A Hokage, A Wife & Half a Nine tails
The Fall That Failed
For the Sake of Whispers.
~ Forenote ~
Naruto has been training with Jiraiya, Toad Sage, Super Pervert, and the Sanin who trained the Yondaime, for almost a month preparing to face Neji in the Finals. However in order to succeed in summoning the Kyuubi's Chakra, Jiraiya has implemented a Life or Death training method. With only four days left before the tournament, What will Naruto do!?
Falling. Cursing. Panicking. These were the things Naruto Uzumaki was currently doing.
The old toad hermit had promised a life or death training method hadn't he? Getting tossed over a cliff wasn't what Naruto had in mind... but there wasn't anything else he could do except what he had been trying to do all month!
Focusing on his mind, on finding the demon fox inside him, Naruto finally managed to enter the seal in his mindscape.
He arrived in a large room with shadowed walls. The dominant feature of which was the single wall that appeared visible within the seal. The wall expanded forever on either side, However at the center was a Gate that made the village gate look like the gate to a mouse hole.
Each of the bars was easily bigger around than he was, and they continued upwards for what Naruto could only guess was ten or twenty floor levels. Not that he had seen a building that tall, But he was guessing anyway so that didn't matter.
Behind the bars of the seal, two massive eyes opened, illuminating the beast they belonged to. No matter how many times Naruto had imagined the fox, seeing it's size in person was amazing. Staring up at the fox's dripping teeth as it's mouth opened in a groggy yawn, the Genin stepped back.
"So my jailer has arrived to visit me." The thundering, yet calm voice of the demon shook Naruto out of his daze. Looking the monstrous creature directly in his eyes, Naruto prepared to demand Rent.
Before he had opened his mouth, the fox twitched and looked to one side. The ear on that side twisted around, listening for something. The demon's muttering wasn't understandable even if Naruto could feel it vibrating in his bones.
Was the fox going loony or something?
0o0o0
In the belly of the death god, another fox had awakened. His movements as he stirred, alarmed the other two occupants of the Death God's gut.
"Kyu-Ojii, Are you waking up?" The feminine voice of the demon's previous host called out cautiously as she approached the golden bars of the Shiki Fuin. Last time they had woke the giant when it wanted to continue sleeping, he had sulked for months. Glaring at them with a small amount of killing intent.
Of course, while the amount of the beast's killing intent was relatively small compared to what the beast was capable of, for the two shinobi, it had been high on the scale of their tolerance.
Even still, the worst part of the focused intent directed at them was the fact that it had been consistent and perpetual throughout those months. They had to live with it every single moment until it faded away as the demon fell asleep once more.
The fox's eyes opened slowly as he yawned… One of them shifted to bring the redhead in to view.
The moment the yawn ended, the dark red face of the beast lowered down to meet her. "It seems your son has finally made it to the seal." The Kyuubi spoke gently.
"Yaataa!" Kushina shouted in excitement. It had been almost a month since the fox returned to his slumber. They hadn't heard anything about Naruto since.
The demon only had peripheral knowledge about the living world, gleaned from the few mutterings of his other half. It had taken years before the dark fox had been willing to share even those with them.
For the most part, it was complaints about the boy's diet or the cold early on. But there had been several times since they got the dark fox talking, that the demon's other half had been forced to heal the boy from major injuries.
Then they seemed to stop.
There had only been two truly concerning events in the last couple years. One was less than a month ago, and the previous one was several. Both times the demon on the other side had been more active than since the early days before the dark fox began telling them what was happening. With the exception of a few isolated events.
"Have you heard why he is in the seal?" The blonde stood beside his wife in front of the gate separating them from the demon. Wrapping his arm around her, they waited anxiously for any news of their son.
"To call my other half crazy apparently."
0o0o0
"Oii! Fox! I'm talking to you!" Naruto had tried getting the demon's attention but the bright red mountain of fur continued to look for an imaginary sound.
Finally satisfied that there wasn't anyone else talking to him, the fox turned its gaze towards the child shouting at him from the other side of his cage. "What do you want, you annoying little insect?"
"I'm here to collect rent from your fuzzy ass!"
"Rent?" The fox asked spitefully. The pathetic little brat was making demands!? While not paying much attention to it, the demon responded with venom.
The argument that followed reduced itself into childish name calling in only moments. Naruto seemed to be winning as he had more varied insults while the massive fox simply got angrier.
Between snarling at the tiny human and shifting his ears to figure out where that sound was coming from, the fox became frustrated enough to finally lose it's temper. He had been trying to locate that noise for the last decade but it always seemed to elude him, and now when his jailer finally arrived it became more noticeable than ever!
Slashing his claws against the bars of the cage the demon roared at Naruto. "That's enough! Be SILENT! I'm not giving you ANY of my chakra after this! Now leave!"
