Uzumaki Naruto: Pressure
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (or many things, such as a Mk-41) in any way, and write for amusement, not profit.
Edit 23.4.07 – mostly spelling errors.
Good day, this happens to be the first fanfiction article that I have wrote, so go easy if you would be so kind (all replies are welcome, but as they say constructive criticism helps me write better, which is hopefully a desired thing). I am not religious, nor do I harbour a copious amount of tolerance, any insulting text I ask you to please ignore, as the product of inconsiderate, ignorant work. Eh for a summary, starts as Naruto being two years behind the anime start, say ten and highlights all the reasons I can think of for Naruto to go slightly insane. He shall not be evil, simply 'damaged goods: open with care'. I am not particularly fluent in any language, so forgiveness please for the inevitable spelling and grammatical errors. As for pairings, The author is male - not good with romance or the life of love. Any kind of pairings will be thrown randomly into the story, like a grenade into a school, or be a Naruanko pairing, which is just plainly insane (in an extremely disturbing sense). On with what is hopefully able to be termed a piece of written work, instead of trash.
The small boy ran from one alleyway to another, dripping sweat – and blood as he went. His thoughts at this time were:
"Why me, it's not like I ever did the villagers any wrong, those pranks were not that serious.
He had encountered a drunken villager a few hours ago, who summarily smashed a bottle over his head, while he mumbled
"It may very well be troublesome, but my wife said it has to be done, we have to teach the demon a lesson so he knows who is boss"
The drunk had then staggered on in his lazy meandering way, leaving behind a stunned (both physically and mentally) boy, by the name of Uzumaki Naruto, who spluttered out
"Why me, a million curses on drunken villagers, they have always been annoying what with the
chasing of me, although I knew they hated me none of them has actually smashed a bottle over
my head before".
While he was fuzzily speaking, the large gash across his scalp slowly but surely started closing over, with but a small gout of steam. Naruto then stood up and resumed his normal trek back to his lonely apartment (flitting from one alley to another), which he had lived in since the age of five years.
- Long-winded explanation here. Skip if you're sick of these Kyuubi introductions. -
While the human body is a literal living-breathing miracle, there is not usually a force within it that allows for near spontaneous regeneration. Where the young Uzumaki differed from the norm was not in his blood, as a genetic irregularity passed down through the generations, but in a form of energy that existed inside his body.
This energy was unlike most. It is theorised by some that the only sentient creature that could have created humankind would have no corporal body – that is to say, it would be a completely spiritual entity. If one takes this as fact, then this energy in Naruto is very similar to what could be termed a god.
The humans who came to know this energy named it Kyuubi, the nine tailed demon, oft the Fox. Considered to be the strongest amongst its brethren, who were ninefold, the Kyuubi was, and is known as a malevolent force with the destruction of humanity its only appreciable goal. One swipe of a singular tail could level mountains, another create a Tsunami. Power the likes of which humans could barely (if at all) comprehend; this 'demon' had at its clawtips.
It is unknown why this Kyuubi would appear from time to time in the history of man; other than to lay waste to as many cities as is possible. After doing such, the Kyuubi would disappear from whence it came, only to be seen when the next time for a little disaster was ripe. The country known to have the spirit and essence of fire (and thus was named Country of Fire) particularly loathed the nine –tailed, as its last three occurrences had been within the borders of fire.
It is partially for this reason that the various Shinobi of multiple countries banded together under their own most powerful, to form 'hidden' villages, in many countries. This is where the hidden village of Kohohagure enters into our story.
The citizens of Konoha are believed to house the spirit of fire, their teamwork is second to none and they value the life of their own above all other things. As a young Shinobi from a prestigious clan stated
"Those who do not obey the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are even worse trash"
The Shinobi of Konoha live by this code. They consider their lives sacrificed for the defence of their home and people to be a worthy end. When the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, many Shinobi sacrificed themselves to delay it, and prevent is from reaching their loved ones, safe in the village hidden in the leaves (Konohagure). They were also delaying the monster, so their strongest Shinobi, the Yondiame Hokage could enter the fray. Enter he did, and after a no doubt epic battle, managed to seal the demon away. His own life was expended to seal it, into a newborn baby.
