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[snakecharmerfic]

chapter four

Ryuu moaned as he entered his team's usual training sector the following morning. His stomach kept growling and, he wasn't a doctor or anything, but he was pretty sure it was eating itself and all because he skipped breakfast.

The most important meal of the day. His favorite meal of the day right next to lunch. And dinner. And snack time. And dessert.

The sun wasn't making it any easier; he was all sweaty and sticky and weak. He'd never felt like death was upon him like this, not even when Eiko's gotten so close to throttling him.

At least he was in the shade now. That's what he liked about the Training Grounds. They were located a little off from the village and into one of the forests of molave trees that surrounded it. Within it, there are divisions of sectors for teams and groups, with tunnels rooted underground and a well-hidden station where shinobi guard were posted.

They're mostly trackers, like Karin-sensei, but not as good. That way they had a grip and a feel on who was in the forest and were kept aware and alert. Like an extension of the Otokage, since, as powerful as he was, he couldn't reach here from his office.

Ryuu inhaled and looked around, dropping to the ground and rolling the rest of the way into his team's sector, his pack forgotten.

"I'm starvin'," he whined.

"Oh shut up," Eiko was quick to reply, never looking up from her kunai.

Ryuu lied on the ground, arms and legs spread out and his stomach growling demands for food. He was almost tempted to sneak something out of his bento… He opened an eye, looking around the grounds and sparing his two teammates a glance.

Sensei didn't seem to be around yet… He would never know!

"Did Sensei come in yet?"

"Do you see him?" Eiko asked back.

Ryuu rolled his eyes and leaned his weight on his elbows, shaking his head a bit to get rid of any loose blades of grass and leaves from his messy dark spikes. "Well no! But he could be off preparin' or som'n, what do I know?"

"Apparently nothin'," Eiko replied, setting her kunai down and picking up another. "What did you expect with gettin' a new sensei, much more, havin' him be the Otokage? We're gonna be second to anythin', to everythin'."

Ryuu went quiet at that, his painful hunger suddenly forgotten. Slowly, he turned his attention to Yukio, their eyes connecting and a quiet question, a quiet plea of reassurance of all that being a lie, mirroring their expressions.

Sighing loudly, he stood up. He stretched his limbs; he half-paid attention to Eiko as she continued to meticulously inspect her kunai set, set them aside, and inspect them again. Yukio was not too far off, also preparing for whatever this survival training was.

He was rolling up his chakra string into a neater ball, checking the points of his shuriken in case of they were sharp enough and bringing his finger to his mouth as if to soothe the tender tip.

Ryuu wondered how long they were like that; it must have been really long if Eiko shrieked in annoyance and jumped to her feet. He was just about to amend that thought when she began a rant about tardiness.

"And who does he even think he is—"

"The Otokage," he and Yukio said together, albeit very quietly.

"—to come late and keep us waitin'?! The nerve! I bet he's fuckin' scared we're goin' to kick his ass—"

And that ended with another shriek and a loud grunt as she fell to the ground after being spectacularly tripped much like she had been the day before. Ryuu's lips twitched into a slow, wide grin.

"H—ello," Sasuke-sensei greeted.

He stood right behind where Eiko had been, his hands on his hips, and his upper body bent forwards just a bit as he smirked down at Eiko after successfully tripping her for the second time. Ryuu really hoped this was going to be a thing because wow.

He tried to swallow a snicker except that was impossible so he kind of looked away and only snickered more when he noticed Yukio pressing his fist against his own amused smile.

"Apologies for being a bit late. I overslept. My meeting ran a bit late last night. Blame Karin, she nags a lot. I hate her."

"I love her," Ryuu defended almost immediately, staring at Sasuke-sensei with a look of betrayal. How could he go and say something like that?

Sasuke-sensei paused to spare him a look of both disgust and worry before he blinked his eye and cleared his throat. "Right. Anyway."

He pressed his foot on Eiko's back to keep her in place when she'd made to stand up. This made her scream some more and that only fueled Sasuke-sensei's smirk. Ryuu was fascinated with Sensei's evil ways but mostly he was having a ball watching Eiko getting destroyed by something as simple as getting tripped.

Sensei straightened up and it was only then that Ryuu noticed the small pack he'd brought along with him. He swung it around his hip, opened it enough to shove a hand in and pull out… an alarm…clock?

He and Yukio spared each other a similar questioning glance. Eiko was still on the ground.

"So," Sasuke-sensei said as he moved away from Eiko, giving her a chance to roll away and stand up, much to Ryuu's disappointment. "I'm gonna set the alarm to noon."

He dropped the alarm down on the flat head of one of the dummies. Then, he turned to them, reaching into his pack once again. When he pulled his hand back out, it was curled into a fist and he did not open it until he'd removed his pack and set it down and away where it did not disturb him.

Seeing this, Ryuu, Yukio and Eiko did so as well so that there was nothing on them but their weapons pouch.

Sensei extended a hand out to them and then opened his hand. He held two small bells by two red strings and the forest's customary soft breeze made them jingle ominously.

"So these two bells," Sasuke-sensei drawled. "Your mission is to take them from me before that alarm goes off at noon. Whoever doesn't have a bell by the time noon comes around… gets no lunch."

Ryuu doubled over instantly, his arms wrapped around his stomach, wheezing as he imagined the cruel torture of watching Yukio and Eiko have such amazing meals while he withered and died of starvation.

Sensei was evil.

"Come at me with the intentions to kill," Sensei said, his only eye glinting, his smirk looking feral. "It's the only way you'll make progress. Besides, there are only two bells and three of you so no doubt one of you will go without lunch." He tilted his head as he watched them, calm, as if he were talking about the weather. He was so casual about this too, it made Ryuu feel less relax and more anxious. "Ah, I almost forgot. If you fail… You will be sent back to the Academy."

"What?!" Ryuu and Eiko both demanded.

Sensei said nothing else.

There was silence in the clearing and the breeze blew by, coaxing the blades of grass to sing and the leaves above to rustle. Ryuu felt his teammates, much like himself, tense up while Sasuke-sensei remained relaxed in front of them, the bells still in between his fingers.

There was a tiny ball of apprehension in the center of his chest as he watched him, waited. Waited. Studied him and his every move; the softness in his limbs, the slouch in his shoulders.

And then his smirk stretched further into a crooked grin.

"Okay," Sensei snickered.

Ryuu held his breath.

"Begin."

-

First and foremost, Yukio concentrated on his breathing.

He hid under a thick bush, his front flat against the ground. He shifted a bit, squinting an eye when he felt some of the tiny branches pulling at his hair. Still, he watched the clearing and the way that Sensei still stood where they'd left him.

He had his head tilted down, his hands crossed in front of his chest. From this angle, he almost looked like he was dozing off.

Yukio pressed his lips together, slowly lifting a hand up to swat the branches away from his hair, dropping the hand to the back of his head and subconsciously stroking and smoothing the strands back into place.

What should he do?

It wasn't that he didn't like tests… but it wasn't that he did either… But he also really didn't want to return to the Academy…

It's just… How did Sasuke-sensei expect them to fight him when it was so obvious he was way out of their league? Where did he have the bells now anyway?

Yukio tilted his head a bit, dark gray eyes narrowed as he studied his teacher. He almost yelped when he noticed the two little bells dangling at his hip. They jingled softly with the gentle breeze.

Well, he figured, quietly shifting again. He snuck a hand into his weapons pouch and pulled out three shuriken. It's now or never. And I have to do something or I'll fail.

He just had to concentrate and make sure not to lose his focus. It would be hard, since to fight someone like Sensei he would have to be on his guard when it came to both defense and offense. And to do that he would have to stop focusing on that…

But he would just have to figure something out.

Maybe it would be him that was sent back. Yukio furrowed his brow at the negative thought, his annoyance sparking something inside him that sparked something in the clearing.

Inwardly, to himself, it was like a lash. A lash for being negative, for quitting before even trying, for being so damn afraid. In the clearing, a lash also struck—horizontally and out of nowhere yet even so it missed Sensei by a long shot.

Yukio grit his teeth and watched Sensei lift his head up, his dark eye calculating and observing. Jeez, he bemoaned to himself. I have to calm down. I have to calm down fast.

It wasn't that he liked or disliked tests… it was just that… he was so bad at them.

Painfully quietly, he inhaled and tried again. He brought his arm back up, shuriken in between his fingers. Sensei was still staring at the space where the lash had resounded, at the tips of grass it'd cut off and still danced their way back down to the ground.

Now was a perfect time to attack—

A barrage of kunai began to rain down on Sasuke-sensei and Yukio's eyes widened as he watched, mouth suddenly hanging agape. But Sasuke-sensei was unmoved by this, grabbing a kunai that'd been so close to lodging onto his forearm and blocking any and all that neared him with so much ease.

Once the attack was over, Sensei twisted the kunai in his grip and sent it back in the direction the wave all came from. It lodged into the tree trunk with a loud thunk! and not a second later that this happened did Eiko jump out from the branches and dropped down in front of Sensei, startling Yukio enough to jump and pick himself with the branches above him.

"Crap," he whispered to himself, catching the shuriken in his hand before they fell and clattered and gave up his hiding spot.

Yukio pressed his lips together as he felt the sharp edges dig into his palm. Swallowing the groan, he looked up with glassy eyes, slowly relaxing his posture and watching Eiko settled into a taijutsu stance in front of Sensei.

"Just hand over the bell," she said.

"Is that how you're going about it?" Sensei asked, tilting his head. He didn't go into a stance of his own. "Try harder."

Eiko growled as she launched herself at him. Each punched she aimed missed and every kick was easily smacked away. It was easy to say that Sensei was toying with her and Yukio bet that, wherever he was hiding, Ryuu was snorting.

"Hmm," Sasuke-sensei hummed, twisting away from another of Eiko's onslaught. "It's safe to say that if this is your limit, you won't even graze the bells let alone manage to take one from me."

"You're rather arrogant, Sensei," Eiko sneered. She jumped back, her hands and fingers moving fast.

That's right, Yukio thought, Eiko was one of the best at memorizing hand seals.

"Suiton!" She puffed her chest with air that she no doubt was molding into chakra. Raising a hand to her mouth, when she pulled it away, she was pulling a long whip made out of water from her mouth, her brown eyes menacing as she prepared to do damage.

Sensei was snickering.

If Eiko was able to lash at him with the water whip twice or thrice, Yukio assumed, it was because Sensei was letting her. Still, she didn't land a hit and Sensei manifested—or maybe he was just that fast—behind her, tripping her to the ground and towering over her.

"I win," Sensei sing-sang.

"Alright, my turn!" Ryuu jumped from his branches, throwing an assault of kunai as he did so.

Sensei blinked as he looked up, letting the kunai lodged onto him and stumbling backward as he did so. Yukio froze from where he still hid, watching as Sensei began to bleed from his shoulders and his chest—

Poof!

In his place, a log appeared, all three kunai stuck in it.

"No way," Ryuu exclaimed, crouching down, his wild blue eyes searching the entire clearing.

A second later he rolled out of the way just as Sensei appeared with the intentions to trip him as he'd tripped Eiko. Sasuke-sensei snickered again, his smirk crooked and his only eye crinkled.

"I'm not like her, Sensei," Ryuu claimed, pointing at Eiko who was kneeled and rubbing at her forehead and nose. "I actually think!"

"Show me, don't tell me," Sensei responded, his hands on his hips. "I'm rather bored. Where's the third one."

"Pay attention to me!" Ryuu performed the seals for earth release, calling out a quick, "Doton!" and waiting for two mud wolves to manifest from the dirt. "I'll fight and my wolves will work in taking the bells from you."

"Both of them?" Sensei asked, head tilted.

"Sure, why not? Go big or go home!" Then Ryuu paused. "Man, I'd love to do that. Eat some food…" He shook his head to focus a second later.

He sprinted towards Sensei, jumping into the air, spinning for a roundhouse kick that Sensei easily blocked. But Ryuu, like he said, wasn't like Eiko. He was less impulsive and more thoughtful. Driven by his observations than his anger.

Once blocked, he twisted his body and aimed a punch, and another until he had no choice but try and find a safe way to land back to the ground. But Sensei didn't want to give him that chance and caught him by a leg, holding him up in the air.

