Finally, here's the long awaited second chapter. If you ever read the first part of this, be sure to give chapter one a re-read. I've changed some things around. We're switching POV's here to Naruto, who is decidedly more whimsical about everything despite the angst of the last chapter. The change of tense here is purposeful – Naruto is the kinda guy who lives in the now.

Sasuke doesn't end up staying the night or anything so sentimental. He stays for a couple more hours, learning nothing, and then leaves.

When Naruto wakes in the morning, he finds a pre-made breakfast waiting for him in his battered fridge. Pinned to it is a note:

"Meeting Sakura at the training grounds for the usual time. Don't be late. And start locking your doors, dumbass, the Hokage likes you."

It isn't signed, but who else would it be? Naruto, who has never been left a note by anyone whom he could call a friend before, sets it aside and eats his meal with gusto. This part is new too.

When he's done, he washes the dishes and sets them to dry. From there he completes his usual routine, and only checks the seal just before he heads out the door.

He doesn't know what he was really expecting.

He visits Iruka first, and smiles cheerfully in his presence. In his own way, Naruto sort of loves Iruka and has missed seeing him – the chunin exams and everything that came after had left little time for social calls. Naruto asks how the academy brats are doing, specifically the Konohamaru Corp., and Iruka in turn inquires after Naruto's training.

Naruto beams with pride when Iruka praises him for catching the eye of a sennin like Jiraiya. Although the old pervert can be hard to deal with, he has quickly become one of the people Naruto respects most in the world.

They part ways soon after, promising to meet for ramen sometime later in the week. Naruto tucks a surreptitiously passed package, small and wrapped in orange, into his weapons pouch to open later. To his surprise, he's having a good day.

LINEBREAK

The training grounds, surrounded on all sides by trees with three upright posts right in the middle of a sandy basin, haven't changed much since the last time he was here. Naruto shows up at precisely 9:30, the usual meeting time. Except that he has forgotten Kakashi won't be joining them, and is therefore actually thirty minutes late. Sakura gives him a strange look but doesn't call him out on it; for this Naruto adopts a cheesy grin and greets her as loudly as possible.

"SAKURA-CHAA-oh. And 'hi' to you too, bastard." He isn't thinking of yesterday at all. Nope.

Sasuke spears him with a Look, but Naruto refuses to let anything keep him from having his Good Day.

"I said 'Don't be late." Naruto sticks his tongue out like a child.

Sakura shakes her head at them both. "Before you got here, Naruto, I was talking with Sasuke – Can we use your shadow clones as sparring partners for this? I thought it might provide for a little less bias."

Naruto thinks about it. Of course, he will still have to fight one of them (probably Sasuke) but he figures that Sakura might be understandably reluctant to spar with the more, perhaps unfairly, gifted parts of her team. Also he is inclined to agree with just about anything she suggests; not only is Sakura smarter than him, she is his One True Love™. Naruto nods amicably at his train of thought and summons a clone.

"Who wants to go first?"

By the end of the session Naruto doesn't know much more than what he has already figured out. Sasuke and Sakura seem to have been able to delve deeper, however. They are pouring over their notes, engaging in some kind of technical conversation. Naruto is reminded again of how well they work together when given a logical task to overcome. For his part, he has occupied himself with counting how long he can balance a pencil on his nose.

Sadly, it comes to an end at four minutes when Sakura smacks him across the back of the head. He loses his pencil.

Naruto claps a hand to his neck, rubbing it. "What was that for?"

His team-mates are both leveling glares his way. "We're not doing this for you. Write your report!"

"But guuyyyss." Naruto whines ineffectually. "I'm bad at this kinda thing."

Neither of them is buying it. "Write. It's the mission." Sasuke says shortly, tapping his own paper with the end of his pencil and nodding. His writing is miniscule and neat; he's already gotten a full two pages down.

Naruto pouts and takes his sweet time finding the pencil among the dirt, but once he's settled back down he dutifully begins to write.

"Both of my team-mates are short-tempered jerks and no fun. Even if Sakura is cute."

He knows that he talks aloud when he writes, and beams at them both when they look up again. Sakura groans.

"Look, fine, just join us with this conversation and we'll help, okay?" His grin becomes impossibly wider. Surely, despite her expression, his compliments have charmed her off her feet.

"Sure, Sure!"

Sasuke is looking at his notes. "Fine. Now that you're paying attention, idiot – ("Hey!") – let's start with the basics."

Sakura, looking back down at her fancy diagrams, takes the reins. "You probably already know this, but – Naruto, you're the stamina tank. Close range, unpredictable fighter. You could probably stand to work on your resistance to genjutsu, and your chakra control is terrible."

Naruto interrupts with an indignant "Hey! It's getting better!"

"No, it's really not. You've just started spamming big attacks at people and hoping for the best. I still don't understand how that works!" Maybe she's whining, just a little bit. "Anyway – Sasuke, you're also a close range fighter with more emphasis on speed than stamina. Mid-range jutsu. Good control and taijutsu. Resistant to genjutsu, too, with the Sharingan activated. And, uh, me. I'm usually mid-to-long range. Good chakra control, good with um…trapping." Sakura wilts a bit, at a loss, but then brightens. "Lady Tsunade said that I could train under her, though, so I might be a medic nin eventually!"

