Chapter 3

Anko walked into the Sandaime’s office. As she entered, she noticed a group of jounins and Tokubetsu jounins. Sarutobi looked up and saw who it was.

“Ah, Anko. So how went your little project.” he asked

‘Like you don’t know you con artist.’ “It bore fruit. I expect nothing but good things from it. So what is this about?” she asked

“We are just discussing who would become mentors for the graduating class.” said Morino Ibiki. The two were friends since their views of torture were kind of the same.

“Yeah we were kind of amazed at the Uzumaki kid.” said Shiranui Genma

“Oh, and what is so interesting about that little rat.”

“He’s apparently starting to take things a bit seriously. Look.” said another Jounin. Anko looked through the ball and gave a small smile. It seemed that her otouto was taking her advice. Though it took many threats, he sat toward the back and away from the pink haired girl that she had seen him look at. He was seated with the Nara boy and Akimichi boy. She noticed that the Hyuuga girl kept staring at him with a blush on her face. She began to think about but decided to put it in her ‘mess with little rat’ files. She turned back to her fellow jounins.

“So who’s going to be a mentor?” she asked

“Count me out.” said Ibiki

“Me too. I’ve got enough trouble already.” Anko said

“What does that mean?” asked Genma

“That’s my business.” she said. Sarutobi smiled at her.

“Well then Anko, I have a C-rank mission for you. It doesn’t begin until tomorrow. You’ll be accompanied by Raido and Aoba.”

“Understood.” she said. That would give her time to talk to Naruto.

Naruto was a bit depressed. One, he couldn’t sit next to his crush, Haruno Sakura. He silently cursed his oneesan for making him sit toward the back. Well it was more like . . .

Flashback

Naruto was currently screaming his head off as he narrowing dodged another kunai. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if he wasn’t tied to a tree.

“Now you’ll do as I say.” Anko ordered

“No way, you can’t make.” Naruto shouted

“Listen, you want to pass right? Well you can’t do that when you’re trying to impress a girl that clearly doesn’t like you. Now you won’t sit next to her and you won’t be a showoff.”

“The hell with you oneesan. You can’t make me.”

“Oh really.” she said with a wicked smile. Naruto watched her do some familiar seals and slammed her hand down on the ground. What appeared made Naruto gulped as a giant blue snake appeared. “I believe you remember Raijin.” she said.

“I hate you.” Naruto growled

“I love you too.” Anko said mockingly

Present

Now Naruto sat between Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. He really didn’t have a problem with it since the two were some times running buddies along with Inuzuka Kiba. Two was the fact that Anko told him to never do the technique that she showed him. She said that it was a technique that wasn’t very like and it may get him in trouble. Three was the new attention he was getting. Everyone was looking at him strangely. He knew it was because of his new clothes. His oneesan thought it would be wise to wear something that didn’t say ‘I’m over here, kill me’. He had to admit that the clothes were cool and so was the trench coat. It held more than his jumpsuit. Probably why they were looking at him. Some chuckled silently, while others accused him of trying to act cool. He didn’t really care anymore. Being with Anko had given him a new attitude. He ignored the cold stares and even started returning some of them. His pranks were a bit more extreme to those who had insulted him and when questioned about it he usually said that the teme deserved it. He just sighed and looked around the class. His eyes fell onto another pair of eyes that were looking at him. She quickly turned and started to play with her fingers. Naruto thought that the finger thing was a bit cute but was curious as to why she was staring at him. He just shrugged and turned his attention back toward Iruka.

It was now lunch time. Naruto separate himself from the class and looked for a tree. He decided to test his charka control to see how far he had reached. Focusing some charka to his feet, he ran up the side of the tree and got about thirty feet before he flipped off. He landed on all fours and looked up.

“Well it’s a bit higher than last time.” he said to himself. Suddenly his senses, were alert. Time training with Anko, made him expect the unexpected. He pulled out a kunai out from his sleeve and scanned the area around him. “I’ll let you know right now that this kunai is real, now come out.” he ordered. Suddenly, a girl stepped out frighten. Naruto noticed that it was the same girl that was staring at him in class.

“I-I-I’m s-sorry. I d-d-didn’t m-mean to spy.” she sputtered. She quickly stood and ran away. Naruto stood like that for a few more minutes before he decided to walk back to the academy.

Through the rest of class, Naruto began to take glances at the pale eyed girl. She didn’t look at him and he began to feel a bit ashamed of himself for acting like he did. He decided to try and apologize but he really didn’t feel like doing it face to face since he got a message from Anko. So he wrote a small note and waited for his chance. As the final bell rang, Naruto quickly got out of his seat and slipped the note into her jacket. He quickly dashed out of the classroom and ran toward their meeting spot.

Anko sat on the rock, eating her dangos. A slight movement caught her eye and she blocked the kunai strike with her own. She smirked at the smirking blond that attempted to surprise her.

“You’re getting better.” she said

“It’s a draw.” Naruto said

“Oh really.” Naruto felt a stabbing pain to his side and gave her a bad look.

“You win oneesan. So what did you want?” he said

“Just to let you know that I’m going to be gone for a few weeks. I have a mission to the waterfall ninja village. So you’re going to have to train by yourself for a while.”

