AN: Well, the inspiration is still flowing, though not quite as strongly, so I managed to get this chapter done. Yes, it's a time skip, a pretty big one. As mentioned in the prologue, it was just to set up the point of divergence.
dayfox96: I'm glad to see you like the story. As you can see, I indeed have a direction I plan to go in. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post, but as long as my inspiration lasts I will see this story continued.
Chapter 1: Eleven Years
Today... Today was the final day of the academy year, and for one Naruto Uzumaki, it was the most important day of the year, he would be able to try for early graduation today, his parents had refused to let him try when he first joined the academy, saying he needed the time, but now, now he'd be able to give it his all! He'd be able to get into a genin team!
He was quite the sight, blonde hair spiked up wildly, heavily tanned skin from constant work in the heat of the forge, sapphire blue eyes, and whisker marks on both of his cheeks. Of middling height, it was his build that drew attention, heavily muscled yet lean, Naruto had more muscle than most full grown men, at least among the civilians. His clothing was simple, a dark brown shirt, a matte grey and green jacket, tan pants, standard shinobi sandals, in green, and a pair of dark tinted goggles on his forehead. A pouch was strapped to a belt at his waist, left loose and slightly off level, a scroll hanging off the other end by a leather strap.
The young blonde walked casually down the street, barely noticing the chatter of the people around him, so focused on his own little world that the people around him didn't even come into view, until he recognized it and nearly slapped himself out of it. Gin-oji had been trying to break him of that habit for years now, his tendency to over focus on something, usually his own thoughts, to the exclusion of all else. He still had trouble of it even after three years of Gin-oji working on breaking that habit, though he was a lot better of it now.
Shaking his head as he entered the academy - how long had he been daydreaming? - Naruto tried to get himself to spread his senses, an exercise that Gin had taken to having him do while working in the smithy. It helped him get in tune with his environment and not caught unawares like he used to, a dangerous thing to have happen as a shinobi. Naruto didn't let his attention linger long, or at least he tried, every now and then there'd be a bit of a snag with his focus, but he was quick to catch himself. Even with only the few minutes it took him to get to class and taking his usual seat by the window, more a test of his own ability to let his mind drift while still paying attention... it didn't always work.
Naruto was a middling student at the best of times, he could never quite make it through the day without getting lost in his thoughts for a time, more than once he'd missed an entire class, while still present, simply because he got lost in his own little world. This happened less after Gin got him into the habit of forcing his mind to wander a bit so he'd get back into the class before he missed too much, but he still had gaps he had to look up or ask his mother about later. It was rather embarrassing to the lad at times.
That wasn't to say he was a bad student, not by any means, he just didn't test well, his tendency to too intently focus often getting him stuck on a problem rather than skipping it and coming back around like his mother always told him to do. It just didn't work that way for him. If he got stuck, he'd stay stuck, and it was frustrating to say the least. He knew the material, he just couldn't get it onto the paper, leading to his poor grades despite his best efforts.
Maybe he shouldn't try to pass early, not until he could break the habit?
No, he wanted to become a ninja, he'd try, if he failed then he'd know he wasn't ready, if he passed he'd know he was ready. He was still working on it, as long as he could work it out a little more before any big missions he'd be fine. With that thought in mind he nodded as the teacher came in.
Hitori-sensei, the thrown weapons teacher, and his assistant Iruka, walked in, getting the class to quiet down. They'd all learned early on not to annoy Hitori-sensei, he had a good arm and an almost endless supply of chalk sticks as his weapon of choice. The fact he always hit the person dead center of the forehead made it all the more reason for the students to not cause trouble in the class room.
"Good morning class, as you know today is the last day of the academy year. After today you will have two months to prepare for the final academy year," Hitori-sensei spoke in measure tones and a straight face, giving him a reputation as a no-nonsense kind of teacher, "you have studied and trained hard this past year, and I can see potential in many of you as successful shinobi of Konoha. Do not let your skills stagnate during the coming break, I would hate to see that potential wasted when you return..." he paused and turned to Iruka, who nodded as he took up a few papers and started walking the room, leaving papers before certain students, including Naruto, "some of you have been granted permission to try for early enrollment to a genin team, those that have are asked to go to the room on the sheet before you where your examination will take place. For the rest of the class, we will be going over the Henge (Transformation), Kawarimi (Body Replacement), and Bunshin (Clone) Jutsu as well as sparring matches for the day to see how far you have progressed and to measure your progress once you return after the break."
