~~~
Naruto kneeled in front of Danzo. It has been a few years since the gift giving when he was 8-years old. Naruto was now 12-years old — almost 13 in about. . . months from now.
Naruto was quite excited for tomorrow. Wanna know why? He was graduating in that exact day. "Danzo-sama, you have called for me," said Naruto emotionlessly. He looked down at the ground as he listened to Danzo's words.
"You have done quite well on your previous mission."
"Thank you, Danzo-sama," replied Naruto, pretending to have a surge of pride course through his own emotions. Danzo did a slight pause to see any flaws in Naruto's state.
He found none. Yet?
"I have also heard that your graduation will be occurring tomorrow morning." Naruto nodded at those words. "I am," said Naruto, confirming the rumors that Danzo already knew was true.
"And how old are you right now, Naruto?" Asked Danzo, eyes keen and narrowed at Naruto's figure. He took a few moments until he finally responded to the question.
"I am 12-years old, Danzo-sama."
"Impressive. While you did reach a plateau in skill for a year or two, it is still quite impressive to see a 12-year old boy on-par with some of the low-tier Jonin in this village." Naruto nodded, pretending to be take that compliment with gratitude.
"Thank you, Danzo-sama."
"And since you will undoubtedly be graduating, I have thought of giving you a reward for your fine deed that you have done for ROOT as a whole." Naruto raised an eyebrow behind his mask, wondering what this reward might.
"I have taken upon myself to promote you and give you higher missions for the future. That will also mean that you will have to rapidly get stronger everyday to keep up with the mission's difficulty." Naruto nodded, getting up from his kneeling.
"I understand, Dano-sama." Danzo nodded at those words.
"You may take your leave, Naruto." He gestured towards the door, wanting Naruto to leave the room that Danzo was in. Danzo saw Naruto open and close the door as he left the room.
Danzo narrowed his eyes at door.
Are you plotting something against me? Or is there a hidden motive behind all those layers that you put all around yourself? Your intelligence exceeds mine, but the difference between you and me Naruto is the experience. I have lived almost 5 time the amoutn of years you have lived on this Earth. Danzo thought, thinking about Naruto's potential hidden motive.
~~~
Naruto sat on a tree branch, thinking about Danzo's next move. The intentions were quite clear about Naruto's promotion of mission difficulty.
While he says he is doing this because of multitude of reasons — they're all just bullshit and fake. The real reason to keep me at a tighter surveillance. Naruto thought. But now you might be asking yourself:
How are more difficult missions tying to tighter surveillance for Naruto? Quite simple actually.
Since Danzo promoted me to higher and more difficult missions, I'll be having to be there more frequently. This is due to the reason that higher ranked missions for ROOT are quite common to get. And since they are a lot more common to get, people will have to do them more often than not. Naruto thought, waiting for a certain someone.
He suddenly felt the wind rush right behind. Naruto sighed, easily dodging the kunai by jumping in the air. His upside down eyes traveled all over the place, looking for the person that shot the kunai towards him.
Naruto caught sight of the person that threw the kunai at him. While in mid-air, Naruto pushed his hand into his holster and pulled out a kunai from the said holster. Without hesitation, Naruto threw the kunai towards the perpetrator.
"You know, you have gotten better," Naruto said aloud, soon disappearing in an instant. He appeared the perpetrator, a kunai pressed down the person's neck.
"But you're still not there yet, Satsuki." Naruto sighed, ducking towards ground to dodge a turn around punch from Satsuki herself. He rolled away, dodging a stomp from Satsuki.
"Stop," ordered Naruto, blocking a punch from Satsuki. She gritted her teeth, bringing her leg up and attempting to kick Naruto in the stomach. Naruto dodged it, stoically.
"I just. . . need one hit off!" Yelled Satsuki, quickening her pace at punching and kicking. She was desperate to hit Naruto in the face. He raised an eyebrow, dodging each and every single one of the punches that were directed towards him.
