Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Music I listened: the album Endgame from Rise Against, the album Audio Secrecy from Stone Sour.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
The day after the first test the academy started out like any other day.
Iruka was giving a lecture like always. Only the subject was different, but it only made it a little bit less boring. It was about how genin normally operated, or something.
After a couple of hours, Iruka told the class what they had been waiting for. "Okay, now is the time to either ask questions, or practise your tai- or ninjutsu. If you want to practise taijutsu and ninjutsu, you can go outside. Mizuki-Sensei will be waiting for you there. Anyone with questions for the-"
There was no point in continuing, because everyone had already run outside. 'Well,' Iruka thought, 'I guess I get the rest of the day off!' He stretched out, and walked out the classroom with a smile on his face.
The students who went outside went to the training field behind the academy. Mizuki-Sensei was already there, and started helping the students who were sparring, or practising their ninjutsu.
Some people were just slacking off, but Mizuki was so busy he didn't even notice.
"Mizuki-Sensei! Mizuki-Sensei!" Naruto yelled. "Can you please help me with my Bunshin?"
"Could you wait a second? I'm still busy with some other students!" Mizuki yelled back from across the training field. After a couple of minutes, he came jogging across the field.
"Now, what were you having problems with, Naruto?" Mizuki asked with a friendly smile on his face. Man, that guy was probably the friendliest shinobi that had ever existed.
"Well, whenever I make a Bunshin, they just fall over and just lie there. I don't really know what I'm doing wrong, and no matter how much chakra I pump into it, it always happens."
"Ah, well, there's you problem. Try pumping a little less chakra into it, okay? The technique doesn't work properly with too much chakra. If you're having problems with putting less chakra in the technique, you should train some more on your control." With that, he went off to help some other students again.
Naruto went wide-eyed at the revelation. 'It's been just too much chakra the entire time? I really thought I was doing something wrong with the technique itself!' He immediately started practising again.
He focused his chakra, performed the necessary hand-seals, and performed the technique. "Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique)!" He yelled. He put about as much chakra in the technique as the amount he put in a regular Kawarimi. Any less was extremely hard for him.
His clone dropped on the ground, white-faced and looking like he was about to puke.
"Wow Naruto, your Bunshin sucks."
"We've been practising that jutsu for how long now? Two years? Three? That's just sad." Kiba said with a grin on his face.
"It's just because I put too much chakra in it! Looks like I'll have to do those boring chakra control exercises again..." Naruto said with a groan.
"Yeah right. I don't think anyone has chakra control so bad they can't make a bunshin in their exam year. But then again, I don't think you even have the leaf exercise down yet, right?" Naruto didn't look too happy about that. He jumped up the tree that Kiba, Shikamaru, and Chouji were sitting under, grabbed a leaf, and sat down next to Kiba. He put the leaf on his forehead, and tried to make it stick to his forehead.
Not two seconds later, the leaf slid off his head. Naruto picked up the leaf and tried again. This went on for about five minutes, until the blond boy had fallen asleep from boredom like the boys next to him.
"Sakura Haruno: a hundred out of a hundred." Iruka was reading out the test scores from the theoretical exam that the students had made the day before. He cast a smile to the soon-to-be kunoichi. "Great job Sakura, I'm proud of you." The girl blushed with the praise.
Iruka's smile didn't last long, though. He saw the next test paper, and his smile dropped into a frown. "Naruto Uzumaki: five out of a hundred."
While the class was busy laughing at the boy (they liked to do that a lot, didn't they?), the boy in question didn't really seem bothered by it.
"How do you even get five points out of a hundred? I mean even if you wouldn't learn for the test you would still get better scores than that!" Ino apparently wasn't content with her score of ninety-nine, so she had to make herself feel a bit better. By making fun of someone else.
"Right, Naruto. I don't know how you did it, but you better make up for it in the following tests. Your average right now is forty-seven out of a hundred. You'll need an average of fifty-five or higher to pass."
"I know Sensei. Don't worry about it! I'll definitely pass! The Taijutsu test and Ninjutsu test will be a breeze!" He said with one of his confident grins. It didn't inspire that much confidence in Iruka, though. Ino huffed at being ignored by the dead-last, and turned her head to face the front of the class again.
A sigh came out of the academy teacher. "All right Naruto. But if you ever have any problems, or need some help, don't hesitate to ask, okay?"After that, he focused his attention back on the entire class. "Let's go outside. Because the theoretical exam is done, I'll be joining you outside for help from now on." Too bad he had to, he was enjoying his afternoons off.
It was nice and warm outside, even more so than normal. Well, it was nice and warm outside if you were just taking a little walk. It was annoyingly hot for people who were sparring or doing anything remotely active. Naruto and Kiba were feeling this as well. They had been sparring for only half an hour, but they were already feeling tired.
