Mitsuki was leaning against a building, waiting for her boyfriend to appear, when Naruto passed by. "You don't look so cheerful," she said making her cousin look up. "Oh… hey Mitsuki." "Is everything alright?" the girl asked as she pushed herself away from the wall. "Yeah… more or less."
Mitsuki kept on looking at him with a worried look, making him look away. "Ano… you never thought about… what it would be like if… well you know some things hadn't happened." Mitsuki turned her eyes to her feet, "Yeah I did, but… it doesn't make you feel better, because it's not what happened." "I know," the blonde sighed, placing his hands in his pockets, "By the way, you said the Namikaze clan was a sealing clan, right." "Yes, why do you ask?" "Well, just because I happened to be pretty good in sealing things, I found out." Mitsuki's eyes widened and then she laughed a little. "Now I understand why your appearance is different from before. You did THAT sealing jutsu, huh?" Naruto looked somewhat surprised as Mitsuki turned her head into the direction the wind was coming. Both could smell Kiba's scent; he was coming.
"It's something they used in our clan sometimes. Mom wrote about it in her dairy. I used it as well." "Really?" "Yup, but I'm surprised you figured it out by yourself." Naruto grinned a little as Kiba came running over.
The dog boy stopped in front of them, panting from exhaustion. "I thought you were only getting money for the movies? What took you so long?" Mitsuki giggled. "S-sorry, couldn't find my wallet." Naruto laughed, "Well have fun you two." He waved off and Mitsuki threw the young man a look.
She then felt Kiba grasping her hand, which made her look around with a smile. "Shall we go?" she asked. Kiba blushed and nodded as he pulled her closer. "But before we go…" He got something out of his pocket which he handed over to the girl. It was a little box with a ribbon around it. "What's this?" Mitsuki asked suddenly shy. "Just open it," Kiba whispered as he kissed the girl on her forehead. Mitsuki did and found a necklace with a heart. The heart had Kiba's name in it.
After a few seconds of staring she hugged her boyfriend firmly. "Arigato," she whispered blushing.
The blonde just came out of the shower when there was some knocking. He quickly put on some pants and rushed over to his front door. After unlocking it he opened the door and let Minoru in. "I'll be ready in a second," the blonde said and went back to the bathroom to get the rest of his clothes.
Minoru closed the door and waited while looking around. "Sensei are you always this messy?" "Hm?" came from Naruto as he entered the room again while putting on his shirt, "Oh you mean all the paper junk. Sorry it became pretty late last night. I was looking for something; some old notes I made."
He gathered the papers and placed the pile in a drawer. "Anyhow how are your hands?" Minoru turned his head away. "They're still hurting but not as bad as yesterday." "I already feared you would say that. That's why I had you come over, come on we're off to the hospital." Shocked the boy turned his head to his teacher. "Is-is it really that bad?" "I'm no medic, so I cannot judge that, but what you did yesterday was an overuse of your chakra. Next to that you damaged your hands while climbing the cliff and all the hitting." Minoru started to turn white which made Naruto sweat drop.
"Calm down, kiddo. We have great medics here in Konoha." Minoru looked at his feet. "Sensei…? Is…is it possible to seal my power away?" 'You really are afraid of it, aren't you, Minoru.' "Why would you want that?" Naruto asked as he decided to sit down while putting his sandals on. "Because I don't want to use it. It's…it's scary and…a-and…" "Like it's taking control of you," Naruto said to finish the boy's sentence. Minoru nodded somewhat surprised.
Naruto signed the blue haired to sit down, which Minoru did. "Listen, let's make a deal okay." The boy nodded and patiently waited for his teacher to continue. "I seal that power of yours, but it won't be permanent. It's until you are able to control yourself and that power. Agreed?" Minoru nodded, looking somewhat happier.
"Brat, what are you up too?"
'Nothing, I just seal away a little bit of his chakra making him think I sealed his power.'
"Haha, nice one. You learned a lot Naruto."
'Feh, of course.'
"But making the boy think his powers are sealed away while it's not to give him more peace and believe he won't lose it, that I never expected from you, Naruto."
"Okay then, I will do that sealing after your hands are healed. It might interfere the healing, that's why. So let's go."