The Genin stared in shock at the beast, thinking back through the names he had called him and wondering which of them had hurt the demon's feelings.
Then he realized he was still falling!
"Oii, Fox I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, but I just got thrown off a cliff! If you don't help out we'll both die!"
"No. You just have to point your legs down first, you'll live! And I can keep you alive until your body heals." The fox turned away from him again, listening for whatever it was.
Naruto left the seal in a panic. It seemed this life or death training wasn't going to work.
0o0o0
Counting the seconds down, Jiraiya realized that Naruto was almost to the point where the Toad Sage couldn't catch up to him before the boy hit the bottom. Not taking any chances, the Sanin dived off the cliff. Using his chakra to propel him much faster than free-falling would, Jiraiya searched the darkness beneath him for his godson.
Seeing the panicking boy as a growing speck ahead of him, the Sage launched himself forward again
"Kuuuuuso! Kitsune-temeee!"
Well at least it sounded like the boy managed to meet the fox. The Toad Sage estimated his distance was close enough and used one of the few Gama-jutsu he could use without summoning Sage chakra into his body.
His tongue lashed out like a whip, catching the back of the boy's orange jacket and twisting around the rearmost fabric for a good hold. Then it recoiled yanking the small Genin back towards him. Hopefully by grabbing him like this, with the snap of inertia spread through his jacket, he wouldn't break any of the boy's ribs.
Jiraiya began making hand signs for a summons. But before he had finished it he felt his tongue go slack as the sound of ripping threads reached his ears. The boy's jacket tore right off him.
Releasing the ruined fabric, the Sage flipped his body around and brought the summon's above him. Only using a small amount of what he had gathered, the Sage summoned a toad about the size of a horse and used it as a springboard to send himself at the falling kid once again.
This time he whipped his tongue out to snatch the boy's ankle instead.
0o0o0
Jiraiya paced as he considered this new problem. The boy was able to contact the fox, however the fox clearly didn't want to cooperate.
Naruto only had three days, after today, before he would fight the Hyuuga boy. That meant the Sanin needed to teach him something he could learn quick.
The aged shinobi had plenty of things that might work, but most of them would need more than three days. However… If he used that to speed up the process he might have just enough time to teach Naruto how to use a certain jutsu. And while he was at it, he might as well help Naruto figure out the real advantage behind the chakra walking skills.
With a plan of action chosen, Jiraiya turned to the brat sitting on the grass trying his damnedest to meditate.
"Oi, Naruto… After a lot of thought… I have decided that you need to try working on something different before you run out of time."
"Nani!?" Naruto jumped from his position on the ground and stormed up to grab the Sanin's vest. "You mean this whole month I've wasted, training with you, was for nothing!"
"Not at all!" The man put his hands up as if to hold Naruto off. "You made a lot of progress by contacting the Kyuubi, but for now, that simply isn't going to be ready in time."
Removing Naruto's hands from his vest, the Sanin took a step back and created a shadow clone.
"Create a single shadow clone for me kid." The clone addressed him.
Not having any other choice with the match looming so close, Naruto did as he was told. Sending a small glare at the real Toad Sage as he did.
The pervert's clone put a hand on Naruto's clone's shoulder and then they both vanished.
"Alright, while they are doing their own thing, we are going to get you ready to face your opponent. The first thing we need to do is make you fast enough to dodge the Jyuuken pokes that the boy uses."
As the Sanin spoke he pulled out a small scroll and unrolled a section of it on the ground.
"If his fingers touch you at any point of your body, he can shut your chakra down. Even with as much as you have, you won't be able to use it."
From the scroll he unsealed several pieces of split firewood. A few quick smacks and the wood separated into thin flat strips of wood about three centimeters wide and of several different lengths.
He had two pieces of firewood left intact and one that had only been split in short halves. Picking the short blocks of wood up, he tossed them at Naruto.
"Okay brat make a pair of fists and use your chakra to hold those on the front of them. Then walk over here without dropping them."
It took Naruto a few tries to figure out how to attach them onto his fists while still holding them and in the end he simply put them in his armpits so he could make the fists. With his closed knuckles attached to the blocks of wood, he let go of them with his arms and slowly brought them out in front of him.
It wasn't so hard to do. It was the same thing as tree walking after all. So he walked forwards and as the Sanin instructed next. He stepped onto the flat blocks of intact firewood. With the cut, flat sides down, and his feet on the curved sides, still covered in bark, Naruto tried to walk.
His goal was to lift the firewood with his foot and not stay anchored to the ground. At the same time he couldn't drop the short blocks on his fists. It wasn't as hard as water walking was, but it still took him a while to get the hang of it.
