'Good job', said Mei Terumi to her genin, the day after her fight with the blonde Leaf genin. She would have done it right after, but suspicion was at an all time high and they were being watched constantly. Not really unexpected; she would have done the same if it was her village. 'What did you find out?'
'They were right', Harui replied, knowing that her sensei knew she was talking about the hunter-nins. 'He's a complete idiot. Acts before he thinks, speaks without really knowing the consequences. Horrible at taijutsu, knows virtually no ninjutsu other than the one clone jutsu. Has a little concept of strategic fighting though.'
She called his very rudimentary strategy of trying to flank her sides, and then attacks from the top. If he had had any sense, he would have known that an attack from her behind or underground would have been much better.
Mei Terumi nodded. That at least was consistent with the reports they had gotten from the hunter-nin who had witnessed the fight on the bridge. He would have disposed of Zabuza and Haku's body there and then, if he didn't think that the Leaf Jonins would put up a fight, if only to support their genin's impetuosity.
And as capable as the hunter-nin he was, he could not have taken Kakashi no Sharingan and the Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha and hope to come out of it alive. Not to mention, it would have a rather troublesome mess politically.
Even if Aoi didn't think much of the new hunter-nin, Mei was confident that he was at least capable. Especially since he made the right choice by retreating.
This way of doing it was much better. This at least gave them an avenue to pursue and try to convince the Hokage to help them.
'Does he know kenjutsu?' it was her other chunin who asked that, Chojuro who was a few years older than Harui. Why he insisted on such a long sword instead of a zanbato, she will never know.
'Not that I saw', replied Harui with a smirk. Not that she gave him a chance to properly use it. But she was testing his abilities as per her mission. And the blonde brat had failed miserably. 'If he did know kenjutsu, he would have blocked my sword with a katana rather than a kunai.'
Not to mention, even his kunai battling wasn't that good. All in all, he was a pathetic shinobi. Understanding her unstated conclusion, Chojuro frowned, 'Then how was he able to defeat Haku-san?'
Mei saw Harui's surreptitious glance towards the other occupant in the room and quickly interfered before she could get suspicious. 'It is possible that Haku went easy on children. He always was kind hearted.'
The Jonin had a suspicion about the boy, but she would need to talk to Harui in private to be able to confirm it. But it was too much of a risk, considering it was obviously a village secret and trying to uncover it could lead to disastrous consequences. At least when they were in the Leaf.
The Princess, Eboshi however was getting impatient with all this shinobi talk. She never could understand them, even if she had had shinobi bodyguards. And especially since Zabuza's attempt on her father's life.
What she wanted to know was if the boy could be useful to them. But only the Jonin could answer that. 'Is he malleable?' She chose her words carefully. With her status in life and certainly as a politician, it became second nature to them.
Harui and Chojuro took that as their queue to leave, seeing as the Princess wanted to talk their sensei in private. Truthfully, Harui had been surprised when her sensei had told them they were conscripted to guard the Princess on her trip to Konoha and back.
The only reason she had been left alive, was because it had taken great pains on part of her sensei to make the Kiri forces believe she had no Kekkei Genkai. The fact that she looked a little like Kaguya's made it especially harder for her. But given that she hadn't been found in the Kaguya clan compound after their rebellion and subsequent massacre made it plausible that she was just a bastard.
The Kaguya's were after all, famous for sleeping around with whores and prostitutes. So, it wasn't a stretch of imagination by any means. Even so, she was walking a very thin line, she knew. Even going to the Daimyo's palace was a great risk but she was confident her sensei would have been able to protect her.
It was a good thing that the Daimyo himself was not in the palace but had gone for a meeting with the Mizukage. Honestly, she had lost her cool in the fight with the blonde brat when he had insulted Yagura-sama.
Yes, she hated the man. As did almost half of the Kiri population but he was still her Kage. As such, she would not tolerate any outsider badmouthing her village or Kage. Especially not some blonde moron, wannabe shinobi who had killed one of the men who could have made Kiri better.
