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Not Quite
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Chapter Two: Watch where you step

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"Alright, brat, which one is your apartment?" Jiraiya had the boy tucked under his arm, unable to get away. He didn't want to go through that again, it had taken half an hour to catch him! If the boy transferred that wit and stamina into his ninja training and added stealth to it he doubted even the most experienced Chunin could find him. It was quite an achievement for a seven year-old. Dropping the kid onto the worn, wooden steps he followed the boy to his apartment in thought.

'Well, I'm stuck between anticipation from wanting to teach again, and annoyance at having to put up with his personality. Ugh, are all children like this? No, there would be a lot more 'Child abandonment' cases if that were true.' Shaking his head at his thoughts he'd noticed Naruto had stopped. Finally, they were there! The bold numbers 310 were etched into the door, but he didn't have time to observe more than that, however, as the door opened quicker than he suspected. 'What? It wasn't locked?' The thought was pushed from his mind when he took in the contents of the small place.

"It's clean?" He muttered in bafflement. The orange clad boy sent him a dirty look and sent about packing up his things. Jiraiya had to go through a lot of methods of persuasion to get the boy to listen to him. Finally he ended up yelling out something most untactful, and while it convinced Naruto to come with him, it didn't exactly make the boy like him all that much.

"Listen! There's no reason a seven year-old should live alone! It's not right, and just because all those damn fools in the village won't take you in doesn't mean I'm going to allow my student to grow up to be an undisciplined brat!" Jiraiya's face was red with anger, but it was only after the words left his mouth that he realized he was adding salt to fresh wounds.

Naruto didn't argue, but his playful manner disappeared. The rest of the walk to the apartment complex Naruto lived in was spent in tense silence, with Naruto glaring at the ground from under his right arm.

"Hey, sensei, I've got all my stuff. The rest came with the apartment." Naruto set down two medium sized boxes and walked back over and plucked a duffle bag off his bed.

Jiraiya just nodded, as nothing could surprise him at this point. "That's it? What's in the boxes?"

Naruto shrugged, "Dishes and such, clothes, and books. The second one is my ninja gear, mostly."

"Alright, first training exercise! Carry your possessions to my house. I'd suggest you get a good hold of them, because it's going to be a long walk!" Jiraiya ignored his student's stare of disbelief and went to leave. He supposed he earned the look, those two boxes probably weighed quite a bit for a grown man (excluding competent shinobi) with all that equipment, and dropping it would be a bad idea with the dishes. Still, it was a good training exercise. While his student was spacing out he would take the opportunity to leave. "I'm going to talk to the apartment manager and tell him you're moving. Make sure to clean out the refrigerator too!"

Jiraiya vaguely wondered if he wasn't becoming sadistic before shaking his head. 'Nah.'

About ten minutes later, after futilely searching two wrong floors, he found the manager/owner's apartment where he probably should have expected it; on the ground floor, and in the nicest looking room. After knocking, and hearing a vague "Come in" from inside, he entered.

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Naruto had hoped to leave all his leftover food (half of it had already expired) in the fridge as a "going away present" for the apartment manager that was ripping him off. Of course, it was only a few containers of milk and a few containers of ramen that he had half-finished but not willing to throw away, but it was a small bit of revenge anyway. As he bagged up the garbage and whatever remaining discarded items that belonged there he set the bag outside the door in a huff, clearly angry.

'What right does that old drunk have to come here and tell me how to run my life? I thought a teacher was just supposed to teach!' He looked around at his small apartment in search of anything he might have missed. He didn't find anything. 'Still... I don't suppose having someone look out for me for once would be such a bad thing.'

Catching sight of the descending sun from the window he'd realized this all happened in one day. One day, and everything that had made up his life for the past years was being changed. When he'd first understood what this apprenticeship entailed he'd been happy, but surprised. Someone to care for him? It had been his dream for years now! For any sort of acknowledgment other than the Hokage's. And then he had opened his mouth before he thought, as usual and fled.

It was just like all those times when people chased him for pranks, or something was being blamed on him, and he'd enjoyed the chase. That is, until his new sensei had caught up to him and pinned him with one arm while he asked for directions. He'd made another comment about why he had to move when the sannin seemed to snap. Contrary to his sensei's belief, he wasn't angry at him. There's no point in being angry about something that's true, right? Naruto just didn't like how his life had shaped up so far, and directed that anger at his academy teacher and everyone else that had deliberately put him down.

He just wanted to understand why, from what he could tell there was some situation surrounding him that he was never to know about, it just wasn't right. If he knew why he was hated maybe he could try to dissuade their beliefs? Or be able to put the villages hate behind him, he couldn't ignore their glares and whispers when all he wanted to do was hear more of them to have the chance to understand! He was too curious for his own good. With a pout, Naruto straightened up the last of his things before a maniacal grin took over his face.

