Disclaimer: I unfortunately don't own Naruto, It's as simple as that.
An: Important note, I plan to upload about 2 to 3 times a week for Answers of the Heart. Sometimes depending on how work and life goes, I will be able to get out even more chapters a week. Anyways on with the story.
Answers Of The Heart
He made it, he really did! The month was finally over and he was finally use to the torture that was forced on him. To think that the crazy old man would make him actually eat vegetables. Even if he was starting to get used to the greens, it still made him cringe to eat them. In all seriousness though, the training that Hiruzen pushed onto Naruto really was yielding results. In the span of one month, Naruto had managed to pull on his chakra without the need of the ram handsign. He also had to say that he felt a lot stronger, practicing the taijutsu forms really helped to create a strong foundation and build on his stamina.
His Jiji may have been hard on him but he kept his word about teaching him some jutsu. One of the jutsu that he learned was called the henge no jutsu (transformation jutsu). The interesting thing about his henge was that instead of making an illusion like most people, they discovered that whatever he turned into was actually solid and had the mass of the original object. The prankster in him saw the value of such a technique. Especially after the conversation that he had with his Jiji a week ago.
Flashback
"I did it Jiji, I can do the henge now! Can you teach me the other jutsu that you promised me now?" Naruto was so excited for his accomplishment and felt that he was ready for the next technique. However, he was about to receive a valuable lesson from his sensei.
"If I told you that you had to fight against a ninja but you would get to choose your opponent, who would you choose. A ninja who only knows ten jutsu or a ninja that knows one hundred?" Hiruzen asked his young charge
Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion by the question but he answered anyways, "I guess… I would choose the opponent with ten jutsu."
"Why?" was the only thing that Hiruzen responded with.
"Well because he only knows ten jutsu. That means that he has less techniques that he could hit me with."
The Hokage was about to make a very important point to his student and he had a smile on his face to show that he knew it. "What if I told you that because of the choice that you made that you are now dead."
"What!?" It didn't make sense to Naruto why would he die because he chose the guy with the less amount of jutsu. "Why would I die."
"Think of it like this. Let's pretend that these two ninjas have the same experience, have gone on the same missions and are around the same skill level. The one with hundreds of jutsu, learns them just because he can. As a result, he hasn't mastered any of them, he doesn't know all of the ways that the jutsu can be used. Meanwhile, the ninja with ten techniques has completely mastered all of his jutsu. He knows every single way that each one can be used. He even doesn't need to use handsigns for his jutsu because he knows how to use them perfectly. Who sounds like a scarier opponent to you?"
Naruto replayed the explanation in his head, the reasons that his Jiji used made perfect sense to him. "So, your saying that before I learn the next technique, I have to master the henge?"
The Sandaime was happy that his pupil understood what he was explained to him. "Not necessarily, I will still give you the other jutsu but, I want you to master the henge. Get it to the point that you don't even have to think about it in order to use it, I want to be able to see you use each jutsu that you learn in a way that no one else would ever think of." Hiruzen planned to train Naruto in such a way that no one would ever be able to counter him. He was going to make a monster of a shinobi out of him.
"Alright Jiji, I promise that I'm going to master every single jutsu that I learn and I'm going to surprise you with every single one. And I won't break my promise, dattebayo!"
Smiling, the old man said, "Good now get back to training. Tomorrow I will still be teaching you the next jutsu."
"Yata!" Naruto yelled out at the fact he would be getting another technique.
End flashback
For the rest of the week, Naruto's main focus was on mastering his two new jutsu. He was making outstanding progress on the henge but his other jutsu was proving to be a major problem to learn. Yesterday, Hokage-Jiji gave him an exercise to complete in order for him to control the jutsu better. He was excited about his two jutsu but that didn't override the sadness that he was feeling. He was sad because today would mark his last day of regularly training with Jiji. Tomorrow marks his first day in the academy.
He was broken from his thoughts when the previously mentioned old fart snuck up behind him and proceeded to scare the shit out of him. "Ahhhhhh! What the hell Jiji!? What was that for?" The nerve of some people! Did he really have to do that?
With a satisfied look, Hiruzen said, "You should have been paying attention to your surroundings, I could have killed you if I wanted to. Do we need to play the kunai game again today?"
It took Naruto everything he had to suppress the shiver that he was feeling. During the stealth portion of his training, Jiji created that stupid game and used it as a way to make Naruto constantly keep an eye on his surroundings. The game basically consisted of Jiji sneaking around through the trees and throwing kunai at Naruto. He wasn't allowed to leave the clearing in the middle of the trees. As Naruto got better at the game he wasn't allowed to dodge anymore, the only ways he could defend himself was to either deflect the kunai with his own or to snatch them out of the air.
"Nope nobody needs to play that game today." He sure as hell didn't want to play it, unless he was the one throwing the kunai. "So, what are we going to do today Jiji?"
"Today I figured that I would go over some things with you about the academy and also go over our new training schedule while your attending the academy. After we are finished, I'm leaving the rest of the day to you."
"Okay. What's going to happen now that I'm in the academy?" Naruto was naturally curious after all his entire schedule was about to change.
"Let's start with your academics. You have done well in learning from the scrolls that I gave you and I will be continuing to give you more scrolls to read. You will be receiving one to five scrolls per week to go over and memorize depending on their length. This week I will be giving you one big scroll. The scroll is a study on psychology, otherwise known as the study of the human mind."
Naruto was confused that he would be getting a scroll about the human mind of all things. He could somewhat understand the application for such information but, it would be more useful for him when he is closer to being a genin. "Why give me a scroll on Psychology now? Wouldn't it make more sense to give it to me when I'm closer to graduation?"
"You are indeed correct Naruto-kun. Don't worry about that for now, I will explain my reasoning shortly. Until then, keep listening. Anyways, I will still be testing you on the scrolls however, a lot of the stuff that I already taught you will be retaught to you at the academy. The academy will be going over taijutsu, shuriken-jutsu and three different ninjutsu; the henge (transformation) which you know already, the bunshin (clone) and the kawarimi (replacement). This will all be very easy for you to do but, I want you to purposely do bad at everything. I want you to make everyone think you're the dead last."
"What!? Why would I do that? I want to be the best!" Naruto really wanted to do his best to show his sensei that he wasn't wasting time on him.
The old man was expecting this reaction. "I understand but, there are two reasons I need you to do this. First, I need you to hide your abilities from everyone because if people see the skills that you have then they will start to question where you are getting them from. As a result, it would be much harder to avoid being caught. You will be allowed to slowly show better skills over time but, you should keep a lot of things secret. Now before I explain the next reason, do you remember when I told you how the mission rank system works?"
Naruto nodded he did remember, "Yeah missions are categorized by how difficult or secretive they are. They start at D-rank and can go as high a S-rank. Why?" Naruto wondered why this particular subject was brought up.
"The second reason is because I have an unofficial S-rank mission for you due to how secretive this is."
"What!?" Naruto yelled out for what felt like the millionth time that day "Why would you have an S-rank mission for me. I'm not even a ninja!"
Hiruzen had to take a second to enjoy the look of disbelief on the blonde's face. 'Damn, I wish I brought a camera.' "Yes, an S-rank mission. Here are the details that you need to know for the mission. There are going to be heirs from seven of the major ninja clans in your class. I have a feeling that your generation has the ability to far surpass all other generations before you. Some of the clan heirs have personal issues that may hinder their learning. This is where that scroll on psychology will come in handy, I want you to find out how to motivate your fellow students and convince them to grow stronger whether they want to or not. I want you to play as the worst student and slowly show the skills that you have because I have a feeling that some of the students will only work harder if you threaten to take their spot in the hierarchy of the class. This is a tall order, it's going to be very difficult but, I have complete faith in your ability to handle this task."
"Why would this be an S-rank? All you're technically having me do is motivate my future class mates. That really doesn't sound like a high ranking or top-secret mission."
"Good observation Naruto. You are correct, at first glance this doesn't seem like such an important job and it really isn't. The S-rank part of the mission has to do with one of the students that will be in your class."
Over the month, Naruto had shown how trustworthy and dedicated that he can be. As a result, Hiruzen planned to give the boy this task because he felt that the boy would be the greatest influence of the next generation and to be honest, the aged Sandaime wanted to give Naruto leadership experience early.
