Promises

Summary: Naruto makes a vow. And he intends to keep it. "I will be the best damn Ninja this world's ever seen, or I will die trying!"

They laughed.

They always laughed.

They all stood there and mocked him.

Time and time again, they looked down upon him, and mocked him.

And time and time again, he'd run away, frightened, saddened and hurt by their taunting.

It had been an entire year full of taunting, full of mockery and disrespect.

It was an entire year of coming home, exhausted, to a decaying and cold apartment, a ratty blanket and a hard, unforgiving mattress.

A year's worth of water thrown at him, attempting to douse the fire that burned brightly.

All of that, endured just so he could be told that he'd have to repeat the year.

For a minute, he thought of giving up. He wasn't ready, not even near ready, and everyone was discouraging him from continuing on. All that had kept him going was stubborn pride and sheer willpower. None would begrudge his surrender, nobody would begrudge him a choice to wait out this coming year and come back when he was the appropriate age to start the academy.

For a minute, he thought of dedicating his life to getting back at all those who mocked him. To taunt, mock and make fun of those who had done the same to him.

For another minute, he thought of giving up in a different way, to slack and goof off.

Hard work had gotten him nowhere yet, but...

He remembered something.

He remembered a stormy night, where strong winds and fierce lightning bolts were common. And he remembered an old man, frayed and frazzled by the storm, holding onto a perfectly pristine box that had held a simple, but oh so utterly delicious cake and some candles. An old man who'd caught a cold that later turned out to be pneumonia from the event. He remembered tears falling off his face when he'd held onto the man's hand like it was a lifeline, a little time later, once the medical ninja had made the worst of his illness fade.

"Why?" he'd asked, charging so much emotion into that question that he felt his voice crack, a runaway sob attempting to interrupt him even in a monosyllable.

"I promised I would be there for you, didn't I?" the man had said, offering him a kindly smile.

That day had made an impact.

He had never, ever, broken a promise since.

And he had promised the old man that he would never, ever, not even for all the ramen in the world, give up.

"That's right," the boy said to himself. "I promised. I will be the best damn ninja this world's ever seen, or I will die trying!" he said, grim determination clear and decisive.

He had to start somewhere. And he had to start by doing something he'd never thought he'd find himself doing.

He looked at the oddly serpentine man that everyone steered clear of in the street and dropped to his knees. "Please, help me," he'd said, bowing his head so low he nearly touched the floor.

The man smiled a nasty smile that sent shivers down his spine and looked down upon him with cold, golden eyes that were reptilian in appearance. "There is much power and potential in you... yes, yes, I see. I would hate to see such potential wasted..."

Step forward. Reinforce legs with chakra. Leap forward and slightly to the right, bringing left knee forward.

Ignore the pain, focus, focus focus.

Right hook to jaw, feint to cover straight to unprotected solar plexus with leverage gained from the caught hook.

Use leverage from both caught arms to adjust oneself for double kick to chest. Brace oneself for impact.

Recover breath quickly, ignore burning on lungs and stomach area, roll back and push off with feet to leap away from counterattack. Land on three on tree. Concentrate chakra, thin sheeth between feet and bark. Stick.

Remove kunai from right thigh pouch, deflect thrown Shuriken, catch the Fuuma Shuriken. Ignore the pain from the edge digging into the palm and throw it back, followed behind by the kunai. Leap forward as opponent blocks the kunai, using kunai taken from left thigh pouch.

Slash at throat with second kunai.

Hold breath, close eyes for an instant, dive under possible threats, rolling forward, taking a third kunai and wielding one in each hand. Block six shuriken, ignore pain of seventh shuriken hidden in shadow of fifth.

Tense every muscle, mold chakra-

"ENOUGH!" a harsh yell rang through the darkenned Arena hidden deep beneath the bowels of Konoha.

The man clad in black and white holding a kunai to Naruto's neck relaxed immediately. Naruto's exhaustion caught up to him all at once and he fell to one knee. The man nodded at him, his face less expressive than any mask would be, and walked to the tree Naruto had used earlier, putting a hand on the bark that had gotten blasted off from Naruto's chakra aided leap.

The tree immediately shrank until it was but a simple seed.

"Good work, Tenzo-kun," the same voice that had yelled earlier said, growing closer as the sound of nearly silent steps was heard. "You, as well, Naruto-kun," he added.

"But, old man, I still cannot even touch Tenzo-sensei," Naruto protested the compliment.

