six
Gai watched Naruto argue with the merchant, waving around the shopping list and baring his teeth. He always struggled on the shopping D-ranks; Gai knew he hated them more than even the babysitting missions. It was part of the reason Gai still gave them to his genin. It would be good for Naruto to grow and learn from these interactions with the villagers. He had noticed the genin using the rooftops more and more and he couldn’t recall the last time he had seen him in the village outside of these missions.
It was not healthy for Naruto to completely withdraw from the village. He understood there were difficulties but the only way for the villagers to learn what a hard-working and wonderful genin he is was to show them. Hopefully Naruto could also learn from the experience; that he could get along with the villagers. There were reasons to stay.
“I don’t remember struggling this much with D-ranks.”
Gai turned to greet his rival but Kakashi slapped a hand over his mouth.
“We don’t want to disturb little Naruto. He seems like he needs to concentrate right now.”
Gai nodded behind his friend’s hand and Kakashi slowly lifted it. Gai beamed brightly at him before turning back to continue watching his genin. The argument was getting more heated; Gai could see Naruto’s hand twitching towards his kunai pouch but he was proud to see he was resisting. He remembered their talk about not pulling weapons on civilians.
“Indeed,” Gai replied, making sure to keep his voice quiet. “The bloom of his Youth is apparent more than ever but the villagers continue to be blind to it. There is hope though; this is the longest he has spoken to a civilian in two months.”
He missed Kakashi’s incredulous look.
“I don’t know if that’s a good thing, Gai. It doesn’t seem like it’s going well.”
“It is still better than his avoidance,” Gai said firmly. “At least he is communicating; this will open up the possibility for positive interactions along with the negative.”
He stubbornly kept his grin on his face as he watched his student grab the bag of rice and shove the yen into the chest of the civilian, almost causing the man to lose his balance. The merchant screamed obscenities at his student as Naruto hauled the bag over his shoulder, throwing a middle finger behind him. He could feel Kakashi’s stare.
“This is still an improvement!” he insisted. “His first week he stole the items and dropped the money on the ground in front of them. This time he spoke to the seller directly! His Youth blooms more beautifully every day! Soon the village shall see it too!”
“Your optimism is as stubborn as ever.”
Gai began walking, following his student at a distance. Most did not think he had the capacity to pass through the village unnoticed but when he occasion called, he was willing to dim his Youth if only briefly. It was a necessary sacrifice so he could support his student.
“How’s it going with him with everything else?” Kakashi shoved his hands in his pocket as he fell in step next to him. “I only see him once a week or so for his dōjutsu training.”
“He is making great progress towards the Springtime of his Youth!” Gai began, his voice rising until he noticed Naruto looking around. A bit quieter, he continued. “His taijutsu improves every day and he pushes himself to the limit every morning during his physical conditioning. He has been resistant to ninjutsu since he taught himself the water clone technique but he has learned the required E-rank jutsu.”
“He’s very particular, isn’t he?” Kakashi watched the genin stomp through the village. “I don’t know many genin that could manage mizu bunshin in less than two weeks, much less on their own. Yet despite his obvious ability and capacity to be a ninjutsu expert, he shows no interest and prefers punching a wooden post for hours.”
“He focuses when it interests him, but if it does not actively avoids it,” Gai agreed. “It is an attitude that we are working on.”
“We?”
“Naruto-kun does listen to me more than he did when he first became my student,” Gai said proudly.
“Are you making any progress on the teamwork thing?”
Gai paused.
“I’ll take your silence as a no,” said Kakashi, amused. “Next time I want to shut you up I’ll bring it up again. It’ll be a very convenient way for me to avoid your challenges.”
“While he trusts me and listens to my training suggestions, I have not been able to make any headway with his reluctance to work with his fellow comrades. It is a difficult mindset to break.”
Kakashi actually stopped, staring at him. Gai turned with a raised eyebrow, wondering what his rival was thinking. There was a strange look in his eye.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you doubt yourself before,” he said slowly. “Or be even vaguely negative at all. It’s not like you.”