"What's so important about one student?" Naruto was intrigued that this mission was based on one person. "Who is it?"
"Uchiha Sasuke should be your main focus. His entire clan was murdered by his older brother four days ago. He is the only survivor and I believe that he could be a major flight risk if he doesn't build any kind of connections with people in the village. Your main task is to do everything in your power to keep him in the village. To build some kind of bond with him."
Two weeks ago, Naruto read a scroll that went over the clans of Konoha and he of course understood the fact that the last Uchiha was something of importance to the village. He couldn't believe that the entire can was dead now though. Weren't the Uchiha supposed to be really powerful and the co-founders of the village.
"You must understand Naruto. This is important, we just ran a psych evaluation on Sasuke-kun and he is being effected by a disturbing amount of rage and revenge. I believe that the first opportunity that Sasuke can see, he will run away from the village to try and kill his brother, which at this point is an absolute death wish."
"But what if I fail?" Naruto was worried, his Jiji made it sound super important, he couldn't help himself from frowning. What if he couldn't do it? He didn't even know the guy and he was already worried about him. "What if I can't help him?" The blonde whispered to himself.
The student flinched when his teacher placed a hand on his shoulder but looked up anyways. "Don't worry about failing Naruto. Just do your best, that is all I ask of you. Don't force a friendship, just do your best and remember that this does not fall on your shoulders alone." 'Bless your big heart, you knuckle headed student of mine.'
"Don't worry about your task for now, I still have to go over our training while you're in the academy." That got a smile out of the Uzumaki. "You and I will be meeting here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after the academy to continue building on your skills. I expect you to work at least one to two days every week to practice what you already know and continue mastering techniques you already know. From here on out, I will only be teaching you knew ideas and techniques. It will be your job to practice them yourself."
"Yeah I can do that Jiji, that should be easy. I can still ask you for help when I need it right?"
"Of course," the old man said, "I am your sensei. That is what I am here for. Now that we have all of that covered. Do you have any questions?"
"Nope, not right now at least."
"Good I will be taking my leave then. The rest of the day is yours to do what you wish with. I will see you later my boy." With everything said and done, Hiruzen disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving Naruto by himself on the training ground.
Snatching a leaf from the ground, Naruto decided that he was going to take today easy and just practice his Chakra control. He had his first day of the academy tomorrow and he didn't want to tire himself out. 'I guess while I'm at it, I should start reading that psychology scroll. I need to be ready for my mission. I can't believe that Jiji gave me a mission, I better get paid for my troubles.'
As Naruto left for his house, he had no idea just how much trouble the next 5 years would prove to be.
Next day
"Everyone sit down and shut up!" The scary man with a scar yelled with his freaky big head.
Naruto scratched the back of his head in exasperation. 'I didn't sign up for this, did I?' He thought as he took a seat. Looking around, he noticed that he was sitting next to a girl with long, pink hair and a red dress with slits going up to the hip on each side. On his other side, he saw a brooding boy with duck-butt styled black hair, a navy shirt and white shorts. 'Frown, check. Uchiha crest on his back, check. Looks like a squirrel climbed up his butt and died, check check. This is definitely Sasuke.'
Naruto's thoughts were broken by his new sensei, "Alright class listen up! My name is Iruka and this is Mizuki." Iruka had a scar across his nose and wore the standard chunin uniform of the leaf flak vest and navy pants and shirt. His fellow teacher Mizuki, had chin length white hair and the standard chunin uniform as well. Not only that but, he looked like a dick in Naruto's esteemed opinion with that sneer on his face. He wouldn't judge too quickly though because his Jiji told him countlessly to never judge a book by its cover. "We are going to be your sensei for the next couple of years before you actually become shinobi of the village. I will be going over a role call to make sure everyone is here. When I say your name, I want you to respond that you are here. First off, Aburame Shino."
"Here" came from the spiky, dark haired kid who had on sun glasses and a white lab-like coat that covered up his face. If you listened carefully you could hear what sounded like bugs flying around. Naruto was going to get a kick out of it when the girls of the class found out he had bugs inside of his body.
"Akimichi Choji."
