Betrothal
A Naruto fanfiction.
Chapter 11 - Children
"So." Temari whispered, "He's doing well then?" her question was the one that had also been on the mind of the mind of the pink-haired girl beside her.
"Did they say when they would be coming back?" Asked team seven's Sakura. Not that team seven consisted of much right now, what with Sasuke, along with Kakashi, in hospital and Naruto off on a training journey with Jiraiya.
"The messenger only said that they were well, that's all." Came the reply - along with a few puffs of acrid smoke. With their instructor down, the remainder of team seven, all two of them, had been temporarily assigned to Sarutobi Asuma - the instructor of team ten. "If they did get in trouble you'd be the first to know about it, I'm sure."
'Unless it involves Orochimaru. Or Itachi. Or any number of the things that have to be kept secret.' Thought the chain-smoking jounin. 'They still don't know the real reason why their team-mate and instructor are in hospital - only that they were injured 'training' somehow.'
It had been almost a week since Jiraiya and Naruto had headed off into, apparently, the middle of nowhere. A few days ago Sasuke had suddenly been admitted into the hospital with 'training injuries'. Not that Sakura believe the, rather flimsy, lie. After all, Sasuke wasn't stupid enough to hurt himself that badly whilst training.
Sakura had reacted badly at first, hovering over Sasuke's bed in a manner which, Temari thought, was not unlike that of the many vultures which lived in the Wind country. After a while she had begun to calm down and had begun training like a crazed hyena.
Temari had, some time back, found comparing people's actions to normally disliked animals to be really a rather amusing little hobby.
For reference, she thought Asuma acted like some kind of sloth. Or maybe like a giant carp. One of the two at least.
At this moment, the three of them were sitting in a small classroom, with Asuma leaning on a large desk at the front of the room and the two female genin sitting down on the front-row bench opposite him.
"Now then, it appears that you two have a mission." Stated the bearded Jounin, "C-rank, possibly B depending on how things go, nothing particularly dangerous - just difficult."
"A mission?" Sakura perked up slightly, "What sort of mission? And who requested it?" She wasn't normally interested in doing missions but. well, it was something to do. Something more constructive than moping about and trying to train in what she already knew almost off by heart. Next to her, Temari also began to pay more attention - this would be her first mission under the leaf after all. Not that she was actually a leaf-nin yet, she was still technically a member of the sand right now. That said, she was beginning to feel less and less resistance to the idea of becoming a leaf- nin.
"Actually. It was requested by Iruka of the academy. I believe he was your sensei during your last year, wasn't he?" Sakura nodded at Asuma's question. Inside her mind, however, Inner Sakura was cursing like a drunk sailor over his stupidity, especially since she knew that his team ten had also been taught by Iruka, along with pretty much every kid who had become a genin this year.
"Iruka-sensei?" She asked, "What would he want to request a mission for?"
"And if he did," Added Temari, "Is he the one paying for it or not?"
Asuma blinked at Temari's question and took a long, slow, drag at his cigarette. It seemed like an innocent question until you realized the big distinction it made. If Iruka was paying, then it was something personal. If, on the other hand, he wasn't paying then it would have to be something the village wanted them to do for Iruka.
"Ah," he began, pulling his cigarette out and tapping the ash into a nearby metal ashtray that he had fished out of his pocket and placed on the desk earlier. "It's the second one because your mission is to cover for Iruka whilst he goes about some personal business."
Asuma smiled. It was a smile that instantly made Temari compare him to another type of creature - a wild shark.
"You two are to be substitute tutors at the academy. You'll be teaching Iruka's class."
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Some distance away, Iruka sneezed.
The chuunin was in one of the small training areas that was secreted away in a relatively quiet area of the forest that the leaf village was hidden within. This particular area was a clearing in the trees. The ground there was littered with a variety of large rocks and lengths of dead tree trunks. In fact, Iruka had dragged most of the rocks and trunks, with some difficulty, to the clearing himself in preparation for his training.
After managing to sink one trunk slightly into the ground, the chuunin instructor had begun a basic workout - a mix of punches, kicks and body blows which characterized his chosen way of fighting. With each blow the trunk shook slightly, occasionally shedding chips of wood as it was struck by a particularly effective strike.
So engrossed in his training was the scarred man that he didn't even notice the presence of another until she coughed loudly to get his attention. Iruka paused mid kick and lowered his leg before speaking to his unseen visitor.
"Kurenai-san." He began as he reached out with one hand to lean on the tree trunk. "I should have guessed you'd be the first to find me."
"This place was always your favorite training spot Sendatsu-san." Came the slightly amused reply as the dark-haired female jounin stepped over to put her hand on Iruka's shoulder. Leaning around him, using his shoulder as a pivot, she peered at his face. "It was only natural that I would find you here, right?"
The chuunin laughed and pushed away from the trunk, causing Yuuhi to pull her hand away from his shoulder. Shrugging to herself the jounin located a suitable rock and promptly used it as a seat.
"You heard then? That I was going to give it another try?" Asked Iruka, as he began to kick at the trunk - first with one leg, then with the other, filling the clearing with the rhythmic 'thunk, thunk, thunk' of flesh hitting wood.
