruto yelled in a more ditzy tone. "You'll give me a kiss, right?"

"Yeah in your dreams." Sakura shot back.

"Hello everyone!" Kakashi greeted randomly appearing on the rails of the red bridge.

"Why are you late sensei?" Naruto demanded.

"I ran into a parade." Kakashi replied.

"Yeah right, Kakashi-sensei!"

Later at a different location...

"So, I would love to get to know everyone a little bit better." Kakashi started off, as he flipped to a certain page in his book.

"Let's say what we like, dislike, what our hobbies are, and our dream for the future will be. Naruto, you can go first for us."

"Alright! So what I like is ramen, especially the ramen at the Ichiraku Ramen shop! Oh it's so tasty! What I dislike is the three minutes you have to wait after you pour in the boiling water. My hobbies are um...eating ramen. And to be the next Hokage, that is my dream!"

"Sakura, it's your turn."

"I like ummm," Sakura looked at Itachi, she giggled and blushed. "I dislike Naruto my hobbies are uhh to..."

"Alright, that's enough, Sakura." Kakashi cut off Sakura seeing as she would never finish. "And now, finally you, Itachi.

"I like very little things and I dislike just about everything, my only hobby is to think of the future. I especially hate my idea of a dream. If you want to call it a dream that is, it's more of a reality because I will fulfill my promise and that is no dream."

Naruto and Sakura stared at Itachi. This guy was definitely something else.

"Hey! What about you sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Hm? Things I like and things I hate…I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future…I have nothing in mind. My hobbies? Well I have many hobbies.

'Hey! No way! He just half-assed us!'

"...Now I wanted to do something...yeah there's enough time. Follow me, please." Kakashi instructed.

Team seven followed Kakashi to an open field, perfect for training. Although, it was a quite beautiful green field with a surrounding forest to complete. Just on the edge was a dazzling lake and in the middle were three posts.

"Ok everyone! We're going to do a survival test!" Kakashi explained, he held out two bells joined together by a string. "Only two of you can receive your lunch and that's by taking these bells away from me. Since there's only two bells one of you will be kicked out and sent back to the academy."

"You can use shurikens and other ninja weapons if you like, but to win you must come at me as if you want to kill me." Kakashi furthered explained as he dangled the bells in front of their faces.

Naruto laughed. "Ha! Yeah, this'll be a piece of cake!"

"Laugh as you wish, Naruto, but class clowns are usually the weakest and first die." Kakashi rebutted.

That got him upset. "Take that back!" Naruto yelled, he lunged towards Kakashi, who easily dodged the attack.

"Good job Naruto, trying to kill me like that. But...I never even said begin."

"Just shut-up!"

"Now...you may begin!"

Itachi and Sakura vanished while Naruto stayed behind to go head on with his sensei.

XxxxxXxxx

'Only two can pass, a three man team doesn't make sense, no not in the ninja world.' AsItachi thought, he decided on what to do already, and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

'What're you doing, Kakashi?'

Finally Itachi stood up, from behind the bushes, he walked out into the open and saw Kakashi just sitting there reading a book, seemingly he already took care of Naruto. Quickly, Itachi ran up to strike him, before he could land a hit, Kakashi quickly swiped his hand up and blocked his attack.

Itachi smirked. "Is that all you got, Kakashi?"

"Huh? That's some odd behavior, it's almost like..." Kakashi raised his kunai and slashed it through Itachi's body making him disappear. "...It's not even you. Itachi, you need to work on your shadow clones. They act nothing like you."

"You are correct, sensei. It's like my clones have a mind of their own." Itachi said, reappearing.

Kakashi paused, he looked behind him and saw Itachi sticking a kunai through his back. Then looked down, as a pool of blood formed around his feet,

"Itachi?" Kakashi asked. 'He can do genjutsu? Very powerful ones at that.'

Itachi vanished and before he knew it, Itachi was there again this time sticking another kunai through his stomach. 'Hm, I guess he got me there.'

"Release!"

Itachi thought for a bit, he had the perfect opportunity. 'I finally see what you're doing, Kakashi.'

With the jutsu released, he reached for his side. 'Ah, I thought you were smarter than-' Surprisingly, the bells remained, untouched. "Huh? Why didn't you take them, Itachi?"

An ear-piercing scream erupted from Sakura. And spiraled through the forest.

'Looks like the genjutsu of my own is working.'

