Learning From the Worst

Chapter Six: Flustered Obito

A silver haired boy was sneaking through an underbrush, stalking his prey.

"Are ya in position?"

"Yes, sensei"

"Hn"

"Ready"

"Eyes on target" the silver haired boy responded.

"Okay, capture the target and meet me at the edge of the woods." A whiskered blonde said into a headset.

Obsidian eyes hidden behind orange tinted goggles followed their target.

All four genin jumped to a disheveled feline with a red bow around its neck, Sasuke grabbing it.

Sasuke came to regret this.

The cat yowled and clawed and hissed at the Uchiha, until Obito pulled out a small bag of catnip. The cat instantly calmed down now in the other Uchiha's grasp, leaving a grumpy Sasuke in the background.

"Nice work Obito!" A blonde teen cheered after appearing out of nowhere.

"Thank you Naruto-sensei!" Obito responded, a slight blush tickling his cheeks from the compliment.

"Yes, but you forgot something." The blonde said, suddenly in his teacher-voice.
"This d-rank mission is 2500 ryo, meaning 500 ryo each for the mission. How much ryo did you spend on catnip to complete this mission Obito?"

"W-well the catnip was 800 ryo..." Obito mumbled, suddenly realizing his mistake.

Sasukes gave a smug grin before Naruto once again spoke.

"Was it worth it Obito?" Naruto asked, a cheerful tone lingering on the tip of his tongue

"N-no, sensei.." Obito groaned, kicking dirt while the cat still purred in his arms.

"Ah ah ah! That's where you're wrong Obito!" Naruto said. "While at first it's still a 300 ryo expense, it was actually a smart and worthwhile investment. Considering how often this cat runs away, you can use the catnip more than once, eventually leading to a friendly bond with Tora here. This will make retrieval many times easier." He explained, looking fondly to his fellow dead last.

Obito's eyes prickled with tears, not knowing how to respond to people thinking he was smart.

"Confidence, Obito. You're an important part of this team." He said gently, ruffling Obito's dark brown hair.

Sasuke glared daggers at Obito but Obito cared more for the praises his sensei had given.

Sakura was healing the scratches on Sasuke's face while the team walked to the hokage tower, Kakashi still observing his oddly mature sensei.

Kakashi was carefully observing his new sensei, and the way everyone looked at him. Sasuke was glaring at the blonde while Sakura looked up to him like an older brother. Obito's eyes shone with something Kakashi didn't quite understand but didn't like nonetheless.

Obito spoke up shortly after. "So, sensei, when did you graduate? I mean it's cool if you do-" Naruto cut off his rambling, turning to him and giving him a warm smile.

"I graduated at twelve with all the others, I was actually a dead last and the only reason I passed was because I defended Iruka-sensei from a traitor that tried to kill us both." He said casually, still strolling at the same pace. Sasuke looked smug while Obito's eyes just got wider.

"So you became a jonin in two years?!" His voice cracked in exasperation.

Naruto put his hands behind his head and turned to strolling backward so he was facing us while we walked. "Yup, I trained hard with one of the sanin to become a senjutsu and fuinjutsu master, got kidnapped by Danzo for a little while and learned kenjutsu while enduring rigorous torture, learned to cook ramen from Ayame-san, I adopted an animal named Ombu for a while, almost died getting the fifth to come to Konoha by myself, made a new ramen recipe and I got promoted through chunin right to jonin after dismantling the root forces single handedly." He listed off and Obito could feel himself pale at how much the cheerful blonde had went through in just two years.

"S-So did your teammates do the same thing?!" He squeaked.

Naruto chuckled a little before responding. "Nah, there were ten people who graduated so I was on a team with just my sensei."

Before anyone could comprehend all this new information he quickly whipped around as the hokage tower was in view.