Chapter Two – The Hound, the Rabbit and the Foxes
Iruka Umino looked over his class with pride in his eyes. He had seen many classes come and go, some never to return, but this one... This one would hold a special place in his heart.
His eyes slid over the sheet of paper before him as the class in front of him stayed silent, desperate to know who they would be spending the rest of their Genin career fighting alongside.
One by one he announced them, sending them on their way, the teams delighting some and horrifying others.
Naruto and Sasuke sat with baited breath, waiting anxiously for their names to be called while 'Takeshi S. Casseru' and 'Haruno Sakura' were put on a team with a 'Satoyomi Atabi'.
As if reading their minds, Iruka reached the students he had the highest hopes for.
"Team Seven will be comprised of... Sasuke... Hyuga Hinata... And Naruto." Iruka smiled, watching the two brothers' faces light up with joy, a warm glow in his chest at their happy little smiles. After pausing for longer than necessary, he continued on with the list.
"Team Eight will be comprised of Inuzuka Kiba, Uchiha Satsuki and Aburame Shino." He spoke, before moving on more quickly this time.
"And lastly, Team ten which will be comprised of Akamichi Choji, Yamanaka Ino and Nara Shikamaru." He had barely finished speaking when Ino let out an exaggerated groan and began to bemoan being put on a team with the 'disgusting one' and the 'lazy one' before Iruka interrupted her in turn.
"These teams were devised by the Hokage, with some assistance by his advisers, the village elders. If you feel there is something wrong with your teams then take it up with them, though I should warn you that such a complaint would not be well received." Iruka spoke with an air of finality, looking specifically at the few students who had called out to ensure that his message got through.
"Your Jounin commanders will be arriving shortly, in the meantime, I would recommend talking with your teammates until they arrive. You are no longer my students so I have one last thing to say to all of you: Carry on the Will of Fire. Good luck and good bye." Iruka spoke waving at his students and walking out of the classroom door.
The classroom descended into chaos almost instantly as the newly minted Genin rearranged themselves either to sit with their new teammates or to say goodbye to friends.
"This is going to be amazing!" Naruto spoke, his voice almost as loud as the entire class. "You and me Sasuke, isn't it great?"
"I have to say that I am glad that we are on a team together." Sasuke smiled
"And Hinata... Who's Hinata?" Naruto frowned, looking around the classroom for his new teammate.
"Up on the top row, with the dark hair and the white eyes." Sasuke spoke, looking at the girl with an air of slight bemusement. He had seen her tailing them several times, watching Naruto from afar after the sunny blonde had 'saved' her from some bullies and said something profound and quotable that would surely stay with her forever. Thus, he regarded her as somewhat creepy.
"Hey Hinata-Chan, come sit down here with us!" Naruto yelled over the crowd at the navy haired girl, whilst forcibly switching places with his brother who offered no resistance.
Noticed by sempai, Hinata blushed deeply and ambled down to sit next to Naruto. Anyone with a thought to spare would notice that she had a crush the size of the Hokage monument on the boy beside her, the stalking and watching notwithstanding, she simply directed almost all of her thoughts towards him.
'What would Naruto do?' 'Would this make Naruto like me?' The poor girl was in too deep.
Being no older than twelve, Naruto would not have understood the implications of this but thankfully, the whole thing passed over his head.
As he talked at Hinata in a mindless, rambling fashion that so suited him, Sasuke spoke with Satsuki, assuring her that no matter what team he was on, he would visit her after missions.
As they spoke, a woman walked through the door. With black hair, crimson eyes and clothes stranger than anything the Genin had seen before, she spoke.
"Team Eight, Shino, Kiba and Satsuki, would you please come with me?" She spoke, her eyes darting around the classroom.
"Good luck Satsuki. I promise I'll see you later." Sasuke whispered.
"I'll hold you to that promise." Satsuki replied quietly. "I detest Kiba." She added, walking away, flashing him a quick smile before she disappeared out of the doorway with her team.
Slowly but surely, the classroom drained and by the time the last team had left, Naruto had become very, very fidgety.
"Why isn't our commander here yet?" He moaned, kicking his feet violently under his desk.
"I... I'm s-sure that they have a r-reason Naruto..." Hinata spoke, poking her fingers together, looking all too much like a rabbit in a spotlight.
"Well, I'm going to prank them. It's what they deserve." Naruto decided.
"W-wait..." Hinata began, her eyes wide.
"Just let him, Hinata." Sasuke spoke, shaking his head. "He needs to get it out of his system."
Hinata fell quite and watched as Naruto flew about the room, setting up something that looked more like a trap than a prank. Sasuke helped him, pointing out places where it could be connected while Hinata watched their teamwork in a state of shock at their willingness to attack a senior Ninja. Two thoughts fought inside her, the part of her that wished to be her daddy's little girl abhorred this foolishness however the part of her that sent her out stalking Naruto made her want to help.
Eventually, childishness won out and she joined in.
Several Hours later
Hatake Kakashi, Elite Jounin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves stepped through the door of academy room 209.
He was tall and lanky, thin and athletic with muscles in all the right places.
He had naturally white-silver hair that seemed to defy gravity to spike upwards while his face was mostly concealed behind a mask that covered his nose and mouth completely as well as his leaf headband which he had angled over his face so that it concealed his left eye.
He radiated an aura of calm power but also one of laziness. He was handsome, he was powerful and he was-
"Late!" A voice shouted from inside the room as he stepped across the boundary.
The legendary Jounin's eyes widened as a long wire surrounded him, tightening until it trapped him in a coil that was almost painful.
The room was alive with the sound of movement as he was splattered by paintballs from every angle as something flew through the air and hit him on the forehead bluntly.
Then, once he had been pebble dashed, a chalkboard duster fell down onto the top of his head with a thud to crown his humiliation.
He stood there, in front of the doorway half stunned, covered in paint of every colour, the word 'Tardy' stamped on his face and a chalk duster in his hair for a few minutes before his eye fell on his new Genin.
"That was awesome, he totally fell for it. The paint was a nice touch, Hinata-Chan." Naruto laughed, giving his brother a fist bump and receiving a tentative high five from Hinata, none of them noticing the slight smile on their new teacher's face.
Despite the tightness of the Ninja wire, he managed to form a hand sign and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Seconds later he appeared behind the three Genin, completely clean.
"You three." He spoke, making them jump, Naruto even yelping in surprise. "I thought I was going to hate you... But it turns out that I'm beginning to like you."
"You got free." Naruto spoke in shock.
"I'm a Jounin, I can do that." Kakashi replied, waving the question away. "Would you mind introducing yourselves? Name, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, all that good stuff." He asked them as they rearranged themselves to face him, fanned out before him.
"Well, shouldn't you introduce yourself first? We don't know who you are, after all." Sasuke spoke, a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"But we do know him, he's Dog-ANBU-San. He gave you those orange goggles you never wear." Naruto spoke up only to be shushed by Sasuke.
"Naruto! You're not supposed to talk about things like that." Sasuke spoke urgently, his hand over his brother's mouth.
Kakashi watched them arguing with a slight detached amusement as he sat down on the windowsill.
For the very first time in his life, he had an honest reason being so late. He had lost several hours that morning reading over the files for his three Genin, trying to decipher why the Hokage had placed them together and trying to make sense of their individual abilities.
Hinata had made the easiest reading.
/Information overload incoming. Feel free to skip.\
'Hyuga Hinata (it had read) is the clan heir to the Hyuga clan as the eldest child of the current clan head.
Due to her lineage, she has inherited the eyes of her forefathers, the Byakugan, which allow them to see through solid objects, see the chakra circuits of living beings and grants them an almost 360 degree field of vision when activated with the use of chakra.
With a large family that comprises almost entirely of Ninja of some description, she has been taught their secret fighting technique since birth; the Gentle Fist of the Hyuga clan, and is already an exemplary Close Combat fighter when compared to most Genin.
Despite this, her father believes her to be a failure due to her kind and meek nature, preferring her more focused and vicious younger sister; Hanabi.
She marked highly in the exam, passing with flying colours and will make for a good all-round fighter.
Her Jounin commander is recommended to train her in the art of Close Combat and also, possibly in the art of Weaponry.
The Hokage has judged that Hyuga Hinata will make the best progress if she is placed on a team under Hatake Kakashi, alongside two other Genin whom should be either already well versed in, or have a good foundation for the Illusion arts and / or Ninja arts. The Genin, Naruto and Sasuke have been recommended for this role.'
