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Chapter Text

Naruto is seven years old when Jiraiya first starts to train him. It doesn’t go well. 

 The walking-up-trees drill just ends with an indent in the ground where Naruto falls, time and time again. Taijutsu stances break in seconds. Verbal lessons go in one ear and out the other.

 In two weeks, Jiraiya leaves the mountain, and has the toads take over Naruto’s schooling in the meantime.

 Naruto is seven years and five months old when Jiraiya returns. He’s gotten better.

 He can’t walk all the way up a tree, but he can reach the high branches of the bare tree with ease, and climb normally from there. He can hold a basic kata stance. He still won’t listen to verbal lessons.

 When Jiraiya leaves, Naruto asks where he leaves to- where he came from. Jiraiya tells him of a place filled with shinobi- a place he’ll take Naruto, someday.

 Naruto asks when ‘someday’ is. Jiraiya tells him ‘someday’ is when he’s strong enough.

 Naruto is seven years and ten months. He’s stronger.

 He can walk up a tree. He spars with frogs his size, but mostly loses. He still won’t listen in lessons.

 As Jiraiya packs his things, Naruto asks if he’s strong enough yet. He isn’t.

 Naruto is eight years and three months old.

 His chakra control is weak, but his taijutsu is nothing to sneeze at. He runs fast and jumps high, and can beat toads older than him. He doesn’t listen to history teaching.

 The night before Jiraiya leaves, Naruto sneaks through his things. He finds tools and letters- from this place called Konohagakure. Some of them are from this person called ‘hokage’. They’re orders- about Naruto.

 When Jiraiya wakes up, he smacks Naruto and tells him not to look through people’s personal belongings.

 Naruto is eight years and eight months old. He’s impatient.

 When Jiraiya tells him he’s still not strong enough, Naruto attacks him- to make the old see his strength.

 Naruto is completely and utterly trounced.

 Ma and Pa tell him not to worry because he can’t beat Jiraiya- he’s a sage, after all. 

 Naruto asks what that means, and doesn’t get a good answer.

 Naruto is nine years and one month old. He knows more.

 He’s become aware of the gap between him and Jiraiya- and he has an idea on how to close it.

 The week before Jiraiya visits, Naruto talks to the toad geezer to ask about sages. Through the fog of random tangents and senility, Naruto learns one important piece of information; you have to stay still.

 For the first time, Naruto doesn’t try to get out of lessons; he stays still the whole time. When quizzed by Jiraiya after the fact, however, he can’t remember a thing he was told.

 Naruto is nine years and six months old. He moves strangely.

 He’s still as energetic as always, but whenever he’s not in motion, he freezes, like a statue.

 He still knows very little about sages, but he can stay still with ease.

 After Jiraiya leaves yet again, Naruto goes back to the geezer. He figures out why to stay still- so he can draw in nature energy.

 Naruto is nine years and eleven months old. He still doesn’t get it.

 His taijutsu has improved, and he can do basic ninjutsu tricks, but nature energy eludes him.

 He goes through Jiraiya’s things every visit, looking for what the Hokage says about him. This time, he makes it through all the letters without Jiraiya waking, and looks for something else to read.

 He finds a decidedly lame and stupid manuscript.

 When Jiraiya asks him to show off the art of transformation, Naruto decides to mimic a character from the manuscript to mock the old man, and gets smacked for it.

 Naruto is ten years and three months old. Before Jiraiya arrives, he goes to the geezer once more. Finally, he learns how to acquire nature energy.

As he rubs the special toad oil over his palms, he feels the nature energy enter him- and then, it becomes too much. He feels his body stretch and shrink, and his skin starts to turn green- before a sharp pain at the back of his head drives it all away.

Pa explains to him the dangers of nature energy, the potential to transform into a toad. Naruto doesn't see what's so bad about that, until Pa gestures to the dozens of stone toads surrounding the pool. He listens after that.

But Naruto refuses to stop; he's finally found the thing that could make him strong enough. After a heated argument with Pa, where he points out that he'll try again with or without Pa’s help, the toad agrees to teach him.

A month later, Jiraiya hears of Naruto’s plan and laughs in his face. During his two-week stay, he tried to teach Naruto some basic ninjutsu, to little success.

Naruto is ten years and nine months old. He has unlocked Sage Mode.

When Jiraiya arrived, he hadn’t yet gotten it, but a week in, and he feels the world around him open up as the nature energy balances itself. However, as he gets up to go tell Jiraiya, the feeling breaks.

Jiraiya tells him he needs more practice maintaining Sage Mode and tries to teach him some jutsu. Shadow clones come out malformed, but Naruto’s transformations are passable.

As Naruto looks through Jiraiya’s letters, he finds another manuscript; boring as they might be, it’s still something new to read.

 Naruto is eleven years and two months old. He can maintain Sage Mode far easier.

 It’s still not a ‘perfect’ sage mode; he retains several frog features in his face and feet. He likes the fangs, though. 

 When he asks Jiraiya if this means he’s strong enough to go to Konoha, Jiraiya just tells him to master the jutsu he’s been learning- saying Sage Mode is nothing if you don’t have any jutsu to use with it.

 Naruto is eleven years and seven months old. He’s almost there.

 Since Jiraiya saw him last, he’s actually managed to get better at doppelgangers- but that’s only through bullheaded practice. He can’t do many other jutsu.

 Jiraiya still won’t take him to Konoha, though- but he promises Naruto next visit will be the one. In five months, Naruto will be a shinobi.

 When Jiraiya leaves, he gives Naruto a list of ‘special sage jutsu’, and tells him to master three of them by his twelfth birthday.

Chapter Text

Jiraiya arrives the day before Naruto’s birthday. He brings gifts.

As he makes his way into Mount Myoboku proper, he first hears- then sees- Naruto leaping towards him. As the boy lands in front of Jiraiya, the sage sees barely-contained anticipation in Naruto’s eyes.

“So when do we leave for this Konoha place? I've got all my stuff packed! How long does it take to get there?”

Jiraiya chuckled. “Don't get ahead of yourself, brat. Did you get three of those jutsu down?”

Naruto freezes. “Ehhhh…”

Jiraiya’s smile turns into a smirk. “How many did you master?”

A bead of sweat trickles down Naruto’s forehead. “... I can do Frog Kata?” He offered.

“Wasn't on the list!”

“Hey, I'm still a sage!”

“A sage who can't use any Senjutsu?”

Naruto groaned. “Anyway, you said you'd take me to Konoha this time- no ‘ifs’ or anything!”

“I did say that. And I will. But there's a few things we've got to take care of first. For one, your birthday present.” Reaching into his pack, Jiraiya pulled out a strip of cloth with a metal plate attached. “This headband signifies your becoming a Shinobi. Wear it with pride.”

Taking the headband, Naruto inspected it for a moment, before his face fell slightly. “It doesn't have any horns.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yours has horns. Why doesn't this one?”

Pride and irritation battled inside Jiraiya, before pride won out. “Listen, brat. Only super-cool, super-powerful Shinobi- like myself- get special headbands. You want horns? Work for ‘em.” As Naruto's smile returned, Jiraiya continued. “That's your first gift. For your other gift, we have to go talk to Ma and Pa.”

When Ma saw Naruto’s headband, she let out a small sigh. “Today's the day, eh?”

“That's right, Ma,” Jiraiya said. “I'll make sure he visits often, though.”

“You better!” Turning to Naruto, Ma pulled out a package of folded cloth. “Since it's your twelfth birthday, I made you something.”

Eagerly taking the package and unfolding it, Naruto saw that it was a deep green cloak with white flames at the hem. “Cool! Thanks, Ma!”

“Stay safe, boy, y’hear?”

“I'll be fine, Ma. I'm a sage, remember?” At that last remark, Jiraiya smacked Naruto on the head.

“Like I said- you're not a sage until you can do some real Senjutsu!” Turning back to Ma, he continued. “We actually came here so he can sign the you-know-what.”

“The what?” Naruto asked.

“One sec,” Ma said. “Dear! Get the scroll!”

In a puff of smoke, Pa appeared, alongside a large scroll. “Naruto-boy.”

“Yeah, Pa?”

“Do you know what Kuchiyose no Jutsu is?”

“... No?”

“It's a teleportation jutsu- the art of summoning. After making a pact with an animal, y’can use it to summon that animal to yer side whenever you want. And this,” Pa said, unrolling the scroll towards Naruto, “is the pact of Mount Myoboku. Once you sign this, you're officially a Toad Summoner.”

Naruto’s eyes lit up. “How do I sign it?”

“First, write yer name here,” Ma said, gesturing to a blank spot on the scroll. “Prick yer finger and use the blood. Then, make an imprint with all five fingers of one hand.”

“Got it!” Biting his thumb, Naruto quickly signed his name, and made the fingerprints. 

“Now, whenever ya wanna summon a toad,” Pa said, “place that hand on the ground, and make the signs of the boar, the dog, the rooster, the monkey, and the sheep.”

“Boar, dog, rooster, monkey, sheep… got it!”

“And with that, we can get going. Go get your stuff, Naruto.”

“Got it!” As Naruto rushed off to grab his things, Jiraiya turned to Ma and Pa. 

“How much does he know? About the fox?”

“Nothin’. He never asked, and we never told him,” Pa said.

“I'm going to tell him the broad strokes, once we go to Konoha.”

“Y’are?” Ma asked.

“Yup. I brought him here because someone was after that thing's power. If we're letting him leave, that someone may come after him again. And besides, he's figured out nature energy- he can get a handle on the Kyūbi’s power. And once he does that, he can look after himself.”

“So, are ya telling him about his parents, too?” Ma asked.

“N-not yet.”

“What’re you guys talking about?”

“Nothing much, Naruto- just catching up since five months ago. You ready to go?”

“Yup!” Naruto had stuffed all his belongings he could into a large backpack, which he wore along with his new cloak. “How far away is Konoha?”

“About a month of hard travel through hidden pathways.”

“Wh- a month?”

“For normal people, that is. But for Toad Summoners like me and you, there's a faster way. Three, two, one…” as Jiraiya snapped his fingers, smoke erupted around him and Naruto.

Just as quickly as it appeared, the smoke dissipated, and Naruto saw a view unlike anything at Mount Myoboku.

“Welcome to Konoha, kid.” Jiraiya smiled.

“Wha-how-”

“Reverse Kuchiyose. Just as we can summon toads, that contract can be used to teleport us across long distances- provided there's a summoner at the other end,” Jiraiya explained, gesturing to the large orange toad- Gama- who stood in front of them. “Thanks, Gama.”

Gama nodded, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“Now then, kid. Down to business. Just because you're here doesn't mean you get to go wandering around aimlessly. You're here to learn.”

“What? But I've been training for-”

“The kids here have been training just as long- some of them even longer. And there's more to learning than training. Now, listen closely.” Jiraiya looked Naruto directly in the eyes. “Have you ever felt a strange chakra? Something big, bubbling beneath the surface?”

“... Sometimes. I don't remember much about it, though…”

“Ah. What do you remember?”

“I- it's hard to describe. Like, if my normal chakra is yellow, this stuff was red. You know?”

“Red, huh? Well, here's the deal. That ‘red chakra’ comes from a thing called the Nine-Tailed Fox. It's sealed inside you, and sometimes bits of it's chakra leak out.”

“Wh- there's a fox inside me?”

“Damn big one, too. But don't worry, it's sealed up tight in there. What's important is that chakra leakage. The fox has chakra reserves larger than almost any human- that's the ‘red chakra’ you felt. If you can control that red chakra, draw on it at will, you'd get miles stronger.”

“Okay, but how do I do that?”

“How should I know? I'm not the one with the demon fox in me. One sec.” Reaching into his pocket, Jiraiya pulled out a letter. “Give this to the teacher at the Ninja Academy. They'll give you some training. But in your spare time, work on that red chakra! Don't go blabbing about it, though.”

“Where's this ‘Ninja Academy’?”

“Figure it out! Head for big sources of chakra!” And with that, Jiraiya sta

rted to walk away.

“Hey- where are you going?”

“Important sage business- now get going! You don't want to be late on your first day!”

Chapter Text

“From this day forward, you are full-fledged Shinobi. However, your training does not stop here. You are the lowest of the low ranks- many challenges still lie ahead.

From now on, you will be undertaking official duties on behalf of the village- while being coached by a senior jōnin.” Instructor Iruka looked over his twenty-six students. “This coaching will be done in three-man cells-” Iruka paused, as everyone started looking around at each other- “which I will assign,” he finished, chuckling internally at the groan that went up. “First up, Cell One…”

As Naruto leapt across the Konoha rooftops, he looked around at the village. It wasn't like Mount Myoboku- for one, it was far flatter. Roof tiles stretched away for what felt like miles in every direction. It was probably an easy place to get lost in, if you were stuck on the streets below. 

For a sage, of course, it was easy to figure out where to go. As Naruto felt the energy around him, the tell-tale eye rings of Sage Mode began to grow darker.

“Huh. Two big chakras,” Naruto said, looking around. One of the chakras was a muddy mishmash of colors, while the other was a dull yellow. “Well, Uncle said to head for ‘big sources’, so might as well go to the biggest one.” As Naruto turned in the direction of the massive yellow chakra, he felt the roof tiles crack slightly under pressure as he leapt towards his destination. Forget that Reverse stuff- this is the best way to get around. Now that he knew where to go, he could use less nature energy- he didn't need to sense chakra, so he could just focus on jumping from roof to roof, often leaping over three to four at once. Wonder if I can do five.

“Next, Cell Seven. Uchiha Sasuke…” a number of the girls perked up. 

“Haruno Sakura..” The girl in question let out a cheer and a fist-pump.

“And Uzumaki Naruto.”

Who?

At hearing this name, everyone in the room looked around. Who's that? Why haven't we heard of them before? Where are they?

Sakura raised her hand. “Iruka-sensei? Who's Naruto?” 

Iruka scanned the room and sighed. “On his first day, too?” He'd heard that Jiraiya wasn't exactly punctual, but to pass that onto his student-

At the sound of a knock at the door, everyone turned. As the door opened, the class saw Genma Shiranui, one of the Hokage’s guards, carrying a blonde boy with a nasty lump on his head by the scruff of his neck. “This is the Academy, you little brat!” Genma snarled. Throwing the boy into the classroom, Genma slammed the door shut.

The boy tumbled down the stairs, in a series of bumps that made some of the more squeamish members of the class cringe. When he reached the bottom, and slid a bit further, Iruka looked at his face and sighed. What did this boy do? “Class, meet Naruto Uzumaki. He's a …transfer student.”

“Looks like he's transferring out of this world,” Kiba joked.

Sakura groaned. She was naive to assume nothing could ruin being on Sasuke's team.

In a fluid motion, Naruto jerked forward and brought himself to his feet, before dusting off his weird cape. “‘just head for big chakra’, he said.”

“Care to explain why you're late, Naruto?” Iruka asked.

“Late?” Naruto looked up at the jōnin, tilting his head to the side.

Oh, god. “You had to be here fifteen minutes ago. It's 8:15.”

“Wha- I had to be here at a time?”

A few chuckles went up. Iruka wasn't laughing. “Did your teacher not tell you this?”

“No- he just wanted me to get here! S’not my fault I ended up bursting in on some old geezer,” Naruto groused in a rough country dialect.

“Some old- the Hokage?” Naruto had been in the classroom for five minutes, and was already driving Iruka crazy.

“Yeah- him! Uncle just said to head for big chakra, so I went for the biggest source I could find. Ended up being that Hokage geezer. Then I got kicked out.”

The chuckles had become laughs. Sakura had had enough. “Iruka-sensei? Do we really have to have this guy on our team?”

“I chose the cells how I did for a reason. I've been made aware of Naruto’s capabilities, and assigned you three together to balance your different strengths.”

“Just as long as he doesn't slow me down,” Sasuke said under his breath.

In a blur of movement, Naruto went from standing at the center of the room to squatting down on Sasuke's desk. “What was that?”

“You heard me. Don't slow me down,” Sasuke said, speaking clearer.

“How fast d’you go? You might end up the one slowing me down,” Naruto retorted.

Who did this kid think he was? “Not likely, dunce,” Sasuke spat.

Meanwhile, Iruka had resumed reading out team assignments. “And lastly for team 9, Tobio.”

“YES!” Tobio pumped his fist in celebration, accidentally bumping Naruto behind him. “Oh, sorry.” As Tobio turned around to apologize, Naruto had already gotten pushed off balance… falling directly into Sasuke.

As the two’s lips locked, Naruto’s momentum knocked Sasuke out of his chair, and they both fell to the floor.

Sakura- and some of Sasuke's other fangirls- stood in shock.

“Bleugh! You taste of tomatoes!” Naruto said, jumping up in that same sort of fluid motion. 

Sasuke laid on the floor. What the hell was up with this kid?

Sakura stood in shock. This is the guy she'd be stuck with?

Iruka cleared his throat to try and regain everyone’s attention. “I'll be introducing your senior instructors this afternoon. For now, everyone's dismissed.”

As everyone filtered out of the class, Naruto stayed, still as a statue. As Sasuke, the last one to leave, stood in the doorway, he turned back to Naruto. “Are you just going to stay there forever?”

“I don't have anywhere to go. I don't know anyone here, and I don't have to- OH WAIT MY BAG.” In a blur of movement, Naruto rushed past Sasuke, so fast Sasuke's clothes fluttered for a moment in the wake.

How does he move that fast? Iruka said he wa s a transfer student. Where did he transfer from?

What the hell is up with this kid?

Chapter Text

“Man, this stinks.” As Naruto wandered through the streets of Konoha, he looked around for a house matching the picture he had been given.

When he had gone back to the geezer’s place for his bag, he had almost gotten thrown out again- but this time, the geezer gave him a picture and told him he was living there.

He gave plenty of directions, but they had gone in one ear and out the other, and now Naruto was stuck wandering around the too-straight streets.

As Naruto’s stomach growled, he groaned. And to top it all off, he was hungry.

He probably wasn't going to find any tasty bugs nearby; the dirt roads and stone houses were a far cry from the forests and bushes the best bugs liked to hide.

“Okay. Find the house, find some bugs, and go back to that Academy place after I eat…” Naruto groaned. “Man, I'm hungry.”

“Hungry, eh?”

Turning towards the voice, Naruto saw a wooden building with cloth flaps over the awning. Ducking underneath the flaps, he saw a wooden counter, with an aging man behind it.

“Kinda. Hey, d’you know where this place is?” Naruto asked, showing the old man the picture he had received.

“I might,” the old man said. “Buy a bowl and maybe I'll tell you.”

“A bowl of what?” Naruto asked, quizzically.

“Ramen, boy, ramen! Didnt’cha see the sign?”

He hadn't. “What's ramen?”

The old man looked at Naruto in shock. “Naw, this won't do. One sec.” In a few moments, the old man set down a large bowl of noodles and broth, topped with all sorts of things.

Naruto looked apprehensive. He hadn't eaten in ages, but… “You said I needed to pay earlier. How much does this stuff cost?”

“25 ryō- but the first one's free. Can't stand the idea of someone not knowing what ramen is.”

“Thanks, mister!” Grabbing the chopsticks, Naruto tentatively slurped down a noodle- then dove in for more. Within minutes, he had devoured the whole bowl.

Wiping his mouth, he looked up at the old man. “So, do you know where this place is?” He asked, holding up the photo again.

“Try going down three blocks, then take a right. Anyway, what did you think?”

“It was alright,” Naruto said. “Not sure about the toppings, though. Could've done with some earthworms or something.”

“Wh-earthworms? Are you outta your gourd?”

“Earthworms are great! You should try it sometime,” Naruto retorted, grabbing his backpack and heading towards the directions the old man had given him.

“Yeah, right! Next you're gonna be saying I should put maggots in the broth!” The man yelled after him.

“Mealworms, actually!” Naruto yelled back.

“You're late, Naruto,” Sakura said.

“This town is confusing! I had to find my house, put all my stuff there, then come back here, and now I'm here. And I'm only like five minutes late!”

“And what would you do if, during those five minutes, our instructor arrived and took us away?” Sasuke asked.

“Follow you, duh!”

“Follow us how?" Sakura asked. “You can barely find your way around town.”

“I'd follow your chakra,” Naruto said, like it was the easiest thing in the world. “ Sasuke’s a deep purple, and you're like a pale pink. I can just look for those colors.”

He's a sensory type? Sasuke thought. Is that why he got assigned to our team?

But their instructor hadn't arrived in those five minutes. Nor in the five minutes after that. As the time ticked by, every other cell was led out by a jōnin, except them.

As all three of Team Seven’s members looked at the door, Naruto was the only one to stay perfectly still. Even Sasuke had to blink or readjust in his seat, but Naruto was like a statue.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, the door opened, and a white-haired man with his headband askew and a mask over his mouth walked through the door.

No horns.

“YOU'RE LATE!” Naruto yelled, moving again as if nothing had happened.

“Don't be rude to him, Naruto!” Sakura reprimanded, even as her inner voice was screaming the same as Naruto.

The white-haired man smiled with his one visible eye. “Alright, you three, follow me.”

After a quick walk to a rooftop section of the Academy, the white-haired man turned around.

“Now!”

“Now, what?” Naruto asked.

“Now, tell me about yourselves. Likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals, the usual.”

“Okay, you go first, mister. Give us an example,” Naruto said.

“Oh, okay. I'm Hatake Kakashi. My likes are none of your business. My dislikes are also none of your business. My goals for the future are none of your business. As for hobbies-”

“Let me guess, none of our business?” Naruto asked sarcastically.

“Exactly. Now, your turn.”

“He talked a bunch, but I can't believe all we got from that was his name,” Sakura whispered.

“Eh, I've met worse. The Great Geezer could talk twice as long and say half as much,” Naruto said.

The ‘Great Geezer'? Sasuke thought to himself. Who's that?

“Anyway, My name's Naruto. I like Ma and Pa, and Ma's food, I hate history lessons, and for goals for the future… hmm… Oh!” He snapped his fingers, like he'd just thought of it. “I wanna get strong. Strong enough to go see the whole world! I wanna meet all kinds of people, do all kinds of things… and I wanna get strong enough to repay Ma and Pa for raisin’ me.”

Well, well, well. This is the toad kid? That's a pretty kitschy goal. From what I've been told, he might be good for it, though.

“My hobbies are… I play board games with Pa sometimes?”

“And you enjoy that?”

“Eh, I'm pretty bad. Can't concentrate on ‘em.”

“Oh-kay,” Kakashi said. “Next?”

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are several things I hate. I'm not going to discuss them, as there is almost nothing I do like. I don't have hobbies, and I don't have ‘dreams’, but I do have determination. I have someone that I have sworn to kill.”

A wave of silence swept over the four.

Yeah, that tracks, Kakashi thought.

“Really? Nothing you like?” Naruto asked. “Not even food?”

“Food is a necessity to survive. Do you ‘like’ breathing? Drinking water? The beating of your heart?”

“Yeah, but you've gotta have a favorite food! Like, I love fried mealworms, and-”

“You eat mealworms?” Sasuke asked, shaken from his collected demeanor by Naruto’s absurd example.

Sakura wrinkled her nose in disgust. “That's really gross. Can we move on?”

“You guys’ve never tried fried mealworms? They're great!” Turning to Kakashi, Naruto made a sort of ‘back-me-up-here’ gesture to the jōnin.

“Naruto, most people don't eat mealworms- fried or otherwise. It's gross.”

Naruto looked confused, but quickly shook it off. “Alright, one of these days, I'm gonna make dinner for everyone.”

“I- I'll pass,” Sakura said. Are you fucking insane? Who the hell would willingly eat bugs?

“You cook?” Sasuke asked.

“I'll learn. Ma tried to teach me when I was ten, but I wasn't too good. I'll figure it out, though. Anyway! We're getting off track. What's your favorite food, Sasuke?”

We're getting off track because you started talking about fried mealworms! Sakura yelled internally. I do want to learn Sasuke's favorite food, though.

“...tomatoes,” Sasuke said, averting his gaze. “And onigiri.”

“Oh, I love onigiri too! I especially love the ones with-”

“Naruto, if you say anything else about eating bugs, I'll slug you,” Sakura quickly said before Naruto could continue. “Aaanyway, my name is Haruno Sakura. My favorite thing is- well, not a thing, more like a person. My dream for the future is…” Sakura’s face blushed red, and she moved on. “I hate Naruto.”

“What did I do?” Naruto asked.

Sakura ignored him and moved on. “My hobbies are training and makeup.”

Ah. I think I can officially say I got the weirdos, Kakashi thought. A love freak, a revenge freak, and a general freak. “Well, that's great for all of you. Your first project starts tomorrow on the practice field.”

“Project? Not a mission?” Sakura asked.

“That's right. This project involves only us four. Some survival exercises.”

“But we already did tons of those at the Academy! If this is because Naruto didn't go to the academy, then-”

“Nothing like that,” Kakashi assured her. “This won't be your typical practice. This time, you're surviving me.”

“Surviving you doing what?” Naruto asked.

“Can't say,” Kakashi said. “After all, if I told you…” he paused for dramatic effect, waiting for the anticipation to reach the perfect moment, “You'd chicken out. After all, the test has a 66% failure rate. So, bring all your tools and stuff- but don't have any breakfast! Unless you like vomiting it all out.”

Sakura tentatively raised her hand. “Um, Master Kakashi? What happens if we fail?”

“Oh, you go back to the Academy for more training,” he casually said.

“We what? B-but our graduation test-”

“Eh, who cares? 66% or 99%- we just have to pass!” Naruto said. “I've been through hell to get here- no way you're sending me back behind the starting line!”

Behind his mask, Kakashi smirked. “That so, huh? Well then, here's your assigment details,” he said, flicking them each a piece of paper. “Don't be late.”

Chapter Text

Naruto woke up at six- one hour before he was supposed to be at the training grounds. Looking through his cupboards, he remembered two things. 

First, he wasn't supposed to have any breakfast. And second, all the cupboards were empty. 

Well, I should get some food anyway. I’ll need lunch, later. Looking around the rest of the house, everything was equally bare- except for the main room.

On the table lay a note and an envelope. Grabbing the note, Naruto read it to himself.

“‘Hey, kid. Here's some money for food. Don't waste it.’ Gee, thanks. Not even a ‘do your best’ or anything?” Flipping over the note, however, Naruto found something better than a compliment or words of encouragement.

Thin pencil lines cris-crossed each other inside a large circle, with a number of shapes dotting across the map. Looking below, Naruto saw a list of the shapes- some designated clans, one was the Academy, and a few showed spots for buying groceries. 

“Since you're apparently hopeless with directions,” Naruto read from the postscript. “Now you're just being rude, Uncle.” Still, Naruto appreciated the map- even if he could do without the ribbing. Setting down the note and inspecting the envelope, he flicked through a wad of bills. 

“Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty. And each of these is… five hundred. So that's… twenty-five thousand of these ryō things. So, after the survival exercises, I can go buy some food.” 

Naruto’s stomach grumbled. “Eh… Mister Kakashi didn't say I can't have breakfast, just that I shouldn't. But what does he know? He doesn't even have horns.” Still, it was more or less the first instruction he'd been given in the village- aside from things like ‘go here' or ‘get out’.

“Maybe I'll just have a small breakfast.”

The ramen shop wasn't marked on Jiraiya's map, but Naruto found it soon enough. “Hey, ramen guy!”

“Bug boy. What're you here for?”

“My name's not ‘bug boy',” Naruto said. “I'm Naruto!”

“Well, my name's not ‘ramen guy’,” the old man retorted. “Call me Ichiraku. Now, d’you want the same as last time?”

“Depends. You got any bugs this time?” Naruto smirked.

“Not this time, and not any other time. You want bugs, bring ‘em yourself!” Ichiraku said.

“Maybe I will. For now, just the same as last time. Oh- extra pork, please.”

“Sure thing. That’ll be 600 ryō.”

“Wh- but last time, you said a bowl only cost 500!”

“Extra pork costs extra, bug boy,” Ichiraku smiled.

“If I brought my own toppings, would those cost extra?” Naruto challenged.

“I’d still be the one cooking them. Let’s say 50 for worms,” Ichiraku joked.

“Done! Wait, is that per worm or-”

“Kid, if you actually bring me a bunch of worms, I’ll do them all for 50. If you start bringing in more bugs, we’ll have to figure out the prices then. Here’s your bowl, by the way.”

As Naruto grabbed some disposable chopsticks, he looked back up at Ichiraku before he dove in. “I’ll make sure to bring some extra, so you can try them too,” he said, smirking.

Ichiraku laughed. “Cooking ‘em is one thing- I’m not eating worms. You couldn’t pay me to!”

“If you say so.” And with that, Naruto dove into his bowl of ramen.

“How do you keep being late for things?” Sakura asked.

“I was having breakfast,” Naruto said, lying down against a tree.

“You're not worried about throwing up?” Sakura asked.

“Not as worried as I am about doing stuff on an empty stomach,” Naruto said, closing his eyes.

“What did you have for breakfast? Cockroaches?” Sasuke asked.

“Nah, just went to this ramen place. I'm gonna buy some groceries after this survival thingy.”

Man, he's nonchalant about this stuff. Is that because he's not from Konoha?

About fifteen minutes later, Kakashi strolled onto the training grounds. “Good morning, everyone!”

This time, Sakura couldn’t stay silent. “YOU’RE LATE!” she yelled indignantly, as Naruto did the same. Honestly, was he ever going to be on time for anything?

Kakashi ignored them. “This alarm,” he said, placing a clock on a nearby tree stump, “will go off at noon. Before that happens, you will have to steal these bells from me.” He held up two small bells, each on a string. “Anyone who fails to grab a bell before the time limit won’t get any lunch. Instead,” he continued, pointing to the stump with the alarm clock on it, “You get tied to the stump, and I eat your lunch in front of you.”

Naruto looked indignant. “That’s why you didn’t want us to eat breakfast! We weren’t gonna throw up, you just told us that so we’d be hungry!”

“Oh, no. I told you not to eat breakfast so you’ll make less of a mess when I punch you so hard you hurl,” Kakashi said. It was amazing how much expression he could convey with just one eye.

