Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto. Though, I do own this plot line and my few OCs.
Konohamaru stood in front of his grandfather's office, staring at the large wooden door with a frown in place. He thought back on how he had made his two friends promise not to tell anyone what had happened, and he had the feeling that he should not tell either. But here he stood; in front of his grandfather office wanting nothing more than to confront him and tell him want happened.
He had finally lost his two friends, using the excuse that he needed to finish his homework. It was plain to see that they did not really believe him, yet they smile and promised to meet up tomorrow like always.
Even after a few hours of 'the meeting' as he come to mentally call it, he still found himself thinking about what the blond had said to him and his friends. He could not for the life of him keep the thoughts away, even after all of this time. They just kept popping right back up as soon as he managed to push them away. Every little thing that he saw or heard reminded him of that blonds tongue lashing.
As a result, he found himself paying more attention to those around him. For the first time ever, Konohamaru began noticing how perfect strangers acted around him. He noticed how people, people that he had never met before in his life, would smile at him as he passed and wish him a good day or just say hello with a small bow to show respect; and they always called him 'Honorable Grandson', never by his name. Konohamaru even hid out for a bit, just to watch how the villagers interacted with other and with a deep frown he realized that he was the only person that this happened to. To others, villagers would either ignore them or outright frown or sneer. And yet, there was not one person that frowned at him; not one that ignored him in any way. He was treated like a royalty.
And, for some bizarre reason, Konohamaru did not like it. If anything, it made him feel disgusted and angry with not only those that treated him like so, but with himself as well for not noticing until now. Was he really so blind to his surroundings? Was he really such a child? Was he only getting this attention and undeserved respect because of his grandfather's title as Hokage? Was the blond teen right?
And then there was the other thing that the blond had said. How there was no good in this world of theirs, just as there was no bad.
Konohamaru's face twisted up in thought, his eyes narrowing as he continued to stare at the large wooden door that separated him from his grandfather.
If there was truly no good or bad in the world, then that would mean that he had been lied to. Konohamaru had been raised with the belief that his village, Konoha, was one of the good villages while all of the other villages were bad and could not be trusted. And he had always thought that, too, until a few hours ago. Now, young Konohamaru didn't know what to think or what to do anymore. Could it truly be possible that the blonds' words are in fact true, and his whole life he had either been deceiving himself or been deceived by those around him?
That thought alone made him feel sick to his stomach, yet there it was, refusing to leave his mind and plaguing his thoughts.
His mind supplied him with images of his grandfather and uncle going out on missions, only to kill innocent women and helpless children, all for the sake of money and being able to brag to other countries about their mission success rate. Even though he knew for a fact that the images were not real, being made from his own twisted imagination, he could not help feeling his stomach twist and knot unpleasantly none the less.
Konohamaru timidly raised a fisted hand, letting it hover a few inched from the wooden door; never quite touching the wood. He mentally debated with himself for a few seconds on whether or not to knock and just ask his grandfather, feelings be damned. At last, he dropped his hand back to his side. Sighing deeply and running his fingers through his short brown hair, he turned and made his was to leave.
He would find out for himself. He could not continue to rely on others if he wanted to truly become his own man or a great shinobi. He would have to learn to make his own decisions and choices on life; not follow someone else's views and always do as they say.
As he exited the building and made his way home, he spared a glace up at the blue cloud filled sky. 'Yes', Konohamaru thought to himself, 'I will answer my own questions; and I'll show that blond that I'm no coward!'
On the other side of the wooden door, the Hokage frowned as he watched his grandson leave the building with a grim yet determined look on his young features. He would have been lying if he said that he was not slightly worried for Konohamaru.
One would have to be blind and bad of hearing to not notice that his grandson was not quite acting like his usual loud and outgoing self. Usually Konohamaru would have not hesitated and barge right on in, coming to challenge him to a battle for the title of Hokage or tell him how his day at school went. Instead of coming right on in though, he remained outside his office door with a rather serious look; a look that had not been there this morning.
