Wakashudo

Summoning was by far the most difficult and annoying technique Naruto had ever tried to learn. At least when he had practiced the clone technique he didn't have to keep biting his thumb. Really, why couldn't the fur ball back off and let him bleed for a while. He was lucky if he was able to make three attempts at summoning before he ran out of blood and had to bite himself again.

It wouldn't be so bad if he felt like he was actually making progress, but he wasn't even summoning larger tadpoles yet. The old pervert had told him to knock off for the day and he had begrudgingly agreed only after he had vanished without a trace. Why couldn't he stop looking at the girls for a few minutes and help him out. It was almost enough to make him wish that he stuck with the closet pervert.

Okay, the first time they had met he had stared at him with those eyes that he hated so much, but this time he had been different. His sensei seemed to respect him and he had been Konohamaru's private tutor so he had to know what he was talking about. Then again, he had been knocked out easily and Naruto was pretty sure that most of the old perverts boasts were just that.

With an effort, he pushed those thoughts away, his training troubles didn't matter right now. He had a personal mission that was as important as passing the Chunin exam and that was helping Konohamaru become the best ninja he could. That would show the Hokage that he had not been wrong to place his faith in him. Now, if he could only find the brat.

It shouldn't be this hard. After all, Konohamaru always seemed to find him without much trouble. Naruto decided he was going to check one more spot and if he wasn't there he would try his house again. He knew that his two friends always had to go home for dinner at the same time every day and Konohamaru generally went home if he wasn't with them.

A small clearing came into view through the trees and he could see the bright yellow of Konohamaru's favorite shirt. The young Jinchuriki smiled to himself as he saw that the other two were still with him. The three of them seem to be engrossed in the game that Moegi had given Konohamaru for his birthday so he was able to approach unnoticed.

“Hey,” Naruto called out when he was only a few feet away.

Turning, Moegi and Udon smiled, surprised and happy to see him. Konohamaru, in comparison, dropped the dart he had in his hand and ran towards him. For a moment, Naruto thought Konohamaru was going to hug him but he stopped short and wrapped his arms around himself and smiled.

“I haven't seen you guys in a while,” Naruto said after a minute of silence.

“Grandpa said we shouldn't bother you until the exam is over,” Konohamaru spoke looking down, depressed.

Naruto didn't understand why the Third would say that but he dismissed it like he generally did with anything that confused him. “My trainings done for the day and I was bored so I went looking for you guys.”

“So do you want to play?” Udon spoke up in his nasally voice.

The second he nodded Moegi shouted, “Naruto is on my team.”

“No he's not,” Konohamaru said in an unexpected whiny voice.

“I called him and you're really good at this game anyways.”

“Yeah but he was my friend first.”

The blonde watched the argument for a second, amused. When he had been their age most of the kids had argued who had to take him on their team. The turnaround was nice, but he did want to see if he could pull off his plan today. “Sorry Konohamaru but Moegi did call it.” He stepped around his young friend to stand next to her, missing the hurt look he gave him. “So what are the rules?”

She smiled and held up what looked like an oversized dart. “You need to throw this into one of those circles out there,” she pointed about twenty feet in front of her. “If it lands in the blue circle you get one point and if it lands in the smaller red you get two points. The first team that gets twenty-one wins.”

Naruto silently thanked his good fortune, this was a pretty good set up. “It kind of reminds me of that game that I came up with for shuriken practice.” He told himself it wasn't really a lie, he had come up with the game, if only a few days ago.

“Game?” Moegi questioned.

“Yeah, it was something I came up with during practice one day. Do you want me to show you instead of playing this?”

The three were quiet and he wondered if he had screwed up again. After talking with Sakura in the forest, he realized that just having Konohamaru read notes was a bad idea. He hadn't liked it when Iruka had him study that way and Konohamaru was a lot like him after all.

“We're not supposed to practice with weapons unless a superior is watching us.” Udon finally spoke up.

Naruto mentally kicked himself, remembering that was a rule for the first-year. Then he remembered that he was a superior. Tapping his Hitai-ate he said, “I'm a superior.”

“Works for me.” Konohamaru chirped with a grin.

With his endorsement, the other two seemed to come around and all three eagerly followed him. Naruto picked out a tree about the size of a human torso, which was the standard target size, and drew eight shuriken. Taking a deep breath, and hoping his plan was going to work, he started throwing. The first two hit high and about a hands length apart. The next five were thrown in quicker succession, forming an arc beneath the first two and the last was thrown dead center.

“Cool.” Konohamaru said grinning.

“Awesome.” Udon added before sniffing.

“It's a face.” Moegi exclaimed shocked..