The Yondiame asked for the child Naruto to be viewed as a hero, the one who would bear the strongest imaginable burden for the sake of the village. It was not to be most of the villagers would not forgive Naruto for his existence, as he is a constant reminder of their loved ones who died in the Kyuubi attack. A few fools even believe he is the demon itself, sealed into human form, and would like nothing better than to 'dispose of the demon once and for all'.
This is the life in which our young Jinnchuriki (demon container) has been for the past ten years, hated and shunned by most. The current leader of the village, Sarutobi the Sandiame Hokage is perhaps the only compassionate soul, as he agreed with the Yondiame's original plan and implemented a law stating that no one could speak of Narutos demon to those knew not. Specifically those of the younger generation(s). By doing this the third hoped to give Naruto a fighting chance of friendship with those his age, even if the older generations hated him.
This was not to be. The children saw and felt the way their parents and elders treated Naruto; therefore most shunned him as well, even when they knew not the why of it. This is the situation Naruto has been living in for the past six years, since being unceremoniously ejected from the orphanage at the age of four, when he could walk and talk reasonably well. Suffice to say he was not a happy child, nor loved.
- Long-winded explanation done, read on if you wish -
He had been focussing on the ninja academy since entering two years previous, as it was the only real achievement he felt had true merit.
"I shall become a shinobi of the hidden leaf. That will show everyone how great I am, nobody else is needed for my survival."
Also my pranking will be so much better when I can shoot fire and beat on anyone who tries to interfere!"
Once home, at his stinking, squalid one room apartment, he sat on the bed to plot nefarious deeds. After some time he decided to reattempt the Jutsu he was learning from a scroll he stole from the library. The head librarian would not let him in to study, under the pretence that he was too distracting, with his near fluorescent orange jacket and pants known as the Kawarimi no Jutsu.
This Jutsu is well known for being one of the most useful in and out of combat, as it allows for quick relocation in the event of the current location becoming untenable. It is a perfect technique for stealth and surprise attacks, which are the trademarks of the shinobi. The ones who practise enough, or possess unusual talent with the Jutsu can even learn to use it without the (four?) handseals usually required.
Naruto knew all of this, he read it and more direct from the illicitly acquired scroll. A shame for him that he could not seem to perform the Jutsu no matter how he tried. Most attempts resulted in … no result at all. More Chakra forced into any one seal did nothing, or at best resulted in a short breeze wafting throughout the apartment. He even tried less, but found he simply could not use such a small amount of Chakra at all.
Throughout his observation of the technique execution of his fellow academy students, he realised the amount of energy they released for basic Jutsu was about one tenth of the lowest amount he could use. Also he noted that the students would be exhausted after a mere one hour training session in ninjutsu, whereas he had gone eight hours straight in an attempt to force the Bunshin no Justu to work.
This lead him to realise that even though he was just a child, he had more Chakra capacity than his Chuunin teachers did, which was simply too much for the basic Jutsu with his (lack of) control. After a long and fruitless training session with Kawarimi, he decided to redirect his efforts into a Jutsu that required far more Chakra to perform, to test his capacity and prove that his problem was the minimal Chakra requirement of the academy level Jutsu.
The problem was that he did not know any high level techniques and even if he did, it would be unlikely he would have the control or experience to pull them off. As he could not learn any clan techniques from having no clan, the decision was made by Naruto that cold day to create a 'training technique' that used as much Chakra as possible. He extrapolated out loud:
"Yosh, its decided! I will make my own Jutsu perhaps many.
The problem is that I don't really have any idea how to do that … hmm … not much point in modifying someone else's Jutsu, this will be a completely original Jutsu.
The problem is that none of the handseals do exactly what I want, and multiple seals would be too hard at the moment, more training would help but time is of the essence."