"Wanna take a break?" Naruto asked the dog-boy. "I really hate doing stuff like this at noon. The sun's the most annoying this time of day."
"Tell me about it. I usually only train taijutsu in my clan compound's dojo, and ninjutsu in the night, because it's a little too destructive to practise inside. If you do practise stuff like this during the day, you should probably do it under the trees."
"You guys got a dojo? Man, that's awesome! If I wanna practise taijutsu, I just go to the forests near a training ground or something..."
"Yup, being in a clan is pretty awesome that way. Although sometimes it can be pretty busy in there."
Naruto agreed to that with a nod. He could imagine that.
They sat down next to Shikamaru and Chouji in the grass, who, once again, hadn't done anything since the class had went outside. Naruto took off his orange jacket, sitting in just his sleeveless mesh shirt. He grabbed his lunch, which consisted out of four sandwiches, and sat down to eat with his friends.
The guys were eating in silence, when Shikamaru, of all people, decided to interrupt the silence.
"You know, in a few weeks, we won't be able to do this anymore. We'll be doing troublesome missions all day. No more time to sit and enjoy some cloud-watching." Looks like he wasn't really looking forward to it. "I hope we get a Jonin-Sensei who isn't that troublesome."
"It's not like we'll never hang out again. And at least you know that you're teamed up with Chouji, for all I know I might get teamed up with that bastard Sasuke!" Naruto disagreed.
"If you even pass the exam." Kiba helpfully added.
Shikamaru sighed for the umpteenth time that day. "I suppose you're right about that. Dealing with Ino all day, though. That's the part that I'm least looking forward to."
"Oh, come on, Shikamaru. She's not that bad. She only gets a bit more... energetic... when Sasuke or Sakura are around." Chouji said.
"No it won't be fine Chouji. She'll just complain about how I'm lazy and about your... eating habits. It's always been like that."
"I would too, if I had to listen to you complain about everything all day long. Just try and be nice for once, and don't be a lazy ass." Naruto said.
"...We both know that that's not going to happen, Naruto." was Shikamaru's response. He would just have to accept that there would be constant nagging from Ino, and boring missions all day long.
"Naruto, let's get back to sparring." Kiba said. They had been sitting around for about half an hour now, and Kiba was getting bored with just talking.
"I think I'll train my chakra control a little bit more." Naruto responded as he once again jumped up a tree and grabbed a leaf.
"What? Who am I going to spar with now then? Everyone is already doing something." Kiba angrily responded
"I really need to get my control good enough so I can make a bunshin. You can always ask the bastard if you really want to spar." They looked at the Uchiha boy who was practising his taijutsu on a dummy, like always. Because he was the best of the class by a large margin, he would kick most people's asses quite thoroughly. And nobody likes a sparring partner who they couldn't lift a finger against, even though you might learn a bit more from it.
"Well, I guess I can ask him..." Kiba said, unsure about it. Even though he was one off the best in class in taijutsu, Sasuke was in a league of his own. But, he was really getting bored after all, and he wasn't going to start punching a dummy if there was someone available to spar. So he went over and awkwardly asked Sasuke to spar. "Uhh, hey Sasuke. You want to spar?"
Sasuke responded by stopping his furious punching and kicking of the dummy, turning around, and lifting an eyebrow. Nobody ever asked him to spar.
"Ahh, well you see, Naruto just blew me off, and you look like you could use a sparring partner." Sasuke accepted it as an explanation, he nodded and walked over to the clearing to get more room for their spar.
Naruto was trying to focus on the leaf on his forehead. If he could make it stick for a full minute today, he would be satisfied. His old record was about twenty seconds, so it would be a challenge.
After about half an hour of the leaf falling, and him picking it up and sticking it on his forehead again, it finally seemed like he would get to a whole minute.
'fifty-six, fifty-seven,' Sweat was gathering all over his face, he couldn't lose focus now that he was so close! He shut his eyes in concentration. 'Fifty-eight,' He was trying his best to shut out Chouji and Shikamaru, who were trying to break his focus by throwing strands of grass in his face.
'Fifty-nine, sixty!' He stopped focusing, and the leaf fell off of his forehead. His concentrated face went back to his usual grinning face. He opened his eyes again, and opened his mouth to start yelling about how awesome he was, when a hand full of grass flew into his mouth. He looked to his right, and saw a smirking Shikamaru. Naruto started spitting out the strands of grass, and Chouji started coughing, because some chips went down the wrong whole while he was laughing.
"Hey, try out your Bunshin again, Naruto. Maybe it won't look like it's about to start puking now." Shikamaru said.