“Who wants to try?” Naruto asked, pleased with their reactions.

Konohamaru was the first to volunteer, which was no surprise. He was actually pretty good. As in, all the shuriken hit the tree although the nose was in the middle of his forehead and the mouth was lopsided. He immediately wanted to try again, which was what the blonde was hoping for but he gave the shuriken to Udon.

The boy with the perpetually runny nose was worse than Konohamaru, but at least they all hit the tree, though even with his ample imagination, Naruto couldn't make a face out of the pattern. Moegi was last, but when he tried to give her the weapons she shook her head and stepped away. “What's wrong? You know how to use them.”

She didn't say anything but Konohamaru supplied the answer. “Moegi is one of the worst in the class.”

The little girl's face turned red and she clenched her fists. “Well, we all can't have private tutors.”

“Hey, don't get angry just because I'm better than you.”

Naruto, who was starting to see his plans go up in smoke, tried to interrupt them. “Hey, it's okay, I used to be at the bottom of the class and now I can kick any of their asses.” He held out a shuriken, “Give it a try.”

The orange haired girl took the weapon and after a moment of hesitation she flung it overhand. It missed by a good margin. “See,” she shouted “I'm just no good at throwing weapons.”

The blonde had watched her closely and he saw an echo of himself in her. He had been pretty bad at first but eventually he had got it. “You're letting it go too early. When you throw it overhand you want to let it go on the way down from your arc. Come on, let me show you.”

For the next twenty minutes, Konohamaru and Udon competed to see who could make the best face while he and Moegi worked on her throwing. By the time she had to go home, she was consistently hitting the target. Her problem was mostly timing and it was actually fairly easy to fix. If the teachers at the Academy could have spent more than a few minutes with each student they would've been able to fix the problem just as easily.

Moegi left ecstatic that she could show off the next time the class had shuriken practice. Judging by how much shouting Udon and Konohamaru had done, they had fun too, and more importantly, got some extra practice in. As Naruto watched them leave he had to admit that his plan had only partly worked, but helping Moegi had been nice and if Konohamaru wasn't careful, she might surpass him.

Naruto felt a hand come around and rest on his inner thigh as a weight pressed against his body. Looking down, he saw Konohamaru grinning up at him. “That was fun, but do you want to go back to your place?”

The genin shifted uncomfortably, still remembering the dream he had almost a week ago now. “I'm kind of tired.” As Konohamaru's grin faded he added, “Why don't we just get a bowl of Ramen at Ichiraku, my treat?”

“Sure.” Konohamaru replied.

Naruto helped him pick up his game before they left. “Hey, boss can I ask you a question?” The older boy grunted in the affirmative. “You said that the lawn darts reminded you of that face game. How? I don't see it.”

The would-be teacher grimaced to himself and admitted he had to come up with better cover stories.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Day ten of Naruto’s playing for training program found him crouched in the woods, disguised as a rock. He was playing a variation on the ninja game. Ordinarily, they would split into two teams and one would hunt and the other would hide. In this version, he hid and then transformed himself into something while the Konohamaru core tried to find him.

He figured it was the best way for them to practice detecting a henge. His disguise wasn't perfect, but he didn't want it to be. Unlike the first time he had come across one in a battle, he wanted them to have a chance of detecting it. The blonde thought it was one of his better ideas but he hadn't realized how long he might have to hold the transformation before being found. It had to be going on five minutes and he was starting to become tired.

A rustle of leaves drew his attention back to his current circumstances. The sound had come from behind him and despite wanting to be found, he felt a little nervous. How had those Demon Brothers handled the tension, he thought, remembering his first real battle.

As the sounds came closer, he concentrated on thinking rock like thoughts, but realized he had no idea what a rock might think. The steps came closer and then they suddenly stopped and he could imagine one of the trio was staring down at him. After a moment, a paper shuriken bounced off the back of his head. “Gotcha Naruto,” It was Udon.

“You got me,” he said holding the transformation until he heard the other two gather around, letting them get a good look at him. Then, with a poof of smoke, he was his regular orange self again. “How did you know it was me?”

Udon shifted nervously at being the center of attention. “Well, there aren't many rocks around here and you were the wrong color for the ones that are.”

“You didn't have any moss on you either.” Moegi chimed in.

Naruto’s grin faltered. He had intended the first two mistakes, but not the third. Surreptitiously looking at some of the trees, he noticed moss was growing on them. Stupid mistake, he made a mental note to reread those notes of Sakura. “Yeah.” just because he screwed up didn't mean he was going to admit to it.

“Naruto,” Udon sniffed loudly before continuing. “They just started teaching us how to transform at the Academy, but would a ninja actually use that in battle.”

