"You sure you want to do this now, Hatake-san?"
"Yeah. I have been improving myself a lot lately. Well, at least if we talk about my personality. Anyway, I believe that reforging my father's tanto will be the act that signified this change."
Yeah, and preparing myself against the much worse problems ahead. Such as a certain evil glasses late teenager that at this point still overpowered me.
"Alright. Follow me." Said the shop owner. I obeyed his command.
It turned out that Sarutobi forge was in the care by the classiest weapon expert in Konoha. Not surprising since their clan was one of the most open clan in hidden villages, and often involve civilians and clanless ninja in their affairs .
But somehow, I felt a little suspicious about the appearance of the man for no reason. I knew I'm not racist, so why I was a little curious by the fact that the man wear Chinese clothings? Maybe because the man looked more like Japanese, but still...
"Tenten! Where's the key for Sarutobi forge seal again?"
"Locker number three, dad!"
Ah, that's the reason. The guy looked familiar, after all. Although I couldn't tell him that since I never met Tenten before, so...
"Is your daughter happened to be taught by Gai?"
"Who?"
Kang never met Gai? What kind of insanity is this? "My fellow Jounin. You know, the green one with bowl-cut?"
"Which one? There were two of them... creatures." He said as he shivered. Not that I could blame him.
"The tall one? Whose eyebrows are thickest in town?" I added, while prayed so I never have to ask 'Who will spin like helicopter whenever a youth word was spoken?'
"Oh! Yes, I think so. Something's wrong?"
"Nothing. Gai's happened to be my friend." I answered.
"Ah, I see."
""Yup. It feels like yesterday when he's just a lowly chuunin that declared that he's going to be my eternal rival. That being said, I'm surprised by how you don't recognize Gai's name."
"Sorry that I'm not familiar with him, but that guy never shopped around here. Taijutsu specialist, as he himself referred as, rarely shopped around here...although I never met any other taijutsu specialist."
"Actually, everyone could afford some projectiles for safety." I countered. "But I'm not surprised if Gai declared that him using weapons is cheating and unyouthful. Or, he simply decided that he should shop his weapons somewhere else, since shopping in the store that his genin owned can be considered as unyouthful. I never know of him as a very strictly taijutsu user, but...it's Gai."
"...Somehow, I feel violated from hearing all those youth and unyouth."
Yeah, and lucky you. Without all those silence seals, Gai might have already destroyed every walls in this building to find the potential youth recruit.
"Gai freaked all of us sometimes, so don't worry."
"I feel sorry for Lee a little. He has been brainwashed by youth and turned into his mini-me."
"Well Lee seems like the same with Gai, they have exceptional talent at taijutsu at expense of anything else, so he's going to become something closest to Gai. Granted, he can do it without emulating Gai's look, but..."
"Have you ever think about turning one of your student into your mini-meas well?" Tenten's father asked, with an obviously amused tone.
"Nah, I'll pass. Right now I'm trying to be not late, but karma have been giving me hell for all of those tardiness. I can't let my students to suffer the same fate."
I knew you sneezed somewhere, Neji. Yeah! Take that!
"Well suit yourself. Anyway, the tanto will be ready in two weeks. Four if you want to immediately use your idea of enhancements."
"Proceed then. I don't need it immediately, anyway."
"You sure? It will be a long time before you can store something big inside of that. When this baby's ready for battle again, you can only store something worthy of a d-rank at best. So many maintenance will have to be done before this tanto can store something like Kage Bunshin."
"Kang," I looked at him lazily, "In the hand of a capable shinobi, even a d-rank can give them an advantage."
-naruto-
Next day, in third-person narrative...
"Two free specials, and five jumbo ramen, coming right up!" The Yuki clan's only known survivor perkily summarized the order as he walked back to the kitchen, his too feminine hips shaking sexily, accentuated by his form-fitting wardrobe that clinged to every part of his androgynous body. For any food establishment, he's the best possible eye-candy for both genders. Unfortunately, for those who knew about the waiter well and had the privilege to slightly overthought about it, this only made everything far too perplexing.
"...I'm so fucking confused right now." Sasuke groaned as he felt his 'junior' twitched a little from the display in front of him, disturbed him even more.
"Um, could you guys get arrested and sued for using a...trap?" Naruto asked to Ayame, not that he would want his favorite place and people to get taken down by people who feel they get tricked by the androgynous ninja.
"Oh, we have disclaimer about the gender of workers here, Naruto. And Haku's not here for sex appeal, but to provide something unique. It's just that for some reasons, our customers haven't take the clue."
"...Indeed. You plastered it besides the menu. And yet, guys still ogling him. Wow. Either they don't care for the truth, or they never read the menu to begin with, or they consider it as gender role-playing-I don't know if that's a thing..." However, Ayame already went into the kitchen to respond anything that Naruto said.
"Anyone dare to summarize what the hell is with Haku?" Sakura stopped Naruto's monologue with her own question.
"He often masquerade as a girl, he even moves like girls and used girl perfume, he came from a clan that have 25% of turning into a female after puberty, and yet his love interest is a woman. He's so smitten, he would go lesbian if he became a girl. Anything else?" Naruto offered his answer to Sakura. This kind of discussion wasn't what he had in mind after he missed his ramen for days staright.
