Cap13:)

To be honest, before their giant fight, she had always imagined Sakura and Shikamaru ending up together. They were really alike, and Sakura was a smart girl once she got over the whole large forehead thing. But no, she just had to go and drive a wedge between them. After all those years of Ino protecting her from Ami and her posse, Sakura just broke their friendship. Over Sasuke. Ino had been willing to compromise and set her up with Shikamaru. But no. Sakura refused to settle for anything less than Sasuke.

Maybe it was kind of her fault, too. She didn't blame Sakura for wanting to get out under her shadow and find her own way. And she didn't blame Sakura for wanting what she thought to be the best guy to herself. She just wished that they didn't have to become enemies to do it. Maybe a few years down, when times had changed and they got a bit more mature, they'd be able to negotiate over this whole thing again.

Dealing with boys was such hard work.

Ino sighed as she pushed another practice book problem at Naruto. How he made it past first grade she didn't know. He still had trouble reading kanji and performing basic arithmetic – two things that were absolutely required in order to master more complicated jutsu theory later on. Glancing back at Naruto's paper, she realized that he had put as three times four as eighteen.

"You did it wrong!" she yelled. "Four plus four is eight plus four is twelve! It's twelve, not eighteen! Three times six is eighteen!"

"Ugh, okay, okay!" Naruto winced, hastily fixing his answer. "You don't have to bite my head off! Sheesh, what are you, my mother?"

Ino was about to retort to that, when she remembered that Naruto didn't have a mother. Then she realized that everything she knew about reading and writing and math, her mother had taught her. Much of what she learned in the Academy, she had already learned at home beforehand. The Academy spent very little, if any, time on basic reading and writing. When you walked into that classroom, and they started jumping into all that theory and history, they expected you to know all that stuff on your own. And Naruto, of course, knew none of that, because no one had been there for him. No wonder he had so much trouble paying attention. He didn't understand any of the things they were throwing at him.

Now she felt bad for yelling at him all the time.

"…Yeah. That's right. I am your mother," she told him with finality. "NOW BUCKLE DOWN, MISTER! BECAUSE I WON'T HAVE YOU DRAGGING DOWN OUR TEAM JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW THAT THREE TIMES FOUR IS TWELVE!"

"GAAAAHHHH! I'M SORRRYYYY!" Naruto wailed.

On the other hand, if that was the only way to get him to concentrate on the important stuff, then she'd yell at him all she wanted.

She was sure that if Naruto's mother, whoever she was, had been alive, she'd be yelling at him just as much, too.

A bar in downtown Konoha, that night

There wasn't anything particularly special about this place, but it was one of the two favorite hangouts of the Jonin circle of Konoha anyway. Dubbed The Rusty Kunai in faded red paint, the man who ran it apparently was a veteran who had been disabled in the Third Secret War, and as such fellow shinobi and their friends often came by to pay their respects. Since today had been Genin Testing Day, it meant that the place was a bit more crowded than usual, as the younger Chunin and Jonin who hadn't been a part of the Third War dropped by as well to catch up on the latest gossip.

Iruka Umino was one of them. The final team assignments weren't due until tomorrow, and he was dying to know if little Naruto had passed. Apparently the man he had unwittingly assigned the poor kid to was the most ruthless tester of all of them. He hoped that they were all right, though. If what Genma had said was true, then maybe he had a slight advantage. Unless Kakashi Hatake had requested the boy for less-than-friendly reasons.

But no. No self-respecting shinobi would stoop so low as to get petty revenge on a Genin, even if he was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, right? (He tried not to think of Mizuki.)

Speaking of which, the man had entered the bar now, his tall shock of silver scarecrow-puff clearly standing out against the rest of the dark-haired crowd.

"Hey, Kakashi! How was it?" Asuma Sarutobi – the Sandaime's son; he knew that – asked.

Kakashi shrugged, and there was a collective disappointed groan from the mass of people.

"Oh, not again, Hatake? That makes this, what, the fifth team you've failed?"

Iruka's heart sunk.

"They passed," Kakashi corrected him, sliding onto a stool, and, in the process, pushing Iruka off of it. Slightly stunned at first, and then indignant, he stood up with a disgruntled huff and attempted to reclaim his seat, only to be stopped by another regular.

"This the first time you've been here, kid?"

"One, I have a name, and two, what's it to you?"

"Look, that guy's stolen my seat before, too. Don't bother. It's not going to work. Once he's planted his ass on something he'll be superglued to it until he decides otherwise."

Asuma snickered. Iruka gaped. Kakashi ignored him.

WHAT SORT OF JERK WAS THIS GUY?

The wide-eyed Chunin glanced around the room, trying to find somewhere else to sit, only to realize that there were no empty seats. Probably the reason why Naruto's new teacher had edged him off his own in the first place. He hoped Naruto wouldn't be learning any bad habits from this guy anytime soon. Come to think of it, he actually knew him from his mission reports. Yes, that was right! Kakashi Hatake – the guy who always turned in his mission reports at least three days late and purposefully made them nigh-illegible!

Did this guy exist solely for the purpose of making other people angry?

"Contrary to popular belief," the man interrupted, "I actually don't exist solely for the purpose of making other people angry."

Before Iruka could wrap his mind around that, Asuma Sarutobi had interrupted with a highly sarcastic, "Really, now?"

"Oh, all right," Hatake admitted. "Just most of the time. Which, mind you, is extremely different from all the time."

"Extremely different? Really?"

"Yes. Extremely different. For example: would you rather your heart was beating all the time, or just most of the time?"

"All right. You've got a point there."

"Wait, sorry – did you say you passed a team?" Genma interjected, getting them back on topic. At that moment, the little circles of gossiping shinobi suddenly all merged into one giant conglomerate, centered on their group.

Wait – so Naruto had passed?

"Yep," Kakashi answered them, lifting a bowl of sake to his lips. The atmosphere in the room tensed. Then, just before he was about to take a sip, he paused and lowered the bowl to the collective disappointment of everyone in the room to add, "They actually figured out the trick." He lifted the bowl to his lips again, then paused, and brought it back down. "And they almost got the bells, too." Finally, he reached for his mask, while bringing the bowl up at the same time – before letting go and bringing the bowl back down –

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" some purple-haired lady in a tan trench coat screamed. She smashed something on the ground – was that a camera? – and stalked out of the bar, fuming.

"What's going on?" Iruka mouthed to a scarred man standing next to him.

"Mask," the man mouthed back. Iruka raised an eyebrow. The man clarified, "Everyone wants to know what's underneath it, but all he ever does is dick around and lead us on."

Iruka raised an eyebrow and then returned to his drink. Whatever. I don't care – and paused mid-thought, only to realize that all of a sudden, he was curious now…and damn it! He hadn't had a problem with any of that before until someone had mentioned to him that –

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

If you like my writing, support me in Parteon!Advance chapter are available there.

Read the complete novel in PDF, available at my Patreon Store!

🎯patreon.com/Jesse_Smith🎯