The Lost Yamanaka

Disclaimer: Naruto is the legal property of Masashi Kishimoto. The only things I own are what my parents choose to bequeath upon me .

Chapter Three: Overcoming Obstacles

Yamanaka Ino glared.

Yamanaka Naruto half-smiled apologetically at her, attempting to appease the angry blond . "I'm sorry?"

They were in the Naruto's room. Neat and fashionable as befitting a cousin of Yamanaka Ino. It had a wardrobe full of civies, a full length mirror in one corner, his futon in another. In the middle of the floor Naruto and Ino sat with – curiously enough – a gerbil docilely sitting on top of it's cage. It was facing the blonde female, idly noting that the blonde male was apparently in for a lot of strife.

"Sorry?" Ino's glared intensified. "Don't apologise to me Naruto! Apologise to our ancestors! How can you be so terrible at mastering our clan jutsu?"

He shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't like he wasn't trying, because he definitely was. When he wasn't straightening his hair, doing shifts at the shop, sleeping, eating, defecating, or at the Academy he was training for this jutsu. How could he not? Shitenshin no jutsu was the first family jutsu a Yamanaka could learn, if he couldn't master that he wouldn't be allowed to use the more advanced stuff, which pretty much meant that he had failed his heritage!

While his uncle may have been content with being a apothecary and retiring to the midst of the Forest of Doom, Naruto wasn't. He had a desperate urge to prove himself and gain honour for the late parents who he had never knew. If Naruto didn't have the clan jutsu, then how could he rise to be outstanding? While he wouldn't be disowned, or scorned or anything like that, Naruto felt the he and and everyone else would look down on him and by extension the Yamanaka name. He sometimes had nightmares about it.

"I am trying No-Chan." He said, trying to be patient with Ino and her temper.

"Close, but no cigar! What if you try on a mission and fail, huh? What are you gonna say to the family of your dead team mates then? 'Sorry, I did try, but since I failed anyway your son died because I was unable to take over the body of his enemy who then proceeded to cut him up into tiny little bits!"

She was ranting now, making up all sorts of scenarios for Naruto to say he was sorry for. Naruto though hurt, could understand where she was coming from. Naruto needed to be useful to his future cell, and since he was a Yamanaka the obvious choice was for him to learn the family jutsu. While he wanted to protest to the rant he knew it was best from experience to just let her get it out of her system.

"-you probably, just don't care how our clan looks! You and your uncle hideaway in this gigantic old forest spending your time making soup!" She finished, then she bit her lip guiltily. Sometimes she just got really mad. She really needed to work on her discipline . "Sorry."

"Don't worry." He flashed her a sunny grin and promised, "I'll do it this time!"

Ino nodded carefully apparently holding back from saying anything else. She pulled out a timer and pointed to Gatou (the Yamanaka gerbil). He nodded back, holding the grin for a second longer and then resolutely flashed the appropriate hand sign, whilst aiming in the general direction of the rodent. Focusing carefully, he moulded his chakra and let the familiar feeling of numbness take over. "Shitenshin no jutsu!"

Ino's pensive face and the world around him got dark. He closed his eyes.

Naruto/Gatou opened his eyes. He squealed loudly, and Ino (who was now sitting on his futon) clicked the timer. Naruto/Gatou squealed again, demanding to know.

"Three minutes, forty-five seconds." She looked at him, pity in her eyes obvious even to Gatou's poor eyesight. "You've been at it for months now, and we both know that it should be about thirty seconds max for a human take-over in proximity this close, let-alone a gerbil."

Naruto/Gatou looked away, pretending to study his own (devilishly good looking in his opinion) body. It looked stupidly over-sized and cumbersome from this angle, and as weird as it was it was better at looking at Ino's expression.

