AN: I have to say thanks to all the people who love this story, and it is a lot. More people like this story with one chapter than my other one with four chapters. Unfortunately, I love Liar's Place more, and will work on that more. That and I actually have plans for it, Hive I just come up with as I go. Thanks again! This chap is dedicated to my friend Brittany, who talked about so many different ideas that she went hoarse for three days. Oh I forgot I was going to ask this, but why does everyone say Shino's dad's name is Shibi? In my Anime Profiles book, it said it's Gen.
When they were all seated, the man that was to be their teacher spoke again. "Well, my name is Sarutobi Asuma. I don't really have a plan on what I'm going to teach you, we'll be playing it by ear for the most of it. Now I want you to introduce yourselves in the standard manner; full name, favorite and least favorite things, dreams, hobbies, and any other information that may help this team." Shino raised his hand.
"Asuma-sensei, we, as a team, decided that we would share any and all secrets we may have. But as I told Shikamaru, that conversation should not be held in public. Can we please move to a more closed location?"
Asuma was shocked at the closeness the three, but agreed that it wasn't a conversation the whole restaurant needed to hear. "So, do you have any ideas where to go, almost everywhere in the village is too public for the discussion?"
"I know of a place." Shikamaru and Asuma turned towards Naruto. "The district I live in is abandoned. None should be there. We could go to my house…that is if no one else has an idea." Naruto had shuffled until he was behind Shino as he was talking.
'That kid has problems.' Asuma watched as Shino stepped to the side a whispered something into the small blonde's ear. Whatever he said seemed to calm the boy down some. "I think we should discuss different living conditions for you when we get there." He stood. "Lead the way."
Naruto silently turned and lead them out of the shop. He kept following the main road until he came upon the outer wall, at which he turned right and started to follow the wall. As he was leading them, the other three were left to talk amongst themselves. Asuma started the conversation by asking how they came to such an idea to share any secrets they had. Sino answered.
"Naruto and I had already known about the odd team placements, just not who our third member would be. We thought for the rest of the night on what made a strong team, and our answer boiled down to one factor; trust."
Shikamaru chuckled, "I don't remember you talking this much before you met Naruto."
"Naruto doesn't talk much, so he doesn't express himself much. I can understand how he is feeling and tell it to others. I talk this much so Naruto doesn't need to talk. And come to think of it Shikamaru, I haven't heard you say troublesome at all in this conversation." Shika huffed at this.
"I told you I had changed. Damn do you know how hard it is for me not to say that word now?"
"What word Shikamaru?" The boy in question didn't even think before he answered Naruto.
"Troublesome." They were all then shocked by the soft laughter of the blond boy, it sounded like the chiming of small bells.
"I got you to say the word Shikamaru."
"I guess you did Naruto."
"You should laugh more often Naruto."
"You tell me that a lot Shino. Anyway, here we are." Naruto stopped and motioned at the surroundings with his arms. "Home, sweet home." The others slowly turned in an effort of seeing something that even resembled a home. The only sight that met their eyes was rundown buildings and broken glass.
"Why do you live here?"
"Well Asuma-sensei, it is because it is the only place that people wouldn't hurt me. Hokage-sama tried putting me into an orphanage, but they kicked me out at the age of three. Next he bought me an apartment, but no one was willing to watch me but an ANBU guard. At both of those places, people attacked me and destroyed anything I might have had." Asuma and Shikamaru were shocked speechless. "I was running from one such mob when I entered this complex. I hid here and wondered why nobody had followed me here. Later I learned that many people thought this place held a curse because no one knew what killed all the people here and destroyed the buildings. All thoughts of it being Kyuubi's doing don't make any sense, the wall, as you can see, hasn't been breached." At the end of his tale, Naruto held up a hand and waved at a nearby corner. Out of the shadows, walked an ANBU. The guard walked over to their group and waited to hear what Naruto wanted.
"Thank you for bothering to come. I just wanted to ask you to move away from the house, our conversation isn't for others' ears."
"That is against protocol."
"I know, please?"
The man seemed to sigh, but then ruffled Naruto's hair in a fatherly manner. "Fine. But if anything happens, I won't take the blame."
"Thank you again." The ANBU turned to Asuma, Shikamaru, and Shino.
"I've seen Shino here before, but the other two are new. If anything happens to Naruto has a result of this conversation, I will personally hunt you down." His voice held a cold edge that caused Shika and Shino to shiver; Asuma was used to dealing with death threats.
"You know me cat, I wouldn't harm a hair on the poor boy's head."
"That's what Kieta told me, Asuma."
"Nothing will happen." They turned towards Naruto, who was wiping tears out of his eyes. Out of nowhere, a loud buzzing sound could be heard, and it was quickly becoming deafening.
"I'm sorry to bring her up Naruto. I will go now, but please signal me when I can move back to my post."
"Sure." The ANBU jumped off as Naruto turned and entered the decrepit building in front of them. "I don't have electricity here, so I don't have much food, sorry for not mentioning it before."
"That's fine Naruto; it was a good idea to come here." Asuma noticed that Naruto talked more when he was in this area, but the conversation with the ANBU had left him curious about his new student. He had no doubt in his mind that they would have passed his teamwork test, and he was already trying to figure out how to train them individually. He also began to feel the same way around Naruto as he did when he was around Konohamaru; like he needed to protect the boy. "So, Naruto, why are the ANBU so nice to you? Usually, they ignore most people."
"Before coming here, I stayed at the ANBU base at the Hokage Tower. They told me that as soon as I became a chunin, they would bug the Hokage until he let them train me to become ANBU."
"Why would they take such measures, you are young."
