III

.

Though he may have considered his actions subtle, Sarutobi Hiruzen has followed the friendship Hyūga Neji has haltingly crafted with Naruto.

Over the past few years, it has been one of the things that he has drawn his strength, drawn his hope from.

That this has somehow spiralled into Naruto's robbery of the forbidden scroll is less than ideal, but he can see the issue. Naruto has far too much chakra to ever be capable of the regular clone jutsu. In truth, he had been forestalling her graduation by not offering the jutsu for one reason and one reason only.

Uzumaki Naruto has to be on Uchiha Sasuke's team. Not that the two of them would benefit from this arrangement. No, the reason this has to be is because of who the council have dictated the young Uchiha's sensei will be. Kakashi needs to be involved with the daughter of his late sensei. Hiruzen is a tired old man, he's lived many years and lost his wife, lost a child, lost a student. He has an excuse to be sealed off from the world sometimes. But he's not.

Hatake Kakashi, even with the loss of his father, his teammates and sensei, is not allowed to curl up into a ball of self-disgust and misery. Not while Sarutobi Hiruzen is Hokage.

Which means he will be getting his lifetime supply of bouncing, beaming blonde very, very soon.

Yet, Hiruzen has to figure out a way to make this a punishment for Naruto. Stealing the forbidden scroll (despite how masterfully she'd managed to 'knock him out' with that… tricky little jutsu of hers) is a criminal offence. The only reason she hasn't been torn into is because, technically, she's still a civilian.

Perhaps he can pitch it to the council that she's Kakashi's trial run as a student before he gets Sasuke? The council will probably accept the fact he's pushing their Jinchūriki into her place earlier than he'd planned as a proper punishment, and he'll ban Naruto from anything but D-Ranks until she gets a team. That'll keep her in the village training and act as a real punishment for her.

Now that he's got that little issue tied up with a neat little bow, Hiruzen pulls open his desk draw where Jiraiya's latest masterpiece awaits.


Naruto eyes the old man who's not an old man and he eyes her right back. Jiji is no doubt watching them but Naruto doesn't care right now, too busy focusing on this weirdo that she's now being introduced to. It's funny, he's looking at her with something like distaste, only it's not the same flavour as what the rest of the villagers wear. No, while they always look like they've drunk some sour milk and it doesn't agree with them, this guy just looks like he's just been force-fed a lemon. His face has twisted all up but it's a recent expression. His face, or what little she can see of it, drops back into emotionless ninja expression #3. She'd say it's like what Neji had before she beat the whole 'feelings' thing into him, but that'd be a lie on two parts. One because his default expression had been disgust towards the world at large and two… because she's not ever actually beaten him to a pulp. Outlasted him in a fight? Yeah, plenty of times.

"Are you sure about this guy, Jiji? I'm not sure if I wanna trust a guy whose face I can't see. What if there's some deforestation under there?"

"Deformity, Naruto. The word you're looking for is deformity," Jiji murmurs with a sigh, puffing away on his pipe. She's pretty sure Iruka-sensei had said smoke is bad for your lungs and that any ninja worth their chakra who wants to live past forty are supposed to avoid inhaling it. Maybe she wasn't listening properly though and you're supposed to inhale it to live past forty… She'll ask Neji later.

"Maa, those who talk shit get hit, nee?"

"Wha-"

"Training time, my cute little genin."

.

Six hours later, Naruto finds herself crawling to her usual met up with Neji, her limbs aching and pulsating in ways she hadn't known they could. Man, there's a massive difference between a Chunin instructor having to take care of twenty plus kids, and then a Jōnin having the time to focus on a single student. Does she regret calling out sensei-who-hasn't-yet-offered-his-name? Not in the slightest. Her body still hurts though.

"Neji! Thank god, I need healing hands! Or at least my nerves deading so I don't feel the pain anymore." Naruto allows her arms to give up supporting her body now, dropping to the ground with a hearty thump, head to a side so she has a fighting chance at seeing Neji's approach. Her jerk of a friend stays right where he is, seated at the foot of the tree, hands clasped gently in his grasp and the veins around his eyes bulging in a way that says he's practicing with his freaky super-powers. Damn blood-line limits; why doesn't she have anything like that?

"Dare I ask what terrible fate of your own creation has befallen you now?"

"Of my own- Hey! How was I supposed to know borrowing the super-secret-ninja-scroll would get me in trouble!"

Neji flicks one eye open, staring at her with such an intense expression of 'you idiot I don't know how I put up with you' that Naruto can't help the blood that rushes to her cheeks.

"Well jokes on you, Neji, because I'm now a Genin of Konoha! See!" Naruto jabs a thumb towards the headband on her forehead. Even if she'd had to sit through a three-hour lecture by Iruka-sensei (who'd looked irritated to be there but Jiji apparently cannot spend that long telling her off because he has a village to run, so he'd assigned her telling off to someone else and just graced her with the grandfatherly stare of disappointment when she'd been marched up to his office), she's a Genin now. Just like Neji.

"I've even got a sensei, even if he is a total weirdo. Hey, hey! Let's compare training tips!"

Neji might roll his eyes at her, might scoff and huff. But he does join in on her Taijutsu training a moment later; of course he does, he's her best friend, no matter how much he tries to deny it. And now, they're Genin together. Look out world, here comes Uzumaki Naruto!


...surprise?