Chapter 2: Strange Necklace

During the entire trip back to the village, Naruto kept feeling the narrow box hidden under his jacket. He couldn't stop thinking about it. The woman told him that it could get him anything he wanted. He was so excited. Did this mean he would finally get his date with Sakura? He hoped so. He couldn't wait to get home and check it out. He wanted to pull it out right now and try it out, but there were two things stopping him. First of all, he had no idea what it was or how it worked. He couldn't go in blindly and hope for the best. He had to figure it out. Secondly, he couldn't do it with Sakura around. If he didn't have the skill or knowledge to use its power and she found out what he was trying to do... Well, a punch to the face wasn't going to suffice.

Yeah, that'll go over real well. 'Hey Sakura, I'm going to use this to get a date out of you. What do you say?' Yeah, she'll kill me. Naruto could not pull it out now. He had to wait until he got home.

Once they reached the gate to the village, Naruto picked up the pace. The moment he was beyond the entrance to the village, he started running toward his apartment. Both Sakura and Sai grabbed his arms, pulling him back. "Where do you think you're going?" asked Sakura. "We have to check in with the Hokage, remember? Have you forgotten how this works?"

"Oh, come on!" he whined. "You guys can do that without me. Why do I have to go?"

"We left as a team and we return as a team."

He groaned. He wanted to get home so much and now he would have to wait even longer. Hopefully, if they hurried, he could get home faster. He decided not to complain and lead them to the Hokage building instead. The faster they got this done, the sooner he would get to go home.

Not watching where he was going, Naruto stepped on something and was knocked off balance.

"Ow!" Naruto turned around and saw Neji hopping on one leg, glaring at him. "Watch where you're going, Naruto. You stepped on my foot."

"Why do I have to watch? You have the Byakugan. Shouldn't you be watching where you're going?"

Neji frowned. "The decent thing to do would be to apologize."

"Well, I'm in a hurry so..."

Neji grabbed the back of his jacket, refusing to let him leave. "In the time it took you to explain that, you could have said you were sorry and been on your way."

"Fine, fine! I'm sorry, ok?"

"That's better." Neji released him.

Naruto shrugged off Neji's hand and tried to pull his jacket back down one-handed. "Why do you have to be like that anyway? Everything I do is wrong, isn't it?"

"No. I just don't like your attitude. I don't like how you never take things seriously and you don't seem to have any manners."

"I do so!"

"The last mission we went on together, you called the master of the house 'old man'. That isn't rude to you?"

"But he was."

"That doesn't mean you should say it. He took it as an insult," Neji went on. "And since I was appointed leader of that mission, it was a reflection of myself and my leadership skills. That man had a poor first impression of me. I'm responsible and accountable for everything my team does or does not do. He had a poor opinion of me from the get-go and didn't think we could handle the job, saying that we were just kids."

"So what? It's not like we're ever going to see him again."

"We will if he asks for our aid again." Neji muttered under his breath, "Not that he would, given his experience with us that time."

Sakura roughly slapped Naruto's shoulder. "He's right, Naruto. You need to learn to watch your mouth."

"Why do you always take his side?"

"Because he's right most of the time."

Neji turned and started to walk away without another word.

Naruto called after him. "Where are you going?"

"Training," he answered simply. "I have to get going or I'll be late." He continued walking.

Naruto turned away and started toward the Hokage building again. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

After meeting with Lady Tsunade, the team was allowed to leave and do what they wished. Sakura announced that she was going to relax for the rest of the day, and Sai didn't say where he was going. He just left the moment they were dismissed. Naruto bolted from the building and ran home as fast as he could. He ignored everything on his way there. He passed by Lee doing handstands on the sidewalk and Kiba and Akamaru chasing each other playfully in the grass. He passed Ino and Tenten having a conversation outside the bathhouse and he passed by a very red-faced Hinata behind a lamppost.

He ran into the building, up the stairs and into his apartment. He ran inside, slammed the door shut, locked it and ran to his kitchen table. He reached into his jacket and took out the small narrow box, setting it on the table. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Very carefully, Naruto peeled the tape off the sides of the box and slid the top off.

Inside was a lone necklace. It was a long silver chain with a clasp at the end. There was a jewel. This chain carried a single ornament. It looked like a clear diamond, no larger than the nail on his finger. He was expecting more from the way the woman talked about it. Looks could be deceiving. Maybe there was more to it than he was seeing.

