Naruto watched the last kunai fly, and with a satisfying 'thunk', sink into the wood, just touching the outer ring.
Writing down his score on the booklet, Naruto felt his heart rise when he went over the numbers. "One hundred over a hundred." He whispered, unbelieving at the numbers in the booklet. A perfect score! Naruto felt like he was going to burst with happiness. Just as he was about to shout out his victory however...
"Please. While you have demonstrated better accuracy and increased skill at handling your weapons, over three quarters of your weapons landed near or on the outer rings, hardly deserving of your so called perfect score."
Ugh. Red was at it again. He was almost as annoying as Iruka-sensei, without the stupid demon head jutsu, but with all the constant nagging about this and that.
"Before you start bragging about hitting a perfect score, why don't you keep practicing until your weapons actually hit the inner circles before shouting your mouth off ?"
Naruto fumed. Even though he liked Red for talking to him, sometimes he just burned him. Well, he would show Red.
"Hey, Red are you a ninja?"
The red-headed teenager seemed to mull it over for a second, which confused Naruto immensely. How hard could it bee to answer the question; either you were a ninja or you were not.
"I am an artist."
Naruto stared at Red, trying desperately not to laugh. Even though people did not tell things (which everybody else seemed to get), even he knew that being an Artist was a 'sissy' job.
"No, I am not a ninja." clarified the older boy with a bit of heat.
"Hmph, then how would you know anything about getting better with these!" Naruto said triumphantly. Lets see him respond to that! What was he going to do, take out his drawing paper and crayons? Naruto was going to eat this guy alive.
"I run a shop dealing in ninja weapons where I deal with ninja on a daily basis. A shop you vandalized as a form of petty revenge, or had you forgotten that as well ?"
Naruto cringed, the argument had sounded a lot better in his head. Why couldn't this guy just give him a break ?
"Suffice to say, I am quite familiar with the usage of various weapons." finished Red, somewhat angrily.
"Oh yeah ?" challenged Naruto immediately, his pride hurt.
Red walked past him, towards the targets, and started collecting the shuriken and kunai. When he had collected them all, he walked over to Naruto, past him and once further back, turned abruptly.
Realizing what he was going to do, Naruto quickly got out of the way.
Red began throwing the weapons. Expertly.
Naruto watched, amazed as Red just let the weapons fly. He did not stop once to judge where the wind was blowing from, which target was supposed to be the next in the sequence, how many weapons he left, or even slow as he took the weapons out of his pockets.
All fourteen kunai struck the target rings, dead center, buried to the hilt in each.
And that was just for the first set.
Slowing, Red switched to the shuriken, and then, walking forwards, started throwing with both hands, in opposite directions.
What the hell! Naruto's head spun as he tried to track both shuriken at the same time.
The shurikens zoomed in opposite directions down the range; Red did not even seem to be looking at the targets as he passed them by.
All fourteen kunai and thirty six shuriken had landed perfectly, dead center on the targets. Fifty perfect hits. Not just in front of him, but on opposite ends of the range. Red was looking at him with an amused smirk on his face.
"Many people are overjoyed to achieved their goals, because to them, these goals seemed impossible at first. You will be surprised what motivation, hard work, dedication and discipline will allow you to achieve given the proper impetus."
Naruto was still staring at the targets. Fifty perfect hits. At an increased distance. With the shuriken, Red had been actually walking when he had thrown them.
"I do not mean to belittle your achievement. It is a considerable improvement considering you have not had proper equipment to practise with." said Red, diplomatically.
Naruto felt his spirits lift, just a little.
"Nevertheless, if you are content to simply coast by on your 'one hundred over one hundred', then by all means, do so." He continued, deflating Naruto's spirit like pin to a balloon.
"Oh yeah! I'll become the Hokage and then we'll see..."
"Really ?" Red cut in, scornfully.
That halted Naruto in mid-sentence.
"Would the Hokage, be content with just hitting the targets or would he hit all the targets perfectly ?"
"..."
"Exactly. Many people think that it would be great to be the Hokage, but like yourself, balk at the work."
"I don't balk!" Naruto said, indignant.
"Then keep practicing until all your hits land on the bull-eyes." replied Red smugly.
"...I'll... become the Hokage..." Naruto tried, feebly, to defend himself
"Would you give that a rest already. We've already established that to become the Hokage requires hard work and dedication. Something you decidedly lack. If you were actually serious about your dream, you would not be content to at your current level but keep working to improve yourself."
"..."
"You know, if you want, I could help you in that regard."
"Huh ?" asked Naruto immediately, attention snapping to the older boy.
"Do you pay attention at all ?" asked Red, one eyebrow arched.
"What?" Naruto shouted. Geez, this guy, what was wrong with him ?
"I deal with ninja and weapons on a daily basis. I can help you improve."
"But you're not a ninja, Red. How can..."
"I see." said Red, narrowing his eyes.
"Huh ?"
"Is it really too much trouble for you to pay attention or show even the slightest bit of common courtesy ?" Red asked irritably.
"I am polite! And what about you, huh!" This jerk! He said Naruto was not polite and then used that as an excuse to act like a Stupid Head.
"Naruto, do you even know my name ?"
"..uuh. Your...name..." Naruto tried to stall as he searched his memory. It was not working, maybe he could just bullshit his way out of...
"Don't be silly. Of course I know your name."
"Say it then."
"Wh-"
"It has been two weeks and not once have you asked me my name. Instead you just went on merrily, ignoring this common courtesy in favor of calling me 'Red'. Do you have any idea how rude and inconsiderate this was, not just to the person but to the people around you ?"
"Ok, ok. I'm sorry. I just want to..."
"It is Sasori, by the way. And I find it hard to accept such an half hearted apology."
"Geez! I apologized already! Why are you still acting like a jerk ?" Naruto said, on the verge of screaming; no matter what he did, this guy just did not quit.
"Your dismissive tone suggests otherwise. If you do not truly mean to apologize, then your apology is worthless." Sasori continued, eyes still narrowed. "Do you honestly think you are that opaque ? That people can not tell when you are trying to blow them off in favor of doing 'your own thing' ? If you do not wish to pursue my teaching, at least be upfront about it."
"Well," Naruto began, taking a breath to stop himself going berserk on the guy. "Maybe if people actually gave me advice about things I wanted to know about instead of stupid things like kunai or shurikenjutsu I would actually listen!"
"What, you mean come here and ask you, what do you want to learn about ?"
"Yeah." Naruto ground out.
"That would be a terrible way to teach. In my experience, all people want are novelties or flashy tricks – something to make others go 'ooh' or 'aah' instead of actual work that entails blood, sweat and tears which they feel to be dull and tedious. As you have aptly demonstrated by refusing to work more and increase your Accuracy."
