I don't own Naruto
Chapter 1
Naruto was devastated. He was being pushed to the side for his teammate again. Kakashi sensei had outright refused to train him for the month before the Chunin Exam Finals. Kakashi had said that he needed to train Sasuke, so that he wouldn't die against Gaara, from Suna. Naruto wanted to complain and say that his opponent would be tough too and that he would need training as well, but before he could he was cut off. Kakashi had told Naruto that he had gotten another sensei for him, one that would be better than Kakashi. Naruto didn't believe it. Kakashi was an elite Jounin, not many people were better. The only three people that he could think of to train him that was better than Kakashi was the old man, Jiraiya of the sanin, and Tsunade of the sanin. Naruto knew that he couldn't get any of them for a teacher though. Although they were close, the old man would be busy with the important people coming to Konoha. He didn't know much about her, but Tsunade was a medic. That alone would prevent training because Naruto didn't want to be a medic. She also hasn't been to Konoha in more time than he was alive. Jiraiya of the sanin was said to be a pervert and the village's spy master. He would be the perfect teacher for Naruto, since he trained Naruto's idol the fourth. His duties as spymaster probably kept him out of the village very often, if the fact that Naruto had never seen anyone that fit his description was anything to go by (AN: Naruto is smarter for any reason, I just think he should know of the Sanin since Jiraiya taught his idol the fourth and because the sanin were trained by the third hokage. The Sanin are connected to all the hokage and with Naruto's goal of being hokage, it's expected that he know a little about them).The person that Kakashi got to train Naruto was Ebisu. This was the guy that was supposed to be Konohamaru's trainer and was a closet perv. Seeing how unfair Kakashi was being, Naruto ran away. He never noticed the look of sadness that crossed Kakashi face for a second before it haunted his mind.
That situation led Naruto to be where he was now, the forest of death. He figured that no one would be here. That's at least what he thought until he heard laughing. Naruto turned around from his thoughts to see a man dressed as a Jounin, but wearing the Oto headband. Naruto was wary of this man, especially after what the team from Oto tried to pull. Naruto figured this was their sensei and that he ordered them to attack team 7.
"Hello Naruto." The Oto Jounin said
"Who are you and how do you know my name?" Naruto asked, not once putting his guard down
"You'll have to earn the privilege of me telling you my name. Other than the fact that your name was called during the preliminaries, I have been watching you for a while. I'm very interested." The Oto Jounin said
"What's got you so interested?" Naruto asked
"Your potential, which is why I have an offer for you. I will train you for this entire month and if you impress me enough then I'll tell you my name, among other things." The Oto Jounin said
"Why would you train me? I'm from a village that isn't yours and what about your student? What'll happen if I don't impress you enough?" Naruto asked
"I told you that you interest me. I don't let anything keep me from my interests. That isn't my student. I'm covering for that team while their Jounin sensei couldn't come. I have full confidence that you will impress me and probably exceed my expectations, but on the slim chance that you don't I just won't tell you the things I promised to tell you." The Oto Jounin said
"I may not know you, you're a Jounin and I'll take whatever I can get at this point." Naruto said eagerly
"Good. Now tell me what jutsu you know, the taijutsu style you use, and how good are you at genjutsu?" The Oto Jounin asked, although he had a good idea at where Naruto was in all three fields.
"I know the shadow clone jutsu, the transformation jutsu, and the substitution jutsu. My taijutsu is a brawler style based on the academy taijutsu style and I can't use or break genjutsu." Naruto said. He felt slightly bad that his skills in genjutsu was so non existent
"Not a lot to work with, but in one month I can make you stronger than the others in the finals. It all starts with the shadow clone jutsu" The Oto Jounin said
One month later
Standing before the crowd was 7 Genin. Sasuke and Dosu were still missing. Other than that, the big shock was Naruto. He wasn't wearing orange and right now he looked like a serious ninja. He wore a black hoody, black cargo pants, black shinobi boots, and a black headband. All that knew Naruto was wondering where this change came from, Sarutobi especially. He knew that Naruto wasn't trained by Kakashi, Ebisu, or Jiraiya.
"It's time for the Chunin exam Finals to start. We notice that Sasuke Uchiha and Dosu Kinuta aren't here. Sasuke has until his match to show up or he's disqualified. Dosu has been found dead. Now will Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga prepare for battle and all other competitors head to the competitor's box" Genma said
The Genin all followed orders and left Naruto and Neji on the field.
