Author's section
I DON'T OWN NARUTO, IT BELONGS TO MASASHI KISHIMOTO
"Kyubi talking"
'Kyubi thinking'
"Normal speech"
'Characters thinking'
Sorry for any mistakes.
Now with the story
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"A NINJA'S LIFE"
Chapter 14
Naruto felt someone kicking him on the ribs. He groaned and rolled over his mattress, away from whoever was disturbing his sleep.
"Naruto wake up!" team eight's sensei yelled in the blond's direction.
"Alright, alright." The blond said in an annoyed tone as he opened his eyes and straighten up. He looked around and found Shino's and Kiba's spots empty. The only one that was still in bed was Kakashi, obviously.
"What is it?" he asked with a yawn. He was tired from last night. His legs still ache from his training though not that much. Also he had to wake up at three in the morning to guard the house. Man, next time he'd just summon a Kage Bunshin to replace him.
"We are going to start our tree climbing training, so-"
"I can do that already." the whiskered boy interrupted.
"I know." the dark haired woman hissed, a bit annoyed. "That's why you're to accompany our client today with Hinata and protect him, got it?" the blond nodded.
"Okay, now get ready and eat your breakfast, you're off in twenty minutes." After that said, she left the room, so the blond could ready himself up.
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"Good morning Naruto-chan, I've prepared eggs and bacon for you." Greeted the smiling black haired woman from the kitchen. The blond smiled and blushed a bit in embarrassment at his new nickname.
"Thanks Miss." He said and went to sit down. He found Tazuna, Hinata and Inari sitting in the dining table, eating their breakfast. It seemed that the rest were already gone.
"G-Good Morning, N-Naruto-kun." The shy Hyuuga said with a small smile.
"'Morning." The blond spoke, finding a seat next to her.
"H-How are y-your hands?" the girl asked, looking at the blond's hands.
"As good as new." He responded, showing her his fists as a demonstration.
"I never imagined that you could wake up so early, being such a lazy ass." The old bridge builder mocked, already with a flask of sake at hand. The blond chuckled.
"Yeah well, believe it old man." The blond said after taking a drink from his orange juice. "I'm glad I can go with you today, so I can see how an intoxicated person is able to build a bridge."
"When you've spent so many years drinking, you develop a high tolerance and lucidity level brat!" Tazuna said as he laughed softly. Naruto grinned and shook his head.
"Inari, time to get going to school." Tsunami said, walking towards him, handing him his bento box for lunch and giving him a peck on the cheek .The kid received the box and nodded obediently, he stood up and picked up his backpack.
"Bye mom, bye gramps." He said as he walked through the door.
"Learn something useful!" Tazuna said, waving his arm to his grandson.
"Finish up kid. We'll be leaving soon." The old man said as he stood up and left the table.
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The trio made their way among the impoverished streets. Humble merchants had their scarce products being offered on their wagons. Indigents were lying all the way down the streets, asking for money or food. Misery was spread all over the air. It was not a nice view. 'This Gato guy must be really sucking dry this place.' The blond thought darkly to himself. Hinata had spared some money to a kid asking for charity. 'Hopefully that bridge can make a difference.' He thought, gazing at the wide bridge ahead of them. Working men and a few cranes were positioned over the bridge. A grey haired man, probably around Tazuna's age came towards them.
"Ah Chiichi! I see you have come early." The old builder greeted with a grin. "How's your section going?" Chiichi had a somber expression in his face.
"Tazuna-san, they… they have left." He told his superior.
"What?! Your whole party?" Tazuna asked incredulous.
"Hai, all my forty men. They were afraid that Gato would come after them and their families, and decided it was better to abandon their work." The man's eyes dropped as he said that. Tazuna seemed torn apart.
"I'm very sorry. I tried to convince them, but they refused."
"It's ok, Chiichi." Tazuna said with a half hearted smile. "We will just have to find more men."
"But we have all the volunteers we could found, how are we going to find forty replaceable men?" The bridge builder sighed. The genins looked at each other.