"At the jounin exam? Yes, I heard. Really, I'm pleased that you're going to give it another go after all this time." Yuuhi leant back and stared at the light filtering in through the leaf-canopy above. "We never did expect you to give up on the exam after failing it once, everyone thought that you would keep trying. After all, you always were insistent that you'd become a jounin." She paused and glanced at Iruka, a faint smile flashing across her face. "You were almost as bad about that as Naruto is with his belief that he'll become Hokage one day."
Iruka's tensed slightly at Yuuhi's words, his leg slamming into the trunk with enough force to cause cracks to appear in the side of the dead wood. "That. was in the past." He began, "After I failed I tried teaching and found that I liked it, so I kept with it. Besides." He looked at Yuuhi and grinned, ". as I recall it, you failed the first time as well. And the second time. And the third time too."
Yuuhi pouted, "Yeah, well. Fourth time lucky and all that." She bowed her head slightly and glared at Iruka from under the few strands of hair that fell over her eyes. "At least I passed in the end. Even if I did have to fight off a few of our old class afterwards. Ugh, can you believe that they all tried to impress me with their new rank - all at once?"
Laughing at the mental image that produced, Iruka paused in his kicking. "Well," he stated, the mirth evident in his voice, "You were the most eligible girl in class at the academy. Then you were the most wanted female genin, then most lusted-after female chuunin. Everyone had a crush on you back then!" "Even you, Sendatsu-san? Did even little Iruka, class clown, have a crush on me?" Yuuhi's voice dropped low into a sultry whisper as she teased the training chuunin.
Iruka's laugh died out at the whisper. ". you know the answer to that." He muttered, resuming his kicks against the log. "I did say everyone, after all."
The dark-haired jounin merely smiled. "Well," she began, "I suppose I should have expected that. Really Iruka, how do you intend to get through the exam this time anyway? As I recall you haven't fought seriously since you began teaching. Heck, you even managed to avoid a fight during that incident with the Sand."
". I had a duty to perform." Replied the chuunin as he ceased his kicks and switched to a variety of striking techniques instead.
"I know Sendatsu-san, I know." Yuuhi swung her legs out and hopped off the rock she had been sitting on. "Well. I'm sure that by now Kiba is causing havoc. I guess I should head off to prevent him from doing too much damage." The jounin smiled slightly at Iruka as she turned to leave.
"Good luck Sendatsu-san, I hope that the next time we speak you'll have a jounin rank behind you."
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"Konohamaru!" Came the female shriek of anger. "You give Shizuo her bow back right this minute!" Glaring at the offensive little brat known as Konohamaru, Sakura hoped that maybe - just maybe - she'd be able to get away with murder. The black haired boy had been a pain in the neck ever since her mission - as a substitute teacher - had begun.
Temari, on the other hand, was somewhat more experienced than Sakura In such matters and so hadn't really been suffering as much as the pink-haired girl.
For example, Sakura had just yelled at the ingrateful brats until they behaved - which was a tried and true method. Temari, however, had used an ancient Sand village teaching method.
. Namely, tying the first person to misbehave to the ceiling.
It had worked like a charm, silencing the class in mere moments, much to the annoyance of Sakura, who had then spent the better part of an hour ranting about how inhumane such treatment of students was. On the other hand, Inner Sakura was proclaiming great compliments about Temari's genius in dealing with delinquents.
At present a status quo had been reached between the 'teachers' and the students. It was a simple arrangement really, the students agreed not to make trouble and Temari agreed not to terrify them to the point of them having to visit the little nin's room.
Such a working arrangement is probably the holy grail of teachers everywhere.
"Henge no jutsu!" There was a puff of acrid smoke and then, in place of what had been a student was an almost perfect copy of Temari. Well. Except for the hair at least.
"Miyako, do I look like I have long hair to you?" Asked the real Temari, as she stared at the hairstyle the student's illusion of her had. Specifically, the two bunches of hair nearer the bottom of her head had, in this illusion, been replaced with two long ponytails. It was, Temari had to admit, a rather fetching look on her body.
It was still incorrect though.
"One more time now." She suggested, keeping her gaze level as a further puff of smoke signaled the reversion of her student to her normal form.
"Henge no jutsu!" The students hands whipped through the incredibly simple seals needed for this most basic of techniques and, after blinking a few times to get the smoke out of her eyes, Temari found herself looking at a near perfect replica of herself.
A tiny warm feeling emerged somewhere near the top of her chest. It felt, she later decided, a lot like pride. Not egotistical pride but instead pride in someone else. Yes, that seemed about right.
Perhaps this was what her instructor, Baki, had felt like whenever she and her brothers had completed a mission or some strict training regime with flying colors. Was this the feeling that drew people into the teaching profession?
Pride, in her student? In someone she had taught?
Well, it was that or she'd been thinking about Naruto without realizing again.
Either way though, Temari found it to be quite, quite a pleasant feeling.
"Sexy no jutsu!"
A feeling, which promptly dissipated the moment Konohamaru decided to try showing off the technique he had learnt from Naruto such a long time ago.
The rest of the lesson proceeded rather smoothly. If one ignored the muffled protests of the short black-haired boy tied to the ceiling at least.
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Naruto sighed as he trudged along the dirt path alongside his current sensei, the pervert sennin Jiraiya. The blonde genin idly kicked at stones as he let his feet drag him along the ground.
To be honest, he wanted to continue practicing the technique Jiraiya was supposedly teaching him. Unfortunately, the old pervert had run out of balloons - which rendered the plan of further training null and void as it required the use of balloons.
