Author's Note: OK, so I'm a day late. Blame a pesky little piece of data corruption that infected a few of my files. I had a spare saved elsewhere, but I was down 3000 words. I really have to remember to make multiple backups of my stories for when this happens…
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"Sakura-chan!" - Regular Speech
'Baka!' - Thoughts
:Shannaro!: - Inner Sakura
[Quest Announcement] - Gamer Ability/Notification
Chapter 14: 14 vs. 1
The Next Day
Taijutsu Sparring Circle, Konohagakure Ninja Academy
Naruto dodged out of the way of the incoming fist, diving in close to his opponent and driving an elbow right into Shino's solar plexus, making him fall back with a grunt and wheeze.
"Damn Shino. You're tough." The blond boy said appraisingly.
"Thank you, Uzumaki-san." The Aburame Heir said in a monotone, "You are stronger than you appear to be. I shall have to try harder."
"Bring it!" Naruto grinned. Shino was a nice guy, totally non-judgemental and calm. He could use some help in modulating his voice though.
This was the first time Naruto had faced against Shino and his family's Kamakiri-Style (Praying Mantis) taijutsu. As Aburame were primarily mid-range combatants, it was a defensive style that relied on precision strikes and exploiting the weakness in the enemy's style to land blows at critical junctures in combat. It was different from both the Hakage-style and whatever style Sasuke-teme used, as both of those were either neutral or offensive styles.
The spar continued for a few minutes before Naruto kicked Shino's legs out from under him and placing a heel on his throat, which would allow him to crush it and leave the boy to suffocate if this were a true fight.
"Cease!" Iruka-sensei declared, "The winner is Uzumaki Naruto! Congratulations."
"Yatta-dattebayo!" Naruto grinned before he removed his foot from Shino's neck and extended a hand to help him up. The Aburame Heir grasped it and hauled himself up before both he and Naruto made the Sign of Reconciliation.
"Your skills have made a determinable improvement, Uzumaki-san." Shino stated, "I shall have to up my training to compensate."
"Looking forward to seeing the results." The blond orphan smirked.
As they both exited the sparring circle, Naruto surreptitiously closed the window that had popped up.
[Congratulations!]
The quest [Catch the Fly] has been completed!
You successfully defeated Aburame Shino in a sparring match!
Quest Reward: +500 EXP, + 200 Reputation with Aburame Shino, +1000 Ryo.
Bonus Reward: First Sparring Victory: [Advanced Hakage style Taijutsu] Skill Book.
The last part made Naruto's mood sour slightly. The only reason that this was his first victory in a spar was that he had always been pitted against Sasuke-teme before now. As much as it burned Naruto to admit it, the Uchiha was way more skilled at Taijutsu than he was. Worse, Sasuke was using what had to be a Clan Taijutsu style rather than the Hakage-style, so his strength, toughness and dexterity bonuses were very likely to be higher than his own.
'Still, now that I have this new skill book, I can upgrade my taijutsu once I max out the Intermediate Hakage Style that I'm using right now.' He thought.
Sasuke smirked as he watched Naruto out of the corner of his eye. It was right that the Dobe would become stronger after getting his butt kicked by him all the time. If his rival didn't keep getting stronger in pace with him, there was no point in having him as such.
A slightly puzzled Naruto closed a window informing him he had gained 50 Relationship with Uchiha Sasuke. Meanwhile, Mizuki was cursing at him vilely behind his 'teacher mask' and wondering how to sabotage him now, when he had seemed to have catch on to all of the tricks the Chunin had pulled up until this point. He was performing his taijutsu kata perfectly; his throwing form was spot on and Mizuki daren't risk another 'mistaken' test mix-up after the last time.
'Iruka's becoming suspicious…tch.' The man thought, 'It can't be helped…I'll just have to back off for a couple of months. It isn't as if the Demon will become too strong by the end of that time.'
As he thought that, the strap on his sandals snapped. A complete coincidence.
