Author's Note: Yup! This is my new story, Naruto: The Adventurer! I know, some of you may be wondering, what the hell happened to my other stories? Don't be worried, they will be updated after I get a few chapters for this story finished. This idea has been in my head ever since I've started my second semester in college. This story will be a different take on Naruto. He won't be banished, and there won't be any Sasuke bashing! Remember: update lots and lots! It feeds me…..
Chapter One: Promises Made
Flashback:
Naruto stood in front of the Hokage, even after his team was leaving the office.
"Come on already Naruto! Quit wasting Hokage-sama's time!" his pink haired teammate yelled. Kakashi and Sasuke said nothing, the latter giving Naruto a barely noticeable glance that he barely caught. He gave the raven haired shinobi a quick nod as he walked the door.
After Kakashi closed the door, Hiruzen cleared his throat. "So have you come to a decision Naruto-kun?" He held no delusions that Naruto would stay in the village if he had to. His adopted grandson had been through a lot, and he wasn't proud that most of it was his own fault. Also, he had a feeling that he wouldn't be in the world of the living for much longer. He couldn't tell why, it was just a gut feeling he's been having for the last month.
Naruto looked the man straight in his eyes, as if what he was about to say would change everything, which it would.
"Old man, I'm gonna beat everyone in the Chuunin Exams!"
The elderly Hokage frowned for a second, but wiped it off, and swiftly replaced it with a grin. "I have no doubts that you will Naruto; just remember to send me letters of your wellbeing after you leave, ok?" He had to restrain from looking desperate. He would miss the boy terribly, and so would his youngest grandson Konohamaru.
After hearing that, Naruto's eyes softened. "You know I will Jii-jii. You, Ko, Iruka-sensei, and Team Seven are my precious people."
Hiruzen's eyes lit up. "That's all I needed to hear, now don't you have to be training for the exams?"
Naruto grinned, as he turned away, about to leave the office. "Don't worry old man, nothing will stop me from winning, and that's the promise of a lifetime."
When the blond closed the door, the man stood up, and walked to a picture on the wall. It was a picture of all of the previous Hokage. The one he was looking at looked like an older version of Naruto, his father, Minato Namikaze. 'I'm so sorry Minato. I've failed …'
He took down the picture, showing a safe. Even if you knew it was there, it required the fresh blood of Hiruzen, and unknown to him Naruto to open. After he made a slight cut on his palm, enough to open the safe, he pulled out a kunai, and a letter, sealed by the blood of the Fourth.
He put both in a scroll, only for Naruto's eyes to read. If anyone were to try to read its contents without Naruto present, it would activate the seals on it, causing it to explode with the power of a hundred exploding tags.
'Naruto, I wonder how you'll react to your father being the Fourth… hee-hee, he'll probably shit a brick…' he chuckled to himself, after putting the scroll in his sleeve.
Flashback End
Naruto had changed a lot since the mission to Nami no Kuni. The main change caused by his chance meeting with the girl Haku, and her father figure, and demon of the Mist Zabuza Momochi. Zabuza ended up dying from blood loss, and buried in a secret spot outside of Nami. But, before he passed away, he left everything to Haku, who decided to travel around the world. She couldn't use the huge Zanbatou he possessed, so she gave it to Naruto, along with a few jutsu they had, to protect him and everyone he held dear. The jutsu they had given him were the Futon: Kaze Teppodama, the Kirigakure no Jutsu, and the Suiton: Hahonryu.
He began walking to training ground 7, and created an insane amount of Kage Bunshin [Shadow Clones]. For unknown reasons, he found that the Kubikiri Houcho was also on their backs as well.
"Alright guys, time to practice the jutsu we learned from Haku and Zabuza! Fifty of you start practicing the Kirigakure no Jutsu [Hidden Mist Technique], another fifty practice the Futon: Kaze Teppodama [Wind Release: Wind Gunshot], and the other hundred start getting use to the Kubikiri Houcho. Shouts of "Hai Boss!" were heard from the group of 200.
He had them working on the first two, and he created five more clones, that went to the closest river in the training grounds, and began doing the necessary hand-signs, and shouted, "Suiton: Hahonryu!"
As soon as they shouted the technique's name, their cheeks bulged, and when they opened their mouths, out came a river of water. It started to flood the already full river, and they quickly ended the technique.
