AN: Holy Smegnuggets! I can't believe how many fav's it's had! I had no idea that it was that good!
Mail bag time, I think!
forbiddenfruitunloved: I've made the name change, and Naruto only owns his apartment, paid for by the third Hokage. Aah, sorry…It's been quite a long time since I read the start of the Manga, so I didn't know that Kakashi had trained them al more than simply showing them how to climb trees. The civilian council is there so I can get the civilians shouted at by Hokage's and high ranking Shinobi's…they're not actually going to do much ^^u. And why do you need a life? It sounds like a pretty decent way to spend your time!
Darkryus: Thanks! Naruto will be smarter battle wise, and probably personality wise in this, but no…he won't be learning the chidori, as I think that his battle style is more suited to the rasengan.
Crimsonfang1: Thanks! I'll try to keep them all going, and keep them all at this sort of level.
Andore-kun: Thank you very much, greetings, and Here is the continuation!
WolfCyote: : D thanks! I had to re-write that scene three times before it worked right ^^u. I thought that with Kakashi's devotion to his old teams memory…it would actually make more sense than him focussing on Sasuke more. And while I may have Naruto form better friendships with Tenten and Ino, I already have a pairing planned for him.
sheltie: Thank you! Heh, I'll try to make them good! And thank you very much…it's a great compliment!
Guest: Thank you, mysterious stranger!
Guest: Yes, next chapter! It is here!
Gold Testament: Thank you! I shall try that in the future!
polarbear257: Thank you!
Blackmoon124: I'll do my best to remember that, and I'll try to stick to smaller paragraphs.
Djinn Crimsora: I hope this chapter is easier to read. Thanks! And your icon is brilliant! Dogbert rules!
foggraven: It's updated! Sorry it took so long, this chapter was a sod to write.
Chapter 2: monuments, ramen, and bribes.
Kakashi walked through the streets of Konoha, four large bags of shopping in one arm, and his well-read copy of 'Icha Icha Paradise' in his other hand. He knew that he should be going to the Hokage's office, but he didn't want to get told off for failing yet another genin team. The other jonin didn't seem to understand that the teams he DID fail would have died before the year was up. He shifted the shopping slightly, and made his way to a rundown old apartment building.
Naruto sat on his beaten up old sofa, reading a scroll that he'd been given. It was about chakra control exercises, and he just didn't get them, which is why when he heard a knock on his front door, he sprung up to answer it. He opened the door, just enough to see whether it was an angry mob there to hurt him, or someone friendly, and was greeted with the sight of instant ramen being dangled in front of him. He threw the door open, and saw Kakashi standing there, the ramen in one hand.
"Yo!" Kakashi greeted, giving his famous eye-smile to the boy.
"Kakashi-san!" Naruto yelled in greeting, beaming up at the jonin. "Come in!" Before the silver haired man could argue, he was being dragged into the apartment.
"Woah, hey! Naruto, slow down!" Naruto let go and grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry Kakashi-san, but you've got ramen! And I'm REALLY hungry!" Kakashi let out a small laugh, and put the bags of shopping down on the table. Opening Naruto's fridge, he grimaced at the small amount of food inside. Sighing, he packed food from two of the bags in, and shut it.
"Naruto. You have plenty of food for the week now, so don't forget to eat regularly." Kakashi bulled a plastic bag from one of the remaining paper shopping bags, and quickly unpacked its contents into a cupboard. He looked at the contents and signalled Naruto to come over. "What do you think…did I get enough?" Naruto's eyes were sparkling as they took in the sight of an entire cupboard filled with ramen. Before the cyclopean jonin could do anything, Naruto grabbed him in a tight embrace, thanking him over and over again. Eventually Naruto let him go, and started cooking two of the instant ramens. "Why two Naruto? You can't be THAT hungry can you?"
"Well, I thought that since you bought all of them, and all this food for me…the least I could do is make you something to eat." Kakashi smiled at the thought, and sat down next to the discarded scroll.
