A/N: I love it when angry people message me then block me so I can't respond to their temper tantrum. Sigh, that means I have to do something I don't like doing and that's respond so that our angry little visitor is aware that rude keyboard commandos won't be tolerated.
For the rest of you that I actually respond to constructively, I will not sully our productive conversations during this repartee and ask your forgiveness while I deal with the unwanted interruption. Who knows, in the off-chance that someone else may actually have thoughts similar to this brave soul, I will include this one-time response since I cannot answer them keyboard-to-keyboard. For the person in question, and you know who you are, I respectfully submit the following responses to your… not-as-equally-constructive… feedback?
First and foremost, I have no need to pad my words. My chapters average between 7K – 9K of actual story content. On the rare low end, they're about 5K, and on the high end, between 19-20K. I write until I feel the major issues of the chapter in question have been resolved – unless I intend to stretch it out over several (intentional) chapters.
To your second point, it's useless drivel to you because it's not intended for you. It never was. I use this section to answer the most frequently asked questions by people that take the time to read my work and appreciate the process. We may not always agree on the end product, but it's a group discussion as the answers, while directed at one or two specific people, are compilations including input from several others with the same or similar question. Your unruly behavior, and attitude, tell me that you've not (and probably will not) be featured here at the beginning.
Don't like this section? I have included a handy bracketed header identifying "Chapter Blah Blah Blah" that's easy for you find. Skip ahead to it. Not up to a quick refresher of the previous chapter? That section has a handy section break. Skip ahead.
Finally, and most importantly, I don't write for people like you. I write for myself and this is a cathartic process for a reason. While I am humbled that anyone would be remotely interested in my work (I've repeatedly stated that I'm not the best writer and far from it), I am not motivated to change my writing style. Not for people like you.
I must therefore remain "disinclined to acquiesce to your request."
Thank you for your consideration. For the rest of you that have patiently either read or skipped through this 439-word personal message…
…Back to the story.
~Siva'a-tasi
~III~
A/N: Updated Feb 22, 2019 to correct grammar and spelling issues. The goal was to clean up some of the transitions and attempt to better identify when the characters are speaking/ thinking/transitioning from one scene to another.
Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto. Never owned The Good Place. (Jason is hilarious though)
Chapter 8: Troubled Bridges Over Deep Waters
~ Previously on No More ~
Back in his office, three faces huddled around the scrying orb while the Sandaime channeled his [Toomegane no Jutsu] showing them all the battle taking place. The two purple-headed women scowled angrily, one enjoying the pop Asuma took to the chin even though she knew Naruto had little chance of ending the fight victorious (she would make the young Sarutobi bastard pay for it later, somehow). The older Sarutobi clucked his tongue in disappointment before looking up to the mesh-wearing woman with an idea.
"Anko-chan," Mitarashi glanced up in surprise, "how would you like to help me teach my son a lesson after this travesty?" Her interest turned into sadistic pleasure, her vindictive gaze returning to the orb with a happy nod and a happily hissed "hell yeah!" through a tightly clenched jaw.
Back on the field, the two combatants squared off hoping to knock the other down a peg or three.
~III~
~ Monday Morning, Week 3: Training Area Ten ~
On a sunny Monday morning, two fighters stood across from each other trying to worm their way into their opponent's brain. The older and much taller one was trying to psyche the younger and smaller one out, nudge him a bit off his game as it were. The younger one was trying to figure out how he was going to survive the upcoming bout. Both were rocking back and forth alternating their body weight from the toes of their lead foot, both using their left to lead, and the heel of their trailing foot while a handful of spectators waited with bated breath for the inevitable charge.
Neither combatant was of the mind to concede defeat and that was shortly going to be problematic for at least one of them.
Asuma Sarutobi, an accomplished Jounin shinobi with a still-developing yet distinguished career, was descendant of the proud Sarutobi Clan and of impressive lineage. Born of Biwako and Hiruzen Sarutobi, the youngest son struck out early to rise from the impressive shadow of his father, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, also known as the God of Shinobi.
Not an easy task in and of itself if you know your Kage lore, but Asuma was off to a good start serving with distinction directly under the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni as one of the legendary Twelve Guardian Ninja.
Once again in his home village, he was looking to continue his personal legacy by teaching the next generation Ino-Shika-Cho Genin team. Fate, it would seem, had other plans and that brought him to the current moment in time.
Sizing up his pint-sized sparring partner, Asuma began wondering how he'd abandoned his normally laid-back demeanor in monstrous fashion, all so he could pick a fight with a fifteen-year-old Genin. He was unbelievably disgusted with himself but too far gone to turn back now.
Asuma wasn't the only one disgusted with himself.
'I gave that combo everything I had, and it barely fazed him!' Naruto was silently berating his hesitation yet doing a marvelous job of covering it up with a fanged sneer and butt-loads of confidence.
Frankly, the fact that it connected at all made this whole mess worth it. Not many Genin could claim a smack-up on their Jounin sensei within thirty minutes of meeting them, even if it would probably cost him a few teeth in return.
Cracking the knuckles of both hands, Naruto settled into a solid stance-left foot forward, hunched shoulders in defense, and a chin lowered enough that it nearly disappeared. With the element of surprise gone, his backup plan was to survive and maybe get a parting shot or two.
'Go down swinging, dattebayo!'
He was staring at the taller shinobi as if nothing else mattered, focusing all the concentration his scattered thoughts could muster and everything else began to slow down, the world around him coming to a crawl.
For a second, just a fraction of a heartbeat, Asuma's frame began to blur, his face fading to an inky blackness as something blue started glowing near the man's gut. It began as a misty ball of pulsating smoke swirling in a spiral before the image started growing sharper and small sparks were seen shooting out of it in random directions. Sometimes the sparks were blue, sometimes they were white and smoky.
The longer he stared, the clearer the spiral became until he could discern a second color at the very center of it, more of that misty white smoke at its core.
~III~
Kyuubi, watching through the boy's own vision grew very, very interested. "Seennnnssssooooooorrrrrrrrr…" he hissed out, his bored demeanor dimming but not fading, not yet.
"Huh? What? Did you say something?" The red-headed henge had his noggin canted to the side trying to observe what was going on through his link to the vessel through the seal.
"Nothing of interest, Namikaze. Just watch the show and leave me be." The perpetually-sour fleabag grinned to himself.
~III~
Then a leaf fluttered between them at a snail's pace, all sound dying out to leave only the rustling of its drying husk as it struck the earth between two coiled figures, the ball of blue flames evaporating before his eyes as the world came back into crystal-clear focus.
They charged one another, Naruto immediately being forced onto the defensive as the taller man's fist shot out in a cross. Giving up half a meter in reach, the younger lad did the only thing he could do: he dodged while bringing a fist up to block the crushing fist.
As a fighting style, Naruto's combative art, as previously described in Frankensteinian perspectives, was good for little other than brawling. It was, however, compact in application and supported his body type perfectly in execution.
With limited effort, he pushed chakra to his arm similar to when he leaped from roof to roof and stepped into the punch allowing the higher fist to slide along the back of his metal gauntlet. Even with extra chakra in his arms, the blow shook his body and made him grunt, his knees buckling for a moment and throwing off his timing for a counter.
'This is the strength of a Jounin?'
Abandoning his initial gut reaction, and feeling the bruise forming on his shoulder where the massive knuckle clipped him, Naruto changed tactics as the second fist, the left one, shot out his way forcing him to lean to his right and outside of the blow.
His palm lightly brushed Asuma's arm, from the wrist to the tricep, as he stepped in and delivered a straight punch to the taller man's small ribs.
At least he tried to.
