A Day in the Life...

Chapter 4 - A Day in the Life...

"Time!" Sakura called out as Naruto rounded the track outside of the school for the fourth time, "And that's 2 minutes, 45 seconds."

"Damn it!" Naruto shouted with his hands on top of his head as he took a bunch of deep breaths showing a bit of exhaustion, "I need to get faster." He said, huffing and puffing before setting himself back down in a running stance to prepare to run again, "Mark me Sakura-chan, I'm breaking 2 minutes and 30 seconds this time, dattebayo!"

Instead of calling him out to let him run his laps again, Sakura just stripped the vest with the parachute and the weights attached from his back and held it up, "Naruto it's been twenty minutes and you're running a full mile in under two minutes and thirty seconds consistently."

"I've got to keep trying to get better at what I'm good at Sakura-chan." Naruto said as he pushed himself up and stretched his legs out, "The tournament I'm entering is at the start of the year and it's past the middle of October. I've got to get the skills I have airtight."

"The under two minutes one you ran last week was a total anomaly, you'll never break that again." Sakura looked at the vest in her hands distastefully, "Not again while you're wearing this thing anyway." She threw it aside and it formed a small crater and a dust cloud upon hitting the ground, "How'd coach even let you mess that resistance vest up the way you did anyway?"

"Because the parachute wasn't enough to slow me down too much by itself." Naruto said as he and Sakura went back to join their other friends in gym class. With a grin Naruto walked past many of the male students that had stopped to gawk at the freshman running faster than any other recorded person even with a parachute on his back, "In case you were wondering, that's what speed looks like!"

Sakura rolled her eyes as Ibuki ran up to them from where she had been before, "Speed huh? You want to race me sometime? I bet I'm faster than you." She teased, poking him on the nose to set off his little temper that she had gotten used to pushing the buttons to by now.

"You want to race?" Naruto replied with a challenging grin after rubbing the spot on his nose where she poked it, "Bring it on, I'll leave you right in the dust Ibuki. I don't have the parachute and the weights on either so bring it."

"No, no, no, no, no." Sakura grabbed the shoulders of both ninja before they could take off running, "All I've been doing is watching someone faster than me run around a circle for 25 minutes. I'm not about to watch the two of you make me feel even slower. Why don't we ever play baseball during gym? Or why don't we ever just spar like normal? All Naruto ever wants to do during gym is run. Speed isn't everything you know."

A thumbs down came from Ibuki at that suggestion, "For a ninja speed is kind of important. And it's also because I hate baseball and we can never get enough people." A mischievous smirk crossed the young kunoichi's face, "Who wants to play baseball with a pair of ninja that can jump fifteen feet in the air and steal bases without needing to get a jump on the pitcher? You're not very nice with the homeruns either Sakura-chan." She started looking around for someone else though, "I haven't seen Kei-chan all period. Where's she?"

"Kei-chan found a way to get herself excused from gym for outside activities." Sakura said, "Something about her allergies. Didn't know she had any really." Her eyes then widened in realization, "Wait, Kei-chan doesn't have allergies at all. But she had a signed note from a doctor and her mother."

"What?" Naruto said abruptly without being prompted, "I didn't forge Kei's mom's signature and a fake doctor signature because she gave me a coupon for six months free ramen. You're crazy Sakura-chan." Naruto said with a sheepish grin.

"I didn't say anything about you…" Sakura gave Naruto a reprimanding stare that had him sweating bullets until she sighed and ran a hand over her own forehead, "What am I going to do with you Naruto? You're going to get yourself into some serious trouble one day."

Ibuki rolled her eyes and pointed a thumb at Naruto, "Once again; he's a ninja Sakura-chan. We do things that would get us in trouble if we get caught… so we just don't get caught. Kei-chan is smart enough to know better than to say anything about it."

"Well when I do get caught one day you can tell me that you told me so and I'll shut up about it." Naruto said to Sakura as they made it inside and split up to head to their separate locker rooms for boys and girls, "See you guys later." With that, Naruto went into the boy's locker room and went right to his locker to change out of gym clothes back into his uniform.

"Hey, Uzumaki is in the top fifty fighters in Japan after the new polls went out."

"Wasn't he barely breaking number 75 during the last poll?"

"Yeah, but there's a story going out that he called out Edmond Honda and fought his way through an entire stable of sumo wrestlers just to beat Honda himself."

"Then I heard he broke his arms to teach him a lesson for not coming out and fighting him directly."

Naruto palmed his face and shook his head, 'What a stupid rumor? A whole stable full of sumo wrestlers?' He seriously hated the dirt sheet aspect of that website, as when confirmed fight specs were minimal there would be tons of speculation over what happened during them and the posters on the site had a serious case of overactive imaginations.

"I heard he won that fight then got down on one knee to propose to some girl right there on the spot!"

"That dog! He hangs out with the strongest girl in school, her cute friend, and the new girl too!"

And that was all he wanted to hear out of the peanut gallery, "I didn't propose to Karin! My fucking back was killing me and I kneeled down!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, getting everyone in the locker room to stop changing and stare at him. Guys even started looking at him from over their lockers in other rows making Naruto feel self-conscious. He quickly changed his clothes and hastily made his way out of the locker room before something weird happened.

His last few weeks had been spent by him trying to hone his taijutsu better against a wide variety of sparring partners; Sakura as a base and the main one he trained against due to their proximity, Ibuki when he wanted to fight someone that could match speed with him, Batsu when he wanted a fight that would inevitably degenerate into a brawl. He was never going to have dojo-refined technique, but he could still stand to clean up his fighting style better to minimize damage. Who knew when he'd fight someone that could potentially punish him like E. Honda again?

An absentminded Naruto walked out of the boys' locker room and did not notice Ibuki hanging from the ceiling directly above the door waiting on him to walk out, a part of a game they played to see if they could sneak attack the other and then make sure the other didn't get them back in response. And this is when she dropped from the ceiling directly landing on his back and flattening him right to the ground.

"Oh come on, that wasn't even fun." Ibuki said as she sat on his back, her tanuki which had taken up the practice of hiding itself during school hours chewing on his ankle at the same time, "You weren't even trying that time. You're so lucky I wasn't an actual assassin." Ibuki pouted as she stood up and allowed Naruto back up off of the ground.