"Nor do I expect you to. You are eight years old, Naruto. Your improvements in the last year have been truly astounding, but you won't be able to bridge the gap between yourself and one of our village's elite in just a year. Still, I have seen enough to proudly promote you to the rank of Genin," said the man in red and white robes, "so congratulations. Tell you what, to celebrate, I'll let you eat as much as you can at any restaurant you wish to go to."

It was absolutely no surprise that they wound up visiting Ichiraku Ramen.

Unbeknownst to the father and daughter duo that ran the stand, they'd accidentally become incredibly popular with the village's ANBU forces when they'd greeted a young, hungry and saddened Naruto with a bowl of steaming, delicious ramen. They just attributed the higher than normal shinobi clientele to the fact that the Third Hokage frequented their stand.

Naruto was introduced to his captain not much longer after his promotion to Genin.

The man didn't talk or smile much, and he was always working on something. What little free time he had, the man spent with his family.

Some would call Naruto odd for calling his thirteen years old captain a man.

But in the too short three months he'd known him so far, Crow was nothing short of a full adult with all the responsibility it entailed. Crow was everything Naruto wanted to be.

They were the sole two-man cell in the ANBU corps, and Crow was also tasked with overseeing his training, on top of his already existing duties. This led to them spending quite a bit of those three months in each other's presence.

To Naruto, it was a strange feeling. Crow's presence was calming, almost... soothing ever. He didn't judge or bemean. He just instructed, taught and explained. He was strict, a harsh taskmaster and unforgiving, but never unfair.

In the short time they'd had together, Naruto wondered if this was what it was like to have an older sibling.

Naruto looked at his captain for a full second.

That was longer than the usual single, instant-long glance he needed to tell what his captain was thinking. Whatever was afflicting him, it was something huge and painful.

"I have a long term solo assignment," the man had said, finally, after what seemed like hours of silence.

"I see," Naruto replied, frowning behind the porcelain white mask that covered his features, unlike his maskless captain. He understood what the captain meant.

A long term solo assignment was one of two things.

It was either a deep cover mission that would require him to infiltrate something or someone that could possibly take years of work...

Or, and here Naruto had to almost swallow to pull down the knot in his throat...

A suicide mission.

"Look after Sasuke for me," the Crow masked ANBU said, head bowed as he turned to leave.

"Yes, Captain, I promise!" he'd answered, almost mechanically.

"Thank you. For everything. It's been a pleasure serving with you," Crow said, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder and offering him one of the very few genuine smiles he'd ever seen from the man.

"I..." Naruto began, but had to look down at his lap, as he couldn't face the man no longer.

"Be strong. I know you will achieve your goals. I have faith in you."

Before the younger shinobi could answer, Crow was gone in a rush of leaves and smoke.

Naruto never saw Uchiha Itachi, also known as ANBU Captain Crow again.

He shed no tears for the gone patriot, and instead mourned him alone and in silence, sitting in his office for the remainder of his work hours.

Minutes before he was about to leave the office, he was interrupted by the supreme leader of Konohagakure, who had chosen to forego the ceremonial robes that day.

He set a fat white bottle on top of Crow's desk and put two saucers, one on each side. He poured a whitish, transparent liquid on each of them. The smell of it was strong and unpleasant.

Yet Naruto imitated the Hokage when he raised his own saucer, both of them meeting at a middle point. "A toast for the unsung heroes that make the great tree flourish," the Hokage proclaimed.

"Aye," Naruto replied, the slightest sadness creeping into his voice. "And a toast for all they've sacrificed themselves for."

"Aye, I'll drink to that!" the Hokage said, a grim smile on his face.

The liquied was unpleasant and tasted horrible. It burned Naruto's throat as it went down, yet he bore it with naught but a grimace.

It was the last assignment his captain had ever given him.

"Are you certain?"

Naruto closed his eyes and thought for a second. "An old man once taught me that promises are meant to be kept, no matter how much it hurts to do so," he finally replied.

"I see. Very well then," a man with more wrinkles than not in his face said, his eyes downcast for a moment, before he opened a drawer on his desk and placed a fat bottle he took from it on top o fit, right in the middle of the two towers of paper on either side of the desk.

He put a saucer on each side and quickly filled them up

"A toast for the unsung heroes," said the Hokage, lifting his saucer.

Naruto did the same.

He never did get used to that foul taste.

"Hiya! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be the next Hokage, and you all better believe it!" he yelled, a wide, cheerful grin that hid anything else that Naruto might have portrayed.

His eyes sought the boy he knew to be top of the class.
"And I'm gonna start by beating you!" he yelled, pointing at the sole remaining Uchiha in Konoha.