A/N: I had a review saying that he thought that Iruka talking to Sasuke was kind of mean and manipulative, and how it was selfish, and I can totally see that view, but there's a reason for me doing this. Iruka's an adult. He's nice, yeah, but he's also someone who hasn't been eight in twenty years. He thinks 'silly Sasuke, thinking about revenge', well, yeah it's mean, but he's a ninja. Iruka gets that a ninja has to be strong and can't keep crying for themselves like a bunch of wimps, and he wants to help Sasuke, he's just not in the exactly correct frame of mind.
I'm just going to say that Kakashi didn't know about Naruto's being Minato's son yet. I mean, I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't be calling Naruto idiot so much if he did know. Also, after I finished watching Naruto I hated the last... like... ten arcs, so I rewatched my favorite two arcs over and over again and then watched like three other animes, so I'm forgotten most of everything after the Finding Itachi arc. I still know about Madara in Obito's body's evil plans, like the ten tails and stuff, and I know about the deaths, but I've forgotten most of the details. I'm a bit like Shizuku from Hunter x Hunter. Horrible memory.
Anyways... enjoy!
"Oomph!" Sakura tumbled to the ground as she bumped into a white haired adult. "I'm so sorry!" She squeaked as she held out a hand to him. "I'm really, really, really sorry..."
"That's okay." The man smiled at her, though it was a weary smile.
"Oh, mister, your headband fell over your eye! I'm so sorry... here, I'll fix it.."
"That's okay." The man held up a hand to stop her. "I made it like that. Really, it was like that this whole time."
"Oh... oh. I see." Sakura went red. "I'm really sorry." She stood up, and the man stood up too. "I was just in a rush to get to Icharuku's and I wasn't really looking where I was going and... yeah. I'm really sorry, Ninja-san, but Naruto-kun's probably going to be disappointed in me if I'm late and Ino-sama will probably tell me that being early is something important and Kiba-kun will be yelling at me, and Chouji-san will probably try to eat my ramen... though I won't let him, of course... and... and... and... I have to go!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." The man held up his hands. "I know the names of all your friends. Naruto-kun, Ino-sama, Kiba-kun and Chouji-san, right? But who are you?" Kakashi frowned under his mask. Naruto? The boy has friends? Well... I suppose that that is a good thing. I mean, even Jinchuuriki are human, right Minato-sensei? I'm sure that you'll agree.
Kakashi thought that it was funny how much the Jinchuuriki looked almost exactly like Minato-sensei. In fact, the whole Naruto-Minato look alike issue was why he had chosen to watch the young boy when Hokage-sama had asked the ANBU for volunteers. (Though Hokage-sama was still investigating why everyone who watched Naruto quit the job of ANBU...) If he didn't know better, Kakashi would have said that Naruto was his sensei's son or something. But that was sadly impossible.
"Oh... sorry Ninja-san." The pink haired girl replied, looking out of breath. "I'm Sakura. Hurano Sakura."
She's so honest... Kakashi smiled ruefully. I never really got a chance to be honest. I was practically born a ninja, and will have spent nine tenths of my life as Anbu, I'm betting. "Didn't your parents warn you against talking to strangers?" He asked.
The girl went pink. "H-hai, Ninja-sama!" She bowed hurriedly. "But it's rude not to talk to ninjas... especially when they're so cool..." She ducked her head, mumbling to herself about how cool ninja were.
"But ninjas aren't always the good guys." Kakashi replied. "Remember that, Sakura."
"I- I- I-" Sakura stuttered. "I'm sorry, Ninja-sama." She muttered, ducking her head.
Kakashi sighed. Was this girl going to apologize to him every time that she opened her mouth? Because seriously, the infamous Copy-Nin was getting sick of that. And fast. "Anyways, you'd better get going." He said with a wave of his hands, feeling quite awkward.
Sakura lifted her head, snapping it up. It was a miracle that her neck didn't break
"Oh yeah!" She gasped. "I'm sorry mister, but I have to go mister!" And with that, she ran off, forgetting all about Kakashi.
As he watched her run, Kakashi smiled sadly to himself. Well, sensei? Naruto looks so much like you... and you wanted to name your son Naruto, didn't you? In that case, why don't we just say that Naruto's your son? Kakashi watched Sakura's retreating back. Though I wish that he was your real son... He added bitterly. He would give anything to see some part of sensei... but maybe a boy who just looked like sensei by coincidence could be enough to bring a small smile to the ANBU's face.
