Chapter X
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Sarutobi took a couple of steps forward. Immediately Naruto's shoulders hunched and he glared at the old man in blatant hostility. Instead of trying to reclaim his chair, Sarutobi sank into one of the uncomfortable seats facing Naruto, dislodging a slithering sheaf of papers as he did so.
He cleared his throat weakly. "Naruto- where? I mean, how-?"
"No questions. And tell your ANBU to stand down, they're making me edgy." Sarutobi did not comply. This boy didn't quite look like Naruto and certainly didn't sound like him. Naruto noticed his hesitation and sighed in impatience. "I can prove it's me. Watch."
Yanking up the hem of his shirt, he revealed the inky-looking seal and tutted. "Guess I'm edgier than I thought. Must be channeling formless chakra. What a waste. Whatever, you'd better start talking, old man. You owe me answers."
"Where's Kushina?" Sarutobi asked quietly. "Naruto, what's happened to her? What's happened to you? Did she tell you about that? Your- the seal?"
To Naruto's surprise he found he was choking back a sob. Maybe this was too much. He should have waited to confront Sarutobi. He steeled himself and pushed on. "You've been keeping stuff from me my whole life. Excuse me if I think you could stand to wait a flipping minute before drilling me. Now tell me. My parents, the Snake Sanin, and the Kyuubi."
Sarutobi leaned back wearily in his chair. "You're right, I owe you answers." How he hated himself for how much Naruto hated him right now. "I'll tell you what you want to know. But you're going to have to tell me what's happened to you before you leave. You're so different."
"Maybe that's a good thing," Naruto muttered.
Sarutobi grinned without humor. What a grim little child. He almost preferred the happy, near-idiot Naruto had been not two years ago. Or, perhaps, not quite happy, even then. "I'll start with your father, shall I? You should recognize his name." Naruto's eyes narrowed, but Sarutobi replied before the answer could be demanded of him. "Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage."
For the first time, Naruto didn't look angry. He was floored. Hokage blood? Me? Well what do you know.
"I don't get it," he said finally.
"You have to understand, despite everything, it wasn't hard keeping that a secret. Minato and Kushina's marriage was celebrated, it was thought that their union served only to further strengthen the ties between Uzushio and Konoha, but they loved each other very much, and had for a long time. Kushina's pregnancy was kept in the shadows, out of the public eye. You were supposed to be a triumphant surprise, a new life and gift to Konoha to seal off an era of fighting once and for all and usher in one of peace."
"But my birthday?"
Sarutobi couldn't meet his eye. "The Kyuubi attack. You were the only baby born that day, and it had to be sealed in a baby. Anyway, how could the Hokage ever have asked another family to go through what Kushina did when she played host? It was thought that you would have a good life, at least, raised by your loving parents."
"Sounds positively idyllic. How could it ever go wrong?" Naruto asked drily.
"Well your father- you know about the sacrifice he made, I know you do. Your mother searched for you, but in the chaos after the attack, you were unaccountably overlooked. She left, until two years ago, when she returned to reclaim you." Sarutobi shrugged, slightly helpless. "That's all I know, I'm afraid. I've been getting letters from her for the last two years." He was almost afraid to ask again were she was.
"I still don't get it," Naruto said frankly. "Why was it such a big secret? Seems to me like everyone and their pet lizard Fufu knows I'm a Jinchuriki and, for some reason, blames me for that. Why didn't you ever tell me? Hell, why didn't you ever tell me who my parents were?"
Sarutobi sighed. "I don't know. The time never seemed right. You were happy, I wouldn't have wanted to give you a burden like that."
Naruto waved a hand dismissively. "Excuses. I wasn't happy. I was upset and bullied and abused and it would have been nice if I didn't have to hope, the way every orphan hopes, that my parents were alive and would come and claim me. I mean, I guess my mom was alive, but I still-" he broke off, struggling to keep his voice steady and quiet. If he didn't keep his composure, he was going to make the most unbelievable scene. "I still don't know much about her," he said, so quietly Sarutobi almost missed it.
"And anyway," Naruto continued fiercely, aggressively, "Couldn't handle it? I know I was an idiot, but so is Konohamaru and he's just peachy knowing his granddad is Hokage. Why should I have been different?"
