AN: Here we go again. A bit earlier than intended, but I felt I /did/ go a bit overboard in saying a week. I decided to just get to a certain milestone in the 'main' file before I uploaded the 3rd chapter.
Thanks to all who have read so far, but I would like some reviews about how I can improve that doesn't include telling me to go watch something.
"Talking is like this."
'Thinking is like this.'
"Flash backs will be like this. You get the drift."
"Demonic Talking is like this. Other things may qualify."
'Demonic Thinking will be like this'
"Techniques like the Henge Jutsu will be said like that."
Jutsu may be given a name like this: Henge! (Transformation) if it is the first time it appears, has a complicated name, or is unique. Techniques like the Kage Bunshin will not be given that. If you're reading this story, you should know what Kage Bunshin is.
If you want a more in depth 'Jutsu Library' at some point, then tell me through reviews. If enough people say 'Yeah!' then I'll start adding them in... But I will never repeat a Jutsu.
"Hey, guys, Naruto's out there again!" A childish voice called, resulting in a majority of the males that heard it to dash over towards the window of the large Ninja academy building. Their teacher was out, and it seemed Iruka had decided to test everyone's Ninjutsu and aiming, resulting in that class being outside.
Naruto, however, had already finished both and was currently pounding away at a training dummy located to the side of the field away from every one else. She took her jacket off, unknowingly giving the males a good view of her assets as she hammered away at the dummy.
While she wasn't as developed as, say, Hinata she was still one of the most developed in the academy, which was a constant source of envy among most of the up coming Kunoichi wannabes. Naruto didn't even seem to care, which got her a few points of respect from the males...
Even if they were a little too young to understand exactly why they were excited when she landed a kick.
Still, even if she had known they were watching, Naruto would not have stopped. She was too focused on her target, landing blows that would cripple a human, but only sent the dummy back slightly.
She growled in annoyance as she slammed a powerful blow into it's mid section, following up with an upper cut that just tilted the dummy's head back. It was made to take far stronger blows than Naruto could provide and it was the young Tsunade who tested their endurance.
Three hits from the super powered Sannin was all they were able to get, no matter how powerful they made it.
But Naruto wasn't put off by the fact that she couldn't break it. It was great training and a way to pass the time until her friends were done with their training.
So she kept punching and kicking away until she heard someone approaching her and she used the leverage of a kick to spin herself around and lean against the dummy to see who it was. Her azure gaze met Hinata's lavender and she grinned at her friend, causing the shy Hyuuga to blush slightly.
"Hey Hinata, how'd you do?" The blonde asked casually, kicking her jacket up from it's spot on the ground and catching it.
Hinata couldn't help but marvel the fact that Naruto didn't seem tired at all despite the speed and power she was showing. She quickly cleared her thoughts though, knowing Naruto would grow concerned if she took too long to answer.
"Good, Naruto-Chan. I got a perfect on both." Naruto smiled at her friend and quietly noted that Hinata would probably be, hands down, the Rookie of the Year if it wasn't for her test scores.
She, like Naruto, seemed to have a problem with written tests no matter how much either studied. One would expect the heiress of a clan to know all about Konoha's history, but what she was taught in school usually conflicted what she learned at home, which resulted in a very confused heiress.
This only further proved to Naruto that the Rookie of the Year system was stupid, but this wasn't the time or place to bring that up.
"Wanna spar while we wait? Don't think Sensei will mind." The blonde asked, tossing her jacket onto the dummy she had just pounded away at. If it had any complaints, it didn't voice them.
"Um... They're almost done, so..." Naruto nodded her head and sighed, stretching with her hands above her head.
"Ahh... I wonder if Sensei would let me go home early? I need to set up things in my back yard..." It wasn't unknown in their small group of friends that Naruto was an orphan that lived alone, or that she did her own chores.
None of them really understood, or saw, what Naruto did since they had never been to her home, but she never mentioned her back yard before.
"What are you going to do, Naruto-Chan?" Hinata asked with a curious tone, her head tilted to the side.
