Imminent Change
By: Botan-kun
Have fun I hope you enjoy.
The Rain nin's face showed many signs of shock. He couldn't believe that Naruto had just said that, and he was surprised that Naruto might know who it was. The Rain nin recomposed himself and started questioning Naruto to see if what he thought was true.
"What do you mean by that?" The Rain nin spoke incredulously.
"When you saved me from Mizuki-sensei I had assumed it was to save me not try and get the scroll for yourself." Naruto said in a cold demeanor. The Rain nin now knew his suspicions were correct and didn't know what to do to diffuse this situation. He did the first thing that came to mind he released the Henge. He looked at the three young ones and saw that their faces showed signs of betrayal. Iruka looked downhearted, "How did this get so complicated, now I'll probably never get any of their trust back." he looked at Naruto again and if the sunglasses weren't in the way he would probably see fury in his eyes. He thought some more and could not think of anyway to get Naruto to trust him besides become Naruto's prisoner and go see the Hokage, but that wouldn't look to good. The only thing left was to try to reason with Naruto.
"Naruto you see there is a reasonable explanation for this." Iruka pleaded. Naruto thought for a second and motioned for Iruka to continue. "You see I was supposed to test you to see if you were ready for the Chuunin exams as well as the other eight newly appointed Genin." Iruka pleaded. Naruto was going to say something, but a voice from within stopped him. "He's telling the truth." Kyuubi told him matter-of-factly. "How can you be so sure?" Naruto asked uncertain. "His heart rate when someone lies their heart beats faster, thus proving that he is in fact not lying." Kyuubi said. Naruto took this in to thought for a second and decided to test it focusing on hearing he started to hear Iruka's heart.
"Iruka-sensei I want you to prove to me that you aren't lying." Iruka looked a little confused at Naruto's statement. Naruto continued "I want you to tell me that I hate ramen." Iruka was completely thrown off at Naruto's request, but if it was to prove he wasn't lying.
"Naruto you do not like ramen." Iruka said confusion evident in his voice. Naruto heard Iruka's heart quicken it's pace and then slowed down again. "Hmm you were right Kyuubi that's pretty cool." Naruto said to Kyuubi. "It can be pretty useful when you think about it." Kyuubi said.
"So what did this test tell you?" Naruto asked. Iruka sighed in relief realizing that Naruto believed him, which made him very happy. He looked over at the three little ones and didn't like what he saw, they still didn't believe him this saddened him a bit.
"Well actually it showed me that you are indeed ready for the Chuunin exams, But how did you know it was me?" Iruka asked. Naruto looked at the ground where the three kunai were and picked them all up and handed one to each of the little ones.
"Well actually it was your smell." Naruto had said. Iruka looked dumbfounded. "Ok guys, and Moegi. Generate Chakra to your feet and try the tree climbing exercise." Naruto said casually. He watched them mold Chakra to their feet and run towards the trees they chose. Konohamaru (that is a big name) had taken two steps and had fallen right on his butt. Udon had taken five steps before he fell, but he recomposed himself and landed on his feet, and Moegi had gotten extremely higher, she had gotten to where Naruto had showed them and due to lack of Chakra had fallen. From the distance Moegi had gotten up to, it looked like she could get hurt so Naruto jumped over to her tree and caught her before she hit the ground and hurt herself. "You ok?" He asked a blushing Moegi.
"Yes. Thank you Naruto-Nii-chan." The blushing Moegi said. Naruto put Moegi down and looked at the marks they had made on the tree Moegi was the highest while Udon's mark was about nine feet off the ground and Konohamaru's was four feet off the ground. "At least he got higher than me on my first try" Thought Naruto. Naruto looked a Iruka and it looked like he was contemplating something.
"So what do you think for their first try?" Naruto asked Iruka. Iruka looked at Naruto, then the three little ones, and then the marks.
"Well considering their age I'd have to say they did really good." Iruka said. "They are going to have to increase their chakra supply in order to get higher, but I'm pretty sure out of everyone else their age I'd say they could do it." After Iruka said that, they heard someone scoff at that comment. When they turned around they saw two people standing there. One was an adult male and the other was a young female no older than seven. The man wore a crème colored yukata and had long black hair, And the young girl wore a faded purple ninja training outfit and she to had long black hair. (Have you guessed yet?) The thing that really set them apart from others had to be their eyes, they were the color of lavender, but only if you were close other wise they would look like they were pure white. The one that scoffed was the male.
