Chapter 1
"Ok, you can open your eyes"
As his eyes opened, Naruto found himself looking at his teacher from the academy, smiling. He took in the picture of Iruka, alive and smiling, and found that the man was holding his goggles in his hands. His forehead also felt different, as if they were not empty, but had a weight to it.
Moving his hand to touch whatever was on his head, he felt a cold plate of metal, attached to a cloth wrapped around his head, with an engraving on it.
Naruto's eyes started to water at his realization.
"Congratulations on graduating" Said the chunin, still smiling away.
Naruto said nothing for several moments, and after enough time Iruka started to worry. Suddenly the blond dove in for an embrace, due to the fact that he could not muster up any words to fit the situation.
Iruka chuckled, and fell back. He was surprised by it, but that soon washed away with extreme joy as he found himself holding the boy on the ground.
There surroundings were actually quite nice. In the Forrest they found themselves in, it was a peaceful kind of quiet with the odd chirping of a cricket now and then. The moon light filled the night sky beautifully, touching everything with its white glow. It's light pierced through the tree-tops and lit up the spot Naruto and Iruka found themselves in. It was a magical evening, despite the rather sour events that transpired moments before.
Neither thought about how Naruto had failed the genin exam in the morning, thanks to his inability to do a regular Bunshin, nor did they think about how Mizuki tricked him into stealing the scroll of sealing, or about the fact they both nearly died a moment ago.
That was forgotten for the brief moment in time, and for the first time in a long time, Naruto was truly happy.
xXx
Konoha Ninja Academy
Kakashi Hatake strolled into the building which housed the 'Mission Assignment Desk', one where many genin get their first D-rank missions, reading a book and as relaxed as ever. He was a couple hours late which didn't seem to bother him, and in fact being this early was something he could take pride in if his track record of arriving late was anything to go by. On average he was four hours late, and that was to anything he had to do (except for missions).
The Jounin was somewhat a curious character - he always wore a face mask, which covered his nose and mouth, making half of his face a mystery. On top of that, he had his ninja headband covering his left eye. So really, if you were to look at the man's face, only his right eye would be visible. His hair was also somewhat interesting, as it was pure white (Not through age) and standing up on end, defying gravity. He wore standard Jounin clothing though, consisting of a standard flak jacket with the Uzumaki crest on the back and a simple black outfit underneath, with sandals and a kunai/shuriken holder on his right leg.
Walking through the hallway, the Jounin looked through a door that was slightly open, allowing the evening sunlight to leak out of it. That room housed the mission assignment desk and he could remember it even when he was a genin. He quickly brushed these thoughts to the back of his mind, as they started to bring up troubling memories which were best left buried for now. Walking past the nostalgic sight, he continued to the end of the hall.
Kakashi made great care not hurry along, making sure he got to enjoy his reading until he would have to stop and pay attention. The meeting he was about to attend was where he would be assigned a genin squad, something that had been done for many years now. Most Jounins, after doing a number of missions, were selected to be a leader for a young genin squad, and as such guide them to becoming great shinobi. Kakashi had done his fair share of missions as an ANBU leader and many as a Jounin, so it was only normal for him to slow it down and bestow his knowledge and experience onto the younger generation. He had been getting squads assigned to him for many years now, and yet he was attending another meeting for the new genins to be placed in a team.
So why did he not have one now?
The truth was, after the team was assigned to him he would give them one extra test, to see if they are really ninja material. He deemed this test to be the one single most important test to see if a team was ready to serve the village as active shinobi, and shown the man if they had the right attributes for the job. And, funnily enough, even though he had been doing it for many years, he had not passed a single squad yet.
Keeping this in mind, Kakashi could only sigh. Another year where he would gain a genin team, fail them and go back to doing missions again regularly.
Stopping at the end of the hallway, the Jounin could hear voices behind the door he found in front of him, and opened it.
The room suddenly went quite as the door opened, and all eyes fixed on it. Stepping in lazily, Kakashi walked in still reading his book, seemingly unaware of the sudden silence which enveloped the room, and also unaware of the fact that everyone was staring at him. He probably would have commented on the silence of the room, if not for the kunai hurtling toward him. He swiftly stepped out of the way, avoiding the kunai and looking awesome all in one movement, still not looking up from his book. The man knew exactly who threw the kunai, and why, as this wasn't the first time this had happened.
Finally deciding on putting his book away, Kakashi looked at his attacker in front of him before speaking.
"Sorry, I was on the way here when my intended path was blocked by a black cat, so I had to-" Kakashi tried to say before he was cut off.
"Damn it Kakashi! Don't try any of your lame excuses, do you know how long we have been waiting for you?!" A rather irritated Kunoichi screamed at the man standing before her, reaching into her overcoat for some extra weaponry.
The aloof man merely chuckled, and made a dismissing hand action to the Kunoichi, who was ready to unleash some shuriken into his body, followed by a single "Sorry Anko".
Anko had light-brown eyes which would scare any man in their right mind if she looked at them directly. She had short blue-tinted black hair tied into a fanned-ponytail, and a forehead protector. She wore a tan overcoat with purple seams and pockets on each side, which lay over a fitted mesh body suit, stretching from her neck down to her thighs. In addition to this, she had a dark orange mini-skirt with a blue belt keeping it in place, metal-plated shin guards and a small pendent residing around her neck in the form of a necklace, looking like a snake fang.
She was a Jounin in the village, and therefore quite a talented ninja, but this was not the reason a lot of men feared her, or at least it was not the main reason. Anko was notorious for being one damn scary women. She could and would make anyone's life a living hell, not afraid of mortally wounding you if you tried to be smart or cocky toward her. Those that knew her well felt safe enough to try a couple jokes now and then, but never anything too extreme; most Jounin made sure to go careful around her.
Even so, this didn't mean anything to Kakashi, as the two seemed to be on friendly terms.
Friendly terms which involved hurling weapons with the potential to kill at each other if one turns up late to a meeting it would seem.
"Whatever, you are here now, so let's get this meeting started already" Said Anko, turning away from Kakashi and toward the desk at the front of the room with a large frown.
Everyone in the room also turned there attention to the desk as Kakashi made his way toward a couple of people other than Anko in the room of whom he knew. The people in question were Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuhi and Maito Gai.
Asuma was a tall, bearded man with short spiky hair and brown eyes. He wore standard Konoha ninja uniform, with a flak jacket on top with his sleeves rolled half way up, along with sandals and a white sash with the kanji for 'fire' on it attached to his waist with bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves.
The sash he had was given to him as one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, a group of elite ninja hired for the protection of the Fire Daimyō.
He was also the son of the Hokage, making him not your standard Jounin to say the least.
Next to him was Kurenai, a slender, light skinned women with black, shoulder-length hair which looked wild accompanied by her bright red eyes. She wore mesh armor over her blouse and right arm, with a broad material over it with the patterns of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were wrapped up in bandages, and she had a standard Konoha forehead protector.
The best genjutsu user in the Konohona, and someone nobody wanted to fight, although she wasn't scary like Anko. People just didn't like the idea of being stuck in one of her hellish genjutsus.
