Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and I am making no profit from this story, it is only for entertainment.
Chapter Summary: In which Team 7 get new jobs, Rio starts the academy and Kazuya is haunted by his past
Chapter 17: Moving Forward One Step at a Time
Genma stood proudly behind his team as they waited for the Hokage to speak. They had gone above and beyond any expectations he'd had for them; he'd meant it when he'd said they were the best team and they had proved it to the entire Elemental Nations.
They'd arrived back home yesterday morning and his team were looking a bit better after a day off and a trip to the hospital. Naruto was back in orange and Kazuya in his purple tunic; even Hana had donned a colourful blue striped jumper. Genma was grateful that they listened to him and wore black on missions but couldn't help but prefer his team like this. Bright and comfortable and cheerful.
The Hokage took his pipe out his mouth and considered the three genin.
"It was a very good showing at the Chunin Exam this year," he said, eyes twinkling. "Raikage-dono was particularly interested in our genin crop."
He looked over at Kazuya.
"I do have to wonder why you all rejected treatment from the Kumo medics for the entirety of the exams."
"We had Kazuya," Naruto piped up. "Don't need treatment from anyone else."
The Hokage stared at Kazuya for a long moment before nodding to himself.
"Well, I have consulted with your jounin-sensei and based on your reports on the first two stages and my own assessment of the tournament fights, I have come to a decision."
His team held their breath as Genma grinned over their shoulders at the village leader. Naruto's head snapped to the side and soon enough, the Hokage's assistant entered the room with three chunin vests. Genma's chest almost burst with pride as his kids each took a vest, holding it in their hands disbelievingly.
"Congratulations, Team 7," the Hokage smiled. "You are all now chunin of Konoha."
"Yes!"
"Thank Kami we don't have to go through those again."
A cough brought their attention back.
"Now to discuss your chunin assignments."
Genma shifted as the three young chunin shared confused looks.
"Don't we just do harder missions, Jiji?"
"Chunin on the active roster do complete missions, Naruto-kun, but not all chunin. You three will have assignments within the village as well as occasional missions outside of the village."
The Sandaime turned to Hana.
"Hana-kun, your mother has already put in a request for you to train with your clan to become a veterinarian. You will also complete missions involving tracking and capture due to your skill set as an Inuzuka."
Hana nodded and Genma smiled, recalling the young kunoichi's dream to become the best veterinarian in her clan. This would put her well on her way.
"Kazuya-kun, you are to be assigned to the hospital as a medic-nin. From what I have heard, you have already spent several years helping the staff so now you can be paid for your time."
Genma chuckled at the quiet, heartfelt 'yes' that the brunet hissed under his breath. Kazuya would love that.
"And you, Naruto-kun, will be placed on the Mission Assignment Desk."
"Wait, what?"
Genma shared the redhead's confusion.
"Is there not, like, a Sealing Division that I can join or something?" Naruto frowned.
"There is not enough shinobi competent in fūinjutsu to form a division," the Hokage explained. "It is a speciality that people rarely take on; there are many who have basic competency but no further. I contemplated putting you with the Barrier team due to your sensing capabilities but I don't believe that would fully utilise your abilities."
Naruto slumped and Genma could sympathise at the thought of dealing with all that paperwork.
"However, any missions or in-village requests involving fūinjutsu will come to you."
"Wait," Naruto held out a hand. "What if I don't know the answer? I've only been studying for three years; I just study what I find interesting."
"What level have you reached?" asked the Hokage. "I know of your explosive seals which are at least intermediate."
"There are levels?"
A brief silence fell over the office.
"Naruto-kun," the Hokage asked slowly, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his desk. "How have you been learning fūinjutsu?"
"I told you. I just learn what I find cool or useful. I have the books from Ten-jiisan and I have to practice my calligraphy all the time, but a lot of the time I have an idea and I just read around until I find a way to make it."
"There's a lot of trial and error involved," Kazuya added helpfully.
A sharp look from the Hokage prompted Genma to speak.
"He gets his learning materials from Tenjirou and the library. I know just enough to make sure he doesn't blow himself up but a lot of the time he just does his own thing. Some of his seals are pretty high-level as far as I'm concerned; like his ice seal from the exams."
"Yeah, it took me a while to get that one."
"I'll say."
"Let it die, Kaz."
The Hokage leaned back with a heavy sigh.
"Naruto-kun, what seals have you made?"
