Wow, i was almost late getting this one up! One more day and it would have been more than 2 weeks! yikes...i really need to get better at setting aside time to write.. ugh.
Anyways, the story now continues, picking up the day before exams! In this chapter you'll mostly see a bit on how Naruto and her 'sister' interact now, and also starting to set up what I think is a nice pairing. Also fun to write was the third melting to Naruto...heheh. Oh jii-san...
Anyways, a day of pranks and a ramen fight! Let's go!
disclaimer: blah blah blah, see previous chapters. :)
"Five more minutes…" Naruto was sleeping in her bed in her arms curled around the pillow, drool pooling where her mouth was open. Of course, a moment later her whole pillow was soaking as a pail of water was thrown in her face.
"BLUAWAAAH!" She jumped up, spiting water out of her mouth and frantically trying to shield off more attacks as someone else was laughing hysterically at her.
"MWAHAHAHAHAH! Oh, that was good Naruto-chan! Oh, that was good! You should have seen your face!" Anko was standing there, tears streaming down her face as she laughed at the look on her 'imoto' chan's face, which was quickly turning from shock to anger.
"Anko-chaaaaan!" She jumped up and tackled the older woman and a tickle fight ensued, lasting for about fifteen seconds before Naruto was crying 'uncle'. Anko had no mercy.
"A-Anko-c-chan! Anko-ch-chan! I-I give! I g-give! WAHAHAHA!"
"Ah, but you attacked me you little brat! Now you must pay! Take this! Ahaha! And that! Yeah!"
"P-p-please, hahah! C-come on! I, I, I gotta pee!" With that Anko jumped right up, dumping the blond girl on the floor.
"Not on me you don't!"
"HAAHAA-HAAHAA, haaaa…." Naruto took a moment to calm down before she slowly sat up, rubbing her head and wiping her eyes. "Man, Anko-chan, did you really have to use the water pail?" Anko smirk
"Hey, at least it's not molasses, like you used on me, I might remind you. As bad as it was to get it out of my hair…" she let Naruto use her imagination. The young blond shuddered. You see, while Anko's hair was relatively short, Naruto, though several years younger, had hair that came down to her knees when she let it all out. She would tie it up sometimes, usually for when they sparred at the academy, but most of the time she wore it in twin pony tails.
"Yeah… sorry about that…" Anko snorted.
"You mean you're sorry that I made you help me clean it!" Naruto acted indignant.
"Hey! How was I supposed to know that something so sticky would stick so well to your hair!" The two glared at each other a moment longer before they both laughed and Anko gave the small girl a hug.
"Well, anyways, good morning; now hurry up! We need to make sure you get to the academy on time today! It's the last day before exams!" Naruto frowned at the thought, then a grin came on her face.
"By the way, speaking of pranks…" Anko listened intently, then dropped her jaw at her little sister's plan.
.
.
.
Hiruzen had just been doing some calligraphy in his hobby room a few minutes ago, early as it was (and avoiding paper work till the last second) but then he remembered that it was his adopted granddaughter's last day in the academy (assuming she didn't fail like she did last year…though it really was Anko's fault, keeping her up all night partying like that. Poor Naruto had fallen asleep standing up!
So, there he was, whistling as he walked down the corridor on the mountain side of the building to review his list of possible graduation presents he'd thought of giving her. It was while he was doing this that he glanced out a window at the mountain, thinking of his past successor, Minato, and whether he would be happy with how Naruto was growing up…then he did a double and stared out the window before covering his eyes with his hand.
"Oh Naruto…please tell me this was Anko's idea…"
.
.
.
"WHEEE! Hahaha! You can't catch me! Give it up!" the blond girl, pony tails flowing behind her, was running away from two uniformly dressed chuunin. She, however, was wearing a very different set of clothes. She wore an orange skirt that was long on the left side and short on right, where she kept her leg holster. She wore an orange shirt as well, with a small blue stripe on each side of the front, pointing diagonally down and to her side for about five inches from the collar bone. Her two sleeves were blue colored, however, as was a small bow that she had tied about half way up her wait. Of course this made her rather east to follow… or so the chuunin thought.
"Naruto! You've really done it this time!" "
"Not even Anko will support you this time you little brat!"
