And so we've arrived, at the end (not really).

Without further ado...

Chapter 58: Enough, For Tonight at Least

"And to all of you…"

The silver haired Jonin before them held up his glass, and Naruto smiled as he raised his own, leaning forward and clinking it against the other three glasses.

"Congratulations on becoming Chuunin!"

Naruto laughed, as did Sasuke and Sakura. Kakashi had invited them to a nearby barbecue place, and though Naruto definitely preferred ramen, he wasn't going to turn down good food. Their little impromptu party had come out of nowhere, but Kakashi had said he was feeling better, and had the time, so they'd decided to just go along with it.

It'd been about a week since Zabuza's funeral, and in that time, very few things had changed.

That wasn't to say change wasn't on the horizon, however.

"You've all graduated from my tutelage." The man smiled underneath his mask, and a somber note ran through all of them as he continued to speak. "That means you'll often be tasked with leading missions of your own, or working under the watchful eye of another Jonin on more high-leveled missions. Though, to be fair, they won't be harder than anything you three have already gone through."

They snickered slightly at that. They'd had their asses kicked to hell and back, but they'd come out alright in the end. Better, faster, and stronger for the challenge. Though Naruto would've been lying if he'd said he always appreciated the added difficulty, but…In the end, it'd been worth it. They'd become truly strong.

And they were only going to grow better.

He only wished there weren't a lingering guilt behind that. Zabuza had been the one to pay for it all, and Haku even more so, surviving beyond the one person who he valued above all others.

Still, at the very least, he seemed to have Ino. With the way Sakura looked at the two of them, Naruto couldn't help but think it wasn't the healthiest of things, but it seemed to be the only thing keeping the orphaned boy tethered, keeping him in the here and now.

His grip on revenge had been fragile, easily broken.

Compared with Sasuke, who he glanced at out of the corner of his eye, he could see how that might be. Haku was simply too kind. He had no real desire to hurt anyone. It seemed, almost, that the life of a ninja simply wasn't for him.

He sighed, looking over towards Kakashi and seeing the man look a bit hesitant, evidently wanting to speak something, but not quite managing to get it out. After a few more moments spent deliberating, he finally managed to open his mouth.

"I… won't be around to protect you guys anymore."

The words were solemn and brought about an intense melancholy in Naruto's heart that seemed to only grow larger as he gazed at his friends, similar expressions on their faces.

"That means you're going to have to look out for each other. I can't have your backs anymore, but I know for a fact that you'll have each other's." He spoke, and his single exposed eyebrow drove inwards, a depressing visage taking his previous hopeful looks place. "Don't let anything happen to each other, alright? Take care of your friends, your teammates… otherwise…"

Naruto couldn't help wanting to stand up and walk over to Kakashi, but something in the man's body language told him he didn't quite want a hug.

"Otherwise you'll end up like me." Kakashi smiled sadly. "All alone."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all looked down, avoiding their teachers eye. A moment later, however, they heard a small laugh, and looked up to see Kakashi gazing at them intently.

"C'mon, you've got to get up and keep moving. None of the people who've left us would've wanted us to stall out and die. They'd want us to keep moving, right? Then that's just what we'll do."

Naruto couldn't help but feel like the man might've been talking to himself there, but decided not to comment.

He watched as Sakura nodded, but Sasuke stayed the same. He was, likely, thinking about his family, and Itachi, and a thousand other things that weighed him down. Naruto reached over and touched the boy's shoulder, giving him a small nod when he glanced over.

Sasuke nodded back.

"You should all think about what it is you want to be doing. How you want to get stronger, what new techniques you wish to learn. Who will you train with, what will they teach you?" Kakashi asked them. "Ask yourselves those questions and make an effort to understand yourselves."

They all nodded, before, without a terribly large amount of ceremony, Kakashi stood and walked towards the server, offering up a large enough pile of change to cover for all of them.

"Alright, you three. You can stay and keep eating, but keep in mind that I'm only paying for the remainder of those meats there." Kakashi pointed towards the five or so slabs still on the grill. "Anything else comes out of your own wallets."

"No worries, Sensei." Sakura smirked. "I'm heading out after this, I'm off to go see Ino, then Anko Sensei."

"I'm going to visit the Hokage." Sasuke followed up. "There's something I need to speak with her about."

Naruto looked at how the both of them acted around one another. Honestly, it wasn't that different, but it was certainly freer. It seemed like the clogged atmosphere that'd hung around the two of them since the Chuunin Exams had finally disappeared.

Thank everything. Naruto breathed out in relief. I for one was seriously getting tired of them dancing around each other like children.

"Naruto, you visiting anyone?"

Sakura had asked the question innocently enough, but she still seemed to expect him to say yes. He honestly hadn't had any plans at the start of their meeting, like the other two had. Still, thanks to Kakashi's advice, he had gotten some ideas.

"I'm off to go and see Jiraiya!" He exclaimed, swiping the juiciest piece of beef off the skillet before the other two could so much as blink. "I'm gonna' learn some new killer Jutsu's and get so far ahead of the two of you, you won't even see my back!"

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously, and they seemed quite amused by his statement.

"Oh?"

"Get ahead of us, will you?"

Sakura smirked as she grabbed onto his collar, stopping him in his tracks as he tried to eat another slice of beef. Before he could shove the perfect morsel down his gullet, Sakura moved deftly with her own chopsticks, snatching it away and practically slurping the cut of meat down her throat.

"I'd like to see you try."

/-/

Sasuke made his way to the Hokage's office in no real hurry.

It was about an hour after he'd left the barbecue place, and the sun was now beginning it's descent in the sky. It was perhaps one or two in the afternoon, though he hadn't much cared to check.

He didn't have an appointment or anything, so he trudged on up the steps, knocked on Tsunade's door, and stepped inside at her call.

She looked moderately surprised to see him.

"Sasuke." She smiled at him, seemingly pleased to see a familiar face. "What brings you here today?"

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, knowing the next thing he was planning on saying was going to sound a bit odd.

"Er… I want you to teach me Medical Ninjutsu."

A sneeze echoed out from behind him, and he turned to see Shizune stepping into the room, carrying a pile of papers.

"You, Sasuke?" She asked a bit surprisedly as she stepped by him, setting the papers down on Tsunade's desk and causing the woman to cringe slightly. "I never took you for the type to learn Medical Ninjutsu, especially not when Sakura already knows how to heal."

"That's true, yeah." He admitted. "But… I don't want her to bear that entire burden on her own."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, silently asking him to continue speaking.

"It's not just that either. Sure, I don't want her to use her entire pool of chakra keeping us two idiots alive, but… back in the forest… Sakura and Naruto were completely out of chakra. It's not like I had any to spare, but… but if I had had the ability to heal, I might've been able to get Dosu back on his feet, let us move faster, and actually make it out of that forest without Zabuza…"

Tsunade nodded, perhaps not agreeing with him, but at least seeing where he was coming from.

"I don't see any real disadvantages to having two people who know Medical Ninjutsu either. The only thing it'd do is keep the both of us safe, and our chakra levels high. Even if we got split up, we'd be able to heal one another."

"And your revenge?"

The words stilled his resolve. Tsunade had, apparently, gotten to know him more than he'd thought, for as he looked into the woman's eyes, they were cold, calculating. They didn't know what to make of him yet, what to assume of him.

"I've made a decision." He answered as calmly as he could. He took a deep, steadying breath, trying to get back on track. "I'm going to protect my friends, and I'm going to kill Itachi. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive."

Tsunade studied him for a long while, taking in his decision and thinking calmly to herself. After another minute or so of that, she finally relented, smiling as she stood up from her desk, and walked around it to stand before him.

