Chapter 14 Dog boy and Big boy

For the next couple of weeks Naruto got used to his new life in school, he was learning some neat things although he was still bored at times. Sometimes Iruka would yell at him and Shikamaru because they fell asleep, plus the fact that he was getting a reputation. Well actually it was a couple, one was when after a week a string of mysterious pranks started to plague the school. Someone put dye in the teacher's tea and coffee in their teacher's lounge making all the teachers have black or green mouths and tongues for the day. Then there was the incident when had set up shaving cream bombs of some short, and then there was the day smoke bombs went off at random intervals throughout the day.

No one was sure who was the culprit and the teachers had decided to catch whoever it was in the act, that was how they caught Naruto after school planting clue on all the chairs of the teachers. Iruka had been disappointed in Naruto, and they had a talk with his father...who was two hours late for the meeting of course. Kakashi said he would punish Naruto although Iruka figured from the attitude that Kakashi actually thought it was kind of funny and would most likely just increase Naruto's training at home.

They also made Naruto apologise to the entire school, although Neji who was a year ahead had to admit the fact that Naruto managed to get all of that done and not get caught until now was surprising, but he never would admit it. He didn't even say that he knew Naruto since no one asked him which he was thankful for.

Naruto was also known for being the only one that could keep up with the Uchiha prodigy as well. The two of them competed all the time, races, sparing matches, and anything else they could do. Although they acted a bit hostile towards the other it was just their way, besides Naruto enjoyed having someone that made him push himself. He figured the harder he worked the faster he could make Hokage one day. But there was one fact that had escaped Naruto during that time and that was because he was the only one that rivalled Sasuke it made him more noticeable especially to certain members of the female class.

Although the Sasuke fan girls were numerous, Naruto had a smaller following as well. If he wasn't lazy in class or pulled pranks he would have gotten more, but there were other things that made certain girls like him. First was the fact that he always wore a mask making him kind of mysterious in a way, no one knew what he looked like and that curiosity was alluring to some of them. Another was the fact that Naruto once you got to know him was a very nice guy, Sasuke would always just blow the girls off and at times when he was really annoyed might say something hurtful just so he could get some peace and quiet.

Naruto on the other hand always would talk to the girls that went up to him, that made him much more approachable. The thing was he had no idea that the girls liked him in that way, he just thought they were being friendly and was just trying to make new friends. This of course was misread by the girls that he was interested in them and of course would lead to some trouble here and there, mainly young girls getting into fights over who was better Naruto or Sasuke, and who liked the boy more.

It also kind of made Hinata a bit awkward, although she would have gladly been placed in the 'Naruto fan girl' side of things she was also Naruto's best friend and she was always close to the boy. This led to some jealously with some other girls over how close Hinata was with him. Sakura was getting a little confused, she liked Sasuke but Naruto was so nice to her all the time as well so she had no idea which boy was better. Ino thankfully was only after Sasuke, and helped keep the three girls together in tougher times. She had no rivalry with Hinata and Sakura hadn't made her intentions clear so to Ino that meant that none of them were a threat to her and 'her' Sasuke-kun.

But there were a couple of people that Naruto was curious about, mainly was the Shino kid that always wore a heavy coat all the time, he always seemed to be alone and Naruto remembered how that was like. The other was Kiba who was a loud mouth show off, which meant Naruto was starting to like the guy. Plus when Naruto had been caught as the 'Academy Gremlin' as the mysterious prankster had been called, he had laughed so hard and gave Naruto a large smile.

Kiba always seemed to enjoy his pranks the most and he was thinking of asking the boy if he would be his friend as well. But first he waited for recess to come around, it took forever for the bell to ring and usually Naruto would be rushing towards the door but this time he held back watching where Shino went. He followed the other boy and was confused when he walked to the bushes and knelt down, he seemed to be doing something but Naruto couldn't guess what it was. He waited but patience was always one of the things that Naruto had trouble with.

Naruto walked up behind him looking over his shoulder but he couldn't guess at what the boy was doing.

"Hey there what'cha doing, Shino right?" He only got silence but the boy did turn to him slightly with a raised eyebrow. Naruto waited then frowned, "oh come on I just wanted to know is that so much to ask?"

Shino looked at him for a moment before moving slightly to the left and pointed, Naruto saw a small insect that was crawling on the branches. He wasn't sure why the boy was interested in it although he did admit it was kind of cool with the red and black markings. "Okay so what, you want to keep it or something?"

"For breeding," the boy finally spoke and Naruto turned to face him surprised he managed to get him to talk. Normally Shino only talked when Iruka asked him a question in class and he had to answer.

