The courtship of Naruto Uzumaki
XII. Pre-date miscellanea
"I want to tell someone about my background."
Tsunade placed her elbows on her desk, and rested her chin on her entwined fingers. She studied the innocent-faced, sunny-headed, blue-eyed ninja standing before her. Looking at him—who would ever imagine that a great evil with the potential of decimating the entire village resided within his lithe, sinewy form?
"How much of your background?" she asked severely. She felt she already knew the answers to the questions she would ask, but she hated to make assumptions. She wasn't prepared to face the consequences of wrong conclusions. Besides, it might be fun to see him squirm under her teasing interrogation.
"All of it," Naruto stated firmly. He'd decided that before he and Hinata moved forward in their relationship, he wanted her to understand everything about him. If she had objections or concerns about anything in his past or present, he wanted them dealt with now before he was in too deep—if it wasn't already too late.
"Is this someone you trust?" She eyed him speculatively.
"With my life," he told her confidently.
"I see." She was pleased at his conviction. This was a relationship she intended to foster in her own oblique way.
She sat back in her chair, and watched him for a few moments through narrowed eyes to see if she could shake his stance with her extended silence and scrutiny. But he met her eyes levelly with his own, and withstood her stern inspection without any signs of agitation or nervousness or even impatience.
"It might be dangerous for others to know your complete background, Naruto," she said finally breaking her silence.
"How could all that past stuff hurt anyone?" he asked puzzled.
"Dangerous for you, Naruto. It was for your own protection that the secret was kept from almost everyone all these years."
"It hasn't hurt me for Kakashi to know about me. Or Jiraiya. Or Sakura," he insisted.
"I said almost everyone. Those few who presently know the truth can be trusted to treat you as you need to be treated."
"How is that?"
"Normally, of course. There are others who might try to take advantage of who you are. Those who would know you for the son of the Fourth might revere you for who your father is not for yourself. The expectations for you to be like him would be oppressive. You know how Konohamaru has hated the attention he's garnered from being the Third's grandson? I remember my own struggles because of my grandfather. It's almost as distasteful as being ignored."
"Nothing's as bad as being ignored," he said grimly. "Except maybe being shunned. That's worse." He'd had too many years of both to prefer either over anything else he could imagine.
"You'd be surprised at how detrimental negative attention can be. Alternatively, those who would know you for a jinchūriki might fear, hate, and definitely shun you. The attack of the nine-tailed is still a tale of horror passed down through generations. You know how Gaara was treated in the Sand Village as a child? You remember how the Atatsuki tried to take your demon which would have killed you? The source of your extraordinary powers would be envied and dreaded if they were universally known."
"You don't have to tell me. I know all that," he said impatiently. Who knew better than he did that by saving the village his father had doomed him to be the lifelong jailor to a powerful, evil creature? His father sacrificed himself and his son for a village that would undoubtedly only hate and fear him if they knew the full details of the past. He'd already endured the whispers behind his back, the avoidance, and the prejudice of the villagers from the little they did know about his origins. "She—I mean, the person I want to tell won't spread it around. It'll be okay. She—I mean, that person won't tell anyone else."
"Can you really be certain of that? Maybe I should talk to her—I mean, that person," she suggested in an arch voice.
"I think I can decide who to trust," he insisted stubbornly. He really hated when she teased him. She could be really mean sometimes.
"Are you sure? I can list a number of examples where your judgment has been faulty in the past." He was getting really good at withstanding her teasing, but she almost had him squirming this time.
"Nope. Not necessary." He shook his head vehemently. "I've got good instincts when I listen to 'em."
"Very well. If you insist. I'll trust your judgment this time—but, I insist that you don't tell your cousin anything about it."
"No, of course not. I never considered that. I won't say anything to her unless you tell me it's okay. I know not to trust her yet. I'm still watching her. She hasn't said or done anything weird. She acts just like any 14 year old girl. Too much like one, if you ask me," he grumbled. He hadn't seen either Naomi or Konohamaru yet today so he wasn't sure how strict he had to be with the two of them. He was never that flirtatious at 14. Kids today just grew up too fast.