"Maybe we could help." Naruto said, taking a step ahead, catching the older men attention.
"But you're just kids!" exclaimed the older man.
"We are ninja." Countered the blond. "I could make forty clones. You and Hinata just have to give them directions." Chiichi looked at Tazuna puzzled. The old man seemed to be considering it.
"All right brat, if you insist. But you'll have to put on helmets." The kids nodded.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Forty Naruto's appeared around the group. The workers stared at the clones in astonishment.
"So what do we have to do?" a chorus of Naruto's asked.
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Workers and villagers stopped by to marvel the work of forty orange-dressed pre-teens carrying materials and accommodating them in their respective spots. The Narutos worked faster than any of the veterans operating in the bridge building. Some clones carried two girders at once and threw them to some other clones working on a higher level, not even minding the pulleys that were hanging for their help.
Chiichi, the constructor showed the clones the blueprints of each structure so that they had an idea where everything was going. Even the young Hyuuga heiress was involved in the construction. The constructor asked Hinata for help, telling her if she could give some directions to the clones and guide them in their chores. She used her byakugan to lead the clones into accommodating some beams into their respective holes filled with cement, so that there were no mistakes made.
'So that's why she can always see people coming.' The blond deduced, after witnessing the Hyuuga heiress eye technique.
The real Naruto was sitting on the metal railing, supervising his clones' labors. He would gaze towards Tazuna a few times to check he was out of danger.
Sometime later, Sakura arrived, informing that being the first mastering the tree climbing exercise, she had been sent to help the pair watch over the old bridge builder.
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They'd been working for over five hours more or less. Naruto was waiting for Hinata and Sakura to check their surroundings, in case there was someone planning on attacking them.
"Something odd?" the blond asked with his arms crossed to the approaching girl. Hinata de-activated her blood limit and shook her head.
"Good." the whiskered boy replied.
"I hate to admit it kid." Tazuna said walking towards his escort. "But that trick of yours is very useful. I'm amazed they all can stand so much work. If you could work like this every day, this bridge could be finished in a week or less." He prized, his eyes somewhat watering at the thought of the bridge being finished.
"It'll be good training." The blond said with a smile.
"Well, it's time for lunch. You'd better tell them to stop for a while before you collapse." The blue eyed boy nodded.
"I'll just dispel them." he made a hand sign and called his clones back to non-existence. The area was immediately filled with puffs of smoke and after its clearing, there were no clones in sight. Suddenly the blond was hit with an extreme fatigue, it felt as if a ton of bricks had just fell upon him. The boy found himself covered in sweat and he dropped to his knee, breathing hard, his throat felt awfully dry.
"Naruto-kun!" the girl next to him said with concern evident in her voice. She knelt next to him, and watch in anxiousness.
"Water." he demanded, in a raspy voice. Hinata quickly browse in her pouch and quickly handed him her flask of water. The blond drank thankfully, savoring the liquid as it ran through his throat.
"Thanks." He said after emptying the container.
"A-are you ok?" she asked worriedly, taking the recipient he was handing her. Tazuna was looking at him in concern. He took out his own canteen of water and drank all of it. The whiskered boy tried to recover his breath and ran the back of his hand through his mouth, eliminating the excess of liquid left.
"Yeah." He finally said. He stood up slowly, stumbling as he tried to regain his composure.
"M-maybe it's better for y-you to sit down." The girl advised shyly. The blond supported himself leaning on the metal railing besides him.
"Nah, I'm fine." He wiped a bead of sweat rolling down his face with his forearm.
"What the hell was that?" he asked confused, it was the first time that happened.
"Y-you don't know." She asked surprised he didn't know the effects of his own technique. The blond shook his head.
"Well, uhm… when y-you use kage bunshins and they are d-dispelled, the knowledge and experiences they h-have recollected in their existence come backs to y-you." The dark haired girl explained. The blond's eyes widened at that. He hadn't really noticed that advantage of the clones.
