1 Naruto: Ninja Design
Ch. 2 Library and a Path is Set
"The w-willow tree swayed around in the wind," read Naruto and Hinata smiled.
"T-that was g-great N-naruto-kun!" she said and he blushed rubbing the back of his head.
"Thanks, but it was all thanks to you Hinata, you're a great teacher," he said and she turned red.
"I'm back!" called Keiyu entering Naruto's apartment and set down some ramen takeout.
"Ramen!" cheered Naruto hopping up and running to the table with Hinata coming up behind him.
It's been two months since all three had met and Naruto was improving in both reading (taught by Hinata) and writing (taught by Keiyu.) His penmanship was slowly getting better though was still a little big and his vocabulary was getting better due to Keiyu having him copy words from the dictionary and explaining what they were and such. Hinata's friendship with them was kept secret though because of her clan, but they made the best of it when she was allowed to go out. Keiyu though was starting to be treated badly by some of the villager's when they heard she was friends with Naruto despite many warnings from others. Keiyu wanted to tell the Hokage about Naruto's treatment but he had her promise not to unless he was ready himself to do it. They had cleaned up Naruto's apartment of all the trash and such and his laundry was washed at Keiyu's place when her 'parents' were out.
"H-how is the j-job search g-going Keiyu-san?" asked Hinata, her stutter was getting better but going home to her clan seemed to bring it back sometimes.
"No good, I'm too young for a job and they won't allow me to enter, that was at least half of Konoha so far," she said taking out a marked map she had gotten and pointed at restaurants and shops.
"I'm sorry Keiyu-neesan,"said Naruto (he had started calling her that.)
"What for?" asked Keiyu but having an idea where he was going.
"It's my fault they treat you like this," he said looking down.
"Naru, don't blame yourself, it's their fault for being pigs," said Keiyu ruffling Naruto's hair with an encouraging smile.
"So are you going to try again?" asked Naruto after a few minutes.
"Yeah, I'm going to go to the Konoha library in 30 minutes and if they don't accept me I'll go to one of the Akamichi restaurants," she said.
"Try the shinobi library," suggested Hinata without a stutter and Keiyu nodded.
"I plan to," she said with a wink and they began eating.
There were two libraries, one for civilians who don't have any interest in becoming a ninja, and one for ninja and those interested in becoming a ninja though only the history and basics are allowed to non-ninja till they become genin. Naruto has only visited the civilian library though and got kicked out, thus resulting in him not being interested anymore in the library. But with Keiyu and Hinata helping him, he was able to get an interest in some books that they would read to him or he would do it to them in reverse to see how far he could go.
Keiyu stood before the library and gave a deep breath before walking in and went up to the desk.
"I like to speak to the manager please," she said in a polite tone. A man with blonde hair and purple eyes appeared from where he was crouching behind the desk with some books.
"Hai? Kojo, Narumi at your service," he said and she blinked.
"I was wondering if I can somehow get a job here, I go to the Academy but I need money for like extra stuff," she said nervously as he studied her.
"Name?" he asked.
"Mumichi Keiyu sir," she said dreading to be rejected by him.
"Ooh? Uzumaki's new friend huh? You look to be 8," he said and she looked down.
"Hai, but I really need this job and if I could somehow help Naru with his studies," she said turning around.
"Oi! Where are you going, I do need a new assistant, the previous one quit, so do you accept?" asked Narumi with a smile at her astonished face.
"Uh hai!" she said and followed him to a cart where scrolls and books were.
"I need you to check over them and see if there in pristine condition before returning them to where they belong, the aisles are labeled as to where you put them and that's all I need for you to do today," he said and she nodded before setting to work.
As she looked through the books, she came upon one that read types of ninja, curious, she opened it and read about those specializing in weapons, seals, ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and all sorts till one caught her eye.
'Medical ninja are trained not to get hurt in battle and are responsible for their comrades injuries, to become a medical ninja requires great chakra control, medical knowledge, and some service at the hospital. The greatest of medical ninja was Tsunade Senju, who was known for her inhuman strength and one of the Sannin' she read and thought for a bit.
'If Naruto gets hurt I'll be able to heal him, as well as Hinata' she thought, Genjutsu sounded interesting as well so she made a mental note to research more on that later before returning to work.
At 7 pm she was dismissed and was surprised when Narumi gave her a library card.
"Thought you would need one being my assistant and in the Academy," and with a wink he was gone. Having been instructed on how to check out books she took some for herself and her friends and hurried to her dad's house, slipping in through the back and almost jumped when the door to the kitchen was slammed open.
