Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All characters thereof belong to its respective owners. I'm not writing this for any sort of profitable gain.
Chapter 7 (Even if the stupid thing says its 8)
It was three in the morning as Tenten laid on a hill side on the out skirts of her home. Half of the village's lights were out so she was allowed the luxury of enjoying the presence of the star filled sky.
She couldn't complain, she supposed. Her family was well off, but her parents were wise in not spoiling her rotten. They were retired Chunins in the prune age of their fifties and did what they enjoyed most for a living. Her mother constantly perfected her family's art of storing items in scrolls, while her father perfected the weapons in the scrolls.
During her academy days they taught her necessary skills but were careful not to let her surpass her class, they basically did a good job.
They weren't the closest of family members so she was pretty much allowed to do whatever she pleased after becoming a Genin. But the thought of disappointing them was always unsettling, so she never did anything drastic. So there she was, just laying there redundantly counting stars. It helped ease her thoughts and emotions to just lie there as useless as they day you were born, but she felt like counting.
The problem was that it wasn't working
All resulting from the return of a supposed nobody.
Her life was simple. It was easy. She never really desired anything beyond what she considered normal human selfishness. Have a casual relationship with parents. Meet with Gai-sensei and the boys. Watch Neji and Lee pummel each other, build stamina. Damn Gai-sensei. Do an easy mission, even though some of the C-rank missions were rather dangerous. But that was all.
But Naruto. He actually shook up this general feeling of discontent. She was fine with her life until he came along. Naruto graduated with barely passable grades, just inching his way into being a Genin. And after a mere two years, he actually made something of himself. His performance earlier in the day proved it. It was unthinkable.
What had she done in two years? She's still average. Stronger than many, but weaker than many as well. She had everything people say you needed to become strong. Even if she didn't have one of the Sannin training her, it still irked her.
Tenten abruptly sat up and growled. She slammed her fist into the grass, but for what she didn't know. She couldn't figure out why everything was just starting to tick her off.
Shizune and Naruto, just all over each other, she'd understand her rage for that.
But Naruto being stronger than her? Why did it feel so awkward knowing that. Neji and Lee could take her out, but why did it bother her so much that Naruto could as well? Wit the observations on his bouts against Neji or Gaara, he could have taken her out years ago, but why was it bothering her now.
She couldn't understand. Being the type to hate not being able to absorb something quickly, her anger was greatly roused. It was that irrational itch that wouldn't go away even if she scraped her skin off.
Tenten despised that almost deranged feeling. She hated the blond for making her feel this way. She wanted to hit him, stab him, yet at the same time...
She wanted him. Maybe even lusted him. She felt the need to lean up against him, bury herself in his shoulder and just scream. After that internal vent, she felt like such an emotional little tart. As her eyes slowly glazed over, almost lightly hovering above the depths of abnormal sleep (while encouraging her thoughts to dream of the zero now stud) there was a loud "Ah ha!"
Recognizing it was her father's, she slowly sat up and glanced in his general direction. She watched him shuffle out of the house, scanning the place as if looking for something. The something turned out to be her as he bolted towards her.
"Tenten!" He hollered, running up the rather steep hill.
"Father? What's all the commotion about?"
Her father smirked and pulled out what looked like an ordinary kunai.
"Notice anything.. odd about this?"
Tenten took the kunai from his hand and examined it. It didn't look that different. It was razer sharp, a tad lighter in weight than her normal ones but other wise she couldn't tell a difference.
"Uh... Nothing?" She handed him back to kunai and stood up to her feet.
"Exactly. Nothing. Probably a little better than the average kunai because I spent a damned amount of time sharpening it but.. nothing."
Tenten started to get annoyed and sat back down with a light thud.
"And?"
It wasn't until her father smirked the most devilish smile she had ever seen did she notice the feint smell of explosives.
"Father, do you smell that -"
She heard a small click and then her father threw it up into the air with the grace of a seasoned marksman. The small click was a second kunai he pulled out and threw it at an arc that collided with the first one seconds later. The explosion that followed was deafening.
