The tour Naruto took me on was… fun. I didn't expect there to be so many places in Konoha and Naruto was definitely an expert at where the best food places were. I noticed though, that a lot of people looked at him weird. Like he was diseased or something. It made me nervous sometimes, their looks being awfully similar to the look that the man who attacked me had, but I did my best to ignore them and grew pretty comfortable around Naruto. I did surprise him though when I began asking a lot of questions about different things, but he was nice enough to answer them as best he could. We even bought a few things on our way.
I got new black pants that went down to just past my knees and some black ninja sandals as well as a simple grey shirt, but Naruto wanted me to get something with a little more color, so I also got a dark violet jacket to replace my ruined one. It was a size or two too big, but I didn't mind and actually found it quite comfy even if the sleeves did go down past my knuckles. So warm… I mused, holding my covered hands up to my face and inhaling the scent of new clothes, until I heard Naruto chuckling beside me.
"You're pretty excited over some boring new clothes, Takeru."
I flushed a bit. "T-They're not boring! …They're… nice."
He grinned, putting his hands behind his head. "So, where did you come from, Takeru? The old man said you weren't from here."
I looked down sorrowfully, not liking to lie, but knowing that I had no other choice. "I-I don't remember. I lost my memories."
"Oh." We grew quiet, before he lowered his hands and turned to me with a bright grin. "That's okay! I'm sure you'll remember some things soon!"
I nodded with a small smile, when my stomach suddenly growled loudly. "A-Ah! S-S-Sorry."
He blinked in surprise, looking at me with wide eyes, before pointing at me. "Was that your stomach?"
I blushed. "I-I haven't eaten… for a while…"
"That was super loud though! You must be really hungry!"
"A bit…"
"Then I'll bring you to the best place ever!" He grabbed my hand then, dragging me behind him until we reached a small ramen stand and he climbed up onto a chair, catching the owner's attention. "Two pork ramen, extra large!"
"Oh! Naruto! Always good to see you." The man behind the counter said with a cheerful grin, before spotting me as I climbed up onto a stool beside an excited Naruto. "And you brought a friend this time, eh?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah! This is Takeru! Old man Hokage says he's going to be living with me! He's super shy though, but he talks a lot too, sometimes."
The man set the two hot bowls of ramen before us and I could feel myself beginning to drool before I snapped apart my chopsticks and dug in. The moment the noodles hit my tongue, my eating became even more frantic. It's so good!
"You must have been hungry." The man said, making me pause in my eating to slowly nod, swallowing and going to speak.
"Is it hard making ramen? Where do you get all the ingredients? Is this the only shop you have? A-Ah! I-I mean…" I bowed my head, embarrassed. "It's really good… the ramen."
He laughed, making me turn a nice red shade as I went back to eating. "I see what you mean, Naruto. And I suppose it's hard at first, Takeru, to make ramen. Some of the recipes are complicated. I usually get the ingredients from stores around town here though, but I do grow some of the herbs and spices myself. This is my only shop, however. And I've yet to hear of one better."
I nodded, finishing off my food. "T-Thank you for answering my questions and… for the food."
"Of course! A friend of Naruto's is always welcome here."
Naruto looked over at me with a grin, before he realized something and climbed down off his stool.
"We should probably go, Takeru. It's getting late."
I hopped off the stool after him as he waved goodbye to the owner and we began heading to my new home. Needless to say, I was a bit… surprised when Naruto opened the door to his apartment to reveal just how messy it was. He chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head.
"S-Sorry about the mess." He then began running around and picking up trash from off the floor and, not wanting to be rude or anything, I picked up his laundry and put it away.
"Ah! You don't have to do that!" He said suddenly, grabbing a pair of his boxers I had picked up and smiling awkwardly.
"But, I should help, shouldn't I?"
"I guess, if you want to… b-but don't do the laundry!" He said frantically, though I hadn't the slightest clue why he was acting so nervous.
We're both guys, after all. I looked around though, and spotted the gross looking kitchen area and decided that I could at least clear that up. Before I realized it, Naruto had fallen asleep at the kitchen table and I had finished the dishes. Knowing that I couldn't leave him there, I shook his shoulder.
"Naruto? You need to go to your bed if you're going to sleep."
He woke up, though not completely, and grumbled a bit as he rubbed his eyes, heading into his room and changing before falling into his bed fast asleep. Once he was out, I looked around the room and let out a soft sigh before grabbing some blankets from the closet and stripping down to my boxers and a pajama shirt I had also bought at the store while we were out. It hung off my shoulder a bit, but I didn't mind. I was more concerned about my ears and tail. I really don't want Naruto to see them, but… I don't want to ruin the hat Asuma got me and it was uncomfortable enough hiding my tail in my pants for two days like that. Reluctantly, I decided to set my worries aside for now and just made myself comfortable on the couch before slipping off into a light sleep.
