Hey guys! Firestr2 back here with the latest installment of Exceeding Expectations. I'm sorry it took so long to update this, but I really had to think about how I wanted this to pan out. I had the idea in my head, but couldn't really put it into words, so I had to rewrite it a couple times to get it correct. Anyway, I think I'm going to assign a day of the week where I update, so it's not as sporadic as these last few chapters have been; it will be every Sunday or so, that way I have enough time to go over what I write and make sure it's good enough for you guys! Enjoy!
Chapter 4: A True Friend
Naruto, after leaving the academy, decided to head to his favorite hangout place to spread the good news of his promotion to genin. As he was walking down the street, he noticed a very familiar, two bun, and brown haired girl walking in his direction.
"Ten-chan, hey! How's it going?" Piped Naruto, his excitement at passing the academy exams nearly palpable. Apparently, it was so infectious that Tenten clearly had no choice but to perk up at the sight of her favorite resident blond.
"Hey, Naruto! I'm well, but a little ragged from what Gai-sensei likes to call a warm-up and training. But regardless, how are you?" Naruto smirked and then struck a pose flashing his most 'dashing' smile.
Tenten blushed at the sight, "Well? What is it?"
"I passed the exams! Look, I've got my hitai-ate and everything now, I'm an official ninja of Konohagakure finally!" Naruto nearly shouted. "But right now, I've got to get to Ichiraku Ramen so I can spread the good news! Want to come with me? We can train again like we usually do afterwards." Offered Naruto.
"Tsk. I wish I could go with you, but my break is nearly over, and I need to get back to my team to finish up whatever mission we were going to take. Hopefully it isn't a difficult one, I don't think I could take a strenuous mission right now." Tenten rejected Naruto's question. Naruto looked slightly saddened at this and Tenten definitely noticed as it was so obvious to see his emotions through his eyes, so she added, "Well, actually maybe I can meet up with you after you're done eating at Ichiraku's and we can have a light spar then? How does that sound to you?"
The result was instantaneous, Naruto perked up so quickly that Tenten thought that Naruto might have faked his sadness, but then thought about it and shook her head at such a nonsensical notion. "Oh yeah! That sounds great! I'll be waiting at training ground 23 after I'm done eating whenever you're ready to spar with me! Thanks, Ten-chan! You're a really awesome person, dattebayo!"
Naruto, being the oblivious person he was, completely missed the light blush the adorned Tenten's face at the compliment but could have sworn he felt like killing intent coming from somewhere that he couldn't pinpoint, but just as soon as he felt it, it vanished. Curious. He shrugged it off as part of his imagination and turned around to continue towards his favorite ramen shop.
As Tenten watched Naruto walk away, a thought suddenly struck her.
'Oh god, he's younger than me! How did I not notice that?!'
Five minutes later…
Naruto walked in through the banners that covered the front of Ichiraku Ramen and immediately took the stool in the center of the counter, which had pretty much been dubbed as his seat, considering how often he ate there. Every day. As he sat down, he called out, "Oi, Old man Teuchi! One bowl of miso ramen, followed by a pork bowl, and then I'll decide from there!"
Teuchi Ichiraku, a kindly, old man and owner of said ramen bar, poked his head out from inside the kitchen.
"Ah, Naruto, welcome back! One miso and one pork ramen coming right up!"
As Teuchi got to work on making his famed ramen for his most profita— er, favorite customer, his daughter, Ayame, came around the corner and spotted her favorite, surrogate little brother.
"Naruto-kun! How are you? How did the exams go?" Ayame asked pointedly, somehow knowing that Naruto couldn't wait to get the news off of his chest.
"Great! Ibiki-san said that I passed all of the tests and that I really earned my hitai-ate!" Exclaimed Naruto, throwing his hands around the air to really give his words the right meaning of how big of an event this was to Naruto. He was already holding a pair of chopsticks in anticipation of his impending ramen. Ayame squealed and leaned over the counter to give Naruto a massive hug.
"Ayame-neechan quit it! You know I hate this cuddly stuff!" Naruto whined dispassionately as Ayame stepped back and pouted.
"I know, I know, but how can I not when I'm just so excited for my favorite person ever!" Naruto chuckled in an embarrassed fashion as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Hehe, thanks Ayame-nee. I really appreciate that." Naruto finished as the atmosphere of the ramen bar settled down.
"Order up!" Teuchi's voice rang throughout the small restaurant as he brought out the miso and pork ramen, respectively.
