Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

The next day, the lazy Hatake and his student went to check up on the rest of the team, as per Sasuke's request. After checking at the hot springs, the Jounin led Sasuke to a training field, where Ebisu and Sakura were training by the water.

"How's training going, Ebisu?" Kakashi asked lazily, looking at the Special Jounin from over the top of his book.

"Your student is truly remarkable, Kakashi!" Ebisu declared. "Sakura-san was able to do ever exercise I asked her to demonstrate perfectly. Not only that, she has shown a great aptitude for chakra control. I showed her water-walking, and she mastered it within half an hour!"

"What else were you going to teach her?" Sasuke cut in, glancing at Sakura, who was going through simple taijutsu forms.

Ebisu seemed to glare at Sasuke from behind his black glasses, as if chastising him for his rudeness. "Since there is very little I can help her with, I was going to have her re-master the basics of being a ninja, from taijutsu to ninjutsu. The better she is at the basic things, the better she will be when she moves on to advanced techniques with her Jounin-sensei."

Sasuke irritably looked at Kakashi before motioning to his teammate. "Let's go train, Sakura!" he called, walking away.

Kakashi ignored his departing students, looking around the clearing. "By the way, where is Naruto?"

Ebisu seemed to get even more annoyed at that question. "He left with a white haired man at the hot springs," the man told Kakashi, who perked up at that statement. "I haven't seen him since, and frankly, I don't want to. That boy is very rude."

"Is that so?" Kakashi said under his breath, putting away his book. "Anyway, I'm going to take Sakura off your hands. Sasuke has been rather vocal about her training: he believes she needs much more training if she is going to do any good against the Sound Ninja.

Ebisu nodded. "I understand. She doesn't really need any help from me: she's already mastered all of the basics. What she needs now is someone who can teach her advanced techniques, a mentor of sorts."

"Do you have anyone in mind?" Kakashi asked.

Ebisu frowned at him. "Why can't you teach her?"

"Sasuke will be facing a bloodthirsty Sand-nin who has an absolute defense," Kakashi replied. "I need to teach him how to get around that and survive, and I can't do that while helping the others. It's why I wanted you to look after them."

Ebisu nodded at that. "Well, I know of someone who could use a good student right about now. That is, if you could convince her to teach Sakura."

Kakashi is the laziest bastard ever, Sasuke thought, staring at his Sensei and his companion as they approached the two members of Team Seven.

It was a rather annoying trait. Kakashi could have taught Sakura about almost anything. The Jounin was adept in illusions, a skilled hand to hand fighter, and a genius at ninjutsu: after all, the man was said to have over a thousand techniques memorized, and from what Sasuke had seen, he was very skilled in all of the basic elements.

Instead, the man brought in yet another teacher to pawn his students off on while he wasted a month teaching an Uchiha (with Sharingan!) ONE technique.

No wonder I ran off to Orochimaru, Sasuke thought irritably.

Now that man knew how to teach! He had an incredible work ethic (you had to, to try to learn every technique in the world), many people that Sasuke could spar with, and was not afraid to share Secret Techniques.

Sure he was rather… inhuman. But everyone had their quirks.

"Sakura!" Kakashi called, drawing his teammate's attention. "I've brought another teacher to help you out."

Sakura took one glance at the woman and shuddered in horror, taking a large step back. "That's—"

"Mitarashi Anko," Sasuke finished.

Their eyes met briefly. He gazed at her with cold indifference. She looked back with a strange look—it was hard to read, but he could see the undeniable interest in him, probably because of his encounter with the Serpent.

Sasuke had known that she was Orochimaru's disciple, in that way that he knew Naruto was blond, the sky is blue, and people are stupid. Never knew how much he affected her, though.

The moment passed, and Anko directed her interest (and lack thereof) to Sakura. "Kakashi's hired me to teach you. Let's see what you've got."

Sakura visibly gulped.

"Why'd you pick her?" Sasuke asked when Kakashi finally pulled him aside for their training. "Does she have some special skills to teach Sakura?"

Kakashi gave him a bored look as he rooted around in his hip-pouch. "Anko is on leave right now, but I heard she was feeling bored. I asked if she could help Sakura, and she said yes. She's a skilled Shinobi, and I'm sure we'll see good things from Sakura after they're through training."

Sasuke looked back at the girls. Anko was throwing weapons at Sakura, who was doing her best to dodge without becoming a pincushion. "You think it will help?"

"Every bit helps," Kakashi asserted, echoing young Sasuke's words to Naruto.

Sasuke decided to put it out of his mind. "Let's train then."

