Title: Indestructible
Category: Naruto
Genres: Adventure, Romance
Rating: M
Characters: Naruto U. Hinata H.
Summary: Because of a painful past, Naruto will do anything to protect those precious to him. With a will of iron and body of steel he'll fight for his friends.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto and all things related to it. This story is simply a product of envy and admiration towards those with the proper ownership to the series.
Chapter 1: The Iron Beast
"Cut it out." A voice called out to a group of three young boys bullying a girl. The owner of the voice was an eight year old boy. He had blue eyes and blond, spiky hair, and more notably he had marks on his cheeks that looked like whiskers. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a red spiral on the front, as well as a pair of dark green shorts. Lastly he had a pair of green goggles on his forehead.
"Huh? What do you want?" The apparent leader of the small group asked before one of the others spoke up.
"Hey, he's that kid! The one who's always getting into trouble and fighting. The one everyone hates!"
"Oh yeah…that guy." The third kid said. "That guy, huh?" The leader said mockingly and the group laughed.
"I'm not "that guy"! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm gonna be the Hokage one day. Remember that!" The blond boy yelled at them.
"Hokage?!" The three bullies said before bursting out laughing and started mocking him. Meanwhile the girl who had been the center of attraction earlier, and was still on her hands and knees on the ground, had a flashback to a few days earlier.
She had been walking with her caretaker when she had noticed the same boy causing a commotion before running past her yelling he would become Hokage and show everyone. She had also heard the adults talk about him, calling him a demon boy, and once "Kyūbi brat". She had asked her caretaker what the word meant but had been dismissed and simply told to stay away from the boy.
"There's no way an idiot like you can become Hokage!" The leader of the bullies told Naruto and slugged him in the face, causing the girl to gasp. Naruto took a step back from the punch, his head angled to the side with his eyes closed. Then he looked at them and grinned.
"You can mock me as much as you want, I'll still protect you when I'm Hokage. You'll need it with a punch like that." He told them. The lead bully glared at him.
"Wanna fight?" He asked threateningly. Naruto smirked. "Fight you? That'd just be a waste of my time. Besides, I only fight to protect."
"Then protect yourself!" The leader yelled and jumped on him, sending them to the ground and started hammering him with punches as his friends joined in. Still Naruto didn't lose his grin as he was assaulted over and over while the girl watched helplessly in the background.
"Hinata-sama!" A male voice then yelled getting their attention and startling the bullies who scrambled to get away.
"Hinata-sama, are you all right?" The man addressed the girl worriedly. Then he saw Naruto on the ground, seemingly unconscious.
"This boy is…" He trailed off and grabbed Hinata's arm.
"Come on, Hinata-sama." He said.
"Wait, he helped me…" Hinata told her caretaker, worried for the boy's health. "You must not get involved with him. Let us go." Her caretaker said and started pulling her away.
"B-But…" Hinata tried protesting to no avail. Then she noticed the blond sit up, looking dirty but unharmed, to her immense surprise. Even her caretaker had stopped.
"Don't worry about me, I'm fine." Naruto told the girl with a grin and rubbed his neck. "Those guys couldn't throw a punch if their life depended on it."
"Jā nē…" He waved over his shoulder as he stood and walked away as if he hadn't just been pummeled into the ground. As she was led away Hinata couldn't help but to keep looking in the direction the strange boy had gone.
"Just look at it. It's so pathetic!" A boy named Hibachi laughed to his friends as he held a small puppy up by its neck.
"C'mon just throw it away already." Another kid told him.
"No way I'm gonna have some fun first!" Hibachi said with a grin and threw the small dog into the air, causing it to yip in fright. But then someone leaped over the group, catching the dog. "Oi what the hell are you doing? Give me back my dog!" Hibachi yelled to the person.
In return he received a vicious glare from Naruto. "This isn't your dog; you just found it alone and wanted to have some fun, right?" He said angrily.
Hibachi sneered at him. "Maybe, so what? Give it back to me."
"I don't think so. Now leave."
Hibachi growled at Naruto. "Or what? You gonna beat us up? He mocked him with a laugh. Naruto just shrugged.
"If I have to I will."
"Yeah right, you're outnumbered five to one." Hibachi told him as his group surrounded Naruto. He just grinned.
"I've been outnumbered my whole life." He told them before feeling a punch land on the back of his head. He looked over his shoulder at the boy who had punched him, and smirked when he saw him stumbling back holding his hand.
"Gah, what the hell?! It felt like I hit a brick wall!" The kid exclaimed. Hibachi just scoffed.
