(AN: I love the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and Rasengan, but man the Hiraishin and the other movement jutsu are just too good. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this next chapter, a small time skip as we move toward the end of the Academy year.)
Eight leaves. That's how many Naruto held as the seconds passed. He wasn't counting, even though he really wanted to, but the time had to be coming up, right? Eight leaves. His chakra circulated underneath his skin, pulling the green objects tight against his body.
"That's time." Nanashi's voice cut through the air. But Naruto knew better at this point. Whenever Nanashi joined their training sessions, she would always do her best to distract them, whether it was with a drunken rambling session or purposefully lying.
"A Shinobi must always know the truth. No matter who tells you something, always listen to your own voice above anyone else." She had been the drunkest he had even seen when she gave those words. Even Sasuke was shocked at the coherent and wise words. She didn't even remember seeing them that day.
"It's actually time now," A soft beeping noise filled the air, and snapped Naruto from his concentration. With a gasp, he dropped the leaves and fell onto his back, letting his legs flop free from underneath him.
"Oh my God, if I have to do that again, I'm going to die of boredom!"
"Congrats, kid, only two more to go and you can finally learn the basics." Nanashi's laugh caused Naruto to smile to himself. Sure the woman was usually blitzed, as old man Ichiraku said, but she was always good company.
"Basics, schmasics! I'll be the king of chakra control at this rate!"
"It's been two months. Do you really think you're some kind of prodigy?" Sasuke scoffed. "It only took me a month from start to finish."
Naruto stuck his tongue out, but spun towards the nearby adult, smiling proudly at her, "So, do I get my present?" Nanashi always gave him one when he hit a new goal, much to Sasuke's annoyance as the tree exercise and water-walking ones only meant he could get one reward each time.
"Sure, brat, free ramen on me."
The best reward.
"In another two months, you might finally get the ninth leaf for five minutes."
"Shut it teme!" But Naruto's smile never fell. Nanashi had told him the more leaves he could stick, the easier it would be to get more. It had taken over a month just to get to four, and yet here he was, three weeks after that, at eight. He was catching up to Sasuke, and with the early graduation test coming up soon…
"Let's go get that ramen. I'm starving." Nanashi's voice cut through his thoughts, and everything was replaced by his favorite food.
"Hey, Nan-chan, I got a question for you."
"There you go with that nan-chan crap again." He heard her whisper, causing his grin to grow. "Yeah sure, shoot, brat."
"Is it true you once beat the Fourth Hokage?"
Sasuke instantly groaned at the question, and smacked the blond on the back of the head, "Of course it's not true, dobe, why would you even bring that up?"
Nanashi started laughing while Naruto rubbed the back of his head, shotting a glare at his rival. "Shut it, duck butt. I asked her, not you."
"It's pretty obvious—"
"Yes, it's true." Nanashi winked at the blond boy.
"Really!?"
"Here we go again…"
Naruto and Nanashi both stuck their tongues out at the other boy as the woman practically glowed. "It really is. You see, just before the end of the war was announced, I had a secret meeting with Minato-sama."
"Cool! Did he train you?"
She looked down at her bottle, smile sadly as she swirled the contents. "Sadly, no, just gave me some advice. That is until I challenged him to a spar. I wanted to see whose speed was better."
"And you beat him?"
"Ha! It was easy. He didn't even get off any of his signature jutsu."
"You're so cool!"
Sasuke, however, rolled his eyes at the blond's exuberance. "It's not true, Naruto. She's been spouting this nonsense for two years. No one believes it."
"Because people can't handle the truth."
"And what truth is that?"
"My awesomeness!"
Giddily, Naruto jumped in front of the woman, hopping up and down as he asked, "Can you teach me how to be that strong?"
"At least someone appreciates me." She stuck her tongue out at Sasuke. "But who knows, kid? I'm a little out of practice. Maybe if you can complete the water walking technique, we might be able to talk then."
"Yes!" Naruto jumped around in the middle of the street, whooping and hollering. "I'll master it in two months! No! One month! Then I'll beat Sasuke, then the Old Man!"
"You're just making her head bigger, dobe." Sasuke shook his head, watching in growing horror as the woman struck a pose.
"Worry not, my children. For I shall show you the path to greatness!"
"Greatness? Is that what you call the bottom of a sake barrel?"
