Life of a Ninja
(A/N) Starting at Naruto's early time in the ninja academy. I've made Kotetsu and Uzumo younger for this story but they wont play a major part anyhow.
Naruto was surprised to see Tenten again at the beginning of his second year at the ninja academy. He hadn't seen the girl since he had been thrown out of the orphanage for befriending her two years earlier. Now he was six years old and living alone but the girl was the one he missed the most. The second year class wasn't actually starting until the next day but Naruto had still shown up on a whim since he was excited about learning more things, even if the teachers tried to keep him out all the time. The first year class on the other hand had just been a short introduction day.
Walking over to the fellow six year old Naruto spoke "Hey Tenten-chan."
With a flying hug the girl assaulted Naruto shouting "Naruto-kun."
After a short bit of catching up and hearing that Tenten had been adopted by a weapons smith and that she wanted to learn to throw kunai and shuriken Naruto volunteered to teach her. Throwing weapons was one of the few skills he had gotten a high ranking in last year. Naruto had picked up the skill during lessons early in the year and the teachers nerve to send him away while outside since the Sandaime could be watching.
Tenten nodded and smiled brightly since she not only met her friend again but now had someone to help her learn to throw weapons as well. Her thoughts went on to thinking about whether Naruto would even want to learn a Kenjutsu style along with her. The problem of children becoming ninja outside of the clans was that they didn't have anyone to practice against leaving them with forms that might look fancy but really had no application in actual combat since blocking a single move could throw them off completely.
In any case Naruto spent the afternoon reviewing his thrown weapon skills something he hadn't done much off during the break and that would have earned him a bumping down in the class rankings.
Tenten was absolutely fanatical about the throwing form Naruto helped her into. When she guided Naruto close to her house and came back shortly after with a set of kunai and shuriken having gained permission to take them since she had a friend teaching her how to, Naruto was rather impressed at the quality.
As the girl kept at throwing and experimenting with different ranges Naruto got caught up the play as well as they tried to make their kunai hit each other in the air to get different angles among other things.
Naruto had been answering all the questions Tenten had about the things he could remember about chakra and theory from the last year and so had everything at the front of his mind as he got to the academy the next day.
The teachers started out with testing to see if the students had gotten rusty at anything during the vacation and Naruto managed to score as the best with both kunai and shuriken despite being in a class with kids a whole year older than him. This left the teachers with little excuse for holding the boy back in class since it would be obvious that the boy wasn't stupid or lazy.
As whole the whole day went by Naruto wasn't thrown out of the door even once as the teachers carefully showed the children the first three hand seals to practice and talked about ways one could track things in nature.
Naruto caught sight of Tenten as the day ended and spent the afternoon with her while she practiced her throwing and Naruto practiced the three hand seals he had been taught. When Tenten asked about them Naruto was only too happy to teach her as well though he also tried to see if the tracking techniques the teachers had spoken off actually worked as he looked for signs of where people had walked around them.
One of the teachers had mentioned how one could learn to flare ones chakra while holding the ram seal to gain an echo vision of people in the surroundings. As Tenten wanted to spent a lot of time throwing Naruto decided to experiment with the technique. Having an extraordinary amount of chakra Naruto was stunned at the amount of info he received when he made a full blast. He had a vague sense of lots of people in a few different directions but couldn't make much out of it. Deciding to start small Naruto focused a small amount of chakra and smiled when he only caught the signature of Tenten walking to retrieve weapons.
With more experimentation Naruto caught a signature in the woods above him and figured that was where the ANBU guard that the Hokage had by him was located. When Naruto looked closer he actually caught a glimpse of the white mask the guard was wearing.
Naruto didn't get much further before Tenten was called home for dinner and Naruto left to his apartment as well.
With the success of the technique Naruto vowed to try out all the things the teachers mentioned he could do with chakra from now on.
The next day the teachers taught them another three of the twelve hand seals after making them go over the ones from yesterday a few times. Naruto had no problem doing it since he practiced it for what felt like hours and actually scored the highest speed in the class.
The teachers dared not do anything overt to hamper Naruto's education and so moved along with a sigh.
The teacher from the day before mentioned how one could practice with the chakra echo technique to the point of learning to actually sense the presence of nearby chakra signatures without the need of the flare as one got used to the feel people gave out. Naruto decided that knowing where everyone is was cool and so spent the next few days practicing the release while spending time with Tenten.
When the girl brought out two wooden swords and a scroll she had picked up in the academy library on a basic Kenjutsu style Tenten nervously asked if Naruto would learn the style along with her.
Naruto was rather surprised but happily agreed. Since he had started spending time with Tenten he hadn't felt lonely which was plainly awesome.
Tenten turned out to be a true task master as they worked through the stances of the style and tried to actually strike each other from the positions and move between them. It took weeks to get them all down but Naruto wasn't complaining. The reflexed he was building up was helping his class ranking in Taijutsu as well and the style felt much more natural than the Taijutsu one of the teachers had been trying to pull him aside to learn. At that revelation Naruto stopped asking for Mizuki's help and simply stayed with the other students emulating the forms and finding them much easier to use.
Overall Naruto was entering the top bracket of the class rankings while the teachers were giving up on their attempts at spoiling his learning. With no time spent with boring hours of waiting outside the classroom Naruto wasn't coming up with pranks and so wasn't impeding himself with time spent doing punishments either.
