Prove the Pervert Wrong
Chapter Eight: Out Of The Shadows
Disclaimer: We're on the eight chapter and you need me to tell you again? Well, whatever, I still don't own Naruto…
"Speech"
/Thoughts/
"Jutsu!"
Pre-Chapter A/N: Boy, is my face red… I was reading through the manga, looking for references to people other than Yondaime using shunshin no jutsu, and everything went fine until chapter 222 (page seven). Because I remembered a review (from Truth Is What You Make Of It) mentioning Shisui as using shunshin, I decided to check the raw just to be safe. I now know that it's because of a bad translation that I got confused, because my translated manga reads "Shisui of the mirage," but the actual Japanese reads "shunshin no Shisui." I even checked the kanji out, and it is indeed the same kanji that was used in Rin's speech bubble in page ten of chapter 240. While this doesn't necessarily mean that it's a common technique, it does mean that it wasn't unique to Yondaime, which means that it doesn't matter if it's common, because I was wrong either way. My apologies for any confusion I may have caused with my misinformation.
All of that said, this fic isn't changing. We have definitely crossed the line of no return on that one. If that ruins the story for you, don't read it. Future fics (excluding the sequel to this fic) will not be featuring that mistake, if they ever come into existence.
Without any further adieu, on to the fic!
"A… race?" Naruto looked at Yamato again, hoping to see an answer in the man's face, but there was none to be found. "What kind of race?"
"I'm glad you asked!" Anko's grin became even wider, so that her mouth looked to be almost as wide as her head. "We'll be racing to see who can pop the balloon first!" After a moment of blankly staring at her, Naruto's face contorted in rage.
"What! You were just trying to learn the rasengan all this time? I thought--"
"Oi, shut up for a second! I never said I'm going to be learning the rasengan! Your overreaction is taking all the fun out of this…"
"You're not trying to learn the rasengan…?" A few minutes of silence passed by as Naruto considered what she had said, trying to decide whether or not she was telling the truth. Eventually he realized that, even if she had been trying to get the training methods from him, she wouldn't have needed to let him know about it at all, let alone challenge him to a race. "But… how is that gonna help my training?"
"Heh…" /The fun returns…/ "That's for me to know. There's a special condition to this race though, and you're gonna hate it."
"'Special condition?'" He again turned his gaze to Yamato, this time hoping to see a mirror of his own confusion on the man's face. As though to spite him, Yamato no longer looked confused, and was even grinning. "What kind of special condition?"
"Oh, it's not terribly important… It's just that, if I figure it out before you do, I'm not going to help with your training anymore."
"WHAT! Why not?"
"Because you won't be interesting enough anymore."
"But you're a special jounin! Of course you're gonna get it faster than I will!"
"That won't make any difference, idiot." Seeing that he was utterly confused, she couldn't help but become a little happier. "It's true that I'm more experienced than you, and that I have better chakra control, but you still have the advantage in this race. This is a way of using chakra that I've never learned. I don't know how long you spent figuring out your little kage bunshin trick with Jiraiya, but even without that time you have a week's head start over me. Combine that with the fact that you've used the completed technique before, not to mention that your stamina will allow you to train more each day then I'll be able to, and it'll be absolutely pathetic if I beat you to the punch. If you really have that little skill then you won't be interesting to me, regardless of how many strong techniques you develop."
"You can't do that!" Naruto looked pleadingly at Yamato for a few seconds, but the man's grin indicated that he had little sympathy for the boy's plight. "I still need your help! How the hell am I supposed to--"
"Not my problem. Our deal was that I help you as long as you stay interesting. If you really want my help so badly…" She tossed him a water balloon, "you'll just have to earn it!"
"But…" /Chikushou! She's the best chance I have… I can't screw this up! I won't!/ Naruto formed a grin of his own, taking Anko and Yamato by surprise. "Heh, no problem! I'm gonna be the strongest ninja in Konoha, so there's no way I'd lose to some washed-up special jounin!"
"Let's just see you back that up, Naruto!"
Yamato, as he was getting ready to control the Kyuubi chakra once more, couldn't help but admire Anko's plan. /Taking advantage of the fact that he's overestimating his need for her to increase his drive, reminding him of the difficulty of his goal, and getting his mind off of yesterday's events all in one go… And she still manages to be a convincing actress! I wonder if she'll be able to do well enough to keep him on edge though, with such a high level technique…/ "Hey, wait a second…"
"What is it Yamato?"
"Anko, didn't you say that he'd be doing something different?"
"No, I said we'd be doing something different! I never said that he was a part of the 'we' that I was referring to."
"But that still doesn't make any sense… You're the only one that's doing anything different." He grinned at the embarrassed look on her face. "Did you not think that through carefully enough before saying it?"
"Shut up and get back to work!" /Bastard…/
A few hours later, Anko had to admit that it really was hard. She had originally been planning to go easy on him, always staying just a bit ahead of him, but the way things were going it was going to take her a few days at the least, even if she did her best. Although she knew that the rasengan was out of her league, she hadn't expected the control portion of it to be quite that difficult. Her plan was entirely necessary though, as his progress up to that point had been far too slow for him to catch up to Orochimaru in two years.
Wednesday rolled by, and Anko was finally getting the hang of the rotation. She was by no means popping the balloon, but she was glad to find that she had been right about most of the difficulty being in the other parts of the technique. The rotation was hard, but not nearly hard enough to constitute an A-rank technique on its own.
Naruto was also doing much better, but he was still disappointing her somewhat. Luckily, Anko had one more ace up her sleeve: Mabui. She still didn't know what about Mabui being there helped Naruto with his training, but she didn't care in the least. The fact of the matter was that Mabui helped, and Naruto needed it. Arriving right on cue, Mabui adopted her usual smile.
"Hey Naruto! Anko! What's--" She froze on spotting Yamato, who looked suspicious sitting in the center of his circle of wooden posts. "Who the hell is that?"
"That's Yamato! He's helping with my training!"
"He's helping…?" /How exactly does that help?/ "Well… it's nice to meet you, Yamato-san! I'm Mabui!"
"It's nice to meet you too, Mabui-san…" /What's with the change in attitude?/
"So… what's the training today, Naruto?" Naruto's head fell in embarrassment.
"I'm still trying to get the balloon to pop..."
"Why do you seem so disappointed? There've been plenty of things that took you more than a week before this…"
"He's disappointed," Anko grinned, which Mabui knew was a bad thing, "because I'm catching up." Mabui's look of confusion just added to the satisfaction Anko was getting out of the situation.
"'Catching up?' Catching up in what?"
"Oh, that's right, he's avoided mentioning it around you…" /I love being me!/ "Well, Naruto and I are having a little race!"
"A… race?" It didn't take long for Mabui to put two and two together, and when she did her expression became exactly what Anko had hoped it would be. "You were just using him to learn the rasengan? I can't believe--"
"Oi, calm down! That's not it at all!" /The same reaction… Do I really come off as that kind of person?/ "There is a nice catch though, which I'm sure you'll find interesting." Mabui took a moment to process Anko's claim that she wasn't just trying to learn the rasengan, eventually reaching the same conclusion that Naruto had reached.
"What kind of catch? Why should he care about this race, anyway?"
"Because, Mabui…" Anko slowly widened her grin, wanting to be as overdramatic as possible. "If he can't get it faster than me, I'm not going to help him anymore!"
"But…" /That seems so asinine… If he's already better than her, why would he want her help?/ She glanced at Yamato, who nodded once he was sure that Naruto wasn't looking. Deciding that there had to have been some reason that she wasn't getting, she remained silent.
