His eyes opened groggily, squinting trying to adjust to the new set of light. It was rather harsh compared to the darkness that had engulfed his sight only mere seconds ago.

"You are finally awake, Ka-ka-shi-sen-sei," the voice was monotone yet one could hear the way his title was mocked. It wasn't amused, but the opposite. Which made the said man fill with slight mirth and irritation. "You are lucky that I had convinced them to keep your mask on while treating you," he said. Kakashi sat up slowly and noticed the change of surroundings. 

His legs weren't at its optimum either, as he realized that, he sighed. "What about your hand?"

The blonde Genin responded in his normal tone of voice. "What about it?"

Kakashi gave him a look screaming 'seriously'. "Let me guess," he said, trying to stand up to his full height while using the support of the wall, "I can't walk or move properly, so it doesn't count to have an injured hand." Naruto crossed his arms, not saying a word. "What? Not feeling talkative today?" Kakashi tried to make his way towards the door as Naruto only stared with a blank expression.

Naruto didn't say anything, which wasn't odd. Though, for Kakashi it was weird. There weren't any sarcastic comments, formal instructions, or even informative replies. He didn't understand Naruto that well at times, but he could only ponder. The copy-cat ninja took a wild guess and decided Naruto was in deep thought about something. That could be an explanation itself.

Though as previously stated, he didn't know what was going on in Naruto's mind. He wasn't the same kid he remembered when he himself was a child. Naruto had changed in some, perhaps many, ways.

"Sasuke Uchiha," he suddenly mentioned the dark blue-black haired pre-teen. 

"Hm?" Kakashi hummed. He was a bit startled at the suddenness of the boy's words. 

Naruto was dazed when he said his name, but once he'd gotten the right words his poker face turned completely blank; rid of all emotions. "Tell me, does the truth have to be hidden if it would... disturb or disorientate the one the truth is being hidden from?"

The question was odd coming from the boy. Let alone the fact that he was even asking a question in the first place. A question meant for emotional support? From Naruto? That's very far beyond Kakashi's weird scale. "Well, um..." he cleared his throat, deciding to stay in one place temporarily. "I don't know why you would ask a question like that, but I guess it depended on the truth itself."

Naruto, who wasn't looking Kakashi in the eyes before, did so. "Elaborate," was all he said.

"Well, I wouldn't know much myself anyway. You should ask yourself things like. Would he benefit from it? Can he handle it? Is it something that will hurt him? The hardest one is 'does he have to know'?" Kakashi reckoned. "People often say things like that. He deserves to know. They don't need to know. That's where it goes wrong most of the time, because people tend to play god. Don't go overboard as to be in control of what the person needs to know and what the person doesn't need to know," Kakashi explained but sighed afterwards, "Then again, I guess I don't know much."

He'd expected something said by Naruto. In the end, he didn't anything, forcing Kakashi to open his rested eyes to observe the boy's reaction.

"What kind of reaction is that?" Kakashi asked, looking at Naruto who only stared blankly. His lips in a straight line. 

"You did not answer my question," Naruto replied.

"Never mind." Kakashi sighed when he decided to walk again.

Naruto followed him quietly as he forced his steps to go down the stairs, not to mention the walk to the stairs.

Finally, the masked man was at the bottom with great difficulty. He was careful to hold his breath the entire time not wanting to show his weak side. "Are you going to watch the entire time? Or are you daydreaming again? Both? Can't even help your Sensei out?" Kakashi inquired, noticing Naruto went quiet again, just watching.

"I take it that you would like your crutches by now?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.

Kakashi froze in place and looked over his shoulder. There he saw Naruto still up on the stairs with his infamous poker face. He held put one crutch that he'd found quite a while ago.

Kakashi's eyes twitched.

"Why didn't you tell me that you had one?"

"You never asked."

