Posted: 25 April 2014
Last Updated: 25 April 2014
Chapter WC: 10,923
Story WC: 72,644

Worth Dying For

Chapter 7
Trust

-Unknown Time and Date-
-Unknown Location-

Naruto woke to darkness. His breath felt stifled, warm against his face. Some kind of a hood covered his head. It was cold. Damp. He jerked forward, then fell back. He tried to scramble up off the cold cement and failed.

He realized that his hands were tied behind his back. He adjusted his weight and tried again to stand, but—

"Sit."

Naruto froze, then cautiously dropped into a crouch. He couldn't tell where the speaker was, let alone where he was or how he'd gotten there.

A loud scrape of metal rang through the still air—a chair? A door?—followed by the swish of clothing. There was a beat of silence in which Naruto could hear nothing but his own quickened breath, and then abruptly a hand gripped the collar of his shirt and yanked him up. His unknown captor spun him around and pressed him against the wall.

"Stay," they said. Naruto tensed, ready to lash out against them with his feet, but froze again when the back of his knee was casually tapped.

What in the fuck was going on? They had been running—Naruto had been running and he saw something and then… Had his team been captured by someone? But why? They'd been well within Fire Country's borders and the nearest country with a hidden village was across the Hanguri Bay to the west. Or was this supposed to be part of the test? It seemed like something Hatake would do in one of his more sadistic moods. But the man pressing Naruto up against the wall definitely wasn't Hatake.

"Who are you?" Naruto demanded.

"I am a proud shinobi of Hidden Leaf Village," the man said. "And you, Uzumaki Naruto, have been arrested for treason."

The words hit him like an electric shock and physically forced the breath from his chest. For a second Naruto couldn't say anything at all, couldn't even pull air back into his lungs, then finally he spluttered, "What? What the fuck are you talking about?!"

"You left the village without notifying a superior. As a registered shinobi that is classified as intent to commit treason. Where were you heading? To another hidden village?"

"That's bullshit," Naruto growled. "We were sent out of Hidden Leaf Village by Hatake-sensei, for the Genin Exam."

"Genin exams take place within the village walls," the man said monotonously.

"Hatake-sensei—"

"Hatake Kakashi is the one who reported your absence. I suggest that you do not try to get out of this. Just tell us the truth; everything will go smoother that way."

A hysterical giggle bubbled up from Naruto's throat. There was no way this was happening. If anything, Hatake would have come after them himself—

Unless this was part of the exam. That idea was becoming more and more likely.

Naruto said as much to the man behind him, but he just laughed. "We are not in the practice of loaning our hunter-nin out to test genin," the man sneered. "And your pitiful attempts to direct blame away from yourself won't help your case. In fact, I highly recommend keeping your mouth shut until we ask you to speak."

"I haven't committed treason," Naruto snapped.

"You left by choice," a second voice said from his right side. A cold blade pressed against Naruto's neck, just beneath the edge of the hood. It would have been more threatening if he could die, but it also gave Naruto a very important piece of information—that this wasn't sanctioned by the Hokage, who knew of his quasi-immortality.

"I've done nothing wrong," Naruto said, more confident now.

"We'll see about that. Any time you wish to tell us the truth, just say so."

Grinding his teeth, Naruto kept his mouth shut. This was probably a test of loyalty, he thought. There was a rule for this—to only answer the essential six: name, age, rank, blood type, next of kin, and registration number. Just by talking to the men holding him Naruto had broken that rule and if this really was a test, he'd have to start doing better.

The first man pulled at whatever bound Naruto's hands, releasing them, and then fastened two cold manacles on his wrists. Naruto instantly recognized them as chakra restrainers. Where were the ones he usually wore?

"Place your hands flat again the wall," the man commanded. "Try to move and we'll kill you on the spot."

Once Naruto had done so, someone nudged his feet apart so that he stood about two feet from the wall, leaning forward against it in what the Academy teachers had called a 'stress position'. Something clicked in the background and suddenly the room filled with a loud white noise.

Naruto was left like that, the wet hood still over his head, for who knew how long. It didn't take more than an hour for bored to overtake him. There was nothing to do and he didn't dare move for fear of failing the exam. Unless the point was to break out… But there was still at least one person in the room—shifting clothing still made sounds, after all, even if you could keep your breathing silent—and a brief testing of the chakra restraints proved that they were strong enough to prevent him from channeling any chakra outside his body. If there was any chance of him getting out of there, it would only come when or if his captors made a mistake.

And still Naruto was left up against the wall. An hour passed. Then another. His mind wandered, but he found it hard to think of anything with that blaring white noise in the background. He tried to ignore it, but it still wormed its way into his head. Before long it started to make him go more than just a little crazy. More hours passed at a mind-numbing pace.

He had no way of knowing how long he'd been there for. The room was lit with artificial light and no one came or left. Naruto had been hungry for what felt like a day now and despite his extreme stamina, his legs were starting to burn from being held in the same extended position for hours and hours.

It must have been at least a day by now, right? Being held captive like this was maddening. They could at least let him sit down or do something. Weren't they going to interrogate him? Why had no one come?

It had to have been at least two hours since he awoke. Time was barely crawling by.

Fuck, why were they just leaving him here? Someone had to come eventually. Even torture would be preferable to this. And that damn noise! People said that silence was deafening, but Naruto was starting to think it was peace. And still no one came.

Was there still someone else in the room? Maybe they had left and he could just sit down. Even if someone was there, it wasn't like they could do anything to him. He would just heal if they tried to hurt or kill him. And pain would certainly be preferable to this mind-numbing boredom.

How many hours had it been now? Four? Five?

But what if they failed him for moving? There was no way Naruto could fail. He may have been given a free pass on becoming a genin, but he had proved that he was good enough to be a shinobi and he would prove that he could last through this. He knew it was supposed to be mentally stressing, and he knew that he could make it through it.

If only they turned off that white noise. Fuck, it was starting to echo in his ears! He would literally cut off his right hand to make it stop. Though that would probably mean a bit more if he didn't know that his hand would regenerate.

Time crawled by.

When the door finally opened again, Naruto's shoulders sagged with palpable relief. Someone jerked him away from the wall and shoved him into a metal chair a few feet away. His hands were forced down onto a cold metal table and restrained again, palms pressed to the steel. The hood was ripped off his head and Naruto blinked rapidly as bright light assaulted his eyes. As soon as his pupils adjusted to the overhead lights he lurched backward and breathed in sharply.

A hulking man with broad shoulders sat across from him. Scars traveled across his face, breaking it into three grotesque portions. It took several glances to confirm that the man was bald; it seemed at first that he'd simply replaced hair with burns, punctures, pockmarks, and other such disfigurements. Naruto swallowed reflexively. Seeing the man's head up close shook him more than seeing his own entrails had. He didn't want to know where those scars came from, or what this man had done to receive them.

"What's your name?" the man asked. His voice was rough and low. It ground on Naruto's hearing, just as jarring at the white noise had been but in a completely different fashion.

For a minute Naruto couldn't reply, then the man's black eyes narrowed. Naruto's stomach dropped and he found himself saying, "Uzumaki Naruto."

"And you are a shinobi of Hidden Leaf, Naruto?" the man asked. Naruto stayed silent. "Where are you from?" He still didn't reply; the question wasn't one of the essential six. "I asked you where you're fucking from!"

"I can't answer that question," Naruto said firmly.

"What's your age then, kid?

"Twelve."

"Still a baby, eh? No wonder you got…caught…so easily. I can hardly even believe you're a shinobi."

The man pulled something out of his coat and Naruto's breath hitched at the sight of his own forehead protector. His hands jerked against their shackles as he automatically reached up to feel his empty brow. The man held the headband up to the light.

"You're just some wet behind the ears kid playing with kunai, aren't you?" he said.

He dropped the forehead protector to the ground. Casually. Dismissively.

Naruto didn't reply. All of his muscles tensed and strained and he stared down at the metal table instead of meeting the man's eyes.

"I asked you a fucking question kid. Or can't you even answer that?"

"I can't answer that," Naruto said.

"I shouldn't be surprised. I've told the Hokage we shouldn't be letting children roam around. And you didn't even pass the test. You're a sob story the Hokage let by because he likes you."

Naruto snarled silently. The Hokage had not let him pass for a reason like that. He had proven he was good shinobi.

"That's a sign of a shitty shinobi, being blindsided like that," the man sneered. "But deep down, you already know you're a piece of shit, don't you?"

Naruto pressed his hands down until his wrists dug into the edge of the table. "I can't answer that question."

"Of course you can't. It's a miracle you can even think for yourself. Or is someone else doing the thinking for you?" The man's hand darted across the space between them and gripped Naruto's chin so hard he could already feel a bruise forming. "Did someone contact you while you were still in the Academy? Tell you they could get you through to be a genin? You clearly couldn't do it yourself. You couldn't perform a single motherfucking jutsu. You failed your last two exams, didn't you? I can hardly believe you could even throw a kunai. Who was it that contacted you?"

Naruto jerked his chin from the man's hand but said nothing this time. There was no was no way he would let this man rile him up. He would not fail this exam.

The man slammed his hands down onto the table and Naruto jumped. "Answer the fucking question!" he snarled. The scars twisted on his face, distorting the angry expression and making Naruto blanch. "Who contacted you? What did they offer you? A chance to make it in the big league? A way to become a shinobi when you clearly couldn't make it on your own? Or did they just offer to be your friend? You don't even have a friend. How pathetic is that? No one likes you in Hidden Leaf Village. No one wants you there. You've been alone your entire life. Even your parents didn't want you. They just dumped you off on some doorstep and ran for the hills. You're fucking worthless to Leaf, you know that?"

"I can't answer that question," Naruto said lowly. His nails dug into the table.

"Of course, you already know why."

The man chuckled and then without any warning flicked out a kunai, cutting a shallow gash in Naruto's cheek. He smiled, watching with a sort of detached interest as the wound knit itself back together.

"You're a monster, Naruto." The silence expanded. The man waited for the blood to drip a few times onto the tabletop before continuing. "You're a jinchūriki. A part of the demon within you. You're a walking time bomb, a hazard to everyone around you. That's why we picked you up so quickly after you left. You're on our red list. A danger to the village. The Hokage had us bring you in. He doesn't trust you, doesn't trust that you won't turn against the village. And why wouldn't you? You have no one back there. No family, no friends. Your neighbors hate you, your local grocery store hates you. Fuck, people you've never even met fucking hate you. The demon killed their parents and children and friends. The demon that you could become.

"You remember your Academy instructor, Umino Iruka? The demon killed his parents. And Hatake Kakashi? The demon killed his sensei. You really think the two of them liked you? That they cared for you? No matter what they've said, every time they looked at you they saw the demon. You're a walking reminder of what they've lost."

Naruto swallowed thickly and clenched his fists so tightly that his arms trembled. He didn't want to believe what this man was saying. He knew the man was just trying to break him down. But that didn't change the presence of the Nine-Tails.

"You think they want to teach a piece of shit like you?" the man pressed on. "Umino was relieved when you left the class. He didn't have to teach a moronic dead last fucker any more. Morale in the class shot up after you were gone. The rest of the students could have fun and Umino didn't have to worry that you might suddenly turn into the demon anymore.

"Of course, Hatake still had to deal with that threat. You wonder why he kept such a close eye on you? The Hokage ordered him to. You were a security threat. No one in the village could trust you. They were just thankful you were such a failure as a shinobi. The Hokage thought that maybe if they put you out on active duty sooner something might 'happen' to you while you were out on a mission. It would be easier for everyone if they didn't have to deal with you. No more looking over their shoulders, no more fearing the demon or the worthless little boy carrying it."

Naruto couldn't catch his breath. He screwed his eyes close and lowered his head as his shoulders shook. He wanted to scream and scream at the man to just shut up. He wanted to thrash against his restraints, flip the table over, and hit the man with everything he had. He wanted to—

The boy finally took in a gasp of air so deep that his lungs ached from the strain of it. He had hated some people before. He'd wanted to punch someone more times than he could count—but he'd never actually wanted to kill someone.

Naruto wanted to kill this man. He wanted to slit his throat and watch him bleed out.

But Naruto had lived his entire life alone, struggling to become a shinobi. There was no way he would falter here, no matter how low this man made him feel. Naruto forced his hands to unclench and pressed his palms flat against the table. He lifted his head and glared at the man.

"So tell me, if you know you're so worthless, why do you keep trying?" the man continued. "Why don't you just stop and tell us the truth—that you're a traitor. The Hokage will go easy on you, if you confess. Why did you leave? Why did you turn on Hidden Leaf Village?"

Naruto continued to keep his silence. Then suddenly there a searing pain stabbed through his hand, forcing a choked gasp from his lips. The man released the kunai he'd stabbed Naruto with straight through to the metal beneath his palm, leaving it pinning the boy's hand to desk.

"Answer the fucking question!" he bellowed. "Why did you betray Hidden Leaf Village? Who are you working with?!"

When Naruto didn't say anything, the man stabbed a kunai into his other hand. The continuous pain shot up Naruto's arms, but it paled in comparison to actually losing a hand or being stabbed in the chest.