Naruto grinned, and said, "Good, now keep practicing until you guys run out of chakra, ok?!"
They smirked as well, and saluted as they began doing the hand-signs again. Then, he turned around, and went to practice the other two jutsu with his clones.
After about an hour, and a Kage Bunshin Battle Royale later, Naruto was dead tired. He even actually fell asleep on the training ground, with the zanbatou was propped up beside him. This was the scene that the rest of Team Seven came to as they arrived at the training grounds.
'Well that answers the question of where Naruto was…' Kakashi thought with a sweat-drop.
Meanwhile, Sasuke and Sakura were trying to wake Naruto up. Sasuke tried waking the blond up by kicking him, but nothing happened.
Sasuke shook his head, thinking, 'Of course he's a hard sleeper…'
After about ten minutes of trying to wake Naruto up, Sakura grinned, having an evil idea. "Hey Naruto, free ramen!" she shouted, causing Naruto to sit straight up, wiping the sleep out of his eyes.
"Free ramen?" he muttered excitedly, grinning.
Everyone present sweat-dropped. 'Typical Naruto…' was the thought shared by the squad.
Naruto realized that there was no ramen to be seen, and was looking around to see where he was at. He realized that he most likely passed out after training. "Hey guys, what's up?" he asked standing up, stretching.
"Only you would black out after training Naruto! And you wonder why we call you a dumbass…" Sakura muttered.
Kakashi cleared his throat. "Now that Naruto is finally awake, I can tell you why I called this meeting."
All three Genin focused their attention on Kakashi. He put his book away, causing the Genin to be put on guard. He never was this serious.
"I plan on nominating you three for the Chunin Exams coming up in the next few weeks." Two of the three teenagers were confused, and the other excited. "I know this is short notice, but I believe you three can ace it. I will also have to be more serious in training you guys. The Chuunin Exams are nothing to sneeze at, if you mess up, there is a chance you will die."
Sakura looked uneasy. "Are you sure we're ready sensei?" She hadn't been taking her training as seriously as she should've, she realized.
Kakashi gave her a hard look. "I wouldn't plan on nominating you if you weren't. Make no mistake; I will be training you three into the ground for the next three weeks. You will pass those exams, one way or the other."
That statement caused all three Genin to shiver slightly. They had heard the man was an ANBU captain back in the day. There was no doubt that he was telling the truth.
Naruto grinned. "All right Kakashi-sensei! Let's get training!" His enthusiasm raised even Sakura's spirits, getting her pumped up. Sasuke smirked as well, ready for what he was going to throw at them. 'I'm coming for you Itachi… Just you wait.'
Kakashi eye-smiled. "Well here's what we're doing today. I'm going to see what type of elemental affinity you three have, and I'm going to give you a couple of jutsu to start learning. Then, depending on your affinity, I'm going to begin your elemental training."
Naruto was confused. All that talk about elemental affinity confused him. "Sensei, what do elemental training?"
Sakura explained it for him. "Naruto, elemental affinities are the nature of your elemental chakra. Some ninja have one, most two. When Kakashi-sensei was talking about elemental training, he meant the training to boost the power of elemental attacks. An example would be if Sasuke-kun were to learn how to control his Katon nature chakra, it can exponentially boost his Katon attacks. Or he could even stream Katon chakra through weapons, but that's another class of elemental training."
The Jounin nodded in approval. "Correct Sakura." He reached in the pouch on his side, and pulled out a few small sheets of paper. "This is a chakra affinity paper. Channel some chakra through it, and it'll show your affinities. If it dampens, it's Suiton. If it burns, it's Katon. "If it crinkles, you have Raiton. If it balls up and hardens, it's Doton, and if it shreds, it's Futon."
He handed each of his pupils a sheet, and watched as they channeled chakra through them.
Sasuke's burned, and had it crinkle up a bit.
Naruto's shredded, dampened, and burned.
Sakura's hardened and burned.
Kakashi was shocked. All five affinities! "Well that was unexpected. I know all of the training for your affinities, except for Futon, sorry Naruto. However, there is one man in Konoha that could help you, but you'd have to ask Hokage-sama about that. I'm going to teach you each the Katon: Ryu Kaenhoushaki [Fire Release: Dragon Flamethrower] and when training's over, I'm going to give you a scroll with some more elemental jutsu depending on your choice of element."