"Sorry I'm late!" Sakura squeaked as she slid into the booth of Icharuku Ramen.
"You shouldn't be late, Sakura-chan." Ino scolded, then sighed wearily. "So, what happened this time? Did you walk into a wall again? Because seriously, Sakura, you need to pay attention to where you're walking!"
Sakura turned bright pink. "That only happened once!" She protested.
Ino raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine. Once or twice. But that's it!"
"Don't lie, Sakura-chan..."
"I'm not!"
"Says the girl who's dripping buckets of sweat." Ino countered.
"Want some ramen, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, pushing a bowl of miso ramen towards her. "It's awesome!"
"Have you ever tasted anything other than ramen, Naruto?"
"I ate ramen with cereal on top this morning!"
"Ewwww..." Ino wrinkled her nose. "That's disgusting, Naruto!"
Naruto nodded in agreement. "I know, right? The cereal totally took away the Ramen's awesomeness!"
"That wasn't exactly what I meant..."
Sakura smiled slightly. It was fun to have friends.
"Hokage-sama." An ANBU bowed down on a knee. "I have sucessfully completed this mission and..."
Kabuto watched with a smirk as the ANBU continued to idiotically continue about his mission and reported. How far Konoha has fallen... even the Hokage himself can't detect my signature? He felt around for the Hokage's chakra signature, and widened his eyes when he found none. All he felt was as though there was chakra in the air itself, there was such an overwhelming amount. How... what... Kabuto's eyes narrowed. What is this monstrous chakra? It's terrifying...
How could the Hokage simply smile and nod like that?
The reporting ANBU was surely terrified... was this... no... it couldn't be...
"Naruto!" The hokage said cheerfully and the eight year old jumped into the room.
Kabuto froze. The Uzumaki boy was definitely the source of this horrible chakra. As the white haired boy watched the Hokage toy with and laugh with the boy, the ANBU respectfully standing at the side and softening, Kabuto felt fear and horror.
How could such a young child be merged with that monster? It was frightening.
Kabuto wanted that child dead. The white haired boy trembled.
I want that boy to die. I want Lord Orochimaru to kill him. I want him to die... I want him to die...
That child had no right to smile or to laugh when he had such a... thing!... inside of him! He had no right to be on the traitor Hokage's lap right now, laughing and nodding at whatever the Hokage had just said.
He deserved to die. Minato had deserved to die... the third deserved to die... everyone in Konoha deserved to die! Kabuto hated this place. It was a crazy, insane place of maniacs. Akatsuki was fine compared to Konoha, even if it was a insane freak show full of S-rank missing nin.
Kabuto trembled for a moment, then recomposed himself and smirked, then pushed up his glasses. The look in his eyes had changed yet again. It turned from fearful and angry...
...to cold and dangerous.
"I'm so bored..." Shikamaru whined as they waited outside the door for Naruto to come out of the Hokage's office. "This is such a pain... why on earth does Naruto need to see the Hokage anyways? It's the first day of the month, yeah. but that doesn't explain anything!"
"I'm sure Naruto has his reasons." Chouji replied with a smile. "Naruto's our friend. He'll tell us... even if we don't understand it, at least he was nice enough to try to explain it. Want a chip, Sakura-chan?"
"Arigato, Chouji-kun." (I'm sorry. Thanks just looked/sounded so wrong to me...) Sakura took the chip, and played with her short pink hair as she bit it in half.
After their PraNCKS meeting, Naruto had said bye and headed for the Hokage tower. Not having anything to do, Shikamaru followed, muttering about how troublesome it was to do it. Chouji, being Shikamaru's loyal friend, had followed. Sakura had shyly ran up as well, also having nothing to do.
Kiba and Ino had left to go... um... somewhere. Ino was probably going to go look at the cute bear stuffies (Sakura wanted one! Really badly!) and Kiba was a boy so maybe he went to play with ninja action figures which Sakura thought was weird, but he was a boy...
Sakura dared a peek into the room, then quickly took her head back out again.
"What did you see, Sakura-chan?" Chouji asked curiously.
"I... um... well... it's rude to look... so I didn't look..."
"That's right!" Chouji nodded with big eyes. "My mom told med that peeking is wrong and only old, evil men do it."
"Oh!" Sakura sighed and slumped over. "I'm borrrreeddddddddd!"
