Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto I just write about it.
Author's notes: This one took me some time to write as I was kind of busy and had other things on my mind. Still hope you enjoy, =D
-Ichiraku's Ramen-
Naruto sat alone at his favorite restaurant. He had 2 empty bowls next to him as he drooled at the sight of his third bowl of pork ramen. With all the extra money from doing lame D ranked missions, he was able to treat himself to delicious ramen almost every day. Suddenly he dug in, slurping and swallowing mouthful after mouthful loving the taste. In a matter of 20 seconds he was done, a new record. He decided that he had had enough for today so he got up and as he turned around…BUMP!
"OH! Watch where you're going idiot!" Naruto yelled, his face red in anger.
"I-I'm s-s-sorry Na-ruto." A gentle voice stuttered. Naruto looked up to see Hinata's pupil less eyes staring at him apologetically. She was rubbing her head where a bruise was forming.
"Hinata! I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Naruto asked sympathetically.
"Naruto, i-it's not your fault." Hinata told him reassuringly. Naruto noticing the bruise on her head gasped.
"Hinata are you sure you're okay? I mean that's a nasty bump."
Hinata blushed, she was so glad he cared so much. "It's a-alright N-Naruto it'll go away." She said smiling at the blonde, who was trying to look more closely at the bruise.
"Are you absolutely sure?" Naruto inquired. Getting a reassuring nod back. Finally assured he continued, "Why are you here anyway? You don't normally eat at Ichiraku's."
"N-no, I j-just came to see someone." She told him blushing slightly.
"Oh, okay." He looked up at the clock. SHIT "Sorry Hinata I have to go, Kakashi said he wanted to meet us at the training ground. Bye." He hurriedly said moments before he sprinted away.
Hinata stayed where she was and sighed. He didn't he ever notice her.
-Training ground-
Sasuke and Sakura sat on a log waiting for their two late team mates.
"First Kakashi sensei and now Naruto as well!" Sakura complained, "Those two should learn to manage their time better."
Sasuke just grunted he wasn't much of a talker.
"Hey Sasuke since we're alone I wanted to ask you something."
"No." Sounded the simple reply.
"But… you don't even know what I was going to say!"
"Let me guess." Sasuke said, pretending to think. "You want to ask if I want to spend some time together, or get something to eat or anything else you, along with all the other fan girls, can think of."
Sakura sighed; he had hit the nail on the head. She dropped her head in disappointment and stared at the ground, why did he have to be so upfront about it? She listened intently for the sound of the arrival of her team mates, wanting something to break the silence. And, as if on cue, she heard the trampling of hurried feet. She looked up to see a spiky haired blonde running towards them.
"So you finally decided to show up?" Sakura said once he reached them.
"Sorry. I was at Ichiraku's and I bumped into someone." Explained Naruto, "It doesn't matter though, our lazy ass sensei isn't here yet anyway." Sakura shrugged her shoulders, although she was a bit angry that Naruto was so rude. He didn't seem to know the meaning of 'respect'.
"Hey guys." Sounded a familiar from behind them. "Sorry I'm late. I was just-"
"Yeah yeah yeah." Naruto cut off. "So? What are we doing today?"
"We, are sparring."
"Yes!" Exclaimed Naruto punching his fist into the air. He hated the D ranked missions they went on every day and he would accept anything else.
"Actually Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura will be sparring whilst I teach you something." Naruto's shoulders dropped he hated learning and was looking forward to the spar. Kakashi seeing him upset added, "Don't worry Naruto, it's about that jutsu." Naruto's sapphire eyes lit up at the mention of his 'kekkei genkai'. "Okay Sasuke, Sakura go over there and prepare for your spar. Naruto wait here."
As Sasuke and Sakura walked towards where there sensei had pointed to Sakura asked, "What jutsu do you think he's talking about?"
"Probably about shadow clones." The Uchiha replied and shrugged. They hadn't seen Naruto use his Flying Thunder God Technique when they did The Bell Test, as they were focused on grabbing the bells. Although they did ask Naruto how he landed a hit on Kakashi he just responded, "Because I'm AWESOME!"
Meanwhile, Naruto looked at his sensei in glee, he was going to teach him about his inherited jutsu. He watched as Kakashi took a seat on the log and motioned for him to do the same.
