A/N: 7/2/10. Now, I know what you're thinking...this chapter is really short. And at a mere 2000 words, you'd be right. However, I loved writing this chapter and wanted to get it to you guys immediately, and what the heck, why not?
My reviewers for last chapter were:
mi5tan, Hakumei-chan, .Alpha, Kikyohater220, HyDrOmAtIc.
Not as many as I had hoped for, but I really appreciate what you guys wrote nonetheless!
Personal responses:
.Alpha: Yeah, I loved that aspect for Sasuke too. It's one of the many things that's allowed him to emerge from his emotional shell and become the character you'll see in this chapter.
I put in several aspects for this chapter that you guys suggested, so I hope you enjoy it. I know I did :)
Enjoy!
Chapter 12: What You've Been Missing
"…to…"
Ugh…nugh…
"…ruto…"
Ugh…huh?
"…aruto…"
Groggily opening his eyes, Naruto saw his father standing over him with his trademark smile.
"…Dad?" I asked, barely awake.
His smile grew even wider. "About time! You're definitely not a morning person, just like your mother. Come on, breakfast is ready."
Breakfast? What? But I haven't even gotten out of bed yet… Before he could ask, Minato left the room. Where am I?
Taking a look around, Naruto found his surroundings very unfamiliar, but as yesterday's events flooded his mind, he realized he was at his parents' house. Grateful to still be in his pajamas, he stepped outside of his room and was hit by a mouth-watering smell. Turning the corner, he saw his mother cooking in the kitchen with his father's arms around her. They were laughing about something…
I walked over to the table, still very confused about the situation. I tried to think of something from my life that would equate to this, something that would tell me what to do…but there was nothing.
He just stood there until Minato seemed to sense him. "Oh, Naruto! I see you actually managed to get out of bed. Have a seat, Mom's going to start dishing out in a moment."
Naruto did as he was told, but his confusion lingered. What does he mean? What's going on?
Minato kissed his wife on the cheek before sitting down at the table, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Moments later, Kushina walked over with a large pot of what Naruto recognized as ramen—filled to the brim with many ingredients. It smelled fantastic, just as good, if not possibly better than Ichiraku's. At that thought, Naruto began questioning his sanity. She poured three servings into each of their bowls, moved the pot to the side, and gave a loud, "Idatakimasu!"
Minato followed suit and began eating. Noticing that her son hadn't even touched his breakfast yet, Kushina (uncharacteristically) put down her chopsticks, eyes full of concern.
"Naruto, what's wrong?" she asked. Minato began to worry as well; something was seriously bugging their son for him to not dig in to homemade ramen.
"I…what is this?" Naruto asked.
"It's ramen, silly," replied his mother. But her answer didn't satisfy him in the least. "Naruto, I don't understand what you mean…"
Minato studied his son; he seemed to be searching for words, but couldn't find the right questions to ask. Logically, there was no issue with the food, and he was clearly confused about the situation as a whole…and then it occurred to him. The sad reality hit him like a ton of icy cold bricks. Naruto was confused because he'd never been in any situation like this before; he'd never had a family meal, and judging by his utter confusion, had never awoken to someone cooking breakfast. "Naruto," he said, trying to hide as much of his guilt and pain as possible from his voice, "this is a family breakfast. It's what families do all the time. Just dig in and enjoy the meal, though feel free to talk about anything you want." He added a smile at the end, hoping Naruto wouldn't misunderstand.
Kushina caught on to his meaning immediately and had to strongly resist the urge to let her grief show.
"Oh."
Seeing that just trying to return to normality would be very difficult under the circumstances, Minato decided to strike up some conversation. "So Naruto, who taught you the Rasengan?"
The blond teen immediately perked up. "Oh! Ero-sennin did!"
"Ero-sennin?" asked Kushina.
"Huh? Oh, Jiraiya-sensei."
The couple cracked up, realizing just how fitting the name was. "Wow, Naruto, I'm going to have to remember that one. It's a very interesting coincidence that you and I have the same sensei, and my student is also your sensei."
