Cursed Demon: Kaibutsu Akebono 怪物曙

Chapter 4: Chishiki wa Chikara Nari 知識は力なり

-By Gadalla Rune-

Naruto watched as Sakon and Ukon together fought both Jiroubou and Kidoumaru, and as usual the twins were winning. Occasionally when they teamed up in pairs they could handle Sakon and Ukon, but the brothers were not only twins but literally shared each other's bodies, and when it came to coordination and teamwork no one Naruto had yet seen could match them. So, usually, the brothers were the victors in their sparring matches. It was worse when they had to spar with the normal Oto-academy students. It took four to six academy students to even gain an advantage against the twins, and yet the two would still come out on top.

Naruto winced as he witnessed Kidoumaru be overwhelmed by the brothers' combinations of Tarenken and Tarenkyaku, overwhelming even Kidoumaru's multiple limbs with their own lightning fast barrage of fists and feet. Naruto knew what it was like to be at the receiving end of one of those attacks. After actually getting Sakon engaged in a conversation for once (Ukon did most of the talking), Naruto had found out what and how their unique ability worked.

It was a Kekkei Genkai, usually simply called a Bloodline Limit. Naruto had read a book on ninjutsu that talked about Kekkei Genkai for only a single chapter. Apparently, the families and clans where Kekkei Genkai originated tended to closely guard their Bloodline's secrets. Bloodline Limits were extremely powerful and unique abilities that were only passed on through genetics, or blood, hence the nickname Bloodline Limit. So, only members of the clan, or those with a parent of the clan, tended to get the Kekkei Genkai.

Sakon and Ukon's Bloodline was known as Souma no Kou, it was what allowed them to fuse together and more importantly it required them to remain fused together. They shared a symbiotic relationship, and though they could separate at will, apparently Ukon, the older brother, could only survive for a couple of hours outside of Sakon's body.

Ukon had explained that their entire clan was like that, all born twins that could fuse together. But the reason they had been ostracized was because their particular family had been part of the lower echelons of the clan, and Sakon and Ukon had been born with the true form of Souma no Kou which hadn't appeared in the clan for several generations. This had truly upset the nobility of their clan, something neither of the brothers could understand. So they had grown up with the leaders of their clan separating them from their parents and siblings and forcing them to train their abilities and be subject to testing and experimentation.

The true form of Souma no Kou created the symbiotic relationship that Sakon and Ukon shared, for the rest of their clan did not have to remain fused together with their twins to survive. This had been used against them on several occasions, the nobles threatening to separate the both of them for extended periods of time as a form of torture. It also bestowed a rather unique ability that they learned to harness and eventually escape the slave-like lifestyle their clan had forced on them.

In the lesser form of Souma no Kou, when two twins fused together their strength, speed, endurance, and chakra capacity were added together, effectively making their clan's ninja twice as strong as normal. But Sakon and Ukon soon discovered that the true form of their Kekkei Genkai caused all of their physical attributes to be increased exponentially. In other words they multiplied their strength and speed together, making them far more powerful than their other clan members. Sakon by himself could bench press about eighty pounds with his ten year old body, and so could Ukon. Together they could bench press approximately six and half thousand pounds. Of course, they were not yet full grown adults, and only being ten year olds, their strength, speed and other physical attributes were only going to increase a whole lot more.

Naruto shivered at that thought. Being hit by Sakon and Ukon together hurt more than when Jiroubou punched him; mostly because even though Jiroubou was just as strong as Sakon and Ukon fused together (maybe a little more… another scary thought), the twins used their ability of merging and unmerging to land several bone-crushing punches with just one hit. Whereas Jiroubou could only land one hit with one punch, which made all the difference.

Matter of fact, now that Naruto thought of it, the only ones of the entire academy that could beat Sakon and Ukon one on one… or one on two depending on how one looked at it was Kimimaro and himself.

He had grown stronger.

It had been another month since his incident with Tayuya, and Naruto had grown even more. He had practically mastered the text book taijutsu, it was rather simple after all, and had already started adapting the kata to his own style and movement. In effect he was doing something all ninja eventually did if they didn't receive a specific from of taijutsu training from a master, they created their own form of taijutsu using the basic building blocks of the academy fighting style.

As for ninjutsu, even though he had mastered all the academy jutsu finally, he rarely used the Bunshin no Jutsu, if ever, instead relying heavily on Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. This was due to his chakra control. Even though he had come in leaps and bounds with his chakra control, he still had just too much chakra at his disposal. The basic clone technique required very minute amounts of chakra, and he just wasn't able to limit the amount of chakra he could put in a jutsu. It was like he had hit a wall with how little chakra could be put out by him due to his overly large supply of stamina. Which normally would be a boon, but it meant he wouldn't be able to use techniques like Bunshin no Jutsu and even most genjutsu with any amount of efficiency.

But that didn't bother him too much. Who wanted to use old Bunshins or genjutsu when he could use solid Kage Bunshins!

He had realized that he only had the fundamentals down when he discovered several subsidiary kinjutsu in the scroll Kabuto had given him that used Kage Bunshins. After reading the scroll and studying the hand seals and other jutsu formulae, he had started working on those as well. One in particular had him excited to master, Bakuha Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, a jutsu that allowed him to literally explode the chakra in a given Kage Bunshin, allowing him to use his shadow clones as suicide bombers that were dangerous to even get close to. Senritsu had been apprehensive about Naruto learning how to explode his own shadow clones, knowing full well that he would eventually have to fight against them at graduation.

Speaking of his sensei, Naruto had continued to advance in his elemental chakra training with Senritsu. He had learned two new jutsu dealing with his elements. One was rather easy to learn since it was actually a lower level wind jutsu then his Shinkuu Taigyoku. Fuuton: Daitoppa was not nearly as destructive as the Great Vacuum Sphere, but he was able to sustain the blast of wind that emanated from his outstretched hands for as long as his stamina allowed, resulting in a rather extended period of time. This allowed him to block incoming projectiles and to keep opponents at bay; a very versatile jutsu that could also be very damaging if he wished to invest the larger amounts of chakra required for such an attack. Which when he did, the wind became more powerful, and also sliced into anything in its path as the wind chakra was concentrated and literally sharpened.

The other new fire jutsu he had learned was the Katon: Housenka no Jutsu, which took him nearly as long to master as the Goukakyuu. Instead of one large powerful fireball at relatively close range, the Housenka technique created several smaller and weaker fireballs that he could fire at multiple targets from a longer distance away, he could create as many fireballs as he wanted, he just had to expend the required chakra. Both of the new jutsu were relatively weaker in attack power, but could be used in more strategic situations due to their versatility, and they still took about two weeks to master due to the higher requirements of chakra control required for each one.

It had taken him a bit of time and a whole lot of mental abuse from Senritsu, before he was able to admit to himself that he was lacking in the chakra control area of his training. He did not enjoy admitting that he was bad at something, a trait Naruto realized meant that he was probably overly competitive and disliked being looked down on.

As soon as he was able to admit it to himself, however, he had started working on it furiously, running up and down walls, and training his taijutsu while standing on water. He had even taken to walking on the ceilings of the tunnels when moving about the underground facility instead of walking on the floor. All which helped tremendously with his chakra control and increased his stamina slightly to boot.

All of this pleased Naruto, especially the fact that he was starting to get the hang of changing his chakra nature to one of his elemental affinities using only one or two hand signs, a mastery of control that was required for the unique technique that his sensei had developed and would eventually be teaching him. But there was one thing that was getting on his nerves about his training, Senritsu had remained adamant that no one know what was going on behind the training room doors during their private training lessons.

So, Naruto had not been able to use, and more accurately, show off, all of his new jutsu when training with his classmates.

Naruto ground his teeth in frustration at that thought. If I could just take a whack at Kimimaro with my elemental jutsu I'd at least get that much closer to kicking his ass.

A true rivalry had seemed to spring up between Naruto and Kimimaro. It had only been three months, but within that amount of time, Naruto had grown immensely in skill power, and most noticeably, intellect. Naruto had received intense training, mandatory classes, and a one on one focus with his sensei that he could never have hoped for back in Konoha. Here, in Otogakure, they expected him to improve, and for once in his life Naruto was more than happy to oblige. For once in his life, he felt like he was actually wanted, that someone actually wanted him to be a ninja. Within three months time, Naruto had risen in the ranks amongst his classmates, academy and elite alike.

Now, the only student that was above Naruto in skill was Kimimaro, who still beat him every time they sparred, while Sakon and Ukon only beat him less then half the time when they had a bout. Naruto was not lacking in his grades either, Kimimaro was of course the top of the class, while Tayuya and fellow academy student Tsuchi Kin were the only ones ahead in grades. Though, as time went by, it seemed that the blond was slowly catching up to his peers in perfect marks.

Sometime within the past two weeks, Kimimaro's attitude towards Naruto had changed when he realized that the blond was actually proving to be more and more of a challenge as time went by. Plus, something had seemed to click when Senritsu had publicly gone over all the elite's grades thus far during one of their training sessions. It had been no surprise that Kimimaro was number one in the class still, but it had come as a slight surprise when Naruto had been revealed to be fourth when it came to grades; impressive, since his first two week period had shown him near the bottom of the classes when it came to the textbook side of his education in the ninja arts.

