A Trick in the Shadows
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Chapter 1: Overcoming.
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Naruto took a deep breath, taking a brief second to calm himself down before collecting his training supplies. Today had been particularly bad, even if it was typical. It was becoming harder and harder to deal with the prejudice he faced every day. He'd been planning to try a new wire technique he received from the Hokage for his birthday, but even waiting a few weeks after Oct. 10th to buy the wire didn't help dealing with the local merchants.
'If only the travelling ones were sanctioned to sell ninja supplies,' He thought, but knew that the rule made sense. There was a risk of sabotage, foreign elements entering and having weapons to attack and all sorts of security problems. Still, it sucked. In the end he didn't even get to buy the wire, the weapon's dealer refusing to sell on the grounds of "he was an academy student, he wouldn't sell to kids." Of course, that wasn't the real reason, they both knew, but the man could get away with it.
As he inspected his slightly rusting and awkward wire, he felt more frustration. Naruto could mostly get the attack down, but the wire needed to be flexible, and it was anything but. At age nine Naruto had more experience than most genin, even if it was just in torture like scenarios and spying and infiltration.
It was two years ago that he learned just why most people had an unreasonable hatred of him. Up until then he didn't understand, and was almost to the brink of thinking himself as evil and worthless as they called him. It was amazing that knowing you had a demon sealed into your gut was actually reliving to the young boy, instead of the breaking point.
The Hokage had always feared someone would tell him out of anger and malice, and attempt to make him believe he was a monster. If the villagers were given half a chance, some would have given up their life to attempt to destroy him. Shatter his hopes, and then go for the kill. Actually, some probably had died attempting that, but it was one of those that protected him most of his life that told him the truth.
Uchiha Itachi, he later realized. The ANBU captain revealed the truth, corrected Naruto's assumptions about his worth, left a few technique scrolls before leaving to slaughter his clan single-handedly.
Despite that his crimes, Naruto idolized him. He was the first person to offer help for his dream of becoming Hokage and most of all, told him the truth. Even the Hokage couldn't say as much until recently. Thinking about the old man, he remembered how angry he had been when he discovered Naruto knew of the Kyuubi and Itachi's actions. Of course, when he relayed that he respected Itachi for telling him the truth the Hokage sunk in his chair like his strings had been cut.
For a few months Naruto held resentment towards the Hokage for keeping the truth from him, but eventually he had to acknowledge that the elderly shinobi was acting in his best interests. Before then however, he thought deeply of just what become the Hokage meant.. and he wasn't sure he wanted that. Finally, late one night when he was rereading Itachi's scrolls, he realized what he really wanted.
He was going to be a ANBU Captain, and no one was going to stand in his way. 'And I'm already on my way.' He thought proudly.
Two weeks ago when he asked to test out of the academy earlier, he thought the answer was going to be an abrupt "No." Instead the old man came through for him. It might have been something to do with his reasoning though.
"I've learned nothing at the academy. They refuse to teach me and give me detentions for pranks and broken gear that others do. My textbooks have mysteriously been missing numerous times and my training weapons are always damaged." The Hokage kept his impassive face, but Naruto could tell he was very angry by the way the man's pipe creaked ominously between his teeth. "But I never expected them to treat me fairly. When they give me detention, I leave and train with real weapons, or practice the techniques Itachi gave me. And I always make time in the library to learn the things I need there." Naruto's eyes glinted with determination. "I won't let that trash ruin my dreams."
The Sandaime was quiet for a good five minutes before nodding his head. "At the end of the semester I will personally escort you to be tested for graduation." A wry smile appeared on the man's wrinkled face. "Lets even make it a more through test, just to show them that they failed in their attempts- I mean, to show no signs of favouritism you'll be given a harder test."
The boy grinned at the memory. Tomorrow was the test date, and the academy hadn't been notified. The old man decided to give them little time to think of any schemes, with addition to preventing the Village Council to rule civilians had to attend the full length of the academy or something of the sort. They were petty like that.
Wiping down his last kunai and securing his holsters, he took off at a fast pace back to his apartment. He paid extra heed to avoid any popular pathways and kept to the rooftops and trees. Not out of any fear of harassment, but just because it was decent training to take the more challenging routes. His favorite shinobi scroll had stressed "Make every movement worth something." and practising his balance and chakra control every night and day with concise jumps and foot placement definitely qualified.