The redhead cocked his head in thought.
"Standard storage and explosive seals, although I modified both of those. Raiton seals, ice seals, two types of security seals, perimeter seals, paralysis seals, umm, I suppose suiton seals but they technically come under storage seals. I'm working on tracking seals that would help my sensing abilities narrow down on chakra signatures from greater distances..."
"He could go on forever, Hokage-sama," Kazuya rolled his eyes fondly.
The Hokage stood and moved to take a scroll from the shelf against the wall. He unrolled it for a moment and nodded to himself, retaking his seat.
"Ordinarily, when one learns fūinjutsu as a speciality you are apprenticed to a fūinjutsu master and they are in charge of progressing you through the levels. We no longer have a master in Konoha with Jiraiya gone so you were left to your own devices."
"I don't need a master. I've been fine on my own." Naruto crossed his arms.
"Indeed." The Hokage tapped the desk. "There are ten levels in fūinjutsu; three basic, four intermediate and three expert. From what you've told me you are at intermediate level seven, although creating your own seals comes under expert level eight. I am also sure that there are going to be gaps in your education since you appear to have jumped between levels at random depending on your interests."
"Wait, so Naruto is an expert? But not?" Hana piped up.
"Naruto is definitely Adept; those who have completed the first three basic levels. I would even go so far to say that he could be considered a Specialist, who is someone who has completed the four intermediate levels."
"But I haven't completed the levels," Naruto frowned.
Genma furrowed his brow in thought. His youngest student had always been very creative when it came to fūinjutsu; sometimes it worked and sometimes it ended in damage control. There had been enough supervision to make sure the kid didn't kill himself or anyone in his vicinity but Genma trusted that Naruto knew what he was doing. He himself had only gotten to level four back when he was a chunin; Naruto had surpassed him within two years of picking up the speciality.
"No, you have not," the Hokage conceded. "However, I believe that you have covered enough of the material that I can give you your Specialist classification to clear you for missions."
"Really? But I've only been studying it for three years."
"Naruto, if asked you to write out and explain a security seal to me right this moment, could you?"
"Depends if you wanted the regular one in the library books or my own ones. The library one just gives the user a general idea that someone has entered and the direction but doesn't give visual confirmation. Mine work as an early warning system since it's not really effective to get the warning after the enemy enters..."
"Focus, Naruto," Genma encouraged.
Naruto was brilliant but had a habit of going off on his own trail of thought when it came to seals.
"Right," Naruto nodded. "I can either make you a flash or an explosive security seal. Flash lets the user know visually when someone comes within two metres while the explosive blows up any shinobi whose chakra signature isn't keyed into the seal when they get in range. I also got a stealth one that is tied to the user's chakra signature that sends a pulse when foreign chakra is detected."
The Hokage smiled fondly at the redhead.
"That's why. I can count on one hand how many shinobi in the village could respond to that question; security seals are intermediate level six. There are even fewer that could offer me their own seals as an alternative."
"Plus it's not as if you're going to quit studying," Kazuya added. "You're only going to get better."
The Hokage pulled a brush and wrote something on the scroll. After a moment he handed the scroll over to Naruto.
"Take that to the Registry on the way out to update your classification. You will in essence be a one-man Sealing Division."
"So I basically have two assignments?"
The Hokage nodded.
"Essentially, yes."
"Now, Hana-kun, you are free to go," the Sandaime continued. "I need to speak with Kazuya-kun and Naruto-kun about their out-of-village missions."
Hana threw a look at her teammates and they shrugged in response. Genma smiled reassuringly at her confused expression and guided her out the room.
"Meet me at training ground nine later," he whispered through the open door. "I'll teach you guys the shunshin as promised for making chunin."
Her face lit up and Genma closed the door, turning back to his remaining team members.
"Now, you both have very unique skill sets that are extremely valuable to Konoha," the Hokage folded his hands on his desk. "It's part of the reason why I have assigned you roles within the village; we cannot afford to send you on routine missions."
Genma raised an eyebrow. This was uncommon. It did make sense though; Kazuya was a brilliant medic with a knack for poisons and Naruto had both natural sensing abilities and a talent for fūinjutsu. They were both so young too; Kazuya had turned twelve in February and Naruto was due to have his eleventh birthday in two months. It was exciting to think of how much they could grow; how much further they could go in their fields.
