Disclaimer: All referance to the Naruto series do not belong to me
A.N. It has been over a year since i last posted this story. To clear somethings up "Eve of Redcell" and "For What its Worth" is the same story, I just changed the title midway through. I had made some fixes to the first chapter. Enjoy.
Eve of Redcell
A lone figure sits on top of a large rock in a clearing drenched by the storm. He wears his orange jacket open with a black shirt underneath with a matching pair of orange pants. His blonde spiky hair held up by only his forehead protector. He huddles himself up holding his knees with his arms. He sits there all alone thinking over the past years.
'Times are changing but the tune is all the same. If I don't change now I believe that tune will never change for me.' the thirteen year old ninja thought. He stands up and heads back into town. Heading down a dirt road with lined with shops, he looks at a clothing store. He enters with the intent to purchase. The store clerk gave him a troubled look then looks away as Naruto flashes his red eyes at him, valuing his life more then the store.
Naruto picks up an assortment of clothes and brings them up to the register. He grabs his frog money pouch which is filled to the brim with money and pays the clerk. He leaves the store and heads back home.
The wet orange clad ninja opens the door and throws the bags of clothing next to the bed. He takes off his soaking wet jacket and throws it in a hamper, next taking off his orange pants and throws them in the hamper as well. He then proceeds to climb into bed and falls asleep.
The next morning in just his boxers and black tee shirt Naruto walks over to the kitchen to make breakfast. He notices the sun isn't up yet. "I'm gonna make something other then ramen. Alright, got some bread, milk and eggs." He breaks the eggs into a bowl and mixes in the milk until there blended. Naruto sets a frying pan on the stove to heat up. Once the pan got hot enough he dips the bread into the bowl with the milk and eggs until both sides of the bread are soaked. He then places it on the hot frying pan then repeats it about four times.
Looking around through the cupboards, Naruto finds the syrup behind some old canned food the food shelter gave him some years ago. He places the syrup down on the table and goes back to the frying pan and flips the bread over so the other side can cook. The smoke started to fill up the apartment so he walks over to the window to opened it. He walks back to check on his breakfast. Seeing that its done he turns off the heat to the stove top and picks up the now toasted bread on to the plate. He goes get the butter and spreads it over the toast then pours syrup on top.
After eating breakfast in silence Naruto cleans the plate and the frying pan in the sink. He walks back to his bedroom and picks up his orange jacket and pants. He sighs at them then throws them in the trash can. "Orange, should not wear when trying to be stealthy."
Naurto opens the bags of clothes that he bought yesterday and lays them out on his bed. He picks up a forest green camouflage shirt, jacket and pants. He puts the rest of his clothes into his small dresser which didn't have any clothes in it since all he owned was the orange pants, jacket and the black shirt. He had plenty of boxers and socks so he didn't have to worry about that.
Dressing himself in the new clothes and a pair of black combat boots, Naruto looks in the mirror. "Not bad, but I still don't think I quite like it." He said to himself. Looking through his bags he comes across a black beret and puts it on top of his head. "Now that looks better. I have about half an hour before I 'have' to meet up with my team." looking back at the mirror he notices that the tips to nine of the spikes turned red, 'now that looks good'. He packs up his gear and walks out the apartment locking the door.
On his way down to the training ground people were staring at him in an annoyed way. He walks past a weapons shop and thought that a peek inside wouldn't hurt. Once inside he saw the standard knifes, needles, swords and daggers. Just as he was about to leave his eyes spotted a unique sword on the back wall. He walks up to it with his mouth hanging open. He picks up the swords and sheath and finds that its ultra light, no more then a couple of pounds. The store clerk walks up to Naruto.
