Chapter 1

==The Afternoon After the Bell Test==

Kakashi sighed as he flopped on the couch of his old friend/therapist, a seat where he hadn't parked his rear in what felt like years as she curled up in a chair across from him, "They actually did it. I am now the Jonin Commander of the most dysfunctional genin squad the Hidden Leaf has ever seen."

Anko nodded and her pencil started scratch-scratching across her notebook, "Tell me about it." Kakashi sighed, "First up is Naruto. The kid's lonely to the point that he wears orange and pulls pranks that he knows will make people upset with him just so that they'll acknowledge his existence. On top of that, he doesn't know who his parents are, and I'm not allowed to tell him. He's also got the Nine Tailed Fox in his gut, which even if I don't tell him he's going to figure out eventually. He's hell bent on becoming Hokage so he can get some respect, but he's been so alone that his growth as a shinobi is stunted to the point of being nearly nonexistent. He's got his shadow clones, which are an incredible asset, but he's got no idea how to use them." Anko nodded, "Not to mention he's loud, stubborn and the general consensus is that he's a moron."

Kakashi laughed softly, "Oh that's not even the worst part! My team is a love triangle in one direction and a hate triangle in the other! Naruto has a tremendous crush on Sakura who hates him, but he hates Sasuke who judging by the fact that he ignores all girls but pays attention to Naruto may very well have some sort of belligerent sexual tension aimed at Naruto, and he hates Sakura who has a crush on him. Then there's Sasuke and Sakura themselves! They'd be trying even if the love hate triangle wasn't a problem!" Anko nodded without looking up from her pad, "Go on."

"First off there's Sakura. She has chakra levels that are average at best, and while the Academy's file on her says she's got great control, she's also too busy beating up Naruto and fawning over Sasuke to even come close to being a decent shinobi. Not to mention her vanity is so bad that she's been dying her hair a pink so vivid that it's as bad as Naruto's jumpsuit for years on account of not thinking blue is feminine enough!" Kakashi rubbed his eyes, "And the third one's no better."

"Sasuke Uchiha?" Anko asked as she shot a glance over the top of her note pad, "Isn't he supposed to be rookie of the year in his class? Some sort of prodigy, last remaining Uchiha, heir to the sharingan yadayadayada?" Kakashi nodded with a groan, "That's the one. The little punk has a superiority complex that rivals Guy's enthusiasm and work ethic. Then there's the whole 'Last Uchiha' deal. On top of the superiority complex, he's obsessed with being the last Uchiha for real and offing his brother before rebuilding his clan. Given his aversion to girls, I'm seriously wondering if he even knows what that entails."

Anko nodded, "Mmhmm, yep, almost, just a little, right there, we, go! Done!" Kakashi looked over at her, "With what?" Anko turned the note pad around grinning from ear to ear and Kakashi's hair stood even more on end, "Why were you drawing that during my therapy session?!" Anko blinked and raised an eyebrow in confusion, "You wanted to vent right? Do you know a better way than that?" Kakashi looked at the admittedly very impressive doodle on the note pad and then at his admittedly very attractive friend and sometimes lover. It took a moment but then a smile broke out behind his mask, "Now that you mention it…"

==Six Hours Later==

Anko finally collapsed on top of Kakashi, totally exhausted. After catching her breath Anko raised up a little, "Seriously though Kakashi, if the kids are that bad, just tell them what you told me." Kakashi blushed crimson and she smacked his chest gently with a grin, "No not that! The bit where you ticked off all their flaws and shortcomings. Take a leaf out of my book and shoot straight for once in your life! Seriously, they are not that hard a target to hit!" She pressed against him and he blushed again in slight embarrassment, "Are we still talking about my students?" Anko grinned at him, "Maaaybeee…"

==The Next Morning==

After Kakashi got away from his "therapy", he made his way to the training ground where he was set to meet his students. They were already there waiting for him and rather irate at his tardiness. Kakashi calmly sat down on the grass without saying a word. They didn't sit down until he told them to and he sighed, so much for initiative.

