Writers Block sucks in every way imaginable, you can tell by the way this chapter is about two thirds the size of a normal chappie...
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Chapter 10
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"An Oto-nin, you're sure?"
Naruto nodded wearily, head held in his hands. Kakashi sighed, leaning back in the kitchen chair, obviously worried.
"I'll tell Sandaime…Unless you want to go…?" The silver haired man trailed off, suggesting that the boy should go and speak to the Hokage, but not saying it out loud.
But both heard those unspoken words, both understanding.
"I suppose I could…He has a few of my things I need to get back…"
Kakashi fought the urge to smile, it seemed finally after all this time, they had managed to get through to him. Naruto yawned, stretching his tired arms above his head, lowering them slowly before letting them drop back to his sides.
"Will you be able to get back home in that condition?" the Jounin asked, concerned by how fatigued the blond appeared to be…
"I might…" Naruto shrugged, uncaring "I'm not sure."
Kakashi chuckled, before standing from the chair he had been sat in and walking over to the spare bedroom door, nudging it open.
"It's all yours…nobody else uses it anyway."
Why did Senpai not own ramen?!
Naruto had searched every cupboard, but hadn't been able to find anything even remotely like ramen, just a stack of boring canned food. Every single cupboard was filled with the things, and Naruto was quickly loosing what remained of his self control.
Feeling like he deserved an emotional breakdown after the night before, he left the house and wondered over to Ichiraku's, deciding that he could put the meal on his Senpai's tab, since the man deserved it for not having any ramen in the house.
"I need to speak to the Hokage."
The secretary peered over the bridge of his glass, giving the boy a once over before his eyes dropped back to the paperwork he had been filling in before the civilian brat had interrupted him.
"I'm sorry; he's busy preparing for the Chunin Exams."
"I need to see him."
The damned brat hadn't moved an inch.
"I said, he's busy."
For a moment, the secretary thought that the boy would leave, but instead the blond leant forwards, a blank look on his face.
"Code in, SD435, Mission Complete."
The secretary sneered, but he typed in the code regardless, the boy had made the mistake to use an Anbu code, who would have believed the boy was Anbu?
MISSION: INCOMPLETE
The words glared red, and a quick glance at the date the mission was set told him it was an old mission, perhaps two or three years old. When he looked up, the boy had gone. He stood from his seat, eyes scanning the entrance for any sign of the strange boy, before his attention turned to the squad of Anbu.
"You didn't see a boy run towards the Hokages' office did you?" He asked worriedly, the boy could have been a spy! The Anbu shook their heads, and with that the secretary sat back down on his chair dejectedly, if the Anbu hadn't seen him, he must have given up and left. The man smirked; the boy had obviously run away after he had figured out that the code he had given in was a Black Ops mission code.
"What's up Taichou ?" One of the Anbu asked, Uma his codename was.
"Hmm…when that boy came in you got all…weird" Tori added, her arms crossed, a frown obviously on her face, though hidden because of the mask.
"Hehehe…" the captain of the team giggled.
"Taichou…" The third member of the squad, Nezumi, added "You are possibly the most insane person I have ever met…"
"Hahaha…" Tora collapsed in a fit of laughter, her mind briefly wondering why Naruto, after all this time, had finally decided to come and visit the Sandaime.
The three Anbu sweatdropped, why did their captain have to be so damn insane?
Naruto took a deep breath, chiding himself for ending so caught up in his Senpai's plans, but he knew he had already given up and decided to go along with it.
"I think that part of me forced myself to go along with it…Wait…I sound as insane as Tora …" He shook his head, then gently pushed open the door.
"It's been a while, Naruto-kun."
"You did what?" The Hokage chuckled "I can't believe Sasuke-kun actually challenged you to a fight." He shook his head from side to side.
"Yeah…well, let's just hope he won't do it any time soon…" Naruto smiled, before his face turned serious once more "There's no problem with Otogakure is there? No reason for them to attack Konoha?"
The old man sighed, suddenly looking far older and more fragile than he had a few seconds before, tired eyes drooping closed for a second.
"Unfortunately, it's classified information." He sighed, rubbing his temples.
Naruto grimaced, a look of pain crossing his face in a flash before disappearing, the last he had heard of Otogakure, it had been a fairly peaceful village…as far as he knew; there was no conflict between them and Konoha. "That reminds me Hokage-sama, do you still have my equipment in the stores?"
The Sandaimes' eyebrows furrowed, obviously confused. "But you said…" You said you never wanted to see those things again.
Naruto interrupted him. "I've said a lot of things."
"And broken many promises too…"
The Professor opened the drawer, which contained a dark silver key, rust setting in at the base, retrieving the sliver of metal; he laid it on his desk.
"Thank you Hokage-sama."
The boy began to stand, but was stopped.
"Wait a second Naruto-kun…there's something else." Another key was handed over. The blue eyes boy cast a glance towards the smiling Hokage, who made a shooing movement with his hand. "A present."
