Summary: Naruto meets the Hokage and realizes he's not that bad of a guy.
Notes: Here's chapter 4. I'll be posting a chapter every few days until I'm caught up with AO3. Sorry about the long wait this time. Life got in the way.
Naruto looked down at his hands in shame. Today was supposed to be his day. His chance to finally, finally, beat Sasuke-teme in a practical exam. Even now he wasn't quite sure why it had happened. Why he had frozen. He had practiced his throws for hours. A few days ago he had even hit the bullseye twice in a row! He knew he could do it, he was awesome. And today was supposed to be the day that all his classmates were finally gonna see. Instead he'd embarrassed himself in front everyone, 'cause sometimes, life just sorta hated him.
It had all started two days ago, when Kado-baachan told him he had to clean up his place on account of there being another inspection this month. She said it was a pig sty and she didn't want him to embarrass her or himself. She'd told him he would have to throw out most of his favorite things too, 'cause, according to her, they were trash. Then she'd said he'd have to shower and wear the lame gray shirt and shorts they'd given him at the start of the year, when he got his apartment. If he even though about wandering around in "that orange disaster," she had threatened to confiscate it. After that, Naruto had really wanted to tell her that he'd like to see her try, but Kado-baachan was really scary when she was mad, and Naruto wasn't quite brave enough to cross her yet.
Naruto had tried his best to tidy his place up and even moved his dirty laundry into a pile in the corner of his room. But Kado-baachan must have known that he wasn't very good at cleaning, because the next day she'd sent by a group of goons to help him clean up. They had actually been a lot nicer than Naruto'd thought they'd be, way nicer than most people he met were. They'd even talked with him while they worked.
Apparently, they were new genin and helping him clean-up for inspection was their mission. Which definitely made it his mission too, since he was helping out. He had been so excited to tell Sakura-chan about the real ninja mission he'd been on. Not even Sasuke-teme had done that yet.
The only bad part had been the whole them cleaning up his stuff thing. They had boxed up his ramen cup tower and thrown out his bag of dead bugs that looked kinda like Sasuke. They would have tossed his glass shard collection too, if he hadn't managed to stop them in time. And, even though his apartment was really small, it had still taken a long time to clean. By the time they had finished, Naruto was too tired to practice more shuriken jutsu.
Still, it had been pretty fun talking to real ninja. They had been really impressed when he showed off his cool ninja moves. And then, after they were all done, they had given him a bunch of fresh fruit and milk and stuff, which was cool. Kado-baachan hadn't done that since the first month he was moved to his own apartment. Usually she just gave him money to buy his own food. The lead ninja, the jonin-sensei, had even offered to give him a rice cooker, which was really cool. Even if rice wasn't as great as ramen and he didn't think he'd ever make it, it was nice the guy had offered.
After they had left, Naruto had found himself staying up trying to figure out why this inspection was so important. He wasn't stupid, even if he didn't do great on all his academy assignments. He was just better at figuring out stuff that mattered. He knew for a fact that his place had already been inspected by Kado-baachan's assistant. He even had the list of all the crap she'd wanted him to fix to prove it. Not that he usually fixed any of that stuff. He'd never really understood why she cared whether he'd done laundry or dishes or taken out the trash. It was his home, not hers, and he didn't have to do chores if he didn't want to. And, if he waited long enough, one of the top secret ANBU people would take care of it for him. Once, when he'd put off taking out the trash until it was kinda hard to move around, he'd come back to his apartment just in time to see a masked figure slinking away with a trash bag over his shoulder. Naruto had found the sight so funny, he'd almost been tempted to try it again.
So yeah, Naruto knew it wasn't just another inspection. The question was, what could it be? Nobody cared about the orphans except Old Man Hokage and Kado-baachan. At first he'd thought maybe it was Iruka-sensei, but as nice as he was, Iruka-sensei didn't have any reason to visit. And even if he did, Naruto knew D-Rank missions weren't super cheap, so there was no way Kado-baachan would buy one for him. The only other thing Naruto could think of was some rich guy from the capital or somewhere was coming by. Sometimes they would visit the Children's Home and donate toys or whatever so they could feel better about being super rich and stuff. But he had moved out of the home at the beginning of last semester, so that didn't explain what they would want with him. Eventually, despite his curiosity, he managed to fall asleep.
The next day he went to the academy as usual. He tried to ask Koji-kun, one of the other kids in Youth Services' independent housing program if he knew anything, but Koji had just shrugged him off. After class, Kado-baachan had stopped by his apartment herself, just to make sure everything was put away and Naruto was wearing his lame uniform. She also let him know who his visitor would be, and had been pretty surprised when Naruto hadn't already known. It turned out all his guesses had been wrong. Go figure. While he'd been right about Kado-baachan trying to impress the guy, it turned out it wasn't just some noble or something, but the new Hokage. Naruto hadn't heard much about the guy, but he already hated him. The Old Man had never mentioned stepping down before and suddenly this pretender wasn't just the Old Man's choice in successor but actually the Hokage. Naruto knew there was something fishy about that. There was no way in hell he was playing nice with some con man who tricked the Old Man into retiring. Kado-baachan had told him he didn't have a choice about seeing the guy, but not even she could force Naruto to like it.
