Chapter 26
"Your cooking is getting a lot better nowadays, I wouldn't have to worry if I left you alone at home," Hitori said before she hugged me from behind and snuggled into my back. I jumped a bit due to being too focused on not overcooking the bacon.
"Love? Don't jump me like that, I am holding a frying pan here," I threatened jokingly as I tossed the green vegetables that I was also pan-frying in one go. Hitori just giggled excessively at my so-called threat.
"Hurry up, will you? I'm famished mentally and physically," she said as she gave me a few small bites on my back. My breaths..h.i.tched and I tried to wiggle out of her grasp.
"Behave yourself or I would cancel our date today. Sit down on the table and let me feed you, woman," I scolded half heartily to which she obeyed with a puff out cheeks looking like she was pouting. I plate her portion elegantly and garnished the dish with her favourite black pepper gravy that we usually ate with mashed potatoes. After grabbing a set of cutleries for this particular type of meal, I sat in front of her who was looking bored.
"Here, this is my appreciation of your hard work and putting up with me all these years. Say 'ah'," I breathed as I looked into her eyes and feed her the food. She couldn't help but blushed a little and took a bite of the spoon. That went on until she was fully stuffed and afterwards I carried her to the bathroom to get ready for our date. For those of you who were curious, I bathed her as I strived to be as romantic as a depressed but grateful lover could be and stole a few rounds in the bathroom.
"That was the best morning gift ever! Thank you for that and I love you so d.a.m.n much," she said before giving me a peck on my lips while we hugged. She looked exquisite in her kimono. She had rocked an appearance similar to age with me and thus to me, she was the most beautiful woman in Konoha today. I risked a hard grope on her b.u.t.t to which she gasped.
"Yes, luckily we didn't break the toilet due to that thing we tried," I said and her face went beet red. "I would want more but we do have other plans."
"Let's go and hurry back," she clipped as she pulled me strutting towards our familiar dango shop. People greeted us every chance they got but Hitori wouldn't throw a fit if she was holding me tightly as I am her bridge to the people of Konoha. Very few civilians knew my real job and thus I was happy to walk in bliss through the civilian district without somebody calling me Sama or Director. Before long, we reached our dango shop and immediately sat down opposing one other whilst basking in each other's face.
"How're you liking the village now?" I began. She smiled indulgently at my question before she happily replied.
"I love it, honey. The people here are the loveliest human I've seen despite some exceptions of course. Imouto and Sakurchan had been a wonderful friend and students."
"Ho? I'm curious, what do you teach them all these years?" I raised an eyebrow and she smiled smugly.
"A bit of Sage Jutsu and things," she said, grinning full of mischief and I shook my head before she suddenly grabbed my hand and brushed it softly with her warm fingers. "How are you doing?"
"Better now, honestly," I said simply because that is not entirely true now because Akatsuki had made a move now. She, of course, was sceptical as she knew me through and through but she did not comment on it. We were interrupted by a set of a familiar face to this dango stall.
"Oh, is it Hikari-kun and Hitori-Chan?" Kurenai said as she entered the stall and rushed towards..h.i.tori almost immediately and hugged her tightly. Hitori as always couldn't run away from that woman.
"Yo!" Asuma hollered as he entered with a cigarette lit on his mouth.
"Kurenai-sensei, Asumsensei. Good morning," I beamed before he sat next to me. We had dango together and catch up with each other until we're stuffed. Hitori and I bid them goodbye when we left for visiting the Hyuuga compound but of course, we took the scenic route around the village. By lunchtime, we had reached Ichiraku's and we entered the stall.
"Ah, welcome! My favourite lovebirds!" Old man Teuchi greeted us.
"Teuchi-san, one extrlarge Miso Char Siu ramen for me!" I said as I sat inside the stall.
"Regular s.h.i.+o Ramen, please," Hitori said before she sat next to me.
"Coming up!" Teuchi hurriedly prepared the ramen as he said it. Before long, our ramen was served. We took a breath to savour its smell and it was heaven itself. Teuchi-san is the greatest Ramen master of Konoha.
"Itadakimasu!" we both yelled in unison before we dug in.
"So, any occasion of any kind that you would want an extrlarge for that? Haven't seen you had that much portion in a while," Teuchi asked as he wiped his hands with a kitchen cloth.
"Oh, You are going to love this, our favourite idiot is coming home, Teuchi-san!" I exclaimed and his faces brightened immediately. No doubt he was missing my best friend. I had found out something important about Teuchi-san purely by accident in the vault. He and his wife were Yondaime's genin teammate. It makes sense why Naruto said that Teuchi-san and his daughter, Ayame-chan was so indulgent of Naruto since he was a pint-sized kid--he was essentially their nephew of some kind. But still, Teuchi-san and his daughter are the most compa.s.sionate people in Konoha so far.
