JJ: Hey everybody! This is going to be my first Naruto fic as I normally write DBZ ones but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. Basically this is going to be the story of Naruto as a Jonin and leading up to his time as Kage but it's also going to focus on his team and their growth as ninja. Updates may be slow at first as I'm still designing most of the characters but it will come in time. To keep consistency I'm actually keeping a separate word file with all the lore and techniques and traits of each character and events in the story which will be a pain but it'll be worth it in the end. I'll explain more as we go but here's the first chapter….after the disclaimer of course
Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan based fan-fiction, Naruto and Naruto Shippuden do not belong to me in any way, shape or form and are being used purely for entertainment purposes. All rights of the characters and Naruto Universe go to Masashi Kishimoto with the only exception being the characters I myself created.
Chapter 1: New Team Part 1, enter Seishin Arashi
The day was a beautifully bright day. The sun was shining over the village hidden in the leaves and the people of this village, citizen and villager alike, bustled about the marketplace. The sun was bright and warm but the breeze was a cool wind, caressing the people and tousling their hair. Life was good.
It had been almost 3 years since the end of the 4th Great Ninja War. The hero of Konoha had, along with the help of the last surviving Uchiha, defeated Madara, converted Obito and even defeated the goddess Kaguya. Afterwards Naruto and Sasuke engaged in an epic battle that would be told of for the rest of eternity.
*Flashback*
The Valley of the End lay wasted. The sides of the mountains were torn to pieces; the land was pockmarked with craters ranging from the size of a small car to a large house. The water from the waterfall had been splashed every which way by the battle and seeped into some of the craters, forming small pools of water. Crevices lined the battlefield and the land was cracked all over with deep fissures running underneath the ground. At either side of the battlefield, upon the two statues of the original founders of Konoha stood two young men, beaten and battered by their battle. Atop the statue of the first Hokage of Konoha stood a boy with wild, spiky Blonde hair, orange slacks and a Black T-shirt no longer hidden beneath his jacket as the zipper had been torn at some point during the fight. It now hung open and was missing an entire sleeve. His entire outfit was covered in small tears and rips as the boy himself was. Atop the statue of Konoha's most dangerous foe of all time stood a boy with raven hair that spiked out at the back and several bangs littered his forehead. He wore a grey, zip-up T-shirt with an extremely high collar open at the front exposing his bruised and cut collarbone. His Black ninja slacks were held up by a strange, thick purple cord.
Both figures were panting from exertion and were completely burned out of chakra from their long battle.
"SASUKEEE!" the Blonde figure bellowed leaping off the statue despite the protest of his burning and sore muscles.
"NARUTOOO!" the Black-haired figure screamed in return, throwing himself towards his air-borne rival.
The two collided in mid-air with a flurry of Taijutsu attacks. Naruto threw his head to the side as the pale, white fist of his enemy passed by his ear. Naruto formed a clone and Sasuke watched in anticipation as the clone grabbed the shoulders of the original and did one spin, tossing Naruto at Sasuke, poofing away. Naruto hit Sasuke full on in the gut and the two tumbled down through the air. Simultaneously they regained their composure in mid-air and landed on the ground. Naruto immediately ducked a barrage of 6 shuriken as his hair waved slightly from the force of them passing over him. While low he drew a kunai and sprung forward holding the deadly tool in reverse grip. Sasuke side-stepped an upward slash aimed at his face to the side of the offending arm so as to remove himself from the range of the free hand. The genius threw his right knee at his opponent's exposed stomach. Naruto took his free hand across his chest and stopped the knee, continuing to use the knee as a springboard as he pushed away, soaring higher. Naruto somersaulted so that he was upside down and facing Sasuke's side as the Uchiha lowered his knee.
For a moment everything seemed to continue in slow motion as Sasuke reached for his weapons pouch. Naruto tossed his still-gripped kunai at Sasuke's weapons pouch before righting himself and hoped he landed on the ground in time, lest he become easy target practice. Sasuke saw the approaching weapon and was forced to backflip away from the weapon. But while he was in the air Naruto had landed and used a quick burst of the Kyuubi's still recovering chakra to activate his bijuu state and shot forward using his insane speed to reach Sasuke inches above the ground and punched him in the chest. Sasuke went soaring and Naruto's golden chakra immediately dissipated while he still had his momentum going causing him to go soaring out of control right after his self-proclaimed brother. The two hit the ground and bounced once or twice before sliding to a stop.