After the Academy
Ichiraku's Ramen Stand
"..and then, blam! I had him beat, Jiji!" Naruto said to the Hokage, who listened indulgently as they waited for their ramen.
"A well-earned victory, Naruto-kun." He congratulated his surrogate grandson, "The Aburame Taijutsu style is not easily overcome, although I can assure you that Shino-kun will be training hard to become stronger now that you have defeated him once."
"Really? Shino doesn't seem like the competitive type." Naruto said in puzzlement.
"True. Most Aburame are not competitive in general." The old man agreed, "But while they attempt to be extremely logical as much as possible, they are only human, so things such as competitiveness do tend to crop up every now and again, especially when they're younger."
"Huh. Makes sense." The boy nodded, "It must be hard to be so stoic and logical all the time; I couldn't manage it at all."
"There are always exceptions to every rule and clan trait." Sarutobi chuckled, "Such as a Yamanaka who cannot use their mindwalking jutsu or a Sarutobi who cannot use Katon or Doton ninjutsu. Granted, they might be rare, but they do happen."
"I'd guess that the clans don't like that." Naruto asked.
"Sadly no. They usually send the child to the orphanage or set them up with a home and caretaker until they either graduate from the Academy or turn eighteen." The Hokage sighed, "I would have made that latter practice a requirement if it were entirely my choice, but the Shinobi Clans have spent quite some time working on keeping the Hokage out of Clan business, so shoot down any law that would force them to do something they do not wish to do."
"Why not start it as a civilian clan law?" Naruto suggested, "If it works there, you could suggest it as expanding into the Shinobi section of the law after a few years."
This took the Hokage back. He had never tried that tack, but now that Naruto suggested it, it actually did make more sense. Unlike the Shinobi Clans, the Civilian Clans of Konoha mainly focussed on stopping any law that might cut into their profits (for the merchants) or support the Demon (for the morons). A law such as what Sarutobi had spoken of would be an entirely civilian matter if he proposed it Naruto's way, meaning that the opinions of the Shinobi Clans would be discounted and they wouldn't be able to vote about it. Plus, with a few years of success in the civilian system, it would be harder to argue against it rather than a completely untried and untested law.
"I may very well do that, Naruto-kun." He said thoughtfully, mentally tallying the resources needed to execute such a law and finding them to be well in place should the law pass. The civilians were very stingy when it came to spending their funding, leaving it to mount up for quite some time 'just in case' when Sarutobi knew, for a fact, that it went towards at least one extravagant party per year. This would teach them to be skinflints.
Naruto noticed that he had gained a further +100 to his relationship with the Hokage and was once again puzzled. He was drawn from his puzzlement by the delicious smell of ramen wafting closer to him.
"Here's your ramen, Naruto-kun, Hokage-sama." Teuchi boomed with a smile as he laid down the bowls in front of his customers. Even the Hokage had to admit that the man was a genius when it came to cooking ramen and his mouth started watering as he gazed at his meal.
"Itadakimasu!" Naruto said happily, tucking into the Ichiraku Ramen's specialty…the Uzumaki Deluxe! Featuring almost every ingredient you could combine in ramen, with a high quality broth that blended the flavours perfectly. All in all, it was the most delicious ramen Naruto had ever eaten and he only ate it on special occasions, such as his birthday (if he could make it to Ichiraku's without incident) and any especially good days he had had, which were few and far between. Winning his first sparring match (ever) counted in his book.
"How has Asuma been getting along?" the Hokage asked in between bites.
"Mmf! He likes the place." Naruto replied, slurping up the noodles faster than most would think was physically possible, "No other place has all those training rooms. There's even a shuriken and mid-range jutsu range in the basement. I had no idea about that until he found it-dattebayo!"
"Sounds like him." Sarutobi said in amusement, "He always did like exploring his home as a child; it fails to surprise me that that continued into adulthood."
The Uzumaki boy had visions of a chibi-Asuma running around a huge clan compound and had to chuckle at the thought. Then something occurred to him.
