-1Chapter Two: New Beginnings
Tsunade took the parchment out of my hand; she glanced at me with a worried look in her eyes. "Reku has chosen his teammate," declared Lady Hokage. "His partner is Uzumaki Naruto."
On the inside, I was relieved that I wasn't paired up with Sakura or Takeshi. I looked forward to dealing with Naruto's pranks and stupidity. Naruto, on the other hand, was stunned. He was looking at me as if I pulled down my underwear. I looked away, trying to hide the fact that I was blushing. All he did was fall to the floor on his behind, stumped about why he was chosen to team up with me.
"Sakura, Takeshi," Tsunade added. "I guess that you are automatically paired up. You will get your first assignments in the morning. You are all dismissed, except for Uzumaki Naruto, and Roneworufu Reku."
The other Chuunin, and the Jounin elite bowed as they left the Hokage's office. Naruto started complaining. "Why are you holding us back, Granny Tsunade?" he griped. "I was going to tell Master Iruka about my promotion, so he can treat me to ramen at Ichiraku."
"I want to tell you both something that you need to know about each other, Naruto," said Lady Tsunade in a serious tone. " I'm assigning Kakashi to monitor both of you effective tomorrow."
"With all due respect," I objected. "We're Chuunin, aren't we? Why do we need a Jounin to baby-sit us?"
" Before I tell you the reason," Lady Hokage ordered, "You must swear you won't mention this to anyone else, except for me and Kakashi. Is that understood?"
We both nodded. Tsunade then told us the truth, "you are both the hosts of powerful spirits that once threatened to destroy Konoha."
Both Naruto and I were shocked, but we let Tsunade continue. " Before the Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyuubi into Naruto, Reku was chosen the year before, to seal the spirit of a powerful blue dragon that almost destroyed the neighboring Village of the Rain. We must be cautious to prevent the spirits from destroying the land."
An hour after we were dismissed, Master Iruka, the Chuunin assigned to teach at the Academy, treated both me and Naruto to ramen. "So, you were teamed up together with Reku, eh?" Iruka asked. Naruto couldn't answer using words, because he was on his second bowl of ramen (which I happily paid for). The only answer that Master Iruka got from Naruto was a nod. I was finishing the rest of the broth in my bowl of ramen, and was stuffed after the first bowl.
After we said our goodbyes to our old teacher, I got a feeling of loneliness, because I lived alone. "Naruto, may I ask you something?" I inquired.
"What do you want, Reku?" asked an annoyed Naruto, who was thinking about getting home to train. "You want to ask me if I want to change partners?"
I turned beet red in the face. "No, I wouldn't want to, but I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my roommate. I hated living alone, and my family died protecting the Rain Village when I was a baby. So, will you be my roommate?"
Naruto was excited, no one asked him to do anything with them before, let alone share a home with another ninja with a sealed spirit inside of him. "Where is Kakashi?" he yelled. "I'm going to need to use his big suitcase. When can I move in?"
I giggled on the inside. I love it when he gets this way, I said to myself. No! another voice said, He is a guy, how can I have a freaking crush on Naruto?After some thought, I said "You are welcome to stay the night. We'll get your stuff tomorrow morning."
"Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed. I snickered as I showed him the way to my home.
