Finding a Bit of Trust: Chapter 10

Title: Finding a Bit of Trust

Fandom: Naruto

Chapter: 10

Word count: 1,152

For: The lovely truly-chan of course.

AN: First of all…I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has given me so much support while I was playing catch up with my Bits and Pieces and my other stories. I…am shocked and honored at how many favorites, reviews, hits and watches I have gotten over the last few months. *sniffles and bursts out crying before composing self* It's helped me in a lot of ways. Believe me.

Now, on to the news of this story. I have 3 more chapters for the first arc, which will take us up to chapter 13 and the first part of our adventures. Chapter 14 introduces Arc 2 and is set about a week after chapter 13. This is also the start of the romance and the action. I have my villain.

*pauses at a question* Who is it? Well, I can't tell you that, not yet at least. *sniffs* Ruin the surprise. *nods*

Anyways, I hope that you continue reading, reviewing and enjoying this story.

Remember, I take helpful reviews and reviews that are good. Flames are mocked in a public setting and removed (or reported if you're brave enough to actually log in to do so).

Chapters edited and reposted: 10

*~*~*~*~*~*

After lunch had been consumed, Raidou left to once more assume his normal duties while Naruto went back to collecting reports and files as Ibiki whittled down the ones on his desk. Several ANBU had taken to reading over the various pieces of information in the boxes that they had collected from Sakuras home and her office. The blond had sent a note to Kurenai and her team, getting one back from her, telling him what time they would be there for the meeting.

Looking towards the clock, Naruto sighed and stood up, heading into Ibikis office, knowing that the other team would know where to find them, having been there before. Nodding to the ANBU, he settled into a chair before the large man and his desk, legs crossing as he watched the other man.

“So find anything so far?” Naruto asked, drawing Ibikis eyes away from the report that he had just signed off on. Waving his men out, waiting for them to leave, the scarred man rolled the scroll up and put it in his outbox with the other scrolls.

“No. The doctor was right though. It was designed to turn your chakra into a physical manifestation, thus your new ears, especially since your other ones disappeared on you,” Ibiki replied, teasing the younger male, getting a scowl in return.

“I'm just glad I don't wear earrings like Shikamaru,” Naruto snorted, getting a smirk and a nod.

“Indeed. Kurenai and her team are here by the way.” Nodding his head to the door, the large man sat back as Naruto pulled his legs up and crossed them.

“Let's shock them, then we'll tell them,” Naruto chirped, getting a low laugh from Ibiki as a knock came from the door.

“Enter,” called Ibiki, sitting back to watch the fireworks that were soon to happen. Opening the door, Kureni clung to the door frame as Akumaru barreled past her, jumping on the blond they were there to see. Blinking, the genjutsu expert could have sworn she saw blond furred ears twitch before Naruto was taken down by a happy, huge nin dog.

“Ack! Down, Akumaru. Bad dog. Kiba, get the slobber monster off of me!” Naruto yelped, trying to get the large white dog off of him as he lapped at his cheeks.

“Sorry, Naruto,” Kiba said, walking past the stunned Kureni and grabbed Akumarus collar, pulling him off. Standing up, Naruto hid his smirk behind a sleeve as the four went silent at the sight of his ears and tail.

“So, the reason why I asked you to come see me, well you can see just why I did,” the blond hummed as he righted his chair, turning to his friends with a smile. Shino was buried in his coat, dark glasses giving nothing away, which didn't surprise Naruto in the least. Kurenai was still holding onto the door, red eyes glued to his twitched appendages on his head, her hands twitching along with them. Hinata was staring, reminding Naruto of how Neji tended to get a blank look when figuring out something. Kiba on the other hand was pointing at him and gaping at him in surprise.

“I take it the four of you want to know how Naruto has ended up with ears and a tail,” Ibiki finally said, speaking for the first time since the four had walked in.

“That would be good to know,” Kurenai said, dragging her eyes away from the twitching appendages.

“Actually, you can blame Sakura for them,” Naruto said, scratching at Akumarus ears, getting a happily panting dog whose tail became a rudder, fanning behind him quickly. “She, somehow, created something that messed with my chakra. It screwed around with me and gave me physical manifestations of my chakra system, lest I can tell.” Everyone looked at him, the other team staring at him with some surprise at the insightful way of the blond. “What? I did have some time to think about this. From what Sakura said, and probably wrote down, she doesn't consider me human and wants the rest of the village to see things her way. She's self absorbed, thinks everything revolves around her, especially since she was Tsunade-baa-chans student, completely forgetting that Shizune-chan is her apprentice and trumps her in all things. I figured that out while I was off training with Jiryaya.”

“Then why did you let her inject you with the stuff that gave you the ears and tail?” Hinata asked, blushing slightly as everyone looked at her.

“Because of how she had been acting. She's been better for the last year or so. Remember, I can't tell anything from her scent since she learned how to control it, hide her feelings and pheromones by using her chakra,” Naruto explained. “Most of us learned it to stop the Oto nins from finding us in the field remember?”

“Kinda had to. They liked their summons,” Kiba snorted, Ibiki filing away all of the information coming out away. He hadn't known so many of the rookies had learned an ANBU and Hunter technique and probably in a short amount of time. Sitting back, he watched as the five talked back and forth about what had gone wrong in Sakura all the way up to what Naruto planned on doing.

“I'm going to talk with baa-chan about playing secretary for Ibiki while I train myself to be used to the tail and ears since I'm not sure they'll be removable,” Naruto hummed, sitting cross legged on the couch, Akumarus head in his lap and Kiba feeling a bit jealous about his partner sucking up to the other nin.

“Why aren't you sure she'll be able to remove them?” Shino asked, curious as to what was going on in their friends mind.

“They're made from my chakra, and to, say, just slice them off would be painful and rather futile since I have a feeling that they would grow back eventually,” Naruto replied, tugging on one ear. They all agreed that it was a well thought out and probably true explanation. “So, what do you guys think?”

“I think I should be left in a room alone with the pink haired banshee for 10 minutes.” Everyone turned to look at the normally shy and sweet Hinata with wide eyes, surprised at just what had come out her mouth.

“I think...you've been around my sister way to often,” Kiba finally said, getting a bark of agreement from his dog partner.

“I think I just turned completely gay with that one statement,” Naruto muttered from behind Ibiki, having run once Hinata had spoken. Ibiki just nodded, wondering if he should add any Hyuuga to the list of people banned from seeing Sakura.

“Who wants tea?” Kurenai suddenly chirped, smiling brightly. She was bound and determined to play with Narutos ears and if that meant plying him with tea, so be it.

Naruto just sighed.