Previously on The Deception Gone Awry:

The uchia's fuming face still brought a grin to his face, as the third sensei, the beautiful Yuuhi Kurenai, came to collect team eight, comprising of the Inuzuka, Hyuuga and Abrurame clans heirs. Her collection was interrupted however, by a flurry of leaves that inferred a leaf shushin technique at the front of the room, a couple of feet from him in fact. From the flurry appeared two figures, one of which he instantly recognised as his class mate Himako, who looked a little roughed up but otherwise okay. It took him another moment to recognise the other figure, who looked like he had been thrown through a meat grinder. Naruto's upper clothing was in tatters, his trade mark jacket gone and his t-shirt only just capable of being considered wearable, though considering the blood covering it from top to bottom, similar to his trousers that were now a cross between red and orange, some of it Naruto's judging by the vast number of cuts grazes and other wounds that were visible on his upper body.

The boy quickly turned on the spot, and spotting him through the one eye that wasn't swollen shut, stood to attention and snapped off a salute. "Iruka-sensei, sorry for being late to the graduation class, but believe me, I have one hell of an excuse..." Catching the amused and slightly resigned look on Himako's face, Iruka got the feeling that for once, Naruto was actually understating himself entirely.

Chapter 10: The Storytelling

Naruto felt like crap, even more than he had been thus far today, and it wasn't just because he had been having to keep up with Himako again, though that had certainly not helped in the slightest. He had just raced back to Konoha after the fight of his life, only to wait for an hour for his sensei, some weirdo jounin by the name of Kakashi Hatake. One advantage of the team he was in was that he had Sakura on his team, which would help progress project shadow considerably, if everything went according to plan of course. Despite the joy he felt at this revelation, Naruto was honestly too tired to be able to try and talk to her, instead collapsing semi comatose in one of the middle rows whilst trying to regain some of his energy. It had worked to an extent, so that by the time Kakashi had finally deigned them with his presence Naruto had regained at least a fraction of his usual functionality, even if every movement hurt.

After exclaiming at the top of his voice in an angry tone that Kakashi was a crap sensei for being late, and forcing him to sprint back to Konoha for no good reason, the man had simply turned around and stated that he hated all of them, and that they should meet him on the roof for introductions. Deciding to save himself some effort, Naruto decided instead of using the stairs to utilise his new chakra leaping technique to launch himself up to the roof with the aid of a clone to push off against. Whilst he had obviously surprised the man with the manoeuvre, the man had not commented and simply had waited for the other two arrive whilst reading his orange book and giggling on occasion.

Once they had arrived, showing their own surprise at the sight of Naruto being up on the roof before them, they had then indulged in the most pointless exercise Naruto had ever heard of. Kakashi had asked them all to introduce themselves and tell everyone a little about each other, though when asked to show them what he had meant, he had been vague and not told them anything about him. Having been chosen to go next and still feeling somewhat snarky at the jounins late arrival, Naruto had decided to copy his sensei word for word, apart from changing his name of course.

This had surprisingly got a smirk from Sasuke and a giggle from Sakura, whilst Kakashi's single visible eye had narrowed at what Naruto had done. The other two hadn't followed suit however, and the only thing that Naruto learned from the exchange was that Sasuke had someone that he wished to kill, though did not elaborate who that was. Naruto assumed it was his older brother, the one who had massacred the rest of the Uchia clan in a single night, leaving only Sasuke alive, but he would be certain to make sure later, rather than get it wrong and screw up badly. After that, Kakashi had informed them that they hadn't actually truly graduated yet, and that they first had to pass survival training, which would be held tomorrow morning on training ground seven at seven am. He then informed them not to eat breakfast lest they throw up, before bidding them farewell and disappearing in a shushin, off to read his book no doubt.

So here he was, sat on rooftop having been told to attend survival training, with no idea of what to expect. Falling back on what seemed to have become his tactic for acquiring information, he summoned two dozen clones onto the rooftop, bringing them into huddle. "Right, I want you all to spread yourselves across Konoha, transformed into people we know about, so guards, other chuunin and such to try and find out everything you can about Kakashi and this survival test of his. You!" he declared pointing at one whilst the others nodded. "Go make sure Akko and Yuna have got through admin okay, then bring them to Ichikarus, tell Ayame to put their food on my tab, I will go get Umi and meet them there." the clones all chorused agreement, and then dispersed themselves, their forms shifting as they moved into various people, making sure to confer with each other to ensure no one duplicated another. Grinning at what was another clever plan of his, Naruto turned to leave, only to find both of his team mates staring at him in complete shock.

