The Deception, gone awry

by defiasstone2

On the night of his graduation, Naruto worked out why most people in Konoha didn't like him, and what impact that would have on his life going forward. But Naruto has never been one to accept things because of 'fate' or 'destiny', and you would be surprised what a determined young man can do with a forbidden jutsu and a pranksters mindset...

17. The Mission Complete

Previously on the Deception, Gone Awry:

Anko shuddered at this and Sarutobi could understand why, there were easily 400 people who worked in the T+I building all day and almost a 100 ninja and civilians that visited there every hour for various reasons, so the number of people to investigate was staggering, and until she could clear some people of possible guilt, it would have to be a solo job for her to complete. She didn't complain however as he quickly signed the necessary form for her to start investigating her department colleagues and permission to access their records from the private records office, merely standing to attention and saluting before asking. "By you leave then Hokage-sama?"

He nodded and she was gone in a burst of speed, leaving him alone apart from his ANBU guards once more. He looked over the report for a few more minutes, wondering what else was going on his village without him knowing about it, especially with the news that he had received this morning. That was the cause of the next meeting of the evening he was having, and pressing the intercom button on his desk he indicated that his secretary should let his next guest enter the room. Looking up as they entered he decided to not use his usual approach of kindness and instead stared sternly at them as he spoke. "Chuunin Nami Shimura, come and have a seat there is a lot we need to talk about it seems..."

Chapter 17: The mission, a revelation and drama by the bucketful

(A/N: It has been pointed out to me several times now that my writing needs to be more broken up in my stories, so this is the first chapter to adopt this new paragraphing style, tell me whether you like it or not on the way out.)

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki,

Naruto awoke in a cold sweat again, though this time he managed to hold in the noise that was trying to burst from his throat. The nightmares had struck him every night since they had left Konoha, the corpses of the bandits and his own blood stained hands mixing with the hateful stares of the villagers and their mutterings of monster and demon.

It was still dark outside from what he could tell, but he knew he would not sleep again tonight so there was no point in staying in the tent. Shifting carefully to avoid disturbing the sleeping Lee, who had obviously switched with Sasuke at some point during the night for his watch, he dressed himself in his usual t-shirt and orange trousers, having been unable to replace the orange jacket after it had been essentially destroyed by the bandits.

Grabbing one of the two black cotton jackets that he had found in the back of his closet that had definitely not been present there the week before, he put it on and couldn't help the pleased feeling that the well-fitting jacket gave him, even if it was in completely the wrong colour. Undoing the entrance to the tent he shuffled his way outside into the camp that they had set up for the last night before they reached the Land of Rice's capital, with the caravan people all sleeping in tents close to the large fire they had built up upon arrival, whilst the ninja teams slept on the outskirts so that those on guard could maintain their night vision more effectively.

It did not take much effort for him to work out where Sasuke was, the Uchiha was good at hiding his presence that was true, but he was also highly predictable, so having found the biggest tree that was around the edge of the camp he could spot in the dim light of the fire the traditional blue of the Uchiha battle outfit. He turned to go for a walk round the camp; he did not wish to talk at this point anyways.

The three days had certainly been enlightening, not only to Naruto but the entirety of his genin team, not that it was a particularly heartening epiphany. When the civilians had come to a stop for the first night, still well within Konoha's borders, Gai had announced that it was time for training to begin. Kakashi had left the enthusiastic man to it, claiming that he would keep guard over the clients whilst they trained, though Naruto suspected pessimistically that it was so he could read his book in peace.

Gai had mumbled about his rival's hip attitude for a few more moments before becoming a bit more serious and gathering the genin around. He said that they would start with a practice spar with one of his team against each member of Team seven so that he could get an idea of their abilities. Naruto had agreed eagerly, the chance to fight always something that got his blood pumping, though he could see Sakura being a little more apprehensive about the upcoming bouts. Sasuke had simply snorted and pointed to Neji, stating that he wished to see what the 'vaunted' Hyuuga bloodline could do, his words dripping with sarcasm and superiority.

The bouts had been a massacre in all honesty, and Naruto could tell that all of Gai's team were holding back considerably whilst they destroyed his team. Neji had let Sasuke attempt to strike him for a few minutes, toying with the Uchiha to aggravate his temper before striking several points on the Uchiha's chest with his fingers as Sasuke leapt back to prepare a jutsu, something that Naruto had initially laughed at until Sasuke had collapsed breathing harshly as he did so. Neji had stood over him for a moment before stating that fate had ensured he had been victorious and stalking off, telling Gai he would be training in the woods without even honouring the fight that had occurred.

Snarling at the Hyuuga's attitude Naruto had beaten everyone else into stepping towards Sasuke, helping the boy stand despite his protests that he was fine. He moved him to the side of the impromptu ring whilst Gai indicated that Tenten and Sakura should go next. Whilst the last fight was terrible because of the Hyuuga's attitude, this one was almost worse because of the obvious pity that Tenten was showing Sakura.

The self-proclaimed weapons mistress didn't even draw a kunai throughout her match, breaking through Sakura's very technical but physically weak Taijutsu with such ease that Naruto was worried what would happen to him against Lee, who was from his dress code was an obvious Taijutsu expert and his muscles were obvious beneath his spandex clothing.

Tenten had been a lot nicer when the bout had ended however, helping Sakura up from where she had ended up sprawled on the floor and bowing respectfully to each other. She had then taken the girl off to the side to talk about something in private, leaving Naruto to face off against Lee, who was as excited about the match as Naruto had been before seeing his team get slaughtered. Truthfully he liked to think he did the best out of his team, not ending up on the floor and incapable at any point in the spar, though he knew that if Lee had gone all out he would have been destroyed easily.

The boys speed was easily at the same level as Himako's speed had been when she had been forcing him to travel through the forest at a sprint, though Lee didn't show any of the exertion that Naruto was forced to expend from the start in blocking and dodging the various punches and kicks that were levelled in his direction. Lee's strength was also far beyond that of any of the genin that Naruto had faced in the current graduating class, his arms and chest were still covered in deep bruises from the fight despite the Kyuubi's somewhat accelerated healing. Thankfully Naruto had managed to respond well enough to force Lee to dodge backwards long enough for him to form a familiar hand-sign.