"I see you've been working on that scroll I gave you." Naruto's head bobbed as he watched the ramen carefully, as if it would run away if he took his eyes off it. 'Come to think of it…some of the food he had the first time I came over might have…' He shuddered at the memory of what the fridge had looked like. He still didn't know how he mould had eaten through a plastic container, and honestly didn't WANT to know. After the 5 minute wait (and the whines from Naruto as they waited) Naruto brought Kakashi his food, and started to devour his food. Partway through the meal, Kakashi spoke up. "So how have the exercises been?" Naruto looked up, confused until Kakashi tapped the chakra control scroll with his chopsticks.
"Nt too grit kawashi-shan" Naruto said through a mouthful of noodles.
"Swallow first Naruto…then speak." Naruto swallowed.
"Sorry…Not to great Kakashi-san…I can't get the first one right." He sulked over his pot for a moment, before he heard movement from next to him. Looking over, he saw Kakashi putting an empty ramen pot down 'Huh? Wh-when did he eat that? And how?' Naruto stared at the jonin in awe, before he noticed that he'd picked a leaf up from the floor.
"Watch closely Naruto." Kakashi held his hand, palm facing the ceiling, and placed the leaf on the centre of hi gloved palm. He concentrated for a moment, before flipping his hand over. The leaf stuck to his palm.
"WOAH!" Naruto's eyes were wide in awe. "How did you do that!" Kakashi chuckled.
"It's quite simple really. Concentrate an extremely small amount of chakra into the palm of your hand." Kakashi placed the leaf on Naruto's hand. "concentrate on the leaf." Naruto started to do so, and the leaf shot up. "Use less." Another try, it flew up again. "Less again." The leaf shot up, but not as far. "Getting there Naruto." Naruto concentrated as little chakra as he could onto his palm, in the area that the leaf sat. The leaf fluttered a bit, but didn't fly off. "Turn your hand over, but keep concentrating." Naruto slowly turned his hand over. He waited, eyes shut in concentration. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Congratulations Naruto…You did it." His eyes shot open, and he saw the leaf flutter off his palm.
"YATTA!" Kakashi chuckled as he watched the ball of enthusiasm bounce around the room.
"Naruto!" The boy stopped and looked at Kakashi, startled by the semi-serious tone. "Good luck at the academy." The boy grinned again, and nodded. Kakashi stood up, bid farewell to the 7 year old child and left, carrying the two bags of shopping that he'd bought for himself.
Six Years Later
Kakashi had spent the last few years alternating between taking various missions and acting as Naruto's unofficial guardian, bringing him food, helping with homework, and threatening various teachers at the academy. Kakashi was walking around, relaxing after a particularly nasty mission (a cat had gotten stuck up a tree, which was being guarded by a group of bandits. And people called his excuses lies)
"GET BACK HERE NARUTO!" Kakashi looked up, his visible eyebrow raised, as a familiar orange blur sped past him, followed by several Anbu agents. He sighed as he watched them, slightly ashamed that trained Anbu couldn't catch a genin. Iruka stormed up to him.
"Hello Iruka…how are you?" Iruka glared at him.
"How am I? I've just had to leave an entire class of hyperactive, soon-to-be-genin, and you're seriously asking me how I am?" Iruka sighed as Kakashi nodded. "You know, since you're his 'guardian', this is partially your fault." Kakashi looked at him.
"My fault? I didn't teach him to paint, or to sneak past Anbu. I also didn't teach him how to outrun them." He glared at the Anbu agent that ran past them, searching for the student. Iruka shook his head, and ran off. He quickly caught up to the group of Anbu that were closest to Naruto. He slowed down as they ran past a large fence, and waited. A section of the fence suddenly moved, and revealed a laughing Naruto Uzumaki. Iruka sighed, before sneaking up behind the gloating boy.
"HEY, NARUTO!"