I felt something poking me and let out a quiet mumble, curling into the blankets a bit more. The poking stopped and I relaxed, but then I felt something lightly tugging on my ear and I frowned, waving my hand and trying to swat whoever it was away half-heartedly. It was then, that I heard a familiar voice.
"Um, Takeru?"
I groaned, rolling away and curling up a bit more. "Go 'way… lemme sleep…"
I felt that tugging on my ear again and frowned more as Naruto spoke.
"Are these real?"
My eyes snapped open at that, realizing what he had just said, and I jumped up out of the bed I was in and onto the top of a cabinet, tail thrashing wildly behind me as I panicked. Naruto, though, was just staring at me with his mouth gaping open from where he had fallen back on the floor.
"W-Whoa."
"A-Are you going to h-hurt me?" I questioned, scared.
He blinked, getting up and shaking his head. "No way! I wouldn't hurt you, Takeru! I think it's cool!"
Now I was confused. "Cool?"
He nodded, a big grin on his face. "Yeah! You're like… a cat, right? That's super cool! Can you jump super high? Do you have claws?"
He's not… afraid? I hesitantly climbed down off of the cabinet and shook my head, not really sure what to do about Naruto's enthusiasm.
"U-Um… I guess I can jump pretty h-high, b-b-but I don't think I have claws o-or anything… You're… not afraid of me?"
He shook his head, stepping forward and making me flinch, only for him to gently pinch one of my ears between his fingers curiously. "Why would I be afraid? It's not like you're going to hurt me or anything. We're friends, right?"
My chest warmed at that and I nodded. "B-But you can't tell anyone! I-I… I don't want people to know."
I brushed a hand over my burn scar, catching his attention as his face fell.
"Is that why you have that scar?"
I nodded slowly, not saying anything, before Naruto put a hand on his hip and saluted me with his other.
"Well, you can count on me! I won't tell anybody!"
I gave him a small smile. "T-Thank you, Naruto." It was then that I noticed that I wasn't in the living room like I had been last night; I was in Naruto's room. "Um, h-how did I get in here?"
Naruto tilted his head, pulling on some pants. "Hm? Oh, I think you came in here sometime last night. It's all kind of fuzzy though, heh."
I had a flash of yellow spark in my mind and I flinched, realizing what had happened. I had a nightmare last night about what happened a few days ago and… I guess I couldn't sleep alone and climbed in with Naruto.
"Oi, Takeru!"
"Huh?"
"We're going to be late if you don't hurry up and get dressed!"
I blinked, before remembering that today was going to be my first day at the academy. "O-Oh!"
I hurried out of his room and back into the living room, gathering my clothes and quickly putting them on before borrowing Naruto's bathroom, having to rush out the door behind him. Once we arrived at the academy, I became extremely nervous.
You see, I had moved cities once, when I was younger, so I knew how hard it was to go and make new friends and fit in with everyone in school, especially when they already had their friend groups and such. I don't care if I'm mentally fifteen, I've seen some really bad kids and I'd rather not have to go through getting bullied again. I shuffled in behind Naruto, watching as he waved and headed up to a desk, whereas I was stuck standing in front of the class waiting for the teacher. Already, I could hear the whispers.
"Who's that?"
"Dunno. He looks weak, to me."
"Isn't he a little cute?"
"Aw, he's shy."
"Bet you I can beat him in taijutsu before he even throws a punch."
"Nah, I'd lose that bet."
"Alright, class! Settle down!" The teacher walked in then, looking down at me and giving me a smile. "And you must be the new student the Hokage told me about. Takeru, right?"
I hesitantly nodded, eyeing the scar lying across the man's nose and the way his brown hair was tied up in a spiky ponytail, but seeing the kindness in his eyes. He looks like… a nice guy… He turned towards the class then, placing a hand on my shoulder and calling out to the chattering students.
"Class, this is Takeru Kobayashi. He's a new student starting today, so he's a little shy. Be sure to treat him nicely, alright?"
"Yes, Iruka-sensei!" They chorused, and Iruka leaned down to me.
"Go ahead and sit wherever you want, Takeru, and be sure to come to me after class if there's anything you don't understand, okay?"
I nodded again, earning a smile from the teacher before he lightly pushed me towards the rows of desks so I could sit. I obviously stuck myself next to Naruto, who grinned excitedly, before Iruka started the class.
"Okay, students, today we'll be learning about some ninja tactics and formations that you will need to know for when you graduate."
There were various groans coming from different students in the classroom as Iruka handed out a worksheet. Oddly enough, the information on it seemed pretty basic to me. This all looks like chess moves almost. I thought, looking over the pictures and seeing how this could be used in a practical situation. The rest of the class went on similar to this. A lot of the general studies that we did, I got through quickly and the ninja tactics were pretty easy to figure out. It was the multitude of hand seals that I was having trouble with, my thicker fingers not wanting to make some of the formations. Naruto helped me a little with those, as did Iruka, but after a while the class moved on to more physical activities.
