11 The office!!!
The office door opened.
"Lady Tsunade, you called?"
Everyone in the room turned toward the door to see Shikamaru and Temari standing there.
"Huh, are we interrupting?" Shikamaru asked with a bored expression.
"No, you're not interrupting anything," Naruto replied in a bored tone, his hands tucked behind his head. "Auntie Tsunade was just about to hand out some punishment to Miss Haruno for attacking and disrespecting a fellow Konoha shinobi."
"Huh… wait a minute, Naruto? Is that you?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Yeah, it's me," Naruto replied.
He turned toward the person standing next to Shikamaru and smiled. "Oh, hey Temari. That battle kimono looks really nice on you."
Temari blinked, taken aback, but offered a small, genuine smile. "Oh, hi Naruto. You really think so?"
"Of course. You're the princess of Suna, after all; you're bound to show some royalty. My suggestion? Instead of all those ponytails, try just one behind your head. It would look awesome—not that you don't look great right now," Naruto said, his gaze lingering on her.
"Maybe I will try that. Thanks for the suggestion, Naruto," Temari replied, her smile widening.
While they talked, everyone else in the room reacted differently. Sakura was shocked that Naruto was complimenting Temari and not her. Tsunade and Shizune were stunned that Naruto, who had been so cold to Sakura just moments ago, was chatting effortlessly with the Suna kunoichi. Konohamaru thought about how cool his big brother looked, while Shikamaru was bewildered that Naruto was finally paying attention to a girl other than Sakura.
Jiraiya's reaction, however, was the strangest. He was sitting in the corner, crying tears of joy while frantically scribbling in a notebook, muttering, "He complimented her looks… gave her fashion suggestions… he's growing up!"
"Ahem."
Everyone turned back toward Tsunade.
"Sakura, we will discuss this later," Tsunade said firmly, then turned her attention to the newcomers. "Temari, are you leaving tomorrow?"
"No, Hokage-sama. I'm leaving the day after," Temari clarified.
Tsunade nodded, then turned her focus back to Naruto. "Now that all that is over, Naruto, are you ready for your reevaluation?"
"Reevaluation? Didn't you get my reports from Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked, acting slightly surprised. He knew this was coming, but he had a different plan in mind.
"I got the reports, but I want to see it with my own eyes. So, what do you say?" she challenged.
"I have no problem fighting somebody. I mean, as long as it's a fair assessment of my strength. Unless you're going to throw Might Guy at me in his Eighth Gate, I'm sure I can manage myself," Naruto said, glancing over at Jiraiya. "What do you say, Ero-sennin?"
"He's right, Tsunade. So, who is he going to fight?" Jiraiya asked.
"You don't already know?" Tsunade countered.
"If that's what you call Kakashi, who is hiding behind that window giggling while reading his book, then I'm not sure," Naruto remarked, pointing his thumb toward the window.
"Kakashi, get inside the office," Tsunade ordered.
With a poof of smoke, Kakashi appeared in the center of the office.
"You called, Tsunade-sama?"
"Your student just came back from his training trip, and I thought, why don't you meet him?" she said.
"Oh, hey Naruto. How are you?" Kakashi asked with his signature eye-smile.
"I'm fine," Naruto said, his tone flat. He continued, "I was just about to ask what the criteria for this reevaluation is."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "And why are you asking that, Naruto?"
"Well, I was thinking about my record. When I was talking with Lord Fukasaku, he asked me about my time with my team and the missions we'd gone on," Naruto explained. "He said that when I got back to Konoha, I should demand a rank that actually reflects my abilities."
Tsunade turned toward Jiraiya, silently asking for confirmation.
"It's true, Tsunade. Pa was really mad when Naruto told him about his service record; he even ripped my ear off over it," Jiraiya admitted.
"So what rank do you think he deserves, Jiraiya?"
"I have a better way to decide what I deserve and what I don't," Naruto interrupted.
"And what is that, Naruto?" Tsunade asked.
"You were going to do a reevaluation test on me anyway, so why don't I fight my whole class?" Naruto suggested, shocking everyone in the room.
"This is not a prank, Naruto. Be serious," Sakura butted in.
"I wasn't talking to you," Naruto said, dismissing her completely before turning back to Tsunade. "I'm serious. I already proved during the Chunin Exams that I can beat the strongest of my age."
"Wait a second," Temari interjected, confused. "You mean to tell me you weren't promoted after the Chunin Exams?"
"Yeah," Naruto said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I mean, it's not like I did anything special—just beat the Hyuga prodigy and then defeated the One-Tails so it wouldn't destroy the village. That's not special enough to get a promotion in Konoha, right?"
Temari stared at him in disbelief. "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
TO BE CONTINUE