A.N: And so it begins! Let's hope this turns out better than my last attempt.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did, but meh.
"Rising Dragon Fist"
Chapter 1 "Intro/Discovery"
-
It seemed, at first glance, to be a rather average day in the world. To be specific, it was an average day within the Five Elemental Countries. Or more specifically, the Land of Fire. And just to be unreasonably particular, within Konohagakure no Sato.
The Village Hidden in the Leaf enjoyed it's usual hustle and bustle, including the usual sight of Genin going around doing D-Rank missions, pleasant shopkeepers doing business with equally pleasant customers, people doing chores, children playing, parents chasing, old women gossiping, and other such general activities. An average day to be sure.
On these usual days in Konoha, one could find it's local prankster and newly instated genin Uzumaki Naruto doing one of two things: doing said D-rank missions with the genin team he had recently been assigned to, Team 7, or training in the forests surrounding the ninja village.
Judging by the sea of blond hair and orange cloth writhing about as hundreds of the boy's shadow clones threw themselves into combat within the aforementioned forests, it was safe to say he was doing the latter. There was an unusual bit about this scene however.
The original sat in a tree not too far off to the side, watching his clones fight.
And if one didn't know better, one would say he was sulking.
And as fate would have it, that's exactly what he was doing. Under normal circumstances, the energetic genin wouldn't have hesitated to join in the mass training session with gusto and enthusiasm to spare, but it so happened that, contrary to his sunny personality, he truly felt like sulking on this particular day. And he firmly believed he had good reason.
As Naruto found was the usual over the course of the past few weeks, his lazy teacher couldn't be found to do what was so blatantly described in his jobs title: Teach. As such, Naruto was forced to turn to his own, admittedly, lacking methods.
Contrary to popular belief, Naruto was well aware that his fighting style was horribly flawed. Although he wouldn't have put it quite so... harshly, but the point remained. And try as he might on his own, he just couldn't make it any better without a proper teacher. Kakashi could never be found when it mattered, much to the blond genin's chagrin, and his favorite grandfather figure, the Sandaime Hokage was obviously busy doing Hokage duties. And for the big furry reason he recently found out was residing in his belly (The Kyuubi no Kitsune for the uninformed), nobody else worth their salt that he was aware of would give him the time of day.
Not that the list of ninja he knew worth their salt was particularly long, but that wasn't the point.
Even Naruto's gigantic levels of determination had their limits. And his had been reached. He wanted a proper teacher dammit! Or at least a good scroll or two! How the hell was he supposed to improve like this!?
Sighing resignedly, Naruto hopped down from his tree, his remaining clones dispelling with a pop. His thoughts had taken quite the sour turn, and watching his clones train just didn't hold any appeal at the moment.
He began wondering the forests, lost in his mopings, a rare sight to be sure. It was a truly deep session of moping, so deep that he walked the forests of Konoha for well over an hour.
And so it was somewhat forgivable that Naruto didn't notice the fact that eventually his feet had, at some point, decided to walk in the direction of a nearby cliff. A cliff leading to a rather steep drop to an expanse of forest some 80 feet down.
It was slightly less forgivable that he walked right off of it with a loud cry of surprise.
Now, Naruto was a ninja, despite appearances (yes, he was aware that orange wasn't a stealthy color, and no, he didn't give a damn, thank you very much), so the fact that he reacted fast enough to grab a tree root as his descent began was understandable. Naruto thanked his reflexes profusely, soon after turning his gratitude to the convenient tree root.
The tree root, if it could have, would have stuck it's tongue out at Naruto maliciously in response before breaking off with a snap. Or at least, that's how Naruto felt as his descent to the trees below began anew.
His screams of fear soon turned into squeals of pain as Naruto broke through the canopy, bouncing from branch to branch, tree to tree, before crashing head first through a wall of something. The resulting blackout was inevitable.
---
It was hours before Naruto's eyes even began to twitch. And he wouldn't have awakened for a few more hours had a stray moonbeam not landed directly in his eye. Lights to the eyes have a tendency to force one to wake up.
The genin sat up groggily, blinking forced sleep from his eyes. A moment later, when he tried to hop up to his feet, he immediately flinched and sat back down, the movement aggravating a multitude of bumps and bruises. Naruto settled for rubbing gingerly at his aching head.