Asuma pulled his follow up and slipped his right palm in the way catching the blow meant for his diaphragm with the solid whap! of metal to flesh. Drawing in his extended left arm, the Jounin delivered a punishing elbow strike to the Genin's shoulder hoping to break it or dislocate it.
A heavy grunt told him the blow was solid but the scream he was expecting never came.
'He's tough at least, give him that much.' Stepping around behind the boy with his right foot, he looked to end the fight with another punishing elbow, this time an elbow smash with his right arm streaked to the back of the boy's neck.
Naruto opted to tuck into a forward roll, planted his feet to stand, then twist about to reset, his right hand going up to rub the numbness out of his deltoid.
'Round two goes to the bastard.' Grimacing, Naruto hopped lightly from left foot to right foot as he weaved his way back in to fist range.
'This is going to suck.'
Soon as he closed, fists from above began to rain down from all sides.
The Jounin had cranked up his speed just enough to keep him constantly on the move. Not even bothering to block them, Naruto danced and weaved, ducked and bobbed, all the while hoping to tire out the older man.
He avoided contact whenever he could, or lightly brushed aside a blow when he couldn't. He waited patiently.
Periodically a blow would slip his guard and catch him in the body, a blow nearly dodged to take the burning sting out of it even if the strike still staggered him back a step or two.
Still, he waited.
So long as one didn't slip his high guard and rob him of his senses, the teen took the occasional body blow and hoped Kyuubi could keep up with the healing. He was biding his time, a smile etching its way onto a corner of his mouth as he saw sweat beginning to work its way down the side of "the bastard's" face.
"What are you doing?! Fight back!"
It wasn't the words that shocked him but where they came from that almost made him lose his focus. The Jounin's sharp eye caught the tick and nearly unloaded a sweeping right hook into the Genin's jaw. Instead, it ricocheted off the back of Naruto's skull.
"Tsk! So troublesome, woman. Stop distracting him!"
Shikamaru was leaning forward in his thinking position as he studied the fight. Beside him, Ino was ducking and weaving, occasionally an elbow coming up in imitation of Naruto's agile fighting style. Sometimes she'd lean to extreme angles hoping to mentally coerce him into matching her insane evasion tactics, often with little success as her frustration continued to build.
"C'mon Shika! He's taking a beating! Don't tell me you're okay watching this happen?!"
The Nara's eyebrow shot up as he flung a perturbed glare her way before going back to the action.
"He's taking a pounding!"
To echo the point, another blow glanced off Naruto's blocking elbow.
The Nara sighed in annoyance and watched as Asuma grabbed Naruto's shirt in both hands, dropped into a backwards roll then kicked the Genin skyward over his head, launching him a half-dozen meters into the air. Naruto tucked while airborne and landed roughly on his feet stumbling forward before gaining control again and bobbing his way back into the thick of it.
He was bruised.
He was bloody.
He was barely holding onto his calm.
But he was still fighting. The guy had impressive stamina and he was grinning like a psychopath.
"He's trying to wear down the larger and more powerful opponent by forcing him to expend more energy to land a blow. Your outbursts are distracting him and every time you do, he takes another hit he could have deflected or avoided. So, do us both a favor and keep it down so he can focus."
Naruto barely dodged a front snap kick from the taller shinobi.
Ino sucked on her teeth, her face blossoming a lovely shade of embarrassed pink, before diving back into her role ringside as fight coach through interpretive dance.
Another blow from Asuma bruised the right side of Naruto's ribs and she cringed from sympathetic pains.
Asuma stepped in closer and picked up the pace a bit. The kid was good. He had to admit, the clearly untrained fighter was a lot better than he thought based on his school records and this was without weapons or jutsu. Still, it wouldn't be enough.
He hadn't pushed him enough, yet.
"Trying to wear me down, aren't you?" he whispered out.
"Nice try kid, but we trained for hours at a time in the capital. I give you an 'A' for strategy against a bigger opponent though. You played it smart but fell short in the end."
Then he laughed, a heartless chuckle as he gave the blond some space, just enough space to let the message sink in.
Sink in it did.
Naruto's pupils contracted to near dots. Then those same eyes compressed into a vicious scowl as his fists, which had dropped to his sides in shock, came back up to lock onto either side of his jaw. Then he charged straight in as fast as his legs could take him and started reigning blows anywhere he could reach.
Asuma dodged the first couple and replied with punishing blows to the boy's chest, stomach, and face. None of them appeared to affect him.
Battered and bloody, the crazed Genin unloaded a blow straight into Asuma's gut at the exact time he took a blow to his own midsection, which probably kept him from being dropped by the following blow to his jaw as it was enough to disrupt the stronger shinobi's breath. That lowered the power of the next tactical strike giving the Kyuubi vessel the opportunity to land a second blow directly to Asuma's solar plexus.
It wasn't by choice; it was the highest he could reach with a straight punch, his strongest attack.
The last punch to the center of Asuma's chest staggered him backwards for a second but the now furious Genin hopeful roared to clear the cobwebs and lunged yet again.
This was a problem for Asuma as he was having a difficult time, even with chakra flooding his system, with regulating his breathing. It felt like the air had literally been blown from his lungs and his body wasn't responding in the face of the continued assault.
Like any rational person faced with a lot of imminent pain, adrenaline took over quickly followed by reflex, and the reflexes of a seasoned Jounin can be deadly for others.
Asuma's right hand shot behind his waist, drew out one of his punch knives, then slashed the charging berserker from left hip to right pec.
Blood spurted everywhere, and curses flew aplenty, mostly from the hissing, spitting, and yelling blond.
For everyone else watching, time seemed to stop. They saw the arc of red liquid, the graceful spray of drops as they sailed through the clear late morning sun. They saw the light reflect from the well-polished chakra metal forming Asuma's punch knife, the keen edge decorated with a thin blood-red film.
Four pairs of eyes shot to the bleeding Genin to see if he was dead, dying, or crippled.
Naruto was standing, his hands trying to hold his parted skin together while Kyuubi surged enough chakra to begin closing the wounds.
Asuma's saucer-sized peepers kept bouncing from the wound sealing itself shut before his eyes to the still-azure blue eyes of the kid he'd gutted hoping they weren't becoming red marbles. Instead, he saw something worse.
"First to throw out the rules, sensei? Fine. We'll do it your way."
The Genin brought up his hands into a single seal and roared, "[Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!]"
Asuma lost track of the popping sounds echoing throughout the training ground and understood why as the individual wisps were carried off collectively by the steady breeze wafting through clearing. When the smoke finally cleared, over a hundred angry blonds were glaring in his direction.
Then they all drew out wicked-looking punch knives very similar to his own only the kunai blades were half-again longer than the gently curving weapon still dripping blood at the end of his arm.
"Oh, dip!"
Ino's exclamation actually broke Shikamaru out of his shocked stare as he raised an inquisitive eyebrow in her direction.
The Hokage had a much different reaction.
"Go! End this! Now!"
Yugao and Anko both vanished in a [Body Flicker] then streaked off along the rooftops of Konoha hoping they would get there in time.
Asuma's eyes closed briefly as he muttered out a curse under his breath. Then the clones charged pell-mell and he was going full out trying to dispel them as quickly as possible before he got overrun.
Three down.
He took a blade to the left thigh and swore again.
Ten down and they kept coming. He pushed chakra to his punch knife shrouding the blade in Fūton energy and extending its range.
One slashed across his back.
'That's sixteen!'
One just stabbed him in the right thigh and another sliced the back of his left calf. They were hamstringing him like hunters stalking a deer.
Twenty-Five.
One just stabbed him in the side.