But what concerned her more was this Princess' idea of using the idiot. How could he be any use to them? He could barely keep up with her taijutsu without having to resort to clones. But it was not her place to question her sensei or the Princess.
However, now that she had had to use her bone manipulation to deal with the runt, no doubt the Konoha's bloodline greedy ninja would be wondering on how to use her. All she knew was that her sensei and the Princess believed that they could strike a valuable deal with Konoha. Which was why they had ordered her to demonstrate her abilities when they were being watched and make it look like she had been forced to do it in the fight.
All she could do now was train on her own and take turns in guarding the Princess while her sensei did her part, whatever that was.
Naruto was not sulking. No, he was absolutely not mad about his regrettable loss to the bone-girl. What the hell was that ability anyway. It was so freaky? Who the hell ever heard of people being able to pull their bones out to use them to fight?
No. He was no sulking. Instead, as he got ready to plan his escape from the hospital room, he was busy trying to analyse his fight. Yesterday, he had thoroughly examined his feelings about killing Zabuza. It turns out it wasn't actually murder like he had come to believe.
Zabuza had asked him to kill. It was a mercy killing. Who knows what the hell would the hunter-nins would have done to him had they caught him? It had taken a while, but Naruto had gotten himself to finally accept that it happened.
And that he did it for the best. Perhaps it was no the best way to go about it but for a formerly stupid, naïve, orange ninja this was as best as it could get for now. At least, that's what he was going to explain to Haku by way of an apology when he met him in the afterlife.
Not that he was in a hurry to die. Grumbling at his injuries, sore bones and ribs, he took the chance to curse the Yondaime and the Kyubi for good measure.
The damn fox had refused to heal his injuries on principle. Apparently, the egotistical fox was mad at him for having lost to bone-girl. Apparently, it was a shame for him to be stuck in such a weak container.
However, Naruto had gotten better in retreating to his mindscape and being able to talk to the fox. Not that fox liked it. In fact, the mountain sized demon hated it when Naruto visited.
As was the case now.
'Oi fox!' Naruto pointed a finger at the orange fox inside the cage. 'If you're so mad about me losing, why don't you heal my injuries so I can get stronger?'
Kyubi opened one of his lazy eyes, and took in the sight of his miserable container standing outside his cage, yet again.
'Pathetic mortal!' Kyubi snarled. 'I wouldn't give you my chakra for all the fresh human meet in the world!'
Naruto however wasn't going to back down. 'I'm not asking for your chakra or power, baka-fox! I can get plenty strong on my own!'
Why did he have to be stuck with the most stubborn Biju in existence, he would never know. Neither would the Kyubi deign to tell him why he attacked Konoha in the first place, ending with them being shackled together, for a lack of a better word.
The beast snorted, and malicious orange chakra swirled around momentarily before disappearing. 'Perhaps by your foolish human standards and not even that apparently, given you're abysmall performance. But you can never get to be as powerful as a Biju!'
No human could. The Kyubi chose to not mention it to his container that there was only who was more powerful than any biju in the world. But he was long dead and gone, leaving his creations to roam the earth.
Naruto bristled at the insult. It was true that he wasn't yet strong. Or that Sasuke could have beaten the bone-girl without much trouble. But he doubted the trouble part. As good as the bastard regrettably was, she was a year older than them and had more field experience.
She may have defeated him with taijutsu alone, but he was not going to let that stop him. He gave the fox a dirty look and replied, 'Yes I will. You'll see one day. I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I never –'
The rest of his usual speech was drowned out by the large snort from the fox, 'No, you're not!'
What? What does that even mean?
Naruto hated that even the damn fox was so cryptic. Really, was it just a side-effect of age that makes people go all riddle-like.
