AN: Sorry for the seriously long time between updates. I really don't have anything I can say to justify it. I will try to be a lot more consistent with updates, and hopefully I can stick to a weekly or fortnightly schedule.

Hopefuly.

"Nani? What's a.." The orange garbed boy's face scrunched up as he tried to pronounce the new word, "...res-ug-na-shion…?" He nodded to himself and continued his line of questioning. "Is that when you get one of those cool black belts for this thing and not the blue one?" He asked, an excited grin plastered on his face while his hands were already working to get off his own hitai ate to receive a new one.

"No, Naruto," Kakashi muttered dumbly, struck by utter shock at his dark haired genin's actions. 'Former genin, it seems.' He continued, "a resignation-"

"Ohhhh. I get it, sensei." He interrupted, a frown on his face as he re-tied the band. "He's trying to get the plate cleaned isn't he?" He rounded on the dark haired boy and his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Listen here, teme." One orange covered arm shot out and he pointed at the old man sitting across from them. "Hokage-sama is your boss and you can't just-"

"Naruto." The present jounin intoned tiredly. "That's...it's not what resignation means." He turned to the Uchiha in the room and continued, watchful of his reaction, but with his only visible eye curved upwards in his trademark eye-smile. "It means that Sasuke doesn't want to be a ninja for the village anymore." The golden haired ninja looked taken aback by this news.

His lips worked soundlessly for a few seconds, unblinking eyes staring unseeingly at his sensei. "No… no, that can't be true." His words were almost a whisper but they were easily heard them in the silence of the room. He looked to the raven haired boy for confirmation and received a slight nod. The blonde's locks swayed this way and that as he shook his head slowly, unable to fathom that his teacher had been so right about something so obviously impossible. His eyes widened when he realised what was going on and he whirled on his sensei as he pointed an accusing finger at the silver haired nin. His eyes shone with unshed tears and his face was one of genuine betrayal, and then pure anger as he growled at his sensei. "This is all your doing isn't it?"

Everyone else in the room raised an eyebrow at the accusation. None of them followed his thinking and they were all at least a little interested in seeing just what kind of crackpot reason he could come up with for making this all Kakashi's fault.

"You're just like Mizuki-teme! You wanna deny Sasuke-teme the chance to be a ninja just because of some stupid pain you feel from before he was even born!" The silver haired jounin flinched as if struck, not even remotely expecting the blonde to be so very close to the mark. Well, about the reason he wasn't all that keen on training the Uchiha, at least. All the other occupants of the room were also visibly stunned by the blonde's words and their apparent accuracy, judging by the jounin's reaction. Naruto continued his rant, angry tears now rolling down his whiskered cheeks, "It probably has something to do with that damn red eye thing you have as well, doesn't it? I bet it has something to do with someone from his clan."

"That's enough, Naruto." Sasuke said firmly. He wa just as shocked about the apparent revelation as the blonde, but he didn't want to deal with it now. He felt that he was about to have quite a few 'balls in the air' so to speak, and he would have to deal with this at a later date. He grudgingly had to admit that he felt a little indebted to the blue eyed nin though. When it had been revealed that Kakashi had a sharingan, the last Uchiha had resolved to get to the bottom of the issue, but with everything else that'd happened, what with his near dying and all, the jounin's possibly stolen eye had kind of slipped his mind. "This choice has nothing to do with Kakashi." He turned to the jounin, and gave him a meaningful look. They would be having words about this later. When he felt his point was received, he turned back to the wizened Kage behind the desk. "Hokage-sama." He intoned.

"Yes, right. Well, if there's nothing else?" He looked at each of the faces in the room, trying to see if he could divine their thoughts with a glance. Kakashi's slightly pensive face made him think that the jounin was re-evaluating his opinion of the resident jinchuuriki. The boy in question had wiped his tears but he was still giving his sensei a betrayed look. The last person in the room broke him out of his thoughts.

"Sasuke-kun…" she muttered, her eyebrows knitted together and her words a little more than a whisper. "Why?...Is…. is it because you didn't beat that fake hunter nin and Naruto did? Be-Because that was just a fluke and-"

"No, Sakura." The dark haired boy sighed. He hadn't wanted to explain anything to them but it seemed like something that just couldn't be avoided anymore. He was absently aware of the fact that they hadn't been friends for a long time, but this was probably a big enough issue to the Haruno that Sakura would tell whatever stupid theory she had to Ino, and the blonde would have it known by the entire village by the time the sun set. Usually, he didn't really care what the people gossiped about, but now that he was on the clock about his whole 'find-a-bunch-of-eligible-women-and-revive-the-Uchiha-clan' thing, he knew that he'd need to work on his reputation if he wanted to have any chance at all with the more discerning of his options. He walked over to the wall by the window and leaned against it. He shook his head and gestured to the chairs when his team didn't get the hint. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and took a second to gather his thoughts.

Sakura walked over to the large couch and sat down. Her body was pretty much moving on autopilot as she numbly waited for Sasuke to speak. She was stunned by his actions and couldn't really think of any reason why he'd be thinking this way. She felt like she had a fair idea how important the goal he'd told them was and the girl just couldn't think of any reason that'd be good enough to make him give up.

