Chapter 33

For some reason Shikamaru and Naruto had managed to make it to Team 10's training ground the day after their promotions and were both sitting under the large tree that marked the middle of their field. As they sat in the shade they both seemed to be basking in the silence with fully aware, yet stunned looks on their faces.

Both boys were wearing their flak jackets over their regular clothes and were patiently waiting for their third teammate and their sensei to arrive so that they could be given their marching orders for the coming days. They were in such a haze that they didn't care seem to know or care that not only did they not have a meeting that day they had been there for an hour already, having arrived too early that morning even if they had been scheduled to meet.

Apparently genin habits died hard. Chunin weren't required to meet everyday like that. Just another sign that their heads were too far away to deal with the protocol of their new military stations.

Eventually Shikamaru cleared his throat and decided to speak up as it was clear both he and Naruto were in the same state of mind over something that was probably similar, "So… I'm guessing that the guy showed up at your place too and told you what he told me." Naruto nodded without saying anything, "Yep… I thought so when he told me that you'd been asked too."

"Ero-sensei told me…" Naruto said, taking a gulp that could be seen as a sign of nerves, "You're talking about that noble looking guy that didn't seem to be from around here?" Shikamaru nodded in response to confirming the identity of the person that had relayed the message of the offer to him, "Yeah… so what are you going to do?" Naruto concluded curiously.

Shikamaru's eyes turned to Naruto after hearing the blonde newly minted chunin's question, "What am I going to do? What are you going to do?" He asked in return, not answering the question himself, "It didn't exactly come off like it was supposed to be a package deal. They want both of us but we don't both have to go."

"Are you telling me to go, or are you saying that you want to go for yourself and you want me to stay?" Naruto wondered, squinting his eyes at Shikamaru in confusion over what his point was supposed to be.

"I'm not telling you to do anything knucklehead." Shikamaru said in exasperation, "I'm just saying that if you want to go you can go without me. Don't let me hold you back. They'd probably get sick of my attitude in a hurry anyway." He saw Naruto open his mouth to probably start an argument and cut that off at the pass before he could even get going, "We can talk about it later. We're supposed to have plenty of time to give our decisions anyway right?"

Naruto shut his trap and begrudgingly nodded before setting his back and his head against the tree to keep waiting for Ino and Asuma. He knew that Jiraiya would never spring for a meal of his without a reason behind it. Of course there would have been an issue other than a celebration when they went out to eat the previous night. There wouldn't have been any other way it could have happened.

(Flashback – Last Night – Ichiraku Ramen Stand)

From the amount of food steadily being shoved down Naruto's mouth, Jiraiya was grateful that the kid's meal would be on the house because he wasn't sure he could pay that much without writing a check.

"I was scared to death when they showed the end of the exam broadcast." Ayame said as she placed another bowl in front of Naruto that he immediately began to put away, "No one knew what happened when all of that sand started to billow up. Everyone thought something bad had happened. But it's good to see that you're fine and that you're as hungry as ever."

Jiraiya just shook his head at the sight of Naruto gorging himself on his favorite food before turning to the pretty young ramen waitress with a grin, "Well it was never in doubt for a second that he'd get out alright. After all, he's the disciple of one of the greatest men to ever live; I'm referring to myself of course, I taught him everything good that he pulled out in the tournament." He leaned on the counter closer to Ayame, "Of course I'd be more than glad to explain in depth the nuances of my teachings to you personally."

Naruto glared at Jiraiya out of the corner of his eye as he continued to eat, but said nothing, not feeling the need to get personally involved. If he was planning on hitting on Ayame he would have another thing coming. He was around thirty years too late to try that and succeed, and he was in the wrong place to try it.

And right on cue the loud sound of chopping sounded out from behind them where Teuchi was cutting up more fresh ingredients, trying to purposefully be loud to attract attention, "I think I speak for everyone here when I say thanks for taking an interest Jiraiya-sama." Teuchi said, turning around with a deceptive smile on his face as he continued to chop loudly, "I'd be personally be happy to hear about how you trained Naruto. Why don't we go in the back with all of my other sharp cutlery so we can discuss that and other things as well?"

Jiraiya's face paled and he leaned away from Ayame, "I'd rather not thanks." Legendary status or not he didn't necessarily like his odds in that instance. He then decided to change the subject to restore some goodwill, "So why are you letting the brat eat you out of house and home for free again?" He said, pointing a thumb over at Naruto who was still steadily eating while getting patted on his head like a good boy by Ayame.

Teuchi chuckled and went back to work, "Because he pretty much paid for himself in advance with all of the money I made off of him betting during the fights." He then backtracked a bit once he could feel Ayame's glare on his back, "Oh, and because he did such a good job and got himself promoted. How could I forget that part?"

"Yes he did." Ayame said in an encouraging manner, "He did very well. He went kind of overboard with all of the explosions, but those were pretty cool to see I admit."

Naruto stopped eating once his explosive tags were brought up and sighed, "I completely depleted my stores during the exams. I need to buy more sealing paper if I'm going to make that many again when I get some free time." His hunger sated for the time being, Naruto pat his belly and turned in his stool towards Jiraiya, "So Ero-sensei, what was that guy at my apartment looking at me for? He wasn't the landlord's collector looking for me was he? Because I told that guy when I got back that I'd pay the second I-."

"No he wasn't some debt collector Naruto." Jiraiya said with a roll of his eyes. Honestly, who freaked out over debt collectors after dealing with a pair of jinchuuriki in back-to-back fights.

Taking a moment to finish off the broth left in his bowl, Naruto put it down and sighed contently before turning his attention back to Jiraiya, "Well then who was it?" A grin slowly started to spread over his face as his imagination began to run wild, "It was probably someone that wanted an autograph or something. Yeah, he thought I was so awesome, and he can see a future Hokage in the making so why wouldn't he try to get an autograph before my signature's hot?" Naruto then tapped his chin in thought, "Hmm, maybe I should start working on a signature."

Jiraiya had to take a second to wonder if this was what it was like to talk to himself sometimes before shaking that thought aside, "No kid, he didn't want an autograph! That guy was from the daimyo."

That got everyone's attention as Ayame and Teuchi froze where they were to listen in carefully. Sure it might not have been their business, but that was just one of the side perks of owning a place for the public to come and eat. Besides, they had some stock in that kid and his well-being was relatively significant to them.

"The daimyo…" Naruto said, trying to roll the thought around in his head, "Wait, that's like the guy that runs the rest of the country isn't it? What does some bigwig like that want with me?" He asked curiously.

"Congratulations." Jiraiya said, giving Naruto a hearty slap on the back, "You've finally got people realizing that you don't suck." A beaming grin found its way to Naruto's face. Even all the way to the ramen stand people had been congratulating him over his performance alongside his team during the televised exams, "In fact, you've got the daimyo thinking that you're quite good and that your teammate is quite smart and skilled."

Naruto at this point was nodding as if he knew what Jiraiya was going to say, "And now he wants to hire Team 10 for some cool job that only the best can handle." Maybe he'd finally get that mission to save a princess or take down an enemy fortress the way he always wanted and thought he'd get in spades as a ninja?