Apparently, the fox heard his thoughts, and growled, 'Don't you dare compare me to those mortals, insolent brat! I am the Kyubi-no-Yoko, the leveller of mountains with a swish of my tail. The most hateful, powerful Biju in –'
'Yes yes, I know', Naruto cut him off just like the fox had interrupted him earlier. It wasn't the first time he was hearing Kyubi's boasts about his power. And he needed answers before the fox could get into one of his rants. 'What do you mean I'm not Naruto Uzumaki?'
By his earlier statement, it seemed that the Kyubi knew something about his heritage. At first, Naruto had the almost insane, and inane idea that perhaps he was the Yondaime's son. He had seen the man's portrait in the Hokage's office often enough.
But now thinking about, it didn't seem that likely. Or else wouldn't the villagers have noted the resemblance between their hero and the person they hated most.
Kyubi snorted, 'You underestimate the stupidity of humans! Or strength of their hatred, brat!'
Naruto resisted to tell him it was the pot calling the kettle black and settled for asking him the question about his heritage again.
'Why should I even help you? You mean nothing to me!' the Kyubi levelled him with a channelling stare, one that was meant to intimidate and scare, with those razor-sharp teeth bared.
'You remember the deal we made', Naruto reminded him by way of an explanation.
'It is highly unlikely you will ever be able to achieve such a feat', Kyubi closed his red eye again. 'Don't you have something else to do than annoy me, insect!'
Naruto knew he should be going but he was too curious. And by now, he had gotten mostly used to Kyubi's insults.
'I'm not leaving until you tell me!' Naruto remained steadfast, vaguely wondering how smart an idea it was to challenge the fox in his mind.
Kyubi glared at his jailer in hatred and rage. If only he could get at the blonde rat, he would squish this annoyance under his paw. Maybe then he could get out of this infernal seal. But the bastard Yondaime had created it too strong.
Not only was it strong, but it was siphoning off a little of his own chakra and pumping it into the rat's chakra system, trickle by trickle. Not that the Kyubi would ever run out of chakra. He would regenerate the amount lost to the insect from nature energy itself. Such was the genius of his creator.
That didn't mean he liked the current arrangement. Well, he had his revenge… for now. As a result, the brat's chakra system was almost always in flux. It was highly amusing to see the brat work on this so called 'chakra control exercises' of these humans and then fail to get the results.
That was until the rat had sensed it the source of constant flux his system was in. Begrudgingly, the demon fox had to admit that it took some talent to even pinpoint his own chakra fluctuations when they occurred and follow them to the source; without having any sensory training beforehand. Not that he would ever tell this stubborn annoying fool that.
It was a long while when the beast replied with resigned frustration. 'You may have been born of, and carried by that Uzumaki bitch, and you may have that accursed Uzumaki blood but you are not an Uzumaki!'
Even though this was all happening inside his head, and not physically, Naruto felt the vein in his head throbbing at the troublesome, damn fox being so damn cryptic. After all, even if it was happening inside his head, it didn't mean it wasn't real.
'That makes no sense whatsoever', Naruto grumbled, glaring at the fox who had retreated further into his cage. Wait, what did he just say? Bitch?
'HEY!' Naruto yelled angrily, pointing a finger at him. 'My mother was not a bitch!'
'She was a lying, deceiving bitch! Now get lost!', Kyubi snarled, and with a push and a sudden headache, Naruto was back in the physical world.
'Damn fox. He's confused me even more', Naruto growled, gathering his things and testing out his arms and sides.
It was still troubling him but it was nothing he couldn't handle. The healer had healed him after all, no doubt on orders of the old man. They would never be so kind to me him of their own accord.
Che. Foolish villagers. He protects them from the Kyubi and this what he gets for his troubles. The fox had made it no secret that should he ever get out from within Naruto's body, the first thing he would do was to destroy Konoha.
Now that he thought of it, was the fox even a he? The foxes must have genders since they procreate, therefore needed one male and one female. But from what Naruto knew of tailed beasts, they were essentially a mass of chakra. Did that mean they had genders?
