Disclaimer: You know how it goes and I'm not repeating myself.
Enjoy
Prologue
They needed a hero... A fearless leader who could face all odds and come out on top...
A man or woman that could take a bunch of fresh, under trained kids...
...against an army vastly more experienced and numerous...
...and bring them back home in one piece...
They needed a hero...
...and all we got...
...was me.
0oO~Line Break~Oo0
Chapter One: Aptitude Testing
The Fourth Great Shinobi War.
It all started so fast, most people don't even know what had caused it to happen. Shortly after "The Forbidden Scroll" Incident that the first reports came in. Whole flocks of messenger hawks coming from spies, border patrols, and even from Shinobi mid-misson.
Reports from all over suspected Kiri and Kumo, while others pointed the finger at Iwa and Suna, there were even a few that implied that someone from within Konoha had pulled all the strings...
But those reports, sitting on the desk of important military personnel, were irrelevant to the 67 Genin hopefuls who had just received their headbands and the other 133 that had flunked the initial graduation test. While the 133 flunkies were being briefed in the Academy cafeteria by some no name Chunin, the 67 hopefuls found themselves being briefed by the Hokage himself in one of the classrooms.
Naruto, who had only just moments ago been contemplating what to do in his Shinobi Registration Photo, could only stare wide eyed as the man he looked up to the most told them they would be going to war soon.
"The situation is grave..." The aged leader said staring at the wide eyed children before him. "Normally, you would have been put through one final test to be accepted as fully recognized Genin. As it stands, you are all being given the rank despite any short comings you might have. You are all expected to serve your country now."
The Sandaime paused for a before continuing on. "While you would normally have been assigned to a Jonin Sensei during your time as Genin, we can not spare the manpower of one Jonin to teach only three of you at a time. Therefore, you will all be trained by five instructors over the course of a three month period. During this time you will be pushed through a basic accelerated training regimen."
With a gesture of his hand, several Chunin dashed across the room laying down small booklets and pens in front of the Children. "The booklet you see before you is the written part of an advanced aptitude test. Try your best at them, because they will determine your strengths. While the accelerated training regimen will hammer out your physical weaknesses, the information your booklets and subsequent physical and chakra test will determine what advanced training you will receive. For example, If your strengths lies in chakra control, you may be put into the improvised medic training."
"You will begin these test as soon as I am done speaking. Once you complete your training you will be deployed into the field in groups of 30 or more under the command of a single Jonin and his Chunin support team. You will most likely be put on the boarder at an outpost or be running supplies between depots and the front lines. I don't expect you to see any heavy combat, but expectations are usually the first to go in war... So after your testing, say good-bye to your friends and families as this might be the only chance you will have to say goodbye..." The third took a deep breath before sighing. "The last thing I ever wanted for you children was to be part of a war... I can only hope you all get to live to see the end of it. Proceed"
With a swirl of leaves the Sandaime was gone. Naruto only had a moment to blink before one of the Chunins shouted at them to get busy with their test. With a sudden rush of fumbling hands the new Genin began to work on the test before them.
With a determined frown on his face Naruto read the first question.
1. You are being pursued, your supplies have dwindled down to nothing, you have two explosive notes, five spare kunai, 10 shuriken, and an entire cord of Ninja Wire. What can you do with these to improve your chance of escape or put more distance between you and your enemy? (Write all answers down) "These are way different from the other test I had to take."
Continuing his test, the blond found that there were only a few kinds of questions that he couldn't answer competently or with multiple answers, most having to do with Genjutsu or other things that needed a delicate approach. He was even able to answer most of the implied women only questions with at least three to five answers.
He had just finished the last question when he looked up and flinched. Looking around he found himself to be the last person there besides the one Chunin looking at him expectantly. "Finished?" he asked.
With a nod Naruto found the test gone form his desk and replaced with a single scrap of paper. "Channel your chakra into that." The blond complied with a confused expression on his face. When the paper suddenly split in half the Chunin wrote something down on a clipboard he pulled from behind his back. After he was done he handed Naruto a small slip of paper. "Go to this training field, there you will take your physical aptitude test under they eyes of an ANBU operative to gauge your physical skills and talents. Dismissed."
With paper in hand Naruto left the classroom and took off towards the designated field. Jumping across the village roof tops he soon found himself at the outskirts of the village. As he neared the field he spotted a few other Genin standing there looking apprehensively at the forested area ahead of them. As he landed one of the Genin turned to him and frowned. "Did you only just get done?"