"Ah come on! You're just jealous that I can do it and you can't! Come on! Try a little harder to catch me!" So the chase continued as Naruto lead them all around the village.
"Narutoo!"
"HAHAHA!" Then she landed by a fence and seemed to jump away, the two chuunin following after. However, Naruto had been pulling pranks for so long that she'd learned very well how to cast an optical illusion, and instead, a second after they jumped away, a part of the fence became rather cloth like, and then Naruto lowered the camouflage and smirk at the still chasing chuunin.
"Hehehehe; idiots." She never even sensed the presence of her teacher as he leaned down to yell in her ear.
"OH YEAH NARUTO!"
"WAAAAH!" She flew up in the air, waving her arms around before falling on her rear and staring up at her sensei. "Iruka sensei! What are you doing here?" he leaned over to point at her.
"No, the question is what are you doing here; you're supposed to be in-"
"Oh my, Iruka!" A sultry voice drifted over to Iruka's ear as Anko sauntered up behind him, leaning over to wrap her arms around his neck.
"Oh Iruka, however did you manage to catch my little Naruto-chan? No one else was able to. Hmmm, maybe you can, stop by my place and tell me over some dango?" She licked Iruka's cheek as he broke out in a sweat; Anko then slid one of her arms down to wrap it around his chest, drawing circles on it. "I'd be ever so grateful…" A small trickle of blood came out of the teacher's nose.
"I um, that is I, uh, well…" It was then that Iruka noticed that Naruto had disappeared… and then he realized that Anko was in league with the little trickster and, stealing his resolve, gathering his courage, he made his move.
"I need to get to class, NOW!" And he wrentched himself free, leaving a laughing, yet oddly blushing, Anko in the street.
"Offer's still open, sensei!" He shuddered and kept going, not satisfied until Anko's laughed faded away.
Whew, close call he thought. Now, where could Naruto be?
.
.
.
"Ah, that was good," Anko said, pulling a microphone down from behind her ear. "So, you little brat, are you back in school yet?" There was a crackle on the other end.
"Of course Anko-chan! Well… almost. I can't exactly talk with you while I'm in the classroom now, can I?" Anko chuckled.
"Of course."
"So, was Iruka's reaction worth it?" Anko blushed slightly.
"OOOOh, yes, Naruto, ooooh yes…"
.
.
.
Naruto wiped her sweat off with a cloth from her bag before stepping into the classroom. The rest of the class was idely hanging out in the teachers absence. Naruto smirked at how she and Anko had thought ahead like that. No matter how hard they tried, they never did manage to catch her… except Iruka sensei. Yeah, he was a tough one to trick. Maybe it was because he'd been around kids for so long…
Naruto shrugged as she started to walk over to a free seat. It was next to her friend Hinata. Out of all the other girls in the class, she was only one that wasn't annoying. All the other girls were always screaming about Sasuke, the brooding Uchiha guy. Naruto had met him, sort of, before the academy once, just after his family had died. He'd seemed like a nice kid, and she could feel how lonely he was. She'd felt like that too, sometimes, especially when Jii-san was really busy and the genin that were supposed to baby sit her ignored her. She'd thought they could be friends, but then someone else took him in and she was never really able to talk with him again till the academy, and by then he'd become all dark and brooding… she hated it, so she hung out with someone else.
"Hey Hinata! What's up?" Hinata smiled as she looked up from her book she was reading. It looked like a class book. She always seemed to be studying in class.
"Naruto-chan. It's good to see you in class. How was your morning?" Naruto grinned.
"Heheh; me an' Anko chan pulled a good one today," she boasted, a couple of the other kids leaning in to hear more. They'd heard a little, but no one was sure if she'd really done what they'd heard she'd done. It just didn't seem possible to get away with something like that! "We painted the hokage faces!"
"WHAT! Seriosly? Man Naruto, for a girl, you're pretty gutsy." That was Inuzuka Kiba. He was a crazy kid, though a little weird. He always wore a jacket, no matter what the weather was (then again, so did Hinata, though her's was a light tan color and his was more of a dark grey), and he was always sniffing things. Naruto could kind of understand it, since he did have his dog and they were a team, but then again, it's creepy for a guy to always talk about how you smell foxy. She shuddered about the many times he'd flirted with her. He just really wasn't her type, but at least he was good friend. However, that last line couldn't go untouched.