"If you think those children will be better than my daughter then you are sadly mistaken." Hiashi said nonchalantly. Iruka had fear written all over his face. Hiashi took note of this and when he looked at Naruto he didn't get such a reaction, the boy stood there indifferently. Hiashi looked at the kids and took note that they were fairly angered.
"Hey weird eyes you can't know your daughter is better than us." Konohamaru said angrily. Iruka ran over and clasped a hand over the infuriated eight year old. Iruka was going to ask for his apologies, but Hiashi just waved it off as if it were nothing.
"The Hyuuga's are the best clan in Konoha our children are taught chakra control techniques at an early age so they can master Jyuken at a young age." Hiashi said casually. "So Hanabi here is well adept at things such as tree climbing and such." He said with pride.
"BULLSHIT!" Konohamaru yelled out. "I say she is worse than me, you just want to increase your ego." Konohamaru said confidently.
"Hah. Hanabi probably has the best chakra control of all of you." Hiashi said just as confidently as Konohamaru. "Hey little kit here's a chance to test yourself." Kyuubi told Naruto. "I guess so. You think I can beat her?" Naruto Asked. "I'd say you have a really good chance. Your control is probably at that of a rookie Jounin." Kyuubi said.
"If you think that then a little wager wouldn't bother you would it?" Naruto asked. Iruka and Hiashi were both quite shocked that Naruto had just proposed a bet with a Hyuuga.
"Fine if that is what you want. What are your terms?" Hiashi asked disbelief evident in his voice.
"I will be the one to participate for my team. And if I win then little Hanabi can help Konohamaru and the rest with their control and who knows maybe they could become friends." Naruto suggested.
"Heh fine and if Hanabi wins you will be her fighting post to test her Jyuken. Do we have an agreement?" Hiashi asked.
"Sure sounds fine now then I guess since you issued the challenge you get to pick the contest." Naruto said.
"Hohoho. This sounds interesting I've never seen a challenge of chakra control before." The Hokage said as he stepped out in to the open. All eyes were on him as he came into view. "It would seem there is quite an audience here to see this." The Hokage said as he gestured something towards the trees, just then Kakashi, Sasuke, and Ebisu jumped out of the trees. "Well then I guess you guys should start this contest." The Hokage suggested.
"Heh. Ok the contest will be quite simple all you have to do is 'walk' up two steps and jump to another tree and then walk two more steps and continue until you lose control and if you make it to the top do it over just going downwards and keep up until you fall. Understand?" Hiashi explained. Naruto nodded and said.
"Ladies first." After Naruto said that Hanabi walked up to the tree and gathered chakra and took two steps on the tree and then jumped to another tree, she proceeded up the tree in the same manner until she made it to the top and then she turned around and started heading down the same way. Everyone stared in awe at what a young girl was doing except Hiashi and Naruto. Hanabi made it to the bottom of the tree and she once again turned and took two steps when she jumped she didn't gather enough chakra and didn't stick and she fell. She would have landed on her butt if Konohamaru hadn't caught her the same way Naruto had caught Moegi. Konohamaru put the now blushing Hanabi on her feet and Hiashi ahemed and spoke.
"Hanabi made it to the top, back down, and two steps. It's your turn let us see if you can do any better." Hiashi said. Three people there had actually guessed Hiashi's intentions with this bet and Naruto himself was quite skeptical about this wager as well. The three that guessed his intentions were The Hokage, Kakashi, and Ebisu. It had been clear when Kyuubi was sealed Hiashi was quite skeptical that any ninja had the ability to handle a Youkai of such a high caliber. The only people who he told however were only the higher level ninjas and The Hokage as to not cause a panic. This was his chance to see how well the kid handled his chakra as it could be dangerous if he wasn't in complete control. Hiashi was one of the ones who had actually accepted Naruto for what he was, a hero. No one else has such a burden as him and there has been no problems with him so there was no reason to be mean to Naruto. Granted he hadn't told Hinata or Hanabi, but at least no hate for the boy was transferred onto them like the rest of the kids.