Naruto of course took this as a victory in getting the strange boy to finally open up a little, "cool so you collect bugs and stuff for that?" He got a nod from the boy and Naruto went back to looking at the bug. "Nice although I noticed you liked bugs, you always been like that?"

Again Shino raised an eyebrow, "It's the way of my clan, we raise and control bugs as part of our fighting style."

That was the longest answer that Naruto had ever heard him give for awhile he figured the boy was just the quiet type but when you talked about bugs that was when he seemed to talk a bit more. So Naruto asked him all about his clan and Shino answered. For Shino he had never met anyone who was interested in his clan, most of the time he hardly went outside of the clan compound because a lot of people were uneasy around them.

But Naruto seemed to be genuinely interested and wasn't freaked out by anything. When Naruto asked what exactly they did with bugs he showed the masked boy a few of them that he had on him by commanding them to crawl out of his coat. He explained how they would be used to track, attack an opponent by draining their chakra and other things. Naruto who had firsthand experience with chakra exhaustion on many times knew firsthand how bad that could be. His respect for bugs went up a notch and made a mental note not to piss off any of the bug users in the future.

Despite things Shino was having a nice time, no one had ever talked to him like this before. He knew that his social skills weren't exactly that great but it seemed that Naruto listened well, which was odd given how many times the boy slept during class.

"Hey Shino you want to meet my other friends?" Naruto asked the boy and he could see some kind of hesitation or at least what Naruto assumed was, the boy was very good at keeping his expression blank a lot. The only thing Naruto could pick up was slight body movements and his eyebrows he couldn't even see his eyes and the lower half of his face was covered by his jacket.

"Oh come on, they'll like you if you just open up a bit," Naruto wasn't going to give up and he could see that Shino was thinking about it so he decided to give him an extra push that being grabbing his sleeve and dragging the taller boy with him. "Come on just give it a shot already."

Naruto dragged the boy across the yard over to where his friends were, they were talking when they noticed Naruto dragging some poor boy with him, "hey guys you mind if Shino here joins us?"

"Whatever," Shikamaru said with a shrug, and there were no other real objections.

"Cool, Shino that's Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan. Guys this is Shino, he doesn't say much at first but he's a nice guy and get this he can talk to bugs and stuff and make them do things!" Naruto saw varying expressions.

Ino didn't like bugs that much, and always did think that Shino was a bit on the creepy side that he never talked and with those black sunglasses you couldn't tell where he was looking. Sakura tilted her head wondering how you could talk to bugs let alone making them do things, Shikamaru looked over with a raised eyebrow and Choji just kept on eating.

Hinata however because of her place in her clan knew all about the prominent clans of the village and she got up to him and gave a small bow. "H-hello Shino-kun, you're part of the Aburame clan. My f-father has spoken highly of your clan and their abilities."

Shino nodded his head, "you are the heiress of the Hyuga clan, my clan has respect for yours as my father said you are to be trusted."

"Wow...that's the most I've heard him talk in like, forever." Ino muttered to Sakura who tried not to giggle.

"Would you like to join us then?" Hinata asked and Shino looked around and nodded his head as he sat down with them.

It felt good for Shino to feel being accepted inside the grouping, their clan over the years had been inspired by their insects and their collective. Belonging to a group and being a productive member of that group was one of the things their clan tried to do. First they viewed their clan as the first collective and then also that of Konoha but Shino had no other grouping that he felt like he was a part of outside of this clan so this small grouping was nice to him.

As he got to know the others he started to analyse the new grouping that he hoped to he accepted into. Shikamaru seemed lazy but he had seen the boy always answered the questions when he was asked and as far as he had observed he had never lost to a game of shogi he had played with anyone. That meant there here hidden depths to the boy that he was hiding. Choji although looked physically unfit, Shino had seen him hit the wooden targets harder than the other boys, although he seemed to have self image problems he was a very loyal person.

Ino was loud and brash but she too was loyal to her friends and protective of them, she also wasn't afraid to be herself or speak her mind, her friend Sakura seemed nice and intelligent but seemed to second guess herself a lot, it was like with Hinata, she was kind to a fault really but she was a very warm person. And then there was Naruto who Shino was still trying to pin down, at one moment he was hyperactive, loud and acted very childish but at other times he was the complete opposite, was he bi polar or something or was there just more to him?

Plus one other thing, his insects felt something different about him. He asked but they couldn't tell him why only that Naruto was more than what he seemed. Shino looked at Naruto as he was fooling around making Ino angry and was getting yelled at, 'who are you Naruto Hatake and what is it about you that makes you so different?'