Tenten felt a wave of admiration for her father at that point. The possibilities for this ingenious idea was astonishing. There were obviously still problems with it, as if one was carrying it and it was accidentally hit..
"Sweety, your mouth is hanging open. Its rude."
Tenten blushed.
"Hah. You think that's amazing? Wait until you see my idea of wall security.."
He started babbling about vibrations in walls and all jabber that she couldn't even tell what he was talking about anymore. Her dad, ever the engineer.
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-Much Earlier-
Naruto sat at his small cruddy table in his somewhat decent, if not shabby, apartment. Filling out the forms for the Chunin exams had been somewhat nostalgic.
When he was younger, the kids around him got rather excited around their birth dates. They expected presents, parties, and privileges usually denied to them. Naruto watched from afar, as kids whacked these animals stuffed with candy from a tree, watched as they blew blew out candles on a cake.. but the odd thing was he wasn't jealous of that.
He didn't care about the cake, or the presents, he cared about the attention and care they received. People would hug them, give them something, but no one ever gave him anything on his birthday. He in fact learn to not tell anyone of his birthday as people tended to not give a damn and responded with sarcasm. He wasn't sad about it, just confused.
He didn't get what was so important about a birth date. Or why cakes were given candles only to be blown off. Isn't that just a waste of wax?
He continued to scribble in information until he got to the "Whom to notify" in case he was killed, maimed or whatever. He almost put Jiraiya but stopped as he didn't know if Jiraiya had a last name or a permanent address. He scribbled down Hatake Kakashi and Umino Iruka, thinking those were safe answers and retrieved their addresses from his old notebook.
When he finished the application he groaned. At the last exam, these forms weren't given until the forbidden forest section of the test. That meant either the higher ups decided to just give them the forms now than later, or they would be dealing with crap from the beginning.
Still he thought, a joint exam between Leaf and Sand will be interesting no doubt. Especially since his own sensei was supposed to be one of the examiners...
He noticed he hasn't stopped moving around with the occasional twitches that caused him to crack his neck with a sickening combo of pops. He laughed to himself, his apartment was too clean. Too used to either the outdoors or shitty rooms that Jiyaiya got him (while the old bastard got himself suites that was basically right across the street) he found himself uncomfortable in his own apartment.
He got up to his closet and bags, pulled all his clothes out and threw them around the apartment.
He even kicked over his empty trashcan bin and turned on the faucet so that there was an audible dripping sound.
"Ah.. Finally feels like home.."
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Naruto woke up nauseous and threw up in bed. It was always the same dream. The same exact dream that before, woke him up feeling giddy and energized, but now..it was different.
It was Sakura again. He'd wonder in a bath house and find her waist deep in water with her back towards him. She'd look behind at him with a smile she'd hardly ever directed at him and asked "Naruto! Could you scrub my back?"
As if he could resist in his dream sense, he would strip to the buff and let himself in the spring and slowly but surely, scrub her back. After he finished she would turn around, but the mist blocked out her girls (oddly enough it didn't really disappoint him) and give him a kiss that felt so real he'd wake up.
But instead of waking up to having her lips on his, she would suddenly pull back and have that same confused scared expression on her. She looked as is she'd been kissing something wild and dirty.. .
This was different from his normal nightmares, where his mind would construct whatever the hell was scaring him.. no.. this came right from his memories from the day before.
He prayed that he'd never see that face on Sakura again as he turned to the side of the bed and threw up whatever was left in his stomach into the trash. Groaning, Naruto got up from bed and went to the bathroom for a shower. He could handle Orochimaru. He could handle the Akatsuki. But his own friend.. It was like trying to shovel dirt down his throat.
"Ew. I feel like such a drama queen."
Naruto finished his shower and sent off two clones to clean up the mess he made.
"Why the hell do we have to clean up your mess?" One clone asked as it pulled out disinfectant."
"Yeah. This is sick." The other said while making a face at the bits of chunks everywhere.
