Chapter Three – Teammates and Revelations.
When Gai and his protégé, Lee, found Naruto crammed between the Third and Fourth Heads on the monument asleep, they were surprised. They had only seen him because of the bright orange 'I'm here, please kill Me.' ensemble. His blond hair did not help in that case. Shinobi generally obeyed nature's law that the brighter and more attractively coloured a creature the more dangerous it was. Sadly that was something that Gennin generally paid no attention to until they went for their first outside missions.
Lee had recognised the boy from his class almost instantly, there were not that many people who would wear such clothing in Konoha. The colour would be more common in Suna if anywhere. They had talked once or twice while they were in the same class; the blond was loud and generally got in everyone's faces. From what he remembered, he and Neji had not been on the best of terms, though they did seem to speak quite often and Naruto had not received as many Fate Speeches from the Hyuuga. The last time he had seen him was when they were graduating, the exam which Naruto had failed for the second time, though he had not seemed surprised by this at all and even appeared to be expecting it in the end.
He still did not understand why he was sleeping on the Hokage's Monument though.
When Gai understood who it was in front of him, he was confused. Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi's new student, was well known in the village, but what he was known for by shinobi and what the civilians knew him for where rather different. Beyond the monster that the boy contained, the boy was basically a living ledged in his own right. Gai had even hears rumours that the ANBU even respected him, if only slightly. Most of them had chased the boy for hours as he was growing up, sticking his nose into things that did not involve him or pulling pranks that ended up requiring their attention. It had quickly become apparent that normal Shinobi were not fast enough to catch the boy without help. His youthful teacher seemed to be the only regular shinobi to catch him regularly, though it might just be that he wasn't so average.
The boy's speed was only one thing and that wasn't enough to earn their respect. However that was word of an incident that Naruto had played part in, something big. Whatever his actions were, the ANBU seemed to hold him higher regard afterwards, though that may be because the boy managed to break into the ANBU headquarters. Only the higher ups had any idea what happened in the weeks following that, leaving the lower ranked Shinobi to try and understand the mystery that was Naruto Uzumaki.
Gai's thoughts were interrupted when Lee went to wake the blond boy up. Unfortunately he had not considered what might happen. If Naruto was a normal gennin you would at most get a surprised yell, however the boy wasn't so undertrained. As Lee got into striking range the blond tensed slightly. In a split of second Naruto's cold eyes, resembling ice shards and clear of any visible emotion, were suddenly staring Lee down. There was also a hand aiming for Lee throat, only stoped by Gai's quick thinking. Those eyes were not something that belonged to fresh academy students.
The boy looked from the hand that had gotten in the way of his owns destination and the Gai, blinking slightly as he woke up. He obviously did not like being woken up.
"Who are you?" Naruto questioned tiredly, releasing the harsh grip on Gai, who quickly pulled his hand back. That had actually hurt quite a bit, the boy had more strength than he had expected.
"I'm Lee! We were in the same class at the academy for a year remember? " His youthful student piped up from beside him, ignoring what had almost happened to him. The blond seemed to recognise him, calm blue eyes, no longer so cold, flashed with recognition.
"I'm Naruto, though I guess you know that." He said politely, as if the previous incident had not occurred to him either. It was obvious that he was being cautious about them though. The politeness had taken Gai by surprised, from what he had heard of the boy he was loud and wasn't known for his manners. Apparently he wouldn't call the Hokage by his title or even with any honorifics, he only calls him 'old man', though surprisingly the Hokage lets him get away with that, seemingly fond of the boy.
Gai knew what had to be done now, even if the boy didn't want to. Most had heard about the incident with the Jinchūriki's apartment by now though no one had expected him to be sleeping on the monument.
"How youthful of you not to burden yourself on anyone for the night, but the Hokage would probably like to see you before you do that again." Gai quietly shouted, keeping in mind that the boy had just woken.
"How about later, maybe at a more reasonable time in the morning, like once the sun has completely risen. The Old Man had probably just gotten to sleep a little while ago and I don't really want to intrude on his small moments of peace." Naruto said, nodding to himself.