Kakashi had read her over once or twice, absorbing the details. They called her meek and kind, her father thought of her as a failure. It had almost been enough to make him want to prove them wrong.
No man or woman who ever made it onto any Team Seven became anything short of incredible. Even if they didn't last so long.
Unlike Hinata, Naruto and Sasuke's files were harder to obtain and, had any other Jounin been their commander, they would have found them ruthlessly censored with many details omitted or blacked out.
Kakashi however, was no ordinary Jounin. A student of the Fourth Hokage and a former member of the ANBU Black Operations as well as a former commander of the ANBU forces, he was a man who could be trusted to keep quiet.
Thus the files had been given to him to read in full.
Sasuke's had read as thus;
'Namikaze-Uchiha Sasuke, Son of the Fourth Hokage and Mikoto Uchiha, is a half blooded member of the Uchiha clan, one of the three loyal members remaining. Due to his lineage, Sasuke has inherited the ocular bloodline limit known as the Sharingan and has already shown a capability to activate it to its second stage of a two tomoe pattern in both eyes, something that can only usually be done after extreme emotional stress. The full scope and prowess of the Sharingan is too much to be recorded in this document and if Sasuke is not placed with Kakashi then consult with this Jounin on how to best train this Genin in this area.
Without formal training, Sasuke has made modest progress in all areas, showing middling to high ability in all aspects apart from his chakra reserves and control. Sasuke's chakra levels are on par with those of a low Jounin or someone thrice his age, and thus he has very low control, forbidding him from performing low level Ninjutsu. It was due to this that he was taught the Shadow Clone Technique instead of the regular Clone Technique.
Sasuke is one of the hosts of Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine Tailed Fox Demon. Sealed within him is the Yin half of the Beast's chakra, the Kyuubi's darkness.
The implications of this are not yet apparent however ANBU operative 'Tenzo,' codenamed 'Hawk' has been assigned to watch over the two children whom have each half of the Beast sealed within them.
His abilities seem geared towards the Illusion and Ninja Arts. He has also expressed interest in the Weapon Arts, specifically the art of Swordfighting. Recommended to be trained in these areas due to his Chakra levels and inherited bloodline traits.
Sasuke has been placed on Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi pending final test results.'
Sasuke's potential was astounding. That had been Kakashi's first thought upon reading his file. His second thought had been on how to unlock said potential.
The beginnings of a headache forming, he had moved onto Naruto's file.
'Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto, son of the Fourth Hokage and Uzumaki Kushina, is, on the surface, slow witted, childish and the least Ninja like of all the Genin we have seen these last few years.
He has low to middling Close combat skills and horrendous Illusion detection, even for a Genin and an unknown potential for Ninjutsu.
However it is the Hokage's humble opinion that Naruto is a hidden Genius, capable of learning almost anything in record time. Under the Hokage's watch, he learned the Shadow Clone Technique within an hour despite being incapable of performing the original Clone Technique.
As long as he is taught in simple terms, he will be able to learn anything given to him. This is our belief.
The Uzumaki clan, from which Naruto is a descendant, had bloodline abilities that allowed them to manifest their chakra physically. While this ability in itself is predominantly female with few exceptions, all Uzumaki had a higher rate of regeneration and lived to be far older than non-clan members. Naruto has already shown this higher rate of regeneration, recovering from injury and fatigue with a single night's rest.
Naruto has shown the ability to use and manipulate the Wood Release which was believed to be a bloodline ability belonging only to the Founding First Hokage and those within his immediate family or with his exact genetic code.
Naruto does not seem to be related to the First in any manner and thus research is being done into how he can have manifested this ability. In the meantime, he should be discouraged from using the Wood Release until he can control it.
Alongside this, he has an incredible sensory ability that allows him to locate even ANBU operatives at a range of around one hundred metres, as well as allowing him to recognise Ninja by their Chakra signature.
Naruto is one of the two containers of the Nine Tailed Beast, having the Yang Chakra of the beast sealed within his body by the Fourth Hokage. Due to this, Operative Hawk has been assigned to Naruto and his brother in an observation role.
It is recommended that Naruto be trained in Ninjutsu and Taijutsu.
Naruto has been placed with Hatake Kakashi on Team Seven pending Final Test results'
/Information overload finished.\
So, Byakugan, Sharingan and the Wood Release. If they showed the proper teamwork, these would be his pupils.
They were different from their photos. If there was one thing Kakashi was not good with, it was people, especially children. But he'd screwed up enough lives and scarred enough children for life with his tests. These three, so long as they weren't utterly horrible to one another, he'd lay off a little.
No mind scarring death Genjutsu, no overly powerful elemental Ninjutsu and certainly no One Thousand Years of Death.
He looked down onto their childish faces. Children, no older than twelve the lot of them. He would teach them how to murder, how to kill and how to destroy. All in the name of protecting the village. There was a little voice that spoke from deep within him that this should not be so, but he squashed it down. This world would run even if he refused to teach.
A rose dies faster than a thorn bush. Better to kill and survive than to stay pure and be slaughtered. That was the mantra war children like he himself had been taught.
"Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi, I like... well..." Best not to tell them really, they were still too young to learn about his precious Icha-Icha books. "Well I don't like much either." Probably best not to scar them with the things he hated too. "My hobbies... Are my own business." Again, Icha-Icha. "And my dreams for the future... Currently, I don't have any." Because they died long ago.
"That doesn't really tell us much." Sasuke spoke with a frown.
"He likes reading and doesn't like small talk." Naruto spoke as if he knew from experience.
"I'm not even going to bother asking how you know." Sasuke replied with a sigh.
Hinata just looked between them, unsure whether to pitch in or not.
"Why don't you introduce yourself first?" Kakashi spoke, nodding at the navy haired girl.
"M-me? Um... I'm H-Hyuga Hinata. I... I like Cinnamon Buns and f-flower pressing." She spoke, stuttering nervously throughout. "I don't... I don't like b-bullies... My hobbies are flower pressing and t-t-training. My dream for the future... Is t-to unite my f-family." She spoke, sounding almost ashamed.
Kakashi looked her over. Her body language told him more than her words ever would. She wasn't just under-confident, she was a confidence train wreck.
The most paranoid, hating parts of him wondered if she wore the bulky jacket to hide bruises, but he knew her father and he knew that no matter how harsh his words, he would never physically abuse the girl.
The Hyuga training regime was tough but fair, and no Hyuga would be made to do more than they could handle, even if such an effort was disappointing.
Kakashi was more worried about the incredible emotional strain that would be on the head of a meek young girl who had needed training to be a clan heir in a clan such as the Hyuga.
She would need watching. Breakdowns were bad for Ninja. He would have to talk with her father. In the meantime...
"M'kay." He spoke, feigning indifference. "You next." He added, nodding at Sasuke.
"I'm Sasuke, I like tomatoes, Naruto, Lord Hokage and Iruka... And Satsuki." He spoke calmly, though mumbling the last part so that his brother wouldn't hear it.
"I don't like... Well, many things, but I'd like to keep them to myself. My hobby is training with my brother and my dream for the future is... to protect." He decided, looking up at Kakashi as if to ask if this was good enough.
Kakashi looked back down at the older of the two brothers, if only by minutes, surveying him with a glance. He would have an athletic build when he was older, tall and lean rather than muscular. Right now however, he was just a neglected child with only his brother to lean on. He was doing well given that he was relying on his own and Naruto's skills to cook and find food.
"Yeah whatever, it's your turn blondie." Kakashi spoke, flicking his hand lazily.
"I'm Naruto, Dattebayo! Ah sorry... Verbal tic." He blushed. "I like Iruka, Ramen and Sasuke. I... guess I dislike the three minute it takes to cook ramen. My hobbies are pranking and training with Sasuke. My dream for the future... I'm going to be Hokage!" He exclaimed, standing up off of the table with his fist clenched over his heart.
Kakashi looked at the young boy carefully. Short, childish and overly energetic, with a very loud voice, Naruto was very opposite of what a Ninja was supposed to be, but in a world full of Ninja, he might well be able to put such blatant inversion of the rules to practical use.
Also, and this had only just come to the Jounin's mind, he was going to be the one whom would have to explain to the boys why they had the same father but not the same mother, wasn't he?
Damn his polygamous sensei...
"Hmmm... Are you done?" Kakashi spoke, again feigning boredom. "Alright then, well, unfortunately for you, you aren't yet Genin."