Ryuu saw this as another chance entirely. Hanging upside down, he swung himself and reached an arm out. Sensei realized half a second too late.

"Shit—"

He flung him away from his person but not before Ryuu had grazed the bells. Even after Ryuu had landed ways away from Sensei, the bells still jingled softly at Sensei's hip.

Yukio was in awe.

-

Sasuke stared at Ryuu, his smirk wide enough to be considered a grin. What a little shit, he thought. The boy did, in fact, think of his actions during battle.

He might actually start to like this one.

Ryuu stood back up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and showing his own wide grin in return. His mud wolves were still nearby, snapping their mud snouts as they tried to find an opening that Ryuu was still unable to give them.

"I wouldn't get too excited," Sasuke commented.

It was more his fault than Ryuu's skill, though he would not take away any of the kid's credit. He was good. It was just that Sasuke had been careless, too.

"Too late!" Ryuu began to run straight for him again, his wolves at either of his sides.

"Indeed," Sasuke drawled, snapping his fingers.

This confused the boy, causing him to skid into a stop to observe him and observe his surroundings a bit further. But it was too late. Sasuke stuffed a hand into his pocket, waving at him with the other as a long and brownish-red snake slithered down from a branch and wrapped itself around Ryuu's legs.

"Wha—AHHH!"

"I thought you said you were observant?"

"Tch!" Eiko scoffed, standing back up and pulling out a kunai from her weapons pouch.

"Are you going to free him?" Sasuke asked.

"Absolutely not!" She focused right on him and Sasuke admired her stance and her aim. From his own calculation, if she weren't just a Genin and with better practice at her speed, she'd make mark and a more aggressive opponent.

"But he's your teammate," he went on as he tilted his head, unafraid of her threatening pose. "Shouldn't you help him?"

"No. It serves him right."

Sasuke inwardly sighed.

"Serves me right?" Ryuu squawked, hanging upside down. "You're just saying that because I actually got close to grabbing the bells! You can say what you want and think what you want about power, but we all know who's better here—me!"

"Say that again!" Eiko whirled round, her grip on her kunai so tight, the skin above her knuckles turned white. "You think you're so great! That's why you're hanging upside down, right?"

"Why you—"

The bell rung and Sasuke exhaled. "Alright, Mamushi, you can let go of that one now."

"Hmmm," the snake hummed. She lifted her head from where she rested it against one of the curls of her red-brown body and blinked a yellow eye at him. It took her another moment but she uncurled herself from Ryuu's legs and unceremoniously let him drop to the ground. "Is that all then?"

"It is."

She said nothing more and slid her way back up the tree. Sasuke watched her, knowing she was going to do as she always did and roam the entire village, observing the villagers, the shinobi that came and went and the merchants that did the same. Then she'd report back to him at the end of the day.

Aoda was his summon for battle, as was his hawk, Garuda, but Mamushi was his pet and his eyes. An asset like his shinobi and a close ally to rely on like Karin.

Once she was gone he turned his attention back to his students, staring at the way Ryuu and Eiko glared at each other with such ferocity. He sighed, long and soft as he closed his eye.

"Come out from the bushes," Sasuke said. "Yukio."

He listened to the shuffle of leaves, listened to the soft footsteps that approached them. He waited, his eye still closed and his disappointment still warm and heavy on his shoulders. It was when he was opening his mouth to begin the lecture he was forming in his head that he heard the way Eiko all but choked on a growl and Ryuu mimicked her.

Sasuke caught the girl in mid air, twisting himself by the heels of his boots and letting Ryuu's punch hit his back.

That was when Sasuke's disappointment warped into annoyance. It fizzed at the edges, bubbled and boiled as it threatened to turn into full out anger but it'd been so long since Sasuke had allowed himself to lose his composure. Since the chains of hatred had released him, since the ties of vengeance had unknotted and ceased to bind him—that wasn't the person he was anymore.

Still, there was a fury inside him that was dormant and he would much rather keep it that way.

"That is enough." His voice was hard, gruff and with no room to argue.

He carried Eiko to the dummies where the alarm still rung. Without much care, he punched it into silence, swatted it to the ground and without trouble tied the girl against the wooden target.

"Why do I get tied?" she asked but her usual sass and sarcasm was gone.

Sasuke ignored her and waited for his other two students to finish their approach. He ordered them to sit, ordered to take their bento out and then he carefully studied them. His attention stayed on Yukio for a moment longer, knowing that the peculiar swipe he'd seen and heard before Eiko's first attack had come from him and wondering why he had not continued his advance.

"I…" he trailed off, licking his lower lip as he spared the ground a glance. "I'm wondering how Karin managed to deal with you three for the amount of time that she did. I'm wondering how she managed to take you out on missions."

They were completely quiet.

"You should give up on being shinobi," he told him, lifting his eye up to stare at them head on.

"Give up?!" Eiko shrieked. "On what basis can you even say that?!"

"Sensei, for once, I agree with her," Ryuu said, his eyes wild and electrical. "Sure, we didn't get the bells but that shouldn't be a reason to—"

"You do not deserve to be shinobi," Sasuke interrupted. He pointed at Eiko. "I tied you up because you were rabidly set on attacking your teammate. Why exactly do you think you're divided into teams upon graduating the Academy? Why do you think you're put into doing more training after being divided into teams?"

Ryuu deflated and Eiko sobered up. Of course they had no answer—they knew nothing. They were idiots—blank canvases. Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest and allowed himself to breathe, to calm down.

They reminded him too much of him and his own teammate when they were younger. But even Team Seven was less hostile and less hopeless than this.

"You guys seem to have missed or seem to not understand the answer to this test."

"The answer?" Yukio asked, finally speaking. Out of the three, he looked the most sincere and it helped Sasuke to regain his composure and his commitment.

"Yes," he said, more calmly. "The answer that'll help you pass this test."

"So tell us," Eiko spat, but she seemed less aggressive. As if she were simply acting in such a way out of reflex.

Sasuke paused.

Well fuck, he thought to himself, they actually don't fucking know? What was Karin teaching them?

He snickered a bit, to himself. Dry and without humor. He shook his head in disbelief, shifting a bit, uncrossing his arms and settling to one hand holding his opposite elbow so that his other hand could rub at his temple.

"Tell us!"

"It's teamwork," he said, looking at them from under his hand. "Teamwork. That is the answer. That is key. Had the three of you worked together and observed me and any of my openings as well as devised a plan of attack, you may have been able to retrieve the bells."

Yukio, much to the rest of the team's surprise, stood up and took a step closer towards Sasuke. "If that is so, how can teamwork help us pass if there are still two bells? Were we supposed to work hard as a team just for one of us to fail anyway?"

Sasuke smirked a little, "Can you forget about your interest and successfully work together under such circumstances?"

"H-huh…?" Yukio stumbled back.

"That is the purpose," Sasuke continued. "Are you capable of forgetting about yourself and your interest and work together under such circumstances. But then I have you three. Mizushima, your teammate was caught in a trap and instead of trying to find a way to break him free you said it 'served him right' and continued on with your own desires. Worse, you even attacked him afterwards which landed you were you are now. Ryuu, you just decided to do everything by yourself including taking both bells. Yukio, you didn't even try.

"On a mission, the duties are done by the team." He watched them, the shame that crept up on their faces; the way Ryuu let his head drop, the way Eiko's tanned cheeks reddened and Yukio closed his gray eyes. "Individual superiority in ability is important to a shinobi, yes. But in the end that can be seen at the same level as accessory.

"What's more important, what is possibly most important is 'teamwork'."

After explaining to them the tough choice teammates that aren't coordinated must go through and even sending them into a scare that almost made him snicker not just because of Yukio's wild, terrified eyes but because of own memories, Sasuke turned his back to them and closed his eye.

"I'll give you one last chance," he told them, sparing them a glance from over his shoulder. "I'll let those that are untied eat lunch. But don't give any to Mizushima. It's her punishment for attacking Ryuu the way that she did. If either of you two try to sneak her a bit, you'll fail automatically without a chance to explain, got it?"

"I hate you!" Eiko kicked her legs out, as if trying to aim at him, which was rather amusing.

Snickering, Sasuke disappeared out of sight. But not before exhaling and hoping they weren't as stupid as they seemed and were as good as he'd hoped.

-

Eiko groaned, lolling her head to the side and hating the way her felt against the juncture that connected her shoulder and neck. Sensei tied her up good against the dummy—tight so it was secure, but not tight enough to be painful.

She opened her brown eyes and stared as Ryuu and Yukio sat on either side of her. They had their bento out, opened and some of their food already picked at and missing. Her stomach growled at the sight of food—it was hard to ignore how hungry she was at the reminder that food was real, food existed, food was something she really, really wanted.

She groaned again, puffing her cheeks out and clenching her eyes shut.

Sensei's words echoed in her head. He'd sounded so furious at first, didn't he? Had the others noticed it too? He was so angry before he'd gradually calmed down. Like he'd forced himself to.

Had they been that bad, she wondered?

But then the antagonistic side of her sneered—what the hell does he know about teamwork?

Eiko shook her head, opened her eyes just as another loud growl rumbled in her stomach. It was hard to tell but her limbs were shaking a bit. She was so hungry…

She watched Ryuu enjoying his meal and, at her other side, Yukio seemed a bit more hesitant. Sensei expected her to work as a team with them? What good were they? How could they possibly…

Even being angry was too much work.

Her head was pounding. Her stomach growled again, more insistent.

"Here."

It was two voices at the same time. Eiko looked up and stared at Ryuu and Yukio both extending their bento towards her. She eyed the contents first then at them; Ryuu was looking away but she could see his frown, his blue eyes darker than their usual bright blue. Yukio was smiling… or at least trying to. But his face was really red and he looked like he was going to pass out.

Eiko sniffed a bit, blaming the way her eyes stung on the heavy lecture they'd just received and the way they'd just failed and how she was tied to a dummy and how hungry she was and—she grinned.

-

"So what's the meaning of this?" Sasuke demanded as he manifested in front of them, looming and threatening. He had his arms crossed and his only eye was narrowed, a hue that was almost a dark burgundy with the telltale signs of his infamous Sharingan.

"Is this really what I think it is?" he asked, watching them cower for a moment and definitely not ignoring the way both Yukio and Ryuu got in defensive stances positioned to protect a very tied Eiko. Sasuke let out a disappointed sigh. "All three of you. You…"

Ryuu pressed his lips together.

Yukio closed his eyes.

Eiko grit her teeth and looked away.

"Pass."

"…What?"

Sasuke snickered.

"All of this," he told them, "was the very same first lesson I learnt when I first began as a Genin. Kakashi had failed every single team appointed to him before Team Seven came because all those teams did exactly as he ordered them to.

"I told you not to give anything to eat to Mizushima despite telling you I would give you another shot at this test and despite giving you the answer that to pass you must have teamwork. If you had not given any of your food to Mizushima and followed what I had said, she'd be dead weight and you would have failed again. You offered her food because she was hungry and close to passing but you needed her help to pass this test so you obviously had to feed her."

Ryuu and Yukio both turned to Eiko and she, in turn ducked her head so her hair would shadow her face.

"A ninja must always see underneath the underneath…" Subconsciously, Sasuke's expression sobered up, his eye glazing up with the caress of memories and time. "Listen, in the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that is true, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash."

There was a silence that followed this as it settled into the minds of his students. Ryuu whispered "Awesome" and a soft breeze blew that rustled the leaves and allowed the bells at his hips to jingle.

"What about you?" Eiko asked. She lacked her usual hostility but her expression made up for it; brow furrowed and frown so deep set. "You abandoned your team. The story of Team Seven, the team that was trained by the Sannin and took their place as the new Sannin is well known. You abandoned Team Seven."

"Eiko—"

"I did," Sasuke agreed, his eye closed. "I am trash."

Sasuke wondered what his idiot best friend was doing now, actually. He wondered… He tried not to and for the most part he succeeded but he always wondered how Sakura was. And in that fraction of a moment of weakness he envisioned her and her soft smile, her bright green eyes and her freckled face. He pictured her tucking her pale pink hair behind her ear and laughing.