"Instead you will form a special unit and you will be attached to teams based on either requests or mission specifications. You will be known as Team Hari."
The chunin exchanged a glance.
"I also wanted to ask you to consider something, Naruto-kun. I shouldn't have to tell you all that this does not leave the room."
"Sure, Jiji," Naruto grinned as Genma and Kazuya nodded.
"I want you to help train the new ANBU recruits."
Even Genma stared at the Hokage in shock. Naruto was good but he was a fresh chunin.
"With your sensing abilities, you'd be perfect for testing them on their stealth capabilities. ANBU recruits undergo their stealth assessment in April. For the duration of that month, they would try to stick a tag on you without using long-range techniques," the Hokage explained. "Of course, you'd have to opportunity to memorise their chakra signatures before the month began and you would receive a large bonus for your time."
"It sounds like you had all this planned out," Kazuya pointed out.
"ANBU normally carry out this exercise with specifically picked jounin each year but Naruto's sensing would provide the best training for them."
"Okay, but they can't ambush me at home," Naruto conceded.
"Excellent," the Hokage smiled widely. "All you need to do is call out their codenames when you catch them and hand in a report at the end of that month to the ANBU trainer. We'll discuss it in more depth closer to the time."
The Hokage pushed himself up from his chair and Genma straightened his back automatically, proud to note that his team did the same.
"That concludes our discussion for today. Enjoy your promotions before you start your new positions on Monday."
"Thanks, Jiji!"
"Thank you, Hokage-sama."
Genma shared a proud look with the Hokage as he followed his team out the door. He caught the boys before they headed off to Registry.
"Training ground nine later on, okay?"
"Shunshin?"
He nodded and chuckled as the boys let out loud whoops of excitement, drawing stern looks from the Hokage's assistant.
"Genma-kun."
He turned as the pair left, looking back through the open door. The Sandaime smiled warmly at him.
"You did an excellent job with them."
"I like to think that they did a good job with me," Genma grinned wryly.
The Hokage nodded in understanding and Genma left, closing the door behind him.
Naruto flung himself out of his bedroom and into the kitchen, just barely avoiding knocking his arm into the kitchen cabinet to the right of his door. He loved this apartment but sometimes he wished they could afford something a bit bigger; he had no idea how they were going to fit three teenage boys in here in the future. It didn't help that he had lost the jan-ken-pon between him and Kazuya when they first moved so he got the awkward door practically in the kitchen.
Rio sluggishly shoved rice into his mouth at the kitchen table as Kazuya leaned against the counter holding out an orange. Naruto shot him an annoyed look as he grabbed the fruit; it was too early for smugness.
"Aren't you going to be late?"
"Nope!" Kazuya replied cheerfully. "I don't need to be at the hospital until noon. It's just you that has the seven am start."
"Then why are you up?"
"Rio and I are going to go work on his katas. He starts the academy in January so we got to make sure he's ready."
"It's August," Rio whined pitifully. "Why do I have to get up at half six when it's months away?"
"You'll have to get used to it! It'll be here before you know it."
Naruto and Rio shared a long suffering look over their eldest brother.
"Where's your chunin vest?"
Naruto stuffed half the orange into his mouth and shrugged. He didn't like it. It was too big and the neck collar was too high and the shoulders weighed him down and it's not as if he needed the pockets. He just decided on his black trousers with the bandages and a plain black t-shirt. He wore his brace and headband on his left arm like usual and his hair was thrown haphazardly into a high ponytail. It was not as if not wearing the thing would change his rank.
Kazuya rolled his eyes and strode away, disappearing into the room beside Naruto's. Naruto shoved the rest of the orange into his mouth and went over to ruffle Rio's hair, getting a tired squawk in return. He moved to the door, shoving his feet into his sandals. He swallowed the fruit and yelled behind him.
"At least I'm not wearing orange!"
Kazuya emerged from his room and threw a lump of cloth at Naruto's head. He grabbed the fabric and threw his own confused look at his friend.
"Maybe you should be."
Naruto shook out the cloth and examined the jacket in shock. It had a black collar and black sleeves. It also had black lining on the long middle zip, the two lower pockets, and black ribbing on the bottom hem that matched the end of the sleeves. The rest was orange. The front panels and entire back of the jacket were a glorious burnt orange. Naruto's grin grew as he took in the small details Kazuya had added.
