Boom!
A cloud of dense smoke surrounded him as Naruto Uzumaki dropped his Sexy Jutsu and stared at the downed figure of the Hokage and the blood pooling around his prostate form.
He couldn't believe it.
After all, the Hokage was the strongest and the most powerful ninja in Konoha. Perhaps the World itself. He pumped his fist, grinning madly, I am Awesome!
He cackled as he picked up the gigantic Forbidden Scroll and slung it over his back with a surprised grunt at its weight. This was a lot easier than he had ever expected. Well it just goes to show, I am The Future Hokage after all! And promptly tripped and landed on the floor with a thump.
"Ow!" Naruto cursed as he levered himself up. He glared at the floor and saw the loose tile. Swearing, he kicked it and stared as he saw a hidden compartment underneath the tile. His irritation forgotten, he peered into it and pulled out a dusty old scroll.
Hmmm, he quickly glanced around and then shrugged and tucked it into his jacket. Nobody going to miss this, maybe it has some cool jutsus on it! If nothing else, I have some scrap paper to doodle on! Having been left to fend for himself, Naruto had become rather adept at scrimping and recycling things. Leaving a perfectly good unused scroll lying around was practically a crime in his eyes! Ooops, better get going if I'm going to meet Mizuki Sensei!
Naruto sighed as he stared down at the battered protective metal plate. It was almost worthless and oh so priceless at the same time. Materially, it was nothing but a strip of dyed cloth and a plate of engraved metal but it was nothing less than the proof of years of blood, sweat, and tears.
The triumph that he was on his way. That he was finally a ninja. And even more priceless was that it had been given to him by Iruka Sensei.
Out a mere whim, Iruka had affixed his own headband to demonstrate that Naruto had indeed graduated into the ranks of the shinobi. Afterwards at Ichiraku's, he had offered to give Naruto a brand new one but Naruto had refused it claiming that he much preferred Iruka's old one. He grinned as he reverently placed the scuffed and worn headband on his dresser and began pulling off his other clothes.
Thump!
Huh? He looked down and saw the old scroll rolling on the floor. Oh right, that scroll I found hidden in that secret compartment! I picked up it and stuffed it into my jacket. I had totally forgotten about it!
Naruto shrugged and put it aside. I'll look at it later, he promised himself as he got ready for bed. Can't be as important as finding out that I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune!
It was only later that he would realize just how wrong he was.
Naruto: The Heroic Sage
Chapter 1:
The Great Summoning Scroll
One Week Later…
This sucked, Naruto decided. He was pretty much being ignored by his two teammates and waiting for his tardy Jounin instructor. He cursed again for the umpteenth time. Where was this guy anyways? The other Genins and their Jounins had left over an hour ago!
He sighed and patted himself down and suddenly found that old scroll that he had picked up that night in the Hokage Tower. He had absent minded tucked into his pocket when he had been getting dressed this morning. Well, why not? I got time to kill. He snapped it open and unrolled it, scanning the parchment.
Sakura sighed as she turned away from her latest attempt to engage her crush into a discussion and been pretty much totally ignored. It was suppose to be better than this, she thought to herself.
I was suppose to have the inside track, after all I was assigned to Sasuke's Genin Cell! For that, she could endure even being assigned Naruto as a teammate.
Speaking of which, she glanced around and saw the orange jumpsuit wearing boy actually sitting in his seat quietly and reading a scroll.
Huh. That was a bit of a surprise. I didn't know that Naruto could even read. Oh well, as long as he's quiet and not bothering me.
Sasuke was busy fantasizing killing Itachi. Currently, he had his brother blubbering and on his knees while begging Sasuke for mercy. He rubbed his forehead with a sigh.
The entire fantasy was too surrealistic to believe though. The entire scene was too fake, too staged. Like watching a very bad actor trying to ham his way through the scene … and failing badly. Even the Sasuke and Itachi figures were faded and washed out. It was like imagining the Kyuubi no Kitsune wagging its tails and begging to be petted, acting like one of the Inuzuka's harmless puppies and not as the most destructive force of nature ever seen.
Basically Not-Happening-In-This-Reality.