"Ready to answer yet?"

When Naruto still didn't reply, the man removed the two kunai with a smirk, then stood and knocked twice on the door. A moment later it opened and two shinobi stepped inside, dragging a slumped shape between them. Naruto's breath stalled for a moment when he recognized Yamanaka. They shinobi hauled her into the seat the first man had been occupying and shackled her wrists to the table. Yamanaka's head lolled forward and her eyes fluttered.

"What are you doing?" Naruto demanded.

"I thought you might need a little motivation to be more honest," the man said with a toothy grin.

He held on hand up and suddenly it crackled with lightning. Under Naruto's wide-eyed gaze he grabbed Yamanaka's shoulder. The blond girl thrashed and screamed, her eyes flying open. A moment later the jutsu ended and Yamanaka sobbed with relief.

"We didn't do anything," Naruto said desperately, straining against his shackles. "We're Leaf shinobi, you can't just—!"

Lightning covered the man's hand. He gripped Yamanaka's shoulder and she screamed again, high and shrill, while her body jerked like a puppet having its strings pulled.

"Stop!" Naruto yelled. He lunged forward as far as he could. "Stop it! Goddamn it, you can't—!"

The chakra slowly dissipated as the man lifted his hand. He rested it on the back of Yamanaka's neck instead, and then smiled. Thin gray lips stretched over chipping and yellowing teeth, like the flesh of a corpse. One of his scars pulled the left side of the smile down, warping the expression into a sneer.

"Let's try this again," the man said. "Why were you out of the village unattended?"

"W-we were told— No! No, wait!" Naruto flinched as the lightning crackled again. Yamanaka screamed.

The man stopped a second later, but both Naruto and Yamanaka panted for breath. Cold sweat trickled down the back of Naruto's neck. His skin felt clammy and he curled his hands into fists, mindless of the flaky, drying blood on his palms. Every few seconds a series of twitches passed over Yamanaka's skin and her eyes fluttered as she drifted on the edge of consciousness.

"Just tell me the truth," the man coaxed. He gently stroked Yamanaka's skin. Naruto shuddered.

Naruto's eyes darted between the man and the other two shinobi in the room who were standing by the door, watching impassively. He wanted so desperately to pass whatever test this was, but with all of them staring like that and Yamanaka's head lolling to the side and the faint burning stench that kept getting stronger and stronger—

"I…"

The man tightened his grip on Yamanaka's neck and the lightning came again. Her head jerked back as she screamed piercingly. Naruto was reminded of a stray cat he'd once seen get hit by a cart. It had made a similar sound. The cat had died, and he hadn't been able to get the sound out of his head for a week.

"Stop!" Naruto bellowed again. "We haven't done anything wrong! She hasn't done anything! I— No! Stop!" He strained against his shackles and then threw himself backward, but neither the table nor his chair so much as trembled despite the force he used. Yamanaka kept screaming that horrible scream. "Fuck, don't—! Stop, you bastard! She hasn't done anything! I— I—!" The man was going to kill her if he kept going! "It was my idea, okay! I wanted to get out and I couldn't do it alone so I lied to my team and told them it was orders from Hatake-sensei. It was all me, they didn't know anything!"

When Naruto finished shouting he found that the room was completely silent save for his own harsh breathing. The man took his hand off Yamanaka's neck and walked out of the room without a backward glance. One of the other shinobi burst into a cloud of smoke. Then Yamanaka's form flickered and faded away as well.

Naruto stared at the empty chair. "G-genjutsu?" he stammered. "But— I… I could smell—"

As the last remaining shinobi stepped forward his henge dispelled, revealing Hatake beneath. "Good job, Naruto-kun," he said warmly. He opened the shackles on Naruto's wrists, but the boy didn't move.

"But I…failed, didn't I? I gave in, I told them what they wanted," Naruto said. He felt a building pressure in the corners of his eyes and rubbed at them hastily.

"Telling an interrogator what they want to hear isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes the right words—and not even the truth, as you've seen—can buy you enough time to come up with a better plan and escape," Hatake said. He crouched down next to Naruto's chair and the boy automatically turned to look at him, eyes still wide and confused. "But that wasn't what this was about. You chose to protect your teammates, even at cost to yourself. And that's why you passed. Not out of strength of mind or will, but out of selflessness. Because you acknowledged that you are just one part of a greater whole, one leaf on a tree."

Hatake stood and pulled Naruto out of the chair. Naruto followed him, but it felt like his bones had turned to rubber and he almost stumbled to the door. In the hall Uchiha, Yamanaka, and Aburame were waiting. Each of them looked as pale and drained as Naruto felt.

"Congratulations," Hatake said. "You've passed your genin exam. This marks the official formation of Team Kakashi and from today on I will be proud to be your jōnin instructor. And I think you've learned a valuable lesson today as well."

Hatake held something out. Naruto stared at it for a good four seconds before he realized it was his forehead protector. He breathed in shakily through his nose, then snatched it up. Naruto almost dropped it twice as he tied it back around his head with quaking hands. He was never going to take it off again, he decided. Never.

Hatake offered him a faint smile. Then his gaze hardened and swept over the assembled genin. "Always remember," he said, his tone more serious than Naruto had ever heard before, "in the shinobi world those who break the rules may be trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."

Naruto nodded slowly. His gaze kept drifting over to Yamanaka. She looked a lot better than her illusionary double had, except that she couldn't stop shivering. Her screams echoed in Naruto's head until he had to look away.

"Come," Hatake said.

The newly dubbed Team Kakashi followed him without a word.

o-O-o

-7:00 AM, April 9th, 312 TE-
-Naruto's Apartment-

Tokui was not happy with Naruto when he got back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto couldn't tell whether the tiger's agitation came about because he had missed Naruto's chakra or because he had actually been concerned. Either way, Tokui circled around him for five minutes after Naruto crashed in his apartment, feeding off his chakra until he'd been satisfied. Naruto though Tokui would have purred like a contented house cat if he could.

Nearly a week after the genin Exam a pounding on his door awoke Naruto. He blinked blearily, realizing he'd fallen asleep on the couch again. "Mmh, comin'," he called as he tried to roll off the couch—and right onto Tokui. The tiger was almost twice the size of the piece of furniture and just by lying next to it he made it look fun-sized.

Temari, Naruto's messenger bird, trilled from the open window where she usually sat. As Takauji had said, she took care of herself, coming and going as she pleased and finding her own food. It felt more like she humored Naruto with her presence rather than being an actual pet.

Naruto clambered over Tokui, nudging him as he went and whispered, "Come on, you need to disappear." Tokui grumbled, but slunk off into Naruto's bedroom and out of sight.