"Ow." Naruto mumbled before pulling himself up off of the floor, wiping the dirt and dust bunnies from his face, "Sorry. Just thinking about my fights." He said as he picked Don off of his ankle by the scruff of his neck and threw him at his fellow ninja.

Ibuki caught Don who scrambled up her shoulder and let out a sigh at hearing Naruto's ever-present problem. She liked to help, that much was true, but she came to school in order to not be a ninja for a while. That was really counter-productive when Naruto asked her to spar afterschool sometimes, "You need to take a rest for a bit. Kanzuki-san hasn't sent you on any fights in a while so you don't have to be on edge all the time preparing for your tournament. Take a break."

"Doing what?"

"Anything! Anything fun! Anything relaxing!" Ibuki shouted at him as they began to walk outside of the school to go home for the day, "What do you do when you aren't working or training?"

It took Naruto a second to think about it as it wasn't a straightforward question at all. He wanted to say hanging out with such and such, but no matter who he would more than likely bring up it usually turned into either a training session, a tagalong on a job, or somehow they'd wind up getting into some kind of fight somewhere. It was a vicious cycle of sorts.

Finally he came up with an answer that he felt was appropriate for the situation at hand, "Sleep and go to the arcade."

"When was the last time you went to the arcade… as boring as even that sounds?"

"Four weeks?"

Upon receiving that half-assed response from Naruto, Ibuki just shook her head, ponytail swishing as she gestured for Naruto to follow her outside where Sakura and Kei were waiting on them, "Okay, I think we should call an intervention. Naruto doesn't know how to relax."

"I do too." Naruto responded, sounding quite offended.

"No you don't. It's why you suck at meditating." Ibuki retorted getting a glowering stare from Naruto, "Don't give me that look, it's true. You don't know how to sit still for long enough to get anything out of it. You're going to burn out like I did one of these days."

"She's right Naruto." Added Sakura who found Naruto's frown fixated on her from that point, "You're busy all the time. Ever since I've known you, all you do is just push, push, push. You never give yourself any real down time. Kids aren't supposed to do that."

"Hello!" Ibuki pointed at herself, referencing her own repeated, nonstop training since youth.

"I said they aren't supposed to." Clarified the brown-haired female fighter, "And Ibuki-chan is right. You need to do something calming every once in a while."

"Oh that is such a load of crap Sakura-chan." Naruto said, not paying this conversation much mind at all, "That's like the pot calling the fucking kettle black. You train every single goddamn day… just as hard as I do! When I go home you're still training!"

"I've got to train harder than you because I'm playing catch-up with skills that aren't mine. If I don't do it you'll just run away ahead of me, and if you get that far ahead then how far ahead will-?" Sakura defended amicably before Naruto let out a loud groan and cut in.

"If you finish that sentence with anything involving Ryu, I'm going home." Naruto said, pointing to the rooftops that he just so happened to be prepared to take to in order to split, "Right now. I'm not even going to listen to the rest of what you have to say."

Sakura pouted, knowing that if he wasn't teasing her about Ryu he was probably not even going to listen to anything involving him. He was stubborn like a mule and if she did he probably would run off, "Fine. But this isn't about me, it's about you. Do something to chill out every once in a while instead of just working-."

"-Like go on a date or something!" Ibuki interjected again abruptly, "You're a decent looking guy Naruto. If you weren't so hyper-focused on fighting all the time you could probably get a cute girlfriend. A lot of girls don't really like the whole fighting aspect though just so you know."

"Sakura-chan likes fighters."

"No. She likes a fighter and that fighter isn't you. She doesn't like them all in general. Just one. And we all know who that is by now." The correction from Kei got a blush out of Sakura. When were they going to stop messing with her about how she liked Ryu? It had to get old at some point, didn't it? Maybe not, but from Kei too it was a little much, "But I think Ibuki-chan is right. You do need something like that to teach you to calm down a bit. Just a concerned friend speaking here."

In order to try and test this little theory, Sakura made sure she was in plain and clear sight of Naruto before suddenly reaching towards the top of her own head. Her proximity to Naruto upon doing so got him to react as if someone were about to strike at him; his body tensed and he turned towards her to prepare to intercept the blow that was never to be, "You see, you are on edge! Calm down! Nobody's going to hurt you here!"

"I like to blame whatever diet he was getting in America." Kei said, nodding to herself as if she had found some kind of point to be made, "I heard about all of the sugar and other things those kids get there all the time. Poor Naruto must have been cranked out of his mind before he moved here. It can't be natural for someone to be as wound up as he is all of the time."

"Okay sure… Let's go with that." Naruto said under his breath with a roll of his eyes. What else was he going to say? Would he say, 'No, it's actually an all-powerful source of energy inside of my body that wants to destroy all of mankind that keeps me hyper'? Because that would have just gone over great, he could just tell without even saying it, "I'm not that bad…"

"Yeah you are."

He needed more friends at that school that were guys and that weren't afraid of him. Getting triple-teamed in an argument by girls was not his specialty in fending off, especially when they all seemed to sync up and say something definite in unison. Clones couldn't fight that advantage off because it would be an artificial recreation and that just wasn't as effective at all.

Until then he was at the mercy and whim of the three girls as far as this dispute went, "Well fine." Naruto eventually conceded for his remaining sanity's sake, "So since you three are so smart, what do I do for dealing with this?" Maybe giving up would make this go easier?

"I like Ibuki-chan's idea." Sakura said, trying to contribute to solving the 'issue' at hand, "You should go on a date. Put those outfits I bought you for your birthday to good use and dress nice for once."

"A date with who?" Naruto responded skeptically, "Girls don't like me, and both of you have reasons for not doing it. That's the only reason I can think that I haven't gone on one with either of you before." Sakura had nothing but Ryu on the brain and would compare every boy to him, and Kei was his friend by way of Sakura at first. She and Naruto eventually became friends off of each other's own merits, but it was originally because Sakura was the link that joined them.

Of course, that question of who would possibly go do something with him ended with Ibuki swatting him on the back of his head, "You're really forgetting someone close to you aren't you? Think a little bit harder why don't you?"

Naruto blinked before squinting his eyes at her, "Ugh… if you're suggesting I go on a date with Karin you're out of your mind. She'd laugh right in my face, and then the whole thing would be miserable even if she did say yes. It's just not a good idea."

