Chapter 5

The first mission involving the Inuzuka kennels wound up being by and large the thing that set the standard for the day by way of amusement. Apparently Naruto wasn't particularly a dog person. Well that wasn't fair. It was more like dogs weren't exactly Naruto animals. You see, when Naruto took the leashes for the dogs he had been meant to walk they had a total shift in personality from reasonably tempered, obedient, human friendly animals, to belligerent pains in Naruto's ass.

For Ino she got the smallest dogs, the puppies, the smaller breeds, easy for her. Shikamaru got the next step up, but they were so obedient it was still easy enough for him. Naruto not only got the biggest, oldest dogs because he was the physically strongest and it wasn't like he was going to back down in the first place because they were in his own words, "Just a bunch of dogs." However Naruto's dogs as mentioned previously. Did. Not. Like him.

Once the leashes were handed over to him by Asuma they proceeded to wear out the soles of Naruto's sandals by dragging him about the pavement outside of the Inuzuka Clan compound. Naruto tried digging his heels to stop them, but they were seriously strong dogs, the strongest dogs he had ever met for sure, and they proceeded to drag him about until he tripped and fell and then they ended up wearing out the fabric of his coat as they then dragged him around on pavement for twenty minutes until Asuma got around to checking on him and got him out of his predicament. Were it not for the fact that Naruto's clothes were so thick he would have gotten some serious road rash.

Asuma quickly got Naruto untangled from the leashes and stopped the dogs to hand them back to Naruto, "Kid I left for five minutes to grab some cigarettes and I come back to this." We scratched his head, "Well technically the dogs got walked." He said, getting a glare out of Naruto, "Alright, we'll work on that. Let's take the dogs back and get paid." Naruto sighed and fell in line with his sensei as he glared at the now innocent seeming dogs.

"Well…" Naruto finally said, trying to find a silver-lining in his first mission, "At least I wasn't dragged through the grass. This could have been way worse."

"That's the spirit kid!" Asuma said, lighting one of his cigarettes up, "You didn't get a face full of dog shit and in this case you can take that as a victory. It's the little things Naruto, the little things that make being a ninja all worth it. Small victories, you'll learn to accept them sometimes."

XxX

The next mission they ended up taking was a mission to chop wood at the outskirts of the village, and once again this wasn't a very difficult mission at all, just more… troublesome than it had to be.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled as his ax split through another piece of lumber, "Stop moving so slow! We've been here for thirty minutes, you've only cut five pieces!"

Shikamaru leaned on his ax and yawned, "You've got it don't you? Once you're finished with your pile you can help with mine."

Ino set up another piece of wood for herself to chop before frowning over at Shikamaru, "Shikamaru this really isn't the time to be lazy. We're going to be stuck here until we're done and you're not pulling your weight."

Shikamaru sighed, "Why can't Naruto just do that jutsu of his, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) and get them to do this? We wouldn't even have to do anything if we could do that. We'd be done by now for sure."

Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "I tried that when we first started, remember? Asuma-sensei made me get rid of them, he said this was supposed to be a team-building exercise and using Kage Bunshin were outlawed or something." That was blatant lie that Asuma was grateful Naruto or none of the others had picked up on or bothered investigating further and simply accepted at face value. Using ninjutsu for D-ranked missions was frowned upon, but not necessarily outlawed.

However doing these missions was supposed to build a rapport between newly formed genin squads, give them a base to understand taking orders, get used to the way things were to go and keep them busy while they trained to improve their skills before getting real work. Besides, Asuma had to do D-ranked missions when he was a genin, and there was a damn war going on at the time! If he had to gut it out until he got promoted then they were damn sure going to as well… Kage Bunshin his ass.

Ino pointed at Shikamaru firmly, "Pick up that ax and do some actual work Shikamaru or I swear I'll get Naruto to do something completely humiliating to you. You remember what he's capable of right?"

Shikamaru somewhat paled at that. Doing this work was a pain in the ass, but having Naruto pull some horrible pranking crap on him would have been worse. He had never been a target of one of Naruto's efforts in the past, but he sure didn't want the manic blonde's focus to fall on him in that category. A few minutes of work to spare him six months of troublesome consequences was a sacrifice he had to make. He knew Ino was bossy enough to get him to do it too, even if he really didn't want to so there was no way he was calling her bluff on the matter.

Naruto gestured Ino over as Shikamaru began actually working and splitting his pile of wood, "Um Ino? I kind of made a promise to some people that I would stop with the pranks." He said to her quietly.

Ino rolled her eyes at Naruto and flicked him between the eyes, "Shikamaru doesn't know that baka. I didn't even know until just now. You and me are going to have to whip his lazy ass into shape to get him to do stuff or else we'll be doing the lion's share of this grunt work until we get something better."

Naruto rubbed the spot where Ino flicked him and looked at Shikamaru working with a shrug, if it worked then why not? The two blondes then proceeded to hurry up and finish their own work while Shikamaru was muttering to himself and chopping wood handily.