Kakashi's hand came out of his pouch, holding a piece of tan paper. "We'll start by checking your elemental affinity. Channel chakra through this."

Sasuke plucked the paper out of Kakashi's grasp and trickled a bit of energy into it. The paper instantly deformed, wrinkling into a ball that seemed blackened, as if held over a fire.

"Lightning and fire," Kakashi noted, touching the warm paper. "A potent combination."

"Now what?" Sasuke prompted, letting the paper fall away.

Kakashi scratched his chin as if in thought. "Well, you have the chakra requirements down, and I could teach you the technique right now…" he mused aloud.

"Then?" Sasuke prompted, impatience welling up within him.

"But instead, we'll do physical training!" Kakashi announced cheerfully, ignoring Sasuke's glare. "We need to get you as fast as Rock Lee before the exams. After all, we can't put all of our hopes in one technique!"

Sasuke spat out, "Let's get to it then," oblivious to the predatory gleam in Kakashi's eye.

A wheezing Genin shakily pushed himself up to his knees, staring up at his Sensei's silhouette in the sunset—a malevolent visage that seemed to judge him for every wrong he had every committed.

"Why are you doing this?" Sasuke gasped, almost collapsing in his journey to his feet, knees trembling as he tried to get in a fighting stance.

"What are you talking about?" Kakashi asked innocently, reaching into his pouch to pull out his Adults-Only novel. "This is all part of your training, you know. I heard that Might Guy trains his students this way every day. Surely it's not that difficult, Uchiha-kun?"

Oh Kami…he's mad at me, Sasuke realized.

"After all, a strong ninja such as you is able to handle everything, right?" Kakashi continued, snapping open his book. "You don't really need a Jounin to help you out, right?"

"Is this because I stonewalled you with the cursed seal?" Sasuke asked slowly, as he tried to catch his breath.

"It's a number of things, Sasuke," Kakashi announced. "You regularly ignore me, and when you do speak to me, it feels as if you're talking down to me. When I tried to help you, you pushed me away, and ignored my concerns. Frankly, I wonder if you even want to be on this team, or even in our village."

Sasuke didn't know how to respond to that: or at least, how to respond in a way that wouldn't draw any more attention to him.

"I have a lot on my plate, Kakashi," Sasuke said, looking away.

Kakashi seemed to accept that response as adequate. He sighed and gave his student a knowing glance. "You know, we're all here to help if you need anything. You don't have to go through life alone."

"If I need anything," Sasuke stated, locking gazes with his teacher, "You'll be the first person I'll go to."

Kakashi nodded. "That's all I ask for, Sasuke," he said, before looking down at his book. "Let's continue training."

About a week passed before Naruto came by to check on his teammates.

"Sakura's been having a rough time, huh?" the blond asked, coming out of the foliage to greet Sasuke.

"Where the hell have you been?" Sasuke asked back, firing an arrow into his distant targets. "You've been gone a week and now you bother showing up?"

"I've been training with Jiraiya-sensei!" Naruto protested. "He's got me working my ass off."

"Didn't you tell me numerous times that all the man does is peep on women?" Sasuke sniped, not bothering to look at his teammate. "What the hell does he teach you anyway?"

"Why have you been acting like an ass lately?" Naruto shot back, moving closer to his angry teammate. "I've heard from Sakura about how you've been talking back to everyone, and ignoring her. I thought you were getting better, that you didn't want to be a bad guy, that you didn't want to be like future-Sasuke."

Sasuke stopped in the middle of drawing back his bow, seemingly considering his teammates words. "Why'd you tell me about the visions anyway?" he asked back, frowning. "I've been wondering about that, you know. When he—I—received the future knowledge, I stayed silent for five years. You knew about it for a week before seeking me out. Why?"

"You acted differently from the Sasuke I knew," Naruto replied. "So I wanted to see why, just in case something happened that I needed to know about. When I saw you dressed like him, I decided to ask—"

"'The Sasuke I knew'," Sasuke interrupted. "What does that mean?"

Naruto froze for a second, before giving his teammate a blinding grin. "I just messed up my words, ya know? I meant—"

"You came back to the past, and played along when I said that it was all visions," Sasuke guessed, finally glancing at his teammate. "Is that right?"

Naruto twitched, before switching tracks. His grin disappeared as he cocked his head at the Uchiha. "Yeah. I'm not like you. I'm from the future. It's not like it changes anything though."

"It explains your maturity," Sasuke mused. "But I wonder how you got back in the first place."

