"Sweet!" Masaru exclaimed, "We get to buy weapons!"
"Calm down, Masaru," Hotaka said with a yawn, "It's not like they're gonna be anything like Sensei's shields."
"Buzzkill," Masaru shot back, annoyed. He brightened almost immediately, though, "I could make them that awesome if Sensei would just let me..."
"I told you no, Masaru," Hiroto interrupted him from where he led the group through the twists and turns of Konoha's back alleys, "I don't want you screwing up the seals that make them work. I have no idea why I even bothered to show you what they could do."
"C'mon Sensei," Masaru pleaded, "It's for science."
"No," Hiroto said with an air of finality, "Now drop it. We're here."
They entered the shop at the end of the alley, and Hiroto swore he could hear Masaru begin to salivate.
"Oh hey!" Tenten greeted happily from the counter, she set aside a long pole she had been meticulously carving designs into, "Is this a social visit, or are you interested in a purchase?"
"My students are looking to purchase their first real weapons," Hiroto told her, "Osamu needs something with range. The other two just need something to compliment their own styles."
She nodded her understanding, "Let's see. Maybe some cesti for Hotaka-san..."
"Maybe he should leave," Tenten's father said from behind her.
Hotaka frowned, "Have I done something wrong?"
Tenten whirled on her father and pushed him back through the door that led to his forge in the back of the shop.
"What the hell is your problem, Tou-san?" she asked him in a harsh whisper.
"You shouldn't have even invited them here," Shuji told her with a hint of anger, "This place is meant for the best."
"Listen," she hissed back at him, "This is the first real chance in a long time I get to interact with people my age outside of my team. You told me to stay away from Naruto-san, but you will not screw this up for me."
She turned on her heel and was about to walk away when he said, "She's dead because of Mayu."
Tenten turned back slowly. She didn't nee to ask who he meant, but she did anyway, "Kaa-san? Dead because of Mayu-sesnei?"
"I wish you wouldn't call her that," Shuji ground out angrily, "That woman doesn't deserve your respect."
Tenten's face grew hot with rage, but she kept her calm, "I don't know what happened when the Fox attacked, but I do know 'that woman' taught me more than you ever did about taijutsu. I will not turn away a shinobi of Konoha for your grudge."
"My grudge!" he nearly shouted, "She's gone because of that bitch and her little snake!"
Tenten wasn't sure who the little snake was referring to, but the term 'bitch' was fairly obvious. She reached out and smacked her own father. He was too surprised to retaliate.
"I-I see," he said softly after a few moments of stunned silence, "Very well, Tenten. Do as you will."
He moved back towards his forge, activating the machine that worked the bellows for him.
Tenten, her rage cooling quickly after seeing the hurt in her father's eyes called out to him, "Tou-san! I'm sorry..."
He seemed to ignore her, and that got her riled all over again. She turned and left the sullen man to his work. She plastered on a fake smile to keep the questions to a minimum. She found Team Five wandering around the shop sans their Sensei. Hotaka noticed her first.
"I can leave," he offered diplomatically, "I wouldn't want to cause any trouble."
"No," Tenten said to him immediately, "You can stay."
Hotaka shrugged and went back to examining their collection of naginata.
"Those are a little big for you," Tenten told him, "Someone like you needs a quick weapon. Maybe a pair of sai..."
She looked over at Masaru who was testing the balance of a bo staff.
"Unusual choice for most shinobi," she commented, "Staves don't have a whole lot of killing potential on their own. A real master can make them as deadly as any blade, though."
Masaru shrugged as he went through some basic moves with it, "I've got plenty of ways to kill already."
The calm, cold way he stated it gave Tenten some pause. She looked closer at her customers and realized they all had something in their eyes. A slightly haunted look she remembered seeing in both Lee and Neji for some time after their first kills. She didn't doubt her eyes had looked the same to others. She had to wonder how a group of genin only a month out of the academy would have already drawn blood.
"How about a bow," Osamu called from the other side of the shop, shaking her from her thoughts. He was looking at a rack of long-bows she had made herself.