"Sort of…" Jiraiya said, rubbing the back of his spiky white mane as he thought of possible ways that Naruto would take the coming information, "He wants to hire you and Shikamaru. Just you two though. And it's not for your regular everyday mission. He wants you as his personal protectors. Bodyguards if you will."

Naruto just sat there and turned back towards the counter, looking down in thought as if he wanted to say something, "Um… why?" He wasn't even thirteen yet. He would be in a month or so, but why would the daimyo want a pair of kids as bodyguards? It was just weird to him, "Doesn't he have like a whole group of soldiers and stuff to do that for him?"

A chuckle left Jiraiya, "One genin is worth at least twenty average armed men when used correctly. And yes, nobles like that have their own forces, but they also seek out the very best for more direct reasons. He wants to set up a contract with you and Shikamaru to enlist your services as his shinobi for a certain length of time. I believe the very best of them are called the Twelve Guardian Ninja… or they were."

"Were?" Naruto said with a raised eyebrow.

Jiraiya shrugged, "If I were you I'd talk to Sarutobi-sensei's kid Asuma about it. He could tell you more than I ever could about this whole thing. But yeah, the daimyo wants you as one of his guards. That's what the guy at your apartment was there to tell you. And you've got six months to come up with an answer, he isn't expecting you to just pick up and leave at the drop of a hat, that would be totally unreasonable. This is a big decision."

"How is it a big decision?" Naruto asked, not seeing what the big deal was. It was a bodyguard job. A ninja was supposed to do bodyguard work, it was kind of their thing, "I'll just accept the mission, watch over him for whatever he's going to do, get paid tons of money, and come on home. Easy."

"The contract lasts years kid."

That got Naruto to pause in his good mood and confident state.

Jiraiya looked at him with a serious expression as he proceeded to explain, "Yeah. You're not just popping away for a quick mission that'll take a week or a month even, you're going away for years. You'll be a live-in guard, basically shifting your services from Konoha to the daimyo directly instead of just by proxy."

Naruto just stared at Jiraiya with a slack-jawed expression before he finally found his voice, "Why the hell would I want to do something like that? I don't want to leave for real!"

Shaking his head, Jiraiya frowned at Naruto due to his outburst, "You idiot… it's not anything like that. What do you think, you'd be a deserter or something? Your sensei did the same thing, Tsunade travels around indefinitely, hell even I spent more than my fair share of years away from the village before I was even powerful or famous."

Grumbling at being called an idiot, Naruto glared slightly at Jiraiya, "So? What does any of that have to do with me?"

"I know you usually don't care what I think unless I'm teaching you how to fight, but I think it would be good for you." Jiraiya said confidently, "It would be a chance for you to go somewhere new, learn new skills, build up a body of work elsewhere… it would be great for a kid like you. And if you set yourself apart from the pack the way you should and the daimyo likes you then that'll be good enough for you to get his backing once you actually start going for Hokage when you get older."

He really meant that last part. For some reason the daimyo absolutely adored Jiraiya due to their meetings in the past and he still wished that Jiraiya had taken the seat of Hokage. Apparently he still brought it up to Hiruzen since his sensei would tell him about it often. Jiraiya had no desire to become Hokage however so it was sadly just wasted breath on him.

Naruto's face showed a bunch of conflicting emotions over the matter though, "But… but I can't just leave. Everyone needs me here."

"Who?" Jiraiya said, legitimately questioning him on the matter, "I know you've got friends and I know that you're really excited about being a new chunin, but who needs you here? Konoha won't just fall apart if you're not here kid. The friends you have aren't just going to keel over and kick the bucket because you're gone for a while… mine didn't and we were fighting a war at the time the second time I left. That's a really arrogant attitude to have, thinking that the thousands of shinobi here can't hold down the fort, but a rookie genin turned chunin is so integral to the foundation of everything."

Naruto looked down and continued to think. Was it really that wrong to think that way? He did have to admit that thinking of himself being more useful in the grand scheme of things than say Asuma or Kakashi was pretty unfounded, but he liked Team 10, he liked the other Konoha genin he had spent time with and fought during the exams and even before then. He liked the attention he was getting for winning the exams. He didn't want to leave now that things were looking up so much.

"Just think about it." Jiraiya said in conclusion on his point to not just overlook and cast away the offer, "You're young. Before you actually get to a point where you are a vital part of Konoha's military you should go out and get some different experiences. It'd do you a world of good."

(End Flashback)

Naruto sat cross-legged and stared at the ground as he furrowed his brow, "Well what do you think we should do Shika? I mean, it sounds cool and who knows how strong we might get training with the best that are supposed to be able to guard the daimyo?" It certainly couldn't hurt to spend some time away if that were the case.

"I don't really care a bit about the whole 'getting stronger' thing." Shikamaru admitted with a hapless shrug, "I'm trying to shoot for average, remember? This is pretty much as far as I want to go in my career in case you forgot. Maybe jounin, but I'm not going to push it. If it happens it happens. I'm not really shooting for the stars here, I'll leave that to you."

Naruto just gave him a deadpan stare that was saying more or less, 'My ass you'll be getting off easy as long as I'm around.' The blonde chunin jumped up and poked him in the head as Shikamaru tried to ignore him, "You don't want to do it just because you're a lazy ass? What about the adventure or the challenge? Come on!"

Swatting Naruto's hand away, Shikamaru got up and walked out from beneath the tree to lie down in the grass and stare at the clouds, "With the stress of the exams you've obviously forgotten who you're talking to, so allow me to refresh your memory in the following manner." And with that he shut his eyes and didn't move again.

"Shikamaru." Naruto said, getting no response. He frowned and poked at Shikamaru with his foot, "Get up Shikamaru I know you're not asleep, that was only like fifteen seconds." Still, Shikamaru didn't move an inch, "Damn it Shikamaru, like it or not we are in the middle of a life-changing decision-making situation right now! Wake your ass up and help me solve the problem!"

Shikamaru cracked open one eye before turning over on his side away from Naruto with a grunt.

A growl came from Naruto's throat before he threw his hands up and walked away, "Fine! Sleep all damn day and see if I care! But if I have to find you again later and you're still here…" He let the threat hang in the air as he walked away from the field.

That was just fine with Shikamaru though. He'd just clear out in an hour or two and go home to ditch Naruto and his vengeful wrath of which in his heart of hearts he knew there was no escape from in the end.

Yep, running away from your problems and decisions until it was absolutely necessary was the manly way to handle things. Procrastination was the fuel that powered society. He would have thought that Naruto would have learned that by now after six months of hanging out with him.

XxX

(Hokage Tower)

Asuma stood in front of his father's desk staring wide-eyed at the man, "You're serious? Wow… I don't know if that's ironic or what? I mean what are the chances dad?"

Hiruzen didn't know whether to chuckle or what, because it wasn't lost on him at all, "If you're wondering, he asked whether you were coming back as well."