“But there’s only two bells,” Sasuke pointed out. “So, no matter what, one of us is going hungry.”

“Not just going hungry,” Kakashi said. “Going back to school, too. Now, if you want, you can use shuriken. Come at me as though you mean to kill. Otherwise, you don’t stand a chance.”

“But- that’s dangerous!” Sakura objected. 

“Exactly!” Kakashi said cheerily. “You’re shinobi, remember? Danger is expected. Pain is expected. Death is expected.” His voice had hardened to steel. Better to scare off kids who couldn’t hack it as soon as possible. “Now then. We begin on my signal.”

Naruto hopped up from against the tree.

“Ready…” Naruto drew a kunai from his leg pouch.

“Steady…” Naruto leapt forward, kunai in hand.

“Not so fast.” Kakashi had gone from standing in front of the three to behind Naruto, grabbing his left arm. “I haven’t said ‘go’ yet. But I will give you a bonus point for moving to kill.”

“What’s a bonus point good for?” Naruto asked. He could barely track Kakashi’s movements- They weren’t as fast as he had seen Ma or Pa move sometimes, but they were still fast enough that Naruto could barely react. “Can I trade it in for anything?” He joked.

“Tell you what- if you manage to get a bell, I'll let you pick your lunchbox,” Kakashi responded.

“Done.”

“Now- go.”

Chapter Text

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura all leapt away- Sasuke and Sakura concealed themselves in the nearby forest cover, and Kakashi stood about thirty paces away from Naruto, out in the open.

“You’re not hiding?”

“I'm a lousy hider. Great fighter, though.” Naruto rushed towards Kakashi, who moved to grab something from his pack.

Not backing off, even as his opponent moves for what could be a weapon? Idiot. “Well then, let's see how great you are. Show me what you can do.” 

What's he going for? Shuriken? Kunai? Some other weapon?

From his pouch, Kakashi pulled out… a small, green book.

“You're reading right now?” Naruto yelled indignantly, leaping into a kick.

“Of course.” Kakashi quickly dropped to the floor, avoiding Naruto’s kick. “I've been dying to figure out how it ends.”

“Besides,” Kakashi continued, “it doesn't seem like it'll make much a difference.” From his squatting position, Kakashi twisted, hitting Naruto’s back with a sweeping kick that sent him flying.

“Rule one of taijutsu,” Kakashi announced. “Don't show the enemy your back.”

Who attacks a jōnin head on? Sakura asked herself. Honestly, he got off easy there.

Aren't you supposed to be a sensory type? Sasuke thought. Play to your strengths, idiot.

Now, who’s going to make a move next? I knocked the wind out of Naruto, so-

“I'm gonna flatten you!” Naruto had gotten back up, and was rushing towards Kakashi, shuriken between each of his fingers.

As Naruto rushed forward, he threw the shuriken, three in each hand. Without looking up from his book, Kakashi grabbed them out of the air, quickly throwing them back towards Naruto- faster than Naruto’s initial throw.

Naruto jumped over the volley of shuriken, but Kakashi was expecting it- jumping to meet Naruto, Kakashi twisted in midair and kicked Naruto in the gut, sending him careening into the nearby pond, where he made a large splash.

That kind of strength’s not fair! He hasn't even stopped reading that book! Sakura thought.

You need more than taijutsu to deal with a jōnin, idiot! Use some ninjutsu or something!  Sasuke thought.

As he sunk in the pond, Naruto grumbled. That's it! He'd been casually kneading some sage chakra while he waited for Kakashi to arrive, and now was the time to use it. Let's see how he likes this!

Sakura moved to grab a kunai. If Sasuke moves, I'll back him up- then we can each get a bell. 

Sasuke stayed hidden. If the first kick didn't get him down, the second one shouldn't have either- is he biding his time, waiting for an opening?

The pond erupted, as three people leapt out from beneath the water.

Three?

Naruto came rushing at Kakashi, each copy grinning wildly. “How d’you like this?”

Those aren't basic clones , Sakura realized. They displaced water- they're solid, flesh and blood!

Three distinct bodies- what sort of technique is that?

“Shadow clones?” Kakashi said. “That's a jōnin-level technique- and for good reason. You can't keep this up for too long. Ergo..” Kakashi jerked back his elbow, hitting the Naruto behind him in the gut. “... It's a feint. Nice try, though-”

Smirking, the Naruto Kakashi hit disappeared in a puff of smoke- and a blur of movement leapt at Kakashi.

“How's that for a ‘nice try’?” Naruto smirked, grabbing Kakashi's back.

“A double-bluff - you made it look like you were trying to trick me with that three-clone setup…”

When the ‘real’ Naruto was a clone, too! Sakura realized. Naruto actually managed to get one over Kakashi!

Something's strange, though. Naruto’s real body looks off. Sasuke realized. 

“Now for some payback!” One clone leapt for Kakashi’s legs, while another sprang up the central clone into the air.

As the clone in the air took a deep breath, its springboard made for Kakashi's other leg. Naruto tightened his grip with his legs around Kakashi's waist, making his hands into a hammer as he went to hit Kakashi.

As the hammer came down, however, it hit a clone - Kakashi had successfully used substitution Jutsu to escape Naruto’s trap.

However, Naruto’s bag of tricks wasn't quite done. The airborne clone exhaled a massive cloud of dust, and the remaining clone transformed itself to look like Naruto currently did.

Looking around, Naruto quickly saw Kakashi- the dust cloud was large enough that Kakashi hadn't managed to escape immediately.

As the dust blew towards the tree line, Sakura shielded her eyes. First those clones, now this big cloud of dust- what's he planning?

Sasuke, however, had a flash of insight. Chakra sensing! He can sense chakra, so the dust cloud won't be a problem for him!

Kakashi had realized the same. However, that doesn't mean I'm completely blind in here- I can still hear his movements.

Naruto’s voice rang out. “You wanted to know how that book ended, right?”

Huh?

“Well, I'll tell you! In Part Three, it turns out that Junko’s father is-”

Kakashi clapped his hands over his ears before he could hear any more. How the hell does he know that? Is he bluffing? No, he knows the heroine's name, he knows there's three parts, he knows that Junko's character arc has to do with lack of knowledge about her father- who let him read this stuff? Part Three came out yesterday !

With his hearing blocked, Kakashi now really was blind. I have to get out of this cloud- but if I can't hear, Naruto can just find me and snatch the bells.

Earth Style! Groundhog Technique! Diving into the ground, Kakashi began to escape the dust cloud.

“Gotcha!” 

Around Kakashi, the ground erupted. He has enough raw strength for something like this in Sage Mode?

Alright, then. Let's see if he can finish the job. The shockwave from destroying the ground had blown away enough of the dust that Kakashi could clearly see Naruto above him, grinning madly with his sharp fangs. 

He's stopped trying to spoil my book- so I can use both hands again. Taking his hands away from his ears, Kakashi grabbed a kunai in one hand and readied the other for taijutsu.

Bracing himself against a chunk of earth he had sent flying, Naruto leapt towards Kakashi. I win.

Unfortunately, Naruto had been too slow- the rings around his eyes faded, and without his frog legs, he couldn't get enough speed on his jump.

The difference was staggering- compared to his previous movements, it was as if Naruto was moving in slow motion. Kakashi sidestepped him and hit him with a swift chop on the back. Good try, though. Now, about immobilizing him… with a series of quick hand signs, Kakashi molded the earth around Naruto to stop him from getting up. “You used your surroundings well, but you spent too much time messing around, and couldn't finish the job.”

“I would've got you if I didn't run out of Sage chakra!” Naruto protested. 

“That sounds like your problem. Don't worry, I'll dig you out once the alarm rings.”

“Rrrrgh!” Naruto began writhing around. “I'll get out of here before then, and then I'll get one of those stupid bells!”

“Yeah, sure you will.”

“Junko’s father is-” at this last remark, Kakashi stuffed a handkerchief in Naruto’s mouth as a gag.

What happened in there? The dust’s not dispersing, but I can't hear any fighting anymore, Sakura thought. Did Naruto manage to get a bell?

Whatever happened, I need to meet up with Sasuke. He went north initially, so…

After a few minutes of stealthy travel, Sakura came to a strange sight- a gigantic cliff, which she was moments away from running off of. “What the hell? How's this here?”

“Can Master Kakashi change the landscape this much? Maybe it's an illusion?” Cautiously approaching the edge of the cliff, she lowered her hand off the edge, only to jerk it back when it went down. “Nope, definitely real. Or at least, real enough. Still, if this is an illusion, how does it work? And how do I break it?”

“Was that overdoing it?” Kakashi asked himself. “Eh, from what my notes say, she’s got the best chance of breaking it. If she figures out how.”

“Anyways, that’s two brats down. Now for…”

A volley of shuriken flew out from the underbrush, hitting Kakashi along his back- and then, in a puff of smoke, there was a log where Kakashi was. 

Shit! Dashing away, Sasuke found himself in an open plain.

“The other two are down for the count, you know,” Kakashi said, stepping out from behind a tree.

“Then I'll get two portions for lunch,” Sasuke said.

“Boasts like that are best saved for once you've got a bell,” Kakashi replied.

Wordlessly, Sasuke grabbed several shuriken, flinging them faster and more precisely than Naruto had. Kakashi leapt over the volley, but Sasuke smirked. 

One of the shuriken cut a rope in the underbrush, letting loose a number of knives- all aimed at Kakashi.

Not only did he lure me to where he had traps, he carefully set up that volley of shuriken to trick me into the air- where it's harder to maneuver. But this is the edge of an open area- so he couldn't set up knives coming from in front of me. Leaping off of a tree behind him, Kakashi glared st Sasuke. What's your next move?

Quickly, Sasuke began weaving signs- signs Kakashi recognized. A Jutsu like that, his first day out of the academy? Looks like these kids learn fast. In which case, I might as well respond in kind.

Taking a deep breath, like Naruto before him, Sasuke breathed out a large attack- although, instead of dust, Sasuke used fire. The massive fireball expanded nowhere near as far as Naruto's cloud, but was still big enough to cloud Sasuke's peripheral vision. As the fire dispersed, Kakashi was nowhere to be found. How did he escape? Where is he? Quickly snapping his head around, Sasuke felt a momentary chill, before a sharp yank on his leg pulled him under the ground.

“Groundhog Decapitation,” Kakashi said behind him. “Normally, this is right about when you get your head sliced off. But I'm going easy on you three,” he said, walking off as he pulled out his book again. “Now, I need to finish this before Naruto tries to spoil me again.”

Damnit! Sasuke thought. How did he escape that trap? How did he maneuver fast enough to get underground from the air?

I can still move, but barely. I need to get out of here before noon- I can still get one of those bells!

After a few minutes of wiggling, Sasuke had gotten marginally less stuck when he heard someone moving. Naruto? Or Sakura?

“Man, this place got charred. What hap- SASUKE?” as Sakura broke through the tree line, she jumped at the sight of Sasuke’s head. “What happened to you?”

“He trapped me underground,” Sasuke said. “I should be free soon enough.”

“Here, let me-”

“I can get out myself!” Sasuke yelled, stopping Sakura in her tracks. “I just need to-” a sickening pop rang out, causing Sakura to cringe. A few more pops later, and Sasuke climbed out of the ground, having dislocated his joints in the process.

“I could've helped you,” Sakura said.

“I don't-” Sasuke grunted, popping his shoulder back into place- “need help. I need to get stronger-” another grunt, another pop- “so I can kill him.”

“Kill… master Kakashi?” Sakura asked. What's going through his head?

Before Sakura could ask anything else, both genin heard a yell from the forest, slowly growing louder.

“Who-” Naruto burst from the tree line, yelling loudly and running like an animal. He blew past Sasuke and Sakura, who only caught a quick glimpse of him before he was far away.

“How does he move like that?” Sakura asked.

“Wish I knew. But I need to follow him- it's going to be noon soon, and I need to get one of those bells.”

“We can-” Sakura reached out towards Sasuke, but the boy was already running after Naruto.

As the genin rushed through the forest, the sharp alarm of Kakashi's clock ran out. 

“Crap.”

What happens to us now? Do we have to go back to the Academy?

Naruto rushed forward regardless, as if the alarm hadn't gone off at all. He leapt from the tree line, only to see Kakashi sitting on the stump, reading the last pages of his book.

“Mamiya was killed by-” Kakashi moved forward in a blur of movement, grabbing Naruto and covering his mouth. “Time's up.”

As Sasuke and Sakura made their way back to the stump, they saw Naruto tied to the stump with a handkerchief stuffed in his mouth.

“Well, well, well. Would you look. At. That,” Kakashi said, taking his time on each word. “I still have two bells! And you kids have a grand total of zero. Guess that means you're going hungry!”

Naruto glared at Kakashi.

“However! None of you have to worry about going back to the Academy.”

We passed? Sakura pumped her fist. “So, we all-”

“Are hopeless!” Kakashi said. “Even if we sent you back to the academy, it wouldn't help. You're failures! None of you will ever be shinobi.”

Naruto spat out the handkerchief. “What the hell do you mean? Sure, we didn't get your stupid bells, but quit? Why would you say that?”

“Because you don't have what it takes,” Kakashi said.

Sasuke rushed forward, only for Kakashi to subdue him in a blur of movement. “Spoiled brats… are you trying to insult shinobi?”

“What do you mean?” Sakura asked.

“You were divided into these cells for a reason- a reason you evidently haven't figured out! And that was what determined your success.”

“What reason?” Naruto asked.

“For the love of… teamwork, you idiots! If you had come at me as a team, you might've gotten the bells. Even if you hadn't, I might still have passed you. But as it stands, you three are complete failures!” Kakashi was angry- a departure from his usually sleepy tone.

“But you only had two bells,” Sakura protested. “Even if we did work together, someone would go hungry!”

“That's the point! That was designed to cause tension in your ranks- and to see who would set aside their own needs for the good of the team. Instead, you failed to act decisively, hemmed and hawed about what to do for far too long, and chose to focus on finding Sasuke instead of Naruto, who was right near you.”

“You,” Kakashi continued, looking at Sasuke beneath him, “refused help even after it was proven you couldn't beat me alone, and wasted your time trying to get out of that hole. And you,” Kakashi said, his voice sharper than a knife, “are the worst of the lot,” he said to Naruto. “Not only did you alienate your teammates with that dust maneuver, you used multiple dangerous techniques, all inefficiently, often in conflicting ways. Those jutsu are restricted for a reason! Then, you spent too long messing around, only made a move to complete your task when it was too late, and even after you got free , completely ignored both of your teammates ! Making those plays were completely unnecessary and exposed both of your teammates to danger. You may as well kill them yourself!” Grabbing a kunai, he held it to Sasuke’s neck. “Sakura, kill Naruto. Or Sasuke dies.”

“Wha- are you-”

“That's the sort of decision you may have to make on a mission,” Kakashi said, taking the kunai away from Sasuke's neck. “Your lives will be on the line. Constantly. One of you could be taken hostage… you could have to make the choice between who you can save.” Standing up, Kakashi gestured to a marker. “This monument- these names carved in stone- do you know what they mean?”

“Nope,” Naruto said.

“These are the names of heroes of our village- heroes who died in the line of duty. My father's name is here. So are the names of my best friends. And countless others. And the way you three acted disrespects each and every one of them.”

Everyone was silent. 

“I'm going to give you three one final chance. Something far harder than our last little game. If you choose to continue, eat a lunchbox. But no sharing with Naruto.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because you're the worst offender here,” Kakashi answered. “You could've killed yourself with those techniques. And besides, you already ate breakfast.”

“Wh- how do you-” Naruto fell silent at Kakashi's intense glare.

“ If,” Kakashi continued, “either of you feeds Naruto, you fail instantly. My word is law. And I will know. Do you understand?”

Wordlessly, everyone nodded. “Good.”

Kakashi disappeared in a blur.

“Hey, no biggie. I can go without lunch, no-” Naruto was interrupted by the growling of his own stomach. “Y-you two need it more, probably.”

Sasuke was silent for a moment. “How hungry are you?”

“I- I can-” another loud growl rang out.

“If it's that bad, eat. We need to be as strong as possible to get those bells- if skipping lunch means you're a liability, then you need this more than me.”

“B-but master Kakashi-”

“He’s probably far away. And besides, we'd fail anyway if Naruto doesn't eat.” Turning away his face, Sasuke continued. “Kakashi said you ran out of time. If we go with a plan, and move decisively, could you do what needs to be done?”

“Yes,” Naruto said.

“Then eat.” 

“You shouldn't go hungry either,” Sakura said. “I- I'll give Naruto some of mine too, so we can all eat.”

“Thanks, guys.”

“Hey, we're supposed to be a team,” Sakura said. “I don't eat much anyway- I'm on a diet.”

In an explosion of smoke, Kakashi reappeared in front of the trio. “YOU…”

Sakura screamed.

Sasuke reached for a shuriken.

Naruto steeled himself.

“Pass♩!” Kakashi said cheerfully.

“Wait- but-”

“That was a big step you three just took. As opposed to just listening to me like mindless drones, you acted like a team . In this world, those who don't follow orders are garbage. Lower than garbage, even! But if you don't care for and support your comrades, you're even lower than that.”

The genin were silent. 

“The exercise is over- you all pass. Tomorrow, we can start actual missions.”

“What was the ‘final chance’ going to be?” Naruto asked.

“There wasn't one. I was just going to fail you. Why do you ask?”

“I wanna try for the bells again- I bet we can get them this time,” Naruto smiled.

Kakashi laughed- a short, barking laugh. “Really?”

“I want to try again, too,” Sakura said. “Now that I've seen that illusion thing, I won't fall for it again!”

“I'm in,” Sasuke said.

Kakashi looked over the genin, grinning so wide you could almost see it through the mask. “Okay, then. Tell you what- same time, three days from now. I'll even bring a third bell.”

“Is ‘same time’ accounting for you being late?” Sasuke asked.

Kakashi chuckled. “Nah, get here on time. Have breakfast if you want- but I will be hitting hard enough to make you vomit, this time.”

“Got it.”

“Now, get to practicing! I'll see you in three days.” Kakashi disappeared in another burst of smoke- this time for real.

“So, what do we do first?” Sakura asked, turning to the other two.

“Wanna go get lunch?” Naruto asked. “Two lunchboxes ain’t enough for the three of us. And I still need to buy groceries. You guys know any good places?”

“...I mostly eat at home,” Sakura said.

“...No,” Sasuke said.

“Eh, we can find someplace,” Naruto said. “Uncle gave me some money, so I can pay!”

‘Uncle’? Sasuke thought. “Okay.”

Chapter Text

Wandering around Konoha, the trio of genin looked at the various storefronts, trying to figure out where to have lunch. 

“Hey, that way smells good!” Naruto said, pointing down an avenue of storefronts.

“That's Tea Avenue. Not the sort of place to get lunch,” Sakura explained.

“Everything’s too sweet down that way,” Sasuke added.

“You don't like sweet food, Sasuke?” Sakura asked.

“No.”

“...oh.”

“Hey, what's that place?” Naruto asked, pointing to a storefront with a big, glowing sign.

“That's a yakiniku place. They just sell loads of meat,” Sasuke said.

“Also not a good lunch place,” Sakura said. “Too expensive.”

“Well, if that’s not a good lunch place, and this isn't a good lunch place, where are we supposed to eat?” Naruto asked.

“I don't know- like I said, I eat at home,” Sakura said.

“What do you do for lunch, Sasuke?” Naruto asked, turning to the black-haired boy.

Sasuke was silent for a moment. “I think there's a sandwich shop down that way,” he said, pointing opposite Tea Avenue.

Sakura raised an eyebrow at his attempt to change the subject, but Naruto was already running off.

Soon, both a little out of breath, Sakura and Sasuke had caught up with Naruto, who was standing outside a white-and-green storefront. “This the place?”

“Should be,” Sasuke said.

“Great.” Opening the door and going inside, Naruto saw an interior of low tables, pastel colors, and way too much floral print.

Each of the four or five circular tables had a number of cushions and ottomans around them, in mismatched floral patterns. Near the back of the store was a young man with a bored expression, manning the counter. On the wall behind him, displayed across three boards, were large lists and prices of sandwiches, sandwich sets, and floral teas.

As the genin began scanning the menus, Sasuke walked up to the counter. “One tomato Onigirazu and a jasmine tea- no sugar.”

“That's 600 ryō,” the bored man said.

“Oh- I'm paying,” Naruto said, still looking over the menus.

“Okay.”

“Can I get a vegetable sandwich and a hibiscus tea?” Sakura asked. “Oh- and a fruit sandwich.”

Naruto was still hemming and hawing over what to get. “Hey, what do you-”

“Basic sampler,” the cashier interrupted. “Four mini sandwiches, each with a variety of ingredients. There's katsu, egg, veggie, and ham.”

“Yeah, I'll get that. And a lemon tea.”

“Your total comes to 2480 ryō,” the man said with a practiced monotone. “Take a seat, and I'll bring your order shortly.”

As Sasuke and Sakura took a seat at one of the low tables, Sakura choosing a pink ottoman while Sasuke sat on a purple cushion, Naruto counted out the money, then joined them. “I'm gonna have to figure out how to get more money soon- this won't last forever.”

“You're a ninja,” Sakura said, confused. “You get money through missions.”

Naruto tilted his head to the side, like a confused dog.

“You really don't know anything do you?” Sasuke said. “We get assigned missions, and we get paid by completing those missions.”

“What sort of missions?”

“Depends,” Sakura said. “As genin, we probably won't get anything more than basic stuff, like locating missing items or repairing fences. You have to be a Chunin or Jōnin for the more dangerous stuff.”

“Different missions are worth different amounts. Genin missions are typically around 10,000 ryō.”

“Ten thousand for repairing a fence?” Naruto asked.

“Well, we don't all get that much,” Sakura said. “The village takes about 20%, and mission money gets split four ways- us three, plus Master Kakashi. So it's more like 2,000 for repairing a fence.”

“Huh.”

The bored man came by with a cart of plates, and quickly put them in front of everyone. “One tomato Onigirazu, one vegetable sandwich, one basic sampler, one fruit sandwich, one black dandelion tea no sugar, one hibiscus tea, and one lemon tea.” With that, he went back behind the counter and cracked open a book.

“Hey, that's not a sandwich!” Naruto said, pointing at Sasuke’s plate. While his and Sakura’s sandwiches were triangles of light bread with the crusts trimmed off, Sasuke’s lunch looked more like a gigantic piece of sushi than a sandwich. 

“It's Onigirazu. I'm not a fan of bread,” Sasuke said.

“You don't like bread, you don't like sweet stuff… what do you like?” Naruto asked.

“This,” Sasuke replied, pointing to his ‘sandwich’. “It's got tomatoes and pork in it.”

“And if you don't like sweet stuff, why'd you take us to a place that only serves flower tea? And they don't even put the flowers in it!”

“Naruto, the flowers in floral tea dissolve during steeping, like the tea leaves. Do you- do you normally have whole flowers in your tea? Wait, don't answer that. You eat bugs. Flowers are comparatively less weird.”

“Why do you keep bringing up the bugs thing?” Naruto asked indignantly.

“Because it's gross!”

Sasuke ignored them and ate his lunch.

Grabbing a sandwich at random and biting into it, Naruto changed topics. “So, that Kakashi guy said we have three days to prepare. What do we do?”

“First step is figuring out how to counter his attacks,” Sasuke said. “What did he do to fight you?”

“...he hit me?”

“More detail,” Sakura said. “Do you know which Jutsu he used?”

“...he went underground,” Naruto remembered. “Then he molded the earth around me.”

“Did he drag you underground?” Sasuke asked.

“Nope, more like- it's like getting a bunch of mud dumped on you, but the mud is really solid and heavy. I broke out of it eventually, though."

You broke through solid rock while completely immobilized? “He did something similar against me. I had managed to force him into the air, but he somehow got underground and dragged me down. He called it ‘Groundhog Decapitation’.”

“Hm. Did he do the same thing to you, Sakura?” Naruto said, moving onto his second sandwich.

“No,” Sakura said, embarrassed. “After you made that giant dust cloud, I don't think I caught sight of him until the test was over. He trapped me in this illusion where it looked like there was a giant cliff surrounding me.”

“How'd you break out?” Naruto asked.

“I'm still not entirely sure. I was really annoyed, so I just smacked myself really hard to try and get myself to wake up… and I did.”

“Genjutsu- the art of illusion,” Sasuke said. “Normally, they're a lot harder to break. We'll need a better strategy to deal with it.”

Sakura was momentarily angry, but it passed. “Do you know how to break them?”

“If the caster isn't focusing on it, it should eventually dissipate on it's own. I haven't figured out any surefire counters to them.”

Naruto was deep in thought. “Genjutsu… genjutsu…”

“What are you doing?”

“That's where I heard it before! Uncle was talking about them.”

“What do you remember about what he said?” Sakura asked.

“‘Because you're hopeless with controlling chakra, you'll have a hard time with genjutsu’,” Naruto recited, mimicking Jiraiya's rough voice. “‘A good genjutsu latches onto the target’s chakra system- and keeps itself going by using that target’s chakra. It's really hard to get right, and it's not a direct attack, so most people don't bother.’”

“Drawing on the target’s chakra for your own technique…” Sakura said. “I guess that's why it felt so real.”

“‘If you run into someone who's good with genjutsu, you're in for a bad time. If you ever realize you're in one, here's what you do’-” Naruto paused.

“...what do you do?” Sakura asked.

“...I forget the rest,” Naruto said. “Something about water? Or breath? Or holding in a fart? Ow!”

Sakura had reached over and hit Naruto on the head. “All that and you don't even remember what he actually taught you?” Sakura yelled. 

“Hey, it was like two years ago!”

“I've been meaning to ask- who is your uncle?” Sasuke said.

“His name's Jiraiya,” Naruto said, starting his fourth sandwich- the katsu one.

Sasuke and Sakura sat in stunned silence.

“This is a really good sandwich,” Naruto said.

“Your uncle is Jiraiya?” Sakura asked. “The Jiraiya?”

“Probably?” Naruto said. “I don't know anyone else named Jiraiya.”

He was raised by one of the legendary Sannin? Sasuke thought. Is that why he didn't go to the Academy?

“What, do you know him?” Naruto had finished his sandwich, and was now eyeing Sakura’s fruit sandwiches. 

“Do we- Naruto, do you know who your uncle is?” Sakura said incredulously.

“He's my uncle,” Naruto said. “Hey, are you going to-”

“Get your own,” Sakura said automatically. “Naruto, Jiraiya is-”

“I paid for them, though,” Naruto protested.

Passing over one of the triangles, Sakura continued. “Your uncle is one of the Legendary Sannin- a trio of powerful Konoha shinobi.”

“This sandwich is really good, I can see why you didn't want to give it to me.”

“Wha- no reaction?”

“He always said he was a big deal,” Naruto said through mouthfuls of sandwich. “‘Most Holy Hermit Sage of Mount Myoboku’ and all that.”

“So, Jiraiya's your uncle- who're your parents? I don't remember hearing about Jiraiya having any siblings.” Sakura asked.

“Ma and Pa raised me. Not sure ‘bout my human parents.”

Sasuke and Sakura looked at Naruto, confused. Sasuke spoke first. “your ‘human parents’? But if this ‘Ma and Pa' aren't human, then-”

“They're toads,” Naruto said. “Pa says they're the ‘Great Sages of Toad Way’.”

After a moment, Sakura broke the silence. “You know, that does actually explain some things.”

“Like what?”

“Like why you eat bugs. I was wondering if your parents just didn't feed you or something.”

“Hey!”

“So, where did you live, before coming to Konoha?” Sakura asked. 

“Mount Myoboku!” Naruto said, proud of his ‘hometown’. “My first time leavin’ the mountain was yesterday.”

“This is your second day you've ever been off the mountain?”

“Second day I've seen a human ‘sides Jiraiya, too! Everyone back home’s a toad except me. Uncle only visited every few months.”

Sakura choked on her tea. Sasuke ignored it. “So, we've discussed what we know of Kakashi's abilities. Now, we need to work on our own abilities.”

Chapter Text

“So, what was that Jutsu you used- the clone one?” Sakura asked.

“Art of the doppelganger?” Naruto said, confused. “Jiraiya said it was a pretty basic technique. Do they not teach it here?”

“That wasn't the Art of the Doppelganger,” Sakura said. “The art of the doppelganger just makes illusions- not physical copies. I don't know what you were doing, but it wasn't that.”

Naruto froze for a second. “Wait, the clones… aren't meant to be real?”

Sasuke looked at Naruto incredulously. “You developed a technique like that on accident?”

“Sorta? I couldn't get it down when Jiraiya first tried to teach me, so I spent loadsa time practicing. But they just kept coming out wrong! I actually got the physical part down before the looks- it used to be easier for me to just make the clones, then have ‘em transform to look like me! Still took me three months to get to that point, though.”

“I’m still having a rough time wrapping my head around the fact they can use Jutsu,” Sakura said. “I mean, the chakra needed to-”

“That's it,” Sasuke realized, “the chakra cost. Kakashi seemed to recognize the technique- and he said you used multiple dangerous techniques. How much chakra do you give those clones?”

“I don't really go for a specific amount,” Naruto said. “Like, they're me, so I try to give them around equal chakra?”

Sakura stared at Naruto.

“Okay, you've been lookin’ like that a lot whenever I say something, so is that like-”

“‘around equal chakra’? Is that equal to you, or equal to each other?” Sakura asked. She knew the answer- she just didn't want to believe Naruto was truly that colossally crazy.

“To me?” Naruto said, leaning away from Sakura’s intense stare.

“You made four clones. Assuming that you didn't make any more later, and taking into account the chakra needed to actually construct the clones…” Sakura looked directly at Naruto. “You would have spent around four-fifths of your chakra on clones. Maybe more. Once that dust cloud went up, you were trying to fight a jōnin with only a fraction of your strength?”

Naruto looked blankly at Sakura. “I used that much?”

“I- I don't know, you might have used more or less,” Sakura said. “That's just a rough estimate. The important thing is, that technique seems dangerous- really dangerous- if you're not careful. If you're really trying, how many clones can you make?”