Naruto's eyes lit up, he nodded and he hurriedly spit out the last strands of grass that were sticking to his tongue. He'd get Shikamaru back for that later. He stood up, did the required hand-seals, and shouted once again, "Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique)!" He'd learnt since last time that making more clones would decrease the chakra per clone, which would get him closer to creating clones that actually looked like him.
He focused his chakra in three clones, and when the illusions appeared, he saw his chakra control exercise had paid off. No longer would the clone appear on the ground, and try to throw up before it dispelled. No, these clones were actually standing up, albeit barely. They also still looked very pale and like they were about to throw up, but those were just the details. No, he had actually made process! It took him a week of sitting down for half an hour to do a boring exercise, but he had pulled through like the awesome ninja he was. And now his Bunshin could stand on their feet.
Chouji was coughing again from laughing too hard. "Wow, you sure did progress a lot with your Bunshin Naruto." Shikamaru shakily said, trying to hold in a laugh from the awful display of a simple technique.
Naruto sat down next to them again, a grin on his face. "Hey, at least it's something. I'd be disappointed if they'd still be lying on the ground after all this work." Man he hated that boring meditating exercise. It was just sitting around, it made him all jittery.
"All that work? How long have you been doing this for, four days? And you've only done it for half an hour a day. Max. You could probably fix your Bunshin up in a day, but you can't sit still long enough." Chouji said.
"Well, half an hour of meditation a day is all I can take. I'd do more, but I fall asleep if I try to. And besides, we still have over two weeks until the ninjutsu test. So no need to rush it."
After another half an hour of slacking off, most of the students had gone home. Actually, besides Mizuki, Naruto was the only one left. He was sitting on the old swing, a place he'd like to sit when he was alone. He was just relaxingly thinking about how he was going to become the best ninja ever, and taking the hat from the old man, when Mizuki walked up to him.
"Hey Naruto, I heard you didn't do too well on your theoretical test, huh?" He was wearing his friendly smile, like always. Naruto wondered if his face was stuck like that. "Ah, nobody cares about the theoretical test, Sensei. I'll just try even harder on the tai- and ninjutsu test." He grinned.
"Well, I suppose I should tell you what I came to talk to you about. Because your average is the lowest in class right now, you get the possibility to score some bonus points on an extra test. It could be beneficial, if you perform well. So what do you say? Want to try it?" his Sensei said. 'An extra test? That sounds great! It'll be easier to get my grades up this way!' "You bet Mizuki-Sensei! What do you need me to do?"
"I'll tell you tonight, when the test will be taken, okay? I'll meet you on top of your apartment complex at about seven. Be prepared." And with a last smile, he walked towards the academy, probably to close up.
Naruto ran off to his apartment, to prepare for the test, even though it was only half past three, and the test was still a little less than seven hours off.
After realizing that he still had a lot of hours to waste, and wasting those hours eating away at Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto met up with his Sensei on his rooftop. The test he was taking was an infiltration mission in the Hokage's house, where he was supposed to get the scroll of the forbidden seal. During his test, he would have to maintain his cover, just like a real life infiltration mission. It would get him bonus points if he wasn't discovered. After he would have acquired the scroll, he was also supposed to learn one Jutsu from it. It sounded like a pretty good test to Naruto, if you got a free Jutsu.
So that was why our little troublemaker was currently sneaking through the halls of the Hokage tower, which, next to being an office, was also where the current Hokage lived. He'd snuck past the three patrolling Chuunin guards on the bottom floor, and one of the second floor. He was now busy rummaging through one of the several bookcases, when he found what he was looking for. A big scroll with "Scroll of the Forbidden Seal" on it. 'Bingo', he thought.
"What do you think you're doing in my house at this hour, Naruto?" Naruto jumped up from the sudden voice, and turned around to see an old man staring down at him. He was wearing some white and red robes, and a weirdly shaped hat with the same colours on it, and the kanji for "Fire". The Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
'How'd he sneak up on me? I didn't even notice him!' Naruto's hand went up to rub the back of his head, a tic he had when he was embarrassed. "Ahh, well you see, I was just walking by and uhh... Sexy no Jutsu!" He hurriedly formed the hand-seal and transformed into a very curvaceous blonde with two ponytails and the same sets of whisker marks on her cheeks. The Hokage's eyes went wide, and a stream of blood exploded out of his nose.
'Oh crap,' Naruto was panicking as he looked at the unconscious old man on the ground. 'I gotta get out of here, I hope I don't lose points because of this!' He jumped out of the window, and bounded off to the clearing he would train the ninjutsu on the scroll.