Once he could walk at a steady pace without dropping any of the chunks of wood attached to him, the Toad Sage took two of the longer strips of wood and placed them on his shins.
This continued the rest of the morning. Once he was able to move easily with the attached wood, the pervert added more. Well into the afternoon, Naruto had been covered almost head to toe in the strips of kindling. There were pieces attached to almost every muscle. Each of his abs and side muscles, two on each side of his chest, several on different parts of his arms and legs. And Naruto had lost count of the ones on his back.
While he was certain his chakra control had increased drastically, he still didn't see the point to this. All the Sanin would say is that they would finish when he had one on each external muscle.
Finally, the Sage pulled two dice out of his sleeve, and put them on the bottom sides of Naruto's eyebrows. He held them there just above his eyelids.
"Okay Naruto we are almost done with the first stage of this training. Now all you have to do is run through your taijutsu without dropping any of these."
0o0o0
"Okay boy, we're here." The clone wasn't happy about the vanishing thing they did. But he was certainly hoping the man would teach it to the boss. Just the thought of it got him excited for his original.
"Okay what are we going to do… are we gonna ambush the boss or are you going to grill me for information! I know where he keeps his shinobi supplies if you want to set up a—"
"As surprised as I am about how quickly you would self yourself out, I had something else in mind." Interrupting the eager clone, Jiraiya brought out a few tiny pieces of paper. Handing one of them to the clone he had the boy sit down.
"You're just going to channel chakra into this and then we are going to teach you how to manipulate elemental chakra."
Complying a lot faster than the original would have, the clone split the piece of paper in half.
"What does this mean?" The clone held the two halves out to the Sanin's clone.
"Well that means you are a wind type, however we are going to be learning a jutsu from the fire style, so we need to teach you how to convert your chakra into a different element than your affinity."
Seeing the clone pout, the Sanin made a promise the boy wouldn't remember. "I tell you what we'll do. If you can master this by the end of the night, then after the finals are over my original will teach yours how to use your wind affinity."
"You're on!" The clone shouted.
Pulling out a belt strap the Sanin clone began rubbing the strap on a fist sized rock he had picked up just for this explanation.
When he was done he had the clone put it's hand on the rock. "Its warm."
"That's exactly right. The friction of the strap rubbing on the rock caused it to heat up. What you are going to do is picture your chakra rubbing together like your hands do when you get cold. This will cause it to heat up and then you channel that into the paper."
To emphasize his point the Sanin did exactly that, rubbing his hands together over a leaf which turned into ashes.
It took the young clone most of the morning to finally get it down and once he had, the Sanin gave him a leaf to work on instead. Okay you have done great! Now, I have a shortcut for you to picture instead of the last image. Pulling out another strap, the Sanin's clone created a clone of it's own. The two of them looped their straps and began pulling them back and forth over each other.
When Naruto felt one of these straps, they were almost hot enough to dispel him. Instead of thinking about the rock heating up, he had to rub his chakra against itself in order to create flame.
0o0o0
Through the last couple hours, the original boy had been working on his taijutsu, the Sanin had made several corrections and made him repeat them quite a few times. As he did this, Naruto's goal was to not drop any of the attached wood. However that had been at a slow and steady pace.
Once Naruto was able to move through all of his kata without dropping anything, the Sanin had him start dodging a rubber ball. Dodging the ball was more of a quick paced task, even if Ero-sensei was only tossing the ball at him lazily.
He tossed it at him slowly and Naruto had to move and throw it back. Over the next hour or so the Sanin began tossing it faster and faster. Naruto began dropping wood and they had to start over.
It was getting dark when the Sanin finally began throwing the ball like he meant it. Each time it hit Naruto, the boy would yelp, but he kept the wood strips attached.
Sometime well into the night the ball finally made it's mark and knocked Naruto out cold.
0o0o0
The leaf was much harder than the paper had been. For one, the paper was meant to absorb clean chakra and show what trait it possessed. When channeling a type intentionally, the paper would pull that type out on it's own.
There was also the fact that the leaf, being a leaf picked off a tree, was still kind of wet.
He was able to almost dry it out, after a while. The Sanin told him the very least he needed was to singe the edges.
When he finally asked why, the Sanin created a small jutsu in his hand, which he called the Burning Palm Kunai. It was a small jutsu that formed when you curled your fingers around, like an open circle, and air was pulled in from the thumb side and fire came out the back.
The Sanin explained that depending on the quality of the chakra conversion, it could be red, yellow or even blue. And the Uchiha clan even had some jutsu able to create white and black flames.
When Naruto tried the jutsu all that happened was a warm blast of air the was barely even visible.
The Sanin said he needed to be able to create actual flame with that jutsu before the one he had in mind would work. And that meant Naruto had to increase the quality of his chakra conversion until he could burn the leaf.