His life flashed before his eyes. Morosely, he found the ending mundane and disappointing.
Charging the knife in his hand with more wind chakra, Asuma threw it through a batch of clones and a nearby tree before it dropped to the ground. While clones were scattering, he clenched his jaw fighting through the pain of his wounds, and dashed in the wake of his weapon giving himself a little breathing room to spin, lift his left hand into a half-ram seal while lowering his right hand with the palm parallel to the ground.
Jiraiya, who was enjoying Naruto's dissection of the bigger Jounin, suddenly grew concerned and leaped from the tree he'd been hiding in knowing it was too late to make a difference.
Asuma's body began to glow, the light pulsing up and out taking on the shape of a sitting Buddha hoisting many, many, many arms.
The clones gripped their knives and charged alongside the original with a mighty roar.
"[Welcoming Approach: Thousand-Armed Murder!]," Asuma calmly chanted out, the ghostly figure surrounding him pulsing once before the phalanx of arms began to shoot out in seemingly random directions.
Turns out they weren't flying randomly; they were targeting clones in the air and on the ground. The staccato of their popping bodies sounded like popcorn at a Princess Gale movie.
Somewhere in the rapid dying of clones, three solid thuds sounded out and an unconscious Naruto Uzumaki fell to the earth hard enough to crater it while an exhausted Asuma Sarutobi looked on hoping to hell he was really knocked out.
Turning around to retrieve his knife, every bone popping and aching as blood flowed freely from his wounds, the Jounin straightened up looking for the broken body of his soon-to-be student only to come face-to-face with the Gama Sannin.
To the younger Sarutobi, the sage did not look pleased.
"Oh, Dip," was all he could mumble out at the moment. It seemed appropriate anyway as he'd really dipped his foot in something shitty.
The older white-haired man cracked his neck once, then twice before leveling an obscene amount of killing intent at the Jounin making his knees buckle and fold.
"So, tell me how you want to die today, Sarutobi."
Asuma gulped at the not-question before two angry women landed on his back knocking him face-first to the earth. Fortunately, he lacked the energy to fight back because they most likely saved him from the Toad Sage claiming that the Hokage wanted him in the Tower immediately.
No one moved as they waited to see if the Sannin was going to allow them to leave. When he spun around and gently lifted the blond over one shoulder, both ANBU sighed heavily.
"This isn't over, Asuma," Jiraiya hissed out. "This isn't over by a long shot."
In the next blink, he was gone followed very quickly by Asuma being escorted away.
Into the moments of silence that followed, Ino clapped her hands together loud enough to startle Shikamaru.
"Well, that was fun!" Smiling large enough to make her eyes disappear, the sparkle-eyed amateur gossip laced her fingers behind her head and sauntered off towards the Market District and home as if she had not a care in the world. Inside, however, her mind was blazing in every direction at once.
Shikamaru shook his head before heading to the southern clan lands and his family home.
"Troublesome. Very troublesome."
~III~
When the swirling dust settled, Jiraiya's eyes focused on the rear service entrance to Konoha General. Gently adjusting the blond passenger across his right shoulder, he strode confidently through the access door in search of his prey past the laborers unloading box after box of medical supplies.
Some waved. Others scowled and warned that he needed to go before they summoned ANBU.
Another select batch swooned with flushed cheeks as the thickly-made "shinobi's shinobi" strode boldly through the working zone and into the sterile inner halls without hesitation. Those brave enough, or foolish enough, to challenge him found themselves swatted into the nearest wall in need of medical attention themselves.
He was a juggernaut on a mission, the booming rhythm of his geta sandals thundering along hallways lined with smooth teal tiles and fluorescent lights.
As if guided by flashing lights and signs, the imposing master spy met the gaze of a beautiful med nin whose overflowing curves were tightly packed into the snug snow-colored uniform behind the nurse's station.
"What did you break this time, Jiraiya-sama?" she almost purred out not even glancing up from a patient's folder.
Without missing a beat, he reached down to place two fingers under her dainty chin tilting her face upwards, so he could look into her amber-colored pearls. As her eyes landed on the bleeding orphan slung over his shoulder, one of his fingers pressed to her quickly opening lips.
With a silent nod, Nurse Otoha rose from the desk station beckoning Jiraiya to follow her into an ER station where she snapped the curtains closed, one hand already glowing green with Iryō chakra.
As she cut away the rest of his destroyed tee shirt to begin her evaluation, the pretty nurse glanced worriedly up at the Sannin with a clear question in her eyes.
"Yes, the guy that did this is going to answer for it, but this boy comes first."
She nodded, her determination rising to the surface as her eyes flicked back down a groaning Naruto.
"I'm going to need you to stay the whole night this time, Jiraiya-sama." She didn't blush, nor did she look away from the boy under her care.
Jiraiya's predatory grin nearly swallowed his entire face.
~III~
Asuma landed rather roughly into the chair directly across from an extremely displeased Sandaime Hokage, his posture radiating extreme discomfort. He was hoping to swing by the hospital to seek medical attention for the wounds littering his body but the rather angry women apprehending him had other plans evidently.
If he wasn't leaking his body's life fluid all over the place, he might have had the energy to lose them and go himself.
"Tch!" he groused defiantly.
Anko raised an eyebrow and scowled at him. "What was that, smokestack?!"
Asuma clucked his teeth again. He hated that nickname.
Anko slapped him across the back of his head then went to stand along the far wall next to Yugao to watch the show. Noticing their "minimum safe" distance, he turned to the Hokage and tried to put on a blinding smile.
"Uh, hiya pops!" Hiruzen's eyes narrowing was the only response he got for a few minutes. "Look, I can explain everything."
Twenty Minutes of Really Slick Talking Later…
"Enough. I've heard enough." Hiruzen sounded too exhausted to believe the load of bull his son was spewing. "Perhaps I was too hasty in giving you your own Genin team so soon after your return."
Asuma leaped from the wooden chair, his hands slapping down onto the desk in sheer terror of the next set of words that might come from his father's mouth. 'No, I worked too hard to get here and lose it all!'
"Tell me what you need from me to prove that I'm ready, fa-… Hokage-sama!"
Hiruzen blinked. He could count the number of times, on one hand, his son referred to him by title, usually surrounding some incredibly stubborn decision made moments before. Ignoring the proverbial, "Hold My Beer" moment, his grin shared no warmth with the frantic Jounin.
If anything, Asuma shivered knowing it was either accept his fate or give up until someone else took pity on him. His father forgot nothing and forgave even less, a lesson he should have remembered from seven years ago. His other nickname was "The Professor" for more than one reason.
"You have only one chance to get this right, Asuma."
Anko and Yugao rose off the wall gasping, their annoyance cut short by the raised palm of their Hokage even as Asuma began smiling.
"In order to make sure you get it right, I'm placing an observer over you to observe and… intervene… if necessary. You will answer to them, and they will answer to me. If they countermand you, you may consider it as if those words had come from my mouth. Am I clear, Sarutobi?"
Asuma's smile had begun to fade but this didn't sound too bad so far.
"And the observer?" he asked timidly.
Hiruzen looked over his shoulder and smiled, the sight forcing Asuma's eyes involuntarily closed and a curse slipped out before he could restrain it.
"Kuso!"
"Oh, Anko-chan…"
~III~
Naruto stomped his feet in the rust-tinted water flowing steadily down the dimly lit hallway leading away from the cage.
"I am not weak! That guy was a Jounin for crap's sake!"
"AND?!" Kyuubi appeared to be unimpressed as he continued to give Naruto shit for losing the fight.
"He's been at this shinobi stuff forever! It's going to take me time to catch up and pass him!"