Kakashi just turned where he stood and pulled out his little orange book. He stared down at the pages but he couldn't really be bothered to read the words printed on them. He didn't expect Sasuke's actions at all but he kind of had an idea about the reasoning. He knew that revenge blinded people and that it'd probably be an exercise in futility to try and get Sasuke to see any sense at all, and that was precisely why he cared, well, why he was a just a little bit curious. He was curious as to what freakish force of nature managed to get some sense into his stubborn head and shake the Uchiha's resolve.

Naruto defiantly stayed standing. He didn't really want to hear whatever Sasuke had to say. He had seen Kakashi's reaction and that was all the proof he needed. Kakashi was just another traitor like Mizuki-teme. He was just against Sasuke instead. The blonde felt his respect for the man wither and die at that thought. He realised that he really couldn't count on his sensei if he was harbouring such negative feelings about one of his own students like this. He didn't care that the feelings weren't toward him. Kakashi had proven himself to be no better than the closet pervert. He couldn't stand being around that bastard, and he could feel those same feelings starting to brew toward his own sensei. He cleared his head of those thoughts and focused on the dark haired boy in question, frowning at his shattered resolve. The blonde had heard the steel in Sasuke's voice when he'd declared his goal about three short months ago and he knew that the raven haired boy's resolve was at least as strong as his own. The blonde paid attention to Sasuke as he gathered his thoughts. He wanted to find out just how the Uchiha's resolve got so weakened that he'd quit. He never wanted that to happen to his own dream.

Sasuke closed his eyes and decided that he'd have to just start from the beginning.

He opened his mouth to speak and he told them. He told them about his pretty much non existent plans before the evaluation. He told them about the preparation he'd done during the period between the evaluation and the mission and he told them about how he'd warred within himself and what had happened to make him settle on a decision. He kept some of his cards close to his chest though, and he didn't tell them all about which women he was considering, or the bounty he was planning to place on that man's head. He closed his mouth and opened his eyes, taking in their reactions. Kakashi was just as difficult to read as ever, with his face masked and his nose buried in a book the way it always was.

His golden haired teammate looked pensive. It was a strange and unfamiliar expression on his face and the way it was contorted looked almost comical to the stoic Uchiha. He felt a brief flicker of curiosity at just what was going on in the strange blonde's head, but it didn't last long.

He turned and saw the hope in the pink haired girl's eyes as she sat there. 'Damn it. I could've sworn that I didn't mention just how many wives I intend to have.' He mentally backtracked through his little speech and tried to find out what could've tipped her off. His passive face tightened a little when he realised that he'd said the word 'wives' once or twice.

"Sasuke-kun, when you say 'wives'..." He sighed inwardly at her blunt and tactless ploy to get information.

"Yes, Sakura, I will have multiple wives but, each of them will earn their place in my clan."

The girl's eyebrows knit together. "So...when you say 'earn'..."

"Every woman I marry is going to have something that only they can contribute to my clan. I won't be roaming the streets picking girls at random, nor will I just choose the loudest or the 'first' girl as one of my wives." He finished. The girl looked a little uncertain and seemed to shrink a little at the pointed way he delivered the conditions, but proceeded with her questioning.

"Something like what? Money?"

"I will publish a statement that has all the details in a few weeks. I don't have all the criteria thought out yet, but yes, money will be one of them." He turned away from the fangirl, hoping to make it clear he was done with the conversation as he faced their village leader. "To summarise, I need time to prepare the village for the return of my clan. I also need time to train so I can protect my clan and kill that man. In the Konoha High School, classes only run until about noon and by attending I'll be able to learn things of importance to my new priorities." He paused and gave everyone in the room a couple of seconds to voice any further questions, and when none came he finished. "Now, is there something I need to sign?"

"Ah, yes. Of course." The old Kage gestured for the rest of the team to leave and when only the two of them remained in the room he pulled open the top right drawer of his desk and grabbed a form. The Uchiha raised a brow at the location of the forms and the Hokage answered his unasked question. "Better you leave my service this way and not by following the path of the missing nin." The village leader handed him the surprisingly small stack of papers and started the process of refilling his pipe. "And you'd be surprised just how many of those forms are filled out everyday."

The boy nodded absently even as he scanned through the document with his doujutsu. During his past searches through his clan archives, he had found that the clan head always did this so he'd know exactly what he signed on for and thus he couldn't have previously made agreements falsified against him. There was a side note that it made civilians nervous and various tests showed that they were more likely to give you the deal you wanted if there was a slight element of fear involved. It probably wouldn't do him any good against the Hokage, but he was always conscious of the fact that, "bad habits get good shinobi killed." Better just do it the right way than have that saying migrate over to clan heads as well.

Hiruzen jiggled his pipe a little, resisting the urge to both chuckle and sigh at the young boy's resemblance to his father in that moment. When all the tobacco was settled, he lit it with a little fire natured chakra. He took a few puffs, relishing the familiar, calming sensation as he observed the boy across from him. "Sasuke-kun. There are a few things you'll need to know about being a civilian. Generally, school going children would need to participate in team oriented exercise in the afternoons and even though you've expressed your desire to continue your Shinobi training, I cannot allow you to be excused from them."