It had been four days after he was hospitalized from the disaster that was Hatake's test trial for a mixed fight PPV. Naruto wanted that ramen so much after he missed it in the days before. Couldn't eat ramen with full body cast, after all.
Well, there was that time when Ayame spoon-fed him the ramen, but he couldn't drink the gravy. He wept for his inability to drink the gravy for the rest of the night, and wept again for the rest of the next day after the nurse confiscated the ramen for fear of aggravating the burn. He then wept in joy after doctor declared him free to go on the next day, much earlier from the projected 15 days.
Poor guy who had to change his bandages.
"And don't forget that his love interest is at least 13 years older than him. If Haku's a civilian, this would be scandalous, at the very least." Sasuke added.
"However, I believe that it would be even weirder if it turned out that Zabuza is the one who taught him all the skill to properly mimic a Kunoichi."
"Ew! I cannot compute Zabuza dressing like a sissy girl and teaching Haku how to act like femme fatale! That just sounds so wrong!"
"Um, w-what are you three t-talking about?"
"Oh, Hinata-chan! We're just talking about our friend here. You know him, the new worker for Ichiraku." Naruto pointed at Haku.
"H-Haku's a boy?!" She gasped. No wonder that Kö-san was so distraught and drowned himself in the shower for three hours last week. The heiress thought that he found nasty looking pimples in Ayame (some Hyuuga did like to peek using their byakugan, and Kö's fetish was waitress) or other waitress, but Naruto just clarified that he peeked at Haku instead. And it turned out that...that...
"Yeah. No need to worry. I heard that he even confused Inuzuka clan with his perfume."
"R-really?" Asked Hinata as she sat down to the next chair that wasn't taken...
Only to realize that she somehow ended up sitting besides Naruto.
"EEEEP!"
"Where's the pepper? Hn. There you are...it's empty. Tch." Sasuke looked over the said seasoning, much to no success, before he sat down next to Hinata. His left eye twitched after he realized that Naruto was currently sitting with two attractive girls that also respected his privacy, which the last part never happened to him before (and won't happen with Sakura any soon), but he decided to not mind about it now.
Sakura, however, was aggravated, ironically for the nearly same reason. She felt that it was unfair for Hinata to not just sit next with Sasuke-kun, but also with another cute boy. Yes, Sakura hate to admit that she found Naruto to be quiet cute, but it was the truth. Naruto would be a fine young boy had he got a little taller, toned down his very loud behavior, and get rid of that awful sweater of his. And not only that he indeed happened to get a little taller now, this was one of those days when he decided to wear something much appealing. Somehow, it only took a darker shade of orange to turn him into a much attractive man.
"Hey, Teuchi! Hinata-chan wants to order, please!" Naruto yelled, made Hinata panicked even more.
"Um, eeeh...MISO RAMEN PLEASE!" Hinata loudly ordered her own noodles, desperately attempted to avoid the regular occurrence of blacking out.
"Uh...okay." Teuchi obliged as he backed a little from Hinata, who right now hid her face behinds both of her hands in shame from her outburst.
"Hey, Teuchi!" However, the man had to deal with something more grating than he'd like it first.
"Get out of my sight! Too many times I have to told you that you're on my blacklist, Kurogane!"
The blonde Jinchuuriki could only frowned as he recognized that deep, and yet rather nasal voice. That old man had always been one of the nastiest villager toward him, to the point that he almost sure that he was the one who once set his laundry on fire. The only thing that made it a little better for him was that Kurogane was an equal-opportunistic asshole; his own reputation was by no means in good standing with the other villagers, and he always bullied the poor. Of course, that meant Naruto's the biggest target for him.
"Come on, Teuchi! I'm already on the blacklist for two months! Give me a break, will you?"
"Treat Naruto like a normal citizen, and I might consider it."
"Humph! Why should we give the brat a chance? A fox brat will stay a-GYAAAH!"
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"We didn't see you." Added the man in the sickly saccharine tone that definitely did not say he was sorry, much like his own partner.
Naruto sweat-dropped after the two mysterious men 'accidentally' splashed a bucket full of milk at the old geezer who just about to yell everything horrible that's supposedly to be Naruto, 90% of them almost guaranteed to be wild rumors. Despite him being happy at the fact that there were many people that finally showed their appreciations for him, he couldn't resist the thoughts that they took too much glee in it. But aside from how it reminded him of his pranking day, how could he blame them, if they really had to wait this long?
After yet another clothes present from one of the store in Konoha, Naruto had a talk with Kakashi about how many people who actually didn't mind him being the Kyuubi container. When the copycat nin gave the estimations at 25% of civilians and 60% of shinobi force based from Jiraiya's best emotional sensors, Naruto was taken by surprise. Even Kakashi admitted that his own most generous estimation did not came close with that number. Of course, this made Naruto asked again about why most of them never did anything for him if they supposedly cared for him.