Naruto nodded several times—likely an old habit of his, Minato deduced. "You better try the ramen, Naruto, it will blow your mind."
His son seemed startled, as if realizing that he had a bowl of ramen in front of him for the first time. Kushina watched with anticipation as her son tried the first bite…
"…well?" she asked nervously.
The teen suddenly brought his head up with a gigantic grin and yelled, "This is even better than Ichiraku's!"
Kushina blushed at the praise, and Naruto promptly started devouring the bowl in mere seconds. Minato looked over at his wife and recognized that look in her eye. Oh no, he thought. Not now…
Without much warning, Kushina mirrored her son's eating habits, leaving Minato with his mouth agape. They both finished their bowls at the same time, both grabbing the ladle at the same time. Mother's and son's eyes locked, launching the heated competition. But there was only one ladle…
Thinking quickly, Minato rushed to grab a second ladle before dropping it in the pot. Realizing what he had done, Minato could only watch in horror as the entire pot was devoured in minutes, with him only able to squeeze in a couple bowls between their intense competition. They both finished, reaching for the ladles…only to notice that there was none left. Minato slammed his forehead against the table. This is ridiculous…
00.000.00
"It's time," said Kakashi-jisan in a very dramatic voice, "to meet your counterparts!" Obito, Kakashi-kun, and Rin looked at their new sensei with odd expressions, they were a little freaked out by the eccentricity.
At a lounge in one of the shinobi buildings, Team Minato, Team 7, and their respective families were gathered. Kakashi-jisan lined his students up with his old teammates according to whom they represented.
"I got Obito?" asked Naruto. "Suck it, Sasuke."
The Uchiha glared at his teammate. "I got Kakashi, dobe. You know, the guy who's repeatedly kicked your ass?"
Naruto raised his fist in protest. "That was like, ages ago! I could kick all of your asses now!"
"Yeah right, dobe. You wouldn't even be able to put a scratch on my hitai-ate."
"I'm sorry, but WHO won our last fight, Sasuke-teme?"
"It certainly wasn't you, dobe."
"What was that, teme!"
"I said—"
"WILL YOU TWO SHUP UP ALREADY?" The pink haired kunoichi slammed her fists into her teammates' skulls, sending them hurtling into the wall across the room. She had her fist raised, and she fumed with her nostrils flaring.
Rin looked at her counterpart with absolute fear in her eyes. "A-are you s-sure she's my counterpart, Jisan? There m-must be some s-sort of mistake…"
Sakura immediately calmed down and smiled at Rin. "Sorry for scaring you, Rin-chan. Those idiots just don't know when to quit."
Everyone in the room stared at Sakura in fear, eyes twitching at her sudden personality change. Everyone, that is, except Kakashi-jisan, who kept eye smiling with his masked face.
"S-sakura-c-chan, that was not fair…" croaked Naruto, who was rubbing his head profusely.
"Sakura, why…just…why?" cried Sasuke, who was crouched down, holding his head in pain.
"Ah, teamwork at its finest…" said Kakashi-jisan, his voice highly content.
"These are the legendary ninjas you were talking about, Obito?" asked Yumi, Obito's older sister.
Kakashi-jisan decided to answer for him. "Yup, and the best part is…" he paused, trying to add dramatic tension, "…Naruto and Sasuke are still genin."
At that, everyone's jaw hit the floor.
Obito was the first to get over his surprise. "What? How? Kakashi made chuunin at six, and Rin and I made chuunin at 11!"
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura burst into laughter. "Tch, like we had the most normal and fair testing experience in Konoha history…" snorted Sasuke.
"Looking back on it, it's a wonder we even survived…" said Sakura.
Kushina looked at her son's team in confusion. "What do you guys mean?"
Naruto continued his team's recollection, seeming not to hear his mother's question at all. "Yeah, I mean, how many other genin teams had to fight a frickin' Sannin in the exams…"
"Hey, I had to fight a damn jinchuuriki in the third round…"
"Which I fought against and won because your sorry ass lost…"
"Oh, excuse me for not being able to finish my fight in the middle of a goddamn invasion—"
"HOLD ON A SECOND!" yelled Kushina.