"Yosh! Arigato, Teuchi-jiji. I really appreciate this!" Naruto gratefully accepted the ramen and performed the customary "Itadakimasu!" before immediately digging in to what could be considered one of Naruto's few weaknesses.
"Don't worry about it, Naruto. In fact, based on what I heard from your conversation with my daughter earlier, consider your first ten bowls to be on the house today! Congratulations on passing the academy exams. You look like a proper ninja with that headband now, and I know that you'll only get stronger as time passes! Of course, I also want to serve the only hokage in the village with a ramen addiction!" Laughed Teuchi as he winked at Naruto. Naruto's eyes widened as he heard those words and tears of happiness started to pool in the corner of his eyes.
"Arigato, Teuchi-oji," Naruto said softly as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve while also perking up, "Of course I'll be hokage one day and I tell you, the first meal I ever have when I become fire shadow will be ramen from Ichiraku Ramen, dattebayo!" Teuchi chuckled as he walked back to his station in the kitchen only pausing long enough to turn back to Naruto to mention a few words.
"I look forward to it, Naruto."
About an hour later, Naruto had finally filled up on his ramen fix and was currently making his way towards training ground 23 just as he had promised Tenten. It took him about ten minutes to make his way to the training ground as it was almost halfway across the village and a little ways away from the wall of Konoha. When he got there, he noticed that Tenten was already there, practicing her katas with what seemed to be any kind of weapon that she could touch, considering the tree that she was next to had a large assortment of weapons leaning against it. Naruto quickened his pace in anticipation, wanting to get to the spar as soon as possible.
"Hey, Ten-chan! I didn't expect you to be here so soon! I thought you would take another break after your mission to regain some of your energy for our spar?" Inquired Naruto. Tenten smirked.
"Yeah? And why would I need to regain my energy when I could put down a rookie genin such as yourself with ease?" She teased, making the blond develop a tick mark above the eyebrow.
"Oi! You'll resent that when it comes to our spar, believe it!" Quipped Naruto angrily. Tenten held up her hands in defeat towards the emotional genin.
"Calm down, Naruto. I was only kidding. Why don't you start warming up with some katas and some stretching while I watch over you and help you correct any mistakes in your stances?" Naruto immediately backed off, feeling foolish for letting such a comment get to his head.
'And here I was punishing Sakura earlier today for just for being loud, it looks like I still have some work to do on controlling my emotions as well.' Naruto thought to himself.
"Alright, I'll get right to that," agreed Naruto as he pulled out his twin chokuto and began to weave through his stances trying to be as fluid as possible. After about a half hour of going through his katas and having Tenten preside over his technique, an idea struck Tenten.
'Hmm, over the past year of sparring with Naruto, every time he uses his shadow clones, he always seems to be more prepared for anything as the battle goes on.'
"Hey Naruto, can you make one shadow clone for me?" Tenten asked. Complying, Naruto brought his hands together in the normal cross shaped hand sign and called forth a shadow clone.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Tenten stepped forward and addressed both original and clone Naruto.
"Alright so here's my idea. You know what the basic katas for your chokuto should be, right?" Both Narutos nodded, "Good. Basically, my idea is for you to go attack your clone, without maiming it, else it dispel, and because it has the same skill level as you and same knowledge as you, you can watch your clone's stances and correct them as needed. This way you can get immediate feedback because of the information transfer that Asuma-san told about, no? And then later, when the clone dispels, you'll have not only your perspective of fixing the stances, but also the clone's perspective of going through the stances while adjusting them. After enough practice and after you have the katas down perfectly, then you can also start experimenting with attack strategies and what would work best for you. And of course when you're with me, you'll have my input as well." Tenten elaborated on her idea as Naruto gave a wicked grin in response.
"So what you're saying is that I'll be able to work on attacking and defending at the same time while also perfecting my form? Awesome! Let's get to work then!" Naruto squared off with his clone before lunging in with a overhead strike as his clone fell into the proper form for the overhead block and counter. Both clone and original having wide grins on their faces as they corrected each other and repeated the process, with Tenten occasionally stepping in.
About an hour later, Tenten was feeling as well rested as she needed to be for this light spar and pointed out to Naruto that she was ready.
"Hey Naruto, give it a rest already, I think it's time we had that spar now! Tenten shouted over the sounds of clashing swords. She blinked as she realized that the clearing was now full of clones that had paired off and were doing the same activity that Tenten had explained just earlier and wondered to herself just how she had managed to miss seeing Naruto using that many clones without her noticing.