Even though Naruto has been mistreated and uneducated so far in his life, he has a mysteriously good understanding of the language, both written and spoken. This will be explained in more depth later on in the story. That is if I can keep motivated enough to continue it.
"Ah this is difficult, Ill just use a seal in each hand, the modified ram seal in the right and an equally modified Karana seal in the left."
The Karana seal is a one handed seal, forming a fist with the index and pinkie finger sticking upwards. It is a seal for suppressing and driving away demons and demonic energy. In this case Naruto is using it with the Ram seal to focus and increase his power, while the Karana seal expels the random bursts of Kyuubis chakra floating around in Naruto's own pool.
Naruto discovered that with these two seals in combination he could temporarily increase his power, while actually increasing his degree of control by about 40. While this in itself was not a Jutsu, he could use it preceding one to let him more easily accomplish the technique. He attempted his newly named 'fox release' in combination with the Bunshin technique and accomplished…
A single clone which was smaller, unmoving and of a lighter hue than Naruto himself.
"Shan'aro! That should have worked, curse it all, it really should have" Shouted out the energetic blonde.
He then proceeded to stomp the unmoving clone into oblivion. At which point his foot encountered a seemingly solid doppelganger, which let out an inarticulate grunt and twitching motion before 'Poofing' out of existence in a cloud of smoke. To which Naruto said to the world at large
"Um, ok. That's really weird it created a failed clone as usual, but it had a real body?"
Not receiving any answer from the world, or the inside of his room, he repeated the process, with similar results, except for the clone being slightly bigger, and closer in looks and skin tone to the original.
He attempted his newly created and named 'Fox release' with the Kawarimi, however there was now a definitive result – the item he attempted to replace with started to glow blue, then flared red and imploded sucking a fair amount of air into the depression. He experimented with the released Kawarimi and figured out he could implode objects (including a painfully damaged toenail) or superheat them, depending on the amount of Chakra he filtered with the Karana seal.
He decided to call it a night, after all five hours of practising a new highly draining Jutsu modifier is too much for most, and enough for even Naruto. He ate a bowl of instant ramen thinking to himself:
"Hated ramen, if it wasn't so cheap it would never be eaten here."
He then showered, did sundry other nightly activities and went to sleep on his old, stinking mattress with its single tattered sheet and blanket. He woke up every few hours, and trained for half an hour each time, as is his usual practise. The newly developed technique 'fox release' was unused throughout the night, his usual fruitless attempts to force the academy Jutsu to work were sufficient for the night.
By six o'clock he finally abandoned the futile attempts at a good night's rest, Naruto got up, did those sundry morning activities, then set off for a run around training area forty-four. He didn't want to run around the village, as he might then encounter other ninja training. Since the drunken man who had hurt him yesterday had definitely been a Shinobi of the leaf, he was becoming especially wary of them. He ran laps around the training area, dubbed the forest of death until 8:30 AM. Then Naruto started his usual one-sided conversation as he ran to the academy.
"Yosh, time to get to the academy and watch all the idiots who cant listen get scolded by Iruka or Mizuki-sensei!
Still, I kind of wish that this area was not forbidden, it looks like there are plenty of big creatures inside, training in there would be a good indicator of my survival skills."
Unbeknown to the young boy, there was a pair of eyes focused on his retreating back; complete with the spiral pattern he favoured. The eyes closed, and were gone in a purple flash.
"Time for the academy, better put the idiot mask on, stupid grin: check, vacant look: check. Yosh that's one idiot mask for the day."
'Ah there is Sakura, the teme, that quiet girl, baka-Kiba and the rest. Hmm the lazy bum is looking at me.'
"Hi Shikamaru, hows things?" Naruto loudly inquired, to which Shika drawled
"Its troublesome, my dad came home drunk with broken glass in his hand mom nearly killed him before she took him to the hospital and she didn't make any breakfast this morning because they are both still there."