We worked with this chakra stuff that the Hokage had mentioned before, using it to hold a leaf to our foreheads. It was difficult, at first, for me to get the hang of reaching inside myself and grabbing a hold of that inner energy. It was like trying to grab a hold of a fish and hang onto it underwater while it was trying to swim away. After a while, I got the hang of it, but then we moved on to taijutsu. Now, I had no idea what this taijutsu was, but Iruka showed me the basics and set me up with a student once I'd basically figured it out. Thankfully, I was paired up with another meek looking student, a girl by the name of Hinata.
I found it odd that her eyes were such a light shade, but she stuttered worse than I did and I decided that I wouldn't let my curiosity get carried away by digging my nose into her business. She was nice though and helped me through the basics when I messed up, fixing my form when needed. Iruka came by later though, and said that tomorrow I would be matched up with one of the other students since I seemed to be getting the hang of it. When we moved on to weapon training though, I found that I was extremely poor at it. The wooden kunai and shuriken felt weird in my hands and it was hard throwing them accurately. Out of the ten I had, not a single one hit the target, though four did hit the stump that the target was on and I was happy just because of that. Thankfully, after all that work, we were finally sent on lunch break. There were a few problems with that though.
For one thing, I didn't bring any lunch, so I had nothing to eat. The other problem was, Naruto was stuck cleaning up the blackboard after he put some sort of paint bomb in Iruka's desk and it blew up all over it. This meant that I was on my own for lunch and the moment I walked out of the building and onto the grounds where everyone was at, I felt like a sheep being led out to slaughter. A group of girls were eyeing me from off under a tree, whispering to one another and not far from them was a group of boys throwing wooden shuriken at one another, playing a game. Then there were the other various groups scattered around, one of which approached me. Thing was, this group didn't look very welcoming.
"Hey look. It's the shy little weakling." One of the kids said, brown hair spiked up with a red cloth tied around his forehead, most likely the leader of the group.
"Heh, no kidding. What? No lunch, wuss?" The kid beside him said, grinning widely and showing off his missing tooth.
"Aw, poor baby has no lunch?" The third kid said, dark blue hair tied in a low ponytail.
First day and I'm already being bullied, though something tells me that this is going to be a lot different from the bullying I got in my world. Though perhaps, I can avoid it. Taking a chance, I turned away from the kids and began walking away, hoping that by ignoring them, they'd get bored and leave. Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky.
"Hey! We're talking to you!" The kid with the missing tooth shouted, grabbing my shoulder and turning me back around to face them.
"You think you can ignore us, idiot?!" The leader of the trio shouted, turning red in his anger.
"Yeah! Didn't your parents teach you not to ignore people when they're talking to you?!"
I must have frowned or something, because the trio smirked suddenly.
"Aw, poor weakling doesn't have any parents, does he?"
"I bet you they were killed by some enemy ninja or something."
"Ha! I bet that they killed themselves for having a weak looking thing like him!"
I clenched my fists, gritting my teeth. "S-Shut up."
The kids stopped and the leader leaned in closer with a scowl. "What did you say, weakling?"
"I think he told us to shut up."
"Oh, did he now?"
Suddenly, something hit me hard in the face, knocking me to the ground. The dull throb in my left cheek told me that the kid had punched me, but instead of doing anything back, I simply got up and dusted myself off.
"What? You wanna fight?" The missing tooth kid said looking eager, but I turned my back and began walking away.
"Figures." One of them scoffed. "Big chicken!"
"He's probably some monster too. That's why he was hanging out with Naruto."
"Haha! Probably! Only a stupid weakling like him would hang out with that monster."
I stopped walking, hearing the trio behind me laughing at Naruto and I. Now, I could take the ridicule as long as it was directed to me. But now that they were talking about Naruto, the person who was willing to be my friend despite the fact that I'm a complete stranger to him and my other… problems… Well, let's say I'm very loyal to my friends. In an instant, I punched the leader in the face, knocking him to the ground as I stood over him.
"Don't you talk about him like that!" I shouted, not noticing that we had the whole school yard's attention now. "Don't you talk about Naruto that way!"
"Why you—" The toothless kid ran forward, aiming to punch me back, but I was fed up with him too and simply jumped over him, tucking my feet up before landing behind him and knocking his feet out from under him.
The third kid caught me by surprise, having begun moving before I landed, and hit me hard in the stomach. I lost my breath for a moment, but quickly went back into the scuffle. At this point, it was three against one and I wasn't exactly winning, but I wasn't losing either. By the time the teachers came out and separated us, the three kids were crying and whining about their bruises and scrapes, whereas I wiped away my bloody nose and allowed the teacher to escort me back inside to the classroom where Iruka and Naruto were.
"Is he your student, Iruka?" The teacher asked, and Iruka looked at me in shock, hurrying over and kneeling in front of me.
"Takeru?" Naruto questioned, moving to hurry over, but Iruka glared at him, making him stay where he was, cleaning the blackboard.
"Yes, but… what happened?"
"He got into a fight with three other kids."