Naruto grinned as she jerked her thumb back towards the dummy she had just covered with her jacket. "I ordered a training dummy yesterday. Going to set my back yard up to be a training field." Hinata's eyes widened in surprise but Naruto didn't see it as she turned her attention towards the dummy in question.
The Hokage had set it up for her to be able to get her own training field if she took care of the building for two years... which she did. She hadn't reminded him in person, but she knew the old man remembered. Having a sudden delivery of a lot of wood she knew she didn't order was her clue to that.
Her back yard was perfect for a training field too, especially since it was intended to be large enough for eight small families to use.
It was about the size of the building itself and had a large fence surrounding it, keeping out any unwanted visitors, and two trees rested in the top left and in the middle of the yard.
Iruka's voice interrupted her thoughts as he approached them with the rest of the class trailing behind. "There you two are. We're heading back inside until lunch, then you'll have to do the written exams." Naruto groaned loudly, pulling her jacket on with a frown.
"But Iruka-Senseiiiiiii, you know I'm going to fail anyways. Can't I just go home? I need to work on something." Iruka frowned, crossing his arms as he stared at his blonde student as she zipped up her jacket.
"Now Naruto, you know information is vital to..."
"Vital my butt." She interrupted, snapping her fingers in an annoyed fashion. "I don't need to know about how the second Shinobi war went. You don't even tell us about the battles, you just say who won and the political out come of it." Iruka's frown deepened as he puts his hands on his hips.
"Wasn't your goal to become Hokage, Naruto? You need to know politics for that." Naruto blinked, recalling a time in her earlier years where she proudly stated she would be the next Hokage.
'He controls everything.' She thought to herself, giving Iruka a flat stare. 'No, not everything. But he's definitely important.' Outward, however, she simply said, "No, not really. Not old politics. By the time I'm ready to take that hat, the world will change. It's not going to wait on me."
Iruka's eyebrows raised and he sighed, shaking his head. "You still need to know them Naruto, so come on inside. You do need them, so don't argue. It's part of your test, you won't graduate if you don't know the answers." Naruto frowned and let out an annoyed huff.
"Whatever, Sensei." She grumbled out, not noticing Hinata's hand reaching out to her to comfort her as she ran towards the building.
Surprisingly, she went for the wall instead and she began to jump up the side of the wall, using windows and holes in the wall for supporting her feet. The rest of the class watched in silence as she hopped into the class room window, unsure of how to react to such an odd action.
Scaling her building constantly and climbing into buildings for her pranks gave her considerable skill in climbing, though she usually never showed off in class since 'climbing' wasn't exactly important.
Still, she had to admit it was rather satisfying being the only one in the class room for once and she grinned to herself, propping her legs up on the desk.
Iruka was the first back into the class room and he glared in annoyance at the blonde when she shot him a grin. "That was reckless, Naruto. You could have fell!" The Chunin scolded, causing her grin to fall into a frown as she considered his words.
"I could have, but I didn't. Besides, I'm going to be a Shinobi, right?" Involuntarily, her mind flashed back to the convulsing man in Ibiki's torture chamber and she gulped down the bile that came from the memory. "They're scarier than a fall."
Iruka blinked at that, unable to give an honest retort so he just made his way to his desk silently. Sakura, having heard the exchange, let out a teasing hmph as she approached her friend, sitting down on the right side of the desk and leaving the middle seat between them open. That was reserved for Hinata.
"When did you get so smart, Naruto?" The pink haired girl teased, though inwardly she was just rather curious about why Naruto said that. 'She had a point, CHA!' Her inner self noted, punching in the void that was her mind scape. As usual, however, Sakura made a point to ignore her 'inner' self.
Hinata sat down between them just as Naruto's grin appeared back on her face as she tilted her chair back with her feet. "Eh, I'm always smart, Sakura-Chan. Don't be like that." Sakura rolled her eyes slightly.
"Yeah, smart. Like the time you drank milk past the expiration date?" Naruto's face turned sour at the memory an she huffed.
"A fluke. It sounded fine and I was half asleep." The two girls beside her giggled at her and she let out an annoyed huff, but quickly returned to grinning. She couldn't stay mad at them.