It was Sakura who managed to regain the ability to speak first, though it was clear that she was still shocked by something. "Naruto, are those... Solid clones?" Ahh, that was why they were confused, shadow clones had become so natural to Naruto that he had forgotten that it was not considered the norm anymore. Reaching up and scratching the back of his head, he thought up the best way to respond to her question. An idea popped into his head based on what he had just finished saying to his clone. "They are Sakura-chan, shadow clones to be exact. I learnt them the same night I graduated. I would tell you about it, but i've got to go and pick someone up for dinner, I will tell it all to you there if you wish, I'm sure that Umi wouldn't mind hearing about it, she's already in for one hell of a tale as it is." Hook, line and sinker, or at least that's what Naruto thought the phrase was. He could tell Sakura was more than interested enough to be turning up later, Sasuke was much harder to read, but he wasn't nearly as important, so it didn't matter too much to Naruto whether he was interested.

Speaking of Umi, he had better get going, he hadn't told his clone where he had been going today, so it had probably had a very boring, very lonely day. Which is why it was important to inform it of the news, though he might leave the bit about the two sisters he had rescued for when they appeared, that certainly would get him forgiven for disappearing for most of the day. Raising his hand, he waved farewell to the two. "Right, i might see you both later, and if I don't I will see you tomorrow morning for Baka-sensei's test. Bye!" He barely made it to the lip of the roof before Sakura called out to him once more. "Naruto, wait up, I'll come with you, we just need to stop by mine, so that I can tell my parents that I am eating out tonight and not to wait for me." That wasn't the worst thing in the world Naruto supposed, Sakura's was pretty much on the way to his, so it wouldn't be much of a delay. Turning to Sasuke, he spoke quickly, just so that when he started again he wouldn't have to stop once more.

"You going to come along teme?" the boy seemed to war with himself for a moment before finally shaking his head. "I bet you can't have done anything that interesting to be worth wasting my evening training, see you tomorrow dobe." Well, at least he could say that he had tried if anyone asked where the third member of his team was. Shrugging to himself, he turned back to Sakura and grinned lightly at her. One of the things that his clones discovered whilst watching all the various girls, was that they really disliked boys that tried too hard, as he had done with Sakura previously in the academy.

As such he toned it down as best he could, speaking normally rather than shouting as he felt prone to doing at times. "Well, I did my best Sakura-chan, I'm afraid it's just us and the other girls, though I'm sure that you will get along with them just fine." Sakura smiled, obviously pleased that he hadn't tried to claim that this was a date or something similar. They leapt off in the direction of Sakura's, and it was actually Sakura that spoke first as they travelled off together. "So Naruto, how exactly is it that you know where I live, I saw you jump off first, so you can't claim you were following me." Ahh, he knew that his clones would land him in trouble sooner or later, now he had to think of an excuse very quickly to save himself a beating.

They reached his apartment thankfully without him gaining even more bruises than he already had on him. He had remembered just in time that when they were younger he had walked her home from the academy, only to ruin it by doing something stupid that had left Sakura fuming on her doorstep as he ran for his life. Recalling the occasion out loud, it had mollified Sakura sufficiently that she dropped the conversation without further comment, the two continuing to Sakura's house in companionable silence. Naruto had waited on the rooftops whilst Sakura had entered her house, preferring to avoid the confrontation that was bound to happen if he showed his face around Sakuras house again whilst her parents were around. Once Sakura had reappeared, they had continued to the slums where Naruto lived, Sakura obviously being surprised that Naruto lived in such an area, but thankfully refraining from commenting on it to him. That brought them to where they were now, knocking on the door that Umi had selected that she wanted to live in, a floor above Narutos but in the middle of the set of flats, just like Narutos was.

After a few seconds the door opened and Umi appeared, looking a little flustered and dust covered, but otherwise happy. That changed when she saw Naruto, swinging open the door and rushing towards him. "Naruto-San, what happened to you? You look like you were attacked by a tiger!" Naruto chuckled embarrassed as he batted her hands away from him. "It's fine Umi-chan, I will tell you over dinner. Oh by the way, Sakura-chan, this is Umi-chan, saviour of my pour hide and a friend as of yesterday! Umi-chan, meet Sakura, my teammate subject to us passing our test tomorrow of course." Umi giggled at his over the top introduction, whilst Sakura merely shook her head and smiled at him before asking a question. "You only met yesterday? You two seem fast friends for such a short period, how did you both meet? Did Naruto get you with that childish prank of his or something?" and thus the three of them spent the rest of the trip to Ichikarus recounting the tale of Umi's tumultuous arrival in Konoha and Naruto's involvement in it all.

