Warning list
COPYRIGHT
In Soviet Russia, you own Naruto. Here and now, Naruto owns you.
YADA YADA
You know the rest. Otherwise, refer to 1st chapter.
Foreword:
This chapter has more on Sakura than Naruto. I've also added in Ino and Kakashi as guest stars. Oh, Sasuke definitely makes a light entrance next chapter. Definitely.
Fox Identity
by Arkhe
Chapter Three: Apprentice II / Testing the Waters
It was early.
Too early.
It was so early that only the most annoying of birds were chirping at a time when the sun didn't even rise yet.
For most denizens of any country, this would be an ungodly hour. To ninjas, most jobs tend to start at this sort of hour, so none of those disappearing-reappearing folk were complaining (much) about it.
So, though you have people who were up at this time, no one was particularly happy to be up at this time.
However, there was one person that was running all the way to certain residence that was pretty excited.
Oh yes, there was someone on her mind that'd help her become pretty strong.
And then she finally reached her pretty little destination.
"Morning Naruto!" She greeted, pretty spectrum rainbows and pretty glimmering sunshine flowing in every direction she smiled.
"...What the hell are you doing here?" He flat-toned.
And then Sakura was pretty bewildered.
"You're gonna start training me!" She replied.
As far as she knew, she wanted to be with Sasuke. Sasuke was only interested in training and becoming stronger. Naruto pretended he was weak but was actually really strong and was always looking to research new techniques. She knew this and would help Naruto in exchange for training to catch Sasuke's eye.
They had mutual interests. It wasn't complicated.
"I didn't tell you to come back in the morning." He snorted.
Then why the hell did Naruto try to complicate things?
"You didn't give me a time to come back at all!" She said, a little more forcefully than she intended.
"For good reason." He said, though he did not add 'because he needed to devise a way to keep her on a leash', he did give a feeble excuse. "Besides, I gave you the wall-walking exercise yesterday."
With an impish smile, Sakura walked up his wall until they were eye to eye, to which she curtsied.
"...You picked that up fast." He said with a hint of amazement.
"What can I say? I'm talented, beautiful and a quick learner." She replied with a flourish.
"...And modest too." He snidely added.
The female genin made a threatening motion to bodily harm Naruto, but he merely raised a brow at her unintimidated.
So he got head-slapped.
"I still don't understand how you can act so prim and proper to Sasuke and just about everyone else, but come down to me and Ino and you're just as loud as I am." He lamented sourly, while rubbing the back of his irritated head.
"Being cordial will get you anywhere." She said with a polite smile. Then her expression changed to a half-lidded gaze and the smile turned into a grin. "I'm just extra polite to those who have no manners."
Though Naruto wanted to point out Sasuke should have been an exception to that, he conceded lest she be 'extra polite' again. Sakura on the other hand, had turned his question over in her mind.
"You know, I still don't understand why you're different." She started. "I mean, you're undoubtedly some sort of genius but you don't want people seeing that."
Naruto simply folded his arms and smirked at her.
"Tell you what. When you figure that, I'll start sharing with you my more interesting stuff."
"WHAT?-!" She shrieked. " You're still holding out on me after your promise?-!"
Naruto raised a hand to calm her down.
"I'll still keep on teaching you stuff, but there's no way I'm gonna have an inflexible thinker helping me with experimental techniques."
"Fine, fine." Sakura crossed her arms.
She sat down to start thinking when Naruto pulled her back to her feet.
"There's always time for thinking. I've got to get you stronger now."
She nodded dumbly and he began settling in a sitting state.
"I used to take this stance for meditational purposes and that was before I started practising on deciphering the Gentle Fist. It should help build focus and start on a base for your stamina. Then I'll have you learn Kage Bunshin."
He met her eyes, making sure she was listening.
"If it's possible, you should get yourself some weights. To be specific, chakra weights to help build your base. They're rather expensive, which is why I don't have a set. Although if you can get your hands on a pair, put them either on your legs for speed or arms for strength as they don't even look remotely like weights."
And so Sakura's 'Naruto crash-course' training began.
"How can you do this?-!" The shrill cry coursed the humble apartment.
"It's all about the focus. Use the pain to fuel the desire. Once you get used to it, it gets easier to do it longer." Naruto replied albeit sternly. Then, adding as an after-thought. "And stop shouting so loud, Sakura!"
Sakura sighed from her vantage point. A handful of days had passed since her inauguration under Naruto and for everyday she'd sneak out of her home to his apartment during the early hours of the morning. Though he had been rather reserved that this wasn't a good idea, the third time had his resolve crumble and accept it outright. He reasoned that he could find another time to be flexible with the hours, but why change a working schedule?
So then she'd get around an hour's worth of training for either building her stamina/chakra or, if she was lucky, a ninja technique -which as of yet she'd only received one. Then after the missions and attempting to coerce Sasuke into a date, she would go home and practise on what she'd learnt.
The time passing had her build a strong foundation for stamina and she'd extended her chakra amount a good deal since she'd started, probably with some help of the additional weights disguised as leg warmers (she could only afford one set and so interchanged it with her arms as often as she could). All in all, she improved rather fast, but to get within her teammates league, she would require another solid bulk of time yet.
"Well Naruto," She began sarcastically, "not everyone can be blessed with huge amounts of stamina."
Huffing grouchily, she continued to verbally lash her mentor back.
"And the other apartments are empty anyway. I think I should shout all I want!" The last sentence had been committed with a single finger salute.
Naruto rolled his eyes from his semi-sitting position, only... He had somehow supported himself in an upright position where his right leg was bent at a 90-degree angle at the knee, whilst the other had been more at a 45-degree angle. His back was set at perfectly straight and he had his hands in front of his chest held firmly in the Tiger hand-seal. All in all, he looked like he was in the correct back-posture for sitting down -only there was no seat beneath him.
"There are still other neighbourhoods. It'd be a problem for them to find out about this." He noted her being still seated on the floor. "Now get back to your stance."
She frowned at him but had said nothing and did not make any attempt to move. Still having had her full attention, Naruto decided to throw a little salt into the open wound and had shifted his left leg to lay on top of the other's knee.
At seeing Naruto suspend himself using only one leg, his pink-haired companion scowled, grabbed the nearest object (a book) and flung it at her blonde teacher; who deftly caught it and opened it at a bookmarked chapter -all without missing a beat.
Defeated, the pink-haired girl extended her impromptu break by seating herself cross-legged and meditating to get her chakra flowing regularly.
"So... How's it going between you and the brooding one?" Naruto asked.
Sakura scowled. He always made light of her flirting with Sasuke. Probably because he least believed that he would return her advances.
"He's noticing me getting stronger." She spat. "But it's still not enough... Not like I could show off what I know anyway."
Naruto nodded. It had been a rule on accepting her.
"How about we let him in and he can train with us too?"
Naruto had turned away and scowled. He knew the other boy would train hard too, but then where would it go? The boy would attain Sharingan and he would take everything he would need and then what? Sakura would likely revert back to a babbling wreck and picking her up as an apprentice would be a moot point. Add the fact that with two apprentices, it was twice as likely he'd be found out. Best to err on the side of caution and keep only one focused apprentice.
"I'll think about it." He said with much conviction to not continue the topic. Sakura took it seriously and let it go.
Eventually, she stood up and readied herself in the same position her trainer was in (though still rough around the edges as compared to his flawless stance).
"That reminds me..." Naruto said, looking over to her from the book. "You need to eat less of what I cook."
This thought caused Sakura to lose her focus and her balance, having her fall on her rump again. However, instead of complaining at how he had caused her lapse in concentration or how it could have been a jab at her weight...
"But you cook way better breakfast than what I normally get at home!" She complained.
It caused Naruto to smirk wryly.
"I'm not telling you to stop eating what I cook." He admonished. "Just less. People will get suspicious if you don't eat breakfast at home and yet you seem to be getting fitter." He licked a finger and turned a page.
Sakura couldn't argue that point but had pouted, not having to like the amendment. Naruto would often cook a grand breakfast and because of her more athletic metabolism, she found that she was starting to catch up with the blonde boy's appetite. Not the full on possibly eat 8 bowls of ramen in a sitting, but she now could definitely wolf down 1 and still be a little peckish for something else.
About to resume again, Sakura took a quick glance at the clock and noted that it was nearly time for breakfast. If she didn't get cleaned up now, she would have to skip out on breakfast with her teammate and eat less satisfactory morning food back at her own home.
Thus, a Sakura clone sitting at the sidelines then handed her a towel and a glass of water. Accepting gladly, Sakura regarded her Kage Bunshin with pride. Oh sure, she could only make one replication, maybe two in a day (though she wouldn't have enough chakra left for training or Kakashi's missions), but having help for the little things had been a godsend. Naruto had been adamant about not using it for luxury purposes, citing that many a ninja had been easily killed because of their lax ways when attaining a physical clone. Then he looked her seriously in the eye and swore that if her ability suffered because of it, he would beat the habit out of her. She gave him an incredulous look and motioned to the clone serving them breakfast (to point out the contradiction) when the clone had suddenly thrust a kunai into the throat of the Naruto sitting across from her. Sakura had watched in complete shock as her mentor had choked on his own blood for several seconds before he exploded, dispersing smoke within seconds. With a slow realisation, it dawned on Sakura that the chef Naruto had been the real one whilst a clone had conversed with her the length of the whole morning.
That day, Sakura had learned a valuable lesson about not abusing power.
And so she wiped the sweat off and dispelled her clone.
Naruto quietly observed his apprentice, as she headed for his bathroom to clean up. Then his gaze scanned the whole room. A book or two he didn't recognise. A small bag filled with spare clothes. A vase full of flowers. Hearing the sound of running water and then being muffled when a body had interrupted the spray had Naruto theorise that the bathroom cleaning agents she used was likely hers too.
"Just my apprentice for morning practises and she practically moves in with me." He groaned in dismay.
Returning to a standing position, he marched over to his chef clone and was quickly joined by the other clones. There they'd move in perfect synchronisation throwing between each other pieces of breakfast, cooking what needs to be cooking and arranging what was already done until everything was in place.
A few scant minutes passed and Sakura returned to Naruto's presence, altogether fresher than when she had left and had joined him to eat. Because of her tiring practise, Sakura took to her meal with much gusto causing her mentor to shake his head.
"Geeze. Before long, you're gonna be eating like I am." He commented dryly, though he knew that it would take months of practise before her metabolism would be anywhere near as fast as his. But he'd only commented to slow her eating for the time being.
She would've just ignored that if she didn't catch on something that had prodded at her in the back of her mind.
"I'll be eating like you are when you start teaching me the advanced stuff..." She then took a moment to bite into a piece of toast. "So when's that going to be?"
He blinked naively. Of course he had reason to.
"Have you figured out why I'm an idiot then?"
Sakura cursed under her breath. She had forgotten that little detail as soon as he had started training her.
"Damn it! I haven't been thinking about that!"
Naruto held up his hands innocently in an open hand gesture.
"I thought you were smart."
She was about to reply with a particularly nasty four-letter word and was ready to break into rants.
"Apprentice."
He said the word sternly without it sounding demeaning. It was a term he used on her a day or so ago, whenever he wanted her to take something seriously and focus.
She looked up and analysed his motions. He was pointing to his wrist and tapping it, staring expectantly at her.
Oh, she was running late.
"I've gotta get going!" She grabbed her bag with dirty clothes and ran for the door. "Thanks for the breakfast, Naruto-senpai!"
Among a few shortened teacher pet names (her most used being 'senpai') were terms she used for him not long since he started calling her his apprentice. She was quick to notice that he already broke one of his own rules and went on to abuse this for whenever she was feeling particularly playful or scandalous. He would always try to correct her but she usually had none of that, using it only when she could get away with it.
Like now, when she's running out the door.
Naruto could only resign to wave her off. Once she was out of sight, he grabbed his latest shopping bill and skimmed through the prices, frowning at the tally. Having an apprentice was getting kinda expensive.
"YOU'RE LATE!" Two accusing fingers pointed at the not entirely embarrassed-looking jounin.
"Sorry, sorry. I had a bet with Asuma but you'll be happy to know that I won it!" A visible closed eye turned upwards, obviously in high spirits.
"It's not a stupid bet about being purposely late on us for the last week, was it?" The orange clad boy folded his hands displeased.
"Eheheh..." The teacher scratched the back of his head completely sheepish.
All his students ignited with unsurpassed fury that could only be summoned on either the villain killing your loved one or when a friend really ticks you off. They also mentally noted to also force a pack of tobacco sticks down the bearded jounin's throat.
"But we got a mission today!"
The tension eased a little.
"I know it's a regular D-Rank..."
Sakura and Naruto were slowly approaching their teacher, fully intent on throttling him into next week. Though Sasuke wasn't following their example, his hands twitched and he was with his teammates in spirit.
"But... Umm... It could turn A-Rank...?"
There was a break in forwarding, as the students exchanged confused glances. Kakashi used this distraction to get them moving to their mission.
---
"So you want us to go in the bathhouse, replace the old stools and cleaning stuff with the new stools and cleaning stuff in less than three minutes?" Sakura dead-panned.
"THAT'S A D-RANK MISSION!" Naruto pointed accusingly.
"There's a catch. There's always a catch." Sasuke mumbled to himself.
Kakashi gave Sasuke a hearty slap on the shoulder.
"Sasuke is quite right! You all will have to split up and enter the bath that's not of your gender!"
"WHAT?" Chorused the genin. Before long, collective murmurs and shouts of vehement denials rose in volume as the idea of a mutiny had unraveled, all agreeing that their teacher had gone too far.
"Fine, fine. Meet back at the bridge." Their teacher called it off.
---
"Well, that is Team 7's first mission failure." Kakashi sighed dramatically.
"It was an unreasonable mission." Sakura folded her arms, frowning.
Though Naruto and Sasuke visibly nodded, they had disliked the idea of staining their as-of-yet flawless mission achievements... Even if it was something ridiculous as this. But neither wanted to be the first to fold.
The Hatake jounin had expected all of this, but he'd needed a way to explain certain things to his students. So instead of dismissing them like-wise a normal mission would have typically ended when denied, he was going to push them on through.
"So, what did we learn today?" Kakashi asked his team.
"A late teacher is a liar." Sakura went first. She had disliked the mission and disliked it further under this jounin's tutelage.
"A late teacher is untrustable." Sasuke went second. His frustration was far too inconsolable at this point and he had to voice his opinion.
"A LATE TEACHER IS A PERVERT!" Naruto had no grace for tact, as he jumped up and down whilst pointing out who was responsible for the debacle.
Kakashi sweatdropped. Time to set the record straight.
"Well, if any of you ever want to further your career as a ninja, there are times where you may be asked to do unsavory things." Their teacher simply said in his defense.
This caught his students' attention.
"It's not all about rescuing someone or guarding an item or picking off traitorous ninjas." Kakashi averted his gaze from his students. He was giving them advice to remember and it drudged up some unwanted memories. "This is especially obvious in ANBU. A client may ask us to get rid of someone or take out a rival business. These people could be working to restore poor countries or for any number of reasons benefiting the less fortunate."
Sensing more than seeing the younger genin's eyes widen, Kakashi closed his visible eye and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"But that's life. The Leaf can't afford to appear weak to the other Hidden Villages and usually the absurd amount of money paid is helping repair the kind of damage done on an every day basis. Training dummies for genin teams, better facilities, repairs for public domains whenever ninjas do property damage ranging from blast craters to roof-hopping..."
"That is terrible." Sakura gasped out.
"The money has to come from somewhere." Sasuke was quick to absorb it and sensibly accept it, though he didn't like it any better than his teammates did.
Naruto's head hung low and he shook all over. Everyone turned to see his response but became a little worried at the display.
Suddenly, the blond boy turned to the others and held up a fist.
"When I become Hokage, I'll change all of that!" He proudly swore.
The rest of Team 7 managed a blink.
"Idiot. You just don't understand that being a ninja requires alot of money. Where do you get the money you spend on?" Sasuke sneered. He was well-versed in thinking that a ninja has to be a sensible thinker and be willing to make sacrifices.
"Ha! When I become Hokage, I'll make the Leaf the strongest Village among the other Villages and we'll never have to worry about things like that again!" He shook his fist, belief completely stead-fast on the simple logic.
They were just words, just wishful thinking...
But it brought a smile to Kakashi all the same.
After a few moments of watching his genin team squabble, he interrupted to finish the lesson.
"But remember; all the same, it is still our lives. We may not have to like what we do, but that's the way things are." Kakashi solemnly voiced.
Then Naruto proceeded to get to his feet and pointed back to the direction of the bathhouse.
"Let's do the mission! And this time do it right!" He declared. The other members reluctantly agreed.
"Good, unlike most missions, you're lucky you'll get a second chance this time." The silver-haired jounin applauded the boy's determination.
---
They were just about to reach the premises again when Sakura faced her teacher.
"Can you change the parameters for the mission atleast?" Sakura asked, still not comfortable with the objectives he gave.
"Fine." The jounin gave in. It wasn't like the mission actually required to be done his way, he only set it up so he could give his insight to his students about the ninja world.
"One person is allowed to enter the bath of their gender. Otherwise, all of you will still have to refill the cleaning aids and replace the stools -the newer of each being located in the changing rooms. And you all have to do this as efficiently as possible so it's going to be two minutes now."
"Whatever method you use is up to you." The jounin shrugged.
"So we can't wait until it closes... Or find out a reliable time when it is empty..." Sakura considered.
"And that means two of us still has to go..." Naruto muttered.
"Only one person can save face..." Sasuke hissed, his eyes narrowing at the prospect. "And we can't have one member do nothing whilst the other two do the work. It would be a waste of resources and time."
"And it can't be me..." Sakura admitted. "If I went into the girl side, that means both of you go to the boy side and that would fail our mission requirements. If Sasuke comes with me, then we still fail because two people are still in their correct environments."
Sasuke merely smirked and headed towards an entrance. It was only after he went inside, that everyone caught on that he went into the men's side.
"DAMN THAT GUY!" Naruto punched the nearest wall, having realised the full implications to be the one to enter the female side.
Sakura and Kakashi winced, but had honestly expected something like this to happen.
"Well, a ninja must always be ready to face the unexpected. Regardless if he wants to or not." Sakura said, giving her remaining teammate's shoulder a reassuring pat.
"Right." He said a little disheartened, a blush crossing his cheeks.