"So Naruto, I'm sure you're wondering what I wanted to talk about. So I'll just get straight to the point, I want to teach you of more 'intuitive' ways of using your jutsu." He paused to wait for a reaction from his student which never came. Naruto was dumbstruck. Kakashi sighed, he knew Naruto was excited but he probably lost him at the long word. Then the gray haired Jounin continued, "Naruto I want to show you how you… f-father used that jutsu." He still found it strange talking about Minato; he hadn't talked about him since that fateful night. After all Kakashi was his student and he was the last precious person in his life. His mum had died when he was young, his dad had felt too ashamed to live and committed suicide, both of his only friends died and Minato was the last person he had left. After he was gone, everyone was gone. Still he went on, "Naruto, do you know how your father made use of his jutsu?"
"Uhhh… No."
"Your father was incredibly smart Naruto; he didn't just engage the enemy brashly and place his seal where he could. He used his special kunai, which had the seals already placed on them, and used them as markers to teleport to."
Naruto was glad that he was being enlightened about his father and his jutsu. He knew that his father was a genius and a great shinobi, not mention the best Hokage, and he also knew that his mother was from the Uzumaki clan, although they were wiped out, he learnt that they were a clan which specialized in Fuinjutsu (sealing jutsu) and this was most likely where his father had come up with the Flying Thunder God seal.
"Naruto, how long do the seals you place normally last?" Kakashi questioned.
"Ummm, I don't know." Naruto said embarrassedly. Kakashi sighed, this was going to take longer than he though.
"Fine we'll just have to find out the long way." He pulled out a few pieces of paper from his pocket, "here place your seal on these and keep a close eye on them. When they fade away tell me. Then we'll know how long they last." He handed them to Naruto, who focused his chakra into his palm and placed his seal on them.
Upon seeing the seal memories of his past came rushing back to him. The time when they first met their blonde haired sensei, when they went on that damned mission that they lost Obito, the loneliness he felt when his teammates where gone, the times when Minato had tried to cheer him up. If only they had lived. If only he had someone to be with. If only- NO! DAMN those cursed words, the time to dwell on the past was over, he had to think of the future, he had to train the next generation.
-4 hours later-
"Kakashi sensei can we stop now?" Asked Sakura. After a few spars, they had been training vigorously with the Replacement technique and kunai accuracy.
"Sure. You can go, see ya' tomorrow." Kakashi said.
"Bye." Sakura said as she walked off. Sasuke stayed where he was.
"Sasuke you can go too."
"Actually, I think I'm going to train some more."
"Okay. Hey Naruto have the seals faded away yet?"
The said blonde pulled out too slips of paper from his pocket. Both had a seal with 'Thunder' in the center. However, the seals were both beginning to fade away.
"Yep they're almost gone." Naruto responded.
"So that means that they last for four hours. Impressive. That's how long one of your dads seals used to last too, unless he made them permanent."
"WHAT? He could make them permanent?"
"Yeh," Kakashi scratched the back of his head, "guess I forget to mention that?"
"HOW? HOW? HOW?"
"How what?"
"How did he make them permanent?"
"Ohh, I'm not sure. But I think I remember him saying something about forcing some chakra to stay in the seal. He used to put them at important places like at home or the Hokage's tower. Why don't you try?"
"Cool. I'm gonna' go place a permanent seal at Ichiraku's. Talk about instant ramen!" With that Naruto ran off excited about all the applications of his new permanent seals.
-Night-
Naruto dropped onto his bed sleepily. Once he finally dropped off to sleep he fell into a chasm of darkness. He landed on a wet floor with enormous crimson eyes glowering at him from behind cage bars.
"I thought I told you to keep it secret." Snarled the bone chilling voice of the Kyuubi.
"I know but think of all the things I can do with Flying Thunder God jutsu… I could go to Ichiraku's instantly, I could escape angry villagers in the blink of an eye, I could-"
"Shut up! I know there are lots of possible applications of this jutsu, but you can't let anyone else figure out that you're the Fourth's son. If the secret gets out then it means that you're in a hell lot of trouble, and that means Iam too.
-Next morning-
Naruto woke in the morning, he lazily pawed at his face to wake himself up and headed towards his kitchen. He made to grab his instant ramen hungry for some of his favorite food, however before he reached the cheap food he remembered the new seal he had placed at Ichiraku's, maybe he should try a 'practice run' to 'test' his jutsu. He devilishly grinned, grabbed his half full wallet. He was gone.
