"Alright team," Yamanaka Ino declared, standing straight, arms behind her back and facing her troops with the glare of a true team leader, "this is a mission of vital importance for Konoha and failure will not be accepted. As ninjas of this village, I expect each and every one of you to perform to the best of your abilities and to prioritise the mission above all. Now, we will have to - Ugh, what is it private Uchiha?"
Uchiha Sasuke, who was standing the farthest away from the group and the closest to the door, lowered his hand, "What the hell are you doing in my house?"
"Have you not been paying attention?" Ino growled, "We're having a strategic meeting about a highly important mission. A mission that will fail with that attitude of yours, private Uchiha."
"What mission?" Sasuke asked, looking at the small crowd sitting in the middle of his tatami room with uncertainty. All his former classmates who had moved on to become genins were there, with the exception of a certain blond with whiskers and the addition of a dog. Akamichi Choji stared back, popping a potato chip in his mouth. Crumbs fell on the floor. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched.
"What mission, sir." Ino corrected.
"This is ridiculous." Sasuke deadpanned, "Can I just know why all seven of you just barged into my house at eight in the morning and when you are planning on leaving because-"
"Ten points from Slytherin for insubordination, private Uchiha." Ino huffed, effectively ignoring the boy's question.
'Slytherin?' Sasuke mouthed, looking at his former classmates for support. Nara Shikamaru just shrugged. It was how he always dealt with Ino. Nod and let it slide. Then run when she realises you weren't listening.
Kiba muttered something about how Gryffindor always won the fucking cup, bloody favouritism.
"Now where was I?" Ino resumed, "Ah yes: this place will now become our official headquarters-"
"I don't remember agreeing to this."
"- And I will now assign everyone codenames. Private Haruno!"
"Hai!" Said girl saluted, obviously showing much more enthusiasm than the others.
"I nominate you second in command for this mission. You will be Forehead."
"Hai." Sakura replied icily, all enthusiasm dropping like bird crap.
"Is there a point to a codename everyone recogni-" Shikamaru started with surprising lack of wit.
"Problem?" Ino asked him with a sweet smile that was very, very familiar to everyone with a mother. Even Sasuke knew better than to protest and his mom was dead.
"No." Shikamaru gulped.
"You, private Nara, will be therefore be known as Deer."
"Hello, dear." Kiba snorted, winking suggestively at Shikamaru who rolled his eyes.
"Private Inuzuka," Ino continued, "you will be Kitty."
"What."
"Private Aburame, Holy-shit-it-can-fly-kill-it-before-it-breeds-Aaah-it's-coming-here-it's-COMING-HERE."
"…"
"Private Uchiha, Chicken Butt."
"Hell no."
"Private Akimichi, Choji."
"Okay!" Choji agreed before frowning, "Hey wait a minute…"
"And finally, Private Hyuuga will be Dragon Fist and I will be Sakura." Ino finished.
"Why are you taking my name?" Sakura asked.
"To throw off spies." Ino answered, completely serious.
"Why does only Hinata get a cool codename?" Kiba complained.
"Any complaints about codenames will be promptly ignored as they reflect the nature of one's soul." Ino shot down. "Also, no talking back to you commanding officer, Kitty."
"Aren't we missing someone?" Sasuke asked, "Where's Naruto?"
Everyone turned looked at him as if he was stupid. Except Shikamaru, of course, who probably thought turning around was too troublesome, that lazy ass.
"That would kind of defeat the purpose of a secret meeting." Kiba explained, insisting on his last words like he was talking to a four year old. Sasuke felt a vein pop on his forehead. It wasn't his brother he was going to kill, it was his former classmates, he decided.
"We're having a secret meeting about the dobe," Sasuke deduced, "is this some kind of joke?"
"Why are you even here if you're not going to take this seriously?" Choji asked, biting into another chip. The crumbs, Sasuke thought, the crumbs!
"I live here." He reminded them flatly, glaring at the floor right in front of Choji like it had just killed his mother.
"Yeah whatever." Ino dismissed, "Now, back to the mission at hand. The name of this quadruple S rank mission-"
"That rank doesn't even exist."
"- is Finding Out What the Adults Are Hiding About Naruto. The objective will be to find out what the adults are hiding about Naruto."
"Gee, I wouldn't have guessed."
"All of us, highly experienced and powerful ninjas-"
"We've been ninjas for less than a month. We're barely genins."
"Chicken Butt!" Ino finally snapped, "One more reasonable comment from you and I'm demoting you to Errand Boy."