No one had seemed to be more shocked than Kimimaro who obviously ignored most of his other teammate's progress through their training and education in the ninja arts. The fact that his surprise was plainly seen on his face (in the form of raised eyebrows) was testament to how shocked he really had been. Naruto guessed that it was a bit of a shock. He had gone from almost dead last to within the top five of the class in both physical and mental exercises in less than three months time.

For the past two weeks Naruto's spars with Kimimaro had changed dramatically. When facing Naruto, Kimimaro no longer nonchalantly defeated the opposition as he tended to do against all his other opponents, academy and elite alike, with all the stoic attitude of a genius. Instead, Naruto found himself ruthlessly attacked by the pale-haired genius any time he set foot within the trid. At first Naruto had thought he had struck a nerve with the boy and had somehow pissed him off, but it took nearly a week of sparring with Kimimaro every day for Naruto to realize what had happened.

Kimimaro was acknowledging him.

Kimimaro was acknowledging only him, in the only way a ninja could show his respect to a fellow sparring partner. He beat him, he stabbed him, threw him and slammed him into walls and into the floor, and instead of defending and waiting for an opening, Kimimaro savagely beat Naruto into submission, finishing the sparring match in as little time as possible.

Naruto relished it.

For once, someone stronger than him had a recognized him as a true threat, someone more powerful and skilled than he was had seen the potential and power he was capable of. So, Naruto fought back. If Kimimaro was going to give him his all, then he was going to as well… within his sensei's parameters at least, meaning no elemental jutsu as of yet. But, Naruto made up for it and gave the green-eyed Kaguya as much hell as possible.

Senritsu had gotten anxious at Kimimaro's change in attitude towards Naruto for the first week it happened. Then he started noticing the grimace on Naruto's face resembled more of a maniacal grin even though he was currently pin-cushioned with bone spears, daggers and swords; and the occasional angry tick in Kimimaro's cheek seemed to keep pulling up the corners of the normally stoic boy's mouth whenever he saw that Naruto was not yet down for the count. For some reason that only made Senritsu feel even more anxious.

He really preferred that they didn't kill each other because they were enjoying themselves too much.

Not only was Naruto feeling more and more confident in his strength as a ninja, but now he felt more confident around other people. At least he felt more confident around his elite class. Jiroubou and Kidoumaru had seemed to become good friends… though Naruto was getting the feeling that they were beginning to look up to him. He didn't know how to really handle that since he'd never had anyone ever look up to him before. As for Sakon and Ukon, well Ukon was talkative and friendly with Naruto… when he was awake, and Sakon was, well, Sakon. He was brash, brusque and didn't really do the communication thing, but Naruto felt that the few words they did share, usually in the form of flying swear words and jests, were no longer as harsh as they used to be. Though, Naruto still felt a twinge of irritation when Sakon decided to call him short, which in reply Naruto would call him Sa-kun.

Last time that happened (just a few hours ago) Senritsu had to pull them apart because Naruto was on top of Sakon choking him with the blue haired boy choking the blond as well; Ukon had woken up and tried getting in between them but only seemed to piss the two of them off even more.

And now Kimimaro was treating him more as part of the team than an outsider, though he was still very quiet around the younger boy. Naruto could tell that Kimimaro actually paid attention when Naruto was called on to spar or to demonstrate an exercise. Kimimaro saw him as his personal rival; and the bone-user, being the strongest student by far, had already been designated by Naruto as the blonde's rival to surpass.

Everyone laughed at his antics and pranks now (usually after yelling at him first); even Kimimaro could be seen with a ghost of a smile on his face occasionally, except when the prank was against him. Like that time Naruto had taken spoiled goat's milk and stuck it inside the Kaguya's mini-fridge in his room. He had almost been caught since he had the urge to see if the pale-haired boy's bathroom was as meticulously clean and organized as his closet and sleeping area. It had been and it had been slightly weird and OCD to Naruto, but everyone had their quirks and their reasons, so it hadn't really bothered him.

What did bother him was when he had found a shaft of sharp bone stuck through his neck from his blind spot the next day. While he lay gurgling in his own life blood, Kimimaro had lectured him in a monotone voice of why the blond should never ever sneak into his room without his permission again, and why it was uncivilized and uncouth for a ninja of his caliber to play such a prank on his illustrious rival.

Naruto was sure that Kimimaro knew he'd be able to survive such a blow, and he was also very sure that the white-haired asshole knew that he'd survive but be in a whole world of agony since the damn bone spear was barbed and it took Kidoumaru and Jiroubou both to gingerly remove it. Senritsu had laughed his ass off the entire half hour from the beginning of Kimimaro's lecture to when the shard of bone was finally removed. Naruto had punched him in his stupid scarfed face… though that only seemed to make him laugh all the harder. Nonetheless, Naruto had not played a prank on Kimimaro since.

… Though it had only been a week…

Everyone seemed to laugh at times like that, and for once in his life, Naruto felt he belonged.

Everyone laughed, or smiled… except Tayuya…

Naruto watched Sakon and Ukon dispatch of Jiroubou rather easily, throwing him out of the trid and leaving a battered Kidoumaru to fend for himself, and sighed. It had been an entire month, and nothing had changed. The day after he had spoken his mind to Tayuya he had not seen her in class at the academy; the sensei had explained she had called in sick. So when she had shown up to their training session later that day he had expected her to completely ignore everything he had told her the night before and start shooting off her mouth at everyone and everything around her, especially him.

But to Naruto's amazement and near shock, the moment the redhead had laid eyes on him, she just seemed to… crumble. Naruto couldn't explain it, it looked like she was going to say something, then she had closed her mouth and hung her head, silently walking towards them to stand in line for Senritsu's daily inspection. For the entire day, she did not speak to anyone, opening her mouth whenever anyone did something stupid or fell, or if Kidoumaru or one of the other's said something to her, but then she would just close her mouth and say nothing, looking anywhere but at Naruto. She avoided him like the plague the entire day, keeping one of the others between them at all times, or if she couldn't do that, she made sure she was at least ten to twenty feet away from him.

Naruto could feel her watching him though when he wasn't looking, which he surmised was her glaring holes into the side of his head, but every time he looked her way he would fine her snapping her gaze away from his as if he had physically slapped her. Her attitude towards him had him completely perplexed. He was pretty sure that he would've had to talk to her again, since he was positive that no amount of trying to talk sense to such a hothead as Tayuya would ever work.

It seemed to only get worse.

As the days went by, Tayuya became more and more introverted, not talking to anyone unless spoken to and only to really answer questions with a 'no' or 'yes' and sometimes with only a noncommittal sound or mere shrug of the shoulders. She avoided eye contact with Naruto, and seemed to fidget whenever she realized Naruto was watching her. A few times Naruto was sure she'd just open her mouth and fire a string of curses and swears at him or one of her classmates, or Senritsu, since the man seemed to be personally trying to goad her in response to her new found silence; but no matter what happened, she would simply look away and say nothing.

Naruto didn't know how to handle this.

When Kidoumaru and Jiroubou had asked him what had happened the night she had stalked him out of the cafeteria, he simply relayed to them that he had told her to leave him alone, and that he didn't understand what he had done to make her dislike him so much. Jiroubou had shrugged his massive shoulders and simply went to his room to rest and eat, while Kidoumaru had raised all his hands up as if to say, 'what're you gonna do?' Naruto had shrugged himself in response to that and had gone to bed after barely reading from his kinjutsu scroll and his current book, "Chakra: Elemental Manipulation and Spatial Manipulation: Practical Applications."

Finally after an entire week of Tayuya completely avoiding him as much as possible, Senritsu had decided to force the two into a one on one sparring match. Naruto had jumped up on the trid expecting Tayuya to already be there, eager to finally smash the 'little blond fuck-face.' Instead, he was once again proven wrong. Tayuya was still in the same spot she had been standing in, on the other side of the trid from where Naruto had been, staring at Senritsu and then Naruto as if they had both transformed into monsters who wanted to take her maidenhood.

Senritsu had finally said, "Tayuya, you get in the ring and fight Naruto, or else I'll be having you sleep in Naruto's room if you're so scared of him."

The pure horror on the redhead's face had surprised Naruto once again. He had been expecting outrage and anger at Senritsu's words, not this. Tayuya had bit her lip and fiddled with her fingers and the hem of her elite robes, something that Naruto saw as very un-Tayuya like, and also very cute. He had almost smacked himself for thinking that, and quickly had it pushed out of his mind as he watched Tayuya finally snap out of her daze and slowly ascend the trid's steps, one agonizing footstep at a time.

Naruto had actually felt bad during their relatively short sparring session. Tayuya had slid into her rather unique taijutsu stance (Senritsu had been teaching it to her, though he refused to even tell Naruto what it was as of yet) but she hadn't been looking at him, instead she was looking down, watching his feet. Whatever taijutsu Senritsu was teaching her, Naruto knew full well that she was supposed to be looking at him. When their sensei had signaled for them to start, Tayuya had moved towards Naruto, attacking with her extremely fluid taijutsu; and though the strikes were executed perfectly, at least to the blonde's estimation, he noted that they had no power, no speed and no… determination, something that Naruto had associated with Tayuya since day one.