Naruto sighed. Why did his clones have to always talk back?
"Just do it. Jeez. You whine like little bitches." Naruto walked out looking for his backpack to pack. Again. At least this time it was for a purpose he was all for. The Chuunin exams, at the Sand of all places. Maybe he would bother their new Kazekage for sport.
When he finished packing, his clones walked out of the room and sat on the table.
"Whats for breakfast?"
Naruto dismissed them without a glance as he walked out the door.
As he walked through the streets, he noticed his neighborhood wasn't as shabby as it used to be. Sure it was still, technically the ghetto, but it sure wasn't as run down looking as it was a couple years ago. He guessed it was the forced renovations from the attack from Sound and Sand.
He frowned as he noticed the stormy looking clouds. He really didn't want to travel in the rain. It messed up the quality of his spikes. Parting the curtains of his favorite shop he took a big sniff.
"Damn. I missed waking up every morning to this."
"Naruto-kun!"
Naruto stopped smelling and opened his eyes to find Ayame and her two set of girls.
"You know, I wanted to ask you last time but.. where did you get those!" He yelled, pointing at the robust area of her body. For a brief moment, he was saddened to realize that a mere few years ago, that area of the body had never lured so much of this attention before.
Just how old was he getting?
That brief moment was in actual an eight second pause as Ayame stared at his blank face. She shook her head and continued working.
"They're fake."
Naruto snapped out of his stupor and finished his food with an undignified burp.
"Huh?"
"I lost a bet to a couple of friends now I have to wear these stupid eye sores." She grimaced as she pulled out some sort of weird jelly like ... thing.
"That's.. um.. nice.."
He sat around a bit, trying to figure out what to do. He wouldn't be leaving for sand anytime soon... He paid his bill and bid goodbye to Ayame as he sped off.
He pulled out his a small music player and switched the output to his portable speakers. He figured if people choose stare at him, they might as well enjoy his music as well. He'd been picking up speed and slowly putting the volume to max when he noticed he was being followed. He ignored them for a good ten minutes but then there was some sort of movement. He looked over his shoulder to see three ANBU personal waving at him to stop.
They all were in what he supposed was the standard uniform with them, along with their personal face mask in place.
There was one with a sort of what he guessed was the hawk design that stepped forward.
"Do you have any idea how fast you were going, greenie?"
Naruto looked at him curiously and absentmindedly fiddled with his speakers.
"I dunno.."
The ANBU pulled out this metallic box that had a number of buttons on it. He pressed something and the number one hundred twenty-three showed up.
"You were hitting one hundred twenty-three miles per hour. In a fifty-fivespeed limit zone."
Naruto sputtered.
"Since when did we have to - "
"I'm going to have to give you a ticket, greenie."
"A ticket? What the f - "
"Finish that and that'll be an additional three hundred for defiance."
"Geh..."
Naruto definitely heard the other two ANBU snickering in the background. His anger growing at this ridiculous claim, he knew even if he could fight the three without letting loose some legal claim of him trying to betray the village, it'd be a pain in the ass.. Fighting three ANBU wasn't his idea of a good warm up.
He stood there as the one talking to him took out a piece of paper and started to scribble on it.
"Your name?"
"Uzumaki, Naruto."
The nin continued scribbling without looking up. He tore the sheet off the notepad and handed Naruto the ticket.
"Next time, lets try and keep the speed down, kid. Alright?"
"Yeah.. uh.. sir.."
Naruto heard snickering again but the trio already started dashing away.
Too annoyed and angry to even bother looking at the ticket he stuffed it in his pocket and headed, in which he just noticed, no where. He had no plans to meet anyone for hours. He was supposed to meet his team, among others since they were all traveling together near the gates later that night. He had a day to kill with nothing to do. It was what he wanted ever since he got back, but he was already regretting it.
Boring.
He wondered across town, aimlessly, apathetically. Those already passed the Chunin test were out doing what nins do, he couldn't bother Tsunade or Shizune, God knows what Kakashi did on his spare time, he'd avoid Sakura for as long as he could, and he stopped since walking into a wall does that to you.