"I'm a lot better now! I should…" Was this guy blind; Naruto had hit all the targets.
"…stop bothering and coast by on a least amount of effort ?" offered Sasori.
Naruto frowned. "Who cares about these stupid weapons anyway? I want to learn cool jutsu, anyway!"
"And who's going to teach you these cool jutsu ?"
Naruto examined his toes.
"You have the gall to talk becoming Hokage. What about making Rookie of the Year ? I may be new in town, but even I have passed the Academy Notice Board. I noticed that you ranked last in your class, Naruto."
Naruto was not going to cry. He was not. Never. Ever. Just wait, he was going to rain down hell on this guy's shop.
"I can see that when you want to, you push yourself to work, even for hours." Re – Sasori began, motioning to the score notepad that Naruto had been using. "As I said, I can help you."
"..."
"I do not require your answer immediately. Think about what we have discussed. You may not agree with me, but instead of crying like a baby, you can keep practicing and you may be surprised at the results."
Naruto was so angry at Sasori.
Just as he managed to get his tea – breathing under control and tell him to stuff it or his shop was going to be toast, he found that Sasori had vanished.
He was alone.
.
.
.
Naruto kept up his work.
Everyday after class, he went to his super secret training ground and practiced his accuracy until his fingers ached and his arms felt like jelly. Imagining that the targets were Sasuke's face made things a lot more easier. He did not keep score in the notepad, not once since Sasori had mocked him. He was going to show that Stupid Head that he knew nothing.
He could not get a handle on the Sasori. First he said Naruto was stupid and not working hard and then he praised him and then when he felt better, Sasori went right back to making him feel small again. What was his deal!
Thunk. Naruto stared angrily at the target post. The kunai stuck just on top of the outer ring. Argh! Why couldn't he improve faster! Ever since Sasori had fun of his Accuracy, it seemed like his progress had hit a plateau.
It seemed like everyone was on his case these days, Naruto thought as stewed in his seat, ignoring Iruka's mindless blathering.
"Ok class. Everyone line up. Quickly now." Iruka's raised his voice over the din of the classroom. Hmph, Iruka-idiot. Another bastard making his life hard for no good reason.
Naruto was still sulking when his name was called. The moment Sachiko-sensei's eyes fell to him, she let out a tired sigh. "Just get it over with, Naruto-kun." She said, rubbing her forehead to offset the coming migraine; hopefully the kid wouldn't throw another temper tantrum and run off.
Another person did not believe he could do anything. Why couldn't he just catch a break ?
Looking out across the field, Naruto sized up the targets. They seemed easy enough.
Wait, what ?
What had once seemed like an impossible distance, the targets now seemed to be pretty damn close. Hell, Naruto could do this in his sleep.
"What is it, afraid that you're gonna get a zero again idiot ?" came a voice from the students and everyone started laughing. Iruka-sensei quieted them down and Sachiko-sensei sighed again.
"Hurry up, Naruto." she said tiredly.
For some reason, he felt uncertain and anxious. There was a rush, like he had just pulled off a prank and had to act normal so that no one would suspect him. Sachiko-sensei was frowning at him.
Before she could remind him again, Naruto opened his weapon's pouch and began.
One.
Two.
Three.
He did not look to see if they had hit their targets, he couldn't. Not now. His hands were already sweaty. The afternoon air was suddenly cold on his skin.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Naruto keep going, the rush rising higher and higher. He nearly fumbled the weapons because of the sweat on his hands. He almost forgot to breathe as he kept going.
Finally, he reached into the pouch and found nothing there. Blinking, Naruto checked his pouch. It was empty. Looking up, he took in the range.
"Ve...very good, Naruto, a perfect score." came Sachiko-sensei's stunned voice.
The rest of his classmates were silent. Iruka-sensei was staring.
And suddenly...
...Naruto didn't feel so bad after all.
In fact, this day could not get any brighter.
.
.
.
When he next arrived at his training ground, Sasori was waiting. Sitting on the stump of a tree, his reading glasses on, a book in his hand which he casually flipped through.
When Naruto purposely stepped on a twig, he looked up, a small, satisfied smile on his face. Naruto did not say anything, ignoring him. Lets see how he liked it. Dropping his schoolbag, he immediately began his drills. Sasori was going to be so stunned!
Except...
...he did not hit the center rings like at the Academy. In fact, he was lucky to hit the middle ring; most of his throws at landed between the middle and outer rings.
Gobsmacked. Naruto just stared. Plans of Sasori's comeuppance gone from his mind. 'What...?'
"Ah, yes. I was wondering when you would notice that." Sasori began in a smug tone.
At Naruto's stupefied look, Sasori just rolled his eyes and motioned for Naruto to follow him. They went over to the target posters on the log where Sasori pointed to the ground. There were drag marks everywhere. It took only a moment for the other shoe to drop in Naruto's mind.
"You've been messing with my training ground!" He exclaimed angrily.
"Hardly, I have merely been moving the targets further back and changing their position from time to time in an effort to make the range more challenging." Sasori explained calmly.
Naruto was fuming and just about to promise retribution when the older boy went on. "Because of the increased difficulty, you did not notice a marked improvement in your skills and thus worked all the more harder to improve."
"You...you..."
"The Academy range seemed easy did it not ?"
"What does that..."
"Do you really not pay attention to anything ?" asked Sasori, now cross.
At Naruto's expression, Sasori adopted a lecturing tone.
"You aced the Academy course because to you, the range was easy, given that you've been practicing on a more difficult range."
"...Oh." Naruto examined his toes in embarrassment.
"Naruto." Sasori began in a placating tone. "You can remain angry if you want or you can agree to put your pride and so called 'superior' knowledge in the back seat and agree to follow my instruction."
He did have a point. "Sure, I guess I'll..."
"Wait."
"Huh ?"
"First things first. I'm not going to help you just for free."
Now this jerk wanted something ? Naruto was back to hating him. "I don't have any money and besides I'm already going to the Aca -"
"The same Academy that you've been going to for the last four years ?" asked Sasori snidely.
"..."
"I did a little research on you. Despite your age, you've failed the graduation exam once already."
Naruto did not like to talk about that.
"Of course, if you wish to stick with that Academy and its instructors, you are free to do so..."
Talking the Old Man into getting him a spot at the Academy did not seem so good in retrospect.
"...or you can make learn from me, for a price."
Naruto stared up at the older boy. He really wanted to, but he had already spent all of his week's allowance. "I told you, I don't have a lot of money, I -"
"Before you say no, will you do me the courtesy of at least hearing out my proposal ?"
"..."
"Good. Now, I find myself in a spot of trouble. There is literally, a mountain of paperwork to be dealt with back at my shop..."
"I hate paperwork!"
