Master of the Arts

Arc 1: Settling In Part 2

Chapter 3: Three's A Crowd

Summary: After Naruto and Sakura lose their best friend, they go to extreme measures to get him back. Shikamaru tries too hard to reach into Neji's past and ends up uncovering secrets about himself along the way. Remember kids, everything is connected and it all leads back to the man who started it all. This is a journey for everyone to bring back the people they love.


Truth be told, Kakashi practically begged Tsunade-sama to let him mentor his former sensei's kid's team. It was interesting, especially to Asuma and Genma, to say the least.

Though he wasn't the only one interested in a student.

Asuma was vaguely interested in the kid sleeping in his classroom earlier that week. So he did the honorable thing that any other man would do.

He begged to have the Nara's kid on his team, too.

Asuma knew Shikamaru albeit not very well. Asuma was his father's old family friend. He tried to make small talk with the kid before but he just looked bored and rudely walked away.

He was going to befriend that kid, dammit!

Last year Gai also begged to be the the teacher of his student, Rock Lee's, team. Gai decided to hold off a year before sending his students into the competition.

The MOA competition was deadly. Asuma vaguely remembered that that was what the Hyūga kid was implying yesterday when talking to the Nara.

Gai did a good thing waiting until his team was ready to fight but Asuma wasn't so sure that he was going to do that as well.

It seemed he was also acquaintances with the parents of the other two kids on his team.

Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji, hm?

Asuma was going to have a good time with this team.

That is why when he left the usual meeting in Tsunade's office that day, he group texted his team.

Because he was a cool teacher.

Asuma mentally slapped himself in the face after realizing how stupid it had sounded.

Shikaku and his wife were good people. Shikaku may have been a bit secluded and withdrawn but it was fun to play shogi with the man. Yoshino on the other hand was very nice and polite to everyone.

Asuma supposed the two distinct personalities somehow balanced out and created the lazy genius who was now his student.

Shikaku didn't talk about his son much, or anyone for that matter. But it was clear that when he did talk about Shikamaru that he was sincerely proud of the kid.

This motivated Asuma to form a bond with the kid, no matter how silly it actually seemed.


Neji took pride in the fact that he was a very patient man.

But his patience was running thin today.

Tenten wasn't putting her all in training today and when Neji was going too fast for her pace she got upset.

It wasn't his fault that she was being lazy, for goodness sake.

Gai and Lee's enthusiasm, albeit a common occurrence, gave him a headache. It didn't help that he could not stop thinking about Nara Shikamaru.

He did not care, he kept telling himself, that Shikamaru was killing himself.

It's just smoking, he told himself.

It won't kill him… immediately, he told himself.

It did bug him a bit, though.

If asked, Neji would immediately deny thinking about the Nara.

He was confused as to why he could not stop thinking about him. They hadn't even seen each other since Neji was a senior in high school and Shikamaru was a junior.

It was unnerving, to say the least, that he had been thinking about someone who he was barely acquaintances with.

Neji decided that it was best to stop thinking about it. Unimportant things like this would hinder his goals.

His goals such as Anbu.

Yeah, slaving yourself away to protect the country wasn't the best… job choice. But it was better than his current situation.

It was clear that Hiashi-sama was intent on making one of his daughters the heir to the master power. It certainly wasn't going to be Hinata, either.

The best choice of an heir would of course be Neji.

That was impossible.

After the branch family was created to protect the master power, it was decided that no one in the branch family would be able to inherit the master power.

It just wasn't reasonable.

But maybe, maybe if Neji was able to win the MOA-

Neji internally shook his head.

Neji knew he was strong and he was sure there were few, if any, people who could actually defeat him. But any prize the MOA had to offer wouldn't be enough to set him free from this… hell.

He reached up and touched his forehead protector, outlining where his curse mark would be.

Anbu it is.

Kakashi had heard about his goal toward Anbu. He wasn't encouraging.

Guy strictly forbade it, but really, what could he do?

Gai had no power over him.

Neji was a Hyūga.

He'd be one forever.

Looking into a mirror everyday served as a reminder to where he belonged. The bandaged forehead. The distinct family features- the pale moonlit eyes, long brown hair, strong jaw, and confident face would never disappear.

His reflection would laugh at him through the mirror. Laugh at him for being such a disappointment- for being his father's disappointment.

Anbu offered him an outlet. No more family to serve, no more curse mark. No more mistakes to be made.

He'd be perfect.

That's all he'd ever strived to be and he wouldn't settle for less.

But Neji couldn't help but hope. Hope that if he won this competition, some good might come out of it. Of course, though, his team would have to be perfect. And for his team to be perfect, they'd have to stop slacking off.

He shot a glare at Tenten as if expecting her to have read his mind.

Perfection.

That was the only word with meaning to him.


Today was the first meeting of their team.

Naruto couldn't stop shooting Sasuke subtle yet deadly glares as if it was his fault that they'd ended up on the same team. Naruto got really annoyed at Sasuke's barely hidden amusement at his despair.

Sakura was obviously slightly uncomfortable but also enjoying the animosity between the two boys. It was common so she didn't really mind. But if the two got out of hand she would be the one to stop them, precisely with a fist in their faces.

It didn't help that Kakashi-sensei was also late as always! Naruto hoped that since this was his team he'd be mentoring for the entire college experience, he'd at least try to give a good impression on the first day.

Didn't seem like that was gonna happen anytime soon.

Naruto was genuinely about to leave when Kakashi jumped down from a tree that Naruto swore wasn't there a second before.

"Yo, team!"

