Good Riddance and a Chance Meeting

It wasn't until my third year in the academy that I was able to get rid of the annoying fly known as Mizuki. as to how I did it... well, it wasn't particularly hard, but I had to spend a lot of time collecting information and evidence.

Mizuki -and most instructors besides Iruka- didn't really teach Naruto anything. They didn't treat him bad, since that would get them fired, but they also didn't put any effort in teaching him. Besides that, they had gone as far a sabotaging his training by giving him rusted, broken and flawed equipment. I had even found a Kunai that had more weight on one of its sides, which made it lean towards that side more.

Once every bit of evidence I had gathered was sorted, I decided to play it slowly and nicely. First I asked Iruka why Naruto hadn't gotten better at Taijutsu in the last three years, to which he answered with a helpless tone, bu I was ready to plant the seed of doubt.

"*sigh* Naruto just doesn't take his training seriously..."

"Really? But I saw him repeating the movements Mizuki-sensei showed him very seriously!"

"Huh? Mizuki showed him the movements? Hmmm..."

After that, Iruka didn't answer me, but I knew that I had fulfilled my objective. From that moment onwards, Iruka took care of teaching Naruto personally and, to most's surprise, the blond actually began improving at a very good pace. But to get rid of Mizuki I needed to do a few more things.

*

The following day, over the weekend, I visited Shikamaru to play a few games of Shogi. Of course I lost miserably. I was good at many things, but I wasn't smarter than a Nara and would never be. Still, as much as I enjoyed chatting with Shika and just do nothing while cloud gazing, I had a reason to visit.

When Shikaku, Shikamaru's father, joined us in our Shogi game, I decided to throw in some bait hinting at Mizuki.

"Shikaku-san, I grabbed this Kunai from the Academy the other day, it's from those Naruto always uses"

"And why are you showing it to me, Ryo-kozo?" (A/N at the bottom)

"Well, it feel weird when I take it, like it weighs more from one side than the other. I checked everyone's but only Naruto's feel like this"

When Shikaku grabbed the Kunai, he realized that it indeed weighed more from one side. He looked at me and, as soon as I say his eyes, I knew that I had been discovered.

"Who do you think it is?" he asked me with a serious look on his face. I had no reasons to hide my case, so I simply stated what I knew was truth "I'm sure it is Mizuki-sensei. He always goes to Naruto first..."

I told Shikaku all of the information and evidence I had gathered through the last three years on Mizuki, going as far as explaining the way every other teacher treated Naruto, the rusted Shuriken, the flawed Taijutsu technique and the lack of proper teaching. Of course, I put in a good word or two for Iruka, since the man deserved it.

"I'll present this to the Hokage-sama, he will surely punish Mizuki and the other teachers. Thank you for informing me, Ryota"

I only realized the weight of what I had done when Shikaku called me by my full name in stead of the usual "Ryo-kozo" he used. That meant I had earned a bit of respect from him and that was more than many Shinobi could say about themselves.

'Heh... I earned the respect of the Commander Jonin!"

After that I stayed for a bit longer and, when afternoon came and the sun was about to go down, I left the Nara compount.

*

The following day a lot of ANBU appeared in the academy during our Taijutsu training and, to everyone's surprise, Mizuki was detained. The other teachers were made to pay a sort of fine, consisting of 75% of their yearly earnings for every year Naruto spent in the Academy.

I knew that Naruto would only stay for one more year, but the way it was worded meant that, if Naruto failed to graduate in four years, they would have to pay five, or six, or seven. As many as Naruto took to graduate. The funny thing was that Naruto, instead of being mad at them, was sad. And he even said he would ask "Jii-chan" to lowerd the fine, since he was sure the teachers had families to take care of.

After that, the Hokage did lower the fine to 45%. The teacher's which were saved by Naruto's natural kindness began treating him better and went as far as giving him special advice on their areas of expertise. They weren't bad people, they were just misled by negative emotions and a lack of information.

I didn't hold them accountable myself, since I knew that I would've been the same, hadn't I known the truth. But things weren't as bleak. In spite of most people still treating him poorly, Naruto was now a brighter and happier kid with more friends than he used to have.

*

I was walking back to the Inuzuka compound from the Academy, my mood being extremely good since my plan had worked perfectly, when I heard a silent sob. Usually one wouldn't involve himself with such things, since you couldn't help every person you heard crying. But something told me to go check. Perhaps I had been affected by Naruto.

"Hey, why are you crying?"

The girl that was sobbing looked around my age, brown hair tied in two buns and fair rosy skin. She was wearing a pink, chinese style shirt with no sleeves and a blue...

'Wait isn't she Tenten! Why is she crying here?!'

"Wh-Who are *sob* you?"

"Oh, sorry. My name is Ryota Inuzuka! Yours?"

When she heard my name she looked a bit surprised, but calmed down afterwards. It would seem like something held her from crying in front of someone.

"I'm Tenten... why are you here?"

-----------------------------------------

"-kozo" is a word that means kid, brat, youngster, etc. In this case I used it as a suffix in how Shikaku calls Ryota, which would translate to something like "Ryo kid" or "Ryo boy".