Better Left Unsaid | By Kenchi618

Chapter 3: The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

AN-Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and unless I missed a gift stashed under my tree in the form of legal documentation that more or less summarizes to "Kenchi618 now owns Naruto effective immediately" I don't think it's in the cards this year. Oh well, next year's always up for grabs. Santa better pay what he owe!

Naruto had been frequenting the library pretty much every day with a few clones. He wanted to make enough to fill the library with them but both Atsutu and Shiho weren't going to tolerate a library full of Narutos when only one was more than enough to raise a ruckus and cause a disturbance, thus forcing him to keep the clones at a minimum, usually around six. Naruto pitied his clones, Shiho had them reading the books she picked out to help him along in his knowledge as a shinobi. She was a nice enough girl, but reading was still ultra-boring, not even a new friend could make him think otherwise.

She didn't even have him learning cool stuff like he wanted. After she realized how much basic knowledge he lacked Shiho saw to it that she drilled something into his head to make sure that it stuck, and her sensei didn't have any problems with her doing that, especially since she had Naruto's clones helping out keeping the place organized. By the end of the week one of the things drilled into his head was how to replace books and scrolls that other shinobi had checked out and returned. Naruto's clones went over basic tactics and combat strategies, yes, at least things that Shiho thought a genin needed to know anyway. In addition to that she introduced him to the immediate geography of Hi no Kuni and its surrounding nations so that he didn't look a complete horse's ass when he went outside of the country on missions.

While Naruto's clones suffered indoors he took his business to the woods where he would go over his taijutsu. His choice of using Nebaiken (Sticky Fist) seemed like the most tailor made for him at the moment but he had to make sure his taijutsu was decent enough for it to even work. This led to him doing the thing from the other day, working with his clones to trap melee attacks like the Academy scroll instructed him, as he realized it wasn't in the other one due to it being an intermediate scroll.

He would have skipped straight to learning the new style if he hadn't been training his moves in the exact place he had been trying to the other day, where he once again ran into Tenten, this time with some kid with long brown hair and white eyes. Naruto didn't like that guy straight from the first meeting as he looked at him like he was stupid when he told Tenten what he had been doing when she found him again.

Tenten quickly informed him that he should finish learning what the Academy scroll had to teach him before anything else. When he got all haughty and asked her how she knew she just gave him a deadpan look and asked him if he wanted her to go get Rock Lee or someone worse. Naruto politely declined that offer and took her word for it for two reasons; she already proved she could beat him so what could it hurt to actually listen to someone that proved they were stronger than him, and he didn't even feel like seeing Lee so soon after getting dropkicked in the face, he sure as hell didn't want to see someone that Tenten labeled as worse.

She had a point as well that she had the benevolence to explain to put it in perspective for him. Naruto could start from the Nebaiken scroll and master every little thing on it. It wouldn't do him any good knowing all of the slick techniques available after latching onto an opponent if he couldn't even get a hold of them in the first place. After an interrupting grunt from the guy that Naruto assumed was her teammate as well as Lee, Tenten ran off leaving Naruto to his own devices once more.

The problem was that Naruto's taijutsu wasn't necessarily bad per se. The issue was that when the spars in class started a few years back Naruto… kind of dominated. It was the only thing he was really good at when they began. He never really had to study for the entire year because he was always able to outlast his opponents and wear them down for a win. Everyone else kept getting better and learning technique while Naruto coasted on his laurels for as long as he possibly could in the category since he hit just as hard if not harder than anyone else and could take ten times the damage others could before calling it quits. And he wound up coasting all the way to graduation in this case as it was his one saving grace on his grades.