"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Demon/Summon speech"

'Demon/Inner Sakura/Summon thoughts'

Jutsu name

(author comment) - not a lot of them

flashback/memory

~locations and transitions~

This is a filler but I found it fun to write, so I hope you enjoy

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 16: a simple gesture

It had been a week since the argument with Ino and three days since the shift had ended. Naruto had asked the hokage about a way to keep any noise from leaking out of his home and lucky for him the hokage had some privacy seal tags on hand, although they only could be used once. Naruto asked that he be taught how to do it with hand signs but he was told that it is a more advanced sealing skill to be able to use them through hand signs and would take too long to learn. Needless to say Naruto was grumpy hearing this.

The night he had to shift back, he used the tags on his room and got ready. He would have done it without guards this time because he didn't want to burden them with his cries of pain but the hokage would not hear of it since he was told of the mob that gathered the last time this happened. The Hokage had an small Anbu squad with both Yugao and Tenzo, Hana and Anko were also there for emotional comfort since the hokage thought that the sour mood he was his apprehension to changing back

Naruto had hoped that it wouldn't be as painful as before but when it started, he realized that he wouldn't even be able to tell which hurt worse because all that was on his mind was the burning, crushing and reshaping of his form

Now he was at his teams training ground sparing with Sasuke, dodging all of the Uchiha's attacks. During his time shifted into his human form, he had a hard time sparing with his male teammate and lost a lot of them causing Sasuke's ego to inflate, making him more arrogant and solidifying his superiority complex, but not back in his henge, he could fight like normal, beating the Uchiha without taking a hit

Sasuke was once again punched in the face forcing him to take a few steps back and spitting out a glob of blood "damn it Dobe hold still!" he said before throwing a right hook which Naruto dodged

Naruto ducked under the right hook and then blocked the left swing before he spoke "why should I even listen to that? If you want to hit something go fight with the post, that's more your level teme". Naruto was mad and it was showing with the scowl on his face and antagonizing Sasuke every chance he got. He wasn't even sure what he was mad at, was he mad at Ino for the argument, Sakura for telling Ino about what he said, Sasuke for being the reason for what he said to Sakura, the villagers for their hatred affecting him or himself for letting all of it get to him. He wasn't sure but he wanted to hurt something so he chose to use a the only new move he could get right

Naruto jumped back to get some distance and put his hands into his favorite hand sign "Kage Bunshin no jutsu", twenty clones popped up and made a circle around the Uchiha

Sasuke smirked, knowing he could handle them since they went down with one hit but his smirk dropped when every single clone and the original started to run in a circle counterclockwise around him "what the hell do you think your doing dobe?"

Sakura and Kakashi were watching the spar from the sidelines and Sakura was confused about what Naruto was doing but Kakashi looked up from his little orange book a looked in interest 'wonder what he's doing. He could be using it as a distraction but the original is in there as well so it can't be to give him a chance to attack, maybe to disorient Sasuke-kun? Would Naruto even be able to think of that?'. He got his answer when he saw Naruto act

Sasuke was looking at the running group turning around every other second to see what the dobe was going to do. He was suddenly hit in the back of his left shoulder hard enough to turn him around just to see nothing, as he was looking he got hit again in the back "argh, what the hell!". Sasuke kept turning around to see if he could see what hit him, he got his answer when he turned to his left just to feel Naruto's fist hit him hard making Sasuke fall to the ground. 'What the hell?!', he was then lifted up from a kick to his face and before he could even touch the ground he got hit again on the side, then in the stomach and then kicked in the arm and torso. This kept going for a few minutes until Sasuke hit the ground hard and stay there on the ground signifying his lose

Kakashi's eye widened when he saw what Naruto did 'his clones were not meant for distraction, they were the attacking force. The clones running makes you lose sight of where the original is, since the speed of the running makes the original blend in the with the clones and when Sasuke kept turning to find him, Naruto had one of the clones break from the group and hit him in the back before merging again in the gap left behind on the opposite side, that takes perfect timing. An attack can come from any side. Interesting move, if he used kunai, it could be deadly

