IT'S STILL TUESDAY GUYS! I'm sorry I updated this so late in the day though -_-
So um…this chapter is the longest so far...I'm sorry :X There's quite a bit of explaining to do in this chapter. I hope you'll like it though!
A SUPER DUPER thank you to .Fox for the review! :D
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.
Chapter 12: The Bigger World
It was another quiet, peaceful day in the village. The clouds lazily rolled across the sky, and gentle winds passed through the streets, carrying loose green leaves that had fallen from the trees. It was quite a beautiful day, and to make things even better...the kids were in school.
However, as peaceful and beautiful as the day was, the Hokage was still bogged down with paperwork. Oh darn.
Hiruzen leaned back in his chair while reviewing a report about a new ANBU recruit. He realized and remembered that it was Kagami.
Ah, that's right. I wonder how she's doing. It was only yesterday that I spoke with her. Meaning today, Shun should have installed her.
He looked at a clock on the wall. It was ticking towards noon.
I think I shall take a break and walk outside for some fresh air.
The Hokage put the paper down onto his desk, then signed it. He turned his head to look at what was left to work on. Papers, papers, more papers, and more papers, and papers. OH LOOK! More papers.
On second thought…I think I will take the rest of the day off.
When you are the Hokage, you do whatever the hey you want to.
Hiruzen breathed a relieved sigh, already enjoying himself in his newly created work-free world.
Just as he stood up to call it a day, he heard a sudden stampede of feet in the hall, followed by the door blasting open. It swung into the wall so fiercely that the doorknob fell off.
"OLD MAN, ARE YOU NUTS?"
It was Kagami.
The Hokage stared wildly at the girl, then at the doorknob on the floor. He had a feeling that his day wasn't quite over yet.
"What is the meaning of this?" he asked, half calm, half nerve-wrecked.
Another voice angrily bellowed from the hallway.
"KAGAMI! Come back here! Now!"
The girl squeaked and dashed over to the Hokage and hid behind him. As she clutched onto his robes, she peeked out, and saw Shun storm into the office. He was wearing his ANBU uniform again, and he had that cat-face mask on. Despite not being able to see his face, Kagami knew that the expression behind that mask wasn't a pretty one.
Shun cleared his throat and said, "Lord Hokage, I deeply apologize for the interruption. I-AUH!"
He fell over onto his face. Someone had run into him from behind, knocked him over, and landed onto his back.
"Oh, sorry sir...OLD MAN SAVE ME! Iruka-sensei's gonna KILL ME!"
I think we can all make a guess as to who this particular someone is. If not, Iruka will soon tell you.
"NARUTO! Get back here!" he yelled.
The boy scrambled from on top of the ANBU soldier's back and scurried over to the Hokage to hide behind him. He widened his eyes when he saw a familiar face.
"Hey! You're that girl I saw yesterday at the ramen shop! What are you doing here?" he asked, excitement in his voice.
"Uh…"
The girl didn't remember seeing him, but she answered his question anyways.
"I'm hiding from my sensei," she whispered, pointing at the ANBU who was picking himself up from the fall. "That guy."
The boy slightly tilted his head back and his mouth shaped into an "Oh…!"
The girl questioned him back, "And what are you doing here?"
He grinned, "I'm hiding from my sensei, too!"
As if on cue, Iruka had finally arrived and entered the room.
The young boy pointed his finger at his teacher and said, "Him!"
Iruka and Shun now stood next to each other, with a little bit of distance in between them. They both glared at their respective students.
Hiding behind the Hokage, the boy and girl simultaneous stared back at their teachers, and stuck their tongues out. They looked at each other and grinned.
"Teachers suck," the boy said.
"Oh, you know it," the girl agreed.
The boy smiled. Maybe he knew it then, maybe he didn't, but he now had a partner in crime-Excuse me, he had a new friend.
He took a thumb and pointed at himself as he grinned.
"I'm Naruto! Naruto Uzumaki!"
The girl smiled back.
"My name's Kagami. Kagami Watanabe."
When they exchanged their names, something clicked between them. A new bond had been born, and was strengthening with each moment that passed as the boy and girl smiled at each other.
Amidst all of this abrupt craziness on his day off, the Hokage was most perplexed at what he had just heard. He looked down at the girl beside him, and noticed that she had the ANBU tattoo on her arm.
The fact that Kagami had just told her name to someone else, and that she had the ANBU tattoo meant that something had gone wrong with her installation into the ANBU Black Ops.
That was already one negative thing. The other thing was already going downhill from the looks of it. Little did Kagami know that she was taking a pop quiz.
The Hokage, the poor…old…man…closed his eyes, and sighed. He mentally beat each person in the room with a wooden stick. These youngsters, these whippersnappers, had no idea how hard it was to be the Hokage. And they just had to ruin his day off. Well, with the situations at hand, it wasn't his day off anymore. Sorry, old man.