Sasuke rolled his eyes but complied nonetheless.
"Okay guys," Sakura took over, actually looking a bit more sombre than her friend, "but seriously. I'm sure you've noticed that Naruto is sometimes treated a bit… differently than the rest of us, right? I mean my parents used to tell me to stay away from him when I was a kid. Does anyone know what's up with that?"
"Isn't it just because he's pranking and annoying everyone all the time?" Shikamaru lazily guessed.
"It does make sense." Kiba agreed.
"This whole thing is stupid."
"Shut up, Chicken Butt." Shino said monotonously, to everyone's surprise. No one noticed his smile under all his layers of clothes. Calling the Uchiha Sasuke Chicken Butt was somewhat therapeutic. It was something Shino had always wanted to try. Well, one thing to cross out from his bucket list.
…
The others blamed it on lack of sleep or something in their breakfast. They must have hallucinated that.
"That's what I thought at first too." Sakura admitted, "But…" She shared an uncertain look with Ino.
"D-Did something happen?" Hinata asked.
"Well…" Sakura started.
The two girls were sometimes glad that their teachers weren't absolute sadists. Well, more like that Asuma wasn't an absolute sadist and Kakashi didn't go out of his way to make his students lives completely miserable. Ino had managed to persuade her teacher to match one day off with her friend's, whom she had not seen in a month due to pulling out weeds and catching cats. Oh the beauty of D rank missions.
Not that either would ever admit it in public, in private or even in their heads, but Ino and Sakura were quite happy for an opportunity to catch up with the other. Between stupid competitions, they got to hear interesting stories about the other's jonin leader and team.
Plus, going shopping alone was sad and for all they were planning on becoming badass kunoichi, twelve year old girls sometimes liked looking pretty. The two weren't exclusive after all.
However, as they strolled bickering through the streets of Konoha, a loud crash made itself heard. It didn't take long for a small crowd to form around the source of the sound and the two genins found themselves curious.
They skilfully navigated through the crowd, putting their lessons to use to get a first seat ticket to the show. Within seconds, they were at the front of the crowd, looking at the scene unfolding itself.
There were three people in the middle. One was a cabbage selling civilian who looked a bit injured. He just had a bruise forming on his arm, something which the two kunoichis found harmless, but the man was in pain (Hah! Weakling!) and angry. In front of him was Kakashi, who was trying to diffuse the tension despite the fact that his talents rested more in pissing people off than in pacifying them. And finally, held up by the collar of his clothes by Kakashi, Naruto, a bump on his head courtesy of his teacher.
Sakura and Ino sighed in sync. It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened. Naruto had clumsily injured a civilian, the process obviously involving a few cabbages knocked out from the stand, and Kakashi had disciplined him. One day, the second hand embarrassment they suffered from their classmate's stupidity was going accumulate to the point of sending them to a hospital.
"I don't know why the Hokage hasn't exiled that brat yet." A man spat, behind the two girls. The pure disgust in his words nearly made them flinch. Sure, Naruto was infuriating, but surely it didn't grant that much animosity? He was only twelve.
"Heh. You don't understand anything about politics, my friend." Another man replied, "Things like him cannot be left unsupervised or in the enemy's hands."
"Why don't they just kill it?" The first asked, "It's not like anyone cares."
The second shrugged, "Who knows? Maybe thy think it can be useful in the future. I'm more worried about them letting it become a ninja. What if is suddenly turns on us? It's not trustworthy, I tell you, especially not after-"
But the girls never got to hear why as the first man suddenly noticed they were eavesdropping on their conversation. He nudged his friend in the ribs and gestured not-so-discreetly at the two girls.
"Not another word." He told his friend. He must have thought whispering would be enough to keep the girls from hearing him but they both had pretty good senses. It was in the job description to be perceptive.
"They have the right to know though." The second man shrugged.
"Hokage's orders."
The second man playfully shoved his friend, "Look at you, acting like a ninja!"
"Come on, let's go."
The two men left and Ino and Sakura found that the crowd had long been dispersed.
"Is it me or…?" Sakura started.
"No," Ino agreed, "They really didn't like Naruto and I really doubt they were speaking in hyperboles."
"They called him it." Sakura remembered, looking slightly disturbed. She wasn't really fond of her overly loud and obnoxious teammate but he was still her teammate.