"You're greedy, Sasuke." Tsunade smirked. "Thinking you can defeat someone of prodigious talent, and keep all your friends safe at the same time… I might call it foolish coming from anyone else…"

Tsunade leaned down, face to face with him as her dress gave him a rather provocative view of her cleavage. He turned his face to the side, not wanting to stare.

"From you, though… I think I believe it."

The words caused him to blush, and he couldn't help but want to thank the woman for them, but before he could, the door at the back of the room opened once more, and another new figure stepped in.

"Oh… Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, stepping up to Tsunade's desk with a piece of paper in hand. "I was just here to drop off your paperwork."

"Paperwork?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"For becoming Chuunin. Technically, now that you've gone up a rank, you don't ever have to work with me again." He spread the papers, and revealed that there were three sheets. "I was sort of supposed to drop yours off a few weeks ago, but a million things came up, so I put it off, and, well, then you got kidnapped."

Kakashi shrugged in a 'what can you do?' kind of way, and Sasuke had to admit that irked him slightly.

"Sasuke here wanted to learn medical ninjutsu." Shizune spoke up from her place beside Tsunade's desk, where she pointed to a spot on the sheet sitting in front of the now seated Hokage, who seemed to be zoning out. "To keep his friends safe."

Kakashi looked over at him with an easy smile, nodding his head.

"Sounds like him. Can't say I expected it… but, can't say I'm surprised either."

"Actually, Kakashi." Sasuke spoke up now, waiting for the man to turn around to continue. "There's something I need to ask of you as well…"

Kakashi looked a bit unsure of just what that would be.

"I want you to continue teaching me too." Sasuke pleaded, bowing his head. "I want to learn Medical Ninjutsu, sure, but I still want to be strong enough to face my brother. I'm not giving up on either of my dreams, and… you can call me greedy for that, but I refuse to compromise."

Kakashi's single exposed eye widened. A moment later, however, he took a step forward, and lightly placed his hand upon Sasuke's shoulder.

"You really are greedy as hell, aren't you?"

A small, embarrased blush appeared on his face, but it was banished a second later as Kakashi laughed.

"Alright. I'll entertain that greed. It's about time you started showing it."

He looked up from his bow, curious as to what the man meant. On Kakashi's face was what looked to be an amused smile, though it was hid beneath his mask.

"About… time?"

"You've always been so annoyingly realistic." Kakashi offered. "You thought you couldn't beat Itachi and live a good life at the same time, so you never tried. Then, once you got friends, you seemed to assume you couldn't have friends and beat Itachi at the same time, so you, silently, without really meaning to, started letting yourself forget about Itachi. You never really considered doing both until just a while ago, did you?"

Sasuke blanked. He'd never even realized half of the things the man had said, which was even more annoying, since Kakashi was right about almost all of it. He'd still thought about Itachi when he'd been content with his life with his friends, but…

It'd been in a theoretical way. 'I have to kill Itachi' had been about all he'd mentioned from him. He'd been… dealing with his feelings for the man, discarding them gradually. Hell, if he'd have been given a few more years, he might've let go of him enough to live a normal life.

But now, he was caught between two extremes, and yet, he wasn't willing to abandon either. He would live a normal life with Naruto, and Sakura, and everyone else by his side, and he would kill Itachi as well.

There was no room for doubt.

"So… you'll both train me?"

"Don't see why not." Tsunade guffawed as she leaned back in her chair, before Shizune pushed her back forward, aggressively pointing to the same line on the same sheet they'd been working on previously. "Er… well, we can start tomorrow!"

"Two days from now." Shizune spoke, pointing to the, frankly, asinine pile of papers stacked next to them. "You can start two days from now."

"R-right, yeah."

He turned to Kakashi.

"I'm ready today, if you want to start now." The man smiled, but there was a certain darkness lingering behind his expression that seemed to say something else was going on as well. Sasuke had a guess.

"There's something I need to be training for as well."

/-/

"So, Sasuke."

He hummed back towards Kakashi, letting that serve as an answer.

"Is there anything else you'd like to be learning as well? Personally, I think you've got a good enough build to use just about anything."

He thought for a moment, before a tiny, almost absent thought occurred to him.

"Well, I've always had an interest in swordplay."

"Kenjutsu? I suppose that's not terribly surprising. Any particular reason why?"

Sasuke honestly wasn't sure. Well, that was a lie. He had a decent idea as to why, it just… wasn't the greatest reason to base an entire style around. But, he'd been trying to be more honest with himself lately, and with those around him, so he swallowed his pride, and decided to just say it straight out.

"When I was younger… a few of the other Uchiha's around the estate used them in shows. Small carnivals for kids, you know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Yeah, I get you."

"Well, I was fascinated by them. It just seemed… cool. I don't know how else to phrase it."

"Heh." Kakashi laughed, and Sasuke was just about to get mad and say something mean when the man patted him on the shoulder supportively, dismissing his concerns. "Let me call up some people I know, then. I'm sure they can help."

It was about thirty minutes of throwing shuriken at trees, maintaining and improving on his technique, before the two figures Kakashi had called in showed up. One was an Anbu, as was obvious from the mask upon their face, but the other Sasuke was surprised to find he actually recognized.

"Hayate, Yugao," Kakashi greeted the two of them. "Thanks for coming by."

"Well," The masked Anbu spoke up, stepping forward and briefly inspecting Sasuke's form. "I owed you a favor, I couldn't exactly turn you down. Hayate followed because he felt like it."

The tired looking Jonin gave an easy smile.

"Still, this is the one, right?" Yugao, apparently, got directly in his face, her mask and his nose only around an inch apart. "Eh, he's got decent eyes. You're the Uchiha, right?"

"Yes?"

"Hmm…" Yugao rubbed the bottom of her chin, seemingly deliberating. "Alright. He's good enough. I don't exactly have all the time in the world to train a random Genin, but I can get him started, at least."

She raised her mask, taking it off and placing it upon her hip. She pulled out a small scroll from her vest and unfurled it as she placed it on the ground. On the inside were a few seals.

'Steel', 'Silver', 'Diamond', … Are these… types of swords?

A moment later, Yugao seemed to find what she was looking for, for she slammed her hand down upon the 'wood' seal, and a blast of white smoke fired off. She pulled two training swords from out of the white mist, and chucked one of them to Sasuke, which he caught with a bit of concentration.

"Right. You're not a total beginner with a sword since you've been using Kunai your entire life. You'll find the basic application is somewhat similar, you're still cutting, slashing, and stabbing. At the same time, the ways you use them are completely different."

He nodded, understanding that. Even the difference between how you wielded a Kunai and a standard knife were different, he saw no reason to assume any differently about a wildly different tool.

"We'll go a couple of rounds; see how well you keep up. After that, we'll switch off, and Hayate can work on the more basic things he saw you were doing wrong, then again vice-versa. We'll switch off from practical work to more form-based learning every so often. Work for you?"

Sasuke nodded, a bit overwhelmed, but more than willing to stick it out.

"I… I was thinking we could come up with some ways of working the Chidori into my new style as well." Sasuke turned to Kakashi, confident in his idea. "It's a fairly one-note Jutsu at the moment, but I think with some creativity, we can transform it into a real monster."

Kakashi nodded, agreeing with him. He'd had some ideas about transferring the lightning from Chidori into his kunai, a feat he'd yet to pull off. Still, he had another idea, one he'd been rolling around in his head for a few weeks. If he could channel it into a larger blade… Just what would happen?

Now, at least, he could try putting that idea into practice.

"Don't forget, Sasuke." And for just a moment, a flash of something terrible came and went on Kakashi's face. It was… guilt, sure, but also…

Something Sasuke couldn't quite identify, even if he was fairly sure of the source by now.

"The Chidori is a tool to protect ones friends."