Sakura couldn't really see what happened but she knew that Naruto's move was useful. She had been unable to talk to him ever since they saw him at the stream. She had spent a few days thinking about what Naruto had said to her and although she had gotten back to normal and considered all he said to be a lie she still had the small voice in her head saying that he was telling the truth, in turn she started trying to be nicer to him but Naruto for some reason stayed in a bad mood and she couldn't help but think it was her fault

Sasuke was now on the ground unconscious and Naruto just stood there with a scowl on his face as he looked at the Uchiha. After a few seconds Naruto just turned around and began to walk into the forest

Sakura and Kakashi who put his book away walked up to Sasuke and Sakura got on her knees to check to see if Sasuke was ok. Kakashi looked over to Naruto who made it to the edge of the forest "hey Naruto-kun, where are you going?". Naruto didn't respond and kept walking which got Kakashi to look down and sigh. He looked to Sakura and Sasuke "Sakura-san stay here with Sasuke-kun while I go talk to Naruto-kun" Sakura nodded her head and he lept into the tree branches and quietly followed Naruto

Naruto made it to a small clearing a good distance away from his team and chose to sit down and try and rein in his anger 'finally away from them' he took a breath of air trying to bring down his growing agitation 'that teme had anger and hatred rolling off him when he was losing and I can hardly focus with that in the air'. After a few minutes he sat against a tree and closed his eyes just to listen to the forest around him

It was only seconds later that Kakashi dropped from the trees, startling the boy "you know Naruto-kun, it's not nice to walk away from our team training exercises" he said as he gave his signature eye smile

Naruto glared at Kakashi for disturbing his calming moment 'I'm going to get you for this Kakashi-sensei'. Naruto got up from his sitting position and looked at Kakashi "I just needed a minute to myself Kakashi-sensei. Is Sasuke-teme ok" he said the last bit with a foxy smile and mock concern in his voice

Kakashi shook his head "maa maa Naruto-kun, you didn't have to go that far with the spar. He is unconscious right now and Sakura is taking care of him but we should get back and continue training"

Naruto just sighed knowing that he won't get any time to himself and started to walk back "fine but I won that spar. Don't forget to tell him that when he wakes up since he will demand a rematch thinking it was some mistake or something and I don't want to hear it"

Kakashi just pulled out his Icha Icha book and walked next to him "sure I'll tell him" he said in a disinterested tone

Naruto looked at the little orange book and got an idea 'I know how to get back at you now heh heh' he gained an evil look on his face but Kakashi never noticed

~meanwhile with Sakura and Sasuke~

Sakura had spent a few minutes cleaning up some of the cuts on Sasuke's face and in a quick decision put his head on her lap. Internally she was both giddy and worried, giddy at the fact that she had Sasuke on her lap but worried about how he might react 'what if Naruto was right? What if Sasuke-kun hates me? What if he only thinks I'm annoying'

As Sakura thought this, Sasuke woke up and bolted up, and stood up looking around "where is he!?". Sakura looked confused about the question but he kept going "Dobe! Where are you!? Come out here and fight me!"

Sakura just sat there looking at the angry Uchiha and Naruto's words went through her head again and it just made her depressed

"Sasuke-kun, you don't need to shout. We are right here and the spar between you two is over" Kakashi said as he and Naruto walked out of the forest with the blonde with his hands behind his head and a wide grin on his face and Kakashi just kept his eyes on the words in his book and nose buried in the pages. Sasuke just scowled at the two and was about to demand another match but Kakashi stopped him "well since our training is done, we should go and get our mission for today"

Sasuke just gave his usual "hn" with his scowl growing

Sakura got up and gave a small smile "ok Kakashi-sensei" but her smile seemed a bit forced

Naruto's grinned even wider "yes! Hope we get something good" he said as he pumped his arm in the air

As they all left the training ground, Naruto waited a few seconds before he asked "hey Kakashi-sensei!".

Kakashi turned his head to look at Naruto "what's up Naruto-kun?"

On the inside Naruto was chuckling evilly "when can we get a harder mission?"