Gai could see the reasoning in that. The leader of their village always had more paperwork around the time of village events be they exams or high-level missions. With the recent graduation of the academy class yesterday the amount of paperwork the Hokage must have had would have been enormous. He probably cherished any moments of rest he could get. It was surprising that the boy in front of him still wanted to become Hokage even when he knew what it would entail.
In the end Gai decided there was only one thing to do.
"How about you train with us until you have to meet with your team."
He wanted to find out as much as he could about the boy's ability, after all he would be training with Kakashi from now on and it's always good to get a base line for a students ability. He would give the information to his rival next time they met.
"Okay" Naruto agreed, unknowing to the fact he had just sentenced himself to a morning of unlimited youthfulness.
-****-(line)
"How many more laps?" Naruto asked, greatly winded from the fact that they had been running around Konoha for the last few hours. He had known that they, Konoha's green beasts, were morning people. Always up before the sunrise and training before most people were awake. He just hadn't realised that it was this extreme.
Lee, now that Naruto remembered, was one of the worst practitioners of ninjutsu and genjutsu, unable to do even the most basic techniques. He was certain that the only reason he had been allowed to graduate from the academy was his top-notch taijutsu skills, and Gai scouting him probably helped quite a bit. Now he was slightly terrifying in his endless energy and had even picked up some ability in ninja weaponry, though that seemed to be a side effect of being on the same team as a weapon addict. Tenten's obsession with sharp pointy things was always scary.
"This is the last, my youthful student's will be arriving soon!" Gai yelled from right next to him, flashing way to white teeth needlessly. The shining was one mystery that Naruto wanted explained. They were too bright to be normal.
"My eternal rival told you to meet at sunrise. I will not lose to him and if I do, I shall climb the Hokage's monument 500 times with only my hands. Gai continued, still yelling loudly. Unfortunately Lee felt like joining in.
"If I lose I shall climb it 1000 times in repentance, Gai-sensei!" Was an extra loud addition.
"Lee!"
"Gai-Sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Sensei!"
Suddenly there was a sunset and hugging and Naruto felt like he had seen too much. Turning away from the unnecessary display of affection, he noticed two more people had joined them in the training ground.
Tenten, hair still up in two buns on the side of her head, was hiding her face in her hands, seemingly embarrassed by the two green beasts on her team. Naruto thought she should be used to it by now. It was the first time in a while that he had seen the girl, though he hadn't really talked to her much even when they practically saw each other every day. He was quite sure that they had shared time together in the orphanage but he was to young to really remember and she had been adopted early by a childless couple who ran a weapon and supply store near the middle of Konoha.
Beside her was Neji, someone he could call a friend, maybe? They had talked quite a bit when they were in the same class, though they rarely agreed on anything. Naruto had once taken him to see what truly unlucky people lived like and may have scared the boy slightly. For all his posturing he had been quite protected from life outside the Hyuuga compound. That had been an awakening experience for the pale eyed boy and one Naruto was sure he would never forget. However, right at this moment, Neji looked like he was trying to ignore the world completely.
It was then that Naruto realised exactly how late into the morning it was getting and at this rate would be late for his exam. He was glad that at least they didn't start as early as Gai and his mini-me.
He quickly took leave, waving to the two newcomers as he went and surprisingly received a small wave from Tenten and a nod of recognition from Mr Ice block himself.
-*****-(line)
By the time Naruto had reached the bridge that was his teams meeting spot, the sun had decided that today was going to be particularly hot and that there was nothing anybody could do about it: Maybe Gai had some common sense after all to start so early. So his beloved jacket went into the nifty little sealing scroll he had been given as a birthday present a few years ago.
He didn't know whether to be disappointed or not that anyone else was there. He was annoyed that no one else seemed as enthusiastic about this as he was but at the same time it meant that he could keep his hard form morning habit. The habit was chakra control meditation, the only thing that seemed to calm down his chaotic energy to something slightly more manageable.
Walking slowly on the river, something he still hadn't managed to do properly even after all this time, he carefully sat down when he reached a deep spot. He had only started this after the last time he had lost control of himself and blacked out. By the time he had returned to himself he had been in hospital for three days and the old man was frowning at him.