'What the hell?! When did he make so many clones? Ugh, that is just so unfair. With the way he can spout off shadow clones, he can do what would take a normal shinobi decades to learn something in mere days! How can anyone compete with that?' Tenten grumbled to herself about baka blonds and having seemingly unlimited amounts of chakra to throw left and right.
In one long, drawn out poof, all the clones dispelled leading to Naruto grabbing his head in pain, due to the massive influx of shadow clone memories he received and due to trying to sort out all of the information he had just acquired. After several minutes of going through his memories, Naruto stood up and jogged over to Tenten looking much more confident in his abilities with his twin chokuto.
"Okay, let's do this! I've still got daylight to burn!" Naruto said as he got into his basic fighting stance. Tenten, seeing the gleam in his eye from his newfound confidence in his swordplay, quickly fell back into her own stance as a six foot spear appeared in her hands. Confused, Naruto stood back up from his stance and asked.
"You're not going to have a duel with me, sword to sword?" Tenten stood up and merely shook her head in denial.
"No, Naruto, I'm not. As a shinobi, you can't always expect to go against the same kind of enemy using the same style. This way, you get experience using your swords in a ton of different, controlled scenarios while at the same time, I have a sparring partner where I can really buckle down and focus on all kinds of weapons and how to use them effectively against a weapon user who has two weapons to attack with," Tenten explained as Naruto nodded and fell back into his stance. After a few seconds, Naruto's face scrunched up in concentration as Tenten prepared to face her opponent.
"So what are the rules?" Naruto abruptly asked. Tenten face planted in the dirt, not expecting the question and relieving the tension stored up in her body before answering in a rather annoyed fashion.
"Naruto! It's the same rules every time, do everything you can to defeat your opponent with your respective weapons, no chakra enhancing, no nin or genjutsu, and no kill shots!" Tenten huffed before getting back into her stance willing for the spar to begin already.
"Okay, just making sure." Responded Naruto rather cheekily as he grinned at his friend and settled into his sword stance again. Both shinobi began to eye each other as they looked over the other's body for signs of weakness or any openings in their defense. Suddenly, Naruto spotted it. Tenten's left flank seemed to be a little weaker due to her placing more weight on her right side. He noticed how Tenten's spear almost reflexively seemed to cover that area the best. Realizing that this could simply be a diversion so that Tenten could take advantage of his misplaced attention, Naruto charged in and decided to be a little more on the cautious side so as not to be side swiped by her deadly, sharpened spear without even noticing it.
Tenten immediately fell on the defensive as Naruto charged in, instantly falling to her back foot to better support her full body weight as she shifted the spear in front of her so that the front was facing right towards Naruto. As Naruto neared her, she thrusted outwards with her spear planning ahead for any type of dodge. Naruto, seeing her maneuver, managed to get out of the way but quickly realized his mistake when the spear suddenly trailed a long arc as its razor sharp edge raced towards him. Quick as his reflexes would allow, Naruto parried the spear swipe and brought his second chokuto around for a low to high strike hoping to catch Tenten off balance after her initial feint and strike failed. It didn't.
Tenten, now on the defensive, leapt back so as to keep Naruto outside of her guard. It wouldn't do her any good to have a weapon that was longer than her counterpart's only to have him slip inside her spear's effective range. After regaining her bearings and planning another set of attacks, she quickly dashed back in, preparing another side swipe. Naruto smirked confidently as he already knew how to counter this form of attack, but just as he was about to parry her attack away, Tenten's eyes gleamed mischievously and lightning-fast, she performed a feint and spun the shaft of the spear and nailed Naruto right in the diaphragm with the butt end of the spear. Naruto, who had just lost quite a bit of air, now struggled to defend himself against the onslaught of spear attacks, but after finding a brief opening, was able to jump away and regain his breath.
"Don't get too confident, Naruto!" Tenten taunted Naruto, "Just because you have shadow clone training to fall back onto, doesn't mean that you'll be good enough to beat me after one day! You're still way too far behind me skill wise to have a chance at beating me!" Tenten quipped confidently, somehow forgetting the fact that she would clearly be in quite the amount of trouble had Naruto been able to use his shadow clones.
"Ha! Give me a couple more days and I'll be able to kick your ass around no problem, believe it!" The blond genin retorted right back to the bun haired girl as he quickly came up with another plan. Naruto, once again initiated the fight, seeing as he had the shorter of the two styles of weaponry and had to get in close to even have a chance. As Naruto approached, Tenten dug in her heels in preparation of the impending strike knowing that Naruto naturally had more physical strength than her while she had a wider range of motion due to her natural flexibility, and she planned to use that to the fullest extent.