The boy nodded absently once more, having just gone over the rules of what he could and couldn't do as a minor. "I understand, and that will not be necessary. I intend to make connections and start to build my reputation during my years in the school. Further separating myself from the rest of the students would be counterproductive." Hiruzen felt saddened by the way the boy seemed to think of everyone else as just pawns in his big plan, but he'd been a ninja long enough to understand that the saying, 'no plan survives contact with enemy,' was more true than anyone would think. Most people would be surprised by how often it applied to allies as well. He'd die of shock if Sasuke didn't form tight bonds within the next five-or-so years he was going to be in the high school. He forced his thoughts back into the room and looked on as the boy nodded to himself at something on the paper. "So, I will only be able to truly take my place as clan head on the council when I turn sixteen?" The Sarutobi nodded. "Will I still be recognised as clan head outside of village affairs?"

"Yes. The village has no power to interfere in clan affairs. Regardless, some clans may not respect your judgement before you come of age. They will most probably ignore you until then or try to take advantage of your age, inexperience and solitude."

The dark haired boy nodded in understanding, and asked another question. "I understand, but why am I to be in high school until I'm eighteen? I would already be considered an adult."

"Well, Sasuke-kun, when the villages were founded, it was found that the life threatening situations that ninja encounter on a daily basis would force them to mature faster. They could be treated like adults from the age of thirteen and in some cases even earlier." The old Kage didn't miss the way the boy's eyes darkened at that. "Because of that though, civilian children tended to mature much later. There are a whole list of causes, from envy of young shinobi to the startlingly low average life span." At the boy's surprised look, he elaborated. "It's not as low as the average shinobi life span but with all the bandits and missing nins it's nothing too impressive either." Hiruzen could tell that the younger male was understanding where he was going so he decided to finish. "Eighteen was the general age most civilian children would mature at, but most of them would always seem to get impatient and start to experiment and make bad decisions earlier. Treating them as adults at sixteen, but still allowing them time and a designated place to adjust and get used to their newfound freedom was found to be the best solution." He nodded a little to himself and repeated the info his own sensei had given him. "They're fully entitled to all manners of questionable behavior, but they won't have all that much time for it while in a place that minimises all the repercussions."

Sasuke gave a small nod in understanding. "Is there anything else that will be required of me as a citizen of Konoha?" He didn't like the fact that, later on, he'd be the only clan head still in high school, but he could understand the reasoning. There would be less available time for copious drinking, drugs, sex and partying, but he had no interest in all that anyway. The rest of the students were to be allowed a taste of true freedom within a place that would minimize the fallout. It was bound to make them less likely to go overboard. In theory.

"No, nothing required of you, per say, but there are a few regulations that differ from the shinobi ones. Now aside from the obvious ones... Hmmm. Well, as you're returning to being a minor, you will once again be receiving the orphan stipend. Also, civilians aren't allowed to enter shinobi training grounds, or shinobi only bars and such." The Kage stroked his beard as he looked away thoughtfully. "Oh yes, you won't have to pay any taxes until you're sixteen, and finally, the bank account you were using as a shinobi will be frozen until you come of age." The boy looked a little surprised so the Hokage elaborated. "One of the requirements for those accounts in that you be classified as an adult. You won't have any access to the Uchiha clan accounts until then either."

Sasuke nodded, his jaw clenched a little tighter than it needed to be. He didn't have a problem with his own account being frozen, but losing access to the clan accounts was an issue. He didn't need any more money to get by than what would be provided by the stipend, it was very generous after all, but to get all the businesses and properties he wanted for the clan he'd need those accounts active. "I don't see why you'd restrict clan accounts. Didn't you just say you can't interfere with clan business?" He asked, a single eyebrow raised questioningly.

The Sandaime's eyes narrowed a shade and the young boy knew he'd almost crossed a line into disrespectfulness there. "I didn't make that restriction, Sasuke-kun. The banks did. All the accounts can only be used by an adult. They do have a children's account, but it is limited and must be activated and maintained by an adult."

The Uchiha frowned, but nodded his acquiescence. He wasn't keen on waiting, but he didn't have anyone he could trust to open an child account for his sake. Not that he was willing to swallow his pride enough to allow that, in any case. He handed back the signed forms and waited as the Kage leafed through them. This was a severe setback for Sasuke in terms of his plans. Sure, he could still make as many agreements concerning his wives, but he couldn't buy any businesses or properties. The old man nodded and filed away the paperwork. He took the Hitai ate from its place on the desk and tucked it into a drawer.

"You're free to go, Sasuke-kun." The Hokage said, gesturing to the door. The Uchiha gave a shallow nod and walked over to the exit. Just before he reached it, his finely tuned senses pretty much screamed at him to dodge. He swiftly darted to the side and narrowly avoided the fast moving door as it was flung open.