Naruto gave a sheepish grin. "I answered everything I could with as much as I could. They never set a time limit or anything and the Chunin didn't look mad that I took my time either, so I guess it didn't matter how long you took. I think I wrote more on that test than I did through my time in the academy." Naruto said with a laugh."
The other Genin around them frowned at this. "I don't think I did to well then," One of them said. "I only wrote like two or three responses to each question." The others replied with similar responses.
"So, have they been calling us in one by one?" Naruto asked.
"Sorta," The only Kunoichi in the group told him. "Five ANBU come and they each take one of us and spread us out pretty far. Then they all start one after the other about a minute apart. I think they will be coming to get the rest of us in a minute or two."
"Actually," Said the first Genin pointing over her shoulder."I think they are here now."
Sure enough, there stood the five operatives in there standard equipment minus the cloaks. They each pointed to one of them and said "With me."
Naruto quickly followed after his operative, an ANBU with a Leopard mask. "You will first make your way through the forest, there will be paint based traps." The ANBU explained as they jumped away. "Blunted objects with paint filled ends that will burst and stain on contact. You are allowed five to ten hits depending on the lethality of the hit. There are also paint filled tags, if you are hit full force by a tag, you're considered to be either fatally injured or dead. They will get progressively harder the further in you get. If or when you make it through to the other side you will then try to sneak across the field as best as you can. You are allowed one mistake. If you make it across we will have a spar, Taijutsu only. If you are caught a second time you are considered discovered and we will go right into the Taijutsu portion."
The ANBU stopped suddenly and gazed at him through his mask. "Have you understood everything so far?"
Naruto nodded hastily his eyes wide. "Good. Begin." He then jumped into the trees and disappeared.
After a small moment of hesitation Naruto carefully entered the tree line taking a quick look around before dashing in. The traps started off simple, and Naruto avoided them with great ease. After a minute though his danger sense went off and he ducked down to avoid a blunt kunai that splattered red paint against the tree he had been standing next to. "Hey," Naruto shouted in surprise. "You never said you were gonna throw kunai at me!"
"The enemy will not inform you that they are going to attack," The ANBU's voice echoed through out the forest. "You need to expect the unexpected and always be on your guard."
Naruto cursed before continuing on. He kept going avoiding the traps when he suddenly froze. He had been steeping over a hidden cord of ninja wire when he saw another one hidden right were he was about to step. He pulled back his leg and looked around. There were traps in the trees and ninja wire crisscrossing the air.
The blond frowned for a moment before reaching down and picking up a broken branch. With a mighty swing he threw the piece of wood into the ninja wire and he dived behind a tree. There was a sudden commotion of noise before Naruto looked out from behind the tree. The mass of traps had been triggered and the way was mostly clear.
The Genin was about to make his move when he heard the noise of a sizzling tag. He looked at his feet to see one wrapped around a blunted kunai.
A delayed tag
"Shit!"
The tag went off and he was barely able to replace himself the branch he threw earlier. Another trap was triggered and he dived and rolled out of the way of an incoming wave of blunted paint soaked shuriken. Naruto then took off with a burst of speed as a kunai skimmed across his back leaving a slight red streak. After a few more close calls and one direct hit to his leg, Naruto emerged on the other side to see the ANBU writing on a small note pad.
"Congratulations," The ANBU said with the same passive tone. "You've just passed the basic Chunin obstacle course with one direct hit and one scratch, that's better than most newly promoted Chunin." Naruto beamed at the praise and smiled brightly. "Don't get full of yourself," The ANBU said as he put the not pad away. "You might have passed with little 'injury' but you did set off a huge amount of traps, even if it was to pass through the area. That would have drawn a lot of attention, if you had been on an infiltration mission you would have given yourself away."
Naruto's smile faded a bit but was still present as the ANBU turned to face the other side of the field. It was littered with bushes, rocky outcroppings, tall grass and other things that could provide cover. "I will be on the other side of the field. If I catch you I will throw a kunai at your position, that will be your only warning. Begin."
The ANBU vanished and Naruto dived into the tall grass. Moving between cover every so often, Naruto made his way to the halfway point only for a hail of kunai to rain across the field. Naruto would have cursed but kept going even more carefully across the field. Ten minutes later Naruto was on the other side. The ANBU seeing him walk out from the field clapped his hands slightly. "The average Chunin and low level Jonin would have trouble finding you, even with you wearing that orange monstrosity."
Naruto bit his lip to keep from asking but as if reading his mind the ANBU asked. "You wish to know when you messed up, correct?" Naruto nodded his head slightly and was surprised when the ANBU replied. "You didn't."