Naruto decided to put his plan into action right as he reached the tip of Tenten's spear. In a show of impressive flexibility, Naruto very narrowly dodged the tip of the spear by swaying his head out of the way, the spearhead seemingly passing by in slow motion. With a quick swipe up with his left sword, Naruto removed the spear from play and dodged the butt end of the spear before it could make contact. Just as Tenten was preparing to dodge Naruto's sword strike, she was suddenly put on her heels by Naruto dropping to the ground and planting one of his hands as a pivot point, using his now free leg to kick Tenten skywards, right where her left flank was weak. Naruto then used this massive opening to rap the flat end of his chokuto against Tenten's side which surely would have gone through to the kidney, signaling a killing blow as Tenten descended back towards the ground, landing a little less than gracefully. Naruto, knowing he had won this round, stepped back and with an impressive flair of his swords, sheathed his two blades seamlessly.
"I wish you had told me that you were not at one-hundred percent, Ten-chan." Naruto pointed out as Tenten sighed.
"I know, but I knew that if you had known, then you would not have treated this spar as seriously out of fear of hurting me." Tenten replied with her head down shamefully. However, Naruto would have none of this and stepped forward, placing a finger under her chin and lifting her head up to look at him.
"Chin up, Ten-chan. I won't have my friend wallowing if I'm there and can make a difference." Joked Naruto as Tenten blushed furiously before backing up, stuttering.
"I-I was NOT w-wallowing," Tenten stumbled over her words, thinking about just how close they were in proximity only seconds prior. Naruto tsk'd and asked.
"Hmm? Oh well, what were you doing then, Ten-chan?" He asked as Tenten breathed a sigh of relief, not that Naruto heard… or cared, realizing that her traumatizing moment was over and that the subject of converstation was finally moving somewhere else.
"Well…" Tenten glanced around trying to find a viable excuse, "I was actually looking down to make sure that my side was okay, it's kind of hurting you know from training earlier with my team and from that kick you put on me," Tenten winced at the fake sounding reply but apparently it worked well enough for Naruto to immediately become concerned and went into what Tenten liked to call his 'doctor' mode, not that Tenten ever fantasized about that. *cough* *cough*
"Oh man, I am so sorry," Naruto apologized sincerely, "I wasn't sure if you were trying to catch me off guard by making me think you had an injury or not and end up winning the spar, so when I kicked you, I didn't really hold anything back!" Naruto fretted over Tenten showing no signs of stopping when he began to poke and prod Tenten's side trying to discern whether or not she was going to survive. Tenten, despite her throbbing side, couldn't help but giggle at his concern, and the fact that she was ticklish there.
"Naruto, s-stop. You're tickling me and it hurts to laugh." That did the trick as Naruto's hand immediately left Tenten's side, almost too quickly if Tenten was being honest, but before she could say anything else, Naruto swept her up into her arms earning a shriek of surprise from the poor girl.
"N-Naruto, what are you doing?! Put me down!" Cried Tenten. Naruto shook his head.
"No can do, Ten-chan. I can't leave a friend behind, besides, you don't weigh that much, I can carry you to the hospital no problem. It's also getting late, so we should probably hurry if we don't want the hospital to close before you can get treated." Naruto added as he glanced at the horizon and noticed that the sun was already to the point where the moon and stars were visible. Fortunately, it was just dark enough that Tenten's furious blush was able to be hidden from Naruto's prying… deep blue, eyes.
'Stop it, Tenten! There's no way he's interested in you, he's only doing it out of concern for his own actions.' Tenten thought to herself trying to distance herself from the alluring blond emotionally as the pair kept walking away from the clearing.
As Naruto and Tenten were approaching the walls of Konoha, Naruto paused for a second and looked around making Tenten wonder what was going on through his head.
"What's wrong, Naruto?" Came Tenten's question. Naruto shook his head as if trying to clear some thought.
"I'm not entirely sure, but something feels off right now. I mean, it has been way too quiet for the past five minutes." Naruto observed, but Tenten feeling as though she should try to put his thoughts at ease added.
"Well, I mean, it is just the two of us out here and we haven't really been talking all that much," Tenten supplied earning her a look from Naruto.
"I understand that, and yet, here we are in the middle of the forest and I can't hear a single animal or any type of insect, why is that?" Naruto suddenly heard a noise coming from a little deeper in the woods.
"Tenten," Naruto said seriously, "I'm going to have a shadow clone take you to the hospital while I go check this out," he supplied as he placed Tenten down and brought his hands together in his familiar cross shaped seal. A second later, a shadow clone popped up from nothingness and walked over to Tenten to pick her back up, but Tenten would have none of this.