Noon...

Kakashi rounded up the team, and began scolding them for their efforts. "What you guys are lacking is teamwork, if none of you can get the bells in time, all of you will just have to go back to the academy." Kakashi sighed, he got out only two lunches and handed them to Sakura and Itachi.

"On another note, If I see you feeding Naruto any food, then you'll be kicked out of the shinobi program for good and you will never, ever be able to become a shinobi." Kakashi warned and in a flash he left.

Naruto heard about shinobi who were kicked out of the program, it was something he couldn't bare to live through.

Naruto's stomach began rumbling. "Ughhh-my stomach is so emp-"

Before he could finish, Itachi's boxed's lunch was right below Naruto's chin.

"...wha..."

Sakura got the message and held up her lunch box as well.

"But Itachi, Sakura, you're gonna get kicked out of the shinobi program!"

Itachi looked up to Naruto. "We all need to have our energy if we want to fight together as a...team."

"...You guys, but uh, I can't eat like this ya' know!"

Itachi sighed. "Then Sakura and I will feed you if we have to."

Sakura groaned. 'The last thing I wanna do is feed the idiot.'

"YOU!" Kakashi yelled with a furious look on his face, scaring the crap out of everyone.

"Kakashi-sensei, wait! You can't fail just them. We're a team, if they go I go too!" Naruto yelled, kicking his feet up in the air.

"...pass."

Naruto and Sakura looked at Kakashi in confusion.

"What-why? We broke the rules."

"It's true in the ninja world, those who don't follow the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are far worse than scum..."

XxxxxXxxx

Sasuke...

Sasuke was at a dock, waiting for his new partner to come, after just joining the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, his original partner, tried to take his body. Now that he's left, Sasuke was appointed a new partner.

Finally, footsteps approached the Uchiha. He spoke rather, odd. "My name is Kisame Hoshigaki, I'm your new partner." Kisame greeted.

Sasuke turned around and studied him. Kisame to him could only be described as a human shark with a giant bandaged up sword. "Hey." Sasuke simply said, returning to gazing at the water.

"Sasuke, is it? Do you have some interesting skills I should know about?"

"I'm sure you'll find out, pretty soon. As I hear, our first mission will be to recruit another member."

"Is that so? I've heard of what you did the your clan, Sasuke. To kill so many, I actually already have an idea of your power."

"And I've heard about you as well, Kisame."

XxxxxXxxx

"Itachi, are you by the target?" Naruto asked, talking as quietly as he could into the headset.

"Affirmative, approaching target." Itachi answered, crouching behind a bush, moving slowly towards the weasel.

"Good. Over and out."

"Copy that."

Third Hokage's office...

After the easily passable D-rank mission Team seven was back in the Third's office celebrating their first successful mission. The door slowly opened, Itachi looked miserable with the scratches and bite marks that covered his face. He plopped down the weasel into the old lady's hands. "There you, go." Immediately it started cuddling in her arms much to their surprise.

"Thank you for rescuing him!"

"Itachi! Your face, what happened?" Sakura asked, getting out a pack of bandages from her pouch.

"It's nothing to be worried about." Itachi reassured.

"Third Hokage! I want a higher rank mission!" Naruto yelled, slamming his fists on the desk. "That mission was too easy for a great ninja like me!"

Hizuren sighed. "If you must. You're next mission will be C-ranked, although these missions are usually assigned to chūnin and sometime high level genin, I have the utmost confidence you'll all be able to fulfill the request. For your mission, I want you to escort the famous bridge builder, Tazuna, to the Land of Waves."

Tazuna walked in the office. "Let's get this over with already." He grumbled, he took a look at his escorters. "Wha-? A bunch of kids?!"

"Yeah!" Naruto pointed to his forehead protector. "These group of kids are gonna protect you, grumpy old man!"

"Great. And they're brats." He scoffed.

Itachi and Sakura held onto Naruto before he could rampage on Tazuna. "Take that back! Take it back right now!"

Kakashi rubbed behind his head. "Sorry about that...Naruto's a bit hyper."

"Damn right." Tazuna grumbled.

With that Team seven took off, as usual, it was another a nice day. However, it was unusually quiet so much that Kakashi sensed an unsettling feeling. "Everyone!" Kakashi suddenly said. "Be on guard!"

Four chūnin level appeared from the abyss, quickly, Sakura got in front of the bridge builder in order to protect him from the enemy.