He gritted his teeth and forcefully focused his attention back on his three students.

"I am trash," he repeated, serious. And then he smiled at them. It was small and soft and just about nonexistent. "But I am going to teach you so you won't be."

Yukio, Ryuu and Eiko all turned to each other with similar expressions. It was, perhaps, the first act as a proper team and all that it was, was them sharing a sad look. Like regretting so much when their time together were less than forty-eight hours.

"Alright," he drawled, clapping his hands once to lighten up the mood. "So you guys pass and this team is officially official. Tomorrow, our real training can start."

His students cheered.

[snakecharmerfic]

chapter three

Oto's Kage was very young.

At least, as Kages went. He was the same age as Konoha's and Suna's Kages and all three were younger than Kiri, Iwa and Kumo's. Sasuke-sama was in his mid-twenties, if Eiko estimated from what she'd read in the books back in the Academy. And, frankly, she never paid much attention to the history part during school.

He had much to do with the victory of the Fourth War and before that he had been Public Enemy Number One. Especially with Kumo's Raikage. Though, if she was honest, those last parts she knew because of her father. She didn't think school would let out the secrets of their leader that have been so meticulously swept under the rug.

Otokage-sama was tall and tanned and he didn't look like those super buff and crazy muscular people like she's seen during missions. But, even so, his presence was demanding. Dominant. He made her nervous. It annoyed her.

He annoyed her.

She half-glared at him, sizing him up with her hands on her hips.

One of his eyes was covered with wraps that went around his head, making his dark hair messier than it already was on its own. Before graduating, there'd been a rumor in her class that he had no eye under those wraps and that the covering was just for show.

She wondered…

"If we're in trouble, Otokage-sama, I would jus' like to say it was all her."

Eiko blinked.

And then blinked again.

And once more before it settled in her head. She whirled to the side to face Ryuu, her expression contorting to one of fury as she pointed at him with one hand, the other curling into a tight fist.

"You sack of—"

"Huh," Otokage-sama grunted. "Alright. I've come to my conclusion."

Eiko paused mid-step towards Ryuu, her fist in the air. Ryuu, for his part, had his hands up defensively, his lips stretched into a wide grin. And Yukio stood to the side, away from them.

"What?" she asked him.

"Sir, were you studyin' us?" Ryuu asked, his hands still up protectively.

"I was."

"Then wha's your conclusion," Eiko demanded, dropping her hand, turning to face him as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I don't like you."

Silence fell over the training ground as they each deflated in their own way. Eiko glared at him, button nose scrunching up, messy magenta forelocks falling over her eyes.

"Yeah, well the feelin's very mutual!" She stomped a foot. "What gives you the right to jus' come and say that?! Jus' coz you're the—"

She gasped as the ground disappeared from under her feet. Wide-eyed, she watched the trees suddenly stood upside down as her back connected with the ground with a loud thud.

"What the hell!"

Otokage-sama stood above her, staring at her with something that was a close combination of amusement and disinterest. She felt her cheeks grow hot, jaw clenched tight—did he just trip her?!

By the way Ryuu was laughing hysterically and how even Yukio was having a hard time swallowing his snickers… it seemed that, yes… yes, in fact, Otokage-sama did just trip her mid-rant.

"Anyway," Otokage-sama drawled in that slow dispassionate and bored way of his. "There have been some changes. Pretty straightforward ones that even you, Mizushima, will be able to catch on quickly."

Eiko shrieked a little.

"Fascinating," he droned. "Karin will no longer be your team leader. She will be off commission for a certain amount of time before she will resume her duty in another department."

"S-sensei…" Ryuu clutched at his chest.

Otokage-sama paused to spare him a questioning look. Eiko, from her position on the floor, and Yukio stared at him with a little bit of embarrassment.

"Then, will our team be disbanded?" Yukio asked, blinking his gray eyes and turning away from the embarrassment of their team and back towards Sasuke-sama.

"No." Otokage-sama placed a foot on Eiko's stomach when she tried to stand up. He smirked at her glare. There was no pressure and she could easily push him off and continue her advances on standing back onto her feet. But she felt that if she did, he would do something like trip her again. "Your team will not be disbanded. You will be getting a new team leader."

"Oh cool," Ryuu gushed, moving on quick from his heartbreak. "Who? I hope it's not Goro-san. He terrifies me."

"It's not." Otokage-sama crossed his arms in front of his chest and smirked down at Eiko again. It's smug and teasing and it made Eiko so annoyed. But it was not as annoying as his next words:

"It's me."

-

The fish was evidently dead.

Minori sighed, shoulders slumped and spirits crushed all over again. He'd been at this for hours now. At this, he peeked at the clock hanging above the door to prove his own point.

Sakura-san disappeared; no doubt to handle her appointments. But before that, she'd demonstrated what she wanted him to do by taking a fish and setting it at the center of her desk, atop an opened scroll marked with seals. It'd flop a bit before lying still.

She'd hovered her hand over it, then. It'd looked so gentle despite the jagged, white scars that decorated the skin over her knuckles. Soft, gentle… The hands of a healer, the hands that pulled life back from wherever death had them wander.

They'd glowed the softest shade of green. A translucent orb of chakra expertly summoned with precision to heal, to save, to bring back.

And it'd done just that.

The fish had jumped in the air and plopped back into place with a loud squelch. And continued to do so until Sakura-san had grabbed it and placed it into the water-filled sink on the small counter in her office.

Minori slowly turned to watch it swim happily now. So very alive.

Not dead like the one in front of him.

He sighed with dejection, rolling his shoulder, wondering if there's really nothing he can be good at in this field of work. His parents weren't legends but they weren't nobodies either. They had to be amazing people if they were never around enough for him to even remember much about them. Maybe his mother's hair neatly pulled back into a tight bun behind her head, his father's stern expression. But then… nothing.

To think two Jounin level shinobi would have a loser like him for a son…

Minori curled his hands into fists, the dirty wraps around his hands groaning and ripping from how soft they'd gone with the fishes' slime. Kinks popped from the little knobs, from his knuckles and he exhaled his self-pity and his annoyance.

"Concentrate," Sakura-san had said. "Summon the right amount of chakra. It's no effort for you; you have the perfect chakra control, I've seen it and Naruto's told me."

Clenching his jaw, Minori placed a hand over the other, closed his eyes and willed just enough chakra to his hands. He listened to the soft hum as it slowly appeared, the warmth of it covering his hands.

How long did he remain like that, he wondered. The perfect concentration to match the perfect chakra control. The fish remained dead despite his efforts, despite how spent he felt, despite how his arms felt so wobbly and his knees buckled and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"Hey," Sakura-san greeted, her voice soft and gentle. She looked less sharp, less teasing. She came around the desk, guided him to the chair and let him sit. "This one's dead, silly. You wouldn't be able to bring it back no matter what. But I really liked what I saw."

"R-really?" Minori wheezed a bit, closed his eyes for a bit before blinking them open. What did she see, he wondered.

"Yeah. Listen, I don't expect you to get this on your first try." She leaned closer, winked at him just as she flashed him a quick grin. "I didn't bring back my first fish until the third month of my apprenticeship. So relax. Just practice. You want this, right?"

"Yes!" Minori stood up too quickly, leaving him dizzy enough to have him stumble. He would have fallen, too, had Sakura-san not steadied him. He concentrated on steadying his vision, his breathing, saying, "Yes, I do."

"Then come meet me here after your team training. I expect you here no later than three."

"O-okay!" He bowed, his forelocks sticking to his damp forehead. "You won't regret this, Sensei, I promise." He turned around and on wobbly legs tried his best to run out of the room. But he paused and turned back to her, watched her for a second as she rolled the scroll up with patience only experience could bring.

"Sensei?"

Sakura-san looked up, blinking her yellow-green eyes at him.

Minori's smile was crooked, a soft dimple on his cheek. "Thank you."

-

Kasumi walked out of her parents' restaurant with a pout, ignoring her four older sisters and the usual way she felt around them. Inferior and less pretty. Which was hard, since Kasumi knew she was really damn pretty and really damn superior.

But it was just that her sisters were really good at making civilian look right and shinobi look wrong. And in her family of civilians, Kasumi was the only kunoichi getting down and dirty with blood, politics and secrets.

Or she would. In the future. When she was super badass and not in the top ranks but the top rank.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, walking down the streets, letting the crowd eat her up, block her up, put distance between her and the restaurant. That was the thing about her, she supposed, that she couldn't get Naruto-sensei to understand.

She didn't want to be Hokage. He could keep that title. He could keep the summits, the meetings, the decisions and the documents.

Kasumi wanted the glory. The respect. The superiority. She wanted the thrill of climbing up the positions. The fights and the training. The exams. The careful scrutiny and the crowd cheering her on because they've seen what the judges would soon see: she's good.

It's a complex, maybe.

Kasumi didn't put much thought to the depth. She just wanted it.

"I think this is the first time I've seen you think so much and so hard."

She slowly turned to her left, blinking her pale purple forelocks out of her eyes and staring at her taller teammate with a bit of surprise. She took a moment to react, using it to stare at her, observe her, maybe even use her as an anchor to root herself back to the present and stop wandering off with her thoughts.

Shiori's a few inches taller than her, if only because Kasumi was so short. Where she was thinner, paler and delicate looking if only in appearance, Shiori was the opposite: taller, willowier and with a darker tan.

"Don't be so offensive," she finally replied, her voice shrilly. "I always think carefully! As the brains of this team—"

"Ha." Shiori scoffed, her smirk crooked, her violet eyes sharp. "Don't make me laugh."

"Hmph!"

They walked in silence for a while, zig-zagging through the villagers and only stopping when a cute trinket stand caught Kasumi's attention. Each time she paused, she assumed Shiori would just keep walking and be on her way with whatever she had to do but, instead, she would pause and wait for her.

Her expression was bored, her eyes scanning the stands but nothing really ever catching her interest. Shiori was way too simple.

"What are you doing around here anyway?" Kasumi finally asked. Her voice was indignant and accusing if only to keep up the act.

Shiori looked at her for a second, her brown forelocks shifting with the breeze. "My mom sent me out for something but I seriously don't remember what it was anymore."

Kasumi turned to her, tucking some of her pixie hair behind her ear, her pale eyes half-lidded, expression just a bit incredulous but ultimately done with her teammate's incapability to do anything.

But if she was going to say anything, it all warped into a last minute gasp when she bumped into someone. Of course, she wouldn't say it was 'bumping into'. She felt like it was more like she was just flung across the village by some giant.

This, she figured, was an exaggeration. Especially since her butt never met the ground and when she opened an eye, fluttered her lashes and looked around, she was being gripped and balanced in place by someone's hands on her shoulders.

"What?"

"I'm so sorry!"

She knew that voice.

Kasumi blinked again and looked around. Shiori standing to the side, unimpressed, disinterested, unmoved. Villagers passing by and sparing them no glance, being worthless witnesses to her upcoming death.

And then she looked to the person in front of her, keeping her in place and right up instead of on the ground with a pain on her backside and a scrape in her palm. But also the person that started this. That rammed into like a bull, sent her flying like a kunai just to catch her back—

Kasumi blinked again.

"Minori?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm really sorry. I was a little excited and running a little too fast and you guys really appeared out of nowhere and I couldn't stop on time. It's my fault."

Kasumi shook her head, both to calm him but also to shake herself out of her oncoming stupor. She didn't think she'd ever heard Minori talk so much and so fast. She wrinkled her nose. "Why do you smell like fish?"

"So that's what that is," Shiori drawled. "I thought it was somewhere over here but it's Minori."

Minori's pale face went pink.

"Sorry!"

"You have a little… Is that…. Are those scales?"

Shiori lifted a hand and swatted them off his black shirt. Effortlessly, without thinking.

"I… yeah. I was doing some stuff with fishes…" He pulled his hands away from Kasumi's bare shoulders and she blinked, looking down at one side, then the other. She shifted a bit, felt the light stickiness of slime on her skin.

"Stuff?" she asked, voice shrill. "With fishes? What kind of stuff."

Minori's pink face went impossibly pinker, his slime-coated hand lost in his hair. He was a bit of a mess but the smile he was giving her right at that moment was crooked and genuine. So much so it made his dark eyes sparkle some shade of gray.

