The water bobbed up and down. Ripples spread from a point on the surface of the water.

Naruto stared nervously at the water.

"What's the matter?" Kōju asked, her hands clasped together as she studied Naruto's face.

Naruto paused. He shook his head. "Nothing." He turned his gaze back to Kōju. "You know, I always kind of figured you'd be more—"

"More what? Go on," Kōju pressed, a smile on her face.

"Aggressive," Naruto finally answered.

"You're here, aren't you?" Kōju exhaled. She stared at Naruto's hand. "Um, how are things coming?"

"If you mean my chakra." Naruto hesitated. He stared down at the blackened skin of his palm. "Not good."

"Yeah." Kōju sighed. Taking a bite of the mochi, she studied the table briefly. Her eyes suddenly widening, her throat convulsed.

"Eh?" Naruto glanced upward. "Are you all right?"

"Just—a bit too sweet," Kōju managed. She massaged her throat. "Yep, too sweet." She bent over, coughing loudly.

Naruto blinked. "Wait, but I thought you loved sweet stuff."

"I do." Kōju winced. "I do, but, you know—I really have problems with too much sweetness these days."

"Then why on earth did you come to the mochi place?" Naruto demanded, his brow furrowing.

"I thought you might like it. You know, because, um. You've been cooped up so long."

Naruto frowned. "That reminds me. Is this good for me?"

Kōju shrugged. "I think you'll do better with something you like than something we force you to eat, you know?"

Naruto smiled. "Look, I'm—" He hesitated. "I'm really thankful that you're even here. And I'm also really thankful that you're thinking about me. But if it's a problem for you—"

"I know, but I'm fine. I'm all right." Kōju smiled. "Really, I'm okay. Don't worry about me."

Naruto sighed heavily. I really don't know what to make of her sometimes.

"Anyway! Um. I managed to get it done finally."

"It?" Naruto's brow furrowed.

Kōju's eyes narrowed. "It."

"It?"

"I finally got all the way through the back issues of Black Current." Kōju grinned broadly.

"Oh." Naruto frowned. "You know, that isn't exactly that big of a deal."

"It's not that big a deal? What are you talking about?!" Kōju leaned forward. "It's a huge deal! The hero, Kiri Kunai, just got accused by the council of living a licentious lifestyle and acting in a reckless way! I had to catch up from that cliffhanger!"

Naruto's brow furrowed. He shrugged his shoulders. "Okay. It's a big deal."

"You don't get it."

"Not really. I mean, you're enjoying reading about something you actually live. I guess I get why people like Ayame enjoy series like that, but I don't get why you enjoy it." Naruto paused. "Particularly now that you know the creator personally," he went on in a quieter voice.

Kōju sighed. "Well, I don't really live the lifestyle. Unless you've gotten Sasuke to agree to polyamory." A sudden, eerie gleam entered her eyes. "You haven't got her to agree to that, have you?"

"No," Naruto replied instantly, disliking the look in Kōju's eyes.

Kōju sighed heavily. The gleam exited her eyes. "When I was younger," she stated suddenly, "I definitely thought of things unrealistically. I know now that kind of arrangement isn't that easy in the real world."

Naruto nodded.

"But even so, I still want it. Is that too much to ask?"

"Maybe. But." Naruto looked down at his hands. His eyes briefly tapped together. "Thank you, though. I guess I'd be willing to try."

Kōju's eyes lit up. She leapt across the table, her arms wrapping up Naruto's chest. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you! I swear you won't regret it!" She wrapped her arms around her chest.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. "Kōju, you're crushing my chest."

"What changed your mind?" Kōju asked in a lighter tone.

"Experience. History. The realization that if I keep on my path alone, I'm going to die alone." Naruto paused. "I want to be Hokage, but I don't want to reach this alone. This height is exceptional—I'm afraid of being alone."

"Well, whatever. I think that you don't need to worry about that. You'll make it up your own way." Kōju hesitated. She laughed quietly. "Well, I'm not sure I'm speaking properly about it."