Kakashi just eye smiled at the question "when I think the team is ready"

Naruto just shrugged his shoulders but kept his smile, which grew bigger when he saw Kakashi turn back to his book

Kakashi turned to his book and began to read in his head '...' '...' '...' '...' '...'. It took him a few seconds before his eye became as wide as a dinner plate as he realized that the words that he was suppose to be reading weren't there. In a panic he started to turn the page back and forth and then flipped through the whole book and realized that all the pages were blank. He started to sweat and stopped forcing everyone to stop and look at him as he kept flipping from the first page to the last and then in reverse 'where are the holy words!? Where is the scene with Taylor and Elizabeth in the rain!? Where is the scene in the hotel!? What happened to my PRECIOUS!?'

Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto watched as their sensei was on his knees and crying and looking through his book before all his color drained from his body before he collapsed onto the ground in a fetal position and gloom over him, dropping the book a few feet away from him. Sakura was the first to react and ran to him "Kakashi-sensei! What's wrong?". Sasuke limped up to his pathetic looking sensei 'what the hell is wrong with him?' neither of them noticed that the book disappeared in a small poof of smoke . Naruto turned back to the road and kept walking

After Naruto was a good distance away from his team he broke down laughing "hahahaha thats *gasp* what you get *gasp* hahahaha" out of the forest came a clone who was also laughing and holding a small book. After a minute he caught his breath and took the book from the clone who then dispelled itself , he then looked at the book and put it in his weapons pouch before heading back.

As he walked, he saw on his right, a tiger lily growing on the path and he stopped. He stared at it for a few seconds putting his hand over his heart feeling it hurt until he turned away and kept walking to the village no longer in a bright mood or caring if his team would get a mission today or not

~Konoha streets the next day~

Naruto was jumping from rooftops after he had asked the hokage if he could use another training ground since when he got to his team's training ground Sasuke was already using it, and Naruto didn't want to deal with him. His team had no training or missions to do since Kakashi was for some reason, unavailable 'maybe I should give it back to him? If he is going to be like this because he lost his precious book than we will never get stronger'. As he kept jumping he caught a whiff of cinnamon and lavender, which caused him to stop and look down to the streets below. After a bit of looking he saw Hinata walking down the street with her head tilted down and he could feel the anxiousness and depression (I feel like I use that word alot) coming from her. 'I wonder what's wrong?' he thought before jumping down to land behind her

Hinata had lost to her little sister again and got scolded by her father again and although her mother had tried to comfort her and tell her she shouldn't worry about it, she just felt like a failure 'I just can't h-hurt Hanabi-chan, even if t-tou-sama says it's necessary to remove your feelings to be a proper Shinobi, I am not able to do so'. So deep in thought she didn't even notice that Naruto was walking right behind her, first looking over her left shoulder before moving to her right shoulder

Naruto kept looking over Hinata's shoulder before he decided to get her attention "hey Hinata-chan!". Hinata was so shocked that she jumped a few feet in the air and gave out a loud "EEP". Naruto chuckled a bit before he got in front of her and held out his hand "sorry Hinata-chan, but I couldn't help myself"

Hinata blushed so much that her face was now red but she slowly reached up and took his hand and got up "i-i-i-it's a-a-a-a-alr-r-r-right N-n-n-n-naruto-k-k-k-kun"

Naruto chuckled a bit at how much she can change her mood in a second but that just reminded him of her sour mood a few moments ago "hey Hinata I'm about to head to a training ground Hokage-jiji said I could use. Wanna come and train with me?" he said as he pointed his finger in the direction he was heading

Hinata on her part had her mind stop for a second and through selective hearing she heard "come….with me" she tried her hardest not to faint but was so close to losing. She nodded her head slowly and was brought back from consciousness when Naruto smiled at her and grabbed her hand before tugging a bit to show his excitement "great let's go " and then she saw him jump to the roof to start their journey. She stood there in a daze for a second before she shook her head and in a panic, jumped after Naruto

~training ground 37~

Naruto and Hinata had arrived at the training grounds which was a wide circular field surrounded by trees, a simple training ground but Naruto didn't mind.

As Hinata looked around the training field she finally realized that she was alone with Naruto and began to blush again. 'I-I-I-I'm alone with N-n-n-naruto-kun' she began to twidle her fingers looking at the ground

Naruto turned to Hinata and let his curiosity beat him "hey Hinata-chan, what had you in a sad mood earlier when I found you?"

