Anko Mitarashi's Student

by AbientEcho

(AR/Fem!Naruto/OOC-ness) After the fall of Root, Hiruzen Sarutobi is left with some troubles forming teams. When a certain special jounin takes it upon herself to turn the most hated genin in the village into a well-rounded apprentice, she has her work cut out for her. But will she prove capable of making the defiant, kind-hearted brat, into a kickass kunoichi?

8. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN:

"..Are we growing up or just going down?.."

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A/N: This chapter is kinda filler and definitely on the repetitive side, I'm sorry! Next update will be a fun, decent sized omake, rather than Chapter 8.

---

Naruto's third month as a genin came bearing rejuvenation and excitement in droves. She could feel herself getting stronger, she was worlds away from the girl she'd started as.

She'd already perfected her use of the special, transforming weapon she loved so much. And soon? She would be learning senbon usage.. And then? She could learn to use poisons, hallucinogens, paralyzing drugs in battle..
Naruto nearly drooled at the thought of how cool she'd look, flinging poisoned needles, and smashing stuff at the same time. (Don't you dare tell her that's unrealistic!)

Or maybe she was drooling because the familiar, mouth-watering scent that tickled at her nostrils.

Ah, yes. Back to reality, then. Patiently wringing her hands, Naruto awaited her friend outside a small shop. More like a shack, really.

To spice up their routine, the girls decided to spend their Monday evening together, at a restaurant. Last Wednesday, they'd gone to a dango shop, and ran into Anko. They'd had a grand time with the gluttonous, possibly insane woman, who made an innocuous thing like lunch into a true occasion.

But today, it would be just them, visiting a place Naruto hadn't ventured into in the three months since she'd become a genin. Rather, soon to be three months, because the third month had just begun.. But it felt like millennia, so Naruto didn't really care about the specifics.
To put it simply, too many months since Naruto had dined on the divine ramen sold at the Ichiraku ramen shop. Of course, she'd had it delivered once in that time. But that was just one bowl, so it didn't count. Nope, didn't count at all.

When her beloved, bun-headed best friend appeared, jogging towards her in casual wear, Naruto grinned brightly. She'd known she sensed her coming! Without even trying, mind you!

And despite that she'd just seen the brunette a few days ago, she trapped the girl in a loving hug. "Bunny-chan!" She cried dramatically, startling nearby citizens.

To them, they had just seen the demon brat of Konoha glowering outside of a ramen shop, looking intimidating and thuggish. But, that all changed when the girl did a 360 by tackle-hugging some poor, innocent girl..

Unanimously, the citizens who were gawking at the spectacle, each took three steps back simultaneously, increasing their distance from the pair.

The girls would've found it quite humorous had they even noticed.

---

Ichiraku Ramen Shop

---

Inside the ramen shop, both Tenten and Naruto took seats on comfortable stools.

"Naruto-chan, it's been ages!" Greeted the brunette behind the counter.

Ayame had her usual warm grin on her face, her white bandanna holding back most of her hair.

"Ayaaame-nee! It totally has been!" She said with an equally warm smile, taking in the cozy atmosphere of the ramen stand. It had been far too long, truly.

The heat from stove-top filled the room with a subtle warmth, the air carrying the aroma of seasoning, broth and delicious meat.

Naruto had always loved the Ichiraku's Ramen Shop, for more reasons than their fantastic food. The atmosphere- The kindness- Hell, even the cushy stools, it made Ichiraku's feel more like home than her own damn apartment.

Shaking out of her stupor, the blonde came back to reality with Teuchi smiling and talking to her.

Funny how she hadn't even noticed. Proof there was some semblance of pre-academy, or just academy, Naruto still in there.

"You've really changed yer style, Naruto-chan." Teuchi remarked, eyes clearly on her leather trench coat.

Flipping her one of blonde ponytails in a show of faux-confidence, "Got a promotion!" She said cheerfully, causing the brunette behind the counter to clap her hands excitedly.

"That's amazing, Naruto-chan! You and your friend get your first bowls completely on the house!" Ayame said, grinning happily.

"Oh yeah!" The short blonde gladdened, pumping her fist excitedly.

Tenten snorted, knowing full well that Naruto had a ramen obsession.. She had seen that girl's cabinets, they were full of those Styrofoam cups of microwaveable noodles.
Once the girls had made their orders, the Ichiraku pair began preparing the noodles.

"Okay, then, let's chat! Have you gotten around to asking Gai-sensei about teaching you some damn ninjutsu yet?" Naruto asked, tapping her fingers against the counter.

Frowning slightly, the brunette rested her head against hands, which were propped against counters with so little regard for manners. Being friends with Naruto had worn away her etiquette, just a bit.

"No, it just seems so inconsiderate to ask with Lee around." She explained.

Naruto clicked her tongue, shaking her head in disapproval. "That wouldn't bother Lee! He's too damn wholesome for that. Besides, there's not long until the Chuunin Exams, 'ttebayo. You're gonna want some new tricks up your sleeve." She chided casually, trying not to overbear the brown-eyed girl with nagging.

"Hey, I'll have you know that Gai has been working us into the ground! I'm in peak condition, and my close combat skills are getting better everyday."

"Thanks to my oh-so-helpful suggestion that you learn it." Naruto said in a fake cocky tone, accentuating her words with a haughty wave of dismissal.

Tittering softly, "Whatever shorty," Tenten paused as Naruto scowled, "What've you been working on?"

The blonde girl grimaced. "Everything, my brain might turn to mush soon. I've got my main weapon pretty much mastered.." Her grimace deepened, the brunette waving for her to continue. Most of the time they chatted about random things, reserving discussions about progress when there was actually some to talk about.

"I'm still memorizing the fuinjutsu alphabet perfecting my calligraphy, like you suggested. I know I can make like any storage scroll or explosive, but everything else is edging on guesswork. My katas aren't horrible, so i'd say my taijutsu is alright. And I've got poisons mostly covered as far as book knowledge goes…"

"But?" Tenten asked patiently, genuinely interested in her friend's studies. Naruto never failed to impress her with how dedicated she could be to so many things. The blonde was a T&I apprentice, learning everything they offered while also learning weaponry and fuinjutsu. It was baffling, to strain the mind and body so much with so little complaint.

"But I've got no experience. Reading and using are two completely different things… I haven't made a poison yet, figured out the proper dosage, how to balance the chemicals to make the right effect." She dropped her head against the countertop, a loud thud coming from the impact.

"IF I DIDN'T WASTE SO MUCH TIME ON STUPID D-RANKS, I'D MAKE SO MUCH MORE PROGRESS!" The blonde wailed dramatically, flailing her arms. Tenten was about to console her friend with a few kind back-pats, but the blonde suddenly sat up straight. Her eyes filled with rage and her face etched with fury, she clenched her fist.

"And if I have to catch that damn cat Tora again…" Tenten hardly contained her laughter as Naruto narrowed her eyes, "I'll use that fucker as a test subject."

The brunette giggled, covering her mouth, "That's so horrible, but I can't even blame ya." The bun-headed girl said.

"If I meet that cat again only in the afterlife, it'll be too soon." She said airily, just as Teuchi placed their bowls in front of them.

"There you go, ladies! Enjoy." Teuchi said kindly, giving them a smile.

"Itadakimasu!" They said in unison, as Naruto immediately turned into a wild animal. Before the blonde could make a mess of herself by inhaling her miso ramen, Tenten raised her index finger.

Glaring sternly, she spoke. "You're in public, Naru-chan. If you act like a beast and get food on your clothes, I'm not washing the stains out for you." She wagged her finger, as if she were the blonde's mother. They were the same age, yet Tenten was much more mature.

Naruto did her best attempt at puppy eyes, but the brunette didn't falter.

"No buts. That's the price you pay if you embarrass me." Tenten had gotten tea stains out of Naruto's kimono-tops enough times to know the girl hated laundry, and was damn near helpless in that department.

"Yes, Bunny-chan…" The blonde said begrudgingly, with a defeated sigh.

Both Ayame and Teuchu exchanged glances, staring at the pair before laughing heartily.

"It's about time someone teaches Naru-chan manners!" Ayame chirped, while Teuchi shook his head.

Naruto only rolled her eyes, deciding to enjoy her noodles instead of making a retort.

---

TRAINING GROUND 44

---

"Well.. At least you're average now." Anko said, rubbing the side of her head in exasperation.

"Average?!" Naruto griped.

Anko pinned her with her honey-eyed gaze, "You've gotten better, gaki, don't get me wrong. Your evasion is damn near stellar, including your dodging. But.. Your hits? Using your opponents moves against them? Not great."

Naruto was about to speak, but Anko kept going. "And you don't even use terrain to your advantage. You can incorporate your main weapon, but not anything else. You rarely even use your kunai or senbon."

Once again, Naruto was cut off before she could even start.

"You whine about wanting a bigger edge in fights, that's how you get it. Use your opponent's moves to your advantage, use your weapons, and use the terrain." Anko said sternly, giving her little sister figure her daily dose of reality.

She might love the blonde, but she was still her jounin-sensei and that meant being serious.

Naruto always wanted new ninjutsu, new moves, hell, she'd even considered new weapons. But Anko had to draw a line somewhere. The kid was overworking herself, learning so many things at once could only spell burn-out.

"I just, I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere fast enough." The blonde genin said with a slow sigh.

"No need to rush, imouto. You've got a while until the chuunin exams, you need to pick some stuff and focus on them. Master one thing, work on another. Being average at everything won't make you feel any different." Anko said, instilling her oh-so-awesome Common Sense onto the girl.

"Right! What's that phrase, er.. Jack of all trades, but-"

"Master of none." The purpelette finished, wringing her hands.

Naruto stayed quiet for a moment, taking in what Anko said with silent contemplation.

"Then, I'm gonna focus on being average first, and master later, 'ttebane."

Anko rolled her eyes fondly, "Yeah, okay. That means working on what you've already started, including your poison knowledge and senbon." Anko leaned down, and flicked the whiskered girl's nose.

The blonde scrunched her face, "I'm workin' on it!" She said, huffing.

Naruto hated being nagged, she truly did.

With a stroke of common sense, not even genius, Naruto decided she'd get started to get working on all of those at once, consequences be damned. Consequences meaning severe headaches from memory influx. She'd done this enough times that it should be second nature, but the blonde was never eager to get those brain-melting migraines.

Bringing forth 5 identical copies of herself, Naruto began a routine that was just a bit too familiar for her liking. She barked orders to her clones, gave the clones their respective scrolls, and sat down to get to work.

She'd be working on refining her sensory ability, whilst the others read, did calligraphy, practiced with throwing weapons, and the like. She sat on her crossed legs, sucking in a deep breath.

"I think that's my cue to leave, isn't it? I've got shit to do anyway." The purplette said, tapping her foot against the dirt ground.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Anko-nee." She said sweetly, closing her eyes, whilst not denying that it was Anko's cue to go. The taller woman clicked her tongue, throwing up two peace-signs before disappearing in shunshin.