Naruto stood there, frozen. It seemed that all his confidence just flushed out. '...c-chūnin level ninja! No way, I can't...' Before he could move, the attacker struck him with a poisonous gauntlet.

"With all this talk, Naruto, I thought you would've taken them on already." Itachi jumped in between the two ninja, he placed his hand on the ground and swung his legs around, jacking them both hard in the stomach. Easily Kakashi defeated the other two ninja and tied them up.

Itachi looked back to Naruto. "If you can't fight, then you'll just have to get out of the way."

Sakura knew the attacker used poison in their weapons, there was definitely poison running through Naruto's veins. "Sensei! We have to go back, Naruto got struck with a poisoned weapon!" She called out.

"We're not gonna go back!" Without thinking, Naruto pierced through his own flesh with a kunai knife and drew out the poison. "I swear on this pain, I will never freeze up and I will never back down from a fight!" Naruto pledged.

"Yeah Naruto, that's great being gutless and all, but if you don't wrap up that wound, you'll die for real." Kakashi flatly said.

"Gahhhh! Sakura-chan, help me!"

Sakura reached inside her lack and threw him a roll of bandages. "Naruto, don't be so reckless next time."

As they were walking towards the boat Kakashi grew more and more suspicious of the chūnin ninjas they earlier faced. 'Something's not adding up, why would two high level ninja come, especially, after Tazuna, on such a low rank mission?'

The team boarded the boat and began their departure to the Land of Waves. "Tazuna," Kakashi suddenly said. " I believe there's something you're not telling us. Why were there the two ninja who attacked us going after, you?"

'So he noticed?!' Tazuna merely sighed, he stared at the still pool of water beneath them. "There is something...I have to tell you."

XxxxxXxxx

Finally, they arrived at the Misty village and mounted the molded boardwalk. Naruto was focused on only one goal: to out do Itachi, after he ever so smugly told him to get out of everyone's way.

*rustle-rustle*

Naruto threw a kunai at the sound, to his annoyance, it wasn't a big bad ninja, but rather nothing at all, it must of been merely the wind.

Sakura whacked Naruto on the head. "Quit scaring everyone like that!" Sakura yelled.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan...I just thought-"

Suddenly, a snow rabbit hopped out of the bush Naruto marked. 'Wait, it's spring time, there shouldn't be rabbits with white fur. It's a trap!' "...Everyone duck now!" Kakashi ordered.

Everyone ducked, and seconds after, a large sword, flew past them, just barely over their heads and lodged itself in the nearby tree. The team looked up and saw a shinobi crouched on the giant sword.

"Did you like my pet?"

Kakashi immediately recognized who this guy was; Zabuza Momochi once of Kiri. He lifted his forehead protector revealing a hidden sharigan.

"Heh, I'm honored for the famous Copy ninja to be going all out for me." Zabuza commented. "Once I kill you, it'll make my reputation even more infamous."

The battlefield was covered in a thick mist making the chance of death even higher.

"Whatever you do, your mission is to protect the bridge builder as shinobi of the Hidden leaf!" Kakashi ordered. "I'll fight Zabuza off."

Team seven created a circle around Tazuna. "We got your back, old man! Don't worry!" Naruto yelled.

"Heh. What a pitiful attempt, you really think you can protect this guy?" Zabuza humored, appearing in the middle of the genin's circle.

Sakura, Naruto, and Itachi all stood there, frozen. He was fast. Itachi clenched fist and got out a kunai knife. "Oh a kunai knife? Got a death wish, kid?" Zabuza asked.

"I'm already prepared to die."

"Really now?" Zabuza raised his sword. "Then let's test tha-"

Kakashi slashed straight through Zabuza's water clone. "You won't have to die. Don't worry. I'll protect you all with my life!"

"What a touching speech." The real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and grabbed him. "Although, I thought you were better than this, Kakashi." Zabuza lunged him into the lake and prepared a jutsu.

"Water prison technique!" Zabuza yelled, Kakashi reemerged from the lake with a sphere of water surrounding him.

"K-Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto screamed.

"Everyone run! Get out of here!"

"But you'll...die, sensei! I don't want you to-"

"If I can't protect myself...then you'll just have to go on without me. That is the way of the shinobi!"

"I won't let you die, sensei! Itachi, I have an idea." Naruto created several shadow clones, before attacking one of them looked towards Itachi. "Do your thing, weasel!"

