Chapter 3: A small confrontation.
--
Back in the real world, Sasuke was standing next to Naruto, lightly kicking him. Class had commenced 10 minutes ago, and after Kakashi realized that the blonde was absent, he sent Sasuke to search the area where lunch had been held. Sasuke searched for a while, and then his trained ears heard quiet snoring. Quickly finding the location, Sasuke attempted to wake Naruto. He tried talking to him, which didn't work. Tapping Naruto on the arm was also a fruitless exercise, same with poking him in the stomach. So Sasuke decided to simply stand next to him and kick him until he woke up. It couldn't take too long for a person to wake up from constantly being kicked in side, could it?
After a few minutes, Naruto started to move. Sasuke sighed in relief and intensified his kicking. After another minute, Naruto's hand shot up and grabbed Sasuke's foot. He released the foot when his eyes opened and realized just who the person kicking him was. The blonde kid jumped to his feet, feeling extremely energized. As if he had slept for a whole day.
"Hi Sasuke. What's up?"
"Class commenced 10 minutes ago, so Kakashi sent me to find you. I found you sleeping behind a tree so I started kicking you until a few moments ago. That's what's up."
"Oh. Thanks, I guess."
"Did you at least have a nice dream?" It was unlike Sasuke to ask more than what was necessary. Naruto shrugged it off, deciding that Sasuke seemed to open up a little. Maybe he'd been too lonely.
"Yup, I had the best dream of my life!"
"What was it about?"
Naruto didn't know what to say.
"... I'll tell you if you promise to not tell anyone, ok?"
"Fine."
"I dreamed about my father." Naruto simply said.
They were walking through the hallway to their class room by now.
'About his father? But he is an orphan, isn't he? Or were his parents killed? Is he just like me... Hn.'
Kakashi stopped his lecture on weapons when the two entered.
"Here he is sensei. I found him sleeping behind a tree in the lunch area. Took me some kicking to wake him up." Sasuke reported as if he was reporting to the Hokage after a mission. Naruto smiled sheepishly when Sasuke gave his report. Normally, almost everyone would start laughing at him because of something like that. But his fight with Kiba had gained him enough respect to make people think twice before laughing at him at every chance they had.
Speaking of Kiba, he came back half way through lunch time. He was fully functional and healthy, only had a few bruises here and there. The medics had used some medical ninjutsu to fix his cracked ribs. The dog boy had a mixed expression on his face; it was a mixture of anger and annoyance. Anger because he got defeated by Naruto and annoyance because people laughed at him and gave him some 'funny looks'. 'Damn it! They won't stop laughing at me! And they won't stop until I defeat Naruto and pay him back. Grrr... Guess I'll just have to fight him again. But I have to make sure that everyone sees it so they can see that I'm the best!'
Naruto and Sasuke walked back to their original seats. Naruto gave Hinata a smile when he sat down beside her.
"Now class, back to the lesson on weapons. This is the last period today, so make sure to work hard. We've reviewed the basics that you've learned through the year. Iruka advised me to tell you a bit about some famous weapons used by famous ninja. If you know a famous weapon, raise your hand and I'll call your name so we can write all the names on the black board."
Sakura raised her hand, Kakashi nodded towards her.
"The sword of Lightning, sensei. It was used by the second Hokage."
"Very good Sakura." After Kakashi wrote down the name and user, more and more people started to raise their hands and name the weapon and it's user. Kakashi would correct mistakes and then write the information on the black board. After a while, no hands were raised anymore.
"Any more weapons, class? I still know quite a few. Let me give you a hint for the probably the most famous weapon. It is a pretty simple weapon."
Naruto raised his hand.
"Yes Naruto?"
"Can I name two weapons, sensei?"
"Go ahead."
"Well, the first one would be the White Chakra Blade used by Konoha's White Fang." Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly at that one. 'He doesn't only know about father's nickname, he also knows of the weapon he used. Then he almost revealed an S-Class village secret about Uchiha Madara and his involvement in the founding of Konoha. Just where does he get this information??'