“I am not being negative,” Gai dismissed him, turning round to continue following after his student. “It is not a Youthful mentality to have. I also do not have doubts; Naruto-kun is a shining example of the best Konoha has to offer and I am very lucky to be his sensei.”
Kakashi watched after him, that strange look still present in his gaze.
“Sure, Gai.”
His rival fell back into step and they walked along in silence for a few minutes. Gai took a moment to think on Kakashi’s words; was he acting differently? He had to admit that taking on a student was a bit different to what he had imagined when he had signed up for it back in December. He was grateful for Naruto and he truly believed that the genin was improving in most areas.
He would proudly proclaim to the entire village that he was Naruto’s sensei. He just didn’t know how to mend the rift between Naruto and the rest of the village. His student’s upbringing was a barrier that Gai had never encountered before. He loved the village and would do anything to protect it; his student was very much the opposite.
He grinned brightly as Naruto spoke to the woman running the lychee stand civilly, procuring a bunch without raising his voice or physical aggression. Gai turned to beam at Kakashi pointedly; his rival looked away from him in response.
His smile dimmed slightly as Naruto proceeded to pull a kunai on the next stall, his loud voice echoing over the village. There was still more work to be done.
Naruto let out a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. Frustration did not help him with the tree-walking exercise, it would not help here. When Gai had suggested the next step in chakra control training, he had been eager to learn. The satisfaction he had from completing the tree-walking still lingered and foolishly he had thought that since he managed that one, the next one would be easier.
Three weeks and three damp sets of clothes later, he was ready to scream. He had taken to wearing shorts to training now and paired with his usual black sleeveless shirt, it was much easier to rinse out his clothes now. He was still resentful of the fact that he hadn’t really been dry since he had started learning the exercise. At least it wasn’t winter; the heating in his apartment was bad enough without being soaked. The small lake beside the training ground was still cold on the best of days.
“You are doing magnificently, Naruto-kun!”
He sighed although a small smile did escape. He could always count on Gai-sensei for unwarranted praise. He hadn’t done anything to earn it yet but it was nice to have someone on his side.
“I can only take two steps, Gai-sensei.”
Gai bounced up to him, his bowl cut flopping over his bushy eyebrows as he beamed widely, his white teeth sparkling. He was still wearing the tight green spandex and the orange leg warmers; Naruto would have thought he owned some sort of other clothes but apparently not.
His sensei was still trying to convince Naruto to wear his hitae-ate. He had taken to ‘accidently’ leaving it at home now to avoid the conversation. It sometimes made his D-ranks more difficult since the village didn’t want to believe he was a qualified genin but he had to pick his battles.
“That is one more step than you were able to take yesterday!” Gai laughed boisterously.
His sensei hadn’t decreased in volume either. Nothing about Gai had changed in the time he had been his sensei but Naruto liked that about him. He was consistent and Naruto was more willing to believe his earnestness this way.
“I guess so,” he reluctantly agreed.
“Are you ready for your D-rank?”
Naruto cursed silently. He would have said it out loud but last time he had used that kind of language in front of Gai-sensei he’d ended up with an hour long lecture on the power of words and on how some would hamper his ‘Youth’. It was just easier to say it out of his teacher’s hearing range.
“I may have forgotten I was doing one today,” he sighed.
He reached down to grab his sandals and reluctantly pulled them on along with his kunai pouch and hoodie. He hated putting his dry clothes over his soaked ones but he didn’t have time to dry out in the sun. Usually he would move onto physical conditioning straight after practicing water-walking and that dried him off.
“We shall go to your apartment first, Naruto-kun!” Gai announced, taking in his still dripping form. “It would not be Youthful of me to allow my student to catch a cold!”
“I can’t get colds, Gai-sensei.”
He was drowned out by the man herding him out of the training ground and towards the village. He managed to break out of the man’s grip as they reached the first buildings and he channelled chakra to his feet, running up the side. Landing on the roof, he waited for Gai-sensei to join him before he began to jump across the rooftops. He knew his sensei didn’t like it when he used this route; he didn’t think it was ‘healthy’ for him to avoid the villagers. Gai meant well but he didn’t know what Naruto had been through. It was for the good of everyone that Naruto stayed away from them.
He headed towards the most run down area of the village. As much as Konoha wanted to believe otherwise, there were poorer and more dangerous areas that the lowest in the social ladder called their home, far away from the splendour of the clan compounds. He was considered below even these people but it was the only place he could keep an apartment. It still wasn’t easy as his landlady occasionally tried to boot him out but he had mastered the art of thwarting her.
He came to his building and raised the window, deactivating the security seal on the frame. It was one of the most expensive things he had ever bought but it was worth every yen. There weren’t many civilians who tried his window but he preferred to be safe. He climbed through and popped his head back out as he noticed Gai didn’t follow him.
“Do you not own a door, Naruto-kun?”
“Not one that I use,” he shrugged, ducking back in.
He threw his hoodie on the bed as he listened to Gai enter his apartment. It was a good thing that he kept it reasonably clean. It’s not as if there was enough room for anything else.
Everything was in a single large room other than the tiny bathroom, the door of which was in the left wall. His front door was sealed shut with the wood and metal covering it and there was a small fridge and limited number of kitchen counters on the wall beside it. He had a single couch shoved against the wall to the right of the window and a small coffee table that he also used as a dining table sat in the middle of the space between the kitchen counters and sofa. His bed was pushed against the opposite wall and the bathroom door was at the end of it.
The paint was chipping off the walls and there were chunks missing from the wooden floorboards. One of his cupboards was missing a door and the cardboard box he used as a wardrobe was getting to the point where he would need to replace it.
Naruto knew it wasn’t much but he liked to think he’d managed to make it his own. Posters for ramen decorated the dull walls and his small supply of books and much more extensive supply of weapons had been stacked haphazardly against the far left corner, opposite the kitchen. He would have liked a bookcase or chest to keep them in but they were expensive and it was working well enough as it was. He had plants of various sizes dotted around the room in no particular arrangement; he had just shoved them where they would fit. He had even found a circular, beige rug that he threw under the coffee table after cleaning it extensively. It was amazing what could be found in the right dumpsters.
“I’ll be two seconds,” he called to Gai as he grabbed some dry clothes and headed into the bathroom.
He didn’t listen to Gai’s reply as he stripped, throwing the wet clothes into the bath. He pulled on the dry clothes and opened the door, pulling on his spare orange hoodie as he re-entered the main room. Gai was looking around his apartment with a frown and Naruto sighed. At the noise, Gai looked over at him and suddenly beamed.
“Thank you for bringing me here, Naruto-kun!” He boomed. “Your home is full of the same Youthful spirit that you yourself exhibit! The plants are wonderful!”
Trust Gai to try and highlight the positives.
“I must ask why you have bolted your door in such a manner,” he continued.
“It’s safer,” he shrugged, trying to be as casual as possible. “It’s a rough neighbourhood. I don’t have much they can steal but I’ve been collecting those weapons for a while. I don’t want to have to start again.”
While that was true, Naruto did not mention the more pertinent reason. Disgruntled villagers couldn’t take revenge on the Kyūbi brat if they couldn’t reach the Kyūbi brat.
“How are people meant to visit you if the door is barred?” Gai asked and Naruto chuckled to himself.
It was nice that Gai was always looking for the best in him even if he had a habit of disappointing the man.
“I don’t get visitors, Gai-sensei.” He was still smiling slightly. “You’re the first person I’ve ever had in this apartment.”
It didn’t bother him. Naruto had never wanted anyone to visit his apartment before; he tried hard enough to avoid people outside his home, bringing them here would defeat the purpose. Gai smiled brightly at him.
“I am honoured, Naruto-kun!”
“What’s the D-rank, Gai-sensei?” Naruto changed the subject before his teacher could try making a big thing out of nothing.
