Naruto considered the girl beyond the forest as his body folded into the small human vessel he was born with. A few stray thoughts crossed his mind as he manifested signs of malnourished growth spurts, ranging from the realization that he didn’t have to worry about that anymore to wondering what ramen tasted like to a dragon. He almost grabbed onto the idea that ramen was no longer his favorite food, but even his pathetic focus was enough to remember what was going to be most important for the next few minutes.
Hinata. A girl that liked him. That really liked him, according to that dragon. Naruto felt his once-again human body react to the thought and blush heavily. Again, parts of his psyche that were now draconic took to examining his awareness of his own body, but they were quickly hushed by the owner of his mind. For all that had happened, Naruto was still himself, and still thought as a twelve year old human thought. A little more mature, perhaps, due to the supreme confidence in his hidden abilities, but the goofy prankster that plagued Konoha was still in the driver’s seat.
And he had no idea how to deal with his own personal fangirl.
Naruto left the trees once he saw the Hokage and ANBU head out. He had no doubt that there were still ANBU hiding around, not to mention the search parties for the remaining Cloud nin, but for the moment they had better things to do than spy on two rookie genin.
He hoped. “Hey, Hinata!”
Hinata spun like she had been shot. “N-N-N-Naruto-kun!” she squeaked.
Oh man. This is gonna be harder than I thought. “Yeah. Uh, are you okay?”
Hinata’s eyes widened so far Naruto didn’t think she had any face left. “Y-y-yes. You were worried about me?”
Naruto nodded. “Well, yeah. Those enemy ninja looked nasty. Why wouldn’t I be worried?”
FAINT
“Hinata?” Naruto asked, grabbing the limp girl and shaking her gently. “Hinata!”
“What are you doing to Hinata-sama!?”
Naruto turned to the unfamiliar voice and saw a Hyuuga wearing a chunin vest. His advanced dragon intellect immediately kicked in and found a cunning answer that absolved him of all guilt for the potentially compromising position. “Ano…”
A few trees away, a black cat snickered. “Vast superhuman abilities of cogitation are no match for human foolishness.”
The Sandaime Hokage was well known as a stern man and excellent ninja, when he wasn’t the amiable father figure least. He had steel in his voice, ice in his veins, and fire in his eyes. They even say he can kill a man using half a chopstick and his eyebrow muscles. Left eyebrow.
This was the man who looked at a dragon in human form. “Naruto, what happened?”
“The mission was lame,” Naruto whined.
“Naruto!” Iruka snapped. “You are a rookie genin! Remember that!”
“I’m a rookie genin who can benchpress a house,” Naruto shot back to his old teacher.
Sarutobi refused to smile at the rejoinder. That incident had been on a mission to shore up a house falling into a sinkhole. Naruto had decided it would be easier if the house was half a meter to the left, out of the danger area. End result: Naruto in the hospital with a herniated everything, house ripped in half, team 7 banned from repair work (no matter how useful Naruto’s ‘fabricate no jutsu’ was) and half of Konoha worried that the Kyuubi had destroyed an innocent family’s home.
Sarutobi’s urge to smile vanished as he remembered all the complaints. Team 7 got a fresh round of miserable D-ranks as his vaguely petty revenge for his time and suffering.
Iruka hadn’t noticed the Hokage reminiscing. “You broke that house and set a new record for damages incurred in a D-rank mission,” he threw back to Naruto. He liked the kid, but ever since that bloodline of his had matured, he had forgotten how to listen. Not that he had ever learned much in that respect anyway. If he kept throwing around his jutsu like that he’d get a lot worse than a day’s bedrest while the kyuubi healed him. “You need to learn control first.”
Sarutobi nodded. “Which brings us back to this latest fiasco.”
“You said get the cat,” Naruto said sullenly. “I got the cat.”
“Tora was so traumatized he ran to his owner,” Sakura added. She didn’t know what Naruto had done to the fuzzy little monster, but as long as they got credit for a successful mission, she was fine with it.
“Unh,” Sasuke nodded in agreement.
Sakura’s eyes turned into hearts. Sasuke agreed with me!
Kakashi offered the well practiced sigh of the long-suffering.
Sarutobi shook his head. Naruto’s attitude was understandable; in his true form his physical ability and jutsu were strong enough for S-rank. He was capable enough to be Special Jonin, but he was stuck at genin with D-rank missions. In part, that was Naruto’s own choice. He had maintained the fiction that his ‘kekkei genkai’ was strength, durability, and a selection of ninjutsu he called ‘Adamant Style.’ Sarutobi himself had spread word of the dragon summoning contract, along with a few carefully chosen ‘old stories’ he shared. He doubted any jonin were fooled, but no sane mind could guess at the truth. Even in the ninja world, some things were beyond belief.
Of course, that secrecy was only the smallest part of Naruto’s low rank. The real reason was simplicity itself: Naruto didn’t have the experience or maturity for greater duties. Where the likes of Danzo saw only strength of jutsu and power of body, Sarutobi had an eye for the ineffable that a boy would need to become a man. Naruto would be an excellent ninja some day, but not today. “I have a new mission for you,” Sarutobi grumbled out…
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(Posted Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:27)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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