I do not own Naruto. If I did, the side cast would have gotten way more limelight and I would have spent Shippuden exploring the culture and backgrounds of the world and the other shinobi villages rather than focusing on Akatsuki. If Naruto was an open world game, it would be such a vast world with so little content...

"Aburame Shino."

"Here."

"Abashi Tenma."

"Hai Sensei."

"Binshi Roku"

"Present!"

Yamanaka Ino took in a series of deep breaths as she decided to calm herself. She was a member of the Yamanaka Clan which prided itself in its mind arts, and as such, she, as well as numerous others privy to the intricacies and delicacies of the clan's workings were expected to keep a level head, and to calmly analyze any and all scenarios which came before her.

The Jonin you would find angrily snarling as he kicked a stone down the street and brandished his kunai at any minor offence was more than often, troubled, and his temporary anger which he displayed was not an enduring personality trait, but rather, more than likely it was a standalone feature that had arose due to external circumstances.

"Hyuga Hinata."

"H-hai sensei."

"Inuzuka Kiba.'

"I'm here sensei!"

"Arf! Arf!"

Her father had taught her more than once, to always keep an eye on the people around her, as that was how you knew the 'good' shinobi from the 'bad' ones, and it was always best to avoid getting on the bad sides of certain individuals who may or may not be deemed 'unstable'. He had also told her, not to judge others, as well as to avoid having any undue prejudice against people, because no one existed with their entire life stories trailing behind them, and as such, they all had different reasons or motivations for one thing or another.

This of course, did not mean that Yamanaka Ino was able to take all that advice to heart, especially when it did her absolutely no damned good.

"Uchiha Sasuke"

"…here."

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Silence.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

Ino did her best to try and remain unflappable, desperately fighting the urge to shrink into her seat with all vehemence. Of course, the dog-breath just had to have noticed it, as he gave her what she easily considered to be the sixth most irritating grin in existence, as he spoke up.

"Naruto still hasn't shown up for class Mizuki-sensei!" the canine enthusiast yelled out, once more speculating the rumors that went flying around the class.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah! It's been three weeks since we had to deal with the orange idiot! Ha! I guess we have you to thank for that Ino!"

Once more, Ino resisted the urge to shrink as the eyes of everyone in the class fell upon her. Sasuke-kun was staring at her! He was actually looking her direction, which, on any other occasion, would have made her feel giddy with joy, but his eyes were not looking at her in the same way she would have wanted him to.

Of course, she was Yamanaka Ino, so despite her own inner thoughts, she ensured, meticulously, that her own body language and outward appearance constantly maintained the aura and look of someone who was utterly self-assured, utterly confident, and did not, for even the briefest of seconds doubt herself.

"I don't know what you're on about mutt-face!"

He growled. "Yeah right! You think we didn't hear 'bout how the blond knucklehead asked you out and you turned him down flat cold?"

The mumbles and rumors were spreading to a level she did not find herself particularly comfortable with.

"So? He asks forehead over there out on a daily basis, and she turns him down all the time!"

Said pink-haired bimbo let out a shout of indignation at being called 'forehead' that Ino promptly ignored.

"Well 'cept she never turned him down hard enough for the idiot to just up and vanish for three weeks! Hell, I haven't even seen him around the ramen stand that he loves like it's his mother!"

Correlation does not equal causation, she had wanted to say, but she restrained her tongue from emitting the initial consonant because she knew that it would go over Kiba's head, and more importantly than that, it would only either mean that Shikamaru had been rubbing off on her more than she would like, or that she was another nerd like forehead-girl.

"And how is any of it my fault? For all we know he could have just woken up one day and decided to drop out!"

"Geez I don't get you," Kiba said, scowling "It's not like the knucklehead ever had any real hopes of becoming a shinobi, and I'm sure even Academy Teachers have tried more than once to get him to quit – but you managed to pull it off with a few words, so why the hell won't you take the credit?"

Yamanaka Ino blinked, then rapidly resisted the urge to yell and instead bit the inside of her cheek. Take the credit? She was supposed to be proud of harshly turning down Naruto's enthusiastic, bubbly request for a date? To feel accomplished that she had shot down someone's confident advances, when there were numerous hopeless romantics out there who would never even possess a shred of that same courage to brazenly ask out someone they fancied? She stared at Kiba, wondering if the boy even fully understood the implications of what he was saying, and she sorely doubted that he did.