"Girls that age are a handful. I don't envy you, Naruto."
"Hey, you're the one who gave me this assignment, Granny Tsunade. You could assign her to someone else—Sakura, maybe. They seemed to get along really well."
"Naruto! I wish you would address me with more respect," she told him in a long suffering tone of voice. "If you wish to receive respect you need to learn to give it as well. Behavior tolerated in a child is not as acceptable in an adult. I much prefer to be addressed as Hokage or Lady Tsunade."
"Yeah, sure, Gran—Hokage," he mumbled. He was definitely guilty of this offense.
"Good. Now as to Naomi—she claims to be your cousin so she's your responsibility, Naruto."
"That doesn't give me much leisure time between guard and patrol duties," he protested.
"You've got two free evenings, and a full day between your various duties. That should be enough time for your purposes I should think. If you need more time for personal chores, I'm sure Naomi would be glad to help. She's proven to be an adequately helpful child, although filing is not one of her strengths. I shouldn't think that ability would be necessary in helping you."
He couldn't think of anything much a new cousin could help him with. He sent his laundry out. He ate most of his meals out. Cleaning his small room took less than 30 minutes. Chores weren't the primary use he had for his free time, and Naomi would be in the way of his dating Hinata. "How about I teach her some ninjutsu techniques? She said she already knows all about chakra. Her aunt taught her that much, but she wouldn't teach her any techniques. I can teach her kawarimi no jutsu or bunshin no jutsu. Those were always my most troublesome jutsus."
"Certainly. She's old enough to have mastered those jutsus if she were in the academy. See what she can do. I'd be interested to discover if she has any talent for ninjutsu. You can give me a report on your evaluation of her abilities."
"Not a report! I hate reports!"
"A verbal report. Even you should be able to handle that."
"Yeah, I can do that." His tone changed from complaint to enthusiasm. "This is great. That'll give us something to do during the day now that I've shown her around the village." He'd been puzzled about how to entertain a 14 year old girl. Now he could fill the time training her, and practicing his teaching skills. Between Naomi and Botan, he should be able to learn something useful about teaching that would be helpful in his jônin career.
"I've been told that you had an escort on your tour yesterday."
"Unh? Oh, you mean, Konohamaru. I didn't know he lived right next door to you. You could have warned me," he told her accusingly.
"Yes, I should have warned you about that, but I had no idea he'd become quite the little charmer. I've already had an earful from Naomi on the subject. I'd appreciate it if you kept them apart for now—at least until I know more about her."
He clapped his hands on his head in frustration. "Hey, I'm doing the best I can. That should be your job to keep Konohamaru busy. I've got no control over the kid."
"How familiar that sounds." She rested her cheek in her hand, and eyed him quizzically.
"Yeah, well, it's still true."
She smiled pleasantly. "As you may remember 14 year olds are quite resourceful, however I'll see what I can do. With both of us working towards the same goal, we've got a better chance of succeeding. You'll find Naomi in the old records room. It's the most innocuous place for her during the day when neither you nor I can watch her."
"Great. thanks" He put his hands in his pockets, and turned to leave, but stopped. "Say—ah—Gran—I mean Hokage, can I ask you something?"
She eyed him with distrust. "Possibly."
"Okay," he started to pace as he explained. "Say you bought a present for someone when you were gone for awhile, but when you got back that person didn't mean the same to you, and you wanted to give your present to someone else. Would the person you wanted to give the present to be mad if she—I mean that person found out that the present you bought was originally for someone else?"
She reflected on this convoluted explanation for a minute. She could torture him by asking him to repeat it again—and maybe again—or she could play this one straight since it seemed rather important to him. Oh, what the hell! She'd treat him seriously for a change.
"Does the original person know that you bought her—I mean, that person a present?"
"No."
"Does anyone else know about it who might reveal the secret?"
