Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

No one had ever really noticed before. The signs had always been there of course, and some people had picked up on them. Naruto had a strange way of deciding immediately who he adored and who he was cautious around, as well as those that he was simply kind to. He very rarely changed his mind, and was very rarely wrong, and his teammates had seen, even if it didn’t truly register. Without even thinking, it had become habit to watch Naruto as they met new people, or even as they interacted with old acquaintances. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Kakashi asked his opinion on the confrontation with the strange hunter-nin who came to take Zabuza. What was a surprise was his response. After all, they had never really noticed.

“I dunno. He’s gotta be with that creepy no-eyebrows guy, but...he didn’t feel like a bad guy. Neither of them really did.” And then he just sat there like normal, totally oblivious to the stares of his entire team.

Sakura was the one to finally ask what they were all thinking. “What exactly do you mean, he doesn’t ‘feel’ like a bad guy?”

Naruto blinked his big blue eyes in a way that could probably let him get away with murder, had he been anyone else. “You know. His Aura. It didn’t feel bad, just sorta sad and maybe a little desperate.”

“Aura.” Kakashi’s voice was totally flat, in a way that screamed ‘I can’t have just heard what I thought I just heard.’ But he had, and Naruto was quick to confirm it.

“Yeah, Aura. It’s kind of like a feeling in the air around someone, but I can sort of see it too? It shows what people are, I guess, and I can read strong emotions from it sometimes.” Naruto screwed up his face into a thinking expression. “The old man explained it to me once, with all the technical stuff, but I didn’t really get it. I think it has something to do with emotions, and the old man said that it’s nothing dangerous or weird, so it’s all good.” And then he smiles, big and wide and bright, almost blinding. The others stare at him. Sasuke’s eye twitches.

“Um. Okay? So…you’re…a sensor? You should have said something earlier, you’ll need – “ Kakashi is cut off by a cheery “Nope!”

“I’m not a sensor, I can’t see or feel people’s chakra at all. It’s something totally different. Everyone feels like something, and that’s who they are, and the mask guy doesn’t feel bad. He feels like a small animal, kind of. Like . . . calm, and soft, and gentle. Usually there’s something a bit more specific or distinct, but his Aura is a bit blurry. Almost like there’s some part of it that’s missing. I know he’s with the creepy sword guy cause the edges sort of reach out for him.”

Kakashi sighed, a tired, longsuffering sound that he suspected he would be making quite often with this team. “Look, I’ve read the reports on the Mizuki case. If you could tell when people are good or bad, then how in the world did you get led into a situation like that?”

Sakura blinked fast, like she was trying to fill in the blanks in the conversation, and Sasuke was looking more and more annoyed as the explanation progressed. Naruto’s face had scrunched up in distaste.

“Weeeellll, Mizuki’s Aura wasn’t really bad, exactly. Sometimes people’s Auras don’t show all of their emotions, even ones they feel really strongly. And not all Auras fall into good or bad categories. Sometimes they’ve got a nice sort of happy tint to them, like Sakura’s. But most of the time, they just are. I’ve never met anyone with a bad Aura, even when they’re tainted or feeling really bad emotions. Mostly they’re just neutral, and I can read some way better than others. Mizuki felt like snow, and I could barely read him at all. I thought it was the good kind of snow, for snowmen and snowball fights, but it turned out to be the bad kind that gives you frostbite.” The blond boy frowned. “The old man says I can probably read people better the more closely connected they are with me, or if their emotions are directly related to me. I can feel when people hate me or wish me harm, but Mizuki wasn’t feeling like that until the end, when he was focusing less on the scroll and more on me.”

At this point, Sakura just couldn’t take it anymore. Her irrepressible curiosity burst forth. “You said my Aura was good, right? What is it like? What is Sasuke like? Can you see if people are connected, or soulmates, or something like that?” Remembering herself, she frowned angrily at him and added, “I mean, if you’re even telling the truth at all.”

Naruto beamed at the questions, even as Kakashi sighed again and Sasuke glared at Sakura. Now she’d done it. Their teammate never shut up as it was, but he was always ten times worse if you enabled him.

“Sure! You feel like new life. Um, Sort of like…growth? You know, like the earth and the sky and all the green things in between.” Sakura looked a little gobsmacked at this evaluation of her being. Sasuke just looked incredulous. Naruto forged on. “Sasuke feels like silk, or polished wood, or silver. Like something elegant and beautiful, but also well-made and sturdy and really hard to break. The kind of things that people keep forever, and take care of, and pass along to their loved ones. Also, kind of glow-y? Way more complicated than Sakura but not as nice, and I bet mine would be so much better if I could feel it. I don’t know if people are connected other than to me, except that sometimes people’s Auras start to blur into each other around the edges if they’re really close emotionally. But that’s not always romantic, and I don’t think it has anything to do with soulmates.”

