Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO
AN: Sorry for the short chapter, but hey, it's an update. I'll update as soon as I can.
The couple moved around the crowd as Tenten led Naruto through a tour of Konoha. Naruto sighed silently because he could still remember his way around the village. A couple of hours have passed since the tour started and Naruto paid attention as Tenten led him to their next destination. He noticed that she led him to the entrance to a compound.
"Here we have the old Uchiha Compound. There hasn't been anyone other than the lone Uchiha who's lived there since the massacre."
"Massacre?" Naruto asked, trying not to show that he was worried. 'Nichan'
Tenten looked at the compound gate then answered.
"I don't remember much about it, but I recall hearing that one lone person was able to kill off all of the Uchiha that lived here. There was only one survivor. Because of that, the Konoha Military Police Force, which was comprised of mostly Uchiha, was forced to disband."
"Do you remember who that lone person might be?" Naruto inquired. "The one who defeated the mighty Uchiha Clan?"
"I don't remember. Why do you wanna know?"
"Curiosity really. During my travels, I've heard of how strong the Uchiha Clan was and was hoping to see them in action. I'm assuming that the survivor was Sasuke-san." Naruto answered.
"I believe that's his name. Anyway, let's get going to the next location. After that, we can head out for some food since it's been a couple hours. We'll then head back to see the Hokage."
Naruto nodded his head slightly, agreeing with Tenten's plan.
Naruto wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it couldn't have been more than ten minutes. He saw that Tenten stopped and recognized the next stop as Ichiraku's.
"This is Ichiraku. This place is a ramen stand where a lot of the academy students would eat if they don't have lunches or enough money for anything else. If you like ramen, this would be the place to go."
Naruto nodded. Out of all the things that Konoha had to offer, Ichiraku's was the place he missed the most. He made a mental note to visit after the tour concluded.
"Why don't we stop here and grab some Ramen?" Tenten asked.
Naruto was shaken out of his thoughts and answered by entering the stand.
He entered and saw that the forty-year old chef was still cooking ramen. He sniffed the air and loved the intoxicating scent that was ramen. Naruto sat down at the counter and Tenten sat beside him. A few seconds later, the chef's daughter Ayame arrived and saw that they had customers.
"Hello and welcome. How may I serve you?" Ayame asked.
"I'll have miso ramen." Tenten replied. "What about you Naru?"
"Miso's fine." Naruto answered.
Ayame wrote down the order and started to cook the ramen. As she was cooking, Naruto was wondering where old man Teuchi was at since he couldn't detect any other presence at the stand.
During the wait, Tenten asked Naruto a simple question.
"Naru, why did you choose to become a ninja?"
Naruto paused for a second. He wondered why he chose to become a ninja. Originally, he planned on becoming Hokage, but he couldn't use that as an answer. He then remembered what ACE told him if he was ever asked that question.
"When asked 'why did you become a ninja,' answer with, 'I became a ninja so that I could protect all of those who are precious to me.' It's the best answer since you can't say that you originally wanted to become Hokage and it's true that you do want to protect those who are prescious. I know of your other reason as well youngster, but save that answer until you encounter the one who you know will accept your answer."
"I want to protect all of those who are precious to me." Naruto answered. In truth, there was more he wanted to say, but held off for now thinking that his answer would suffice. "What about you Tenten-san?"
Tenten's anwer was immediate.
"My goal as a kunoichi is to be as great as Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin."
"As long as you don't drink and gamble like Tsunade, I can see you see you accomplishing your goal." Naruto replied without thinking.
Tenten glared at Naruto for mentioning some of Tsunade's bad habits. She stopped glaring immediately as she heard what Naruto concluded.
"Here's your ramen." Ayame replied, sliding the two miso ramens to Tenten and Naruto.
"Itadakimasu." Naruto and Tenten said in unison.
There was a moment of silence as they ate. Naruto ate slowly so that he wouldn't offend any of the females present. He finished his bowl a couple minutes after he started and started to reach for an item inside one of his pockets. He grabbed a fox-shaped wallet and pulled out an old looking coupon.
"Excuse me; a friend of mine gave me this coupon a long time ago. I was wondering if you still accept these."
Naruto handed the coupon over to Ayame and frowned when he saw that she had tears in her eyes.
Tenten finished eating and watch what was happening. She was shocked that Naruto had a coupon for Ichiraku and was mystified as to why Ayame had tears in her eyes.
"Who gave this to you?" Ayame struggled with the words.
'Oh crap? I forgot that there were some people who still remembered.' Naruto thought frantically. He was thinking fast and came up with an answer.
"A blond boy about 7 years of age gave it to me after I defended him from some bullies. I was travelling through the Land of Fire and was spending the night at Konoha."
"I see. I'll take this for now. If you'll excuse me." Ayame said as she headed towards the bathroom.
"What was that all about?" Tenten asked.
"Like I said earlier, I was traveling through Fire Country and the group I was traveling with spent the night here at Konoha. I remember encountering a person my age at time being picked on by bullies. I saved him and he offered me a coupon for this place. I never used the coupon since my group left the village early the next day."
"Interesting story bozu." A man's voice said from behind Naruto and Tenten.
