better left unsaid

Chapter 12: The Futility of Preparation

Naruto let out a yawn as he sat in Shiho's house at her kitchen table. It had been a few days since he had returned from his very long excursion on dual missions; his original C-rank mission and Team 10's A-ranked reinforcement mission for Team 7. Asuma had told everyone that after the compounding missions had been completed, they all got a week off from doing anything, and Naruto decided to spend a few of his days doing nothing to keep from burning out.

So he decided to hang out with his bookworm friend and see what she had been up to while he had been gone. He had given her the play-by-play of both missions and saw her face light up in excitement when he told her how well things had turned out, however he saw her frown visibly when he got to the part about Zabuza and Haku.

"I'm glad that worked out for you Uzumaki-kun." Shiho said, taking a seat at the same table with tea she had prepared for both of them, "But the next time, don't ever do that again." She noticed him look down, "I know that you just wanted to save someone that you thought was your friend, but when your 'friend' is supposed to be your enemy it could be really dangerous. What would you have done if this Haku person had been bloodthirsty enough to kill your teammates instead of incapacitate them? No report would have been able to explain that away. You would have lost your team and probably your career."

"I know…" Naruto said out loud. He really did know. He had played it through his head a thousand times since it actually happened. If Shikamaru and Ino had been killed because he had wanted to 'do the right thing' he would probably have never gotten over it. Even now he still kicked himself eight times every day over it. The fact that he could replicate himself and the fact that his clones had a propensity to talk shit to him when they weren't fighting didn't help matters at all either, "I don't like it, but I know that now Shiho-chan. It won't ever happen like that again."

When he said he didn't like it, that was probably the most honest thing he could have said at the moment. So now trying to be a decent human being would end up getting him and his friends killed? Apparently the world really was that messed up. And he was still too weak for what he needed to be. For him being the muscle of Team 10 he just wasn't strong enough and the battle with Haku proved a very valid hole in his game that Sasuke had not-so-subtly wordlessly pointed out afterwards, although the young Uchiha himself was unable to take advantage of it during their skirmish.

If Naruto and his clones couldn't get close enough to grab his opponent then there wasn't much he could do. If he could get close, but his opponent still could kick his head in or stab him before he grabbed them then all of his taijutsu was pretty much useless.

Now granted, not every opponent he faced would have the Sharingan to clock him and each of his clones position in slow motion as they came towards them, but that simply wasn't going to cut it any further. That just wasn't going to fly against anyone stronger than him. If he had to fight Sasuke again he wasn't sure if he'd be able to get close that easily again, and if he ever wanted to beat Tenten he needed to step it up, because she would be throwing more weapons than Sasuke did and he and his clones both knew that she didn't miss. Another Henge trick like the one from before wouldn't save him the next time, and he wasn't as fast as he thought he was. He could be outmaneuvered and then he and his team were in trouble.

Shiho had let Naruto come over for lunch as she had been granted a short day at work and was free. It gave them both some time to catch up, and finally getting to hear about his first mission seemed like as good a way to do so as any. But now it seemed that the conversation had settled into the negative parts of his most recent experience, "What are you thinking about Uzumaki-kun?"

Naruto's face twisted slightly before he spoke, "I need to get better. I didn't need you or Asuma-sensei to tell me that we shouldn't have walked away from that, I already knew, I thought they were dead. I messed up." He looked over at Shiho who was listening to him intently as she drank her tea, "So do you know what I can do? Until I get bigger the scroll says I can't learn anymore of the Nebaiken moves that it has since I'm still short…" He finished with a grumble.