"Jii-san!" Naruto stood in the doorway, his raised leg showing that he'd kicked the door open. He stopped and dropped it heavily on the ground when he noticed Sasuke. "Wait, you're still here teme?" He gestured behind him and out of the office. "Aren't you supposed to be off...somewhere...doing normal people stuff?"

"Tch." The Uchiha didn't bother responding as he walked past the blonde and out of the office. He had more important things to deal with.

The blue eyed blonde scowled as he closed the door behind the Uchiha. "Stupid teme." He muttered, then his entire mood seemed to evaporate as he turned back to the Hokage. By the way his face returned to exactly the same expression he had when he walked in, Hiruzen could've sworn that the blonde had forgotten the whole altercation completely. "Old man. I need to be a better ninja, but Kakashi-teme is a bad sensei. You saw how he felt about Sasuke." He paused for a second to allow the Hokage to nod, and then continued, " Yeah. Anyway, I still wanna be on Sakura-chan's team, but I need to learn stuff from other places as well. Do you have any more scrolls like the forbidden one…" He chuckled a little sheepishly as he scratched his cheek. "...except, you know, without the forbidden part?"

The village leader had an eyebrow raised at the request. "Now you want to read, Naruto?" The boy pouted a little at the dig. "Why didn't you ask for another sensei?" The boy's face hardened as he replied.

"That's easy. Kakashi's a teme." The Hokage smiled a little at that, highly amused by the way the young boy took every chance to insult the legendary man. "The way he looked at me when I said it was all his fault. He thought I'd never figure out what was going on. He thinks I'm a worthless ninja." His eyes flashed with something as he thought back to the masked nin's fights with Zabuza. "I….I can't beat him like I did Mizuki-teme or the closet pervert, and I don't want him to see it coming." The golden haired genin slammed his fist into his open palm and finished. "I wanna train without him knowing so I can totally beat some sense into him."

The hokage was amused by the determination in the genin's face and the goal itself. On one hand, he didn't really expect the genin to be able to best the legendary jounin anytime soon, and he didn't want to give the boy false hope, but on the other hand he wasn't really confident about the rate that the boy was developing at right now. Usually, whenever the blonde learned something new and exciting, it wasn't long before he burst into the Hokage's office to tell him all about just how much more awesome he had become and to let him know 'not to get too comfortable in that chair.' The last time that had happened was well before he even left the academy and he knew that giving him something to learn would greatly speed up the boy's development. The crux of the matter was that he couldn't give him something. Secrets don't stay secret in ninja villages for long, 'well, not without the constant threat of death anyway,' and the Hokage giving training tips to one genin (especially this genin) would cause a scandal. "Have you tried the shinobi-library?"

As the Kage had expected, the way the boy's face contorted showed that he hadn't. "A library for shinobi? We have one of those?!" The boy looked like he'd been told that someone had killed his puppy. He dropped onto his knees and whined dramatically. "Why wasn't I told? I could have learned so many awesome jutsus by now."

The Hokage frowned at that. He hadn't expected the boy to think about visiting the library, but the fact that they had one was something they were supposed to be told by their sensei. It was standard procedure to take the genin on a 'tour', of sorts, of the village and to let them know about just how they fit into it. It would be terribly inconvenient if all the ninja only had a vague idea of what was expected of them, or they didn't really know all the things they needed to about the village they'd sworn to protect. The Nidaime had thought about it in advance and made sure that a tour was part of the standard post academy procedure. It was so the new genin could learn about all the places of importance now that they were shinobi, but it seemed as if Kakashi had decided against that. "I'm questioning that fact myself….regardless, I'll show you where it is." 'Well. It was about time for my break anyway.'

Sakura frowned a little as she flipped to the next page in the book she was reading. It was a book they'd been given in the academy about what training regimen was most suitable for the various types of ninja. Even before Sasuke-kun's reveal today, she had completely mastered the theory behind it, but she hadn't given any thought at all to the practical side. She knew pretty much everything that was in the book and all the reasoning behind it, so she didn't really need to read it, but she justified it by the fact that she may be wrong.

She knew she was just procrastinating though, and that she was running away from the one reason she wasn't sure about starting to take her training seriously. She wasn't really sure if she still wanted to be with Sasuke. It wasn't that her feelings for the Uchiha had weakened in the slightest, far from it, actually. If anything, they'd actually gotten stronger now that she knew pretty much exactly what she had to do to be with him. There were only two things that gave her pause and made her question her desire to be with the Uchiha scion. There was the fact that she'd have to share the title of 'his wife' with who knows how many others, and that in itself brought the next issue. All she was guaranteed to have by taking his name was the name itself, and, of course, a few sharingan toting babies. The way he'd spoken in the Hokage's office made it sound like he was only doing this for his clan, and he didn't really care who he pulled into his bed as long as she brought something helpful for the clan with her. She didn't know if she'd even have any time with him, let alone whether or not he'd even love her. It wasn't hard to figure out the answer to that one, since one of the requirements was money, but she didn't want to think about that.

