How to Survive a Naruto Reincarnation

Step 20: Don't give in to defeat.

Yamato/Tenzo finally showed up to start working on my house. 

"So sorry for the long wait!" He apologized the following morning. "We're here to finally get started on your house. We should be done before autumn." 

"Thanks a bunch. Really appreciate it." 

"Right, we'll have to redo a good deal of the structure, so fair warning, you'll be camping in the skeleton of a house." 

*****

Since my house was finally getting fixed up to handle winter and storms, Yamato/Tenzo and his...friends? Not-necessarily-ANBU-coworkers? Whoever showed up at my shack routinely. 

That means, every time I went out, either my house was held up by who-knows-what or was in the process of figuring out their existential crisis. 

I'm pretty confident, Yamato/Tenzo is trying to sell me the homeless aesthetic. 

Despite my reservations, my house did get better. One day, I only had a tarp covering the roof. The next day, I didn't have a roof. Or a roof for awhile

While my house was being fixed up, I had a routine of visiting the kids. Sakura usually joins me.

We visit Hinata regularly at the rehab center first (because we know where she is). Sakura ends up staying longer and reads books to her while Hinata is recovering. When Hinata started getting better, Sakura brought little shortbread cookies to nibble on. Sometimes, we got to escort her outside to get fresh air (with a family-hired nurse). 

Hinata gets cute tiny cookies √

Next up, we would look for Shino. He's the second most likely student to find. Head to any of the forests and you'll probably find him, sitting like a monk among bugs. Good for him. Other times, he's with his father at home. If we find him, we leave a lunchbox for him. 

Shino gets food √ 

Naruto is hard to miss, but you can't really pinpoint his location. He's spent a good deal of the month chasing down Hatake the Late. I think maybe at some point, Hatake's actually being a responsible teacher and teaching, but my expectations for this guy are so far down. Since we can't find him all the time, I pay a visit to Ichiraku Ramen and pay in advance for one bowl of ramen. 

Naruto gets pre-paid ramen √ 

Sasuke is...not training. He's spent exactly zero amounts of effort to train. It was already shocking enough that he wasn't training Chidori or whatever with Hatake. But to see him putting so much energy and effort into gardening? 

Mind-boggling for me. 

"Sasuke-kun, can you at least tell me why you aren't training?" 

I sit outside, watching Sakura shyly approach Sasuke. 

It's been more than half a month gone. The finals are almost here. Everyone else is preparing for the finals. Others are recovering from the preliminaries. 

Me included. I still have a grudge against Lord Third for putting me in the Chunin Exams. 

Sasuke? He's spent his time diligently putting up a third gardening plot. Oh, and the first two plots he spent two or three weeks moving into a raised garden bed. So I just watched this tiny middle schooler dig up his garden and then rebuild it. 

And by the raised garden bed, I mean I watched this child build the gardening frame himself. All three wooden beds. Refilled them with soil and his tiny little green sprouts of whatever he was growing. 

"Yeah, don't you at least need to practice your clan's fire thingymabob?" 

Sasuke ignored me and Sakura's attempts to talk. 

I seriously don't know what goes on in his head. 

*****

"Sensei, look what I can do!" 

 Naruto made a clone, then proceeded to show me the Rasengan. 

I gawked at him. 

"Since when could you do that?" 

"Ehhh heheh! That's a secret!" 

"Did you meet Jiraiya or did Hatake teach you?" 

"Who's Jiraiya?" 

"...Nevermind. Where's Hatake?" 

"Huh? I couldn't find Kakashi Sensei, so I went to train by myself!" 

I have so many questions.