Yamato, seeing that she wasn't getting the point of the race (which was understandable, given that she wasn't a ninja), decided to give her a hint. "You know, Mabui-san, it would really be bad for Naruto to lose the opportunity to train with Anko… If you want him to grow stronger, you should do your best to cheer him on." Although she still didn't appreciate the real point of the race, Mabui at least picked up on the fact that there was an underlying plan.
"Of course! There's no way Naruto'll lose to someone like Anko!"
Within minutes it became apparent that Mabui's presence was definitely helping Naruto as much as, if not more than, expected. Naruto gained a significant lead over Anko, and he looked to be well on his way to completing the training. Not wanting to be left behind, Anko redoubled her own efforts in an attempt to catch up to him for real. Even if she didn't want to actually beat him, she didn't want to be left in the dust.
It was an hour after lunch on Thursday, and Anko's grin couldn't have been any smugger than it was at that moment. She was finally catching up to Naruto. More importantly, they were both nearing the point at which they would be able to pop the balloon, which meant that her plan was working perfectly. Right when she was about to start holding back, for fear of actually beating him, she heard a very welcome sound: his balloon had popped.
"I won?" Naruto looked over at Anko to see that her balloon was still intact before forming one of the biggest grins of his life. "I won, Mabui-chan! I won! Yatta!" He spent a few minutes jumping up and down, shouting "yatta" over and over, before he turned his grin to Anko. "I beat you, so now you have to keep helping with my training! You'd better not try to weasel out of it!"
"Heh…" /His mind jumps back and forth so much…/ "I won't be weaseling out of anything; you don't have to worry about that."
"Yatta! Now we can move on to my new technique! It's gonna be--"
"What are you on about? You still haven't mastered the rasengan, and we're not moving on to your new technique until you do."
"What! But you said that we were just working on my chakra control! The rotation part is where all of the control problems are!" Her grin was causing him more anger than what she was saying, even if he didn't realize it.
"You think so, do you? If that's really the case, all you have to do to move on to your technique is create a rasengan with one hand…"
"Er…" He had been bluffing, of course. As far as he could remember, the third step was the hardest by far. "No problem! I'll have it down before you can blink!"
"Oh?" Not letting her grin leave her face, Anko blinked and looked at him expectantly. "That's odd… I don't see it." He just glared at her for a moment before turning his attention to his hand and taking a deep breath.
In trying to form the rasengan, he found that there were definitely problems. When his bunshin had introduced the rotation, the rotation and power had come from different sources, so getting the two elements to work together was a simple feat. Now that they were both originating in the same place, things were much more complicated.
The main issue was concentration. His previous methodology had allowed the bunshin to focus on only the rotation, while he was focusing on only power. Even in the situations where he had created the rasengan without a kage bunshin, using the two-handed method, each hand had only had one job. This new situation was requiring him to concentrate on releasing a large amount of chakra, then immediately switch over to rotating that chakra, all with the same hand. It was easier said than done.
His first few tries yielded absolutely nothing, but that didn't really surprise anyone except Mabui. After about an hour he managed to create a pseudo-rasengan, similar to the one that he had tried to use on Tsunade. When Anko saw that, her jaw almost dropped.
"You got it already?"
"No." He didn't even consider lying to her, not wanting to back away from the challenge. "This isn't a real rasengan."
"Oh…" /What's that supposed to mean?/ "Okay…"
After some time went by, Naruto was amazed that the training was much easier than he remembered it being. Even with the concentration problem, he was still progressing extremely quickly. Another thing that seemed odd to him was that, no matter how many times he tried to use the technique, he didn't get tired. Figuring that his training had significantly boosted his chakra capacity, he just kept on training.
Finally, at eleven forty-five, he got it right. "Yatta! I finally did it!" Anko looked up at him to see a rasengan sitting on his hand.
"Did what? It looks exactly like all of the other ones you've been making!"
"Yeah, but this one's real!"
"Er… If you say so…" She didn't want to question that statement, considering that she didn't know the rasengan. Yamato looked happy to have a break anyway. "I guess that's all we're gonna do today, then."
"What! But we need to start--"
"Working on your technique, I know! Can't you say anything else?"
"But--"
"Naruto, do you really think you're going to make any kind of progress in fifteen minutes? I'm not staying out here any longer than that." His head fell, letting her know that he was giving up on the idea. Anko smiled, hoping to lighten the mood a little bit. She didn't want her mind games to actually screw him up. "Just be glad to get some extra sleep!"
"Oh no…" Entering the clearing, Naruto was not happy to see that Anko had gotten there early again. Her grin told him that it was probably something very unpleasant.
"Good morning, Naruto!" Naruto turned to Yamato, expecting to see the same confused look that he had seen on Sunday morning. Never one to meet Naruto's expectations, Yamato was grinning again.
"What're you making me do now, Anko-chan?"
"I'm glad you asked!" She did her best to keep her grin from widening, not wanting to come off as completely sadistic. "There's one last thing that you're going to have to do before we get to your real training."
"What! Why can't we just--"
"Oi, listen for a second!" Naruto instantly fell silent at the harsh tone, just like he always did. "All you have to do is get the rasengan working while Yamato isn't helping you."
"That's it?" His grin made a triumphant return. "I already got the rasengan down! This won't be hard at all!"
"Then quit talking and do it!" /So he still hasn't figured out how Yamato was helping… It figures…/
Naruto concentrated chakra into his hand, released it, and began rotating it. Everything went fine until the chakra actually left his hand, at which point he noticed something very strange: his chakra was, for lack of a better word, lumpy. Every so often there would be a rather large surge of chakra, and just as often there would be next to nothing coming out. Needless to say: the technique didn't work.
"What…" He turned to Yamato, "what did you do?"
"You still don't know?" Yamato thought about telling him for a second, but decided it was better to leave him in the dark. "I just made your chakra easier to manage… Nothing's changed, in case you're wondering; this is how your chakra normally acts."
"This…" Naruto processed that statement for a few seconds, "my chakra has always been this way? Why didn't I ever notice?"
"Probably because you were so used to it."
"Listen up Naruto, this is important." Anko instantly had Naruto's attention. "There were too many problems with your control for you to have fixed them all at once. Having Yamato here was a quick way to get around one of the problems while you worked on one of the others, but now you need to work on getting rid of that problem altogether."
"Why?"
"What do you mean 'why?'"
"Why do I have to get rid of the problem if Yamato can fix it?" Anko and Yamato let out simultaneous heavy sighs at that.
"Because, Naruto, Yamato can't always be there to help you. If you want to get stronger, you're going to have to stop relying on others so much. The problem that Yamato was helping with is by far the most severe, and it can only be worse now that you're used to not having to deal with it, so you'll need to get rid of it before moving on."
"Relying on others…?" /Do I really do that?/
"It's true that teamwork is important, but there's a difference between teamwork and total dependence. Your goals all involve being the strongest around, so you'll need to be able to do things on your own. Raw power won't do you any good; hurry up and get it under control!"
Searching his memory, Naruto was shocked to find that he had relied a lot on other people. Be it Kakashi, Sasuke, Jiraiya, Tsunade… There were too many situations in which he had relied completely on someone else's help. His eyes suddenly became very serious, which Anko knew was a good sign. "I won't…" He gathered chakra into his hand again, "rely on anyone!"
The fact that he failed again took away some of the coolness in what he had said, but he didn't give up. Although it took him several hours, he eventually realized that there were warning signs when his chakra was about to act differently. He was actually able to use it to his advantage, timing the release of power in such a way that the rotation would be initiated during one of the surges. While he wasn't really ridding himself of the problem, he still felt confident that it wouldn't be an issue.