The third person, completing the trio was Maito Gai.
Gai was an interesting man to say the least, and many would laugh at him. He had the worst bowl-haircut in the history of the world, accompanied by his very, very bushy eye brows. As well as this, he wore a full spandex suit, green in color with orange leg warmers. Over his suit he wore a flak jacket, and his Konohona head band around his waist as a belt.
An eccentric man, one most people underestimate in battle because of it. This is not a smart thing to do, he was a Jounin after all.
Gai was a Taijutsu master, better than anyone in the Konoha and probably the world, though he doesn't have very many techniques so to speak. He tries to stick to Taijutsu, and has made it all the way to Jounin level with his skills.
Kakashi certainly had interesting relations here, and probably the strongest group of Jounins in the village.
After joining the group, the meeting started with the Hokage leading from the desk at the front of the room. This went on for quite some time, discussing various children from the academy and who would be best suited to be there sensei, standard stuff. Up until now Kakashi didn't know anything about the new genin (With one exception), and he wasn't impressed so far. Sure he thought there were many with talent to become ninja, but nothing amazing, all pretty much your run of the mill ninja.
He thought this until the name 'Uchiha' came up in the conversation, something he had been anticipating for quite some time.
The last Uchiha, all family killed in a single night by his brother, and a genius according to the academy teachers - someone like this definitely appealed to the man.
The Hokage cleared his throat. "Now, Uchiha Sasuke is the top rookie of his year, a prodigy, destined to become a great ninja. Now, where do we put him?" The old man said, smiling to himself.
"I must insist the boy go on to my team, Hokage-sama" Said Kakashi, raising his hand and stepping out from behind his friends. Not many thought that this was strange, it was only normal for Sasuke Uchiha to go to the only other ninja in the world (Excluding Itachi) with the sharingan to be his tutor. They were just as confident as Kakashi that the boy would go to him on a team.
"I can understand this, Kakashi, but unfortunately, I have already placed him on a different team" The Hokage replied, looking at the covered up face of confusion on the Jounin. "Regarding this, I would like you all to meet my student and long time friend, Jiraiya".
Out of the shadows behind the Hokage stepped a white-haired man, bangs framing each side of his face with a forehead protector on his head, which had the kanji for 'Oil' on it. He had red lines coming from his eyes down to his jaw, and a wart on the left side of his nose. His clothing wasn't that of an ordinary ninja, but a sage. He wore a green kimono top with matching pants, mesh armor and a red haori.
He was probably the strongest man in the room, rivaling that of the Hokage, and everybody had heard about him.
"Hatake Kakashi, I can understand why you would want the Uchiha to be on your team, but you have already had a team of genin put together for you, for reasons I will explain to you" Said the toad sage as he stood next to the Hokage. Despite how he usually acted, Jiraiya acted seriously during meetings like this one, and approached things in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
"Jiraiya came back to the village a couple days ago to help me with deciding the teams to put genin on, although some of these can change we have decided that the team Sasuke has been put on is not up for debate" The Hokage added, clearing up whispers going around the room on why one of the Sannin just appeared in the room.
Kakashi stared at the men in front of him, confused and somewhat annoyed. "But who else can teach the kid how to utilize his sharingan when he awakens it?".
"When the time comes, we will arrange for him to have regular lessons with you to learn how to use his eyes, but you will not be in charge of his team" Hiruzen said (The Hokage).
"Anyway, let me be the one to announce who will be team seven, being led under Kakashi Hatake. Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame and Naruto Uzumaki" Jiraiya said, frowning at the looks some of the ninja gave him after mentioning Naruto's name. Many were led to believe he would not become a ninja due to him failing the exam, and some whispered about how letting the boy become a ninja would only cause the kyuubi to attack again in due time. Jiraiya clenched his fists.
"Team eight, under Kurenai Yuhi, will consist of Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Sasuke Uchiha" Jiraiya said with a trace of anger in his voice, trying to divert the attention of the group away from Naruto.
The room was filled with whispers now, doubting this decision and even going to far as to consider speaking out against the Hokage and Jiraiya. This was soon stopped though as Jiraiya continued his speach.
"Usually, the top student and dead-last are put on the same team, to balance each other out. But, I decided against this and implored the Hokage to change it. Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha seem to have been at each other's throats all the way through the academy. If we put them on the same team, training would be successful, as each would keep training harder and harder to out-do the other. But when it comes to missions, this could lead to failing the mission, getting themselves killed or even their comrades by trying to show who is the better ninja" Jiraiya paused, making eye contact with the many faces in front of him. "We moved him off the team as to ensure that they don't do anything stupid" Jiraiya finished by sitting down in a chair right next to the Hokage's, indicating that he had had enough of talking.
Hiruzen smiled profusely at the many ninja who had agreed with the reasoning, and had refrained from whispering. "Thank you, Jiraiya, now, back to the other teams. Team ten will.."
The meeting went on without any more mention of the turn of events regarding Sasuke, and many seemed content with the result, much to Hiruzen's and Jiraiya's pleasure. Though one ninja was a bit miffed with the reasons, but decided to wait until after the meeting to discuss it further.
XxX
After the Meeting
The meeting didn't last too long after that, ending with the Hokage informing the new teachers to be at the academy in one week to meet their genin team.
Then everyone headed out, talking about everything that had happened to one another, until only four remained in the room; The Hokage, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Kurenai.
Hiruzen was not surprised by this, in fact he was almost counting on it happening. Though there would not be a lot of things to discuss, as his decision was final.
Kakashi looked at the two men, trying to think of how to start his case. Was he going to start with Sasuke, or would he first talk about how Kiba belonged to Kurenai's squad, a true sensor unit. But unfortunately he was beaten to it by Jiraiya, who didn't want to drag out this talk too long, he did have his research to take care of after all.
"Listen, Kakashi, I know what you are going to say, and yes Sasuke probably would become a top shinobi under you. But, I have decided that Naruto would be better to learn from you than Sasuke, so the latter was moved" Jiraiya said calmly.
The Jounin took this in, trying to process it. "Why do you think Naruto would be better, might I ask?".
This time the Hokage answered instead with an even tone. "You are one of our best ninja in this village, and were taught by the fourth himself. I'm sure that that must count for something, wouldn't you agree?". The fact that Kakashi was taught by the father of Naruto, Minato Namikaze, was shocking to hear as the Jounin hadn't really thought about it, although he did know about Naruto's heritage.
Kakashi didn't say anything, but turned around instead and walked towards the door.
"Thank you Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama, I will be looking foreword to testing my team" Stated Kakashi, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
His leaving was rather abrupt, but not entirely a mystery to Jiraiya.
Talk of the fourth around Kakashi brought up unwanted memories for him, hence his sudden leaving from the building. Kurenai stayed quiet through the whole of this, following the conversation to the letter, making sure she understood everything before nodding at the Hokage and Jiraiya, and started walking out of the door before disappearing into a small, concise whirlwind of flower petals.
