If I owned Naruto it Itachin, Minny and Kushi would still be alive, Mandarin and Danzo would be fed to Kisame, Zestu would be a pot plant (hes half plant so were halfway there in canon! XP), Ino and Shikamaru would have more screentime, and Gaara would have mouse ears (i dont know what tanuki ears look like, but if shukaku is anything to go by they wouldnt e anywhere near as cute XD) so all in all...
IT WOULD NOT BE NARUTO!
does that answer your question mr-stick-up-my-ass-fancy-pants-lawyer?
WARNING: Serious swearing kiddies. Little bit of blood too. nothing ba, though it does mention bones. there is also the raping of kunai and shuriken. slightly. if you read this dont tell mommy the new words you learned ok kiddlings? i dont wanna be sued.
Sasuke was close to having a conniption fit when they arrived.
Apparently, they had only just made it in time for the inauguration ceremony.
And Sasuke did not like that.
It was a well-known fact that the Uchihas lived their lives through strict schedules, which were to be adhered to even if it was a matter of life or death. A five minuet leeway was permitted, but only if the situation was desperate.
As in, you-were-in-a-fight-with-a-rouge-ninja-and-would-die-if-you-did-not-push-your-time-for-reading-back-by-exacty-five-minuets desperate.
And Sasuke was no exception to this rule.
The only person who even came close to an exception was Itachi, and he only improved the leeway from five minuets to ten minuets. So the Lazy Ass, The Idiot, and the Piggy were subjected to the first ever example of Sasuke-Uchiha-Wrath, though it was not yet fully developed.
It mostly consisted of the raven-haired boy screaming curses left, right, and centre as they made their way to the assembly square for the inauguration.
So it did not exactly instil fear into them.
Naruto even commented that it was 'more like Sasuke-Uchiha-Screeching-Practice' than Wrath.
Sasuke chose to ignore this comment.
It was not until they were all standing with the other new students that they realised Naruto had not gone ahead to his own class, and was instead standing with them.
"Did you forget you had class idiot?" Sasuke whispered as the Chunin teacher announced the Hokage would be giving a speech.
"Failed the Graduation test." Naruto grumbled, obviously embarrassed and angry. Sasuke s frown softened slightly.
"I thought you were doing better this year…" It was not unusual for a student to take a second year if they were not from one of the major clans, but three... Either Naruto was past a measurable level of stupidity, or he had chronic bad luck.
"Fucking Clone Technique again" Naruto grumbled. Sasuke's eyes widened in understanding. Naruto and the Clone technique was a good representation of the phrase 'like oil and water' Clones required little Chakra, but Naruto's abysmal Chakra control and absurd amount of Chakra made the technique impossible for him.
"That's weird… my cousin said it was the Transformation Technique…" Ino whispered.
"Mine said that too." Shikamaru added."
"Yeah, well I got the fucking Clone Technique." the other three frowned but said nothing.
Ino began to wish Aunty Kushina were still around. No doubt, she would have had a solution in her vast range of techniques. She had been a Junkie for Ninja Techniques, though she hated Illusionary techniques as Sasuke hated tardiness.
However, her adoptive aunt was not around any longer. Therefore, it would be up to her and the other two boys to make sure Naruto passed this year.
Upon entering the classroom, the four Trainee-Genin raced the other students for the seats at the back of the room. Itachi had told them horror stories of Iruka's lectures. And the best place to sleep them out was, by default, the back of the room. After a lot of cursing (Naruto & to a lesser degree Ino), glaring (Sasuke), Sighing (Shikamaru), biting (Ino), physical abuse and verbal warfare in general…
Shikamaru sat closet to the walkway in the middle of the room. Sandwiched between him and Naruto was Ino, and Sasuke sat on Naruto's free side. Other students who had also heard of Iruka's lectures glared at them. Others looked at them as if they were crazy for going to such drastic measures. Later, they would also be glaring at them.
"Alright, we've gone over the basics of Chakra, can anyone give me a brief description of Illusionary techniques? Naruto, how about you?"
"Naruto…"
"Idiot!" Sasuke tried poking him.
"Naruto!" Ino screeched in his ear.
"WAAAH! MY RAMEN!"
"DETENTION!"
"...Idiot."
