Bonds ➳ SasuNaru

Two | The Decree: A Forbidden Secret Revealed!

Naruto was scrubbing away at the stone faces that he'd painted on earlier.

"This sucks," Naruto huffed, glaring at the stone. "Loser."

Iruka sat on top of the stones, arms crossed. "You’re not going home till you’ve cleaned up every single drop of paint," he said sternly.

Naruto stopped scrubbing and looked up. "So what? It’s not like there’s anyone waiting at home for me." He went back to scrubbing.

Iruka looked down at Naruto a bit sadly. "Naruto?"

Naruto looked up again, eyes narrowed and a pout on his face. "What do you want now, sensei?"

"Well, I was just thinking. Maybe after you clean this all up, I can take you out for some ramen. The good stuff. What do you think?"

Naruto grinned massively. "Now that’s some serious motivation! I’ll have this clean in no time!"

–

Later that night, Naruto and Iruka were sitting at the ramen shop, Naruto slurping up his noodles.

"Naruto?"

"Mmmm…" Naruto hummed around his mouthful of noodles.

"Why would you do that to the Hokage faces?" Iruka asked, looking at the blond. "I mean, you know who the Hokage are, don’t you?"

"Course I do," Naruto replied, finishing off his bowl with a sigh. "Everybody knows. They were the greatest shinobi of their time, right? The best of the best. Undefeated ninja champs. And the Fourth Hokage’s the one who saved the village from the Nine-Tailed Fox. He was the most amazing."

"Then why did you…?"

"Cause I’m going to be greater than any of them. Me. Naruto. The next Hokage!" Naruto pointed at Iruka with his chopsticks. "A ninja legend! Then everyone will have to stop disrespecting me. Believe it!" Iruka sucked up the noodle hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Naruto swallowed. "Uh, by the way, I kinda want to ask a little favor, sensei."

"You want another bowl?" Iruka asked, although it was more of an assumption of sorts.

Naruto shook his head. "Uh-uh. I... I want to try on your headband. Come on, Please!?"

"Uh…" Iruka motioned to his headband. "Oh this? No way. You can only wear the leaf headband when you finally graduate from the academy and become a ninja. You’ve gotta pass the test tomorrow."

Naruto pouted. "That is so uncool!"

Iruka laughed. "Hey, is that why you took off your goggles?"

"… Ugh…! I want another bowl!"

Iruka laughed again.

–

The next day, Iruka stood in front of the class. "We will now start the final exam. When your name is called, proceed to the testing room. The final test will be on... the clone jutsu."

Naruto puts his hands up to his head, pulling at his hair slightly. 'Ugh! That’s my worst technique! Great. I’m never gonna pass!'

On the table was a bunch of leaf headbands. Naruto walked up, as he was first, and got into a stance.

'Alright. Get it together, Naruto. You can do this. Believe it.' He made a hand sign. "Clone jutsu!"

The cloud disappeared, and Naruto looked to his right. Lying belly down on the floor, with it's tongue out, is a clone of Naruto. It was a little… pathetic. Naruto laughed nervously and Iruka had one of those looks on his face.