XxX

After finishing their day's work, Asuma directed traffic to their training field. Asuma looked over his team with a huge grin on his face. This was almost as good as smoking the last cigarette in the pack for him. Almost. He had watched his fresh little genin team trudge through the monotonous and spirit crushing hazing process known to all shinobi of every age as D-rank missions for the first time, and he truly hoped that the entertainment value of watching them do the glorified chores and odd jobs never faded. He could seriously have watched them work all day, it was that entertaining.

The last mission they took was the one that had them cleaning out the general store's storage, and that had just been fantastic to watch. It took forever for them to get actually started since once they walked past the clothing section to get to the back, Ino had dragged Naruto right over there to give him what she had called an emergency makeover, which led to Naruto screaming bloody murder at Asuma and Shikamaru to free him from the injustice.

Asuma laughed and walked away to buy himself a carton of cigarettes while they were there and left the kids to work… and Shikamaru just left since he found getting involved to be too much of a hassle. Thus leaving Naruto to be Ino's life-sized dress up doll that would not take no for an answer, and Naruto quickly shut up once Ino said that he was getting out of that beat up orange jacket even if she had to use Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Switch Jutsu) to get him to cooperate.

In the end after a lot of griping from two stubborn sides that ran their time inside the store without having done a damn thing in an hour of being there, Naruto relented once Ino actually took aim at him with her hand-seal and picked what she selected for him, allowing them to head to the back and get started… where they found Shikamaru asleep on the empty boxes in the storage room.

Which eventually led to now after they completed their work. Once again, all three genin were sitting under the shade of the tree and looking at their sensei.

Naruto was tugging angrily at his new clothes until Ino swatted him one to get him to stop. He still had his headband on his head and his goggles around his neck, but Ino had managed to get Naruto into a pair of orange shorts and an orange short-sleeved windbreaker that was left open with a dark blue shirt underneath. Ino had also forced a pair of dark blue arm-warmers kind of like hers onto his arms. Naruto had vehemently fought that one for a while, not wanting to wear arm-warmers like what Sasuke had, but Ino had already granted him a concession in her mind by letting him keep the orange, thus by virtue of that, this was one fight he was going to lose in this instance. It didn't make him feel any better that all the money he had made that day went into getting a few pairs of all of those things, but Ino insisted that he would make it back tomorrow.

"Okay." Asuma said to them, "It was a decent first day. I've seen far worse and at least you didn't fail any of those missions so good work." All three of the genin looked at each other, who could fail those missions? They could have done those things in the Academy.

Ino looked at Asuma inquisitively, "So… what now Asuma-sensei?"

He pointed at Ino and Shikamaru, "I pretty much know what you two can do. You both know your family techniques and I've worked with plenty of Nara and Yamanaka shinobi in my time, even your fathers." He looked at Naruto, "I don't know that much about you though Naruto. I know you can use Kage Bunshin, and quite a lot from what Hokage-sama told me. Apparently you can also sense the locations of others, is that right?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Well, I'm not that good at it yet. I just learned the jutsu last week and I need to learn how to tell things apart better, like what's a door, a wall, and other stuff."

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, "So what jutsu is it and how does it even work?"

Naruto grinned at the chance to explain Iruka's cool jutsu to others, "It's called Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu). It lets me send out a burst of chakra that somehow lets me sense where stuff is around me, all over. I'm just not that good at it yet. If I use it outside, like where we are now, it works great, but if I'm inside all I can sense is down a hall, behind me, or beside me. I can't tell people apart either, and when I use it in the streets and stuff I can barely tell what's what."

Shikamaru's eyes widened, that was a very useful move, but it had to take a ton of chakra to use even sparingly. Naruto's chakra would be pushed out of his body and would saturate the air, staying connected to him long enough for him to feel the things around him with it. If Naruto ever mastered that move no one would ever be able to properly set traps or ambushes against him. He could take away an enemy's advantage of surprise.

Naruto continued to talk, "Oh, and I'm also trying this cool taijutsu called Nebaiken (Sticky Fist) that a friend helped me find. It's hard to learn it by myself though, and making the clones over and over that dispel in one hit is a pain."

Asuma smiled, "Well that's one thing that a team is for Naruto. Training partners. I'm supposed to be training all of you, helping you all get stronger, but I don't really know what I'm allowed to teach you as far as techniques go, nor what I actually know that any of you are suited towards using. You all don't look like you can fight the way I do. Besides that, you all have your family jutsu that you're to learn." Asuma pointed at them all, "You're all just genin right now but I expect you all to get very good very fast. You all certainly have the talent for it." Naruto and Ino seemed pleased to hear him say that, but Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Apparently someone didn't really want to excel.

Naruto looked at Asuma and all of his teammates before frowning, "But I don't want to use Nebaiken on any of them." He said, "It's not really nice, even in practice."

