Notes: I thank all of you who have reviewed and shared your honest opinion of this story with me. It always makes me more excited when I see it. So thank your for reading and I hope you like the next chapter. Also no, Sarutobi doesn't know that Makoto and Naruto are one and the same yet, he will though so don't worry.
Edited 2016/03/07
Chapter Three
Three weeks later and Naruto had finally gathered up enough courage to ask Hayate-sensei if he would be willing to teach him kenjutsu. They did two D-ranks a week and trained five days a week. When they weren't training together, Naruto was mostly doing the tree exercise or working with Takeshi at his weapons shop. He really wanted to conquer the bunshin. It was now a personal goal for him.
"Hayate-sensei, I was wondering if...uhm...you could maybe...teach me kenjutsu?" Naruto asked, his voice getting lower and faster as he went. He really wanted Hayate to teach him, because what Takeshi taught him was mostly basic kata's and a few exercises to help increase his flexibility and strength. He didn't want to teach him something that could work against him as Naruto was to be a ninja.
Hayate looked at him for a few seconds. "It will not be easy. But you are still young, I guess if it's what you want. But don't think this means you won't have to train with your teammates."
Naruto nodded. "I won't. I swear I will work hard. I won't stop until I master it."
Hayate-sensei nodded. "Alright, start by showing me what you already know, if you know anything. We'll get you a proper sword too."
— —
Naruto ended up with a katana. It wasn't a proper katana in that it was a little shorter, but Hayate promised he would get another one when he was older and taller. After that, training started to really pick up. Every morning that they trained, Mari would train at iryo-ninjutsu, Satoshi would train his few ninjutsu's to perfection and Naruto would train kenjutsu with Hayate-sensei. He was slowly making progress, though the memory of the conversation when he told Hayate-sensei the truth of who he was still made him blush with embarrassment. Hayate-sensei hadn't been pleased with him.
Hayate had gone of on a rant about how it could ruin his training because he would only be training in one form. How it would mean that if he for some reason would be forced to return to his original form, he would be defenceless because he wasn't training his body in both forms equally. Naruto had then been ordered to train just as much as he trained as Makoto and it would take longer, Hayate-sensei said, but it was the best solution. Of course, Naruto had had to promise that he would tell the truth to Sarutobi-jiji when he makes chūnin.
Since then, Naruto had trained in both his forms equally. When he trained kenjutsu for two hours as Makoto, he would train for two hours in kenjutsu as Naruto. He needed to balance it, Hayate-sensei said, to make sure he didn't ruin his future by what he was doing. He was Naruto and he couldn't abandon his real identity for a fake one, especially so young and when so many people would take notice if Naruto disappeared. Naruto didn't really understand what Hayate-sensei was talking about, he didn't change his personality, just the way he looked. And he didn't get why people would notice if he disappeared either.
Naruto was told he had two nature affinities, though the wind one was stronger. The other was water, which was awesome in his opinion. He didn't really know any ninjutsu yet though, aside from the henge and kawarimi. But Hayate-sensei had promised to teach him some when he had at the very least a good basic grip on his katas, as they weren't anywhere near perfect yet. But he was getting there! He just needed to practice more, until it became as easy as breathing, that was what Hayate-sensei said.
Naruto froze as he felt a kunai a the back of his neck. Damnit! "Makoto-san, you don't ever let your enemy get behind you. You'll be sparring with Satoshi-san now."
"Aww, but Sensei," Naruto pouted as Hayate-sensei chuckled. "I swear you were in front of me. And Satoshi doesn't like me much, he always turns down my invitations to get ramen with me."
Hayate ruffled his hair and Naruto tried swatting his hand away. It didn't work as he was still much to slow to lay a hand on Hayate-sensei. "Maybe he just doesn't like ramen. Now get going, I have a meeting with Hokage-sama in an hour to discuss your progress."
Naruto pouted but went over to where Satoshi was waiting with a glare. Yeah, he was pretty sure Satoshi hated him. The spar started as any other. Naruto did the first hit and Satoshi blocked and then everything was a flurry of kicks and hits. Really, their fights always ended up with one of them with a broken nose and a kick at their ego. Why Hayate-sensei continued to pair them together, Naruto couldn't understand.
There wasn't much that Naruto really wanted in his life, someone to acknowledge him, someone to love him for who he was, to know why everyone hated him, to know who his parents were and why they left him. That was it. Those things were his dreams, his goal in his life. Of course, he also wanted to be Hokage, but he knew that would take a long time. After all, Sarutobi-jiji was still going strong and he didn't want to leave his surrogate grandfather with nothing to do.