“Of course they would. On my first mission out of the village two ninja tried to ambush my team by disguising themselves as a puddle, but it hadn't rained in days so my sensei saw through it right away.” He scratched the back of his head, no reason to tell them that he had been fooled.

“So it can be used for ambushes, but is there anything else?” Moegi questioned.

“Well, last time I was fighting someone they used a dog.”

“A dog?” Konohamaru asked.

“Yeah,” he explained about animal companions, silently thankful that he had thought to read up on it through Sakura’s notes. Personally, he didn't remember that stuff being covered at the Academy but it had probably been one of those times he had not been paying attention. He thought about throwing in summoning, but figured he should keep that a secret until he could summon more than a tadpole with something that might be legs

“So, the three of us looked identical to each other and then he said he could tell us apart by smell. Then he hit me and I transformed into his dog. He was so confused that he turned and hit his actual partner.” He smiled, enjoying having the three’s complete attentions.

“Is it hard to learn?” Moegi asked hopefully. “Could you teach it to us? It would be really cool if the first time we tried to transform at the Academy it worked.”

Naruto thought for a second. He had taught Konohamaru the Sexy Technique which was a variation on the technique so he already knew how to do it. Then he had an idea, “Well, I could, but Konohamaru already knows how to do it.” His blue eyes drifted over to where Konohamaru was standing and after a few seconds he seemed to pick up on the suggestion.

“I can teach you it.” The little boy's eyes lit up with excitement.

Naruto didn't remember where he had heard it but somebody had once told him that teaching was the best way to master something. He had never really thought about it. However, the last few days had taught him one thing. If you're going to teach you had to know more than the basics. These three asked a lot of questions and even with the help of those notes he didn't always know the answers.

So, having Konohamaru teach something to his friends would help him master it and point out his own shortcomings like Naruto was. Besides, if Konohamaru ran into trouble he would help out since this was a skill he had down pat. What could go wrong?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

“Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu,” Naruto slammed his hand down and waited for the smoke to clear. Slowly it revealed a head, a set of legs, a set of hind legs and a tail! “No,” he shouted with the pent-up frustration of a thousand failures. He fell to his knees exhausted.

The Pervy Sage, giggling, drifted over. Before the blonde knew what he was doing, he had snatched up a nearby rock and was about to throw it at the back of his so-called teachers head, when he stopped himself. Throwing a rock at the back of a teachers head, no matter how deserving, wasn't a good example to set and he had been trying to act like a good role model even when Konohamaru wasn't around. Instead, he tossed the rock into the stream.

After a moment of thought, he grinned to himself. Throwing a rock wasn't respectable behavior but neither was peeping on girls. Cupping his hand over his mouth he shouted, “Hey, Pervy Sage, stop looking at those girls swimming and help me with my training!”

There were several squeals from the girls followed by a brief hail of projectiles. His teacher dodged but a bottle of suntan lotion bounced off his head anyways. After a moment, the girls had fled and the white-haired man turned to face him tears in his eyes. “That was mean. Those girls probably won't come back here tomorrow and I won't be able to do any of my research.”

“Serves you right for ogling them all day and not helping your student.” Naruto said crossing his arms, feeling superior.

“And what do you want me to help you with? I've told you everything you need to know.”

The blonde snorted at that, but in truth, he didn't really know of any questions he could ask. Then, he thought about the Konohamaru core, what questions would they ask him? “Where do these things come from anyways?”

“The toads,” Jiraiya asked. “You've been doing this for nearly twenty days and you just got around to thinking about that?”

“Do you even know?” Naruto snapped.

“The toads come from Mount Myoboku, though other summoned creatures come from other places.”

“Can somebody have more than one contract with different summons?”

The gray-haired man looked at him suspiciously but answered, “With the toads, yes, and most other contracts, but there are a few that are exclusive. I only have the one, but one of my old teammates had at least two that I know of.”

The blonde thought for a second and then he remembered something from the preliminaries. “I saw this girl a little older then me. She's summoned a bunch of weapons from a scroll. How did she do that?”

“That's a little different from what you're learning. You see, she prepared those scrolls ahead of time. Most of the time, those type of scrolls respond to anyone. It's not uncommon for a ninja to carry a scroll that carries weapons or medical supplies with them, just in case.”

“So, if I found a summoning contract, all I might get from it is a bunch of kunai?” That was a little weird he thought.

“Well, there are a few summoning contracts that allow you to summon a special object. However, if you do find a contract, research it before you sign it. You might only get one use out of them and sometimes a summons demand a price. Like your life.”