Asuma looked at Naruto thoughtfully, "Well, try it on me. I'll be the judge of that." When he saw Naruto shy away from actually wanting to beat up his sensei, Asuma insisted, "Naruto I'm a jounin. I can take it. I promise."

Shikamaru and Ino prodded him to get up and give it a try, so Naruto stood up and stood in front of Asuma, "Um, I'm not that good at it yet. If it doesn't work right then tell me." Asuma nodded and gestured for Naruto to come forward.

Naruto hesitantly did so and came at Asuma who had a guard up. Naruto led off with a punch that Asuma already had a guard prepared for, 'I don't see what's different about this style, it's just Academy taijutsu isn't it?'

He thought that when he lifted his arms to block Naruto's punch and respond, only his plan of action never got that far. Naruto's fist opened up into a hand that grasped Asuma's leading wrist like a leech. Naruto spun inside, still holding on to Asuma and threw a back elbow low (or for Naruto, at the level) at his body that Asuma had to defend with his remaining arm. Naruto switched to a high elbow that Asuma had to keep from hitting him in the jaw. Asuma then shoved Naruto by the back of his head to get him out of his range and get them back at a distance from one another, but Naruto seemed to have a damn good grip on his wrist because he stayed attached and reeled himself in, jumping at Asuma, leading with his shoulder for an attack.

When he saw this, Asuma added to Naruto's momentum, pulling his diminutive frame in faster before shocking Naruto with a shoulder-to-shoulder smash that jarred Naruto's grip loose and sent him bouncing off of Asuma to the ground.

Naruto sat down on the ground, rubbing his shoulder and backside while Asuma analyzed what he had just seen, 'That style would be way out of the comfort zone of most shinobi I know of. All he needs is some size and strength and only an Akimichi could decisively deal with moves like that.'

Naruto picked himself back up and went over to sit back down with Shikamaru and Ino, "Naruto why do you know how to fight like that? You never did that stuff in the Academy."

A shrug from the blonde shinobi was the response, "I just felt like going over taijutsu and I ended up finding that in the library. I don't know that much about it, there's some complicated stuff in the scroll and my clones aren't that good of test partners for it. They dispel way too easily for me to get a good workout against."

Shikamaru had also analyzed Naruto's fighting style, it seemed to be a lot of short range offense, not so much with defense, "Well what else can you do with it?"

Naruto's eyes squinted in thought, "Um, some throwing stuff, and some grabby moves, but I'm not good at those yet and Asuma-sensei is too big to use that stuff on."

Shikamaru's eyebrow quirked, 'Throws and locks maybe?' He thought, '*sigh* If Asuma ever makes us spar I'm going to need to catch Naruto before he can ever get anywhere near me. Troublesome. Or maybe I could just throw the fight?'

Asuma took all of his information in about Naruto, "Alright then. Ino, fight Naruto." Ino nodded and Naruto jumped back to his feet, 'Shikamaru wouldn't fight either one of them, but the kid isn't stupid either. I'll need to find out just how smart he is soon so I can get the team dynamic down.'

Ino took up a basic stance that left her hands at a good level to make hand-seals, a style taught by the Academy and encouraged by her father for her to use. Naruto took a sideways stance with a wide base that left his body set lower than Ino's, his hands up in a perpetual guard around his face. Asuma could see this was an automatic deterrent for people trying to hit him in the face or it was a way for Naruto to quickly grab on to someone that did indeed attempt to do so.

Asuma looked between them both, "Use of your jutsu is legal, but Naruto, keep the number of Kage Bunshin low, as in less than five… we don't want to have Ino fight an army on her first day. Hokage-sama told me how many you can make." Naruto chuckled nervously and nodded before turning his attention back to Ino, "Begin."

Naruto immediately made two Kage Bunshin that flanked him and went forward towards Ino. Ino took a few steps back to buy her some space and some time to figure what Naruto was going to do, but Naruto's closing speed was faster than she anticipated and she was forced to punch one of the Narutos in the face to keep from being surrounded. It burst into smoke signifying a clone leaving one more clone and one real Naruto to deal with.

One Naruto was able to get behind her and made a lunge for her, but Ino saw him fight Asuma and picked up on Naruto's habit in hand-to-hand; grab someone and then beat the crap out of them when they couldn't get away. And she didn't have the luxury Asuma had of being stronger than Naruto or being better than him at taijutsu. She had started to neglect taijutsu in the Academy during the last quarter of the year when her dad started teaching her the clan techniques.

Ino moved aside from the Naruto trying to grab onto her, but when she turned to see what had happened to it and if it crashed into the other Naruto, she saw that it had instead grabbed Naruto's hand and whipped him around to throw him towards her with added momentum. Ino quickly made hand-seals and just as Naruto got close enough to throw a punch he ended up hitting a log in her place, signifying a Kawarimi.