"Oi!" He yelled after a while, causing the elder man to glance down from the notepad he was scribbling on.
"What?" Came the irritated reply from Jiraiya, who was obviously not happy about having his sketching interrupted. "What do you want now?"
Naruto looked away from the famous sennin and stared at the rocks and trees that littered the side of the path they were following. "You." He began, then paused - uncertain of where to begin. "You. You know about girls, right?" came the eventual question, to which Jiraiya raised an eyebrow in vague amusement.
"I would say I know a little about them, yes." He began, his voice serious. Not that it stayed that way for long as, after slipping his notepad away, he hopped in front of Naruto and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"For I am." He declared, "The greatest womanizer the world has known! Ahaha!"
Naruto, however, merely shook his head in disgust. "Stupid pervert-sennin." He glanced away, not wanting Jiraiya to see the evilly cunning gleam in his eyes. "You're just full of hot air! You probably haven't even kissed a girl before!"
Jiraiya froze.
Naruto whirled to glare at the older man, his mouth wide in a mocking grin. "Ha! I'm right! You've never kissed a gi-urk!" Jiraiya's hand - which had somehow appeared around Naruto's throat - squeezed slightly, just enough to warn Naruto about the bad idea of continuing his sentence.
"Never. Kissed. A. Girl?" Jiraiya's face filled Naruto's vision. Idly the genin noted that the sennin's left eye was twitching like some kind of deranged hummingbird. "You, boy, are obviously in need of education."
Suddenly, the foxy little ninja felt himself being swung into the air by his hair as Jiraya spun on one foot with one arm - and Naruto - swinging out to keep him balanced. "So then come, my little chikadee! You're going to see a master at work!" He yelled, moments before biting the thumb of his free hand and smacking it down onto the ground.
With a gloopy 'pop' and a swampy smelling cloud of smoke, a red and black toad the size of a ramen cart appeared under Jiraya's feet. Naruto, who had just recovered from being swung about like a rag doll blinked once as his mind informed him that the toad had just crouched down. and toads only crouched like that for one reason.
"Yaaaaahhh!" Naruto screamed as the toad took off with Jiraiya on it's back and himself flapping around like a ribbon in Jiraiya's hand.
"Nyahahaha!" Laughed Jiraiya, "To the nearest village!"
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She crept through the village, her body never once leaving the pitch black shadows cast by various buildings. She was a girl on a mission, a mission of truth, justice and love.
Well. No. Actually she was just creeping to the Yamanaka flower shop in order to talk with the blonde haired Ino. The creeping and sneaking, however, were very much in need as her family would, most definitely, not approve of just why she was going to see Ino.
Naruto.
Just his name sent a tiny little spark of. well. a spark of something down her spine. The mental image of his smiling face caused heat to build up in her cheeks and her heart to start beating that little bit faster.
Temari.
The girl who's name promptly smothered everything she felt at her thoughts of Naruto.
Hyuuga Hinata was not, by nature, a very vengeful person. She was quiet, polite and calm. She said 'please' and 'thank-you' when needed, apologised for things she had to apologise for. She followed orders without question and never rebelled.
Except once.
Once she rebelled.
And. she had liked it.
Loved it.
The intense feeling of being able to do things for and by herself without needing anyone else to do it for or to do it for her.
Hinata was not a selfish person. She never wanted or begged for anything.
Well. There was one thing she wanted.
"Naruto-kun." She whispered as she leapt across a gap between two rooftops with all the grace and skill of someone who was either incredibly reckless, or incredibly skilled enough to do it. In her case, really, it was a little of both. Skill borne from years and years of ninja training, and recklessness that stemmed from depression.
It seemed that it was time to rebel again. This time, however, it wouldn't be against her family - but against the sheer possibility that Naruto might actually like that. that. that yellow haired.
Hinata blinked in confusion. She really, really did need to learn how to insult someone. Perhaps that was just one more thing she could ask Ino about, after all the Yamanaka girl seemed quite proficient at insulting Sakura. So, perhaps, she could give Hinata a few pointers for when she inevitably insulted Temari.
Hyuuga Hinata was not a vengeful person.
Not usually anyway.
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The sky was growing dark as the sun set over a cluster of large hills in the distance. The academy's schooling period had ended a short while ago - leaving Temari with enough time to take the longer route back to Naruto's home.
Her home.
The air was cold, even inside - just another indication that winter was drawing closer she decided. It was, she guessed, yet another thing that she would have to get used to. From the few short conversations she had participated in with Sakura, winter here apparently hit a lot harder than it did in the Wind country for some reason. According to the pink haired girl - who seemed to be getting over her original suspicion of Temari - a drastic change of wardrobe would be in order.
Slumping into a seat at the dining room table, Temari reached out and spun one of the dials, which controlled the heating - nothing fancy, just hot water in pipes - and waited. After a few minutes she felt a noticeable change in the temperature of the room and sighed happily to herself.
So now she had a whole evening to herself. How. dull.
Sliding off of her seat, Temari stalked up to her room and towards the boxes of stuff that she had bought with her when she had arrived in the village. After a short rummage, she pulled out two scrolls - one in each hand - from the box. They were two of the several scrolls that her brothers, Kankuro and Gaara, had apparently copied and hidden for her. Sitting cross-legged upon her bed, Temari carefully opened the seal on the first scroll and unrolled it slightly. After staring at what was written, she rolled it back up and skillfully re-fixed the seal that kept it closed.