The clone worked feverishly into the night and was able to fully dry the leaf out and even got it to start crumbing. But it didn't burn.
The clone never even noticed the sleeping genjutsu placed on him by the Hokage. He was dispelled shortly after Naruto had been knocked out and neither of them would remember any of what happened.
"He is too young to know the secret of that jutsu yet." The Hokage scolded his last remaining student
"Hence the sleeping dismissal I asked you to provide." Jiraiya replied with a smug grin as he recalled the memories of his own clone being dispelled. "He won't remember the training, but it'll help him when he begins on the jutsu I'm going to teach him."
"I assume this means he failed to use it?"
"Yeah it does. He was able to meet it, but the fox was willing to risk death to spite him. I think the beast might be harder to manage than he is able right now. It would probably be best to shelf the training until he has a year or so more experience under his belt."
The aged shinobi agreed. "And what do you think his chances are without the benefit the beast would give him against his opponent?"
"I think he still has a good chance of winning." Picking up the boy Jiraiya began towards Naruto's apartment. "He managed to get most of the wood strips to stick while he moves quickly. It's only a matter of time before he figures it out."
0o0o0
In the recesses of the death god's gut two shinobi and a beast were arguing.
The beast didn't know why his other half had refused to help Naruto and didn't care since it had turned out okay in the end. But that wasn't the point. Kushina and Minato wanted him to boss his other half around as if he had any kind of control over what the other fox did.
If the living Kyuubi didn't want to heal Naruto, the dark fox didn't think he should have to tell him to.
And his two companions for the last decade and change, disagreed.
0o0o0
Within the seal on Naruto's belly, the Kyuubi had nearly had enough listening to this other voice. He had searched for years trying to find it and now it was getting louder. The fox thought he could make out some of the words spoken, but they didn't seem to fit together.
Except for the message to heal his host. The fox was barely able to cobble that out.
Curious to see what would happen if he did as the voice asked, the Kyuubi saw no real harm in healing the baka either way. And at least this was different than trying to ignore the whispers.
0o0o0
Naruto woke bright and early, ready for more training. He didn't seem to be sore at all from the training yesterday.
Arriving at the field behind the hot springs the boy was surprised to see that Ero-Sanin had set up a small tent and camped there.
The elder shinobi crawled out of his tent the moment Naruto got to the field and immediately vanished in a puff of smoke. Along with everything he'd set up.
Naruto only had to wait a few more minutes before the Original Sanin arrived fresh and awake. "Baka… Setting up a tent because the ground was uncomfortable." Shaking his head at his clone's actions, the Toad Sage turned to Naruto and grinned. "Okay Naruto, today I want you to make ten clones."
As the Toad Sage created his clone, ten of Naruto's popped into existence.
Naruto didn't know what his clone had done last time but whatever it was must not have been enough if it need ten of them to do it today.
Gathering the strips of wood that had been stacked by the tent last night, Naruto began attaching them all to the parts of his body they had been on the day before.
It seemed so much easier to do this time. Yesterday had taken so long before he could even hold them all. He was ready to dodge that rubber ball.
"Alright kid, I have a question for you… Is this Neji brat going to be throwing a rubber ball at you?"
Well that wasn't what Naruto had been expecting. Answering that the Hyuuga would be using his fingers resulted in the Sanin's tongue shooting out of his mouth, with a marker wrapped in it. The dot on Naruto's forehead protector explained everything to Naruto.
"That was a Gama-jutsu I use for various purposes. I learned it from one of the toad clan members I frequently summon."
Nodding in awe at the thought of learning toad jutsu, Naruto payed attention.
"In order to get you moving at a high enough speed while getting you used to dodging something the size of the Hyuuga boy's fingers, I will be using this instead of the ball today."
They started off slow, but the Sanin's tongue was much harder for Naruto to anticipate because he couldn't see where it was aiming until it shot out at him.
After a while the Sanin dropped the marker and began actually hitting him with the jutsu. It didn't feel like a normal tongue, but when Naruto got a good look at it, he saw that the tip of it had hardened and grown spikes, like a small club.
The hits could bruise and more often than not, drew blood. Naruto continued to dodge as fast as he could without dropping the strips of wood attached all over his body. The two of them did this all day, until Naruto didn't drop them even when hit hard enough to send him flying.
While Naruto didn't realize it, as Jiraiya watched, the Genin was visibly managing to correct his taijutsu too. The corrections the Sanin had made the previous day had been taking hold slowly, however every time the boy was hit, he would adjust his footing or stance without noticing what he was doing.
So the Sanin targeted the openings he saw at a slow speed, and kept it up until Naruto's movements were flowing naturally the way they should. By the time the Toad Sage finally knocked Naruto out that night, the boy's body was covered in bruises and blood.