Not that the 30 odd kage bushin had helped him particularly in defeating Lee, they had slowed the boy down enough to draw out the fight to its 5 minute ending point, something that Naruto had gratefully taken advantage of when Gai had offered it to him. He could have kept spawning Kage bushin to try and wear Lee down, but that would probably just force the boy to up his game and could have ended quite painfully for Naruto if he had tried. Sasuke had slunk off during his fight to go and talk with Kakashi, but Naruto stayed to listen to Gai's input, the man was a jonin after all, so he would probably have some useful tips.

And useful they were, Gai picked apart Naruto's fighting style with a few harsh words that essentially stated that most of the forms were too loose or entirely wrong. Before Naruto had gotten too down at the comments, Gai had moved on to complimenting his speed and durability during the bout, and offering to help fix his stances if Naruto wished for the assistance. Naruto had accepted eagerly and spent the next few minutes getting into the basic stances of the academy form and altering it to Gai's suggestions. The stances felt weird to him after doing so, but also firmer, so he was more than prepared to put up with the discomfort that the stances initially gave him when he formed them.

Gai had gotten Tenten to watch his kata's after that whilst he had moved onto Sakura, who had been acting down ever since Sasuke had been so handily defeated by Neji. She listened attentively to what Gai had been saying though, seeing all three of them beaten as they were had obviously humbled to an extent the Uchiha fan-girl in her. Gai had her performing speed exercises for the rest of the evening, stating that it would be better to up her speed rather than her strength for the time being.

They had fallen into a pattern every night from there on in, where Naruto would create three hundred clones upon arriving in the camp, with some helping the caravan people set up the camp and others acting as targets for Tenten to practice her throwing or to give her something to practice her Taijutsu against. The first time her had done this Gai and his team had been openly shocked, but by the tonight it had become much more of a normal thing for them.

Lee would spar with Naruto and comment on what in his style needed to be altered or what improvements had been made whilst Sakura would continue to follow the speed exercises under the watchful eye of one of the jonin, the two taking it in turns to watch over the camp whilst the genin trained. Sasuke had become even more withdrawn and caustic following the spar and both he and Neji would head off by themselves once the camp was ready for the night to train on their own, ignoring the other genin in the attempts they made to socialise with them.

He drew himself to a halt at the edge of the clearing on the other side to Sasuke, falling into the now familiar first stance of the Academy style. He had yet to see an appreciable benefit from changing his stances in line with what Gai expected from him, but he trusted the man to know what he was talking about. Kakashi hadn't said anything bad about his new stance either, merely using his hands and feet to shift Naruto's body slightly before nodding approvingly and stating that Gai was teaching him well.

He was halfway through the fourth kata when a voice spoke from behind him, his reflexes causing him to spin round and settle himself into a defensive stance. "Your stances have improved greatly in the past few days Naruto-kun, and that is a perfect defensive stance you have taken reflexively."

Seeing that it was the tall spandex wearing jonin Naruto relaxed from his stance and smiled thankfully at him. "Thanks Gai-sensei, you and Kakashi have been much better teachers than the idiots at the academy." He didn't want to admit to himself or anyone else that the real reason that his Taijutsu sucked so much was probably because he had missed so many of the lessons due to his pranking escapades.

Luckily if Gai realised this was the case he didn't comment on it, instead moving so that he was stood next to Naruto facing into the camp, a slightly serious look on his face. "Tenten has told me that this is not the first time you have woken in the night on our mission, and though she did not openly express it she indicated she thought it might be something to do with your little mission on graduation day." The bandit camp and test stories had been another thing he had been forced to retell to everyone, though in less detail than he had at the ramen stand to save him some time.

All of Gai's genin had been openly doubtful about him injuring Kakashi, though Neji had been the only one to be derogatory about it until the man himself had shifted his jonin vest and shirt without a word to reveal his still bandaged shoulder. After that all three of them had acted differently around Naruto, with both Tenten and Lee demanding full spars when they got back to Konoha and Naruto retrieved his axe, which his clones had forgotten to pack and he had decided was not essential enough for the mission for him to go back and fetch it once he realised he was lacking it.

Neji had merely taken to ignoring his presence unless it was absolutely necessary for them to talk, something that Naruto found quite enjoyable if he was honest, the boys snide remarks had steadily worn down his patience even faster than Sasuke's normally did. He nodded slightly, knowing it wasn't worth trying to lie about it to the man, before shrugging non-committedly and looking away over the camp once more. "Yeah, but I will get over it soon I am sure, I didn't mean to worry Tenten-chan about it." He was surprised when Gai placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and spoke softly.

"This is not something 'you get over' Naruto-kun, if it is I pray for your soul, as it takes someone who enjoys killing other people to be able to ignore the feelings that such an act brings. I cannot speak for everyone, but I know for a fact that I still remember my first kill rather vividly and though the pain and guilt have faded with time I still have moments when they rise to the surface once more."

The two stood in silence for a moment longer before Naruto voiced a hesitant question, unsure how the jonin would react. "Gai-sensei, what happened, if you don't mind me asking?" The man sighed and Naruto thought for a moment he had overstepped the boundaries that had been formed between him and his new sensei. Just as he was about to apologise for trying to find out what he had asked Gai started speaking, in a slightly distant tone that showed he was reliving the memory of what had happened as he spoke.

"It was my third c-rank mission as a genin, my Jounin sensei had accepted the mission to rescue some kidnapped civilians that had been taken by a bandit party in the hills of northern fire country. We dealt with the bandits easily enough, but then a low level missing ninja pair turned up, keeping my sensei busy whilst my team and I went into the caves to rescue the hostages."

The man paused for a second and Naruto thought he could see the man's eyes water for a moment before he pressed on. "The prisoners had been treated very badly; most of the women had been raped and beaten before we could get there. To my horror one of the girls that had been taken had been tortured, her skin flayed off her back and badly beaten whilst tied to a wooden table. I knew she wasn't going to survive the rescue, and so did she by the way she begged me to end her suffering."