He nodded, trying to show the man with his expression that he'd never point it at one of his own.

This was all for the sake of defeating Itachi, of having enough tools that when he arrived at the man's alter, when he looked up at his brother standing calmly before him, he would finally have the strength to strike the bastard down.

"Alright, if you two are done, we'll move on three." Yugao took a rather simple stance, which he imagined was largely for his sake. "Three…"

He flipped the sword in his hand once, then twice. He got a good feel for it's overall weight and balance and held it up in front of him. It wasn't perfect, but it'd have to do.

"Two…"

He took a deep breath and prepared for an incoming strike.

"One."

Don't worry your little heart, Itachi.

Yugao blinked forwards.

I'm coming!

/-/

"So… Wood Style?"

"Mhm… Wood Style."

Sakura paused for a moment.

"Uhm… what exactly does that mean?"

"Oh," Anko blinked. "Right."

"It means," Tenzo spoke from just beside both Sakura and Anko, who'd been conversing a bit meaninglessly. "That we're going to be focusing in on that as your primary method of training. Sure, it's all well and good that you've advanced your curse mark-"

"Pretty sure it's neither well nor good-"

"But that doesn't mean you can rely on it in a pinch." Tenzo finished, seemingly ignoring her. "The Wood Style needs to become an extension of yourself. You need to be able to summon branches, call forests, channel nature's power into your every move."

Sakura turned towards Anko, her eyes narrowed.

"Is he slightly more hyped up today," Sakura whispered. "Or am I crazy?"

"No, you're definitely not crazy."

They were standing in a fairly normal looking clearing. It didn't seem to have anything of note around, but Tenzo seemed determined to change that. He placed his hands on the ground, and focused hard.

After but a moment, a massive cliff of earth shot from out of the ground. It jutted a good forty or fifty feet out of the earth, before he ran up the surface, ending up at the top. In his next few motions, he summoned a gushing waterfall, which flowed down the surface. He slid down the wall of earth slightly, until he stuck about halfway down the cliff. After a few more moments of concentration, the man slammed his hands into the wall, and out from it grew trees. They were normally sized, a bit bigger than Tenzo, and they flowed out from the vertical earth so effortlessly that Sakura couldn't help getting a bit jealous.

"Why is he doing that?" Sakura felt like asking.

"Not a clue." Anko replied honestly.

Tenzo slid down the falls surface, jumping down at the bottom and landing a few feet from them. He walked the rest of the distance, coming over to them and smiling confidently.

"We're going to train your earth and water ability's," The man spoke, pointing back towards the newly constructed wonder behind him. "Until you can do that."

Sakura's mouth hung open.

"You… want me to do that?"

"Yes."

"…How?"

"Training." The man admitted. "A lot of it."

Shit, is this how I sounded when I talked with Ino the other day? Sakura couldn't help wondering. I should apologize for that.

"Fine, fine." Sakura sighed out, deciding to say sorry to her best friend the next time she saw her. "What will I be doing?"

"First off, you're going to be focusing heavily on getting your earth and water styles to work on command. You had some trouble with those during your testing back in Root."

She bit back a groan as the man brought up that particular batch of failures.

"You were, eventually, able to translate your abilities to healing, but that was a spur of the moment type deal, was it not?"

"Well, I could recreate it, but… Yeah, It wasn't nearly as powerful when I wasn't working off adrenaline."

"In that case, we'll be buffing up every part of you." The man took her arm in one hand, holding it up and looking a bit disappointedly at the flab present there. "Starting with your rather lacking muscle mass. You'll need it if you're going to be doing more advanced acrobatics and maneuvers anyways."

She tried not to let the man's comments get to her, which was, as one might've expected, quite difficult.

"OK, sure, that's all well and good," Sakura decided to simply change the subject, hoping that might keep her from lashing out. "But why is Anko here then? Just for moral support? 'Cause if it is just for moral support, I'm cool with that."

"Well, I have a small gap between the two missions I'm on, so I thought I'd drop by." The woman explained. "Technically, I'm not supposed to be here."

"So moral support then?"

"Basically." Anko admitted. "Well, not in the future. I'm going to try and help you learn more about your curse mark, and I want to learn more about mine as well. It's festering… growing in power. What's worse, Orochimaru's dead, so we're not getting any answers out of our gracious supplier."

Sakura nodded, feeling no sorrow, but no real joy either over the death of the Snake Sannin.

"We've only got each other to be figuring this out." Despite the statement, Anko smirked. "Which means, unfortunately for me, I'm stuck with you once again."

"Oh yes," Sakura rolled her eyes as she looked back at her teacher. "I'm sure you're so broken up about it. Getting to be with the one you fell in love with must be such a shame."

Tenzo's eyes bugged out.

"Wait, wha-"

"I am… humbly asking," Anko walked up to her, placing both hands on her shoulders and looking, frankly, infuriated with her. "That you let that go!"

"Heh." Sakura sneered.

"No promises."

/-/

Sakura yawned as she stretched out her aching limbs, doing her best not to focus on the pain lingering within them as she made her way back to her house. She was going to have dinner with her Mother and Father, which would be nice, since the last time they'd had the chance was over a month ago.

Naturally, something had to interrupt her. Though, to be fair, she didn't terribly mind this one.

"Sakura?"

She turned, looking towards where Zaku was jogging towards her briskly. He caught up without much fuss and smiled at her.

"Nice to see you."

"Same here." Sakura told a half-lie. She didn't mind seeing Zaku, but… she was tired as all hell, and just really wanted to not have to interact with anyone right then. "What're you up to?"

"Nothing particularly." Zaku gave a hum of amusement. "Just sort of… idling, I guess. Dosu's getting out of the hospital tomorrow, so we're all going to see him."

She smiled at that, at least. There'd been a stretch back during their escape when Sakura had been sure Dosu wasn't going to make it. He'd been bleeding heavily in the middle of the forest. If a good few medical ninja's hadn't shown up, alongside Tsunade herself, Sakura was fairly sure the boy wouldn't…

Well, no use thinking about that now.

"…Oh, wait." Zaku seemed to realize something. "Am I interrupting something?"

Sakura smirked, breathing out a laugh as it came out as hot air from her nostrils.

"No, you're not interrupting. I'm on my way back to my house. I'm having dinner with my mom and dad tonight."

"Oh, shit, sorry!" Zaku stepped away from her, taking a light bow. "I didn't mean to-"

"Again, you're fine." Sakura gave an amused smile. "What's up, you're not usually this…"

"Jumpy?" Zaku asked embarrassedly. "Yeah, there's… there's a reason for that."

Oh? Sakura couldn't help but be curious. Why…?

"Uhm… if you'll give me another minute here, I don't mean to keep you, but…"

A kernel of an idea popped up in the back of her mind, one that she'd been considering for a good few weeks, but hadn't really taken the time to mull over.

Zaku… does he…

"A few days from now… Saturday…" Zaku took a deep breath, and exhaled as he stepped forward, forcing confidence into his expression. "Would you let me take you out to the barbecue place we went to before?"

…Oh.

Ooooooooh…

I was right.

It took her a moment to realize she'd simply been staring at him for the past five seconds, which she couldn't help but think would've been quite painful. It wasn't fair for her to even be considering his offer, not with what she'd decided a week or so ago. Neither she nor Sasuke had told anyone, besides Naruto, anything.

She took a deep breath, and resolved to come at Zaku with honesty.

"I'm very sorry." She bowed, using the motion as an excuse to not have to see the boy's expression. "But I can't accept. I'm already…"

Even still, she didn't manage to get the words out. It was weirdly embarrassing, having to turn down someone who'd bared their heart. She forced herself, however, to look up. She forced herself to meet Zaku's eyes, to see the sad expression within them that he tried to disguise, and she forced herself to speak.

