The Seventh Seal

Chapter 10: Developments

Naruto walked calmly towards the gates of Konoha. Sakura seemed to have a skip in her step, but seemed to lack such a happy look on her face. Naruto looked at all the members of his team and was struck by how the dynamic of him not being all to everyone had hurt the 'team', while this bothered him it also made him happy that he had talked to Sakura and wasn't going to take anything from Sai any longer. Yamato had kept them on a tight leash all the way home. Not letting any of them talk other than to communicate what they were going to do next. Sakura even got pissed when Naruto informed the group that he needed to take a piss. Sai was about to say something when Naruto did a couple hand seals and gave the boy a look, as if to dare him to say something. Sakura had been pissed and told him to just make sure that she didn't see him do it. He went behind a tree only to have Yamato join him.

They talked lightly when they were relieving themselves. The conversation actually turned into an apology from the jounin to the genin. Naruto was surprised, but also understood that he was given the short end of the stick because of his rank, his former reputation and how Sakura had described him before.

Sakura broke Naruto out of his thoughts when she said, "I have a couple of things to do if that is okay, captain Yamato?"

Yamato nodded and then Sai said, "I also have something that I must attend too. If you'll excuse me."

Yamato rolled his eyes, sighed and nodded to the boy.

Naruto looked at the jounin, but then figured the man had done so for a reason.

"Naruto, my apology was sincere. I hope you understand that you being the jinchuuriki means that you need to be protected as an asset for this village. You must understand that I was worried that you might lose control, so I had to be hard on you."

Naruto sighed and said, "I already told you that I forgive you, but will not forgive Sakura or Sai for their treatment of myself and Fu-chan. Sakura has treated me like her personal slave for a long time. She thinks that I am her personal spirit boaster. If she felt that I was worthy of her affection she would have shown it by now. I know that she and Fu-chan didn't hit it off right, but we had a long time to become friends and that is more than likely all we ever will be. I know that she wants Sasuke back with all of her heart, but she didn't leave any real space for me there, even though I've been there for her so many times. Who rescued her time and time again? Me, not teme. What do I get for my troubles? I don't do what she likes and I get hit, minor injury if I'm lucky, a concussion if I'm not."

Yamato seemed to contemplate this, but then asked, "So why forgive me so quickly?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head and replied, "Well you know Wood techniques and I've been creating them from scratch. I thought you could teach me some, so that I could become more proficient with them."

"I see, so you think that if you forgive me for my previous malice, I will help you out?" Yamato asked.

Naruto chuckled and replied, "Yeah, sort of. I also think you deserve a second chance."

"Why not give Sakura a second chance?" Yamato asked.

xxxxXXXxxxx

Tsunade was doing paperwork when there was a knock on the door. "Enter," she said authoritatively.

Sakura entered, closed the door behind her and said, "I'm back, Master."

"You have a report and why aren't you with the rest of the team?" Tsunade asked, just as Shizune entered the room.

Sakura put her hands behind her back and began to scuff the floor with her foot. She then said, "You see, we have a problem." She waited until she had the full attention of both the women before she continued, "I think Naruto has given up wanting to search for Sasuke-kun and we had an incident where he lost control and Yamato taicho had to assert his control over Naruto when he overused the Kyuubi."