Sakura listened attentively, gasping at the description of the bandit attack and giggling at the description of Naruto's taunting of the chuunin. She cast a surprised look at Naruto when Umi described how he had been keeping an eye on her and rescued her wallet from the pickpocket. "I'm impressed Naruto, with how you've always acted I assumed you were a bit careless about things, but you actually showed a surprising amount of thought for your actions there." Naruto chuckled embarrassedly once more, how incorrect that idea was. "Not really Sakura-chan, in fact, if not for Umi-chans generosity here, I would currently be on the streets, which is why technically until i pay her back her money, she's technically my landlord!" Before Sakura could ask for clarification on what he meant about any of that, they were interrupted by two blurs of motion that slammed into Naruto, almost knocking him off his feet.

He had just managed to brace himself however, and after rocking for a moment, he hugged the two girls that had jumped him. "Akko-chan, Yuna-chan, don't do that, if I hadn't seen you coming, we could all have gone flying and my bruises would get even bigger than they are now!" the two girls, two years younger than Naruto, giggled at this before stepping back and attempting to look contrite. "Sorry Naruto-kun, we were just so happy to see you, the scary lady you left us with wasn't much fun, and the blonde guy made our heads feel funny." Naruto now understood what the purple haired lady had meant when she had said that the two would be okay by the time he saw them again, the blonde man had obviously been a Yamanaka and as such had probably removed the memories of Akko's almost rape, and just left the ones of Naruto rescuing them from captivity. Just as Naruto was about to apologise, Umi called out in shock "Akko, Yuna, but how?" she was looking between the two girls and Naruto for an exclamation even as the two girls recognised her and ran over to her to hug her as well. Sakura was obviously the most confused and was rather vocal about it. "Naruto I think we all need an explanation now, and I imagine that it is going to take a while, is this the place you were meaning for food?" she said pointing at Ichikarus in front of them, where the two girls had just come from. Naruto nodded and smiled at all of them "indeed it is, and as I have obviously confused you all, it's on me whilst I explain, now, let's eat!"

Forty minutes later, he had gathered a small crowd, including some of the stands regulars, Ayame and the other four girls, and even one or two people from the street as he told the tale of how he had been tricked by Mizuki into stealing the forbidden scroll, and how he and Iruka had fought him afterwards to stop him killing them and stealing the forbidden scroll for whatever nefarious purpose. There had been gasps, laughs and shocked silences as he had told his tale, doing his utmost to ensure he was keeping it honest, apart from the bit about the fox and him being its container of course, that was left out as he really didn't want Sakura to know about it.

Instead he painted the picture that Mizuki had used him all year long, making sure he failed enough to ensure he did not succeed the final exam, before using him as a scapegoat to pin the theft on. He had been smacked by Umi, Ayame and Sakura when they heard he used his sexy no jutsu to knock out the Hokage, but they still were giggling at the thought so he didn't mind too much. When he finished the tale, with him using kage bushin to beat Mizuki to a pulp, there was applause and one or two appreciative cheers from the crowd, which he of course could not resist bowing too, only to tip out of his chair by overextending to raucous laughter. Standing once more, there was a call from somewhere near the back. "One more, one more I say!" there were calls of agreement from the crowd, as well as calls for more ramen and drinks. Whilst Ayame rushed her way round the group taking the multitude of orders, Naruto raised his hands, beckoning for silence once more. "Okay, okay, you guys do ask for a lot, but what can I say, I'm a crowd pleaser. In which case, let me tell you the tale of today, and how I came to meet these two little damsels here, and how I ended up looking like as much of a mess as I do now." He finished by reaching across and ruffling the girls hair, causing both to complain playfully and squirm in their seats, trying to get away from his hands.

Settling back in his seat, and stirring his now stone cold ramen, he began by telling of the build up to the day, introducing Umi to everyone and how she came to be in Konoha. By the time he finished his description of the bandit attack he once more had everyone's attention, the only movements were their consumption of their ramen and drinks before silently beckoning for more from the very busy Ichikarus. He then skipped to when he and Himako had left the gates the next morning, only to be shouted into continuing the whole tale by the crowd. Therefore, for the next hour therefore he unfolded the tale of the last two days. He spoke of his prank, getting good natured jeers and calls from the crowd who had been on the wrong end of the prank, as they now understood why he had needed to blow off some steam after the incident with Mizuki. His description of his meeting with the Hokage stopped those soon enough, and the silence was maintained as he described tracking the pickpocket down and retrieving Umi's money.

