As the three girls walked into the ice cream shop they made their way to a table close enough to hear the cloud groups conversation but far enough they could still whisper and be unheard. Ino made sure the table was behind Naruto so that he hopefully would not notice Hinata staring at him.
"What's up with all these foreigners? I've seen a few more walking around the village today. Are they all here for the chunin exams?" Ino asked no one in particular.
"They must be Ino-pig. Why else would there be so many ninja from so many different villages in one place?" Sakura answered back.
"While Ino and Sakura whispered about the ninja in the shop Hinata had her eyes glued to the back of Naruto's head as he talked among his group.
"Yo big sis, what are you gonna get me as a gift when I pass this exam with flying colors?" Said blond asked the older blond.
"IF you pass the exam I might consider giving you back those books of your I took when you were ten."
"Ah! I can finally get back my icha icha books!?Thanks sis!"
The three girls each had very different responses to this information.
"He reads those nasty little porn books, like Kakashi sensei!? I already don't like this guy!"
"What an amatuer getting caught with those books. I've had them since I was eight and my parents still don't know about them."
"H-he reads icha icha t-too?"
Neither of the two groups noticed when a third trio of genin entered the shop. They were all rain village genin, wearing wet suits and breathing apparatuses.
"That's him isn't it? The jinchuriki that lord pain wants us to observe." One of the three rain village genin whispered to his comrades.
"Yeah. The jinchuriki of the nine and one tails are still young and their skill sets are relatively unknown. Our mission is to observe them and determine their threat level."
"How do we do that boss?"
"Lord pain wants us to fight him if possible. I've got an idea to bait him, follow my lead."
The three rain genin walked over to the girls and their leader leaned on their table with one arm.
"Well what do we have here? Who knew such a backwater village like this could have such pretty little ladies. Why don't you three girls come with me and my boys here and show us a good time." The leader said in an egotistical tone.
"As if freak show, get out of here before I kick that stupid face right off your shoulders!"
"Ooooh I like it when little girls get angry. Why don't you try it pinky and see what happens?"
As Sakura made to punch him Hinata and Ino grabbed her fist to prevent her from striking.
"Sakura if you hit him you could get in trouble and be kicked out of the chunin exams!"
"I-Ino is right S-Sakura. P-please calm down."
Sakura calmed down a little but she started staring daggers at the three ninja in front of them.
"Oh where did all that fire go pinky? Too much of a coward to fight ba-"
"LARIAT!"
All of a sudden an orange flash collided with the rain ninja and sent him flying into the wall. The orange flash was none other than a very angry Naruto.
"YOU! I hate people who bully others like you! You have one chance to get the hell out of here before I wipe the floor with you and your two freaky little cronies."
Said cronies were scrambling to pick up their fallen comrade.
"What the hell was that?"
"This idiot just got knocked the fuck out is what happened."
"Pick his dumbass up and let's get out of here."
The two genin picked up their leader and ran out as fast as they could.
With those idiots gone Naruto turned to the three girls with a big grin plastered on his face.
"Sorry you three had to see that. It really gets my blood boiling when people act like that."
Naruto then held out his hand to the three girls who were still shocked at the display of strength they just saw. They soon snapped out of it and one by one shook his hand and introduced themselves.
"Thanks for that. My name is Sakura Haruno. I'm a genin for the village."
"Hi my name is Ino Yamanaka and I'm the heir to the Yamanaka clan."
"U-uh h-hi. M-my name i-is Hi-hinata hy-hyuga." Hinata turned almost tomato red when her hand made contact with Naruto's. She let it stay on his for a while until Naruto broke contact.
"I'm the hero Naruto Uzumaki! At your service."
"Hero?" Sakura and Ino asked at the same time?
"Yep! I'm a wicked cool hero who goes around and beats up all the bad guys! Just last month I stomped some evil rich guy who was using rogue ninja to oppress a fishing village in the land of waves. They even named a bridge after me!"
"Naruto no one wants to hear about your past missions." Karui said as she and the rest of the group walked up.
"I'll see about having those rain genin punished. Behavior like that is unacceptable." Yugito said.
"Oh, this is my team by the way. The blond one is my big sis Yugito, the angry one is my teammate Karui, and the guy with the candy is Omoi."
"What you call me punk!"
"Karui calm down. If you beat up Naruto now he won't be in top shape for the chunin exams and we'll all die."
"Bah! I could pass the chunin exams without you two idiots!"