"WHAT?!"
"Well, I'm supposed to test you to make sure you have the credentials to become Genin of the Hidden Leaf. A survival test to ensure that you have what it takes to do missions for the village." Kakashi spoke.
Naruto's mouth hung open in utter disbelief while Hinata looked away as if she had just received bad news that she had nonetheless known had been coming.
Sasuke turned his head slightly and looked at Kakashi through slightly narrowed eyes.
"We just completed the academy exam, shouldn't that make us Ninja automatically?" He asked, keeping his voice steady.
Kakashi couldn't help but give out a derisive laugh.
"Are you kidding me? With what's on the curriculum these days? If they'd have taught the way they do now back when I was young, we'd be dead. What they teach you at the academy could easily be condensed. Well, let's put it this way, by the time I was your age, I was already a serving Chunin." Kakashi spoke, letting his words sink in.
"But then... How young...?" Naruto spoke, eyeing the Jounin with something close to reverence.
"Too young. It doesn't matter. Meet me at training ground three within the hour. I'd suggest eating dinner on the way... but then maybe not, you'll probably throw it back up again after I'm done with you." Kakashi spoke, his bored tone turning almost cruel before he made a quick sign and disappeared in a flurry of leaves.
"Ne... Does anyone know where training ground three is?" Naruto spoke, deflating as Kakashi disappeared.
Meanwhile, outside the Hokage's painting room.
Hyuga Hiashi was angry. He had stormed up to the Leaf office building, stormed up the stairs and stormed up to the secretary of the Hokage.
"You there-" He shouted, only to be interrupted by the secretary's belittling tones.
"Hello Mr. Hyuga." The secretary spoke, not looking up from her work. "Lord Hokage has been expecting you and some of the other parents but I'm afraid you're a bit early. You'll have to wait a bit." She spoke with a bored and yet slightly amused tone to her voice.
Hiashi growled, slamming his fist down onto the desk in front of her.
"I do not care for your tone, nor shall I wait." He spoke, only just controlling himself from spitting in the secretaries face, which would have been a mistake.
The secretary just shrugged and continued.
"Look, I don't give two, right? You go in there right now and you'll regret it."
"Dear me, Miss... Satou... That sounds very much like a challenge." Hiashi smirked before opening the large wooden doors and letting himself into the room.
"Whatever happened to the Hyuga stiff upper lip?" The woman asked herself rhetorically under her breath before shrugging once more and continuing on with her work.
Inside, Hiashi was met with a sight that made him pause.
The Hokage was bent over a black and white painting of a western dragon and a Samurai in a Kimono entwined in battle, finishing the picture off with careful strokes of a brush. Beside the picture, watching it grow and be completed was a little boy, about three or four with black eyes and black hair, listening intently as the Hokage finished a story.
"... But as the swordsman stood over the slain beast, a sadness filled his heart because there in the cave were several children of the beast, all dead and sunken of starvation and the swordsman knew that it was by his actions that the beast had been made to hunt so desperately. Knowing this, the man resolved not to destroy but to protect from then onwards and until his last breath."
The little boy looked up at the Hokage with bright wonder in his eyes.
"Did he live happily ever after?" He asked, his voice quiet.
"I do not know." The Hokage smiled. "Perhaps you shall find out one day."
The Hokage looked up at Hiashi, his eyes flashing with anger for a moment before he smiled back down at the boy.
"Shisui, my boy, I shall hang this up to dry so that you can take it home tomorrow, however right now I have a little business to attend to. Miss Lilly will take you home."
"Aww, but Grandpa..."
"You will see me tomorrow, Shisui. This isn't for little boys' ears."
"Okay Gramps, bye." Shisui spoke, pouting before looking at Hiashi whom noted the effeminate nature of the boys' face as well as the distinct lines under his eyes and distinctly heard the boy direct the words 'Big Meanie' towards him before he closed the door.
"Well Hiashi... I make it, hmm... About three hours, twenty eight minutes and thirty two seconds since the teams were chosen. That's a new record you've made there, Hiashi."
"I..." Hiashi spoke as the Hokage stood and placed his hat over his salt and pepper hair, before cutting him off.
"I should tell you that I am not best pleased, Mr. Hyuga, I get very little time to enjoy with my grandchildren, why, one hates me already because of it. Soon I shall be dead, and what will their last memory of me be? 'Go away, I'm busy'? I shall not allow that. So if I were you, Mr. Hyuga, I would choose your next words very, very carefully."
Hiashi stood, eyes wide, sweat pouring down his head in waves as the eyes of the Hokage drilled into his own, the old man's withered hand reaching into his pocket before pulling out a pipe which he lit with a flame summoned by a Ninja art and settled it carefully into the corner of his mouth, smoke rising from it almost menacingly.
"Well Hiashi? What say you?" He spoke.
The Hyuga stood, paralysed in the spot for an entire minute before his balls grew back and he spoke.
"I am not happy with the selection for the teams, I do not like the Genin my daughter has been placed with." Hiashi spoke, moving his hands ungracefully as he spoke, while the Hokage simply raised his eyebrow at the words.
"Before the selection process, you allowed us to state any preferences we would have for our children's teammates." Hiashi spoke, a hint of his own anger returning.
"I also stated that not all preferences could be accommodated." The Hokage spoke calmly, still staring into Hiashi's milk white eyes.
"Still, I expected at the very least that my daughter would be placed with two skilled children from another of the leaf's prominent clans, whom could have supported her." Hiashi spoke, becoming more animated.
"I did all of that." The Hokage spoke, no emotion in the words.
"What?!" Hiashi cried almost indignantly.
"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke... Those clan names should be familiar to you, yes? As for skill, they balance one another out perfectly. Hinata is already exemplary in Taijutsu, Naruto is set to become a Ninjutsu powerhouse and Sasuke could easily be trained to become a Genjutsu master of the likes that would make his forebears proud. They balance one another out academically as well. So you see, Hiashi, I put quite a bit of thought into my decisions." The Hokage explained, an underlying anger in every word.
"But my daughter..." Hiashi began but got no further as the Hokage spoke over him.
"Ah yes, your daughter... The very same daughter whom, just hours ago, you were threatening to brand with that bird cage seal of yours." The Hokage spoke with an air of putting the final nail in a coffin.
Hiashi's eyes widened and his face slackened as the Hokage's words sank through him slowly.
"You know? How?" He asked, only fear in his voice.
The Hokage looked Hiashi in the eye, raising his left arm, a ball of fire bursting open on his palm, so violent and powerful that it looked like a condensed star as the air filled with the scent of ozone and the dreadful feeling of an oncoming storm.
"I am credited as Shinobi No Kami, the God of Ninja for a reason Hyuga Hiashi. I know all, I see all. I am older, more knowledgeable and more powerful than you will ever know." He intoned, before lowering his arm and letting the fire disappear.
"Let me tell you a story that I once told to the very boys you fear training with your daughter so. It is a short one. Now where is the picture?" The Hokage mused, looking along the drying rack.
"Ah, this one." He turned it around to face Hiashi and he saw the black and white picture of a young man with a kind of face, bleeding black ink from a stab wound, his eyes of black and white staring out of the picture at the viewer, the kanji character for 'mercy' at his side.
"The tale of The Western God. Once, long ago in the western lands, a deity walked abroad in the world of men, searching for they who still had faith. On his journey, he met with a band of soldiers and asked each for a piece of food or for a single coin. Each one denied him but the God asked again and again. Finally, the youngest and most headstrong among them drew his sword and struck the God down right on the spot. Of course, being a God, he could not die, but do you know what he did next, Hiashi?" The Hokage spoke, his storytelling tone sending each word down Hiashi's spine as a cold shiver.
"There is no question. The God surely brought a mighty curse upon them." Hiashi spoke with conviction, having taken the story in.
"That thinking is what makes you and I so different, Hiashi. The God rose and looked on them quietly and calmly and just as they began to fear him the most, he smiled and spoke thus to them; 'You are forgiven'"
Hiashi's eyes widened as the Hokage turned to look at him, those old eyes gazing down into his soul, as if he could read every thought.
"I... I apologise, my Lord." The Hyuga spoke, bowing low.
"Trust in your Hokage, I am no fool..." The Hokage replied. "Please do not repeat any of this conversation elsewhere. I would be particularly displeased if word of those brothers' heritage got around." He added softly.
"O-of course, my Lord." Hiashi replied
"That's more like it." The Hokage smiled, dismissing him with a wave. Hiashi almost couldn't leave fast enough.