"You won't find more range than that," Tenten walked over to him. She grabbed his arm and led him to a rack of shorter bows, "May I suggest a short-bow? They are more compact and easier to maneuver with."
Osamu nodded his agreement and reached for one near the end of the rack.
"That has a high pull..." she tried to warn him. She was surprised when he seemed to have no trouble pulling the string all the way back, "Never mind."
"Can I try it out?" Osamu asked eagerly.
She pointed to a door in the back, "There are targets out there with barrels of arrows. Try not to kill yourself."
Masaru followed him out to get more room for the staff he held. Hotaka however was still having trouble finding anything that fit.
"This is frustrating," he threw his hands up in disgust, "I don't see anything here that fits with Koodorikaze. Does Lee-senpai use a weapon?"
Tenten nodded, "Not very often, but we made him a set of weights that snap together into a heavy staff."
"That's cool," Hotaka said impressed, "I don't think that would be right for me, though. My style is about speed, precision, and flexibility."
Tenten thought on the problem. There were many weapons she could name that fit those parameters, but judging by his position in the store, he had rejected many of those already. An idea hit her. She rushed behind the counter and brought out a pair of metal bracers.
"These are technically experimental," she explained, "I designed them, but I haven't really been able to make good use of them."
"What makes you think I'll be able to, then?" Hotaka asked curiously as she strapped the bracers to his forearms, "Aren't you supposed to be a weapons expert."
"I am, but these are entirely new to me," she confirmed. She tightened the last of the straps down and smiled, "There... your wrists aren't much bigger than mine."
He examining the bracers closely to try to discern their purpose. He found the undersides to be thicker than normal. Near the front, the material thinned out save for the middle which came to a point on either bracer.
"How do they work?" he asked, unable to puzzle it out.
"There are seals on the inside that will react to your chakra and drive mechanisms within the bracers," she began to tell him.
"The first pulse you give them will launch the blades," she tapped the pointed portion on the underside, "They're tethered by a high tensile wire, and the second pulse you give to the bracers will stop the reels and lock them in place."
"The third pulse reels them back in?" Hotaka guessed.
Tenten nodded, "Yep. They have an effective reach of six meters."
Hotaka gave a low whistle, "That's pretty cool, but what makes you think I can make good use of it when you couldn't?"
Tenten shrugged, "It requires good throwing accuracy, but needs very controlled movement to keep the wires from becoming tangled. I thought a taijutsu specialist might have what these babies need to shine."
"Let's see what I can do with them," Hotaka said eagerly, heading for the door.
When they exited they found Masaru running through a staff kata slowly.
"I didn't know you could use a staff," Hotaka said to him.
"I don't," Masaru replied as he slowly took the staff through an upward strike maneuver, "Kaa-san used to fight with one and makes me run through kata as a punishment."
"I suppose that would take you away from your research," he laughed as Tenten set up some target dummies in the large practice yard for him, "You do get grumpy when you're interrupted while deciphering a new seal."
"I get absorbed in my work," Masaru said defensively.
"That's the understatement of the year," Osamu called as he pulled another arrow back. He was hitting his target, but the grouping was terrible.
"Hold the string, Osamu-san, not the arrow," Tenten told him, "Release all at once. Don't be afraid of the snap."
She turned towards Masaru, "You study fuuinjutsu?"
Sure do," he paused in his exercise and held a palm up for her to see, "My first real design. Based on work Tou-san did."
She was inches away from it in an instant, drinking in the details, "This looks like you folded a chain seal in on itself..."
"That's a good way to put it," Masaru agreed, "I call it a modular seal. The array can store any number of small objects and release them one at a time."
"I didn't think that was possible," she continued to scrutinize the lines, "These aren't just for storage, are they?"
"Good eye," he smirked and pointed his hand at one of the dummies she had just set up. He didn't give it too much chakra, but the kunai still made a hissing sound as it cut through the air.
