Foreword: This chapter begins before the end of the last chapter as should quickly be obvious.
After Naruto had left Konoha he'd found a spot in the woods a fair distance from the village and began a strict training regime. It had been a long time since Naruto had gone through any of the old drills he'd learned when training back in the Land of Iron, but he fell back into them easily enough.
Not to mention that clones made great sparring partners, at least once he'd learned to make them incomplete enough to dissolve into their base elements when killed. Burying corpses had gotten to be quite a nuisance before then and had a tendency to attract animals.
Still, once he had it down they were the best sparring partners he'd ever had. He could go all out against them using a real sword with no fear of the consequences. Thanks to that, it only took him about a year to get his body back in peak physical shape and a couple more to have his mastery of the sword back to where it was. He even spent some time working on the original juken, finding it almost relaxing.
Of course he also kept himself busy with those few scrolls he'd found. The hand seals were easy enough, being a clever application of the written seals he already knew. You could use your own body to mold the chakra in the desired shape, allowing you to more quickly form chakra constructs.
Of course a seal that was already written out in advance would be even quicker, but hand seals gave you more flexibility. It would be hard to keep seals prepared for every contingency, let alone keep them all straight so you could find the right one quickly if you tried to do that.
The hand seals weren't even strictly needed. They made it easier to shape your chakra correctly, but with enough practice and control, one could skip them completely, forcing your chakra into the right flows through force of will. This wasn't a simple task, and became exponentially harder as the construct grew more complex, but it could be done.
This explained why the guy who had taught him the bunshin technique had been so surprised he'd learned it as quickly as he did. He'd been teaching Naruto without showing him the seals. It was probably an attempt to put him in his place as petty revenge for being shown up in his own temple. Well, that hadn't exactly worked out for him.
The genjutsu practice was considerably less productive, as he'd never really dealt with anything like it before. He understood the basic concepts of using chakra to confuse the senses well enough. He had some limited success causing visual and auditory hallucinations in his clones and even worked out some counters to those.
The problem was, he had no idea how to influence them the way he wanted to. He was fumbling around in the dark in that matter, pretty much just causing strange sounds and flashes of colored light. The scroll was no help in going beyond that. With years of experimentation, Naruto probably could have begun to work it out for himself, but considering how many people were already experts, he'd rather take a more direct approach.
Only about four years had passed since he'd left Konoha, and Naruto figured his clone wouldn't have made much progress yet. So he got to thinking of what to do in the meantime when it occurred to him that he shouldn't be limiting that particular ploy to Konoha. He could have a clone in every hidden village if things went well.
Unfortunately, things did not go well. Suna and Kumo took in his phony orphans, but refused to admit outsiders into their schools. Iwa hadn't even let his clone into the village, just gave him a bit of food and sent him on his way. Of course all those greetings were warm compared to Kiri. His made up orphan was actually killed outright to "put him out of his misery."
It seemed none of the other villages were as open with strangers as Konoha. Naruto has briefly considered a baby in a basket approach, as they could hardly suspect an infant of being a spy. Still, even he wouldn't put a clone through that.
So Naruto had reluctantly given up on infiltrating any of the others, and started up his evening raids again instead, for all the use it did him. He had even less luck finding anything that wasn't encoded than he'd had in Konoha. At least nothing related to jutsu. He did find one document he could read that was quite interesting indeed. It was an order waiting to be signed by the Tsuchikage that would induct a defector from Kiri into their ranks.
Naruto thought it was interesting that they would turn away children that might have been working for another village, but let in an adult that they were certain had been in the past. The man could easily have been an agent only pretending to defect.
He didn't have to think it over for long before he figured out why though. The adults had what the hidden villages treasured almost more than anything. Knowledge. Knowledge of enemy jutsu, strategies, forces, weaknesses, and so much more. In short, they were worth the risk.
This brought up new possibilities for Naruto, but possibilities with their own problems. Naruto didn't have a background in any of the villages, nor could he even pass as a trained ninja. His lacking in that area was the reason he wanted training in the first place. Still, there were plenty of things he knew that he was sure would be of interest to any hidden village. He could play up the angle of just being a priest in training who decided he wanted a bit of excitement in his life.
It might be a bit of a long shot without Naruto having any proof of his background. Although, if tried Konoha, he had a bit of a leg in the door already. Assuming his clone hadn't blown its cover, it could work out very nicely. The story he'd come up with claimed Naruko had a big brother. Well, Naruto could be that big brother.
They seemed the most accepting of the hidden villages to begin with. Also, now that he thought about it, a couple of decades ago he'd revisited a temple he'd once trained in and found it abandoned. It wouldn't take much work to spruce it up to look like he'd been living there.
In addition, they'd probably be more inclined to teach advanced techniques to an adult who was already skilled enough in chakra to use them, than to a child just starting off as a ninja. At the very least, it'd be a second avenue of approach. Naruto was beginning to learn just how much these ninja liked secrets. Even within a village, techniques were not shared freely among everyone, so having two people training in the same village wouldn't be at all redundant.