Besides, their whole promotion probably agreed that while Naruto was as annoying and stupid as can be, his intentions didn't warrant actual hatred. Sure, when they could avoid him, they did. He obviously liked attention and sticking close to him was like asking to be pranked in the most humiliating way. But he was simple, cheerful and really just a kid. It felt weird saying something like that about someone their own age but that was exactly how Naruto acted: like a kid who hadn't been disciplined into being a ninja. He was naive, innocent and it felt somehow wrong to hate him, no matter how much one wanted to pluck the hairs on his legs one by one to prolong his suffering.
"Do you think he finally went too far in one of his pranks?" Ino wondered.
Sakura was strangely silent.
"Sakura?" Ino asked again.
"You know, when I told my parents I would be in the same team as Naruto, they told me not to get too close to him." Sakura confessed, "I thought it was because of what I just told them of his personality. But even then I felt like it was weird for them to say that. Most parents would encourage teamwork, no?"
"Why would your parents have anything against Naruto?" Ino pointed out, "They never met him."
Sakura shrugged.
"I don't know. I just remembered it was a bit unsettling when they told me that. Then again, they can be a bit overprotective."
"If you're so worried, ask them tonight."
And she did. The second she sat down for dinner with her two parents, Sakura opened the discussion by asking bluntly if they knew anything about Naruto. It had just about the same impact as if she had told them she was drying the cat. In the microwave.
It was a good thing Sakura's parents were civilians. They were shit actors.
"N-N-N-Naruto? Your teammate?" Her mother had asked with the fakest smile and one of the greatest impressions of Hinata she had ever seen, "I-I'm afraid you know more about him than us."
"Ah yes, the Uzumaki boy." Her father had nodded, stroking his imaginary beard as if he had just connected the dots, "I er… Had never heard much about him before you brought him up a month ago."
"Okay, they're definitely hiding something." Kiba concluded. Akamaru barked in agreement.
"When did that happen?" Sasuke asked, actually interested. Sometime during the story he and Ino had joined the others on the floor and all eight of them were now exchanging information in a circle.
"A week ago." Ino answered, "We've been paying closer attention to Naruto since then and we've even thrown his name in conversations just to see the effect and we've come to the conclusion that all the children are being kept in the dark about something. The adults kind of tiptoe around Naruto all the time."
"If you ask them directly, they lie." Sakura added, "And I also noticed the civilians are way more paranoid about this than ninjas."
"Because they're ninjas. They control themselves better." Shino reasoned.
"Th-That's a possibility." Hinata agreed. "B-But Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei d-didn't seem to hate him th-that much, i-if at all."
"The Third also treats him like a grandchild of his." Sakura added. Sasuke nodded to confirm.
"Maybe there's a good reason for us not to know?" Shikamaru pointed out, "I doubt the adults go through all that trouble just for the hell of it."
"Shut up, Deer." Ino barked, "We don't need logic right now, we need curiosity. I mean we're genins, by all rights we should be considered adults by now."
"I agree." said, surprisingly, Sasuke, "I do not like being kept in the dark, especially about my own teammate."
"Great." Sakura smirked, "And since the adults obviously won't say anything, Ino and I thought of showing them that we really are ninjas by figuring it out on our own."
"I like the idea of going up against real ninjas and showing them what we're capable of." Kiba grinned.
"I'm in." Hinata nodded as well, rare determination in her eyes.
"Same." Shino agreed.
"Naruto's nice." Choji said between bites, "I don't want him to be hated. I'm in."
"Shikamaru?" Ino asked the last genin who hadn't pronounced himself.
"Too troublesome." The boy yawned.
"Shikamaru?" Ino repeated, tilting her head innocently.
Shikamaru grimaced, "I never had a choice, did I?"
"Always the genius." Ino smiled, "Okay, so everything I said before stands."
"Except the codenames." Sasuke corrected.
"Including the codenames." Ino glared at him, "But we still need an attack plan. Since we're on different teams, it won't be very easy to coordinate but at the same time it will also mean we'll be more spread out. Tuesday mornings seems to be the only free time slot we all have in common unless one team gets an emergency mission, so we'll try to sum up our findings weekly here."
"How long exactly are you expecting this to last?" Sasuke frowned.
"Whatever the secret is," Sakura answered, "the adults are holding it close to their chest."
"What about Naruto himself?" Shikamaru asked, "Does he know something?"
"No way." Sasuke scoffed, "The dobe can't keep a secret with how loud he is."
"Are you sure?" Shikamaru asked again, serious, "I know he's Naruto but he's still a ninja."
