Things changed after that.
Contrary to popular belief, Naruto wasn't dumb, and he noticed these things. He had to. Or else an angry citizen would throw a glass bottle at him and those things hurt when they connected.
But after wave, Naruto noticed how different everything was. Haku seemed to represent that. Haruhi-sensei would call it symbolic.
Or something.
Whatever. He didn't care.
He bites his lip.
Haruhi-sensei would call that lying to yourself.
He's not sure when he first noticed something was up, and if asked, he wouldn't be able to pinpoint an exact moment to when his gut started to churn, but if he had to pick an exact moment, it would have been the training grounds behind Sasuke's old houses.
At that point in time, Sakura-chan and Haku were furiously training for their medical entrance exams. They had about a week and a half until they would eat over at Sakura's parents house.
Naruto was pretending to take a nap, but what he was actually doing was watching Kakashi-sensei watch Haruhi-sensei who was watching a leaf bigger than her fall to the ground with distant spacy eyes.
She looks upset, brow furrowed and playing with her dark kinky hair. Kakashi-sensei would probably look worried too, if he didn't have that stupid mask on. But Naruto could see the crinkle in the corner of his eye he only got when Haruhi-sensei did something dumb like fall off a table or run into the middle of a battle with missing nin.
"Hey, Kakashi?" She asks abruptly, and it almost startles him into giving up his cover. Haruhi-sensei is looking at Kakashi with big brown eyes, and she looked distressed over something.
"Are you...um, w-wow it's hard to put in words," She laughs uneasily.
"That's fine. Take your time." Kakashi-sensei answers back kindly. The crinkle in the corner of his eye smoothes out as he smiles at her. Naruto wishes he was that nice with the rest of them.
She takes a deep breath in, and Naruto is concerned to notice her voice wavers.
"Well, um, I just wanted to say, t-that doesn't all this rub you wrong? Like, I'm sorry if I sound a little vague, but haven't you noticed how badly Sakura and Haku have been treated by the higher ups, when Ino was let in in pratcically seconds? A-and it's not just them either. The civilians are always flinching away from passing shinobi, especially chunin or higher. There's something unsettling here, and I'm not sure if I'm seeing things or m-maybe it's because I come from somewhere else, but there's a constant tension hidden under the surface."
Kakashi-sensei lowers his book and puts his finger in the page he was on, and Naruto can tell he's serious.
"This is a military village, Haruhi," He says not unkindly, "There is always a certain level of alertness."
Haruhi frowns deeper.
"That does make sense," She says, but her conflicted undertone says otherwise. "But, like, at the same time, I feel like its more than that…"
"Guess we'll just have to find out." Kakashi says. Haruhi nods, and drops the topic though it's clear that she's still somewhat upset.
Her questions burst Naruto's bubble.
He had always know, to some extent, that the village hidden in the leaves wasn't a perfect place. He knew that intimately, in fact. A Lifetime of isolation and scorn would do that to you.
Rich citizens and ninja who thought they were better than him because they weren't orphans and had clans spit on him. Many called him demon, but even more mocked him for his social status as an orphan with no known ninja parents. In fact, it was the immigrants and the poor who faced similar scorn to him that tolerated him.
Never loved, or appreciated, but tolerated. ( A big portion of the slums were destroyed in the nine-tails attack). Naruto knew suffering often brought people together, or at least to an understanding. If you saw a person suffer, you knew they were human, and could feel just as you do.
But despite all that, he was only now realizing how bad it was.
The villagers saw him suffer, but he wasn't a person to them, so it meant nothing. Naruto had desperately denied that reality, pushing it under his bed, locking it up and throwing away the key. He so desperately wanted to believe in the pureness of the village. He had nothing else.
But Haruhi was relentlessly. She was unwavering in her criticisms and observations. She dragged it out from under the metaphorical bed with snatching fingers, She jumped after the key and dug on hands and knees until she found it, stood up and ran towards the door and jammed it into the lock. She swung it open with the force of an elephant.
His figurative third eye was open, and never more than now did the phrase what has been seen cannot be unseen ring true.
He remembers long ago, when he was really young and before he got on the level where he could evade ANBU, how he would always be caught by the Uchiha police.
He remembers the first time he was caught, he was really scared. He cried a lot and didn't stop for a long time. He rubbed his eyes and got orange paint in them. One of the officers came over and carried him into the bathroom. He cleaned his face with tissues and gave him one of the peppermints on the desk. He had lines on his face, and medium brown hair that grew past his ears. A Lady with blue-black hair came and washed his clothes from him. She had eyes like Sasuke.
Both of them looked at him with kindness, and sadness.
He pulled more pranks, but never saw them again. It took awhile for him to realize it was because they were both killed in the Uchiha massacre.
Naruto noticed how they were treated. Like him. Sure, maybe not with the same levels of scorn or hatred, but that undercurrent of uneasiness that Haruhi-sensei was talking about was there.
It made him itch to run back into the storage room where he got the forbidden jutsu scroll and grab the one with the Uchiha crest on it.
But looking at the current situation, he knew that was impossible.
Currently, Naruto was standing next to Haku and Sakura, Karin shuffling her feet off to the side. Kakashi-sensei was in front of them, arguing with the village elders.
"-Send me after them, the scent trail is still there-"
"We do not have time to waste on a civilian." Danzo cuts in. He was referring to Haruhi-sensei.
Kakashi clenches his fists so hard his gloves squeak.
"Fine, then send me after Sasuke!"
"A team of trackers was already sent. Hatake Kakashi, the copy nin needs to stay in the village as a sign of moral in these trying times." Another village elder said. She had gray hair up in a knot.
