"Come on, fresh meat," said Anko Mitarashi. "Looks like we're stuck with each other for awhile."
Cursing inside that he'd screwed something up BADLY for this to happen, ten year old Naruto followed the tokubetsu jonin out of the classroom and to the top of the Hokage mountain.
There she turned around and regarded him, a particularly cruel look in place.
"Great, uhm, so sensei," began Naruto, hoping that would remind her that their relationship was supposed to be genin-student and jonin-instructor. NOT prey-predator or whatever else the notoriously crazy kunoichi would come up with.
"What do we do first?" asked Anko, licking the blade of a kunai. "First. Go ahead and describe yourself, prey. I think that's how this is supposed to start."
Naruto couldn't help but make a face at how fast this was going downhill. "Uhm. Naruto Uzumaki. Recently graduated genin, uhm, I'm going to be Hokage someday (if I survive this) and protect this village -" inspiration struck "-especially from evil child-abusing Ero-Hebi-Sennin like that Uchiha murderer Orochimaru!"
Anko went still, then GROWLED.
Oh, hell. That backfired! thought Naruto.
"Who'd have thought he wasn't interested in girls, just pubescent BOYS," growled out Anko, seeming to have said that to herself. She visibly remembered her audience. "That bastard. Okay, fresh meat, what jutsu do you know?"
Feeling the spike of killing intent, even if it wasn't precisely aimed at him, Naruto gulped. "I know the Academy standards."
"I've seen you running around the village at night, kid," said Anko. "I don't take kindly to students lying to me."
"I know a few advanced jutsu, here and there," admitted Naruto.
"Maybe instead of killing you for lying to me, some training accident," said Anko, moving closer, looking at him like a snake might view a fat and tasty little mouse. "Maybe I'll just find out what it is about little boys that Roachy finds so irresistible."
"Ack," said Naruto, trying to think of some defense. "I've already got a girlfriend!"
"What? At your age?" asked Anko.
"Yup!" said Naruto, nodding his head very very quickly. "Sorry, sensei."
"Oh," said Anko, who'd had absolutely no intention of doing more than freaking the kid out, but was also intrigued by this new development. Kid was apparently ahead of his age in more than jutsu mastery. "Well, enough of that. Let's get to training. Let's start with the basics."
April 4
Hinata's little smile faded bit by bit as the day continued. No Naruto. What had happened yesterday when Naruto had been held after class? She'd noticed that Naruto had gotten extra papers in their pop quiz yesterday, was it related to that? Or was he sick and lying helpless in his room all alone without anyone to care for him?
Finally the regular class had finished and she could approach someone. "Iruka-sensei?"
The teacher glanced down at her. "What is it, Hinata?"
"Is Naruto sick?" asked Hinata.
Iruka sighed and used his special jutsu to check for eavesdroppers. Nothing. "Hinata, Naruto wanted to wait for you so you could graduate together. He passed the graduation exam though, and has gone on to be assigned to a team."
Hinata felt as if her world had just been shattered into tiny little pieces. "He's graduated?"
"Yes, I'm told Mizuki 'accidently' handed out extra pages of test on that quiz recently. Naruto filled them out, and passed the graduation exam," said Iruka. "He's been assigned temporarily to Anko Mitarashi's team."
Hinata looked down at her fidgeting hands. "I see."
"I'm sure you'll see him again, around the village," tried Iruka, seeing the girl looked as if someone had just hit her in the stomach.
"Y-y-yes, I'm sure," said Hinata, bowing. "Thank you sensei."
April 9
She knew now. She knew how much she'd come to rely on his little looks and winks. How he'd always been there, knowing not to be too obvious but quietly rooting for her. When they WERE together, he'd be more demonstrative or just verbally encouraging. She knew that if she came limping in after a particularly rough sparring practice in her family's dojo, he'd be there as soon as he could do so unseen and offer a few words to cheer her on.