"What?!"
The teacher left and Iruka turned to me with a frown, looking me over as I wiped a tear in the corner of my eye, not willing to full on cry over something like this.
"Takeru, what were you thinking?! I would've never expected something like this from you with how the Hokage described you."
I frowned, turning away stubbornly. "I didn't do anything wrong. They started it."
He sighed. "It doesn't matter who started it. You shouldn't be fighting!"
"But they made fun of Naruto!" I shouted, rounding on him in my anger, surprising him.
"You got in a fight… because they made fun of Naruto?"
I looked over at said blonde, before looking back at Iruka and nodding. "They picked on me first, making fun of me because I look weak and don't have any parents… but I ignored them and was walking away. I didn't want to fight! But then they called Naruto a monster and I-I got mad and…"
I frowned down at the ground, realizing now how lame my excuse sounded now that I said it, but still feeling frustrated about what the brats had said about Naruto. I was surprised though, when Iruka placed a kind hand on my shoulder.
"It was nice of you to stick up for your friend, Takeru… but perhaps, you should have gone about it differently. Okay?"
I pouted, but nodded as Iruka stood.
"Alright. Well, I still need to give you some sort of punishment, I suppose. Let me go get another rag and you can help Naruto finish cleaning the blackboard. I think that's suitable enough."
He gave me a wink and left the room, leaving Naruto and I alone. I was nervous, looking down at my hand that was bruising a little and not making eye contact with Naruto for now. I was worried that he would get upset with me for doing what I did and getting in trouble, but he surprised me.
"You… You got hurt because… they made fun of me?"
I hesitantly looked up at Naruto and nodded. "I-I didn't like that they called you a monster. Especially since I'm… well… you know… And you're my friend! I-I… We're supposed to stick up for each other, right?"
I felt my lips twitch up into a small sort of smile and Naruto practically beamed, dropping his rag and hurrying over, enveloping me in a hug before pulling away.
"You're the best, Takeru! Neh, next time, I'll let you in on my pranks, okay? That way, we can get back at those punks."
I chuckled a bit. "A-Alright, Naruto."
Needless to say, that wouldn't be the last time I got hurt for Naruto, nor would it be the last time for us to prank someone. Sure, it was childish and I technically was fifteen, but hey! Who could blame me? I'm only nine in this world and mental age or not, this body made sure I acted like a child. Besides, I'm sure that if I didn't, I'd probably end up a really depressed emo kid. Like Sasuke!
Oh wait, I haven't mentioned him, have I? Well, to summarize quickly, he kind of… accidentally… got caught up in one of my and Naruto's pranks on those bullies from before and ended up with a rather vibrant new hair color. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm still pretty shy around others in class, but I did apologize. Naruto though, just laughed and that seemed to get us on his bad list. Yeah… he kind of hated the two of us now… but Naruto helped me make some other friends. Sort of.
I was introduced to Choji, a rather large kid who constantly ate and wore—something that reminded me a lot of underwear—on his head. I didn't say any of this out loud, of course, he seemed like a nice enough kid. I really liked Shikamaru though. The kid was smart and, despite his lazy attitude, was actually kind of good looking. But you didn't hear that from me! I mean, yeah, Sasuke looked nice too but he was a bit too egotistical for me. Ah, but I'm getting off topic, there was one more guy I met and he was very similar to Naruto in how excitable and rambunctious he is. Plus, he had the neatest puppy! Though Kiba wasn't really sure what to make of me at first, he quickly discovered my adoration for dogs and occasionally let me play around with Akamaru when he got together with Naruto and I.
I can't say I really knew anyone other than that. They were all friends of Naruto's and the other guys in class stayed away from me after what I did with the bullies. I was forced to talk to one of them, a kid named Shino, but he didn't say a word and just gave me the paper I had asked for; though I swear I saw a bug or something sneak up under his sleeve. The girls in the class however, were worse than the guys. I mean, I could handle people not talking to me and ignoring me, but when they constantly giggled and cooed behind my back, glancing at me and then turning away and hurrying off, it got a little annoying. So I decided to gather up my courage and confront them. That had been a bad idea.
Turns out, they weren't making fun of me like I thought, they were actually adoring me from afar. Apparently they thought I was cute or something and when I confronted them, I unleashed a torrent of rather annoying fans. Sure, they didn't giggle as much behind my back, but instead they chose a more direct approach. At that point, I didn't know whether to be grateful or feel bad about the numerous times I skipped class to pull a prank with Naruto instead of dealing with them. When I heard graduation was coming up though, I got things back in shape.
Now, having entered the academy late, I was behind most of the class in just about all the subjects. However, I was above average in the basic studies, which really helped. Test wise, I was great. Straight As, 100 points, you name it. The ninja arts though, those could use some work. I was doing pretty good in Taijutsu, thanks to my newly founded feline flexibility, but the power behind my hit was lacking. It wasn't my fault though. I grew up in a mostly peaceful society back in my world, so causing others pain wasn't really something that I wanted to do. If my life was on the line, yeah, I'd probably hit as hard as I could, but for now, I was fine.