The school year passed quickly, and soon the spring holidays were upon them. Iruka, being Iruka, did not see this as a chance to slack off. Instead, he gave his student a decidedly evil pop quiz. The student filled into the classroom after lunch to find blank sheets of paper, and a set of questions on each of their desks, well almost everyone.
Naruto and Sasuke were too busy discussing which was worse, Sasuke's roof or his grandmother's frying pan.
"I'm telling you the frying pan is worse! That thing hasn't hit you! I swear it's alive! It bites you! It has teeth! The roof doesn't bite you, it's just unstable!"
"Hell no! The roof beats the frying pan any day! That roof collapses even when you aren't standing on it! You walk down the corridor and all of a sudden BAM! You get bombarded by falling roof tiles! It's like your dads Phoenix Flower Technique without the fire!"
"The frying pan is worse Idiot!"
"Hell no, Bastard! The roof is!"
"Frying pan!"
"Roof!"
"Idiot!"
"Bastard!"
"Fishcake!"
"Bottom Boy!"
"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"
"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"
The curses and insults did not stop until Iruka whacked them both on the back on the back of the head with a textbook.
"Oww!"
"Oww!"
"Sit down in your seats and get on with the test!" Iruka roared at them.
They looked around; only just realising they had entered the classroom and had just been arguing in front of the class. Sasuke's fan girls seemed to be in heaven from hearing his voice for a change. Ino was laughing to the point of it being scary, as was Kiba. Shikamaru was sleeping.
They hurried to their seats and quickly picked up the question paper. Sasuke glanced over the first few questions, snorted, and began scribbling down the answers. Naruto watched as Shikamaru filled in the answers for half of the questions before promptly falling asleep again. Ino seemed to be fairing just as well. A glance around showed him that his classmates were also progressing through the questions quickly.
Naruto felt a horrible sense of Deja Vu.
He looked down at his own question paper.
He let his head fall onto the desk with a loud 'thunk'.
Iruka watched bas Naruto stared and squinted at his paper for several minuets before banging his head on his desk, letting it stay there for the entire length of the allotted testing time. He frowned. Naruto should not be having any problems. He answered all the questions he was asked fine. Besides that, this was his third year in the academy. He should know this stuff by heart by now.
Yet, the blonde didn't even attempt to answer any of the questions on the test.
He knew something wasn't right. The question was what.
Sasuke finished his test in ten minuets of staring. It had been pathetic. 'Name the five great Ninja Villages' and 'how many Hokages have there been to date' or 'what energy is used for ninja techniques' hardly qualified as taxing questions. A glance at Shikamaru (sleeping) and Ino (Doodling on the pair of Naruto's jeans she had borrowed) told his they had found the test just as easy as he had.
Naruto, however, worried him.
He had seen the blonde look at the question paper five minuets into the test, and instantly give up, not even attempting to answer the questions. It could not be that he did not know the answers. Even an ordinary civilian could have aced the why was Naruto having such a hard time?
"Alright, times up!" Iruka called out to the class.
"Hand in your test as you go! Were done for the day, remember to review the chapter on Illusionary Techniques and your other homework over the holidays." Iruka took in the tests from the students as they left the room.
"Naruto, I'd like to talk to you before you go, so wait back please."
The students filed out of the room, Sasuke looked at Naruto worry hidden behind the I-don't-care expression permanently etched onto his face. Naruto caught the worry however (he did not know how he did it, but he did) and gave a reassuring smile.
"I'm not going to be turned into dolphin food Bastard, go ahead with Lazy Butt and Piggy. I'll catch up."
Sasuke frowned but walked out the door and continued down the corridor, meeting with said piggy and lazy butt at the exit.
"What did you want Iruka-Sensei?" Naruto asked, sitting down on one of the desks at the front of the class in front of his teacher.
Iruka gave him a worried frown.
"It's about your test" The characteristic grin that had been on Naruto's face disappeared. "I noticed you looking at the questions then not even attempt to answer them. I know you're not the best in the class but you're not that bad… so why didn't you even try to answer the questions?"
Naruto looked at him in surprise.
"You don't know? I told Katahara-Sensei last year though… not that it helped any, but I did tell him. And I told Karuko-Sensei the year before that!"
This time it was the Chunin's turn to look surprised.
"Naruto, what are you talking about?"
"I can't read Kanji."
