The Naruto concept is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. This specific story concept, and any original characters contained within, are mine.

Before I say anything about the story, there are a couple reviewers who I feel the need to mention. The first is Xoni Newcomer, who gave me a thoughtful and helpful review of the first chapter. The second is Rashaka, who gave me a thoughtful and helpful review of the second chapter. I'm in awe of you two. You've both given me some great advice, and I feel the need to thank you.

Of course, I'm glad for everybody else who reviews, too. Even just "Love your story, keep up the good work" is great and really makes my day. I'd list all you guys, but there's simply too many for me to name.

The Last Step: "On a scale of one to CRAP!"

***

Previously on Last Step: After learning that Naruto has to lead a team of Genin, he refuses by giving them an impossible test. When the team fails the mission he gave them, he wastes no time in sending them back to the academy for another year.

***

"I'm happy to announce that all three of you fail".

Naruto kept on replaying those words in his head. His futon felt lumpy, so he fluffed it. Lay down again. Still lumpy. He fluffed it again. Still lumpy. Again, he fluffed it. This was getting tiresome.

That defeated look in Kutsu's eyes had been the worst part. Naruto knew that look, he'd had it himself so many times before. He had it almost every day as a child, though he masked it with a smile, a wink, and a prank. That look meant that something deep inside Kutsu had been crushed, a dream or a hope. Naruto looked like that each time he failed the academy. The knowledge that he had brought it on somebody else tore him up inside.

'This sucks', he scowled. 'I'm not getting any sleep this way. My head's too busy feeling sorry for that punk kid'.

Sitting up, Naruto decided to go for a midnight stroll. Maybe the night air would help clear his mind and give him some much needed rest.

***

Kutsu checked over his pack one last time. Kunai, pen light, key, matches, food, blanket, rope. Yep, he had everything. Slipping the pack over his shoulders, he cinched the straps tight and headed out of the alley he was hiding in.

He had failed the exam. So he wasn't a Genin. So he wasn't a ninja. So he couldn't legally live away from his father. So he had to go back to that…place.

Kutsu shook his head to rid himself of that thought. No way was he going back there, to that slobbering drunk. That pig who dared call himself Kutsu's father. If the only legal option was to live with his father, then Kutsu was leaving. He couldn't stand a single day more with that abusive jerk.

Jumping onto a roof, he began the trek across the village towards his house. Just a quick stop to pick up a couple important things, then he'd leave. Maybe he'd become a hermit, like that Jiraiya guy everybody talked about. Or maybe he could go join one of the other villages.

Kutsu really didn't care what happened, as long as his father wasn't part of the equation.

So intent on his task was Kutsu, that he didn't even notice the black lump as he sped by it. The lump, being a much higher caliber ninja than Kutsu, did.

***

Naruto frowned to himself quizzically. 'What the hell is that kid doing out here at this hour? It's got to be around two, shouldn't he be asleep? Where are his parents?'

It was mostly curiosity, but more than a little bit of guilt made Naruto follow that boy, that night. 'Just to see what he's doing', the Jounin reasoned. 'Then I'll leave him alone. I doubt I'm somebody he wants to talk to right now.' Naruto jumped over another roof, and caught himself. 'jeez', he thought. 'I'm trying to trail this kid, and I'm almost beating him to wherever we're going. That'd be a scene, wouldn't it?' For a moment, Naruto almost laughed at the comical thought. He sobered up and hopped another roof when Kutsu managed to get a respectable distance away.

Can't let humor get in the way of business, after all.

***

Kutsu smiled to himself. 'Finally', he thought. It had seemed like forever, but he finally managed to make it to his ho…his /former/ house. He didn't live there anymore, so he couldn't call it his house. So technically, he was breaking and entering. But technicalities had never bothered Kutsu before.

He jumped onto the roof of his old house, and began searching around for the skylight he knew was there. Finding it, his scrabbling hands searched blindly for the lock. Finally, he remembered the penlight, which he had packed for exactly this reason. Taking a quick look around to make sure he was unobserved (Naruto casually activated his Kagehensou no Jutsu. No need to move, when he could do a cool trick like that. He created the jutsu, and he was going to use it as often as he damn well could, thank you very much.) Seeing nobody (Inwardly, Naruto smirked. He loved it when his jutsus worked.), Kutsu quickly opened the lock, slid open the window, and entered the house. After a moment, Naruto followed him. 'Only to see what he's doing', he told himself.