After awhile, Satsuki grew tired from the continuous movement and gave up on trying to hit Naruto at all. "Grrr. . . why the hell. . . can't I hit you?!" Satsuki shouted angrily. She felt weak when it came to fighting Naruto.
"I don't know why you're so angry about not being able to hit me — you're still pretty strong." Satsuki looked at Naruto and gave him a deep growl in return.
"You're only saying that because you're stronger than me. You're there at the top of the class while I'm here at second place." Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. "Still, you're only limiting yourself to your potential by comparing your power to my power." Naruto got a sharp glare in return.
Oh, he hit a sore spot.
"Stop talking like. . . him! Asshole." Satsuki sat on the grassy ground, infuriated at Naruto. She was still the same after. . . 4 years or so, but it seems like she was at least decently nice to Naruto. Decently.
"I always talk like this, though. This is just part of my personality." Satsuki scoffed, disliking the fact that Naruto just denied her own order — her! An Uchiha! Naruto just shrugged it off for the most part and sat down right across from her.
"You're getting stronger, there's no doubt about that," praised Naruto, getting a smirk radiate off of Satsuki's mouth. "Hn, it's obvious that i would — I'm an Uchiha after all." Naruto ignored those words and looked at the sky above.
"You skipped class again," blurted Satsuki out. Naruto hummed at those words, knowing another batch of questions will be heard today once again. "What about it?" Naruto asked, looking up towards the sky.
"Your grades are going down because of your lack of appearance."
"It doesn't matter because the academy doesn't matter," responded Naruto, not caring about the academy and his current grades at all. "And why does the academy not matter exactly?" Satsuki asked in a very. . . motherly tone?
"It just doesn't. The academy is only there to introduce us to the shinobi arts. If I were to already know those things, I don't need to be there. I'm already improving on my own at a pretty quick rate." Satsuki scoffed at him, throwing a kunai right next to his foot.
"Why do you care anyway? My reasons don't have anything to do with you at all."
"It's because you're my rival. I can't have you fall behind," said Satsuki, responding the question that Naruto had asked Satsuki. He took it as a valid answer that came from Satsuki.
Naruto had to put up with Satsuki's bullshit almost everyday now — they had to train together. Reason being? Satsuki asked for help from yours truly — Ahihcu Naruto. It happened when Satsuki was 10 and Naruto was 9.
He was just sitting around, eating his cup ramen on a tree. Then a kunai was thrown right towards him. He dodged it easily and saw that it was Satsuki. She then demanded for Naruto to train her even though Naruto wasn't even a jonin-sensei.
And well, here they were now — Naruto helping her because she was desperate to get stronger. Satsuki gazed at Naruto with her piercing eyes. She was quite curious on who Naruto was as a person. Was he interesting? Yes and no. Was he an asshole? Yes. Is he too smart for his own good? Yes.
All in all, Naruto was an enigma that she wanted to figure out on her own.
"Well, I'll see you later," said Naruto, stretching his limbs out as he made his way out of the forest grounds that he and Satsuki used to train on. She nodded, doing the same and getting up from her current position. Naruto waved goodbye as he disappeared into the endless and vast forest.
~~~
Naruto was back at the familiar sewer system that was supposed to be his own mind. He looked further beyond and saw the cage to the supposed Kyuubi.
"It's you again." The Kyuubi gave Naruto the lowest growl possible. Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "Have you grown accustomed to be visiting you?" Asked Naruto, sitting down on the ground. Another low growl could be heard from.
"Tch, I have not grown accustomed to the visits of some human brat!" Roared the Kyuubi, obviously absolutely infuriated by Naruto's words. "I'm just paying a visit. That is all." Naruto saw the Kyuubi cling its claws right on the bars of the cage.
"I don't need your petty visits!" The Kyuubi spat at him with pure venom. But it seemed like Naruto was not unaffected by those words and did not deter for even the slightest of moments,
"Don't you every feel lonely?" Naruto suddenly asked. The Kyuubi snarled at that question. "Me? The Kyuubi? I don't even get lonely!" Naruto felt a taste of the Kyuubi's power wash over his mind-scape.