"Oh and Hiashi?" The Hyuga turned almost reluctantly at this, having almost reached the door. "Make an appointment next time, you shall find I am much friendlier."
Hiashi nodded awkwardly at this and closed the old wooden doors behind himself as the Hokage turned around, taking a deep smoke of his pipe before bursting out in a painful coughing fit, his whole body shaking as the noise filled the room. It lasted almost too long but soon he stopped, his breathing laboured.
"I shouldn't show off so much at my age." He told himself quietly, clutching his chest.
"You always did say that smoking would be what killed me, didn't you dear?" He spoke again, looking up towards the ceiling with a deep and tired sigh.
At training ground three.
Kakashi stood, looking down on the three young Genin, Hyuga, Uchiha and Uzumaki who looked back up at him with determination in their faces.
Before, such willingness would have put him off, sickened him even, but now... Now he was going to make sure these three would make it.
That the words that he had carved above his bedroom door would finally ring true.
'Never Again.'
"This one's going to be very difficult for you. I am a commended Jounin with millions of Ryō on my head alone. And before you start getting big heads, that little trap you set up, I walked into on purpose to see if it was any good. You did well there but now you won't have that sort of time and I'm going to be the one hunting you. Survive until the sun goes down, which should be... About two and a half hours from now, and I'll think about taking you all on as my apprentices." He spoke, gauging their expressions.
"Oh, and as an added bonus..." He lifted a single bell from his pocket. "... Anyone that can take this from me gets a free meal courtesy of yours truly. You can't leave the training ground but anything else goes. You have a whole minute to go and hide. Use it as you will." He spoke, standing there lazily as the wind blew against him.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Run."
He closed his eye but this meant very little. Kakashi's nose was powerful enough to smell them at a hundred paces, even if they were clean as a whistle. His ears were just as sensitive and he could sense their chakra as they fled from him. For now, they headed in the same direction but what would they do next? They seemed almost unpredictable and that was good.
It would keep them alive.
Meanwhile, with the three Genin...
"If we were fighting him head on, I'd suggest working together but if he's hunting us down then it might be better to split up." Sasuke suggested as they ran together, going deeper into the forest.
Naruto shook his head, frowning.
"He's strong... Like, he could be Hokage if he really wanted to, strong. I think our best chance is to stick together. That way, if one of us gets hurt, one of the others can take them out of the way while the other covers them." Naruto spoke. "Hinata, you've got the deciding vote, unless you have any ideas."
The girl of the group shook her head, out of her depth.
"I... I agree with Naruto. We should s-stick together as a t-t-team." Hinata spoke quietly.
"Sorry, Sasuke, you're outvoted. Your idea was good though." Naruto spoke.
"That's fine but we're going to need a plan." Sasuke replied, frowning as they danced around the trees.
"Way ahead of you, Sasuke. This is what we'll do..."
Kakashi stood, counting the seconds away in his head, feeling the calm wind blow against him. Perhaps he'd start early after them to show them how much a promise from a Ninja was worth. Or perhaps he would lull them into a false sense of security, or perhaps...
"KAKASHI!"
... They would come to him... Idiots.
He opened his eye and looked at the two boys with a calm air.
"We've come for that free meal, be prepared to be taken down." Naruto spoke loudly, turning his thumb down like in those comics he had read.
"Why've you dragged me into this, you idiot?" Sasuke spoke with a sigh and Hinata was nowhere to be seen.
Maybe his judgment call had come a little bit too early.
"Alright, take this! Art of the Shadow Clone!"
A great plume of smoke struck up around them, quite unlike that usually produced by a Ninja art but more like that of a military grade smoke bomb.
And yet when it faded there were a thousand of them surrounding him, all the same two boys.
However, an insignificant number multiplied by a thousand is still barely significant.
As he proved.
The pieces had clicked into place. He knew that the two that had approached him weren't the originals and that Naruto and Sasuke were somewhere out there in the training ground, hidden by the trees.
Thus it was without prejudice that he began to take the clones down, one by one or many at once, it didn't matter. They simply didn't match up.
They swarmed him almost constantly but not one of them landed a blow on him. It was simply a delaying tactic. If he didn't take them out, they'd distract him and waste time that way, if he did take them out then he would have already wasted too much time.
Maybe they weren't so bad.
Kakashi mused all of this as he fought seamlessly, a kunai knife tearing through every copy of Naruto and Sasuke like they were paper, trying to gauge the direction in which the originals were likely to have sent them from.
Soon, he was down to the last two.
"I don't suppose you two have anything to tell me?" He said in a bored manner, staring them down.
"Only that all your free meal shall be ours!" The Naruto clone spoke dramatically before the Sasuke clone rolled his eyes.
"You can drop the act, he's worked it out." He said.
"I know, but it's fun to say." Naruto replied, before a Kunai flew through them both, dispelling them back into smoke.
Kakashi stood at ease and looked out into the forest. They had successfully bought themselves quite a bit of time, now to see what they did with it.
"Wave one is taken out." Sasuke spoke. "Has wave two finished setting up our line of defence?"
"Soon, we have a perimeter but there are a couple of loose ends." Naruto replied, several more clones appearing by his side. "You know the drill, buy the wave two team more time."
The clones saluted and spread out through the forest to head Kakashi off.
"Can I d-d-d-do anything?" Hinata asked, poking her fingers together bashfully.
"You're doing what we need you to do." Sasuke spoke, a little pointedly.
"What Sasuke means is that he and I won't be in a fighting shape if Kakashi gets passed all of my pranks so we need you to be ready to hold him off if he gets here. We can trust you... Right?" Naruto asked looking up at her from where he was sat,
She caught his imploring gaze with timidity and sat there silent for all of a second.
"Of c-course, Naruto." She spoke, nodding her head.
"Hopefully, it won't come to that, but if it does, we're counting on you." Naruto spoke before turning to look back out into the forest, another set of clones appearing by him.
"Cloning duties are all yours now, Sasuke, Kakashi's entered the kill zone. Let's turn it up to eleven."
"R-r-right."
"Let's do this."
Kakashi knew he was done for the moment it started raining Kunai.
A veritable shower of metal flung itself from the forest, and while Kakashi had dodged this first trap, it was just the beginning.
Ninja wire hung from every tree, smoke bombs were set off to stop him from seeing where the tripwires were and if he substituted away, he would just end up in another trap.
To make it all worse, the clones were still hounding him, however they were now predominantly Sasuke clones and that made it all the harder to see them coming. They would fling themselves at him out of the darkness, kunai in hand, driving him towards traps.
It was at this point, Kakashi realized just how dangerous the boys were.
Before, it had just been paint and chalk dusters. Now, it was Kunai and explosives.
Even the forest seemed to be working against him. He could swear that the roots of the trees were moving to trip him up or that branches were snapping back to hit him a little bit too hard to be natural.
Finally, he stumbled out into a clearing to catch his breath.
Unfortunately, it was just another trap, and as Kakashi watched a ring of wires rising up out of the ground, hundreds of paper bombs to every wire, he had to wonder just one thing. He was asking himself the very question as the flames of a colossal explosion rolled in towards him;
'Where on earth did kids their age get all this firepower?!'
Sometime later – Around about sunset
"Um... So w-where d-d-d-did you get all those w-w-weapons, anyway?" Hinata asked, looking along the tree-line as the third great fireball shot into the sky.
"We've been stockpiling them for ages." Naruto spoke, his voice still enthusiastic but obviously worn down with fatigue.
"We wait till the winter sales, buy in bulk and then hide them in secret places. This little op used up two years worth of stock." Sasuke spoke.
"You're t-t-taking this awfully s-seriously." Hinata noted.
"So is Kakashi. Speaking of, he's fallen off my radar, which means either we got him or he's right under us." Naruto spoke wearily.
"What? Hinata, hide quickly!" Sasuke spoke, his eyes wide before he was suddenly dragged into the ground by a pair of hands that had pierced up through the soil beneath him.
"I can't believe it took me so long to think of doing that." Kakashi spoke, rising from the ground like some sort of monster from the deep, leaving only Sasuke's head above the ground.
"Well, you've gone above and beyond so far but this is where it ends. I see you haven't let Hinata into your little boys' only club." Kakashi spoke, scanning the tree line.
"Oh, by the way, you got me." He added lazily, showing them the back of his hand where lay a thin line of red where a kunai must have grazed him.