That little piece of information made Naruto nervous, “But not the toads right?”

The gray-haired man shook his head no, and seemed to consider his student for a second. “You're right, this training is not doing it for you. There is another method but it's dangerous and you might not survive, are you up for it?”

“I'm going to be the next Hokage. I can take anything you can throw at me.” Despite his words he was a little nervous at how serious the pervert was acting.

“Good, meet me here tomorrow.” He turned to walk away but paused, “If you have a girl you like, go spend some time with her and don't forget to give her a hug, it might be your last chance.”

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Naruto paced nervously outside of the Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Sakura had said she would meet him here, but what was taking her so long? She said she would only be a few minutes but what if she was just blowing him off? No, she was too nice to do that. Maybe he should trace the path to her house to see if something was holding her up, but then he might miss her. He started to pull at his hair, decisions, too many decisions.

“Naruto are you okay?”

He spun to face the owner of the beautiful voice, “Sakura. Yeah, I'm fine. I just thought you were going to come from that direction.” He pointed stupidly and then shook his head, “Never mind.”

“Okay,” his pink haired teammate eyed him suspiciously. “You said you wanted to talk to me about something important.”

“Yeah, let me buy you a bowl and we can talk.” He didn't like lying to her but it wasn't like she would've come if she knew what he was going to ask.

“Alright, but this is not a date.”

He nodded vigorously, more nervous than ever now. They sat down and ordered. Now that Naruto had her where he wanted her he found himself unable to ask the favor. Asking for a hug or even a kiss just seemed weird. Sure, he had done a lot of stuff with Konohamaru but that was just two friends messing around. It was different with girls. So, instead he talked about his three little friends. He talked about the games he played and what he had been teaching them or at least trying to.

“I'm surprised you're sticking with it.” she commented.

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked defensively.

“Well, it's just you weren't the best student in our class.” She stirred her noodles, “I used to think that was because you didn't try.”

Naruto was hurt at first, but he had to admit there was some truth to what she was saying. “We've all changed since we graduated.”

“I know.” She sounded so down that he was tempted to throw a friendly arm around her. “You, Ino, Sasuke and everyone else has become so much stronger. Sometimes I feel like,”

“Boss,” Konohamaru shouted from behind him.

The blonde spun on his stool slightly annoyed. He knew that Sakura was just about to say something important. Still, when he saw the three beaming faces he couldn't snap at them. “What do you three idiots want?”

Konohamaru looked at his two friends and took a step back so that all three of them were in a line facing Naruto. “We invented a new Jutsu and we want to show it to you. Ready guys?” Konohamaru asked, looking at his two teammates.

They nodded and all three shouted in unison, “Pudding Pudding Technique!” The three transformed into a trio of very well endowed, clothed women. After they struck a pose, they leaned forward, pushing their ample breasts together and asked, “What do you think Naruto sensei?”

The blonde leaned his back against the counter and concealed a smile with his hand, taking on a thinking pose. Clearly, it was a variation on the Sexy Jutsu and that was all right, but he was happier that they had called him sensei even if it was only a joke. Still, he took in the transformations themselves. They were pretty good. Clearly they had worked hard on them.

The breasts were the right shape and size. Their clothes seemed realistic and their faces were perfect, which had been something he had struggled with at their age. “Great work, but it's missing something. Maybe you should think about props or,” he broke off when he heard a snapping sound.

Sakura had turned to watch the demonstration and was not pleased. If Naruto had been anyone but himself, he would have been halfway across the village by now. Unfortunately, he was Naruto and even the snapped chopsticks didn't provide him with a clue.

“Naruto,” she emphasized each syllable, “what exactly have you been teaching these kids?”

The blonde being chased through the village had only become a rare sight in the recent months. The solitary girl chasing him was a novel twist on an old story. However, what was of more interest to the male onlookers were the three busty women following her. The mere sight of them caused every single straight male in the village to do a thorough, if fruitless, search of every nightclub, bar and single hang out there was in Konoha.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Naruto had a terrible deep dark secret that he kept from everyone. He knew if it ever got out he'd be ruthlessly mocked by his peers. That secret was, simply, after a long hard day he liked to take a long hot bath and today had certainly been hard. Between the summoning practice and Sakura chasing him, he was exhausted.

Sure, he liked Hot Springs too, but there was something to the privacy of a bathtub that made him enjoy them more and besides, you could add bubbles to it. Those were probably what he liked most about taking a bath. The way the bubbles tickled as they popped in his hand or the way you could blow them around. Whenever he added the mixture into the tub, he wouldn't leave until he popped every one of them.