Not much later the two arrived at the hospital where Naruto asked a nurse to help Minoru. The nurse nodded and was about to bring Minoru to a room when Sakura appeared. "Naruto? What are you doing here?" Somewhat surprised the blonde looked over to his old team mate. "Oh, hey Sakura. I'm here for Minoru he hurt his hands pretty bad yesterday." "Follow me," Sakura said as she looked over to the nurse to let her know she would take care of it.
"Show me your hands," Sakura said while closing the door of the room the three were in. Minoru showed the pink haired his hands who unwrapped the old bandages. Her expression changed somewhat to being concerned. "Minoru, what did you do?" "I… I fell of a cl-cliff and climbed back up with A-Amaya-chan on my back and I o-overused my ch-chakra." Sakura shot Naruto a stern look. "Are you trying to kill these kids?" she asked on a dangerous tone." "N-no," Naruto stuttered afraid as he backed away. However Sakura raised her fist and punched the blonde with almost all her strength.
Naruto was hit in his stomach and he was sent flying through a couple of walls before he finally fell on the floor about ten rooms further.
Sakura blinked a few times, being confused while Minoru was jawdropping with widened eyes.
Ten rooms further a couple of nurses looked at the figure on the floor, but they were not the only ones. Tsunade looked down with surprise as she found a knocked out Naruto. Sakura came rushing over followed by Minoru. Both going through the holes in the walls.
Naruto woke up and grunted while he sat up. "Sensei, are you alright?" Minoru asked, still in shock of what just happened. "Y-yeah… used to it." "Why did you let me hit you? It's been more than a year I managed to do so," Sakura said, clearly worried and feeling guilty about what she had done. Naruto remained silent for a moment. "Because I'm out of form, I've got too much to think of and don't pay enough attention to my surroundings," he sighed. "So that would be the reason you haven't come over with your team for a mission," Tsunade grinned. "Funny," Naruto growled as he stood up.
"But what's on your mind?" the hokage wanted to know. "Mitsuki told me something." "Oh… so you know now," the slug said no longer grinning but more serious. "Yes, thanks for never telling us," the blonde replied sarcastic. "We had our reasons, Naruto." "I know," he sighed and turned to look at Sakura, "could you help Minoru now?" "Oh of course."
When Minoru was helped Naruto told him to wait outside. As soon the door was closed Naruto turned to Sakura. "Sakura, please tell me you haven't told anyone." The pink haired sighed with a smile, "Of course I didn't, you told me not to do so." "Thanks, I just…" "It's alright." The blonde nodded, "Anyhow I have another question for you as well. Could you train with Minoru? He seems to be interested in being a medic. His chakra use is perfect it, though he's afraid he will loose control of it. This is why I will seal away a little of chakra but telling him it's to keep him under control."
Sakura shot him a somewhat shocked look. "What?" he asked sheepish. "I didn't know you could seal things." Naruto let out a sigh as he sweat dropped.
'Heck I barely tell her anything lately actually… I hope she doesn't find out about what I did like Mitsuki did.'
"Mitsuki is your cousin and like you a specialist, Naruto. Next to that she fought you and knows your chakra level."
'Yeah, the annoying thing is it started to be really annoying, that chakra level.'
"Naruto?" "Huh? Oh sorry… what did you say?" "That I would gladly help him but only once a week; let him come over the day after tomorrow. I'm training Moeki then so that would be the easiest for me." Naruto nodded with a smile. "Thanks, Sakura," he grinned and left.
"Sensei?" Minori said as soon his teacher appeared. "Come on let's go," Naruto told the kid and the left the hospital. Being there the blonde stopped and turned to Minoru. "If you want you could train for being a medic the day after tomorrow." "Wh-what? R-really?" Minoru asked with shinning eyes. This made his teacher snort a little, "Yes. Be at the hospital at 10 AM and ask for Sakura. There will be another student as well by the way. Oh and could you tell Amaya to be at the main bridge at 10 AM that same day." "What about Kojirou?" "Sai is coming back tomorrow." "Oh…" "Now let's go to my home and give you that seal, okay." "Hai," the kid replied smiling.