"I'm sorry." She made direct eye-contact. "I'm already in a relationship with someone else." She left the 'who' of that equation a mystery, though she couldn't help but think it wouldn't be particularly hard to solve. "I can't accept your invitation."

Zaku looked just a tad bit sadder, before, after another moment, he breathed out a sorrowful groan. He looked back up a second later with a small smile on his face, barely a hint that he'd been a bit depressed a moment ago.

"Sasuke's a lucky man."

She blushed slightly.

"Agh! I knew I should've asked when we got back!" Zaku cursed to himself. "I mean, you still might've said no, but at least I'd have had a chance." The man ruffled his own hair, trying to get his head in the game. "Right, well. I'm going to, uhm, go! So you… you have a good night, alright, Sakura?"

She frowned, feeling a bit of tension between them that she didn't want to go unresolved. She supposed it would heal itself, given a week or two to cool off and process this conversation. Still, she didn't want that.

"Zaku?"

The boy turned back towards her, pushing some hair out of his face as he shot her a questioning look.

"If you'd like, our teams could still go out this Saturday?" She wasn't sure how perfect of an idea it would be, and, if she were being honest, she was grasping at straws. Still, she felt she had to try. "I know we're all itching for a break, and Dosu will be out by then, right?"

Zaku's eyebrows raised, and he seemed to consider that for a moment. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (and was probably only three or four seconds), the boy smiled. It wasn't quite an easy smile, and, if anything, it looked a bit forced. Still, some of the tension hanging between them dissolved.

"Sheesh, you're brutal." Zaku commented quietly. "Here I am, shooting my shot, missing, and you still wanna' drag me out?"

"Er, I wasn't trying to-"

"We'll be there."

She blinked.

Zaku turned to her, rubbing the back of his neck in a show of sheepishness she was fairly sure she'd not seen from the hot-headed ninja before her.

"We'll come." He sighed out, rubbing his temples with one hand. "Still, c'mon Sakura, when did you suddenly get so endlessly pushy?"

She snorted.

"Personally, I'd blame my teacher."

"Ah, Anko?" He considered that for a moment. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. She seems the type to rub off on someone else."

Sakura giggled, before looking to the horizon, and seeing the sun beginning to set.

"Oh, crap!" She shouted, turning back towards Zaku, and clapped her hands together in a sign of apology. "Sorry to cut this short, but if I'm not back before sundown, my mother's going to kill me!"

"Understood, understood." Zaku waved as he turned around, walking off. "Stay cool, Sakura."

She laughed.

"Stay cool, really?"

Zaku turned back around, but she couldn't quite see anything more than his eyes past his shoulder. Still, he looked mildly perturbed from what she could see of his expression.

"Don't judge me! My words aren't at their best right now."

"Yeah, I can tell."

"Leave me alone!"

/-/

"Frog Guy!"

Jiraiya turned towards him with a look of pure, unadulterated fury upon his face. He wasn't quite sure what he'd done to earn such ire, other than use the man's old nickname.

Eh, probably nothing.

"One day, you will understand that they're toads, but I suppose such an advanced thought couldn't worm its way into your head, could it?"

"Eh, shush." He cut the man off, and though Jiraiya's left eye twitched, the man did as he asked. "I come on an important mission!"

"Oh? I'm sure."

"I need you to teach me that Senjutsu stuff!"

This time, Jiraiya's grouchy mood faded away, replaced instead by a curious interest.

"Why would you want to learn that? Didn't I tell you it's one of the hardest types of Jutsu in the world to use? Even I'm a novice with it."

"Well, yeah, sure, but…" Naruto sighed. "So… last mission, I… It was my fault that Zabuza had to die."

His master straightened slightly, looking at Naruto a bit differently, as if seeing him in a new light.

"Why do you figure that?"

"I just… When I was back in Orochimaru's base, I… I needed saving from just about everything we ran into." He hung his head. "Anko snatched me from out of a flaming trap, then I was saved by Zabuza and Haku from that weird Pain guy."

He noticed, idly, that Jiraiya's body stiffened slightly at the mention. It wasn't too surprising, given that Pain, or Yahiko, as Jiraiya had called him, was his master's old disciple. Whatever had happened between them… clearly it wasn't something he felt like discussing. For the old man's sake, and for his own, he continued speaking.

"Then, once more, Sasuke rescued me from his weird pulling thing, and then Haku saved me twice from Tobi grabbing me. Then… Zabuza and Haku both saved me when he pulled me to the forest floor." He felt a bit of depressed energy work its way into his heart. "I… if I hadn't been so weak, Zabuza wouldn't have had to…"

"Kid, I need you to understand something, first and foremost."

He looked up at Jiraiya without much energy but saw a fiery expression on the man's face. Apparently, he had more than a few problems with what Naruto had said.

"You are strong. The problem, really, is that you keep going up against enemies so far out of your own weight class that it's practically a crime. Even still, Naruto, do you know what I would've done against six members of the Akatsuki if they had me cornered?"

He couldn't think of anything.

"What?"

"I'd have died."

Naruto's eyes shot open, and he looked up to see an expression of frank truth on Jiraiya's face. The man's statement was no lie, nor was he exaggerating.

"Against that many S-ranked ninja… against that many ninja easily as strong as I am? I wouldn't have stood a chance. Hell, in a life or death battle, I might not be able to take one of them. Depends on the person, really, but I don't think I'd want to face Pain, and especially not Itachi. Kid's practically a force of nature, I don't envy your friend for his choice of target." Jiraiya turned towards him, looking up at him with a deathly serious expression. "Now Naruto, I want you to answer a question for me, if I couldn't beat them, then what makes you think that you, with some newfangled technique and a bit of brawn behind it, would've stood a ghost of a chance?"

He opened his mouth, tried to make a sound, and found it closing without him really meaning to.

"I…"

"You didn't have a chance. Sure. But neither did any of you there. Honestly, and this is going to sound messed up," Jiraiya sighed as he looked him in the eye. "You were lucky only Zabuza was killed. After hearing that the Akatsuki were after you… there was a part of me that thought the only way your group was getting back to the leaf was in a body bag."

That scared him more than he liked to admit. He hadn't even considered how endlessly lucky they'd been, how reserved the Akatsuki had been. They hadn't been in any hurry, hadn't wanted to overexert themselves and put themselves in harm's way. Still, it had been that very reservation that had kept them alive.

If the Akatsuki had gone all out from the start…

He wouldn't be here to whine.

"Even still." He took a deep, steadying breath, forcing himself to expel at least some of his doubts, even if, despite his best wishes, an awful lot of them remained. "I don't… I don't want to idle in place. I know that I'm going to end up fighting them again. Whether it's because they come for me in the dead of night, or because Sasuke heads to seek out Itachi, and I'm right there beside him… I'll have to face them."

He reaffirmed himself and stood up. Even while sitting down, Jiraiya's head still stood a few inches above his own.

"I need to be as strong as I possibly can, and that means learning everything I can from you!"

Jiraiya hummed as he took Naruto in, seemingly sizing him up. After a few moments of that, accompanied by a groan so filled with exhaustion that Naruto didn't even want to ask, Jiraiya decided to ask him one last question.

"And you're sure about Senjutsu?" He repeated his earlier question. "I wasn't kidding when I said if you mess up while training, it turns you to stone. It's not exactly a technique for the faint of heart."

He shook his head.

"Even if it wasn't…" Naruto felt his soul grow steady, his conviction emboldened. "Someone who's afraid of risking himself to gain power, someone who needs to be protected by his friends sacrifices and shielded away from their battles… how could someone like that ever become Hokage!?"