As the year went by Tenten decided to add another style of Kenjutsu to their first one. The first one was really more of a set of stances that allowed you to move between blocking and striking without tripping while the new one added kicks and more complex moving to the mix.
With the hours spent swinging swords at one another the pair was becoming rather adept at dodging. As an effect Naruto firmly held onto the top spot in the Taijutsu rankings. Naruto's chakra control was being helped a lot by his constant echo flaring as well as starting on the leaf floating that the teachers had introduced them too after helping them access their chakra when they had learned the twelve basic hand seals. Naruto picked it up rather quickly and even taught Tenten how to access her chakra telling her all the tricks the teachers had mentioned. Naruto had so much chakra that accessing it almost came as an instinct explaining how he could do the chakra flare even before the teachers taught them how to access their chakra. Tenten on the other hand had naturally smaller reserves of chakra making the process harder but she managed after three days of practice. As the year went by she also started on the leaf floating unknowingly increasing her reserves as well before she even got to the year where she would be taught about it.
Naruto's ANBU guard had decided that spending a bit of time each day picking up groceries while Naruto was practicing with Tenten wouldn't harm anyone and so Naruto found food at his home along with written instructions on how to cook different things.
All in all Naruto was actually turning into a healthy boy as his second year at the academy came to an end. During the summer vacation Tenten had to leave with her adoptive parents to buy metal in another country but Naruto didn't fret much. Rather than do nothing Naruto practiced his echo technique to the point that he could sense people within ten meters of him without even using the technique when Tenten got back just two weeks before the vacation was over.
While Tenten still spent at least an hour every day practicing throwing weapons her passion had turned to Kenjutsu. Naruto was only too happy to experiment as they fought against each other each day trying to improve their skills and keep with the form. As the next school year started and Naruto's class was taught the different killing points of the body Naruto started to add precision striking to their practice duels.
Tenten on the other hand plowed through advanced books on sword fighting to find ways of improving their skill leaving them with more and more lethal combinations of attacks.
Kakashi had to admit that he was impressed at how much the kids had improved since they started their joined practice and so kept up his habit of finding new recipes of food for Naruto while he was on duty.
As Naruto's class started to learn the three academy Jutsu Naruto had little trouble keeping up.
Naruto got around the problem of the small amount of chakra needed for the bunshin technique by simply adding to the number of clones while he found his special way of overpowering the Henge to get a solid transformation. The kawarimi was becoming his specialty after Tenten found out that he could switch himself with logs and so found it appropriate to help him use it by randomly throwing sharp and pointy objects at him.
While Naruto hated the method it certainly helped him master the technique to the point where he switched himself with a log when someone in his class had stumbled behind his desk and dropped books that would have hit Naruto in the head.
As Naruto got each of the techniques down to taking an instant to make and only needing one hand seal the teachers could only give him full marks for the effort.
At the end of the year the teachers were actually discussing having Naruto sign up for the exam but the Hokage vetoed it and told them that Naruto could do it next year along with his class.
As her study of Kenjutsu advanced Tenten found several mentions of using the principle from tree climbing to increase speeds or doing special moves and increasing strength behind an attack the girl became frustrated and looked it up since regular tree climbing really couldn't be used in such a manner.
Naruto was rather skeptical when Tenten suggested that they walk on trees but in the end he agreed to try since she usually found good ideas in her books. As they mastered skill after days of bumps and falling to the ground their ability with the wooden swords increased dramatically with it as they started to add chakra to muscles and fight on vertical surfaces.
As the Kyuubi festival came about Hiruzen felt rather guilty for not visiting Naruto at all during the last year.
As he took the time to read the reports on the boy he was pleased to find that the boy had gone to near the top of his year in all subjects. It pleased him even more when he came to visit the boy's apartment and found it cleaner than one would expect from a boy of Naruto's age. As he looked the boy over and found no signs of malnourishment and reasonably new clothes with a dark blue shirt and dark green pants and an orange Uzumaki swirl sewn into them. The shout of "Jiji-sama" surprised him with the new suffix but also pleased him that the boy had matured a little. Spending a day with Naruto and taking the boy for ramen Hiruzen still felt a little guilty and so asked what the boy he wanted as a birthday present.
Naruto took a little time to think about it before deciding. "Hmm a sword of some kind maybe a Tanto?"
"Maybe when you become a Genin boy but are you learning to use a sword?"
"Sure Jiji I've been training for Tenten-chan."
"Oh so you got a girlfriend too?"
Naruto sputtered and denied the accusation while Hiruzen slipped an address note for the Sarutobi compound before speaking. "Come by next Sunday at three o' clock and we'll see if I can't teach you a trick or two. I'll see you then okay Naruto? You can even bring that girlfriend of yours."
As Naruto nodded and thanked Hiruzen for the ramen Hiruzen smiled and left to do his paperwork while the man chuckled thinking about how long it would take for Naruto to realize what his last comment had been.
When the day came Hiruzen was rather surprised at how much the two children had managed to learn on their own. Naturally they had nothing on the old man but he still enjoyed the session while he kept the two children off with his Bo-staff and criticized their forms. It wasn't something Hiruzen could do often but teaching was one of his true passions.