I have to get stronger. Strong enough to defeat Itachi! I have to!
The more that Naruto read, the more and more he was awed. If he was reading this right, then this scroll was written by none other than the Nidaime Hokage himself!
Wow! He thought gleefully. I hit the jackpot! He fought the urge to hug the scroll to his chest and do a little dance and continued to pore over the writing.
The Nidaime had been attempting to recreate one of the Great Summoning Scrolls that had been lost years ago. Naruto actually knew quite a bit about Summons. After all, his personal hero, the Yondaime had used such a Summoning Scroll to call upon the Great Toad Boss to help battle the Kyuubi no Kitsune.
But apparently something had gone wrong and the Nidaime had immediately sealed the Summons Scroll and proclaimed that unless the situation was absolutely dire, (a word that Naruto remembered Iruka Sensei had used to describe the Kyuubi no Kitsune attack) it was never to be used again. It seems that aside from the danger of employing this technique, it also required massive chakra reserves that most ninjas didn't even possess. It had nearly killed the Nidaime when he first tried to use it.
Naruto cocked his head and thought. He had massive chakra reserves … and hell, he had the Kyuubi no Kitsune stuck in his gut. So what was a little danger after all?
Should he or shouldn't he? Naruto debated to himself.
Wait.
This was some sort of Super-Secret Totally Awesome Forbidden Technique that scared a Kage! Oh, yeah! He was so trying it!
Hatake Kakashi giggled as he looked at the faces of his future flunkees. Their expressions when I told them about the 66 percent failure rate was just too… he blinked as he saw the almost delighted, feral leer on the blonde's face.
Well, well, Kakashi thought to himself as he eyed the Jiinchuriki. At least one of them seems to have some guts. Not that he was totally shocked.
After all, Naruto was Minato Sensei's son. Even though the boy hadn't exactly shown himself as the most stellar of students in the Academy, Kakashi had heard all about his defeat of a Chunin and learning a Forbidden Technique in just a couple of hours? That was impressive. Even if the team failed outright tomorrow, he knew that Jiraiya and the Hokage had plans for the Toad Sage to take the boy on as an apprentice. Privately of course, without the Village Council finding out about it because they would throw a hissy-fit otherwise.
But Sarutobi and Jiraiya wanted Naruto to get a little seasoning first. But that was highly unlikely since he seriously doubted that they would even manage to come close to passing the Bell Test. Simply put, the team dynamics of this particular grouping sucked. Hell, the only way this bunch could possibly be even worse was if they was trying to assassinate each other.
Ah well, at least I get some free entertainment for tomorrow…
Naruto bit his thumb and watched as blood began to ooze freely from the self-inflicted wound. He quickly smeared his bleeding thumb over several of the symbols written on the scroll and made a hand seal. "KAI!" he yelled.
The symbols reacted, radiating brilliant white light and the entire scroll began rippling like water as a much larger scroll, roughly the size of the Forbidden Scroll began to emerge from within the parchment of the original scroll. Naruto seized it and yanked it free. Once the Great Summoning Scroll was removed from the storage scroll, it self-combusted and turned into a smoking pile of ashes.
Naruto ignored the sight, laughing as he hefted the Summoning Scroll over his head triumphantly. "Woohoo!" he cried out. Quickly he set it down and after clearing the floor of some of his junk, he eagerly began to unroll it. "66 percent failure rate my ass! With this super jutsu, Kakashi Sensei will be begging to train me! And I'll be Hokage in no time!"
Let's see… he studied the instructions. Basically, he had to write his name in blood on the contract and then do a few hand signs while focusing his chakra. Huh? Was that it? Naruto scratched his head and checked the back of the scroll to make sure there wasn't some notes he might have missed. Nothing. Well, geez was that all? He had expected some sort of extraordinarily difficult ritual or absurdly lengthy quest or something!
This was so stupidly simple, even he could do this without screwing it up!
Naruto proudly gazed down at his signature scrawled in his own blood that boldly proclaimed his identity as the newest Contract Summoner.
Anyone else would have proclaimed that someone had profusely bled all over the paper with all of the blood splatters and smearing.
