Chapter Two: Testing Waters
The sound of even footfalls echoed in the hallway as Kabuto approached his apartment door. He took his time removing his key and unlocking the door, then he swung it open excruciatingly slowly. Walking inside, he flipped on the light switch but froze in that position.
"I didn't expect to receive word so soon…"
Sitting on his sofa in the middle of the room was a person wearing a dark brown cloak with a hood. The shadows around him made it difficult to ascertain what his face looked like from a glance but Kabuto already knew who it was before he even unlocked his door. He ignored the person, moving to his kitchen area to put down his groceries on the counter-top.
"It's been two months now," The figure addressed him in a gruff tone, revealing it to be a man. "Sasori-sama wants your progress report."
Kabuto was meanwhile putting away his stock in various cupboards and stowing perishables in his modest-sized fridge. The task took about ten minutes and the man had followed his every movement since he walked into the apartment, though now seemed bristled about being ignored.
"It's unlike Sasori-sama to rush things," Kabuto finally said, packing a bit of cheese into the upper compartment of the cooler. He closed the door lightly. "Then again, he also doesn't like to be kept waiting does he? A paradox if I've ever heard of one."
"Watch your mouth, gennin." The man growled. "Now stop wasting my time and report, Sasori-sama is getting impatient."
Kabuto's eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses, a motion wasted on the person sitting in front of him. Was there some reason Sasori wanted information on Orochimaru so urgently? Perhaps there was trouble in the 'paradise' that is Akatsuki. He didn't know too much about the organization anyway; Sasori was too cautious and paranoid to keep any of his spies in the loop. To him, they were all expendable at any moment in time therefore there was no need to let them in on any of his business. He gave orders, and they followed them to the letter. The system was as close to foolproof as it could be.
"I don't have much to say…"
The man stood up in near-fury at the admission but stopped himself from overreacting when Kabuto continued in an amused tone, "Orochimaru doesn't trust me as of now. Why do you think I've been delegated to keeping an eye in Konoha, far away from him? I'm just a sleeper agent, so there's no way I can get Sasori-sama the kind of information he wants right now."
The man relaxed upon hearing Kabuto's reason for lack of progress with a bit of shame from losing his cool so easily. Kabuto knew how to push his buttons and liked to make it look like he wanted to defect just to get a rise out of him. And he was so hoping for it to be true too so he could kill the arrogant twit. How disappointing.
"Be that as it may," the man spoke. "You have orders to do whatever it takes to earn Orochimaru's trust and find out what his plans are. Expect me in four months."
The mysterious cloaked figure turned to leave through the front door.
"Oh, and Kozuki-san…"
He paused at the door frame, halted by Kabuto's voice. One could imagine the deep frown on his face when he turned towards the younger man who was smirking.
"What?" he snapped.
"Your disguise needs to be less conspicuous," Kabuto walked back to his kitchen, purposely ignoring the fuming man on his doorstep. "Please shut the door on your way out."
Angry, and quite embarrassed because he knew it was true but didn't think of it before, Kozuki slammed the door as hard as he could and walked off in a huff, prompting Kabuto to chuckle to himself. He may have been younger but Kabuto had been working for Sasori far longer than Kozuki, which always left the other male feeling sour for some reason. Probably an ass-kisser for the higher-ups- what were they thinking, recruiting people like this? The fanatics rarely got the job done right, even if they had fewer cases of mutiny.
'Greenhorns…' He snorted, and went about preparing his dinner.
xxx
The first thing that Naruto did after his daily morning bowl of Ichiraku's was to go around the village, confirming what the creepy grey-haired kid had told him the evening before. He didn't think it was as easy as said, which was confirmed the moment he tried to eavesdrop on one errant jounin's conversation with a pretty chuunin kunoichi. Needless to say, that day he found out just how hard it was to shake off an elite of the village in a chase.
Two alleys, three sewers, five hedges and a hastily burrowed hole later, Naruto decided to leave listening in to older ninja for a later date after he'd thought it over enough not to get caught before he got something meaningful from it. He then chose to walk to some of the frequently used ninja training grounds, those being easier to get into because they were rarely fenced in or closed to the public.
Naruto thanked his lucky stars that there was no one using the area at the time other than what looked to be a pair of gennin racing each other while running up a tree, sticking to its surface with just the soles of their feet. Cool! Maybe one day he could try that? It would certainly help him get around easier. A stray thought made him wonder if this was how the guy from the alley made his face stick to his shoe. He probably used that thing called 'chakra'.
Shaking off memories of his most humiliating defeat ever, Naruto moved around the oblivious gennin and made a systematic sweep of the area, which took him the better part of two hours to finish without revealing his presence to the various ninja coming and going- mostly gennin and a few final-year academy students.