"Oh stop crying you wimp." He told his friend and attacked Naruto with a straight punch, only for Naruto to catch it with his right hand, his other holding the puppy protectively to his chest. "Normally I'd just let you wail on me until you got tired and left, but unfortunately for you I'm protecting someone this time." Naruto said before pulling Hibachi towards him and landing a knee in his stomach.
Then he spun, landing a kick on the cheek of a charging boy. Continuing the spin he crouched and swept the legs from under another kid before leaping backwards to avoid a lunge. "Oh look, already one down. Just four more to go." He smirked, seeing the boy he had kicked wasn't getting up.
The group glared at him and charged at him all at once this time, trying to overwhelm him. Naruto ducked under the punch from the first boy while sweeping one of his legs, sending him flying to the ground where he hit his head and passed out. As he stopped his spin he was hit by a kick to the jaw from the boy who had kicked him earlier. Rolling with it he retaliated with his own kick that sent the boy flying into a fence. As the third boy attacked him Naruto traded a punch to the stomach with him, which he barely felt but left the boy on the ground gasping for breath.
Then Hibachi came with a wild swing, hitting him right in the cheek. Naruto was unfazed, barely budging an inch as Hibachi gasped as pain rocketed through his arm. Naruto then grabbed his arm and swung him over his shoulder as he spun.
Hibachi slammed into the ground hard, and he gasped for breath as his whole body trembled in pain. "That last hit actually stung, not bad." Naruto told the wheezing boy.
Walking away Naruto paid no attention to the fact that a small crowd had gathered from the main street and seen the whole fight. As he walked past them he could hear their low voices, condemning him for beating up innocent boys as some of the adults went to check on the beaten group. He just ignored them and petted the small dog, heading towards the Inuzuka compound.
'My first day at the Academy…' Naruto thought to himself while walking through a building. Stopping outside of a door and looking at the number he then looked at the piece of paper in his hand. "Guess this is where I go." He muttered to himself and slid the door open. Inside was a large group of children his age sitting and talking to each other. A few looked over at him before going back to their conversations. While looking around the room for a place to sit he spotted someone he recognized.
Since there was a seat next to her open he shrugged and walked up the stairs between the seats. As he did it seemed the girl noticed him as well. "Yo. Mind if I sit here?" Naruto asked. The girl timidly shook her head, so he sat down.
"You're Hinata right? I'm Naruto." He said as he sat down. "H-Hello. T-Thank you f-for helping me." Hinata thanked him.
Naruto tilted his head in confusion to her stuttering, getting a blush from her. 'He looks so cute.' She thought to herself. Naruto shrugged. "I told you, didn't I? It wasn't a problem; I hate people who hurt others, no matter what way. Besides they were really weak, their punches didn't even hurt."
"S-Still, it was v-very nice of you." Hinata told him. Naruto looked at her surprised. "Really? It shouldn't be, I just did what I thought was right."
They were stopped from continuing by their teacher entering the room. "Good morning! First I'll introduce myself. I'm Umino Iruka, and from today, I'll be your homeroom teacher." He introduced himself. After that Iruka called out everyone's name on a list and had them introduce themselves.
About an hour later they had moved outside. "Now then, for the next lesson. Instead of just introducing yourselves, I want you to demonstrate your ninjutsu skills." Iruka told them. "So, we'll try a basic jutsu, the Bunshin. First up is Uchiha Sasuke. Try it on."
"Uchiha? As in the Uchiha Clan?" A blond haired girl, Yamanaka Ino, exclaimed with a blush.
"Yes, he's an elite among the elites!" Her friend, Haruno Sakura, responded dreamily as Sasuke stepped forward. Naruto just looked at the boy inquisitively as he performed the Bunshin flawlessly. "He's pretty good." He commented quietly. Hinata who stood next to him nodded in agreement.
Iruka nodded. "Well done." He said as the majority of the girls in the class swooned over Sasuke. "Next, Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto took a step forward, ignoring the not so silent whispers from some of his classmates. "Sorry sensei, but I can't perform that jutsu." He told Iruka, who looked at him questioningly.
"Why not? And you don't have to succeed; I just want to see what everyone already knows." He said.
Naruto shrugged. "I can do it, but I don't think you'd want to deal with the commotion that comes after."
"Commotion?" Iruka questioned, getting a nod. "Yeah, I can do the jutsu, but you'd end up with the whole district full of clones. I have too much chakra, so if I try to do any less they just get overloaded." Naruto explained.
"Nonsense, just do the technique." Iruka ordered him, not believing Naruto had that much chakra. Naruto sighed. "Okay but don't say I didn't warn you…"
With that said he flipped through the hand seals and started building the chakra needed. When a blue flame-like aura of chakra enveloped him and the wind kicked up in the area Iruka was starting to regret his decision. The pure amount of chakra was starting to attract nearby ninja and forcing the students and their teacher to back away from Naruto. "Bunshin no Jutsu!"
