Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Imouto Trilogy :: Hatake :: Even After All These Years ❯ Chapter 5: The Aniki ( Chapter 5 )

A/N: Just to let you know, the majority of this chapter will be from Naruto's point of view (and I don't mean 1st person by that). You'll noticed that about half this story will end up being focused on him, while the rest will be focused on Kyomi. Kyomi will still be the main character though. Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

 

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

 

(1) - "Hige" means whisker in Japanese. Kyomi calls Naruto this because of the whisker scars on his cheeks.

 

Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!

 

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Even After All These Years

 

Chapter 5

The Aniki

 

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"Um...about that..." Kyomi said cautiously, slowly moving away from the door and around Kakashi. "...There's something that I need to tell you..."

 

"Hmm?" Kakashi asked turning around to face her as she had moved behind him. Kyomi didn't face him however and just stood with her back to her older brother. She kept silent for a moment before slowly turning around.

 

Not meeting Kakashi's eyes, Kyomi finally spoke, "I...I've taken on an apprentice."

 

"Really?" Kakashi said, thoroughly confused with how Kyomi was acting. "That's the last thing I ever expected you to do. You must have found someone with a hell of a lot of potential then; not many can meet your standards. Who is it?"

 

Kyomi gulped, "Um...it's...it's..." She paused again, gathering her wits. She still wasn't meeting Kakashi's eyes, especially with how perplexed he was currently looking. Finally Kyomi spoke again, her words coming out in rush, "It'sUzumakiNaruto!"

 

Kakashi blinked at this and it took his mind a moment to figure out exactly what she had said. When realization dawned on him however, Kakashi's mouth immediately dropped open. He stared at the blue-eyed kunoichi before him--who was nervously fiddling with the hem of her shirt at the moment--for a few seconds before his mouth abruptly snapped closed. And at that moment Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja, did something he had never done before: he glared at his younger sister.

 

"You what?!" he bit out angrily. "You took Naruto on as your apprentice!"

 

"Erm," Kyomi started, only to be cut off.

 

"How dare you!" Kakashi shouted--another first, as he wasn't sure if he had ever really shouted at anyone in general--still glaring. "Naruto is my student and has been so for over two years. I'm the one who has taught him since he came out of the Academy! I'm the one who has been training him to become a skilled shinobi! How dare you think that you can just--"

 

Abruptly something in Kyomi snapped. At first she had been a bit shocked at Kakashi's outburst, even though she had expected it. After hearing his rant however, she just couldn't keep quiet anymore.

 

"How dare I?" she snarled, meeting Kakashi glare for glare. "Well I wouldn't have to dare had you actually taught Naruto-kun! Sure you worked on his Taijutsu and chakra control, but that's it! Other than that you just tutored Uchiha Sasuke! You never even taught Naruto-kun a single jutsu! I don't understand how you can even call yourself his sensei and still get sleep at night!"

 

Kakashi stared at his sister slack jawed, his anger completely forgotten. "I..." he began weakly. "I've taught him jutsu. I taught him..." Kakashi trailed off, staring into space. Slowly, a look of horror crossed his face. "Kami," he breathed. "I didn't teach him any jutsu!"

 

Kyomi rolled her eyes, her arms crossed firmly in front of her. "No," she snapped. "You didn't."

 

Kakashi hung his head slightly. "Oh Kami, I hadn't even realized that I hadn't..." he said before slowly trailing off. "I...I was just so focused on training Sasuke-kun. He's that last of the Uchiha and I feel that I owe to Obito to train his sharingan. That and I hoped that it would stop him from attempting to run away again..." Kakashi looked up, meeting Kyomi's ice blue eyes with his own charcoal black ones. "I guess I just got so used to not paying as much attention to him from the time when he needed to work on his chakra control before he could learn any jutsu."

 

Kyomi sighed. "And what about Obito? You said that you're training Sasuke-san because you feel indebted to him, but there's more to it than that, isn't there?"

 

Kakashi sighed. "I guess so. It's just that Naruto is so much like Obito used to be...It's like looking into the past."

 

Kyomi nodded slightly, her suspicions having been confirmed. "I thought so," she said. "But I still think that it's no excuse for you to be so lax in his training. Naruto-kun probably has a very small arsenal of jutsu..." She paused. "But I'm going to remedy that," Kyomi said firmly. "Just by looking in his eyes I can see that Naruto-kun has the ability to be as powerful as you and I combined. He's got a will like I've never seen before." Kyomi chuckled before a sad look came into her eyes. "But then I suppose that he's had to have a strong will, what with everything he's had to go through. Just by being what he is he's probably had to be alone for most of his life. People in those situations usually become incredibly determined, or just completely snap. I've seen it happen before."