***

Kutsu switched off the penlight now that he was in familiar territory. He could navigate this house blind as a bat, and almost as quickly. With light, padding steps, he made his way to the room which was once his, and silently slid open the door. Still using his Jutsu, Naruto sidled in after him.

The penlight flicked on, and Naruto winced. 'That's completely amateur', he thought. 'Doesn't this kid know some sort of localized light jutsu? I could teach him one in about ten min-' He cut that thought off. He had been given that option, and turned it down. Wasn't that what he wanted? He didn't have time to be teaching some punk genin who made fun of his face. He had better things to do.

Didn't he?

Kutsu sucked in a quick breath as he found what he was looking for, and Naruto brought himself out of the internal monologue. 'The kid came here for a dumb picture?' he asked. 'What could be so important that he'd actually break into somebody's house for it [1]?' Naruto got his answer in one mumbled word word.

"Mama…" A solitary tear slid it's way down Kutsu's cheek, before an adolescent hand wiped it away. The same hand tucked the picture into the pack, and the body it was attached to turned to leave. 'Now that I've got everything, I just need to leave the house, sneak past the border guards, and I'm as home free as I can get'. As he turned, that first task became just a /little/ bit harder.

A raspy voice echoed in the tiny room. "I thought I heard a /rat/ in here. Guess I found it." Kutsu backed up against the wall, thinking about his options. Ninja or not, his father was still a drunk. In his constant state of half-sobriety, was there a chance Kutsu could get away?

Any hope of that was dispelled when the man lurched forward. There wasn't a hint of alcohol on his breath, for the first time Kutsu could remember in years. "I ran outta money for booze, so I didn't do no drinking today." The old man muttered, half to himself. He looked at the shivering boy, and smiled. "But it looks like you got some nice stuff there. I could probably sell that light for a bottle or a half…care to share the wealth with your dear old dad?" A smile revealed crooked and yellow teeth.

Kutsu panicked. This hadn't been in the plan at all! He threw the flashlight at his dad's face, and prepared to bolt. He didn't notice his tunnel vision on the door until he completely missed the backhand. It caught him straight across the face, and Kutsu spun with the force, trying to gain his bearings. He hadn't expected to fight, he wasn't prepared for this! His father roared and picked him up by the shirt, obviously preparing to hit him again. "Damn runt! I'll teach you to throw things at me!"

Kutsu shrieked, and he almost drowned out the quiet voice which floated through the chaos. Almost, but not quite.

"You will not touch that boy." It was a voice of command, carrying a threat which was so obvious, it didn't even need to be spoken. Two heads swiveled in almost comical unison towards a wall which had recently begun talking. As both Kutsu and his father searched the wall for the source of that intimidating voice, Naruto shimmered into view behind them. He tapped the father on the shoulder lightly, and whispered into his ear, "That means put him down."

Kutsu's father jumped almost a foot into the ground, dropping the child in a heap. As quickly as he could, Kutsu crab-walked away to the door, but Naruto stopped him with a glance. "You're not quite out of this yet," he warned. Kutsu froze. That wasn't a voice you wanted to mess with.

Now that the attention was off of himself, the father regained his bearings. Swaggering up to the smaller gentleman with the funny face paint, he attempted to establish his dominance. "Hey! Who're you, coming in here and messing with me? You're breaking and entering, you know. I could kill you and claim self defense, and nobody would be able to say a word!" For extra effect, he spit in Naruto's face.

The Jounin glared at the man of questionable rank. Not even bothering to wipe off his face, he smiled slightly. "You could try," he said casually. "But you'd fail. And it looks like I could prove you've been lax in your duties as a guardian of this child. You'd probably contest the accusation, so it's end up in the Hokage's lap. And once it gets there, you'll lose. So I'm probably not somebody you want to mess with."

The man backed off slightly, stunned by the balls this shaggy blond had. Pointing an accusatory finger at him, the father decided to try to bluff his way out. "HAH! You think I'd lose? Guess you didn't know that the Hokage herself has taken a liking to me. There's no way she'd believe that I've been lax in my duties."

If anything, Naruto's smile grew wider and more sharklike. "Really? That's funny. I talk to Tsunada-baba all the time, and she's never mentioned you. But, since it looks like you want to keep this out of the Hokage's way, I'll let you fight me."