After all, she would need a new fan before she could use anything on that scroll evidently - and suitable large combat fans were, well, somewhat scarce around here. As were the materials needed to make them to her standard.
The blond-haired girl snorted in annoyance. Scarce? More like non-existent. She wouldn't be able to get a suitable fan until she could get an order through to one of the larger cities in the Wind country. Heck, she wasn't even sure it was possible for her to get an order to anywhere in the Wind country. That said, she knew she couldn't afford a new fan at present. Of course, since her 'mission' at the academy was an internal mission within the village and for the village she herself was being paid for it.
After all, it would be rather pointless for the village to pay itself for her work.
Still. With no fan, no materials to make a strong enough fan herself and no money to buy one - or even just the materials - Temari was stuck.
Cracking the seal of the second scroll, the ex-Sand-nin unrolled a section of it and skimmed over the text there. Her eyes widened slightly as she stopped and began reading from the beginning, this time making sure to take in every word. She would have to have some help training - she knew her body wasn't quite up to what the first technique on this scroll demanded - but this technique. Well. It was enough to put a slight smirk on her face.
Re-rolling and sealing the scroll, Temari gently placed it on a shelf near her bed. Carefully she re-hid the other scroll in her box of things and pushed the whole lot out of the way.
Sighing to herself, the blonde haired girl pulled off her shirt and stared at her body in a slim mirror she had attached to one wall on her first day in the village. Her mind wandered, back to that first morning. That one time when Naruto had walked in on her whilst she had been in the bathroom.
In her home country, such a thing was frowned upon. unless both parties were engaged. Heck, it was usually the female who 'accidentally' walked in on the male in that case. Well, why not? How else were they going to know what to expect come wedding night?
But Naruto was too young. Heck, she herself was still too young!
Then again. The laws on ages were different here weren't they? If she herself was to chose a husband, she'd be doing it just under a year from now - when she hit sixteen. On the other hand, Naruto would have been capable of choosing a wife two years from now, when he would become fourteen.
And here they were, engaged and, if Naruto was twelve like she thought, they would be married in two years.
By now it was possible to see the stars twinkling in the sky outside her window as Temari leant on the windowsill, staring up at the heavens.
Two years.
Such a long time and, yet, so little. Would she even find any real feelings for the boy? Granted, he was brave and didn't hold a grudge against her. But, well, he was young. And not too bright either.
But.
Well.
She thought he was. nice.
That was a definite start, right?
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"Bah! I thought you were supposed to be a great sennin!" Yelled Naruto, as he ground an ice-pack against the side of Jiraiya's face, causing the older man to groan in pain. "You couldn't even dodge that girl!"
Naruto leaned forwards, his eyes opposite Jiraiya's. "Why?" he asked after a few moments of silence.
"Ah." Jiraiya nodded - then grimaced as the ice pack being held against his face ground over the giant bruise it was covering. "That," He began, "Is something you should learn boy. If a girl wants to hit you because she's angry. let her."
Naruto blinked. "Huh?"
Nodding to his young pupil, the ero-sennin grinned. "Women believe they're smarter than men." He began, "But they don't realize that we can manipulate them a much as they can manipulate us - by letting an angry girl hit you it makes them work of their anger quickly. Otherwise they could resort to more. subtle forms of revenge."
Frowning, the young Genin puzzled his way through this nugget of masculine wisdom. "So. They hit us instead of doing something worse, right?" He ventured at last, grinning when Jiraiya nodded.
"Fact of life kid, fact of life." The old man nodded solemnly. "Supposedly everyone want's me to explain these facts of life as we go along. Well, that's the first."
"Yup." He murmured. "Fact of life."
Chapter 11 - end.
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Authors notes -
Oh but the girls are going to want to kill me X.x welcome to the wonderful world of Jiraiya-vision.
So anyway, the great age debate(tm) comes to the fore in this chapter, in which Temari believes Naruto's age to be twelve. For reference, it's assumed Temari is sixteen.
And, I will emphasize this, I pay *NO* attention to any flames concerning age laws. I'm British, our age of consent is 16. I am also aware of more than one country in which the age of consent if 14 thus in this fic, there are no implausible age-laws.
For reference, I decided (quite randomly) that the age of consent in Fire country (and thus Leaf Village) is 14, and that of Wind country (and Sand Village) is 16.
Now, arranged marriages have been known to bypass age laws so that very young couples can be husband and wife - however they can't do anything like 'that' until they're old enough.
Aaanyway.
Does Iruka actually have a canon family name? I looked, but I couldn't find reference to one so I gave him the family name 'Sendatsu' which I found, after I named him, means 'guide, leader, pioneer' . heh. ^^;;
Of course, if anyone does tell me that Iruka has a canon family name, I'll be happy to correct it. ^-^
Edit: apparently some sites have 'umino' listed as his canon family name.
Umino Iruka.
What a. sad joke. 'Dolphin of the sea' indeed. Anyway, I'm not going to change my fic (since, I haven't seen actual definite proof of that name anyhow) but, instead, I will incorporate this mistake in as part of the story ^^;; which I'll have to explain in a different chapter.
Another Edit: yes yes. I meant henge, not bunshin. That's been corrected and I feel so horribly ashamed for not only *making* that mistake, but missing it every time I read through as well. -.-; dernit.
Lackey H - Weeping for Chouji.
