"Ramen! YAY! I love you bowl of noodlely goodness!"
Kakashi chuckled, "Noodlely goodness? I guess you really love ramen, huh?" He plopped himself on a chair.
"YES! It's the best stuff on earth," slurped Naruto, "I could live off this stuff!"
"Well," started the copy-cat-nin, looking at Naruto, who was propped up on a bunch of pillows, wielding chopsticks like a pro, "looks like you're recovering quickly. Yesterday you could barely move, and now, well, you can still barely move."
"I'd be able to move a lot better if a certain house guest would pay rent!" Naruto glared at his stomach, "Stupid fox." stupid kit, I'm not here to save you from your own stupidity.
"I see, so the Kyuubi is the reason you're recovering so quickly then?" Naruto paused in his eating, the chopsticks half-way to his mouth. The happy look was gone from his face, replaced by a wary calculating stare.
"Why do you care?"
"No reason, just trying to make small talk. I'm betting the ANBU outside your window isn't much for conversation." Kakashi continued to ignore the stare and gestured to the ramen, "If you don't finish that soon, it'll get cold."
Naruto, being Naruto, immediately turned back to eating, though the joy was gone. "No one ever really want's to talk to me. No one in this village, at least." grunted the blond.
"I want to talk to you..."
"No, you want to pump me for information about Orochimaru-sama." Interrupted Naruto, "you aren't really interested in me, except as a means to an end." The boy slurped the last of his noodles and handed the bowl back, "I may not be really smart, but I'm not stupid." and I have no problem manipulating this situation for Ramen.
"I never thought you were." Kakashi stood up, "I may be interested in finding out what you can tell me about Orochimaru, but that doesn't mean I am not also interested in finding out about you, Naruto-kun. Well, you get some rest. You're no where near healed to use this, you know." Kakashi picked up the Kunai that Naruto had somehow stashed under his covers. While the boy sputtered excuses, Kakashi vanished in his characteristic manner.
"Do we even know how he got a Kunai?" fumed Tsunade.
"No, we're not sure on how he did that. My bet is he lifted it yesterday while Jiraiya was poking him." Kakashi suggested, turning the page in his book.
"You!" Tsunade rounded on the hermit, "no more poking!"
"What? Why is it my fault he stole a Kunai? He's an enemy Nin, it's his job to do that! Frankly I would have been surprised if he hadn't managed to get a weapon."
"He's not an enemy, he's a leaf-nin!"
Kakashi shook his head, "no, he is a sound-nin who's loyalty is only to Orochimaru. Frankly I doubt he has any loyalty to himself." and if that's the case, then there is something seriously wrong with that kid.
"But Naruto's from this village!" Tsunade cried, slamming down the boy's file, "and he's a child, he can't know what he's..."
"He know's what he's doing I think." Interrupted Jiraiya, "Tsunade, I didn't want to tell you this, but that boy was seen leaving the battle between Orochimaru and the Third. It's possible that Naruto is the one who killed him."
"I don't believe it."
"Tsunade! I understand that he reminds you a bit of your younger brother, but this is ridiculous. We're more then likely going to have to eliminate the boy," Jiraiya held up a hand to forestall her, "yes, it's unfair, but Naruto is not to be trusted. For all we know, he's here to kill you, or kidnap Sasuke again."
Tsuade's shoulders sagged, acknowledging the truth, "I won't just give up on him. We must keep trying to reach Naruto..."
"I never said we should just give up. I just want you to be realistic about this."
"Please...leave me."
"Tsudade, just think about it at least." Jiraiya sighed as he and Kakashi left.
Once outside the door, Kakashi shook his head, "She's being foolish, she can't treat him like a child.
"She's a woman who has lost much."
Three days after waking up and Naruto was well enough to be up and moving very slowly. Of course, the first thing he had done was to ditch the sleeping ANBU in his room. He had something he wanted to check out, and no-one was going to stop him. Of course, he didn't want to get caught outside of his room, since that would mean no ramen today. Stupid kit, they'll do more then take you're ramen away, grumbled the fox. shhhhh, we're here, replied Naruto, intent on his goal.
Naruto slowly crept into the room, not so much out of caution, but because he really couldn't go much faster then that. He had almost made it to the bed when a voice called, "So there you are. Come to bring back Sasuke to your master like a good little pet?" Startled, the blond tried to spin around quickly, and instead ended up falling on his butt.
"Ahh...that hurt..." he glared at the woman who had startled him so badly, "who the hell are you?!" Naruto demanded.