"Because of the Saimyosho."
"And that is what?"
Shikamaru looked up at the last word. "The 'Hell's Wasps'?"
They continued to follow Naruto as he led them around to the back of the building. They went out a door and stood awed at the sight that greeted them. Calling it a garden would be like calling a hurricane a rain shower; a gross understatement.
"You can only get partial sunlight in here. Most trees and plants find that it is too shady and too wet to survive here." Naruto walked over to a four foot tall bush that had stalks coming out of it. On top of the stalks were bunches of white flowers that resembled butterflies. "This is Hedychium coronarium, or Butterfly Lily. It lives in tropic areas and has a wonderful scent." Naruto seemed very proud of his garden and walked around describing the different plants that he had grown. Finally he finished with the last flower, which happened to be peppermint, and led them to a flat, grass-covered section in the garden. "I've talked enough, my throat hurts."
"I'll go first I guess." Shikamaru had heard the scraping sound in Naruto's throat and decided to go first. "I am Shikamaru of the Nara clan. I am not a very active person, I wanted to be a casual ninja, a casual worker, and live a normal life."
"Wanted?" Asuma butted in. "What changed?"
"I got curious about why the people treat Naruto the way he is treated. Now I've seen how bad he has it, I want to work to change that and make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."
"How moving. You know, this means I only expect you to be a little lazy now right?"
"Yea, yea, now let me finish. My father says I've got the fastest strategic mind he's seen in years, and I love to play shogi or go to test this claim out. I have yet to be beaten. My most used jutsu is the Kagemane, or the Shadow Possession Jutsu, which allows me to control an enemy's movement .My father says he'll show me another family ninjutsu when he thinks I'm ready." He took a big breath. "I think that's all for now."
"Very good Shikamaru. How about you, Shino, want to go next?"
"That is fine with me. I am Shino of the Aburame clan. Ninjutsu that involves the use of our insects is the specialty of my clan. While it is fairly common for ninja to summon animals to fight with them using Kuchiyose techniques, in our case, the insects live in our bodies and ingest our chakra as food. This way, I can deploy them in battle without a summoning. My bugs can steal others' chakra as well, and they are most used for this. Other uses include a clone made of them and tracking."
"Okay, enough about techniques, tell me what I really want to know, how you and Naruto met." Asuma broke in.
"The first day of the Academy, he was being attacked by a villager when my father stepped in and stopped him. We have been friends ever since. Naruto often spends time over at my home with my clan and helps us categorize our different colonies."
"I think it is my turn now. I warn you, I have the most secrets so it could take awhile." He waited until everyone had settled down more and gotten comfortable. "My first secret is a S-class secret of the village, and I have
gotten permission to discuss it with anyone I choose. You can't discuss it with anyone else though. Twelve years ago, a great fox spirit with nine tails attacked our village…"
'Is he really going to tell them?' Asuma was scared that the other two would see Naruto as the fox, which would put a damper on the whole 'teamwork' thing.
"We already know this Naruto." Shikamaru broke in.
"No you don't Shikamaru." Asuma told him.
"…and the fourth Hokage defeated the fox by sealing its soul into the body of a baby boy, me." Naruto waited to hear Shikamaru's response to the truth. Shikamaru looked around at everyone else's faces to see that he was the only one that was surprised.
"Did everyone know but me?!" He turned to Shino.
"Naruto and I have already discussed our secrets, and it really isn't that hard to believe, is it?" He turned to Asuma next.
"Everyone old enough to remember exactly what happened that night knows the truth." The jonin watched as Shikamaru calmed himself and looked back at Naruto.
"How did you find out, where you told?"
"That's the rest of my story. When I was five and still had an apartment, I thought I made a friend. Her name was Kieta and she was a chunin who the Hokage had assigned to watch me. She was so nice and I trusted her so much that I missed the signs of her hate for me. I didn't see her glares, even if she looked right at me. I was so blind because she gave me clothes and food." He had to break off and wipe some tears out of his eyes.
"It ended three weeks later. She tied me up and dragged me out into the forest, where another bunch of chunin were waiting. I had passed out by the time they stop beating me into the ground. I was woken up by the sound of screaming and buzzing. The group had gotten drunk and now they were being attacked by a group of huge wasps, the Saimyosho. While everyone was being killed, a woman stepped out. She was so beautiful, but even a five year old could tell she wasn't human, the most noticeable thing was the pointed ears and wings…" his voice dwindled off without a finish.
"Wings?" Asuma questioned, but it appeared Naruto was caught up in his own little world.
"She was the queen. I can't go into details but I can tell you that she gave me a hive, like Shino, of Saimyosho. They are the Hell's Wasp." Naruto stopped to pull his hair back into a ponytail, allowing them to see the holes below his ears. Black spots could be seen crawling out of them. The spots grew wings and flew up into the air where they kept growing. Shikamaru, Shino and Asuma were stunned that in seconds they were surrounded by huge wasps.
"Even you were stunned Shino?" Asuma broke the silence.
"The wasps were explained to me, but I've never seen them."
"So Naruto, why can't you go into details?"
"I was five and had a concussion, I'm lucky to remember anything. I can tell you that she explained that the Hell's Wasps served the Kyuubi and saw them as their liege lord. Since I held the Kyuubi, they would serve and protect me. They are the only reason I've survived this long." Naruto held his arms out and a wasp flew into his grip. He then hugged the wasp close to him.
"Too troublesome…."
An: Done! Hope it's good. Anyway, if you want, I'm spreading the word about my own stories (that very few have read) and Dark Orb's stories. Which are awesome and deserve a good reading!