Naruto was skeptical about this whole bet because even though Hiashi had made his side of the bet so cruel, Naruto could not sense any hate from Hiashi instead he only felt kindness which was rare from any adult. He really didn't understand the whole thing to it's fullest like he wanted, but he wasn't one to complain about someone being kind to him. He walked up to the tree when he got there he heard two more sets of feet land into the area. He turned to look at the newcomers, it was Kurenai and Asuma.
"Hey Kakashi what's the big idea we had plans are you skipping out on us?" Kurenai practically yelled. Kakashi looked at Kurenai and Asuma then back at Naruto and gave his reply.
"I'm not skipping out it's just this came up and I wanted to see how it would turn out." Kakashi said unemotionally. Kurenai and Asuma looked around and realized they had interrupted something pretty important if the Hokage was there. Then they looked to see what was the center of attention and when they realized it had something to do with Naruto they were quite interested. "Sorry Naruto please continue. Remember up, down, and just land the next jump and you win." Kakashi added.
Naruto nodded and looked back at the tree and started walking up it he got two steps and jumped as he was supposed to he adjusted to land as he was suppose to and as he touched the tree he took two more steps. After Naruto made his first jump everyone let out the breath they didn't know they were holding, everyone except Hanabi and Sasuke. Sasuke was infuriated that the dobe could do something that he probably couldn't and it was getting on his nerves. Hanabi was wondering why her father was so intent with how Naruto was doing, but she pushed on grounds that he was worried about losing.
Naruto continued up the tree as he was supposed to when he got to the top he turned and he just stood there looking down. When everyone saw this they were confused and wondered why he stopped. "Am I supposed to see doubles of everything?" Asked Naruto. "No someone must be performing a Genjutsu on you. Look for someone who is still holding a seal." Kyuubi said to Naruto. Naruto did as he was he told and looked at all the people down on the ground. As best as he could tell from the double people no one was holding a seal. He would've just continued if he could tell where to step and not, but that's not the case the Genjutsu was just too confusing so he just stood there looking around in the trees trying to find the culprit of his vision dilemma. Everyone was very confused that Naruto had stopped since he was doing very well. When they saw him looking around in the trees they were then worried a little. Hiashi got what Naruto was doing and activated his Byakugan and took a look at Naruto and true to his suspicions there was a Genjutsu placed on him, but that's not all he noticed Naruto himself was gathering chakra to his eyes he decided to find out later about Naruto's chakra, first things first the Genjutsu.
"Hokage-sama," Hiashi whispered hardly able to be heard all the Jounin's and The Hokage looked at Hiashi. "There has been a Genjutsu placed on Naruto." That made all the Jounin tentative they started looking around the place and Hiashi looked further until he found the offender. He deactivated his eyes and when everyone looked at him they all had the same thing written on their face, confusion. Then he spoke again. "Naruto can you continue?" Hiashi asked. All the Jounins there looked shocked The Hokage understood what it was and he had to hope Naruto understood.
Naruto still in the tree heard Hiashi announce it was a Genjutsu now Hiashi was asking if he could continue. "Why did he say that if he knows I'm being affected by Genjutsu?" Naruto asked Kyuubi. "He wants to prove something to the offender. It's probably someone who thinks they can get good favors for messing you up." Kyuubi said. "But still why isn't he stopping them from the Genjutsu instead he's letting me, oh I see. Thanks Kyuubi." Naruto said and tried to look at the real Hiashi and said. "Heh yeah I was just admiring the sights from up here." Of course Naruto lied. Hiashi and The Hokage both had a smug smile on their face and the other Jounin had no choice but to trust their judgment of course they were still a little worried about Naruto completing this, as it is it was hard enough and now he has a Genjutsu placed on him. "What will you do Naruto?" Was on every Jounins, Hiashi, and The Hokage's mind as well as Naruto's.