The surprise from her counter allowed Ino to go about finishing off Naruto's clone as stealthily as she could, but that somehow wound up tipping off Naruto as he turned and saw her. As he came back at her, Ino realized that she wouldn't be able to land her ace in the hole on Naruto at this rate. He was moving far too fast and far too often for her slow-moving jutsu to get a bead on him and make contact. So she was stuck with hand to hand for the time being since she was sure pulling a weapon would have been frowned upon by Asuma.

Naruto on the other hand was getting annoyed. He was used to fighting his clones, and they were never shy when it came to trying to punch his lights out before he could do it to them. Ino was keeping elusive and while he was faster than her she was wily. His clone rush at the start hadn't disoriented her enough to get him in close seeing and as how his clones didn't have the internal make-up he did to let them use his style effectively they had to be decoys that would let him get close enough on his own.

Stupid Asuma, if he would have let him flood the field with clones he would have won by now. He already used two of the five he had been allowed and Uzumaki Naruto was no liar or cheater so he resolved to bring Ino down all on his own if he had to.

One effective way to get opponents that weren't into attacking, being aggressive, or getting anywhere near him, he had read in one of those strategy books Shiho pushed on his during the last week, was to do something blatant that would never have a chance in hell of actually hitting them. They would think he gambled and failed, while really he had been trying to get them to make a move the entire time and was ready for their response. Huh, that stuff was actually kind of useful after all.

Naruto let out a loud shout and jumped right at Ino with a wide sweeping kick that she saw coming the entire way. Ino smirked and moved just out of Naruto's way, letting him land before letting a kick go towards his body that she knew would double him over.

Ino's kick hit home with a dull thud that showed how hard it hit, but Naruto cradled her leg close to his body with a cringing grin. It hurt, duh it hurt, she kicked the shit out of him for sure, but he had been getting repeatedly punched and kicked by his bastard clones for a week, he could take a kick from Ino if it let him do this. Naruto held Ino's ankle under his left armpit and used it to pull her towards him while she was hopping on one leg helplessly.

In order to keep her balance, Ino had to jump forward towards Naruto in order to avoid getting yanked to the ground, but when she did she wound up getting bullied to the ground from a shoulder attack by Naruto who then wrapped himself around her leg and made sure to gently extend her knee just to the point of extreme discomfort. It was clear he wasn't trying to hurt her, but he wanted to win, otherwise he would have just broken it and been done with it.

"That's enough." Asuma said, calling Naruto off and watching as he let go of Ino's leg, 'Instead of a shoulder-block he could have punched her right in the face or elbowed her or even headbutted her, substitute that with a kunai and he might have been able to turn that into a kill-shot. And then once he grabbed her on the ground he could have broken her leg. That's a really dangerous style, he was right.'

He then looked at Ino, rubbing her leg on the ground, 'He was faster and stronger but she kept evasive for a while until he was able to get close. She was very good at stalling tactics and in a fight alongside this team that is very good for her... not to mention we had been on missions all day before this and we haven't eaten lunch, she was probably low on energy. Once they actually start fighting as a team she has Naruto to do the fighting and Shikamaru to subdue them while she can be a fantastic support kunoichi once she learns more of her clan techniques.'

"Damn." Ino said under her breath as she remained seated on the ground. Where did that come from? She hadn't held back on that kick at all and he just took it and kept going like a juggernaut. Little did she know that Naruto's clones kick too and they kick way harder than she did in comparison. Naruto held out his hand in front of her with an apologetic look on his face, he must not have liked the idea of beating up girls. Ino accepted it and stood up with a pouting look on her face, "You'd better watch yourself Naruto, I'm not going to lose like that again. Next time I'll beat the crap out of you."

Naruto's face lit up and he took on a confident grin, "You can try whenever you want Ino. I'm just going to keep getting better!"

Asuma moved over to both of them and rested his hands on their shoulders, "You both did well there." He turned to Shikamaru who was leaning against the trunk of the tree, "Shikamaru do you want to fight next?"

"I'd rather not." He said blandly, "I'm kind of tired from today, I'd just lose."

Asuma gave him a deadpan look, "Everyone else did just as much as you for just as long as you."

"I know." Shikamaru commented, "And look at them." Naruto didn't look too worse for wear at all, but Ino was breathing kind of heavily after her fight with Naruto, "Naruto looks like he didn't do anything today, he'd wipe the floor with me, I'm tired. And Ino? Ino looks exhausted. I'd have an unfair advantage and I really don't like fighting women in the first place."

Asuma's eye twitched, 'Alright you lazy punk. You act like I've never dealt with a Nara before. I've got ways to work around your unmotivated ass, for sure.' "Fine. You're all dismissed for today. Meet here tomorrow, same time, same place."

Shikamaru let a smile cross his face for a second, 'You act like I've never had someone tell me to do stuff before Asuma. As long as you're not my mother there's really not a lot you can do to make me work.' He wanted to wave in a provoking manner at the smoking jounin as he walked away and turned back, but it would have been too much effort just to incite the man needlessly.