"Damn, I knew I shoulda put something on those... Like itching powder... Or Hemlock..." Naruto spoke, standing up unsteadily, two hours straight of spending his Chakra almost constantly finally beginning to catch up with him.
"You alive, Sasuke?" He asked, steadying himself.
"Yeah." Sasuke spoke, struggling to free himself from the packed earth.
"Well... I guess it's now or never." Naruto spoke, dropping a Kunai from his pocket as he ran suddenly towards Kakashi, his fist cocked back and his face stretched out in a yell.
Kakashi almost smirked at the effort and raised his hand to bat Naruto aside when he stopped, his eyes going wide as a shockwave seemed to roll through his body and he felt a sensation rather like a white hot pin being driven into the middle of his spine.
And he knew that feeling well enough to know he had made a mistake.
It was the feeling of the gentle fist.
Hinata had come up from behind him, so sure had he been that the boys would leave her to fend for herself that he hadn't bothered to query her absence.
A second later, he was made to pay for his foolishness twofold as Naruto's fist struck him in the stomach, just powerful enough that it made him bend over in pain.
In an act of irony, delivered personally by the Gods, Kakashi threw up, Naruto having thankfully rolled out of the way.
Kakashi stood there for a moment, seeing black blotches in his vision before looking up at the three young Ninja.
They were sat together, looking cold, frightened and yet somehow strangely triumphant. And as Kakashi looked up to the sky he saw why. The stars were starting to come out.
So, they had won.
He began to laugh. A laugh that wasn't all entirely sane.
"Brilliant. You're completely and utterly brilliant." He laughed before settling his gaze back down on them. "But you didn't get the b-" He froze as his hand met the empty air where the bell had once been.
"Which of you..." He spoke, looking at them in amazement.
Hinata flushed bright red and opened her hand, showing off the single, solitary bell.
"I d-didn't mean to g-get it, it just fell off when we h-h-hit you." She spoke with a quiet voice.
"Wow Hinata-Chan, that's amazing." Naruto spoke, his voice recovering ever so slightly.
"I d-don't really want it though... You have it." She spoke nervously, presenting it to Sasuke who shook his head and then to Naruto who spoke:
"You've earned it, ttebayo! If it wasn't for you, I don't think we coulda pulled this off." Naruto smiled.
"Well, I certainly have to pass you guys after all that." Kakashi spoke, smiling from behind his mask.
"From now on, you guys are Team Seven, my apprentices. We won't start missions until the day after tomorrow, so I want you to get ready. Weapons, new clothes, stuff like that. Oh... and you might as well meet me at Ichiraku's Ramen bar, I owe you a free meal for capturing that bell, don't I?" He spoke, looking at Hinata.
"We'll meet there about five in the afternoon, for a little team discussion. Until then, Ja-ne." With an almost cheery wave, Kakashi disappeared into the night, leaves falling around him as he went.
"I still think I d-d-don't r-really deserve this..." Hinata spoke quietly, looking at the bell in her hand.
"Hey Hinata-Chan."
Hinata looked up, just as Naruto gave her a hug.
"You did great and you deserve it just fine. You're part of the team now. That's alright, isn't it Sasuke?"
"Fine by me." Sasuke shrugged.
"What do you say, Hinata?" Naruto asked, letting her go before the hug got awkward.
Hinata had gone completely red at the casual contact and was swaying on the spot like a tree in the wind, making nonsensical noises that might have been speech. Without another thought, she fainted, the slightest hint of steam escaping her ears as she fell.
"Hinata? Hey Hinata? You alright?" Naruto asked, panicking.
"She's just tired like we are Naruto. Probably blacked out from exhaustion." Sasuke spoke, lying through his teeth.
"Well... What do we do now?" Naruto asked, looking at Hinata's fainted form.
"You pick her up and we take her home." Sasuke spoke slowly and calmly.
"Right, right. You sure she's alright?" Naruto asked as he picked the bluenette off of the ground carefully.
"She'll be fine after she's slept." Sasuke replied.
"Right... One last question... Where does she live?" Naruto asked as Sasuke nursed his temples with frustration.
At Hinata's *cough* 'house.'
"Holy Frog..." Naruto spoke, looking up at the Hyuga compound from the gate. "All of this is Hinata's house?" He said, his eyes wide from taking it all in, in the moonlight.
"Naruto, I know that you can sense the other people in there. It's not just Hinata's home." Sasuke spoke, his tone carrying a deep tiredness that had nothing to do with his exhaustion.
Naruto just grinned pointedly before frowning at the open gates.
"So do we just.. Walk right in there? 'Cause I'm not dropping her off here."
"You could just walk in, but I wouldn't advise it." A calm, long suffering voice spoke out from the darkness beyond the gates. He was soon revealed, in the lamplight of the street, to be a Hyuga. Tall and pale with dark hair and eyes like milk, he wore his Leaf headband with a bandanna as some Ninja were wont to do.
"My name is Kō, I am one of Hinata's personal protectors. She will be safe with me." The Hyuga spoke, bowing as many of the older and more traditional members of the Leaf still did.
Naruto carefully lifted Hinata up and relinquished her over to the Hyuga, before bowing to him in turn as the Hokage had instructed him to.
"Mr. Hyuga, if you please, our Jounin captain has given the entire team leave tomorrow, but wishes that we meet him at five in the afternoon tomorrow. Hinata should remember the details." Sasuke spoke before too bowing politely to the Hyuga.
"This has been noted. We extend our thanks for escorting the clan heir safely back." Kō spoke, inclining his head.
"Alright, we leave the rest to you. Come, Naruto." Sasuke spoke, almost dragging Naruto away from where he had been standing, staring vacantly into space.
"Huh? Oh right, see you Hyuga-San, 'night Hinata-Chan." Naruto spoke, waving good bye to the two Hyuga before he bounded off into the forest with his brother, the tree branches seeming to move underneath them to catch them as they leapt into the treetops.
Kō watched them go before looking down at the young girl who lay slumbering in his arms.
"Is that the one your heart is so set upon, Lady Hinata? Then you should know that this is an evil world, run by evil Gods and that he is lucky to know your friendship. Waste not your childhood, you shall be an adult much sooner than you believe."
His words were wasted upon her as she slept peacefully, and with no other to hear his ramblings, Kō returned Hinata to the sanctuary of her room before returning to his own post.
The next day.
Officially, Naruto and Sasuke's place of residence was a small apartment with a single bedroom, a sitting room, a kitchen and a bathroom, situated near the Hokage office and therefore also near the Ninja academy so that they never had an excuse to be late and they could get to see the Hokage quickly if ever they had a problem.
This was their base of operations, the place they returned to most consistently, as it was the only place they frequented that had a working kitchen.
Otherwise, they had found, repurposed or even sometimes created hideouts where they could literally go to hide away from the rest of the village.
Their favourite hideout was one that Naruto had found but a year ago.
On one of his many rambling walks through the forests that dotted the inside of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Naruto had stumbled across a hideout belonging to the most important man ever to walk the streets of the Leaf.
During his reign, the Founding First Hokage; Senju Hashirama had created many hiding places throughout the village, to store information, for privacy with his wife or to serve as a meeting place with a man whom he considered to be a brother, and an equal.
Hidden beneath an old oak tree, the room had only yielded itself to Naruto, his Chakra, the energy of his soul, resonating with something in the old oak that had made it disgorge its secrets unto him.
Following the pathway down into a secret room underground, Naruto had found the mother-load. A great library and training room, a veritable goldmine of information just waiting to be tapped into.
Naruto had marked the spot where he found the room and had used sticks to mark his way so he could find his way back.
The only person he told was Sasuke, whom upon being shown the room told Naruto that it must be kept a secret, citing the fact that only Naruto could open the way as proof that the room was meant only for him.
Since that day, the boys had returned to the room, time and time again, whenever they had a spare moment and were able fall off of the ANBU's radar.
The room was incredibly spacious and was incredible to behold.
It was almost literally split down the middle by the state each side of the room had been left in. On the right and left walls, there were bookcases, twelve feet high and stretching from one end of this Olympic sized room to the other, every space on the bookshelves packed with scrolls and paperwork of some description. However, that was where the similarities between the two sides of the room ended.
On one side of right side of the room, there was a methodical order, everything tidy and clean and in its place, although run down through lack of use, there was a well practiced harmony to it all.
On the other side, well... Weapons and practice dummies lay strewn across the floor, rusted and broken by time, though interestingly only dust and moisture had decayed them, no other living creature had made it into this room.