If they were born from something – logic stated it must have been a similar tailed beast – then it must have a gender. Since a fox can't be born from a snake and vice versa.
But if that was true, then how the fuck was he born from an Uzumaki with Uzumaki blood but not be an Uzumaki!
All that circular thinking was doing his head in and he needed to train to get his mind off of the recent revelations and troubles. And so, Naruto opened the window to his room and jumped out without a thought.
A few civilians gave exclamations of shock but he cared not. After all that training on trees whilst sticking leaves to him and what not, he could now channel chakra to his feet subconsciously and keep it constant.
Could that be the reason he was unable to walk on water, he wondered. Because he was subconsciously keeping the chakra level constant. Even though his mind was troubled by this news of him not being an Uzumaki, it didn't really matter in the end.
He hadn't known about his parents before the fox had told him this. Why did it matter now? Naruto knew it didn't but that didn't help the pang of hurt in his chest. Like a feeling of losing something and not knowing why it hurt when he didn't even like it.
Was it just him or had the whispers of the villagers increased in the day since he had been in the hospital?
One surreptitious look at the surrounding gossipers told him that it wasn't just his imagination. They were definitely more active in their gossiping. He scoffed mentally at their stupidity. Didn't they have anything better to do with their time. Like go to work or something.
They were probably whispering about how he got his handed to him by some no-name Kiri kunoichi. Of course, it didn't matter to them that she had more experience as a genin.
More than a year's in fact. And that he had only been a genin for a little more than two months. It didn't matter that she clearly had some bloodline limit that allowed her to weaponize her bones. It was so unfair that they have this advantage.
NO! Stop whining, he admonished himself. All he was doing was making excuses for his own weakness. A bloodline didn't guarantee that a shinobi would be powerful. After all, the Sandaime was one of the most powerful shinobi alive and he had no bloodline limit. And neither did Danzo, from what he could tell. And he was clearly quite strong too. If in a different way than the third Hokage.
Which reminded him, he needed to go and see if he could find the cyclops again. He had questions for him. But Naruto was under no delusion to think it was his choice. Danzo would be found when he wanted to be found.
Enough of this bitching, Uzumaki! Time to get started on training. And with that decision made, Naruto shed his clothes until he was in his boxers and stepped into the calm stream water. Already his hands were making the shadow clone seal, as if independent from thought.
Kurenai sat in the dango shop with her friend, Yugao Uzuki. Today was one of the few days where they were both on their off days together. Kurenai, being a Jonin sensei was almost always with her team, either doing missions or training.
And Yugao… well that was classified. But they had been friends for so long and made it a point to get together at least once or twice a week with each other. After all, both had been on the same genin team.
And it was that topic that was being discussed between the raven-haired beauty and the equally – if in a different way – purple haired beauty sitting opposite her.
'So, what really happened?' Kurenai asked, knowing full well that her friend couldn't give her all the details but she must be able to tell her something. The village was ripe with the fresh gossip. And she needed to be aware of it since she predicted some sort of response from her genin.
Yugao took another elegant sip from her sake cup before answering, 'Not much really. We were following the girl but hadn't expected her to seek out the boy. They got into some argument about Zabuza's honour.'
Kurenai scoffed at that ridiculous statement, and Yugao smirked. 'What honour?'
Yugao smiled, 'Yes well they seemed to be under that mistaken impression.'
As if a monster like Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist; the one who had slaughtered an entire graduating class of genin before he was even in the academy, could have any honour.
'Anyway, before we knew it, they were fighting', Yugao shrugged noncommittally. 'It wasn't anything spectacular honestly.'
'And you didn't stop them?!' Kurenai asked, shocked that her friend could just sit there and do nothing. 'What would sensei…'
'It wasn't our job!' Yugao answered vehemently, but then softened her tone seeing the eyes of her friend. She didn't like talking about their ex-sensei. Neither of them did, in fact. 'Besides, it was just a spar. It wasn't getting out of hand until she revealed her kekkei genkai.'
