A/N: Hi everybody! I'M BACK! Thank you all so much for all your support and wonderful reviews! They mean the world to me. My wrists are doing much, much better, though updates will be slow so that I don't overdo it and put myself right back into the same boat again.

And now, without any further delay, let's get this show back on the road!

Sasuke liked his new apartment. It was smaller than he was used to, but there wasn't a single surface in it that he could point to and trace a remembered bloodstain. It was wholly free of ghosts.

He hadn't brought much with him from his parents' house. Mostly just his clothes, weapons, team photo, and a few odds and ends. He'd taken the one framed photo in the house that featured only his mother, but for now he was keeping her in a drawer. He hadn't wanted to leave her behind, but at the same time, he wasn't ready to see her smiling at him every day. It still hurt too much.

Sasuke had finished unpacking his things last night. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so well. Kakashi had promised to stop by that morning and help him set up some security seals. For now, Sasuke was wandering around his tiny kitchen considering the issue of breakfast.

There was a rap on his living room window. He looked up to find Naruto cheerfully waving at him. He was holding some sort of potted plant. Sasuke opened the window and stood aside to let Naruto in.

"Morning, teme! It's really cool that we're living in the same building now!"

"We share a wall," Sasuke pointed out. "It probably would have been easier to just walk ten feet down the hall than to go out the window."

"Where's the fun in that?" Naruto shrugged. "Anyway, I brought you a housewarming present!" He proudly held out the potted plant.

Sasuke accepted it with a raised eyebrow.

"What is it?"

"Basil. It smells really nice, and you can chop it up and put it on all those tomatoes you eat."

Sasuke had never kept a plant before. He gave the leaves an experimental sniff. They did smell rather nice.

"Thanks, dobe." He set the basil plant down on his side table next to his copy of their team photo. Then he frowned. "Why does the side of the pot say, 'Midori-san?'"

"'Cause that's its name," Naruto told him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Before Sasuke had a chance to ask why the basil needed a name, Naruto had already changed the subject. "I don't get why nobody has ever wanted this to live here." Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets as he looked around. "I mean, I know the building's hot water can be a little dicey, but otherwise it's pretty nice."

Sasuke couldn't fathom it either. The only explanation he could come up with was that it had something to do with the strange dislike that most civilians had for Naruto. He didn't get it. Sure, Naruto could be loud and something of a hot-head, but that hadn't seemed to bother any of the villagers in Wave Country. On occasion during D-ranks, when Kakashi had been out of earshot for one reason or another, people had made nasty comments. It pissed Sasuke off.

Someone knocked on the door, interrupting Sasuke's thoughts.

Sasuke opened the door to find Kakashi and Sakura standing on the other side.

"Yo."

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke blinked at them.

"Good morning?"

"We brought breakfast," Sakura smiled. "Don't worry – I cooked it, not Kakasi-sensei."

Kakashi let out a long-suffering sigh,

"I can cook, you know."

"We've seen the scorch marks on your kitchen ceiling, sensei," Sakura sniffed primly.

Sasuke looked from Kakashi and Sakura in his doorway to Naruto standing in his living room.

"You all planned this, didn't you?" He stepped aside to let Kakashi and Sakura in.

"It's a housewarming party!" Naruto beamed.

"This is for you." Sakura handed Sasuke a neatly folded blanket. It was deep purple with a pattern of pale green shuuriken. Sasuke appreciated that she hadn't made any attempt to wrap it. "I'll admit that shuuriken make a nice pattern even if senbon are still the best."

Kakashi quickly offered the brown paper bag he was carrying before Sakura's comment could spark off yet another weapons debate.

"Fresh loaf of that sun-dried tomato bread," he told Sasuke and then held up the stack of seal transfer papers in his other hand, "and those security seals I promised you."

His team was ridiculous, Sasuke decided. He was glad that he hadn't ended up with anyone else.