Amaya was sitting on the edge of the bridge, waiting for her team-mates and teacher. At exactly 10 AM her teacher came walking up. "Morning, Amaya," Naruto smiled to her. "Good morning. Ano… Minoru-kun and Kojirou-kun aren't here yet…" "That's okay, I know about it. Sai is back so Kojirou is with him as for Minoru… he's training with Sakura. So it will be just you and me." Somewhat surprised about this Amaya followed her teacher to the forest. "Now I want to figure something out," Naruto said as he turned to face the girl. "The story the three of you told me makes me wonder about your stamina level. So let's test it. I set up a target training just up ahead with booby traps. I want you to take it, don't worry. If anything dangerous happens I'm around."
Amaya nodded and Naruto noticed her determined look.
Soon Naruto discovered he had been right about the girl. Panting a little she dropped in the grass when she did the whole track three times. "Well done, I'm amazed." "Really?" "Yes, didn't really expect any of you having this much stamina… I would say it's close to mine." "Well… I have to take care of my brothers and sisters all the times so I kinda have to have a lot of stamina…" the girl muttered, making her teacher laugh.
The blonde sat down next to her. "Anyhow, in other words you seem to be qualified for the Kage Bunshin jutsu, if you want to learn it that is." "YES!" the girl shouted cheerfully as she jumped up in joy. Again this made Naruto laugh.
"Alright then. It will take a while before you get the hang of it and also you're not allowed to make a thousand of Kage Bunshin at your first turn. Keep it at a maximum of five. Then another thing you need to know is the – " "Sensei, just teach me the handseals already instead of babbling about risks and such." "Alright alright, calm down," Naruto laughed.
"Your aim is getting a lot better, Kojirou." "Thanks," Kojirou smiled as he placed his brush and paper away. "How is Naruto doing?" "Okay I guess… sensei acted a little weird when this Mitsuki came back to the village, she happened to be his cousin and he's kinda freaking out of that I think." "Mitsuki Naruto's cousin…? Hm," Sai thought as he brought his right hand to his mouth making a thoughtful look, "It does explain why the two have the same hair colour and appetite." "Huh?" Kojirou let out confused giving Sai an questioning look. "Naruto and Mitsuki can both eat 10 extra large bowls of ramen and still say they're hungry." With widened eyes Kojirou stared at the very pale young man. He slowly realised that he still barely knew a thing about his teacher. "Sai-san, you were on Naruto-sensei's team right?" "Yes, but only after he came back from training with Jiraiya-sama so since he was fifteen I believe it was."
"What was sensei like?" Sai started to laugh a little, a rare thing to happen and Naruto would get scared to see it. "Well very different from what he is now. A clueless idiot, screwing up and being the only ge-nin in our age group. True, he did some awesome things though but most of the time it was mere luck for him to achieve something. Next to that he barely used his brains. He was joking and fooling around a lot."
"I don't believe that," Kojirou said after a while. "It's the truth. It was probably his way to get some attention, since he barely got any and when he got some it was mostly scolding or orders. He had to take care of himself for as long as he can remember and no-one would care if something bad would happen to him." "Then… how come sensei is so… so… so serious yet playful and understanding and… so unlike other teachers…"
Sai sat down on his couch as he gave the boy one of his rare true smiles. "Because he met his girlfriend. I was told that Naruto would give everything for someone to accept him in the way he was. Hinata-san did." Kojirou looked a little away. "So that is why those two are so close…" "Yes and no. They just truly love each other… I still wonder what that is like… to love someone."
The red haired boy let out a chuckle, remembering what his teacher told him before he first met Sai. "You still don't have emotions?" he asked grinning. "Oh but I do… I don't just understand them all yet. Since I stopped working under Danzo I started to get my emotions back. In fact that is a relief and less painful…" Sai shivered at the end. "Less…painful?" "Yeah, let me remind you to never say something wrong when Sakura is around she can hit you into the hospital." Kojirou sweat dropped. "Anyhow kid, I cannot teach you much more until your chakra level has increased, which takes time and experience. So tell Naruto you will train with him again, okay." "Will do, thanks for everything." "If you have any questions you can always drop by."
"Naruto was right when he said you could control your chakra pretty good, Minoru," Sakura said smiling. "Man it took me weeks to get that far," Moegi pouted as she watched Minoru throwing the fish back in the pond.
The door then slammed open. "Moegi! I need your advice right now!" Konohamaru shouted. "Huh, what's it about?" Moegi asked surprised. The boy turned his head away out of embarrassment as a slight blush appeared on his cheeks.