Naruto had blocked the pathetic strikes with a frown of disappointment on his face, and actually had felt bed when he grabbed Tayuya's wrist from one of her missed punches, and almost easily twisted and maneuvered her off the trid. He hadn't even thrown her, but because she wasn't paying attention she had stumbled on the edge and landed in a heap on the floor. Naruto had felt shock at what he had seen, but had recovered and jumped down almost instantly, worried that he had actually hurt her, but before he had even gotten to her she had already dragged herself to a standing position and proceeded to walk back to her spot on the other side of the trid.

During the following weeks, they had gone through three more of such sparring matches. Senritsu had tried berating her on her performance when sparring with Naruto, but she had only nodded her head and said nothing. Apparently she was doing fine with all her other studies and training exercises, but anytime she had to spar against Naruto she suddenly turned into the worst ninja in their group. Naruto knew for a fact that Tayuya was far from weak, and she was smarter than him as well. He didn't understand the way she was acting, and he had no idea what to do about it.

Kidoumaru and Jiroubou had already expressed their confusion and worry to her, but only got shrugs in response, and even Sakon and Ukon exercised their own sort of concern, berating her as they had always done, trying vainly to rile up a heated response. Soon Jiroubou and Kidoumaru had joined in with Sakon's plan, but so far none of it had worked.

Even Kimimaro in his own fashion had started ignoring Tayuya even more (something Naruto was surprised was possible), only looking at her to express his disgust through his eyes. This, though harsh, was the bone-user's own way of trying to get some sort of response out of the redhead that was the Tayuya of old. It seemed even the normally cold Kaguya somehow missed, in his own way, the occasional fitful burst of 'fucks' and 'shits'.

But, it all only seemed to make the girl crumble even further. Her head seemed to hang lower everyday, and Naruto could tell that she was starting to drag her feet so she wouldn't keep up with everyone else when they left class, training or the cafeteria.

Kidoumaru had almost beaten Sakon and Ukon twice by now, one would have been a knock out while the other was almost the much easier to obtain ring out, but Naruto was pulled out of his musings as Sakon had maneuvered Kidoumaru into disadvantageous position where he then used his overwhelming power to drive the six-armed boy right off the side of the trid.

"Alright! Sakon and Ukon win!" Senritsu had appeared with a puff of smoke into the middle of the trid behind the twins… though he had only been three feet away in his usual sitting place, a dark green lounge-chair meant for the beach. The fact that there was now a pond hidden underneath the trid and small amount of sand underneath their sensei's chair did not constitute the training room as a beach. Naruto had said so at one point, though all he got was one of Senritsu's many 'I know more than you' laughs, little hearts above his head included.

Senritsu looked over at the clock above the training room's doors, "Well, we've got about fifteen minutes left today, so I'd figure we'd just do some basic…"

Senritsu cut off his train of thought when a nondescript chuunin walked into the training room. It was hard to tell them a part; after all you could only see their eyes, and most chuunin wore their face masks and camouflage scarfs as a badge of pride for achieving said rank. Jounin on the other hand, tended to develop their own look that was comfortable to them, though they were still required to wear the purple rope belt that signified their rank. The chuunin quickly scanned the training room and spotting Senritsu proceeded to the middle of the trid to whisper into his ear.

Senritsu nodded and turned to his class, "Well, looks like we'll be cutting it short today, which sucks, I wanted to make you guys do suicides for the last fifteen minutes." He was of course smiling when he stated this.

There was a rather audible sigh from everyone in his class, except Kimimaro of course who only looked relieved… Tayuya didn't react at all. Suicides were a basic running exercise that could tire out an average person easily… until you added Senritsu to the equation and suddenly it was turned into an obstacle course of death that tired out normal ninja in about five minutes. Naruto himself did not relish the thought of performing his sensei's diabolical version of suicides for fifteen minutes straight.

Naruto quickly turned to where Tayuya was heading towards the hallway doors, intent on cutting her off and forcing her to talk to him. Tayuya had become a constant in his first two months in Oto, an extremely annoying and aggravating constant, but something stable nonetheless; when he himself was surrounded by so much change and was changing personally within that two month span. He could always count on Jiroubou and Kidoumaru to joke with, Sakon and Ukon to insult and beat the crap out of, Kimimaro to ignore him except when they sparred, and for Tayuya to yell her brains out at him. It had been a month of her new almost… shy attitude and it was just too much. If he was able to bring back her hot-tempered ways, even if it was all focused on him as it had been before, he would feel normal again and be happy to just grit his teeth and deal with it.

"Naruto, come over here, please."

Naruto stopped in his tracks as his sensei called from behind him and watched as Tayuya nearly sprinted out into the hallway and towards her room before the double doors slammed shut. He sighed, and vowed to do something about her later on and turned to see his sensei standing right behind him.

"Sheesh!... don't sneak up on me like that you damn pedophile!"

Senritsu chuckled, "Oh, I see we're making up for Tayuya's lack of attitude now." Naruto felt dread as little hearts appeared above the jounin's head. That was never a good sign. "Well, lucky for you my pedophile ways are geared towards little children who're actually attractive… and not so loud-mouthed either."

Naruto ground his teeth and shut up, knowing full well he would never get anywhere with his teacher. The man had absolutely no shame. Literally, none. "Fine, we'll save jokes about my looks for later, what do you want? Its Friday, we don't have our training session for another hour."

Senritsu shrugged, but his casual demeanor became a little more serious, "Usually it's my choice when we train, but that's not why I called you over here. It seems that our Otokage whishes to have a word with you. He's interested in how your training is going, so I'll be coming along. If he asks, don't tell him about me showing you my little technique, but you can tell him about all the other elemental stuff we've been working on."

Naruto perked up at this. He had only seen the Otokage a couple of times since his first day in Otogakure, and always from a distance, usually talking to a couple of jounin. He had only spoken to the man once, and hadn't really gotten a good impression of him at the time. Matter of fact, now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Kabuto, Yoroi or Misumi either. He had been so caught up in training that he completely forgot about seeing what his three saviors had been up to.

"Alright, do I need to dress up or something? Or are we going now?"

Senritsu smiled, "Don't worry about it, your uniform is fine, plus Orochimaru usually prefers that his invitations and orders are met swiftly." Senritsu opened the hallway doors, waiting for Naruto to follow, "Just remember to be respectful and everything, and when you do see him, since your pretty much a Sound ninja now, its customary to bend the knee when greeting our Otokage in person."

Naruto nodded his ascent and made note of everything his sensei was telling him as they walked side by side down the hallway to Orochimaru's throne room. Naruto was told to add the respectful '–sama' suffix to the Otokage title or Orochimaru's name when speaking to him or of him, though Naruto was acutely aware that his sensei didn't do so when not in the Snake Sannin's presence.

He'd have to ask him about that later.

It didn't take long for them to reach Orochimaru's throne room.

Naruto remembered little of it though. He had only seen it once and had been in a state of minor shock at the time. But, he did remember the massive brass double doors engraved with snakes and the yin and yang, and it was easy to remember the monstrous golden throne made of more of the carved serpents with its massive yin yang disc that would sit above the head of Orochimaru. Other than that, Naruto could only remember Orochimaru himself.

Naruto kneeled alongside his sensei and bowed his head slightly to the pale man lounging in the golden throne of snakes. When he had entered he had made small notes of the interior, things he hadn't noticed three months ago when he had first arrived in Otogakure.

The room was lit with torches in iron brackets that gave off a shadowy orange glow. The color of the lighting calmed Naruto a little; after all, orange was the most divine color in existence. He had even managed to find a bit of orange cloth in one of the storage rooms and now wore it as his sash-belt instead of the plain brow one he had originally used.

The walls were a pale wood with a stone ceiling and a stone floor, though the floor was covered in a montage of scarlet and purple carpets that covered most of the flagstones underfoot all the way up to the dais that the Otokage's throne sat on.

"Ku ku ku… it is good to see you Naruto-kun… and you Senritsu-kun."

Naruto looked up, shaken from his study of the room, to see two golden eyes gazing at him. Three months ago he would have missed it, but the pause before Orochimaru had addressed Senritsu was very apparent to Naruto now. Naruto realized that the Snake Sannin was waiting for him to say something in return to his greeting.

The blonde cleared his throat, "Thank you Orochimaru-sama… um, it is good to see you too."

This seemed to amuse the Otokage as a smirk spread itself across his face. "Ku ku… ever the charmer, Naruto-kun. I've received weekly reports from your sensei on your training, class grades, and how you've been relating to your classmates. Apparently my own apprentice has taken a liking to you… at least that's what Senritsu-kun tells me. I have yet to hear the young Kaguya speak of you so."

Naruto understood that Orochimaru was talking about Kimimaro, and smiled nervously, "Well, uh… I wouldn't say he likes me per say… more like he sees me as a rival or something like that."

"Ah, that would explain what your sensei was referring to... tell me Naruto-kun, are you enjoying your classes? My reports tell me you've advanced dramatically since you first came here; apparently Kabuto-kun was right about your potential all along." The Sannin paused for a moment and if anything his smirk became a little more… smirkier, "… and I've checked in at the library and noticed that you've been rather busy with all my books."