"Ow."
He heard giggling to his left and saw two girls, teenagers really, laugh at his misfortune. Or carelessness. Either way.
"Something funny?" He asked, smiling from cheek to cheek.
The girls probably didn't think he'd actually asked them that and actually blushed.
"Um.. nothing nothing. Hope you're -giggle- okay."
Naruto looked around him, wondering where the hell was as he rubbed his forehead.
"I think I'm okay. But is it me, or am I seeing double?"
"Double?" The girl asked looking around. She didn't see anyone around.
"Hm.. Maybe you hit yourself harder than you thought."
"Maybe." Despite the fact that the two figures he saw started to get hazy. How could he get so disorientated from walking into a damn wall?
The teenage girl, whom was actually twenty-four, eeped and ran over the the unconscious blond.
"Oh my.."
"Savuth! I'm going to skin you alive if thats you who touched the wall when I told you directly not to!"
Savuth checked on Naruto's breathing and pulse and sighed relief.
"You're lucky he's not dead, Gen-san."
"Who's not dead?" Tenten asked, walking towards the scene with her father, Toei Gen.
Toei raised his eyebrow.
"What do you mean me? I told you to come out and make sure no one leans or touches this damned wall! What the hell were you thinking letting this punk near it?"
"Naruto! Dad, that's Naruto!"
Tenten ran over and knelt beside him.
Toei looked bored.
"And I should know him.. why?"
Thinking to herself, she couldn't think of anything of significance that he should. Like she'd tell her dad about her ity bity crush.
As Toei finally looked at the poor sap who had gotten in the way of his experiment, his eyes widened in recognition.
If the bright hair wasn't enough, the whisker like marks across his cheeks served as a dead give away.
"Now I know why you didn't stop him.." Toei said, a playful glare directed at Savuth.
Said assistant, Savuth, didn't seem to hear him.
"You thought he was cute."
She heard him there. She raised a hand to her chest, in her feeble attempt to defend herself.
"I did not."
"Did?" Tenten asked while smiling cheek to cheek.
"Shut up, you!"
"Alright then, my dear idiotic assistant. What other reason could have happened that while the two of you had your 'conversation' that you neglect to mention that this wall here is under vibrations strong enough to bring down a a coliseum!"
Tenten wiped some of the spit from her face.
"If that vibration was so powerful, why didn't the wall collapse as well?" She asked.
"I'm also experimenting with these unstable shields my colleagues created."
The blond stirred.
"Ow."
He got up resting on one of this hands while he massaged his head.
"The hell.. I don't remember drinking.." He murmured.
"How bad is that headache?"
"Tenten? Bleh.. Its pretty bad. Where am I?"
"Near my home. Dad.. is he going to be okay? With what you said about the vibrations.."
Toei scratched his chin.
"It shouldn't be that bad. The shield took a great deal of the vibrations, negating a large chunk."
Naruto glared at him.
"That bad? I feel like someone dropped a damn house on my head."
"Weren't for the shield whatever body part that touched the wall would have exploded."
Naruto was silent for moment before nodding.
"Fair."
Toei offered his hand towards him and Naruto accepted.
"Jeez, boy. You weigh a ton."
Tenten was happy to offer her two cents.
"He eats like a cow, dad."
"Dad?"
"Yes. That living katana standing besides you is my daughter. Sometimes I look at her and I feel so proud of my work."
Tenten groaned.
"Stop talking like that about me! It creeps me out." Her father continued beaming.
"So Naruto," Toei started as he slung an arm around the shorter blond "I hear you were one of the first shinobi ever to have defeated the great and fearless Hyuuga, Neji?"
He steered Naruto towards their home.
"Eh .. yeah. Though I'm not very ..proud of it.."
Whatever else the two said was garbled as they walked passed the wall.
Tenten looked at Savuth with a look of annoyance.
"And he said he didn't know him.."
"Oh you know how your father is. He just loves yanking your chain."