'munch, munch' "Here" 'munch' Choji spoke in between bites of his seemingly endless bag of chips. 'I thought those bags mostly had air in them, he has been eating the same bag for the past ten minutes faster than I can run around this room.' Choji was a rather rotund boy with what looked like an upside down blue diaper with brown hair sticking out in two protrusions. Naruto also noted the white scarf and green jacket that he had on.
"Haruno Sakura"
"Here" The girl right next to him said in a shy tone.
Moving on, Iruka called the next name, "Hyuuga Hinata"
"H-Here" Came the stuttering, shy response of the white eyed girl with the blue style hime haircut.
"Inuzuka Kiba"
"What the heck sensei! You didn't call out akamaru!" 'Yip, Yip' Came the energetic responses from the little white dog and his human.
'Im going to ignore that' Iruka thought before continuing "Nara Shikamaru" No response…
"Shikamaru" Still no response.
Looking over, Iruka noticed what looked like a pineapple made of black hair rested over a desk with a slight snore coming from it. Eye twitching repeatedly, Iruka promptly marched up to the lazy-ass Nara and proceeded to punch the desk he was asleep on to wake him up. Slowly Shikamaru shuffled around before muttering 'troublesome' and then sitting up. 'It's only been 30 minutes and I already want to retire. What have I gotten myself into?' Standing once again at attention in the front of the class, the scarred chunin continued. "Uchiha Sasuke"
"Hn" Well that was anti climatic.
"Uzumak-" He was cut off by the blonde who jumped on top of his desk "I'm here dattebayo! Uzumaki Naruto is here and he is bringing his A game. Watch out wor-" 'BANG!' "Shut up dobe!"
Naruto was shocked! The pink shy girl right next to him just punched him off of the desk and yelled at him. Wasn't she supposed to be shy like two minutes ago? 'I'm keeping my distance from her!'
"Anyways, um Yamanaka Ino"
"Here" The blonde girl with the pony tail said. Naruto noticed she was dressed in a purple sleeveless shirt with white arm warmers.
"Naruto get back to your desk. We are going to start reading."
Half an hour later
'Stop the madness, please, I can't take it anymore!' Naruto wanted to repeatedly slam his head into his desk but, Iruka already yelled at him for that once. Maybe he could use that jutsu to escape and just be done with the history lesson that the class was receiving.
"Ruto" 'huh?' was someone calling his name? Looking up, he saw Iruka barely a foot in front of his face with a twitch of the eye. "Naruto! Pay attention to class!" With that said, Iruka stomped back up to the front of the class. "ugghh!" Naruto groaned.
"I heard that!"
One month later
For the past month, each day went similar to his first day at the academy. He would get yelled at and then was forced to learn. Afterwards, the class would go outside to learn tai and shuriken-jutsu. After everyone had a turn in hand-to-hand combat which Naruto would purposely lose at, the class would go to lunch. When lunch was finished they would go into the classroom and continue to learn some more. To finish off the day, the class would learn chakra theory and practice their chakra control with the leaf spinning exercise.
As far as his little mission from the Sandaime was going, he was having a bit of trouble of trouble with some of his classmates. He had a few of his peers that he was really getting along with such as Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru. Together they would skip out on class and Naruto would convince them to either help with his pranks or he would get them to do some training with him. He could never get them to skip class but, occasionally Shino, Hinata or Ino would hang out with them too.
Naruto's real problems were with Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura had a major temper when it came to Naruto. She was straight up rude to him and would try to physically abuse him at any chance she could get. Naruto didn't understand it and he tried to keep his distance for the most part because of how vindictive she could be. Sasuke just ignored him. Okay fine,that was an understatement. You let a guy beat you in a couple spars and he thinks that he is completely beyond you, the pricks lucky that Naruto couldn't go all out on him. Naruto had tried to talk with Hiruzen on how he could try and make a breakthrough but none of their ideas would bear any fruit. It just seemed like Sasuke completely refused all outside help or acts of kindness. It couldn't be healthy to shut yourself in like that!
The academy and all of its frustrations aside, training with Hiruzen had been very successful. Naruto felt like he had a very good understanding on using his full henge (transformation) and he had managed to master his other jutsu as well. He even created another jutsu based on it. Naruto decided he was going to wait until the academy taught him the Kawirimi no jutsu (replacement jutsu) and with his Jiji's help he learned how to use the shunshin (body-flicker), Shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu (shuriken shadow clone jutsu) and how to climb on trees. His Jiji saw that it was fit to beginning training his elemental affinity which they found out was wind and start on water walking as well.
