The Will of Fire Lives Stronger Than Ever
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Got it?
Sabaku no Gaara vs. Uzumaki Naruto.
Well, damn. Looks like it doesn't matte how many of me there are, they can't outmaneuver the sand. I was saving this for Sasuke teme, but I guess I'm gonna need it now. Good thing he's not here to see it firsthand, he'd probably copy it like he did with Lee's jutsu."
Ch2 The Ace is out
Sabaku no Gaara was standing in the middle of the arena waiting for Naruto to reveal himself. Meanwhile, in the stands, there was much muttering about the unprecedented amount of technique, smarts, and overall skill shown by Uzumaki Naruto.
"When was Naruto baka ever this good?" Muttered an astounded Ino, who didn't know that Naruto could perform the Bushin, much less the Kage Bushin.
Shikamaru, on the other hand smirked, having suspected Naruto having some sort of hidden potential ever since the day that he observed Naruto subduing and impersonating Sasuke, if only for a few minutes.
Kiba was a different story. "Naruto, buddy, if you get out of this alive, I won't call you a dobe ever again. I don't want my ol' pranking buddy to die just because he was unlucky enough to face him. Your death would break Hinata chan's heart; she's fragile as it is. Don't die, man." Yeah, Kiba was uncharacteristically worrying for his old buddy, having seen what that guy- no monster was capable of.
Sakura was worried for her teammate, sure, but there was no way that this Suna genin was stronger than the snake freak they came across in The Forest of Death. And even if it was a close match, Naruto could just use that weird, red, glowing, jutsu that allowed him to stop the huge snake summon with only two kunai. As much of a completely devoted fangirl as Sakura is, even she knew that her Sasuke Kun was not capable of that.
Down on the arena Naruto had just walked out from behind the giant statue and proceeded to sit down cross legged. Gaara, having not been given enough of a challenge to warrant an aggressive assault, decided to stand there and watch and hope that whatever the orange boy in front of him had in store would help him prove his own existence.
Naruto looked toward Gai for a moment before nodding, as if this was the right time to reveal his secret. He pulled up his pant legs to reveal… weights. He carefully unhooked the straps and laid them on the ground.
Kakashi, who had noticed Naruto glance at Gai asked, "Gai, when did you give Naruto weights?"
"YOSH! It happened on a youthful day on…"
(Alright I'm gonna flashback now since I have no desire to have Gai do one of his youth rants on this subject)
It was early morning, before sunrise and Gai was on his way to meet Lee for their standard early morning before breakfast training sessions of youth. He had heard that his unyouthful rival, Kakashi, had decided to be youthful for once in his life and had finally passed a team of genin to train one, maybe two weeks ago. He was contemplating the idea of having a completion between the two teams, but then remembered that it would be unyouthful to do so since they were still so green.
It was then that he heard someone running around, most likely doing speed drills by the sound of it. Gai was ecstatic about meeting someone who was almost as youthful as him and Lee, after all, only one with great youthfulness trains this early. (Since he knew that nobody else in the village wore the green spandex of youth)
Gai decided to quietly observe this person's method of training quietly as to not break the concentration of the youthful one. What he saw almost made him cry with tears of joy. It was a youngster, looked to be only a year younger than Lee. He wore an orange jumpsuit (well within the confines of youthful) and he looked to be alternating between various speed drills, punching and kicking a stump, and practicing his accuracy with basic nin tools.
"Hm…Blonde hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks. That must be the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki that got put on Kakashi's team. Such youthfulness can't possibly be as evil as the villagers make him out to be." Gai gasped lightly when he noticed that the boy's form was terrible. He wasn't holding his kunai correctly; his feet were never in the correct position for any of the Taijutsu katas that he knew and he was the renound Taijutsu exert of Konoha! This problem had to be fixed. Kakashi's team or no, such youthfulness could not be wasted.
The boy's ears visibly twitched mid-punch and quick as lightning, had whipped around and thrown a kunai straight for Gai. Sure, it missed by a dew feet, but it was still astounding, a genin had accurately sensed a seasoned Jounin in the dead of night!
Naruto had palmed another kunai and was eyeing Gai when he jumped down form the trees. "Who are you and why are you watching me?" he asked, eyes clearly showing distrust at the strangely dressed man in front of him.
"I was just watching the youthfulness, as few people are youthful enough to get up to train earlier than the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha, Maito Gai!"
"…" Naruto seemed more weirded out rather than distrustful at the moment as this eccentric Gai- person seemed to hold no ill will against him.
"Who taught you those drills? You are not performing them correctly at all."
