It's morning.

Sasuke is walking towards Training Ground #7. As he approaches closer, the sound of grunting and popping seems to grow louder.

He enters the open field and sees Naruto training hard in his usual black t-shirt and orange pants. He quickly noticed that the boy's orange jacket had been tossed to the side as it was lying on the ground.

And the boy was working on the jutsu he called the Rasengan.

He remembered watching Naruto work on it after Sakura had left for home yesterday. He, Naruto, Kakashi, and the blonde's new master, Jiraiya of the Sannin met up in their training grounds.

There, the boy worked on the jutsu with his master writing in his book while Sasuke was training with Kakashi.

That's when he was taught how to expand his chakra pool.

Kakashi had given him a jar half full of soldier pills and was told to take one after exhausting his chakra to naturally regain more after exhausting all of it.

"Think of it like a water balloon." Kakashi started, "When you fill it with water and then empty it completely, it stretches out right? That's how our chakra pools naturally grow. But if you take a soldier pill you'll refill your chakra pools then and there, stretching it out in the process. However, there are risks to using this method if you don't show restraint. If done too frequently, the pills will do more harm than good as they will begin to eat away at your muscles, ligaments, tendons, anything it can to try and pull more nutrients to gain that extra chakra."

Sasuke reached the back of his neck and was reminded that its after-effects were just like those of the curse mark Orochimaru had branded him with. It was when Kakashi told him the dangers of using soldier pills that he completely understood the consequences of power.

The shortcuts to it wouldn't always end well.

Sasuke snapped out of his musings as he heard footsteps from behind him approaching. He turned around and spotted Sakura entering their training grounds, with her eyes a bit puffy around the edges.

The boy frowned lightly as he quickly deduced that he was probably the cause of it. She might've taken my dismissal of her feelings harder than I thought.

"Good morning Sasuke." She mumbled as she rubbed her right eye. Sasuke watched as she walked past him and walked up towards Naruto. "Good morning Naruto." She blinked her bleary eyes as the boy muttered a greeting back. "What are you doing?"

On second thought, maybe she's just drowsy. Sasuke corrected.

Pop!

"Dammit." The boy grumbled as he shook his right hand in an attempt to relax the nerves in his hand. "I'm working on the last stage of the rasengan training. I managed to pop the rubber ball yesterday just how Pervy Sage wanted, but now I have to keep everything balanced and under control."

Sakura yawned as she rubbed her bleary eyes again. "Did you try doing some chakra control exercises? Maybe you need to work more on that before you can get this down."

Naruto stroked his nonexistent beard in contemplation. "Maybe you're right, I'll try to do that later." He reached for another balloon and blew it up until it was the perfect size. "In the meantime, I'll keep practicing until Kakashi gets here."

Yawwnn. "M'kay." Sakura walked over to a nearby tree and sat down, closed her eyes, and drifted back asleep.

Both boys glanced at her and then at each other. "Is it really that earlier?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded. "I'm more surprised you aren't like her right now. This is the usual time Kakashi calls for us to be here."

The blonde made an 'O' face before he focused back on the balloon. "I haven't really left here. I fell asleep here last night and just jumped back into training."

Sasuke shook his head with a smirk on his face. "I do the same in my clan's training grounds."

Naruto smirked at hearing his friend's/rival's words of agreement. "There's no training like all-night training huh?" He closed his eyes and began to visualize how he wanted his chakra to act. Power, rotation, containment. The balloon in his hands stood still as he powered his chakra into it at a steady pace.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Sasuke watched on as Naruto poured chakra into the balloon. He saw it begin to bulge out in several different places, causing the blonde to grimace before his face calmed down.

And the chakra within the balloon quickly followed suit.

After what seemed like thirty seconds, the blonde reopened his eyes with a wide grin. "I think I got it." He uttered in amazement. He grabbed a kunai and popped the balloon, showing off the spinning ball of chakra in his hand. Sasuke's eyebrows shot up in disbelief.

"Hey! How's my cute genin doing today?"

And then the ball of chakra detonated.


Team 7 all stared up at their sensei with everyone sporting bandages here and there across their faces. "Okay, now that we had our disaster fill of the day, what do you say we get in some team training?"

"Hey! That disaster was your fault Kakashi-sensei!"

"Sure, I'm down." Sasuke nodded.

Sakura raised her hand and spoke when Kakashi called on her. "I'll agree as long as Naruto doesn't use any jutsus."

"Aww! Not you too Sakura!"

"Okay! Here's how we'll run our team training. First, it's you three against me. All you guys have to do is run away or prevent me from taking you guys out. You'll have five minutes, last the full time and you guys will get to eat all you want at a restaurant. My treat."

Naruto coiled back in surprise. Aw, man. This again. He gave his sensei a nod, indicating that he was ready. His two teammates gave their own nods and Kakashi began to walk away, giving them enough room for when they began. "Okay, I think we should focus on running away and only fight when he gets close."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What? You don't want to fight right away?"

