Shikamaru wasn't nearly as stupid as his relatively poor grades at the Academy, and even his overall demeanour would suggest to someone who didn't actually know him. Outwardly, he was lazy and entirely unimpressive. He was the epitome of average, and he endeavoured to ensure that he stayed that way in the opinions of others. That way, he would never have to exert himself. He could just waste his days away, doing low risk, low effort missions, gazing at the clouds and playing shouji.

However, he was sure he had already managed to give away to his Jonin sensei - Sarutobi Asuma, a chain-smoking shinobi, who as well as possessing a fairly keen mind himself (as most Jonin surely did, of course), was also built like a fortress, meaning it was safe to assume he was also a combat expert - that he possessed the potential to be something other than ordinary.

His two team-mates, Akimichi Choji and Yamanaka, had surely already demonstrated enough in the few training exercises they had done, to indicate they had the promise to reach the heights that they're Fathers had before them. Choji was already apt in his family's taijutsu style, and could perform several of his family's personal justu with skill rarely equated with someone below the rank of Chunin. Ino too, had mastered a few of her clan's ninjutsu; which focused on the manipulation of the mind. The temperamental blonde combined this with extraordinary ability to psycho-analyse somebody, whilst holding a conversation with the person, simultaneously.

He had decided that he would try to make out that he had no real potential what so ever, by only ever doing what his sensei deemed as the bare minimum to get by. Unfortunately, Asuma had discovered enough to convince himself that Shikamaru had enough potential to be as successful as his father, by attacking his only weak spot. He had challenged him to a game of Shouji.

And thus ensued what could be described as an 'epic' match. It had lasted for three and a half hours, and eventually the Nara had won out. he had been so engaged in the game, that he had failed to realise his mistake until his sensei spoke.

'Not as average as you'd like to make out. Eh, Shikamaru?'

He was of course right. Nara Shikamaru, all forms of bragging aside, possessed an incredibly keen mind. Speaking from a Shougi perspective, his mind could work three or four steps ahead of most adults almost instantaneously; thoroughly analysing every possible move that could be made, constructing a counter-move for each, and working out the possible consequences of that particular move. And, as his father had drilled into him from an early age, this would translate to the battlefield. And much like his team-mates, he could demonstrate an impressive level of mastery over his clan's techniques as well.

And it was down to his impressive intellect, that when he received a cursory glance from Ino, he knew they were both on precisely the same wavelength. His team had taken one of the obligatory D-rank missions (Ino often referred to them, and rightly so, as slave labour) that all Genin completed before they took on more challenging C - rank missions. The exceptional thing about this particular mission, was that they were being accompanied by one, Uzumaki Naruto; a former Academy class-mate, who had not been appointed to a team.

Instead, he had been apprenticed to an unknown ninja. Which according to his Father, was not particularly unusual amongst graduates with exceptional potential. Indeed, the Yondaime Hokage was apprenticed to a student of the Saindaime, Jiraiya of the Sannin, shortly after graduating. The problem the Nara had, was that his classmate had shown absolutely no potential during his time at the Academy. In fact, Shikamaru had absolutely no idea how the blonde had managed to graduate at all, although he suspected it had something to do with the fact that the Team Assignments had been set back by four weeks.

That was not all. Naruto had always been a topic of heavy discussion between himself and his team-mate Ino. Despite public indifference towards Naruto, the pair had taken somewhat of a 'scientific' interest in him. He had confused the two of them from the moment they had met, Ino especially, as she prided herself on the ability to read people's intentions and emotions. Quite simply, they found him to be un-readable. He had an outward appearance of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and was constantly loud, energetic and had a permanent grin plastered to his face.

Everyone else took that to be Naruto's true personality, and disregarded him because of it. Shikamaru himself, had been guilty of this too; in fact it was Ino that eventually indicated that something might be awry. It was around a year and a half into their time at the academy that he and Ino first spoke about the blonde. She had just begun training with her family on manipulation of the human mind that could be done without the use of jutsu, and she had been practicing using what she had learnt on their classmates, trying to pinpoint whether they were lying, and how they truly felt over what they were actually saying, or how they were acting. She almost didn't even bother trying this with Naruto, under the notion that as he was so open and honest, he probably wasn't hiding anything.

