Hey everyone, I bring you another drabble inspired by this quote:

"Wit is educated insolence." -Aristotle

Konohamaru had always been able to get away with more than the average kid

Konohamaru had always been able to get away with more than the average kid.

His numerous relatives of high status meant that few were brave enough to discipline him and Ebisu was unable to keep him under his thumb most of the time.

In short, he was a brat, and what was worse was that he was an intelligent brat.

Sure he didn't always seem like the brightest crayon in the box, especially since he spent much of his time idolizing and impersonating Naruto who was hardly a genius himself, but under all the goofy smiles and rowdy behavior was a sharp mind, made even more dangerous by the fact that everyone underestimated him.

He wanted so badly to be a qualified shinobi, one who would earn the praise and recognition of those around him like Naruto managed to do. It seemed like only yesterday the two of them had been playing hide-and-seek, him trying to blend into the wooden fences with his masterful plan of holding up a similarly patterned sheet to cover himself. It would have worked too if he had managed to get the lines on his sheet running the same way as the lines on the fence.

Naruto had taut him the art of the Sexy jutsu and later, the Harem jutsu, a skill he now exploited freely to cause trouble, and he had even taken it a step further to create the Sai-and-Sasuke-Naked-and-Making-Out-in-Front-of-Sakura jutsu, a memory that still amused him to no end.

But he couldn't help but feel a little lonely now that his mentor and friend was away from Konoha more often than he was in it, leaving him to face his years at the ninja academy and training with Ebisu alone.

Konohamaru knew it was Naruto's duty to go on missions, and longed for the days when he too would be doing more than chasing missing cats and pulling weeds. Yet he couldn't help feeling a tiny bit jealous and abandoned. Naruto had been his friend when the noisy blonde had been shunned by everyone else. Now he was accepted by everyone, and while that was good for Naruto, Konohamaru no longer had a monopoly of the Kyuubi container's time.

He wanted to be special like Naruto, to be strong and brave, to be a hero, but so far, the most he had done was be the first in his squad to run to the top of the tree during chakra exercises.

With his grandfather gone, it seemed nobody paid him much attention anymore except his tutor, and Ebisu was more interested in barking orders than listening to what he had to say. His uncle was busy with his own team and Naruto was never around. It wasn't long before Konohamaru was feeling starved for any attention at all, even if it was the negative kind.

And so, he followed in his friend's footsteps, playing pranks that had all the villagers shaking their heads, saying how dangerously alike he was to the Uzumaki boy.

For all their banter, Konohamaru was seldom disciplined unless Ebisu caught him, and even then, it was seldom more than a stern talking to and a particularly rigorous day of training. Ironically enough, the strength and knowledge Konohamaru received from his tutor only equipped him with the tools to cause more chaos. Now that he could mold his chakra, he had spent several hours lying along the ceiling of the changing room of the woman's bath house and this time, the sheet he had pulled around himself did hide him from view, at least for a while until someone happened to look up and see a tuft of his dark hair sticking out from underneath.

Konohamaru had never heard someone scream so loud in his whole life.

But by then he had already collected plenty of information to aid the progression of his Sexy jutsu.

He continued to grow, each day a step closer to when he would finally be able to take a C or even a B ranked mission and leave the village the way Naruto had. However, each day also brought with it a new opportunity to make trouble and he seldom let the chance pass him by.

His actions often had the Godaime rubbing her temples in irritation as Ebisu adjusted his dark glasses and scratched his head sheepishly, apologizing profusely for his student's antics.

As much as she wanted to pound some sense into the brat, she managed to refrain, sighing as the two of them left her office. It was probably only a phase. Naruto had been the same way when they had first met but he had more heart than any other person she knew.

Konohamura possessed that same wonderful attribute, but with it came a sharp intelligence that made him even more problematic. She saw how he quickly learned by example and then applied the knowledge to other things. It was both admirable and honestly, a little frightening.

"I suppose it can't be helped," she would say offhandedly to her assistant as she brought in another mountain of paperwork to be signed. "Wit is simply educated insolence after all."