Tenten sighed as she followed them.
"Yeah. How sweet."
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Much to Tenten's annoyance and along with her suspicions of why Savuth was annoyed, her father and Naruto got along really well. Too well. The way they talked about fighting, techniques, and perverted jokes, you'd think they were old buddies.
"Will you two ever shut up?"
Toei and Naruto stared at her blankly for a minute before continuing their conversation.
Tenten took a sip of her apple juice and sighed.
Occasionally, Toei would whisper, point at Tenten and Naruto would laugh.
"Well this is fun."
Savuth took a glance at the man and boy and whispered, "Neh.. They talk with a lot of enthusiasm. You think they were women in their past lives?"
Thinking about the utter absurdity of it all, and the fact that Savuth is supposedly in the process of studying physics..
"What?"
"Oh nothing. Its just that I had to take an elective so I choose religion. Currently we're on Buddhism, and the idea of reincarnation just.. I dunno.. stuck with me."
"Thats great, real great."
The two actively began their not so subtle methods of snooping. They were only across the table.
"Still, though what you've done so far isn't far short of remarkable, I'd still have to say defeating a top upper class man seems to be the most astounding thing you've done so far. Here you are, lowest grades ever, not one person expects you to win, and you pull a monkey out of your ass and bingo, down goes the Hyuuga."
Naruto seemed to ponder what he said before replying.
"I used to think that to, but that win against him, was .. so lucky to me. Neji didn't expect me to be any challenge at all. And thinking back, if I was in his shoes, I would have done the same. If he had known what I was capable of, if he had known just how much punishment I could take, I would have lost."
"I suppose. Still, I bet you felt pretty good."
Naruto let out a small laugh.
"Yeah. I sure did."
Her father turned and aimed a curious, but slightly devious look at her.
"Who did you think was going to win?"
Naruto saved her of having to answer. "Heh, its alright. I'm probably sure she thought he was going to win. It would be kind of bad of her to root against her own teammate after all."
She felt a little sick in the stomach since she was fairly sure Naruto was going to loose. His fight with Kiba was sloppy and just showed how incompetent he was. But then he goes on to defeat Neji, then that monster Gaara. What next? Single handedly take down every missing-nin in the bingo book?
"Good Kami, he probably would.." She muttered out loud.
"Who would what?" Savuth asked.
"Nothing.."
"Say you two, when do you head off for the Chunin Exams?"
"Tomorrow."
Toei clasped his hands together in thought. "Hmm.. Might be enough time to touching up the kunais.."
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Naruto, ever the curious little brat he was, would poke around the tool shed while Toei would give the family history, or explain what certain weapon Naruto happened to cut his finger on was used for. To the outsider, it looked as if Naruto was fully disrespecting his elder with his inapt attention, but the teen was listening on to every word.
Never had any ever told Naruto about their family tree, let alone history. With his own blank of knowledge of himself, he probably would have been interested in the origins of the seaweed. It also helped his attention that Toei greatly reminded him of Sandaime. Kind, wouldn't mind getting teased a bit, and all the more important, accepting. He even had that grandfatherly look to him, though he tended to smack him over the head a lot.
Toei always had wanted a son. Though he never regretted Tenten, he still wanted a boy. Tenten had mastered every skill he taught her, learned things most kunoichi wouldn't bother with, always obedient and never a disappointment. But he still wanted a son. And here comes along the Kyuubi-child. Toei honestly didn't know what to expect about him. When Sandaime had announced that Kyubi was sealed within a baby, he was rather numb and didn't know what to feel. Yondaime was a great man, but then again, the idea of putting a demon within a child was beyond him. With the loss of all of his older siblings weighing on his mind, he was rather apathetic about it and never gave it much thought.
He wondered if anyone had ever tried adopting the teen before him. But if he remembered right, and if rumors actually hold true, not only does Godaime think of him as her own brother, but he went on a two year trip with Jiraiya. That's two of the Sannins he's on good with. The only person who could say that would be Shizune, but Jiraiya currently held the status of village pervert so that isn't boasting much.