Pulled out of her thoughts she replayed the question in her head "i-it's nothing N-n-naruto-kun"

Naruto didn't like lying and it hurt him a bit when Hinata did it "Hinata-chan, please don't lie to me. Please tell me, maybe I can help"

Hinata was happy to hear that Naruto was willing to help her but became a little sad remembering what happened at her compound and with them being alone she felt like she could tell him "w-w-well N-n-n-naruto-kun….I-It was after me and H-h-hanabi sparred….."

Flashback

Hinata was laying on the ground after she had lost another spar with her little sister Hanabi. Hinata got onto a sitting position as her father walked up to her

Hiashi looked down on his eldest daughter and gave a disappointed sigh while shaking his head "I expected more from you. You are older by five years and yet you fail to defeat your younger sister". Hiashi turned around and began to walk away "it's seems I overestimated you, such a disappointment"

Hanabi stood a few feet away looking at the scene and saw the hurt look her sister got from their fathers words but she couldn't say anything '...onee-chan'

One their father had left Hinata got up and left and after she got cleaned up and dressed in her normal shinobi attire she started making her way to the gate of the compound. Before she made it her mother had walked up to her with a sad look on her face

Hitomi had lowered herself to be at eye level with Hinata and placed her hands in her daughter's shoulders "Hinata-chan are you alright" she spoke in a soft tone trying to comfort Hinata

Hinata looked in her mother's eyes and nodded slowly and softly said "hai Okaa-sama. I'm going to go for a walk" and moved around her mother and walked out of the compound and made her way to the common streets of Konoha

Hitomi looked at the retreating form of her daughter and had a few tears building in her eyes "oh Hinata-chan"

Flashback end

After Hinata had told Naruto what happened, Naruto made a decision 'I hope they enjoyed their prank free days because I'm going to make their last prank month seem like it was a party! Now both the damn council and the Hyugas will feel my wrath!'

~Hyuga compound Hiashi's office~

Hiashi was sitting at his office table going through his compound finances before he stood up straight, knocking away all of the paperwork and he felt a chill run up his spine as well as a familiar sense of dread 'oh no! I have to warn the others!' and he went out to meet with the Hyuga elders but he was cautious and as he got out of his office he pressed himself against to wall and shimmied his was slowly to the Hyuga elders room

~back with Naruto and Hinata~

After Naruto made his choice to prank the Hyugas again he turned to Hinata who was sitting on the grass and had a few tears coming from her eyes. He hated to see her like this, and his protective instincts told him he needed to comfort her and he got on his knees in front of her and gently placed his hand on her cheek and wiped a few of her tears away

Hinata jumped a bit when she felt Naruto's hands which were soft and she felt him gently wipe away some of her tears. Blushing hard, she looked up to see Naruto looking at her and she got lost in his azure blue eyes

Naruto stopped wiping away the tears and smile at her "Hinata you are not a disappointment and you shouldn't let what your tou-san tell you that. If you lose a spar than you just need to get stronger so you can do better next time. Besides Tou-sans are bakas who don't know anything! Dattebayo!" he said as he got back on his feet and brought up a fist to show he was serious

Naruto for some reason heard growling in his head and felt like he would regret saying that last part

Hinata felt better seeing the enthusiasm from the blonde, got back on her feet, and started to poke her fingers together and looked to the ground as her blush got darker as she stuttered "A-a-arigatou N-n-n-naruto-kun"

Naruto grinned wide seeing Hinata back to normal, even if her normal was weird to him "your welcome Hinata-chan! Anyway if you want to get better we should start training so you can win next time so let's get started" he said as he started to walk to the center of the grass field

Hinata lifted her head, stared at Naruto's back and slowly placed her hand on her cheek, the cheek that Naruto had placed his hand to wipe away her tears '...Naruto-kun…'. She was about to faint from her thoughts on Naruto's gentle gesture but was stopped when she hearNaruto call her over

"Hey Hinata-chan! come one, let's get started!"