We were finis.h.i.+ng the ramen when we noticed it, Hitori and I. The longed, bright, warm chakra signature had entered the village perimeter. The chakra signature was faint and impossible to notice unless you are experienced enough or a sage jutsu user. Hitori and I couldn't help but chuckle lowly. I took out the amount of money needed and left it on the table.
"Thanks for the meal, Teuchi-san. He's home now!" I said as I held Hitori's hand and sifted through the blinds.
"Say hi to him and tell him to come by immediately! His first day back is on the house!" he exclaimed and I could only wave at the man because I was too impatient to see that idiot. We broke out into a small run towards the chakra signature. When we reached him, he was there with my two senpais and my sensei.
"How do I
"You look fine! You haven't changed at all!!" He confidently answered. I just had to intervene.
"Baka! That's not how you talk to a woman!" I shouted and his face had brightened more considerably. He immediately appeared right in front of me and held a hand up high. We yelled to each other's name as we high-fived and grabbed each other's hand in an arm wrestling way.
"Dude, you've gotten a lot faster," I said referring to his speed.
"Me? Look at you! You're buffed!" Naruto exclaimed. Suddenly, we were both getting clunked on the head because of our loudness.
"Hitori-Neechan, that hurt!" Naruto whined. I just rubbed my head bitterly in silent.
"Urussai!" Hitori and Sakura towered over us holding a smoking fist that hit us on the head. Both of us held up our hand in defeat. Then, Sakura noticed something.
"You've... You've gotten taller than me?" she murmured and her face turned soft when she reflects somewhere.
"Naruto-niichan!" someone called from behind us. "Orioke no Jutsu!"
A busty, vulgar black-haired woman suddenly appeared. Sakura and Hitori were disgusted immediately and the G.o.daime was silent. Jiraiya immediately interested in the woman as he exclaimed happily but Kakas.h.i.+-sensei was too engrossed with a new book he was reading. I decided to make small talk with my sensei that never really heard my words because of the demon book. Then, I found out that it was a new edition to that vulgar book of his, it was my turn to be disgusted.
"Perverted Ninjutsu?! You idiot!!!" A loud boom was heard and a tiny explosion occurred in front of us with Sakura trusting a fist. She then proceeds to grab something in the rubble and I found out it was Naruto. She then gave the idiot her newly levelled up nagging.
"Rescue me, Hikari-kun!" He begged.
"Nuh-uh, you dug your own grave, buddy!" I replied as I wouldn't dare to cross her right now.
"Hey, hey, Sakura, calm down..." Kakas.h.i.+-sensei pleaded. "Konohamaru here's terrified."
"Right..." Tsunade-senpai decided to end that before it got out of hand, "the nostalgia ends here though. Kakas.h.i.+."
Sensei closed his book with a clap and faced us.
"Well... It's been a while, hasn't it?" he began. "From now on, the three of you will come with me on team-related missions. It's different than before. It's no longer a teacher and pupil. Starting today, we're equal s.h.i.+n.o.bi of Konoha."
Sensei then proceeded to withdrew our familiar bell and it rang as Kakas.h.i.+ moved it to show it to us.
"Well... first I'm a bit curious as to how you've developed teamwise. The rules are the same as I first met you three," he explained but the confident smile had already written in our faces, "if you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you will never succeed in getting the bells."
"You sure you want to do this? I know that these two had progressed a lot since then," I asked darkly and their expression seemed to be mirroring me. He then shuns.h.i.+n away before he got a chance to reply.
"No Sage-Jutsu kids. I'll be waiting at home, honey. Don't stay out too late," Hitori reminded me and Sakura while she held her waist with both of her hands.
"Hai, hai," we said in unison before all of us shuns.h.i.+n towards the familiar training ground.
"You have until sunrise tomorrow," Kakas.h.i.+-sensei finished.
"Well, this place, I've missed it," Naruto said smiling and Sakura agreed with him. I immediately droned out when he said that. Back then, we were a four-man team. Heavy, dark clouds slowly crept into my mindscape as the depressing air was rising. Luckily, sensei snapped his book shut and pulled me back to sanity.
"Well then, shall we begin?" he said with no book in his hands.
"Hehe... you won't do it while reading the book this time, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei?" Naruto tightened his headband.
"You've already finished it?" Sakura challenged as she pulled down on her gloves.