Naruto could barely contain his excitement as he took the sheet and headed towards the assigned room, barely even registering the other students as he went. They were to meet in room 201, a room normally set aside for chakra theory and fuinjutsu, it hadn't been used for that purpose in years now, simply acting as the new examination room. A chunin stood in front of the door, waiting for the few stragglers to show up.
The chunin, counted out the students before nodding, "when I call your name enter the examination room. You will be tested on key aspects a genin is expected to know and be able to accomplish, after you complete your test within you will be asked to go to the training ground outside where you will be tested on thrown weapons and taijutsu. First examinee; Adachi, Sora."
Naruto almost groaned, they were going alphabetically... and he'd be the last of the ten examinees. He was honestly expecting more than that. Was there more than one examination room? Now that he thought about it, there were only three of the students from his class out of the eight that applied for early graduations. There had to be more than one examination room then.
Sora emerged from the room and headed down the hall towards the door to the training grounds, a slight frown on his face, "Next examinee, Aoyama, Risuki." the chunin called out, managing to break Naruto from his thoughts, he needed to keep his focus from getting to entangled into his thought processes, it would not do well to miss his que here. He could think about other things later, when it wasn't so important he keep his thoughts fluid.
Risuki emerged roughly twenty minutes later, looking apprehensive, but headed for the training grounds regardless, "Next examinee; Higurashi, Tenten," the chunin said the moment Risuki was out of sight. Naruto knew Tenten, or at least of her, Gin-oji tended to speak of her father quite highly, apparently he supplied some of the weapons for their shop, including some of the ones Tenten was learning to use in her free time. Maybe he'd meet her one day.
It only took fifteen minutes for Tenten to exit the room, a confident look easily visible on her face as she headed out to the training field for the next part of the exam.
The pattern went on until only two people were in the hallway, once the examinee left, Naruto was expecting the other kid to get called in, but was surprised by the call of, "Next examinee, Uzumaki, Naruto," Naruto let his surprise show when he looked at the other kid.
"Yamishiro," he says, not even looking at Naruto, who mouthed "oh" before he walked into the room.
The room was less like a normal classroom and far more open, the original seating long since removed, a desk at the far end where the examiner sat, "good morning Uzumaki-san," the examiner said after the door was closed, prompting Naruto to stand in front of her, "I am Kaede Satake and will be your examiner today," the woman was older, easily in her late thirties, with short brown hair, pupilless mauve eyes, and light skin. She didn't wear the normal chunin clothing, though...
Naruto nodded in acknowledgement before Kaede got started, "let's start simply with basic ninjutsu. Please demonstrate three techniques you are proficient with," Naruto blinked, he was expecting something more in depth with how long it had taken the others to do this.
"Henge!" Naruto decided to start simple, turning into a copy of the examiner with the jutsu.
"Hm, good, no missing details... you show above average proficiency in the Henge, I'm surprised though, most genin at your level have some degree of fault to their Henge," she comments, indicating the open window, "you either have good instincts or have been tutored on the process," she writes something down. This gave Naruto an idea on why this took so long, if she commented on every technique.
"Demonstrate your next technique, please," Kaede asked Naruto, her attention back on him.
"Right," Naruto replied and made three handseals before disappearing in a Kawarimi, appearing on the side of the room where a few chairs were kept.
"Hm, handseals could be a little faster and there was a bit more smoke than necessary, that indicates wasted chakra. However, it is adequate for a pass on your second technique, you'll want to work on this one more than your henge, Kawarimi is a life saver for genin, and many chunin swear by the technique," she says as she writes out more on the paper.
"And your third technique?" she asks simply, turning her attention once more on Naruto.
Naruto nods and makes four hand seals, getting a raised eyebrow from the examiner, then calls out "Doton: Doryuuheki," as he spit out a ball of mud to form a short wall, barely an inch taller than Naruto, before him.
"Well now, I was expecting a Bunshin like the other students. A good display. I can tell you're more proficient in this technique than your Kawarimi," Kaede says, showing some interest, "it also means you've sought out additional techniques yourself, which shows some drive," she starts writing again, "do you have any additional techniques?"
"Not currently but I am working on Doton: Teppodama (Earth Release: Gunshot)," Naruto replied nervously.
"Good, that gives you some offensive potential outside of kunai and taijutsu," Kaede replies, writing a note on her paper for the boy, "last thing before I let you go to the next part of the test," she says, "dispel the genjutsu I just put you under," she says with a smile as sakura petals start to fall from all directions around the boy. A moment later, they vanish and Naruto is back in the classroom, his fingers in the seal to release the genjutsu.