What she found doubly disconcerting however, was that there were numerous other people in the class, who for one reason or another, actually shared in Kiba's sentiments.

For kami's sake, no matter how annoying or how bright or how obnoxious Naruto was, the boy had done literally nothing wrong for people to feel completely vindicated by the fact that he was potentially heartbroken enough to stop coming to school.

But she did not voice that. No. She was not a person easily cowed by peer pressure, but she was a person who cared about her image. The knuckleheads around her would one day in nearest future possibly be her teammates that she would need to rely on in the field, and as such, it was best to move with the flow of the crowd, to be of the same mind regarding certain topics, and to ensure that she was not viewed too differently or ostracized.

Idly, her mind noted a lesson her father had once showed her, during one of their clan training sessions. A brief experiment where he had brought up three kunai, two of them were twelve inches and one was eleven, and then showed it to a group of eight volunteers, asking them to pick the shortest. Seven of the volunteers were in on the experiment, and all picked the wrong kunai, but the actual subject was confused, and he knew that the kunai picked was the wrong one, yet, in order to avoid being at odds with the group, went ahead and picked it anyway.

Yamanaka Ino was an impressionable twelve year old girl with just a few months left to graduate and become a shinobi. This was true, but she was also the daughter of Konoha's foremost Psychologist, who was the Head of Konohagakure's Torture and Interrogation Department. She was the friend to a genius with an IQ of 200 that occasionally made rare quips and comments that belayed his extraordinary intelligence, despite his outwardly lazy persona. Then, she the heiress of a clan that could casually stroll through your mind like a schoolboy galloping a field of flowers and make your tongue unleash your deepest desires.

Even without using their Clan techniques.

As such, Yamanaka Ino knew exactly what to do. Slamming her hand on her desk, she twirled her hair, placed her hand on her hip and let out a huff, utterly turning away from Kiba's question.

Kiba's eyes narrowed, "So it's not that you don't want to take the credit! You just wanted us to make you think you didn't care! You were pretending all along weren't you?"

"Whatever makes you happy mutt-breath."

"Why you – "

Mizuki-sensei clapped.

"That's enough. Kiba, if you have any problem with Ino, take it out in Taijutsu practice. Assuming you can."

A collection of snickers went up at the room at the slight.

"It was one time Mizuki-sensei! I lost to her one time!"

Yamanaka Ino did not focus on any of this however, instead, her mind found itself begrudgingly drifting towards someone with blond hair and blue eyes. Why had Naruto suddenly asked her out if he was supposed to be infatuated with Sakura? Had he known what she was up to and then did it to save her face? Was that why she found herself questioning her infatuation with Sasuke now and then?

She had doubted Shikamaru's words before about Naruto being observant, adding up to another time the pineapple haired Nara had been right, and kami knew that if Shikamaru wasn't so lazy, half of their conversations would be filled with "I told you so". Still it just didn't seem to fit. If Naruto was so observant, why was he the dead-last? Did graduating and becoming as shinobi not matter to his interests?

She found herself biting on the edge of her pen and took in a deep breath. It seemed like she knew what she was going to do after school today, solving the enigma that was Uzumaki Naruto.

Assuming she could find him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Within Interest ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Um… Naruto…"

There had been a lot of odd things that Akimichi Choji had seen in his life, from vanishing pieces of cake, to people who utterly ruined the concept of a good meal, to even things such as pineapple on pizza.

He shuddered.

Nevertheless, despite having seeing so many odd things in his brief few years alive, he would say that he had never felt more conflicted nor had he ever felt more uncertain on what to do, when he saw his blond classmate, Uzumaki Naruto, rummaging through the trash cans of the Akimichi Clan compound, more specifically, his trashcan.

"Gah – venison, steak, mutton – why are they so many different bones! I don't even know what this one is supposed to be, turkey or rabbit?"

Choji awkwardly stopped eating from his famous bag of chips, rubbing his arm in a particular manner that didn't aid in alleviating the awkwardness. It had now been four weeks since Naruto had shown up in class, and Ino had been reserved ever since there were some allegations that it was because she had broken his heart that Naruto had been skipping out on school. Choji thought that it was a lot of baloney, but Ino didn't feel that way, and no one knew what to make of the situation.