"I did it!" Naruto held out his new rasengan for Anko and Yamato to see, as if they didn't believe him.
"Good timing: I was about to tell you that we're going to lunch." She turned to Yamato, "I guess that means you're done here. Thanks for helping out."
"It was no problem…" He stood up, preparing to leave. "While it was a little tiring at first, this was basically a little vacation for me."
"You're leaving?" Naruto hadn't been expecting that at all.
"There's really no point in my staying any longer, Naruto. You don't need my help any more, and it would be bad for you to get too used to having it. Besides, I have missions waiting, so I can't just stay here and help you forever."
"Oh… Thanks!" Yamato just smiled and nodded before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Anko got his attention again before speaking. "Just remember: even after all of that, your control isn't anything special. It's your biggest weakness, and you'll need to keep working to improve it."
"Nothing special! But it's so much better now!"
"That's because it was ridiculously bad before! At your current level, I'd say you're about average for a chuunin."
"Average?" /All of that work and I'm only average?/
"Don't worry about it too much, though. Your greatest strength is that you have a lot of chakra to work with, so even having an average level of control means you can outlast most people that have better control. Now come on, let's get something to eat!"
"Yoshi!"
"Alright, now that we've had lunch I guess it's time to decide on your new training schedule. I assume that you want to specialize in ninjutsu?"
"'Specialize?' Why would I want to specialize in anything? Won't that just mean that I'll lose if I come up against the wrong opponent?" Anko's hand found its familiar place on the bridge of her nose.
"I don't mean absolute specialization! There's no such thing as a truly all-around ninja; everyone specializes in something. Even jounin, who are expected to have high levels of skill in all areas, all have one area that they're best in."
"That makes sense… Yeah, I guess I want to focus on ninjutsu."
"Okay then, we'll have to weight your schedule accordingly. Taijutsu will still be important though, considering the way you fight…" She took a moment to think about it, during which her expression left Naruto unnerved. That she was concentrating that hard didn't strike him as a good thing. "Yoshi! I know exactly what we should do!" Her exclamation was followed by a period of long silence, causing Naruto to sweat-drop.
"And that would be…?"
"Four days for ninjutsu, two for taijutsu, and one for whatever I feel you need to work on at the time. I would put more time into what I think you need to learn, but I'll be influencing all of your other training anyway. We can always change it, so it's not a big deal."
"It took you that long to think of that?" He grinned at her anger, glad that he could still annoy her easily. She decided to ignore his question.
"If what you told me about your muscles not getting tired is true, there's really no need to separate your taijutsu training days, and putting them together should help you stay focused anyway. Keeping that in mind, I think the best idea would be taijutsu on Saturday and Sunday, ninjutsu Monday through Thursday, and my pick on Friday."
"Uh…"
"I decided what training goes to what day based on my desire to have you do taijutsu on Saturdays, if that's what you were going to ask."
"Why'd you want me to do taijutsu on Saturdays?" She grinned, which told him that it wasn't a purely logical reason.
"Because that's the day when those idiots bug you, and I don't want them to see you working on your new techniques. They're annoying as hell." Naruto couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Yeah, that's a pretty good reason."
"So they do annoy you… Why don't you just tell them to buzz off? They bug you every chance they get, and they all seem fairly self-centered. I don't get why you put up with them at all…"
"I put up with them…" he got a far off look in his eyes, "because they put up with me." Anko didn't want to touch that topic with a ten foot pole, so she decided to wait a few moments and then change the subject.
"Okay, you've been talking about it for two weeks, so let's hear it: what's your new jutsu idea?" His faraway look was instantly replaced by one of excitement.
"Oh yeah! It's gonna be so cool!" She raised an eyebrow at that, wondering how something that he had done by accident could possibly be that incredible. "I don't really know how to explain it, though… Basically it's just going to make it so that my chakra extends my attacks. What's cool about it is--"
"What do you mean 'extends?' Explain it more clearly, or I won't be able to help."
"Well, for example: if I throw a punch, my chakra will work like an extension of my arm, meaning that I'll have a longer reach. What's really cool about it is--"
"You want to make limbs out of chakra?" Her eyes widened at the very absurdity of the idea, and they widened even further when she realized something even more important. "You did that on accident?"
"Er, sort of…" Naruto really didn't feel like explaining to her that he had been using Kyuubi's chakra at the time. "The really cool thing about it is that the movement of the chakra doesn't have to sync up with the way that I move, meaning that it's completely impossible to predict! Isn't that awesome?"
"Are you INSANE? Do you have any idea how much chakra—the kind of control—on accident—that's not even ninjutsu! It's tai—no, it's not even—you're insane!" The lack of coherence in her sentences was causing Naruto mild distress, but Anko was too lost in thought to notice or care. /What the hell would you even call something like that? It involves molding chakra, so my first instinct would be to call it ninjutsu, but jyuuken uses chakra too, and that's considered a taijutsu—Oh…/ "That's not even a technique, you idiot! It's a taijutsu style!"
Seeing that she seemed to have regained her senses, Naruto took a moment to process what she had said. "Style? How is that a style?" It took her a moment, but eventually Anko realized that he was being calm, and she wasn't. She did her best to correct that problem, taking several deep breaths before responding.
"What you're talking about is a unique set of similar general-purpose physical attacks and defenses dealing with unarmed combat. I defy you to show that that isn't a style."
"But…" He found that, unfortunately, he couldn't think of any reason that it wouldn't be considered a style. "Okay, so it's a style. You're still gonna help me with it, right?"
"Perhaps I didn't make this clear: you're insane. Getting chakra to take a solid form is hard in small amounts; this style you've come up with would not only require extremely large amounts of chakra, but an amazing degree of control over all of that chakra. It's a type of control you're not used to, and it's much, much harder than you probably realize. Even if you have enough chakra to keep that up for more than a few minutes, which is doubtful, your control is nowhere near that level."
"I already told you: I've done it before!"
"Oh yeah…" Catching the serious look in his eyes, she came to a very unpleasant conclusion. "You're not giving up on this, are you?"
"Nope."
"If I say that I won't help you with it, are you gonna ditch me and try it on your own?"
"Yep." Letting out a big sigh, she grabbed the bridge of her nose and slowly shook her head. After a moment of considering all the options, she decided on the best course of action.
"This style does sound like it would be pretty useful, so I'll help you if you'll agree to a few conditions."
"More conditions? What is it with you and all these conditions?"
"Nothing's free… These conditions are pretty reasonable, so don't get too upset about them. The first one is just that, if this takes too long for you to develop, you'll agree to move on to something else."
"What! That's not reasonable!"
"So you're saying that it's reasonable to bet your life, as well as the Uchiha kid's, on a style that takes you so long to develop that you can't work on anything else?" He spent a few moments in indecision before shaking his head. Although he really wanted to have a cool ability like that, he didn't want to sacrifice any lives for that cause. "Good! My only other condition is that you don't tell those ten morons who keep bugging you anything about the technique."
"Your condition is that I don't tell my friends?" She nodded, a big grin on her face. "Why?"
"Well, for one thing, shinobi aren't supposed to tell people about all of their techniques and abilities. If you want to know the real reason, though… I don't like the way they treat you. So, do you agree or not?"
"Yeah, I guess…" He was a little disappointed that he wouldn't be able to brag about it, but he had bigger concerns to deal with.