Today happened to be one of his off days from training with the Hokage and he just got off from a particularly irritating day from the academy. To blow off some steam he decided that he would go to the training ground he uses and practice some of his techniques.
Running off to the grounds, he started muttering to himself, "How was I supposed to know that Shikamaru would duck when I threw that eraser at him. I thought he was asleep, it's not my fault that the eraser hit Mizuki-teme in the no-no square. I couldn't predict that happening!" Unfortunately, Naruto didn't scout around himself to make sure he wasn't being followed.
Finally, he made it to his training ground. An open grassy field with a small lake off to his left and trees facing to his front and right side. Naruto did a small work out of laps around the field and then a couple sets of pushups and sit ups. With one handsign and the application of chakra, Naruto managed to create three clones of himself that took up fighting positions around him. Right before he signaled for the fight to start he noticed some one that was familiar to him peeking around the corner of a tree.
"Crap, Jiji is going to kill me when he finds out and he is probably going to make me play the kunai game again." Naruto let out a noticeable cringe at the thought. 'I might as well put on a show for her sense I'm caught anyways. I'll just have to make sure that she doesn't get away.'
With a chop of his arm the fight was called "Begin!"
Half an hour earlier with Ino
"There he is!" Ino finally found the boy she was looking for. "Naruto can be slippery when he wants to be."
Ino had very mixed feelings about the boy that she was watching right now. She had hung out with her fellow blonde two times or so and he seemed like a nice kid. He just liked playing pranks a little too much and he wasn't the brightest tool in the shed but still, he was all right.
She didn't understand then why everyone else hated him. She could hear her classmate's parents tell them to stay away from him because he was a monster. Her friend Sakura just plain outright hated Naruto. It wasn't even hard to find out why considering that Sakura's parents would force her to stay away from Naruto and would tell her that he had killed hundreds of people. Ino wasn't exactly a genius like a certain lazy Nara that she knew but she could see when things did not add up properly. So, she decided that she would take things into her own hands and find out if all of the gossip was true by following Naruto around for the day.
Ino started to follow her fellow blond at a distance to avoid detection. "Damn it" Ino whispered to herself after she almost tripped over a root in the ground. Quickly she hid behind a nearby tree just in case Naruto heard her. After waiting for 5 seconds, Ino looked back around the trunk of the tree to see that her target had not caught on to the fact that she was there.
Carefully she began to follow again, occasional looking for anything that could trip her again. Five minutes later, she came up to the end of a tree line to see a grassy field with the occasional pretty yellow or white flower growing here and there. To her left she could see a small lake that reflected the sun off of its surface. Looking back in the middle of the clearing, she got really confused when she could see not one but four Naruto's each staring each other down. Ino decided to settle down behind a tree and to keep watch for whatever her fellow blond would do next.
Looking closer at the four Naruto's, she noticed something weird. Three of the Naruto's were holding the same form as Naruto did in his fights at the academy. She assumed they were clones but, each clone held their hands as fists in a brawler style. What confused her was the fourth Uzumaki, he was in a form that she had never seen before. The blonde had his knees bent with one leg slightly in front of the other, looking up, she noticed that his hands were opened up and slightly bent as well as if he was going to grab something. If a chunnin level ninja or higher was to look at his form they would see that his profile was small with his elbows tucked in and his fists somewhat close to his face for more efficient fighting.
Suddenly, the Naruto with good form made a chopping motion and shouted "Begin!"
(Naruto will be referred to as himself, the three clones will just be refered to as the clones)
The clones all rushed at the fourth Naruto to begin the fight. The first one to get in close threw a hard-right jab. Naruto stepped in and moved his head to the right to avoid the punch. He was about to throw an uppercut into his clone's jaw when he noticed that one of the other clones was going in for a high kick to try and knock the original out quickly.
Acting smoothly, Naruto changed plans and decided to kick off the ground and tackle the clone in front of him. Upon hitting the ground, Naruto rolled and managed to quickly get off of his clone before it could grab him. With grace that surprised Ino, Naruto used his hands to give himself leverage to get off the ground and kick his feet under himself to once again stand up.