Naruto looked at Ino who was shaking out her leg, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

Ino noticed he was talking about her leg, "No, it's a little stiff but it's nothing a good night's sleep won't fix. Though…" Ino shot him a provocative pose, "How did you like rubbing up against me like that Naruto? You were awfully familiar with me there weren't you?"

Shikamaru watched Naruto's face heat up with a pitying look, "Troublesome woman… sorry Naruto, you're on your own here."

Red-faced Naruto stuttered out a reply, "W-W-What? I was fighting! That was a real move, I learned it myself! I wasn't trying to do anything else, honest!"

Ino knew it was a legitimate move, it had extended her leg at the knee past the point of it being comfortable after all and that was just him being nice, but she had just lost to him and she would be damned if wasn't getting the last laugh today, "You may say that now Naruto, but you were so gentle with how you held my leg, and I'm not sure but I could swear I felt you rubbing it. It felt so good, you flirt." She said with a sly, half-lidded smile.

Naruto just stood there, a stammering mess until Shikamaru came over, threw his old clothes over his head, and dragged Naruto away in a headlock, "Okay Ino, don't overheat the guy's brain. You might just break him if you keep it up." Shikamaru continued to drag Naruto out of the training field amid Ino's laughter at Naruto's reaction, "You should have just kept your cool Naruto. Now she's just going to keep doing it from now on." A muffled response from Naruto under his clothes came, but Shikamaru didn't bother trying to interpret what he said, "I don't know what that means, but whatever."

Ino kept laughing and let it die down as her two teammates disappeared from sight. She wiped a tear from her mirthful eyes and started on her own way home, "Oh this is going to be more fun than I thought." She was attracted to Sasuke of course, but today proved to her that Naruto cleaned up relatively well and he wasn't as bad a ninja as everyone had thought in the Academy at all. And he showed that he actually responded to her when she flirted with him, that at least showed that he thought she was attractive. She could never tell if Sasuke thought one way or another on the matter.

'Maybe… Nah, Sasuke's still way better. But still,-. No I should just stop thinking about it.'

XxX

Naruto and Shikamaru had caught up with Chouji who then proceeded to talk to them about his day. How things went with his sensei the previous day and what he had done today. Most specifically the test he made them do.

Naruto looked at Chouji and shook his head, "So his entire test was a trick to get you all to work together? How did that work out for you guys."

Chouji wiped his brow, "We ended up cutting it really close. Sasuke didn't want to work with anyone, and Sakura got knocked out before I could even find her and see if she would so I had to try and fight Kakashi-sensei... and I lost, but Sasuke jumped in and tried to get a bell of his own so we kind of ended up working together, a little bit at least. He ended up tying Sakura to a stump though and kept lunch from her."

Naruto looked at him curiously while Shikamaru snickered slightly, "Why would he do that to Sakura-chan?"

Chouji broke out a bag of chips, "Well he said she didn't do anything but look for Sasuke and get herself knocked out. Kind of embarrassing to call her out on it like that though, I felt kind of bad, so I tried feeding her lunch, and Sasuke did too." The large boy shivered slightly, "Then Kakashi-sensei came out with all angry with all of this lightning and storm stuff going and then…" He said forebodingly.

Naruto was listening intently as Chouji built suspense up, "He said we passed!" Chouji said cheerfully, getting Naruto to face-fault, "But then he almost left Sakura tied to the stump until Sasuke threw some shuriken at the stump and cut her free. Then I went to get lunch."

Shikamaru nodded in acknowledgement of his friend's story ending, "Hey Naruto, what are we doing all the way up here? We're all the way on top of the Hokage Monument."

Naruto pointed as they came up on a building, "We're going here. I have to see my friend Shiho-chan before she goes home... because I don't know where she lives, and following her to find out would be creepy."

"The library?" Chouji and Shikamaru both said before they remembered him saying stuff about it not too long ago, "Why?" Shikamaru asked his teammate.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. She told me to come back when I could because I would be busy since we're starting missions and everything, well I'm free now and I don't have anything to do. Why not?"

Shikamaru conceded that point to him, there wasn't a real reason not to. It was one hell of a walk though, but the top of the Hokage Monument did have a good view of the clouds. Maybe he'd come back up there in his own spare time.

Naruto led them inside and let anyone within the walls know of his presence, "Shiho-chan!"

"Shh!"

Naruto recoiled, apparently there were a lot of shinobi that decided to go to the library today, "Sorry." He said quietly.

Atsuto, who was seated at the front desk shook his head at the sight of the blonde, "Kami kid, you'd think after the third time you'd have gotten the point. Libraries are meant for studying… that's a whole lot easier to do without some random brat yelling at the top of his lungs."

Naruto crossed his arms, "That wasn't the top of my lungs." Naruto said increasingly louder, "This is the top of-!"