Sakura wilted a little, but then remembered new life, growth, earth and sky and green, and she sat up a little straighter. Sasuke looked slightly affronted and confused at being called beautiful, but also smug and flattered, because…sturdy. Hard to break. Taken together, that could be interpreted as strong, not that he has ever been anything less. Kakashi still looked skeptical, and a little unsure how to tread. After all, up to this point his basic teaching strategy had been ‘set a task, explain the importance, and read porn until the cute little genin complete it’ with occasional lessons on teamwork. Although, what the Uzumaki had said about Haruno might indicate an affinity for medic work…

“…Okay. So Naruto sees people’s Auras, Sakura is green, and Sasuke feels pretty. Anything else I should know? Or can we move on to the mission?” Once again, his cute little genin are so predictable. Sakura blushes, Naruto huffs in indignation, and Sasuke glares virtual death rays. Sakura, still blushing furiously, raises a hesitant hand. “Yes?”

“Well…don’t you want to know what your Aura is like, sensei?” Oh. The older ninja couldn’t help but wince. Kakashi had been hoping she wouldn’t ask that, of all things, but he knew it was somewhat inevitable, given the circumstances. He just hoped he didn’t radiate blood and regret too obviously.

“Not particularly, but I think he’s going to tell me anyway, so we might as well get it over with.”

Naruto pouted in a way that is far too adorable for a boy being trained to kill, and blurted “Kakashi-sensei feels like lightning and stone, or something in between. A lot like how paved paths in the village are washed clean after a really hard rain, you know?” His teacher sighed silently in relief and slouched even further into his seat. These too-small soldiers didn’t need to know the horrors that had forged him. Not yet.

(Later, after the other two genin have left, Naruto gave his teacher a very serious stare. He didn’t hesitate, just spoke, managing to cut right to the heart of the issue without even trying. Then again, it’s Naruto, and somehow he’s always been able to strip everything else away to see what really matters.

“Sakura is a growing, living thing that isn’t growing or living very well. She’s something great, but who she is isn’t who she’s being. She can’t move beyond the Sakura that everyone else sees. Sasuke is stained and torn silk, scratched and burned wood, and tarnished, dented silver. Something is eating away at everything that makes him amazing, everything that makes him good, makes him Sasuke. You are old paths and stone worn smooth, but there is rain and lightning in you. You have potential to be slates washed clean and new beginnings, and I think all four of us need that. We just need you to give it to us.”

As Naruto left the room, Kakashi couldn’t help but feel that he didn’t need to give them anything. After all, a little blond boy with eyes full of dreams and pain in equal measure seemed to be doing that well enough on his own.)

Chapter Text

No one had reason or opportunity to breach the subject again until they are back at Tazuna’s house, recovering from yet another battle and packing so that they can finally, finally go home. It was Naruto who spoke first, breaking the silence with a voice his team has never heard him use before. He sounded sad, and serious, and it’s was somehow so very wrong on the boy who is always smiling.

“You know, I couldn’t really get a read on those two when I first met them. Zabuza was so scattered and desperate and harsh, and Haku felt so blurry and indistinct. But when they were both there, together…I could see it. Together, they made a greater picture than they did apart. Zabuza was the storm, and Haku was the calm after. Neither could exist without the other. And they didn’t…” No one said anything. No one was sure what to say. But Naruto just gave them a small, sad smile and turned back to organizing his pack.

On the road back to Konoha, Sasuke had a great deal of time to think, and to watch his teammates. To watch Naruto, who is the dead-last, the idiot, but can somehow see someone’s Aura? It was very hard to believe, and the last Uchiha wasn’t sure he did. Not yet. Sakura was taken in by his pretty description, despite her tendency to not believe anything the stupid dobe says. Kakashi was a lazy moron, albeit a lazy moron with a sharingan and some very powerful jutsu. Neither of them could be trusted to make a proper judgement of whether Naruto’s ability is real.

But thinking back on the past few months, Sasuke had to admit that there is nothing to prove him wrong. Now that he was looking, he could even remember looking to the boy, the dead-last ¬of all people, for first judgement on clients, ninja, and classmates alike, without even thinking about it. And…he couldn’t remember that judgement ever being wrong. Most of the time, signs were subtle, or he didn’t react at all, but he had pouted when they met the woman whose garden they weeded, and she had spent the entire day scolding them and glaring, and being especially hard on Naruto for some reason. When they helped an elderly couple move, Naruto had given them a huge, genuine smile, so bright it was nearly blinding. The couple had proceeded to bring the entire team cookies and lemonade, and thanked them all profusely when they were finished. There was actually a surprising pattern that appeared; while there were very few shinobi that Naruto reacted badly to, the majority of the civilian population were greeted with hesitation and wariness – hidden, of course, behind his signature sunny grin.