Naruto was sitting next to the abandoned shack in the clearing between the forests of training ground four and five. 'All right, I probably need to learn a Jutsu first before Sensei comes.' He opened the scroll, and read the first thing he saw. 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique). Used to make solid copies of the user. Beware, this Jutsu requires a big amount of chakra. Great! I won't have to do stupid chakra exercises if these take more chakra!'
There was some more text below it. 'The Jutsu creates a separate a mind, Yadda yadda yadda... Ah!' He'd found the instructions on how to perform the technique. He stood up and prepared the hand-seal for the technique. "Let's get cooking, shall we?"
Iruka was jumping along the trees like a madman. He'd been called upon by the Hokage to find Naruto. Apparently, roughly ten hours ago, the little idiot had stolen the scroll of the forbidden seal. Thus, the Hokage had called on every available ninja, Chuunin level or higher to find out where Naruto was, and why he had stolen the scroll. Some of the ninja had agreed on killing the boy if they found him, though. It didn't help his nerves, to say the least. 'Let's hope I'm the one who finds him first, Hokage-sama. For all our sakes.'
Naruto loved the woods, and they were the best hiding spots in town. Most dispatched shinobi would probably be searching the town for Naruto. So it was obvious where Iruka was going. Iruka went off towards the training grounds. He jumped along the rooftops, off to the closest training ground, which was number one.
He didn't see anything there, so he jumped through the woods that separated the training grounds, to the second training grounds. He didn't see anything here either. He was beginning to panic when he jumped into the third training ground. 'What if the others have already found him? He won't survive an attack of a Chuunin! He could try and run away, but not much more.' When he jumped in the clearing that was training ground four though, he finally heard something. It sounded like yelling, no, cheering? One thing was certain though, it was Naruto.
Iruka hurried to where the sound came from. He saw the blonde boy jumping around in a clearing, looking very happy about something. "I found you..." Iruka said, barely containing his anger with the blonde.
Naruto turned around, and looked at Iruka with a smile on his face. "Hey, if it isn't the nose-bleeder!" He pointed at Iruka. Before Iruka would explode with righteous fury, Naruto said, "Heh, looks like my time's up, huh? I thought I might get to learn a second one from the scroll." Iruka was baffled, how could he take this so lightly? Didn't he realize this might just get him executed? "So I pass if I show you the skill, right?" Wait, what? "Naruto, who told you that?" Did he think he was taking a test?
"Uhh, Mizuki-Sensei of course. This was part of the test, right? He said if I showed you this, I'd pass it!" he said with the biggest grin he could muster, he was pretty tired after ten straight hours of practising a ninjutsu.
'Mizuki?' Iruka thought. Was his friend really behind this?
A glimpse of flying metal caught his eye as he pushed his student out of the way. Iruka put his hands in front of his face as the barrage of kunai hit him. He looked towards the place the kunai had come from while he was pulling the knives out of his arms and legs, the adrenaline making him barely feel it.
"Naruto, hurry up and give me the scroll!" Mizuki yelled from atop his tree branch.
"Naruto, run! Go straight for the Hokage tower and don't look back! Mizuki has gone rogue, and used you to get that scroll!" Iruka yelled at the now confused Naruto. He didn't know what order he should follow. But, if Mizuki really had gone rogue, he should probably listen to Iruka.
Besides, going to the Hokage with this could never hurt. He stood up and was about to run away, when he realized something. He couldn't leave a wounded Iruka with a traitor! His Sensei was a nice guy, and he wouldn't just leave for Iruka to fend for himself! He turned around, just in time to see some shuriken fly at him that Mizuki had thrown. Iruka threw some of his own, and deflected eight of the twelve that were thrown at his student.
Naruto was fast enough to dodge three out of four remaining throwing stars, but before he could retract his hand, the last remaining shuriken embedded itself in the back of it. He quickly took cover behind a tree, before a second barrage of shuriken could hit him.
"Naruto, what are you doing?! Get to the Hokage tower, immediately!" Iruka yelled at the twelve-year-old. He then realized why Naruto wasn't going. "I'll be fine, just go! I'll be right behind you!" Didn't that idiot get that that scroll was the more important factor here?
"No way, Sensei!" Naruto yelled, while he yanked out the shuriken out his hand with a splatter of blood and a sharp wince. "There's no way I'm leaving you here! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!" Because he was tired, and his hand hurt like hell, he couldn't focus right, so his technique only produced twenty clones, instead of the intended hundred.
Iruka went wide-eyed at seeing Naruto perform a Jonin-level technique. His surprise didn't last long though, because the stinging pain in his legs and arms reminded him he still had weapons stuck in him. He began pulling them out as Naruto charged forward.
"Oh, so you actually managed to do it, did you?" Mizuki said with a sadistic smile. "Imagine what I could do with something like that, if someone like you could learn that." The rogue Chuunin said, while dispatching the clones easily by throwing some kunai and shuriken.