"Oh wow!" she grabbed his hand and began tracing some of the lines with her index finger, "I thought I saw a chakra converter in here. These must be what change the orientation of the object as it's unsealed. This is really impressive. How did you translate such complex mathematics into the array?"
"Trade secret," he gave her a cheeky grin.
"Of course," she said caught between annoyance and amusement.
"I didn't know anyone else my age was studying this stuff," the larger boy said, impressed, "Have you made anything interesting."
She nodded, "Actually, Hotaka-san was about to test out one of my inventions. I've been experimenting with chakra driven machinery."
"Those are supposed to require a lot of space," Masaru commented with interest, "How'd you miniaturize it?"
"Trade secret," she echoed him with a smile.
"Well lets see it, Hotaka," Masaru said after a short laugh.
Hotaka looked over at Osamu who had stopped his practice to listen to the conversation. The smaller boy just shrugged.
Hotaka held his arm parallel to the ground and sent a pulse of chakra down his arm. Just as Tenten had told him, the blade launched from the bracer at high speed. He reckoned it was moving about as fast as if he had thrown it. The aim was different than he was used to, though, and it hit the dummy in the shoulder instead of the chest. He sent two more pulses to trigger the reeling function, and the blade tore its way free and soon clanked back into place under his wrist.
"That's the only problem I have," Tenten commented, "I can't seem to work out the aim properly. Each time is a little different."
"It's the recoil," Masaru stated as he walked over to examine the bracer, "Since you're using a mechanical launch system, there is recoil that will throw your aim off."
"I didn't feel anything like that," Hotaka said dubiously.
"Neither did I when I tried it out," Tenten agreed.
"It's in the laws of motion," Masaru explained, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you launch the blade, it causes you arm to move slightly. Since you remain tethered to it, the motion causes the blade to go off course."
"Damnit," Tenten cursed, "I didn't think about that. Guess it's back to the drawing board."
"Maybe not," Masaru told her, "Hotaka. Try again, but this time act as if you were throwing a normal kunai. Instead of flicking your wrist, activate the device. Make sure you don't follow through, though. That will drag the blade out of line."
Hotaka nodded and set up again. This time he moved his hand down to his pouch as if grabbing a kunai. His arm flicked forward in a flash, and the blade was sent flying faster than before. This time it exactly where the heart would be in a living target.
"That did it!" Tenten said excitedly, "It had more power, too."
"I have some ideas on how to make use of them besides this," Hotaka grinned evilly, "I'll have to practice with them to make sure I can do it without tangling them, though."
"I'll gladly sell them to you, so long as you keep me updated on your progress," Tenten offered, "I want to know how well they'll actually work."
"How much?" Hotaka asked with interest.
"With as much work I put into them, I would normally ask for 10000," Hotaka face fell a little, but her next words made him brighten back up, "But since you're gonna be my guinea pig, I'll cut that in half."
"Deal, "Hotaka agreed immediately.
"The staff is only a thousand," she informed Masaru, who nodded his acceptance. She then turned to Osamu, "Is that good, or do you need a lighter pull?"
"This is perfect," he informed her, "I'll take it."
"Excellent," she clapped her hands, "That's three thousand, and it comes with twenty training arrows and forty broad-heads. Let's go inside and we can finalize your purchases. Let's hurry this up. I gotta meet my team in an hour."
XxXxXxX
Hiroto watched him for nearly two and a half hours before the other jonin moved. It was close to ten hundred hours; a full three hours after Naruto left to meet his team. Hiroto forwent watching their meeting, and instead went to the Hokage tower. He observed them receiving a mission. Naruto spent much of the time trying to impress anyone who looked, and everyone else seemed to be trying to ignore him.
"Thought you were growing out of that," Hiroto muttered to himself.
He continued to wait at the tower until Team Seven had completed their mission. It was close to noon, and to his surprise, Kakashi cut them loose right there.
Hiroto wanted to see if Naruto could convince his teammates to join Team Five for joint training, but he decided it was more important to see where Kakashi went. The answer proved to be right back to the Memorial Stone.
