บท 6: First Blood

Sasuke was a few inches taller, a leaner build as he had bulked up a bit, not a lot but he had a noticeable cut to his muscles now. A lot of it thanks to Guy and Lee, as both Kakashi and Sasuke had started to train with them when they were available.

Sasuke's jutsu amount had increased manyfold as he was able to finish his own library, and then work on the Konoha library, and certain jutsu's above his station thanks to Kakashi.

His Genjutsu was good as well, if he wasn't using his Sharingan then it was just a little worse than Sakura's, but he put little effort into it as he had the Sharingan, which helped him a lot but it also was something he'd have more time to train later.

His biggest focus had been on learning fuinjutsu, it was not so slow but steady progress. Something that Naruto exceeded him at. Every proper thing Sasuke learned, Naruto learned not even in a quarter of the time. If it wasn't for his chakra control not being strong enough yet, he'd already be the third-best seal user in Konoha.

Naruto's chakra control had grown by leaps and bounds, of course, only compared to his monstrous chakra. Even now he could run along trees as if it was second nature, but water walking was something he was still struggling with, at best he could keep himself from sinking more than a few inches.

His taijutsu had shown a lot of progress, and his clones showed that as it was getting increasingly harder to deal with his clones as they were far more skilled, so the numbers were actually becoming more than just a scare tactic.

Naruto also started to learn fuinjutsu, he couldn't use it yet but his Uzumaki blood was showing through proudly. The biggest thing that had happened to Naruto, is he found out who his parents were.

Why? Because Sasuke simply helped him connect the dots after he had done so. Naruto stormed the Hokage's tower and came back damn near a whole day later, fire in his eyes and training far harder.

It was this knowledge that he learned of Kakashi and Jiraiya being his pseudo-family, and now that Kakashi no longer needed to hide it due to an order, they had grown much closer.

Naruto was upset at first, knowing that despite all the things he had gone through, they were never around. That was until he learned that the Anbu that had helped him so much while he was younger, was Kakashi, who had been specifically taken from the Anbu to prepare to train Naruto so they could be closer.

Naruto was upset over it, but he also understood how serious Jiraiya's job was, assuming that he was on the front lines, and behind enemy lines constantly, within only hair away from his death as he used his network of spies to gather information.

Let's not talk about how his spies actually do all the work while he pervs around writing romance novels and pornos.

Sakura had shown noticeable improvement. Not only has her chakra reserves grown, along with her control to keep it up, but her skill in genjutsu and medical knowledge had grown exceptionally.

Since she wished to focus on any chakra she had on healing if it was needed she focused on increasing her taijutsu prowess.

She couldn't beat Sasuke or Naruto, but she could floor her old self with ease, she was showing a lot of improvement and had decided to already cut her hair short, understanding that due to her fighting style it could get in the way, or someone could grab it easily.

Her time training with the team, allowed her to realize her like for Sasuke was honestly just a childhood crush, one she held hard to help rival her old best friend. But the more she hung around Sasuke, the more she couldn't see herself being with him, he was intense.

It didn't matter what, or how he did something. There was a certain intensity to it that she wasn't prepared for, maybe later for sure when she grows up. But not now, it was like dealing with an adult when interacting with him, one that only amused what the kids did so they wouldn't bother him.

Less did she see him as a romantic interest, and more as an older brother, as that is the role he somewhat took for her and Naruto, whereas Kakashi was like a pseudo-father to the group.

That meant more towards Sasuke and Naruto than her since she still had her family. But it was heartwarming to see how they worked as a team.

Sakura had also gotten used to Naruto, as the longer she spent with him, and seeing him work hard to train, she realized before he was annoying simply because he didn't have a way to do something, despite the Academy talking about how it trained future ninja. It was actually just a lot of reviewing and theory practice, with very little practical training.