"No dummy I'm talking about me!"

"You?" Giving Ibuki a confused look, Sakura wondered just how that entire process would work out, "Wait, you always have to get back to your village after school. You only have like two hours to do anything afterwards before going home. How are you going to go on a date with Naruto?"

A sly look came over the kunoichi of the group's face at the question, "Oh, all it'll take is a bit of misdirection and cunning." She turned to Naruto with big doe eyes before speaking again, "You know that thing you do that can transform you into other people? How well can you make yourself look like me?"

XxX

(Two Days Later – Four Hours After School's End – Naruto's Apartment)

'This is either going be really good or really bad.' Naruto thought to himself as he stood in his bathroom and finished getting himself ready to go. How he let himself get talked into this stupid idea was beyond him. A date? He hadn't even thought of trying to date anyone ever, not since he had last tried to do so with the Sakura from his world. Seeing how hard that was with someone he had known for years he didn't really want to try it again in a place where no one knew him, 'I'm the best damn ninja alive! What's there to think about here? I can pull a date off.'

Prepared to carry that attitude into whatever awaited him that night, Naruto left his bathroom in more casual clothes than the school uniform he wore day in and day out only to jump back with a start upon finding someone in his room. Sighing in relief when he recognized the person sitting on his bed, Naruto put his hand on his heart to show the jolt he had received, "Ibuki, stop breaking into my house."

"But it's so easy." The rather cheerful sounding kunoichi said, sitting with one leg crossed over the other on Naruto's bed, "And there's no way I was going to wait outside for you."

"…You didn't have to do that either." Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked her over. She still had her hair up in its usual manner, but she wore a black evening dress and a dark blue jacket over top of it. On her feet she had black wrap-around dress shoes and looked very good, as she must have known because she smirked when she caught him staring, "Don't give me that look. I thought we were supposed to meet up downtown after you got my clone into place."

Ibuki hopped off of the bed with an excited expression on her face, "I couldn't wait. And it was easy getting your clone to the village. All I had to do was hold his hand while I had him blindfolded so that he didn't see where it was. It'll be so easy, all your clone has to do is act like me until I can sneak back in. See? Easy." Ibuki grabbed him by his arm and started to drag him out of the apartment, "Come on, let's go!"

XxX

(Meanwhile – Ibuki's Unnamed Ninja Village)

An Ibuki-Henged Naruto Kage Bunshin sat in her room wearing her ninja clothes and staring at its surroundings. Ibuki had taken the clone's blindfold off once they reached the outskirts of the village and gave it directions before taking off back to Aohura City which would have taken her another hour or so to return to.

The place reminded him a bit of Konoha except that the buildings were more of the classical variety than the sprawling city setup that Konoha had. It still had tons of trees and nature, with people moving about at high speeds all around him.

It made him feel a bit like he was at home.

But he had to remember that there were no headbands to distinguish who was a ninja… because everybody was a ninja. He stayed on edge for most of the time until he made it to Ibuki's place of residence with other students under a particular teacher and got to her room.

"This place is actually kind of cool." Naruto in Ibuki's form and voice admitted to Don as the tanuki lay on the bed, seemingly not caring one way or the other about anything, "I can see how it would drive her nuts after a while though." Living in the cities of this world kind of got Naruto used to the amenities that came with such an experience. While he didn't really watch TV or use the internet too often there were still tons of things this world had that he did not in his own. Imagine being Ibuki and knowing that those things existed but not being able to get to them.

The clone certainly hoped that the boss was able to show her a good time tonight for both of their sakes.

But for the time being, the clone was bored. Very, very bored. With no knowledge of what there was to do for kicks in this village it had nowhere to go but to Ibuki's room where it planned on staying to minimize the risk of being discovered as fake.

Not really the most exciting way to spend time in a ninja village for the first time in over three years, but one would take what one could get.

"I guess she was right when she said that all they do around here is train." Naruto's clone said to Don but mostly to itself before looking over Ibuki's form that he had Henged himself into, "Hmm." The clone said inquisitively as if it were pondering over the merits and ethics of its next actions before shrugging and placing both hands on Ibuki's chest, more or less groping itself, "Man Ibuki is firm." All the training was what the clone assumed. It certainly did her body good.

In response, Don cracked an eye from his attempted slumber and growled at Naruto-clone for besmirching his owner's form with his grubby hands.

"Oh whatever you stupid rat." Naruto said, still getting a good feel of what Ibuki felt like, "You do worse stuff every day with Ibuki, Kei, and Sakura-chan just because you're an animal. At least this is technically my body." He could swear the tanuki smirked at him with a gleam in its eye when he brought up the bountiful chest hugs that it got from girls every single day just for being furry and cute, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

While Naruto-clone continued to fondle the form that it had transformed into and commit it to memory for his creator's sake, a knock came at Ibuki's door that startled the incognito doppelganger. Almost jumping off of Ibuki's bed in surprise, it regained its composure to salvage the situation, "Uh, yes? Who's there?"

"Ibuki-chan? Are you alright? You haven't come out at all since you came back from school, is everything okay?"

The voice of a male the age of Ibuki and Naruto came from the other side of her door and Naruto-clone quickly responded in Ibuki's stead, "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that the trip back from Aohura City was a bit of a killer today. I think I'll turn in early for the night."

"…Okay. But we've got to get through with evening training first. Come on."

Naruto-clone blanched. Ibuki didn't say anything about evening training, she just said that he had to be her right down to the letter… and maybe one could construe that with keeping up her training schedule as well.

Fine. It was better than sitting in the room all night waiting for the real Ibuki to show back up just so that it could dispel… and maybe it'd be fun to see just what kind of training Ibuki did regularly, "Sure. I'll be right out in a moment."

"Just don't be late okay? Sanjou-sensei's not the most patient guy."

"Trust me, I know." Naruto said in Ibuki's form before getting up out of the bed amid the snickers of Don, "Oh shush up damn you."

XxX

(With Naruto and Ibuki – Aohura City – Outside of a Movie Theater)

The first thing that Naruto could think of to do was something simple, like just take Ibuki to a movie. Rather lame, but he had never really been on a date before and assumed that would be the obvious thing to do; it was entertaining and it gave him at least an hour and a half to think of something else for them to do.