Naruto could barely contain the emotions that this tale caused to erupt inside of him, and he was glad that Gai stopped his description there rather than describe what he had done next. Naruto was suddenly glad that his kills had occurred in the way that they did, his opponents had attacked him and at least they had been partially at fault for the actions that led to their deaths. Gai-sensei had no such comfort however, and Naruto wondered how the man had been able to get through the guilt that such an event caused.

"Sensei… How did you cope? I-I thought I was having a bad time but now I wonder if I have the right to be like this…" He cut off as Gai shook his head and gripped his shoulder a little more firmly.

"Your emotions are not something that should be measured in comparison to the actions of others Naruto-kun, remember that above all else. In regards to coping with what I had done that day I didn't in all honesty. It took months for my team to get me over it, both of my team members missing the chuunin exams in order to help me recover. Your team is here for you emotionally as well as for missions Naruto-kun, though I would avoid talking with this particular event with Sakura or Sasuke, they won't be able to understand what you are going through like Tenten and I can."

The man paused for a moment longer before speaking in a lighter tone, smile returning to his face as he did so. "What some people I know have done to help ease the guilt is to make themselves a vow. Some swear never to kill again, though in our profession that is almost impossible to achieve and most of those retire quite quickly. Others vow to take the lives only of those that threaten the innocent. There is no easy way to ease the guilt, but these at least lessen the pain somewhat."

The mention of Tenten's name caused Naruto's head to shoot up, though he didn't say anything, content with trying to broach the subject with the girl at some other point. The idea of a vow grabbed his attention as well, though he would need to give it some more thought before he decided on something so potentially life changing.

The two simply stood there in silence for a few minutes before Naruto decided he would try and go back to bed, his heart more at peace with itself now he had talked with someone about it, even if he didn't do most of the talking. Bidding Gai goodnight and thanking him once more, he moved back to the tent and once inside felt sleep claim him once more, hopefully this time without the dreams of blood and bodies to ruin his rest once more.

Outside, Gai stood on watch quietly, a small but sad smile on his face as he nodded up to where Kakashi had been watching the exchange. The two men didn't need to speak to communicate with each other, and Gai knew that the burden on Kakashi's shoulders had been lessened with the night's conversation. It was a topic that the masked ninja could not have talked about so easily with Naruto considering the boys wariness towards him still, that and the copy-nin was not very good with the emotional aspects of being a ninja.

The masked man disappeared, obviously to replace Sasuke on watch, but Gai stayed where he was, prepared to let the blonde boy sleep through the night in peace this one time. It's not like he would be able to sleep now he had so vividly brought his nightmares to his mind once more anyways.

Time shift: Third day of Naruto's mission

Persona Change: Danzo Shimura, Head of Ne

He strode as best he could through the corridors of the Hokage tower, his cane impacting loudly against the floor with each step he took. The Hokage had 'invited' him to have lunch with the man and Danzo knew that it was not worth refusing the man, especially with his goddaughter having been taken in for 'routine testing' two days earlier and none of his Ne agents knew where she was, certainly not at the hospital or the ANBU headquarters where such testing usually took place. Entering the Hokage's office, he found the man in question sat at the large desk with his secretary laying out the food for the both of them in front of them. Sarutobi noticed his entrance and nodded his head towards him.

"Danzo, you are right on time, please come and have a seat, its sushi today I hope you do not mind." Sarutobi knew he didn't mind, sushi was one of his favourite foods after all, but that was all part of the old monkeys game of trying to gain an advantage over him for the coming conversation. Not that Danzo could claim to be much better of course, most of the time the two matched wits like this simply for the challenge their opponent presented to them.

But this time was somewhat more serious and he had to truly be at his best. Bowing his head respectfully he replied with his normal emotionless tone. "Hokage-sama, I am honoured for the invitation for lunch with the most powerful ninja in Konoha, regardless of what is on the menu. I know that you are as pressed for time as I am most of the time after all."

An entirely normal sentence to the average person, but to the two veterans it contained a challenge hidden in its tone. 'I do not care for the food; get on with what you want to ask about.' The Hokage nodded, chuckling as the secretary finished with laying of the food and bowed before leaving the two men alone, if you ignored the ANBU guards of course. "I can always make time for such an old friend Danzo, especially when I hear news of our young charges making the same bonds that we did when we were younger. I assume you helped Nami-chan look past the prejudice of the villagers in that regard?" Not even an accusation, though the question of whether he had ordered Nami to befriend the young container was plain enough to him.

He shook his head honestly; the cover that Naruto had come up with in regards to them was very useful to him in this instance as it had definitely not been his idea. "Nami-chan is a strong willed young lady Hokage-sama, who she befriends, is certainly beyond an old man's control. Though I must admit that I am concerned about her, she told me she was going in for testing a couple of days ago and I have not heard from her since. With the Hokage's permission could I enquire at the hospital as to what had happened to her? I would be most upset if she was seriously ill and I was unable to go see her."

The Hokage grinned and Danzo knew even before he spoke that the man had won the first exchange in this conversation between them. "I would not worry about it too much, just standard questioning that occurs when she becomes a higher security risk to Konoha. I am sure that by the time we finish this conversation is over she will be free to meet with you once more, assuming that no complications arise of course. It wouldn't do for her to be getting closer to the container due to outside influences after all."

A threat, promise and warning all wrapped into one sentence, certainly something that Danzo could not compete with considering the advantageous position the man was in. Suddenly a thought struck him and he barely resisted a smile of his own as he thought of a clever counter.

"Yes it would be a shame if one of the containers few friends were too suddenly to disappear off the face of earth. The boy would be distraught at the news, especially if you could not tell him why she has disappeared. He wouldn't know how to deal with such secrecy from his Jiji at his young age."

He let the sentence hang as Sarutobi's smile faded slowly from his face, though Danzo knew that the conversation had merely levelled out in neither ninjas favour, meaning that they would be reduced to probing small talk for the next few hours, which did not serve Danzo's current purposes for the meeting.