This past week however, the blond had been seen out of class, doing numerous odd things. For instance, he had been sniffed out by Kiba on one occasion, and after being called out, he admitted that he was planning on pranking the Inuzuka. Likewise the same thing occurred for Shino, and no one knew why he would even want to prank those two.

Now however, Choji did not know what to make of seeing Naruto doing… that. Of course, the Akimichi didn't particularly know just how lucky he was, to have been born into a major clan, to have had loving parents and to enjoy magnificent meals everyday – and though it was easy to forget, Naruto had no parents, had no one to cook for him, and pretty much lived on his own.

He never truly realized how privileged he was until he saw his own classmate seemingly scrounging for scraps.

"Um Naruto… you don't need to eat out of the trash can, we've got plenty of food –"

Naruto stopped scrounging, the light of the slowly setting evening sun casting a weird glow as he raised his head from the pile of dirt and his eyes regarded Choji with a confused expression.

"Ehh?"

"I said you don't need to eat out of the trash can."

"What – this? I'm not – oi! I'm not that pathetic that I'd scrounge around dumpsters for food!"

Choji stared at him, a cool breeze passing by that somehow seemed to cement his words. True, Naruto did seem to be the type that was too proud to actually be seen doing something like that.

"Then… what are you doing?"

"Er… that thing you do where you take old stuff and make new things with it – what is it called again?"

"You're… recycling?"

He snapped his fingers in confirmation, grinning. "Yeah that's it – recycling!"

"Naruto… you're only meant to recycle papers, plastics and metals… not junk food items…"

The blond blinked owlishly. "Says who?"

Choji shrugged, watching as Naruto seemingly pondered about it for all of three seconds, before hefting over a large bag over his shoulder and dropped it on the ground, wiping the sweat off his brow.

Now that the young Akimichi heir thought about it, he realized that Naruto shouldn't even be in their clan compound – much less searching through their trash. How had he passed the guards and the gate?

"Hehehe… this haul was awesome! With this… I'm going to become the greatest shinobi that ever lived dattebayo!"

Choji stared at him with no small amount of confusion.

"With… trash?"

Naruto grinned. "With treasure."

Choji was looking at him owlishly. "I don't understand…"

"Your favorite chip brand is the Tachino Chips. You never buy the really saltier versions and stick to the bags instead of the cans because you hate it when you can't get your hands down in it to get the last ones."

Choji blinked.

"Tachino Chips are kinda rare though, really rare, and freaking expensive too! And you breeze through about six a day, every day! That's not even counting all the feasts you call dinner! Choji – you're loaded!"

Choji choked on his potato chip.

"And not just you, your entire Clan is loaded too! I mean I didn't even know that the Akimichi Clan totally owned like half of the farmlands that make all the food that everyone in Konoha eats! But you guys are so cool and mellow that no one realizes that you're the richest clan in – mmph!"

Choji had heard enough as he proceeded to cover Naruto's mouth, eyes darting left and right as he let out a sigh. Good hearted boy and avid foodie he was, but he was also being groomed to be the future head of said Akimichi Clan, and there were somethings that needed to be left under wraps.

Yes, the Akimichi Clan was rich, stinky damn rich, probably richer than the Hyuga and the Inuzuka Clans combined. Of course, the reason why their wealth hadn't drawn undue attention was because they were also the most underestimated Clan in Konoha. They were the big friendly giants who simply loved their meals and would leave you alone in peace as long as you did not mention anything about their weight, as such, no one would ever find anything wrong with these people having extraordinary wealth.

Of course, the Akimichi found no problem with it – being underestimated suit them just fine.

"Naruto, how did you know all that?"

"Just think about it Choji!" he had a glint in his eye "Garbage tells all! The stuff you throw in the trash can tells waaay more about you than you can believe!"

The blond began counting on his fingers "Iruka-sensei's hobby is woodworking, his favorite drink is cherry juice, and he eats tons of fruits and cooks all his meals himself. Sakura-chan uses three different conditioners at the same time, and she's on a diet for now. Sasuke-teme seems to like tomatoes a lot, and he's a terrible cook –"

Choji brought him to a stop. It was impressive, unorthodox and greatly breaching the privacy of several people, but impressive nonetheless.

"Naruto… just how many people's garbage have you scrounged through?"