A Naruto fanfiction.
Chapter 11 - Children
"So." Temari whispered, "He's doing well then?" her question was the one that had also been on the mind of the mind of the pink-haired girl beside her.
"Did they say when they would be coming back?" Asked team seven's Sakura. Not that team seven consisted of much right now, what with Sasuke, along with Kakashi, in hospital and Naruto off on a training journey with Jiraiya.
"The messenger only said that they were well, that's all." Came the reply - along with a few puffs of acrid smoke. With their instructor down, the remainder of team seven, all two of them, had been temporarily assigned to Sarutobi Asuma - the instructor of team ten. "If they did get in trouble you'd be the first to know about it, I'm sure."
'Unless it involves Orochimaru. Or Itachi. Or any number of the things that have to be kept secret.' Thought the chain-smoking jounin. 'They still don't know the real reason why their team-mate and instructor are in hospital - only that they were injured 'training' somehow.'
It had been almost a week since Jiraiya and Naruto had headed off into, apparently, the middle of nowhere. A few days ago Sasuke had suddenly been admitted into the hospital with 'training injuries'. Not that Sakura believe the, rather flimsy, lie. After all, Sasuke wasn't stupid enough to hurt himself that badly whilst training.
Sakura had reacted badly at first, hovering over Sasuke's bed in a manner which, Temari thought, was not unlike that of the many vultures which lived in the Wind country. After a while she had begun to calm down and had begun training like a crazed hyena.
Temari had, some time back, found comparing people's actions to normally disliked animals to be really a rather amusing little hobby.
For reference, she thought Asuma acted like some kind of sloth. Or maybe like a giant carp. One of the two at least.
At this moment, the three of them were sitting in a small classroom, with Asuma leaning on a large desk at the front of the room and the two female genin sitting down on the front-row bench opposite him.
"Now then, it appears that you two have a mission." Stated the bearded Jounin, "C-rank, possibly B depending on how things go, nothing particularly dangerous - just difficult."
"A mission?" Sakura perked up slightly, "What sort of mission? And who requested it?" She wasn't normally interested in doing missions but. well, it was something to do. Something more constructive than moping about and trying to train in what she already knew almost off by heart. Next to her, Temari also began to pay more attention - this would be her first mission under the leaf after all. Not that she was actually a leaf-nin yet, she was still technically a member of the sand right now. That said, she was beginning to feel less and less resistance to the idea of becoming a leaf- nin.
"Actually. It was requested by Iruka of the academy. I believe he was your sensei during your last year, wasn't he?" Sakura nodded at Asuma's question. Inside her mind, however, Inner Sakura was cursing like a drunk sailor over his stupidity, especially since she knew that his team ten had also been taught by Iruka, along with pretty much every kid who had become a genin this year.
"Iruka-sensei?" She asked, "What would he want to request a mission for?"
"And if he did," Added Temari, "Is he the one paying for it or not?"
Asuma blinked at Temari's question and took a long, slow, drag at his cigarette. It seemed like an innocent question until you realized the big distinction it made. If Iruka was paying, then it was something personal. If, on the other hand, he wasn't paying then it would have to be something the village wanted them to do for Iruka.
"Ah," he began, pulling his cigarette out and tapping the ash into a nearby metal ashtray that he had fished out of his pocket and placed on the desk earlier. "It's the second one because your mission is to cover for Iruka whilst he goes about some personal business."
Asuma smiled. It was a smile that instantly made Temari compare him to another type of creature - a wild shark.
"You two are to be substitute tutors at the academy. You'll be teaching Iruka's class."
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Some distance away, Iruka sneezed.
The chuunin was in one of the small training areas that was secreted away in a relatively quiet area of the forest that the leaf village was hidden within. This particular area was a clearing in the trees. The ground there was littered with a variety of large rocks and lengths of dead tree trunks. In fact, Iruka had dragged most of the rocks and trunks, with some difficulty, to the clearing himself in preparation for his training.
After managing to sink one trunk slightly into the ground, the chuunin instructor had begun a basic workout - a mix of punches, kicks and body blows which characterized his chosen way of fighting. With each blow the trunk shook slightly, occasionally shedding chips of wood as it was struck by a particularly effective strike.
So engrossed in his training was the scarred man that he didn't even notice the presence of another until she coughed loudly to get his attention. Iruka paused mid kick and lowered his leg before speaking to his unseen visitor.
"Kurenai-san." He began as he reached out with one hand to lean on the tree trunk. "I should have guessed you'd be the first to find me."
"This place was always your favorite training spot Sendatsu-san." Came the slightly amused reply as the dark-haired female jounin stepped over to put her hand on Iruka's shoulder. Leaning around him, using his shoulder as a pivot, she peered at his face. "It was only natural that I would find you here, right?"
The chuunin laughed and pushed away from the trunk, causing Yuuhi to pull her hand away from his shoulder. Shrugging to herself the jounin located a suitable rock and promptly used it as a seat.
"You heard then? That I was going to give it another try?" Asked Iruka, as he began to kick at the trunk - first with one leg, then with the other, filling the clearing with the rhythmic 'thunk, thunk, thunk' of flesh hitting wood.
