"Hmph. Miwako, can't you tone your jutsu down a bit? You're scaring all the girls away!"

"Sorry, Jiraiya-sensei," I replied, not feeling sorry in the least bit. Okay, I was a bit rueful that I had caused something of a distress to those girls and Jiraiya, but not really enough for it to bother me. It had been a week since I had trained along with Naruto under Jiraiya's tutelage, and I was content with my progress.

"Oh, go take a break!" Jiraiya grumbled, not bothering to look up at me. Naruto glanced up from his frenzied practice at the summoning technique.

"Bring me food!" Naruto called out, his eyes wide and pleading.

"Alright," I agreed easily enough. "Sensei?"

"Hmph. Alright, brat."

I smiled again, a bit more amused now, before I turned on my heel and left.

('･ω･')

(Third Person POV – Sasuke)

Sasuke was a little surprised. On his and Kakashi's quick return in Konoha, he wasn't expecting to bump into any familiar faces, least of all one of his teammate's. Sasuke wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that.

Sasuke had, ever since the massacre, holed himself up. He was one-mindedly focused on his main goal of eliminating That Man. He threw himself into training at such a rate that had people believe he was a prodigy—which was not at all the case.

At least not a true prodigy like That Man or Hatake Kakashi or Namikaze Minato. Sasuke just had (now deserted) private training grounds in Konoha, along with some of the best instructional scrolls. Granted, he couldn't read most of them without his Sharingan, but even those he could read at first were immensely helpful.

He never intended to form relationships of any sort with anyone until That Man was dead. He told himself it was to make himself stronger, to harden his heart for what he knew would be an emotional battle, but that wasn't it at all. In truth, Sasuke was terrified of losing anyone again.

The very thought sent him shuddering and cringing like the small little boy he was during That Night. So he retreated inside himself, and didn't bother to play nice and make friends, didn't bother to focus on anyone but himself because he just wasn't brave enough to do otherwise.

When he had first been assigned a team, his feelings were a bit torn. On one hand, he was beyond grateful that he wasn't stuck with one of those girls. On the other hand, he really didn't want a team.

But then his team surprised him.

He knew Naruto wasn't a total dead-last. Anyone who could escape capture so many times by shinobi of the village had to be gifted in some way. He just didn't quite manage (bother, really) to think about how he had done it. He was skeptical when Miwako first told him, but after mulling it over and thinking through the facts, he accepted it.

Naruto was a rising prodigy in evasion, traps, and infiltration. Most of the time he was so hotheaded he lost his cover, but that was something the little blond was quickly fixing. There were times during practice when both he and Miwako couldn't find Naruto and the boy evaded them for hours.

So having someone on his team that wasn't a total failure was a nice change. Especially when he considered how useful Naruto's talents could be in his plans for That Man. It certainly helped that while Naruto excelled in the more subtle shinobi techniques, he didn't fail the least in straight up fighting. In fact, he was quite good at it. Granted, his skills were lacking, but Naruto's ingenuity and spontaneous plans created somehow during a fight more than made up for it. It was a sort of pleasant feeling knowing that Sasuke could turn his back to Naruto and know that the Academy dead-last could and would defend it with every last fiber of his being.

Miwako, he had known, was never a dead-last. She was somewhere in the middle-pack of the students. At least, that was what her over all grading was. But when Sasuke compared her to the supposed 'top kunoichi' of his graduating class, he thought she deserved that title more than Sakura. Sakura managed that title through her academic score alone.

Miwako, however, managed to defeat Sakura in every taijutsu bout that he had seen them in—the only person that really did defeat her was Hinata, when she had permission to use her Jyūken. Her chakra control wasn't anything to sniff at either. Most of those genjutsus she used, Sasuke didn't even have the control to do. Not to mention she definitely wasn't unintelligent. Sasuke knew how complicated fūinjutsu was—as he had attempted it once or twice before—and yet she handled it with practiced ease. Granted, she wasn't a professional yet, but Sasuke thought that was only because she lacked a proper teacher. And then there was her tracking...

But those were just his teammates' prowess.

When he first met his team, he was pleasantly surprised by how capable they were. The twins, when working together, were a rather fearsome tag-team and when they easily incorporated their styles to match his when fighting against Kakashi... It pleased Sasuke.

Their first official conversation after being made team seven astounded him. The bluntness and brutal honesty was rather... bitter-sweetly refreshing compared to his usual life of shallow girls wanting him, adults kissing his ass for favor, or people just generally lying through their teeth to please him.

He wouldn't lie and say he liked it at first. He was annoyed—as his ego had indeed taken a hit, no matter how small and that was just something he didn't like—but not angry. Not really.

Over time, he came to really appreciate the honesty between them. He liked it, actually. He relied on it.

And eventually... he began to like his teammates.

It was small at first, mild affection here and there, but recently (the second part of the Chūnin Exams, precisely) he fully acknowledged that he liked his team.

