A/N:
Hello everyone, I am Dreaming of the Sky, and I bring you my very first story ever.
I would like to thank Mr AnimeKidd and ILikeReading1 for helping me with this. Without these two amazing people I would not only have the courage to actually post anything on this site, but have a story to write. So thank you, both of you.
I just want to say this now. This is a story in which Naruto joins the Shugonin Jūnishi (Twelve Guardian Ninja).
Guardian of the Flame
Chapter One – Genin
Uzumaki Naruto, seven years old, had done what everyone said was impossible. He had graduated from the academy, five years earlier than his class was supposed to.
It hadn't been easy, especially when everyone was out to make his journey all the more difficult. It was strange, why did what seemed like the entire village dislike him so much? He was only seven; he couldn't have done something to upset everyone, could he?
He sighed, shrugging as he trailed behind the three figures that he followed. Slightly in front of him and to his left was Hyūga Takashi, a twelve year old newly stated genin of Konohagakure no Sato. Naruto wasn't positive, but he sometimes caught his sempai looking at other boys the way girls do. The long, black-haired boy would glance at boys in a way that expressed yearning. Ah well, Naruto had decided that everyone had a right to like, and dislike, what they wanted.
Next to Takashi was Sarutobi Tama, a girl with long, brown hair and brown eyes. She was the same age as Takashi, and just as strange. Tama was a member of the same clan as the Sandaime Hokage, and she made sure everyone knew of this every chance she could get. It was somewhat annoying, but Naruto had learned how to deal with annoying. After all, how else could one put up with the glares of hatred the villagers showered him with?
Directly in front of them was their new sensei, a man named Nara Yori. His short, black hair matched his calculating eyes. The intelligence behind the façade of laziness excited Naruto somewhat. He had always appreciated intellect over brute force, and the skinny, unintimidating man was a prime example of that.
Naruto, in his black pants and long-sleeved, black shirt that had an orange stripe down the middle, with his black shinobi sandals and matching hitai-ate walked silently behind these three, his hands behind his back, his eyes roaming the multitude of trees their sensei was taking them through. His teammates had complained when they heard there was yet another test before they could truly claim to belong in the ranks of the shinobi, but Naruto had only shown interest. He wasn't all that interested in tests, but when he thought about being tested by someone who he knew to be smart, he couldn't wait to see what it was all about.
Their sensei, hopefully, stopped abruptly. "This is training ground three, and it is where your real genin test begins." Tama groaned, glancing at Takashi. It was no small secret that they were best friends. Naruto stayed silent still, not wanting his newest teammates to dislike the fact that they had him on their team. It didn't really bother him too much. Them disliking him wasn't out of the ordinary. After all, everyone usually disliked him… "The test is simple," Yori-sensei continued. "One of you just needs to touch me." He smirked.
Tama gave a victorious smile, punching her hand with her fist. "Ha! Sensei, that's too easy!" She even snorted. "Even with the baby we can do that!" Takashi smirked at his friends' words about the "baby", that nickname given to him by her the day he was put in their class a year ago.
Yori frowned. It seemed that the two oldest weren't very fond of the small blond boy. Yori was no idiot, even in the slightest bit. He knew who Uzumaki was, and what everyone thought of him. He personally was indifferent about the whole situation. He hadn't lost any family, or friends, in the Kyūbi attack, and even if he had he was smart enough to know that the child was not the Kyūbi, no matter how much the villagers wanted him to be.
"We'll see." He said. He took a relaxed, almost lazy stance, knowing that mere genin could never best him, even on his worst of days. "Begin."
Takashi immediately rushed after the jōnin, his Byakugan activated. He struck out with his clan's famed jūken, striking at the man's tenketsu. He had a stoic, yet somewhat cocky smirk on his face, showing his cold confidence. That confidence, along with the smirk, vanished when he couldn't even touch his target. Yori had just stepped around every blow like it was nothing. Then suddenly, without warning, the Nara disappeared. With his Byakugan, Takashi could see his sensei reappear behind him, but wasn't fast enough to react. He was struck in the back of the head before he could even blink. His sight turned into darkness.
Tama chuckled loudly, shaking her head in a disappointed manner. "Oh Takashi, I expected more from my greatest friend." She smiled. "Ah well, I guess I'll have to do everything myself, then!" She rushed at the jōnin, taking a kunai from her holster and thrusting it in his general direction. Yori just shook his head. He had seen Uzumaki try to speak with her, and how she had acted like he wasn't even there.
"You're foolish to not notice how helpful your teammates can be, Tama." He scolded. He side-stepped the kunai thrust, the girl falling to her knees.
Getting back up to her feet, she scoffed. "That baby?" she asked. "I'm related to the Sandaime Hokage! What would I need someone like him for?" Her undertone was clear as day with how she said that. She saw him like the villagers, like a nuisance.
She rushed at him once again, her kunai still within her right hand. When she was inches away from him she reached out, with her left, thinking it would trip him up a little. She really was a naïve genin.
Yori grabbed her outstretched hand, flinging her to the side. She hit a tree, hard, and wasn't getting up right away. That only left one.
The jōnin looked at the youngest of his potential team, his eyes assessing the small child. He had no idea why he was allowed to graduate early, since if he was a prodigy, everyone would have heard about it. He sighed. It didn't matter all that much anyways. The two eldest were down, their childish minds believing that he would take it easy on them. In the field, in the real world, they wouldn't find anything easy, so why should he show them any different?
"Are you going to charge in, too?" He asked the blond.
The boy just smiled, surprising him a little. He then began to walk towards his sensei, a stoic, calculating gaze aimed at his target. Yori didn't know what it was, but something about the boy's calmness felt… off. Step by step, the blond got closer and closer, his face never leaving its stoic mask. Yori decided to teach the kid a lesson. He ran at the boy, swinging his fist at his face. That's when… something odd happened.
He missed.
He knew, one hundred percent that he should have hit the boy directly in his face, ending the test, allowing him to go home and thus escape another year of dull, troublesome teaching. Yet, even though his logic was flawless, his fist definitely missed. He frowned, deciding to swing his other fist, and just like the last, he was sure it would hit spot on.
And just like the last, it missed.
He had the boy's head in the path of his swing, but right when it was about to make contact, he came up short, like…
Like the boy had moved faster than his trained, shinobi eyes could see.
That was impossible, though. Not only was a genin, a seven year old genin at that, unable to move that fast, but the way he moved, it was like he only took a single step back. He couldn't have done that, without him at the very least noticing it, with the kind of speed he would have to have been using.
He was even more shocked when, suddenly, the boy, who had been just out of his reach, had touched his stomach with his right forefinger, somehow within his guard in a blink of an eye.
Had he been an enemy, or even if the boy decided on a whim, he could have killed him.
What was scary about it was the ease in which the boy totally got past his reach, past his defense, and pointed at a vital organ.
Naruto cocked his head to the right, a small, calm smile on his face. "Sensei," he began, startling the Nara jōnin, "This means we're genin now, right?"
Yori nodded, gulping.
What had just happened?
A/N:
I hope this was an okay start. Some of you most likely have questions, I know I would. Everything will be explained next chapter, or at least what Naruto did to become a genin.
Please review!