He was really starting to like the plan, and sure enough, the old temple was still abandoned when he arrived there. Naruto fixed the place up a bit, got it somewhat presentable, tried to add a few signs of recent habitation and then set off back to Konoha.
He'd been going over exactly how to approach this while he was working on the temple. He figured it would probably be less suspicious if he weren't so eager to join up with them at the start. Naruto could just settle down in the city acting like he simply wanted to reunite with his sister.
He'd get some other job, maybe as a blacksmith. Ninja certainly needed weapons. Although now that he thought of it, that wasn't a profession many priests would learn. Maybe he could work as a cook. Even better, he could start up his own restaurant.
Then Naruto could show off a few of his skills in the field of chakra usage and start dropping hints that he'd be happy to train a few of their ninja in what he knew. He'd play that angle for a while and then start expressing interest in some of their techniques. By then he could only hope he'd have built up their trust enough that they might oblige him.
With most of the details worked out, Naruto snuck back into Konoha. His nighttime search took him a few hours before his senses picked up his clone. Not detecting anyone else in the room, he climbed through the window of the small apartment, finding it asleep.
Naruto almost woke it to explain his plan, but a thought crossed his mind that stopped him. Wouldn't it just drive the clone crazy if he set up his restaurant before he let it know he was back? The look on its face when it realized he'd been operating right under its nose would make it worth holding off this conversation for a while.
So he went back out the window, left Konoha, and waited till morning. Upon arriving, he went in the proper way, through the gate. There he filled out immigration paperwork and described his plan to start a business. It took a number of hours, but he was finally waved through.
Naruto spent most of the day looking for a place to set up shop. During his quest, he picked up a bit of news, learning that it was only a couple of week until his clone's class would graduate. He did finally locate a plot of land for sale in a promising location. It had a building that appeared to have been a store at one point but had seen better days. Pleased with the result, he quickly paid in full and closed the deal.
Naruto would have loved to tear it down and build up the restaurant himself, but the official at the gate had gone on so much about zoning regulations and other red tape that Naruto felt it best to hire some professionals. That and he wouldn't know where to start with electricity or plumbing. Naruto may not feel they were needed, but they seemed to be pretty much expected in any business these days.
It did leave Naruto worried that he wouldn't be able to finish it in time for his plan, as he'd already worked out how he wanted to finally reveal himself. That problem turned out to be solved easily enough by waving around a bit of cash. He probably ended up paying twice what it should have cost him to get the place built, but it was completely constructed with days to spare. They workers even helped Naruto get the necessary permits to open for business.
Since they completed work two days before the graduation ceremony and Naruto had nothing better to do, he did just that. Running the business was easy enough, especially since he didn't get much customers, and it helped pass the time. When the big day finally arrived, Naruto returned to the apartment and slipped a letter under the door. The wording wouldn't reveal anything if was read by the wrong person, but it was handwritten, and Naruto was certain the clone would recognize it as being from him.
With that taken care of, he went back to work at the restaurant. The first couple of days had been fairly empty, but business was picking up a bit today. Most of his customers seemed to like the place and word must have been getting around. It was around dinnertime when Naruto sensed the clone heading his way. He was confused by what it thought it was doing. Why would it meet with him in such a public place? Was it revenge for his little prank?
Actually, he recognized another chakra signature next to the clone. It was a young girl who had been in here just the other day. Could he really be so unlucky that she was just dropping by for a meal? He considered hiding upstairs in the living area, but that would hardly work with the customers in here. Well, the clone was walking in the door now, so he had to think fast. Naruto needed to make sure they at least had their stories straight. Spinning around when it entered, he feigned surprise at what he saw.
"Hello, Naruko-chan," he said quickly. "I don't know how well you remember me, but I'm your brother, Naruto."
Naruko was furious, and she couldn't even chew Naruto out properly because they were in public. Actually, thinking it over, she'd have every reason to be upset.
"Is he really your brother?" Ino asked in surprise.
"I don't know," Naruko answered. "Probably. I mean I knew I had a brother, but I was so young I barely even remember him."
"Technically, I'm her half brother," Naruto interjected. "We have the same father."
She may not be able to say exactly what she wanted, but she could certainly vent a bit while staying in character.
"If you are my brother, then where have you been all these years?" she asked accusingly. "And why show up now and not even tell me? You were just going to sit here until whenever I happened to walk through the door and then drop all this on my lap?"
"What was I suppose to do?" Naruto said defensively. "Your village was wiped out and I had every reason to believe you were dead. It was only recently that an old friend told me he'd spotted a girl going by Naruko with the right looks to be my sister."
"Even if that's true, don't you think there's a better way you could have told me?" Naruko asked again.
"I promise you this wasn't what I had in mind," he assured her. "When I found you I discovered that you were finishing your last year of school. I was worried showing up again might be such a big shock it would interfere with your graduation."
Naruko was annoyed he was doing such a good job with the excuses. It would be hard to justify why she was still angry at him if he kept this up, and she was nowhere near out of steam.
"When you go home today you'll find I slipped a note under your door asking you to show up here tomorrow afternoon," he continued. "I was planning to close the whole place down and cook up a feast for you. It would have been part reunion and part celebration for graduating."