With Ino
"Why doesn't Naruto do anything like this in class spars?" Ino whispered to herself, shock evident on her face. 'What are you hiding?'
Back to Naruto
"You better try a little harder in round two, ehh?" Naruto taunted to his three clones.
"Let's see how you handle this!" The clone that got tackled said as he got up.
Suddenly, the other two clones grabbed him by the arm and threw him at Naruto.
"Henge (transformation)" In a puff of smoke, the clone turned into a Shuriken that sped straight towards Naruto.
As the clone changed into a shuriken, another one went through two handsigns before yelling out, "Shuriken Kage bunshin no jutsu!" The one shuriken turned into a wall of sharp metal as over a hundred shuriken had been formed. While the wave of weapons was set upon Naruto, the two other clones prepared to attack.
Naruto could instantly see it, there was a gap of space that he could get through. He knew what his clones were doing, they left a gap that he could get through in the middle of the shuriken just big enough to dive in which would leave him vulnerable to attack. He couldn't jump to the left or the right because the shuriken were spread out far enough in each direction that he would still become a pincushion. There was no jumping over it because he could see one of his two clones holding kunai in his hand ready to throw.
'I only have one option left' With his mind made up, Naruto decided to jump backwards and grab onto two kunai from his holster. He threw the first one and used the kunai kage bunshin no jutsu to multiply his weapon into his own wall of steel. With the kunai remaining in his hand, he began to deflect the incoming shuriken that made it past his thrown kunai.
He was about to deflect the very last one when all of a sudden, it transformed back into the third clone which promptly grabbed onto both of his wrists and was about to headbutt him when Naruto decided to lean away and fall on his back. As he fell on his back, he also pulled back both arms effectively smashing his clone into the ground with twice the force of normal.
Naruto and the clone both got up quickly and were about to square up again when randomly, the girl that was watching him screamed. "Haha! I guess that it's time to talk to her now." Naruto said as he dropped his stance and started to walk to the girl that his secret clone scared the crap out of.
With Ino
"How did he do that?" Ino stared at her fellow blonde in wonder. She couldn't believe that he could use these kind of techniques, he even managed to stop over a hundred shuriken with the same jutsu and just deflected the rest. She could see that he moved with a practiced ease that she hadn't seen from him before.
To be honest, Naruto reminded her of the thorns on a rose with the way that he was fighting. You would never think that a rose could hurt you but, if you hold it wrong than it would prick you. It was the same with Naruto well, kinda she didn't think he was beautiful like a rose. Especially, with his super ugly orange track suit but he had the hidden grace and elegance of one.
"Boo!" A figure suddenly jumped down in front of her and she screamed, "Aaahhhhhhh!" Ino fell back onto her butt, she was scared until she noticed that whoever scared her started to laugh.
Fuming with anger, she looked up and found herself staring at another Naruto who was clutching his gut and laughing to the point that he looked like he was about to cry.
"Y-You should haha ha-have seen yur face hahah" The clone was laughing in between words and could barely keep control of itself.
"I'll show you!" Ino got up quickly and delivered a massive haymaker to the clone. She was confused afterwards when the clone burst into chunks of rock and rubble.
"Sorry Ino, I didn't mean for my clone to scare you." Naruto said as he walked over, smirk clearly seen on his face.
Ino frowned as she thought 'You lying shithead' "What was that?"
"What was what?" Naruto asked while whistling innocently, "Your going to have to be more specific."
"That" Ino pointed at the clone that was now rubble on the ground "And that" She pointed out at the field where Naruto's clones were still standing before she returned her hands to her hips and glared pointedly at Naruto as if to say 'If you lie to me, im going to make your life hell.'
The Uzumaki gulped after seeing her face, that didn't look healthy for him. "Fine, that" The blonde sighed before pointing at the rubble on the ground "is my Iwa bunshin no jutsu (rock clone jutsu) that I taught myself how to do. When I was on the field, I was fighting against those clones of myself to practice fighting multiple targets at once."