Sasuke raises an eyebrow but simply nods. She doesn't need to hear that she could be better; it's hard enough playing team-mate to people like he and Naruto. For his part, Sasuke is simply glad that she has found a teacher as impressive as Tsunade. A medic-nin will be highly useful to their group dynamic and the style will suit her.

Naruto is happy too. "That's so great! Did you know that she used to be on the same team as Erosennin?" Sakura, who had actually chosen to learn while she was in the academy, sneered at him a bit but was pleased by the praise. "Of course I know that! The Sandaime was their teacher!"

Naruto thinks that lately she's been warming up to him. Looking over at Sasuke, he has a feeling that maybe the whole team is coming together. This makes him feel warm inside – it had been awkward for the first few weeks after the retrieval mission. Somehow, though, the end result of all the bad situations they'd been through lately has made them grow closer. Now Sakura only hit him when he did or said something stupid (often) and she'd even stopped fangirling at Sasuke so much! Which was great because the bastard totally didn't deserve it!

Guh. Anyway. Sasuke was talking again. "Sakura. You could probably stand to train more in endurance and taijutsu as well. You need to watch your back more – Naruto's clone snuck up on you several times."

Naruto fights the urge to say something for once. Sakura was looking away and he didn't want to make her feel worse by accident. At least Sasuke had been mostly polite.

"Naruto, you rely too much on your stamina. You can't just keep going at the enemy until one of you is dead."

Naruto feels a little indignant because this strategy has been working nicely for him so far. "And what about you, bastard? You don't work with us in fights; you just go and do your own thing."

Sasuke looks mildly rebuffed when Sakura agrees with Naruto. "Well…it is true. But Naruto, you don't always work with us either!"

Naruto ducks his head a bit. He hates to back down, but she's kinda…right. He's too used to looking out for himself. "Fine. Maybe we should make up a strategy then!" He grins a bit when he sees that he has surprised them. "I mean, we could do what Team Ten does with the...the stuff."

Sasuke smirks at him. "That's what we were talking about while you were goofing off, idiot." Naruto can practically feel his ego deflating. "We think we have a couple strategies that will work if you're willing to be the front man." The last part makes him perk up again.

"Wait, you want me out front? Why?" Sakura scoots her papers over to him so that he can see the rough battle scenarios she has sketched out. "You can take the most hits, and your attacks work better if you don't have to worry about us getting in the way while you're using them."

"You also just charge in without thinking anyway," Sasuke adds rather blandly. "Might as well use you for something productive."

"Hey! You just want me to be the bait!" Naruto exclaims, flapping one finger wildly in Sasuke's general direction. Neither of them denies it, though Sakura at least has the decency to look a little guilty.

Naruto glares at them for a full minute, shoulders hunched and arms crossed, just to make them sweat. Then he relaxes back into his customary grin with the air of someone who has just won a bet. "I can deal with that. If it means that Sasuke is admitting I'm tougher than he is."

Sasuke closes his eyes and breathes through his nose for a bit but doesn't say a word. Naruto takes his victory with grace. ('Grace' meaning that he squirms around for a bit in an improvised victory dance that even has Sakura giggling a little, despite herself.)

"Anyway…" Sasuke bites out. His respect for his hyperactive team-mate has improved slightly in the past few months or so but there is such a thing as pushing it. "My role would be mid-range, sniping enemies with jutsu while you distract them. I could also handle ambushes and engage other types in my role directly."

Sakura has gone back to studying her diagrams, drawing smoothly curving lines to indicate range and areas of effect. Naruto unashamedly admires the effect and almost wishes he had the mind for this sort of thing. "I'll stay long-range with projectiles and traps; eventually I'll act as the medic-nin. I can keep an eye out for incoming hostiles this way, too."

"So basically Sasuke handles the sneaky fancy stuff, I take out any and everyone I can while being as loud about it as possible, and you do the super sneaky stuff and make sure we don't die. I like this plan." Naruto claps his hands together in excitement – he thinks the overall point of his role is going to be walloping the target and blowing things up, which will never stop being cool. Even Sasuke looks satisfied. Sakura seems relieved but also resigned.

Naruto squints at her for a moment before a bright idea hits him. "Hey, hey, Granny Tsunade can blast stuff apart with just a punch! Think she'll teach that to you?" He is gratified for his efforts when sparks of interest light up in both of his team-mates expressions.

"That would mean you could watch our back more efficiently, and defend yourself if someone came from behind our formation." Frankly, Naruto finds himself amazed that Sasuke has actually become willing to work with them and even let them watch his back. Nngh. Fluffy feelings.

Sakura looks doubtful. "Wouldn't that take a lot of chakra? I have control, but my reserves…" She shrugs. Naruto screws up his eyes, trying to think about how Tsunade had fought. "Nah. I don't think it does. I think she said something about how it was more…more finesse than power. You could do it! You totally have that finesse stuff! You got the tree-climbing thing way before we did." She shoots a smile his way and Naruto knows he's finally cheered her up. Mission accomplished!

