Hi guys! Here's the next installment!

Just to let you know, due to my appreciation for the soundtrack, I'm going to use Kingdom Hearts music for certain moments; mainly combat.

I own nothing!


I'm Not My Father

Chapter Two: Support from Unlikely Places


Sitting on the Academy roof was the son of the White Snake, watching as his classmates were picked up by their families after the day of study had ended. Only a couple of students had caught his interest, as well as their parents.

The first was the brash blonde boy who had tried to extend an invitation to him. Picking him up was a beauty of a woman with vibrant red hair and a smile just as bright. He took note of how she and Bolt would playfully push one another as they walked away from the building, never once losing their cheerful demeanors.

Next was the Uchiha, who had shown a rather high aptitude for the ninja arts based on what he had seen throughout the day. He was picked up by his mother as well; another beautiful woman with raven colored hair and a kind expression that seemed to be a foil to the natural "Uchiha scowl" he saw on many others. It was rather infectious since Sasuke's own scowl lessened a bit as he left with her.

Lastly were the Hyuuga Twins who were picked up by another clansmen who wore bandages around her forehead. She gave the two a respectful bow, which was returned by Hinata while Hanabi gave a simple nod in greeting. Once the greetings were done, the clansmen escorted them out of the gates, making sure to stay behind them like a watchful guardian.

'A Branch Member, most likely,' mused the teen as turned his gaze away from his classmates below. His violet eyes turned to the Hokage Mountain, specifically staring at the face of the late Third Hokage. "Why did you let him escape?" he asked softly to no one. "He was doing horrible things…and you let him go…"

He didn't get an answer, something he wasn't surprised about. Sighing, he stood up and leapt down from the roof, landing softly on the grass before he calmly walked away from the Academy. Once again, he paid no mind to the actions of the villagers as he made his way to the training grounds; specifically to the one labeled the Forest of Death.

Approaching the fence, he looked around for a moment and gave a soft sigh of relief. "Good, she's not here. Don't need her cursing at me all day," he muttered before pulling out a scroll and unsealing a book on physical conditioning. "Okay, let's see… Next in the book is the legs. So, squats and sprints to build up the muscle while stretching to expand the flexibility…"

Setting the book down, he did a few warmup stretches before he started to do some squats, making sure to go as low as he can so that he could feel his muscles working. He kept his arms close and moved them outward as he descended, bringing them back in as he rose up. The teen did two reps of fifteen squats before he made a line in the dirt with his foot and made a second one twenty yards away.

Moving back to his first line, he got in a runner's stance and took a breath to calm himself before he shot forward, making sure to bend low so that he had at least three fingers touching the second line before sprinting back to the first. Back and forth he went, making sure to touch each line five times before he did one last sprint, forgoing the second line and continuing at top speed until he reached a tree about fifty yards away from his first line.

He braced himself against the trunk of the tree as he breathed hard, trying to ease the burning he felt in his lungs. As he took deep breaths, he slowly walked back to the first line before he sat down next to his belongings and unsealed a canteen. Uncorking it, he greedily drank its contents, spilling some water down his chin and neck due to drinking too fast.

Unknown to him, a spectator was watching him train since he had arrived, hidden by the thick foliage of the trees behind the fence. This spectator was a woman with dark violet hair that was styled in a peacock fan and brown eyes without pupils. She wore a long-sleeved, tan trench coat over a short-sleeved mesh shirt, an orange skirt that stopped above her knees, gray shin guards, and standard blue shinobi sandals while her forehead protector rested proudly on her head.

She was seated in a cross-legged position as she watched the child of her most hated person train hard. In truth, she was fighting herself not to go down there and curse at the teen; but she held herself back. She had done enough cursing at him and his father over the years, and it wasn't until she spoke to the Hokage and his wife that she made an effort to stop.


"Anko-san," began Minato as he looked to the Special Jonin standing before him, "surely you understand that what you're doing is being aimed at an innocent boy?"