On hindsight, there was probably a lesson to be learnt for everyone learning to be a ninja. Never disregard anything based on outward appearances. Ino, did in fact try her technique on Naruto, more out of boredom than anything else; and doing so sparked one of the most interesting topics of conversation the three teammates had ever shared, and just about when of the only mysteries that Shikamaru hadn't been able to solve. Because, when Ino tried to read the rambunctious blonde's 'true thoughts', she found nothing. Not a single scrap of emotion, not even what one could witness on the outside. There was no trace of what the blonde really thought or felt, other than what came from his mouth. Ino described it as 'like being whitewashed'. Initially, Shikamaru believed that this was because Naruto was simply completely earnest in his thoughts; however Ino claimed that if that was true, his thoughts would echo his actions. However, instead it was some kind of 'invisible wall' that stopped Ino from reading him.

It took another three months before the trio got any further with the mystery. Ino tried to use her techniques on her own Father as practice, and was met with precisely the same reaction, she was 'whitewashed', so to speak. Naturally, Ino questioned this instantly. Apparently, it was something almost everybody who was a shinobi for more than a few years developed. An outwards personality, or a mask, that they always wore as a coping mechanism for the stresses the life of a ninja could bring. It was virtually impossible to look beyond, apart from by people who have this mechanism themselves. This was also another reason why anyone who wishes to become part of the Torture and Interrogation Department, has to have served in ANBU for more than a year. It would be impossible for anyone be part of ANBU for any length of time without using it to help them cope.

Unfortunately, this only brought more questions. What could possibly have affected Naruto, on a similar level to being a member of ANBU? They knew he was an orphan, but there had been other orphans in their graduating class, and Ino could read all of them. What was different about Naruto?

Today, though... Today was different. Ino had taught both himself and Chouji, the basics of reading people; and they had both become pretty good at it, for their age anyway. So, when Naruto joined them to perform their mission, Shikamaru decided to try to apply what he had learnt. Unfortunately, he was 'whitewashed', and made no further progress. However, about half an hour later something happened.

[Flashback]

Shikamaru groaned loudly, as he watched Naruto stumble down the ladder that he had been climbing, attempting to reach a higher portion of the wall he had been painting. They had been assigned to paint an old man's house, a very rude old man, going by the reaction the four of them got when they knocked to announce their arrival. He seemed to glare at them, for no reason whatsoever, and only stopped when Asuma announced his presence. When they had been shown what they were to paint Naruto immediately and enthusiastically set to work, like something possessed. Shikamaru noted, that while he couldn't tell what Naruto was really thinking, his over exuberance was particularly forced today, like he wasn't comfortable.

He also saw, whilst the blonde was desperately trying to wipe paint off of his now spoilt orange jumpsuit, that he had purposefully avoided conversation with any of Team 10; speaking only when it was absolutely necessary to do so, in order not to arouse suspicion. Naruto loudly cursed his both his luck and the paint, despite the fact that it was his own clumsiness that was at fault. That was when it happened. A man appeared in a loud puff of smoke, and picked Naruto up by the collar of his jumpsuit, and put him back down, standing up. He was an incredibly odd looking man, with incredibly long, spiky white hair; and a headband with kanji inscribed on it (whatever it said, Shikamaru couldn't read it from where he was standing), which replaced the symbol of Konoha. Which seemed incredibly strange to the Nara, considering exactly who the man was. Jiraiya of the Sannin; student of the Sandaime, the man who trained the Yondaime, and probably the most powerful ninja the village had to offer, the Hokage aside.

This of course, meant that Jiraiya, the man who had trained Namikaze Minato, the single most feared ninja of that generation, had hand-picked Naruto to become his apprentice. 'More questions! This is so... troublesome.'

"Naruto, you need to stop this, there's no need for you to keep it up anymore."

Naruto himself didn't answer, and simply avoided Jiraiya's eyes; his facial features contorted into an unusual mixture of sullenness and frustration. Jiraiya simply sighed at Naruto's reaction, and placed his left hand firmly on the blonde's shoulder, and glanced sideways at Asuma, who had been watching over the Genin's progress.

"I need to speak to my student, do you mind if I take him off your hands for a few minutes?"

Asuma simply nodded in response, as the two vanished in another puff of smoke, the same way in which Jiraiya had arrived.

[/Flashback]

It had been over twenty minutes since Naruto had gone, and Ino was beginning to get ever so slightly unnerved. She had never been a friend of his, but they were both at the Academy, and they were comrades; and whilst she did find him perpetually irritating, the fact that she was aware that his behaviour could be a veil for something else, prevented her dislike for him reaching the levels of vehemence that Sakura among others, tended to show towards him. He felt sorry for him, in that respect, as no matter how much affection he showered her with; it was really quite coldly rejected, more because of Sakura's own insecurity, than anything else. She was not rejecting Naruto, so much as rejecting the notion that she was worth such adulation from anyone. That was one of the reasons she was so set on Sasuke. The fact that he practically ignored her, confirmed her own evaluations of her own self-worth.