The orange Uzumaki spiral had been sown into the right shoulder and a Konoha headband plate into the left where his headband on his brace would be. The Konoha symbol had also been sown into the front left part of the chest in black thread. He turned it over and let out a loud laugh at the large kanji sown into the back.
"You really wrote 'chunin' on the back?"
"Didn't want people to mistake you for a genin, or worse, an academy student. You're short enough."
"Thanks, Kazuya," Naruto smiled warmly, letting the short joke go. "This is amazing."
He shrugged the jacket on; he had already catalogued all the places he could add storage seals. It was a bit big but he'd grow into it.
"But why?" He couldn't help but ask. "You hate it when I wear orange. You always say it clashes with my hair and I'm like a walking flare."
Kazuya moved to sit at the kitchen table opposite Rio. The blond was staring at Naruto in awe and shot him a thumb up.
"Yeah, but you love orange. At least this way, you are wearing something that looks good despite the colour."
Naruto could see Kazuya was trying to seem cool but his friend had put a lot of work into this. He moved to say something else but Kazuya continued.
"Besides, aren't you going to be late?"
Naruto looked at the clock to the left of the door and swore loudly, flinging himself out the front door and shouting a 'bye' behind him. He formed his right hand into the tiger seal.
"Shunshin no Jutsu."
He reappeared on a nearby rooftop and smirked. He was going to enjoy this jutsu. He ran across the rooftops, hopping between buildings as the wind flowed through his open jacket. He leapt down and rolled to a stop in front of the academy. He stared up at the massive building.
The academy, the Hokage's office and all the administrative offices were housed here; including the Mission Assignment Desk. Desk duty. It would be nice to be in the village near Rio and to be able to depend on a steady pay check, but desk duty. He entered the building and made his way to the Mission Assignment Desk, tugging his jacket back into place.
He soon entered the large room where missions were issued. He walked up to the long green desk full of chunin, the morning light shining into the room from behind through the wall-length windows.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto; I'm starting here today?"
One of the chunin at the desk looked up and frowned at him.
"You're Uzumaki?"
Naruto nodded and the man's frown deepened.
"You look like you should be in the academy."
Naruto rolled his eyes and turned, pointing a thumb at the carefully stitched 'chunin' on his back.
"Definitely supposed to be here. Passed the Chunin Exams a week ago and everything."
The man's frown deepened and he beckoned over his shoulder. Naruto felt a chakra signature approach and looked over to see a man walk over. He had brown hair with two long bangs that framed his face. His headband shadowed his eyes so Naruto couldn't see them and he was dressed in a grey, buttoned up jumpsuit.
"Follow me, Uzumaki."
Naruto turned and followed the man away from the desk and into a door in the left side wall. They passed through a small room with a single desk to their right and a large shelf behind it; the chunin sitting there threw them a bored look as they passed.
"I'm Hijiri Shimon. I'll be explaining your role here so please try to keep up."
They passed through another door and came to a large room with two long lines of desks running through the middle of the room. A massive map of the Elemental Nations was plastered across the far wall with notes and kunai sticking out of it. A row of brown pipes were lined up against the closest wall, opposite the map. Tall bookshelves lined the wall to his left and windows were in the walls to the right. The room was bustling with activity and Naruto almost felt like the room was buzzing.
Hijiri led him to a desk; it was closest to the windows with his back to the pipes.
"This is your desk," the man tapped the back of the chair. "Have a seat."
Naruto hesitantly took a seat, hoping there was going to be more to his introduction to the department. Hijiri sat on his desk.
"So the way we work is we get a mission from a client or the village itself. We assess the risks and assign a rank and subsequent value corresponding to that rank. We check the active roster to find an appropriate team for the mission. We then send out summons if necessary for those teams and brief them."
Naruto nodded. It made sense so far.
"When those teams come back, we handle debrief and get a report on the mission. Are we clear on everything so far?"
"Yeah...should I be writing this down?"
"Do it later. Now we have to work with the many departments in the administrative offices contained within the building. We work with the Registry and the Aviary within the Communications department to find and contact appropriate shinobi for missions. We also sometimes need to contact Intelligence if a mission comes in involving a country or village that we don't have much information on."
Naruto tried to commit this to memory as Hijiri forged on.