It didn't take long to reach his slightly run down apartment building. An added bonus was that if tomorrow went well he could move into the shinobi only apartments. Civilians didn't have ready access to that area, and ANBU kept a constant watch. Sure there were elements in the Konoha shinobi force that disliked him, but even they wouldn't risk messing with the apartments. Due to the sensitive knowledge and private lives on ninja, no one fucked with their shit without a death wish.
Naruto was giddy in excitement at the idea.
'Tomorrow will be awesome!' He thought, showing a rare excited grin.
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The next morning was typical, but Naruto was bouncing with excitement when he met the Hokage at the academy gates. He had a chance to prove his worth and he had an opportunity to show those biased assholes that they failed.
Only the graduating classes and the chunin instructors were here today so he didn't have to deal with taunts and questions and they made a quick pace to the testing room. The Hokage sent him a wink before entering the room. The expressions were amusing to say the least. Not many in the class recognized him and wore their confusion obviously. The teachers were another manner, but at least had enough sense to mask their hostility.
"Hokage-sama?" A mousy looking man asked, the most unfamiliar of the chunin. He had a deep scar on his nose, stretching into his cheeks slightly.
"Ah, Iruka-san, I hear this is another promising class?" At the man's confused nod the Hokage smiled proudly before patting Naruto's shoulders. "I have another for you. He has my permission to test to graduate this semester." Both enjoyed the outcries from the class and the stunned expressions on the chunin testers. One, Mizuki, had particularly enjoyed ruining his academy career had a sour expression on his face. "I know this is sudden, but to prove this I'm not acting out of favoritism, Naruto-kun has agreed to take a more in-depth test to prove he is ready."
Iruka looked stunned, but the least hostile out of the bunch. "Uh, yes Hokage-sama, that seems fair." He turned to the class and announced the paper test was going to begin. The man was startled again when the Hokage motion for Naruto to take a seat.
"The written test covers all basic elements a genin needs to know, there isn't anything more we could add to it without entering chunin territory." The Hokage was enjoying this, if only because these people were trying to sabotage a promising shinobi career. He smiled and picked up the stack of papers on the desk and handed it to the first student in the row. "Please pass this around."
"Yes Hokage-sama," The boy answered in a hesitant tone. Soon enough everyone had a test and the three chunin testers and the Hokage were holding their own discussion quietly.
"Hokage-sama, are you sure he is ready?" Mizuki asked. "His grades are very low."
The elderly man smiled but his eyes were cold daggers staring down Mizuki. "Oh, I know he is more than ready for this. Grades, after all, aren't always the best indicators of a students' potential." Iruka was the only one confused by the statement, where the other two flushed.
"Hokage-sama, how will his test change from the rest?" Iruka asked quietly.
"I've decided he would take the normal tests with the rest of the class and then move into the untested categories. Traps, tracking, taijutsu, and stealth. He will be scored on a 1-100 scale, and anything lower than a 50 overall will fail. Is that fair?"
Iruka was stunned, "Isn't that a bit much?"
Sandaime sent him a searching look before showing his first smile since Mizuki's question. "Not at all, in fact, this used to be the standard when we didn't have many qualified jounin to pick up genin teams. I'm certain he will do very well."
The other chunin were confused, knowing that the boy would fail from what they knew of his skills, and while that was their intent... The Hokage seemed very confident in the brat. A glance at the boy showed he was filing out the test with little sign of trouble or hesitation. Regardless, with the Hokage here to observe, there wasn't much they could do but hope he would fail.
The time passed quickly and the Hokage left grading the papers to Iruka as he led the other Chunin to the back room for the shurikan and kunai basic testing. Only two of the students showed a below the mark ability in this area, and Naruto wasn't one of them. A few of his throws were on the edge of being off target and if the Hokage was absent he would've surely been marked many points for it, but the boy walked away with a 85 percentile in accuracy.
Mizuki and Sen, the other instructor were seething, and when Iruka returned with the tests and they discovered the man marked the boy's test fairly they almost said something about it. For their sakes, however, they kept it together. They were stunned that this boy they went out of their way to feed misinformation, or otherwise prevent his chances of learning the things on that test received 90% of the questions correct.
This wasn't right! By the time they tested the ninjutsu portion they were hardly surprised that the boy executed the techniques flawlessly. Even using kagebushin instead of a normal one! The raised eyebrow showed that even the Hokage didn't know about that.