The blonde shook his head. "Not this time. Me and Kakashi-sensei did this back after the Third's funeral… it was over in under a minute."

"What?" Sakura chimed in this time. "I thought you used to outrun all those chunin and a few jonin that chased you down when you did your pranks back in the academy?"

"I did!" Naruto groaned, his voice slightly hitching as he saw Kakashi stop walking. "Sensei's in a completely different-"

Naruto cut himself off as he and his teammates were suddenly blasted by killing intent. "league."

Kakashi eye smiled as he flared his chakra levels as well. "Alright, my cute little genins. The five minutes," He set the timer and threw it over his shoulder. "Starts now."

Naruto was the first to react. He turned around and dragged his two teammates by their hands as he ran away. "Use your legs!" Naruto yelled in a panic. "We have to-!"

Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of them in a squatted pose, still flaring his chakra and killing intent on full blast. "Have to what? My cute genin."

They all stopped dead in their tracks and as Sasuke and Sakura turned to run, Naruto stood still.

"Weak."

His fingernails grew out until they turned into sharp claws.

"Pathetic."

Naruto's irises dyed themselves red with slitted pupils to match.

"I'll give you my power…"

He held out his right hand and immediately channeled chakra into it, kindling a stable and powerful rasengan in the palm of his hand.

"To destroy everything!"

"RAAH!" Naruto cried out as he thrust his hand into his sensei.

Who merely sidestepped it with a raised eyebrow.

Kakashi slightly tensed as he felt the chakra coming from his blonde student, but he continued fighting nonetheless.

Why would he ever be afraid of his cute little genin?

Punch after punch, kick after kick, Kakashi dodged any and all attacks that Naruto threw his way. He watched with sharp eyes as the boy jumped back and ran through hand signs that the jonin instantly recognized.

Kakashi rushed forward and planted a strong punch into the genin's face, sending him sprawled out on the forest floor before Kakashi followed up with a stomp on the blonde's face, knocking him out cold.

"You just need more." The owner of the voice spoke more calmly and quietly now as he closed his one open eye. "Come to me when you want more power."

The boy heard the words with the last sentence echoing around his mind as darkness soon enveloped him.

With Naruto's jutsu cut off prematurely, and no more threat of the Nine-Tails' chakra getting out of hand, there was now really no "threat" to him.

Honestly, he could've let Naruto fire off his jutsu. It wouldn't even harm him either way as he could just use the replacement technique or use the body flicker jutsu to get behind him the second the boy fired his jutsu.

But he had to make sure that his precious genin wouldn't get hurt in the aftermath of their own jutsus.

Kakashi sighed as he leaned forward and placed his elbow on his leg, the one still on Naruto's face. "Honestly, I think I'm spoiling my genin a little too much." He lazily glanced around him before shrugging his shoulders. "Oh well." He righted himself up and turned in their direction where his other two genin were running.

Sasuke and Sakura both came to a sudden stop when they saw Kakashi casually stroll out of the forestry.

And he was twirling around a headband that didn't belong to him.

Sasuke clicked his teeth in frustration. "Naruto's out. Sakura, run as fast as you can."

"Oh, what makes you think I won't just ignore you and go after her first?"

The boy's sharingan sprang to life as he lowered his center and flashed through hand signs. Tiger, Rat, Snake, Dragon. Sasuke inhaled deeply before he blew out a large fireball that charred everything in its path.

"My my,"

Only for it to miss its actual target.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you guys are actually coming at me with intent to kill." Kakashi's face took on its usual eye smile, only this time it radiated bloodlust.

Cra-! Sasuke jumped forward and twisted himself in midair. He grabbed a handful of shuriken and threw them at his sensei before his feet touched the ground. The shuriken flew straight at the man who stood still, not moving an inch.

And then they suddenly veered off course.

Kakashi's eye lazily tracked a single shuriken… and then he noticed the ninja wire tied around the shuriken's center. Oh?

Sasuke harshly pulled his arms back, making the flying shuriken come flying back with a snap. They wrapped Kakashi against a tree before the shuriken buried themselves into the man's arms. He had learned his lesson with Orochimaru. If he wanted to take out a high-tier enemy, you'd have to go all out before they had a chance to-.

Poof!

A shadow clone!? Sasuke's eyes widened as he tried to jump back.

Only to be caught by the leg.

"What's the hurry, Sasuke? You know you want to drag on our fight to win, right?"

However, Sasuke didn't get a chance to answer the man as he was slammed into the ground with enough force to knock out the boy.

Kakashi lightly nudged the boy's body, Yup. Down for the count. Now, His eyes focused in the distance, roughly 20 meters straight ahead. Ah, now she's trying to use clones to try and throw me off. His eye smile came back, while he blasted even more of his chakra and killing intent. Too bad that won't work on me. He took a step forward.