With a quick gesture, Naruto summoned ten Kage Bunshin. His hand swept across the room, indicating the clones. "My strength is spread evenly through each clone. I'm not sure if you can work basic math with that puny brain of yours (the man blinked, obviously not understanding), so I'll clarify. Each of these bunshin is only one tenth as strong as I am. You can play with them while Kutsu and I go have a talk."

The man growled. "Who are you to come barging in here and taking my son?" he demanded, attempting to push his way through the clones.

Naruto winked at him. "I'm his teacher."

A clone reached out an arm and pulled the man back into the group. "Hold on there, big man. We haven't even started playing yet."

Kutsu's father looked at the clone. He knew it was an illusion. It had to be. Bunshin no Jutsu could only make illusions.

Now he looked down at the distinctly not-illusionary arm holding onto his sleeve.

The last thought he had before a fist reached out and broke his nose was something along the lines of, "What in the hell is going on?"

After his nose was broken, he didn't do too much thinking. Mostly just a lot of crying, really. The Naruto clones leered at him, and he shrank down, protecting his head with his arms. A quiet voice whispered close in his ear.

"We'll make you a deal. If you close your eyes and don't open them until you count to eleven million, we won't break every bone in your body."

After that, the only noise in the room was pretty monotonous. "One…two…three…four.."

Kutsu's father was in for a long night.

***

"DUDE! That was incredible! You scared the pants off of him!"

Naruto did his best to shut out the exultations of Kutsu. At the same time, Kutsu was doing his best to get Naruto's attention.

Yep. It was a classic case of "Irresistible Force Meets Immovable Object". One of them would have to crack, sooner or later…

"Would you shut up?"

There went the Immovable Object…

Naruto glared at Kutsu, searching for somebody other than himself to take his anger out on. He hadn't wanted to teach the genin. He knew that. It just wasn't something he had the time to do. But now he'd gone and publicly accepted the job of teacher, and there was no backing out.

And he wanted to blame it on Kutsu, dammit. He wanted to blame it on Kutsu's father, or whoever that jerk was. But internally, he knew he couldn't. He'd been perfectly rational when he made the statement. He hadn't been crazy. It wasn't anybody's fault but his.

And was it really such a bad thing, to be a teacher?

Naruto's face visibly relaxed, and he studied Kutsu. "Hey kid", he intoned. "Do you have a place to sleep? It looks like you don't want to go back to wherever you were before, if that was really your house."

Kutsu nodded, eyes studying something interesting on the ground. "I found a tree over by the park, and I've got a blanket and some string. I'll just rig up a hammock for tonight, and find an apartment tomorrow, or something."

Naruto shook his head sadly, and bonked the child on the head. "No way", he stated officially. "No student of mine is going to be homeless, even for a single day." The Jounin grabbed Kutsu's arm, and began dragging him along towards an unknown destination. "For tonight, you're sleeping in my house. Tomorrow after training, we'll go out and find you an apartment."

Kutsu blinked and tried to understand what was happening. He…was getting a home? Somebody was willingly going to give up some of their personal space, for him? It was only for one night, but still. His eyes threatened to tear up, and Kutsu only managed to squeak out one small word as he was dragged along. "Why…?"

Naruto glanced down at him, an open smile on his face. "Because you're just like me", he answered softly.

***

Kutsu's eyes slowly opened, and he fuzzily tried to both wake up and figure out what the hell was going on, at the same time. It didn't quite work out.

This wasn't the tree he was planning to sleep on. Nor, however, was it his futon in his old home. Was he in jail already? Had he been caught by the Konoha border guards?

"Damn," he muttered. "If this is jail, I should go in more often." His fuzzy thinking was interrupted by a too-loud-for-this-early-in-the-morning voice.

"Wake up, kid. It's almost ten o'clock. We need to go out and get the rest of your team so we can have our first official day of training." Kutsu's head looked around, as his eyes blinked blearily. Oh yeah. He was in Naruto's house, wasn't he? A shirt, jacket, and pants obscured his vision by landing on his head. "Put those on, and be fast about it."

Kutsu took the clothes off of his head, and looked at them. As he put the ensemble on, only a single thought crossed his mind.

"I hate orange."

***

The Genin picked at his jacket. "Why do I need to wear this?" he muttered. Naruto looked at him oddly.

"What? You don't like it?" Naruto pounded on the door again. "Dammit, Kiba. Get your lazy self up!" The loud barking of a dog indicated success. If a dog was up, so was the rest of them.