"Naruto," Sarutobi tried gently, "Please tell me what's happ-"
"Not yet," Naruto said quickly. "I want to know about the Snake." His expression darkened and Sarutobi was afraid. Not for himself, but of what his negligence may have wrought.
There was a helpless pause. Naruto raise an eyebrow. Finally, Sarutobi broke. "I assume you mean my old student, Orochimaru."
"Tell me about him," Naruto said immediately.
"He was an orphan. At first I thought his loneliness was what led him to distance himself from others. Eventually, I came to see that he had no desire to understand others, that he thought friendship and dependence made one weak. That one should put oneself first and foremost, always." He faltered. Naruto was nodding slowly. What was going on?
"Despite this, I thought he was loyal. It was only once I found that he was preforming illegal human experiments that I realized I had let things go too far. I banished him, shut down his labs, flushed out his agents. I think it was hard on his old teammates to see me do it. The three of them never really got along, but they had grown up together, regardless." He paused. While he was telling Naruto Everything-He'd-Never-Told-Him, should he get on with it and tell the boy about his godfather? One more person who had disappointed him? No, next time, he decided quickly, and hated himself more for the relief he felt in putting it off. Coward.
"Naruto?" The boy was pale and shaking. In fact he looked about ready to vomit. He raised a hand to his mouth and swallowed hard.
"Naruto." Sarutobi was so beyond worried his pulse was skipping erratically. "Tell me what happened to you."
"It was Orochimaru, I think," he mumbled. He still looked ill, unstable. "He must have captured my mother a long time ago. I don't know what he was preparing me for, but I did steal some notes from one of his men before I left. I haven't looked at them. What I do know is that at first it was good. I was being fed and clothed and trained. His man, Kabuto, told me I was part of some sort of program to help me become a better shinobi. I was so-" he swallowed thickly, voice hoarse, "So goddamn desperate for help and decent treatment or whatever that I just went with it. Mizuki took me to him, I remember. Right after I failed the genin exam."
Sarutobi tried to reach out to him, but Naruto shook his head, indicating that if he stopped talking, he wouldn't be able to start again.
"Kabuto trained me. In a way, I learned a lot. Kushina taught me too. I learned puppetry and puppet-crafting, sealing, and a whole bunch of basic jutsu and fighting techniques. A little Genjutsu, but not enough to matter. But Kabuto must have been lying to me the entire time. I never saw Orochimaru, and Kabuto referred only to 'his master'. " Naruto stopped again, and it was a whole minute before he continued, his voice having acquired a curious, dead quality, as if he was forcing himself to say the words without thinking about them.
"I began to notice blanks in my memories, things about me changing. I was smarter, I was reading more, I was more motivated, stronger, faster, sleeping less. I welcomed the changes, thought they made me better. Eventually I grew suspicious. I was smart enough to notice things that didn't add up, levels of isolation and security that didn't really make sense. And then- I met him. The fox."
Sarutobi stifled his surprise. He briefly wondered if Kushina had ever had a connection like that to the Kyuubi. "He clued me in. Kushina was my mother and Orochimaru was- was performing genetic experiments on me. He told me a lot, and even helped me to escape." Naruto stopped, seeming to listen to something. "He says I should tell you that Kabuto's not an enemy," Naruto said slowly. He shook his head, annoyed. "Well, whatever he thinks, I don't know if I trust Kabuto. I don't think he was trying to hurt me, or how much he knew about the experiments, but he helped keep me prisoner. But I guess, well, I guess it can't be his fault my mother's dead."
Sarutobi was in equal measures horrified and intrigued. He had assumed the worst when Naruto had turned up sans-Kushina, but the blow was a heavy one. He pulled together a professional façade though, for the boy's sake. "I think you should get checked out in the medical bay before you leave, Naruto," he said gently, tactfully.
Naruto reacted violently, leaping up and almost choking even as he shouted, "No!' he promptly sat down, embarrassed, and squeezed his hands between his legs. "No." he said softly. "No more tests, no more experiments." He removed a pair of goggles from his forehead, regarding them with uncertainty before tossing them off to be lost, possibly forever, behind a drift of documents pending endorsement. Sarutobi inhaled sharply.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"Your eyes…."