"Ne Jiji. I haven't seen a Sarutobi Clan Compound around." He said with a thoughtful expression on his face, "Is there one? Have I just been looking in the wrong place? Is it big?"
"There was a large one, back before the Second Great Ninja War." The Hokage informed his surrogate grandson, "It was damaged badly in a sneak attack by infiltrators from Iwagakure and was abandoned. It has since been demolished and new housing built over it. The Sarutobi live in a small compound in the Clan Residential District now. Well…small for the Clan Residential District anyway. As for myself, I live in the Hokage Tower most of the time, but go back to spend the night with Asahi and his family every now and again."
"Aren't you lonely?" the boy asked in concern. Sarutobi just chuckled and ruffled Naruto's hair, making him pout.
"No, I'm not." The Hokage said kindly, "I consider each and every member of the village to be my own family, so I'm never alone."
Naruto stared at the Hokage in awe. "That must be tough when they go nuts and attack people like that guy with the ninjatō a few months back."
"I know who you mean." Sarutobi nodded wearily, "He lost his brother during the Day of the Kyūbi and never recovered from it, drowning his sins away in cheap rotgut day in and day out. That incident was when he finally snapped, I'm afraid."
"He really took good care of that sword, now I come to think about it." The boy mused, "It looked better than new."
"It was a relic of his brother's ninja career. He cared for it obsessively, only cleaning himself up when he had to polish and maintain it." The Hokage said despondently, "Despair is like an illness, Naruto-kun. It can bring even the mightiest ninja low, break the proudest of people into something unrecognisable. The man who attacked you had hit rock bottom and didn't have the strength to try and stand back up again. That was because he closed himself off and didn't allow others to help him. Learn from him in this, Naruto-kun; no man is an island. Accept help if you cannot do something yourself and offer help if you see someone cannot do something themselves."
Naruto nodded solemnly, ignoring the window informing him that his WIS had just gone up by one for listening to the Hokage's lecture.
"Will do, Jiji." He said.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Later
Training Ground 13 Entrance
"OK, today's goal is to finally level up to Level 15!" Naruto pumped himself up as he jogged towards the gate leading into the training ground. He was in good form today after his spar with Shino and he was looking forward to finally getting to that next level.
Given how Sasuke was at Level 15 and had been for a while, it was safe to assume that there was a level limit that stopped Academy Students from becoming too powerful. His stat increases were also slowly coming less and less frequently. He was willing to be that they would stop once they reached a certain point as well. With still three or four months left until graduation, it was going to become tedious if he couldn't level up.
'Well, I guess I can focus on mastering my jutsu if that happens.' He reasoned to himself. He didn't like the idea of only being able to train his jutsu, but he could see how useful it would be to have them all maxed out, or at least on the way there.
Entering the first area, the blond orphan frowned. Although he didn't like the cliché, it really was too quiet in the forest. No birds chirping, no sound of the mutated squirrels fighting each other, nothing. Had someone come in to do some training of their own and killed them?
Drawing a kunai, he continued his advance into the training ground, senses screaming at him that something stank about this situation. As far as he knew, he was the only person who used TG13 for anything, and he was certain his Jiji would have let him know that he was sending someone in to clear the place.
Very suspicious.
'Not a single attack…yep, someone's been through here and cut down all the chakra mutations.' Naruto thought nervously. His instincts were currently screaming at him that this situation was abnormal and that he should get out of there as fast as he could. And that he should eat some ramen, but that was normal for him.
Leaving the first area and moving to the second, Naruto was yet again struck by how uncannily silent the training ground was, without the usual sounds of animals and chakra mutants filling it. Even the wind was silent, removing the usual background sound of rustling leaves that was almost omnipresent in Konoha.
It was…really unsettling.
"Yo, brat."
The muffled voice of a man startled Naruto as he seemed to melt out of the tree in front of him. He wore a cloth mask over his face and had a battered Konoha Hitai-ate on his forehead. Much to Naruto's mild horror, he also wore a black spandex jumpsuit that showed that he had definitely eaten all the pies.