Ninjustu was probably my worst subject. The hand seals were difficult to memorize and with my stubby childish fingers, they were difficult to even form. Then came the whole gathering your chakra and actually using it. My chakra control wasn't the best and I often ended up having to stay after class to work one-on-one with Iruka just to learn how to get a hold of it and hang on to it. Not only that, but I was so focused on doing the hand seals perfectly, that my speed in forming the seals was lacking too. This meant that my Genjutsu abilities weren't exactly great either. Iruka said I had a good imagination and concept, but it was the hand seals that got me. That, and my attention to perfection. Then came the actual graduation test.
The night before, I had gotten no sleep; my mind suddenly realizing that if I passed this test, I would have to actually go out and kill people. I wasn't sure if I could handle that, physically killing people. And when the morning of the test came around, I was so panicked that I failed every test. My shaky hands made it impossible to do the hand seals accurately, thus failing in my Ninjustu and Genjutsu tests. And, while I would've done great on the written test, I had forgotten to write my name on it in my panic and got a zero on that too. I wasn't the only one though. Naruto had failed alongside me and we both hung out at Ichiraku's to celebrate our failure with great food.
We had a good time afterwards though, pranking people who were mean to us in order to enjoy ourselves. It wasn't long after that however, that I learned a bit about Naruto's troubles. October 10th was the date. Naruto's birthday and I had noticed that people were glaring at him more and after he'd been tripped while we were walking and the man who tripped him began verbally harassing him, I realized that something was up. Naruto shouted back at the man and I wasn't sure what to do at the time, but when the man started to make like he was going to get physical, I intervened. Oddly enough, a masked ninja did the same and saved us that day—his spiky silver hair was familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on it—but I knew something was going on.
Naruto later explained that people usually did that. Always on his birthday. I remembered the way that man before had treated me and vowed that I would make Naruto's birthday the best day of the year from now on, since it had been the worst day of the year for him most of his life. He loved it. I had saved up some money from what the Hokage gave us and bought him a book I thought he'd like, since I usually hung out in the book store or library often, and I got him a set of kunai. I then treated him to ramen and we went home and planned our next pranks.
Surprisingly enough, I noticed that the Hokage never stopped us from doing pranks. You'd think, with him being the most powerful shinobi and all, that he'd have a way of knowing when we were going to do something crazy. Yet, we were never stopped until after the prank had been sprung. I didn't bother to question it, figuring that perhaps he was seeing it as though Naruto and I were training our shinobi skills or something; what with Naruto coming up with the ideas and me planning how we were going to do it and our escape routes. Either that, or maybe he secretly thought they were amusing too. I had no idea, but before I knew it, another year had passed.
I ended up failing the second graduation test as well, though not out of nervousness this time. At this point, I had gotten over the fact that there was going to be a time where I had to kill someone. I actually went out of my way to ask Asuma, Kurenai, Guy, and Kakashi about what they thought when they were going through this mindset and they gave me some helpful comments. Though, I probably shouldn't have asked Guy.
"I was most youthful at that time! So I believed that, if I was even more youthful—"
I shook my head, pulling my mind out of that thought and resting the book I had been reading on my chest as I looked up at the clouds. I was reminiscing. A dangerous past time, I knew, but I couldn't help it. My third chance at graduation was coming up soon and I was unsure about what to do. The real reason why I failed the last time, was because I had seen how much Naruto had been struggling and, even with my help, I knew he wasn't going to be able to pass. The only reason I wasn't with him now, was because he had gone off to go train, extremely serious about graduating this time around. But if I graduate and he doesn't… Not only will he be hurt, but so will I. I sighed. Man, I've gotten so attached to him these past few years.
I snapped my book closed and got up with a yawn; the book cover reading 'Ninja battle Tactics: Advanced Division' but I had just taken that cover off the book the Hokage had given me on the anniversary of my arrival at Konoha (my new birthday) and used it to hide that actual book I was reading, ' Icha Icha Paradise'. What can I say? Someone had accidentally put it over in the wrong section of the book store and I got curious and found it a good story. Somehow, Naruto managed to get it for me on my make-shift birthday, having apparently caught me reading it. Nevertheless, now wasn't the time to be concerned with my odd choice in reading, my fan girl senses were tingling.
I could hear them speaking in hushed whispers behind some of the foliage nearby and decided that now was the best time to leave and maybe go find Naruto or someone to help me escape their wrath. Taking my chance, I tossed one of Naruto's smoke bombs on the ground and hurried off, hearing their shouts of outrage behind me and running faster. I ducked and dodged between people in the streets, shouting apologies on occasion, though they didn't listen. I was basically on the same status as Naruto ever since I helped him out, so the villagers weren't exactly pleasant towards me. Finally, I spotted someone familiar and quickly ran in front of him, grabbing his shoulders and turning him around to face the group of girls chasing me.