She had been asked to come see him after she was pulled away from her cursing the son of her old teacher. Her arms were crossed and she was scowling at the floor, trying to calm down in front of her village leader and his wife who an idol of hers.

Said idol made her own comment. "Anko-chan, Naruto-san has done nothing at all to associate himself with his father. He is not cruel, he is not manipulating, and he certainly is not trying to harm anybody through twisted acts. From what I've seen, he's actually a kind boy who is being constantly pushed away for something he didn't do or have any control of."

"But," she tried to argue, "that bastard-"

"Is not here," interrupted Minato calmly. "He's hiding like the serpent he is while his son was taken from his own clutches by a very brave young woman who died giving birth to him." He saw that she wasn't totally convinced, so he kept pressing forward. "Do you know what the doctor's told me his mother did just before she died?"

"No sir, I do not," she answered a bit tersely, not really wanting to hear a dead woman's last act.

"She held Naruto in her hands, and she wept for him," said the blonde Hokage, making Anko actually look up in slight shock. "It was reported that she cried because she wouldn't be able to be in his life, and that he would no doubt be hated for his father. But through her own tears, she told him to grow up to be a great person and to not let Orochimaru's actions determine who he will be."

Kushina continued, "I have no doubt that Naruto-san did not ask to be born with a father like Orochimaru, nor did he ask to be a scapegoat for his past deeds…much like you were treated before his identity was revealed."

Anko's stature froze in shocked tension, thinking back to how she was treated before the hate and fear was directed towards Naruto. While she was grateful that she was no longer under such hurtful looks, she in turn had cast the same looks towards Naruto.

Reeling back mentally, she began to see that she had become a hypocrite; doing the same thing she had suffered through to another person who didn't ask for the curse he had to live with. And it was at that realization that she lost the strength in her legs and fell onto a chair behind her, staring aimlessly at the floor in front of her.

Minato and Kushina gave her somber looks, having an idea what she was thinking while hoping she would come to terms with her actions and her feelings.


After that talk, she had avoided Naruto so that she would not be tempted to act like she had done before. And now, whenever she saw him forcefully ignore other people and hide the hurt behind a mask, she saw herself in his place doing the same thing.

She took a breath to try and get her thoughts together, still observing the pale-skinned teen as he continued his physical exercises. What she was thinking of doing was crazy in her eyes…but at the same time, she knew it would be the right thing to do.

Back with Naruto, he had just finished another set of sprints before he took a break to rest his burning lungs and aching legs. "Dammit," he gasped out. "This is…worse than the…weight training…"

The sound of feet hitting the dirt made him tiredly turn to see the violette woman who seemed to hate him more than most standing before him. He sighed and forced himself to stand, packing away his things as calmly as he could to hide how nervous he truly was. They were alone out here, and she could try to deal some physical harm to him.

"I'm sorry, Mitarashi-san," he apologized as he sealed away his things and stowed away his scroll. "I was just finishing up, so I'll be out of your hair now."

She had to fight back a slight wince at how despondent he sounded at her arrival; not that she could blame him. She took a breath to compose herself before she said, "Hold on a second, kid." She saw him freeze, tensing his body in case he needed to make an escape. This made her wince again before she pressed forward, "Look…I know I've done a lot of messed up shit to you because of who your…father was…"

He slowly turned to her, noting how she couldn't meet his gaze and was rubbing right arm awkwardly with her left hand. She looked to be having trouble continuing, so he spoke up. "If you're trying to apologize," he began, getting her attention, "I already forgave you." Her eyes widened at that. "So, you don't need to force yourself to say anything. I'd rather we let go of what happened in the past and just go on with our lives."

She blinked in surprise at the casual dismissal of her actions, and how he had so easily forgiven her. "Y-You can't be serious… How can you… How can you just forgive me like that?! I was such a bitch to you! You should be furious!"

"Maybe," he replied thoughtfully before he shrugged carelessly. "But it's a waste of time to hang onto the past. I'd rather look ahead so that I have nothing to tie me down, y'know." He then surprised her again when he offered her a small smile and nod. "Now, I should get going. I need to find something for dinner and get home before it starts raining."