Of course, that naturally didn't justify the way she treated Naruto. Ino herself, could be particularly mean to him when he was at his most annoying; but Sakura seemed to go out of her way to either hit him, or make him feel miserable. That brought her back to her original train of thought. Naruto, today. She, was damn good at reading people, it was one of the things she took pride in the most. And, despite that, for as long as she'd known him, Naruto had always been a complete enigma. However, already in the short time they had been together, the veil surrounding the blonde had begun to crack, and hints of the 'real' Naruto could be glimpsed beyond. It was only ever at choice moments, only every now and again could a slight hint of his true emotions could be seen, if only for a fleeting moment.

Until Jiraiya came.

Then the mask cracked enough to be able to make out what was beyond it. Ino couldn't decipher what it was though, however familiar it felt. But it was eerily reminiscent of a feeling she knew intimately, yet at the same time could not identify exactly what it was. But what she did know, was that it was not an emotion that she enjoyed at all, and the enormity of what Naruto felt far eclipsed her personal experiences of it. It made her feel sick. She now knew with every fibre of her being that Naruto, for years, had needed help. Help that had never arrived.

Suddenly, there was a clang coming from Shikamaru's direction, as he dropped his can of paint. Ino turned towards him, shaken from her musings by the loud noise, only to be met with the Nara staring, slightly slack jawed, in the direction of the gate to the house they were working on. Following Shikamaru's line of sight, she looked towards whatever had given him such surprise, and very nearly dropped her own can of paint.

It was Naruto, and it was a Naruto almost completely different from what they were used to.

Gone was the heinous orange jumpsuit. In it's place, was what Ino felt assured was 'proper' shinobi attire. He was wearing standard shinobi combats, complete with three different hip worn holsters, which in itself was unusual. He also wore a black shinobi shirt, tied off with bandages that ran entirely along his forearm; but such minor detail was entirely overpowered by what Ino would call the 'centre-piece' of his outfit. It was some kind of armour, but she hadn't ever seen anything like it. It was a deep red, and clearly made out of the same stern material that ANBU armour was created with, yet it covered more of his body, and looked to still retain flexibility.

However, that his clothing was relatively unimportant, in comparison to the difference in Naruto's outward personality. Gone was the faked exuberance and wide plastered on grin. Standing before Team 10 was an entirely different animal. He was nervous for a start, eyeing each of them desperately, attempting to gauge reaction. Ino wanted to say he looked shy, but that wasn't exactly right. He seemed to crave acceptance from them, as if he thought that showing a different side of his personality, his 'true self', would warrant instant rejection. It was completely alien to Ino, to be able to associate such a feeling from Naruto. He was clearly petrified, of a rejection that he perceived as inevitable, and it was clear that he had been at least somewhat coerced into showing a more 'honest' self to them. It also made her cast her mind back to her time at the Academy. What if Naruto had been like this underneath, all this time? How exactly, did all those times he was rebuked in offers of friendship )or just plain ignored), all those times he was laughed at, and insulted, how exactly did that make him feel? Once again, Ino found herself feeling queasy, as though she knew the answer through experience, yet couldn't somehow relate the experience to herself.

Shikamaru, of course, was thinking miles ahead of her, and had already gathered his own thoughts enough to figure out how to react to this new Naruto.

"Whoa, Naruto. That looks pretty good, makes a nice change from that troublesome bright orange, you know?" Shikamaru glanced back at Ino once again, prompting her to try and speak up in support. She looked at Naruto, who was eyeing Shikamaru with a mixture of a kind of guarded, delighted surprise, and suspicion. Almost as though wanted to believe the Nara, but couldn't quite bring himself to do so.

"Yeah Naruto, that armour looks really cool! It must of cost quite a lot." She added, relatively honestly. He did look pretty cool. Not on the same level as Sasuke, obviously, but cool none the less. Naruto simply regarded Ino in shock, obviously not expecting a compliment from someone who was so infatuated with Sasuke. Chouji didn't allow Naruto much time to think about it, however.

"Where did you get that kind of armor from, Naruto? It reminds me of the Akimichi family armour. It's really impressive."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a kind of embarrassed pleasure, which worried Ino more than she would usually care to admit. Who gets so flustered over such small compliments? They hadn't really been any more complimentary than what was polite, when talking to someone who has bought new clothes. It didn't sit well with her that he was so shocked by their words, and so elated that they were complimentary.

"It was made in Konoha, but the design actually comes from Uzushiogakure, a village we used to be allies with, before the Kyuubi destroyed it. It's pretty rare to have any armour like this still around, so it was really lucky for me to find it, even though I didn't know how rare it was at the time."