“No big thing. I’ll keep working on my charka control and accuracy. Also I’ll work on the technique you taught me.”

“Just remember, don’t do that technique in public.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He was hit upside the head.

“I’m serious.” Naruto just rubbed his head. Anko sighed and pulled out a scroll for him. “Look what I’ve got for you.” Naruto looked at the scroll and was jumping up and down. She tossed him the scroll. He opened it to see a katon technique.

“Katon: Karyudan no Jutsu. Sounds powerful.”

“Well it is. Figured that you would like something that Hokage-sama uses.”

“You mean this is the old man’s technique?”

“Yep. I’ll see you in a few weeks ok.”

“Ok.”

“Don’t let the villagers give you any shit, you got me.” she said

“Yes ma’am.” he said. Anko left to get ready while Naruto looked over the scroll.

Hinata finally reached her room. It was her peaceful place out of the whole Hyuuga manor. It was the place away from the cold stares of her family. They always looked down on her for being too weak. With such a low self-esteem, she began to think that she was weak just like they said. She just wanted to just go to sleep from this bad day. Her crush, the one she had admired, hated her. She knew that he would be angry for being followed but she couldn’t help it. She sighed and reached into her pockets to pull out her stuff. That’s when she noticed the note. She unrolled it to see some words written in kanji. Lucky for her she knew how to read it.

Hey sorry about today. I didn’t mean to scare you.

Uzumaki Naruto

Hinata’s heart soared. ‘Naruto-kun doesn’t hate me.’ For the first time in her life, she felt truly happy.

Naruto grumbled as he wrote on the blackboard. The words said ‘I will not put snakes in girls’ bathroom’. He chuckled at the scene. Some girls made the mistake of teasing him and he made them pay for it. Time spent with his oneesan had thought him how to control snakes. He couldn’t summon them like her and she refused to teach him but he developed a genjutsu that gave him the ability to control snakes. The prank was priceless as many girls ran out of the bathroom, some were hiding their modesty since they were on the toilet. It took three chunins, two jounins and an ANBU to catch him. Surprisingly, they were all women. Iruka gave him his punishment to write the phrase on the board a hundred times. When asked what he had to say for himself, he said another prank, another day. He was now on number a hundred and fifty when a small cough brought him out of his mumbling. He turned to see the pale-eyed, raven haired girl. Her cheeks were pink and she twiddling her index fingers. He found this a bit weird but he just shrugged.

“Uh, I g-got your n-note.” she said softly

“That’s good. I wanted to do it personally but I had to do something.”

“That’s o-ok. You s-shouldn’t apologize though. I-I-I was spying on you.”

“About that, why were you spying on me?” he asked

“Well . . . ” She just hid her face and twiddled her fingers again.

“You’ve got some real confidence problems.” Naruto said. Hinata just flinched and sunk her head down some more. Naruto mentally kicked himself. He walked up to her and grabbed her hand. Hinata was very red in the face by his touch. “Come on.” he said and led the girl away before she could protest. Iruka came to the room to see if Naruto finished writing down the phrase two hundred times for his smart remark. When he saw that he was gone and that he didn’t finish the punishment, he got angry and left in search of him.

Naruto stood with Hinata on top of the head of the Yondaime. Hinata was curious as to why she was here with him. He looked over the village of Konoha with a wistful expression.

“Uh, N-N-Naruto-kun, why are we here?” she asked

“I usually come up here when I feel down or just to think.”

“Oh.”

“Also I could also do this.” Naruto cupped his hands and let out a huge yell.

“W-W-What are you doing?” Hinata asked

“Come on, you should try it.” he said. He shouted again.

“I-I-I couldn’t.”

“Sure you can. It’s easy. Just cup your hands and scream.” Hinata hesitantly stood and did what she told. She gave a small scream. “Come on you can do better than that. Just let all out.” She screamed again only a little louder. “That’s it. Just a bit more.” Hinata took a deep breath and let out a huge scream. “That’s it.” He joined her as the two screamed out loud whichgave Iruka and several other teachers his location. The two were out of breath from all that screaming.

“So you feel better?” Naruto asked her

“You know, I actually do.” Hinata said. She was really feeling better.

“Hey what’s your name?”

“H-Hyuuga H-H-Hinata.”

“Wow, you’re a Hyuuga. I thought all of you guys were, you know, stuck up. Kind of nice to meet a nice one.” Hinata blushed at the comment. “Well I’m Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato.”

“Nice t-to meet you.”

“We’re really going to have to work on that stuttering thing if we’re going to be friends.” he said

“Friends?”

“Well sure. That is if you want to be.” Hinata thought about it for a second.

“Of course.” Though she wished for more, she could still be close to him without hiding. Naruto just smiled as he had made his first friend in his life. Though it was short lived when Iruka and several other teachers grabbed and hog tied him, he was still happy about the fact that he made a friend.

Authors’ Notes: Ok, concerning the pairings of Naruto with anyone older, get that thought out of your heads. It isn’t happening. As for the suggestion of a Kakashi/Anko pairing, I will consider it. At first I was going to make an Iruka/Anko pairing but this pairing sounds more promising. Hope this isn’t too short. See ya.