At last Naruto opened his door. And then stared. He blinked slowly, sure he was still asleep, because there was no reason for Hatake and his three disgruntled teammates to be standing outside his apartment.

"Uhh…"

"Good morning, Naruto-kun!" Hatake said as he casually pushed past the blond. Uchiha, Aburame, and Yamanaka followed him in a line like little ducklings.

"Any particular reason why you're here? I thought we weren't back on active duty until Monday," Naruto said warily.

His chest tightened. He'd never actually let anyone into his apartment before. Suddenly having five people crammed into the room made it feel tiny. Naruto's eyes flickered toward the window, then the door.

Hatake flopped down onto the couch and put his heels up on Naruto's study table. One of its legs was shorter than the other three, and it dipped beneath his weight. The other three genin stood around awkwardly. Uchiha looked like he wasn't quite sure what to do with his hands.

Naruto bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. Taking a deep breath, he forced the building panic down and closed his front door. It was just his team, he reminded himself. And he could leave at any time if he wanted to.

The apartment still felt much too enclosed for this.

"I have news from above," Hatake said.

"Right, 'cause that tells me exactly why you're here," Naruto said, glad for the chance to snark instead of drowning in his own irrational anxiety.

Smiling, Hatake replied, "You have your own apartment, so I got the others first."

"So does Uchiha," Naruto pointed out.

"Sasuke-kun," Hatake corrected. "You're teammates now! And that's not the point."

"Can we just get on with this?" Uchiha muttered.

Naruto sighed and rubbed his temples, then walked into his kitchen. Without a word to his team he began to make some tea for himself so that he could at least wake up while Hatake spoke in riddles.

After a minute of silence, Hatake said, "You four will be moving in together."

Naruto nearly dropped his cup and his sentiment of "What?!" was echoed by the rest of his team.

"It has been decided that in order to build teamwork and camaraderie you will be sharing a four bedroom apartment for the foreseeable future," Hatake said. "We have already cleared this with your parents—Shino-kun, Ino-chan—and the Hokage's office has leased out an apartment for your use. Outside of training and missions you will be free to do whatever you wish during the day—such as training in family jutsu—but you must sleep in the apartment. Your team will be your family now."

"I can't live with three boys!" Yamanaka protested.

Hatake dismissed her concern with a wave of his hand. "You'll all have separate rooms."

Naruto could hardly believe the jōnin's words. "Hold on, let me get this right," he interrupted. "Are you saying that the Hokage's office is giving us the apartment? As in, we won't have to pay rent for it?"

"Yes, that's right. Though if you break anything you'll have to pay to have it fixed," Hatake warned.

All Naruto could think was that by not paying rent he would be effectively quadrupling his savings at the very least. "When do we move?" he demanded.

"Hold on, why should I agree to this?" Uchiha said angrily.

"It's for teamwork—" Hatake started to say again.

"We can work as a team just fine during the day," Uchiha snapped. He glowered at all of them, looking deeply offended. "I am going to live with—with slobs!"

"Oi, I'm not a slob!" Naruto said. "It's organized chaos—I know exactly where everything is."

Uchiha looked speechless for once. His mouth opened and closed twice and then he shut his eyes tightly and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Do we really not have a say in this?" Yamanaka asked.

Hatake's visible eyebrow rose. "Well you could always quit being a kunoichi, if you wanted to. Otherwise, no. As your jōnin sensei, my order is law, and my order is that you will be living together. Any other questions?"

"When do we move?" Naruto repeated.

If it happened before next week he would be able to skip out on next month's rent. If it was after next week… Maybe he could move all his things into the forest until they did move, so that he still wouldn't have to pay—Naruto could easily put up with that for a week or two.

"Today!" Hatake replied cheerfully. Clapping his hands, he jumped up from the couch. "Since we're already here, we'll start with you, Naruto-kun. Pack everything up, bring it to this location, and then start on the next house." As he spoke he handed Naruto a slip of paper with an address on it. His handwriting looked surprisingly neat; Naruto had expected him to have more of a chicken scratch scrawl.

"Why don't you just show us—" Naruto looked up, but instead of seeing Hatake there were just the left over wisps of smoke from his shunshin drifting through the room. "Seriously? He's just going to leave us to do it on our own?" Naruto asked with a growl.

Yamanaka sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I'm starting to regret having him as a sensei."

"Just wait until he starts teaching you," Naruto retorted. Holding back a sigh of his own, he glanced around his small apartment. "Eh, I guess we should get started them."

"I am not touching your things," Uchiha said with an arrogant sniff.

Instantly Yamanaka sidled up to him and said, "But Sasuke-kun, we're supposed to work together!"

Having no desire to get in between Uchiha acting stuck up and Yamanaka acting like a fangirl. Naruto turned back to his kitchen and started to take things out of the cabinet, only to suddenly stop.

"Wait, what am I supposed to pack everything in?" he asked.

"I believe Kakashi-sensei has left us some cardboard boxes to use," Aburame said. He gestured toward the door where, sure enough, a stack of flattened boxes waited. "And Sasuke-san, if you prefer you and Ino-san could move on to your apartment to begin there. It would put a gash in the work."

It took Naruto a second to understand what Aburame meant. "It's 'split the work up,' Aburame-san," he said. Uchiha, meanwhile, looked as though he felt honestly torn between having to touch Naruto's things and dealing with Yamanaka, who continued to make doe-eyes at him.

Shaking his head in silent amusement, Naruto began to work on packing away his things. The kitchen was easy enough to start with since he mainly ate ramen, rice, and milk. Meat, being extremely expensive, was a rarity and only eaten when he killed something himself out in the forests. Naruto did find a single old cereal box in the back of one of his cupboards that he didn't recognize though. That didn't speak well for just how old it must have been. Aburame began to help him without a word while Uchiha looked like he was having a stroke as he inched toward the fridge.

It didn't take long to pack up his kitchen and living room, including the odd assortment of weapons, empty ramen packages, and old socks Naruto had lying around. Surprisingly, it wasn't the mess that Yamanaka eventually commented on, but rather the state of his furniture.

"This leg is different from the others," she said as she gaped at Naruto's table. "Did you glue it on?"

Naruto shrugged. "Hey, it works doesn't it?"'

"But it—" She struggled for words. "Why didn't you just get a new one? Or at least get it fixed!"

Naruto grunted as he stacked another finished box in the corner and said, "It was already missing a leg when I found it."

"Found it?"

"Yeah. It was in a dump. That's where I got most of my stuff. Except for my couch—that came with the apartment," Naruto answered.