"Ahh, I see that you found the Sword of The Kitsune Hogosha, a unique sword indeed." Naruto pulls the sword out of its sheath and notices that there are four different sizes of foxes on both sides. The sword's guard consisted of nine silver tails around the entire base of the handle. "It has been said that this sword chooses its owner. The legend goes as far back as three millenniums ago. The sword's original owner and creator was no other then Kyuubi Kitsune or else known as Nine Tail's himself. The blade will pulsates red when it has chosen its owner,"
The clerk was interrupted when the Kitune Hogosha began to pulse red. "Well I see that legends are true, The sword has chosen its new owner. I will make you a deal. I will sell it to you fifty percent off." Naruto stares at the pulsating red sword and nods his head. He walks up to the counter and pays the clerk.
He picks up the sword and puts it back in to its sheath and places it on his back. The sheath then blends in with the coat so it wouldn't stand out. He thanks the clerk and walks out the store. 'Looks like I have to make time for some sword practice now. Though I find it ironic that this sword is called Sword of the Kitsune Hogosha. But I guess it picked me for being the keeper of Kyubi Kitsune. Time to head to the bridge.'
He gets to the bridge first and waits for the rest of his team to show up. 'Guess I'm about ten minutes early.' Naruto turns towards the ledge of the bridge and looks down at the water gracefully flowing by. It's spring time and Naruto is hypnotize by the sakura petals floating on top of the stream from the trees upriver. He just ponders to himself about how they just can go with the flow of the river without a care in the world.
Foot steps can be heard approaching Naruto. Naruto remains still not taking notice of the person next to him. "Naruto?" A feminine voice calls out. "Naruto, hello...Naruto!" The female standing next to Naruto clutches her hand into a fist resisting the urge to punch Naruto for neglecting her.
After a few seconds Naruto cocked his head towards the origin of the voice, "Hello...Sakura" and turns his head back to the river without a care in the world.
Sakura's anger quickly dissipates into concern. She releases her clenched fist. When she first walked up to the bridge she didn't realize that it was Naruto standing there until she was side by side with him.
'He's rather dashing wearing that uniform...whoa there, I didn't think I would ever use the words dashing and Naruto in the same sentence. Well, he does look much better without the orange.' She isn't quite sure what brought about this change in naruto, but something isn't right. She needed to change the atmosphere. 'Something is really bothering Naruto, maybe I can cheer him up.'
Sakura took a deep breath "Naruto," She was about to say more when Sasuke walked up to the bridge "Hey Sasuke kun!" Sakura shouted to him.
"Yo" Sasuke replied. "Who is this d...ahh, Naruto?" Sasuke for the first time raised an eyebrow. He too bewildered with Naruto.
'Hn' is all Naruto said keeping his eyes on the slow moving river. Sasuke was no less then surprised with Naruto. He was expecting Mr. Sunshine and the pest, meaning Sakura, to be shouting and arguing to there hearts contents. Instead Naruto seems to be distancing himself.
"Naruto, whats..." Sakura was abruptly interrupted.
"Don't bother me" Naruto made sure he sounded cold, however he was enjoying the view of the river.
"Naruto, don't interrupt me when I'm talking." Sakura shouted at Naruto. Sasuke watched with interest. He never before seen this kind of display from Naruto.
"Bother your precious Sasuke, just leave me be." Naruto ended it with a tinge of venom and even colder then before. This surprised Sasuke and upset Sakura. Will the surprises never seize. Sakura's temper raised just a little too high for her own good and she formed her fist again.
"Ah! Why you little" she throws a punch at Naruto. Naruto unfazed by the fist quickly counters and clutches Sakura's fist midair crushing her hand slowly. "Ouch. Stop it, please, that hurts Naruto."
He applies more pressure to her hand just about to the breaking point. Sakura winces in pain as tears began to swell in the corners of her eyes. "I've had enough of you. Ever since I first saw you, I've always had a crush on you. That crushed evolved over the years. Until yesterday I loved you so much I would have given my life. Now I see that was a mistake." adding venom to his words,"All you care about is Sasuke this Sasuke that. What has he ever done for you. Did he stand up for you when you were insulted? Did he stand by you when you were feeling down? Does he even feel anything for you!" he said tightening his grip on her hand. Tears began falling down Sakura's cheek.