"And the second weapon is the one you say is the most famous weapon. It is a special Kunai. But instead of having one, it has three blades. It was the three-pronged Kunai the Fourth Hokage used. He used them to perform his famous Flying Thunder God jutsu. There were special seals written on a piece of paper which was wrapped around the handle. He could teleport himself to any of the Kunai with such a paper wrapped around the handle. The battle was always over once he started to use them. That is how he defeated an entire army during the war with Kumo. And I also think that he used them because it seems easier to block incoming blades with the three-pronged shape."
Seconds passed, and then Kakashi nodded, and wrote 'three bladed kunai' and 'Yondaime Hokage' on the black board. Sakura spoke up.
"Now that Naruto mentions it, I've seen the Hokage wielding such a kunai in a picture. Aren't there any ones to exhibit in the village museum?"
Hatake Kakashi thought for a minute. "Yes, you can look at the famous kunai set which the Fourth used in the war. And like Naruto said, he wiped out an entire army with them.
Several "Ooh"s and "Aaah"s could be heard among the attending students.
"If you want to, I could arrange that we go to the museum on Monday. Iruka-san won't be back until Tuesday, so I'm sure he won't mind."
This earned him a lot of cheers. Skipping out on school because of a museum visit was good, but looking at famous weapons was even better.
"Yay, you're the best Kakashi-sensei!" Our favourite hero yelled. Kakashi's visible eye formed the 'eye-smile' and Naruto would bet his ramen that he could see Kakashi's mouth forming a smile under his mask.
"OK, we'll meet here at the academy on Monday, just like every day. Make sure to bring lunch, a pen and a book to write in."
After a collective nod, Kakashi dismissed the class and students started to stream out of the class room to get home. Sasuke got up and slowly walked towards the door. Naruto got up and looked at Hinata.
"Hey, Hinata-chan! Let's go and grab some lunch and then hang out somewhere, 'kay?"
"Yes, Naruto-kun."
During their class on weapons, Hinata had enough time to concentrate on working out the previous events. She now knew that Naruto had fought in order to defend her honour, and she realized that he hadn't called her Hinata-chan on mistake. But most importantly was, that he had called her his friend on several occasions.
She also got up and walked beside her new source of strength. Being around Naruto made her feel good. She didn't realize, but she didn't stutter because he was around.
Naruto quickened his pace and caught up with a raven haired boy.
"Hey, Sasuke."
Sasuke turned to his left when he heard Naruto call his name.
"What's up Naruto?"
"Uhm, I just want to thank you for letting me take the fight against Kiba and for waking me up when I was sleeping. You're still an emo ass though, teme."
"To tell you the truth, I don't think that Shino, Shikamaru or me could have humiliated Kiba to that extent, so I think we're all glad that you took him on. And you're still the idiot that's wearing orange, baka."
Speak of the devil. Shikamaru and Shino appeared next to the trio.
"Yeah, and it would have been too troublesome. It would have been funny if I made him dance with my Kagemane jutsu, or if Shino's bugs ate him. Sasuke could have also burned him with a fire technique. By the way, how did you know any of the jutsu you used?"
"That too would be within my range of interest." Shino added, temporarily taking his attention away from his buggy friends.
Naruto's mind worked as hard as possible. He had to come up with a good excuse, and fast. But to his surprise, Sasuke backed him up. The Uchiha had been acting really weird lately.
"Well, I can explain how he was able to perform the fire technique."
Shino and Shikamaru turned to Sasuke, Shino's eyebrows slightly visible over his black glasses.
"When he saw me perform that jutsu on the first day, he followed me after school and begged me for 4 hours straight to show him how to do it. When four hours passed, I became really annoyed. Not even my retarded fan club follows me for four hours in a row," Sasuke recalled and shook his head when he mentioned his fan club, "So I agreed to show him the hand seals and explain him how to perform the jutsu. After an hour or so, he was able to quickly perform the hand seals and produce a small fireball. I guess he trained really hard since then." Sasuke lied fluently.
Shino and Shikamaru nodded, and Naruto quickly took the opportunity to excuse himself and Hinata.
"Well, see you later guys! I'll tell you about the other jutsu on Monday, ok? Hinata-chan and I will go and eat some ramen."
"Troublesome... See you on Monday." With that, the shadow user left the group and moved towards his home.
"Until Monday." Shino disappeared in a cloud of bugs.
Naruto sighed in relief when the two left. He smiled at Sasuke, being very thankful for the help.
"Dobe, you owe me."
"Yeah I know teme. But still, thanks a lot. I didn't think that I could have come up with a good excuse."
"Well, you can make up for it by telling me how you were able to do these jutsu."
Naruto saw that he had little to no other option. He saw Hinata who also showed a fair amount of interest.
"Dad, Kyuubi-baka, a little help would be nice. How much can I tell them?"
"Uh... That's not my problem. This is human matter. Where I'm from, I would kill the person who asked these questions. You don't ask questions that personal in the demon world."
Minato sweat dropped.
"I'm not sure. There is no way out of this. It'll be suspicious when you come up with a stupid excuse, and they will just keep on asking until they find out the truth. You don't have to tell them everything. But enough so that they understand."
"Are you saying that I should tell them about the FOX??"
"...Yes."
"Hey, you make it sound like me being here is a bad thing."
"MAYBE BECAUSE IT IS A BAD THING, PLUSH MONSTER!" Naruto screamed mentally.
"True. Am I supposed to feel offended now? 'Cuz I ain't."
"Calm down you two. Sheesh, all you two ever do is throwing insults at each other."
"Dad, we've know each other for barley two hours now. What else are we supposed to do?"
"Anyway, that still doesn't solve your problem."
"... I don't want to tell them, dad. I am afraid. I don't want them to be like the villagers."
"Well, if there is anyone who accepts you the way you are, then it's that Hinata girl. I know that you've only considered her as a friend for half a day up until now. This will test if she truly accepts you, son. If she doesn't then she doesn't have the right to be called a true friend."
Naruto sighed mentally. He knew that his father's words spoke the truth. If she couldn't accept him now for the way he was, then she could never truly accept him.
The sudden change of expression on Naruto's face didn't go unnoticed by Hinata and Sasuke. After they waited, Naruto spoke to them in a serious voice, with a bit of a solemn and sad undertone.
"OK, you win Sasuke. I will tell you the truth. Both of you. But not here and not today... Somewhere private. Meet me here tomorrow."
Hinata didn't trust her voice, so she simply nodded. Sasuke looked puzzled. A very uncommon expression for an Uchiha.
Without another word, Naruto took Hinata's hand and led her to Ichiraku's.
--
The next day, Friday, after school, Sasuke and Hinata waited for Naruto. His face expression was unreadable for once. He nodded in greeting and turned around.
Naruto started to run towards the woods, Sasuke and Hinata following suit.
Five minutes passed and Naruto stopped on a clearing. Hinata recognized the area as the clearing were Naruto would always train by himself. Sasuke didn't know where Naruto had led them, but he knew that they were pretty deep into the forest.
"Please... Sit down." Said Naruto as he gestured towards a few upright standing logs which he used to practice the replacement jutsu.
Both dark haired students sat down on a log.
Their hyperactive blue eyed class mate took a deep breath and started to tell them his story.
"OK, first... Whatever you think of me after I 'm done telling you this, you cannot tell anyone what I said. Because this is the village's darkest secret, and there is law regarding this special secret. Whoever dares to break it is sentenced to immediate death. Still want to hear about it?"
Both black haired students nodded. Their faces showed one obvious emotion. They were confused and surprised. What could be secret enough to kill the person who leaked the information?