Naruto was giddy with excitement, as was his teammates. Kakashi had their full attention.
"But before I teach you the handsigns for the jutsu, let me teach you three how to mold Katon chakra the correct way. You have to try to feel for the chakra deep in your body. When you can feel it, the objective is to channel into your lungs, and into your mouth, then add combine it with normal chakra, and blow it out as carefully and as fast as possible. If you want the fire to be larger, you have to feed the fire more chakra. Now, the hand-signs are: Horse, Rabbit, Snake, and Tiger. I want you three to try it out."
After an hour of trying to attempt the technique, Sasuke was the closest to being able to use the jutsu, due to him already knowing how to use Katon techniques, and him learning the basics at a young age.
Sakura had been able to properly channel her Katon chakra, but she didn't have the necessary chakra to use the technique. Kakashi, after thinking, had her doing the tree-walking exercise some more, to get her reserves up some more. Out of the three Genin, her chakra capacity was the smallest.
Naruto had more than enough chakra for the technique, but not the amount of chakra control to be able to properly do the technique. So he created ten clones, and all even Naruto's began doing some chakra control exercises like kunai balancing.
Kakashi stood there, giving his squad pointers on how to do the technique, subtly, so they wouldn't need him much with upper tier Katon techniques. "OK team. Let's quit for today. After today's training, I want you to practice that jutsu some more. Whoever can perform the technique the best by next week will get a higher class Katon jutsu."
He looked at Sakura. "Alright guys, here are your scrolls." He handed them a scroll, and they smiled in thanks. As they began walking from the training grounds to their houses, their sensei called out,
"Be here at nine in the morning for endurance and Taijutsu training." And after he said that, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
They all looked at each other, and said their goodbyes.
"Bye Teme, Bye Sakura!" Naruto shouted, as he turned to his road.
Sasuke grunted out a goodbye, and Sakura waved bye to her teammates.
When Naruto walked in his house, he opened his scroll, and saw that it had the description and handsigns of four techniques:
Futon: Kaze Saishuu [Wind Release: Wind Gathering Jutsu] E-Rank, supplementary. One of the elementary techniques in Sunagakure, the jutsu requires very little chakra. Gather chakra in your body, and push outwards steadily. Handsigns are: Monkey, Boar, Snake, Tiger, Dragon
Futon: Juuyouseigun [Wind Release: Gravity Force Jutsu] B-Rank, offensive. Gathering the chakra in your palms, expel wind while combining your Futon and regular chakra. Handsigns are: Tiger, Snake, Rabbit, Snake, Horse, Rabbit, Dragon
Futon: Daitoppa [Wind Release: Great Breakthrough Jutsu] C-Rank, offensive. Done by gathering a mouthful of wind chakra, let loose in a sharp exhale. Be careful when releasing chakra. Handsigns are: Rabbit, Horse, Rooster, Tiger, Snake, Ox, Dragon
Futon: Fūki [Wind Release: Slashing Wind] C-Rank offensive. Basic wind streaming/ shape manipulation. Creates blade of wind generated by a medium, usually a fan, kunai or the like. Handsigns are: Rooster, Dragon
As Naruto was reading over the techniques in his scroll, across Konoha, Kakashi was speaking with the Hokage.
"So, you plan on starting their elemental training this early? May I ask what changed your attitude so quickly?" the Hokage questioned calmly.
Kakashi frowned slightly. "On the mission to Wave, I realized that they were far behind the level needed to really be able to survive. They weren't ready, because of my laziness when it came to training. That mistake won't happen again, because now, I'm going to be training them into the ground. They will be able to survive damn near anything that comes their way."
Hiruzen nodded. "Good. You're dismissed Kakashi."
The silver-haired man pulled out his book, and used Shunshin [Body Flicker] to leave.
"So are you going to make yourself known to Naruto-kun Jiraiya?" he asked to seemingly no one.
Suddenly, the man appeared beside Hiruzen, with a grin on his face. "Only you could tell I was in that shadow old man. And to answer your question, yeah, I'm going to talk to him tomorrow after he finishes training."
The Hokage smiled. "Ok. You should know the training grounds he'll be at. After all, you were trained there." Then his face turned serious. "So what information do you have for me about Otogakure [Hidden Sound Village]?
Jiraiya sighed sadly. "You won't believe who's the 'Kage' old man..."