She absently looked up, seeing that the day was pretty patchy with the clouds slowly moving into one another. She looked back to Naruto and saw that he was already walking away from her, so she went after him. "Hey, hold up a sec!"

He stopped walking and turned to see her coming up to him. "Was there something you needed?"

"Yea, I need you to come with me. The least I could do to make up for what I did was offer you something to eat. So, how about we go get some dango?"

"I don't want to trouble you…" he tried to say, but she shook her head firmly.

"I'm insisting, gaki. Just a few dumplings and then we'll go our separate ways."

He sighed at her urging before he nodded. "Lead the way then, Mitarashi-san."

While the part of her that hated formalities wanted to say something, she didn't as she led the teen to a small stand that was run by an elderly woman and her grandson. "Hey granny," called out Anko as she took a stool at the counter, "I need two orders, pronto!"

The elderly woman chuckled mirthfully in the stand's kitchen as she replied, "I'll have them out in a jiffy. Until then, just be patient."

The violette woman smirked at that while Naruto took a stool next to hers. "This stand doesn't get much business compared to the bars, but the service is good and the dumplings are the best in my opinion, she explained to him. "I'm sure you'll like them."

"If you say so," he responded as he pulled out his fuinjutsu book and continued where he left off.

She took note of the material and raised a brow in interest. "You study seals?"

"All the time," he replied without looking up from his book. "It's a rather unappreciated art, if you ask me. Most people go for flashy jutsu or simple ninja tricks, but I personally prefer the variety and untapped potential that sealing can offer a shinobi. I mean, it was seals that held back the Bijuu of all things. Why wouldn't anybody want to learn it?"

She had to give him that. Even though she had a rather cruel seal on her neck, she couldn't help but grudgingly respect the art. "Maybe people don't learn due to the difficulty?"

"If that's all it takes to keep people away, then the future for shinobi is rather bleak. If it's difficult, you do your best to discover the methods; just like with the other shinobi arts. I'm sure that people like Hashirama-sama, Madara-sama, and Hokage-sama didn't stop getting stronger just because it was difficult."

"That's true…" she agreed as the two dishes of dango were placed before them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto look to the elderly woman in surprise when she smiled kindly and told him to enjoy the food. 'Difficult, huh?' she mused, thinking over how difficult it was for her to actually be sitting next to him without showing any animosity.

"These are pretty good," he commented as he ate one of the dumplings on the skewer in his hand. "A bit too sweet, but still good."

"Told you that you'd like them, kid," stated the woman as she finished her first skewer. "I love dango, and if I wasn't worried about becoming a dumpling myself, I'd eat it all the time."

"I'm sure you wouldn't become one even if you did," assured the teen. "You seem rather fit, and I'm sure your shinobi life is the reason you stay in shape. So even if you ate a bunch of these things, you'd most likely bounce back to the figure you have now."

The way he calmly said it was a pleasant surprise. Most men who would hear such a complaint would've just agreed with her wanting to keep her figure in hopes of "getting lucky". But instead, this kid told her that she would probably be just fine even if she did eat more dumplings than necessary.

"Yea," she agreed with a grin," there's no way I wouldn't be able to go back to looking this hot!"

While not exactly what he had intended, Naruto was still pleased that he was able to enjoy a simple meal with someone; even if that person once treated him poorly. Once he finished his second skewer, he got off of his stool and offered the elderly cook a few coins for a tip before he turned to Anko. "Well Mitarashi-san, I should get going. Thanks for the food…and for the apology," he said with a small smile before he began to walk off.

Anko watched him go with a thoughtful frown on her face. Kushina had been right about him; he was nothing like Orochimaru save for his looks. So, she made a decision and called out, "Meet me back at the fence after you get out of class tomorrow!" She saw him stop and look back with a raised brow, making her smirk at him. "I'll make it worth your while; promise!"

Slowly, she saw him give her a real smile and nod. "Alright then," he called back before he resumed his trek, though his gait was noticeably lighter.