"Hey! What do you mean for a girl, eh? Just because you're a guy doesn't mean anything!" Kiba laughed.
"Ah, come on Naruto, it was a compliment! Most girls are really sissy, you gotta admit. I mean, look at Ino and Sakura!" Naruto's eye twitched at the thought of the banshees. Kiba might have a point, but this was about the principle of the matter.
"Well, well, well so what! I still say being a guy doesn't mean nothin'. Look at Anko chan! She's got more guts than any guy in the village! Most of them are scared like crap when she's around!" Kiba chuckled.
"Alright, you've got a point there, Naruto, so hey, let's just forget about it and say you're one gusty girl, eh?" Naruto smiled and stuck out a hand to shake his.
"Deal!"
"How about, to replace what you two are forgetting, we remember that Naruto is late!" Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata all jumped as Iruka leaned down and yelled at them.
"AH! Iruka sensei!" Naruto yelled as Kiba jumped back to his seat. "When did you get here?" He smirked.
"What, did you really think I didn't know you better than that? You always do the thing people expect less. You probably hoped that after you, eh… gave me the slip," he said, muttering the last part, "that I'd look all around the village for you while you were sitting here in class! Well, no maam! Seeing as that would have wasted my time most, I knew you're be here." Naruto smiled, scratching the back of her head.
"Heheh; guess you got me good there, sensei." Her eye's sparkled evily and Iruka's eyes widened as he wondered what she was about to do. "Speaking of good, though, how was it with Anko chan-"
"SHUT UP!" Unfortunatly, that was one of the worst spots to cut her off, and the whole class started howling with laughter. Iruka's eyebrow twitched.
"Alright then, since you missed it, Naruto, everyone is reviewing the transformation jutsu!"
"AAHHHH!"
A few minutes later (after having to endure a few people complaining to her [and listening to the pink banshee yelling to Sasuke about seeing how awesome she did at the transformation jutsu]) it was Naruto's turn. She steped forward, another evil grin on her face. Just a split second before she transformed Iruka yelled.
"No!" But it was too late. There was a poof of smoke, and when it cleared, there was a violet haired girl standing in the middle of strategic smoke covering, a few snake tattoos winding around her arms and torso. "Ah, ah, AAAHHH!" Iruka fountained from his face as he saw the body of a nude Anko before him; it was made even worse for him due to the earlier part of the morning.
"HAHAHA! Gotcha ya! That was my sexy jutsu, Anko style!" Expecting to get called out, she quickly stuffed in some ear plugs… then realized that Iruka was just laying there, twitching. "Wow… that worked better than expected," she said, leaning over him.
"Um, Naruto-chan?"
"Hmmm?"
"Um… do you really think that was a good idea?" Naruto laughed as she turned towards Hinata.
"Aw come on! It was just for a laugh! Besides, I…why are all the guys fainted?"
.
.
.
Hiruzen was staring down the one of his worst enemies. It was the same one that had haunted him from years. Yes, it had done some good things for him here and there, and he could thank it for getting Naruto out of many situations, but still…ugh, paper work.
The old hokage wanted to beat his head into the wall as he looked at the paper work containing complaints for the vandalization of the hokage monument, and an unfilled cleaning mission sheet. The genin that got that one wouldn't like it. Nope, not at all. Just then, the door to his office opened, and he smile, thinking to escape from his nightmare, if only for a moment. Then he realized it was Iruka and Naruto.
"Jii-san!" Naruto ran up and jumped the old man, hugging his torso with both her arms and legs. He tried to scowl down at her, but she had a most unusual power over him, and soon he was simply chuckling as he hugged her back and patted her head.
"Now, Naruto, what have you been up to today?" She smiled at him.
"We played a prank on Iruka sensei today jii-san!" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow as he looked up to gaze at Iruka, who was now blushing quite red and coughing.
"Really? So, what did Anko do to him?" Naruto smirked.
"She made him-"
"Hokage-sama! The details are not important, but we really MUST do something about her painting the hokage's faces, yours included." Sarutobi frowned as he recalled that even he had not been spared the paint and Naruto grimaced. Soon she was trying her best to look as innocent as possible as he stared down at her. Unfortunately, it seemed her 'cute' power had run out…
"Well, Naruto, since you put the paint up there, you ought to be able to take it back off, don't you think?"