And though Naruto was now utterly drained of every last drop of chakra he could muster and he was in intense pain. He knew that Sasuke was completely unprepared for that punch and it had probably broken most of the bones in his torso. He had won. The victor picked himself up and immediately noticed that his arm was dislocated at the shoulder.
"I must have landed on my shoulder in that tumble…" he noted mentally clutching at the limp arm and looking at it with disdain and irritation before forcing himself over to his friend-turned-enemy.
Naruto arrived in front of Sasuke and looked down at him with guilt. Sasuke was laying there clutching at his chest with his face twisted into a grimace that gave implications of untold agony as he coughed up blood and gasped. Finally the Uchiha seemed to get his coughing under control and steadied his breathing to heavy, raspy intakes. He opened his eyes and looked up at his friend and couldn't believe it. The idiot had beaten him, the last Uchiha was beaten by the dead-last nobody who couldn't even throw kunai straight in the academy. The two stared at each other in complete silence for a few minutes before Sasuke began to grow impatient
"What are you waiting for loser!? You beat me, and you have the chance to rid the world of my darkness forever! Isn't this what you wanted!? You will finally become Hokage!" Sasuke growled out in frustration, quite honestly wanting him to kill him and end his pain already. It was insanely painful to breathe and Sasuke knew he was badly hurt. His bone fragments had probably pierced his lung somewhere or another of his organs.
But at his words Naruto's expression simply darkened and he frowned, "That's NOT what I want Sasuke and you KNOW it!" he shot back in anger, "All I ever wanted was to be your friend Sasuke! To be LIKE you! To help you!" he told his opponent boldly, frustration gleaming in his blue eyes. "I would give up any chance I had of becoming a Hokage for us to just go back to being friends!" Naruto shouted at him in finality.
Sasuke's eyes widened at this. How could Naruto still, after all this, want nothing more than his friendship? What had Sasuke ever done that was good enough to earn him someone as devoted to him as Naruto was? All his life Sasuke had only sought revenge, power and other self-destructive paths in life. But here this guy was, finally with the chance to save the world, guarantee his title as Hokage, be branded a hero among the villagers and pay Sasuke himself back for all the pain he had caused the village in his leaving. And he turned it all away for nothing more than the simplicity of their childhood friendship. Maybe…..just maybe…Sasuke could allow himself to be helped just this once….to see how it felt to be cared for and to have someone by his side who would follow him anywhere…..just to see if he liked it….
Sasuke smirked at the thought and opened his eyes to see Naruto standing over him with his own small grin. "Tch, what are you smiling about you bastard? Didn't you just get your ass handed to you?" Naruto asked him half-jokingly. An expression of annoyance flashed across Sasuke's face for a moment and he opened his mouth to protest but instead found himself smiling, truly smiling.
Flashback end
In the end the two shinobi went back to the village as best friends once again and while Naruto's decision to spare Sasuke was looked down upon by the villager council and the Fire Daimyo. The ninja alliance backed him up and assured them it was the right choice and that Naruto knew what he was doing.
Almost three years on the village was flourishing and the economy was in a great state. The hidden villages all remained a united alliance for the time being until the Kage's were ready to go for another meeting at the summit to end the alliance…on paper at least. They would not at all if not for the Daimyo's being extremely insistent on ending this shinobi force. The villages would remain at peace and allies but the Daimyos' request was to end this "one allied force" business and split the villages back up again. Of course the Kages' reasoning for not doing so yet was that if they were to go now, with Kakashi as acting Hokage for the time being. In a little over one more year when Naruto was ready to take his place as Hokage they would have to hold another "Five Kage Summit Meeting" and due to the time and effort it takes to make these meetings happen officially meant that they could save a lot of time and effort if they simply waited to do both meetings in one.