She decided that she'd cross that bridge when she got to it, and started to focus on the paths that were available to her. She didn't come from a clan with a bloodline and her parent's didn't have the deepest pockets, so she could only rely on herself, her personal skills and what she could do better than everyone else. She pulled out a notepad and a pencil as she started to make a list. She had great chakra control and her body had a lot of potential to be agile and flexible.

Her chakra control alone would easily allow her to specialise in genjutsu or medical ninjutsu. Genjutsu was already a specialty of the Uchiha clan. On the return trip from Nami no Kuni Kakashi-sensei had briefly told them about just how he beat Zabuza with subtle but extremely effective applications of the overlooked shinobi art, but she didn't want to be redundant. She knew that an Uchiha would probably be better than her at genjutsu anyway, so there'd be no real reason for Sasuke to make her a part of the clan if she chose that. Sure, she'd probably make an acceptable teacher, but anyone at the academy, or any jounin in the village, hell, Sasuke could teach them the art himself. Her head tilted and she figured he probably would. 'I'll keep it as a last resort, just in case, but I'm gonna try and find something that'll be more useful to Sasuke-kun.'

'Now...medical ninjutsu. It's extremely useful, and it's probably something that I could do better than a lot of people at.' She hummed in thought. She could see herself being near the level of some of the very best. The legendary, Tsunade of the Sannin came to mind, and she figured that she had what it takes to be on that level. She had the brains and great natural control of her chakra that could only get better with practice. She didn't really see the promise in becoming a medic. She was sure that she might have a place in Sasuke's great ambition, but she didn't just want to be one of the Uchiha scion's wives. If she couldn't be the only woman for him, then she wanted to be the mother of his main line, the one he loved above all others. The lack of conviction behind this thought didn't fill her with any confidence.

'Wow. this is exhausting. I'm supposed to be thinking about the boy I like, not making a job application…..this feels so….wrong.'When these thoughts started to circle in her head, she put her notepad and pencil away. She wasn't satisfied with how short the list was at the moment, but sitting there wasn't helping her think. She decided that she'd just head to bed. It would be better not to make any rash decisions, and to sleep on it. It was a choice that dictated the rest of her life, after all.

The bubblegum haired girl got up from the chair she was sitting in and frowned when she looked out the window. It still wasn't dark yet. It actually looked like no time had passed at all. She felt a brief flicker of concern about how tired and drained she felt, but chalked it up to a long, tense mission.

She shook her head and shrugged. She'd just take a little nap then. The pink haired genin walked into her room and slipped into her bed. She bundled up under the covers and tucked herself in, settling into the most comfortable spot on her bed. She sighed softly as she closed her eyes and waited for sleep to take her. 'It's not perfect….well, it's far from perfect, but it's better than the way it was before.' She nodded softly to herself, almost sure that she was right. 'I was getting nowhere before. I'm really glad that he's gonna make a list of all the things that a girl can do to be one of his wives.' She peeked one eye open and glanced at the small clock on her bedside table. It was still pretty early in the afternoon so she wanted to set it to wake her for dinner….but she'd already shuffled into her comfy spot. It just wasn't worth it. She closed her eye again. 'I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do, but I'll continue to work on my chakra control until I figure that out.' She found herself very content with this line of thinking and her breathing evened out as she started to drift off to sleep. It didn't take long for the pink haired girl to slip into the land of dreams.

One Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned to himself as he walked away from the Konoha shinobi library. When they'd arrived, the look on Naruto's face had told the experienced ninja that the boy had never even known of the establishment's existence. If that wasn't enough, when he'd asked to make sure it wasn't the fact that the boy just hadn't been paying attention after the test, the boy said he'd been left tied to one of the three posts in training ground seven for a couple of hours.

As the village leader strolled down the dusty street in his official robes, he couldn't help but wonder what exactly Kakashi had been thinking when it came to his team. He honestly couldn't argue with the results, they were green genin that had managed to take down a pair of chunin level ninja after all, but he didn't really have any confidence in the silver haired man's teaching methods either.

He absently made a gesture and a masked operative dropped into a crouch by his side.

"Hokage-Sama." The voice behind the mask intoned emotionlessly.

"Boar, Let Kakashi-kun know to be in my office by the time I get there." The ANBU officer nodded and flickered away with only a minor flare of chakra.

The third looked up a little pensively. Now that the whole Kakashi thing was about to be sorted, his thoughts became free to move to other things. Honestly, when it came to that orange garbed 'grandson' of his and the other long scarfed one, he just couldn't get them out of his head once they were in it.

Thinking about the day's events though, he was pretty glad with the outcome of the mission to the Land of Waves. It would be pretty inconvenient for team seven, and they probably wouldn't be nearly as happy about the young clan heir's decision as he was but that was to be expected.

They were only children, after all.

They didn't realise just how important young Sasuke-kun's existence was to the village as a whole. It was the same reason he and Tsunade-chan got away with the way they acted and everyone seemed to just turn a blind eye whenever they misbehaved. They were the last remaining members of both their clans, and the founding clans of Konoha, no less. Because of this, they were both afforded many concessions, a lot of which they had no idea about and the ones they did, they took for granted far too often.

