An aura of excitement filled the room. Everyone listened intently to Iruka speak, possibly for the first time ever. But this excitement was diminished by the collective feeling of nervousness. This feeling was created by the sense of despair emanating from the back corner of the classroom where one blond sat scowling to himself.

Iruka, however, ignored this figure as he continued to list of the newly made Genin teams: "Team 7 will consist of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto." The cheers of delight from Sakura were quickly halted by the collective confusion of most of the room.

"Sensei," questioned Sakura, "Who's Uzumaki Naruto?"

"He's the person in the corner over there wishing he wasn't here. Now-" As Iruka continued assigning the teams everyone's gaze drifted to the back of the room. Immediately they began whispering to themselves.

"I've never seen him before."

"I didn't even know he existed."

"Is that a sword next to him? Can he even use it?"

Naruto chose to ignore them before casting his thoughts back. The feeling of rejection sat in his stomach still, tainting his food and plaguing his thoughts. 'Maybe asking her out like that was stupid but I had to do something.' He consoled himself. 'I couldn't just let her walk away.'

As he tried to convince himself he hadn't temporarily been the world's greatest idiot the rest of the teams slowly filtered out as each team's respective sensei collected them. Finally, it was just Naruto and his teammates left.

Naruto had taken to examining his recently acquired weapon, not for the first time, as his teammates cast him furtive glances out of the corner of their eyes. The edge seemed unnaturally keen and didn't blemish or chip, despite what it came into contact with. Just holding it made Naruto calmer and it had rapidly become one of his most prized possessions. Unfortunately, he didn't have a sheathe and had managed to cut himself numerous times already. He had to content himself with stringing it over his shoulder or merely carrying it around all day which rapidly tired his arm.

Satisfied that the blade was as immaculately clean as it was the last time he checked (half an hour ago), he placed it on his lap as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He didn't really care about who was their sensei or his teammates. He was focused on what he would say to Amaterasu when he next saw her. After his last attempt he needed something better or she'd never speak to him again.

As his mind pondered the horrors of being rejected he didn't notice their sensei poke his head in the door. "My first impression of you all is that you're quite boring." Naruto looked up to see a head of spiky hair poked around the door frame, one visible eye looking rather disappointed at the teams inactivity. "Meet me on the roof." And with that he disappeared.


After a set of rather lacklustre introductions their sensei disappeared with the parting note of a survival exercise in the morning. Hence Naruto's current situation of partaking in an awkward silence with his two teammates in the early hours of the morning when he would much rather still be sleeping.

After nearly two hours of this Kakashi, their sensei, made his appearance. "Alright," he chirped cheerily, "Your goal is to obtain these bells from me." He held up two small silver bells before tying them to his waist.

"But sensei, there's only two bells." Sakura decided to add her two cents.

Kakashi's eye closed in what was his closest approximation of a smile. "Well then I guess one of you won't pass." With that he started the timer for the exercise. Sakura and Sasuke quickly disappeared into the surrounding foliage. Kakashi narrowed his gaze on Naruto. "Looks like you don't quite get the concept of stealth.

"Never really saw the need for it." Naruto grinned slightly, drawing his sword. "But on the bright side I can use this."

'Who gave him a sword? From what I've heard he has next to no friends.' Kakashi stared at the blue blade Naruto lightly swung side to side. "I don't know. You seem more like you'd be a danger to yourself."

Against his expectations Naruto smiled. "I guess we'll find out." With that he launched himself at Kakashi, the blade swinging in an arc towards his face. Kakashi backpedalled away from the stroke.

"Hey now, that wasn't even going for the bells." He admonished.

"My bad." Grinned Naruto. "I think I'm going to enjoy this." Once more he launched himself at Kakashi swinging, Kakashi drawing a kunai to defend some of Naruto's unexpected swings. 'This is ridiculous. According to records he has no experience with weapons but he's wielding that sword like a natural. And his speed is a lot higher than it should be. Some of those dashes almost got me.'

Kakashi frowned. According to what he was seeing Naruto was much more talented than most Genin he'd ever seen. And if he really had no experience with weapons then he was a prodigy with swords.

Meanwhile Naruto was grinning wildly. Despite his general lazy attitude towards just about everything, and his refusal to take part in all things shinobi, he was enjoying himself. Maybe all he needed was to be allowed swing at some random guy with a weapon. That and he was definitely faster than before he met Yumigami. Though not by much. Divinity. It really does make a difference.

He refocused on his fight to notice Kakashi was lost in his thoughts, reflexively blocking his attacks. He quickly threw a kick that was easily blocked before stabbing upwards at his face. Kakashi managed to dodge but still received a scratch on his cheek. The scratch brought his attention back to Naruto. 'A genin managed to wound a jounin. A lucky blow but still. If he really has this much potential then I can't allow him the option to drop out. I'll leave him alone for now and hope the other two are strong enough to feasibly pass.'