"Where have you been," her father demanded.
"I was looking for a job and got one at one of the bookstores, I then went to the library to register for a library card and got some books to study," she said lying smoothly but keeping her expression neutral.
"Hmph, I heard your hanging out with that Uzumaki brat, I want you to stop it," he said and she narrowed her eyes.
"If I have to put up with Isuzu being my stepmother, then you'll have to put up with me being friends with Naruto," she said before he slapped her.
"You'll get what's coming to you if you continue your fraternizing with that boy, you both will regret it, as for Isuzu, she's your mother so deal with it and I don't want to hear another word about it," he said harshly before leaving the kitchen while Keiyu stared after him shocked.
'He's never hit me before, but if he's threatening to hurt me or Naruto, then I can't stay here anymore, I won't abandon Naruto because he says so' Keiyu gritted her teeth and went up to her room. But as she passed her mother's old room she heard her stepmother rummaging around muttering about getting rich with those jewels and smirked,
'She'll never find them, I made sure of it, and if she thinks she can get away with going through my mom's stuff and ruining my life, then she's got another thing coming' Keiyu thought clenching her fists, after all, she knew Isuzu had a hand in her mother's death, and she wasn't going to stand by and leave her unpunished.
Going to her room she took out a bag that had her clothes and other necessities before going over to her closet and removed one of the tiles on the floor to reveal her mother's jewelry and prized kimono. Folding it up, she put it in a second bag after wrapping it in cloth and the jewelry went alongside it.
'All my stuff is at Naruto's anyways' she thought glad she had hid her stuff in a wall at Naruto's place.
Naruto woke up to knocking at his door and tensed before relaxing at his older 'sister's voice and opened the door.
"What's wrong," at the bag on her shoulder his eyes darkened, "What happened," he asked, they had discussed their family situations one time as Keiyu was planning on running away somewhere till her aunt came to the village.
"He hit me and threatened to do something if we remained friends, I couldn't allow that so I took my stuff and left, he's not allowed near your apartment anyways or this street because of a restraining order so you don't have to worry about that, but we will have to tell the Hokage about it," she said and he sighed.
"Yeah, but we're going to have to have a room for you to stay in, my bed isn't exactly comfy and the couch," he grimaced while Keiyu looked at the wall to her right.
"Naru, do people live in this apartment building, besides you?" she asked and he shook his head.
"They all moved out and the landlord lives somewhere else, not that he does much anyways," he snorted.
"Then whose to stop us from using the rooms next door?" asked Keiyu with a raised eyebrow and he looked thoughtful.
"Come on, there's an airvent that could lead us to the other room, it's in my living room," he said and she nodded before following him in there.
Two hours later
Keiyu slept soundly on the mattress in the other room which she had cleaned up a bit first while Naruto was sleeping at the edge of the bed not wanting to bother her in her sleep, snoring slightly.
Next morning
"Medical Ninja?" Naruto put down his chopsticks to look questioningly at Keiyu while Hinata sat quietly in thought.
"Hai, it'll be the perfect opportunity and I've already got some chakra control exercises from the library. They're one of the most important jobs in the ninja world and it says here that Tsunade Senju had actually suggested that there be one medical ninja per team, but it's not limited, Hinata," the sound of her name brought the girl out of thought, "You can study with me if you want, that Byukugan of yours could come in handy without being on the field and you can train it to its potential, besides, I know you like making healing remedies," said Keiyu and Hinata turned a bit red.
"But shouldn't we have our own special abilities?" asked Hinata and Keiyu smiled.
"That's just it, there's several branches of medical ideas, sure we both can be equal in some parts of knowledge, but you will have more knowledge on the chakra points while I'll be specializing in another department, it doesn't really matter but we're the next generation and maybe we can somehow convince the Hokage to have ninja study in medicine more or something like that." suggested Keiyu.
"What about me? I don't think I can do medical ninjutsu, it sounds too complicated and I don't think I have the patience for it," said Naruto and Keiyu looked thoughtful.
"Well, if your going to be the Hokage," at his face she calmed him down by saying, "First you'll have to be well versed in several areas while becoming very sufficient in one area, you can come to the library tomorrow if you want, but you look like a Ninjutsu person to me, and Hinata is Taijutsu," said Keiyu and he nodded looking satisfied. "So what now?" asked Naruto curious.
"Now? We'll," said Keiyu dramatically and Naruto leaned in expectantly while Hinata giggled, "Climb trees!" she finished and Naruto fell flat on his face.