"Don't tell me," Naruto groaned, "They're sky-blue pink with neon highlights or something, aren't they? I don't think I even care at this point."
"Well your right eye is normal, but your left eye, well, it looks like a Rinnegan was superimposed on it. Black rings and a tinted sclera, but still a blue iris and black pupil."
Naruto stared at him. "You know, a mirror would have been much quicker," he observed.
Sarutobi could have cried with happiness. He would accept even snark from this boy, as long as it wasn't abject desolation. He made a mental note to take a look at those goggles, though.
Naruto was stretching, hands above his head, sinking back into the chair, his air seemingly having returned to casual. "As nice as it would be to return to my crappy apartment, see how much of it is still standing, and take a nap, I'm disinclined to leave without getting a few little issues sorted."
Issues?
"Issues?"
"Yeah." Naruto yawned lazily. "I'm damned if I'm spending a minute more than I have to confined here. 'Here' also encompassing the walls of Konoha. I've spent too much time here and in places I couldn't escape, especially lately."
"Where are you going with this?" Sarutobi asked cautiously.
"I want to be made a ninja of Konoha and be allowed to travel. I want real missions and your personal permission." Naruto demanded.
"I can't do that," Sarutobi said flatly. Naruto opened his mouth angrily, but Sarutobi held up a hand for silence. "Hear me out. You just went through a massive ordeal, which I doubt you've dealt with yet. I have no way of knowing what you've been taught, or how stable you are in any way. Call it ironic that I should stop neglecting you now. I deserve your scorn, but I'm going to try and make up for it. I'll respect that you don't want to be monitored or studied, but I insist you compromise on your wishes. At least stay until after the Chunin exams this year. Take part. Whether you pass or not, I swear I will let you leave with my full permission. If you leave now before I've impressed on you the measures you'll need to go to in order to protect yourself as a Jinchuriki, I will send a retrieval squad, mark my words. In the meantime, you will attend the academy, take your genin exam, and be assigned to a team. Whatever you have been taught and whatever you can do now, you're as much an unknown quantity to yourself as you are to us. You need to be trained and, I'd imagine, reintroduced to people your own age."
"More like introduced rather than reintroduced," Naruto muttered sulkily. He hated to admit it, but all of that made sense. It made him want to rage and scream and behave generally like a small child, but he reined it in. There were more constructive uses for aggression like that. He would store it for later, tuck it into a dark part of himself that he knew he was going to have to face eventually.
Naruto sighed gustily. "Do I have to pay attention in class?" He asked obnoxiously. He didn't have to be polite.
"I can't stop you if you don't, but I'd focus on making friends anyway, if I were you."
"Ouch, shot through the heart."
"A hit, a very palpable hit," Sarutobi smiled back. He hesitated. "Do you need a place to stay?"
"Nah," Naruto said flippantly, getting up to leave. "I'm sure no one's moved into my apartment since I left. Who would want it?" He fixed Sarutobi with a not-quite-matching blue stare. "We still have more to talk about," he acknowledged. "I think we both just set a couple bridges ablaze, and I'm not too much a of a brat to admit it. I'm just so tired. If it's alright, I'm going to take the rest of the week off. I'll report to the academy on Monday."
Sarutobi nodded, watched as Naruto vanished. No smoke, no log, no seals. Maybe he hadn't given Naruto enough credit. Creakily, he moved around his desk, beckoning a few ANBU agents down from the rafters. He need to check up on Mizuki, see where Orochimaru had gotten to; it had been a mistake not keep track of his student after his exile. Better drop Jiraiya a line, too. And take a look at those goggles. There was so much to do, and he was struck with an all-encompassing weariness. Naruto had almost certainly not told him everything, but how could he in any way fault the boy for that?