Disgusted with a man he normally held in high esteem, Hiroto felt he'd seen enough. He made his way to their training ground to find his team practicing with their new weapons diligently.
"You three seem happy," He commented.
Osamu gave Masaru a sly look, "Masaru won't shut-up about Tenten-san. I think he's in love."
"Oh stuff it," Masaru took a lazy swipe at his teammate, "I'm interested in her work."
Osamu ducked it easily, "Not so funny when the sandal's on the other foot, is it."
"I'll show you funny..."
"Alright you two," Hiroto got between them. Scuffles between the boys were rarely angry and never dangerous, but they did sometimes last awhile, "Let's go get some food."
After lunch they headed to their training ground to find Naruto waiting for them.
"Well?" Hiroto asked his little brother.
"They didn't really say," Naruto shrugged, "If Sasuke comes, Sakura-chan will too."
"Honestly don't know what you see in that shrew," Masaru muttered.
"Hey!?" Naruto yelled back.
"Calm down, children," Osamu chided them, much like his sister used to do to him, "Sasuke-san and Sakura-san are here."
Sure enough, the other two members of Team Seven arrived in short order.
"How'd you do that?" Naruto asked curiously, squinting at Osamu.
"Secret," Osamu answered with a smile, much to Naruto's annoyance.
"Alright, Dobe," Sasuke said lazily, "We're here. What are we doing?"
"Don't call me that, bastard," Naruto growled out.
"Don't call Sasuke-kun a bastard," Sakura raised a fist in Naruto's direction.
"Everyone shut-up!" Hiroto shouted, "I invited Team Seven here to learn. If all you're going to do is snipe at one another, you can leave."
Sasuke looked as if he might say something, but a glare from Hiroto made him swallow his words.
"Good," Hiroto smiled, "Now you're going to do a team building exercise."
Team Seven exchanged incredulous looks. They apparently knew where a team building exercise would take them.
"The objective of the exercise is to teach your fellow genin," he continued to explain, "When I get back, you should all know five new skills."
"You're not going to supervise?" Osamu asked his Sensei nervously.
"I'm going to leave some representatives to make sure things remain... cordial," he assured the boy. He got very close to Osamu and whispered, "If they get out of hand, do whatever you did to the dogs."
Osamu nodded, "Not sure it'll work, but I'll try."
Hiroto patted his student on the shoulder reassuringly. He then backed up and pricked his thumb on a hidden tack in his belt. A few hand seals later, he slapped his hand to the ground.
"Kuchiyose: Torakagai," he called out.
A large cloud of smoke puffed up, then blew away. Leaving three massive, bored looking tigers. Two were larger and the normal orange. The last was smaller, though still huge, and white between the stripes.
"Oh thank Kami!" one of the larger tigers exclaimed happily, "I swear if I had to listen to that tiny hairball drone on for any longer, I was gonna eat him."
"Please, Oodora," the other orange said to him, "You couldn't catch him with a weeks head start."
"Neither could you, Kodora" the now name Oodora bared his fangs at his counterpart.
"Well I could whoop you!" Kodora roared back.
Soon they were rolling around like a pair of toms fighting over a scrap of meat.
"I apologize for my brothers," the last tiger said to the teens, "They're fairly stupid. I'm Mouko."
"Good to see you, Mouko-san," Hiroto greeted warmly. He pointed to each of his students in turn, "This is my team. Sakibou Osamu, Shoudou Hotaka, and Hibaku Masaru."
A triumphant roar was heard as one of the wrestling tigers gained the upper hand. It was cut short when the other one bashed him in the face with a paw the size of a dinner table.
"And who are these two, Naruto-kun?" Mouko turned to the blondes team.
"They're my teammates," Naruto told her, "Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura."
The cracking of a large tree trunk drew everyone's attention. Kodora and Oodora had rolled into the treeline.
"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Mouko asked Hiroto, studiously ignoring her rambunctious brothers.
"I need you to keep an eye on them," Hiroto told her quietly, "Naruto's team doesn't get along so well, and my team has expressed a distaste for Sakura-chan and Sasuke-kun on occasion. I just want you to make sure they don't come to blows."