"Alright then, I guess we only have a few more things to hammer out before getting started." Naruto didn't even bother to voice his dissatisfaction with that, as he had been half-expecting it. Anko was slightly let down. "First: we're going to have to spar occasionally to make sure you're actually getting stronger. I'll find someone else to spar with you after you get stronger than me, and you'll need to be able to beat Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya before you even think about fighting Orochimaru. Second: I'm going to let you know as much as I can about the way that Orochimaru fights, so you're going to have to pay attention." When it became apparent that she was done, Naruto sighed.
"Could you at least write all of this down so I don't have to remember it?"
"No, things are more fun when you don't know what you're doing. Anyway, enough about your schedule; it's time to get to work on your… 'technique.'"
"Yatta!"
"You really didn't have to come, Asuma…"
"There's no way I'm going to miss seeing Mitarashi Anko helping someone train! Besides, you said that something about Naruto's training felt better, so I want to see what's different."
Shikamaru shrugged, "suit yourself…"
As they approached the familiar training area, everyone noticed that Ino was falling behind. When she came to an actual stop, Sakura became annoyed. "Oi, Ino-pig, what the hell are you waiting for?"
"Er…" Embarrassment was evident on her face, and her blush was intense enough that Asuma wished he had a camera. "I don't really want to see that Anko lady again…"
"Oh, come on, I'm sure it won't be nearly as bad as last time."
"I wouldn't be so sure, Sakura…" The fact that she hadn't called Sakura "Forehead" made everyone else a little uncomfortable. "You know what she did? She told my dad about the incident! Even after that speech from Yamato and Anko, I had to listen to another one from my parents! And that one was over an hour long!"
"'Incident?'" Ino realized a little too late that Asuma was there. "What incident would that be?"
"It was nothing, Asuma-sensei!" He didn't look convinced, so she added, "I already got lectured about it twice, so you don't need to worry about it! Honest!" Asuma continued to eye her suspiciously, but decided against asking about it. If it was so horrible that she didn't even want him to hear her doctored version of it, he didn't want to hear about it at all.
After a few minutes of convincing Ino to come, the group continued on to where they knew Anko and Naruto were. When they arrived, Asuma was the first to notice that something was off. "Shikamaru, I thought you said there was someone else helping him."
"There was…" All ten of them just stood there for several seconds, staring at Naruto, before they realized the other oddity: he wasn't playing with a balloon. Naruto was doing actual physical strength training, which they found far more surprising than Yamato's absence.
"Asuma?" Anko, in looking up from her book, was not happy to see him. "The idiot patrol roped you into helping them?"
"'Idiot patrol?' I take it you're not very fond of them?"
"To put it lightly…"
Asuma discretely moved to stand next to Anko so that their conversation wouldn't be overheard. "They mean well…" He thought about it for a second, "mostly… Considering that they don't know about that, I think that most of what they're doing is understandable."
"So you haven't heard yet?"
"Heard what?"
"I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep your voice down. While I'd love to see that girl get more punishment, I don't want it to affect Naruto's training at all."
"Sure thing…"
"The Yamanaka brat tried to use shintenshin no jutsu on him."
"WH—er, I mean…" All eyes were on him, and Anko didn't look very happy. He waved it off and waited for the kids to turn their focus back to Naruto before continuing. "So that was the 'incident?'"
"Yeah, probably. If that doesn't help you figure out why I dislike them, just watch them for a few minutes. Good intentions or not, they're treating him like a little kid and screwing him over. There's just no excuse for acting that way."
"Don't be so sure about that, Anko…" Seeing her eyebrow raise, he took a long drag on his cigarette. "Something about his training has been giving me a bad feeling ever since I first heard about it. Not only that, when he was training with my team before the chuunin exam started, his chakra was different than usual. It almost seemed like there was some killing intent in it, but that doesn't fit Naruto at all…"
"Oh, is that all you're on about? We already know what's causing that."
"You do?"
"Tenzou said that the seal's weakening, and that chakra can come out more easily than before. That's probably where the killing intent was coming from."
"Weakening?"
"Oh, don't worry too much, he said it isn't a very big problem just yet. The biggest problem it's causing at the moment is added difficulty in Naruto's chakra control."
"Does Tsunade-sama know about this?"
"Of course she does! Tenzou's an ANBU, after all."
"Oh, right… Dare I ask how Naruto's training is going?"
"Only if you promise not to tell them about it."
"Eh? They bother you that much?"
"Yeah, they do. Do you wanna know or not?" Asuma nodded, not really caring whether or not he could tell anyone about Naruto's training. "He spent two weeks mastering the rasengan, and now he's got a crazy new idea for an attack that's all but impossible."
"So everything's normal. Wait… Did you say 'mastering the rasengan?'" She nodded, confusing the hell out of him. "Didn't he already know it?" Again she nodded, confusing him even more, but he decided to let it drop. Understanding the mind of Mitarashi Anko was a project that he just wasn't willing to take on.
Using the conversation between Asuma and Anko as cover, the group of ten tried several times to get some information out of Naruto. All attempts ended in failure, as Naruto had no desire to let any of them know about Kyuubi. Shikamaru was the only one who didn't try to get anything out of Naruto, choosing instead to think things through. /There has to be someone that we haven't thought to ask… All we need is someone that's smart, but not too smart, and they have to know the secret./ The answer hit him like a ton of feathers. /Oyaji… Why didn't I think of him before?/
Deciding to make a point of asking Shikato about it later, Shikamaru turned his attention back to his surroundings just in time to see everyone else standing up. "What's—Naruto, why are you doing a handstand?"
"Pay attention, Shikamaru…" Neither of the boys was surprised to see that Ino was butting into the conversation. "Naruto's going to do some laps around Konoha before lunch, so we're going with him." That didn't really answer his question, but he didn't want to ask again.
"Oi, Oyaji!" Shikato turned to see his son leaning against the kitchen wall, his arms crossed and his face bored. "I need to ask you something."
"What is it, Shikamaru? I was just about to get some sleep before my next mission…"
"Oh, it's nothing important… Do you remember the first time Naruto came here?" The look on his father's face was more than enough to answer Shikamaru's question. "Why did mom hate Naruto so much, and what made you stand up to her?" Although he was expecting Shikato to get mad or avoid the subject, the man smiled.
"Let's talk about this somewhere else." It took quite a bit of willpower for Shikamaru to resist asking "why," but he didn't want to blow the one chance he was getting to figure everything out. In following his dad, he ended up in a very nostalgic place: the bench where he had first met Chouji. At that point he could no longer hold back the question that was plaguing his mind.
"Why are we here?"
"I like the scenery here. It's relaxing, and there's a nice clear view of the sky." He shrugged, "we needed a bit of privacy, and almost no one comes up here these days."
"Ah… So, are you gonna answer my question now?"
"Of course, of course! Don't get so hasty, Shikamaru!" He patted his son on the back a little too hard, but Shikamaru didn't mind. "Your mother's hatred for Naruto… it's not unique. I'm sure you've noticed by now that a lot of people in this village dislike Naruto. Although it shames me to admit it, I used to be one of those people as well."
"You hated Naruto? But you like everyone!"
"There's no such thing as a person that gets along with everyone, Shikamaru. Even if there were though, chances are that they would have hated him along with everyone else."
"That doesn't make any sense… Why does everyone hate him?"
"'Why?' There isn't really a valid reason for me to give you. Unfortunately, all I can offer you is the truth. The people of Konoha hate Naruto for one very simple reason: he saved all of our lives." Shikamaru looked about to interrupt, so Shikato raised a hand. "Knowing you, you're going to ask 'why would they hate someone who saved their lives?' It isn't so much that he saved us as what he saved us from. I'm not allowed to tell you who or what it was exactly, and even what I'm telling you is too much, but the important thing is that it was deeply hated by everyone in Konoha."