Shun saw how confused and overwhelmed the Hokage looked-well, anyone could have seen that. Except for blind people, but that's besides the point. So, Shun decided to go first with filling in his boss on what was going on.
"Lord Hokage, that girl over there refuses to follow ANBU's rules! She's being a complete fool!"
Kagami retorted, "Hey! You know what? What if I don't want to join some shady organization that hunts and assassinates people?" She turned her head to look up at the Hokage. "Why old man? I only want to become stronger so I can fight to protect! Not to kill!"
Before the Hokage could say anything, Shun defended him and shouted, "The Hokage wanted you to join ANBU because he thought that it would be best for you! It's for your well being!"
Kagami shouted back, "In ANBU, no one is allowed to say who they are! Am I supposed to hide from everyone when I rebuild my village? Am I supposed to lead them when they don't even know who I am?"
"That's not the point!" Shun roared.
"Then what is it?"
Iruka and Naruto stared wildly at the verbal brawl that unfolded before them. They had a feeling that their issue was of much less…significance. Not only that, but something told them that they were hearing things that they shouldn't have been hearing. Any information regarding ANBU and its members was strictly confidential.
So what was the Hokage doing this whole time? You would've thought that the old man would've done something by now to stop the argument and the information that Kagami was spewing out about herself. But no, the old man had something else in mind.
"Enough!" he barked, speaking in his authoritative and gruff tone.
Both Kagami and Shun immediately stopped their bickering.
"Shun. Kagami. I want you to wait outside of this room." He turned to the other teacher and student pair. "Iruka. Naruto. Stay in here."
The Hokage knew that whatever their problem was, it would be easier and quicker to deal with first.
Iruka took a deep breath, then said, "Naruto was causing a disturbance in class today, so I sent him outside. He decided to ditch school then, and from my window, I saw him running away. I told the rest of the kids to work on some homework, then I chased after him. And now we're here."
The Hokage nodded his head, and grunted out a "Hmm."
He set his eyes on the blond boy.
"Naruto."
"...Yes?...Old man?"
"You realize that you are causing a great deal of trouble, not just for your teacher, but for myself as well?"
Naruto turned his head away and pouted, while crossing his arms.
"School is boring. And no one talks to me. Why should I even bother?"
The Hokage gently smiled at the boy.
"Perhaps school may be boring, but it is important. And…didn't Kagami talk to you? You two…seemed to get along for the little time you spent behind me, hiding from your teachers."
Naruto widened his eyes, but his head was still turned away, and his arms were still crossed.
"Naruto, do you realize that you have stumbled upon a secret?"
"A secret?" he asked. Now his attention was completely caught.
"Yes. You do realize what I am talking about, correct?"
Naruto tilted his head and put his thumb and index finger in a V-shape on his chin.
"…Yeah. Now that I think about it, that whole argument…Kagami had something to do with ANBU, right? Meaning…she-"
Naruto snapped his fingers.
"She wasn't supposed to tell me her name! But she did! And she wasn't wearing her uniform or those weird masks!" he blurted.
"You actually did learn something in school! Wow. I mean-Yes! That is the secret, Naruto. Kagami is a member of ANBU. Well, she is supposed to be. And I am only supposed to know the identities of the people who are in ANBU. However, you now know the identity of an ANBU member. You know what she looks like, and you know who she is."
"Wow…this is an awesome secret!"
"But! You must listen to me, Naruto. If you want to keep this secret, you must go to school and not cause Iruka anymore trouble. And of course, you can't tell anyone about it. Otherwise, I will have Inoichi erase everything you heard in this room. And you will no longer have this secret."
"NO OLD MAN! I want to keep the secret!"
"Then you will go to school and not cause anymore trouble."
Naruto nodded his head up and down.
"I promise! I'll go to school and be good."
The Hokage smiled.
"Good! Then this secret is yours and Kagami's only."
"Wait…but old man, you know about it!"
"I'm the Hokage. I'm supposed to know everything."
"Oh…wait, what about Iruka-sensei?"
The two turned their heads at the man who had been quietly standing aside.
The Hokage cleared his throat. "Iruka, do you mind if we have Inoichi erase a little bit of today from your memory?"
Iruka shuffled his feet, then said, "Ah…for the sake of everything, Lord Hokage, I think that that would be the best. I don't particularly like knowing things I shouldn't know about."
"Good. I'll find a substitute teacher to teach for rest of today, and you and I shall head over to the mind-reading chamber later on." He turned back to the boy. "Are you satisfied now, Naruto?"
He nodded his head up and down again, a big grin on his face. He liked this whole secret deal.
"Now then. Iruka, please go find Izumo and Kotetsu. They should be off-duty, so they can teach your class for the rest of the day. Naruto, go back to school with them."
"Yes, Lord Hokage."
"You got it, old man!"
Well...That was one problem solved.
"A little after I finished printing the tattoo onto her arm, she just burst out the door and ran away! It was before we swore her into ANBU. And she hadn't chosen a mask yet," Shun explained.