Well, if he wasn't allowed to leave the spoils of his food as a reminder of his existence, why not leave a nice "present" behind?

Ten minutes later he had lightened the second box considerably, but for a good cause, and cautiously closed the door. With his possessions piled near his feet, Naruto placed himself on the railing with a wide grin. 'It'll be my greatest prank ever!' Fortunately, his patience wasn't tested very long as his sensei arrived back from the manager's office. With one look at the boys face, and the suspiciously closed door, the man knew he did something but wasn't up to caring about that filth of a man he left downstairs.

"Come on brat, I want to make it home before it becomes dark. That means were running!" Before leaving, though, Jiraiya tossed the boy a wad of money. "From that generous soul downstairs for 'mistakenly' charging you double. Now grab those boxes and follow me."

Naruto's grin dropped as he took notice of the man's words. 'Run?!' With a sigh he lifted the bulky and heavy boxes, with his duffle bag strapped to his back and shuffled forward and soon forced to run to keep up. Still, the grin didn't stray from his face for long, 'I'll never be able to beat that prank, it's a masterpiece!'

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An hour after Uzumaki Naruto ran after his sensei the apartment manager limped up the stairs cursing the "demon brat" quite fiercely. He obviously blamed the boy for the numerous bruises he'd acquired. Still, it was a joyous smile that overtook his face when he realized that the boy would finally be gone. Maybe he could even attract some people wanting to move in, since the boy was obviously bad for business.

Since he had never given the demon brat a key, for various vengeful reasons, he opened the door with a smug expression. A smug expression that faded once he stepped into what he could only call hell. Not that he had much time to ponder its similarities because soon after he tripped over a wire, which activated various unpleasant things, which activated more unpleasant things. The end result was a beaten man with bruises over his previously given bruises covered with various smelling substances and painted a familiar orange color.

The last image the man saw before passing out was a crude drawn like-ness of Naruto's grinning face with the message, "I hope you like my goodbye present!" written beside it. He wouldn't be found for another day when a resident was curious enough to brave the awful stench.

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It had been two day since Naruto had been taken in by Jiraiya. It had been decided that he wouldn't attend the academy for two weeks for the sake of adjusting to each other and filling the gaps the academy teacher had purposely left open in his knowledge. Neither was happy with the idea, but it was the Hokage's suggestion, and while Naruto would have gone anyway, Jiraiya had, after some persuasion, agreed it was a decent idea.

For the young boy of seven, it seemed like some of the worst days of his life. The house was decently sized, far away from the main village, and he was given a nice room and allowed to go just about anywhere but…the old ninja didn't seem to take into appreciation any of the things he enjoyed! There wasn't allowed time for him to plot his pranks, and his supplies went "mysteriously missing" after his first day staying there. Nothing he said could get the old man to slip up and admit that he took them. Second of all, he forced Naruto to eat vegetables and other nasty things that weren't ramen. If he didn't eat them, Jiraiya wouldn't train him for the day, and he decided not learning cool jutsu and ninja tricks weren't worth it.

The biggest horror of his life, however, was that he had to wear this completely boring outfit. Black and grey was the extent of its colorfulness, and it was what the boy fought the most over. It offered him a sort of anonymity that he didn't appreciate when he walked the streets; everyone ignored him and took no notice to him. He just seemed like another kid to them. To Naruto, this like a hammer to his life's work, while some would think that anonymity was better than being glared and whispered about, he had always valued that over being dismissed completely as if he didn't exist.

After several long arguments, and witnessing the boy's rage when his previous outfit was destroyed when he refused to wear the other, Jiraiya finally got the reason the boy was so vengeful about the lack of color.

"If I wear bright colors, no one will be able to ignore me! With this thing they won't even notice I exist!" Naruto yelled back at the man, face red with eyes almost shut in frustration. If he hadn't already been defeated by this man numerous times over these arguments he would have charged at him and tried to beat sense into him, but as it were it was better just to yell at him. The man hadn't been able to shut him up yet, at least, so that way of getting his point across was still open.

Jiraiya looked surprised for a moment, before hitting the boy on the head. "You fool, that's the whole point of a ninja. Not being noticed! If you want to be flashy, go be a samurai." The words seemed to have made an impression on the boy, enough that he was listening at least. Good. "A ninja is to stay hidden until he is in the best position to make a move! If those villagers don't appreciate you, grow stronger under their noses, gain allies and friends in the background, and then when you have a foolproof chance to make your move, you take it! They wouldn't be able to say a word otherwise if you had people backing you up, and the power to intimidate the few that would go against that." Jiraiya gave the boy one more glance, and then picked up his notebook and left the boy to think.

For several minutes the boy sat frozen, thinking over the words his sensei had told him. Naruto was stricken, had he doing this wrong the whole time? The old mans words made sense, in a strange way. He still loved orange, but he understood the art of being unnoticed, he had to if he was ever to have accomplished the pranks he had. It wasn't his strong point to sit and brood for too long, however, so he decided to go and train the kata the man had taught him earlier in the day.

