Sensei

Sakura flopped across Hinata's bed with a tired whump, drawing a concerned sigh from the bed's owner. Sakura ignored her in favor of pressing her face into blankets and enjoying the bonelessness of not moving. The bed dipped as Hinata sat next to her and ran a comforting hand down her back, a soft flare of chakra at her fingertips probed at Sakura's tenketsu as they passed, freeing bits of blocked chakra and loosening the muscles as she went.

"You're the one that should be the medic-nin," Sakura said, though it came out muffled and probably indecipherable. Still, Hinata giggled in response and shook her head.

"You are training too hard."

"You're not one to talk."

Hinata sighed at the stubborn denial in Sakura's voice. "Kakashi-sensei has been very busy with Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun says Jiraiya-sama is taking him from the village on a journey soon," her breath amazingly didn't hitch at that. She didn'twant Naruto to leave, but she also couldn't begrudge him training with Jiraiya. It was too important to Naruto's dreams, and she wouldn't stand in the way of those. Naruto didn't have any reason to stay with her anyway. "I am training with my father and Neiji-kun. Which I have always done."

"You're training now, not just getting beaten up by them," Sakura muttered petulantly. Hinata ignored her and talked over her protest.

"You are training genjutsu with Kurenai-san, working at the hospital, and training daily with your team."

Sakura shifted her face out of the blankets so she could breathe better. "Kiba's sorry he asked for that last one."

"Because you are also training with the Hokage and with me." Hinata dug a bit deeper at a particularly sluggish chakra point, and Sakura yelped. "When was the last time you saw your parents?"

"This morning," Sakura sighed. "I had breakfast with them before training with Tsunade-shishou. I sleep, Hinata, and I can handle this. Tsunade-sama agreed to train me, and my taijutsu still sucks, and there's still so much genjutsu to learn if … I can handle it, okay? I have to."

Hinata sighed, and her posture slumped slightly. "I know you can, Sakura-chan. I just worry. You're… obsessed. With catching up "

Sakura rolled away from her and sat up and pulled Hinata into a reassuring hug. "I'm not Sasuke." She felt some of the tension in Hinata release. "But I'm not going to give up either."

.oOo.

Naruto hitched his travel pack better on his shoulder as he walked and patted the inner pocket of his jacket to check on the scroll tucked inside. It was a little rumpled from Sasuke's treatment, but Naruto didn't want to just throw it away. It was weird, and something Sasuke-teme never wanted to talk about. Not that the bastard evertalked. Learning to interpret Sasuke was like learning how to carry on a conversation with a rock. A brooding, snarky-at-best, rock.

Also, he kind of wondered why Sasuke's crazy older brother had written a suicide note and then killed everyone else. Other than being crazy and dangerous, anyway. Maybe he had suicide notes backwards somehow, but it still didn't make any sense, and Naruto didn't have time to dig too deep.

He could show the scroll to Jiraiya, but Naruto didn't think there was much the pervy sage could do about it when they wouldn't be sticking around in Konoha. He didn't even know if the old man knew much about Sasuke's messed up brother to begin with. That left him with either ignoring it, like Sasuke seemed determined to, or turning it over to someone who could figure it out instead.

A grin stole over his whiskered face as the memorial stone came into light and the lanky form of Kakashi stood in front of it. "Kakashi-sensei!" Kakashi looked up, curiosity in his visible eye as Naruto approached. Naruto dug around in his jacket until his fingers closed around the scroll, and he pulled it out and offered it to the jounin. "We found this when we were cleaning up the mess in Sasuke-teme's compound."

"And Sasuke's all right with you taking documents from the Uchiha compound?" Kakashi asked, taking the scroll, curious despite himself.

Naruto dropped his hand back down and shrugged. "Teme didn't want anything to do with it, so I figured he wouldn't care if I kept it. Documents are things you write important stuff like jutsu and reports, right? It's not one of those. It's a suicide note."

Kakashi didn't react beyond looking from the note to Naruto, his visible eye mild and borderline uninterested as he waited for the boy to continue. When Naruto didn't after several moments of silence, Kakashi shook the unopened scroll. "Well, I think I can see why Sasuke didn't want to read it, Naruto. Why bring it to me?"

"Well, Teme's brother wrote it," Naruto explained, folding his arms behind his head. "And he's not dead. I know Itachi's supposed to be crazy, but it still seemed kind of weird."

"Ah," Kakashi unrolled the scroll and red over it, before rolling it back up and tapping it against his other hand. "Well, you're right that it's strange. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Do?" Naruto thought about that for a moment and then sighed. "I don't know. But I can't do anything about it because Ero-sennin's taking me training, and you keep telling us to look underneath the underneath. And it seemed weird enough it might be important."