She didn't seem to find it a copout course of action though, as Ibuki had thought it a great idea and took to the whole thing with gusto. She clearly wasn't very hard to please and that made for a very enjoyable start to the date.

"Oh that's just impossible." Ibuki said, hanging off of Naruto's arm as they exited the theater. The movie they went to see was some movie with a giant monster out to destroy a large city, which led to the conversation the two were having, "There's no way that's true."

"It's really the truth." Naruto assured her with a big grin on his face, "I summoned this big, big toad before out of thin air, bigger than that stupid monster in the movie. I can't do it anymore… I've tried. But I used to be able to. Is it that hard to believe?"

"Yeah, it is." Laughed Ibuki with a bright lift to her voice, "You can do a lot of weird things like make copies of yourself and turn into other people, but giant super-toads? I think I'd be too scared to believe it even if I did see it. But anyway what's next?"

Naruto had taken the time to actually think about it while they were watching the movie and came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter what he thought would be fun. From the way she seemed to just enjoy being in the theater, Ibuki would probably like anything that they did, so in the end he had his own thought of what to do, "Why don't you tell me what you want to do? There's got to be a lot of stuff you haven't done yet since you started coming to the city all the time."

Her eyes lit up at the suggestion for her to tell him what she wanted to do as it seemed like she had ideas and then some, "Well… I don't know how you'll be able to pull this off, but there is one thing I've really wanted to do for a while."

XxX

(With Naruto's Clone – Ibuki's Unnamed Ninja Village)

Ibuki's village training was pretty uniform. A lot of the other students there operated a lot like she did, only she was just better at it from what Naruto's clone managed to gleam during the training.

Still, training in the dead of night was lame. He wasn't feeling that at all.

He didn't learn anything secret really, and it was probably for the best that he didn't in case Ibuki would get in trouble for letting such a thing happen just to go on a date, but Sanjou, Ibuki's sensei kept a keen eye on Naruto-clone the entire time, and the clone made sure that its every move was just like he had seen Ibuki do back when they had trained. Apparently he had done a good enough job to keep from being called out because no one said anything.

In fact, even Ibuki's friend, a guy wearing a bandanna like hers with brown hair under it, and a tight long-sleeved blue shirt with tan gi pants treated Naruto-clone like he was Ibuki. Pretty awkward, but it seemed to work out. All he had to do was get back to Ibuki's room at that point and everything would be copacetic until the real Ibuki came home to relieve him.

As the clone went back inside the house where Ibuki was roomed up, Sanjou and another ninja watched the students go inside, waiting for all of the students to leave before Sanjou spoke up, "That isn't Ibuki. It's a good impersonation though." The imposter kept complete pace with the training regimen and didn't even really look winded by the end, excelling much the way Ibuki would have.

The man next to Sanjou nodded stoically. He had short brown hair with spiky bangs that hung over his eyes and wore a sleeveless ninja bodysuit with white borders, a yellow sash, and a mesh shirt underneath with yellow 4 oz. gloves on his hands. The Nike shoes on his feet offset the entire outfit sharply though, "It's very good. Do you want to deal with our guest or do you want to go track down Ibuki yourself?"

"If you don't have any missions to attend to I think you should go retrieve her this time Guy." Sanjou said as he started to walk inside, "I believe I know who our 'friend' here is. He knows me and he probably won't panic if I'm the one to expose him. I don't believe his intentions are malicious either way." He turned back right before entering the building only to see that the other ninja, Guy, had already vanished and gone off to find Ibuki.

XxX

(A Few Hours Later – With Naruto and Ibuki – Aohura City)

"You're a terrible driver Naruto." Ibuki teased as she and Naruto sat on the windmill of a miniature golf course, "I thought you knew what you were doing, but you suck at go-karts as much as I do."

Naruto shrugged sheepishly and chuckled, remembering just how disastrous the entire 'Let-Ibuki-drive-a-go-kart' plan had worked out, mostly as far as the point of himself being behind the wheel went. It was still fun though and at least he didn't get banned for life, "Well I never drive. I don't even have a license. I just turned 16 like two weeks ago."

"Well you should get a license and a car too. Something cool. I want to drive a real car next time." Ibuki scooted closer to Naruto while speaking, just for the sake of getting closer to the guy.

With another laugh, Naruto barely noticed her move, his attention placed more on coming up with something else for them to do before it got too late and Ibuki had to go home, "Why? So you can crash that too? You'd better get your own license if you want to drive any car I ever get." He then noticed that she had gotten really close to his side, but still scrunched himself closer so that he didn't overstep any bounds. The night had gone good until that point and he didn't want to risk screwing it up by being presumptuous.

"You know, you can put an arm around me if you want to. You look so nervous right now." It wasn't any use trying to hide what he was trying to do or not to do from Ibuki because his eyes told anyone that was paying close enough attention anything that they wished to know at the moment, and Ibuki could see in his eyes that he wasn't sure how to handle her getting closer, "You haven't been on many dates with a girl before have you?"

'Try none.' But the option was taken out of his hands when Ibuki grabbed his right arm and placed it around the back of her waist to keep her close to him, "Uh… okay."

"Don't ever be that guy Naruto." Ibuki said as she leaned into him, "You're over-thinking things. Don't do that, just go with the flow, and things are flowing nicely right now. That's what I like about you. I know so many ninja that are uptight and don't just roll with the punches of whatever happens. You're like water sometimes. You go your own way, and if someone tries to change that path or get in the way it had better be a real force to actually make you do it or else you'll make them pay for trying."

"Wow." That was certainly not seen coming by Naruto, "So… did you read that somewhere or did you come up with it on your own?" He responded in kind with a grin on his face.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play it I see." Despite the playing growl in her voice when she made to retort, Ibuki's smile signified that she was still having a good time, "You know, I wanted the whole date experience when I got you to go on this whole thing. I more than likely won't be getting the whole walk up to my doorstep for a goodnight, but I guess that would be too normal for me. But I guess it served its purpose in the end either way."

"What do you mean?"

"If you don't know what I'm talking about then I'm not going to tell you. That would defeat the entire point of even doing this in the first place." Naruto was too old to pout about anything, but it did make Ibuki laugh when she saw him do it, "Don't worry about that, worry about me. I'm still your date and I want to do one more thing before I have to go back home."

