Chapter five: Broken Promise
Iruka stood straight in front of the fifth Hokage. He knew she was watching his every move, and he knew that she was not pleased.
"Would you care to repeat that? She said in a tight voice, for less than a minute he thought about telling her the truth, then his mind showed him Naruto, as he was in the hospital, laying there his eyes haunted his spirit broken. The image was enough to stop him.
"Jiraiya and Kakashi are going to be training Naruto, right now they are simply wandering, once Naruto's body heals they will train." He answered. Tsunade narrowed her eyes. Something was up, something the man before her was not telling her.
"You wouldn't be hiding anything from me now would you, Iruka?" she said raising an eyebrow. She watched sweat bead at the man's temple but his expression didn't change.
"Of course not Hokage." He replied, Tsunade narrowed her eyes again but let it slide.
"Alright thank you for the report you may leave." She said. Iruka bowed and moved to the door opening it, he blinked surprised to see Sakura standing outside it Hinata by her side looking at her feet.
"Iruka-sensei! Where's Naruto!" Sakura said. Iruka glanced back towards Tsunade, she still sat at her desk. He silently shut the door and then turned to both girls, they were worried about the kid, he sighed defeated.
"Follow me." He said and started walking away, both girls looked at him then at each other and quickly ran to catch up with me.
"Iruka-sensei…" Sakura began but Iruka shook his head.
"Not here." He said simply, Sakura paled and Hinata mumbled as they followed him. Finally he led them to the classroom where he had taught the two of them in their childhood. He shut the door then bracing himself he faced them.
"Naruto isn't coming back anytime soon." Iruka said. Hinata shuffled her feet looking shyly disappointed, Sakura…looked angry.
"Why! Why isn't he coming back!" she shouted. She was panicked, first Sasuke had left her, it had felt like as if a part of her died and now Naruto…Naruto whom she made promise her that he'd bring Sasuke back.
"Is it because of the promise?" she asked in a quiet voice, Iruka looked away wishing that it wasn't the case.
"Not exactly." He said. Sakura looked at him her eyes widened with shock.
"What do you mean 'not exactly'?" she asked.
"He left on his own to train, now he's with Kakashi and Jiraiya. Don't worry…he'll be alright." Iruka said smiling. Sakura relaxed some.
"But he wanted to train because of the promise?" she asked again. Iruka smiled more, yes it's because of the promise, the promise he made you to bring Sasuke back but failed, Iruka thought.
"You know Naruto, he's always trying to get stronger, I don't think its because of that Sakura, now isn't the hokage waiting for you?" he asked. Sakura sighed in relief, Naruto next time I see you I am going to kick your ass! Her inner self thought, she smiled sweetly at Iruka.
"Alrihgt. Hinata I'll see you later?" she said and took off running. Iruka turned his eyes onto the Hyuuga heiress, she was staring down at her feet again pushing two of her fingers against each other then apart again.
"Naruto will be fine Hinata." He said, the girl looked up her eerie white eyes seemed sad.
"Alright." She whispered shyly and slipped noiselessly from the room. Iruka sighed and moved to sit on the teachers desk. Did he do the right thing? He asked himself quietly, he hoped he did and that everything would turn out alright…
Jiraiya's home
CRASH! The sound alerted Kakashi and Jiraiya that once again the 4th and Naruto had to be fighting again. So far that made three times that day.
"Who do you think will win this time?" Jiraiya said chuckling. Kakashi looked up from his book and smiled closing his eye as he did so.
"I have a feeling Naruto will make it to the same place as last time before Yondaime gets annoyed and brings him back. So…Yondaime will win again." He said as the door slid open, sure enough Naruto took off running but this time he stopped whirling around he slid his hands into the position and waited. Yondaime calmly walked out and sighed.
"Just how many times are you going to try this?" he asked; he sounded bored which only caused Naruto to get angry. He glared at the man. Yondaime met his glare and raised an eyebrow.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" he asked. Naruto snarled. Yondaime shrugged and sat down beside his former student and glanced at the title of the book and groaned.
"Great Jiraiya's perverted books have corrupted you." He told his student, Kakashi coughed and only shrugged glancing at Naruto, the kid was watching him, he had lowered his hands and was watching the hokage carefully. The hokage turned placing his chin on his hand resting his elbow on his knee.
"Are you going to stand there all day?" he asked yawning. Naruto stared then rolled his eyes.
"I'm out of here." He said turning his back and walked away. The hokage sighed.
"How many times does this make now?" he asked as he stood up and stretched.
"Hey its good practice to get you back into shape." Jiraiya said smirking, Yondaime looked over at him.
"Even out of practice I can still take you on perverted frog." Yondaime said mildly. Jiraiya gave him an irritated look. He glanced back at the image of Naruto.
"Think I've let him get far enough?" he asked. Jiraiya chuckled.