Naruto tried to relax during the next week. He re-familiarized himself with Konoha, mentally mapping out the city as he travelled and re-establishing routes across buildings and through alleys that he wouldn't have attempted previously. As little as he wanted to, he found that the familiar setting really was relaxing. He trained every day, but found the routines he had become accustomed to peculiarly difficult without a second party to participate. He visited Ichiraku's for the hell of it, and was welcomed with glad cries and hugs from his old friends. And ramen, of course. They exclaimed over his mismatched eyes, but when he told them that it was a subject he'd rather avoid, they pressed him no further, and simply chattered, filling him in on the gossip he had missed in his absence.
He let their words wash through him and felt himself relax even further, so that, when he returned to his apartment that night, he felt comfortable enough doing something he had been putting off.
His apartment itself had been in a sorry state when he had returned to it, but after a few temporary seals and a genjutsu on the door, he felt safe enough to refurbish it with what money Sarutobi had seen fit to put in his account. He had gotten some interesting looks from the shopkeepers he had trusted enough to visit, but another genjutsu took care of that. He didn't want news of his reappearance to clog the rumor mill, after all.
Anyway, that night, after he had settled down in bed, he retreated into his own mind-space to talk to the Kyuubi.
Once he was sprawled comfortably in front of the fox's cage, unrolling the cuffs of his pants that he had, with great foresight, thought to raise, he spoke.
"I have to say, I didn't really think through how my homecoming was going to go."
The Kyuubi chuckled deeply. "Not necessarily a bad thing. No expectations sometimes means no disappointment, and you seem extraordinarily at ease already."
"Yeah, I've gotta say, I think I'll take what the old man said to heart and try to make friends. Some of the kids here might be little shits, but it's not their fault, right?"
"Keep this up and your reputation is going to improve in many people's eyes, I warn you," the Kyuubi joked.
"I should be so lucky to earn the approval of a bunch of people I don't really care about," Naruto said, rolling his eyes.
The Kyuubi was quiet. Then, "Will you tell your new teammates about me?" he asked.
Naruto shrugged, a lazy roll of the shoulders. "Who knows. I don't see why not."
"While I applaud your trust, I would still be careful. There are those in the city and out who would seek to capture or control you to access my power. It would be best if you let me train you in using it so you can fight back when you have to."
Naruto lowered his head, looking up at the great fox, who was oozing sincerity. "Wouldn't that give you more influence over me?" He asked silkily.
"Yes. It would. But I respect you too much to take advantage of that."
So you say.
Naruto stood, suddenly restless. He turned, looking around the great room. It was just as he remembered it, with the great brass bars, the thin white specters cowering and whispering in the corner, and the great object covered in a sheet. He set off with determined aimlessness toward the long, white, ghostly crowd. They fluttered, agitated as he drew nearer. At first one by one, and then in a rush they drifted away from him, toward the other side of the room, the side closest to the bulking, covered object. Naruto stopped, annoyed.
"Why'd they do that?"
"Maybe you smell funny," the Kyuubi suggested, a note of mild derision underlying the words.
"Maybe your face," Naruto muttered, loudly enough so the Kyuubi's ears would pick up the words.
He approached the object under the sheet, ignoring the Kyuubi's mutter of "That doesn't even make sense," and the gibberings of the whitish group.
He grabbed the sheet and pulled it back, allowing it to slide heavily over the contours of the object and half-pool at his feet.
It was a massive armchair, standing at more than twice his height, and included were a few shallow steps leading up to it. He allowed his eyes to play over it in confused fascination.
The seat, arms, and back seemed to be made of baked, blackish clay, although half of it was papered with the tattered remnants of what he recognized as twelve years'-worth of flyers, advertising the Kyuubi festival. There were patches of blue-gray scales here and there and it was, bizarrely, studded with- Naruto's skin crawled- heavy-lidded eyes, some black and red, some pale lilac with black rings. As he looked closer, he picked out bloodied signs scratched into the back. Not just any signs, either, Jashinist signs. He remembered them from the research he had done. The cushion that rested on the seat, slightly below his eye-level, was woven of coarse black threads. And there were four wooden mannequin arms, the hands and fingers splayed on the floor, supporting the entire monstrosity.
Propped on the seat was a neatly painted white sign. It read 'Nom Dominus, Monstrum," and Naruto had a sneaking suspicion he knew what that meant.
Dazed, he muttered, "'For master, a monster.'"