"Which though exhaustive," Sasori continued on, ignoring his outburst. "I can find the time to deal with, what I do not have the time for however, is standing around and making sure it all gets delivered on time to the appropriate departments."
"Huh ?"
"I need an office boy. Someone to brew the coffee, pick up orders from clients, deliver paperwork and complete other miscellaneous tasks from time to time. I will even throw in a small salary for your time."
Work at a weapon's shop and get a salary. He never had a salary before; Naruto wanted to accept but...
"What does miscellaneous mean ?"
"Varied or diverse. Just small tasks really, nothing too difficult for an aspiring shinobi."
Well, it did not sound so bad.
"Of course, given that you will be working at my shop, you would get to see and handle a variety of ninja weapons and tools."
Naruto agreed on the spot, his thoughts turning to all the cool things he had seen in the ninja stores.
He completely missed the sly smile on Sasori's face.
.
.
.
Sasori's shop was the definition of cool.
There were weapons and armors of all stripes, some of which mounted on dummies, making them look scary.
There were ropes, chains, backpacks, inky black kunai, what looked like claws, super large shuriken, wheels that had sharp fangs, sickles and chains, nets, smoke-bombs, storage scrolls, there were some spears; it was like a view of paradise to Naruto, who was pulled back by the scruff of his neck before he had a chance to rush in.
"You can check the inventory out." said Sasori. "Everything but the explosive tags."
There were explosive tags here ! Naruto's eyes widened to the size of saucers.
"Everything but the explosive tags." Sasori repeated menacingly, adding special emphasis on the words.
Nodding quickly, Naruto rushed in.
It was even more awesome than what he had imagined. The whole shop loomed before him.
Naruto tested nearly everything. From the heavy inky blank kunai with weird shafts on the blade to the leather gloves which had metal points at the fingertips. One whole wall had been dedicated to the longer and bigger weapons; the sleek blades were surprising heavy in his hand. As he examined it, Naruto noticed that the light seemed to glint off a section of the metal. Looking closer, Naruto turned the blade up and down under the light until he found it; embossed onto the blade, below the wave decorations, was a segmented black scorpion that seemed to move, depending on how the light fell on the blade.
"My trademark." came Sasori's voice behind him, scaring Naruto, who dropped the blade. Just before it hit the ground, Sasori expertly caught it and placed it back on the stand. "Now if you are done playing around, there is work to be done."
Gah. Naruto was not going to like this. That he knew already; work was always stupid, which was why all adults became so boring.
"I've just set up, so I need to do an inventory and make sure everything is here. Would you mind helping me count all this ?" asked Sasori, motioning to the shop around him.
Naruto grinned. Did Sasori even need to ask ?
.
.
.
Working at the shop was not so bad, Naruto decided, carefully arranging the shuriken into neat little stacks, his fingers covered in plasters.
When Sasori ask for his help in sharpening and cleaning some of the weapons, he could not believe his ears. Sure, Sasori kept an eye on him and gave him a tonne of instructions about how to do things, but it was not so bad.
Before he knew it, evening had come and Sasori was motioning to him to come over to the counter. Scrambling onto a chair, his chin just reached the counter-top.
"Normally I will only pay you on the fifteenth and thirtieth of the month, however, as this is your first day here..." Sasori laid down a small wad of hundred ryo notes.
Naruto's eyes widened comically. Now that was a lot of money. "That's just too much, Sasori. I couldn't just take that from you..."
"Ok." replied Sasori quickly. He picked up the notes and put down a single hundred ryo note on the table.
"What!"Naruto exclaimed, outraged.
"I know now that you will accept less money, why should I, as a business, shell out more if I can get you to work for less ?" asked Sasori quizzically.
"Hey !" Naruto exclaimed. Just because he had said it was a lot did not mean he did not want it. He was just...trying to be polite. Yeah.
"Tell you what." continued Sasori calmly, holding the wad of notes in his hand which Naruto's eyes tracked back and forth. "If you keep up the good work, you can get this. However, if you slack off, your pay will be reduced."
"That's not fair!"
"Oh, I think it is more than fair. What if I paid you in advance and you only did shoddy work?"
"I don't do shoddy work!"
"Then you have nothing to fear. When the time comes, this money is as good as yours."
Naruto was starting to get pissed. What was it with this guy!
Smiling, Sasori pocketed the money. "Think of this as a incentive not only for you to work but to actually show up on time. Respect is not just given Naruto, it is earned. Lets see if you can earn mine."
Now he was implying that Naruto would just take the money and not show up for work! Of all the nerve. He was just about to give Sasori a piece of his mind when the older boy spoke again.
"Do not think I have forgotten our arrangement. I have promised to help you. You have to but ask."
Oh now he was in for it. Naruto would blow him out of the water.
"Ok then. What is chakra?" Lets see him answer that; even Sakura-chan had a bit of trouble explaining what chakra was when Mizuno-sensei had asked.
Instead of fumbling at the question, Sasori merely smiled.
Crossing his arms, Sasori adopted a lecturing tone, not sweating in the slightest. "Chakra is formed out of physical and spiritual energy. It is the basis..."
.
.
.
By mid November, Naruto realized that not only did Sasori know a lot about weapons and ninja gear, he knew everything in the Academy books that Naruto had. In fact, he started reading some of them to make sure Sasori was not just messing with him, but that only brought a whole new set of questions; Sasori's answers did not always agree with the books, but he somehow made the books seem wrong and his own answers correct. The more Naruto asked, the more questions he seemed to have about this and that.
Since there was no one else around, he just brought his questions to Sasori.
It got to the point one day that he began fumbling the questions, so Sasori suggested that he start writing them all down and wouldn't you know it, Sasori just had a blank scroll and pen in a nearby drawer. He handed both to Naruto.
"Just write them down in here ?" asked Naruto. The scroll and pen looked like good quality stuff. He was surprised that Sasori would give such nice things to him..
"Anytime, you think of a question or wonder about something that the Academy instructor does not care explain, just write it down." Sasori replied. "Bring it over and we'll go over them together."
Boy, was Sasori nice like that. If he wanted to see the Old Man, he had to wait for an hour or more.
Sasori showed Naruto how to draw flowcharts, arranging facts into a sequence, with main facts and subsets, it was all kind of complicated but he said it was part of mnemonics, which was supposed to help him learn; can't remember the names of the five nations ? Just think of the five main chakra elements, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and Lightning and vice-versa.
To tell which element was 'beat the other element', all Naruto had to do was start counting on the numbers: One is Fire, because Konoha was Number One, Two was the Wind that Fire could burn, Three was the Lightning that the Wind blew away, Four was the Earth that the Lightning struck, and Five was the Water that put out the Fire.