"Wait, you're still not making any sense… If this thing that he saved us from was so deeply hated, what about saving us from it would make Naruto hated?"
"Human nature, sadly enough. That thing that he saved us from claimed quite a few lives while it was still a threat. Entire families were slaughtered, others were cut into tiny fractions of their former selves, and many people lost friends and loved ones. No one knows what provoked it to attack us, and that just made people hate it even more. You see, Shikamaru, it is human nature to find a target for our hatred. An outlet for all of our pent up anger and stress, something that can take the blame for all of life's problems. Naruto is their scapegoat."
"You just keep making this more and more confusing!"
"Alright, let me say it in the simplest way I can. Naruto, in saving this village, took away the object of our detestation. The single most hated thing in the history of the village of Konoha disappeared instantly, taking with it the people's ability to deal with their rage. Because our hatred needed somewhere to go, Naruto became the new target. The circumstances of his aid helped that transition along somewhat, but the reality of it is that he was just the easiest target at the time. Regardless of their claims to the contrary, that is their reason for hating him."
"That…" Shikamaru's eyes were wide at the idea of such a strong grudge. "That's completely idiotic! Mom hates him for such a ridiculous reason? Even you hated him because of something like that?"
"Hatred isn't a conscious decision, Shikamaru. It's not as though we all woke up one day, gathered together, and said 'Uzumaki Naruto's the one who saved us! Let's hate him!' Of course, even if that isn't the case, the results are the same as if it was. When you were in the academy, how many of the children tried to befriend him?"
"…None."
"That's because children learn hatred from their parents. While it's true that there are cases like you, where one or both of the parents explicitly told the child not to talk to Naruto, the fact of the matter is that all the children are affected whether it's intended or not. They see the way that their parents look at him, and instantly know to hate him."
"But… I never felt compelled to hate him, regardless of how mom felt."
"That," Shikato suddenly smiled, "is because you're such a sharp kid, Shikamaru." He rustled Shikamaru's hair for a moment before looking up at the clouds with a big sigh. "You've always had the ability to determine for yourself who makes a good friend, which is why you and Chouji have become so close. You were able to see the value in Chouji that others couldn't see, and you were able to see that there was nothing wrong with Naruto, despite his having grown up the way he did."
"What do you mean by that? He never seemed all that odd growing up…"
"Didn't you know that he's an orphan? His entire life has been spent completely alone, surrounded by nearly-tangible walls of hatred. No one helped him with anything, some stores and restaurants refused to serve him, and I've heard rumors that there were a few attempts on his life when he was little. With a background like his, just graduating from the academy is an amazing accomplishment. If he really managed to seem relatively normal to you, then that's just indicative of his strength."
"He… never said anything…"
"I remember something that my father told me once that I think you should hear. When he told me I considered it to be rather odd, but now it seems fitting. Apparently, long before any of the hidden villages were formed, the way of the ninja was considered to be the art of enduring. In those days, the true measure of a ninja was his ability to endure all of life's hardships." A few moments of silence passed as they both thought about those words while staring at the clouds.
"Oyaji?"
"What is it, Shikamaru?"
"You explained why everyone hates him, but you never explained why you don't hate him anymore. That was part of the question, you know."
"I never got around to that? Well, it's pretty simple. It was back when you were in the academy, actually. Your mother was busy one day, so I had to come and walk you home. When I got there, I saw all of the parents gathered around, glaring at the same person. I came close enough to see who that person was, and it was him. For a while I considered joining in, but then I noticed that you were standing right next to him. From the look on your face, it was obvious that you thought they were all glaring at you, and you didn't know what to do."
"I remember that… Having so many adults glaring at me, most of them ninja, was really scary…"
"After I saw the look on your face, I knew that something was wrong. There was simply no way that any child could have ever deserved such intense loathing at that age. Then I looked at Naruto, and that cemented it."
"Naruto…? But Naruto's face is never sad; you can't tell how badly he feels by his face."
"Exactly." Shikamaru looked over at his father, who was still looking at the clouds. "Those looks that they were giving him were enough to frighten you in only a few minutes, and you were no crybaby. That determined look in his eyes is something I'll never forget. It said 'you can do this all you want, but I'm not going to let it bother me anymore! I'm going to change things, and one day you won't look at me with these cold eyes! You'll look up to me!' Ever since that day, I've been unable to hate him, even for a moment."
When it became apparent that Shikato wasn't going to say any more, Shikamaru had to ask. "Why?"
"Because, Shikamaru… It's difficult to hate a man that you respect that much." He got up and stretched his arms a bit before walking away. "But… don't think poorly of your mother for hating him. Even if she has some faults, she's still the woman who brought you into this world." Stopping at the steps, he turned back once more. "Oh, I have one last thing to say about Uzumaki Naruto. That boy is a lot of things to a lot of people, but there's one thing that he'll always be: a strong spirit. If you remember anything that I've told you today, you should remember that." He started down the steps again, waving a hand over his shoulder, "I'm going to go rest for my mission now."
Shikamaru, sitting alone on the bench, turned his gaze to the clouds once more. /How can they have been keeping something like this from us? More importantly, what could Naruto have possibly saved us all from? It has to have been long enough ago that even he is too young to remember, based on the carnage that Oyaji was talking about… And that's another problem: what could possibly be able to kill that many shinobi that easily?/
He just sat there, staring at the clouds and thinking about murderers, until a certain memory came to mind. /In the hospital, when we were talking to Gaara… Naruto said 'I have a real monster in me…' Oyaji said that he grew up hated, so it probably happened fairly close to the time of his birth, but babies can't fight monsters. Based on what he said, it must have been sealed inside him somehow… That's it! It explains everything!/
Shikamaru smirked for a moment before realizing that there was nothing to be happy about. One of his closest friends was the single most hated person in Konoha, and it wasn't even for a good reason. Then his thoughts turned to the last remaining question, and he was surprised to find that it was very easily answered. The only monster that had attacked Konoha in the appropriate timeframe was the Kyuubi. He was angered somewhat by the lies that his generation had been told about the Kyuubi's death, but he reasoned that not all kids were likely to be as understanding as he was. With the secret identified, he knew exactly what he had to do next.
"Yoshi! It's finally my turn!" Anko had an excited grin, something that Naruto liked less each time he saw it. "I have a feeling I'm going to love Fridays, even if they are immediately followed by Saturdays." He thought her disgusted tone was a bit overdone, but had much more important concerns.
"What cool new jutsu are you gonna teach me? Are you gonna show me how Orochimaru gets that sword to come out of his mouth? Oh, wait, you've gotta teach me to--"
"Oi, hold on a minute!" She did not like being interrupted, especially when talking about something that promised to be fun for her. Naruto quieted down fairly quickly though, so she resumed her grinning. "Alright, I gave up last Friday to start working on your style, so I never got a chance to find out what you can actually do. I've seen your taijutsu before, so I don't really need to ask about that, but what ninjutsu do you know?"
"I thought you said you'd heard about my training from Baa-chan…"
"She didn't tell me very much about it." Anko shrugged, "all she said was that you created a bunch of really strong techniques."
"She said they were 'really strong?'" Seeing Anko nod, he couldn't help but grin sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess they are…"
"Cut the false modesty and tell me what you know already."
"Oh, right…" He started ticking them off on his fingers, "I know kage bunshin no jutsu, bakuretsu kage bunshin no jutsu, rasengan, kuchiyose no jutsu, Naruto senkou no jutsu, oodama--"
"Wait, what was that last one?"
