Hate burns deep
Naruto, new jacket and clothes and demeaner and mood walked in. He didn't have his usual cheery smile, or his usual determination, or his usual fervour.
And Tsunade could tell. But she was Hokage. She could ask him what happened later (She wasn't stupid, she knew from what jiraya has said and her own smarts that this was because of Sasuke, but she didn't know what it was exactly.)
She scanned her eyes at Kakashi and Sakura, yet both looked apprehensive. They were, what? afraid?
"Welcome Naruto. Now that you are here, we can start this meeting. We will here, discuss wherever Team 7 should be disbanded."
"It should."
And that was a surprise, Tsunade noted. That Naruto, that unstoppable, unquestioning stubborn brat, said he didn't want to be part of the team he would have died for? Sasuke really must have changed him.
But Naruto didn't care. Not anymore. He didn't care how people saw him, how people acted towards him, their thoughts or observations or perceptions, or fear. He knew they wouldn't change, not now not ever. Mothers would steer their children away from him, ninja would think of him as an unstable wreck.
But what if he became hokage? He wasn't that well read, but he had smarts, he knew that, and he heard what jiraiya and other ninjas thought of the 5th before she was crowned. A gambler, a fraud, a coward, a traitor. She left her village in the middle of a war when it lost people. She should have been hated for the rest of her existence, but she got the hat, and so everyone loved her.
He needed that, he needed to change things. He needed for people to have their perception of him stripped away, for that hat to be his.
And the first step to that was leaving his team.
"Naruto-" Sakura began, before Tsunade's hand came up, silencing her.
"Let him speak before you interrupt."
Naruto composed himself, a small amount of vindication rising inside himself.
"Two reasons really. Sasuke is gone, and I don't want Kakashi to be my sensei."
"Elaborate."
"Uh, well Sasuke isn't going to come back, duh, and I don't think there is any reason to continue without him. And, Kakashi taught Sasuke, a traitor, that lightning arm thing. I don't think I can be on the same team as a guy like that."
He kept his parentage in his back pocket.
Part of him was scared of who they were. Because why wouldn't the 3rd tell him? They were killers, or traitors, and that is why the 4th got to use him. Because he was worthless, because of his birth. And then he became less that worthless. That was why Kakashi didn't want to teach him, because he saw his traitor father in his place, and obviously teaching a child like that a single technique was going to end in failure.
And he could handle it, because he whole life he had seen people look through him, see people where there aren't people, see the fox where a boy stood. Kakashi was just another fool.
"Hm. Kakashi, would you like to counter any points Naruto brought up?" Tsunade asked, her pose open and measuring.
Kakashi, Naruto noted, looked like he didn't want to speak. Didn't want to exist. But he forced something out of himself.
"Sasuke. He was going to die fighting Garaa. And back when we didn't know the exams were a battle, when we thought it was just a contest, we needed Sasuke to win. I needed to. And. I didn't trust myself to teach Naruto. So I guess he is right, I guess we should disband."
He said this lethargic, emotionless, energy gone. He felt dead, and Naruto had been the one stabbed through the heart.
"Sakura, Do you have anything to add?"
She looked on the verge of tears. She charged out the room without another word. Good riddance, Naruto thought to himself.
"Well, this team is a disaster then." Tsunade proclaimed unimpressed.
"I am disbanding it right now. I would add Naruto and Sakura to other genin groups, but Sakura is going to be my apprentice soon enough, given her promise in medical jutsus, and according to our resident spymaster, Naruto is fit to be chunin."
The blond boy's eyes widened, and he smiled wide, because he was one step closer to becoming hokage! He bounced over to Tsunade hugging her close whilst she sighed.
"Alright. Let go of me brat. There we go. Well, then we have to talk about whatever thing is going on between you and Kakashi."
Kakashi looked unsurprised, but Naruto was off guard for a second. She must have been told then, he figured. That or deduced something somehow.
Kakashi sighed, then began. "I'll start. Naruto, your father was my sensei. He was also, the 4th hokage."
Naruto's stomach plummeted. He felt the emptiness of before coil and turn into something darker. His father? His own father made him a living human sacrifice?
"I should have told you before, I should have helped you, but I was weak, I joined ANBU and spent the best years of my life trying to kill myself. I was only 14, and we should have been brothers but-"
"Then why? Why couldn't you at least train me?"
Kakashi stared for a long time, before opening his mouth again.
"I see your father in place of you, and I see myself. I see this young brat hated by the village. I see him, talented and young, and heart in the right place but vicious and feral. We aren't the same, no, but you are a inherently skilled in a lot of ways. I couldn't, I was and am too weak. I can't help but see my self, cold and foolish and terrible, the me that got my team killed."
And that hurt, Naruto thought to himself, that Kakashi thought so little of him. That he would get his teammates killed, that he would be so foolish. He sacrificed everything for them, and in the end they were the ones who betrayed him. Kakashi was wrong, so wrong.
"You think I am like you and my dad? That I would sacrifice my own son or get my teammates killed? I protect my friends, that is what makes me Naruto Uzumaki! Sasuke is more like you damn it, with him betraying his friends and being a prodigy and all."
"Sasuke isn't a prod-"
"And is that an excuse to not teach me? To ignore me, to treat me like filth and exonerate that Uchiha?"
"Naruto, it wasn't like th-"
"My entire life I have had to deal with this bullshit, and you don't understand any of it! I am glad I am off your team, because look at me now. Chunin, stronger, smarter, more independent. I am better, simply because I am not under you anymore."
And Kakashi stayed silent. Just stood there, unmoving.
And Naruto thanked Tsunade, who told him he would get his Chunin vest later, tomorrow with a couple others, and asked him if he wanted to talk later, and he declined, and then left.
And then Kakashi asked "May I rejoin Anbu, Lady Tsunade?"
…
The next day, Naruto, Neji, Choji, and Kiba were made chunin. Lee and tenten were put in for a provisional exam, that would see them promoted a few weeks later pending Lee's full recovery.
So, the Rookie 12 went to get something to eat, an Akimichi owned restaurant owing to Choji. His family were more than willing to provide the food for everyone to eat, and even though most of the inhabitants weren't, it felt like a family home. Well, if your family were made of the best chefs in the elemental nations.
Naruto didn't eat much though. Every day he looked better, stronger. He had even grown a couple inches in what he assumed was a late growth spurt, so now he was a little taller than even Ino. Despite that, his stomach felt full. Or rather, disturbed.
"Hey, Naruto, are you going to eat that?" Choji asked, bandages still wrapped around his body and food stuffed in his mouth.
"I'm sorry. Sorry I convinced you guys to come to save Sasuke. All of this coulda been avoided, y'know."
Contrary to popular belief, Akimichi weren't fat. They were bulking. Constantly. That is why Choji's grip, even after withering in a hospital for more than a weak, was still strong enough to rock Naruto back.
"Don't worry. You wanted to save your friend. I get that."
Naruto sighed though. Tears nearly brimmed in his eyes.
"Yeah, but he was never really my friend. Just took me a bit to realise that. You guys though. You matter."
Choji looked stunned for a moment, and then he smiled.
Naruto cleaned his plate after. Then another. The food was really fucking good.
He reckoned before the end of the year; he would be stronger than Kakashi. No, he believed it.
…
A/N: Make sure to tell me what you want to see next. I have no reservations about the harem of whatever so yeah. Should be fine.