"But..." Sakura was quickly cut off.
He looks at Sakura but not with his eyes, these eyes weren't the hazel blue. These eyes were filled with darkness and had a immense lust for death. The red slits, a black iris, she looked deep in them and looked horrified. "But what? I don't care anymore. You can be the Uchiha's bitch. At least I don't have to put up with you anymore. And let me warn you now, ever try to hit me again, I won't hesitate to kill you." Naruto applies the final pressure to break her hand. He disappears leaving a terrified and injured Sakura on the bridge.
Sakura collapsed to the ground and starts crying out loud with the swells of tears raining out of her eyes. Sasuke sits opposite of Sakura trying to figure out what just happened. Hours pasted and Naruto did not return. Sakura stopped crying but still held the fear in her eyes holding her right hand. Kakashi then shows up to an unsightly sight.
He only see two of his students. One student had dried up tears and is favoring her right hand while the other student was bewildered by some unforseen event. "Ah, hi guys. Where might Naruto be?" At the mention of Naruto, Sakura starts crying again and Sasuke glared at the aforementioned name. 'I got a bad feeling about this. Better get Sakura to the hospital first, her hand looks to be in bad shape. Then I better find Naruto soon before something else happens.'
While Kakashi was taking care of Sakura, Naruto was walking to the opposite side of the village to train.
He was walking when a drunkard called him a demon and that he should kill it. That set off his last nerve. "Perhaps you should say that again I didn't quite hear you." Naruto said barely audible.
"I said I should kill you, you..." The mans last words were cut off as a hand held his neck tightly against a wall. The drunkard follows the hand up to the owner who's choking him to only find that it's the demon container. Eyes glowing a demonic red emitting an evil aura that instilled fear into anyone within close proximity.
"You really want to kill a demon huh" Naruto releases his grip from the mans neck. "Then go on, give it your best shot and see how you really handle up to a demon." The man fell to the ground and starts to stumble away.
"Y-your gonna regret this. I'm-I'm gonna report this to the Hokage!" He shouted while scattering away like a chicken with its head cut off. Other people took shelter. Naruto stared at the retreating man expecting nothing to become of this.
Naruto gets to the training ground without anymore incidents. He returns to his normal self and beings training. He starts by doing the normal work out of two hundred pushups, two hundred sit ups, three hundred crunches and three hundred out of one thousand laps around the fifteen acre training ground. After completing the routine he begins to work on chakra controls.
'Ha, this is easy when I'm not thinking about a certain pink haired piece of trash. I should have done this long ago. Would of saved me the trouble' The young blonde beings to form chakra strings that could only reach about five meters.
After a little while at the exercise completing little to nothing he sits down. He starts mediating. About fifteen minutes of mediating he came up with an idea. 'I didn't realizes it before, but when I used the Mass Shadow clone jutsu I was...hmm...I just cant quite put my finger on it. One way to find out'
He forms his hands signs and yells "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" only one clone appeared. He then blind folded himself and had his clone spin him around three times. Once he was done he grabbed a kunai and randomly threw it some where while having his clone watch where it flew. Once it hit something he told the clone to spin him around three more times. Once he was done he took off the blind fold and went hunting for the knife. After five minutes of searching Naruto gave up and released the jutsu causing the clone to disappear in a puff of smoke.
"Ok, I'm feeling something." he tells himself as he walks in the direction his mind was telling him where the knife was. Sure enough there lays the kunai hidden behind a bush imbedded in a tree. "Oh this is interesting." 'If I make ten of me no a thousand of me to work on a jutsu I would without a doubt train faster as the clones knowledge is passed back to me when it disappears. He feels a presences. "Oi. Who's there?"
"Hmm and what have we been up today?" Kakashi questioned. From a branch above Naruto.