"Naruto senkou no jutsu?"
"Yeah. What the hell is that?" Naruto opened his mouth, but she decided to interrupt. "You know what? It will probably be better if you just show me all of your original techniques. Descriptions can be misleading."
"You're not gonna make me spend two week 'mastering' all of them, are you?"
"Maybe…"
He could tell from her face that she was kidding, so he formed the rabbit and sheep seals. "Naruto Senkou no Jutsu!" Not really sure of how to demonstrate his increased speed and strength, he just ran a few circles around her before kicking a tree, leaving a leg-shaped dent in it. When his technique dispelled he grinned at the look on Anko's face.
"How much faster did you just get?"
"About ten times…"
"Ten times? That's incredible! You've essentially found a safe equivalent to opening all eight of the hachimon!"
"Er… If you say so…"
Her eyebrow rose, "what's that supposed to mean?" The way he was scratching the back of his head didn't strike her as a good thing.
"It's just that I have to put chakra into it continuously, which makes it so that I can't use any other ninjutsu."
"That's not a bad compromise, though. Having ten times your speed and strength would allow you to beat most taijutsu specialists, even though you're a ninjutsu specialist, and it could help you get out of bad situations more quickly. As far as trade-offs go, that's a pretty good one. Anyway, let's see some of your other techniques."
"Yoshi!" It struck her as odd that he formed a kage bunshin, but the reason for that became clear when they formed the technique. After a moment, which he used to pick an appropriate target, there were dual cries of "Oodama Rasengan!" Immediately following was a degree of destruction she wouldn't have thought possible from the little ball of chakra. What really got to her wasn't the power, though.
"How in the hell," her eyes narrowed as he turned around, "is it even remotely possible for you to have made a technique like that without being able to pop the balloon?" Naruto looked down at the ground for a moment before grinning sheepishly up at her.
"There's a little trick I figured out…"
"Another trick?"
"It was really pretty simple… I rotated his chakra, and he rotated mine. Now that I can do the rotation right, I don't need the trick anymore, but it was useful at first."
"How do you come up with all of these little tricks?" He just shrugged, but she decided that it was probably just his messed up way of thinking. Growing up completely alone, he had to have developed a completely unique way of looking at things. "That technique is kind of wasteful, though. Having to split your chakra in half just to do that amount of damage… it's disproportional. It would be a good idea to get that down without the bunshin, but we'll worry about that some other time. What else you got?"
"Dangan!" Remembering what Sakura had said about it, Anko allowed herself a little excitement. If it was anywhere near the speed that had been described to her, it was definitely worth seeing. He formed a rasengan, grinned at the fact that he could do it so readily with one hand, and aimed it at a tree some fifty feet away. "Rasengan Dangan!"
One thing struck Anko as note-worthy: Sakura must have had slow eyes. While she couldn't say that she would have been able to dodge it, it didn't seem to be moving much faster than that Lee kid had moved after opening the fourth gate. Considering Orochimaru's speed, that was likely to be a problem. "Is that as fast as it goes?"
"Eh?" Of all of the questions she could have asked, that was among the least expected.
"I'm not saying that it's slow or anything, but it wasn't fast enough to land a blow on Orochimaru."
"What! How fast can he move?"
"Pretty fast… He was legendary for a reason, you know."
"Oh, right…" He didn't look very happy to hear that, but she didn't want him underestimating Orochimaru. "Well, the oodama dangan goes faster…"
"How much faster?" His grin said it all.
"A lot faster." She continued to look at him expectantly, but it took him a moment to get the hint. Again forming a kage bunshin, he prepared the technique and looked for a good target. "Oodama Dangan!" Anko was happy to learn that it was definitely faster, but was disappointed by the fact that she could still see it as a blur.
"That would probably have been too fast for Orochimaru to dodge thirteen years ago, as long as he was within fifty feet or so… He's probably faster now, though, so you shouldn't rely on it too much." Naruto's head fell, but Anko didn't really care. "More importantly, why do you have so many one-hit kill techniques? Weren't you planning on taking the Uchiha back by force?"
"I was worried more about the fight with Orochimaru…"
"It's probably a good thing that you're concentrating on Orochimaru, but you shouldn't forget the reason behind that fight. Considering that he's an Uchiha, and that he's training with Orochimaru, that Sasuke kid is probably going to be pretty strong. You'll need some powerful techniques that aren't designed to kill, if you really want to bring him back."
"Yeah, I know…"
"So, do you have any other original jutsu? Other than the scream thing, obviously."
"Uh… Kind of…" She grinned at what was obviously going on.
"This is the thing that made you collapse in the tower, isn't it?" He looked down at the ground, which told her all she needed to know. "Just show it to me. Now that your control is better, it probably won't be nearly as draining as it was before."
"You really think so?" Anko nodded, so he formed the dragon, rabbit, and sheep seals. "Ninpou: Ryuu no Hikou!" Unable to think of a way to think of a way to demonstrate such a significant speed increase visibly, Naruto just marked all of the nearby trees with a kunai. His ending position didn't quite match up with his starting one though, so she immediately knew something was off.
"What'd you do?" Much to Naruto's surprise, he didn't fall over. He was breathing heavily, his entire body felt like it was on fire, and he had a slight stomach cramp, but he was still standing up. Anko turned her attention away from him for a moment to see if anything had changed, and immediately noticed the kunai marks on the trees. "And how'd you scratch all of the trees so quickly?"
"Ryuu no hikou makes me way faster, so I just ran around and cut them all."
Her eyes widened significantly. "You can get that much faster? I couldn't even see you move!" Turning her attention back to his hunched form, her awe quickly disappeared. "But it looks like you had a good reason for not wanting to use it… Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. This isn't nearly as bad as the last time I used it."
"Hmm…" She had to think it over for a few seconds, but the answer was pretty clear. "You shouldn't use this technique. The negatives outweigh the positives far too much."
"What! All I need is some practice! It hurts less each time, so--"
"I wasn't talking about the pain, idiot. This jutsu uses too much of your chakra, and you're a sitting duck afterwards. Considering that you already have a technique to increase your speed, this technique isn't worth the effort."
"But I spent four weeks on this! I can't just throw that away!"
"You will if you know what's good for you. Waste time on it if you want to, but it'll just make catching up to Orochimaru take that much longer." Naruto shook a little bit, but eventually decided that the technique wasn't worth pursuing. "Is that all the techniques you've got so far?" He nodded, and she grinned again. "That's really quite a few jutsu to create in such a short time. I don't think you deserve that label of 'dead-last' at all."
"Of course not! I won't lose to anyone!"
"Glad to hear it!" Her grin became more of a normal smile, which unnerved him somewhat, but he eventually smiled back. "Your style has one major advantage that will probably make your entire life easier: adaptability. Almost all of your techniques are adaptable to virtually any situation, which means that it's extremely difficult to come up with a strategy that will actually work against you. If the style you're developing works out as well as you think it will, you'll be even more adaptable. Still, it's a good idea to know some jutsu for special situations, and keeping that in mind I think I know exactly what I want you to learn first."
"Really?" /She's getting right to the point? That's so unlike her…/
"Yep! The simplest of the katon jutsu: jigokubi no jutsu (hellfire technique)!"
"What! Why the hell would I want to learn that?" Anko's smile became a grin again.
"Because you summon frogs, for one. There's a good chance that Orochimaru will summon Manda while fighting you, and your best counter for that is to summon Gamabunta."
"What does fire have to do with Gamabunta?"