She wanted to question the two men before her, ask them why the perfect sensor team had been split up, but after seeing the resolve behind what they had said to Kakashi, she knew it would be to no avail. They were dead set on these teams, and nothing would stop them. Who knows? Maybe this would work out for the better, it was true that while having rivals was something good in itself, having rivals on the same team as you could make your decision making somewhat bad, and this could be dire.
Once the female had left the room, Jiraiya let out a breath of air, thankful for the meeting to be over. It all had gone well, and although Kakashi clearly was unsure about the boy, the toad sage could tell that the boy would prove to be an interesting student. Following this thought, Jiraiya realized that he had a whole week until Naruto would be placed on team Kakashi... A whole week to get the boy ready. Nothing fancy, but get the basics down - both he and the Hokage knew that he had been neglected in the academy, and he was far from being a proper ninja thus far, so it was almost common sense for Jiraiya to set him on the right path.
"Hey, tell Naruto to come to the hot springs tomorrow at ten, I think it's time I meet the boy" Jiraiya said with a smile on his face. His mind was coming up with many ideas on what he could teach the child, and he was literally jumping at the thought of doing it. He was the boy's Godfather after all, and he wanted his Godson to be as strong as he was. But as amazing as Naruto could be, Jiraiya quickly dismissed the thought of the boy being stronger than him, as he was the great and valiant Toad Sage, he would be lying if he thought he could make anyone as awesome as him.
The Hokage nodded, feeling rather tired after a whole day's work and this meeting. Damn it he was getting too old for this Hokage stuff, why could Jiraiya just take his job? He wished for this once, but the toad sage had made it clear that he would never be Hokage.
"Right then, with all this sorted, time hit the clubs!" Jiraiya exclaimed, walking out the door, holding himself in a high and mighty manner.
Hiruzen merely laughed quietly at this, as everyone knew how Jiraiya was in day to day life - a pervert. If being the author of Icha Icha series didn't make you a pervert, nothing did.
The Hokage had nothing but respect for his favourite student as he watched him walk out the door. He had become a fine shinobi, learning many techniques and even surpassing him in some areas. Even when his team mate Orochimaru turned sour and left the village, Jiraiya remained strong and followed him, while also making sure that his village was safe. The amount of sneaking around villages that toad sage had done was amazing, a true genius of under cover infiltration. His network of spies Jiraiya had at his disposal ran to all corners of the earth, residing in every hidden village.
Reclining to his chair, The Hokage thought about many things, including the new genin teams, Kakashi Hatake and Naruto. The latter thought made Hiruzen call a couple ANBU over to him who were always hidden somewhere for his protection. He told them when Naruto needed to see him, and decided it was time to make his way home.
'How interesting that the boy was able to pick up the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu in just a couple hours, certainly one to watch' The old man thought before walking out of the room, heading for his house to further think about the outcome of this decision.
xXx
Naruto's Apartment
Naruto awoke in his room a little after nine, smiling like there was no tomorrow. He was remembering the events of last night, and what happened after he became a ninja. Iruka took him to Ichiraku Ramen, the best ramen store in the world (according to Naruto) and talked about the many things the boy would have to do once he was put on a team. Iruka said several times that Naruto could always stop by to ask him questions or to catch up whenever, he encouraged it in fact. This meant so much to Naruto, as one of the first people to trust in him wanted to keep in touch even after he had stopped being their student.
After eating however, the two were accompanied by an ANBU personnel to the Hokage. As they arrived, Naruto started dreading the visit, worrying about how he was going to get in trouble for stealing that stupid scroll and all. But Hiruzen, having watched the whole event through his crystal ball only wanted to congratulate the boy in succeeding and gave him a similar talk to Iruka's, but less personal.
He was a ninja, a ninja of the village hidden in the leaves, and he was going to kick some ass. He would become Hokage in no time now! He just needed to polish his new technique and learn some others quickly, and maybe work on his chakra control, and some of his taijutsu was sloppy, and yeah if he had to admit it he couldn't even touch genjutsu... So he was a long way off Hokage, but he would get there soon, he just needed training.
Lots of training.
And ramen, the elixir of life which Naruto simply could not live without.
He had a week until he was put onto a team, and Naruto figured that his new sensei would teach him everything he needed to know, so he could take it easy for this week. He would still be training as hard as ever, just not his usual 'train until you pass out, get up and do the training again until you pass out, repeat' method he had grown accustom to - this method ended up hurting the boy a lot and took a lot of effort to get up out of bed each morning after performing the training.
Getting washed and dressed, Naruto made his way to his kitchen, chuckling as he thought of how he could use his new technique to his advantage. Oh, how many pranks he could pull with over one hundred of him, and have ramen waiting for him at home as he made his escape from the scene. Actually, why even be at the site of the prank. Sit on the sidelines and watch his clones perform the task while he sat back with ramen - There was a whole world of possibilities!
Strangely enough though, Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a banging on the door, which made the boy fall off his chair. He never had visitors, ever. The only time people have come to his house is when the landlord wanted to complain about something the boy had done, or when people came to complain to him about the pranks he pulled that day. But, he hadn't done anything like that in a while, training constantly for the exam he failed for two weeks.
Keeping this in mind, Naruto walked over to the door carefully, not going too fast just in case there was a trap there or something. His door wasn't exactly the strongest around, and it has even broken a couple times due to slamming it a bit too hard. If someone wanted to brake in, they could, but this didn't bother the boy in the slightest. People generally wanted to stay away from him, so that kind of worked out for the best.
Grasping the handle, Naruto flung the door open, revealing a tall shinobi wearing a mask standing there.
The blond genin sighed, and then said "Good Morning , what do you want?" Naruto asked in an exasperated tone.
Everything that involved an ANBU at his house meant he had to leave immediately and without question, as failing to do so would only end up getting his ass handed to him by said ANBU. 'Damn it' Naruto thought. 'I was really looking foreword to having the morning to myself, relaxing with my ramen'.
The ANBU stared at the boy, recognizing the boy's sarcasm and exasperation at his being there. He just followed orders, it wasn't like he actually wanted to be dealing with the demon child. "The Hokage-sama has requested that you come see him immediately, boy" The ANBU said with a touch of venom in the last bit he said.
Naruto sighed, and turned around. He was not happy about this, but he would be willing to go if he got to take his ramen. "Hold on one second, let me go finish making-".
"Hold on tight" was the last thing Naruto heard before being picked up by the ANBU, who proceeded to disappear with the boy in a swirl of leaves. How dare he interrupt him in mid-sentence! It was incredibly annoying, and the boy (whilst being carried by the man to the Hokage's Tower) noted that the ANBU with the raccoon mask would be the man who would be facing one of his new 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' pranks.
After the two were gone, a figure appeared from the shadows. This man had a mask covering his face and hair that stood up on end. Peering into the door of the now empty apartment, the man sighed, thinking 'I guess I better see what my future student lives like, one's home is a reflection of one's self'.