Naruto continued smiling nervously, the way this man talked was a little unnerving; especially with the way he would smirk and gaze at you as if you were his sole focus in the world for that moment… as if you were prey and he was wondering whether to eat you or not. But, he was the Otokage and his leader and master, plus he seemed to be pleased with his progress and interested in his own thoughts on the matter.

"Um… heh… yeah I enjoy my classes. Everyone is pretty nice to me… or at least nicer than back at ho-… back at Konoha, and thank you. I didn't think I was getting that strong. Kimimaro still beats me every time and Sakon and Ukon beat me almost half the time still." Naruto suppressed a grimace; he had almost referred to that place as home. He felt sick thinking of that place and everything he had gone through in Konoha. There was no way he was going to call that place home ever again.

Orochimaru raised an amused eyebrow at the young boy's correction of himself, but said nothing of it, instead focusing on something he was rather curious about, "… and the books, Naruto-kun?"

"Oh yeah! Uh… well, I've just been reading about everything… everything. I never used to read before. Back in Konoha the librarians would always yell at me if I got too close to the books, as if I was there for anything else… and finally I just stopped going there. I learned to read in the academy, so it was a little hard at first since everyone else was already ahead of me in that area. Either way, everything I had to read was all technical stuff that was really boring, especially if it was history. The only cool stuff about history was the stories." Naruto stopped there, realizing he had started babbling in his excitement about books… and when did he start standing? He looked over to see his sensei was still at least on one knee looking at him with one of his amused/curious looks. The blonde quickly went back to one knee with a muttered apology.

Orochimaru waved it off, "Ku ku ku, think nothing of it, Naruto-kun. Please continue, I wish to hear why you've suddenly started reading… and, though I admit my library is rather vast with thousands of volumes, I would still like to know exactly how you've read over four hundred and fifty books of my library in only two months time."

Naruto openly grimaced at that… shit. He noticed Senritsu's amused/curious look had become pure curious, and a lot more intense. Naruto sighed, he was hoping no one would notice that, but he might as well continue, and lying to the Otokage of all people was out of the question.

"Well, like I said, I had to learn how to read in my first two years in the academy. I guess because I was younger I didn't find the academy criteria as interesting as… say, a picture book. Plus, all my sensei would yell at me for not being able to read. One of them… I think Iruka was his name-" Senritsu visibly flinched here, but no one seemed to notice, "-he took it on himself to at least tutor me in reading. He said that when I got older I'd be in his class probably… I was looking forward to that, but that was then and this is now, and I have no desire to return to that academy."

Naruto took a breath, as if fortifying himself and plowed on, "So, because I used to be yelled at for not being able to read, I think I started associating books with my life… you know, utter suck. Well, when I got here Senritsu made me read at least one book. It was short and only dealt with a short intro on the elemental manipulation of chakra, and I only read it after finding out my own elemental affinities." Orochimaru shot a slightly surprised glance at Senritsu, who merely nodded his head in affirmation, before returning his focus on the blonde.

"It was… well for the lack of a better word, it was cool. They didn't teach us this stuff in the academy because of how complex it was. Well this book was simply an intro so it explained everything so easily even an eight-year old dumb blonde could understand it after a couple hours of wracking his brain. Then, it was like a light bulb went off in my head… this book had opened my eyes and made me understand what Senritsu-sensei had been babbling about at me before I had read it."

Naruto casually ignored the annoyed look his sensei gave him, "It was like I was suddenly hungry… and books were like ramen. Every single one was its own flavor, and I just felt the need to read them all…" Naruto stopped, he had just revealed his own private revelation to these two men, and had told them about a passion he had never known he had possessed… now he had to tell them his secret.

Naruto swallowed, he was hoping not to tell anyone about his little… 'discovery' until later, much later. "You see, after reading a couple more books, I guess… I don't know, I started… paying attention more?" Naruto shrugged, he couldn't explain what a week of reading had done to him, it had just done something, and whatever it was it was profound. "If I was still back in Konoha, I probably would never have gotten into reading books like I am now, unless it was like '101 Ways to Become Hokage'… or some garbage like that." Though Naruto declined to mention he would still read it, even now, it was a book after all and deserved to be read, no matter how bad.

"So… when sparring against… well anybody, I started to notice something. I guess you already know that Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is pretty much my most used technique, right?" At Orochimaru's approving nod, the blond continued, "You see, every time Kimimaro would kill one of my shadow clones, or Jiroubou would pound one into pulp or they would just be dispelled overall, I… felt something. So I decided to test it out. I sent one of my clones into Kimimaro's room to um… well you see, I sorta planned on playing a prank on him and wanted to get to know the layout a little better. I was going to switch out one of his milk cartons with a carton full of sour goat's milk. When Kimimaro came back my clone almost got caught apparently and dispelled himself to avoid getting seen. Suddenly I knew the layout of Kimimaro's room and what had happened because after my clone dispelled the jutsu, all of his memories came rushing back in my head." Naruto also declined to mention that several weeks later he did indeed pull said prank on Kimimaro.

Which had led to him being stabbed in the throat. Naruto shuddered.

Naruto looked over to see Orochimaru waiting for him to continue, he had gotten up again and had been pacing while talking without even realizing it, but he didn't kneel this time, for the Sannin didn't seem to mind at the moment. "I probably didn't notice it before 'cause every time one of my clones was 'killed' I was there watching it happen. So I didn't think anything of the fact that my clone got killed and that I just imagined I could feel Kimimaro's bone sword going through my eye after watching it happen to me. After my little experiment, though, I started thinking about other ways I could use this jutsu. Obviously I can use the Kage Bunshin for long distance surveillance and tracking, and stuff like that without risking any harm to myself or my teammates. Then I got curious and tried an experiment with two more shadow clones. I sat down for a night with the two other… me's, and each of us read a different book, or at least part of it. When I dispelled them, I not only remembered what I had just read but what my other two counterparts had read too!"

Naruto shrugged, "After that I would check out multiple books, as much as me and a few of my shadow clones could carry, and during the day, while I was at class and in training, my shadow clones would sit in my room reading. One shadow clone per book, so that when I went to bed I would just pass out from all the influx of information, and when I woke up in the morning I'd have about several thousand pages of text swimming around in my head. I suppose the REM cycles while sleeping helped my brain process all the information so it was easier to understand it when I woke up."

Here he stopped. He had been pacing circles around his kneeling sensei, who had started getting a sore neck following Naruto's movements, before stopping and facing the Otokage. "… and its only been a month since I figured out about all that stuff with the Kage Bunshin... so I've read over four-hundred and fifty books in only one month... not two." Naruto looked down at his feet, slightly embarrassed when the Sannin started to chuckle.

"Ku ku ku… impressive! Very impressive, Naruto-kun. I'm so very happy that you've found an interest in my library and in books in general. I must say that I am encouraging you to continue reading, after all you'll notice that most of the books here in my humble abode have to deal with pretty much everything about the ninja arts, though you'll find reading on pretty much any subject matter you could think of."

Orochimaru's voice had slowly drawn Naruto's embarrassed face up so that he was looking into his leader's golden eyes once again. When the Sannin saw that he had the boys undivided attention he decided to impart a little snippet of wisdom he was sure the boy would take to heart, "Always remember, Naruto-kun… knowledge is Power."

Naruto bowed with a quick "Hai, Orochimaru-sama." before returning to kneel next to his sensei. He had felt the importance of such a statement and seeing his sensei's knowing nod at the proclamation he knew it was true.

Senritsu honestly couldn't believe his ears… the boy had read the equivalent of fifteen books a day and had assimilated all the information of said books after a single night's rest! What was just as interesting was the nature of his shadow clones. Senritsu himself could perform the technique now after watching Naruto using it enough times. After all he was a jounin and was once hailed as a genius, and had already figured out that interesting side affect, but it was different for him and pretty much every other person that could use the technique apparently. He had found this out after doing some more research on said technique after figuring out how to use it.

One, Naruto could make a lot more shadow clones than anyone else he had ever encountered and could maintain them for extended periods of time for obvious reasons; reasons the boy didn't know about… yet.

Two, when ever he or anyone else used Kage Bunshin, the shadow clones were only granted a limited intelligence, enough to follow orders and perform simple tasks, but not intelligent enough to memorize details very well for scouting missions or the like… like the memorization of a book. Not to mention they didn't have very much personality either. Making the jutsu used as a distraction tactic, or to aid a little in combat situations, though it was only known by the rare jounin who had bothered to learn it… though it was used this way with usually only one or two at a time usually.

Naruto's shadow clones on the other hand were not only more resilient and more… numerous, but were long lasting and seemed to act just like the loud mouth blonde himself. Senritsu grinned (though none could see it behind his scarf) at the memory of the few occasions that Naruto had gotten himself into verbal arguments with his own clones which sometimes escalated into fist fights. Said fist fights would usually lead to very confusing all out brawls, and for some reason when Naruto hit his own shadow clones they didn't dispel after only one hit, so the brawls usually lasted a good half an hour or so. His sensei allowed the battle royals to happen when they did, as long as the boy and his clones practiced proper taijutsu form… plus it was amusing as hell to watch someone get the shit beat out of them by none other than themselves.