The clones had done their work, though, Naruto was right up in his former Sensei's face.
Naruto threw his hand forward in a punch at the traitor's stomach, but it didn't connect as he was kicked in his side. Hard. "Did you seriously think you could beat a Chuunin? You're not even a match for most of the academy students!" Mizuki taunted as Naruto stood up again. Mizuki was smirking at Naruto's attempt to fight an impossible battle.
'Hmm,' Mizuki thought, 'I can have a little fun with him before I kill him.' "Naruto," He begun, "Do you know why the villagers hate you?" Naruto's head shot up with a wide-eyed look, pain forgotten.
"It's all because of an incident a little more over twelve years ago, when the Kyuubi-" Mizuki's head shot to his right, where he could see a few shuriken flying at him.
"What?! What happened twelve years ago?!" Naruto yelled as he stood up. Mizuki kicked him straight in the stomach, with enough force to make him fly into a tree. The boy slid down from where he had hit the tree, and fell down face first on the forest ground.
The rogue shinobi then jumped out of the way of the incoming throwing stars, and turned to his right, to see Iruka standing once again. "This is as far as you go, Mizuki." Iruka said, and charged at his former comrade. He deflected some shuriken with his own as before he ran into close quarters. He wasn't much of a match for Mizuki, who didn't have several bleeding knife wounds. He dodged a punch aimed for his head, but got hit by a kick to the stomach. He fell to one knee, clutching his stomach, as he received a knee to his nose.
He fell over on his back, and Mizuki stood over him, with a kunai in his hand, ready to slit his throat. "This is as far as you go, Iruka." He repeated the words the Academy instructor had said earlier mockingly. He still had his sadistic smirk on his face.
"Why, Mizuki, why did you do this? I thought we were friends..." Iruka said, coughing and struggling under Mizuki's foot planted on his stomach.
"Why? For the scroll, of course. Naruto is the same as me, you know. He'd do anything for power."
"Naruto would never do anything like this! He'd never betray his friends, or the village!" Iruka yelled, angry at his former friend.
"Yeah, you bastard! don't compare me trash like you!" A voice yelled from the left.
When Mizuki turned his head, all he could see was two feet connecting with his face. He stumbled to his right, but Iruka tripped him by lifting one of his legs behind Mizuki's knees. Mizuki went with the fall, extending his hands to flip backwards over Iruka.
Halfway in the handstand, Iruka's other foot swiped through his arms, making him fall. He scrambled up, sitting on his hands and knees, but then received a kick to his stomach, lifting him up in the air. He tried again to regain his senses again while mid-air, but failed through a violent stomp on his back, making him fall to the ground. On the ground, Naruto was waiting for him, with a final upward punch to the traitor's stomach.
Naruto grinned tiredly at his former Sensei, who was lying on the ground. He crouched, and said, "Don't touch Iruka-Sensei, you bastard! And don't ever underestimate Naruto Uzumaki, dammit!" And with a punch to his temple, Mizuki's world went black.
"You all right, Sensei? You don't look so good." Naruto said, grinning weakly and clutching his right hand, which was almost entirely pierced by the shuriken from earlier.
His Sensei grinned back at him, sitting up straight. "I'm all right, Naruto. Nothing that'll last," His vest had protected him from the weapons aimed at his organs, and the ones that had hit his legs and arms hadn't gone in too deep, or at least, it didn't feel that way.
"Hey, Naruto. Come over here." Iruka said. "Close your eyes for a second." He said as Naruto sat down in front of him. Naruto felt his goggles being pulled down over his face around his neck, and something being tied on his forehead.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now." his Sensei told him. He opened his eyes to see his Sensei smiling to him, without his hitai-ate secured on his forehead. "I don't think you need to worry about graduating after this, Naruto. Now, Let's celebrate! I'll treat you to some Ichiraku ramen, okay? Naruto?" he asked his student, who was looking to the ground with a trembling smile on his face. The blonde boy threw himself over his Sensei hugging him while tears streamed down his face.
"Oww, Naruto. That hurts!" Iruka was smiling, though. "I think we should take a quick trip to the hospital, for your hand too. You're bleeding all over me."
They started walking back to town, with Iruka leaning on Naruto for support, but not before Naruto tied Mizuki up and made a Kage Bunshin to drag him to the Hokage.
After having his hand patched up, and sleeping for a couple of hours in a comfortable hospital bed, Naruto went to room seven, Iruka's room.
When he arrived, Iruka's bandaged form wasn't the only one in the room. In front of the window was the old man he had knocked out with his infamous technique yesterday. The Hokage.