'She has a bloodline?'
That shocked Kurenai more than anything else in the story. The fact that Naruto had lost wasn't all that surprising honestly. What else did he expect when fighting a genin who lived in a village embroiled in civil war, and with at least a year's more experience than him.
'Hmmm', Yugao nodded, sounding a little impressed in fact. 'A sort of bone ability. Really handy honestly. She's clearly skilled in kenjutsu too.'
Now Kurenai was impressed. Whilst Kurenai and Yugao hadn't been on the same genin cell, they had shared the same sensei… sort of. While Yugao had been partially trained by her sensei in the basics of kenjutsu before her premature death, Kurenai had learnt the basics of Fuinjutsu from the same kunoichi, which she had later built upon to apply to her own speciality.
That was the reason she had been able to subdue Yakumo Kurama's inner demon from taking over and seal its powers. But she refused to think about the ex-student. It was no time for that. Neither was bringing up Yugao's genin cell a good idea. Her friend tended to get a little broody and frankly murderous, whenever it came up.
And the reason for those murderous thoughts was really not a good idea to even ponder on. Even if said reason was her other friend; a point of contention between her and Yugao, that they had agreed to disagree on.
Not to mention, like Yugao, her boyfriend was also a kenjutsu master who had taken her as an apprentice. So, if Yugao commented of someone's skill with kenjutsu, they must clearly have it.
After all, she was trained in the basics by 'Red Hot Habanero', also known as 'Konoha's Red Death' and then by Hayate in his special style.
Yugao however was thinking what her sensei would have said had she witnessed the disappointing 'fight'.
'Honestly, I can't believe the boy is so weak', Yugao said after a moment's silence, thinking back on the fight. There hadn't been a single moment where he had control of the fight. Even while attacking, he was immediately pushed on the defensive.
'I saw, on the Wave mission. That's a bit of Kakashi's fault as well', Kurenai was nothing if not fair. Truly, she had not been impressed by Naruto's or Sakura's skills. But at least, the kunoichi had remarkable chakra control. Not surprising, given her reserves. But still. The boy however, had nothing noteworthy in his skill repertoire.
'How so?' Yugao asked, wondering what her senpai could have done.
'I gave my team a mission to gather intel on team 7 during their training. With Kakashi's permission of course', Kurenai then told her friend of how Kakashi wasn't training Naruto much, and that the boy was still stuck on the basics.
'Surprising', Yugao's eyes widened. How was her ex-sensei's son so useless? 'You mean to tell me he was still practising his kunai and shuriken throwing?'
Kurenai nodded sadly. Honestly, she had expected more from Kakashi's team. At this rate, they would clearly not be ready for the exam in six months' time. But surely Kakashi knew this and would want to recommend them anyway.
At this point, the only one worthy of taking the exam on Team 7 was the Uchiha. But that was because he was an Uchiha. And Itachi's brother. That was hardly surprising.
But that was all they talked of disappointing genin of this generation before they turned towards more interesting topics. Namely, their dating lives.
'So….', Yugao wiggled her eyes at her friend, who had the unfortunate nickname – or fortunate depending on how one looked at it – of being called the 'Ice Queen of Konoha'.
'So, what?' Kurenai shifted uneasily, knowing that look in her friend's eyes. That never bode well when she had rejected yet some other man who had asked her out.
'Oh, come on tell me!' Yugao pouted those plump lips covered in purple lipstick. Any other man would have been flattened right away. To Kurenai however, it did nothing but getting her to narrow her eyes.
'Fine', she sighed, knowing that Yugao would not stop asking until she got at least some decent answer. 'He asked me out.'
Yugao however, didn't react as she expected her to. Instead of the excited squeal, there was a certain gleam in the dangerous kunoichi's eyes, who was holding herself back from smirking.
'I know', Yugao answered smugly.