"Hm." Kakashi tucked the scroll out of sight and pulled his ever-present companion volume of Icha Icha out of his weapons pouch. "I'll look into it for you, Naruto, but Itachi is dangerously violent, so that might be all I find: that he went insane before the massacre, and didn't expect to survive it."

"Thanks, sensei." Naruto grinned, relieved and reassured that Kakashi would find something if there was anything to be found. Assuming Kakashi-sensei didn't get distracted by rescuing a cat or helping an old lady across the street or something. "I've got to go meet Ero-sennin at the gate. We're heading out this morning!"

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled into a smile and he reached out to tousle Naruto's spiky blond hair. "Write to your teammates and remember to eat something other than ramen, then."

"Sure, sensei."

.oOo.

The early morning sun was well on its way to baking the main road leading in and out of Konoha. A pair of his ANBU minders were loitering nearby; being obviously not obvious as they kept an eye on him. They were probably only there because Kakashi wasn't, and because Sasuke was close enough to the village gate to see it. He wasn't sure he could get past the gates on his own even if he tried. He hadn't been left alone long enough to test the seals inked on him by Jiraiya yet.

Beneath a tree off to one side the seal master himself stood, a large scroll strapped beneath his shoulders, and a travel sack at his feet. He was waiting for the dobe, and they didn't have long to wait before Naruto came walking down the road, waving at Jiraiya when he spotted him. Jiraiya scooped up his sack as Naruto joined him, and Sasuke took a deep breath and stepped out of the shadows. The dobe looked surprised by his appearance; the sannin did not.

Sasuke approached them steadily, keeping his outward demeanor calm and emotionless – uncaring and aloof – even if he could feel threads of uncertainty and worry and something that felt disturbingly like desperate panic roiling beneath the façade. He had to do this. There were too few people who could face down Itachi, and even fewer that understood his need for greater power. Jiraiya probably wasn't one of those that understood, and Sasuke's first choice of teacher was out of reach.

Steeling himself for the humiliation, Sasuke dropped to his knees in a formal bow. "Jiraiya-sama, I want you to train me, and allow me to come with you on your journey with the do... Naruto." He was willing to be sealed to the Sannin's immediate vicinity if that's what it took.

Jiraiya rubbed at his chin thoughtfully for a moment, before shrugging and giving his answer. "No."

Sasuke's teeth ground together as his head snapped up, and for once he didn't care if he lost his mask of emotionless calm. "You're supposed to be the greatest of the Sannin. Iruka-sensei says that you trained the Yondaime."

"So I did," Jiraiya agreed, both of them ignoring Naruto's yelp. "You're still not coming," Jiraiya raised a hand before Sasuke could snap out the taunt that sprang up on his tongue. "Look, kid, Tsunade'd never agree to you walking out of the village with me. And, to be frank I don't want to deal with you and the other brat sniping at each other the entire time, or hauling you back every time we hear a hint about your brother being in the area, or my old teammate decides to try adding you to his collection of pretty boys again. We'll have enough targets painted on our backs without you adding more."

"I could be sealed to you," Sasuke said, struggling to drag his emotions back under control, even with the fury - not fear, never fear - that roiled in his gut. "And swear on the honor of my clan that I won't be taken by Sound if they look for us." He'd never bowed to anyone - not even the Hokage - and was swallowing the old man's insult hard enough to choke on it. And he was the better shinobi, damnit, there was no reason for Jiraiya to pass over him for Naruto. Naruto lucked his way through battle, or fell back on those random surges of red chakra he seemed to access.

Jiraiya stared down at him for a long moment before saying more. "I can deal with Orochimaru. But so can Kakashi and Tsunade. And there are things you need to learn in this village that you haven't yet. But hey, I'll be back, and maybe then you'll know why I didn't take you."

Sasuke pushed himself to his feet and his fingernails bit into his palms with the force he was clenching his fists at his side. They didn't have any right to keep him here, keep him weak, and keep him from his vengeance. They had no right, and they made no sense. Wasn't the village worse off without the Uchiha? The military police force was gone, an entire compound sat empty, and all the empty smiles and coddling comments of the villagers couldn't keep Itachi outside the walls.

Naruto looked confused, and torn, and Sasuke felt a spark of fury over it. He didn't need pity. He tensed, ready to tackle the other boy to the ground when Naruto looked like he was about to open his big mouth and try talking Jiraiya into agreement. That would never be acceptable. Sasuke had lowered himself all his pride was willing to take already in asking the Sannin for training. He wouldn't allow himself to become Naruto's charity case.

Jiraiya's massive hand landed on Naruto's spiky hair, interrupting the boy before he could say anything. Sasuke took the opportunity for distraction and forced himself into a mask of impassivity. He turned, when it looked like Jiraiya was going to say something - likely damnably comforting- put his back to the pair, and walked away. He ignored Naruto's shouted protest and the scuffling sounds of the idiot being restrained and likely dragged out of the village to his new training.