Pulling out the necklace, Naruto held it in the palm of his hand. He didn't feel anything. No power resonating from its jewel, no warmth, nothing that would indicate that it possessed a great power. Naruto felt a little disappointed. He looked back in the box. Inside was a single piece of paper folded in half. It was the size of an index card. If these were instructions, there wasn't much to it.

By wearing this necklace, you now have the ability to command others to do your bidding.

This can only occur once you have taken the proper actions.

What does this mean?

Put simply, the wearer of this necklace will be granted the ability to use hypnosis on others.

The instructions were pretty straightforward and simple. The short explanation was easy for Naruto to understand what he had in his hands. "So this necklace lets me use hypnosis? Sweet!"

He had seen hypnosis performed on television and during magic shows. According to most of the people he spoke with, this was all staged. People like Sakura, Sai, Neji, Shino and a whole handful of others he could name never believed any of this was real. If people could actually be hypnotized into acting like farm animals then they were pretty weak-willed. Now was the perfect chance to prove them wrong.

"So I can use this necklace to make Sakura fall in love with me and be my girlfriend. That must be what the woman was talking about. I have to try it out!" Naruto was already clasping the necklace around his neck. Making sure it was in place and securely fastened around his neck, Naruto tucked the empty box along with the little note into an open drawer and made his way to the door, eager to try out its power.

But then he stopped.

"Wait a minute. I can't just go up to Sakura and use this thing. I have no idea what I'm doing!" The note told him that he would have the power to use hypnosis on people but it never explained how. "If I try using this on Sakura and it doesn't work, she'll kick my ass!"

He had to figure this out. Before he tried using it to get what he wanted from her, he had to first figure out how to use its power. He had to test it out first. Naruto sat down on the floor, thinking. After a while, he came up with a possible solution.

"I'll need a guinea pig. First I'll test it out on someone and see if it works."

Now the question was who that test subject would be. It had to be someone easy enough to use it on so they won't know what's happening but it couldn't be someone easy to put under if it did work. Sakura was smart. If he tested it out on an idiot and it worked only because they were easily tricked and then he tried it out on her it may not work at all. He had to make sure it was performed on someone willing to stand around and be put under without being a complete moron. They had to be smart enough so it wouldn't be considered a fluke.

"Let's see... I could try using it on Kiba. He's pretty willing... No, that won't work. He'll know what I'm trying to do. Even if he doesn't, Akamaru will. He'll bark and snap Kiba out of it before I have a chance. Besides, if I tell him what I'm trying to do and tell him that I'm testing it out, he'll blab to Sakura and she'll kill me! No, I have to do it on someone who won't realize I'm trying to hypnotize them." This was harder than he thought. "I could try it out on Lee... but he's so gullible. Even if it works on him, Sakura's way smarter. That won't prove anything. Hmm... Maybe Sai? I could try it out on him. He's already pretty weird. He probably won't understand what I'm doing."

That may not work, either. Sai had a different kind of intelligence. He was dense when it came to social situations, but he was a pretty smart guy. There were two things Naruto saw right away that could be a problem. One, Sai was weird. Who knows what hypnosis could do to him or if it would even work on him? Second of all, with Sai being part of Anbu, he had extensive training. Naruto had no idea what that entailed, but if he saw Naruto come up to him and try to use hypnosis on him, he may attack. A number of things could go wrong using him to test it on.

"Nah, not Sai. He's so weird it may not work at all on him. He might also go up to Sakura and tell her what I tried to do and then she'll get all mad." Naruto moaned. This was definitely hard. "Maybe it should be on someone who thinks like Sakura... Someone smart but not gullible. Someone who will hold still long enough to listen to me... maybe not pay full attention so I can get them under..."

That's when it occurred to him. Sakura seemed to always be siding with one person lately. She had done so not twenty minutes ago: Neji. In Naruto's experience, Neji was very smart and wasn't easily fooled. He wasn't gullible like his teammate, Lee. He was pretty patient and willing to listen. He was a bit of a skeptic but he was usually willing to hear a person out. What Naruto liked about Neji was that he wasn't a tattletale. Even if something were to go wrong, it was unlikely that he would go around telling people about it, especially Sakura.

"I guess I could try it out on Neji first. If it works on him then it's bound to work on Sakura." Naruto stood up, tucking the necklace under his collar. "Now I just have to find him and get him alone so I can try it out."

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