“They start to get sorta- melty, after the tenth one. Normally. If I'm really trying, I can hit sixteen. Once, I got up to, what,” Naruto paused for a moment, then counted under his breath “thirty, forty, fifty- a whole load of ‘em. I don't really remember what happened, though.”

“You made fifty of them?” Sakura asked.

“I don't know- I don't count ‘em. Probably more. But that was-” Naruto remembered what Jiraiya had said, about the fox, and caught himself. “That was a special case. I'm pretty sure I passed out after.”

“No wonder- you were operating on less than two percent of your normal chakra,” Sasuke said. “But that's only one of your techniques. Kakashi said there was another one.”

“Oh, yeah- Sage Mode,” Naruto said. “Sage Mode’s real cool. I ran out before I could get those bells, though.”

“Back up,” Sakura said. “What's Sage Mode?”

“It's like- man, I forget how Pa told me. Y’know how, like- there's chakra, and the other one… or two of them make chakra and three make sage chakra?” After a moment's thought, Naruto remembered the explanation. “Ever had soft-serve ice cream?”

“What does ice cream have to do with anything?” Sasuke asked.

“You have soft-serve on Mount Myoboku?”

“We've got all sortsa stuff. There's this great soft-serve place Kichi introduced me to. He loves snacks. You two might get along, actually,” he said, gesturing to Sakura. 

“Don't compare me to a toad. What were you saying about sage chakra?”

“Yeah. Now I remember- so, if a chocolate-vanilla soft serve is chakra, then mint ice cream is nature energy. Y’know how, when ya add the mint, the whole thing gets way tastier?”

“So it's just adding a third component to the kneading of chakra. We didn't need the ice cream metaphor,” Sasuke said.

“No, but like- if ya don't add enough mint, it won't do anything, and if ya add too much mint, it makes the whole thing taste bad? It's like that. You've gotta get it juuuust right.”

“What's ‘tasting bad’ in this analogy? And you still haven't explained what nature energy is.”

“Oh, if ya take in too much, then ya turn into a stone toad. ‘becoming one with nature' an’ all that,” Naruto said casually, his accent having thickened heavily as he explained. “Nature energy’s like- ya get it from nature.”

“You turn to stone?” Sakura asked. 

“If ya don't get the balance right. Took me two years to get good enough, and I still don't have it perfect. I can't do any sage Jutsu, though- controllin’ chakra’s pretty hard for me. Any stuff I can do took loadsa practice.”

“If you can't do Jutsu with this ‘sage chakra', what’s its purpose?” Sasuke asked.

“Well, normally, it's meant to be, like- there's some super-powerful Jutsu you can do that need sage chakra, but you can still use it for normal Jutsu. And it's way more powerful! Like- Pa has this fire breath thing he can do, but if he's using sage chakra, it's like ten times stronger!”

“Can you do those amplified jutsu?” Sakura asked.

“Nope,” Naruto said. “But here's the thing. When you start burnin’ sage chakra, you go into this thing called Sage Mode. This is the part where you'd turn into a toad, if you get it wrong. I just get a bit toady in my eyes an’ teeth. An’ I get a few warts.”

“Ew.”

That's what I thought I saw earlier, Sasuke realized. When he flanked Kakashi, he was in Sage Mode.

“But if you're in Sage Mode, it ain't just ninjutsu that get strong. Like, Pa can lift these giant toad statues- taller than this shop! Your taijutsu, your ninjutsu, the other one…”

“Genjutsu,” Sakura filled in.

“Yeah, that! Alla those, and your raw strength. Miles stronger. Jiraiya says I still need to work on my base skills, though- Sage Mode's, like, a multiplier.”

“So, that loud noise from inside the dust cloud…” Sasuke said, almost to himself.

“I stomped the ground,” Naruto said. “Kakashi was doin’ that thing where he went underground, so I tried to wreck the ground to get him out.”

That was a stomp? Sounded more like an explosive. Sakura thought.

“So yeah, that's all the stuff I can do.”

“Didn't you say you could sense chakra? Yesterday?” Sakura asked.

“Oh, yeah!” Naruto snapped his fingers. “Forgot ‘bout that part. That's just in Sage Mode. You can sorta- see stuff. Energy. Chakra. Feel it ‘round you, too.”

“Why weren't those clones using Sage Mode too?” Sasuke asked.

“Forgot that part too. See, ya gotta gather nature energy before y’can use it for making chakra. And ya can't gather the stuff unless you're staying real still. Meditation or whatever. So you can't get any more mid-fight. It takes me a while to get a good stash of the stuff, and if I don't use it for a while, I lose anything I've built up. So I only had the stuff I could gather before Kakashi arrived. Ma and Pa could probably make it last way longer, but I have a hard enough time just makin’ the stuff. So, now that's all my stuff. What can you guys do?”

“Fire Style: Uchiha Fireball,” Sasuke said, simply. “I also have a good deal of prowess with shuriken.”

“Cool! What's that?”

“I breathe out a large fireball,” Sasuke said, with an are-you-stupid? look on his face.

“Yeah, should've guessed. How ‘bout you?” Naruto said, turning to Sakura.

“I don't really have any special techniques like you two,” Sakura said. “I'm not an Uchiha or a toad kid or whatever.”

“Uchiha? Why’s that important?”

“The Uchiha are the most famed clan in all Konohagakure,” Sasuke said. “I am the last remaining scion.”

“What's a scion?” Naruto asked.

“It means ‘heir’,” Sakura said.

“My family were some of this village’s founders. Now they are gone.” Sasuke’s voice had hardened to steel, without a trace of his voice when he was complaining about Tea Avenue or discussing jutsu. “And I am the only one left to avenge them.”

“Huh,” Naruto said. “Anyway, I still need to buy groceries- do you guys wanna train before or after that?”

Naruto’s almost complete lack of reaction was enough to shock Sasuke out of his fugue state. “I’ll be training by myself on the practice field. Once you sort things out, come there,” he said. 

“Got it!” Standing up, Naruto quickly left the tea shop, and Sasuke stood up to do the same.

‘Training by myself’, huh? Then what am I- chopped liver? Sakura thought to herself.

Chapter Text

Sasuke threw two shuriken at a target, each spinning along a curved path to the center of the bullseye. Then he threw two more.

His thoughts turned to Naruto.

Naruto was an anomaly. A strong anomaly.

His power wasn't the only strange thing. His movement, his conversation, his accent, his dress- Naruto was weird.

How much of that was from his upbringing, and how much was just him?

The shuriken hit the bullseye. Sasuke threw more.

While Sasuke was thinking about Naruto, Naruto was thinking about food.

“Buying pre-cooked stuff is expensive. But I don't know how to cook stuff. And I probably shouldn't just buy a bunch of random ingredients before I have a recipe.” 

He snapped his fingers in epiphany. “A recipe! Ma has that big scroll that she always uses for dinner. I get her to lend me that scroll, then I have a whole load of recipes I can use!”

Taking a moment to refresh his memory on the signs to use, Naruto bit his thumb and pressed it to the pavement.

Boar, dog, rooster, monkey, sheep!

In a puff of smoke, upon the Konoha street, appeared…

A tadpole.

“Gah! Did I get the signs wrong or something?” Carefully scooping up the wriggling tadpole, Naruto moved out of the road and onto a nearby bench.

“Sorry about that, little guy. How're you meant to un summon someone?”

What’d I do wrong? I'm pretty sure the signs are right, so maybe I just need a bit more oomph ?

Putting a good deal more force into it, Naruto slammed his hand down and quickly made the necessary signs. A far bigger cloud of smoke erupted, and Naruto heard a familiar voice from the center.

“Yo!”

Naruto’s face lit up. “Hey, Kichi!”

A small, bright orange toad stood on the road. “Hey, Naruto! This your new place, huh?”

“Yup! Hey, d’you know how ta undo a summon?” 

“Wh- I just got here! And now you wanna get rid of me?” Gamakichi asked indignantly.

“No- sorry, you weren't my first summon.” Scooping up the tadpole, Naruto showed it to Gamakichi. “I accidentally brought this little guy here, and I don't know how to send him back.”

“He should go back once the chakra you used to summon him runs out,” Gamakichi said. “‘sides from that, ya can undo a summon same as releasing any other Jutsu, I think.”

“Oh, right!” In a small puff of smoke, the tadpole returned to Mount Myoboku. “Anyway, can I ask you a favor?”

“Depends. They got any good snacks round here?”

“Probably? But look, this is kinda important. You know Ma’s big scroll of recipes?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“If I unsummon you, could you go borrow it from her?”

“I could ,” Gamakichi said, in a tone of voice making it obvious he wouldn't.

“Okay, here's the deal. I unsummon you, you go get the scroll, I summon you again in half an hour, and then I buy you an ice cream or something.”

“Chips,” Gamakichi said. “The spicy ones.”

“Done.”

“Done.”

As Gamakichi disappeared back to Mount Myoboku, Naruto pulled out the map Jiraiya had drawn for him. “Chips, huh? Where do I get some of those?”

In the Academy, Sakura had gathered a number of books, and was reading through the first one.

“‘Genjutsu are an advanced family of ninja techniques that create illusions through careful usage and control of chakra,” she read. “By controlling your target’s chakra flow, you can affect their five senses in a variety of ways.’ I knew that much already,” she said, flipping to the next page. 

“Genjutsu are often considered the most difficult of the three main types of techniques, due to requiring both careful control of chakra to manifest illusions, and the intelligence necessary to determine how to craft convincing and effective illusions.”

Iruka-sensei said these groups were made to balance our strengths. But compared to those two, I don't stand out at all. So I'll make this my strength!

“You gonna buy anything?”

“I'm deciding,” Naruto said.

“Well, decide faster. I want to buy some chips,” said Choji.

“Hey, if you want me to hurry up, could you give me a recommendation? A friend asked me for some spicy chips.”

“Get the red ones on the third row.”

“Thanks,” Naruto said, grabbing the chips and moving to the checkout. “Hey, what's your name?”

“Akimichi Choji. I saw you get thrown down the stairs.”

“Didn't need to say that last part. Thanks, though.

“Thirty-three point seven seconds,” Sasuke said, looking at a stopwatch. 

Taking a step back and throwing a rock at a carefully concealed thread, kunai flew from all directions, seemingly appearing from nowhere, colliding right around where the rock hit the tripwire.

That could be faster. But I need to improve more than trapmaking.

Walking over to his bag, Sasuke grabbed a roll of explosive tags, tore one off, and stuck it to a nearby stump. 

Counting his steps, he went forty paces away before marking a line in the dirt.

Four seconds for the signs. Three for the breath. Now, how long does it take to travel?

Starting and dropping the stopwatch in one smooth motion, Sasuke weaved the signs, took a quick breath, and let loose a fireball.

A few moments later, the fireball burned out, and Sasuke saw that it hadn't even made it halfway to the explosive tag.

Letting out a short sigh, Sasuke contemplated. The Great Fireball’s use comes in a wide area, not distance or speed. But if a target can evade that wide area, even in midair,  I need to change the technique.

From a wildfire to a bullet, Sasuke thought. Forgoing the timer, Sasuke quickly weaved the signs, but this time, he breathed in more, and held the breath for a moment longer.

Unfortunately, it was a moment too long- like holding in a cough, Sasuke spewed out flame in painful spurts, coughing up fire and smoke and leaving his throat hurt.

That's not it, Sasuke thought, bent double from his coughing fit. I need a different method.

“Are you alright?” Naruto said.

“I- koff - I’m fine. Did you- koff - do what you needed to?”

“Yeah. Couldn't find any bugs anywhere, but I've got some stuff for tonight.”

“Were you - koff - trying to buy bugs at a store?”

“Yeah. Guess they don't sell ‘em round here, though.”

“Nor do most places,” Sasuke said, his cough having cleared a little. 

“Huh. I shoulda asked Kichi to pick some up for me. Anyway, what're you working on?”

“Trying to hit that stump with a fireball. I need to improve my fire Jutsu,” Sasuke said, pointing to the aforementioned stump.

“Cool. Can I try?”

“You can use fire Jutsu?”

“Nope. But like- Kakashi caught my shuriken, so I figured I should practice my other ranged stuff.”

“Like what?”

“Like- well, watch this.” After steadying his feet, in a movement remarkably similar to a cat coughing up a hairball,  Naruto spat a small, dark glob at the stump. 

As it collided with the stump, the glob made an unpleasant squelching noise, coating the stump and explosive tag in dark, brownish-green oil.

“What is that?” Sasuke asked. 

“Toad oil. If I make a bunch of it, I can shoot off a bunch of those little bullets, or make a stream of the stuff. It's real sticky.”

“Hm.” Quickly weaving the signs, Sasuke only breathed in a little this time, and, mimicking how Naruto spat the toad oil, shot a small projectile of flame at the stump. 

Unfortunately, he was still feeling the effects from burning his throat- the hacked-up ball of flame sputtered and sparked out a few feet from the stump, and Sasuke bent double once more.

“You sure you’re alright? I think Ma had a remedy for throat burns. There was, like, honey, and-”

“Don’t,” Sasuke said. “If you don’t - koff- remember the whole thing, don’t.”

Chapter Text

"Alright, then. Let's do this.”

Unraveling a thick scroll just a bit, Naruto looked over the first passage.

“‘Toad-Style Fried Egg. Requires one egg, and one slice of bread.’ Sounds simple enough.”

Looking through the cupboards, Naruto found a small pan, and grabbed his ingredients from his grocery bag.

“‘Heat a little oil in a pan, then crack the egg into the hot oil. Use a spoon to push the edges in, then remove from heat once whites soli-’ what's that kanji?” Looking below the recipe, Naruto saw a note from Shima. “‘Eat an herb ball before usin’ any oil’,” he read. Grabbing the small clay jar Gamakichi had brought him, he picked out a fragrant ball of herbs, and bit into it, chewing it a bit before spitting out some toad oil into the pan.

“Wow, that smells way better.” Grabbing the pan, Naruto moved it onto the stovetop, and turned on the fire underneath it.

“How hot should I get it?” After staring at the pan for a few minutes, he grabbed an egg. That's probably good enough.

Cracking the egg over the pan with two hands, Naruto accidentally let a few shards of eggshell fall into the oil. “Whoops!” Grabbing a spoon, he tried to fish the shards out of the oil and egg, but missed a few.

As the white of the egg turned opaque, Naruto pushed the edges towards the yolk, and waited a bit more before spooning the egg out of the oil and onto his slice of bread.

Folding the bread over itself, Naruto did a small fist-pump. Not bad, for my first time cooking.

Sitting down, Naruto eagerly bit into the fried egg sandwich. The yolk was deliciously runny, and the herbs and oil gave the meal a unique taste.

As Naruto took another bite, he felt a crunch. Eggshell. Whoops. Still, Naruto quickly finished the sandwich. “And now…”

Groceries weren't the only thing Naruto had bought. Grabbing a bar of chocolate from the bag, he quickly ate his dessert. “Wait, what's that smell?”

Turning around, Naruto had forgotten to turn off the heat- and the oil had caught fire.

“Gah!” Quickly grabbing a cup and filling it with water from the sink, Naruto poured it on the fire.

This made everything worse.

The fire roared, spitting droplets of oil everywhere- all of which started smaller fires. 

“Wh- isn't water supposed to put out fires? What happened?” 

If I can't use water, then what do I do?

Air! Fire needs air- if I get rid of the air, I can snuff out the fire! 

Preparing to take a deep breath, Naruto stopped himself. I just watched Sasuke burn his throat- I really shouldn't inhale a bunch of smoke on purpose. 

As the smoke increased, Naruto had an idea. “Art of the Doppelganger!”

Three clones of Naruto appeared in the room. 

“This is a dumb idea,” the leftmost clone said.

“Hey! You're me, so it was your idea too!” Naruto said.

“We didn't think we'd be the ones doing it,” the clone complained.

“Shut up.” 

As Naruto left the room, all three of the clones began to heavily inhale, sucking up the air and smoke from the fire, as Naruto blocked the opening at the bottom of the door.

Soon, Naruto felt a dull pain in his throat. “Oh, yeah. That's rough.” He hadn't been hurt by the smoke, but the memories of the clones were rough. “Not doing that again.”

In the morning, Naruto woke up from the still-unfamiliar bed. 

What to do today? Sasuke and Sakura hadn’t made any mentions of plans today. Should he just train solo?

“Hey, Naruto.”

Startling at the sound, Naruto saw Kakashi in his window. “Get dressed and get over to the Academy. I’ll meet you there.”

“Wha- I thought we still had two days!”

“Two days until the bell test. You’re still doing missions in the interim.”

“You didn’t mention that earlier!”

“Which is why I’m mentioning it now. Now get your butt in gear.” And, in a blink, Kakashi was gone.

Soon enough, Naruto had made it to the Academy, where Sasuke and Sakura were standing around while Kakashi leaned against the building, reading his book.

“Glad you could join us. Follow me.” closing his book with a snap, Kakashi turned and strode into the Academy.

After a bit of walking, Naruto spoke up. “So, what sort of mission are we doing?”

“That’s what we’re going to decide,” Kakashi said. “We’re getting our first assignment from the Hokage.”

“Huh?”

“The village gets a bunch of mission requests from all over,” Sakura explains. “The Hokage sorts through them all and assigns them to shinobi- like us.”

“So we could be heading anywhere?” Naruto said excitedly.

“Nope! You’re still genin- right at the bottom of the totem pole. You won't be getting anything beyond simple D-ranks, which might not even leave the village, let alone the surrounding area.”

“Awww…”

“Well, we're here.” Opening the door, Kakashi gestured the trip inside.

Upon seeing the old man in the white hat, Naruto quickly scanned the room for the man with the bandana who had thrown Naruto out the last time, but didn't see him.

“Welcome, Team Seven,” the old man said. “Now, let's see…” grabbing a scroll, he began looking through it.

“Digging sweet potatoes, babysitting for the Council of Elders, finding a lost cat…”

“Is there anything cool to do?” Naruto asked.

“You're genin,” said the man beside the geezer. “Genin without even a single mission under your belts. You need to do this grunt work before we can trust you with bigger tasks.”

“I don't know if it counts as ‘cool’,” the geezer said, with a grin on his face, “But I do have a rather more active task for you to undertake.”

Naruto’s eyes lit up, as Sakura braced herself for the worst.

What did Naruto just get us into?

Looking through the scroll, the geezer turned it around to show it to Team Seven.

“Mail delivery.”

Chapter Text

“Here we are,” Kakashi said. “Konoha’s Domestic Mail Bureau.”

The white-and-blue building was near the center of the village, with a tall tower on one side. Next to the front door was a mail slot.

Grabbing a key ring the Hokage had given him, Kakashi opened the door, and stepped to the side to allow his students to go in.

“Why do they need Shinobi for this, anywaaaa…” Sakura trailed off as she saw the inside of the post office.

There was a lot of mail. It spilled from the slot and spread across the floor, it filled boxes, and it generally made a mess.

“You'll mainly be dealing with domestic correspondence,” the Hokage said, smoking his pipe. “That, and occasional reciept of hawk letters.” 

“So we don’t get to leave the village?” Naruto asked.

“No, no you do not,” the Hokage said. “Perhaps on a later mission. For now, here are the keys to the office.” Reaching under his desk, the Hokage pulled out a key and handed it to Kakashi. 

“That’s… less than I was expecting,” Kakashi said.

“Why is there nobody here?” Sasuke asked.

“Konoha’s domestic mail is almost entirely managed by a man named Tayori Shiroyagi,” Kakashi explained. “He’s currently hospitalized from illness.”

“Mister Tayori delivers all the mail?” Sakura asked. “I thought he just did around my area.”

“Nope! He used to be a shinobi, like you kids, but he decided to shift career paths. Now he handles mail.”

“One guy does all this?”

“Well, since he fell ill, we’ve had to start training more people, but that takes time- especially since we’re pulling from the civilian population. So you kids are going to be handling things in the interim!”

“ How long has Mister Tayori been sick?” Sakura asked, looking at the piles of mail.

“Four days or so.”

This is four days of mail?

“Welp, better get to it!” Kakashi said, sitting in a chair and cracking open his book from yesterday.

Sakura took a deep breath, then sighed. “Alright. If we work hard this morning, we should be able to get in some training after lunch. Then-”

“Ah-ah-ah!” Kakashi interrupted. “No slacking off.”

“We’d be training, not slacking off,” Sasuke said.

“You’d be slacking off from your job. You think you can just stop doing your assigned mission whenever you want? No ‘training’ until you get all this mail sorted out.”

“Wha- we’re three kids! How long are you expecting this to take us?” Naruto protested.

“You’re three ninja . Tayori managed all this by himself. Now get to work.”

“Alright, we need a plan.” Sakura said. “If we just try to brute-force this, it’ll take ages.”

“He doesn’t want us ‘training’ for this period…” Sasuke mused, then had a flash of insight. “Because this is training.”

“Huh?”

“That’s it! Delivering documents, planning, reconnaissance… this mission is meant to build our skills. So we have to figure out how to put those skills to use,” Sakura said.

“Yeah, but it’s still loads of mail. And there’ll probably be more coming in.” Naruto said. “And I’m bad at finding my way around this place.”

Sasuke was deep in thought.

“Naruto’s got a point. Even if we know what we’re being tested on, there’s still a problem of manpower.”

“No, there isn’t,” Sasuke said. “We have all the manpower we could need.”

Naruto’s eyes lit up, as he realized what Sasuke was talking about. “Shadow clones! I can make, like, ten clones, and then we can work way faster!”

“There’s still a problem with that,” Sakura said. “You don’t know your way around Konoha. And since there’s normally only one person here, I doubt there’s a bunch of preset mail routes we could use.”

“And there’s the hawks to deal with, and the letters to sort,” Sasuke added. “A lot of duties we need to take care of.”

“ That’s what they’re testing!” Sakura said, snapping her fingers. “Not just our individual skills, but our teamwork and ability to delegate tasks.”

Behind his mask, Kakashi smiled.

“I’ll take care of the hawks,” Sasuke said. “Sakura, you find a map of Konoha and start plotting out routes. Naruto, start kneading chakra.”

With a quick nod, the genin got to work.

“Naruto, come over here,” Sakura called. Following the sound of Sakura’s voice, Naruto found her standing in front of a map on the wall.

“I’ve got ten routes sorted out,” Sakura explained, gesturing to a series of lines on the map. “You’ll have to keep your eyes out for mailboxes and things too, to pick up mail from people.”

“I can do eleven,” Naruto said. “If I make ten clones, then-”

“No- here was my idea. With only sending clones out, then once they reach the end of their routes, they can dispel themselves, and we send out more clones. In the meantime, you stay here and help me sort letters.”

“Oh.”

“This way, you also get more practice making and dispelling the clones. Study those routes, and I'll get the first set of letters sorted.”

In the top level, Sasuke looked over the hawks as they sat in their cages. The large, glassless window outside had several perches on the sill, but no hawks were there currently. 

“Where’s the food…” searching around, Sasuke quickly found a cabinet of feed. 

“A few mice, some lizards, and…”

The bottom drawer was filled with sacks of insects. Larvae, crickets, grasshoppers, and more. All dead, thankfully.

“...”

“I’m never letting Naruto up here.”

As Sakura heard Sasuke walk downstairs, she quickly looked up. “How are the hawks?”

“I fed them. Have you found any letters for me to give them?”

“Third pile from the left,” Sakura said, before grabbing more envelopes. “Naruto’s still memorizing his routes.” Taking quick glances at the letters, Sakura threw them into piles behind her.

“Got it.” Grabbing the slim pile of letters affixed with the Konoha seal, Sasuke took them back upstairs.

“How’s that map going?” Sakura called over to Naruto.

“Pretty sure I’ve got it down!”

“Perfect! I’ve got the first set of letters ready.”

Sakura heard a ‘boom’ of smoke, and ten Narutos came over, each with a bag slung over their shoulder.

“Naruto Uzumaki, reporting for duty!” They said in unison.

“Great. There’s your letters,” Sakura said, pointing to the piles.

However, as the first clone picked up a letter, another stopped him.

“Hey, what’s that for?”

“ I wanted to do that route!”

“We’re all the same guy! We all want that route! Move faster next time.”

As the clones started arguing more, Sakura sighed. Maybe this is why Shadow Clones are dangerous. One Naruto’s bad enough.

Chapter Text

“Mail delivery!”

“Mail delivery!”

“Mail delivery!”

As the Naruto clones fanned out across the village, they weaved through crowds, throwing letters like shuriken, and picking up mail from any mailboxes they saw.

Wish I could do all this from the rooftops. Still, running around like this is great!

“Mail boy!” An authoritative voice called from across the street, and Naruto skidded to a stop before running over to the brown-haired woman who called for him.

“Yeah?”

“Deliver this package to the Akimichi Estate,” the woman said, pushing a large box into Naruto’s hands. “And make sure someone picks it up, too.”

“Akimichi Estate… Akimichi… that's all the way over there!” Naruto protested, pointing towards the wall surrounding Konoha. 

“Then you'd better get moving, hadn't you?” The woman said, turning away with a swish of her teal dress and walking back into the store she had come from.

Setting down the box, Naruto thought. “I can't bring this with me along my route… but I can't leave it here… but it's so out of the way…”

“That's it!” Naruto said, hitting his palm with his fist. “Art of the Doppelganger!” Taking a deep breath, then weaving the requisite sign, another Naruto clone popped into existence.

“Okay, I'll keep doing letters, then you can deliver the package.”

“Got it!” As the new clone picked up the box, he oriented himself towards his destination, then realized something.

I don't have to pick up any letters or anything, right?

Giggling to himself, the clone scaled a nearby building, then ran off towards the estate, jumping across the rooftops.

Outside a large, white, wall, another clone was having troubles. 

“Look, I just need to go inside to deliver the mail-”

“And I told you, no!” Said a blank-eyed man outside the gate. “Just give the letters to me, and I'll distribute them.”

“I’m supposed to be delivering the mail, though!”

“You are! You're delivering it to me, and then I distribute it among the clan!”

Naruto glared at the man.

The man glared at Naruto.

As yet another clone made their rounds, they heard a persistent buzzing.

“Bugs. Loads of ‘em.” Think this place has more bugs than anywhere else I've looked. I should get some for later. 

Walking over to a stump crawling with insects, Naruto moved to grab one, when he felt a presence behind him.

“What are you doing?”

Turning around, Naruto saw the owner of the monotone voice- or didn't see, considering how much of their face was covered by a hood and dark glasses.

“Catching bugs.”

“Why?”

“...so I can eat ‘em later?”

The hooded figure was silent.

“...Don't do that,” they eventually said.

“Why not?”

“We raise them.”

“Oh, sorry. Do I need to pay you to catch bugs here?”

After a moment, the hooded figure spoke.

“Come back later. We can discuss.”

“Thanks! I haven't been able to find any good bugs anywhere else.” Jumping up, Naruto continued along his route.

“Where are you going?”

“Mail delivery!”

Back in the aviary, Sasuke looked through the letters he had taken from the pile. 

These are going all over. Suna, Iwa, Kumo, Kiri… All the major hidden villages, and plenty of minor ones. What're they saying?

Taking the letter headed to Sunagakure, he carefully unlatched one of the cages. “You look like a good hawk.” Holding out the scroll, Sasuke continued. “Take this to Sunagakure- the village in the Land of Sand.”

The hawk looked at Sasuke with the most disdain Sasuke had ever seen on a hawk.

“Look, the person who normally does this stuff isn't here, so just take the scroll.”

Eventually, the hawk in question picked up the scroll with its foot, slightly scratching Sasuke’s hand in the process, and, with an almost insulting cry, flew off.

Looking at the scrolls, and then at the remaining hawks, Sasuke sighed. “Hopefully the rest of you are better behaved.”

Meanwhile, the package-toting clone had reached its destination.

The Akimichi Estate was a small collection of brown-roofed buildings, with a low fence surround them.

“Anyone here?” He called out, remembering his instruction to make sure someone picked up the package.

After a few minutes, Choji opened the door. “It's almost lunchtime. Can't it wait?”

“Hey, Choji!” Naruto said, sitting on the large box.

“Oh. Hey, Naruto. What's going on?”

“Some lady in town asked me to deliver this here.” Naruto patted the side of the box. 

“Why you?”

“My team’s doing mail delivery.”

“Huh. We just had to take care of a garden for our first mission.”

“Who’s your friend, Choji?” A man almost double Naruto’s height had come by the doorway. Aside from the clothing and hairstyle, he looked like just a larger Choji- the same brown hair, the same heavy build, and the same soft face.

“I’m Naruto!”

“Well, nice to meet you, Naruto. What brings you here!”

“He's delivering stuff,” Choji said. 

“Yeah! There was this lady over that way who wanted me to bring you guys this package,” Naruto said, gesturing first back towards Konoha proper, and then to the box he was saying upon.

“Ah. Let me take that off your hands.” As Naruto got off the box, Choji’s father picked it up. “Oh, it's from the Yamanakas,” he said, reading a note on the side.

“Naruto, was it? We're having lunch soon. Would you like to join us, or do you need to get going?”

As Naruto walked forward, he caught himself. “Wait, I don't know if I can eat right now.”

“Huh?” Choji seemed confused.

“Well, I was trying to deliver stuff faster, so I made a bunch of clones. And then one of those clones made a clone to deliver this package. And I don't know if clones can eat.”

“Oh. Well, in that case, could I trouble you to make another delivery?” Going back inside quickly, the man came back with a wrapped package.

“Could you take this to the Nara estate?”

After a moment of Naruto staring blankly, Choji’s father pointed off in a direction. “It's down that way.”

“Got it.” Taking the package, Naruto rushed off once more.

“So, where do you know him from? Classmate from the Academy?”

“He asked me for chip recommendations yesterday.”

“Huh. Well, he seems nice.”

Hearing a knock on the door, Sakura got up from the piles of mail to let in the returning clone.”

“Any of the others back yet?”

“Nope,” Naruto called over.

“Yes! I win!”

“You're all the same person,” Sakura said.

“Yeah, but I'm the fastest.”

“First one back, baby!” Another clone rushed in, only to groan when they saw two Narutos.

