I DON'T OWN NARUTO

I'm supposed to be doing music theory right now, and its midnight. :|

I'M SORRY I'M SORRY FOR THE CRAPNESS IN THIS CHAPTER.

MAJOR WRITER'S BLOCK YOU KNOW? :(

But I have been watching the olympics!

Good luck with this chapter, it's simply awful :(

They stared at the forehead protectors in their hands, a reassuring weight that somehow seemed to mean so much. Naruto stared at the familiar forehead protector in his hand, his throat constricting as he brushed his finger along the metal, recognising the nicks and indents next to the proud symbol of the leaf. Iruka's. This was Iruka's. He looked at Kakashi, who merely crinkled his eye, and Naruto felt a sense of elation sweep through him as he lifted the forehead protector and tied it on. He suddenly felt whole, as if he had found something that he didn't even know he had missed.

He turned to Sasuke and Sakura, to see them tying on their respective headbands, shiny from the lack of experience, but he could see the coloured cloth of Sakura's and the tiny wears and tears in Sasuke's that he knew he had built up on graduation day. So they had all gotten their own back, each one that they had meant to be for their genin days that had been postponed for 6 months. And now they were leaf ninja. A true part of the leaf! Naruto felt the grin spread across his face as he embraced his team in a three way hug, Sakura patting him on the back while Sasuke merely stood there and smirked. They pretended not to notice the damp spots that appeared on their shirts as Naruto cried happy tears, and they finally recognised that, their dreams weren't so far away after all.

The team went out to celebrate their success, minus Kakashi who decided that he had more important things to do. They had glared at him balefully till he informed them that, no, he wasn't off to read porn, he was off to report to the Hokage… Which was slightly true… he grinned as he watched them leave on his perch in his tree, before taking out his well thumbed copy of Icha Icha. Ah, he wasn't due in another five minutes, and add that to Kakashi-style time keeping… why, he had hours to spend! He settled more comfortably in his tree, perverted giggling already starting… Ah, simple pleasures.

They pretended not to notice the whispers as they walked. The lips hidden behind gossiping hands and the querying glances that were filled with curiosity. They pretended not to see or hear the things that they didn't want to hear. But they still did. Poisonous whispers that bloomed into clouds of thoughts inside their heads.

"Deadlast."

"Washouts"

"…heard they failed…"

"…forehead protectors…? ANBU will put them right…"

"…shame about the Uchiha kid…"

"…must be the demon…"

"…demon…"

"demon"

"DEMON"

Naruto hopped onto his stool, loudly calling out his orders to the ramen man. The old man merely grinned, used to Naruto's boisterous fashion. Sasuke and Sakura came into the stall slightly in a slightly more dignified fashion, letting the curtain fringes swish closed behind them, and breathing into the tangy scent of ramen. They each climbed onto their individual bar stools, not bothering to order as they knew Naruto had already done so for them. Sakura sighed, leaning her head onto her hand, eyes half closing in the warmth of the stand.

"You know he was hardly putting any effort in really?" She muttered, cracking one eye open to look at her team. She saw Naruto stop his swivelling of the stool, and Sasuke turn slightly towards her. So they had both noticed it as well. "Despite all that talk about three genin who team up can beat a jounin, I still pretty much doubt it."

Naruto nodded sagely to one side of her, eyes instantly lighting up as a ramen bowl was placed on the table in font of him.

"Itadakimasu!" He shouted in excitement, before plunging into his meal, audible sighs of delight placed in between the slurping of noodles and broth. The others repeated the gesture in a more refined way, snapping open their chopsticks.

"But we're genin now you know? Who cares if we couldn't have beat him if he was going full out!" Naruto scratched his nose thoughtfully with the end of his chopstick as he paused in his slurping. "But really, all that mattered is that we are recognised genin, and are here-"

The curtains parted as a new group came in, a loud boisterous voice hollering above the din of the market place to cut Naruto off. He then felt the hand slapping down on his shoulder, the voice rising to meet them.

"Oh, if it ain't the little washouts!" Raucous laughter followed, seeming to swallow up the warm interior of the small ramen stand, leaving a chill in its wake. Team 7 had stopped their smiling now, their moods dampened by the boy who was currently insulting them. Kiba Inuzuka. Sasuke sneered.