That would just be mean.
"Hey, hey, do you want to get ramen with me?"
Satoshi looked at him for a few seconds, a glare only seconds from sliding on to his face when something made him change his mind and he nodded with a frown. Mari looked at Naruto then at Satoshi and nodded, though it was clear she wasn't feeling comfortable. Nevertheless, she followed them to Ichiraku's and Naruto's whole face lit up as he beamed at his teammates. It was the start of a wonderful friendship, he was sure of it.
The walk to Ichiraku's was awkward but Naruto couldn't be happier. He had finally managed to get his team to eat ramen with him and now they would love it just as much as he did! No-one made ramen as good as Ichiraku! They would be converted to the Ramen God and would love it as much as him!
So yes, he loved ramen. Could you blame him?
Naruto was on his fifth bowl of ramen when Satoshi finally spoke up. "Your going to choke to death if you keep eating that fast."
"Nope! I always eat this fast! Hey, hey, what do you like to do on your free time?!" Naruto asked practially vibrating on his seat.
Satoshi glared at him. "Train, as should you."
Naruto looked at Mari. "What do you do?"
"I work on the Hyuuga's taijutsu style and mastering my Byakugan. Uhm, I like spending time with my little brother." Mari answered quietly.
Naruto grinned at his teammates and closed his eyes. "Great! I work in my free time or try to work on my chakra control."
Mari smiled back at him and Satoshi looked at him briefly. Naruto considered it a success as Satoshi hadn't glared at him like he usually did. Now he just had to keep being persistent and sooner or later his teammates would be his friends. Hayate-sensei had said that he was good at being persistent after the tenth time he had managed to get Hayate to let him train more kenjutsu by staring at him until he gave in. So all he had to do was continue to make them go get ramen — maybe Hayate-sensei would pay — and they would come around.
Naruto beamed at his teammates when they walked in different directions. He had work now and they would go home and do what it was they did when they're alone. He wondered if he could meet Mari's younger brother sometime, he really liked kids. Younger than him that is, toddlers, he didn't like kids his age, they bullied and teased him.
Takeshi wasn't there when he entered but Naruto didn't let it bother him and continued in. He had work to do, a bunch of kunai's, shuriken and clothes were going up on the shelf's. He walked into the back room and got out the box with the new clothes to the shop. He was used to this and he how it was to be done now. At the start he had had no idea what he had been doing, but Takeshi still let him work.
Naruto was seven years old now and still got money from the Hokage. He was really grateful for it as it made it much easier to get by. He never went out to buy things when he was him though. Not after the first seven times he had been overcharged on bad and rotten food. Usually, when he didn't look like Makoto he was spending time with Hokage-jiji or trying to play pranks. He usually didn't succeed though, as the orange jumpsuit made it incredibly easy to be spotted and caught red-handed.
Not that he was going to get rid of it, his jiji had given it to him as a sixth birthday present.
Finished with the clothes, Naruto moved on to the weapons. It was a weapons shop and the clothes was mostly just a plus, though most of it was shinobi clothing that a civilian would have no use of except it they wanted to try something new.
The bell above the door sounded as someone stepped in. Naruto stopped what he was doing and stood up. The man was young, a teenager practically. Naruto went to greet him when he turned around and Naruto could see the Uchiha fan on the back of his shirt. Naruto wasn't particularly fond of the Uchiha Clan, especially those that worked with the Military Police Force, as they were never very kind to him. They were also never afraid to mention that they hated him, though they never said why.
"Hello, can I help you?" Naruto asked. The Uchiha looked at him, his eyes briefly on his hitai-ate on his forehead before he looked away.
"Yes, I need a new tantō. I think I got swindled when I bought mine, as it broke recently and someone told me I could find one of much better quality here." he said with a sheepish smile as he answered. Naruto nodded, they had one in the back he could sell him.
"If you'll give me a second." Naruto said and went to get it.
The tantō was easy to find and Naruto quickly sold it to the Uchiha and went back to what he had been doing before. There was still a lot of things to be sorted through, to make sure they got the right quality and weren't swindled like the Uchiha was.
The rest of his evening was spent working and doing chakra control exercises during his breaks. His control was still awful and it needed to be a lot better if he wanted to learn genjutsu. He was only just managing to find them and break out of them, but that was how he had gotten a fascination with it. He wanted to make people able to see what he wanted them to. And besides, he had a ton of chakra, so if he could just get the necessary control over it he could be able to use genjutsu techniques that cost to much chakra for most to use.