"Everything I know about Gamabunta can be summed up pretty quickly: he's a frog, he's really big, he's got a sword, and he spits oil. Do you get it now, or am I really gonna have to spell it out for you?"
"So…" He had to think about it for a moment, but there was no way he was going to ask her to explain it. "You want me to use this technique to light the oil on fire?"
"I'm glad to see that you're smarter than people give you credit for, even if it's not by much."
"But…" Naruto got the feeling that she had some other reason for wanting him to learn the technique, but didn't ask because he knew he would never get it out of her. "Why can't I learn a stronger technique? Wouldn't that be more useful?"
"A simple technique for a simple purpose. All you're doing with it is lighting oil on fire, so you don't need it to be very powerful. Considering that this is your first elemental technique, it's best to start with something simple anyway."
He didn't like the way she was avoiding telling him her real reason, but her fake reasons made enough sense that he didn't care. "How do you do the technique?"
"You probably shouldn't practice it around so many trees… I know the perfect place! Follow me!" She took off at a run, leaving him no choice but to follow. Luckily for him she wasn't running very fast, so he was able to keep up fairly well.
What surprised him wasn't that she took him to a lake, but that she took him to that part of that lake. It was the same dock that he had often seen Sasuke sitting on alone after classes got out at the academy. Anko turned around to tell him all about the jutsu, but stopped on seeing that he was lost in thought. When he snapped out of his reverie to see her staring at him expectantly, he was slightly embarrassed. "What're you waiting for, Anko-chan? Hurry up and teach me the jutsu!"
"Heh…" /What about this place could possibly elicit that kind of reaction from him?/ "Alright, let's get started! The seals are ox, horse, and tiger, which shouldn't be too hard for you to remember. Concentrate chakra in your chest while you make the seals, and then release it all at once through your mouth. I'll show you once so you can get the idea." Not leaving him time to ask any questions, as she didn't really want to answer them, she turned to the lake and formed the seals.
The actual jutsu was the most generic stream of fire that Naruto had ever seen. It was the same width as her mouth, and it traveled in a completely straight line before dissipating some twenty feet in front of her. "They called that jigokubi?"
"What would you have called it?" He opened his mouth to respond before she raised a hand, "on second thought, I don't want to know. I'm sure you don't have any questions, so--"
"Why didn't you have to say the name of the technique?" Anko's hand found its way back to that familiar spot on the bridge of her nose.
"Don't they teach anything at the academy? Ugh… Well, this is something you really need to know, so I guess I can tell you. While it's true that saying the name of a jutsu can help to make that jutsu easier to use, it's also true that you can't talk while using a technique that's released out of your mouth. Because of that, those techniques are generally considered to be more difficult. If you try to say the name of this jutsu while using it you'll burn your mouth, so I would advise against it."
"Isn't there a katon jutsu I could learn that doesn't come out the mouth?"
"Not one that I know how to do." She grinned even wider, which he just knew was a bad thing. "Just get over here and try it." Not wanting to give up, as that went against everything that he was, he stepped up next to her and prepared to use the technique. He quickly formed the ox, horse, and tiger seals before releasing all of the chakra stored in his chest. Other than a few sparks emanating from his mouth, nothing happened. "Do you have any talent at all? Even for a first try, that was horrible!"
"Don't yell at me! This is hard, damn it!"
"Quit being so quiet Shikamaru! It's creeping me out!" He didn't respond, which made Ino nervous.
"From his eyes, I would say that he has something very serious on his mind." Neji's statement of the obvious didn't make her feel any better.
"Yeah, but what?" She looked around expectantly at everyone, but they all just shrugged. Shikamaru was completely unaware of the conversation going on around him, and he wouldn't have cared about it anyway. "Oh well, it won't matter that much. We'll figure it out without his help."
As they approached Naruto and Anko, Shikamaru surprised everyone by suddenly moving to the front of the group. "Naruto, I need to talk to you alone."
"You already know I won't allow that, brat." He looked over at Anko, not happy about the interruption.
"Actually, you can come too if you want. I just don't want them," he indicated the nine confused genin behind him, "to hear."
"Eh?" She had definitely not been expecting that. After a few moments of thought, she decided that it would be okay as long as she was there. "Yeah, I guess that's fine…"
"Good." Turning to Naruto, he allowed himself a grin. "Come on Naruto, it's important." At a loss as to what he should do, Naruto looked to Anko. Her curious look told him that she wanted him to say yes, if for no reason other than finding out what Shikamaru was going to try. Logically, he couldn't think of any reason that it wouldn't be okay, as long as Anko was there, so it was a fairly simple task for him to come up with an answer.
"No way Shikamaru! I'm busy training right now! I don't have time to go talk to you!"
"Naruto…" Shikamaru let out a sigh, wondering for a moment if it was really worth the effort. "This is more important than a few minutes worth of training." Naruto went to refuse again, but stopped at seeing his friend's face. The only time he had seen Shikamaru with such a serious look was when the boy had led the Sasuke retrieval mission.
"Yeah, okay…" That serious look was quickly replaced by a smirk, but it really made no difference at that point.
"Alright, let's go." He turned to leave before realizing something very important. "Oh, Naruto, you should probably leave a kage bunshin here to make sure they don't try to listen in."
"What the hell are you doing, Shikamaru?" Sakura's confusion was getting to be too much for her.
"This is none of your business, Sakura. Quit being so troublesome, messing around in other people's affairs…" No one was mentally prepared to deal with Shikamaru standing up to anyone, let alone Sakura, so they just remained quiet as Naruto made a kage bunshin and ran off with Shikamaru and Anko. After a few moments of silence, Ino felt compelled to ask.
"Wasn't he on our side the last time we saw him?"
"Shikamaru doesn't take anyone's side." Everyone looked over at Chouji, surprised that he was joining the conversation. "He just does what he knows is right at the time."
"It doesn't matter what he's doing right now! That lazy idiot just gave us the perfect opportunity!" Akamaru yipped in agreement to Kiba's words as everyone turned their attention to him. "Even if we can't hear what they're saying, Neji can just read their lips!"
"Hey, yeah!" Ino's interruption was ignored for the most part, as all eyes suddenly fell on Neji. Said stoic boy was suddenly very embarrassed, and his cheeks were turning red.
"I…" He coughed before continuing in a much quieter voice. "I never learned to read lips."
"What! How can you not know how to read lips?"
"Do you know how?" Ino, wanting to turn attention away from that embarrassment as quickly as possible, turned to Hinata.
"What about you Hinata?" The shy girl shook her head, an honest answer. Of course, even if she had known how to read lips, she wouldn't have felt right about using that skill to learn something that Naruto didn't want her to know. "Kuso…"
"Everyone just relax; I'm sure Shikamaru will tell us what he finds out…" Sakura sighed, letting everyone know that she didn't really believe her own words. They all sat down, wondering what exactly Shikamaru was going to say.
"That's far enough." Shikamaru stopped so suddenly that Naruto almost ran into him, and Anko stopped a few feet further back. "I just hope that Neji and Hinata don't know how to read lips…"
"Okay, what was so damned important that you had to tell him?" He ignored Anko's interruption completely, focusing instead on what to say.
"There's really no point in beating around the bush, so I'll just come out and say it. Naruto, I know about the Kyuubi." Of all of the things he could have said, that was by far the most unexpected. Anko's mouth was left hanging open, and Naruto's eyes were as wide as they had ever been. "I don't care about any of it, and I'm not going to tell anyone, so don't get too worked up."
