JOURNEY TO LORDSHIP
Chapter 2 – The snake's apprentice
Grunting softly Anko began to awaken; she found that she was lying on something. A kicking something. It was then that the memories of last night came back full force. Saving the kid, talking to him, asking him to become her apprentice, falling asleep with him.
'Kick'
She felt a vein growing on her forehead. This was not how she had wanted to be woken up 'that little punk!'
'Kick'
The vein grew in size quite dramatically. When she opened her mouth to yell at him though, he mumbled something that sounded like, "Come here little rabbit-chan. Come on, come to Kyuubi. That's a good little morsel." After that his voice turned into a mumble while Anko struggled to hold in her laughter – and failing miserably. A rabbit? That's what he was dreaming about?
Apparently he had heard her because a second later he lazily opened his eyes, and looked at her. They had switched positions during the course of the night. He was on the floor now, with her draped over him. She was very warm, and her presence was calming.
When he locked gazes with her, her smile turned into a smirk. "So, who's rabbit-Chan?" That made him go beat red with embarrassment. Why did he have to get Kyuubi's memories starting from the beginning of his life? Why couldn't he just take the useful stuff, and leave it at that? But no, he just had to keep dreaming about chasing rabbits as Kyuubi did all throughout his childhood.
Once he got his embarrassment under control, he answered her. "You know how I said Kyuubi and I were merging right?" After he saw her nod he went on. "Well when I get his memories they are all in chronological order."
He saw her struggling to control her laughter now. "So, you mean to tell me that Kyuubi, lord of the tailed demons, actually…" She was unable to continue without laughing, so Naruto did it for her. "Yes, just about all Kyuubi did during his childhood was chase after rabbits."
It was like a dam had broken. Anko, who had been sitting up, fell down on to his chest, and began to laugh. Not a little chuckle but full-blown laughter. The thought of the great demon lord as a little Chibi fox chasing around after a rabbit was just too much.
Once she had gotten her laughter under control, she sat back up. "Oh, now that was just too funny." She wiped a tear from her eye before her face turned serious. "Now, as much as I like sitting here listening to embarrassing stories about the fox, we have a lot of things to do today."
Once Naruto nodded, she got off of him and offered him her hand. Once they were both standing and dusted off, he turned to her. "What's up first, Sensei?"
Anko grinned at him; she liked the sound of that. "Well first thing we're going to do is eat." As if on cue, Naruto's stomach gave a loud roar. "Glad to see that you agree." Naruto gave a bit of a blush at that, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah don't worry about it. Now we're off to the dango stand!"
She was about to walk off, but Naruto had a question. "What's dango?" She did a face fault before she turned around with an unreadable look on her face. "What did you ask? Do you mean to say that you've never had dango before?"
He gave her a sheepish nod, then he couldn't read her face. Then before he knew it he was out the door, down a flight of stairs, and out the front door, into the forest. Anko was like a woman possessed. He didn't even know what he had done wrong. He voiced his thoughts to her.
"You haven't done anything wrong. Unless you count not eating the greatest food in existence a mistake." At his incredulous look she continued. "Dango is like food from the gods. Not eating it is like a crime against yourself. And when we get there you are going to eat some or I will shove it down your throat." She gained a very scary glint in her eye at this point. He nodded, afraid of what she might do if he disagreed. That seemed to placate her, and five minutes later, they were at the dango stand.
A very full Naruto let out a burp, and a content sigh. Anko was right; dango was food from the gods. Those little rice balls had sent him on a first class trip to cloud nine. He picked at his teeth with the skewer before flicking it over to the wall with the rest of his and Anko's skewers. Between the two of them, the wall was like a giant pincushion. There were over a hundred of the needles like skewers stuck in it.
With a dreamy look on his face, he looked over at Anko and saw her mirroring his look. She was watching him with amusement in her eyes, and a smirk that screamed, "I told you so."
"Alright, alright, I admit it. You were right. Dango is the food of the gods."
"But ramen is too!" he added quietly to himself
"Damn straight. Now, we need to go shopping." As they walked out the door, she continued talking. "We need to get you something that doesn't scream 'kill me'." She heard him mumble something under his breath. "What was that?"
He turned his head towards her. Louder, he said, "It's because none of the shops would let me in. I had to dig my clothes out of the trash."