0o0o0
The Kyuubi had tried doing what the voice was whispering, but it didn't get him anywhere. The very next day the boy was beaten twenty times worse. However the fox had found out that he could get the voice to speak back when he talked about the outside world.
It was still too muffled to understand but the voice was getting clearer. And so he talked. Explaining the progress the brat had made and the wounds he took to make it.
Finally the Kyuubi was able to make out what sounded like the voice calling him an idiot for not healing the boy as he trained.
Not sure what else to do. The fox went along with this voice. Where ever it was coming from, might be a way out of this accursed prison… It might also just be insanity… But it was less annoying and at least it wasn't boring yet.
0o0o0
Jiraiya was surprised when Naruto arrived without a single mark on him. Not only those from the marker that had been washed off, but all the bruises and broken skin had healed literally overnight!
They started out slow again. Sending the ten clones away before attaching the wood and dodging for about half an hour.
The gaki had only gotten a bit faster aside from the correction in his stance and footing. But those had done wonders on his movement on their own. Now it was time for the boy to learn the whole point of this training.
So the Toad Sage was much harder on Naruto and the Genin improved that much faster. It seemed he was actively healing as they trained. An open wound on his calf sealed up in only minutes. The bruise on his wrist was gone in less than that. Every wound inflicted on the boy was beginning to heal.
Then, midway through the morning, Naruto's speed suddenly jumped. He was at least three times as fast as before.
The Toad Sage began whipping at him with an equal speed increase and the boy only got faster.
It seemed he had figured it out. As Naruto was moving, he was channeling his chakra to all the areas the Sanin placed a strip of wood on at the same time. This in itself was a great mark of control. But the true purpose was that his chakra was in the right areas to be channeled directly into the muscles. Once he learned to focus his chakra into each thread instead of just along each limb, his speed jumped.
Now he was getting the hang of it. The Sanin needed to speed up every couple of shots just to be able to keep hitting the boy.
Then as he was aiming for the brat's ear, Naruto ducked and reached up, catching his tongue in his hand! With his feet anchored to the ground, the recoil wasn't able to pull back as it was meant to, and the Sanin gagged.
"I get it already ero-sensei." Naruto spoke in a hushed whisper with his face staring at the his feet. Then all of the strips of wood covering his body dropped to the ground.
"Eet Go ah meh tugg, Bwat! That hursth!" Jiraiya managed to get out around his extended apendage.
The boy looked up, staring directly into his eyes. "Go faster."
Naruto spoke with such a heavy determination. Letting go of the Sanin's tongue, Naruto leapt back and to stance.
Not one to refuse such a well made challenge, Jiraiya complied.
He increased his speed by leaps, but also began hitting like he meant it. The boy only got faster until finally, he was missing again. Each time his tongue hit something else, it shattered. He smashed the fence of the hot springs and put marks all over the ground, he even felled a tree!
Soon Naruto began making his way towards the Sanin and then he charged.
He was easily dodging the Toad Sage's tongue as he came closer and closer.
So Jiraiya began moving too.
It wasn't long before Naruto was almost able to reach the Sanin. Not that the man was moving anywhere near his real speed. But he had to at least move as fast as he could without chakra. And soon, he even began using chakra too.
Then Naruto pulled a move out of his ass that the Sanin felt like an idiot for not expecting. Naruto charged right at him and took a hit, but behind him a clone had formed and he pulled the clone over his head, launching it at the Sanin.
Then, as Jiraiya whipped the clone, Naruto jumped over them both, creating another clone to spring off of, and almost landing at hit square in the Hermit's face!
He began using his clones en mass, coming at the Sage from all angles and from more than one at a time.
By the time Naruto's efforts began to drop off and the boy got hit hard enough to knock him out, he was moving far past the speed the Sanin had expected.
Looking him over to make sure his final hit hadn't damaged him too badly, Jiraiya breathed a sigh of exhaustion.
He had kept up with Naruto all day long at a pace he could have easily managed, but maintaining it had become difficult. Naruto didn't even realize that forcing his body to move at those speeds had torn almost all of his muscles.
Not that it made much difference with the fox healing him the way he was. The Sage doubted there would be any mark left on the boy by morning.
0o0o0
They only had one day left. Thank Kami Naruto had figured out how to use his chakra yesterday. Now it was time to make the boy dangerous…
The Sanin was sure he would catch hell for this, But it wasn't like he had much else he could teach Naruto in such as short time. At least, nothing that would make the amount of difference this would.
Sitting Naruto down, he began a fourth time, explaining how to light the leaf on fire. The last two days he had taught ten of Naruto's clones how to light the leaf, and it had payed off. Yesterday they had been able to dry the thing out fresh in only an hour and then they even managed to burn it's edges. Now to make sure the training had carried over.