"I wonder if Naruto's done yet..." Shikamaru mused. "Oh well. Also..." He leaned in closer to Chouji and Sakura. "Isn't it so cool that Naruto can go see the Hokage?" Okay, so he needed to dumb it down a little for his friends. That was okay. But he needed to make them suspicious without knowing that he was.
Shikamaru might have been a genius, but he was still only eight. Kind hearted Chouji was the most likely to get Naruto to actually tell the secret willingly, as Kiba, though Naruto's perhaps closest friend, was still a loud mouthed, secret spilling, attention seeking dog.
Also, the black haired boy suspected that between all boys, girls were off limits to talk to about secrets, and between himself and Chouji, Chouji would probably be the one for Naruto to confide in.
Sakura was smart. Shikamaru knew that she was smart. How could he not, when Iruka sensei always declared Hurano's grades to be either higher or on par with those of 'The Last Uchiha's? If anyone could help him figure out Naruto, it was Sakura.
Chouji's eyes went big. He wasn't an exactly suspicious person. "Yeah! It is super cool that Naruto gets to see the Hokage as much as he wants! I wish that I could..."
"I bet that Naruto's parents used to be super important Jounin or something like that..." Sakura mused. "That's probably why he got into the academy as well."
"Yeah. But strong enough to be allowing Naruto to see Hokage-sama even after their deaths so long ago?" Shikamaru would have whistled if Kiba had properly taught him how to. (Who did the idiot thing he was teaching? A dog? He called Shikamaru 'good boy'! What the heck!?) "His parents must have been super amazing Anbu or something."
Shikamaru smiled as Sakura's eyes flickered with a slightly confused doubt.
Chouji smiled. "Yeah, that's super cool." He agreed.
Shikamaru smiled. Good old Chouji would never be a proper ninja. He was too kind and caring of his friends. Shikamaru liked that about Chouji though. There was a reason that the two boys were best friends, after all.
"Parents... Anbu..." A shadow of doubt flickered across Sakura's face, but she nodded. "Iruka-sensei did say that ANBU bad the highest chance of dying among ninja." She frowned slightly. "That's so sad!" She burst out.
"That's such a girly thing to say."
"And what's wrong with that!?"
"Nothing at all."
"Hey guys!" Naruto burst out of the Hokage's office. "Look! The old man got me some gear!" He took out some shuriken and kunai and proudly waved it in front of their faces.
"Um... Naruto - kun..." Sakura stuttered. "Be careful..."
Naruto poured. "You're just like the old jiji." He muttered. "Be careful, don't get hurt, blah blah blah blah blah. I'm already eight, I mean! Come on!"
"You shouldn't talk about Hokage-sama in such a disrespectful manner, Naruto." Chouji pointed out. "I mean, he's the super coolest ninja of the village and all."
"The old man? No way!" Naruto shook his head. "He always just sits there and does boring paperwork. Being hokage must be bor-ing."
"Then why do you want to be the Hokage?" Shikamaru asked curiously. He was going to get to the bottom of Naruto. He would do it, no matter how long it took for him to accomplish the feat. "If it's so boring at all."
"Isn't it obvious?" Naruto asked. "If I was Hokage, I would be the leader of the village! Then everyone would have to acknowledge me!"
"Erm... don't they pay attention to you already?"
"Nah, I'm just the de- prankster to them."
Did Shikamaru mention that Naruto was the absolute worst liar in the entire universe?
"De- what?"
"Huh? When'd I say de-? I never said de! I said... me!"
"Me Prankster?"
"Yup!"
It was almost sad, really, how hard he tried and how easily Shikamaru could see right through him.
"Naruto?"
"Yesssssssss?" The blond was sweating a lot.
"I'll find out the truth."
Naruto blinked. Twice. Three times. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Ten times, superfast.
"I'm going home." Naruto decided.
"We'll go with you." Shikamaru replied.
"Yatta! Okay! Let's spray paint that stupid dango store again..."
"No."
"Waaah. Why not?"
"Kiba's not here."
"Oh... right..." Naruto's cheeks turned red. "Then ramen!"
"I challenge you to a ramen eating contest!"
"You're on!"
"Winner pays!"
"Do you have the money needed for this?"
"Who cares?"
"It's okay, Sakura-chan!"
"But-"
"How troublesome." Shikamaru smiled. Naruto was just Naruto. The secret was probably just something troublesome like Naruto eating Chouji's candy stash, like last time. Yeah. All was good.
It was almost funny just how wrong the genius could be. From nearby, Kabuto was watching.