Once they were all seated, he started, "Before we can begin training your jutsu, we need to first resolve all your personal issues." "PERSONAL ISSUES?!" Naruto exclaimed as he crossed his arms angrily, "WHAT PERSONAL ISS-OW!" "QUIET DOWN AND LISTEN TO SENSEI YOU IDIOT!" Sakura barked as Naruto sheepishly rubbed his head and Sasuke vented the sigh of exasperation Kakashi was trying to hold back. "Those issues for example," Kakashi declared.

All three genin looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean sensei?" Sakura asked curiously, "Did we do something wrong?" Kakashi sighed, oh this was going to be such a long day, "Sakura, you just smacked your teammate in the head as hard as you could, and Naruto, you do realize that shinobi are supposed to be quiet right?" Sakura blanched slightly, Naruto crossed his arms with a hmm… and Sasuke snorted with a grin in his head. Kakashi crossed his arms, closed his eyes and sighed, "Quite frankly you all annoy the hell out of me, and at the rate you're going now you'll never be Chunin, which means I'll never get you out of my hair." All three flinched and Kakashi opened his eye to turn a cool gaze on them, "Which is why I'm not teaching you anything about any sort of jutsu until we work out your personal problems. So, who wants to go first?"

"I STILL DON'T SEE WHAT PROBLEMS YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT," Naruto said loudly. Kakashi wondered if Naruto's voice even did quiet as he turned to the bright orange clad genin, "Ok Naruto, we'll start with you. Your dream is to be Hokage. Why?" Naruto blinked in surprise, "So that everyone'll respect me of course!" "And where did this desire for respect come from?" Naruto blinked as he blanked, "Uh…"

"Would it possibly have anything to do with the fact that you're an orphan who has very rarely had anyone to acknowledge you in a positive way, but almost always had people kicking you out of shops, yelling at you, whispering about you behind your back, insulting you, keeping their children away from you, occasionally getting drunk and gathering into mobs to chase you through town and beating you senseless if they caught you, and tricking you into spending what little money you had on buying a bright orange jumpsuit that makes it easy for those mobs to find you and makes everyone think you're an incompetent idiot for being a ninja who wears orange because they don't know that's the only pair of pants you have?" There was a long stunned silence after that. Sakura and Sasuke were staring at Naruto and Naruto was shocked beyond words. It was the first time any of them had ever seen Naruto actually being quiet. "That's why that shop owner gave me this jumpsuit?" Naruto asked in a quavering voice.

"Can you think of any other shinobi that wears orange? Anyone at all who wears orange?" Kakashi asked quietly. Naruto's world was crashing down on his head like a tsunami, and it was visible. He was pale, his mouth hanging open and he was wide eyed with shock and trembling with horror. Naruto looked down at the bright orange jumpsuit he loved so much and tried to think of some reason, some way that Kakashi might be wrong. The more he thought about it though, the more it made a hideous amount of sense. Kakashi had something of a soft look in his eye as he reached over and patted Naruto on the head, "We'll go get you some proper shinobi clothes this afternoon, kay Naruto? If anyone tries to mess with you they'll answer to me." Naruto nodded weakly, his gaze still locked onto his jumpsuit and lost in horrible memories.

Kakashi exhaled heavily and turned to Sakura and Sasuke, "Who's next?" Sakura and Sasuke both jumped. Now that they had seen what happened to Naruto, neither of them wanted anything to do with this "fixing personal problems" thing their Sensei had dropped on them out of the blue. "Um Sensei is," Sakura started only for Kakashi to cut her off, "Is it your turn? Yes I think it is." Sakura was immediately very pale and Sasuke breathed a small sigh of relief as what he had come to regard as a terrible impending doom was delayed.

