WHY I'M SO STUPID?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Warnings from the last few chapters still apply.

"Because my family is on the council," Ami said, "And they'll be more then glad to help improve your image, even help you accomplish your goal of becoming hokage."

That was more then enough to help Naruto with his answer. "I don't date gold diggers." He said, before the three boys continued on their journey.

Ami was looking furious, "You're going to regret that!" She yelled out, "My parents will destroy you once I tell them what you said!"

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure one of the things they will tell you is that you would be committing social and career suicide." Naruto said, "Because while your parents might serve on the council, I am the son of a hokage, the Fourth Hokage, which would put me higher up in the food chain then you."

"And when you throw in the stuff you did to him while we were still at the academy," Sasuke said, deciding to throw in another blow, "Then you would end up being the dead last in the social circle."

Sakura was trying hard to contain her laughter after seeing the look on Ami's face after hearing the cold hard truth from the now two strongest boys of their class. While unintentional revenge was Sakura's weakness, like trying to pound Naruto into submission for something so petty, this was something she couldn't resist, even though she wasn't much better then Ami back at the academy.

After watching the blonde, who intentionally started out as the dead last, and now his Konoha's most eligible, and most hunted, bachelor, walk away with the rookie of the year, and no longer the Last Uchiha, walk away, she felt like she was going to die on the spot. She looked up just in time to see a familiar pink hair girl running up to the trio. It didn't take much for anybody to over hear what they were discussing.

"Hey Naruto, Sasuke, I almost forgot, but my parents wanted me to invite the entire team to our house tonight for dinner." Sakura said, "And she wouldn't mind if Itachi came along since he is your brother, Sasuke."

"I'll consider it, as long as your mother doesn't try anything." Naruto said, before the trio walked away, with the brothers Uchiha right by his side.

While the mother part was unexpected, Sakura was glad that Naruto was actually willing to give her and her family a chance, especially since her mother always tried to drive him away from her due to her past hatred for him and the kyubi. When she turned around to continue her trek towards the Hokage Tower, she was face to face with a ticked off Ami, "How does a low life like you get the attention of somebody like that?" She asked, forgetting one tiny little detail.

"You mean how a low life, which was trained by the Hokage herself, could have possibly got a chance to have dinner with the two guys who happens to be on the same team as me?" Sakura said, not resisting the urge to rub it in her face that the girl that used to get bullied back at the academy is now a grown woman who can kick some serious ass without even trying, "I don't know, just lucky I guess." She said, with a smirk that would make Ino proud, "Now if you would excuse me, I have to go talk to the hokage about a few things."

After leaving a steaming Ami behind, Sakura was trying her hardest to keep her composure, while Inner Sakura was making it difficult from all the laughing she has been doing ever since that gold digger remark.

Ichiraku's

The three boys made it to the ramen stand without incident. Deciding to try for a different greeting, "Hey, where can I get some service in this dump?" Naruto said, knowing how to push the Teuchi's buttons.

"What are you calling a dump you . . ." Teuchi started saying, with a butcher knife in hand, until he got a good look at his number one customer, "Naruto, is that you?"

"The one and only." Naruto said, before he ended up flying out of his seat by a woman that was nothing more then a big sister to him, "Nice to see you too, Ayame."

After realizing what she has just done, Ayame had the decency to blush just as she got off of the blonde. After helping the young man up, she started to give her father the evil eye as he was laughing like crazy. "Dad, don't start with me." She said. Yet it wasn't until she locked eyes with Itachi and she lost her composure, a small blush starting to appear on her face, "I think I'll go prepare those orders."

Itachi was blushing as well. What most people didn't know was that he and Ayame grew up together, and they were starting to develop feelings for each other until that one night that changed everything. When he turned to see both his brother and his friend giving him a smirk, he was hoping it wasn't what he thought it was, "What?" He asked.

"I think you might want to start going back on the dating scene again, big brother." Sasuke said, "Because from here, it looks like you still have somebody willing to welcome you with open arms."

"Its just too bad she missed." Naruto said, "So what's the deal between you two?"

Itachi gave a small sigh, "We started off as childhood friends, having met since we were about 3, 4 years old." He explained, "Mother was the one responsible for introducing us, because she didn't want any of us to be as uptight and arrogant as most of the clan. We spent a lot of time together, even though we took separate paths, and just after I joined ANBU, I believe we were starting to discover our feelings for each other."