Halfway into the school year Tenten stumbled upon a reference to water walking and this time she looked it up immediately.
In between survival exercises at the academy Naruto consequently found himself learning to stand on water near a hot spring. Tenten teased him when she managed to stand on the water sooner than him. Fortunately she still fell under when Naruto gave her a push so he didn't feel bad about it. The competition went on from this point and a few days later they were chasing each other on top of the water.
With Naruto's help Tenten had long since left her female classmates in the dust and her scores even had the boys beat irritating one Hyuuga Neji in particular when she actually beat his Juuken style in sparring. She wasn't so advanced that the teachers felt the need to move her up a class however but she was being lauded as a genius. This term carried a lot of weight in Konoha also giving her adoptive parents an increase in business.
Naruto took his place on the top of his class at the beginning of his final year as he turned ten. While he didn't talk much with his class mates they respected him well enough by now for his competence in all the subjects and the amount of time he put into training. As the year came to an end and Naruto continued to improve on his Kenjutsu along with Tenten he was assigned to a Jounin by the name of Inuzuka Tsume along with two of his class mates that he had never really gotten to know. The Hokage had given Naruto a sword when he got out of the exam office that could even channel chakra. It was more of a kodaichi than anything else but Naruto had been rather busy gushing over the sharp blade since he had received it.
Tsume wasn't quite sure how to deal with a Genin team despite having been a Jounin for a number of years now. With a shrug Tsume called for them. "Team ten; follow me."
Quietly the three boys stayed behind the woman and her one eyed dog.
As they arrived at a training field Tsume spoke again. "Alright let's start with introductions. I'm Inuzuka Tsume and possibly your new sensei."
Not knowing what she meant by the possibly part Naruto took over. "Uzumaki Naruto."
"Kotetsu Hagane." Spoke Naruto's black haired teammate while the brown haired one took over with "Izume Kamizuki."
Tsume looked them over for a moment before nodding as she cast a curious glance at the sword on Naruto's back and speaking again. "Alright I never really liked this whole deception thing and I'm supposed to test your teamwork to see if you're ready to become a Genin team so I want you to attack me working together to put up enough of a fight to impress me kiddies."
Warily the three Genin hopefuls looked at each other before charging forward as Tsume yelled "Go".
Naruto stayed back a little and drew his sword charging forward to close whatever openings his teammates were showing. Hiruzen had invited him and Tenten by for practice three other times and one thing Naruto noticed was that he stressed how one should always look to help hiding the weaknesses of your teammates.
Tsume was actually impressed at the skill level the three Genin were showing. Naruto seemed to take up the support role and even switched himself with Izume using kawarimi when Tsume launched a strike at the boy's head. Naruto's shorter height let the strike go right over his head and allowed Naruto to push Tsume away so she would be skewered by his sword.
"Alright kids I'll take you. Meet me here tomorrow at eight for your first mission."
Naruto had learned the different mission ranks and what type a new Genin could expect since he had been listening at the academy and so wasn't looking forward to the experience.
As the boys turned up the next day Tsume arrived holding a missions form to catch Tora the cat while having a massive smile on her face. She hated doing that mission as a Genin and now she could pass on the experience to the next generation.
Four hours later the three boys turned in the cat wearing multiple scratches on their faces.
Tsume was rather surprised that Naruto already knew tree walking when she took the team aside after the mission to show them the Genin level exercise.
In any case Tsume told Naruto to help his teammates learn it and moved on home to the Inuzuka compound.
As would soon become a habit of his Naruto explained the exercise to the two knuckleheads while tweaking the exercise and doing crazy stunts himself to try and improve.
Naruto continued finding time to train with Tenten after team training. With the stamina Naruto had he didn't need more than a few hours of sleep every night to keep going all day, especially if he ate decently.
It only took a month for Tsume to get tired of the D-ranks while she left Naruto to train his team since she was impulsive like that barely bothering to check up on them. This was actually forcing Naruto to think about the things he had learned and find ways of putting them into words. Tsume had simply told them to keep practicing their chakra control with the assumption that they would stick to tree climbing until she introduced them to something else. Naruto though had no such limitations and so took his teammates to a river and taught them water walking when they had the tree climbing down after two weeks.
Since they had done twenty three D-ranks without failing any in just their first month Hiruzen allowed Tsume to have a C-rank for her team. As Naruto had something about him that would not allow C-ranks to at least become a B-rank the simple mission to deliver goods to a merchant in Rice country had them running into a Chuunin level missing Nin.
As the man ambushed them Naruto drew his sword on instinct sending chakra through the blade cleanly cutting through the kunai he had blocked as the man attacked while Tsume was inside a building turning in the scroll they had been sent to deliver. The man's chakra signature had flared far too soon for his attack to actually get to Naruto.
The sword didn't stop at the kunai though and cut straight through the guys arm amputating it with chakra enhanced steel.
The distraction of losing an arm was more than enough for Naruto's teammates to join in and help tie up the criminal.
As Tsume turned up having been alerted by the noise she whistled at their handy work and cauterized the wound and checked the knots letting the boys drag the man back to Konoha.