"Something to do with the Nine-tails," Naruto told him, crossing his arms. "I'd rather not talk about it. What about you? Do you know why you got those visions?"

Sasuke considered telling him the truth for a second.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "But I'm making the best of them."

They stood in silence for a few minutes before Naruto spoke again. "I can't talk to you without an epic confrontation, can I?"

"Apparently not," Sasuke said dryly, returning to his training. "Anyway, what were you saying about Sakura?"

"She looks really beat up!" Naruto exclaimed, latching onto the mundane topic. "Crazy Snake Lady is really pushing her hard!"

Sasuke just snorted at that.

A few days later, the Uchiha had his confrontation with Mitarashi Anko.

"Great job," Kakashi called out from behind his book. "You've gotten pretty fast; maybe fast enough to go on to the next part of training. Take the rest of the day off. We'll resume tomorrow."

Sasuke nodded, stretching his sore muscles. "That sounds great, Kakashi," he replied.

Kakashi's eye curved in his trademark smile before the Jounin vanished in a swirl of leaves, leaving his student alone in the woods.

"AH!"

A red and pink blur flew past him, going into the woods that surrounded the training grounds Kakashi had commandeered and modified with Earth techniques.

"That's enough for now, Pinky!" called out Anko, who leaped in through the trees to stand next to Sasuke. "Take a break, we'll resume in a half hour!"

Sasuke gave her a glance as he finished his last stretch, and as luck would have it, she met his gaze. "Hey there, Sasuke-san," she greeted, her eyes curving with a pleasant grin.

"Hey," Sasuke replied in a half-grunt, preparing to walk off.

"Kakashi been working you hard?" she asked.

"I guess," he replied, beginning his voyage away from the area.

"Well," she continued, "How about a spar? All you've been doing is running around; I'm sure you have enough energy for a friendly fight."

Sasuke stopped in his tracks, glancing over his shoulder to her friendly face.

What could you be planning? Is this why you agreed to train Sakura? To get closer to me?

"If I win, you buy me dango!" Anko said, still smiling.

"Why not?" he mused out loud, turning around to face her. "Let's go."

He had almost no warning at all before she was upon him. However, the half second she took to cross the space between them was just enough to activate his Sharingan and duck under her outstretched knee.

"So close!" she crowed, landing behind him and launching a spinning kick that almost twisted his arm out of his socket as it glanced off his elbow.

Sasuke leapt as hard as he could away from the woman, drawing his bow to snap off a few shots. "Take this!" he called back, infusing the shots with a spark of lightning chakra.

"Not good enough!" she shouted, swiping the arrows aside as she followed, appearing above him in a flash of brown and tan.

Sasuke didn't have enough time to dodge this time. He blocked instinctively, shattering the bow before grabbing the crazy bitch and attempting to throw her into the ground.

Her small hand curled around his wrist instead, and she let herself be thrown, only to land on her feet and pull Sasuke into a similar attack, smashing him into the ground with ease.

"You've got to do better than that, Sasuke-kun~" she crooned, dragging him up just to toss him into a tree.

Sasuke was able to adjust himself in the air and land on the tree, but he found himself regretting ever accepting her offer to spar as her fist met smashed into his jaw, smashing him into another tree, where he slid to the ground.

"C'mon then, Sasuke-chan~" she taunted, walking towards him with a manic grin on her face. "Show me what you can do~"

Sasuke glared at her, barely resisting the urge to call upon Juugo's power as he tried to lurch to—

That's why! He suddenly realized her motivation. She wanted to see if he would give into the Curse Mark that they believed he had.

Well, if it was still there I probably would have used it, he thought to himself, getting to his feet and facing her. As it is, I'm not going to let a little curse control me.

"Well?" Anko asked, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm waiting. In fact, I'll let you hit me once," she tapped her cheek, "right here."

"You've already won," Sasuke responded, tentatively feeling his ribs. "I'm leaving."

She obviously wasn't expecting that. "Eh?" she asked with a surprised blink.

"I'm just a Genin," he replied, giving her a dry look. "And you've already shown me that I've got a ways to go before taking on a Jounin."

In a way, it was a good lesson. He had thought that he was skilled; now, he knew where he lay, and he had a long road ahead of him.

It didn't mean he had to like it, but it was there.

"Oi!" Anko called. "Aren't we gonna finish? C'mon, one free shot!"

"Screw you!" Sasuke shouted back, walking away. "I'm going to the hospital! I think you broke something, you crazy bitch, and I'm not talking about my bow!"