-After School-

Naruto's next person on his list was Kiba, he found Kiba after school waiting around. He walked over to him and waved, "Hey there Kiba."

He looked over and grinned, "Hey Naruto you come up with anything new for class?"

"I'm waiting for things to cool off a bit; I really don't want to go through what my dad did for the weekend after that meeting with Iruka-sensei."

Kiba raised an eyebrow, "why what did he do?"

"One day full training with Uncle Gai and the next with Auntie Anko..." Naruto was actually sore for a day after that and he could hardly move.

Kiba didn't understand what was go bad about that although he didn't know who those people were, so he just laughed a bit, "come on what's so bad about that?"

"Are you kidding?! They're training is insane! Gai likes to do laps around the entire village on his hands and that's just his personal training you even want to know what he had me do? Then there's Anko and she's crazy!"

Kiba blinked for a moment, he wasn't sure if Naruto was exaggerating but from the looks of the masked blond he wasn't so sure. "So...what's this Anko like then?"

Naruto made a face at him, "first time she babysat me she tied me up to a chair, she likes to use these snake styles ninjustu stuff and likes to scare the crap out of people. I think she said she was thinking of going into some training to get into the torture and information extraction section."

That made Kiba's eye twitched and for a moment his older sister didn't look so bad in comparison, sure his older sister gave him some grief now and then but at least she wasn't into torture (even though Kiba figured she could have a shot at it), so he only shook his head in sympathy for Naruto. He couldn't blame the shorter boy for letting things cool off. It was too bad he really enjoyed the pranks Naruto did, they were the high boy of the day for him at times.

"Anyway tomorrow me, Shikamaru and Choji are going to the park, I'm hoping Shino will come too. You want to come with us Kiba?"

Kiba shrugged, he was still trying to make some friends and even though he didn't like Naruto much at first he had to admit he was starting to like the guy. He was unpredictable and he guess he could do worse, "well that sounds okay but my sister wants me to do some work with the dogs later. So why me, we hardly say much to each other, well besides some insults and stuff."

But Kiba said it with a grin since he and Naruto always seemed to try and push each other's buttons especially during the sparing matches although Kiba was still sore that he only got in one win and had a suspicion that Naruto had let him win that time anyway.

Naruto just shrugged, "why not? I mean yeah you're an ass sometimes but I like you."

"I'm an ass? Listen here Shorty I'm not the one that starts most of the fights!"

"Oh yeah, and I'm not short! I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet!"

Kiba smirked at him, "You'll be lucky to reach five feet at the rate its going."

Naruto scowled at him and was about to give a retort when a woman's voice yelled out and Kiba suddenly stiffened and had a look on his face that Naruto was pretty sure that was the same look on his face whenever Anko gets into one of her 'moods' and he's in mortal danger. He looked over to see a girl a few years older with the same markings on her face, same hair only in a long ponytail with an annoyed look on her face.

"What do you want, I thought mom was coming by?" Kiba asked.

The older girl put her hands on her hips and glared at him, "Mom's not coming she got held up and don't talk to me like that you little brat." That was when she noticed Naruto and looked at the boy with an odd look. Mainly it was because she never seen a boy with a mask on like that before and she was wondering what was going on as she had seen the two arguing about something.

"Hey kid is my idiot little brother bugging you?" She asked.

"You're Kiba's sister?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah my name is Hana Inuzuka."

Naruto looked at her for a second before saying something, "wait your name is Hana? Cool my best friend's mom has the same name, is it a popular name or something or just for pretty girls?"

Hana wasn't sure to be angry at being compared to someone's mother or flattered that he said she was pretty. Naruto then gave a small bow with his head, "well it's nice to meet you Hana-san, Kiba always said that his big sister was young and pretty but he never said how pretty."

Now Hana was smiling while Kiba was wondering what the hell was going on, he never said anything of the sort hell he was sure he said the complete opposite a few times.

"Well nice to know that my little brother isn't a total pain then, who are you anyway?"

"Names Naruto Hatake and I was wondering if Kiba could play with us at the park tomorrow that is if that's okay."

Hana thought about it for a moment and then shrugged, "well okay then it's nothing big that I can't handle. I'm glad that Kiba has at least a few friends with some manners. Kiba, I'll see you in a bit I got to go and drop something off and I'll be right back so make some plans with Naruto here."

Kiba watched his big sister leave and when he was sure she was out of ear shot he quickly grabbed Naruto by the front of his shirt, "what the hell was that man? I mean I never said that and were you trying to make a pass at my sister of all people!?"