Instantly Uchiha recoiled and pressed his back against the nearest wall, looking horrified. "You've been eating off garbage?!"

Straightening up, Naruto frowned at him. "It's not garbage, just—recycled. And it was free, which is what matters." When Sasuke continued to look as though Naruto had just killed his puppy the blond said, "Hey, not everyone has a clan fund to live off—I only got a small stipend a month from the civilian orphan fund, and now that I'm a shinobi I don't even get that. I couldn't afford luxury items like 'undamaged tables that don't smell like cabbage'."

Yamanaka shuffled her feet, looked distinctly uncomfortable at the reminder that Naruto was a poor orphan. Uchiha continued to stare aghast at the table and Aburame kept packing. Naruto wordlessly went back to taping another box close—until a scream shattered the silence. He whirled around, half expecting to find his apartment overrun by enemy shinobi, but all he saw was his open bedroom door and Yamanaka on her back, scuttling away from it.

"There's something there!" she shrieked. "I—I touched something! And it was warm!"

Oh shit. Naruto winced as the girl continued to babble. In his excitement about not having to pay rent, he'd completely forgotten about Tokui. And now—

"Yamanaka-san, it's okay," Naruto said, trying to calm her.

She whirled around to face him. "What was it?!" she demanded.

Naruto sighed heavily and scratched the back of my neck, seeing no way out this, especially if he would be living with his team. "I have an, er—pet."

"Do not call me a pet," Tokui growled as he stalked into the living room, fading back into view as he removed his chameleon technique.

Yamanaka shrieked again and whipped out a kunai. As Tokui shot her an unamused look, Naruto pressed a hand to her wrist, lowering her arm.

"It's okay," he assured her again. "This, well, this is Tokui. He's a tiger summon."

Tokui sat back on his haunches. He towered over the genin, even Aburame, the tallest amongst them. As always, his presence made Naruto living room seem small.

"How did you get a summon?" Uchiha asked, frowning. His fists clenched at his sides.

"I didn't 'get him'," Naruto retorted. "We're in a contract, which is a mutual agreement of trust and…something."

"Acceptance," Tokui finished for him as the boy trailed off into silence. There was a dry note in his voice.

"Yeah, that."

"Tokui-san followed us during the Genin Exam," Aburame said suddenly.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, that was him. He can make people not see him or notice him," he said. "I would have said something sooner, but well… Tokui is kind of a secret. Summoning contracts are generally hoarded."

"Where did you get such a contract?" Uchiha asked.

"I didn't. I happened to find and help Tokui, we came to an agreement, and that was that. He's staying with me though because he feeds off my chakra."

Yamanaka put her hands on her hips and stared Naruto down. "And you weren't going to ask us about it? We're going to be there too, you know," she said.

Naruto put his hands up in a placating gesture. "It hadn't really come up yet, okay? I—"

His mouth struggled to form the words. Now that he thought about it, he had never in his life asked for permission for something before. Even with Hatake he generally did what he wanted, then dealt with whatever consequences came later.

"Would you guys mind if Tokui stayed with us?" Naruto finally ground out.

"I don't know." Yamanaka crossed her arms before her. "We might not have enough room."

"I am fine with it," Uchiha said, still eying the tiger. Aburame nodded as well.

Yamanaka instantly wilted. "If you think it's a good idea, then of course I agree, Sasuke-kun," she said.

Naruto rolled his eyes. Could the girl ever think for herself, or was she dead set on being a mindless doll for the rest of her life?

"I thank you," Tokui said with a bow of his head. "If you will excuse me, I shall be sleeping until you are finished." Slinking around the genin, Tokui laid up against the wall, beneath the sunny window, and proceeded to close his eyes and ignore them.

Team Kakashi returned to packing up and were able to swiftly finish the rest of Naruto's apartment. He owned a lot less than he'd expected; it amounted to six whole boxes, plus various pieces of 'recycled' furniture. After a last check through the empty apartment, Uchiha, Aburame, and Naruto each grabbed a box.

"I am not lugging one of those around," Yamanaka said. She plucked the paper with their new address from Naruto's front pocket. "Of course Kakashi-sensei didn't give us a map. Hmm, I think I know where this street is though. I'll lead the way."

"Really? Just leave us to do the work?" Naruto said.

"It's called delegating," Yamanaka said with a sniff. "You're better at physical strength, I'm better at planning and organizing. So I'll direct you where to go and make sure everything goes smoothly."

Yamanaka looked at Uchiha and blinked rapidly as she spoke. Naruto rolled his eyes at the obvious attempt to impress him—which Uchiha steadily ignored by staring at a wall.

But ultimately, going along with her this time would make this go a lot faster than forcing her to work too. And the box in Naruto's arms was damn heavy. "Fine, whatever, let's go," he grunted.

Yamanaka smiled widely.

o-O-o

-10:00 AM, April 9th, 312 TE-
-Hidden Leaf Village, Central District-

The new apartment turned out to be a spacious flat in downtown Hidden Leaf Village, about ten minutes away from the Hokage Tower. Each of the four bedrooms were as large as his living room had been, and the living room was almost as big as his entire apartment.

As big as it was, four twelve year olds moving in by themselves was far from easy. They managed to hire a wagon and driver to move their furniture eventually, but the whole day was something Naruto would rather not repeat. Well, except for seeing Uchiha show his perfectionist side as they packed the boy's things. Or tried to pack his things—ultimately he ran them off and did it himself.

Team Kakashi's new living room and kitchen now consisted of a mix of Uchiha's and Naruto's furniture. Mostly Uchiha's. He had literally burned Naruto's table with his fire jutsu, and outright rejected everything but the blond's couch and toaster—and the couch was pending a thorough cleaning.

"Have you told Kakashi-sensei about Tokui-san yet?" Yamanaka questioned as they finished moving in the last of the furniture.

Naruto groaned and resisted the urge to bang his head against a wall. "No, not yet. And I'd rather not at all, if I have any say in it. It would only complicate things and there's no real reason to tell him; Tokui has no impact on my life as a genin right now. I'll tell him, just…eventually."

Yamanaka gave him a doubtful look. "Well, are you sure Tokui-san is okay? He's been sleeping a lot. And isn't he…" She lowered her voice and sent a glance at Naruto's new bedroom door, where Tokui was hiding out and sleeping. "…blind?"

"Yes, he's blind, but he can see using chakra. Don't ask me how; I just know it's something to do with the ambient chakra that's in everything. And he's 'sleeping a lot' because he tends to sleep in the day and stay up at night," Naruto said while rubbing his temple.

Uchiha sent them both a glare as he walked into the kitchen with a box. "Are you going to help or just stand there like imbeciles?" Yamanaka instantly flocked to his side with offers to help or even do all the work for him.