"You know," Mouko laid down to bring head more level with the jonin, "We were accompanying our leader to a gathering of the Cat clans."
"Did I pull you away from something important?" Hiroto frowned in concern.
"Yes," Mouko confirmed, "And thank you for that. Oodora is not the only one who doesn't like Toraneko."
Hiroto snorted in amusement, but logged the new information about his otherwise mysterious summons away for further investigation.
"Thanks, Mouko-san," he leapt into the trees and sped away.
"So where do we start?" Sakura asked after he had gone. Glancing nervously at Mouko who simply lay there, tail swishing back and forth. The destructive scuffle between Kodora and Oodora continued unabated.
Masaru immediately took his chance, "Anyone else know how to set up a 'double jeopardy tripwire?'"
A chorus of no's and head shaking had him grinning like a loon, "You're gonna love this."
XxXxXxX
Kakashi's mind wandered into the past as he stared at the Memorial Stone. He saw again the death of his mentor, his own hand going through Rin's chest, and the friend he hadn't known he had until he was gone buried under tons of rock. He lived again in each of those terrible moments, wondering how different things would be had he acted differently.
His reverie was broken by the sound of soft footsteps. He recognized the cadence as belonging to Hiroto and knew the other jonin was essentially announcing his presence. He turned to greet his peer, but instead of Hiroto's plain face, he saw his knuckles in great detail. Kakashi was so stunned, he took the punch full in the face. He felt the cartilage in his nose crack, and blood begin to soak his mask.
Kakashi allowed himself to fall back and away from his strangely violent comrade. There had been no chakra enhancing the muscles behind the punch, so he figured this was a personal visit.
"Mind telling me what's crawled up your ass," Kakashi asked Hiroto in a nasally voice.
"Your team," Hiroto growled at him, "You're late to meetings, don't give them any training, and you've failed to give them any sort of cohesion."
"Ah," Kakashi pulled his mask off his face. The blood soaking it was making it difficult to breath, "You're here on Naruto's behalf, then?"
"You're damn right I am," Hiroto knelt next to Kakashi and activated his healing technique, "I didn't mean to lead off like that, but the thought of him dying because of your shoddy training pissed me off."
"Well, you got your point across," his voice was sounding better with Hiroto healing the damage he'd just done, "You could have just taken this to the Hokage and gotten me reassigned."
Hiroto finished up his work and handed Kakashi his canteen so he could wash the blood off his face, "I wanted to see what your problem was first."
Kakashi rubbed some water across his lower face, taking care around his still sore nose, "I think that's obvious. I'm terrible at being a Sensei. There's a reason I've failed every team I've been assigned."
Hiroto settled back on his haunches as Kakashi sat up. He finally got a good look at the face under the ever present mask. High cheek bones and thing lips were the only features that the mask really covered, and Hiroto was left wondering why Kakashi bothered with it. Probably to annoy others.
"Why pass Naruto then?" Hiroto asked seriously, "This isn't because I'm his guardian is it?"
Kakashi waved his hand dismissively, "You didn't even read into it. They reminded me of my old team, and I let that cloud my judgment."
"So you made a mistake," Hiroto shrugged, "Why not correct it?"
"I've been considering going to the Hokage and doing just that," Kakashi sighed and looked over at the Memorial Stone, "But every time I'm about to do it, one of them does or says something that takes me back..."
"Lost in the past," Hiroto shook his head, "That's a dangerous state of mind, Kakashi-san."
"What would you know about it?" the normally masked jonin shot back sharply, "The consequences for your biggest mistake were being taken in by a new village."
Instead of the anger Kakashi expected from Hiroto, the plain jonin laughed, "You think my biggest mistake was defecting from Kumo?"
"Wasn't it?" Kakashi wasn't so sure now.
"That was probably the best decision I ever made," Hiroto replied, "My mistake was participating in a massacre I knew was wrong. My hands are stained with the blood of the very clan I came here to protect."