Showing Naruto what he was doing, the Sanin held a leaf up between two fingers and it turned into ashes in the count of two.
All Naruto had to do was burn the leaf a little. All he had to do was get the edges to turn black. After a brief explanation, the image he was focusing on came clearly to his mind. Focusing his chakra as he was told, he channeled it through the leaf. It only took him half an hour to get the edges of the leaf to burn and he didn't even dry the leaf out as he did it.
Not realizing that his clones had already managed it the day before, Naruto jumped up in a joyful cheer of triumph.
"Okay, Now that you managed that, I have one last thing to show you, but we have to go to an actual training ground for this." The Sanin told him.
Naruto was ready. "Sweet! What are we going to do!?"
"I'm going to show you an actual fire style jutsu that I think you're going to love."
0o0o0
The day of the finals finally began. He was still missing his jacket, but he would make do without it. Naruto was as ready as he could be. But more than that, he was excited as hell! He had wanted to go look at the train grounds at the academy to remember how hard he had worked, but on his way there he was intercepted by the Pervert himself.
"Look kid I didn't go through all that trouble to get you ready just for you to get lost!" The jerk said as he dragged Naruto the other way.
Just before they got to the entrance of the arena, the man let go and turned him around. "Hey, I just wanted to say that I am sorry for that whole pushing you off a cliff thing…" As the Sanin rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, the other hand reached into a pack hanging on the Sanin's belt.
What he pulled from the pack was a new orange jacket. It looked exactly like his old one, but it felt a little thicker. It was definitely made from something else.
"Since I kinda ripped your other one and dropped it… This one is better anyway. It's got reinforced everything and it's made of shinobi fabrics instead of civilian."
Naruto took the jacket and put it on with care.
"Look, Win or lose, I think you're going to do great out there. You just have to give it your all, and most importantly, don't forget what you're fight for! Don't forget what this kid did to that girl and your oath to do something about it." With those last words of encouragement the old shinobi turned Naruto again and gave him a slight push before leaping up to the wall of the arena and going over its roof.
0o0o0
As Naruto stood in the arena with the rest of them, his mind was racing. How did the pervy Sage even know about that? The image of Hinata lying on the floor at the preliminaries appeared in his mind. He clearly felt the rage of what Neji had done.
He only noticed they were about to begin when the Hokage began speaking. Looking around he realized that Sasuke still hadn't arrived.
At the end of the Hokage's speech their proctor held up the match list. One of the names was gone. Another look around and Naruto remembered who it was. The guy that fought Chouji was missing.
With everyone else leaving, Naruto took his stance across the arena from Neji.
"Got anything to say to me?" The arrogant jerk smirked.
Holding his fist out, Naruto replied coolly, "Just what I said last time"
The Hyuuga grinned and began to chuckle. "All the better for me! I can't wait to see the look of despair on your face when you realize that stupid vow of yours is impossible to keep!"
At the same time, the Hyuuga activated his doujutsu and began to think. Naruto was standing much firmer than before, his body language was surer and more confident.
"Yeah, well then go ahead and use that backagain vision you got and just watch me keep it!" Naruto challenged. As he says this, he began channeling chakra into his muscles. All the chakra he could.
So much chakra was moving through him that his new jacket and his pants rippled. The ground around his feet began to shake as his chakra swirled around him, dust blew up into the air cycling along the chakra.
In the stands many of the audience gasped. Lee, whose crutch was across his lap turned to his sensei.
"No Lee, he isn't using the gates."
Tenten too leaned forward, intently watching as the wind blew around Naruto. Others in the stands began to murmur. Many of the older shinobi were surprised to say the least. Sitting with Hinata, Kiba smirked at the reactions of the shinobi next to them. He hadn't expected to lose his match either.
In the arena, Neji saw the sheer amount of chakra Naruto was using. He wasn't sure what he was seeing was even possible. Stepping back a few paces the Hyuuga caught the incoming kunai and used it to deflect the next two.
"It doesn't matter how much chakra you force into yourself!" He called out "You will lose here!"
Naruto charged, creating a clone above him as he closed in and threw it at the Hyuuga too.
The clone was just above Neji, but before it landed Neji poked it in the stomach, thinking it would dispel. Instead the clone began to glow with just enough time for Neji to throw himself backwards. He twisted as he fell, forcing his chakra between him and the explosion.
Regaining his balance, Neji completed the spin of his ace technique. The dome of chakra pushed the blast away from him.
Naruto sent another two clones at him. This time Neji went on the defensive. Blocking and redirecting the smaller boy's attacks without activating the explosive quickly became a struggle. Naruto was faster than he had been before. Far faster than Neji had ever even thought him capable of.
His movements were almost random and his speed continued to increase as they fought.