They even began working on something called a memory palace, where he put things he knew into imaginary rooms and if he needed to recall those things, he just thought of the room. Sasori said it took time to make a memory palace, that he should just start with a few rooms at first, but Naruto already knew what he wanted; his memory palace would be the size of Konoha! At its center woud be his office, the Hokage's Office, he could practically feel the Hokage's Hat on his head; it made everything brighter and clearer and so much better.
Sasori would talk and explain things and Naruto would right them down in his scroll. Together they went over the material; sometimes it was in the form of a puzzle, or in pictures or in a game. Sasori even asked his opinion on the stuff they went over, and when Naruto explained, he listened.
As time went by, class, well, was not so boring. It was still a drag, but, maybe it was sort of ok, Naruto decided.
Drawing a small comic strip about all the things he would do when he was Hokage (kick Sasuke's ass and marry Sakura-chan and make it so everyday was Ramen Appreciation Day) Naruto tried to tune the teacher out, until he realized that he knew what the man was talking about.
The realization boggled his mind.
Before Sasori had paid him yesterday, he had given him a small cipher puzzle to solve and it was exactly the same thing that was being discussed now. Instead of seeing a meaningless mish mash of numbers and letters on the board, Naruto could almost glimpse the hidden message within. Woah. That was pretty cool.
Things did not end there. The more he paid attention in class, the more he realized that he knew some of these things, and a lot more than was not covered in the book; this was not so difficult, now he could laugh at the others who fumbled the questions and with a face splitting grin, answer the question the teacher put to him and put them in their place! He was going to be Hokage in no time!
Now that started to get things, the Academy, well, it was not so bad, he guessed. Whenever he did not understand something, he simply wrote the questions he had down in the little black scroll that Sasori had given him instead of asking the instructors who would just make fun of him if he did. Jerks.
Naruto immediately noticed the strange looks the instructors gave him over the next few days, he had not pranked anyone in a while, but if something happened and he was in the area, those jerks would always try pin it on him. But instead of accusing him of something, the teacher asked Naruto if he had any questions regarding the topic.
Immediately he heard the other students whisper how he was so dumb. He heard them, clear as day. "Only a loser would not understand something so simple." Well, Naruto was not a loser.
Gritting his teeth, Naruto wondered why the instructor had singled him out. They stopped doing that after his first year. Besides, the more he thought about it the more hated the idea about asking a question in open class. They never cared to explain before. Maybe they just wanted to make fun of him. Yeah right, like the Prankster King was ever going to fall for such a lame ass move.
"No, I don't have any questions."
Some of the students laughed or whispered among themselves. The instructor frowned for a moment before continuing with the lesson.
Sasori never made fun of him for not knowing something or frowned at him like that. Instead, he dropped whatever he was doing and sat down with Naruto at his office desk. He explained things, going back to make sure Naruto understood what he had explained. It was not boring like when the Instructors droned on about this and that. Sasori had all sorts of cool stories which he used in his explainations. Even history, the most mind numbing subject that Naruto knew, could be cool when Sasori explained it to him.
"By cutting of the land of Water from the rice farms in the land of Fire, the Sandaime Hokage drove the export of rice underground, and thus.."
"Underground ?" asked Naruto.
"Through illegal or secret means." explained Sasori, without missing a beat.
"But then how did he stop the trade ?"
"Through an agreement with the local Yakuza clans. They would sabotage the supplies and ships, and if they could not, they would alert the Konoha ninja to intercept them."
Naruto was spellbound; who knew the Old Man was connected to the Yakuza!
"What happened next ?"
"Because their supplies and ships kept getting sabotaged, Water was forced to assign ninja to guard both. Thanks to the agreement with the Yakuza, Konoha ninja were informed beforehand and had time to set up ambushes for the Mist ninja."
It was not just boring stuff like Mr so and so did blah blah, which cause blah blah, or that Kage did this and that. Sasori told the stories like he had actually been there!
It made the hairs on his arms stand up and his palms sweat as he listened to Sasori stor – explainations.
There were secret plots, intrigue, double crosses, agreements made in the dead of night, princesses and princes, different Kage, eccentric daimyo, samurai generals, gangsters, assassins, fishermen, monks and nuns, different tribes and peoples, diplomats, farmers and merchants and so many more.
History came alive with people with the men and women who lived it. There was one guy, Takumi Chiba, who started out as a tinker from the land of Grass, who went to become a tailor in the Land of Frost, before enlisting in the Lightning army as a soldier; all the while he was secretly a spy for Fire. Naruto's eyes nearly exploded when Sasori told him about how the man had helped change the course Third Shinobi World War.
A world war, where everyone was fighting everyone else; that sounded like the super epic big boss scene in the comics where the bad guy wanted to destroy the world!
And Sasori did just know a lot of history and stuff about the land of Fire, he even knew a lot of things about the other countries too.
Like how the Earth Daimyo had attacked the monasteries and temples, because he was afraid of the taijutsu skills of the monks and nuns, whom he thought would launch a revolution against him, and so, with a secret deal and some traitors, he had his armies sneak up and attack all the temples and monasteries, all at the same time on the same day! Out of the carnage, only five elders had managed to escape, along with a few of their disciples to make it to the Land of Fire where they had founded what was now the Five Fire Temples.
Or that the land of Water was a mix between various fishing tribes and criminals banished to the far islands, away from everyone else; even today, there were rumors of pirate towns and secret underwater bases. Why, Sasori had heard of an entire community of people that lived underwater, part of an ancient civilization that had once ruled the world before something mysterious happened to them. Nowadays, if you dived deep down, where the light of the sun started to fail and the darkness of the deep started to envelop everything, you could find old ruins and who knew what was inside those. Maybe monsters like the giant squid or something. That really raised the hairs on Naruto's neck.
There were strange tribes that wandered around the desert in the Land of Wind, living a 'nomadic' lifestyle. Even in the desert, with so much sand that it stretched from one end of the sky to another, there was a sea there, but it was no ordinary sea, this sea had water so filled with salt, that if you swam in it, you would float right to the top. But that was not even the strangest about it. In the deep desert, far away from everything, the desert people used water to trade, buy and sell instead of paper money or gold and silver coins.
"But why would they use water as money ?" asked Naruto, eyes round, face rapt with attention.
"Well, because in the desert, water is very important, there is even a religious aspect to it. There is a common saying that from Wind that goes like this, 'Come three days in the desert and you will find that not even all the world's gold can change what a cup of water can'." Sasori explained sagely.
At Naruto's expression, he went on. "Do you remember the story I told you about the rich man, lost in the desert ?"
Immediately, the light-bulb came on. "Oh, he couldn't eat because all he had were coins and gems."
"Correct. If you are thirsty, you can't very well start drinking your money or clothes, hmm ?"
"Well, yeah." answered Naruto, and when the older boy said he was correct, he kind of liked that, it made him feel smart.