"After the mission is where the bulk of the work is. We get intelligence on the country or village they were sent to and we process it; if there's anything new, we pass it on to Intelligence. We also have to hand the shinobi the correct payslip so they can take it to the Finance department and get their mission pay; if we make a mistake, then it messes up their deductions and taxes and they can get really annoying about it. We send them to the hospital or to psychological assessment depending on their condition and it's up to us to send a message to the Registry to update their records. In the worst case scenario, if they don't come back then it's up to us to flag it when they're late and to organise a mission to find out what happened. Same if someone dies, we have to let the Registry and the Hokage Office know."
Naruto swallowed hard at the thought. Hijiri stood and pointed to the pipes behind him.
"These pipes are each connected to the other departments in the building. They're not labelled so you'll just have to ask until you memorise them." He pointed out the biggest one near the door they had entered through; it had a large box beneath it. "That one is our one; we get a bunch of mail from the other departments so check it at least every hour. Ones from the Hokage Office are marked with red so if you see that, check it immediately."
"Are the pipes secured?" He couldn't help but ask; it seemed like there would be a lot of room for tampering there.
"There are security seals on them. You need to put your chakra into them to send it and the person on the other end needs to do the same to get it. It's been tested; you can't get it out midway."
Naruto nodded and Hijiri continued, pointing at the map.
"That is the most current, up-to-date intelligence Konoha has on the entirety of the Elemental Nations. We update after every mission and we do not classify missions without consulting it first."
It was impressive map. Iwa was covered in red notes, presumably to say 'stay away'.
"How is that secured?"
Hijiri sent him a strange look.
"We secure the room."
"Oh."
"So where else you stationed?"
"What?"
Hijiri gave him an amused look.
"No one here is just assigned to the Desk. I'm also in the Analysis team for half the week."
"I'm the Sealing Division," Naruto offered, scratching the back of his neck at the confused look.
"I thought that we didn't have one anymore?"
"I'm now considered the Sealing Division."
"You're like ten."
"Yep."
Hijiri appeared to think for a moment before shaking his head, muttering beneath his breath. Naruto could have sworn he heard 'above my pay grade'. He pointed to the trays on his desk.
"Blue is 'to be classified', green is 'ranked and assigned', yellow is 'mission report' and red is 'to be sent to another department'. We take turns being on the front desk. Good luck!"
Hijiri walked off and Naruto stared after him. He switched his gaze to start down at his desk and looked up as a signature approached. A chunin placed a pile of papers on his desk.
"Some D-ranks to start you off," she said cheerfully.
She disappeared and Naruto stared in horror at the stack on his desk. He tried to recall what Hijiri had told him.
He so should have written it down.
Rio bounced along the village street, looking back every two seconds to make sure his super slow brothers were keeping up. It was his first day at the academy! He couldn't be late! He was finally going to start his own journey to become a shinobi, just like his family.
"The academy isn't going anywhere, Sunshine."
"Come on, I can't be late!"
Rio grinned as the academy came into sight in the distance.
"Hey, Rio!"
His head snapped round to see Kiba running towards him down another street. Tsume and Hana followed behind him at a slower pace, much like his own situation. Kiba attempted to grab him in a headlock but Rio danced around him, knocking his friend to the ground with a well-placed kick to the back of his knee.
"Dude, not cool!"
"You started it! This is a new jumper; I'm not letting you ruin it!"
Kazu-nee and Nii-san had presented it to him yesterday. It was forest green with leaves outlined in darker shades on the hem and the sleeves. Paired with his clean black shorts and sandals, Rio was ready to impress everyone there. Kazu-nee had even sown the Uzumaki clan symbol into the upper back of the jumper, just like the other clans.
"Hi, guys."
"Hey, Hana."
"Boys."
"Tsume-san." "Tsume-san."
Rio rolled his eyes and dragged his best friend up from the ground. They continued towards the academy and soon enough they came upon a crowd of people. Rio looked through the kids and ducked behind Kiba as he spotted the awful blonde girl that always came and yelled at them in the park.
"Hey, there's Shikamaru and Chouji!"
The other two boys wandered over, two grown-up versions of them following behind.
"This is such a drag," Shikamaru groaned. "Why do they have to start school so early in the morning?"
Chouji offered him an opened packet of crisps. Shikamaru shook his head and Chouji shrugged offering it to Rio. Rio took him up on it, munching away as the adults joined them.
"You kids ready for the academy?" Chouji's dad asked merrily.
"No." "Hell yeah!"
"Yep," Rio added his own answer to his friend's replies.
"Rio hasn't stopped talking about it for the past month."