Naruto saw the gesture, her Mind's Eye capable of discerning every bit of the human body that had chakra flowing through it. All it took was a little focus, really. When she'd discovered her bloodline, it took so much more to see things like fingers, ears or toes. She couldn't even make them out when she was at a distance.

But now, she could. She almost thought she'd mastered the ability, but every time she used it, it seemed to improve. Less headaches, less need to focus, etc.

That, along with her weapon, were the few things she genuinely believed she had mastered. Or was close to, at least.

Anko, on the other hand, was treating herself to a nice break at her favorite bar, while Naruto and her clones were hard at work.

---

Yamanaka Flower Shop

---

Entering the flower shop with curious eyes, the newest member of T&I studied the building. With warm lighting keeping the entire place brightly lit and welcoming, it was a stark contrast from what Naruto imagined a shop owned by Inoichi would look like.

Then again, he'd told her before that his wife and daughter ran the place.

Yellow wallpaper and stone mosaic floors were hidden by a surplus of plants, flowers, bushes, trees, and seeds.

Shelves on walls had small potted plants, with labels detailing them.

Naruto, having never been in a flower shop, hadn't the slightest idea of where to begin. The plants she had at home were ivy, which had been tossed in the garbage for her to salvage.

Despite the fact that she had read about plants in the book Inoichi had given her, she was still lost. Perhaps she should've paid more attention to the lessons on plants and flowers back in the academy. Her eyes landed on the cashier, and she made eye contact with a familiar face. Ino Yamanaka. She'd known that she'd be here, but somewhere deep inside she'd hoped otherwise. Ino had never liked her back in the academy, and chances were, she wouldn't like her now.

Sighing, the blonde walked in. Knowing that she had no clue where to begin, she walked right up to Ino.

"Uh, hey, Ino." She said, rubbing the back of her neck. The girl in question was staring at her with curious, pale blue eyes.

"...Hey, fish-cakes. Can I help you with something?" She asked, nervously. "Yeah, a friend of your dad's told me you guys sell some stuff that I need here." It was true, despite that Naruto used the word friend questioningly. Were Ibiki and Inoichi friends? Sometimes they seemed chummy, other times they seemed to be rivals. Co-worker probably would've been more appropriate terminology..

"Wait, my dad?!" The blonde questioned, incredulity in her voice.

"Uh, yeah. I'm a newbie at T&I, and he told me I could pick up poisonous plants to make serums and powders with them." She explained, expecting even more disbelief. Ino blinked owlishly, batting her dark eyelashes.

"Wow, Naruto, you're working in T&I?" Her fellow blonde asked, her head resting on one hand while she leaned against the counter.

"That's what I said, right?" Naruto said, giving a polite smile. Ino nodded, running a hand through her blonde side-bangs. "That's just- Wow. I can't even imagine working there, I'm too squeamish." She mused, being far more polite than Naruto would've ever imagined. She was more surprised by the feelings coming from the girl.

Curiosity, regret, wonder.

Awkwardly, Naruto stuffed her hands in her pocket. "Say, what're you looking for? I could help." The other blonde said, smiling at Naruto. That... Was foreign to Naruto. Ino had never smiled at her before, it was nearly baffling. "Uh.. Okay! I need Foxglove, Leadwort, and Baby's Breath." Naruto listed, causing Ino to smile yet again.

"That's easy, then! Two of those are common garden plants." Naruto followed right behind her fellow blonde, as she began gathering white sprigs of Baby's Breath.

"I gotta ask... I know that Foxglove can be poisonous, and Leadwort causes rashes, but what's this for?" The blonde Yamanaka asked sweetly, studying the white flowers with her eyes. Naruto was actually impressed at how civil the other girl was being.

Not even just civil, Ino was being downright polite! Kind, even!

Apparently Naruto wasn't the only one to change since her academy days. Naruto wrung her hands as Ino tied the sprigs together with a purple ribbon, before dropping it in a bag.

She walked to the opposite side of the room, and began collecting another plant with gloved hands.

"Oh! Baby's Breath isn't that toxic as it is now, but when you dry it out it's irritating to skin, eyes, and lungs. Especially the lungs, actually. It can cause asthma symptoms in people who handle it too often." Naruto said, essentially quoting the notes she'd made in her mini journal.

Ino turned to her in surprise, and Naruto tilted her head. Apparently, the flower girl didn't even know that herself.

"It's not especially poisonous, so I'm going to combine it with leadwort to make a very, very powerful itching powder." Said the whiskered girl, just as Ino finished gathering the foxglove with meticulous hands. The way she tied to the ribbons so artistically showed just how familiar she was with the process.

"That's actually really interesting. Let me guess, you're going to use that itching powder for some prank?" Ino inquired fondly, dropping the bundle of foxglove into a white plastic bag.

Naruto chuckled, "No, no. I'm using it to better experiment with poisons. It's better for me to start with the little stuff, 'ttebayo."

Ino hummed noncommittally, moving to the next plant. Plucking away some of the pretty leadwort with gloved hands, she moved quickly. The methodical nature of her movements vaguely reminded Naruto of the girl's father.

"You know, Naruto... You're a lot different now. I never thought you'd be learning poisons, or in T&I." Ino said, just as she placed the bag of bundled flowers onto the counter. She stepped back behind the cash register, and began calculating Naruto's total.

"You're different too, Ino. I think we've both changed for the better." The girl with twin pigtails replied, getting her froggy wallet out.

Ino laughed, but not in the pleasant way. Naruto's brows knitted together, she could tell just how self-deprecating that chuckle was. It didn't suit Ino at all.

"You think? I dunno know about me, but you've definitely changed for the better. Seriously, you're an actual ninja nowadays." She said, punching in the numbers in the cash register. Catching her wistful tone near the end, Naruto reluctantly asked Ino a more personal question. "Er, is something wrong?" Ino visibly deflated, surprising Naruto greatly.

"Yeah. I guess I've been getting my shit-er, stuff together recently. And, well.." The girl in front of her got visibly frustrated, sighing irritatedly.

"Listen, back in the academy I treated you like trash. I'm really sorry." She said, closing her eyes.

Naruto paused, sucking in a deep breath. Naruto hated seeing people sad, or upset, she really did.

"Don't worry about it. It's in the past now, we were all just stupid kids back then." Naruto said, despite the fact that it wasn't all that long ago now. It felt like eons ago, though. Naruto had rapidly matured since then, grown up, gotten strong, and gotten smart. That Naruto wasn't really someone she recognized.

"Last week, my team and I.. We.." Ino trailed off solemnly, her periwinkle eyes downcast. "First kills, huh?" Naruto asked softly, meeting Ino's gaze with her own blue eyes.

"Yeah. We were so outmatched, if Asuma-sensei wasn't there..." She trailed off yet again, the unspoken words hanging in the air. Naruto hadn't yet made her own first kill, though torturing was considered by many to be far worse than killing. It was easy for her to understand Ino's dilemma.

"A friend of mine and I.. We talked about this recently. Whoever you had to kill, they were a shinobi, right?" Naruto asked softly.

"Yeah." Ino murmured in response. "Then they were just doing their job, same as you. It was them or you, Ino. And I can guarantee they wouldn't have felt bad if you'd been the one to die." Truth was, Naruto couldn't guarantee that. Not at all, no one could. But she was simply trying to pull Ino from the rut she was in. They were by no means friends, but they were both shinobi of the Leaf Village.

Which meant they were comrades, despite any past grievances.

They stood in silence for a moment, before Ino abruptly laughed. "Geez, I really just aired out my drama to you, huh? I almost can't believe it. The ex-dead last and the ex-bully, being all chummy in a flower shop." Ino said sardonically, face-palming. Naruto could only snort.

"I'm not a dead-last anymore, not in the least." Naruto said confidently. "And you're not a bully either, I don't think you ever were. Just on the bitchy side of things." Ino actually laughed, again. A genuine laugh this time, making a weight lift from Naruto's shoulder. Naruto never liked seeing others upset, especially now that she could feel their emotions radiating from them.

"I can tell you're no dead-last, Naruto. You actually knew what you were talking about earlier, an idiot wouldn't know poisonous plants." Sighing, Ino continued.

"I guess that means I should find some specialty of my own. Sakura has been reading medical books recently, and I guess you're doing T&I stuff now. My dad told me I'm a sensory type, but I haven't really focused on it." The blonde said amicably, changing the conversation subject away.
Naruto gratefully complied, she didn't want to talk about killing or other dark subjects anymore, either.

"Sensor type? That's awesome, I am too! You know, we're super rare. You should definitely work on it, Ino. Sensory-nin are rare and super useful. They always need more of us." Naruto said, grinning brightly. "Wait really? You're a sensor too?" Ino asked, getting excited. She'd never met another sensor her age, and she'd actually needed help refining her own ability. She'd been too nervous to ask her own father, as he was always busy with the duties of clan-head and being one the top shinobi of the Intelligence Division. Her aunt was the only other sensor-nin she knew, and her aunt was always so busy.

"I am! Are you planning to become a serious sensor-nin, or are you aiming for something else?" Naruto asked, leaning against the counter. That was a question Ino didn't really know the answer to, because she hadn't considered it yet.

"Er, I don't really know. I've been told I have excellent chakra control, so.." She trailed off, which Naruto hardly noticed, taking the chance to interrupt.

"You could become a Genjutsu mistress! Or a med-nin, if you wanted to break family tradition. If I were you though, I'd focus on clan techniques first." Although Ino hadn't asked for Naruto's opinion, she'd supplied it anyway. If she could, Naruto would be learning Uzumaki clan techniques. Unfortunately, she didn't even know if there were any. And if they did exist, she had no way of learning them.

"Clan techniques, huh? Not a bad idea, I might actually do that. I've got no desire to spend my whole life doing what Sakura does." She said, distaste working it's way into her words.

"Genjutsu sounds like a good idea, too. My family is pretty good at minor genjutsu, so it wouldn't be hard to get started in." The taller blonde tapped her chin, looking off to the side. "Oh yeah, totally! Your clan uses their genjutsu to aid in their spy-work, right?" The twin-tailed blonde asked.

"Mhm, that's what we're known for." Ino said with a slight smile. "Hey, you could always join the Intelligence Division! Then we could be like distant co-workers!" Naruto suggested, turning that slight smile to a full-blown grin.

That warmed the golden-haired girl's heart, to see Ino go from glum to happy.

Naruto, thinking about how her friendship with Tenten started, got an idea. Before Ino could ever reply to her suggestion, she posed a question.

"Say, Ino.." The other blonde looked up, their blue eyes meeting once again. "Would you, er, like to train with me? I'm free this Wednesday.. I can show you some tricks to better focus your sensory ability. Ours aren't the same, but I know how tough it is to get the hang of a sensory ability." Naruto scratched her whiskered cheek bashfully, unsure of what to expect.

