In danger
The Hokage looked down at Zen as the man seemed to be trying not to glare up at him. Hiruzen looked down at the letter in his hands, then back up to Zen, "so you are saying, that even though your fingerprints are all over this paper. Which is a key piece of evidence against you, you did not send, nor write this letter?"
"That is correct, Hokage-sama," Zen replied patiently.
"Hm, and is there someone who would be willing to frame you for any reason?" Hiruzen asked, he had already discussed the possibilities of the letter's origins with his ANBU before he sent them out to collect Zen. Now that he was looking at the man, he got the feeling in the pit of his stomach that he wasn't being told the full story.
"I haven't much of a clue, sir, although I could only guess who might want to do such a thing," Zen replied.
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, "and who would that be?"
"There was a guy I hired a couple of months back," Zen started, "he was obsessed with Naruto. He used to work in the apartment building I owned, he seemed friendly enough, so I thought I could trust him." As he spoke, he thought about the man he stabbed months ago, he was using him as a scapegoat to get himself out of any possible trouble. If it worked in his favor, they would probably find his body in a little while, but by now, it would have already started to decompose.
The weather has been getting a little cooler lately, meaning that winter would be upon them soon. Konoha's winters aren't usually very long, and it doesn't get too cold either, there might be a couple of days when the snow falls, but that would be about it. There were hardly ever any blizzards since the winter sessions were much shorter than here than anywhere else. With that in mind, Zen was confident that they wouldn't be able to find the man's body until it had fully decomposed. He was convinced that would give him enough time to do whatever he needed to find his angle and leave the village.
Hiruzen didn't know if he believed this man's story, so he decided that he wouldn't take too many chances with him. "I see, well then, I am going to be sending you somewhere where you will be safe until we find the person that tried to frame you." He nodded to his ANBU, "take him."
The Academy Library
Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata were all sitting at a table with Naruto as they studied for their upcoming test. They agreed that they would help each other study everything they could so that they could be better prepared for what may come. They also planned on training together after school, "okay, so what of the things that we could start focusing on is chakra control," Shikamaru started. He was nominated by his friends to be the study group leader, Hinata would be appointed as their taijutsu teacher since her clan's fighting style revolved around their clan's taijutsu style and their use of their clan's bloodline. Chouji would be her second in command since his clan also has its own taijutsu style.
Naruto was eager to learn everything he could. He was worried about how his physical training would affect his pregnancy, but he would be able to ask Dr. Filo about this at his upcoming appointment tomorrow. He wanted to make sure that no complications came up, he was worried about having the baby, so he was always worried about their health. "Chakra control?" He asked curiously, he couldn't remember if he had been kicked out of that lesson or not, but since he couldn't remember Iruka going into detail about it, he guessed he had.
"It's when you use your chakra to stick to things," Chouji started.
"It's also used to give you more control of your chakra so that you can use less of it during fights," Hinata explained. "There are two methods, one is called 'Tree Climbing', and the other is 'Water Walking'. My clan usually use those methods with kids before they are six years old so that they can learn the more advanced methods."
"There are more than two methods?" Naruto asked looking up from one of the textbooks he had taken off the shelves to study from. He had flipped to the section labeled 'Chakra Control' to read about the two methods he just learned about, he didn't see any other methods other than the first two.
Shikamaru nodded, "everyone who wants to be a ninja knows about those two, but anyone who is from a clan will know of more. Each clan uses its own advanced methods, but the end results are the same across the board. With that said, the clans will usually keep all of their own advanced methods to themselves as clan secrets since everyone has their own."
Naruto pouted, "I guess I can't learn about those methods since I'm not a part of any of your clans, huh?"
"Not exactly," Chouji replied, "if there is a clan member who wants to teach an outsider their methods, as long as it's not a clan Jutsu, it should be fine."
Naruto smiled, "alright, then when should we start?" He wanted to start learning the technique as soon as possible, but his friends looked at each other, they were unsure of the effects of chakra control training on someone who was pregnant. Especially someone so young.
"I think we should talk to Dr. Filo first," Hinata started slowly.
Shikamaru nodded, "yeah, it's better safe than sorry. You are considered to be a high risk because of your age and all," he made sure to read up on pregnancy terms and conditions so he could know what to expect in the coming months. So far, Naruto seemed to be progressing smoothly from what he could see.
"Alright, we can do that," Naruto said as he put down his book. Just then the bell for class rang, "oh, we have our exam today, right?"
"Right," Hinata nodded as she picked up her stuff, Chouji and Shikamaru were doing the same thing. "Don't worry, Naru-chan, with how much studying you've have been doing, you should do good on your test."
"At least they will be judging your scores more fairly since you're new," Chouji reassured him.
"Let's hope so," Naruto muttered to himself as he also gathered his stuff before following his friends to class.
In class
Naruto was still worried about the test, he made sure to study every subject that came up in class. Now that he was Mia, he was allowed to check out books and be in the library for longer periods of time instead of worrying about being chased out within a certain time limit. When he got his paper, he started to write his name down on the paper until he realized that he couldn't put 'Naruto' but 'Mia' instead. He quickly erased the letters before writing down his new name before giving a quick glance around to see if there was anyone who noticed. He might have been acting paranoid, he decided to just focus solely on his test and nothing else.
"Alright, does everyone have a test paper?" Iruka asked, the class replied with a unified 'yes', "then we'll begin. Remember, you can look down in desperation, look up in desperation, never look side to side for inspiration. You have two hours to fill in all of the answers, make sure to put your name and date on YOUR OWN paper. You may be here to learn how to be ninjas, but you will never learn anything if you let someone else do all of your work for you. Begin!"
Naruto started filling out all of the questions one by one, focusing on each one before moving to the next. He didn't know how many of the questions he was going to get right since he was used to getting everything wrong, no matter if the answer made sense to him at the time. The room feels silent safe for the scrapes and scratches of pencils as they moved across the paper. After a while, Naruto started to get comfortable with only focusing on his test, he felt better about all the time he spent studying the past few weeks. Even if he didn't have to score a passing grade on this test, he felt better if he did.
When the time was up, Iruka called for all pencils to be put down and test papers to be passed to the front. Once all of the papers had been turned in, Iruka addressed the class. "I hope everyone studied well into the night for this test, whatever grade you get on this exam will determine if you are fit to move on to the following year. You need to score at least seventy percent to pass, anything below that will be considered a failing grade. Please keep that in mind going forward, you will be getting the results back tomorrow around this time." Iruka put the stack of test papers on his desk, "everyone is dismissed for today, make sure to come back early tomorrow for your taijutsu exam."
Hinata and Mia got up from their seats to get ready to leave with the rest of the class when Kiba came over to them. "Um, Mia, if you don't mind, c-can we t-talk?" He asked, Naruto could tell that he was nervous, so he was going to give him a chance this time. He would listen to the Inuzuka, but he wasn't going to go out with him or anything. That might be pushing the bar a bit.
"Okay, fine, let's talk," Mia said waiting for him to say what he needed. Kiba looked a little nervous, especially when there were so many people stopping to watch what was going on. Most of them happened to be in Mia's fan club.
"Uh...um, well, I was just wondering if," Kiba started stuttering a bit as he tried to stumble his way through his words. He couldn't think straight now that he was standing right in front of his crush. The prettiest girl in the whole school, how could he be talking to her right now? "Uhm, I...want...to ask you...to....have dinner? W-with me?"
"Oh, um..." Mia looked back to Hinata for answers, she did not want to go out with anyone from class, let alone the school in general.
"Uh, sorry, Kiba, Mi-chan's having dinner at my house tonight," Hinata spoke up. Since Kiba was talking to Mia, who was sitting closer to the alies, Hinata was trapped until they were done.
"Yeah, what she said," Mia nodded as she tried to step out and to the side of her desk row to let Hinata out. Shikamaru and Chouji were already waiting for them at the top of the stairs. "Sorry, Kiba, maybe some other time," she turned away from the Inuzuka to make her way up the steps. Hinata wasn't too far behind her, throwing a glance over to Kiba, who looked a little heartbroken, as she went to join her friends. The four of them made their way out of the classroom as everyone watched them leave before looking back to Kiba who looked to have been frozen stiff.
Outside with Mia and friends, they made their way over to the front gate. "So what was all of that about, Naru?" Chouji asked curiously, "it looked like Kiba was trying to ask you out."
Naruto shivered, "yeah, but I'm not looking forward to getting in a relationship any time soon. If at all," he sighed deeply, "I would much rather just live my life for me."
"As you should," Shikamaru yawned, "it's such a drag to follow everyone else."
"Well then, I'll see you guys later," Chouji said after they walked out of the gate. "I've got some errands to do with my dad, so I'll see you guys for dinner."
"And I have some training to do with father," Hinata said dejectedly. "But when I came back, Naru-chan," she stepped in front of Naruto to get his full attention.
"Huh? What?" Naruto came back to reality, he didn't realize that his mind had wandered until now.
Hinata gave him a big smile as she held his hands, "tomorrow, we're going to be going shopping early tomorrow, okay? We should start getting everything we need early, and there's a lot of stuff to get."
"Oh, yeah, okay..." Naruto nodded hesitantly, "sounds like a plan."
"Great!" Hinata smiled even brighter as she pulled him into a tight squeeze before pulling back and practically skipped away.
Naruto sighed, "well, that's nice. I guess I should start thinking about those types of things soon." Shikamaru watched Naruto for a second before patting his head softly, "hm? Shika?" He didn't mind Shikamaru patting his head, his hand was warm, making him feel safe, a feeling that he was only just starting to know after hanging out with him more.
"Oh, sorry, you just seemed to need it, I guess," Shikamaru pulled back his hand and started walking. Shikamaru and Naruto made their way over to the library, going their usual route. "I'll come to pick you up later," he said as he dropped Naruto off, watching him walk into the building before going on his own way.
Three months later
Over the past few months, Naruto has been studying nonstop. Any subject he gets, he tries to study everything he can about it before moving on to the next. His doctor did clear him for some light training but did not recommend doing chakra control training until after the baby was born. Since tree walking involved a lot of falling from high places, and water walking was also risky, it was better safe than sorry. However, that did not stop Naruto from learning other chakra control methods from Kyuubi and Hinata.
Leaf Spinning.
Kyuubi told him to learn it so he could control his chakra usage. When Naruto asked Hinata about it, she told him how it worked. By using his chakra to hold the leaf somewhere on his body, keeping it in place for as long as he can. If he can keep the leaf stuck to him, then he can move on to the next step which was using his chakra to make the leaf spin in place. He wanted to learn this method since it was less risky than trying to walk up a tree while pregnant.
Speaking of his pregnancy, it was going much better than Filo thought it would have. Naruto was able to see his baby's development with the ultrasound, he was also gifted pictures of his baby as well. Hinata suggested starting a scrapbook, so Naruto saved up some money and bought a decently priced camera. Hinata tried to take Naruto shopping for baby clothes as much as she could, she would even donate some of her own money towards the babies. Naruto was pretty sure that she would make a great aunty since she was already acting like one.
Naruto was also saving up some of his own money to put towards his own house. He still had his heart set on living in the woods where he could be closer to nature and as far away from the rest of the villagers as he could possibly be. He was still a long way away from getting his dream home, but he wasn't going to give up on it. He wished he could move into his dream home before his baby was born, but he knew that was just wishful thinking.
Naruto's school life was going well too. He was focused on his grades and took every chance he could get to study, he quickly became the top of his class. He tided with Sakura as the smartest girl in the class, while Shikamaru beat Sasuke as the smartest boy without trying too hard. This didn't sit well with either Sakura or Sasuke. But since he was making way better grades as Mia than Naruto, he was thrilled to keep doing his best. His friends promised to do their best as well, keeping up their support of each other made them grow much closer than ever before. Much like a real family.
However, since Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji have been spending so much time together lately, their parents have started to get curious about what they have been doing. They wanted to know why they were always having dinners together, or who this mystery friend was that they kept talking about. Choza, Inoichi, and Shikaku were having drinks the night before when they drank a little too much and came up with the idea of following the boys for the day tomorrow. They thought that if they couldn't get their kids to tell them what they were really doing, then they might as well use their ninja skills to find out for themselves, right?
That same night, Hiashi came to the same conclusion as well. But instead of following his daughter around himself, he tasked his nephew, Neji, to do it for him. Neji didn't have much choice in the matter since he was a part of the branch side of the clan, so disobeying orders would not fly. Neji didn't really care too much for Hinata, but recently, she seemed to have a subtle change to her that he started to notice a couple of weeks ago. She seemed happier whenever he saw her walking around the village, she even made some friends. Or he assumed that the Nara and Akimichi heirs were her friends, along with that one girl who transferred into the academy a couple of months ago.
Neji was curious about this girl, he was able to figure out that her name was Mia. She had an older brother and sister that she lives with, and works at the central library after school during the week. Other than her beauty, she was very smart, and her grades showed it flawlessly. He did notice that Hinata seemed to be really close to Mia, and it seems that Shikamaru and Chouji were too. Their classmates say that the four of them were always seen together, this made Neji even more curious about their relationship.
The academy, after school
Naruto heaved a heavy sigh, "man, I'm sooo tired! I just wanna take a long nap," he said as he stood up to stretch his back. He was starting to experience some unbalance because of his stomach's weight gain. He would often feel like he would fall if he leaned too much to the front or the back, but he read that this would be normal when he got further along. That didn't mean that he had to like the backache that came along with it.
Hinata chuckled, "you did get to have an extra day off today, right?"
Naruto nodded, "yeah, Liv said that they were renovating one of the wings, so she said I could have today off." It was Friday once again and he was given an extra day off, he was a little surprised and had no idea what he would do with the extra time.
Hinata knew exactly what they were going to do, "then we're going back to the market today."
"Again?" Naruto frowned, the last time they went shopping, Hinata ran through each store looking for every item that was listed on Naruto's shopping list. So far, they got a bassinet, a small laundry basket, a changing table, a high chair, bottles, pacifiers, blankets, toys, and a baby carrier. The trip went by so fast that Naruto could barely remember half of the experience as just going from store to store and Hinata ohing and awing about who things were just so cute.
Hinata nodded, "yep! We still have so much stuff to get." She took Naruto by the hand and quickly started walking out of the room, Shikamaru and Chouji caught up to her as they followed behind them. "Even though we've already got the essential stuff, we still need to get the most important things."
"Which would be?" Naruto asked not really looking forward to the experience again.
"The clothes, duh," Hinata was really excited now, she picked up her pace.
Naruto looked back to Shikamaru and Chouji, "are you guys coming too?"
The two boys looked at each other and shrugged, "might as well," Shikamaru said as he stretched his arms to the sky. The group of four were making their way over to the front gate when Sasuke stepped in front of them, blocking their path, "great, what do you want?" Shikamaru was annoyed by the Uchiha, this wasn't the first time that he stopped them from leaving the academy grounds.
Sasuke folded his arms in front of him as he looked directly at Mia, who was not paying much attention to the Uchiha at all. Instead, Mia was listening to Hinata talking about which stores they should go to first on their sure-to-be long shopping trip. If anything, Naruto would not mind the trip too much if Hinata went about it slower than before. "Tch, you, go out with me," Sasuke demanded once he noticed that Mia wasn't even looking in his direction.
"Who's he talking to?" Chouji whispered to his friend, Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders as he was not a mind reader.
"Okay, so we can just go there first since it's closer," Naruto said as started to head for the gate, but stopped when noticing Sasuke. "Hm, uh, is there something you need?"
"Hn, go out with me," Sasuke repeated as he looked Mia up and down. "She's not too bad looking either, she's probably the smartest girl in the whole class. She might make a much better wife than the others in my fan club." He thought with a small smirk on his face, he didn't think Mia would say now since he was usually chased by loads of girls daily. He thought that there was no need for him to worry.
"Uh, what? No, thanks, but I'm not looking for that," Naruto said looking back at his friends. He was starting to wonder if someone was setting him up or something because Sasuke was the third person to ask him out on a date this week.
Sasuke didn't like that answer, "why not? Do you already have a boyfriend?" He glanced back at Shikamaru and Chouji, wondering which one of them was dating Mia without him knowing. He didn't think that either one of them was better than him, "I'm way better than those two. I can get you whatever you want," he thought that would be a good selling point since he hears that Mia was just about to go shopping with Hinata.
"Um, no, thanks, I have my own money," Naruto said as he walked around Sasuke. The way that Sasuke was trying to make his date him was a little creepy, it kind of reminded him of Zen in a way. Which was a very scary thought. He took Hinata's hand and tried to get past Sasuke quickly.
Naruto didn't like the way that Sasuke was coming on to him. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata can all tell that Sasuke was trying to make Naruto a part of his future harem. Since their parents are on the council, they can find out about what was happening in the village if they searched their offices or just asked. Either way, Sasuke was not going to give up on trying to date Mia, who was actually Naruto. It was also clear that the Uchiha was going to continue to be pushy about the subject until Naruto gave him a reason not to want him. Of course, that doesn't mean that Shikamaru was going to let someone like Sasuke get too close to his friend.
"Fine, we'll pick this up later," Sasuke said as he walked out of the academy gates first.
Naruto rolled his eyes, "what's up with that guy?"
"Who knows?" Shikamaru shook his head and continued to walk towards market place, Hinata, Chouji, and Naruto followed after him. They quickly put Sasuke out of their minds in order to enjoy Naruto's day off with him. They spent most of the day shopping for baby clothes, soap, shampoo, etc. so they were pretty busy going through each shop that they didn't notice there were people following them. When they were done shopping for the day, they settled down in the park for a late picnic before taking their bags home.
Later that night, Shikaku, Inoichi, and Chouza decided that they should meet their sons, Shikamaru and Chouji, and their friends. They know Hinata because she is the daughter of Hiashi, but they haven't found out a whole lot about the other girl they seem to always be with. Hiashi also came to that conclusion after hearing Neji's report. He didn't like the thought of Hinata hanging out with anyone that he didn't approve of, and he disliked the Nara clan as they were thought of as lazy geniuses.
To be continued...