Kagami talked back, "I was panicking! You told me that ANBU was for assassination and torture! I realized that at the last minute, and that's why I ran! This isn't something I want to do! Why didn't you tell me about this, old man? I thought you were going to have…a normal sensei teach me! This is all crazy!"
"You failed," the Hokage said.
The girl widened her eyes. "…What?" she asked, suddenly nervous.
"You. Failed," he repeated.
"What…do you mean?"
"This was your first test. And you failed."
Kagami still didn't get it. She would have realized what was going on if she saw the smirk behind Shun's mask.
"Every ninja must be well informed before he or she takes action. Of course, there are exceptions, but you must have good judgment based upon what you know. Shun told you that ANBU is for assassinations and torture, correct? However, he didn't tell you everything. You didn't like what you heard, and so you acted upon it. You had good judgment to come to me and ask about it. However, your behavior needs improvement. You should have been more calm, and you should have spoken in a more mature tone. That is why you have failed this test."
Kagami's eyes widened. She was stupefied.
This whole thing was a test. A test. Did that mean that Shun yelling at her was all but an act? She knew that they didn't exactly hit it off at the ramen shop, but she didn't expect that their arguments would get this bad. But they didn't. According to the Hokage, it was just a test. So...Shun wasn't really mad at her?
Her sensei put a hand onto her shoulder.
"You're young kid, but you gotta start training now, if you want to become stronger. The Hokage wants you in ANBU because he knows you can take on the challenge. I know it's more strict, and probably more scary, but I promise you won't have to hunt anyone down and kill them or torture them. We just want you here because the training will help you gain the skills to reach your goal."
He paused, then added, "And that's the whole story."
Kagami nearly cried. After hearing everything, she couldn't believe that she acted so foolishly.
The Hokage said, "Well, that's not exactly the whole story. You see Kagami, when you told Shun and I about this man who…destroyed your village, we thought it would be best that you go into ANBU for the other reason of hiding your identity. If word gets out that a Kagami Watanabe lives in the Hidden Leaf, this man may hunt after you again, and I would not like for that to happen."
Kagami slowly shook her head while looking down.
"…I'm sorry…I'm sorry I was so immature about this…I didn't know-"
"Hey kid, it's alright. You're still learning. It's how you grow. And you'll keep growing. We all do."
The Hokage smiled. He was glad that he had chosen Shun to teach the girl.
"Oh…and Kagami?" said the old man. "About this whole identity deal. You were quite upset about it earlier. I thought the situation over, and I have decided that you may go around in the village without a mask."
Kagami's face brightened up. She now understood why they wanted to hide her identity, but she still didn't like the idea of walking around in a mask all day.
"However, this will only be half of the time. Whenever you are training, and whenever you are with the ANBU, you must be in uniform, you must wear a mask, and you must go by your codename. For the rest of the time, you may go by your real name in the village, but only your first name. You must not tell anyone about your surname, your village, or the Bikuyu, understand? This is for your safety."
Kagami had a small smile on her face. The old man wasn't nuts at all. He was being gracious.
"Oh, and I forgot to tell you one more thing," he added. "You remember Naruto, yes? Well, he knows that you are Kagami Watanabe, and that you are in ANBU now. Although this is completely breaking ANBU's rules, I decided that you may tell him, and only him, anything about yourself. I made him promise that he wouldn't tell anything about you. You see, I thought it would be nice for you to have at least one person who is your age that you can sincerely talk to. I noticed that you made quite the bond earlier. I have a feeling that you two will need each other."
Kagami had a wide, happy smile on her face now. She thought that she would have to live the rest of her life in the Hidden Leaf in half-secrecy, but no. She would have a friend. Naruto would be there for her. And she would be there for him.
Naruto had returned to class, and to the rest of the class' surprise, he was grinning like a madman. Usually, he would be sulking because of Iruka's scolding. But even Iruka didn't come back to the classroom. Instead, Izumo and Kotetsu were replacing him for the day.
Substitutes! YES! Glory hallelujah.
"Hey, Naruto! Why are you smiling so much?" a pink-haired girl asked. "Didn't you get in trouble?"
Naruto just grinned back. "I can't tell ya, Sakura! It's a secret! And no, I didn't get in trouble."
The girl named Sakura had the "…What?" look on her face.
Naruto sat down, then eyed a certain someone next to him. A mischievous grin appeared on the blonde boy's face as he poked the one we all know as Sasuke Uchiha.
"Hey, Sasuke," he goaded.
"…What, Naruto?"
"I know something you don't."
Oh, Naruto, you're such a tease.
I HOPE YOU LIKED IT! And I hope it wasn't…too confusing. It's sort of complex, and I had some trouble writing it so that it makes sense, but if anything doesn't make sense to you, please, please, please, please tell me, and I'll fix it to the best of my abilities. And of course, if you want, I can just explain it to you too! ANYWHO! Stay tuned, and, TATA!