"Why don't you take your mutt and leave?" Sasuke remained expressionless as he delivered his own comeback, and when Kiba reared up in anger, showing off his canines to intimidate, Sasuke made a show of gazing in surprise at Kiba. "Oh, mutt, I was talking to Akamaru." Muffled giggles came from Sakura as Naruto started laughing loudly, and Sasuke allowed himself a victory smirk.

"Why you bastard!" Kiba was about to lunge forward when he seemed to think better of it, rolling down his just rolled up sleeve. "Oh well, you dead lasts aren't even worth fighting against." He curled his upper lip in disgust as he looked down at them, ignoring the tensing team 7. "Come on guys, I'm not going to dine in a place that serve dead-lasts like them!" With that and a final laugh, Kiba left, beckoning his team with him. Hinata stayed behind for a moment, twiddling her fingers.

"N-Naruto-kun, I-I think it would be b-bad if you were c-caught wearing a headband… When you know, y-you aren't a ninja. Sorry." She quickly left after that, leaving Naruto with his arm raised after her, about to shout out their defences. The ramen stand once again became empty, but the chill remained as team 7 sat, Sakura and Sasuke's ramen untouched, and Naruto's bowl empty, just like that feeling in their gut.

As one, they stood, placing the money on the counter, and then left.

Kakashi watched them with a lone eye cracked open, peering over the edge of his book. He sighed, being a washout team wouldn't be easy for them, and he hoped that they could deal with it, because there was still a lot from where it came from. He eyes shifted slightly into a U shape. Ah, just another perk of being a washout team. They would have to earn respect, and if it worked out, this would make them a much better team, if not…

Kakashi turned the next page, humming a little tune under his breath.

They sat on the red bridge where they had so often met up, watching the river rush by as they perched their backs against the side of the bridge, legs splayed out in front of them. They lay lazily on the sun-warmed wood, basking in the warmth that the sun brought them, feeling the light tingling on their skin.

"Damn it." A thunk followed, as Sasuke threw a kunai into the worn wood of the bridge, leaving it sticking out of the material. "Damn it damn it damn it!" Several more thunks followed, then a heavy, frustrated sigh. Sakura gently pushed the hand that was reaching for another kunai down, reminding him not to damage the bridge too much. Sasuke obeyed, slouching bonelessly against the bridge. Naruto was uncharacteristically quiet through the affair, eyes closed in a strange way of thought.

"I thought that now we were genin you know, we would be treated the same way as the others…" he muttered under his breath, loud enough for them to hear. "I mean, we're equal now, right? We're now on the same rank as them, the same career, so why the damn fuck don't they acknowledge it?!" He was shouting by the end of it, back stiff as his hands balled into fists, eyes burning from the unfairness of it all, the acknowledgement that should have been there, but so wrongly wasn't.

Sakura sighed as well, running her hand through her pink locks, hands now used to the shortness of it. She leaned her head against the rail of the bridge in defeat, before speaking. "This behaviour will continue won't it? For the rest of our shinobi careers maybe. Washout." Her lip curled in disgust at the word. They had embraced it for what they were, but now they were cruelly rejected from the genin that they sought to be. "Washout. I bet I could beat that mutt to within an inch of his life, and they still won't acknowledge it. What will it take? What. Will. It. Take?! For Naruto to have his face carved into that mountain for the world to see?! For us to slaughter an entire country of people or something?!" She breathed heavily, and team 7 were filled with an overwhelming amount of frustration.

"Will it ever stop?"

There was a pause as the rush of the water filled the air.

…

Sasuke stood up, his head held high as he glared upwards.

Grimly determined, Naruto followed, dusting off his orange jumpsuit as he did so, mouth set into a frown.

Together they turned to Sakura, who was also getting up, smoothing out her clothes as she did so.

"If it doesn't, we'll make them."

"We'll show them that we're not washouts."

"Because we're fucking team 7, not some washout team. We'll kick their asses so hard, they won't know what hit them."

…

"Now who's up for a game of chase the dog?"

The grass stirred as they leapt away before stilling. Up in the trees, a certain porn addict was giggling to himself.

Please review, and feel free to criticise me about how crap this chapter was. I KNOW It's crap.

I think the main going of my story, is how they rise up and above the rest who believe that they are ONLY washouts. It's about proving people wrong, and proving your own selfworth.

I hope. :P

thanks for reading :)

~jolteonoforever