Team 8

Chapter 9: Returning to Konoha

Yuuhi Kurenai couldn't recall ever being quite so relieved to see the familiar skyline of Konoha again. The only time that even came close was when she returned alone that time... but she'd been too numbed by the death she had seen to feel much of anything. She was annoyed to find herself unconsciously smoothing her sleeve, but the fabric wasn't stiff with Mattai's blood.

Perhaps Sarutobi was correct about her living far too much in the past.

She glanced back at her genin team, proud of the way they maintained their formation and remained alert. Only the occasional smile from one of them indicated that they weren't still in the border zone.

Shino, of course, was as reserved and taciturn as usual, even disregarding how little of his face was visible. Hinata had been quiet since they'd received orders to return to Konoha, and her face seemed to settle into a mask as the gates appeared in the distance.

No, it was Naruto who was different. The blond genin had changed since the day he'd finally revealed the truth to his team mates. Kurenai wasn't normally one to become overly smug, but she'd been exactly right about the effects of him opening up to Shino and Hinata. A weight, present for as long as she'd known him, seemed to have lifted from his shoulders. She knew that her acceptance of him had made a difference, but the acceptance of his peers, especially given the implications of the Hokage's law, seemed even more crucial.

Rather than rejecting or fearing him, as the Sandaime seemed to fear, Hinata and Shino had accepted the presence of the Kyuubi within Naruto in as positive a way as Kurenai could have hoped. Indeed, if what she'd pieced together was correct, Hinata had reacted in a rather... violent... way to the implication that Naruto was a monster. Nothing else could explain the distant shout that had carried up from the stream.

Kurenai grew more concerned for her other students now. After her father's abominable behavior at their camp, she wasn't surprised that Hinata seemed to dread returning to Konoha. More surprising was the undercurrent of anger she seemed to sense in Shino. The boy was as quiet as ever, but his forehead, the only portion of his face fully visible, seemed to be furrowed with a frown more and more often. When she'd asked him if anything was the matter during a rest stop, he'd merely said that he was "being forced to re-evaluate his assessments of a large number of parties". This was unusually opaque, even for an Aburame, but he seemed to be feeling an echo of her own anger regarding how Konoha dealt with... certain issues.

All the same, she needed to caution the boy to be circumspect. If her suspicions were true, there might be a deeper issue than simple bigotry – not something a genin should be directly involved in, no matter how talented he might be. She supposed she might be hopelessly paranoid, but she'd rather that than to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Maybe Umino Iruka would be ready for a visitor after they reported to the Hokage.

OoOoO

Aburame Shino let his body move automatically, his team mates and allies alert for danger, while his mind composed a list of people.

At the top of the list, of course, were his parents, especially his father. While he appreciated the strictures the Hokage's law forced him to operate under, Shino did not appreciate the paucity of hard information that his clan had acquired before formulating their opinion of Uzumaki Naruto. He hadn't missed the concerned silence among many of his relatives when his team assignment had been announced. Even more galling was the realization that he'd allowed their unreasoning distaste for the prankster to color his own opinions while they were both students at the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Shino did not know whether it was more annoying to realize he'd been wrong, or that he'd picked up their attitude without realizing it. Either way, it was past time for him to realign some peoples' attitudes to make them more congruent with the reality of the situation.