Naruto looked at the tree he was standing on and took his two steps, that was the easy part, the tree jumping would be a million times harder. Naruto looked at the tree which of course looked like two trees and if he were to jump and miss he would lose the bet. "In situations like this your eyes can hurt you, you should feel for the tree." Kyuubi commented in his head. "And how do you suppose I do that?" Naruto asked. "I guess I can give you something else, I was gonna give it to you later, but now is a good time. Now this is gonna hurt a bit hold it in or they might get suspicious." Kyuubi said. And true to Kyuubi's word it hurt a lot Naruto winced as pain filled his entire body and then nothing. "Now then this might be difficult, but you're gonna need to be a quick study. You need to feel your surroundings just concentrate on everything and you'll see true." Naruto didn't quite get what the hell Kyuubi was talking about, but attempted it anyway as his focus went to the entire area his vision changed and he grew extremely nauseous for a couple of seconds. As he started feeling better he got even more confused as he could see anywhere he wanted and it was red yet no matter where he looked by 'feeling' he could still see in front of him what he would normally see, when he closed his eyes he could still see what he was 'feeling'. "Ok that is just awesome." Naruto thought to Kyuubi and got a knowing laugh in return. (this happened in like a minute.) Naruto opened his eyes and focused in front of him. Now instead of the two trees he saw before there were three trees except one tree was red and the others were regular.
In the crowd below everyone was wondering why he had just stopped, The Jounins chalked it up to the effects of the Genjutsu. Naruto decided that the red one was real and the others were fake so it was a leap of faith Naruto jumped. The Jounins immediately held their breath and then they released it as they saw he made it. Hiashi activated his Byakugan just to see if the Genjutsu was still active, he saw that it was and he looked at The Hokage, who had the look of "Is it?" on his face, Hiashi just nodded and they both looked back at Naruto and saw him proceeding in the same manner he was before. Naruto was feeling good about himself he was back on track the only bad thing was that his knee pads kept digging into his legs. "Damn my legs are hurting." Naruto said. "Didn't you read about a seal that increases the weight of an object in that book you bought?" Kyuubi asked. Naruto was pretty sure he had, only one thing to do was look. He pulled out his book and scanned through it looking for the seal while still going down the tree without missing a beat thanks to his new ability, granted it was a little frustrating with the Genjutsu, but he worked around that. The people on the ground had their eyes wide and jaws hung as Naruto was skimming a book while walking down a tree and jumping as he was supposed to. Everyone who knew him stared at Kakashi as if asking him for an explanation Kakashi looked at the stares and just shrugged. All their stares broke when they heard Naruto.
"Aha there is one for what I need." Naruto yelled. Everyone but Sasuke sweat dropped. Sasuke was pissed beyond belief here was a dobe doing something he should be able to do and can't. Naruto made it to the bottom still reading his book as he turned around and started back up completely forgetting this wasn't a normal day activity he got the first jump and kept going everyone visibly sweat dropped as they realized Naruto forgot that all he needed to do was accomplish the first jump back up. Hiashi decided it was time to end this.
"Alright Naruto you don't need to humiliate my daughter as well." Hiashi said his tone betraying his words. Naruto looked confused.
"Huh. How am I humiliating your daughter?" Naruto asked dumbly then he realized what he was doing. "Oh hehe sorry I was caught up reading something." Naruto then folded the top corner of the page he was on and put it in his pouch. Naruto released his chakra and landed on the ground as graceful as a cat. "So I guess Hanabi will help Konohamaru and his group as we agreed upon?" Naruto asked.
Hiashi nodded and said. "Yes but first a few things. First I want to apologize." Naruto looked confused and asked.
"Apologize for what?" Naruto asked. Naruto wasn't the only one confused because everyone was confused as to why Hiashi was to apologize.
"Apologize for a member of my clans un-sportsman-like behavior. I assure you he will be reprimanded immediately." Then Hiashi glared into the trees and just as he glared, Naruto's vision returned to normal so he stopped his 'feeling' and another Hyuuga jumped into the group kneeling right in front of Hiashi. "Explain yourself!" Hiashi practically growled. "What made you risk the Hyuuga honor by using a Genjutsu on Naruto?" All the kids and Iruka except Naruto were shocked at hearing that Naruto had won even with Genjutsu against him. Sasuke scowled and Hanabi hung her head low, neither of these actions were overlooked by Hiashi.
"I couldn't let the Hyuuga name be tarnished by someone like him." The unnamed Hyuuga said as he gave a disgusted look at Naruto. It was the same look the rest of the villagers gave Naruto. Naruto just looked away from the unnamed Hyuuga. No one missed the look that the Hyuuga gave Naruto.