“Second place, actually,” the first clone said, grinning.

“Yeah, but I bet I picked up more letters!” The second clone said, emptying their bag on the floor.

“Don't just dump them over the floor,” Sakura said. “We've got a pile of letters already. Put them there.”

“But we- ow!” Sakura hit the clone on the head, causing it to disappear mid-sentence.

“What was that for?” Naruto asked from over by the pile of letters.

“We have a job to do, remember? We can't get off-track like that. At the end of the day, they're all you, so it doesn't matter who got more letters.”

“Third!” In unison, two clones burst through the door, then looked at each other.

“Don't,” Sakura said, cutting them off before they could start arguing.

Chapter Text

“This is creepy.”

The clone sent to the Nara estate had found himself in an area of the village unlike any other he had seen, or remembered from the dispersing clones.

Sure, there were areas with little human presence, but this was different. Buildings, shops, homes, but no people. The nature energy felt weaker here.

Broken windows, half-open doors, and the like just made the atmosphere even worse. Even the air felt stale- like a single moment, frozen in time. Like nobody had been here for years.

The walls and signs all had the same fan symbol on them- the symbol Naruto recognized from Sasuke’s clothes.

Taking Jiraiya's map out of his pocket, he found where he was, and looked at the name.

“Uchiha Quarter.” Did Sasuke live here? Did anyone? Could anyone?

What happened to this place?

Readjusting his grip on the package, Naruto ran off.

“This should only take about two more sets of clones,” Sakura said. “We send out one set now, with these letters, then another set once we finish sorting the rest.”

“Can we take a break for lunch? I'm getting kinda hungry.”

“Would that count as ‘slacking off?’” Sakura said, turning to Kakashi.

“Nah. Healthy eating’s important for a ninja.”

“Says the guy who didn't want us to have breakfast yesterday,” Naruto sniped.

“After which, I gave you lunchboxes. Which, might I add, you didn't finish.”

“There were two lunchboxes, and three of us! Besides, they were just rice and veggies! No meat or anything!”

“They were healthy. There was eggplant in there.”

“I’ll go get Sasuke,” Naruto said, getting up and heading upstairs.

“Hey, Sasuke! We were gonna- hey, are those bugs?”

Sasuke, who was feeding the hawks from a bag of dried insects, sighed. “Yes.”

“Nice! Mind if I-”

“Don't.”

“You didn't even let me finish asking,” Naruto complained.

“I'm not going to let you take bird food from the post office.”

“Look, I just want a little- There's this guy I met on deliveries who I can buy more from later, but I just need, like, a handful right now.”

“I'm not letting you eat a handful of bugs for lunch-”

“I'm not going to! There's this ramen shop I went to yesterday, and he said if I brought some bugs, he'd cook ‘em up.”

Sasuke sighed. “Fine,” he said, setting down the bag.

“Thanks! So, do you have anywhere you wanna go for lunch?” Naruto asked as he grabbed a handful of bugs.

“No. I'll just-”

“Great! We can go to that ramen place,” Naruto said, heading back downstairs.

“Hey, Ichiraku!” Naruto called from down the street.

“Good to see you, bug boy. Who're your friends?” The old man smiled.

“This is Sakura, and this is Sasuke. And these…” Naruto said, grinning wildly as he reached into his bag, “are earthworms.”

Teuchi laughed in disbelief. “You actually brought some?”

Sakura looked a bit grossed out. “Please tell me that's not going in the food.”

“Not in yours,” Teuchi said. “He said he'd bring some yesterday, but I wasn't expecting him to follow through.”

Naruto grinned. “One miso ramen, with earthworms, please.”

“How d'you want ‘em cooked? I'm not putting them in the broth, that's for sure.”

“Could you fry ‘em? Nice and crunchy-style.”

“Sure thing. And for you two?”

“Small Shoyu. Extra seaweed, extra tempura, less broth,” Sasuke said.

“Hmm…. Could I just have some veggies? I'm on a diet.”

Teuchi raised an eyebrow. “Okay. That'll be 550 for you, 530 for you, and 440 for you,” he said, pointing to each genin in turn. “Who's paying?”

“I'm paying for myself,” Sasuke said, handing over a bill and a few coins.

“Oh- me too,” Sakura said, grabbing money from her purse.

Naruto, similarly, reached for his wallet. “Here ya go.”

“Thank you kindly. Your food’ll be ready in a minute.” 

After a bit, Naruto spoke up.

“How’re the birds?”

“Rude. But hopefully well-trained. I sent out a lot of them.”

“Where to?” Sakura asked. 

“Other hidden villages. Suna, Iwa, Kumo, Kiri… some minor ones, too.”

“Other villages?” Naruto cocked his head to the side like a confused dog. 

Sakura sighed. “Didn't your teachers explain these things to you?”

“They tried. I wasn't a great listener.”

“There’s five major countries- and each of them has a Shinobi village,” Sasuke explained. “This is the land of fire. There's also the land of wind, the land of water, the land of stone, and the land of lightning.”

“What’re they like?”

“How would we know? We've never been there,” Sakura said.

“I can tell you about Lightning,” the old man said. “For one, it's very vertical. Mountains taller and valleys deeper than anything you'd see in the Land of Fire.”

“Taller than Mount Myoboku?” Naruto asked.

“Tall enough that people live above the clouds. There's great hot springs, too.”

“You've traveled there?” Sasuke asked.

“Better- I was born there. Came to Konoha about twenty years ago. Your food’s ready, by the way.”

The Nara estate was flatter than the Akimichi. More porches and patios.

A few moments after Naruto rang the doorbell, a black-haired woman opened the door.

“Yes?”

“Mail delivery,” Naruto said, proffering the package.

“Thank you very much.”

As the door closed, Naruto sighed. “Finally.” Undoing the Jutsu, the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“So, why did you come to Konoha?”

“At first, I was just traveling around. I learned how to cook in the Land of Lightning, but I wanted to see the world- learn about the other nations, and the people living in them. Eventually, I came here- and met my wife.”

“Your wife?” Sakura asked.

“Wonderful woman,” Teuchi said. “Miss her every day.”

“This is really good ramen.”

“Naruto!” Sakura smacked him, sending his face into the bowl.

“What?”

“He's talking about his wife! Don't be rude.”

“I’m not being rude, I'm saying the ramen is nice! I'm being nice!”

Sasuke ate his ramen in silence, but with a slight smile on his face.

Teuchi laughed. “Ah, don't worry. She loved ramen too. Although I don't think she ever had bugs in it.”

“Is that why you started this restaurant?”

“Yes it is. My daughter, Ayame, gives me a hand too. She's out getting ingredients right now.”

After a moment of everyone eating their food, Naruto jerked.

“What's wrong?” Sakura asked.

“Did a bug just move in your mouth?” Sasuke asked.

“The last clone’s back.”

“That one you split off for package delivery?”

“Yeah. Hey, Sasuke?”

“What?”

“What happened to the Uchiha Quarter?”

Chapter Text

“When I was delivering that package, I went through this place that Uncle’s map called ‘The Uchiha Quarter'. That’s your last name, right?”

Sasuke was silent.

“The whole place was a mess. How long has it been like that?”

Getting up from his chair, Sasuke started walking back towards the post office.

“Hey!”

“I’ll finish sorting the letters,” Sasuke said. “Then, I’m getting back to some real training.”

“Rude,” Naruto said, returning to his bowl of ramen.

“I- I’ll go catch up with him,” Sakura said, pushing in her chair and Sasuke’s.

“Well, it’s probably a sensitive subject,” Ichiraku said. “Nobody really goes into the Quarter anymore, so it most likely still looks like it did five years ago.”

“What happened five years ago?” Naruto asked.

“The Uchiha Clan Downfall,” the old man said. “The clan was one of the founders of the village. The Quarter’s where they all lived- a few hundred of them, at least.”

“But then…” Naruto half-said, half-asked.

“But then, five years ago, they were all killed. In a single night.”

Naruto felt a slight chill. “All of them?”

“Except him. In one night, by one man.”

Naruto thought. About what it would be like- everyone on Mount Myoboku dying, having to live in their tomb- and he did not like what it would be like at all.

“I should probably-” Slurping down all the broth in one go, he got up from his chair and zipped after his teammates, leaving the flaps fluttering in the wind.

“‘To be continued in Make-Out Innocence ’,” Kakashi read aloud, snapping the book shut. As he heard the door open, he saw Sasuke storm in.

“Where’re your teammates?”

Sasuke ignored him and strode over to the pile of letters and began throwing them like shuriken, sorting them with remarkable speed.

“Sasuke!” Sakura came through the door next. “Sorry that Naruto- what are you doing?”

“Wasting my time.” The letters flew into piles.

“What do you-” Sakura got interrupted by Naruto flying through the door and bumping into her.

“Sorry, Sakura. Hey, Sasuke- why’d you run off like that? If it’s because of what I said, then I’m-”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Sasuke said, a dangerous edge to his voice. “In fact, I should thank you.”

“Forrrrrr…”

“For reminding me where my focus needs to be,” Sasuke said, not stopping with the letters for even a moment. “On revenge .”

Naruto was reminded of two days ago, when he had heard Sasuke talk about someone he had sworn to kill. He understood better now what Sasuke meant.

“You’re really good at throwing those letters,” he said.

“They’re similar enough to shuriken.”

Within moments of each other, Sakura and Naruto both joined Sasuke at the pile of letters, and the three of them had quickly sorted the entire pile. 

Tossing away the last letter, Sasuke stiffly stood up. “I’m going to go train.”

“You’re still on the clock,” Kakashi said. “The letters need to be delivered.”

“I’ve got that part,” Naruto said. Taking a deep breath, the requisite shadow clones popped into being. “Disperse once you finish, okay guys?”

“Yeah, yeah.” As the clones ran outside, Naruto turned to Kakashi. “Can we go now?”

“Fine,” Kakashi sighed. “But first, I’m going to ask you each a question. You don’t have to answer me right away, but I want you to think about it. Once you have an answer, write it on the other side of the paper, and give it back to me.”

“What’s the question?” Sakura asked.

“It’s a different question for each of you,” Kakashi said, quickly scribbling on three pieces of paper and throwing them at the genin.

Flipping his over, Naruto read the question aloud. “‘What is it about the outside world that draws you? P.S., How did you know the ending to my book?”

“You don’t have to read it out loud,” Kakashi said.

“I sometimes read Uncle’s manuscripts when he visits,” Naruto said. “They’re pretty boring, but when you don’t have much to do…”

“Jiraiya wrote that book?” Sakura asked, eyeing the bright-red cover. 

“Yeah. Most of it’s boring, but there’s sometimes these really cool descriptions of places. Almost makes the other stuff worth it.”

Well, ‘boring’ wouldn’t be my first adjective , Kakashi thought to himself. “Is that why you’re interested in travel?”

“That, and Ma and Pa’s stories. Here-” As Naruto tried to hand the sheet back, Kakashi refused it.

“Think it over tonight. Try giving me a bit more detail. Didn’t you kids say you were going to go train?” Kakashi said.

Uh, no. No we did not. Sasuke said he was going to train, and then you gave us these sheets, Sakura thought. Thanks for the excuse, though.

Chapter Text

What do you want to accomplish, as a ninja?

Sakura turned the question over in her head as Team Seven walked to the training grounds. 

Mom and Dad are both ninja, so I guess it was never really a choice. They didn't push me into it or anything, but I didn’t really consider other options.

Naruto’s question was about his goals- is Sasuke’s? 

“So, we’ve never really gotten an opportunity to see what each other can do. Hey, Sasuke, do you wanna-”

“You’ve made too many shadow clones,” Sasuke said, interrupting Naruto. “Your chakra’s too low for serious sparring. I’m going to go train alone.”

Oh, so I don't even get considered, is that it?

As Sasuke walked off, Naruto spent a moment thinking, then turned to Sakura. “I’m gonna… uh… sage stuff.”

Why did you say that so suspiciously??  

As Naruto wandered off into the woods, Sakura thought about what she could do.

“Back already?”

“Sasuke and Naruto are training on their own,” Sakura said, closing the door to the post office behind her. “I figured I would get more results from some actual teaching.”

“Teaching regarding?” Kakashi asked.

“Genjutsu. How to counter it, and how to create it.”

“I see. Well, first, let’s see what you already know. What are the four parts of Genjutsu study?”

“Crafting, casting, recognizing, and breaking,” Sakura recited. I learned that from one of the scrolls.

“Correct. Now, let’s go through them in order. Crafting genjutsu is the hardest part. You need to be able to make it believable enough that your opponent either can’t realize they’re in one, or can’t realize what’s illusion and what’s reality. It requires understanding both of your enemy and your situation, as well as exceptional chakra control.”

I know that much, Sakura thought.

“What sort of things would you use a Genjutsu for, hypothetically?”

“Hiding weapons, slightly altering your position, falsifying hand seals…”

“Good answers. In a battle of life and death, misjudging even something as small as how many shuriken your opponent has can be a fatal mistake.” The hand seals idea was a good one, in particular. “There’s also some Genjutsu that can be used to instantly knock someone unconscious, but those only really work when there’s a big imbalance in power. Now, let’s move onto the second step- casting.”

Sasuke had returned to the target stumps once more.

Nobody’s cleaned the stumps, apparently, he thought to himself, seeing the oil still covering the middle stump.

“Well then.” While he worked with the hawks, Sasuke had been contemplating which jutsu he would need to master, and had decided his focus for the day.

Fire Style! Art of the Phoenix Flower! Weaving the necessary signs, Sasuke shot three small fireballs, aiming one at each stump.

When the middle one hit, however, the stump burst into flames- so high and bright Sasuke had to turn away for a moment. Oh, right. Oil.

While the fire on the other stumps had burned out after just a moment, the central stump kept going- consuming all the oil in the process.

And that’s day-old stuff, Sasuke thought to himself. 

Not what I need to focus on. Now that I know I can use the jutsu, I need to improve it. Speed, control, number…

“Casting a genjutsu is very similar to casting ninjutsu, with one key difference. Know what it is?”

“As opposed to manipulating your own chakra, you manipulate your target’s,” Sakura answered.

“Correct. Or, half correct. Manipulating chakra not your own is a lot harder, especially if your target doesn’t want you messing around with their chakra. So genjutsu often relies on triggers to either force your opponent to manipulate themself, or to create a pathway for you to manipulate their chakra. Any examples spring to mind?”

“Eye contact, drawn symbols… music?”

“All correct. Those are all some of the more common direct triggers, but there's as many triggers as there are genjutsu. In several instances, those triggers can tip off that you've been caught in a genjutsu, so indirect triggers are useful there. Things like summoned animals, a chakra-imbued object or construct, and for some especially practiced users, direct pulses of chakra.”

“Now, for stage three- recognition,” Kakashi said. “When did I put you in a genjutsu, and what does it do?”

Back in the forest, Naruto was trying to think of how to access the ‘red chakra’ Jiraiya told him about. 

His first random attempts hadn't done much, so he had fallen back on what he knew best- Sage meditation.

As Naruto sat motionless in the forest, he felt his mind open up to the energies moving around him- the trees, the river, even the stones, all breathing as one.

Sasuke’s over there… Sakura’s going somewhere… 

Taking the nature energy into himself, he began to swirl his chakra around, incorporating the energy at just the right ratio, when he felt his chakra spike.

As memories filtered in, Naruto realized what had happened.

One of the clones just poofed, he thought. It just poofed, and now I have a little more chakra. That's why I don't feel too drained- whenever a clone poofs, I get it's spare chakra back!

Swirling together more sage chakra, Naruto got up and leapt towards where he sensed Sasuke, his new discovery pushing all thought of the Fox out of his mind.

When someone tells you your senses can't be trusted, it makes you very paranoid. Frantically looking around, Sakura tried to compare her memories of the mailroom with what she currently saw, to try and figure what was out of place. 

Turning around once, then twice, she couldn't notice anything different. The letters had all been cleared away when she left, the map hadn't been touched, even Kakashi’s chair looked the same.

I don't see anything different, so it must be something I can't see. Or maybe he didn't actually use genjutsu, and he's just trying to trick me and make me second-guess myself? Turning around again, she did a quick tally of everything she saw. Floor. Map. Chair. Kakashi. Floor. Map- “Wait.”

“Figure it out?”

“I just turned around four times. But I never saw the door.”

Figuring out Kakashi’s expressions with only one eye to go off of was hard, but Sakura though she might be getting the hang of it. “Is that your final answer?” He asked, smiling behind his mask.

“You did something to me so I either didn't turn around, or didn't see behind me.” Turning slower, Sakura pointed at a pillar in the wall. “That pillar- I only saw one the whole time, but it's to my left and my right. If I look right at the middle, the grain in the wood doesn't line up. This is where the ‘skip’ is, right?”

“Well done,” Kakashi said, sitting back down on his chair. “Of course, it's often not that obvious, but that's just an example of just how useful a Genjutsu can be. Do you know when I actually activated it?”

“When you first got up from the chair?” Sakura guessed.

“Nope. But that was a much harder question. I actually did it when you closed the door.”

“Before I even asked you about genjutsu? Then why-”

“Because I knew you would. I got plenty of info on you three before we met- and you seemed the most likely to have the temperament for genjutsu. So I've been trying to cultivate that.”

“The temperament?”

“You're cautious. Observant. A good grasp of strategy and chakra control. By contrast, Naruto’s best suited for taijutsu, and Sasuke already knows plenty of jutsu- and is better at learning new ones. So, I tried to encourage you to learn more about genjutsu.”

“So, by the time I had come in-”

“I already had a good idea what you wanted to talk about. If you had some other topic in mind, I would have just dispelled the genjutsu. Now, let's get down to stage four.”

“Breaking genjutsu?”

“Exactly.”

Four in an arc, then make them all collide in midair. Weaving the signs, Sasuke shot out four fireballs, letting them each spread out a bit before attempting to make them all converge back together.

As the fireballs hit in a boom , Sasuke heard something moving towards him. As he turned backwards, he saw Naruto jump over him and land on the burned stump.

“Hey, Sasuke! Guess what!”

Turning back to Naruto, Sasuke sighed. “I'm in the middle of-”

“I got the chakra back! The clones started poofing, and I get back any of the chakra they didn't use!”

“And?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to spar. You said yesterday that you had a bunch of fire stuff, but I didn't get to see any of it.”

This could be a good opportunity to test out Art of the Phoenix Flower , Sasuke thought. “Alright. Three rounds, then.”

“Gotcha. Touch, edge, floor, pin, or voice?”

What? “What?”

“Oh, do they- when we spar at Mount Myoboku, those are, like, the conditions? Getting hit, getting knocked out of bounds, going to the floor, getting pinned for a three-count, or verbal surrender.”

“Well, we don't have a good boundary, so… floor.”

“Floor it is.” Naruto smiled as his teeth sharpened, and rings began to appear around his eyes. “Let's do this.”

“Breaking genjutsu is mostly a matter of agitating your chakra,” Kakashi explained. “Genjutsu requires controlling your opponent’s chakra, so if you disrupt your chakra, it can break a genjutsu. This can be done in a few ways- sensation not tied to the genjutsu, direct stimulation of the chakra, or having an ally break the genjutsu for you.”

“So that's how I got out back during the bell test. I hit myself hard enough to disrupt the genjutsu.”

“Correct. That was designed to be a relatively delicate one, but you did manage to break it all on your own. This genjutsu is a bit more resilient, so don't go bashing your head into the wall or anything.”

After a moment's thought, Sakura had an epiphany. “ That's what Naruto’s metaphor was about!”

“?” Kakashi asked, somehow managing to vocalize a question mark and nothing else.

“Yesterday, Naruto was talking about what his uncle said about Genjutsu, but he forgot the metaphor. It's like water- you hold in your chakra, like a dam, then do a large burst to break through the genjutsu!”

“That's more or less it. The important thing is that rapid change between no chakra and loads of chakra- a large disturbance. You don't actually need to hold it for a while, just long enough to build up a good internal burst of chakra. Give it a go.”

Lacing her fingers together, Sakura took a deep breath, feeling her chakra build up, before letting it release.

“That little buzzing noise in my head is gone,” she said.

“Buzzing noise?”

“It's like I hadn't noticed it was there before, but now I can sort of feel it's absence.”

“Huh. Anyway, congrats on breaking your second genjutsu.”

Quickly turning around, Sakura saw the door behind her and breathed a sigh of relief. As she turned back to thank Kakashi, however, he had disappeared.

Chapter Text

“Three…” Naruto prepared to leap from the stump, his body like a coiled spring.

“Two…” Sasuke brought his hands to his chest, ready to weave the signs.

“One.”

Start with a gôkyaku. Then- Sasuke's train of thought was interrupted by Naruto leaping directly at him, grinning like a madman and flying at speeds that Sasuke could barely react to. 

As Sasuke dodged to the left, Naruto made to punch him, but he was off. The punch wouldn't land.

And yet land it did- despite Naruto not even hitting him, Sasuke felt that he had been punched in the gut- hard. As Naruto skidded to a stop on the ground, Sasuke was knocked off his feet and fell to the ground.

“Round- hrrk- one.” Getting up and wiping the slight trail of vomit off his mouth, Sasuke turned to Naruto. “Fifteen paces.”

“Are you good? It looked like that one got you pretty hard.”

“Three.”

“Fifteen paces, fine.”

“Two.”

“But like, if you're hurting, we can-”

“One.” This time, Sasuke didn't wait. Before Naruto even started moving, Sasuke was weaving signs. As Naruto’s feet left the ground, Sasuke breathed out a massive fireball, then started to make some distance between him and Naruto.

I've no idea how good his durability is, but I doubt he wants to go head-first into a fireball.

Sasuke’s suspicions were correct. Naruto leapt above the fireball, at which point Sasuke launched some Phoenix Flowers at him.

He must've done the same thing as Kakashi- whatever that midair maneuvering trick is. Let's see if he can do it without the fireball stopping me from watching.

Weaving a single sign, Naruto summoned a doppelganger- then used it as a springboard, jumping down beneath the flowers and landing on the ground before charging Sasuke. 

As the fireballs collided with the doppelganger in an explosion of smoke, Naruto tackled Sasuke, grabbing him and pushing him to the ground.

“Round two.”

It was Sasuke's first time getting a good look at Naruto’s face while he looked like this. His teeth had become angular fangs, his skin had a greenish tinge, and the whisker-like markings on his cheek looked thicker- more like face paint. 

Their new orange color was shared with the rings around his eyes, eyes which themselves had undergone a change. His blue irises were golden, and his pupils had become strangely rectangular- like a frog’s eyes.

As Naruto got up from atop Sasuke, he began to walk off. Sasuke, feeling his face grow strangely hot, got to his feet. “Wait.”

“Seriously, are you sick or something? Your face is getting red.”

“We said three rounds. That was two.”

“I thought it was, like, best of three. Are you sure you don't need any medicine or anything?”

“Three!” Sasuke yelled, his throat feeling scratchy and tight.

Cracking his neck, Naruto turned back to Sasuke and got into a combat stance.

“Two!”

Too late, Naruto realized- he had burnt through almost all his sage chakra. He hadn't made that much before going to see Sasuke.

“One.”

Gotta make my first move count.

Sasuke’s opening volley of four fireballs was met with Naruto’s own jutsu- a great dust cloud. Although not as large as the version he had used against Kakashi, it was still enough to snuff out the fireballs.

Charging into his own dust cloud, Naruto made for Sasuke’s chakra. It was fainter than when he was in Sage Mode, but Naruto had become familiar enough with the deep purple color to follow it through the cloud.

What he wasn't prepared for, however, was the shuriken. The first one cut his arm, and he quickly leapt to the side to avoid what was probably several more. As he emerged from the dust, he saw Sasuke in front of him- breathing out another Great Fireball. 

Quickly leaping to the side, Naruto almost evaded the fireball, but his arm got grazed. Pushing past the heat, he summoned four Shadow Clones. The five Naruto’s fanned out, each making for Sasuke. 

“Four fireballs, and five of me. Feeling lucky?” One of the clones taunted. 

“Fireballs aren't all I have,” Sasuke said, throwing a set of five shuriken.

As the Narutos dodged, Sasuke made careful movements with his fingers- and the shuriken changed course.

Seeing the glint of transparent wire against the afternoon sun, Naruto understood what had happened- and all four clones had the same plan.

Ignoring the potential injury, they reached out with their good arm and grabbed the shuriken- then pulled the wires, hard.

Sasuke managed to catch himself before he fell to the ground, and rushed towards Naruto. The shuriken had dispersed the clones, so it was just the two of them. 

They had both expended a lot of chakra, so there wasn't as much power behind their hits, but both punches connected- and they both fell to the floor.

Sticking out his other arm in an attempt to stop himself from landing first, Sasuke felt shooting pains as he fell on it, but then fell to the ground.

“Round three,” Naruto said, from the ground. “Two to one.”

“What- haah- what happened that final round?” Sasuke asked, breathing heavily. “You weren't moving nearly as fast.”

“Ran out of Sage chakra after that dust cloud. I'm not too good at efficiency with the stuff.”

“Ah.”

“But still, you were really good that last round! Even though you had a fever or something, you-”

“I didn't have a fever,” Sasuke said. “What did you do the first time? I thought I dodged that hit.”

“S’called Frog Kata- me and Pa do it to train. You make a sorta shell of sage chakra to extend the range of your hits. Sorry for using it- didn't realize it would hit you that hard.”

“Don't- don't apologize. You should- your arm,” Sasuke said.

“You too.”

As the two boys lay there in the grass, they heard a yell.

“What happened to you two? The field's covered in scorch marks!”

Rolling his head backwards, Naruto saw Sakura standing over him. “We were- haah- sparring,” he said.

“Sparring? You're bleeding, and burnt, and- Sparring?” Sakura repeated out of sheer disbelief. She was suddenly slightly more grateful that neither of them asked to spar against her.

“We need to know each other's full capabilities,” Sasuke said, still on the ground.

“By hitting each other full force? Come on- you two are getting medical attention.” As Naruto and Sasuke got to their feet, Sakura motioned for them to follow her. “Besides, I thought you were training solo.”

“Yeah- guess what! It turns out that I get back the chakra my clones don't use when they poof. So I actually had a bunch of chakra.”

“And I figured out how Kakashi managed to evade my Great Fireball the first time.”

“You did?” Naruto asked.

“The same way you did- or something similar. He knows about Shadow Clones, it's reasonable he could make them himself. He summoned a clone in midair, then used it as a springboard to reach the ground and get below the fireball.”

“You two can talk about all that stuff after you get fixed up. Come on,” Sakura said, grabbing Naruto and Sasuke’s arms- making sure to get the good one in Naruto’s case.

Although a bit woozy from the low chakra, Sasuke was still thinking. Why did my face feel hot back there? Was it because I made too much fire? 

The paper Kakashi had given him was still in his back pocket.

If you kill Itachi, what comes next?

Chapter Text

“You two should be fixed up in a few hours. You know, sparring typically doesn't involve shuriken,” the nurse said, leaving Team Seven alone in the clinic room.

Naruto and Sasuke were sitting on either side of a table, their faces and arms covered in bandages and healing salve. In a chair across the room, Sakura was sighing.

“So, what were you doing?” Naruto asked.

“Well, since you two said you were going to be training individually, I decided to go back to the post office to see if Kakashi-sensei was still there, so I could learn something about Genjutsu.”

“Did you?” Sasuke asked.

“Yup! Lots of basic stuff, but most importantly- how to break it. If you realize you're in a genjutsu, you just need to agitate your chakra and disrupt it. That analogy Naruto was trying to remember at the tea shop- basically, since genjutsu uses the target’s chakra, you can break it by holding in your chakra, then releasing a lot of it to use the sudden change in chakra volume.”

“ That's what it was!” Naruto said, smacking himself. 

“Anyway, we need to figure out what to do next. We've only got today and tomorrow before we retry the bell test- and your ‘sparring’ probably has you out of commission for tonight.”

“Then we make today a strategy meeting,” Sasuke said. “Figure out our plan for how we get the bells, then we can spend tomorrow focusing our training better.”

“Sounds good,” Naruto said. “This isn't gonna be a teamwork test like last time, probably- I bet he's gonna be coming at us with a lot more.”

“All right. I'm going to focus on learning how to recognize and break genjutsu- I probably won't be able to cast any by the test, but if he uses any illusions, I'll try to counter it.”

“Then me and Naruto will practice our Jutsu. If I use Art of the Phoenix Flower as cover fire, Naruto might be able to use Sage Mode to fight Kakashi for a bit.”

“No, that's not it.” Naruto said. “Sakura, breaking might not be enough. You sure you can't figure out casting?”

“It's not like Ninjutsu. most genjutsu need to be carefully planned and crafted. Figuring out something like that by the test is-”

“Kakashi's real strong- if I just go at him with Sage Mode, he'd probably be able to outlast me easily. But we don't need to beat him- we just need the bells. I might be able to steal them with a sneak attack in Sage Mode, but he's expecting that. We need some way to catch him off guard- and I think I have an idea.”

“And this idea relies on genjutsu?” Sasuke asked.

“Yup.”

“But still, crafting my first genjutsu in a day and a half would be hard even with a tutor- and probably impossible without. We can't ask Kakashi about genjutsu tutors without him realizing something's up, and spending time finding a tutor without him finding out would eat into any time I had to practice. Are you sure this is the best plan?”

“We don't need Kakashi for a tutor,” Naruto said. “Lemme just-” Unwrapping the bandages from his right arm (Sakura and Sasuke both feeling their heart rates spike), Naruto bit his finger, before slamming it to the ground and summoning Gamakichi.

“Yo!”

“That arm’s not even healed yet! Why would you-”

“I'm fine,” Naruto said, waving his arm at Sakura. “That healing stuff works real well. Good to see ya, Kichi.”

His injuries were a good deal worse than mine, but he's already healed. I can still feel a little gut pain, though. 

“What's this place? Looks boring,” Gamakichi said.

“Hospital. Went a bit overboard in a sparring session. Anyway, let me introduce you guys. Guys, this is Gamakichi. Gamakichi, this is Sakura and Sasuke.”

That's a frog. A talking frog. A talking frog wearing a little jacket.