The Chunin stared at him. Now that it was out in the open, he had never seen any kanji on any of the written work Naruto had handed to him; however, he thought nothing of it at the time. Some people simply preferred to write without it after all. Bu it was still preposterous! A child of eight unable to read Kanji?
"Naruto, that makes no sense! You are eight; you should be able to read the kanji in the books here easily. I know we don't cover the basic stuff here but that is no excuse! How can you not read?"
"Hey! I can read hiragana fine! It's just… my mom hadn't started teaching me kanji when she… I can read katakana as well but… I was never taught kanji. My mom… well she couldn't, and no one else wanted to teach me."
Ah. Now Iruka understood the situation. He knew Naruto's mother had disappeared when he was still young. He knew Inochi had looked after him until he was about five or six, hadn't he taught him anything?
"I see, but couldn't you have asked Inochi for help? I know he looked after you for a while."
Naruto frowned.
"He was already looking after me. And he had to look after Ino by himself as well since her mom died…"
'I see where this is going…' Iruka thought to himself. He massaged his temples one hand, brows furrowed in deep thought.
Naruto would be doomed to stay in the academy for the rest of his life if he did not learn at least some kanji. Soon.
True, many trainee-ninja were not taught as much on the basics as ordinary civilians, but most were home taught to make up for that - from an early age. It was still an essential after all, but the amount of training a Ninja received in the academy simply made giving lessons on such basics impossible. As such, any children who were enrolled into the Ninja Academy would be taught the basics from an earlier age than civilians to make up for that - especially those from the Clans.
Being unable to read properly was as bad in the ninja world as it was for civilians. In fact, it was probably worse. Ninja often used seals in their techniques, and many of them used kanji. There was a reason exploding tags were manufactured. The amount of time spent making them was hell. One wrong brush stroke and the thing would explode if you wanted it to or not.
Kanji was an absolute necessity. Knowing Hiragana and Katakana simply was not enough to get by. What worried him more was the fact that Naruto had informed two different teachers on two separate occasions of this problem and nothing had been done to resolve the matter.
He knew of the creature sealed inside the blonde, everyone his age did, He also knew many of those people treated the boy unfairly. Iruka had chosen to sit on the bench. He wasn't going to deliberately segregate or mistreat a child for something he had no control over, however he was aware of the danger should the fox break free. He remained neutral.
Apparently his two co-workers were part of the Anti-Naruto herd.
Whatever his co-workers had done, he had to rectify the situation now.
But how?
He mulled various ideas and scenarios before coming to a decision.
He dug around in his desk drawer for a piece of paper and a pen before scribbling a message Naruto couldn't see (let alone read). He placed the message in an envelope, licked it, and scribbled a name on the front.
"Naruto, could you give this letter to Fugaku Uchiha? I think he may be able to help you out. You know him fairly well don't you? I see you with Sasuke a lot…" Naruto nodded, though the expression on his face showed his obvious confusion.
"Good. Now get going! And don't forget that homework!"
Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Ino were waiting for him at the beginning of the road linking the academy to the main street.
"Naruto! Hurry Up! Teuchi's closing early today! I want some Ramen before afternoon training starts!" Sasuke yelled. Naruto laughed inwardly. The raven was probably worrying about being late.
"Fine but lemme tag along! Iruka gave me something to give your dad!"
If Sasuke thought this was strange (Which he did), he did not show it.
"Alright, just hurry up!"
Upon reaching the Uchiha estate, Sasuke was immediately smothered by his mother. Mikoto had always been an affectionate mother, and she seemed to find all sorts of reasons to squeeze the bejeesus out of the baby of her two boys.
"Mom! Get off! Lemme go!" Sasuke struggled to free himself from his mothers grasp. He failed miserably.
Not even Itachi could escape his mothers grasp.
"No!"
"Mom!" Sasuke sent his friend a pleading look. Naruto sent a look that said 'you're paying for my ramen for two days' before intervening and preventing the raven-haired boy from death-by-suffocation.
"Excuse me Mrs. U, is Sasuke's dad around?" Mikoto Uchiha looked up, absently releasing Sasuke form her grasp. He immediately took several deep gulps of air.
"Fugaku? He's at the training grounds with Itachi, Why? And how many times do I have tot ell you to call me Mikoto!" Mikoto Uchiha was also not a person for formalities.
"I have a letter from Iruka for him." Naruto had learned to ignore Sasuke's mother when she got on the anti-formalities wagon. It was better for everyone that way.