"Just so you know, I'll try my best to hold back," I brought my hands to form the seal of confrontation. Kakas.h.i.+-sensei pulled up his headband to reveal his Sharingan.
"I get the feeling, I should take it a little serious too," he said and with it, the tension rose to a summit. Naruto suddenly threw Shuriken at Sensei out of the blue to which the latter just duck to evade it. By then, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei threw back a couple of Shuriken at Naruto and he jumped into the air to evade it himself but sensei already threw another set of Shurikens at Naruto.
"Baka, you're immobilized in the air!" I gritted but my best friend produces a shadow clone to pull him out of harm's way. By the time they reached the ground, the clone Henge into a giant shuriken and Naruto was ready to throw it. Capable hands had stopped Naruto from moving at all.
"Well... your haste hasn't changed..." Kakas.h.i.+-sensei said.
"Eh, it seems those two failed to teach you common sense, Naruto," I said in vain.
"Alright, start," Sensei announced and with it, he disappeared. Before I could sense the man, Sakura had beaten me to the chase by punching a crater on the ground.
"Found you!" She smiled triumphantly. All three of us s.h.i.+vered while flashes of Sakura's fist raining on us played like a movie.
"Alright, this time, I should also do something on my end," Sensei said. I immediately appeared right in front of him before my hands quickly went into a flurry of hand sign. Sensei was quick to follow me with the Sharingan but he was knowing what jutsu I was using.
"Raiton..." I said before he could stop me from using the jutsu. "s.h.i.+chu s.h.i.+bari!"
Four pillars rose from the ground around us and then lighting emerges from the pillar and had stricken us. The pain was nothing to me but it still stung. When it was over, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei disappeared from the spot leaving a Kawarimi.
"d.a.m.n Copy-Sensei," I gritted. Sakura was quick to reach me and heal my burns. I looked into both of my teammate's eyes and said the magic word.
"You guys want to work together?"
It was close to dawn now and we're all still recovering how little chakra we had after all sorts of jutsu we threw at the man and of course, Juken Ryu was useless against this sneaky pervert as he would either ran away with a Kawarimi or Kage-Buns.h.i.+n replacing him and whatever he could do to escape us unscathed. Kakas.h.i.+-sensei knew how to avoid getting hit by us, though we were convinced that he was also in the same state as us. I was thinking hard about other numerous techniques to use on our sensei when Naruto and Sakura were talking to each other. I was thinking of using Root's binding seal but dismissed it because of the man's sneakiness.
"Even Kakas.h.i.+-sensei has to have a weak point!" she insisted. "If we think it over well..."
Naruto then went into a deep think mode, a feat I wouldn't even know he had. A few minutes later, a light bulb appeared to have lit in his head.
"Ah...!" he said, "he has... a weak point...!"
"Eh? Really?!" Sakura was puzzled.
"What's up?" I asked but Naruto had the funny expression of holding back a good laugh before he told us.
"Hahaha, guys! If you think back about how Kakas.h.i.+-sensei been until now, you'll understand," he said I couldn't help but think hard on it.
"Stop being such a know it all Naruto, what's the weak point?" Sakura yelled desperately.
"He-hee, well, it's the p.o.r.n he reads. All the time that we know him, he always said that he wanted to know what's next," Naruto explained.
"That green book is something new," I said but then a light bulb light into my head. "No, it couldn't be..."
"Of course!" Sakura exclaimed. "I can't believe he has a weak point like that...!"
"So, make his hand busy, and evade his Sharingan, somehow," I inquired while Naruto nodded enthusiastically.
"Naruto, you are the number 1 most unpredictable person!" Sakura beamed and Naruto was excited to defeat our sensei.
"Then, what's the method, dude?" I inquired and he looked at me knowingly.
"I'll have to use this," he said as he pa.s.sed us a specially made, three-p.r.o.nged kunai and I immediately stood up, excitedly.
"Alright, let's go," I said curiously to see how he would do in his father's arts.
When we sensed our sensei, we immediately ran towards him. As expected, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei was ready to run, but Naruto sent a barrage of kunai all around the perimeter. When sensei shuns.h.i.+nned to a different place, Naruto was already there, he then noticed the Kunai that Naruto used. Understandably he was stunned. Naruto then proceeds with his next move.
"The last joke in Icha Icha Tactics!" he yelled. "The truth is that the main character..."
Kakas.h.i.+-sensei was devastated and he brought his hands to his ears but that wasn't enough.
"Sharingan can read lips, sensei," I muttered as Sakura and I closed our distance with those two. Naruto grabbed the bells and teleported towards us.