"Your father… Broken glass…" Naruto whispered, before taking a seat as far from Shikamaru as possible. The lazy kid in question was thinking
'Wonder what got Naruto all hot and bothered, ah well its too troublesome to find out' After which the child promptly joined his best friend Choji, sleeping. Iruka entered the classroom and called the role with several 'Hai's' from most, a 'Hn' from a certain dark eyed duck-butt hair style boy and a YOSH, HERE IRUKA SENSEI from the blonde haired, blue eyed hyperactive academy student himself.
Iruka then started with his usual repetitive drone on the history of Konohagure. Today he was talking about the Kages, from the Shodiame, who was well known for his wood manipulation techniques to the Yondiame, praised as 'The Yellow Flash' for his speed and grace on the battlefield. As usual, after about half an hour of droning Iruka mercilessly questioned Naruto about his lecture. As is also the norm, the boy answered every question with perfect accuracy and clarity, all while doing so in a monotone worthy of Shikamaru. This ticked off Iruka to no end, as Naruto always seemed to sleep through his lectures, like a certain few other students (Cho, Shika and Kiba).
Then, after lunch (during which Naruto has dried instant Ramen) they went outside for taijutsu practise sparring. Naruto, through the rotten luck he usually has with such things has to spar with the most powerful academy student, Kiba. They tensed up in preparation and Naruto decides to have some fun, so he confidently yells out
"Hey dog breath, bet you cant hit me if you try all day!" To which Kiba heatedly yelled even louder
"Come on then you Dobe, my family techniques will rip you apart ahhahahaha."
Not waiting for the instructor's signal to start, Kiba put his dog down, told it "stay back Akamaru, I can finish him with one hit!" and charged forwards recklessly, arms held downwards, with hands in an open handed claw-like style. Naruto just stood there, looking like an orange and yellow statue as Kiba bore down upon him.
"Prepare yourself you loser, Gijyuu Ninpou, Shikyaku no Jutsu!" With that cry, Kiba's fingernails became clawlike, and faint wisps of his Chakra were seen as he charged his energy to his arms and legs.
Naruto finally moved as Kiba came within striking distance. He walked into the right-handed strike of his enraged opponent, as the attack landed he grasped the offending wrist with both hands and pivoted his body around to the left, throwing the Inuzaka over his shoulder.
Said Inuzaka promptly hit the wall ten feet behind Naruto with a sickening crunch.
The end result was Naruto with five small, yet deep cuts on his chest and a wounded, unconscious Kiba.
He had hit the wall feet first cracking an ankle, not having time to manoeuvre as Naruto had used his momentum for the counter-attack. At this point in time our hero thought
'Hmm, everyone else seems to be unable to take a hit, if I can take the damage, and use that same damage to attack my opponent, it will make for a powerful yet easily learnt and highly unpredictable combat style. Might as well fight like this, but what to call it… I know, the Seppeku Fist (suicide fist, forgive me if the spelling is far off)'
The boy then noted, as Iruka took a still unconscious Inuzaka family member to the hospital, that his cuts were slowly shrinking and actually healing before his very eyes. As he had been concentrating Chakra to the area of his chest to better counter Kiba's attack, it seemed to accelerate the healing process.
What Naruto did not realise was that his own Chakra cleared a path for Kyuubi's own to come in and force heal the damaged area. While not realising the why of it, he still understood that massing Chakra in an area before, during and after being wounded accelerated his healing process. Suffice to say the young Shinobi to be filed this information away in a file marked "Personal Battle Style Development"
Without a style or even techniques of his own to use and with no desire to steal, modify or borrow the abilities and hard work of others, Narutos only remaining option was to create his own unique fighting style. One that was not rigid and unyielding from being passed down through the generations, such as the Hyuga style Gentle Fist.
The advantage of the inherited power is that there is almost always someone to teach the ins and outs of the style. Someone who will likely always be better, or at least far more experienced then yourself in that same style and thus always good to discuss strategy with.