She felt heat on her cheeks.

"Listen," he said, looking at her then at Shiori. "Let's just say that it won't be like before anymore. On missions. We'll do it together. For real."

She and Shiori were both quiet as they stared at him and whatever he was talking about, whatever he was up to, had put him in such bliss that he simply walked away. They stood there and watched him go, the runt of their team, the dead last of their class.

"What the hell was that?" Shiori asked.

"I… don't know." Kasumi murmured. Her cheeks were really hot.

-

"Well," Sasuke began, his voice a smooth and low drawl. "I suppose we should begin with introducing yourselves."

His new team sat in front of him. Or, at least, one of them did. The quiet, more docile blond. The dark haired idiot was siting on a tree branch, swinging his legs back and forth, and the pink idiot was leaning against a very abused dummy.

"What do you wanna know?" Ryuu asked, tilting his head, blinking his shocking blue eyes.

Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest, raised an eyebrow. "Mmm," he hummed, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. "Your likes, dislikes, your dreams for the future. Things like that, I guess."

"Tch," Eiko scoffed her long messy hair of curls and waves fanning out around her with the shade's soft breeze. "Why don't you start, Sensei?"

At this, Sasuke tilted his head, blinking his only visible eye. The corners of his lips twitched at her taunt but he shrugged a shoulder and cocked his head back.

"Why the hell not?" He studied them, watched them watch him with interest that they could not hide. It was probably because he was the Kage. It wasn't common, anymore, for a Kage to take up students.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality." He tilted his head forward again and scratched at his chin. "Ah… My hobbies aren't really that interesting."

His students were frozen in place, unblinking and utterly quiet. Then, Ryuu, from his tree branch, whispered, "Awesome…"

"Let's start with you, quiet one," Sasuke said, pointing at the blond. "And work our way to the sassmaster over here."

Eiko sneered at him for a second before she stuck her tongue out. Sasuke was very amused but kept his expression impassive.

"My name is Kurama Yukio. I like reading graphic novels and memorizing music scrolls. I dislike it when it's really hot and going near the mangroves if it can be avoided." As he spoke, his peach colored skin gradually grew pinker and pinker. "My hobbies are playing the violin and helping my parents around the shop. Ah and… my dream… I guess… my dream, first, is to stop being afraid so that I can be a good shinobi."

"Mmm," Sasuke hummed, nodding his head once in gratitude. "Alright. Next."

"I'm Kamiya Ryuu." His grin was long and appealing, making his eyes sparkle as he looked down at them. He swung his legs back and forth, his dark hair tousled with the soft breeze and his constant movements. "I like my mom's cooking and Karin-sensei. I dislike the fact that I'm allergic to nuts because some of the best desserts have nuts and I feel like I'm missing out."

Oh, Sasuke thought, unimpressed, I have an endless pit in my hands.

"I also dislike frizzy, pink-haired girls with bad attitudes—oh, I'm sorry."

"I'm going to kill you!"

Sasuke sighed, waving at Eiko and nudging his chin at the snickering Ryuu. "Go on, hot stuff."

"My hobbies are hanging out with my friends and playing hanafuda." Ryuu blinked his blue eyes and chuckled a bit nervously. "I also have a habit of woodcarving. Anyway… My dream is to simply be a good—maybe even great or outstanding—shinobi and be of good use to my village."

All eyes turned to Eiko and she, in turn, glared back at them. Huffing and crossing her arms in front of her chest, she looked away for a moment, long enough to make Sasuke believe she wasn't going to participate.

Such a bad attitude, he took note. He raised an eyebrow, observing her. Such a big act.

"My name," she began through clenched teeth and thoroughly making her sound weird, "is Mizushima Eiko. I like some things and dislike too many to say. My hobbies are meditating and collecting charms. I don't have a dream."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth but shut it soon after. It was quiet as he studied his only female student: the tense way she held her shoulders, the way she looked down with her brow furrowed and her eyes set in a dark glare.

"Is that it?" she asked, self-conscious.

"It is," Sasuke affirmed, looking at her for a second longer before turning his attention to his two easier students. Ryuu dropped down from the tree branch, his expression calm and his posture just as laidback.

"Tomorrow," Sasuke continued, "we'll begin our duties as a team."

"And what are you going to have us do?" Eiko asked, her eyes on him.

A breeze blew by and it lifted dirt and fallen leaves from the ground, forcing the four of them to squint their eyes protectively. Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest, his gray flak-jacket shifting along with his movements, he took a step closer towards them, settled his weight on one leg.

"We'll do something between the four of us, before we do anything mission related, if that's what you're asking," he said.

"So what is it?" Ryuu asked, but unlike Eiko's demanding approach, he sounded genuinely curious.

"Survival training," Sasuke offhandedly replied.

At this, he watched all three of them narrow their eyes. Even passive Yukio, even easygoing Ryuu.

"Training?" the latter asked, blinking. "But we've trained enough in the Academy, Sensei. We're set for routine drills before missions like any other shinobi."

"Hmm," Sasuke hummed. "Call me a curious cat. After all, this isn't any normal training, since your opponent is going to be me."

They went absolutely quiet, all three staring at him, observing him, trying to size him and his power up and see what kind of chance they had. Sasuke had to admit he liked that.

"Anyway, listen," he said, lifting a hand up and scratching at some of his hair under the wraps going around his head. "Come prepared tomorrow morning with your tools sharpened and ready for battle. And skip breakfast. You might puke and I'm not here for that."

He watched them blink and with a final smirk and his lamest attempt of a wave, Sasuke left.

[snakecharmerfic]

chapter two

The ward's doors opened and Sasuke stalked right in, only half-nodding in acknowledgment to the greeting the nurses gave him. He eyed the opened rooms, the empty beds and sometimes even doing a double take when a bed was occupied.

It wasn't the person he was looking for, though.

"Otokage-sama?"

He paused in his stride, tilting his head in response and raising an eyebrow when the nurse merely stared back at him. She grew flustered, shifting her weight from one leg to the other before she pressed her clipboard to her chest.

"A-are ya lookin' for someone?"

"One of my subordinates," Sasuke sighed, relaxing his posture and turning to face her fully. "She was brought in with her team earlier today by a team of Chuunin."

"Ah!" She looked down at her clipboard and then back up at him. "Uzumaki-san?"

"Hm," he hummed.

"She's at the far back, I can—"

"It's fine."

Sasuke nodded at her and walked away, his steps both hurried and not. He walked into the room without knocking, his eye on Karin as she sat on the hospital bed. She had a cotton ball taped to her cheek and her hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail.

"Idiot," he greeted, coming to a stop at the foot of the bed. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his nin-pants. "What happened?"

Karin looked up from the small scroll she was reading, red eyes narrowed and brow furrowed. "Those damn monks lied about the mission's ranking. They wanted protection because bandits keep attacking them. Not shinobi, but damn well good at fighting."

Sasuke turned his attention to the window, his lips pressed together in his annoyance. "I see."

"I used up most of my chakra to heal my brats. So, here I am."

"Such a selfless heroine," Sasuke complimented, not without a heavy doze of sarcasm. He returned his attention to her, taking the chance to inspect her more thoroughly as she began to read her small scroll again.

When he'd migrated to Otogakure upon being appointed Otokage by the Five Kages, Karin made the choice to come with him. Originally, he'd thought it was because she still had some hopes that he would ever reciprocate whatever feelings she held for him.

In reality, it was because she felt better working with him than with her newfound relative and felt more at home in a village and region she'd lived in before than in Konoha. Sasuke, at some point, found the change better with Karin's company; she grew to be his right-hand woman.

"They are alright then?" he finally asked, sighing and shifting in his stance.

"Who? The brats?" Karin snorted. "Lively as they always are, those three. I wouldn't be surprised if they're in the Training Grounds now."

"Hmm," Sasuke hummed. "And you?"

"Tch," she scoffed.

"As I thought."

"Oh shut up," she sneered.

Sasuke smirked, turning his back to her. He remembered a time where he had no relationship with her and saw her as nothing but a tool to achieve his goals.

He paused and turned to spare her a glance with his only good eye. "I'm thinking about making some changes. I'm sure that with your condition you're to stay here for another day or two. I'll come to a decision by then. Come see me at my office."

Karin's expression was carefully blank as she stared at him and Sasuke's was similarly expressionless. He walked out of the room a second later.

-

They poured into the room all clumsy and loud, tripping over themselves and skidding into messy stops. They shoved each other, hissed and whispered things under their breaths until they remembered where they were and whom they were here to see.

Karin stared at them, unimpressed and maybe just a bit amused.

Because she got them to bite her, they sported no injuries, no bandages or cotton balls taped to any specific cut on their bodies. They wore civilian clothes, their hitai-ate nowhere in sight.

"What?" she asked them, rolling her small scroll up and raising an eyebrow.

"We came'na see how Sensei's doin'," Ryuu replied, smiling at her. His smiles always made his blue eyes brighter; flash, like lightning in the sky.

"I'm fine," Karin responded, observing them.

Karin had never wanted a team of Genin. She didn't want that kind of responsibility and after the work she'd willingly done under Orochimaru, she felt sick at suddenly being the teacher of three twelve year olds.

It's why she tried to put distance between them, why she tried to come off as cold. But… She liked them, she supposed. They're her brats. They have been for the past seven months since they graduated the Academy.

"We heard that you're s'pposed to stay here for another day," Eiko commented, an eyebrow raised and her arms crossed in front of her chest. "If you're fine—"

"Well aren't you just a little eavesdropper," Karin sneered, mimicking her student's pose and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Hey." Ryuu shoved at Eiko, half-glaring at her. "Quit bein' rude!"

"I wasn't!"

Karin rolled her red eyes at their usual arguing, tilting her head to stare out the window. It was just about noon and the sun looked merciless out there. The sky was bright and cloudless and the rice fields looked busy and scorching.

For a second, she furrowed her brow, considered the amount of sunburn and heatstroke at the expense of the villagers and field workers. She wondered if Sasuke had thought about this. But who was she even kidding? Of course he had. Sasuke, for all his aloofness, thought a lot about the villagers' wellbeing.

"Sensei?"

She paused at the soft voice and quickly turned her attention to the quietest of her three students. Yukio rarely talked and Karin would be lying if she said she wasn't childishly fascinated when he did. She stared at him now, his dirty blond hair pulled back in a neat ponytail at the nape of his neck, his forelocks framing his face. His dark eyes were on her and they were so sincere as he stared at her. Sincere and guarded.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Thank you for healing us," he told her, smiling softly.

Karin tilted her head back, still observing him. Out of the three, he'd been the least hurt because he'd been the least involved in the fight. It wasn't that he was hiding or running away so much that he kept avoiding getting hurt, as if getting hurt would make him lower his guard and that was something he couldn't afford.

She turned her thoughts off before she could think about Sasuke's debrief the day he appointed these three to be her students. Slowly, she let her lips curve into a smirk.

"Oh, yeah!" This caught the attention of the other two and suddenly they were hovering close to her bed. "Sensei, that was so cool!"

"What was that?" Eiko asked, unable to hide her own interest. Her dark pink forelocks fell over her eyes, tangling with her lashes. For a second, she looked so adorable and not like the enormous brat she actually was.

At her question, though, Karin raised her brow.

"Is it a jutsu?" Eiko asked in exasperation, rolling her brown eyes.

Karin snorted. She shifted on the bed, wincing at the hurt she felt around her stomach, down to her womb and in between her legs. She stopped for a moment, then let herself fall back down on the stiff mattress and exhaled softly.

"No," she drawled. "It wasn't a jutsu." She paused and tried to look for the right words, ignoring the instant annoyance she felt at the effort she was putting at something that made her uncomfortable. "I… am an Uzumaki…"

She avoided their eager expressions, their questioning looks, their fascination. She stared out the window, instead. At the way the trees at the distance rustled, promising cooling shade and a hiding place from the glaring sun.