He probably was telling the truth about not wanting their meeting to go quite like this. But even showing up at all in Konoha without telling her was infuriating. It was far too great of a risk. She knew exactly what he was thinking too. He wanted to try something else, and if he blew up the original plan, no big deal. He'd just come up with a new idea and try again.
Naruto hadn't devoted six years to this little mission. Six years that, at times, had been very trying. It wasn't a huge problem to Naruto if this all fell apart, but Naruko was far more invested. After all her time she was not going to let him mess this up now. If he did, it would be far more frustrating than even that time she'd choked right at the end of a month of trying to purify her chakra.
"Calm down, Naruko," Sakura, told her. "It sounds like he had your best interests at heart. You finally met your brother again. This should be a happy occasion."
"I know," Naruko replied, gritting her teeth and doing her best to hide how ticked off she still was. "It's just such a shock I'm not sure how to deal with it."
"How about we deal with it by celebrating?" Ino suggested. "Now we have twice as many reasons to party."
So Naruko sat down and tried to pretend to have a good time. At least the food was high quality and free too. On that note, Naruto being here would solve most of her financial issues. Not that it would save him from her wrath as soon as she could find an excuse to be alone with him.
Naruko, as she'd insisted he call her even in private, so as not to slip up, had taken a few minutes to get her anger out of her system once he'd close up the restaurant and gotten a chance to talk to her alone. It was probably only because she'd realized he was enjoying her little tantrum that she let up so quickly. Still, when he was able to get a word in edgewise, he'd been able to explain his plan in detail.
"It is a good plan," he declared. "You have to admit that."
"I suppose it does have potential," she admitted. "That said, I'm going to lay down a few ground rules. First, I want you to keep me informed on everything you're up to. If you get anymore bright ideas, don't even think about trying them without talking to me first. I know Konoha much better than you do, so it's in your own best interest to do so."
"Fine, fine," Naruto agreed offhandedly. He'd had his fun anyway. He wasn't really planning to keep anything from her, and she was right about being more familiar with Konoha.
"Second, I will get you back for this," she vowed.
Naruto grimaced at that. He knew it would be coming, but he certainly wasn't looking forward to that day.
"I know myself well enough to know I can't talk you of that," he declared. "Just remember it was all in good fun."
"Oh don't worry, I'll think of something very fun," she vowed, smiling far too sweetly as she said it.
Naruko was barely on time for the meeting, having been a bit slow waking up that morning after not getting enough sleep the previous night. She certainly wished she still had a Biju battery to charge herself up whenever she needed. Actually getting tired when you didn't sleep was not fun. The rest of her team was already present, including both Minato and Kushina.
"Morning, Naruko. If you want to take today off, I think I can let it pass," Minato offered. "Letting you spend time with your brother is the least I can do after failing so miserably to find him."
"I wouldn't want to start slacking off on my first day," Naruko told him. "Besides, considering what I paid you, I think I got more than money's worth worth."
"Wait, you have a brother?" Kiba asked in surprise. "I thought you were an orphan."
"Orphans can have siblings, moron," Naruko answered.
"Be nice," Kushina admonished gently. "You're teammates now. You should try to get along."
"Anyway, you'll have all day to work on that," Minato informed them. "I'm actually hiring you myself for your first D rank mission. The basement of the Hokage Tower hasn't been cleaned in quite some time, and you three are going to rectify that."
"Cleaning?" Kiba whined. "What kind of a mission is that?"
"The same kind everyone starts with," Minato answered. "Work hard and do a good job on them, and you'll get more exciting missions soon enough. Now, I need to make sure the other rookie genin get set up as well, so Kushina will show you the way."
Leaving Minato behind, the three of them followed Kushina and soon arrived in the tower basement. It was clear their sensei hadn't been kidding about it not being cleaned in some time. There were spiderwebs, dust, and mold everywhere. This place would take ages to clean with just the three of them.
"We have the cleaning supplies already set up for you," Kushina told them, pointing to a collection of buckets, mops, scrub brushes, and the like. "Now as much fun as it would be to sit here and watch you clean, I trust the three of you can handle this on your own. Oh, but if Minato happens to stop by, I just stepped out for a minute. Now good luck. Make sure this place is spotless before you leave."
"This is stupid," Kiba complained. "What kind of work is this for a ninja?"
"Whining won't do us any good," Naruko told him as she grabbed a bucket of soapy water and a scrub brush. "The sooner we get started the sooner we can get it over with."
They quickly set to work, although the progress was much slower than Naruko would have liked. At least she had a bit of company for it, even if Hinata wasn't very talkative and Kiba talked entirely too much.
"Is your brother nice?" Hinata asked shortly into their cleaning. It was good to see her actually starting a conversation from time to time. A year ago that would have almost been a noteworthy event.
"Nice enough I suppose," Naruko answered. "I only met him again yesterday. We haven't exactly had much time to get to know each other."
"Well, I'm happy for you, Naruko," Hinata told her. "Sometimes I wish I had a sibling. Father would probably like that."