Therefore he decided to a little concession in this topic so that he could progress the conversation forwards to other topics. "However, I am sure that my god daughter has only the best of intentions towards the boy, especially after I said to her that such a friendship would raise your suspicions. She still befriended him and has told me that she will not agree out of hand with anything I might say about the boy."

She of course hadn't said any such thing but considering how much the boy had already affected her personality it wouldn't be long before she fell from his control. Normally he would have stopped such a possibility as soon as he realised it was occurring, especially considering Nami's potential in Root, but if doing so helped the container grow stronger to protect the village and possibly made him more open to his ideas it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Sarutobi managed to reduce his surprise to a simple widening of his eyes at Danzo's unspoken promise not to try and turn Naruto to his way of thinking through his god daughter and nodded his head gratefully.

"Children these days, so hurried to oppose their elders on such matters, though I suppose it cannot be helped. It is surprising the effect Naruto-kun has upon people even if they have met him for only a short time." Danzo nodded at that, the child's natural charisma was surprising considering the boy did not even know how to utilise it, but that was a thought for another time.

"Of course Hokage-sama, I have heard the recent rumours regarding his antics. Speaking of which, what is this news of the bandit leader he helped capture dying mysteriously of heart failure before he could be interrogated? Such news is enough to make a paranoid old shinobi like myself think there might be foul play involved…"

And a new battle began between them, the sushi untouched as the two arrayed words and body language against each other, both sides familiar with the others tactics and strengths, though that made the possible victory that much sweeter to obtain…

Timeskip:

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

The rest of the mission had gone smoothly without a hint of trouble for their clients, but that didn't mean that it hadn't been interesting Naruto thought to himself as Kakashi and Gai finished giving their reports to the Hokage. Visiting Rice had been an experience for him, even in the capital the country had been notably less rich and developed as Konoha was, but this wasn't reflected in the people that Naruto had met whilst he had been there.

They had been the friendliest and most helpful people that Naruto had met in his life, happy to sate the curiosity of his clones that he had unleashed upon the city when Kakashi had announced that they had a free evening to themselves and tell them all about what was going on in the capital, even talking about a new ninja village that had sprung up to the west of the country whose shinobi were now charged with protecting the Rice Daimyo and protecting the Rice citizens from bandits and missing ninja.

It had been Naruto's opinion that it was good that he hadn't encountered any of these 'sound' village shinobi, he knew with his luck recently he would have somehow ended up in a fight with them in all likelihood. His clones had noticed almost a dozen of them scattered around the city whilst they traversed it however, and by the way they stuck to the rooftops and shadows Naruto got an uneasy feeling that they were not the kind hearted saviours that he had been depicted.

He had mentioned this in his report to Kakashi after they were back in Fire country and the man had simply told him that there were typically two types of shinobi, the public shinobi and the battle shinobi. The public shinobi were the usually the most influential or charismatic of a village's ninja, the ones who went on escort missions like they were currently on and interacted with the civilians to expand the villages influence.

Battle shinobi were the more numerous of a village's ninja, who did not do well at the socialising and interacting missions, but more than capable in the cases of an attack, suitable for guarding and patrolling missions. He therefore pointed out that the ones that the villagers had interacted with were of the first type whilst the ones Naruto had seen were probably of the second type. Naruto had been mollified by that, he hadn't honestly known that such segregation occurred in shinobi lifestyle.

He zoned back into the conversation just to catch the Hokage dismissing them for the day. Luckily it was only midday, so he could catch Umi hopefully to find out what the hell was up with that kiss, Kakashi still brought it up to tease him every now and again. Arranging to meet up with Tenten and Lee the next morning at their training ground for the spars and bidding goodbye to his team, Sakura sticking around to hang out with Sasuke a bit longer rather than returning home straight away, he then leapt off to the rooftops, happy to be on familiar ground once more.

On entering his apartment he found a note in his clone's familiar hand writing, saying that she had been offered a job so she would be out until early evening. There was a scribble of several wavy lines at the top right hand corners of the page next to a smiley face. Shrugging at it he placed the note down and decided to unpack his stuff before going back to the old man to work out how much more work he needed to do in order to finish his prank punishment, the sooner he did the sooner he would start earning money once more. He wondered whether the old man had any missions that he could do on his own?

Timeskip: four hours

Naruto was honestly surprised that his clone could put up with the two girls for the time that she did, as he tried once more to catch up to the hyperactive twins who had announced that he should play ninja with them and their friends. He had gone to pick them up from school as a surprise for the pair of them, but after chasing a dozen children for two hours without using chakra even he was getting tired.

He was glad that this was the last time they were playing before all of them went home, it would give him chance to get home and shower before Umi arrived home and then he could take her out for ramen with his now unhindered money, having paid the fine portion of his punishment whilst meeting with the old man with the money Umi had given him so had some money to spend and give back to the clone.

The old man hadn't given him any of his mission money for the c-rank mission but had stated that it had covered a third of his punishment time instead, which Naruto was pleased to hear, especially when Sarutobi continued by telling him that he had added an extra 10 hours of 'time' to the total for his work with the spy and the bandit camp.

It was still a lot of work for him to complete for free in two and a half months, but after pointing out the impossible time requirements to the old man considering his team would probably only do one or two hours of missions a day, the old man had agreed to letting him do solo missions if Kakashi gave his permission until the punishment was finished with.

It was not like Kakashi would say no once he found out why Naruto needed to do it, seeing as Naruto needed to do roughly 3 hours of mission work a day to work off his debt in time, meaning that after today he would be very busy with that and team training for the foreseeable future. Finally tagging the two girls he let them say goodbye to their friends before they headed home, the pair of them talking excitedly to him about what they had been up to whilst he had been away, mostly learning their way around Konoha and hanging out with Umi-chan, but he offered an attentive ear regardless.

They reached the apartments to find Umi-chan waiting at the base, dressed up in a smart and pretty dress that she would never have been able to afford with the little money he had left her for food. As she ran up to hug him he remembered the note mentioning a job she had obtained so assumed it was her new uniform.

"Umi-chan, I hope you haven't eaten yet I was planning on going for ramen tonight with you all as a celebration of my first completed ninja mission. You can tell me about this new job you have whilst we are there."