Sakura was manning the front counter of the Ryouken Bakery. She didn't have to be. It was Saturday, and this wasn't a mission, but ever since they'd gotten back from Wave Country and Kakashi-sensei had been released from the hospital, she'd just found herself wandering over to the bakery every Saturday morning. It just felt… safe. Peaceful. She was starting to understand why Naruto and Sasuke liked it there so much.

Slowly, Sakura twisted a senbon through her fingers. They hadn't worked with senbon much at the Academy, but she'd always found the whole concept of them appealing. Since they'd returned from Wave Country, Sakura had started practicing with senbon regularly. It would be a while before she was good enough to use them reliably on missions, but it was a good goal to work towards. Besides, if she dipped them in paralytic or poison, she could afford to be a little less accurate to start.

The front door suddenly burst open, and Sakura nearly dropped her senbon.

"MY MOST ESTEMED RIVAL! MY TEAM HAS RETURNED FROM A SUCCESSFUL BORDER PATROL AND REQUIRES CELEBRATORY ANPAN!"

Sakura's first thought was 'green.' Her second though was 'eyebrows.' Her third was 'Maybe sensei tried to retire, because he was too sane.'

The bizarrely dressed jounin blinked at Sakura in surprise.

There was a rustle of curtain behind Sakura.

"Gai, what have I told you about shouting in my bakery?" Kakashi asked as he came out wiping his hands on his apron.

"Ah, forgive me, Kakashi – I was overcome with Youth." The strange jounin, Gai, waved a hand at Sakura. "Have you finally seen sense and hired some help instead of merely relying on shadow clones?"

"Not a chance," Kakashi told him cheerfully. "This is Sakura Haruno. She's a member of my gennin team."

Three more shinobi had wandered in behind Gai – two boys and a girl. Sakura thought that they looked about a year older than her.

"Hi Gai-san!" called Naruto cheerfully as he emerged from the kitchen, Sasuke following behind him. "Hey Bushy Brows! Hey Ten-Ten-san!"

"Hello Naruto-kun!" called one of the boys, the one who looked sort of like a miniaturized version of Gai. "I'm glad to see your Youthful Spark is still burning brightly! How was your first C-rank mission?"

Naruto offered him a big grin and a thumbs up.

"It was a total disaster! Our client lied about the danger level, and we got jumped by S-class missing-nin – twice!" He rubbed the back of his head. "So I guess I technically still haven't been on a C-rank, but we did survive our first A-rank okay."

Sakura hadn't thought of it that way before, but Naruto was right. She really hoped that their next C-rank mission stayed a C-rank mission.

The Gai clone's mouth was hanging open as were the mouths of his teammates. Gai himself looked horrified.

"I've officially beaten your record of four months to destroy a new jounin vest," Kakashi informed Gai casually, shoving his hands in his pockets. Gai moved so fast that Sakura didn't even see a blur. "Gack! Gai, I'm fine! Put me down!" Kakashi flailed, desperately trying to escape Gai's octopus hug and weeping. Kakashi's feet weren't actually touching the ground, and his arms were pinned to his sides.

"Always so Cool and Hip! Wait here a moment, my cute students – my Eternal Rival and I need to talk."

"We do not. I already talked to Iruka!" Kakashi was still struggling as Gai hauled him through the curtain. Not long after, the kitchen's back door clanked shut.

"Are they always like that?" asked Sakura.

"Yup," Naruto nodded, looking completely un-phased.

"Gai-sensei is a brilliant shinobi, but he can be kind of intense," agreed the girl, whom Sakura thought was probably Ten-Ten.

Kakashi had stopped struggling by the time they got outside, resigned to his fate. Gai set him down carefully on his feet.

"Now, in all honesty with no Youthful ears listening, how are you doing?" Gai asked with a level of seriousness that he usually reserved for training and missions. Kakashi wasn't getting out of this.

Kakashi slumped against the back wall of the bakery. He and Gai rarely had these conversations, but they'd started cropping up occasionally since Kakashi had left ANBU.