Something in Jiraiya's gaze shifted, as if the lingering doubts he'd held for Naruto had, in that moment, almost entirely disappeared. Left in their wake was a certain pride, one he wasn't quite sure the source of.

"Huh." Jiraiya actually smiled, but it was oddly tender, like he would've expected from a grandfather, rather than a mentor. "You never cease to surprise me, Naruto."

He tilted his head.

"Is that… good?"

"In this case?" Jiraiya smirked amusedly.

"Yeah."

/-/

Naruto ran off ahead, and Jiraiya was, however briefly, left alone in the small clearing they'd been sitting in. It was the same spot they'd trained before, the very same waterfall the boy had sat under until he'd caught a cold just off to his left, and the very same valley he'd nearly chucked the boy into to learn to summon just a few hundred yards away.

He stood slowly, letting some of the fatigue in his old body be washed away by his excitement. Naruto's words… they'd been, for perhaps the first time since he'd met him, exactly what he'd needed to hear.

He's strong enough. Jiraiya knew. Not to learn Senjutsu now, but… after some training, he'll be perfect for it.

He found a laugh bubbling up in his throat and expelled it. Surprisingly enough, seeing the boy so doubtful of himself had been a real eye-opener for Jiraiya. He had, up until then, seen Naruto as a bit too spirited, a bit too energetic. Now, though, he knew those doubts lurked underneath his sunny veneer, knew that it wasn't quite fake…

But forced.

He walked behind Naruto, calling back when the boy shouted for him to hurry up.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Jiraiya found himself laughing once more. "Sheesh. Kids these days."

He looked up at the stone monument in the distance, towards the face of the man he'd once trained, to the face of the man he'd once known would surpass him. Even in his brief tenure upon the earth, he'd been able to do so in practically no time at all.

"Hah… Did you see him just now?" Jiraiya asked the petrified visage, and, as he'd known he would, received no response. "Having the nerve to sound so cool, I thought that was my job."

"I suppose he really is your kid, Minato."

/-/

"So… you said you'd teach me Senjutsu."

"No, I really didn't, but sure, continue this line of thought."

"So… why are we at some weird place I've never been to before?"

They stood in front of a massive mansion. To Naruto, it seemed almost excessively fancy, like something out of a storybook. Still, someone had to live here, and he had a feeling it was probably a wealthier clan. He'd been to Kiba's family's land before, so he knew this wasn't the Inuzuka's…

"This is the Hyuga Estate." Jiraiya spoke simply, walking up and ringing a small bell by the entrance. "They're all a bit snobbish, but you get used to it."

"Uhm… I have a few friends who're Hyuga's." He felt the need to defend Hinata's honor, though, to be honest, not quite as much Neji's. He'd heard the boy had been improving since his draw to Lee, but still, they weren't exactly friends. "They, well, one of them isn't rude or anything. She's really nice."

"Little-Miss-Disinherited? Yeah, I met her once when I was visiting Kurenai." Jiraiya smirked. "Nice girl, if not a little… too nice. The type of nice that doesn't arise out of kindness, but out of fear."

Naruto nodded, agreeing, as sad as it made him.

"Still, I can't believe sweet little Kurenai and Asuma are… Gah!" Jiraiya hung his head in his hands. "I should've just asked her out ages ago!"

"Uhm…" Naruto couldn't help a bit of disgust worming its way into his voice. "Aren't you double her age?"

"Not important."

Naruto simply sighed.

The gate in front of them opened up, and a person who Naruto could only assume was an attendant stepped out of the estate. He was rather blandly dressed, whites and grays making up the majority of his uniform.

"Excuse us." Jiraiya, for once, seemed to be acting respectful. "I wish to ask a favor of the Master."

"Ah, Master Jiraiya!" Apparently, the Toad Sage was a known quantity around here, for the attendant before them bowed, accepting him inside. "You may, of course, enter."

Naruto raised an eyebrow as they stepped inside the outer wall, passing into the inner compound.

"Why didn't he like… check you or anything?" Naruto couldn't help wanting to ask. "Couldn't you have been some random dude pretending to be Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya laughed at him, and he took that a bit personally, since he was pretty sure his question was valid.

"Kid, there've been chakra sensors going back for miles. They've been reading our energies for quite a while." He looked over and raised an eyebrow. "They knew who we were long before we actually stepped onto the premises. All that back there was meaningless fluff. If they weren't going to let us in, then they would've stopped us by then."

Naruto nodded slowly, still wrapping his head around that little concept by the time they made it to the central hall. Jiraiya bowed to the two men standing guard, and he followed suit, not wanting to seem disrespectful.

The guards allowed them inside without any real delay, and suddenly, he was face-to-face with Hiashi Hyuga, Hinata's father, and a man he knew nothing about. All he had were Hinata's desperate words from when he'd spoken to her just before the Chuunin Exams.

"But… but all I want is… is for my father to… to talk to me again. Why won't he look at me anymore…"

"Master Hyuga." Jiraiya bowed for yet another time. "Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today."

"Nonsense." The first words out of Hiashi's mouth didn't quite give Naruto the worst impression. In fact, he sounded almost jovial, though whether or not he was putting that front on as an act… Naruto couldn't be sure. "You've done our family plenty of services in the past. A favor from you is no problem at all."

"You helped the Hyuga?" Naruto asked without really meaning to, before realizing he had spoken out of turn. Normally, he wouldn't have really cared, but he wasn't even sure why he was here, so he resigned himself to make due. "Er, my apologies, I-"

"And who is this, Jiraiya?"

Hiashi's voice broke into his own, cutting him off without a care in the world.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki." Jiraiya explained. "You may know of him, he's-"

"I do know of him." Hiashi seemed to consider something for a moment, before, a moment later, a small, wry smile appeared upon his face. "You're the boy who helped Hinata, correct?"

Now that surprised him. The last time he'd spoken with the former Hyuga heiress, she'd made it sound like her relationship with her father had been irrecoverable. From the man's expression of fondness, however…

Did… something happen? Naruto couldn't help but wonder hopefully. It'd be great if Hinata managed to make up with her father, but… why would that have happened? Even beyond that, how?

He realized a moment later that he'd been silent just a bit too long, and cut himself out of his reverie.

"Uhm, I am, sir."

Hiashi hummed, before continuing.

"On the earlier subject, Master Jiraiya is one of the foremost ninja in the Leaf Village." Hiashi explained, though Naruto didn't really need the advice. "It is only natural that we, one of the foremost clans of the Leaf Village, would request the man's help on missions and the like."

"I've done them more than a few favors over the years, and now I'm here to collect on one." Jiraiya shrugged. "Simple, really."

Naruto's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"You're using one of your favors with an esteemed ninja clan… on me?"

Jiraiya seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"Well, yeah."

"Why?" He couldn't help but ask. "I mean, that kind of seems like the type of thing you'd save for like… a life-threatening situation, not training some random kid that got forced on you."

"Random?" Hiashi looked towards Jiraiya questioningly. "You never told him?"

Now that had Naruto's attention. He turned towards the elder Hyuga with a hungry look, trying to gather any hints of the past he could from the man's face. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be gleamed, Hiashi was a master ninja, and thus, a master at making his emotions unreadable.

"It doesn't matter." Jiraiya sighed out. "I'll tell him one of these days."

"Tell me what!?" Naruto pleaded. "C'mon, I deserve to know… whatever this is, don't I!?"

"Getting back on topic," Jiraiya cut him off completely purposefully. "I'd like to ask your clan to help train Naruto. If he's going to master Senjutsu, he needs to buff up his fundamentals first."

Now that was news to him. He looked back and forth between the two elders, his head practically on a swivel as he tried to decipher just what the hell was going on!