The great behemoth seemed singularly unimpressed.
"Not my concern meat sack. You want my help? Then you need to earn it and, as of right now, your credit ledger only has chump change in it."
The tiny human folded his arms over his chest and huffed at the condescending mass of chakra.
"Call me when you have something. Until then, this is all I will do for you, now, get out and let me sleep."
Naruto glared hatefully at the fox before winking out of sight. As far as he was concerned, this conversation was not over. Hell-to-the-no it wasn't over.
Still cross from the frustrating mindscape conversation (there were times that he preferred if the damned fox stayed silent), Naruto grimaced at the harsh light pounding on his brain, the uncomfortable bed, and the smell of overpowered sanitizers.
'Damnit! Not here again. Need to play it cool until I can escape.'
Opening one eye to the sound of voices arguing, all plans of escaping fled his fevered brain as he saw the same white-haired codger arguing with what appeared to be two robe-wearing frogs standing at the foot of his bed. The frogs were telling him that what he was asking had only been allowed once before among the Gama and nothing could be confirmed until the Umihebi approved it first.
'Sea... snakes? Sea-serpents?!' His mind was debating the possibility of mythical water monsters as being argued by a foot-tall talking frog.
What was next? Singing pigs?
The white-haired frog, something that unhinged his jaw open wide, was throwing around big words like "eminent domain" and "sovereign rights," things that made his head hurt not because he didn't understand them but because he could follow the conversation (now that Chishiki had been reintegrated) and these Umihebi sounded powerful, whoever they were. They also sounded temperamental.
A very soft-skinned hand reached over and closed his mouth snapping Naruto out of his funk, his head whipping to the left of his bed to meet the smiling gaze of Nurse Otoha. His voice sounded like he'd swallowed one of those toads as he greeted her, but her presence relaxed him and by Kami, she was gorgeous in that sexy role-playing fashion the old guy sometimes giggled about.
She was the only nurse he trusted, with good reason, since she was the only nurse that hadn't tried to poison him, yet. How the old pervert knew her was a surprise, but he'd worry about that later. The toads? … frogs? They drew him back to the foot of the bed.
"No promises, Jiraiya-boy. We'll present your request to the Great Sage and allow him to decree from Myōboku."
"Please hurry, Pa. I have to leave Konoha soon and I'd rather not leave him all alone again."
They clapped their hands, paws, flippers (whatever they were) together and vanished in two puffs of smoke, Jiraiya's face twisting up in thought before noticing the now wide-awake Naruto.
"Hey, Gaki! How ya feelin'?"
The boy groaned even as he tried to sit up a bit more.
"Like I got hit by the women that beat you at the hot springs when you go peeping."
Jiraiya tried to chuckle it away despite the cold stare coming from the nurse.
"You can joke so you must be feeling better."
Truthfully, he looked better but didn't feel it.
"Good, you're going to get a second chance tomorrow."
Naruto's jaw flew open again only for the giggling nurse to catch and close it once more.
~III~
"What?! You can't be serious!?"
Despite how dramatic Asuma's outburst, the Hokage was in fact deadly serious. He was so serious that the leader was considering time in the brig from Asuma's use of a lethal A-Rank jutsu on a fellow shinobi of the Leaf and informed the animated shinobi under his charge of that very fact.
'Game.'
"Shinobi? We were still in the test so technically-."
"You mean to claim that a fresh Genin fighting you to a near standstill days out of the academy doesn't meet your criteria of 'tough enough'?"
'Set.'
Well, damn. Old man had a point there.
The test objective he gave was to see if the boy was tough enough to fill the sandals meant for Chōji Akimichi. He had in fact blown the seams of young Choji's sandals apart like confetti.
"Not like it matters anyway. Jiraiya snatched him up and would probably dismember me if I came anywhere near him now."
"Then it's a good thing he works for me." Hiruzen raised his voice and aimed it over by one of the windows. "Isn't that right, Jiraiya?"
Over in the corner indicated, the very unhappy Gama Sannin appeared as if out of thin air.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tear the limbs from his body and mail them to different parts of the nations via shinobi courier?"
Hiruzen ignored the question and postulated one of his own.
"How is he?"
"Recovering. His tenant is upholding his side of the arrangement."
Asuma was intently studying the floor while his father pressed the Toad Sage further.
"Where is he, by the way?"
Jiraiya's dark eyes grew darker still.
"He's safe and he'll stay that way until I decide otherwise."
Hiruzen frowned.
"He needs to be part of a team, Jiraiya. He's spent too long by himself."
The angry, and very pointed, look the younger shinobi cut him could have smashed stone. While the Hokage was all to familiar with the attached argument, he chose to skirt the issue for the moment.
"I'm not leaving him unprotected with this butt monkey."
Asuma's head snapped up in irritation. Evidently, he took the snide comment referencing his familial link to the ape summoning clan seriously.
While Hiruzen didn't appreciate the derogatory remark, he understood the rage behind it.
"He won't be."
Now, this perked the Sannin's interest.
"Team Ten will be the only team with a surrogate sensei. As of today, I'll be assigning a long-term B-Rank mission to Tokubetsu Jounin Anko Mitarashi who will function as an instructor evaluator, her job being to monitor and assess Asuma's fitness for future Jounin-level responsibilities."
Hiruzen's eyes hardened as they focused on the (still) bleeding Sarutobi.
"Every time Team Ten meets, she will be there. Every time they train, she will assist (as needed) and supervise (if required). Her primary job is to prevent events like today and, despite the difference in rank, will be the senior instructor in this relationship, answerable only to me.
"Regardless of Asuma's seniority, he is to abide by her authority. Period. Where additional support is needed, I am to be consulted for final authority."
Jiraiya's eyes tightened.
"I like where this is headed but there's no real teeth behind this agreement aside from their honor." He glared at the Jounin. "As far as I've seen, he has very little left."
Hiruzen's grin turned predatory.
"That is why I've added some incentive.
"For Asuma, failure to abide by the rules and perform as expected of a Jounin shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato leads to a reduction in rank back to Genin."
Everyone not wearing the coned hat gaped openly.
"Apparently, he failed to pick up the basic lessons of loyalty, teamwork, and professionalism and I will make sure that he re-matriculates the entire curriculum so as to get it correct the second time through." He then turned to Anko.
"For Miss Mitarashi, her performance, monitored first-hand and through frequent reporting, directly determines her future status as a kunoichi. I expect higher standards of integrity from her because she, unfortunately, falls under greater pressures than any other Konohan save one, male or female. It is only fair that the rewards for that unfair criticality be equally greater. Should she do well, her field promotion will become permanent."
Jiraiya grunted. 'Huh, he used both the carrot and the stick this time. This should be interesting.'
"Sounds fair enough but I'm going to leave behind a little something to help him out when Anko-chan can't be with him."
Hiruzen's eyebrows peaked in curiosity.
"And that would be…?"
"Should the elder sages agree, I plan to leave him with a personal summon from Mount Myōboku."
"Oh?" Such a simple word with incredible versatility when used by a master.
"Yes, Gamaken's little brother should do nicely for this."
Hiruzen nearly fell from his chair.
"You don't mean…"
Jiraiya was smiling a bit too much as he walked back to the window, his hand on the ledge.
"I do. I am planning to introduce him to the Iron Battletoad. It's time he got a chance to stretch his legs." With that, the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku exploded into a puff of smoke captured by the late morning Konoha breeze.
"Asuma," Hiruzen turned his attention back to his weary-looking son. "You're getting a second chance not normally given to those charged with the development of the next generation. You will not get a third."
'Match.'