"So I also accumulate the exhaustion of my clones, right?" The girl nodded.
"I see." It was the first time he had felt so tired after using his shadow clones. 'Maybe because I hadn't used them that long.' The blond reflected. He had them working for five hours straight. If it was just him during that time, he wouldn't get tired so much. But if every individual clone gets tired and then sends its exhaustion to the jutsu performer, the real Naruto would feel the exhaustion multiplied by forty. 'Hmm…' he'd look further into this. Maybe Kakashi-sensei would have some useful information. In that instant, Naruto's stomach emitted a loud growl, breaking the blond's chain of thought.
"I think we'll be having lunch now." The blond informed with a cheeky grin.
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The blond ate eagerly from the bento box Tsunami had prepared each of them. The rectangular recipient contained two compartments, half of which was filled with rice and the other half was had vegetables such as boiled broccoli and carrots warped in cooked meat. The demon container rarely ate any vegetables, he didn't consider them very appetizing due to its lack of flavor, but his weariness led to a hunger that didn't leave space for complaints in his stomach. He stuffed the food in his mouth, waving off a few of the reprimands from his pink haired teammate, criticizing his eating manners.
The blond finished his lunch rather quickly; when he turned to his two female comrades they were finishing half of their meal. He didn't feel quite satisfied but at least his hunger was appeased. Hinata seemed to notice this and shyly offered what was left from her lunch to her crush. The blond sincerely thanked her but rejected her offer, saying that he couldn't take her lunch; after all she was also tired from working with his clones. But the young Hyuuga heiress firmly insisted (in her own timid way), claiming that he needed the food more than she did, working more than any of them. The blond found himself incapable of wining his little argument against the dark haired girl and ate her food obediently. An amused Sakura watched the whole thing with a small smirk in her face, but decided not to say anything, at least not in front of Hinata. Considering her shyness, the green eyed kunoichi knew how she would react if she teased them.
After they'd all finished their food, Tazuna asked them if they could go to the market and get some ingredients for her daughter. The girls accepted, but the blond said he would stay accompanying the old man. After they were gone, the blond informed the bridge builder he intended to continue working. Tazuna was about to complain but Naruto was already summoning the same number of shadow clones as before. The older man, although pleased the boy was willing to help him, sighed in exasperation.
"Very well." He accepted, placing his yellow helmet on his head. "But it won't be my responsibility if you end up dead."
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Three hours after, the workers were gathering their stuff and taking their leave. Some of them were taking backwards glances to the short blond's clones that were still focused on their part of the bridge. Sakura, Hinata and Tazuna were urging the boy to finish already, specially the Hyuuga girl. After Sakura and herself had returned with the ingredients Tazuna-san had asked them to buy, Hinata stared horrified at the young pre-teens dressed in orange jumpsuits working again in their jobs and rushed towards the real blond, stating he was in no condition to continue working. The charming boy just had to show her one of his reassuring smiles to made the worried girl froze in place with a bright blush in her face and disable her ability to talk.
"Hurry up, Naruto! If we take too long, they might think something happened to us." Sakura scowled at the blond, who was watching a few of his clones finish accommodating one beam in its place.
"Fine." The blond coarsely replied. Hinata watched in uneasiness as the blond performed a hand sign and dispelled his replicas. Again, Naruto felt his energy being drained from his body, luckily this time wasn't as exhausting as the first. He unzipped his jacket to let the fresh breeze reach his body.
"Let's go then." The whiskered pre-teen said after he finished the contents of his water canteen once more. They began walking when the blond spoke.
"What are those for?" the orange clad ninja inquired, pointing to a pair of crutches hanging on Tazuna's shoulder.
"These are for your sensei. It's time he gets his lazy ass out of bed." He laughed.
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When they returned they found the remaining members of team eight already in the house. After mastering the tree climbing exercise, they installed some traps near the house. The blond asked for the stoic Uchiha. To his surprise, Sasuke was still trying to get the climbing exercise right, the dog ninja informed with a smirk. Kurenai informed him that Sasuke just left the spot to eat lunch and immediately after left again.