Nobody had ever cheered her on before. He'd also occasionally given her a scroll he'd 'just found' while out searching.
Nobody had ever used terms like 'precious' or 'awesome' or 'cute' to describe her. She was precious to him. He wasn't the sort of person to be cruel in such things. Her teachers had high expectations for her, being a Hyuga, and so didn't praise her.
If her father had ever praised her, had ever shown approval to her, she couldn't remember it anymore. She was weak, useless, garbage.
She'd felt the depression his absence had caused, and the feelings in her heart, and she'd confronted them.
She liked him. She liked him a LOT.
She snuck a little closer, hearing the occasional boom or crackle or other sound. It had taken awhile but she'd eventually found out that training area 8 was where Anko and Naruto were training.
"Byakugan," whispered Hinata, doing the hand seals.
Hinata startled and glanced behind herself. What were THEY doing here?
"How could we resist?" asked Ino.
"Sneaking off to visit her boyfriend?" asked Sakura. "Of course we couldn't resist!"
"I'm just keeping you kids out of trouble," insisted Tenten, from her incredible height of a whole year older.
Sakura nodded absently, glad to focus on something besides their lack of success with Sasuke, pulled a bush to the side and saw where Hinata Hyuga was there, hidden behind a rock.
What was beyond Hinata though, was sufficiently shocking as to completely throw 'spying on young romance' off the schedule.
Anko had known that Naruto knew more than he was showing. She'd seen him once or twice in the evening self-training. She'd heard rumors and whispers from the ANBU of how Naruto was seen sneaking out of areas he couldn't possibly have gotten into, usually when he'd just returned a scroll or book. The Third Hokage had apparently decided to be impressed on how Naruto was furthering his education and not going after forbidden jutsu, merely things that were supposedly beyond him.
She'd tried threats on the ten year old, she'd tried more threats, she'd tried sticking her tongue in his ear, she'd tried cutting his cheek and licking the blood up.
Anko thought that Naruto's reactions to all of that had been amusing. Hadn't gotten her any information, but it HAD seriously creeped the kid out.
Since yesterday she'd set up all sorts of traps (mostly pit traps with leeches or snakes and such at the bottom) and Naruto had just avoided them and otherwise not played by the rules, she had realized she needed some ALTERNATE method of persuasion to see just what her genin had hidden up his figurative sleeves.
So just a little word in front of a little girl that indicated where her boyfriend would be. So a quick genjutsu, or a pit trap with some nonvenomous snakes, or a summons which had orders not to hurt the little girl - and she could goad the genin into revealing exactly what he had besides some pretty darn good evasion skills.
Movement on one side of the newly-made clearing, and wondering how the boy had gotten enough paper bombs to MAKE the clearing, revealed that the target audience had just appeared.
Anko sent a wave of snakes out to circle around and approach from the rear, which would cause the little Hyuga to run out into the clearing.
Naruto was looking in the direction of those serpents though, so a distraction was needed.
"SO," shouted Anko. "YOU READY TO TALK YET?!"
"NO WAY," said Naruto leaping over yet another cobra and twisting out of the way of its spit.
"YOU'RE TOO YOUNG TO HAVE A GIRLFRIEND," shouted Anko as she did the "Serpent Double Whip" attack. "SO WHO DO I SEND THE FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS TO?"
"HEY WATCH IT," shouted back Naruto as he dodged. "HINATA JUST BOUGHT ME THIS SHIRT!"
"Hinata?" asked Anko, sending a spray of senbon towards Naruto. Of course, she already knew that much. "Isn't she that mouse? You're too young for that sort of thing anyway! So is she!"
"So what? We'll just start dating when we both make chunin," retorted Naruto, figuring that Hinata ought to be on track at least. That way they'd be fourteen - which was acceptable for dating and stuff. Not that he'd been that concerned with 'acceptable' before.
A set of shrieks interrupted the fight. Or at least interrupted Naruto dodging and Anko attacking.