Aiko snorted at this and pointed at Umi with a betrayed look on her face. "Nee-chan now works at the main library all week Naruto-kun; she couldn't even play with us over the weekend whilst you were gone."

That caused Naruto to raise an eyebrow; the main library of Konoha stored every book and treaty that Konoha had managed to gather over the years, in addition to most low level and mid-level ninja knowledge available to the ninja forces. With this in mind the security screening was even tougher than it was for applicant ninja, so how had Umi gotten the job?

His mind jumped back to the note and the wave like lines on the paper; of course Nami had done something to help Umi with this. He would have to thank her later; all of the older librarians had refused him entry when he had been a civilian so he had never been able to get much to read in his spare time, not that he had much enthusiasm for it with his pranking and avoiding work at the academy.

Umi would give him the foot into the building that would let him learn some ninja techniques now that he was a genin, which would be very useful for his career. He smiled at her and pulled her into a one armed hug as they walked, causing the girl-clone to blush slightly at the obvious sign of affection. "Umi-chan, I think that is awesome news! I hope the old bats there aren't giving you too hard a time. I will have to come visit you at work sometime!"

Umi nodded her head with a smile of her own even as she slapped him on the shoulder. "Naruto-kun, don't use such disrespect in front of the girls, even if it is true. But they aren't all that bad, I met a girl in the cryptology department that is really nice, I eat lunch with her and she has so much interesting stuff to say that I have never heard about…"

She had lost Naruto at the word Cryptology, but he was glad to hear that she was expanding her group of friends beyond those that he knew himself. They reached the ramen bar quite quickly and Naruto held the curtain back to allow the girls through first, only to rush through himself when Umi gasped at the sight in front of her. "Sakura-chan, what happened to you?"

The girl in question was slowly eating a small bowl of ramen, though it was the visible side of her face that had caused Umi's reaction. Sakura had a bright red patch of irritated skin and bruising down the side of her face, an obvious sign that she had been hit and hit hard in the last few days, and it definitely hadn't been there when Naruto had left her at the Hokage tower earlier that day.

Sakura looked up at the cry and smiled slightly at seeing Naruto and Umi, before wincing in pain from the movement of her facial muscles. Ayame had also looked up when Umi had called out, having been holding out an ice pack for Sakura to use. "Naruto-kun, Umi-chan, I can't state how glad I am you are here, Sakura came in here in tears half an hour ago but hasn't said anything to me other than to order ramen. Can you try and talk to her?"

Naruto had moved whilst Ayame had been talking, taking the ice pack from her hands without a word and holding it to Sakura's face with one hand whilst the other prevented her from shying away from it. She hissed as the cold agitated the nerves around the inflamed area and tried to free herself weakly from his grip, though there was surprisingly little power behind her attempts.

He spoke softly, trying not to let his anger surface at the idea of someone hurting HIS Sakura-chan. "Sakura-chan, we need to keep the ice there otherwise it's going to swell up and hurt even more than it does now. Now either you can hold it there yourself or I will do it for you, but its staying there for a while either way, no third option here."

She glared at him, trying to force him to back off as he usually would in her regard, but he refused to budge on his argument and eventually she looked away from him and reached up with her left hand to hold the ice pack in place over his own. He tried to remove his hand but she held it firmly in place, smirking slightly with a hint of her usual fire as she spoke softly to him. "There's the third option you were looking for. Thanks Naruto."

As quickly as the smirk appeared it was gone once more, but Naruto knew he was making some progress in getting her too talk. Resigned to the fact that one of his hands was going to be occupied for the near future, he turned away for a moment to talk to Umi when Yuna's voice came from the other side of Sakura, and a quick glance showed the shy girl tugging on Sakura's dress in what she obviously thought was a concerned manner, her bottom lip trembling adorably.

"Sakura-neechan, are you okay? It wasn't that black haired boy was it? He seemed very grumpy to me." At Sakura's hesitant but negative shake of the head, Naruto guessed that whilst the Uchiha hadn't hit her he had at least had something to do with the incident.

He turned to Umi once more. "Umi, could you take the twins to the other end of the bar to eat? I will pay but I think Sakura-chan and I need to have a private chat." Umi nodded and silenced the twin's protests with a stern look that would not look out of place on Iruka when he dealt with Naruto misbehaving, taking one in each hand and moving to the other end of the bar.

Ayame didn't say anything before moving off to take their orders, something Naruto was thankful of as the situation was awkward enough as it was. Turning back he found Sakura looking down at her ramen, obviously determined not to meet his eyes. Rather than try and force her to talk, Naruto decided to try and employ the same technique Anko had used on him the week before to great effect.

"I am not going to try and make you talk about it if you don't want to Sakura-chan, but you know that I will not tell anyone anything you say or do anything you do not want me to do. If you prefer we can just sit here and eat ramen in silence, but I can't promise I won't fidget when my hand gets a bit numb." That drew a smile to her face even as she shook her head.

"Not…not here okay Naruto? I will tell you later if you promise not too over react to what I tell you?" He nodded but she spoke more urgently, her hand gripping his slightly harder as she did so. "I need to hear you promise it Naruto, otherwise I can't trust you not to try and do something stupid." Her reaction was causing all sorts of alarm bells to ring in his head, but he knew he couldn't let Sakura down when she was like this of all times.

"Okay Sakura-chan, I promise that I won't tell anyone else anything about what you tell me or do anything to whichever teme hit you, as much as I am already wanting to. Now, I think I will have a bowl of ramen and then we can go chat." She winced slightly at his promise and he once more tried to fathom who the person was, she said it wasn't Sasuke but he was the only person who he thought would illicit such a reaction from her. He waved the others back over to them, making sure to keep the topic of conversation away from Sakura whilst waiting for his order to arrive.

He told the girls of his mission, trying to make it sound as exciting as possible despite nothing happening, and the resulting conversation was actually quite enlightening to him. Aiko and Yuna were actually from Waterfall Country rather than Rice as he had believed, not that they had many memories of the place, having been merely five when their mother had died and they were forced to take to the road with their grandmother.