 

"Yeah," Kakashi chuckled weakly. "I suppose so." He paused for a few seconds before looking back up at Kyomi and letting out a wry grin. "And really, I suppose that there's no one better than you to teach him. Especially if he's already gotten you to like him..." Kakashi's grin dropped as he gave his younger sister a reprimanding look. "But you really should have come and spoken to me first. Naruto-kun still is my student after all."

 

Kyomi looked down, ashamed. "Erm, sorry about that. It was just kind of a spur of the moment thing; I wasn't really thinking when it happened. Even now I'm still not entirely sure why I did it..."

 

Kakashi shrugged. "I'm guessing that means that the whole things official now?"

 

"Yeah, I went and spoke to Hokage-sama about it a while ago. She agreed to it."

 

Kakashi nodded in reply. The two silver haired siblings stared at each other in silence for a while before abruptly breaking out into laughter. It took several minutes before they could both calm down completely. Kyomi was nearly doubled over, grabbing her sides. Carefully, she wiped a tear away from her eye. She hadn't laughed like that--or at all really--in a very long time.

 

"I think..." Kakashi said when he could finally breathe properly again. "...That that was just about our first true fight."

 

Kyomi nodded, a large grin on her face. Sure they had fought when they were younger--they were siblings after all--but they had also both been shinobi, as both of them had graduated from the Academy at an age much younger than most. It was amazing that a simple blonde haired boy could not only create a fight between Kakashi and Kyomi, but also cause them to laugh so hard. He truly was an interesting person.

 

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In a slight daze Naruto plopped down on his busted up old couch. It creaked dangerously from beneath him, but he paid it no mind. Someone had offered to be his instructor. They had actually offered. They weren't assigned to him, like Kakashi, and he hadn't had to beg for them to teach, like Ero-sennin. No, this person had come up to him personally and offered.

 

Naruto slowly moved so that he was laying down on the couch, still caught up in his thoughts. Already Kyomi was beginning to teach him a jutsu. He couldn't remember if Kakashi had ever taught him one! Granted, Kakashi had taught him the tree-walking exercise and had gotten his Taijutsu to drastically improve--he was at least high Chuunin level, if he did say so himself! And his Kagebunshin (Shadow Doppelganger) jutsu helped a lot with his brawling style--but it still wasn't the same. But now he had someone to really teach him one-on-one!

 

And that's where the doubts came in. What if Kyomi wasn't doing this just because she wanted to? What if she had some ulterior motive? What if the Hokage had just forced her to do it because she wanted to help him and Kyomi was the only tutor? Despite what others may believe, Naruto was far from naïve. She couldn't just want to help someone like him--

 

Naruto cut his depressing thoughts off. He had promised himself long ago, even before he started the Academy, that he wouldn't think like that. Kyomi had offered sincerely to teach him and that was that. She was just going to be one more precious person for him to protect, the rest of his dark suspicions be damned. And if she really wasn't doing this because she just wanted to, well then he'd just have to do what he did best and change her mind.

 

As thoughts such as these continued to race around his mind, Naruto didn't even notice himself slipping into the warm embrace of sleep.

 

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The next morning Naruto woke up with a yawn as his alarm went off. He glance around, blinking sleepily, and dazedly noticed that he was lying on his couch. Huh, he must have dozed off last night without even noticing it. Shrugging off his thoughts, Naruto stumbled drowsily toward his bathroom, intent on taking his morning shower.

 

Not a half an hour later, Naruto was closing the door to his apartment behind him. Putting on a bright smile, he began to walk down the street, carefully ignoring the people around him while not appearing to. It was something he'd learned to do over the years. After all, if they were all going to ignore him then he might as well ignore them too, and letting them know would only make the people around him question if his intelligence level was as low as they had thought. And that just wouldn't do for him; after all, the only reason that he'd been allowed to enter the academy was because people had thought that he'd never be able to graduate. Granted, he had nearly failed, but that was beside the point.

 

Continuing on his way, Naruto made it to the Ichiraku Ramen stand in just a few minutes. He then quickly slid into the stall and sat at his usual seat.

 

"Hey Old Man! Give me five miso ramen!" Naruto barked out with his usual exuberance, banging his fist on the counter. Teuchi, the owner of the ramen stand, immediately came out from where he had been in the back of the store, a large smile on his face.