The disadvantage of that same power is Twofold. Firstly there has likely been a large host of people over a long time who fought against this power, and might have found ways to counter, or nullify said power. Second is that over time, doing and teaching the same thing may result in stagnation, and weakening of the overall power and ability of those who practise said power.
Take the Hyuga themselves, it is unknown how talented the first members to develop the white eyes, and Gentle Fist style. It is quite likely however, their talent was far higher than Hyuga Negi, or Hiashi for that matter, the two most powerful Hyuga alive today. It is definite however that they created the techniques, either from original ideas or modifications of existing techniques at that time.
Therefore they had talent that the aforementioned two do not – that is to say the original Hyuga had the strength of will and self esteem to throw away the advice of their teachers and so called betters, in order to create something new and wild, untested and free. Hyuga Hinata has this talent, to change the very fundamentals of the Hyuga power, from primarily offensive and crippling to primarily defensive.
The true advantage with going out on a limb and doing something new, different and wild is that there is likely to be no known counter to the technique, as there has as of yet been no time to develop one. The disadvantage of course is not having enough time and experience with this new power to know all of its ins and outs, the danger and risk associated with its use. The author shudders to think how the first person found out the seal that was used for the Kyuubi happens to require the caster's soul to properly execute. In any case, back to Naruto.
After the rest of his boring class, in which Iruka kept sending him angry looks (as in a spar it is not good form to wound the opponent, it is only a friendly match after all) Naruto went home, practising his developing stealth and agility skills as he went.
The rest of that week went as one could usually expect, with training solitarily (or so he thought), in the morning. The academy class in the day (with a pouting Kiba on crutches) to the long afternoon and night of Jutsu practise and eventual, torturous sleep. Because of his self-control, Naruto appeared to sleep like a rock, but every night he had dark dreams. Flashes of red in the dark of night, the screams of the dying and that wonderful, warm blood! So much blood, enough to cover the walls and homes of all konoha, enough for even his ponderous body to bathe in… As the nine monstrous appendages writhed throughout the night sky, a primal roar is heard…
Then the ten-year-old Jinnchuriki would awake, to ponder these dreams of darkness. As he lay down to sleep on Thursday night, an event was fast approaching. The event that happens to be the consistently worst day of his young life. It was time to go shopping . . .
Authors notes/confession?
Eh ok then this is seemingly a good point to stop. I wanted to introduce the difficulties of Naruto's life while not making him seem to be too persecuted, as it would be out of character for the village in general. Or so I think, the ones where he gets beaten by 90 of people are a little too much, if you think at all like me (scary thought). I also wanted to introduce his problem with the basic academy level Ninjutsu and explain that he is not going to have godlike powers.
This shall notbe a massively overpowered Naruto, who somehow gains the sharingan/bloodline that automatically pwns everything: the end. He does have a Kekkei Genkai, it has already been hinted at. It has nothing to do with the Kyuubi.
I have explained the replacement (Kawarimi) Jutsu and the clone (Bunshin) Jutsu. As you can guess the shopping is a good test of Naruto's Henge (illusion) Jutsu. It just may explain the fundamentals of his Orokie (sexy) Jutsu as well, if I can think of a moderately convincing way to do it. So yes, first fic ever, and written work since the end of schooling two? Years back. Don't expect it to be perfect, I am open to any and all suggestions as long as they be generally constructive, not like "this fic is one of many shit ones f off and die loser."
Hmm I am not big on pairings, simply lacking in good convincing ways to write them in, but you never know. No goddamn Yaoi pairings okie ppl. I don't care if you like them or not, that's your business, but this is my goddamn fic and I do not like them full stop end of one-sided discussion. If anything, see the top. I think Naruanko would just be hilarious. Obviously that would majorly be for the sake of humour, a topic I am unskilled with (starting to see a trend here?).
Ok good day/night everyone, if you are still reading this, please review and give me suggestions, if I understand there is huge room for improvement (and I do) Then you surely do as well, so help out or the pox take you.