Naruto laughed nervously. Maybe he could convince this guy to help him; he was wearing a Jounin jacket after all. "Nobody did. I saw a Chunin doing something like this once. He called it speed training."
"That won't do at all. Go through them again. I'll stop you and fix your footwork when necessary. "Naruto's footwork seemed to be more riddled with holes than humans with tenketsu. However, that didn't seem to be much of a problem as Naruto sucked up the teaching like a sponge, only having to be corrected again once or twice. He then showed Naruto the correct way to set up a speed training obstacle course.
"Naruto kun, who is your sensei? He should have been the one to correct these." Gai asked, setting up for the next question.
"Kakashi sensei doesn't know that I do these, cause we're always doing crap jobs (D rank missions) and teamwork exercises." Gai sweatdropped since he already answered the next question.
"Why do you focus so much on speed, you don't seem to have a particular style to complement it?"
"When we spar, Sasuke teme always beats me. I figured that he wins cause he's faster and can outmaneuver me. So when I become faster than him, and invent a style to counter his, his gigantic 'better than thou' ego will be knocked down a few notches."
"Your youthfulness to strive so hard to defeat your eternal rival is music to my ears! I have a speed training exercise you would benefit greatly from!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow, suddenly suspicious. He remembered the last time someone on how to get strong quickly, and although his trademark jutsu was the reward, Naruto never wanted to be tricked like that again. "Why are you helping me so much? I'm not even your student."
Gai gasped, realizing that he was late to his training session with Lee. "I'm late! The unyouthfulness has soiled me! I promise to do 5000 one armed push ups on each arm, and if I cannot do that I will-"
"GAI SENSEI!" Naruto interrupted.
"Hm?"
"So what's this new training exercise you were talking about?"
"Weights! I will bring them here tomorrow. Don't tell anyone I'm doing this because I don't want my eternal rival Kakashi to think that I think that I need to train his students."
"Wait, you don't have t-" Gai had already run off as to not be later than he already was.
"Do that." Naruto sighed, but then continued training at a quicker pace due to the excitement of someday defeating the teme.
Flashback Kai!
"And that is how Naruto Kun got his leg and arm weights." Gai finished. Everyone who was paying attention to the story looked down to the arena to see that Naruto was now removing a pair of arm weights.
"Gai, how much do those weights weigh?" Kakashi asked cautiously, knowing what Gai usual standards were.
"Oh not much, 200 per leg, 100 per arm."
"But Lee san doesn't wear arm weights." Sakura commented.
"Oh, Sakura san, you are beautiful and observant! I didn't wear my standard arm weights because I can't hide them. Even if I did, everyone would suspect me to wear leg weights. Naruto Kun is about to turn the tables!" Lee shouted excitedly, seeing as Naruto was finally getting up. You may be able to move almost as fast as me, and can agument your movements with chakra unlike me; however, I have been doing this for far longer than you. Lets see how you stamina holds."
Naruto glared at Gaara for a moment and then he rushed to jab at him. He smirked when only a thin stream of sand had been able to come up not to stop his punch, but rather to deflect it away.
Gaara turned his head to see a hole punched on the other side from where Naruto was a second ago. And again, and again. "This guy suddenly got fast enough to almost get past the Suna no Tate. I better put up the Suna no Yoroi for when he stops playing around I can tell that he's not aiming for direct hits yet. Heh, this might actually be worthy blood for mother after all."
It was then that Naruto pulled a classic feint to fool the sand and gave Gaara an uppercut. He waited smugly for Gaara to get up to see the results. Needless to say, he was surprised when he saw that Gaara was not only untouched, but that it looked like his face had halfway fallen off into the sand.
Naruto retreated for a moment to form his favorite seal. Kage Bushin no Jutsu! Four clones appeared. "The teme isn't the only one who can make a lotus rip-off."
One Naruto feinted and gave an axe kick from below to the chin; knocking Gaara to the left into another two Naruto's who promptly kicked him into the air. The sand was being spread so thin that the punches easily got through.
The fourth Naruto slammed Gaara back toward the ground, where the last Naruto punched Gaara back to the original two that kicked him into the air. This continued for about two more cycles while the first Naruto was throwing in random hits to help distract the sand.
Naruto was going to end it. He slammed Gaara into the ground one last time and was going to follow up with an axe kick to the stomach. (Yes, like the Shishi Rendan) he yelled Naruto Rendan! (Maelstrom Barrage)
Up in the stands Sakura deadpanned, "Figures. He just can't resist named a technique after himself."
"It is named rather well." Asuma, Team 10's sensei commented.
"Fishcake barrage?" Choji asked, obviously thinking with his stomach rather than his brain.
