Chapter 13: Appetite
Naruto was in a good mood waiting for the Hokage. He had gotten some morning training in, and gotten to the tower an hour early to talk to the old man. The prospect of acquiring useful jutsus always got him excited. Hisato-sensei made sure Naruto loved learning new things, if he didn't, it would have been impossible to overcome his body's problems. Forcing himself to learn things would be half as effective for twice the effort, and impossible for the original blonde. Being interested and focusing that interest in tangible rewards was the method Hisato-sensei used, after physical exercise of course. In the language of Hisato-san: Yang concentrated until decline, ascending Yin. Not reversing Yang into peak Yin.
Requesting his father's notes on the Rasengan was so fitting too. His graduation to Genin had come through contact with the other Jutsu his father was famous for, the Hiraishin. The only thing was, they needed to keep his identity under wraps. There were only a handful of people who knew the Yondaime had a son. A blonde Genin suddenly knowing the Rasengan for no reason, with the previous incident of having the original Hiraishin kunai, it was too much.
Naruto was busy thinking over excuses for why he might have access to the Rasengan, until he noticed someone he really didn't want to see right now. Inoichi, who also saw him and paled slightly. Naruto guessed why the man was here, and it hurt. But he had to remain polite.
"Yamanaka-sama, good morning. Are you here to see the Hokage before the Genin rush as well?" Naruto bowed formally.
Inoichi puffed himself up. "Good morning Uzumaki-kun." A pause. "I am here concerning you and my daughter. She is not here, so I will be blunt. While your presence is unwelcome to me, we don't have a problem. My wife, however, does. You are in a team with Ino, so it would be unrealistic to tell you to say away from my daughter, I would request you avoid my home and business. My wife needs time to heal still, and you are salt in a wound."
What a complete reversal of black and white! His wife was the problem, but Inoichi was acting like his presence was the problem. Nothing personal, just Naruto's very existence was a problem for his wife. Judging from his expressions, Inoichi seemed to both believe this, and recognize how unreasonable he was being. Could he respond? Anything he said in counter would just prove his troublesome nature to the man. Screw it! This was his teammate, her parents already disliked him, and they would be in the wrong. He'd rather have a teammate completely on his side with parents who despised him than a lukewarm teammate.
And so, Naruto laughed in the man's face. Causing Inoichi to frown. Naruto would play this biting but polite. He wanted to cut this man down, not explode in his face.
"I'm sorry my existence is such a burden on you and your family Yamanaka-sama. Perhaps your wife could leave the village? For her health. I would hate to run into her on the street and cause problems for her. OH! I should apologize for my previous behavior. My five-year-old self didn't know any better, but your wife damaged one of her favorite rocks with my skull. If I were more mature, I would have allowed the rock to smash in my skull like it was supposed to. Maybe I can make it up to her by manufacturing some sort of training accident? I could die, and then your family could put their pain behind them?"
Inoichi had never, ever, been talked to like that. He was a powerful shinobi and a clan head.
"You KNOW what you are! How dare you make light of my wife's pain!" he responded.
"If the existence of the village reminded your wife of her pain, would you burn it to the ground then? Of course not! You're just a selfish coward who indulges his wife! It's easier to bully a child than tell your wife no, isn't it? You know what? Let's go to the Hokage together! I have an idea!"
Inoichi grit his teeth, hard. Those words had hit home. He had to know his wife was unreasonable. Would she get over it just because her husband told her to though? Fat chance.
"Very well. My reason for coming here would be bolstered by your presence."
# # #
The Hokage finished a bit of paperwork and sat back in his chair. He lit his pipe and looked out over the village in the morning light as it hit the Hokage Monument. The view almost made going out of retirement worth it, almost.
"Hokage-sama." An ANBU guard flashed in front of him. "Uzumaki and Yamanaka would like to see you, together. It appears they have had- words with each other."
A morning headache then. He didn't think the Yamanaka clan would have an issue with Naruto, the shinobi clans were either supportive or indifferent to the jinchuuriki. The two walked in at a brisk pace, glaring daggers at each other.
"What seems to be the issue gentlemen?"
"Hokage-sama. My wife has issues with the fox. She does not wish for Naruto to be around our family," said Inoichi. "I realize teams cannot be changed, but I want Ino to be informed. Our clan techniques must never be used on jinchuuriki. I only informed Naruto of my desire for him not to hang around my home or business and he insulted me!"