When the trend of being attacked on simple C-ranks held true on their next mission as well where a Genin level missing Nin attacked with the help of ten bandits Tsume decided to step up the combat training she was giving her team as she took a week to have them spar with each other while she helped them improve their skills before taking another mission.
Tsume was rather glad that she brought her dog on the next mission as she had to take down a Jounin while her team dealt with three Genin.
The next four months were spent in similar manner while the Hokage was starting to doubt his information network as team Ten kept running into the worst situations imaginable no matter where he sent them.
Tsume decided that her team was well and ready for the Chuunin exams that hidden mist had sent out invitations for to everyone's surprise. Since her team didn't have any actual bloodlines in it Tsume felt safe enough to send them there since her team had more combat exams than most Genin who had been on teams for two years did after just five months.
Tree jumping had become the teams standard way of travel whenever they didn't have clients to protect so getting to Mist only took a week. The Hokage had been hesitant to send a rookie team but there weren't any other teams that would fit the bill currently and Konoha would be seen as weak if they didn't have any teams participating in an exam. Image ultimately meant more than the risk the talented team would be in since it would affect the number of missions Konoha was given and thus the economy of the village.
As they entered the foggy country three Chuunin landed in front of them and asked for their papers before guiding them towards the exam.
They had just three days to get used to the climate before the first phase of the exam.
As they got to the first part a Chuunin showed up with a paper designating their first task.
Basically they had to assassinate one particular Genin on a team from Mist.
Having been informed of the silent killing techniques Mist ninja liked to use Naruto guided his team around the Mist Genin putting his chakra sensing to good effect when the mist became heavier around them. As they read the second objective they realized that the team they had to find would be looking for them as well with the objective to assassinate Izumo. Fortunately Naruto was a natural when it came to stealth and knowing where everyone around them was located only made him more suited for leading his team towards the opponents. Only after observing three different teams did they find the one they were looking for. With a grim look at each other Izumo and Kotetsu launched a collaboration Jutsu they had developed with Tsume's held that had a syrup like substance stick their opponents to the ground while their own team had learned to walk on it with chakra. While the team was stuck and panicking Naruto took off the right members head as he sharpened his sword with chakra and grabbed it before it could fall to the ground as he guided his team away from their opponents to head for the area they had to turn in the head at.
Tsume groaned as she learned of the view Mist had of information gathering missions in the first phase of the exam though she trusted her team to manage the task she didn't like it.
As they turned up for the next part Tsume could only sigh at the grim look her teams faces held but also sigh in relief when none of them had been killed.
As they were given another scroll with orders Naruto was rather relieved when this one wasn't ordering an assassination. Their task was to get a hold of a scroll from one of ten locations within a training area. Unfortunately twenty teams were left and only one scroll was kept at each location so they might have to fight for it anyhow.
Picking one of the locations at random Naruto guided his team around the paths of the other teams. With regular flares of chakra Naruto managed to find a location that none of the other teams were heading towards and so shifted his team to head to that one. Becoming a sensor was paying off more than Naruto had ever imagined that it could.
As they headed towards the final destination Naruto veered around anther two teams that were waiting and probably ready with traps before entering the actual building.
The Chuunin that turned up to greet them when they opened the summoning scroll was surprised to find the sole Leaf team to be the first one through. With a shrug he guided them towards a room they could rest up in.
As just three more teams arrived with the scroll without having lost a teammate there wasn't any need for preliminary rounds. Naruto drew his first fight against a Genin from Kumo while his teammates were set to fight against Mist Genin all wearing the customary re-breathers.
As Yagura turned up to explain the tournament to be held in one month Naruto wasn't surprised to see the looks of barely hidden disgust the Jounin from the other nations were sending the man responsible for the blood line purges. Slaughtering your own people was one of the few things that Shinobi as a rule looked down upon.
As Tsume trained the team for the month she focused on tactics that would make good use of the mist around them while training their awareness so there would be less chance of them being picked off with their vision impaired. As the leader of the Inuzuka clan Tsume was ideal to teach them how to use their other senses and she pulled no punches in doing so.
Naruto was the first one up when the matches started. The tournament was held in an arena and several village leaders including the Hokage and the Daimyo of mist had turned up. The constant mist made it hard for most people to catch onto what was actually happening but the high level Shinobi were more than capable of judging the skill level displayed.
Naruto used his hard earned skill with the Bunshin as soon as the proctor called for the beginning of the match. His objective was to knock out or kill his opponent and Naruto was hoping to manage the former.
The Kumo ninja had launched a hail of shuriken as soon as the match started but Naruto simply overpowered the boy's chakra and used kawarimi to switch places with him forcing the boy to frantically dodge his own shuriken while Naruto had his clones move around him.
Yugaro actually cast an appreciative glance at the Hokage for training Genin to use such tactics as Naruto started battering down on the Kumo ninja with sword strikes leaving careful non-lethal strikes and never putting himself at risk as the other boy saw nothing but illusions.
The Hokage caught he glimpse and resigned himself to promoting Naruto. One did not impress the sitting Kage that had hosted the Chuunin exams without earning a promotion. When Naruto's two teammates used similar tactics against the mist Genin with Kotetsu managing to beat a Genin specializing in learning the silent killing techniques the Hokage prepared to hand out three promotions.