His sensei, and team leader, answered that most of them either couldn't withstand the backlash from people who feared or hate him, or took so many years to recuperate from the trauma of Kyuubi attack that they could only be there for him years after his lonely life, and they still had to catch on for their wasted years. Naruto, in rare moment of wisdom, understood what he meant. Jiji was so powerful and influential that he could just ignore any demands to avoid the young Jinchuuriki without any repercussions, and Ichiraku simply too awesome to be bankrupted by its associations to the village's pariah (that, and Teuchi was scary enough to the point he could simply chase away anyone who treated him like dirt publicly in front of his stand without any care for a repercussion). For the other shinobi and civilians, unfortunately they had to postpone their job in respecting the will of the Yondaime until the Uzumaki developed a better reputation and street credits, or else they will found themselves scoffed by society in the best scenario, and had their business, job and social life ruined at the worst possible outcome. So the best they could do, was going with the flow, making sure that Naruto would be unharmed from any grave dangers, and prayed for Yondaime's forgiveness every-time they had to throw him out or joined the other in shaming the kid. The first part explained why for a boy who was hated and feared so much, the really serious threats against his life could be counted in single digits. Meanwhile, some cases had them spiraled into self-destruction after the Kyuubi attack, and couldn't do anything for him since they had their own issues. Kakashi nii-san reluctantly admitted that he was the later case, only recovered partially after he uncovered an illegal organization created by a council elder, the first time he did anything major that did not end up in the fatal outcome for his closest people.
When Naruto got a team that respected and loved him, as well as rumors that there was a bridge named in honor of him, many of those people decided that they had him waited long enough, and they paid their debts in many way, from allowing him to enter their stores and stands publicly, to humiliate some of the nastier villagers, both indirectly and directly. Of course, the one who did so explicitly were always ninjas who used the excuse of protecting Shinobi corps' morale, but everyone knew better. And some of the sympathetic villagers then used the same excuse, of course done much more subtle.
I wonder if those two could prank that asshole in district-J. They have the talent for it. I could see his wimpy scream, hehehe...
"Fox brat? Treat him normally?" Sakura obstructed his thoughts, obviously confused by the pejorative name, which made Naruto sweated a lot. The next question however, turned everything inside down and forced Naruto to collect all his will to not run from the stand. "Naruto, somehow I think it's nastier than what you said before."
"You got me, Sakura-chan." Everybody were taken by Naruto's sudden change in mannerism, almost as if they were talking to someone who was cursed with a gargantuan burden in their life. "I, uh...often mistaken as Kyuubi due to this cursed whisker marks. I don't know who spread the lies about me being the Kyuubi, but it really turned me into a pariah. Jiji tried to amend it by forbid anyone to spread the lies to anyone again so I can have good relation with people who haven't done it yet, but those people simply told everyone to get away from me." Naruto finished, practically only left the part about Kyuubi.
"Oh, Kami. I'm so sorry, Naruto." Sakura pulled Naruto, much to his shock. "I used to be bullied for my forehead, and look at me, the girl who used to think that you're nothing but an annoying pest, even once considered that you were lucky that you don't have parents that trying to control everything you do. I'm nothing but a horrible, hypocritical girl."
Naruto couldn't get any more happier when Sakura hugged him and muttered apologies to him. It was like a dream come true to him! "I-it's okay, Sakura-chan. Past is a past. What's matter is that we're teammates and friends now."
"Hn. You sound surprisingly wise here."
"Yeah, yeah. Suit yourself, bastard."
"I-I...I always thought that p-people treatment at you is stupid, Naruto-kun!" Hinata suddenly added, not wanting to be outdone by her rival. At least that was what Kurenai-sensei referred Sakura's standing to her, and she began to see it like that when she felt a pang in her chest when Naruto had a really pleased look as Sakura hugged him tight.
Meanwhile, Teuchi and Ayame held a wide grin that's both warming and teasing at Naruto. They both decided to be the silent spectator in this current situation. The scene where the village pariah got full attention from two really cute girls was both too heartwarming and amusing to be interrupted by their own mark.
Oh, and Haku too busy giggled as he read a letter from Mei, who also sent a picture of her fine backside posterior for his own...personal use.
"Really? Then uh, no offense, but why you always avoid me in academy?"
Sakura slapped her wide forehead due to that dumb, insensitive question. And when Hinata's lavender eyes about to spill her tears by his question, she growled. "Naruto..."
"This dobe..."
"I-I barely can look at you w-without getting e-embarrassed, N-Naruto-kun! E-even now, I feel like I c-could faint any second! Oooh, if only I'm as f-f-fearless as you, w-we may a-already..." Hinata spat out everything that had been bottled inside of her.
"R-relax, Hinata-chan! If it's a consolation for you, sometimes my bravery is just a mask to hide my fear."
"Huh? B-but it seems that th-there's nothing that can h-hold you down. E-everytime you failed, you always came b-back like it's nothing."
"I do want to become stronger so I can protect everyone. I also never wants to give up. But sometimes I have to fool myself so my fear won't overtake me, to the point that I often feel that my bravery's nothing but a mask." Everybody near earshot had their interest on the blonde Uzumaki went tenfold, yet again. The brat was actually had fear? "When we fought Zabuza, I honestly thought that I would die when I fought his clones. Only the bandage in my hand that reminded me of my resolve to protect that old man Tazuna. In the end, I guess I'm not that fearless."
After several minutes of silence, the heiress was the one who responded first."N-naruto-kun, I...I want to be your resolve."
"Th-thanks Hinata-chan." Naruto said his gratitude to the former heiress. For a while, he felt the same strange thing that Sakura caused to him, but he dismissed it as merely caused by being complemented by a girl. A girl that even someone as dense as him could objectively considered as a real cutie.