Naruto knew better than to ask, so he left silently. The Hokage chuckled, before lighting his pipe and getting back to the never ending paperwork.
Surprisingly, the door opened easily, Naruto had half expected the door to be rusted shut, or at least a little hard to open, but the door opened with barely a noise.
The three walls of the storage cell were covered with many different kinds of weapons, from kunai and shuriken, to bows and swords. But most of them he never used anyway. There would be only so much he could carry. There was only one thing he came for, and he knew, even after all this time, exactly where he had last put it. Flipping open the lid of one of the wooden chests, he carefully pulled out the weapon before strapping it to his back. Without staying any longer than he needed to he left the storage cell.
He placed his key back in his pocket, knowing that he would probably return for some other things later, but the weapon on his back was the only thing that he needed right now.
Cold brushed at his fingertips, startling him for a moment, before remembering the other key the Hokage had given him; it looked pretty much like any other key he had owned, perhaps more a little more tarnished and rusty than most, but nothing special, two numbers engraved at the very bottom.
21
Meaning Vault 21; the vault at the end of the next corridor.
Slinging the key back into his pocket, he began to walk down the corridor, trying to remember which of the doors led onto the next hallway over, failing miserably in the process.
His mind wondered, drifting back to the night before.
Each of the Genin had really shown their colours, Kensuki had been very defensive, keeping an eye out for his team mates, Sasuke had been the opposite, leaving his other two team mates to fend for themselves while he went off on his own, and Sakura hadn't actually done anything…but nobody seemed to take her seriously enough to take the time to teach her anything worthwhile. Yet she had seen when a move that had left Sasuke's side unguarded for a second, which had really confused him, throwing his whole opinion of her out of the window and all he could do was watch it hit the pavement.
He sighed, the door he was looking for, Vault 21, was visible now, at the very end of the corridor. "Almost there at least…" Retrieving the key cautiously from his pocket, he turned it over a couple of times, only wondering now what could be on the other side of the door.
"Better now than never…"
This door gave him more trouble than he expected, having rusted shut, it must have been a while since the door had last been opened, but a well place kicked and it opened far enough to let him squeeze in. The room was almost empty, all the surfaces covered in a thick layer of dust, his footfalls disturbing the stillness of the room. The only contents of the room: a small case. Flipping the catches open, he threw the lid open.
And he stared.
Not moving for several seconds.
Not sure whether he should be grateful or annoyed.
The case was lined with three pronged kunai, each hilt covered with a paper seal.
The Flying Thunder God Technique.
Hiraishin no Jutsu.
The only technique he had been prohibited from learning.
"You're late." Kakashi said monotonously, his eye never once glancing from the pages of Icha Icha, broken every so often when he moved to flick over the next page.
"We…are..?"
The three Genin looked a little tired, and Kakashi noticed Sasuke was favouring his left leg ever so slightly, but just enough to notice it when he walked. What had Naruto done to them?
"Have fun last night?" the Jounin asked, his voice monotonous once more, but a small smile was on his lips.
"Well…Kitsune was…interesting." Sakura said hesitantly, when neither of the two boys answered for her.
"Interesting eh?" Kakashi laughed…only in his head though. "It seems Kitsune has gotten a little melodramatic in his old age…"
"And what happened to Sasuke-kun?" He asked, thoroughly enjoying the torture he was inflicting upon his students. What can I say? Naruto had to get his attitude from somewhere…
"I…" Sasuke directed a famous Uchiha Scowl at the silver haired Sensei, to which said Sensei smiled, his eyes crinkling upwards. "Lost." Sasuke finished, his scowl deepening further still.
"He was going to be the next Hokage." Kakashi shut the book with a snap, causing Kensuki and Sakura to jump "I would have hardly expected you to win."
"But..."
Kakashi cut the Uchiha off with a wave of his hand. "Maa, no buts about it." The Uchiha dropped his gaze back to the floor.
"And what about you two?" the silver haired interrogator asked, gaze flicking between the two other members of his team. Kensuki frowned.
"Was he always like that sensei?"
"Hmm, like what?"
"So…" The blond trailed off, not finding any way to express what he was feeling. Kakashi suddenly looked serious, surprising the three children, and turned away from them, facing back towards the centre of Konoha.
"I suppose you're all well enough to train, but we can do that later, it's midday already…perhaps we can go find Naruto for lunch?…I'm sure he'd love to hear about Kitsune."
"What?! It's lunch time?" the three Genin yelled in almost practised unison. Sakura smiled. "I guess we were all pretty out of it, huh?"
They hurried after their rapidly retreating Sensei.
Slide-step-turn-block-strike-turn-strike-drop-strike-turn-back
Naruto wiped the sweat from his forehead, the sun burning his exposed back as he stood in the middle of a vacant training ground, his katana held loosely in his hand. He might be completely exhausted, but there was still a smile on his face and a sense of achievement. It was then that his stomach rumbled, and he decided that Ichiraku's was nice enough to eat for both breakfast and lunch. Strapping the blade to his back, he began to walk towards Konoha, taking his own sweet time.