"Hehe, a ninja should look underneath the underneath," Naruto said.
"Right, sensei?!" Sakura beamed, each was holding a bell.
"Pervert sensei," I looked at him in disdain as I twirl the kunai that Naruto had given me.
"Where did you learn that jutsu, Naruto?" Kakas.h.i.+ said when he pulled off a Kunai from the ground. It was a specially made kunai with three-p.r.o.nged blades and writing that said Hirais.h.i.+n was written on it.
"Well, Torune and Fu-Nii's boss gave Ero-sennin the scroll and he wanted me to learn every jutsu in the scroll. Ero-sennin said that if I learn that jutsu, I might get closer to being Hokage, y' know!" he exclaimed and sensei immediately looked at me in despair for stealing his chance to pa.s.s down the jutsu to his sensei's son, possibly.
"Of course, he did," he muttered under his breath. "Yondaime-sama is my sensei, Naruto. I'm sure that he would be proud that you mastered his Jutsus."
Naruto couldn't be prouder but me being the wiser, I asked that we continued the conversation in the village. Naruto took the chance to brag and had teleported us near to Ichiraku's.
"Only you would mark this area with your Jutsu-s.h.i.+ki, Knucklehead," I said. "I can only think of one word--'Emergency-Ramen-Access'."
All of us laughed at my witty comment because it was true to Naruto. It has been a while since we had the chance to walk together as a team. I was distracted in my mind, trying to figure out Naruto's level compared to the other s.h.i.+n.o.bi inside the village. I could have considered bringing in him into Root? No, scratch that, Sasuke was more of fitting choice...Sasuke... Sasuke...
"s.h.i.+kamaru! Temari-san! Hey!" Sakura suddenly yelled. "Who do you think it is?!"
I looked up and seeing the two strolling the civilian district. s.h.i.+kamaru was escorting her out of the village. I had also found that Kakas.h.i.+-sensei had also disappeared. It had seemed that I wasn't registering memories too well that day and wondered why.
"Hey! If it isn't Naruto!" s.h.i.+kamaru beamed and Temari next to him had recognized my best friend.
"s.h.i.+kamaru!" Naruto noticed him.
"Did you just come home then?" s.h.i.+kamaru asked.
"No, I came back yesterday," Naruto answered.
"Heh, so has any of your idiocy left you? And have you changed? Well?" s.h.i.+kamaru implored but Sakura was quick to dismiss s.h.i.+kamaru's questions.
"No. He hasn't changed at all," she said disappointingly and I had to burst out laughing.
"I'd say in some ways he's changed but he still our idiot," I said.
"Heh, I could see that," s.h.i.+kamaru agreed with a disinterest. Naruto quickly engaged s.h.i.+kamaru in a 'hush-hush' conversation. Doesn't want to get involved, I asked Sakura about something important.
"Hey, Sakura, lately, I've been experiencing loss of time," I whispered and immediately she narrowed her eyes.
"It's been a while since our last session, why don't we meet Inochi-Sama?" Sakura suggested and I shook my head.
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"Maybe it's nothing," I replied.
"EHHHHHH?!!!!" Naruto suddenly screamed. "Then! Then! You guys are Chuunin too?"
"Yep!" she held out a peace sign.
"Not me. I'm your two Niichans' boss," I said while rubbing the back of my head and if possible, Naruto's eyes would pop out of his socket.
"You're the Root Director?!" Naruto screamed yet again. I was barely able to shut his mouth before he screamed my cla.s.sified information.
"What do you mean? He'd been a Jounin right after our Chuunin Exam," s.h.i.+kamaru explained. "Plus, Neji from the cla.s.s above us, Kankurou of the Suna and Temari here are already Jounin."
"Hey," Naruto had caught on. "Then, Gaara! What about Gaara?"
"My brother is currently the Yondaime Kazekage," Temari explained. To say that the Blonde idiot was surprised was an understatement of the year.
"Then, we're off," s.h.i.+kamaru said after Naruto just stood there speechless for a good minute. "Later, Naruto."
"Naruto!!!!!!" A familiar voice was calling in a distance. I had to slap his head to bring him back to reality.
"Iruksensei is calling you from Ichiraku's!" I yelled and the boy immediately took off while screaming 'ramen' all the way.
"There goes the idiot," I breathed. "I'm going home, Sakura. Later."
She just said yes before I shuns.h.i.+nned into my house to find Hitori who was in the kitchen.
"Honey, call Naruto over for dinner later," Hitori hollered and I chose to directly go to the bathroom to clean my whole body that was covered in filth before I do anything else.