"The Uzumaki clan ceased to exist and perished with its village during one of the many great wars," Ryuu said. For once, he was much more serious than his normal goofy and love-struck ways. "Few survived and scattered around the Shinobi Nation, most notably the late Fifth Hokage and the hero of the Fourth Shinobi War—"

"Uzumaki Naruto," Karin finished for him, rolling her eyes. "Yes, that idiot. "

It was quiet for a moment and it wasn't until Eiko made a frustrated sound that it was broken. They all turned to her, all falling victim to her glare as she gestured wildly at Karin.

"That doesn't explain the healing bite!"

"Did you not pay attention in class?" Ryuu asked her, his bright blue eyes narrowed. "The Uzumaki clan, known for their fūinjutsu, also had special chakra. Sensei healed us because of her Uzumaki chakra. Do you need me to make the comment any more stupid for you to get?"

"No!"

"Oh," Karin whispered to herself, reaching up to rub her temples, "I'm getting a headache."

From her left, Yukio snickered into a closed fist. Karin stared at him for a second, her lips twitching as she fought a smile, Ryuu and Eiko's arguing turning into background noise.

-

The raw meat sizzled on the charcoal brazier at the center of their table. Sakura stared at it for a moment before she lifted her tiny cup of warm sake and gulped it down.

"So what's up?" Naruto asked, running his hand through his messy blond spikes. He picked the tongs up and poked at the meat, played with the onions and bell peppers a bit before setting the tongs back down. "It feels like forever since I last saw you."

"Aw." Sakura kicked at his shin under the table. "Don't be like that! You know that's not true!"

"I said 'it feels'," Naruto stressed, pouting and bringing his imported beer closer. "I know it isn't. It just does. Feel like that."

"We're busy nowadays." Sakura shrugged a shoulder. "We're old. It happens."

"We're not old! We're just twenty…five…"

"Exactly." Sakura smiled and flipped some of the beef. "You have your team of Genin. I have my clinic…"

Naruto set his bottle of beer down, lips pursed as he swallowed his swig. He'd taken his hitai-ate off, putting it away into one of the pockets of his flak-jacket before unbuckling it and letting it hang open, the sleeves of the dark shirt he wore underneath rolled up to his elbows.

He looked disheveled, like he'd just come back from a fight. It made him look younger.

"Not gonna lie," he said, "I wish that bastard Sasuke was here so I can kick his ass. There's no one to spar with here." He blinked at her, almost pouting and looking like he was twelve again. "I'm all tense and knotty!"

Sakura laughed—it was adorable; she had to. But it didn't mean she didn't grow a bit cold at the mention of… Well not cold, but there was something chilly that prickled her skin at the mention of their teammate. She didn't like to think about it, much less show it because no one knew about it.

That business was one between the two of them. Or it had been. She'd much rather keep it that way too.

"I can spar with you."

"Sakura-chan, please. That is not how I want to get my face up on the Hokage Monument."

Sakura threw her head back and laughed.

"What about your students, though?"

"No, I mean, dur." He yelped and ducked the punch she reached over and aimed at his shoulder. "I spar with them! But I can't go all out with them, Sakura-chan, I don't want to get thrown into jail or something like that."

"Oh please, Naruto. You don't have to go all out all the time, you know that, right?"

He waved her off, placing some of their cooked meal on her plate before serving himself the rest. They ate in silence for a while. It was a nice kind of silence, the calming kind that relaxed and helped store energy rather than drains it.

She loved Naruto's company; she always had. He was comforting and seemed to always be able to help her find her footing, even when she wasn't slipping.

Sakura smiled and exhaled at that.

"So," she looked up at him, refilling her little cup of sake and shifting in her cushioned seat. "I was running this by Ino yesterday."

"Yeah?"

"I want to expand my clinic." She carefully swirled her sake cup, watching the clear contents dance dangerously close to the edge. "This one here is established and running smoothly. The nurses know what to do, what to ask the children, how to help them. Now, I can set my eyes on a new village, build a new one, set the system, train the nurses…"

Naruto's smile was wide and his blue eyes clear. "Sakura-chan, that's awesome!"

"You think so?" Sakura blushed, hiding behind her hair.

"What the—yeah!" He laughed for a moment, that loud and contagious laugh of his before he sobered up enough to ask, "Do you know what village you're heading to?"

"No, not at all," Sakura admitted, sighing. "I'm disorganized in all sense of the word. I just know I want this." She brought a bell pepper to her lips, waiting to chew and swallow before she added, "I guess I should start by running this by Shikamaru. No use planning if he won't approve it."

Naruto pouted, his pout and glare overdramatic so much so that it looked humorous rather than furious. Sakura rolled her green eyes, setting her chopsticks down and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Oh stop that," she chastised. "It's been years."

"I wanted to be Hokage."

"You will be!"

"Then why—"

"Naruto!" She was laughing now. "He hates this as much as you do, you know that! Really, the last thing someone like Shikamaru wanted was to be Hokage. And the fact that he's been it for almost ten years is probably the most torturous thing ever. But the other Kages don't find you ready and that's out of anyone's hands."

Naruto was quiet at that and Sakura sobered up.

"I'm sorry," she said, softly.

"Nah, there's nothing to be sorry about. It's true. S'just… annoying."

"I know."

Sakura poured herself the last of her sake, bringing her finger to her lip to suck the bit that got on it. She observed him, watching the way he shook his head and smiled as if over his little moment of sadness.

"So tell me more about you," Sakura said, taking advantage of the moment, of the opening. She shot the sake back and set the small cup down on the table, now empty. "I feel like all we've been doing is talking about me."

"I'm sure we talked about me too," Naruto offered, scratching at his head.

"Tell me about your kids." She made a gesture to get the attention of an attendant. "How are they doing?"

"I don't—oh."

"Dur," Sakura grunted, mimicking him from way earlier.

"Hur," Naruto retaliated.

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Ah, well," Naruto watched his empty beer bottle be picked up with minor interest, "you know how it is nowadays. Progress is slower with the times filled with a lot more peace."

"Mm," Sakura hummed, resting her chin on her palm, her elbow on the edge of the table.

"But they're doing good! Kasumi's promising; she's got so much stamina and power and she's driven which just adds to it." A new beer bottle was placed in front of him and a new sake glass in front of her, a tiny cup to match. "Shiori… Oh man, Sakura-chan. Shiori has the skills but she just lacks the determination. She and Kasumi argue a lot—not too much but enough to give me a headache, honestly.

"I guess it's because Kasumi's a bit bossy and Shiori's a bit… not into letting herself get bossed around… I don't know. They clash a lot and it drives me crazy. Girls are so vicious."

Sakura laughed at this, her head thrown back and a hand covering her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"And Minori…" Naruto sobered up a bit, his eyes softening. "Aw man, my boy. I don't know what to do with him. I try so hard to not think it… But… He's shy off of adequate on everything, his teammates have to—let's just say he's always falling short… Maybe he isn't…"

Sakura pressed her lips together and said nothing, turning her head to look out the window instead.

"I don't know. I'm going to try and see if I can train a bit more with him after team training. It's… I'm just not gonna give up on him like that, yanno? But I can't ever promote him or give the affirmative to set him off to any Chuunin Exams if he remains like this."

"You're a good teacher," Sakura assured him, picking up her sake cup and lifting it up in a cheer. "You can do it."

In the back of her mind, Sakura figured that perhaps in every generation there was a late bloomer. A lazy bud in need of some persistence, some coaxing and the right kind of environment.

-

Two days later, Sakura convinced herself she wasn't avoiding Shikamaru's office. In fact, she was quite sure she wasn't! She just wanted to have a bit of planning done ahead of time in case he approved of her request.

And she supposed she only considered the off chance of him denying her submission out of pure courtesy. She didn't really think Shikamaru would really say no to this at all. What reasons would there be?

This would benefit all villages! And Sakura was not stupid and she was not vain either. She was too smart for her own good, actually.

She knew the major villages were envious of Konoha and the children's clinic she'd developed. Peace may have fallen before the Shinobi Nation like a chakra barrier that numbed and protected them but damage still lived and damage still happened no matter how small and how invisible to the chasm of what it'd been to merely be before the Fourth War.

Shinobi were still human and humans were fragile.

Sakura blinked back into attention as she walked down the streets of Konoha, heading down to the very clinic she was thinking about, scrolls of different sizes in hand as well as a couple of text books.

She came into focus a second too late and she bumped into someone, causing some of the loose, smaller scrolls on top of the messy pyramid in her arms to fall to the ground.

"Oh!" Sakura moved aside, blindly tapped her feet around in her attempts to watch out for the scrolls. "I'm sorry! My fault!"

"Ah, sorry—Sakura-san!"

Sakura paused, tilting her head to the side, blinking some of her pink forelocks out of her eyes and observing as Minori bent over to pick up the scrolls from the ground. He hugged them to his chest as he stood back up, his dark eyes apologetic and his pale cheeks growing pink.

She grinned, thinking coincidence to be the funniest thing in the world.

"Hey, Minori!" She shifted the weight on her arms. "You're not busy are you? Do you mind carrying those for me? I guess I overdid it, huh?"

He laughed a little. It was the tiniest little thing but also the most adorable. He nodded but he seemed to realize she couldn't see him over her big pile of scrolls and books so he yelped a quick, "Oh! I—no, I'm… Sure, I can. Yeah."

"Sweet." Sakura began to lead the way. "C'mon, it's this way."

They walked in silence. He seemed to be naturally quiet—shy. Not extremely but definitely bashful enough to grow wide-eyed and pink-cheeked when he caught her eye. He was scruffy around the edges; tousled shoulder length black hair, messy forelocks, dark clothes with a tatter and a dirty patch here and there. The bandages wrapped up his arms and hands seemed to be dirty too, Sakura observed.

"Did your team just finish training?" she asked.

"Huh?" He looked up at her for a second, looked back down when he noticed her looking back at him. He shook his head, shaking it some more to get his hair out of his face. "No. I was there by myself. I… figured I should try to work some more so I can stop being such a burden."

"Are you?"

"What?"

"Are you a burden?"

"Yeah."

Sakura waited until they walked past the receptionist before she spoke again. The halls were long and the tiled floors were clean and slippery so their nin-boots squeaked with their steps. Sakura half-observed the rooms, the nurses and the children that sat on the edge of gurneys or couches.

"What makes you say that, though?"

Minori's eyes were downcast; his expression troubled and hurt all at once. "Well… Because they've told me so themselves."

"So?"

Sakura opened her office and dropped her books on the couch. Minori paused for a moment before he carefully set the scrolls down on a chair. He stood to the side, uncertain and just a bit nervous.

Sakura repeated: "So?"

"'So' what?"

"So what if they say that?" She placed a hand on her hip and then tilted her head, raised the other hand with a finger up. "Actually, wait."

She left the room, and then came back a moment afterward.

"Listen, Minori." She moved around her desk, sat down on her chair and then waved for him to sit down in a provided chair as well. "Honestly, I don't even know how our conversation got to this—"

He blinked at her and Sakura's smile stretched to a grin.

"—But I do know that if you're trying your hardest then it must mean something." She leaned forward. "D'you know what that is?"

"Sure…?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"That I want to improve."

"Do you?"

"Yes." And for the first time his eyes looked wild with passion. A maelstrom of emotion. "Yes, I do."

"I know." Sakura smiled at him for a brief moment. It was a smile of compassion and understanding and perhaps a bit of nostalgia but that was for herself and just a bit private. "You're lucky, Minori. I'm nicer than my Shishou was. I had to beg a little."

"W-what?"

Sakura shook her head.

"I'm asking the questions here." She watched as the clinic's receptionist walked in, a half dozen of fishes individually wrapped in paper and then tucked into a clear bag in her hands. They still wriggled, struggling as they remained out of water. "And my question is… can you keep at least one of these fishes from dying?"

-

Sasuke stirred from his light nap when the echo of footsteps resonated into his office. His eyebrows knitted together, the skin under the wraps covering his left eye twitched but he didn't open his eye just yet.

He listened.

The entire building was built so that noises and disturbances floated back and forth through the halls, into the rooms—more so if they were footsteps. Someone coming or going; wind chimes or bells that moved at the movements of someone passing by, their soft notes carried by the soft, soft breeze.

It kept the shinobi inhabiting the building alert. It was completely impossible to trespass.