At the far end of the room, there were several targets, some like normal archery targets and some in the shape of men.
One had a picture of someone who looked to be a Hyuga, which had been pierced by an arrow that went straight through the Hyuga's nose.
On the wall where the door to the outside world lay, were more pictures, old and fragile and were mostly pin-ups and post-its.
One on the messy side of the room depicted a stern but beautiful looking woman with crimson hair, fading ink on the paper reading 'My wife' and 'Do it for her.'
The other side of the room's pictures were less personal, faded old drawings of impressive looking weapons, along with pin-up pictures of sultry looking women showing their ankles.
Beneath this was an old fashioned vinyl record player that had long since gone out of commission, an old edition of 'Bad Ryō Blues' broken under the pin.
The room had been in this yin-yang state, even before the boys had taken over it.
They were there now, picking their way through the scrolls, marking the shelves with Kunai next any scroll that caught their interest.
Even after a year's worth of going through the scrolls, they had barely covered an eighth of the length of the room.
Sasuke let out a deep sigh as he placed a scroll ('The Art of Perfection by Uchiha Madara') back onto the shelf.
"What is with this guy?" He spoke, exasperated. "Everything he writes is so... Forceful. Don't get me wrong, he explains stuff well but his writing is... It feels like he was really angry when he wrote it, you know?"
Naruto let out a noncommittal noise as he placed a scroll of his own ('A Thesis On The Possibility Of Creating A PureWorld Reincarnation Technique by Senju Tobirama') back on the shelf without even looking inside it.
"I get that." He spoke. "That's why I like this Hashirama guy better. He's my kinda guy."
They exchanged words between one another to break the silence, not really listening or meaning anything. It was just pointless chatter that echoed about the room and gave them something to keep them from starving of human accompaniment.
While it might have helped and was most certainly placed there for this very reason, they had long given up trying to get the vinyl player working again as, even if they had managed to fix it, none of the shops sold vinyl records anymore.
Only when they found something that really interested them would they start talking normally.
"Sasuke, hey Sasuke, I got something." Naruto spoke, climbing down the ladder, clutching a scroll.
"Let's see then. What is it? 'Ninja art: Great Clone Explosion.'" Sasuke spoke, looking at the title of the scroll.
"It says that you can use Shadow Clones to make explosions." Naruto spoke giddily.
"Sometimes I worry a little about you, Naruto." Sasuke spoke, eyeing his brother before looking back down at the scroll.
"Though I do admit, if we learned this..." He paused to imagine the sort of damage the amount of clones they could pump out would make if they all exploded.
"Can we? Can we, can we, can we?" Naruto asked excitably.
"Sure, but not now, we've got other things to do today." Sasuke spoke, rolling the scroll up.
"Aww man..." Naruto spoke, deflating.
"We'll save it for later, don't worry. But we've got to sort out some more weapons; we spent our entire supply on Kakashi. Also, we've to get registered up at the Hokage's office and get our pictures done." Sasuke added, looking up at the clock that they had put up above the door.
"Right, right." Naruto sighed, looking along the bookcase. "You reckon we're ever going to use all this?"
Sasuke just shrugged.
"Come on, let's head out."
"Alright, don't bite my head off." Naruto spoke, walking up and out of the room with his hands in his pockets.
As Sasuke went to turn off the lights, he seemed to hear music playing from the old vinyl player. As he turned around, just for the barest second, he thought he saw two men standing together talking like friends, however the moment that Sasuke blinked, the ethereal vision disappeared.
Sasuke shook his head and switched the light off.
There wasn't such a thing as ghosts.
... Right?
Naruto and Sasuke darted through the streets of the Leaf, Ninja headbands tied tight around their heads where the emblem of the Leaf was displayed proudly.
Even a menial chore of going out shopping could be made into training and as they ducked between the throng of people walking down the market street, they trained their hands by speaking to each other using the sign language employed by the ANBU Black Ops.
How exactly they had learned this was anyone's guess.
'What's our first target?' Naruto signed as Sasuke came into view.
'Weapons. I want a sword.' Sasuke replied, his hands flashing almost imperceptibly fast. 'Then; new clothes.'
'Do I have to?' Naruto signed back, quite unable to communicate his derision at the idea of new clothes.
'Yes. Ninja wear dark clothes. None of the Hokage wore clothes like those.' Sasuke answered, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of them.
'I want a style of my own though.' Naruto argued back, though Sasuke knew that his will was crumbling.
At this, they found the Ninja blacksmith where they would be able buy Kunai, Shuriken and Sasuke would be able to browse for a sword.
The store was owned by a kindly old man by the name of Ninten, a skilled blacksmith who met them with professional neutrality and showed them around the store, introducing them to weapons they hadn't even known existed. Scythes with chains, senbon needles and gauntlets as well as clubs that looked like baseball bats and even an explosive yoyo.
Once they had bought surplus supplies of Kunai, Shuriken and various smoke and paper bombs, Sasuke turned his attention towards the swords.
"Ain' chu a bit young?" Ninten asked as Sasuke looked at his selection of Katana.
"Age doesn't have anything to do with it, we're Genin-"
"S'not what I meant, son." Ninten spoke over him. "I make these things to last, but 'chu got a lotta growin' to do, see? It would nay be worth the money to you. I don' wanna be ripping a kid off like that, see?"
Sasuke looked at the swords, longing still in his eyes before he turned to Ninten.
"If I were to bring you a sword, could you re-service it to suit me?" He asked, clearly still very fixed on the idea of getting a sword.
"Ah, you're crafty an' I'll give you that. Sure, I could do that for you. Still cost you a packet, like. But yeah, bring me sword and I'll bang it into shape for you." The blacksmith spoke, folding his arms.
"Hey Sasuke, you think this'd suit me?" Naruto spoke, looking closely at the scythe and chain.
"No." Sasuke spoke quickly, imagining the worst possible consequences.
"Mean." Naruto pouted, though walking away from the weapon without a care.
"I'll be back later." Sasuke promised, bowing to the blacksmith.
"Don't rush yourself, I'm not going anywhere." Ninten spoke, waving the Genin away.
"So why'd you ask him that anyway, Sasuke?" Naruto asked Sasuke as they walked back into the street.
"There were some swords in our library that looked like they were still in okay condition. I figured I could use one of them but they were really unbalanced." Sasuke answered quietly.
"So you're going to have the blacksmith balance it for you?"
"If I can afford it, yes. We have to get clothes first."
"If we can afford it. We're in this together, Sasuke. I'll help you where I can." Naruto added quietly.
"It's just a sword, Naruto."
"It means more than that to you."
Sasuke looked at his brother in surprise before looking down at the ground, smiling.
"Yeah... I guess you're right."
A shopping spree later
"So what do we need these pictures for, then?" Naruto spoke, looking at the three newly developed photos, each of his face.
"So that the guards at the gate know it's us and we can get out and missions." Sasuke guessed, shrugging his shoulders. "Come on, let's go get ourselves registered." He added, dragging Naruto toward the Hokage building and up towards his office.
By some miracle, they had managed to drop in at a time when no other Genin were there, a feat that surely had large odds against.
"Yo, gramps? You in?" Naruto shouted energetically as they walked into the office.
"Jeez, can't you show some respect Naruto?" Sasuke spoke back to him, as they stepped over the threshold.
Hiruzen sat at a desk, a pile of papers in front of him, a small bowl of wax being heated in front of him, to be used to officially seal the documents. Usually, such paperwork would be the job of one his many subordinates or secretaries but he had insisted as he enjoyed meeting the new Genin, especially when it was a group of so much potential such as this.
"Ah, Sasuke, Naruto. Do you have your pictures? I trust that they are suitable?" He spoke, smiling kindly at them both as they put their pictures on the desk.
He looked at them closely, thumbing through them one by one with close scrutiny, his face steady.
"Well, I have to say, I honestly thought you might not take these properly, especially you, Naruto." The Hokage spoke with a chuckle.
"Such little faith..." Naruto spoke glumly, bowing his head. "I can be serious too, gramps..."
"Then why do you still insist on calling him that?" Sasuke spoke lowly with a mutinous tone.
The Hokage let out a chuckle before waving hand at them.
"Sit down, sit down, this will take a couple of minutes." He spoke, looking over their paperwork.
"Hey gramps, do you still do those ink paintings?" Naruto asked as he watched the old man pick up a small brush to sign the documents.