Yamaguchi Tetsurō LV25
[Rotund Retired Chunin]
The man's title was brutally accurate.
"Who're you?" Naruto asked, playing dumb.
"My name is of no importance." Tetsurō spat disdainfully, "I am here to put an end to you, Demon Brat!"
"Aw man, don't tell me you're the one who let those 'Nuke-nin' into Konoha the other day?" Naruto complained as he shifted to a defensive stance.
"I had nothing to do with it, brat." The man sniffed snootily, "I only wish that they had managed to kill you so I didn't have to bother."
Bloodlust detected! Immediately behind you!
Without hesitating, Naruto hit the dirt and rolled over, dodging the swipe of the ninjatō that would have beheaded him. A man dressed similarly to Tetsurō gaped at him for a moment before Naruto lashed out with his right leg, slamming his foot right into his assailant's groin.
Letting out a mix between a pained moan and a yell of outrage, the man crumpled to the ground and assumed the foetal position, cupping his battered family jewels as he whimpered in pain.
Tadakatsu Tomoe LV20
[Retired Genin]
"You little bastard!" Tetsurō roared and pulled a kunai from somewhere, hurling it at Naruto with practiced ease.
Dodging to one side, Naruto noticed something odd in one corner of his vision, a timer. It was at 4:54 and was rapidly counting down to zero. No quest had popped up to explain what the hell was going on, and he didn't have the legroom to look up the guide, so he'd just have to hope it was something that might help him here.
"Dear sweet kami, he's brat!" a female voice complained, "Can't you two slobbering morons do anything right?"
"Shaddap woman and help us!" Tetsurō barked.
"Never send a man to do a woman's job." The female voice grumbled and a woman dressed in black spandex apparently walked out of a tree, ninjatō in hand.
Kagami Kodama LV26
[Retired Chunin Kunoichi]
'Another Kagami…man, these guys have it out for me.' Naruto thought privately. He noticed that the timer sped up, a minute and a half dropping from the countdown. He was also willing to be that the same thing had happened when the second man had launched his attack against him.
3:02
"I don't suppose you people would be willing to tell me why you're doing this?" Naruto asked casually as he shifted his grip on his kunai and tried to keep an eye on all three of the enemy at once.
"You already know what you did, Demon!" Kodama spat darkly, "Now die!"
She lunged forwards and tried to impale Naruto on the blade of her sword, but Naruto was able to dodge away from the woman's attack, muttering "[Observe]!" as he did so.
He used his little skill on all three of his opponents and noticed one thing that was universal among them; their stats were all crap. They were suffering from a Special Status called [Out of Practice], meaning that it had been years since they had even picked up a weapon in anger. They had trained, just not enough to prevent the gradual degradation of their skills. The guy who had been a genin was particularly bad; Naruto dominated him in every category aside from LUK.
"Ya know, you guys kinda suck at this whole assassination thing." He remarked as he dodged another swipe of a ninjatō with relative ease, "But before we really get into this, I have got to ask…why the hell are you all wearing spandex?"
There was a moment of infuriated silence as the two upright attackers seemed to glare at him for daring to mention the spandex.
"Well we can't exactly wear proper Shinobi outfits can we?" the prone man groaned, "Oh, my fucking balls…!"
"Oh stop massaging your balls and stand up already!" Kodama said impatiently, "Men. I swear…"
"Hey, you try having your vitals kicked by a brat!" Tetsurō protested, "Lemme tell you, it's no fun."
"Oh, just shut up and kill the brat already!" Kodama snarled.
Tomoe finally staggered to his feet, although he was walking very gingerly and wincing every now and then. It made Naruto feel slightly guilty to have broken the rule of the unspoken Bro Code; never use the Nutcracker.
00:03
00:02
00:01
00:00
A loud buzzer echoed in Naruto's ears as the clock hit zero and abruptly, the field flickered and shimmered before a pair of chakra mutations appeared in the forest…ones he recognised.