In Naruto's case, he was ecstatic. The portions he was tested on were all his worst aspects, he even had to reveal his knowledge of Kagebushin when he realized that testing portion. Regardless of his chakra control knowledge, he was incapable at using that technique, he tried to disguise it as a normal clone, but by the stunned expressions it didn't work. Oh well, at least he got top marks.
'Now to blow them away!' He grinned. When they moved into the academy training ground to continue his test, many of the students returned with their parents to watch. Everyone was aware of the Hokage's presence so the comments against him were kept to a minimum.
"Naruto, we'll now do the testing portion." Motioning to the supplies on the ground, "Display your knowledge of the three basic traps. Your marks will depend on the time it takes you to assemble and how well they are disguised." Sarutobi gave him a moment to collect the supplies before, "Begin!"
And Naruto was gone in a flash, his small blue clad body disappearing into the forest canopy. Eight minutes on the dot he returned to the clearing. "I'm done, Hokage-sama." The blond smiled.
The boy pointed out his traps after giving the testers a chance to observe naturally. After a short discussion, and clearing the site, the Hokage threw a small pebble at the first trap. Immediately the shurikan and kunai launched as expected, but what surprised the chunin and made the Hokage smile proudly was that the other two traps went of in succession. "Very nice, Naruto. Most would do them separately, but making a triple layer trap out of the three basic ones is very innovative."
After giving Naruto a few minutes to disassemble the traps and collect the materials they moved out of the forest and back into the training ground. Despite many of the onlooker's hatred of the boy, the crowd was very interested in seeing a different graduation test. Many had experienced the same as their children and wondered if their kids could pass these same tests.
"Full marks." Iruka spoke up. Naruto grinned. "Next is tracking. I've been chosen to take a flag through the forest here and leave a flag about a quarter of a mile from these training grounds. Naruto must track the path I took and retrieve the flag. It will be judged on how far he gets, with full marks for retrieving the flag." The audience, which they were now, found this very interesting, and many of the shinobi parents in the group found the test to be a fairly accurate judge.
It was a long five minutes for Naruto to wait for Iruka's return, but once the man returned to the clearing Naruto rushed into the woods. After the initial point of entry, it took Naruto a minute to find Iruka's trail. Tracking was easy for Naruto, as his vision was sharp along with a over-sensitive nose, which was helpful for tracking, not so much for laundry days. Still, it was the longest test that would occur.
On the way, the boy would occasionally catch a glimpse of the chunin shadowing him in his progress. He paused as the trail ended abruptly, scanning the area before noticing the torn bark on the tree above him and smiled. Iruka was giving him a challenge.
It wasn't long into the tree path that he found the little red flag resting in the branches. Full marks again, he grinned, before taking a quicker path back to the academy.
The Hokage sent him a proud smile, offering a nod to show his acknowledgement. He decided to lecture slightly for the sake of the crowd. "Taijutsu is usually something we teach young, but usually in a basic form allowing technique to be further developed on as they grow into stronger, and diverse shinobi. It isn't usually tested upon since it is uniform for academy students. However, given Naruto's age, he'll be tested to make sure he is at the level that is required for a genin." Sarutobi then gave Naruto a smirk before entering into the basic academy stance.
Naruto the proceeded to gulp loudly. 'I didn't realize I'd have to fight the old man!" but pushed his nervousness aside. It would be fair this way, right? And entered the academy stance. He had a better technique, but he knew better than to reveal it now. Besides, knowing the basics was never a bad thing.
It was a fairly short demonstration, where the Hokage defended and Naruto attacked. However, Naruto was almost caught off-guard when the elderly ninja launched an attack after he thought the test was over. Quickly he realized it was just another test, as the Hokage kept his skills close to a genin level. He used the defensive stances admirably, only taking a grazing hit to his shoulder when he was briefly caught off-balance.
Just as soon as it started the Hokage was back where he was, discussing his performance with the chunin. He wasn't surprised when he only received a 80 instead of full marks, it wasn't his main technique, thus, it wasn't second nature.
Finally it was time for the last test, stealth, and Naruto was getting slightly winded. The test being placed last made it more challenging, but Naruto controlled his breathing and prepared his supplies before launching into a ninja style of hide-and-seek.