Rio looked back in betrayal at Kazu-nee as Nii-san chuckled beside him.
"We've heard about Uzumaki Rio from our sons," nodded Shikamaru's dad. "Only good things."
"That's strange," Nii-san ruffled his hair and Rio shoved the hand away in embarrassment. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and this is Arai Kazuya. We're his brothers. Nice to meet you Nara-san, Akimichi-san."
"No need to be formal with these guys, brats."
"How are you, Tsume?" Shikamaru's dad grinned.
Kiba's mother grinned back.
"Ready to get rid of my youngest."
"Kaa-chan!"
A bell rang out from the entrance of the academy.
"Right, time to go!" Kazu-nee clapped his hands and began shooing Rio and his friends towards the door. Nii-san continued talking with his friends' parents but Rio lost track of what they were saying as they were swallowed up by the crowd of kids entering the school. He shared a grin with Kiba as they took their first step towards becoming shinobi.
Hana waited by the entrance of the dango shop, tapping her foot. Of course they were late; Naruto was tumbling out the door every day of his life while Kazuya had a tendency to get distracted and forget time was a thing. It had been seven months since they had fought in the tournament finals but it was still strange not to see them every day.
It was great training with her clan to finally qualify as a veterinarian but she did miss her two idiots, even if she did see them for team dinner every month. It was a special day today though, the third of February.
"Hey, Hana!"
Naruto came running up, Kazuya in tow. She smiled as she shook her head. She pulled Kazuya into a tight hug as they came into range.
"Happy birthday, Kaz," she pulled back and grinned at him. "Welcome to teenage-hood."
"Thanks," he smiled back.
They pulled apart and entered the dango shop. It was not only Kazuya's favourite but to her knowledge it was the only one that hadn't banned the pair. She had no idea why half the shops in Konoha had a grudge against them and Rio but it was ridiculous. She made it a point to avoid them and her mum did the same.
They ordered and Hana dumped Kazuya's gift on the table. As Kazuya examined the package, Hana turned to Naruto.
"So Genma-sensei's on a mission, huh?"
"Yup, but he's paying for the dango."
"Nice."
"What's this?"
She looked over to see Kazuya staring at the scrolls she had given to him. She had been looking for something for Kazuya at the bookstore and when she had spotted them, it had been perfect. It had nothing to do with any of his training or his job at the hospital.
"They're star charts," she explained. "I figured you need a hobby outside of poison and medical studies but you'd get bored with anything easy so...stars. You can learn them and the constellations; could even use it for navigation at night!"
"This is amazing, Hana," Kazuya said in awe. "I would never have picked this out for myself."
She slumped slightly in relief. She had believed that he would like it but it really wasn't something he had been given before.
"That's really cool," Naruto peered over Kazuya's shoulder to look at the scroll.
"What'd you get him?" Hana asked, leaning back as their order were placed on the table. "I can only imagine what seals you came up with for him this year."
"Medical ones."
Hana shot a look at Kazuya as he placed the star charts carefully in a storage scroll.
"Yeah, you know his lightning seals? He engineered them to work as defibrillators."
Hana gaped at their youngest member as he shrugged.
"I was already zapping them. This is just zapping them with purpose."
"Everyone at the hospital is going slightly nuts."
"So how's Kiba doing? Rio's finally realised that the academy isn't everything he expected." Naruto grinned, as if remembering their own first day.
"Kiba is the same," she laughed. "It's hilarious seeing it now I'm older. Do you think we were like that?"
"Almost definitely." Kazuya joined in on her laughter.
"Come on guys, it's only been a month. They have a long way to go yet."
"I seem to recall you bursting into Hokage-sama's office after your first day announcing that the academy sucked, Aka-chan."
"Well I wasn't wrong."
Hana ate a dumpling off her skewer, savouring the sweet taste as it melted on her tongue.
"I don't think they were expecting this much studying," Naruto shrugged. "They probably wanted more fighting and stabbing and fancy jutsu. I know I did in first year."
"We all did, which is why we didn't stay in first year." Kazuya pointed his skewer at the redhead. "They don't have that option; they just have to suffer."
Hana coughed, choking on her bite of dango as she muffled her laughter. The boys turned to stare at her and she swallowed with a struggle.
"Kiba and Rio doing maths."
At her words, her teammates burst out into laughter.
"Oh man, those poor suckers!" Naruto giggled.