Thinking this, Kakashi, after five minutes of looking around, decided that he did not want to believe that Naruto was a reflection of his home, and prayed to kami that is was not true. For the first time in a while, the Jounin was scared.
The man left the house, shutting the door behind him and looking toward the Hokage's Tower, where he swore he could see a dash of orange fly through the window, but without his sharingan active he couldn't see that far away.
That blur of orange that just crash landed through the window of the building was indeed Naruto, feeling quite annoyed at the rudeness of the ANBU and even more annoyed about the ramen.
'Did he have to throw me through the window? What was wrong with the door?' Thought the boy as he dusted himself off and looked around the office.
The office was a large, oval-shaped room with a desk facing away from the large window. Many pieces of paper in piles filled the desk, sides of the desk and in front of the desk - as was the usual in the Konoha. On the desk, their was the kanji for 'Shadow', next to a symbol of the Konohona.
Looking up at the person behind the desk, the boy recognized the smiling old man as the Hokage, a trusted friend to Naruto. Even though Hiruzen couldn't see Naruto as much as he would like, he still made an effort to see the boy often, making himself a Grandfather figure for the blond genin, which didn't go unnoticed by him. Everytime the Hokage saw Naruto, the boy would show his gratitude through a hug or something similar. But now he was twelve, the hugging had stopped.
He was a cool ninja now, no time for hugs!
Hiruzen could only speculate in his mind why Naruto was thrown though the window, but decided to ignore it. At least the window had been open.
"Naruto, my boy, how are you today? Feeling like a ninja yet?" The old man asked gleefully.
Laughing, Naruto replied. "Hello Ojiisan, I'm feeling pretty damn annoyed at not getting my morning ramen" the boy looked down with a frown, recalling the events leading up to his visit with the Hokage, and then continued. "But I can't wait until I get put on a team and start doing really cool ninja stuff, Believe it!".
The old man laughed, though not insultingly, at the boy's words, remembering Naruto had yet to learn the troubles of being a rookie - D-rank missions.
As far back as the boy could remember, the Hokage has always been there to help him. He understood how he couldn't just show up all the time, he was the Hokage, but even so now and again the old man would visit Naruto, and he was his most trusted friend for his whole life. While around, Naruto felt protected and loved, for someone going out of there way to spend time with you was something the boy valued more than anything.
"So Naruto, are you going to be training this week? Who knows what being a ninja will bring" Said Hiruzen almost slyly, although the boy didn't notice.
"Of course! I always train, Ojiisan, you know that"
"Hmmmmmm" The Hokage said. "Before a hard week of training I always used to go to the hot springs and relax for an hour or two, I highly recommend it".
Naruto stared, thinking about what the old man was getting at, as the boy wasn't very bright. Realizing he was being told to go to the hot springs, the quickly said "Thanks Ojiisan, I'll head over right now! See ya" before bolting out the door with his usual zeal.
The old man chuckled at the boy's antics, sat back in his chair and smoked his pipe profusely, blowing rings when exhaling. 'I hope Jiraiya goes easy on him. Was it wrong of me to send the boy unknowingly to intense training? Probably not'. Once coming to this conclusion, Hiruzen brushed this thought from his mind and got back to the ever-mounting paperwork he had to complete.
XxX
Hot Springs
"This is perfect" Came a voice from the bushes, followed by the sound of pen on paper.
Naruto had made his way to the hot spring as fast as he could, eager to get to training, despite his thought earlier on 'taking it easy'. Seeing the Hokage again planted the thought deep into his head that he is a long way off becoming a great ninja, let alone taking the old man's job. He barely got through the academy, and as dead last even if he did pass. Everyone else was already doing better than him at all the fundamental aspects of being a ninja, which are the most important things to ninja. If one wanted to be the best, they had to have knowledge on every aspect of ninja; this will avoid being taken down by run-of-the-mill ninja who could beat you if they knew anything about your weakness. Basically, Naruto knew that if he was faced against an enemy who is proficient in genjutsu, he would be toast.
This brought the boy's mood down, and made him all the more excited to start improving. He was even getting tips from the Hokage himself with his training! That must count for something, didn't it?
As he arrived in front of the hot springs, his attention was shifted from the door to a bush, were noises seem to be coming from. Curiosity getting the better of him, Naruto made his way over. Taking care not to give away his position, the boy moved very slowly and even crouched, trying to sneak up on the bush just incase it was something threatening.
Getting as close as he was going to get, Naruto stretched his arm out over the brush and waited, ready to see what was lurking in the greenery. 'Please don't be a monster, please don't be a monster, please don't be a monster' rushed through Naruto's head, playing over and over again, starting to fear the unknown. He started to think about all the horrible things it could be, and why the hell was he still there.
But what if it was an enemy ninja?
Then he would be spying on the Konoha, and maybe intends to harm it's citizens? And the information he could get from spying would be used against the Konoha, an act which could result in everyone getting hurt, ninja or not. This gave Naruto a firm resolve to confront the bastard in there and make him pay for infiltrating his village.
The boy's arm came down on the bush and pulled away the leaves making him unable to see what was there.
Once uncovered, Naruto palmed his forehead and fell backwards, very annoyed. He found an old man (although not as old as the Hokage) crouched down and scribbling stuff into a notepad whilst looking through a hole in the wall - a hole in the wall which enabled someone to look into the female side of the hot springs. So, this was simply a pervert in a bush trying to catch a sneak peak at the ladies? Naruto was mad at himself, and at the man.
The man in question had long white hair, and a huge scroll on his back, with a red haori. This is all the boy could see from his position, but he planned to make this pervert pay for making him feel fear.
"Oi! Old man, stop looking in on those women" Shouted Naruto excessively loud, trying to make it possible for the women to hear. But, to the boy's displeasure, no one had heard.
"Hey, kid, shut up! I'm trying to do some research here" Replied the man, not even bothering to turn from his position.
This only made Naruto even more annoyed. "If you don't come out here of there right now I will make you come out! I'm a ninja you know" said the boy bravely, already trying to show off the fact he was a ninja at last.
"A ninja, hmm?" Said the old man, turning around to look at the boy. Looking him up and down, a smirk spread across the old man's face, which turned into vast amounts of laughter, all at Naruto's expense. "If you are a ninja kid then I guess the graduation exam is getting too easy".
If Naruto was only annoyed before, he was truly mad now.
He hated people doubting him, in any form. Be it doubting his dream, doubting his ability as a ninja, it just made him really mad. This guy hadn't even heard about him before, and yet he was already putting him down as the dead last loser who could never be a ninja. This guy had to be brought down a peg, this guy needed to get his ass kicked out of him, then Naruto would get the respect he deserved (at least, this was how the boy saw it).
"That's it! I am a ninja, a damn good one! Let's fight, right now" Shouted rather than spoke Naruto, staring at the man intently.
Standing up straight now, the man stopped laughing and looked at the boy again, just checking to see if the boy was serious. Seeing that Naruto was indeed serious, he looked around a couple times, a picked up his notebook.
"Ok kid, you want a fight? You have one, but we can't do it here" Said the man, pocketing his notebook and walking over the Naruto. "No backing out of this fight now".