"I keep telling you, don't worry so much about what your old man thinks," Naruko advised her, knowing just where her thoughts were probably taking her. "Just work hard and do your best, and if that's not good enough for him, that's his problem."
"I'll try," Hinata replied, not sounding any more convinced than the other times Naruko had given her the same advice.
The conversation dropped off again and Naruko was getting sick of how hard it was to get a section of the wall clean. Given it was just the three of them down there, she decided to take a small risk to speed things up. Besides, it was getting to the point where it wouldn't be quite so implausible for her to know a trick or two with her chakra.
So she infused the mold and dust with chakra, loosening it from the wall so that the next time she passed her brush over it, the whole lot of it came free easily. She was able to progress several times faster in that manner, really starting to make a dent in the work they had remaining.
When she was passing over one section of wall, however, her chakra brushed against something. There seemed to be a small spot of some other chakra. When she tried to scan it more closely, she was surprised to see the wall in front of her fold back, revealing a staircase leading further down.
"Whoa, how did you do that?" Kiba asked excitedly.
"I was just cleaning over here, and it opened on it's own," Naruko told him, as she looked down the dark stairwell curiously.
"However it happened, we found ourselves an actual secret passage," Kiba announced cheerfully. "What do say we see where it goes?"
"I think we should go get Kushina," Hinata suggested. "We don't know what could be in there."
"That's what makes it fun," Kiba argued. "You're with me, right Naruko?"
If someone went to such lengths to hide that passage there was probably something interesting inside. Something they were unlikely to let rookie genin see even if they had discovered it. No, Naruko's only chance to find out would be to go now.
"Kushina did tell us to clean the whole basement before we left," Naruko pointed out. "And this looks like part of the basement to me."
"Yeah, we're just following orders," Kiba agreed, already starting his descent as he said spoke.
Naruko was about to berate him for not getting a flashlight or something first, but as soon as he entered small glowing lights appeared along the side, illuminating their way down. Naruko quickly went after the boy with Hinata cautiously bringing up the rear, clearly not wanting to be there.
The stairs didn't go on for long before they entered a small room that looked like some kind of lab. There were beakers and test tubes full of strange liquids all over the place. The room looked like it hadn't been used in years, but Naruko had to wonder just what kind of research had been going on down here.
Scanning the room she actually saw what appeared to be a mostly developed embryo in a jar. She assumed it must be fake, given how long it had been in there, but when she reached her senses out, she actually got a spark of life. Although something was interfering with her senses somehow, making it hard to get a good reading. Looking for the cause, her eyes were drawn to a seal placed on the jar.
It was one of the most complicated seals she'd ever seen. Even with all her experience she was having trouble figuring out what it was supposed to do. It looked like at least part of it was some sort of time manipulation, preventing it from affecting what was inside the jar, but she admitted even that she was half assuming based on the effect. She was still trying to puzzle it out when Kiba walked over.
"What are you looking at?" he asked, casually reaching out and peeling off the seal before Naruko realized what he was trying to do.
Doing so broke the effect it was having on the jar, and as if time was catching up, the embryo turned to dust in a matter of seconds. At the same time, the seal itself caught fire, forcing Kiba to drop it as a burnt to ashes. Naruko was about to berate him for being so careless when she suddenly felt the most blinding pain she'd ever experienced in her life. It felt as if her entire insides were being shredded to pieces. She involuntarily let out a scream and then everything went black.
Naruko awoke lying in a bed. She spotted four blurry figures standing over her which revealed themselves as the rest of her team when her vision cleared. Her mind quickly put together the memories of what had happened that led to this state.
"How long have I been out?" she asked.
"Just a couple of hours," Minato answered. "Don't worry, the doctors say there's nothing wrong with you. You just had a bit of a scare."
It hadn't been just a scare. That seal had done something. Still, if the doctors had looked her over and couldn't find anything, it was probably better to leave it at that. She didn't want them examining her too deeply. While she'd just proved her boast that she could fool a doctor with her clones, she didn't exactly want to press her luck.
"We all had a bit of a scare today," Kushina added. "I didn't know what to think when Kiba came racing out of the basement carrying you over his shoulder. What possessed you to go down into that lab in the first place? It could have turned out much worse than it did."
Naruko would have preferred she hadn't been presented with the image of Kiba carting her around like that. He'd probably expect her thanks too, even though it was his fault in the first place. Well he wasn't going to get it.
"I'm sorry," Hinata apologized at Kushina's remarks, looking terribly depressed.
"You have nothing to be sorry about, Hinata," Naruko assured her. "We practically had to drag you down there, so this clearly isn't your fault."
"Yeah," Kiba added. "It was my idea. I'll take the blame for this one."
"I think what you've already been through is punishment enough," Minato told them. "Besides, none of this would have happened if my wife had been keeping a better eye on you."
"Don't be like that," Kushina responded defensively. "Who ever heard of someone being sent to the hospital on a D rank mission?"
"So now that we're all forgiven, what was with that lab?" Kiba asked.
"I shouldn't tell you after the stunt you pulled," Minato replied, "but we believe it was one of Orochimaru's old labs. We thought we'd found them all, but apparently we missed one."
