Bring the Hammer Down

9

Naruto was not looking forward to this conversation. He'd been taking into account what TenTen had told him and it was true that he had never trained or worked much with another team before. Team Kakashi, despite their differences, had teamwork down to an art form for the most part. It would be difficult to convince Tsunade to separate them with their success rate and he wasn't even sure if he wanted to now. Perhaps it would be best to just approach this like he did everything else in life, just grin and bear it. He'd put up with them for years, what could a few more matter? Hopefully his sanity would hold out before he just killed them outright.

He heard people whispering on the street and stopped to look at them. They seemed to be looking at him in fear and surprise. He couldn't figure out what the problem was until his chains screeched against each other. He looked up and saw them serpentining in the air. He had been so lost in thought that he had accidentally activated them by pushing chakra into them. His agitated state did nothing to curb their restlessness and he pulled the chakra out forcibly, causing the chains to wrap quickly back around his arms. He turned to the wide-eyed bystanders and gave them a foxy grin and a shrug before continuing on his way.

'Great. One more instance for them to hate me.'

Sighing to himself in defeat he continued on his way to the Hokage tower, to plead his case with Tsunade. He hoped that she'd at least give him a chance.

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"Denied."

Naruto growled low and hung his head. The negotiations had not gone as planned. She had shot down every argument he had, never raising her voice. But before their talks even began she had asked him what the chains were for. When he told her what they could do, she had demanded a demonstration. Naruto had grinned and sent the chains into the air, snaking around her desk, opening the drawer, and getting out her bottle of sake. Tsunade had sat there with a dumbfounded look on her face before demanding her sake back. Thinking back, perhaps breaking her bottle against the wall had been a strike against him. Probably had been a bad idea.

Definitely was a bad idea.

It wasn't his fault the damn things seemed to be developing a mind of their own, kind of like his shadow clones. The more he used them and the less he had to actually command them, the more independent they became. Before TenTen had found him that morning, he had been using shadow clones to perfect his control over them. The results had been as she found him. He had to concentrate only when in battle really. This train of thoughts wasn't getting him anywhere at the moment however. He let out an aggravated breath and looked her in her eyes.

"Why?"

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers together. After Kakashi's little talk with her, she had been very dissatisfied with Team 7. She knew Naruto had every right to demand a transfer, but the team had too much of a success record to break them up. They were one of her better teams and they were missing an original member. Sai had proven a good replacement, when he wasn't playing double agent for her with Danzo. Or at least she hoped he was. The boy could very well be playing her against Danzo. It wasn't a comfortable position.

"Because the three of you make a good team. Add Sai into the mix and you're a great team. And with Kakashi and Yamato switching in and out of a leadership role, your team needs to be a cohesive unit. I'm sorry Naruto, I really am, but I can't afford to break up a team such as yours. Not with the track record you guys have. It's not very often you guys fail, glaring exceptions aside. I have to think about what is best for the village."

"What about a one time exception? Please Tsunade, I don't know how much longer I can take the two of them. I know I'm being hypocritical, since saving Sasuke was my main goal in life for quite a while, but we all have to grow up sometime. I just want to move on. The guy doesn't want to be saved and personally, I'm more than willing now to let him rot."