Umi's generosity restored the cheerier mood and his meeting with Himako brought rounds of laughs, mostly at his expense of course. There was quiet murmurings when he described his failed attempts at finding out where the bandits had gone, which turned into excited whispering as he described finding the ruse and how the bandits had done their little plan. The whispering turned angry as Naruto described finding the bodies in their pile, and he had to gesture for quiet once more. He described finding the camp, and that Akko had fought against one of the bandits, and how he had then jumped in in order to save her life, to the gasps of the crowd around him. He cast his mind back to the fight, after all, if he was going to describe how he almost died more times then he could count, he wanted to make sure he told the tale accurately.

*flashback*

The bandits got over their shock quite quickly, especially as the axe wielding clones threw themselves forward to engage as many of the bandits as possible. With the battle beginning in earnest around him, Naruto created another two dozen clones, the toll on his stamina beginning to tell as sweat appeared on his brow. He quickly gave his orders to those around him. " you lot, your sole job is to get every captive out of here, I will distract them. Once that is done, find where Himako is, and tell her to wait for my signal, she will be very useful as a surprise piece here, just in case they pull something unexpected on us." No cheers, no signs of agreement, the clones were just gone into the melee like they had never been there, though he noticed that the girl was gone from where she had been as well, so he knew they hadn't just been dispersed. There was a shout from behind him, and he turned, raising the axe defensively as he did so. It was lucky that he did so, as the axe blade intercepted the blade thrust from a bandit armed with a rapier, who seemed to have worked through his clones with relative ease. The blade slipped up the axes blade and towards his face, opening a cut on Naruto's brow even as he ducked back to avoid it.

The two clashed again, the bandits skill and strength against Narutos reflexes and speed, and the bandit seemed to be winning. Deciding to act like a ninja, Naruto waited until the bandit was striking once more, before replacing himself with an unwitting bandit who he could see fighting just behind the rapier bandit. The bandits had no time to react before the rapier pierced the replaced bandits stomach for almost three inches before the other bandit managed to stop himself and his blade. The bandit realised the ruse, and withdrew his blade whilst turning around, but it was too late, the side of Narutos axe slamming into his face with a crunch blood pouring from his nose as he fell unconscious, the other bandit taken down by a clone from behind.

Having incapacitated the two bandits, Naruto grabbed the rapier from the floor where the bandit had dropped it, before casting his gaze round. The battle was not going well for him and his clones, not that he had really expected it to. There were only a third of his clones left now, and they only seemed to have dropped twenty or so bandits, through trickery or other means. Deciding that if it weren't broke don't fix it, he summoned another sixty clones, who faced the previously victorious bandits with the original at their head. Raising the rapier above his head, having stowed the axe at his waist, he shouted out a single word. "Charge!" With this the clones shot forward, catapulted by Naruto's chakra technique, slamming into the surprised bandits with devastating force.

The original ducked and weaved through the conflict, targeting those bandits that seemed the most adept at taking out his clones. First was a giant of a man, whose two handed hammer was the bane of the clones that were not able to dodge due to surprise or the roiling melee around them. Naruto worked by ducking and dodging through the strikes until he was too close to the man for him to use his weapon, distracting him long enough for a trio of clones to strike him down from the back, though the man had caught him full in the face with one of his massive hands as he did so, causing his left eyelid to swell up within minutes. With his vision partially impaired Naruto was forced into his next battle with no respite, faced by a scarred man with an eyepatch and armed with a deadly pair of knives.

The man soon proved to be superior in terms of weapon skill compared to Naruto, but didn't expect for Naruto, having dived backwards to avoid another set of cuts, several of which covered his torso already from this man, to pick up dirt from the floor with his spare hand, and then promptly throw it into the mans only eye during the next exchange between the two, followed by two haymakers that had the man on the floor unconscious like many of the other bandits around him. With the addition of the second set of clones, the battle had turned in the favour of Naruto and his clones once more, more than half the bandits having been taken down and several of the more skilled bandits amongst them. Then there was an explosion, and almost a dozen of his clones burst into smoke. A moment later 6 more burst into smoke whilst three more blocked the flying weapons that were revealed to be shuriken.

Appearing through the smoke generated by his clones dispersal was a man. He was in his mid thirties, average size and build with one ugly scar down the left hand side of his face and armed with a multitude of knives and shuriken strapped to his chest, arms and upper legs. The man eyed Naruto up and down before laughing in an uproarious manner. "You guys are struggling against this guy? The boss sent me to see what the commotion was, thinking you guys were being attacked by a tiger or something and here I find you struggling against a shrimp and his duplicates, i can tell you now he will not be happy at all with this." one of the remaining bandits raised his hands defensively. "But Socho, we were taken by surprise, there were so many of theurgh" he finished with a gurgle as one of the mans knives implanted itself in his neck.