"O-Oi! What are you doing?!"
"Save me." I muttered, hiding behind him as the girls skidded to a stop in front of us.
"Shikamaru, move!"
"Yeah! We want to talk to Takeru!"
Shikamaru sighed, looking over his shoulder at me, annoyed. "Why are you dragging me into your problems?"
I chuckled nervously with a worried look. "B-Because I know you'll help me?"
"Troublesome." He sighed, turning back to the group of girls. "Sorry, Takeru's already made plans to come by my place today."
"Aw." The girls complained, but they all gave me smiles and waves as they left, me giving a hesitant smile and wave back.
Once they were gone, I released Shikamaru and let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Shika."
"Don't call me that." He complained. "And stop dragging me into these kinds of situations. They're such a pain."
"I'll try not to." I said, knowing that—despite what he was saying— Shikamaru didn't really mean it. "B-Bye, Shika. I need to go find Naruto."
He rolled his eyes as I waved and started to hurry off, him pulling his hand out of his pocket to give a lazy wave back; an accomplishment in and of itself. Finding Naruto wasn't hard, he trained in the same place every day and I soon found him grumbling in frustration with sweat sliding down the side of his face as he frowned at the ground.
"Stupid clone… Can't do anything right…"
"Are, um, are you okay Naruto?" I asked, stepping over to him and watching as he swept his frustration off his face and replaced it with a grin.
"Takeru! Can you give me any tips for this clone thing? I can't seem to get it right."
I nodded. "Sure. U-Um, try it and let me see if there's anything I can do to help."
He grinned and made the hand seal, face scrunched up in concentration.
"Clone Jutsu!"
There was a cloud of smoke and a weak looking, pale white, Naruto appeared beside him, slumped over on the ground with its tongue hanging out. I blinked at it, very confused at how Naruto could have accomplished something like this. After all, the clone jutsu was one of the only jutsu I was pretty good at since it only consisted of one hand seal and when I first did it, it didn't look like this. Then again, mine didn't look like me at all. It looked like something that crawled out of a horror film with how its face was screwed up.
"So what do I do, Takeru?" Naruto asked, frowning down at his failed attempt of a clone. "I get this thing every time I do it and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong."
"Um, okay. Here. Get in your stance again."
Naruto did, hand seal at the ready, and I walked over and looked him over with a frown, a finger on my chin. Once I'd circled him, finding nothing outwardly wrong, I stopped before him and narrowed my eyes at his hands.
"Concentrate. Like you're going to do the jutsu, but don't do it yet."
He nodded and did so, but I stopped him.
"Stop. Um, how are you channeling your chakra?"
Naruto tilted his head. "Huh? Channeling it? Iruka sensei just said to focus on it."
"Well, um…" I scratched the back of my head, looking away sheepishly. "H-He's not wrong… Um, here! Close your eyes."
He raised a brow, but did as I said. "Okay. Now what."
"Now think of your chakra. Visualize it. Imagine it pooling up inside you and making a ball."
His brows furrowed in concentration as I went on.
"Okay. N-Now make that ball as small as you can and then let it all out at once and do the jutsu."
"Clone jutsu!" He shouted, a poof of smoke appearing beside him and a Naruto clone standing there. "Alright!"
I sweat dropped, not really sure if Naruto should be cheering just yet. "U-Um, Naruto? You better look again."
"Huh?" He turned back to the clone as the smoke disappeared and pointed at it as he began shouting. "What the heck?! It's not supposed to look like that!"
I silently agreed, sighing as I looked over the clone. Now, while it was standing upright and not as pale as the first attempt, its face looked something like Picasso had painted. Its eyes weren't in the right places, its nose was small and tilted at an odd angle, and its mouth was huge. The clone disappeared with a puff of smoke and Naruto began childishly stomping his foot in frustration, and I tried to calm him down.
"Don't get upset, Naruto! I-It's better than your first try and that means you're improving!"
"But the graduation test is in three days, Takeru! I'll never be able to pass!"
"U-Um, I know! We'll help each other get ready for the test today and tomorrow and then the day before the test, let's do something fun to k-kind of wind down."
Naruto blinked at me and I thought for sure, that he hated my idea, but a big grin broke out on his face. "That's a great idea, Takeru! And the day before, let's do something super crazy!"
I gave him a small smile and nodded. "Y-Yeah!"
So, for the next two days, we did our best to prepare for the graduation tests and were training our hardest in a desperate attempt to cram. At the end of the second day though, Naruto and I spent the later hours to plan our biggest prank yet. It was so big, in fact, that I struggled to find a way to not get caught. I eventually managed, but it was going to end up being a very weak attempt at hiding from skilled jounin and chunin. And the closer that day came, the more worried I became. Naruto and I still aren't completely ready for this test. Sure, Naruto can make a clone now, but it's still pretty messed up. And my transformation jutsu are pretty bad too, especially since they all have cat ears and a tail. How I'm going to explain that, I have no idea.