Naruto turned to get back to the work, and then jumped a foot in the air and cursed when he found Hatake standing in the doorway. "All set up?" the man asked.

"Thank you for your assistance," Naruto growled.

He grinned widely. "All right, gather 'round my cute little students!" he called out.

Uchiha and Yamanaka returned from the kitchen and Aburame appeared from down the hall, where he'd presumably been unpacking his things. He'd had the least of them to pack and owned very little furniture since he lived with his family. Yamanaka did too, of course, but she somehow managed to have more than Uchiha and Naruto combined anyway.

"Why is there only one bathroom?" was the first thing Yamanaka demanded of their sensei. "I'm a girl! I need my own bathroom!"

Hatake continued to smile. Pretending as though she hadn't spoken at all he said, "We'll begin active duty on Monday. In the meantime I want you four to get to know each other a bit better." He slouched into the chair nearest the door and put his feet up on the coffee table. Uchiha scowled at his legs. "While you performed better during the exam than I expected, you'll notice that your fighting abilities were not tested. Allow me to explain why: 80% of the missions you'll go on as a shinobi will not involve combat. You can spend months gathering intelligence and performing surveillance without speaking to another living soul.

"A lot of genin have a hard time understanding this. You want all the action and the fights and the glory. But usually that's not what being a shinobi is about." Hatake tilted his head back and smirked. "Also, those are dumb things to want because dying is tends to be painful. And as you are now, you'd get slaughtered in the field. If you want to rise through the ranks to get to the point where you go on those missions, then you have to do well on the ones given to you now.

"As such, the first part of your exam tested purely your survival and navigation abilities. I wanted you to show me that you could work together and move to your target in a swift but sensible fashion, and you did so. I was quite impressed that you even managed to learn a chakra exercise at the same time. I planned to save that for a few weeks down the line, but I suppose it's as good a start as any.

"The second part, as you know, was interrogation. The first portion of that was intended to disorient you. The second half was to break you. I'm very proud that you all passed. You will all be strong shinobi one day—if you survive that long. Of course, it's my job to help you do that. You are not allowed to tell your fellow genin about your exam; it's classified as a C-rank village secret. It's rare that we use such an exam on genin, but it should say a lot about how your training is going to go. Starting Monday you will be reporting to training ground #7 every morning at 6 AM. You'll have an hour lunch break at 11, then training until 8 PM. When I decide you are ready, you'll start taking D-rank missions in the morning or early afternoon."

"What free time do we have?" Yamanaka asked quietly.

"None, if you're training properly," Hatake said. "You are to leave with your teammates, come home with your teammates, eat with your teammates—you will do everything together. If you have a problem, go to your teammates first before coming to me. Understood?"

The four genin all mumbled out a reply. A kunai flew though air and embedded itself in a wall, making them jump.

"You are shinobi now. When I ask you a question, I expect you to answer properly," Hatake said, sounding sterner than Naruto had ever heard him. "Understood?" he repeated sternly.

They all automatically straightened and answered, "Yes, sir," in unison.

Naruto had never seen Hatake so…formal either. The man had always been laid back with him. A moment later Hatake smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning back and looking much more like the jōnin he'd come to know.

"There we go," Hatake said cheerfully. "I suggest you get settled in."

Silence reigned for a minute after the door closed behind Hatake. Then Yamanaka sat down with a sigh and said, "Well if we're going to do this, then let's get some things straight. None of you are allowed near my room. You'll have to ask if you want to come in, Sasuke-kun." She smiled brightly and Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"I suggest we speak about our interrogation experiences to grow closer as a team. It will make our time here more bearable," Aburame offered monotonously.

"That's…" Yamanaka squirmed uncomfortably.

"Yeah, I'm not really the sharing type," Naruto said dryly.

Everyone looked away for a minute. Finally Yamanaka sighed and said, "I never want to do something like that again. My father prepared me for how to withstand torture, but the real thing is so different…"

"Your father?" Uchiha frowned.

"He's an interrogator," Yamanaka explained. "The Yamanaka family jutsu are geared toward interrogation." Uchiha stared at her, clearly surprised. She blushed under his gaze.

"They targeted loneliness as my weakness," Aburame said suddenly, "My clan's lives are based around community so I have never really been alone my entire life." He looked at Uchiha expectantly, but the other boy immediately looked away.

"Umm… They k-killed the people I love in front of me." Yamanaka stared down at her hands while tugging at the edge of her skirt. She whispered, "It was so realistic, I thought…"

A pregnant silence fell between them. Uchiha glowered at the wall and staunchly refused to say a word. Naruto would have been more than happy to let him keep his silence, but at that moment Tokui stepped out of the hall, where he'd apparently been listening to the conversation.

"I suggest you speak, boy," Tokui said quietly. "If you do not, the silence will continue to stretch between your teammates until it becomes a palpable gap. If you are to work together, you cannot afford such discord. It is worth anything to have someone you trust wholly guarding your back, believe me on that if nothing else."

"I have no reason to say anything," Uchiha snapped.

Naruto have Uchiha a considering look, honestly intrigued by his reaction. It sounded like he had even bigger trust issues than Naruto did—something he wouldn't have thought possible before today. It wasn't just Uchiha's pride that prevented him from speaking, that much was immediately obvious. The other boy's expression looked drawn and pinched, and his shoulders hunched forward like a wounded animal trying to hide itself.

Uchiha glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye. When Naruto met him stare for stare he frowned and then, for no apparent reason, began to glare.

"They made me believe someone was there who I did not want to see," Uchiha said in a clipped tone without breaking eye contact.

A look of understanding dawned on Yamanaka's face, and then morphed into the sort of expression that one would give a lost puppy. However, to Naruto's surprise she didn't fawn over Uchiha or reach out to him like she normally would—instead she just looked away. That was…unexpected. Naruto glanced between Uchiha and Yamanaka thoughtfully. There was obviously some kind of story here, beyond Yamanaka's usual fangirl tendencies.

The question was…did Naruto care? He scratched the back of his neck and figured that no, he really didn't. He'd be pissed if Uchiha tried to dig into his personal business so Naruto wasn't quite hypocritical enough to dig into Uchiha's.

Finally the rest of the genin turned to stare at Naruto. The blond lowered his head against their stares for a moment before gathering his strength and sitting up straight. Even Tokui waited for him to tell his experience.

"They— Well, they attacked a few of my, er, sore spots first," Naruto said. He rubbed the back of his neck and gazed down at the floor, not quite able to look Yamanaka in the eye. "Then they, well, they brought Yamanaka in—or who I thought was Yamanaka—and tortured her to make me admit to lying."