The blond paused for a second, before shrugging. "Counting you… Everyone."

Choji almost choked on his chips again. "Everyone in Konoha?"

"Huh? No, I meant everyone I know." He gave a proud grin "Why d'ya think I haven't been at the Academy for a while?"

Choji calmed down significantly at that. So Naruto had been doing recon on every individual he knew? "That's… incredible?"

"You're telling me! I had to Henge into a one-legged cat to fool the Hyuga clan guards, and cover myself in puppy piss just to fool the Inuzuka dogs… and don't even get me started on the Aburame and their insects."

Akimichi Choji stood, slightly confused, slightly impressed, and a little bit annoyed at the fact that Naruto had somehow chosen him for last, until he reminded himself that technically what Naruto was doing was a huge breach of privacy, though he seemed not to realize it, or care.

Choji contemplated if he should tell Naruto that it was somewhat… well, not exactly illegal, just a teensy bit immoral for him to go through other people's trash.

Then again, it was garbage, people rarely gave much thought to their garbage, and they probably did not realize that what you threw away could tell a lot about who you were, what you did, what you liked and what you ate. Somehow, Naruto had figured that out.

"But… why?"

"Huh?'

"Why are you going through everyone's garbage?"

At that Naruto grinned. "It's for my Bingo Book!"

"Y-your what?"

"You see, Hokage-jiji gave me this supercool scroll that he used to teach his students and stuff, and when I looked through it, I saw that his students left all kinds of doodles and drawings and jottings all over it!"

Naruto heaved the heavy bag of garbage on his shoulder.

"So one of Hokage-jiji's students, this guy called Maru, jotted down that he had always wanted to gain complete information about all his nakama in Konoha! Said he'd started working on it, and had his own Bingo Book and stuff, but never completed it."

Naruto rubbed his chin. "Was a bit weird though, there were stuff about blood type and searching for bloodlines, and stuff, but I thought the general idea would be awesome! I mean, if I'm gonna become the Hokage, the leader of everyone, I've gotta at least know them right?"

At this he frowned.

"But people don't really talk to me for some weird reason. Stupid temes must just be jealous of my awesomeness dattebayo!" He said with a grin, "So I recycled their trash, and used the stuff I learned to fill up the book."

Choji wanted to tell him that some people were averse to talking to him because of his general... orange-ness, but he didn't have the heart to do so.

"Plus, I'm working on being Konoha's Greatest Trap Specialist! I'm going to use my pranking skills to become the greatest shinobi in the world! Believe it! So… I kinda need some of the trash to help build up my uh… arsenal?"

Brilliant.

It was a word which had a nimiety of meanings, each one more elevated than the last. Placing those who were referred as that word was to place them on a magnificent glass pedestal, and Akimichi Choji had not assumed that he would be running into another individual that could leave him as awed as his best friend Shikamaru. He found it even odder considering that he was using attributing this word to Naruto of all people, and though the boy did not realize it, what he had done, what he was doing was sheer brilliance.

He was considered the dead-last, but most likely he was the one taking their future occupation as shinobi the most seriously.

"Gah! I've got to run! Higurashi Weapon stores usually toss out some old rusty kunai and metal I can use around this time! See you around Choji!"

Choji blinked, drawn from his reverie as he realized that he had just found the elusive boy that his friend had been trying to track down for the past week with no chance of success.

"Wait! Naruto, Ino's been looking… for… you…"

The boy was gone, leaving Choji standing in place and conspicuously staring at the garbage pile. A mere pile of garbage that had made Naruto of all people easily realize the not-so-hidden secret of the Akimichi Clan.

"From now on, no more leftovers."