 

"Ramen for my favorite customer? Of course!" he said. "Ayame!" Said girl, his daughter, immediately appeared before his side. Without saying anything else to the blonde, the two quickly went to work, they're hands nearly blurring as they went through the familiar motions of making their famous (at least to Naruto) ramen. Within just minutes a steaming hot bowl of ramen was set down before Naruto.

 

Said blonde quickly devoured the bowl, as well as the four others that followed it. Satisfied, he patted his stomach contentedly before pulling out his wallet. As Teuchi took Naruto's money, he eyed the younger boy. He considered asking him about the young woman from yesterday, but then decided against it and simply turned away.

 

Naruto, oblivious to the older man's thoughts, jumped up out of his seat, waved goodbye to the pair standing behind the counter and left. As he continued down the street, Naruto's smile had a slightly brighter light to it. He always enjoyed eating at Ichiraku's, and it wasn't because of the ramen. Sure, he did love ramen, but certainly wasn't as obsessed with it as most people thought. No, the real reason that he ate at Ichiraku's as often as he could was because of Teuchi and Ayame. They were the first people, besides the Sandaime Hokage, to treat him as a real person. He loved them for that and it always brightened his day to go visit them.

 

Naruto glanced up from where he was staring at the road as he reached Training Ground #7. From there he navigated through the trees until the familiar clearing and little red bridge came into view. Naruto then put his energy level up to full and began bouncing as he walked, a large grin stretched across his face.

 

"Sakura-chan!" he crooned as the pink-haired girl came into view. He bounced over to her. "Good morning!"

 

The girl gave him an annoyed glance--which made Naruto unconsciously twitch--before completely ignoring the blonde and turning back to Sasuke, whom she was standing before, and looking up at admiringly at him. Naruto, used to the treatment, stopped next to his two teammates but neither of them even acknowledged that he was there.

 

Naruto felt his mouth tighten ever so slightly as the grin became even harder to uphold. He couldn't understand why they still treated him like this, even after several years. Thinking him an idiot was one thing, but they were still teammates. And the whole situation was made even worse by the fact that he had risked his life to drag Sasuke back to Konoha a few years ago. Sakura had thanked him for it, but after that things had just gone back to the way they'd been before with Sakura yelling at him and Sasuke looking down on him, despite the fact that Naruto had actually beaten the red-eyed bastard.

 

Truth be told, Naruto didn't really like Sakura as much as he pretended, or at all really. He had at first, when he'd first seen her so many years ago back in the academy, but after even just a few weeks of being in the same class as her, Naruto quickly got over his little crush. It had been a way to get attention however, to draw attention to himself as he asked her out and she yelled at him, so he had kept on asking her out.

 

Naruto was drawn out of his musings as he heard someone land softly on the ground behind him and his teammates. Looking up, Naruto saw Kakashi smiling up at them from behind his mask.

 

"Yo," Kakashi said in greeting.

 

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto yelled. While Naruto wasn't sure about Sakura, he himself did it more out of habit than any actual anger.

 

Waving them off, Kakashi continued, "Today we'll be heading down to the mission center. We'll get a quick mission and then will continue with training."

 

Naruto jumped up into the air with a yell of excitement. "Awesome! We'll get a great mission and," Naruto paused and pointed at Sasuke, "I'll prove that I'm so much better than you Sasuke!"

 

Sasuke just looked away from him, "Tch, whatever, dobe."

 

Kakashi smiled amusedly at his students. None of them noticed it, but said smile was a bit more forced than usual. Team 7 had always acted this way and for the most part Kakashi just brushed it off. Now that he really watched them however, he was noticing how large the rift between Naruto and the other two really was. Perhaps studying under Kyomi really would do the blonde good, in more ways than one.

 

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Naruto stretched his arms up in the air, cracking his back. Currently, he was walking down a gravel path that ran between the village and the training grounds. Team 7 had just finished their D-class mission for the day--weeding some old lady's garden. They had then split up, each heading their separate ways. Naruto himself was on his way toward Training Ground #24, which was where Kyomi had said that she'd meet him.

 

Before long Naruto arrived at where the training ground was supposed to be. He blinked as he stared across a vast grassy plain that was littered with numerous boulders and rocks of all sizes. Naruto cautiously walked past the high chain link fence that surrounded the training ground. He knew that there were hundreds of training grounds, all of varying landscapes and sizes, but Kakashi had never really taken them outside of their own. He also had heard that some of the training grounds were only accessible to certain ranks. For example, training ground #44, also known as the Forest of Death, was usually only open to Jounin. Continuing on in to the middle of Training Ground #24, Naruto looked around for Kyomi, but could see nothing.