"AHHH! Jii-saaaaan!" Hiruzen looked up to avoid her puppy eyes; he almost always melted at those, but it was only fair that she clean her mess… especially since she hadn't spared his face, either.
"Iruka, have someone sent out to find Anko; she'll assist, seeing as how she helped put it up there." He could have sworn that Iruka shivered as he was told this, but he complied and dragged a pleading Naruto out of the office to start cleaning the mess she'd made earlier. As soon as the door closed the old Hokage breathed out a sigh of relief and slouched down in his chair.
"Whew, that was close. I almost gave in to her…" He sighed. She was every bit as spunky as her mother, but she looked much more like her father. He frowned. He never could figure out which one of them she got her nose and mouth from, though…oh well, such mysteries didn't matter. He had picked out a present for her that he thought she'd like so when she graduated tomorrow she might forgive him for making her clean up.
.
.
.
"Man, this sucks!"
"Yeah, tell me about it," the purple haired shinobi said out of the side of her mouth. Currently there was the residue of a stick of dango there, so she had to work a little bit to talk around it. "I mean, come on! You were the one who actually did it! I just had to run interference for you!" Naruto glared at her.
"Anko-chan helped with the designs, as I recall," she muttered. "And besides, you were feasting on dango later while I had to do school!" Anko smirked and tousled the blonds' hair.
"Hey, school's good for you, kid, don't you think so Iruka?" Iruka looked up at the sky from his viewing spot above the two where he had also had extra cleaning supplies, should they need them.
"Humf; of course it is, why do you think I teach!" Anko put a finger to her lips and made a flirty face.
"Oh Iruka sensei…" He made the mistake of looking down as she spoke.
"Oh don't you think you could help us out?"
"AH!" He jumped back up the monument a few feet before he felt he was safe, hiding behind a boulder.
"I, uh, I think I'm good here," he said. "Just remember, you're not going home until you get every last drop of paint!" Naruto moaned.
"Ah, come on Iruka sensei! It's exams tomorrow!"
"Well then you better hurry up!" Naruto began to mumble about how all teachers were stupid while Anko glared up at the rock Iruka was hiding behind. He had covered his face, though, at Naruto's mutters, and was too far away to feel Anko's killing intent. It was only a few seconds before he spoke up, though.
"Hey Naruto!" the young girl looked up with an angry face.
"What is it now, Iruka-sensei?"
"Well, I was thinking, maybe after you get this cleaned up, I can take you out for some ramen, you know, the good stuff. What do you say?" Looking down at Naruto he saw a huge grin on her face.
"Alright! Now that's some serious motivation! I'll have this thing cleaned in no time!" Anko and Iruka, the former of whom finally had her glare taken off the teacher, watched in amazement at the speed and power with which the girl was cleaning. What did all that energy come from? Then Anko got an evil smile on her face.
"Go out for ramen later, huh?"
"Um, yeah, that's uh, that's the idea." She smirked. Gotach ya!
"Alright, we'll call it a date and treat the brat at the same time!" Iruka almost fell off the mountain in shock, and the two girls laughed at his twitching form for several minutes before he regained control of himself and, once again, scurried away from the feared Anko.
.
.
.
"Aaahh… now that's good stuff," Iruka said as he tasted his first bit of ramen.
"Hahah, not kidding! Man, I love this stuff sensei!" Iruka laughed.
"Glad you like it… hey!" Iruka had caught a glimpse of someone else taking some of his ramen out of the corner of his eye. He turned just in time to see a smirking Anko slurp up some of his noodles. "What was that for?" His eyes were actually glowing with anger, though Naruto continued to eat, oblivious to the killing intent beside her. Anko remained unfazed, though she was impressed that the man wasn't backing down this time.
"Well, you said it was good, and how was I to know unless I tried it?" Iruka stood, pointing outside the stand. Anko raised an eyebrow as she followed him out to see him waiting and cracking his knuckles.
"No one, takes my ramen," he said. Anko grinned, licking her lips.
"Well, I suppose there's more than one way to get ramen… maybe I'll just lick it out of your wounds when we're done!"
"GRAAAHH!"