The Daimyo's didn't like this at ALL but could not argue with the logic being presented to them. And so that brings us to the marketplace of Konoha as citizen and ninja alike purchase their various goods, groceries and equipment. Naruto Uzumaki was currently strolling towards Ichiraku's where he was supposed to be meeting his old team as they did every few days. Naruto in the three years had grown considerably and now much more closely resembled his father, but with a wider jaw, bigger eyes and his hair still wasn't quite so long as the Fourth's had been and he stood about an inch taller than Kakashi. He wore the same Black Jonin attire (complete with fingerless gloves sporting the Leaf symbol on a small metal plate, and black ninja shoes) and Grey flak jacket as most Jonin however a deep Orange streak ran on both sides from the side of his sleeves up the side of his arm, over his shoulder and disappeared into his jacket, while on each pant leg another Orange streak ran up the side of his pant leg. The jacket hung open and revealed that all 4 Orange streaks met at an Orange Uzumaki clan swirl in the center of his chest that was about half a foot in diameter. After the war he had been promoted to Jonin without taking the exam simply because he was easily the strongest shinobi in the village and possibly the entire world at this point. Naruto pushed back the curtains as he entered the little stand and saw that everyone was already there.
"Tch, about time idiot" Sasuke muttered after spinning on his stool to face his blonde friend. Sasuke seemed to have done most of his maturing during the war however as his face looked mostly the same as then only without any baby fat remaining, making his jaw more defined. He also wore the classic Jonin attire but with the Uchiha clan symbol stitched on one shoulder and the Konoha police force symbol on the other. He was Kakashi's height
Sasuke had restarted the police force one year ago with permission from Kakashi. And it had flourished with many ninja rushing to join it, men and women alike.
"Uh…sorry guys, I slept in a bit" Naruto explained, smiling apologetically. In truth Naruto had been reading into some old scrolls looking for pointers or inspiration for a new jutsu. But he wasn't about to tell them that.
"Honestly Naruto you haven't changed a bit" Sakura reprimanded him, with a slightly annoyed tone. Sakura had definitely matured since their days as Genin and Chuunin. She was taller, however with Naruto's and Sasuke's growth she was still about a head shorter than Naruto. Her hair had grown to about shoulder-length and she wore a long sleeved version of the red vest with white trim she had as a child, with a flak jacket over the top, completing the outfit with tight black shorts that reached halfway down her thigh. She had the standard black ninja shoes and her own black gloves. Her headband, like her teammates', had the cloth replaced with black cloth.
Off to the side of them Kakashi simply sighed, smiling at his pupils, "Now now Sakura, I'm sure Naruto didn't mean it" he told her, trying to diffuse the situation before it became an argument. However Kakashi knew that his student wasn't being truthful. "So it's a new jutsu then huh? I'll ask him about it later" Kakashi thought to himself. Kakashi was exactly the same as he has always been as technically he was only a stand-in Hokage and refused to officially take the position. The original Hokage guard platoon had retired since Tsunade had and Kakashi's 3 students had taken their place as the stand-in Hokage guard platoon.
2 hours later
The quartet was now in Kakashi's apartment in the Hokage tower talking to each other. The three had just finished catching up about their lives as of late and a moment of silence passed. Kakashi looked deep in thought about something for a moment. Finally deciding to bring it up, Kakashi looked up and made eye contact with Naruto.
"Naruto….I want you to take on a Genin team" Kakashi told his student.
Naruto's eyes widened and he seemed dumbfounded, "Eh? A Genin team?" the future Hokage asked his sensei, to which Kakashi nodded.
"Naruto both Sasuke and Sakura have taken and raised at least one team and raised them to Chuunin. Sakura even STILL has her team and completes missions with them from time-to-time. I think you should do it" Kakashi told the blonde boy.
"I understand why you're asking me this Kakashi-sensei, and it's not that I don't want to but I don't think I'd be a very good teacher" Naruto lamented a little bit sadly, "I'm kind of an idiot and I wouldn't know the first thing about teaching students" he further explained to his former teacher.