"The Sakibou?" Kakashi had spent some time in ANBU babysitting Hiroto. He often observed the plain man looking in on the immigrants.
"That's right," Hiroto confirmed sadly, "I forgave myself a long time ago for betraying my native village. I will never be able to forgive myself for participating in that tragedy, though. It's not the only thing I have to regret, either."
Kakashi could only reply with silence.
"So what did you do, Kakashi-san?" Hiroto prodded him, "What did you do that was so terrible?"
Kakashi saw understanding in his peer's eyes. Hiroto was trying to help him, and that made this so much worse. Kakashi didn't want help; his pain was a penance. A punishment for leading Obito to his death and killing Rin to prevent Kiri from taking her. The only consolation he had was saving Rin from whatever terrible fate the Mist nin had for her.
"Go away, Hiroto-san," Kakashi muttered to him, "I will get the Hokage to find a better Sensei for Team Seven... today."
He tried to stand, but Hiroto had gripped his arm, "Tell me, Kakashi-san."
Kakashi briefly considered attacking his fellow jonin to get away, but Hiroto was truly a jonin now. It would be a tough fight, and would probably result in severe property damage. He sat back down and let out a shuddering breath.
"I killed them," he blurted out, "I killed my team. Uchiha Obito died because I couldn't see past my mission, and Nohara Rin was captured right under my nose. I ended up killing her, at her own request, to keep her out of enemy hands."
Hiroto gave a low whistle, "What about your Sensei?"
Kakashi waved his hand in the general direction of the Hokage Monument, "You know what happened to the Yondaime."
"Surely you don't blame yourself for that?" Hiroto asked incredulously.
"No, not his death," Kakashi answered with a tired sigh, "But I failed him in his last request. He wanted Naruto to be seen as a hero by the village for containing the Fox. Instead he was made a pariah, and I was too much of a coward to defend him."
Hiroto shook his head slowly, "I'll admit, that's some rough shit, Kakashi-san, but you have a chance to honor them. Why are you passing it up?"
Kakashi looked up at his peer with his eye slightly wide, "Honor them? I'll get my team killed the way we're going."
"So change course," Hiroto told him easily, "You'll need to stop brooding so much, though."
"That simple," Kakashi gave a bitter laugh, "Why didn't I ever think of that?"
"I didn't say it would be easy," the plain man shot back, "You said you were too much of a coward to help Naruto. Well now you can correct that mistake. Your team died because of your mistakes. Make sure no one on Team Seven ever has to go through that."
Hiroto made it sound so simple, but his team was already defunct, "Even if I did want to do all that, my team was untenable from the beginning. Naruto hates Sasuke and sets Sakura off, Sakura is too busy trying to get Sasuke's attention while trying to ignore Naruto, and Sasuke holds his teammates in contempt."
"What would you say the underlying problem is?" Hiroto asked him.
"Probably the attempted romance," Kakashi said immediately, "Same thing went on in my team. Girl wants one boy, other boy wants girl, and the first boy doesn't want anything to do with either of them."
"Konoha groups its genin teams male, male, female most of the time" Hiroto observed, "That for a reason?"
"It's to promote shinobi marriages and breeding," Kakashi told him, "There are unusual teams, though. Your team is one. There have been some rare two female, one male teams as well."
Hiroto nodded his understanding and began to turn the problem over in his mind.
"Why not implement a no-fraternization policy?" Hiroto finally suggested.
"What?" Kakashi didn't seem to understand.
"Have zero tolerance for any attempted relationships amongst your team," Hiroto explained further, "If any two of them want to spend time together, they damn well better be including the third."
"Sakura and Naruto would not like that in the least," Kakashi mused, "Sasuke would probably appreciate it."
"Make sure you punish even the slightest infractions harshly," Hiroto grinned evilly, "And include the whole team."
"That might actually work," Kakashi smirked slightly, running possible consequences through his mind.
"You'll have to stop being late," Hiroto warned him, "And start actually training your team."