He heard the sharp intake of Yamanaka's breath but didn't look up. If he did he felt sure that he would see Uchiha rolling his eyes and Aburame raising a condemning eyebrow. Naruto clasped his hands tightly in his lap.

"M-maybe we need some kind of code word to prevent impersonators from tricking us," Yamanaka said with an awkward, stilted laugh. "Like, I can say, 'Naruto, you idiot'."

"Hey—" Naruto's eyes jerked upward, surprised. Yamanaka's tone was soft and she smiled faintly, teasing rather than scornful.

"And indignation can be your response," she said, smiling wider.

Against his will, Naruto found himself laughing. Even Uchiha and Aburame weren't acting derisive like he'd expected and Uchiha nearly smiled. The tight knot in Naruto's chest finally loosened and he felt lighter than he had in a long, long time.

"So," he said aloud, "who wants ramen?"

o-O-o

-9:00 AM, April 13th, 312 TE-
-Training Ground 7-

"Good morning my little students," Hatake said with his eternal, undying cheerfulness. He had to be taking some sort of pill; it was the only explanation for his moods.

"You're late," Yamanaka ground out between her teeth.

"I warned you," Naruto pointed out from where he sat beneath a tree, sharpening his kunai. Hatake had never once been on time for training in the six months that he'd known him.

Yamanaka spared a moment to glare at Naruto before turning it back on Hatake. She crossed her arms, thrust her chin out, and said, "Well? What jutsu are you going to start teaching us?"

"Now, now, it's your first official day as a team. You should be more excited!"

"We just spent the weekend together," Uchiha said blankly. "They smell. And Naruto snores."

"Oi, that's not true!" Naruto protested. He would have known if he snored. Probably.

Hatake waved all their comments off, his damnable smile never so much as faltering. "Before we start on anything else, I want to review survival techniques," he said. "Yes, yes, I know that you took several years of survival classes in the Academy, but that doesn't make it any less important. What does it matter if you know a jutsu that can blow a hole in a wall when you die half way to your target?"

Naruto put away his kunai and the piece of gray sandstone he used as a sharpener while wearing a faint frown. Hatake had never gone over survival techniques with him. But really, he'd be fine without them. With his stamina and healing, he could probably set out from Hidden Leaf Village and keep walking in any direction for any length of time without any real problems beyond discomfort and/or pain. But now Naruto couldn't just continue to rush headlong into problems—he had to remember that his teammates could die. He'd never had to worry about that with Hatake.

"First of all, we're going to make sure that you all have proper survival kits," Hatake-sensei continued.

"Survival kits?" Yamanaka parroted.

Hatake-sensei pulled out a small storage that was about half a foot long and an inch thick from his back pocket. "Something like this," he said. "You should always have it on you, even when at home in the village. You never know what could happen at what time and you don't want to get caught with your pants around your ankles."

Hatake-sensei laid the scroll out and activated it with a swipe of his hand. The genin leaned forward to see an assortment of objects that appeared with a poof of smoke. One by one he began to pick them up and explain.

"First, waterproof matches—"

"Why would I carry matches when I can use a fire jutsu?" Uchiha asked. He sounded curious rather than stuck up, for once.

"If you're behind enemy lines, you might not be able to use chakra without calling attention to yourself," Hatake replied. "You should always be prepared to forgo using chakra, be it in a survival situation or in a battle. If you don't, and suddenly you don't have chakra to fall back on, you could very well be screwed. A lot of samurai and bandits believe that shinobi are helpless so long as they don't have chakra. Don't prove them right. Not to mention that any chakra sensor worth a damn will be able to sense the use of chakra in a jutsu—even something like a chakra spark technique to create a fire—from a mile away.

"So, waterproof matches. Useful for just about anything, including lighting a fire under the asses of unmotivated students. Next, a candle." Hatake-sensei held up a short, square candle and used it as a pointer as he spoke. "This one is made of tallow, which I recommend because, being made of fat, you can eat it in an emergency."

Yamanaka made a face at that and Naruto resisted the urge to snort. Apparently the girl was on a 'diet', which was hands down the most absurd thing he had ever heard a shinobi say. Sometimes Naruto found it hard to believe that she came from a shinobi clan with the way she acted.

Not noticing Naruto's veering train of thought, Hatake-sensei continued, "Don't bring a tallow candle with you into the desert or any hot climates, because they won't keep well in such temperatures. And next up… Flint! This is optional, because you can probably use a kunai to create sparks, but if you really want to be prepared it's still a viable resource. Fourth would be needles and thread, which I already spoke to you about before your Genin Exam. You can use them for anything from sewing your clothes to stitching human skin.

"After that we have a few loops of shinobi wire, a heliograph for signaling, and then a compass—preferably liquid-filled like this one. I also have a chakra stone. These are a bit expensive, but they are just about everlasting and a great source of light." Hatake held up a small, white crystal about the size of coin and glowing noticeably even in the daylight. He placed it back in the tin and then took out what looked like a chain at first, until Naruto noticed the small metal teeth running along it. "Next up is this flexible saw, which also has a variety of uses. And of course then there's your basic medical kit with antibiotics, antihistamines, water purification tablets, etc., etc.

"Along with that you should also pack a few of these small surgical blades, which can make much more precise cuts than shuriken or kunai, and a couple of plasters and butterfly sutures. You may not need these if you have a medic-nin with you, but if they get killed then you'll have to patch yourself up."

"Should we pack bandages as well?" Aburame asked.

"No," Hatake-sensei replied with a shake of his head. "They take up too much room. A small storage scroll like this—and you want a small one, so that you can always keep it on your person—can only hold so much mass—and you can just use your clothing if you really need to. The only time you should pack extensive medical supplies is if you're a medic-nin or if you know for sure that you'll be wounded on your mission and unable to reach medical aid.

"The last items you should pack in this survival kit are these flares—" Hatake-sensei held up a handful of small green and red tags. "—And of course rations. I also recommend salt tablets, as salt and other minerals are a very important part of your diet. Of course, you'd know that from the Academy."

The jōnin smiled at Yamanaka as he finished, and the girl at least had the decency to blush embarrassedly and look away. Perhaps she wasn't quite so stupid after all.

"Any questions before we proceed?" Hatake asked.

"When are we required to have these items?" questioned Uchiha.

"By tomorrow of course! I'll be checking then, so if one of you skips out you'll all be staying back for an overnight training session," Hatake said in a singsong tone of voice. The idea of overnight training didn't seem to bother Uchiha, but Naruto had already had enough of them to wince at the threat. "Now that that's all set, let's get started with the real work."