[-]

Cherry pink strands danced in the wind. Emerald green had become a shade lighter in the presence of the bright sun. Her lips put into a frown with her eyes showing no sign of bliss or excitement, there was only trouble in them. Her memories replayed to the day before of what happened. Her consciousness putting her down every time she thought about the realization of hers. She was far back. Very far. She didn't like this feeling one bit.

He was bleeding and all because she let her guard down just that second. Of course, she wasn't able to catch it either way and that was the thing that frustrated her. Not only did Naruto catch that sword with his bare hands, but he saved both her and Tazuna. She was supposed to be protecting him, too. Yet, through the whole ordeal, she was being protected along with the one that was 'supposed' to be protected.

"Woah." Sakura was in awe by the moves and teamwork of Kakashi and Naruto at that moment. She glanced at Naruto before gripping onto her weapon tightly. I am nowhere near doing something like that! she thought while her eyebrows furrowed. I need to make myself useful too! Focus Sakura! Focus!

Sakura did just that until she noticed hard breathing on her side; Sasuke Uchiha. He looked fearful and that was the last thing she would expect from him. She couldn't say anything but watch. What was going to say? She was a mere fangirl until this moment where they were teammates. How was she supposed to handle this?

At that point, she was also seeing the reality of everything.

How could she say she something about being a proper ninja of she'd only been focused on the competition between her and Ino? The competition of her and her best friend of winning over Sasuke's heart. That wasn't being a proper ninja, or at the very least she wasn't focusing all her effort on that part of the deal, to be a full-fledged ninja.

That was the goal, not Sasuke.

Her and Sasuke were facing that reality of their life.

They were panicking.

"Sasuke." He was having the worst of it, Sakura could tell. "Calm down. I will protect you with my life. Trust me. I will not let my comrades die."

"This is just the beginning," she heard Naruto say.

Yes, it was her first mission with this team. It was just the beginning and it was a bad start.

"How touching. But the beginning has just reached its end quite fast," Zabuza's deep voice echoed until Kakashi turned quickly around. In a split second their Sensei was caught in a jutsu surrounding him with water. He could only breath in that water bubble for so long.

"Kakashi-sensei!" screamed Sakura. That's what she could do in the moment of shock, just call out to him.

Naruto sighed even as his facial expression hasn't changed, which caught all three's attention. "I thought you said you would handle it," he said. Kakashi didn't react. It didn't take too long for Naruto to break the three-way formation and odd enough he began stretching. "Tell me something, client. Should we focus on protecting you and run away? Or do you want us to bring back the professional ninja?"

"Well," Tuzuna gulped. After a bit, he nodded.

Zabuza laughed. "You can try. I'll admit the blonde has skill, but to what extent I wonder."

"I see. I have full permission from our client, so Kakashi-sensei has no say in this." He stopped his stretching. "Uchiha, I'd like your assistance."

Immediately after his words he'd made a number of shadow clones that didn't hesitate to attack. The real Naruto swiftly moving forward as well making sure she was in the middle of the chaos.

He's too distracted to make clones of his own. He's on guard because of my previous actions. It is safe to say he will be focusing on my movements mostly. Naruto was quick and sufficient as he even pretended to be overwhelmed by the man. He threw a weapon in disguise of his clone towards Sasuke.

The blue-black haired pre-teen immediately caught on.

Their teamwork was incredible even as they said nothing to each other. They were still able to get Kakashi free. Sakura could only watch while Sasuke and Naruto did that. She could only watch when the Copy-Cat ninja known as their Sensei knocked the strong man unconscious. After that, something really... disturbing happened.

That happening started with an ANBU appearing right after the battle.

"Oh, there you are. Your Sensei woke up and I made some lunch. Please come inside to eat," Tuzuna's daughter said.

Sakura got up and smiled weakly.

"Oh, right! Thank you!"

Naruto... An image of the blonde flashed in her memories. His eyes were more dull and dangerous every time she thought about them. 

...Just what happened to you back then?