He liked Naruto. He liked how the little idiot was full of energy and always chirping about something to keep the team's spirits up. He liked how the boy was so easy to piss off, because his reactions were always the most entertaining. He liked how Naruto didn't care one way or another about Sasuke's past and his heritage—that he was just Sasuke. He liked how the idiot was always up for a spar and more than willing to match Sasuke's capabilities, blow by blow. He liked how Naruto didn't really take offense to Sasuke's more snide insults and how he just bounced right back. He liked Naruto's unwavering loyalty and complete faith in him. He liked Naruto.

He liked Miwako. He liked how she didn't try to push and prod at him. He liked how she could so very clearly understand his need for space and his difficulties in trusting. He liked how she saw him for him and not the last remaining Uchiha. He liked how she turned to either him or Naruto for advice. He liked how quiet she could be. He liked how up front she was with him. He liked how she was always willing (and capable) to help him, be it with training or just general small things. He liked how she had started trust him, and how she seemed to have faith him. He liked that she actually thought of him as family. He liked Miwako.

He still couldn't trust them. Not quite. Not fully. He was close, so close, but the tiny, little voice in the back of his head kept whispering how easily trust could be broken, so he held back. But soon, he had a feeling that he could ignore that voice when it came to Naruto and Miwako, because he felt almost ready to trust them.

At the Forest of Death, when Miwako had referred to him as her brother, Sasuke wasn't sure how he felt about that. Part of him quite liked it. He knew how hard it was for Miwako to accept him in the first place, how hard it was for Miwako to really accept anyone who wasn't already in her group. So by her doing so, it made him feel a little proud of himself, and made him feel a little humbled that she would be willing to place such faith and trust in him.

But, another part him wanted to back pedal as fast as he could because he (thought he) knew what happened to those he even remotely cared about and he didn't want That Man to take away Miwako from him, too. No, no. He didn't want that.

And when Kakashi came and offered to train him for the Exams, Sasuke felt torn again.

Sasuke knew how panicked Miwako was about fighting Gaara. He knew how distressed she was and how she would desperately need Kakashi more than ever. He knew how Kakashi had trained her years before he even met Sasuke, and how Miwako had come to sort of (unconsciously) see the man as a father-figure.

(He doubted she even realized that... but Sasuke could tell. Sasuke could see the signs because their relationship now was starting to seem scarily familiar to his relationship with his own father before That Night). He knew that Kakashi had avoided her since the creation of the team (he didn't know why, though) and he knew, he knew she would be devastated if he accepted.

But Kakashi offered to teach Sasuke the Chidori.

Something that Sasuke just couldn't let up because he needed to become stronger to face That Man and avenge his family; because Sasuke could never rest until That Man was dead. Sasuke desperately needed to be stronger and Chidori would help him in that regards tenfold.

But he was so very unsure because he knew what that meant. Signature jutsus were only passed down two ways—properly passed down; one, through master and student, or two, through parent and child. And with Miwako viewing Kakashi as her own father, by refusing her his own signature move, in a way, he was rejecting Miwako as his child.

Sasuke remembered what it was like when he was little and how he had to vie for his father's attentions over That Man. He knew all too well how Miwako felt and some small (large, horrendously so) part of him was guilty at how he was so blatantly betraying her in that regard and doing something he knew wasn't right. He especially didn't like how he was similar That Man in that way, but he couldn't bring himself not to accept because Sasuke needed to accept.

But that one tiny part of him that felt a teensiest bit guilty over this, managed to control Sasuke long enough to question if Kakashi had any concern about Miwako and Gaara.

Sasuke could still remember what Kakashi had explained to him. Sasuke could see it, logically, how much sense it made to him.

Miwako is the Kyūbi holder. Gaara is only the Ichibi holder. Do you honestly think he really stands a chance? You remember how Naruto was, when he first released that chakra back in Wave. Miwako will be fine; besides, the proctor won't let her die. She and Naruto are actually probably the safest Genin in this exam because of what they are. They can't die. Or at least, Konoha won't allow them to.

It was horrible, Sasuke knew and he could practically feel Kakashi's underlying guilt when that man said that. They were both guilty in some way, but neither could bring themselves to change so they dismissed Miwako and Naruto from their minds and focused on training.

Sasuke still wasn't sure what his thoughts were on it.

But Sasuke didn't like feeling guilty, especially when it was about getting stronger, so he shoved his guilt aside and ignored it fully, hoping that he could ignore it until it just went away.

So he wasn't expecting, not really, to run into Miwako.

He couldn't stop that small surge of guilt when he first saw her, but he was quickly able to repress it.

The two talked for a brief time and then Miwako asked the Dreaded Question.

So what is Kakashi-sensei showing you?

Hn. Chidori.

Sasuke didn't know why he didn't just make up an excuse to leave then and there, before he could answer her. He knew it would have been bad to tell her. He knew it, but honesty was something so ingrained into the team that he didn't even hesitate to answer her truthfully.