"Who told you?" Anko was the first to come back to her senses, and she wanted to be sure that whoever had told him would be punished as severely as possible.
"No one. The clues were all out there; all I had to do was put them together. Anyway, you're still the same Naruto, so I don't really give a damn whether or not the Kyuubi is sealed in you."
"Really?" Naruto looked about ready to hug him, so Shikamaru backed away slightly. "You really don't care?"
"You were my friend when I didn't know. Nothing's changed except the extent of my information."
"Wait, why are you suddenly so against the other idiots knowing?" As she knew that he had to have had some reason to reveal all of this to Naruto, Anko wasn't about to let Shikamaru get anything past her. "Weren't you helping them before?"
"I don't want them to know because they don't need to know, and I don't know how they'll take it." Naruto's head fell, which made Shikamaru sigh. "They do care about you, though. The fact that they keep bugging you should tell you that."
"What! How in the hell does bugging me show that they care?"
"Because it means that they want to be a part of your life, for one." As he honestly hadn't considered that, Naruto stopped himself from responding. "You've been spending so much of your time trying to bring Sasuke back that even Sakura hardly sees you anymore."
"But I need to train if I'm going to be able to--"
"I'm not saying I want you to train less, Naruto." Shikamaru raised his hands defensively, "but it wouldn't kill you to say hi once in a while." From the look on Anko's face, she clearly thought it would kill him, but she didn't say anything. "The main reason that they're bugging you is that they're worried about you, which brings me to my question: does the Kyuubi have anything to do with why you're trying so hard to bring Sasuke back?"
"Eh?" As he searched his brain, Naruto couldn't find even one reason why Shikamaru would think that Sasuke and Kyuubi were connected. "What does Sasuke have to do with the bastard fox?"
"Is that a 'no,' or are you avoiding the question?" Seeing Naruto shrug, he took it as a 'no.' "Okay then, I guess that's all I needed." He turned to leave, but decided he had one last thing to say. "Oh, before I forget… Naruto, I understand that Sasuke was your friend, but don't forget that you have other friends who haven't abandoned you. Neji said that you have better eyes than he does. Just take a look at yourself every once in a while, alright?"
Shikamaru ran back to the others, leaving Naruto and a very confused Anko to themselves. He was intentionally giving Naruto an opportunity to ditch everyone, wondering what he would do. After thinking about Shikamaru's words for a few moments, Naruto's choice became clear. "Come on Anko-chan, let's go back and take everyone to lunch!"
That was it: the limit had been reached. There was simply no way he could continue to let Naruto act like an idiot. Not only was the boy on a one-way train to a miserable future, he was likely to die before reaching his stop. Jiraiya watched Naruto's pathetic attempts at jigokubi no jutsu for a few minutes before deciding to interrupt.
"Oi, Naruto!" Naruto turned around halfway through a hand seal to see someone that he really didn't want to see.
"Ero-sennin? What the hell do you want?"
"Is that any way to greet a great teacher like me?" Even Anko was glaring at him, which he knew was a very bad sign. She was really more the type to put up false smiles while being as creepy as possible when angered. He decided to get right to the point, as he had nothing else to talk about. "You know why I'm here."
"I already told you, there's no way I'm giving up on Sasuke! I'll just come--"
"Damn it Naruto, quit being so stupid! You have bigger worries than that idiot, and he's not your friend! From what I've gathered, Akatsuki is going to be ready sooner than expected, and you're going to get killed unless you forget about Sasuke and focus on what's important!"
"Akatsuki? What's that?" He had forgotten that Anko was there.
"A group that's after Naruto."
"After Naruto…?" She instantly understood that they were after Kyuubi, and became silent in the hope of hearing more about them.
"Naruto, we're talking about people far stronger than Orochimaru! Even if you can get strong enough to beat him, you'll never survive unless you learn to use the Kyuubi's power!"
"Shut up! I don't care how strong they are, I don't need the fox and I don't need you! I'm not going to lose to anyone!"
"And I'm telling you that you are going to lose to them! Why won't you--"
"You shouldn't underestimate him, Jiraiya." Anko formed a grin at the confused look on his face. "That could be a fatal mistake."
"Maybe you need to stop overestimating him, Anko. Even if he's come up with a few good techniques, he'll never be as strong as these people in two years."
"I don't know about that… It's true that he could stand to be stronger, but his training pays off amazingly quickly. Considering his current rate of growth, I see no reason for him to give up on Sasuke."
"Am I the only one that can see where this is headed? Naruto, Sasuke is not your friend, he's not your teammate, and he doesn't give a damn about you! You will never convince him to come back to this village, and even if you somehow manage to force him to come back, he'll hate you for it!"
"What the hell do you know about it?" Naruto's eyes were unlike anything Jiraiya had ever seen, and they were beginning to scare him. The raw determination was beginning to feel like killing intent. "Just shut up and leave me the hell alone!" With that Naruto turned back to the lake and continued to try to learn the technique.
"Fine, just keep living in your little dream world. Your chuunin exam is in two days, so I'll wait until that's over before trying again to convince you. Eventually you'll realize the truth, and when you do I'll be waiting. I can only hope that it doesn't take you too long, for your sake." He turned and left, but couldn't help but feel like he should have said more.
A/N: Sorry that the chapter's getting up later than usual, but I accidentally clicked no when Word asked me to save my work yesterday… Speaking of which, the last few scenes were better the first time, but there's nothing I can do about that. I also burned my hand earlier, making it harder to type, but the true victim of that accident was the ramen (I can't believe that I wasted several ramen noodles, as well as some broth!).
This chapter doesn't seem as good as the others to me, but it's not so bad that I'm about to completely rewrite it. Hopefully I'll get out of whatever funk I seem to be in by the time I start writing the next chapter…
I hope you don't mind too much, but I gave Shikato some more depth (and importance to the story). We've only ever seen him talking to Shikamaru about women and responsibility in the manga, and his ideology concerning the Kyuubi situation was never clarified, so I figured that I had free reign. My eyes actually watered a little bit while writing that part, but it was probably because I had gone more than forty hours without sleep for the sixth weekend in a row…
A big thank you goes out to Lutris Argutiae for the translation help, and my eternal contempt goes out to all internet translators for leading me astray. "Gouka" indeed! Seriously though, thanks Lutris!
Concerning jigokubi no jutsu, keep in mind that I had most of my ideas for Naruto's training down before all of the nature manipulation stuff in the manga. I didn't know at the time that people were more adept with certain elements, or that Naruto's element was wind. Of course, even knowing that, it still seems like a good idea for him to learn to ignite Gamabunta's oil.
In the next chapter, we finally get to the chuunin exam finals! More importantly, we get to the fight between Gaara and Ankoku, which should be really fun to write. It'll be fun to have Naruto fight Kaen too, and Lee vs. Neji… I can't promise that the entire exam will be spanned in one chapter, considering the number of lengthy fights, but I'll try to get it into one or two.
My lack of sleep is becoming a serious problem, but I'm still going to try to get the next chapter out on time. As soon as I stop working (September fifth is my last day) I should be able to sleep well for two weeks or so, and until then I'm just gonna push my body (and mind) as hard as I can. I'm sad to see my job go, but I really, really need the rest.
Onward, to the Q&A!
Did it annoy you that you didn't get to see Naruto working on the "technique?" It was on purpose.
Would you consider Naruto's "technique" to be ninjutsu or taijutsu?
Who makes a better teacher: Anko or Jiraiya?
Do you think that Shikamaru handled everything well?
I can't think of anything else right now, and I really want to get the chapter posted, so I'll leave it at that. Thanks for reading, please review!