DANGEROUS

A few minutes before

Naruto's vision goes hazy, and it's like someone cut the strings of a marionette: his head, his arms, they all droop. Then he falls to his knees, caught in a deep trance. "Let's see how you get out of this one," Iruka thinks, satisfied with himself. "You were always terrible at genjutsu."

A gust of wind sweeps the grass from one end of the clearing to the other. Kakashi turns a page of his book.

"I'll count to ten," he says, even though the boy can't hear him, "if you don't free yourself by then, you fail."

"It's over," Sakura pushes back the strands of hair the wind keeps blowing into her face, trying not to think about the unpleasant memories coming to mind. "Naruto has no idea about genjutsu." The other girl listens without saying anything. "That technique makes you face your worst fears. I went through it once; he won't be able to break free."

"Your worst fears...," Tayuya looks away and thinks, then decides against it. "What did you see? Yourself in a mirror? Ha. I don't want to know what they teach you in this village if a technique like that gives you trouble."

"This village took you in when you were dying in the woods. Where were your teammates then?"

"Being killed by yours."

Kakashi keeps counting the seconds with the fingers of his free hand. He's reached six when Naruto suddenly falls forward, planting his hands on the ground, and starts breathing heavily. All eyes present are fixed on the boy, and those who know him are thinking the same thing: how did he do it? Because he didn't use any technique. He didn't form any hand signs. He just broke free.

The jonin's visible eye narrows. Kakashi closes his book with a snap and walks toward Naruto.

"Iruka," he says, "step back."

"Huh? Why...?" Iruka turns to look at his colleague, and at that very moment, a fist appears just inches from his right cheekbone. He hasn't even noticed that Naruto just charged at him. It was fast. Too fast.

Kakashi's gloved hand slips between Naruto's punch and Iruka's cheek and catches it gently. Or so it seems. From this point on and for the rest of the day, Kakashi won't be able to feel anything with that hand. But right now, that's the least of his concerns.

Naruto growls, trying to free his fist from Kakashi's grip. "He's lost control," the jonin thinks, noticing the marks on his cheeks that have opened up, deep knife slashes. "It's never happened this easily before. I need to end this quickly, before his chakra..." But it's too late. The energy now emanating from Naruto is much stronger than before. Not only that, but it's stronger than his own. The dense chakra of the Nine-Tailed Fox starts leaking from him like a red mist.

"Keep your distance. And no one try to help me. You'll just get in my way. You too, Iruka," says Kakashi, just as Naruto breaks free with a yank. "His physical strength keeps increasing. Damn it."

But Iruka can barely hear him. The memories of the past make him break into a cold sweat as Naruto lunges at Kakashi, roaring like an animal, because at least in his mind, that's what he is now. The punches slice through the air, and Kakashi dodges them by a hair's breadth. If he tried to block them, he would end up with some broken bones. Instead, he counters with his own strikes: a series of very quick but hard punches rain down on Naruto like a storm. They hit his liver, his stomach, his chin, back to his stomach; this blow lifts his feet off the ground, but Kakashi brings him down, wrapping his arms around his neck and driving his right knee into his torso with such force that his eyes roll back.

Sakura lets out a startled gasp and covers her mouth, horrified. Not so much because of the brutality of what she's seeing, but because of a thought that just crossed her mind. That form of Naruto... Is that what Sasuke had to face? The image of her former teammate, alone in the valley, confronting the Fox, churns her stomach. And then another thought crosses Sakura's mind. More like a memory. It's herself, in that park, asking Naruto to bring him back. Did she...?

Another gust of wind blows, this time caused by Naruto's chakra, which spikes dramatically out of nowhere. This time he easily escapes the jonin's grip. No, he doesn't just escape. He mirrors him: it's the same hold on the neck, the same movements, the same knee to the chest. A crack is heard. Something breaking into pieces. Are those bones?