Sasori even understood the weird math stuff where you put X here and Y there. Then he said they needed a 'protractor' to measure degrees. All this math stuff was very boring at first, since if he counted even a single digit wrong, that would make everything else wrong. One day Naruto scored a eighty-seven percent on the test in the back of a maths workbook he had, suddenly, it was not so bad. The more he worked at it and just followed the formulas (duh!) the better he became. Besides, the better he got at maths, the more time he got to spend in the shop going over figures ( which was cake ) instead of going over document runs.
Naruto grimaced. When Sasori had explained it at first, it seemed so easy. Surely nothing like delivering documents could he hard right ?
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"What are you doing here, runt ?" asked the large man behind the counter.
Naruto fished around inside the bag Sasori had given him and eventually found the papers. "I'm here to submit these forms!" He piped, waving the scrunched up forms in his hand.
"Get in line." said the man belligerently.
"I am in line!" Naruto answered hotly. He lined up with all the other people and had been waiting for the last fifteen minutes. Fifteen whole minutes spent standing around; it was forever times by eternity! Had the manager guy not been around, talking to some lady, all the while trying to stare down her dress, Naruto would have been seriously bored.
If there was one thing he loved more than pranking idiots, it was watching people make fools of themselves.
"Well, go get a number from the lady over there and wait till your turn is called. You need to be in that line." The man said, pointing to another, even longer line across the hall.
Fuming, Naruto went and after answering some stupid question from the lady with the ticker, got a number and went to queue up. Eighteen minutes later...
"I'm sorry, but the Konoha wood permit B forms are to be sent over to counter twelve." said the lady behind the counter once she had glanced at the forms Naruto presented to her.
"But that guy just.."
"Please submit these forms to counter twelve. Thank you." said the lady, ignoring Naruto's outburst, before pressing a button which made a beep. "Next!"
It seemed like Sasori had to submit forms to every stupid office in town. Tax for this, tax for that, loan application from the bank, letters to the Konoha Newspaper about advertisement, catalogs of inventory to be delivered to the homes of various ninja, replies back from EVERYBODY.
He was beginning to see why the Old Man hated paperwork. It was taking over the world!
Entering the shade of the shop, Naruto found that he was really hating some of those places. Paperwork, the kind Sasori had him doing anyway, seemed pretty simple; go there, hand in these forms or letters, get a receipt or proof of acceptance, then go on to the next stop and repeat the process. Occasionally he had to receive documents from the officers, where he had to sign to prove that he had taken possession of documents.
It was kind of nice, seeing all these places which he had never known where there. All the people seemed so stuck in their work; go here, go there, stamp this, write this. Always rush rush rush. It was a whole world that Naruto had never known about. The Office World.
What was not nice was waiting in queues and the stupid pranks the clerks tried to play on him.
It was getting to the point that Naruto hated postal runs, almost as much as he hated Sasuke for acting so cool in front of Sakura.
Dropping his bag behind the counter, Naruto switched on the fan and began thumbing through an action novel Sasori had gotten for him. Reading was kind of lame at first, but the queues were long and he had nothing better to do. Besides, this thing had epic battles and if there was one thing Naruto loved, it was Epic Battles between bad guys and good guys.
- The Shogun, seeing that His son, Aku, had so callously murdered the brave man defending him, realized that His son was utterly lost to Him. Gathering up His psychic might, He directed it at Aku. Before the Arch Traitor could react, the Shogun used His powers to scourge the very soul, wiping even the echo of it from the Empyrean. In so doing, the Shogun broke the thrall of the Dark Powers, shattering the Curse they had called down on His beloved land. The Dark Powers, their tether to this world broken, were rent asunder by the...-
The bell above the door jingled as the door was opened.
Looking up, he saw a jounin wearing glasses come in. Some backpacks caught his eye. "Hey, shopkeeper, how much weight can these things..." He asked, turning towards the counter.
Naruto stared blankly at the jounin.
"Oh. I'm sorry, I must have the wrong.."
The man was already out of the door before he could finish the sentence.
"I thought I heard the doorbell ring. Did anyone come in ?" came Sasori's voice, drifting up from the workshop.
Hands wound tight around the action novel, Naruto answered stiffly. "No, it was just me."
"Oh, that's strange. I wonder why we have not had any customers yet. Hmm, well maybe its because the shop is just not popular yet. Anyway, give me a call if someone comes in."
"...su..Sure thing." answered Naruto tightly, struggling to keep his breathing even as his mind raced, out of control with its newest thought. Was it because of him, that Ichiraku's was not doing well ? Was it because of him that Ayame-chan and the uncle Teuchi couldn't make it big in the ra...
When Sasori heard a pained gasp followed by the jarred ring of the doorbell, he smiled to himself before he went back to his work.
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Before Naruto knew it, November had ended and it was December; time for the end of year exams, which Iruka had made a point of reminding him was coming in front of the whole class so that they could laugh at him. Bastard.
Naruto started flipping through the paper; page one had a history question divided into five subsections, pages two and three covered different ciphers that he had to crack to find the message. Some math segments, followed by four different essays, two on history, the other two had a selection of topics which he could write about. Some multiple choice stuff before ending with a map on the last page with some notes about the weather and season; Naruto needed to write directions and draw a route, providing reasons for both in his essay.
After sitting through a few exams, Naruto started cutting them. Book stuff was boring; all the heroes he had seen in the comics did nothing but fight the big boss of the week, so why would being Hokage be any different ?
When he had explained this to Sasori, the older boy had – in typical fashion – given him a serious dressing down before having Naruto go through some tests in his, largely unused, workbooks. Despite how much his head hurt and how much the older boy complained about his calligraphy, they had – just – completed three tests in one afternoon.
Sasori said that these tests were pathetically easy. He was going to be Hokage right ? Well the Hokage would definitely ace the tests. Naruto did not complain so much when he realized that doing the workbook tests meant less document and letter runs for him.
In typical fashion, Sasori had removed the answer sheets – damn him! - and graded them himself. Naruto was free to contest his assessment at any time. So they debated about this and that after going over the tests, fixing mistakes as they discussed answers. Soon, Sasori had some of his own workbooks for Naruto to practice on, so everyday, he completed two mock tests and Sasori helped him grade them.
No way was he motivated – even in the slightest – by Sasori's promise of a twelve scoop triple decked chocolate fudge ice cream with banana slices and melted marshmallows. Nevertheless, Naruto ploughed on. He had found the strength within to persevere in the face of the triple dec - adversity.
Soon, Naruto was working to complete mock tests, quizzes and puzzles that Sasori gave him to get 'Ramen Points'; if Naruto collected enough points, he could get sweets, hotcakes, ice cream and even something from the shop, if he had enough points. Right now, he had his eye on a cool black katana, because most of the heroes he read about had a cool black katana or two. Seriously, who didn't ?