"I guess it's going to fall to me to shove that into their skulls like I did with you guys, huh."
"Come on, Kazuya," Hana grinned. "Not like we didn't shove stuff into your brain in return."
"Speaking of, weren't we supposed to leave all that boring paperwork stuff back in the academy?" Naruto's grin dropped into a pout. "It's like Jiji wants me to suffer through the years in the academy I missed."
"Don't you voluntarily study fūinjutsu though?" Hana asked, confused. "That's, like, the most book-heavy, study-intensive discipline you can do as a shinobi except medical ninjutsu."
"Yeah, but that's fūinjutsu," he replied, as if that explained everything. "That's not work."
"So it's busy up at the Desk then?" Kazuya smirked.
Naruto groaned, his head thumping as it dropped onto the table.
"There's just so much to remember and I have to talk to so many different departments and there are so many forms! Doesn't help that the person closest to my age is still like ten years older than me."
"You'll be fine," Hana smiled at him.
Kazuya patted Naruto's head, drawing a glare from the younger boy.
"There, there, Aka-chan."
"Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean I won't maim you."
Kazuya rolled his eyes, turning to share an amused glance with Hana.
"Kids, am I right?"
"I'm eleven, teme. You were fucking twelve yesterday."
"I'm fourteen in April." Hana added, stifling a laugh at Naruto's betrayed expression.
"Is this what people mean when they complain about their kids becoming teenagers?" He huffed.
Hana and Kazuya sniggered at their friend. Naruto couldn't hold his pout and soon joined them, their mirth echoing throughout the shop.
The ANBU watched the boy from a distance as he left the library with a different set of scrolls than when he had entered two hours ago.
This had to be a joke. This couldn't be their stealth training for ANBU. Their ANBU trainer had been completely serious when he had given them the assignment three days ago, but when he had briefed them it had sounded so reasonable.
Attach a tag to Uzumaki Naruto only using stealth or covert techniques. No mid or long-range jutsu and no ambushing the kid at his flat. They had the entire month of April and one attempt a day.
As Tora stared at the boy from the rooftop though, he couldn't help but think that maybe they were getting a bit soft with the ANBU training. Although they had oddly made it a point to emphasise this was an exercise in stealth and ambush, not speed and overwhelming the opponent with pure strength.
The kid was around ten, with long bright red hair and a black and orange jacket. He stuck out like a sore thumb. He had heard that the youngest genin team had made chunin in the exams last July but the kid didn't even come up to his elbow. He would have understood if it was someone like Weasel; the Uchiha may have only been thirteen but he had recently been promoted to ANBU captain. That kid was an incredible shinobi; this one wore orange.
He watched the young chunin weave through the market without a care in the world and Tora followed.
There were five ANBU trainees this year and Tora knew they were also watching the kid from around the village. It would just be a matter who tried first. They had just been watching the kid for the past three days, waiting for the other sandal to drop, but it appeared that there was no hidden trap in the task. He moved closer so he was nestled on the rooftop adjacent to the fruit stall that Uzumaki had stopped beside.
He could just ambush the kid; there was no way he would know that he was coming. He was an ANBU, the kid was a chunin; the difference in their abilities would be too wide for Uzumaki to mount a defence. He could also just pass him with a henge and tag him as he passed, the kid wouldn't be able to detect it...
"Tora, you've been caught!"
Tora jolted and flung his head over the side of the roof to look down at the ground. Uzumaki was staring up at him with a wide grin. He turned, waving a hand over his shoulder.
"Better luck tomorrow!"
Tora sat back and watched the chunin walk away. How had the boy known he was there? There were jounin that wouldn't have known he was there.
He might need to rethink this.
Kazuya shrugged on his brown waistcoat as he made his way to the hospital reception to meet up with Naruto. He'd finished up with his morning shift and since his friend had the afternoon free, they had decided to go train. Just because they were mainly stuck in the village didn't mean they could afford to slack off on their training.
He came to the desk and waved to the receptionist, Sara, as she smiled back at him. His grin dropped as he spotted the man loitering around the entrance. The man looked up at him and his glower twisted into a pleased snarl.
"Kazuya!"
Kazuya couldn't help but take an involuntary step back. He looked exactly the same; greasy, short brown hair, dark eyes, an overhanging gut from years of flinging back too much beer, his dirty builder's uniform. He could already smell the stale sweat and alcohol and it was like he was six years old again.