Naruto stared at the man coming closer, and became uneasy. 'This guy seems pretty confident, maybe he isn't just some old per-' Naruto almost finished thinking as he was grabbed by the man and Shunshin'ed them both away.
...
'God damn it every damn time! I need to learn how to do this' Thought the boy as he appeared on a training ground, still being held by his opponent. Taking note of his surroundings, this was a pretty standard training field. The open space around them covered about two hundred meters across, and one hundred and fifty meters long, giving whoever decided to train there plenty of room. Also, situated at the edge opposite to the ground's entrance (Where Naruto was currently situated) lay a lake, big enough for two people to fight comfortably. The whole area was surrounded by a thick Forrest, the usual in the Konoha and fire country.
The old man thrown the boy to the ground, smiling as he did so.
"What the hell?!" Naruto said, picking himself up from the ground.
The old man chuckled. "Listen boy, because I am only going to say this once!". Following this, he quickly went through a number of hand signals, bit his thumb to draw blood and slapped the floor.
Smoke enveloped the place the old man was standing, making it impossible for Naruto to see anything. Suddenly the smoke started to swirl around, forming a small whirlwind before shooting outwards. This revealed the the old man standing in a triumphant pose on top of a toad the size of a human.
"I am Gama's holy sennin, also known as the great and powerful toad sennin.." The old man proceeded to strike a number of poses before continuing. "I am the one and only, super-pervert Jiraiya!".
Naruto stared for a couple moments, partly in awe of the toad that was summoned before his very eyes and partly because of the old man's own name for himself - super-pervert. The boy scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out how someone like the pervert in front of him is supposed to be a powerful ninja, or even a 'sennin' of anything. The boy pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and decided to see just how strong the man was by fighting him, hoping that he wasn't as strong as Jiraiya made out.
"Ok... Ero-sennin... I don't care if you are a toad sennin or not, I'll still kick your ass! So get ready to be beaten by the future Hokage!" Shouted the boy, molding some chakra.
Laughing and dispelling the toad, Jiraiya fell into a basic Taijutsu stance, thinking that he should at least seem like he isn't taking it easy on the boy, it was one thing fighting the kid, it was another to crush his pride by beating him to a pulp whilst not taking it seriously, crushing his pride.
This thought was interrupted however by a very loud 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' being screamed by one blond genin.
With the training ground being covered in a veil of smoke, Jiraiya chuckled to himself, realizing what was happening. One second later, eighty Naruto-clones charged at the old man, all shouting various battle cries and insults.
Naruto smiled as his army rushed in, and couldn't help but grin at how he thought the result of it would be. 'My jutsu is the best!' The boy thought as he rushed along with his clones. As the clones encircled the old man, he discarded his smile and put a more serious face on, which led to Jiraiya starting to dodge the many attacks that were coming at him from all angles.
Trying to get a good read of the boy's skills, the toad-sennin continued to dodge and block the attacks, and found himself frowning. It seemed implausible for a new genin to have such bad form of Taijutsu, for what he could see was just rough flurry of attacks with no technique or form behind them. Jiraiya came to the realization that this was probably because of the academy and their biased way of teaching the Jinchuriki (Not showing him how to fight properly) that his form was non-existent. This could only make the sennin mad, and caused him to start attacking back.
Upon blocking a hit from one Naruto, Jiraiya grabbed his arm and threw him in the air, knowing full well it was the original, directly above. He then spun around and started picking off the clones surrounding him, going very slowly for his standards as to give the boy a chance.
The original Naruto had been thrown upwards and slightly away from the sennin, and was annoyed greatly. He was not going down that easily, and it was this thought which made the boy conjure up a group of seven clones in mid air, who paired up with each other and the original, and thrown each one's pair at the old man.
The clone army had backed off slightly, scared of being defeated as easily as the others which gave Jiraiya a chance to stop and see the four orange genins come flying at him, all trying to hit him with either kicks or punches. Much to Naruto's chagrin however, the old man jumped to meet the first one in midair, giving it a kick in the stomach, and avoiding the rest of the incoming Naruto's. Jiraiya could only smirk at the boy's creative move he had just used to throw himself back into battle, and could see the potential housed within him.
Taking a second to wait for Naruto to gain his bearings, Jiraiya moved his head to the side until it clicked, and then started making 'come at me' gestures in the hopes of firing the boy up. Naruto couldn't stand anyone who looked down on him, especially during a fight, so the taunting of the old man made the boy mad. All the Naruto's seemed to dislike it, and all began to once again charged at Jiraiya, who was back in his stance.
Jiraiya crouched down for a second, and then disappeared from the boy's view in an instant. All Naruto-clones and original stopped and looked around for the man, bewildered and confused. Suddenly a foot came down on a clone's head with enough force to kill a genin, turning it into smoke instantly. All eyes fell upon the toad-sennin as he started sending kicks and punches into the clones which were starting to surround him. This continued until half the clones had been defeated, the rest trying to think of a way to attack the old man who can dispose of them easily.
Naruto flipped around suddenly as he felt a large amount of chakra build up behind him. Suddenly needles flew around the place, impaling many clones and dispelling them. The boy stared at the incoming attack, unable to move due to fear. The way the jutsu was being shot, it was designed to kill all in it's path. 'Am I fast enough to avoid it?' thought Naruto as the needle barrage moved closer to him. 'Move damn it! Why won't my body move?'.
Unable to help it, the boy stood and watched as the jutsu hit him and the rest of the clones, leaving only the original on the field. The jutsu was cancelled immediately after it had hit the boy, something the toad-sennin didn't count on.
Jiraiya's hair had grown longer and fired out many senbon-like hair threads which made short work of what used to be a clone army. Every one had hit there mark, and much to Naruto's displeasure had hit the original as-well. Naruto was left with a few cuts and a senbon hair-thread in his leg, and continued to look a little more fatigued as his clones started to burst.
Although nobody liked to show off their talent as much as Jiraiya, he still felt bad for the boy, thinking that he would move or avoid most of his ninjutsu and not end up as a pin cushion.
That either meant he was getting too good, or the boy needed serious training.
Naruto pulled himself to a sitting position, and ripped the needle out of his leg. He winced, and then looked at the old man.
"Damn it! That hurt you pervert!" Screamed the blond, staring at his knee regaining himself.
"I thought you would dodge the attack, but I guess not. It doesn't matter, the fight it over" Jiraiya said calmly, walking over to Naruto. "Look kid, if that was a real fight, you wouldn't of lasted".
Naruto looked up at the sennin, who looked with a serious expression on his face. The boy had never experienced something like that before; a jutsu intended to kill him if he didn't move, and he just froze up. But why? Why did he not move? He needed some training, because if that was a real mission, he would be dead and his team in turn struggling with only two members.
That's when Naruto had a great idea.
"Hey, Ero-sennin, you are a great ninja right? I mean you have to be to defeat me".
"I'm glad you have realized, kid" Jiraiya said, smiling.