"The daimyo wants me back?" Asuma said with a quirk at his lips, "Well that's unfortunate, because he's not getting me back." The man had a fair shake at getting Shikamaru, Naruto, or both of them though if they decided to accept the offer either way though, "I don't think I should tell them what to do in this instance. You saw fit to promote them so they should be able to make their own decisions. I'm technically not their sensei anymore you know."

In response, Hiruzen shrugged, "Okay, if that's how you feel I'll reassign you right away. You did so well with this team that maybe I'll set you up with a new genin squad once the next batch graduates." He smirked when he saw Asuma glare heatedly at him, "That's what I thought." He leaned back in his chair and placed his pipe at his lips to light, "You're just as attached to those kids as I happened to be to my own team. No matter how far they go or how good they get you're going to feel some kind of responsibility over them."

Asuma scoffed at such a sappy thought, "I just want to make sure they've got all of their stuff in order that's all. They're still all just kids. The training wheels can't just come off without warning. I'll still be around for them to get advice from of course." He then turned away from Hiruzen and grabbed his own cigarette to light once he saw that his old man was smoking indoors, "Besides, I still owe Shikamaru a beatdown at shogi that's been a long time coming."

A nod that seemed rather happy came from Hiruzen, "I'm glad you came back Asuma, I just want you to know that. I really think that this team was what you needed to find something to take stock in the village again… aside from Kurenai of course."

Asuma turned back around to Hiruzen with a frown on his face, "You, the other jounin, even one of my brats are always referencing Kurenai. When have I ever given any kind of sign that we were in any sort of relationship, and how would you even have known? When would you have found the time to pick up any gossip?" Hiruzen then wordlessly pulled up his crystal ball, "Oh, duh. Wait, you really watch me in that thing?"

Another shrug came from the old man, "Well the fact that you do a terrible job of hiding said relationship notwithstanding, you are my son… and it gets very boring in here from time to time. Just be grateful I'm not Jiraiya and we'll leave it at that." Both Asuma and Hiruzen shivered and nodded, not bringing up the topic again.

XxX

(Konoha Archive Library)

"I really don't get why you're bringing this to me Uzumaki-kun." Shiho said as Naruto followed her around the building. He had arrived a little earlier, she had given him a hearty congratulations on a job well done in the exams, he had of course gleefully accepted, and then he brought the issue of his offer from the daimyo. It had clearly stunned her into silence, but other than saying that it was a big deal and an honor she didn't know what else to add.

From that point forward he had constantly been bringing it up while she was supposed to be busy at work making her rounds and making sure that everything was in order. And it did actually beg the question from her; why was he bringing the question to her? Wasn't it supposed to be his decision?

"Come on Shiho-chan." Naruto tried to plead while keeping his voice down. He didn't want to get her in trouble with her boss or catch a tongue-lashing of his own from the man, "You're like the smartest person I know, you should have some kind of advice for me."

"Not like this." She argued back making sure that every book and file on the shelves were in place with her checklist, "Uzumaki-kun I spend upwards of seven hours a day in here surrounded by concrete information of all sorts. Do you want me to give you basic specs of a new region you're about to get a mission into? I can do that. Do you want some historical perspective? I can do that too. Do you want advice on basic combat theory? You know I can give you that. But what do I know about personal dilemmas, especially a dilemma that isn't my own?"

Naruto felt like pulling his hair out at this point, "You're just like Shikamaru; all that smartness for no reason." He then found the clipboard she was holding slammed on the top of his head, "Didn't hurt."

Shiho pulled the clipboard off of his head with a huff. Of course she couldn't hit him hard enough to hurt him, the noise it would make would get them in trouble… oh, that and she would never hit hard enough to hurt a friend, "If you want to get logical over it then sit down and make a list about what you can get out of either staying or going, but make sure you have all of the facts first. If one side outweighs the other in benefits then take it. Other than that I don't know what to tell you. Either that or ask Shikamaru-kun."

"That bum is totally useless." Naruto grumbled, eyes scanning the books they were walking through in passing. Due to this he didn't notice Shiho's momentary glare cast upon him for his remark about Shikamaru, "I asked him what he was going to do about his own offer earlier and he just rolled over and went to sleep."

That was more or less Shikamaru's way of saying that he'd deal with it when it was actually a problem… or it was his subtle way of telling Naruto to fuck off. Either way, none of that was helpful at the moment.

But hearing about Shikamaru's offer got Shiho to freeze in the middle of what she was doing to face Naruto, "Wait, did you just say that Shikamaru-kun got an offer too?" She said, eyes seeming to try boring into Naruto's head for the answer.

It actually forced Naruto himself to back up a step for comfort and personal space purposes that were currently being violated by Shiho's close proximity, "Uh, yeah. Both me and him got the same deal to sign a contract to work for the daimyo for I think a few years. I thought I said that at the beginning."

"No you didn't!"

"SHUSH!"

The unanimous sign to stifle all loud conversation and actions got both youngsters' attentions. Naruto fanned his arms out in a belligerent manner as he whispered harshly, "Be quiet Shiho-chan, you're being too loud!" He then found himself forcefully jerked face-to-face with the bespectacled blonde girl by the collar of his brand spanking new flak jacket, "Meh?"

"What do you mean Shikamaru-kun got the same offer?" Shiho asked sharply, "Does that mean he's going?" Her tone seemed to be telling Naruto to answer correctly or suffer. Weird. She had never done that before, not even once. And only now Shiho could be counted as being just like every other girl or woman Naruto had ever met.

The feeling of death seemed to be magnified by Shiho's glasses and Naruto didn't think that said girl could elicit such a feeling from him. She couldn't even fight so what was he scared of? He was asking himself that question and yet he still felt a sense of foreboding that he was not about to try testing by being a smart-ass. It was clearly not going to fly there and then.

"I don't know, I swear to Kami!" Naruto squeaked out in a high-pitched manner. He so wanted to pull his goggles that sat on his forehead down over his eyes to avoid eye contact but it was like he was paralyzed. Was this a jutsu? Did all girls learn it somehow? That was so unfair, "I told you I asked him this morning and he totally blew me off!"

Shiho sighed desperately and let Naruto go, allowing him to skulk back against a bookshelf with a thump to get away from her, "Well that's no good…" Her eyes then sharpened up on Naruto again, "But the second you find out if he's going or not you'd better tell me in a hurry, understood? You'd better tell me."

"I'll tell you whatever you want, just don't kill me." Naruto said fervently to try and calm Shiho down. Whatever set her off, he didn't feel like reaping the 'benefits' of such an attitude. And she was such a nice girl too.

Shiho wordlessly jerked her head towards the direction of the exit and Naruto took that as a sign to get the hell out of dodge as he did just that without a second thought. A rather desperate sigh came from the cryptography apprentice as she went back to her odd job that had been assigned to her.

That was certainly an embarrassing lack of composure. Luckily Naruto wasn't necessarily the kind of guy to look too far into behavioral patterns or he would have a chance to accidentally blow her shot with Shikamaru in the future. Speaking of the future if he left that would make things harder for her to get the guts to put herself out there after he would probably be exposed to women that were far better looking than her, but if he stayed then she'd just get used to him being around and would keep procrastinating on the whole thing until it was too late to really try to catch his attention.

