Holy fuck, I'm two months later than I was hoping to get this out. I hope you enjoy this shorter chapter and hopefully, I can get better about updating this story as well. Managed to the next chapter written as well. So there is that at least.
It was a quiet weekend morning. Another rest day from training for Naruto. He was baking some pastries in the kitchen as his mind wandered toward Hinata. The image of her blushing face when she realized that they had fallen asleep together. Naruto could not stop his smile as he remember her clinging to his shirt not wanting to let go and how he was the exact same.
Shaking his head, Naruto put the pastries into the oven. Leaning against the counter, Naruto wondered if he should take Hinata somewhere special for their new… relationship? What exactly were they?
Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his door opening. With furrowed brows, Naruto ambled to his living room to see who entered. He expected Hanabi or Moegi as they often came by early on the weekends.
Instead, Udon was sitting on the couch fidgeting a lot.
"Udon? Everything alright?" Naruto's voice caused the sniffling boy to jump.
"Aniki," Udon said as he turned to the teen, "I… Please help me be a better shinobi!"
Naruto could only blink in surprise as Udon prostrate himself in front of Naruto.
"Udon," Naruto's voice taking an edge, "stand up and raise your head." Udon shot up and stood straight. "If you ever want to ask me something, look me in the eyes, not at the floor. You're my student, you should never have to beg to be taught." Naruto relaxed when Udon nodded. "What brought this about?"
"Everyone has been improving a whole lot. They all found something that makes them, special. I feel like that I'm just… That I'm just there, not really doing much. I hate that. I want to be able to stand next to all of them, to support them by their sides and not behind them." Udon clenched his fists in front of him before looking up at Naruto. "Please teach me something that I can make my own."
Naruto was quiet for a moment before putting a hand on Udon's shoulder.
"I have no doubt in my mind that you can and will stand next to your comrades. I truly believe you four will be the best shinobi to ever come out of Konoha. There was never a doubt in my mind that you wouldn't be standing next to them. Even if I wasn't teaching you all, I'm sure you would have been great." Naruto grinned, "But since you have such an amazing sensei, let me introduce you to the art of fuinjutsu."
"Fuinjutsu?" Udon's eyes widen a large grin spreading across his face.
"Fuinjutsu is a terrifying yet beautiful art. The simplest of strokes can bind your enemy. The smallest mistake can be your end. I believe, that you could do great things with it. Your mind is analytical and you're quite creative as well. Both important aspects of fuinjutsu."
Udon pumped his arms excitedly, "I'm ready to begin now aniki. Give me everything you got!"
Naruto's grin turned fox-like causing Udon to gulp.
"Then you better not chicken out on me." Naruto began to cackle as he dragged Udon into his bedroom.
000
Stacks upon stacks of paper surrounded Udon's small frame as his body was smudged in ink. A brush held firmly yet delicately in his hand. Smooth agile sweeping motions as the brush glided over the paper.
Naruto watched with an approving nod seeing Udon hard at work improving his calligraphy skills.
The slamming of his apartment door caused Naruto to sigh.
Konohamaru, Moegi, and Hanabi poked their heads into the living room with large grins on their face. Naruto gave them a deadpan stare as he was soon surrounded by the mischievous trio. Udon's rate of practice slowed as he watched his friends.
"Naruto-nii~" Hanabi said with a foxy grin, "onee-chan was practically floating this morning. Did you finally kiss her?"
Naruto sputtered, "What? No no, nothing like that… We just cuddle on the couch last night."
"Come on aniki, you should have kissed her." Moegi poked Naruto while pouting.
"You're awesome aniki, no better girl out there!" Konohamaru said holding a fist.
Naruto sighed just as he fist-bumped Konohamaru. Hanabi and Moegi began to question Naruto for details while he avoided the subject. Udon shook his head as he returned to his study. Konohamaru was grinning as Naruto became flustered from the more and more romantic ideas the girls were giving him.
A clearing of the throat immediately silenced the girls. Everyone slowly turned to face the door to see a red-faced but stern-looking Hinata staring them down.
"Girls, I believe you had your fun. Should you not return to training now?" Hinata's even voice sent shivers down everyone's spines.
Hanabi and Moegi looked like they were about to protest before a glance from Hinata made the two wilt in silence. Konohamaru said nothing as he quickly pulled out a scroll and began to practice his own calligraphy with Udon.
Naruto was lost in his own little world staring at Hinata. When Hinata noticed Naruto staring at her she started to curl in herself while blushing heavily. The girls wanted to gush but scampered off to Naruto's room to ransack his jutsu collection. With a small smile, Udon flicked some ink at Naruto snapping him out of his trance.
Trying to wipe the ink off his face, Naruto only succeeded in smudging it all over. Hinata giggled as she took a cloth and cleaned off Naruto's face. The teens were bright red as they sat together watching the students work. Moegi and Hanabi returned with a few jutsu scrolls and buckets of dirt. Hinata giggled to herself when Naruto cringed at all the dirt on the floor. He said nothing as he knew the girls would clean it all up. Udon lead Konohamaru through the calligraphy exercises that Naruto was making him do. Naruto gave a particular evil laugh when the two shot him pained looks.
Hinata and Naruto both ended up meditating until it was time to make dinner. With a shy and hesitant smile, Hinata led Naruto to the kitchen where the two worked away. Much to the academy students' joy, there was a lot of laughter from the kitchen. There was an incident where Hanabi was even banned from the kitchen after she tried to steal some food. The disappointed glance of Hinata was enough for the girl to wilt as Naruto picked her up by the scruff of her jacket.