Chouji had moved to cover Naruto's mouth as he saw tick marks for on Atsuto's head. Atsuto settled down once he saw that Naruto had been reined in by his friends, "So what brings you here today kid? Shiho's about to go home so you can't get her to do anything for you today."

Naruto stopped glaring at Chouji for cutting off his tirade to pay attention to Atsuto, "I didn't come here to get Shiho-chan to do something for me. I just don't know where else to find her except for here." He replied somewhat ashamedly.

"Wow." Atsuko said in mock displeasure, "You don't even know that? What a crappy friend." When he saw Naruto's expression drop he realized he had been taken seriously, "Whoa Naruto, I was just messing with you."

"No…" Naruto said as a storm cloud formed over his head, "You're right… I suck. I don't even know where Shiho-chan lives. It's like I'm only using her because she helps me out a lot. What kind of friend does that make me?"

Shiho came from the archives section of the library and saw Naruto standing by her sensei, "Atsuto-sensei I finished taking catalogue of the new intelligence." Atsuto gave her a stern look, "No I didn't look at any of it. Sheesh sensei I did it once and I apologized for it. I didn't know it was supposed to be confidential, he's a genin. What's confidential about a genin?" His eyes glinted dangerously getting Shiho to laugh nervously, "Right, my mistake. It won't ever happen again."

Atsuto sighed, "You're so lucky I know why you did it. Anyway, you're done for the day, go on home. And look who came to see you." He pointed at Naruto who waved to her.

"Uzumaki-kun!" Shiho exclaimed, "Come with me!" She rushed over to him and grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the library before he could even say hello.

Chouji looked at where Naruto had just been standing in shock, a dust-trail leading out of the door, "What just happened?"

Shikamaru had a similar look on his face until he palmed his face, "I don't know… That guy finds himself in more troublesome situations than just a few."

Chouji watched the dust trail fade, "Should we follow them? He might need some help."

Shikamaru sighed, "Yeah sure…" He started slogging out the door, "Let's go follow them."

XxX

(15 Minutes Later – Ichiraku Ramen)

Shiho stared at Naruto as he barreled through a large bowl of miso ramen. She wasn't staring at him because he was eating like he hadn't seen food in six weeks, it was more like she was looking for something, something that wasn't really there. Seeing him place his bowl down after drinking the broth she spoke up, "Uzumaki-kun I went over your Academy grades." Naruto gave her a look saying 'how did you get those?' Shiho tilted her glasses with a proud look, "I work in the Konoha Archive Library. There are records there on all ninja past and present." Naruto seemed to easily accept that answer, "And I was wondering if anything I made you learn actually stuck with you so…" She pulled out two stapled sheets of paper, "I want you to take your written graduation exam again!"

Naruto fell off of his stool and quickly climbed back to his feet, "What? Why? I don't want to take it again! I just passed it a little over a week ago!"

Shiho gave him a dry look, "You passed with a fifty. I know you can do better this time, and it's not for anything, I just want to see if you can do better after what I did for you all last week."

Naruto could see the pleading look on her face and it easily ended up breaking him down. Damn, girls were really getting him to do what they wanted today. Where was his backbone? "Grr, fine." He said, "Do you have a pencil?" The test was slapped down on the counter and a pencil was stuck in his face, "Of course you do. Why wouldn't you?" He looked up right before he started, "Am I on the clock?"

Shiho shook her head, but her lips quirked in amusement, "No, but I'm not staying here all night Uzumaki-kun, it's almost sundown. Now get started, you'll do great."

Naruto shrugged and went up against what was once his greatest foe on three separate occasions. 'Okay Naruto forty questions, you've got this. Question one: Name three countries that border Hi no Kuni. Extra credit if you can identify whether or not these countries have hidden villages and can name the ones they possess. Damn it I don't-!' He stopped his mental rant and blinked, 'Oh wait. Yes I do. Ta no Kuni (none), Yu no Kuni (Yugakure), Nami no Kuni (none).' Naruto grinned before he started to focus again, 'Okay, question two: What was the bridge in Kusa no Kuni that was the site of one of the greatest successes of the Third Great Ninja War and the Yondaime Hokage?'

Shiho watched Naruto work and had many thoughts running through her mind as she looked at him. She had been through Naruto's personnel files to see firsthand exactly what his trued strong and weak points were and found that they were highly classified. Why, she had no idea, until she actually managed to get a look at them of course and stumbled upon the reason for the privacy.

Who would have thought that some loud little blonde kid was the entire reason that the entire village was still in one piece after what had happened twelve years ago? How did him having the Kyuubi in his body make him different? How did it feel? How did it get there?

She wanted to ask him this but did not for two reasons. One, he wouldn't know what the hell she was talking about. He didn't know about the Kyuubi in him. And if she told him he might not believe her, he might freak out. Who knew what would happen?