Kakashi's face fell a little, and he glanced over at the etched stone. He could pick out three of the four names he mourned the most on it. The last had never been given the honor of being carved on it. He wasn't sure if he could handle the guilt and pain of three more names. He could wash his hands of them now, but he knew if they came to a bad end, he would always wonder if he could have helped them. He was boxed in by his own feelings.
"I'll try," he finally said, standing, "If I lapse back into old habits, I'll have the Old Man find them a new Sensei."
Hiroto got to his feet and clapped the taller man on the shoulder, "I'm sure you'll do fine."
XxXxXxX
Naruto carefully tied the spring action switches together so that a tug on the actual tripwire would set one off and a sudden loss of tension would activate the other, "Man this is genius, Masaru-san."
"Yea. This is pretty cool," Hotaka agreed, working with his own set-up.
"Don't give it so much play," Masaru said to Sasuke as he watched over his peers, "Good, Sakura-san. Don't forget that the tension in your tripwire is important, though."
"I can think of so many ways to use this," Naruto was giggling to himself.
"Like what Dobe?" Sasuke sneered slightly, "Didn't you almost fail this course?"
"Pft," Naruto blew off the insult, "While you were busy learning what I already knew, I was off setting all the coffee makers in the instructor break room to clog and spray water on anyone trying to fix them."
"Ah man!" Masru began laughing, "I remember Iruka-sensei grilled both of us for an hour and still couldn't figure out who did it."
"Wouldn't he know it was Naruto since he was gone?" Sakura asked.
"Nah," Masaru replied, "I was out setting up the snare trap that caught the headmaster."
"I got asked about that, too," Naruto fell back laughing, "That's when I began planning the big one."
"The Monument?" Osamu asked from where he was working.
"Yep!" Naruto confirmed proudly.
"That childish stuff is hardly something to be proud of," Sakura snapped at him angrily.
"Actually... managing to paint the whole Monument fast enough to not be caught until he was done is really impressive," Hotaka countered immediately.
"He's got you there," Sasuke muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Sakura huffed and went back to her set-up even though she was done with it.
"How'd you manage that, anyway?" Masaru asked curiously.
Naruto gave a mischievous grin, "That's a great question. If everyone has the tripwires down, I'd like to show something next."
"What could you possibly teach us?" Sasuke asked incredulously.
"Well for one," Naruto sent his teammate a glare, "It took me two weeks to paint the whole Monument."
"Wait... what?" the other five managed to ask at the same time.
Naruto reached into his equipment pouch and drew out a folded beige cloth. He flicked it to reveal it was a large square about six feet to a side, "I give you the chameleon tarp!"
"We've seen that before, Naruto," Sakura growled in annoyance.
"Ah," Naruto held up a finger to forestall further protests, "But you have yet to see it in the hands of a master."
The rest of Team Seven seemed to deflate at his antics, but Team Five was smirking in amusement.
"You see," Naruto looked around as if searching for eavesdroppers and spies, "The tarp has properties the academy didn't tell us about."
"Like what?" Osamu asked curiously.
"First of all..." Naruto sent a charge of chakra through the tarp. The cloth went rigid in his hands, "Use your chakra right, and it goes stiff. You can then shape it however you want."
He demonstrated by carefully and skillfully molding the tarp into a rough uneven shape, "You have about five minutes to shape it before it goes completely rigid. Don't do this to all your tarps. Once they go rigid, you can't reshape them."
"What the hell is that supposed to be?" Sasuke asked when Naruto was done.
Naruto answered by picking up a small gray pebble and placing it on the cloth. When he sent a charge of chakra through the rock, the chameleon tarp took on its color and apparent texture.
"A boulder," Masaru nodded his head approvingly, "Did Hiroto-sensei teach you this?"
"He regrets it to this day," Naruto smiled again.
Osamu considered the disguised tarp and understanding lit in his eyes, "How many of these did you use to hide the paint on the Monument?"
"It took over a thousand," Naruto answered, his smile dropping to a smirk, "Nii-san got into the habit of requesting overstock from supply since merchants don't like to sell to us. He had no idea what to do with them all when supply dumped them on him, so he gave them to me."