Now don't get him wrong, having Konohamaru serious every now and then would be nice, but when he became so serious in such a short amount of time like that, it made him pause as that is not normal behavior for anyone unless they were forced into becoming serious by an event of some type. And as far as the Hokage knew, no such event had happened to his dear grandson.
The aged Hokage took his pipe from his mouth, exhaling a small cloud of smoke. Shaking his head, he focused back on his crystal ball that allowed him to spy on those inside his village. He watched as the image changed from that of his grandson to that of a random team from the chunin exam. He would worry about his grandson and his mood change later; at the moment, he had other things that needed to be done.
Naruto, Akimi, and Akimitsu all stood in a circle on top of a building, discussing what they needed to obtain. Of the ten items on their list, between the three of them they already had five.
"So all that we really need to find to pass this part of the exam is a blue rose, a copy of Ichi Ichi Paradise, an old news paper, a sake bottle, and a bright yellow shirt." Akimi counted off in a bored tone, her arms crossed over her chest. She was, for lack of better terms, disappointed with the exam.
For years she had been told that the chunin exams were hard as hell; most that take it ending up dead and for those that survived and passed the last exam may not even gain the rank of chunin. And yet this was their first task; a pathetic and ill thought out scavenger hunt that they didn't even need to find half of the items for right off the bat. She was not pleased.
"Our best bet on finding a blue rose would be a flower shop and seeing as those types of shops is normally run by civilians, we should try and find the civilians shopping market." Much like his twin sister, Akimitsu was irked with the first task.
"That's a very good deduction Akimitsu, but there is one thing that you two seem to be forgetting which is rather crucial. The chance of locating a blue rose is going to be simply impossible for us seeing how blue roses do not exist in nature. False blue roses, on the other hand, are traditionally created by dyeing white roses blue, since the flower lacks the gene that produces true blue flowers."
Akimi and Akimitsu stared at Naruto, stunned into silence. Naruto stared back as if he did not just say something relayed to the genes of flowers. It was finally Akimitsu that broke the somewhat awkward silence.
"Uh, Fox? Just how in the hell do you know that?"
Naruto raised a hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose that was covered by his mask, sighing. Akimi and Akimitsu shared a look of slight shock; Naruto never showed emotion when they were out, much less a sigh. "Long story short? Dragon decided one day that he wanted to grow a flower garden at a home that we were renting, so he enrolled himself in gardening classes. He forced me to go along with him for company."
Akimi snickered behind her hand but it quickly turned into full blown laughter. The thought of two big, bad, S-Class shinobi taking gardening classes was just too much for her to handle. Her brother was soon to follow and he too began laughing. The blond watched the two siblings, irritated. Figures that they would laugh at his unpleasant experience. Bastards; the both of them.
Naruto stiffened though it went by unnoticed by Akimi and Akimitsu. Without moving his body, the blond looked towards his right which happened to be the buildings edge. Narrowing his eyes lightly, he looked back over to the twins.
"Akimi, Akimitsu, shut up. We have company coming our way." His voice was harder than usual and as such, the reaction was immediate.
Akimi and Akimitsu stopped laughing and stood straight and ready. They looked at Naruto for instructions. Earlier in the week the two twins had decided that it would be best if Naruto were to act as team caption once the exam's started, seeing as he had much more experience than them.
Naruto held up a hand, signaling for them to wait and stay where they were. Cocking his head to the side, he appeared to be listening to everything and nothing. After a few seconds, he lowered his hand and shook his head.
'Not a threat'
Akimi and Akimitsu's stances relaxed a fraction yet were still tense enough to jump into action if required. It took only a few seconds for a group of three to join them on the roof with them. The twins were quick to recognize them as the Konoha group that they seemed to keep coming across; Shikamaru, Ino, and the brown haired boy that they never caught the name of.