Naruto had to face a Mist Genin as well in his next matchup. When his opponent drew a sword and managed to look through Naruto's deception Naruto started battering down his opponents sword breaking it after just three hits with his own chakra enhanced weapon. The mist Genin drew two kunai at this point and in the end Naruto was forced to cut of the boy's arms before the boy gave up.
Naruto won his next match as well before facing Kotetsu in the exams.
Naruto used his chakra control to enhance his speed as much as possible when the match started as he focused on cleanly knocking out his teammate in a single moment to avoid dealing out injuries.
The sheer speed actually convinced the Hokage that the boys were ready when Kotetsu managed to dodge two times before Naruto knocked him out. Izumo had gone down in his second fight but had also shown sufficient skill.
Hiruzen could only think of the three Sannin as a full team of rookies all getting promotions in their first Chuunin exam as he gave the three boys the vests after the tournament and Yugaro passed out three other promotions.
Returning to Konoha Naruto was showered with praise from Tenten actually making him blush as she found saw the vest he had received.
Izumo and Kotetsu elected to sign up for village guard duty while Naruto signed up for going on missions with whatever teams available.
The first one to pull him along was surprisingly a special Jounin that scared Naruto by the name of Mitarashi Anko.
The mission was a B-rank assassination that the Hokage required her to bring along backup for. Anko hadn't actually expected help from the young Chuunin but was rather pleased when he formed a bunshin in front of her and had it use sign language to tell her the locations of an ambush.
With a glance back Anko allowed Naruto to take out three ninja while she dealt with five others and the actual target.
Sensor trained ninja were rare in Konoha since the village had several clans that could do the job much more efficiently. Unfortunately those clans had sticks up their buts or had other problems that Anko didn't want to deal with and so she elected to pull Naruto along on more missions regularly over the next months.
Naruto had two more assassination missions with Anko before a team of Chuunin pulled him along for a B-rank protective detail.
As the team realized that he was a sensor and Kenjutsu specialist, both rarities in Konoha, they pulled him along for another mission before Anko got her hands on him again.
As he spent his free time with Tenten Naruto had barely any time to look up additional Jutsu even though he had access to them as a Chuunin.
Tsume was getting a lot of respect for training three Genin to become Chuunin in just five months as her old team filled up valuable roles. With the sensory training Tsume had put them through the two guards were actually highly skilled at the roles they were filling and their laziness allowed other Chuunin to go on missions. Naruto was quickly getting noticed as well as his skills with picking up and distinguishing skill levels of ninja from a distance kept growing as he came upon more of them. While Anko wasn't well liked by the civilians her skills had long since earned the respect of the ninja population and her praise wasn't known to come easily especially since she kept requesting the boy by name.
Somehow Naruto managed to get a C or B-rank labeling in several Bingo books within just four months of being a Chuunin. As Tenten graduated and was assigned to team Gai she had little energy to spar with Naruto after the drills her sensei put the team through. However with the use of her sword she managed to keep up with the team of Taijutsu specialists. Her family had given her a real one when she graduated though it wasn't designed to channel chakra like Naruto's was. While she had above average chakra reserves for a kunoichi throwing it around to sharpen her blade wasn't feasible.
Gai was rather impressed at how much skill Tenten was displaying both with her accuracy and her Kenjutsu so he modified the training to fit her use of swords better.
Hiruzen was rather relieved when the tendency Naruto had to somehow bring a simple C-rank up one or two levels didn't hold true for missions that actually were one or two ranks higher in the first place. As the boy kept improving with the sword he wondered when Jiraya would be back to take him on as an apprentice. He certainly wasn't regretting giving the boy a quality blade to begin with either as the boy picked up the chakra enhancement just fine even without actual training.
Naruto was randomly dragged along on missions by either the team of Chuunin or Anko depending on who asked for him first. Kakashi was rather surprised as he read Naruto's mission records with random intervals between his missions in ANBU. Though he wasn't really surprised when he thought of who the kid's parents were.
Naruto was getting used to Anko as she felt comfortable enough in his presence to not act like a psycho all the time after the first few missions. The skill she had with stealth and setting traps were slipping off on him and the normal missions he was doing kept him from going crazy from killing people all the time.
Tenten's adopted parents had never really been introduced to Naruto since family wasn't something the two orphans would talk about and Tenten assumed that Naruto had been adopted by another family. When Naruto started to turn up at their store to get equipment wearing a Chuunin vest they didn't turn him away though or make him pay extra making him keep coming back. With the rate that Naruto was going on missions without pause since either the Chuunin team would be taking one or Anko would be ready for some action he needed to restock on weapons regularly as well as having his sword maintained earning them a steady customer.
On that note no store in Konoha dared to turn away or take extra pay from a Chuunin of Konoha so Naruto didn't have a problem when he had to start buying stuff rather than having Kakashi stock up for him. Generally though he would stick to the stores where he wasn't getting glared at but on the whole his life in Konoha was improving.
Naruto had never taken much time to think about why he wanted to become a ninja between the academy and training with Tenten there just wasn't time to. He was however enjoying his job and Anko had surprisingly enough helped him deal with the fact that he killed people for a living.
As Naruto had an hour to himself he settled into a set of Kata that he enjoyed doing. Kakashi chose this time to speak to the kid though his team was on patrol duty in Konoha. Knowing they could handle themselves Kakashi approached Naruto from behind and was rather surprised when the boy turned and looked at him as soon as he was in line of sight.