When the guy had come in, Naruto had given him his very best ninja glare. The pretend Hokage was super tall and hadn't bothered to wear the old man's hat or robe. Instead, he just had dark pants and a shirt and some kinda leather thing over one shoulder. It looked lame. He had left his guards outside, which was actually pretty smart of him, 'cause Naruto's flat wasn't that big. Not that he needed a lot of space. Instead the guy had come in with just a kid, probably not any older than the genin who'd helped him clean up.
The fake Hokage had smiled and Naruto could tell it was fake, or at least not a real, happy smile. No one except the Old Man, and sometimes Iruka-sensei, was ever really happy to see him. After a minute of staring at each other the pretender laughed. He actually closed his eyes and laughed. Naruto just sorta looked at him funny, because as far as he could tell, nothing worth laughing had happened. The guy's genin sidekick hadn't done anything. For a kid, he was pretty boring. He just stood a step to the side and behind the fake Hokage and watched. It was super creepy.
After The Pretender had gotten sick of laughing, he'd just introduced himself, as if he wasn't some sorta crazy lunatic that laughed at everything. Naruto didn't get what the old man had seen in him. Apparently he was some kinda ninja legend or whatever. He said people called him Shunshin no Shisui, 'cause he was so fast. Naruto told him that being good at running away made you a lame ninja, not a legend and he laughed again. He laughed at most of Naruto's jokes, and if Naruto hadn't already decided to be the guy's rival and prove to the old man that he deserved to be Hokage way more, he might even have liked him.
Eventually, he had finished asking Naruto about his life and what he liked to do and stuff. He had said something about it getting pretty late and then had apologized for making Naruto miss dinner. Naruto had been kinda overwhelmed because not even the Old Man had ever spent so long just talking to him, and the new Hokage hadn't seemed like he disliked Naruto even a little, not that the Old Man had either, but... It had been nice. Then, when Naruto had thought he'd just leave and do whatever important Hokage stuff he had to do, he had offered to take him out for ramen. Which of course Naruto had accepted. After all, even if he hadn't been starting to see what the Old Man must have, even if he hadn't liked the new guy, free ramen was free ramen.
Once they got to Ichiraku's (Naruto's favorite ramen place and apparently the Hokage's too), they had talked even more. The Hokage (Shisui-nii, he'd said to call him) was really smart. He had talked to Naruto about all the things wanted to fix in the village, and the way people treated Naruto was one of them. Naruto had told Shisui-nii that it wasn't that bad, but Shisui-nii had said that any amount of bad is too much bad, especially for kids. They had talked about a lot of other stuff too, and for once, Naruto feels special, feels important. He had also found out that the kid Shisui-nii had trailing around him is actually his little cousin, Itachi-chan. It didn't take Naruto long to learn that Itachi-chan preferred being called Itachi-san, something Shisui-nii had just laughed at. According to Shisui-nii, Itachi-san needed to learn how to lighten up and be a kid.
Shisui-nii had bought Naruto as much ramen as he could eat, and the three of them had stayed at Ichiraku's until it closed. Shisui-nii had even shooed away his advisors so he could talk to Naruto in peace. By the time they had gone back home, Naruto had been exhausted. Though, he remembers, as he had been falling asleep he'd had one thought on his mind. Even if he was still sad he wasn't going to be the Godaime, he was sure Shisui-nii would do a good job.
Which brings him back to today. Shisui-nii shows up outside the academy and stops to watch all the first year kids try to hit the target with shuriken. Half-asleep and not having practiced two days in a row, Naruto is excited to show Shisui-nii what he can do. Even tired, he still knows how to throw. He watches patiently as the other kids all try, some pretty bad, but some really good. Sasuke, the bastard, gets all bullseyes and Shisui-nii seems kinda impressed. But when it's finally his turn, he can't do it. Naruto knows what he needs to do, but he freezes. All he can see is Shisui-nii watching him. He does throw all his shuriken, but only two of them actually hit the target, and neither are in the bullseye. Naruto feels like crying from shame as he runs back to his place. He had wanted to impress everyone so much and he'd wound up making an even bigger fool of himself.
The only upside is after class, Shisui-nii meets him and asks if he wants to grab ramen for dinner. It's super early still, but Naruto agrees. Shisui-nii tells him it's okay to mess up sometimes, that's what practice is for. He tells him that when he first started, he messed up all the time. He says the key is just to keep practicing until you don't even have to think. Then, if someone like the Hokage shows up and surprises you, it doesn't matter. Your body still knows what to do. Naruto likes that advice. Because sometimes, it feels like his body is smarter than his head. His hands learn how to do things better than his brain can teach them from lectures, and the idea of training so much that his head can't mess everything up is really nice. One day, he knows, he's going to become a great ninja, and he's pretty sure Shisui-nii will be there to help him every step of the way.