Senritsu already knew the mechanics behind the jutsu, the fact that each clone was actually a minute extension of the users chakra and mind, and when a shadow clone 'died' the chakra that held the part of the mind would return to its original place, the head of the user. Senritsu had been curious about Naruto's shadow clones… until now. He summarized that the blonde's unnaturally intelligent clones were probably just as aware as Naruto himself due to the massive amounts of chakra the boy used into making the damn things. And, the fact that Naruto was constantly using chakra everyday all day for the past month to sustain at least fifteen kage bunshin, even when training, was yet another testament to the boy's potential.

"You said something about elemental affinities?"

Senritsu looked up at Orochimaru's inquiry; he had been silent during the entire exchange between his student and the Otokage and decided it was his time to speak. Didn't want the little gaki to let anything slip after all.

"Ah, yes Orochimaru-sama. That was something I have not included in my reports since I was inclined to tell you of my little discovery, and Naruto's personal training, in person." He waited for Orochimaru to nod his assent, urging him on before continuing,

"Apparently my young pupil here has not one, but two elemental affinities. Something, as we know, is extremely rare. They happen to be Wind and Fire." It was almost unheard of outside of bloodline limits that were able to fuse elements together. Everyone else was born with only one affinity for an element, didn't matter if they were ninja or not. Ninja could use their element easily when compared to other elements, but as a ninja progressed he could gain proficiency in one or two more elements. It was very rare to hear of a ninja who had gained full proficiency in all five elements… one of them was sitting on a solid gold throne right in front of him.

Orochimaru didn't miss the slight inflection when Senritsu claimed Naruto, rather subtly, as his own personal apprentice. It irked him… slightly… that he didn't realize that the Raikou Dageki was giving the young jinchuuriki private training sessions and obviously on his elemental affinities; but he decided to indulge the Sumiyaka and allow him to have his own apprentice, it would be more fruitful if he could keep all his focus on the Kaguya child anyway and allowing Naruto to have his own personal sensei would only help him in furthering his goals.

After all, Kabuto had just come to him a few days ago to announce his own personal apprentice from the academy, a boy by the name of Abumi Zaku. Orochimaru was interested into why his second in command had chosen such a child. The boy was someone the Sannin vaguely remembered recruiting in person. He remembered the dark haired little runt had had guts and something in his eyes that could only be described as pure determination and the instinct to survive. Either way, Zaku was only mid placed when it came to grades in the academy, so Orochimaru couldn't understand why Kabuto had chosen the boy to train… well he at least knew why now.

Apparently, the bespectacled Oto-nin had learned of Senritsu taking on little Naruto as his personal apprentice. Orochimaru knew that Kabuto would probably never have bothered to take an apprentice for himself if it wasn't for Senritsu taking Naruto under his wing. The Snake Sannin ground his teeth in slight frustration; he gave Kabuto and Senritsu, his two highest ranked subordinates, far too much freedom. But, as long as they didn't hinder him in his goals he didn't mind... much.

Another thought came to the Otokage, Hm… looks like I won't really be able to kill Senritsu now that he's got the jinchuuriki tied to him. It was true; the Snake had planned on killing the nukenin known as the 'Lightning Strike' ever since he had joined Otogakure. The man apparently wasn't swayed by the quasi-immortal's grand vision of a world in his image, but had instead joined his ranks to avoid hunter-nin and the rigors of being a nukenin always on the run. The man was skilled and powerful and had quickly rose in rank to where he was today, but Orochimaru didn't trust him for the plain reason that Sumiyaka Senritsu didn't fear him or worship him as a soon to be 'Ultimate Being' deserved to be treated.

But, the ex-nukenin had proven his worth as a capable warrior and teacher and Orochimaru had planned on having Senritsu experience a rather fatal 'accident' only after he had finished training his elite body guard. Now it would seem that keeping the man alive for as long as the jinchuuriki was of use to him would prove more fruitful in the long run.

The Otokage mentally shrugged at that thought and continued to listen as Senritsu relayed all of Naruto's elemental training exercises and the few jutsu the boy had learned over the course of his two month tutelage.

Orochimaru nodded his head in thought after Senritsu finished his report, "Well, Senritsu-kun, though I would have prefered that you had told me of this sooner, I'm glad you decided to leave it for a time when you could tell me face to face. I'm very pleased to here of Naruto-kun's continued advancement and education as a shinobi. I expect you to continue doing so at such an astounding pace." Orochimaru waved his hand in a rather grand dismissive gesture, "You are both dismissed. I expect to hear more good things from you Naruto-kun."

After both he and his sensei had exited the doors, Senritsu led Naruto back down to the elite training hallway. Naruto assumed they were going to his private lesson until Senritsu stopped them in front of his bedroom door.

Senritsu knocked on the door lightly and was answered by none other than an annoyed looking Naruto clone who was currently dressed the same way as the original and was holding a rather thick looking book in one hand, a finger used to mark his place.

"What do you want, sensei?"

Senritsu gave a bored shrug and peeked into the room seeing at least a dozen or so Naruto's sitting around the room, each hunched over his own book with a look of utmost concentration; which in Naruto's case was a frown that caused his eyes to squint while sticking out his bottom lip. It was rather… comical. The clone shook his head in annoyance and closed the door in his face.

Senritsu turned back to the original Naruto, "Since we went to go see the Otokage today, how about you take the rest of the evening off, you know, find something to do… or someone for that matter. Becoming an utter bookworm could be detrimental to your development as a young man."

Naruto rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation, the man seemed to only ever have one thing on his mind, except in the middle of class. "My clones do the reading idiot; I only read a few pages here and there before I go to bed."

"You mean before the massive hemorrhaging in you brain causes you to pass out from an overflow of information."

Naruto shrugged at that truth, "You say potato, I say po-tah-toh…"

Senritsu chuckled at the over used witticism, "Just take the night off, Naruto. Find something creative to do or something. We'll pick up were we left off yesterday, tomorrow. Besides, I'm tired and hungry. I think I'll go get me a burger or something. You wanna come?"

Naruto grimaced and stuck out his tongue in a disgusted manner. He would never understand his sensei's obsession with that greasy western food, especially… burgers.

Cheese Burgers.

Naruto felt sick thinking of the evil little circles of greasy meat, ruining the namesake of beef and cheese alike. Nope, give our little blonde some Ramen ANY day.

The brown haired jounin shrugged again and started walking off towards the cafeteria, "Suit yourself…"

Naruto shook his head in dismay. His sensei could be one of the coolest ninjas he had ever met, and then prove that he was bat-shit crazy and had an obsession with burgers and young children… and killing… usually through overdoses of poison or frying them with plasma discharges hotter than the surface of the sun.

Naruto tried to forcibly remove the images from his head of what one his sensei's dreams were probably like when it involved all three… an image of Senritsu standing atop a mountain of pap-wrapped cheese burgers, with one of the greasy bundles held in each hand, laughing maniacally and occasionally spewing beams of lightning from his burger filled mouth at the horde's of young, starving, prepubescent children attempting to filch food from the bottom of his cheese burger mountain.

...not pretty.

Besides, if he wasn't going to train he had something important that he needed to attend to.

Naruto turned from his door after checking in on his clones, who all greeted him with wide grins and thumbs up, and walked with measured steps to the door across from his own. The sign hung on the front said 'KEEP OUT' in bold red letters with '…or die' in smaller black print at the bottom. But, that wasn't going to stop him.

Naruto took a deep breath and hoped that this didn't blow up in his face as he raised his hand to knock.

Senritsu walked calmly, yet quickly to the underground cafeteria. For an underground café run by an evil madman, it was surprisingly comfortable. White marble floors engraved with the sinuous patterns present on the floors and ceiling and matching long tables of stone with smooth wooden benches running the entire length of each table.

It reminded Senritsu of his cafeteria when he was younger and still an academy student. Complete with really mean, and utterly beautiful, lunch lady that would take your testicles off for touching the meatloaf before it was serving time… well the lunch lady wasn't really beautiful when he was younger… more like horridly horrid, with warty warts, green skin and a cackling voice that would often speak of 'getting your little dog too'…

Well, this lunch lady was beautiful at least… but still very, very mean.

Senritsu waved amiably as he approached the counter where food orders were taken. "Heya Nayari-chan." Yes… hearts were floating above his head. He made sure to include them this time.

Nayari turned around, her long brown hair, almost perfectly straight, swung with her body as she turned to give Senritsu a smile… until she realized it was Senritsu, that is.

"Oh. You." An obvious deadpan. "What are you doing here?" another deadpan and before Senritsu could speak, "Let me guess, a cheese burger?"

"Heh heh… you know me too well Nayari-chan." Senritsu made sure to scratch the back of his head in feigned innocence.

The girl's dark brown eyes narrowed nonetheless. "Senritsu… if you even thi—…!"

Nayari… probably the most feared lunch lady/girl/engine of destruction ever to walk the known world, had just realized that the man she found most annoying in the world was once again filching cheese burgers from behind her. No, he wasn't standing in front of her anymore.

Note… the engine of destruction part.

"Sen-RI-TSUUUUU!"

The green eyed man was surprised to find himself flying through the air, his nose obviously broken and spraying blood in accordance with a very famous geyser that he had once heard of. Oh yeah, she hit me with the frying pan again… you'd think I'd see that coming when she yells my name like that.

Still mid-air, Senritsu looked down at his body to see his arms were still full with about a dozen and half of the heavenly— NO, multi-universe transcending divine meat paddies of utter awesomeness— cheese burgers. Ah good, my life is complete once again.