It wasn't for several more hours that he approached the man, and swallowed his pride to say the words, "I think you're right." Naruto frowned at the lack of attention he was getting, and frustration at being ignored led him to spurt out one of his ideas from earlier. "But I think I could just as easily accomplish that while dressing in orange!" He practically yelled, and even without that Jiraiya would have taken notice to the words.

"Really, how so?" The man injected with a bored voice, still scribbling away on the paper. He was intrigued at how the boy planned to accomplish that, however.

"If I dress in orange, they are going to notice me, but they won't think I'm anything serious. I know I can hide and keep unnoticed if I try when wearing it, how do you think I was able to prank your doorway?" The boy grinned, enjoying being able to find a way out of wearing the ugly clothing. "And enemies will underestimate me just as much! They won't expect a serious ninja to dress in bright attention drawing colors, so they'd choose another target." Nodding, Naruto took little notice of the man now, plotting how he would take people down by taking advantage of their dismissal of him. It felt like the perfect prank!

Jiraiya on the other hand, was impressed. Most children and teenagers were obsessed with looking cool and better for their peers. While this was sort of the case with Naruto, as only he would think wearing bright orange was cool, he also was in the position to take advantage of the situation. Few people appreciated being underestimated, but it was easily one of a ninja's greatest tools. The boy didn't need to hold back in the academy, as hardly anyone but parents and the villagers took those grades seriously… He would just have to keep the bit about being trained by a Sannin quiet.

Feeling unusually proud of the brat, Jiraiya felt like treating the boy a bit. "Alright brat, lets go into the village before it gets late." He frowned a bit, wondering how the boy avoided whiplash from snapping his head up so quickly, but dismissed the thought quickly enough. "We have to get you a more suitable outfit than your last one, and perhaps we'll have time to get some dinner at Ichikairu's."

It took them a while to sort out the specifics of the outfit. Jiraiya wanted to get something durable and functional to train in, but it would be difficult to find something like that in the colors the boy appreciated. It had to be commissioned, then, and getting that done was an effort in itself. He still didn't understand the idiotic hatred these people had for him, but it was no matter, once he introduced himself fully they were helpful soon enough. Perhaps it didn't matter so much if he was acknowledged as a sannin's apprentice, it would give the boy some respect, but he himself had been becoming underestimated in recent years… it was doubtful that too many would be impressed about it.

"The outfits will be done by tomorrow, Jiraiya-sama." The man glanced nervously towards the door, and Jiraiya took his queue. The man was obviously afraid to be seeing doing business with anyone associated with the boy, no matter who it was. 'Ah well, I'm sure I can make that attitude change some. Leaving the brat alone in my house seems like a death wish, so they are going to have to get used to it.' He grinned and allowed Naruto to dash ahead on the way to the ramen shop. "Maybe this won't be so bad, after all."

Of course, that was proven wrong a hundred times over during the next week and a half. He had to commend the boy on his hiding skills while wearing that color, but other than that it had been unpleasant. Somehow the boy managed to replenish his pranks, and Jiraiya decided that he might as well teach the boy how to make his skill with them practical towards the ninja trade. Soon enough, his property was a dangerous place to trespass unwary.

The boy took making traps as if he'd never done anything else in his life, 'Which,' the man mused, 'was true in a way.' Wire became short in supply, and the boy seemed to have a knack with Gen-jutsu that he'd never noticed before. Some of those traps had an almost unnoticeable trace of it, helping the almost flawless ground seems even more so. It seemed like an unconscious effort, as the boy didn't seem to have the control to do even that small amount knowingly, but it wasn't a completely uncommon thing. Some superficial genin with talent had been noticed to subconsciously cover up some mark or another that they were obsessed about.

Other than getting the boy's taijutsu up to a decent level for an academy student, and covering the handsigns and weapons throwing, the biggest thing they would have to tackle would be chakra control. That could wait, however, until after the boy resumed the academy. Now it was just trying to get the boy to listen to his lectures about important things he needed to know about ninja life and how it was run, and training the basics.

Jiraiya was almost as excited as Naruto, albeit for different reasons, to see the end of that two week period.

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End Chapter

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Note: Yeah, this took a while. Sorry. Wasn't in much of a mood for fanfic, and then when that returned it took a while for it to extend to Naruto. Hope it's decent enough, I wrote one part about a year ago, and another just today so… not sure if it'll flow together well. Ah well. Next chapter will be posted soon, I hope. It depends on my internet status. 3k words is decent, though, right? It's usually the extent of where I'm sick of writing for the night, so I suppose anymore probably won't happen as smoothly. Nevertheless, I'll try if it people like the idea of a 5k better. Thank you for all the reviews so far.

- Rai