It was quite a few minutes before he actually thought to take in his surroundings, and figure out just where he had landed.
Looking around cautiously, Naruto realized he had no idea where he was. He definitely didn't remember any buildings or houses in the forests around Konoha, and as far as he knew, he knew Konoha and it's forests like the back of his hand. Random cliff he had fallen off of excluded, of course.
"What the hell?" Naruto muttered aloud, eyes taking in whatever details he could make out in the dim light provided by the moon.
Whatever building he had landed in was definitely abandoned. There was dust layering every inch of the ground he could see, and cobwebs damn near everywhere.
Off to his right was sheer darkness as far as he could tell, and to his left was what appeared to be the exit, not to far from where he was.
Looking up, Naruto saw that there was a hole in the roof. One he had made upon entry, of that he was sure, and apparently the same hole that the moon was shining through. It briefly occurred to Naruto that he was incredibly lucky, even blessed to have survived a fall of the magnitude that he did. A thought brushed to the side as continued interest in his location came to the forefront.
Not a moment later, a loud whistling sound shrieked through the obviously old structure, and Naruto yelped, startled.
"Okay... I'm outta here. This place gives me the creeps..." He muttered quietly, before limping for the building's exit hastily. As he exited the doorway, there was a clatter as something hit the ground behind him and Naruto yelped again before taking off for Konoha proper at a run, pain be damned. He was back within Konoha and in his apartment what felt like mere moments later, breathing heavily as he leaned against his front door.
After a few moments, Naruto's face scrunched up, thoughts of embarrassment running through his mind as he realized just how silly he must have looked.
"Some ninja I am! Running from the wind. Feh!" He spat, a blush heating his cheeks.
To take his mind off of his percieved foolishness, Naruto re-read some of the few scrolls he did have regarding something to learn of any sort, but Naruto's night ended not too long after that, the bed calling to him. It was a call he had no problem heeding.
---
The next day, after completing yet another grueling morning of D-ranked missions, Naruto found himself back in the forest. But he wasn't training.
The entire day, thoughts of just what was inside of that old building he had crashed into had plagued him, and as soon as Kakashi had dismissed Team 7 for the day, Naruto had made for the forest as fast he could. Excitement raced through him as he considered the possibilities.
'Maybe it's some kind of mega weapon, or some long lost treasure!' Naruto mused, thoughts running wild with the fame and glory he'd gain from his discovery of some long lost tomb of a legendary ninja.
It was surprisingly easy for him to find the building again in the afternoon light. He had left quite a trail in his mad rush to escape the place. He briefly wondered exactly how he found his way back to Konoha so easily, but again, his interest in his discovery outweighed such thoughts, and Naruto quickly focused on the building.
Now that he could see the place in the sunlight, and wasn't running from it fearing for his life, he could see it was some kind of temple, overgrown with vines and definitely older than the hills.
'There's definitely something awesome in there!' Naruto thought, excitement climbing at a rapid rate.
Running to the temple's entrance, he saw a wooden rectangle on the floor in the doorway, one he hadn't noticed the night before. Curious, he picked it up carefully, musing that it was likely the thing that made that clattering noise the previous night. Wiping the dust off of it, he could faintly make out "Gorinji Temple" carved into it.
"I've never heard of any Gorinji Temple..." Naruto muttered, confused. There certainly wasn't any such place mentioned in any of the classes back in the academy... Not that he particularly paid attention during the history portions, but still.
Now fervently hoping he had found some long lost temple of legend, Naruto somewhat cautiously made his way deeper into the temple.
With the sunlight filtering through the place, he could see that it consisted of a rather large space with pillars lining both sides of the temple interior. At the back, he could see a doorway that lead to some back rooms.
Caution forgotten as the prospect of a find overtook him, Naruto immediately ran for the doorway to the back rooms, ending up in a hallway with three doors on eiher side, and a last, huge set of doors at the end.
Naruto began to check the side rooms, excitement dimming more and more as each room held nothing of importance. Nothing that hid any kind of secret treasure or anything. He did happen upon a white gi in surprisingly good condition that took his interest, but it wasn't his style at all, and it was too big for him anyway.
By the time he reached the large doors at the end of the hallway, his mood had dampened considerably, and it was with a sigh that he pushed open the large doors, taking no notice of the faint pulse of chakra that emitted upon the door's opening.
