Naruto sat in his living room, reviewing a lesson that Kurenai had suggested he cover again. However, his mind was miles away from the subject material, reviewing how much had changed over the weeks since he had bonded with Kyukon. In that time he'd noticed more than a few changes. First was that he wasn't alone anymore, save in his apartment. After he left in the morning, he'd meet up with Hinata at the bakery, where she would have a cinnamon roll on the way to school, and he had a crescent roll. They'd meet up with Shikamaru a block from school, and walk the rest of the way in.
During school, the three of them sat together, and tended to get put into a team. They'd eat lunch either in the classroom at the desk, while reviewing things that had been covered earlier, or talking about a new novel series about Fox, Reindeer, and Sprite they were reading. If asked, they'd all draw a blank on the name of the series, and their books would be lent out to someone.
In reality they were discussing their knight forms, and their progress in training. Naruto had gotten to the point that most of his telepathy was under control without using Kyukon's influence, and his pyrotechnic abilities have gotten into more controlled bursts of fire, instead of simple explosions. His ninja training had also picked up. Anko had taken him on as an apprentice of sorts, setting up traps and spending hours playing hide or get stabbed. So far Naruto hadn't gotten stabbed, and he was really thankful for that part. There was just one part that he was still struggling with, bunshin no jutsu. He just couldn't use little enough chakra to get it right.
Kyukon had explained it to him as if his chakra network was a series of pipes, which he knew about from having to repair the ones in his apartment regularly. His chakra to form a bunshin was like trying to fit the flow of flushing the sewer mains, into a tiny garden hose nozzle.
So, while he was trying to figure out a way to rework the flow of his chakra, he focused on the other jutsu. He had almost gotten kuwarmi down to where he didn't need the handsigns, and henge... well Kyukon made him promise to never use what he'd come up with unless she gives the okay. Otherwise, he could copy nearly anyone around, and was able to mimic them fairly well. It seemed his old practice of watching people for pranks had paid off. Speaking of pranks... his latest should be exposed right about... now...
Naruto turned his head as a frustrated cry rent the air. It would seem his time delayed prank was right on schedule, and that anyone who saw an ANBU today or tomorrow would wonder why all their clothes were bright pink, while their masks were black with white marks.
Hearing a slight giggle while Kyukon admonished him for his pranking, Naruto decided she wasn't too upset and returned to reading his scroll. It was about this time that something unexpected happened, someone knocked on his door. Blinking he looked at the door to his apartment for a moment, before another knock had him getting up and using the peephole to see who was on the other side.
He was rather surprised to find that Sasuke Uchiha was standing on the other side of the door. Opening it up he let the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan into his apartment, glad that he still had those orbs hidden, and he'd cleaned up the floor. "What do you want teme?"
"Hn... I want to know why you've suddenly gotten so good so quickly," Sasuke stated calmly while glaring at the former worst student in the class. "You've recently gone from dead last to third from the last."
"It's called studying, I've recently discovered it..." Naruto quipped back in annoyance. "Seriously, your rookie of the year position isn't being threatened by me."
"Hn..." Sasuke responded angrily before turning away and walking out. "Keep it up dobe, and you might just be competition..."
Naruto watched Sasuke's form leaving, with a stumped expression on his face, and he could feel that Kyukon wasn't entirely sure what happened either. But it seemed that Naruto had gained a rival, even if he had no clue as to why. But instead he decided to just go back to reading his taijutsu scroll. After all, there was going to be a quiz on it this week, and his form was really sloppy. He wanted to finish reading the scroll in time to go out to one of the empty training grounds and practice.
It was later, after he finished his push-ups, sit-ups, and laps that he found something odd. There was a girl with her hair done up in a pair of dango shaped buns. She seemed to have been watching him as he warmed up. "Hey there, you mind sharing?"
"Uh... no... but are you sure you want to share with me? I mean... your parents aren't going to like it..." Naruto answered nervously while scratching the back of his head.
The girl simply shrugged and set up a few training dummies. "That's fine, I'm an orphan... name's Tenten, and yours cutie?"
"Naruto..." the blonde answered with a blush, "Umm... I'm just going to go work on my taijutsu over there..."
Tenten looked at where he was pointing and then returned to setting up her dummy. "That's fine, I'm practicing my weapon skills."
Naruto set to work on his practicing his taijutsu, while the steady thunks of kunai and shurikens impacting the training dummy filled the air. It was a pleasant feel to do a kata with a audible beat, as she sped up, he'd quicken his pace. When she slowed down, he focused more on the strength instead of the speed. In a way it felt like he was dancing more than fighting, and he'd read that some taijutsu masters felt the same way.
Since he was sinking into the dance of the kata, it came as quite a surprise when a beige coated arm blocked one of his axe kicks, and a black pony-tailed head smiled back at him, causing Naruto to briefly wonder when turtles grew hair, and such huge freaking eyebrows. It was brief because soon the other boy began to go on the offensive, slow enough that Naruto could counter, but fast enough to keep pushing him harder.