"Anyways! You two wanna go out for ramen today? My treat." Sakura frowned slightly and Ino, who was sitting in the desk below them with Shikamaru and Chouji, since the seat beside Sasuke was taken by Ami, looked up at the trio.
"Not going to invite me, Goldie-Chan?" Naruto laughed softly, scratching behind her head.
"I don't mind if you come, but I can't really treat everyone, you know."
"Ramen is kind of fattening..." Sakura pointed out, but it was halfhearted, and she was on the end of two hard stares as soon as she said it. She sighed as Naruto began to speak.
"It's fattening, yeah, but if you train it burns off fast."
"It's filling and the energy is needed." Hinata added, as usual. Every time eating habits were mentioned, Ino and Sakura were scolded by their more serious friends.
The constant way they did it was slowly wearing the two down, especially with Hinata and Naruto having the best figures out of everyone in the class, despite their lack of diet.
Still, they weren't even done. "You can get vegetable ramen if you don't like meat."
"But meat gives you the needed protein, and if you're camping I doubt you'll survive on berries."
"Isn't there fish ramen too?"
"I'm not really a fan of fish, but yeah. I still eat it because it's good, and fish might be the only thing I can eat at some point." That was Naruto, always the realist. Ever since she found those Shinobi books in her land lord's old house, she was the one pointing out the dangers of being a Shinobi.
"You guys are making me hungry." Chouji complained, even as he munched down a handful of chips. Naruto, having been opening her mouth to continue her rant, let out a snort of laughter, staring down at the Akimichi with a smile.
"Sorry, Chouji. But you should get on them too! Out of everyone here, you know how helpful eating is." That could be taken the wrong way, but with Chouji being an Akimichi and as kind hearted as they come, he just smiled.
"Well... It is really important. It's more important for an Akimichi since we use our fat to attack but... if you don't take care of your body the right way it'll shut off later." That got owlish stares from the females, even Hinata and the chubby boy rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well, that's what I heard at least. If you diet too much your body won't grow properly. It's fatal for a Ninja."
It was fatal for everyone, really, but Ninja pushed their bodies to the limit every day. If they didn't eat enough, or properly, it might not have enough strength to recover from most actions. Like being cut up, for instance.
Sakura and Ino sighed, their heads drooping. "Fine, we'll go." Naruto grinned and nodded her head, watching as the students began to walk out of the room. The 'test' had been surprisingly short, especially for a 'final' test, and it seemed Iruka didn't mind the chatter while they worked.
"See you guys there then." Naruto said with a smirk before suddenly hopping out of her seat and diving forward, surprising the sleeping Shikamaru as her hands rested on his head for an instant, using it as a spring board that sent her forward, landing in front of Sasuke who was still sitting down.
If Sasuke was surprised, he didn't show it, but he did look up at Naruto as she jumped off his desk and through the window she had originally came into the room with.
He half expected to hear a crunch from her hitting the ground, but a moment later he saw her running away from the school without even a limp.
"Troublesome woman..." Shikamaru grumbled out, rubbing his head as he made his way towards the door. "What is her fascination with jumping off my head?" Chouji just gave his friend a pitying smile, since it wasn't the first time Naruto had used Shikamaru for a spring board. She usually didn't jump out the window though.
"I think she wouldn't do that if you weren't laying down all the time." Ino supplied, smirking as she made her way past the lazy Nara.
"I need sleep."
"Lazy ass."
"Troublesome woman." That got him a glare but he just gave her a blank stare, causing her to roll her eyes. She'd never understand him.
It wouldn't do to keep Naruto waiting, the girl was annoyingly impatient, so Ino didn't reply and chose to speed up to reach her destination instead. Sakura, however, stayed behind, staring longingly at Sasuke who was, in turn, staring out the window silently.
"Um.. Sasuke-Kun, would you like to join us?" She knew Naruto wouldn't like that, but the blonde had said she had no interest in stopping her attempts with the Uchiha.
Sasuke didn't respond or even acknowledge that she had said anything, but she could see from the reflection of the window that he seemed to actually consider it for a moment before shaking his head. "No." Sakura visibly deflated, but nodded and turned towards the door.