With only two of them attacking, Neji was barely keeping ahead of them.
All around the battle, people had erupted into stunned chatter. Even the Hyuuga clan head and his youngest daughter spoke with a hushed surprise. Neji had managed to recreate one of the Jutsu reserved for the main house members on his own!
While the rest of them were surprised at the kaiten, they were even more surprised that not only could Naruto create solid clones, which was an A-ranked jutsu, He was also able to make them explode! Compared to that, his extreme increase in speed was overlooked by all but the rookie Genin who knew him.
With the two shadow clones getting so close to Neji, the Hyuuga knew he only had one option and used a pair of shuriken to wound them from a distance.
"Ha! And here I thought close combat was your specialty!" Naruto called out from where he was.
Neji turned to him and took stance again. Solid clone was supposed to be a Jonin level skill. If he was right about it then Naruto would run out of chakra if he made more than a few of them.
"Do you think making a pair of clones is going to defeat me? Nothing times nothing is still nothing!"
The blonde simply smirked at him and created more of them.
These ones were different though. Unlike the last few, Naruto had distributed his chakra evenly among these ones. "I guess you realized it was a bad idea to burst one of my clones!"
"Go ahead and hide all you want! It won't help you win!"
This time Neji attacked. He charged in at the clones weaving through them swiftly enough that he was able to pass by and dispel a clone without remaining in it's blast area.
The he saw him, the real Naruto had step back out of the fight. Rushing through the other clones without even trying to hit them Neji reached Naruto and jammed his fingers into the smaller boy's chest. Just in front of his heart.
He only barely managed to escape the blast when the wounded clone exploded.
"Did you think I was afraid of you or something!?" One of the Naruto's called out. "You thought I wouldn't come fight you myself!" Continued another.
Three more of them attacked, two head on and one from above, Neji tried to dispel the two coming at him from the ground first, and intended to dodge the third, but his hand was grabbed by the boy on the left! The real Naruto had been in the attack! The right clone burst without an explosion, as the one falling in, smashed his fist into Neji's blocking arm. Neji tried to strike back at Naruto, but the blonde substituted with another clone who dispelled on it's own. The blast threw Neji to the ground.
The flames created hadn't been hot enough to do much damage, but even as light as they were, the burns covered his who left side. Even his hair had been burned.
He knew he had only one way to end this. He had to use that. But first he needed to get rid of the clones in his way. So focusing most of his chakra into his right hand, the Hyuuga genius condensed it and compressed it into a plainly visible rope of chakra.
Finally standing again, Neji spun on heel and swung his right arm out in a slash. The thin whip of chakra passed into all the clones around him. All but the real Naruto dispelled in a combination of explosions and dispersal smoke.
"You have lost! You are within range of my divination." Neji spoke in triumph as he took stance for the Eight Trigrams Sixty-four palm technique. He moved in and missed the first two strikes as Naruto dodged out of the way.
Twisting, he continued to sending strike after strike at the blonde. Several of them hit, but even when hit Naruto wasn't phased by the strike as Neji had expected. A good solid strike from his jyuken should have sent the boy to the dirt but Naruto moved as if he had barely been touched.
Neji counted out the strikes until all of Naruto's Primary Tenketsu would have been hit. Out of the sixty-four he had managed to only hit forty-seven. His last strike being enough to send Naruto to the ground.
"You should be feeling it now. The realization that you can't win." Neji strode towards Naruto, calmly basking in his victory.
"Shut up! I can still fight!" Naruto pushed himself to his knees and then further to one foot.
"I have sealed off most of your Tenketsu. My next attack with seal the rest of them." While Neji said it, Naruto stood, glaring at him.
It was hard but Naruto was barely able to make a clone before Neji struck again. Ignoring the clone Neji slammed into Naruto with a vengeance. This time Naruto wasn't able to dodge nearly as many of them as he had last time. Each strike felt like a knife going into his chakra itself.
The clone simply fell to the ground and struggled to move away from the battle.
Once more Neji saw failure when he sent Naruto to the ground. He had missed two of Naruto chakra points even though he had only been aiming for seventeen of them.
As he marched towards Naruto, ready to finish the job, Neji saw a swelling of chakra from one of the beaten Genin's chakra points.
Naruto was forming another Shadow Clone!
The chakra forming the jutsu converged right in front of him and before it formed all the way, it decompressed in an explosion that only Neji's preemptive leap to the side saved him from.
"How did you create that!"
"I'm guessing you didn't seal off all of my tent-kitsu. At least one of them is still able to make chakra. If you want to beat me you're gonna have to kill me!"
Naruto wasn't even using hand seals as he created another explosion.
As Neji dodged, Naruto pushed himself back up. Standing and glaring at the older boy, Naruto called out a defiant challenge.