Now, Sasuke dozed on that fine line between awake and not, his mind buzzing between working and shutting down into a nice, cool numb. He leaned his chin further into his palm; his eye closed, his hair falling over his face for a cool shade, some strands sticking to his skin.

It was a much merciful day today, as it had been for the entire week. The breezes were weak but they were much welcomed however short-lived and faint they were. At least, for now, he didn't have to worry too much about the hospital being overrun, the staff overworked and with no room for his sunburnt, heat-stroked villagers.

"Idiot."

His eye snapped open. It stung and he blinked it a few times to rid it of the persistent slumber that tried to coax him back into that nice snooze he'd been in. Sasuke inhaled sharply, leaning back on his chair and focusing on Karin walking into his office.

Her steps were slow, measured. She took her seat without waiting for him to offer it and she didn't bow. He didn't expect her to and he didn't want her to either.

Sasuke observed her for a moment; the way she sat down slowly, carefully. She was more rigid than normally and there was puffiness under her eyes.

He looked away.

He wasn't all too good with these things and this was not what he'd called her to his office for anyway. If she'd wanted to confide in him, she would have. A vault, he supposed, he was good at. An advice giver, though, he was not.

"Moron," he drawled in greeting.

"Were you sleeping?" she asked. It was more of an accusation, her eyes narrowed and the puffiness far more noticeable.

"No." He narrowed his eye right back at her. "I was resting my eye. It's the only one I have, after all."

"Oh fuck you." Karin scoffed. "That is such an excuse. I can't believe you even used it."

Sasuke rolled his eye and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Anyway."

Karin said nothing but she slowly lifted a leg to cross it over the other. Sasuke didn't understand and he was sure he wasn't going to and he was just as sure that he didn't want to. But maybe she just didn't feel comfortable with her body right in that moment; maybe she felt like something was missing or something was off. Still, he looked away and pretended to notice nothing.

"I've come to my decision, as I said I would have."

"Yes," she said, slowly, carefully. He felt her eyes on him, piercing and hard. "So I figured you would have. But I don't know of what. Explain."

"Sure."

Sasuke shifted in his seat, crossed a leg to over the other, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair, fingers laced in front of him. "Listen, I know that a while back we were short on qualified Jounin to teach Genin teams and I requested—"

"Forced."

"—you take up a team. But I wasn't… I hadn't thought you…" He paused and slowly lowered his attention to Karin's covered stomach. Or womb. Which was it? Both?

At this, Karin shifted, immediately self-conscious and catching what he was trying to say and entirely at a loss of words for it. She glared at him, lips pressed and cheeks just a shade lighter than her hair. She turned her head and said nothing.

"You put yourself in a dangerous position by not telling me anything."

"I handled it." She turned back to him. "I saved them."

"Karin."

Sasuke felt his annoyance flare. "Your healing bite healed their injuries, yes, but because of your… predicament… you didn't even have enough for yourself. If those bandits had been shinobi I would have lost three Genin, a Jounin and a bunch of monks. All that would have been on Oto and it would have been on me."

Karin's squared shoulders immediately slouched, her puffed chest deflating and all the fight leaving her in one long, soft exhale.

"So what is it?"

"Che?"

"Your decision."

"I'm taking you off commission."

Karin looked up at him, her eyes glossy behind her glasses. She looked furious and discontent as she stared at him but she said nothing; rather, she set her jaw, clenched it tight.

"You didn't want it to begin with, did you? And you didn't want them. So I'm basically doing you a favor in this punishment." Sasuke shifted again, dropping his leg and only half listening to the music of bells and wind chimes.

"Well that's all fine and dandy with me, boss," she sneered, "but what about them? Who's taking them?"

"I am."

She stared at him, expression frozen. Her lips were pressed together, eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed. Sasuke said nothing, merely waited and gave her time for the reaction he knew was going to come.

"Are you joking?" There it was. "Is this a joke? "

"No."

"You're going to be the team leader? To that team? Seriously? Ha! That's rich, Sasuke, really."

Sasuke leaned forward, his elbows on the desk's surface and his expression warping to match his growing frustration. "Karin. Stop being a bitch for two seconds and think. We chose those two as teammates for the third one for a reason. And I requested—"

"Forced."

"—you as their teacher for a reason. I'm taking you off commission so I'm going to have to be their sensei now."

Karin swallowed, turning her head to the side and begrudgingly seeing the truth in his words. "Then what about me."

"You'll work here. In the building. Your chakra tracking and past experiences as a warden make things easier for me so I'm putting you in charge of the prison and the Intelligence Unit."

"Aside from having to do your work when you're away with your new team, I'm assuming," she mocked, still looking away from him.

"Naturally."

"God, you are an asshole." She stood up from her seat. "I hate you."

Sasuke leaned back in his seat. "I'm sure."

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Fine." She stiffly turned around and walked out the room.

-

"Augh!" Eiko threw another kunai at a dummy, letting it meet mark and pierce the wooden target-toy along with the rest she'd thrown along their time waiting. "It's been forever."

"It has not," Ryuu retaliated a second later. He hung upside down from a tree branch. "It's only been…" He half lifted himself and turned to their quiet teammate who hid in the shade. "Yukio, how long's it been?"

Yukio eyed them for a moment, then said, "Twenty minutes."

"It's only been twenty minutes," Ryuu repeated in a heave as he fell back into position.

Eiko glared and crouched down into her haunches. Her hair fell in messy waves and curls of dark pink around her and for a second she let the tips kiss and tickle her bare legs before she swatted the strands away. She picked out another kunai and threw it with a force to match her annoyance.

"I hear someone coming," Yukio said, his voice soft and calm.

His teammates turned towards the direction of the training ground's entrance. Eiko stood to her full height, her hands on hips and her expression one of frustration.

"Well it's about time you showed up," she spat when she estimated Karin was near enough to hear. "It's your first day back and—"

Silence fell in the small training ground's clearing. She only half paid attention to Ryuu dropping down from the tree branch and Yukio nearing from the tree's shade.

"You're not Karin…" She sounded lame even to herself but that just couldn't be helped; what did it mean when the Otokage came to see you in your team's training grounds instead of your sensei?

[snakecharmerfic]

chapter one

Sunrises were like sunsets.

Blood orange and glowing; they only illuminated the radius around the rising sun, leaving the rest of the sky a dull gray. The stars were still there too, some even still twinkled. Some were already hiding behind the clouds, behind the mist that began to descend and curl in between the trees.

Eiko stood at the gate entrance and stared around, eyes still stinging and heavy with sleep. The twin buckets of water rested at her feet and it was still so early.

It'd been three days since they arrived to the Temple and despite the quick routine they'd fallen into, she couldn't help but grow completely irritable at waking up before the sun was even out.

She adjusted her robes before picking the buckets back up and continuing on her way. Last she remembered she was a kunoichi, not a housemaid.

"Here," she sneered, placing the buckets down on the engawa, staring at the minor spills with apathy.

Her teammate paused from scrubbing the floorboards, leaning back on his haunches and rubbing the back of his robes' sleeves against his forehead. He stared at the buckets of water for a second, blinking his blue eyes before turning his attention to her.

"What the hell do I need that for?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"Okay?" he half-laughed, shifting again so he was sitting, knees bent for a second before he settled for just extending his legs out in front of him. "You're the one that got told to fetch it from the well. Find out what it's needed for and do it! Jeez."

"I don't wanna." Eiko didn't even care that she was pouting. She was sleepy and she was hungry and these robes were heavy. They weren't in Oto but they sure as hell weren't anywhere cold to be wearing such thick clothing. "This is such a dumb mission."

"Quit complainin'."

"Oh shut up," Eiko scoffed, watching him roll back onto his knees and getting back to work. "You're jus' tryna look good in fronna Karin."

"Sensei," he corrected, his blue eyes sparkling despite his glare as he threateningly pointed at her with a soapy brush.

"Ryuu…" She shook her head, slow and disbelieving. "You disgust me."

She walked away, leaving the buckets of water behind, and abandoning all her tasks. Ryuu called for her but she ignored him. She was off to do some real training just outside the gates in the nearby forests. She'll find her gear and take these robes off, create some targets and practice her aim…

That sounded just about right.

-

Sasuke inhaled.

The faint breeze was warm on his damp skin as he stood on the balcony of his office. Behind him, the white curtains rustled weakly, and above, the sky was the clearest of blue, not a cloud in sight. Down below, his village buzzed with life.

Sasuke exhaled.

Otogakure was no longer the village people remembered. Gone were the underground hideouts and forbidden experiments inside laboratories; all prisoners had been released, reinstated into the real world and still received care for the trauma they endured. That nightmare was dead and gone.

In its place was an actual village.

The landscape was nurtured, its beauty preserved and taken into the consideration of the village's reconstruction. The dry ground that hid the tunnels were rich with soil now, growing cotton

They look like little towns littering wherever more land managed to overpower the rice fields. They inter-connected through bridges, built and stylized like Iwagakure, making it easier for the villagers and for the shinobi to move around the village through the fields and the rivers that cut through the lands.

Sasuke made his way down one now. They're sturdy and steady, kept up by steel, cement and metal. They curved downward, keeping low enough to stay close to the ground but high enough to let the rest of the village stay in view.

He watched the slope as it came and decreased as he walked it, only sparing the terraces glances every so often. The bridges were just wide enough for a good amount of people to walk to and from at once for the morning buzz and the afternoon one too.

It wasn't until he was close to arriving to the other side of the bridge that he bumped into some villagers. He lowered his eye for a second before he busied himself with watching some of the field workers.

"Otokage-sama."

He swallowed and turned to acknowledge them; a woman, a toddler, a child, a teenager and an elder. He gave them a curt nod. The villagers here spoke differently than they did in Konoha; heavy sounding and fast paced so it sounds like they're mushing words together at some instances.

"Are you out enjoyin' the weather, Otokage-sama?" the woman asked, smiling at him.

Sasuke pressed his lips together and looked around at their surroundings. The day was clear and bright and the greenery made no sound, as there was no wind to rustle it. The air was dry and humid and sweat made his forelocks stick to his forehead.

"Something like that," Sasuke finally replied. "Are you heading to the Kage Building for something?"

"Oh no," she said shaking her head. "We're headin' home now. It's too hot to be out. We'll cross bridges at the cross poin'." She pointed towards the platform Sasuke had passed moments ago. "That bridge will lead us to our li'l town."

"Hm," Sasuke hummed. His attention shifted to the elder then up to the clear sky. "Then I won't keep you any longer."

"Please," the woman bowed, her children mimicking her. "It's us that won' keep ya from your tasks, Otokage-sama."

When he arrived, the neighborhood was buzzing with life. It was a total contrast to his office and the silence of the bridge. Villagers roamed the streets, straw-hats protecting their faces from the sun as they went about their errands.

The people of Otogakure were very tanned, dressed in light clothes made of linen and cotton to help cope with the heat. Not all villagers were natives; some migrated from nearby villages without names and others came from different places from the Nation.

The diversity showed in the streets. It showed even with Sasuke; tanned as he was, his Fire Country nativity was impossible to ignore.

He slid onto a stool at a small stand, leaning his elbows on the bar-table and folding his arms. He exhaled softly, his shoulders slouching and his back relaxing. It was damn nice to get out of the sun.

"Ah!" He looked up, his eye searching and finding a middle-aged man appearing from the other side of the counter, standing from a crouch. "Otokage-sama! I hope I wasn' foolish enuffa keep ya waitin' so lon'."

He shook his head when he noticed the man staring upon his silence.

"No," he shifted in his stool. "I just got here."

"Can I gecha anydin', sir?"

"Yeah." Sasuke cleared his throat, looking at the passerby for a second before turning his attention to the man. "An order of onigiri and a glass of water." Then, blinking: "Please."

"Oh sure, sure!" The man laughed. "Comin' righ' up!"

The stand's sign was low enough to hide the sunlight but the view of the street was still clear. The villagers passed by and they all saw him just as he saw them. They greeted him: they waved and smiled. Some nodded, some spoke out loud and called his title or his name with the respectful suffix attached to it.

Sasuke gave them curt nods right back, raising a hand in acknowledgment and even standing from his stool to pick up a child's soiled treat.