"I'll, um... see you next time then, Sasuke-Kun."
"Hn." Was his only reply, leaving Sakura dejected even further as she walked out of the room.
"Always the ladies man." Came a sarcastic voice, causing Sasuke to sigh in annoyance.
"Shut up, Kiba." Kiba just grinned, putting his hands behind his head as he walked towards the door with his trusty dog, Akamaru, tucked in his jacket. Out of everyone, only Kiba and Naruto seemed to get under Sasuke's skin but Naruto just seemed to stop caring about the Uchiha. Kiba, however, liked to tease him and fight him.
He was a great sparring partner, but teasing him was the best part.
"Would you have gone if Naruto asked?" Kiba prodded, leaning against the door frame as he stared at the brooding Uchiha. In truth, he liked the blonde himself. She was 'feisty' as his sister put it. But other than Hinata, she was the only girl that ignored Sasuke and she didn't interact with Kiba much.
"No." Kiba's grin widened, knowing that getting an answer, even a simple one, from the Uchiha meant something more. A Hn meant he didn't care, but an answer meant he cared slightly, even in a negative way.
"If you say so. Must've been a great view when she landed on your desk though." Sasuke didn't react to the teasing, but Kiba snickered anyways. "See you later, Sasuke. I'll beat you next time."
"Hn."
"Wheeeeee..."
"Naruto, stop that."
"Aw." Naruto pouted at Sakura and stopped spinning in her stool. "But I was bored and my ramen isn't here yet."
"You literally just ordered." Ino chided, a frown on her face at her friend's antics.
"So loooooong." She whined, causing everyone to either smile in amusement or roll their eyes. Their group consisted of Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Naruto, Chouji, and surprisingly Shikamaru who had simply followed his friend out of instinct. Now they were all sitting in Ichiraku Ramen, waiting on their orders.
Chouji chuckled slightly and turned in his spinning stool to say something to Shikamaru when a loud squeak went through the air, causing him to blush in embarrassment as he stared down at the seat. Did he break it with his weight? That would be extremely embarrassing.
Surprisingly, it was Naruto who seemed to understand his embarrassment as she got out of her seat. "Ah, no worries Chouji. That sounds like one of the screws came loose. I can fix it. Stand up please?"
Chouji blinked in confusion but stood up to the side, watching as Naruto pulled a screw driver from the inside of her jacket and slid her head under the stool, pushing her screwdriver into the bottom of it a moment later.
"Didn't take you for a fixer type, Naruto." Shikamaru noted as the girl stood up, spinning the stool experimentally with her hand. It didn't rotate as fast as before, but it didn't squeak either, causing Naruto to grin in accomplishment as she put her screwdriver up.
It wasn't until she sat back down that she responded to Shikamaru's words. "I have to be. Jiji gave me the whole building I live in so I have to take care of it." She flipped a strand of hair over her shoulder, smiling at the Nara's bewildered expression. "No one likes to live with me, so I take care of all the rooms and make sure they don't fall apart. It's not too hard, but I've learned a lot."
Mostly through trial and error, but he didn't need to know that part. It would be embarrassing to admit she had hammered her thumb more times than she could count.
Thankfully, her fast healing fixed the bruise and lessened the damage in a day, but it still hurt.
Sakura smiled at her friend, playfully punching her shoulder. An old gag between them. "So why do you own the building? Shouldn't the land lord take care of that?" Sakura hadn't heard the story of why Naruto owned it, only the blonde knew that one.
Naruto hummed to herself and shrugged, fiddling with the goggles around her neck. "He died two years ago, I think. I never really met him, but Jiji said he didn't have any relatives and no one lived there but me, so he gave it to me. He's taking care of the payments till I get income." The Jinchuuriki explained, a smile on her face.
Shikamaru, however, frowned. Why give an academy student their own building? And who could pay for something like that? "Who's Jiji, Naruto?" He asked, rather bluntly, and she gave him a surprised look.
"Hokage-Jiji is Jiji, duh." She seemed genuinely surprised Shikamaru hadn't known that. Apparently, no one knew that, because everyone was giving her wide eyed looks now.