At first he kept to the trees, landing lightly with chakra coated feet at every other branch. (taught by tree climbing) His path took wide and uneven turns, before he abruptly turned around and back tracked with great care. Seeing a good tree, he stopped and suppressed his chakra as much as possible. It had been five minutes, his trackers would be entering now.
Careful not to disturb to ground around him, Naruto molded himself against a straight tree before unrolling his disguise blanket from his pack. He'd made it himself for situations when he needed to hide in a hurry and it was covered with the most common bark, he was confident that only the most observant person, or skilled with chakra sensing would realize he wasn't part of the tree.
Of course, anyone approaching from the side would realize a tree is not lumpy, but that's why his path was fairly traceable up until then. Yes, it was a decent stealth attempt, but he knew they would catch on to the trail. And they would approach at the angle facing him in result. Naruto grinned, there was something about using the oldest and simplest trick in the book to fool people with...
Like he assumed, the first on his trail, Mizuki, passed him without a glance. The man kept following his first trail, and didn't notice an signs of him back tracking. Soon he was out of range, and probably about to be very frustrated. The other instructor, Sen, actually paused on the tree above him before seemingly passing it off and continued to trace his false trail.
It was Iruka that discovered him, however. The man only needed a second glance at the trail ahead before he glanced around in confusion. 'I'm guessing he can sense chakra well?' Which held true as the man, dropped down to the forest floor and actually grinned when he noticed Naruto's disguise.
"That's actually a neat trick," The man grinned. "Most students on these exercises overdo it and end up being more obvious than just laying in a pile of leaves."
Naruto grinned at the praise before heading back to the Hokage, while Iruka went on the retrieve Mizuki and Sen. He had just finished explaining how he had hid when Iruka returned with two very angry chunin. Anxiously he let the group have their space as they judged how well he had done on this portion. Suddenly Mizuki raised his voice in anger, loud enough to be heard in the crowd, "But he was discovered by Iruka with little effort!"
He grinned when the Hokage spoke just as loudly, with a stern tone as if he was chastising a child, "And what does that say of the other two chunin that passed him by without a second glance?" Mizuki flushed red in anger, but held his tongue. Sen was more adept at hiding his facial expressions, but it was obvious he didn't like the idea of a nine-year old getting one up on him.
The Hokage was approaching him now, and paused a few steps from the boy. "By scoring above the 90th percentile overall, it's my honor to welcome you to genin ranks." The Hokage handed him a shiny new hitai-ate, where Naruto promptly bowed and gave the old man a grin. He waved to the crowd, tied the hitai-ate to his forehead and took off from the academy grounds.
It was time to pack his things with much abuse of kagebushin.
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It was close to 4:00 when Naruto finished stripping his apartment of valuables. He didn't have much, but he also never left anything important in plain view, thus there was a lot of careful extraction from the walls and various trapped floorboards to deal with. To a large degree, he was going to leave the damaged furniture here, only bringing the essentials. The first couple of weeks would be uncomfortable, but sleeping on floors was nothing to a ninja who needed to be capable of sleeping in trees of all things!
It took an hour to make the sealing scrolls he needed as well. Again, he thanked Itachi, as the four scrolls he left him were invaluable. Obviously one was on storage seals, and knowledge of those were closely guarded! An academy student had no hope of learning them until they were genin, and that was only if the jounin was being generous! Students from a clan could probably learn them, but most kids wanted kick-ass techniques, not to learn seals that didn't seem usable in battle.
For Naruto, they were invaluable, but he didn't have an incredible degree of artistic ability. He had to put a lot of time into drawing the seals the correct way. Once they were done, though, using the storage scrolls was simple as hell.
He hesitated as he picked up the handwritten scrolls from Itachi. It bothered him that a man he viewed as saving his life and his dream.. had killed his own family. Family was something young Naruto had always desired and hoped for. Of course, around the time he left the orphanage he had given up on attaining it, but it still bothered him that someone would want to destroy what he had.
From reading the scrolls however, he understood a portion of Itachi's character. The man didn't seem to do anything without a reason. 'He had a reason for that, right?' Naruto desperately held onto that hope throughout the years.
With a sigh, he tucked the scrolls into his bag and took of to the Hokage Tower. It was time to appeal for a shinobi apartment.
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[Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.]
So how was this? The writing is unpolished and only received a once through. I'm not focusing on the quality of my writing here, I just need to get used to writing something again. But please, point out any errors you see, and I'll correct them.
Thank you for reading.