I shook my head, trying to clear my mind as Naruto and I hung by some ropes and painted swirls and other various things on the Hokage monument. I then took notice of the rising sun and grimaced.
"N-Naruto, we've got maybe another hour before people realize that we're here."
"Alright! Just let me know when, and we'll show those punks what we're made of." He said cheerfully, a bit of paint streaking the side of his face.
Unfortunately, I miscalculated a bit and the shinobi caught onto us a bit sooner than expected, which is how we ended up where we were now, with two adults chasing after us.
"Naruto! Takeru! Come back here! When I get my hands on you two—"
"You crossed the line this time, Naruto! And I can't believe you went along with it, Takeru!"
"Bwahaha!" Naruto chuckled, a bucket of yellow paint still in his hand, and his jacket tied around his waist.
I had my own bucket of green paint in my hand and my jacket also tied around my waist, but I wasn't laughing. "I couldn't help it!" I complained back to the men chasing us.
We all jumped off the buildings nearby, trying to evade one another, as Naruto mocked them.
"Ahaha! Give it up! You're just bent because you don't have the guts to do what we do! Do ya?! Losers! Wanna be's! You'll never catch us!"
"N-Naruto! How is that helping us?!" I whined, dodging one of the men as he tried to grab my jacket.
"Ahaha! You're no fun, Takeru! Live a little!"
"Isn't that what I'm doing now?!"
We both jumped down and jumped back up, but the ninjas missed the fact that Naruto and I had actually hid behind a cloth that helped us blend in with the fence.
"Ahaha!" Naruto laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "That was too easy!"
"T-That's what I'm worried about." I muttered, when I felt my ears twitch under my hat and my hair stand on end. Uh-oh.
"Oh yeah?! Naruto! Takeru!"
"Wah!" Naruto jumped in a panic and landed on his backside in the dirt, whereas I just flinched with a wince. We're caught. "Where'd you come from, Iruka sensei?! What are you doing here?!"
"No, what are you two doing here?" He growled, pointing at us as I helped Naruto up. "You're both supposed to be in class."
Naruto frowned and I could tell he was going to make a bolt for it, but before we could so much as move a step, Iruka had us both tied up; Naruto tucked under his arm and me over his shoulder.
"Nice try."
He quickly ran over the rooftops and brought us back to the classroom where the other students were waiting, dropping us unceremoniously onto the ground before starting to lecture us.
"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto, Takeru. You both failed the graduation test last time and the time before that. Tomorrow, you've both got another chance and you're messing up again!"
"Hm!" Naruto huffed, turning away as I sweat dropped and looked over at him.
Iruka wasn't pleased. "Fine! Because you two missed it, everyone will review the Transformation Jutsu!"
"Aw!" Everyone complained.
"No arguing!" Iruka said. "Now line up!"
Everyone came down from their desks and lined up as Iruka untied Naruto and I, and each began going through the process of transforming.
"Alright, Sakura here. Let's do it!" Sakura said, a girl with vibrant pink hair who I had gotten to know a little.
She was one of Sasuke's fans and had some sort of rivalry friendship with another girl in class called Ino. I didn't mind her. She said that I was cute too, but she said she wouldn't give up Sasuke for some 'scaredy-cat' like me, as she put it. I didn't mind. In fact, I was grateful. One less stalker fan girl for me. Sakura was nice enough and smart too, but she felt a bit too… obsessive with Sasuke to really become anything more than an acquaintance to me.
"Transform!"
I had to admit though, she had some really good chakra control. She transformed into Iruka perfectly. As Iruka praised her and she asked Sasuke about how she did, I fidgeted beside Naruto. I've been working on my transformation around Naruto, but those ears and tail are going to be a problem. Sasuke easily transformed into Iruka too and I knew that it was my turn before Iruka even said my name.
"Takeru Kobayashi."
"This is a total waste of time, Takeru." Shikamaru complained from beside Naruto.
"We always pay for your guys' screw ups." Ino also whined.
"Like we care." Naruto quipped back, giving me a grin and a thumbs up. "Good luck, Takeru!"
I nodded back at him and stood in front of Iruka nervously, feeling sweat trickled down the back of my neck despite the reassuring smile he was giving me.
"Go ahead, Takeru."
Taking a deep breath, I put my hands into the seal and did what I could.
"Transform!"
A poof of smoke appeared besides me and a copy of Iruka stood there with a smile. I thought I had finally done it and was excited, until I spotted the cat ears on the top of his head and my smile faltered. Iruka though was very confused and scratched his head as he wrote something down on his clip board.
"It's, uh, almost a perfect copy. But do try to keep your thoughts free of… cats when you're doing this jutsu, Takeru."
"Y-Yes, sir." I muttered, bowing my head and hiding my bright red face as I moved back over to where Naruto was.
"That's alright, Takeru!" He said, patting me on the back roughly as his name was called. "Watch this!"
He stepped forward and did the hand seal. "Transform!"