She'd known Ino was one of those extroverted, social butterfly types, but she wasn't sure whether the Yamanaka heiress would want to be seen training with her.

After all, who would want to hang out with the village pariah? Especially when you're someone with a reputation like Ino's…

"That sounds great, we totally should! Where at?" Ino asked, genuinely happy at the prospect.

Since she'd become a shinobi, Ino hadn't had much time to socialize. Her civilian friends from the academy never spoke to her anymore, apparently jealous that she'd accomplished what they couldn't.

Sakura and her..

Well, they'd had a rough relationship since Sasuke got between them. They weren't really friends anymore, just rivals. Hell, Sasuke wasn't even on the Yamanaka heiresses mind anymore. The same couldn't be said for Sakura, though.

Ino never said it, but she really did miss being best friends with the pinkette.

It wasn't just that, though. Ino was overjoyed that Naruto, someone who she'd been mean towards, had forgiven her. The weight of the guilt on her shoulders lifted, leaving her as excitable as could be.

"Well uh, how about outside Training Ground 44? I know it sounds scary, but we won't go into the actual forest. It's actually really quiet and peaceful out there, so you don't need to worry about us being disturbed. Makes for better focus." Naruto was quick to defend her reasoning, as the mere name of Training Ground 44 scared many of the chuunin and genin around here. Naruto understood being wary of the forest itself, but to fear the entire area around it...? Yeah, that was just stupid.

Ino blinked in surprise. "Yeah, okay! I'll be there!" The ponytail wearing girl confirmed, tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

"Great! I'll see you then!" Naruto said, passing the girl the necessary ryo, and a small tip. She pulled out a storage scroll from its place on her hip, she sealed away the items.

She then practically skipped out, leaving a surprised Ino behind the counter.

Ino took one glance at a nearby calendar, knowing Wednesday was only a few days away.

---

Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Building.

---

Naruto had trained with Ibiki, she'd trained with Anko, but most of the time Inoichi had been too busy to give her one-on-one lessons.

But today, that had changed. Anko and Ibiki were doing their usual torturin' and interrogatin', while Inoichi Yamanaka had taken it upon himself to teach her for the entire day.

She liked Inoichi, she really did. He was fatherly, intelligent, and just about everything else wrapped into one.
As much as she adored Ibiki and Anko, Inoichi would soon be up there with them. He was cool, even despite being a bit exasperated with her... lack of general knowledge, at times. He clearly aimed to change that, though, judging by the dozens of explanations, technical jargon, and other lectures he schooled her on for the first few hours.
The moment they'd sat down in his office, the man began teaching.

And hell, was he a good teacher.

"So, what are the three branches of the Intelligence Division?" He asked. That was the first topic he'd covered, something they'd started on the moment she'd entered.

"External, Internal, and T&I!" She chirped, thankful she'd taken notes the entire time. Something she'd picked up from Anko long ago, it came in quite handy.

"Correct. And their function?"

"External refers to the Intelligence division members who exit Konoha, to gather information."

"And who are they? How do they do this?" He asked, leaning in slightly with glowering eyes. The blond was subtly putting on the pressure, something he was good at. From the way his index tapped against the oak desk, to the narrowing of his eyes, it was all deliberate.

He was trying to confuse her, to make her feel afraid. She knew it, and she wouldn't fall for it.
Nothing short of unloading KI would make her falter.

"The External Division are Konoha's best spies, planted in every potentially-hostile village. Most of them are women posing as prostitutes, waitresses, and the like. They gather their information by eavesdropping, flirting, stealing, and various other methods." She said, steeling herself before those pupil-less blue eyes, which looked like they could be staring into her very soul.

"And what clan makes up the majority of the External Division?" Naruto could feel the pride coming from him in that question, and resisted the urge to scoff.

"The Yamanaka clan are Konoha's number one spies, all of them are trained in deception and infiltration from the beginning. They use a ton of techniques to accomplish what they do, from spy gadgets like recorders, to disguises, to genjutsu and mind techniques." She explained, as Inoichi sat back in his chair.

She nearly sighed in relief, but the blond man was back to quizzing her in a second.

She almost didn't mind. Inoichi at least thought she was smart enough to retain all of this, which was endearing for someone who'd always been considered extraordinarily stupid.

"Correct. So they gather information, but how do they send it back to Konoha?" He asked slowly. This was something he hadn't explained, but it was something she'd read about in the books he assigned her.

Was he testing to see if she'd read them? Heh, he was silly to assume she hadn't. Naruto never stopped working, which included melting her brain with books whenever her body was worked into oblivion.

"Primarily through signs and coded messages hidden in inconspicuous objects, or by communitating them with Konoha's Spymaster. The Spymaster travels to each spy's infiltration area and meets them personally..."

Inoichi was about to explain, but Naruto interrupted.

"We haven't covered the first part yet, but I have a pretty good idea as to how that'd be done." She said, partially out of pride. She wasn't lying, either. When she'd read that part of her book, the mischievous part of her was lit aflame, with all the ideas on how to hide coded letters without raising suspicion.

"Oh, then please, Naruto-kun. Give me an example." He said almost patronizingly, deliberately attempting to make her question herself. That was the one aspect of Inoichi that Naruto really didn't like. Mind games. His were ever-changing, from attempting to humiliate her to intimidation tactics.

Anko always combined the two, while Ibiki focused solely on intimidating. Inoichi however, would do whatever underhanded mind-play it took to elicit a response.

Naruto would gladly admit she thought it was cool.

"Okay... I'll make a hypothetical then..." She said, her mind already at work. Hypotheticals came easy to Naruto, because all those required was a healthy dose of imagination. She had no grasp on logistics or statistics, she just knew from her experience, and used that to shape how she'd imagine the scenario going.

She'd never be a strategist, not in this life or the next, but that hardly mattered. Her brain was built for hypotheticals, someone could just hire a damn Nara to figure out the likelihood of them.

Vaguely, she wondered if that meant she and a certain Nara would make a good team.

"If I were a spy outside of the village, I'd pose as a merchant..." Inoichi raised a brow, prompting her to elaborate. She was good at this, too, planning on the spot.

"I'd sell pumpkins, And when someone came to get information... I'd remove the pumpkin's stem, clean out just enough to slip a coded message inside, and sell the pumpkin to the shinobi sent to retrieve my message." She finished strongly, confident in her idea.

Inoichi looked impressed. "Why pumpkins?"

"No one would ever suspect a pumpkin, dattebayo!" She said, triumphantly. She kept the part about them being pretty and orange to herself.

Sighing, he elected to move on. "You mentioned the Spymaster. What and who is that?"

Even though he was asking questions he already knew, he was nevertheless impressed by Naruto's memorization of what he said. She truly valued the things he had to say, the things he taught her, and it showed. If only she cared what they had to say in the academy, she might've gotten a lot farther than deadlast.

"Konoha's current spymaster is Jiraiya of The Sannin, also our village's fuinjutsu master." Naruto said, stopping to internally realize how important that made him.

If that guy just died, the village would be in shambles. Wasn't he old, too? Like, just twenty years or so younger than the Sandaime? As far as she was considered, Ol Hiruzen was very well a dinosaur at this point.

"A Spymaster is the one in charge of all the spies outside of the village. Therefore, he's the leader of the External Division." She said smugly, when Inoichi blinked in surprise.

He really didn't know how Naruto knew the answer to that one. Maybe it was in the academy textbooks..

"Correct. So if you know the head of External, who are the other two division leaders?"

"You and Ibiki. You're the leader of the internal division, which essentially makes you a top dog of the Intelligence Unit as a whole." She said simply, thrumming her fingers against the wooden arm of the chair she was sitting in.

He rolled his eyes. Of course she knew that, even one of those silly desk-nin at the Research and Development unit would know that. Hell, it would be strange not to.

"I'm impressed you can retain all that, status as an academy dead-last does you no favors." Inoichi said warmly, giving her a ghost of a smile.

"Thanks, 'ttebayo! Wait, that was a compliment, right?"

He blinked.

"Yes, yes it was." He took in a deep breath. "Now then, one more thing before I send you on your way." He clicked his pen, and began quickly and methodically writing on a sheet of notebook paper.

Absently, Naruto noted just how different his writing was in comparison to Ibiki and Anko.

Ibiki wrote slowly, his penmanship was average and indistinct, always one plain white paper with zero mistakes.

Anko was the opposite, with a quick hand that scrawled words as fast as she could manage. She'd write on anything, be it receipts, napkins, cardboard, etc...

(She recalled Anko filling in their D-Rank mission report on a dirty paper-towel. Both of them had somehow forgotten their mini-notebooks that day, and the desk-nin who received that report was not happy.)

Inoichi's writing was different, though. With quick strokes but clean penmanship, and larger letters than necessary. His handwriting was nearly indistinct, but she could see small peculiarities with ease.

"Here. Think of this like an academy project. I expect this to be turned in sometime in the next few weeks." He said, sliding the paper across the desk.

Her face went completely deadpan. He immediately lost a bit of her respect.
An... Academy... Project...

Naruto hated the Academy. Don't get her wrong, she loved to learn, to grow, to train, and to get stronger. But she hated meaningless quizzes, purposeless homework and projects. Twas the bane of her existence.

Her blue eyes narrowed, taking a sharper appearance than Inoichi thought they could ever have.

"You're shitting me.. Right? I've got a lot goin' on, and you're gonna assign me an academy-grade project?" The blonde spoke with no lack of incredulity, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

He made a strange noise, between a scoff and snort. There went that sweet, academic image of hers. He could see where that dead-last side of her had come from, at least.

"Nope. Just because you're busy doesn't mean you get an out. You shouldn't take on so many things at once if you can't handle them." He said breezily, though the father in him was a bit worried for the girl. Overworking was unhealthy for the mind, even if it seemed Naruto was holding up remarkably well.

He wouldn't coddle her, though. She couldn't neglect her division related studies in exchange for whatever it was that she spent every minute of her free-time on.

He'd heard from Anko that the girl had been going out more recently, though. That was good, since the girl apparently had a friend she was close with.

She was still a kid in his mind, a 14 year old girl, who deserved to have friends and outings. Ino was younger than Naruto, but two years was no difference at all in his mind. He couldn't imagine Ino having to maintain all the studies Naruto did.

Young or not, though, she was a shinobi. Both of them were, hence the need for constant hard work.

Naruto groaned loudly, dramatically, exasperatedly, and everything in between. She sunk in her chair, and then practically slithered out of the chair and onto the ground.

A hand reached up from the floor, yanking the paper away from his desk, before disappearing again.

"Bastard-sensei." He heard the girl mutter, hardly containing his snort.

He shook his head fondly, the damn kid had grown on him like some irremovable mold. If any of his other subordinates called him a bastard, he'd probably have given them a nice ass-kicking.

He stood up to look over his desk, expecting to see Naruto still laying on the floor.