~III~
Message scrolls were delivered by ANBU later that Monday afternoon to the parents of Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka. A similar message was personally handed to Naruto by the purple-haired Neko.
The difference?
Instead of giving a simple meeting location and time two days from now for Team Ten, Naruto's spelled out specifically why he needed to be there and who would be there to help prevent a repeat of the morning's events. It was also a personal request from the Hokage to give it another go, just one more chance for the old man's sake.
If it didn't work, the Hokage would either find him another team of Genin or someone to take him on as an apprentice.
With that in mind, he found himself on a cool Wednesday morning standing at the same training ground waiting for the same team members to show up. The entire time he waited for them, Naruto kicked himself mentally expecting the same results just so he could tell the old man, "See? I told you so."
This time, instead of risking what few items of personal clothing he'd managed to acquire, he wore what would become his standard shinobi uniform.
Dark gray/nearly black trousers taped at the ankles despite the full combat boots protecting his feet (one of his clones had stabbed that prick sensei in the foot and he wanted to avoid a similar fate if at all possible) started his ensemble. A black tee-shirt hid snugly under a waist-length grey jacket with black shoulders and sleeves, the latter outfitted with the same snaps to hold his hitai-ate firmly in place across the right bicep, covered his upper half. This arrangement left his hair free to hang in his eyes, but it was a small price to pay since he could never get the thing to stay on his head during hard training sessions with the clones. His specially-modified holsters hugged his thighs and both belt satchels traveled with him all of the time now. He'd also taken to wearing one fingerless glove on his right hand since he wore his battle bracer on his left.
He was as set as he was going to be.
Reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket, he withdrew the Toad Sage's hastily scrawled missive to reread while killing time.
"Gaki,
"While I can't be there to help keep an eye on you, the Toads of Mount Myoboku have conditionally agreed to grant you a personal summons. Whether you get to keep them depends entirely on you.
"Now, before you get your head so swollen you can't find a seat at your favorite noodle stand…"
Naruto nearly swore at his blatant disrespect to the chosen food of all Kami,
"a personal summons isn't a full-blown summoning contract. I sealed a tutorial on the summoning clans, how contracts work, and the different rankings so read that when you catch a break. It's very important that you do so before you try to summon any of the three toads that have agreed to be aligned with you.
"When you summon them for the first time, I want you to say, 'Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Gamaken' and be sure to use a crap ton of chakra. You'll need it, hehe, as he has the contract you will need to sign in blood.
"Respect, Gaki. I can't stress this enough with any summons let alone the Mountain Toad Clan. People make fun of toads all the time, but no one makes light of a Myoboku Battle Toad anywhere near where they can hear it and expect to escape without life-threatening injuries.
"Show the toads some respect and you've got an ally for life. Treat them like trash or some bad party favor and…"
"That said, watch your back around Asuma. I'm not sure if you can trust him yet and any shinobi you can't trust equals an enemy until proven otherwise.
"When you start learning elemental manipulation, and get strong enough, practice the earth-release jutsus I left on the third scroll. I'll see you next time I roll through to see how far you've gotten."
-Jiraiya the Great Toad Sage
He'd just finished stuffing the scroll back into his jacket when Shikamaru rolled up with a wave.
~ Wednesday Morning, Week 3: On the Way to Training Area Ten ~
Ino had spent the last two days trying to sort out her thoughts from Monday morning. Despite hour after hour of sorting through the facts and rumors surrounding the isolated orphan, and there were considerably more of the latter than the former, she'd made no real progress.
Even talking to her father turned up a brick wall, something vague about client-patient confidentiality, or some such nonsense.
'Certainly, Naruto had been a decent fighter in school. I mean, he never lost a fight or many at least, but to be strong enough to take on a full Jounin by himself? Unreal!
'Okay, okay, calm down Ino. Yes, he mostly dodged and defended but even I could see he was picking his shots carefully, biding his time. Gah! So frustrating! He has no style to speak of, unlike Sasuke-kun.
'So coooooool!'
She flushed a beat red at the thought of a beautiful raven-haired clan heir with dark and mysterious eyes.
Sakura couldn't wait to come over and rub it in how her team had passed their sensei's test. She raved about how brave and talented Sasuke was and it was like a knife dipped in lemon juice right before the pink-haired hellion rammed it into her chest.
Holding the notice in her own hand from Monday morning, Ino couldn't at the time resist opening the letter congratulating her on her team's success and that they were to meet two days later for their first mission as Team Ten. The fact that it was written by the Hokage personally and dated twenty-four hours prior to Sakura's rant shut the smug girl down immediately.
As the pinkette burst out of the Yamanaka Flower Shop, Ino felt a sudden burst of pride.
Petty, yes, but worth it.
Worth. Every. Ryu.
It was bad enough her former friend got Sasuke out of the academy. To hear her bragging trying to rub the salt further into the stab wound just begged retribution so Ino obliged that small vindictive voice in the back of her head.
Still, here she was trudging back out to Training Area Ten to rejoin her team and her mind was still torn over what she saw during their first meeting.
He was strong, stronger than anyone knew back in the academy. Her father was unwilling to speak about that jutsu he used, what was it? The Kage Bunshin? She had asked to learn it and her father smiled sweetly in his denial claiming that casting a single Kage Bunshin would drain her chakra low enough to put her in a coma.
Two would definitely kill her.
His answer shocked her to silence.
Here Naruto was spamming them like candy and still had the energy to fight and wound their Jounin in a schoolyard brawl.
He was strong. He had ungodly amounts of stamina, that thought making her blush in a perverted way. With a little polishing on his fighting style and a little cleaning up-.
'No! Nuh-uh!'
She clamped down on the distraction of potential eye candy. Yes, when he was snarling at the older Asuma-sensei, he looked positively feral in that bad-boy way Sasuke couldn't match but she was spoken for.
Naruto-baka would just have to be content to gaze on her beauty from afar.
Still though…
~III~
Eight O'clock on the dot.
Naruto stood with his arms folded across his chest and his face as flat and emotionless as granite. For the first two minutes of the meeting, he did nothing but stare heatedly into the eyes of the man that had, for all intents and purposes, tried to kill him two days prior. Glaring at the man still sporting bandages and walking stiffly, he'd been largely silent save for a brief greeting to Shika when he arrived.
He refused to address Ino unless she learned some manners first.
Standing just behind the concentrating instructor stood his adopted big sister, Anko, the biggest shit-eating grin on her face than he'd seen in a long, long time. Asuma was clearly uncomfortable but he cleared his throat appearing at least ready to proceed and stop wasting everyone's time.
"Okay, it looks like we got off on the wrong foot the other day." He opened his mouth to keep talking only to be interrupted by a cough from the blond one that sounded suspiciously like the word, "bastard."
Undeterred, he resumed.
"First of all, I'd like to," his face crinkled up in what looked like physical pain, "apologize to you Naruto."
No reaction.
"I was wrong and disappointed that things didn't turn out the way I'd expected, the way things were-."
He stopped cold when the scowling Genin raised a hand palm outward.
"Let's just stop right here, Asuma-sensei." The respect, despite the unhappy tone in his voice, surprised Asuma enough to give Naruto room to continue unhindered.
"Let's stop right there and be painfully blunt to start this out. You don't like me, and you didn't want me on this team."
Everyone was blinking owlishly except for Shikamaru who was watching Naruto like one would a poisonous lizard or something.
"It doesn't take much to do a little research based on your comments Monday to figure out you were looking for the next Ino-Shika-Cho combo. I can only presume it's a status thing and I absolutely don't care.
"I will do my best not to screw up your reputation or get my team killed. I know exactly what my role is on this squad and I'll live up to it.