"I purposefully ruined five loaves of bread as soon as they released me from the hospital," Kakashi reluctantly admitted, "so I've been better."

"Nightmares?"

Kakashi hesitated, but he knew that once this conversation was over Gai wouldn't bring up the topic again.

"Haven't been this bad since I switched to the reserves. I think they're starting to slow down again, though."

Gai nodded.

"I've already watched you nearly lose yourself once to darkness. I never wish to do so again."

Kakashi looked away. Honestly, Gai and his melodramatic grand statements.

"Not going to happen." Kakashi paused and then added, "Unless, of course, something happens to my bakery. In which case, I have every intention of becoming a missing-nin, starting my own terrorist organization, recruiting my team, and burning the world to the ground." He gave Gai a cheerful eye smile.

Gai rolled his eyes.

"Always so Hip and Cool," he grumbled. "Shall we spar tomorrow at Training Field 12, my Rival?"

Kakashi straightened up, relieved that the topic of emotions was once again closed.

"Sounds like a plan. Now let's get back inside before Sasuke and Neji kill each other. I don't think Sasuke's going to respond any better to Neji's ideas about 'fate' and 'destiny' than Naruto."

Neji and Sasuke were glowering at each other when Kakashi and Gai made it back to the front of the bakery. Naruto and Lee were chatting amiably about taijutsu katas, and Sakura and Ten-Ten were apparently bonding over senbon.

"We should train together tomorrow!" Ten-Ten was enthusing. "I haven't worked on my senbon throwing in ages, and I really shouldn't be letting it slide."

"I'm not very good, yet."

"That's fine. Neither of my teammates are all that interested in weapons outside of the basics, and it's always more fun to train with other people."

"Okay."

"I have returned, my adorable students!" Gai announced grandly, arms flung wide. Kakashi rolled his eye.

"We missed you, Gai-sensei!" piped up Lee, tears in his eyes.

"He was gone for five minutes," Neji told him, eyes narrowed and unimpressed.

Kakashi busied himself retrieving Team Gai's usual order from the display cabinet as Gai handed Sakura the appropriate amount of ryou.

"See you tomorrow, Sakura-san!" Ten-Ten waved as they left.

Kakashi's sensitive ears just caught Lee saying, "Sakura-san is so cute! Do you think she'd-," before the door closed behind them.

Naruto stared down at the perfectly bisected leaf in his hand.

"I did it," he whispered. Then he held the pieces of leaf aloft and crowed, "Kakashi-nii, I did it!"

"Excellent work, Naruto." Kakashi came over to inspect Naruto's pieces of leaf. "Looks like you're ready to start learning your first wind jutsu."

"Aw yeah! I'm so ready – believe it!" Naruto pumped a fist in the air. "What sort of awesome jutsu are we going to start with?"

"A very simple one."

"Awww…." Naruto deflated slightly. He got that learning elemental jutsus required time and patience, but Sasuke already knew half a dozen fire jutsus, and Naruto was sort of jealous. At least he had the satisfaction of knowing that he was way better at breaking free of genjutsus than Sasuke was. Sakura had been practicing the basic genjutsu weaving that she was learning on them, and they hadn't found a genjutsu that could hold Naruto, yet.

"Once you have the basics down solidly, you'll be able to master more complicated jutsus much faster. And then you and Sasuke are probably going to be able to level a training field together, because even basic wind jutsus can augment fire jutsus to a terrifying degree." Kakashi shuddered slightly at the thought.

Naruto perked up.

"Really?"

"Yup. Now, this is one of the first jutsus I ever purposefully copied. It's not actually a battle jutsu, but it's very good for practicing channeling the correct amount of chakra into a jutsu without worrying about it backfiring if you overdo it. Done just right," Kakashi formed three seals, "you should create a breeze just strong enough to flip someone's hair into their face. Soyokaze no jutsu." A breeze rustled through Naruto's hair and tickled his nose. "Minato-sensei invested it to tease Kushina when they first started dating."

