Getting My Bearings As Naruto Uzumaki


As it happens, we actually were late.

Late to the point that the expert of tardiness, Kakashi, had shown up and given them twenty minutes to return as a full team.

Or all three of us would be sent back to the academy.

Naturally, the other two members of team seven completely ignored the fact that he was just as late as I was.

Thankfully, I didn't have to find my way there on my own.

I was able to just follow the other two and let them do the navigating of this massive village.

I know the anime and the movies don't always fit together when they show the village, however from what I could see the movies were closer to it.

The village was full. As in dense.

While none of the buildings got over three stories, there were several that had raised foundations giving them that fourth level height. They didn't have all the pipes and such shown on them in the movies but lines for clothing and and other wires did hang between the buildings and they had electricity in every one of them.

Unlike the anime and many of the fan fictions I have read, the training grounds weren't actually in the village proper.

No. They were actually in outer sections separated from the village by the great wall everyone is always supposed to be lapping.

When I asked how she knew where it was to begin with, Sakura didn't even send me that angry glare she was supposed to have.

There were, according to Sakura, Five larger training grounds on either side of the village, and behind them were another ten on each side. These twenty outer training grounds were more specific and purposed. Under these were a set of underground training grounds. And it continued out like that, each new set beyond the last one having several more separate grounds as the area encircled grew with the perimeter.

Then there was a section of forest that sided up to either side of the main road.

That's right... The main road.

While there were roads leading away from the village through the training grounds, there was only one real road in and out of the village.

We had arrived by the time she explained all of this to me, and I was disappointed I wouldn't get to ask where specific grounds were.

It had occurred to me that I needed to scout out the forest of death in preparation of the chunin exams.


The Jonin wasn't what I had expected.

I was expecting him to be tall and aloof, with gravity defying silver hair. Uncaring and lazy.

He was tall at least.

His hair was a light grayish color, but had no shine to it.

So it wasn't like it was silver, and it wasn't all that bright either.

It also didn't stand up.

Instead, he seemed to have it hanging over one side in a tangled mess. It may have been clean but he hadn't use a comb on it.

He stood straight instead of slouched. And his single visible eye, while only slightly opened, was stern instead of bored.

But on top of it all, I could literally feel the danger rolling off of him.

For that matter, I hadn't gotten a good look at my teammates in real life yet either.

Glancing them over, I noticed that while Sakura's hair was bright pink, long and flowing... It wasn't neon.

It was more of a strawberry color.

She also didn't look as thin as the anorexic she had been written as so often.

She had muscles, but they were only as well defined for lack of fat, unlike my real body's calves that could easily have been bigger around than both my hands together, hers were as thin as her arms.

Her forehead was also different. It wasn't actually larger than normal. It was just a regular forehead.

Weird thing to have an insecurity about.

Sasuke on the other hand, was almost exactly as I had pictured him. He looked like his image in the anime. Dark eyes, dark hair that had a black clip holding the back up in an almost peacock spread behind his head.

But from my current stature, he did seem taller than I would have thought.

I just chalked that up to my own decrease in height.

His face held this smile on it that I wanted to call smug but it didn't hold the arrogance I thought it would.

Then the Jonin spoke.

He explained his little bell test almost word for word as it had been explained in the anime. The difference being his pointed looks at me when I didn't react as Naruto should have.

In my defense, I was trying my best not to let my panic show.

I had just realized one majorly big flaw in this whole scenario.

I didn't know how to use jutsu.

Or even chakra for that matter!

What was I supposed to do? I couldn't fake a shadow clone!

I had been so caught up in my little stress out, I didn't notice much of what was going on, until both my teammates vanished from beside me.

Looking to either side told me they had hidden too well for me to even see them.

With my heart beating out of my chest, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down.

I should know how to do it...

Chakra was explained in the anime right? It is one part spiritual energy and one part physical energy.

In fact, everyone is always writing about how Naruto has too much physical and not enough spiritual because he is so dumb. So if I think about it, my chakra control should be way better than his anyway right?

Four years of community college here!

But how am I supposed to even focus these energies? Much less mix them in the right proportion?

Taking one last calming breath, I held it until suddenly I felt my body and my mind in an entirely different way than I ever had before.

It was as if I could feel an inertial pull in my spine and neck that shifted and pulsed, like that jolt when your car finishes stopping and your bones want to keep going forward. But continuous.

At the same time, I felt this warmth and almost shivering vibration in my belly, or just behind it and a little upwards.

These must be the two energies! I realized it with a great relief and excitement.

I was about to actually use Chakra!

Who wouldn't be excited about that chance!? I would feel like some kind of super hero or something!

But when I tried to combine the two, it didn't work out that well.

My inertial energy, which I identified as the spiritual, would move as I wanted it to, but I couldn't even shift the vibrating physical energy.

It must have been because this wasn't my body.

It was Naruto's, and he had years of practicing the mixture that I didn't have!

So I channeled my inner Naruto, if I even had such a thing, and tried to stubbornly force it.

Suddenly all of the physical energy was flooding my whole body!

Pushing my spiritual energy into it, I tried to mix the two, but they swirled around each other without combining.

It was as if I was trying to pour milk out of a gallon jug into a Pepsi bottle.

The milk being physical and only having the options of directly up and down and directly upside down. No horizontal and no diagonal or any gradient in between.