He gave a nod to Sakura, who returned it and they both went their separate ways, their teacher retrieving his preferred reading device.
It wasn't long before the screaming from the women's side had started up.
The screaming had Sakura shake her head. Unlike Naruto, she had transformed before entering and didn't draw much attention to herself. Now to stop her blushing from being too obvious and stick with Sasuke without getting too close to other men here.
The screaming had Sasuke smirk. He had expected this of his teammate. However, the amusement didn't last long as he got more uncomfortable with his situation. Sure, he was on the men's side, but Sakura was standing too close for his comfort. Normally, it would have been tolerable, but at the moment Sakura had created an illusion to make her appear male, which caused the other men to give them both weird looks.
The screaming had Kakashi minorly distracted from his book. He was a little disappointed with his student, but reasoned that if the boy was any better at tactics, then he wouldn't have to go about embarrassing himself.
---
A short time had passed and Sasuke and Sakura emerged, having finished their half of the duty. Sakura had looked oddly at her teacher at first, something crossing her mind.
"Kakashi-sensei...? How did it go?" Sakura interrupted her teacher from his reading.
"How did it go?" He repeated." Naruto's not back yet."
"I meant about the women who'd be angry about how the mission was set up." She shrugged.
Oh. He hadn't thought of that. And there's been more than enough time for someone to confront him but no one did.
Meaning that something wasn't just wrong.
No. It actually meant something was very wrong.
But before Kakashi could act on it, Naruto did come out, dusting his hands in satisfaction.
"Hehehe."
Now, Naruto was a young boy, he probably explained to them that he was the janitor and they'd probably let it slide with his age... But that snickering was definitely not a good sign at all. Atleast, not for his teacher that is.
"You know Naruto, I almost hate to ask you, but just how did you go about to doing your tasks?" Kakashi asked, a little worry creeping into his voice.
"I looked underneath the underneath, Sensei! And I had someone help me!" He proudly stated.
And with that, Naruto used Henge to transform into the spitting image of Kakashi himself, wearing a towel wrapped at his waste, the usual mask around his face and the forehead protector, which covered both eyes. The Naruto-masquerading-as-Kakashi extended a hand in greeting, whilst keeping the other at his waist to hold the towel up.
"Yo."
Sakura had burst into giggles. Sasuke couldn't help but crack a smile as well. They both knew that whatever's coming, was because their weird teacher did deserve it.
Kakashi sweat-dropped. He now had a really, really bad feeling about where this was going.
"And how did you recieve help from imitating me...?"
"Easy! I went in as you and everyone got angry, but someone realised I couldn't be you and told everyone to calm down. Then she took me out and I told her about your training and she decided to help me out!"
"Oh?"
"Yeah, she should be on her way out now."
And out stepped Kurenai. Never before did Kakashi really feel the need for the preservation of his life clashing with the absolution to get what's coming to him as running would definitely make it worse.
"Hello Kakashi." Her voice had a bit of steel lining it.
"H-hi Kurenai-san." He stammered back.
"You have a peculiar way of training your students, Kakashi." She commented off-handedly, not even glancing at said genin.
"Err... I tried to make the mission less ordinary by turning it into a miniature espionage! You know, a little team-building, a little explanation about the real world sorta thing... " He admitted.
Seeing her cracking her knuckles, Kakashi could only back into a corner and take a fetal position, his genius thinking held back by the flood of survival instincts reserved for indignant women.
---
"So what have we learned from all this?" Kakashi asked his students.
"Never piss off Kurenai-sensei." Naruto said in a sage-like way. His eyes were closed and he nodded his head slowly and solemnly.
"Guys shouldn't enter the women side of the baths." Sasuke said in a completely serious tone. Though not as sage-like as Naruto, he still held conviction in his words.
"Sometimes, a ninja must get their hands dirty." Sakura said before adding, "Especially if they want to pound perverts."
Kakashi sighed from the confines of the hospital bed.
"Did you learn something from today, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"That I will never try to make D-Rank missions more interesting for my students." The silver-haired jounin said glumly.
The genins had a good chuckle about it and their teacher set about dismissing them.
But before they were out the door, he called their attention to address his serious piece so his students could reflect on it.
"Just don't forget our lesson today." Kakashi reiterated. "Sometimes a ninja must do what they don't want to do. We don't have to like it, but it's a mission and we must do it to the best of our abilities."
He gave them a curt nod.
"We are ninja."
"We are ninja." Sakura mumbled to herself.
She had went about her day normally and was now preparing for sleep, her mind locked on her teacher's parting words. Something about the statement rang in her mind like a key piece to a jigsaw. Problem was, she had millions of other jigsaws still incomplete.
And it was still on her mind when sleep had finally taken her.
She had a dream about a spy. A spy in a village of very important people. But everyone had known he was a spy. So the spy did the one thing that no one wouldn't believe.
And everyone laughed when they saw him stuck getting into an open window.
Laughed when he'd sneak around corners in plain sight.
Laughed when he bragged about being a spy.
So they'd invite him over for drinks, and they'd all get wasted and they would tell him things.
They'd invite him to meetings and he'd spill coffee all over his papers and they would chuckle and let him keep it.
They'd invite him to secret exhibitions and he'd fall all over himself, his notepad filling in with obscurities, nonsense and doodles that no one ever gave a second look at.
But it came as quite the shock when they found he had learned everything from them.
Then Sakura woke with a start, the realisation had struck her.
"Oh. My. God."
Naruto had answered the banging at his front door, still clad in his stripe pajamas, the odd bear-cap and a sleepy-eyed expression.
"Hey Naruto!" She beamed at him.
The sleepy boy looked from the chirpy girl standing outside his door, then to the nearest clock and then back to the chirpy girl.
"You're two hours early..." He moaned.
Her barely contained excitement had her shaking and so he surmised she didn't look like the type to leave anytime soon. So he let her in and started on his shadow replications to begin his morning ritual.
"I finally figured it out!" Her thoughts were being thrown left, right and centre, trying to make order of the startling revelation.
"Yeah?" Her sentence had caused him to focus. He stood straight now and the beginnings of his grin started to tug at his features.
Sakura had taken a few seconds still, her eyes watched her right as she read something only she could see.
"A Ninja's asset is darkness. Always to hide in shadow and strike when the enemy least expects it. We are born to live and die in silence. It is the way of the ninja."