"Boo!" Naruto stuck out his tongue and gave Kakashi a big thumbs down. Sasuke rolled his eyes at his childishness and Sakura laughed.

"Ah, getting on the bad side of my teacher's son already? Bad Kakashi," Kakashi reprimanded himself.

Naruto looked up in confusion. What was he talking about? Teacher's son?

Kakashi must have sensed his confusion or just decided to tell him anyway, and said, "You look just like Minato-sensei." He stood in front of the kid and smiled through his mask.

"Minato-sensei? You knew my dad?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah. He was the one who taught me everything I know," Kakashi chuckled.

Naruto couldn't keep the smile off his face as he said, "My dad was pretty awesome, huh? I'm sorry for doubting you Mr. Teacher-Sensei-Mentor-Sir!" Naruto saluted him. "If you were worthy enough to be my dad's student then you're worthy enough of being my teacher."

"Get over yourself, dobe," Sasuke said as he made his way over to the two, Sakura following.

Naruto gave him a raspberry.

"Agh- Dobe! You're getting spit in my face!"

"That was the point, ass!"

"Now, now boys-"

"Heh, I knew it, Sasuke! I can't work with you."

"I'm not the one suffering here. I can't work with you either! You're a slob, you're impatient, you never listen to orders, and you always have that stupid grin on your face. You should be happy that you get to be on my team."

"Oh, really? Your team, huh?"

"Yeah. My team. Need me to repeat it again?"

"Oh fuck me, Sasuke. You're a pain in the ass, you're a show off, you do things by your own rules and by yourself. So don't give me that crap about me not listening to orders 'cause you're no better."

"Fuck you? Oh? Getting kinky now, are we?"

"Sasuke!"

"Excuse me Kakashi-sensei. I'll deal with this momentarily."

Sakura promptly stood between the two and grabbed their ears, pinching them for what felt like hours to them. It was for only 30 seconds.

Once she let them go, Sakura smacked the top of their heads for good measure. She stood next to Kakashi, silently admiring herself for being able to tame the two dogs.

"Sorry Sakura-chan."

"Tch."

Kakashi sighed, fearing for what would become of their team in the future.

"Well now that that's over, let's do some trust activities," said Kakashi.

"Trust activities? Hah, yeah right, I barely trust this bastard-"

Sakura glared at Naruto and he winced.

"But I already trust Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed as he held out his hands expecting Sakura to hug him but just as he leaned forward Sakura stepped out of the way, letting Naruto fall on his face instead. Sakura tried to stifle her laughing.

Naruto groaned.

The other two laughed.

He really wasn't going to like this team.


They had stopped the trust activities some time ago and were currently practicing their teamwork when Sasuke asked, "When is the MOA competition going to start?"

"Hm," Kakashi mused, "Well it's currently September. It doesn't start until January."

"Oh so we have plenty of time to train, right?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi sighed and crouched down, rubbing his chin while he thought. "Well, not necessarily, no. This year the competition is in the land of the Earth," he said while drawing a map in the dirt with a kunai.

"To get from where we are, Land of Fire, to here, Land of Earth," he pointed to the two lands and then drew a path directly from the Fire to the Earth, "it would normally only take about 2 weeks on foot so-"

"Wait?" Sasuke asked. "On foot?"

"We're not going there by car?" Naruto continued.

Kakashi chuckled. "You guys don't much about this competition, do you?"

The three students looked at each other briefly wondering what he meant.

"Well it can't be helped, it is a pretty discreet competition. The MOA competition requires its contestants to get there by foot."

"Why?" asked Naruto.

"To weed out the weak teams," Kakashi answered while wagging his index finger side to side. Sasuke raised a questioning eyebrow. "You mean," he started, "we have to walk all the way there and fight anyone who gets in our way."

"Fight or kill," Kakashi corrected. "There is a certain path or pathways connected to each land precisely just for this event." He drew a web of paths connecting each land together.

"It's called the Road of Survival. By going through this preliminary test, the test advisors get to weed out anyone who isn't fit or worthy for the competition. Any team can leave at whatever time they want. I wouldn't be surprised if any teams from this school were already planning to leave," Kakashi said, half to himself.

"Wait," Naruto asked, "some teams are leaving now? But you said it only took 2 weeks to get there! The competition isn't until January. Doesn't that seem a little too much on the safe side?"

"And doesn't that give Iwa academy a huge advantage? They're literally right next to the competition," Sakura chimed in.

"Well, you two are absolutely right. It does normally take two weeks to get there on foot but teams will purposely put traps out to stop other teams. Even teams with highly skilled members can take up to months to get to the MOAs. And to answer your question, Sakura, each year the MOAs is held in a different place. The people who happen to be near it are just lucky. Don't forget- luck is also important, too."

"How wide is the road?" asked Sasuke.

"Many miles wide. It's possible that you might not even see anyone on the way there. Also, I won't be making the trip with you. It'd give you an unfair advantage plus it's against the rules. I'll be waiting for you there and the sooner you get there we can resume our training. Oh, and as a general rule of thumb, don't die."

Kakashi left them a moment to let the information sink in before he sighed and stood up to stretch his muscles. "But, you are my team. You aren't going to die so soon."

Naruto grinned and Sakura smirked. Sasuke just 'hn'ed.

"You guys already know how to fight pretty well so from now until the beginning of November I'm going to put you three through some vigorous training. Promise me you won't die from this!" Kakashi chuckled.

"Yeah!"

"Woo!"

"Whatever."


Short chapter, sorry! Sorry for any mistakes, haha. But I know where I'm going with this and I already have the next chapter halfway done. Maybe I'll update again today or tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed.