Tetsuo had to have been much drunker than he had thought that night, that was the only reason he could think of for why he'd cashed in a hard-won favor for something so stupid and insane the week before. Apparently, Hatake Kakashi the Copy Ninja had been just as drunk or moreso when he'd agreed to the stupid and, as it turned out, exceedingly dangerous plan.

Now, it was a week later and he found himself staring at a field that was completely covered in identical blond children wondering exactly what he'd gotten himself into...

If he thought about it logically, he could guess that the seeds of the idea that had led to this had been planted when he'd noticed that the kid had been putting enough Chakra into the Bunshin Jutsu to power several Kage Bunshin. For three months, he'd tried to correct this little error through Chakra control exercises, all to no avail. Three months of tree climbing, water walking, and leaf floating. Three months and still no Bunshin Jutsu.

Admittedly, there had been some improvement near the end of that three months but, that just meant that instead of putting out the energy for several Kage Bunshin, Naruto had started putting out enough energy for one, which was still way too much, and still fried the Jutsu. Understandably, three months of hard work and virtually no progress was enough to drive a man to drink. Naruto had made significant leaps and bounds in other areas but, still...The Bunshin had become a point of pride for him by this point.

He had popped into his favorite shinobi bar at the end of the day's training the week before only to discover that his fellow Genin Instructors had already beaten him there, as had a not so usual customer, Hatake Kakashi the Copy Ninja. Being a Genin instructor was a stressful occupation that often drove those undertaking it to less than ideal ways of letting off steam after the day's lessons were over. It was a low risk occupation but, a stressful one nonetheless.

While the risk of harm to oneself was virtually nonexistent within the borders of the village, a Jounin who'd been assigned to the task of being the sensei for a team of Genin often had to go to great lengths to keep his or her students from harming themselves. His friend Morishita Kinako, who was the instructor for Team 11, for example had a young Genin on her team who had a tendency to experiment with homemade explosive tags. The fact that the boy had absolutely no talent with seals, and had had several tags blow up in his face had never stopped him. Based on the fact that the back of her vest was singed, he could easily guess that there had been yet another close call recently.

After bypassing the booths that evening, he'd made his way to the bar and seated himself between Morishita, whom he still referred to by family name out of habit despite the fact that he'd known her since they were in the Academy together, and the Copy Ninja. Since the Hatake didn't object either with words or with violence, it didn't seem as if he was looking to score that evening. Getting between a living legend like Kakashi and the woman whose pants he was trying to get into wasn't the way he had wanted to end an already crappy day so, he was relieved that he hadn't done so when he had almost stupidly chosen his seat. Morishita was a friend, former teammate, and someone with whom he could commiserate with about his students.

"Naruto again?" Morishita asked as the bartender arrived with his usual.

"Yep." he replied before taking a sip of his drink.

"Chakra control exercises fail again?" Morishita asked.

"Yep." he replied, taking another sip before asking "Hiro again?"

"Yep." Morishita replied, taking a gulp of her own drink.

The point at which the Copy Ninja had joined the conversation was lost in the general haze of the evening. Eventually, though he would never know why since he was saving it for something big, he'd cashed in on the favor that Kakashi had owed him. How Kakashi owed him that favor was a long story in and of itself. A story that he wasn't willing to share with anybody. Suffice to say that one of his cons had backfired in a way that had somehow miraculously ended up working out in the end.

The next morning, he had wandered out to his team despite the killer hangover he had in order to tell Naruto that he was to meet Hatake Kakashi in order to learn a new jutsu. The yell the boy let out at that moment had been so painful, that he'd almost been tempted not to warn the boy that the man in question would most likely show up more than two hours late. Almost.

The boy had apparently mastered the Kage Bunshin with an almost unheard of swiftness if this little display was anything to judge by. There had to be at least a thousand Kage Bunshin here, and because of that, that irresponsible son of a bitch named Kakashi had alot to answer for. The bastard apparently hadn't warned Naruto about the dangers of summoning too many clones, and the boy could be dying somewhere in the middle of the field, and he wouldn't be able to get to him in time because he couldn't find him.

"Naruto!" he yelled feeling slightly panicked upon suddenly coming to that realization. "Dispel those now!"

A thousand Narutos each grabbed a kunai and moved to dispel themselves.

Oh God, No!

"Not all at..." he started to yell.

POOF Poof. Poof. Poof. Poof.

"...Once!" he'd finished too late.

A dizzy looking Naruto who was standing in the middle of the field sat down. Hard.

"You two." He said to his other two students who had previously been lost in the Autumn colored swarm "Don't even think about trying something like that. Ever."

"And you!" he said, rounding on his third student who was sitting on the ground clutching his head and groaning. "No more Kage Bunshin unless I give you permission."

He then picked up his wayward student and dragged him to the hospital, amazed that the child actually had the strength to even attempt to struggle much less squirm in his grasp as much as he was doing in his feeble attempts to escape. The medics were naturally unhappy to see the child, and he appeared to be just as unhappy to see them but, one of them quickly brought him and the boy into an exam room and looked the boy over.

"It's just a mild case of Chakra Exhaustion." the medic said in a tone of voice that stated clearly that he was very put out at having had his time wasted. "Have him rest for a day or two and he should be fine."

With that, they were dismissed, and he sent Naruto home for the rest of the day, hoping that the doctor hadn't made some sort of mistake and that he wasn't making one either by sending the child home. He ordered the child not to do any more jutsu for good measure, in case the child did something stupid, as he was aware of the fact that Naruto often practiced at home during his free time. As soon as Naruto vanished down a side street, he himself made his way home so he could think.

Just what had he gotten himself into?


Morishita Kinako sat at her usual seat at the bar when her friend Tetsuo stormed in apparently looking for a fight. He obviously found what he was looking for because, after looking around a bit, he had stomped over to the Copy Nin who was reading his usual trash and nursing a drink that he was taking sips from through his mask. Without warning - if one discounted Tetsuo's belligerent manner - he socked Kakashi in the face. Kakashi responded to this unprovoked attack by pinning Tetsuo against a wall face first.

"What was that about?" the Copy Ninja asked in a tone of voice that stated that he would happily kill the other man if he didn't provide a satisfactory answer.

"You stupid bastard. You were supposed to teach Naruto a Jutsu, not teach him how to kill himself!" Tetsuo yelled.

"Teach him how to kill himself?" the Copy Ninja asked, sounding slightly stunned.

"The little brat nearly killed himself this morning making at least a thousand Kage Bunshin!" Tetsuo yelled as he slipped out of Kakashi's grip, which had slackened, and whirled around to face the man.

A th...a th...

The silence in the bar was broken by the sound of a dozen spraying drinks and two people choking. It took a while for Kinako's own brain to reboot and for her to realize that she'd dropped her own drink in her lap. Tetsuo's student had done a thousand Kage Bunshin and survived. Considering who that student was, it shouldn't have been so surprising but, still...Tetsuo's student had done a thousand Kage Bunshin and survived to tell the tale. At least she was reasonably certain that the kid would be able to tell the tale. Tetsuo would have killed Kakashi if his student's brain had fried, wouldn't he?

Making up her mind, Kinako paid her tab and made her way down to the hospital. Several people who apparently were just as curious as she followed her.


Nurse Takami sighed before she once again tried to explain to the group that had just arrived exactly why they couldn't visit Naruto. She didn't know why she even tried since they obviously didn't believe her.

"Uzumaki Naruto was in here earlier today with a mild case of Chakra Exhaustion, but it was determined to not be serious enough to require hospitalization, and he was sent home." she said for the fifth time.

"Hey, anyone know where the kid lives?" one of the crowd that had practically stormed the hospital asked.

"I think I do." another member of the crowd said.

And with that, they finally left letting her get back to more important things like tending to patients that weren't the Demon child who'd never required more than a night of hospitalization the few times he'd been brought in.


Hyuuga Hitoshi - the ancient and venerable Seal Master of the Hyuuga Clan - had absolutely no idea how he'd gotten roped into this mess which could potentially lead to mass executions if somebody made a single misstep. He'd been enjoying a quiet evening in when a member of the Branch House had persuaded him to come here through a number of pleas and bribes. Eventually, after receiving the promise of an extra ration of chocolate for dessert tomorrow, he had finally deigned to come.

The boy whose seal he was currently examining had been nervous when he had seen the crowd outside his door, and had only allowed him and two witnesses in when they had tricked him into believing that he was a doctor and that they were his assistants. The boy was handling things rather well, considering the fact that he'd never been in a situation where he was practically surrounded by a crowd that could easily turn into a mob before. If it were him, he would've been freaking out by now. As it was, the boy was standing there nervously and impatiently as he waited for him to finish his examination.

The seal he'd been asked to examine was an incredible work of art. While some elements were new, the seal itself was reminiscent of the style that the Uzumaki Clan had used for centuries. Not only that but, it was in perfect working order and showed no signs of degradation as some had feared when they'd heard the tale of the boy's extraordinary feat. After he'd finished his final checks on the seal, he rather unnecessarily took the boy's pulse and checked the child's eyes with a small flashlight that one of his "assistants" happened to be carrying, and he and his assistants had left the apartment.

"Well?" the apparent spokesperson for the crowd that had moved outside the apartment building asked the instant he'd stepped outside.

Being careful with his words as some of the crowd were undoubtedly off-duty ANBU, he reassured the the waiting crowd. As it was, they were all very dangerously skirting the edges of the law at the moment and, the instant he opened his mouth, he would be doing so even more so.

"It is functioning as it is meant to." he finally said. "It contains that which it should, and steals and converts small amounts of power from that which is contained to augment the child's own rather formidable stores."

Someone apparently got the message, as somewhere in the middle of the crowd, a man had started laughing his ass off.

"Steals!" the man choked out between laughs. "The kid's been stealing from the...from it for years!"

That apparently broke the tension, as the large group of now laughing shinobi, several of whom were apparently mildly intoxicated, departed.


Naruto sighed in relief when the crowd around his apartment building departed. He had absolutely no idea why they had been there but, he was certain it hadn't been for anything good. That doctor from that clan of people with the creepy eyes had been weird, and he had seemed to be far more interested in the strange drawing that had always been on his stomach than anything else. The way that his assistants had been staring at him as if they weren't sure what to make of him was strange as well.

Today hadn't really been a good day overall, starting with what he'd thought was a good start but, had turned out not to be. He had decided to show Tetsuo-sensei exactly how many Kage Bunshin he could make, hoping that his teacher be proud of him like he'd been when he'd passed the test that had gotten him on the team but instead, Tetsuo-sensei had gotten upset with him, and dragged him to the hospital. When they left the hospital, Tetsuo-sensei had given him a long lecture on something called Chakra Exhaustion, and how it was very dangerous, and had once again ordered him never to do the Kage Bunshin without his permission before sending him home. After that, he'd spent a rather boring afternoon and evening at home, reading the books Tetsuo-sensei had assigned, before that crowd had shown up and he'd let that weird doctor in.

Deciding that the day had been full enough and, despite the fact that he usually didn't do so for another hour and a half, he dressed for bed. As he was settling under the covers, he heard his window being jimmied open. With his heart pounding in his chest, he quickly grabbed a kunai, hid it under the covers with him, and promptly rolled over and pretended to sleep.

A few minutes after he'd closed his eyes and got his breathing under control, the intruder finally entered through the window. It turned out to be that Kakashi guy who had shown up three hours late when he came to teach him the Kage Bunshin. Afraid of what he might do to him considering the weirdness that had gone on earlier, he quickly leapt up at the man who knocked the kunai out of his hand and pulled him into what was either a basket hold or a tight hug.

"I'm sorry Naruto." Kakashi said as he wrapped his arms around him even more tightly. "I'm so sorry."

Edited 10-7-12