"Well, can you help me train then?" asked the boy, sheepishly.
Jiraiya laughed, as he was thinking of making a similar offer to the kid once he became frustrated and tried to storm off. But if he wanted to be trained, the old man could get something out of it.
"Hmmm, I'll think about it, maybe if you buy me lunch I will accept the role as your amazing teacher" Said Jiraiya proudly.
"Sure, what have I got to lose? But, ummm, can you help me out here? My leg is kind of bleeding" Naruto said, getting worried about the extent to which his leg was bleeding.
Jiraiya suddenly realized the damage he had done to Naruto, and mentally smacked himself in the head for not doing anything about it sooner. He jumped across the short distance between them and crouched down, looking at the leg.
He cut the lower half of the boy's trouser leg, revealing his knee and below. The damage wasn't life-threatening, but he might pass out in a couple moments because of the blood loss he seemed to be sustaining.
"Hold still kid" Jiraiya said in a low voice, and began carefully making handseals. Once finished the old man concentrated until his hands were covered in a soothing green glow. He continued to hover it over the boy's leg, but quickly withdrew it to see that it had just about begun to heal itself. Jiraiya was one to brag about his skills, but he knew where he was weak. He was pretty bad at Medical Ninjutsu, and only knew the minimal amount. This allowed him to deal with minor injuries that he seemed to inflict upon himself while out on a mission, and it came in pretty useful.
But it seemed something had beaten him to healing the boy, and Jiraiya could only speculate as to what was doing it, but he had a good guess at the cause of this rapid healing. 'Damn fox' thought Jiraiya.
Naruto looked at the sennin oddly, and then at his leg to see that it was nearly back to normal. This made the boy very happy to know that the very man that almost killed him today had just healed his leg, no questions asked. Not only that, if Naruto took him to lunch he would get a teacher out of it, training to help him become a proper ninja.
Jumping up from his spot and leaping about, Naruto looked at the old man with a smile on his face.
"Come on, Ero-sennin, let's go have some ramen!" said the boy happily. "And besides, I was holding back on you during our fight, I didn't use my number-one killer jutsu".
This peeked Jiraiya's interest. "Holding out? Then by all means, do it now! Wait, what was that name you just called me?".
"Ero-sennin, and if you are sure that you are ready, this technique has beaten the Hokage" Naruto warned, and put his hands into the ram seal, molding chakra.
Jiraiya stood up, crossed his arms and tried to look cool in front of the kid. 'Whatever he has, I will react a little bit, just so he can feel pride in his technique. As if this kid could beat the Hokage'. Jiraiya mused on these thoughts, right up until Naruto performed the jutsu.
"Oiroke no Jutsu!" Shouted Naruto, and he was enveloped in smoke.
The sennin's eyes widened at the sight before him after the smoke had cleared, which revealed a beautiful women, fully naked with little whisps of smoke covering parts of her body.
Naruto had his eyes closed and made a cute pose, and as such didn't realize that Jiraiya had fallen unconscious due to blood loss from his nose not long after the smoke had cleared. Going back to normal, the boy sighed and decided to drag the old man out of the training grounds in the hopes of getting him home with his new master.
"One of the greatest ninja in the world, and yet he is a pervert just like the old man Hokage, is every old guy a pervert or something?" Naruto said to himself, trudging into the forest.
All that could be heard from Jiraiya was mumblings that were inaudible, but if one listened closely, the words "Genius" and "Potential" could be heard.
xXx
Ramen Ichiraku
After Jiraiya had recovered and found himself in Naruto's apartment, the two started talking for an hour or so, about various things the sennin would teach the boy. After this, the two just naturally started talking in a more general fashion, and ultimately ended up talking about their lives so far, despite Jiraiya being slightly vague with the details of his own life. Naruto gave a brief summary of his life so far, and what had happened to him yesterday. Both were getting along well, and had started enjoying each other's company, even with their age gap.
The two then got hungry, and decided that it was time for lunch. Thus Naruto took the two of them to his favourite ramen shop in the world, Ichiraku Ramen.
"So, you can really teach me that much?" The boy asked.
Jiraiya chuckled. "Of course! Taijutsu is one of your worst areas, and fortunately something you can get quite proficient at. It requires you to use that massive amounts of energy you have daily to train your muscles, and also work on your form. I can help you with your chakra control, which is horrible!" Jiraiya paused to eat his ramen, while Naruto pulled a funny face at the man poking holes in his ability.
"Also, I am going to instruct you in Fūinjutsu, if you want that is. It is not something I wish to force you into learning.." Jiraiya said, secretly wanting the boy to accept to learning it. Many ninja's overlook his ninja art, thinking that it is something that doesn't need to be learned. He had spent most of his life becoming a proficient seal master all on his own, and could do amazing things with it, stuff that people could only dream of doing. If that wasn't enough, he hadn't even played around with all of his idea's yet, he still had tons of things to do with Fūinjutsu yet. If someone would follow his lead and take over, he could make the boy into a seal master almost as great as himself. But the art of sealing in itself is incredibly hard to do, and one could not do it without wanting to do it.
Naruto sat there in thought while eating ramen quickly, now having eaten four bowls. "Well, I guess I should learn it, everyone at the academy had something other than there basic techniques to help them, I'll do it!" Naruto said triumphantly, quickening his pace.
Jiraya merely laughed, then smiled at how he now had an apprentice who would inherit his knowledge of Fūinjutsu.
But then it hit Jiraiya; his apprentice wasn't much right now, a LOT of work needed to be done. He needed to start straight away.
"Hey kid, how long do you have until you are put on a team?" Jiraiya asked in a serious tone.
"Ummmm, a week today I think" Naruto asked, still diligently eating ramen.
Jiraiya turned back to his bowl of ramen, and then to the contents of his ninja tool bag strapped to his waist. "I think I can work with that" He said to himself. "Naruto, come here a second, I want to give you something". After saying this, the sennin pulled out a scroll from his side, about the length of his forearm and green.
The boy obliged, curious if anything. For some reason, Naruto trusted this man, there was just something about him that he liked, something that he connected to. During their long conversation the boy opened up more to Jiraiya than anyone he had ever known, and he had even treated the old man to ramen, so trust wasn't an issue. The only thoughts running through Naruto's mind was 'He wants to give me something?'. Everyone looked at him in disgust, and even went as far as to deny his existence, so a gift to him in Naruto's eyes was a very big deal.
Opening up the scroll, Jiraiya pulled out four books, each a different colour.
"Alright kid, you want to learn from the best, I can teach you all I can but I won't be around all the time, so you will have to learn from these in your free time, in fact, all the time you are not training I want you to be reading these' Jiraiya said, handing the books to Naruto.
Naruto stood in shock at receiving the books, as he had never been personally given books to train from. Iruka-sensei allowed him to borrow books from time to time, but only if he returned them within a couple days. Strictly, teachers could not do this, but since the boy could not go into any library due to his 'condition' as the jailor of the Kyuubi, Iruka snuck them out.
"Arigato, Ero-Sennin!" Said Naruto loudly, smiling a honest smile.