"He hasn't stopped since." The red eyed jounin instructor said.
'He must be pissed.' The blond thought as he directed where Sasuke was training. The Uzumaki knew very well Sasuke's sense of pride. He needed to be the best in everything. Always. Back in the Academy, the Uchiha genius had only shown interest in beating everyone in everything he could. Being surpassed, not only by Kiba and Shino but Sakura also, must have been very frustrating for him.
And there he was. Rushing over a tree and starting going upward, until his chakra control stopped him. He promptly used his kunai to mark the tree before he fell.
'Shit.' The dark haired Uchiha cursed under his breath. 'Why is it so difficult?' He panted and looked at the high tree with countless slashes in its bark running upward.
"You know." He heard a familiar voice said nearby. "Rushing like that will make you lose focus on your chakra."
"What do you want?" he asked harshly. He had had enough mocking from the Inuzuka earlier that day.
"Uhm, nothing." The blond responded lazily, his back leaning on a tree. "Just stopping by."
"Go away!" he spat. "I don't need your help."
"Fine. Just wanted to give you some advice." He turned to leave. "But you better know how to do this by the time Zabuza strikes again." He warned in a serious tone. "We'll need to be stronger next time." Sasuke closed his eyes. When Zabuza had attacked, he couldn't do anything. He just stood there with Sakura and the bridge builder, watching their sensei fight. He clenched his fists. There was nothing he could do, just watch.
He was an Uchiha, and the Uchihas were supposed to be powerful. How would he fulfill his oath of killing his brother if he couldn't climb a freaking tree?
"What…" he sighed. "What do I have to do?" he asked. Naruto smirked slightly but made it disappear quickly. Wounding his pride will lead to nothing good at all.
"Just focus." He responded as he started leaving the area.
"Is that all!?" he snapped. "I've been focusing all day long!"
"Then focus more." The golden haired boy replied. "It works, trust me." And with that, the blond left the outraged Uchiha alone.
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"How's Sasuke-kun doing?" a worried Sakura asked Naruto as soon as he stepped over the house floor.
"He'll get there." The blond said distractedly. Sakura nodded and went to the backyard. She had wanted to go and offer him her support, but the way he looked at her when she was in the top branch of her tree just five minutes after Kurenai had explained them what to do, told her it wasn't a good idea. That, and the fact that he discovered she had stalked him. Just then, they heard someone climbing down the stairs rather slowly.
"Whoa, Kakashi-sensei!" the blond greeted with a smile to the grey haired man in crutches. "Thought you had gone handicap."
"Well I didn't. Sorry to let you down, Naruto." He replied lazily as he made his way towards him. "I heard something very interesting, concerning your clones today."
"Yeah, It was the first time that I used them for that long actually." The blond said rubbing the back of his neck.
"I see." He looked around to make sure no one was listening. "There aren't a lot of ninjas that can maintain their Kage Bunshins for that long without suffering from extreme exhaustion and chakra depletion… even death."
"But given your vast chakra reserves and your… special condition," He emphasized on the last part, which made Naruto's face became serious. Sometimes he liked to forget people knew about his prisoner, luckily Kakashi-sensei didn't look at him the villagers did. "I seems you are able to last longer than anyone with that jutsu."
"I was thinking on training with them." The whiskered boy said. "You know, I'll become stronger faster."
"Hmm… I wouldn't recommend doing that just now. Your actual training regimen's improvement rate is already high enough. If you use your clones you may really hurt yourself, no matter how amazing your healing abilities are." The masked jounin explained. He noticed the blond's face fell. "When you're ready, I myself will teach you how to use them in the most effective way." Naruto's features brightened up.
"But for now," he said as he headed for the door. "Try not to use your clones that much." The blond was silent for a moment.
"I will continue to help in the bridge construction." He stated.
"Just don't overdrive yourself." The sharingan user said without looking back.
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- Patty