'What… what do you mean… oh', Kurenai then resisted the urge to face palm herself. Of course, she already knew. Asuma was friends with Hayate after all.
'But why did you say no?' Yugao inched her face forwards. Instead of the curiosity that was in most kunoichi's eyes when they asked the same question, there was only a seriousness there.
Kurenai sighed, 'I don't know Yugao-chan. I guess he's just not my type, you know.'
Yugao nodded, 'Okay… but exactly what is your type?', she asked, already knowing the answer. But the truth was, the guy her friend probably still had a thing for had too many demons of his past. Asuma was exactly what she needed. If only Kurenai could see that.
'You know. Powerful, cool. Kind hearted, loyal and most of all respectful of women', the raven haired Jonin answered, knowing full well what a terrible answer that was.
Yugao sighed, cursing Jiraiya for the millionth time for starting that accursed, perverted series of his. It has seemingly turned most men in Konoha into giant perverts which has severely lessened the number of potential dating partners for single women, especially kunoichi like Kurenai.
Some, she was aware had no problem with her partners reading that awful trash. Namely, one snake lady she hated. But they were a minority.
'Anyway, you said you had something important to ask me?' Yugao asked after some more idle chit chat.
Kurenai nodded, sipping her tea and trying to decide how to carefully word her request. She had thought about it quite a lot lately. True, it had been a concern of hers when she was given her team but now it was obvious that Hinata needed much more individual attention.
And Kurenai had been pondering on the dilemma more, ever since her team had given her the report on Team 7 actually. While she wasn't doing what Kakashi was doing with Uzumaki, the effect was somewhat the same.
And while Uzumaki's training and education was entirely the cyclops' business, she could do something about Hinata.
'What is it?' Yugao prodded her friend, seeing as she was taking an inordinate amount of careful time thinking about her request. That was probably because it wasn't the norm and would include more than a few hurdles. She wasn't an elite ninja of Konoha for nothing.
'Let's walk and talk', Kurenai said after a little while of silence and Yugao immediately knew this was serious if she wanted to keep it on the down low.
And so, two kunoichi walked out of the dango, ignoring the leering of some ninja and more than a few civilian men. No one of course would try anything with either of them, knowing their reputation for being dangerous to the health of perverts.
Truth to be told, Yugao wasn't the first person she had thought to ask help. There was another quite dangerous kunoichi who had occurred to her first. But she had discarded that idea almost as soon as she had had it. The Hyugas would have a fit, considering their history with her.
'It's my genin, Hinata Hyuga', she began, sighing. Might as well get it over with. Or she could ask Guy for help. But considering the fact that he was already the Jonin-sensei in charge of the branch Hyuga, that was an even more terrible idea. And something had clearly been troubling Hinata over the last week. She was much more subdued than normal and didn't speak as much during training or even missions.
Then, all of a sudden, she had gotten better the day before. Right after the meeting in the Hokage's office, actually. Kurenai was curious so naturally she did some surveillance.
And lo and behold, it turns out that her genin, who did nothing without first asking her father or Kurenai herself had put in a request for a tutor for herself. She didn't know if Hiashi knew about it yet, but shit would surely hit the fan when he did find out.
She couldn't for the life of her understand where she had gotten the idea, or why she hadn't come to her for it first. But it was better to do damage control before it got back to the Hyuga council.
'The one who faints every time she's near Uzumaki', Yugao smiled fondly. 'So sweet. But what about her?'
Kurenai turned to watch her friend's response as she replied, 'I need a tutor for her. She needs individual attention and I can't give her that without very mitigating circumstances.'
Yugao nodded thinking about the diminutive Hyuga she had met two days ago, already knowing that doing so was frowned upon by the Hokage and the council. Even if said council was a little hypocritical at times.
'She definitely needs more help. Hardly the picture of a kunoichi….' She said before the meaning her friend's words registered to her.
As her senpai says, look underneath the underneath. And she groaned in exasperation and shook her head with a resounding, 'No!'