"To human application — loneliness can lead to jealousy due to other people and their bonds and connections. Then that jealousy can turn into hate. This is just another way for hatred to be born. Is it not?" Naruto explained, getting an even stronger amount of the Kyuubi's power to wash over him.
"You and your cursed clan! You think you know everything, but you don't! You will fall into despair that you will fail to get out! Your arrogance that formed out of thin air will be your downfall!" Naruto used his forearms to cover the rushing wind created by the Kyuubi's roaring.
"Maybe or maybe not. I am no God, but I am human. I can only do so much because I am only a human and inside a human body. Reaching the status of a God is nothing but a mere fantasy and is impossible to reach. People who proclaim themselves as a God are people who have fallen into their own arrogance." This was seriously out of topic. But hey, it somewhat tied into wha they were arguing about.
"Get out of my sight. You and your clan disgust me!" Naruto gained a puzzle look but shrugged it off. He slowly started to disappear out of the mind-scape.
"Don't you think loneliness is quite an enigmatic topic?"
~~~
It was the next day and Naruto was currently getting ready for the graduation exam to become genin. Naruto wore quite comfy clothes for today.
He quickly glanced at the window right next to him and saw the sun shine brightly in the day. Naruto covered his eyes to block the sunlight from hitting his eye before jumping right outside of the apartment complex.
What are the chances of me failing the graduation test? 30% at least. Naruto thought, using the factor that he had large chakra reserves that far surpassed even Hiruzen, The Third Hokage.
I can't do a simple clone jutsu due to my lack of chakra control. I'll have to find a way around that. Naruto thought, nodding his head up and down as he walked through the streets of Konoha. He had to create an elaborate idea so he could pass the graduation exam without a doubt.
Naruto started to ponder rather deeply.
If I can't create a simple clone then I'll just have to make them think that I have created a clone. But how should I go around that idea? Naruto thought, finally arriving at the academy that he was excited to finally be let out from.
"Yo! Naruto! Good to see you have finally decided to join us." Naruto looked towards the voice and saw Kiba's voice call out towards him. He raised an eyebrow, walking towards them.
"Oh, it's the troublesome blond," said Shikamaru, lazily putting his head down on the desk. "Shikamaru. . . Naruto has. . . blond and black. . . hair, though." Choji was munching on his delicious chips. Shikamaru just sighed in response.
"That's correct. But, his hair is mostly dominated by blond hair, so I just use blond instead of adding black to the sentence. Plus, it's way too troublesome to add another word when I could have it reduced." Choji sighed, still munching on his chips.
"So, since Satsuki isn't here, would you like to tell us what you two do all the time in forest? Thought you two hated each other. Though that seemed to change a few years ago." Naruto raised an eyebrow, confused at the words Kiba was implying.
"I do not follow. We only hold a professional friendship if you may call it that." Kiba dead-panned at the two words. "What the hell. . . Is a professional friendship?" Asked Kiba. Naruto shrugged.
"I do not know. But if I had to guess, it would be similar to saying we are acquaintances." This was the best answer that Naruto could even possibly provide. "Naruto, I don't think you are good at identifying what friendship and being an acquaintance is." Naruto looked at Shikamaru, confused.
Before Naruto could say anything else, Satsuki slid the door open. As Satsuki walked towards her seat, she created and established eye contact with Naruto himself. Satsuki arrived at her seat and gestured for Naruto to sit right next to her.
"Looks like your partner wants to talk to you. Off you go." Kiba pushed Naruto away. God, they were a handful of complete weirdos. Naruto sighed, sitting right next to Satsuki. His face was still very stoic.
"Good morning."
"Good morning, Satsuki."
~~~
DONE! This shall be the end of the chapter for now. Rather a shorter one than usual. It only has around 2330 words when not including the A/N at the end. Anyway, Naruto and Satsuki are now acquainted and have established a 'professional friendship' during the 4 year time-skip.
Anyway, this was all I wanted to say. The next chapter will be later today like usual.
If you would like, vote for this chapter.
Anyway, but until next time.
CYA!