Not being an expert on human interaction but still knowing a good deal more about Kenjutsu than most people, being the son of the White Fang of Konoha ensured that, Kakashi spoke simply "Want to spar?"
Naruto wasn't quite sure why an ANBU would want to spar with him but the opportunity excited him.
"Sure."
In just one blow Naruto was sent on the defensive though he still managed to keep Kakashi on his toes without his Sharingan out. Feeling pleased with the boy's growth Kakashi left after another ten minutes to resume his patrolling.
Naruto was actually panting at this point from the sheer strength needed to block the legendary ninja's strikes and the speed the man moved at with a casual ease. It was the first time Naruto had sparred with actual swords and the experience gave him almost as much adrenaline as actual combat.
Still Naruto had liked the challenge and so said yes the following day when Kakashi returned. As Kakashi started to actually point out Naruto's flaws and the man got back into his Kenjutsu usage from his early days as a Jounin Naruto started to improve even more making Tenten strain to keep up when they sparred with each other with swords of wood as they did once or twice a week when both had time.
As the boy took to the training Kakashi was giving him the man decided not to step down from his position in ANBU. Even if the council wanted him to train Sasuke in the use of the Sharingan the boy hadn't even activated it yet and as he had found out it wasn't like he couldn't take a few days in between to teach someone. Besides Naruto might just make it into ANBU within a year or two and Kakashi wanted to be his captain if he did. With that thought Kakashi took a more thorough look at Naruto's mission records as well as the reports his team leaders had filed.
The ANBU commander had been pleased when reports came in that Kakashi had stepped up his training again as well as regaining the drive he had displayed when he entered ANBU. He had been wondering if he should give the man a break from ANBU to refocus but it seemed that he had regained his fire. When Kakashi approached him about a possible recruitment he was even more pleased. With a speculative glint in his eyes after reading through the young boy's file the man spoke. "I'll send the invitation if you'll sponsor the boy's training."
Sponsoring was more like acting like a coach during the three months of drills and having the recruit on your team until the recruit reached the level of a captain. Another reason was for his request was that it would put a stop to the council's requests for Kakashi to step down and become a Jounin sensei which was really a waste of a valuable resource until the kid got to the right level.
As Kakashi processed these things he finally decided that he would do it as he nodded. Relieved the commander nodded and started writing the formal papers. After Itachi he would have let the eleven year old boy wait for another three years before sending an invitation even if his mission record was at the appropriate level already. It was mainly this fact that had stopped the usual recruiters from even looking the boy's way until now.
Naruto wasn't sure what to make of it as a hawk flew down to him and let go of a message. Anko as she caught sight of the scene whistled partly impressed and partly disappointed that she wouldn't be able to use the boy any longer.
Naruto had never been one to turn down a challenge and this wouldn't be any different.
As he entered the address the letter had told him to come to the room fell into darkness.
Naruto reacted instantly drawing his sword and holding off the three persons he felt approaching and countering their attacks as he systematically brought down their defenses without needing to see them and knocking them out with the handle of his sword.
As the light came back on Naruto stayed on the defensive as another person entered chuckling.
Naruto felt a little relieved as he recognized the mask the man was wearing as the one he had sparred against during the last months though he kept the sword ready.
Kakashi walked calmly and put smelling salts under the noses of the knocked out operatives. The embarrassed expressions they were as they came to life made Kakashi chuckle again. Ordinarily one simply had to hold off the attackers for two minutes to pass the test but Naruto had actually knocked them out within thirty seconds.
"You passed the initial testing please come with me."
Kakashi led Naruto to a room with equipment as the boy put his sword into its sheet and followed.
As Kakashi picked out a set of standard equipment he inspected Naruto's sword for a moment before speaking. "You can keep your sword but all else will be standard issue for the next three months. You will wear the blank mask and respond to Trainee or Soldier for this time and depending on my mood Squirt until you earn an actual codename." Kakashi motioned for Naruto to go and change into the body armor he had put out for the boy.
Naruto was led to a lecture room next where he was subjected to a theory class on stealth tactics while Kakashi left to meet his team for a mission. The lecture was mostly putting the things Anko had taught him in practice into words while the new things were mainly dealing with how to act as a unit while staying concealed. In any case Naruto was grateful that he had gone on missions with the Snake mistress as he took notes like the other recruits were doing.
Only the next day did Kakashi return to pull Naruto away from the other trainees to give him a test of his elemental affinity. As the paper split in two Kakashi was pleased. Kakashi's team had two fire affinities and a wind to fan the flames so to speak would be very useful.
Kakashi told Naruto to practice cutting a wind in two with his chakra before letting him rejoin the training program.
The day was reserved for learning the Kenjutsu style ANBU employed. It was very different from the one Naruto was used to using but he and Tenten had learned enough different forms that picking up a new one wasn't a problem. He recognized two of the kata from sparing with Kakashi though the man seemed to rely on another style for the rest of this moves.
What Naruto didn't know was that the other recruits had been going for a week already and that the training was highly competitive and that people were being "let go" if they weren't keeping up. As Naruto simply joined the class and picked up skills and a Kenjutsu style they had been practicing for a week getting even the complex moves right quicker than they were it blew apart the pecking order that had been built up as everyone struggled to keep up with the kid.
