A Growing Affection

Chapter 4: Training II, The Hokage's Strength

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"Oh man," Naruto paced fretfully, "What does Grandma Tsunade want now?"

He had been summoned to the Hokage's office. At first he had hoped it was some urgent mission, but there did not appear to be anyone else there, so he decided he had been wrong. The Genin wracked his brain for anything he might have done to get himself in trouble.

The door opened, and a well-endowed woman, seemingly in her early thirties, emerged. Her hard brown eyes fell on Naruto, and for a second her expression was one of unfading affection. But before he could see that, she assumed an arrogant smirk.

"Ah, Naruto," she said with feigned disdain, "What are you doing here?"

Instantly all thoughts of playing it polite vanished. Naruto pointed at her and shouted, "Are you going senile, old lady? You told me to come here!"

"You ungrateful whelp!" she raised a fist, "You should be grateful to receive an invitation from a beautiful, important, young woman such as myself."

"You haven't been young since long before I was born."

"Do you want to take this outside?" she advanced menacingly. They glared at each other for another second, before breaking down into peals of laughter.

"Come inside," the Fifth motioned into her office.

"Ladies first," Naruto both bowed and winked. In response, she pushed him through the door.

"So why did you want me to come here?" Naruto asked, settling into one of the chairs opposite her desk, "Do you have a special mission for me?

"No," she grinned mischievously, "You could almost say the opposite is true. I'm going to be your new sensei, for a little while at least."

"Really? That's awesome," Naruto almost leaped out of the chair. But then his eyes narrowed, "Wait, you're not going to teach me healing jutsu, are you?"

Tsunade frowned slightly as she thought about that.

"No, I was not. But now that you mention it, that's not a bad idea. I think all ninja should know the basics of medical jutsu, in case the team's medical-nin is missing or injured. If Sakura got hurt, you'd want to be able to help her, wouldn't you? And with the amount of chakra you possess, even if you don't have any talent for healing, you might be able to save someone through brute force."

"But that's not why you are here today," she digressed, "There are certain aspects of your ninja skills..."

The Hokage was cut off by a quiet knock on the door.

"Good, your training partner is here," she turned and walked back to the door.

"Partner?" Naruto sounded dejected.

"Yes. Your history shows that you advanced fastest when you have someone at your own level to either compete against or help. So I picked another ninja in need of similar assistance to work with you."

"Come in, Hinata," the female Sannin said as she opened the door, "You are just in time to hear me go through a list of Naruto's shortcomings as a ninja."

"Hey!"

"Oh, no, I don't... I can come back later," the daughter of the Hyuga clan took a step back from the door.