"Oh, well, you know where the training grounds are. Sasuke!" The boy froze in the doorway he had been about to pass through. He had almost succeeded in escaping to the hallway.
Almost. His mother was a Jonin.
Retired maybe, but that did not mean she didn't keep up with her training.
"What?" he asked cautiously.
"You go with him. Your father wants to spend some time working on your fire and illusionary techniques this afternoon" Sasuke's face fell slightly.
"But I told the Lazy Ass we'd meet up with the others for the advanced showing of the new Princess Gale movie tonight!"
"Language! And you can do that once you've done your training! Now get going before I get the frying pan out!"
Sasuke instantly grabbed Naruto by his arm and fled in the direction of his family's training grounds.
Fugaku Uchiha looked at the letter from Iruka, and then the blonde boy standing in front of him. He had been surprised when it was the blonde, not Sasuke, handing him a note from their teacher. He understood upon reading the letter though.
"Naruto, why did you not say something of this to Inochi earlier? I'm sure he wouldn't have minded teaching you."
"He had his hands full with Ino…" The boy said, slightly embarrassed (Not that Fugaku could blame him).
"Still, you know that the ninja academy dose not teach these subjects. Why do you think all ninja are home schooled in matters such as these?"
Naruto did not look at him. He obviously knew how much of a problem he had landed himself in, berating the boy for it now was not going to help. The damage had been done.
Fugaku wondered why Iruka had asked him to help the boy out.
Of all people why him?
He was no scholar! His own writing was barley passable.
Couldn't he have asked Shikaku to do this?
This was more his area…
Then again, the problems he was having with his wife were common knowledge.
Tutoring probably wasn't the best idea for him right now.
And if Inochi found out…
Either he would blame himself for not taking care of his friends son properly, or kill the boy for not telling him sooner.
And considering most of the village wanted nothing to do with the boy if they could help it…
He sighed. He really did not want to do this. He could teach Ninja Techniques, Illusionary Techniques, and the Physical Arts without a problem. But teaching a child to read? He had barley managed with Itachi and Sasuke, and they and both been young when they learned. Easier to teach.
Naruto was eight. It would be harder for his brain to accept new information. As he pondered, he caught sight of Itachi sparring with Sasuke. He felt an invisible smirk grace his features. His first-born had requested time off from the Black Ops. He had plenty of free time on his hands…
"Itachi!" He called out. His oldest immediately stopped the spar, and walked over to his father - Sasuke closely following.
"Yes Father?" He asked.
"I have a request for you." He said'request'.
However, when Fugaku Uchiha had a request - he meant an order.
He was clan head, after all, and no one in their right minds went up against him.
"What is it?" The teen asked.
"I want you to teach Naruto how to read."
Itachi's jaw dropped slightly.
Sasuke stared at his friend eyes bulging, mouth agape.
"You can't read?" He asked incredulously.
"Kanji! I can't read kanji! I can read the rest fine! Mom never taught me kanji…" Sasuke's eyes softened in understanding at the mention of his mother. But only slightly.
"Idiot, that's half the language you can't read!"
"Shut up! It's not my fault!"
Fugaku disagreed. Had the boy said something sooner he may have been a third year academy student by now. However, he chose not to mention this. The poor kids pride was already suffering from Sasuke's hysterical laughter.
Itachi still had not said anything.
Pft.
Itachi had never asked for much from his family. He was content with what he had and his abilities as a ninja. He was not a person who had many material needs. Well, except for pocky and his cacti collection. However, that was a far as any desire for any material goods went. He had been confident in the belief that he had never failed to live up to his fathers expectations, and that he was pleased with him.
After spending two weeks teaching Naruto how to read the half of the language he had yet to learn, Itachi begged his father to find another tutor for the boy. He kneeled down, head pressed to the floor of his fathers study.
He, Itachi Uchiha, was begging.
The kid was evil!
He was only pretending to be this stupid.
Itachi could tell...
Fugaku truly sympathised for his son. He really did. Nevertheless, it was survival of the fittest. He had no desire, nor the ability, to teach the boy. However, his sense of responsibility forced him to do something to help the boy. If only to honour their past alliances with the boy's family.