And the clearing was left empty excluding the knocked out boy.


Sakura had just leaped off of a large tree branch with her clones following close behind her, all zigzagging across each other to confuse her sensei.

At least she hoped it would.

"Sakura, neat trick you got there."

Damn.

She whipped out a kunai from her weapons pouch and threw it at her teacher. With her hopeful distraction set, she fell down to the forest floor. She weaved between trees and created even more illusionary clones. Hastily made, there were clear flaws with them.

Such as not casting shadows.

"Tsk tsk."

Sakura leaped high before channeling chakra into a single hand. She placed it around a thick tree branch and used her momentum to slingshot herself forward. Leaves rapidly crunching could be heard loud and clear from behind her, raising her panic. The pinkette quickly snaked her hand back into her weapons pouch and pulled out an explosive note. Her momentum finally slowed down enough for her to land on another tree branch.

But Kakashi was already standing there with a menacing eye smile plastered on his face.

Her hands grew sweaty and shaky, but she forced her jitteriness down. Time seemed to slow down as she leaned forward. Just as she was about to land, Sakura channeled chakra into the explosive tag and stuck it to the tree branch before immediately throwing herself back to where she had just come from. The tag took only half a second before it flashed a bright white.

And detonated.

Sakura was flown backward from the force of the explosion, causing her to collide harshly with the side of a large tree. Kah! She harshly coughed before immediately gathering herself together. The girl channeled chakra into the palm of her right hand to catch herself. After placing both feet on the side of the tree, she ran upwards.

Or at least tried to.

Sakura quickly turned around after she couldn't move a single step forward.

And was met face-to-face with her sensei. His flak jacket had been slightly scorched from the attack earlier, but what mainly ensnared her attention was her sensei's eye. It held no humor, no playfulness, no sign of the man she came to call her sensei.

Instead, all it held was anger. Anger that was aimed right. at. her.

That anger coupled with the intense killing intent and chakra flaring that Kakashi had been emitting the entire time.

Sakura's eyes rolled to the back of her head.


The girl stirred awake when she heard the bell of an alarm ringing close by. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to escape the sun's piercing rays that assaulted her closed eyelids. Sakura shook her head briefly before looking up, finally opening her eyes in the process.

And saw Kakashi standing there in his usual casual and innocent squatting position. "Yo, glad you finally woke up." The girl shrunk away from her sensei, still wary of him after what she had been through. "Sorry about earlier Sakura, I was slightly irritated by your trick with the explosive tag."

The girl didn't respond immediately, instead, she hesitantly looked him up and down. Only a few seconds later did she let out a shaky sigh. "It-It's fine sensei." She shamefully glanced away. "I guess we failed the challenge then."

Sakura was shocked to feel a hand placed gently on her head. She turned back to face her sensei, who was giving her a genuine eye smile that held none of the dangers it held earlier. "It's okay." The man shrugged as if dismissing the idea entirely. "Truth is I honestly didn't expect you guys to last the full five minutes. At least not in the first twenty tries."

Sasuke and Sakura both deadpanned meanwhile Naruto was over here taking mental notes. "Oh, I'll definitely beat this challenge before the twentieth try sensei!"

This caused the two currently sane genin to choke Naruto. "Take it back!" Sasuke hissed.

"Don't make empty promises so easily!" Sakura finished.

"Ack! Guys!" Naruto flailed.

"Now now," Kakashi interrupted his genin. "You both can try to kill Naruto later. For now, eat your lunch and then we'll work on the new jutsus we wanna teach you."

"Yes sir!" All genin chorused before they grabbed the packed bentos that Kakashi slid in front of them.

Naruto was eagerly and feverishly digging into his rice and chicken strips. Sasuke was eating at a more moderate pace, but he was eating faster than he usually would. Sakura ate a quarter of her bento before she paused. She placed the food in her chopsticks down and turned to her blonde teammate. "Naruto."

The boy had his mouth open with his chopsticks just centimeters away from his mouth. He lowered his food and turned to face Sakura. "Yeah?"

"What was that back there? You gained red eyes again and your chakra became strong enough to feel."

Naruto glanced at Kakashi with a pleading look before his sensei raised his hands. "It's up to you Naruto. You can either tell them now or later, but eventually, they'll find out."

The boy let out a sigh and decided that ripping off the bandaid would probably be for the best. They at least had a good run as a team before then. Sasuke already knew, so he only had to tell Sakura. "Alright." Sakura gave him her full attention, making Naruto squirm a bit. "You know how the Fourth Hokage stopped the Nine-Tails?" She nodded. "Well, he could only stop it by sealing it in someone. Me."