Her opening had brought a smile to his lips.
"You adhere to everything the pact is. Though a ninja's asset is darkness, your clothing and loud attitude is what makes people ignore you. You don't hide in the background, you hide in the foreground. People don't notice your true strength because they under estimate you and that's how you get the better of them. And for all your big talk, you never say anything... Atleast anything worthwhile."
She was babbling. She knew it, she knew he knew it but she didn't care. She hit on something huge and he smiled at her for noticing it. Then she went for her coup de grace.
"A ninja is a master of deceit," Her eyes flew around wildly, "and you've deceived a village of ninjas."
Naruto now had a full out grin. She had outlined him perfectly. And so they both stood there for a moment, herself reveling in the unbelievable realisation she had stumbled on, and himself basking in pride.
The moment stretched.
"Deceived a village of ninjas." She murmured just soft enough for him to miss it. There was a little prick in her chest when she said it. Something felt really wrong about the sentence.
But...
-clap-
Then a single clap broke the sound of silence.
-clap-
Which did another follow. It brought Sakura out of her quiet musings and she looked over to Naruto to find him doing the action.
-clap- -clap-
Then there were more and she turned to notice the clones that were around the house put their hands together.
-clap- -clap- -clap- -clap- -clap- -clap- -clap- -clap- -clap- -clap-
And slowly but surely there suddenly were more clones fading into sight, all clapping.
And the sound became a thunderously soft ovation.
For her.
A red hue crossed her cheeks at the thought of a crowd applauding her. Now thoroughly embarrassed, she turns to the first Naruto she addressed, assuming he was the original.
"You're acting as if this was a really big deal!" She fiddled with the hem of her attire.
"It is a really big deal." He replied, still amused.
She glanced back at all the clones that were starting to dwindle. The blush was fading but the smile stayed.
"So..." The real Naruto had caught her attention.
"Yeah?"
"It begins." (1)
If Sakura had paid more attention to her dream, she would have realised one vital flaw.
A spy's allegiance isn't exactly to the people they are spying on.
But her train of thought had already left the station, focused on a Sasuke-oriented goal.
The sun rose and Team 7 waited patiently for their teacher to arrive to meet them at the bridge. Never mind, it was nearing 2 hours past their scheduled time.
Naruto sat swaying on the rail of the bridge.
Sasuke sat relaxing, on a branch in his usual tree.
Sakura sat all by her lonesome self, humming brightly whilst leaning on a bridge post.
When all of a sudden, Naruto stopped swaying and a slow realisation crossed his features.
"I just thought of something."
Sasuke smirked. A remark about Naruto's thinking ability danced in his mind but he wasn't about to lower himself to that level at this point in time.
Their pink-haired companion wasn't so forestalling about her own remark.
"That's a first."
Naruto ignored Sakura and turned to face his teammates.
"Didn't Kurenai-sensei do a number on Kakashi yesterday?"
His other teammates blinked in unison. Sakura then groaned loudly as the full implications hit. Sasuke tilted his head back, trying to force the growing headache away.
"We might as well go check up on him." Sakura got up and dusted herself off.
---
"Yo." A regular greeting.
"YOU'RE LATE!" A standard return.
But Kakashi did not give an excuse and instead, smirked eerily (-if it was visible by any normal means).
"Ah ah ah! Actually, my students, it is YOU who are late! For I am confined here!" He said, quite happy with the turn of events.
Through fractured logic, did the genin's accept this assessment as they really should have known to come to Kakashi's room instead of wait at the bridge. With the ball in his court, Kakashi kept it rolling.
"Now," Kakashi clasped his hands with glee, "let's hear your excuses!"
He received three different tones of 'lost on the road to life' causing him to lightly cackle to himself.
"Weren't you ever gonna send someone to tell us you couldn't make it there?" Sakura asked, despising the idea that her teacher was in the right this once.
"Hell no!" Kakashi folded his arms, completely steadfast to his belief. "As my students, I have high expectations that you would know that my stay here would have been for a longer extent."
His team groaned in disgust.
"Well, since I am unable to retrieve any sort of missions for us to do, nor can I supervise your training, you all will have to do so without me for a couple more days."
And his students relished this idea.
"But, don't get out of shape! When I get out, I'll get a mission to make you guys wish you were having D-Ranks all over again!"
Naruto and Sakura whooped whilst Sasuke silently praised the thought.
"Now get out! I need to rest up!"
As the genin's filed out, Kakashi mused on the kind of mission he would require for them to learn a bigger lesson.
"Maybe a C-Rank with bandits would be good. A little blood will jolt them enough to prepare them more for the world..."
He let the thought hang, as his other hand sneaked behind his head and retrieved a certain book from underneath his pillow.
Then his room was filled with the sounds of immature giggling.
"So Sasuke,-" Sakura started, sliding up to the raven-haired boy.
"No." He cut the middle man.
"But I haven't even-" She tried again.
"No." He cut that line.
"How abo-"
"No." That bud didn't even have the chance to blossom.
Defeated, Sakura hung limply, letting her beloved to go on his way unhindered. Once Sasuke was at a far enough distance, Naruto then took his chance to ask Sakura out.
"There's always me, Sakura-chan!"
The pink-haired girl cringed, though the thought didn't sound so bad lately.
But she still had a reputation to uphold.
"No way!"
Naruto deflated and started on his way.
"Are you going to go train later, Naruto?" She asked, before he got too far off.
Naruto faced her, raising a brow at the question.
"I want to work on my skills a bit later." She shrugged, appearing aloof to the idea.
His eyes focused. He'd recognised it as a subtle plea for help on the technique she was learning. Fortunately, he had extra time after he'd help along his gardening project.
"I guess I will." He shrugged. "I'll be at our team's regular spot in an hour and I'll probably be there for most of the day."
She nodded thankfully and they went their separate ways for the time being.
---
"Did you manage to work it out between our training now and the early morning?" He asked, easily avoiding the hit directed at him.
"No." She huffed. "It's pretty tough. Takes alot out of me." She threw another hit to which he backed just out of range.
"Read any texts then?"
"Nope, but I'm thinking of going to a library before lunch. I need a good idea of what to look out for."
He nodded absently.