It would be awesome if he managed it, he just knew it.
— —
Naruto woke up feeling refreshed and hatred for the sun. He wanted to sleep, damnit! He ate instant ramen for breakfast as he hurried as he was late for a team meeting. He would never hear the end of it if he was.
Naruto was well aware that it wouldn't be the first time he was late but he was trying to do better. And besides, when he was late Hayate-sensei always made him run a hundred laps around the training ground and he was not allowed to stop until he was finished. It sucked every time that happened. He didn't get very tired from it, as he had very good stamina and endurance, but it still sucked.
At the training ground, his team was waiting for him. He had gotten closer to them ever since he started to bug them until they went to get ramen with him. Hayate-sensei never went with them though, apparently he had a girlfriend named Yūgao. And that was when he got The Talk from Hayate-sensei. He really couldn't look him in the eyes for a few days after that, because really, it was embarrassing.
Naruto waved at his teammates. "Hey, hey, what's today's mission?"
"You're going to be babysitting the Sandaime's grandson, Sarutobi Konohamaru. Don't mess up." Hayate stated.
Naruto swallowed and nodded. He would do good. He liked the Sandaime and he would take good care of his grandson, even if he had no idea that Hokage-jiji had a grandson. But he was a professional and he would honor Hokage-jiji and accept this mission and get paid. He needed to buy new food, he was almost completely out.
"Alright, we will do our best!" Naruto shouted. Satoshi glared at him before rolling his eyes, which Naruto counted that as another success as the Uchiha normally didn't show emotions so freely.
The Sarutobi Clan Compound wasn't anything special. It was small and only had two houses including the main house. There was a training ground and a small forest on the edge of the property. Other than that, there was nothing special about it. Well other then the fact that it was the home of the Sandaime Hokage and Naruto was impressed. He had no desire to live in a big lonely mansion after he became Hokage and was worried for a while over it.
Naruto hurried ahead and walked to the door leading to the biggest house.
The babysitting mission went fairly well in the end. Konohamaru proclaimed he was going to be the next Hokage multiple times and followed Naruto around trying to make him play ninja with him. Naruto ended the argument by teaching the kid the chakra control leaf exercise.
Satoshi glared at the kid multiple times too but stopped every time the kid reminded them he was the son the great Sandaime Hokage. Naruto's patience was at its end by the time they were finished with the mission he was almost ready to snap. Honestly, he couldn't really understand how Konohamaru was related to Sandaime-jiji. They were practically nothing alike.
Oh well, at least they completed the mission successfully.
— —
Naruto glared at Satoshi as he once again called him an idiot. He was not an idiot. If he was he would of never succeeded with creating a new alternativ identity for himself to get money. Of course, he wasn't the smartest and his status as the dead last of the class didn't exactly help him.
But still, that didn't mean Satoshi got to call him an idiot all the time.
Naruto ignored the voice in the back on his head that said that sometimes he acted like an idiot and continued to glower at Satoshi. The other boy was sitting next to him at Ichiraku's counter and had finished with his ramen. Naruto though, was on his third bowl, it was to bad that he couldn't eat more than five in one setting as Makoto or people were going to start figuring out he was Naruto. And that would just spell bad things for him and he had no desire to see the inside of ANBU or T&I on the wrong side.
Naruto was not suicidal, thank you very much.
Naruto groaned as he finished the ramen. He could never eat the amount he wanted to and it sucked. Mari wasn't with that day as she had suffered an injury while training, leading her to being put on bed rest for a few days. It sucked because Naruto honestly considered her a friend now — one of his only friends, because however much Satoshi glared at him he was still Naruto's friend — and he worried about her when he found out from another Hyūga.
Not that he didn't think she would be okay, she was strong and she could take care of herself, though she was kind of shy until she got used to someone. It was more like she was really careful to be polite after that.
Not that Naruto minded, he loved his friends like they were.
Satoshi glanced at him. "My birthday is coming up, I'll be turning 13. Mother has insisted that I invite my team over, so you're welcome to come, I suppose."
"Of course I'll come! I wouldn't miss it for the world. Hey, what do you want for a birthday present?" Naruto asked and beamed at Satoshi. This was just proof that Satoshi was starting to think of him as his friend as Naruto knew very well that no-one could force Satoshi to do something he didn't want to do. Not even his mother, however scary she could be.
Satoshi looked at him and nodded. "It's saturday at three in the afternoon. I don't desire anything specific for my birthday and I know you don't have a lot of money. Make sure you're on time, you know which house is mine."