Sakura froze. The Nine-Tails was sealed inside Naruto? That idea seemed ludicrous. Just as she was about to open her mouth to discount Naruto's words, her mind replayed some of her younger memories. Every time she accidentally stumbled upon him the adults were always giving Naruto dirty looks and spewing hurtful words. Even back then she thought that the pranks the boy pulled weren't deserving of all that hateful actions, but now it made sense.

She stayed quiet as her mind kept connecting things that didn't seem to make sense back then. His victory over Haku after both he and Sasuke failed at first, how Naruto stood against Orochimaru with insane strength that he shouldn't have, and how Naruto and Sasuke beat Gaara. The things she wrote off as impossible now suddenly seemed very possible. "So," She started, "how does it work?"

Naruto blinked in shock. "What?" He hadn't expected that. He half expected Sakura to either be demeaning and shun him or to ask to leave the team because she couldn't stand being on the same team as him… not her asking how does it works?

Sakura cleared her voice. "I mean, how does that whole thing work? Do you let the Nine-Tails take over when you fight a stronger opponent? Or do you become the Nine-Tails temporarily? How does that whole thing work?" She repeated.

"Uhh, I just use a bit of its chakra when I need to-… you're really not scared of me? Disgusted by me?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Oh please, at the end of the day, you're still the same old Naruto." She got up and walked over to Naruto, making him flinch briefly before she engulfed him in a hug. "You're still our teammate, right Sasuke?"

"Yeah, idiot. I can still beat you so what do I have to be afraid of?" Sasuke's mind replayed the memory of Naruto keeping up with Gaara and summoning that giant toad, but he forced it back down. "Although back when you told me against our fight with Gaara, I finally pieced together why you have such large chakra reserves."

"Actually," Kakashi cut in, "that's just Naruto's natural chakra reserves. He'd have way more if it wasn't for the seal. It siphons off a large amount of his chakra to keep the seal active."

"Really?" Naruto piped up from behind Sakura. "Damn fox."

"Alright," Kakashi said, getting all of his genins' attention. "Sakura, hurry up and eat so we can get to the next phase of our training." Sakura quickly let Naruto go and went back to eating her food. "Now, for the rest of the day, and week, I want to work on teaching you all new techniques."

"Wahoo!" Naruto shot up and began to whoop and holler.

"Naruto." The boy quickly sat back down and looked at his sensei with stars in his eyes. "Naruto, Sasuke, I'm going to be teaching the two of you a more defensive type of jutsu. Let's see who can master it first." The two boys looked at one another before both gained a smirk. "Sakura, I'm going to be working with you to create a genjutsu and the same defensive jutsu as well."

"Really?" She said with stars in her eyes.

"Aww! How come Sakura gets to learn two jutsus!" Naruto whined.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Because Naruto, Sakura still only has the academy three jutsus. Now Sakura, I'm going to be working you hard to improve that fact so I hope you're prepared for the tough journey ahead."

Sakura nodded her head with a steel gaze in her eyes. "I'm ready sensei. I'll do my best to not slow this team down."

Kakashi gave her a nod. Her words had actually caused something within him to tighten before he ignored the feeling for now. "Great. Now finish eating before we head onto more training."


After all of Team 7 had finished their lunches, Kakashi gave each genin a part of the training grounds to work on mastering their jutsu. Naruto and Sasuke had a clone of Kakashi watching over them, and the original Kakashi was making his way over to Sakura and brought her a fair distance away from her two teammates. First up, the genjutsu he promised to teach her. "Alright Sakura, we'll start off on D-ranked genjutsus and we'll work our way up from there, sounds good?"

"Yes, sensei!"

"Perfect." He eye-smiled. "You know, you're a lot easier to manage compared to those boys over there." Kakashi gestured with a thumb point back behind him.

Sakura giggled as she looked over his shoulder and saw the two boys flashing through hand signs. The "Mud Wall" they made was either wobbly and too thin, Sasuke's doing, or too thick and too short, Naruto's doing. She focused back on her sensei and gave him a small bow. "Thank you sensei. It's not as hard as it seems." She playfully added.

The jonin let out a haggard sigh. "Well, you'd hope it would be when it came to them." He straightened up and cleared his throat. "Okay now, you get to choose between three genjutsus. One, Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu. Two, Mist Servant Jutsu. Or Three, Shadow Bind Illusion."

"Shadow Bind Illusion?" Sakura repeated. "What does that one do?"

"It creates the illusion of thick, suffocating shadows wrapping around the target's body, immobilizing them and making it difficult for them to move or breathe. The target feels as though they are being constricted by the shadows, causing a sense of panic and fear."

"Shadows wrapping around the target's body? You mean like Shikamaru's jutsu?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, I actually copied the jutsu off of some guy who had a rivalry with an older Nara after he lost to him."

Sakura giggled as she nodded her head. "Okay, I think I'll learn that one." She paused for a second before she eyed Kakashi out of the corner of her eye. "I can still have you teach me the others, right sensei?"