Once in the room, Naruto was overcome by a strange feeling. He didn't know how to describe it, but it was definitely strange... Almost as if he was being... 'Judged? No, that would be nuts...' He thought to himself.
He looked around the room, and immediately noticed first that there were torches lining the walls. Lit torches. The room was also devoid of dust, cobwebs, or other signs of disuse, although this didn't truly register to Naruto. The next thing he noticed was an altar of sorts against the far wall. His excitement returned full force, and he ran over to the altar.
Upon the altar, there was a long rectangular box, fairly nondescript.
Naruto wasted no time in opening it.
As soon as it opened, there was a flash of light, forcing Naruto to cover his eyes.
When nothing happened, he opened them slowly, somewhat afraid of what he'd see. He was a tad disappointed to find nothing but a ratty scroll inside the box, marked simply with...
"Ansatsuken..." Naruto muttered softly. "What the hell is that?"
With no regard for what the consequences might be, Naruto grabbed the scroll, and unrolled it somewhat quickly, again not noticing the faint pulse of chakra as the scroll was removed from it's housing. Luckily for the jinchuuriki, there didn't seem to be any consequences.
Naruto skimmed over the scroll briefly, eyes widening slowly as he took in it's contents.
"This. Is. AWESOME!" He said excitedly.
Without wasting another moment, Naruto plopped down, and began reading the scroll studiously. The scroll demanded every bit of his attention, and he was happy to devote every drop of it.
---
Despite appearances, Uchiha Sasuke did enjoy one thing other than brooding. It happened to be silence. And he enjoyed it very much. He was rather pleasantly surprised to find that due to the lack of a certain blond haired teammate of his showing up on time for roughly the third week in a row, the bridge that served as Team 7's meeting place was silent to the point of being peaceful. Serene even.
If this was going to happen every morning the dead last was late, Sasuke could learn to live with it.
The silence was powerful to be sure. So powerful, he doubted a voice of even Sakura's caliber could break it.
Uchiha Sasuke severely underestimated the vocal ability of his other teammate.
Unlike Sasuke, Haruno Sakura did not take well to not only having a late teacher, but a late teammate as well. No, it didn't sit well with her at all. And while under usual circumstamces, Sakura would greatly enjoy the time she had to herself with Sasuke, she had a breaking point.
The constant apparent laziness of both her teacher and Naruto was just too much for her. And she was so tired of not being able to say anything about it just because she was too nervous to say anything that would disturb or anger her crush. Said nervousness had finally been beaten down by pure rage, directed entirely towards the two missing members of her team.
Sasuke could almost hear the deep breath that Sakura sucked in just before her tirade began. It was like the calm before the storm.
The moment before Sasuke's beautiful silence could be shattered forever, Sakura's rant was cut of by a gloved hand taat clapped over her mouth, accompanied by a mild 'poof'. Sakura screamed, muffled by said gloved hand, and Sasuke turned a cautious eye to the hand's source, only to sigh as Kakashi waved back at him with a lazy "Yo."
Sakura whipped around, Kakashi's hand falling from her mouth and she stepped back, eyes wide. After a moment, the girl's eyes lit in recognition, and the fear in her eye quickly turned to righteous fury. She immediately took on the role of pink haired banshee with relish and a screech of "YOU'RE LATE!"
Kakashi held up a hand in a placating manner, and replied "Hey, hey. It's not my fault. As it happens, I had to save a little kid from a bunch of attacking nuke-nin. I couldn't just let him..." Kakashi trailed off as the glint in Sakura's eyes turned positively murderous, and with a defeated sigh, said "Fine. The truth is, a black cat crossed my path, and forced me to stumble onto the Path of Life." Kakashi said, his visible eye closing as he rather obviously smiled in a way tailored to irk his students.
A job accomplished beautifully, if the resulting cry of "LIAR!" was anything to go by.
Kakashi's smile only seemed to widen, leaving Sasuke amazed at just how expressive a single eye could be.
Kakashi clapped suddenly and said "Now that the pleasantries have been gotten out of the way, let's move on to important matters. First thing's first. Where's Naruto?"
Sasuke simply shrugged, and Sakura, still fuming, said "I don't know. You gave him your bad habits, Kakashi-sensei! He's even later than you now!"