The third would've loved to force Tsunade to stay home, or not to allow Sasuke entry into the shinobi program in the first place so they could both focus on reviving their two ailing clans, but the Hokage's seat wasn't all powerful. Sure he had the last say on pretty much anything and everything in the village, but even he had to follow certain laws and rules. One of those was that he couldn't involve himself an clan business, or try to influence the actions of a clan head. Since she was technically the last living Senju and thus the head of the clan by default, his only female student could crawl into as many bottles as she wanted in the name of 'clan business' and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

It was a similar story with the Uchiha. Even though the boy had been about eight at the time and completely ineligible for the position of clan head, he couldn't have denied him the opportunity to be a shinobi, no matter how much better it would be for both the clan and Konoha as a whole. That would've fit firmly into 'meddling in clan affairs' and the other clans would've had him replaced faster than he could blink.

Don't get him wrong, he didn't want to deny them these personal freedoms out of something asinine like disdain for Sasuke's attitude, or even Tsunade's for that matter. He was just looking out for the village as a whole. As a Kage should. They were the two remaining links to two of the most powerful and revered bloodlines the world of shinobi had ever seen and they needed to be kept safe.

The fallout would be catastrophic if one of them got unlucky and died out there. When word eventually got out that Konoha would never have another sharingan wielding ninja, or anyone with the famed mokuton, every other nation would begin to sharpen their kunais for war. It wouldn't even matter that it would be over the death of two people. These two specific people represent long standing clans of great power whose very names cowe an even greater number of people.

It would be just like when the Third Kazekage went missing. There was a sudden jump in the number of probing attacks on the borders of Sunagakure and their intensity skyrocketed as well. In their panicked efforts to find him, Suna had exposed a weakness and in the world of shinobi trained to go for the jugular, that was tantamount to suicide. They had almost sparked another war, but the efforts of some very powerful shinobi in their ranks, including the man who'd go on to become the Fourth Kazekage, they had managed to fend off the attackers. It was the truth of this world. Once you exposed a weakness, even an implied or perceived one, you were bound to have ninja by the dozens at your gates.

The elderly Hokage allowed himself a moment of contentment at the fact that at least Sasuke-kun had seen sense and chosen to remain in the village. As he walked into the Hokage tower, giving a small nod to his receptionist as he passed her, he couldn't snuff out the hope that blossomed in his chest. Maybe Tsunade-chan could finally be made to see reason and come home.

He walked into his office and found the copy nin standing alert by his desk. He smiled at that. Boar had probably put a lot more emphasis on those words than was necessary. He made a note to reward him. Moving on, he addressed the jounin.

"Kakashi-kun. So nice of you to be early for once." The village leader received one of those 'eye smiles' for his statement. "Now. I have a few questions regarding your students."

It was starting to get into the later part of the afternoon and Sasuke was on his way to his apartment. He was returning home from notifying the head of Konoha High School about his enrollment, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He was thinking about how he would probably need to move back into one of the houses in the Uchiha district once more. He wasn't at all enthused by the thought, evident by the scowl on his face. He didn't want to move back to the place filled with all those haunting memories, but he needed a place to train and it would be infinitely more convenient if he had constant access to the Uchiha training grounds. It would also mean that he'd always have access to clan documents from all the various houses in the district, and he'd also have more money available because he wouldn't be paying rent for that apartment.

He stopped in his tracks and breathed out of his nose slowly. He would have to hire a team of genin to clean the ancient blood out of the houses. Just after the massacre, he'd requested that they tape off the area and leave the houses uncleaned after the bodies were removed. He had wanted a sure fire way to rekindle his hatred for that man if he ever lost it, or wasn't really in the mood to train. It had happened a handful of times, but the mere thought of going to his former home and walking through the blood painted streets never failed to refuel his hatred.

The Uchiha clan leader knew that he'd never be able to go through with his decision to focus on the restoration of his clan if he went there and cleaned up all the blood himself. He could actually afford to pay for quite a few missions with the generous 'clan heir' stipend he received, but he didn't want to waste his money. It was insufficient enough already. He had to hire a team that could do all the work, but also in a timely manner. He would need to stop renting and get out of that apartment as soon as possible

He groaned internally when he noted that, of course, it would just have to be team seven. The kage bunshin would be infinitely useful in speeding up the mission, even if all the clones were of the same grinning imbecile. He didn't really have any confidence in team ten. The way he remembered them, the Nara would only do just enough to scrape by and take as many napping breaks as he could while he was at it. The Yamanaka would be too concerned about her appearance and his opinion of her to do any work properly, and she'd spend most of the time both complaining about the boring mission and yelling at the Nara to get on with the job. The Akimichi would probably be useful if they could find a way to use that boulder technique to clean up the street. He wasn't even going to consider trying it inside the houses.

Team eight was probably the better choice, but not by very much. The Aburame probably bred some bugs that could be used to get the blood out easier, but the Inuzuka would do nothing but whine the entire time. He didn't have any useful abilities either. He paused when his thoughts went to the Hyuuga. He wasn't really sure he wanted any of the pale eyed brunettes anywhere near his clan district. He didn't hate them or anything like that, but the byakugan was sure to spot the Naka shrine and a host of other things he didn't want anybody to get their eyes on. He doubted that this particular Hyuuga would do anything with the knowledge, but it would always be something she could hold over his head, even if she never would.