"What's it to you?" Naruto replied uninterested in talking with his sensei. He pulls out the kunai from the tree but does not holster it.
"Well considering you injured Sakura and assaulted a civilian, something must be up."
"I just wanted to be left alone, that's all." Naruto was getting a little irritated at Kakashi. Kakashi rethinks his next thought when he feels the killing intent from below getting stronger the longer he stood there.
"Well when you don't want to be alone anymore, you may join us again." Kakashi said back to Naruto. 'Better let him cool off for a while, I still better find out what's getting him.' Then in the blink of an eye he disappears leaving Naruto all alone again.
'Finally alone again, now where was I. Oh yeah.' "Kage Bunshin no jutsu" over a thousand Naruto's filled the area up. "Ok were gonna try and master chakra control. Once you have made progress release the jutsu so the rest of us knows what to do." the original Naruto shouted.
"Hia" all the clones answered back. They all began to form chakra string. It was only an hour in and already naruto can make up to two hundred meters using next to no chakra. He then called a break and all the clones disappeared. Naruto Suddenly feels exhausted and hungry. 'This must be a side effect of the training I just started.'
He sits down for a couple of minutes before heading to his favorite eating place. He gets his filling of ten ramen bowls of Meso Beef Ramen. After feeling full he decided to head to the library. 'I need to learn the basics of swordsmanship and some other basics. I might even try and found out some genjutsu's to learn.' he spends the next three hours in the library with about hundred of himself reading all the books he can. Some of the clones fell asleep and were rudely waken up by the other clones. One of his clones happened to come across a book titled the "History of legendary swords". The clone handed the book to Naruto.
"Brat, I see you found The Kitsune Tsuin Hogosha, a pair of swords that was made from my own fangs. When together they are an unstoppable weapon. To bad the other sword is lost. Ha" A dark voice inside Naruto's head speaks. Naruto had expected that his captivate would soon reveal himself to him soon.
"Well guess I will have to search for it now wont I" Naruto spoke with annoyance. After the three hours he released the jutsu retaining a bunch of knowledge. 'Ok this is enough for today. My head hurts.' He then went home and took off his gear and stripped down to just his tee shirt and boxers. He made himself some ramen then went to sleep.
The next morning was no different. He didn't meet up with his team at the bridge. Instead the young ninja went to train on his own. He completed his daily work out and was going to learn how to use the sword today. He unsheathed his sword and created only a hundred and ninety nine clones. Each one paired up with one another and began sword fighting. They trained for two hours before taking a break. He mastered the stances and all the basic moves but knows that if he wants to be a great sword fighter he would need a teacher. Since he didn't feel like getting a teacher today he decided on some other training.
He continue this training process for the next few months until the Chuunin Exams. After training in and mastering all the basics of taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu as well as some advance jutsu in all areas he was a combat ready killing machine. During the hard training he also managed to gain a little muscle mass. Through the books he has read he also changed his diet to help him keep an edge. His mind was sharper and more cunning. His body grew at a faster rate then before. He has gone through many stress releasing methods to keep his cool. He even set up his own training to kill all emotions. The details of this training is still classified. Naruto did get a teacher for sword fighting that wishes to remain anonymous.
Sometimes during his training he would sense a presences and would quickly activate a genjutsu to get rid of them. After a while he learned a genjutsu to place over the entire training area for the time he trained to prevent anyone from spying. He still received missions during this time of training. He usually requested missions that he can do alone.
At first he was stuck with D class missions which ticked him off so he had to show that he was worthy of higher class missions. He then started receiving C class missions. They were usually escort some traders or low class spy missions. He would receive B class missions every once in a while considering how much he has advanced. He would be consider around mid to high chuunin level and now a ninja in a few private bingo books..
It was time for the Chuunin Exams and the Hokage placed Naruto in his old team. Naruto still hates his team but if it means advancing his rank then he would do it. Naruto met up with his old team at their usually meeting spot. Naruto felt Sakura's and Sasuke's presences before they were even within view. Sasuke and Sakura leaned on the bridge not realizing that Naruto was standing on the bridge.