Wow… when she put it like that she could kind of see why Naruto was wrestling with his decision.

XxX

(Team 10 Training Field)

Shikamaru was awakened to a darkened silhouette standing over him blocking the sky from his view and he almost panicked, his first thought being that it was Naruto there to make good on his promise to make Shikamaru pay if he returned to the field and caught him still sleeping there. Before Shikamaru could begin to formulate a way to talk himself out of immediate trouble, or at least to buy himself enough time to run for dear life back to a well populated area, the voice of the person standing over him spoke.

"Jeez Shikamaru I thought you had the day off." Shikamaru blinked as the voice sounding similar to his in the nonchalant content only with a more grizzled tint to it continued to talk to him, "Why are you all the way out here? Stupid kid, making me run around all over town just to find you… troublesome."

"Dad?" Shikamaru sat up and looked up to see his father Shikaku standing there just looking at him. The younger Nara rubbed his eyes and squinted at the light in them, "Why are you looking for me?"

Shikaku reached down and jerked his son up to his feet with surprising strength, at least as far as Shikamaru was concerned. Shikaku watched him stumble about jelly-legged for a moment before continuing to talk, "Well I meant to tell you this last night but what with the promotion, the daimyo's message being dropped off, and your mother preening over you I didn't get a moment to say this for myself." He cleared his throat and set a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder, "You're a chunin now-."

"Oh come on…" Shikamaru said, not really wanting to hear the whole rite of passage speech. It was just so lame, "Come on dad. I know already. Responsibility, leadership, all of that crap. Don't tell me you came all the way out here to waste time like that. Shouldn't you be overlooking the deer caretaking right now?"

Shikaku waved Shikamaru off, "Ensui's got the deer covered. And I wasn't going to give you that shit speech. I was going to say that you're a chunin now so it's time to teach you some more clan techniques. You did great during the exams and you never even bothered me to teach you anything." He narrowed his eyes somewhat in suspicion, "Funny thing that."

"Asking you would have been too troublesome." Shikamaru said, rubbing the back of his neck and yawning, "I had what I needed already, I just had to find ways to use it."

Shikaku just gave Shikamaru a deadpan stare, "Uh huh. Go ahead and use that excuse. You just didn't want to put in the actual work to learn a new jutsu. Well you're not ducking it anymore. Get ready to work."

A sigh came from Shikamaru as he followed his father back to their compound, 'Maybe I should take that offer to leave for a bit after all. It would get my troublesome family off my back for sure. Even mom wouldn't be able to bust my chops after I came back from it.' But then what if the daimyo had him doing even more irksome things as work? Wait, wasn't today supposed to be his day off?

XxX

Ino's fingertips drummed off of the countertop of her family's flower shop crossly as she waited on customers to peruse the store's selections and make decisions. She knew she was supposed to have a chipper attitude when working in the store but her own thoughts over yesterday were still keeping her in a less than good mood.

Her dad said that as a chunin she could be assigned to different teams at any time, but that wasn't necessarily what she wanted to hear. He hadn't even really gotten the chance to even say that as new chunin she, Shikamaru, and Naruto would more than likely be allowed to stick together to cut their teeth on progressively harder missions until they found their groove.

Ino let out a sigh as a chime signified that someone else had entered her shop, "Hello and welcome to Yamanaka Flowers." She stopped with her greeting when she noticed exactly who it was that entered, "Oh, what are you doing here Forehead?" She said rather vacantly despite the insult.

"Wow." Sakura said dryly as she walked in, looking at the abundance of flowers while moving towards the counter to talk to Ino, "If you're going to call me that you could at least put some effort behind it. That didn't even seem like you meant it." That managed to get a small smile out of Ino, "So how's life as a chunin treating you?"

Ino's lips quirked slightly, "Just great. Can't you see how dangerous and elite I am? It's like night and day from yesterday when I was just a genin." She said sarcastically before sighing, "I don't even know how I feel about it. My head is just swimming right now." If she had to admit it, Ino didn't feel very much like a chunin. After the high of actually getting promoted wore off she felt kind of lost.

She could technically lead missions now? It was difficult to wrap her head around. More than ever she felt like she needed to be with her actual team to succeed. She was going to have to go to her dad and demand a new jutsu this time, not take no for an answer whatsoever. There was no more reason not to teach her another clan technique. She had done what she could with what she had thus far and it was enough to get her through the chunin exams. That had to be worth something.

"You know we never got to have our fight during the exams." Sakura remarked offhandedly, though it was clear that it was said to get Ino's full attention which it did, "It's kind of a shame if you ask me."

Ino smirked and sat her elbows on the counter as her chin rested in her hands, "It's a shame that you didn't catch a beatdown from little old me? Wow Sakura, I thought you would have been happy with not getting a hospital visit." The topic shifted on that note, "So how are Chouji and Sasuke?"

"Better." Sakura said, "Chouji's resting at home for the week and so is Sasuke-kun since Kakashi-sensei gave us the week off. Knowing Sasuke-kun though he's probably training or something right now instead. We had a short meeting today."

A frown came to Ino's face, "Asuma-sensei didn't tell us to meet. I don't think we were supposed to do anything today. Goldie-kun would have come to get me if I was a no-show for something. Or maybe they are breaking us up and they're just taking the time to reshuffle the teams?"

Sakura shook her head and placed her hands on her hips, "Are you really going to be this negative? All you've done since yesterday is whine over your team that might be getting broken up. I didn't know you needed Shikamaru and Naruto as a crutch to do anything."

Ino slammed her hands on the counter in front of her, "That's not why it matters!" Her outburst got the attention of everyone else in the store but a glare from the diminutive blonde girl got them to mind their own business once again, allowing her to focus solely on Sakura, "They're my friends. We're not Ino-Shika-Cho like my dad and his friends are. We don't have that kind of thing going for us to stay together."

Palming her forehead, Sakura argued her case again, "Even if you guys are chunin you're still kids too. And we've only been out of the Academy for like six months. There's a curve, there has to be. You're getting worried over nothing. But wouldn't you rather the teams get reshuffled? I mean, then you'd have another chance to be on a team with Sasuke-kun possibly."

"I don't really care about that." Ino mumbled as she sank her head down on the counter.

Doing so forced her to miss the shocked look that appeared on Sakura's face, but she did not miss her follow-up comment, "You don't care? It's Sasuke-kun."

And if it had been months ago then it probably would have mattered to Ino, but now it really didn't. Not one bit. And she was okay with that, "I guess you can say that there are more important things then just being on the team with a hot guy. I mean, I haven't been trusting Sasuke with my life for the last three months. I didn't spend every day for the last few months with him. I don't know him well enough the way all of the girls in the Academy thought they did. As a matter of fact I know Goldie-kun more than I thought I knew Sasuke. Did you know he actually does have a clan?"