"Of course, anything for my cute genin."

"Then I'd like to learn the Shadow Bind Illusion please."

"Okay, the hand signs are…"


"You need to pump more chakra into Sasuke." A loud thud came from just a few feet away from Kakashi's shadow clone. "And Naruto, try pumping a little less chakra into it and focus more on the chakra control."

The blonde boy sighed as he looked at the Heads Up Display.

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Earth Style: Mud Wall - Basic Mastery 15%

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Frustration overcame the blonde, "Err! I'm trying sensei! I just can't seem to grasp it!"

Kakashi frowned as he clapped his book closed. He walked over and inspected Naruto's failed attempt at the Mud Wall jutsu. "Hmm, maybe you have conflicting affinities? Here," He reached into his pouch and pulled out a small slip of paper. "Channel your chakra into this." Naruto did as he was instructed and the slip of paper split right down the middle. "Hmm, looks like you have a wind affinity. You'll have a harder time learning water, fire, and earth jutsus but it should be possible with enough practice. Although lightning techniques may be out of your reach for a while."

"Huh? But I already know a lightning jutsu."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Where did you learn it from?"

"I found a guy reading this scroll back in the forest of death and I first used it against Gaara. I used it again when I was fighting against those arsonist bastards."

"Go ahead and show me Naruto." Sasuke stopped practicing and turned to see Naruto's jutsu as well.

"Well alright-, Sasuke don't use your eyes to copy my jutsu!"

Said boy frowned as he hadn't even activated his sharingan. "I wasn't, idiot. Go ahead and show us already!"

"Tch! Fine!" Naruto rolled his shoulders before he flashed through hand signs. Bird, Snake, Monkey, Ram, "Lightning Style: Lightning Ball Jutsu!" A giant ball of lightning suddenly came to life over Naruto's head as he extended his arms above his head. He gritted his teeth as he brought his hands down, aiming for the trees off in the distance. The giant lightning ball that easily towered above the trees slowly shot forward before detonating a safe distance away.


Sakura and Kakashi suddenly stopped their training as a giant ball of lighting came to life. They glanced backward and saw that the caster was none other than Naruto. Kakashi groaned, "Why am I both surprised and not?"

Sakura let out a sigh as she and her sensei began making their way over to the two boys. "Because it's Naruto, sensei. We should've already learned that common sense doesn't apply to him."

Just as they were less than half the original distance away, the lightning ball crashed down on the trees.

And it sent out a bright, blinding white light.


"ARGHHH! I'M BLIND!" Naruto yelled as frantically rubbed his eyes.

"What the hell idiot!" Sasuke yelled as he mimicked Naruto's actions. "Why did you charge it with so much chakra!?"

"AHHHH!" They heard a short distance away. "NARUTO! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!"

Naruto stopped rubbing his eyes and began to rapidly blink until his vision was restored. He looked around himself and saw Sasuke still holding his eyes with Kakashi in a similar manner a small distance away.

And Sakura was rolling around screaming for his head.

"Whoops, my bad guys." Naruto awkwardly chuckled. "I kinda have to fill it with so much chakra, otherwise I can't get the jutsu right."

"Well then," Kakashi started before groaning lightly, "we'll just have to work more on your chakra control. We'll keep going until you get it right."

"You got it sensei!" Naruto eye smiled as he slightly stuck his tongue out. His appearance looked like one of a fox, but none of his teammates or sensei realized it as they were still temporarily blinded by his jutsu.

After everyone recovered their eyesight, and after a brief skirmish between Sakura and Naruto which ended after Sakura started to choke the blonde for a few seconds, they resumed their jutsu practices. They all managed to halfway complete their jutsus, with Sasuke pulling a bit further ahead before Kakashi called off the training.

"Alright, you all made much more progress than I thought you would. We'll all gather here again in the morning at 800." Naruto raised his hand and Kakashi waved him off, "Yes Naruto, I'll show up on time for once. With that said, you're all dismissed!"

They watched their sensei disappear in a cloud of smoke. "Well," Naruto started, "Do you guys want to go to Ichiraku's? They have discounts on their ramen on Tuesdays!"

Naruto stared at the empty space where Kakashi was just a second ago before he turned to ask his teammates a question. "Do you guys want to go to Ichirakus?"

Sakura raised a finger to her lips before she nodded in confirmation. "Sure, why not?"

"Hn. Let's go." Sasuke confirmed as he and Sakura walked off, leaving behind a stunned Naruto.

They had never accepted his invitation to his favorite ramen place, so their sudden acceptance threw him off for a bit. "H-Hey! I'll lead the way!"

Oddly enough, for once Sakura and Sasuke felt like going. Sasuke's heart had been lighter for some reason so he chose to go hang out, and Sakura simply because she had no real reason to turn him down anymore.