"No need for thanks, kid, you need them. There is one for all basics I will teach you; Taijutsu forms and exercises; Ninjutsu theory and chakra theory, which both in turn include practical application and chakra control practice; Breaking Genjutsu for beginners, which will teach you everything you need to know about Genjutsu and how to break them; Fūinjutsu for knuckleheads - everything you will need to know about the basic theory of sealing, as well as how to write a couple of them... Oh yeah! I almost forget, put your hands out" Jiraiya said quickly, a little excited at the result of training the boy. 'If only I had come sooner' He thought.
Naruto placed the books on the side of the counter carefully, and then put his hands out.
Jiraiya ran through a combination of hand seals, and then slapped the boy's hands, saying 'Furuchakura no Omomi'. Naruto's wrists were suddenly covered in black writing, spanning from his wrist to his elbow, before all spinning around wildly. They started to glow red, and then all at once, the end of the writing went straight into the center of Naruto's palms, to which all the writing followed until they all compressed into a symbol in the palm of his hand, which remained to glow red for a couple of moments, until fading to black, and eventually, going invisible.
Once the sealing was complete, Jiraiya grabbed the books and sealed them back up the scroll, putting the scroll in place of the books.
"Ouch!" Naruto said rubbing his hands against his leg, as it burned quite a lot. Jiraiya just stood laughing at the boy, which seemed to make him mad. Despite being mad however, he picked up the scroll and pocketed it.
"Kid, just, do what I say, channel chakra into your palm, and don't stop until I say". Jiraiya said, having another mouthful of ramen.
Naruto looked at the sennin for a moment, and then looked at his palm. He then formed a ram seal, and began forcing chakra to his palm. As he continued doing this, Naruto felt heavier, and heavier, and heavier until he was about to fall down.
"Stop now" Jiraiya said in a calm manner.
Thinking it wise to do so, Naruto stopped and looked at his palm to see that on each one there was a swirling pattern on it, but couldn't continue looked as he his arms fell to there sides.
"What the hell? Why can't I... Move... Ero-sennin?!" Naruto said, trying his best to move around, but instead finding it extremely difficult.
"I've decided for you to use some of my very own training weights! Except mine differ a little to the ordinary chakra weights ninja use" Jiraiya stopped, for effect. "My 'Furuchakura no Omomi' spreads the weight across your whole body, making it twice as effective!" Jiraiya said proudly.
Naruto frowned. "Ok, that makes sense but... I can't move very fast, I'm a sitting duck here you pervert!".
Jiraiya's head jerked up, feeling hurt that the boy didn't recognize his genius. "Pffft, just get used to it kid, if you get as fast as you was when you didn't have the weight, you will have improved drastically. In fact, that is your mission, get as fast as you was by the end of the week with the weights". Jiraiya looked up in thought for a second, before continuing to talk. "I'll teach you the technique today, and make sure you take them off each night to get used to not having the weight. Half an hour a night of jogging around the Konoha I think". Jiraiya said, as Naruto just stood there trying to take all the information in and move around at the same time.
Once the boy processed the information, which took a couple of minutes he went back to his seat. Jumping back onto the seat, he remembered he had weights on, and the seat probably would take his weight now he was four times his original weight (at least that's what Naruto thought it felt like). To his surprised, it had no effect on the stool, as if he weighed the same as he did.
"Ero-sennin? I thought I am really, really heavy? This seat can take my weight..." Naruto said, trying to come up with a reason for it not being effected.
Jiraiya laughed, due to the fact he now had the chance to big up his technique even more. "Do you think I would make such a rookie error with my techniques? The weight only effects you, you weigh exactly the same to everything else" Jiraiya said.
"Really? That's awesome! Just wait I tell Iruka-sensei about this" Naruto said, going back to eat the newly placed ramen on the side.
Jiraiya frowned for a second, before smiling. "I've got a better idea kid, don't tell anyone about the seal just yet, no one can see it so no one will expect it will they? Imagine their faces when you undo the seals when you need to" Jiraiya said, smiling getting bigger after every thought.
Naruto looked up at the old man in confusion, before excepting this and once again went back to eating with his usual zeal.
"Ok, so when do we start training?" Naruto asked, not looking up from his ramen bowl.
The boy felt a hand on his back as he said this, and before he knew it, he was picked up and Shunshin'ed away.
Ayame came out to give the boy some more ramen, but she only saw some smoke clearing from his seat, and a wad of ryo notes on the counter. Shrugging, she began to eat the ramen intended for Naruto and put the cash into the register.
XxX
Third Training Ground
"I didn't even get to finish my ramen! Why couldn't we of just ran here anyway?" Naruto said, picking himself up from the ground at which he had been thrown.
Jiraiya sighed, and then looked down at the boy. "We don't have time for this, let's just start training kid, ok?". Jiraiya cleared his throat and stood up straight. "First, I am going to teach you 'Furuchakura no Omomi', so pay attention!" Jiraiya said, gesturing for Naruto to come foreword to him.
Naruto nodded and walked over, still brushing himself off from being thrown to the ground. Yes, he was just thrown to the ground, and this really annoyed him, but the boy couldn't help but let a massive smile creep over his face as he was about to begin his first lesson. Learning how to control his weights, and with this Naruto could easily become strong, stronger than he could of thought possible. Also, he would be getting more help from Jiraiya, whom now was one of his trusted people, someone who he could rely on. It had only taken such a short time, but for the first time in years, these past couple days had brought Naruto the confidence to train hard. His goal seemed in his grasp, although he had a long way to go. But Naruto didn't mind this, at least he wouldn't have to go all that way alone, not anymore.
"Oh, and kid, just so you are clear, you will meet me here at six every morning, and we will end at six every evening. If you arrive late or try to get out of practice, I will tie you to that post over there and make you go a day without food" Jiraiya said, pointing over to three posts in the distance.
Naruto shuddered at the thought of having no food for a day, and decided that was reason enough to make sure he was early to practice every day. Why would he skip it anyway? He wanted to become strong, and enjoyed training, so the boy just nodded at the old man.
"Let's begin then" Jiraiya said. "Here are the hand-signs".
Naruto watched as he went through them very slowly, and did so himself for some time, trying to make his hands run through the signs as smoothly as the sennin's. The boy had practiced all the signs before, and so it didn't take him too long to get used to the movements.
But, learning how to do something and actually doing it was two totally different things.
As stated before, the boy's control with chakra was anything but perfect, and this resulted in him discharging way too much chakra intended for the jutsu, doing nothing to his weights.
Jiraiya just shook his head. "Way too much chakra, no wonder you had a rough time at the academy". The sennin could only imagine the boy's trouble with a simple clone with that much chakra, and sighed when he realized that the academy didn't pay attention to this.
Naruto just looked at his hands in confusion. "I used barely any though, Ero-sennin?".
Jiraiya paced around for a few moments, before coming to the conclusion that they would have to work on control before anything. While he was doing this, Naruto kept on attempting the jutsu, trying to make it work, but to no avail.