Still though, Sakura was stunned at the thought of one of the girls that had been enamored with Sasuke in school losing interest in him. Even the other girls that they hadn't had any contact with since graduation were still into him. As a matter of fact Sasuke arrived home after the exams to find his front door blocked off by get well soon gifts and other assorted gifts from said girls. It was kind of creepy actually. And Ino was neck and neck with Sakura as being one of Sasuke's most vocal admirers back in the day.

Maybe she did have a chunin's mindset after all.

In fact, she was so not worried about Sasuke that she didn't even let Sakura dwell on the topic any longer, "You know what?" Ino said with a bit of enthusiasm, "Even if they do wind up breaking us up as a team I can deal with it. Hokage-sama promoted all of us for a reason, not just Shika or Goldie-kun, but me too." She started sounding more and more confident as she continued to speak.

Sakura just blinked in surprise at the sudden upswing of self-esteem from Ino, "Wow. You really got over that quick."

"Not really." Ino said, deflating slightly, "I'm not really over the possibility yet. But I know what'll help." Sakura watched as Ino took a moment to run towards the back of the store to find someone, "Dad! Can I take the rest of the day off to go shopping with Sakura?"

The pink-haired kunoichi palmed her face and leaned up against the counter, shaking her head as Ino continued to plead her case to leave to her father.

"Oh come on! I won the chunin exams, don't I get any spending money for that? I haven't gotten my own paycheck for a mission in over a month! How did Goldie-kun pay his rent with no income?"

XxX

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Naruto said, trying his best to fit his key into the lock on his doorknob, failing miserably to do so all the while, "He changed the locks while I was gone this morning? What the hell happened to common courtesy? Don't I get a month's free rent or at least some kind of grace period on paying? I'm a champion!"

It was now officially hangover time from his weeklong 'celebration' in Tetsu no Kuni and round of kudos for the chunin exams because life was clearly back in session. With a desperate groan, Naruto pulled his useless key out and stomped over a few doors to knock on another apartment door.

The door opened a crack as a chain lock inside kept the full view of the person inside from view, "Yes Naruto? May I help you?" A voice said as if there was nothing wrong at all despite the quite miffed look on the young man's face. The landlord was something of a shut-in for the most part. Barely any tenants had ever really seen all of him at one time. For a civilian he had some serious ninja habits. Naruto had seen him of course, but he had been living there long enough to do so.

Naruto had to hold himself back from trying to kick his door off of the hinges from the nonchalant attitude of the landlord. The guy was usually pretty alright, he was just really strict with the whole paying on time thing and he was obsessed with keeping a respectable establishment running, "Alright look, I know you're kind of no-tolerance over the whole rent thing but seriously, I have an excuse. I was in the chunin exams. How was I supposed to get money for the last month? D-rank missions don't really leave you with savings."

"It's not just that Naruto, that much I understand." The landlord said, only one eye visible, "The fact that you'd been going out of your way to duck me when I tried to talk to you about it the week before you left is another thing. It was completely childish."

Naruto just stared at him with a raised eyebrow before pointing at himself, "Dude I'm twelve…"

The man's eye closed as he seemed to be shaking his head in a chiding manner, "A double standard? Such irresponsibility already in your chunin career. I thought you were better than that. All I wanted was to work out a deal with you over the matter. This didn't even have to be a problem." He said calmly.

"Deal?" Naruto squawked incredulously, "I've got a deal for you, just give me the key to open my door and I'll pay you after I get back from my next mission, how about that? Come on, I've never missed a payment before."

"Because Hokage-sama paid for you until you graduated." The landlord chimed in matter-of-factly, "You came close pretty much every month since then. You know my policy. I was very clear when you started paying for yourself. First missed payment you get two days to pay and then I change the locks until you can do so. You have a month to do that."

Naruto slapped his face to try and keep his composure. So he was forgetful trying to deal with his whirlwind ninja work. He was always on time. Well not this time of course, but all the other times he paid by noon on deadline day no matter what, even during the one time where he had to run over there and pay in the middle of a team training session. Asuma was really pissed about that one, "You're crazy old man. I really don't need this on top of all of the other stuff going on. Did you know the daimyo wants me to work for him and I have to make a decision on that?" Maybe name-dropping would grease the wheels?

"So take it." The man said with a shrug, "Maybe he'll pay you in advance and you can get back into your house?"

"Damn it, I will rain down hellfire and brimstone on you!"

"You can't prank me in my own complex kid, you've been trying it for years. Just get the money and you can get the key to your new lock. Borrow it from a friend or something until you can pay them back."

"…Can I get it from you… friend?"

"No."

And with that the door shut in Naruto's face, getting a growl out of him. He could just break in later and that could be that, at least for one night or until he got arrested for trespassing, but it was more along the lines of it being over his principles. Uzumaki Naruto was not a deadbeat.

"I need money…"

Who had money?

Lots of money that wouldn't mind parting with some of it for the time being.

Preferably someone that owed him dearly for services rendered in the past. Or maybe someone that just couldn't say no to him.

Jiraiya? No, the man hated springing for Naruto's meals. In what alternate dimension would he pay his rent?

Tsunade or Shizune? Maybe if he knew how to find them while they were still in town he had a shot, she said he had won her money during the exams after all. But if being in Konoha didn't make Tsunade any less crabbier then that idea was doomed to fail.

Asuma? What was he, his dad? He wasn't going to make Asuma give him a damn thing.

Wait, Sasuke was loaded wasn't he? But he'd probably just smirk at his misfortune and shut the door to his big fancy house right in Naruto's face before hobbling his injured ass back to bed or to a couch to keep healing. Were they even close enough for him to try that in the first place?

On second thought no one owed him a damn thing, and everyone could say no to him for one reason or another. He wasn't about to run through the list of people he knew so he could get no told to him all day long. There was only one sure-fire solution to his current problem that would definitely solve it, like it or not.

"Damn it, I need to go do some D-ranks…" Naruto said to himself helplessly as he began to slink his way out of the apartment complex to head towards the mission assignment desk in the administration building, "Being a chunin sucks."

XxX

(One Hour Later – Konohagakure Ninja Academy)

"Being a chunin sucks." Naruto repeated under his breath as he stood with his arms crossed outside, "How is this a C-rank mission?" It sounded too good to be true. An in-village C-rank mission that wouldn't take more than a day to accomplish, and he wouldn't have to share the money. He jumped at it since he didn't feel like taking the full workload of a glorified house chore without his teammates around and he didn't want to feel like nothing had changed. Chunin didn't routinely take D-rank missions and he wasn't about to fall into a pattern like that.

This C-rank was not that much of a step up in his opinion.

Sure he technically got to fight, but he wasn't really fighting. He wasn't allowed to really fight back. He was more or less a moving training dummy.

Standing in the middle of a ring while an entire class of genin looked on, Naruto yawned while off to the side, Iruka was introducing the lesson, "Now in order to spice up the monotony of you all simply sparring against each other, today you get the treat of trying your hand against an actual Konoha chunin. Say hello to Uzumaki Naruto class." He finished, pointing at Naruto who was currently lazily scratching his belly underneath his flak jacket and regular clothing.