Naruto learned a new technic in being stealthy. Naruto's camouflage outfit suits him well for stealth as he can act like a chameleon and blend in perfectly. This Jutsu is called 'Musei Kamereon no Jutsu'. To prevent anyone from feeling his presences he learned chakra suppression which is a consider B rank difficulty. To cover his voice he had to learn an A ranked difficulty jutsu. It required no hand signs just concentrate chakra to the voice cords and mold them to the tone while trying to pulse the chakra to create pitch.
"Ah where is that Naruto-baka." Sakura said a little annoyed.
"Who knows where the dobe is. Naruto is still Naruto." Sasuke said.
"Ah. I see that naruto is still such a troublesome person." An unknown voice said sounding like Shikamaru
"Wha" Sakura looked side to side looking for the person who said that.. "That you Shikamaru?"
"Naruto is such an idoit" another voice said sounding like Ino.
"Ino-pig! Show your self" Sakura shouted. She looks around and sees noone again. "Strange I must be hearing voices"
"Susuke-kun! Want to hang out together after training" another voice said sounding exactly like Sakura.
"Show your self imposter!" Sasuke demanded looking around to spot the intruder. He then activates his newly aquired Sharingan. He looks around and sees a very faint chakra signature standing next to Sakura. It was so faint that it looked to be a day old. He walks up the chakra and sticks his hand out until it grabbed hold of some clothing. "I got you now."
"Really? Cause I'm over here." a calm voice stated sounding very much like Sasuke's.
"Bastard. When I get my hands on you I'm gonna kill you." Sasuke said still trying to find the imposter.
"Now, now. Don't be to hasty or you won't be able to pass the Chuunin Exam. Allow me to introduce my self." A figure starts to appear behind Sasuke with a kunai at his throat. Sakura jumped back.
The figure was wearing a forest green camouflage pants with a matching jacket and vest. He also sported a pair of black combat boots. On top of this mans head was a black beret with a red and gold swirl much like the one on Naruto's old orange jacket. On his back was a metallic silver sword that had a faint glow. "I am Uzumaki Naruto at your service." he said in his now normal mono voice.
Sasuke was very tense and worried at the fact that this dobe had got the best of him. Sakura backs away slowly remember the last time she saw him was six months ago and had broken her hand. Her eyes still showed fear when she looks at him. This was the exact reaction Naruto wanted from them.
"Come now Sakura, we're a team now and I can't have my teammates be afraid of me." He took his eyes off of Sasuke for just a moment and Sasuke quickly jabbed his elbow into Naruto's gut. He then pulls out his own kunai and stabs him. Naruto stumbles backwards and falls over. Lying motionless on the ground but not bleeding.
"Serves you right Baka" Sakura sounds of victory was premature. She tenses up when a cold chill ran down her back and Naruto's body disappears in a puff of smoke.
"Very good Sasuke. I see that you improved, but not good enough." Naruto said as he appeared behind Sakura this time. Naruto presses his body lightly against Sakura placing his mouth near her ear almost to the point of touching it and says very softly. "And what have you improved in outside of your bedroom. I know exactly what you do and I must say its quite entertaining the least I can say. Now if you don't want anyone to know I suggest you follow my orders." Sakura stood frozen solid with a beat red face.
"Leave her alone Naruto!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto.
"Don't get me started on what I know about you Uchiha. You see, I know just about everything there is to know about you two. Now if you don't mind I would like to get my seat in the exam room." Naruto walks away when both Sakura and Sasuke charged at him with their kunai's drawn. They slashed at Naruto's back when he suddenly vanishes in a cloud of mist. "Nice try you guys." said a distant voice. "Perhaps when you two lighten up I just might teach you a jutsu or two." The voice echoed as it got more and more distant.