Several moments later.

"I am no longer complete…"

The utter despair and depression were a palpable aura surrounding the man. Senritsu heard a snort and looked up from his seat to see the beautiful (and terrifying) Nayari standing next to (looming over) him.

"Tch, you'd be able to enjoy them longer if you didn't eat the damn things so fast..." She proceeded to sigh and cross her arms, which happened to pronounce her, uh… assets, a little more than their already natural perkiness.

Senritsu was struck with a bout of pure untainted wisdom, and (wisely) kept his eyes glued to her face.

Senritsu pouted, which normally wouldn't be very effective with half of his face covered, except for the fact that his eyes were probably the most intense green that anyone had ever seen, and he had no trouble expressing his facial expressions with just the ocular orbs. "B-but… they're so good."

"Senritsu, they're just—"

"They're Good."

Nayari shook her head in slight exasperation. She'd normally try to tell him that he had to leave at least some of the greasy meat for some of the other Oto-nin, but Senritsu knew full well that he was the only living thing in Otogakure that would eat the things.

Senritsu had no problem with this what-so-ever.

The girl took off her white apron, folded it in half and took a seat next to the jounin. They sat like that for a moment before Nayari spoke first, "So… you've been talking about that new student of yours lately. Almost everyday I see you you're either stealing my hard bought hamburgers, or talking about that blonde shrimp."

Senritsu genuinely smiled. He knew Nayari bought the hamburgers only for him, and that it was difficult to keep up with his daily consumption of the unhealthy excuses for beef. It was more than he deserved really, after what he had put her through so long ago… he squashed the memories of a debt that would never be fully-repaid before it could rear its ugly head once again.

"Yeah… 'that blonde shrimp' is surprising me more and more with every passing moment these days."

Nayari smiled for once, a rare expression on such a beautiful, and normally very angry, face. Senritsu felt even more spoiled for the fact that he also knew he was the only who ever got see it up close.

"You know, I was just thinking about how awfully quiet that kid is when I see him. I understand that he was pretty shy when he first came here, but you tell me the gaki is a loud-mouth who just won't shut up sometimes."

Senritsu nodded, "He is. Just… there's times when he starts showing his newly developed mature side. Which I think has to do with how he's read over four hundred and fifty of Orochimaru's books in less than a month's time."

At Nayari's rather stunned expression, Senritsu proceeded to tell her of his and Naruto's meeting with the Otokage and what Naruto had revealed. The girl was no stranger to ninja jargon, having to be a (the) lunch lady in a hidden ninja village, so she had no problem understanding the terminology. Plus, even though she didn't talk about it, she seemed to have some sort of shinobi training under her belt...or apron.

After the explanation the brown haired girl could only whistle with raised eyebrows. "Yup… that would probably explain him suddenly maturing a little faster than someone his age should. He's what… only eight? And when I hear him talk he sounds like he's at least a thirteen years old sometimes. A thirteen year old whose done his studying in school and gotten straight A's."

Senritsu chuckled, "He does get straight A's… now. But yes, I think the intense strain he's been putting his mind under for the past month, plus the truly massive amounts of information he's been absorbing has contributed to this new, slightly more mature, mentality of his." Senritsu sighed.

Nayari frowned, "What is it Senritsu-kun?" She looked into his iridescent green eyes, something she secretly didn't think she'd ever get tired of anytime soon.

Senritsu would've given her one of his genuine smiles again for adding the –kun suffix; she only did that when she was worried about him or actually in a good mood with him for once. Instead he shrugged and looked forlornly at the multitude of empty cheese burger wrappers sitting on the table in front of him.

"Its nothing to be really worried about right now, but I am worried about the future ramifications that this could have on him. I mean, he's only eight years old and he already thinks on the same level as a teenage Honor Student. Even though his mind is advancing, his body is still that of a young boy, I just hope that the strain on his mind doesn't cause too much of a mental gap between his thinking age and his actual age." Senritsu shook his head, "Not too mention sex, he's probably already read up on that by now, but doesn't really understand the want or need for it quite yet, after all he's a prepubescent, and his body hasn't matured as much as his mentality yet."

Nayari rolled her eyes, "You know, if you weren't actually worried about this kid, I'd probably punch you right now for being the pervert that I know you are."

Senritsu looked over at the lunch girl (/engine of destruction) with wide innocent eyes. "Nayari-chan, I'm hurt." This said with a hand placed delicately over his heart, "You know I only have eyes and thoughts for you."

Nayari almost smiled at that.

"… after all, its not that hard to imagine you as, say, twelve, thirteen years old…"

Almost smiled.

"Sen-RI-TSUUUU!"

There would be talk later the next day amongst the other Oto-nin about the horrifying, high-pitched squeals of pain and despair coming from the cafeteria the night before.

'Donk. Donk'

Donk Donk? Doors usually make more of a 'knock knock' sound.

Naurto looked up to his knuckles lightly rapping on the bandaged hat of none other than the object of his current concerns.

"… Tayuya?"

The redhead's eyes were nearly bulging out of their sockets, and Naruto was certain that this time at least she would yell at him… though he really hadn't meant to look away and knock right when she had opened her own door.

But instead of swearing at him, she merely froze, staring at him.

They probably stayed like that for a good ten seconds, before Tayuya tried to jump back and slam the door in his face.

Naruto, however, was having none of it. He shoved his arm through the threshold to stop the door from closing, and had to grit his teeth when the door slammed painfully into his upper arm; eliciting a rather nasty 'popping' noise. He was expecting the door to be slammed against his arm another time (multiple times actually), but after the first there was, curiously, no more.

Naruto frowned to himself, wondering what to do. He could just pull his arm out of its make-shift door jam position and head back to his room and read while waiting for his obviously broken humerus to heal. Or, he could do what he came to do, and figure out what the hell was going on.

With a last sigh, Naruto slowly pushed open the door with his shoulder, wincing slightly as the shock in his arm died down and the pain of broken bones started coursing through it. Another five minutes or so would be all the time he needed for it to fully heal though.

He stepped into the room expecting an attack to come from any direction. But none came… and there was no Tayuya to speak of.

Naruto couldn't help himself, and soon found himself looking around the one room of his classmate's that he had yet to be in. Everything was set up like his room, the bed in the far left corner, the desk to his immediate left, the shelves next to the bed, also to his left, and the drawers on the wall to the right. After that, the similarities stopped. To his immediate right was probably the most feminine thing he could possibly think of Tayuya possessing.

A vanity.

Complete with mirror, half opened drawers full of makeup, skin products, combs and hair-straighteners; plus things he didn't even recognize. It was something so normal, and yet Naruto found himself stunned at the fact that it belonged to none other than the notorious loudmouth known as Tayuya. He felt the need to look through it more… to understand why she had something like this. Did she only have it here for looks? To store worthless junk that everyone thought a girl should have, but yet she found useless? Or, Kami forbid, did she actually use any of this stuff?

Naruto couldn't remember one time in the past two months that he had known Tayuya to wear any sort of make up… and the thought that she would sit in front of this mirror and comb her hair was almost a little too bizarre for him to think about.

After what seemed like an eternity of surrealism, Naruto tore his gaze away from the strange piece of furniture and instead noticed the other, just as strange, things about the room.

On the shelves next to the bed, there were a multitude of books, just like in his room. But almost all of these books he realized were music books. Yet another bizarre discovery on the now very mysterious redhead. Next to the left of the door, on the desk, was a case that Naruto recognized as a flute case. His fingers itched once again to open said case and gaze upon the mysteries of his classmate, but he stubbornly refused to invade that much into the girl's privacy.

When he looked again at the bed, he noticed there were several open scrolls, all of them having to do with summoning contracts (something Naruto found very interesting indeed) and genjutsu (something Naruto found a little interesting, but boring as hell when it came to actually learning jutsu. Fireballs were so much cooler in his opinion). He ignored those though when he saw that the bed sheets were green and covered in red tropical flowers. By now though, Naurto was thoroughly numb to the odd contradictions to the redhead's personality, and so merely shook his head to rid it of distracting thoughts.

Naruto looked around the rest of the room to make sure he didn't miss anything that Tayuya could be hiding behind. After satisfying himself, he walked over to the only other place he knew she could be. He really hoped she wasn't doing anything in the closet that he would regret walking in on, though he was pretty sure that she was in the bathroom on the other side anyway.

Speaking of that, he really hoped she wasn't doing anything in there he would regret walking in on either.

Just to be sure he knocked softly on the closet door. "…Tayuya?"

At first he didn't hear anything, and then there was a muffled… noise. He couldn't tell what it was, but he was pretty sure it was Tayuya and it sounded like it was far enough away to be in the bathroom. He turned the knob to find it unlocked, apparently the redhead really had run away from him, forgetting to lock the doors to stop him. Naruto frowned at that, and after setting his shoulders determinedly, opened the door slowly.

He poked his head in to witness an empty (empty of a certain redhead) walk-in closet that opened up at the other end into the bathroom, much like his did. Though this one was filled with clothes he would never have imagined Tayuya to be wearing.

There were dresses.

… and heels.