The wide grin on Hatake-sensei's face, just barely visible through his mask, was all the warning they got before his foot slammed into Naruto's face and sent him flying through the trees, signaling the start of another training spar.

o-O-o

-8:00 PM, April 20th, 312 TE-
-Team Kakashi's Apartment-

Yamanaka crashed face down onto the couch, Uchiha staggered over to a chair, and Aburame just slid down to the floor near the door. Crossing his arms before him, Naruto raised an eyebrow as he surveyed his exhausted team.

"So am I stuck making dinner again?" Naruto asked.

"How are you still standing after that?" Yamanaka asked, her voice muffled by the couch cushion. "It's unnatural."

Naruto let out a short laugh as he walked into the kitchen and called over his shoulder, "I never claimed to be natural!"

It had only been a week since Hatake had started training them and he'd already completely worn out the other genin. Naruto was pretty sure that at this point he could poke Uchiha with a stick and he wouldn't so much as glare in return. There was a pretty good chance that Hatake had gotten too used to Naruto's insane pace of training, which normal kids his age couldn't keep up with. Naruto had an ongoing bet with Tokui about whether their sensei would make one of them collapse or if he'd realize it and adjust their training in time.

It took Naruto about ten minutes to make four bowls of ramen. Yamanaka in particular had been vocal in her disapproval of the glorious food when they had first started living together, but two days of coming home from Hatake's brutal training regime had given them all a healthy appreciation for how quickly and effortlessly ramen could be made. By the time Naruto finished Uchiha had managed to drag himself to the table, but Naruto had to bring Yamanaka and Aburame their bowls.

"You must have gotten used to training with Kakashi-sensei," Uchiha said abruptly.

"Huh?"

"It's the only explanation for how you're not tired," he continued. "You've gotten used to it."

Naruto shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Just wait until Hatake-sensei puts us on the mission roster—then you have to train after you're already exhausted from running around all day."

Uchiha frowned. "What type of missions can we expect?" he asked.

"Eh, anything really. They start most genin off with basic errand-type stuff like walking dogs, grocery shopping for the elderly, cleaning up the training grounds, random manual labor, etc. Once you get a bit more experience you get to moved up to things like chasing down wild animals, guarding civilians, and the eternally boring surveillance missions. You won't be seeing any action for at least a few months, trust me on that."

Naruto expected his words to get at least a scowl from Uchiha, but instead he found the other boy staring intently at the table. Looking down, Naruto found a couple spilled drops from his ramen.

"Oh, whoops," Naruto said as he wiped them up. Instantly the tension drained from Uchiha's shoulders and the iron grip he'd had on his chopsticks relaxed.

Curious about his reaction Naruto watched Uchiha, but he didn't seem to have noticed. Naruto lifted his chopsticks and let a few more drops of liquid drip onto the table. Immediately Uchiha's gaze snapped to them and the tension returned.

"Huh."

Naruto wiped up the spill again, and again Uchiha immediately relaxed. Once more he lifted the chopsticks, but like a striking snake Uchiha's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"Don't you dare," Uchiha hissed.

"Aww, is Uchiha-chan a neat freak?" Naruto asked with a wide grin. Uchiha's glare grew heated and he released Naruto's wrist slowly, as though it physically pained him to resist the urge to punch the blond.

"I am clean," Uchiha said forcefully. "I will live in a clean house with clean teammates."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Or what?" In a flash there was a kunai resting in Uchiha's hand and a rather maniacal gleam lighting up his eyes. "Alright, alright!" Naruto yelped. "I got it, clean, clean."

His words seemed to sate Uchiha's inner beast for the time being, and Naruto ambled from the room with his food, mumbling about kunai-happy neat freaks under his breath.

o-O-o

-8:00 PM, April 25th, 312 TE-
-Training Ground 7-

As Team Kakashi left the training grounds late one evening after training, Hatake pulled Naruto back so that they were walking a few paces behind his teammates. Naruto waited, but at first Hatake just continued to walk along without saying a word. It wasn't until they were halfway back to the team's apartment that he finally spoke up.

"I'm concerned."

Naruto paused and stared. He looked up, but sky was still there, stuck in place. He looked down, but saw no fire and brimstone. The world hadn't come to an end? But then… Naruto returned to staring at Hatake-sensei.

"What?"

"I'm concerned," Hatake-sensei repeated, as though the statement wasn't the antithesis of everything he was and a sure sign of the impending apocalypse, "about your taijutsu."

"My taijutsu?" Naruto blinked slowly, and then scowled when he abruptly realized that he was probably being insulted. "Hey, my taijutsu isn't that bad! I mean, it's loads better than it used to be—"

Hatake nodded. "Yes, but it's only marginally better than a third year Academy student's and a fair deal worse than your teammates'. Your form is passable—it's your speed and strength, your physical body, that's not."

Naruto's scowl morphed into an angry glare, then faded into thoughtful confusion. "I train for hours every day; just as much, if not more, than my teammates," he said. "How could my physical ability not be up to par?"

"I don't know," Hatake admitted. "Logically, with your stamina, your physical ability should be above that of your teammates. It's concerning because it is illogical. The main thing that sets you apart from your teammates and other people is the Nine-Tails, so it's possible it could have something to do with it. It could be somehow weakening your muscles."

Naruto did double-take at that. "So, what, the Nine-Tails is poisoning me or something?"

Hatake shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not; it's only a theory cobbled together from scraps of knowledge. We will probably have to get a Seal Master to look at your seal to figure it out. In the meantime, when your teammates work their conditioning training in the mornings you will be working on your chakra control instead."

"What? Why?" Naruto asked with a blink.

"Most upper-tiered shinobi supplant their personal strength and speed by enhancing their muscles and bones with chakra. It's a technique you'll probably never be able to use due to the sheer control it requires, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?"

There was an insult buried in his words, but Naruto's head spun too much from this new information to catch it. If Hatake was right and the Nine-Tails was doing something to him, then it essentially meant that no matter how hard he worked, he would always be swimming against the current. He'd have to do four times as much work just to catch up to his teammates, if he could ever catch up at all. A grim frown settled on Naruto's face. In the end, it wasn't really anything new. He had always had to work harder than the people around him to earn the same fate.

o-O-o

A/N: A million thanks to Jojiro, the new beta reader for this story! The chapter turned out 10x better thanks to his fantastic work.

The interrogation scene (and in fact most of the genin exam) was inspired by/drawn from the SAS selection exam. Most of the details (e.g. the wet hood, standing in stress positions for long periods while inundated with white noise, etc.) were taken from it.

Thanks for all your great reviews!

SR

An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.
Thomas Fuller