The Kyuubi craned his neck, frowning, an unusual sight, involving an uncomfortable number of teeth. "Well, that can't be good."
By the time Monday came around, Naruto was almost looking forward to a little enforced structure in his days. He craved human contact, and was dissatisfied with simply the impersonal treatment of shopkeepers, and even the constantly distracted attention of Ichiraku. He had not been to see Sarutobi again. He hated to admit it to himself, but he was avoiding him.
He woke up bright and early and managed to slip into the academy before most of the overachievers grouped outside noticed him. He had forgone his genjutsu, but he would like to pretend he wasn't quite awake yet and enjoy the sleepy peace.
He slid into a seat in the front row by a dark-haired kid who was staring out of the window and let his mind wander as the classroom filled up. After a few minutes, Iruka arrived, but was too busy setting up to call for order yet. The noise level was steadily building in the room as Naruto finally turned his head to contemplate the kid next to him. Interesting that the boy had not said something by then. Surely he had noticed that a kid who had never been in the class before had chosen to sit by him. Weird. And a little standoffish, but maybe he was just sleepy.
"Hey," Naruto said.
The kid made a noise in his throat.
Naruto leaned forward to look past the boy, out of the window. "Anything interesting?" he joked half-heartedly.
"Yeah, there's a goddamn troupe of bikini models traipsing past," the kid said, turning to stare intently at Naruto. "Of course there's nothing interesting. Do I know you?"
Naruto stuck out a hand, "Naruto Uzumaki, and you are?"
"Sasuke Uchiha," the kid said, shaking his hand perfunctorily. He turned to stare out of the window again. Once more, Naruto looked past him.
"You're thinking about bikini models now, aren't you," Naruto asked after a moment.
"Yuuuup."
"What a kindred soul." Sasuke shot Naruto an amused look.
"Are you new here?"
"Kind of," Naruto said. "More like recently returned."
"Hm," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes in thought. "Uzumaki sounds familiar. I think my mother used to mention that name. Sure we've never met?"
Naruto shrugged. "I guess it's possible."
At this juncture, however, they were interrupted by a pink-haired someone. She loomed over Naruto, who leaned back in his seat, contriving to look decidedly unimpressed, which he was.
The girl scrutinized him. "Let me guess, new kid?" she asked pointedly.
"Who wants to know?"
"Sakura Haruno. That's my seat you're sitting in."
"Lay off, Sakura," Sasuke muttered. The girl raised her eyebrows.
"As you wish, oh lord and savior," she demurred, addressing herself to Sasuke. Rolling her eyes, she plopped down next to Naruto.
"So, new kid, got a name?"
"Naruto Uzumaki." They shook hands.
"Hey, doesn't Naruto mean-"
"I know what it freaking means," he growled.
"Well okee dokee, just thought someone ought to inform you." Sasuke sniggered. Naruto traced Sakura's glance to Sasuke, who was staring out of the window again. The dots connected.
"Oh. Oh! You have a crush on him, I get it." To his confusion, Sasuke huddled away from him, closer to the window, exuding acute embarrassment from every pore while Sakura's face did something Naruto couldn't quite identify. "What?"
Sakura explained, which just seemed to make Sasuke even surlier and more thoroughly engrossed in whatever the window had to offer. "A lot of people have some sort of celebrity-type crush on Sasuke. Because he's so pretty, see." Sasuke made a low growling noise.
"So, what, you're above all that?"
"No, my life's mission is just to go about it a different way. By not trying at all. Which is actually really fun. In fact, we're almost friends, aren't we, Sasuke?"
"Almost isn't definitely," he growled.
Naruto raised his eyebrows. "You're much more open about this than I would have expected."
"Yeah, well, I've got nothing to hide. Unlike you. Were you aware your eyes don't match? Why is that?"
Sasuke looked around in interest, probably feeling safe now that the topic had shifted away from him.
Naruto waved a hand airily. "I just like pissing off people with OCD."
"Rude," Sakura smirked. "No really, why don't they match?"
"It's a long story that I'd rather not tell," Naruto said, suddenly tense. "It involves a lot of trauma I'm quite content to repress."