The lazy teen stood in front of his two team mates, hands stuffed inside his pockets and a bored look on his face. It was clear that, like Naruto, he was acting as group leader.
The blonde female stood on his left a few steps back with her hands resting on her hips as she stared down Naruto and his team mates as if daring them to move or make a sound. It would have been far more intimating if not for her dark purple outfit that just barely covered her more private areas and the air that surrounded her that just about screamed 'prissy bitch'.
The last member of the team stood on Shikamaru's right. Naruto noticed with vague interest that for once the beefy teen was not eating from a bag of chips as if his very life depended on it, though from the way that his hands were twitching and how his eyes kept darting to his pants front pocket, it was rather obvious that he was wishing that he was doing just that.
Turning his eyes back to Shikamaru, he nodded his head a fraction of an inch. "Hello there." He kept his voice soft yet hallow sounding, his dead looking eyes staring straight into the teen's across from him. "How may we help you?"
Shikamaru removed a hand from his pocket and rubbed the back of his neck. With a muttered 'how troublesome' he tilted his head to the side and sighed.
"We have a proposition of sorts for you three. If done right, it can benefit both of our teams." He drooled, no real enthusiasm in his voice.
"Oh? And what might this proposition of yours be?" Behind him, Akimi shared a quick glance with her brother, an eyebrow raised. Akimitsu shrugged back as a response, not knowing the answer to her silent question.
"As I take it, your team does not really know its way around our village." He paused, looking for any indication that he might be wrong. Seeing none, the lazy teen continued. "We can help you there. We'll show you where you can find the items on your list."
"My, my, that's a very kind offer. What is it that you three would want in return though?" Naruto tilted his head to the side just enough for it to be noticeable.
Once again Shikamaru sighed and spared a brief look over to his team mates behind him than turned back to Naruto and returned his dead yet piercing stare with one of determination.
"We ask for your team's help in keeping others from attacking us and helping us obtains our own items if needed. In other words, we watch each other's backs and help each other find our needed items."
Naruto made a small noise in the back of his throat that sounded similar to an 'hmm'. He mulled over the offer silently, eyes half lidded as he continued to stare down the three in front of him.
If he wanted to be honest with himself, the extra help would be nice and would not take them nearly as long to find the last items on their list. Seeing as these three actually lived in the village, they would know their way around it a lot better than him.
The extra protection that they would provide was also a positive. With the six of them working together as one team, it would be a lot harder for another team to ambush and attack them.
No matter how he looked at it, the only drawback that he could find with it was the fact that he would be helping Konoha shinobi, something that did not appeal to him in the least. But he was not selfish enough to say no for just that reason. He had Akimi and Akimitsu to also think about, and they would need the Konoha team's help just as much.
With that thought in mind, he turned to face the twins, trusting them to watch the group standing behind him as he gave them a questioning look.
Akimi spared Shikamaru and his to team members a sharp look, appraising them. After a few seconds, she turned her attention back to Naruto and gave a small nod, showing that she agreed to the plan if he did.
Much like his sister, Akimitsu also gave the other group a long, hard stare before he too nodded his head, his eyes remanding on the Konoha Team.
With their answers in mind, he turned back to Shikamaru with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Very well. We will agree to join you and your team for this part of the exam."
Shikamaru gave a lazy looking smirk while Ino seemed to sigh with relief. The third member remained completely unfazed by it all as he finally seemed to give in and pulled out a bag of chips from his pants pocket.
Naruto wanted to shake his head at the teen's actions but instead motioned for Akimi and Akimitsu to follow him as he moved to get closer to their new allies. The two teams formed into one medium sized circle. Naruto remained in between the twins just as Shikamaru remained in between his two team mates. Akimi stood beside the other blonde, Ino, while her brother stood next to the brown haired boy that seemed incapable to stop eating.