"What? But the kunai-"
"Was an attempt to draw you out of your hiding spot. You kept your cool and kept going. When your in the field, sometimes enemy Shinobi will fire at random times in random directions to see if there is anyone hiding nearby and attempt to flush them out. You did good. Now prepare yourself, we will spar in one minute."
With that in mind Naruto did a few quick stretches and adjusted his clothing. Getting into his preferred stance, he clenched his fist with determination."Alright, I'm ready."
No sooner had the words left his mouth a glove covered fist attempted to stuff them back down by force. Leaning his head back, Naruto avoided the hit and quickly countered with a five strike combo that was blocked with ease. The blond then suddenly spun towards his opponent behind his guard and slammed his left elbow into the ANBU's gut. The operative jumped back and then went for another blow. Naruto seeing this quickly ducked beneath the approaching fist and jumped bringing his knee up to try and hit the ANBU in the face.
The Operative dodged with a back flip and kicked Naruto as the blond landed. Naruto winced but shrugged off the pain before rushing back in to renew his attack. The two went back and forth for a few minutes, before the ANBU jumped back putting some distance between them. "What you lack in skill you make up for in brute force and unorthodox moves, I believe you could take on most Genin and win with this alone. I will now slowly increase my fighting skill until I reach Chunin levels. Begin.
Naruto was immediately forced to go on the defense, blocking only the heaviest of hits and shrugging off the light hits that came at him. The hits began to come faster and faster and the blond had too start dodging more and deflecting less as the strikes began to blur. With a sudden backhand, Naruto was sent flying on to his side. Using the momentum from the hit he rolled into a handstand and flipped over a sweeping kick. With his opponent below him he brought down his right heel hoping to score a hit.
The ANBU was ready for him and grabbing his ankle flipped him back over and slammed him into the dirt. Naruto gasped in pain before pushing off the ground and diving to the side to avoid the follow up hit. As he rolled back onto his legs he grabbed a fist full of dirt and threw it into the face of the approaching ANBU. The operative raised his arm to block the flying dirt, even though his mask would have made the attempt futile in nature. Naruto, capitalizing on this, dashed forward and with a small leap kicked the ANBU in the chest sending him stumbling back. Naruto rushed forward to attack again only to find himself on his back looking up at the emotionless leopard mask of his Examiner
"Enough, Its safe to say that you might be able to take on a Chunin one on one with a small chance at victory, but most likely you would be defeated and killed. Your use of the terrain to try and blind me was dirty... and thats what makes me think you have what it takes. If that had been an anyone else and you were trying to kill them, that might have been their last moment. You could have in this situation used a kunai instead of your foot and stabbed them in the chest, ending their life."
"Your skills when on even terms is decent, however in a desperate situation you shine, pulling out all the stops, coming up with moves on the fly and fighting dirty. You will need to use all your skills and talents if you hope to survive." The ANBU stated seriously, dropping the passive tone he had been using all day.
Naruto hearing this nodded with a grim smile. "Don't worry, I'll do whatever it takes to win and come back home!"
The ANBU smiled beneath his mask. He was fully aware who Naruto was, he was his mother's child through and through, but at this moment it was the fourth that was looking up at him. "Then we must continue on, you have a lot of testing left to do." He said, the passive tone returning to his voice. "Five minute break. Then we will continue on."
0oO~Line Break~Oo0
Eight Hours Later...
Naruto found himself sitting at Ichiraku Ramen exhausted and hungry. The testing had continued for what seemed like forever. The ANBU operative put him trough so much that he was almost unable to lift the chopstick in his hands. The bowl of steaming noodles in front of him re-energized him just enough to eat. He started at a slow pace and kept it until his fifth bowl. He set down his chop sticks and stared at his empty bowl, it would probably be a long time till he had another. He took his time savoring this one and now he wished there was more money. He was about to pay for his meal when another bowl was set in front of him.
Looking up he saw the sadly smiling faces of Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku. "Eat up Naruto-kun..." She said with a pained inflection in her voice.
"Its all on the house tonight." Teuchi said with a sorrowful grin. "Can't have our soldiers going off on an empty stomach.
The blond could only stare as his eyes began to water. He quickly wiped his eyes and with an equally pained smile dug into his noodles with slow savoring bites. Four more bowls later he was stuffed and they said their good-byes to each other.
Naruto then made his way home for the day. When he entered his apartment fifteen minutes later he found a box on his kitchen table. The card next to it read.
This is your issued training equipment be ready and at the village gates by 6am
The blond sighed and sat in his chair heavily.
This was really happening he realized.
He could only hope he was ready.