Of course, there were other clothes, such as sandals, boots, training robes, and plenty of the plain robes, usually gray, that he had seen her in when they weren't training. There were also obvious ninja tools as well. A rack of shuriken here, kunai hanging from a shelf there, a spool of ninja wire, and a rectangular box of fire resistant wood that Naruto had the sneaking suspicion held explosive tags. But these were things he had expected to see. The red and green dresses, and the one white and one black one, were a bit of a shocker, not to mention the heels. After looking a couple of seconds longer, he realized that most of the dresses obviously belonged to someone of a more… mature physique. One or two could probably fit Tayuya now, but the rest were apparently meant for when she… grew up, a bit more.

Once again, Naruto tried his best to ignore such things. It wasn't like Tayuya was ever going to explain to him of all people why she had such things in her room anyway. Instead Naruto opted to enter the bathroom.

Again he moved slowly, just in case, and when he got to the threshold he kept his eyes averted from the room and rapped his knuckles lightly on the doorway frame. "Tayuya...?" Hearing no answer, Naruto walked in and looked up.

For once, there wasn't much of a surprise. The bathroom was exactly like his, with tub and open shower to the far left, toilet to the right and a large sink/vanity area, complete with mirror, on the far wall from where he stood. Even the entwined black and white snake mosaic was in the middle of the floor, just like everyone else's. Sure, there were obvious hair and skin products on the vanity area that most men wouldn't be caught dead with, but Naruto ignored them; either because he was too young to understand that concept, or having already seen the rest of the room he wasn't really surprised by such a little thing.

Naruto looked around, and again there was no obvious sign of Tayuya. "… Tayu—?"

Again there was a muffled noise, louder this time, and obviously Tayuya's voice. Though, it sounded a little choked and stuffy. The blonde experienced a sense of foreboding more powerful then when he had initially decided to talk to Tayuya, come hell or high water.

Naruto walked slowly to the curtained bathtub, the sound had certainly come from there and with a shaking hesitant hand, slowly drew back the curtains.

Now Naruto had seen a lot from Tayuya in the past two months. He had seen her angry (obviously) and had been witness to her seemingly never ending vocabulary of insults and swear words and the many ways she liked to use them. He had seen her blush on occasion, usually with something he had said or done… he figured it was something stupid he did and she was just too embarrassed to be around him or to yell at him for it. Then, for the past month he had seen a side of her he'd never thought to see, especially after being yelled at constantly the entire month before. She had been lethargic, shy, maybe even embarrassed, and almost… depressed. Now he saw something he had never expected to see from the redhead, and he just as suddenly realized he had never wanted to see.

Tayuya was crying.

She was sitting in the bathtub, her back to the wall and her knees held up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. Her face was hidden as she was curled up and pressing it into her knees. Though he couldn't see her face, Naruto could easily make out the tear trails that marred her damp cheeks and even her legs as she shook with silent sobs into her knees. The hair that usually hung so haphazardly around her face was wet with tears and plastered to what he could see of her face.

Naruto swallowed audibly and felt a sinking sensation in his stomach once again. Why is she like this…? Naruto couldn't help but feel that he was responsible for this somehow. He was afraid to touch her, he didn't know what she would do, and whether he would either scare her more than she apparently already was, or whether she would lash out at him for invading her personal space. Not mentioning how he was already doing that by forcing himself into her room anyway.

"…Tayuya?" his voice was barely a whisper.

Naruto winced when her entire body nearly jumped as she flinched at his voice. Naruto licked his lips which had gotten dry from his nervousness, and decided he was going to have to go slowly about this than he had originally planned on. Originally he was just going to confront the girl and tell her his feelings on her new attitude. Of course, only a minute ago, he hadn't thought it was going to be this complicated. Now he just had to figure out what to say.

He remained standing, not sure if he should sit, and not finding any convenient seating either way. "Hey… sorry about, you know accidently knocking on your head, and then kind of bursting into your room like that… but I think it was the only way for me to get you to listen."

Tayuya plainly flinched again, though this time Naruto wasn't sure if it was at the sound of his voice, or at what he had to say. Okay, maybe that wasn't the right way to go about it… I need to try and be little more, uh… delicate I guess. Though, he really didn't know how he was going to do that. This was as 'delicate' as he was used to being.

"Um… anyway… I suppose you're probably already aware of why I'm here…"

There was silence for a moment and then Tayuya whispered something, but it was so soft Naruto couldn't hear it. "…what?"

'I said… I'm so-…'

That time Naruto was sure he could almost make it out, "Tayuya… I'm sorry, but I can barely hear you…"

"IsaidI'msorry!"

Naruto felt his eyes widen at little. He barely understood it, it was so fast, but he had understood it, or part of it at least. "Tayuya…?" Naruto found himself taking an involuntary step forward as he witnessed a wracking sob travel its way through Tayuya's body.

"I-I said… I'm sorry… and I-I know you're here t-to tell me you h-h-ha-hate m-me…" Again another choking sob, this time more audible, "…I g-guess you don't really want to t-t-train with me anymore."

Naruto felt his legs touch the edge of the tub; he hadn't realized he had been slowly edging forward while listening to Tayuya stutter of all things. This was Tayuya after all, the redhead never stuttered ever since he'd known her, and Kidoumaru and Jiroubou had known her longer than him and had attested to the fact that they had never seen the girl upset in any way other than in anger.

Naruto could only grimace at what he heard. He couldn't think of how he could be, or get, upset with her right now, even if she as acting totally unlike herself. She reminded him too much of himself on his birthday with her caving in on herself like that.

That's when realization slowly dawned on him.

Oh Kami...

What if Tayuya was more like him than he originally thought? Was her anger a mask, just like his mask of perpetual happiness was? Naruto felt those newly polished gears in his head start to turn at unbelievable speeds as his mind started putting missing pieces to the puzzle.

Though he was a loud-mouth, easily brought to anger and other emotions, and was very energetic and hyperactive… well more like overly hyperactive (he could at least admit that to himself) when he had acted happy not so long ago, that wide bright smile of his had been as fake as a porcelain mask. He had used it to protect himself. He never wanted anyone to see the turmoil and fear he was constantly in, because if they did, it would only make his depression that much more real.

Then the mask started cracking slowly… and then it had shattered. He hadn't realized when that had happened, when his smiles were actually showing his rarely felt happiness to the outside world, but he was sure it was after he had come here to Otogakure. He was sure that at some point, he had started to truly feel trust towards someone else other than himself. Back in Konoha, it was practice for him to pretend like he trusted the people who were nice to him; it made him feel like he really did at least. But they never protected him, or truly stood up for him, so he didn't really trust them. Maybe in time, he might of, but not now, and probably not ever.

Either way, sometime after Naruto had arrived in his new life he had found something he had been looking for for so long.

He had found people who acknowledged him.

They looked at him and instead of judging him on what others thought, or instead of seeing him as that 'Demon Brat', they had given him a chance, and within the first day of his being there he had made friends with Kidoumaru and Jiroubou. Not long after that, Sakon and Ukon would soon follow in their own fashion, and in a way even Kimimaro acknowledged him… even if it was just as a challenge.

He wasn't sure if Tayuya had ever acknowledged him… but maybe her constant pestering and badgering him had been her own way. Either way if what he thought was true, then Tayuya's perpetual anger was only a mask that served to hide her from those she felt she couldn't trust.

If that was so… then Tayuya trusted nobody.

Naruto frowned slightly at that, something wasn't adding up… if she trusted no one, why did it feel like she had been acknowledging him when she was focusing all of her anger power on him?

It took a mere five seconds for it to click. It was that obvious.

She didn't trust him, just like she didn't trust anybody else, and so she was constantly angry at him to hide what she was really feeling (though just like he really was a hyperactive person, he felt that Tayuya probably was just as angry as she acted anyways). The point was that she had been focusing all of that anger on to one person. Him. For only one reason that he could think of.

She wanted to trust him.

…and he had told her to never talk to him again…

He didn't know what she had been through to be like this, or why. But Uzumaki Naruto had a pretty good idea of what it could've been like. He had grown up for the past eight years in a village that unanimously hated his guts for reasons he had yet to learn… he had at least three people who had treated him kindly. Those few people had been his lifelines to his sanity, even if he hadn't truly trusted them all the way. Did Tayuya even have anyone like that?

He didn't know why or even noticed when, but Naruto found himself crawling into the tub and sitting next to the redhead, who still had her face hidden from him, though she had stopped sobbing and was now as tense as a steel cable. She must have gotten nervous at his prolonged silence and had feared what he might say.

The tub wasn't really that big, so Naruto found himself sitting the same way Tayuya was with his back against the wall and less than an inch of space between his left elbow and her right. If anything Naruto could tell she had tensed even more at his sitting down next to her.

Naruto sat there in silence for a moment then took a deep breath and began to talk.

"… before I cam here to Otogakure, I don't think I had ever known happiness outside of a bowel of ramen. My entire life I grew up with people hating me." Naruto breathed, he had no idea what he was doing, only that it felt right for some reason. "My earliest memories were of the orphanage. There were too many of us to tell the truth. You see, I'm from Konohagakure, and I was just one of many orphans from the attack of the Kyuubi no Kitsune eight years ago. I guess because of all the ninja and civilians that died that night, there were a lot of kids who were left without a family… I guess I was lucky enough to at least know my last name. But, even though there were just too many kids, the nurses and caretakers always found time for them. Whether it was a room packed full for story time, group baths that could last for hours or making sure every child was tucked in and kissed goodnight, they found time for everyone… except me."