Kakashi scratched the back of his head somewhat thoughtfully. despite the fact that Naruto had been late for days on end this particular week, this was the first time he'd actually arrived later than Kakashi himself. Resolving to find out what was going on later, Kakashi made to say something, only to be interrupted by the sound of a familiar loud voice shouting "Wait!" in the distance.
A look to the east revealed his wayward student running for all he was worth, minutes later coming to a stop at the bridge, breathing heavily.
Sakura took one look at Naruto and her fist flashed out, smashing into Naruto's head like the sledgehammer in disguise that it was. Kakashi cringed rather sympathetically as Sakura, swiftly flowing from one form of abuse to the next, screamed "You idiot! You have some nerve actually being later than Kakashi-sensei! Where the hell have you been!?!"
Naruto recovered fairly quickly for someone who had just forcefully faceplanted into an oak bridge, and hastily replied "I'm sorry Sakura-chan! I just overslept a bit. I guess I overdid the training last night..."
Sasuke wasn't paying attention to his blond teammate's explaination/attempt to appease his crush's wrath. He was a bit more concerned with Naruto's apparent change in wardrobe.
"What the hell are you wearing, dead last?"
"Eh?" Naruto glanced down at himself before regarding Sasuke with a wide, cocky grin. "Well, well, Bastard. It looks like you noticed my awesome new look!"
Naruto posed proudly, fists firmly planted on his hips and chest puffed out. He stood garbed in an orange karate gi with a loose blue t-shirt bearing a white print of the Konoha symbol under the uwagi, which was tied shut with a black obi bearing the FuRinKaZan kanji series. The sleeves of the uwagi had apparently been torn off, and the cuffs of the zubon were equally tattered. He wore brown combat gloves, also bearing the konoha symbol, basic blue ninja sandals, and had apparently had the faceplate of his hitae-ate sown into another, much longer, blue hachimaki. As the team took in his new look, Naruto turned around and posed once again, showing off the red spiral on the back of the uwagi. Arms crossed over his chest, Naruto looked back over his shoulder, grin considerably widened, and said "Oi! What do you guys think? Pretty cool, eh?"
Sasuke sneered, and said "You look like some kind of crappy manga reject."
Naruto gaped, and after a moment whipped around, finger pointing and mouth opening in preparation to retaliate just as Sakura continued "Yeah! Just who are you trying to impress with that get up, anyway?"
Naruto gaped a moment longer before hanging his head, muttering "You guys suck, you know that? It's not like you guys look loads better."
"What was that?!" Sakura ground out, eyebrow twitching and teeth bared menacingly.
"I-I mean, the Bas-Uh... Sasuke! I was talking about him! You look great a-as always, Sakura-chan!"
Kakashi watched on amused for a few minutes longer as Sakura predictably decided to take offense to the implication that the ever perfect Uchiha Sasuke didn't have equally perfect fashion sense, and, also predictably, retaliated violently.
He decided to step in just before Sakura did any serious damage, and said "Well kids, I believe we should get to business. Sakura, if you would be so kind as to allow Naruto to breath?"
Sakura seemed rather loathe to let go of Naruto's neck, but a raised eyebrow from Kakashi was enough to motivate her to give the blond genin a much needed chance to breathe. Despite her earlier shouting fit, Kakashi was still her teacher, and what he said, went.
As Naruto sucked in air like he had never had it before, Kakashi cleared his throat, and said "First order of business. I believe we have another rousing day of D-ranked missions ahead of us!"
The collective groan was music to Kakashi's ears. Even if he was secretly getting tired of the D-rank missions himself...
---
If looks could kill, then Sarutobi Hiruzen was sure that Tora the cat would have exploded a long time ago if the looks on the genin of Team 7's faces were anything to go by. Or at least on Naruto and Sasuke's faces.
The cat seemed to have taken a liking to Sakura, although that may have something to do with the fact that she was the only one of the three who didn't try to slaughter the thing (Really, the exploding tags were a bit much...), and had no problem giving it the affection she was sure it deserved.
Naruto and Sasuke firmly believed that the hellspawn deserved every bit of "affection" it received upon return to the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni's wife. Naruto in particular took great pleasure in watching the cat nearly suffocate as the Daimyo's wife profusely thanked Team 7 for their work, and stuck his tongue out at the cat as she left, Tora held firmly under one arm.