"I feel you," Sasuke said. Naruto looked at him blankly until Sasuke took pity on him. "Uchiha," he reminded him.
Naruto's eyes went round. "Oh man, I didn't remember."
"Hey," Sakura said, waving a hand, "If we're going to have a pity party, I'm bringing balloons."
Sasuke smirked, which seemed to be what he did instead of smiling, and Naruto gave a snort of laughter. "I like the new kid," Sakura said. "He laughs at my jokes. He should be almost-friends with us, huh, Sasuke."
"Not like the standards are astronomically high, no offence," Sasuke admitted.
"I don't know, seems like a pretty exclusive thing you guys have going to me," Naruto shot back.
Orochimaru was throwing a tantrum. Or at least, that seemed like the most accurate description to Kabuto. He practically wrung his hands in anguish as Orochimaru screamed abuse and swept months of notes onto the floor.
The worst part wasn't even that Kabuto didn't deserve the abuse, or even that he knew he was going to have to clean and reorganize this mess later. The worst part was that he had seen this coming and had tried to hide and sulk where Orochimaru couldn't find and vent at him, in the same way a storm petrel will fly as fast as possible in the opposite direction of an oncoming storm.
And really, Kabuto thought, I have almost as much right to be angry as he does. I actually liked Naruto. So, I suppose I should be happy he escaped. But really. Life will almost be worse for both of us now that Orochimaru-sama will be on his tail. He sighed unhappily. I am not paid nearly enough for this.
Orochimaru was in the middle of snarling at Kabuto for his treachery and incompetence or some such thing when Kabuto's patience came to an abrupt end. First of all, he didn't have to take this. Orochimaru needed him. Second of all, he couldn't take another second of this. There wasn't even any Kushina for him to verbally work his frustration out on, anymore. So he did the only thing that made sense. He held his glasses to the bridge of his nose with one finger and coughed politely into his other hand.
"Would you like to make some editorial?" Orochimaru hissed. Hissed!
"Just that if you're prepared to pursue this vein for much longer, I'm going to have to make my excuses," Kabuto said frostily. "I think my energies would be better spent trying to track down our wayward charge."
"Don't be naïve," Orochimaru snapped. "He'll have gone back to Konoha, and, no doubt, will have told the Hokage every detail of my plans. Due to your-"
As the Sanin's voice began to rise again, Kabuto deftly cut him off. "With all due respect," he said contemptuously, "Naruto didn't know very much of your plans. He didn't even know of the abilities that were given to him. I very much doubt his testimony will count for much."
"Oh, you doubt," Orochimaru sneered. "That child is much changed since we received him. One mention of my name, or even of questionable labs and experiments, and he'll be whisked away with nauseating efficiency to receive a blood test. And when he doesn't bleed, well, they'll see exactly what I've been doing and he will turn inexorably as a force against me."
"And if we recapture him and you possess him, he will work as a force in our favor," Kabuto said bitingly. The frame and stems of his glasses were beginning to hurt his temples and the bridge of his nose where he still had them jammed angrily.
"Well," Orochimaru said with poisonous intent, "You certainly have a lot of work to do, don't you?"
Kabuto cast a half-angry, half-miserable look around the wrecked lab. "I certainly do," he agreed tightly.
"I can't believe I failed the genin test the first time," Naruto said, playing with his shiny new hitai-ate. He smeared slightly sweaty fingerprints across the neatly etched leaf symbol. It was therapeutic in a way he couldn't explain.
"I can't believe you did all three jutsu without seals and smoke," Sasuke remarked, tying his own hitai-ate around his forehead.
"I can't believe it's not butter," Sakura and Naruto said together. Sakura punched him playfully on the shoulder and he shoved her a little.
"Five years old. You guys are five years old," Sasuke sighed.
"Who am I to let a joke go begging?" Naruto asked. "Anyway, you'll get used to it. We're teammates now!"
Sakura glanced around. "Hey Sasuke, one of your fans is stalking us." Both boys looked around.
"Hey!" Naruto said, surprised, "That's actually one of mine! I'll catch up with you guys later, I haven't seen her since before I left."
"Use a condom," Sakura called after him.