"[Berserk Fox Squirrel] and [Mogura Wogura]!" he breathed in dread. The two boss monsters that had taken him everything to defeat separately now stood together, looking even meaner than the last time he had faced them…and for good reason!
LV20 Berserk Fox Squirrel
LV21 Mogura Wogura, the Massive Mole
"Oh come on! I killed them already!" he yelled loudly in exasperation, as well as a little fear. The levels of the two monsters had been really boosted for some reason!
[Warning!]
Due to oversaturation of chakra by more than one chunin-level Shinobi or more than three genin-level shinobi for an extended period of time, the strongest variants of the strongest monsters in Areas 1 and 2 have been summoned! While within your capability to slay, they also receive bonuses to their stats for every person above chunin level in the Training Ground. It is advisable to flee at this point in time!
"What the hell are those monsters?!"
"Why are all of you here? Weren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on the perimeter?!"
"How should I know, dumbass!"
Standing squabbling in the middle of the forest were fourteen adults, all wearing black spandex. All of them were retired chunin or genin, which really explained why the timer had started so low! With fourteen ninja and kunoichi pumping out chakra with presence concealment jutsu for who knows how long, it wasn't any wonder that they'd somehow supercharged the chakra mutations.
"I'm outta here!" he said and sped away.
"Get him!" cried most of the idiots who had caused the situation in the first place. They charged after the blond orphan, ignoring the mutations. After all, they had killed the others easily. Why would these be any different?
Big mistake.
With a shrill screech of rage, the [Berserk Fox Squirrel] launched itself at the closest person to it, digging in its claws and attempting to rip at his throat. He screamed and thrashed his arms, sending the creature flying off of him with a solid punch to its jaw.
"Fuck! What the hell?!" he screamed.
While the attention of the majority of the adult shinobi fell on the overt threat, [Mogura Wogura] tunnelled underground, emerging to drag another one of the spandex-clad ninja underground with a scream.
"Son of a bitch!"
"Why is this happening?!"
"It's your fault, you morons!" Naruto roared before he ran headfirst into an invisible wall. Swearing like a sailor and rubbing his abused nose, he glared and [Observed] it.
[Average Barrier Ninjutsu]
A barrier made of pure chakra energy. It is used to either keep people out or keep someone inside the location encased by the barrier. This particular one is of average strength and can be destroyed by overloading it with chakra-based attacks. In other words, launch a lot of ninjutsu at it and watch it shatter like a glass wall!
DUR: 1500/1500
Regeneration: 50 DUR/per minute.
Special Skills: [Resist Ninjutsu: 30%], [Resist Physical: 30%].
"Hell in a handbasket! Doton: Iwa Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto growled, slamming a hand on the ground, causing fifteen clones to shoot up from it in an explosion of earth and grass.
"Bombard the damn barrier so we can get out of here!" he ordered them, "I'll hold off the moron brigade and the damn mutations!"
As the Iwa Bunshin started to volley Gansetsukon and Dangan at the barrier, Naruto turned around to see that the group of ninja retirees had somehow manged to save their kidnapped friend, but were only barely able to fend off the rampaging squirrel and marauding mole.
'Might as well help them.' Naruto thought with a sigh, "Fūton: Senfūkyū!"
Raising he hand to his mouth, he fired three swirling balls of wind at [Mogura Wogura], which slammed into its nose. The giant mole unleashed a pained screeching wail of pain and sent three of the spandex-clad ninja retirees flying with one swipe of its paws.
"Gaaah!"
"Gubooh!"
"Aiiiiehhh!"
"Damn you, Demon Brat!" one kunoichi yelled at him, "Right, you and you; handle the damn squirrel! You, you and you hold off the supersized mole! The rest of us will do what we came to do and kill the Demon Brat!"
The spandex brigade obeyed her, two men drawing their ninjatō to deal with the [Berserk Fox Squirrel], while two other men and a kunoichi moved to contain [Mogura Wogura]. The rest turned to face Naruto, who snarled at them.
"Once again, just to be absolutely clear here, this is your fault!" he shouted angrily, gesturing at the two powerful mutations.