Through all this, Naruto never wondered why Sasori had so much time for him.
But it was really nice that someone did.
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"Go over the paper again."
"I've triple checked it already.
"Well, triple check it again, asshole. No way, the Retard managed to pass, never mind ace, a written test."
"I'm telling you -"
"Give that here."
Marking papers was the bane of every teacher, it was like an angst fest on steroids; scrawled writing, unidentifiable words, smart ass answers, plain stupid ones, misspellings, little notes or smiley faces asking for extra marks or leniency, wandering paragraphs and arguments that went no where, cheating by various students, plagiarism on some parts, and parents who would throw a hissy fit asking why their children had received bad marks.
It was a nightmare.
Which is why, whenever papers had to be marked, the teachers of the Konoha Genin Academy usually started with the easy ones; in the case of class 403, that meant Naruto's paper, which was usually blank or just filled with bullshit that you could cross out in big swathes of red ink.
Just as Shinsain had uncapped a new red pen – Naruto's papers had a way of devouring red ink – the teacher had given his paper a cursory read ( Naruto little comic explanation strips could be mildly amusing at times ), but what he had read on the paper stunned him. Rechecking the name on the paper, he started reading.
And reading.
And reading.
Not only had the 'Retard' written something meaningful on his paper, the answers showed that he had put some thought into his answers. Spirits above, original thought from Naruto of all people ?
Half an hour in, he was forced to conclude that not only had Naruto passed; if not for some of the opinions he had expressed in his essays, he might have scored even higher. When he had handed it over to the second examiner, the teacher's lounge had experienced their version of a ten point oh earthquake. Suddenly everyone found the time to stop marking their own papers and weight in on the hot potato that had shook the teacher's lounge to its very core.
"That's impossible."
"As far as I can tell its solid."
"And he did not cheat ?"
"Please, that trouble-maker sitting still for three hours straight ? I had one eye on him the entire time. No way was I getting a water balloon thrown at me during..."
"He must have cheated."
"I'm telling you, he was marked the whole time. Sachi, Mizuno and me all had the eyeball, no way he..."
"Maybe he did not cheat bu -"
A loud snort.
"Hear me out. We all know he can get around. What if he broke into the lounge and got a peek at the marking scheme ? Don't give me that look Sachi-chan, he may be stupid but when he puts his mind to -"
"That could explain the multiple choice, maths segments and ciphers but what about the essays. Seriously, listen to this..."
Outside the teacher's lounge, Naruto backed away from the door. Sasori's offer letter to the Academy crumpled in his hand.
Carefully, he straightened the letter out and put it between the pages of his large history textbook, using a bit of string, he tied the book down, pressing the letter in between the pages. Sasori had given him hell when he received a complaint stating that Naruto could not be bothered to keep official documents in good condition.
It was late.
Yeah. That was it. They were just teachers, he should deliver the le -
He could deliver it tomorrow, to someone.
Naruto couldn't face the teachers, he'd just drop it with the secretary and...
Running now, Naruto left the Academy behind in blur.
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Sasori frowned as he watched Naruto attacking the target range. The torn shreds of his workbooks and mock tests littered the floor.
He had shown Naruto how to rig a simple system where he could get the targets to move one weekend and the boy had loved it. With some pride, he noted that Naruto weapons had come closer to the target centers; he still had some trouble moving targets, but if he put in more work, he'd get used to judging the distance, seeing the target progression of movement in his mind and thus anticipating the its future position.
Thunk.
A kunai landed just shy of the center ring.
With a cry of rage, Naruto attacked the pulley on the ground; the rope got cut, the target logs came crashing down and everything descended into chaos. After the dust settled, he sported some pretty nasty bruises. Naruto started kicking the logs and when he hurt his foot, picked up his school bag, threw it down, picked it up and gave it a good thrashing. Tearing the bag apart, he tore the pages out of his books and tried to start a fire to burn them all.
When that failed, Naruto carefully parked himself deep in the undergrowth and out of sight, started crying, rocking himself back and forth as he mumbled things Sasori could not hear.
Despite his attitude to the contrary, Naruto had a deep seated desire to not only be accepted by his peers but by the Konoha officialdom; though he may have disliked the teachers, he, himself had always yearned to realize a half forgotten dream of getting good marks on a test.
With all the practice on the mocks, not to mention Sasori's guiding hand spurring him to complete similar tests, getting high marks was practically a sure thing.
Sasori had wanted to shock both Naruto and the Teachers, while simultaneously providing the Jinchuriki with the impetus to break away from the Academy and whoever the Hokage had installed there to watch over Naruto; the culmination of his three month sub-campaign to denigrate and disparage the Academy Teachers in Naruto eyes.
But perhaps he had been a little too successful in that regard.
One week later and Naruto did not want to study, work at the shop or build his Ramen Points towards the black katana that Sasori had shown him.
Clenching his hands, Sasori cursed softly. He had rushed things. His timetable was set for years, not yet three months on the job and the boy was already eagerly following Sasori's every command. He had been right, the boy craved a stable, nurturing relationship and the lack of any true parental figure in his life had not helped matters, but...
...not only had Naruto been too pliable, the boy was just too intense.
He was growing, alright; Sasori had not spent countless hours enduring his vapid personality just to let the boy stagnate.
But now that he had a 'friend' who pushed him to excel academically, Naruto focused his energies into just that; all night studying, completing mock exams by the booklet, working hard at the target range, completing his shop work ahead of schedule. And while Naruto was by no means a genius, he was brilliantly creative and innovative. Since Sasori listened his thoughts, Naruto had really started exploring his ideas; while some were stupid beyond reason, Sasori had to admit, some had forced him to rethink his own position.
But all that was in jeopardy now.
With his ten year old mind in chaos, Sasori could not be sure if some of the ill will that was generated would blow back on him for awakening Naruto to the realities of the world around him.
Sasori was not worried for Naruto.
Oh no. The Jinchuriki boy was just another puppet under Sasori's fingers, dancing to his tune.
He was worried about the possible blow back because he not afford to alienate the Jinchuriki at this stage; trust was like a rare flower, so hard to care for, yet so easy to destroy.
However unlikely it might be, if Naruto identified Sasori as the cause of his current heartache, well, the last three months would just be time wasted.
Watching Naruto, Sasori was forced to admit that he might have overplayed his hand. Nevertheless, the was no use in crying over split blood. Since Naruto had reacted like this, Sasori would just accelerate his own timetable.
Now, to be a good mentor and help Naruto channel his energies into more productive areas...
With Phase One was complete, Sasori had gained access to his target's ground; it was time that he advance and kill off the pawns, freeing up the path towards the King.