Is this the ‘genjutsu tutor'?

Gamakichi looked over the two genin. “Huh. So,” he said, turning to Sakura, “You his girl?”

“ NO! ” All three of the genin shouted at once.

“Kichi, it's been less than a day since we talked- people don't get girlfriends that quick!”

“Maybe you don't,” Gamakichi said, a smirk spreading across his wide face. “ Some of us, on the other hand-”

“Do I know her?”

“The name ‘Gamarara’ ring a bell?”

“You’ve known her for years, it's not the same thing.”

“You're not gonna congratulate me?”

“Yeah, yeah, congrats for finally asking her out. Wait, did you ask about Sakura just so you could brag?”

“Mmmaybe.”

“Who is this?” Sasuke asked, finally recovered from the mental shock of seeing Naruto summon a toad and then argue about romance with it.

“This is Gamakichi. He's my-” Naruto deliberated on terms for a bit- “Little brother.”

“Hey!”

“I could've said nephew,” Naruto said. “He's Ma and Pa’s grandkid. He's two years younger’n me,” Naruto explained.

“Why did you summon him?” Sakura asked. “Is he the ‘genjutsu tutor' you were talking about?”

“Nah, nah. but speaking of…” Naruto turned back to Gamakichi. “Who d’you know that's any good at genjutsu? I don't think I've got the chakra to summon Ma or Pa, but we've got a tight-ish deadline to get a genjutsu working.”

“Gamariki’s pretty good,” Gamakichi said. “All the singers’re probably busy, but he's a good generalist.”

“Mr. Gamariki?”

“Yup. Not sure if he's any good of a teacher, but he knows his stuff. Anyway, mind getting me some flowers before sending me back? Got a date with Rara soon, and I wanna get her a gift.”

“Okay, but you're paying.”

“Do you get what ‘get me’ means?”

“Yeah, I do. But I'm not gonna buy you some nice flowers just cause you said so.”

“Fine, fine. Then I'm coming with you, to make sure they're real nice.”

“Fine. Either of you know where I can find flowers?” Naruto asked.

“No.”

After momentarily wrestling with herself, Sakura answered too. “Yamanaka Flowers isn’t too far from here,” she said, pointing in the general direction.

“Thanks! Seeya soon!” As Gamakichi hopped up to Naruto’s head, Naruto dashed out of the clinic room and down the hall.

Sasuke and Sakura heard a crash.

“I said a few hours !”

“Arm’s fine, see?”

Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a glance before the nurse came back in, glasses and hair askew. “Ah, good. One of you listened to me.”

“His arm did heal,” Sasuke said.

Behind the counter of her family flower shop, Ino Yamanaka sighed. She had no real objections to working the counter- she enjoyed it more than listening to Master Asuma’s lectures as the smoke stung her eyes, at least- but if there weren't any customers, she'd prefer to be actually doing something.

Hearing the bell ring, she refocused from her daydreams and launched into a practiced greeting. “Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, where every bloom is at its best. How can I help you?”

“What sort of flowers do you want?”

“I dunno, I've never been in a place like this before.”

“Yeah, well, I haven't either. And it's your girlfriend.”

Peering around the shelves, Ino saw the source of the voices- the blond kid who had kissed Sasuke a few days ago, and a bright orange frog atop his head. She wasn't sure who had said what.

“Look, let's just ask her for a recommendation,” Blondie said.

“Do they do those?”

“How should I know? Hey, do you guys-”

“We do recommendations, custom arrangements, preset bouquets, and various other services,” Ino recited. “Who are you buying flowers for?”

“He's got a date,” the kid said, pointing to the frog. “Wants to get her some nice flowers.”

Ino managed to work past the gross factor of talking to a frog by falling back on her customer service knowledge. “Do you know what kind of flowers she likes? Is this a blind date, or a first date, or-”

“First date,” the frog said. “Don't know what sorta stuff she likes- do you just have a good all-purpose one?”

“I wouldn't call them ‘all-purpose’, but we have a number of good bouquets for first dates. A bouquet for a date needs to be long-lasting, but unobtrusive. It can't be inconvenient to carry, or have a harsh fragrance, but it also needs to withstand moving around without a vase for a while.”

“Hey, stop movin’ your head,” the frog said.

“It’s just… these all look kinda big for you, Kichi. Like, I don't know much ‘bout all this stuff, but it's probably not much fun carrying a bunch of flowers bigger'n you all night.”

“We have a number of singular flowers. Roses are always popular, but you can often get a similar effect to a bouquet with a single large blossom- things like sunflowers or hydrangeas.” Ino gestured to the aforementioned flowers.

The frog followed the point, then turned back to Ino. “Those ones that look like a buncha little ones-”

“Hydrangeas,” Ino inserted.

“Yeah, them. D’you got any that go well with purple?”

“A sort of light pink would typically match best,” Ino said, almost automatically. “Why, does she like purple?”

“I don't know about like , but, well, I like orange, y’know?”

Ino did not know, but she didn't let it show on her face. “Then should I ring you up for one pink hydrangea?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah.”

“Got it. How would you like that packaged? With singular blooms, we typically just do a small ribbon around the stem. Any color preference?”

“Whatever you think looks good,” the frog said.

“Alright, then.” Grabbing a dark red ribbon, Ino stepped away from the counter, then came back with a short-stemmed hydrangea blossom wrapped with the ribbon. “That'll be 65 ryō.”

“I’ve just got gold, lady.”

“I… don’t think we take gold. Are you saying gold coins, or…”

“Just gold.” The toad pulled out a tiny nugget of the stuff.

“Do you have any actual money?” Ino asked the kid.

“Yeah, one sec.” Fishing out a few bills, he flipped through to get the right amount, then traded it for the flower. “Okay, now you owe me.”

“How? I ain’t got the money this place uses.”

“We find someone who’ll trade gold for ryo. You give ‘em 65 ryo worth, and I get the money.”

“Fine, fine.”

Chapter Text

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Naruto said as he returned to the clinic room. “Where were we?”

“You were talking about someone named ‘Gamariki’,” Sasuke said.

“Yeah, that's right! Kichi said he was good at genjutsu, so I was gonna summon him, but I got sidetracked.”

“You still haven't explained what your plans actually is ,” Sakura said.

“Wait, did I not say that part?”

“No, no you didn't,” Sasuke said.

“Oh. Well, the plan was-”

“How are your students doing, Kakashi?” Lord Hiruzen asked.

“Doing good,” Kakashi said. “They dealt with all the letters by just after lunch, so now they're training without me.”

“Excellent. I have a mission for you over in the Land of Bamboo, so they'll need to be independent for a few days.”

“All right. I'll let them know, then be off. They'll probably appreciate the extra prep day.”

“Preparation for what?”

“After I gave them the whole bell test thing, they asked for a retry,” Kakashi explained. “They think they can get the bells this time.”

“Are you going to let them?”

“Well, I'm not going to use the sharingan , but I certainly won't make it easy for them. They'll need to have an actual plan- unlike last time.”

“I see. In that case, I'll make sure to put a break in your team’s schedule so you have time to test them.”

“Oh, they're testing themselves.”

“Okay, this should be a good spot,” Naruto said, stopping just by the aftermath of his and Sasuke's sparring match from earlier. The sun was dipping in the sky, but the scorch marks were still visible.

His finger looks good as new already, Sasuke noticed. 

After a quick Summoning Jutsu, Naruto made Gamariki appear in a puff of smoke.

Sakura wasn't sure what she expected Gamariki to look like, but it wasn't what she got.

The toad was massive- taller than Naruto and almost just as wide. Bright green, with yellow markings and a bright red bow, and, for some reason, lipstick. Sakura didn't think toads had lips.

“How are you, Mr. Gamariki?”

“Ah, Naruto. Good to see you, darling. What's the occasion? And who are your friends?”

“I'm alright. This is Sakura and Sasuke. Gamakichi said you were real good at genjutsu, and we needed someone to give Sakura some advice.”

“Well, I'm flattered that you thought of me, darling, but wouldn't you be able to get one of the locals to help? This is Konoha, is it not?”

“See, the thing is, we're doing this test with our teacher, where we have to steal some bells from him. So we can't ask him to teach us, or he'll know what we're trying to do. And we don't know any good genjutsu teachers here, and if we asked around, he'd probably find out our plan.”

“And what is this plan?”

“Well, the idea was to-”

“GOOD AFTERNOON, MASTER KAKASHI, HOW ARE YOU?” Sakura’s loud, stilted call-out got the point across to Naruto- shut up, Kakashi’s here.

“Not too bad. What's with the toad?”

“...nothin’,” Naruto said unconvincingly.

“Alright. Just came by to tell you the Hokage’s sending me on a solo mission. You three are gonna be on your own for the next two days.”

“What? But what about the-”

“I know,” Kakashi said. “So we reschedule for the day after. Gives you kids an extra day to prepare. Anyway, remember to deal with the mail. I'll see you at seven sharp.” And with that, Kakashi left.

“That was close,” Naruto said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Anyway, that's our teacher.”

“Are all Konoha teachers that handsome?” Gamariki asked.

“You could only see his eye and hair,” Naruto said.

“I saw what I needed to.”

“Are all toads like this?” Sasuke asked.

“No, I think these two just like to embarrass me. Anyway, we were hoping you could help Sakura craft a genjutsu we could use against Kakashi.”

“Do you have anything in mind?”

“Yup.”

"We figured out a Genjutsu we could use against him. If we use something too obvious, he’ll break it, so we need something that he won’t realize is a genjutsu.”

“And I take it you’ve already figured out what you want to do?”

“Yeah. see, the plan’s basically to-”

“Well, today's the day.”

“You guys ready?” Naruto asked.

“Ready as I can be,” Sakura said.

“It's six fifty-nine,” Sasuke said. “He should be here soon.”

The three genin sat atop the stumps in the training ground, focused on the entrance, awaiting Kakashi’s arrival.

“To be fair, he's never been on time for anything before,” Sakura said, about ten minutes later.

“True.”

Naruto was silent, still in a meditation pose.

“Hey, kids!”

“YOU'RE LATE!” all three genin yelled.

“I thought you might want a little extra prep time. You ready to go?”

“ Been ready,” Naruto said. “You got the bells?”

“Right here,” Kakashi said, holding up three bells on a string before affixing them to his belt. “When I say ‘go’, then.”

“Ready…”

The genin got to their feet on the stumps.

“Set…” Sasuke reached into his pocket.

In unison, all four of them said the last part.

“Go!”

Chapter Text

Almost immediately, Sasuke threw a smoke bomb. Moments later, ten separate Narutos came leaping out of the smoke.

Naruto probably isn't maintaining nine clones right out of the gate, Kakashi thought, so some of these have to be Sasuke or Sakura, transformed. That clone two from the left didn't displace the smoke, so it's probably one of their ordinary doppelgangers.

Still, even this opening gambit is impressive- Sakura and Sasuke are managing to mimic Naruto’s posture quite closely.

The question, then, becomes who they're trying to hide.

Throwing a volley of shuriken, the Narutos scattered, a few of them hiding behind the logs.

Two behind the left and middle logs, Kakashi thought. Probably real bodies. 

The main problem with this strategy, of course, is that all three of them fight differently. I can pick out Sasuke and Sakura by just forcing them to act.

Demonic Illusion: Blinding Glare! It was a very basic genjutsu- more comparable to a flash bomb than a true illusion. But it served it's purpose well.

As Kakashi threw another volley of shuriken at the stunned clones, only one of them managed to dodge it.

That's Sakura, he thought. So Sasuke and Naruto must be behind the stumps. 

Kakashi rushed forward and struck Sakura square in the stomach; but she disappeared in a puff of smoke. Substitution? But where did she get the clone from?

Hearing a subtle whizzing noise behind him, Kakashi leapt up and backwards- just barely dodging a volley of fireballs from behind him.

Sasuke's behind me, in the woods- he’s been hiding there the whole time!

The fireballs quickly re- aimed themselves at the now airborne Kakashi.

When I first got here, what I thought was Sasuke was actually a transformed Naruto clone- good play, you three.

But not good enough. Wind Release: Great Breakthrough! Blowing out the fireballs, Kakashi saw that they had been hiding shuriken. As a Naruto clone leapt up from behind the stumps and jumped towards him, Kakashi weaved a single sign.

Moments after making the shadow clone, Kakashi used it as a springboard away from the shuriken, then threw his own shuriken at the Naruto clone, dispersing it.

I take down Sasuke, then return for Sakura and Naruto. However, as Kakashi rushed towards the tree line, where Sasuke hid, he saw two more Narutos instead. A doppelganger? A prepared shadow clone? Or the real Naruto?

One thing’s for sure, though- neither of them are Sakura. Weaving the signs for another Blinding Glare, he stunned both Narutos, then rushed forward and hit both of them at once.

One of them disappeared, but the other didn't. So Sasuke’s still in the trees- these two were just a distraction. Still, best to stop Naruto from moving without burning his Sage Chakra. 

“Earth Release: Mud Imprisonment.” Touching the ground, Kakashi made a thick coating of mud flow over Naruto’s unconscious body, then turned his gaze back to the tree line. Now I just have to worry about Sasuke, Sakura, and that one Naruto clone by the stumps. If I take out Sakura, I'm free to use more genjutsu against Sasuke.

Heading back to where Sakura had hidden, he took a wide arc around in case they had prepared a trap behind the stumps, but they hadn't done such- at least at first glance. Instead, one Naruto rushed towards Kakashi, while the other began weaving the signs for Blinding Flare.

Turnabout is fair play, indeed. But I doubt she can complete the sequence fast enough while dodging. Throwing a quick set of shuriken at Sakura, Kakashi returned his focus to the Naruto clone.

With the number of clones Naruto’s been throwing around, he probably won't have much sage chakra when he rejoins the fight. So I clear out this clone, take out Sakura, then wait for Sasuke to approach me.

As Sakura dodged the shuriken, Kakashi kicked the clone- but it didn't poof. 

Huh? 

A blur of movement.

The bells jingled.

“Gotcha,” Naruto said.

Turning around, Kakashi saw Naruto holding all three bells, with the widest grin ever splayed across his face.

He's not in Sage Mode. How did he move like that without Sage Mode?

“Sakura, we got him!”

“I'd hope so,” Sakura said from the ground. “Taking a hit like that without getting anything for it would be even worse.”

She's still transformed. And if Naruto’s here, then that must have been Sasuke. After a moment's thought, Kakashi realized what had happened.

Releasing the genjutsu, he looked at Sakura and Naruto again. Sakura looked like herself, and Naruto’s froggy features were fast disappearing.

“Genjutsu, huh?”

“Yeah. We weren't sure if it would work, but it did,” Sakura said, clutching her stomach. “We should probably get Sasuke.”

“It was a good move,” Kakashi said, walking over towards Sasuke. “But it wouldn’t have worked if you neglected your other skills. Substitution, clones, Sasuke’s Phoenix Flower- not to mention managing to disguise your posture.”

After being freed, Sasuke got up and stretched. “How much were you holding back?”

“Not as much as last time,” Kakashi said. “I was trying to go just hard enough that you wouldn't be able to beat me with brute strength.”

“Still, we beat you!” Naruto grinned.

“Indeed you did. Incidentally, I hope you haven't been neglecting your mission duties while I was gone.”

“Nope! Sakura made sure of that.”

“Well, that's good. Have you done today's mail too?”

“Actually, I visited the hospital yesterday and Mr. Tayori said he was going back to work today,” Sakura said. “So we're done with mail work!”

*Ah. Then it would seem the only thing left to do is report your complete mission to the Hokage.”

Chapter Text

“So, that's the idea. I can't transform or disguise myself in Sage Mode, and he knows that. So if we use a genjutsu, then I can transform without him realizing and snatch the bells before he realizes what's happened!”

“That's if he doesn't just get us all before we can move,” Sasuke said.

“In that case, we just have to get stuff set up ahead of time. He said he was gonna be here at seven, so we probably have until ten minutes after to prepare a bunch of traps.”

“Wouldn't he be able to tell if there were traps?” Sakura asked. 

“It depends on what sort of traps we prepare,” Sasuke said. “He'd probably be wary of tripwires, explosive tags, things of that nature- but really, we just need any way to make him misunderstand the situation. The more information we can hide from him, the better our odds.”

“So, how much do you already know about making and casting genjutsu?” Gamariki asked.

“You manipulate the flow of chakra in your target’s cranial nerves,” Sakura said. 

“Correct, but unhelpful. Look, darling, in the heat of the moment, you're not thinking about ‘cranial nerves’ or ‘prosencephalon structure' or any of that. It's better to just be doing what feels right. Saves on brainpower.”

“That doesn't seem-”

“There’s a reason so many sonar genjutsu work off of songs,” Gamariki said, speaking over Sakura. “It's a handy way to not only organize your own chakra, but mess with someone else's.”

“But the whole thing we’re trying to do relies on him not realizing I’m using genjutsu,” Sakura said, annoyedly. “I can’t just start singing and expect him to ignore it. Besides, I'm not a great singer.”

“The singing’s an example,” Gamariki said. “If you were thinking about all that brain stuff while you tried to sing, it'd be a lot harder- and the lyrics probably a lot worse.”

Is there still time to ask Naruto to summon a different frog?

“Genjutsu is like ‘speaking to the heart’- you bypass the conscious mind and speak directly to the subconscious. Convey your own feelings and thoughts to the target. Here, watch this.” Making eye contact with Sakura, Gamariki suddenly widened his eyes. 

It happened instantly- to the point that the transition actually hurt Sakura’s eyes. In a moment, everything even a few feet away was obscured by a purple fog.

“Gah!” Reeling, Sakura looked around.

The fog seemed to follow her around- always close by, filling in space as she moved into it, and parting before her.

“What happened?” Naruto called from within the fog.

“Everything’s purple,” Sakura called back. “I can barely see my own feet.”

“You know that thing where, when someone says ‘dont think of pink elephants’, it’s all you can think about?” Gamariki said from within the fog. “What I basically did was scream ‘purple’ really loud into your brain.”

“That’s it?”

“More or less. And now, I have somewhere to be.” Hearing a puff of smoke, Sakura assumed Gamariki had returned to wherever he came from.

“Is stuff still purple?” Naruto asked.

“Yup. Let me just…” releasing the genjutsu, Sakura saw Naruto standing just a few feet away from her, looking intently at her.

“Wha- what are you doing?”

“I wanted to see if your eyes were weird. You said everything was purple, so I wondered if your eyes were purple too.”

What? “Were they?”

“Nope. Anyway, I gotta go talk to a guy about bugs. Seeya!” Breaking eye contact, Naruto ran off without another word.

“More bug stuff?” Sakura sighed.

“He mentioned it earlier,” Sasuke said. “I didn't want to learn any more.”

After a moment, Sakura realized the opportunity that had landed in her lap. “Hey, Sasuke?”

“What?”

“I can't really practice genjutsu on my own. Would you mind if… I… tried it on you?” Sakura said, a blush working its way up her face.

Sasuke was silent for a moment.

“Fine.”

“Hello? Bug guy?”

“You’re back.” The hooded figure had reappeared behind Naruto.

“Yeah, I said I would be. So, let’s talk bugs.”

“My name isn’t ‘Bug Guy’,” The figure said, as if it had just occurred to him.

“Are you gonna tell me what your name is?” Naruto asked.

“The clan raises several varieties of specialized insects; I can’t let you have any of those. However, we might be able to figure an exchange rate for bugs that we don’t use.”

“You talk weird. What’s up with that?”

“My name is Nazuna Aburame. I like to think about what I say before I say it.”

“And that means you talk like you’re off by a sentence?”

“Specifically, any beetles, leeches, and arachnids are off limits. If you see a bug and wonder if it may be off limits, it’s off limits. Err on the side of caution.”

“Okay… so what do I have to give you for anything else?”

“... 200 ryo for a catching license.”

“A license?”

“You pay us once, I’ll give you a permit to catch some bugs on our land.”

After ruminating on it for a moment, Naruto handed over the money. “I get paid soon, I think.”

Silently taking the money, Nazuna handed over a slip of paper. “Please sign in the spot where it says ‘name’.”

“Oh, do you guys give these out a lot?” Naruto asked, looking over the carefully written license.

After a moment, Nazuna responded. “No. I made that myself.”

“Oh, nice. I’ve gotta go, but I’ll be back real soon!”

As Naruto left, Nazuna stood there for a moment.

That is officially too many social interactions for the day, he thought. I need to rest now.

Just focus on what that frog said. Convey your feelings and thoughts to the target, Sakura thought, looking at Sasuke. Convey… your feelings… to Sasuke.

I'm so glad his eyes are closed right now. I think my cheeks are redder than my outfit. Reaching out her hand, holding it an inch from Sasuke's forehead, she focused, and cast her first genjutsu.

Opening his eyes, Sasuke could immediately see the difference. He had known what the genjutsu was meant to do, but it was still relatively obvious.

“It worked, for the most part,” he said, inspecting Naruto’s-Sakura’s, face.

If he looked closer, differences emerged. The genjutsu seemed to have pulled from Sakura's memories, as opposed to Sasuke's own. Naruto’s hair was a bit too spiky at the sides, the whiskers too thick, and the eyes too blue.

However, even if all those things were perfect, the trick could still be easily realized- because Sakura and Naruto acted nothing alike.  

Naruto didn't blush and shy away from Sasuke's eyes. He wasn't flustered at people in his face. He didn't try to look away, or close his eyes, or drop his smile. Even after he had fallen atop Sasuke, or pinned him to the ground, he- “why is everything pink?”

“What?”

“The sky has a pink tint to it. So does the grass, and everything else. Aside from that, the illusion works well enough, with a few minor errors.” Stan

ding up, Sasuke continued. “The main thing is that you can be distinguished from Naruto by action and posture. How do I break this?”

Chapter Text

“Alright, then. The next assignment for Team Seven will be…”

Outside the village. Outside the village. Outside the village.

Naruto had been praying for a mission beyond Konoha’s gates every time Team Seven had come to the office. Sure, it hadn't happened yet, but this could be the one!

“Repainting the academy.”

Naruto groaned loudly enough that even the people at other desks turned and looked.

Could you at least try to act your age? Sakura thought.

“Do you not like the sound of that?” The Hokage said, with the edges of a smile that showed he knew exactly what Naruto thought of the sound of that.

“When do we get to go somewhere?”

“You're still genin,” Iruka said. “You need to-”

“‘We need to work our way up by doing the smaller tasks’, I KNOW! That's what we've been doing! When is it gonna be enough?” 

He's angrier than usual, Sakura thought to herself.

Over the past month and a half, a sort of routine had been established for these meetings. Naruto would push as far as possible, Iruka and the Hokage would push back, and Team Seven would end up with some weird assignment- but never what Naruto was actually after.

So far, they'd repaired a house that had been practically torn off its foundations, defended a farm from swarms of insects, and a few other similar missions. Personally, Sakura would've been fine with repainting the academy.

“You're still genin. You don't get to self-select missions, and we're not going to give dangerous missions to people who we don't think are capable,” Iruka said.

“How do you know if we're ready without letting us try?” Naruto countered.

“Are the gates of Konoha too small for you, despite the short time you've spent here?” The Hokage asked, his knowing smile still firmly on his face.

I'd welcome an opportunity to test myself, too, Sasuke thought.

“Kakashi gets to go places all the time! He's meant to be our teacher, so let us go with him!”

“The missions Kakashi undertakes are highly sensitive and dangerous matters,” the Hokage explained. “However, I do understand your restlessness.” Your uncle was the same way.

“We cannot allow you to do anything truly dangerous. However, it so happens that a certain client has recently come to us.”

If Naruto were part fox, his ears would've perked up.

“Normally, such a mission would be considered C-rank, and reserved for ninja at the journeyman level. However…”

A smile spread across Naruto’s face as the full meaning of the Hokage's words passed through him. Journeyman. C-rank. We're going outside the village.

“Please send in Mr. Tazuna,” the Hokage said to one of his attendants.

“Sir, with all due respect, I don't feel rewarding these sorts of outbursts is-”

“I'm not rewarding an outburst. I'm rewarding a desire to learn.”

Not what I'd call it.

“Don't tell me it's you kids, right?”

A gruff voice sounded behind team 7, and they all whipped around.

Mr. Tazuna was drinking a can of beer and leaning against the doorway. He had a relatively scruffy beard, a dark blue sleeveless shirt, a straw hat on a cord round his neck, and a bit of a gut.

“I asked for ninja. You're saying that shorty is a ninja?”

“Shorty?” Naruto asked.

There was a pause.

“HEY!”

Waving a hand at Naruto to try to quiet him down, the Hokage turned to Tazuna. “These three have been selected for your mission. Based on what you've told us, they should perform admirably. Moreover, they'll be under the instruction of an elite jônin, who will also be protecting you.”

Tazuna eyed over the group.

Naruto glared back at him.

“Any chance I could just get the jônin and leave the kids?”

“Alright, that's it! I'm gonna-” Kakashi grabbed Naruto by the scruff of his neck and lifted him off the ground.

“No attacking the old man you're meant to protect.”

“So, where are we going?” Sakura asked the Hokage.

The Hokage nodded to Tazuna, who explained.

“I'm a bridge builder. Damn good one, too. Until I complete my next job in the Land of Waves, you four are protecting me.”

“Alright, then. Once Naruto gets here, we can be off.”

“I think that's him now,” Sakura said.

Sure enough, Naruto was making his way to the gate, lugging behind him a large sack.

“Naruto, we're meant to be traveling light. What do you even have in there?” Kakashi asked.

“Scrolls, bugs, clothes, a bedroll, a blanket, a pillow…”

“How many scrolls and clothes?”

“Well, I didn't know how long we were gonna be away, so I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything. I actually forgot some stuff back at Mount Myoboku when I first came here, and I was lucky to get it back. If I leave something here that I need, I won't be able to get it!”

“Okay… cut down on clothes and bugs by half, and reduce any scrolls you want to study down to five. Anything that can't fit in this bag in the next ten minutes, you leave behind.” Kakashi produced a small backpack and tossed it at Naruto.

“You two heard the bugs thing, right?” Tazuna asked.

“He eats bugs,” Sasuke said, not explaining further.

“I'd say you get used to it, but you don't. Just ignore him at mealtimes,” Sakura added.

“The confidence this group inspires is truly unprecedented.”

Still, Naruto was working quickly at paring down his supplies. Within seven minutes, he had everything stuffed into his new pack.

“All right, then. Naruto, make sure everything makes it back to your house. Now let's go.”

Wait, how does he make sure it all goes back?

Making a single Shadow Clone, Naruto turned to face the group as his doppelganger began lugging the remnants of his first attempt at packing back home.

Neat trick.

“I still don't get why you let them have that mission, Sir.”

Hiruzen took a long drag of his pipe, then exhaled. “Those three deserve a glimpse of the wider world. Besides, they might as well have all the requirements for the exams by the time they roll around.”

“You're not worried about them?”

“Iruka, I always worry. But I also trust them.”

Chapter Text

"So, what's the Land of Waves like?”

The group had been walking for about half an hour, and already Konoha was hard to pick out.

“Wavy.”

Who could've guessed? “Are there any ninja there, Kakashi?” Sakura asked.

“Not in the Land of Waves. It's a relatively small collective of islands, so it doesn't have the economy to support a ninja village, nor much need for one. But, by and large, most countries have their own hidden villages, and their own ninja.”

“So there's a whole bunch of places like Konoha?” Naruto asked.

“Not really. Konoha's one of the Big Five- the five largest, strongest ninja villages in the world.”

“Oh, yeah- Sasuke talked about those! Leaf, Cloud, Stone, Sand… the other one…”

“Mist,” Kakashi said. They're each ruled by one of the Gokage.”

“There's more Hokage than just that old guy?”

“One, don't call him that. Two, no. Lord Hiruzen is the Hokage, or Fire Shadow. There's also a Raikage, Tsuchikage, Kazekage, and Mizukage. They're collectively known as the Gokage, or Five Shadows- the ultimate commanders of the Shinobi across the world.”

“So, do you think we're gonna meet any of those other Shinobi?” Naruto asked, excitedly.

“Not on a C rank mission. You kids won't have to fight any other ninja for a while, if you're lucky.”

Tazuna was silent.

A while later, after Naruto had run out of questions to ask about the Land of Waves, he felt something was off.

That puddle felt weird.

Turning around to take another look, he was completely unprepared for what he saw.

Two cloaked figures had emerged out of nowhere, with a long chain connecting their large metal gauntlets. A chain currently wrapped around Kakashi.

“What the-”

As everyone else flipped around, too, Naruto started rushing towards the cloaked figures.

“Naruto, don't-”

But the figures pulled the chain right and tore Kakashi to pieces.

-

“One down.”

Kakashi was dead. Torn to pieces. And Naruto was running right at his killers. 

Weaving a sign, four doppelgangers popped into existence, all of them just as angry.

“Nice trick,” one of the enemies said. 

In a flash of movement, all four doppelgangers were gone, and Naruto had a nasty gash down his left arm. The chain was about to encircle him- the chain the chain the chain- but he leapt upwards and out of the way.

Can't feel my arm. Can't make any signs.

Sending the chain upwards, the two ninja made for Tazuna next, once Naruto had been killed too.

Can't move in midair- but before the chain could connect, a shuriken knocked it away.

Sasuke followed up his first projectile with a kunai, pinning the shuriken to a tree and pinning the chain with it.

After a quick tug, the enemies disconnected the chain, then rushed the old man.

Sakura moved to defend Tazuna.

Sasuke moved to defend Sakura.

And, in a blur, Kakashi caught both attackers by the necks and choked them out.

He's alive!

Must've used Substitution, Sasuke thought.

What even happened? Tazuna thought. Well, we're saved, at least.

“Apologies, Naruto.”

He's apologizing?

“Good work, Sasuke. You too, Sakura.”

I couldn't do anything. Four doppelgangers, and they all died in an instant.

“Does your arm hurt?” Sasuke asked.

Does it hurt that you couldn't do anything? Does it hurt that Kakashi had to say sorry? Does it hurt?

Naruto growled.

“Don't fight, Naruto. We need to clean that wound- their claws were poisoned.”