"Naruto, since the war you've matured quite well. You may act a little hot-headed every now-and-then but you have proven time and time again that you are every bit the fighting genius your father was. And we BOTH know that you know quite a bit about teaching people. After all, you did teach the whole village that you were a great ninja, you taught Sasuke the value of friendship, you taught Obito to keep faith in people, and you have taught countless other people in your career. There is no-one MORE qualified to teach this special team than you" Kakashi told his student, meaning every word of it. To be honest, Kakashi considered Naruto his greatest accomplishment. Though, Jiraiya did teach him a large portion of what he knew Kakashi took pride in knowing he helped raise a boy who could possibly become the strongest ninja of all time.
Naruto's eye widened at Kakashi's words but then he realized something, "Wait special team? You want me specifically for this team?" Naruto asked already catching on to what was going on. Naruto wondered who these Genin were for Kakashi to ask for him to teach them. At receiving a nod from Kakashi in regards to his question Naruto agreed.
"Here are their files. Come with me tomorrow morning to watch them to get a good idea of their character and personality and when the time comes I'll take you personally to meet them" Kakashi told him with one of his eye-smiles, handing him the documents.
Naruto took the files and nodded, smiling brightly. He was going to have some students soon.
The next morning
Naruto woke up at 6am and stood up out of bed and began walking to his kitchen and began making breakfast without even batting an eye at or looking at Kakashi who was reading his book leaned back in a chair. Half an hour later Naruto and Kakashi left the apartment and began their walk towards the academy in the early morning sun. "So who are we looking at first?" Naruto asked his old mentor.
"We'll be taking a look at my personal favorite first. Seishin Arashi" Kakashi told him to which Naruto's eyebrows scrunched up in thought for a moment as he tried to recall the files that he had committed to memory.
"Ah! That was the Raiton kid right?" Naruto asked Kakashi, receiving a nod in response Naruto continued. "Yeah I remember him. He's from the same clan as Darui, Samui and B right?" the blonde ninja asked for confirmation, once again receiving a nod.
"That's the one. It's nice to see another Raiton user around here" Kakashi commented, "I was starting to feel like the only one" he joked to his student earning him a chuckle.
"Is that really good then sensei? You're less unique now right? This kid's gonna steal your spotlight" Naruto jabbed at the white-haired man, who slumped his shoulders in response.
"You're so cruel, what have I ever done to deserve this treatment. I'm technically Hokage you know, you should show some respect" Kakashi whined, only half serious.
The two arrived at the academy gates and Kakashi turned to his student and looked at him. "Yeah yeah I know sensei can't let them see us" Naruto told him crossing his arms and rolling his arms. The two ninja shot up into the trees overlooking the training grounds.
"Looks like we got here just in time, that's him there about to fight" Kakashi informed, gesturing his chin at a boy stepping into the sparring circle.
At his gesture Naruto immediately saw him. His dark skin stood out from all the other kids, as Naruto immediately put it to his clan, remembering how B, A, Samui, Darui and all the others seemed to share that trait. However this Seishin didn't seem to have the same white hair the other's had. He had short black hair that spiked backward away from his face except for two bangs of hair hanging over his forehead protector, not passing halfway down the metal plate with the Konohagakure symbol. He had a grey coat with a long tail reaching down to the back of his knees. It opened at the bottom and front, allowing movement of his legs. The coat was also open at the top exposing his collarbone and a mesh shirt underneath. It had a high collar, reaching his jaw and had one long sleeve that had a tied at his wrist, with a little bit of extra material hanging over his hand covering up to his knuckles. Oddly enough his weapons pouch was tied to this arm, just below his shoulder on his triceps. The other sleeve was T-shirt length showing an arm with a surprising amount of muscle for someone his age.
"That's right they all seemed to take pride in their physical strength in that bunch" Naruto thought to himself.
The kid had blue Ninja shoes and black ninja pants. Naruto then noticed on the back of his coat, in the center of his back, was a symbol that looked like a squared letter 'W' which Naruto quickly recognized as part of the kanji for storm. Underneath the Kanji a half circle curved around and up the sides, each end of the half-circle was two pronged and at the base of the half-circle another crescent shape seemed to be formed facing down and away from the kanji (All these symbols and even the appearances of some characters will be drawn and put on my profile or something in the near future).