They looked at her like she was crazy. "What?" they all asked in unison.
"You fought a Sannin in the exams?"
"Yes," they all replied in unison.
"As I was saying, I would have been promoted if it weren't for that damn invasion…"
"Yeah right, Sasuke. My fight was way better than yours—"
"WAIT!" Kushina yelled again, exacerbated.
"What?" they all asked in unison yet again.
"You fought a Sannin in the exams?" she repeated.
"Yes," they all replied, yet again in unison.
"But yeah, my fi—"
"EXPLAIN!" yelled Kushina.
Sasuke spoke up, a little annoyed. "Jeez, you seem to get all your personality from your mother, Naruto…anyway, we fought Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. Damn pedophile beat the crap out of us and gave me a curse mark. And the bastard burned our scroll! What an ass! And then he had to go and invade the village during MY fight! Was he trying to screw me over?"
"Oh boo-hoo, Sasuke."
"Shut up, dobe! If he had interrupted your fight, you would be even more pissed than I am!"
"Your fight was getting boring anyway."
"WHAT?"
"I'm sorry, who was the one who rescued Sakura?"
"I'm sorry, who was the one who did a fantastic job of putting her in danger in the first place?"
"At least I kicked ass while you were busy—"
"SHUT UP YOU TWO!" Sakura again slugged her teammates in the head, though mercifully lighter this time. She switched to her nice side a moment later. "Well, remember that time when you realized the enemy wasn't really Naruto when he said the correct password?"
Sasuke laughed while rubbing his head. "Yeah, I knew 'cause the dobe was too stupid to remember it."
"Oi! See if I bail your sorry asses out of danger next time!"
They all laughed at that and calmed down a few moments later.
"Wow, those were the good old days," said Naruto, his head in the clouds.
"Yeah…" Sasuke and Sakura replied.
Minato stared at his son incredulously. What...just…what?
"Sasuke-nii-san got his butt kicked!" Itachi yelled with a huge grin. "Twice!"
The little Uchiha ran up to Sakura, hugging her knees. "Can you teach me to do that, onee-san?"
The room erupted into a laughing fit, though poor little Itachi didn't understand why.
00.000.00
"Alright, today Naruto-sama is going to be teaching you how to perform the most badass jutsu in existence…the RASENGAN!" yelled Naruto, throwing his hands into the air for dramatic effect.
Obito stood in front of his new 'Naruto-sensei,' excited at the prospect of learning the Yondaime's justu. Both Naruto's and Obito's families watched from the sidelines.
"Okay! Sharingan ON!" Naruto ordered, to which Obito complied immediately. "Now, OBSERVE!"
A swirling blue chakra formed in the blond's hand, forming a perfect sphere. Obito stared at the jutsu in awe. "Woah…that's…woah."
Kakashi-kun stared at 'Sasuke-sensei' in shock. "What do you mean, basic? The Chidori is an A-rank jutsu that involves complex shape and nature manipulation combined with high speed mov—" Sasuke pointed at a random tree across the training field near Naruto's position, and a streak of chirping lightning shot out from his hand, extending across a couple dozen meters in a few seconds, piercing the tree and breaking Naruto's concentration.
"OI, TEME! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE SHOOTING THAT THING!"
Kakashi-kun's wide-eyed gaze slowly shifted between his sensei, the now-pierced tree two dozen meters away, and back to his sensei.
"That's called the Chidori Eisou."
A/N: Well? I know it's short, but I'm going for quality over quantity here.
Yeah, Naruto tends to be clueless when involved in certain situations. Remember, this kid was pretty much alone up until his genin team days, and even then, he didn't really get "friends" until later than that. Of course he would be clueless to many things that children with a normal upbringing take for granted. You might have noticed how in the last chapter, Naruto flinched when his father placed his hand on Naruto's head (in the memory). That says a lot about his past, I think.
Until next time!