So she had another idea of something she wanted to do? That was just alright with Naruto. Her last idea was a pretty fun one, and he did want to make sure that she had a great time while out with him, "Anything you want. What do you want to do?"

"I want-."

"You're making a bad habit out of stretching your time away from the village for your school Ibuki."

Both Naruto and Ibuki looked up to see a man in a red outfit standing atop a windmill blade above them with his arms crossed and an emotionless look on his face, "Oh come on Guy!" Ibuki shouted up at the man, "I was about to go home. You didn't need to come all the way out here." Her face was red as she thought about what Guy had almost been there to see her do, "I was helping a friend."

Guy's face didn't change as he continued to look down at the two, "You seem to be awfully comfortable for someone that is supposed to be doing something like helping a friend."

Well damn. Apparently Ibuki was busted. But his clone had never dispelled to warn him that they were in trouble. There might be a chance to salvage the situation and run some damage control to keep her from getting into too much trouble. Lying to this guy wasn't going to work. Naruto could just see that this was one of those guys that didn't accept excuses, especially the kind that he was prepared to make about losing track of time.

"Look, this whole thing is my fault." Naruto said, trying to dump a significant portion of the blame onto himself as he stood up from beside Ibuki, "I'm responsible for this."

"Do you think that our lifestyle is some kind of game?" Guy asked Naruto as the young blonde teen had caught his attention, "I'm aware of who you are by way of what Sanjou has said about you, and I have to ask the question. Just what do you think being a ninja is? You do common household chores, odd jobs, street-level grunt work that would be better served for a gang enforcer. And you call yourself a ninja? It's not just the way that you fight that makes you one."

What was with the dull tone when he was eliciting some kind of superiority stroke on him? He rubbed Naruto the wrong way right off the bat and from the scowl on Ibuki's face she wasn't particularly a huge fan of this person either.

"Just because I don't do the same kinds of things that you doesn't make me a fake ninja." Naruto remarked with a frown on his face, "I don't have a village to give me my missions or to fight for so I've got to do my own thing. If you don't like me I don't care, but don't insult me. Being a ninja is all I've ever done. What's your problem anyway? I said I was sorry, and she's ready to go home."

Guy jumped down from the windmill blade to Naruto and Ibuki's level where he stood slightly over Naruto's head, "Ibuki is a model kunoichi, or at least she was until she met you. These mistake are becoming more and more frequent in a short time. And I'd go as far to say that you could be the problem."

"Me?" Naruto said, pointing to himself as if Guy was possibly talking to anyone else, "What the hell did I do? I'm just trying to get along here."

"Ibuki's focus has been skewed, and her dedication to our lifestyle has been lacking." Guy said as he started to pace around Naruto, "And here I find her with you. What do you think that tells me?"

"That real ninja work's been bussed down to the glorified stalking of a fifteen year old girl." Ibuki quipped, quite unpleased at how her night was turning out due to the interruption from one of the highest ranking people that didn't even belong to her village, "Why are you even concerned with this? You're not even from my clan in the village."

"My master is a friend of your own clan's leader and I consider him a friend as well." Guy said, fixing Ibuki with his stern, business-like demeanor, "I am your elder in this case Ibuki. And your current attitude surprises me. You're slipping."

"I'm stronger now than I ever was." Ibuki assured Guy, "I haven't been slacking off at all. As a matter of fact I've been training right after school most days just like I'd have been if I were at home. I just do it with my other friends." While she would rather do other things than train as long as she was outside of her village, she had to admit that training with the others was more fun, "And Naruto's a plenty strong partner to work with. Sanjou-sensei should have told you how good he was if you were set on coming out here to mess up our date."

"I thought you called this you helping a friend out."

"It was! It is!" This was simply flustering the younger female ninja beyond normalcy, "It's a date that's helping Naruto out! He saved my life from an entire platoon of Geki Clan ninja, I can go out with him if I want to!"

Looking down, Naruto found that the other denizens of the miniature golf course were staring in interest at the three people standing on the windmill and he decided to interject, "Can we take this somewhere else?" Both Ibuki and Guy then noticed the situation and nodded before they all jumped from the windmill elsewhere.

XxX

(With Naruto's Clone – Ibuki's Unnamed Ninja Village)

In order to entertain himself until Ibuki returned and he could dispel, Naruto's Kage Bunshin started looking around her room and wound up in her closet where he saw nothing but different versions of her ninja outfits and her school clothes at first glance. Then after much more searching he found her stash of regular clothes, "So this stuff is like contraband or something?" He asked the tanuki Don aloud as if the creature would give him a response, "You're such a crappy listener. If I had a pet it would be cooler than you."

KNOCK KNOCK!

"Yo? Uh, I mean, yes?" Naruto's clone verbally backtracked hastily before giving a tentative thumbs-up to Don, asking if that was going to slide, only getting a derisive snort from the small mammal. He seemed to historically have a lot of problems with tanukis. At least this one didn't want to kill him. Or did it?

"Ibuki, it's Sanjou."

"Yes sensei, what can I do for you?"

"You can open the door and let me in for one, or is there a problem?"

Naruto's clone blanched but couldn't just leave the door closed if Ibuki's sensei wanted to see her. That would be suspicious… too suspicious to risk doing. It was time to see how well he could actually act like Ibuki or he was screwed. He walked over to the door and opened it up to find Sanjou standing there, "Hello sensei. Do you need something?"

"Nothing important Ibuki." Sanjou said as he walked into the room and looked around to find Don looking at him with great interest as to what was about to happen, "I just figured that I would come here to tell you-." He shut the door and turned to Naruto-clone before clearing his throat, "I already know that you're not Ibuki, isn't that right Uzumaki Naruto?"

"What? You're crazy." He saw Sanjou move to strike him idly and simpered back before dropping the transformation, "Alright, alright, I'm not Ibuki… damn it. How much trouble is she in?"

Sanjou adjusted his glasses on his face as he looked the Naruto-clone over, 'He's stuck in a situation where he himself could be punished terribly for his presence in a forbidden village and yet he cares more for Ibuki's fate than his own.' Of course Sanjou did not know that this Naruto was just a clone. Thus he found Naruto's attitude to be admirable, "It all depends on how much she is letting herself neglect her own ninja responsibilities to goof off like a normal schoolchild."