"Ah, good that you joined us, Naruto-kun. We were waiting for you, actually." the wrinkly man said with a smile on his face. "You certainly did cause a lot of trouble for us yesterday."
Naruto's hand immidiately went up to rub the back up his head.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about all that. I still don't really get what happened." the boy said, apologizing. "Also, uhh, sorry about using that technique on you, I-" He was interrupted by some loud coughing noises from a blushing Hokage.
"Ah, yes Naruto. It's quite all right. As for what happened yesterday, Mizuki wanted the scroll of the forbidden seal, and he tried to take it by making you steal it from my office. He is currently held captive, waiting for a thorough interrogation." Naruto nodded, with all that what was going on yesterday he got a bit confused.
"And about that hitai-ate Iruka gave you," Naruto's hands rose up to grab the headband, it was a gift from his Sensei, and nobody was going to take that from him. "Ah, I won't be taking that from you, Naruto-kun. I agree with Iruka's decision, and you don't need to worry about passing the exam." Naruto's hands went down again, relieved that he could keep it. "However, this is a village secret, so no civilians, including those in your class can be informed of this."
Naruto looked disappointed at this, he wanted to show off to his friends, dammit! "It would spare us a lot of trouble, however, if you do pass the exam like a normal student. It would raise a lot of eyebrows among your classmates if you suddenly didn't have to take the final exams, but still became a shinobi."
So, he would have to pass just like any student. Nothing changed, really. He looked even more downcast than before. Noticing, the old man tried to cheer him up a bit. "But, I suppose this could count as your first real mission, including reward. Hmm, Mizuki would be a C-ranked shinobi, so this could account as a B-rank mission. Come by my office later and I'll give your reward. You too, Iruka. You deserved it." he said with a smile.
Something had been on Naruto's mind ever since this morning, though. He still had something to ask. "Hey, old man?" He asked with a downcast look on his face. "Yes, Naruto?" The Hokage always ignored Naruto's disrespect. "What happened when the Kyuubi attacked, and what does it have to do with me?"
Ah, Hiruzen had thought this would come up sooner or later, so it didn't surprise him all that much. He had seen everything that had transpired this morning through the crystal ball he used for his telescope technique.
"Yes, I suppose we can't keep this from you any longer. You probably know about the Yondaime killing the Kyuubi, do you not?" Naruto nodded, focused for once on a conversation. "Well, that is a lie." Naruto's eyes went wide with shock. "You see, the Kyuubi was far too powerful to kill by a mortal man. So instead, he offered up his own life to seal the demon inside a newborn. That is where you come into the question, Naruto-kun."
Naruto's eyes went even wider, and after a while, he shakily asked: "Why didn't you tell me? Most people avoid me, and I've never known why! Everybody knew all this time, why didn't I!" He was crying freely now.
He was suddenly enveloped in a hug by the old man. "After we had found the Yondaime, his dying wish was that you would be celebrated as a hero. The people didn't take it that well, though. So I made a law, to never speak of this incident again. Nobody could tell the children your age what had really happened that night, so you could live a normal childhood. After a while, I realized this too had not went the way I would have liked it. And I am sorry for this, Naruto. Because of this rule, you have not had an ideal childhood, to be exact." The old man said, with a sad smile.
"Hey, old man. It's not because of that stupid rule." The hokage looked down quizzically at the boy, waiting for him to continue. The boy looked up at the man, he was wiping the tears off of his face.
"It's just because they don't know me. But I'll make them see I'm not that fox! And that's when that hat's mine, so you better watch out!" He said, grinning once again. The Hokage smiled back, glad that the boy could stay as optimistic as ever. "I'm glad, Naruto. Tell you what, I'll take you and Iruka to Ichiraku's. Oh, and Naruto, when you are hiding the fact that you are a shinobi from civilians, I think you should not be wearing a hitai-ate in public."
Naruto's eyes lit up at the mentioning of Ichiraku's, and while he stuffed his recently acquired hitai-ate in his pocket, he looked at Iruka, who smiled back and said, "I'm sorry, but I think I'm a bit tied to this place."
"Nonsense. I read your chart at the foot end of your bed, and it said that you had extensive damage to your muscles in the legs, which had patched up pretty much entrely, and on your arms lesser damage that was already healed, so we will have none of that." The Hokage responded with a smile on his face. Iruka still didn't look too sure about it.
"It will be all right, Iruka. We'll just grab a couple of crutches, and we can go." Iruka still didn't look very conviced.
The old Hokage sighed, and grabbed the chart hanging on the end of the bed. He handed it to Iruka, who read it over. "You see? It even says you don't have to stay here on the chart. Have a little faith in this old man, will you? Now grab those sticks, and we'll sign out at the reception." Iruka had the decency to look embarrassed, and got out of his bed to grab the crutches stood next to him. They went out the door, Iruka was walking a bit awkwardly because he had never had to use crutches before.