“Poisoned?” Sakura asked.

“A paralytic. If left alone for too long, it could spread, or become lethal.”

Naruto’s arm felt dead already- like it was replaced with a sack of rocks.

“If we cut it further open, the blood flow can wash the poison out. For now, just stay still so it doesn't spread.”

Stay still. Don't do anything. Don't rush in. Stay still so you don't hurt yourself.

“Now. Mister Tazuna. We need to talk.”

“What?”

“Based on their attire and methods, these seem to be ninja from Kirigakure- journeymen, at that. And they were expecting us.”

“They were?”

“The sun’s out. It hasn't rained in a while. There shouldn't have been any puddles.”

“Then why even let them attack, if you knew there was a trap?”

“To see who it was set for.”

“What do you mean?” Sakura asked.

“There's been no word of any ninja after you. According to what you told the village, we were to protect you from roaming thieves or criminals.”

Tazuna was silent.

“So, it was possible they were trying to attack one of us ninja. But they didn't. At nearly every opportunity, they went straight for you.”

Tazuna was silent.

“We could have managed thieves and brigands quite easily. But ninja assassins are a far different matter. Not even a B-rank mission would cover this. If we knew the full details, this would've been considered an A-rank mission; for elite ninja. As it is, despite whatever reasons you may have, this task falls far outside the boundaries is of our assignment.”

“The village is still close by,” Sakura said. “We can get a doctor to give an anaesthetic and drain the poison, and get some other ninja to take over the job.”

Go back?

“Hmmm…”

This is my fault. I rushed in and couldn't do anything. Even Sakura managed to be helpful, but I'm ruining the whole mission.

No.

Grabbing a kunai from his pouch, Naruto rolled up his sleeve and drove the knife into his wound.

What?

What?

“NARUTO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Sakura screamed.

“I need to open the wound to drain the blood, right?” Naruto said through gritted teeth.

This is nothing compared to what going back would feel like.

I'm not returning a failure. I'm not gonna be a burden ever again. 

Dragging the kunai up his arm along the wound, he continued. 

“We're not going back. We got a mission, right? Then we're gonna do it.”

I'm not gonna be the one people need to worry about it. Not the one who hangs back, or needs help. I can do this. 

“Old man? You're not dying anytime soon. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Not the one people need to apologize to. I did all this training so I could see the world; I can't fail at the first step!

“Naruto Uzumaki, reporting for duty.” Blood was streaming from his arm. But through the pain, he had a grin on his face. If it's hurting, it just means I can feel it again. “Let’s get moving.”

Naruto had overdone it.

“We just needed a free flow of blood, Naruto,” Kakashi said. “Not for you to bleed to death.”

“?”

“I'm serious.”

Naruto looked at his arm. It was still bleeding.

Is he some kind of masochist, or is he really that stupid? Sakura thought to herself.

“I have some bandages,” Sasuke said. 

“I’m fine, I'm fine! Look, it's already stopping!” Wiping off the blood, Naruto waved his arm at Sasuke. 

“Don't lie,” Sasuke said, grabbing Naruto’s arm. “You cut it like two minutes ag-”

It's already healing over? No, more than that- it's almost healed!

“Happy now?” Naruto said. “I'm fine. Let's get moving.”

It's like back in the hospital. How does he heal so fast?

“Mister Master Kakashi, Sir…” Tazuna said. “I have something to tell you.”

Chapter Text

“We'll be able to see the bridge soon,” the boatman said.

“I thought you hadn't built the bridge yet,” Naruto said. “Wasn't that why we're here?”

“The bridge isn't finished,” Sakura said. “They've started construction, but there's still a lot of work to be done.”

“Exactly.”

As the small dinghy’s motor puttered along, Naruto was sitting very still. 

I couldn't spin any Sage chakra on the walk, but now that we're on a boat, I better prepare as much of the stuff as possible! 

His efficiency with making sage chakra had improved, but it was holding onto it that was the problem.

Keeping sage chakra inside himself was like trying to hold his breath, but with a tornado in his stomach. It wanted out, and trying to keep the lid on while moving was still difficult for him.

Also, meditating on a boat was weird.

He was still, but felt himself moving. The waves flowed all around them, the fog surrounded them- the nature energy was thick, and ever-present.

According to Shima, feeling the energy of the ocean felt humbling; it surrounded you, an endless expanse of the world.

Naruto wasn't feeling humbled. He was feeling anxious.

When the next set of creeps attack, I'll be ready.

More humbling was the sight of the bridge piercing through the mist. Giant stone pillars, driven down into the seabed, with a stone road going across. People had built it, brick by brick, and it still wasn't done.

Rebar was poking out of the unfinished edge. Cranes and building supplies could be spotted, slowly extending the bridge all the way to the opposite bank, which was completely invisible in the fog.

“It's huuuuge,” Naruto said, staring upwards as the boat passed underneath the bridge.

“From here, we have to cut the engine,” the boatman says. “I'll start rowing.”

Soon enough, the boat made it to the mangroves.

This is what I wanted to see, Naruto thought. Floating forests, a town on the ocean- there's nothing like this in Myoboku or Konoha.

Stepping off the boat, the strange feelings of nature energy were still there.

We're not moving the same way, but it's still moving. The boat was unrooted in the ocean, but here, every little movement goes all the way down to the seabed. 

“All right, let's go. If we move fast, we should be able to make it to the city by nightfall.”

Last time, I didn't fully sense the guys in the puddle. If I have a little chakra for sensing stuff, I won't be caught off guard again!

As they walked, Naruto felt his senses move in and out, in time with his breath. The world breathed, and he breathed in time with it. He- what was that?

“There!” turning around, Naruto threw a shuriken into the underbrush.

“What are you-” Sakura said, before being cut off.

“I felt something over there,” Naruto said. “Something big.”

Walking into the trees, Kakashi called back. “It was a rabbit.”

“‘something big’, huh?” Sasuke said.

“Did Naruto hit it?” Sakura asked.

“No, but it looks half scared to death.” And that's not all…

“Now look what you did!”

“I swear, there was a big chakra over there!”

“Don't go giving me scares like that,” Tazuna said.

It's still got a winter pelt, even in summer. Evidently some kind of decoy.

“No, I swear! Here, I'll prove it.” Taking a deep breath in, Naruto tried to focus. “Over the-”

“Take cover!” Kakashi's voice rang out, and everyone dropped to the ground, as a projectile flew over their heads- from the direction Naruto had been pointing.

It sunk into a tree- a massive, black sword, with peculiar holes in the blade. And standing atop it, a man with long sleeves and no shirt.

Told you! Now then, time to- “Don't,” Kakashi said. “Assume manji formation. Protect Tazuna. I have to face this one alone.”

“Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye, I take it?” The man on the sword said, in a raspy voice that made it sound like his throat was cut to ribbons. “If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to kill the old man now.”

Sharingan? What's that?

“Not happening,” Kakashi said, lifting the headband that covered his eye. “You three, stay out of the fight.”

His left eye looked nothing like the right. A deep red iris, with three tomoe circling the pupil, a far departure from his normal brown eye.

What's up with his eye?

“I'll take Zabuza.”

“The man with the mirror eye knows my name,” Zabuza said. “I'm honored.”

"Mirror eye?” Naruto asked.

“The Sharingan is a form of ocular ninjutsu,” Sasuke said. “Those who possess it gain several powers- notably, the ability to see through any jutsu, and reflect it back at the caster.”

“Your tagalong knows his stuff,” Zabuza said. “But most formidable of the Sharingan’s bag of tricks is the ability to duplicate the opponent's skills. Back when I still worked with the village, the bingo book had quite a write-up on you. The man who stole a thousand jutsu, Hatake Kakashi.”

Isn't he in his 20s? Sakura thought. How often does he run into enemy ninja to have copied over a thousand jutsu?

Sasuke was deep in thought.

“Well, as much as I've enjoyed this little conversation, I'm on a rather tight schedule. I'd prefer to just take the old man's head and be done with it…”

Tazuna felt a chill of fear down his spine.

“I take it you're going to stand in my way.”

Zabuza disappeared.

“Over there!” Naruto said, pointing to Zabuza standing on the surface of the water.

“And now,” he said, holding a hand high in the air, “the jutsu of Kirigakure.”

The mist, which had cleared a bit from the boat trip, circled around Zabuza, as he melted into it.

“He's gone!” Sakura said.

“Momochi Zabuza, former member of the Kirigakure assassin corps, and master of silent killing,” Kakashi said. “Letting your guard down means letting him punch your ticket straight to the afterlife. All of you, stay on your toes.”

The fog thickened, as Zabuza’s voice rang out.

“So many targets. Throat, kidney, heart, spine, jugular, artery… I feel almost spoiled for choice.”

The bloodlust… I can feel it, Sasuke thought, trembling. If I move, if I draw his attention, if I even blink, he'll kill me, I know it!

I can't stay like this for long. It starts making you wish he'd attack, just to end the suspense.

“Don't worry, Sasuke. I'm not letting any of you die,” Kakashi said.

“Move!” Naruto yelled, shoving Tazuna away moments before Zabuza appeared, slashing at where the old man was less than a second before.

The best could sense me?

The other two had also leapt away at the sound of Naruto’s voice, and Kakashi rushed in, driving a knife right into Zabuza's heart.

I can still feel his chakra… Naruto had begun burning Sage Chakra in earnest, trying to pick out anything he could. “Behind you!”

Zabuza dissolved into water, and the real thing appeared behind Kakashi, slashing through him with the massive sword.

I wasn't fast enough- no, wait!

Kakashi, too, turned to water. And behind Zabuza was the true Kakashi, holding a knife to his neck. “Game over.”

He copied me in this mist?

“You think it's over, eh? Trust me, it'll take more than just aping my techniques to beat me.”

“A lot more,” said Zabuza, from behind Kakashi.

Chapter Text

The ‘real Zabuza' was a doppelganger, too!

“Tricks within tricks,” Zabuza said. “Deceptions within deceptions. You read too shallowly, and now you'll pay the price.” 

As Zabuza slashed at ad speed that shouldn't be possible with a blade so large, Kakashi dropped to the ground, barely dodging it.

As the blade spun and sunk into the ground, Zabuza used it to steady himself and kicked Kakashi square in the chest, sending him flying into the lake.

As he flew through the air, Kakashi scattered some caltrops behind him, stopping Zabuza from following him immediately and letting him regroup underwater. 

He swings that giant sword so easily, Sasuke thought. His taijutsu and kenjutsu are on another level!

“Gullible fool,” Zabuza said.

Something's… wrong with the water… Kakashi thought, trying to escape, but it was too late.

“Art of the water prison!” Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and weaved a quick sequence of signs. The water coalesced into a swirling bubble around Kakashi, and Zabuza stuck his hand into it.

“Attempting to go underwater when facing a mist ninja? I'm almost disappointed in you. But now, you're trapped. And I can have fun with the others at my leisure.”

With one hand, Zabuza summoned a water doppelganger on the shore. 

Master Kakashi could barely keep up against Zabuza. Now we have to do the same? Sakura thought, panicked.

“Heh heh heh… having fun, you wannabe ninja?”

“We’re not wannabes,” Naruto said.

“Ah, yes. The headband. But clothes don't make the man, you know. A true ninja- the sort to make it into a bingo book- is one who crosses and recrosses the barriers of life. Your kind aren't called ninjas. You're just brats.”

Vanishing into the mist, Zabuza rushed at Naruto.

I can feel his chakra, but he's moving too fast. 

As Zabuza reappeared, Naruto tried to doge, but got kicked in the side, sending him flying backwards.

I meant to kick that stupid headband right off of him. How is he detecting me?

“Listen to me, you three. Take Tazuna and run,” Kakashi said from inside the bubble. "This isn't a fight you can win! He has to stay here to keep me trapped, and his doppelganger can't go too far away from his main body. Get out of here!”

“Listen to your teacher, boy. It wouldn't do to dishonor his last words.”

He'll kill us. There's no doubt about it. We have to get away. 

At that moment, Naruto felt a shooting pain along his arm.

No. I can't. I promised myself. And Ma, and Pa, and Uncle.

“You would say that about these headbands,” Naruto said. “After all, you can't even put yours on right!”

“Naruto, we have to-” Naruto raised his voice, cutting Sakura off.

“This headband means I'm strong enough to face the world. Strong enough to go where I want, see what I want, do what I want. And I'm not gonna disrespect that! So you want a listing in that stupid book, here you go! I'm Uzumaki Naruto- Sage of Mount Myoboku!” 

Naruto felt almost delirious. Drunk off his own energy and grinning like a madman. Blood dropped from the side of his mouth.”

“Do you have a plan, or are you intending to power through on sheer guts?” Sasuke asked.

“I got a plan. You two with me?”

“Let's do it.”

This is crazy. He's stronger than us, more experienced, more skilled- Sakura thought- but it almost feels like we can do this. “I'm in.”

Naruto’s grin widened, as his teeth began to sharpen. “Alright, then. Let's rock.”

“I told you to run, idiots!” Kakashi screamed. “It's over, it's been over since he caught me! Prioritize the mission, prioritize getting Tazuna to safety! What is wrong with you?” I can't let them die here. I won't let them die here.

“‘Those who don't follow orders are garbage’,” Naruto quoted. “‘But those who don't care for and support their comrades are even lower than that'. Gramps?”

Tazuna sighed. “Let's face it, you kids didn't need to be here. I got us into this mess by lying to you, and I'd feel bad if I let you four get yourselves killed trying to save me. So give this fight everything you've got. I'll be fine.”

Naruto smiled his mad smile.

Kakashi sighed. I taught them too much of myself, didn't I?

“Apparently, you don't care about seeing tomorrow!” Zabuza half-laughed with his horrible, raspy voice. “Children playing at ninja… it's truly sad what the world has come to. By the time I was your age, I'd dyed my hands in the blood of my enemies.”

“Not just your enemies,” Kakashi said. 

“Ah, you've heard the stories.”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked.

“Back when we were known as the ‘village of the Bloody Mist’, our academy had a graduation date of just under half. Most students made it almost to the end, but our little graduation ceremony would cut down every other student.”

“Graduation ceremony?” Naruto asked, sure he wouldn't like the answer.

Zabuza just laughed.

“What sort of ‘graduation ceremony's does that?” Sakura asked.

“A kind of killing spree- between classmates, that is,” Zabuza said, his eyes wild.

“Undergrads were split into pairs and forced to fight to the death. Friends who trained together, lived together, slept together, shared each other's every hope and dream…”

Sakura’s mind, unbidden, flashed to her classmates. Ino, Sasuke, Hinata, Ino again for some reason…

“Ten years ago, the elders were forced to enact a sweeping reform of that ritual, due to the appearance of a certain child during the previous year’s ceremony.”

“‘the appearance of’?”

“A little boy who hadn't even qualified as a ninja, not even ten years of age, had entered the area. And without a moment's hesitation, he slaughtered over a hundred prospective graduates.”

“What can I say?” Zabuza said, his eyes rolled back into his head. “They looked like they were having so much fun.”

A shiver ran down everyone's necks.

As Zabuza's eyes returned to their normal position, Zabuza flashed forward.

“Sasuke!” Naruto called out, a moment before Sasuke was elbowed in the chest.

Before Sasuke could fly too far, Zabuza unfolded his arm and slapped Sasuke to the ground, making him cough up more blood as he hit the dirt.

Sakura winced.

Kakashi shook with rage. I swore I'd protect them, now look at me!

“Hope that plan of yours didn't involve this one's head being attached to his body,” Zabuza said, gripping the handle of his sword.

Chapter Text

I can't make doppelgangers with Sage Chakra, Naruto thought. A bunch of my chakra unwound on our walk, but I still don't have a whole lot. The past two months were either about to pay off, or he was about to crash and burn. You only need enough chakra to stay solid. As he felt the world close around him, he put his fingers together and summoned six doppelgangers. 

“Shadow doppelgangers, eh?” Zabuza drew his sword. “But you couldn't disperse me with even two dozen clones.”

As the clones drew kunai and leapt at Zabuza, he began swinging his blade wildly, cutting through them all in moments.

“Not going to use your sensing trick?” Zabuza asked, as Naruto went flying.

So fast! Just when I thought they stood a sliver of a chance…

“Sasuke!” Reaching into his bag, Naruto tossed a folded shuriken to Sasuke, who had used the clones as a distraction to get away from Zabuza.

Now I get it. Unfolding the shuriken in one swift motion, he leapt and twisted in midair, sending the shuriken wheeling towards Zabuza.

“ That's your big play? A shuriken? And just when I was thinking you kids were halfway competent for your age.”

But the shuriken didn't go towards the clone- it bent in midair and hurtled towards the real body on the lake.

“At least you've rubbed together your two braincells enough to realize where you should be aiming,” said the real Zabuza. “But a shuriken is useless against me,” he said, grabbing it out of the air.

“Then it's a good thing I had a spare,” Sasuke smirked.

The art of the shadow shuriken! Kakashi thought. And with both of Zabuza's arms occupied, he can't catch this one.

“And it's a better thing my feet are not rooted to the ground,” Zabuza replied, leaping over the shuriken. “You kids had one good trick, and you wasted it.”

Did we?  

From behind Zabuza, the second shuriken poofed into Naruto.

Naruto? Sakura thought.

Huh?

What's their plan from here?

Now what, Naruto?

The brat…!

“Here goes.”

Just throwing stuff won't cut it. I don't have enough base chakra for anything useful.

Naruto’s stomach was swirling wildly, like he had swallowed a tornado. If I pull it off, we win. If I can't, we lose.

Uncle always said I had the mind for gambling.

The swirl slowed, then sped up. But now, Naruto was in control.

As he flew backwards, still propelled by Sasuke's throw, he kneaded all the Sage chakra he could, then expelled it.

It expanded in his stomach, then up his throat. His face had turned froggy already.

“Sage Art: Toad Oil Flood! ” 

The sheer volume of oil, and the force at which it was expelled, almost made Naruto speed up in midair. Not a bullet, not even a barrage. A flood in the truest sense of the word, the wave of brownish oil reached almost twice Zabuza's height.

What the hell? Sakura thought.

How did he-  

Can you follow through on it?

I get the plan.

Since when could he do that ?

Sasuke quickly weaved some signs, and then spat out his own jutsu.

He wasn't looking for volume. Or power, or size, or controllability. Sasuke just needed speed and heat.

Fire Style: Spark Snipe!

The spark hit the crest of the wave, and in moments, set the whole thing ablaze. Where formerly, Zabuza was staring down just a wave of oil, it was now an ocean of fire.

Can't dodge without freeing Kakashi. Can't use a strong enough Jutsu with one hand. Kakashi's protected by the bubble, so he doesn't have to worry. Since it's flaming oil, most basic water Jutsu won't put it out. I didn't give the clone enough chakra for anything big.

But then, Zabuza realized his out.

A shame, really. They go to all this work. The water clone rushed back along the water and shoved both hands into Kakashi's bubble, stabilizing it while Zabuza removed his own hand, tossed the shuriken upwards, and began weaving signs at high speed.

Naruto’s own vision was blocked by the oil as he skidded across the water, before leaping off the surface and steadying himself on a mangrove.

Water release: Wave Wall! From beneath his feet, Zabuza made his own wave emerge, clashing with the oil before curving back around Zabuza and protecting him from any stray drops.

The moment he completed the signs, Zabuza grabbed the shuriken with one hand and shoved the other back into the water prison to free up the doppelganger. It couldn't hold it for long, but it did it's- Zabuza's train of thought was cut off as he felt a hard yank on his arm, sending him skidding across the water. 

Kakashi was free.

What? 

Blondie transforms into a shuriken, using the clones as a distraction. One clone throws him to the brunette, who uses a shuriken he already has for Shadow Shuriken. But how did they break the water prison?

“They didn't need to,” Kakashi said. “You dropped it yourself.”

“Genjutsu. You made me think the clone had arrived before they actually did, giving you a window to escape the bubble and dispose of the clone,” Zabuza realized.

“Not exactly. I wasn't the one behind that genjutsu.”

The girl. She hadn't done much before… was it a trick to prepare for this very moment?

“Now then, I'll warn you this. Once I've seen a jutsu, it won't work on me again.”

Each leaping backwards, both jônin began weaving signs, as the tomoe of Kakashi's eye began to spin. 

I can barely track where one kata ends and another ends, and Kakashi's mirroring them all perfectly, Sasuke thought.

Forty-four signs and less than four seconds later, both had completed the same spell. 

Water style: Water Dragon Missile! Massive torrents of water shaped like ravenous dragons appeared, collided, and disappeared just as fast, exploding in waves that nearly swept Sasuke and Sakura off their feet, and did do so to Tazuna.

The power- even the kid's oil wasn't that massive, Tazuna thought from the ground. Is this ninjutsu?

When the waves cleared, Zabuza and Kakashi were locked sword-to-kunai in the middle.

Something's not right! Leaping backwards, Kakashi did the same.

Running to the right, then doubling back, Kakashi did the same.

All my moves, all my gestures. He sees…

“Through them all,” Kakashi finished.

He's-

“Reading my mind?”

“You're just a pale imitation,” Zabuza spat.

“No copycat stands a chance against the genuine article,” they both said at the same time.

Zabuza choked back a swear. “You mimic me like a parrot? Then I'll close your beak for good!” He began weaving signs, just as fast as before.

But it was all for naught.

Kakashi was faster. Before I could even finish, he outsped me and used my own jutsu before me! 

As the Giant Waterfall slammed into Zabuza, and another wave hit the three by the shore, Zabuza hurriedly looked around, only to see Kakashi on a branch above him.

“Can you see the future?”

“I can see your death.”

From out of nowhere, two needles stabbed through Zabuza's neck as he collapsed to the ground.

“Looks like your prediction was correct,” said a voice from the forest.

Chapter Text

“Apologies for interfering, but my superiors feel quite strongly that matters such as these should be resolved internally.”

The voice came from a short figure, wearing a large sweater and a pure white mask.

What the- who’s that? Naruto thought.

Leaping down to Zabuza’s body and touching two fingers to its neck, Kakashi turned back to the others. “Dead. Now,” he said, turning back to the masked figure, “Judging by the mask, I take it you’re one of Kirigakure’s hunter-nin?”

“Hunter-nin?”

“A member of our village’s elite tracking unit,” the masked figure said. “We are tasked with tracking down and dealing with our village’s runaways and rogues.”

Judging by size and voice, he couldn’t be too old- barely older than these three. To already be a hunter sent for the likes of Zabuza at his age…

“Who are you?” Naruto asked.

“I just told you,” the hunter said, their white mask unmoving and expressionless. “A hunter.”

“Not what I meant. We did all that, and we could barely get him to drop the bubble! But you’re barely older than us, and you just took him out like nothing! What’s up with that?”

“Yeah, that’s no doubt frustrating,” Kakashi said, wandering over to Naruto. “But it’s the sort of thing you’ll have to live with.”

“This probably won’t be the last time we run into a super-strong kid like him,” Kakashi said, ruffling Naruto’s hair. 

Sasuke looked on silently.

Naruto looked annoyed.

“And now, the second part of my job,” the hunter said. “Just as the village must take care of its own wayward sons, it must also make sure they do not wander in death.” Leaping down to Zabuza’s corpse, the hunter hefted the rogue ninja over their shoulders, then vanished.

“Well then!” Kakashi said, drawing everyone’s focus back to him as he repositioned his headband over the sharingan. “We still have to escort Mr. Tazuna back to his house. Best feet forward, every…” Mid-sentence, Kakashi wobbled, then fell over.

“Master Kakashi!”

“What happened?”

“Did Zabuza have a poison?”

“Just… fatigue,” Kakashi said. “Must’ve… overused.. th’ sharingan.”

“Do we just have to wait for you to get up?” Sakura asked.

“No time.” Picking up Kakashi similarly to how the hunter grabbed Zabuza’s body, Naruto started walking. “‘sides, he’ll be more comfortable passed out on a blanket.”

“Are you all right, sir?” Tazuna’s daughter, Tsunami, asked.

“Ask me again in… a week,” Kakashi responded from his futon. 

“If the sharingan puts that much strain on your body, is it really worth it?” Sakura asked.

“Any true power comes at a price,” Sasuke said, facing away. “If he hadn’t used the sharingan, we most likely wouldn’t have survived.”

“But now he’s out of commission for a week!”

“We can probably relax for a bit,” Tazuna said. “I doubt they have anyone else at Zabuza’s level. Even if they did, that needle kid’s probably hot on their trail.”

“What was that guy’s deal, anyway?” Naruto asked.

“Those masks are worn by Kiri’s elite ninja- the shinobi hunters, or as they’re often called, the Undertaker Squad.”

“Why’re they called that?” 

“Ninja corpses tell too many tales. Any drugs or potions consumed, tools used, training methods… When I die, if my body were to fall into enemy hands, the corpse would reveal the secrets of the sharingan. All the anatomical idiosyncracies it’s wielders possess… in the worst case, they’d gain information to counter or even duplicate it’s power. So those hunters track down rogue ninja, kill them, and destroy the remains to protect the village’s secrets. Even as they leave this world, they do so without a trace.”

“So that’ll happen to us, too?” Naruto asked, after a moment of silence. 

“Hunter-nin only go after rogue ninja. You three, and I, will probably just end up interned in the cemetery.”

Everyone was silent for a moment.

“Ah, but it’s bad luck to talk of death. You three eat, and rest. I’ll…” And with that, Kakashi fell asleep.

As Kakashi jerked out of his sleep, he saw Sakura jump backwards from leaning over him.

“I wasn’t-” but Kakashi was’t asking anything. He was deep in thought, breathing heavily.

“What is it?” Sakura asked. 

“Something doesn’t feel right. A hunter is meant to make sure the body can’t be found, not that it returns to the village. All they need to bring back is the head, to confirm the kill.”

“Maybe they wanted to dispose of it somewhere we wouldn’t see?” Sakura asked. “Maybe they use some sort of secret technique for that part, too.”

“Maybe. But there’s still the problem of their choice of weaponry.”

After a moment, Sasuke realized what Kakashi was getting at. “Acupuncture needles. You’re not saying-”

“I am.”

“What are you mumbling about?” Tazuna asked frmo the table, where he was working on his documents.

“That there’s a chance Zabuza is still alive.”

“Wha- didn’t you check that the bastard was dead?” Tazuna asked, almost breaking out in a nervous sweat.

“I did. But a very convincing illusion of the real thing could be created, especially with those needles.”

“Acupuncture needles can be deadly,” Sasuke said. “But only if they hit a vital spot. Otherwise, the mortality rate is far lower than throwing knives or shuriken.”

“And they’re originally medical tools. Corpse disposers have intimate knowledge of the human body- by hitting the right spots, they could have placed Zabuza in a near-death state. When you consider they dragged Zabuza’s body away instead of disposing of it right there, it lines up.”

“With how Naruto was complaining about your weight, it makes sense that they’d prefer to dispose of it as soon as possible,” Sakura said.

“What if you’re overthinking things?” Zabuza said. “You said that he’s meant to be hunting outlaws, right?”

“True, but it smells fishy. And ignoring things like that is a great first step to getting caught completely unprepared. Where’s Naruto?”

“He said he was going on a quick walk,” Sasuke said. “Something about feeling the energy.”

“Well, call him back in here. We need to start preparing. Even if Zabuza is dead, Gato’s a rich man- he’ll no doubt have more shinobi in his employ.”

“But Zabuza was so strong even you could barely defeat him, and now you’re out of commission for a week! What sort of preparation can you even do?”

“What’s going on?” Naruto asked, coming back inside.

“Zabuza may still be alive,” Kakashi said. “So I’m going to be increasing your training schedules.”

“Zabuza’s alive?” Naruto asked, although not in the same scared tone of Tazuna and Sakura.

He almost looks excited. “It’s a possibility.”

“What can a little extra training do against people like that?” Sakura asked. “Remember, Zabuza nearly killed you!”

“But he didn’t- because you three saved me. You’re progressing at a rapid rate- Naruto especially.”

Naruto grinned.

Yeah, what was with that giant flood of oil? When did he learn something like that?

“Being said, these skills are an interim thing until I recover enough to take over the bulk of defense again.”

“What if this Zabuza guy comes back before you’re ready?” Tsunami asked.

“To reach a death trance that convincing is not something one recovers quickly from. He’s going to be weakened for a while, too- and without knowing about my own condition, he’ll be loath to attack at anything less than full power.”

“Sounds like fun!” Naruto said.

“It won't be.”

Snapping around, the genin saw a young body, at least a head shorter than Naruto, standing in the doorway.

“Who's this?” Naruto asked.

“Inari, you're back!” Getting up from his papers, Tazuna went over to embrace the boy.

“Welcome home, grandpa.” Inari stiffly embraced the older man, saying nothing more to the ninja.

“Inari, greet our guests properly! They're the ones who brought Grandpa home!” Tsunami said.

“But they're all gonna die,” Inari said.

“Hey! We bust our butts saving your old man's life, and you just think we're gonna die?” Naruto yelled.

“No one can beat Gatô and his men.”

Tazuna was silent.

“Well, at least we're trying!” Naruto yelled. “If you just sit around whining about nothing happening, nothing’s gonna-” Naruto was cut off by Sakura slapping a hand over his mouth.

“He's a kid, Naruto!”

“If you don't wanna die, go home. I'm going to my room.” And with that, the little boy left.

“Sorry about that,” Sakura and Tazuna said simultaneously.

Growling, Naruto went after Inari. I swear...

Go home? We're protecting your grandpa, moron! You want him to die? 

However, as he grabbed the door to Inari’s room, he heard soft sobs from inside.

“Daddy…”

After standing outside for a moment, Naruto turned away. Well, we're gonna keep your grandpa alive. We don't need you to believe in us.

Chapter Text

“All right, then! Training time!”

Team Seven was standing in the forest, a ways from Tazuna’s house. Tall trees surrounded them on all sides.

“What are we meant to be training, anyway?” Sakura asked.

“Chakra control,” Kakashi said, supporting himself with a pair of crutches.

“We already do that!” Naruto said. “I thought you were gonna show us something powerful to deal with people like Zabuza!”