After all, Naruto hadn't been bugging her all the time with dates…

Hmm.

"Hey Naruto," Sakura brought up as they all walked toward Ichiraku's. Naruto looked at her, prompting her to continue. "Why did you stop asking me out on dates?"

"Oh? Ahaha," Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "To be honest, I completely forgot about that. I've been too busy training to really do or think about anything else."

Conversations died down as they reached the small restaurant. They sat down, ordered their meals, and began talking about their training with Kakashi, about missions, or whatever came to mind. The whole time, Sasuke was putting in more effort to get closer to his teammates.

When they finished eating they began walking towards the center of town, planning on going their separate ways afterward.

But Sasuke felt something push him to speak up.

"Hey." Naruto and Sakura turned to face him. His face suddenly gained an awkward tenseness. "Let's head to my place for a bit."

"Huh?" Naruto turned to face Sakura before looking back at Sasuke. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Let's go." He took a right and led the way towards his place. Naruto and Sakura turned to face each other before they sped up to catch up.

When they reached Sasuke's home, he went into the kitchen to grab two glasses of water before he brought them out for his guest. When Sasuke went back into the kitchen to grab himself a glass, Naruto and Sakura glanced around the room before Sakura spotted a family portrait that had the right side ripped off.

She walked over to it, gaining Naruto's attention as he watched her walk over. He stood up and walked over just as Sasuke reentered the room. When Naruto reached Sakura's side, he glanced at the portrait and when he saw Sasuke's parents he instantly recognized that Itachi was cut out of the picture. Sakura opened her mouth, but Naruto quickly placed his hand over her mouth.

She threw it off and was about to yell at Naruto, but Sasuke interrupted her tirade before it even started. "What are you doing with my family photo?"

Sakura's face took on an embarrassed demeanor but she pressed on. "Why is the right side ripped Sasuke?"

Sasuke froze just as the cup in his hands brushed his lips. The glass nearly shattered in his hand as his fist tightened around it.

Naruto grabbed Sakura's shoulder and shook his head. The girl dropped her gaze and made her way back to the glass. "Sorry Sasuke, I didn't mean to be rude."

As the blonde and pinkette took their seats, the atmosphere was tense.

Then Sasuke let out a sigh before he took a sip from his glass of water.

"That picture was a family portrait." Sasuke lowered the glass, gently placing it on his dinner table. He walked over and grabbed the picture frame off of the cabinet it had been resting on. Sasuke went back to the table and just gazed into the picture. "My mother. My father. Me."

Sasuke's gaze shifted over to glance at the torn part of the portrait.

"And my brother. Itachi Uchiha."

Naruto already knew of the story, so he just sat there with his gaze lowered.

Sakura, on the other hand, was still missing something. "W-" She hesitated for a moment but pushed forward nonetheless. "Why is he torn from the picture?"

His heart clenched with grief. Just looking at the picture was beginning to dredge up suppressed memories. He placed it face down on the table and let out a shaky breath, his hair shadowing over his eyes as he lowered his gaze.

"Because he's the one responsible for killing my clan."

"My family."

Sakura's eyes widened as her skin paled. "Oh-! Oh, I'm so sorry! I-I didn't know-!"

"It's okay." Sasuke let out another shaky breath as he raised his head and stared at the ceiling. "I'm going to get stronger. Strong enough to beat my brother and kill him for what he did to our family."

No one saw Naruto wince as if he'd been shocked.

Sakura nodded her head with a newfound determination in her eyes. "Then we'll help you!"

"No." Sasuke shook his head. He brought his gaze back down to face Sakura in the eyes. "I have to fight my brother alone. I have to be the one to kill him to let my clan rest in peace."

"Then we'll help you get strong! Strong enough to face your brother and win!" Sakura raised her fist to her chest. "We'll train as much as we have to!"

Sasuke was left feeling a mix of emotions. Fear, courage, anticipation, trepidation.

But mostly gratitude.

His lips quirked up in a small smirk. "Thank you, Sakura."

She smiled at his response and nodded her head.

"It's getting late." They both turned to face Naruto, who still kept his head tilted forward. "We better start heading home." His head rose and his confident and wide grin was left on his face. "We're going to need the rest for training tomorrow!"

Both genin smiled and nodded their heads. Sakura got up first and made her way to the door. "I'll see you guys tomorrow for training." She opened the door and grabbed onto the doorframe tightly. "I want to be strong enough to stand next to the two of you." She confessed.

Both boys turned to face her, both dawning unreadable expressions that Sakura couldn't see as she stared outside.

"And I'm going to try my best to keep up with you two. Even if I have to train myself into the ground every day."

"Then we'll hold you up to your word," Sasuke responded with a smile.

Sakura smiled before she stepped out and closed the door behind her. She made her way toward her parent's house, immediately noting that Naruto wasn't walking behind her.

But she didn't mind.