After the attack in the Tower, the village was in certifiable chaos. The Kazekage was apparently dead. He was found out when Temari had burst into the conference room. Gaara lashed out with his sand, and when the Kazekage didn't counter it with his own gold, they called him an imposter.
Who was apparently this Orochimaru guy. Who was a big deal.
"You know that I am one of the best in the village." Kakashi said, voice terse.
"I have sent Nin after him. We need you in the village in order to make up for Lord thirds absence." Danzo said again. Naruto didn't miss the way Kakashi tensed and how Danzo didn't say them.
And he grit his teeth at the reminder of what happened to the old man. This snake guy, Oreo, or whatever, had hurt the old man so bad that he was still in the hospital. It didn't look like he would be waking up anytime soon, and until then, Danzo and the elders were in charge.
And they didn't care about Sasuke or Haruhi-sensei.
Not to long ago, Naruto would have shouted at them, yelled, cried and carried on, but now he knows it is not the time for that. He doesn't want to draw suspicion onto himself.
He tells Kakashi-sensei that they are going elsewhere and he waves them away. He is incredibly busy, the elders forcing mission after mission on him to keep him distracted. They threatened him with treason charges when he stood up to the elders. Kakashi-sensei is trapped.
When he tried to say Haruhi-sensei was his mission given to him by lord-third, Danzo said Lord-third wasn't here right now.
Instead, when they are dismissed they follow their fuming sensei out the doors and Naruto whispers to Haku, Karin, and Sakura where he knows Kakashi-sensei won't hear.
"Let's meet in Ino's hospital room in half an hour." Naruto sends three shadow clones to spread the rest of the message to the Konoha eleven. He will not stand by while Sasuke and Haruhi are kept in torment. It has been a week and three days too long.
The gather at Ino's door and knock.
"Come in," It's Choji.
They open the door. Ino at first didn't want to see anybody at all, but now she can't see enough of her friends. Naruto thinks it makes her feel safer. The quarter of her face not covered lights up when she spots Haku and Sakura.
There is some weird tension going on with Sakura and Karin, but right now he doesn't have the time to figure it out.
"We're having a meeting. The rest are gonna come soon." Naruto grunts nervously.
They sit and wait, the air crackling with tension. In a few minutes, Neji, Tenten, Rock Lee, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino trickle in. It's getting pretty cramped.
They close the door behind them. Teten activated one of her privacy seals. They all stare at him, waiting for him to speak.
"I'm planning on going after Sasuke and Haruhi-sensei since the village doesn't care. Who's with me?"
Naruto braces for yelling, chaos, and maybe even a punch from Sakura, even though she stopped that, but instead he is met with a grim, determined silence.
"I'm in. What's the plan?" Tenten says. No one contradicts her, instead nodding and looking encouragingly at him.
He swallows.
"Are you sure? This is um, unauthorized." Yes, that was the word. "If we get caught, we could be tried for treason." Naruto cautions.
"Who here is willing to participate raise you hands," Kiba growls and raises his hand.
Everyone else did too.
"W-wow, okay, so let's come up with a plan," Naruto says overwhelmed by the support and blinking back tears.
The put their heads together and get to work.
Haku will stay with Ino as a base of operations. He will make Ice-clones of all of them(sturdier than shadow clones) and Ino will take their memories and make sure they act enough like themselves to slip under the radar.
Hinata suggests the clones all volunteer for in village d-rank missions so they spend as much time away from their families as possible. Their sensei's won't be a big issue. All the jounin are on call and taking high ranking missions in order to restore confidence in the village after the fiasco that was the second stage of the exams.
Kiba is one of the best trackers in Konoha since his mother was born. He knows Sasuke's and Haruhi's scents from the months of training they all did together. Karin chimes in at this point and adds that she is a great sensor, and can sense weeks old chakra.
Shikamaru adds that he can stay here to deflect suspicions and open a back door for then to leave and enter back in through the Nara forests. Security had increased ever since the tower incident. Choji will bring food and supplies. Sakura will act as team leader, coming up with a moving plan. Hinata needs to stay behind. Her clan will notice, but Neji will come along as muscle.
Naruto looks at his fellow genin and thinks he doesn't need to be Hokage when all the people who believe in him are right here. Then he remember a woman who taught him to open his eyes.
Kiba remembers a woman complimenting his tracking, and laughing at his burps. She didn't call him stupid.
Shikamaru remembers a woman who told him strange riddles to keep him thinking and entertained.
Shino remembers a woman who didn't flinch back in disgust and contempt, but rather asked about his bugs
Tenten remembers a woman who questioned things most glanced over, a woman who saw her plight instead of ignoring it.
Hinata remembers a woman who gave her the confidence she needed to stand up for herself.
Neji remembers a woman who thought differently, and opened his mind to hear what his cousin had to say.
Haku remembers a woman who convinced her to keep living, and who accepted her as she was.
Ino remembered a woman who took care of her and got her friend back when no one else was there to.
Choji remembers a woman who liked food as almost as much as he did, and who didn't make fun of him for his weight.
Lee remembers a woman who clapped and cheered for him after each lap he completed.
Sakura remembers a woman who gave her advice that changed her life.
And Karin remembers a woman who smiled at her with kindness and gave closure and comfort to Sasuke when no one else would.
The stage is set.
They makes plans for midnight tomorrow. They have today to pack and get ready. To say goodbye and prepare themselves.
None of them notice the floating sand eyeball in the corner.
Question of the chapter: how do you think Haruhi's actions and ideas have effected the konoha eleven and co?