And he had good reason. The multiple claw and toothmarks across his arms and face, the rather large singed spot on his undershirt's sleeve, and the liberal amounts of twigs and leaves in his hair were small testaments to the insane hell he had gone through.
Sarutobi didn't even want to know where the twisted piece of steel the boy had dragged in behind him had come from, though it did look suspiciously like a beartrap of absurd size...
Clearing his throat gently as he signed the completion notice for yet another 'Tora the Cat Retrieval' mission and passed it to Iruka, the Sandaime Hokage smiled at the genin before him, and said "Well. I do believe that's another mission complete for Team 7. Now, I do believe I have another D-rank mission scroll here. One for the painting of the Yamanaka flower shop if i'm not mistaken. If you'll just give me a moment-"
"No."
There was a distinct silence as Iruka and Sakura turned wide eyed stares at Naruto, who's head was down, hair covering his eyes and so blocking most of his expression. When he raised his head, electric blue eyes blazing, he continued "No way! I'm so tired of these regular old chores! When the hell are we going to get to do real ninja work, Jiji?!?"
"Naruto! Show some respect! You can't speak to the Hokage that way!" Sakura hissed as she clapped her hands over Naruto's mouth to prevent any further ranting, just as Iruka began bellowing "Naruto, the D-Rank mission system is in place for a reason! You're part of a rookie genin team, you can't expect to go gallivanting off on high rank missions like they're some adventures to be taken at a whim! You're not experienced enough for higher missions yet!"
The distinct silence hadn't been gone long before it was dragged back by Sasuke's addition to the conversation. "The dead last is right. These menial chores are beneath us. It's about time we got something worth our time."
Iruka and Sakura both wore dumbstruck expressions.
Naruto took the opportunity to peel Sakura's hands off of his mouth and shout "See?! Even the Bastard agrees with me!"
Sarutobi chuckled, much to Iruka's surprise, and said " Truth be told, I'm surprised you two have lasted this long. You in particular, Naruto." He turned in his seat to face Sakura. "And you Sakura? How do you feel about taking a higher ranked mission?"
Sakura pointed to herself with a low squeak, and the Sandaime nodded. Blushing lightly, she replied 'Well... With all due respect Hokage-sama, even I'm a bit tired of doing these D-ranked missions. I wouldn't mind taking a higher ranked mission."
Sarutobi nodded, looking quite amused, and regarded Kakashi, a serious glint in his eyes. One the Jounin didn't miss.
"And what do you think, Kakashi?"
"I believe my team is more than ready for a C-ranked mission, Hokage-sama."
"Well then that's that." Sarutobi clapped, and reached for a scroll on his desk. "I have a perfect C-ranked mission for you right here. An escort mission to Wave Country."
Kakashi nodded, and said "Team 7 is ready, willing and able to accept this mission."
Naruto cheered even louder and began dancing around the room, Sasuke's smirk grew wider, and even Sakura grinned, although Inner Sakura may as well have been as enthusiastic as Naruto, shouts of 'Hell Yeah!' resounding through the pink-haired girl's head.
Sarutobi nodded at Iruka, who got up with a sigh and left the room. A few moments later, Iruka returned, an older man trailing in behind him. His cloths were simple, he was rather out of shape, and the stench of alcahol hugged him like a family member.
"Are these the people guarding me?! They're a bunch of runts! They don't look like anything special at all! Especially the shrimpy one in the orange. He looks like a light breeze would send him flying!"
Once again, Sarutobi mused about the possibilities of death by intense glaring, especially since all three genin were glaring at the old drunkard at once.
Kakashi glanced lazily at the man over the cover of his book (Sarutobi privately wondered when he had pulled it out.), and said "Don't worry. My students may be young, but they're more than capable. And besides, I'm an elite jounin. Anything they can't handle... Well, that's why I'll be there."
"Wait a damn second! Who the hell is this old drunk guy, and why is he here?!" Naruto hollered.
"Hey you watch yer damn tone, ya brat! You should respect your elders!"
"You'll get some respect when you earn some, you old drunk!"
Sarutobi rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on, and said "Team 7, meet your client."
The man cut off his bickering with Naruto to point to himself dramatically, and shout "Tazuna! The Super Bridge Builder!"
The silence was deafening.
And so begins the mission to Wave Country. R&R as you like. I appreciate criticism just as much as I enjoy praise, so feel free to say what you like.