The water rippled slowly. After a long pause, Kakushiro emerged from the river a long way downstream, dripping wet. She wiped water out of her hair. "So, he's not alone." Her hands clapped together rapidly. Her body transformed, shrinking and reducing in size. After a long pause a perfect facsimile appearance of Kōju stared at herself in the water. A grin crossed her lips. She hurried up the slope, walking steadily through the streets of Hidden Leaf. Her eyes quickly glanced around. That's the layout. Then, bearing that in mind, the hospital should be here. She hurried into the hospital, removing her Akatsuki outer robes and casting them into the slot. She shouldn't be back here for a while, so. She pulled on a white uniform from Kōju's slot. Next. She walked over to the schedule board, studying the white paper. So the woman's name is Sakura. She turned around briefly. There should be a photograph around here somewhere—

A hand caught Kakushiro's shoulder.

Kakushiro turned, forcing her face to smile. "Hello."

"I thought you were still out with Naruto-kun." Sakura smiled at Kōju.

"I was, but—well, he had to run."

Sakura groaned. "Yeah, seen that before. Well, I guess I can wait to check in for a bit."

"When does your shift start?"

"Usually at three, right?" Sakura tilted her head to one side. "Did Tsunade change my shift?" She groaned. "I hope not. But Naruto is still going to be out for a while, I guess, so."

This is Sakura. Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. And there seems to be some kind of crush there. It could prove useful. She cleared her throat. A small smile crossed her face. "Well, then. Best be going. You know how it is. A lot of work to do." She adjusted her clothes briefly.

"Yeah, I do. You're off-duty today, though, right?"

Kakushiro nodded. "Yeah, but Naruto might come back."

"I don't think he will. He's had other problems. Why don't you stay around and talk? It's been too long."

Kakushiro's eyes narrowed. "Sorry, but I don't really have a choice about this. I—well, I don't want to abandon him."

Sakura fell back as though slapped.

Kakushiro stared at Sakura steadily. She's uncomfortable about this? "Bye-bye." She turned away. I can use this opinion against her. This is usable. Her lips curled upward. I can end her troubles—or start them again. She gathered up the robes in the crook of her arm. Pushing open the window, she leapt outward, her eyes gentle and calm.

Sakura sighed heavily. "Shinobi," she muttered under her breath. "Couldn't you even walk out the door like a normal person?" She gathered up her kimono and started to change into her clothes.

A half-hour, perhaps, passed as Sakura dressed herself. When she finally finished, she stepped out of the room, her expression calm. "That's all."

Kōju stared at her cubicle. "Um. Sakura, sorry to interrupt, but I can't find my uniform."

"You were busy with Naruto, right? I'm sure you might have left it there." Sakura tried to keep her voice light, but an edge entered it.

"I don't think—look. I certainly did have fun. You should try going on a date with him too. He's a pretty good date—played a prank on dad, which was funny."

Sakura blinked. "What?" She tilted her head to one side. "No, wait. You came back here for a bit, right?"

"Sakura." Kōju's voice grew serious. "I didn't leave the mochi restaurant."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Then who the hell did I spend five minutes talking with just now?"

Kōju shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe it was someone playing a prank?" She stared at her cubicle. A loud sigh echoed from her lips. "Still, this is serious. I can't just go in to work wearing nothing."

A brief image of Kōju in the nude pressed unnecessarily into Sakura's mind. She shook off the thought. "Maybe it is nothing, but would you mind if I stayed with Naruto tonight? I'll take a nap."

Kōju shrugged. "I guess you're right. It won't do any harm, right?" She patted Sakura on the shoulder. "Thanks for your help."

Sakura exhaled. "I really do appreciate it, you know. You've been number one for a long time."

Kōju blinked.

"Hey! How can you land Sasuke-kun with such losers? I haven't even seen that girl in here before!" Sakura shouted furiously. Though she looks pretty cute, there's no way she's a genin. Plus, she's way too young to be a genin—how can you compare someone like that with a genius like Sasuke-kun?

Iruka sighed. "It's necessary to attempt to balance the strength of the teams to begin with. Hatake-san here is the first place in this year."

Kōju's cheeks flushed slightly. Saying it like that is embarrassing, isn't it? She concentrated on the table.

No way. Naruto blinked in shock as he stared at Kōju. But I haven't ever seen her before, after all. Besides that last exam.

Sakura gasped. So she really did earn her place? Wow! That's just completely crazy!

"Your Sasuke-kun was second place, and Naruto-kun was dead last. In this way the teams are balanced in strength rather than overwhelming in power. Two strong sticks can make up for one weak one." Iruka looked upward after a moment. "Team Eight." He continued in the same way until all the teams had been outlined. "Each of your teams will have a jōnin instructor. You'll be introduced some time later today, probably around five or so." Iruka shrugged diffidently. "At that time, please be present here. For today." He reached into his pocket.