"I suppose. But I'd still go with my first recommendation. Once you get the basics down, the rest of it does itself. You go read up on something complex and it'll be all the more tiring every time you do it."
Though disgusted with the idea, Sakura had to admit that it did have some merit. Because of this distraction she nearly forgot to back flip over Naruto's next attack.
Seeing her attention diverged, Naruto decided to throw in some incentive. Better she learn the technique before Kakashi gets out of the hospital.
"Tell you what. When you can do the technique, I'll let you in on a way you can get Sasuke's attention."
He lunged again, only for his opponent to be already heading back to town.
"I'll have it down in no time then!" She called over her shoulder.
Expecting as much, Naruto smirked and continued his stamina training.
---
Sakura sighed.
It had been rather embarrassing that Ino had shown up on several occasions, each time blocking her attempt on her self-imposed mission and cleanly crushing the fortress of courage she'd built up.
Damn her!
Infact, the other girl had gotten so nosy, that Sakura couldn't bear it anymore and left. Ino, seeing her rival retreat, pulled up the chase and went on to get under Sakura's skin.
Ino had been persistent. Very persistent. It was lucky that she received additional stamina training and had replaced her leg weights onto her arms or Ino might have got the better of her and things would've gone down hill pretty fast.
Sakura only managed to evade her pursuer long enough to promise the girl 'tell her some other time', though Sakura filed that under as 'never'.
Arriving at the outskirts of her team's regular training spot, she spotted a familiar face she hadn't seen in a while.
"Hey Hinata!" Sakura greeted as she approached the Hyuuga-heiress, though she also wondered if any of the teams were doing any sort of training or missions at all today.
"Oh! Hi Sakura." Hinata returned the greeting timidly, followed by a bow.
"No need to be so formal with me, Hinata-chan!" Sakura waved it off.
"A-alright." Blushing a little, Hinata looked away.
Sakura then took it on herself to press on.
"How're things on your team?" Sakura inquired.
"Well, I guess our team is doing fine. Kiba is really energetic and Shino usually keeps to himself. We've only had some D-rank missions lately." Hinata returned in light detail.
"Any C-rank yet?"
"No. Has your team...?"
"Nope. Although Kakashi-sensei said he'd be getting one for us in a few days." Then Sakura caught herself.
"Not that it might be a C-Rank mind you. He said he was going to get us a mission that wasn't D-Rank, so it has to be C-Rank. It's unlikely administration would give genin to do anything higher than that."
Hinata nodded her head.
"Umm... Isn't Kakashi-san injured?"
"Yeah, but said he would do it when he gets out." Then the thought occurred wondering how Hinata knew that piece of information.
"How'd you know that?"
"Kurenai-sensei told us and cancelled training today. I think she's going to go and apologise." (2)
"Ah."
Sakura paused a little and looked over Hinata's shoulder to see Naruto beating up on a dummy like he usually does.
"Are you here to see Naruto?" She asked slyly.
"H-huh?" Hinata gasped, her face turned a shade of red.
Hinata turned an even deeper shade of red under Sakura's scrutiny.
"O-oh! You must be v-very busy! I m-must be on my way!" Hinata stammered, turning to leave.
"I'll see you later Hinata-chan!" Sakura waved her academy friend off. Hinata had returned it as she retreated further away.
Once the other girl had left, Sakura finally found her chance to approached Naruto, who had just stopped to take a break and merely lay face up on the ground. She briefly looked up wondering if there was anything worth seeing. Then he chose to speak.
"I think Hinata's on to me."
Confusion marred Sakura's face.
"Why would you say that?"
"She's always spying on me. I never really did expect her to be able to see under my guise, but I guess I should have expected it with her blood limit and the fact that she's from the Hyuuga Main House."
Sakura tried to hold her laughter in, but found that she couldn't.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
"...Eh? This really isn't a funny matter. If the Hyuuga find out I've been imitating their style, they'll want to kill me!"
"Hahah... No... Not that... Hehe..." Sakura managed to say in-between wheezes for air and the occasional chuckle until she composed herself.
"She likes you!" She mirthfully declared.
Naruto blinked.
"...what?" He sat up now.
"I mean it! It's obvious that she's got a crush on you!" She hunched over on her toes and poked him square in the forehead when she addressed him.
"I don't get it..." Naruto shook his head.
"She likes you like the way I like Sasuke!" She couldn't help but add a little annoyance to the last sentence.
"...But she doesn't throw herself at me, like the way you do to Sasuke or I do to you."
Sakura rolled her eyes. The brief thought that though Naruto is a once in a blue-moon genius doesn't excerpt him from being obliviously male. It was an easy subject after all.
"You don't HAVE to-" Sakura held up her hands, extending only the index and middle digits. "-'throw yourself at someone' to show that you like them! Sheesh."
"Oh. So what do I do?"
"Are all men this dense?" Sakura mumbled to herself but was quick to speak up. "Just hang out with her! Talk with her! You know... Take her out to eat and stuff?"
"And train too?"
Sakura gave him a level gaze.
"Yeah, that too." She sighed. "But that's not really all that romantic."
"But I don't really have ties with her." His brows furrowed.
"Of course you don't! Just be friends first!" She snapped.
"...Friends?" Naruto tested the word on his tongue.
"Don't tell me you don't know what friends are!" Sakura cried out exasperated, throwing her hands up completely distraught with how dense he was being.
Naruto looked away.
An uncomfortable silence settled.
The effect had Sakura refrain from a tirade and instead, examined the boy infront of her. Flicking through various memories, she'd had tried to picture a face that often frequented him in the academy. She couldn't find a memory of that at all.
Infact, any memory had him actually isolated from the others. Alone.
"You really don't know... Do you?" She asked softly.
For a reason he couldn't fathom, a fragment of Naruto's mind was locked into replaying the scene with Iruka and Mizuki time and time again. Though it didn't detract from his logical focus, it did have an odd effect on his physical body. Like tightening his throat enough to make swallowing a little difficult and far more audible than it should be.
"I think Iruka-sensei and I... Are friends... But I don't know." He'd finally replied.
"Do you both hang out, eat out, talk about anything...?" A little pity seeped into the question.
"Yes, all of that." He nodded. "But I haven't seen him in a while." The admission had constricted his chest a little too.
"But do you both like hanging out with each other?"
He didn't trust himself to speak. Just nod.