For a few people, Naruto absolutely lit up. The Hokage, Iruka-sensei, some of the genin in their year, two or three of their clients, including that elderly couple. Sasuke had always thought these were people who had been kind to him in the past. They probably were, but was that kindness what caused his reaction, or could it simply be a result of some base goodness they held inside them, one which Naruto could recognize on sight? That was crazy, right? Right?
Sasuke honestly didn’t think it was. But for now, it was best to watch and wait. After all, the dobe couldn’t be in his right mind if he had called Sasuke beautiful, and if the Last Uchiha had felt a warm, tight feeling in his chest…well, that must have been his feeling of pride at the rest of it. After all, he was an Uchiha. It was only right he would be made of only the best of things.

Sakura was kind of freaking out. All her life, she had wanted recognition from someone. First Ino, then Sasuke-kun – although if she was being honest with herself, that was halfway about Ino too. Her parents had always supported her, told her she was smart and beautiful and that one day she would be a wonderful kuniochi. But they were her parents, and they were always going to support her whether or not she really was smart and beautiful and a wonderful kuniochi. In her entire graduating class, she and Naruto were the only ones to actually become genin who weren’t from a major clan. Heck, aside from Kiba, all the others were clan heirs, and what did it say about her that she and the class dead-last were in that same category? Whatever she did would probably never be enough to compete with her friends, because her parents were chunin from a small shinobi family, and she wasn’t a chakra tank like Naruto.

But this trip to wave changed everything. She had been near useless in battle, yes, but now that she knew what she could do, knew what she was capable of, Sakura was ready to become someone her teammates could be proud of. Because when Kakashi-sensei had assigned that chakra control excersice, she had beat the boys, both Sasuke and Naruto, and not by a small margin, either. She had blown them out of the water, and now there was something she was good at, that she was the best at! Sakura could work with that. And Naruto, sunny, stupid Naruto, had looked at her and said life. Had said growth, earth and sky and all the green things in between. Now that she knew what she could be, what she was, Sakura would be that person or she would die trying.

And…she beat Sasuke. It was worth noting, perhaps even more than that she had won, that she had beaten him specifically. And it had felt good. Much, much better than any glance he had ever thrown her way or the thrill of being on his team or the times he touched her in training. Beating Sasuke had felt the same way beating Ino did. It had felt like victory, and satisfaction, and you’ve always been better but now I did it, now we’re equal, do you see me now while at the same time feeling like how did it come to this, why does one of us have to win?

It scares her, because realizations are coming, and the way she thinks about her life, herself, her goals…it’s shifting. Not much, more like remembering something long forgotten than discovering something completely new, but it is still strange, and different, and terrifying. How long has she been lying to herself? She really does care about Sasuke, but did she before they were a team? And does she really love him?
It scares her more than anything that the answer is I don’t know.

Kakashi is worried. He looks at team seven now, and he just doesn’t know how this is going to end. He has a loudmouthed friendly idiot, a besotted fangirl, and a stoic, cold genius. By all rights, this should play out just the way his team did, and he cannot let that happen. But at the same time, he has a perceptive brat who can peel away layers of deception to get right to the heart of anything and everything. He has a girl who is too afraid to be strong, but only because she never thought she could be. He has a boy who seems angry, who is poisoned by revenge, but who threw himself in front of an attack he thought was deadly to save the life of a teammate he claims to despise.

They are not his team seven, or the sannin all over again, although he can see how they could have been, very easily. But they aren’t, not if he plays this right, and while that’s good, it also…it also leaves Kakashi with no clue where to go from here. Now, he has three small beings that he is expected to halfway-raise until they become chunin, and god, Sarutobi, and most of the village knows that he is not good with other human beings, let alone children. They are beginning to need more from him than training exercises and missions, but when Kakashi looks at them, his brain just freezes up and all he can see are all the other people he’s failed. And here are three children who need proper care and encouragement more than anyone else.

He should just push them through to chunin as quick as he can and wash his hands of the whole business. Everything he loves dies in the worst ways possible, and he doesn’t want to see these extraordinary children die before they can ever reach their full potential. He should distance himself, for their own good. It scares him that he doesn’t want to.

Chapter Text

When they got back to Konoha, Naruto thankfully stopped dropping bombs for a while. It didn’t make that much of a difference, though, because what he had already said was more than enough to make everyone on his team think. On the outside, there wasn’t too much change, other than the fact that Sakura began throwing herself at the training posts more and more viciously. On the inside, they were all scrambling to put the pieces of their worldview together.

Honestly, they’re ninja. Such a little revelation shouldn’t have been able to knock them off their game. And, well, it hadn’t exactly impeded their abilities any, but it had certainly left them unsure of the way they had seen their sunny teammate, and, in some cases, themselves.