"Yeah. Someone with a really big mouth." He thought darkly of Jiraiya. It was at his suggestion that he'd bought the gift for Sakura in the first place. He might remember. But Hinata didn't really know him, he didn't really know her, plus he was rarely in the village. The only people he ever seemed to interact with when he was here was Granny Tsunade, Kakashi or himself. That secret was probably safe.
"Well, if you think the person you plan to give it to might find out, and be upset, I'd confess up front about your change of feelings, and why you want this new person to have the gift. It's always best to be honest from the beginning with women, Naruto. They feel more hurt when they find things out after the fact."
He scowled. "Women? I never said anything about women."
"That's right, you didn't. Did I make an unwarranted assumption? I'm sorry, Naruto. Your sexual preferences are no concern of mine," she said with exaggerated innocence.
"Unh? What? Who said anything about—about that? I'm just talking about a friend," he said in embarrassment at the subject. What was she talking about? Why was she always trying to yank his chain?
"There I go making assumptions again. Sorry, Naruto. Perhaps you'd better go find your cousin before I make more embarrassing guesses about this present, and this friend of yours," she suggested with a sweetly evil smile.
"Yeah, right. Bye," he said hurriedly, and quickly escaped her office. His interviews with her never went the way he thought they should. She knew too well how to push his buttons. He wondered if she did that with everyone or was he just lucky that way. He'd really like to see how Shikamaru managed. Maybe he'd ask for some pointers sometime. He'd really love to have the upper hand just once. That would make his day or even year.
Naruto opened the door to the old records room, and found his cousin exactly as he'd found her the first time he'd seen her. This time she was folding a paper elephant, but nothing else was different.
"Thank goodness! Naruto! Finally! I'm soooo bored!" she exclaimed, throwing down her origami project while jumping up from the table. "Where have you been? What took you so long?" She danced around him, grabbing his hand, and dragging him to the door.
"Whoa! Hang on a minute. What's your hurry?"
"I want to get out of here before Lady Tsunade comes down, and suggests some more work in this nasty, dusty, awful room. Hurry! You don't want her to put you to work, too, do you?"
"No way! Let's go!" He took a firmer grip on her hand, jerked open the door then ran her out of the room, and out of the building.
Once they were fully clear of the ninja complex, he stopped, bent over, resting his hands on his knees, and caught his breath. He looked over at her, and they laughed at each other, and the joy of escape.
"We did it! We got away!" she exclaimed gleefully.
"Well, she did steer me in your direction," he confessed. "Something tells me she must have known what the outcome would be."
She kicked at the dirt on the side of the road. "She always puts me in that awful, dusty room when she brings me to work with her. I hate it! Why isn't there something else for me to do?" she complained.
She must be feeling comfortable with me, he thought. She wasn't all everything's so wonderful today. She was starting to whine and complain like a normal kid.
"We're shorthanded right now, and everyone's busy. There's not much she can give you to do that doesn't require supervision. You're just stuck with it until most of the jônin start returning," he explained.
She pouted. "Where are all the jônin? Why aren't they here?"
"They're on special assignment. They should start returning in a few weeks. Once Iruka sensei returns, you can go to the ninja academy if Gran—the Fifth says you can. That'll keep you plenty busy."
"I can't wait. I really want to be a ninja. Konohamaru can do so many cool things. I'm so far behind. I'll never catch up!"
"Sure you will. If your aunt trained you as well as you claim, it won't take you long to get through the schoolroom stuff. In fact, the Fifth says I can start teaching you some jutsus now." For the first time since he'd reached his majority, he felt like a real adult as he explained things to her from his lofty adult perspective.
"Honestly? Can I?"
"That's right. In fact, why don't we go over to the school grounds to train? That should be out of the way of any interruption. At first you'll have mostly memorization and practice of hand signs in preparation for ninjutsu. Everything I'll teach you can be practiced when I'm not around."
"I can't wait! Hurry! Let's go!" she urged him forward, jumping excitedly beside him.