"Every once in a while, if I'm telling a story to my youngest grandson." He replied kindly, a small smile on his lips as he remembered doing the same for the two young boys before him.
"You could retire and make a living off doing those paintings, you know." Naruto spoke eagerly, to which the Hokage replied with a kind and hearty laugh, the sort that you want to join in on, before smiling down on the boy.
"Yet another thinly veiled attempt to get me to hand over this hat." He chuckled. "No Naruto, I'm not quite ready to give up just yet. There are a few things I need to see before then. In the meantime, you should focus on training your skills and becoming a Chunin. A change of clothes wouldn't go amiss either." He quipped casually, a grandfatherly twinkle in his eye.
"Not you too, gramps." Naruto whined, crossing his arms with a pout.
As the Hokage turned back to the documents, a small figure ran into the room, brandishing a Kunai with an unnecessarily long scarf trailing behind them, screaming at the top of their lungs:
"Die old man!"
Instantly, both Naruto and Sasuke were on their feet with kunai in their hands, ready to intercept the would-be assassin. However before anything truly unfortunate could happen, the figure stepped on their own scarf and fell face first onto the floor to the tune of an overly audible sigh that had escaped the Hokage's lips.
Reviled to be a young boy, about eight or so, he stood, nursing his nose.
"Ah, a sneak attack." He spoke to himself before noticing Sasuke and Naruto who were still stood, processing the situation. "You jerks, what did you have to trip me up for?" He shouted, pointing accusingly at the brothers.
"You did that to yourself though." Naruto mumbled. "Who wears a scarf as long as that?" He added, mostly to himself.
"It must have been you two! There's nobody else here." The boy retorted.
Sasuke tutted, looking down at the boy.
"You should take responsibility for your actions, y'know?" He said, adopting a sharp tone.
"I don't care, what you gonna do about it? I'm the Hokage's grandson, so how's that? Bet you don't dare hit me n- ouch!" He shrieked as Naruto gave him a sharp slap on the cheek.
"Whether or not you're the Hokage's grandson doesn't matter. Also, what's with this 'die' attitude? If you have family, you ought to cherish them, 'ttebayo!" Naruto told the boy.
"A-As if I care about something like that, i-idiots." The boy shouted back, nursing his cheek.
Naruto or Sasuke might have risen to this however they were once again interrupted, this time by a man wearing a bandanna who ran into the room all flustered.
"Honourable Grandson? Honourable Grandson? Ah, there you are." The man spoke, panting heavily as if he had run a long way.
"Ah crap, it's Mr. Ebisu." The young boy spoke.
The Ninja, now revealed to be named Ebisu fixed his eyes on the two brothers, and even though he was wearing dark glasses, they could tell that he was giving them a very unkind sort of look.
"Tch, let's get back to your studies, Honourable Grandson... Huh? Where'd he go?" Ebisu asked, looking at the spot where the boy had just been.
"Went through 't window." Sasuke spoke shortly, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder, paying as little attention to the Jounin as possible.
"Here boys, your Ninja identification cards are done." The Hokage spoke, handing the pair of them a card each.
"Thank you, Lord Hokage." Sasuke spoke honestly, accepting the card with interest, while Naruto took his, saying simply;
"Alright, thanks gramps."
"We'll see you later, Lord Hokage."
"Bye." The two added as they walked past Ebisu, whom had an ugly look upon his face, and out the door.
The Jounin stood, looking distastefully at where the boys had left before being brought around by a none-too subtle cough from the Hokage.
"Should you not be looking for my Grandson around about now?" He said pointedly, looking not at all happy with the Jounin.
"Ah, right, damn." Ebisu spoke distractedly, walking out of the door mumbling to himself.
The Hokage watched him go with narrowed eyes before voicing his disdain with a click of his tongue.
"My Jounin forces... This is whom I trust the safety of the children to. Small minded and weak in body and mind and spirit. I think it may be time for a little... Staff evaluation..." The Hokage spoke to himself, looking out of the window.
Outside...
"This has to be... The single worst disguise... I have ever seen." Naruto spoke, looking at the square of fake fencing that had been put up to hide the person behind it, however was being held the wrong way so that the lines did not match up to the fence behind it.
Even then, the hider's hands could be seen at the top, holding the sheet up, and they hadn't used enough to cover their feet.
"Ha! You saw through my amazing Ninja camouflage technique. As I thought, you jerks are amazing Ninja." Konohamaru exclaimed, jumping out from behind his 'disguise.'
"Uh... Sooooo?" Sasuke let out, sweat dropping down the back of his head.
"So, you have to teach me!"
"Should we?" Naruto asked of Sasuke.
"What would we teach him?" Sasuke replied.
"Shadow clones?"
"He won't be able to."
"Really? We were around that age when we learned."
"Yes but we're different."
"Well..."
"Hang on." Sasuke spoke, interrupting their discussion. "Have to? We don't have to do anything. I might teach you some manners but that's not for me to do. Don't you have that Jounin to teach you?" Sasuke added, trying to get the kid off of their case.
"I hate Ebisu, he's an asshole. He looks down on me and then tries to suck up to my gramps with all this 'honourable grandson' bull. I hate it." Konohamaru replied, crossing his arms.
"I mean sure, you're right about that." Naruto spoke. "He is an asshole, but what do you think we could do for you? We're only Genin, 'ttebayo."
"Well, I heard that you took down a really strong thief who stole from gramps' library. Teach me! I'll learn anything. I just want to be stronger, better. I want to be looked up to. I want people to say; 'Hey, there's Konohamaru' instead of just calling me Honourable Grandson all the time!" He ranted, breathing heavily.
"... Ne... Feel any better for that?"
"A little..."
"Well, fine, follow us, we'll see what we can help you with." Naruto said, guiding the boy into the woods.
They stopped in a clearing, not too far into the woods and sat down on some logs.
"So, what do you think we can teach you?" Sasuke asked the boy as they sat down.
"I want to be as strong as you, as fast as you. You can teach me that, right? If I can get that strong, then I'll become Hokage and everyone will look up to me!" He spoke, on the verge of ranting again.
"You want to be Hokage too, huh? Well, I'm not entirely sure how to teach you, Konohamaru, me and Sasuke got this strong by fighting each other. Don't you have any friends at the academy?" Naruto asked.
"I don't go to the academy, and I don't need any friends, I can get stronger on my own." Konohamaru replied confidently.
"With that attitude, you won't ever be Hokage." Naruto spoke bluntly.
"W-what..?" Konohamaru let out, as if he'd just been struck.
"'To become Hokage is to be respected' right? That's what I thought at first too, but it's entirely the wrong line of thinking, instead, you should be thinking 'only those who are respected become Hokage.' If you want respect, make them respect you and if you really want to be Hokage, start from the bottom and climb to the top. 'Cause you see, I want to be Hokage, no, I will be Hokage, so if that's still your dream, then you're up against me as well." Naruto spoke, standing up, placing his fist over his chest as he gave Konohamaru the inspirational speech.
Konohamaru sat in awed silence, looking up at Naruto with stars in his eyes while Sasuke chuckled silently at his side.
Unfortunately, Ebisu had to interrupt them.
"Honourable Grandson? Ah! There you are. What are you doing here with... these two." He spoke with a disrespectful tone. Even wearing sunglasses, he couldn't hide the look that he was giving them.
With a hop, he jumped down into the clearing, where he landed on a tree root that hit him directly between the legs.
"That... wasn't there... Before." He groaned, falling to his knees.
"What's with that look, eh? I'm fed up with it." Naruto spoke, cracking his knuckles menacingly.
"Naruto..." Sasuke said, standing up.
"No, I'm fed up of this!"
"Naruto!" Sasuke said, placing his hand firmly on his brother's shoulder.
"... Sorry Sasuke." Naruto said, deflating. "But it gets me really down, 'ttebayo."
"Che..." Ebisu spat on the floor as he stood up. "Honourable Grandson, you will come with me. You know that I am the only one who can give you a shortcut to Hokage." His tone low and angry.
"Liar." Naruto spoke, a shadow crossing his face.
"What?!"
"The Founding First built this village with his bare hands from almost nothing and befriended a foe who, when they fought, maps had to be rewritten. The Second lost all of his family to the wars and yet stayed sane to the end, and was the man responsible for our schools and the workers' unions that make this village whole." Naruto listed off.
"I... but..." Ebisu managed out before Naruto got his breath back and continued on.