The Hokage signed the two patients out at the reception, when the receptionist said, "Hokage-sama, I'm sure you are aware that only medics can officially sign out patients. This will only result in more paperwork." The old leader had a knowing smile on his face. "Oh? Last time I checked, I was still a certified medic." He reached inside his robes and grabbed an old medic identification card. He wrote down some serial numbers and handed in the papers tot the receptionist.
"I think there won't be an issue of extra paperwork. Now, Iruka, Naruto-kun. Let's go, shall we? Oh, and Iruka, after about two weeks, you should turn in those crutches again." He turned around to see two baffled shinobi staring back at him. He just smiled at them as he walked past them, to Ichiraku's. "Come on, don't make an old man wait!" The two shinobi shook out of their stupor, and quickly followed their old Hokage.
After having had a delicious meal at their favourite restaurant, and not having to pay for that delicious meal, Naruto and Iruka followed the Hokage to his tower, where they received payment for a B-ranked mission (twenty-five-thousand Ryo), despite heavy protests from Iruka.
After convincing Iruka he had deserved it, Naruto and Iruka were walking outside, one with crutches, one with a bandaged hand. "So, what are you going to spend your reward on, Naruto? It's a decent amount of money, you could buy a lot of stuff from it." It was a little before eight, so they still had about half an hour before they had to got to the academy.
The boy scrunched up his face in thought, and said: "I don't know, maybe some more Ichiraku's?" A bead of sweat formed on the back of his Sensei's head, which once again had a hitai-ate on it, after replacing the one he had given to his student.
"Maybe you could look for something you'd like in a weapons store? You can enter, now that you're a shinobi and all." Naruto looked up at him, surprised. He hadn't even known that there was a weapons store in town. He thought your weapons were supplied by the academy and, well, maybe he hadn't really thought about it that much.
"You didn't really think we'd just keep supplying you with your tools, did you?" Iruka said with a knowing smile. "No..." Naruto said, not convincing his Sensei.
"Well, if for instance a shinobi would like to specialize in a certain weapon, we're not just going to give it to him, you know. You should also resupply at a weapons store with kunai or any other tool if you run out or need more." And somehow his Sensei had turned their conversation into a lecture once again.
"Yeah, yeah Sensei. Let's just go there, in stead of giving me another lecture." Naruto said. His Sensei's eyebrow twitched a little, but he settled down. They walked off to a weapons store Iruka frequented. They couldn't take the rooftops, because Iruka was on crutches.
They arrived at the weapon shop, and Naruto opened the door for his Sensei. Iruka was a regular at this shop, and greeted the girl behind the counter. "Good morning, Tenten-san." The mentioned girl lifted her head up from the counter, and greeted him back with a smile. "Good morning Iruka-san. How can I help you- What happened to you, Iruka-san?" She noticed that the academy instructor was walking on crutches after her greeting.
She also noticed the blond boy that came in after the Chuunin. "Iruka-san, civilians aren't allowed in here. You know that." Naruto sheepishly pulled out his hitai-ate from his pocket and said, "Ah, yeah sorry about that. The old man said I can't show that I'm a ninja yet. So I can't wear my hitai-ate until I officially gruaduate." Tenten snapped her fingers, as if realising something. "Ah, Gai-Sensei told us about what happened this morning. You assisted a Chuunin in subduing a traitor, right? Then, you must be the Chuunin he assisted?"
She pointed at Iruka, he was having a stare-down with the weirdly entrancing form of a boy in a green jumpsuit who was sitting cross-legged on the counter. He was staring back intently at Iruka and Naruto. Naruto was wondering why a genin was working in a weapons shop. Didn't you get money from doing missions?
"These are our youthful comrades who apprehended that utterly un-honorable shinobi? I am most pleased to meet you. My name is Rock Lee, also known as the Handsome Devil of the Hidden Leaf." The green jumpsuit-boy stuck out his hand for the two baffled shinobi in front of him to shake, which they did. "Iruka Umino, I'm an instructor at the academy." He shook out of his stupor. "Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage, nice to meet you too, bushy brows!" Naruto grinned at the weirdly dressed shinobi who now had a new nickname, and shook his hand.
"Nobody calls you that, Lee." Tenten said, referring to the Handsome Devil part of his introduction. "What was that?" Lee asked, apparently not hearing her.
Tenten was busy introducing herself to the new shinobi, so she didn't respond to Lee. "Nice to meet you. I'm Tenten, and that guy is Neji. These guys are my team-mates. Normally someone else would be working here, but our Sensei is busy, so I figured I could go back to the store for a bit. Didn't know these two would join me, though."