"And how do you figure that out, Demon Brat?" Tomoe asked condescendingly.
"Because this place was closed for chakra saturation, numbskull." The blond orphan stated, "It could barely handle me coming in and firing off ninjutsu like crazy, so having you lot coming in and using concealment jutsu for who knows how long refilled the saturation to what it was before I got started again and summoned those things, more powerful versions of the alpha monsters that I killed. Thanks for that, dumbass. Now I'm gonna have to start from scratch!"
"Kill the brat!" one of the spandex squad shouted.
"Katon: Gōkakyū!" Three of the men fired the well-known fire jutsu at Naruto, all of them using the fireball form. It was a weakness of most people to only use that form, or so Asuma-sensei had told him. They used the fireball form rather than the flamethrower form because of…aesthetics, he thought the word Asuma had used was. He didn't know what it meant, but it seemed to make the bearded Jonin irritated.
Now that the Uchiha were reduced to a single member (Sasuke-teme), the only clan that specialised in Katon Jutsu were the Sarutobi, so it was logical to assume that it offended Asuma's pride to see a versatile Katon Jutsu misused so.
Rolling out of the way of the fireballs, Naruto countered with a swarm of Gansetsukon that forced the attackers to scatter slightly. One stone stave even pierced through one man's leg.
Target leg pierced through! Status [Bleeding] inflicted! Target mobility reduced by 20%!
"Son of a bitch!"
"Get that little bastard!"
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto said, forming the cross handsign of the jutsu. Five Clones appeared and charged the enemy while the original ran through handsigns for his strongest Fūton Jutsu.
"Fūton: Daitoppa!"
The air around Naruto was compressed into a blast of wind that flew away from him and sent some of the more scattered members flying into trees. Meanwhile the clones were engaging the other retirees with more Gansetsukon, using the staves to augment their lack of reach.
"Shadow Clones?! Rock Clones?! Rock Staves?! Who the hell is teaching this Demon Brat all these Jutsu?!" Tomoe yelled.
Just then, the Iwa Bunshin shattered the barrier with a synchronised volley of well-placed Doton: Dangan. This dismayed the spandex brigade, especially when a squad of ANBU blurred into existence around them and soundlessly binding them with some kind of paralyzing jutsu before following up with a jutsu that Naruto recognised; Suiton Ninpō: Mizuame Bakujō. It bound the spandex-clad ninja by their hands and feet.
"Uzumaki-san." The cat-masked ANBU said with a nod as she casually beheaded the [Berserk Fox Squirrel] with her ninjatō, "I trust you are unharmed?"
"Y-Yeah…I'm fine, Neko-san." Naruto stammered, not believing that the powerful squirrel had been killed in less than two seconds. Another member of her team, Saru, electrocuted [Mogura Wogura] with a powerful Raiton Jutsu, killing it instantly.
'Note to self: do not piss off the ANBU.' Naruto thought before correcting himself, 'Second note to self: Do not piss the ANBU enough for them to get really serious about catching you.'
"Good. My comrades will deal with these…criminals." The purple-haired woman stated disdainfully, "You should return to your home; Hokage-sama will no doubt want to debrief you in person."
"Hai, Neko-san." Naruto nodded obediently. ANBU technically weren't a part of the usual Shinobi chain of command, but they were still ninja and any civilian (as he was at the moment) had to obey an order given by a ninja if it had to do with village security and Naruto knew that this definitely counted.
Leaving the training ground, he sighed in aggravation. This was the second time in very recent times that his training had been interrupted by a bunch of morons, and this time he didn't even have any quest rewards or EXP to go along with it, which was actually odd.
"Hey Naruto. What's up?" a familiar voice called out to him. The blond boy looked around to see Tenten waving at him as she jogged over to walk next to him.
"Ah, nothing much." he sighed, "Just some idiots who put the chakra saturation of TG 13 back up to maximum, so everything'll be stronger again."
"That sucks." The weapons expert winced, "Well at least you'll be able to challenge yourself again."