The sound of crackling potato chips and hearty receding footsteps echoed off into Konoha's twilight.

~~~~~~~WI~~~~~~

What was the difference between intelligence and wisdom?

This was the question Yamanaka Inoichi asked himself as he plopped down on his couch, a tired sigh on his lips and a long worn furrow on his brow, just now finally concluded from a long day at the office.

Some would say that intelligence was possessing knowledge, an intelligent person had the savoir-faire of numerous different fields or areas, such as someone who had memorized entire aspects of a thesaurus, or someone who could calculate complex mathematical figures on the fly. Then, they would say that wisdom was possessing the ability to use said knowledge in the adequate scenarios to achieve the optimum result.

Except, that was not true.

That was the relationship between intelligence and wisdom and not the distinction.

Intelligence and wisdom were somewhat separate, as one could be wise, in the manner of an enlightened monk or spiritual individual, but they would not be smart, such as monks that could neither read nor write. Likewise, one could be smart, possessing a great deal of knowledge about numerous aspects and fields, but not necessarily wise. For instance, a scientist who chose to give his children extremely efficient meals and prevented them from eating sweets because he knew the health detriments, but was unable to realize that his children would never understand his perspective.

Unfortunately, it seemed that people regarded intelligence on the higher spectrum than wisdom. Konoha was gradually running out of wise young shinobi and instead, they were breeding geniuses. If only his beloved village could have a Sarutobi Hiruzen for every Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi, it would be so much better off.

Unfortunately, most levels of wisdom came with experience, and as such, those greatly in need of it sorely lacked the access to it.

Shameful as it was, Inoichi knew full well that his village was filled with people lacking both intelligence and wisdom. Most obviously would be the civilians first, who would willingly let their children sign up to the Academy, fooled by the romanticized ideal of the Konoha Shinobi Corps. They were nothing but glorified child soldiers, child soldiers capable of taking on full grown men twice their size, but child soldiers no less. Most of them would not live to hit thirty, and those who did would be so scarred by the things that they had witnessed and performed, that they could never live normally ever again.

But the Will of Fire burned strong, how strong it burned indeed.

Fire was the one thing most capable of bringing unlimited destruction to leaves, yet not a soul had noted the irony.

Konoha's Head of T&I shook his head as he let out a deep sigh. The question and deliberations had not struck him on some utterly odd whim, and he was not usually someone to start thinking about such topics, but perhaps the reason the question had struck him had been because he had been watching his daughter recently. Ino was his pride and joy, and of course, he had done his best to lavish his little princess the way any father would, but he made sure he never cossetted her too much, especially if she wanted to be a kunoichi.

He was initially adamant against her decision to even enroll, but he had no choice. Had his daughter said she wanted to become a horticulturist or a botanist or a psychologist rather than a kunoichi, not a single soul in the world, dead or alive, legend or nightmare, would have been capable of forcing him to tell her otherwise.

But of course, his daughter wanted to be a Kunoichi. He had no choice left but to respect her decision, or lose her love and respect forever.

Despite training to be a powerful, lethal weapon, she was still a young girl though, and as such, he had been more than happy when she showed the signs of her youth, such as an adolescent crush. His only wish was that Ino would have at least picked a crush that was not so mentally scarred, but in the end, he had left her to her own devices.

Until now.

He had begun noticing in the past four weeks how much his little princess was changing. There had been a little bit more interest in the way she listened to his tales at the office, and as he explained to her bits and pieces of the psychology that people took for granted. Then of course, the frequency at which she mentioned the Uchiha's name had hit a sudden decline. Whereas he could have previously counted a minimum of sixteen counts per day, it had dropped to a mere five, and each time the topic was brought up, she bit her lips, her eyes furrowed, and her nose rose, just a smidgen.

Something or someone had made her re-evaluate her infatuation, and she was inwardly conflicted.

He would usually leave the issues of boys to her mother to handle, not because he was inept, but rather because he felt there would be more of a bond between his wife and his daughter discussing over such sensitive feminine issues.

Of course, when she began leaving the house and returning each day, looking more tired and frustrated than the previous, he decided to intervene.

"Ino-chan, is there anything bothering you that you want to tell me?"

She had pursed her lips.

"Well…"

Her hesitation alone was not a good sign.

"I did something… I mean, I think I did something, to someone, that might've been kind of bad, and I've been trying to find them to apologize, or explain… or something… but…"

Inoichi eased her. "Calm down Ino-chan, go gently, from the start."

She frowned. "What do you do when someone just changes? Does things they've never done before? Or if their actions don't match what you know about them?"

Inoichi rose an eyebrow. "Is this about a boy?"