Sakura was sweating up a puddle of sheer terror when Kakashi suddenly blindsided her with, "So Sakura, let's talk about your fashion sense." Sakura and Sasuke blinked in surprise, neither of them would've ever expected that. Sakura immediately blushed as pink as her hair, "My, my fashion sense? But Kakashi sensei, why would we need to talk about-" "the hair you dyed pink to make it more girly?" Kakashi finished bluntly. Sakura's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow, "Sakura do you know what every kunoichi needs?" Sakura blinked, "Skill? Intelligence?" "Confidence," Kakashi declared, "A good kunoichi, any good shinobi should have confidence in themselves. Ask yourself Sakura, if you don't have any faith in yourself, why should I? Why should Sasuke or Naruto? Why should anybody have faith in you, if you don't have any in yourself?"

Sakura flinched and Kakashi continued, "Part of being confident is having the courage to stand on your own two feet and brush off other people's opinions. Naruto and Sasuke have that in spades. You on the other hand have approximately zero confidence, and it shows in your appearance. Ask yourself, why does Naruto like you and not Hinata Hyuga, even though Hinata has a crush on Naruto the size of Hokage Mountain?" Naruto's head snapped up as Sakura and Sasuke blinked in shock at the revelation, "Hinata has a crush on me?!" Kakashi sighed, "Well that's one reason Naruto likes you more than Hinata. Can you tell us the other reason Naruto?"

Naruto blinked and then thought, "Well, Sakura-chan is really pretty, and she's smart, but more than that she always just seems really confident. Her and Ino are both really annoying when they fight over Sasuke, and it's really frustrating when they just ignore me, but they're both really pretty and their confidence is kinda hot. Makes me wish…" Naruto realized what he was about to say and he quickly snapped his mouth shut at what had almost escaped his lips in his vulnerable state.

Kakashi nodded, "Exactly. And Sasuke why do you not like Sakura?" Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened, Sakura's in curiosity and Sasuke's at being put on the spot. He thought about it for a few minutes, "It's really annoying to have a horde of squealing airheads fawning over me. It makes it hard to see any substance to them, they're just background noise, like a bunch of frogs at night, or birds waking me up outside my window in the morning. They're annoying and then I get to where I can just tune them out." Sakura looked a bit hurt by that and Kakashi nodded, "And what do you think of Hinata?" Sasuke thought for a moment, "I wouldn't say I like her because we never really interact, but she's never once bothered or pestered me for affection, so I guess that actually makes her the most tolerable girl in our class because she doesn't have that going against her."

Kakashi nodded, "And what if Sakura was into you but not falling all over herself to please you? She just had a "Whenever you're ready come and get it" attitude and went about her business being an admirable kunoichi?" Sasuke looked Sakura up and down in a way that made her blush, "Is your hair really dyed? Because you should probably know that I hate the color pink. It reminds me of my grandfather's eyes right before he died; his eyes were going bad and his Sharingan turned pink on his death bed." He looked back at Kakashi as Sakura looked utterly floored by the revelation, "Other than my deep hatred for the color pink, that would probably actually work." Kakashi nodded, "Thought so. Sakura, why don't you show him what your hair really looks like?"

Sakura took a moment to process what Kakashi had said and then she raised her hands into a sign and a poof of smoke erupted around her head before clearing away to reveal a wild jaw length mane of cotton candy blue curls that actually went with her eyes very well. Sasuke blinked and then nodded, "I don't know what you've been doing to your hair, but knock it off and leave it like this." Sakura blushed as pink as her hair had been and then fainted for a moment in shock at the closest thing she had ever gotten to a compliment from Sasuke.

When she sat back up, Kakashi smiled, "Now that we've got your issues in your relationship with Sasuke out of the way, let's talk about the way you treat Naruto." Sakura flinched slightly, and Kakashi nodded, "Exactly. He's been chasing after you with the same vigor you've chased after Sasuke, and just like you he's asked nothing but a little affection. Yet you constantly shove him aside, hit him, insult and shout at him regularly, so on and so forth." Sakura shot a glance at Naruto who was nodding and Kakashi continued, "And while smacking him in the head as hard as you can may be satisfying, has it ever stopped him?" Sakura shook her head mutely.