Oddly, the girl had vanished. Literally vanished, as in not gotten up and walked out, via window or door.

He looked around the room in surprise.

"Okay, who the hell taught Naruto the shunshin?" He asked himself, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Yes, give a master-prankster a technique like that, how fucking genius. Now she'd be able to do much worse than switch the salt and sugar containers in the breakroom.

Just fuckin genius, way to go Naruto's senseis!

---

Tenten's House

---

Throwing her trench-coat aside, Naruto decided she needed to get serious.

She looked over the wounds marring her body, small nicks from kunai having already scabbed up and begun to heal, splotchy bruises already fading. Her blonde hair had long since been pulled into one singular ponytail, just for the time-being.

She was panting, her chest rising and falling quickly as she heaved in shaky breaths.

Her opponent was just as exhausted as she.

Tenten widened her gait, correcting her stance with a kunai still clutched in her hands.

Her doe-like eyes were focused on her sparring partner, who seemed to be getting better everyday. It was nigh impossible for Tenten to beat her in a close-combat fight, because Naruto was just so damn flexible and could dodge anything that came her way.

Before, Tenten had no interest in close-combat, because her teammates excelled in that area and she saw no purpose in getting proficient in it.

However, Naruto had suggested it weeks ago, and Tenten had listened. For all her friend's inexperience, Naruto was great when it came to self-improvement. The brunette found that she actually liked this sort of fighting.

Both of them relied on these spars to keep themselves up to scratch, but they were also so much more. They learned and bonded from exercises like these.

Naruto needed these spars to improve her own weaponry skills, from her kunai and shuriken down to her preferred weapon. Occasionally, her senbon as well.

They both grinned like mad, and Naruto took a scroll from her belt.

Tenten was pushing her towards long-range this entire fight by continually disengaging and throwing weapons. If she kept putting up distance, Naruto would just use something that could go further.

Pulling out her weapon, in it's flail form, Naruto twirled the thick staff in her hand, swinging the ball and chain overhead.

Holding the staff tightly, she swung the weapon down on her friend, knowing well that Tenten could dodge.

The brunette dropped herself as low as she could go, rolling to the side to avoid the spiked ball crashing into the grass next to her.

She leapt back onto her feet, taking stock of what she had left.

She had a sword in one of her many scrolls, but knew that it would be of no use against Naruto's weapon. She had two other scrolls, one containing a volley of shuriken and another full of kunai. However, if she wanted to use them, she needed distance.

Her blonde friend didn't seem keen on letting her have that distance, however. Leaping would only get her wrapped up in Naruto's serrated chain, something she did NOT want.

But Tenten had one idea which spelled her victory.

Her friend rushed at her again, her weapon swinging at Tenten with fever.

Once again Tenten leapt backwards, her friend growling angrily when her weapon missed it's mark yet again.

With aggravated tug, she ripped the spike ball from the desecrated ground of the battlefield- Tenten's yard- looking up just in time.

The brunette was standing on the fencing of her own arm, running through hand seals.

Naruto didn't recognize what that chain of seals did, but she knew it wasn't good.

Overloading her weapon with chakra, it slowly began shifting into a long, razor-sharp chain.

It wasn't fast enough, though, as Tenten finished her hand seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu! (Summoning Jutsu)!"

A large cloud of smoke appeared in front of the brunette, hiding her from sight as stray smoke flowed freely around the fence-post.

The blonde stood frozen when a large, beige hawk soared from the smoke and flew into the sky overhead.

Shaking her head, throwing herself out of her stupor, just to pout helplessly.

Her chain had a very long reach, but it wasn't long enough to grapple onto that damn bird. Besides, chains weren't exactly meant to grab things from the sky. They weren't lassos.

"No fair!" The blonde cried out, folding her arms,

"LIFE ISN'T FAIR!" Tenten shouted from above, causing the blonde to scowl. "Hope you crash!" Naruto shouted, "That's so mean!" The brunette replied, before taunting.

"Besides, my hawks never crash!" She said, checking her nails cockily as the bird flew in circles above the training field.

"Whatever, I concede. You win, Bunny. I've gotta head out anyway." The blonde said, causing the brunette to soar down to the ground.

Her hawk disappeared in a puff of smoke, and she landed gracefully on her feet.

That showed Naruto just how much practice Tenten had been doing, if she was capable of sticking a landing so gracefully.

"Aww, so soon? We haven't even had lunch yet!" The brunette whined childishly, causing Naruto to snort.

"We see each other all the time, 'ttebayo. We will survive." She said dryly.

"Fine, fine! Go spend time with your other bestie!" Tenten made a shoo-ing motion with her hand, while hardly keeping the fake-offended expression on her face.

"Ara, bunny-chan, you're my one and only!" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively, getting a deadpan expression.

Only the elbow to the ribs Tenten gave her wiped away the smug expression.

"In your dreams, maybe." The bun-headed girl taunted.

"That elbow didn't hurt nearly as bad as your scathing rejection! How will I ever heal?" She said, in a pained voice, clenching her chest dramatically.

"Well-" She was interrupted, by an extremely dramatic blonde.

"I'll never love again! The illness we humans call heartbreak has gripped my soul, and it may ne-" "Get well soon, I guess."
The blonde, who was clutching her chest with one hand with another hand daintily over her forehead, scrunched her face up.

"Evil wench." She said plainly. "You really should've been an actor, Naru-chan."Tenten replied, as she began cleaning up the remnants of their spar.

"Why thank you, Bunny!" She said flipping a blonde pigtail, before resealing her weapon.

"Who said it was a compliment?" The brunette asked smugly.

"Whatever happened to sweet, well-mannered Tenten, without a mean or devious bone in her body?!" The blonde pretend-wailed, returning her scrolls to their place on her leg garters.

Pausing for only a minute, Tenten smiled deviously at her own wit. "She met you, of course."

The blonde went blank, before scratching her cheek neutrally. A slight shrug, "That's fair." She accepted, entirely nonchalantly.

Her and Tenten were beyond comfortable with one another at this point, they could wish death on one another, death on their favorite house-plant, or death on their favorite sword, and neither of them would even be upset by it. Had anyone else heard the way they taunted one another, they might think the girls had some thinly veiled hatred for one another. They'd be entirely wrong, of course.

"Well. be seein ya!" Naruto said, throwing up a peace-sign before disappearing in a tornado of leaves.

Tenten snorted, apparently her friend needed a subtle way to show how easily she could do the shunshin now. Rolling her eyes, she looked around the yard.

"Wait a minute.. That cheeky brat left me to do all the cleaning up myself!" She said, completely aghast.

Unfortunately for the brunette, the whiskered girl was already long gone, shunshinning directly into the shop of a nearby store. One she'd already visited this week.

Appearing from another tornado of leaves, she made direct eye-contact with the shell-shocked blonde behind the counter.

---

Yamanaka Flower Shop

---

Naruto knew Ino hadn't expected her again soon, by the droves of confusion she could feel radiating from the blonde.

"Uh, It's not Wednesday already, is it?" Ino asked, blinking owlishly.

"Nope, just need to pick up some flowers." Naruto said breezily, eyes straying around the shop.

Ino smiled, "What's the occasion?" She asked slyly, almost tempted to tease the girl about a potential love interest.

"Visiting the cemetery." The other blonde replied, without even missing a beat.

Ino couldn't contain the wince that came from that rather blunt statement. And despite her curiosity, Ino knew better than to ask. Her and Naruto might be planning to train together, but they weren't close yet. If Naruto was visiting a dead relative, or even friend, she wouldn't stick her nose in it.

At least not outright..

"I'll help you make a bouquet, if you'd like. Flowers have pretty specific meanings, so you don't want to buy random ones." Ino offered.

"Er, right.. I want a red and orange bouquet, but that's all I know."

Ino paused, "Well, if you're going for red and orange majority, you can get chrysanthemums. Those are for deceased loved ones, and come in many colors."

"Okay, that works.." She said uneasily, as Ino came out from behind the counter with some ribbon and a pair of scissors.

The flaxen-haired Yamanaka moved to a large planter full of vibrant colored flowers.

"A bouquet usually isn't just one flower, though, so what else?"

Naruto stared at her blankly, did this girl really think she knew anything about normal flowers?

The other blonde sighed, apparently reading her mind.

"Alright then, marigolds symbolize fragility of life, so we'll add some of those. Carnations are to honor a mother who's passed, roses can be used to honor a loved one in general, and-"

"Maybe use both?" Naruto proposed, scratching her cheek.

Well, that quelled Ino's curiosity, in a fairly grim way. Naruto had essentially just told her she had a dead mother, likely without even thinking about it.

Ino quickly went to work, assembling the bouquet without any further questions. She used both white and red carnations, white lillies, sunflowers, bicolor orange and red roses, two brilliant sunflowers, multicolor alstroemeria, and pale yellow snapdragons.

All in all, Ino was proud of the arrangement she'd created. The soft yellow blended with the whites, while the bold and eye-catching marigolds blended into the orange of the roses.

The alstroemeria were scarlet, crimson, and soft orange, and the sunflowers stood out in their brilliant shade of gold.

She rolled the stems up in clear plastic, containing the flowers as she began artistically tying a thick burgundy ribbon to hold it shut.

Naruto had watched the entire time, with a slight bit of awe at just how great Ino was at her job. Truly, the girl must be the best florist in all of Konohagakure.

"Do you like it?" The purple-clad Yamanaka asked, dusting off the bottom of her dress.

"Yeah, it's really beautiful, 'ttebayo." It was also quite huge, but that part went unsaid.

Naruto hadn't the slightest idea of who her mother was, or if she even liked flowers. But even if the woman wasn't the flower type, she'd surely see the splendor in such an exquisite bouquet.

"Great!" The Yamanaka was now behind the counter yet again, punching in the keys as she calculated her fellow blonde's total.

Naruto pulled out her wallet, internally noting that now that she did constant D-ranks, poor little Gama-chan (her wallet) was on the verge of splitting at the seams. As annoying as they were, they certainly paid more than that measly orphan stipend she'd gotten before.

She was at least left with spending money nowadays, something she was grateful for. The days of scraping up change to buy dinner were behind her.

She pulled out the necessary pay, handing it to the blonde behind the counter.

"I'll see you in a few days, Fish-cakes." Ino said softly, getting a smile as Naruto started to walk away.

"Yeah, see you then, Ino-chan."

She absently thumbed the plastic wrapped around the flowers, feeling the smooth material graze against her thumb.

She made her way towards the cemetery, knowing it's location, though she'd never been.

---

Konoha's cemetery was rather large, accommodating both civilians and shinobi alike. Each half was reserved for one, the eastern side being for civilians and the west for Shinobi. Shinobi had tombstones, only if their remains could be recovered. Otherwise, they ended up on the memorial stone. That was something taught in the academy, though most kids never paid attention to that lesson.