Also, in her study of medicine, she found that Naruto may have ADHD, which would explain his behavior, and how he seemed tamer now that he had a tone of things to put his mind to. Also why some of his clones seemed to be so drastically different in the train of thought, simply because that's how his mind worked.

Kakashi had shown a massive improvement, long since he had stopped being stuck in his rut, seeing how hard his students worked for even the smallest of improvement, he began to train again as well.

The biggest thing that helped his training was his ability to seal his eye, and able to release the sealing when he needed to.

Apparently it had been a project Sasuke's father had been working on in his free time, specifically for Kakashi so they weren't sure it would help others, not that they wanted to.

With being able to seal his eye, and taking the proper measure to heal from the strain of his eyes, his chakra had begun to grow at an explosive rate, along with his return to physical training and starting to practice once more as using a sword, he was once more becoming Kakashi the Copy Ninja, the name feared through the lands, just as his Sensei's name had been feared.

With Kakashi rapidly growing in strength, Sasuke had begun to drop hints about certain things, just how certain things didn't make sense as he explored the Uchiha log, as if they were sent of vague missions of purpose, and how for some reason they always seemed to appear above what they were supposed to, resulting in their bodies never returning home.

Kakashi already had suspicions before, just as he knew the kind of deeds Danzo was doing, but if Danzo had more to do with everything then he thought... It might be time he start looking into it, he knew the kind of strength he had now, he may not be quite at Kage level, but if he focused it would only be so long before he became Kage level. Then he could begin working with Jiraiya and possibly Tsunade, that's only if he could find her.

Back to the present.

"So... You want to do more than D-rank missions?" It was Kakashi who spoke, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked at the three genin.

"And... To show your resolve, you want me to take you to the death row prisoners, and get you your first kill?"

Naruto nodded, a look of fire in his eyes, Sasuke stayed still as he sat there, he and Kakashi already knew how he felt over the situation.

Sakura herself seemed scared, but she nodded firmly. These months of training their best had done wonders for the three of them. As well as let Kakashi know that Sasuke had already gotten his first kill, though it was an animal he was ready for the real thing as well.

''Alright... There is already a way to get the inmates, it's been in effect since the Second Hokage. Since you're sure, let's go."

They walked from the training area, down the path, and through the town, past the Hokage's tower into the mountain where the prison was kept. After a few words with the Warden, they were led deeply into the prison, and by the time they made it to their destination, they found three prisoners.

All without their mask, but their mouth firmly sealed shut, all of them seemed prepared, and honestly. They preferred they'd die now than later.

The first to go was Sasuke, Kakashi hoped that letting him go first, it would help the other two build up enough courage to also strike.

Sasuke was efficient and quick with his, letting no suffering come to the person he stabbed, even if the man deserved it.

Kakashi purposely got some rather bad ones so that in case they asked later, it'd help them feel better over it.

After Sasuke finished his he stepped back, the others might not notice it, but Kakashi could. Sasuke was holding it in well but he looked unsettled, though it looked like he was rapidly coming to terms with it. Sasuke must've thought long and hard about this, and tried his best to come to terms with it quickly.

Naruto was the second, he struck just as Sasuke did but didn't use enough force so there was a second stab.

Naruto's face twisted as he looked at the blood on his hands but he stepped back, at war with himself.

Sakura stepped forward, despite having been the most scared, her hands were the steadiest. Her medic training had somewhat prepared her for the fact she would see blood, but taking a life was different. She, however, did not let that stop her, she ended the final person's life far faster than the other two, using her medical knowledge to make it much quicker.

But when the blood began to pout, she turned quickly, walking to the edge of the room where there was a trashcan already at and began to throw up.

Kakashi's eye was hard, he remembered this, he also remembered when it was a common practice... Now, very few ninja have actually ever killed. Funny, made to be trained killers, and now barely any of them had kills under their belts, including some Chunnin.

Kakashi shook his head as he walked over to rub at Sakura's back to help calm her, they may not know it now.

But this single action changed the entire fate of this world.