"Mitarashi Anko," the purple haired beauty answered, a wicked grin on her face, "and I take it you are the infamous Uzumaki?" she waited for a response. Getting none, she shrugged, "Ok then, no-name, what are you doing here? Did Orochimaru tell you to grab Sasuke?"
"And what would you know about Orochimaru-sama?" growled Naruto as he slowly got back up.
Anko returned Naruto's more then a little hostile glare. She had no doubt that he was more then just one of Orochimaru's followers, but Anko was not quite ready to go to Tsunade with her hunch. If she was right, well, she felt sorry for the blond. Quickly she debated the intelligence of telling him her dark secret, knowing he wouldn't see it that way. When she caught the almost microscopic shift he made towards a weapon, she decided. "I used to live with Orochimaru-san," Anko began, almost choking on the honorific. "Back before he left this village, he was my sensi. I learned a lot from him, and respected him greatly."
She knew she had made the right choice when Naruto relaxed and smiled, "Really?! You're that Anko? Orochimaru-sama talks about you some times." He misinterpreted her grimace and added, "Only good things! Honest!"
"So you're close with Orochimaru-san then? I mean, if he talks about the past with you he must trust you." interesting how Orochimaru never mentioned our falling out. Is he worried on how it will make him look, or doesn't he want you to know that even some of his followers disagree with him?
Naruto's chest puffed out a bit, "Orochimaru-sama is my most important person. He cares about me, you know? He rescued me from this village when I was a little kid."
"Did he now?" Anko smiled, even though her heart was crying a bit for this child. Rescued, more like forcefully kidnaped and brainwashed you. "So Orochimaru sent you to get Sasuke again did he?"
"Well..." Naruto sighed, a little crestfallen, "no..." He looked up into Anko's eyes, his full of tears, "I failed Orochimaru-sama. I didn't mean to, it just happened! I tried to bring him Sasuke the first time, but I really did try!" He sobbed, "so I thought that maybe while I was here, I'd see if Sasuke was ok, you know?"
"So Orohimaru-san didn't ask you to...?
"No...I don't really have any orders right now, unless you have any orders for me Anko-san?" after all, to Naruto, Anko was at the same level as Kabuto, so she might know what he should do.
"No, sorry."
"Oh...ok..." Naruto seemed to crumple in on himself, "excuse me, but I've got to get back to my room..." he shuffled past her towards the door. When he reached the doorway, he turned and asked her, "You don't think Orochimaru-sama is still mad at me for failing, do you?"
"No, I'm sure he's not." She called after him. Anko waited a little while to make sure Naruto would be well on the way back to his room before she left. She had much to think on before she went to Tsunade.
Naruto sighed, he had met Anko-san, one of Orochimaru's first pupils. It had been a good day. And she didn't think Orochimaru was still mad, and she would know because she had been with Orochimaru a long time. He had also made it back to the room before anyone noticed he was gone. With another sigh, he arranged himself in the bed and waited. He knew that Kakashi was planning on checking in on Sai and Sasuke today from the nurses. Most of them didn't even think about the fact that they were blabbing about these things when they were walking past an enemy Nin's room. That was how he had found out about Sasuke being moved onto his floor.
Sure enough, Kakashi arrived an hour later with a bowl of Ramen. "This is becoming something of a habit for me," grinned Kakashi from behind his mask. "I brought pork ramen from Ichiraku's. If I remember correctly you ate there during the exams."
"Ichiraku ramen? Really?! I LOVE that Ramen!" Naruto crowed, practically snatching the bowl away. "Thanks for the Ramen."
"No problem. I enjoy a bowl myself occasionally."
"Really?"
"Yes. In fact, I had a bowl of Ichiraku ramen just last night with a friend of mine..."
Kitsune here! Sorry for the long wait. I've been busy, and I will still be for a while. Also, my computer is dying, and my new one is coming at the end of the month, so I might be able to update more after I get the new one. On to notes about the chapter!
1) Orochimaru never mentioned to Naruto that Anko was no longer on good terms with him, so Naruto doesn't question that Anko is someone he can trust. Anko also knows a bit of Orochimaru's idea of child care, so she knows how to deal with Naruto.
2) Kakashi had dinner with Iruka the night before.
Ok, so Review please! Complaints, praise, ideas, whatever. come on, review! More reviews mean I'll update sooner too. (31,846 hits! YAY!)
Fixed the Raman to Ramen. Personally, I've seen about 4 different spellings of the word, but whatever. Oh, did you know the guy who invented instant Ramen died this year?