Shinobi from clan's were buried alongside one another, with extravagant headstones around fancy mausoleums. The fancy mausoleums, Naruto guessed, were for the Clan' head's immediate family.

The paranoid part of Naruto wondered if having shinobi bodies so out in the open was any kind of security risk. She knew from her time in the Intelligence division that shinobi bodies held secrets, which could be extracted even after death. Seriously, that seemed irresponsible.

She frowned at her own thoughts, was she becoming callous? Or just used to the topic of death?

Her blue eyes wandered the cemetery, taking in the many mausoleums and tombstones dotting the landscape. She could see the names of each clan on their respective monuments, from the enormous Senju and Sarutobi to the much smaller Kurama clan.

She sighed, her eyes landing on a rather innocuous monument, all on it's own.

Uzumaki, the upright cement marker read. Beneath it, only one headstone sat.

She closed her eyes, searching the area for any chakra signatures. She expected to see some ANBU hiding around here, alas, there were none.

As if she were a mile above her body, she could see the entire aerial view of the cemetery. There wasn't a single other person around the perimeter, or within it. Though, she could make out a hazy silhouette approaching rather sluggishly. It was quite clearly a shinobi, but she couldn't make out the slightest detail. Not like it mattered, she'd just make this quick, and then head out.

She speed-walked to the headstone, the one that assuredly kept her mother's remains. Much like with every expensive other gravestone, it was made of fine marble.

Sitting on her knees, she inhaled a shaky breath.

"Uh, hey.. It's me, your daughter." She greeted, quite uneasily. Her eyes scanned the gravestone, spotting something which had been knocked over. She laid the bouquet down, against the marble stone. "Old man Hokage told me my parents were dead, but never who they were.. So, I'm sorry for not visiting sooner. But hey, I visited you before dad! That's something right? I mean, even if I wanted to visit him first, I'm not supposed to know.. I think, if somehow the Sandaime discovered I was visiting you, he'd be okay with how I found out. I mean, you're the only Uzumaki buried over here. It's like, context clues, 'ttebayo." She could feel her eyes wettening as she forced herself to swallow up the feelings rising in her.

"Yeah, I know I'm a bit on the paranoid side of things, but it doesn't hurt. Anywho, I guess I should tell you about myself.." She paused, steadying herself.

"I'm fourteen now, I was one of the older kids to graduate from the Academy. It's not very impressive, I know. I was a dead-last, too. I'm doing great, now, though. I've got extra money left from missions, and I usually spend it with my friend Tenten. Oh, and Tenten! She's like a sister to me, she's real kind. There's Anko, too. She's like a cool older sister, even if she's a dango-addicted sadist. Um, and there's Inoichi and Ibiki! I didn't mention it, but I work in T&I." She laughed, before taking in a deep breath.

"I doubt that's what any parent wants to hear about their kid, but you probably can't even hear me, so what's it matter anyway. Ibiki and Inoichi are like your cool uncles, even if Ibiki is all emotionally constipated. Last week, someone pranked him so hard, they put up a picture of him smiling in his office. Man, he was pissed! It's like my prank addiction is spreading, it's awesome." Naruto continued, her bright smile lighting up her features.

"I work real hard, too, though. I'm learning seals, Anko's super cool taijutsu style, poison, senbon, stupid T&I stuff.. Seriously T&I is like being in the academy again, but you do torture and interrogation instead of weapon practice and spars. I thought when I got promoted to an official member, that would be it. Apparently, it means that they have to pound every bit of their wisdom into your head. Inoichi even gave me a project! A project, 'ttebayo!"

She sighed yet again, "Well, this is fun, but some shinobi is gonna be entering the cemetery in a few, and I don't wanna be seen.." She paused, her eyes landing on that thing which had been knocked over.

She flipped it over, and with her other hand wiped off the layer of dust over the glass.

It was a picture.

A picture of her mother.

She smiled, chuckling. "You were beautiful, kaa-san." She muttered, looking at the beautiful redhead in the picture. Naruto couldn't help but snort at how different their coloring was. Her mother was pale, she was tan, her mother had violet eyes, while hers were cerulean.

The blonde closed her eyes yet again, to study her surroundings. The silhouette from before was closer now, and in a few minutes he'd be close enough to see her. She really didn't want to get caught here.

"You won't mind me taking this, right?" She said, patting the gravestone as if it were a shoulder or back.

She began gathering her chakra for the shunshin, before smiling. "Thanks. That guy is almost here now, so I've gotta go. I love you."

And just like that, Naruto Uzumaki disappeared in a cloud of smoke. For the first time in maybe forever, Naruto felt something new. Closure.

As for the approaching shinobi, he didn't even notice the cloud of smoke, nor the flowers resting atop the gravestone of Kushina Uzumaki.

Instead, his focus was on speaking with a memorial stone himself.

He crouched down at the KIA memorial, the one for bodies which hadn't been recovered. The stone which held the names of his two deceased teammates, Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara.

"I've failed again, Rin, Obito. Sensei's daughter.. I've abandoned her. She deserves one of you here with her, not me."

---

Ino Yamanaka, for all she was, was not someone easily swayed. When she'd told her aunt how she'd be spending her Wednesday afternoon, the numerous warnings the woman had given her hadn't deterred her in the least.

Despite her aunt's insistence, Ino was getting dressed in her training outfit, and she was going, come hell or high water.

"Just wait until your father hears about this, young lady!" Her aunt declared, as Ino slammed her bedroom door in the woman's face.

"Tell him!" She shouted, as she began changing into her typical ninja wear.

She was rather upset with how her aunt had reacted, calling Naruto names and demanding she shouldn't go near the village pariah.

Ino's mother had always said though, that things like prejudice were more ugly than anything physical. She supposed she finally understood why her mother and her aunt held so much animosity towards one another.

She wasted no time in getting ready, sliding on her sandals and checking her appearance in the mirror. She always kept a spare pair of sandals under bed, in case she needed to make a sneaky escape. Which was more often than she'd like to admit.

As she brushed through her blonde hair, she couldn't help but think. Why the hell did everyone hate Naruto, anyway? She'd been mean to the girl herself, but mostly because her fellow blonde was always loud and asking out Sakura.

The adults should be mature enough to set things like that aside, even Naruto's pranks weren't worthy of being called a demon.

She scoffed.

So what if Ino had a habit of befriending "people she shouldn't?" Seriously, what was wrong with Sakura or Naruto? Apparently her aunt hated them both. She was so unlike her other, cool aunt, who was a sensor.

Inori, was her cool aunt's name. Henceforth, the mean aunt would be known as Miserable Hag.

Ino put her ear against the door, hearing no noise coming from downstairs. Great! That meant her aunt had left to find her dad. That'd be just enough time for her to sneak out and meet with Naruto-chan!

She opened her bedroom door, and quietly snuck out, as silent as a mouse as she made her way through the hallway and down the stairs.

Three steps away from freedom, the aged boards made a loud creaking noise.

Damn, Ino thought as she heard footsteps coming nearer. She really should've used the window. She'd keep that in mind for next time.

She forced herself to smile nonchalantly, though the sweatdrop on the back of her neck and the widened eyes really gave it away.

"Ino-chan." Her father's stern voice said, she could've swore she was sweating bullets by now.

"Yes..?" She asked, turning her head slowly, to meet his gaze.

The man's arms were folded, but he held some sort of black plastic bag in one hand.

"Here, your mother made these for you and Naru-kun. You're growing girls, you need to have enough to eat." Her dad shook the bag slightly, as if gesturing she should take it.

Ino blinked, before her face split into a genuine smile. She gladly took the bag, seeing the two bento boxes inside. She loved her mom and dad, she really did. The moment she'd lost her friendship with Sakura, they'd been there for her. When she'd tried all those dangerous fad diets to try and become prettier than Sakura, they'd been there to force her to eat healthy. And now, when she was on her way to befriending the village pariah, they supported her like good parents should.

Her heart felt so warm, it might just catch aflame.

"Thanks, I'll be back soon!" She said, rushing out the door.

As the large oak doors closed behind her, she could've sworn she heard her dad chuckle. She sighed in relief, of course her dad would be cool with Naruto. He worked with her, after all! She'd been worried for nothing, she realized, as she ran towards the exit of the clan compound.

The warm summer sun of Konoha shone down on her, and every other citizen she passed on the streets as she headed towards the most infamous training area in the entire village. She was practically skipping by the time she arrived, her eyes immediately landing on a blonde girl laying on the dirt ground. She held a thick red book in her hands, a befuddled expression on her face.

"Hey, Ino-chan."

Several books lay scattered around her, while another exact copy of the twin-tailed girl waved, sitting on a tree branch.

Ino glanced at one, and then the other. "I'm the clone, in case you were wondering." The one with the red book said, looking up from the text she'd been reading.

The purple-clad blonde blinked, just as the one on the ground disappeared. "Lousy shadow clones! What are they even good for!" The cerulean eyed girl grumbled, before continuing. "Don't answer that. They're pretty useful." She said with a sigh, leaping from the tree.

Landing perfectly upright, without even the slightest flinch, Naruto smiled. "I know it sounds lame, but, meditation is probably where we should start. Let me get these books picked up and we can start."

"I'll help!" Ino said abruptly, bending and scooping up the scattered text books. She briefly wondered if Naruto had clones reading all of these, or if she'd just been here so long she'd burned through them already. Giving the girl a sly glance, she questioned just how much Naruto had changed since the academy.

She picked up a teal book, her fingers tracing the cover as she decided to bring attention to the bang on her arm.

"My mom packed us lunch, so um, if you want, we can eat when we're done! Only if you want to, though! Maybe yo-"

"Totally, 'ttebayo! I'll never decline free food!" She interrupted, catching Ino's full attention. Their blue eyes met, and Naruto continued. "You know, you should hang out with me and my friend Tenten one of these days, we go out and get lunch together from time to time. We're both weirdos though, so it might taint your reputation." She teased, causing the Yamanaka to roll her eyes.

"Whatever, I think it'd be a good look for me. Hangin' out with the village's rebel girl will only make me cooler." Naruto laughed boisterously, "Rebel girl?" She asked incredulously.

Ino looked her up and down, a smirk clear on her face. "Uh, what else would you call that?" She said, raising a brow. "The dark clothes, flagrant disrespect for authority, pranking-"

"Okay, okay, I get it! I think I'd call it badass, but 'rebel girl' works too, I guess." Naruto said with fake exasperation dripping from her voice.

The Yamanaka heiress couldn't fight off a smile, knowing she liked this new Naruto a lot already. Passing the books she'd collected, Naruto clapped her hands together after sealing them away.

"You know, Naruto, I think I'll take you up on that offer. I could use some cool new friends."

Naruto grinned, "Hell yeah! We're gonna be a trio!"