After about five minutes of the sparring, the other boy retreated at the same moment Naruto fell back, both panting heavily. The steady thunks they had been using to count their strikes had stopped, and so they decided to rest as well. That's when Tenten's voice cut through the companionable silence. "Lee? What are you doing here?"
"Oh Tenten-san, I was coming out to practice my taijutsu, when I noticed..." Lee paused to look at Naruto for a moment before shrugging, "...our kohai here training hard. And just felt the need to join in. I apologize, kohai, I am Rock Lee, and it was a pleasure sparring with you."
"Name's Naruto Uzumaki," the blonde responded with a wide grin on his face. "thank you senpai, maybe you could help me figure out what I am doing wrong..."
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Tenten cut in before Lee could humbly refuse, "After all, Lee here is the best in taijutsu in our class."
"Oh wow! Really?" Naruto gushed with a huge smile. "You don't look like a genius like Sasuke, guess that means you really work hard, huh?"
Tenten arrived beside Naruto with a huge grin on her face, seeing Lee blushing and squirming like this was rare. A moment later he smiled warmly, a bit more confident in his stance. "Thank you Naruto-kun, but I do not know if I'm ready to teach another yet..."
Listening to something Kyukon was mumbling at the back of his mental connection, he decided to give it a chance. "Don't we learn more by teaching others senpai? I mean, I just moved up from being the dobe of the class... so I'm sure you have a lot you can teach me... and Tenten-senpai too, if she doesn't mind..."
"Recognizing that you can learn things from a girl, huh?" Tenten teased while Lee looked thoughtful at Naruto's words.
"Well... Kurenai-sensei and Anko-sensei have shown me that women can be as powerful, if not more powerful than a man..." Naruto answered with a smile while to Kyukon he simply added, 'And WAY more terrifying...'
'Hey! What am I? Chopped liver?' Kyukon snapped back, causing Naruto to stumble over words mentally.
'No! You are my most awesome super special and wonderful partner, but... I can't tell them who you are, can I?'
The giggle coming from Kyukon told the prankster that he'd been set up, and wondered if he shouldn't take lessons from her sometime. Just then a loud tri-sourced grumble filled the air, causing the three academy students to blush and chuckle. "Err... how about some dinner?" Naruto offered lamely.
"Curry?" Lee asked with an eagerness of a young puppy, Naruto edged away from him, and wondered if they made a curry ramen.
"I meant more like ramen..." Naruto attempted warily, before getting a dreamy smile of his own, reminding Tenten of Lee's look right next to him.
"Naaaaaaruuuuuutooooo I'm IIIIIIIIIT!!!" a sing-song voice rang through the air, causing said orange clad blonde to look around in a panic.
"Crap! It's Anko-sensei... HIDE ME!" Naruto pleaded while running for the trees, Tenten and Lee trailing behind him as though tugged along. "Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta hide..."
Lee looked over at Tenten curiously before asking, "Tenten-san... why is Naruto-kun running from his sensei?"
Tenten's answer was to merely shrug and continue following the blonde, until he suddenly just disappeared from view. Entering the clearing, they looked around for the day-glo orange clad blonde curiously. It was about that time that a trench-coat clad woman entered the clearing. "Hey... have you seen an orange clad, blonde haired, boy about a year younger than you run through here? We're playing Hide or get stabbed, and I'm it..." the woman explained while licking her kunai with glee.
Lee pointed to the left, while Tenten pointed right, accidentally pointing in opposite directions. Not that the woman noticed. "Thanks!" was all she said before springing off to the left.
A moment after the crazy snake summoner left the clearing a patch of the grass rose up and two hands capped over Lee and Tenten's mouths. "Thanks guys... now let's get out of here..." Naruto's voice spoke softly as the sod slid off him and settled back into place.
'Henge Naruto, she's coming back...' Kyukon suggested, forcing Naruto to henge into a small black cat with white socks and leaping onto Tenten's shoulder. He began rubbing against her cheeks, purring softly in what sounded like instructions to head for town.
The two still confused ninja students decided to hold off questions until after they were well away from the exhibitionist that liked to lick kunai. They'd gotten ten yards, before Anko popped up directly in front of Tenten, nearly scaring Naruto into a heart attack. "Hey, I nearly forgot... you're cute... call me in about four years..." Anko stated while slipping a card attached to a rose behind Tenten's ear. "Bye bye!"
After the woman left, Tenten looked at the little kitty Naruto, who simply shook his head and pointed to town with a paw. The walk back into the village was quiet, until they reached a restaurant that served both curry and ramen. Naruto released his henge and led the two still confused senpai into the place. Once inside, Naruto was in for a bit of a surprise as Hinata and Shikamaru were waiting for them inside. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Troublesome... K... Kurenai-sensei told us where you were heading, and that you had some new friends..." Shikamaru stated, catching slightly on the name, meaning that a more kitsune oriented informant had sang to them.
"Ah... They just met Anko-sensei..." Naruto explained when Hinata indicated the shell-shocked looks on the older two students. "So let's eat!"