Sasuke lapsed back into his normal behavior, but kept a careful eye on Naruto. Sakura started displaying some honestly rather disturbing violent tendencies, and was also keeping a careful eye on the blond. She was also watching Sasuke rather like how a raptor watches potential prey, which he would never admit made him slightly nervous. Naruto just trundled along with his life as always, totally unaware of and unbothered by this shift, and the scrutiny his teammates were now giving him.
Kakashi, because he’s just a useless ass like that, didn’t bother to tell them about the upcoming chunin exams until Naruto had already picked a fight with a foreign team. Well, it would be inaccurate to say he picked a fight with the entire team, as when the last member showed up, all the cheerful boy did was stare at him with an absolutely awestruck expression. Sasuke, already running through possibilities in his head, dropped out of his tree to stand by his frozen teammate, elbowing him in the side. The Suna team was long gone by now, having been scared away by the same boy who had sent Naruto into some kind of freaky trance. He still wasn’t moving. Sasuke grabbed the blond by his shoulder and shook him.

“Hey, dobe. Dobe. Naruto!” Naruto finally snapped out of his stupor, turning to blink at Sasuke with wide, glazed blue eyes. He still looked more or less zoned out, but was at least responding now. “What was that all about? Did that guy feel unusual? Good, bad? Is he a threat?” Those eyes shifted to Sasuke’s mouth, and Naruto’s eyebrows scrunched up like what his friend had just said wasn’t quite computing. Then he looked back into the darker eyes staring back at him and finally spoke.

“Sorry, just a little overwhelming,” Naruto murmured, and that alone was a sign something was very wrong, because Naruto did not murmur. “He’s…he feels like the difference between life and death. In any way you can think. It’s just a lot, that’s all. I – I have to go, sorry bye.” And then he darted off, still incredibly distracted, leaving his teammates to watch as he disappeared down the street, almost running into two separate trees on his way.

Sasuke didn’t know what to do. He could feel Sakura approaching from behind, but he was too shocked to care. The difference between life and death? Did that mean this kid was a killer? Of course he was, though, they were shinobi. Did he mean that kid was the difference for Naruto? If so, was he in danger? Or did he mean in a more philosophical way? From what Sasuke could tell, Naruto’s descriptions tended to be somewhat metaphorical and a bit flowery. But…in any way you can think, he had said. Did he mean all of that and more? What made this kid from another village so special? What gave him the right to make the moron act like that?

“Sasuke?” Sakura’s voice was tentative and quiet. Like she was approaching a frightened animal. “Who was that?” Sasuke turned to look at her, slowly realizing that he had been standing frozen in the middle of the street for several minutes.
“I don’t know.” And that was that.

Chapter Text

Sakura was angry. So, so angry, and annoyed, and exasperated, and done with all of this, and downright terrified. Things weren't supposed to go downhill so fast. They weren't supposed to go downhill at all. The first test had been so very easy, but she supposed that that should have been the first tip off. Nothing was ever easy with team 7.

So now, here she was, stuck in the middle of a forest full of enemy ninja and dangerous wild animals, with two unconscious teammates and not nearly enough supplies to last. It had only just really sunk in that they could all die out here. But Sakura had always been good at denial, and now she could put that to good use, for once. She shoved the anger and fear and confusion and worry into the back of her mind where she kept everything else she didn't want to admit. By the time the team from sound showed up, she had booby trapped the entire area around the boys. They weren't great traps, not like Naruto could have made them, but they were academy perfect and functional. They would, hopefully, keep them safe, at least for now.

But that didn't mean that she could just sit back and let the enemy approach. The team from sound was obviously above her skill level, and Sakura was so, so afraid to fight alone for the first time, but now was not the time to be a coward. And... maybe she didn't need to kill them, or even defeat them. In this situation, all she really needed to do was wound them badly enough that they would need to retreat. Defeating them would be far beyond her, but her boys needed her to be strong, and if Sakura could just hit them hard in a few weak spots, then this could actually work. So Sakura took a deep breath, thought earth and sky, and lunged.

She leaped when she was about halfway to her first opponent, the one with the weird haircut. He threw a few shuriken at her, but he was lazy about it, practically radiating overconfidence. Sakura would not let a few stupid throwing stars stop her. Not now. So she caught one, twisted to avoid another two, and let the fourth stick in her shoulder. Pain was acceptable. Letting them win was not. Less than a second later, Sakura made impact, body slamming the boy into the ground. Even though he was much larger than her, the momentum that Sakura had picked up from her desperate sprint knocked him down like a domino.

While her enemy was still out of breath and his teammates not yet processing his fall, she scrambled up, yanking the shuriken out of her shoulder and slamming it through one of the boy's palms and into the ground even as she stomped on his opposite forearm as hard as she physically could. There was a sickening crack, and then screams of pain.

But in the time it had taken her to incapacitate one ninja, the other two had reacted. The one in the huge cloak ducked around Sakura to go for the defenseless boys while the girl with the long hair made a swipe at her with a very sharp kunai. Luckily, Sakura still had her catch from earlier, and was able to block the blade with her own.

"Stupid girl," her opponent snarled at her," if you would just give us your teammates you could go free. Not a hair harmed on your pretty little useless head." Sakura very much doubted that. It was a moot point, of course, since she would never let these scum anywhere near her teammates if she could help it, but still.