That did not stop Hanabi and Moegi from hiding behind the door frame and watching Hinata and Naruto bluster around each other trying to cook together. Udon and Konohamaru said nothing as they snacked on some chips while watching cartoons.
Naruto looked over to Hinata while they were setting the plates of food as the rest waited drooling. It was not too hard for Naruto to imagine them doing this again for many years to come and in the deepest part of his heart, Naruto hoped that would be the case.
000
Naruto was bouncing on his toes as he watched Udon set up a few different tags on the training field. It had only been about a week and Udon was making passable explosive tags. Now just for the last of making sure they were consistently good.
And the best way of testing was blowing stuff up. At least, that's what Naruto said to excuse his and his students' desire to see explosions.
Once Udon had placed them all down and bunkered with them behind an earth mound that Moegi created. Naruto summoned a few clones to set off the explosive tags.
"How big did you make the explosions Udon?" Moegi asked.
"Big." Was all Udon said with a gleam in his eyes. The other three leaned forward in anticipation.
"In 3, 2, 1," Naruto said as his clone lit the tags. It took a few seconds for them to activate before three large explosions rocked the training ground.
Looking down, Naruto could see all of Team Kitsune staring at the explosion with stars in their eyes. He winced and hoped they would not cause too much trouble with explosions.
"Udon, That. Was. So. Fucking. Awesome! Do you have any more? Can you make them different colors!" Konohamaru asked eagerly.
"Why do you need it in different colors?" Hanabi asked incredulously.
"Because it would cool, duh," Konohamaru said.
Hanabi just rolled her eyes while Moegi gave it some thought.
"It would be pretty badass to walk away from an explosion that matched the color of our uniform. Would make us standout for sure," Moegi said.
Hanabi looked at Moegi as if she was betrayed.
"That sounds a bit impractical, but I like it anyways," Udon said.
Naruto laughed at the sheer look of defeat that Hanabi had. Though he could already see students being badass shinobi walking away from explosions like they were the goddamn ninja rangers. Putting a hand to his chin, maybe his students were onto something.
"You know what would be awesome," Hanabi said breaking the rest out of their imagination, "If we did some more training."
Wild grins crossed all of their faces.
Naruto stood tall on the earth mound as he crossed his fingers. In an instant the training field was covered in nothing but orange and yellow.
"If it's training you want, then it's training you get. Come at me with everything you got!" Naruto yelled before he fell back into the crowd of doppelgangers.
Team Kitsune gave a mighty yell as they ran towards the crowd. Udon unleashed a few explosions behind them and no one could deny it felt good to have explosions to your back as you entered a fight.
It was much later with a very cratered field and worn-out kids lying amongst the dirt that Naruto finally got a chance to sit down. Snacking on a biscuit that Hinata had made for them, Naruto reviewed the progress of his students.
Konohamaru and Hanabi were both doing well for themselves. Konohamaru had decided to focus on ninjutsu and bojutsu. The Sandaime was happy to give Konohamaru some basic instructions that the boy happily shared with Naruto as well. While it was not his thing, Naruto studied the basics to as close to perfection as he could to make sure he could help Konohamaru. Naruto was proud though that the boy also was eager to study his ninjutsu and was always practicing his chakra control. The competitive spirit in Naruto was not about to let himself be outdone by Konohamaru. Oh no, Naruto and his clones have dedicated many long boring hours studying not just chakra control but elemental control for every element too. Not that he was any good at most besides wind.
Naruto's attention drifted to Hanabi. She was dedicated to learning her clan's taijutsu, not that Naruto could disagree with. Rubbing a bruise on his shoulder, Naruto was well aware of how effective their style was. Hanabi though was a very mischievous spirit. She revealed in chaos, even if she tried to pretend to be a proper princess most of the time. Hanabi enjoyed trap making very much and has started poking around genjutsu as well. Naruto wished he could help her more with that but his control was dismal compared to the pinpoint precision needed for genjutsu. At least he could help her be creative.
Speaking of creativity, Naruto watched as Moegi played around with some of the grass that had survived. He watched as she let some chakra feed the plant to grow and move them as she wished. Naruto could not help but smile in pride at the more subtle uses of her Mokuton that Moegi was able to use. From root traps to grass knots to trip him, Naruto was glad Moegi was also a bit of a prankster. She is learning from the best after all.
Udon, Udon, Udon, a week prior, Naruto would have said that Udon was a good student but one that still had not yet found their specialty. The second he put a brush in Udon's hand, the boy was hard at work perfecting his calligraphy and then later his duplication of seals. Naruto knew it would not be too long before Udon would begin hounding Naruto for more advanced fuinjutsu. Definitely all the trap seals that Naruto has for sure. Naruto was looking forward to seeing those turned back on him.
With a sigh, Naruto summoned some clones and picked up his clones quickly departed the area as Naruto rolled up his sleeve. Today is as good a day as any to practice his earth chakra. Kurotsuchi would be mocking his poor form if she could see him now as Naruto squatted on the ground trying to move the ground to be even again.
He hoped no one saw him grunting while squatting like he was taking a shit. The faint familiar surpressed giggles quickly told Naruto his wish did not come true. It did not help that whe Naruto looked over his shoulder, he could see Hinata's teammates with her as well.
He was never going to live this down, huh.
So a simple chapter with Udon and the other kiddos. Not my proudest chapter but I liked its simple nature.