No, it's a wooden log. Kakashi reappears further away, clicking his tongue. Things are starting to get dangerous. Better finish him off quickly. Without a second thought, he lifts his headband, revealing his sharingan.

A good decision. Because if he hadn't, he might have been hit. A chakra-wrapped fist passes right where his head was a moment ago. This time, Naruto didn't charge from the front: the punch came from behind. The boy is in the air, and the punch comes down. But Kakashi dodges it, and not only that, but he catches Naruto's face with his right hand. It's a firm grip, almost painful, but it doesn't last long. In the next instant, Kakashi slams him onto the grass with a crash that shakes the ground around him.

"That's enough, Naruto. You failed." But he's not talking to a blonde, skinny boy. He's talking to a wooden log identical to the one he used earlier.

It happens fast. Two sandals appear on either side of the log, Kakashi looks up and sees Naruto delivering a brutal punch at his nose, surrounded by red chakra. It's dense, and it looks like death.

What Kakashi feels is just a breeze on his face, nothing more. The punch never reaches him. Because now Naruto is hanging from the collar of his jacket. And what's holding him up? It's Jiraiya's left arm. He's lifting him above his head as if he were a baby.

"Well, what do we have here," he says, and while his tone is friendly, his expression certainly isn't. "Is the little squirt throwing a tantrum? When they say no, it means no, Naruto. No need to get upset." His godson responds with an elbow to his face. He simply tilts his head back to avoid it. "Not good. You shouldn't use violence. Especially not with your teacher. Hey!"

Naruto slides out of his jacket, falls to the ground, and spins toward Jiraiya, using the momentum to throw a strong hook that goes nowhere. The old shinobi snaps his index finger against his thumb and flicks it against Naruto's forehead. The sound is loud like a gunshot. A large red mark appears on the boy's skin where the finger hit him, and it looks like he's about to lose consciousness, but his feet find stability on the ground and...

"Ouch!" Naruto complains, holding his face with his hands. "That hurts!" As quickly as it appeared, the Nine Tails' chakra dissipates, and the boy's appearance returns to normal. "Wait, what are you doing here? Why'd you hit me? You looking for a fight?"

"You've fought enough," Jiraiya answers, ruffling his hair with one hand. "You little runt."

"Thanks, Jiraiya," Kakashi dusts off his clothes, having been standing for a while now, "you saved my skin."

The Sannin gives him a stern look.

"Tell that to someone else. I only intervened so you wouldn't hurt him. How hard is it for a jonin to handle a kid like him? You should have neutralized him from the start, what were you thinking?"

"I'm glad you think so highly of my skills, but I'm afraid they might not be as good as you think."

"Kakashi, my boy", Jiraiya says. "Don't pull that crap on me."

"Jiraiya," Iruka, who has approached them, bows respectfully, "it was my fault. I trapped him in a genjutsu, but I don't know why..."

"So it was an illusion?" Naruto looks at him suspiciously. "Can someone explain what happened?"

"You failed," Kakashi tells him, "you lost control."

"How? What?"

"You absolute buffoon," Tayuya and Sakura join the group. The Sound girl makes sure to look at him with the most mocking expression she can muster. Though just a moment ago, she was as tense as everyone else. "Got the rabies or something?"

"Enough," Kakashi interrupts, "Naruto, when Iruka trapped you in a genjutsu, you started attacking us. I can't have you on my team if you're a danger to us."

Naruto furrows his brow as he looks at him. How did he lose control? How long was he out? And those blue lights, that cave... Were they part of Iruka's illusion or something else? No matter how much he thinks about it, he can't come up with an answer. Maybe that's why he doesn't protest when Jiraiya puts a hand on his shoulder and tells him they're going home.

"Hey, moron," Tayuya tells him before he leaves, "if that technique shows you your biggest fear, what did you see? A textbook?"

To her surprise, he doesn't respond. Jiraiya and Naruto walk away toward the village, and there's a moment when they're quite far away and you first hear voices, and then the sound of Sakura knocking the other girl down with a good punch.