"Your favor works out perfectly, then." Hiashi looked towards Naruto and gave him a once over. "He may train with the others."

"Others?" Naruto couldn't help asking. "What others?"

/-/

Even though Jiraiya stayed in the main hall, wanting to speak with Hiashi more on more 'important' matters, he still managed to find his way to his destination easily enough.

He stepped into a simple training room. It wasn't much, a worn tatami floor set-up so that they didn't injure themselves when they fell. Clearly, the mat had seen more than its fair share of battles. Still, it was the people at the center of the room who really caught Naruto's attention.

"Wait, Lee, Neji, Tenten?"

All three turned towards him, including Lee, who'd been in the middle of a complicated jump-kick maneuver he'd probably needed to be focusing on. lacking that focus, his momentum sent him spiraling through a nearby doorway, and Naruto winced as he heard a thunderous crash somewhere outside the room.

I'll have to apologize for that one later.

"Naruto?" It was Tenten who spoke up first, stepping over and holding her hand out, completely ignoring her teammate who was, presumably, sprawled out on the ground outside. "Good to see you!"

He found himself happy to see her as well, and so met her hand with his own, shaking it lightly.

"Same here."

He nodded towards Neji, who calmly nodded back. Despite what he'd heard, he still wasn't quite sure about the boy yet.

"Naruto!" An excited voice shouted from outside. "It's very nice seeing you!"

He walked over towards the door, and almost laughed when he saw that Lee had somehow gotten his leg embedded into the ground. He seemed rather stuck.

"Ur… if you wouldn't mind assisting me, that'd be-"

He pulled from underneath the boy's arms, straining slightly as they worked collectively to dislodge the spandex-wearing trainee. Finally, after a good minute, he managed to free Lee from his earthen prison.

"Much appreciated, Naruto!"

"Eh, no problem."

He turned back to the rest of the group as Lee joined them.

"So… what are you guys doing here?" Naruto couldn't help asking.

"Well, I was invited." Neji spoke up, sounding amused. "A certain princess though it would be fun to have company, and the rest of our teams were invited along as well."

"Wait, Hinata invited you?" To Naruto, that seemed… good, but incorrect. "I thought she wasn't welcome at the main estate?"

"She wasn't, not until she and her father had a… confrontation." Neji explained. "A few weeks back now, after the Chuunin Exams, and just after you and Sasuke left the village, Hinata came barging in, practically demanding to speak with her father." Neji actually laughed. "It was so unlike her; everyone just cleared the way."

Naruto's eyes widened.

Hinata… demanded something?

"Anyways, she and her father had this… world-shaking argument. I wasn't there at the time, I was… well, trying to make things up with my team. From what I hear, though, she fought with him, even when she would've normally cowered and hid away." Neji looked to him, this time, and an honest smile came to rest upon his face. "She credited said confidence boost to you, actually. Said you talked to her before the Chuunin Exams and helped her get some faith in herself back by fighting you."

He found a blush come to his face without really thinking about it, and Tenten elbowed him continuously in the ribs to tease him about it.

"Anyways, her father wouldn't reinstate her as heiress, since she still lost to Hanabi, and I don't think she really wanted that, either. Still, he told her she could come back to the Hyuga mansion."

…I'm proud of her.

"Anyways, she's stopping by with her team in…" Neji gazed up at a clock, which hung on the wall at the farthest end of the room. "Actually, she should be here any second."

Just as the boy had spoken those words, he caught a small commotion on the edge of his hearing. It seemed to be…

Kiba, Shino, and Hinata stepped into the space. They were escorted in by Kurenai as well, who Naruto couldn't help but notice didn't seem thrilled to be there. He couldn't exactly blame her, either. From what he'd heard, they'd essentially been barred entry up until Hinata's outburst.

Which were two words that, put together, still sounded so freaking weird to Naruto. He was sure he'd get over it eventually, but…

"Naruto?"

He turned towards the mousy voice, and smiled as Hinata approached him, not quite meeting his eyes.

"Hey, Hinata!" He couldn't quite hold back some of the excitement he felt. "Uhm… how've you been?"

"I've been good!" Hinata seemed to barely holding back her own cheer as well. "I… I stood up to my father. I told him… everything I told you, honestly. After that… he accepted me back into the clan, even when the elders told him not to!"

He tried really hard not to look like a goober, but unfortunately, he found himself smiling from ear to ear, which meant he probably looked incredibly goobery.

"That's amazing!"

"I… I know!"

"Alright, alright." Kiba cut into their little talk, a blank expression on his face. "Fluff each other up later, we're here to train."

He tried to ignore the images conjured into his brain by the phrase 'Fluff each other up', but unfortunately, he was a thirteen-year-old boy going through puberty, he couldn't quite help himself.

The blush that blazed across Hinata's face did nothing to help him either.

"Right, well, if you're all good, I'll be heading out." Kurenai spoke, kneeling down and offering her hand out to Hinata, who took it in both of her own. "If you need any help, anything at all, you can call me, OK?"

Hinata nodded earnestly, which scored a smile on her teacher's face.

"Alright." A bit of light seemed to shine in the older woman's eye. "Hah, you look so different nowadays."

Hinata blushed something fierce, looking down at the floor and avoiding eye-contact. Kurenai snuck a peak at him in the interim, and shot him a knowing smirk.

'Thank you' She mouthed silently.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as the woman made her exit, waving goodbye as she closed the training room door behind her.

Now, the seven of them were left alone, sort of wondering what it was they'd be doing.

Luckily, they weren't left waiting long. The door to the training room swung open no more than five minutes later, and in stepped a few figures Naruto didn't recognize, an assortment of Hyuga, he assumed, and two he did.

Jiraiya, and Hiashi.

"Yo!" Jiraiya called to all of them. "So, the only one who doesn't know why he's here today is Naruto, so I'll finally explain myself."

"Honestly, when you said you wanted to learn Senjutsu, I thought you were a bit dumb, but you've got conviction, and you've got heart, so I figure you might be able to do it. Still, before you can even attempt half of that stuff, you've gotta learn the basics. Chakra control, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and the likes. You've gotta' become a stronger ninja before you can learn stronger techniques, capeesh?"

He nodded, even if it wasn't really what he wanted to hear.

"Alright, Hiashi, I'll leave it to you."

The man nodded, stepping up and silencing them all with a single look. He might've improved his relationship with his daughter, and, from what Naruto could tell, with Neji as well, but that didn't mean he wanted to cross the man. Hiashi had a terrifying aura.

"The seven of you are here for one purpose. You are here to train and grow better. Over the next few weeks, we will be gauging your strengths and weaknesses with the help of multiple members of the Hyuga clan, myself included." The man said this, though, as he looked down at the rest of them, he corrected himself. "I, personally, will only be training with Hinata and Neji, but the rest of you will each be taught by some of the Hyuga's best. Master Jiraiya will also be assisting all seven of you in techniques ranging from Taijutsu to Ninjutsu. If you have any questions, you may ask them now."

No one said a word.

"Excellent. We will begin immediately. You will each split off into pairs, and take a section of the room, all of…"

The man's voice trailed off in Naruto's head as he turned towards the Hyuga who'd walked over to him. She was taller than him by a notable margin, though she seemed to have about as much muscle as him. He'd noticed that was a fairly consistent thing about the Hyuga, however. They weren't terribly built, which probably lent itself to their fast style, striking gently, with power flowing into each strike thanks to their chakra.

He wasn't necessarily thrilled to be stuck in training, but he could, at least, acknowledge the benefits of it. While he wouldn't quite be receiving the one-on-one attention he'd been wanting from Jiraiya, he'd instead be receiving an unbiased opinion from several top-tier Jonin.

Plus, it seemed he'd be getting to hang out with some of the other Genin he knew.