Iruka and Naruto looked at the other boy present, apparently called Neji. Neji nodded. They nodded back, Naruto with one eyebrow raised. That guy reminded him of someone. Those eyes, they were kind of familiar. Ah, well. He could always ask later.
"So, what can I help you with?" Tenten got back to business, to keep the focus off of her awkward teammates.
Iruka snapped back at attention, after his eyes had been pulled to the weird form of Lee. She said Gai was their Sensei? Yeah, he could see that.
"Well, Naruto here is just looking for something he wanted to spend some cash on, and I... Ah! I suppose I should ask if the academy's restock order has arrived yet."
"Feel free to browse around," She said to Naruto, who nodded with his permanent grin, and walked off in the store. "And as for the order... I don't know of the top of my head. I'll have to look in the back, so if you'll excuse me for a moment." She walked through the door behind her to look if the order had arrived yet, and left Iruka alone with her two team-mates, of which the green clad-one began bombarding the academy instructor with questions about the encounter with the traitor.
Meanwhile, Naruto was browsing the store, looking for something he might like. There were all sorts of weapons, from a small tanto to a giant zanbato, or a kusarigama. There were also a lot of types of armour, like reinforced versions of the vest you receive when you attain Chuunin rank, or Anbu-style shin and arm-guards.
As he was browsing the store, his eyes fell on a pair of fingerless blue gloves. The back of the were covered with a steel plate with the leaf symbol engraved in it, and the palm had some curved shuko spikes on them, with a metal plate under the cloth to secure them. These things were developed when ninja didn't know how to stick to walls with chakra yet, but Naruto didn't know that.
He looked at his bandaged hand, and back at the gloves. Yup, those were gonna be his now. He didn't particularly like shuriken sticking out of his hands. He looked at the price, only two-thousand Ryo, too. That left him with a lot of money to spend. Maybe he should buy a short sword, like a tanto or a wakizashi? He didn't really have anything for close combat, except for his kunai, but those were more general tools than for fighting in melee range anyway.
Ahh, he didn't know. There was too much to choose from, anyway. He might come back later to have a look. He walked over to the counter, where that Lee guy was enthusiastically talking to his Sensei, who seemed a bit off-put by the boy's grandiose hand-movements and general loudness. The girl, Tenten, had also returned from the storeroom, and was once again lying with her head on the counter. Neji was still standing impassively to the side.
"Naruto, found anything you like?" Iruka seemed glad at the interruption, as he smiled towards the boy while he asked this.
"I got these," He lifted up the gloves, "but I couldn't really decide what I wanted after that, so I didn't grab anything else." He said as he laid the pair of gloves on the counter.
Tenten whistled when she saw the pair of gloves. "You want those old things? These were used with ashiko spikes to climb walls or trees, but modern shinobi just use chakra to do that now. Are you sure you want these? You can get them without the spikes, you know." Naruto scratched his head, and said: "Oh, I thought those things were for clawing someone's eyes out. And I didn't see any without spikes." He scratched the back of his head, while staring quizzically at the pair of gloves. Iruka face-palmed when he heard Naruto explain why he picked them.
"Well, the gloves without spikes are on display right here." She pointed below her, where a pair of mentioned gloves were lying in the glass counter. "So, you wanna switch those out?"
Naruto thought about it for a second, and then said: "I'll take them both! These things look pretty great, but a spare is always handy."
"All right," Tenten said as she grabbed a pair of gloves that were on display. "that'll be three-thousand Ryo." Naruto paid for the gloves, and he and his Sensei walked to the door. "Thanks for coming, stop by soon!" Tenten said, receiving a goodbye in return from the two leaving the shop.
As the two walked to the academy, which was supposed to start in about ten minutes, Iruka suddenly remembered something. "Naruto." The boy looked up at his Sensei, "How are we going to explain this?" Iruka pointed at Naruto's hand and his own legs.
Naruto grinned and scratched his head. "Uhh, a prank gone wrong?"
Iruka laughed, and they continued walking to the academy.
Author's Notes:
Told you this chapter would be longer. The concept of Naruto having a visit to a weapons store where Tenten has a job isn't that original, but I think I executed it pretty decently.
As for Naruto not buying a weapon or something: I just think a blade doesn't really suit him, his fists suit him more. I've always thought the concept of Naruto using a sword is pretty weird. He's more a fan of breaking your nose with his fists.
Updates from now on will be a little less frequent, because my vacation is over and I have to do nothing in school all day. See ya.
(Made some minor edits to all chapters, fixed some of my stupidity and thanks to Jdes1007 for pointing out a mistake I made.)