When they were finished, the first thing Naruto did was go to his work. He may not have a lot of money, but he knew that Satoshi wanted a tantō and at Takeshi's he got a ten percent discount. And the quality was good, too. Naruto really didn't know as much about the Uchiha as he would have liked, but that was mostly Satoshi's fault. Satoshi's father had left his mother when he was five years old to remarry his mistress, a younger Uchiha girl that was at that point already pregnant. Ever since then, Satoshi had been careful to not get to attached to other people especially as his father's new wife wouldn't even allow him to meet his younger siblings. He hated it.
So Naruto knew that to really get to know Satoshi he would need to be persistent and stubborn. Both things he was good at, and then it was only a matter of patience.
Takeshi was waiting for him at the shop and Naruto smiled at him relieved. He had started to think of Takeshi like a favorite uncle and it always made him feel a little bit better when he saw him. Takeshi was there for him when he needed to be cheered up and when the villagers words made him doubt himself, Takeshi was there to ensure him that he was no demon or monster and that the villagers were just blind and ignorant. They needed someone to blame the Kyuubi's attack on and Naruto supposed his whisker marks on his cheeks made him appear more like a fox and they thought him to be at fault suddenly.
Naruto still laughed when he thought of Takeshi's reaction when he told him the truth. His face had been hilarious. Of course, he had been angry to have been lied to, especially as Naruto was four years younger then he said, but he had understood and hadn't blamed him. It gave him hope that Hokage-jiji would understand too.
Takeshi smiled back at him. "Hey Makoto! Are you ready to start working or are you to sore and in too much pain again?" he said with a good-natured smile. He still called him Makoto and for that Naruto was grateful.
"That was one time, old man! I can work just fine. By the way, I wanna buy a tantō for Satoshi's birthday this saturday." Naruto said.
"I can put it away until saturday and take the cost straight out of your paycheck if you want, Makoto-kun." Takeshi smiled as he said it.
Naruto pouted. "Aww, don't call me that Takeshi. Then I have to be formal too and you know I'm not good at honorifics. But i guess if you want I can call you Takeshi-san too."
Takeshi laughed. "Don't worry Makoto, you can call me what you want. You're just so cute when you pout, it makes me want to lock you into a tower to protect you from perverts." he laughed some more and Naruto briefly wondered what a pervert was, but whenever he asked someone, they would just laugh and ignore the question. It was frustrating. Maybe Satoshi would know, he'd ask him the next time he saw him.
"How are your medical studies coming along Makoto?" asked Takeshi.
Naruto frowned. "Horrible. No matter how good chakra control I have, it's never good enough. I can heal cuts and bruises and I'm starting to learn how to recognise some common poisons, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a medical ninja. Hayate-sensei doesn't think so either. He said to just leave it to Mari."
Takeshi looked thoughtful. "Well, I suppose that not everyone is cut out for it and to be good at it you need excellent chakra control, something I don't think you will ever really have. You just have too much chakra."
Naruto pouted again. "I know. Hayate-sensei promised to teach me another clone jutsu though." Naruto smiled again as he thought about the promise Hayate-sensei had made. It was going to be awesome and much easier for him too. He would need to practice some more chakra control first though, but Hayate had promised to teach him.
They talked some more and then another customer came and Naruto was forced to start working. He had no desire to get fired, even if Takeshi would probably try to soften the blow.
So Naruto spent the rest of the day working and then he went home. When saturday came, he picked up the tantō and hurried to the Uchiha Clan Compound. It was quite separated from the rest of the village and quite far from Naruto's, as such it took a while to get there. He had dressed up fancy and his red hair was up in a short ponytail. He was ready to have fun and irritate Satoshi. It was always fun to make him lose his cool. Naruto sniggered softly intio his hand as he thought about the prank with the pink paint and the feathers. That had been hilarious.
Satoshi opened the door and Naruto grinned at him. "Hey, happy birthday!"
Satoshi groaned. "I thought you weren't going to come."
Naruto laughed and shaked his head. "Of course I was going to come, we're friends, baka. Now do you have any ramen?"
Satoshi groaned again as Naruto laughed once more. "Just come in, my mother wants to meet you again."
Naruto walked further into the house, he had already given his present to Satoshi and hurried towards the kitchen. He liked Satoshi's mother Yumiko. She was kind and nothing at all like the other Uchiha's. He grinned again as he thought of another prank he wanted to do. He would need to learn fūinjutsu first though, but it would totally be worth it.