Oh, right… Naruto remembered. I kind of forgot I'm a Chuunin now.

He'd left his vest back in his room, placing it in a cupboard and leaving it there for the foreseeable future. He may've received the promotion, but he didn't feel worthy of it. He'd vowed that until he felt he'd earned the title of Chuunin… he wasn't going to accept that vest. He'd leave it there until he was ready, ready to take on the meaning of that title, and ready to truly become a strong ninja, like Jiraiya had said.

Speaking of the man…

What the hell were those two talking about earlier? Naruto questioned absentmindedly as he practiced strikes against the Hyuga in front of him, who blocked all of his attacks without any effort. They know something about me… about my past, or my parents, or…

Or about me.

It was agonizing, having to pretend like nothing was wrong as he kept himself moving. Still, he had no choice. Perhaps later, when he was better, when he could stand beside his friends and fight… then he'd have earned it all. That vest in his cupboard, the truth of his past…

And the title of Hokage.

/-/

Kabuto followed the back of Pain through a set of simple halls, a trickling fear hanging in the depths of his stomach.

The base they'd arrived at was far smaller than Kabuto had been expecting. It wasn't nearly as massive as one Orochimaru would've used, with interconnecting tunnels and traps built solely to confuse invaders. No, the Akatuski seemed to have banked not on a confusing design to keep out intruders…

But raw intimidation.

A few of the members stalked the rooms around him. He'd seen Kisame earlier, messing with Itachi Uchiha as the younger man tried to sleep. He'd also run into two figures he'd only ever heard about, who he could only assume were Hidan and Kakazu.

The Immortal duo, as they were called, weren't exactly a team Kabuto felt like interacting with. They didn't terrify him, but…

There was something off-putting about them. Something… sinister.

"We're here."

He looked up at Pain and nodded, letting him step to the side and make way for Kabuto to enter into the room.

It was… quaint.

Well, it was small, damp, and dank, a rather crude place to set up a laboratory, which was, at least he assumed, what he'd been given. There wouldn't be any other reason to set him up with a room. Unless, of course, this was to be the world's most unappealing bedroom.

"You will be working from here." Pain confirmed for him apathetically. "Do you have any concerns?"

He had several.

"No, thank you, sir."

Pain hummed at that.

"Your duties here will be similar to those you had under Orochimaru. You will experiment with Jutsu's and techniques the same as you did before, but you will also act as a medical ninja, healing the wounds of our members. Understood?"

He nodded.

"Good." Pain stepped away from him, and out of the room entirely. "Work well, and you will continue to survive."

Pain made to round to the corner out of the room, but before he could, Kabuto called out to him.

"What of the Jinchuuriki?" He knew he was probably pushing his luck, but he'd always been overly curious. It'd gotten him into more than a few scrapes, but he'd always survived. Besides, Pain seemed to want him around. He was going to bank on that. "What will you do with them?"

Pain stilled for a moment. His body didn't move for over three seconds, and when he finally turned around, Kabuto had an odd inkling of a feeling, like the man's entire brain had shut off in that instant.

I'll… have to look into that.

"For what reason do you require such knowledge?"

It was a fair question because he didn't have one.

"Curiosity."

There was a pregnant pause.

"Is your curiosity worth me risking a plan I've worked for my entire life?"

He knew the answer to that question.

"No."

"The only thing you need to know," Pain spoke as he approached him, towering over him despite being only a few scant centimeters taller. "Is that we will be halting our efforts towards capturing the Jinchuuriki for quite a while. During this time, we will be building resources, and taking steps to ensure that when we resume our hunts, they will be successful."

He nodded, trying to show he would be questioning no further.

"Assemble yourself a laboratory by tomorrow. You will receive your first assignments then."

He nodded as Pain made his exit. It was, presumably, a departure from this base entirely. Kabuto knew very little about the Akatsuki's operations, but he definitely knew that Pain held himself, traditionally, in the Rain Village.

He sighed out, gazing around the room as he took in what he had to work with.

It was a rather uncomplicated space, putting it nicely. At the back of the room, there was a single cot, likely set up for him to work on the living bodies of the Akatsuki, or the dead bodies of their enemies. He'd had no problems with that, truthfully, at least, until recently. He'd been doing such things under Orochimaru for years now.

Still, lately, it had started to feel… wrong somehow. Grosser, in a way he couldn't quite make himself okay with.

I'm an idiot. Kabuto summed up rather succinctly as he walked to the corner of the room, moving a few of the tools he'd been given into positions he favored. I'm too much of an idiot to even look out for myself. First I drove a wedge between Orochimaru and myself, and now, I've barely enough ground to stand on within the Akatsuki.

He was lucky Pain had wanted him, for if he hadn't… well, he wouldn't be there. Sasori would've let him die of his poison in what had once been the Sound Village.

Thoughts of his mother had been plaguing him, affecting him. He'd fallen so far into them that he'd risked his own skin for the sake of two random people. He'd have let them die in a heartbeat not a year back, even to avoid a simple injury.

He hated the way thinking of his mother made him feel, and yet…

She'd… she'd be proud of me.

He wanted to deny the warm feeling he felt in his chest. He wanted to deny that he didn't feel pride in the simple thought of it. He wanted to deny that he wished he could escape all of this, that he wished he could go and just be…

Kabuto. The boy whose name had come from a helmet, found scattered next to his half-dead body.

Who was Kabuto, though?

He'd been asking himself such a question long before now. Even going back to when he'd first infiltrated the Hidden Stone, to when he'd found his mother dead on the end of his blade, to when Orochimaru had picked him up and molded him like putty.

Who was he supposed to be?

Mother… do you know? He wanted to ask the woman. Do you know… who I'm supposed to be?

Just as before, and as always…

He received no response.

/-/

"Training with them is exhausting! I swear, we've been going at it for hours, me barely hanging on and at the end of my rope, and then Tenzo will be all," Sakura places her hands on her hips, and scrunches up her face, doing a fairly bad, if not admittedly funny impression of her Wood Style teacher. ""Well, we've only just arrived at the hard part! You'll need to actually try now, Sakura." Uuuuugh."

The girl leaned back, stretching herself out on the grassy knoll the three of them sat upon. They'd decided, for some odd, unknown reason, to camp out in the Third Training Ground. It wasn't exactly a picnic, given that it was the middle of summer, and the only things eating were the thousands of mosquitoes that swarmed around them.

"Honestly, at this point, I'd rather Anko just mercy-kill me." The girl spoke, groaning into the air as she released her frustrations. "It'd be waaaay easier."

"I get you." Sasuke nodded from Sakura's left side, laying opposite Naruto on her right. "Kenjutsu is interesting, but I don't think I realized just how much I'd have to learn just to start on the basics. I've been at it for a week, and yet I feel like I've learned nothing but forms."

Naruto snorted.

"Tell me about it. Between Lee, Neji, and all the Hyuga masters around, I'm being mashed into the dirt nearly twenty-four-seven. I win my fights every once in a while, but, well, the trainers usually call them off before I can hit my second wind."

"And then your third wind." Sakura giggled. "And then the fourth. Honestly, your real strength is just refusing to stay down. Eventually, your opponents just get tired of dealing with you and give up."

"I'm going to try and take that positively."

"Good luck with that."

Sasuke smirked at the two of them, even as he sat up.

"So, Naruto, you've been training with…"

"Kiba, Shino, Neji, Lee, Tenten, and Hinata." He explained. "Hiashi did it as a show of good faith for Hinata, I think, inviting her whole team to train alongside her, and the same for Neji. I don't know if it's totally earned their trusts, or if it's done much at all, really, but… it's a start."

"Sometimes that's all you can do." Sakura seemed to agree. "Start. Make up for your actions as best you can."