Naruto approached the girl, who was standing half-behind a tree. Little guardian angel. He knew for a fact she wasn't nearly as timid as she pretended.
"Hey, Hinata," he grinned.
"Nice to see you, Naruto. Glad to know there are some people who don't automatically mistake me for one of Sasuke's potential harem."
"Yeah." Damn, he had missed her. They had never had what anyone else would call a proper conversation, but ever since he had taken her place when a bunch of bullies had set on her when she was about five, they had had each other's backs. At least, until kids had realized that attacking a Hyuuga heiress marked high on a list of 'poor life choices.'
"You been gone for some time," she said. A neutral statement. No probing questions. "Your eyes are different. And you're not wearing orange."
"And you're wearing a coat so fluffy you look like a dormouse peeking out of a sock."
"Don't knock it, this is pretty much the softest coat ever." Hinata smiled.
Naruto's face fell. He couldn't do this. "It's great to see you, Hinata," he said quietly. "But the truth is, I'm leaving again after the chunin exams. So-"
"I understand. It's okay. I'm much more comfortable having your back than anything else," she said, just as quietly, and smiling.
"Same here," he said with some relief. "And I promise, if Kiba so much as tries to pee on you to assert dominance, I'll take pictures while you rip him a new one."
"I knew you were good best-friend material," she said.
They stood in silence. Then she offered him a wave and last smile and they parted ways. It didn't really count as a goodbye because most people wouldn't have even called it a conversation.
'She has a strong sense of an alpha, as always,' the Kyuubi remarked. 'Or whatever your human equivalent is. A leader and a unifying force.'
The next day involved a lot of waiting. Waiting for sensei assignments, waiting for room assignments, and then team seven waiting for their sensei to actually show up. Naruto pulled out a pen and paper just to have something to distract himself.
He was doodling seal designs and making notes in and idle way when Sasuke and Sakura noticed. Predictably, Sakura clamored to be taught what Naruto knew while Sasuke looked on more quietly. Naruto became very passionate, achieving an eloquence that had Sasuke making amused faces.
Naruto walked them through a seal that required a combination of circumstances to activate, one he had come up with himself. Sasuke suggest he demonstrate it, so Naruto promptly altered it again, storing a chalky board-eraser in it and sketching it in such a way that it would be activated and released by a combination of movement and body heat. He demonstrated that neither would work independently, before sticking it to the wall by the door. By then, both of his teammates were suitably impressed.
It only added to the display when their sensei arrived with perfect timing. In opening the door and sticking his head around it, he provided both movement and heat and received a face full of chalk dust.
All three of them froze. Not, perhaps, the best first impression.
Kakashi turned his head to study the seal, altered now it had been activated. He turned back to look at the pen in Naruto's hand.
"Well, I can tell you three are going to be a bundle of joy," he muttered. "Meet me up on the roof and we'll have a round of introductions." He vanished.
Sakura pushed Naruto's shoulder. "You're in trouble," she whispered loudly.
"You said it," Naruto concurred.
Up on the roof the newly appointed genin settled themselves nervously, all rather impressed at how their sensei was able to convey a sense of 'reclining' while perched precariously on a railing.
"So what, is this a meet-and-greet type thing? Hi, I'm Naruto, and I'm an alcoholic? How does this work?" He needed to stop talking.
Their sensei shrugged. He was a curious-looking man, keeping almost his whole face hidden. The way he slouched, it seemed as though gravity had a particularly strong hold over him, except for an electrified-looking shock of silvery hair. "I suppose we should start with the basics. Likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals, go nuts."
"Why don't you go first?" Sakura asked quickly. It was as if she could hear Naruto and Sasuke both preparing to call dibs on going last.
"Suits me fine. I'm Kakashi. I like, well, I guess I dislike…. Hm, I guess I've got some hobbies…. Goals? I'll get there when I get there." He shrugged. "Your turn, girl."
"Well that was informative," Naruto muttered.
Kakashi's mask moved in a way that seemed to indicate a beguiling smile. "If I play it close to the vest, you guys are going to keep coming back for more, right?"
"Absolutely," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I'm Sakura. I like reading and dislike geometry. Seriously, who likes geometry?"
