"Yamato-taichou!" Yamato stops, hearing his name and turns to look at the caller. "I need your help with something!"
"Naruto?" Yamato blinks at the young blonde man running up to him. "You need my help?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto smiles at the Jounin.
"What do you need my help with?"
"Sakura and I want to play a trick on Kakashi-sensei." Naruto's smile turns mischievous.
"Oh…" Yamato feels himself grow cold.
The mere insinuation of playing a trick on the silver haired Jounin was a little daunting. The Mokuton user blanched, recalling the last time someone had attempted to pull a trick on his former ANBU captain. Yamato instantly shakes his head at Naruto and turns to walk away. Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't taking no for an answer. He reaches for the Jounin's sleeve and holds onto it. Yamato stops and looks back at the blonde.
"Listen, I just became a Chuunin… I need to celebrate somehow!" Naruto smiles again, pointing to the vest he's wearing.
"Oh, I hadn't noticed… congratulations." Yamato smiles wearily and turns to leave again. "I'm not helping you prank Kakashi-senpai."
"Why not?" Naruto walks next to Yamato, his hand not leaving the sleeve.
"It's dangerous."
"I'm sure you're overreacting, Yamato-taichou." Naruto chuckles.
"No, the last group of people to try pranking Kakashi-senpai resulted in a full hospital wing." Yamato frowns, even he had ended up in the hospital and he hadn't been apart of the prank!
"Yamato-taichou… if you're worried about Kakashi-sensei… I'll protect you." Naruto laughed at the look he received from his captain.
"I doubt you could…" Yamato gives a momentary pout.
"I promise I will! I won't let Kakashi-sensei lay a finger on ya!" Naruto promised whole heartedly. "He just needs to learn a lesson."
"Why does he need to learn a lesson, Naruto?" Yamato finally stops walking and turns towards the blonde; still not noticing that the Chuunin had his sleeve.
"Oh come on… don't tell me that he's never gotten on your nerves before."
"He hasn't!" Yamato responds just a little too quickly.
"Yamato-taichou, please help us. We've already got Sai, Shikamaru, Ino, Neji and TenTen in on it!" Naruto whines.
"That many?" Yamato pauses and thinks this over. Perhaps there was a chance… no. Yamato shakes his head. "No, no, no!"
"I'm not letting you go until you agree." Naruto grins, tightening his grip, but this time holding onto Yamato's hand.
"Huh?!" Yamato looks at their entwined hands and feels his face flare up. "Let go, Naruto."
"No."
"Naruto." Yamato attempts a threatening glare.
"Yamato-taichou."
"Naruto, let go."
"Not until you agree to help." Naruto grinned.
Yamato groans and feels that this is be the most regrettable decision he's ever going to make. He nods his head and Naruto whoops. Arms latch around Yamato's neck and the brunette stumbles back a couple steps in surprise. Naruto releases him with a huge smile on his whiskered face. Yamato sighs, saying 'no' to the blonde was near impossible.
"Alright, come with me!" Naruto grabs Yamato's hand again and leads him through the streets in the village.
The Jounin allows himself to be half-dragged through the streets. The blonde doesn't speak through the whole walk. He just keeps going with Yamato in tow. It was rather amusing to see the blonde hair bobbing from the excited walk. The brunette finds himself smiling happily from the infectious joy that bubbles from Naruto. He supposed that if he was going to be attacked by Kakashi for a prank, then he may as well actually be apart of it.
"Sakura, I got Yamato-taichou to agree." Naruto declares as they enter Yamanaka Flower Shop.
"Way to go, Naruto!" Sakura looks up from the group.
"Yamato-taichou, we're just about to go over the plan." Sai says with a strained smile. It was obvious that he'd been smacked a couple times.
Naruto brings Yamato over to the counter that everyone's standing around. The details are being laid out by Shikamaru. Yamato smiles; of course it was Shikamaru coming up with the plan. There was no way it could fail, right? Yamato listens to them for a few minutes. It occurs to him that they're very well organized for just wanting to pull a prank. They even have fail-safes and abort signals. It's rather amusing, but then a thought occurs to him.
"What exactly do you need me for?" Yamato prompts.
"We need you and Naruto to create a diversion." Shikamaru answers.
"It's a simple diversion that we know will keep Kakashi-sensei rather pre-occupied." Sakura adds.
"What is it, Sakura-chan?" Naruto glances at her.
"You and Yamato are going to take Kakashi to a restaurant." Sakura said smiling.
"That doesn't sound like a good diversion." Yamato frowns.
"She wasn't finished." Neji chuckles.