"You know, Naruto, that you're the first person ever to listen to the whole family history?"
The teen was experimenting with some nunchaku idly.
"Really? Hah. Back at the academy, I wouldn't be the first choice to want to sit next to if you wanted help. But recently, history and all that past stuff is actually ..I don't know... interesting."
Toei leaned against the wall and rubbed his chin in thought.
"Well then, young man, if you're that motivated you can continue to study in those areas, along with a few others and land a position in the Council."
"The Council? You mean the Village Council, the only group who can directly bother the current Hokage?"
"Of course. All you need is to have served active duty in Genin, Chunin, and Jonin. Along with perhaps several years of learning. There are time requirements for the length of duty so if you're motivated enough, you can be actively be involved with the Hokage by the time you're perhaps.. thirty? Maybe thirty-five or so. It all depends on you."
"Wow. Never thought about Council positions."
He itched his nose idly for a moment before looking pensive.
"Have.. Have you ever had a goal that was never really for yourself?"
"Living yourself for others? A bit sacrificial perhaps?"
"No.. More like.. Ah .. I've wanted to become Hokage so people would finally look up to me with respect."
Toei stared.
"But.. I think.. that if you really want to be Hokage.. You really have to love this village.. as well as its people. Every one of our Hokage so far died fighting for the village.. I'd die for my friends.. not this village."
Naruto unconsciously rubbed over the small prick of a scar over his right lung.
"Naruto. As I have grown and matured over the years, my number one piece of advise for a person such as yourself, besides following orders, you do whatever the hell you want to do."
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"Have mercy, are those two still talking?" Lyn asked.
Savuth had long ago gone home, and for the past several hours, Lyn, along with her daughter had been watching the two respective men make conversation all day long.
"It seems so." Tenten muttered.
Lyn heaved a sigh.
"Your father had always wanted a boy."
"Really?" Tenten felt a bit put off on that. She knew she had never done anything extra ordinary. That didn't help being paired taijutsu demon Lee, or the genius Byakugan wielding Neji.
Of course, what she didn't notice was that she mastered nearly every technique given to her.
"Oh don't give me that look. We both love you very much. Its just that he wanted a boy. Of which he wanted to name Alfonzo."
Lyn made a face.
"Alfonzo?"
"Don't ask me because I don't know either. You're father is such an oddball."
"Tell me about it."
"But Oh-so studly."
"Mom. Please."
"What? He was. Now he's just an old fart. And I've retained all of my natural beauty."
Tenten was gagging behind her mother.
"Do you know what I'm wondering most? You're nearing eighteen and you're not even a Chunin."
"Mom.."
"Yes yes.. I know.. certain things.. this and that, but honestly. You have all the qualities to become one. You're level headed, strong... I honestly don't know why Gai wouldn't put you in any of the exams after your first failed opportunity."
Tenten remembered Temari well. Dear Kami did she want to stab her in the back. Damn politics. She couldn't just kill her now..
"Do you know how much you've saved up over the past five years? With the collective interest, and then you don't spend a dime... Do you know how much you have?"
Tenten shook her head. "Its not that much mother. Probably enough to live on my own for a year or two. Genin wages mom."
"Dear. I'm well aware of the many Chunin level missions you took."
"Okay, several years on my own."
Their conversation was cut short as Toei burst into the kitchen.
"Lyn! Do you know what this is?!" He yelled frantically waving a piece of paper.
"No.. What?" She nabbed it out of her hysterical husband's hands.
She gasped.
Naruto walked in.
"Old man, what the hell are you doing? Its just a ticket."
Toei smacked him over the head.
"Idiot! I've wanted a ticket from the ANBU for years! I never got it!"
"Huh?"
"ANBU are an elite group. You don't just say 'Hey let me join!'. You are hand picked. Watched over for years, maybe months. This isn't a speeding ticket you moron, this is an invitation."
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SeikoTuNeR: Suck on that for the next year! Kidding!