He hated that look. What he truly hated was that he knew she was right. Ino, Yamanaka elite that she might be, had only taken a week to be able to get where he currently was. Two days of meditation to get the general concept behind the jutsu, learn the hand seals and memorise the risks, four more to pull it off in practice and one more to cut her time from a minute of struggling, the week after she had got it down to twenty seconds (rodent brains are easy) before she started practising on willing family members. It didn't look like Naruto was going to ever master that jutsu. Naruto/Gatou squealed again.

Ino sighed noisily. It was only a matter of time before she started making excuses not to help. Naruto knew that she disliked these sessions because of this particular part of the session, but he needed someone here to do it. There were two reasons that beginners had to be supervised, one because this was mind-jutsu, (very dangerous) and two, when you're beginning you start on animals, which meant there are no hands to activate the release. More experienced Yamanaka could expend the animals life energy to get out but that required experience, plus it would kill Gatou. That's why there was a special reverse jutsu that Yamanaka used to free their relatives while they were beginning.

It was unnamed for safeties sake (they didn't want it falling easily into enemy hands,) and it took lots of concentration. It also made for an excellent headache for both parties, and in Ino's mind headaches lead to frowning, which lead to wrinkles, which lead to ugliness, which lead to Forehead-girl getting Sasuke. In other words she hated it.

She reached over, bracing herself for a headache and sent Naruto tumbling back into his own body with thoughts of Kisuke, and his – if not easier then simpler – old life.

Lying awake in his room after the days activities, Iruka's homework and Inochi's surprisingly good dinner, Naruto pondered his latest obstacle. It felt depressingly like he was on his own here sometimes.

What Naruto hadn't anticipated ( with the whole being a ninja affair ) was the odd jarring moments when he would turn around to ask Kisuke a question and to his continuing surprise, come up short. He'd probably have to work on that. Kisuke wasn't in Konoha. Wasn't part of his enterprising life as a shinobi in training. Naruto wasn't able to seek Kisuke out for the various new and puzzling problems that he needed help with. And he really needed help with them. While problems such as dressing to impress and situation specific conversation starters were easily delegated to Ino to help him – as they had always been – , things like who would be socially acceptable to prank in Konoha would not be appreciated by Ino or Inochi or practically any of the Yamanaka family. This was an outrageous Uncle Kisuke question.

He also had a hard time asking Inochi for help learning Clan techniques, being both a Clan-Head and a Jounin kept him fairly busy and Naruto felt sure he had no business bugging Inochi during the precious little moments he had with his immediate family and more importantly Ino. His No-chan deserved her 'daddy-daughter' time as she liked to call them, after all Naruto knew how important parental connections should be.

Thus began Naruto's search for Konoha!Kisuke. Not actually a leafy version of Kisuke but a mentor in Konoha to help him with training. One that would help him with not only his Clan training but with avoiding shaming his Clan too much with pranking and failing at being a ninja, like Uncle Kisuke. After all, the next step to becoming a great ninja and understanding his parents and not bringing shame onto his Clan was getting a teacher, right? (Wrong. But Naruto had never really asked for the specifics of ninja-hood unless it was about colour co-ordination, or something along those lines.) The Genin Exam was a couple of months away now, if he wanted to pass without another year or so to drag his scores up there with his current classmates, he was going to need extra help.

To help with his Genin exam he would need a Shinobi or an ex-Shinobi. For his Clan training he would need a someone who was familiar with Clan techniques. This meant to Naruto someone from the Clan, (although in truth other Konoha shinobi knew how to use some Yamanaka jutsu.) Pranking help meant someone with a practical sense of humour, creative flair, silence under pressure, good tacti –

Naruto paused in his scheming, the practical sense of humour part wiped off every Konoha residing Yamanaka he knew. He swiftly apologised to Ino in his head.

The problem with his plan was he didn't know very many Yamanaka.

Sure, in his childhood (disregarding the now as a matter of course, in his own humble opinion Naruto had transgressed childhood, Ino never quite agreed) he had been visited by his closest most connected relatives quite often . Heck they were probably all that was standing in the way of him developing a true Kisuke like personality. But the Yamanaka Clan was larger than just his second cousin and her family.