Meanwhile, Sakura frowned. She initially wanted to reassure Naruto that he's still a brave boy regardless of whether he needed the reminders or not, but here was Hinata, stole the thunder away from her. She felt upset, mostly due to fact that what Hinata said did not taking down the possibility that Naruto lacked actual courage, but there was a part of her that was simply...competitive for the sake of being competitive.
"CHA! SHANNARO! I want to taste the boy harem, so back off, pupil-less freak!"
Of course, that part simply could be attributed to that crazy Inner, a unique psychological phenomenon that happened for girls that often displays behavior that contradicted their own hearts. And due to teenagers' instability, the chance it happened to those that just get puberty became even bigger.
"But you're already my resolve, Hinata." This earned a gasp from everyone, Sakura snapped her chopsticks, and a tray clanked as it made a contact with the floor (luckily, no sound of smashed bowls there). And of course, a reddening cheeks from the princess that had steams blowing from her ears..
He-he already think that I'm his resolve? Does that means, he thinks, I am...Oooh...
"You're one of my friend. Of course you're going to be one of my reason to keep fighting, Hinata-chan." A crashing sound was heard from the side where Hinata sat next to him. "Hinata? Aw, not again!"
"I'll pick her up." Sasuke immediately offered as he picked Hinata in bride style. "You two stay here."
Ayame took the rather awkward silence as her opportunity to place the three ramen bowls for Team 7. Soon, Sakura stared eerily at Naruto for 5 seconds, before she spoke again.
"Naruto?"
"Yes, Sakura-chan?"
"Just because you need a mask to remind your own promises sometimes, that doesn't mean you're a coward, or downright moronic glory seeker like Don Quixote. Okay?" Said Sakura as her palm began to get paler due to her unnecessarily hard grips on the edge of her desk.
"Uh, sure. But I feel that some of it-" And when there was a cracking sound heard under the desk, the blonde knucklehead could do nothing but nodded vigorously, feared for the wrath of his teammate.
-naruto-
"The deeds is done, Hatake-san!"
"...I'm sorry, but who are you again?" I asked. Not a bad question when two strangers out of nowhere greeted me like I hired them to do something.
"Just a newest recruit in Yondaime's Will, sir! For our own safety, it's better for you to don't know our name!"
"Ah, I see." Yeah, rumor said that after Naruto's graduation, an underground movement was made to honor Yondaime's will in more direct way. Well, you could call this as Naruto's fans club, if you like it. "It's nice to see that Naruto finally get the honor that he deserved." I eye-smiled at them.
"Yeah. Fucking finally. The ninja status is a mandatory requirement, so we can fight the discrimination against him while protect ourselves behind his newest status as a honored ninja. We thought that with encouraging him to graduated earlier we could do this faster, but despite his chakra's already larger than a chuunin by the time he's nine years old, he always failed at the bunshin jutsu. In the end, he barely make it."
"The Kyuubi bastard must have obstructed his chakra control partially. As if being burdened by that thing's not enough..."
"Yeah, I have the same suspicion that part of him being so stunted was caused by the burden of being Kyuubi jailer." I added, inwardly sighed. Just how long until I could refer Kurama and Itachi as good guys?.
"Say, should we go to the district-J? I know a guy there who tried to pay several mercenaries to kill Uzumaki-san once..."
"Nasty piece of shit too to everyone else."
"I'd say go for it. But asks and get some advises from Naruto first. He may have something in the bag for him, or he already forgiven him." Yeah, because fuck him.
"Yes sir!" Said both of them as they began to walk away. It was then when I realized something.
"Wait! I think I remember you two-!"
My voice, unfortunately, went to the ear of no one. Then again, I only whispered to protect their closeness. But I felt that I knew they were the guys who threw that smelly cheese stuff to that clothing store.
It was only last week in a sunny day for Konoha. There was us, taking our second C-rank mission, joined Hokage to investigate some stores that had complains about their questionable ethics. Well, I had hunches that Sarutobi just simply used this opportunity to spend more time with Naruto since their conversation primarily occupied the time between our little visits, but no one pressed. Every leader deserved a little break once in a while.
Speaking about mission, one of the way to investigate them was to monitoring what happened when they had to serve minorities and poor people, which made Naruto as a fine substitute. It was quiet disturbing to find that some of those stores clerks and owners were just plain assholes to put it lightly, one of them even deliberately threw Naruto out of the window and sneered when Naruto's cuts were already healing (not knowing that it was a solid shadow clone that we developed together). Hokage could only frowned as he blacklisted the store from government aid, permanently.
And then, commence the cheese poured all over the store's roof. Poor guy ended up closing his store weeks faster than he should. Oh wait, fuck him. And his dog too.
Knowing who I had in debt now, I decided to shrug it off for now and walked to the noodle place where I should be twenty minutes ago.
And look where I was now! Naruto sat with Sakura...and Sasuke carried out of cold Hinata in bridal-style? Hohoho! Seemed like I did not even have to interfere to make sure that their love life would be mooore complicated.
"Hmm, seems like something's going on here...should I say, love?"
"N-no. It's not like that!" Sasuke spluttered, for once acted like a regular teenager and managed to get embarrassed
"And look at you! You're late for a simple lunch! Wh-what do you have to say for yourself, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura deflected.
"Oh, sorry. I was lost in the road of life." I said, this time had no proper excuse for myself. Yeah, I simply got sidetracked from grieved for my precious people, fed my dogs, read Icha-Icha. Stuff like that.