The blonde spoke with massive enthusiasm still, but Ino couldn't help but notice that everything that he said now sounded a lot more earnest than it did when it was laced in that, over the top half shout, that she remembered his voice being. They were seeing the real Naruto.

"That's incredibly interesting and everything, but perhaps it would be a better idea to hold the history lesson after you've finished here?"

Apparently, they had all forgotten about the presence of Team 10's sensei, Asuma. But with a grumble, that impressively was in unison, the four got back to their previous work. Although now, they conversed whilst they worked, with Naruto now being far more open with the three of them. And the day continued like this for another two hours, the Genin finishing the man's house, and moving on to another mission, this time walking some of the Inuzuka dogs. All the while, they talked about their time since the Genin exam, and their experiences now that they were Genin.

However, despite Naruto's much more open nature; Ino still couldn't help but feel that there was something about him that she had missed. She couldn't quite place it, and every time she tried, an uncomfortable sense of familiarity arose. What she did know however, was that whenever she got close to the answer, she felt sick to the stomach.

Naruto couldn't keep the grin off of his face as he opened the door to Training Ground 56, the secret training area he and Yuugao-sensei would be using to learn how to use a weapon. He couldn't believe how well things had gone, once Jiraiya had convinced him to drop the act. He was terrified that he would be rejected if he acted normally, but he needn't have worried. team 10 were far friendlier than he remembered anyone his own age being to him, ever. It was weird to be able to just talk to someone, the way they had during the D-rank missions, and the experience was enough to convince him to act normally around everyone, from now on. He even dared to hope, that at some point hey would be willing to call themselves his friends, as alien a concept as that was to him, just the possibility alone thrilled him. The only people he was still apprehensive about meeting were Sakura and Sasuke, especially Sakura. But he could cross that bridge when he came to it.

To top that off; today he was going to start learning to use a weapon. Since he was a small child, he had dreams of using a katana, or something equally as awesome, so the thought of actually getting the opportunity to learn to use one was exiting, to say the least.

He passed through the door way, into the main area of the training ground, and was greeted by the sight of Yuugao, standing behind a table complete with her usual serene smile. However, the rest of her was inherently different. Before, she had been wearing a plain black kimono, with the brilliant white grip of her katana still visible over her shoulder. Today, she was dressed as though she meant business. She wore skin tight black shorts that went down to knee height, and on either thigh, kunai holsters were tied on with bandages. On her torso, she wore a long dark red coat with a high neck, that whilst being done up on her upper torso, was undone on her lower half; allowing the coat to flow around her, as well as exposing her stomach. Her katana's grip was visible above her right shoulder as always, however now, she had second at her left hip, it's grip the same brilliant white as the first. All in all, it was an entirely different Yuugao from what Naruto had previously seen either in training, or when she was on duty with ANBU.

It was the table in front of his sensei that really got Naruto excited, though. It was littered with broad selection of weapons, with everything from katana, to kusarigama and from a quarterstaff to a mace. There was even a blowgun and a set of bolas.

"Good afternoon Naruto." Yuugao said, distracting the blonde from his daydreaming. "You are probably wondering why, I have brought along so many weapons, correct?"

Naruto nodded in reply, still struggling to take his eyes off of the array of weapons.

"Well, instead of teaching you to fight with a weapon in a particular style, for example the Mugai-ryu school of Battojutsu; I intend to teach you to to use a weapon that can be adapted into your taijutsu style, which means it has to be exactly the right kind of weapon for you. It needs to flow with your movements, rather than you having to adjust your movement to use it, as you would if I were to just come out and teach you a katana style, for instance. Do you understand?"

"I think so." Naruto stated, still thinking as he spoke. "You want a find something that works for me, naturally. So I don't have to change around everything that I've learnt so far. Right?"

"That's partially correct. I think you will understand what I mean a bit better with some 'practical' explanations." At this, Naruto could have sworn that Yuugao's grin changed subtly, into something slightly more sinister. "Pick up a weapon and come at me, Naruto. Try and treat the one that you choose as an extension of yourself, and use your Kage Bunshin in the same way as you would in a taijutsu fight."

Yuugao slowly drew both of her katana, and slid her leading foot back, ever so slightly, placing herself in a defensive stance. Her blades were both held, seemingly casually, so that they were angled downwards, crossing each other and almost touching the ground. It was one of Yuugao's favorite defensive stances. It had hundreds of apparent openings, all of which she had covered with a simple flick of one of her wrists. It enhanced her image of helplessness. It made it even more likely that she would be underestimated.

Naruto, grinning wildly at his sensei's invitation, grabbed for the blade that had caught his eye when he first entered the training ground.

He was so certain that he was going to love this.