"That's no good," he told her, extending his palm, the sugary candy at the center with small dustings of dirt sticking to it. "It's dirty now."

He saw her furrow her brow, pout at the ready. "B-but…"

"Umeko!" Her mother approached, placing a hand on her head and smiling apologetically at Sasuke. "Otokage-sama, I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," he said, curling his fingers around the treat and dropping his hand. "She tripped and dropped her candy. I was telling her she couldn't eat it because it's dirty now."

"Oh, Umeko," her mother sighed. "I told you to be careful because you only had one."

"But… mama…"

Sasuke felt awkward but pushed past it, rubbing the back of his neck and fingering the strands of his hair as he observed the rest of the street. "It's alright. Umeko can go back to the treat stand and tell the owner that I have sent her to get one more."

"Oh, Sasuke-sama, but—"

"Really," Sasuke stressed. "It's fine. It's along the way to the bridge for my office."

"See, mama, see?" Umeko's bright eyes turned to her mom for a second before she made for a mad dash. She stopped at her mother's voice.

"You say thank you to the Otokage right now."

Sasuke stared at the little girl, nodded at her thank you and watched as she jogged and hopped and skipped and twirled and sprinted. All at once. He shook his head and took his seat again, giving the candy to the onigiri man and apologizing quickly for the wait.

But before he could even grab the first riceball, his hand was taken from the table and clasped in between two wrinkled ones. Rough and small and tanned. Sasuke stared at it for a moment, how his normally tanned complexion looked pale against this person's.

He looked up and the old lady's glazed brown eyes were just about lost as she smiled at him. She was all wrinkly, white hair pulled back in a loose bun. Her robes were creased and her cane was against her stomach in order to hold onto his hand.

"Otokage-sama," she said, voice low and her s pronounced weirdly. "You are a very nice man."

She loosened her hold on his hand, an invitation to let him pull away if he wanted to. He did want to but Sasuke felt it was in his duty not to, so he didn't.

"Thank you," he told her.

"Very nice man," she told him. "Leave home to come make home here. For us."

"I am home," he told her.

She looked tired, he observed. Not for the first time did he look up at the sky. This time, he pulled away from her in order to grab his glass of water. He handed it to her. "Are you by yourself?"

She shook her head.

"Did you wander away?"

She nodded.

"I saw Otokage-sama and I wanted to thank him." She handed him the glass of water back. It was empty.

"I appreciate that," he told her, distracted as he watched a straw-hat fall onto her head.

"There you are," a boy no older than fifteen sighed with exasperation. "I told you to wait for me."

Without another word, the old lady walked away and, unable to do anything else, the boy went after her. Sasuke watched them go for a moment, his mind on other things, bigger things like how the weather like today would increase heatstroke and severe sunburns.

It was always warm in Oto but hot and humid days were no strangers either and they got frequent around this time of year. The hospital would get busy.

He looked down at his plate of onigiri and picked one up.

-

"I would ask what you were thinking," Karin said, twirling her apple in her hand, "but the thing is: you weren't thinking at all. And honestly? Normally I don't care." She took a bite of it. "But your actions are an extension of the village, which is an extension of me. Even worse. I am your teacher and what you do travels back to me."

Eiko and her teammates knelt in front of their sensei. They were quartered in a spacious room with hardwood floorboards and sliding doors. It was empty save for the four small tatami beds and their packs. The candles held up by the lanterns on the wall lit the room, letting it be equally divided by the orange glow and the shadows.

Nightfall had long arrived, bringing coolness to make up for the unbearable weather that had to be dealt with for the duration of the day. Eiko and her team had just barely finished with their daily tasks when the first set of stars came into view. Normally, they were to be done long before then.

Now, Eiko stared at the floorboards, relishing in the cool feeling she felt as the soft breeze caressed her scalp through her damp dark pink hair, thin lips pressed together and brown eyes heavy-lidded.

"And here I go," Karin continued, pointing at her with her bitten apple. "Asking the golden question, though, I just know I'm not going to like the answer: what exactly were you thinking, Mizushima Eiko?"

At her name, Eiko finally looked up at her sensei. Karin was a pretty woman; she could admit that to herself, even though outwardly she only ever showed disdain. Sensei’s hair was a bright red and her eyes were just as bright and just as red. She was tanned and freckled and she had a fiery, sarcastic and high and mighty attitude that Eiko really disliked.

She always showed up to training late and ,sometimes, she didn't show up at all. She expressed herself like they were a burden to her and it always made Eiko all the more angrier. And now all of a sudden she wanted answers?

"Cleaning for a bunch of old monks is not what I graduated the Academy for," Eiko bit out. "Since when is housework the job of ninja?!"

"Ha!" Karin threw her head back and barked a short laugh before she concentrated her attention on Eiko again. She pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, expression unimpressed. The bite she took of her apple was loud in the otherwise quiet room. "So this is what it's about."

Eiko rolled her eyes.

"You gave your teammates extra work, made me look bad and jeopardized the chances of these old monks ever seeking help from Oto again. Thus decreasing our income, thus risking the chance of rumors spreading of our shinobi’s conduct. Which can lead to the lack of mission requests coming into our offices which will put our shinobi out of work—because you think this is not the work of ninja?"

"Yes."

There was silence and Eiko felt her breathing escalate. She didn't think it was because she wanted to cry; she knew she didn't want to. She was furious. She was sure she wasn't doing anything wrong but what Karin just said was making her hesitate and that was making her angrier—that—that slight hesitation, that blooming doubt.

Flanking either side of her, Ryuu and Yukio were very quiet.

Karin placed her unoccupied hand on her hip and she suddenly looked very intimidating as she stood in front of them, towering over them. What did she go through to wear her gray flak jacket? What did she do to graduate and get promoted to Jounin?

"Let me tell you something," Karin said and it was the most serious Eiko'd seen her. Bright red eyes suddenly dark, like the color of wine. "With the way you are, you won't survive a day. After the Fourth War, peace and rainbows has been granted to us all but where there is peace there will always be chaos. Always remember that. You do not move to point A to point Z from night to day and if you think like that you're done for."

At their silence Karin tilted her head and her expression softened to a smirk. "I'm not saying we're off to war any time soon. I'm saying that you're stupid if you think you're above this D rank mission. You're a Genin and this is Genin work. You want to go off on assassination missions? You have to work your way up to it."

At Eiko's left, Ryuu sighed dreamily. "Sensei…"

Wrinkling her face in disgust she spared him a glance, feeling rather than seeing Yukio do the same from her right.

"Now," Karin sighed, taking one last bite of her apple. "Tomorrow you're going to apologize to the monks. And you're going to do all the chores yourself as punishment."

"What?!"

Karin stared at her, head tilted and expression totally unimpressed.

She sent them all to bed after that and Eiko hoped and wished that it took forever before the next day arrived. But when something was wanted, it was almost impossible to receive. She was sure she'd just fallen asleep when she was already being woken up for the very first of her tasks of the day.

As she fixed her bed she shot glares at the lumps her teammates made under their sheets. She tied her hair back as the monks had requested on their first day and left the room, sliding the door shut and rubbing any last bit of sleep out of her eyes.

Surprisingly, the morning rolled by quick with how busy she was. After she fetched the buckets of water, she got to work sweeping the entire temple—inside and out—and then she mopped the place up, retracing her steps and using one of the two buckets for it. By then, she was sporting a thin sheet of sweat over her tanned skin and her robes felt heavier and uncomfortable.

The day was warm, though it was much bearable than the day before. Regardless, the fact that Eiko kept moving and kept doing so much housework on her own was making her feel as hot and irritated as she previously had.

She sighed, pausing from sweeping the stairs and taking a quick seat on a step. She felt her calves thank her for the break, her biceps throbbing at the sensation of not having to be tense.

"Hey, you don' getta break!"

Sneering, she turned her glare at Ryuu, watching him where he stood a couple of feet away, sporting his regular clothes instead of the orange robes the monks wanted them to wear.

"Shut up, you absolute moron!"

Ryuu laughed, throwing his head back before turning his back to her. "C'mon, Yukio. Y'can help me train a li'l since Eiko's gonna do all the work."

Her reply was right at the tip of her tongue. She remembered it because she was annoyed and envious of the chance her teammates had gotten to spar. It was different to target practice alone and to have someone to spar with. Eiko might have snuck away to do the former the day before but she'd like a chance to punch Ryuu in the face and call it training.

But whatever she was going to say turned into ash before she ever had the chance to say anything. It happened so fast and, in the back of her mind, she wondered if things like this always happened so fast that it took a brief moment for the mind to register it.

She sat there and watched them jump over the gates, dressed in dark clothes, with weapons clasped against their backs.

Her eyes followed them.

One, two—ten, maybe even fifteen.

They weren't shinobi, that much she could tell. But they were older than she and her teammates and they had swords and daggers with them.

"This is bad." Eiko jumped up a bit, eyes wide. When did Ryuu get to her side? She turned to him, watching him watch their enemies with calculative blue eyes.

To her other side, Yukio's dirty-blond forelocks hid his darker eyes, his lips in a frown. She turned back to watch the approaching bandits, feeling the way her hands shook and glowering at herself for it. She tightened her hold on the broom's stick.

"Well," she breathed and paused at the voice of their teacher behind them.

"You were waiting for this, weren't you? It explains why you requested us for six days! This is more than a simple D-rank mission and you old cheapskates just didn't want to pay up for the higher rank!"

Eiko narrowed her eyes and smirked. "Let's go!"

-

"And this—" There was a loud poof! and a thick blanket of smoke suddenly made Naruto-sensei disappear. The voice that soon followed after the light pop was much lighter, more girlish and playful than their teacher's deeper, scratchier one was: "—is the all time winning Forbidden Sexy no Jutsu!"

The smoke cleared and in their sensei's place was a woman with long blond pigtails. The mist covered her bare and full chest and her just as bare… well what was in between her thighs…which were also bare… she was…very naked…

Minori, wide-eyed and red-faced, looked up at her face. She had Sensei's signature scars on her cheeks. She winked at him.

Minori choked and felt like he was going to pass out from all the blood rushing to his head.

Next to him, Kasumi shot up from her seat on the grass, legs pressed together and elbows tucked into her sides. Her hands were curled into tight fists and her crystal-colored eyes were clenched shut.

"Aurgh," she growled, shifting. She pointed an accusing finger at Naruto-sensei or well… ah… the girl and then leapt to punch the top of her head. "Sensei! Is this some kind of joke?! Am I supposed to believe this has defeated some of the greatest shinobi?!"

A loud poof! popped and Naruto-sensei appeared, sprawled on the ground and at Kasumi's mercy.

"Tch," Shiori scoffed, leaning back against her palms and rolling her violet eyes. "Looks like a cheap trick to me."

"HEY!" Sensei jumped up and pointed at Shiori, a pout on his lips. "I'll have you know I was the only one in my class that managed to perfect that jutsu! Not even Sasuke—"

"Otokage-sama has class," Kasumi interrupted, half-heartedly shoving at their sensei and stepping back to walk back into place. "I can't believe I thought we were going to get taught something cool. Like a forbidden jutsu or something."

"Hey, the Sexy no Jutsu is forbidden!"

Kasumi snorted.

Naruto, much to Minori's horror, pointed right at him. "It worked on Minori!"

Both his teammates turned their attention towards him. Minori's dark eyes went wide and he didn't know if he was going completely cold and pale or completely hot and red. He began to shake his head, raising his hands in front of him and waving them as if to get rid of Naruto-sensei's accusations.

"N-no," he squeaked. "That's… that's not true a-at all!"

"It so is," Naruto laughed. "I saw him totally checking Naruko out."

"I wasn't," he breathed, his eyes shifting from his sensei to Shiori to Kasumi.

Both his teammates were unimpressed. Kasumi, for her part, had her arms crossed, pale eyes narrowed and brow furrowed. Shiori looked as interested as she'd been from the very start. Still, this was utterly embarrassing! As if he wasn't already on a bad note with his teammates since the creation of their team…

"First of all," Shiori sighed, "you named the girl version of yourself?"

"Well, yeah?"

"Sensei," Kasumi began with sweetness. "You're so lame."