And frankly, if anyone knew about my scheme to send pieces of carved hill with Kamui that said "I fucked Rin, suck it TObito", even Naruto would've question my sanity... at minimum.
Also, I overslept a little, but that's not important right now.
"...Sensei, I think I'd rather heard you being experimented by Mitarashi-san rather than this absolute nonsense."
"Well by road of life, I meant I just happened to get sidetracked by several things. " I admitted. "Such as, meet Naruto's secret admirers and so-"
"SECRET ADMIRERS OF NARUTO-KUN? W-W-WHERE?!" Hinata, who was still unconscious, rise from her seat. Despite there was no change at all, I could feel the dark chakra from her, suggested jealousy.
"Ah, Hinata-chan! You're awake! And no need to worry, their relationship with Naruto's platonic."
"Oh. I'm glad." Hinata sighed in content before she saw something else: the whiskers that she loved so much. "EEEP! YOU HEARD ME!"
"Here you go, Hyuuga-san-"
Hinata ate her bowl of ramen in 5 seconds, give Teuchi the money, and spluttered something about forgive her and everything that happened today before she ran as fast as she could. It was one minute before anyone else caught what happened, and someone spoke about the event:
"I don't get it."
Everyone else face-palmed at Naruto's comment. Just when he finally got it?
-naruto-
Well, for once I couldn't be late...
Mainly because it was someone else that visited me instead.
And someone knocked the door five minutes before the promised time! If it's her way of making fun of my tardiness...
"Oh, Sakura. Something's wrong?"
"I want to speak to you, sensei. Nice pants, by the way."
"...Sure. Although we only have 10 minutes at most." I said before she walked into my apartment. The awkwardness was obvious. "Now, what has been plagued your mind enough to make you visit me after 9 PM?"
"I know that Naruto's related to Kyuubi somehow."
I frowned at Sakura's summary. If she got it the wrong way... "Now what do you mean by that?"
"Naruto was born at October 10. He has whiskers, and some villagers called him-"
"No, Sakura. I don't care how you find about it. What I care is whether you want to feel neutral, sympathetic, or screaming to Naruto thanks to that."
Sakura laughed bitterly. I prepared myself in case Sakura turned into bitch-ass Sakura that appeared in so many Sakura bashing fics. "Sensei, I was bullied when I was a kid. I would be a hypocrite if I hated him for that. Not to mention that I've seen many apologized to him as well. Should I become hostile to him, then I'm the real monster. Although...is there's something we need to worry about for him?"
I'm happy that everything went okay. "Unless he gets really angry, there's nothing need to worry about. And remember what happened in Wave? Naruto got corrupted by Kyuubi chakra, and nothing changed to him at all. It seems that the Kyuubi chakra can't affect his mental state in post-usage of it at all."
"I'm glad then."
"So do I, knowing that I didn't have to get Kurenai and Shino to vouch for me."
"Shino knows?" Sakura furrowed her eyebrows.
"Yeah. And he avoided him for a while because he thought Naruto is bipolar thanks to it. But when he realized how Naruto had been hurt, he decided to approach him again. That exactly what happened when everyone but him got poisoned in Wave mission."
"Huh. Wonder if he really has a mask to hide his true self." Sakura looked on the moon as if it could give her the solution. Come on, Toneri. Answer!
"He might be much sadder and hurtful than what he usually showed to us, Sakura, but I can assure you that he's genuinely the most unpredictable ninja in Konoha. No hidden ANBU identity that can slay everyone with a finger snap, and no sexy vixen fox of doom that have sex with him everyday. Just our lovable orange ninja!"
"Okay, sen-Wait, what? What was that part about vixen and hidden identity!"
"Nevermind. Just me being a wishful pervert!"
"Ugh! No wonder you keep reading that book! You pull it everytime you think something perverted, right?"
"Just keep in mind that speaking about Naruto's condition in public is forbidden, okay?" I deflected instead. She frowned before walked out of my apartment, knowing that she could never get me out of the road of pervertedness. Ah, young one. You could never understand it. Not for a long time.
...And met Anko in the way, who now wearing a coat that was shorter, made her scandalous clothing uncovered.
Sakura gazed at Anko before she went out of the way, muttered something about crazy sensei and his crazy fetishes.
"Now that was weird. What did you two talk about?"
"Fishcake."
"Huh? Oh. Naruto. What were you two-"
"Shut up and start the show. I will only tell you if you...played good."
Anko grinned before she took her robe off, and casted a hand sign that released something. It nearly doubled the size of her already sizable breasts. Soon enough I gave an approval groan at the sight of her massive orbs being squeezed between her hands. It was soon before she flattened her breasts with my chest, now busy with thrusting her tongue down my throat.
Oh, yeah. This is the best night of my life!
-naruto-
Next day after a very sweaty night.
"...So you can train to use Tsunade's chakra punch, but until you're tough enough, it's better for you to use this as finishing move, and a sucker punch out of nowhere."
"Okay, but...It's not right to learn this."
I sighed at Sakura's hesitation to learn this skill. "Sakura, you're going to learn the taijutsu that turned Tsunade into the fearsome kunoichi that she was, and still is. What's there to whine about?"
"But I feel like I don't earn it if this is just for last resort move!"