"So you would rather make us look bad by cheating." Hiashi said. He didn't want to assault the man about the glare because of the kids presence.
"No one would have known only us Hyuuga." The unnamed Hyuuga said.
"And what made you think I'd allow it? No there is a worse matter at hand, you put a Genjutsu on Naruto." Hiashi said.
"And?" The unnamed Hyuuga asked defiance in his voice.
"Hanabi lost. While her opponent was being influenced by a Genjutsu. How do you think that makes her feel?" Hiashi spat at the Hyuuga.
"She wouldn't have lost had it not been for ---" The Hyuuga never finished as he was knocked out by The Hokage. All the children looked at The Hokage with a questioning gaze.
"He will be dealt with by me as I, Hokage of Konoha had sponsored this contest and he interfered. Congratulations Naruto." With that The Hokage picked up the offending Hyuuga and vanished with a puff of smoke. Seeing as the contest was over the Jounin decided it was time for their prior arrangements to be attended to and they to were gone in smoke. Iruka had yet to finish the test of all the rookie genins and decided he should get to it before it gets too late. Hiashi went over to Hanabi and Ebisu went over to Konohamaru. Naruto was heading over to the little kids and talk to them, but he was intercepted by Sasuke.
"Ok dobe where did you learn to get better chakra control?" Sasuke asked extremely annoyed.
"I decided it was time to get better so I asked someone extremely strong to help me." Naruto said getting annoyed by Sasuke bothering him. Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the vest and started questioning him.
"Ok Naruto who is this person and where can I find him? If he was able to teach a dobe like you in chakra control in such a short time he can most definitely help me become strong enough to kill my brother." Sasuke said the last part in sort of a growl.
"Heh sorry Sasuke I can't tell you who's been helping me he told me not to tell anyone. And besides you seem to have Kakashi's undivided attention you shouldn't need any other help than his." Naruto said as he released himself from Sasuke.
"Fine." Sasuke huffed and jumped through the trees to another training area preparing for the Chuunin Exams. Naruto continued to the children where he heard Hiashi tell Hanabi something.
"Naruto would have won either way so don't be upset. In all this you will be given a chance to interact more with kids your own age which could help you more than training with me all the time." Hiashi reassured his daughter. Naruto made it to Konohamaru and the others. And Ebisu decided to say something finally.
"You shouldn't bother yourself training these guys, you should train your own skills for the Chuunin Exams which is in less than a week. I'll take it where you left off." Ebisu had excepted Naruto after seeing a change in Konohamaru's attitude. Hiashi and Hanabi decided to come at that time.
"I agree with Ebisu-sensei you should try and improve as much as possible." Hiashi said to Naruto and then turned to Ebisu. "If you are going to train them instead of Naruto then I entrust my daughters teaching to you so she can learn along side them, as per my arrangement with Naruto." Ebisu nodded as Hanabi walked to the group of kids to introduce herself properly. Hiashi then turned back to Naruto and said, "You should get to training." and then he walked away. Naruto followed suit and went to his apartment.
When Naruto got to his Apartment he decided it was time for some little modifications and started to work until the Kyuubi's voice came into play. "I have something else to teach you little kit. It's an alteration to your fire technique I taught you, just very much harder to do." "I'm listening." Naruto said giving his full attention to Kyuubi. "Ok same concept concentrate to your hand, but instead of just compressing it you'll have to release it then compress it." the Kyuubi said and then Naruto attempted it, and when he did a surge of electricity came from his hand for a split second before it disappeared. Naruto was amazed. "Since it's electricity instead of fire it will fluctuate more rapidly so control will be extremely difficult." Naruto just nodded his head he was pretty much dumbfounded. He shook it off fairly quickly and went back to modifying.
Day of the exam
It was the day of the exam everyone was training the whole time before the exam so they could be ready for whatever the exam threw at them. Sakura and Sasuke were waiting outside the academy for Naruto.
"Heh I guess the dobe got scared." Sasuke said as he started heading for the academy. Sakura stalled a second she looked around once before she decided to follow Sasuke into the academy.
To Be Continued?