Their father was not mentioned by either of them, whether because they didn't know anything about him from their Grandmother or they didn't like whoever it was enough for him to be worth mentioning. They had become well-travelled since then, having travelled through the lands of Grass, Tea, Honey, swamps and of course Rice during their time with the caravan.

Eventually though Naruto had to step in when Sakura yawned for the second time in quick succession, saying goodbye to the twins and giving Umi a one armed hug as his other hand was still held against the now melted ice-pack on Sakura's face. He managed to convince the pink haired girl to leave the ice pack with Ayame before they left, though she then grabbed his hand as she led him out of the restaurant.

"Is it okay if we go to yours to talk? I don't want to say anything out here." He nodded; it was understandable given the number of Ninja that moved across the rooftops above them, any one of them could listen in to what was being said. They made quick time through the streets back to his apartment building, Sakura obviously not trusting herself to roof jump in her current condition. He led her up to his rooms and let her in, setting her down on the sofa whilst he moved through to prepare some tea.

However, by the time he stepped back through with two cups of tea, Sakura was already asleep on the sofa and he didn't have the heart to wake her. So instead he placed the tea down and stepped through to his room, summoning a clone quietly to change the sheets on his bed whilst he cleaned up the little mess that he had left on the floor when he had left for his mission. Once that was dealt with and the clone finished Naruto headed back into the lounge and gently picked Sakura up bridal style and moved her through to the bedroom.

It was the words she spoke when he shifted her weight slightly to move through the door that sent an icy dagger into his chest. "No…Dad, don't…" He froze, a mixture of feelings bubbling up his chest at the insinuation that it had been her dad that had hit her, primarily disbelief and anger. He liked to think he was not an angry guy and considered that an achievement once he had learned what he contained inside of him, but the roaring swell that rose inside of him now demanded that he hunt the man down and make him pay for hurting his own child, for hurting Sakura-chan.

Obviously he spiked some intent or something that disturbed Sakura's rest, causing her to open her eyes and look up at him blearily. "Oh, sorry Naruto I was just so tired… Naruto?" He realised that his scowl was what had caused her worried calling of his name and therefore did his best to reign in the anger inside of him, moving through and placing her on his bed as he did so. After a few more moments, he managed to calm himself enough to ask his question.

"Sakura-chan… The one that hit you, it was your dad wasn't it?" The look of shock and then shame on her face was all the answer he needed, the anger surging forth once more within him and filling every part of his being. He turned, intending to go and vent his emotions on the one who had done this atrocious thing, when Sakura grabbed his arm firmly with both of her own, her voice piercing the haze that had filled his mind.

"Naruto, please, you promised remember, a Hokage never breaks his promises!" He froze once more, the words like icy water that his head had been dunked into, clearing his thoughts to such clarity that he was surprised by his own thinking. Turning back he placed his free hand on Sakura's and nodded his head solemnly as his anger faded to be replaced by concern and sadness. "That I did, sorry Sakura-chan." He moved and sat next to her on the bed before he asked his next question.

"Honestly though, why did he hit you? I mean you can't have been home more than a couple of hours at best. Did you guys have a big fight or something?" He felt the girl sigh dejectedly next to him and lean against him to rest her head upon his shoulders.

"Yeah, I suppose it could be called that. It all started after you left and Kakashi dismissed us for the day."

*Flashback*

Persona: Sakura Haruno

After hurriedly dumping her equipment at Ino's place, which was much nearer to the Hokage tower than her own home, Sakura hurried towards team sevens training grounds, knowing that is where Sasuke would be. He had been very withdrawn after his defeat to the Hyuuga on Gai's team and she had struggled to talk to him at all considering the exhausting training that Gai had given her to do.

This was the best chance for her to talk to him alone again, she was sure once she did he would cheer up again and act normally, he might even agree to a date in thanks for her kindness. With that rather giddying thought in her mind she landed in the clearing at the edge of the training ground and sure enough Sasuke was there, practicing his Taijutsu against one of the sparring posts in the area.

"Sasuke-kun!" She called out loudly as she walked up to him, only to stop half a dozen yards away when he turned and levelled a hateful glare at her. "What do you want? Can't you see that I am busy doing some actual training?" The harsh tone mixed with the glare cut through her pleased thoughts faster than a kunai and it was all she could do to stammer a response to his questions.

"I just wanted to talk Sasuke-kun; you seemed a bit upset…" He turned and slammed his fist into the training post with such force that the wood cracked a little around the impact point before spinning back to her with a growl.

"What makes you think that I want to talk to you? You are a pathetic excuse for a ninja who seems to think that by being a simpering waste of space that you will somehow attract my attention! Time you could have spent becoming stronger you wasted on your hair or chasing me around. I despise you and all girls that are like you and wish you had never decided to be a ninja. You will just slow the team down and get killed or crippled by the first serious ninja we come across, something I will be glad to occur as it means that I might get someone on the team that is worth my time!"

The words cut through her every emotional defence and ideal that she had had about the Uchiha, wounding her so much that she couldn't even summon up tears, merely nodding her head shakily and turning away from him, staggering towards the entrance to the training ground as she heard the Uchiha snort and return to his training. She made it out of sight and into the next bunch of woods before she collapsed, tears coming in great sobs as her world crashed down around her.

*Flashback end*

Looking up having told the first part of her tale she saw Naruto looking furious once more, shaking slightly in her grip as his hands clenched and unclenched into fists. She sighed, and this was before she got to the worst part, who knew how Naruto would react then. "I don't know how long I stayed there, but by the time I managed to make it back to my parent's place it was half past four, so it must have been quite some time..."

*Flashback*

A long shower had removed the smudged make up and dirt from her breakdown in the woods, but didn't really help with stabilising the whirlwind of emotions that were spreading inside her since the Uchiha had beaten her down. Stepping out of the shower she towelled herself off and moved to get dressed, pausing as a knock echoed on her door. "Sakura-chan? Is that you in there?"

She smiled at the sound of her mother's voice before replying quietly. "Yes kaa-chan, though I am just getting dressed okay?" There was a pause for a moment before her mother spoke once more. "Of course, don't rush dear; tea is on the table for whenever you are ready."