"New clothes won't help you. Fate has already determined me as the winner, so just give up and spare yourself the embarrassment." Neji said
"Why don't you actually try fighting and stop trying to talk me into giving up." Naruto said with a smile
"Whatever." Neji said
"Fighters ready? Begin!" Genma said after getting nods from the two. He then proceeded to jump back
"Maybe in this fight, I'll treat you like you treated Hinata." Naruto said, smile still present on his face.
"She deserved what she got, and you're going to get worse if you don't forfeit. Fate has dictated the end of this match, you can't defy fate" Neji said calmly
"Why don't we stop all this talking? You really are a bore, fate this fate that. Why is it that I can't defy my fate, but you can defy yours?" Naruto asked with a carefree smile as he walked closer. Neji smirked at the blonde's foolishness.
"You're in my range. 8 trigrams 128 palms!" Neji exclaimed as he used the gentle fist on Naruto. When he was done he glanced at Naruto with his Byakugan. What he saw made him smirk. Neji had closed off Naruto chakra points.
"Proctor call the match. I've closed his chakra points and anymore fighting would kill him." Neji said after deactivating his Byakugan. The next thing he heard wasn't the proctor calling the match though, it was Naruto laughing.
"Who said this was over? I gave you a turn to hit me, now watch as I take mine." Naruto said as he easily burst his chakra points open to the shock of Neji, and Hiashi Hyuga.
"How is that possible?" Neji asked
"Maybe I'm not as weak as you thought I was." Naruto said as a shadow clone appeared behind Neji ready to punch him. Neji was caught off guard and was sent flying.
Getting angry at the situation, Neji charged at Naruto. His plan was to get close and use the rotation. That should put the blond in his place.
"Rotation!" Neji called
Naruto said nothing as he formed a small sealless jutsu that no one else could see. When the rotation started, everyone thought that Naruto was finished. What shocked them was that Neji was sent flying backwards. He was promptly caught by a shadow clone though.
"How did you beat the rotation?" Neji asked
"I used my father's jutsu, the Rasengan." SC Naruto whispered. This made Neji's eyes bilge out of their sockets
"The match is over. Please call the match proctor." Naruto said as he started walking back towards the competitor's box. Genma called the match and a medical team carried Neji away.
The next fight was supposed to be Sasuke Vs. Gaara, but Sasuke was late. The Kazekage's insistence that Sasuke's match be postponed led Sarutobi to postpone the match and head into the 3rd fight of the first round of the Finals. That didn't work out too well, since Kankuro of Suna forefeited. Shino was the victor and he didn't even get to fight. Shikamaru Nara thought this was troublesome, but got ready for his opponent, Temari of Suna. In a well thought out and strategic battle, Shikamaru had beaten Temari, but gave up. He had her in a position to win, but he would have needed more chakra to win. He was almost dry on chakra and thinking ahead caused him to come to the conclusion that the little chakra he had left would be drained in defeating Temari and he would be on empty for his next fight. This angered Ino that Shikamaru gave up, but it only made Choji smile that he knew his friend so well.
It was time for Sasuke's match now and he still hadn't shown up. Arriving a split second before disqualification was Sasuke and Kakashi. Sasuke was clad now in a black one piece suit instead of his usual white shorts and blue shirt. Sasuke was allowed to compete and with one glance at the stands he could tell who the remaining Genin in the finals were. They were Naruto, the girl from Suna, and Shino. He was slightly shocked at Naruto's choice of clothing, but paid it no mind since he had a fight to get too.
What proceeded Genma's call of begin was a fight that was unexpected to some. Sasuke used a speed and taijutsu style that only those who saw the prelims, would compare to Rock Lee with his weights off. Rock Lee himself and Gai were actually watching the fight. Lee was wondering how Sasuke got to his speed in a month, when it took Lee a year to get that fast. Gai was able to see that it wasn't pure speed and that Sasuke was pushing a lot of chakra to his feet to move faster. Sasuke was able to land a few hits on Gaara, but the people who saw the prelims noticed that Sasuke would have to try another tactic because this one has proved to be ineffective by a better taijutsu user than himself. Sasuke realized this too, which is why he jumped back towards the wall and started doing handseals that only the Jounin sensei, and kage recognized as the Chidori. Gai wanted to reprimand Kakashi for teaching that to Sasuke, but he knew he couldn't speak since he taught Lee the gates. Sasuke charged at Gaara and, while dodging a few sand spikes, was able to clam the chidori through the sand ball that Gaara was hiding in. Gaara screamed out in both insanity and pain. The sand fell apart and Gaara fell weak.