"Oh." Naruto-clone said before relaxing his hands behind his head with a squinty gaze at Sanjou, "Well if that's all then everything's cool. I train with her all the time after school. She's not getting weak. Trust me. So am I in trouble? I'll take whatever it is, I just want to know." Sanjou shook his head and Naruto-clone grinned, "Good. Oh, and I don't know how to get here by the way, I was blindfolded if that matters. Later. Ibuki should be back like two hours after I do this." And with that, the clone dispelled in a puff of smoke much to Sanjou's surprise.

What a strange boy.

XxX

(With Naruto, Ibuki, and Guy – Aohura City)

All three ninja reconvened outside of Naruto's apartment on the dark, quiet street outside when Naruto got the message from his dispelled clone and turned to Ibuki with a smile, "Ah, you're not in trouble Ibuki. Sanjou figured out my clone wasn't you and busted us. But he says as long as you can prove that you aren't slacking off it'll be fine."

"Great!" Ibuki chirped happily, giving Naruto a big hug at hearing news that good, "That'll be super easy. I can wow sensei in the morning with how good I've gotten and then maybe he'll even take the stupid curfew off."

Guy idly wondered just how Naruto was able to get that kind of information, but remembered that Naruto had someone in disguise at the ninja village that could probably contact him from that far away. But he had his own things to worry about at the moment, "Who said anything about only wowing your sensei?" He said, getting Ibuki to stop hugging Naruto to stare at him in confusion, "I want to see just how good you've become or just how much you've let yourself slip."

The two younger ninja looked at each other and then at Ibuki's attire for the evening before she let out a sigh, "Well I guess I had to change out of these clothes eventually." She said before quicker than Naruto could notice she relieved herself of her eveningwear and was instantly back in her normal ninja gear. The entire process took less than a second, "I was looking to putting off getting back into this stuff before the date was over."

Naruto blinked at the fact that she had completely switched her attire before he could even notice anything, "Uh, how did you do that and where were you keeping the extra clothes?"

Completing her transformation from civilian-Ibuki to ninja-Ibuki, she pulled up the facemask portion of her under-outfit bodysuit at her neck as she winked at Naruto, "Oh that's not very important is it? A ninja has to keep some secrets after all." She then pointed at Guy and put a serious look on her face, "If you really want to dance then bring it on."

Guy's face didn't change from its normal expressionless appearance as he slid himself into his fighting stance in acceptance of Ibuki's challenge.

"Wait a minute." Naruto said as Ibuki moved away from him to the center of the street to fight Guy, "You're going to do this here? Right in front of my place?" He eventually gave up on trying to convince them otherwise and got out of the way, making his way to the top of his apartment complex to watch, "Kick his ass Ibuki!"

Ibuki nodded as she got into her own ready stance and waited for the right moment to begin going head-to-head with Guy. No impatience could be shown in her first approach. This was meant to show that she had grown as a ninja instead of regressing and she was going to show that venturing outside of the village as much as she did was helping her.

Still as a statue, Guy stood. It was clear that his patience was finely honed and he would not be the one that made the first move based solely off of impulse. He could stand there all night if he wished. Ibuki was not going to win a waiting game.

And she knew that. Hence why she chose to risk attacking Guy first.

Ibuki rushed Guy down in a zigzag pattern on the street only to come in from his right and leap in with a spinning ax kick that he sidestepped as he began to engage Ibuki up close and trade strikes with her. Guy's standing offense consisted of heavy usage of backhand strikes with his lead hand to disorient opponents for a stronger strike from his right hand. But Ibuki was fast, using short punches before springing out of Guy's potential range, forcing him to pursue her a bit.

Getting sick of being kept at range by Ibuki, once she sprang back the next time Guy did not allow her the space she needed to dictate the pace of the fight, "Hayagake (Fast Run)!" In a show of blinding speed he rushed straight ahead, slipping well within Ibuki's comfortable choice of distance and slid at her legs, delivering a kick that sent her head over heels to the ground.

Upon being flipped by the kick and landing on her back, Ibuki immediately rolled to her front and unleashed a barrage of shuriken that missed Guy as he rushed at her again and showed off how he was significantly faster than her, dodging her attacks and rushing right at her again.

Ibuki got off of the ground and attempted a spinning backfist to prevent him from attacking her again, but Guy ducked it and delivered a double punch to Ibuki's body that had her stumbling back, holding her stomach. She lashed out with a high kick in response, but Guy blocked the stiff attack with his forearm, shoving her back and pressing forward with his attack again.

Instead of engaging in another close-range contest with Guy, Ibuki jumped right over Guy in a corkscrew motion to get behind him. While in the air, she unleashed kunai aimed at Guy's blindspot, but he was able to turn and avoided them. This gave her the opening she needed to safely land and attack him without having to deal with a counter attack of his, "Kazegiri (Wind Gili)!" She delivered a jumping high kick that Guy blocked, but she used her second leg to turn it into a bicycle kick that caught him under the chin and popped him backwards, knocking him to the ground.

Taking advantage, Ibuki rushed him, but Guy rolled through to his feet and jumped into the air to deliver a nasty spinning kick with multiple rotations, "Bushin Senpukyaku (Spiritual Warrior Whirlwind Leg)!" The series of jumping spin kicks hit Ibuki in the face at least three times and knocked her back to the ground instead, "Do you surrender?"

"Why would I quit?" Ibuki responded as she stood back up, slightly shakily, and faced him down again, "I'm going to make you eat dirt in just few seconds."

"You're not getting another chance to attack me again." Guy said before launching at Ibuki to continue his onslaught. Instead of engaging him directly, Ibuki turned tail and beat a hasty retreat, jumping off of one of the cars parked on the side of the street and off of the side of a telephone pole only to come to rest on another one.

Narrowing his eyes at the girl, Guy swiftly ran right up the pole she had just jumped up, forcing Ibuki to jump from it and unleash a massive amount of weaponry from her arsenal, "Kazumi Suzaku (Mist Vermillion Sparrow)!" Guy didn't let a single weapon touch him, but Ibuki did not get disheartened by the failed powerful attack as she landed on the edge of a nearby apartment complex rooftop while Guy charged on the telephone line itself right towards her. She formed an afterimage to confound Guy, but he was not fooled and he made her pay for it.