She frowned slightly at that, ashamed that a simple gesture of good will made the shunned boy's day so much brighter. 'I was the same way,' she reminded herself before she paid for the food and left the stand. As she made for home, she mentally nodded to herself and thought, 'He's not like the bastard…and I'll make sure it stays that way.' Looking up, she glared at the sky and finished, 'You hear that, Orochimaru? Your son will never become you. I swear it…'


"You seem a bit more upbeat today, Naruto-san," commented Hanabi as she sat next to him in class the next day. "Did something good happen?"

He shrugged as he leaned back in his chair. "I guess you can say that. I talked with someone and we buried the hatchet between us."

She gave a small nod in understanding. "I see. Well, I'm sure you're pleased with that."

"I am," he answered with a small smile. "So, how are you doing today?"

Giving him a sidelong look, she answered, "I'm doing well. My lessons with my father are steadily getting easier for me to understand, so I'm slowly becoming more prepared to lead my people once I become the Clan Head."

"I had a feeling you'd be the heiress instead of Hinata-san. No offense to your sister, but she seems to lack something in terms of leadership. She comes off more as a mediator than someone who takes charge."

"No offense taken, since I can see what you mean. While at one point we were both considered to becoming the heiress, father had us spar to determine who will take over. As you can see, I was the victor, so I will be the next leader."

"Congratulations, then," he replied politely, earning a nod from her before Iruka walked in and settled down the class.

Once they were calmed, he went about the day's lesson. The first part was History, as usual, before they moved on to Mathematics, Calligraphy, and Ninja Theory. After a few hours, the class was led outside to a small dirt circle surrounded by an outline painted white.

"Today, we will have sparring practice. I'll be calling up names and those I call will step into this ring before they begin their spar," explained the Chunin. "First up is…"

When he didn't hear his name, Naruto just watched as the spars commenced. The civilian children were paired together most of the time, but there was a time when a pinkette civilian girl was paired with Hinata. While the girl could've been commended for not backing down, she was rather weak in Naruto's eyes. Either that, or Hinata was stronger than he gave her credit for, since she took down Sakura with ease after a few taps to her arms and legs.

The fights between the clan children were more interesting, but not by much. The Nara boy was paired with the Inuzuka, and the feral boy was beaten by the lazy student effectively dodging his strikes and stumbling out of the ring. The fact that the Nara looked annoyed at having to spar made Naruto smirk.

The Aburame and the Akamichi had a more interesting fight. Choji was obviously a heavy hitter, but Shino was more flexible and was able to redirect the heavy set boy's attacks without much issue before striking at weak points. His respect for the bug user rose when he helped up the Akamichi when he collapsed and the spar ended.

Bolt was paired with Sasuke, and the two proved that they were in the top tier of the class when their spar lasted the full allotted time of seven minutes with no clear victor. Sasuke had impressive form with his family taijutsu, but Bolt was just too unpredictable with his attack patterns, which made them end in a stalemate.

"Alright, last up is Hanabi Hyuuga and Naruto Fuyōna," called out Iruka, noticeable schooling his features when he declared the pale-skinned teen's name.

The two stepped into the ring and faced one another. She looked calm, yet serious while he just gave her a respectful nod and smile. "Good luck, Hanabi-san," he said.

She didn't respond immediately, still eyeing her opponent before she returned his nod. "You as well, Naruto-san."

"Ready?" began Iruka with his arm raised. Dropping it, he said, "Begin!"

(Play "Sinister Sundown")

Hanabi took the initiative and charged at her opponent, who slid into a defensive stance. When she got close, his eyes kept track of her hands and he swatted away her strikes while leaning his body to the sides to avoid any missed deflections. She then surprised him with a rising kick that he barely spun away from.

Continuing his spin, he crouched and tried to sweep out her legs, but she jumped and performed her own spinning kick. The aerial attack was blocked by his forearms, but the force behind it was pretty impressive.