 

...Maybe, she was perpetually late like Kakashi...Or maybe...Maybe what she had said yesterday was just a joke and Kyomi didn't actually want to take him on as an apprentice. Maybe she just wasn't going to show up...Naruto looked down sadly at the mid-calf high yellow grass before him. After all, why would she really--

 

Abruptly, a voice cut through the air, making Naruto jump in surprise. "Hey, Hige-kun(1)," Naruto quickly whirled around to where the voice had come from, his eyes widening. There, standing on top of a very large boulder not ten feet away, was Kyomi, her usual smirk on her face. The silver-haired kunoichi leapt off the rock face and landed in a crouch just before the stunned blonde.

 

"W-what?!" Naruto stuttered. "You've been here all along? But I didn't even see you, and you're wearing black!"

 

Naruto eyed her outfit, confusion sparking in his eyes. The training ground was mostly comprised of shades of brown and gray, so Kyomi, being in all black as she was, should have easily stood out, even with all of the boulders.

 

"It's called stealth," Kyomi replied, her smirk widening as she went to ruffle Naruto's hair.

 

Naruto quickly ducked away, but then paused, confusion once again written across his face. "Wait...Hige-kun?"

 

"Of course!" Kyomi poked his cheeks where his whisker marks were. "I mean, it suits you, doesn't it?" she asked.

 

Naruto sighed, deigning not to answer. Then, abruptly, he brightened and began bouncing on the soles of his feet. "What're we going to be doing today?"

 

"Well," Kyomi replied, placing a hand on her hip. "First you're going to show me whether or not you've gotten that chakra exercise down yet, and then we'll start really working on the jutsu." Kyomi then bent down, picked up a small-sized rock, and tossed it to Naruto, who caught it out of reflex.

 

Naruto blinked down in surprise at the rock for a moment, before quickly holding the rock out before him in the palm of his hand. He concentrated on the rock and, a not a moment later, a thin layer of blue covered the rock's surface, making it appear to glow. Naruto looked up at Kyomi expectantly, holding the chakra in place effortlessly.

 

"Good job," Kyomi said, sounding impressed in spite of herself. "Well then, Hige-kun,"--Naruto twitched slightly at what was apparently his new nickname, but Kyomi just ignored him--"I guess that I can get you started on the actual jutsu then." Naruto grinned widely in reply, waiting expectantly for his new sensei to continue. "First, I'll show you the jutsu, and then I'll have you memorize the hand seals so that you can get practicing."

 

Putting her hands out before her, Kyomi flashed through hand seals quicker than Naruto's eyes could follow. With a mummer of, "Doton: Retsudotensho (Earth Style: Split Earth Turn around Palm)," the effects were immediate. Rocks of all shapes and sizes rose up and began smashing into a central point, which Kyomi's eyes were glued to. Naruto could tell from the vein sticking out of the side of her neck that she was controlling each and every one of the boulders. By the time she was done and the dust had settled, several major boulders had been smashed to pieces and craters littered the ground.

 

Naruto stared wide-eyed at the damage that had been done. "Woah..." he breathed. Kyomi grinned at Naruto's reaction. Now she'd just show him the seals slowly for him to memorize, and then they could continue on with getting him to master the jutsu.

 

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Preview of Chapter 6: The Shopkeeper

 

Regardless of all of his misgivings, Naruto followed quickly behind Kyomi as she entered the store noiselessly. The inside of the store turned out to be exactly what the outside suggested. It was dark and cramped, with shelves that seemed to hold nothing of any real value to shinobi or civilians, and certainly nothing that he would ever consider buying himself. Naruto opened his mouth and turned from where he'd been inspecting the shop to question Kyomi, only to find that she was already making her way toward the dusty old counter in the back of the store.

 

Naruto immediately hurried after her, twitching slightly as a rat came out of a dusty corner and ran across his path. It disappeared into a hole in the floorboards soon after. 'Looks can be deceiving?' Naruto couldn't help but think sarcastically. 'I'm seeing the looks part, but not the deceiving part...'

 

As he approached where Kyomi was standing, Naruto saw that there was someone behind the counter that he hadn't noticed before; the shopkeeper probably. He was a scarred older man, with graying hair, a crooked nose, and a pointed little goatee. Sharp black eyes focused on Naruto as the blonde stopped next to Kyomi. The man's face raked over Naruto for a moment before apparently dismissing him and turning back to Kyomi. The man's face then split into a grin, surprising Naruto.

 

"Back already, Hatake-san?" the man said with a rough voice. "It's usually a few months before I see you again, not a few days."