19 Chapter - 19 :Masquerade Part - 2
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By now Naruto had exhausted the limits of what Iruka could teach on most school subjects. The man was only a chunin, and a schoolteacher at that; so while he had a broad grasp of the essential ninja basics on up to chunin level, his focus had been down, on teaching genin, not up, on learning jonin level techniques or knowledge.
But still, while Naruto might not be chunin level on most skills, it was nice for him to have the book smarts of his hoped-for ninja rank, and to be able to calculate a parabola when he needed to.
So he went on reading books on those subjects for answers to give Hinata because asking Iruka grew to be too much of a pain, as his former teacher took longer to find things than just looking up the answers himself.
Next day he was planning on losing a bet with Kiba and paying a forfeit of 'having' to help out around that family's kennel, where he learned almost as many things as at Ino's shop.
They just weren't as nice about it, and taught about dogs instead of flowers.
After that, well, maybe he'd hang out with the Hokage for a day and prompt the old man to tell him stories. That had started out as a way to learn about his former favorite student, Orochimaru, but it turned out the old guy had a storytelling bone or two in his body, and he'd lived so long and seen so much stuff, all he'd have to do is prompt him the right way and the Hokage never seemed to run out of material, really interesting stuff, too.
Yeah. It was worth it. He'd go hang out with the Hokage again after this.
After who knows how long training with Ebisu, months of hard work on basic chakra control to be 'decent', then weeks each spent mastering intricacies of the Body Switch, basic Clone, and Transformation techniques, then MORE months spent on further chakra control exercises until he was 'tolerable, above average, but barely', the special jonin had taken him back to the basic essential three ninja techniques again until he could perform them without seals, on almost no notice and with hardly any sign he was doing them.
It was hardly possible to master them any further. There was only so much you could do to refine something, and he'd about hit that limit.
Yes, Ebisu liked to focus on the basics. He considered them important, vital even; or it could just be that he disliked Naruto that much.
Once more the blond genin showed up for his instruction, almost physically able to feel his expectation of the guy wanting to spend more time refining basic techniques, or to show him yet MORE minor refinements to establish slightly greater chakra control, on the road up to 'acceptable, almost good.' He nearly fell down in a faint when his teacher declared it was time the boy ought to learn a jutsu that WASN'T among the basic three!
Finally! At Last!
He got to learn Body Flicker, the short range transportation technique!
Okay, it wasn't much, being both low rank and common - almost a calling card for being a true ninja. But hey, he was excited! Kakashi may have a thousand ninja techniques, but Naruto only had four that he hadn't invented himself.
One more made a big difference.
"Sasuke, you do sense something odd about Naruto?"
"hn."
Having failed to get a useful response from her crush as he passed by where she sat eating, Sakura went back to her lunch, gazing off at her other teammate, who was laughing and joking with a trio of normally reserved genin from Hidden Sound.
The next day it would be Hidden Rain, but she didn't know that.
"... Naruto?" A voice asked from the door to his apartment.
The boy looked up from what he was doing. "Oy! Sakura. I wasn't expecting you."
He looked oddly puzzled by that statement, but he hid it well, so she didn't notice. Her mind was preoccupied anyway, but not so much she didn't notice the parts strewn on the floor around him. "What are you doing?"
"Oh," the boy gestured casually to the open book on the floor beside him. "Learning how to fix things. The lock on my door has been busted for a long time. I thought I'd learn how to repair it."
"That's nice," the kunoichi mumbled, not really meaning it.
"So what brings you here?" he prompted.
"Earlier today, I saw you talking with some Sound ninja," she stated. "I don't think that's right! They could just be using you! They might do anything to get ahead in the exam!"
"What are you doing?"
"Oh," the boy gestured casually to the open book on the counter beside him. "Learning how to fix things. The hot water tap in my sink has been busted for a long time. I thought I'd learn how to repair it."
"That's nice," the kunoichi mumbled, not really meaning it.
"So what brings you here?" he prompted.
"Earlier today, I saw you talking with some Grass ninja," she stated. "I don't think that's right! They could just be using you! They might do anything to get ahead in the exam!"
"What are you doing?"
"Oh," the boy gestured casually to the bucket of plaster on the floor beside him with the spreading tool in his hand. "Just repairing some of the holes in my walls. It makes it less drafty in here."
"That's nice," the kunoichi mumbled, not really meaning it.
"So what brings you here?" he prompted.
"Earlier today, I saw you talking with some Sand ninja," she stated.
"Oh yeah!" he brightened. "Gaara is the youngest son of the Kazekage, and the other two members of his team are his brother and sister, Kankuro and Temari. Nice folks."
"Why did you approach them?" she demanded, fists clenched in worry. "That one with the jug almost killed you!"
"Oh, I just wanted to know why they are going to attack our village, that's all. And being hostile or wanting me dead doesn't make them any different than most of Konoha."
Sakura found herself gaping like a fish.
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