So it was with an only-slightly-heavy-heart that he denied the only request his eldest son had asked for in several years. He promised to make up for it somehow, but he still denied the refused to talk to him for several days, until he ordered a rare variety of cacti from a cacti breeder (he did not ask why someone bred cacti for a living) in the land of wind.
Itachi seemed to forgive him, if the grunts were anything to go by...
Eventually, Sasuke stopped laughing at Naruto's predicament. He still berated him for his stupidity for not saying something sooner, but he did stop laughing. He even helped him out in class. Unfortunately, for Naruto, Ino saw this. And when she found out, even Shikamaru started running.
Ino's temper was not something to be trifled with.
Two years later, and Naruto had successfully made it to the second year course in the academy. He did not know it, but he had Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Ino to thank for that. They had noticed long ago that many, if not all, of the adults in the village disliked Naruto. When you go into a shop with the boy only for him to be thrown out (not common, but it had happened a couple of times), overpriced, or simply glared at you tend to notice these things.
Shikamaru was the first to notice. During their lessons on the Illusionary arts, during their first year, Naruto's abysmal control became a problem. The amount of Chakra needed for illusions didn't matter. The more Chakra, the harder it was to break. It had to be controlled however. And that was where Naruto failed.
Appearing to take pity on the boy, one of the teachers known as Katahara-Sensei took him aside and gave him a small piece of paper. He instructed the boy to use his Chakra to affix the piece of paper to his forehead and keep it there. By doing this, he would improve his Chakra control and would then be able to successfully cast the illusion.
Naruto smiled but the lazy boy could tell he was dubious. Despite this took the paper. If the wind had not blown the paper before Naruto applied his Chakra to it, he never would have seen the black markings on the side of the paper.
Moving faster than he (or anyone else) ever thought possible, he lunged at the paper, quickly removing it from the blonde's grasp. Needles to say, Naruto was surprised.
"Did you just run?"
Shikamaru ignored him.
Instead, he turned to face the teacher.
Glaring.
The teacher fidgeted under the mini version of Nara-Wrath.
"Katahara-Sensei, why did you try to get Naruto to put Chakra into an exploding tag?" He asked in a dangerously calm tone, especially for a nine year old
"What are you talking about Shikamaru? That's a Chakra controlling seal. It's made to help people with controlling their Chakra." he smiled, the boy easily saw it for what it was; fake. He turned the tag over and pointed at one of the Kanji.
"It can't be. Control seals don't have the kanji for blood on them. See?"
The teacher profusely apologised and Shikamaru dragged Naruto away from the man, saying he would help him out with the illusion.
"Thanks lazy butt! If you hadn't jumped in that could've got kind of messy…"
"Yeah, yeah, just try not to get into trouble so much. Pain in the ass"
Inside his head, Shikamaru's thoughts were racing a mile a minuet. He refused to believe the teacher had mistaken the seals. He was a Chunin. There was no way he could have mixed the two up. He had been trying to kill the blonde. Or at least severely maim him.
The question burning itself into his brain was why?
Shikamaru alerted Sasuke to the incident, and the boy looked like he was desperately trying not to send a fire technique up the man's backside. However, he controlled his temper, and agreed to keep alert. He also vehemently agreed when Shikamaru stressed the importance of withholding the information from Ino.
If the girl got wind of this then she would loose it. And that was to be avoided. Girls were scary when mad in general, but Ino took it to the extreme end of extremes.
After Shikamaru's intervention, the sabotaging of Naruto's schooling decreased to a barley noticeable level. Some teachers would mark him in a harsher manner, only for the blond to go far above the requirements - thus giving them no choice but to pass him.
This was only during practical tests though.
When the written tests came around, Naruto's incomprehension of Kanji was his downfall, despite Itachi's efforts. The teachers would deliberately use difficult kanji, or use long-winded phrases that were hard to understand. Naruto managed, but barley. Therefore dragging his overall grade down to the middle of the class.
As for the others, Sasuke could have been the top male student, but his and Naruto's 'lovers quarrels' as Ino called them (Sasuke yelled at her whenever she mentioned it), distracted him. He has also somehow landed the job of 'wake-up-Shikamaru' that also demanded a lot of attention. Therefore, he came in second - just behind Shino Aburame.
Shikamaru - when he bothered to do the work they were given - was rather unenthusiastic. He answered enough to pass, and that was it. After that he either fell asleep again, or gazed of absently into the clouds. He held a passing grade, a low one, but it was still a passing grade. So that was good enough for him.