After a few seconds of silence, she appeared at his side, grabbing his shoulder. "All right then, let me check."

Anko poked and prodded him for a few seconds with glowing fingers before giving her diagnosis. "You'll be fine, you big baby."

Sasuke grunted, slapping away her hands. "Fine, now let me rest."

"No," she replied, before grabbing his arm and dragging him off. "You're going to buy me dango, remember?"

"What about Sakura?"

Anko waved her hand dismissively. "She'll be fine."

I see you've inherited none of Orochimaru's work ethic, Sasuke thought, glaring at her back.

"So," began Anko, "What happened in the forest of death, anyway?"

"Why do you want to know?" Sasuke asked.

Dusk had fallen over Konoha. The two ninja sat in the shade of a dango stand, finished with their dinner. Anko had eaten quite a bit, but it wasn't as bad as treating Naruto to ramen; she at least had some manners, and waited until the end of the meal to begin grilling him.

"I heard you met my former master, Orochimaru."

"Is that what they say?"

Anko glared at him. "I fought him in the forest, and he told me to my face that he had attacked and marked you with the Cursed Seal, so stop acting so damned secretive. Tell me what happened."

"I…" Sasuke paused, searching for the right words to say, "I fought him. He threw us around as if we were toys, but I fought well enough that he said he'd spare us. He bit me, and whatever he did knocked me out. Sakura told me I was sick for a few days, but when I woke up, everything was alright again. I don't have any cursed seal that I know of."

Anko grunted, looking down at her empty plate. "When I checked you after our spar, I couldn't feel any of its chakra, so I guess you're okay. Still, you better watch out. He's a crazy, devious man, and he's interested in you."

"I'll be fine," Sasuke asserted.

Anko gave him a glance that spoke volumes about what she thought of that. "Well, if you ever need anything, I'll be glad to help."

Sasuke nodded.

"Well, you've got the speed down, and the chakra capacity for it," Kakashi announced at the beginning of their third week, "So, it's time to put it to use and learn the technique."

"Can I use my Sharingan for it?" Sasuke asked, "To make the process faster?"

Kakashi shrugged. "You can use it to memorize the seals, but it's better if you went through each step and practice it several times."

Sasuke's eyes flickered, black giving way to red. "Let's get to it then."

"Hold on, Sasuke," Kakashi said. "We're going to talk about the technique first. It's not just a fist full of lightning chakra. You should know what you're getting into before we start."

Sasuke stopped himself from frowning. "Okay."

"Well," Kakashi began, "It's a fist full of focused lightning chakra. When you hit something with it, it doesn't just shock it: it destroys it, just as a lightning bolt from the sky can smash into a tree. It's not as focused as a knife or a wind technique, but it is very effective in putting holes in someone and keeping them down. Got it?"

"Yeah," Sasuke agreed. "It's strong, and I should be careful with it."

"Now, the reason I had you work on your speed and strength up to now is to be able to control the technique," the Jounin continued. "If you hit someone too slowly, you could get hurt by the discharge. You need to hit quickly, and make it powerful enough that all that power goes forward. The technique also speeds you up even more than normal, and without the Sharingan to speed up your reflexes and vision, it can get out of hand, making it hard to see if someone attacks from the side while you're charging."

"Do you have that problem often?" Sasuke asked. Whenever I used it later on, it was easy to control.

"Not as much anymore," Kakashi told him. "I can usually change direction if I have to do it in the middle of a charge, but when I was young and didn't have the Sharingan, it was really hard to control, and nearly impossible to change direction. You'll get used to it if you use it enough, eventually. Anything else?"

"Not really," Sasuke replied. "It's straightforward enough, from when I saw you use it."

"It is, but it's still powerful, and I don't think many people could learn to use it effectively, if it all," Kakashi said. "You need a solid amount of chakra, and a decent lightning affinity. I created it, and I haven't shown many people how to use it. I believe some Cloud-nin have their own versions, but they aren't as explosive as mine. Ready to start?"

"Yeah."

"You caught on faster than I'd imagined," Kakashi told him a few hours later.

"What can I say?" Sasuke responded, with no little amount of pride as he pulled his arm away from the boulder the Jounin had created. "I'm a natural with lightning."

Kakashi's eye glinted with something akin to amusement. "Well, at least it means we can work on other things for the rest of the month."

"Like what?" Sasuke asked.

Before Kakashi could respond, Anko walked into the clearing with a weary Sakura, drawing the two male's attention.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun!" the Special Jounin called out in her boisterous manner. "I've got something for you."

"What is it?" Sasuke asked semi-politely, mindful of Kakashi's curious gaze.