"True." Naruto allowed, "You out on an errand?"
"Yup. Doing a delivery." Tenten nodded, "To you actually. The last part of the Storm Suit you bought, the shoulder armour? Dad decided to replace it with something a little better. I'll show you when we get to your place."
When they entered Naruto's apartment, Tenten unrolled a scroll and unsealed a shoulder plate similar to the one he had bought, but it had several lines of Fūinjutsu written into the underside that had various effects, such as increasing the density of the armour when it was struck by physical attacks, as well as reducing the weight of the clothes to almost nothing.
"Wow…any reason why your Dad suddenly wanted to give me this?" Naruto asked, touched by the gesture.
"He said something about you likely being a magnet for trouble, so you need better armour than average or something like that." The brunette grinned, seeing the boy pout.
"It isn't like I asked for those damn 'Nuke-nin' to attack us." Naruto groused with his pout on full blast.
"I know Naruto." Tenten laughed, "By the way, where's Asuma-sensei? He usually drops in on us by this point."
"He left on a mission this morning." Naruto informed her, "He said he should be gone for about a week."
"Shame. I was looking forward to more lessons." The kunoichi commented with a sigh, "I can't believe it took Gai-sensei this long to get me a ninjutsu tutor! A whole year!"
"Didn't him teaching that Rock Lee guy take up a lot of his time?" Naruto pointed out, "From what Iruka-sensei and you have said, the only thing he has going for him is taijutsu, so getting it up to a point that he doesn't need ninjutsu or genjutsu must have really eaten into his time."
The Weapons Mistress sighed. "I know, I know, and I don't really begrudge Lee that. I mean, he tries so damn hard that you can't complain about it even if he does take up most of Gai-sensei's time. It's just…if he knew he would be spending most of his time with Lee, you'd have thought he'd have arranged tutors for me and Neji."
"Maybe he didn't know initially, but got caught up in teaching Lee." Naruto suggested, "I've heard that he's…overenthusiastic…about things."
Tenten snorted at that gross understatement of one Maito Gai. And Lee as well, now she came to think about it.
"true enough." She said with a chuckle, "I'd better head home. Otou-san is getting me to help him forging your sword. It'll be a great weapon, I promise."
"I'm looking forward to seeing it, Ten-chan." He said before clapping a hand over his mouth when he realised he had called her by a nickname without her permission. While not as rude as referring to her without honorifics without permission, it was still pretty rude and he knew very well how strong one Higurashi Tenten was, perhaps better than she did herself.
Much to his surprise, she blushed a bit and cleared her throat. "Ahem. W-Well you'd better. See ya next time you have to come to the shop."
Naruto stared after Tenten in puzzlement as she walked quickly left his apartment, still blushing slightly. What the heck had that been about?
Shrugging at what he labelled as another addition to the 'Weird Girl Habits' folder that he had mentally allocated all such incidences since he started paying attention to females. Needless to say, as Naruto wasn't the sharpest tool in the drawer when it came to noticing subtle hints and reading body language and facial expressions, this folder was fairly large.
A knock on the door came about five minutes later and Naruto welcomed the Hokage into his home. The old man looked tired and drawn, with echoes of residual fury and worry in his eyes.
"Ah, Naruto-kun." Sarutobi said with a sigh, "So, once again, we have people ambushing you inside of TG13. This is becoming something of a habit, my boy."
"Not due to any fault of my own." The Academy Student crossed his arms stubbornly.
"Quite so, but it has happened twice. And that is twice too often." The elderly Hokage said firmly, "I will have a barrier placed around the training ground so you will be able to detect the presence of anyone with active chakra within it. It will be keyed to you, so no one else will be able to use it. Should this occur again, however, I will be forced to prohibit you from entering TG13. Am I understood, Naruto-kun?"
"Hai, Jiji." Naruto replied, not happy about it, but understanding his grandfather figure's position.
"Very good. Now…" the Hokage sat on an armchair, "…please tell me your side of the story. The fourteen…morons…have cut a story from white cloth, I am sure, so hearing your side will be enlightening."