"To start things, we should all introduce our selves so we all know who we're working with. I'll start. Hello," Naruto raised a hand and tilted his head to the side, "you three may call me Fox." His tone was flat and as always, emotionless.
"'Ello there Konoha team. My name is Akimitsu Takahashi." He gave an exaggerated bow, one hand behind his back with the other out in front of him.
Akimi rolled her eyes at her brother's antics. "Akimi Takahashi. That thing over there," she pointed her thumb towards Akimitsu who pretended to look offended, "is my brother if you can't tell. And yes, we're twins."
"Shikamaru Nara." Shikamaru muttered, not really paying that much attention to everyone else, content to watch the clouds pass by overhead.
"I'm Ino Yamanaka." She held her hands behind her back and leaned forward a tad, showing off more of her chest to Naruto and Akimitsu in a seductive way. Naruto didn't even bother to look, feeling more disgusted than anything with the fact that she might as well have been wearing no shirt at all. Unlike most teenage boys, or full grown men for that matter, he was more inclined to like women that respected their bodies; as in not walking around half naked in an attempt to attract attention.
"Chouji Akimichi." The brown haired bow managed to get out in between bits. Now it was Akimi's turn to hide her disgust. Eating that much food was neither healthy nor natural.
"Now that that is out of the way I need to ask if of your ten needed items, do you three have any of them already?" Naruto questioned looking towards Shikamaru for the answer.
Instead of Shikamaru answering, Ino spoke up.
"Oh course we do! We already have four of them!" She flipped her long hair to where it was laying on her shoulder.
"Oh yeah? We have five of the ten already." Akimi said smugly, her arms crossed over her chest as she smirked at the blonde beside her.
Ino turned her attention from Akimitsu to Akimi, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. Before she got a chance at replying, though, Shikamaru interrupted.
"What items do you three have left to find?"
"We need a blue rose, a copy of Ichi Ichi Paradise, an old news paper, a sake bottle, and a bright yellow shirt." Naruto responded before asking his own question. "What items does you team need?"
"Besides the old newspaper, we need the same as you three as well as a bamboo hat. At least this will make things easier for the most part."
"What do you mean 'for the most part'?" Akimitsu questioned.
Shikamaru was once again rubbing the back of his neck as he stared up at the sky. "Konoha news papers stopped printing papers about five years ago."
Akimi and Akimitsu both cursed in sync and Naruto frowned lightly, to light for it to be noticeable because of his mask.
"Now that is a problem. Do you have any idea as to where we might be able to find one?" Naruto inquired.
To the surprise of Naruto, Akimi, and Akimitsu, Chouji was the one that answered.
"My aunt has a few copies. Before they stopped printing, my aunt's restaurant made the front page. She ended up buying a couple copies of that issue so I'm sure that we ask and explain why we need one of the copies, she will probably lend you guys one."
Naruto inclined his head and thanked the boy.
"To show our thanks, we have one of our extra bamboo hats so that's another item that you can check off your list." Naruto offered.
"Thanks. Now we should get moving, eh?" Shikamaru spoke.
"Very well. We were just about to go out and get a white rose and blue dye before you three showed up to make a blue rose."
Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders. "Sounds good to me. We'll head over and get the dye first than go over to Ino's families flower shop. We should be able to find a couple white roses there. Right Ino?"
Ino crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her nose in the air. "Of course we have white roses! We only carry the best of the best after all."
Naruto had to force himself not to smack the girl. He found himself liking her less and less as time went on. He saw Akimi's eye twitch and her hand shake; it seemed that he was not the only one to dislike the other blonde. He fought off a smirk and instead inclined his head.
"After you." Naruto extended an arm, motioning for them to lead the way.
"Ino, you go ahead and lead." Shikamaru spoke, his hands in his pockets as he turned and walked over to let ledge of the building waiting for Ino to start moving. Ino nodded and after sending a wink to Akimitsu and Naruto, she began jumping from roof top to roof top, the others close behind.
This was going to be a long day.