"Anyone else want to try and make excuses? Good, now keep the clones busy, I will deal with the kid and end this, we then have to move out in case he called for reinforcements, one of you inform the boss now, or it will be all of our heads." with that, the man charged, reducing the clones that tried to intercept him with swift deadly strikes, Naruto barely reacting in time to avoid a stab to the gut, instead receiving a deep cut in his left side. Shrugging off the pain as best he could, he struck back out with the rapier, only for the man to disarm him with surprising ease. The man chuckled "you really are new at this aren't you kid, at least make it somewhat of a challenge to kill you. If you are interesting enough, I will add your headband to my collection."

He opened his jacket to show at least six headbands strapped to his chest, all of them Konoha ones. With this revelation Naruto saw red, drawing the axe, he poured chakra into his feet before shooting forward. The surprised look on the mans face was very gratifying even as Naruto shattered one of the mans weapons and continued to drive forward. His progress was stopped when his axe blade dug into one of the forehead protectors and stopped there, before being booted away with a swift kick that left him gasping for air. The man drew another blade after throwing away the hilt of the broken one and eyed Naruto appreciatively this time, fingering the cut with one hand. "That's some move you have there kid, unlucky with the forehead protector, but that is why I put them there of course. Now, unless you have something else to match me, it's right about time you died, no bad feelings of course, just business." the man charged him and Naruto was forced on the defensive, and even then the man was opening wound after wound on his torso and arms, slowing him down even further.

As a last ditch attempt to turn the battle around, Naruto summoned his chakra, creating several clones between him and the bandit. They lasted barely a second, and the bandit then reached through the smoke and grabbed Naruto's neck, batting the axe away as Naruto tried to swing it at him, before grinning down at Naruto who was struggling weakly against his grip. "Good try, but I was expecting it, any last words brat?" Naruto tried to say something, blood oozing from his mouth as he did so, but it came out as an intelligible murmur. The bandit leaned in closer, grinning wickedly. "Sorry brat, want to repeat that?" this time, Naruto grinned back, uttering two words to the surprised bandit.

"Decoy...bitch!" and then it turned to smoke, the bandit only having time to roar in anger before Naruto burst from where he had been transformed as the clones axe, burying the blade of his own axe into the mans unprotected back. Falling forwards, the bandit uttered one sentence before he breathed his last, his voice quiet but audible to Naruto all the same. "well played kid, but now you got to beat the boss..." as if heralding the arrival of the man, Naruto had no time to react before he was smashed in the stomach by a mace, blood exploding from his mouth. Landing in a heap, he looked up to find a large red haired man stood over snarling at him, crude mace in one hand that was easily half the size of Naruto. Just as the man raised his mace once more, snakes flew through the air and slammed into the bandit, pushing him back as he beat them away with his mace and hands.

Struggling to his feet, stars bursting in his vision, he felt someone land next to him and he groggily turned, hands raised defensively, only to find a purple haired lady with fishnet clothes and a forehead protector around her neck that signified she was from Konoha. She was looking at him with a smirk, as best as he could tell with his limited vision anyways. "You look like hell kid, but good job nonetheless, we will take it from here, you have a rest." Naruto saluted lazily, before tilting forwards unconscious, into the ladies bust without a care in the world.

*end flashback*

Even as he finished his story, he held up his hands defensively as he could see Ayame and Sakura were looking at him dangerously. "Don't hurt me, I was unconscious well before I fell forwards, so I didn't do it on purpose, I swear it's true!" it seemed to mollify them as the rest of the group burst into applause, several of the men wolf whistling as well bringing a blush to his face as he tried to act modest in front of all the attention. Slowly the crowd dispersed realising that there was no more to come and he was left with his friends once more. Umi, Akko and Yuna were looking at him with Awe, and even Sakura was looking very impressed with his work. But before they could say anything else, there was a very cross voice from the door, and when Naruto turned he found himself faced by two Tentens, one looking very angry whilst the other was cringing and looking apologetically at Naruto. "Perhaps you have time now you have finished telling tales, to tell me exactly why one of your clones is currently pretending to be me and asking my sensei about his eternal rival?" With a flick of her wrist, she dispelled the quivering clone even as Naruto gulped apprehensively. "Well, it's all like this really..." If he survived the next encounter, he knew he owed Kami quite the amount of good karma to pay all of this good luck that he had been receiving recently off of her...