"If you feel that you don't earn it, then keep train your body until you can do it regularly. But just because you don't have the necessary abilities to master it right-away, that doesn't mean you can't learn about it at all, especially when your natural skill make you capable to learn it optimally." I retorted before I eye-smiled to ease her up. "Ninja's at their best when they have element of surprise. And having a frail-looking girl knowing how to punch her enemies and launch them for 50 yards is definitely one of the best surprises. And as what I said before, this style perhaps will ended up being your signature. You have the control to master it, Sakura. If Tsunade-sama's still around, she might consider to teach you her taijutsu."
"I understand, Kakashi-sensei. I just don't feel right using Tsunade-sama's skill in its poor man variety when she's not around."
Man, I forgot how Sakura was quiet insecure about herself. "If anything, she'll be flattered that someone with such a fine chakra control decided to follow in her steps. Now, onto the next topic!" I exclaimed before I pulled a bunshin.
"I think it's time for the other two to learn rasengan and chidori."
"ALL RIGHT!"
"Hn."
"However, here's the catch: I can't teach all three of you at the same time, and frankly, I can barely make one Kage Bunshin. One of you, can only learn about it with text books and diagrams. With help from my earth clone of course."
"Oh, man! I hate reading!"
"Tough luck, Naruto. Now, is there's someone where who want to sacrifice themselves?" No one raised their hand. "I guess not. Okay, I'm going to get some straws. The one with the shortest straw will lose and-"
"KAKASHI! OH, MY YOUTHFUL, HIP, ETERNAL RIVAL! IT'S HORRIBLE!" Something screamed before it pinned me to the ground.
Ah, yes. Out of all thing, my youthful rival ruined our training did not make it into the list of things that could doomed Kakashi's time table. "Gai, you have your own team to take care off."
"That's why I came here, Kakashi. I CAN'T DO IT ALONE!"
"Hey! You're the one that yelled Dynamic Entity or something while spinning like a horizontal shuriken!"
*Gasp! "That voice. Y-you're the one who yelled about training and don't want to waste their youth!" Gai had a realization after Naruto called him, before he cried again, this time with happiness and a green spandex on his hands. "YOOOOSH! ARE YOU READY TO FAN THE FLAME OF YOUTH INTO SOMETHING BIGGER?!"
"Eh, no thanks. And no offense, sir, but you're weird. Who could proudly wear something this green and clingy? And the caterpillar eyebrows, brrrrh!"
The result was me consoling Gai who sulked in the corner, Sakura bomped Naruto in the head for his rudeness (which should be read as blunt honesty), and Sasuke awed by the fact that Naruto actually had fashion sense, despite his default apparel consisted of pants and sweater that somehow blended into a horrific jumpsuit. A traffic cone orange one in that.
"Now, now, Naruto. Don't be rude to the friend that I mentioned in our introduction." I teased after Gai's sobs died down.
"Wait, it's him, the Maito Gai? I thought he was just a crazy man who have unhealthy obsession with youth?"
When my pink genin about to collide her fist with Naruto's cranium again, Maito Gai showed how much obsession he had with youth, thereby made Naruto's rude comment became something that actually understated the situation.
He was there, with the sunset no jutsu as the background, towered over all of us, his tear flowed like a waterfall. We felt like we're staring a mental patient who ate too much sugar, and right now trying to reenact a scene from Excel Saga or Airplane.
"Aha! I see that despite you being a youthful ninja, you still need to learn more about it, Naruto! YOUTH IS LOVE! YOUTH IS LIFE! Youth, is where you improve yourself! Youth, is where-"
"Naruto, there are times when I wish Gai is just an energetic ninja like you instead of...whatever he doing. And yes, everybody in Konoha have times when they couldn't bear him." I whispered when it's clear that Gai just going to rambled for a long time about youth without any rhyme and reason. Meanwhile, everyone else was too busy trying to dispel the horrific sight in front of them. Even Naruto tried to overcharge his Kai, much to no success.
"Wait. What do I have in common with mega bushy brows?"
"While I don't want to spread youth by any reason and excuse, I will say this: Yes, Naruto. Gai sensei is someone like you, a guy who was thought to be a failure. And right now, he's an equal of mine."
"Woah, really? Does that means I have to follow his steps after all?" The only reason I haven't sent everyone here to Inoichi to forget that this event ever happened was because Naruto himself shuddered at the thought of that.
"No, Naruto. While Gai is the master of hard-work, his skillset are vastly different with what suited you. While you have abnormal amount of chakra, so much to the point that it might made your controls a little bit wild, Gai already had troubles in molding his very minuscule chakra. It might give him great durability for physical training like you since himself suggested his condition also protected his physical gates, but his need to become a hard-worker was for a reason that contradict yours. Unless you can unlock your gates somewhere in the future, there's no reason for you to train with Gai. I myself trained with Gai for three months once, and I can only open the second gate." I explained.
"But with the power of youth, not only I managed to overcome it; I actually capable of using summon without chakra, just the flames inside my soul!"
"I think youth also turned people a little deaf common sense wisely." Sasuke deadpanned.
"So you're saying that your tortoise don't require chakra, Gai?"
"Yes, and they actually the one who came with the sunset of youth as well! Want to see it again?"
"No thanks."
Gai slumped slightly, before his demeanor became more serious. "But seriously Kakashi, I need your help! Oooh, I knew that young Neji is not a very youthful man currently even without comparing him to Lee, but it's much more horrible than I imagined! I can't wait any longer, or else he will succumbed to his horrible, unyouthful thoughts, and created so many catastrophe!"