The Hokage narrowed his eyes. "You know how I feel about Naruto's treatment Inoichi." The Hokage radiated slight killing intent. "If your wife has issues with the fox, she should be… most welcoming to the person keeping it prisoner."
Inoichi began to sweat. "Yes, Hokage-sama. And of my request?"
"Granted. But you will leave the job to my son. I'm disappointed in you Inoichi, and I don't trust you to give a proper accounting. Now Naruto, did you truly insult him? And, why are you here to begin with?"
Naruto nodded. "I said he was a coward for indulging his wife so much. And I'm here to acquire something, I thought I might want to reveal some things to Yamanaka-sama in the process."
The Hokage thought to himself about what Naruto could reveal, probably his ancestry. It would make things easier. The Yamanaka clan head was trustworthy, even if his bias against Naruto was not. Revealing Naruto's status might fix things though. He nodded to Naruto.
"I want the notes on the Rasengan. I could use it in my arsenal on a restricted basis, or we could come up with a reason for my knowing it. Only a few people would even recognize it, and I'm missing a destructive penetrating attack."
The Hokage looked calmly at Naruto. He was growing faster than expected. "I was planning on having Jiraya of the Sannin teach you. He's your godfather, I'm sure he intended on teaching you that jutsu eventually. I can give you the Rasengan notes, just pretend to have met Jiraya if anyone asks."
A series of emotions passed by Naruto's face, but he quickly put up an emotionless mask. Sometimes Hiruzen forgot what the boy knew. He had never mentioned Jiraya because Jiraya was busy managing his spy network. It would be more painful to have a godfather who never visited than finding out he had a godfather later.
Inoichi stood frozen in place, putting the puzzle pieces together no doubt. It wasn't until Hiruzen saw Inoichi glance at a picture of the Yondaime in shock, that he was sure the man had put it together.
"Well Inoichi, I notice you have discovered an S-Rank secret. The S-Rank secret doesn't leave this room beyond informing your wife. I imagine you feel very foolish?" The Hokage smiled at him.
Inoichi kowtowed to Naruto. "Please forgive me! We love the Yondaime. My wife especially… If she knew- I will fix this! I have to go." He ran like his butt was on fire. The decision to let them in on the secret was the right one.
# # #
An hour or so later Naruto was in front of the Hokage again with his team by his side receiving D-Rank missions for the day. He knew something about them being kind of stupid, more for team building and keeping the village happy than real missions, but these? Catch a cat? Paint a fence? Weed a garden? Genin were just part-time laborers who occasionally took on easy missions! The pay would be nice, but this felt like a waste of training time. Especially since-
"Naruto," Asuma said as they walked from the Hokage Tower, "you can do whatever you like with your shadow clones, but you cannot use them for D-Ranks. Am I clear?"
"Asuma-sensei! Why not?" Naruto complained with Shikamaru nodding in agreement with Naruto.
"Because, Naruto, the village already has issues with you. An army of Naruto's fulfilling their requests might scare them, or at least put them off. They hired a bunch of Genin children, and so we're going to give them that. Remember the purpose of D-Ranks Naruto." Naruto nodded along. He knew this was the moment, it made him truly nervous. "Speaking of which, I have been instructed to inform your teammates."
Silence came over Team 10.
"I have been curious. I guess we're in the know since we're teammates now," said Shikamaru, breaking the silence.
Ino gave her sensei a determined look and nodded.
Asuma then began to tell the story as he knew it. The kyuubi invaded Konoha. The Yondaime sealed the beast into a newborn, the newborn was Naruto. Neither Ino nor Shikamaru interrupted once. Ino's expression was sad, Shikamaru's was the same bored expression he usually wore.
"And now most of the village either shuns Naruto or actively despises him, the younger generation doesn't even know why. Some ignorant civilians even think of him as the Fox. In the beginning, there were, attempts…"
Shikamaru finally cut in, "It doesn't make sense Asuma-sensei. This is irrational. Jinchuuriki aren't common, but they aren't unprecedented. I'm certain we've had the Kyuubi sealed here before. It's not as if a wild kyuubi was running around for years until it finally attacked. If Naruto were the antisocial type like some containers turn out, then sure. But he's an alright guy. What gives?"
"People were scared, are scared. The feel of the Fox's demonic chakra is not something easily described. Combined with the extreme loss of life, grief and fear can become anger and hatred."
Naruto looked on the ground. He wasn't sure how his team would react. Shikamaru sounded promising, but Ino hadn't said a single word, and he was almost too afraid to look. Until he felt small arms wrap around him from behind.
"We're a team now Naruto. Team 10!" Ino said.