Hinata shook her head and started to run to catch up with her new partner 'training partner! I-I m-m-m-meant training partner!' and before she made it to Naruto she fainted

~1 hour later in the council room~

The council had been arguing again about Naruto but this time they were complaining about how Naruto beat their precious Uchiha

"He should be punished for what he has done to Uchiha-sama"

"This is a clear sign that the brat is trying to go against us"

"We should restrain him from improving"

The Hokage just sat there looking at the civilian council as they kept going. He was happy when they stopped and looked at him for an answer. He turned to see that the Shinobi council and the elders were also looking at him and in a slow motion he pulled out some ear plugs, that he received in the morning from Naruto, which caused everyone to facefault

Danzo was the only one that didn't show a clear reaction but there was a slight twitch of his only visible eye "Hokage-sama, you should pay attention to these matters. If you do things like this it could show you have no concern for village matters" he said while on the inside he felt like this might help get him out of the Hokage seat

Hiruzen just rolled his eyes, he was tired of listening to the civilians complaining about Naruto. He was glad that Naruto had started pranking the civilian council and he chose not to say anything about it because he also enjoyed watching them "if all they say is about Naruto than I am not interested" he turned to the civilians "all you people ever do is come in here with your mundane problems and complaints about Naruto and asking for him to be punished when he has done nothing wrong"

"But he has injured Uchiha-sama!"

Hiruzen just shook his head 'I hate this job'

Shikaku looked at the one that said it and spoke "from what I heard, this was during a spar between the two, which means that injuries obtained were meant to happen"

"Uchiha-sama should never be hurt!"

Tsume couldn't believe these people. 'They want to give everything to the Uchiha brat but they don't want him to get hurt. How do they think any of we shinobi get stronger?! Maybe we should let them defend the village instead of us, see how good of a job they do'

Chozo crossed his arms and shook his head 'a shame. They favor when there are other promising shinobi. The Uzumaki kid, from what Choji told me has skill….and is his ramen rival, maybe I should challenge him to see how far he can eat'

Shikaku yawn, already tired from this meeting 'troublesome'

Shibi found this illogical 'focusing on one is illogical, since one shinobi cannot make a village, it is merely one small piece

Inoichi sat there with similar thought to the others but also had her daughters behavior on his mind 'I wish this meeting would end soon, since it's the same thing and I want to talk to Norika-chan about Ino's behavior, maybe I can talk to Naruto too since I haven't seen him around the shop recently'

Hiashi was sitting there impassively not caring about either the Uchiha or the Uzumaki.

Hiruzen knew that this meeting had no real purpose and the only reason he allowed the meeting is because it might have been important 'I should make it a rule that if the meeting has to do with Naruto doing something and should be punished for something so trivial, the meeting will not be approved and will not be discussed'. Clearing his throat he chose to end it "the injuries that Sasuke Uchiha received were during training, then Naruto will not be punished for it and since this is all you civilians are going to talk about, this meeting is over"

The civilians started to complain about this but when the Hokage released his killing intent on them they quickly became silent "the civilian council and elders are dismissed, I would like the Shinobi council to wait a moment before they leave" he said while hiding his smile behind his hands

The shinobi council were confused on what the Hokage wanted to speak about but sat there as they saw the civilians and elders leave. As the group left and began to walk down the hall, they didn't notice several trip wires in their path until someone trip it and from the ceiling came a large bucket of tar and feathers hitting a few, from the walls came pies slapping them in the face and down the hall came came paintballs that once hit them found that they were filled with colorful and powerful glue that got them stuck to the floor and walls.

Danzo wasn't hit as much but found that he was glued almost completely to the wall 'damn that boy! When I get my hands on him, I will put him through hell so he knows who his master is!'

Most of the shinobi council moved their heads out of the council room to see what happened. Few of them laughed and all looked back to see that Hiashi didn't move but looked nervous and the Hokage with a smile on his face

~with Naruto after his training with Hinata~

Naruto was exhausted. His training with Hinata was helpful to the both of them, for Hinata he gave her several ideas to improve on some of her clan jutsus, ideas that she never would have thought about and for Naruto he had improved his reaction time and reflexes after he had convinced her not to hold back

Now he was on his way to Ichiraku ramen to get some energy back and get to his "food of the gods" (does he actually call it this in the manga or anime?) and to see Ayame-neechan and Teuchi-jisan since he hasn't seen them since he told her his secret

As he made it to the stand, he noticed that it was empty apart from Ayame who had her back turned working on a pot of ramen. He made his way to his usual stool seat and called out "hey Ayame-neechan!"