Woah. I could get more involvement in Hyuuga shenanigans? And I probably had a shot to fix his fate obsession first before Naruto? "Eh, okay then. Since Team Nine's the last team that we haven't interact at, I definitely owe you one."
"YOSH! THANK YOU, MY ETERNAL RIVAL!"
"Hey! How about our training?"
"Ah, yes. Naruto, Sasuke, play rock-paper-scissor. My clone will write instructions for the loser instead. Sakura have to find Anko or Ebisu instead. They are well versed enough to learn Tsunade's punch mechanism. If I can finish this before afternoon, I'll return back here to teach the rest of you."
"With your curse, I bet the chance you return in time is only 5%..."
I chuckled slightly at the Jinchuuriki who mumbled that. My left hand ruffled Naruto's hair before I made a promise, "Sorry, Naruto. I'll try my best, okay?"
Despite his smile, I knew Konoha's most unpredictable ninja didn't buy the last sentence. Even I knew.
Curse you, Kami-sama!
-naruto-
"So...what actually happened?" I asked after a while.
"I stumbled toward Neji who happened to fell asleep in morning self-exercise. And for some reasons, he had his diary besides him. So I picked it up, and read several pages-"
"...Did you just admit that you just stole and read someone's diary?"
"It was for youthful reason, Kakashi! Young Neji never open up to anyone, so I have to resort to drastic measures. And oh dear...the diary showed that he have...unyouthful thoughts about his family!"
"...Incest thoughts toward Hinata?" I teased, despite already knowing the real reason.
"What? No! He hates his family! He wants his cousins to die on fire, so he could freeze their ashes, and burn them again! To call his unyouthful thoughts as macabre would be an understatement! I could not believe that someone able to write something like that!"
"And you come to me, to get some help for Neji. But what kind of help to be exact?"
"We're going to visit Lord Hiashi to talk about it, and demand to him to tell everything he knows! How can I went to teach Neji without ever knowing this problem is beyond me!" Gai explained his plan, which came far too straightforward to my liking. Not to mention that it made him looked like an idiot as well. How could he not know about the Kumo incident?
"...Okay. But frankly, I can't see what can be done by us soon. This is Hyuuga's dynasty problem, after all."
"No need to worry, my youthful rival! I am acquainted enough with Hiashi-sama to talk about it!"
"Seems like they opened a little if they are bothered to get acquainted with outsider." I pointed out.
"Indeed! Remember how the branch family were used to be essentially servants? Right now they are more like the butler for the family! Well, they may still legitimately on the lower caste, but at least they are able to live decently instead of being enslaved around."
"Is that why the branch family now become as smug as the main family? Because they used to look like on verge of anxiety everytime I look at them."
"That's rude, Kakashi! But perhaps you're right."
We ended our conversation and began to move faster.
-naruto-
"What's your business here?"
"I'm the Jounin teacher for Neji! I have something about him to discuss with Hiashi-sama!"
"Ah, Neji-san." Said the guards. "Hiashi-sama is on his break now, but fortunately, there's no command from him to leave him alone. You may enter."
The interior of Hyuuga compound was straight up traditional. Classy, natural...
And somehow, unsettling.
Nevertheless, I knew better but to question the house owner's taste in their own turf, so we decided to visit Hiashi as soon as we could. Based on what Gai said, the elders were still supreme assholes, so I'd rather not deal with their bullshit, especially since they were the main cause that made Hiashi had to treat his own blood colder than Antarctica.
"Enter." The head of the family said, which we obeyed. "I have been expecting of you, Gai, Kakashi."
Ah, yes. The magic of all-seeing eyes that could see things from hundreds of kilometers. Wait, did that mean that Ototsuki created Bizzaro? "We're sorry for intruding your rest time, Hiashi-sama."
"It's fine." He raised his hand to motion us of his honesty about him being fine with us. "It's not common for you to ask me for your guidance about Neji, Gai. Even Kurenai come here much more often, and she always had complains about us."
"My apology, sir." Woah, not everyday you could see Gai tried to be polite. "For most of time, things seemed to be under control. But now, I have some inquiries about Neji."
"Indeed, but first, I want to talk to Kakashi about Hinata. He promised to her about something, and I believe that he will hold to his promise."
"...Of course, sir." He already wanted to talk to me about it? But alas, I have to hide my shock.
"But it cannot happen unless you have enough knowledge about our derivative of gentle fist first." He said as he tossed a scroll to me. "After reviewed her movements via recording, it appears to me that Hinata would be more suited in fighting with gentle steps style. Frankly, while the Lion Fist jutsu is one of our most prized ninjutsu, it came from a style that have been deemed to be too...gentle. And it came to my attention that Hinata would be able to learn more from this style than our default style."
"So how it came that you don't teach her yourself?"
"Pride of my clan, especially originalists one...sometimes hindered me. They cannot see me teaching something that's not our original style, especially something that have been stereotyped as...sissy."
I furrowed my eyebrows before I took a glance at the mid part of the scroll.
"Indeed. And to put it bluntly, you teaching Hinata would only be the failsafe measure. My original plan would involve of Neji teaching Hinata, since he is unbounded by Hyuuga clan's requirement of have to represent themselves in absolute decorous manner, but in case..."