Thinking about the various clans made him realise that he didn't really have enough knowledge on any of them. He had a few bits and pieces for sure, but he didn't really know the extent of their abilities. 'Maybe it would be better if I just left the mission as an open request and let any team answer it. It would give me the perfect excuse to get to know some more about the other clans.' He didn't really like this idea so he decided to go to the library Kakashi had shown them after the genin test and get a little more information on the various clans. If he was still curious enough to warrant having them over, he'd do that, but he didn't want them to come over when he had so little reason.

He took a turn at the next street that would allow him to get to the library the quickest.

Kakashi had a small smile on his face as he walked towards the memorial stone. He wasn't really in the mood to read his little orange book at the moment, so his hands were tucked into his pockets as he navigated the streets. He felt a little insulted at the lack of trust the Third had shown when he'd questioned his judgement as a sensei, but he couldn't say he was surprised. He was actually a little shocked at the fact that he'd gotten away with it for this long already.

He'd just been lounging around most of the time and allowing his genin to do 'teamwork' exercises. It was true enough that they were a terribly weak team and that was something that needed to be remedied as soon as possible, but they weren't always going to work together and it would probably be good for them to have some individual skills even if they did. In case they ever got separated from their team, or something like that. He wasn't really sure why the Hokage had allowed it to go on this far, but he was glad the old man had.

He hadn't really had to deal with all the painful emotions that sprung up whenever he looked at his golden haired genin, and in all honesty, he probably never would. Now that Sasuke had decided to become a civilian, there were only two genin in team seven. The first choice of action to remedy that would be to find a replacement team member, but at the moment, there really wasn't anyone Kakashi could think of who would fit the bill. This was the legendary team seven after all, and not just anyone would do. It was pretty much a tradition in Konoha that those showing the most promise and the most will of fire would be paired with those with the least will of fire. That whole, 'Top kunoichi and rookie of the year paired with deadlast' thing was just a happy coincidence.

It was a little strange that the people who showed the most potential either also had the strongest will of fire or the weakest. And the ones with the strongest generally tended to be dunces in the academy, his thoughts went to Jiraya-sama, Obito and the blonde brat, and those with no will of fire were the prodigies, obviously Kakashi, Orochimaru and Sasuke in this village. He tilted his head to the side a little when the thought came to him that the village might want to update their policy on their flagship team. He was all that was left of team Minato, team Sarutobi was scattered to the winds, well, more like scattered to the brothels, casinos and…..human experimentation facilities? Regardless, it just seemed to be team seven's destiny to fall apart, and the various iterations seemed to just keep getting better at it. Team Sarutobi had lasted a good many years before they went their separate ways, and his own team had been around for a while themselves. This new generation only managed to stick together for about two and a half months. Talk about pathetic. He shrugged a little to himself and decided to move on.

The other thing they could do was to make them officially a two man cell, but the legendary ninja would eat his own mask if that actually happened. Two man cells were only created, in Konoha at least, when the shinobi are either among the elite of their class, or a master and apprentice. He may have been wrong about Sasuke, but he was definitely sure that the one thing those two weren't was elite.

The most likely thing to happen would be to find someone to take the kids on as apprentices, or to have them each join one of the other rookie teams. He doubted they'd make up a whole new rule about four man cells just to accommodate these two. Granted, the orange one was the village jinchuuriki, but they just weren't special or spectacular enough for any sort of special treatment. They were average genin, at best, if even that. They had no ninja skills worth mentioning and wouldn't really fit well into either rookie team. The existing teams were very specialised, and whose bright idea had that been? Seriously, a ninja who can only do one type of thing was just asking to be killed through the plethora of weaknesses they showed just by being classed in a certain area.

The silver haired man chuckled to himself a little when he realised he was starting to get back into that 'ninjas must always follow the rules' mindset he used to have. He reminded himself that the reason you can be so specialised these days was because you had your teammates to back you up. You didn't have to constantly watch our back and rely only on your own strength anymore.

'We aren't at war anymore. Sometimes it's so hard to remember that.'

He smiled a little sadly to himself and basked in the memories of the good times with his team. Team Minato. He noticed that he had just arrived at the memorial stone, and he crouched down to trace a name with the bare tip of his finger.

Nohara Rin.

Naruto grinned a little giddily as he walked up to the main desk in the library. He had a gaggle of clones trailing behind him laden with books and scrolls of various shapes and sizes. There was nothing too exciting in the books themselves, genin didn't have clearance for all the awesome fireballs and water dragons that he'd wanted before, but that was okay. At first he'd been terribly disappointed by the lack of flashy techniques to learn but then the Third had told him to and look up one Uchiha Shisui, otherwise known as Shunshin no Shisui, and everything had changed. That guy had taken such a basic technique and mastered it so well that he could kill you before you even knew he was coming for you. It didn't matter how many fireballs you could throw around or how many badass water dragons you could make, genin or jounin, you'd be dead before you even had time to make one handsign.