As the tub filled, the young teen searched for the bubble bath, but the bottle was empty. He mentally put it on the list of stuff to buy. Stripping off his clothes, he slipped into the tub, allowing the hot water to relax his muscles. Laying back and closing his eyes, Naruto wondered what the Pervy Sage was going to have him do tomorrow. It was supposed to be dangerous, but he was pretty sure the pervert was just trying to scare him. He pushed his worries away, he was awesome, he could handle it.

He felt himself starting to fall asleep, which had happened before, while he was still in the tub. One time he had woken up hour’s later, cold from the water and shriveled as a raisin. Another time he almost drowned. Despite those two unpleasant experiences he just couldn't muster up enough energy to climb out of the tub. The water was so nice and warm, and a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt.

The young ninja was about to fall asleep when he heard his apartment door close. The sound made him sit up and he called groggily, “Konohamaru?”

A second later his young friend poked his head around the door and said, “Hi.”

Naruto collapsed back into the tub and closed his eyes. “What do you want?” When he didn’t receive an immediate answer he cracked an eye open. The boy was just standing in the doorway. He was starting to feel a little worried, “Hey, is something wrong?”

Konohamaru was just staring at his feet when he suddenly looked up and said, “Do you like Moegi and Udon more than me?”

“What?” The genin was used to not understanding things, but he had been going out of his way to play with Konohamaru, so how his friend could ever draw such a conclusion was completely baffling. “How could you think that?”

“Well, we haven't been doing stuff together and I thought maybe you just didn't like me anymore.”

“Konohamaru, I play with you about every day.”

“No, we haven't done, you know, that stuff from the book. I know I didn't do a good job last time, but I've been thinking about it and I think I can do better.” He took several steps toward him, his bare feet popping against the tile.

Naruto tried to cover himself, but realized there wasn't anything his friend hadn't already seen. “It's not like that. It's just,” the blonde paused, not knowing what to say. Sure, he could tell Konohamaru he had a dream about him that he found disturbing, but he wanted to keep that shame a secret. “I just don't want to hurt you.”

His small friend laughed, kneeling next to the tub. “You wouldn't hurt me Naruto.” Without warning, Konohamaru reached into the tub grabbed his shaft and gave it a squeeze. “Is that why you always came up with an excuse when I asked to come back to your place?”

“Sort of,” Naruto said, gasping. For almost three weeks he had only felt his own hand down there and had almost forgotten how good it was with a partner.

Konohamaru let his member go and started to play with his pubic hair, twirling it around his ring finger. “I thought it was something I did.”

Naruto grabbed the younger boy’s hand and pulled it away. “I'm sorry.”

His small friend grinned, his missing tooth showing predominantly, “Does that mean you want to do something now?”

“Don't you need to be getting home soon?”

The young boy shook his head. “The old man is working late and he said he might not come home until one or two in the morning.”

“And nobody's waiting there for you?”

“Uncle Asuma is on a mission.” He perked up unexpectedly, “It has to be important because one of his students is taking the exam too, just like you.”

Naruto almost ruffled his hair, but remembered his hands were wet. Still, the idea of Konohamaru spending the night alone in that mansion was kind of depressing. Then he remembered the paper sparrow he had.. “Do you want to spend the night here?”

“I'd like to but grandpa always checks on me when he gets home, even if I'm already asleep. I'd get in big trouble if I wasn't there.”

The older boy smiled gently, “No you won't. Your grandpa said it was okay anytime as long as I tell him. He even gave me a paper sparrow to contact him with.”

“Really?” the boy side disbelievingly but wanting to believe.

Naruto nodded, “Go get it and I'll send it off.”

The small boy stood to leave but stopped, “I left my pajamas at home.”

“You can borrow one of my shirts and sleep in your boxers. I've done that on missions sometimes.” Actually, he thought to himself, he only had to do that once when he had spilled water on himself after he had already changed his clothes.

The Thirds only grandson darted out of the room. Naruto used that time to get out of the tub and change into his own pajamas. He took Konohamaru to the window when he released the bird. Not knowing how much chakra to put into it, he gave it his all and the thing flew like a hummingbird. He threw his friend a shirt that was so big it came down to his small knees. Pulling the covers back, he climbed into bed.

“Can we do something tonight?”

Naruto said, “Not tonight, I'm really tired and I have some serious training tomorrow. I promise next time.”

Konohamaru nodded dejectedly, climbing into bed with him. It took them a minute for both of them to find comfortable positions, but as soon as they did, Naruto nodded off. His bedmate was less tired and simply enjoyed being so close to the ninja he looked up to so much. Then an evil thought crossed his mind and his hand started to drift down to his idols favorite toy.