"So what happened to stop you two in the process?" Sasuke asked.

"Three guesses." Naruto said, "And you won't even need one."

"He's right the massacre was the one thing that changed everything." Itachi said, "And how do you explain something to somebody you love that you just destroyed most of your clan and family to save a village, especially if you have to choose between the lives of your clan or the lives of the village."

What nobody realized was that Ayame was listening to the hold thing. While she was touched by the fact that Itachi still has feelings for her, she knew that she could never comprehend what Itachi had to go through, having to choose between help his clan take over the village or save innocent lives by killing almost every single one of them.

"True, but since people are already finding out that the massacre was ordered by the council, not due to the craziness of a madman, then how do you know she won't accept a date from you?" Sasuke said.

Naruto knew that Ayame was listening in on them, "Yeah, I've known Ayame for a long time and she never holds any grudges." He said, "Except maybe against Chouji who accidentally ate her lucky spoon."

"You mean that wooden one that had the painted lines on it?" Itachi asked, "The one she keeps attacking Teuchi with whenever he uses it?"

"Yes, that's the one." Ayame said, as she came out from the back, "Anyway, I'll be more then glad to accept a date with you Itachi."

Sasuke and Naruto couldn't help but to laugh because Itachi Uchiha, somebody who could destroy an entire army with just his eyes alone, is sitting in shock at what he just heard. Sasuke wasn't going to miss this opportunity as he pulled out a camera and took a picture of this.

Hokage Tower

Tsunade is now in her office, getting back to the paperwork that was lighter then usual. The council meeting ended a little bit after the beating of the super pervert did. While everyone already knew the risk Naruto was taking by choosing his Sannin title, that wasn't the reason she pounded him. The reason behind the beating was because instead of being out there to back his student up against his oppressors, he just stayed in the dark and didn't make himself known until after he left. Last anybody ever saw of him, he was limping out until Shizune had enough sympathy to actually heal him.

A small knock was heard, "Come in." Tsunade said. She looked up to be greeted by her young apprentice, "Hello Sakura, how are you doing today?"

"I'm doing fine, Lady Hokage." Sakura said, "Although I was hoping to start doing some missions with my team when Naruto returned from his trip."

"Well, right now your guess is as good as mine about when that is going to happen, but there is a good chance that Team Kakashi won't be together much longer since everyone on the team is a jounin which means the only time you will be a team is when you're ordered to work together." Tsunade said, "So how did your talk with Naruto go last night." When she watched as Sakura looked towards her feet, with her long hair covering her face, the answer was more then obvious to anybody, "That well huh? Let me guess, he either told you some secret or stood up to you, you decided to try and make him see things your way and he was the one to put you in your place instead."

"That is the short, short version, but yes that is how it happened." Sakura said, "He told me the truth about that day at the academy, when I thought it was Sasuke who was complimenting me on my forehead, and we had an exchange of words, mainly I was looking for an excuse towards my choices and he basically told me to stop making excuses and take responsibility for my actions. I didn't take to well because he had the nerve to tell me that I was wrong and I forgot which Naruto I was talking to, so when I tried to punch him, he swatted my hand aside and sent me into a tree with just one finger."

"So he pretty much defeated you the same way I was able to defeat him after our first encounter." Tsunade said, "So did anything else happen."

Sakura gave a small sigh before answering, "He told me about his past, where most of the village kept trying to his life a living hell, from the villagers to the teachers, before he left." She explained, "I never knew that Naruto had such a hard life."

"Never knew or never bothered to know?" Tsunade asked, causing the girl to flinch. While she knew that it was a low blow, it had to be said, "Sometimes that is the problem when you're starting something before you have matured completely, like becoming a ninja before you become a teenager, you end up growing up faster while most people your age have already found that special somebody."

Sakura was now starting to wonder if this is anywhere to what Naruto had to grow up with, when most of the village would keep reminding him what he was chosen to carry while most of the kids kept treating him like the dead last. "Sensei, what is the Team 7 curse?" She asked, "Kakashi brought it up and I can't seem to find anything about it."