He wasn't all that excited about the techniques he was getting since most of them were pretty basic or just average techniques that almost all hidden villages had in common, but he was happy that it was progress. He'd gotten sucked into the 'history of shinobi' that the Third had picked out for him and he'd learned that Kakashi had only started to be known by his moniker as 'Sharingan no Kakashi,' or 'Copy Nin Kakashi,' after a tragic mission close to Kannabi bridge during the war. Before then, the man had already been a jounin and highly respected for his skill by the rest of the ninja corps, and that's exactly what the orange garbed ninja wanted.

Acknowledgement. Sure, he wanted to be Hokage in the end, but the main reason he wanted that was because the Hokage was acknowledged and respected by everyone in the villages, even people outside the village. He wasn't too enthusiastic about having to ignore flashy jutsus for now, but he knew that if he could become legendary without them, he'd have all the time in the world to get as many as he wanted. He placed the book he was carrying on the counter and looked expectantly at the young woman sitting at it. As expected, she scowled at him and grudgingly started to record all the books he was checking out. He'd been served by people who had no choice before and all of them just did it as quick as they could without speaking a word to him. Admittedly, he appreciated the efficiency sometimes.

She marked down how long he was allowed to keep the books for and slid over a receipt. She made a rude grunting sound in the back of her throat and gestured at the door in a clear dismissal. He resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at her and picked up his books, waiting a second for all his clones to do the same. He turned away from the counter and continued to the door, his clones following in a single file behind him. They grumbled a little about how they had to do all the heavy lifting they carried all the stuff regardless. This made him briefly wonder what exactly he'd have to do to master the kage bunshin, and just how much of a total badass he'd be when he'd done it.

As he walked down the street, he could see people looking at him even more strangely than usual. They were whispering to each other as always, but their eyes were just that much more disdainful of his existence. He strained his better-than-average hearing to see if he could pick up whatever it was that'd made them mad this time, and words like 'little thief,' and 'robbing the library' pricked his ears. His eyes hardened as he made a sign and stopped in his tracks.

His clones stopped behind him when he showed the standard Konoha shinobi 'stop' signal and looked at him questioningly. He glared back at the various villagers around them, both hurt and angry at how quickly they'd assumed he was a thief. His voice was low and almost downright growling when he spoke to his clones. "Henge into other people and make another way home." They glanced around for a second and then noticed the stares. Nodding wordlessly, they placed their books down on various acceptably clean surfaces and started to go through the necessary handsigns.

Not hearing the telltale puffs of smoke to denote the use of a henge, the orange clad boy turned around to question his clones, only to facepalm at the time it was taking them to pull off the simple technique. He knew that he couldn't do it any faster, but it didn't make it any less embarrassing. He nodded to himself when he re-evaluated the importance of mastering the basics. He slipped the book between his legs and held it between his knees. Hands now free, he pulled his fingers into what was quickly becoming his favourite hand sign and created a clone.

Pulling the book out from between his legs and holding it securely in his hands once more, he instructed the clone. "Right. I need you to go to Iruka-sensei at the academy and see if he has any spare textbooks we can borrow."

His doppleganger nodded and took off toward the direction of the academy and the golden haired boy glanced around. Seeing that all his clones were apparently gone, he set off once again. The village jinchuuriki was alone once more and he continued on his way home. He was a little hungry, but he was really excited about reading the various books he had on him and figured he could just eat at home anyway.

Sasuke scowled as he walked out of the library. It'd slipped his mind that he was a civilian now and all the shinobi related info that he wanted on the various clans of Konoha was beyond his reach. That wasn't the main issue though. The main issue was that his idiot ex-teammate had apparently borrowed almost all the useful books in the library, both civilian and shinobi, and there wasn't a shred of information to be had that was worth a damn.

He was pretty pissed off about the fact that no matter what he did, the idiot blonde seemed to always get in his way. It was infuriating. Furthermore, he didn't even have a second source of information. There was nothing at all about the other clans and how they were run within the Uchiha archives.

When he'd been looking for info on how exactly a 'proper' clan was structured, he'd come across the official Uchiha Clan Organisation Plans and all their various revised forms. He'd kept looking for something on the other clans to at least have something for comparisons sake, but the Uchiha apparently didn't care to record what any other clan was doing. He'd read in the rituals and rites of passage scrolls that the strategies and weaknesses of certain clans were passed down using sharingan genjutsu, but they didn't find any other clan important enough to record their activities.

It was an infallible way to have the entire clan have an intimate knowledge of even their allies weaknesses without any evidence of such knowledge even needing to exist. It was also used as a practice method for them to learn how the sharingan and genjutsu in general works. It was a great solution to both problems, but terribly inconvenient right now.

He made his way to the Hokage's tower. He had a mission request to make.

AN: Lemme know watcha think. :P

Also, I'm sorry if my stories all seem kinda the same to you. I just find it really unlikely that Naruto would go his whole life without something happening that'd make him notice the secret of the shadow clones.

PS: I hope this is long enough, it's nearly 10 000 words which is like three times as much as the first chapter.