"Probably because nobody ever cleans down there," Naruko said, still a litter bitter about their first mission.
"Yeah, I suppose it was a good hiding spot at that," Minato said with a chuckle. "Anyway, you can rest up for the remainder of the day, but considering you have a clean bill of health, I want you back again at 8 AM tomorrow. Plan on doing a bit of training. Maybe that way you won't get overwhelmed on your next D rank mission."
Finally she'd actually be learning something from the Hokage himself. After six years of waiting, she just hoped it lived up to her expectations.
Naruto saw Ino walk into his restaurant again, bringing her team this time. Grabbing a set of menus, he walked over to their table and distributed them.
"I see you're back again today," he told Ino. "You must really like this place."
"You said Naruko's friends eat free," Ino reminded him. "That's hard to pass up. Anyway, these are my teammates, Shikamaru and Choji. And this is my sensei, Asuma."
"Pleasure to meet you all," Naruto told them warmly.
"By the way, does that eating free thing extend to my team?" Ino asked hopefully.
"Ino, don't try to take advantage of the man," Asuma chided her. "Anyway, today is my treat, so you don't need to worry about that."
"You have quite a variety of different menu items," Choji declared, as he seemed to be studying the sheet of paper very closely. "I hope the quality hasn't suffered just so you can make an impressive list. I'm always willing to try a new restaurant, but if the food isn't good, I won't be back."
"Fair enough," Naruto said with a bit of a laugh. "Let me know when you're ready to order."
As skeptical as Choji seemed about the quality of the food, he certain decided to sample quite a bit of it. Taking the large order Naruto set to work making the meals. Years of practice allowed him to quickly and confidently prepare the food, so it wasn't long before he was carrying it out to them. With no other customers needing him at the moment, Naruto hung around, hoping to strike up a conversation.
"So, have you known Naruko for long," he asked.
"We've been close friends for about five years," Ino answered. "She's had a fairly tough life as an orphan, and I don't want to see her hurt. So tell me, is this just some sort of sabbatical for you? Are you planning to go back to working at your temple anytime soon?"
"You don't have to worry about that," Naruto assured her. "I left the temple before I heard about Naruko. Our father died years ago, and the old man who ran the place followed him a few months back, leaving the temple to me. Now we had maybe one visitor on a good year, and for all my training I was never particularly religious. So rather than stick around by myself, I gathered my stuff and left."
"So, how did you end up learning to run a restaurant living at a temple?" Shikamaru asked him.
"Well, there's not a lot to do at a temple," Naruto told him. "Even so, there's always plenty of books to read, and for whatever reason we had a fair number on cooking. That just happened to be a more entertaining hobby than working in our garden. Besides, the old priest had a bit of a weakness for a good meal. Going to buy ingredients we didn't grow ourselves was about the only way I could ever get him to let me leave the temple for a while."
They seemed to be buying it, not that that surprised him. Naruto had spent more than a little time working on his back-story, and wasn't about to slip up on a question as easy as that.
"That said," Naruto continued. "I'm afraid on the business side of things, I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm just kind of hoping it will all work out."
"That's pretty obvious," Ino chimed in. "You need to advertise this place a bit more. I mean you didn't even have a grand opening or anything. You just started up your business before most people even knew this was going to be a restaurant."
"Also, this food is actually really good," Choji admitted, somehow having worked through most of his during the brief conversation. "You could probably charge a lot more for it than you do. Now could I get a second helping of everything?"
"Take it easy, Choji," Asuma advised him. "I admit it's reasonably priced, but it's not that cheap."
"But yeah," Ino added, "the food's good and the place just has a nice atmosphere. If you got the word out, I'm sure the place would be booming."
Naruto would probably prefer the place wasn't booming, but this was a nice lead on to start dropping one of his hints.
"The place had a nice atmosphere because I have the room set up to promote a chakra flow that relaxes everyone inside, thus creating the atmosphere you like so much," he explained.
"Oh, some type of feng shui?" Ino queried.
"Better than that," Naruto told her moving over to a nearby window and pulling back a curtain to reveal a seal underneath. "I have a number of these set up throughout the room getting the chakra to flow just right."
"Wait, this isn't some kind of mind control to make people like the food, is it?" Choji asked suspiciously.
"No more than a cool breeze on a hot summer day is mind control," Naruto assured him. "It's just a nice feeling. Nothing more."
"Looks pretty troublesome for such a small effect," Shikamaru noted. "It kind of reminds me of the stuff in the old books my father likes to read."
"Well, I did learn it from a rather old book," Naruto told the boy. "You're welcome to borrow it if you or your father are interested."
"Too dry a read for me," Shikamaru said in disinterest, "but I may as well take a look. The old man would probably be happy to go over it if he doesn't already have a copy."
"Great," Naruto said "I'll grab it for you before I leave. For now, I'll go get those seconds your friend wanted."
Naruto was glad he'd kept around a copy of the book he'd written all those years ago. It had helped him plant the first of his seeds. Now he just hoped it would sprout.