They probably wanted to talk some more in private so she'll leave them to it. She was going to need plenty of rest if she wanted to keep true to her word.

Back with Naruto and Sasuke, they were left in silence as Naruto tried to think of the best way to phrase it.

"Naruto," The boy raised his head and stared right into Sasuke's eyes. "What is it? Just spit it out."

The blonde sighed before he opened his mouth, "I saw Itachi on my last mission."

Sasuke's eyes widened, "What?"

"He looked… he looked miserable."

Sasuke gritted his teeth as he shot up, slamming his hands on the table. "Well good! That traitor- that monster should feel miserable! He should feel a whole lot worse!"

Naruto shook his head. "He showed me everything."

The ravenette's anger was suddenly nipped. "What? What do you mean?"

Naruto let out another sigh as he knew this wouldn't be easy on either of them. "He showed me what happened on that night. He…" Naruto trailed off as he didn't know if it was his place to talk about this. "Never mind." He quickly stood up. "Sorry, I said anythin-"

"No. Sit down and tell me." They stared at one another before Naruto sat back down. "He, what?"

Naruto sighed for the fourth time in such a short amount of time. "Itachi… he… he was pushed over the edge…"


The two boys sighed as Naruto finished retelling everything that had happened when he visited the Rain Village. They had since been left in silence that was only broken after one or both of them had a possible idea of the elder Uchiha's actions/emotional overload, but they were shot down by the other pretty quickly. Now they were rubbing their heads trying to quell the headaches they had.

"Ugh, I could use some water." Naruto crossed his fingers and created a single clone. "You want a refill too?"

Sasuke held his fingers lightly digging into his forehead in concentration. "Yeah, the sink is just around the countertop." The clone grabbed both cups and made his way around the countertop and into the kitchen. "Grab some headache pills too, please. They're in the upper right cabinet."

"Okay-!" The clone started, only to be dispelled as he opened the wrong cabinet and had several kitchen knives drop down and pierce the clone.

Naruto blinked and got up himself with a huff. "Why the hell do you have your kitchen knives stashed up there?"

Sasuke grunted as he opened his eyes. "I can do whatever the hell I wan…t…" The ravenette trailed off as he realized something. "Naruto, how the hell did you know what happened? We're not even facing the kitchen."

The blonde stopped in his stride before he lightly glared back at Sasuke. "Because I-" Then his brain finally caught up to what Sasuke meant. He raised a hand to his chin for a second before he spoke his thoughts out loud. "Can shadow clones return their memories?"

"I don't know, you're the one that uses it left and right. How the hell did you not notice it before?"

Naruto rolled his eyes as he threw his arms in the air dramatically. "Well, I'm so sorry that I use clones mainly to fight in a group." He smirked straight at the Uchiha. "Uchiha-sama."

Sasuke scowled at his teammate. The blonde knew exactly why he didn't like that name. It reminded him too much of their academy days and the fan girls that always tried to suck up to him. Sasuke shivered as some suppressed memories bubbled to the surface. "Fuck you."

"Yeah yeah," The blonde waved off his teammate, entering the kitchen to get the two of them some water. "Top right cabinet?"

"Yeah."

"Found it." He opened the tap and filled up both glasses. As he brought everything back out, he was thinking of a test to try out his shadow clone memories trick.

Then his mind supplied him with a small prank that he could pull.

Naruto grinned evilly as he placed down both cups and tossed the headache pills to Sasuke. He crossed his fingers and created a single clone. They grinned at each other before the clone leaped out of an open window.

Sasuke frowned as watched everything unfold. "What are you doing?"

Naruto shrugged. "Just a test. I want the clone far away to see how much of its memories I get." He sat back down on the mat and they continued their brainstorming. After thirty minutes, the clone dispelled and the memories of the clone returned to the original. He smirked as he recalled his pink-haired teammate's reaction. "Oh, guess Sakura-chan didn't like my small prank."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow before he smirked. "What did the clone do?"

"He read her diary out loud and got dispelled by a punch to the head when Sakura entered her room." Naruto laughed, although he knew that he would pay for the prank tomorrow, but that was tomorrow him's problem. He let out a sigh as he stood up and glanced at the clock hung up on the wall. "Guess I'd better head home if I want to sleep tonight."

Sasuke glanced at the clock and clicked his teeth in mild irritation. He hadn't even noticed that it got so late. "Alright, see you tomorrow when I master the jutsu first." He smirked.

Naruto returned the smirk. "Yeah? I can't wait to see your face when I master the jutsu first."


The next day came, Sakura got her fill of vengeance by slapping Naruto on his back as he crouched down and laughed at his teammate's actions. Then after a few minutes, Sasuke showed up before Kakashi appeared. They continued their training and the day ended with Sasuke completing the jutsu first, bragging all the while as Naruto finished a while later. Sakura had gotten the hang of her new genjutsu and started working on mastering the Mud Wall jutsu immediately after. Now Naruto was working on a genjutsu that would show Kakashi exactly what Naruto saw when he had the Heads Up Display pulled up.