Nanashi froze at the voice while the boys looked around for the source.
"Are you trying to peddle that story around again, Nanashi?" Pushing off of a nearby stall, a white-haired man slowly shuffled towards the group, reading an orange book that Naruto vaguely recognized, while holding a half eaten apple in the other hand. He noticed the mask on the man's face and wondered how he was even eating to begin with.
"Hatake." she whispered.
"You know, I had heard you weren't making a mess of the bars anymore. I almost thought about asking Gai to check up on you, make sure you were still among us."
"Well, I'm here, so you can jog on somewhere." She snapped at the man.
"Oh? Why so hostile, Nan-chan." Naruto blinked as the masked man smiled with his eyes. It was almost creepy. "Shouldn't I be the angry one?"
"And why the hell—" She bit her tongue and looked away, glaring at the ground, much to boys' confusion.
"You are talking about my sensei, you know, as well as this villages leader. Minato-sensei certainly wouldn't have lost to someone of your caliber. How convenient you only sprout it after his passing."
"Bite me, Hatake."
Ignoring the woman, the man turned towards the boys, saying happily. "You kids really shouldn't be hanging out with someone who lies about their own Kage like that. And you should especially not listen to a thief like her, either."
"You've got a lot of nerve calling me a thief." Nanashi snarled at the man. "How's Obito's eye doing you?"
The happiness never left Hatake's face, but a suffocating presence filled the air. "I'd watch your words, Uchiha. Obito was worth a thousand of the likes of you."
"He was certainly worth more than you, you fucking pervert." She waved at the orange book in his hand.
Finally, frowning behind his mask, Kakashi stepped forward, changing the topic. "Even if. If! Minato-sensei somehow lost to you, Uchiha. It merely meant that he pitied you. Which certainly wouldn't surprise me."
"Hey!" Naruto jumped in. "You take that back!"
"Stay out of this, Naruto. You may not know it, but this woman is a criminal. A dangerous one, and a thief. Kids like you shouldn't have to deal with someone who was given a second chance and squandered it."
"Nanashi's not a criminal! She's my sensei, and a friend! Just cause you don't believe she beat the Fourth doesn't mean it didn't happen. Because guess what, I believe her!"
"Minato was the strongest—"
"And?" Naruto interrupted. "That doesn't mean jack! Because just like how the old man is the current strongest, I'll one day beat him and take that hat, believe it! And when I do, I'll make sure everyone knows who exactly helped me get there!"
"Naruto…" she whispered behind him as he stalked forward.
"And it definitely wasn't you, or anyone else, who makes themselves happy by putting other people down!"
"I'm not happy putting her down, I'm just trying to correct—"
"That's what they all say, punk!"
Sasuke moved to Naruto's side, pointing a finger up at the man's flak jacket. "How could someone like you be a Jonin if you put down those below them?"
"I'm not trying to—"
"Aren't Jonin supposed to be the best of the best of this village? A pillar to look up to?"
Naruto poked the man in the stomach. "Some pillar you are. Putting people down, why I—I—Damn it. It's people like you that make me want to leave this place."
Silence fell amongst the gathered crowd, and even Kakashi stepped back.
"He's right." Sasuke muttered before clenching his fists and glaring up at the man. "I have ears, you know. I hear all the villagers whisper, not just about me, but as Nanashi as well. I pretend that I don't care, but she's the only family I have left. And it kills me to turn the other cheek whenever someone talks about her. But the worst part is, is that at any point she can pull the clan, it's money, its land, and its contracts from the village at any point. But she doesn't. She continues to stay here and continues to take your abuses… and I don't know why…"
"Nanashi is—"
"Here." Naruto blinked as a wad of ryo was dangled in front of his face. "For you two's ramen. I—I need to go. Don't worry about what adults say, kids. What we say doesn't matter in the long run."
Naruto could only watch in shock as the woman slowly walked away, practically drowning herself in her bottle ever step. It—it sucked. He didn't like watching the woman act like that. Someone as nice as she was didn't deserve that.
"Now, kids—"
"What's the big idea!" Sasuke beat him to the punch, but Naruto was right behind him, glaring up at the white-haired man with vengeance in his eyes.
"Yeah! Who the hell are you to speak to her like that!?"
"Nanashi Uchiha is a drunkard who openly lies—"
"Well, at least she treats me like a human being!" Naruto spat.