"All I ask is that you don't do anything to impede my goals and we'll get along professionally. As soon as I'm able to transfer out, I will, and you can be free to find a fill you'll be proud of."
Asuma tried to deny it but the words wouldn't come out. He was, in essence, getting a free pass on his previously shitty behavior and didn't want to wreck it, selfish as that sounded.
"If you didn't have a problem with me, you wouldn't have tried to take my life the other day so save the lies. I've heard enough from the people in this village my entire life who want the same thing. I don't need any more of it from this team.
"You don't owe me anything."
He was speaking with passion even if it was distilled by the anger still boiling just beneath the surface. Hokage always said that had the power to either win people to his side with words or to drive them away.
Naruto wasn't sure yet what he preferred here but he wasn't going to sugarcoat anything.
Maybe it was the fact that he'd been called in earlier to Yamanaka's flower shop to have Fuu-chan reintegrated ahead of their normal afternoon meeting as part of his new schedule with the clan head, but he was filling less tolerant of the crap and just wanted this out of the way.
He missed her sulky company already.
Behind him, Anko had a sad look in her eyes but it passed quickly as Asuma started up again by clearing his throat.
"Okay, Naruto. If that's the way you want it why don't we use that as a segue to introduce ourselves to each other, start with a clean slate so to speak? I'll go first so you know what I'm looking for."
The older guy painfully folded his legs still stiff from his wounds and plopped down into the grass motioning for them to do the same.
Two of them followed.
"I'm Asuma Sarutobi. I like a good meal of barbecue, a good smoke, and my comrades. I dislike politics and people butting their noses in my business. My hobbies include shogi and pushing my bukijutsu skills to their limits. If I had a dream, it would be to one day settle down and help rebuild my clan back to its former glory."
He almost seemed nostalgic at that point, but it passed quickly as he looked up at the long-haired blond on one end of the trio.
"Alright chatterbox, you're up."
Ino harrumphed before idly grabbing her ponytail, something Asuma took note of.
'Nervous habit I wonder?'
"I'm Ino Yamanaka. I like fashion, flowers, and friends!"
Naruto saw a bit too much energy in her and it was beginning to wear him down.
"I dislike bullies and people that underestimate me because I'm a pretty face." Her face wrinkled up briefly as an unpleasant thought rifled through her memory. "My dream is twofold. One, I hope to win the heart of a certain shinobi. Two, I will someday replace my father as head of the Yamanaka Clan and lead interrogator at T&I."
Asuma nodded once before his eyes flicked over to Shikamaru.
"Troublesome." He had to sit up enough to stop focusing on the clouds to speak and even that took deliberate decision-making on his part.
"Anything beyond cloud watching and sleeping is too troublesome. I dislike wasted energy, which I find beyond troublesome as it detracts from my likes. When I have a hobby that replaces cloud watching, I will be sure to let you all know. For now, my goals in life center around making Chunin, marrying a mellow woman, not too pretty nor too plain, having two kids, one male one female, and retiring as early as possible to take over the family herds."
With that declaration, the spiky-headed boy laid on his back and went back to staring at the clouds from between the leaves above his head.
Anko actually sweat-dropped as wave after wave of lethargic apathy rolled off the lazy Genin.
Asuma sighed as it was pretty much what he expected talking to Shikaku the day before. Then steadied his nerves as he turned to the one person still standing, his thumbs hooked into the heavy leather belt around his waist.
Naruto returned his sigh with one of his own as his eyes focused on the ground as he prepared his thoughts.
"C'mon, Naruto," Ino chided out, "remind us how you're gonna be the greatest Hokage ever!" She started giggling but the sound died in her throat at his unblinking glare. With his posture, the air of danger and aggression he was exuding, she suddenly felt warm and flushed. Unable to hold his gaze, she cleared her throat with a cough and suddenly found pieces of lint on her purple outfit exponentially more interesting.
When he started speaking, she snuck a peek up at his dark grey and black clothes trying not to blush as he looked ready for trouble at a moment's notice. 'Remember Sasuke! Blah! Blah! Blah! Sasuke is better!'
She peeked again anyway.
"Naruto Uzumaki, the sole surviving member of the Uzumaki Clan in Konoha."
This snapped up all of their heads, even Shikamaru's.
"I like training and I train until my fingers bleed and my body breaks. Even then, it's a distant love to my love of Ramen. I hate bigots and idiots, especially those that hate me without knowing the real me. I guess that means about ninety-eight percent of this village fall into that category. Oh, I also hate the three minutes it takes to make instant ramen. Three minutes is not instant."
Ino almost smiled there.
"My hobbies include gardening, fuuinjutsu, and training. As for my dream, I will become one of the strongest shinobi Konoha has ever seen so that I can take my place among the ANBU Black as one of their best. Then I can leave this village in the shadows where it belongs."
Asuma blinked hard. A self-taught seal artist was not anywhere in the boy's academic record.
You could have heard a pin drop in the grassy training field. While Ino's mind was jumbled and trying to reboot, Anko looked almost heartbroken.
Asuma coughed to break the tension. 'I wonder just how much he knows about his family?'
"Okay then. I think it is time I lay out the plan for our workdays. We'll start each…"
Asuma spelled out the gameplan and, for the next couple weeks, Team Ten spent every morning in their designated training field doing basic exercises (Anko's requirement after the first day when Asuma took them to lunch then spent the afternoon teaching Shikamaru Shogi while ignoring the other two) then working individual training followed by team exercises.
Their Jounin still managed to work in lunch twice a week at his favorite barbecue joint, Yakiniku Q, despite Ino's reservations about eating too much or getting too fat, something that annoyed Anko to no end prompting an intervention.
Naruto refused to join them for a social hour as he called it, so it left Anko free to focus on the female blond and focus she did. She'd work on breaking up her otōto's bad habits later.
The older woman took it upon herself to try and beat the fangirlish tendencies out of Ino when she passed out on their fourth morning of exercises having skipped the first two meals of the day four days in a row.
Still sticking to his claim of trying to teach the Nara strategy through games of Shogi, she'd also badgered Asuma enough to make him spin off a shadow clone in order to improve Naruto's bukijutsu.
It was something at least since he could never get the brawler to join them for a meal, and he knew a great deal about fighting in close with knives.
They practiced with rubber-padded training weapons but still struck hard enough to leave bruises. The scary thing was Naruto absorbed it all like a sponge from proper form and technique to creating combinations and attack sequences.
When it came to fighting with a short blade, the boy was a prodigy.
Inside of two weeks, he began popping the clone during their sparring sessions forcing Asuma to replace it at least one a day.
The Jounin sighed.
If this kept up, he'd have to trade jobs with the clone so it could play shogi with the Nara instead, who he quickly learned he could no longer win against. It was truly depressing so, in order to prolong the matches with the lazy Nara, Asuma started teaching the anti-social Genin some of his personal fighting favorites.
"Okay Naruto," the clone began, "today we're going to take a different path for your training."
The clone took out its copy of the original's chakra blade and pushed some chakra into it, the razor-thin edge of the weapon humming to life with a sliver of pulsating energy. Clear white energy shot down its length in increasingly quick spurts until it was a steady stream is hissing power before the flared shield of energy compressed into a thin sheath extending millimeters from the blade's edge.
Naruto was entranced. It was the most beautiful thing he'd seen since discovering Anko's boobs in her mesh armor.
"I call this the Flying Swallow and it uses my wind chakra affinity to form an extension of the blade."
Flicking his wrist at a nearby tree, the blade punches through the trunk and a rock behind it before disappearing into a puff of chakra and vanishing.