Ino was constantly butting heads with Sakura Haruno for the position of top girl, and frequently claimed the position, though not all the time. She probably could have permanently claimed the position had she not been running after the boys.
Making sure Naruto passed his tests, motivating Shikamaru to do the work in the first place, and preventing Sasuke from murdering the two out of frustration (because of Naruto's comments and Shikamaru's laziness) took a bit of time and concentration.
By the end of their second year, things were progressing well. Though hey were not without other incidents. After all, it wasn't just some of their teachers that had something against Naruto. During the summer before their third year, they were all practicing their Physical Arts in the Uchiha compound.
Ino had managed to force Shikamaru into practicing, using unknown methods, as Naruto and Sasuke beat the snot out of each other. For some reason they could not go two weeks without at least one serious fight. Ino passed it of as the whole male-pride-thing. She soon beat the lazy Nara into the dirt; he was too lazy to put up an actual fight. She made a mental note never to ask him to be her sparring partner again. He was useless.
As she sat back and observed the two remaining boys sparring, she did not notice the kunai hurled in their direction until it was almost too late for either boy to dodge.
"Naruto! Sasuke!" Luckily they both heard the familiar whistling of a kunai travelling through the air and dodged. Sasuke jumped up into the air, whilst Naruto flattened himself to the ground.
"What the hell?!" Naruto let out a string of violent sounding threats and promises of pain for the one who threw the kunai. Sasuke looked just as angry, even if he did not say anything.
Ino was freaking out, obsessively checking Naruto for any injuries other than the ones from his fight with Sasuke. She didn't freak as much over Sasuke, she didn't know him half as well as Naruto. Therefore, in her panic-addled mind, Naruto came precedent.
Shikamaru was aroused from his slumber by all the commotion, and looked thoroughly confused. However, it was not for long. Once he saw the Kunai and Ino chasing Naruto screaming about checking for injuries, he derived a conclusion.
A glance from Sasuke confirmed his suspicions.
Sasuke was livid. Not only had someone tried to kill his friend, but it was likely a member of his own family. Unless a person was invited in, it was impossible to enter the Uchiha compound. Very few, other than family friends, had ever seen the inside of the compound.
Even less had seen the training areas. Especially this particular one. It was for use by the clan head and close relatives only. Not even other Uchiha were allowed to use it without permission. His friends were only allowed near it when he, Itachi, or his parents were present. Even then, it was not often. They normally used the general training grounds.
All this together meant the person who had thrown the Kunai was probably a close relative. It was the only way they could have got close enough to throw the thing. That pissed him off.
"Who threw that? Show yourself! Unless you're a relative of the clan head, you have no right even being here! Show yourself!" He yelled. He turned his head in different directions as he spoke, unsure as to the attacker's location.
There was no answer. Instead, multitudes of kunai ans shuriken were thrown from different directions.
Naruto grabbed the one aimed in his direction moment before it hit his jugular, though he sliced his palm open in the process. Sasuke deflected the two heading for him with some shuriken, and Shikamaru expended his shadow to form a circle on the ground. The shuriken froze as their shadows entered the circle. He deactivated the circle and the kunai clattered harmlessly to the ground.
Ino screamed as one kunai flew in her direction, too fast fro her to react to. Sasuke felt his gut clench. He couldn't reach her. She was at the opposite end of the training ground. Shikamaru was already running in her direction but…
It was all happening too fast.
First the kunai aimed at Naruto, now everyone else?!
What on earth was happening?!
Shikamaru landed in front to of the blonde girl just in time to deflect the kunai with one of his own.
"Ino! Get a grip!" He all but yelled.
She snapped out of her daze and grabbed some shuriken of her own. She hurled them into the shrubbery surrounding the training ground. Hearing nothing to indicate they had hit. She stopped to focus her Chakra, before forming a simple looking seal with her hands.
"What are you doing? This is no time for practicing your Chakra control!" Sasuke yelled deflecting yet more kunai as he edged closer to them.
"Shut up! I'm looking for them using mental waves! This is hard!" she yelled back before focusing on the technique again. Focusing the Chakra in the middle of her forehead, she forced it outwards.
Naruto soon joined Shikamaru; busy deflecting the kunai aimed their way.
"Anything?" he asked. He had seen the technique before. Being raised by her father for several years, he could not have not seen it.