Ino sighed. "Yes daddy."

"Ino, I've never really supported your crush on Uchiha Sasuke, but if he's the reason for why you've been so emotionally frustrated –"

"It's not about Sasuke!"

Those words threw Inoichi for a loop, his mind recoiling as it tried to wrap itself around that information. First, there had been no affectionate suffix added to the name and second his daughter had another crush that wasn't the mentally perturbed survivor of the Uchiha Clan Massacre.

"It's not? Then who?"

"…It's Naruto that suddenly –"

Inoichi's mind slammed the brakes hard at that point. Naruto? As in, Uzumaki Naruto? The resident prankster of Konoha? The secret orphaned son of the Yondaime Hokage? The current container for Kyubi no Yoko, the strongest of all tailed beasts that had ravaged Konoha twelve years ago?

Nope.

Nope.

Nope.

Why? Why couldn't this be easy? Why couldn't his daughter just be interested in some no-named average boy? He would have taken a boy with greased hair that wore twenty types of leather and a 'I-heart-mom' tattoo plastered on his left shoulder, over him.

He had no personal bias against the boy, but he did have a personal interest to keep his daughter safe no matter what, and unfortunate as it was, merely being a Jinchuriki put him on the list of people to get Ino as far away from as possible. He did not fear the boy going out of control, for he trusted the Yondaime's sealing ability, but the sheer power he wielded would put him in the crosshairs of powerful and dangerous individuals.

Individuals that he did not want a thousand feet near his daughter.

He needed to diffuse this situation very carefully.

"Ino-chan, you said Naruto suddenly did what now?"

"He asked me out."

"He – what?"

"I know! That was my reaction too! He's spent half of the time in the Academy pestering Sakura for dates, and she turns him down, and then all of a sudden, he just asks me? Why? Why all of a sudden and then the way he did it –"

She abruptly stopped, and Inoichi's eyes narrowed. There was information that his daughter was intentionally keeping out of the discussion.

"Anyway, Shika says that it's because Naruto is actually really observant when he's dealing with things that catch his interest."

"He did?"

Inoichi knew that Nara Shikamaru was just as astute as his father, perhaps even more so, but he was lacking in the much needed wisdom that would probably make him surpass Shikaku.

"He did, but it doesn't make sense! If he's so observant about stuff, why do his grades suck so much and why is he the dead last?"

Inoichi swore under his breath.

"Champing breadsticks."

If, and if, what Ino was telling him was true, then there were two possible unfortunate implications, neither of which was comforting, and both of which constituted as threats or serious issues to Konoha's safety.

The first implication was that Uzumaki Naruto was intentionally downplaying all his skills and abilities, for whatever possible reason, and depending on how observant he truly was, it was more than likely that he knew who his father was, and what was sealed inside of his stomach, yet opted to keep it to himself.

When children found themselves out of their depth or seeking knowledge or wisdom, they looked to adult authorities for guidance and explanation. If Uzumaki Naruto was aware of his true heritage, and of the reasons of the numerous bias against him, and the fact that a giant beast was sealed inside his gut yet had intellectually chosen not to mention it or blurt it out, and continued as though absolutely nothing was wrong, then there was a problem.

From a psychological standpoint it was downright terrifying and it marked him as a greater flight risk than Uchiha Sasuke ever could be.

The second implication of course, was somewhat lighter, and it meant that there were serious levels of bias against the boy, and he was more than likely being either taught wrongly, or intentionally failed in order to ensure that he did not graduate. It meant that there were shinobi amongst the ranks who had let personal bias interfere with objective judgment, and they needed to be sanctioned and undergo screening to see if they were truly worthy of being in the shinobi corps.

After all, if you let your emotions bleed into your job when all you did was to teach, who was to say that on a mission, you would not choose to let your emotions take sway and then instead of assassinating a target, you let them escape?

Of course, if Uzumaki Naruto was being taught wrongly would he not have complained? Or was it that he was unaware of the fact? But if he was unaware of the fact, that brought his supposed perceptive prowess into question.

"Daddy, you're making that constipated face again."

Goddamn it Shikaku!

He sighed. Having that man as a best friend for the greater half of his life had made him paranoid and caused him to analyze things more than was sometimes needed.

For all he knew, Shikaku's son was wrong, and Uzumaki Naruto was not some overly perceptive genius mastermind intentionally hiding his skills in order to be severely underestimated by the Konohan populace whilst he plotted revenge for being ostracized, orphaned and denied his legacy.

"All right Ino-chan, if you want answers, find Naruto and invite him over to dinner."

"I can't! I've been searching everywhere for him for the past four weeks and I still can't find him!"

Oh dear.

"He skips out on the Academy?"

"Daddy, it'd be easier to count the number of days he's been in class than the number he's been outside of it."

Oh no.

"And no one knows where he goes? No one questions what he's been doing with all that extra-time he spends outside of class?"

Inoichi took a deep breath.

It seemed he would be scheduling a meeting with the Hokage soon.