"Hello Uzumaki-san."

"Boss!"

"Naruto-oniisama!"

The class comprised the first one, the second one happened to be Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon, and the third one was Hanabi. Although Hanabi and Konohamaru took that moment to glare at each other heatedly, getting Naruto to raise an eyebrow at the two youngsters' attitudes after waving to the entire class.

"They've been like that since Hanabi joined the class this week." Iruka said with a deadpan look on his face, "At least they aren't yelling and arguing this time." He then got a little more serious, "You do know what you can and can't do don't you?"

Naruto was still very uninspired to be there, "Yeah I know Iruka-sensei. Don't beat the crud out of the kids. I'm not that stupid." He said quietly enough to keep the others from hearing him.

One of the kids in the class raised his hand to ask a question, "If we're just fighting a chunin then why aren't you sparring with us Iruka-sensei? Why'd you get this kid?"

Iruka couldn't help but take that moment to pump himself up a bit, "Well I might be a little too advanced for all you kids for your first time fighting. Naruto here used to be a student of mine so some of my skills obviously rubbed off on him in passing." He gave Naruto a hearty pat on the back getting a grin out of Naruto despite himself, "Now I just want you to do your best against Naruto. I want to see what you all know and I'll give you critiques later." Another hand shot up out of the crowd, "Yes, Konohamaru."

"Is Boss going to use explosive tags or that cool machete he has with him?" The young boy asked excitedly, getting a few of the students to pale as they remembered watching some of what Naruto was capable of during the broadcast of the exams.

"No." Iruka said with a dry expression, "We're trying to make sure as many of you graduate as possible, not trying to weed you out and kill you in the second month. Any other questions?" A bunch of hands shot up, "Any questions not pertaining to what Naruto's actually going to do to you when you try to fight him?" Every hand unanimously went down, "Good. Any volunteers?"

Before anyone could raise their hands, Hanabi and Konohamaru jumped up and more or less raced to the ring. As they both tried to climb up on the platform they were steadily trying to shove each other out of the way, fighting over who would actually get to fight.

Iruka palmed his face as the class began to clamor over the scuffling brats. He turned to Naruto who seemed to be getting into his role due to the amusement brought by the two kids, "I blame you for this partially. You created a monster out of Konohamaru."

"Just let both of them fight me." Naruto said, getting the entire class to freeze and look at him, even Konohamaru and Hanabi, "What? They can't fight me one-on-one, I could step on them and smush them." Out of the two of them Hanabi had the best chance from his personal experience, but it still wouldn't be a chore whatsoever to deal with her.

"Hey!" Both Hanabi and Konohamaru both said, breaking apart to hop in the ring glaring at Naruto in offense.

Iruka was about to talk to Naruto about how he was messing up his lesson when he saw something of an opportunity forming in front of his eyes to prove a bit of a point to two of his feuding students, "Actually yeah. If you want to go against them both then you can do that. Now make the seal of confrontation and begin."

Naruto just looked at Iruka with squinted eyes until he saw Hanabi and Konohamaru make a half-tiger seal as they faced him, 'Oh, that.' He thought to himself as he did the same.

"Right!" Konohamaru said as he immediately charged forward, "I'm finally going to kick his ass! Get ready Boss!" Leaving Hanabi behind, the small Sarutobi boy ran at Naruto with his tiny fists ready to pummel Naruto.

"What?" Hanabi, not wanting to be outdone by someone she knew she could beat, followed behind to try and beat Konohamaru to Naruto and be the one to defeat him herself.

Still Konohamaru would reach Naruto first as he dropped into his tight stance. A smirk crossed his face as he feigned attacking Konohamaru prematurely, scaring the boy out of his own attack and getting him to jump back in retreat in case Naruto was really going to go after him.

That action caused him to run into Hanabi and send both kids spilling to the ground in a heap. Seeing both kids on the ground without even doing anything, 'Wow, I didn't even have to dodge a punch.' Naruto stood up straight out of his stance and watched the scene unfold.

Hanabi jumped to her feet first and pointed down at Konohamaru, "You completely got in my way you clumsy oaf! What happened, did a butterfly get in front of you and scare you back?"

"Shut up!" Konohamaru heatedly shouted as he got up and in Hanabi's face, "It was an evasive movement! You were stepping all on my heels anyway. Why were you so close? Did you want to see how the real apprentice of the Boss fights? Just turn your Byaku-thingy on and stay out of the way."

"You are not Naruto-oniisama's apprentice!" Hanabi angrily snapped on him, "Do I have to walk all over you in more than just classroom grades to get the point across?"

At this point Iruka decided to step in, "And that's enough." He said, getting the class to 'aww' in disappointment. There wasn't even a punch thrown, not much of a fight, "Sorry but this was kind of meant to prove a point to these two." He said, separating Hanabi and Konohamaru, "Naruto could have just went up to you two and knocked you both out. Look at him." Said chunin was just sitting cross-legged on the ground staring at them with a smirk still on his face.

Trying his best to glare at Hanabi and intimidate her, Konohamaru spoke to Iruka, "What point? This didn't prove anything except that Ghost-eyes here moves like a turtle."

"I'm faster than you Kono-baka! And don't talk about my kekkei genkai like that!" The insult about her eyes was nearly the last straw. Hanabi was about to paralyze Konohamaru from the waist down for a few hours to teach him some respect.

Before Konohamaru could press his advantage now that he had found something to hold over Hanabi's head, Naruto's fist bounced off of his, "Ow! Hey Boss, what was that for?" He gingerly held the spot on his head where Naruto hit him.

"Don't go making fun of Little Firecracker's eyes Konohamaru. That's really not right." Naruto said with a pronounced frown on his face. He looked at Hanabi and even though she was hiding it he could tell that the crack had almost made her cry, "I wish you two would stop fighting every time I see you, you never know if you two would end up on a team or something. Then what'll you do, just argue and try to beat each other up all the time? You'll get killed like that."

Iruka placed a hand on both Konohamaru and Hanabi's heads and kneeled down in front of them, "That was the point I was trying to make. I knew you two wouldn't fight together, trying to outdo the other, but I didn't think you'd actually stop the match just to bicker. Like it or not you two are comrades and you need to learn how to work together." He stood up and looked at the whole class, "That goes for all of you. As ninja we work in teams to cover individual weakness and to protect one another. You need to be able to rely on each other and now that's today's exercise. Three of you will try to go up against Naruto and myself and will practice cooperation."

A blank look came upon Naruto's face at the change in curriculum for the day, "Wait, I thought I was just supposed to run circles around these kids for the day one-by-one. Why are you changing the lesson plan Iruka-sensei?"

"I blame you." Iruka said with a shrug, "Now one more of you hop up here so we can actually get this started."

XxX

After school had let out that day Iruka went with Naruto to collect his pay for his day's work. He had never seen Naruto so happy to have money in his hands before, but he wasn't about to ask why, nor was he going to bring up the fact that the money that Naruto happened to be happily rubbing all over his face could have been anywhere before making its way to him.