"SASUKE! HEEEELPPPPPPPP!" screamed several ten year old girls as they ran past Hinata.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed an eleven year old girl as SHE ran past Hinata.
Hinata saw what was coming and reacted just a little differently. "NARUUTOOOOO!" Then she ran too.
Yes, they were tough ninja-students. Yes, they were well on their ways to ninja careers. Yes, they were being groomed for kill-or-be-killed missions. (Though honestly the vast majority of ninja never got past D or C rank missions which had a very low chance of either 'kill' or 'be killed' being included in the price.)
They were also, however, not proper ninjas yet and they WERE little ten and eleven year old girls. Being faced with what amounted to a stampede of slithering snakes of various colors managing to surprise them from their rear was enough to break their nerves. Especially as they were out here just to spy on someone who'd managed to get a boyfriend somehow. Especially as Tenten, the oldest and most combat-ready, had a snake that had gotten lost and dropped down the back of her shirt. That THAT particular snake was scared and lost and just wanted out was entirely beside the point.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" repeated several girls as one of them found the first pit trap and managed to grab a handful of grass to keep from falling in.
Whimpering a little, Ino Yamanaka looked down from where she was hanging onto a handful of grass. Past her feet she could see a drop of about thirty feet into what seemed like a tentacle monster. She didn't know this was just a henge style illusion thrown onto the pit and stabilized with a couple of seals. That it wasn't perfect because it was SUPPOSED to look like a large mass of poisonous snakes. Anko had been getting a little tired though, and the result had been a little sloppy.
No, Ino Yamanaka only knew that she was holding onto a few measly stalks of grass and hanging above a pit with a tentacle monster in it. She didn't know WHY tentacle monsters were bad, just that they were, and apparently had to do something with perverted older guys who liked to watch them fight or feed or something.
Ino Yamanaka's shriek of horror was such that any glassware within several yards would have shattered.
Sakura turned at the shriek, missed her footing, and fell into a pit herself. This was mud and the thirty foot drop was well-cushioned by the gooey substance. She didn't take long to realize though that she was going to sink to the bottom of this and probably die. With her hair a mess as a further insult to injury. Sakura screamed too.
Tenten ran every which way she could as the snake, finally disgusted by its current situation to the point of just plain pissed - wrapped itself around the kunoichi's torso to keep from getting bounced around so much. Thinking that it was about to squeeze her to death, bite her with poison, or do something else, Tenten did two things. One, panic. Two, get a long knife or something as a backup weapon in the near future. All she had with her were a few kunai and shuriken. That was when she found the noose trap.
Hinata saw four girls fall into pit traps. One was snagged by a noose trap and three more ended up being captured in a net. One found some sort of catapult-trap and was launched up into the air, and
TOING!
Hinata realized a set of kunai was flying towards her, and she tried to focus and use her Byakugan to dodge them all.
TingtingtingtingtingtingTANG
Naruto was suddenly in front of her, then turned to grab her and head off.
"Na-Naruto-kun?" squeaked Hinata as her future-boyfriend saved her.
"That's more like it," said Anko as her plan worked. Though all these other girls were an unexpected complication. Was the boy that much of a player at HIS age?
He had immediately made two dozen bunshin and gone after all the girls involved. Anko corrected herself to KAGE bunshin as they were obviously solid enough to block kunai, grab girls, pull them to safety, and start getting them out of the danger zone.
Naruto or his clones would throw something, then suddenly be all the way across the battlefield in order to rescue someone. It was almost like-
Anko stopped. Blond hair. That technique. Blue eyes. Age? It fit.
Anko swore as she dove into the rescuing herself, dismissing the snakes as she went. She HATED running into S-class secrets. It always meant more problems to know about them than to not.
Damage control first. Well, at least her reputation as the craziest kunoichi in Konoha would be enhanced.
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(Posted Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:52)
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