~~~~~~~~~~ Within Interest ~~~~~~

Tenten was a simple girl.

She liked weapons, sharp objects, pointy blades, and everything in-between. She enjoyed training, swordsmanship, archery, and improving her aim and control over either blunt or pointy objects which could be utilized in battle.

Despite having only under a year's worth of experience as a Genin, and serving underneath what could only be described as a circus act of insane teammates, she had done well for herself, and liked to believe, at the very least, that she was sane.

Though her hair was frazzled and she had bangs over her eyes, and her body was tremendously sore from having her butt kicked all over the place by the taijutsu freaks in her team, and then having to handle several D-rank Missions afterwards, and of course, performing team "training" exercises of racing around the village with one hand tied behind her back – she believed that the stress wasn't getting to her, and she still lived a simple lifestyle.

Of course, getting back home and meeting her foster father still at work in the forge, crafting shinobi weapons had been one of the few relaxing things she had enjoyed.

Right up until she had to join him – and though she did enjoy crafting different kinds of weapons and materials, she was far too tired to continue the activity for the mean time.

Eventually, all her works had been crafted so poorly that she had no choice but to throw the metal away into the large trash bins provided for the residents of the area, seeing as how they were not even salvageable enough to be re-forged into something decent.

This however, was where Tenten felt she might snap.

No sooner had she tossed away the materials, did she hear the rustling of a figure moving within the night and shadows.

She had first thought it was her tired mind playing tricks on her, right up until she saw, with full certainty, that there was a creep actually rummaging through the trash cans, and she felt her irritation rise.

"Of all the nights –"

She reached for her holster, drawing three shuriken. She of course had no intention of seriously hurting the fellow, she only meant to scare him off, a form of intimidation to make the person think twice about doing something as unethical as rummaging through another person's trash.

With a flick of her hand, she sent the three shuriken flying, enjoying the sound they made as the whistled through the air.

Only for her to blink, several seconds later, as she did not hear the sound of them hitting their target. As a matter of fact, she heard no sound at all, as though the Shuriken had simply vanished in mid-air.

"I missed? No – that's not possible."

She grabbed out two more shuriken and threw, listening as they whistled in the air –

And then they vanished, never hitting their mark.

Tenten's irritation turned into a nagging doubt, and she moved from her position towards the trash can, fully intent on finding the reason for the odd mishap –

Only to find a blond haired boy, muddied and covered in dirt, grinning as he twirled five shuriken on his left hand, one for every finger, before he dumped them into a large cloth sack.

Then, he began ransacking her trash once more, as though he didn't even realize that she was there.

Tenten felt her eyebrows twitch.

"Did you just… steal my shuriken?"

He raised his face up towards her, his eyes blinking owlishly in a perplexed manner.

"Huh? What're you talking about? Someone threw away five awesome shuriken – so I'm taking it."

Tenten realized, solemnly, that she might be dealing with an idiot. Given the activities of the day, her exhaustion, and her very slowly teetering resistance to idiocy, she found herself slowly reaching her boiling point.

"They weren't thrown away, they were thrown at you!"

He blinked, his face scowling in annoyance "Why would you do that?"

Tenten resisted the urge to pull out her hair. "Why would I do it?" she pointed at him "Why are you rummaging through my trash in the middle of the night?"

"I'm recycling." He said it as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You don't get to recycle other people's trash!"

"Says who?"

"Says common sense!"

He scrunched his nose up in confusion and shrugged. "Never heard of him."

Tenten palmed her face, slowly before she took in a deep breath.

"Well I'm certain he'll pay you a visit…" she withdrew her summoning scroll, as several shuriken emerged between her fingers "…when you're staring up at the white ceilings in the hospital!"

Perhaps, in hindsight, no matter the severity of the offense, it was not a wise thing to attack a poor boy scrounging through garbage. Of course Tenten wasn't going to actually harm him, she just wanted him suitably scared, or at least frightened off for him to scurry off into the night and leave her alone to her aching sores as she got the minimum amount of sleep before Gai-sensei appeared at her window by the crack of dawn.