Apparently he had stumbled across something unpleasant happening to one of the younger children in the village and by the time he had been found the man had had three broken ribs, a shattered arm and knee cap and a broken nose that, unfortunately, had not managed to puncture his brain. It had been the man's whimpering that had signalled to passing shinobi that something had happened. Luckily to the shinobi, only the person or thing that had enraged Naruto in the first place was the target to that rage, so they didn't end up becoming collateral damage and actually managed to get Naruto to the hospital and reported the incident to the Hokage.
While he hadn't really done anything wrong by shinobi standards, the council – mainly the civilians – decided that unless he did something about the uncontrollable factor of his anger they would have to intervene for 'his own good', though they had sounded quite hopeful that he would take them up on their offer which probably would have been complete termination of his way of life. Civilians always overreacted to anything shinobi did that didn't fit their social norms.
That was where the Old Man came in, teaching the basics of chakra and emotional control to the boy before anything else could happen, and gratefully, it seemed to be working. No more extreme outbursts and he finally managed to think before bursting out with whatever he wanted to say.
It had been a nice change for the people around him, if not slightly frightening as well.
-*****- (Line)
When Sasuke arrived, he was shocked, though not because the blond was there first, which was to happen on rare occasions; but because the boy was balancing quietly on the water, seeming to be in deep meditation. It wasn't something he had seen the boy do before and wasn't something he had expected. It added to the building suspicion that there was a lot more to the blond boy than he had previously expected. It was obvious that he wasn't the dead last of their class, even if that was the story that his marks told, not that he would ever say that to his face, something's were just not said and admitting that he didn't completely trust some of their teachers who had been given the mission to train the academy students wouldn't put him in a good standing with whoever assigned them, be it the Hokage or someone else.
He sat down and watched Naruto calmly, for once not grinning from ear to ear, as he was wont to do. Even when he was asked questions, questions that were not possible for him to answer, not as an academy student. Mizuki-sensei was the main conspirator from what he had seen, though weirdly enough it seemed to be mainly civilian born shinobi that had a visible dislike of the blond, the others just seemed sightly weary, like Iruka-sensei had been when Naruto had first joined their class.
Sasuke's pensive thoughts were interrupted by a loud calling of his name, too high pitched to be anyone other than the one he didn't want it to be. Sakura came barrelling around the corner, her long pink hair – which he still considered inappropriate for a shinobi designed for stealth – straightened to a degree that he was sure was not natural in the slightest sense and resembled hard cardboard more than hair. He also spotted sloppily done makeup, which he knew she was trained to do better with and could do better with; maybe someone else had done it.
With Sakura came the overpowering stench of perfume, so strong that you didn't need to be an Inuzuka to track it to her. It seemed like all the training the girl had received throughout her time in the academy.
Quickly the girl stopped, standing directly in front of Sasuke but thankfully down wind from him. Naruto however, seemed to be in the direct path of the smell and not even his deep meditation could block it out completely, and so with a brilliant sneeze he dropped like a rock, with sounds and all, to the bottom of the river. It only took him a second for him to resurface still sneezing and now trying to spit out all the water at the same time.
Sasuke, feeling generous for the first time in a while, waded in and pulled the sneezing boy out and away from a apologetic Sakura who then jumped into the river herself, obviously trying to get rid of the smell herself.
"Sorry, I think my mother sprayed all my clothes before I woke up and there wasn't really anything I could do so quickly. I'll try and get some clean ones tomorrow, if we manage to pass today."
"Maybe if you could ask her not to do it again, I would really thank you for it." Naruto sniffled, the sneezing finally leaving him. "I don't think I will be able to do much if I can barely even breath."
"Maybe, but my mother doesn't really like being told what to do. She would just say that she knows best." Sakura replied, still washing and obviously apologetic about the situation her mother had put her in. With the way she was cleaning herself, Sasuke could guess that the hair and makeup probably weren't her idea either or she wouldn't be destroying all that hard work.
"How about putting a spare set aside and changing into that when you leave the house, there had to be some that she didn't spray." Sasuke added, not wanting a repeat of what happened moments ago to happen every day. "That way we're all satisfied."
He watched as Sakura frowned thoughtfully to herself and nod. At least they managed to agree on that; maybe there was a chance for this team to work out after all.
-******- (To Be Continued)
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