Time to plant more seeds in that soft little head of his.
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Like many of the other Major villages, Konoha was a village in name only. With its sprawling buildings, the place could have passed as a major city. In fact, it was said you could not possibly know everyone in Konoha; coming from a small village, Mr Nikuya had found this hard to believe at first, since he had known everywhere where he had lived.
Six months down the road, Nikuya was a believer. The were crowds of people, almost a sea of them. Thanks to the good roads and constant patrols, travel around Konoha was not only extremely safe, it was actually pretty easy with all the small booths and rest stops here and there. So whenever market day or a festival day came around, it seemed like the whole of the Fire nation showed up at Konoha for the noisy stalls. Children running everywhere in paper ANBU masks, chasing one another. There was din of noise as sellers advertised their wares and people talked about this and that.
But, if there was one exception to the rule, it was Uzumaki Naruto.
Everyone knew about the blond haired devil child which ran wild on the streets.
Even as he brought down his cleaver on a chicken, Nikuya made sure to keep one eye on the blond haired kid with the strange whisker marked cheeks. His usual stupid smile gone, in its place a focused look.
Why did that kid have to make a nuisance of himself anyway ?
Everywhere he went, trouble was sure to follow. No matter what anyone said or did, the kid was not sent to an orphanage or locked up in the juvenile prison, which would have probably done a world of good for the kid, Nikuya thought to himself. The punk may have only been a kid, but he was the most rambunctious tyke he had ever known. Always involved in some stupid scheme. It was things like this which keep the rumors alive that he was some bastard of the Sarutobi clan that Hiruzen or someone else had fathered in secret with a whore. Why else would it be that the boy seemed untouchable by the village laws ?
Not that Nikuya spent his time listening to and spreading rumors. Rumor-mongering was the crass behavior of uneducated louts and wives who had nothing better to do all day but gossip, gossip, gossip, letting the housework go undone. Well not for Nikuya, he was a good, honest, hardworking man.
Still, he had to admit, the kid seemed to have the fortune of the Seven Gods themselves, all the shit he got himself in and then out of on a daily basis. 'Would mind having just a little bit of that luck myself.'
Well, now that he thought about it, the kid had sort of stopped his pranks lately. But that just meant he was saving up for some real mayhem. It was like having a wasp in a room, Nikuya thought, things were marginally better when you knew where it was. When you did not know where the wasp was...
...that was when you got stung.
The boy had disappeared into the crowd in front of the stage where the Taiko drums were being set up, just down the way was where the sumo were...
When he heard the firecrackers go off and saw people rushing this way and that like headless chickens, Nikuya had already thrown the covers over his cuts and was halfway to the nearest Konoha police booth.
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Umino Iruka sighed as he stared into the expectant sea of faces.
He had really tried to reach Naruto, but the more he tried, the more Naruto pushed him away. It had gotten to the point that Iruka was starting to wonder this was not just some childish fit but that Naruto actually hated him and the other teachers.
Not that Naruto made his case any easier with his stupid pranks; the boy had been seen in the vicinity of every zone where chaos and confusion had occurred and the only homes vandalized happened to be the homes of teachers that dealt with Naruto.
Oiled piglets let loose, firecrackers set off in the middle of various crowds, water-balloons filled with dyed water falling like rain everywhere, drinks spiked with alcohol, a bee's nest inside the men's toilet and a whole box of spiders in the ladies's toilet, shops vandalized with large painted flowers, soap put into the fish tanks, the Hokage Monument defaced, and a sewage pipe breaking the same time as the surrounding tunnel was so conveniently blocked. Ugh, Iruka could still smell the stink every time he thought of it.
When they had hauled Naruto in, the boy had been adamant that he had nothing to do with any of the pranks. And well, Iruka was trying to believe him, but as a teacher in charge of dealing with little children, Iruka knew that, contrary to popular belief, they could make some pretty fine liars.
Still, that was neither here or there. Security Section had let Naruto go because there was evidence that he had been elsewhere at the time the pranks occurred; which meant someone was purposely framing Naruto to drag his name through the mud unless Naruto had actually fooled them into believing he was innocent.
'Why couldn't anything be simple with Naruto ?', Iruka tiredly wondered to himself. Looking down at the next paper to be returned, he felt the knot in his gut grow.
"Uzumaki Naruto, eighty nine percent. Please come collect your paper."
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"And then, because of that, Sakura accused me of cheating on the exam! Kiba, that bastard, he..." Naruto paused as he took in another breath to fuel his rant.
"Naruto, give it a rest." Sasori cut in, still working to repair the flak vest on the table in front of him. "You have vented for the last forty five minutes. End it. Now."
Naruto stared at Sasori, flabbergasted.
"From your expression, I suspect that you feel deeply betrayed."
Hands clenched, Naruto felt his heart stammer. Was Sasori going to make fun of him now ?
"Rest easy, Naruto. Far be it from me to needlessly mock you."
Naruto felt...he did not know what he felt.
"However, it is time you turned your attentions to the people around you, such as your schoolmates and your interactions with them."
What the hell. This was supposed to be about that the pranks and the exam and that idiot Kiba and...Well, they had started out with those bastard teachers had accused him, falsely, of setting off the firecrackers...
"It seems like Sakura, as always, is causing you some trouble."
"NO!" Naruto shook his head, trying to get himself under control; Sasori really hated it if he shouted, he needed to...
"Minus fifteen Ramen Points."
Naruto stared at Sasori in horror.
"If you want to keep breaking the Rules, please feel free."
"..."
"Now, after countless hours of listening to your endless soliloquies about her, its apparent that you feel betrayed by Sakura. After all, you like her, right ?"
Well, even if it was not very cool to well, 'like' girls, because most of them were well, 'girls', Naruto really did like Sakura. Looking up at Sasori, Naruto wanted to nod, but he felt embarrassed.
"So her accusing you of cheating on the exam, all because you scored one point higher than her, must hurt pretty bad."
"She just..."
Sasori sighed. "When will you get it through that thick head of yours that you are better off without her ?"
"I lov – like her." Naruto fumed, getting angry even though he knew he should keep a cool head when talking with Sasori.
"Do you lov – like her still," began Sasori, putting emphasis on Naruto's fumbled words. "..even after she accused you, unfairly, I might add, of cheating on the exam ? We both know how much hard work you put into completing the mocks."
"...She was just confuse-" said Naruto, trying to defend Sakura.
"Like how she is confused about our dearest, Sasuke ?" retorted Sasori.
"..."
"If you truly loved her, then you would accept her for who is she, not for some made up person in your mind. Face it, Naruto, she likes Sasuke who..."
"Is a Bastard! He's acts so arrogant and does not care about Sakura at all."
"Really ?"