"The Third was trained by the First and the Second and became Hokage on the battlefield when the Second sacrificed his life to save his teams' lives. The Fourth was so fast that his enemies believed him to be in multiple places. He destroyed the greatest of Demons. There. Is. No. Shortcut. To. Hokage." Naruto spoke fiercely, a fire burning in his eye.
"You know nothing, demon child." Ebisu spat out. "Come, Honourable grandson."
However, before he could drag Konohamaru away, Naruto burst forward and punched him right in the cheek, a shadow passing over his face as he knocked the Jounin down.
"Sorry Sasuke but he was asking for that one." Naruto spoke.
"I'll let you off on that one." Sasuke spoke, none too happy either.
Konohamaru watched them with a worried look on his face. No matter what, assaulting a superior officer was bound to have some sort of consequence.
"Now, you, listen..." Naruto spoke down at Ebisu, before beginning to rant and the Jounin, pausing only to take breath every so often as he talked him almost literally without end.
"... So? What have you got to say?" Naruto spoke, backing off only slightly.
Ebisu lay on the ground, his mind reeling from the physical and mental assault.
"I... I'm sorry... Konohamaru. Naruto is right... I should let you attend the Academy." Ebisu spoke with a very feeble tone.
"Alright!" Konohamaru exclaimed, fist pumping.
"Hey Sasuke, what's the time?" Naruto asked, looking up at his brother.
"Yeah, we need to set off. We don't want to keep Kakashi waiting... if he isn't late himself." Sasuke replied.
"Well, anyway, Konohamaru? Next time we meet, we'll be rivals." Naruto spoke, waving goodbye to the boy.
"Right!" Konohamaru shouted back, grinning widely.
The Hokage's office
The Hokage, watched the two boys through the glass of his crystal ball, a small smile on his face, even as he heard footsteps approaching.
"You summoned me?" A weary old voice spoke from behind him.
The voice belonged to a grizzled old man, covered in bandages, his whole body looking very lopsided as he was missing both his left arm and his left eye, though the latter was bandaged over.
"Danzo." The Hokage spoke, turning around with a gracious smile. "Thank you for meeting me at such short notice."
Danzo nodded his head in acknowledgment, his face expressionless.
"It is no problem. I offered you my help, it would be a disgrace of me to withdraw it now that you need it. How may I be of assistance, old friend?" He replied, his voice echoing his expression.
"Please, sit so that we may talk, old friend." Hiruzen replied, gesturing to the seat across from him.
Danzo was just about to do so when the Hokage, whom had already sat down, began coughing violently, and horribly so. The sound of a man in great pain.
"Hiruzen! Hiruzen, are you okay?!" Danzo spoke, fear crossing his face as flecks of blood gathered on the other man's hand.
"I... I am not dead." He managed hoarsely as his coughing fit faded away. "But I am not long for this world either. We have... Much to discuss."
"We made a promise, Hiruzen. I cannot let you die like this." Danzo spoke with passion.
"Calm yourself... Old friend... Please." Hiruzen spoke back, closing his hand. "And sit and listen, please."
Danzo quietened and sat opposite his oldest friend.
"Thank you..." Hiruzen spoke before taking a deep breath and sitting up. "I am dying. I am beyond saving. Even Tsunade could not heal me now, it is too late. As for time left, I am no expert but I have less than a year, maybe even a single season left before I move on. I accept this without qualification, a peaceful death, surrounded by those I love, what truer dream is there for an old man like I?" He spoke.
"Do you no longer stand by the Will of Fire, then?"
"Ha! This village needs not a flickering old candle such as I. Even in peace, what is needed is a roaring inferno. I can provide that no longer. If the opportunity arises, and I have to choose between saving those I can or dying peacefully, then I will die for this village gladly. But there is no such end in sight for me."
"The same convictions till the very end, then."
"We would have it no other way. Is it not so, Danzo?"
"You speak truly, Hiruzen. This one still has flame left, will you use it?"
"Only with your willing consent. I have much I wish before I allow myself to die. Not least is the selection of the next Hokage... I know that you would like it still, Danzo, I know, but you are nearly as old as I. Your years can be counted on two hands at most. We need someone young, fast and smart.
If I had more time, I would hand train those two, the boys, Naruto and Sasuke. They have the makings of fine leaders." Hiruzen spoke, sighing almost depressively.
"Ah yes, the two Jinchūriki, they have an almost infinite level of potential. I am particularly interested in Sasuke." Danzo mused, stroking his chin.
"Help them along from the shadows or directly if you believe that you can get away with it. However... As for who should take over in the short term... My only stakes lie with Jiraiya and Kakashi. Please try and convince them, even if you have to play the villain once more."
"Jiraiya and Kakashi... Are truly our best bet." Danzo spoke with the deepest of sighs. "Jiraiya, I have a little faith in. He has seen this world and knows it but Kakashi... Though he is younger, he is nothing like his master once was. All that potential he has, all that renown he has built up for himself, is being wasted. I sorely hate the idea of wasted potential."
"Indeed, I remember your words well, old friend. Well, I may have a solution in mind to Kakashi, and indeed to the rest of my Jounin, whom I believe to be underperforming, currently."
"Oh, and what do you have in mind, Hiruzen?"
"For them, a cruel and harsh training regime. Are you willing to help?"
"Oh, always." Danzo smiled, a cruel gleam appearing in his eye, mirroring the one that had appeared in Hiruzen's.
"Well then, my plan for them is this..." He spoke with a smile, laying a scroll out in front of Danzo, who smiled darkly.
"I see, I see, this could be fun..."
Later, at Ichiraku's
"Hey, Kakashi! Sorry we're late, we got caught up on something." Naruto spoke at their new master as he and Sasuke sat beside him.
"Hey Hinata-Chan." He added to her, sitting beside her.
She happened to be eating at the time and turned bright red, too well mannered to say anything with food in her mouth. She coughed as some of the noodles went down the wrong way and by the time she was done, she was too flustered to say anything anyway.
"Uh... Okay?" Naruto mumbled, turning to the bar. "Oh hey, Iruka-Sensei, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, me? I like to have ramen as a treat to myself sometimes." Iruka spoke with a chuckle, stirring his noodles with his chopsticks.
Naruto made an 'oh' noise, before looking back over the bar, trying to get the attention of one of the staff, while Sasuke watched Iruka with a knowing smile as the latter snuck glances at the pretty young bar lady.
"So, what did you bring us here for, sir?" Sasuke spoke, referring to Kakashi.
"Ah, don't get so formal, Kakashi will do... Well, for now, while they're warming the next batch of food up, I'll say this: For the first week or so, you're just going to be doing D rank missions for the village. They're nothing better than chores that bring in a little bit of money for the village, so Genin are assigned to them. Do well on these and I can probably swing it so we can do a proper mission within a week. I want you all to have a taste of a real mission as soon as possible." He spoke firmly.
"Ah, Teuchi, would you do these two a bowl each on my bill, please. Just a salt ramen broth, for them please." Kakashi added to the barman who nodded, wiped his hands on a towel and went around the back.
"I won't treat you often, but I think you all earned just this one." Kakashi spoke, his eye closed as he reclined, his own bowl already empty.
"Thank you Sensei!" Naruto cheered. Anyone who gave him ramen was fine by him.
As the three Genin ate together, Hinata secretly being on her second bowl, a hawk flew down and dropped a scroll into Kakashi's lap.
He opened it up and read it:
'S rank message for the immediate attention of all recipients of Jounin class or above, by direct decree of Third Hokage; Sarutobi Hiruzen.
All Jounin currently not on missions above and including those marked as C rank are to report to the Hokage's personal training ground; #001 at 06:00 AM sharp tomorrow morning for a seminar of indeterminable length.
Those who do not come to this session and do not have good reason for their absence will be punished severely, as will all latecomers.
#Special message for the direct interest of Jounin; Hatake Kakashi: Yes, this means you too.
By decree of the Third Hokage.
Sarutobi Hiruzen
P.S: I mean it, Kakashi, don't be late.'
There was no way on Earth that this could be good.
Author's notes:
(Rewritten)
Events have been set in motion and the few changes become many. What is this new training regime that the Hokage is planning with his old friend? How will Kakashi deal with the training?
Will Hinata ever talk to Naruto without fainting?
All this and more, next time, on 'Fox Brothers.'
I just wish that this site would give me an option to change the font so I could do fancy fonts when Hiruzen was signing documents...
See you guys next chapter.
~Umbra Gami