What she was not expecting however, was for the boy to be caught so off guard by the attack, he slipped, and ended up getting himself directly in the trajectory of one of the shuriken that would have flown safely overhead.

Tenten could feel her heartbeat race as she watched the Shuriken race towards the boy's eyeball and she could already see her kunoichi career come to an unfortunate end, as one mistake would lead to her killing some poor hapless kid.

Then, the boy leaned forward and twisted his head.

Tenten was not a completely religious person, but even she would question if Kami had been the one to interfere on her behalf as she watched the mysterious young boy head-butt a thrown shuriken with his goggles, somehow hitting it at an angle that was flat with the exact amount of force at the exact needed time.

Then she watched as the ninja star ricocheted off his head and struck another one that was mid-flight, which was then sent barreling straight towards her, streaking past her cheek and leaving a cut as it whizzed by.

Her jaw detached.

"G-gah! I'm so sorry!"

He dashed over to her instantly, and it was only then that she realized that there was a wet feeling on her cheek, her hand gently traced over it, and she stared at the redness that stained her fingers.

"Gomen! I didn't mean – I –"

She grabbed his hands, and the boy let out a shudder, expecting a stern reprimand.

What he got instead was her staring at him with stars in her eyes.

"How did you do that?"

Her bleeding cheek was a mere scratch, and she had definitely endured worse at some of Rock Lee's kicks, so there was no need to get worried about it, what did draw her attention was the feat that she had just seen.

"Eh? Do what?"

"That. This. How did you head-butt a thrown shuriken in mid-air and redirect it enough to bounce off another one?"

That – that sort of innate Shurikenjutsu skill was outright insane! It took key focus and concentration to pull something like that off, and even after a year of practice, Tenten could only so much as bounce one Shuriken off another enough to go in a small weak curve, whereas her goal was to learn out to endlessly ricochet them back to back, to the point she would be able to make them go in a perfect circle if need be.

"I – uh… It's a secret! A great secret from the one and only Uzumaki Naruto! Besides," he pointed his finger accusingly at her "You threw shuriken at me! Real ones! You were trying to kill me!"

She grimaced. "They were supposed to be warning shots, but that was wrong of me to actually throw real shuriken at you without knowing if you were a civilian or not… you could have gotten seriously hurt."

She bowed her head. Gai-sensei's teachings echoing her that no matter who you were dealing with, an elder or a younger one, you had to be able to accept when you were in the wrong and own up to your own mistakes.

"I'm sorry."

The boy seemed genuinely stunned, then, he let out a long grin as he coughed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Ah, shucks don't worry about it. You were probably just tired from all your training. I get cranky too when I haven't really slept…"

He coughed again.

"Uh, so I guess we kinda got off on the wrong foot? I'm Uzumaki Naruto – future greatest Hokage of Konoha."

His hand extended.

Tenten almost wanted to laugh at the words, but then the regarded the tone in which he said it. It wasn't just some open, empty statement, no, it possessed the same level of conviction that Lee had whenever he said he would beat Neji, or the same level of belief that Neji had when he said that Lee's fate was determined. It was the same factual manner that Gai-sensei said he was the greatest taijutsu specialist in Konoha, and the same manner in which she had said she would become a strong kunoichi.

She smirked. "Tenten – future greatest Weapons Mistress of Konoha."

They shook, and he once more flashed another grin.

"You know, you're the first real Genin I've met and you're pretty cool. If all Genin are like this I can't wait to get my headband too."

She blinked.

Once. Twice. Thrice.

"You're an Academy Student?"

"Uh… yeah? What did you think I was?"

"An extraordinarily gifted street rat looking for stuff to pawn in other people's garbage."

"Oi –"

"It helps that you're wearing that horrible orange jumpsuit. What kind of aspiring ninja wears orange?"

"OI! Don't mock the orange!"

"And what is what that posture? Is that a taijutsu stance or is the ground recoiling from your sexual advances?"

"OI!"

Tenten sighed. "Alright, looks like we're going to have a lot to work on."

"W-work on what now?"

Tenten cracked her knuckles.

"You probably don't know how you pulled off that trick with the shuriken, but I know it's not luck. I'm going to figure it out how you did it and repeat it if it's the last thing I do."

Naruto blinked.

"…what?"