"No, sensei's right. Maelstrom Barrage." Shikamaru corrected.
"When did Naruto get so good? Not even Sasuke was this good." Naruto has placed a seed of doubt in yet another one of Sasuke's fangirls.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed. Those weren't ordinary punches. A normal punch would push through the sand and hug the skin, but these were cutting right through. Almost like a bladed weapon, or wind. He dismissed that though immediately. There was no way that his student was using the Kazeken, it was somewhat like the Goken, except it was more unpredictable and way less refined. It was like a half style, more than anything else. He knew that Naruto might've been able to keep the secret about the weights since it would take time for him to take them off to reveal his true skill. But this, he had never seen Naruto do anything like this before. And he knew that Naruto wouldn't be able to not show off a special fighting style to try to beat Sasuke. Maybe he is doing it subconsciously. Trust Naruto to completely blur the line between idiot and genius. Kakashi would have to figure this out later.
Back on the field, Naruto was about to make the finisher when exploded from his body, easily dispersing all of his clones and slamming Naruto into a wall. His eyes widened as he came to a realization. "That's why it was so easy past the sand once my barrage started. He gathered it all to his body. He probably doesn't even have a scratch on him. So, knowing that, it doesn't matter how many clones there are, I need more power behind my punches. Guess I'll have to use its chakra." Naruto glanced towards the Third as he remembered that conversation just after the mission to Wave.
Flashback
"Team 7 is dismissed. Naruto, stay here." Sarutobi commanded.
"Hai!"
"Naruto kun, is there anything you would like to talk to me about?"
Naruto gave the old man a slightly haunted look. "Hai. I used its chakra. I thought that Sasuke had been killed and- and…"
"Hn. It's alright Naruto Kun. So you almost hurt someone that you didn't wish to hurt?"
"Hai."
"Here" He tossed Naruto a scroll. "Those contain meditative exercises. Should this power escape again- and it will, if you cannot control it, you may end up hurting, if not killing those that are precious to you." The Sandaime was pleased to see that Naruto was horrified by the mere thought of that. "However, if you learn how to control it, it may become your greatest asset."
"Hai." Naruto had a determined glint in his eye.
"Be warned. Do not become dependant on this power. It may corrupt you and there are ways to cut you off from it. If you have to make a deal, confirm it with me before you agree. After all, thousands of years old foxes can be quite devious." The Third stated with an amused twinkle in his eye.
"Oh, and come up with a decent name for the technique, you can't just say that you're using its chakra, you know."
Flashback Kai!
Naruto folded his hands into the Kitsune seal. "Give me chakra. Enough to break through the sand!" "Hai. You will fulfill your end of the bargain within the week."Naruto's body was slowly enveloped in an orange-red aura, yet his features were unchanged. No claws, fangs, or a change in eye color. Just an aura. Not even laced with the standard killing intent.
The Sound Jounin's (Orochimaru) eyes widened considerably when this happened.There was no way that a pre adolescent boy had the knowledge to remove the Five Pronged Seal nor had he had the time to go to the old fool to get it removed.
It seems that Naruto's ungodly amount of luck has saved his ass again. It seems that the Five Pronged Seal was originally a training technique in which one had to relearn how to use his or her chakra every few days since it made one's chakra affinity shift from one element to another every few days. And with Naruto's luck, it just shifted form his natural affinity for wind to fire. Since Kyuubi was a spirit of fire, well you get the idea.
Temari, Kankuro, and Baka- I mean Baki were stunned. This kid was suddenly releasing an amount of chakra almost equal to that of Gaara when he loses control.
Gaara, eyes wide and almost fearful, since mother was screaming for him to back down (she never did that) asked, "What is that?"
"As far as you're concerned, this is the Will of Fire!"
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Authors Note
Kazeken- wind fist- refers to a Taijutsu style that revolves around enhancing your punches with wind chakra.
Naruto Rendan- Maelstrom Barrage- Naruto forms several clones and performs a high speed juggling act then he slams them into the ground.
Thank you! I've never gotten so many reviews in so little time!
How do you like it? I know that it's not very original, but I liked the idea. I just discovered how hard it is to portray insane, psychotic people and hyper, loud people for long periods of time. If I was Naruto I would've talked to the third about the chakra abnormality after it happened, especially since he almost lost control. It seems so like Gai to help anyone and I mean anyone who is willing to strive toward a youthful goal. But really, making Naruto better is just to make Sasuke's jealously less misplaced. In canon he was jealous of Naruto even though he was still clearly better. It made little to no sense, one or two techniques won't make you into an invincible immortal.
Over and Out
Eye of the Blizzard