"Then you're friends!" There was a little relief and even a hint of joy in the declaration.
He turned to her, his face a mixture of doubt and hope.
"...really?"
"Yeah!"
A warm feeling had coursed through Naruto. A pleasant calm had brought him back a smile... But it had gone as quickly as it appeared when he suddenly tensed again.
Sakura recognised it and let the silence flow and waited patiently for Naruto's last question.
"Would you consider being friends with me, Sakura?" His voice had been soft and fragile, as if the slightest breeze could have taken it away and into the winds.
Sakura gave a tender smile and stepped behind the seated boy. Her arms encircled him and she pulled him into an embrace from behind, her chin resting on his wild unkempt hair.
"I would love to be your friend, Naruto-kun." She replied just as softly.
There was another pause, as each closed their eyes and savored the moment.
"Thank you."
Eventually, Sakura had left, off to her own training whilst Naruto pondered on what to do for the moment.
He considered that if what Sakura had said was true, that the Hyuuga-
heiress actually had a crush on him (and not spying and plotting his demise), then he should repay her courtesy with a visit. Additionally, she happened to be walking information since he did not have the instruction to replicate the Gentle Fist attacks, but merely the movements.
Resolved to searching for her, it took him some time to locate her team's usual training spot, seated with her back to the training post. She was curled up and breathing loudly.
From what Naruto could see, she was tired or upset. Or likely both. From the academy, Naruto had known her to be both an easily upset and introverted girl. Though graced with a noble clan, she had little to no qualities to be able to fit in either within the clan or with the other normal children.
In short, she was a plain-looking dark weirdo.
Best to test the waters then.
"Hinata-chan?" Naruto called out, approaching the seated girl.
"N-Naruto-kun!" She exclaimed, shocked at seeing Naruto approaching her.
"What're you up to?" He inquired, grinning up a storm.
"I was just t-training..." Was her reply. "But I kind of s-stopped for a bit..." She gestured to the post behind her embarrassedly.
"Ah?"
The fox-boy held his chin in contemplation. Hinata quaked a little under his intense scrutiny.
Then he looked around to take in the surroundings. No one else was in the area, so Naruto found it safe to ask about his next question.
"Wanna train together?" The blond boy started to scratch at his head a little nervously. "Cause you know... Sasuke's thinks he's all that and above everyone and then Sakura's only about Sasuke anyway..."
Hinata had been pleasantly surprised. She had thought that perhaps the Naruto's pink-haired teammate would have started reciprocating his advances by now!
And though she felt a little winded, she knew this was a once in a life-time chance to be able to get closer to the person she looks up to.
"O-okay!"
And so they fought...
A dark-haired girl moved swiftly this way and that, with simple gestures here and there. But it did not matter, for every push she gave, an invisible knife struck within the opponent's own body.
Not that she would actually injure Naruto-kun, mind you. He was a person she lo... looked up to.
Then a blond boy would deftly move in and ruggedly attack here and there, blocking and absorbing every strike. In truth, the boy was merely observing and committing what was important to memory, whilst his body probed his partner's attacks and defenses and adding to her muscle memory to move correctly to certain standard attacks.
Not that he was friends with Hinata-chan enough to train her, mind you. He was just testing the full gravitation of her own strengths and weaknesses.
---
It was some time later that they mutually agreed to halt.
Naruto was inwardly displeased. Not only had she pulled her punches, but she was also mixing some of her Hyuuga Gentle Fist style with the academy's hand-to-hand standard combat.
He mused to put an end to that.
"You know Hinata, you're not really hitting me. Don't you guys have like some sort of really kick-ass taijutsu style?" He whined.
"Y-yeah... But I know how to use it and I don't want to hurt you" Hinata looked away, embarrassed at being caught out.
"Nonsense! C'mon! Fight me for real! I can't stand it if you're just gonna go easy on me!" He said resolutely.
"I don't know..." She scratched the back of her head.
"Please...?" Bright cerulean, glimmering eyes pleaded.
"Oh... okay." She couldn't find the heart to disagree.
---
Another workout had occurred, this time going for even longer than the last session.
Hinata had sat, her breathing haggard. She had never trained herself up to this point and it was only pure will alone that she'd get this far to try to impress the boy.
Naruto on the other hand stopped to review what he knew of her techniques. And he found that though the Hyuuga family style was indeed a marvel... It was also flawed. He also had yet to see any of the Hyuuga's most impressive fabled techniques. But all of that was probably due to the girl's poor acrobatics, low stamina and inability to fight fiercer.
"This isn't working out, Hinata." He sighed.
"W-what?" She looked up surprised.
"You're just not fighting back. It's not really training." Naruto shrugged.
It was personally the first thing she expected and the least of what she ever hoped to occur.
Even he gave up on her.
"I'm sorry." She apologised.
Seeing her crest-fallen look, Naruto held up his hands.
"No! Don't be sorry! You want to get stronger right?" A grin was pulling at his features.
"Y-yes..." She stammered, wondering exactly where this was going.
"But you don't want to hurt people?" He wanted to confirm.
"I-I guess n-not..." She deflated again. "I'm sorry."
"No! It's alright! I was thinking..." This time the grin was in full swing and his mind was going a mile a minute, excitement was building pretty quickly.
Hinata only looked on, a little intrigued by what was going on in Naruto's head.
"You can use your freaky eye thing to see lots of things, right?" His excitement was definitely flowing now.
"Ummm... Sorta." She was a little dismayed to have her prized blood limit be labeled off as a 'freaky eye thing'.
"And you probably can see inside their body and their chakra and how it moves and stuff, right?" His excitement was practically bubbling over the brim by now.
"I suppose..." She prepared herself for the question he built up to.
"Why don't you change your fighting style?" He plainly asked.
"C-change it?" Hinata's jaw went slack.
To a Hyuuga, the Gentle Fist was everything. To even consider changing it was blasphemy.
But it was true.
Her own father acknowledged that she was weak and was already preparing her sister, Hanabi, for a mantle she may not receive.
"Yeah, yeah! See, like... We could make a fighting style where you don't really hurt people!"
And ridiculous! Utterly, utterly ridiculous!
And so not only was Naruto speaking a sheer amount of blasphemy, but there was a substantial amount of utterly ridiculous insanity to beat the already dead horse!