Kutsu glared at the innocent door. "No, I don't like it. I don't like orange." Naruto looked at him again, face aghast.

"How can you not like it? I wore an outfit just like that every day when I was a Genin. Next, you'll be telling me you don't like Ramen." Glancing back at the door, Naruto missed the uneasy smile on Kutsu's face. The oncoming confession was delayed as the door swung open, and a shaggy head stuck itself out the door.

"Naruto? The hell are you doing here?" Kiba yawned, and Akamaru echoed the motion. Naruto smiled apologetically as he placed his hands behind his head.

"Well," he explained, "I'm here to pick up your daughter for training."

Kiba blinked lazily. "Kimiko?" He said. "I thought she failed the test, or whatever it was. She said she had to go back for another year at the academy."

Naruto smiled slightly. "Yeah, well, I changed my mind. She passes, her team passes, and I'm training them." Kiba blinked lazily, and sighed. Naruto kept his eyes fixed on the man's face; the dog echoing his actions would be just too freaky right now.

"Yeah, okay. I'll go get her." As Kiba began to walk off, he turned around and made one last comment to Naruto. "I'm glad you're her teacher, man. Maybe you can give her some of that determination and confidence you've got in buckets, huh?" Naruto gave him a thumbs up, and Kiba shouted for his daughter. "Oi, Kimiko! Your teacher's here. Turns out you passed the test after all, puppy-dog! Come on, it's training time!"

After a moment, both Kimiko and Midomaru shuffled their way out of the door. Naruto patted her on the head, and the team walked off to find Shikashi.

***

The last member of the team was still in bed, pillow over his ears. He was doing his best to ignore the females of the house. In turn, the females of the house were doing their best to get his attention.

Finally, Ino stalked into his room and grabbed the pillow away from him. "Shikashi, get up. It's almost eleven o'clock, and you need to start training if you want to get into a team next year." Her next comment was muttered, but Shikashi heard it just as well. "Honestly. If only you were more like your sister…"

Internally, Shikashi groaned. He'd heard those words repeated by various people for as long as he could remember. If only he was more like his sister…he'd be a better ninja. He'd be more motivated. He'd be stronger. Faster. Smarter. He'd be more /everything/, if only he was more like his sister.

Finally admitting defeat, Shikashi dragged himself out of bed and began slowly putting on some clothes. A knock at the door brought his mother flitting away to answer it; she knew better than to expect her husband to. Shikashi was in the middle of pulling on his pants, when his mother screeched for him to get downstairs, /now/. In around a minute, he finally ambled his way down. It was a new personal best, but not enough to please his mother. Her dissatisfaction showed quite clearly in her tapping foot.

"Shikashi," she began sharply. "Your /teacher/ is here to train you." The boy blinked questioningly. Looking around his mother to the Jounin, he frowned. "I thought we failed the test. Didn't you say we had to go back to the academy for another year?"

Naruto smiled apologetically, and Kutsu began explaining. Kimiko just hung around behind Naruto, smiling shyly at Shikashi. The dog went up and nudged at his hands, looking for something to pet him. "Well," Kutsu said, "He changed his mind last night, and decided that we passed. So now we're officially ninja, and we get to go on missions, and everything! But for today, we're just going to be doing some basic training exercises."

Shikashi shrugged and exited the house, following his team and teacher. He pointedly ignored his mother, who called after him to "Train hard to be just like your sister, Shikashi-kun!" Naruto gave Shikashi a questioning look, which was equally ignored.

***

"Being a ninja isn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be," muttered Kutsu. He flopped on the ground from exhaustion, and Shikashi soon followed. Kimiko was breathing hard, but chose to sit against a tree rather than lie on the ground. Midomaru curled up at her feet. Both Genin nodded assent to Kutsu's statement.

Naruto jogged up to the Genin, looking as bright and energetic as he had when the four of them /started/ this hellish exercise. "What's wrong, guys? Don't tell me you're beat already!" Shikashi glared at him, and Naruto winced. If looks could kill, that glare would be a weapon banned for war for its utter viciousness.

"We've been running nonstop, for three hours. Up and down hills. Through creeks and rivers. Carrying, of all things, a /log/." Shikashi emphasized that last word. Naruto grinned at him, apparently oblivious to the murderous intent that all three Genin harbored right now.

"Come on, guys. It's just a log. Not too heavy."

Kimiko raised her hand. "Um…actually, Naruto-sensei…I think my log weighs more than I do." Naruto looked at her, stunned.