"The only ones who are allowed to break that law are the third Hokage and I. Do you remember what happened on the 10th of October, 11 years ago?" Naruto didn't even wait for a response, "I'm sure you two know. The Kyuubi attacked the village, and the Hokage killed him, dying in the process. At least that is what they teach you in the academy. But the truth is different. The Nine-Tailed Fox was invincible. Nothing could possibly kill it. So the Hokage thought about it and found the only possible solution. They had to seal the Fox away. He first thought that a mountain would be appropriate, but a mountain wouldn't be able to hold such a pure amount of chakra. It would simply explode and the Kyuubi would be free again. The idea of sealing it into a human had a higher rate of success, but wasn't accepted as an option, because an adult had developed chakra coils, which would refuse the foreign chakra and kill the human in the process. This left one option only. To seal the Kyuubi into a human whose chakra coils hadn't developed yet. Into a newborn," Naruto now starred at his feet, "the Hokage's son... I don't know if you knew, but my birthday... it's on the 10th of October."
Naruto wasn't sure if this was a good idea. Kyuubi, his father and himself argued for the better part of the night, resulting with Minato being able to convince him that earlier is better.
Hinata's hand shot up to cover her gasping mouth as realization struck her. Sasuke's eyes had widened a lot, and you could see his body shaking a bit. Both their minds were filled with thoughts. After what seemed like eternity, Sasuke got up and walked to Naruto. The pair of blue eyes slowly rose and locked with a pair of onyx ones.
Sasuke spoke up, his voice a bit weak.
"You...," Naruto expected the worst, "have given me a lot to think about. See you... later." And with that, Sasuke disappeared back into the woods. But in reality, his fears were focused on the upcoming. Hinata's reaction.
His gaze wandered back to his feet, as worked out the worse case scenarios in his mind. 'What if she... becomes afraid of me... and starts to hate me... and make fun of me... like everyone else does...'
After a few agonizing minutes, the blond decided to break the silence.
"Aren't you gonna.... leave.... Hinata-chan?"
To his utter surprise, the answer came from right next to him.
"Why should I, Naruto-kun?"
He had expected hateful words, not this. The thing upon his throat, which he dared to call a head, turned to the source of the words. Hinata was sitting beside him, as if they were sitting in the academy again.
"You aren't afraid... of... me? Don't you see me as a demon like everyone else does?"
"Why should I be afraid of something which is tightly locked away into the person who keeps the village safe every night and day by carrying this burden? I've watched you for a long time, and I've never seen a demon anywhere. Only a kind hearted boy, with whisker marks in his face, which was always confident and strong and would keep on trying until he succeeded. And a demon wouldn't fight that hard to defend a friends honour!"
"So you aren't going to hate me and throw insults at me?"
"Of course I won't! Naruto-kun... you are my first friend in my whole life... who doesn't see a weak Hyuuga in me." Tears started to form in both their eyes. Naruto's were of relief, and Hinata's were of joy.
Tears of joy.
The shy heiress didn't have much time to react as the blond boy turned and hugged her closely. Not that she felt uncomfortable or something, it was just unexpected. The heat of Naruto's body came washing over her, making her face invent a new color: ultra deep crimson. Take the colour of a Sharingan eye, and multiply the redness by 10 and you would get close to Hinata's colour.
"Hinata-chan... You don't know... How much this means to me... I could kiss you but that'd be awkward...," Her blush turned a few shades deeper, and a slight blush made its way onto Naruto's face, "but you are also.... my first friend... who accepts me as the person I am... and not the demon inside me." Said Naruto as his tears were starting to dry out. He let go of Hinata and looked her into her lavender coloured eyes.
"Thank you." Naruto said sincerely and wiped a tear away from her face with his hand. "By the way, Kyuubi says that you should 'cool down' a bit, otherwise you would faint from having too much blood in your head. Even if I don't quite understand what he means."
Her lavender eyes grew large when she heard him say that the Fox had said something.
"You can talk to the fox, Naruto-kun?"
"Yeah, I can. He's a pretty cool guy once you get to know him. Even if he can be a sarcastic bitch sometimes." He said, describing the fox, having a grin on his face.
"That is amazing, Naruto-kun!"
"You think so? Well, I am starving. Time for some ramen, dattebayo! Let's go, Hinata-chan!" And with that, the two of them head off to the general direction of Konoha.