Naruto stumbled forwards upon Kakashi's disappearance, the weight on the other side of his sword disappearing. "Oi! Get back here you bastard!"


The test ended soon after that, the trio of genin sitting in front of Kakashi. Sakura seemed worried while Sasuke and Naruto were annoyed. Sasuke due to how easily he was beaten whereas Naruto was still fuming after Kakashi's abrupt disappearance earlier.

"So, you all pass." Kakashi smiled at them. "However, you all definitely have lots of work to do before I could consider you fit as shinobi. So I want to see you all here first thing tomorrow morning."

"But sensei," Sakura interceded, "None of us got the bells."

"You're right. But I was suitably impressed to the level where I believe you deserve a chance as shinobi. Not enough to consider you decent shinobi but maybe one day." HIs only response to the scowls he received was another smile.


The next two weeks passed slowly. Their days were filled with the constant boredom of tedious D-rank missions consisting of household chores or Kakashi's version of training which only served to test their patience. Naruto was about to reach boiling point but Sasuke reached it first. In simple terms, he exploded. In front of the Hokage who had refused to look Naruto in the eye.

The Hokage had relented though and gave them a minor C-rank mission, escorting a bridge builder to Nami no Kuni. Secretly Kakashi was also given the mission of watching Naruto and ensuring that he did not attempt to escape during the mission. Not that Naruto had any intentions of trying to run. If he did how would Amaterasu find him? Which happened to be his main concern as he walked to the village gates.

"What if she visits while I'm gone? How will she know where I am?" This, and other such thoughts, were consuming his actions until the arrival of Kakashi and the bridge builder, Tazuna. But these, as with all his other worries were forgotten in the wake of the excitement of what was Naruto's first time leaving the interior of Konoha.

For his entire life he had been confined by its walls and he would not let this chance pass him by.


And already he wished he'd never left. The journey had started off fine but then Sakura had started fawning over Sasuke, Kakashi had started reading his book and Tazuna was drunk. Naruto wasn't sure who but someone had to be punished for this. Suddenly, two figures erupted from the nearby puddle, tearing the figure of Kakashi into pieces before turning to face the Genin.

Naruto quickly dashed forwards, his sword cleaving the air in an arc. The two enemy shinobi dodged to either side, leaving Naruto to cut the chain in between them. Before he could decide which one to choose Sasuke had already attacked one, leaving Naruto the other.

As they squared off the other man grinned. "A brat. Well there's nothing like easy money."

Naruto smiled broadly. "Don't run away like Kakashi, okay?"

They lunged at each other, Naruto's sword deflecting the large gauntlet swung at his head. Capitalising on the deflection Naruto thruster straight for his opponent's neck.

"Meizu!" Distracted momentarily by the call from the other enemy shinobi Naruto frowned as Meizu ducked under his sword, landing a kick and knocking him back.

Meizu grinned. "We don't have the title of the Oni Kyodai for nothing. Weak attacks like that will never work."

Once more gauntlet clashed against sword and as they slowly fought around the clearing Naruto noticed he was a lot slower than usual. It was almost as if he was subconsciously trying not to kill Meizu. His frustration began to build and build. His swings gradually became more and more violent and Meizu's grin was slowly replaced by a look of growing fear as he quickly found himself in the back foot.

Internally Naruto was raging. 'Not enough! More! If I struggle with shinobi like him I'll never make it anywhere. I can't lose. More!'

Despite his wilder swings and reckless attack pattern Naruto felt as if he was using up less and less stamina, Tsumugari weighing less each time. He watched as he began to score small hits on Meizu, cuts building and on his hands, arms, cheek. As the fight continued a the difference in their speeds became more and more obvious as Meizu's numerous small injuries piled up.

Naruto stepped back, Meizu panting heavily. "You… stupid brat. I'll.. I'll..."

Naruto grinned. He had definitely grown stronger since his fight with Kakashi, if only slightly. Then he frowned. "I'm sorry to test this on you but I just realized I've no real finishing moves, so bear with this. I just had a really cool idea."

Naruto lowered his sword tip until it was almost touching the ground. Meizu's eyes widened in shock. This couldn't be good. He moved to dodge but Naruto dashed forwards, lashing sharply upwards with Tsumugari in an arc that cut deeply into Meizu's chest.

"Mikazuki!"


"Good job Naruto, Sasuke. You took down those two chuunin easily enough given your current level. Sakura, good job protecting the client." Kakashi's gaze turned to the two brothers tied up at the base of a nearby tree. Gozu had suffered light injuries against Sasuke but Meizu had lost copious amounts of blood. Then he turned to Tazuna, sweat pouring from the bridge-builder's forehead.

"Let's talk about this mission, hmm?"


Alright! Bit later than I would've liked but I've gotten into a somewhat regular writing schedule so updates should be more frequent. Hopefully.