-Ichiraku's Ramen-
Ayame grabbed her work apron and headed towards the front of the ramen bar, where she waited patiently for her first customer. Today her father, Teuchi, was off sick so she would be in charge. She watched as villagers walked by, some said "Hi", whilst others didn't even acknowledge her existence. She watched as happy kids ran by chasing their friends and it reminded her of a certain blonde haired child. She remembered when he used to come here with Iruka and devour several bowls of ramen, but she also remembered that Naruto had never been here with any friends of his own, except from lately when he had occasionally come with his sensei and two teammates. Naturally, she, being the kind person she is, felt sorry for him and wished he could have had a normal childhood, grown up with parents, played with children and had people who cared for him. Of course she cared for him and so did her father but the villagers thought of him as trash, often called him a devil and treated him abnormally badly. Speaking of the devil… (Bad choice of words =D)
"Hey Ayame I'll have the usual."
She gasped and looked at him and confused about how he had got there. A second ago Naruto's favorite seat (as it was called) was empty. Since when was he that fast? Naturally, seeing the young blonde put a smile on Ayame's face. Her favorite customer was here.
"Okay Naruto, the usual coming up. But first can I ask, How did you get there?"
Naruto put his finger to his lips, "Shhh, it's a secret."
Ayame nodded her head, she wasn't a very persistent person and she knew when to mind her own business, speaking of which she had four bowls of ramen to prepare.
-Outside the Hokage's office-
"Where is Naruto? The Hokage's waiting!" Sakura querulously verbalized.
"I'm not sure, but if he doesn't turn up soon we'll be unable to apply for this mission." The copy ninja answered. Then he stated, "We'll have to go in anyway, if not only to be told that we can't apply."
Sasuke grunted, and Sakura responded with a murderous look in her eye. They followed their sensei in through the door, the room was a professional looking one with windows behind the Hokage's desk. Today was warmer than usual so one of the windows was open letting in a cool breeze.
"Good morning Hokage-sama." Team 7 greeted.
"Kakashi. Here for another mission?" Replied the frail looking Sarutobi from his chair.
"Actually we're here to say we can't apply for the mission since-"
FWIP.
"AAAHH!" Shrieked Sakura in fear.
A kunai sped through the open window and past his masked face. He grabbed it in midair at hip level and searched for its thrower. Suddenly he dropped it as an idea came to mind. As suspected, a small blue eyed figure appeared on top of the kunai.
"NARUTO! What are you playing at?" Kakashi screamed as he lost his cool. All the while Sarutobi silently sat watching with a small grin on his face.
"I was just trying out my new method of… transport." Naruto said innocently.
Kakashi opened his masked mouth to scold the troublemaker but was cut off by the Hokage.
"I suppose you can apply for the mission now Kakashi, now that Naruto has made his entrance."
Kakashi sighed, Naruto certainly was unpredictable.
"I'll assign you to another mission," He searched through a few papers on his desk, "Ah, here we go, another cat is on the loose."
"HELL NO!" Naruto screamed.
"Naruto." Sakura scolded, mother-like, trying to shut up her knuckle headed comrade.
Naruto ignored his pink haired teammate and continued, "I am not chasing another DAMN CAT! Why can't we have a better mission? Like a C ranked mission!"
"Naruto, we'll take whatever mission the Hokage assigns us to." Kakashi reprimanded.
"But-"
"Actually Kakashi, I do have a C ranked mission up for grabs." The Hokage said. "And if you think your team is ready, I'll be happy to assign you to that mission."
"I'm sorry Hokage but I don't think some of us are ready." Kakashi replied glancing at Naruto.
"COME ON! WE ARE READY! You just don't want to go on it because you're lazy!"
"Kakashi I think it's in all of your best interests to go on this mission, so as of now you are assigned to this C ranked mission."
"Thank you Hokage-sama but-" Kakashi began, but was cut off by Naruto.
"Kakashi-sensei, 'we'll take whatever mission the Hokage assigns us to.'" Naruto cheekily said.
Kakashi sighed, he was beaten, "Okay Hokage-sama we'll take the C ranked mission."
"YEAH!" Naruto yelled, whilst punching his fist into the air.
-Night-
Naruto fell onto his bed with his hands behind his head. Today had been great. After being assigned to escort a bridge builder back to his own country. So far Naruto wasn't that excited to have to escort the old drunkard, because they had started off on the wrong foot, but he was extremely thrilled about the mission because it'll be the first time he's ever been outside of the village. He lay there with smile on his face wondering what they'll come across on the trip.
Slowly he began to doze off, still with a foxy grin on his face. When his eyes were firmly shut and drool was coming out of his snoring mouth, Naruto had dreams of his mission. The first dream he'd had in a long, long time.