The next thing anyone knew a massive cloud of smoke had covered the majority of the district, causing mass confusion until the smoke cleared to show hundreds of Naruto everywhere, on the ground, in the trees, on the rooftops and even sitting on the fences. "Naruto dispel them!" Iruka yelled frantically. A few seconds later only the original Naruto was standing where he originally stood. "Told you…" Was all he said as the Hokage arrived with several ANBU.
Later after everything had calmed down the class had moved to a sparring ring to test their taijutsu abilities. Currently Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji stood in the ring facing each other. Meanwhile the rest of the class stood behind Iruka. Naruto stood by himself, having frightened the rest of the class with his show earlier, only Hinata was standing somewhat close. He didn't mind though, he had figured he was going to freak them out when he used that much chakra. In fact he could admit he had gone a little overboard. 'Maybe I should've kept it to a hundred?' He asked himself, one hundred being the lowest amount of clones he could make if he didn't want them to be overloaded.
Shaking his head he thought about who he'd fight, though he figured most would be hesitant to do so after his little show. He really wanted to test Sasuke however. Realizing Shikamaru and Chōji had done something so they wouldn't have to spar he decided that maybe he should be paying attention. Just in time too as Iruka called out his name.
"Next, Uzumaki Naruto!"
Naruto could hear murmurs going through the crowd, saying things like "My parents said not to speak to him and after that thing he did I don't mind." and "He's the one guy I don't want to be paired with." One conversation caught his attention the most however.
"I've heard about him, he's the one who keeps getting into fights. He even beat up a group of Genin once." A girl said.
"I've heard about him too. They call him the Iron Beast, because punching him feels like your hitting iron."
'Iron Beast, huh? I'd prefer Iron Knight, but I guess it can't be helped.' Naruto thought with a small smirk as he stepped into the ring. Of course the rumors didn't mention that he never started a fight. They always happened because he was protecting someone or something. There were also the times when someone attacked him just to get the credit of beating him.
"And Uchiha Sasuke, step forward." Iruka then called out, getting cheers from the girls.
Naruto grinned as they faced off. "Damn you got a mean face. I hope your punch matches it." He said. Sasuke just stared at him.
"Hn."
"G-Good luck, Naru…" Hinata tried calling out to Naruto but her timid voice was drowned out by some other girl yelling Sasuke's name at the top of her lungs. But Naruto had still heard Hinata, and was thankful for her support. It felt nice he had to admit.
"It'll be Uzumaki Naruto versus Uchiha Sasuke. Make the Seal of Confrontation." Iruka told them and demonstrated it by making a half tiger seal. Once they did so Iruka called for them to start.
Sasuke immediately rushed Naruto, who waited for him. A right hook connected with Naruto's cheek, sending him to the ground. Before Sasuke could ended it Naruto flipped back onto his feet, landing at the edge of the ring. "Heh, the punch does match the face." He commented with a grin. Sasuke glared at him and attacked again, this time with a low kick aiming for his ribs. Naruto blocked the kick with his arm, so Sasuke jumped, kicking at his head. Naruto rolled under it, and as he came up he was met by a barrage of punches from Sasuke. He blocked some but a majority of them hit him hard, and yet throughout it all he was grinning.
At the sidelines the class watched the fight going on in amazement. Even Iruka was impressed, he hadn't been expecting a fight of this skill on the first day, but he was confused by Naruto. While Sasuke was constantly attacking he noticed Naruto didn't once attack in anyway, all he was doing was defending and taking the hits Sasuke was giving out. And while he was impressed by Naruto's durability if this continued he'd have to call it and give the win to Sasuke.
He wasn't the only one to notice this oddity, Hinata had noticed it and felt worried for Naruto taking so many hits, while Shikamaru had spotted it and was paying close attention as he wondered why Naruto wasn't attacking.
The answer came soon as Sasuke finally backed off, holding his hand as if it was injured. Sasuke was panting hard from keeping up the assault for several minutes, and as he looked at Naruto he was shocked to notice that he didn't have a single bruise, and his breathing was still as steady as when they started. And he still had that grin. Meanwhile he was exhausted and his limbs hurt from hitting Naruto, like he had spent hours hitting a training post.
Naruto whistled appreciatively. "Man, you really got some attack power there. Let me guess, you're wondering why the hell I don't even have a single bruise right?" He asked Sasuke. When he didn't receive an answer he took it as a yes.