Her eyes softened at that. She slung an arm around his shoulders, and they continued on. Although she didn't show it, inside she was seething. These villagers had no intelligence at all. They could not see that he was just a boy, not the demon he carried. The same thing had happened to her when Orochimaru left the village. They saw her as the former Sannin, and tried to hurt her on several occasions. Fortunately she was already a ninja, able to defend herself. But this boy was not trained, and she shuddered when she thought of how hard it must have been for him. It was then that she entertained herself by thinking up all the different ways to kill a villager.
As though he picked up on her thoughts Naruto stopped, and looked at her. "Sensei, I want you to promise me something." "What?" He sighed. "I want you to promise me that you will not harm the villagers for what they've done."
Now that was unexpected. "Why don't you want me to hurt them? You know they deserve it."
"Yes that's true, but I've got something better planned." He noted her curiosity and continued. "I'm going to make them see that I'm the one who saved them from Kyuubi. I want them to know that they tried to kill their saviour. And when they do realize that I'm the hero of this village, I'm going to make them beg for my forgiveness. But before I do I want the village council to publicly kiss my ass. One cheek at a time."
Anko blinked, and just stared at him before bursting out laughing. "Oh, now that is a good plan. That is far better than I could even come up with. And I can't wait to see the reactions you get when you tell the council to kiss your ass. Oh god I knew I made the right choice, you are indeed a worthy apprentice. Very well, I won't harm the villagers…Unless they start something"
They fell into a comfortable silence as they walked to the clothing store. When they got there the clerk didn't want to let Naruto in, but a quick threat from Anko shut him up. With Anko's help he picked out eight pairs of baggy black pants, and a black leather trench coat that went down to his ankles. Replacing his ninja sandals were black steel-toed boots. He had decided to forgo a shirt, as he didn't like the way they felt. That, and Anko said he looked better without one.
They made an imposing pair as they walked towards the Hokage tower. Naruto had his coat billowing around his feet, his boots making ominous thumping sounds as he walked. Anko on the other hand, had a look on her face that screamed at you, telling you to stay away, if not then say hello to her slithery, fork tongued friends.
They entered the tower, and swept past the secretary who was telling them to stop. The Anbu guards almost stopped them, but after a look from Anko they stood aside. When they entered they saw the Sandaime sitting at his desk with a mountain of paperwork on it. He looked a little bit shocked at Naruto's appearance before he gathered himself.
"Hello Naruto-kun, Anko-chan."
"Good morning Hokage-sama."
"Hey old man."
Sarutobi had to bite back a chuckle when Anko looked disapprovingly at Naruto and his lack of respect. But when she saw that the Hokage didn't reprimand him she held her tongue.
"What may I ask brings you both here this morning?" asked the Hokage
He saw Anko straighten up before she stated in an official voice.
"Hokage-sama I wish to take Uzumaki Naruto as my apprentice."
Sarutobi's mouth literally dropped open. If he was expecting anything it certainly wasn't that. Anko had pretty much sworn to never take an apprentice after what had happened with her former teacher. Now she just goes ahead and wants to take Naruto as her apprentice. What in the world changed her mind? Only when he heard Naruto's quiet chuckling did he close his mouth with a snap.
"Can I ask why, Anko-Chan?"
She nodded at him. "Yes Hokage-sama you may. You see…" She proceeded to tell the Hokage about how she had followed and saved Naruto, as well as what happened after that. When she finished the Hokage was frowning in deep thought.
When he looked up again he spoke, "While I agree with your decision to take Naruto as your apprentice, you and Kakashi must both sign this consent form." Anko nodded and signed the paper. "Good now before I call Kakashi here there is something that I'm curious about. Naruto when you cut your wrists why did the Kyuubi not heal you?"
Anko looked up sharply at that. "What do you mean by that Hokage-sama?"
"Well in Kakashi's mission report of the mission to wave country states that whenever Naruto was cut, or injured, the wound would glow red and heal within minutes. I am curious as to the reason why it was not so here."
Naruto cleared his throat slightly and began his explanation. "Well you see, my body can only use the amount of chakra I have already absorbed from the fox. Right now I have enough to heal anything short of a major injury. When I use up his chakra however, I no longer heal as fast as I do normally until it builds back up. Yesterday I channelled the chakra that I had access to, and used it to make a barrier around the arena. This would serve two purposes. First it would prevent anyone from coming in to save me. And second, it would use up all of the Kyuubi chakra that I had access to, effectively preventing him from healing me."