Embracing the roil of emotions, Sasuke let them fuel his speed until he was running and pushing fury-fueled chakra to his muscles to make the village blurr by. His ANBU minders weren't dogging his steps anymore, content to trust the Sannin's seals to cage and keep him. Sasuke was panting by the time the bustle of the village at mid-morning thinned out and morphed into the tattered silence of the Uchiha district.

The abandoned district sat along one of the perimeter walls, sequestered away from the rest of the village it belonged to. Or maybe didn't belong to. The thought slithered through Sasuke's mind as his headlong run stumbled into a dragging walk. He kept walking until the far side of the compound wall appeared, a faded and peeling uchiwa fan painted across it to tower over him in its shabby majesty. Sasuke slumped against the wall beneath the painted fan and let his head thump against the wood.

He wanted to leave. At that moment, he didn't care if it was with Jiraiya, Orochimaru, or Itachi himself. He just wanted out.

Sasuke rolled to his knees and pushed a palm against the wall, molding a bit of chakra and pushing it towards the wood. His eyes narrowed as the wood repelled him, his hand sliding along it like wet ice. The top stood above him at several times his height, but almost level with the roof of a house just across the footpath. Jiraiya's seals didn't leave him much chakra to work with, but it would be enough for this.

A leap and a grab and a short scurry of a climb brought Sasuke onto the roof, and he crouched there for a moment, judging the distance between himself and the top of the wall. He pushed off of the tiles and embraced the soaring freefall for a handful of seconds before landing on the top of the wall, balanced carefully on the balls of his feet, and without chakra.

Electricity sparked around him, a prickle of warning with how close he was to crossing the village boundary, and he saw the seals anchored at his wrist ignite into a steady glow. Sasuke clenched his hands and dropped them to his side, pointedly ignoring the seals as he stubbornly took another step, and jumped off the wall. He reinforced his legs with a bit more chakra as he landed on the forest loam, and smirked as he straightened before stepping past the shadow of Konoha's walls.

He'd kept control of Orochimaru's mark, and the staticky burn of Jiraiya's was also ignored. Binding seals that were tied to a specific place also had a specific range. All he had to do was make it past the boundaries of the seals before giving into them, and they should break, leaving him free to pursue his own strength and his vengeance.

The frisson of warning turned into a torrent of electricity, and the seals inked into his skin - not just the ones visibly painted, but long trails of characters running down and across his arms and glowing beneath his clothes - sparked into incandescence. Sasuke gritted his teeth and kept walking. He wanted to run, indulge in speed as well as pride at his freedom, but his feet were heavy and his body wasn't reacting well. Still, he kept going, crossing into shadows beneath the trees surrounding Konoha,and ignoring the ghostly light the burning seals cast against the leaves.

A pulse of chakra brought Sasuke to his knees and he felt chakra tear itself free of his skin. He tried to push himself back to his feet but knocked his head against a barrier. At the edge of his vision curved a shimmery dome of blue, one that bit into dirt below him,bisecting a scatter of hapless twigs and leaves. His vision tunnelled as the seals turned on him a final time, sending another pulse of lightning chakra through his body, locking his muscles and dropping him to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Kat's Rambles:
And thus ends the first arc of this story. The first arc of four, in fact. This next one will probably involve some Time Skippery to keep the narrative moving, but that's nothing new. Also, I think I end up with one scene I really like in each chapter. And a few I hated writing. Somehow, the ones I hate writing always seem to be Sasuke-centric. Sadly, he's not going away, so I'll get to continue to struggle with him. I wanted to grow as a writer, right? Right.

I've had a couple of questions about the pairings in this, so I guess I should probably just talk about them. Settle in, I guess.

First off, will there be yaoi or yuri pairings? No, there won't be unless it's in the form of something like an alternate-reality omake. And yes, I know Hinata and Sakura are all sorts of cuddly throughout this fic. They're like a pair of kittens, and they keep insisting. Girls tend to be more comfortable with casual touch than guys in my experience.

But really ... there won't be a lot of romance that's actually ... romancy. The main reason for this is that I'm not very good at writing romance or fluff, so I tend to stick to friendships and plot and happy endings. It's where I'm comfortable.

Will there be pairings, though? Yep! And they're all the ones I have a not-so-secret love for. And, since I know pairings can be a make or break for a lot of readers (myself included), if you want a rundown, just ask. They are nothing too wild and crazy, but I'm not going to write them out here because there's probably people who want to be unspoiled. Naruto/Hinata is happening. That one, at least, should be the obvious one. But really, I love talking to you guys, even if I'm kind of fail at answering reviews. So, if you have a question, please feel free to ask, and I'll answer it if I can.