He was his sensei; it was kind of inevitable that he would come here eventually.
“Do you have your hitai-ate on you?”
Naruto blinked at the question.
“Why?”
“You will need it for this mission.”
Naruto stared up at the building in fury, vowing to do something horrible to Gai the first chance he got. He knew Gai liked to give him the missions he knew Naruto would hate in order for Naruto to ‘grow and learn from the experience’. This was taking it a step too far. The academy loomed over him, mocking his promise to never set foot on the premises again.
He remained in place, as if the mission would go away if he waited long enough. He had to collect each academy chunin’s annual report on the curriculum and bring it back to the administrative offices for them to process. He had been told that it was to see how effective the courses were in creating decent shinobi but Naruto was suspicious. The curriculum hadn’t changed in the slightest in the time he was there and he could have written a book about everything wrong with it. He hadn’t been there very long in fairness but his point stood.
He took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. He wasn’t a student anymore. Once he collected these papers he could leave and go hit a wooden post for the rest of the day to relieve the stress of being back here. Gai couldn’t stop him either, not after doing this to him.
He made his way down the corridor, popping his head into the first classroom he saw. A sea of faces only slightly younger than him turned to stare. The woman at the front of the class turned her stern gaze onto him.
“I’m here to collect your annual report,” he explained shortly, bristling under the attention.
“Where’s your hitai-ate?”
He sighed as he pulled it out, cursing Gai once again. The man had known. The woman scanned the piece of metal before thrusting the pages into his hand, slamming the door shut behind him.
He had to repeat this process with every single chunin he spoke to. The annoyance just continued to build with every interaction. They all knew he graduated. He hadn’t exactly been invisible when he was a student here and between the altercations with the other students and his status, he knew these people knew who he was. They had to have known he graduated. Hideki-sensei had barely looked at him when he’d turned up at his classroom.
He came to the final door and slammed it open; he was done with being polite and respectful. He wanted to leave and never come back. If Gai ever gave him another mission like this one, he would tell his teacher to shove it. There was a bad memory around every corner and every sensei reminded him of the days where he was helpless to defend himself. He hadn’t realised just how spoiled he was with Gai until he came back here and was reminded of how much worse his life had been.
“That is no way to enter a classroom!” The sensei exclaimed. “Especially when arriving late!”
Naruto eyed the man. Brown hair pulled up into a spiky hairstyle similar to the Nara and a long horizontal scar across his nose, he seemed a bit younger than the other teachers. His warm brown eyes were annoyed but not malicious.
“I’m not late,” Naruto huffed. “I’m not a student. I’m just here to get your annual report.”
He held out his hitai-ate, already anticipating resistance. The man scanned the object before his eyes were drawn back to Naruto’s face. Naruto could pinpoint the exact moment the man realised who he was because he actually took a step back, his eyes widening.
Naruto rolled his eyes as he looked over to the students. They all looked back to him with varying levels of confusion. He was about to look away when he caught the gaze of the Uchiha; he prayed that he would keep his mouth shut. It was hoping for too much.
“You!” The boy stood, pointing at him.
A pink haired girl looked back and forth between him and Sasuke with a scowl.
“How do you know Sasuke-kun?” She demanded.
“I don’t,” Naruto shot back quickly.
“Who even are you?” The platinum blonde next to her raised an eyebrow. “Why aren’t you in our class?”
Naruto shook the hitai-ate in her direction, mentally urging the teacher to hurry up with the report. The man had been spurred into action by his student’s voices and he was rummaging around his desk, throwing Naruto nervous glances the entire time.
“That doesn’t tell us who you are,” the blonde said haughtily.
“That’s not my problem.”
He internally cried out in victory as he snatched the papers out of the teacher’s hand and left, abandoning the door as he walked quickly to the exit. He never wanted to do this again.
Sasuke heaved himself onto the rooftop, checking to see if anyone had spotted him. He’d been climbing up every chance he could get to find that blond boy again. He had to use his hands unlike the other boy who had managed to walk up it but he was getting faster every time.