And Naruto abruptly went from vaguely unimpressed to one hundred percent invested in learning this jutsu. Because this simple jutsu was a tangible piece of his parents. And it still amazed him that he had parents now with names and faces, and it turned out that they were the heroes that Kakashi had been telling him about for years.

Naruto straightened up, completely focused.

"What happens if you do it wrong?"

"Too little chakra and nothing happens. Too much chakra and you can strip leaves off trees. Wind jutsus, like fire, can do a lot of collateral damage if you're not careful."

"Show me the seals again?" Naruto requested. He was going to perfect this jutsu no matter what.

Naruto still didn't understand why Hokage-jiji hadn't just told him who his parents were – he could keep a secret – but for now he wasn't asking, because he didn't want to get Kakashi-nii into trouble. Finding out the why could wait. The important thing was that Naruto knew the truth now.

Sasuke's collection of plants was growing. The pot of basil Naruto had given him had acquired a friend, because Sasuke was really enjoying having fresh basil on his tomatoes, but he didn't want to strip his plant bare. He'd bought the shiso plant on a whim, because it had smelled good, too, and cooking with fresh herbs tasted better. The cilantro and oregano had come home for similar reasons.

At that point, Sasuke had given up, bought a small bag of potting soil, and planted his assortment of herbs in the empty window box that his apartment had come with. Team 7 had done enough D-rank gardening missions at this point that it wasn't like Sasuke didn't know how, and besides, he was running out of windowsills. It was a miniature herb garden. It was practical, and he liked weeding it every few days and watering it.

The bonsai tree now sitting on his kitchen table, however, Sasuke had no excuse for.

Sasuke sat with his arms folded on the table and his chin resting on his arms, staring at the bonsai tree. What had possessed him to buy a bonsai? It wasn't practical. It wasn't useful. And he had no idea how to take care of it. Sasuke had just liked the look of it. The shopkeeper had said that it was a good one for beginners.

The sensible thing to do would be to return the tiny tree, but that felt like giving up. Sasuke hated giving up. He'd have to see if he could find a book on bonsai trees, though, because he hated failing just as much as he hated giving up.

The idea had first been proposed by Gai. Apparently Neji was needed for some sort of clan business for the day, so Gai had proposed that their teams combine for morning training and an afternoon joint D-rank mission. Kakashi hadn't seen any reason to object. His students hadn't had a chance to spar with anyone else aside from himself and each other. Lee specialized in taijutsu, and Ten-Ten was primarily a long range fighter. It would be good practice for all of them.

Sakura and Ten-Ten had gone first. Ten-Ten had ultimately won their bought, but it had been very close. Kakashi was particularly impressed with the simple but highly effective genjutsu that Sakura had managed to weave that had apparently made it feel like something especially nasty was crawling up the back of Ten-Ten's neck. Ten-Ten was now explaining to Sakura how the seals on her weapons scrolls worked with the special enthusiasm that Ten-Ten seemed to reserve for weaponized projectiles.

Sasuke and Lee were up next. Kakashi was possibly hoping that this match up would remind Sasuke that, just because he had the best taijutsu skills of his teammates, that didn't mean that he didn't have plenty of room for improvement. Sasuke hadn't been getting a big head, per sae, but the Uchiha ego had practically been genetic and a gentle reminder never hurt anybody.

"Remember," Gai was telling Lee. Well, proclaiming to really, but that was just Gai's default state. "When fighting a sharingan user, never make eye contact! Instead, direct your Youthful gaze to their feet to predict their movements!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei!"

"Lee really only uses taijutsu?" Sasuke asked. After several minutes of irritated concentration, he'd finally managed to activate his sharingan.

"Yup."

"But I don't have to stick to only taijutsu for this spar."

"Nope."

"Hn." Sasuke looked vaguely suspicious as well he should. It seemed Sasuke was finally starting to take 'looking underneath the underneath' to heart.