Shikamaru had gotten home before his father, carrying with him the old tome he'd borrowed. He didn't have anything much to do that evening, so against his better judgment, he actually cracked open the book himself. It certainly was old, with the pages well yellowed and having clearly seen better days.
That said, it was still quite legible on the pages he was glancing through. Not that he was particularly interested in the contents. As he'd anticipated it was full of dry and very technical writing. He tried reading a couple of passages in the middle, but was having trouble making sense of them. It was around that time that his father walked in.
"That isn't one of my books you're into, is it?" he asked when he saw what Shikamaru was reading.
"No, I borrowed this from someone else," he answered, which seemed to satisfy his father who went and sat down on the couch nearby.
"I don't know how you can stand reading stuff like this," Shikamaru told him. "It looks like a lot of work with little practical application."
"Those old writings were the basis of modern jutsu," his father answered. "And there's still a lot you can learn from them if you know how to look."
"Perhaps," Shikamaru replied, still not very interested in the possibility. "I suppose I can see the use for this one, even if it doesn't sound like the most efficient way to spy. A deep meditative trance that lets project your chakra so completely that you can actually see and hear what happens near it."
"Astral projection?" his father said, quirking an eyebrow. "Yeah, that would be nice to know how to do. But the technique was lost if it ever truly existed."
"Lost?" Shikamaru inquired. "The author seems to think it he knows how to do it."
"I'm sure he does," his father declared. "Nearly every book I've read seems to have its own opinion on how it was done. Unless you've got a copy of the Unknown Sage's 'Writings on Chakra and Spirituality' it's not exactly worth much."
Lifting up the book so his father could see the cover, he pointed to where the words 'Writings on Chakra and Spirituality' were clearly written.
"You mean this?" he asked.
"Don't try to mess with me. I'm not that gullible," his father said in a bored tone after glancing at the cover. "All copies of that book were destroyed shortly after it was written in the purges almost two hundred years ago. What little we know was pieced together by memory. Even that had limited success since basically everyone who had read it themselves was killed in those same purges. All that knowledge destroyed just because a few government bigwigs decided Biju worship was dangerous."
"Fine, don't believe me," Shikamaru said, annoyed at his father's lack of trust. "It's not as if a copy might have survived in some out of the way temple that almost no one visited or anything."
"Wait, don't tell me you're serious?" his father asked, still sounding skeptical. "Let me see that."
Getting up, his father walked over and grabbed the book, beginning to leaf through it. As his skimming progressed, Shikamaru could see his interest growing.
"This actually looks real," he said, sounding as if he barely believed it himself. "Where did you get it?"
"From a former priest who set up a restaurant in town," Shikamaru told him.
"Poor fool probably didn't have a clue just what he had his hands on," his father said. "There are people who would pay a fortune to get a look at this."
Pity Shikamaru hadn't known. He could have made a copy, sold it himself, and never again have to bother with anything as troublesome as working. Still, there was something about that book that was tugging at the back of his mind. He felt as if there was something odd about it, but couldn't figure out what it was. Oh well, it was probably just his imagination anyway.
Naruko was a bit disappointed by the training so far. It was only their first day of it, but she had hoped they'd be learning something instead of just showing off what they could already do. Currently, Minato was having Naruko and Hinata spar while Kiba and Akamaru were tearing up the place with their gatsuga.
For her part, Naruko was letting her mind wander. Hinata's juken was very much by the book and even after all these years, she could still tell what was coming and avoid it, practically her sleep at this level. A duck here, a quick step to the left there, lean back a bit right after. The only challenging part was sticking to the academy style rather than falling into juken herself.
Now here came a leg sweep. Naruko would avoid it and counter attack at the same time with a flying kick. Only her leap was interrupted when instead of the attack Naruko had been expecting, Hinata charged forward and slammed a palm into her chest before Naruko had even left the ground. The attack didn't have much force behind it, so it did little more than drive her back a step, but Minato had already stopped the fight.
"Nice work Hinata," he told her. "I think I've seen enough for today. You and Kiba can head home, but I'd like to talk to Naruko for a minute."
Naruko was silently berating herself for messing up like that. She'd seen Hinata sparring enough in the past that she should have known there wouldn't be a leg sweep. Juken had changed a lot in the hundreds of years since she'd learned it.
Back then it was a taijutsu style being modified to incorporate the byakugan. Now they'd had centuries to refine it. A leg sweep may have made tactical sense for a normal fighter in that situation, but given how much more damage a simple tap with the hands could do, they'd worked in a different approach.
"Your mind wasn't in that fight," Minato remarked when Hinata was no longer in range of hearing. "Is something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine," Naruko assured him. "Just was getting a bit bored. I was kind of hoping you might teach us something today."
"We'll get to that, soon," Minato promised. "I just need to really understand what you're already capable of first. Although that's hard to do if you're not really trying."
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "Still, can't you at least give me something to work on outside of official training? Hinata and Kiba have their clans working with them in addition to team meetings. I'd really appreciate something to occupy my time as well."
"I suppose that's not too much to ask," Minato replied after a bit of thought. "Do you know your elemental nature?"
"Wind," she informed him. It always had been the element she had the greatest affinity for.