"What? Hell no, I'm coming with you! There's no way I'd let you go alone if there is actually a threat to the village out there," Tenten argued however, Naruto shook his head disapprovingly.
"As much as I would love for you to be my backup, you're in no shape to be in a prolonged fight and I'm not strong enough yet to protect you and fight off a potential enemy," Naruto supplied before signaling to his shadow clone to get moving as he dashed off into the trees.
Seeing that she was getting nowhere with the original, Tenten turned her attention to the clone Naruto.
"Please, Naruto-kun, don't do this to me. I couldn't bear the thought of you getting hurt simply because you wouldn't allow me to help," she begged as the clone tried and failed to ignore the plea.
"I-I don't know if we should, I mean, like the boss said, you're hurt and he—we, would hate to see you come to further injury because we couldn't protect you." Came the clone's sorrowful reply.
"Don't worry! I won't even get into the fight if there is one, I promise! You know how good my aim is! I don't miss, I'll sit back at a longer range and help him from afar," Tenten argued her case well as the Naruto clone slowly felt his resolve crumbling around him.
"Alright, but only if you stay out of the fight and help from range, got it? I'll be next to you the entire time to provide any kind of backup I possibly can before I dispel." Came the final acceptance of Tenten's terms.
Naruto was currently running through the forests trying to locate the area where he felt was 'off' as he had so eloquently put earlier. He actually didn't really understand why he felt that something bad was happening, but he could feel it in his gut, and his experiences always seemed to point towards trusting his instincts. It was almost as if he had something in the back of his mind telling him where people were going to be based on their emotions, usually negative ones. It had kept him alive when he was younger, so he most certainly was not going to ignore it now.
"Why do I always seem to go towards trouble? Why can't I, for once, be the guy who avoids it?" Naruto questioned himself before dropping into a clearing that he could've sworn was the location where he felt the negative emotion. Luckily, the person he spotted in the clearing was so focused on whatever it was he was doing that he hadn't sensed Naruto yet.
"Oi! What's going on here? What are you doing?" Naruto called out to the silhouette of a man, distinctly noticing that the person he called out to flinched and then cursed before scrambling to pull out a kunai, whirling around to face whoever had confronted him.
"I didn't do anythi—Eh? Naruto? Is that you?" Came the man's confused response before stepping forward enough for Naruto to recognize him.
"Mizuki-sensei? What brings you out here? It's late out, shouldn't you be at the event that Ibiki-san mentioned?" Naruto shuffled his weight uncomfortably trying to piece together what was going on at the moment.
'Oh, what a coincidence! Not only have I successfully gotten away with the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing with apparently no one noticing, but I also have the perfect chance to kill the demon-brat! Mizuki chuckled darkly to himself.
"Oh, this is PERFECT!" Mizuki screamed to the heavens, "I can't believe that Kami himself would deliver such a gift to me!" He continued with an insane gleam in his eye. Naruto, noticing the man's bloodlust unconsciously took a step back, eyes wide and waiting for anything to happen.
"Mizuki-sensei, what's going on? Why are you behaving this way?" Mizuki's began laughing as it slowly raised in pitch and volume until it became a full cackle.
"DON'T YOU GET IT? THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR," Mizuki roared at Naruto, "Haven't you ever wondered why exactly you receive those hateful glares? Why everyone seems to ignore your existence or outright loathe it?" Naruto's eyes widened.
"It is because you are—," Naruto's eyes focused in on Mizuki's mouth but he couldn't make out the words that Mizuki was saying.
'False Surrounding Jutsu complete' Iruka sighed to himself as he averted the spilling of an 'S-ranked' secret. Donning his ANBU dolphin mask, he performed the shunshin and vanished only to reappear behind Mizuki with his tanto piercing Mizuki's heart.
"You should have never gone against the reign of the hokage, nor should you have tried to defy and obtain that which you cannot have." Iruka whispered into Mizuki's ear as the former teaching assistant's eyes widened before blood shot out of his mouth in a violent cough.
"No… this wasn't how it was supposed to happen," came Mizuki's strangled reply, "All I wanted was the power to prove that I was more than what everyone viewed me as. The scroll was going to provide me with that power before I gave… gave it to…" Mizuki mouthed the final word but Iruka was unable to discern his meaning before his previous best friend took his last breath and passed on into the void. Iruka withdrew his blade and sheathed it as Mizuki collapsed to the floor. After sealing away the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing and bending down to pick Mizuki up, Dolphin turned to Naruto and released the genjutsu. Naruto blinked in surprise at what had suddenly changed in the clearing. One second, he was about to hear what could be considered the truth behind his suffering and then the next, Mizuki was slumped over the shoulder of a certain Dolphin ANBU.