Sasuke raised his hand with an injured expression. "Really?" Sakura asked.
"Nah, just kidding."
Sakura closed her eyes as if willing for patience. "Hobbies include hauling unbelievable numbers of books back and forth from the Library to my house and getting on my mother's nerves. Goals? Well, I don't know, to be honest. I'm twelve years old."
Kakashi rewarded her with a slow clap. "You're up, Uchiha."
"Sasuke. I like having time alone to think. I dislike when people interrupt me. Hobbies include training, yeah I know, so original, a shinobi who likes to train, that's never been done before. And, I don't know, flower arranging. Don't look at me like that, it was a joke. I'm indulging my poor withered sense of humor, don't judge me."
They waited for him to continue. When he didn't, Kakashi stage whispered, "Goals?"
"Whoops, yeah. To avenge my family? I don't know, I never got the impression most of them deserved avenging. To find my brother and ask him why he did what he did? Yeah, okay, let's go with that."
"Wow, Sasuke, I've never heard you talk that much at once," Sakura said with wonder. "Don't hurt yourself."
"I've used up my quota of words for the next three days. Until then, you're not going to hear a peep out of me," he said seriously.
"Cool, my turn," Naruto said before Kakashi could prompt him.
"Eager much," their sensei muttered.
"If I play it too close to the vest, you might get bored," Naruto sassed.
"Watch it."
"Yessir. Of course, sir. Kiss my ass, sir," Naruto said. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, but seemed as if he might be smiling again.
"Okay. I'm Naruto. Likes?" He looked at Sasuke and Sakura. "People, I guess. Dislikes-" his face darkened so suddenly it took the other three quite by surprise. "People," he muttered.
"Wait, but-"
"Trust me, I mean it. Hobbies, I guess sealing and puppetry. There's a lot of design involved in those. Goals? I guess to kill the guy who did this to my eyes." Naruto's voice was light, but the other three didn't miss the gravity of the words. He meant them, and what was more, he was prepared to follow up on them.
Kakashi told them to meet him the next morning in his preferred clearing, giving the customary, 'don't eat breakfast,' warning. Curiouser and curiouser. He had been told that his group would include the daughter of a civilian council member, one of the last Uchihas, and the son of his old mentor. Looked like if they survived the next day, they were going to make a hell of a team.
A/N: (Author's Note to be added later.) EDIT: Added!
Hello my lovlies! It's been a very long and eventful time since last we spoke. For once I am writing the author note to a chapter with the benefit of having seen some of your reviews already. Thank you to the support from those who appreciated this update after I'd pretty much given up on the fandom. It's for you guys that I hope to continue. I tried to reply to all of the reviews, even those that frankly were blatant bullying. Without further ado, the long-awaited
Chapter Summary:
1) Sarutobi and Naruto have the first of many altercations. Accusations are leveled, voices raised, and blood boils. And paperwork breeds like bunnies.
2) Naruto and the Kyuubi talk and Naruto comes face-to-face with a very imposing PLOT DEVICE. It's important. I'm proud of it. Leave me alone.
3) Naruto goes back to school like a good little urban orphan. He meets a couple of familiar characters with a few unfamiliar traits. Is there a reason for this? Of course! Did I make that reason up right now? Not saying! I will, however, refer you, dear reader, to the summary of this story in which I describe Akatsuki's moral alignment.
4) Orochimaru has a tantrum and Kabuto suffers.
5) Our plucky adventurers become genin off-screen, as it were. You all know how that goes down. Well, minus Mizuki, that is. Yet another lovely face appears, as Hinata is introduced. Turns out I broship her and Naruto. Just bros. They are twelve. They have each other's backs and that's good enough. (NorthSouth is disappointed.)
6) The kiddies meet their sensei and the trick with the board eraser turns out to be an accident? Who'da thunk?
7) The Introductions- in which you see that all little ninjas are made of sugar, spice, and everything sassy.
That's really all there is to it. I won't have a set update schedule, but I will be updating. Yes. Fingers crossed. I love y'all. Stay happy, mean people suck, drop me a line and I'll probably reply. Pax.