The second reason was because it was an S-ranked secret, and while she wanted to tell him, and was going to tell him right after she found out, she had been taken aside by her sensei and told that anyone who revealed that secret could be put to death by order of the Sandaime Hokage. When she asked why he said he didn't know and it was best she kept it to herself, but looking at Naruto's oblivious face she found it hard to keep such a heavy secret from her friend, especially when it was about him. He should know that there was a demon stuck inside of him, it wasn't fair that he didn't know about his jinchuuriki status, wouldn't that be dangerous?

"There he is Shikamaru, and he's at Ichiraku Ramen? Awesome! Good choice Naruto!" Shiho was stirred from her thoughts abruptly by Chouji's loud voice once he threw back the curtain to the stand and took a seat, almost surprising her out of her seat, "I'll have three large bowls of beef ramen, keep 'em coming!" He said boisterously.

"Please be quiet." Shiho said once she regained her composure, "Uzumaki-kun is taking a test right now Mr… this is embarrassing, I don't know your name."

"His name is Chouji, I'm Shikamaru, and we know you're Shiho." Shikamaru walked in a moment later and looked at Naruto hunched over the counter working on his test given by Shiho, "Alright I'll bite. Why are you making Naruto take a test? It seems like a whole lot of hassle for nothing."

"It's not for nothing." Shiho insisted, "I need to see if Uzumaki-kun actually got anything out of what we went over all last week or if I just wasted his time. If I just wasted his time then I need to adjust my curriculum to suit a student of his needs." She giggled, "I actually did have a full class so it's a good experiment."

Shikamaru took a seat in the stool between his best friend Chouji and his teammate Naruto, "So what's the point of teaching him stuff? The Academy is over."

Shiho nodded, "Yes, but this is a test to see if my way of getting him to learn things actually works. If it works with the review things I made him go over all the time at the library then it can work with just about anything he needs to learn and he can apply it to anything. Do you know that he wasn't even really there to learn anything? He did it with his clones. This is the ultimate test of my theory on his Kage Bunshin because I didn't teach him anything on this test personally; I did it through his clones."

Shikamaru watched Naruto intently go through his test, "So why him?"

Shiho smiled, "Well Uzumaki-kun is… how should I say this without being too blunt?" She placed a hand on Naruto's head and rubbed his hair comfortingly, "Uzumaki-kun is dumb. Really dumb. I mean, he's really, really dumb, and he even knew it." She noticed the tick marks on his head as he tried to ignore her and decided to stop teasing him and get to the point, "I just want to help him out really. At first it was because he had never been to the library before and I wanted to show him around, but he's a really sweet person and it's not fair that no one's trying to do anything about it. With a little fine-tuning he could have been rookie of the year if anyone would have bothered to give him some personal time."

Naruto grinned at that, but stayed focused on his test. This was way easier! The last time he was drawing blanks all the way through. The only reason he was able to get a fifty on the last test was because of the questions on the Yondaime Hokage that were sprinkled throughout in multiple choice format, some repeating. There were next to none of those on this form of the test and it still felt way easier.

Chouji stopped eating the ramen he was given at hearing that, "Naruto? Rookie of the year? How?"

Shiho shrugged, "Okay, how to put this… well, you know his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)? None of us here could even make one without nearly killing ourselves. Uzumaki-kun makes twenty just to read things in the library. He said he maxed out once before at around 1000, and I'm not sure if he's being truthful or not but even if he isn't he has more chakra than any genin I've ever heard of before, rookie or veteran. I don't know of many jounin that can say they have that much chakra to spare." Chouji dropped the noodles he had in his chopsticks upon hearing that, "Just off of sheer chakra capacity alone he's more advanced than anyone else."

Shikamaru took note of all of this. Why did it take this girl actually going into detail on this for something like this to actually be known? Shouldn't Naruto's chakra capacity have been something that the Academy teachers knew about? That's why he found it so hard to do the Academy jutsu. Because it took a miniscule amount of chakra to perform them, that's why they were Academy-level ninjutsu. It wasn't his fault he couldn't do the Bunshin, that was supposed to be the easiest to do because it was supposed to take the least amount of chakra. For Naruto that had to have been like trying to isolate an eyedropper worth of water from a lake or something..

Naruto slammed his pencil down and put the test in front of Shiho's face, scaring her, "Done!" He laughed to himself and looked over at Chouji and Shikamaru, "That was so easy! How did I ever think any of that was hard?"

Shikamaru smirked at his teammate, "Maybe that's because you didn't have a woman trying to force the information into that empty head of yours when we were in school."

"Good job Uzumaki-kun." Shiho said with a smile, "You got 80% of your answers correct. I knew you could do it!"

Naruto spun around in his stool, "Yatta! So that means I'm not stupid anymore right?"

Shiho shook her head, "Oh no, you're still really stupid." Naruto face-faulted, "What I mean by that is, all I made you learn was review stuff. You should have at least known this stuff in passing; most every ninja does off of memory. But about how smart you are. What do you know about chakra?"

Naruto squinted his eyes, "Um… we use it to do jutsu and stuff?" Chouji chuckled while Shikamaru palmed his face and shook his head.