He wrapped the scroll up and set it aside. He cracked his knuckles and began gathering his chakra. Let's see now… Naruto began running through the hand signs in his mind. It was Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and Ram. Once he felt his chakra hit its peak he flashed through the signs and slammed his hands down onto the floor. A gigantic illuminated seal formed beneath him.
It's working! Naruto grinned. IT'S WORKING!
Wait a second, wasn't the Toad Boss something like a couple of hundred of feet tall? And my apartment was … considerably smaller. He flicked his eyes to the ceiling that sometimes made him feel claustrophobic. Uh oh.
BOOM!
Naruto coughed as the smoke cloud tried to choke him. He squinted, trying to peer and see just what had materialized. Since his room hadn't been destroyed, he guessed the Summons wasn't too big—the smoke cleared and Naruto blink blinked at seeing a kid his own age standing there with a confused look on his face. "Oooh. Cool outfit!" Naruto said happily. The kid was dressed in bright garish colors of red and green but he also wore a mask. And boasted a canary yellow cape. Hmmm, maybe I should wear a cape too, Naruto thought to himself, I'd look so cool!
Dick Grayson aka Robin the Boy Wonder scratched his head and stared at the cackling blonde boy with distinctive markings on his cheeks that resembled whiskers and dressed in eye catching orange so bright that it was almost fluorescent. "Where am I?" he asked confusedly in English.
Naruto refocused upon hearing his Summons speak gibberish. "What did you say?" he asked bewildered.
Dick frowned. Fortunately Japanese had been a language that Bruce had been teaching him. Among other things. He asked haltingly, "Where … I … am?"
Naruto beamed. "Konoha! The best Hidden Village in the world! And I'm Naruto Uzumaki! And soon to be Hokage!"
Dick scowled, desperately trying to keep up with the rapid fire speech. He understood most of it or thought he did anyways. The little motormouth kept babbling on and he tried to keep track on the stream of conversation.
"…so what sort of cool powers do you have as my Summons? Can you fly? Shoot chakra beams from your eyes? Oooh! Oooh! Can you walk through shadows or something?"
Irritated, Dick decided to cut him off. "Nothing."
"Huh?"
"I have no powers."
The kid looked stricken. "No powers? No way! You scared the Nidaime! The Nidaime!"
"Sorry," Dick said blandly, not really meaning it and wondering just what the kid was prattling on about now.
The blonde, Naruto (if Dick got his name right), scrunched up his face in deep thought, folding his arms across his chest. "I got cheated!" he yelled, pouting. "This was supposed to be some Super Summoning Scroll!" he kicked the offending object angrily.
Dick sighed. He wasn't completely sure but the gist of it was that Blondie was some sort of aspiring magician trainee who accidentally teleported Dick here and was complaining because it seemed that Dick was not what he had been expecting. "Can you send me back?" he asked, wondering if maybe he shouldn't rely on this kid. Considering that Blondie had been aiming for someone like Superman and gotten him instead, Dick had major doubts about his competence. God only knew where he might end up. He wondered if Batman ever had days like this.
Naruto blink blinked, interrupted in mid-rant. "Er … back?" he repeated dumbly.
Dick buried his face into his hands. "Swell."
A/N: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and definitely not me. Robin belongs to DC Comics, also not me by the way.
This particular bit of fiction was partially inspired by two separate fanfictions; "The Many Minds of Namikaze Naruto" by HawkSilverstep and "The Storybook Summoner" by Blood Brandy. I liked them so much that I felt obligated to write my own. And if you liked this, you might be interested in them as well.
Much thanks also goes out to Arthur Hansen, my pre-reader who convinced me to utilize Robin in place of the character I originally had planned. I realized that his suggestion made much more sense and made for a much better storyline.
12/2/10 Addition: I have just added my first poll! Due to Blood Brandy's inquiry, I am taking votes on just which version of Robin you believe should star in this story. The standard DC comics version or the 'anime' one from the Teen Titans cartoon series? I make no promises which one I will use, I'm mainly curious what my readers think and I've been wanting to try out that poll feature. So vote and let me know what you think.