"Speaking of," He segued. "How are things with you and Ino?"

That seemed to dampen Sakura's mood slightly. The girl let out a rather exasperated sigh, seemingly trying to bury herself into the hill behind her with the back of her head.

"Complicated." The girl summed up. "Messy, and complicated. She and Haku… It doesn't take a genius to see that what they have isn't healthy. For either of them. Haku can't totally rely upon Ino, and I'm sure even Ino can't cope for long with being entirely relied upon. At some point, they're going to have to address the elephant in the room."

She sighed, a long, drawn out thing.

"I just hope that when they do, it's not too late."

He hummed as he nodded, trying to let that particular conversation topic die where it stood. He wanted to help his friend as best he could, but, well, he knew for a fact that nothing he had to say was solving that particular dilemma, at least not tonight.

"I've got to admit," Sasuke seemed to feel the same, changing the subject without thinking much on tact. "I appreciate that Yugao pushes me to my limit, but a lot of the time I wish Hayate was the only one training me. Maybe that makes me weak, but he seems to actually know how to teach, as opposed to miss-purple-hair, who seems to only know how to try and rip me in half."

"How's Kakashi been?" Sakura asked, turning to her… boyfriend? Naruto had sort of been informed, but things were weird. "He's been acting all weird ever since we got back from that mission, were you able to figure out why?"

"I have a guess." Sasuke nodded. "I'm pretty sure Tobi… the guy with the orange mask, is actually his old friend Obito Uchiha."

Naruto's eyes widened minutely. He didn't really care who it was the man used to be, but to hear that Kakashi had a connection to him… that was something.

"That's pretty messed up." Sakura summed up his thoughts rather succinctly. "What's he planning on doing?"

"Well, he's training me, but I think he's also trying to expand on some of what he can do. He's been pushing himself hard, using multiple different Jutsu's. Just yesterday, he hit me with all five chakra natures in a row."

"Sounds brutal." Naruto commented.

"It is. Still, even I can tell he's buffing up his chakra, increasing the amount over and over. It's gradual, but… from when we first started, he can already cast an extra Jutsu per session. Over the course of a few years? That could be a pretty big deal."

Naruto nodded in agreement, but found their conversation gradually fade as the background noise of the night set in around them. Crickets called from just beyond the tree line, echoing out alongside thousands of other fauna.

"Did anyone bring a tent?" He asked.

"No, why?"

"I was just thinking… maybe we should stay out here for tonight?" Naruto turned to the other two. "I mean… it's nice out, right? And I feel like the three of us never get to just… hang out together like we used to."

"Are you kidding? We're getting devoured by mosquitoes!" The pink-haired kunoichi spoke as she swatted a particularly large one on her neck. "And besides, we've practically gone to Ichiraku every day this week."

"First off," Naruto raised his hand in mock protest. "Semantics. Second, I meant more along the lines of… when we were kids, and we'd spend the whole day together, and train, and hang out until dark. I feel like we haven't done that in years."

Another bout of silence, though this time, it was cured by Sakura standing up, and making a few signs with her hands as she sighed. She walked forward and off of the hill, until she came to a generally flat area.

"Help me with this." The girl spoke as she slammed her hands into the ground. "Earth Style: Mud wall!"

A decently sized chunk of earth shot up from out of the ground, and then a second a scant few seconds later, as Sakura repeated the Jutsu. She got on the opposite side of one of the walls, and signaled for them to come over.

"Push the other one towards me."

Naruto smiled widely as he realized what they were making and dashed over. He pushed his full body weight against the structure, and with Sasuke's help, the chunk of mud and rock finally budged after a good twenty or so seconds. It slammed into the other side, forming a makeshift earthen tent.

"It doesn't really have a back." Sasuke commented absently.

Sakura groaned as she formed another series of seals, and formed one final wall, just behind the structure. It jutted out horribly, a square trying to close the gap left in a triangle, but it was… somehow hilarious to Naruto. He found himself cracking up as he dove into their new tent, even as the other two joined him.

"Happy?" Sakura asked him with an amused expression.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto laughed leaning against the back wall and finding it to be fairly supportive. "Just like old times!"

"Feels a bit weird for a couple of thirteen-year-olds to be saying that," Sasuke breathed out a laugh. "But sure."

They sat inside the 'tent' for a while, just sort of existing. It wasn't that long before Naruto himself came up with an idea, one that promised to shake the very world to its core.

"Hey, so… We're all Chuunin now, right?"

The other two looked towards him suspiciously, already seeing something wrong with the wry smile on his face.

"Yes… Why?"

"I was just thinking… what if we did a little competition?"

The other two, despite claiming to be infinitely more mature than him, were definitely still intrigued by the idea.

"Okay, shoot." Sakura asked of him. "What's this competition?"

"Well, we're all training under our masters, getting better… So why don't we race to see who's the first to get Jonin?"

His friend's eyes widened, and he could see the small grain of intrigue growing larger, more encompassing.

"Alright." Sasuke pondered, rubbing a hand on his chin. "Sure, the idea's sound enough. Gives us another reason to aim for the stars with our training. But you never explained something. The first one to Jonin gets… what?"

Naruto hadn't really considered that.

"…Bragging rights?"

Sakura snorted.

"Sounds like a bit of a shitty reward if you ask me."

"Big fan of bragging rights myself," Sasuke added onto the girls criticism. "But even I have to agree."

He slapped his best friend on the arm, earning a small snicker from both of them.

"Seriously, though… it's a good plan. I like it." Sasuke smirked. "You two will have to work on that reward though, I'd like something nicer than bragging rights when I win."

He bristled slightly.

"You're all buying me ramen for a year when I win!"

"Only a year? Think bigger, Naruto." Sakura patted him on the back. "Why not your entire life?"

He hadn't even considered such power.

"That one." He corrected himself. "I'll take the life ramen."

"How hopelessly pedestrian." Sasuke spoke edgily, as he occasionally did.

""How hopelessly pedestrian!" Y'know, Sasuke, I'm quite fond of you, but you sound really lame sometimes." Sakura smirked.

"What?"

"She's right." Naruto confirmed for the boy as he held back a laugh. "Totally lame."

"Oi! Fine, when I get Jonin, I'm making you memorize a dictionary, Naruto!"

"You know it'd all just bounce off of him." Sakura rounded back on him this time. "He couldn't handle it. He'd spontaneously combust."

"Whose side are you on, Sakura!?"

"I'm on the side of justice!"

"And you say I sound lame…"

"Hey!"

Their laughter rang out across the Third Training ground for the next hour or two as they droned on and on. They spoke of their competition, sure, but of their lives apart, and together.

It wasn't much of a camp-out. They had no cooking utensils, and no food to be cooked either. They had no door to keep out mosquitoes, and a few thousand of the damned things. Hell, they were sleeping on the grassy earth beneath them, having brought no beddings of any kind.

Still, as they fell asleep with nothing but a dirt wall above them, alone in shielding them from the elements, Naruto couldn't help but smile.

They had each other, and for tonight, at least…

That was enough.

End Chapter 58

And so Part 1 comes to a close!

Hope you guys liked this chapter! I worked ahead for a few weeks so I could get this how I wanted it. It's not perfect... but meh, it rarely is. I don't think I've ever released a chapter I was 100% happy with.

It's been really cool having you all with me on this adventure! I've got the next few arcs loosely planned out, but major events are there and all that jazz. We're not done yet, not even close to done, really, but we're probably more than halfway through. In terms of word count, at least. Unless I'm wrong, in which case... shit.

And so the hiatus begins! This story will be taking a break for around a month. Maybe more, maybe less, but it should fall within a week of that deadline either way.

Anyways, I suppose I'll see you all next chapter!