"So, uh…anything else? Just 'cause…this paper…" They're exasperated with him but it feels a lot friendlier than it used to. They help him write his report.

Naruto likes it better when they're working together instead of interrogating each other.

As they begin to wrap up for the day, (Sasuke had insisted that they all spar for awhile. It was actually pretty fun even though Sakura had sat out the last hour, unable to keep up with the others.) Naruto finds himself leaning against a tree, thinking. Thinking hard.

Last night, Sasuke had come very close to finding out about the Nine-Tales. Naruto doesn't know how to feel about that, because a big part of him wonders if Sasuke has thought up some sort of worse explanation. He had kept staring at Naruto's face when he thought Naruto wasn't paying attention.

Naruto gulps some water out of a bottle Sakura passes over to him. (She never used to do that before! This is just neat.) He doesn't think there is a worse explanation than the truth. Unless Sasuke actually thinks Naruto himself has some sort of demonic bloodline. But no, that wouldn't be worse – he could always say it was something like what the Inuzuka clan does.

Should he tell them? Part of him thinks so. Eventually they're going to find out anyway with the way the seal has been acting up lately.

Another part of him is thinking about how well things have been going lately and says now isn't the time to ruin it. They've probably all had enough drama for now.

Satisfied with this train of thought, Naruto lets it go. Sasuke is going to try to talk to him about it, but for now Naruto will play dumb and avoid the topic. Speaking of which, the Uchiha in question looks like he's about to start asking questions so Naruto turns to Sakura and exclaims, "Sakura-chan! Want to go out on a date?" with the cheesiest, hugest grin he can muster. He's even thinking about Gai-Sensei and Bushy Brows as hard as he can. The 'ping!' makes her squint a bit.

Naruto actually has a little hope that she'll say yes this time given current events but isn't surprised when she smacks him. "No! Why do you keep asking? I've said 'no' so many times!"

He picks himself up without dropping the smile. "I have hope! So, can I walk home with you, then?" Her house is a little out of Naruto's way, but definitely out of Sasuke's. Again, Sakura looks like she wants to reject him but doesn't, her expression thoughtful. She nods. "…Sure. Okay."

Naruto doesn't believe his ears and actually leaps for joy. Just a little bit. Sasuke looks generally annoyed but nods as they wave at him and head out.

Sakura turns to him once they're out of earshot. "He was acting a little weird today. Something happen?"

Unable to stop grinning, Naruto just shrugs and clasps his arms behind his head. "Nope. You know how he is. Broody kinda guy." She looks annoyed but giggles when he waggles his eyebrows at her to show that he's only kidding. Encouraged, Naruto adopts the best sullen expression he can manage without resorting to henge.

"I am Sasuke, master of the hair gel. You cannot defeat me because you suck." Sakura hides her smile behind her hand, giggling. Ha! He's made her laugh! Naruto lets a little spark of pride glow inside his chest, grinning once again.

They walk in comfortable silence for another few minutes before Naruto feels the need to speak again.

"Y'know, I uh…I really think you've gotten better lately!" He says awkwardly. He doesn't know how to say what he means, so he just blurts it right out into the open evening air.

Sakura blinks at him. "You're just trying to make me feel better, aren't you? You don't have to do that."

"No, no!" Naruto says, protesting. "I mean it! You took care of us in the Forest, and that fight with Ino was really cool too! And when you faced down Gaara…" Naruto swallows. That fight had pushed him to the very edge, and he'd never been so scared. Like Sasuke with Haku, Sakura had almost died in that fight. He doesn't like to think about it.

"I wasn't really any help. But, uh…thanks. I don't think I said that before. Y'know, for saving me." Sakura is looking at the road or maybe her feet.

"I'm really not lying. I think you'll get strong…just at your own pace, and…uh. You're way better than me at lots of stuff! Even Kakashi-sensei said so."

She glances over at him. "Can I ask you a question?"

Caught off guard by the abrupt change in topic, Naruto nods and drops his arms to his side.

"Do you really not know when your birthday is?" Oh. Now she was asking questions. Damnit, why hadn't he considered that she would ask? She was too intelligent to just let stuff like that go! Plus, since Sasuke was now aware that he'd lied yesterday it didn't make any sense to hide it from Sakura. He looks away.

"…about that. My birthday was actually yesterday. I just didn't want to uh…y'know, make you guys feel bad for not knowing or anything!" He scratches the back of his neck in an awkward gesture. "But Sasuke found out…so. Uh. Sorry."

Sakura thumps him on the head, but when he looks up she doesn't seem that angry. She's even smiling a little bit. "Idiot! Now I have to go get you something and it'll be late. You can be so annoying!"

She walks on ahead a bit, muttering to herself about ramen coupons and ninja tools. She doesn't see him, staring at her back, completely caught off guard.

Naruto smiles like a fool, catches up, and starts assuring her that he doesn't need anything at all.