"Go already, just run away!" Kakashi yelled.

"I swore on it, Kakashi-sensei, to never back down from a fight because that's my ninja way!" Naruto yelled, the clones ran up and began to attack.

A circle of clones surrounded Zabuza, effortlessly, he swung his sword and destroyed the clones. The real Naruto, nodded to Itachi. 'That should've been long enough for Itachi.' He handed him a fūma shuriken.

He threw the shuriken only for him to easily dodge it. "You think that can kill me?!" Zabuza yelled.

Itachi dispersed into a flock of ravens, and reappeared behind Zabuza, he used that same fūma shuriken and lodged it through his body.

'I must of been placed under a genjutsu, but how?' As soon as Zabuza released the genjutsu, Naruto already had a perfect opening and landed a punch on his face. Zabuza no longer has the ability to hold the water prison technique and the jutsu released.

Naruto dragged himself out of the water. "Naruto," Itachi said, he smiled. "That was brilliant!"

Naruto smiled. "Oh yeah whatever, heh, you're not bad yourself!"

Kakashi, now free of the prison, used Zabuza's own special water technique he picked up from the sharigan. Zabuza was freaked out, somehow, Kakashi copied his every move. Just as he was right about to finish him, a masked hunter-nin appeared along with the mist. The hunter-nin threw several perfectly pinpointed senbon at certain areas of his neck.

"What in the...Who are you?!" Naruto demanded.

"I am a hunter-nin sent to kill Zabuza." The hunter-nin explained, he picked up Zabuza's body and disappeared along with the mist.

"A...hunter-nin?"

"A hunter-nin is a ninja sent to track down and kill missing-nin, let's say another village was to kill him, then they would have access to precious knowledge of enemy nations." Kakashi explained.

"So what? I'm just pissed that the hunter-nin killed him in like five seconds where we had to do all that work just to get him weakened." Naruto complained.

"There are those who are stronger than you, Naruto and even stronger than...me." Kakashi.

"Stronger than you, sensei?"

"That's just how it wo-oooorks." Kakashi collapsed on the ground.

Sakura and Naruto both began screaming. "Kakashi-sensei!"

"Don't worry." Itachi reassured as he approached his sensei. "He's merely collapsed due to chakra exhaustion." Itachi picked Kakashi up and heaved him onto his back.

"Oh wait. You guys can stay with us." Tazuna offered. "It's the least I can do."

Naruto crossed his arms. "Damn right!"

Tazuna's house...next day...

Kakashi suddenly woke up, he looked around and saw a woman staring at him. "Oh Kakashi-san, you're awake!" Tsunami greeted, she placed a plate of soup on the nightstand next to him. "The kids took you into our house after you collapsed, I hope you get better soon."

"Thank you."

Tsunami left the room leaving Kakashi to collect his thoughts.

'I have a feeling you're not really dead, Zabuza. That hunter-nin gave me all the clues I need to figure that.' "I guess it might be time to finally begin a little technique training."

XxxxxXxxx

Kakashi lead Team seven to a nearby forest. "Ok everyone here's your first training session!" He walked up the tree, regardless of crutches, and demonstrated their objective. "All I want you to do is walk up this tree, without using your hands, just your feet."

"Your only hint I'll give you is to concentrate your chakra flow to the soles of your feet. Too much and it will break, too little and you won't be able to stick. And now, you may begin."

Naruto, Itachi, and Sakura took a running start up the tree. As soon as Naruto's feet touched the tree, he slipped fell down. "Ow-ow!"

He rolled onto his back. "Damn...this is really hard, right-" Naruto's eyes wandered up to Itachi and Sakura's tree. Both of them were already far up the base.

'Everyone got up there?' "...hey! What's the big idea?!"

Kakashi examined his students. "Well females usually do have high stability in their chakra control and anyone who uses Genjutsu must have near precise control over their chakra."

After a while of watching Naruto try again and again, Itachi and Sakura sat together on a branch. Itachi simply started reading a book while Sakura continued to watch Naruto train.

"Sakura, Itachi. If you want, you can visit the village, I just have the feeling you two are getting bored up there."

Sakura nearly let out an excited squeal. 'Yes! I'll be able to be with Itachi, without Naruto annoying us!'

Itachi, along with Sakura following, jumped down from the tree branch. "No, I'm fine here, sensei."