---

TRAINING GROUND 9

---

It wasn't the first time Naruto had spent extra time training with Tenten and the rest of Team 9. Most of the time, it went swimmingly. She'd have a friendly spar with Lee or Tenten, exercise till her muscles turned to mush, and then watch Gai and Lee be their weird selves. That was a better show than what you could find on television.

Today, she'd expected no different. Well, until she was left alone with Neji.

She'd been minding her own business, practicing her aim with her senbon, when Neji decided he simply could not shut up.

"I don't see why you waste your time trying to learn something you clearly have no talent in. Stick to kunai and shuriken." Naruto swore she could hear an unspoken name-call at the end of that declaration.

Even so, that was about the hundredth rude remark he'd made, and her patience was wearing thin.

"Tch. You always brag to Tenten about the many things you're studying. Do you study so many different things because you are incapable of becoming proficient in any of them? Or perhaps, did growing up as a street rat make you incapable of committing to anything?"

Had anyone asked, Neji would likely have admitted to that remark being intentionally inflammatory. Truth was, he was getting quite frustrated with how the blonde never listened to his advice or criticism.

He was aloof and quiet at the best of times, so the fact that he had wasted breath trying to make her understand something he had no obligation to inform her of..
It got under his skin, unlike anything else.

"Who do you think you are to tell me that?" She fought the urge to scream, her voice raised nonetheless.

"I am a chuunin, and Hyuuga. In other words, your superior." He hissed.

"Oh wow! You've got a promotion and a fancy clan name, you're totally better than me!" She said sarcastically, before turning her back to him completely.

Neji narrowed his eyes dangerously at the audacity of the girl. She turned her back to him, which was like a dozen insults all at once. One, it showed she cared little for his commentary or stance, two, it deemed him as no threat to her. As less than a threat, merely dirt, not worthy of even her glance.

"Hn, we both know that I could annihilate you in any spar, my advice should not be so easily cast aside." He declared pridefully.

She grit her teeth, "Oh yeah?" She seethed, her jaw clenched tight.

"Spar with me, and I'll prove it."

She instantly turned to look at him in those damned white eyes of his.

Naruto was blinded by her anger, temporarily forgetting that it wasn't wise to spar in taijutsu with a Hyuuga.

Not like Gai or Tenten was here to stop them, though.

She accepted Neji's spar, and instantly threw a wild haymaker at his stupid porcelain face.

The fight began exactly then.

Neji struck towards her shoulder, his hand poised for the Hyuuga Jyuken style of fighting.

She expertly weaved away, causing his strike to harmlessly fly past her. Furiously, he continued attempting to strike her with his chakra-empowered fingers, but Naruto was an expert in evasion.

Much like a snake, she made use of excellent flexibility to contort her body and dodge, every single strike.

That was, until Neji got far too close.

Aiming a strike at her thigh, Naruto knew then she had no chance of dodging, aside from throwing herself to the ground.

Even that was shoddy, and could potentially worsen the blow by making it strike somewhere else.

But if she took the hit, she could make a move that would turn the tables and put her on the offense.

She'd barely even had the time to think that through before the painful jab connected, launching her into action. A jyuuken strike was excruciating, like a flaming dagger being stabbed into your flesh, but with no burns or cuts to show for it. The pain existed solely in the tenketsu, something the blonde had never experienced before then. Still, Naruto wouldn't allow one measly strike to get her down. She was nothing if not an endurance freak.

Just as Neji connected his dominant hand to the tenketsu in her thigh, she used every bit of speed she had to throw a punch into his face.

He'd seen it just in time, obviously, his active byakugan could see 360 degrees. But that didn't mean he could stop it.

Their speed was near-matched, but her foresight had made her see an upcoming opening in his stance.

Not many would've even considered allowing a jyuuken strike to land on them, even if it meant they'd get a blow in. But Naruto wasn't like many.
Her fist connected right above his nose, knuckles crashing into his head making a loud crack. They both knew that was a broken bone.

Blood poured from Neji's nose, the byproduct of the temporal bone being cracked in the aftermath of her force. Lee had never even struck at his face during one of their spars, but he and Lee were never this brutal with one another.

This was not a friendly spar, it was an all-out fight. He grabbed his nose with both hands, and Naruto put distance between the two, sucking in ragged breaths as she leapt away.
With one hand, he dug a kunai from his pouch and threw it at her. She growled lowly in her throat.

"Just give up. You are fated to lose. Clan or not, you are no match for a Hyuga."

"Shut the hell up! Fate isn't even real! It's just something people tell themselves to feel better about having no control over their lives!" She shouted down at him, shifting her weight onto her good leg.

"Fool! You know nothing!" He retorted scathingly, enraging the blonde even further.

She threw three more senbon, then five, and then ten.

Yet Neji dodged them all, despite the fact that Naruto was focusing her senbon with as much deadly precision as she could muster.

Throwing needles littered the field, all around Neji, who had hardly broken a sweat in dodging them all. Taking a handful of senbon, she threw them one after the other, quickly enough to be a hail of senbon falling all at once.
Not one of them met their mark, instead landing in a circle around him. His eyes stared at the senbon, a smirk nearly forming on his face.

The egotistic teen hadn't even realized why they'd landed in that particular formation, until a kunai was thrown by the blonde. Three, actually. One overhead, one to his left, and one to his right.

He'd barely had enough time to react, bending away from the kunai above and to his left.

He'd expected that the right thrown kunai would be gone by the time he'd leaned that way, but it wasn't the case, causing the kunai aimed for his right side to barely nick his shoulder.

She'd thrown them at separate times, but used different amounts of force to make them travel alongside one another.

Their eyes met, the palest shade of lavender staring into the most vibrant of blues.

And they were pissed.

Naruto, because she'd emptied her entire pack of senbon on the bastard to get nowhere, not even when she'd tried to box him in. And Neji, because he'd managed to get nicked by a fucking kunai. A kunai. It was hardly a big wound, not even an inch deep. It had grazed him nonetheless, when it shouldn't have even had the chance.

The branch had fallen to the ground behind her, from the sheer force of her chakra bearing down on it when she leapt off.

Angrily, she yanked her weapon scroll from it's place on her hip, unraveling it in an instant as she landed back on the ground.

Sprinting towards him with chakra-enhanced legs, her footprint was burned into the ground behind her, leaving impressive scars on Training Ground 9.

Neji's eyes narrowed as he leapt away, "It does not matter how many weapons you use, you will still fail! I am a chuunin, a Hyuuga! You are nothing!" He screamed at her, his near-stoic facade finally cracking entirely.

He was visibly seething, his teeth gritted in anger as she pulled a flail out of the scroll.

He could see she was pumping chakra into the weapon, to which it greedily sucked up.

She ran at him wildly, swinging the weapon like a club.

His normal method of evading was simply weaving away, similar to her own, but it would do no good against a flail.

A flail, unlike a club, had much more flexibility because of the chain attaching the spike-ball and the handle.

He was entirely on the defense, and was nearly considering using the 64 Palm Heavenly Rotation to retake the offense. But he'd only just began learning it, as Hiashi had only recently entrusted him with learning that main-house technique.

There was no guarantee it would work, and even if it did, it could be lethal for the blonde.

He decided not to waste his chakra on that attack, instead focusing on getting that weapon away from her. It was an unknown variable, and it was giving her too much power over the fight.

"THERE IS NO SUCH FUCKING THING AS FATE YOU FUCKING JERK!" She screamed, bringing that flail down from overhead.

Regrettably, Neji hadn't been paying much attention to her when he thought out his plan, which was how she'd managed to get this close.

He dropped, rolling away from where the weapon was aiming.

It was too late for the blonde to correct her target, causing the flail to collide into the dirt ground.

The spiked ball left yet another small crater as she yanked it out, one of many signs of her repeated failures in this fight.

Flecks of dirt landed on the girl, but she paid no mind to the condition she was in. Pushing more chakra into the weapon, it transformed into a meteor hammer.

Swinging the hefty weapon one-handed forced Neji to accept just how physically strong his opponent was.

"You speak as if you know anything of this world, but you are just a pathetic orphan. Fate defines everything in our world, when we wake, when we eat, all of it! You were born into this world to be the pathetic last scrap of the Uzumaki clan, while I was burdened to be one of the servant side-branch members of the Hyuuga." Neji was damn near calm as he explained, as if he were educating an idiot child.

"Something tells me you only believe in fate to make yourself feel better." She muttered, wiping sweat from her forehead.

And once again, Neji's calm facade was shattered.

"What did you just say!?" He shouted at her, his lips in a heinous snarl. "I said.. You only believe in fate to make yourself feel better."
He was about to interject, but she continued.

"I don't know shit about the Hyuuga. It sounds pretty fucked up to have side branches to make people into servants, but that doesn't mean fate is real! You got dealt shitty cards, so you'd rather believe the entire game is against you than accept it and try to change the outcome." She used a euphemism that she believed he would understand, though she doubted it would get through to him.

If that didn't, Naruto mused, her fists would.

"How dare you compare lives to some card game! I was born into the side-branch, just as my father before me! He died in service to the main-branch and I will be forced to do the same!" He screamed at her, his voice nearly breaking at the mention of his father.

They'd both gone still, recuperating as they fought with words instead of fists.

Naruto paused only for a moment, inhaling deeply.

"Death is the only instance of fate that actually exists. We all die. But no ones stopping you from just keeling over by your own hands. You're obligated to die for them, maybe... But there's always other options." She said the last part weakly.

Naruto hadn't spent much time thinking on philosophy, but she truly believed what she said. There were always other options.

"Do you think my father had any other option than to die for Hiashi!? Do you truly think he would've died for him and left his only son if he had another option?!"
Naruto had no clue what the hell he was talking about, so she answered with the one thing she could come up with.

"I don't fucking know, ask Hiashi! That doesn't change what I said, you could still die whenever the fuck you wanted! Death is the only thing we are all fated to do..." She paused to take in a deep breath.

"By waking up and trying everyday, you're defying fate. Because you could always just lay there and wait to die." She summarized, partially hoping she'd changed his mind with only that... and also partially hoping she'd get a chance to punch the bastard again.

He was red-faced purely from his anger, "Silence, you moronic wench!" He screamed, rushing forward at a blindingly fast speed.

She raised her weapon, but Neji dropped low to the ground and kicked her hand with full force.

The result was two audible cracking noises as the weapon flew out of her grasp, Naruto clenching her teeth and groaning in pain. Only able to watch, as her meteor hammer was nailed to a tree when Neji tossed a kunai into the gap of it's chain.

The girl growled, backing away as she studied her hands.

Both her pinky finger and her ring finger ached in pain, both of which clearly broken. Her other fingers looked sprained at most, though the other pinky and ring finger were clearly broken and maybe dislocated.

He tossed a volley of shuriken

at her, Naruto using her good leg to fly over them. Her other leg hadn't been rendered entirely useless, but it still hurt like a bitch and felt ten times heavier than it should.