By the time he was done, little Naruto's newly mended shirt, being used as a makeshift bag, threatened to burst at the fresh seams from being weighed down by a great number of weapons. Kunai, makibishi, shuriken, a throwing knife or three, two tiny daggers he had no idea what they were for and even a slightly bent but still good (or at least it looked good) wakizashi. These were among the things he collected, not counting those he left behind because they were too rusted or too deformed for anyone to use. He even found a fancy kunai that looked like it was partially melted. It had two curved blades besides the normal straight one coming from the hilt, which had some kind of white enamel all around it where the grip normally was, on which was inked some kind of written language he couldn't read. It looked cool and interesting. He took it as well, hoping it was valuable and he could one day sell a design or the thing itself due to how rare it was (he had yet to see anything like that in his short life or he would definitely have remembered it).
A quick, shirtless, trip back to his apartment was needed to dump all that stuff for sorting through later. Since it was the weekend, Naruto didn't need to show up at the academy but he felt he should at least look into this 'chakra' that everyone was making such a big deal about. His was only into his first year at the academy, in the advanced class because the other children started at minimum eight years old.
It was a daily struggle to make head or tails of Hideki-sensei's lectures, and he missed the issuing of books, which meant he was always behind on class-work and theory. In actuality, the only thing he ever got from going to the academy was the practical exercises. Even then, he only kept up with the others thanks to his great stamina, repeating exercise after exercise, long after everyone had left just to get one right when all he had was gut-instinct to correct himself where he went wrong.
Contrary to what one would expect from a 'street-rat', Naruto loved reading books whenever he could get ahold of them. Sure, it was a hassle having to sit down and stare at static images for hours at a time, but the benefits far outweighed the costs in this case.
Books didn't discriminate, nor did they chase him away. The never called him names or glared at him. They didn't ignore him and he could always pick up one at his convenience. He got fantastic ideas and views of the world from other people's thoughts that were carefully put down for other people to easily understand them. This was why Naruto was mad at being denied his one source of comfort when he joined the academy. It was what made him lose all hope at redeeming himself, at least until the chance encounter in the alley.
As he walked along the path to the academy, skirting the usual one that went through the residential district and past the Uchiha compound, Naruto felt like slapping himself upside the head for being so stupid before. Why had he never thought of stealing the books they kept him away from? Did it really take someone beating him up to realize he hadn't been thinking all this time as far as his life was concerned?
Naruto really did feel worthless when he considered everything that glasses wearing boy told him. Was he really just going to coast through things and expect something good out of it? In a way, he was grateful for the beatdown, as it helped set him on a straight path to his goal (talk about an eye opener, huh?). All he needed to do now was follow it… Hmm, if he ever saw that guy again he might have to buy him a present.
xxx
"Naruto, what happened to your shirt?"
The boy paused in the act of shoveling ramen into his mouth to answer the Sandaime.
"Got torn," he grunted and turned back to his meal. "Tried to fix it." He explained between mouthfuls.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha let the matter drop reluctantly once he saw that Naruto had no intention of talking about it. Kami knows, he tried to help the child, he really did, but it would always seem that there was a limit to how much he was allowed to interfere. He had no doubt some errant villager was responsible for messing up his pseudo-grandson's clothes, but there was really nothing he could do about it. Things like this always happened the moment it seemed his charge had gotten settled in.
'I suppose another trip to the clothes store is unavoidable. I was hoping his current ones would last a bit longer but I guess there's no helping it.'
Naruto was oblivious to the elderly man's plight, preferring to take advantage of his wallet rather than dwell on what the Sandaime was probably thinking. Besides, he had his own agenda as well.
It was now about two weeks since the 'meeting in the alley' as he called it, and every day proved to him just how right Glasses-boy was in everything he said. He really did have a lot of free time compared to everyone else, and since he lacked anything better to do with it, he spent most of the days catching up on what he missed since starting in the academy.
A work ethic born of his drive to succeed helped him greatly in his studies, as well as the seemingly endless resources he had at his disposal. One should never underestimate the elements present in one's environment. Naruto was a survivor, having lived in the streets for a while now and now that his mindset was geared towards achieving his goal with no excuses, he could make use of nearly everything around him, including a 'god of shinobi' who happened to be sitting next to him drinking green tea in Ichiraku's ramen bar.
"Ne, Ojisan?"
Brought out of whatever musing he was doing, Hiruzen smiled down at Naruto, "Yes, what is it?"
Naruto thought for a moment, framing his question in his mind before asking it.
"When two shinobi meet, how do you decide who's more powerful?" Naruto asked in his most innocent voice. He didn't want to outright ask, 'Hey, how do I get power?' He wasn't THAT stupid. That would lead to suspicion, leading to less freedom and more surveillance; something he absolutely didn't want. After all, it took him weeks just to convince Sandaime to stop sending gennin teams to look after him.