And...
And...
And though utterly ridiculous and sheer blasphemous, the idea had merited to bring back a sliver of hope to Hinata's face.
"Is that possible...?" Wishful thinking backing her question.
"Yeah!" His energetic response had cemented the trust she placed into him.
Naruto then started rifling through his pockets, pretending to look for an object that he may have misplaced.
In actual truth, he mentally debated the pros and cons of giving Hinata a certain scroll in his possession. He had found this scroll whilst going through the rubbish of a shop that regularly threw out objects that either; were too damaged or were too outdated to sell. Naruto had lucked out when he found this one. Not only was it outdated, but it was also water-logged, burned, dirty and had huge instances of missing chunks of text. Generally far too mangled even for him, he was still determined to see it through and spent a handful of weeks cleaning it up to find a diamond that it really was. He was keeping it around for when he could learn the Gentle Fist and then combine both arts... But now it seemed like the only way to be able to earn Hyuuga instruction would be to tutor her and then have her unknowingly tutor him...
So Naruto made his gamble.
He pulled out a worn-looking blue scroll.
Hinata dared not to take it, but Naruto held it out to her insisting. So she accepted and carefully opened it.
"Mizu Nagare no Taijutsu... The Art of Flowing Water?" She mumbled aloud. She'd never heard of this style before.
Hinata blurred over bits and details. The scroll was old and there were atleast three different styles of handwritings she could detect. The first was clearly the original scribe of the scroll whilst the other two appeared as footnotes.
However one note in particular captured Hinata's attention.
"Classified scroll #84. Property of Umigakure...(3)" Then the thought sunk in.
"The Hidden Village of Ocean?" She gasped. "But that village was wiped out during their first generation!" She said pointedly at Naruto.
He shrugged. He'd already known that tidbit. It took a few years of on-and-off research to learn as much as he did about the scroll and had written his own set of footnotes (not in the decaying scroll -that would be stupid).
Surmising that his apathetic reply was because it had gone over his head, Hinata applied herself to skimming through the scroll.
It was a few moments later she stopped, awestruck.
"Alot of this is primitive, but it's amazing! It has ideas to turn your opponents strength against them using only their own momentum and strength..."
Then she shook her head clearing away the cobwebs. She realised that this scroll was a part of history and possibly far too valuable to be in her care, much less she be worthy of trying to learn it and adapt it to her own style.
"I can't accept this!" She held it back to Naruto who didn't make a move to accept it.
"Nah, Hinata-chan." He waved it off. "I tried learning that stuff but I like hitting people more, you know?"
Before she could protest, he continued.
"Besides," he wiped his hands on his pants. "you outta learn it! It looks like you could use it better than I could!"
"B-but..."
"I insist." He'd covered her extended hand with his.
A full blush had crossed her face and she'd cowed a little, completely embarrassed from the gesture.
"Let's make this our secret okay?" He asked, a grin exploding on his face.
"Y-yeah." She agreed. What else could she do?
Then he pulled away and started heading out of the training spot.
"I'm pretty much bushed! I'll catch up with you tomorrow Hinata-chan!"
She waved back to him and glanced back at the scroll. Tonight, she'll be going through it as best she can to live up to Naruto's expectations tomorrow!
It was some hours later that Naruto had found himself back home, staring into his mirror's stony-visage. It wasn't that he was at a point grooming himself. No. Far from it. He needed his reflection to be able to reflect on things. (No pun intended)
And it was all in turmoil.
His thoughts were in turmoil.
Sakura and he were friends.
Are friends.
And since he'd graduated, he'd taken to purposely avoiding his academy teacher, for reasons he couldn't voice...
...only now to find out that the man was a friend too.
Infact, it was seeming more likely that Sarutobi, Hinata, Kakashi and even Sasuke could relatively be penned under the same term.
"Friends." He murmured. It held a lilt of hesitance and longing.
Naruto had unconsciously smiled that stupid grin of his. Then he'd opened his eyes and eyed it warily.
It was less fake then he remembered.
-SMASH-
Naruto removed his bloodied fist from the remains of the mirror, dislodging a few more shards from the spider web-like cracked surface.
"It changes nothing."
End Chapter 03
Feedback, constructive criticism and flames welcomed.
I'll take that like I'll take a baseball bat to the face.
(1)
I hadn't mentioned what technique Sakura's learning. If you haven't caught on, it'll be revealed during the chuunin exam.
(2)
Kurenai stalked the hallways. She'd arrived infront of a certain door and prepared herself. This mission would be classified easily as A-Rank, possibly S. But it would be worth it to finally put her curiousity to rest.
On a silent signal, she blurred into the room, pried Icha Icha Paradise from the face of the occupant of the bed and reached for his mask...
...only to stop when she saw it was a log wearing a mask and forehead protector covering one eye.
"DAMMIT! Still one step behind!"
(3)
Umigakure. Hidden Ocean. No big deal. Really, just interesting to note a bit later. Not going to be major plot, no siree.
Author's notes:
Sorry for how late this chapter is. Once again, I got lost on the road to life. This time it's a family crisis. Gah.
Back to the fic, not much else to say. Sakura's on the training regime, cause I realy require her to get stronger soon. I also threw in a couple of 'pop quiz' stuff for next chapter.
Heh, hope you guys haven't forgotten Naruto's hell-bent on revenge. Just a wake-up callin that last paragraph.
Expect an intro for Hinata next chapter (much like Kakashi and Sakura got theirs in the last one) and maybe an intro for Sasuke as well.It's gonna have 4 days without Kakashi and so Team 7 has to fend for themselves.
FAQ Section :For Answering Questions:
A section for less common questions. (Common questions can be referred to the FAQ in the prologue) (removed August 26th '05)
Special thanks to the following people;
JohnnyG
GOD OF HATE
omnikaze
kageryuunohakke
Kitsurumenokitsune
gorilla
hmr
MingShun
wolvesm0on
Saetan
madnarutofan
granite69
SmacksKiller
XAegis-SRX
yue
Fic Slayr
Thanks for all the support, you guys!
Stats
'Classic WITH CHE word counter'
Vers. 02.0 (26/8/05), 01.4 (12/8/05)
Fic: 9,837
Notes: 365
(Does not include stats)
Have a Great and Happy day!