Getting close to her again, Guy delivered four punches before backflip-kicking her into the air. Crouching on the ground he disappeared in a dust cloud before appearing above Ibuki to finish her off, "Nothing personal Ibuki, but this is a lesson for you. Bushin Goraisenpujin (Spiritual Warrior Roaring Thunder Storm God)!" He reached to grab Ibuki for a piledriver but only found an afterimage in her place, "What?"

"You really thought I'd let you hit me five times straight and wouldn't have a counter handy? I can see why Naruto always says this; don't underestimate me!"

Above Guy, Ibuki was even higher in the air than he was, holding multiple kunai in her hands that she let fly at Guy as he turtled up to block them. Not a one even came close to truly harming him outside of light scratches on his arms and legs because that was not the true purpose of the attack, "Gotcha!" Ibuki used the attack of kunai as a feint to deliver an elbow smash to Guy's jaw that she transitioned into her falling with her knee in Guy's back, forcing him face first into the rooftop, "Goodbye Guy! Hashinshou!"

"Whoa!" Naruto jumped up from his place where he had been watching the fight, as it had wound up on his own complex's roof, and ran over to where Ibuki had slammed Guy into the surface, "What the hell was that? You never used that on me or Sakura-chan!"

Ibuki sat down and let out a deep breath, "Of course I never used that on you. You're my friend. That's a nasty finishing technique, not something you do on people that you particularly like." She then jumped right back to her feet when she saw Guy start to get up, "Are you kidding me? You should be out cold."

"My body is tougher than you think." Guy said with blood trailing from his lip, nose, and a cut on his hairline, "I can take more than you expect me to." He saw her prepared to keep fighting and he waved her off, "I don't need to see anymore Ibuki. You've proven that you are still improving even with the distractions of your normal school."

Pulling down her facemask to show a nasty bruise on her cheek and under her jaw, Ibuki gave Guy a relieved smile at finding the fight to be over, "I've got some people to help me think outside of the box. Even when I'm not in the village I'm picking up different outlooks on fighting from my friends. Naruto's one of them." Well for better or worse, whether she liked it or not, being coaxed into training with the never-stop pair of Naruto and Sakura regularly worked for her, and for that she was thankful.

Guy took a long hard look at Naruto and got a stare right back from Naruto, a proud smirk on his face as he had just watched his friend vindicate him with her skills, "I see. Well it is time to return to the village Ibuki." He turned his back on both Ibuki and Naruto and crouched down, prepared to leave, "I will have to test you one of these days Uzumaki Naruto. It won't be in a short battle like it was with Ibuki. It will be to a definitive finish."

As Guy leapt his way off of the roof and began returning to his home, Naruto ran to the edge of the building and shouted after him, "Oh it'll be a short battle alright, because I'll put your ass down in thirty seconds, dattebayo!" He then turned back to Ibuki and looked at the cracks in the roof from her last attack on Guy, "Man… I'm going to have to fix that for free…"

Ibuki walked up to Naruto and faced him with a sigh, "Well it was fun while it lasted Naruto. Thank you for taking me out… even if it didn't end the way I kind of thought that it would."

Wait, he knew that the whole running into Guy and fighting him thing was a serious damper, but throughout the entire night Naruto himself was wondering if an Aohura City rival would run into him and kick something off that way. He had been prepared for the night to end in a manner such as this. Ibuki had to have been as well, as nothing ever really went as planned for people like them.

"Well how did you think it would end?" Naruto asked her, shoving his hands into his pockets idly.

"There was something else I really wanted to do that we didn't really get to before Guy stuck his head into this and screwed everything up." She said with a despondent look on her face as she shook her head, "Oh well."

Oh, so he didn't give her the best time he could have in the end. That was kind of deflating. Naruto figured he'd done a great job until the end, "Ah I'm sorry."

"No, no, it wasn't anything that you did." Ibuki assured him cheerfully with a few pats on his hand, "As a matter of fact I can still do it right now if I wanted to."

It was damn near midnight. What in the world was there to do at this point? Either way, Naruto was pretty much game for whatever she wanted and let her know with a shrug, "Well go ahead then. Tell me what it is." He didn't miss the sly look on the kunoichi's face but at this point she was too close and too fast for him to keep her from doing what happened next… even if he wanted to.

Ibuki slipped forward with her hands behind her back and lightly kissed him, nothing forceful, nothing heavy. Just a regular kiss. His brain more or less stroked off for a moment before registering what was happening. Seven seconds later Ibuki hopped back with a satisfied expression and pulled her facemask back over the lower half of her face before leaving to go home as well, "Bye Naruto! See you Monday!"

Naruto stood there staring at nothing for a few minutes, playing back what had just happened in his head before he threw his hands behind his head and grinned widely, chuckling to himself as he made his way back to his apartment.

XxX

(The Next Monday – Tamagawa Minami High School)

"You two seriously aren't going to tell us anything about what happened?" Kei asked with a twitching eye as she sat in class with Sakura, Naruto and Ibuki, giving the pair of ninja the evil eye for keeping the results of their Saturday night from her, "Was it good? Was it bad? What did you guys do? You can't just leave us hanging like that. It was all of our idea for you to even go on the stupid date."

"As long as it did what it needed to do, I guess it doesn't matter." Sakura said, looking over at a very relaxed Naruto as she had to fight down her own curiosity about what had happened, "So what's the verdict crazy? Are you still all wound up?"

"Nope." Naruto said with complete confidence. He'd been in a great mood for all of Sunday and even got out of bed on Monday without a needed fuss from Sakura, "I'm good. Thanks for making me do that. And thanks for going with me Ibuki, I appreciate it."

Noticing that Kei was now glaring at Naruto for not having her curiosity sated in the least, Ibuki let out a small laugh before stopping to wink at him, "The pleasure was all mine. If you ever get more manic and paranoid than usual again I'd probably like to do it again."

Now by this point, Sakura was in on the fact that there was a significant amount of camaraderie and inside-referencing between Naruto and Ibuki and raised an eyebrow, "Okay, now I'm asking too. What did you guys do on Saturday?"

"Tell me!" Kei more or less demanded. The well-kept gossip in her needed to know, "I'm not a ninja and I can't fight, but I will do… something if you two don't spill."