“Naruto’s right,” Sasuke said. “We all already employ the ninja arts.”

“Half right,” Kakashi said. “While you all use your chakras, none of you have mastered that use. No matter how much chakra you can pull out, without skilled manipulation and fine control, it's far less useful than it could be.”

“This finer chakra control is what lets you effectively use your jutsu- it's a basic thing to train that'll have ripple effects across all your more specialized skills. It's especially important for you, Naruto.” He turned to the genin. “Learning to control your chakra will lead to more efficiently creating Sage chakra, and more efficiently using it. You managed to cast a jutsu with sage chakra against Zabuza- managing to do that consistently and easily is probably the best boost you could get at this stage.”

“Alright! So, what're we doing?”

“We're climbing trees.”

How does that count as training? Sakura thought.

Naruto’s enthusiasm was quickly draining.

“But not ordinary tree climbing. You're not allowed to use your hands.”

Sounds interesting.

How does that work?

Wait a minute…

“Watch and learn.” Turning to the closest tree, Kakashi clasped his hands together, then began walking directly up the tree, as easily as though he hadn't left the ground.

“This is the exercise in a nutshell,” Kakashi said, as he hung upside-down from one of the branches. “Focus your chakra into the soles of your feet, and use that power to cling to the tree.”

Naruto raised his hand. 

“Yes, Naruto?”

“Is that the whole exercise?”

“It's not as easy as it looks. It requires fine application of chakra, in an area where it's often difficult to manipulate.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Yes, this is the core of the exercise.”

“Then I'm great at this.” Bouncing on the balls of his feet once, then twice, Naruto rushed at a tree, firmly planting his foot in the trunk’s base, before leaping straight up.

After four strides, he landed on a branch, just above where Kakashi hung on his own tree, grinning widely.

Kakashi didn't even get to finish explaining it!

So, he can do this, despite having a notable weakness of chakra control?

“Hm. Well, then.” Kakashi sighed. “Naruto, how long have you known about this exercise for?”

“Since I was seven. Could get all the way up by eight.”

“I see. Well, then. Watch this with me. You two!” He called down to the ground, tossing Sasuke and Sakura each a kunai.

“Use those kunai to mark the highest point you can reach. Try to get a higher mark each time.”

Grabbing the kunai and focusing, both genin ran at a tree and began climbing. 

One. Two. Three- as Sasuke felt himself get repelled from the tree, he slashed into the bark, jumping away and falling back down.

Too much force, and the surface repels me. But if I do too little, I won't adhere. Looking at his mark, it was still far below Naruto and Kakashi.

“This is easier than I thought,” Sakura said.

As all three looked up, they saw Sakura sitting atop one of the highest branches of her tree, the kunai stabbed next to it, without a single mark along the tree.

First try?

“Well, now we know who has the best chakra control among you three. Tell me, how many steps did you take?”

“Hmm… probably about a dozen? I wasn't counting.”

“And that's the difference between you and Naruto,” Kakashi said. “Your chakra control’s good enough that you can take more steps, while Naruto reduced the number of steps he takes rather than improve his control.”

“Nice work!” Naruto said.

“Meanwhile, Sasuke here can't do either.”

“Hey!” Naruto and Sakura yelled at Kakashi.

Sasuke just grit his teeth.

“Now then. Sakura, you focus on refining those skills- try hanging upside down, staying stable on the trunk. Sasuke, you keep climbing. Naruto, you need something a bit more specialized. Follow me.” Climbing down from his tree, Kakashi made it to the ground a few seconds behind Naruto, who quickly leapt down, bouncing from tree to tree.

What’s Naruto going to be doing? Sakura wondered.

After a quick walk through the forest, Kakashi and Naruto came to the water’s edge. “Do you have any sage chakra prepared?”

“You got us up real early. I can’t make that stuff in my sleep.”

“Perfect. For the duration of this exercise, don’t make or use any sage chakra.”

“Wha- I thought I was supposed to figure out how to do sage jutsu!”

“You are. But for this exercise, using sage chakra is the equivalent of that rushing-up-the-tree you did.”

“What is this exercise, anyway?”

“Simple. Follow me.” And with that, Kakashi confidently strode onto the water.

“What’s the holdup? I noticed you did it against Zabuza.”

Hey, that’s right. I did! Mimicking Kakashi, Naruto strode onto the water… and immediately fell in.

“Thought so. You were using Sage Mode when you stood on water last time.”

“So you made me get myself soaked on purpose?” Naruto said, swimming back onto dry land and shaking himself off like a dog.

“If you could do that without any training, I’d be at a real loss for words, considering your chakra control’s normally your weakest skill. With two notable exceptions. One, your ability to mold sage chakra. And two, that time you walked on water,” Kakashi said. “Any idea why those are the exceptions?”

“I’m not too good with memorizing stuff, so it took me a while to get sage chakra down. Not sure about the water thing.”

“Exactly- boneheaded, singleminded practice. How long did it take you to figure out how to make sage chakra?”

“Er…about a year, starting from when I first tried it?”

“And how much time do you think you spent on it, over that year? On a day-by-day basis.”

“...All of it?”

“Exactly. You beat that formula into your head so hard, it’s instinctual now. That’s why you can do the tree exercise, and make sage chakra, but your general control is still so weak. The tree-climbing exercise is about emitting and maintaining a stable volume of chakra. You learned that stable volume a while ago, and managed to beat it into your head the same way. But that's not a reasonable explanation for successfully standing on water.”

“Why not?”

“Liquid’s a lot harder than solids. Any movements you make will displace and move the water, so you have to be constantly noticing the changes and adjusting your chakra to match. There’s no ‘formula’ you can follow. So, why do you think you were able to do it?”

After a moment’s thought, Naruto figured it out. “Nature energy. I was meditating on the boat ride, so I got all my sage chakra from the water. It must’ve sorta… remembered what it was like.”

“Hm. Well, whatever the reason, it’s likely that sage chakra makes the exercise easier, so don’t use it. If you train with Sage Mode, you’ll only get stronger in sage mode. But training normally will improve both states. I have to go back and check on the other two. You keep trying at this.”

“Gotcha.”

“Oh- and this can be pretty chakra-intensive if you do it for too long, especially your first time. If you start to feel really drained, make sure to take a break- If you run out of chakra on the water, you might not be strong enough to swim to shore. Come back to the house when it’s dinnertime.”

And with that, Kakashi wandered off.

“All right! I might not be too good at chakra control, but I can probably get it with enough boneheaded practice- and I’m the most boneheaded guy I know!”

Chapter Text

“Where’re your friends?”

Atop the bridge, Sakura leaned against the railing. Workers tightened bolts, measured materials, hammered nails, and bit by bit, extended the bridge slowly further.

“They’re busy training. Master Kakashi assigned me to protect you by myself.”

“Why aren’t you training with them?” Tazuna asked, carrying a large piece of timber towards the edge. 

“Already got the drill down. Sasuke’s still working at it, and Naruto’s doing independent training. Kakashi says, as things stand, I’m the best defense. Naruto’s still too volatile.”

“Volatile, eh?”

“Let’s just say he could cause more damage to the bridge than most bandits.”

“I’d believe that.”

“Tazuna, we need to talk.”

“What is it?” Tazuna turned to a laborer.

“I want off the job.”

“Wha- Giichi, where is this coming from?”

“We can’t take this risk- If we don’t stop, Gato’s going to have us all killed! It’s not worth it. We could lose everything. Our families could lose everything. Everyone we care about. Please. Just give it up.”

“I can’t.”

Giichi deflated.

“This bridge- It’s what we’ve all been working towards. The key out from under Gato’s thumb. Trade, commerce, affluence- and freedom. It’s not about me, it’s about everyone. The entire city.”

“For the love of- Think about yourself for once! Think about your family! You’re going to die on this damn bridge if you don’t wake up!”

“There are worse ends to a man’s life than fighting for the city he loves.”

“This isn’t a fight, this is a flea yelling at a lion ! He’ll crush you. He’ll crush all of us! And I won’t make my family lose me.”

The two men looked at each other. Eventually, Tazuna turned away. “It’s getting late. Let’s call it a day.”

“Giichi… you don’t have to come back.”

As Tazuna walked away, Sakura got up to follow him.

Sploosh!

As Naruto fell into the water, he was already heading back to the shore.

After the first few attempts, he had stripped down to just his shorts- no sense getting everything else soaked when he didn’t need to. 

It hadn’t really helped, though- he’d managed to stay standing for a grand total of three steps across over a dozen attempts- none of them consecutive.

“Wonder how Sakura and Sasuke are doing.”

Shaking his head, Naruto stood up to make another attempt at it.

“‘It gets harder if you get stressed or distracted, so just focus and keep calm,’” he recited. “If you say so, Ma.”

Focusing his chakra in his feet, he stepped out onto the water, and…

Sploosh!

“Tsunami asked me to pick up a few things for lunch on my way home,” Tazuna said, weaving through the crowded, trudging streets of the city.

Sakura had been training herself to be observant of everything- All the better to help with genjutsu- but she wasn’t much liking what she saw.

Kids sleeping against walls. Thieves running away from their marks. Men holding signs asking for work. Everyone with the same defeated look on their face.

“It’s been like this since Gato came here,” Tazuna said. “He’s wrung us dry- of money, of men, of hope. That’s why we need the bridge. Here we are,” he said, going into a grocery.

At least, the store called itself a grocery. The shelves were nearly bare, as Tazuna went to the counter to buy one of the few cabbages on sale.

Feeling a yank on her bag, Sakura snapped around, only to see a thin child in threadbare clothes, holding out their hands. 

Grabbing a handful of hard candies from her bag, Sakura gave them to the child, whose face lit up with joy as they ran off.

“We’ve become a city of cowards; dead men walking. But if we get the bridge finished, I truly believe our people can be what they once were again.”

Five, six, seven… shit! As he fell away from the tree, Sasuke slashed into it, leaping down to ground level.

His marks were getting closer and closer together. The top third of the tree was a mess of slashes. Still nowhere near where Sakura reached on her first try.

I wonder what Naruto’s doing.

“Hey, what’s for dinner?” Naruto asked.

“Don’t get the floor wet,” Kakashi said.

“Oh, yeah- sorry.” Quickly stepping outside, then back in, he took a seat next to Sasuke.

“What have you been doing all day?” Sasuke asked. Despite his best efforts, Naruto was still wet, and was wearing just his shorts.

“Tryin’ to walk on water. Turns out it’s real hard. Works up an appetite, too.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of stew,” Tsunami said. 

“Perfect! How’s the tree thing going for you two?” Naruto asked.

“I’ve been staying with Tazuna all day,” Sakura said. “Keeping watch on the bridge.”

Sasuke just ate stew.

Not to be outdone, Naruto grabbed a bowl and hunk of bread, and began wolfing down his own meal. 

As Kakashi, Inari, Sakura, and Tazuna were all served, Naruto and Sasuke kept eating just as quickly, finishing their bowls almost simultaneously.

“You weren’t kidding, huh?” Tazuna said. “That ninja stuff must be real tiring.”

To be honest, I’m surprised Naruto still has as much energy as he does. Kakashi thought.

“More, please!”

As the boys both got seconds, they began eating just as fast.

“It’s not a race, you two,” Sakura said. “Eat too fast and you’ll end up vomiting half of it.”

“Can’t get strong if ya don’t eat,” Naruto said, between bites. “Pa always said that.”

Whatever it takes, Kakashi thought.

But it seemed Sakura was correct- As they finished their second bowl, both boys paused for a moment.

While Sasuke threw up, Naruto just tilted his head back and swallowed, forcing the stew down despite its pleas for freedom.

“Come on, you two!”

As dinner was being cleared away (both boys ended up having thirds), Sakura got up from her seat.

“Why is this picture torn?”

Everyone turned to look where Sakura was.

“Inari was looking at it the whole time- someone’s face is gone. Was that deliberate?”

Inari’s face hardened.

“It was a picture of Inari’s father,” Tazuna said. “This city’s hero.”

As his chair screeched against the floor, Inari got up and walked off.

“Inari, where are you going? Inari!”

As the door slammed, Tsunami turned angrily to Tazuna. “How many times have I told you not to talk about it in front of him?”

“Talk about what?” Sakura asked.

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Kakashi said.

“Not a happy one,” Tazuna said, tears beginning to form in his eyes. “His name was Kaiza. He wasn’t Inari’s birth father, but they were as close and as loving as any blood relations could be. Inari used to be so happy in those days…” Tears were now truly falling against the table. “But then it all changed.”

Chapter Text

“Kaiza was a fisherman who came from abroad to seek his fortune. One day, when some bullies had pushed Inari into the water, it was Kaiza that saved him. Inari's blood father had passed away before the boy was old enough to remember him- maybe that's part of why they bonded so fast.”

As Tazuna fell into the reverie of his story, Naruto smiled softly.

“In no time at all, Kaiza was one of the family. He was strong, and kind… the sort of man we could use more of these days.”

“Almost two years ago, there was a massive flood- one that overflowed all the city’s mechanisms to stop it. The only way to close the lock was to run a rope around the whole thing- and Kaiza was the only one who volunteered to do it. We all thought he would die, but he just smiled and leapt into the current.”

“‘there are worse ends to a man’s life than fighting for the city he loves’,” Sakura said under her breath.

“He did it, and survived. People started calling him a hero, the champion of the city. But then…”

“Then what?” Naruto asked.

“Then Gato arrived. And, in front of the entire town…” Tazuna choked, “Gato had Kaiza put to death.”

The table was silent.

“It was less than a year ago. Inari’s still grieving, as is Tsunami. They don’t know it, but practically the whole city’s grieving. With Kaiza gone, Gato’s been stamping all over us, and we’ve been letting him.”

As his chair screeched backwards, Naruto got up, staggering a bit as his vision got fuzzy for a moment.

“Naruto, don’t even think about it,” Kakashi said. “If you go back out there without resting, you could die- from drowning or just sheer chakra drain.”

“Can’t waste any time,” he said. “I’ve got a point to prove.”

“What are you talking about?” Tazuna asked.

“Inari thinks we’re all gonna die. He’s probably still stuck watching his dad die, somewhere in his mind. So if I’m gonna wake him up, I’ve gotta get strong enough to take all those guys down.”

“What is it about him that’s getting you this riled up?” Sakura asked.

“If someone did that to Ma or Pa, I’d probably be the same. And if I was like that, this is the sorta wakeup call I’d need someone to give me.”

“Pulled another all-nighter, did he?”

“This is the fourth time in a row,” Sakura said. “If he’s not careful, he really could’ve ended up dead.”

“It’s not good for a boy to spend night after night outside, ninja or no,” Tsunami said.

“He’s come back every time before,” Sasuke said, deep in thought. “He’s just focused.”

As he walked through the forest, picking herbs, Haku spied a figure by the shore.

Walking over, it was the blonde boy who had fought Zabuza, passed out on the ground. His clothes were draped over him.

If I was strong enough, I could do him in right here. Throw him in the water- nobody would think it murder. Everything would be so much easier.

Reaching down, Haku… tapped Naruto on the shoulder.

“You’re going to catch your death of cold, sleeping like that.”

“Huh?” Blinking his eyes open, the boy’s eyes focused. “You… the needles?”

What?

As the boy snapped into a sitting position, he looked closer. “Yeah, it is you! What’re you doing here?”

Thinking quickly, Haku constructed a reasonable lie. “Gato has hired other renegade Mist ninja. I’m hanging around the area to make sure they’re all dealt with. What are you doing, sleeping out in the middle of nowhere?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to sleep. I was training! And if it’s the middle of nowhere, why are you here?”

“Collecting medicinal herbs. I- I have a partner. He fell ill, so I’ve been gathering things to help him recover.”

“Oh. Hey, do you need any help?”

“Don’t you have training to occupy yourself with?”

“Yeah, but you woke me up. ‘Sides, this way I can ask you for tips!”

“You’d resort to asking a ninja from another village for help?”

“Why wouldn’t I? You’re plenty strong.”

“You never know. I might have been sent by Kirigakure to spirit away young little ninja,” Haku said, a smile playing on his lips.

“Hey, there’s no way you’re that much older than me! Besides, you seem like a good guy.”

“You’d trust your instincts with that?”

“Trust ‘em more than my head, for most stuff. Anyway, what sorta herbs are you looking for?”

“I can’t give you any guidance,” Haku said. “A true ninja never reveals their secrets.”

“Fine. But I offered to help, and I’m not goin’ back on that. What’re you looking for?”

“Do you think we have enough yet?”

“Are you so eager to get back to your training? You did well enough against Zabuza, and none of the other ninja I’m hunting are on his level.”

“It’s not just about Zabuza. I’ve gotta get way stronger than I am now- strong enough to travel the world, to meet people like you. And right now, I’ve gotta get strong enough to prove a point to someone.”

“Are you pushing yourself for your own goals, or for the sake of this person?”

“What d’you mean?”

“Do you have anyone special in your life?” Haku asked. Are you like me?

“It’s when people are protecting something truly special to them, that they become as strong as they must be. Do you have something like that?”

Naruto thought. When I used senjutsu against Zabuza, was it for me? Or for them?

His mind flashed between his teammates, his parents… even Gamakichi. 

“I do- lotsa people. And I’m gonna get strong enough to protect each and every one of them.”

“Then you’ll get stronger- much stronger. I guarantee it.”

“First Naruto, now Sasuke… is stupidity contagious or something?”

“It's been seven days straight of this,” Kakashi said. “Pushing himself beyond his limit, night after night… it can't be good for him.”

As they approached the shoreline, Sakura and Kakashi heard the sounds of splashing. 

“Hey! Hey, lookit me!”

Naruto was standing on water.

Well, standing was an understatement- he was running, jumping, even cartwheeling across the surface, as if it was as solid as the dirt the other two were standing on.

“How good was he when he started?” Sakura asked.

“Couldn’t even stay standing,” Kakashi said.

“This feels great! You guys gotta-” As Naruto was jumping on the water, his concentration slipped and he fell through. 

“Naruto!” 

But Naruto never fell below the waves- Instead, he pushed himself back above the surface, as though his hands were on a solid surface while his body was in the water.

“Heh,” he smiled. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy as anything! Come on, give it a go!”

“Do you know where Sasuke is?” 

“Up there,” Naruto said, pointing to a tree above Sakura and Kakashi. “Hey, check this out.”

Naruto began bouncing, using the water almost like a trampoline- as his feet began to sink into the waves, he pushed himself upwards with a large burst of chakra. After a few bounces, he leapt all the way up to the tree, where he grabbed ahold of a branch and pulled himself up. 

“He’s right here!” Naruto pointed at Sasuke, who was lying, exhausted, on another branch. “He conked out after getting there.”

Chapter Text

“Are you two finally staying for dinner this night?”

Naruto and Sasuke were both dirty and wet as they staggered inside. 

“What happened this time?” Tazuna asked. “You both look like something the cat dragged in!”

“He finally wore himself out,” Sasuke said. “I had to jump in and get him.”

“I was doing pretty well before that, though. And you finally got to the top of the tree.”

“In that case, starting tomorrow, you two will be protecting Tazuna along with Sakura.”

“For a while there, I thought we might've finished the bridge without you two!” Tazuna joked. “We're almost done, but having you two will be a load off my mind.”

“Just make sure you don't work yourself to death along with them,” Tsunami said.

“He’ll be fine,” Naruto said, sinking into the table. “We’re not gonna let anything happen to him.”

Sitting at the other side of the table, Inari felt tears well up.

“Hey, what's wrong?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked.

“Why do you wear yourself out training? No matter how hard you push yourself, you're never going to be a match for Gatô’s thugs! You talk tough, but they're going to destroy you!”

“Why do you think we're gonna lose? Just ‘cause your dad-”

“ SHUT UP! you don't know anything about me, or my family! This isn't your town, so stop running your mouth about things you don't understand! “

“You don't know everything, either!” Naruto yelled. “Just rolling over and accepting defeat doesn't help anyone! Yeah, I bet everyone looks superhuman to someone like you, but Gatô’s not invincible! We beat the strongest guy he had! If this is your town, then fight for it!”

“Naruto!” Sakura stood up in a clatter of dishes. “He's a kid! ”

Naruto stormed outside.

“Mind if I join you?”

Inari sat on the porch above the water, looking at the moon.

Kakashi sat down next to him. 

“Sorry about Naruto. He wasn't trying to be hateful, he just…” Kakashi trailed off.

Inari was silent.

“Tazuna told us. About your father. That's when Naruto started training so hard.”

“?”

“He said, if he was in your position, this was the sort of wake-up call he'd want someone to give him.”

“What does that mean?”

“On some level, he understands where you're coming from- he never knew his parents, either. But on another level, you get under his skin.”

“What does he care?”

“When Naruto wants something, he does everything he can to get it. You want Gatô gone, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And that's what Naruto can't really understand. In his eyes, you've given up hope for things to change for the better. He has troubles, but he always presses on regardless. It's how he's gotten anywhere in life. The idea of not going after what you want, with all your heart; it's one that doesn't really occur to him. So he has trouble leaving you alone.”

“Well, please take care of Naruto,” Kakashi said. “He was out all night again- probably going to be bedridden for most of the day.”

“We'll see you for dinner, Tsunami,” Tazuna said, as the four of them headed off for the bridge.

In the mists beneath the bridge, two figures sat in a small rowboat.

“Are you two finally ready?” A voice barked from a walkie-talkie. “We had to wait a whole week because of you- you'd better be in top form today!”

“We’re ready,” said Zabuza. “Haku, let's go.”

“As you command.”

“Augh! I overslept!” Looking around, Naruto saw the room was empty. Rushing outside, he saw Tsunami doing some sewing. “Where are they?”

“Naruto? Master Kakashi didn’t think you’d be awake all day. They wanted you to take the time to rest…”

“Augh!” Dashing back into his room, he grabbed out his clothes and dressed himself quickly. “I do all that just for them to leave me behind… Seeya tonight!” Dashing out the door, Naruto quickly began leaping through the trees.

“Why couldn’t they have woken me up?” He had managed to weave a little Sage chakra while asleep, so he began boosting through the forest even faster, when he noticed something.

“What the…”

“Looks like my suspicions were correct,” Kakashi said. “Our masked friend was, indeed, playing on Zabuza’s team.”

“I’ll take him,” Sasuke said. “You put on a good show last time. But now we’ve seen behind the curtain.”

“Impressive kid, isn’t he?” Haku said. “Even considering those were just doppelgangers, he’s made quite the improvements.”

“We’re still on the offensive. Go.”

As the door splintered open, Tsunami turned around to see two swordsmen standing outside.

“Tazuna’s daughter, right?” One of them said. “Sorry, but you’re coming with us.”

From the bathroom, Inari heard a scream. “Mama?” Rushing to the living room, he saw two thugs- the two who had executed his father

“Oh, a kid!”

“Run, Inari!” Tsunami yelled from the wall. “Don’t come in?”

“Do we grab him, too?” The eyepatched thug asked.

“We only need one hostage,” Beanie replied.

“Perfect. I’ve been itching to use this baby all day.”

“Wait!” Tsunami called. “Lay a finger on him, and I’ll bite through my tongue and drown in my own blood. Then you won’t be able to make a hostage out of either of us!”

Tears began rolling down Inari’s cheeks.

“Aw, man… but I’m dyin’ to cut someone!”

“Get over it. You can cut people up all you want once we’re done here,” Beanie said, grabbing Tsunami and dragging her out the door.

They’re taking Mama. They’re taking her like they took Dad. And I can’t do anything.

No. I have to do something. I can’t let them take everything from me again.

Rushing outside to the deck, he saw them on their way out. “Wait!”

“He came back, eh?” Eyepatch said.

“You get away from my Mama!”

He was scared, but he forced himself to run forward.

“Jeez, it’s like this kid wants us to get rid of him!”

“Maybe he does? Not like he’ll have much family after today.”

“Inari, don’t!”

As the thugs reached to unsheath their swords, they heard the sound of splintering wood, then felt a tug on their legs.

“Huh?”

As they were pulled clean through the deck and into the water below, they saw the face of their assailant- the face of a monster.

With angry eyes and sharp fangs, the monster stood on the water above them and grabbed them by their heads, knocking them together once, twice, and thrice as the thugs were knocked out.

Jumping through the holes he had made and dragging the thugs with him, Naruto looked at Inari. “Sorry I was late.”

“Naruto?” The figure looked like Naruto, only… froggier.

“Yeah. Sorry about last night- Sakura gave me a real earful. I shouldn’t have been so harsh on you- you’re just a kid.”

“I-I’m not a kid! You’re barely older than me!”

“Hey, that’s more like it. Yeah. You did good there. Now, I gotta tie these guys up so they can’t hurt anyone. Can you do something with their swords?” Naruto passed the blades to Inari, who froze.

“Shoot. Did I say something-”

“Th-they’re the ones who killed Papa. They used these swords to- to-”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Here, let me-”

“No, I can do this.” Despite the tears streaming down his face, Inari lifted the swords.

They were heavy, but they were just swords. And the people wielding them were just men. In one big motion, Inari threw the swords off the deck and into the waves below.

“Nice one.” Naruto had finished tying up the thugs. “If they went after you two, the bridge is probably also a target. Can you handle things here?”

Rushing forward, Inari hugged Naruto. “Don’t die.”

“Hey, don’t worry. Didn’t I tell you? I’m way stronger than any of Gato’s creeps. I’m gonna be fine, and so’ll your gramps. Now, I gotta get going.”

Chapter Text

On the bridge, metal clashed against metal.

He's actually keeping up with Haku’s speed, Zabuza thought. But I doubt that'll last long.

“We have to cover Tazuna,” Kakashi said to Sakura. “Sasuke can handle Haku.”

“I'd rather not kill you, you know,” Haku said, as Sasuke held his hand in place with a knife. “But I doubt you'd leave if I asked nicely.”

“What gave it away?”

“However, you won't be able to match my speed for long. Especially with what I've prepared.”

“Prepared?”

“First, the water splashed all around us. Second, one of your hands is busy parrying my needle, leaving you only one hand to deal with this .”

With his free hand, Haku began weaving signs.

One-handed seals?

I've never seen anything like it! Kakashi thought.

“Secret art of water: Thousand Stinging Death Needles.”

The water from the ground rose up and shot itself at Sasuke, a barrage of water needles from all directions.

“I’d rather not kill you,” he says, Zabuza thought. Doesn't seem like you're letting that stop you!

“Sasuke!”

Just like Naruto did it. Draw on all my chakra…

And focus it in my feet! Just before the needles hit, Sasuke leapt up into the mists above, as Haku leapt out of the needle storm as well.

Where did he- buy Haku had no time to think. From the mist came a volley of shuriken, driving Haku backwards.

“You're not that fast, it seems.”

Sasuke has gotten behind him, knife in hand. “Now, how are you on defense?”

Sasuke swiped with the kunai, but Haku blocked him at the wrist.

As Sasuke threw the kunai with his fingers, Haku ducked, but Sasuke caught him and sent him flying with a kick to the head.

He beat Haku in a battle of speed?

“You're fast. I'm faster.”

“That's just what happens when you underestimate my team,” Kakashi said. “Sasuke’s Konoha's best rookie, and Sakura our brightest mind.”

Despite Sakura's outward shyness, inside, she was very pleased at the compliment.

“And we've got Naruto, next generation of Konoha's Madness. If anyone were to give up here, it should be you.”

Zabuza didn't move. “Haku?”

“Yes?”

“If you keep fooling around like this, you could end up dying at the hands of the one you’d ‘rather not kill’... Understand?”

Haku sighed. “Yes, I do. Still, what a pity.”

The air began to chill, as Haku got to his feet. As he weaved a sign, the water around Sasuke began to move again, but far faster than last time. 

Rather than turning into needles, it turned into a dome of flat surfaces of ice- each reflecting inwards on Sasuke.

“Master Kakashi, what technique is that?”

“I-I don't know. I've never seen it before.”

Haku stepped into a mirror, and all of a sudden, they all held his image.

“Now let me show you some real speed.”

As Kakashi rushed forward, Zabuza got between him and the dome. “Let’s not interrupt the children's fun, eh? I can assure you, I'll be plenty a match for you this time.”

Shit…

As Haku grabbed a needle, all the mirrors flashed.

Doppelgangers rushed out from every mirror, cutting Sasuke with the needles, then retreating again.

As Sasuke screamed out in pain, Zabuza raised his voice. “Any sudden moves, and the other two are dead.” 

“Mr. Tazuna, I have to leave your side for a moment,” Sakura said, her voice shaky.

“Go ahead. I'll be fine.”

Rushing forward, Sakura threw a kunai to Sasuke, but Haku reached out of the mirror to grab it.

Shit!

At that moment, a shuriken came rocketing out of the mist, hitting Haku square in the face and knocking him out of the mirror. In a puff of smoke, the shuriken transformed.

Show-off.

Konoha's Madness…

“Finally made it,” Naruto said, grinning wildly. “You’re playing with me now.”

-

“I was wondering why you weren't here from the start,” Haku said, as he got up from the ground, a crack running across his mask.“Sleep in?”

“Back at you. Zabuza’s that ‘partner’ you were talking about, right? Why not help him the first time we met?”

“We had a plan pre-arranged. I'm assuming your friends didn't tell you anything, or you wouldn't be inside my mirrors right now.”

“Speaking of plans,” Zabuza said, “I'd suggest you get him out of there, based on what you've told me about him. Let me slaughter him for you.”

What do they mean? Sasuke thought. Is he somehow scared of Naruto?

“I want to fight him in my own way, sir,” Haku said, climbing back into his mirrors. 

“What's the deal with these things, anyway?” Naruto asked Sasuke.

“Besides… sight does not guarantee speed.”

As the mirrors all lit up with Haku's image, Sasuke focused on the first mirror. It's his mistake showing us where he entered. If I just keep an eye on the real one-

“Behind you!” Naruto said, trying to dodge Haku’s attacks.

He can teleport through the mirrors? Sasuke realized, as he was cut from behind. 

If I go to help the boys, Sakura and Tazuna will be at Zabuza’s mercy, but if I leave them, Haku’ll kill them! Kakashi thought. Any doppelgangers will just be a waste of chakra, since he’ll just counter with his own.