Naruto wrenched his hand off, 'get off me! First hell no, she's way too old for me and she looks and acts too much like Anko and I'm not suicidal. Secondly I learned fast that in order not to piss of women like that you got to compliment them, be really nice and respectful and then throw in some compliments and make sure you say something about them or they themselves are pretty."

"And that works?" Kiba asked.

"You got the time off didn't you?" Naruto smirked under his mask, making Kiba laugh a bit and asked him where he learned that from. "My dad actually has some good advice, I use it on Anko when she's got that killer look in her eyes, well that and promise her dango that oddly works better with her."

Kiba just shook his head at it all, it seemed that Naruto and his whole family was weird but he did get him out of working with his big sister later and he might as well play with the guys. Besides he needed some guys to hang out with and he might like these guys given half a chance. Well that and they were the only interesting ones he could think of and there was no way in hell he would hang out with that Uchiha kid, Kiba thought of him as a stuck up jerk anyway.

-Hyuga Compound-

Hannah Hyuga had been dealing with the usual things that the wife of the clan head usually dealt with, such as dealing with problems with the main or branch members or even between the two. Plus there was dealing with other clans, merchants, council members, as well as social functions. But lately she had been trying to deal with them but she had been getting lots of headaches lately. At first she thought they were just from stress but something had happened when she had tried to use her bloodline, she had received blinding pain in her head and behind her eyes.

She deactivated them quickly but she was dizzy and a throbbing pain for the rest of the day. That was when she had gone to the hospital and for the entire day she had been wondering what was going on with her. Unfortunately what they told her had left her in a state of shock for the rest of the day. She had walked back home and just wanted to see her little girls, she had hugged her daughters close and had been avoiding everyone else all day because she was worried that she might just break down.

So there she was at the moment in her private quarters just sitting down with the shades because of the headache direct sunlight gave her eyes. She had been thinking all the time and she just didn't know what she could do. She heard the door open and for the first time in a long time she had a harshness to her tone, "I said I wanted to be left alone."

"What is wrong," said the voice of her husband and Hannah nearly jumped as she turned around surprised to see him closing the door and walking over to her.

"M-my love I didn't know it was you."

He walked over to her and sat down across from her and took her hands, he looked her in the eyes and she could see the worry in them. He only ever allowed that mask he wore to fall off between them when they were alone. "I will ask again what is wrong?"

"It's nothing..."

"My love I know you, you've been tired lately, you have had headaches a lot and you can't sleep well at night. And I know that you went to the hospital this morning as well, and you are eating less than you normally do. So please don't insult me, you know I love you more than anything so please tell me what's wrong," he pleaded with her.

Her eyes dropped and she shut her eyes she couldn't look him in the face, how could she look him in the face with this news? It was tarring her apart inside and she finally let the tears fall, she still couldn't believe this was happening she just wanted this to be a bad dream and let it be over with already to wake up and have it all just some nightmare.

She took a calming breath before she could speak what the doctors told her, "I...I have Bloodline poisoning."

Hiashi felt like someone had just hit him in the gut with a sledgehammer, he knew of that every person with a bloodline trait that illness. Sometimes there was a genetic anomaly and the bloodline actually turned on the person like a cancer. It was very hard to treat and had to be treated quickly, because if it reached a certain level then it became terminal.

"How...how far along is it?" He was surprised at how soft and weak his own voice sounded, there was no commanding presence in it anymore, there was no strength in it, it sounded totally alien to his own ears.

She looked up into his eyes hoping for some strength for this, "they don't know yet. I have to go back for more in-depth examination and then they'll start the treatments and see how it goes. If things get too bad, they might have to...to take out my eyes in order to save my life."

She started to tremble then, for a Hyuga there was no worse fate than to lose your eyes. You would become pitied by everyone in the clan and that kind of weakness was almost like a shame that you couldn't run away from. Some who had lost their eyes in battle ended up taking their own life than live with the shame. And it was hard to get new eyes implanted for their clan, their eyes were keyed to them in ways that made it difficult, like they were bonded to the person. Even a Hyuga giving their eyes to another ran a risk of being rejected.

Then Hannah felt the arms of her husband engulf her and she pulled him close burying her face into her husband, "I'm so scared Hiashi-kun."

"I know Hannah-chan I know, but we must have hope. You're strong and I know you can beat this," he said softly to her stroking her long hair. He wanted to believe that as well, she was the best part of his life and if she died he wasn't sure what he would do without her. He didn't want to think about that, as he held his wife as she softly sobbed against him. He prayed for the first time in a long time for his wife, they would wait and see what would happen, there was no need to worry everyone especially the children.

(next chapter 2 hour later)

Next up Chapter 15: Life and Times of Naruto