After countless bowls of ramen, Hinata and Naruto went for a walk in a park near the Hyuuga compound. When the sunset came, Hinata announced that she would have to go home. They decided to meet at Ichiraku's on Sunday. When Hinata had left, Naruto made his way to his own apartment. His grin constantly visible as he whistled a random tune.
When he entered his apartment and made his way to this kitchen, a familiar voice spoke from behind him.
"I was wondering if you'd ever come home."
Naruto did a 180 spin and found himself looking at a pair of onyx eyes.
"Sasuke? How did you get in here?"
"Never heard of locking your door?"
"Yeah, I always forget that! But you aren't here to talk about my apartment door, are you?"
"No, I'm here to talk about the demon inside you."
Naruto wanted to say something but Sasuke simply continued.
"I don't care what the Hokage sealed inside you. I really don't. As long as you don't go on a rampage killing everything, it's fine with me."
"Do you... really think like that?"
"No, I come here in my free time to lie to you. Of course I think that way, baka!"
"Thanks... Sasuke... TEME!"
"Hn. But there is more to it... isn't there? Having a demon sealed inside you doesn't explain how you were able to perform these jutsus."
"Sigh... And I was starting to hope that you and Hinata wouldn't notice," Naruto said as he sat down on a chair in his kitchen. "and to answer your question... Yeah, there is more to it."
Sasuke's eyes wandered to the clock hanging on the wall.
"Well, then tell me and Hinata on Monday. I got to go."
"Go where?"
"Going to hide. Fan club." And with those final words, Sasuke exited the apartment through the window.
Naruto smiled when he heard a loud collective mass squeal coming from the group of girls which had obviously seen Sasuke run away.
Naruto lazily walked into his kitchen and pulled out a water boiler from a cupboard. He sat down and starred at the water boiler. Three more minutes and he would have some ramen. Three more agonizing long minutes.
'God, I hate the three minutes the water needs to boil.'
"I feel for you. It was worse back when I was alive; it took 10 minutes until the water started boiling." His father said inside his mind while carrying an expression of pain as he remembered the time he had always had to wait for his favourite food to be finished.
"Human's sure are stupid." Stated a fox from behind his cage. He made it sound so obvious; he could have also said that Hyuuga's knew no humour.
"Foxes sure are ugly and hairy." Was Naruto's answer to Kyuubi's statement. Ignoring the comment, he continued.
"I am saying that because neither of you have ever considered using or creating a jutsu which would make water go into an instant boiling state. What I am trying to say is, that you ninja can seal demons, summon large animals, spit fire, teleport, blow everything up and even can transform your hair into a shield with spikes, but cannot make a water boil at an instant."
A few moments of silence passed between the three.
"Well, he has a point there."
"Yeah, but how do I make the water boil immediately?"
"And you humans sure aren't the cleverest species. At least not two certain blonds."
"Are you saying that dad and I are dumb?"
No, no... I would never say that. But I'll explain it like this. This slice of bread," a slice of bread poofed into existence, "would be able to comprehend how to make the water boil."
For once, Naruto decided not to counter Kyuubi's insult with another insult. Asking how to perform such a jutsu would make him get his answer faster.
"Well, now that the slice of bread understands, why don't you explain it to me?"
"Oho? Starting to be productive? Fine, I'll tell you. It is really simple, you can make the water boil by releasing a large amount of hot chakra into the water."
"So all I have to do is push a large amount of fire chakra into the water."
"Not fire chakra. That is elemental chakra and I don't think that your chakra has fire traits, unlike the Uchiha's. You need hot or warm chakra."
"And how do I make 'hot' chakra?"
"Euh... just think of something 'hot'. Like that Hinata girl talking of her cloth in front of you and-?" Minato interrupted Kyuubi by stepping on one of his tails, before he could describe more 'impure' scenes involving a girl. But it had triggered the desired effect. Naruto's face was flushed with blood, blushing madly. He could feel his blood boil.
"Ok, now that you're all 'warmed up'," The fox snickered at his little joke, "grab a pot full of water and push chakra into your hands and release it all at once into the water."
'How much chakra do I need?"
"I'd say as much as you need in order to perform a decent looking clone."