"With a real weapon, that last part wouldn't happen, and you could retrieve the weapon after. We're going to work on this for the next week or so once we learn what your chakra affinity is. It might not be wind, however, if it's not wind, fire, or electricity it doesn't mean that you can't learn this. It just means it will be harder for you to master so you'll need some patience.
"If you're willing to work hard, I promise that you can learn this technique and everything I have to teach you that follows."
Naruto's eyes went back to the tree with a fist-sized hole in it and the large rock that had been split cleanly in half.
What did he have to lose?
"Let's not waste time then. What's first?"
The clone reached into a vest pocket and pulled out a couple of strips of egg-white paper.
"Got these from the original. They're-."
"Chakra paper. I know how they work."
The clone seemed surprised.
"Then you know your affinity?"
It was more a statement than anything else and the boy nodded. The clone took one sheet and stuffed the rest back in his vest pocket.
"I still want to test you. Sometimes affinities evolve, or you can begin to develop another one without realizing it as you learn new jutsu. We'll be testing you from time to time to keep track since you're the team's powerhouse. Asuma will need to know what you're capable of."
The Genin took it all in stride and held the paper up preparing to surge his chakra through the offending strip. With his fingers glowing a bright blue, the top edge of the sheet split into a dozen tassels, half of which immediately began spouting water into the air like a fountain and the other half nearly evaporating into dust.
He had three! More importantly, he was another air user much like his father.
Asuma's clone smiled. This was going to be easier than he thought. With a grin, he directed the boy to go grab some leaves as he prepared to show him the first step of developing his wind affinity.
Once he set him to practicing, the clone returned the extra sheets of chakra paper to the original by slapping them down next to the shogi board.
The original looked at the strips of paper then up to the clone in confusion.
"Did you find out what his affinity was?"
Instead of answering, the cheeky clone smiled then released sending all of his information directly into the Jounin's mind.
"Good… Kami!" His cigarette fell to the earth and sputtered out in the still damp grass.
Anko, running Ino through flexibility and strength-building exercises glanced over her shoulder as her own clone put the girl through her paces.
"What's wrong, Asuma?"
He glanced at her in irritation but then his eyes shot back over to the blond boy sitting lotus on the grass with over fifty clones concentrating intently as they pressed their palms together.
"He has three."
Shikamaru finally made a move informing Asuma he had been checked but the Jounin apparently didn't hear him.
"Three what?" Anko looked over at her younger brother in confusion.
"Elemental affinities."
Both Anko and Shikamaru blinked in surprise.
"He has three elemental affinities, wind, water, and earth." Asuma swore he'd seen the very tips of the crumbling section of his chakra paper smolder, but it was gone before the clone could catch it. He didn't want to get his hopes up anyway.
That could have been the influence of the fox more than anything else.
He'd need to find a teacher to coach out the other two. For now, he had a chance to teach the next air user and this one had phenomenal amounts of chakra to support those energy-intensive jutsus he himself had to use sparingly.
Suddenly losing Choji, while it hurt, no longer seemed like the end of the world.
~III~
~ Thursday Morning, Week 6: The Slums Abandoned Training Ground ~
Naruto finished his morning run and took several calming breaths. He'd begun pushing himself increasing both the number of laps and the amount of weight through his seals.
Glancing at the seal decorating the back of his left hand, he saw, once he pushed chakra through the tenketsu there, the first three arrays fully illuminated.
It was the main reason why he never complained too much during Team Ten's lackluster morning workouts. They were so light he treated them as a second warm-up session where he could stretch out sore muscles after his early morning all-out beatdowns.
Speaking of which, he glanced down at one of his wrists thinking he would have to increase the resistance again soon.
'Four times normal gravity, not bad.'
Spreading his feet shoulder-width apart, he began the litany of stretches that would ease out his slowly tightening muscles. 'This has to be abnormal. People just don't develop like this.'
A reddish-orange shadow flashed through his mind. 'Must be because of him healing me constantly.'
He was up to five hundred reps and then a good hour of sparring with his clones which would lead him to a hearty breakfast. Spawning an extra twenty-five clones, he set them to work on the continued mastery of his first element.
Before long, the cries of shinobi battling each other rang out across his personal training ground.
~III~
"Stop pampering the Nara."
Asuma turned to look over his shoulder at the ever-angry Mitarashi.
"What are you on about?" He knew what she meant but he was hoping to hold on to his lazy routine for a bit longer.
"He needs more to fall back on other than that big brain of his. What good are all those smarts if he's got the comparable strength of a Yamanaka debutante?"
She had a point.
Maybe he'd add an hour of training on something easy. According to academy records, Shikamaru had a knack for genjutsu but was too lazy to develop it. He knew the bare basics but most of that could be solved by giving the boy scrolls and books to get him started.
Perhaps he could sweet-talk Kurenai into lending a hand on the weekends just for tips and pointers?
He'd try anything to get closer to that gorgeous woman.
For Ino, he'd lined up tutoring sessions in medical ninjutsu at Anko's request. It made sense since the young lady had better than average chakra control and the smarts to back it up coming in a close second to Sakura Haruno in the brains department. Besides, it would be nice to have a medic with them on missions away from home.
He grunted out his agreement and turned back to the lone figure curled up under a tree reading from a rather large leather-bound book.
Every day started the same as far as the quiet boy was concerned. He arrived early, left late, and worked himself raw in between those two events. He had a phenomenal work ethic and had already mastered the first phase of his elemental training.
Asuma figured the second phase would fall to his determination today, which was generating localized vortexes of wind around different appendages. He already mastered that part around his hands and was working on doing it with his feet. It'd be time to start teaching him how to concentrate that energy into a cutting force so that he could split rocks soon. From there it was just a short step to building a cutting edge around his blades.
The Genin possessed a phenomenal work ethic and a tactile ability to learn.
What would his grades have been like at the academy if even one other instructor past Iruka had tried to help him? Three weeks since they'd started working as a team and he'd progressed this far.
Despite trying not to grow attached, Naruto was starting to grow on him. They had a lot in common despite his father still breathing. Reaching for another cig, Asuma's eyes turned back to the grove's entrance in search of his remaining two students.
~III~
"Trash Panda, this is Rain Man, over."
Shika didn't know where Asuma got their nicknames, especially since he changed them from time to time, but he'd stop fighting them once he realized that Asuma tended to use them even after D-ranks ended. He was notorious for doing it around their peers in particularly embarrassing situations. If he went along with it during missions, and only on their team channel, it usually wasn't so bad.
It was very troublesome that Naruto still fought the trend sometimes. It often dragged things out unnecessarily.
"Trash Panda, this is Rain Man, over."
Silence.
Then a great sigh after his headset crackled with static just before another transmission came across his earpiece.
"This is…(pause)… Trash Panda. What do you want?"
There was a pregnant pause before another click followed by a terse, "Over."
"Trash Panda, do you have eyes on the target and can you confirm the primary identifier?"
"Affirmative to both."
From his vantage point on the roof of a grocer half a block away, Shikamaru could see the blond lowering his hand from the transmit button of his radio. Thirty or so meters in front of him he could see the lazily switching tail of a cat sniffing around a back alley and just the smallest hint of a red bow. Glancing down the sides of his building, he could see Ino hiding just around the corner with her back to the wall.
"Over."
"Barbie, this is Rain Man. Get ready. Break, Trash Panda start your run on my mark."
Below him, Ino lurched off the wall and turned to face the alley entrance three steps in front of her trying hard not to snicker every time Naruto's call sign came out over the radio. Down the alleyway, Naruto unrolled a bundle with wooden senbon individually wrapped in low-grade explosive seals, barely more than firecrackers.