"HYAAAA!" The two shinobi charged each other, disappearing in a cloud of smoke as Naruto finished her first bowl.
"Ah, that was good, huh Iruka sen…nani?" She looked around, unable to see her teacher, or her pseudo sister for that matter, but then she caught eyes of Iruka's unfinished bowl and a hungry gleam came into her eye.
"Well, if he left it, it's fair game!" She reached over and grabbed the bowl and began downing it just as fast as the last one. Outside, the two shinobi were leaned over, panting from their little taijutsu battle.
"For a, stuffy old, teacher you're, whoo, pretty, good," Anko was saying smiling as she tried to catch her breath.
"I, could say, the same, for you, T&I, girl; I thought, you all, just, sat around, all day." They grinned at each other again and prepared to fight the second round when Iruka noticed that his bowl was gone and fell to his knees, crying and screaming.
"NOO! NARUTO! WHY?"
.
.
.
The loss of the bowl seemed to diffuse the situation, as Anko laughed her head off at someone being so silly over food (I mean, I would never act like that over dango!, she thought), and the two of them got new bowls since Naruto had managed to get both of theirs downed before they came back. The two were now talking amiably as Iruka questioned Naruto's choice of prank for the day.
"Well, I don't know," she said thoughtfully. "I guess that after seeing how so many people treat me without respect, no offense sensei, (non taken) I wanted to do something that would show that I'm just as good as Jii-san!" She giggled. "Yup; Naruto, the next hokage! That'll be me, and then everyone will respect me like jii-san and Konohamaru otouto-san!" Iruka slurped up the noodles that had been dangling from his mouth.
"Well, that's quite ambitious, isn't it Naruto." Anko was the one to reply to Iruka first.
"Ah come on! Everyone's gotta have a dream after all, and there's kids out there with worse dreams, and even more that don't have the potential to achieve that dream, not like Naruto-chan." Iruka chuckled.
"Well, I guess I can give you that; nobody has as much drive as Naruto here…but I think we all ought to be heading home now," he said as he glanced at the time. "As I recall, somebody made Naruto stay up late last year, resulting in her not finishing the exam from lack of sleep and therefore failing." He purposefully avoided Anko's glare, which she soon gave up as a resigned sigh.
"Yeah, guess you're right; let's go, Naruto." The girl began to whine about not wanting to go to bed yet, but soon enough she was being dragged home under Anko's arm. Iruka laughed to see the girls protector from earlier in the day now manhandling her to an even greater extent than he would have done to get her to class.
"Alright, good night girls," he called out, ordering a ramen to go.
"Night Iruka-kuuun!" Anko called out, making him blush again.
"Iruka sensei, please, help! You have no idea what she's capable of! Please you have to save me! She'll do terrible things!"
"Ah shut up you little brat! It's time for bed; besides, your grandpa will kill me if I keep you up late again! Now quit kicking me!"
"Not until you let go! Iruka sensei, Iruka sensei! HEEELLP!" The teacher just shook his head, grinning at his students antics.
"Sorry Naruto," he said to himself, "but from all the rumors that go around, getting on your bad side is a whole lot better than getting on Anko's, and I'd rather keep my voice in the bass/tenor range; I don't think I'd make a good soprano." And with that he walked off whistling to cover to cries of his student, wondering how both her, and the rest of them would do on the test the next day.
Alright, first thing i'm sure people will complain about is Iruka's obsession with ramen being more like how Naruto ought to be and how Iruka shouldn't be like that. Well, i actually checked the data book, and Iruka's favorite food is Ichiraku Ramen, so please to bite my head off, even if i exaggerated it a bit. I was hoping you'd all find it humorous. ;)
next chapter we'll Naruto interacting with her adopted family a bit more, including her relationship with Konohamaru, who she's been raised with as basically a brother. Then we'll be back to the academy for some exam taking! YEAH! Story may be going a LITTLE slow right now, but soon we'll be back. I'm not sure when i'm bringing Garra back in, but it could be as soon as next chapter, depending on if i get the right inspiration. It's dissapointing me that i'm not coming up with stuff for him, but maybe what i'll end up doing is a couple of chapters just for him right before the chuunin exams to get caught up. Review and tell me what you guys think, k?
Thanks to all of you! Look forward to hearing from you again soon!