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in question. "And why would you want to know that, Naruto?"
"Well, we were learning about fighting in class and Hideki-sensei mentioned that a powerful shinobi always wins. That's why we should retreat when we know we have no chance, but I'm not sure when it's right to retreat or not." The line was rehearsed but Hiruzen didn't have to know that.
"So why didn't you ask Hideki-sensei during class or after it?"
'Huh. Should've known it won't be that easy. Time to play the sympathy card!'
Naruto expertly averted his eyes and lowered his voice to make it seem like he was reliving something extremely sad. "I did. He said he didn't have time to answer me, and that someone 'like me' didn't need to know in any case."
Not a total lie, but it was more along the lines of, 'Why should I give you special treatment, brat? There are others who need my help more, so stop being so selfish'.
Hiruzen flinched visibly, an action Naruto wondered about, and then sighed wearily in what for him meant disappointment. He gazed at the street outside the ramen shop, completely missing the triumphant grin that crossed Naruto's face.
'Hook, line and sinker! Can't negotiate for information my ass- take THAT Hideki-sensei!'
Hiruzen considered for a moment whether what he was about to do could account for favoritism but thought against it quickly.
'No one's ever stopped the other children from asking me questions when I visit the academy.' He decided it was acceptable to help out Naruto just this once without begrudging the others.
"Alright Naruto, listen carefully." Surprisingly, Naruto stopped what he was doing and hung onto his every word, a sure mark of a great student. Hiruzen almost felt giddy having someone listen to him explicitly and not just pretend to like those farts in the council.
"In the ninja world, power is decided through a fight. When you are up against your opponent is when you determine who is more powerful than the other. It's actually a relative subject for whoever you ask..."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you know about the ninja ranking system don't you?"
Naruto shook his head for no, making Hiruzen sigh because he had to explain something so obvious. Seriously, what was that man Hideki doing? He would have to have words with him one of these days. Of course, he had no way of knowing that Naruto was playing stupid to squeeze any new bit of information he could out of him.
"The ranking system, Naruto, is the hierarchy of authority followed by all ninja in the world."
Naruto's brow scrunched up in honest confusion this time. "What's hai… hei…"
"Hierarchy?"
"Yeah, that. What is that?"
"The chain of command; who is the boss of who, do you follow?"
He nodded slowly. "I think so…"
Satisfied, Hiruzen continued, "So, the ranks are jounin, chuunin and gennin. If you ask a gennin they'll tell you that a chuunin and jounin are more powerful, and likewise if you ask a chuunin, you'll hear that a jounin is more powerful."
Here, Hiruzen paused to take a sip of his cooling tea. He exhaled in delight of the taste then went on, "Power can be determined in a number of ways. No matter how you look at it, a fight has two parts to it," He held up two fingers. "The attack and the defense."
Naruto nodded slowly to show that he understood while mulling over what he was learning. Why didn't Hideki-sensei explain things this clearly when they were studying? He only ever used big words and complicated references that Naruto wasn't familiar with. Most likely on purpose too…
"The attack makes use of several aspects, the most important of which are speed, strength, precision and tactics or strategy. The faster a ninja is, the higher his chances of delivering a hit before his opponent can evade. The stronger a ninja is, the more damage he can deal to his opponent. The more precise he is means he wastes less energy attacking, and this greatly helps him outlast the fight."
"So, where do the cool jutsu fit in?" Naruto asked enthusiastically. Hey, at the core he was still only seven. Hiruzen chuckled, 'Kids these days, all they care about are flashy ninjutsu that aren't really worth much.'
"Ninjutsu are actually used least in a straightforward, normal fight. When two shinobi clash, the first round is largely decided by the use of weapons and taijutsu. This is to gauge the physical strength and speed of the opponent. For special people called 'chakra sensors' who can… feel… how much chakra someone has by being close to them, or even how potent it is, they also do this to size up the opponent even better. If the stronger of the two is able, he then ends the fight as quickly as possible while ensuring he gets little or no damage by the end of it-"
Naruto interjected with a question, "But, Ojisan, Hideki-sensei always calls off our spars after one hit is made. You're saying it like it doesn't matter if you get hit, as long as you can beat the other guy?"
Hiruzen nodded in understanding, "Those are academy spars, Naruto. You're not really expected to win at all costs. It's only supposed to help you grasp the aspect of precision before you work on your speed and strength later on your own."
He overlooked Naruto's 'Oooh, so that's why!' and continued, "So anyway, if the ninja find they are matched in both weapons and taijutsu, or the weaker ninja evades too fast for the other one to strike, the battle moves on to the strategy aspect. Here, all tools are usable, as well as ninjutsu, to build traps and corner the opponent in a way you can finish them off."