"Urgh… kind of…" Ino had her eyes closed, and her face scrunched up from the effort of concentration.
"Where then?!" Sasuke landed with them, forming a circle around the girl. "We can't hold up against them for much longer! I don't think you realise it but these people are actual ninja!"
"I know! Stop harping on at me! I only started learning this last week!" Her brow furrowed. The waves of Chakra were travelling slowly across the area, but she was not hitting any… There!
"There two to the south-east… I think they're on top of that giant rock… I can't tell for sure… the trees are messing up my technique…" she concentrated again, as Naruto hurled several kunai in the direction she stated.
"North… near some sort of shrine… I think it's the main one…" Sasuke threw shuriken in that direction. He hoped to god they hit. It might not be hard for a normal ninja, but they were just out of their second year. They didn't have the strength required for such long-distance throws.
"Did they get hit?" Shikamaru asked, thinking along the same lines as Sasuke.
"Erk… Crap! …No! Go the other way!...... No! The other left!" Ino was breathing heavily. She had said the technique was a new one and it showed. She was quickly loosing control over it.
Naruto kept a concerned glance on her; unfortunately, it distracted him enough for a kunai to lodge itself in his arm. There was a sickening crack accompanying it as it lodged itself in his bone.
"Fucking shit heads! That hurts you bastards!"
"What happened? Are you okay? Naruto!" Ino lost all her concentration. Giving up on the mind locating technique, she turned to Naruto. He looked pale, and was shaking. Seeing the kunai, she too paled.
"I'm fine Ino! Just concentrate on keep those kunai away! They're getting impatient now!" Ino frowned at him but did as he instructed, and pulled her own kunai out of her holster.
"Oi lazy! Can you do that shadow thing again?" Sasuke yelled. There was a clang as he deflected several shuriken.
"No point. I can't use it for long, and the moment we step out of it, were out of the shield. Besides, you'll be stuck to the ground." he let fly several kunai to deflect the ones headed their way.
"Fuck! And I can't use any fire techniques… its too far… Naruto! Do you have anything?"
"Only the stuff from the academy… face it! We're up shit creek!"
"Will you stop swearing?!" Sasuke berated him, throwing the last of his shuriken to deflect the ones thrown towards them.
"What the fuck does it matter about my language at this point?" Naruto hurled another kunai in the direction Ino had first identified.
"Will you two shut up! This isn't the time for one of your lovers' quarrels!" Ino screeched, deflecting the shuriken with a kunai.
"STOP SAYING THAT BANSHEE!"
"What did you just call me?"
"ALL OF YOU BE QUIET! THIS IS BAD ENOUGH WITHOUT YOU LOT HACKING AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS! Shikamaru yelled at them. His eyebrow was twitching. The other three were silent in the face of what was the beginning of Nara-Wrath.
Shikamaru was close to breaking point. He had various scenarios in his head, but they were not good enough. The constant hail of weapons was impossible to escape as they were stuck in the middle of the training grounds.
Not to mention the fact the whole scenario bothered him. Why were they just using weapons? They couldn't be too far away for them to use ninja techniques. They had a longer range than weapons. Did they really want to keep their identities a secret that badly? This whole situation was a giving him a pain in the ass headache.
They needed to get it touch with someone but how?! Unless one of them was telepathic then there was no way…
He let out a string of curses for his own stupidity.
It's a bird! I'ts a plane! It's a cookie!
Sorry to dissapoint you, minions and duckies, but its an Update!
*Le Gasp!*
The fudge?! an update you say?!
Aye, matey. It be an update!
...Since when do you update?!
...Good question. Unfortunatley you are not yet ready for the answer, my young aprentice.
...are you on crack?
no, but i do have problems staying away from vimto, ginger beer, fruitella, and toast.
...You arent supposed to admit that.
Shut Up! You're just jealous of my individuality!
You mean mental instability?
Yeah, that too!
...
......What?
...
......Oh crap! i wasnt supposed to admist that!
Remind me... Why do i talk to you again?
Because you're my MUSEYKINS!
:P
Live the insanity. Its better than reality, I swear to the demon lord. even if he does send Karma after your butt. GOD DAMN THAT KARMA!
Reveiw my minions!
i'll give you dougnuts this time.
Now press the button.
Press ittttttt......
Much love, my minions and duckies.
Natarii.