“One can see, and one can dodge- shame neither of you can do both,” Haku said. 

“Do you have any sage chakra?” Sasuke asked.

“Nope. They attacked Inari and Tsunami, too- I used the little I had to help them and get here quickly.”

“Have we got time for you to make any more?”

“Not unless he feels like taking a break for lunch.”

“Then we destroy the mirrors. You can take a bit of heat, right?”

“Probably better than you,” Naruto grinned.

“Hopefully better than him. Fire release: Blaze of Glory!”

As Sasuke breathed out fire across the ground and Haku’s mirrors, he saw something horrible.

“It’s not even making a dent?”

“That pitiful flame will barely touch my ice mirrors,” Haku said. 

He’s moving all over the place again- Above, behind, back in front- There’s only one real one, but he moves fast enough to be everywhere at once!

-

“So that’s what it is,” Kakashi said. “He mastered a technique like that at his age?”

“He was an excellent student,” Zabuza said.

“But you couldn’t have taught him anything like that.”

“Like what?” Sakura asked.

“A kekkei genkai technique- a genetic power handed down from one generation to the next. Some of the most powerful and feared techniques of our world are unique to singular clans of shinobi- Like the sharingan I have.”

-

“I’m not letting it end like this,” Naruto said, despite his wounds. “I’m not letting you hurt anyone I care about anymore!”

“I feel much the same,” Haku said. “To protect the one I care about, I’m willing to do anything. Fight, kill, or die.”

Glancing over at Zabuza, Haku continued. “I’d prefer not to kill you- I find it hard to embrace the full shinobi philosophy. But if I must, I will act as a true shinobi would, and kill my own heart with my blade- then kill you two.”

Naruto and Sasuke stared back. “Naruto, do you know which way North is?”

“In front of us, right?”

“Exactly. You call out directions, I'll hit him.”

“Naruto! Sasuke! You can do it!” Sakura called over.

“Don’t encourage them,” Kakashi said. “Even if they broke the mirrors, they still can’t beat Haku.”

“What do you mean?”

“Konoha is weak,” Zabuza said. “You don’t grow up alongside death, don’t grow up needing to do whatever you must to survive. In a place so weak and smothering, a shinobi’s true skills die stillborn. Those boys don’t- and won’t- have the strength to take another’s life.”

“They don’t, but I do,” Kakashi said. “So you’ll forgive me if I put those skills to use.” He began to lift up his headband.

“Using the sharingan again?” Zabuza mocked. “You’d think you couldn’t do anything without it!”

Chapter Text

“Sneer all you want, Zabuza,” Kakashi said, lifting his headband.

Before he could expose the sharingan, however, Zabuza drew a knife and rushed at him.

As Kakashi blocked with both hands, he continued. “Doesn’t change the fact that you’re afraid of the sharingan- and of me.”

“A ninja’s secret weapon should be employed judiciously- not shown off to every foe you face!”

“Honestly, you should be thanking me. Few have seen the sharingan twice- but none live to see it a third time!”

“Do your worst,” Zabuza said. “You still won’t be able to kill Haku!”

Even Kakashi can’t…?

“His skills surpass even my own- skills I’ve beaten into him since he was a toddler! With his kekkei genkai, I carry by my side a weapon of matchless quality. Someone far unlike the trash scraps that nip at your heels.”

“Is there anything else more boring than listening to someone else brag?” Kakashi said, revealing the Sharingan. “I'll deal with you, then with your protege.”

“‘deal with me’, will you? Then allow me to borrow a phrase of your own. ‘I’ll warn you this; once I've seen a jutsu, it won't work on me again’.”

-

“Three. Four. Six. Eleven. Two. Three. Five! ”

As Haku leapt from the mirror, Sasuke twisted to hit him, barely grazing his body.

“He's slowing down,” Sasuke said. “Keeping these mirrors going must be heavily draining his chakra.”

Both Naruto and Sasuke had taken heavy wounds- needles stuck out from them like they had just been at an amateur acupuncture convention. Naruto, in particular, had several needles through his legs making them nigh-unusable.

It's not just that I'm slowing down, Haku thought. He's speeding up!

There's the smallest gap between Naruto noticing me, calling out my mirror, and the other one moving. That's where I'll act- that's where I have to act!

“One. Thirteen. Seven. Ten. One. Eight!”

However, before Naruto had even called out Haku's final location, Sasuke was already in motion, shoving Naruto out of Haku’s trajectory and dodging it himself.

How did he-

When Haku looked at Sasuke, two Sharingan glared back. Two tomoe in the right eye, and one in the left.

“It can't be… you, too, share the legacy of a kekkei genkai?”

I saw him. Even if just for a moment, I saw him.

“I can't let this continue,” Haku said. “This ends now.”

Attacking him head-on poses too great a risk. But Naruto has so many wounds he can barely move.

“Sakura, you stay close to Mr. Tazuna,” Kakashi said, as the mist began to thicken and close in.

“Where's the fog coming from?” Tazuna asked. “You can barely see your hand in front of your face!”

He's right. This is far too thick for the Hiding-in-Mist technique.

Grabbing four needles in each hand, Haku began shuffling around again.

There. There. I can see him! I can track him!

Come and get me.

But as Haku leapt forth, he didn't aim for Sasuke.

He's going for- 

“Naruto!”

Naruto had only one good limb left, but he tried his best to evade.

-

From deep in the mist, Sakura heard a sickening sound.

-

“I… haah… tried to warn you…” Sasuke said.

“Sasuke?”

Turning around, Naruto saw a tableau of horror.

Sasuke stood in front of him, bleeding and covered in needles.

“You could… haah … see him coming… couldn't you?”

Sasuke protected me. He jumped in front of the attack. He- “Why?” Naruto asked, his voice weak.

Memories flooded into Sasuke’s mind. Ramen. Training. Their kiss. Dinner. Naruto stabbing himself. Their kiss. Painting a fence.

“How… should I know?” Sasuke asked. “I just… moved… on my-”

As Sasuke fell backwards, Naruto lunged to catch his head and stop him from hitting the ground.

“I swore I'd kill him…” Sasuke said. “I wouldn't die until that day. I thought that oath… would save me.”

Tears began welling up in Naruto’s eyes. This isn't happening. This isn't happening.

“Naruto… don't die.”

And with that, Sasuke’s eyes fell shut.

“Is this the first time a comrade of yours has fallen?” Haku asked. “Such is the path of the ninja. He was a true Shinobi in death.”

“Shut up,” Naruto said, cradling Sasuke's body.

Sasuke’s dead. He's dead and it's all my fault. Because I wasn't strong enough, because I wasn't fast enough-

No.

It's not my fault.

“It's yours .”

Naruto’s eyes focused on Haku, and his heart screamed. 

I'M GONNA KILL YOU!

And Naruto saw red.

Chapter Text

He killed Sasuke. He killed Sasuke and he’s going to do the same to you and Sakura and Kakashi and Tazuna and everyone else.

Naruto’s chakra began to spiral out of him, so thick it was visible. Deep red spiraled around him, cracking the very bridge underneath as he lay down Sasuke’s body.

What kind of chakra is this? Haku thought from his mirror.

As the spirals intensified, a face appeared above Naruto. A monstrous, evil face. As the bridge tore itself to pieces around Naruto, the face of the fox snarled at Haku.

Physical manifestations of raw chakra? How is that possible?

As Naruto stood up, the needles were ejected from his body, the punctures healing over nigh-instantly. Superficial cuts and bruises disappeared with a sizzling sound, steam the only remnants of where the wounds had been. 

His hair stood on end- then lengthened, staining itself the same horrible red. As it fell down past his shoulders, it looked less like hair and more of a mass of bloody spikes.

As Naruto’s fingernails sharpened into claws, he turned around.

And Haku saw the face of hatred itself.

Naruto’s whiskers had thickened to the point they were almost touching, and his eyes had taken on the same deep red as his hair and chakra, with vertical slits in each iris.

Those were not the eyes of a human.

Who- No, What on earth is he?

As the pressure of the Nine-Tailed Fox’s chakra rocketed across the bridge, sending hairline cracks across the thing’s length, both Kakashi and Zabuza froze.

Zabuza? No, not him. This power… I know it.

In a flash, Kakashi was a teenager, confined behind a barrier as a giant monstrosity ravaged the mountains.

What chakra is this? Zabuza thought. Kakashi? No, bigger. It fills me with dread… but where is it coming from?

The fox! Why here? Why now?

The Hokage had briefed him on Naruto’s “condition”, but Kakashi hadn’t expected the fox to ever escape during his tenure- or after.

Has the seal begun to unravel? Is it going to incarnate?

Given how nothing else was happening, Kakashi let himself be momentarily relieved. We’re safe- for now. The seal hasn’t broken, but it has cracked- and the fox’s power is bleeding through.

But if I don’t act quickly, the seal could open up even further. Grabbing a small scroll and shoving his fingers into his chest wound, Kakashi smeared his blood across the center of the scroll as it unraveled. “Listen, Zabuza. We’re both very busy men… got a lot on our plates… and personally, I need to wrap this up right now. What do you say to one final clash? One more big move, winner take all?”

An intriguing notion. That chakra scares him that much? “Do you even have any big moves left? Show me what you’ve got!”

Far away, on Mount Myoboku, a toad had a stomachache.

“Ow!” Gerotora said, clutching his abdomen. 

“What happened?” Asked Kosuke, a red-and-black messenger toad.

“No clue. My stomach just started hurting something fierce.”

“Do you think it’s-”

“I hope not. But I’ve never had a stomachace this bad before. Go tell Ma ‘n Pa, wouldja?”

“It could be nothing,” Kosuke said.

“Or, it could be the worst thing that could have ever happened. If the Nine-Tails really is breaking out, they’ve gotta know.”

Within the dome of ice mirrors, Naruto locked eyes with Haku, then lunged at him, on all fours.

So bloodthirsty… what happpened to him? As Haku threw a volley of senbon at Naruto, Naruto roared, blasting the projectiles away with a wave of sheer chakra.

As Naruto rammed into the mirror, shattering it to pieces, Haku teleported away. Without even touching them?

Letting out an anguished scream, Naruto leapt at Haku again.

If this goes on, he’ll destroy all my mirrors, Haku thought, teleporting away. I have to do something!

As Haku lunged at Naruto, Naruto spun away, feet digging into the bridge as he skid backwards before pouncing.

Just make it to the next mirror- But as Haku moved, Naruto moved faster, grabbing him by the arm and slamming him to the ground.

As Haku spat up blood behind the mask, he desperately tried to weave signs. Can’t- withstand his chakra-

Naruto screamed again, tightening his grip as the mirrors cracked from the sound and pressure. 

Hearing a crunch in his wrist, Haku saw Naruto wind up a punch, a look of hatred on his face. 

No-

When the punch connected, it first shattered the mask.

Hearing it crack, the moment felt like it stretched out forever for Haku- the tiny space between his mask cracking and the punch hitting his face-

And then he felt his nose break.

Eventually, Naruto reached something too hard to simply shatter- Haku’s skull.

As the punch rattled Haku’s brain, he felt himself fly backwards, shattering his own mirror as he was thrown through it, bouncing on the floor like a skipped stone, before skidding to a stop.

Master… Zabuza… Though Haku could will himself to his feet, he couldn’t make himself move through the pain and broken bones.

Through the mist, he saw Naruto rush at him, clawed hand outstretched as the final shards of Haku’s mask fell away.

I… am finished.

Before Naruto connected, he skidded to a stop, shivering with rage.

“Why?” He asked, in a small voice. 

“WHY?”

“Because master Zabuza told me to.”

Naruto punched Haku, but not with the strength he had before.

“You-koff- can't kill me with such meager force.”

“You didn't kill me back there,” Naruto said. “I- I really thought you were a nice guy.”

“If you're going to take my life, I insist you do so promptly,” Haku said, disturbingly calm. “It's an empty existence to go on once you've lost your dream.”

“What do you mean?”

“Master Zabuza has no need for a weak Shinobi. You've taken away my reason for living.”

“I thought you were nice…” Naruto said. “Do you have a single thought in your head that's not about that scumbag?!”

“Do you have a thought that's not about the people precious to you?” Haku challenged. “You told me that's why you grew strong- to protect them.”

“Yeah, but-”

“That is Zabuza to me. Only him. Since the age I was able to understand the world around me, he is the only one who wanted me.”

Tears began to form as Haku reminisced. “Once, I had parents. They were good, kind, people. Until something happened.”

“What happened?”

“My father… killed my mother. And tried to do the same to me.”

What?

“The land of Mist has been the site of generations of war. And those with kekkei genkai were always at the center.”

“Kekkei genkai?”

“Bloodline limits. Powers like my Ice Release. Inherited abilities used to cause terrible slaughter. At first, we were warriors. Then just weapons. Then, not even that. Harbingers of doom… cursed clans with cursed blood.

When the war ended, we could no longer be tolerated as military assets. We were hunted to extinction, only able to survive by hiding our skills and lineage.

We are special. We are powerful. And we are feared. The boy behind you- he is the same. He shares the legacy of kekkei genkai.”

Naruto thought back to that day at the ramen stand, where he learned of what happened to Sasuke’s family. He thought of the Uchiha Quarter, a place without life.

“My father learned that my mother came from such a clan, and killed her. But before he could kill me, he had died from my own hand. And I was alone in the world.”

I still don't know what happened to my parents- anything before Uncle took me to Mount Myoboku. What if he hadn't found me?

“And then Zabuza found me. He knew of my cursed blood, and adopted me. The thing that had destroyed my family, that everyone else hates and feared- he cherished it. He wanted it.

He wanted me.”

What I need from you is not love. Not affection. Not support or emotion.

I understand, Master. I am your weapon and your tool. I shall do as you wish.

“This posturing will get you nowhere,” Zabuza said from within the mist. “You can't even tell where I am!”

As Kakashi weaved a sequence of signs and pressed both hands to the ground, more cracks began to form in the bridge.

Couldn't we have done this anywhere else? Tazuna thought. 

“While I can tell exactly where you are, none of your senses can even detect me,” Zabuza said.

“I don't need to be the one to find you.”

As the sounds of cracking intensified, something burst out by Zabuza's leg and grabbed hold.

No-!

Maneuvering quickly, he avoided his other leg being trapped as well, but all around him, more dogs - that's what the things were, dogs- burst from the ground.

As Kakashi headed to Zabuza, he saw the rogue ninja trapped by a pack of dogs- biting onto his arms, legs, sword, and even his headband.

“I made sure to bleed a little both previous times you attacked. That blood's covering your weapons- there's no way they could miss it.”

Zabuza opened his eyes, seeing Kakashi walk towards him. “And now, time for you to die.”

Chapter Text

“Time to die?” Zabuza sneered. “I must say, I've had enough of your bluffs.”

“Bluff? You're still delusional enough to think there's a way out of this one?”

Kakashi locked eyes with Zabuza. “You had your fun, you schemed your schemes… but it all comes to a close here. Honestly, this is probably a kinder end than anything else you could hope for. Even if you survived here, you'd probably head back to Kiri and fail a second time.”

He knows about that?

“We know a lot. The day you deserted, Konoha was informed. We know about your failed coup, your failed assassination… and now, your failed attempt to raise enough funds to try again.

Running for your life, barely staying one step ahead of the Shinobi hunters… stooping to work from a parasite like Gatô. Well, the sorry saga of your life ends here.”

With three signs, Kakashi began gathering lightning chakra around his hand, as Zabuza heard the sound of chirping birds.

What sort of jutsu is that? I can almost- see the chakra in his hand-

“You’re a loose cannon. The man you’re trying to kill is this land’s heart and soul- and the bridge you’re trying to stop it’s hope. You’re willing to sacrifice all that, just for a chance at advancing your own ambitions. That’s not what a true shinobi does.”

“Spare me the philosophy and civics. I fight for my own ideals. And I’m not stopping.”

“I’ll say it again- give up. You’re dying on this bridge today.”

“Please, Naruto- Kill me.”

He asked it with such a calm face.

“What are you waiting for?”

“What is wrong with you?” Naruto screamed. “Yeah, you lost. But wanting to die over it-” Naruto couldn’t even finish his sentence.

“There’s more to life than fighting. More to you! Your boss must like you for more than just that, right?”

Haku stared silently into Naruto’s soul.

“R-right?”

Haku was silent.

“The- the herbs. You gathered herbs when I last saw you. You said they were for your ‘partner’, right? That’s him, right?” Naruto was really grasping at straws at this point. “You can do that! Be a doctor or something!”

It was like talking to a wall, but worse. Because the wall was all too human, no matter how much it tried to pretend to be a wall.

“I apologize that I’m asking you to bloody your hands. But surely you can understand. If you lost the only thing that could make people love you…”

“Is- is that the only way? Nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?”

“There is nothing.”

Naruto looked away. He couldn't bear looking at those calm blue eyes anymore.

Shutting his eyes tight, he clumsily reached for a kunai at his leg.

“If it helps, you can keep your eyes closed.”

No, I can't. I have to watch. If I'm going to do this, I can't look away.

“If we met- some other place, some other way- we could've been friends,” Naruto said, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I could've shown you around my hometown, introduced you to Ma and Pa…”

Still, he resolutely stepped forward.

You're going to be very strong one of these days. 

“You could've been friends with Sasuke, and Sakura… we could've hung out, talked…”

I am sorry for asking you to endure this.

“There's a great ramen place in Konoha. Do you like ramen?”

“I've never had it. Do you like it?”

“Yeah. I'd never had it- until two months ago- but-” the tears were too much. It was too much. “This old guy makes really good ramen. He- there's this egg thing, and it soaks in the broth and gets all tasty-”

“You make it sound delicious. I wish I could have tried it.”

“You still can! It's not too late- this doesn't have to be how it ends. You can live! You can live.”

“Yes, it does. And no, I can't.”

“You don't have to do this,” Naruto pleaded, even as he brought the knife upwards.

“Yes, I-” but a shudder ran through Haku. “No!” Weaving a quick sequence, the boy disappeared in a puff of smoke.

What?

“Mister Giichi? Are you there?” Inari asked as he knocked on the man’s door. 

“Inari? What is it?”

“I- I need you to come with me to the bridge! If we all work together, we can beat Gatô and his thugs, I know it!”

“I'm sorry, Inari,” the voice came. “We're not fighting back anymore. We've already lost so much- your father's gone now. We can't throw away anyone else's lives.”

There are worse ends to a man’s life than fighting for the city he loves.

“I'm not throwing away anything. They're just people- and there's way more of us than them. I love my ma, and my grandpa, and you- everyone in the village. And I'm not letting Gatô take anyone else from me without a fight.”

As Kakashi rushed towards Zabuza, hand alight with electricity, the water around them began to move.

As an ice mirror manifested next to Zabuza, Kakashi thrust his arm forward.

The dogs disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Blood splattered across Zabuza's body.

And for the second time today, Kakashi was flung back into his worst memories.

He was twelve, and he had just killed Rin.

He was twenty-six, and again, someone had leapt in front of his Chidori.

Kakashi's right hand was stained red with blood- Haku's blood. 

And Zabuza was unharmed.

“M-master… Zabuza…” coughing up blood, Haku was silent.

“Heh,” Zabuza chuckled. “Heh, heh heh.” Flinging back his head, he roared with laughter. “Ah hah hah hah! Excellent work, Haku!”

He's dead. I killed him. I missed.

Grabbing his sword, Zabuza swung, intending to cut right through Haku and Kakashi in one slash.

“I really did find such a wonderful treasure in that gutter- useful even at the end!”

Kakashi leapt back, dragging Haku's corpse with him.

By this point, the mists had thinned, and Naruto could see all this unfold.

“Feh. If only he had held on a bit longer… I’d have gotten you in one slice.”

A low, raging growl began to build in Naruto’s throat.

“Stay out of this, Naruto,” Kakashi said, removing his hand from Haku's body and carefully closing the corpse's eyes. “This is my fight.”

Naruto? Looking around, Sakura saw…well, what was probably Naruto. Something had happened to his hair, but that wasn't the important part right now. “Naruto! You're alive!”

Naruto stared back with a strange and hollow face.

“Where’s Sasuke?” Is he all right?

Naruto couldn't face Sakura.

“...Naruto?”

There was a moment of silence as the knowledge struck Sakura and Kakashi, before Zabuza dragged them back into the present.

“I thought you were going to kill me!” Sprinting forward, Zabuza was hit back by Kakashi hurriedly countering with a punch to the gut.

Noticing Sakura trembling, Tazuna spoke up. “I'll go with you to check on him. That way, you won't be disobeying your master's orders.”

Grabbing ahold of Tazuna's hand, Sakura hurriedly ran past Naruto.

Naruto didn't move.

Past Naruto and into the mist, Sasuke’s body lay, on the pristine epicenter of a ring of concrete carved from the ground and cracked to pieces. Needles protruded from his neck like some sort of hellish dog collar, matched by several other long needles across his limbs.

Tazuna couldn't look. Sakura couldn't look away.

“He's… so cold…” she said, cradling his face with the lightest of touches, as though if she didn't touch him he would still live. “This isn't an illusion… is it?”

Her voice wavered as she tried to hold in her tears.

“If you need to cry, then go ahead. Sometimes it's the best thing to just give in and shed some honest tears.”

“I… always got perfect scores on Academy tests,” Sakura said, sounding like she was somewhere very far away.

“I memorized the rules of ninja conduct- all one hundred. I wrote them out with pride. I-I knew them by heart.”

“One day, on one test- they quizzed us on the rules. ‘What is the twenty-fifth rule of Shinobi conduct?’

Just like always, I wrote it down.”

Tears had begun streaming thickly down her face. “‘No matter what happens… a true Shinobi must never… ever… show their emotions! Th-the mission is the only priority. Carry that in your heart… and never shed a tear…”

As she cried over Sasuke’s body, her tears splashed across his face.

So this is what a Shinobi is. They try to mold children into unfeeling soldiers… it's unbearable.

“Sasuke…”

Not having moved an inch, Naruto shut his eyes and cried along with his surviving teammate.

“You can't go there alone!” Tsunami said.

“I have to. Nobody else was going to go with me,” Inari said, as he laced up his shoes.

“But- you're just a little boy!”

“Naruto’s not much older than me. Besides, this is our town- we have to fight for it.”

As Inari left through the patched-up door, Tsunami rushed after him. “Inari, wait!”

“You can't stop me from doing this, mom.”

“But I can stop you doing it alone.” As Tsunami knelt down to embrace her son, she continued. “This is our town. If you're going there, I'm coming too.”

Inari returned the hug. “We're taking our town back. For Dad.”

“For Kaiza.”

Chapter Text

Why can't I keep up?

“Damn it!” Rushing at Kakashi again, Zabuza was smacked away with insulting ease.

Swinging his blade with such force he cracked the ground again, Zabuza hit… nothing. Kakashi had moved behind him. “There's no way you can beat me. It's over.”

Drawing two kunai, Kakashi moved to stab them into Zabuza, but had to dodge as the gigantic sword was swung at him, lodging them both into the mist ninja’s arm.

As Zabuza lost his grip on the sword, Kakashi began weaving more signs. “And now both arms are useless. No spells, no signs, no chakra.

“Well, he’s certainly made a fine mess out of you, hasn’t he?”

The voice came from the unfinished end of the bridge- and with the mist gone, everyone could see it’s owner.

A black-suited man with pitch-dark spectacles and shaggy brown hair stood in front of an army of thugs.

It was Zabuza who named the newcomer. “Gato? What are you doing here? And why did you bring… them?”

“Oh, yes. You see, there’s been a slight change of plans- well, a change of your plans. This is what I’ve been intending from the start. You’re going to die, ‘demon’- right here and now.”

“What?”

“Oh, you must have guessed. I never intended to pay you a cent. You see, it’s such a bother hiring from the bigger villages. They charge so much… and when I betray and kill them, their friends tend to object. That’s why I hired you! Nobody cares what I do to renegade trash once I’ve had my fill of their services.”

Gato readjusted his bandaged hand’s grip on his expensive cane. “You ninja are just so eager to fight one another- and once you’ve pushed each other to death’s door, a mob of common thugs can tie up the loose ends. It’s great for business- efficient, expensive, zero-waste; investors care quite a bit about eco-friendliness these days,” he joked. “My only mistake was hiring you in the first place. I mean, calling yourself the ‘demon of Kirigakure’- that’s just plain false advertising! You’re no demon- not even an imp!”

“Shape you’re in, we can take you down without breaking a sweat. Those kids might put up more of a fight!” the crowd of thugs yelled.

That’s some crowd, Naruto thought. Gato can field that many goons?

“In that case… I apologize for the inconvenience, Kakashi.”

“Eh?”

“I appear to have been played for quite the fool. Regardless, I no longer have any reason or desire to assassinate Tazuna, which means we no longer have a reason to be at odds.”

“Yeah… you’re right about that.”

“Speaking of loose ends,” Gato said, “I still have a score to settle.” Walking over to Haku’s dead body, the magnate stared down at it.

“You crushed my arm until you almost broke my bones!” A small smile formed on his face. “And now you’re dead.” He kicked Haku’s head. “Dead meat. Carrion. Fish food.”

“ What the hell are you doing, creep?! ” Rushing forward, Naruto was stopped by Kakashi.

“Cool it. There’s too many of them to just rush in without a plan.”

“Why aren’t you doing anything?” He yelled at Zabuza. “He worked for you- He died for you! He was practically your slave!”

“Do what? He’s already dead.”

“But you don’t even care about his body? That stupid scumbag is desecrating him! He was your comrade. Your partner. He worked for you for years !”

“Do you mourn a broken knife?” Zabuza asked. “Gato used me, and I used Haku. Such is the way of the world, for shinobi. We’re all either the users or the used… or both. I apologize for nothing. I didn’t value Haku for himself, I valued him for his talents, his tainted blood- what they could do for me.”

“Do you really mean that?” Naruto asked, before shaking of Kakashi’s arm and walking towards Zabuza.

“Naruto, stop. Our quarrel with him is over. He no longer-”

“ Shut up! ” Naruto yelled. “Yeah, he’s not stopping our mission, but he’s still my enemy! He’s the reason Sasuke’s dead, the reason Haku’s dead- and just because he’s not blocking our mission, you’re willing to forgive and forget? Is that all that matters to you?”

“Who is that brat?” Gato asked. “He’s making quite a spectacle of himself.

“He loved you!” Naruto yelled, pointing to Haku, the kunai from earlier still in his hand. “He was devoted to you! But you don’t give a shit! You don’t care about him, you think he’s nothing! Are you really that heartless?”

I’m willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill that person’s dreams.

“He gave his life for you! He gave everything for you!”

That is my own dream.

“And he died without any of his dreams coming true! He died as less than a human! You did this to him! You made him what he is!” Tears were streaming down Naruto’s face once again.

“You could’ve loved him!”

“Please…” Zabuza said, in a small, strained voice.

“Please, stop.” And Zabuza turned to Naruto, and Naruto saw that he was crying too. 

“I know Haku deserved more than he got. He was too kind. Too pure. He spent so long by my bedside, fretting over you and your friends. But I made him do this.”

Zabuza’s bandages began to fall away. “He deserved someone who could love him. But I was all that came along.”

“In the end, despite his best efforts, he was too human. I was too human. Say what we will, do what we will, we ninja are human after all… with all-too-human feelings.”

“Hey, wrap it up! I’m on a tight schedule, and my boys are getting impatient!” Gato called.

“That… that knife. Was that the one Haku wanted you to use?”

“Yeah.”

“Could you lend it to me? I’m not sure if I can give it back, but I promise I’ll put it to good use.”

After a moment’s thought, Naruto tossed it towards, Zabuza, who caught it in his mouth.

Less than a second after, Zabuza was moving- rushing towards Gato with blinding speed.

“Wha-” Turning and running behind cover of his goons, Gato yelled out. “What are you waiting for? Kill them- Kill them all!”

“Thought you’d never ask!”

“Even if you are a ninja, you’ve got two feet in the grave! Against all of us, you don’t stand a chance!”

Hidden behind a wall of men, Gato smirked. He never was very sane, was he?

Screams erupted from the center of the scrum. Blood sprayed, blades clashed, and people gasped their last strangled breaths of life.

Wha-

Zabuza tore through the thugs as though they were rice-paper cutouts, shoving them away and cutting their arteries with a tiny knife in his mouth, making a direct path for Gato before driving the kunai into his gut.

He had two swords sticking out form his back, and three nearby thugs quickly added three more, but still he stood.

“Why won’t you die?”

Gato spat up blood. “If you’re in such a hurry to be reunited with your friend, then you can go alone!”

“I… have no delusions… of going to the same place as Haku. I’m taking you with me… to Hell!”

Pulling out his knife, Zabuza continued. “Even an imp from Kirigakure can become a true demon in how he meets his death. And once we get down there, I can take my time, over and over, to make you scream so loud Haku can hear it in heaven!”

This is all I can do now, Haku.

I ruined you. I cannot follow where you go.

It’ll be best if you never see me again. If I can never stain your purity.

Do you see him? Do you see this man who disrespected you? I’m going to kill him. I’m going to hurt him, over and over.

That’s all I can do. All I could ever do. Kill and hurt. Hurt and kill.

He can’t hurt you anymore. I can’t hurt you anymore.

I’m sorry.

In one swift motion, Zabuza tore the kunai through Gato’s neck with such force that his head flew off.

And then Zabuza died.

There was silence. The thugs looked stunned at the body of their employer. Naruto and Kakashi stared at Zabuza’s final moments.

“Don’t look away,” Kakashi said. “This is the end of a man’s life.”

Naruto resolutely looked on.

Is this… death?

There was darkness. Not even a light at the end of a tunnel.

It hurts. Should death hurt?

Sasuke heard soft sobs.

Is Naruto all right? Who’s crying?

I shouldn’t be able to feel things if I’m dead, right?

His eyes felt oh so heavy- but he opened them, if just a crack, and he saw pink hair.

“S-sakura…” His mouth was sandpaper, his throat glass- “Your arm’s… heavy…”

He’s alive? Tazuna thought.