Ino didn't believe for one second that Naruto had taught himself how to fight like that or that he learned that jutsu on his own but she didn't say anything about it. Instead, "Why are you keeping it secret that you can do all of this. You wouldn't be the dobe of the class. I'm pretty sure that what I have seen from you is better than Sasuke-kun."
Naruto couldn't tell her about his mission from the Sandaime but, that wasn't the only reason he had. "Your smart, I'm sure that you could tell that a lot of people don't like me," Ino's frown confirmed his deduction, "If people found out that I am hiding my strength than things would get worse for me. I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone!"
Ino could see the fear plain as day on his face and knew that he was telling the truth. "Why don't people like you?" She wanted to know, sure Naruto could be a pain with his jokes but she just found out that he isn't as stupid as she thought he was. She wanted to help him but, she needed to know how she could.
"Honestly, I don't know. No one will tell me, not the adults, not the Hokage, no one." Naruto held a frown on his face at not knowing but, he had faith that he would get through it.
"I promise on one condition" Ino said staring Naruto in the face daring him to say no.
"huh?" Was Naruto's well thought out response.
"I'll keep your abilities a secret on one condition. And that's if you train me." Was Ino's response filled with determination.
Naruto's eyes widened in shock, she wanted him to train her? 'I guess I could, it would make my mission easier and it's always nice to have a partner' but, first he needed to know why she wanted to train with him.
"Why do you want me to train you?"
Ino looked sheepish for all of two seconds 'I can't tell him that this gives me the perfect opportunity to find out the mystery surrounding him. He does look like he knows what he is doing and the academy has been really boring. Plus I think it would be fun to have him as a friend, not that I would tell him that.' "Because if your that strong then you can make me stronger too."
"That's not what I mean Ino. I'm asking you why you want to be stronger. Is it for fame, money, your family or maybe your village? What makes you want to be a ninja?"
The Yamanaka heiress was not expecting that kind of question from Naruto. She supposed that it may have been some kind of test for her by him. "I want to be a ninja so that I can protect my friends, family and village. Also, so that I can have an amazing body when I'm older" Ino struck a pose to get her point across. "Why does that matter?"
Ignoring her pose, Naruto said, "Cause, if you gave me the wrong reasons than I was going to tell you no but, I like your reasons so I will help you if you want."
Of course, Ino would take the offer. "Yeah I do. You're going to train me whether you want to or not. So you better teach me something good."
"Okay, so um, I'm usually busy on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so we can't train on those days but any other day will work. What days do you want to train with me?"
Ino thought for a moment. She almost always had Tuesdays and Saturdays that she could do whatever she wanted after the academy or after helping out for a couple of hours at her family's flower shop. "How about on Tuesdays and Saturdays?"
"That works, I'm usually here all day on Saturdays and we can walk over here on Tuesdays after the academy."
"Perfect!" Ino smiled at her new friend before realizing how dark it was starting to get "I have to go home now, I don't want my parents to get mad at me. I'll see you tomorrow Naruto. And your secrets safe with me." The blonde girl walked back towards the village to get back home.
"Bye Ino!" Naruto yelled to her before she disappeared from his sight. 'Jiji is going to be so mad when he finds out.'
Meanwhile in the Hokage tower
Hiruzen was happy for his surrogate grandson. He had watched on his crystal ball and witnessed everything that happened.
'So, my student has taken on his own student. Interesting. I think I should watch over their training sessions for a while to see how things go.' He was glad that Naruto didn't let slip where he had learned his techniques from but, he would watch what happens. Maybe Ino could prove to be trustworthy and could handle the truth. It would definitely make Naruto's mission easier.
"I think I have found my answer. I believe that Naruto is responsible enough to handle the truth."
End Chapter
An: Thank you everyone for tuning in. We had quite a bit happen in this chapter. Naruto started in the academy and iruka wants to retire already. We saw the first fight of the fic and some jutsu that Naruto has learned. Not to mention that Naruto has found a student/training partner in Ino. Let me know what you thought of the fight, it was a little teaser to see if I could actually do a good job of writing my fight scenes or if I needed to practice a lot more for future fights to come. Now onto the mysteries. What is the secret that Hiruzen is going to reveal for Naruto, will Iruka actually retire or go bald due to stress and Naruto ever change his ugly orange jumpsuit? Find out next time on Answers of the Heart. Spirals out.