Both of them looked at him with amazement. They never knew so much about his healing ability. That along with his ability to channel the Kyuubi's chakra was amazing.
"That is quite amazing Naruto-kun. So you are saying that you can use the Kyuubi's chakra at will?"
Naruto nodded. "Yes I can, but my control needs working on. My chakra control is still pretty damn low so cannot use the chakra for small subtle things, only large things like the barrier and energy attacks."
Sarutobi smiled at him. "Will you ever cease to amaze me Naruto-kun?"
"Not a chance old man – just as soon as this village treats me like a human and not Kyuubi."
The office was quiet for a moment before Anko spoke up. "No disrespect intended Hokage-sama but do you think you could get Kakashi up here soon? I want to start on Naruto's training as soon as possible."
"Ah yes, of course, not a problem at all." He summoned his secretary. "Please summon Hakate Kakashi here immediately."
The room was silent as they waited for Kakashi to show up. Ten minutes later he poofed in, his perverted book in his left hand. "Hey Hokage-sama you wanted to see me?"
"Yes I did Kakashi, please take a seat."
As he sat down he took note of the other two occupants. Mitarashi Anko and a boy dressed in a similar manner as her. He looked at the boy before something clicked, it was Naruto! He looked completely different from what he used to. He looked back at the Hokage as he began to speak.
"Kakashi, we need you to sign this form."
"What is it Hokage-sama?"
This was where Anko spoke up. "I'm taking him as my apprentice Hakate. As soon as you sign that it'll be finalized."
Kakashi looked over at her. "Why are you taking Naruto as your apprentice?"
She sneered at him. "Because I choose to Hakate and because you have failed to teach him anything." He was surprised at the open hostility in her voice.
"That's not true. I taught Naruto…" He began to think. What had he taught Naruto? Looking back he realized that he hadn't taught Naruto almost anything. He was always too busy training Sasuke to worry about Naruto.
"Tree-climbing." Said Naruto, speaking for the first time since Kakashi arrived. "He taught me tree-climbing, that's it. The rest of the time he was too busy training Sasuke to even bother with me."
Kakashi flinched at the boy's words. All of them were true, and he would not deny it.
Anko spoke up again. "Sign the form Kakashi or I'll introduce your crotch to my knee."
Both Kakashi and the Hokage flinched at her words. As did a certain author and every male reading it; Naruto on the other hand merely quirked his lips, Anko just looked impatient as she watched Kakashi.
'Well this would be good for him.' Kakashi mused. 'And besides I don't think he would let me train him after this. Anko will make him strong. Yes this is for the best. I really don't wanna get kneed there today.'
So Kakashi stood up, walked to the Hokage's desk, and signed the form. As the Hokage put the paper in his desk he said, "It's now official. Uzumaki Naruto is the Apprentice of Mitarashi Anko. When he takes the Chuunin exams he will rejoin his old team. That is all, and good luck to you both."
All three of them nodded their goodbyes to the Hokage. But before they left the room Anko went over to Kakashi. She stood there for a second before kneeing him as hard as she could in the crotch. He flew a good two feet in the air before he landed on the ground grabbing at his crushed jewels.
"That was for Naruto. If you ever want children I suggest you get yourself to the hospital. Bye-bye."
She then proceeded to the exit with her arm around Naruto's shoulders. "Come on kid. We've got training to do."
"Ok Anko-cha…Sensei'
Sarutobi cringed as he called for one of his guards and told him to take Kakashi to the hospital. He looked out the window and saw the newest apprentice and his teacher walking towards the training grounds. Those two are going to cause quite an uproar. He watched as a villager glared at Naruto, and Anko drove him off with another well-placed knee. He cringed yet again. Yes, quite an uproar.
As I'm sure you've realized the majority of the earlier chapters will be the same, but after chapter 5 it's all original. And if anyone has any ideas for other pairings for this story please tell me in your reviews. Well later readers I've got some evil doers to defeat!...Err I mean play on my PC (Yes I'm sure they'll believe that)
Also I'd like to thank my beta reader Genesis D rose for all the hard work