Naruto launched into a tale of his time in the Training Ground today (what little of it there was) and what the spandex clad weirdos had done, as well as a modest account of his own actions to take care of them.
"What I don't get was why they were wearing spandex of all things." Naruto added once he finished.
"They couldn't sneak their active duty ninja outfits past their spouses or had sent them to the laundry." Sarutobi smiled with macabre amusement, "One of them owned a clothing store and was able to get some spandex suits that were surplus out of the storeroom. All of them were, as you suspected, retirees from the ninja forces. Forcibly retired due to PTSD or some other condition, mostly."
What Sarutobi neglected to tell Naruto was that all fourteen of the idiots had also been retired forcibly due to their inability to accept that Naruto was merely the Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi, not the great demon fox itself. They had all been the most outspoken about it in the force and had been nails that stuck out.
Sarutobi, by 'kindly' retiring them 'due to stress' had made a silent point to the other, more quiet members of the forces twelve years ago; Shut up about Naruto being the demon fox because it wasn't true. If you can't, get out or be hammered out.
As he sat and spoke with his surrogate grandson, Yamanaka Inoichi was interviewing the families of the conspirators to see if they had had any inkling of their wayward family member's intentions. Morino Ibiki was 'handling' the interrogation of the 'Spandex Brigade', to use Naruto's amusing nomenclature. Sarutobi expected confessions on his desk by the time he got back to the tower.
'Even if they were mostly out of shape and horribly out of practice, the fact that Naruto-kun was able to hold off fourteen Shinobi at once while breaking a barrier is an incredible feat.' The old man thought proudly, 'I think that a new jutsu scroll would be appropriate here, as I thought it would.'
"I had a stroll through my jutsu library before coming here, Naruto-kun." He said with a smile and pulled out a scroll, "You have markedly improved your skills in the past few months and this incident proves it beyond any shade of doubt. Take this as a reward for making this old man proud of you."
"Thank you Jiji!" Naruto hugged his grandfather figure excitedly, "What jutsu is it?"
"It's a Fūton Jutsu, Fūton: Fūjinheki (Wind Style: Wind Blade Wall)." The Hokage replied, "It compresses the air in front of you into a solid wall of air that blocks incoming attacks. Once you master the basics, you can have it sprout blades to stab anyone who crashes into it. You can even set it up to appear in any location within your line of sight."
"Cool!"
"I had noticed that you had very little in the way of defensive jutsu, so this is a step to rectify that." Sarutobi said with a nod, "Be warned however; this is a B-Rank technique and requires more finesse than your Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. It might take you a while to use even the most basic form, but I am confident you will be able to manage it."
Once the Hokage left, with an admonition to his grandson to get some sleep, Naruto tried to learn the new jutsu…and failed.
[Many Apologies]
[The Gamer] is down for maintenance and updating. You are still able to use skills and view your stats, but all other aspects are frozen. Emergency warnings are active, so any dangers not covered by your skills will be made known to you.
The estimated time until updates and maintenance are completed is: 12 Hours, 30 Minutes.
"What the hell?!" Naruto roared.
Meanwhile
Interrogation Cell, ANBU T&I HQ
Yamaguchi Tetsurō whimpered as Morino Ibiki loomed over him. The scarred Tokujō's face smirked down at him as he cracked his knuckles.
"I must thank you for this, Yamaguchi." Ibiki said conversationally, "Idiots like you allow me to keep my skills in good working order for when actual threats need to be discovered. Something I'm betting that you wish you had done."
Tetsurō, regrettably, agreed with him there.
"Now, as I am feeling generous, I will allow you a single chance to tell me everything about your laughable plan to assassinate our Jinchūriki." The scarred man stated, "In other words, we can do this the easy way or the real easy way. Up to you which way we go."
The spandex-clad man debated his option here, weighing pride against being tortured by the most skilled interrogator in the T&I section of ANBU, and came to a conclusion.
"What do you want to know?"
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