"Uzumaki-san, the Hokage requests your presence immediately." Came the authoritative voice of the ANBU member. Naruto's eyes widened.
'Is that Iruka-sensei? I swear I recognize that voice after six long years of hearing it, there's no one else it could possibly be.' Came Naruto's internal voice as he pondered over the situation. 'If he's an ANBU member under Jiji's employment, that means that he can be trusted, I guess.' Naruto finished as he began walking towards the ANBU agent.
Tenten's eyes widened considerably in surprise. When she followed after Naruto to help, this was not what she expected; not at all. To learn Naruto's deepest secret when even he didn't know the truth seemed so unfair to her. She knew in her heart of hearts that if she were the jinchuuriki of the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, she would most certainly want to know the truth, regardless of how she reacted, just so she could have some form of closure.
Tenten turned to her companion, whose eyes were wide in fear, and spoke to the clone.
"Go ahead and dispel yourself, there was a genjutsu placed on the original and he did not hear the truth however, you did. If you dispel now, he will know the truth before confronting the Hokage. He deserves to know." Tenten advised before the clone nodded in understanding. In a poof the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Naruto froze about five feet from the ANBU agent. He quickly filtered through the memories that he had received. Realizing the urgency of the situation he began to back away from the ANBU.
'I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune? That's why everyone hates me? There's no way that could be true. The Fourth Hokage killed it! That's what we were always taught in the academy.' Naruto panicked to himself.
"Is there something wrong, Uzumaki-san?" Came the wondrous reply from Dolphin.
"How many knew?" Naruto's voice quietly rang out in the silent area surrounding the two.
"Excuse me? I'm not sure I know what—"
"HOW MANY!" Shouted an enraged Naruto. "How many knew that I contained the Nine-tailed Demon fox?" he continued.
'Impossible, there's no way he could have figured out that piece of information! My genjutsu would've prevented that! I didn't sense it being broken, so how would he have gained that information?!'
"Naruto—," Iruka began.
"I-I don't want to hear it right now. I need some time to think." And with that Naruto turned the other way and fled, using all of his strength and speed to get away from the area. Iruka, in a state of panic, quickly followed the boy.
After the clearing was empty, Tenten dropped down from her hiding place, concern clearly etched upon her face.
"Naruto… I don't believe that you're the Kyuubi. After all, a kunai sealed in a scroll does not make the scroll the weapon." Tenten muttered to herself in sorrow, clearly pulling from her own experiences with sealing.
"I… I don't know how you have managed to keep all of your emotions inside, not effecting your daily life, but I will always be here for you as a friend. To support you. Because that is exactly what you would do for me, were I in the same situation." With her resolve clear, Tenten leapt into the trees as fast as her injuries would allow her.
Naruto had no idea how far he had run nor how much time had passed before he collapsed, weeping to himself terribly.
'Why? Why would this terrible burden be placed on me? Am I really the demon that everyone believes me to be? I-I have no idea how to go on after information like that!' Naruto cried to himself terribly.
Just as he was finishing up his thoughts, Iruka jumped to the ground having found Naruto.
"Naruto, don't run away from this! Tell me what is on your mind." He began, trying to reach the boy.
"What's on my mind?! You want to know what's on my mind!? Why don't you take a guess? I'm the fucking Kyuubi no Kitsune! How would you take that kind of information after a life of obliviousness being on the receiving end of hateful glares?" Naruto ranted more to himself than the ANBU agent in front of him.
In shock at the boy's furious response, Iruka made a decision and took off his mask.
'Hokage-sama will certainly have my ass for this kind of misconduct, but I must do this for Naruto's sake' Iruka thought to himself as he prepared to console the boy.
"Naruto," Iruka began as Naruto looked up and felt a small sense of satisfaction that he had been right about the identity of the ANBU member, "you are NOT the Kyuubi no Kitsune. If you were, would you be able to feel these types of emotions right now? Would you feel any kind of sorrow at your life for how it has panned out? No! However, one thing you are, you are one of my precious students, and I will grin and bear any hardship you must carry because as your instructor, I have come to care for you after all these years of teaching you, and it is my duty to protect those I care about." Naruto looked up in shock.
"You, you care about me?" Naruto began, "But, why?"