An explosion rang out from behind them, and Sakura disengaged, putting some distance between herself and the other kuniochi as she whirled. It took barely a second to find the leader of the team, now with his clothes on fire from triggering an explosive tag, and to send the weapon in her hand slicing through the air toward his back. The only problem with this plan was that it left her momentarily distracted and defenseless, and even as she retrieved a kunai from her weapon pouch, Sakura could feel the girl behind her get a good grip on her hair and pull hard. Sakura howled once before falling silent on her knees, biting her lip to keep quiet.

The other girl tugged harder as she spoke, giving some stupid speech about not giving in to frivolity when one lived the life of a professional mercenary, as though she didn't have hair that was at least twice as long as Sakura's! But that was okay. If there was one thing Sakura had learned from their clash with Zabuza, it was that the other side's monologue could be used as valuable planning time.

The conclusion was easy enough. She had a sharp blade in hand. The enemy was holding her by her hair, and as long as she did, she had the advantage. In the end, the decision wasn't nearly as hard as she had thought it would be. There was a soft snick, and then she was free, rolling to the side so that she could jam the knife deep into her captor's kneecap. When the girl dropped hard, still holding a length of soft pink hair, Sakura elbowed her in the throat, quickly following up with a palm strike to the nose that produced a gush of blood.

Taking a look around, their leader, who had finally put out the fire and now had a knife sticking out of his cloak (it hadn't even broken skin, dammit), seemed to come to the conclusion that it would be best to retreat before her teammates woke up. He scooped up the bleeding girl and the still screaming boy, and disappeared into the forest.

The entire thing had taken less than ten minutes. Her teammates hadn't even stirred. Slowly, still keeping an eye out for enemies, Sakura stumbled back over to where she had stashed the boys, checked on them both, and slumped, still highly aware but completely exhausted. When the sweet boy in the green jumpsuit found them minutes later, drawn by the sound of a fight, Sakura gifted him with a tense smile and reassured him, honestly, that she had everything well in hand.

Chapter Text

I do not own Naruto.

Sasuke didn't feel any better once the mark was sealed. In fact, he almost felt worse, like his limbs had all been dipped in cement, but he still couldn't help but feel glad. The only time those markings had even begun to spread, during his semi-final match with the guy who sucked his chakra, he had felt so powerful. For just a moment, he felt drunk on it, that high of chakra and enhancement and dark, tantalizing potential. How much farther could this new addition to his power and skill take him? How much closer to killing that man?

But then he had looked up at the balcony, for just an instant, and had caught sight of Naruto. Naruto, who was staring at him in utter horror. Naruto, who had never looked at him with anything but openness and trust, even when they were both angry. Naruto, who was looking at him with fear and panic in his eyes. Naruto, who was fearless and carefree and currently terrified...of him. The effect was the same as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water down Sasuke's back, and he felt chilled to the bone.

Luckily, he had won his match quickly, before the black tendrils could even reach outside his shirt. The mark shut down before it could even really get started, and right after his match, Kakashi whisked him away to seal the thing, hopefully permanently. Good. Sasuke wanted it gone forever. Nothing that made Naruto look that way could ever possibly be good.

Sasuke remembered the first time Naruto had spoken of his odd ability, back in wave country. It felt like so long ago now, though it had only really been a few weeks. He remembered how Naruto said that pretty much nobody felt inherently bad, even the enemy, the bad guys. But when the curse mark had activated back in that arena, there hadn't been any visible sign. There was no way that his teammate could have known it was there unless he had sensed it. What did it say about the tiny little squiggles on his shoulder, that they would freak Naruto out and feel terrible to him, when nothing else, not even the man in the forest who put this mark on him, did? Sasuke didn't know what he had felt like to Naruto for those few moments that the mark was active, but he knew that it was not elegant or beautiful or strong.

The next time that Sasuke saw Naruto, the other boy smiled at him even wider, even brighter than ever before. He could almost feel that smile, so easy and freely given, settle over him like a physical weight. It made him feel warm, like there was some tiny light inside of him, glowing away against the darkness that had been brewing for years. A moment later, and Sasuke said something that twisted Naruto's face into a scowl, melodramatic and spitting mad. But his eyes didn't close off, he wasn't repulsed, and the warm feeling remained.

"Do you want me to trim the edges a bit? I can even them out for you?" Ino was a little bit hesitant and shy, very unlike herself. She reached out to brush her fingertips over the soft, newly cut ends of her old friend's hair, and marveled at the change that had been wrought in her. There was steel in Sakura now, steel that had always been there, untempered and buried under doubt and insecurity. It wasn't so any more. The Sakura that tied against her in the arena was not the same one she had known in the Academy, was not even the same Sakura she had argued with before the first test. Her old friend was different even now, sitting in the quiet infirmary while the other defeated contestants slept.