"At the jounin exam? Yes, I heard. Really, I'm pleased that you're going to give it another go after all this time." Yuuhi leant back and stared at the light filtering in through the leaf-canopy above. "We never did expect you to give up on the exam after failing it once, everyone thought that you would keep trying. After all, you always were insistent that you'd become a jounin." She paused and glanced at Iruka, a faint smile flashing across her face. "You were almost as bad about that as Naruto is with his belief that he'll become Hokage one day."
Iruka's tensed slightly at Yuuhi's words, his leg slamming into the trunk with enough force to cause cracks to appear in the side of the dead wood. "That. was in the past." He began, "After I failed I tried teaching and found that I liked it, so I kept with it. Besides." He looked at Yuuhi and grinned, ". as I recall it, you failed the first time as well. And the second time. And the third time too."
Yuuhi pouted, "Yeah, well. Fourth time lucky and all that." She bowed her head slightly and glared at Iruka from under the few strands of hair that fell over her eyes. "At least I passed in the end. Even if I did have to fight off a few of our old class afterwards. Ugh, can you believe that they all tried to impress me with their new rank - all at once?"
Laughing at the mental image that produced, Iruka paused in his kicking. "Well," he stated, the mirth evident in his voice, "You were the most eligible girl in class at the academy. Then you were the most wanted female genin, then most lusted-after female chuunin. Everyone had a crush on you back then!" "Even you, Sendatsu-san? Did even little Iruka, class clown, have a crush on me?" Yuuhi's voice dropped low into a sultry whisper as she teased the training chuunin.
Iruka's laugh died out at the whisper. ". you know the answer to that." He muttered, resuming his kicks against the log. "I did say everyone, after all."
The dark-haired jounin merely smiled. "Well," she began, "I suppose I should have expected that. Really Iruka, how do you intend to get through the exam this time anyway? As I recall you haven't fought seriously since you began teaching. Heck, you even managed to avoid a fight during that incident with the Sand."
". I had a duty to perform." Replied the chuunin as he ceased his kicks and switched to a variety of striking techniques instead.
"I know Sendatsu-san, I know." Yuuhi swung her legs out and hopped off the rock she had been sitting on. "Well. I'm sure that by now Kiba is causing havoc. I guess I should head off to prevent him from doing too much damage." The jounin smiled slightly at Iruka as she turned to leave.
"Good luck Sendatsu-san, I hope that the next time we speak you'll have a jounin rank behind you."
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"Konohamaru!" Came the female shriek of anger. "You give Shizuo her bow back right this minute!" Glaring at the offensive little brat known as Konohamaru, Sakura hoped that maybe - just maybe - she'd be able to get away with murder. The black haired boy had been a pain in the neck ever since her mission - as a substitute teacher - had begun.
Temari, on the other hand, was somewhat more experienced than Sakura In such matters and so hadn't really been suffering as much as the pink-haired girl.
For example, Sakura had just yelled at the ingrateful brats until they behaved - which was a tried and true method. Temari, however, had used an ancient Sand village teaching method.
. Namely, tying the first person to misbehave to the ceiling.
It had worked like a charm, silencing the class in mere moments, much to the annoyance of Sakura, who had then spent the better part of an hour ranting about how inhumane such treatment of students was. On the other hand, Inner Sakura was proclaiming great compliments about Temari's genius in dealing with delinquents.
At present a status quo had been reached between the 'teachers' and the students. It was a simple arrangement really, the students agreed not to make trouble and Temari agreed not to terrify them to the point of them having to visit the little nin's room.
Such a working arrangement is probably the holy grail of teachers everywhere.
"Henge no jutsu!" There was a puff of acrid smoke and then, in place of what had been a student was an almost perfect copy of Temari. Well. Except for the hair at least.
"Miyako, do I look like I have long hair to you?" Asked the real Temari, as she stared at the hairstyle the student's illusion of her had. Specifically, the two bunches of hair nearer the bottom of her head had, in this illusion, been replaced with two long ponytails. It was, Temari had to admit, a rather fetching look on her body.
It was still incorrect though.
"One more time now." She suggested, keeping her gaze level as a further puff of smoke signaled the reversion of her student to her normal form.
"Henge no jutsu!" The students hands whipped through the incredibly simple seals needed for this most basic of techniques and, after blinking a few times to get the smoke out of her eyes, Temari found herself looking at a near perfect replica of herself.
A tiny warm feeling emerged somewhere near the top of her chest. It felt, she later decided, a lot like pride. Not egotistical pride but instead pride in someone else. Yes, that seemed about right.
Perhaps this was what her instructor, Baki, had felt like whenever she and her brothers had completed a mission or some strict training regime with flying colors. Was this the feeling that drew people into the teaching profession?
Pride, in her student? In someone she had taught?
Well, it was that or she'd been thinking about Naruto without realizing again.
Either way though, Temari found it to be quite, quite a pleasant feeling.
"Sexy no jutsu!"
A feeling, which promptly dissipated the moment Konohamaru decided to try showing off the technique he had learnt from Naruto such a long time ago.
The rest of the lesson proceeded rather smoothly. If one ignored the muffled protests of the short black-haired boy tied to the ceiling at least.
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Naruto sighed as he trudged along the dirt path alongside his current sensei, the pervert sennin Jiraiya. The blonde genin idly kicked at stones as he let his feet drag him along the ground.
To be honest, he wanted to continue practicing the technique Jiraiya was supposedly teaching him. Unfortunately, the old pervert had run out of balloons - which rendered the plan of further training null and void as it required the use of balloons.