"You think since you became a fancy ninja that you're too good to speak to your uncle? Huh?"
Kazuya looked towards the entrance but his feet wouldn't move.
"After everything I did for you after Yua died! I fed you, put a roof over your head, and the minute you have the cash to pay me back you fucking vanish! For three years! Out on your fancy ninja missions no doubt!"
His uncle strode towards him and Kazuya hunched his shoulders instinctively, his stomach clenching and heart thudding in his chest.
"You owe me boy!"
His uncle was stopped from advancing any further as someone's hand wrapped around his arm. Kazuya and his uncle looked to see an angry redhead boring a hole into the man's skull.
"He owes you nothing, Arai Zankoku."
"Fuck off, kid," his uncle snapped Naruto's hand off angrily. "This is none of your fucking business. This is between me and my nephew."
"Actually, it is my fucking business." Naruto shoved himself in front of Kazuya. "Kazuya is a part of my family now so you have something to say to him, you say it to me."
Zankoku looked between Naruto and Kazuya, sneering.
"Replaced me, huh? It's only a matter of time before he realises you're more trouble than you're worth."
Kazuya swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Are you actually here for something or just here to be a public nuisance? Because I can call security."
His uncle's eyes snapped back to the redhead.
"Kazuya owes me. I paid for his food, clothes, roof over his head. Now he's got a wage, I want that debt repaid. Of course, because it's been three years, the interest has built up a fair bit."
Kazuya looked away from that familiar cruel smirk.
"Bullshit."
Both Kazuya and his uncle snapped their heads to stare at Naruto in shock.
"He owes you nothing."
Zakoku opened his mouth to argue but Naruto continued.
"Arai Yua had funds and assets left behind after she died, and according to the will she left it was all to go to Kazuya."
Kazuya's mouth dropped open. He'd heard nothing about this. He had just been told that everything had been lost after the Kyūbi attack.
"The will was destroyed in the attack." Zankoku actually looked uncomfortable. "There's no way to know what was in it."
"You'd think that, but I had an interesting conversation with the Civilian Department in the Administrative Offices. Turns out, a copy is kept in their Legal Division just in case disputes like this occur."
Kazuya watched numbly as his uncle's face drained of colour.
"Kazuya owes you nothing because you've already taken money that's rightfully his. It'll be up to him what legal action he wants to take."
His uncle's eyes darted to him but Kazuya was looking at Naruto. His friend was gazing steadily at him; it was like he was saying no matter what Kazuya chose to do, Naruto would be there for him. The knot that had been choking him since his uncle had appeared loosened and Kazuya turned to look his uncle square in the eyes.
"I want nothing," he said, taking a deep breath, the knot still twisting in his gut. "I want nothing to do with you. I want you to leave me alone and never talk to me again."
Zankoku opened and closed his mouth for a few moments in shock. Naruto took a step forward threateningly and the man staggered back, swearing.
"Fucking fine then," he spat. "Don't fucking need anything from you anyway. Just don't come crawling back to me when that brat figures out he's better off without you."
His uncle stumbled out of the hospital entrance and Kazuya took a moment to stare, before he turned to his best friend. Naruto was glaring at the door, a disgusted look on his face.
"Why didn't you tell me you were looking into my mother's will?"
The disgust drained and Naruto scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
"It was just an idea I had. I have to speak to so many departments at the Desk and one day I had to deal with the Civilian department. One thing led to another and I ended up finding about the spare copies of civilian wills and figured I could see if you had been left anything by your mum."
Kazuya opened his mouth to speak but Naruto continued.
"I have to be honest though, they only keep them for up to five years. Everything I just said to your uncle was a bluff backed by educated guesses."
Kazuya processed his words and pulled his best friend into a tight hug. He closed his eyes and soaked up his friend's warmth for a moment before letting go.
"Thanks, Naruto."
"Hey, Kazuya, are you alright?"
He looked back to see Sara coming up to them, concern written all over her face.
"I'm fine, Sara."
"Well, I've given his name and description to security so he won't get near this building again."
She nodded to herself and squeezed his arm, going back to her desk. The final vestiges of discomfort and turmoil left his body and Kazuya flung an arm around Naruto.
"Come on, let's go blow some shit up."
He was so lucky to have these people in his life.
Shunshin no Jutsu – Body Flicker Technique
Thanks for reading!