"The Hokage is your grand father!?" Sakura managed to get out, her eyes wide at the implications. She thought Naruto was an orphan, but if she was related to the most powerful Ninja in the village... Then why was she so... poor?
Naruto just shook her head, chuckling, unknowingly answering Sakura's question. "Sort of. I mean, I'm an orphan, so not really. He's just always been there for me, I guess." 'Not enough, but he was there.' She kept that thought to herself though. No need to make them worry about her. "I call him Jiji cause he likes it and calling him Hokage seems silly."
As the ramen was finally finished, having taken rather long due to Naruto, Chouji, and surprisingly Hinata ordering a vast amount, their attention was brought to the food rather than Naruto's situation. Shikamaru, however, had no problems multitasking and could not help but consider what Naruto had just told him.
She was given special treatment by the Hokage, was never adopted like most orphans, and was given her own apartment complex because no one wanted to live near her?
Something fishy was going on, but Shikamaru had no idea where to even begin looking. It also seemed that Naruto had not made the connection, but he was sure she knew something was wrong deep down. She was rather bright, even if she acted childish.
It'd be troublesome, but he knew he had to figure it out to sate his own curiosity. If it helped Naruto out in the long run, maybe he could get her to stop using his head as a spring board.
One could dream, and that's all Shikamaru did.
It had taken a week, but the results were in and Naruto couldn't help but grin at her accomplishment.
Her back yard, which had been bare except for the trees and grass, was now complete with standard training equipment.
There were logs buried in the ground for target practice, three to be precise, a Tsunade Tested training dummy against the tree in the center, but most importantly there was a wooden shack she had made herself.
It wasn't extremely sturdy, but it was enough for her uses. Inside of the shack were a few tables, a tanning rack, and a shelf for scrolls she made herself.
The rack would probably not be used for anything for a long time, since she was rather rusty at being a hunter, but the shelf was another matter. It had several openings, enough to hold about thirty scrolls, and the top was already full of her own personal sealing scrolls.
They were empty right now but she had two more that held all her tools in her jacket. She had planned on turning the shack into a workshop of sorts, though only as a front.
In truth, she planned on turning one of the apartments into her true workshop when she got more into crafting. She was already decent at it, but not enough to make anything original or without guides.
It didn't help that she didn't have an infinite amount of resources either. 'Wish I had that wood creating bloodline.' The blonde thought but didn't dwell on it too much. Wishing wouldn't get her anywhere.
She began to move towards her shack when she felt a presence behind her and instinctively put her hand into her pouch even as she turned to see who it was.
The last time someone had sneaked up on her they tried to pummel her with a sake bottle, though they didn't even seem to know who she was.
She relaxed seeing the cat mask, though the memory the mask brought up caused her to blush. She forced it down before turning completely towards the ANBU, a curious look on her face. "What's up Cat?"
If Cat was put off by the lack of manners, she didn't show it, though it was hard to show anything through the mask. Instead, she simply held her hand out towards the young Jinchuuriki. "Hokage-Sama wishes to speak to you, Naruto. Come with me." Naruto blinked but shrugged, grabbing her hand and allowing Cat's chakra to wrap around her.
It was an interesting experience to use the Shunshin Jutsu (Body Flicker) without actually using it. Though she doubted she'd ever get the control needed to use it on herself and another person, it was still fun to experience.
Her trip was ended when they finally reached the Hokage's office and Cat let go of Naruto's hand, much to the blonde's disappointment, though she was careful to not show it. That wouldn't do.
She turned her gaze towards where the Hokage sat with a smile, only to pale as she saw the tall imposing man standing beside him with his hands behind his back.
The scarred man brought the memories of his convulsing and screaming victim back, and Naruto once again had to swallow the bile in her throat. 'Stay in control. You can't react like that every time you see him. How are you going to handle anything else?'
With that in mind, Naruto hopped up onto a chair and smiled at the Hokage, though she did give Ibiki a nervous glance. "What's up?"
Sadly, it wasn't the Hokage that answered he, but Ibiki, "About a week ago, an ANBU locker room was broken into and... sabotaged."