He was going to let Naruto have his moment.

Either way, he chose to turn his attention to the subject that Naruto had brought up while they had been walking to the mission desk to report that Naruto had finished his job, "I wish I could say that I have some advice for you Naruto, but it's a decision you have to make on your own whether to stay or go."

Ending his torrid affair with his newly gained funds, Naruto shoved the money in his frog wallet and grumbled, "You're saying the same thing Shiho-chan said. Even Shikamaru blew me off and this is his problem too." He fished a coin from his pocket and tossed it into the air, "Maybe I should just flip for it…" He said absently before doing just that.

Iruka snatched the coin out of the air and rapped Naruto on the head, "Don't leave it to chance stupid! This is a serious decision you need to make!" He then blinked, "Wait, when do you need to make it?"

"Ero-sensei said I have half a year." Naruto said, remembering what Jiraiya had told him the night before.

"Then why are you thinking so hard about it now as if you only had until the end of the week?" Iruka wondered to the boy aloud, "Take your time and take in everything that matters about the decision. Don't decide rashly one way or the other." He punched Naruto lightly on the arm in a good-natured way, "For now just enjoy being a chunin like me huh?" He finished with a grin.

Being reminded of his current rank in the Konoha military system and all of the perks it didn't bring, other than the prospect of doing what you want in the way of training of missions mostly, Naruto sighed and just kept walking with his old sensei towards the exit of the building, "Being a chunin sucks."

"You've been a chunin for all of one full day. Give it some time."

"…"

"You got kicked out of your house for not paying rent didn't you?"

"How'd you know?"

"It happened to me too."

And Naruto then laughed long and loud all the way outside of the building at Iruka's former expense. At least it wasn't just him that had a crappy first experience after his first promotion. Maybe being a rookie orphan chunin was what sucked?

XxX

(Two Days Later)

Naruto was woken by a sharp banging on his front door. It wasn't exactly late, but maybe he was getting lazy because he was definitely sleeping in now. He pulled himself out of bed and ambled his way to the front door to open it and find Ino standing there with an upset look on her face, her foot tapping on the ground impatiently, "Ino-chan what are you doing here?"

Ino took a second to look over the appearance of the groggy Naruto in his pajamas and sleeping cap before getting to the point, "Get dressed."

The more tired pair of blue eyes just blinked repeatedly, trying to adjust to the morning sunlight. Naruto was trying to comprehend what was going on, "What?"

Ino turned Naruto around and kicked him in the butt to get him to walk back inside, "Get your ass dressed. We haven't done anything since we got promoted."

"Asuma-sensei didn't tell us to do anything." Naruto said with a yawn as he rubbed his backside and got back to the place where he slept to grab his clothes, "No team meetings or anything…" He then walked his way back through his house to get to the bathroom to get ready for the day

"Duh." Ino said as she shut the door to Naruto's bathroom after he got inside lest she see something that she wasn't meant to bear witness to, "We're not required to meet up anymore Naruto. We're not genin. It's up to us for all of that stuff now." She leaned against the door and raised her voice as she heard Naruto's water turn on, "I was really raging about this the other day until someone finally told me. Unless we're assigned certain members for certain missions we get to pick our own squads when we work." Her dad finally managed to get a hold of the fuming girl to inform her of these facts.

"WHOO!"

A small smile came to her face at that, "So unless you and Shikamaru have any other options or thoughts on the matter we're still a team."

The garbled sound of Naruto trying to talk through brushing his teeth got a laugh out of Ino until he spit and spoke with his mouth clear, "No way. But why didn't anyone tell us that from the start? You freaked out kind of hard on the first day."

"I don't know, hazing maybe? Older people are jerks." Ino said with a blush, remembering how she just stormed away from all of the others on the day they were promoted, "And that got me wondering, what else didn't anyone tell us? So that's why you're coming with me and we're getting all of this stuff cleared up once and for all. We'll find Asuma-sensei and kick his butt for just letting us go without knowing anything."

"What about Shikamaru?"

"Shika's busy training with his dad. I went to see him first." Ino remembered how Shikamaru tried to use her as an excuse to shirk his training for that day with his father until his mother dragged him back through the house and threw him out back to get started, "I kind of have to do the same thing later with my dad, but for now I'm free. We can find Asuma-sensei, get some breakfast or whatever, *sigh* I just don't want this to fall apart. You're really important to me, you know?"

Wait, that came out wrong.

Or did it? She didn't even get to throw Shikamaru into that remark, or did she omit him intentionally?

Was a side-effect of being a chunin overthinking things? That had to be the case because Ino had been giving herself headaches for the last two days.

"Aw, thanks Ino-chan. You're important to me too." Well at least Naruto didn't pick up on the unintended connotation of Ino's last comment. Bless his heart, whoever wound up with him would have to shove the fact that they liked him right in his face to have the slightest chance of him picking up on it. You'd think that someone admittedly trained by a pervert would be better equipped for that sort of thing, "Look, go ahead and sit down somewhere in my house, I'm going to catch a quick shower okay?"

"Don't take all morning then." Ino said as she drifted away from the bathroom door, "I have to be home by noon no matter what it is we wind up doing. It's already around nine."

XxX

(Hokage Tower)

Asuma and Hiruzen's faces were twisted in frowns at the current information that had been provided by Jiraiya, "Why didn't you tell me this beforehand?" Asuma asked the toad summoner, "You know, before the exams would have been nice."

"Calm down." Jiraiya said, leaning against the window behind the Hokage's desk, "I would have if they were active, but I hadn't heard a peep from them in quite some time, since Orochimaru defected in fact. As a matter of fact he's the only member of them that I knew of."

Hiruzen leveled a gaze on his most loyal student before launching a question, "Yet you found it prudent to bring it up to me now instead of even later. Can you tell me why?"

Jiraiya could hear the tone in Hiruzen's voice and rubbed the back of his neck, "Jeez Sarutobi-sensei, I just wanted to make sure I had all of my facts on them straight and that it was a bigger deal than it was before I brought it to you. I brought it up because I had a source that said that a pair of figures wearing black cloaks with red clouds left Tetsu no Kuni right after the exams ended. That's the uniform of the group."

A group that wanted Naruto and possibly other jinchuuriki as well in the no-tolerance-for-shinobi-hijinks Tetsu no Kuni. They probably weren't there to take in the sights. They were that close, but didn't try anything on any of the clearly vulnerable jinchuuriki so they didn't wish to raise an alarm and have the entire country buzzing before they even got off of the mountain. With the multitude of powerful fighters there it wasn't a good idea at all to do so.

"So basically…" Asuma said again, "There's a group out there that wants Naruto's Kyuubi, and they're full of members that are strong enough to chase Orochimaru away." A stiff nod from Jiraiya was his answer, "We just promoted that kid in case you didn't know. That means that any day now he's going to be stomping in here demanding a mission to who knows where. We can't really keep eyes on him like that can we?"

"Yes we can." Hiruzen interjected, pointing at Asuma, "You are still the senior commander of the Team 10 cell until further notice."