"That's convenient. I'm wind type as well, so I know a lot of jutsu that will suit you. Here, hold this."
Minato then handed her one of his kunai before teleporting away. He was gone for almost a minute before appearing in front of her again, this time holding a scroll.
"I wrote you up a guide to a C rank wind jutsu, reppusho," he told her. "You can use it to create a burst of wind in front of you. I look forward to seeing the progress you make with it."
"I'll have it mastered by tomorrow," she promised him. "So you better have something else ready for me then."
"I think I might be able to find something else if you're ready for it," he told her. "Just don't work yourself too hard trying to live up to your boast."
Naruko immediately scanned through the scroll even as Minato was leaving. It was a pretty basic jutsu. The type of thing she probably could have come up with herself pretty quickly if she'd been asked. But the point was that she was on the right track. She'd learn whatever Minato would give her, and hopefully he'd start working his way up to more interesting techniques.
Naruko grasped the concept behind the scroll pretty quickly. It had a somewhat rough drawing that still clearly diagrammed how she would need to manipulate her chakra to get the desired effect. Convinced she knew what she needed to do, she controlled her chakra just as it showed in the drawing and clapped her hands together. Her results were quite underwhelming as she got little more than a breeze.
Naruko was sure she'd done it just as the scroll had shown. Was this just a prank by Minato? Suddenly it hit her. This technique depended on her chakra being attuned to the wind element. She hadn't adjusted the nature of her chakra at all, so the small breeze had just been the result of her natural affinity.
The scroll even mentioned that if she'd bothered to finish reading it instead of just looking at the diagram, but she should have known regardless. Naruko wasn't sure why she'd blanked on that for a minute there.
Starting over, she properly prepared her chakra and went through the motions again. This time the results were much more satisfying, as she got a strong gust that could easily knock a person over if it caught them by surprise. It was actually pretty fun to use, and Naruko set to work figuring out ways to work it into her fighting style.
After tossing around a few more, just to get a feel for how to adjust the strength of the resulting blast, Naruko began experimenting with using it in conjunction with thrown weapons. It proved quite effective, although more so with shuriken than kunai. The latter were difficult to keep the point facing forward while they were being blasted from behind by the wind.
It was a bit disappointing how quickly she tired from her training. This body just didn't have anywhere near the chakra reserves she was used to. While she was resting for a bit to let her chakra recharge, she saw Sasuke walking her way. With the smirk that was on his face, he was obviously up to something.
"I heard you had quite the scare yesterday?" he called out mockingly. "I never figured you for the type that would scream and faint over a little shock."
Perfect, Sasuke had heard about that. Kiba probably couldn't wait to start boasting about his role in the whole ordeal. For her part, Naruko turned her back to Sasuke and did her best to ignore him.
"Don't be like that," Sasuke told her, darting around Naruko to get in front of her again. "It's actually kind of a good in a way. Before that, I don't think I could have come up with a single girlish trait you had."
"That's funny, I can think of all sorts of girlish traits you have," Naruko fired back, pleased to see his lips tightening in anger. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm done with training for today."
Thankfully Sasuke didn't follow when she walked off, and Naruko was no longer in the mood to continue her training. Maybe she'd go get something to eat.
Hinata hung back for a bit after their sensei had dismissed them, hoping to talk to Naruko. When it was clear that she was staying back to do a bit of training, however, Hinata decided to leave on her own, not wanting to distract her friend.
They hadn't stopped training for lunch, and it was already after the middle of the afternoon, so Hinata was getting a bit hungry. She would have preferred to go with Naruko, but she'd been meaning to see what his brother was like. And since he ran a restaurant, she could get something to eat at the same time.
Hinata quickly reached her destination, entering to find that she was the only customer. She supposed it wasn't the exactly the most common time to get a meal, falling between lunch and dinner. Naruto didn't seem to notice her enter and not really wanting to call out to him, she just took a seat and waited.
He continued his work cleaning dishes back in the kitchen area, which was strange because she was sure he'd looked in her direction more than once. Hinata was beginning to suspect she'd done something wrong. Maybe the restaurant was closed now and he was too polite to call her out on it. He might just be waiting for her to leave. She had just about decided that she would do that when he finally did acknowledge her.
"In case you haven't figured it out yet, I've been ignoring you," he told her coldly. "I don't serve Hyugas in here. So get up out of your chair, and get out of my restaurant."
Hinata was so stunned she completely froze.
"Now," Naruto said sharply, snapping Hinata out of her stupor as she hopped out of the chair and was hurrying out of the door, not even daring to look back.
She began to wander around in a fog, not even sure where she was going. Naruko's brother hated her. Maybe he would convince Naruko to start hating Hinata too. No, she wasn't like that. But would she continue to be friends with Hinata if it created a wedge with her brother? Hinata could hardly ask her to choose her over family. Maybe she could request to be transferred off the team so Naruko wouldn't be put between them. Hinata was so out of sorts, that she didn't even notice the person in question right in front of her until she spoke up.
"What's wrong, Hinata?" Naruko asked in concern.
"It's nothing," Hinata answered. Naruko was so nice, but right now her kindness was only making it worse for Hinata.