"Really." answered Naruto.
"And this is your final assessment ?"
"Yea -" Naruto managed to stop before he spat the whole thing out; whenever Sasori asked him a question like that, it meant a curve ball. But, as the silence dragged on, Naruto just not see what angle Sasori's counter might come from. Staring up, he met Sasori's expectant gaze.
"Yeah, it is."
"Conviction, very good, Naruto. So, you have already considered what Sakura might see in Sasuke ?"
Naruto stared into Sasori's brown eyes. "There is nothing to see, he is a cold, arrogant prick who is too good to play with me and Kiba or any..."
"Apart from the fact that he the last of a famous clan, is extraordinarily gifted in the shinobi arts himself, is financially well off and has past steeped in tragedy ? Perhaps he is nothing more than a wounded child inside, whose heart was broken and now, fears letting anyone in again because he has had it all taken away before. Now he needs someone special to mend his broken hear-"
'THIS IS NOT SOME ROMANCE NOVEL!"
"Minus thirty Ramen Points."
Naruto almost screamed. Sasori gave him a cool glance over his glasses.
Counting backwards, from one thousand, the young boy just managed to get his temper under control.
"You have to admit, Sasuke is a dead ringer for the lead spot of romance novel." said the older boy breezily.
Naruto giggled and the tension was broken.
"Tell me, just how many 'friends' do you have Naruto ?" asked Sasori.
"Well, there's Chouji, Shikamaru, Kiba and Sakura!" answered Naruto easily.
"Did Chouji, Shikamaru or Kiba stand up for you when you were accused of cheating on the exam ?"
"...n..No."
"As for Sakura, unless you have a fetish for masochism, which she, as a sadist, happily supplies you with.."
Red faced now. "Its not like that!"
"I just wonder why you feel inclined to 'like' a girl who hits you."
How could he explain that Sakura was just...well, he had protected her, even though she did not seem to remember it.
"I can see it now: twenty years down the line, you show up at my doorstep, battered and bruised, whilst she has traded you in for a younger model."
"Ewwww!" Naruto hit his face with his palms as he made a gagging sound. Those stupid magazines he had used to create his Sexy Jutsu really did rot the mind.
Sasori started chuckling at Naruto's antics, which earned him a baleful glare from behind the young boy's fingers.
"In any case, none of your 'friends' defended you in the schoolyard ?"
Well, no one had right ?
"..Ye..Yeah."
"That doesn't seem very friendly to me." Sasori said sagely and suddenly, at that moment, it did pretty bad; did Naruto have any real friends at all?
"Are you acquainted with others in your class ?" queried the shopkeeper.
"No, they are all stupid and weird, besides, they don't like me." answered Naruto softly, trying to count how many friends he really did have.
"Is that how the instructors treated you ?"
"..." Shamefaced, the jinchuriki looked away.
"Do not judge a book by its cover, Naruto, in fact, don't leap to conclusions, lest others do the same on you." warned Sasori, his voice sharp.
"But what should I sa -"
"That reminds me, aren't the school holidays coming up?"
Naruto stared at Sasori. What did that have to do with anything! His world had just come crashing down and now they were talking about the holidays?!
"Well, you could always..."
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The ring of a bell was followed by a chorus of "Yay's" and the sound of chairs being pushed back. "Alright, Class, remember to complete your holidays assignments, I'll see you all next year, don't forget! Dismissed." said the teacher as he gathered up his materials and left for some much needed down time.
As an Aburame, Shino had been warned by several of his clansmen that Academy could be trying.
His Sire, uncles, aunts, the older Aburame children, even the Queen of his branch family had spared a moment to warn him about it and what he should do. Though he had listened attentively, at the back of his mind, Shino wondered if the whole thing was being blown out of proportion.
he had enjoyed the first week of Academy. He enjoyed the classes and meeting new people. The Academy was bright, noisy and something was always going on. It was the complete opposite of the land his clan occupied; under the darkness of the dense foliage, the ground moist and air filled with the constant buzzing of insects, something only made worse with the use of his Clan's cant.
It was a week before the other children learnt that he was an Aburame. So they came over and asked for him to show them his kikaichu, surprised at this, Shino had complied.
When they started pulling off the legs and wings of his kikai and then flicking them when could they not escape, Shino had not only been shocked, he had been so angry that he had punched the another boy and started a big fight.
His first month at school and already he had been sent home with a reprimand and list of demerits. It burned him.
Even though he had kept to himself, word got around that his whole body was filled with 'creepy crawlies', something Kiba had laughingly called 'fleas'. How he wished to repay him in kind and call Akamaru a mongrel despite his purebred status. Thankfully, he already had Naruto for that. For someone who claimed to be pretty tough, Kiba had really thin skin when it came to Akamaru.
As for the rest of the class; nobody wanted to sit next to a 'bug's nest'. The instructors, having seen it all before, tried their best to include him in activities, but Shino found it more and more easier to fade into the background and not make waves like some of his other classmates seemed determined to. With other, more boisterous students, the teachers began devoting more attention to them.
It was nothing, Shino reminded himself. This too, will pass, in time.
Fast forward ten and a half months, he felt exhausted as he sat at the back of the classroom, packing up his bags after another tiring day at the Academy. And to think, he had two more years of this. Shino decided that he just might go insane.
The time before him seemed impossible.
A shadow fell across him, looking up, Shino saw Naruto, self styled as the Prankster King of the World. Given the scale of his last 'prank', perhaps he could actually lay claim to the title.
"I was wondering, uh, would like to join my study group and train together?"
Naruto's face split into a large grin.
Shino stared back from behind his dark glasses, uncertain if he had heard that right; nobody had ever asked him to join their clique.
"Well?" Naruto asked expectantly.
"I'm sorry, what did you want?" asked the Aburame boy, unsure if he had already gone mad.
That seemed to deflate the blond a little.
"I'm..uh making a study group for...stuff. I'll help you with the assignments, if, you know, would you come train with me ?" Naruto repeated, a lot more nervously.
"You are forming study group and want to train together?" asked Shino with a touch of incredulity.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Naruto happily. "I got this super secret training ground hidden away. I've rigged it up with moving targets and stuff. Wanna train?"
Perhaps Naruto had not cheated on that exam, or maybe he had already acquired the answers for the assignments. Either way, this was the first such offer that Shino had ever received and well, a full range would only take an hour. School was out, and frankly, Shino had been dying to figure out how Naruto had aced the test.
"Sure. These targets..."
"Cool, grab your kunai and shuriken sets and follow me!"
Before Shino could say another word, Naruto was already whooping with joy and dashing for the door. "Keep up, slowpoke!" He called, already two rows down.
Shino scrambled after him.
*Update 17/07/12 - fixed the typos. Thanks for pointing them out.