After three hours the class was taken to train straight Taijutsu instead. Teaching just one style to Konoha's elites would be just asking for other nations to develop a style to counter it so the class was more of spars with an instruction yelling out instructions to both contestants to improve on what they already knew.
Two hours later the exhausted class and the somewhat winded Naruto were given the rest of the day off.
Naruto spent two hours trying to sharpen his chakra. The idea of letting chakra meet from both sides of the leaf only came to him after an hour letting him make a tiny cut that steadily got wider.
Without the long training in shape manipulation Naruto found the elemental stuff simple enough though he slipped off to sleep when the other recruits did so.
There simply wasn't energy left over to bully each other so everyone left Naruto alone which fit him well enough. What the recruits didn't know was that those of them that made it through the program would form a unit left by Yamato from Kakashi's team who was skilled enough to be a captain and currently acted as second in command and whom Naruto would replace when the training came to an end.
Partway through the night they were pulled from their beds and given a map to follow as they set out on a thirty miles trip. Being trained by the head of the Inuzuka clan Naruto didn't have any problems with either following a map or the distance as he returned as the first just two hours later.
After two additional hours of sleep everyone was called for another day of theory.
The rhythm was kept up for the next month as they were drilled in everything from communicating in the ANBU hand signs to standard tactics and formations. The nightly exercises were changed from being different physical exercises to hours of sparing with or without weapons to simply being standing awake for hours on watch duty requiring that you could report any and all changes when the time was up.
The few hours of sleep weren't bothering Naruto much with his endless battery of chakra to fresh him up though the other recruits were pushed to their limits as procedures were drilled in to become muscle memory. The difference was that Naruto had the energy to think and so managed to pick up things quicker and to grasp the true point of the drills and outmaneuver the larger recruits during spars.
Kakashi would come by and give Naruto another exercise at random intervals while checking on his progress and giving him techniques to learn.
As the month passed by the number of recruits was decreasing as people gave up or fell so far behind that they were let go. In the end only five of the initial thirty were needed for the team that Yamato would be leading the ten that was left now in addition to Naruto was well within the limits. Any additional graduates than the five needed would simply be kept in reserve for replacing lost team members. In the end even those that did quit benefitted Konoha with the training they managed to endure since it gave them an edge in their old positions and possibly the drive to get better and try out again at a later point in time.
Naruto switched between learning the wind techniques like the great breakthrough and improving his leaf cutting. While Kakashi didn't know any wind Bunshins he did give Naruto the Kage-bunshin technique to master. Naruto had never learned a technique as quickly as that one as even Kakashi was impressed when he came by the next day and found Naruto making more than twenty shadow clones in an instant while experimenting with controlling where they would appear.
When Kakashi sparred with Naruto next time Kakashi actually had to use his sharingan to avoid getting his head cut off with multiple clones running around waving a sword that could cut through just about anything.
Kakashi wasn't complaining though as his team really would need someone who could be everywhere at once with the absence of Yamato's wood release. The endless training Naruto was getting in anatomy and varying weapons would even give his clones a reliable tool to take down opponents without being lethal with Senbon needles. Yes Kakashi was rather pleased with his choice of student.
As the three months came to an end Naruto and the seven other rookies were branded with the standard tattoo on the right shoulder marking them as ANBU of Konoha. The different Jutsu they had learned in their final days had taught them techniques that would destroy their own bodies to avoid leaving behind a corpse for the enemy to study. Naruto wasn't sure how he felt about that one or the tattoo but he was rather excited to go on missions with Kakashi's team as the man had finally told him that he would.
As he finally had a few days off Naruto immediately sought out Tenten whom he had barely had time to tell he would be gone for a while before going to get ANBU training.
As Naruto found the girl training with her team he was surprised by a flying hug from the normally serious Kunoichi. Naruto winced as she touched his shoulder that was still rather sore from getting the tattoo.
"Finally back huh?" Tenten said with a smile.
"Eh he yeah so to speak, I've got a new team soon though so I'll be gone again soon I'm afraid to say."
"So this is your team?"
Naruto wondered what the two males wearing green spandex had to do with being ninja but shrugged when he thought of the other weird habits he had seen Shinobi engaged in.
The fact that they had started shouting about youthfulness when Tenten hugged Naruto wasn't helping their case though.
Neji on the other hand stood stoically until he activated his Byuakugan. "ANBU huh?"
Tenten nearly ripped off his T-shirt as she pulled the sleeve back to see the mark.
"Eh… Yeah not supposed to talk about that though so how about not mentioning stuff like that rookie?"
Neji actually blushed even if he felt rather depressed since someone his age was that far ahead of him and seemingly without even having a bloodline limit.
Tenten was rather stunned for a moment and even Gai gave Naruto an appraising look and mentioned the springtime of youthfulness coming out or something to that effect while Lee and him went off on another rant while Naruto felt sure that he saw a sunset out of the corner of his eyes that he did his best to ignore.
Tenten finally spoke "congratulations I guess."
Seeing her strange mood and the slight awe she was showing him Naruto decided that he had to speak to her. "Maito-san do you mind if I burrow your student for a while?"