"I have a tip for you," Naruko told her. "Don't try to tell someone there's nothing wrong when you're half in tears. Now what happened?"
"It really wasn't anything important," Hinata insisted not wanting to speak poorly of Naruko's brother in front of her. "I just haven't had lunch yet and I'm a bit tired and hungry from training."
"Well, if you're hungry, how about we go grab something to eat?" Naruko offered. "We could ... wait, you didn't go to my brother's restaurant, did you?"
Hinata wasn't sure how to answer that without the conversation moving in an awkward direction.
"I can see that you did," Naruko said with a sigh. "I should have seen this coming. Anyway, come with me."
Without even waiting for a reply, Naruko grabbed her arm and began dragging her off behind her. Hinata soon realized they were headed back to Naruto's restaurant and tried briefly to protest, but Naruko continued on as if she hadn't even heard her. Before she knew it, she found herself pulled back through the door, seeing the place still devoid of customers.
"Why did you bring her here?" Naruto asked in annoyance, causing Hinata to duck her head in shame, wishing she were anywhere but there.
"You mean my teammate?" Naruko answered sharply. "I brought her here because I know you said something stupid to upset her. And why? Because she's a Hyuga? I'd like to know what Hanabi or Nanami would have thought about you finding it okay to hate someone just because they're a Hyuga."
Hinata was surprised to see Naruko standing up so strongly for her against her own brother. It was a nice feeling, even if she felt somewhat lost in this conversation, having no idea who these people were they were talking about.
"You know it's not that I hate her," Naruto said defensively. "I just don't want anything to do with the Hyuga."
"Well you probably could have fooled Hinata the way she took it," Naruko snapped. "She's a sweet girl who probably hasn't done a thing in her life to harm anyone. I don't know what you said, but whatever it was, you hurt her more than you probably realized. Now you're going to apologize right now and you're going to mean it. And if Hinata ever has to put up with you again, you're going to be as polite and friendly as you can possibly be."
Hinata was sure Naruto had hated her too much to be moved, but somehow, Naruko's words seemed to have reached him.
"She's right," Naruto said, letting out a sigh. "I know it's no excuse, but I just had some bad experiences with the Hyuga Clan in the past. I took that out on you, and that was wrong of me. I know you have no reason to forgive me, but I want you to know that I truly am sorry."
Naruto really did look remorseful as well. Hinata wondered just what her clan had done to Naruto that had upset him so much. She supposed they could be a bit difficult to deal with at times, so it wasn't hard to believe they'd wronged him in some way. She was just happy everything had worked out so well.
"No, I really do forgive you," Hinata assured him. "I'd just like to apologize on behalf of my clan for whatever was done to you."
"Come on Hinata," Naruko complained. "You shouldn't be apologizing to him in this situation. If anything you should sock him a good one as punishment for what he did. Believe me, he deserves it."
"No, I'm sure he didn't mean it," Hinata said, smiling at how good a friend she had."There's no need for anything like that."
"You really are a nice person," Naruko praised her before pivoting quickly and sending a fist into her brothers gut with what looked like her full power behind it, causing him to double over in pain. "But I'm not, so I'll punish in your place."
Hinata stood gawking at the sight in front of her, hardly believing what she'd just seen. Although perhaps she hadn't hit him quite as hard as it had looked like as Naruto appeared to already be recovering from the assault.
"Now when you're done picking yourself up, start making us some food," Naruko ordered him. "We're both starved."
Hinata's stomach growled in response, reminding her just how hungry she really was. She was looking forward to that meal with Naruko. And to think how upset she'd been only minutes ago. She never should have doubted her friend.
Naruko was becoming more than a bit uppity for a clone. Although in this case, Naruto supposed he had deserved it. Even in the short time he'd spent with Hinata while the two of them had been eating, it was pretty clear that Naruko had been correct. Hinata was a shy girl, and had a very un-Hyuga like disposition. She didn't even seem to harbor any ill will over the treatment Naruto had just given her. Well, lesson learned and all that. You really couldn't judge someone just by their clan.
Now, however, he was alone with his thoughts again. Not that it was likely to remain that way for long as the dinner crowd would be arriving shortly. In fact, Naruto could sense someone approaching already. Whoever it was, though, their chakra was quite impressive, being powerful and well organized. Although Naruto should be too surprised by that. He lived in a village of ninja, and they had to eat as well.
When the man actually walked into the restaurant though, Naruto became convinced this was no simple customer. The black-haired young man was wearing the cloak of an organization Naruto thought he had wiped out centuries ago.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Naruto asked suspiciously.
"My name is Uchiha Itachi," he answered, "and I came to confirm you really were still alive, Hyuga Naruto."
Author's Notes
And to think, there was a time I tried to avoid cliffhangers. Hopefully the NaruHina fans among you don't kill me for that scene where Naruto was so mean to her. Maybe they'll be merciful since he apologized in the end.
By way, anyone know something in Open Office I can use as a scene break that isn't eaten by the site when I upload it? I'm sick of manually going through and putting the horizontal bars back in for every chapter.