Naruto: Cautious Ninja

"Crow?" Iruka murmured, trying to figure out where he'd heard that name before. It must have been on one of the low-profile sections of the Bingo Book since the name clearly wasn't anywhere near S-Rank; probably low B or mid C-Rank. It was somewhere in there, he was sure of it; Iruka just wasn't familiar enough with the name or the face that went along with it. But after giving it some thought the man then looked down to see Naruto march over to the boulder, which he then stood beside and waited patiently for a response. "Are you talking about the time when you were absent from class for two weeks?"

"Yes I am," Naruto smiled before turning to face the huge rock. He dropped into a stance and pulled his hands back. "But no matter how many times I tell you the story, you guys still don't believe me." He then slapped his hand across the face of the rock, launching it from its position and sending it at breakneck speed across the range.

Iruka and Naruto watched as it not only crashed into the target post, it ripped right through it, through the sand bags behind it, shattered the first concrete divider, took a chunk out of the top of the second and went straight through the wire fence. It bounced across the road a few times before carting to a complete stop against a reserve wall, astounding the teacher at the amount of brute force displayed by the versatile technique.

"Well… I sure as hell believe you now," Iruka breathed out, before looking back at his student to see Naruto grinning up at him. The positive response he saw from the kid then coaxed a smile of his own and, after jotting down the final details, pocketed the pen and arm-pressed his clipboard to his side. "Evaluation complete. You'll have your results handed back to you by tomorrow afternoon once all your exams are over and done with. I'll see you back in class, Naruto."

"What about the Bunshin no Jutsu test, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked curiously, seeing the man begin to saddle off but stop upon hearing his question. "Do I still have to take it?"

The Chunin shook his head and passed the boy a warm smile. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I'll allow you to sit it out, just as we agreed."

Naruto grinned and nodded boisterously.

With pleasantries and good wishes traded, the pair then went their separate ways to spend the rest of their lunch hours doing whatever they needed to do. While Iruka needed to get his paperwork done as well as arrange a crew to be brought in to fix up the shuriken range, Naruto had his own business to attend to. It was exam day tomorrow, so he had to be as physically and mentally prepared for it as he could make himself in time to sit through the onslaught of tests.

It was going to be one hell of a ride.

However, unknown to both the teacher and the student, the two of them failed to notice the shadow of a hawk watching over them from atop the nearby roof. With his white hair waving in the wind, Mizuki glared down at the school grounds beneath him with a big frown on his face as he saw Naruto dash off to rejoin his classmates. After seeing him disappear round the corner, the Chunin rubbed his chin worryingly before standing up to full height.

"Damn you Iruka; warming up to that demon brat. Guess I'm going to have to get my own hands dirty in this one if I'm going to come out of this clean…"

He needed to rethink his strategy; one that would be able to kill two birds with one stone while excluding himself from the equation long enough to make a breakaway from this travesty of a shinobi village. The question though was… how?

OOO

That afternoon…

Naruto slipped away with a quick weight-shifting dodge to avoid the palm strike thrown by his opponent Tayuya, who managed to swivel around to face him again when he dashed around her at high speed in full reverse. Though the space in the clearing of the woods they were using for their sparring session didn't provide much room for excessive movement, the jinchuriki was using it surprisingly well much to the chagrin of his partner.

"God damn it! Now I know how everyone else feels when they rush in to try and hit you!" Tayuya shouted, dripping sweat as she tried to run after the boy, only for him to shuffle on the spot before suddenly zipping off to her left and out of reach. "Hold still!"

"If you want to get into a hitting match with me I'll be more than happy to give you one, Tayuya-chan. But I don't think you'll like it as much as the thing we've got going now," Naruto exclaimed cheekily, allowing the girl to run in and uncork a flurry of her best attacks on him. He ducked and weaved around every single one of her punches and kicks, giving her a good workout before swaying back when she came in with a spinning back-kick. "Whoa! You're actually doing really well today."

"Like hell I am! I haven't even hit you once, while you could have hit me over a dozen times by now!"

"Three dozen, actually," Naruto replied with a playful grin.

"Whatever you smartass bastard! Get back here!" Tayuya shouted again, throwing a few jabs, only for her opponent to weave through them. "DAMN IT!"

Ever since Tayuya came to Konoha and made her bed next to Naruto's, the pair of them rarely spent any of their off time apart. Though few people outside of them and the Hokage knew about the newcomer, of all the people their age they could be spending their days with, the two shinobi in training spent nearly all of their available hours together. When not hanging out at the apartment and just crashing, they were going out for long walks, running around the village, shopping, eating, going to fairs and all manner of casual fun.

Almost a week after being instated into the shinobi training program, Tayuya had managed to bag an apprenticeship under a woman named Mitarashi Anko, whose personality strangely mirrored Naruto's in a really creepy kind of way. Though the training got off to a rocky start, in which both kids were scared the shit out of by the crazy kunoichi in her first few days interacting with them, things started rolling much smoother after the introductory sessions. Thanks to the woman's 'delicate' touch and her student's willingness to learn, Tayuya's progress to becoming a fully-fledged ninja alongside her friend was coming along nicely.

She was making good ground.

To help her along and to trim out any rough edges in their development, the pair often trained with each other. While training by oneself was good at times, it was even better when you had a second there to support you. Aside from basic theory, meditation and chakra control exercises, the duo also split their time between physical training and practicing their ninjutsu skills. They also sparred a lot, with today's session being one of the many occasions where both Naruto and Tayuya used their one-on-one conference with each other to its utmost.

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