"Ah, Neji!" Gai exclaimed before he looked at the uncle of his student in more accusing matter. "It seems that you have know about this a long time ago?"
"Indeed. And I always wait for the day when he got out of his fatalist attitude. I believe experience would lead him to that, but if you can help..." He did a little 'I wonder' expression before he looked at us. "We need someone to talk to him about people who defied their own expectations and become much better. After that, I have something in the bag for him to finally break him out of his current behavior for good."
"Thank you sir! Now I..." Gai froze as he realized something. "Now that you mentioned it, I already told him stories about how there are losers who ended up having great success to stop him bullying Lee. I don't think he listened to the moral of the story."
Hiashi scowled. "Have you told the story of how you were so talentless, you couldn't even make it to the entrance exam for like three times? You literally have to create your own path based on what your father achieved, and you have become much better than him already."
Gai could only slumped his shoulders after Hiashi spoke his suggestion. "I already told him, but he simply called me a liar."
I frowned at this, and my heart became upset. Gai a liar? The only lie that Gai ever told was about how great spandex were, since he often commented about how hip the person that was me, a spandex-free Jounin of his own caliber. And that was more like of his myopia problem. "How about the story of our eternal genin then? His current rank despite his great skill can make him reconsider how fate can be denied."
"Tenten told him the story of it. He just scoffed at it since fate was, apparently, responsible to make him reluctant to take a promotion." Gai explained, and unintentionally sounded a very tiny bit like he was being sarcastic. For a while, he looked...smart.
"I see, this is even worse than I thought." The Hyuuga patriarch said while furrowed his eyebrows, obviously concerned despite his still even tone.
"Could I be a help here? I used to snorted at Gai for being such a pathetic kid, and I know the story of Jiraiya-sama fully, so..."
"With what Gai revealed, I won't be surprised if he would accused you of conspired with Main family to soften his stance against us instead." Hiashi rebuked. So Neji's a conspiracy theorist? Chakra can't melt barrier seals! Uchiha Massacre was an inside job-wait! The last part was true!
"At this point, the only way for Neji to change his way, is by being beaten by a nobody."
"YOSH! LEE IS READY FOR THAT JOB!"
"To maximize the potential, however, I believe another option should be ready." Oh, dear. It would be Naruto, right? "I can see Uzumaki Naruto beating Neji sometimes in the future. Have the Konoha Nine know that Naruto is the Jinchuuriki yet?"
"Sakura and Shino found out by their own, and I believe that they haven't tell anyone story about it yet. Right now, Naruto's just the Konoha's knucklehead, and the dead-last from his class. And he has potential to become far greater than expectation due to his abnormally huge and thick chakra, but no one think that he can right now."
"Excellent. He's an even better choice than Lee." Gai slumped his head as I triumphed against him yet again. "I'm not being against Lee, Gai, but the shock and upset from being beaten by Uzumaki-san would be far greater. Uzumaki Naruto is a new genin, fresh out of the academy. He is unproven, unlike Lee who have been a ninja for a year. Also, Lee have been trained by you almost exclusively, so Neji might would've simply attributed the win to you and-"
"YOSH! I HAVE THE NEW CHALLENGE FOR YOU, KAKASHI!"
Oh, dear. Gai forgot his manner...and his medicine just ran off. "Wait a second, Gai-"
"Naruto win, you get 3 points. Lee win, 2 point for me. AND IF LEE CURB-STOMPED NEJI, I WILL GET 5 POINTS!"
"Gai, that's not how it work-"
"YOSH! I WILL TIE THE 5 POINTS DEFICITS! LEE, YOU'RE GOING TO TRAIN WITH ME EXCLUSIVELY SOON!"
Soon enough, Gai ran away from the compound, shouting youth and yosh all over the place.
"...What just happened? And how did you able to win consecutively against Gai? Did you not take him seriously before?"
"Nah, I simply used my sharingan to manipulate him whenever we do jan-ken-pon."
"And he haven't noticed yet?"
"Nope! And I have an apology letter for him in case that happened." I exclaimed, and just as Hiashi slumped on his desk over the insanity that we both displayed, a bird made an appearance to us. Hiashi opened the letter it had, and said something. "Huh. The Chuunin exams flyer."
Damn. This early? No matter how I made it, I won't be able to teach my cute genins! "That means I am needed in Hokage's office."
Hiashi only nodded before I shunshined out.
Of course, I still had some surprises to my cute genins.
-naruto-
"G-Gaara, I-"
"Shut up, Kankuro. You embarrassed our village."
"Hmm...the leader of the team is able to assert his authority, but there's something dark about it..."
"Scram!" The face-painted puppet master lashed out at the man who taking notes, only to get surprised by how he managed to avoid the attack like it was nothing. "What-"
"Yare-yare. Don't make people who buy ink by barrels your enemy, boy!"
"Hey! Who are you? I never see you here before?" A blonde boy asked.
"I'm reporter Sukea. And I'm here to independently assess the quality of current chuunin contestants!"
-naruto-
How did Sukea, Kakashi's reporter disguise made his appearance so quickly? What kind of sorcery is this? Was this Kakashi had a brother, or something else? Find out next, in MLACN!
And two updated fics in one day! Phew! So glad that I could make it. Also, there are two almost ready updates, but one of them is my Indonesian fic. Just saying.
Anyway, next update will be a little even longer since I will be busy next week, so ciao!.