"Have you ever tried explaining to him what he's doing wrong or why you don't accept his affections?" Kakashi asked. Sakura opened her mouth to say that she had, but then she realized she had never done anything of the sort. "So why would he stop if all he's seen of romantic interaction is the way you and the other girls chase after Sasuke and nobody's ever told him how counterproductive it is, leading him to think that's how it's supposed to be done?" Sakura opened her mouth to reply and then got very pale as she realized she had been unwittingly encouraging Naruto's actions. She put a hand over her mouth, "Oh Kami…" Kakashi nodded, "So how about from now on, whenever Naruto does something that annoys you, why not explain it to him and ask him to stop rather than just punching him?" Sakura nodded mutely and Kakashi nodded right back, "Very good. Now then…" Sasuke felt a bead of sweat trickle down the back of his neck as Kakashi turned to face him.

"You Sasuke," Kakashi said in an ominous voice, "need," he paused for dramatic effect and as his three students were really starting to get nervous he declared, "A hug." Everyone blinked in surprise and then Kakashi ordered, "Naruto, use the Sexy Jutsu and give Sasuke a hug. NOW." Before anyone could protest, Naruto had transformed with an evil grin and pulled Sasuke across Sakura and into a hug. Sakura looked scandalized and Sasuke was horrified as he felt his face reddening. Sasuke was too stunned to even flail as he took in how very very skilled at transformation Naruto was. That was no illusion his face was buried in, it was flesh. Then Kakashi nodded, "Ok, Naruto, you can let go now."

Naruto let go and Sasuke scrambled backwards flushed absolutely crimson. Naruto grinned, he had finally found Sasuke's weak point. He rematerialized his clothes, but a sexier curve hugging version rather than the usual form concealing jump suit. Kakashi turned to Sasuke, "Now then Sasuke, you are going to share every bit of that bottled up pain you've been hiding so that it can stop fermenting and poisoning your mind, and we are going to comfort you as best we can. If you refuse, I'll hold you down and have Naruto hug you again."

Sakura's brain was in lockdown trying to process what was happening. Sasuke looked at Kakashi and tried to find some sign that his sensei was bluffing. He found none, and Naruto had been way too fast and was grinning way too broadly for him to have any hope that Naruto would refuse. Sasuke gulped and then nodded slightly, "Ok, I'll talk."

He sat up and sighed, "I'll talk on one condition." Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "And that condition is?" Sasuke's eyes flicked up to meet his, "Nobody ever speaks of this again." Kakashi nodded, "Of course. These are your teammates, and I am your sensei. We will keep your secrets as long as they are not a threat to the village."

Sasuke looked around and found that even Naruto's mischievous grin had faded into a solemn expression. Sasuke took a deep breath, "Ok, get comfortable, I've got a lot to get off my chest." Naruto shifted slightly and Sasuke started, "I suppose the first thing I should mention is my brother." He sighed, "I'm guessing you know Kakashi, but do either of you two," he glanced at Naruto and Sakura, "know what happened to my clan?" Naruto and Sakura both shook their heads and Sasuke sighed, "My entire clan was murdered by my brother."

Naruto and Sakura's eyes were the size of dinner plates as Sasuke continued, "But that's not the start of where things went wrong. My brother was always better than me, at everything. When I was a kid I wanted nothing more than to make him and my parents proud of me. So I pushed myself, and did everything I could to make them proud of me. It didn't help. Itachi never had time for me, my father never had time for me except to tell me how much better Itachi was and give me that damned look that just oozed disappointment. My mother had a little time for me, but I spent years trying to get out from under Itachi's shadow, secretly wishing to myself it would go away. That he would go away."