Their fight had raged on for nearly ten minutes now, both of them should've been verging on exhaustion. But aside from the pain in her thigh and fingers, Naruto felt fine to fight on. She knew that was the adrenaline and anger speaking, but that didn't change her mind. Her lungs and muscles burned from overexertion, as did the boy before her. They were both worse for wear, but neither would just give up. Not yet, at least.

She would not give up. That simply wasn't how Naruto Uzumaki did things.

With her weapon gone, she would be forced back into hand-to-hand combat. One of her legs and one of her arms were in perfect condition to continue. She had extreme pain in her broken fingers, but the throbbing of the tenketsu in her thigh had died down to a pulsing ache.
It was movable, and she had a meager amount of chakra flowing through it.
If she hadn't agitated it earlier by running with weight on it, her advanced healing and regeneration would've probably made the pain disappear to something more dull.

Even though she knew that, she once again shifted her weight on her bad leg.

Whilst Neji had been focused on nailing her weapon to a tree, his arm remained raised upwards with a second kunai at the ready, to ensure the weapon was rendered useless.
In the split second where his side was unguarded, was when Naruto raised her good leg. With chakra reinforced strength, she swung every ounce of her strength at him, and kicked him in his exposed side. Once again, Neji had seen it coming just in time, but been unable to act fast enough.

The blonde felt her foot impact into his rib-cage, the bones cracking under the sheer force. Internally, she winced for him.

The kick sent Neji tumbling, nearly sending him flying, if it weren't for the chakra he'd enhanced his feet with.

He coughed blood into his hand as he forced himself to straighten back into a battle stance, now covered in dirt and pieces of grass.

Both of them were a mess, though Neji seemed to be worse. He didn't understand how the blonde could take a hit to the tenketsu in her thigh and still move that leg, though he knew he'd gone easy with his strike. Lethal or crippling force was not to be used against fellow Konoha nin, but she still shouldn't have been able to use her leg.
However, Neji didn't have time to try and understand that.

His movement was getting slower, sloppier from his rage and his weariness. He needed to end this as soon as possible. But his mind couldn't stop straying from those words she'd said to him.

Was fate really nothing but bullshit? Was he only telling himself that so he could feel better?
Maybe he should ask Hiashi..

Upon loss of the pain in her thigh, the blonde realized her leg was now going completely numb. Not even just her thigh, she could only feel her lower calf and
foot at this point.
An unwelcome sensation, as that somehow made it even harder to walk on. Regardless, she'd gotten Neji good with that last kick, despite that it had only been a lucky shot.

The two closed the distance between them for the umpteenth time, and she immediately tried to take up offense. This proved to be a mistake, as Neji caught her fist. With his free hand, he disabled the tenketsu in her wrist, causing her to hiss in pain.

She yanked her arm away, noting how she couldn't feel a single finger in her hand now. The pain was solely in her wrist, spreading towards her elbow.

That strike must've been significantly more powerful than the one he'd used on her thigh, she realized.

He aimed another strike for her forearm, barely having enough time to graze it as she contorted away from the strike.

Her forearm was now experiencing a lesser ache than the initial pain of the blow to her thigh, forcing the blonde to rethink her harebrained strategy.

Her evasion would begin to suffer by now, and Naruto knew she needed distance.

Using her good leg to leap back, Neji didn't move a muscle.

Naruto assumed he was scheming something, but she would be wrong.

When Neji became a chuunin, Hiashi had suddenly begun training him directly, alongside his own children. At the time, Neji had thought it was simply to make him the best servant he could be. Now, he wasn't so sure... But that wasn't just it.

Upon becoming a chuunin, one is forced to learn the value of teamwork and camaraderie. He'd thought he'd learned that when he stopped being so snide towards his teammates, accepting them as they were.

But when he'd met Naruto, he'd seen how she valued Tenten, and later Lee too. She saw them, treated them, as friends.

He'd refrained from using any lethal force during this spar, and he'd considered that to be cordial, chuunin behavior.

But she'd been fighting with the desire to make him see something, see his belief in fate was 'foolish.'

While he'd been fighting for the sake of beating her back into her place.

Something within him felt very wrong, but he couldn't place it. Shame? Disgust, guilt? He wasn't even sure which.

Out of the two of them, she was fighting for what seemed like the right reasons.

She'd treated him just like Tenten and Lee, always trying to befriend him and be kind despite his attitude.

Yet he hadn't even seen her as anything to be cordial towards, instead opting to provoke her and start this very fight.

But he couldn't just abandon fate because of one person. There would simply be no way, not unless she truly managed to prove him wrong. Despite his exhaustion, despite his muddled thoughts, he rushed back in, the girl raised her arms to fight him.
His mind was in shambles, all he could think to do was defend his dying ideology. Cast all of those thoughts aside, and fight.

In her blue eyes, he could only see cold-hard determination.

She would not lose, he could see it in her eyes. But he didn't want to lose, either, for losing would mean too many things. Most generally, it would mean that he had been wrong.
He immediately began aiming strikes wherever he saw an opening, while she weaved away from his hands with refined flexibility.

It was just as it was at the very beginning of their fight; A fight which nearly resembled some deadly form of dance.

Though, this time they were both injured and edging on haggard.

She threw hits only when there was a high chance of actually landing them, such was one of the fundamentals of the Hebi Taijutsu style.

While both the Hyuuga and Snake style of taijutsu relies on flexibility and smooth evasion, the Hyuuga style focuses on precise, quick jabs. The Hebi/Snake style relies on powerful blows and using the opponents every weakness.

It was like a combination of both his and Lee's style, making Neji and Naruto damn near perfect combatants for one another.

Neji didn't know how the girl was still managing to fight. The tenketsu in her wrist was closed, while her other had two severely mangled fingers from his earlier kick.
Both of them were breathing heavily, when Neji half-heartedly poised his hand with a strike that would end the fight.
He was aiming right for her chest. Right for her heart.

The world seemed to slow, Naruto barely having the time to raise her arms in a cohesive block.
It was instincts alone that had saved her from that deadly strike.

Her arm, which was the comparably good one, had been the one to take the strike. It landed right into her forearm, not closing the tenketsu on her wrist or elbow. Instead, it sent a ripple of pain through her arm.
With her numb right arm, which had only made it halfway when the strike connected.. She swung her full weight at him, unable to move her fingers to even make a fist.

The mobility in her hand had been nearly gone, but she had just enough in her shoulder and elbow to bitch-slap the boy so hard he saw double.

The noise of the slap quite literally echoed throughout the empty, nearly destroyed training field.

His fair skin began to bruise immediately, his lip also busting from the impact alone.

Her arms fell back to her side limply, and they were both frozen in place.

It occurred to Neji that he'd nearly killed the blonde, but his mind was more focused on the burning pain in his face.
First, it had been his nose and brow-bone, and now his cheek and lip. He had bitten his tongue when the slap struck, but that was the furthest thing from his mind.

He'd nearly used lethal force on a comrade. One who mostly meant well.
It was her proficiency that had saved her life. And now, he was exhausted and ready to pass out. Or maybe she'd given him a concussion with that hit.

His scrambled mind was running wild. He, a Hyuuga, had been beat around by a genin. And nearly killed her.
He'd nearly decided her fate, but she saved herself.

Naruto was staring at the boy in barely hidden confusion. He'd had plenty of openings now to continue, but he was just dazedly staring off into the distance.

"Er, no hard feelings, right?" She asked weakly, her entire body aching for a variety of reasons. She'd asked merely to be funny, to ease the awkward silence at least.

It only got more awkward when Neji tried to reply.

While lost in his thoughts, he hadn't realized his mouth had filled with blood from biting his tongue.

The result was him gurgling incoherently, before starting to choke. Naruto stepped closer, rambling about if he was okay, that her arms were in no condition to give the Heimlich.

She used her mangled hand to pat his back, whilst still standing directly in front of him.

Neji then accidentally coughed blood onto the blonde right in front of him.

"DUDE!" She exclaimed, looking disgustedly at the blood he'd spat onto her. There were speckles on her face, chin, neck, and a large blob on her shirt. Tenten wouldn't be happy to help get that stain out, that was certain.

"Not cool." She added, her arms once again limp at her side.

Neji grimaced, internally noting that he'd at least not spat it directly in her face. She was short, so if he hadn't angled his head just before that pat her entire face would be covered in a mix of his spit and blood.

It was most definitely cordial of him to have not spat that directly in her face.

"Okay, I'm gonna go sit my ass down, Blood-boy. Feel free to join me." She said, damn-near limping away.

Sighing, he followed behind her, the two of them sitting behind a large rock which provided them with shade.

The sun was just beginning to set, painting the edges of the sky in soft yellow and gold hues.

"So uh, are we bro's now?" She asked weakly, her voice hoarse.

He looked at her strangely. The entire fight he'd been insulting her, and after damn near killing her, she wanted to be friends?

He almost laughed at the surrealist nature of it all.

Minutes ago they were fighting. Now they were watching the sunset.

"I suppose it would not be bad to have a friend who.. Is such a worthy adversary." He said, straightening his posture haughtily.

The word friend wasn't something he'd been too familiar with. Surely Lee and Tenten were his friends, despite how difficult he'd been. But...

After today, he'd be sure to make that easier on them.

The blonde smiled at him knowingly.

"I can sense Gai and the others coming." She said quickly, before turning her head to him.

"Wait, just 'not bad?' You wound my poor heart, 'ttebane!" She said, in an over-exaggerated voice of sorrow. He blinked. Was that a play on words, since he'd genuinely aimed to wound her heart? He really wasn't sure.

She was trying to take off the trench-coat that covered her shoulders, and Neji begrudgingly helped tug it off. After all, his arms were far more functional than hers. His face and ribs might be screwed, though.

She smiled at him, as he replied to her jest.

"I wasn't aware that you had a heart." He mumbled, his lips quirking upwards in a wry smirk as he placed the jacket next to her.

She noticed that he'd messily folded it for her, but chose not to comment on that.

"Ha! A black one, maybe!" She said deviously, looking out at the sunset.

Once again, her head turned towards him quickly.

"Wait, did you just make a joke?!" She asked incredulously, her eyes widening in disbelief.

"Don't be preposterous." He said wryly, tilting his nose upwards.

She puffed her cheek, jutting out her bottom lip to pout.

"C'mon, don't be like that! Tell another! Please!" She pleaded, her pout breaking when she smiled.

He ignored her, instead closing his eyes to rest them.

She huffed, closing her own eyes.

"They're almost here. I think we're gonna be in ~trouble.~" For some reason, she trouble in the most childish sing-song voice Neji could've imagined.

"Oh, joyous day." He said, both of them reopening their eyes.

Naruto wasn't completely sure, but she thought that he might've rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, her sensory ability picked up something else.

She'd felt a series of emotions from him throughout the fight, most of them befitting the whole, 'getting beat into the ground and having my ideology destroyed.'

He'd been angry, sad, confused, and nearly everything negative at one point or another during their fight.