"While at the restaurant… Naruto and you will announce to Kakashi-sensei that you are a couple." Sakura says and Yamato chokes. "Kakashi-sensei will be so shocked that his attention will be focused on you two."
"I get it." Naruto nods.
"You do?" Yamato stares at Naruto with a pale face.
"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei wouldn't expect us to pretend to be a couple. It's the best distraction." Naruto says with a big smile. "Not only that, but I can keep my promise to you and not let Kakashi-sensei lay a hand on ya."
"That's sweet, Naruto. Is that how you got him to agree?" Ino giggles.
"Yep!" Naruto smiles, not really catching the underlying tone in the blonde woman's voice.
"And… what exactly is the prank?" Yamato asks. "I've been hearing how you plan on doing everything, but what's the target?"
"Kakashi-sensei's IchaIcha Paradise collection." TenTen answers.
Yamato doesn't exactly recall how it happened. The only thing he knows is that when he woke up and opened his eyes; he saw all of the pranksters staring down at him in concern. The Jounin winces at the pain in his head, probably from hitting his head on the ground when he fell. The group smile in relief as Yamato stands back up. Memories slowly reform in Yamato's mind and he realizes what made him pass out in the first place.
"YOU'RE GOING TO STEAL HIS ICHAICHA PARADISE COLLECTION!?!" Yamato shouts, slamming his hands down on the counter.
"Not so loud Yamato-taichou!" Sakura warns.
"I've changed my mind! I'm leaving Konoha for the next few years… perhaps Suna could use a liaison with our village." Yamato rants and turns to leave the store.
Arms immediately grab Yamato and pull him back into the store. Yamato struggles and pulls forward, praying to make it to the door and escape. Unfortunately, fate was against him. Sai and Neji were ANBU; Shikamaru and TenTen were Jounin, Sakura, Ino and Naruto were Chuunin. Yamato had no chance to escape from such a group. He's pulled back in and Shikamaru attaches his shadow to the poor man. Yamato wants to cry because he realizes that he's going to die young.
A few hours later, the group ends their planning session. Shikamaru releases his shadow from Yamato and watches the Mokuton user make a run for it. The group looks at Naruto and the blonde sighs, nodding. He runs after his captain. It takes Naruto a lot of energy and several hundred clones to catch the Jounin. The blonde pants heavily as he sits on the ground in front of the captured Yamato. When Naruto catches his breath, he chuckles lightly.
"You're a tough guy to catch!" Naruto says.
"Yes well… when you're life is on the line." Yamato growls out.
"Yamato-taichou, I told you I won't let Kakashi-sensei lay a hand on you." Naruto says with a reassuring smile.
"You're going to steal his book collection. I don't think that anything's going to be able to stop him." Yamato struggles against the clones holding him. "Why not just wait until Kakashi-senpai and Sasuke get back from their mission and have Sasuke help with the prank?!"
"He already is." Naruto smiles. "Sorry, I forgot to mention him. He's alluding to the fact that there's something weird going on with me. Weren't you listening?"
"Sorry, my brain's still formulating ways to escape Konoha!" Yamato sighs.
"Yamato-taichou, you already agreed to be apart of this. I promise, everything will be alright." Naruto says. "Besides, it'll be really worth it in the end."
"Fine, fine… but remember, Kakashi-senpai can't lay a hand on me." Yamato frowns.
"Oh, don't worry, Yamato-taichou. He won't. I've learned a few nifty tricks that will help a lot." Naruto's clones releases the Jounin.
"Good. I guess we have one day to learn enough about each other to fool Kakashi-senpai." Yamato relents.
"Yep!" Naruto stands up and smiles. "You go first, Yamato-taichou."
"Alright… and you shouldn't call me by an honorific anymore. Just Yamato…" The brunette pauses. "Actually, Tenzou might be better."
"Tenzou?"
"Yes, Yamato was a code name Hokage-sama gave to me. Tenzou's my name."
"Hmm…" Naruto looks at the Jounin thoughtfully. "I like Yamato better."
"Why?"
"I just relate that name to you more." Naruto smiles. "It seems to fit you more than Tenzou."
"I see." Yamato turns and starts to walk.
Naruto trots up to walk beside him. They walk back to the village streets and smiling, they share stories with one another. Tomorrow is the only full day that they will have to learn about each other. The day after, Kakashi and Sasuke come back from their mission. So, there was a lot of information to share before then. Meanwhile, Shikamaru and Neji are scoping out Kakashi's home. They need to ensure their escape routes are clear of obstacles and that the books are where they should be. Sai and Sakura are informing Tsunade of the prank because it's best she knows ahead of time.
Dear lord… what a bizarre I have.
Anyways, it's a YamaNaru!! Yay!