"To your positions!" Gai called.

Sasuke and Lee squared up and shifted into their preferred ready stances.

"Kick his ass, Bushy Brows!"

Sasuke shot Naruto an annoyed look.

"How come you never cheer for me, dobe?"

"'Cause you don't need me to cheer for you, teme!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes but shrugged in apparent agreement and returned his attention to Lee. Ten-Ten and Sakura had stopped discussing weapons in favor of watching their teammates.

"Begin!"

"Right." Kakashi handed Sasuke an ice pack and set a cup of tea down in front of him. "Since you've activated the second level of your sharingan, it's time for the tricky discussion of the ethics and morals of sharingan use."

Sasuke pressed the ice pack to the darkening bruise on the side of his face that had just barely missed being a black eye. He hadn't even seen the kick coming. Lee was shockingly fast, and his kicks has the stopping power of a brick wall. If Sasuke had known that acquiring the second tomoe would make his eyes easier to control, he would have offered to spar with Lee so much sooner.

"Morals and ethics?" he asked.

"Mmm." Kakashi sat down across from Sasuke, pulled down his mask, and took a sip of his own tea. It still weirded Sasuke out how casual Kakashi had gotten about the whole mask thing when their team wasn't in public. "Your cousin Shisui called it the Can-May-Should Principle."

Sasuke couldn't remember ever hearing his family talk about that.

"Never heard of it."

"Not all of the Uchiha clan followed it, and it made them… unpopular with a number of people," Kakashi sighed. "Right, so 'can.' Just because you copy a jutsu doesn't necessarily mean that you can perform it. Sometimes that's because the jutsu in question is based on a kekkei genkai, like Haku's ice mirrors or the Hyuuga's gentle fist. In the case of taijutsu, it can be because your body lacks the necessary physical training. I've been sparring with Gai for years. I've copied his movements with my sharingan at least a hundred times, but I would never use more than one or two of his moves in a battle, because his style takes a huge amount of specialized physical training that I haven't done. The sharingan is a shortcut, but it's not a substitute for actual training."

Sasuke nodded. He supposed that made sense.

"'May' applies to your fellow shinobi of Konoha. Yes, you can copy almost any jutsu you see one of your comrades use, but unless you have their permission, you really shouldn't be using those jutsus. A lot of shinobi view it as a type of theft, and it is a fast way to make yourself wildly unpopular and resented. Nobody cares if you copy basic elemental jutsus, but clan techniques and jutsus that your fellow shinobi invented themselves are definitely off limits. 'May' only gets ignored in life-or-death situations, and obviously it doesn't apply to enemies."

"So," Sasuke hesitated, "if I wanted to incorporate some of Lee's moves that I copied today into my own style…?"

"You need to talk to Lee first and most likely Gai as well since it's really Gai's style that Lee uses. Gai will probably require you to do some additional training with them if he does agree to it. And there is a good chance that he'll say no. Gai thinks of his style as a life style – I'm not sure what he'll say about someone wanting to only use select pieces from it." Kakashi took another sip of his tea. "At the end of the day, 'may' is really about respecting your fellow shinobi, and that's where past members of your clan ran into the most trouble." Sasuke grimaced but didn't deny it no matter how much he'd like to. "'Should' is more subjective. Basically, you've copied a jutsu. You can perform it, and you may perform it, but should you perform it? I've copied at least a dozen jutsus that I would never perform – not because I can't, but because of the sheer level of sadism they require. That's the sort of judgment call that only you can make. Those same jutsus probably wouldn't cause most of the members of T&I to bat an eye, but for me, they go too far."

Sasuke finally tried his own tea.

"Sounds straightforward enough," he decided.

"It is," Kakashi agreed, "but that doesn't make it any less important."