The crowd thought that Sasuke had mortally wounded his opponent and that the fight was over. What happened next was very unexpected to the Leaf shinobi, minus one Naruto Uzumaki. He was previously informed of the invasion by his sensei, who he later discovered was Orochimaru of the sanin. Upon learning of his sensei's identity and plans, Naruto was torn on what to do. Should he side with the village that he has all but no love for or side with his sensei who has given him something that he has longed for, attention. Sensing this Orochimaru told Naruto to do what he felt was right.
Thoughts like that were best saved for later as he created a mass of shadow clones. The original him grabbed Gaara and dashed to the forest of death for their battle. The clones easily incapacitated the suna and oto shinobi. One clone explained his reasoning behind taking Gaara, jinchuriki vs. jinchuriki, to Kakashi as well as head for the snake summons that attacked the village. Orochimaru said that he wouldn't hold anything against Naruto, unless he did anything to interfere with his match against Sarutobi.
In the stadium, the Genin were being briefed on what to do. Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, Ino, and Shikamaru were able to break the genjutsu easily, while Choji, Kiba and Tenten needed to be awakened. Kakashi ordered them to help the Naruto clones evacuate the citizens. The jounin and chunin that were in the stadium moved outward to help in the counter attack. Kakashi was the only jounin left behind toface off against Baki, the suna jounin sensei to the sand siblings.
Along the route to the bunkers, the rookies were surrounded by oto chunin. The Naruto clones multiplied themselves more and continued on the route alone. The rookies stood together in their fight to keep the civilians safe.
Sasuke used his exceptional speed to fight the chunin, but he was running low on chakra and he couldn't keep it up for too much longer. He was able to take out the few chunin he faced in straight up taijutsu. The InoShikaCho trio was proving why they had the best teamwork out of all the rookies. Ino used her min jutsu to switch bodies with one of the oto chunin and forced his body to fight it's comrades. Shikamaru protected Ino's body while he used his shadow possession jutsu to stop the closest enemy nin. Choji used the human boulder jutsu to crush any enemy nin left over. Kiba and Akamaru used their man beast clone and fang over fang jutsu to keep the enemies attention, while Shino used his insects to suck the enemy dry of all their chakra. Sakura was back to back with Tenten. Tenten used her marksman abilities to keep most of her enemies away, as well as incapacitate a few. Sakura, for the most part randomly threw shuriken as a distraction, but was also blocking any projectiles or close range attacks aimed for herself or Tenten.
Unknown to them, they were being watched by their academy instructor. Iruka was heading out to find more civilians and ran into the Naruto clones. They told him that they could handle the civilians and that he should check on the rest of the genin. The scene that the chunin came upon was one that he was very proud of. He was a sensor ninja, like many other leaf shinobi, and could easily tell that the genin's opponents were easily chunin level. Iruka, doing the exact opposite of what he should have been doing, stood and watched his former students defeat the chunin level oto ninja. He was concerned, when he saw a few kills, but knew that he would be there to support them as well as their families and each other.
Naruto was doing very well on his end. His speed was more than enough to dodge the sand and attack Gaara. This infuriated Gaara to the point where he started drawing on his tailed beast's chakra. This caused Gaara to start forming sand like appendages. Eventually it got to the point where Gaara released Shukaku himself. Naruto had no trouble whatsoever with Gaara before releasing Shukaku, but knew he might experience some trouble now. Naruto decided to finally use ninjutsu. He used the hiraishin to quickly get to Gaara's body and hit him hard enough to wake him up, but also hurt him enough to the point that he wouldn't be able to continue the fight. Gaara landed on the ground, hard, and Naruto landed on a branch above Gaara. Before he could take a step, Gaara's siblings landed next to Gaara in defense.
"Don't worry, I'm done. I've proved that I'm stronger. Gaara, I want you to know that, I'm stronger because I fight for others and not just myself." Naruto said
"You fight for others? What is your purpose in life?" Gaara asked weakly
"Yes I do. My purpose is to protect my precious people." Naruto said
"Your precious people? Let us go Temari, Kankuro. Enough blood has been shed today." Gaara said weakly as he pleaded with his siblings to retreat.
Getting the message they lifted up their brother and left the blond alone. After a minute of traveling, Gaara weakly apologized for how he has been all their lives. It was an honest attempt at sincerity and remorse.
This shocked the two older siblings, but they took his apology anyway.