Naruto could see out of the corner of his eye that Tayuya had finally raised her head off her knees and was apparently looking at him. He wanted to look at her too, to see the expression on her face, but he didn't dare startle her back into her previous sobbing state. Instead, he continued.

"During story time I was forced to stay in my 'room'… same for bath time, play time or any other time really. I was thrown into a tub of cold water to wash myself for about three minutes before they pulled me out and put me back into the cellar… yeah, that was my room, the cellar. The only time I got to feel the outside air was when I snuck out… or when they kicked me out. Finally, when I turned five, Ojii-san, that's what I called the Sandaime, though I didn't realize who he really was at the time, took me out of the orphanage and gave me my own place to stay. To say the least he could only find one place of a dump who would even rent their smallest apartment to me. I received a monthly stipend that helped me pay for my room and board, and any food that I needed. That was the extent of Ojii-san's kindness, he was just too busy all the time for me to see him more than once every two months or so."

Again Naruto resisted the urge to look over at Tayuya, though the silence she was exuding was almost heavy enough to feel. "But I never could get food you see… not the normal way of shopping. I had to order in through catalogue, and the only food I really liked that I could order for cheap was ramen. It practically became the staple of my diet… even though now Senritsu-sensei forces me to eat veggies and crap" The last part was said as a barely audible whisper, "Same went for shopping for clothes, or anything else. The store owners would either kick me out, say they weren't selling, or actually sell one of their crappiest pieces of merchandise to me at about three times the normal price of a product that was still in good condition… I still paid anyways since that happened so rarely."

"I remember that it was in the orphanage that I started smiling. Every time they yelled at me, chased me, cursed me, or looked at me with those… cold eyes, I remember smiling and laughing… it was all that I could do to pretend that everything was okay." Naruto could suddenly feel Tayuya's body weight had shifted so she was leaning slightly towards him, even though she avoided touching, Naruto could tell that he apparently at least had her undivided attention… which made him feel relieved for some reason. "I decided I wanted to be a ninja since they were the most highly respected people in the village. I wanted that, I wanted that respect, that recognition. I wanted that acknowledgment, I wanted that… love." Naruto felt his voice unwillingly crack at that, he hadn't even realized that's what he had been wanting so bad for so long; and he only felt surprise that it would come out finally when talking about it to someone.

He shook his head sadly at those memories, "I still want to be a ninja now because I realize its what I'm good at, and I love being one, but back then it was my only hope for salvation. 'Cause, it wasn't just the store owners, or my landlord or the orphanage… other than the old man and couple of people who ran a ramen stand, everyone that I knew of and everyone that saw me… hated me. I was the…" Naruto visibly shuddered, "… the 'Demon Brat' to everyone who thought to even speak to me."

At Tayuya's sudden gasp Naruto felt himself finally turning to face her. There was such a look of shock on her face that he didn't know what to say or do at first, not to mention that there were definitely still tears trickling their way down her cheeks.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but no sound came out. He couldn't blame her; he had just told her what he hadn't even told any of their other classmates, not even Kidoumaru or Jiroubou yet. But before she could find her voice he pressed on with what he had to say.

"I haven't told anybody that yet… but I felt you should know for some reason." Naruto shifted his body so he was fully facing her, seeing that she didn't flinch or turn away gave him a bit more confidence in what he was about to say.

"I don't hate you Tayuya."

Tayuya started to cry anew as fresh tear began to spill from her eyes, making her sight blurry, but she didn't turn away.

"I don't think I could hate someone who seems to be so much like me."

Tayuya felt her self choke as sobs began to issue their way forth from her chest. But still she didn't turn away from those cerulean eyes.

Naruto didn't stop himself; he was going to be blunt about this, delicacy thrown out the window. It felt… right somehow. "… and I'm sorry Tayuya… I'm sorry I didn't realize what you were doing before. I really thought you hated me, just like everyone else… I didn't bother to realize that you didn't look at me with those cold eyes that I was so used to. I'm sorry… and I hope you can forgive me for that. If I had just known, I probably would've done this sooner, even if it was just to tell you to wait until I was ready."

Naruto stopped now, hoping against hope that he was indeed right in his assumptions.

Tayuya was openly sobbing now, and Naruto was beginning to get a bit worried when she turned to push her face back into her knees again. She stayed like that for a few moments and Naruto was about to apologize again for saying something so stupid when her voice stopped him.

"I-its okay baka… it's not y-your fault. So s-stop saying you're sorry…"

Tayuya couldn't tell what was going on inside of her. She hadn't been able to bring herself to apologize to him, or even to look him in the eye ever since he had spoken to her a month ago and she had assumed he hated her. But now she could only say she felt… shock. Shock at what he had told her… how much it was… Oh Kami. If I had only realized sooner… But she was also very aware that she felt the wondrous feelings of relief.

He didn't hate her.

She gasped as she felt something warm encircle her, and looked up to find Naruto sitting close enough that they were shoulder to shoulder and that he had his arms around her.

Naruto didn't know what the hell he was doing, other than he found he himself shifting closer and hugging the redhead sitting next to him. He just felt the need to do so after hearing her call him 'stupid' of all things. "Sure… I'll stop saying I'm sorry when you say you forgive me."

Tayuya found herself doing something she had never thought she'd do in her life. She felt her arms circle around his waist and squeeze his warmth closer. He gave off a lot of body heat for some reason and even though she was two years older than him, he was just as tall as her, and probably a little heavier. These thoughts absently ran through her head as she focused on the fact that she was hugging someone else, and more importantly they were hugging her.

"I forgive you, you i-idiot. So stop with the s-sorrys already." She could tell she was getting his shirt wet with her tears, but he didn't pull away so she didn't say anything about it, and… was she smiling!

Yeah… she was.

They sat like that, hugging each other in her bathtub for what seemed like hours until Naruto finally pulled himself away from her. Tayuya felt a little confused at the massive ball of disappointment suddenly appearing in her chest at not having the blonde's arms around her, put pushed it down. She was not going to start asking for hugs from the little loudmouth.

She suddenly felt warm and content at realizing her original mindset was returning… if a bit slowly, or maybe it was the after affects of having a true heart-felt hug. Maybe she'd have to try this hugging thing out more later on… she'd just have to figure out how to do it without letting on how desperately she wanted them. She felt surprised that she wanted to do something she had never really done before and almost found herself moving to hug Naruto again before stopping herself.

Naruto was smiling at her though, and she could only genuinely smile back as she tried to get rid of the annoying tears with the palms of her hands. Do these things ever stop…?

"So… yeah, it's late, and I think I should probably get to my room and get some shut eye. We still got class and training tomorrow, yeah?"

Tayuya nodded, "Yeah we—…"

He was hugging her again. She was too shocked to say anything from the sudden arms around her shoulders and them squeezing her gently yet firmly into a warm chest… though she wasn't too shocked to note that her own arms had automatically encircled his waist again to squeeze back.

He pulled away again after a few moments, and again she felt that damn disappointment.

"We're good, right Tayuya?"

Tayuya nodded and smiled tremulously… the damn tears were still falling!

"Yeah… j-just don't expect me to start going all easy on you or something… idiot."

Naruto laughed as he stood up to help her out of the tub. It was a great laugh. His eyes were squinted, but she could see his cerulean eyes sparkle beneath his eyelids, his mouth was open showing his white teeth a little, and there was a slight blush on his cheeks from the rush of emotion. The sound was deeper than his actual voice, coming from the depths of his belly. It was a real laugh… a happy laugh. And it was the first time Tayuya had heard it. The fact that she knew she was the one making him laugh like this made her feel warm inside…

… even if he was laughing at her.

So she slapped up the back of his head… not hard though; which only made him laugh more, and in turn made her smile wider as they walked back into her main bedroom, though she didn't let him see it. She would have to threaten him later not to tell anyone about the stuff in her room she also realized.

Maybe… just maybe…she had finally found the person she had been looking for.

She hugged him this time as they said goodnight at her door.

… just maybe…

A/N (01/12/2011): Alright, all four chapters have finally been edited and revised. Now, the fifth chapter will be posted by the end of the week. Its already more than 50% done. Woot. Hope you guys like the edits I made, and I hope Chapter 5 is up to snuff.

The title of this chapter, Chishiki wa Chikara Nari 知識は力なり is a common Japanese (and English) proverb, meaning "Knowledge is Power."

Souma no Kou (Attack of the Twin Demons): This is the name of Sakon's and Ukon's Kekkei Genkai that allows them to merge together and multiply their strength. Though their clan is powerful, its rather small if compared to the major clans of Konoha, so its rare to see the possessors of the Souma no Kou out of their homeland.

Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough) C-Rank, this jutsu is an Offensive short to mid range jutsu which fires a cone of wind from the user's hands. The more chakra used in the technique, the more powerful and cutting the winds are, and it can be sustained for as long as the user has chakra.

Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Pheonix Sage Fire Technique) C-rank just like the Goukakyuu no Jutsu, the Housenka doesn't have as much power behind it, but it makes up for that for its rapid-fire capability and serves a strategic purpose in either distraction or forcing your opponent in a disadvantageous postion.