What Naruto needed to do was to meet more Yamanaka, it just wasn't as simple as walking out into the Clan grounds and striking up a conversation with the next person he met. Mainly being that there was no Clan grounds. Heck, he was staying in Ino-the-Clan-Head-daughter's house at the moment and it doubled as a flower shop. He was almost tempted to go out and just shanghai the next blonde-haired, blue-eyed person he saw, but colouring really wasn't a reliable indicator of Yamanaka-ism. It was also probably racist.

Luckily for him, a Clan meeting was coming up. Something Yamanaka, important and to Naruto's annoyance classified had been stolen. Which was just cause for a Clan meeting to be held, both for the discussion of the serious business and also – in Kisuke's opinion – superfluous gossip. Naruto had never been to a clan meeting before. Kisuke never having deigned to attend and by extension neither had Naruto. Inochi, however did. He had to, being the head of the Yamanaka clan. Since Naruto was now living in Konoha, and Inochi was now his closest (geographically) adult relative, it would lose Inochi face if his cousin's nephew did not turn up. Which was now going to be convenient for Naruto's mentor search. While clan politics were something that Kisuke never paid attention to, apparently Ino did, and Naruto had learnt from her which automatically made it learning from the best. So Naruto had no qualms dragging his beloved 'No-chan' to the markets to shop for the big event.

The commercial district was located not too far from the gates of Konoha for several reasons; tourist trapping, easier access for merchants to trade before they found a comfortable bosom of the red light district to 'relax' in, the last pit stop before one of Konoha's finest went off on a mission and lastly because it was one of the most likely districts to finance it's own recovery should it be smashed to pieces by wantonly invading ninjas, (as invading ninjas were supposedly wont to do). The last reason was probably a whimsy on the part of the Fourth Hokage, made during his brief reign and the rebuilding after the Konoha/Iwa war. It certainly wasn't made privy to the civilian half of the council.

More importantly it was loaded with imported trinkets from all of Hi no Kuni's borders and a few that weren't. Since the Fire country was well off and had good weather and soil, (apart from a few forest fires – although that only served to better the quality of the earth) it's produce was of large quantities and good quality, so Konoha markets were privy to some of the best cuisine in the Elemental countries, not that Naruto and Ino would know as Ino was on yet another diet for her precious 'Sasuke-kun' and Naruto was – unfortunately for him – moral support. Which was a shame really because he thought he could smell something delicious and calorie-ridden coming from Ichiraku Ramen. Most critically however, for the purpose of this trip, Konoha's market had a large selection of clothiers with materials and designs imported directly from the capital which made it easier for those that were fashion conscious to keep up with the latest trends, after all, who knew who might see you?

It was in one of the many clothes stalls, that Sakura came across her rival. She had come to acquaint herself with some sort of accessory that would highlight her long hair that she had grew out for the sake of her crush. Something shiny that would draw attention to her head perhaps? She moved nearer to the earring rack, she'd be a kunoichi soon so maybe piercing her ears wouldn't seem too adult...

"Ruto-kun, try this white over-coat, it's Yondaime style!" The sound of Ino's voice; loud and demanding, and – dammit all – friendly evoked old happy memories that Sakura had thought she had gotten past, for a moment she was overwhelmed so she retreated in the dress section to covertly watch her rival and her cousin interact in a way Sakura and her hadn't in /years/. It seemed they only interacted in rivalry these days. Besides, if she concealed her presence she could treat this as espionage, great practice for her chosen career path.

Yamanaka Naruto emerged from the fish-net rack he had been rifling through in the corner and trotted to the wide array of coats Ino had surrounded herself with. He winced openly at the white over-coat that the blonde was brandishing in her hand.

"You know, No-chan, I said I wanted to be /like/ the Yondaime not his miniature clone." Sakura snickered silently, Ino always liked to think she knew best with what people should wear, Sakura still kept the ribbon that had been recommended and forcibly given to her after all these years. Definitely not for sentimental reasons.