Or rather he was up until the team had been called to the Hokage's office as their team was assigned a new mission.

"Team 7, glad you could make it," Tsunade said as she shuffled a few papers around. She had just gotten here and she was already getting fed up with all the paperwork.

"Hey granny, what's the mission?" Naruto cut to the point of their meeting. "I was in the middle of training." He ended with a pout.

"I don't give a damn if you were in the middle of using the bathroom." She replied coldly with a smile that was everything but warm and innocent. Naruto rapidly nodded his head in agreement. "Good, now back to the topic at hand. Team 7, your mission will be to protect the clients as they make their way toward Snow Country."

Kakashi nodded. "Who's the clients?"

Tsunade turned to face Shizune and gave her a nod. The brunette nodded back and quickly left to go get the client. She returned not even thirty seconds later with a man following close behind her. "Team 7," Tsunade started as she motioned towards the client, "this is Sandayu Asama. Your client and the personal assistant to one Yukie Fujikaze."

"Wait!" Naruto shouted in excitement. "You mean we're-"

"Protecting THE Yukie Fujikaze!?" Sakura interrupted, knocking the wind out of Naruto's sails. "I watched all of her movies!" She ran up to Sandayu with stars in her eyes. "Do you think I can get an autograph from Princess Yukie?" She held out a marker with a rolled-up poster.

"Hey! Me too! I want an autograph too!" Offering the same items as his teammate.

Sandayu chuckled as he nodded his head. "Yes, I think I can get Princess Yukie to sign autographs for you three kids."

"Three?" Naruto turned around and saw that Sasuke was standing next to them with his own marker and his own rolled-up poster that he wanted to be signed. He flashed Sasuke a teasing smirk that caused the other boy to scowl.

Kakashi grinned from behind his mask but something nagged him in his mind. "Lady Hokage, you said "clients", who are or are the others?"

Tsunade opened her mouth to answer the question, but Sandayu cut in. Respectfully of course. "Lady Hokage, if I may." The Hokage nodded. "We're currently with the filming crew of the Princess Gale movies. They're preparing for the third and final installation of the movie series."

"So we're going to be in the newest movie!?" Sakura exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"We'll get into the small details later," Tsunade said as she waved off the genins' questions. "For now, you three are dismissed while the grown-ups talk about the more crucial details."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded, but Naruto was now pouting at being kicked out for being young, and, although he hated to admit it he knew it was true regardless, still immature. "Fine fine, see you later granny." He called back as he opened the door.

Tsunade scowled as she grabbed a paperweight and threw it at the blonde, hitting him in the back. She dawned a satisfied smirk after she heard the boy let out an Ack! as he and his teammates walked out.


Naruto kicked a rock with the pout still on his face as he and his teammates walked down the streets of Konoha. His teammates rolled their eyes at their teammate's behavior. "Naruto," Sakura started, "please stop pouting. We all know that there's probably more important mission details that we aren't classified to know."

Sasuke nodded his head. "It's not the first time this happened." He turned to glance at Naruto, who merely pouted even further. "Oh come on. This happened back for the Wave mission and more than likely for the mission you and your master went on."

This broke Naruto out of his pout as he contemplated something. Truthfully, he wasn't even aware that Jiraiya had been given or taken on that mission until Jiraiya showed up out of nowhere and told him about it. "Man! All I want is to not be treated like I'm a kid!"

"But we are kids." Sakura retorted.

"Oh come on! Don't tell me that you two are happy that we're still being treated like we're kids!" He held his right hand out and began to count with his fingers. "First we saved Wave Country, then we helped save Konoha against Gaara, and then I went to go and bring back the next Hokage!"

Sasuke deadpanned as he stared at the blonde. "That last one was a mission you went on alone with your master, idiot."

"I'm still part of Team 7, so it counts."

The other two rolled their eyes but they had to agree. They were ready to progress to the next stage, or at least in Sakura's case… she was mentally ready and would soon be ready with enough jutsus to be able to win against others. She would make damn sure of that.

"Alright fine," Sasuke caved in. "but, at least for right now, there's nothing we can do. None of us got promoted from the chunin exams and we had to wait for six months before we could take the next one."

"Ughhhhh." Naruto groaned.

"Oh, shut up," Sakura said as she grabbed her pouch and counted everything inside.

"I don't wanna do more D-ranks!"

This… this caught both of their attention and thus they suddenly agreed with Naruto's bitching. "We're definitely making sure that we're getting promoted in the next one," Sasuke stated with urgency.

They made their way to the first intersection from the Hokage's tower when suddenly a white horse ran by with a woman riding atop it.

And then several horses chased the woman.