Above the alley and across on the other roof, several of his teammate's clones used in finding the wayward pest were crouched down with similar wooden implements clutched in their fists.
They seemed almost giddy with the new strategy.
"Three…"
Shikamaru watched as Naruto hoisted two projectiles through the fingers of one fist. The clones across from Rain Man reciprocated the motion.
"Two…"
Shika saw the chakra fuses spark as Naruto's arm raised over his head.
"One…"
Ino started walking towards the alley.
"Go!"
Naruto let fly with the two senbon, which then struck cardboard between him and the cat. They exploded in a shower of confetti and gunpowder causing the feline to leap a meter into the air before tearing off down the alley.
Every time it paused to look behind itself, another round of senbon exploded on its heels.
After a third-round, the cat shot off like a brown bolt without stopping and leaped right into the gently smiling and cooing arms of Ino as she crouched down at the alley's entrance.
"This is Barbie, target acquired."
As she stood with the trembling feline in her arms, Shikamaru climbed down the fire escape to join his teammates.
"Thunder God this is Rain Man, all mission objectives accomplished. Team rendezvousing at station Alpha for debriefing."
Not even pausing for the double-tap-pulse response he knew Asuma would send, Shika tore the earpiece from his head and strolled off towards Hokage Tower knowing his team would be right on his heels.
Ino smiled as she stroked the terrified feline's fur. Their D-ranks had established a comfortable rhythm and the extra cash was nice for supporting her spending habits. She saw herself as the heart and soul of the team and was more than happy to concede tactical planning to the Nara, who had the superior skills in that department.
If they needed information, the group turned to her mind and her clan jutsus.
Naruto deferred to both unless Shika wanted his input on a plan, the latter all to familiar with the elaborate pranking schemes employed by the orphan in the academy. Everyone recognized stealth as his domain, but they were rapidly acknowledging his capacity in the realm of raw offensive power.
A thousand clones scouring weeds from a farm-sized garden turned tedious tasks into a breeze and allowed them the chance to complete three or four D-ranks a day.
It got so bad, Iruka refused to give them more than two missions anymore saying that the Hokage was responsible for maintaining the economical balance for all Genin teams. That they shouldn't be greedy even if their accomplishment rate was astronomically good.
It was so good in fact that Team Ten was beginning to pop up under customer requests. By name.
Meeting up with their two senseis outside of the tower, Anko's face broke into a huge grin as she held out a palm to her male counterpart.
Asuma grimaced and slapped a small fold of Ryu into her palm as he stormed off inside to conclude the mission report.
Ino looked up at the older woman in confusion causing Anko to chuckle.
"I bet him you guys would set a new record today for the Tora mission. He lost."
Asuma wasn't the only surprised one. Both the Daimyo's corpulent wife and Iruka both stared in comic disbelief as the squad walked in with the now calmly purring cat and not a single scratch on any of them.
"Oh! My baby!" Madame Shijimi squealed out smashing the bug-eyed feline against her expansive bosom.
If this had been one of their first half dozen attempts on the brutal hellspawn, Naruto might have enjoyed the sight and sound of its ribs being snapped like twigs. Given that they'd perfected their hunt and capture process, he only felt sorry for it.
Sometimes being alone had its advantages.
He almost spoke in the cat's defense.
Almost.
Once she'd left, Hiruzen turned to the Chunin with a very pleased smile. He'd won the pool on this team to crack the Tora time limit after all.
"Since it's only been a half-hour, what's left for them, Iruka?"
"Well, Hokage-sama, we have a barn in need of cleaning and painting, one of our heaviest paying D-ranks. We have the second batch of Inuzuka dogs up for their weekly walking."
He happily shuffled through a few more scrolls completely missing Ino's increasingly red hue of frustration.
"Aaaaaaaaand, we have…"
Outside they could all hear Madame Shijimi wail out in grief calling the name of her dearly beloved pet.
"...apparently another Tora mission coming soon."
Whatever the red-faced Chunin was going to say next was cut off as a Chunin from the Cipher department rushed in with a scroll clutched protectively in her ink-stained fingers. Brown hair askew and thick glasses making her eyes resemble permanent swirls, she thrust the item into the Hokage's hands before rushing off back to whatever secret den awaited her return.
All eyes turned to the Hokage's face as his eyebrows drew down into a tight scowl.
"Iruka, I believe I have the perfect mission for Team Ten." Without another word, he held the partially-rolled parchment out across the table for Asuma to take.
"We will give the upcoming Tora mission to the next Genin squad."
~III~
Strolling across the village in a bee-line for the Tower, all of Team Seven sneezed violently. As one, they stopped mid-stride and glanced at one another nervously.
Kakashi Hatake had the distinct urge to laugh uncontrollably.
~III~
One glance across the scroll and Asuma passed it to Naruto without a sideways glance to the boy.
"Do you accept this mission, Team Ten?" Hiruzen was looking at Naruto expectantly for some reason and so was Asuma now.
Shocked that they would be waiting on him, he unfurled it and started reading with Shikamaru and Ino picking a shoulder each to join him over.
The ponytail-bearing kunoichi piped up quickly.
"Who in heck is Koaru Aono?" She jumped when she heard a growl escape from Naruto's throat.
"He's a traitorous bastard in need of killing." He looked up into the Hokage's eyes before snarling out, "I can't speak for my team, but I'll accept this C-rank and go without them if need be."
"You did see that the mission calls for retrieval dead or alive, right?" Asuma's question came with a raised eyebrow but the cranky Genin never missed a beat.
"So, you're saying I can pick one, right?" He closed the scroll and held it up with his left hand.
Asuma clapped his hands together once drawing all eyes to him as he reached out to take the scroll back. "Pack for a two-week C-rank and meet me at the western gate in two hours for roll call and loadout check."
The three snapped to attention and strolled from the office without another word.
Hiruzen was impressed. "Did you teach them that?"
Asuma nodded with a deep chuckle.
"No, to be honest, I didn't even know they could be so respectful."
The faceplants from both Anko and the Sandaime seemed to roll off his shoulders like water.
Straightening his robes, the Hokage turned back to his son in all seriousness. "Make sure we don't lose him, Asuma. I'm giving you this mission because he needs the closure and there are two elite shinobis with them. Interfere only if you must. I'm putting a lot of trust in you to pull this off."
Both nodded before vanishing in their own [Body Flicker].
'Don't prove me wrong.'
~III~
[Jutsu Used In This Chapter]
[C-Rank] Fūton: Hein (Wind Release: Flying Swallow): This is an "addition-line ninjutsu" that augments the cutting power of a bladed weapon by flowing chakra into it. A dense blade of chakra is formed around the physical blade, extending its reach. Because users can adjust the length of this chakra blade at will, opponents can never fully anticipate the user's attacks. For the purpose of this story, I've given the unranked jutsu an effective C-ranking.
[Rank A] Raigō: Senjusatsu (Welcoming Approach: Thousand-Armed Murder):
This is the ultimate technique of the Fire Temple that is taught only to its ninja monks and requires the special Gift of the Hermit Group chakra. The technique is activated when the user takes a specific stance with their left hand making a half-ram and then extending their right hand down with his palm parallel to the ground. Once the stance is taken, the spirit of the Thousand-Armed Kannon is summoned to defend the user or attack their enemies. The spirit is normally calm, angelic and looks peaceful. However, whenever the user gets angry, the spirit turns red and transforms into a demonic-looking creature. Kannon then attacks the user's target with its 1000 spirit fists. The size and power of the spirit is dependent upon the skill of the user.
~III~