"Well, since I broke your bow in our spar," Anko explained, "I got you a new one."

Honestly, Sasuke hadn't given it much thought. There were a couple more back at the Uchiha Compound, and archery was more of young Sasuke's thing. He had just picked it up as another tactic to be used, and for the occasional stress relief. "Really now?"

"Yep!" Anko reached into her trench coat and pulled out a small scroll. A few quick gestures later, she held some strange monstrosity in her grasp. "Here you go!"

Sasuke took it from her outstretched hands. "What the hell is this?"

Sakura spoke up. "I've seen that type in a book: it's a recurve bow."

Sasuke stared down at the thing. The bows that the Uchiha had were simple things: long curved pieces of wood with a taut string. This weapon Anko had gotten him had more curves and was short; much easier to carry around, especially at his age.

"I've seen Samurai with that type of bow," Kakashi commented. "It fires arrows faster than a normal bow, and easier to use while running."

"Give it a try," Anko said, holding out a full quiver that she pulled out of the scroll.

Sasuke slowly put on the string. "It's hard to move," he noted, before readying an arrow. "Much harder."

He fired it at one of the targets he had littering the training field, and watched as the shaft buried itself within the wood.

This is good, he thought, staring at the new bow. This is actually practical in a fight! I can work with this, no problem.

A normal ninja treated his old shots as a mere nuisance, on par with a fast shuriken or kunai. But the arrows fired from this were fast, and strong.

"Well," Kakashi spoke, interrupting his musings, "Shall we continue training?"

"You have a fun month?" Naruto asked his teammates on the evening before their exam.

"It was horrible," Sakura moaned, burying her head in her hands. "Anko-sensei is a slave driver! She basically beat me up the entire month!"

"But you did learn something, right?" Naruto asked.

Her reply was muffled. "No! I hate her!"

"I saw some of it," Sasuke said, "She did teach Sakura some earth techniques, nothing too big, and how to handle things like senbon later. They mostly sparred and practiced things."

"I could have taught her more!" Naruto said.

Sasuke shook his head. "No, you couldn't. You had a few weeks to try, and look how that turned out."

"Here's your first bowls, on the house!" the ramen chef announced, cutting their argument before it could start.

"Thanks Teuchi-jisan!"

"Thank you."

"Thanks."

A few minutes of quiet eating (and Naruto slurping) passed before Sakura broke the silence. "What about you, Naruto? What did you do?"

"It was great!" Naruto replied between slurps. "I met Jiraiya of the Sannin, whose a huge pervert, and he showed me how to summon toads, and even a technique the Yondaime made!"

"That sounds nice," Sakura replied, trying to ignore his horrible table manners.

"I also saw Lee at the hospital," Naruto added, "I met Gaara there."

Sasuke glanced up from his tomato ramen. "What happened?"

"We talked."

"Hm."

A few more moments of silence passed.

Naruto spoke. "Don't hurt him too much."

"Oh?"

"I'll talk some sense into him."

"Be careful," said Sakura, drawing the boys' attention. "You saw what he did to Lee. I don't want you guys to get hurt."

"Don't worry," they both said at the same time.

Somewhere in Konoha

"So, what should we do about Sasuke?" Kabuto asked. "From what I heard around the hospital, they haven't done anything about his Cursed Seal. They aren't even aware of its existence."

"I'll take Sasuke-kun when the time is right," Orochimaru said, smirking at his loyal man. "He'll be my new vessel, and with the Sharingan, nothing will stand in my way. If he's actually hiding his Seal, well, that just shows how sneaky he is… how greedy he is. He'll come to me when the lure of power becomes too much."

"All your plans have fallen into place," Kabuto noted.

"Yes, nothing can stop me now…unless you decide to turn on me."

They both exchanged smirks and sharp-eyed glances.

"I would never help Konoha," Kabuto finally declared. "Not after all they've done."

"Danzo was always foolish," Orochimaru agreed. "We'll meet after the battle, standing over the Sandaime's corpse."

Kabuto nodded. "Until then."

They parted, sinking into the night shadows.

A/N: I've finished this right in the middle of my Govt class. I've started college, and all my free time is tied up in homework. I'm majoring in Comp. Engineering, you see, so it's not exactly easy. However, if I've got time, I'll probably work on this.

If you have any questions, ask them. If you found some errors with my work, tell me. I don't have a beta, and I do all editing myself, which should explain some problems. If you want to beta, ask.

Please review: this is my first multi-chapter story, and I'd like to get some opinions.