That caused the smile to increase slightly; her mother's food was always delightful and after a week of camp food it would be even better. She headed downstairs a few minutes later and sat at the table with her parents, though her father had a heavy frown on his face. He said nothing however as her mother asked about her mission, which she described as best she could considering what had happened afterwards, determinedly limiting how much she spoke about the Uchiha.

Instead she focussed on what Naruto and Kakashi had done during the travel, which was obviously the wrong thing to do as after the third mention of Naruto's name her father slammed his fist into the table, face red as he spoke angrily. "We will not speak that boys name in this house, I thought I had told you to stay away from him? He is nothing but an unsavoury individual who should never have been allowed to darken our village, and I will not have you sully our good name by idolising his ways!" Sakura was shocked, her father had never really gotten angry with her before now, and he was now all because she was talking about Naruto?

She sat up and shook her head. "I am on his team, so it's hardly like I can stay away from Naruto. Why don't you like him? Naruto's really nice once you…" She was cut off when he slammed his fists into the table again as he stood, shouting loudly at her. "YOU WILL NOT SPEAK HIS NAME IN MY HOUSE!"

Now she was angry herself, her father had never been like this before and definitely not in the threatening manner he was now. Rising to her feet she glared back at him as she rebelliously shouted the name he was denying to the heavens. "NARUTO NARUTO NARU…" The punch caught her off guard and sent her sprawling to the floor, her mother crying her father's name in shock, but his next words were clear enough as he picked her up and dragged her through the house.

"Get out, and don't come back until you are prepared to show me the correct amount of respect that I deserve!" And with that he unceremoniously dropped on the front step before slamming the door behind her, the sounds of her mother's shouting soon joined by his own once more.

*Flashback ends*

Naruto had stopped shaking when she mentioned that it was his name her father didn't want mentioned, and he tried to pull away from her several times once it became clear why she had been hit. She had refused to let him go however until she had finished. "And once I somewhat came to my senses I knew I wasn't going to be welcome in the house again for a while, so instead I tried to find you. But you weren't here so I went to Ichikaru's instead, knowing you would likely end up there at some point."

He was breathing raggedly as he tried to pull away from her once more, before sighing in defeat and instead speaking quietly and worriedly, in a manner that she had never seen Naruto act before. It was almost like he was afraid of her response. "Why did you want to find me? I mean if I am the reason your dad hit you…"

She shrugged and sat up so she was looking him in the eyes once more. "Honestly Naruto, who else could I trust with this? All of my civilian friends wouldn't be very helpful, Ino-buta and I aren't talking and don't even get me started on our sensei. You however have been there for me even when I didn't want you to be, and considering your kindness to Umi and the twins I knew that you wouldn't ignore my worries or dismiss me."

He stiffened at the mention of Umi for a moment before he said in a defeated tone. "So you told me because of me liking you?" She shook her head rapidly, perhaps that was what the others had been saying about her recent actions to Naruto, was she really that shallow to them that they thought so lowly of her?

"Definitely not Naruto, you mean far too much to me to do something like that to you." And she meant it, after the first day on the academy rooftop a week before he had shown a side of him that she had never seen before, though that might have been because of her focus on Sasuke rather than him specifically. He said nothing for a moment before a small but very genuine smile appeared on his face and he raised his arm to hug her to him.

She didn't resist in the slightest and leant back onto his shoulder, enjoying the warmth that practically erupted from his skin even through his t-shirt and jacket layers. They sat there for quite some time, before Naruto pulled away slightly and stood up, smile on his face as he moved across to his cupboard.

Before she could ask what he was doing he opened it up and pulled out a set of pyjamas from inside and threw them to her, chuckling at her confused look. "What? You think I am letting you go back to that idiot tonight? Oh no, you are the latest guest of Hotel Uzumaki, and for this night and this night alone you get to stay free of charge with complimentary breakfast in the morning." She giggled at his over the top sales pitch and grasped the pj's thankfully.

"Thanks for this Naruto, I will move through then and change…" She stopped as he shook his head and gestured around the room. "Nothing but the best for the guests, this is your room for the night." He waved off her protests before grabbing some clothes of his own and headed to the door, obviously to give her some privacy to change.

Calling out to him as he went to swing the door shut, she couldn't help but smile gratefully to him for what he was doing for her. "Naruto, thank you for all of this, I will make it up to you I swear." He shook his head once more and closed the door with a parting comment that Sakura only just managed to catch.

"Just keep smiling Sakura-chan, that is all the payment I will ever need." It was good the door was shut by the time she comprehended what he had said, so he couldn't see the blush that erupted on her face at his simple but heart felt reply. There was definitely more to Naruto than she had imagined, and she was determined to get to know all of him whether he wanted her to or not…

Persona change: Naruto Uzumaki

After summoning a shadow clone to prepare the couch for sleep and then to pretend to be him, he headed out of the apartment and up a floor to Umi's flat, needing to talk with his clone about a number of things least of all what had happened to Sakura. He had promised not to tell anyone else, but the clone was him in a sense and certainly seemed to have a different view on things than he did.

The idea that one's family could get violent against each other in such a fashion was entirely foreign and abhorrent to him. When he was younger he had often wished for parents of his own, a Dad to teach him things about life in a fun and interesting manner whilst his mother would keep him in line and cook the most awesome food he could think of.

The news from Sakura that families weren't as perfect and rosy as he had thought had hit him hard, and it was either visiting Umi-chan to cool down or he would probably end up going to have words with the bastard given how much his anger was bursting in his chest at this point.

Knocking twice he waited for a few moments before Umi opened the door, yawning cutely as she did so and dressed in a set of dark turquoise pyjamas. She seemed to realise his want to talk to her and grabbed his hand to pull him inside before closing the door once more. They sat down in her lounge and stared at each other for a moment before both of them tried speaking at once, both stopping awkwardly before Naruto indicated that the clone should speak first.

"I am sorry Naruto-kun about the kiss, I don't know what came over me, and it seemed like the right thing to do. I won't do it again unless you wish me to." Whilst not the topic he was going to start with it was certainly a good enough place to start, and he shrugged dismissively.