As Karui and Omoi bickered Naruto and Yugito offered to let the three girls join them to which they all agreed to.
After they all sat down Yugito started talking to the younger girls.
"So are any of you girls going to take the chunin exams this year?"
"You bet! All three of us are gonna take it and kick some serious ass!"
"Oh are you three girls on the same team?"
"No. Good thing too. I don't know if I could last if I had to spend more than a few hours with ino pig."
"Right back at you forehead girl!"
Yugito had a laugh at the two girls playful banter but noticed Hinata was visibly nervous and not talking to anyone. She was also taking occasional glances at Naruto and blushing ever so slightly.
"Could that one be attracted to him? No way. A hyuga of all people must hate the cloud after the kidnapping attempt. Her forehead is clear too so she must be a main branch."
Her thoughts were interrupted as their ice cream finally arrived. The group continued to have small talk for a while until Yugito said they had to get to their hotel soon and bid the girls farewell. As soon as they were out of earshot the girls started to talk among themselves.
"Hinata, do you think that guy was him? Was he the same boy from when you were younger?"
"I-I think s-so Ino."
"So what do you think? Are you gonna ask him out or what?"
"... No."
"Why not?"
"F-Father hates the cl-cloud. I-If he kn-knew about me ea-eating with so-some he'd be v-very angry."
"Why does he hate the cloud so much?" Ino and Sakura both asked.
"I don't know. A-All I remember is that something b-bad happened when I-I was five with a cl-cloud ninja. I-I don't remember wh-what h-happened exactly b-but ever since then f-father forbids me fr-from being n-near cloud ninja."
"Screw that! If you like someone to hell with what your dad thinks."
Hinata sat silent for a while while Ino and Sakura just looked at her.
"I-I sh-should be ge-getting home n-now."
Hinata ran off and left Sakura and Ino in the shop with sad looks on their faces.
Meanwhile Naruto and his team made their way to the hotel. They were walking down an alleyway, Karui and Omoi bickering about some nonsense while Naruto was talking to his big sis.
"Those three girls were really cute. I think the hyuga kind of liked me!"
"I noticed that too. She kept blushing at you."
"Yeah, I could feel really warm chakra coming from her. I like people with warm chakra. Do you think I might be able to be friends with her sis?"
"I don't know Naruto. After the kidnapping attempt all those years ago I'm surprised she doesn't hate you for simply being a cloud ninja."
"But we imprisoned the guy responsible for that didn't we?"
"Yes but not before he convinced the hyuga to hand over the body of the man who killed the kidnapper. The idiot thought that he could get the byakugan that way. They just put a seal on the man to keep his byakugan from being analyzed. By the time the Raikage returned from his trip to the chunin exams that year it was already too late for him to do anything. He was at least able to imprison the mastermind, but the gesture wasn't enough and we haven't been on good terms with the people of this village since."
"Well... if the people here don't like us I'll just have to make them like us! It'll be good practice for when I become Raikage anyway!"
"Hey don't get ahead of yourself kid. You still gotta pass the chunin exams before you even consider becoming our kage."
"Bring it on! I'll pass this exam with flying colors and be one step closer to my dream!"
Yugito was smiling at her little brothers enthusiasm. They soon reached their destination and took up residence in their rooms. The boys were in one room while the girls were in the room next to them."
In the boys room Omoi was sitting at a table reading the newspaper while Naruto was laying on one of the two beds.
"Yo Omoi, what do you say we go walking around some more? I don't feel like sitting around in this room all day."
"Yugito sensei said to stay here. If we don't listen to her she'll get mad at us and then she'll use her crazy fire powers to burn us to a crisp and we won't be able to take the exam."
"You worry too much. Sis wouldn't do that."
Suddenly Naruto sat up and looked toward the window.
"What is it Naruto?"
"Just an old friend. Tell sis not to wait up."
And with that Naruto opened the window and jumped out. Omoi looked out the window to see Naruto talking to a leaf ninja. He was a tanned man with a scar running across his nose. The two talked for a few seconds then walked off together.
"Yugito sensei is gonna be pissed."
Naruto and his old friend headed to a small ramen stand called Ichiraku ramen. It had been a pretty slow day at ichiraku ramen until one blond knucklehead and his older friend walked into the stand. The owner of the stand turned around to greet them as he did all the customers but stopped himself when he saw that familiar spiky yellow head.
"Naruto? Is that you Naruto?"
"Teuchi! I haven't seen you in years!"