"Oi!" He yelled after a while, causing the elder man to glance down from the notepad he was scribbling on.
"What?" Came the irritated reply from Jiraiya, who was obviously not happy about having his sketching interrupted. "What do you want now?"
Naruto looked away from the famous sennin and stared at the rocks and trees that littered the side of the path they were following. "You." He began, then paused - uncertain of where to begin. "You. You know about girls, right?" came the eventual question, to which Jiraiya raised an eyebrow in vague amusement.
"I would say I know a little about them, yes." He began, his voice serious. Not that it stayed that way for long as, after slipping his notepad away, he hopped in front of Naruto and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"For I am." He declared, "The greatest womanizer the world has known! Ahaha!"
Naruto, however, merely shook his head in disgust. "Stupid pervert-sennin." He glanced away, not wanting Jiraiya to see the evilly cunning gleam in his eyes. "You're just full of hot air! You probably haven't even kissed a girl before!"
Jiraiya froze.
Naruto whirled to glare at the older man, his mouth wide in a mocking grin. "Ha! I'm right! You've never kissed a gi-urk!" Jiraiya's hand - which had somehow appeared around Naruto's throat - squeezed slightly, just enough to warn Naruto about the bad idea of continuing his sentence.
"Never. Kissed. A. Girl?" Jiraiya's face filled Naruto's vision. Idly the genin noted that the sennin's left eye was twitching like some kind of deranged hummingbird. "You, boy, are obviously in need of education."
Suddenly, the foxy little ninja felt himself being swung into the air by his hair as Jiraya spun on one foot with one arm - and Naruto - swinging out to keep him balanced. "So then come, my little chikadee! You're going to see a master at work!" He yelled, moments before biting the thumb of his free hand and smacking it down onto the ground.
With a gloopy 'pop' and a swampy smelling cloud of smoke, a red and black toad the size of a ramen cart appeared under Jiraya's feet. Naruto, who had just recovered from being swung about like a rag doll blinked once as his mind informed him that the toad had just crouched down. and toads only crouched like that for one reason.
"Yaaaaahhh!" Naruto screamed as the toad took off with Jiraiya on it's back and himself flapping around like a ribbon in Jiraiya's hand.
"Nyahahaha!" Laughed Jiraiya, "To the nearest village!"
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She crept through the village, her body never once leaving the pitch black shadows cast by various buildings. She was a girl on a mission, a mission of truth, justice and love.
Well. No. Actually she was just creeping to the Yamanaka flower shop in order to talk with the blonde haired Ino. The creeping and sneaking, however, were very much in need as her family would, most definitely, not approve of just why she was going to see Ino.
Naruto.
Just his name sent a tiny little spark of. well. a spark of something down her spine. The mental image of his smiling face caused heat to build up in her cheeks and her heart to start beating that little bit faster.
Temari.
The girl who's name promptly smothered everything she felt at her thoughts of Naruto.
Hyuuga Hinata was not, by nature, a very vengeful person. She was quiet, polite and calm. She said 'please' and 'thank-you' when needed, apologised for things she had to apologise for. She followed orders without question and never rebelled.
Except once.
Once she rebelled.
And. she had liked it.
Loved it.
The intense feeling of being able to do things for and by herself without needing anyone else to do it for or to do it for her.
Hinata was not a selfish person. She never wanted or begged for anything.
Well. There was one thing she wanted.
"Naruto-kun." She whispered as she leapt across a gap between two rooftops with all the grace and skill of someone who was either incredibly reckless, or incredibly skilled enough to do it. In her case, really, it was a little of both. Skill borne from years and years of ninja training, and recklessness that stemmed from depression.
It seemed that it was time to rebel again. This time, however, it wouldn't be against her family - but against the sheer possibility that Naruto might actually like that. that. that yellow haired.
Hinata blinked in confusion. She really, really did need to learn how to insult someone. Perhaps that was just one more thing she could ask Ino about, after all the Yamanaka girl seemed quite proficient at insulting Sakura. So, perhaps, she could give Hinata a few pointers for when she inevitably insulted Temari.
Hyuuga Hinata was not a vengeful person.
Not usually anyway.
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The sky was growing dark as the sun set over a cluster of large hills in the distance. The academy's schooling period had ended a short while ago - leaving Temari with enough time to take the longer route back to Naruto's home.
Her home.
The air was cold, even inside - just another indication that winter was drawing closer she decided. It was, she guessed, yet another thing that she would have to get used to. From the few short conversations she had participated in with Sakura, winter here apparently hit a lot harder than it did in the Wind country for some reason. According to the pink haired girl - who seemed to be getting over her original suspicion of Temari - a drastic change of wardrobe would be in order.
Slumping into a seat at the dining room table, Temari reached out and spun one of the dials, which controlled the heating - nothing fancy, just hot water in pipes - and waited. After a few minutes she felt a noticeable change in the temperature of the room and sighed happily to herself.
So now she had a whole evening to herself. How. dull.
Sliding off of her seat, Temari stalked up to her room and towards the boxes of stuff that she had bought with her when she had arrived in the village. After a short rummage, she pulled out two scrolls - one in each hand - from the box. They were two of the several scrolls that her brothers, Kankuro and Gaara, had apparently copied and hidden for her. Sitting cross-legged upon her bed, Temari carefully opened the seal on the first scroll and unrolled it slightly. After staring at what was written, she rolled it back up and skillfully re-fixed the seal that kept it closed.