Ayame turned around to see Naruto and smiled "Naruto-kun! It's good to see you again, where have you been?"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head "I've been busy with missions and training. Anyway can I get my usual chicken Ramen?"

Ayame nodded and began to make his usual order of 23 bowls of ramen

After Naruto had eaten 10 bowls he noticed that Ayame was the one doing all the cooking and hasn't seen Teuchi yet "hey Ayame-neecah where's Teuchi-jisan? I haven't seen him yet, are you working alone right now?"

Ayame nodded her head as she put another bowl on the counter in front of Naruto "yeah tou-san had to go out and get some supplies for the shop so he left me to run the stand while he is gone". As Naruto started on the bowl she put down another thought entered Ayame's mind "hey Naruto-kun?" Naruto stopped slurping to look at Ayame "can you….show me what you look like as a fox?".

Whatever remained in his mouth found a quick exit as he spat out what he had and looked at her in fear. He knew she didn't hate him because of Rama but he was still afraid of being rejected by one of the few people he cares about "Ayame-neechan…...I ….well...you…."

Ayame saw the fear in Naruto's eyes and walked around the counter and hugged him as he trembled a bit "Naruto-kun it's ok. I won't change my mind about you, no matter what you look like, you will still be Naruto-kun". Ayame was curious about what Naruto looked like in his fox form but there was another reason she asked. She wanted Naruto to know that he had people that cared about him no matter what and she felt he needed that since he had been depressed for a while.

Naruto was still trembling at the thought of showing his true form but he began to relax a bit when he felt her rubbing his whiskers and calmed down. He was thinking about how Ayame-neechan might react but what she said about not caring what he looks like gave him a ray of hope he was willing to reach for so he nodded his head and got up from the stool he was sitting at and looked up at Ayame to nod his head and gave a soft reply "ok ayame-neechan" and with that they both walked to the back of the stand where only Ayame and Teuchi are allowed since it's where they keep their supplies.

After they both made it to the back Ayame sat on her knees looking up at Naruto, who was shuffling his feet, and gave him a reassuring smile.

Naruto stood there for a few seconds, swallowing hard he decided to do it quick and in a poof of smoke he turned into his fox form which now put him at eye level with Ayame. He moved his muzzle downward, his tails drooped down and kept glancing at Ayame

Ayame looked over Naruto's body and based on the stories she heard about the kyuubi, she couldn't see what there was to fear since to her Naruto right now looked like he could barely harm anything. "Naruto-kun come here please" she said as she made a gesture to come closer

Naruto heard this and slowly walked closer until he was only a few feet away. He kept his head hung low until he felt a hand gently pet his head. He lifted his head to look in her eyes and much to his relief he didn't see any fear and now that he calmed down he realized that he didn't feel any negative emotions coming from her

"See Naruto, I'm not afraid of you"

Naruto lifted his head and tails as they started to wag back and forth as he felt happy that Ayame didn't hat or fear him. He leapt onto her so his head was on her lap and wrapped his paws around her waist giving a few happy yips 'she doesn't hate me! She's not afraid of me!'. He began to nuzzle her stomach as she began to pet him causing him to purr but he didn't care, he was happy

Teuchi had returned from getting his supplies and went to put them in the back but when he opened the door he saw his daughter petting a fox. It took him a minute till he remembered Naruto telling them about his fox form and realized that this must be Naruto, the four tails and color pattern helped him too. He just stood there and smiled at the scene of Ayame on her knees petting Naruto and Naruto sleeping on her lap as his tails wagged a bit and purring

Chapter end

Next chapter will be the start of the Wave ark and I am looking forward to it

About the Icha icha book, Naruto doesn't know what is written in the book so the pages will be blank

To those who told me about the number aspect thank you for telling me which brings me to the next point

I received a pm saying that I shouldn't be writing this and it reminded me of other reviews in other stories I enjoyed which made me want to write this small message

This is not the weirdest story out there, I've read weirder ones

This story is something I enjoy writing for fun and glad others enjoy it too

If you want this story to be better, please give tips and hints to help improve it

If you want a masterpiece you will enjoy write your own story so others may enjoy it too

To those who PM'd and reviewed with useful tips thank you very much and hope I'm getting better