He pulled his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around them as he gazed at the ground, "So imagine my delight when Itachi started not coming home. Imagine my delight, when he and my father had their big fight. Itachi was hardly ever around after that, but my father was finally recognizing me! He taught me our clan's Grand Fireball Jutsu, and I mastered it in a week! Even Itachi hadn't done it that fast! For the first time ever, I was feeling great about myself! I was finally catching up!" Then his tone darkened, "Then one night I stayed late at the Academy training. I ran home, thinking about how furious my parents would be for making them worry. Then the first sight that greeted my eyes when I reached the Uchiha District was the bodies of my clansmen littering the streets."

Sakura gasped slightly and Naruto raised an eyebrow with a worried look, still not turned back to his regular self. Sasuke plowed right on, "I ran through the streets, trying to get home to warn my parents. Then I got there. I ran inside as fast as I could, and who was waiting for me?" His eyes were suddenly wide and filled with an almost manic hatred, "MY BASTARD BROTHER WITH A BLOODY SWORD IN HIS HAND AND MY PARENTS FRESHLY DEAD AT HIS FEET!" Sasuke started laughing with a slightly demented edge, "I asked him what happened! Do you know what he did?!"

Without waiting for an answer he shouted, "THE BASTARD MADE ME WATCH HIM MURDER OUR PARENTS WITH A GENJUTSU! HE TOLD ME TO FLEE! CLING TO MY PATHETIC LIFE HE SAID! OR KILL MY BEST FRIEND TO UNLOCK SOME NEXT STAGE SHARINGAN IF I WANTED ANY CHANCE OF BEATING HIM! FUCK! THAT! I DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY FRIENDS BECAUSE BEFORE THAT I'D ALWAYS BEEN TOO ABSORBED IN MY STUDIES TRYING TO SURPASS HIM, AND EVER SINCE THEN I'VE BEEN TRYING TO BECOME GOOD ENOUGH TO KILL HIM! GAH I HATE HIM!" His eyes were still wide with rage and he was actually so upset that he was trembling.

Everyone who had heard his rant was slack jawed with surprise and horror at his tale. Kakashi in particular was shocked, he at least had gotten a little tiny bit of therapy and help after losing his father and then his team, but from the sound of it, "And you've had no therapy have you?" Sasuke shook his head ruefully, "No. Everyone's always danced around the issue trying to spare my feelings or some such bullshit." Kakashi nodded, "Well then, I guess it's a good thing we had this little sharing session. Now we know." Sasuke's eyes flickered up with a little bit of a dangerous spark in them, "Now you know what?"

"Now we know why you are the way you are, and how best to address that and help you grow as a person and a shinobi," Kakashi explained. Sasuke tilted his head in confusion, "What?" "How can you stich a wound closed if you don't know where it is?" Kakashi asked, "You can't. Now though, we know where your wound is Sasuke, and we know how you got it. Now that we know that, we can get started cleaning it and treating it so that it can heal."

The words made a little sense but Sasuke was still unsure of what Kakashi meant, "And how are you going to do that?" Kakashi smiled behind his mask, "You've never been happy, so we will make you happy. You've never had support, so we'll support you. You've never had a friend? Now you have three." Sasuke blinked, "Just like that?" Kakashi nodded, "Just like that. The pain may still seem fresh, but now that you've opened it up to the air, it can begin to breathe and fade." Kakashi's smile faded, "Take it from me, you never get over the loss of your loved ones entirely, but you can't let the pain and despair engulf you. Would they want that? Would they want you to become a cold and bitter ball of depression and hate? Of course not. So we'll help you keep from becoming that way. That's how we'll help you grow as a person."

"And as a shinobi," Kakashi continued, "I'd hardly be a good sensei if I didn't teach you how to fight. We'll work to find your strengths, and if they aren't the Uchiha clan's traditional strengths, big whoop, we'll train you in something else that you are good at and when the day comes for you to confront Itachi, you'll have tricks he won't be expecting. How's that sound?" Sasuke blinked and a moment later he nodded. Kakashi smiled, "Very good. Now then, come along my students, it's time to go equip ourselves for your new lives as shinobi."