Ino tutted, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and since he's dead it's not like you're going to run into the guy with the same outfit. Plus, white also looks formal-ish so you can wear it to the meeting."

Sakura figured this was her best chance to make an impression on the latest Yamanaka addition to the class. A quick glance at a handy in-stall mirror, a sneaky side-step to get behind them and then she casually dropped into their conversation, surprising the heck out of the wannabe ninjas.

"He may be dead, Ino-pig but his picture is still sitting around. It's not like the older generation won't notice either. Are you /brain/ dead or something?" Naruto blinked at her while Ino glared, refute most likely on her tongue, but more importantly Sakura had gotten new guy's attention. Take that piggy!

"It's just a over-coat, billboard-brow, it's not like it has the flames or kanji! Can't you see or is your forehead in the way?" Ino frowned, no doubt furious at the act of defying her choice in wardrobe. If Sakura were to push it too far then Ino would get too angry and the game would be over.

"It could have been that there was a big fat pig in the way-" Oops! Insult.

Ino opened her mouth to argue, but was interrupted by her cousin.

"We're here to shop for an outfit to wear to the Yamanaka clan meeting. I haven't been before so Ino's helping." He smiled politely. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Sakura paused, if she took the hand of peace that Naruto was offering maybe she could get some help with her hair in return. Just because her and Ino were rivals and most definitely not friends, didn't mean they couldn't be civil.

"A clan meeting... My parents aren't affiliated with a clan, so I could only guess. Perhaps something traditional like a kimono?" There. She had played her hand. Neutrally and with no antagonistic undertones.

"A kimono? No-chan mentioned it earlier but I had my heart set on something more bad-ass."

Ino rolled her eyes at Sakura, momentary truce seemingly accepted in the spirit of mocking a particularly stupid male specimen.

"Bad-ass for a clan meeting? Ino-pig must have been hard at work trying to find a suitable compromise for you!" A maybe-a-compliment was as far as Sakura was going to bend.

"You're over thinking things, forehead. I live in a flower store remember? We're not Hyuuga."

Sakura's lips pursed. Letting the forehead comment slide she instead focussed on the problem at hand. The Yamanaka clan was a ninja orientated one, so ninja gear was probably OK. Would all black be too formal? Probably for Naruto, something about his sunny colouring that showed he wasn't a Yamanaka pure-bred made her think it was a shame to stick him in depressing colours.

Currently Naruto had been going around civilian style. Shirts and slacks in neutral shades, tans and muted greens, perfect for blending but Iruka-sensei was going to lose his temper if Naruto came in the next week without proper shinobi gear after being warned so many times, after all civilian clothes were cheap but constricting.

"Colours?"

Naruto finished adjusting his new outfit in Ino's full length mirror, a black reinforced-material vest hanging stiffly over his cyan long t-shirt and standard shinobi slacks. After a moments consideration he pushed his sleeves up his forearms to facilitate a more casual look. Now that he was dressed to impress, he was willing to give this thing his best shot. First a teacher, then Geninhood, then Chuuninhood, and lastly Jouninhood, where if he didn't at least have some glimmer of his parents minds, then he was probably never going to.

Nothing was going to stop him from being the best Ninja ever. Except maybe a bad hair day.

(AN So, by now you probably all hate me. But since I did this, I decided I'd put it up. I know most of the authors on update with far more frequency than I do(attention - understatement), however, unfortunately for you guys, I work on this whenever the whim takes me. To me, this isn't something to be forced, and I've never have a whole lot of drive in my life.

For any of you if you are reading this, I do actually have plot and direction, (however slowly imparted) to do with Naruto's new 'mentor' as he puts it, and partly to do with Naruto's journey as a well mannered pretty boy to 'being the best Ninja ever' as well as his journey to finally understanding his parents and discovering his many past secrets there. Also side!plot with the missing Yamanaka artifact.

Thanks for reading if you did. Questions, Comments and Queries are always welcomed. Ja ne.)