Once they entered the deserted school grounds, he sat her down, and demonstrated the twelve hand signs: snake, rat, sheep, monkey, ox, horse, dragon, dog, boar, rooster, rabbit and tiger. He named each one while slowly signing so she could closely observe each hand movement in detail. After doing that a few times, he had her practice each sign correcting her hand placement when necessary. Then he had her practice the signs one at a time, and when she seemed to catch on, he had her practice them one after the other.
They spent the afternoon in this way until Naomi's hands began to hurt. He'd forgotten how intensive the signs could be when first learning, but she never complained about the difficulty of this task. She had a determined, concentrated look on her face, and seemed to enjoy it more than she did filing anyway.
Finally, Naruto called a halt to her practice.
"That was very good for your first time. You should alternate icing then soaking your hands in warm water once you get home. Rest them as completely as possible tonight. Don't practice again until tomorrow. You're gonna be sore for awhile, but all jutsus require hand signs so you have to get used to it. You need to take proper care of your hands until you build up the muscles in them," he instructed.
"I'm so much slower than you. When will I get faster?"
"It'll take time. Speed'll be important when you use jutsus in combat. Right now just learn to make the signs correctly, and without hesitation. You've got to know them so well you don't need to think about it."
"I will. I want to be the best ninja I can be," she said with determination.
"Just keep practicing, and you will." He looked up at the sky noticing the angle of the sun. It was getting late in the afternoon. "Come on. It's time to get you home."
"Awww! So soon?" She pouted.
"It's almost dinner time. I've got to get home to change. I'm going out tonight," he told her vaguely fully prepared to be quizzed, but determined to keep Hinata a secret for now.
However, Naomi was too concentrated on her own concern to be curious about his plans. "When will I see you tomorrow? I'm afraid I'm going to forget some of the hand signs before we get together again. You were so late today."
"I'm sure the Fifth told you I had patrol and guard duty last night. I didn't get home until after dawn this morning. You're lucky I don't need a lot of sleep."
"So what about tomorrow?"
"Well, I've got front gate guard duty at dawn until noon tomorrow. Ask the Fifth if it's okay for you to come to the gate. I can take you for lunch afterwards, and we'll continue your lessons."
"Okay. I'll ask her tonight."
She skipped along beside him as he walked her to the Fifth's house. She still seemed to possess a lot of energy, but he noticed that she kept her hands fairly loose. He hoped she followed his instructions, and rested. He didn't want her to sprain her wrists with too much unusual practice. But if she were anything like him, she'd train until she dropped. He wondered if that was an Uzumaki or a Namikaze trait. If she didn't flout sensible advice would that prove she wasn't related to him at all? He wondered….
Although Hinata had asked him to bring whatever he needed mending along with him for dinner, he didn't feel quite comfortable showing up at her door with a basketful of torn clothes—and he did have a very full basket of stuff that needed mending. A second date was too soon for that, but maybe with the fourth date he'd be able to do it. And wouldn't it be great to be able to get things mended instead of just buying new stuff all the time. That would really save him a lot of money. But he had to find something he could do for her in return. He wouldn't take advantage of her generosity. He'd never be that type of guy. In the meantime, he did feel comfortable bringing flowers for their date so he stopped by the Yamanaka Flower Shop on his way to her place. Unfortunately, Ino was working in the shop that day.
Ino was also blonde-haired, and blue-eyed but she looked nothing like him or Naomi. Her coloring was totally different from the Namikaze's. She still wore her hair in a long pony-tail similar to what she'd done as a kid. Her outfit was a little more revealing than when she was young, but still a bluish purple. He'd never really noticed Ino while he'd had his crush on Sakura. She was pretty enough, he supposed, but she was more assertive and confident than Sakura when they were kids—almost obnoxious. He knew Shikamaru and Choji thought she was bossy, but he didn't really know her very well. He must have lumped her in the same group as Hinata, he thought guiltily. There had been Sakura, and then there had been every other kunoichi. He really hadn't been a very observant youth.