But now, Neji was calm. She could feel no hatred for her in him anymore.

Instead she felt..

Amusement, fondness, regret, among the plethora of other feelings coming from him.

She empathized with that, knowing full well it was a curse to be overrun by conflicting feelings.

"MY PRECIOUS STUDENTS, I HAVE RETURNED!" Gai greeted exuberantly, Tenten and Lee stepping into the field beside him.

They had left Neji and Naruto alone together, and from the looks of them, it had ended badly.

Gai's jaw dropped to the floor, Tenten and Lee gaped similarly.

The training feel was a- a wreck!

A large branch the size of a Gai himself was broken from a tree, footprints burned into it and the surrounding grass.

Matter of fact, the entire field was littered with chakra-burnt footprints. Naruto's weapon was nearby, nailed to a tree by a sole kunai.

There were orange senbon everywhere, there were even senbon forming a perfect circle. Kunai and shuriken were similarly strewn about, all over the field.

Outstepping from behind the large boulder that Lee often used for training, Neji and Naruto each had an arm around the others shoulder for support.

Neji had a swollen cheek, bruised an ugly shade of purple and blue.

His nose had smeared blood beneath it, while his mouth had its own smears. Even his lower lip was busted, near his bruised left cheek.

His perfect face looked quite raggedy, far more than any of them had seen him. Even his beige coat had large splotches of blood on it. His breath was uneven, hitching if he dared to inhale too much.

And Naruto didn't look much better. Both of her fists had crusted blood, though it was unclear who it belonged to. One of her arms was limply hanging at her side, while the one with the horrifically misshapen fingers was draped over Neji's shoulder.

Her other leg was clearly in pain or numb, as the girl wasn't putting any weight on it.

Neji seemed to be a bit dizzy, as he swayed slightly. So while Naruto was shifting some of her weight into him, it appeared Neji was using her to keep the world from spinning around him.

Both of them were covered in sweat, dirt, and blood, and they both somehow looked rather content.

Both of them also looked in need of medical attention.

"HOW UNYOUTHFUL!" Gai cried out, getting a toothy smile from Naruto and a pained smirk from Neji.

"CAN YOU JUST NOT BE LEFT UNSUPERVISED!? WE LEAVE FOR THIRTY MINUTES TO GET LUNCH FOR ALL OF US AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO!?" Tenten shouted, a large tick mark forming on her head.

It was so extraordinary to see Tenten mad about anything, that the injured pair blanched significantly.

---

Konoha General Hospital

---

The next morning, Naruto and Neji had awoken in a shared hospital room, a curtain separating them. Neji was the first one up, as a fellow branch member had come to deliver him clean clothes. And of course, admonish him for getting beat up by a genin. He'd hardly even listened, unable to make himself care.

Had it been just a day ago, he'd probably be throwing the world's largest pity party, for the loss of his dignity.

Thankfully, that wasn't something on his mind anymore.

Glancing over at the shared nightstand between his bed and Naruto's, there were large bouquets jammed into the ceramic vase.

The larger one had surely been intended for both of them, as there was a card attached saying so, signed by Tenten. The other wasn't even a bouquet, just two lone sunflowers bound together purple ribbon.

They were faced towards the blonde, clearly there for her, but completely lacking any card or note saying who they were from.

She'd been out for two days, sleeping like a rock. She snored quite softly, not nearly as brutish as he'd expected.

The blonde seemed very much like the brutish type. The bandages over his nose, shoulder, and abdomen were proof enough of that...

Naruto pulled the curtain away, nearly starting him. Nearly. She had to have just woken up, but she remained as bright-eyed as always.

"Mornin, blood-boy!" She said.

Judging by the bandages all over her, he must be quite brutish in his own right. Frankly, he was surprised she was even bandaged.

He'd noticed quickly that the nurses did not care much for the girl, once he'd woken up, a day before the blonde.

They'd both been induced into comas to speed up their internal healing processes. (for their shattered bones.)

However, they hadn't bothered even giving the girl an IV or cleaning her scrapes and small wounds, just wrapping her up like a mummy and leaving her to rest. It appalled him even further that no had even sent a Hyuuga nurse to re-enable her tenketsu. Without a Hyuuga reactivating them, one's tenketsu could stay disabled and painful for up to two weeks.

Sighing, he sat up. If he wanted something done right, he knew he'd have to do it himself. An unfortunate reality, he mused.

"Hey, you're injured too, what're you doin' gettin' up?" Her light voice was nearly accusatory, with one brow raised.

He gave her a level, deadpan, stare. Which just led to an awkward minute of complete silence. Neji could only sigh, thinking of the only witty comment he could muster.

Taking her fully-bandaged arm, (Who's bright idea was that? Bandages wouldn't fix tenketsu!) he rushed chakra to his fingers, whilst simultaneously activating his byakugan without uttering a word.

A feat that not many Hyuuga could muster, he thought smugly to himself.

To his surprise, the blonde didn't flinch or pull away, merely watching with curious blue eyes.

He pushed chakra into the tenketsu, and instead of aiming to crush it shut, he used his refined control to reopen it. The blonde exhaled in relief almost instantaneously.

"Your leg." He said plainly, releasing her arm. She stared at him, "Oh, right!" The blue-eyed girl exclaimed.
She pulled aside the blanket covering her also completely bandaged leg. (Neji had to fight the urge to groan, who was running this damned hospital? A mindless buffoon?)

Instantly, he once again poked her tenketsu with his two fingers, though this time on her thigh. Looking at the chakra pathway with his byakugan, he was impressed by how well regenerated it was. It only took a slight push to fully reopen it.

The girl smiled, about to thank him. That was when he used the one-liner he'd thought up moments ago, anticipating using her own words.

"No hard feelings, correct?" He asked, folding his arms over his chest.

She opened her mouth to speak, but then promptly shut it.

Could he count that as a victory? Rendering her speechless, with her own words?

With a mischievous glint in her eyes, the blonde raised two fingers. The standard, universal symbol of "just-wait."

Deactivating his byakugan, Neji narrowed his eyes as the girl's jaw clenched, and she gave the slightest wince.

Her expression was pinched for a moment, before having a look of uncomfortable victory. He really didn't like wherever the hell this was going.

Moments later, his intuition was proved impeccable by the blonde.

She turned towards him, lowering her hand.

Then she coughed.

And blood spewed from her mouth, and all over his fresh outfit, covering his chest, speckling his neck and chin, and he hadn't even had time to react.

He didn't even know how to react.

Vengeance was fair, he supposed, considering that she was still wearing the kimono top he'd spat blood on. Part of him knew he should be extremely insulted, as she'd literally spat on him after he'd been so cordial.

But he really just couldn't care. He had more important things to worry about than the blonde, who was an unpredictable variable at the best of times.

He turned away without a word, climbing back into his own bed, and wiping his face with a tissue. He then simply rolled over, and prepared to take a nap.

"Y..You're not even gonna say anything? No, 'ew filthy Uzumaki blood!' or even 'idiot?'" She asked curiously, a wry undertone to her question.

"We are... Friends now. There is no need for mindless insults." He said, scrunching his face at the word. It was like biting a lemon, that word.

Naruto grinned, her teeth tainted with blood.

"Awesome, so you really meant it! Cool, so can I give you a nickname, I mean other than Blood-boy-"

"No." He said simply.

"C'mon, don't be a stickler! You can call me Naru, and I'll call you-"

"No. As your superior in rank, I forbid it."

She scoffed, "Fine, whatever you say O-Neji-senpai."

His eyebrow twitched involuntarily. Of course she'd find some loophole, not only to nickname him but to use his words against him. And it wasn't even wrong given their rank difference. But it was relatively uncommon for a genin to call a chuunin senpai, and nearly unheard of when they were the same age. And especially, absolutely unheard of to use the prefix O-, meaning honorable, before that.

He could only roll his eyes.

Just leave it to Naruto Uzumaki, to be disrespectful and respectful at the same time. Correct, and also incorrect.

He had gotten no victory that day.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE, PLEASE READ!:

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HEEEYYYY THERE READERS! It's been a hot minute, hasn't it? Well, I'd like to say that, writing this chapter sucked. I hate it, it's repetitive, and I'd gladly set it aflame. THIS IS THE LAST, LAST! CHAPTER OF PURE TRAINING! CAN I GET A VICTORY SCREECH, PUHH LEAASSEEE?

This was essentially the line for Naruto. It shows every aspect of her training, talks about it several times, etc! Her fuinjutsu was discussed, not shown, because she doesn't really know it. Fuinjutsu will not be one of her talents until AFTER the chuunin exams, same with poisons. Next then! The doc for this story is so big, I could no longer work on it from my phone, because it was lagging soooo badly. Part of the reason this took so long. The other reason was that I was revamping this story, to fix old errors and change Naruto's age, along with fixing some ATROCIOUS formatting. Song lyrics are now present at the start of every chapter. If you hate it, lmk! Song suggestions, lmk!

As seen in this chapter, Naruto has got herself two new friends! By the way, I hope none of you are mad at how she tied (?) with Neji. Because uh.. It literally took everything in her just not to get murdered. As for Ino, she's going to be depicted differently than in canon. In canon, we know Ino hates bullies, but she treated Naruto pretty badly. This also applies to this Ino, but she's already gotten her shiz together, hence her new friendship with Naru. But also, I've always saw Ino as one of those popular girls who are actually cool. She's going to be the fashionista of the Ino-Naru-Ten trio, but she's also gonna be just as mischievous as them. If you're upset that Sakura isn't Naruto's friend instead.. Well, whoops. You'll get to see that in this story's sequel.

Oh, I never mentioned the sequel? Well, happy to inform! Just like in canon, I'm going to make a shippuden for this story. It's a long ways away, but I've already started planning for it! I've actually even started planning the end of this story, heh-heh. That's ages, upon ages away, though. This story is incredibly slow-paced. Almost excruciatingly so, for me.

Were you wondering why the hell the project Inoichi assigned Naruto didn't get shown? Well, my precious reader, do not fear! This is going to be published sometime this week, or maybe next if I get lazy.

Chapter 8 is the wave mission, be ready! I know a lot of readers think this arc is overdone. I totally agree, but I love Zabuza and Haku. It'll be a lot different, I swear.

So, my beloveds, what did you think of this chapter? Hate it as much as I did? How do you feel about her spar with Tenten, and fight with Neji? Or that line from Kakashi, at the cemetery? Any and all thoughts/criticism is welcome.

This year, for the Holidays, I ask you lot for reviews.

As someone with mental illness, your reviews give me the serotonin to keep writing! I have yet to receive a single flame or roast for this story, so if you hate it, you can send one of those as well. Hatred will also fuel the fires of my youth.

Thank you for reading, hugs, kisses, and head-pats, for all of you. Just a lot of affection, really, you deserve it.

Song this chapter: Sophmore Slump or Comeback Year, by Fall out Boy.