Eleven-year-old Naruto began packing up his belongings as the second hand ticked away the last few seconds of class. The moment they were dismissed he darted for the door only to be stopped at the last second by the dreaded words, "a moment of your time Naruto." He froze just as if he had been pinned with a kunai. Frantically he tried to remember what he might have done to get himself in trouble but he came up blank. Well he had been eating during class but so had Chouji and he wasn't being held back.

"Yes, Iruka sensei," when in doubt be polite and stall for time.

Iruka waited for the class to empty before gesturing for him to sit. That was not a good sign, Naruto thought before reluctantly taking a seat.

"Listen Naruto, I will admit that you're doing a great job keeping your apartment clean and everything else but." Iruka reached over and tugged on his collar putting his finger through a whole. "Don't you think it's time that you buy some new clothes?"

"I can just sew them up," Naruto said relieved that he was not in trouble.

"Have you spent all your money for this month already?" Iruka asked leaning in conspiratorial.

"No," his objection was loud enough to send Iruka backwards and stumbling over the chair. Naruto would have apologized, but he fed Gama-chan as much as he could and right now he was very fat.

"We'll listen," Iruka said picking himself up. "Why don't you go shopping for some new clothes, over the weekend?" He held up a hand stopping Naruto's protests, "a shinobi represents their village. If you look bad your village looks bad, got it."

Later that day Naruto stood in front of his bathroom mirror. He never liked being told what to do but after taking a good look at himself in the mirror, he had to admit that Iruka sensei might be onto something. His white shirt with the Konoha leaf symbol on it was frayed at the edges. There were several of his attempts at sewing and grass stains that despite his best efforts had not completely eliminated. His pants were in similar shape and in truth he had abandoned several of his other shirts as too small.

Sighing he opened Gama-chan. His little frog wallet was full with bills and change. He had been saving up for a festival that was going to happen in a few weeks and intended to use the rest to buy more scrolls but, he probably already owned all the scrolls an Academy student could buy anyway. Closing his wallet he decided that if he didn't have to clean these clothes again then he might as well go all out today.

The next day came around and he was up bright and early. This was actually the first time he had actually gone shopping for clothes. At the orphanage they had just given them clothes to wear and at the secondary orphanage they had been allowed to buy their own but, he had just bought whatever he needed at the secondhand store across the street. At first he was going to do the same thing this time but something that Iruka had said stuck with them. 'If you look bad your village looked bad.'

Up until now clothes had never been a big deal to him, but he would be graduating this year so he had to look good, now if only he could figure out what that meant. It took him awhile to find a store that sold the appropriate clothing for his age and gender, but after searching through the racks he didn't find 

anything that looked good to him. So he went to the next store and another and another. Nothing struck him as good.

Lunchtime rolled around and he went to his favorite place to eat. Inhaling the delicious aroma of the most perfect food in existence he forgot about his troubles. Unfortunately, this blissful state of existence only lasted until he had finished his bowl. Then he had a brilliant idea, "Hey, Ayame you're a girl right?"

"So nice of you to notice," she growled from where she stood cleaning the dishes.

Naruto recognizing the signs of an angry woman cringed away raising his hands pleading. "I just thought you would know what good clothes look like."

"Oh," stepping away from the sink she leaned against the counter a thoughtful look across her face. "Well some people say there are rules but, I think the clothes you wear should say who you are."

"Like your say you're a cook?"

"Not exactly," she muttered. "Just find something that you like and that reflects your personality. You'll do alright."

"Thanks Ayame," Naruto shouted before running off with a newfound excitement for his task. Running back to one of the stores he started to rummage through the racks. Finding only monochromatic brown, black, tan and blues he dismissed them not liking any of them. They were so dull and just about everyone in town wore something like them. He wanted something different, something that would make him stand out. After all he was going to be an awesome shinobi.

At the end of the rack he finally found something that was different. Grabbing the first one he took it to the nearby mirror. It looked great and he was pretty sure he had never seen anything like it before. Perhaps this would have been his purchase if the owner had not wandered by.

"Oh, I thought we had thrown out all those. Really who would want to wear plaid?" She shook her head and continued to restock the racks.

Naruto had overheard her comment and it immediately killed his enthusiasm for his new wardrobe. If these were supposed to be thrown out they couldn't be good. Quietly he replaces the shirt back onto the rack and left the store. He was becoming frustrated and bored buying clothes shouldn't be this hard. About to give up for the day he caught something of the corner of his eye. It was a bright orange sleeve only a little lighter than those cones that they put up at construction sites.

Squinting at it he noticed a white swirl on the sleeve. It took him a moment to remember where he had seen it before. Then he remembered and his imagination dyed the white red and then it looked just like the symbols that Chunin and higher-ranked shinobi wore on their sleeves. This immediately peeked his interest and he headed into the store. Pulling off the rack he noticed that it was two tone, mostly orange but with some blue at the top and a high white collar. He noticed that it had a swirl on the back and this time it was the proper red color.

A grin slowly spread across his face as his ample imagination turned these clothes into a Chunin vest or even better into the uniform of a Jonin. He intended to buy it even before he found the accompanying 

pants. They were a bit big but he was growing and the fabric seemed to be really strong. Running back to his apartment he couldn't wait to see Iruka reaction.

Iruka wasn't sure how he had done it but, somehow he had let the entire weekend pass by without going over any of the homework. That was why Mizuki and he were frantically trying to grade a stack of papers as their students drifted in for class.

"I see you talked to Naruto about buying new clothes," Mizuki said.

Iruka nodded before realizing how odd that comment was. Looking up he saw Naruto standing a few feet away dressed in what appeared to be a costume. That was the only explanation he could think of for the odd design and bright orange color.

He would've told Naruto that bright orange was not necessarily the best color for shinobi to wear but the pure joy that was summed up in Naruto's radiant smile stopped the words in his throat. He told himself that kids grew a lot at this age and he would probably only be wearing those clothes for more than a few months, right?

Next time: Graffiti (last chapter)

Authors Note : Thanks to Jonohex for the plaid idea.