"Sorry." Ibuki said in a non-apologetic manner as Naruto snickered to his heart's content behind Sakura's chair and next to Ibuki's chair with his head on his desk, "But every ninja needs their share of secrets."

Omake: Mainstream Shinobi

(Karin's Aohura City Mansion)

"This better be really good." Naruto said as he and Batsu walked behind Karin and her entourage as they entered her mansion, "We were working on a new idea for a jutsu or a ki attack when you called me." In reality, he and Batsu were actually throwing their respective projectile attacks at each other and watching as they blew up. The last one when Karin actually called disrupted their focus due to Naruto's ringtone and blew up in their faces.

On the other hand, instead of Naruto who had been there several different times by that point, Batsu was stunned at how large Karin's property was, "You live here by yourself? Who the hell needs all of this?" Maybe if he could grab one of those nice looking little statues and get away with it he could get his mom something nice for her birthday.

"My actual home is larger." Karin commented idly as she led the way into what looked to be a very large entertainment room with a television half the size of the entire far wall sitting against said wall, "I do believe that the reason I called you here should satisfy you greatly Naruto-san." She sounded rather pleased with herself as she said this, "Please have a seat."

Neither Naruto nor Batsu needed to be told twice as they both sat down on one of Karin's very comfortable reclining chairs while she herself sat down on a couch, with Ishizaki quickly bringing her a drink on his tray once she was seated, "Why is the super-rich girl inviting us to her house to watch TV? I'm not complaining, this is awesome, but what's with this?"

"I invited Naruto-san, you just came along with him, and I would be a bad host to turn away the friend of a friend."

"You two are friends now?" Batsu asked as he looked between the two blonds sitting in different areas, "So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the apparent outright dislike you two always threw back and forth on the phone and that one time I was there in person was just good old-fashioned teenage sexual tension."

Naruto stared at Batsu with an unreadable expression on his face before looking to Karin, "If I tried to beat him up on your property could you replace the stuff we took out?"

"You would be paying for it."

"Thought so."

"Either way." Karin said as she picked up a remote control and clicked the TV on, "I have something you need to see. Remember how you always seem to be trying to get work done to get money? Well people only know of your work from word of mouth. That can only go so far, so I figured that a promotional spot would bring your potential clientele up immensely."

The two teen males in the room looked at each other before Naruto spoke up, "So… you made me a commercial?" Karin nodded and absently took a sip of her prepared drink, "Alright, cool. Let's see it."

Without needing to be asked again, Karin queued up the commercial and played it on her massive TV.

"Any problem can be solved for the right price." The voice over said as there was a shot of Naruto walking down the street with Batsu and a group of their other friends, the focus on him, "All you need to do is find the right man for the job. The right man is a child."

"I don't like it so far." Naruto grumbled at being called a child, "How'd you even get a camera on me without me noticing it anyway?"

"I can get or do anything I want." Karin said as if she had repeated this to him countless times already, "Keep watching."

At that point the commercial cut to different shots of Naruto in fights with various people that had been captured from bystanders and placed on the internet at some point in time, ending with him standing over Dan at the end of their fight a few months ago, "If you have a 'problem' then you can call Uzumaki Naruto, freelance mercenary. Rates negotiable."

Nodding at the conclusion of the commercial, Batsu gave his own opinion, "It's kind of cool, but it seems like a lot of sizzle and a little bit of steak doesn't it? I mean it tells people that he takes work for money, but it makes him seem like a thug too. It doesn't really tell people what he does."

"I thought of that as well." Karin agreed as she hit a few more buttons on her remote to bring something else up, "So I had a second commercial made addressing this point. Here."

Instead of the action shots, this time it had Naruto doing odd jobs like walking a ton of dogs, moving things into a truck with the use of clones, retiling a roof, washing windows, things like that, "Any problem can be solved for the right price. All you need to do is find the right man for the job. The right man is a child. If you have a 'problem' then you can call Uzumaki Naruto… the ultimate chore boy. Rates negotiable."

The commercial ended and left the room in silence until Batsu started laughing uproariously, "Ultimate chore boy! That's great! Put the second one on TV now! At least put it on the internet!" He was then muffled by Naruto getting up and stuffing a couch pillow into his face, though it was evident that he was still laughing.

Naruto was continuing his efforts to try and smother his friend with a pillow while looking over at his employer/friend who was trying to hide the fact that she was just about to start laughing herself, "Karin can I have the master tape for the second one? I want to blow it up." He heard Batsu humorously mumble 'ultimate chore boy' from under the pillow and gave it one good punch, "Shut up!"

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

{Character Profile}

Name: Guy

Nationality: U.S.A.

Gender: Male

Age: 20

Height/Weight: 5'10/159 lbs.

Bloodtype: O

Likes: Salmon, rice with green tea, cold tofu, collecting and wearing sneakers.

Dislikes: Horizontal western writing, Ibuki's lazy behavior, evil senses.

Hobbies: Sprinting, making bonsai, jumping from walls.

Rivals: Mad Gear Gang, Ibuki.

Fighting Style: Bushin Ryuu Ninpou (Spiritual Warrior School of Ninja Arts)

Current Techniques: Houzantou, Bushin Senpukyaku (Spiritual Warrior Whirlwind Leg), Bushin Izuna Otoshi (Spiritual Warrior Izuna Drop), Hayagake (Fast Run), Kaiten Izuna Otoshi (Rotating Izuna Drop).

Hyper Techniques: Bushin Hasoken, Bushin Goraisenpujin (Spiritual Warrior Roaring Thunder Storm God), Bushin Muso Renge (Spiritual Flower God Warrior)

Background: A delinquent in Japan in his youth, Guy eventually met and was taken in by the 38th Bushin Master Zeku who trained Guy in his specific art of ninjutsu. He moved back to the United States, living in Metro City, a city with a large gang problem and helped to clean up its streets with the help of a few friends before moving back to Japan to continue his training. Guy rarely smiles and takes most things in life deadly serious, especially his own dedication to the ninja arts. He dislikes anyone that would make light of or disrespect his lifestyle and expects equal dedication from other ninja as well. He is seen as a very prominent figure in Ibuki's village and in multiple groups of ninja around the world.