"Look!" Kensuki pointed, the frown replaced by his sunny smile "It's Shika and Kiba's teams!"
Almost all the seats were filled, and Team 7 had to squeeze in on the last four seats at the counter to place their orders. Let's just say the Uchiha was not impressed being crushed either side by both Kensuki and Kiba.
"So Shika!" Kensuki yelled, once again arms wind milling wildly "Watcha been up to?"
"Watching clouds."
"Aaannd?"
"No…that's about it."
Kensuki frowned. "But you have to have done something…"
"Nope…" the lazy slacker grinned "Too troublesome.."
"Right…" The frown suddenly disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.
"Chouji?"
"Me..?" The Akimichi shovelled more food into his mouth "Not much…"
"Ino?" Kensuki didn't really like the blonde haired Yamanaka…but he didn't want her to feel left out.
"Me? Working at the shop…" She tossed her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder "But nothing exciting really."
Kensuki smiled, it had probably been the first time that the girl hadn't shouted at him or told him to go away when he asked her a question, and he turned to Team 8. Teuchi smiled at the young genin sat at the counter, recognizing Team 7 as Naruto's friends from before. Talking of the blonde, he wasn't there…
"Teuchi-san." Kakashi waved a greeting, eyes creasing in a smile nobody could see
"Kakashi-san." The ramen stall owner nodded back to the silver haired Jounin.
"Has Naruto-kun been here yet?"
"He was here this morning and he seemed pretty annoyed, kept muttering about 'how Senpai would pay for the lack of ramen'."
Kakashi gulped.
"Naruto wouldn't get so worked up over ramen would he?...Would he..?" Kakashi resigned himself to his imminent demise. "Did he say where he was going?"
"He said something about going to see Hokage-sama." The stall owner shrugged "But he didn't say much about it…"
The Jounin sighed; perhaps they wouldn't be joining Naruto for lunch…
"Finally!"
Naruto grinned, it had taken what felt like forever to get from the training ground all the way to Ichiraku's, and at last, he had finally arrived. He winced as his stomach rumbled painfully, reminding him of how hungry he actually was.
"Ichiraku's here I come!"
Q & A's *insert them tune here*
Chappie 8 Questions...
Why is it bad to train with Kage Bunshins? From Arch Zell
It's not bad, but Tora's laughing at him for using them, because he could have remembered and relearnt everything via his old memories, rather than waste time and chakra on bunshins... Does that explain everything? Gomen if it's confusing.
Has it not occurred to you to use something besides"Kitsune" as a code name?...This is ciche to the hundredth degree From BloodySeraphim
I could call him Frank or Killer Bunny of the Apocalypse...It just doesn't have the same ring to it...I used Kitsune because it's cliche, and everybody knows who I'm on about...at least *shifty eyes* I hope you do...
You really should have picked some other reason for Naruto to quit. Intelligence is NEVER 100% accurate in anything. By Aerowind Kinomoto
Bwahaha...this shall be explained in later chappies...Do the words 'Twist' and 'Plot' mean anything to ya? Hehehehe
I think your overestimating how long 2 years is. From Lord Ezra'eil
Well, he forces himself to forget things... it can actually happen to people, like frced amnesia...but I suppose I did kinda exagerate...but it gives me chapter fuel...!
*This is kinda where it starts on Chapter 9*
He didn't go to Shi no Mori that night? From BSUBK (hehe your name's too long ^_^)
It was the night after, since when 'Kashi tells them about it, it's two days before the full moon, so he trains that evening untill the early morning, sleeps, gets everything together and then goes and babysits the Genin. Gomen if I didn't make it clear enough, sometimes I forget people can't read my mind...
Sakura's kinda annoying... From Yokura
Yup she is...That was on purpose though... I don't actually hate her, so it's just her being in character...
Why was that oto guy there? From Arch Zell
What happens during the Chunin Exams...? ;P
I wonder if some sense was knocked into Sasuke? From piratepenguin
It's Sasuke, you would need to run him over with a space shuttle to knock anything into him...good thing Kitsune owns a space shuttle eh?
I think that's all the questions, and things that needed answering, if you're wondering why I don't answer everyobdy directly it's because I know some people don't ask the questions or they're too embarrassed to ask, so I write them here so if there's something someone doesn't understand it might be answered here...
Anything you don't understand, please feel free to ask!
*Tora pops out of nowhere again*
You're my Honeybunch, SugarplumPumpy-umpy-umpkin, You're my Sweetie Pie, You're my Cuppycake, GumdropSnoogums-Boogums. You're the Apple of my Eye. And I love you so and I want you to know. That I'll always be right here. And I love to sing sweet songs to you. Because you are so dear!