Shiho giggled, "Yes but not quite. It's the mixture of your physical energy and your spiritual energy gained from physical exercise and experience. It runs through a system in your body that circulates it, much like blood. It's more important than just that. Now what about the difference between ninjutsu and genjutsu?"

Naruto's face drew a blank, "They both do stuff?"

"I said the difference." Shiho said, "I figured you didn't know that when you referred to everything as a jutsu instead of categorizing it. We're not done with you yet Uzumaki-kun, we're just getting started." Naruto lowered his head, getting her to pat him on the back, "It's okay! You picked up these things so quick, now you can learn about actual techniques. Hey, maybe if I can get the points of these things across well enough for you, you could start making jutsu of your own?"

That perked him up. It was true. He was a sucker for a new jutsu and if he could learn enough that he could start making his own like Iruka did that would be ideal for him, just another thing to make him badass.

Chouji spoke through another bowl that he wound up being served, "Yeah Naruto, you can do it. She seems like she knows what she's talking about and she thinks you can."

Shikamaru nodded in agreement at his best friends words and turned his attention to Shiho, "So, what exactly do you plan to teach him anyway?"

Shiho's glasses shined at the sound of his question, "Everything." Shikamaru couldn't help but pity Naruto with the way she said that.

Naruto blinked as he had heard that from her, "Wait. Everything? What do you mean everything? I can't learn every-."

Shiho pulled a bowl of ramen in front of him, "Look Uzumaki-kun, ramen! And it's still hot, you'd better hurry!" Like a switch had been turned he immediately dug into the bowl placed in front of him.

Shikamaru sweatdropped, "Are you going to fix that too?"

Shiho shook her head and chuckled awkwardly at exploiting such an embarrassing weakness, "I don't think I can. But seriously would you even want to?"

Shikamaru stared at her for a while, making her uncomfortable with such a firm gaze, 'What is he looking at me like that for?' Her cheeks started heating up at the thoughts of why.

Finally, Shikamaru shrugged and turned his attention elsewhere, "I guess I wouldn't. It's good to know I can sidetrack Naruto with a bowl of noodles. I might be able to use that from time to time."

Naruto finished off his bowl happily, "Man that was good." He then looked at Shiho suspiciously, "Now then… what were we talking about just now?"

"Um…" Shiho said hesitantly, "I was just saying that it's getting late and I have to get home before I get into trouble."

Naruto nodded, "Okay, the sun has gone down after all I guess. Do you want us to take you home Shiho-chan?"

Shiho stood up abruptly, having just dodged a bullet of sorts, "No that's okay. I'll see you later Uzumaki-kun. Goodbye Shikamaru-san, Chouji-san." The other two waved to her as she left the stand.

Shikamaru sighed as he watched his two friends order more food, "That girl is kind of strange."

Naruto nodded, "A little bit, but pretty much every girl I've met so far is weird to me Shikamaru. She's still nice though, really nice. If you get to know her you'll like her."

"Whatever you say Naruto." Shikamaru said unbelievingly, "Remember. All women are troublesome, it's just to what extent are they troublesome."

Naruto stopped eating long enough to point ahead, "You do know that we've been being served by a woman the entire time we've been here right?"

Shikamaru paled and looked forward to see Ayame giving him a sickeningly sweet smile and holding a ladle in her hand, "Ugh… I hate you Naruto."

Naruto shrugged and went back to eating, "I don't know why you hate me. I didn't say that, you were the one that had the brilliant idea to say that out loud. And you all call me stupid. At least I'm smarter than that." Naruto looked into his bowl, "Hey Ayame-neechan, when you finish chewing Shikamaru out about his dumbass comment can I get some more please?"

How To Train Your Genin: Tip 2

Instill a work ethic in your genin

Motivation is another highly important component in the steady improvement of any and every ninja. The stronger they get, the more they will have to work to keep up with the expectations placed upon them which will grow more and more difficult. Many good shinobi and kunoichi with lots of potential have found themselves swept up by this and overwhelmed, mostly due to complacency in their own strength, knowledge, and skill.

There is never enough in any of those attributes. As a ninja you can never afford to settle with where you are, because there will always be someone willing and able to show you how much better than you they are, and this could end with your failure or death.

This must be driven home early in a ninja's career as while confidence is good, arrogance will get them killed… miserably killed, by some lunatic, miles away from home. So to prevent this you must ensure that they know that they must keep improving bit by bit and show them a progression of their abilities so that they clearly know what they are capable of. And in order to keep them from getting swelled heads you, as their jounin sensei, must make sure they know that they still have a long way to go. This can be done by showing them up in some way, shape, or form. You can do this any way that you like, but the less imaginative jounin all seem to like doing it the same way, by beating their genin senseless. But to each their own. They are all full-fledged ninja and you shouldn't baby them because it will get them killed.

Just so long as you ensure that they're always working to improve, you're doing your job.