'Interesting,' he mused before he jumped back and stared down his opponent. The two were in their battle stances before they both charged and met in the middle with her blocking a punch with her left hand while her right palm strike was held back by his left hand gripping her wrist. Both then tried to initiate a knee strike, but their knees clashed and they were pushed back from each other.

Resuming her stance, she eyed her sparring partner appreciatively. 'He has impressive reflexes and form. I can't even get a good hit on him.' She smirked in growing excitement before she charged again, throwing in her own personal twist on the Hyuuga's taijutsu style.

She used circular motions, ducking and spinning while striking while Naruto was forced to evade more than deflect. 'She's moving faster,' he thought in growing worry before he felt her jab his right arm, making it go slack. 'Dammit… She's good.'

At a disadvantage, Naruto focused and wide kicks that made him spin just like Hanabi was so that his range kept her slightly at bay. Unfortunately, she quickly picked up on his pattern of attack and struck his left leg, which made him lose all feeling in it and fall to the ground.

"That's enough!" called Iruka, stopping his stopwatch at 6min 38sec. "The winner is Hanabi!"

(End Music)

The other students were surprised that Naruto was able to keep up with a Hyuuga, let alone the heiress of the clan. It seemed that the two were evenly matched until Hanabi began to fight a bit differently. As for said heiress, she moved over to Naruto and poked a few spots on his arm and leg to return the feeling back into them.

"Thanks," he said as he stood up with a slight wobble, still getting the numbness out. "You're really good. I guess I'll have to step up my game if I want to keep up with you."

She smirked at his praise. "You did commendably at first, but you were a bit slow when I increased my pace and changed my pattern. Work on your reaction timing a bit, then we'll spar again."

"I'll start training then," he said with a challenging grin, showing his sharper teeth as he did so.

After the sparring sessions, the rest of the day was spent on chakra control exercises; though Bolt and Naruto had noticeably more trouble doing the exercise. With Bolt, it was understandable due to his Uzumaki blood, but it was a surprise for Naruto. He chalked it up to his father having larger than average reserves and him inheriting that trait.

After the day ended, Naruto immediately went back to the Forest of Death where he saw Anko sitting on a bench near the fence with a dango skewer in her mouth, acting like a toothpick for her to chew on. He stopped in front of her and gave a nod in greeting.

She smirked back and said, "Nice of you to show up. So, what I was thinking was that I'd give you some pointers and extra training. I know you said you didn't want me to try and make up for my past actions," she held up a hand to stop him from interrupting her, "but this isn't the case. The way I see it, your birth could actually be a good thing."

"It can?" he asked in slight surprise.

"Yes. After Orochimaru defected," she scowled at his name, "he gave a bad rep to his fighting style, his methods as a shinobi, and to the snakes that he and I summon. What I'm thinking is this: if you and I were to show that it was him that was wrong and not what he taught and discovered, then we could actually be proud of what we know."

"So…you're going to teach me his fighting style and about the Snake Summons?" he queried for confirmation.

"Yes. Eventually, I'll let you sign the Snake Contract and teach you about the unique jutsu that go with them. But for now, we'll work on the taijutsu style; the Coiling Snake." She got off of the bench and did a few stretches as she continued, "This style focuses on flexibility and striking at just the right moments at weak points in the body; like a coiled snake preparing to attack."

"Alright, this is good," he said with a smirk.

"Why's that, brat?" she asked back, giving him the nickname without any venom in her tone.

"We had sparring lessons today, and I was up against the Hyuuga heiress. We were evenly matched until she upped her game and caught me off guard. Once she did, I was on my heels for the rest of the fight and I couldn't react or move fast enough. With this style though," his smirk grew, "I'll be able to do just that and give her a run for her money."

She smirked in return and teased, "So, you got a cute little heiress for a rival, huh? Ah," she sighed dramatically, "young love."

He flushed and choked on his retort. "I-It's not like that!" he cried, making her laugh at his expression.

She kept laughing as he crossed his arms and huffed, grumbling unintelligibly about her actions. She mentally smiled when she witnessed this, glad that he was far more human than his father who would immediately look for exploits to use if he was in Naruto's shoes.

"Alright, enough joking around. Let's get to work!" Grinning evilly, she pulled out a handful of shuriken and a few kunai locked between her fingers, making his pale skin turn whiter in growing worry. "The first lesson is this…DODGE!"

Yelping as he narrowly evaded a kunai taking away his manhood, he leapt into the trees and took off, Anko right on his heels. "You crazy psycho!" his voice echoed. "You trying to kill me?!"

"Shut up and take your lessons like a man!" she called out, laughing insanely as she began to teach her new pupil.


It was an hour later that Naruto, covered in scuff marks and scratches, was laying on his back panting hard. He gave his mentor a tired glare and groaned out, "You're terrible…"

"Ah, you know you loved it," she waved off. "You're actually pretty good at dodging, but you need to react faster. You keep waiting 'til the last second and it costs you."

"I noticed," he grumbled as he sat up. "So, is this how we'll be training every day?"

"More or less. It'll just be until I think your reaction timing is up to speed, then we'll move on to the katas for the Coiling Snake and sparring sessions. For your sake, you better be up for it if you don't want your ass kicked."

He chuckled at that and nodded determinedly. "Oh, I'm up for it. Bring it on, Mitarashi-san."

She smirked at him before she replied, "Anko, brat. Call me Anko."

He blinked in surprise before nodding. "Alright then, Anko-senpai."

Her smirk grew at the title he gave her. "Same time tomorrow. If you're late, the excuse better be damn good!" she warned before leaving in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto chuckled again as he stood up, brushed off the dirt on his clothes and began to walk back home. Unknown to him, he was being watched.


Minato smiled as he used the Third Hokage's old crystal ball to observe Anko mentoring Naruto. Next to him, his wife also smiled as she sat in a chair beside him. "Well, I'm glad that they're patching things up," commented Minato. "Those two need someone who understands their pain."

"Let's just hope that Naruto-san doesn't pick up her more eccentric habits," joked Kushina as the couple laughed at the notion. "At any rate, I'm glad that he's able to have someone offer him support through this. I'm also impressed that he's already proficient with sealing scrolls and that he's so interested in fuinjutsu. Not even Bolt-kun is very interested in it; just like his father."

The blonde laughed sheepishly. "Well, I never got into them at first either until I saw the Second's Flying Raijin scroll."

She rolled her eyes as he cut off the image in the crystal ball. "I'm being serious though, dear. If Bolt-kun doesn't want to learn more than necessary for sealing, then I'll look for someone else to teach. And right now, Naruto-san seems like a top candidate for future lessons. Anko's plan to bring both herself and him into a good light is a good goal, and I think I could help him grow in his fuinjutsu studies."

"So, will you teach him now? He's still an Academy Student and Anko is already close to pushing it with her offer to teach him. I'm only going to allow her to teach him what she learned from Orochimaru since, technically, it is his birthright."

"I understand that, which is why I want you to make me his Jonin sensei when he graduates," she declared, much to his surprise.

He definitely wasn't expecting that from his wife.


And here we are with the second installment! This chap was mainly to let Anko and Naruto patch things up between them, and to show how other people (Hanabi and Kushina) are growing interested in his development and skillset.

Right now, Hanabi sees Naruto as a potential rival, and a puzzle to try and figure out. Slowly, she'll become his friend and then eventually his love interest.

Anko was on bad terms at first due to him being a reminder of the one who abandoned her and used her. Now, she's mentoring him and plans to keep him from following Orochimaru's darker path.

As for Kushina, she sees him as someone who was dealt a bad hand in life; just like a Jinchuriki usually is. She's intrigued by his appreciation for seals since she wants someone to pass on the knowledge of that art to. With her son more interested in ninjutsu and taijutsu, she sees a potential apprentice in Naruto.

That ending declaration she made was put in to, hopefully, get you guys excited for Naruto's future team when he graduates! So, please review, like, and keep looking for new updates!

Until next time!

pain17ification