"Naruto I never thought I'd see you again after I heard you became a cloud ninja."
"I'm in town to take the chunin exams. I'll be here for a while and I plan on eating my fill of your delicious ramen."
"That's good to hear. You and Iruka were my best customers all that time ago."
Naruto and Iruka sat down and ordered their ramen. As teuchi prepared it the two old friends started catching up.
"So Iruka how have things been here in the village?"
"It's not the same without you here pulling pranks all the time. It's really boring. Speaking of pranks have you pulled any good ones in the cloud village?"
"Hehe well my big sis is pretty good at catching me before I manage to pull off the big ones."
"Big sis?"
"Yeah, I was taken in by another one of Killer bee's students. Her name is Yugito. She's really nice. She's also single." Naruto said that last part with a devilish smirk.
Iruka started blushing "Why'd you bring that up?"
"Oh no reason. Hows your love life Iruka?"
"That's none of your business!"
"Oh, so you're single too? You should go out with my big sis then."
Iruka was blushing like mad and tried to hide it by devouring his ramen. Naruto was laughing his head off and Teuchi was smiling at the antics of his two favorite customers. After the two finished eating their ramen Iruka paid their bill and they started to walk together.
"The village still looks the same as it did all of those years ago."
"Yeah, not much has changed. You know the Hokage would really like to see you Naruto."
"I figured as much. Tell him I'll go see him later tonight. My big sis wanted to talk to him too."
"What does she want to discuss with him?"
"She wants to chew him out for letting me be kidnapped by Orochimaru all those years ago."
"Oh..."
Silence fell over the two as they walked.
"I don't blame anybody in the village for that Iruka. Killer Bee taught me how to let go of my hate a long time ago."
"That's good to hear. This village is full of good people Naruto. Just because they fear what they don't understand doesn't make them"
"NARUTO!"
Both men looked up to see a very angry Yugito staring down at them from the rooftops.
"Oh crap."
"Is that who I think it is Naruto?"
"Yep, that's my big sis."
Yugito jumped down and grabbed Naruto by his ear.
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO LEAVE THE HOTEL ROOM!"
"AH! SIS I WAS JUST GETTING RAMEN WITH AN OLD FRIEND!"
"I DON'T CARE! I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS YOU INSUBORDINATE LITTLE IDIOT!"
Iruka cleared his throat to try to get Yugitos attention. Sadly for him it worked.
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TAKING MY LITTLE BROTHER OFF TO GOD KNOWS WHERE!?"
"My name is Iruka. I was a very good friend of Naruto's before he left the village. I was just taking him out for some ramen. I'm sorry for not asking your permission first ma'am. I promise it won't happen again."
Yugito started to calm down a little after hearing Iruka talk.
"It better not. For your sake as much as his." She lets go of Naruto's ear.
"Ow. My poor ear." Naruto said getting a few tears in his eyes from the stinging pain.
"I apologize for worrying you miss."
Naruto started to compose himself and decided to introduce the two.
"Sis this is the man I told you about. He was one of the few people in the village who was nice to me when I was a kid. Iruka this is my big sis Yugito."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Iruka said as he offered his hand.
"Likewise." Yugito took his hand and shook it.
"Big sis, Iruka is single too so you and him should go out sometime."
Both adults blushed like crazy.
"Naruto!" They both yelled.
"What? Weren't you complaining about how you can't get laid, not long before we came here?"
"Ah! The things I talk about with my friends in the privacy of my house aren't things you should be listening to, or repeating you little brat!"
"I can't help it if you and your friends get loud when you drink."
Yugito was blushing at a level that would rival Hinata. Iruka decided to take this opportunity to speak up.
"Um, miss Yugito?"
"Y-yes?"
"If you don't mind I would like to spend some time talking to you. Not as a date exactly but I'd like to know more about the person who is taking care of my little friend. What say you and I meet up in the morning and go to me and Naruto's favorite ramen stand."
"Make it an ice cream shop and you have a deal."
"Ice cream it is then. I'll see you in the morning. I have to go see the Hokage now. Naruto informed me that you and him plan on seeing him tonight and I should let him know."
Iruka jumped away on the rooftops leaving Naruto and Yugito alone.
"You got a date sis! Good for you." Naruto exclaimed with a big grin.
"It's not a date brat. You aren't off the hook either. You're getting some serious punishment later."
Yugito grabbed Naruto by the ear and started dragging him toward their hotel.