So Naruto did what he was told. He quickly filled a pot used for cooking with water. When the water reached the top of the pot, he quickly lifted the heavy pot onto his kitchen counter. Naruto brought up his hands together and formed the seal for tiger. When he felt that he had poured enough chakra into his hands, he let them touch the sides of the pot and released all the chakra at once. Bubbles started to appear on the waters surface and steam rose from the pot, the moment his chakra fused with the water.
"Dattebayo! It worked!" Naruto cheered as he danced around in his kitchen.
"Nice work, Naruto."
"What he said."
"Awesome! Thanks dad, Plushie." Naruto said out loud.
After a few bowls of ramen, Naruto decided to go to sleep. After brushing his teeth and stripping down to his boxers and putting on his nightcap, the young boy fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow. A lot has happened that day.
The next morning, which was a Sunday morning, started at 7 o'clock in the morning. Normally Naruto would sleep until noon, but not this Saturday. Two voices were rioting in his mind, wanting to wake him from his deep slumber.
Naruto's eyes slowly opened. He sat up and rubbed his eyes with his hands.
"Huh? Why am I up so early?"
"Because we woke you."
"Huh? Who are yo- OH. So I wasn't dreaming. That all happened yesterday, didn't it?"
"Smart kiddo. Get a cookie." Kyuubi said, with his special 'I'm a fox and you're not' grin.
"And the fox is still a butthead (← most violent insult ever)."
"Now get changed, we got a lot of training to do today! A future Hokage needs to be in top shape!"
You didn't have to tell Naruto twice. If somebody would have watched him, all they would have seen was a Yellow Flash. After his daily routine, he made his way to the clearing in the woods where he had confronted Sasuke and Hinata.
"LET'S DO THIS! What do we do first? Are you gonna teach me a jutsu? Please! A jutsu! The Rasengan! Please, I SOOO wanna learn it!"
"I won't teach you the Rasengan..."
"WHAT!?"
"Let me finish. I won't teach you the Rasengan, YET."
"Why not?"
"Because you don't have the correct amount of chakra control yet, son."
It was night time when Naruto finished his daily training session. His pure will power dragged him to Ichiraku's ramen stand, where he sat on his favourite stool.
"Hey Old Man! A large bowl of beef ramen, please! I've been waiting all day for this."
"What have you been doing, Naruto?" Ayame asked, the daughter of Teuchi who owned the shop.
"Training, so that I can become Hokage! Believe it!"
Naruto was thinking about what he'd learned that day. He had spent the first few hours doing the tree climbing exercise, which he found very challenging at the beginning. After a few attempts, he started to get the hang of it and after another few tries; he managed to finally reach the top without leaving a single scratch on the tree bark.
After that, his two 'teachers', made him do the water walking exercise. Minato thought that he would fail miserably at that form of training, but he was able to do it even quicker than the tree climbing. Minato thought that Naruto's chakra would fight against Kyuubi's, leaving Naruto's chakra system at imbalance. But it was the exact opposite. Naruto's chakra seemed to accept and fuse with Kyuubi's leaked chakra, making it easy for Naruto to complete the task. After a short break, Naruto asked Minato if he could teach him some jutsu now. But Minato refused again, saying that most of his jutsu require a lot of control, but even more chakra. Naruto already had enough chakra to perform Rasengans all day, but his control wasn't at the right level yet.
After a few minutes of pouting, Naruto agreed to continue improving his control. The next task was to do the tree climbing, but instead of walking on his feet, he had to walk on his hands. While doing so, Kyuubi noticed that Naruto seemed to have better control of chakra in his hand than anywhere else in his body, which wasn't really surprising.
Kyuubi and Minato wanted to make Naruto go and call it a day, but the stubborn blond refused. After 10 minutes of a heated mental debate, which resulted in Kyuubi and the former Yellow Flash having major headaches and Naruto having a really big smile on his mouth.
The two made him do all the exercises over and over again, until he could stand on water and climb the tree without thinking. They literally trained it into his instinct. All the way until midnight.
A/N:
Review. Now.