"Because we are a lot more alike than you would think, both of us had rough lives, both of our parents were killed off during the Kyuubi attack, leaving us orphans, and both of us were ignored because of our orphan status. I can relate to you and the loneliness you went through. A-and I refuse to let someone else I care about go through that same fate when I can do something to change it." Iruka finished with serious emotion in his voice as Naruto looked on with tears in his eyes.
"Heh, only someone like you could say something like that to calm me down, neh, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto added happy that he had someone else to add to his list of precious people.
"Yeah, well anyway, it's time that we go see Hokage-sama now. Will you come along now?" Iruka asked.
"Sure thi—" Naruto started to respond but was cut off by a familiar voice.
"NARUTO!" Tenten dropped down into the clearing, clutching her side as she nearly collapsed from exhaustion.
"I finally caught up. How could you just run off like that? Didn't you get the memories from your clone that I was there, waiting for you?" Tenten began.
"Ten-chan, I'm sorry, there was just so much going on all at once that I freaked out and I thought you wouldn't accept me for who I really was." Naruto apologized.
SLAP
Naruto held his face in shock as he looked at his friend. He was trying to understand what had happened when Tenten spoke up.
"Do you really think me to be so shallow that I cannot tell the difference between a kunai and a scroll? You know of my interest in sealing, Naruto! There's no way you could be that demon! Everything they say about you is wrong, so don't you dare give up! I don't think I could go on if I saw you give up when you always pour your heart and soul into everything that you do!" Tenten stopped to take a deep breath when she was cut off by Naruto pulling her into a tight hug.
"Domo arigato, Ten-chan. Arigato. Arigato." Naruto repeated into Tenten's shoulder as he tried but failed to hold back tears as someone else showed their true colors to him.
"Ehem, well, I don't mean to interrupt, but we should probably get to Hokage-sama. Oh, you're coming to Tenten because you're a witness, okay?" Iruka asked the pair.
"Got it." Both replied as they walked over to the teacher who grabbed both of their hands with one hand before vanishing in a shunshin to the hokage's office.
Hokage's Office
Iruka, Naruto, and Tenten all appeared in a flurry of leaves in the Hokage's office only to see a stern looking Hiruzen looking at all three expectantly. Iruka cleared his throat and prepared to speak.
"Hokage-sama, the mission to expose of the missing-nin Mizuki and recovery the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing is complete. On another note, I would not have been able to complete the mission as easily as I had if it were not for Naruto Uzumaki distracting Mizuki to such a degree."
Hiruzen hmm'd as Iruka continued, "Upon arriving to the scene where Mizuki and Naruto were, Mizuki was currently revealing a certain 'S-ranked' secret to Naruto here." As Iruka explained this, Sarutobi's eyes widened considerably as he realized the implications.
"Despite my attempts to stop Mizuki from telling the secret, Naruto here found out as well as Higurashi-san here." Iruka continued causing the pipe in HIruzen's mouth to comically plop out of his mouth on to the ground. The Sandaime Hokage grumbled under his breath about traitors while bending down to pick his pipe back up and laying it onto the desk in front of him.
"Is that all, Iruka-kun?" Hiruzen questioned.
"Hai that is all, Sandaime-sama." Iruka finished. The oldest hokage turned to the younger pair of the trio.
"So, both of you are aware of your status, Naruto-kun, Tenten-chan?" Both children nodded. But another thought flitted through Naruto's mind.
'Jiji… you lied to me. You knew all along the true reason why I was hated by everyone.'
"How could you, Jiji? How could you lie to me? When you knew all along the real reason." Naruto asked quietly with his head hanging, hair covering his eyes. Hiruzen's own eyes seemed to become clouded with regret.
"I wanted to tell you, Naruto-kun. So badly. Every time you asked, I felt my own resolve breaking. But I have to let you know, that I was going to tell you as soon as you became a full genin of Konohagakure. I just had to make sure that you were prepared enough for that kind of knowledge. Please forgive me for the pain that I have caused you." Hiruzen apologized, clearly in agony over the pain he had caused his surrogate grandson. Naruto listened to all of this but managed to pick out one detail.
"Wait, full genin? What do you mean, Jiji?" Naruto asked expectantly. Hiruzen coughed realizing that he had revealed something that only Jounin-sensei were supposed to reveal.
"Well, you're not supposed to know until the day of team assignments, but I suppose that I can tell you and since Tenten-chan here already knows, I won't be revealing it to anyone else. However, you are not allowed to inform any other person before their own test." Hiruzen explained, not really in the mood to hold more secrets from the boy.