Kakashi's shoulders finally relaxed as the arch of Konoha's gate finally passed above his head. He and his students had been out of the village for less than twelve hours on an escort mission that only counted as a C-rank because it involved leaving Konoha. After their disastrous Wave Country mission, though, Kakashi had been almost pathetically grateful that their exasperatingly easy and boring mission had stayed exasperatingly easy and boring. Team 7 had escorted the most paranoid watermelon farmer in Fire Country home. The man had been convinced that the 'watermelon mafia' was out to get him.

Ahead of him his students were still discussing exactly how a watermelon mafia might work since Naruto had never managed to get a satisfactory answer out of their hyper paranoid client.

"Maybe the watermelons themselves have formed a mafia," Naruto suggested.

"How?" Sasuke countered.

"Someone mixed up the ingredients in the fertilizer they were making and as a result the watermelons gained sentience!"

"And grew legs?" asked Sakura. She'd worn her new, dark crimson, out-of-village dress for the day's mission. It was the same style as her bright red village dress, but the trim and circle on her back were black instead of white, making the whole ensemble much less eye catching. She'd also stuck a pair of senbon through the base of her bun like hair sticks.

"Absolutely," Naruto nodded mock seriously. "And now those watermelons are on a quest for vengeance because-"

"Boss!" Naruto was interrupted by an excited shout. "You're back! How was your mission?! Did you fight any more S-class missing-nin?!"

Konohamaru and his two friends, whom Kakashi still wasn't sure of the names of, were charging down the road to meet Naruto. Naruto waved and ran forward to meet them, shouting, "Hi Kotetsu-san!" as he blasted past the gatehouse.

"Did that child just call Naruto 'Boss'?" asked Sakura.

"Mhm," Sasuke nodded.

Sakura hesitated.

"Does that mean… Naruto has minions?"

Sasuke halted mid stride, a look of horror passing over his face.

Kakashi just smiled to himself.

A breeze rustled the leaves of the tree Team 7 was sitting under.

"That," Naruto decided, flopping on his back, "was awesome." He offered Sasuke a high five, and Sasuke solemnly slapped their palms together. Kakashi was leaning back against the tree trunk with one arm across his face.

"When I said that you and Sasuke could probably level a training field if you combined your wind and fire jutsus, I wasn't suggesting that you actually try it," he groaned.

"That fireball was the size of a house," Sakura muttered. Her face was soot stained. "I've been working on my genjutsu – not earth jutsus. At least let me learn how to do walls before you idiots try that again."

"We weren't expecting it to be that big, Sakura-chan."

"You're both morons," Sakura decided.

"I'm going to have to fill out so much paperwork," mumbled Kakashi.

"That was a really cool water jutsu you used to put all the flames out, Kakashi-nii."

"My sharingan were activated when you did that jutsu," Sasuke piped up. "Can I use it next time we practice?"

"No. Umi no tatsumaki no jutsu is an A-rank jutsu meant for melee fighting. It would take about half of your chakra reserves to perform at the moment. You can use it once your reserves are large enough that you can do it twice without passing out."

Sasuke let out an annoyed huff but didn't protest.

"You both owe me lunch for setting my dress on fire," Sakura announced. She held up her scorched and ruined hem and frowned at it.

"Yeah… it was supposed to go straight – not loop back on us."

"Barbeque?" Sasuke suggested.

Sakura considered this.

"Acceptable," she finally decided. She stood up. "Come on – nearly dying makes me hungry. Are you coming, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi lifted his arm from his face. In the near distance, a few wisps of black smoke were still rising from Training Field 16. Overhead a messenger hawk wheeled and called. Looked like the Hokage was calling a general meeting. He stood up.

"I'll meet you there. The Hokage's calling a meeting. I shouldn't be more than half an hour."

"Want us to order your usual, nii-san?"

"Sure."

Kakashi took off for the Hokage Tower.

Was it really time for the chuunin exams already?

A/N: Thank you all for reading!

Our latest translation courtesy of Google Translate:

Umi no tatsumaki - "ocean tornado"