He regretted it instantly.

Her eyes flashed and her face morphed into a pained expression. Pure betrayal shone through her eyes and she gaped at him for a few seconds. She then turned on her heel and fled.

Sasuke didn't want to follow her. He didn't. He didn't like girls crying and he especially didn't want to stick around when they did.

But Sasuke was a bit guilty and his conscience demanded he relieve that guilt somewhat because it wasn't fair otherwise and if he didn't he would be like That Man (and that was just unacceptable).

So Sasuke chased after her, grabbed her wrist and proceeded to drag her to where he and Kakashi knew Naruto was training.

('･ω･')

He cleared his throat, drawing the attention of an older man with white hair (Jiraiya, he remembered) and Naruto. He practically threw the shaking girl towards Naruto, in which Naruto caught her easily. Naruto's eyes went wide and he demanded from Sasuke what had happened.

Kakashi's teaching me the Chidori.

Then Naruto's eyes were lit with understanding and Jiraiya's flickered with confusion.

Miwako was clinging to Naruto, shaking silently. Naruto was patting her head and sitting down, trying his best to console her. Sasuke was torn between approaching the girl and just leaving.

In the end he settled to approach her, pat her once on the head, make up some excuse and leave.

However when he approached her, her hand jerked out, grabbed on to his and somehow Sasuke found himself being clung to as well and Sasuke was tense and stiff because it was so weird and so uncomfortable and Sasuke hated it when anyone touched him.

But he couldn't bring himself to leave because she was holding on so tightly so Sasuke mimicked what Naruto was doing: patting her back. He didn't say a word because he didn't know what to say and Naruto seemed to have that under control.

Sasuke was uncomfortable and he really didn't like this turn of events but when he looked up to see Jiraiya looking down at them, the man's expression flickering between anger and confusion, it forced Sasuke to look back down.

How did someone comfort a crying girl?

But then... but then...

Then Sasuke looked a little closer at Miwako's face, because he realized she wasn't crying.

She wasn't shaking from sadness.

She wasn't clinging to them because she needed comfort.

She was furious.

She was shaking from anger.

She was holding on to them because if she let go, she would have no more restraints.

Sasuke recognized this because he had felt the same way many times over. That sort of blind anger at being betrayed by someone he cared for (That Man). Kakashi was someone she cared for, deeply. He was, as Sasuke mentioned before, like a father figure to her and his betrayal hurt her.

She wasn't getting sad.

She was getting angry.

So Sasuke didn't mind so much anymore that she clung to him because Sasuke had to cling to something before when he was so angry, when he needed something to bring his head back down to the ground, to rationalize him. Sasuke knew what he had to do, and what needed to say, so he stopped patting her and simply placed his hand still on her back, and sat, and waited.

Sasuke knew what would make him feel better, if he was in her place. He knew it, but he didn't want to say it. Didn't want to offer it. But at the same time he couldn't bring himself not to.

Do you want me to stop learning the Chidori?

Miwako still shook, but she tilted her head to look up at him, her eyes glazed over.

No... No... I don't blame you. You need it to face him, and somehow I can't really picture you without it. Learn it. Keep it.

Sasuke was so, so relieved by this and when Miwako turned her head back down to bury it in Naruto's side, Sasuke moved his other hand up to pat her head in what he hoped was a consoling gesture. Sasuke wasn't quite sure he would have stopped learning the Chidori even if Miwako had requested him to, but he was so, so glad that he didn't have to make that choice.

Because even though he knew he shouldn't care about her or Naruto, some part of him did. Some part of him could easily picture the three of them hunting down That Man together. Miwako would track him and Naruto would make sure that no one would interfere with their battle, That Man's death. He could picture it with such ease, and it actually made him feel somewhat content. Sasuke didn't want that picture to go, not yet, at least. Not yet.

That part of Sasuke, the one that could picture them, was the guilty one. The one that had Sasuke sitting awkwardly while Miwako shook with anger and tried to restrain herself.

Sasuke did not care for feeling guilty. He did not care for it at all. He now knew that he couldn't repress it, so he chose to do something else with it. He chose to do something he was good at it.

He chose to get angry.

Not at her (because what good would that do?), but rather the person of her anger. Because if he could direct his (guilt) anger at that person as well, he could lessen his burden as well.

It was selfish. At least, that's what Sasuke told himself it was.

But somehow, seeing the girl he had come to see as (family) a comrade, shaking with pain and anger, being unable to even stand as she was so overwhelmed, Sasuke didn't feel bad about it. Because he was angry at that person too. Because it was just as much as his fault as it was Sasuke's, but at least Sasuke was taking responsibility.

At least Sasuke was here with her, and didn't abandon her.

At least Sasuke regretted his actions and was trying to fix them.

At least Sasuke actually cared.

As far as Sasuke was concerned, that was more than what he (they) had ever done.