"That's it?" Man, what a let-down! "Can't you also use some really big ninjutsu to take everyone out?"
"Well, it depends." Hiruzen swirled the dregs of his now-cool tea around in the cup as he thought about Naruto's question. "Do you know whether your opponent has some obscure escape technique that will let him attack you while you're making your 'really big ninjutsu'? No? Maybe he has a suicide technique that will kill you both while you're preoccupied with 'taking everyone else out'?"
For some reason, Naruto felt like a really big idiot for asking that question.
"Naruto,"
The boy looked up at Sandaime, surprised at the soft tone being used.
"You have to remember that knowing many big jutsu won't make you invincible. It's how you use your head in a fight that's more important."
Hiruzen may have been speaking to Naruto, but he was talking about his biggest failure that had yet to be corrected; his wayward student, now missing-nin, Orochimaru. The one whose goal in life was to master every ninjutsu in the world; a fanciful and empty ambition, yet one he worked toward with absolute conviction. No one, especially Naruto, was to ever have a similar goal. Not if he could do something about it.
As if sensing the old man's gloomy thoughts, Naruto spoke out, bringing him back into the conversation. "Hey, Ojisan, you said something about defense?"
Hiruzen snapped out of his funk, "Ah, yes. Defense involves either avoiding your opponent's attacks completely, blocking them by neutralizing their effect or countering a strategy in progress from your opponent."
"Eh? How do you counter a strategy in progress?"
"There are a number of ways. Some are avoiding the trap entirely or blocking it as it comes, but the most common is to remove an element of the strategy from play. Like a tower of blocks, if you remove a block from the bottom, the whole thing crumbles."
Naruto scratched his head, "So, you can't use taijutsu and ninjutsu in defense, only strategy?"
"No, you still can," Hiruzen pulled on his beard for a moment, enjoying the intellectual conversation. It wasn't often he talked like this to someone, Asuma was out in the capital serving the Fire Daimyo, Keiri-chan was busy with Konohamaru (he was in his 'terrible twos') and Dozu, his first son and Konohamaru's father, was Kami-knows-where still on his 'research expedition'. He took after his sensei so much that Hiruzen sometimes wondered if he was really Jiraiya's son or his own.
"Ojisan…"
"Sorry about that," Hiruzen smiled. He was revisiting the past a lot today. "Ah, yes, ninjutsu and taijutsu. Good taijutsu, as you know, features effective blocking and dodging movements. Some ninjutsu, either offensive or defensive can be used to counter attacks. See, for example, if you used a fire jutsu as part of your strategy, I could use an offensive water jutsu to cancel out yours."
"Oh, so you can use one ninjutsu to block another one?"
'Heavens, what are they teaching kids these days?' "Of course you can! What do you think defensive jutsu means?"
Naruto didn't answer but let out a huge yawn.
The Sandaime's eyes crinkled when he smiled warmly, not for the first time in the day. "I think it's getting late, Naruto. You should go to bed or you'll be late for school tomorrow. Hurry up and finish your last bowl of ramen then I can escort you home."
Too tired to argue and slightly bored out from the lecture, Naruto relented and slurped up the last of his meal. Once done, he thanked Teuchi like the old man had taught him and allowed himself to be led back to his apartment.
Hiruzen gazed at the sleeping Naruto's face, wondering if it was a mistake telling him as much as he did during dinner. He had no doubt that Naruto would use the knowledge well, but he wished he could say the purposes would be honorable. When they were together, the boy would be cheerful and active, opening up to the man he looked up to as a grandfather. Yet, beneath it all Hiruzen could see a soul bitter at the world for casting him the unwanted lot. Almost exactly like Orochimaru had been…
In time, his beloved village would either make or break young Naruto. A sense of foreboding made him pray that when the time to choose came, little Naruto would use his strength for them and not against them. There was a powerful shinobi growing under the boy's shell and he wasn't the only one who could see it.
'Naruto, please take after your father's spirit. See these people for their good will and not their faults.'
A/N: Just so you know, the plot's been written out so this is just the technical detail so you all don't go like, "WTF? HOW DID NARUTO GRAB A SUPER POWER-UP BEFORE UNLOCKING YOSHI'S PALACE?" (Mario fans get the joke, lol). I'll explain on who Dozu and Keiri are later in the story. Hope to catch more of your reviews, I'll post as is convenient every now and then. And remember to send in your ideas and pairing suggestions (No Yaoi or Yuri please, Het only) and I'll see what I can do with them. If you wanna adopt any of my stories, go right ahead but don't copy the title. The general idea you're free to do with as you please.