"Ok, for now, we will learn another jutsu, one that should be a little easier than this one, and it will help with your chakra control" Said the old man, now with his head up facing the boy.
All Naruto heard from the conversation was 'New jutsu' due to his concentration. Luckily, this was all that was needed for him to stop completely and look at the man, bright smile gleaming off his face.
'How could this boy possibly not learn anything in the academy, he is practically jumping to learn a new jutsu right now' Jiraiya mused as he looked at Naruto, who was bobbing up and down with excitement. "Ok, I was thinking about it and I would like to use you as a test subject for my new techniques, hence why I'm teaching you the 'Furuchakura no Omomi'" Jiraiya said as Naruto nodded, until frowned at the 'test subject' part, realizing what it meant.
"So you didn't know if it would actually work?" Naruto questioned, slightly annoyed.
Jiraiya looked up at the sky and scratched his head. "I have tried it on toads before, but never on a person, it isn't that old a technique".
If Naruto thought that this man was cool and a suitable teacher, these thoughts would have been erased from his mind after learning that he would be learning Jiraiya's dodgy jutsu, stuff that he didn't know if worked on humans properly.
"Don't worry, no need for the disappointed look, this next one works, I've even tested it" Jiraya said as Naruto's head sprung up, smile slowly stretching across his face. "It's called 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin', a modified version of a barrier jutsu which allows one to sense anything within a certain range".
Naruto felt a little disappointed to learn that it wasn't anything that could blow up or make things burn. For some reason that has always appealed to him. 'Note to self, go find the Hokage and ask him to teach me some fire release' the boy thought as Jiraiya ran through some hand-signs.
Clapping his hands together, a light grey, transparent sphere shot out from Jiraiya with him staying at the center, until it encased the whole of the training ground. Then, the light grey outline disappeared, and the sennin's hands lowered.
Naruto looked left and right, feeling slightly disappointed with the results. Even though he had been told it was a barrier jutsu, he still thought he would see something cool.
Jiraiya frowned at the boy's disappointment, and how he could not see how excellent this jutsu was. "Naruto, I can sense everything within the barrier, no one can sneak up on me like this, I always know where people are, it can detect genjutsu..." Jiraiya was about to go on, when he realized the boy's disappointment was long since gone and ready to learn. The sennin chuckled. "And the best thing is, it requires loads of chakra, so you won't have to worry about perfect control just yet".
After teaching Naruto the hand-signs as he did before, surprised as the boy picked it up quicker than the last set he had to learn, he instructed the blond to try and perform the jutsu.
Naruto took a deep breath, and started molding some chakra. Flicking through the hand-signs he clapped his hands together, and shouted 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin'. Suddenly the same light-grey field shot out of Naruto, stretching across the training field and into the forest, going a little further than Jiraiya's.
After staring for a while, trying to comprehend what was happening, Naruto let out a "Yatta" Before jumping around all over the place.
Jiraiya just stared, impressed at how he got the jutsu first time, and the length of which it stretched. "Hey, kid, well done and all, but stop and try and feel things out. It will take a while to get used to using it" Jiraiya said.
Naruto stopped, and closed his eyes. Firstly, he could only feel darkness, like an empty room with no light. Then, as he focused, the training field started to form in his mind, though a little blurry. Then the surrounding trees, and then Jiraiya. Everything was becoming more clear, and Naruto looked around the field in his mind, noting all the little details, finding small animals like birds coming into his field of vision. It felt amazing, like a vivid image of everything in his mind and he could navigate around it freely, as if he wasn't in his own body, but viewing from another place.
He snapped back into reality when he fell onto one knee, suddenly feeling drained. Jiraya in a split second was by his side, chuckling.
"Easy kid, even with reserves as vast as yours you can't control it. The amount of chakra you just pumped into that jutsu was at least six times the amount I did" Jiraiya said as the boy tried to stand up again.
The barrier decreased in size as Naruto forced himself upright, and went even smaller again when the boy concentrated. But, after a few moments, Naruto was able to walk around again, barrier still up, and so the boy closed his eyes. He wanted to walk around and sense everything, effectively not even using his eyes. Jiraiya saw what the boy was doing and decided not to stop him, admiring his guts.
The blond continued this until he got tired, at which point he was able to run around confidently, and broke the jutsu. Turning around, he was greeted by a clapping Jiraiya, who was impressed by the performance.
"Well done! So you aren't completely useless at learning Jutsu, but the same can't be said for your control" Jiraiya said. Naruto probably would of called the man out for that comment, but he was too tired to do it. The barrier required a lot of chakra, let alone the boy had to pump double the amount required to make it work due to his bad control. Having it open for twenty minutes drained him, let alone doing it all with his weights on.
"Ero-sennin... Can we get... Some ramen" Naruto said, panting.
Jiraiya laughed, and grabbed a scroll from his bag. Opening it revealed two bowls, one full of salad and the other with some kind of soup in it.
"You can't eat ramen all the time, idiot" Jiraiya said, watching the boy's face slowly sink into the ground as he handed him the food. "Starting from today you will eat healthily foods to help with training".
Although reluctant at first, the boy was too hungry to care, and started eating the food.
The sight of Naruto face change from disgust into relief and then back to disgust made the old man laugh, taking pleasure from the boy's obvious dislike.
"Hurry up and eat kid, we still have several hours let before I am going to let you go home, and you have yet to master the 'Furuchakura no Omomi'" Jiraiya said, as the boy started to pick up the pace, but then almost threw up at seeing he had to eat yet more salad.
'The boy has a long way to go' Thought the old man as he continued to watch the boy eat.
xXx
A/N: First Chapter of this story, so what do you think?
I haven't had a lot of experience at writing, and my only other fanfic is a terrible failure, and I really do not want to continue it.
It's just, it's poorly written, maybe this one is too but that one just leaves a sour taste in my mouth every time I read it, so maybe soon I will write it again so it's not completely terrible?
Maybe.
Anyway, Review and stuff, I hope it wasn't too bad.
Oh! Two jutsu in this one.
The first is the 'Furuchakura no Omomi'
This means 'Full Chakra Weights', not a very creative name I know but it doesn't have to be, it's not some move he will be repeating every time he fights someone. It basically makes your whole body heavier, instead of just weighing your arms/legs down, making it far more effective. I know it's a lame idea and some may complain about it, but it won't result in a god-like Naruto or anything, just make him a little stronger than Canon.
The second one is the 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin'
Derived from the 'Kekkai: Tengai Hōjin' jutsu, which creates a spherical detection barrier with the user at the centre. At the user's command, the detection barrier can expand, grasping everything in the room. The user is able to detect anything that moves inside the barrier space with their own "sense". The user may also move, the barrier will follow them as they move. But with this new move, it is much harder to detect if one has it open, and it can be used for longer periods of time. So it doesn't just alert your position to every sensor ninja out there, but if a sensor is in the barrier, they will notice.
Anyway, new chapter coming out soon hopefully, depends how long it takes to write with school and all.
Until then, See you all next time..