Asuma didn't have any problems with that, but still he had to ask, "When do you think further notice will be, forever? Eventually when these guys make a move Naruto's going to know something's up and he won't let it die."

"I think it'll be until he takes the offer to work for the daimyo."

The eyes of the two Sarutobi gentlemen turned towards Jiraiya in surprise, "What?" Asuma said, "You know he's going to take it? How can you know he'd take it?" It didn't really seem to be Naruto's kind of speed to decide to leave his home so quickly.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, "You're saying you don't think you can convince him to? You have half a year to find a way to help him make his decision. I personally like it. He should go." By now due to witnessing the exams the group after Naruto would know he was a Konoha ninja and would know how to find him. If he were to become a guard in the employ of the daimyo that would give Naruto an extension on anonymity and it would allow him time to grow in strength and skill over time.

Aside from that he would be very easy to check in on and it would overall benefit his career to do so. There was also the fact that the daimyo wouldn't ask slouches to protect him. There was a chance that the bodyguard would have a hell of a list of bodyguards among the ranks.

Asuma grumbled to himself over the matter, "I might as well make Shikamaru go too if that's the case…"

"Good idea!" Jiraiya chirped cheerfully, "A friend would definitely make the experience better for him and from what I saw of the Nara kid Naruto seems to be able to kick his ass into gear. Go for it and get it done."

"Are you serious?" Asuma said, getting nods from Hiruzen and Jiraiya, "That's like trying to shove two stubborn mules up a hill. If they don't want to go there's no way you can actually make them. Shikamaru especially. Dad you make them go. Say it's an order or something."

Hiruzen gave his son an incredulous look, "Right, I'm going to make them go the same way I made you stay." He said sarcastically, "I can't order them to accept an offer. It's their own personal choice no matter how beneficial or not it may or may not be. Is there a reason you don't want them to join when you yourself did so? You were their age when you left."

"It's not that I have a reason for them to not join." Asuma said with an exasperated look on his face, "It's Ino. Inoichi told me she didn't take the whole 'breakup' of the team very well until he was able to explain things to her the right way. And now there's a chance they'll be gone for years?" If Naruto and Shikamaru left, or even one of them went, that was not a conversation or an explanation he wanted to be anywhere near. Talk about uncomfortable.

That little bit of reasoning put a dry look on Jiraiya's face, "So the reason you don't want two of your students, that are legally adults by way of their occupation, to try and go for a huge opportunity is because you're afraid of a twelve or thirteen year old, 4'8, 80 pound girl. Yeah, that's manly Asuma."

Instead of rising to the insult, Asuma just stared at him before responding, "And how old was Tsunade when she beat you nearly to death again? She won't touch me, it's Naruto and Shikamaru I'd be worried about in that scenario." Being a girl didn't disqualify Ino from being able to kick the crap out of Naruto and Shikamaru if she was distraught. He had more than enough experience with dangerous women to understand as much.

"I think you are underestimating your students for multiple reasons in this regard." Hiruzen said to Asuma, "But be that as it may there is plenty of time for this situation to flesh itself out. There's no sense of urgency for the deadline yet as long as it is decided within six months." He had given Ino her promotion not just because of her performance, but because he saw incredible potential for growth in her. That much was evident by the way she learned to fight that was completely unconventional for Yamanaka Clan ninja. She was strong, even if she didn't know it herself.

Back to the topic at hand though, Jiraiya nodded, knowing the deadline, "I'll do my best to steer him that way, but he might get belligerent if he really doesn't want to go. I know that much about the kid at least so I'm not going to hammer the point into his head, I'm not his father, I can't tell him to really do anything." He idly wondered what Naruto's father would have done about it or how he would have felt in the first place upon hearing that his son had gotten an offer as a guard from the daimyo.

Heh, his mother's reaction would probably be far more amusing in contrast, rest their souls.

They would definitely be proud of him though, and that's what mattered.

"Likewise." Asuma said, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood idly, "If it happens it happens. If not, well whatever. If you really want me to then I'll keep supervising select Team 10 missions though. They might like that anyway." And he would like it too, though he would never say so aloud.

As a matter of fact, a part of him would think it was cool if he had students that followed in his footsteps (inadvertently though) and became guards to the daimyo. Maybe if the Twelve Guardian Ninja hadn't been disbanded they would have had a shot at making it there as well? One could always speculate. And speculate he would. He had six months to think about the what-ifs.

Hey You're Not a Genius. Who Cares? Read This and You Won't Suck at Fuunjutsu (by Jiraiya)

The makings of a kinjutsu

Since at this point you will very soon begin learning exactly what it takes to begin fashioning your own seals of a personal nature (a very long and arduous process I might add) I figured it would be prudent to enlighten the ignorant masses, i.e. you, on what a kinjutsu is since there is always a possibility that your tinkering with seals will end in the creation of one. Seals seem to have that kind of effect on people; coming up with asinine suicide ideas.

A kinjutsu is basically a forbidden technique. Using a kinjutsu is frowned upon and in some cases outright banned from being taught or used.

There are multiple reasons for banning a technique.

It could be too costly and run too high a risk of harming the user. A few of the higher level seals one could come into learning fall here such as the vaunted Shiki Fuujin (Dead Demon Consuming Seal) that will outright kill you. Another example of a kinjutsu of a self-harming nature would be the use of the Eight Gates, it destroys your body simply for unlocking them even though the temporary physical boost can be crushing.

So in order to figure out whether or not you've invented a kinjutsu you should adhere to the following checklist.

-Does your jutsu cause extreme harm to yourself whenever you try to activate it, possibly to the point of long-standing or permanent damage, shortening of lifespan, or worst-case scenario death?

-Does knowledge of said jutsu give the user an ultimate ace-in-the-hole that would be rampantly unfair if too many knew it themselves. I mean the kind of jutsu that if it were common knowledge to all it would change the way the shinobi world operated altogether. That kind of unfair.

-Does your jutsu cause mass amounts of gratuitous destruction? Even more than the usual destruction wrought by many types of ninjutsu?

-Does your jutsu change the physical properties of things to something unnatural?

-Does your jutsu have the potential for misdeeds? All techniques have the potential for misdeeds given their usage, but I mean does your jutsu instantly do something deplorable that would cause a person to turn their head in horror, disgust, etc? Besides the killing of your target of course.

-Does your jutsu violate the laws of nature? Like bringing back the dead to walk amongst the living kind of violate.

If you can emphatically answer yes to any one of these questions then congratulations, you've just created a kinjutsu! Well done on your achievement, I'm quite certain it was very difficult. Now prepare to lock that jutsu away in the confines of your mind never to be seen by anyone that could possibly utter a word of its existence forever more. The less people that know of your abomination to the arts passed down to us from the Rikudou Sennin the better, but the thing about forbidden techniques is that someone always finds out about them somehow.

When the news of your new deadly, deadly forbidden jutsu drops to your superiors just say it was an accident and you won't do it again. You're lying of course, and you're definitely going to do it again especially after seeing what it did firsthand, but they don't need to know that.