"What? How much do you weigh? That log is only a hundred and twenty-five pounds!"

Kimiko shrugged. "I weigh one hundred and ten," she muttered. Naruto and the rest of her team stared at her.

"You need to gain some weight, girl. Is that even healthy, being that thin?" Kutsu asked with confusion in his eyes. Again, Kimiko shrugged, but a slight blush tinged her cheeks.

Naruto slapped the ground loudly. "Alright. If you're all really this tired, let's call it a day. We'll meet by the bridge again tomorrow at 10 am sharp, okay?" A stone impacted his head, and a voice called out, "You better be there, teacher. If you keep us waiting more than fifteen minutes, we're skipping out."

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly, and grinned. "Sure," he said. "I'll do my best to be there on time. Oh…before you all head off, what did you think of your first day of training?"

Shikashi said it first, and quite possibly the best. "On a scale of one to crap," he said, "This day would rank right around the CRAPPY end of the scale." Naruto grinned.

"That's exactly where I wanted it," he said. He dodged another stone, and dismissed the team.

***

"What? That's too expensive. There's no way he can afford that!"

Naruto hung up the phone with more than a little anger, and rubbed his head. After a moment, he asked Kutsu for the next number.

"That's it, Naruto. We've reached the end of the phonebook. Not a single apartment, in all of Konoha, that I can afford on a Genin's pay."

Naruto sighed. "So where do we go from here?", Kutsu questioned. His teacher looked at him. "Well," he said. "I guess you're staying with me for a while. At least until we find something you can afford, that is.."

The whistle of the kettle indicated boiling water, and Naruto went to prepare some instant ramen for him and his new roommate. Said roommate looked around, absorbing the looks of what was apparently going to be his house for a while. He hoped Naruto wouldn't check the phonebook on his own, Kutsu had refrained from giving him the numbers of the cheapest apartment complexes deliberately. He was willing to do it, but living alone didn't seem like such an attractive option, now. Not when he had just gotten the closest thing to a happy family he could ever remember.

A steaming bowl of ramen somehow found its way in front of the boy.

"Eat up," a smiling voice said. "Tomorrow's training will be just as hard as today's, and you need to keep up your strength."

Kutsu wondered if this was what it felt like to be important. Eating ramen with his new teacher, he decided that it must be.

***

Coming next: "I'm sick of weeding gardens. Can't we do something else?" "Be thankful. At least gardens don't fight back."

***

Author's note: [1]: Since Konoha village is filled with ninja who would most likely put lots of traps in their houses to protect their possessions, it seems like breaking and entering would be a pretty stupid thing to do, especially if you're not even a Genin. I'd put it about on par as driving a motorcycle in speeds of excess of 65 mph, while not wearing a helmet, in the rain. It's just asking for trouble.

Okay. I'm actually really happy with this chapter, just as much as I was with the first. Maybe I'm just not good at action scenes.

So now they're all a team, and Naruto's their teacher. Wow. Bet none of you saw that coming. Kutsu's living with Naruto, now. That may have been more of a surprise.

I tried to develop Shikashi's character a little bit more. I agonized for quite a while over what I could do to make him something other than a carbon copy of his father. I couldn't think of any weird personality quirks or hobbies or anything, until I remembered his sister. I made his sister out to be quite the ninja in the first chapter, and Shikashi has the potential she showed, but none of the drive. It seemed perfectly reasonable that everybody would compare the two of them, and even more reasonable that Ino would constantly be hounding him to be "More like your sister". So there's what makes him different. It's defiantly something I'm going to play with in future chapters, so I'm glad people mentioned the problem to me. The solution is really something I'm happy with.

So what did you guys think? Is this chapter up to the standards of the previous two? By the way, I really need to mention one last thing…I'm incredibly grateful as to the response that this story has been generating. Seriously, you guys. I had twenty five reviews of the first chapter. When I posted the second one, that got doubled in just a day. I've still got reviews coming in, too. It's absolutely incredible. I've never gotten a response like this to something before.

Anybody know what I'm doing to merit such an incredible fanbase? I'm honestly curious, and some other people have been asking, as well.

Oh…probably in a couple days or so, I'll post an author's note chapter. It'll be an ongoing chapter which will answer all the questions that people usually ask me. This will be the only time I update it without also posting a chapter, so don't worry. You won't be getting any 'false alarm' updates. Those tick me off.