'WHAAAAAAAAT?!' "And I'll stay too." Sakura added, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Whatever suits you."

Naruto fell, face down onto the dirt, he got back up once again. Instead of running up th tree again, he walked over to Sakura and rubbed the back of his head. "Hey Sakura-chan...um could you help me with this? I wanna see exactly how you do it!" Naruto asked.

"Huh? Oh...of course, Naruto!"

'Finally they're getting the teamwork.' Kakashi thought to himself, noting Naruto's gesture.

"...Itachi," Kakashi called out. "Now that I think about, I would like you to protect Tazuna, just make sure no more enemies come after him."

Itachi left in an instant leaving Sakura and Naruto alone.

Naruto grinned. "Guess we're alone, huh Sakura?"

"Shut up and don't you dare get any ideas either!"

That night...

Long after Sakura and Kakashi left, Naruto was still in the forest trying to complete his sensei's lesson.

He fell back down again and again, but every time he got right back up. Each time he got closer and closer to reaching the top. "This is it now, Naruto! I'm gonna do it this time! I'm gonna go all the way!"

Naruto took a running start and ran straight up at the tree. He felt the wind course through spiky hair as he neared the top. A huge grin formed across his face. "I'm almost there! Yea-"

*crack*

The certain bark he placed his foot on was tender and broke easily under his weight. "Whoa-oh-" Naruto began falling down. "AAAHHHHHHH!"

Before he hit the ground, a hand grabbed his arm, and pulled him up, it was Itachi. "Itachi, Oi, I thought you were protecting Tazuna."

"It's near mid-night, Naruto, they've all went home. Also, I had a feeling you might still be here."

Naruto regained his footing onto a nearby tree branch while Itachi jumped off. "Hey wait! Where are you going?!" Naruto yelled.

"I'm going back to Tazuna's house, you should stay here, Naruto. I don't want you to become a burden to the team."

"No way!" Naruto clenched his stomach. "A ninja needs their food!" Naruto took a step and the branch broke off. "A-AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Tazuna's house...

"Those two are late." Sakura grumbled. "What's taking them so long?"

Finally, Naruto and Itachi burst through the door. "Naruto and Itachi, you're finally here!" Tazuna greeted as they took their seats at the table.

'I have to eat as much as I can, I need the energy to fight.' Itachi thought to himself as he started to rapidly eat the food.

Itachi looked up, he saw Naruto eating his food even faster than him. He looked up and evil eyed Itachi. "You're my rival and I can't let you always beat me!"

'...I'll give him what he wants, then, a rivalry.' Itachi started to eat faster than Naruto, and Naruto ate even faster than him. Naruto gave Itachi a dirty look while Itachi just looked at him the way he always did.

Sakura sighed. 'Doesn't Naruto even know that he can't beat Itachi?' She looked around and noticed, Inari, Tazuna's grandson staring at a torn photo. "Hey Tazuna...why's that photo...torn ?" Sakura asked.

"The missing part of the picture was supposed to be Kaiza, who's Inari father figure. He used to be around with Inari, Tsunami, and I."

"Well what happened to him?"

"Sakura, you shouldn't get into other's business ." Kakashi scolded.

"No it's fine. You all deserve to know anyways, I will tell you the story of Inari and Kaiza."

"My grandson used to always be bullied around until a man named Kaiza came, Inari idolized Kaiza and thought of him like a real father which Kaiza then eventually adopted as. And since we've all lived as a family."

"It was on one day, it rained very hard, a flood emerged had threatened the survival of our small village. As everyone lost hope, Kaiza single-handedly risked his life to close the flood-gates when no one else would. From that fateful event on, Kaiza earned the title; hero."

"Although that ceased to last. One fateful day, Gatō came to our country and put us under his control. Kaiza of course, wanted to stop Gatō but he proved no match against Gatō and his gang. As punishment, Gatō executed him right in front of everyone, including my grandson, crushing the villager's and my grandson's hope. Since then no one has ever risen up against him."

"That's why..." Inari abruptly stood up from his seat. "There is no such thing as a hero!" He yelled.

"Heroes do exist!" Naruto yelled. "And I'll prove it to you, Inari." He said, he got up and ran off back to the forest, determined to train even harder that before.

A/N: Day 2 of my re-edits! I fixed it up, so everything's 110%! And next time I'll show not tell flashbacks.