"I was wondering if that's what you were doing." He commented. Yondaime nodded.
"Cant let the boy think he's this much out of his class. Alright I'll be back." He said and with a flicker he was gone.
Naruto was fuming stomping on the road that led away from the house he muttered to himself. A hand grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked stopping Naruto's movement. The boy turned and groaned as Yondaime grinned at him.
"Tag your it." The hokage said lightly. Naruto twisted trying to punch the grin of the man's face but the hokage caught the fist in his hand and glanced down, Naruto had begun to use his right arm more and more. And that didn't make the hokage happy at all.
"I want you to stop using your right arm okay?" he said still having a grin on his face.
"Like I'd listen to you." Naruto said grumpily, Yondaime continued to grin as he led the genin back towards the house.
"Now, that's not a nice thing to say, why don't we get along, it'll make life a lot easier on you." He said grinning still. Naruto sent him a single look that made Yondaime's eye twitch, the boy just didn't know when to stop, the hokage thought.
"Come on…" he began trying to keep on the light side. Naruto turned and did a quick movement.
"Sexy-no-jutsu!" he snapped and again the blonde haired blue eyed beauty took his place, the hokage lasted about five seconds before he toppled over with a nose bleed. Naruto smirked turning back as he sauntered back to the house on his own, unable to keep the grin off his face as he sat down on the steps to wait for the hokage to come. Kakashi ruffled his hair knowing without having to see, the boy had pulled. A few minutes later a very angry Hokage walked up blood was still on his face he stopped a few feet in front of Naruto his eyes narrowed as Jiraiya fell down laughing hard.
"Look's like Naruto won this round Yondaime!" the sannin bellowed between laughter. Yondaime gave him one disgusted look before turning his complete attention back at Naruto.
"You do realize what this means." He said very slowly. Naruto grinned at him.
"Nope." He said. The hokage stepped closer.
"This means war." He stated, Naruto grinned even more.
"Bring it on." He stated. Yondaime's eye twitched visibly this time as Jiraiya finally stopped laughing he grinned at his former student.
"Yondaime, you have no clue what you just did." He stated. The hokage merely snarled and walked in the direction of the bathroom, Uzumaki Naruto he thought, that name has got to mean trouble. He grumbled…he fell for the same trick. Kakashi chuckled and glanced at Naruto who now seemed to be thinking hard about something, it seemed that when the boy was left to his own thoughts his cheerful manner vanished. Now instead of the grin he had been wearing only moments before, Naruto looked dead serious, he didn't notice the way that he was rubbing his right arm, only half acknowledging that it was giving him pain. His mind was on one thing, a promise…he shouldn't be waiting around, wasting time. He should be training; he thought and began to stand up. A hand plopped on his head, looking up he saw Kakashi watching him, his sensei set his book down.
"Walk with me." Kakashi said. Naruto blinked but stood following him. Kakashi walked along the road and stopped leaning on a tree, Naruto watched him cautiously.
"What's on your mind?" he finally asked his student. Naruto looked away.
"Nothing really." Naruto said. Kakashi tilted his head to the side and waited, he knew Naruto a little to well for the boy's own good. A few minutes later Naruto sighed.
"I can't just sit around, I have to train! The longer Sasuke's with that…that…!" Naruto shouted, Kakashi held up both of his hands calming the boy down some.
"Naruto I understand how you feel, but I have a suggestion." He said Naruto eyed him.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Why train by yourself? Both Jiraiya and myself are here, why not make use of us. Also…" Kakashi said pausing to make sure the boy was paying attention.
"Also what?" Naruto asked.
"Yondaime has…showed a great interest in the idea of taking you on as a student." He said and watched with pleasure as Naruto gaped.
"But he doesn't even like me!" Naruto shouted. Kakashi chuckled.
"Not like you? I can tell you offer him quite a bit of fun, he not only likes you Naruto, he accepts you. And if he is offering to train you…don't you think that's worth waiting?" he asked. Naruto stared.
"Waiting?" he asked confused.
"For your body to heal." Kakashi said grinning behind his mask as the boy as usual exploded.
"I'm fine!" he protested but shut up when Kakashi only seemed to be amused at him. Grumbling Naruto nodded.
"Alright I'm not." He finally admitted. Nodding Kakashi put a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"Good. Now let's go back." He said and Naruto nodded…he had broken a promise, he thought to himself but followed Kakashi feeling slightly better. He had broken it, but he still had a chance to make it up to Sakura…if he worked hard…
A/N: KyuubiMan brought a very good point to my attention, so I wanted to clear up something. Yondaime is not going to be Naruto's father in this. He may be or may not be related to Naruto otherwise…you'll have to continue to read and see! But he is not Naruto's father lol!
Thanx for all the great reviews and please keep reviewing!