"Here's the thing. Normal attacks don't work on me. I'm too resilient. No matter how skilled you are you can't do enough damage to hurt me with simple punches and kicks. Simply put I can't be beaten in a fist fight. I can just do what I just did; weather the attacks until you run out of steam. That's why some call me the Iron Beast." He explained to Sasuke and his classmates, with a glance at the boy who had called him by that name.
Sasuke's, along with several others eyes widened in realization. Infuriated Sasuke charged at Naruto and putting all his remaining strength into it, slugged Naruto as hard as he could in the face. As Sasuke charged him Naruto finally dropped his grin, along with his guard and took the punch without budging. "Game over." He muttered as Sasuke grunted in pain from breaking his fist, before he finally retaliated with a punch of his own. Sasuke couldn't even see it coming and was falling over before he felt it.
Naruto looked at the unconscious boy before directing his gaze at Iruka. "I'm going to assume I don't have to make the Seal of Reconciliation with him…since he's currently indisposed." He said and walked out of the ring to his classmates.
Four years later, Naruto grinned as he watched Hibachi and his gang run away after another try at defeating him. The now twelve year old blonde's appearance now consisted of an orange and blue tracksuit which he kept unzipped, a black shirt underneath it, orange pants with a shuriken holster attached to his right knee, and blue sandals. He also wore the same green goggles he'd owned for years, but he planned on exchanging those for a hitai-ate soon.
"Too easy." He laughed, but as he stood in triumph he failed to notice Iruka coming up behind him.
"Hey, Naruto!" Iruka yelled in his ear, scaring the wits out of Naruto. "GAAH!" Naruto jumped in surprise and spun around to face his homeroom teacher.
"What the hell, Iruka-sensei?!"
"What do you think you're doing during class?" Iruka questioned him angrily. Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Um…I was…getting some air!"
"Several blocks from the school? In a secluded area with several other boys?" Iruka asked, clearly not believing him.
"Okay! I ditched class because it's boooring. But the fight wasn't my fault! They keep insisting! And I don't even hit them; I just let them get tired." Naruto admitted. His teacher just sighed.
"Let's just get back to class."
"Because Naruto decided to skip class, we're going to have a review test for the Henge! Those who already passed will have to line up as well." Iruka told his class a few minutes later, much to the chagrin of his students.
Naruto watched Sasuke flawlessly perform the Henge. "This sucks. Thanks, you troublesome blond. Why couldn't you just stay in class for once?" Shikamaru complained next to him. Naruto just waved him off.
"Oh bite me. It's not my fault the lectures are so utterly mind numbing, what'd you expect me to do?" He asked him. Shikamaru yawned. "Take a nap, that's what I do…" Naruto grinned as Ino reprimanded Shikamaru.
"Lazy bum." He said, getting a giggle from Hinata, who stood next to him.
"Next, Uzumaki Naruto."
Later Naruto sat with Hinata at Ichiraku Ramen. During their time in the Academy they had grown to be close friends and Naruto treasured her company more than anyone else's, especially since he wasn't very close to anyone else his age. He always felt calm when he was with her, as if she was a counterbalance to his exuberant craziness.
On Hinata's end, she greatly admired Naruto and his will to protect anyone, even at risk for himself, despite the fact that he was treated as an outcast by almost everyone in the village. His confidence and determination to better himself inspired and pushed her to improve herself, in the process making her more confident.
"Nē, Hinata-chan." Naruto said, getting Hinata's attention as they exited the small restaurant. "I want to show you something." Hinata nodded. "O-Okay, but I have to be home soon." She told him. Naruto nodded.
"It won't take long."
The sun was just starting to set as Naruto led Hinata to the top of the Hokage Monument. "Okay, you can open your eyes now." He told her. Doing so Hinata gasped as she took in the beautiful view.
"It's beautiful…" She whispered before Naruto tugged on her sleeve to come sit with him on the head of the Yondaime.
"I like to come here when I want to think…" He told her as they watched the sun go down slowly. They shared a peaceful silence until Hinata broke it. "The final exam is tomorrow…"
"You nervous?" Naruto asked her. Hinata nodded. "A little bit."
"You shouldn't be you'll ace it! You've worked really hard, plus you're really smart." Naruto told her. "If anything I should be worried, I suck at the theoretical stuff, even if I'm good at the physical stuff. But worrying is just a waste of time that could be spent doing something better!" He exclaimed confidently, once again inspiring Hinata, who gave a firm nod determined to beat the exam.
The next day they both walked out of the Academy as Genin.
AN: Story idea I had after starting to read the new manga Iron Knight. Not much to say about it, except that Naruto possesses Steel Release.
Till next time, Cuius of Caelum.