-Ninja Acadamy-
Naruto was sitting on the floor of the classroom, tied up. "Listen Naruto. You failed the last two mock exams that we did in class, you shouldn't be fooling around like this!" Naruto ignored him, Causing Iruka's already fraught temper to snap. "All right, we're going to do a review of the transformation technique! Everyone does it, even if you passed last time!" The whole class groaned, and started grumbling at Naruto. The time passed slowly as each student came to the front and transformed into a copy of Iruka, until Naruto's turn.
The hyperactive child gathered chakra for the jutsu, far more than was actually necessary in fact. There was a burst of smoke, and Iruka was suddenly facing a very naked woman.
Silence flooded the room, only disturbed by the quiet dripping of liquid hitting the floor, as blood dripped from Irukas nose. Naruto struck a revealing pose, and the blood rocketed out of Iruka's nose, propelling his head backwards. "Hahaha! That's the Sexy jutsu!" Naruto loudly proclaimed, grinning madly. The other students were quite amazed at the sight before them. Naruto, the dead last, had just sent Iruka flying with a perverted jutsu. After a few moments, Iruka was back on his feet, with bloody tissues in his nose, screaming blue murder at the young boy, ultimately ending up with Naruto being forced to clean the entire Hokage monument.
After Naruto had returned from his cleaning mission (and free meal), He collapsed onto his sofa. He stared blankly at into his kitchen, before his eyes fixed onto a figure standing there, drinking a mug of something.
"Yo."
"AAH!" Naruto jumped, almost falling off of his raggedy sofa. "Kakashi-san?! What the hell was that for? You could have given me a heart attack!" He could feel Kakashi grinning at him. "So…what are you here for?" Kakashi chuckled.
"I saw your work on the monument. It was very…creative." Naruto whined.
"Awww, come on Kakashi! I've already cleaned it up!" the jonin chuckled again.
"I'm not scolding you Naruto. It truly was impressive. You not only managed to get past the Anbu squads around the monument, but you managed to evade them as well. Well done." Naruto grinned sheepishly at the praise, rubbing the back of his head. "Now…you have your graduation exam tomorrow, is that right?"
"Huh? Oh, yes! It's tomorrow. I just hope that it's not something like clones…" Kakashi chuckled.
"If you remember what I taught you, it should be just fine Naruto. It's very unlikely that the whole test will be riding on a single technique." Kakashi patted Naruto on the shoulder, before placing the mug down on the counter. "Well, I've got to get going." He looked at Naruto, a smirk working its way across his mouth. "So how about I give you an incentive to pass." Naruto looked at Kakashi with almost glimmering eyes. "If you can manage to become a genin…I'll teach you a jutsu." At that Kakashi could swear that Naruto's eyes really WERE sparkling, and glittering, and shining.
"What are you going to teach me, is it powerful, will it kick Sasuke's but, can you do it, will it allow me to become Hokage?" Kakashi sweat dropped.
"Maa, Maa. Calm down Naruto." Naruto looked embarrassed. "You'll find out if you become a genin." Kakashi ruffled Naruto's hair, and started to leave. "Get some sleep Naruto, you'll need it!"
Three days later
Kakashi walked into the Hokage's office, his familiar book in hand. "Good of you to finally join us Kakashi." The silver haired jonin chuckled.
"Sorry I'm late, I just got back from a small mission out of the village, and needed to look at who passed before I came here." Everyone looked at him in disbelief. "And then on the way here I had to help an old lady carry her shopping home." A collective sigh from the gathered ninja met him.
"Well then Kakashi, since you've recently read the files, is there anyone that you want on your team?" The Hokage smiled around his pipe. He'd personally made sure that Naruto's file was added to the pile Kakashi had received that day, but he also had a hunch about what the cyclopean ninja would say.
"I'll bet you a fancy dinner that he says Sasuke Uchiha." Asuma Sarutobi whispered to Kurenai Yuhi.
"Done." She smirked, thinking that Kakashi would say Kiba, since they both used dogs.