"It is fine Umi-chan, don't you think we are moving a little fast with things however, the plan said…" She shook her head and interrupted him softly but firmly before he could speak too much about the plans timescale.

"The plan stopped being accurate the moment Nami-chan got involved so I improvised. She left us a gift by the way, I have taken the liberty of looking through it and it would be very useful for us." She reached down to the coffee table and picked up a small book that she then handed to him. Looking at the book he read the title 'Basics of sealing scrolls and other useful tips' and realised after a moment how such things could be very useful to them.

"Do you think she wants me to make sealing scrolls to store shadow clones inside, or maybe we skip a step and put them directly onto you…" Umi looked surprised by his leap of logic but after thinking for a moment she nodded assertively.

"That's something I hadn't thought of actually Naruto-kun, good job. The idea of direct applications is something we can think about later however, I think you need to hear what else I managed to get out of Nami when she was hear dropping the book off…"

The look on Umi's face told him this was going to be complicated and take some time, so he settled himself more comfortably into the sofa in preparation for another long and difficult night...

Persona Change: Hinata Hyuuga

She knew that it was wrong spying on people using her dojutsu, but she had been growing suspicious of the new girl in Naruto-kun's life since the Konoha rumour mill had brought news to her that she had kissed the boy before he had left on his mission. As such she had managed to excuse herself from her clan for the evening to come and watch her, to see if the girl was doing this to lead Naruto-kun on or something.

It was therefore surprising when she found Sakura of all people in Naruto's apartment when she arrived, though the girl was obviously distraught over something rather than there for any other reason, she had watched the team mates interact and had purposefully stopped focussing on Sakura's mouth when she had moaned about her father in her sleep.

All Hyuuga learned to lip read before they joined the academy whether they were main or branch house; with such information gathering capacity available to them with the Byakugen there was no way they would not take advantage of it. Therefore she focussed on her original target rather than Sakura, though she looked back at them several times when she saw Naruto's chakra flare in a way she had never seen before, obviously what Sakura was telling him was angering him more than she thought possible.

Umi on the other hand seemed to be doing little out of the ordinary, sat in her room reading an action book. Hinata noted the four other chakra signatures in the girls apartment though and wondered what they were for a moment before she realised their chakra coils were exactly the same as Naruto-kun's.

She smiled slightly as she realised that Naruto-kun had obviously left the clones there in case someone tried to cause Umi trouble, it wasn't the nicest area of Konoha after all for a civilian refugee. Satisfied that she wasn't going to get anything else of interest regarding the girl for the evening, Hinata was about to leave the trio in peace when she saw Naruto leave his apartment room and head down the stairs, Sakura asleep on his bed whilst his clone made up the sofa for him to sleep on.

She was relieved to know that Sakura hadn't tried anything with her team mate, she was going to struggle enough with one rival for Naruto-kun's heart let alone more. To her surprise Naruto knocked on Umi's door, prompting the girl to get out of bed warily and head to the door, though her demeanour changed when she realised who it was, pulling him into her apartment in a very familiar manner that made Hinata's blood boil.

It was the girl's words when they sat down on the sofa that calmed Hinata, replacing it with confusion. What plan could she and Naruto have that required a kiss…? It was her enhanced sight that allowed her to put it all together as she realised why the girl's chakra had seemed so similar to her. Whilst the flow and make up of her network were different enough to cause some doubt it was exactly the same chakra in colour and type as Naruto-kun and his clone's chakra.

Whilst it still didn't make too much sense to her yet, Hinata at least realised that 'Umi' was nothing more than one of Naruto-kun's shadow clones, and they didn't seem to want anyone to know about it for the near future. The possibility of using this information as blackmail surfaced in her mind for a moment before she ruthlessly squashed it, Naruto would probably hate her for doing something so mean and she really didn't want that.

That didn't mean she wouldn't hold it over A Naruto's head of course, she thought as her gaze focussed on Umi once more, suddenly a lot more at ease considering her competition had just been greatly reduced, especially if she could procure the shadow clone's help with things.

Most people thought that she didn't try and approach Naruto about her affections towards him because of shyness, and to a certain extent she had to admit to herself that it was true. But the other reason was much simpler and more political in nature.

As heiress to the Hyuuga clan, she was required to maintain a level of class in who she associated with, and the Hyuuga council would throw a fit should she befriend let alone date the young prankster orphan and either demand she stop seeing the boy or she would be disowned as heir to the clan. Being born to the branch caste of the Hyuuga was something she could never risk for her and Naruto-kun's children.

Therefore, until she became head of the clan, or at least her own position as Heir was entirely secure she could not risk openly being seen with Naruto-kun too often lest people guess at what was going on. Once free of the risk of political repercussion though, she wasn't going to waste any time at all. Perhaps with Umi-chans help, she wouldn't even have to wait that long…

A/N: SO MUCH HAPPENING AT ONCE! This chapter covers so many different little bits I wanted to cover, from Team Gai soundly beating Team 7 and causing them to realise that they need to step up to the challenge to Danzo and Sarutobi having a chat. And anyone who says that any of it is unrealistic, keep in mind the chuunin exams, where the only reason that Gai's team didn't own the chuunin exams entirely is that they were arrayed against their worst possible opponents, which include two bjuu containers and future Kage into the bargain!

The events with Sakura and her family are my take on the civilian hatred of Naruto, and in my opinion it is fairly soft-core as a family fall out goes, but Naruto certainly won't see it like that as he has nothing else to base it off and is a little obsessed with Sakura… It's also a really easy way for me to get the two of them talking with each other in a way that gets them to move closer in a somewhat believable way.

Hinata finding out is something that someone mentioned when I first brought her into the story, and honestly a more manipulative, intelligent but still shy Hinata is something I have always found fascinating and could be quite fun to write. She will still be similar to how she is in Canon, but her motives for acting like that will be rather different to a normal fanfic Hinata as I cannot see her surviving as Heiress this long in such a perilous clan without being more than she appears.

Am sure there are a dozen other things that people want to pick holes with, feel free and review me with your points, suggestions, ideas and the bits you liked, it all helps in the long run.