"Hm, one burst, quick to dispel, no lingering effects. However you didn't detect the genjutsu before I brought attention to it. You'll need to work on detection, but you've got dispelling pretty well figured out. You're free to go, Uzumaki-san," Kaede says, allowing Naruto to leave, a little confused by the woman. She wasn't like the teachers he'd come to know, and he wasn't sure what to make of it.
Naruto exitted the room and made his way outside to take the next part of the exam. He does hear the last student called into the room before he makes it out of hearing range though, "Next examinee, Yamishiro, Kotetsu."
Once outside he saw that a chunin was in the training field with some targets and an arena, "Uzumaki," he said as Naruto arrived, not bothering with an honorific, "I'm Hiroko Inukai and will be testing you on your taijutsu and throwing skill. If we have the time we'll also measure your conditioning."
He was far stricter than Kaede had been, starting Naruto off with thrown weapons, kunai, shuriken, and mixing the two, with each hand. He didn't comment, just writing down his notes, then moved to taijutsu, except when they went to the sparring area there was a genin team, "Uzumaki, you will be facing a genin for your taijutsu test, Takashi, you're up."
One of the genin entered the arena, a circle about ten meters in diameter, he wasn't much older than Naruto, probably only a year out of the academy, and was very plain looking, brown hair, brown eyes, no discernable traits except for a pair of red triangles under his eyes, marking him as an Inuzuka, his partner sat with the rest of the team, not joining the fight, "let's see what you've got kid," he goaded on, trying to get a rise out of Naruto.
Naruto got into position and took up his stance, legs spread, arms crossed, and hands in a claw-like position rather than fists, "let's," was the one word reply, which seemed to get more of a rise out of the Inuzuka than he got out of Naruto.
"Begin on my mark..." he took a pause to look at each combatant, getting nods in turn, "Begin!" he called, letting his arm drop and signalling the start of the fight. Naruto deflected a heavy punch from his opponent, he was much faster than Naruto was used to dealing with! He followed up with a kick that Naruto blocked, but was pushed back by the power behind it.
The Inuzuka laughed, "Can't stand up to my taijutsu can you?" he asked tauntingly before he came in again. His attacks were all either blocked, or taken with a grunt, as Naruto measured his opponent. After a few short skirmishes, Naruto decided it was time to go on the offensive. This time, when his opponent charged, so did he. The two met in a flurry of punches, a quick deflection and Naruto spun on his heel, landing an elbow strike to his opponent's shoulder, earning a grunt from the irate Inuzuka.
"Not bad," Naruto's opponent said as he grabbed his shoulder, "let's try this then," and before Naruto could register, he was hit by a flurry of blows that put him on the ground, with his opponent holding a kunai close to Naruto's neck, "and that's game."
"Very good, both of you," Hiroko said, as Naruto's opponent helped him up. Hiroko wrote out for a moment before turning back to Naruto, "your results will be given after all examinees have been tested and your scores processed. Head to room 202 to wait for the results."
Before Naruto left, he got a pat on the back from Takashi, "you put up a decent fight kid, you hit harder than anyone else I've fought today, even if you didn't land the most hits."
Naruto grinned back at Takashi before he went to the designated room, passing Kotetsu as he did so. Inside were the other eight that took the examination before him.
It was roughly thirty minutes later that Kotetsu entered the room, looking slightly worse for wear, and another fifteen before Kaede, Hiroko, and the chunin that stood at the door of room 201, they'd never gotten his name. It was the nameless chunin that began writing names on the board, "the student's whose names are on the board have been deemed good enough for early graduation," he said, "those that passed will need to be here tomorrow at nine to meet your jonin sensei and assign you into teams with the other students that have passed."
Naruto deflated, his name wasn't on the board, he'd have to go through another year. Surprisingly, only two names were even on the board, Sora Adachi and Kotetsu Yamishiro. Naruto's gaze drifted to the students in question, what had they done to pass?
AN: Well, I'm going to cut off here. My inspiration actually held up a lot better than I thought it would with this story. I hope everyone likes what I've done with it so far. Regardless, you get a few sneak peaks at a few things, including my portrayal of Naruto in this story and the difference in how he's treated with his mother being known.
I know there are quite a few OCs in this chapter, but most of them won't be showing up very often, or at all really, they're mostly here to set up the story.