"Well, Naruto, I think you are—"
"Shove it!"
"Do you know how much better she's gotten with her drinking?!" Sasuke jumped in, furious.
"I—"
"It's been over a month since she's been belligerent! And now—now!" Sasuke had never looked so red to Naruto. "She's probably going to go drown herself in sake again!"
"You're an asshole, you—you pervert!" Naruto repeated Nanashi's words with as much venom as he could muster.
"Pervert?"
"Is that Kakashi Hatake?" A crowd was forming now as whispers fluttered between the people.
"Oi, dog breath!" Two women were making their way through the crowds. One was quite brazen in her fishnet and trench coat, while the other wore much more modest clothing. "Are you reading that smut to children again, or something?"
"Now, now, Anko—" Kakashi tried to backpedal.
"Kakashi, didn't I warn you what would happen if I caught you reading that junk in public again?"
No matter how much Naruto wanted to watch the white-haired man get in trouble with the ladies, and no matter how much he wanted to figure out what they were talking about, he had bigger fish to fry. He grabbed Sasuke's arm, pulling him away from the group.
The other boy tried to shake him off. "Naruto, stop, I'm not in the mood for ram—"
"Come on, teme. The ramen can wait. We need to go see Nanashi." She needed someone right now, that was for sure.
The two ran, not staying behind to watch as the man was torn into by the two women as he pleaded for mercy.
"Shouldn't you two be at Ichiraku's?" The two had tracked Nanashi back to the Uchiha compound, but instead of being in the main house, like Sasuke first assumed, they instead found her sitting in the middle of the ground floor of the records hall. Naruto grimaced as the woman took a long pull from her bottle while surrounded by open scrolls and books.
"You're supposed to be there with us," Sasuke finally responded.
"I'm surprised you're the one saying that, Sasuke."
"He's not wrong, though." Naruto moved into the room.
"You barely know me, brat. Go eat your reward. I'm busy."
Naruto huffed and stomped to her side, ignoring the scrolls under his feet. "You don't need to push us aside because of that jerk, you know. We don't believe a word he said."
"And what if he was right? What if I am a criminal—a thief?"
"Are you?"
"Of course not."
Sasuke put a hand on her shoulder, "Then are you a liar?"
"Only on missions."
"Then why should we believe some stranger over you?"
"You're both fools then…"
Naruto finally moved to stand in front of her, grinning widely. "You're not the first person to call me that! But at least I'm on your side!"
"We both are."
"And I was serious about what I said earlier, Nan-chan. There's been a few times where I've wanted to leave this village. But between the old man, Iruka, and now you and the teme, I don't think I could."
"You shouldn't ever say something so lightly." Was that sniffling he heard? He couldn't see her face as her short black-haired covered her eyes. Yet her shoulders were shaking.
"It's true though! And If Sasuke is right, and you ever leave the village, just tell me and I'll come—"
"Stop!" she snapped, "You can't just say things like that."
"But if the village treats you—us," Sasuke corrected himself. "Then as a clan leader, and once of the founders, we Uchiha—"
Nanashi grabbed the two boys, wrapping her arms around their necks and pulling them in as she sobbed. "Never, ever! Ever! Say you'll leave this village again, you understand me?"
"But—" Naruto was cut off by the woman.
"Stop! No matter who you argue with, who you fight with, who you love, or who you hate. This village is your home. And I want you both to promise to never say that you'd ever leave again. You hear me."
"But—"
"Promise me!"
"I—I promise."
Sasuke was quick to follow. "I promise as well, Nanashi."
"Good, kids like you shouldn't be worried about something like that." Through her tears, she tried to keep her voice straight. "But don't you ever forget… words have consequences. Especially in a shinobi village."
"I'm not the best at keeping my mouth shut, but I'm sure we can work something out. Now come on, Sasuke's stomach wouldn't stop growling the entire way over. Let's go eat some ramen!"
"Can it, dobe!"
(AN: I just want to say, I don't hate Kakashi. There's definitely parts in the story that I didn't like him, but for the most part, he's one of my favorites. Next chapter is the first Early Graduation Test. Let's get to it! Also, be sure to check out my socials on X and Bluesky, James_SDO. This chapter's question, btw, is what is your favorite Mangekyo ability?)