"No." Ino pulled her hand back as though burned, and Sakura's eyes softened. It had cost Ino something to ask at all, she knew, and the least she could do was return the favor. "I would...like it, if you could neaten some of the stray strands. But I want to leave the style; don't even it out. This is who I am now. I like the reminder."

By the widening of the other girl's eyes, her friend understood all that had just been said without words. The way her hair was cut now was sharp, a little ragged around the edges. It was practical and efficient, and practically screamed ninja. More importantly, she had cut it with her own hand, had used the product of her frivolity and impracticality to get the jump on her enemy and to WIN. It felt like she had cut more than her hair: she had also severed her weakness, her past mistakes, and an obsession that had cost her far, far more than it had earned. She was a kuniochi now.

And...under all of that, under her newfound discovery of who she could be, was a deep and wistful remembrance of who she used to be. Not the girl who dropped everything to chase a boy when she wasn't even ten years old, but the girl who had something to drop. The girl with a best friend and an achingly sharp mind and a dream, a girl with a bright future ahead of her.

In Ino's eyes she could see all of that, washed in sadness and hope and a very helpless sort of loss, layered over guilt, because Ino hadn't been blameless either, not by far. And then she smiled, and reached out to brush a trailing hair behind Sakura's ear, allowing her hand to linger against her face.

"I understand why. It suits you." And then her smile grew wider. "You know, I was right, all those years ago." Sakura shot her a questioning look, and a quiet, bubbling giggle spilled out of her lips. "You've bloomed, Sakura! And you're the most beautiful flower of all, just like your namesake." A brighter giggle, now. "I should have known all along. Sakura trees, you know - they take longer than most flowers to grow, but it's always worth the wait. You just needed some time."

And suddenly, embarrassingly, Sakura was also giggling, laughter spilling out of her uncontrollably even as her eyes welled with tears. When she reached out to hug Ino, they met in the middle, arms wide open. So there they were, two twelve-year-old girls with messy haircuts sitting in a room full of unconscious ninja, hugging and crying and laughing almost hysterically, clinging to each other with all their might. It was perfect.

Chapter Text

Itachi had attacked Naruto. He had attacked Sasuke's almost-friend. Had been in Konoha, and completely overlooked Sasuke, ignored him entirely, to go after Naruto.

And what would have happened if Sasuke hadn't burst in in time, or if Naruto's weird new teacher hadn't come back? Would he have been faced with the same nightmare, new once more? His once-precious older brother, standing with a bloody blade in hand over a far too still figure on the floor?

By the time that he woke up from his brother's curse - no, illusion, it was just an illusion - everything had changed, but somehow seemed about the same as it was before, anyway. Itachi is gone again. They have a new Hokage. The village is still, a little quieter than before, but otherwise it's as though nothing ever happened. Orochimaru didn't attack, the village wasn't almost destroyed, and they didn't all almost die multiple times. Sasuke's world didn't get turned on its head. Again.

Except it did.

When Sasuke woke up, Naruto was sitting by his bedside. He was looking at him with this sort of intensity that almost hurt, like those stupid blue eyes could see through his soul.

"Hi," He said, not even blinking.

"Why are you staring at me, dobe?"

Naruto's head tilted to the side. "He didn't feel evil."

It felt like a stone had settled in his stomach. "Who?" He didn't need to ask. He already knew, and the look his sunny friend gave him said that Naruto knew he knew. "How can you know? You said, when you first told us about this, you said that you couldn't feel bad auras. That they never felt bad, to you, only tainted sometimes. He could be the worst person on earth and you wouldn't know!" Naruto nodded sagely, and he looked far older than his years.

"But he didn't just not feel bad, Sasuke. He felt good. Like Sakura does. He feels kind of...corroded around the edges, like he's maybe a little crazy, but good."

Sasuke couldn't breathe. This was not what was supposed to happen. Of course Itachi was crazy, he had killed their family! But he was not good. That good man, the one he had once called aniki, was not real. It had all been fake, he had been tricking them all along. Or maybe, maybe Naruto was lying! Yes, that had to be it. Naruto was jealous of Sasuke, always had been. Maybe he was trying to throw him off, trying to make him weak, trying to-

It was this thought that shook him from his stupor. No. Naruto would never do that. It just wasn't in him. Even after years of Sasuke's rebuffing and rejecting and humiliating him, Naruto had never thought of him as anything but a friend. He wouldn't do that because he wasn't like that at all. He was better than the rest of them, with their lies and their hatred and their anger. If Sasuke was able to read people the way that Naruto could, he thought that Naruto might feel something like sunshine, always bright and beautiful, and never leaving for good. If Sasuke could trust anyone in this world, it was him.

So, he took a deep breath and said, "Tell me everything."

Naruto shook his head slowly. "Sasuke, I know you want to know, but...I'm not really sure that it will be good for you. Can you handle it? You've been thinking of your brother as evil for years, right? Can you really just accept this?"