He needed to find that guy and get him to teach him how to do that. He had to get strong and the other kids at the academy were only holding him back. He was reluctant to even ask this boy but he also wasn’t dumb enough to turn down an opportunity to get stronger. If only he could find him. All he knew was that he was a shinobi. He didn’t know his name and judging from his answers in the classroom, being vague and unhelpful with his answers was a theme with him. He shouldn’t be hard to find; how many other kids were there with whisker marks on their cheeks and an orange hoodie?
Iruka-sensei had acted like he had no idea who the other boy was when Sasuke had asked him after class, but he had seen the man’s reaction to the blond. There was something his teacher wasn’t telling him.
He looked around the deserted rooftop and picked a direction to run in. He leapt across the gap between the buildings and rolled to break the fall. He rose to his feet and prepared himself to repeat the process. A voice stopped him.
“What’re you doing up here?”
He snapped his head towards the voice to see the blond standing on the rooftop he had just jumped from, with an eyebrow raised and his arms crossed.
“You know the ANBU will personally shove you off the roof if they catch you,” the boy continued before he paused. “Or maybe that was just me.”
“What’s your name?” Sasuke demanded before he had a chance to leave.
The blond just looked at him.
“Why do you want to know?”
Sasuke gritted his teeth in frustration and took a running leap back across. He stood and faced the shorter boy.
“It’s not a hard question.”
“Naruto,” the other boy offered. “Are we done here?”
“I want you to teach me how to walk up walls,” Sasuke said firmly, holding the boy’s blue gaze.
“No fucking way.”
Sasuke jolted in surprise as the boy turned to leave. He grabbed onto his sleeve but was shaken off as Naruto flinched.
“I need to get stronger,” Sasuke growled, trying to get his point across.
“And I need a million yen and a painkiller that works on me but we can’t always have what we want,” Naruto shot back.
“Then fight me!” Sasuke yelled hotly. “If I win, you teach me that technique.”
Naruto just shot him an incredulous look that only served to make Sasuke angrier.
“I can’t fight you. Do you know how much trouble I would be in for that? You’re an academy student.”
“Are you looking down on me?” Sasuke hissed, his fist trembling.
He was taken aback for a second at the confused look Naruto was sporting.
“I can’t look down on you,” he said slowly, a stark contrast to the fury bubbling up within Sasuke. “You’re taller than me.”
Sasuke almost hit him but he refrained. He didn’t remember the last time someone had managed to get under his skin like this and the worst part was that he wasn’t even trying. No one at the academy was worth thinking about and yet when he found someone that he could use, he wasn’t interested. The blond didn’t understand; Sasuke needed to get stronger.
“You have to teach me,” Sasuke said intently.
“I don’t have to do shit,” Naruto frowned back at him. “I don’t owe you anything and just telling me I have to teach you is not a way to get on my good side.
“You’re strong,” Sasuke insisted, trying to make him understand.
“Well, duh,” Naruto rolled his eyes. “Now I’m going to leave and you are going to forget I ever existed, okay? Last thing I need is the Last Uchiha following me around.”
Sasuke hated that name. He heard it in whispers around the village; all it did was remind him of what he had lost. He wasn’t even the last Uchiha. His brother was still out there and while one day, he would be the Last Uchiha after he killed Itachi, hearing it now just made him think of how far he had to go.
“Hey, I’m sorry.” His eyes darted back to the blond. “You apparently don’t like that name so I won’t use it again. Seriously though, leave me alone.”
He watched the blond leave and didn’t attempt to follow. He did this last time; acted cold and vague and then turned round and did something considerate for no apparent reason. No one else had bothered to notice how much he hated that name, yet the blond had actually apologised for using it. No one had ever done that before.
It strengthened Sasuke’s resolve to get the other boy to fight. He would just have to find a reason to convince Naruto. He would start by finding as much information as he could on the genin.