"Feel free Uzumaki-san."
Naruto used one of his new favorite techniques the shunshin while grabbing Tenten to go to their usual training area.
"Sorry about not telling you but I'm really not allowed to."
"Sure no problem, want to spar?"
Naruto nodded relieved that Tenten didn't hold it against him and seemingly got over her moment of fangirl-ism.
Naruto found that shifting between his old and new style kept Tenten completely off balance as struck right through her guard with just a few moves.
Out of reflex Naruto got back into his old habit of speaking instructions while sparing that he used when he trained with his old Genin time back then and Tenten soon managed to hold her own against him with a few tips and tricks though she had to rely on dodging more heavily than before since Naruto had gained a good deal of muscle during training and her blocks couldn't hold him off.
As they finished Tenten leaned in and gave Naruto a kiss on the lips when she finished stretching.
Naruto got a glazed look on his face and stayed still while Tenten giggled and walked away speaking "as congratulations Naruto, keep impressing me and you might get more of them."
Naruto had a dazed look and a wide smile on his face as he put his possessions from his apartment into a storage seal to carry to the new one he had been given in a district set aside for members of ANBU.
With the money Naruto had stored up he didn't actually need to bring anything since he could afford to buy new stuff but it always felt good to have familiar things in your home.
Naruto spent the next two days getting settled in the new apartment and sparing with Tenten whom he still couldn't quite look at without blushing much to her enjoyment not to mention amusement. If she had only known how funny it would make him behave she would have done that, years ago.
When his little break was over Naruto got into his new ANBU garb with mask of a crow since Kakashi found it funny that he would attack like a flock of them using shadow clones and sharp swords instead of mere numbers and talons. The fact that Naruto also used wind techniques sort of like how the crows uses wind to fly had Kakashi convinced that it was the best fit ever with shadows being black and shadow clones being used. In any case Naruto was stuck with being called crow whenever he was working but it was better than some animals he supposed. As Naruto looked the bird up and found it had foxes as natural enemies he felt a little pride that maybe Kakashi thought he could have fought the tailed beast like the Yondaime did. Not knowing about the sealing Naruto didn't know that Kakashi had chosen the codename for that particular reason rather than the reasons he had rattled off to Naruto, though Naruto didn't catch the fact that crows are considered intelligent and that flocks of them can be called a murder either, the last of which was rather fitting for his new profession, while the intelligence part was Kakashi's way of referring to the usual role of a shadow clone in gathering such.
Upon meeting his team Naruto was subjected to another week of training as Kakashi was near fanatical about his teamwork drills. Fortunately the commander had a mission for them after just a week cutting the training off. While Naruto liked exercising he had been doing nothing else for three months now.
Keeping up with the elite grownups as they headed towards wave country wasn't a problem for Naruto after the training he had been put through so at least he had the pleasure of knowing it hadn't been for nothing.
The mission was an assassination though ranking higher than the ones Naruto had gone on with Anko.
Having learned about Naruto's solid Henge Kakashi had Naruto's clone Henge into a guard at Gato's compound and Kawarimi with the guard leaving the work of silencing the man to the real Naruto.
While the team surrounded the compound to prevent anyone from escaping if an alarm was strung the Henged clone walked around until it found Gato sleeping in a bed. Figuring that a bed lamp to the spine counted as death by natural causes the clone used a single chakra enhanced blow to kill the sleeping man. When the clone dispelled itself Naruto was rather shocked to remember that train of thought though it also made him realize the memory transfer part of the technique.
With the primary target down Naruto signaled for his team to enter the compound as they second about the second objective: Ruining the company of drug traders and robbing them blind.
With the dubiously good deed done an hour later the team set back towards Konoha with storage scrolls containing enough funds to keep Konoha running for months. To cover up their tracks the unconscious and captured guard was woken and put in a Genjutsu that would force him to set the building on fire with himself inside.
As always Naruto was rather relieved when the assassination didn't involve killing any women or children, something that Konoha thankfully tried to avoid.
Emissaries and diplomats as well as tradesmen from Konoha would arrive in wave country with part of the funds to help rebuild the broken nation and secure trade agreements.
Kakashi shifted between training and doing missions as they found ways for Naruto's shadow clones to fill Yamato's old role in interesting ways.
The long hours as well as the occasional guard duties left little personal time for Naruto but he set a few hours off each week to spar with Tenten. As Naruto turned twelve he actually took her out on a date as he cooked a meal and they ate it on top of the Hokage monument and looked at the stars when the night fell.
The sponsoring Kakashi had agreed to do meant that he continued to take Naruto aside for special training as well as letting him do the calls on some missions. As he found Naruto on his date when he had planned one of these sessions Kakashi found a new topic to tease Naruto with though thankfully he didn't interrupt the date.
Naruto's other team members preferred to stay strictly professional while on duty and with the people they worked with given the life expectancy of a serving ANBU. Becoming attached simply made it harder to deal with losing people after a few years in the force so they generally chose not to. Still Naruto was getting to know Kakashi quite a bit as the man spoke to him even without the mask, well without the ANBU mask at least.
(A/N) This is more of a rough draft than anything but since I wrote more than I tend to when I start on a story I wanted to publish it anyhow. If I continue the story I won't change or add to the pairing.