It would be so much easier if he could just say no. If he could just continue blindly hating his brother and ignoring the part of him that still hoped that Itachi wasn't bad; that his big brother really had loved him. But if it was true, if Sasuke didn't have all the information he needed, then he couldn't just say no. He needed to know. He needed to know.

"I can try."

Naruto looked him deep in the eyes for a second longer, and then began. "He feels like safety. Like love, and compassion, and kindness. Like a kind of fierce, never ending loyalty and protection that was kind of scary, how intense it was. I...Sasuke, I just don't understand how someone like that could have done something so awful. He was practically glowing - I mean, not actually glowing, like you do sometimes, but like - just, really really good, okay?"

"Yes, I get it already!" Sasuke snapped. He didn't know what to think. Naruto would never lie to him, he had just finished establishing that, but - well. Perhaps it was better to simply gather information for now, and not think about what it meant until later. So he took a deep breath, and tucked the revelations about his brother into a nice safe box that he could open when he had all the pieces of the puzzle. He was just going to ignore the thing about glowing entirely, just as he had the first time Naruto had mentioned it. "What else? You said he felt crazy. Crazy how?" Naruto tilted his head and scrunched up his nose, squinting his eyes in a way that looked simultaneously ridiculous and adorable.

"Um, the best way I can describe it would be like something was eating at the edges of his Aura. Like, it was turning dark and crumbly, and then drifting away, really slowly. It was sort of almost like how yours used to look - don't worry, it doesn't now, but it used to. But his is more, somehow. Like, all of that, plus...poison? Or sickness, maybe? Something bad, creeping in from outside. Something terrible." Naruto shuddered. "I've never felt anything like that before."

Sasuke nodded along, but inside, he felt sick. Something terrible, eating away at his brother's soul? And he had felt like that too? Sasuke remembered the look on Naruto's face, when that seal activated. Was that why?

"What about the fish guy?"

"The one who was with him? With the blue skin and the really sharp teeth?" Naruto squinted in that funny way he did sometimes that made him look just like a fox. "He felt like blunt force trauma, sort of. Like, brutal honesty. But with hidden depths, too. Not good, not bad. Didn't really feel much of anything toward me, so I couldn't get a very good reading." This caught Sasuke's attention.

"You can tell how people feel toward you?"

"Yeah!" Naruto puffed up with pride and beamed at him. "I've been getting better with the details, ya know? We've been meeting a lot more people lately, and they have a wider range of feelings for me. I used to just get the really strong emotions, and most of what I got was bad. I think the practice is helping!"

Sasuke allowed himself a tiny smile, but then dropped it as a thought occurred to him. "How did It- that man feel about you?" Honestly, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Naruto tilted his head to the side and thought for a long, long moment. Just when Sasuke was about to call it off, he answered, "Curious? Concerned, just a tiny bit, and intrigued. Umm, sort of a little...regretful or guilty, I'm not sure which. Something really odd that I don't know the word for. But mostly just curious. And not even that much." Naruto shrugged. "From what I was picking up, he feels a lot of things really strong, and he gets lots of conflicting feelings. I don't think I was really his priority."

"Of course you were his priority. He ignored me completely. His entire focus was on you until your teacher showed up." Sasuke had been almost an afterthought, for all the time and effort his brother had taken to deal with him. But now Naruto was giving him a strange look, heavy and piercing. It was an unusual look to see on the kid who Sasuke had always thought of as an idiot. It was becoming more and more clear to him lately that no matter how intellectual Naruto was or was not, he understood people almost terrifyingly well. Better than Sasuke ever would, probably, which made him an invaluable resource in times like these. He wondered how long it would be until the rest of Konoha figured that out.

"No, I don't think so. A lot of people out there are really good at hiding their emotions. Until they meet me, of course. I've seen a lot of people whose faces and actions would never tell you what they were thinking and feeling, you know, on the inside. That crazy guy with the eyes - he wasn't thinking about me at all. 'Specially once you showed up. In fact, I'm pretty sure he didn't want to be there at all." The look sharpened until it felt like it could cut through Sasuke's soul like a well-kept kunai. "If I was you, I wouldn't be asking what he's doing. I would be asking why." Suddenly, the look was gone, and Naruto was back to giving a sheepish smile and scratching the back of his head. "Just something to think about, I guess."

Watching his teammate - and yes, Sasuke was definitely keeping him - from the corner of his eyes, the last Uchiha thought that he had rather a lot to think about, now.

Chapter Text

"Where are we going?" Sakura asked, stumbling along the rocky trail that led up the mountain. Naruto led the way, scrambling over the loose gravel and dust with practiced ease.

In each of his hands, he held a teammate captive, boldly dragging her and Sasuke behind him.

"You'll see," the blond said, flashing an enormous, blinding smile at his prisoners. Sasuke grunted his displeasure, but followed easily enough, in the same quiet, distant way he had been following Naruto around ever since the boys came back from their short trip out of the village. Sakura still didn't know just what had happened out there, but she hoped that they would tell her someday. Whatever it was, it was very obviously still a raw wound for Sasuke, and Sakura was not going to poke that beast. She knew how wounded animals reacted, and she had only just started to make any progress with him.