One that Neji responded to with an admission that he had impressed the Hyuuga. "However," Neji continued "If this fight continues then I will actually have to kill you. While I'm willing to accept the task, this is not a life or death match. You may still withdraw. I have nothing against you personally and I am certain you will become a chunin next time."
"Yeah well I got something personal against you! I made a vow to kick your ass for Hinata's sake and I'm not giving up until you pay for what you did to her!"
Another explosion, this one almost twice the size of the last two, appeared.
Neji easily avoided it. Listening intently as Naruto ranted about how wrong he had treated his pathetic little cousin.
If Naruto wanted to know why he treated her like that, perhaps the audience would like to hear it as well.
And so he told him. The pause in Naruto's explosions was long enough for him to recover some of his lost chakra. More than enough to end this. When he had finished explaining the cruel fate of his father. Naruto remained silent.
Neji moved to strike, but was forced to dodge as three more explosions formed around him. Only the Kaiten saved him from being consumed by the blasts.
"If there is a way to break that fate of yours I'll find it! Right after I become Hokage! But right now… Right now I'm going to kick your ass! You may have had a shitty hand from the start, but that doesn't give you the right to treat Hinata like that! You don't get to decide other people's fates!"
Again Neji was surrounded by the explosions, quickly forming the kaiten he pushed them away with his chakra, only for Naruto to start gathering his chakra inside the protective shield of the Kaiten. Neji had no choice but to abandon his rotation and throw himself clear of the forming blast.
In that moment, Naruto traded places with the clone that had began digging when Neji's sight was blocked by the explosive clones. As Neji got back to his feet he saw Naruto running towards him. He was about to move to meet the blonde head on, activating his byakugan he stopped.
This Naruto only had forty-seven of his chakra points closed! Looking around, Neji couldn't find the original, then the ground beneath him broke as two hands grabbed him from below.
The clone had reached Neji and swung its fist up into his gut. This was followed by a kick to the face hard enough to break him loose from the original's grip. As the Hyuuga was airborne the assaulting clone appeared above him, creating it's own clone to kick off of, down towards the cresting Hyuuga, punching him into the ground and bursting.
As Naruto climbed out of his hole, Neji turned his head to look at the rising Genin "How…? Why do you keep getting up with your tenketsu closed?"
"Because every one called me a failure!" Naruto answered him with a vicious snarl. "I failed to graduate three times because of a single Jutsu that was always on the test. My clones were pathetic. But I didn't give up. I kept trying, because there is no shortcut to real strength. That is only created from hard work, when you are trying to protect the person you love! You have to give it everything you have! Life or death! Not just one tent-kitsu or another. That is the will of fire!"
0o0o0
From within the Boy's gut the Kyuubi couldn't finish relaying the words of his host to the still unidentified sounds of his cage.
Naruto actually meant those words.
It seemed he was something interesting after all. The fox was willing to admit he made a good speech. So… complying once more to the muffled demands of the voice in his cage, the fox pushed his chakra out in a short burst.
Not much, but enough to undo the Hyuuga brats handiwork.
0o0o0
The flare of red chakra that passed through Naruto, illuminated him as if he were made of the bright red flames like his explosive clones.
And that was when Neji saw that it unlocked all of his sealed tenketsu.
"You could have unlocked them whenever you wanted, couldn't you?" He asked. Realizing that if this red chakra was able to do that, Naruto had been holding back this whole time. He could have used that red chakra at any point in the match and he would have been that much stronger.
The last thoughts Neji had as he faded into unconsciousness were that he had been a fool.
0o0o0
The match was over. The Hokage stood and the crowed that had been in murmur over the results hushed in a deafening silence.
"That… was an impressive speach young Genin and an even more impressive battle. I hereby make my first nomination for the Chunin promotion." Turning his hand out in a offering gesture, as if the old man was presenting the boy to the crowd, the Hokage spoke much louder. "Uzumaki Naruto!"
As the Hokage began sitting, the crowds all stood and began roaring their cheers!
~ Note ~
I know not a lot has changed from the original plot yet, however it will take some time to develop. This is the pilot chapter and as such I leave it up to you all to review and let me know if I should follow through with this story.
Any questions you have are welcome, and I will update this ~ Note ~ with the answers when I upload chapter two.
Most items in all my Naruto fan-fictions will be based off of T8: Retroversion's timeline. Many of these details will be universal across them all.
Meaning any mission or OC, or other major details will be included, based on their background and trigger events.
While T8: Retroversion will be my main Fic, Five others are on my list to work on at the moment: LATE Naruto: Life After the Ends; Uzumaki: A Lone Fox; The Thousand Ninja; Village Hidden in Plain Sight; and Wisdom of Chance. Descriptions on profile.