And to top it off, there is a coffee filter between the two opened bottles. If you've never tried it, milk doesn't flow through a coffee filter so well.

I did manage to make some chakra. As the two energies clashed and swirled I felt this, I guess it was a flex? Sensation.

I could feel the chakra running through my body in a cycle. It followed a path like blood in my veins if I could have felt them.

I focused on that and tried to guide it where I wanted it.

The chakra mechanics in most fan fictions agree that extra speed and strength was created by sending chakra through your limbs. Even further, some said that in order to enhance this you could send it through muscle clusters and individual muscle fibers.

The first step is always supposed to be learning to chakra walk up a tree.

But lets hope that isn't required to use it.

Since I had no idea how to create Shadow clones or even how to do any other jutsu, I would have to show that I had some other genin level ability.

It was commonly written that they would have passed regardless of their skills if they worked together, or that Kakashi wouldn't fail his sensei's son or that the village would force him to pass the Uchiha... But I couldn't risk everything on that!

There was absolutely no way to be certain.

Even if it was solely based on the teamwork, I would still have to show that I was worth working with right?

After all, I did just punch one of them in the gut...They probably weren't feeling the team spirit right about now.

Oops.

Why didn't I think this through before hand! I mean yeah, this might all just be that fever messing with my dreams but it felt real enough.

And who knew how I would get home or If I even could!?

Suddenly I thought of Gingersnap. If I couldn't get home what would happen to her? Would I ever see her again?

The vibrating in my hara as I think it was called, increased drastically. Suddenly my stronger emotions were forcing the physical energy to move and mix as I wanted it to.

I focused the resulting chakra first through all of my limbs, it moved directed by the spiritual energy mixed in with it, and then I seeped it into the muscles themselves. I didn't have the focus or control to pick out separate clusters or individual fibers, but seeping the chakra into the muscles themselves was a lot more than Naruto ever seemed to be able to do.

Opening my eyes, I took one step forward and then another. I began to run at him and the wind racing by my face felt like my head was out the window of my dad's pickup.

My arm reared back as I got ready to transfer this force of speed into his unprepared face.

I knew full and well he was supposed to stop it with casual ease. But Naruto wasn't enhancing his speed in the anime. If I caught him off guard and got one good hit in then maybe I would prove myself.

I could feel the chakra coursing though my legs and in my calves. The muscles clusters there that I had always focused on when running were pulling in time with my step way better than in my real body, and so my chakra honed in on the clusters my mind had isolated.

Suddenly I was on him.

Sooner than even I had expected.

Kakashi's one visible eye had opened wide and then I hit him.

My belly slammed into his face, laying him flat on his back as I bowled over him, tumbling painfully across the ground. My own momentum carried me almost as far passed him as I had started.

"Naruto...? This is supposed to be a life or death battle for survival. are you sure you should be trying things you've never done before?"

The way he asked it, as if I were just trying to carry to many groceries in one trip. It was as if the fact I had knocked him flat didn't mean anything.

My face hurt, and one of my legs twinged. I could feel blood trickling down my shoulder where I must have skidded in the end. The tumble had been painful.

And yet before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet and my hands had formed some shape in front of me. I vaguely recalled that it was the cross seal that summoned clones before I felt my chakra leaving me.

That's right.

This was Naruto's body and had his instincts and reactions. Just like the arm speed I used when I caught Sakura's wrist even though I had never been in a fight in my entire life.

There were three of me now. The real me and the two clones behind me.

And to my great surprise, the majority of that vibrating physical energy was gone too. The clone jutsu had split my chakra in three and evenly divided it between us right? That was what the anime said it did. Or could do according to fan fictions I had read.

To my satisfaction, the majority of the used chakra was from the physical side, and so the ratio of mind and body had changed in my favor.

I could now channel the remaining mixed chakra through my muscles much quicker than when I was trying it the first time.

I wanted to push some into my eyes but I didn't know what chakra theories held in this reality and didn't want to, even temporarily, go blind.

Thinking quickly, I rushed Kakashi again. I knew my clones would come up with their own attacks and since they had my mind, they should be able to know what I was planning.

I was going to try using the gentle fist on him.

He wouldn't be expecting me to strike out with chakra right? And with the new control I now had I could easily send a blast of chakra at him and create an opening for my clones to go in for the kill.

As I neared him I pulled my right arm back and thrust my two fingers at his arm instead of his body, he would try to block it and lose the use of a limb.

I mean, I didn't actually want to kill him. Or even hurt him for that matter.

He then, simply reached out as my thrust was about to land and curled his hand around my two outstretched fingers.

To say I was caught off guard was only one way that I was caught.

He gave a simple twist and the pain of my fingers threatening to break moved me where he lead. Slamming right into the clone on my right, and then with another twist I was in the line of a punch from my other clone.

The punch landed with all the might behind it, crushing into my jaw. My vision blurred and I was only dimly aware my clone had stumbled backwards in shock at hitting me and burst as he landed.

My head swam as I felt my arm twist and I was pulled around in a loop until I was no longer on my feet.

I landed heavily on my back and the wind was knocked out of me.

The last thing I remember was rolling over so I could vomit, and heaving until everything went black.


Thank you for reading this.

I hope you have enjoyed my take on the Insert genre of fan fictions.

Please let me know what you think in the reviews.

But remember, If you don't like it, don't read it, and certainly don't bother to review. I will report any hostile reviews that aren't at least constructive.