When he turned into a long haired, blonde naked woman though, I wasn't the only one red in the face in embarrassment. Poor Iruka got a bloody nose and nearly passed out, though Naruto just laughed.
"Ahaha! Gotcha! That's my Sexy Jutsu!"
"Cut your stupid tricks!" Iruka shouted after having recovered. "This is your last warning!"
Needless to say, it wasn't surprising when Naruto and I were stuck cleaning up the graffiti off the Hokage monuments after school. The whole time, I stayed silent, trying to think up ways to keep my cat appendages from showing up in my Transformation Jutsu, but Naruto scrubbed beside me and muttered complaints.
"This sucks, loser."
"Neither of you are going home until you've cleaned off every single drop of paint." Iruka scolded from his perch above us.
"So what?!" Naruto shouted back. "It's not like there's anyone waiting at home for me! Takeru's the only one and he's stuck here with me!"
I felt my chest ache, images of my old family flashing through my head, and a small sorrowful frown made its way onto my face. Naruto had a similar frown, though his was a bit more annoyed than mine.
"Naruto?" Iruka called.
"What do ya want now, sensei?"
"Well, I was just thinking…" He pretended like he wasn't up to something, but I knew better. "…Maybe after you two have cleaned this all up, I could take you two out for some ramen. The good stuff. What do you think?"
"Now you did it." I muttered, catching Iruka's attention as Naruto got all excited.
"Ah! Now that's some serious motivation! We'll have this clean in no time! Right, Takeru?!"
I glanced over at him and then up at Iruka, pleadingly. "C-Can we get dango too?"
He chuckled, scratching at the scar across his nose. "I'm sure I could get you some, Takeru."
I nodded, the hint of a smile on my face—though it disappeared quickly—and Naruto and I got to work. It was getting late by the time we finished cleaning up all the paint and I made a mental note to water down the paint next time we did something like this so that it would be easier to clean if we got caught, but we were soon sitting at Ichiraku's ramen stand with a couple of hot bowls of soup and a few sticks of dango for me. Oddly enough, as we chowed down, Iruka began to question the two of us.
"Naruto."
"Hm?" Naruto asked, mouth full of ramen.
"Why would you do that to the Hokage faces? I mean, you know who the Hokage are, don't you?"
"Course I do." Naruto said confidently, draining his bowl of everything in it. "Everybody knows. They were the greatest shinobi of their time, right? The best of the best? Undefeated ninja champs? And the fourth Hokage's the one who saved the village… from the nine-tailed fox. He was the most amazing."
"Then why did you—"
"Because I'm going to be greater than any of them. Me. Naruto! The next Hokage! A ninja legend! Then everyone would have to stop disrespecting me and look up to me! Believe it!" Naruto said loudly, pointing his chopsticks at a dumbfounded Iruka.
Iruka then leaned over a bit, eyeing me. "What about you, Takeru? Why do you go along with his crazy schemes?"
"Hey!" Naruto shouted, but Iruka ignored him for now.
"I mean, you know you'll get in trouble for it, don't you?"
I looked up from my half empty ramen bowl, having wondered that myself from time to time. Why did I go along with these crazy pranks of Naruto's? Was it because he was my only real friend? Or maybe it was because I enjoyed doing it? Or could it be because of this new profession I was getting into and I just wanted to be a little skilled at getting out of tight situations? Then there was that other reason. The reason I didn't want to think of. Maybe, I was distracting myself to keep from realizing the kind of situation I was in. I had died and ended up in this world. Was there a way to get back? I had no clue and I didn't want to get my hopes up thinking there was one. So I settled for this. For finding things to do with my spare time to keep from thinking about it.
But now came the other question. Would I tell any of this to Iruka? Sure, he was our sensei and someone Naruto cared for, but that was just it. He was Naruto's sensei. Naruto's parental figure. The adult that Naruto trusted the most. I barely knew him. He was a nice teacher, yeah, but I didn't have this bond with him that Naruto had. I had more of a bond with Asuma and Kakashi—despite our previous encounter, I had taken up to following him some days to distract myself and to annoy him—than I did Iruka. So no, I decided. I wouldn't tell him the real reason, but I wouldn't lie either.
"I-I think it helps test my skills i-in battle strategy. I-I'm in charge of finding escape routes and… maybe it could help when I'm a ninja."
"Really?" Iruka seemed suspicious, so I added a bit more, embarrassment showing itself on my face as I turned back to my ramen.
"A-A-And it's kind of fun. A nice distraction from… tests and stuff."
Iruka sighed and turned his attention back to Naruto as I picked up a stick of dango and munched on it, ignoring their conversation about ninja headbands. After all, I still had to figure out what I was going to do for graduation. Naruto's skills were nearly up to par with the graduation requirements, but that didn't necessarily mean that he would pass. But if I didn't pass and he did, what would be the point? I sighed quietly and watched Iruka and Naruto bicker like a couple of brothers, silently wondering if I would ever be that close to someone again.