After all, she would need a new fan before she could use anything on that scroll evidently - and suitable large combat fans were, well, somewhat scarce around here. As were the materials needed to make them to her standard.
The blond-haired girl snorted in annoyance. Scarce? More like non-existent. She wouldn't be able to get a suitable fan until she could get an order through to one of the larger cities in the Wind country. Heck, she wasn't even sure it was possible for her to get an order to anywhere in the Wind country. That said, she knew she couldn't afford a new fan at present. Of course, since her 'mission' at the academy was an internal mission within the village and for the village she herself was being paid for it.
After all, it would be rather pointless for the village to pay itself for her work.
Still. With no fan, no materials to make a strong enough fan herself and no money to buy one - or even just the materials - Temari was stuck.
Cracking the seal of the second scroll, the ex-Sand-nin unrolled a section of it and skimmed over the text there. Her eyes widened slightly as she stopped and began reading from the beginning, this time making sure to take in every word. She would have to have some help training - she knew her body wasn't quite up to what the first technique on this scroll demanded - but this technique. Well. It was enough to put a slight smirk on her face.
Re-rolling and sealing the scroll, Temari gently placed it on a shelf near her bed. Carefully she re-hid the other scroll in her box of things and pushed the whole lot out of the way.
Sighing to herself, the blonde haired girl pulled off her shirt and stared at her body in a slim mirror she had attached to one wall on her first day in the village. Her mind wandered, back to that first morning. That one time when Naruto had walked in on her whilst she had been in the bathroom.
In her home country, such a thing was frowned upon. unless both parties were engaged. Heck, it was usually the female who 'accidentally' walked in on the male in that case. Well, why not? How else were they going to know what to expect come wedding night?
But Naruto was too young. Heck, she herself was still too young!
Then again. The laws on ages were different here weren't they? If she herself was to chose a husband, she'd be doing it just under a year from now - when she hit sixteen. On the other hand, Naruto would have been capable of choosing a wife two years from now, when he would become fourteen.
And here they were, engaged and, if Naruto was twelve like she thought, they would be married in two years.
By now it was possible to see the stars twinkling in the sky outside her window as Temari leant on the windowsill, staring up at the heavens.
Two years.
Such a long time and, yet, so little. Would she even find any real feelings for the boy? Granted, he was brave and didn't hold a grudge against her. But, well, he was young. And not too bright either.
But.
Well.
She thought he was. nice.
That was a definite start, right?
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"Bah! I thought you were supposed to be a great sennin!" Yelled Naruto, as he ground an ice-pack against the side of Jiraiya's face, causing the older man to groan in pain. "You couldn't even dodge that girl!"
Naruto leaned forwards, his eyes opposite Jiraiya's. "Why?" he asked after a few moments of silence.
"Ah." Jiraiya nodded - then grimaced as the ice pack being held against his face ground over the giant bruise it was covering. "That," He began, "Is something you should learn boy. If a girl wants to hit you because she's angry. let her."
Naruto blinked. "Huh?"
Nodding to his young pupil, the ero-sennin grinned. "Women believe they're smarter than men." He began, "But they don't realize that we can manipulate them a much as they can manipulate us - by letting an angry girl hit you it makes them work of their anger quickly. Otherwise they could resort to more. subtle forms of revenge."
Frowning, the young Genin puzzled his way through this nugget of masculine wisdom. "So. They hit us instead of doing something worse, right?" He ventured at last, grinning when Jiraiya nodded.
"Fact of life kid, fact of life." The old man nodded solemnly. "Supposedly everyone want's me to explain these facts of life as we go along. Well, that's the first."
"Yup." He murmured. "Fact of life."
Chapter 11 - end.
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Authors notes -
Oh but the girls are going to want to kill me X.x welcome to the wonderful world of Jiraiya-vision.
So anyway, the great age debate(tm) comes to the fore in this chapter, in which Temari believes Naruto's age to be twelve. For reference, it's assumed Temari is sixteen.
And, I will emphasize this, I pay *NO* attention to any flames concerning age laws. I'm British, our age of consent is 16. I am also aware of more than one country in which the age of consent if 14 thus in this fic, there are no implausible age-laws.
For reference, I decided (quite randomly) that the age of consent in Fire country (and thus Leaf Village) is 14, and that of Wind country (and Sand Village) is 16.
Now, arranged marriages have been known to bypass age laws so that very young couples can be husband and wife - however they can't do anything like 'that' until they're old enough.
Aaanyway.
Does Iruka actually have a canon family name? I looked, but I couldn't find reference to one so I gave him the family name 'Sendatsu' which I found, after I named him, means 'guide, leader, pioneer' . heh. ^^;;
Of course, if anyone does tell me that Iruka has a canon family name, I'll be happy to correct it. ^-^
Edit: apparently some sites have 'umino' listed as his canon family name.
Umino Iruka.
What a. sad joke. 'Dolphin of the sea' indeed. Anyway, I'm not going to change my fic (since, I haven't seen actual definite proof of that name anyhow) but, instead, I will incorporate this mistake in as part of the story ^^;; which I'll have to explain in a different chapter.
Another Edit: yes yes. I meant henge, not bunshin. That's been corrected and I feel so horribly ashamed for not only *making* that mistake, but missing it every time I read through as well. -.-; dernit.
Lackey H - Weeping for Chouji.