If it wasn't for the fact that Tenten was sitting firmly on here seat, she would have easily fallen off in shock. Naruto sensed the guy as he was speaking and knew that he wasn't a threat.
The man who spoke looked to be in his low to mid forties. He was wearing a simple apron and Naruto smiled slightly at the site of the old man.
"I can see why my daughter would be in tears. She still haven't forgotten about how the Uchiha killed the boy you mentioned."
"Uchiha?" Tenten repeated in a low tone.
"Yeah. Don't know why, but the Uchiha thought the boy to be a threat somehow was ended up killing him. Unfortunately for them, after the boy was killed, the Uchiha Massacre occurred and they were all wiped out except for the son of the Military Police."
'I need to gather more information about the Uchiha Massacre. I want to know why Itachi-nichan was killed for what the entire clan did. Sure, the blood clone that Ace used was a litter over the top from what he said, but I need to know why someone would massacre an entire clan just because of the fact that I died.' Naruto thought.
"Why don't you two head out for now? Don't worry about the bowls. The coupon will be enough." The restaurant owner said, breaking Naruto out of his thought.
Naruto nodded and stood. Tenten followed Naruto out of the stand and the duo were back on the street.
"That was interesting." Naruto replied.
Tenten nodded and started to head up the street. Naruto followed. A few minutes later, the two were at one of the many training fields that ninjas use to work on their techniques. The training field had a large stump near the middle with a lake reflecting the rays of the sun towards the east. Naruto looked at the stump and saw that the stump had several deep indentations.
"This is training area 23. I train here with my team whenever we're not doing any missions." Tenten said, breaking the silence that was encompassing the area.
"What's you style?" Naruto asked.
"Huh?" was all Tenten said.
"What is your style of combat? Are you an expert in ninjutsu, genjutsu, special techniques?" Naruto asked.
"Oh! I practice using weapons of many different varieties. I prefer using long range weapons but can easily use melee weapons as well." Tenten answered.
"I see. Then let's spar."
"What was that?" Tenten said, she wasn't sure if she heard him right. She thought that he just asked to spar.
"Let's spar for a bit. I'd like to see how well I'd do against a weapons specialist. Especially one who prefers long range weapons." Naruto replied.
"Dunno why I should at the moment. I am on a mission right now." Tenten said, looking away from Naruto.
"It's up do you. We can spar now or we can another time. I haven't faced off against a long range weapons user in a long time."
Tenten shifted slight and thought about the offer. After a minute of thinking, she shook her head, signifying that she didn't want to spar at the moment.
"That's fine. Tell me about your team then as we head back to see the Hokage." Naruto said.
Tenten smiled and started to talk about her team. As the two walked, Tenten mention how one of her teammates was the "rookie of the year" and that he was Hyuuga Neji from the Hyuuga clan. Naruto smiled slightly when she mentioned some of the qualities of Neji since it was pretty much like typical Hyuuga behavior. He then thought of Hinata and was thinking of how she was a rarity. Tenten then mentioned her other teammate Rock Lee. Lee had a condition where he couldn't use chakra. He vowed to his "eternal rival" Neji that one can become a ninja through hard work and determination. Naruto was hoping to spar with Lee one day after Tenten mention some of the aspects of Lee and Gai's fighting style, the Iron Fist.
Tenten and Naruto arrived at the Hokage's office half an hour later. The duo took their time as they talked on the way there. Tenten was gestured to leave the office and was to pick up her pay downstairs. Tenten discreetly placed a small note inside one of his pockets as she left.
"How did you like the tour?" the Hokage asked with a warm smile.
"It was pretty interesting. I learned a lot though the tour Hokage-sama."
"That's good. I've finalized the paperwork. Starting tomorrow, you're officially assigned to team 7. That's the team you were traveling with ealier."
Naruto nodded his head in confirmation.
"You're to meet here tomorrow mourning at 7 A.M. for your first mission." The Hokage ordered.
"Yes Hokage-sama."
"One more thing before you leave. What are you current sleeping arrangements?"
'I haven't really thought of that.' Naruto thought.
"I see." The Hokage said. Naruto mentally scolded himself for not realizing he said his thoughts out loud.
"There's only one opening right now that I could find. The rent's next to nothing and would be suitable to live in."
"What's the catch?" Naruto asked. "I'm assuming that your talking about an apartment and that there has to be some sort of problem with the room that you found since you said that the 'rent's next to nothing'."
"To be honest, the apartment in question used to belong to a kid. He was an orphan from an attack that happened almost thirteen years ago. Due to circumstances outside of his control, he was unfortunately killed."
'My old apartment. Guess people think that there's a curse placed there since it used to belong to the 'Kyuubi-brat.''
"I'll take it." Naruto said.
The Sandaime smiled and handed Naruto the paperwork. Naruto completed the forms and handed them back to the Hokage.
"Alright then. Now that everything's in order, I'll have someone escourt you to the apartment."
Naruto was about to protest, saying that he could find it on his own, but was too late. The Hokage pressed a button that was near the paperwork and called into the intercom.
"Can you bring be Uzuki Yugao over to my office?"
'There's another Uzuki?' was the sole thought that was flying through his mind.