Sasuke and Sakura shared a glance, pondering the question. On one hand it was hard to imagine Naruto of all people holding on to knowledge they didn't have, but on the other, Naruto had shown he was serious about being a ninja. He had passed the graduation exam and learnt the Kage Bunshin technique without Sakura or Sasuke being the wisest as to how. They had never asked for fear of having to converse with him afterwards and only now did they realise how secretive the boy actually was.
It seemed Naruto already had his fair share of secrets. They didn't know if he hid them on purpose or if it was because, as much as they hated to admit it, they neglected their teammate, but if Naruto was hiding something, Sakura and Sasuke wouldn't actually be able to tell. It was a bit of a scary thought, they realised.
Shikamaru found his answer in their embarrassed silence.
"But why wouldn't he tell us?" Sakura wondered, a bit hurt at the prospect. Somewhere she knew she only had herself to blame. She had always taken him for granted in their team. No doubt Sasuke was thinking the same.
"Right." Shikamaru sighed before looking at his new eight-man team with strangely motivated eyes, "Sakura and Sas-" Ino glared at him, "Forehead and Chicken Butt, you need to find out if Naruto knows about his situation. If he does, there are three possible scenarios: one, he doesn't care and didn't see it fit to be brought up. Two, he's been told to keep it secret. Three, he personally doesn't want others to know. Don't let him know you're investigating him, if reality is one of the latter scenarios, he might get defensive and make it harder to find anything else."
"Hai."
"Yes, Honey."
"It's Deer, Chicken Butt. Cornering Kakashi-sensei on this subject, or any subject really, will be impossible so let's not even go there. On the other hand, Iruka-sensei is also quite close to Naruto. He might know the situation better than anyone. Team 8, you should try tracking him down and extracting whatever information you can from him. He may not be a jounin but he is a chuunin; don't underestimate him. Remember that the adults absolutely do not want us sniffing around so keep a low profile."
"Mh."
"H-Hai!"
"Anything for you, Sweetie."
"Its -" Shikamaru started before deeming it to be too troublesome, "Nevermind. All that's left for our team is to hit the books."
"What?" Choji asked, horrified.
"If it is a long term thing we might find something by looking into the History of the Uzumaki clan or even simply by finding out who his parents are. If it isn't, we might find something about a recent event. To be honest, we don't know anything about Naruto except for his obsession with ramen and his loud personality. Our team is especially good at dealing with information. Besides, these are just vague assignments, we'll see and adapt how we proceed depending on the results we obtain this week."
"Solid plan." Ino agreed, "As always."
"I'll trust your word." Choji shrugged, opening yet another pack of chips. For a second there, the Akimichi boy felt some kind of killing intent directed at him but why would anyone have anything against him? He settled for ignoring it and continued eating.
Save it for Itachi, Sasuke recited in his head, save it for Itachi.
"Alright!" Ino cheered, looking like she was doing this for her personal amusement more than anything, "With this, the meeting is adjourned. The mission Finding Out What the Adults Are Hiding About Naruto has officially started. Troops, disperse!"
The second Naruto arrived in front of the door of his own apartment, he knew something was wrong. Someone had picked the lock. He could see it because of the little scratches on the keyhole and the small slip of paper at his feet. That slip of paper was something he set every time he went out, to see if someone entered his apartment while he was away.
What a smart ninja, one could think, but it wasn't the case. Naruto wasn't smart. He didn't set up traps just to be prudent like many of the elite ninjas did. He couldn't be thorough enough to notice faint scratches next to a keyhole without incentive.
No, Naruto was many things but a smart ninja was not one of them.
What he was though, was experienced. Especially when it came to people breaking into his apartment.
Preparing himself to the worst, Naruto took a deep breath and opened the door.
Just as he thought, the whole place had been turned over. Nothing important was missing, thieves were never his main worries. Sure, they sometimes took what little change he left lying around but Naruto didn't have many possessions. No, the real problem was painted all over his walls, all over his furniture.
Demon. Monster. Weapon. Abomination. Murderer. Curse.
Some people even found the time to make nine-tailed foxes out of things they found in their cupboards and to stab them on the walls. And there! A photocopy of the list of all those who died that night. Charming.
It really was a wonder how Naruto had never figured it out before his graduation. Then again, the attacks had worsened ever since he had become a ninja.
But one day they would all see. One day, once Naruto becomes the Hokage, they would all learn to respect him, to accept him.
In the meantime, he had a bit of cleaning to do.