"Naruto, flowers, unh? For your girlfriend? Don't tell me Sakura's already two timing Lee?" she asked coyly as he came up to the counter to pay for his generous, and colorful bouquet.
"What's Sakura got to do with my flowers?" He scowled at her.
"Don't you have a thing for her?"
"No, I don't! The flowers aren't for Sakura." Already he wasn't feeling very eager to get to know Ino any better than he did at this minute.
"Too bad. That would have been a really juicy tidbit to spread around," she said more cheerfully than disappointed as she handed him his change.
"Sasuke's been gone over six years. Why can't you two be friends again?" he asked disapprovingly.
She shrugged. "I don't know. Obviously our estrangement goes deeper than the affections of one incredibly good-looking, intriguingly aloof boy. How did you know about that?"
He rolled his eyes. "Your rivalry with Sakura became obvious during the chûnin exams. Besides—what girl didn't moon over Sasuke? He didn't care about any one of you. He didn't care about anyone. He had an all exclusive agenda." Did he sound bitter? Okay, maybe he did. He thought Sasuke had been his friend, but that hadn't been true. Sasuke had been alone, and had wanted to stay that way. Naruto was the exact opposite. He wanted connections—as many as possible. He still mourned the friendship he thought they'd had, but he knew now it hadn't really existed except in his own mind.
Ino looked sad, then mad. "Duh! I know that already, Naruto. I'd be a real idiot if I still expected him to come back, and sweep me off my feet. I've moved on—and I guess you have too, Naruto. So who are the flowers for?"
"Is being nosy part of your job description?"
"No, it's a perk. So who are the flowers for?" she persisted.
Before he could come up with a good enough answer that revealed nothing, Ino suddenly narrowed her eyes, and peered intently out the front window behind Naruto.
He looked over his shoulder, "What is it? What are you looking at?"
"I thought I saw Kiba watching us from the side of that building across the street."
Naruto looked again, but all he saw was an old man walking by. "Kiba? Why would Kiba be watching us? I don't see him. Akamaru's so big now you couldn't miss him even if you didn't notice Kiba."
"He doesn't always bring Akamaru into the village when he isn't on a mission. He gets in the way, and knocks things over. He scares tourists. There have been complaints from some of the villagers," Ino told him knowledgably. "He was told to keep Akamaru's visits to business only."
"He is pretty big. Kiba must not be too happy about that."
"He's not—so I've heard."
"That's too bad. Remember when he used to ride on Kiba's head?"
Ino laughed. "Yeah. It was so cute. Now Kiba can ride on Akamaru. That's cute, too. Say Naruto—what do you know about Kiba?"
"What do I know? What do you mean?" he asked startled.
She leaned on the counter towards him, and whispered conspiratorially, "You're friends, right? Does he have a girlfriend?"
Naruto almost groaned aloud. What was this all of a sudden? Since when had he become the relationship expert? His own was too new for many people to be aware of it yet—so why ask him this stuff?
"I don't know. He's never told me anything."
"I haven't seen him around with anyone but Hinata. There's nothing romantic there, is there?"
Naruto almost laughed at that question, but he didn't want nosy Ino to spread rumors about his personal business. "I don't think so. They're just team mates. Why don't you ask him yourself? Aren't you on his team right now?"
"I can't do that!" she exclaimed vehemently. "What if he doesn't like me? That would be so embarrassing. I'd never be able to face him again," she paused then gave him a speculative look that he didn't like at all. "Say, Naruto, could you—"
"Unh unh. Forget about it. Gotta go." He grabbed his flowers, and high-tailed it out of there. Making sudden escapes from the women of his acquaintance was becoming a major survival skill.
No way was he going to get involved in anybody else's romance. He had enough on his hands keeping Sakura and Lee together, keeping Naomi and Konohamaru apart, not to mention his own fledgling romance. Ino and Kiba were definitely on their own if they wanted a relationship. He was no longer available for romantic advice or intervention for anyone except himself.
With that internal promise, he smiled down at the bouquet in his hands, and continued on his way to Hinata's house.