"They just gave him a thousand chameleon tarps?" Sakura asked in disbelief.
"They were expired," Naruto explained, "The next charge put through them would change their color permanently."
"Why don't merchants like to sell to the two of you?" Sasuke was regarding Naruto with unusual interest.
"Um... well..." Naruto wasn't sure how to answer that.
"Because I defected from another village around the time the six of you were born, "Hiroto hopped down into the clearing and smiled at the genin, "Learn anything useful?"
His students and Naruto nodded, but Sakura and Sasuke were staring at him.
"Is there something on my face?" Hiroto asked, patting his hands across it.
"Uh... n-no," Sakura managed to say finally.
"They weren't any trouble were they?" the jonin called over to his summons, who were laying together. Mouko was currently grooming one of her younger brother while the other dozed.
The great white tiger turned her violet eyes to them, "Relatively quiet considering Naruto-kun was here. Do you need us for anything else?"
"No thank you, Mouko," he waved to the tigers, "Seeya, Oodora, Kodora."
They popped out of existence, leaving only smoke in their place.
"Sensei," Osamu got his teacher's attention, "We only got through two people before you got back."
Hiroto nodded his understanding, "That's fine. I had a talk with Kakashi-san earlier and we decided this should be a regular occurrence. Maybe once a week."
"Finally learning stuff!" Naruto cheered happily.
"You're all dismissed for the day," he informed them, "Naruto, I have some business to take care of tonight. Go on home without me."
"Okay, Nii-san," he began to trot away. He turned to yell back, "Will you be home for dinner?"
"I should be," the jonin shouted after the blonde.
The rest of the genin began to leave except for Sakura. Hiroto almost walked away when he noticed she was still there.
"Is there something wrong, Sakura-chan?" he asked.
"I... I don't think I have anything useful to teach the others," she hung her head dejectedly.
"What do you mean?" Hiroto furrowed his brow, "You were the top kunoichi of your class."
"I was," she agreed, "But they all seem to have stuff from outside the academy, and my strongest areas were all academic..."
"You don't think you have any practical skills?" his brows went up in interest, "I'm sure there's something you could pass along."
"Nothing unique like Masaru-san or even Naruto," she admitted. He was surprised that she would give any credit to the blonde. The way she normally acted around him, you would think he didn't exist except as an annoyance.
"How's your chakra control?" he asked after some thought.
"Iruka-sensei said it was the best he'd ever seen," she replied with a hint of pride.
"Good," he retrieved an empty scroll and a pen from a pocket. He scribbled out thorough instructions along with some sketches to help her along. When he handed it to her, she gaped at the detail.
"That's Naosu no Jutsu," he told her, "It's the most basic medical jutsu there is. Done right, it will give you an idea of the most overt damage and allow you to repair it."
"B-but why?" she finally asked after finding her voice, "I'm not your student."
"You're Naruto's teammate," he shrugged, "You might save his life one day with that."
"I don't know what to say..." she was still a bit stunned. Even for a basic technique it was rare for someone to pass on such information without some sort of established relationship.
"Tell you what," Hiroto put a hand on her shoulder, "Treat Naruto with a bit more respect and patience and we'll call it even."
He saw shame flash across her face, "I don't mean to snap at him all the time. He just has a way of getting on my nerves."
"He does have a talent for getting under people's skin," Hiroto agreed with a smirk, "You won't find a more loyal ally, though. Maybe if you can get past that wall he puts up, you'll even find a friend."
Hiroto left then, and Sakura found herself wondering exactly what he meant my the wall Naruto put up. He'd always just seemed like a hyperactive idiot, but just today he proved he was resourceful and creative to a certain degree.
She began to make her way home, wondering all the while what the blonde knucklehead could be hiding behind that smile of his.
A/N: And that ends chapter 18. I really don't know what possessed me to write so much for it, but I was compelled to keep going. Like I'm always saying a chapter's done when it's done, and this one demanded more out of me than usual. Hopefully the next one won't be as... consuming.