As the three genin rounded one last bend, all thoughts flew from her head. They were on top of a cliff, and the entirety of Konohagakure was spread out beneath them. She could see the hokage tower just below, and the academy in the center of the city. She could see team seven's training ground, and the bridge where they always met, and Ichiraku ramen where Naruto liked to eat, and the central marketplace. She could see the people, and from this high up, they all looked the same, just tiny dots and specks drifting through the village.

"Oh, Naruto," she breathed, quieter even than a whisper. "It's beautiful!"

He beamed even wider, but the smile seemed different now. Calmer, softer. Less mischievous and mindlessly happy and more peaceful and content. It was an odd sight on the rambunctious boy.

"It's the top of the Hokage monument. The fourth's head. Not many people ever come up here, but I like to sit up here sometimes. It's quiet, and private, and sometimes when I sit real still and just breathe, I can feel Konoha."

This caught Sasuke's attention. "Feel Konoha? The village? How?" Naruto dropped to the ground near the very edge of the ledge, patting the ground on both sides of him, and the other two hesitantly joined him.

"Back down in the village, crowds can get pretty hard. Everyone feels like something, all at once, and it would be pretty overwhelming anyway, but most of them also have negative feelings towards me, so that taints what I pick up from them. It's bad. But when I come up here, they're too far away to really read. But...everybody in Konoha looks at this place, every day, and most of them are feeling the same things, very strongly. They look up here and feel faith, and love, and safety, and devotion. Hundreds of people, all linked and united by the same thing - the village. When I sit up here, I can feel it. All of them, as one instead of many. The distance helps some, but this place also feels like some kind of focus point, and it's...really beautiful." There was a long moment of silence, and then Naruto spoke again. This time, he sounded hesitant, unsure. It was weird. "I wanted to show you this, but it isn't the only reason I brought you up here. I-I need to tell you something. Something really important, and it's a really big secret, like I know that Iruka-sensei and Tsunade-baa-chan and Sensei and lots of other adults know, but no one our age does, or anyone outside of the village, and you can't tell anybody ever, okay? But I think you need to know. Because - because it's important.

Sakura squeezed his hand and smiled. "It's okay, Naruto. You don't have to be nervous. Just tell us." She wouldn't hold it against him, no matter what it was. Just a few weeks ago, maybe, but so much had happened since then, and she felt a kind of togetherness with them that hadn't been there before. They used to be Sasuke-kun and Stupid Naruto. Now they were her boys. She knew that Sasuke wouldn't hold anything against him, either. At this point, she didn't even know if he could. They had both fallen into Naruto's orbit, and it felt vaguely inevitable.

Naruto, instead of talking, opened and closed his mouth several times, then took in a deep breath and held it, squeezing his eyes closed, trying to get up the courage to speak. Sasuke and Sakura stared at him for a moment, watching as he quickly turned red, then purple. Sakura tilted her head, concerned. Sasuke twitched.

"Just spit it out already!", he finally cried, startling Naruto into blinking his eyes open and gasping in a breath.

"I'mthekyuubijinchuuriki!" Naruto blurted. When his friends just blinked at him, he heaved a deep sigh, ran his hands through his hair, and began again, staring determinedly out over the village. "I was born on the day that the Kyuubi attacked the village. And demons are made of pure chakra, so they can't be killed, so the fourth hokage had no option but to seal it away, but only people can hold a demon seal, and apparently most adults go crazy or die if you put that kind of seal on them, or the seal breaks again right after. But that doesn't happen with little kids. So because I was there, they chose me. The empathy is a side effect of having the fox sealed in you. That's why I heal so fast and why most of the village doesn't like me." Naruto turned to look at his teammates instead of the village, peering through his lashes. "Please don't hate me?"

He could practically feel the fear radiating from Sakura. He could feel her becoming more withdrawn, her aura dimming and going distant. But Sasuke was on his other side, glowing away just like always, steady and firm and with less decay around the edges than there had been a month ago, even a day ago. Sakura looked over his shoulder at Sasuke, looked down at the village below them, looked at their still-linked hands. And then she took a deep breath, looked him dead in the eye, and said, "Thank you for trusting us with this, Naruto. It must be really hard." And then she hugged him. On his other side, Sasuke tightened his grip on his hand and leaned into his shoulder. The three of them sat together, not saying anything, not needing to. Just three children, three ninja, holding each other up when they couldn't hold themselves.

It was more than Naruto had ever expected to have. It was everything he had ever dreamed of. The future might be hard, there were many mysteries that still needed solving and many enemies that were still a threat. But right now, watching the sun slowly set with a teammate - no, a friend - on each side, nothing seemed insurmountable. No matter what happened next, they were changing, in irreversible ways. They were growing into themselves, together. As long as they kept going, everything would turn out all right.