Naruto arched her eyebrows, as if the information surprised her, and Ibiki continued. "We didn't know who did it, or why, but we got one clue that led us to you, Naruto Uzumaki." So did they actually know, or was he trying to stay in control?
It was rather amusing to see the tall imposing man hold up a few strands of blonde hair, as if threatening her with them. 'Everything is a weapon. He could turn those into senbon.' That was an alarming thought, but it had been done in a book.
The main character had infused his hair with chakra and then cut it, sending needles of death everywhere. The book was based off actual occurrences, so she wasn't about to right off his ability to hit her with the senbon.
Still, she wouldn't give in, even if it was something so trivial. "What's that have to do with me again? It's just blonde hair. I'm not the only blonde in the village, and it could have been someone from outside the village." It was a slightly desperate attempt to push suspicion off her and it didn't seem to work as Ibiki growled in annoyance.
"No one has this shade of blonde but you."
"That's debatable, Ino's hair looks just like mine when it's not bunched up." Not a lie, but not the truth. Ino's hair was paler than Naruto's, even singularly, but they wouldn't know that without comparing them.
The Hokage chose that moment to speak up, though she could tell he was amused by her resistance, "Naruto-Chan, you aren't in trouble. We just want to know why you did it."
"And if we don't like your answer..." That was Ibiki and Naruto resisted the urge to snort in amusement. Good Ninja bad Ninja? Another classic. It was in almost every book where the character was interrogated.
Should she come clean? It was rather trivial and she knew they already knew. Still, this was kind of fun. "I didn't do anything. You know me, Jiji, I go home and work on my house when I've got free time, or train. I don't have time to do silly pranks." None of her pranks were silly and she always counted them as training, so she wasn't lying.
If anything, the Hokage's amusement seemed to grow while Ibiki seemed even more annoyed. "Listen here, brat, sneaking into the T&I and into an ANBU protected zone is punishable by law, even to a civilian like you. Do you really want to try your luck in lying to the Hokage?"
Instead of being intimidated, as he intended, the girl just snorted, glancing at him. "If it's ANBU protected, why do you think I was able to sneak in? I'm not even out of the academy." She turned her gaze towards the Hokage and leaned back, a smile on her face.
"Even if I did, and I'm not saying I did, it's obvious that you guys didn't protect it very well if it took you a week to find any evidence... Crude evidence at that. That could be anyone's hair, dyed or transformed." She was quoting a book now, but they didn't know that.
Hiruzen started to chuckle loudly, glancing towards Ibiki out of the corner of his eye. "I told you she would be interesting, Ibiki." Ibiki snorted in response but nodded his head, much to Naruto's confusion.
"Indeed. I had expected her to yell out denials, not a well reasoned one."
Hiruzen simply smiled and turned towards Naruto with a knowing look in his eyes. "Did you do it, Naruto-Chan?"
"Huh?" She looked over at her 'grandfather' and nodded, crossing her arms with an innocent expression. "Yeah, it was fun."
"So you were lying to the Hokage the whole time?" Ibiki growled out, but Naruto just shot him a bewildered look while Hiruzen's smile grew.
"What are you talking about? Jiji never asked if I did it or not, you did. I didn't lie to anyone but you. Last I checked, you're not the Hokage." Ibiki blinked a few times, unsure if he heard what she just said correctly, before chuckling slowly.
"Alright... I'll admit kid, you're pretty good. It takes some guts and brains to work around me like that." Of course he was sure he could break her easily in the usual methods, but this wasn't a very serious matter, so he didn't take it seriously. Still, there was one thing that had to be found out... "How did you get in though?"
Naruto frowned slightly, seeming to consider not telling him before shrugging her shoulders. "I distracted your secretary by throwing a rock in the window." Ibiki snorted at hearing Anko described as a 'secretary', but said nothing. "I was going to go through the window after she ran out but she just kind of left so I walked inside."
Looks like he owed Anko a stern talking to as well.
"After that I just went through the vents. It was pretty straight forward from there..." She paused and Ibiki frowned as she paled again, glancing towards him nervously before she seemed to calm herself. Ibiki sighed softly, crossing his arms.