"Naruto Uzumaki." Asuma nearly swallowed the ever present cigarette in his mouth in shock. Kurenai slapped his back, her mind racing. "I don't care who else I get, as long as Naruto is on my team. I owe it to his parents." The Hokage was shocked. Not only was Kakashi requesting Naruto and not Sasuke, but he knew about Naruto's heritage.
"Why the hell would you want that demon braaagh!" The jonin who had started to insult Naruto suddenly found himself being pressed against the wall, with the back of Kakashi's arm against his neck while he read his precious book, and facing the shocked gathering.
"I'm sorry, did you say something about my student? I'm sure I must have misheard you." Kakashi queried, his voice sounding cheerful.
"Kakashi. Let him go." Kakashi stood there for a moment, before complying with the Hokage's order and pulling his arm away. The jonin landed on the floor, gasping for breath. "I will ask you to stop attacking my jonin Kakashi. I know that you are protective of the boy, but I do still need them available for active duty."
"I'll try not to break them next time, Hokage-sama." The Hokage sighed and shook his head.
"Very well…you have all requested certain people, and so I shall create teams based not only on those requests, but on the people that I believe to be best suited to go on those teams. I will send you and Iruka the lists later on. Dissmissed." The jonin nodded and left, except for Kakashi.
"Lord Hokage…Naruto's file said that he failed the exam, but passed a make-up test…may I know what the exam was?" The Hokage looked sombre.
"It was to create two clones." Kakashi sweatdropped.
"oops…it looks like I owe Naruto an apology." He chuckled, bid farewell to the Hokage, and made his way to the Memorial stone. After spending what felt like five minutes there to him, he sighed. "You've been following me since I left the Hokage's office…what do you want?"
Five jonin and three chūnin appeared behind Kakashi. One of the jonin stepped forward slightly. "The Hokage is probably going to follow your request."
"That's nice." Kakashi muttered, staring at the monument.
"If he does, you need to fail him." Kakashi twitched at the implication of the jonin's words.
"…no, I don't think so. If he fails the test alongside his teammates, then I'll fail him. If he doesn't, then I won't." The group spread out to surround the cyclopean jonin.
"I take it that nothing we say will change your mind." All the jonin and chūnin, with exception of Kakashi, slipped kunai from their weapon pouches.
"Sorry…but no." Kakashi suddenly moved, ducking under a kunai slash from a chūnin. Reacting on instinct, he slammed his elbow into his attackers stomach, and spun away as a jonin launched their weapon at him. Kakashi spun, kicking out and catching another chunin in the knee, and pulled the supprised ninja towards him as a shield. The other attkars faulted for a moment, unsure what to do, when Kakashi showed them. He leapt backwards and threw a kunai towards the group, before rapidly running through a series of handsigns "Ninja art: Kunai shadow clone jutsu!" the single kunai was suddenly accompanied by fifty more, which rained down upon the group. Kakashi landed, and set off a flare to alert any nearby Anbu. As he waited, he dismissed the jutsu, picked up his own Kunai, kicked one of the ninja away from in front of the memorial stone, and stood there. Moments later, he felt a presence appear.
"Captain Inu, what happened?" Kakashi turned, and saw one of his old subordinates, a female Anbu known as Hawk, standing before him.
"These eight attacked me, because I refused to fail a possible future student of mine." He calmly stated. Hawk let out an unladylike snort.
"Buggers deserved it then." She started piling up the defeated jonin, before turning to Kakashi. "Oh and captain…good luck teaching Naruto." Kakashi smirked as Hawk vanished with the ninja. A thought popped into his head, which he murmured out loud.
"I wonder if Hokage-sama will shout at me for that…"
AN: that's all for this chapter. As you can see, things have changed…not much, but a bit. Please let me know if I got the jutsu name wrong. Also I'm skipping over certain bits of cannon, as I don't think I'll be able to do them justice. I will be skipping over the majority of the mission to Wave arc as will.
Don't worry though, things have been planned, and are being written.