In which Kakashi sees Sasuke in a new way and gives him a rather different lecture after his fight with Naruto on the hospital roof.
A flash of familiar exasperation tightened Kakashi’s mouth behind his mask, but he didn’t think an admonition to grow up already would go over very well right now. Not right after Sasuke had faced his brother and been reminded of that bloody night all over again.
In which Team Seven is on the road again, putting out fires for Konoha in the wake of the invasion and learning a little more about each other and themselves.
Sasuke was a lot more himself now they were out on missions again, all about training and getting stronger. That was the kind of thing Naruto understood, that was the kind of attitude he could get behind, because it meant they could all train together, and sometimes he could show Sasuke up, which made it a lot easier to take the times Sasuke showed him up. Though he wasn’t completely sure Sasuke understood about that, and sometimes he got all brooding and shit, and then Naruto had to do Sexy no Jutsu at him to make him stop, and nearly getting a Chidori shoved up his nose was totally worth the look on Sasuke’s face.
In which Naruto learns healing, Sasuke has Jiraiya inflicted upon him, and Sakura gets more dangerous.
“Myouboku Mountain’s Monk of the Toad Spirits… also known as the Toad Sage…. is here!” A long white tail of hair flounced and wood geta managed to hit the dust with a firm clack.
“You’re what,” Sasuke said, very flatly. It wasn’t even a question. There was no possible question in the world to which that was the answer.
In which Seven is back together only to split up again when Sakura volunteers to go undercover with Orochimaru.
Sakura closed her eyes and reached for the place she kept the things she didn’t let out. Anger, mostly, the part of her that wanted to crush things into nothing or rip them into shreds. She thought about all the passing flashes of resentment, when Naruto and Sasuke both got extra training and she didn’t; when Sasuke executed the techniques her research turned up, the ones she just didn’t have the chakra capacity to perform; when Naruto effortlessly made Sasuke respond to him; when people murmured about the success record of their team and never once mentioned her; when her parents cheerfully assumed that she was doing filing for the Intelligence center, and she was forbidden to correct them.
She unlocked the cave she kept all that in, all the curses and spitting rage and pure, unadorned selfishness, and she opened her eyes and looked at the world through spite.
Takes place during Chapter Seven of Half Without Another One. While Sakura is gone her boys fret and try to distract themselves and take care of each other.
The third time Naruto blew up his study room trying to separate out the fox’s chakra from his own once he’d already expressed them, Tsunade didn’t even yell. She just gave him a narrow look, hands planted on her hips, and called for Iruka-sensei.
Sakura and Orochimaru conclude their bargain, and their betrayal. Sasuke and Naruto do their best to catch Sakura as she falls out of this mission. Character death.
“Good,” Orochimaru purred, eyes alight, and Sakura knew her own were glittering back at him. She could feel the air on her bared teeth. She loved this, that he would expect her, prefer her to attack him from behind, to test him exactly the way he tested her.
Sakura has to debrief and deal with the backlash of her time at Orochimaru’s side. Fortunately, Naruto and Sasuke are there for her. Once that settles, though, Tsunade has to deal with the resistance of the Elders to promoting the three of them.
“He didn’t call me by name, for a long time. It was always ‘kunoichi’. But when…” she had to swallow, “when I demanded more tests on the last version of the seal, more tests on other people, because I knew it would give me more time to gather intelligence on the bases, then he called me by name.”
“And if he thought all along you were a plant,” Miuhara completed her logic coolly, “it follows that he was seeking to draw you into just that position, where you would be complicit with his atrocities. And he rewarded you for it.”
“Yes,” Sakura whispered, arms curling tighter. “And it worked.”
In which Gaara is taken by Akatsuki and Kakashi’s and Gai’s teams are sent to aid Hidden Sand to get him back.
Sasuke gave up on logic, as he so often had to around Naruto and just shook him. “Shut up and listen to me,” he said, low and deadly. “I am not letting you run yourself right into ambush. Understand? Not by those bastards and not because you were too unbelievably bullheaded to Stay. With. Your team!” Three more hard shakes punctuated that, and Naruto finally blinked at Sasuke like he knew who was in front of him.
The larger ninja world starts talking about Akatsuki, and what to do about them. Naruto is hustled off to the Island Turtle with his team, where he meets B and reaches a certain cooperation with the Nine-tails.
Warning: Features a brief section of suicidal thoughts.
Kakashi slid past the Hokage’s door rather warily and waved a handful of message-paper strips at her. “Latest batch from the relays; Shizune asked me to bring them up with me.” He swapped himself reflexively with the coat hanger as a cup went hurtling past where his head would have been and smashed into shrapnel against the wall. “I can see why she did,” he added.
Most of the Konoha contingent ingathers to deal with Sai’s attack on Naruto and its implications. In the wake of this, Naruto proposes his new plan to Tsunade.
The only reason Sakura didn’t kill Sai immediately was that Ino got in her way.
Sasuke attends his first Council, called to deal with Danzou’s actions, while Naruto and Sakura figure out how to heal the Nine-tails. That second turns out to have risks none of them quite realized before-hand.
Under other circumstances, he might have enjoyed being here, his first Council as the acknowledged head of Uchiha. But he didn’t want to be here today, looking at that smug bastard Danzou across the table. He wanted to be with his team, helping Sakura and Naruto research what it was already self-evident would be a dangerous procedure. And making sure no one made another try at Naruto.
If there was one thing he’d learned as a child, though, it was his duty as a son of Uchiha, so here he was. Not killing Danzou even a little, either; he hoped everyone appreciated his restraint.
Kakashi takes Sai under his wing and Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura help Sai start to find his emotional feet. Just in time for Madara to make his move on Konoha.
“Shinobi are the weapons of their villages. Their nations. Their employers. True enough. But a shinobi without the will to evaluate orders, and even modify them if field conditions demand it, is a blade without a sheath. And members of ANBU are ground to a sharper edge than any others. That’s what you’ve been waving around your own village, Danzou.”
Madara attacks Konoha with the aid of Zetsu and Danzou. Foxes, demons, dragons, tailed beasts, generations old grudge matches, and other kinds of hell break loose.
Alarms were ringing through Konoha’s night, hurrying the civilians to the shelters, raising the lights in the village center, calling the close patrols in to defend their homes. Shinobi of the village ran to guard the wall and ranged through the training grounds beyond, searching for the attackers.
The shinobi world starts to settle down again and reach for new equilibrium, and our heroes all get on with their lives.
“What’s so surprising?” Jiraiya asked, brows arched. “You’re the student of my student. That makes you my grand-student, so it’s part of my job to look out for you.” While Kakashi was blinking at this line of logic, he rubbed his chin. “Hmm. You’re also Sasuke’s teacher, so you’re my teacher-in-law also. Two significant bonds! I don’t see what you’re startled by.”