"Basically, the academy exam is just to determine who is actually eligible to be genin. However, your own Jounin-sensei will determine whether or not you're cut out to be genin. He or she will do this through a test of their own volition and that determines whether you be put onto a team or put into the shinobi reserves." Naruto's eyes flew open at the new information. But they quickly closed in concentration.
"So I'm not actually a genin yet, huh? No matter, I will just work harder this week to get stronger so I can prove that I am worthy of the title." Sarutobi looked at Naruto proudly as he thought of just how much Naruto had matured from the young child he used to be, always spouting about how he was going to be hokage someday.
"Well, it has been a long night and you, Tenten and Naruto, have both helped in apprehending a traitor to our village. Because of this, I will be placing a completed 'B-ranked' mission on both of your resumes, however, the details of this mission will be placed as a village secret and will be confidential for everyone except my eyes." Hiruzen rewarded the two, whose eyes were gleaming in excitement. "Unfortunately, because this will be an off record mission, I cannot pay you for it. Instead, I think I can come up with another reward. In this scroll there are many different, powerful jutsu, but I think that you both are ready for this." He unraveled the scroll and quickly copied down the contents before closing the scroll again and sealing it within a smaller scroll and placing it inside of his robes.
"As payment and as thanks for the completed mission, I have decided to award you both with this jutsu. It is called the Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. The theory behind this jutsu is that you can throw one kunai or shuriken and by using the seals included and the appropriate amount of chakra, one can multiply the amount of kunai in the air indefinitely based on the amount of chakra placed in the jutsu." The Hokage explained. "Furthermore, this is one of my favorite jutsus, passed down from my sensei, Tobirama Senju, before he became the Nidaime Hokage." The old man finished as he handed the scroll off to Tenten and Naruto.
"I have chosen this as payment because as an aspiring weapons mistress, Tenten, these two jutsu will be invaluable to you and I believe that it will certainly save you from having to pick up so many weapons at the end of a battle." The Hokage joked lightly, getting a smile from the young girl. Hiruzen turned to Naruto.
"Naruto-kun, I have also decided to give these jutsu to you as well because with your chakra capacity, it is truly a scary thought to wonder what you could do with it. In my opinion, if you put in even a tenth of your chakra levels into the technique, you could block out the sun with a wave of kunai or shuriken. A deadly technique for you indeed." Hiruzen finished as he stood up.
"Thank you, Hokage-sama/Jiji" Came the simultaneous replies from the duo recipients. Hiruzen stretched his back from sitting down for so long.
"Well, I would say that it's been a really long night, neh?" Hiruzen supplied, "Anyway, I believe we should call it a night and you, Naruto and Tenten, can begin working on that jutsu." He finished and with a wave of his hand, dismissed the pair. After Naruto and Tenten left the room, Hiruzen turned to Iruka.
"So, Iruka. What is this about you revealing yourself as an ANBU agent in front of not one, but two people outside of the organization? I wonder what will have to be done in response to such blatant disorderly conduct." Iruka chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck as he felt a spike of killing intent from the powerful Kami no Shinobi in front of him.
Naruto and Tenten were walking down the street together, both silent as they pondered over what had occurred that night up to this point. As they came to a crossroad where they would have to split off, Tenten turned to Naruto.
"Well, this is where we go our separate ways, huh? Want to meet up tomorrow to start practicing these two new jutsu?" She asked her blond companion.
"Huh? Oh… yeah, sure thing. Sorry, I was just thinking about what happened tonight and everything else. So same time tomorrow?" He asked tentatively.
"Yeah, let's do that. Goodnight, Naruto." Tenten turned around and started walking away from the only boy in the village who seemed to be able to confuse her more than anything.
"Tenten!" Said girl turned around.
"I… thank you. For everything tonight. I really appreciated it. I'm glad to call you my friend." Naruto stammered, not entirely comfortable with sharing his feelings after so long of not having anyone to share his feelings with. Turning around, Naruto started walking off into the distance, unaware of the blush that now adorned Tenten's face.
'I'm glad to be able to call you a true friend, too. Naruto.' Tenten thought to herself as she watched Naruto fade into the shadows of the village before turning and heading home herself.
And fin! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, there was a little more interaction between Naruto and Tenten and now she is the most knowledgeable genin in the village. More on this further down the road as they develop their relationship, so look forward to it. Next up is the week of training prior to team assignments, genin requests from the jounin-sensei, and team placements themselves. Please read and review, guys. Thanks and until next time. Ja ne!