Naruto watched as he engaged in Taijutsu practice with another student while Kakashi explained the situation.
*Block, duck, punch, punch, kick, dodge, jump* "This boy was transferred here from Kumo and we gave Kumo a few Sarutobi's as part of our alliance agreements. He's new to this village" Kakashi explained as Seishin ducked a spinning kick and threw an upper cut into the passing leg, knocking the other kid off balance before leaping up from his ducked position and drop kicking him with both legs in the side, knocking the kid out the ring.
"He has a brutal, to-the-point, fighting style" Naruto commented, "It utilizes his strength over the other kids" the blonde continued. Naruto thought back to the other parts of the file about Seishin, remembering something about a possible kekkei genkai and his other test scores since arriving here. "I can see why you want me to teach him. You think that me being who I am will influence him even more and may give him a better chance to unlock his kekkei genkai" Naruto said matter-of-factly.
"I don't think, I KNOW you can do it. If he has that Kekkei Genkai, you'll bring it out. Besides, such a promising student needs a good teacher" Kakashi elaborated.
"He seems good" Naruto agreed with a nod, "But I'm still not sure about this whole-"
But Naruto was cut off when the boy's next opponent was proving too fast for him. Seishin was getting beat down by this faster, older, bigger student who was winning due to his ability to avoid every attack with his superior speed. But what stopped Naruto's train of thought was when Seishin looked like he was about to lose he reached into his shoulder-mounted weapons pouch, drew a kunai and channeled a small amount of lightning chakra into it, causing it to spark with electricity.
Naruto watched as Seishin generated a shadow clone and sent it to run to his opponent's right while he ran left. His clone jumped over the boy's head staring at a tree behind the older boy. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as the boy realized the clone wasn't after him and was probably just a distraction. He looked down to see Seishin in front of him with his kunai flying at him. The boy leaped backwards away from the kunai feeling triumphant that he had escaped the boys plan. He felt the kunai pass by where he was. The clone caught the kunai the real Seishin threw and along with his kunai threw them to the left and right of the opponent. The boy felt his back hit the trunk of the tree as Seishin kept coming at him with his fist cocked back.
The boy's first reaction was to go up but the clone was above him coming down with an axe kick. He looked left and right and saw the kunai coming down and knew that even if they didn't hit him directly the lightning would jump to his body because he was a conductor, and he knew his speed and knew that the kunai would pass within at least a foot of him if he tried to beat them away from the boy. He couldn't go left, right, up, back or forward and he certainly couldn't go down. Crap he had been set up! The boy instead moved to guard himself but Seishin saw his arms rising to both block his clone's kick and catch his punch.
"Raiton! Rakurai!" Seishin screamed as lightning chakra enhanced the speed of his punch, something the boy wasn't ready for and Seishin hit his opponent in his chest before the blocking hand made it up which threw him back but the boy's motion was immediately stopped by the tree. It wasn't enough to knock him out but it was enough to stun him and the clone's axe kick came down on the back of his neck hard. Sending him face first into the ground and knocking him out cold. Seishin stood triumphantly in front of the boy, panting but smiling all the same. "*Pant…pant* Gotcha *Pant….*" Seishin said to himself.
Naruto watched with his mouth wide open and his eyes wide. This kid had just trapped his opponent on all bases with PERFECT timing! Well, perfect for his age. He had set it up so that his clone would be in the right place with the kunai to be thrown at the right time so that the boy had no-where to go. If Naruto himself were to train this kid….Naruto's head snapped to Kakashi who was simply giving him one of his eye smiles.
"He's good huh?" Kakashi asked his student knowingly.
"I'll take him" Naruto replied quickly without another word.
JJ: That's chapter 1 people! Did you enjoy it? Next chapter is the next student and depending on how it plays out it might be considerably shorter as it's just a character introduction unlike this which was an orientation AND character introduction. However after the team is introduced all the chapters should be about this length if not longer than this. I dunno I don't really have a set word limit I just kinda end it where I feel makes most sense to end it. I once had a chapter on one of my stories that was like 21 000 words. Anyway till next time!