# # #
The D-Ranks had gone without incident, Naruto suspected the Hokage had filtered the requests for him. He might have complained about being treated differently, but it was better for his sanity and the point of the D-Ranks to ingratiate the citizens with ninja. They had gotten the cat last. It was easy to find, but not to catch without getting major scratches. The cat did not want to be found obviously. Naruto's suspicions were confirmed when the cat's owner, some chubby lady, practically smothered the thing when she got ahold of it.
# # #
The team received their pay for the day and headed to training ground 9.
"Enjoy your first missions?" Asuma asked as they arrived. Team 10 collectively groaned. "Well, hopefully disliking D-Rank missions inspires some hard work in your training. The sooner you get stronger, the sooner we can start incorporating C-Ranks. We'll do team exercises for an hour, then whatever individual training you want with my help, every week we'll have a spar amongst yourselves to see where you are. Keep something in mind, I set our meeting time later in the morning for a reason. It's technically up to you, but if you guys don't keep up your conditioning, I'll use the individual training time to do so. This will be your schedule every day, excluding days off, for a little over a month."
Asuma had them practice formations, team building, and scenarios for an hour. After this, the sparring began. He had them face off in a circle. Giving Shikamaru all the advantage.
"Naruto vs Shikamaru, all techniques allowed! Begin!"
Shikamaru started to use his shadow technique. But even in the range of the circle, he could not keep up with Naruto's speed. Naruto ended the fight almost immediately with a single kick, which knocked Shikamaru out of the circle.
"Ino vs Shikamaru! Begin!"
Shikamaru used his shadow technique. Ino managed to get away at first, throwing some shuriken which forced Shikamaru to move. But she was caught and walked out of the circle by Shikamaru.
Asuma nodded. About what he expected. Nara's clan jutsu allowed them to be lazy in a 1v1 spar. The shadow jutsu broke any tie. It allowed them to punch above their weight, especially if they were crafty, which Shikamaru was. His plan to use Ino to drive Shikamaru would be—difficult. Ino would have to become much stronger than Shikamaru to best him in these encounters, which he would diversify as things progressed. It's not like he could favor Ino either. Shikamaru had to be lazy enough, and Ino hard-working enough to make the difference. But he wouldn't let Shikamaru be lazy as far as he could help it. When he reached a higher level, the shadow jutsu had more utility as a delaying tactic. An opponent with killing intent would not be easily stopped.
"Good, good. Shikamaru, you need to get faster on your feet and with your technique. If I don't see improvement in your condition next week, I'm going to take your training time. Unless you want something specific, you should be working on your shadow technique speed. Ino, you also need to improve your speed and your taijutsu. I'll work with you and Shikamaru on that." He'd think about something she could add when those were up to high-genin level. "Naruto, keep working on the barrier jutsu."
"Actually sensei, I wanted to have another jutsu to test the barrier against," said Naruto hesitantly. "I need a small-scale, high penetration attack. I worked on the barrier last night and this morning."
No way. The kid was already making him push the other Genin faster than he had ever bothered! He couldn't not train them. Some Jonin didn't bother with training their Genins' individual strength, but the throw them in the deep end method of preparing Genin didn't sit well with Asuma. He wanted them to be more than strong enough for the missions, inevitably something went wrong on a mission or two anyway. But if he trained the two, he had to train the one.
If Naruto got too powerful too quickly just through personal training, he would have an experience problem. Those with an appropriate level of experience for Naruto would be too weak and no challenge. Those at Naruto's power level would have far more experience than him, and the challenge would be far too steep. A Jonin sensei was a good way to get field experience with the ability of the Jonin to jump in, but Asuma still needed to protect his other students. If Naruto was challenged, his other students would need constant protection. Naruto could always introduce handicaps to himself, but for many missions, it wasn't appropriate.
"Sensei? If you can't think of anything, I'll just work on practical skills and jutsus for now. Do you know the healing acceleration jutsu? Or maybe a tracking skill? Or a long-distance spying skill?" Naruto listed excitedly.
Asuma was shocked, Naruto was interested in all of those things?
Ino cut in, "Naruto! You greedy jutsu-pig! How can you learn all of that? We need to focus on getting stronger!" She flexed her bicep.
"NO! Er- Naruto. I will give you as many practical jutsus and skills as you could ever want. And I will think of a jutsu for your barrier too. Just keep me abreast of your progress."
He had a way to stall Naruto without holding him back. Now Asuma just had to hope Naruto was interested in enough to keep him busy for a while.