After that, Sensei talked his way out of one of Kasumi's tantrums. He promised her two things: tomorrow, he was really going to show them something super awesome and he was going to spar one on one with her. The second thing they were doing right at that moment: they were going to eat ramen.

On Sensei, of course.

Minori was suspicious that Kasumi didn't like ramen until becoming Naruto-sensei's student. Her family owned a restaurant so, more often than not, she always ate there until one day Sensei convinced her to just come with the rest of the team.

She never said no after that.

"Sensei," she said now, leading the group as they walked the path back into the village from the Training Grounds, "Do you think I could learn the Rasengan?"

"Huh?" Naruto-sensei blinked, reaching up to scratch under his hitai-ate as he looked at her for a second, as if trying to make sense of her question.

Minori stared at them from the back.

Kasumi was the strongest of the team. It wasn't even a question or an assumption. It was fact. Sensei didn't count, because if he did then he'd be the strongest, but since he didn't, it was Kasumi.

Shiori was the tracker so she was equally important if not more. She could find their target, find their missing teammate, pinpoint—pinpoint anything.

And him?

Well, he was just the deadweight.

"Well," Naruto-sensei finally said. "Maybe? I guess we can have a lesson on that and see who can do at least two of the three steps necessary to learn it."

"So if I can do at least two, will you—"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Sensei laughed. "Let's calm down now, Kasumi-chan. One step at a time! What's the rush?"

Kasumi rolled her pale eyes and crossed her arms.

Ichiraku's came into view and they quickly stepped inside. Sensei yelled out a loud hello to the owner and his daughter, waving enthusiastically as they all walked to a table and took their seats. Minori sat next to him and he watched as he grinned at Ayame as she walked with a small booklet and a pen. Like always, they both reminisced back to when this place had been a small and simple bar stand before the Pein Attack and the reconstruction.

"Anyway," Sensei said, "I'll get two bowls of beef and whatever these brats want."

"I can't believe I've lived to watch you get a Genin team of your own Naruto," Ayame said, smiling as she wrote his order.

"Chicken for me," Kasumi said, rolling her eyes and leaning back in her seat.

"Same," Shiori yawned.

"Ah," Minori looked out the window for a second. "Beef is fine for me."

"Okay!" Ayame smiled at them. "Be back with those orders."

Naruto-sensei turned to them again, blinking his blue eyes and stroking his squared jaw as if pondering something. "What were we talking about?"

"Teaching me the Rasengan," Kasumi said.

"Oh, right," He nodded. "And I said to hold your horses."

Again, Kasumi pouted.

Sensei shifted so his body was facing towards Minori. His blue eyes were set to the windows where he watched the villagers pass by, waving at some in that enthusiastic way that was so very like him.

Minori liked that about Sensei. He was so… friendly and warm…

"Why do you want to learn that anyway?" he finally asked, but he didn't look away from the window.

"I want to be strong," Kasumi answered so simply.

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"That can't be it."

"It is."

"You don't want to be Hokage or anything?"

Kasumi snorted. "No, sensei. Your position is not threatened."

"That's not it!"

"Such a thrilling conversation," Shiori said. She tried to say it with sufficient sarcasm but ended up yawning halfway through the sentence. She ran a hand through her forelocks, blinking her violet eyes and sharing a look with Minori.

He shyly smiled at her.

It was always like that.

As much as Naruto-sensei tried to pay attention to all three of them, he always got distracted with Kasumi.

"Here we go, guys!" Ayame and her father appeared at their table's side. "Five bowls of ramen. Three beefs and two chicken."

They each grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the can at the center of the table. Together, they broke them apart and in chorus they said, "Thanks for the meal!"

-

The door to her office was opened but Sakura couldn't be bothered to sit up from the small couch at the corner. She stared up at the ceiling, letting the soft cushions help her relax, let her mind wander; loosen up those shoulders.

"That doesn't look like paperwork to me."

Sakura closed her green eyes and smiled, letting her posture slouch all the more at the familiar voice. She listened to the roll of her desk-chair's wheels as it was pulled out, listened to it creak as Ino dropped down without consideration of how old it really was.

"Tired?"

"Hardly," Sakura scoffed, lifting herself up and leaning her weight onto one of her elbows. "I was just thinking about things…"

"That's never good," Ino teased, leaning back on the chair, crossing a leg over the other. She smirked at her, an eyebrow raised. "That forehead of yours is going to get even bigger if you keep this up. Or worse: you'll get wrinkles. Or worse: both."

"Ha, ha," Sakura dryly replied. A second later: "What if we expand the Clinic?"

This made Ino pause.

They both regarded each other and Sakura quietly observed how pretty Ino was. They were older now; twenty-four and counting. Ino's hair was as long as she's always kept it, still tied back and looking paler than it naturally was against the Interrogation Unit's dark uniform.

After the war that's what Ino set her mind to: the Interrogation Unit. She studied, she passed and she failed and she kept trying until she was satisfied with where she was. Sakura and Team Ten knew it had a good deal to do with the loss of her father during the war but they also knew her enough to know this had as much of her ambition and desires to have anything to worry about.

And even with her own goals Ino helped boost Sakura when she needed that extra push.

Like with her clinic.

The idea for it came to her right after the end of the Fourth War, after returning home and delivering news to families of the shinobi and kunoichi they'd lost. Children had underdeveloped minds and if adults had such a terrible time dealing with the struggles of war, it could only be worse for the children.

And Sakura knew first hand what sacrifices, what losses, what blood and death and hate and lies could do to kids.

So she helped them as much as she could around Konoha's reconstruction. She didn't have a clinic at the time so she would see them at the hospital like regular checkups and she'd assess and treat their mental health.

She'd shared her secret desire to open an actual clinic with Ino and Ino had not let the thought go until it happened. Now with Sakura as the leader of the place and Ino coming in to help during the mornings, they'd trained enough of the nurses so the clinic ran smoothly.

"Yes," Ino finally said. "Hell yes."

"Really?"

"Why the hell not?" Ino grinned at her. "Listen to me, Forehead. Tsunade-sama was the greatest medic in the Shinobi Nation. And after the war… After she died… That title has been yours. You are… were her apprentice and you surpassed her." Ino leaned forward and tapped her forefinger to Sakura's forehead, no doubt to the violet diamond that rested at the center like a crown. "And this is proof. You wanting to spread your clinic throughout the entire Nation? Shit, that would be amazing."

Sakura smiled, feeling the warmness at the back of her neck spread and crawl up to her cheekbones. "Yeah… I guess so. " She sighed, leaning back and slumping in her seat. "It's just that there's so many things I would like to do."

"Yeah?"

"Start clinics in all the Villages, find myself an apprentice of my own and… I don't know just… things. Stuff…"

Ino stared at her, an eyebrow raised. "Stuff and things."

Sakura opened and closed her mouth for a second, shifting her attention to the view outside her window. She sighed and only after did she say, "Exactly."

"Talk to Shikamaru," Ino shrugged a shoulder. "He can probably arrange something. Suna or Oto would be our best bet as a starting point, what with his girlfriend in one village and Sasuke in the other."

"Mmm," Sakura hummed, distracted. "Yeah, that's what I thought too."

For a moment, they grew silent. A friendship that's lasted as long as theirs has, it's easy to fall into comfortable silences. Ino lost herself in her thoughts and Sakura raked and sorted her own, choosing to actively ignore some while bringing others to the front for her attention.

She absentmindedly ran her fingers through her short pink hair, listening to the rustle of the trees' green leaves.

"An apprentice," Ino finally murmured, shifting as if getting ready to stand up. "I can see that." She grinned at Sakura's questioning expression. "You're a mother hen and a worrywart. Do you know any fresh kiddies with the conditions for medical ninjutsu?"

Sakura dropped her hand back to her lap, lips pursing as she thought about one of the few things she considered to need her attention the most. "I think I have an idea…"

-

The following morning, Kasumi's screech made some of the birds hiding in the trees take flight.

Naruto winced and took a couple of steps back, staring up and catching the last flapping wings before returning his attention to his more… aggressive student.

"Kasumi-chan—"

"Why exactly are we playing with balloons?!"

Naruto opened and closed his mouth, taking note of Kasumi's drenched appearance and then catching the pieces of broken balloon lying on the grass. He swallowed his snickers and settled for scratching the back of his blond head.

"Kasumi-chan, you're the one that asked for me to teach you guys the Rasengan."

She faltered at this for a second, blinking her eyes and lifting a hand to swat her wet forelocks away from her face. Naruto turned to his more quieter students, watching the way Shiori had given up and just jiggled the balloon in her hand while Minori seemed to be close to popping the balloon just as Kasumi had.

He liked his students, really he did. Minori was so quiet, sometimes he disappeared into the background and Naruto had to make a mental alarm to constantly watch out for him. Shiori was so laid back… too laid back and even grouchy at times. And then Kasumi…

"Fine," she sighed, extending a hand, "give me another one."

"Can't," Naruto drawled, distracted as he watched the way Minori kept avoiding breaking the balloon. "You only get one—were you not listening to my instructions?!"

"I never listen," Kasumi told him with a straight face.

Minori was molding just enough chakra to use for the exercise. With such control, too. Control he hadn't taught them yet; not to this extent, anyway. Naruto blinked his head and turned back to Kasumi, giving her what he hoped was his best look of doom.

"You never listen? I'll take that as a confession," he growled. "Anyway. I only gave you all one balloon because I was just being nice and doing as you wanted. You popped it before you even did what the exercise was about, so you're done. Minori over there is managing just fine, though, loo—"

The balloon popped and Minori looked up at him, his dark eyes wide and expression both frightened and apologetic. Ah, Naruto noticed and fought the urge to smack his forehead, he got nervous at me mentioning his name.

Of course.

All three turned to Shiori and nearly faltered in perfect synchronization at the sight of her sprawled on the grass, her long orange-brown braid at her side and her forelocks covering her sleeping face.

And the balloon entirely forgotten.

"W-what the hell?!" Naruto pointed a finger at her. "Wake the hell up, Shiori-chan!"

"Is that any way to talk to your students, Naruto, really?"

Sakura appeared from the trail leading to the Grounds they were currently occupying, stopping to give him a stern look all packed with her hands on her hips and a deep frown.

Naruto felt himself sweat with terror.

"S-Sakura-chan," he chuckled, waving while giving her his best goofy grin. "How great to see you! Wha'cha doing around here?" Pausing for a second, he nudged at the two students that were nearest to him. "Say hi to Sakura-chan, you guys. C'mon, show some respect."

"Hi Sakura-san," Kasumi waved, her smile charming and batting her lashes at her. She looked like the sweet angel she actually was not, Naruto noted as he stared at her with a dry expression.

Minori half-bowed and shared a small smile of his own. "Hello, Sakura-san."

Naruto watched Sakura's attention drift to Shiori and he felt his cheeks grow warm. How embarrassing really. Jeez! He really did like his students, really—but they were just too much sometimes! One was too loud, one didn't utter a word sometimes, and the other one was just a lazy brat with a sharp tongue.

"So why're you here?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms behind his head so he can lean it against them. "Not that I mind, but you've been pretty busy these past few weeks."

"That's exactly why I'm here, silly!" She placed a hand on Minori's head and smiled at Naruto. "I wanted to see if you were up to grab lunch later? I can wait for your training to end, I don't mind."

"Aw, I'm sure you're busy, Sakura-san," Kasumi said, lacing her fingers up.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her and her totally fake politeness.

"Oh, no no," Sakura laughed. "I'm totally free. Besides, I miss watching the good old action and thrill of simple training. Don't let me keep you guys!"

After a moment of staring at her, Naruto turned back to his students. It took a while but it wasn't until Kasumi broke the last remaining balloon over Shiori's face that she woke up. He sent them off to train after that.

Target practice with a concentration on precision and the speed in taking their weapons out of their pouch. "An enemy isn't going to wait for you to pick and choose or for you to organize yourself," he told them. "The faster you pull a weapon out, get in position, aim and fire, the faster you're out of trouble."

After showing them what he was expecting of them, he moved to stand next to Sakura. He considered asking her what was up and how she was doing, but he figured that they could leave catching up to their lunch date.

So they stood there, to the side, and simply watched.