Tsunade gave a small sigh, knowing that question was bound to show up. As much as she wants to hunt Kakashi down and pound him into submission, she can understand why he didn't want to talk about it due to how Team 7 ended for him. "The Team 7 curse is something that so many of us would want to forget." She explained, "The curse started due to our own ignorance because we didn't bother to open our eyes in time before it was too late. It started off the same way it started for you, yet for us ended in disaster."

Sakura wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that, "So wait, you were a weak, pathetic fan girl too?" Shot out of her month, followed by her hands covering her mouth and a prayer for a painless end, which never came.

Tsunade gave a bigger sigh this time, "Weak no, fan girl, sort of, but pathetic, now that I think about it, most definitely." She said, "Because I was no better then you in the fact that I swoon over Orochimaru the same way you used to with Sasuke, because he was the rookie of the year, while like Naruto, I've always responded to Jiraiya's proposals for a date and any other question with a harsh no and even harsher punch, and a good chunk of those weren't from being perverted. Even the Third was playing favorites with Orochimaru like your sensei used to with Sasuke, although Sensei did help Jiraiya a little bit by improving those damn pervert jutsu of his."

Sakura felt like she was seeing what her future could have been like if Naruto didn't take his mask off and changed so many people's opinions about everything. "And I'm guessing the ending was no where near pleasant." She said.

"That would be an understatement." Tsunade said, "It wasn't until the time for the change of Hokages when things got out of control. There were two choices for the position of Yondaime, Orochimaru and Minato Namikaze. It was a tough choice, but when Minato was chosen, Orochimaru did not take it well, because he a Legendary Sannin, have been chosen over for somebody who was not only younger then him, but was also a student of Jiraiya."

"So wait, you're saying that . . ." Sakura started to say, trying to get the right words out.

"You got it Orochimaru was like Danzo he had his own personal reasons to seek out the position of Hokage." Tsunade said, "People were disappearing, most to never be heard from again, and it wasn't until Minato was sworn in that it was revealed that snake bastard was conducting immoral, inhuman experiments that violated the very rules of nature itself. When he tried to make a break for it, sensei tried to stop him, but the only way to stop his student was to do it at all costs, and sensei wasn't willing to kill his student by his own hands, which gave the bastard the perfect opportunity to get away so that way he would make the village pay for denying him the power he could use to do his experiments with no questions asked."

"What about Jiraiya when he was a sensei?" Sakura asked, "if he and the Fourth were part of team seven, then shouldn't they have encountered some troubles?'

"Nothing happened until after we separated onto our own paths." Jiraiya said, just as he made his usual entrance, "While two were lost within the last war, along with their teams, Minato and I were the only ones left at the time."

"And what about Kakashi-Sensei, he was on Team 7 too wasn't he?" Sakura said.

"That's his story to tell." Jiraiya said, with a sad impression, "While we could tell you, but since he is the only one left from Team Minato with in this entire village, then it's something you need to ask him."

While Sakura was a bit disappointed, she could understand where they were coming from since she wouldn't want to tell anybody's tragic story without their permission, or make them even more depressed. "And how did it end with us?" Sakura asked.

"With Naruto," Tsunade answered, "While Naruto might have displayed the same kind of vitality and determination as his mother, like his father, they both have the tendency to change things for the better."

This was enough to help Sakura on her quest to redeem herself in Naruto's eyes since she has done very little to become Naruto's friend. "I better get going. My parents asked me to invite my team over for dinner tonight and I still need to find Kakashi-Sensei." She said, as she started to leave, "Although I'm still a little sore when Naruto flicked me into a nearby tree with just his finger, and not a single ounce of chakra."

When it was just the two of them, "Damn, I knew he was holding back, but this is all news to me." Jiraiya said, "Even his parents couldn't pull that off."

"Neither can I," Tsunade said, "And if what I've seen in the council chamber yesterday was just the tip of the iceberg, then I'm really need to have a little talk with the brat as soon as I can."

"Right now, if you want, I can tell you what we've been through during the five years." Jiraiya said.

Here is the next chapter. Sorry for the wait, right now I have been going back to college, looking for work, and spending as much time away from the computer as possible, I have been having a hard time balancing everything, especially with the homework. The next chapter will focus mainly the dinner at Sakura's parent's house. Read and Review, and have a Happy Halloween.