"Back then, I thought that it was annoying that you were so far ahead of me. You'd done things I didn't understand, couldn't understand. You beat me." Sakura exhaled. "But that's a feeling you can't understand, of being number two. I've been number two a pretty long time now. Nearly my entire life." She looked downward. "And because of that you don't understand how much I need your approval."

"Forgive me, but—weren't you actually number three?" Kōju asked gently.

"I had a hundred percent on the written exam. It's the chakra control testing I undertook." Sakura grinned. "I'm averaging it out to number two for myself. And I mean to be number two by the time I make it to a regular jōnin."

Kōju nodded briefly.

Sakura's face grew shadowed as she thought backward. "No, I forgot. There's something else I have to do, isn't there?"

"Eh?"

"Earn respect from those around me. I can't be that high up until I do that."

Kōju started downward.

"That reminds me. How's Haku doing?"

Kōju blinked.

"I took a look at her when she came in first. She'd been pretty deprived."

"That doesn't actually surprise me. She's fine, although—well, it gets a bit difficult to move around her when she tries to clean up everything." Kōju smiled broadly. "I can have you over to dinner if you like."

"Not tonight."

"No." Kōju frowned. "Although I'm running into a bit of trouble now." She tapped her chin. "I still don't have something to wear. If it's not too much trouble, would you mind lending me your medical robes?"

Sakura hesitated. She nodded after a long moment.

"Oh, thank you. I'll pay you back when I get the chance, I swear." Kōju leaned forward, wrapping up Sakura in a hug.

Sakura returned the hug somewhat hesitantly. You really are different from me. Strength of will and character too. But even so, I'm not losing this battle! Not this time! Her eyes glimmered with sudden determination.

The sun dipped toward the darkness of the horizon. Light pierced through the town.

A/N: In response to your review, guest reviewer: this. This draft is entirely unedited, so I apologize for any errors that may emerge in the progression of this chapter.

It sometimes confuses me why people want to jump forward. There's a tendency in fanfiction to leap immediately to super-intelligent Naruto, without creating a plausible explanation of why beyond saying 'Oh, he had all this talent bottled up inside him'.

Remember, even after Naruto fully overcomes his circumstances, he is not brilliant. For those who might argue with this, I point you to him forgetting that Preta Path could literally absorb chakra on the second occasion of fighting the same opponent, within a very short time frame. His circumstances certainly didn't help, but he didn't have a great starting condition either. So even if he spent the entire day reading (something he wouldn't be inclined to do even as Hokage), it's not probable that his intelligence could be read in that way. I do intend on changing that, but the conditions and events necessary for that character change had to be set up.

Similarly, the conditions necessary for a harem are complicated, something I can state from having read a number of them (in manga and LN format). The most successful, generally speaking, take a while to burn. Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou is my personal favorite, even given that metaphysical madness that happened in the last volume, but the others that work also almost invariably take a while. Love Tyrant, offhand, is the only one that I can think of that works without that slow buildup, but even then there are preexisting conditions that do not seem to apply in what we know of Kishimoto's work (Hinata excepted). Barring reading or interpretations taken through a shipper's glasses, it seems apparent that Kishimoto does not have sufficient of these connections to work for what I had in mind.

So, I've been laying the groundwork for about three years now. (That's a weird number to think about, honestly. Makes me feel old.) His nature, as well as his conditions, will be changed. This chapter, for the record, is largely unedited, though there are a few sections I've expanded on.

Also, in regards to the second review I received, I agree. At some point I'm going back through and reediting most of the chapters. However, I'd like to have at least a first full draft before I do that. Again, I apologize for any errors that may emerge in the first sections.

The groundwork is now largely complete, and I can fully enjoy writing about the world, and the Naruto, created by my groundwork. Hopefully you do too.

One more thing. THANK YOU. I can't reiterate enough how important reviews are to me. I don't care particularly about the ratio of reviews to chapters, and never have. I didn't write this to win any popularity contests. However, reviews are one of two metrics saying whether I'm doing well or poorly. And reviews are considerably more specific than the other metric, which is favorites and follows. So I cannot overemphasize the importance of these reviews to me enough. They give me guideposts—a previous review from Black Caesar made me decide to accelerate plans, which brings me to this chapter and another one 20 chapters down the road. So these reviews are of major significance to me, even if I don't always follow it.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.