"Did you see something you didn't want to see?" It was a simple question, much like all of the ones he had asked her, but this one caused her to flinch before meekly nodding her head. He hoped she hadn't seen anything, but she was showing signs of it. What had he done that day?
"It.. I saw you poison that man." The blonde whispered, shaking slightly in her seat. "It was... a little scary. The way he screamed..." Hiruzen frowned and Cat placed a comforting hand on the blonde's shoulder which seemed to steady her emotions as the shaking stopped. "But, I dunno.. It was kind of cool."
That got everyone staring at her in confusion and Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of her head. "I mean, you were in control, and it was cool. It was scary, but you were doing it for the village right? And you probably got the info you wanted without a fight next time." When Ibiki didn't answer, she shrugged and rubbed her chin. "Anyways, where was I?"
She snapped her fingers after a moment of thinking, "Oh yeah, I got into the locker room through the vent. After that I just did what I wanted, no one was around and I wasn't making enough noise to draw attention. Only Cat and Tiger came in, but they were just grabbing a change of clothes."
Naruto ignored the tightening hand on her shoulder and she grinned, rubbing the back of her head. "I got lucky there, I hid in a locker."
With her story finished, Naruto began to squirm in her seat, "So can I go? I was in the middle of working." Hiruzen hummed thoughtfully while Ibiki began to write on a piece of paper, no doubt copying down what Naruto had said.
"I suppose that would be alright. Thank you for telling the truth, Naruto-Chan. How goes your training field?" Naruto smiled wide and stood up, putting her hands on her hips.
"I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I made a shack by myself. Thanks for getting me a training dummy, I'll put it to good use." Hiruzen smiled and nodded his head.
"I'm sure you will, Naruto-Chan. Cat? Could you escort Naruto home?" Cat nodded her head and allowed Naruto to grab her hand. "See you later, Naruto-Chan. Be sure to practice for your exam."
Naruto smiled and nodded her head as she felt Cat's chakra wrapping around her. "Okay, Jiji. See you later!" And with that, she was gone. Hiruzen chuckled and glanced over towards Ibiki who had just finished noting the areas that needed extra protection. The vents were at the top.
"So what do you think, Ibiki?" The Hokage asked with a smile while he prepared his pipe. Ibiki didn't respond at first and simply slid the paper over towards the Hokage, a frown on his scarred face.
"Not sure. She's interesting, to be sure. She thought ahead the whole time and she seems determined. I'm a bit worried about what she heard affecting her." If anyone else had heard that the great Ibiki was worried about something, there would be no end to the teasing and underestimating.
But he was just with the Hokage, so he allowed himself to relax. "If it wasn't for her prisoner, I would say to let her meet with a Yamanaka, but..."
Hiruzen nodded thoughtfully, taking a puff of his pipe at the same time. "I wouldn't worry about her. She'll be fine." Then, as if an after thought, the man picked up a piece of paper from a stack on the corner of his desk. "Say, what do you think about..."
"Well, look at the time. Got to go." Ibiki stated quickly, already moving towards the door at high speeds. He knew exactly what the Hokage was going to ask, and the answer was no.
If the Hokage was put off by his attitude, he didn't show it and simply allowed Ibiki to leave. He chuckled softly and shook his head, putting down the Jounin assignment sheet down again. He had been trying to get the leader of T&I to train a Genin team for some time, but the answer was always no.
Perhaps Anko, then? He'd have to pull a few strings for that one... Then again... He was the Hokage.
AN: Chapter 3, complete. The next chapter will come out earlier if I get some actual good reviews, but otherwise it'll come out when I hit a milestone in my actual writing.
I don't mind telling anyone what I consider the 'milestone' to be, but just know it'll take awhile. A couple days to a week, at most.
Quick question as well: After "finishing" this chapter, I went back and started to space out paragraphs that felt slightly too large. Does anyone actually prefer the 'larger' paragraphs, or do you prefer them being spaced out like this?
To give an example: A lot of paragraphs, especially in this chapter, were similar to the last large paragraph at the end of Chapter 2. It's differently sized in my Open Office, so it seems more clumped together to me than it does on the site...
But tell me what you prefer. I don't mind either one.
