Naruto: Shadowed Light
By Stone Shield
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters involved, though I wish I did.
Hello/Normal Speech
Hello/Thought
Hello/Demon or Summon Speech
Chapter 2
"I get the scroll, and the Kyubi brat gets blamed. No one in the village would ever think it was anyone but him". Mizuki was beside himself in mirth at his own deviousness. After stealing the Forbidden Scroll, he'd made off into the forest outside Konoha. His plan was going perfectly, until he reached a small clearing near a run-down farmhouse. Jumping from the trees and touching down on the ground, a cold voice sent shivers down his spine. "Going somewhere, sensei?" And in front of him, appearing almost like a specter from the shadows of night, stood Naruto Uzumaki. "Damn, what's he doing here?" Mizuki thought bitterly. Regaining his composure, "Uzumaki, what are you doing here? The genin exam is early in the morning. You don't want to fail, do you?". "You can stop the charade, now, Mizuki-baka. I've known about your traitorous tendencies for some time now". Mizuki immediately launched his two fuma shuriken at the blonde, one after the other. The projectiles barely missed him as he bounced around in the trees. "Aargh! Come out and fight, Demon!" the ex-teacher snarled. A blur of black caught his eye and he shot out his fist. Naruto couldn't help but feel dizzy after the strike to his temple, and ended up on the ground.
Trying to clear his vision, he heard something that stopped him in his tracks. "Time to finish what I started in that classroom, and kill you!" Mizuki cackled darkly, twirling a retrieved fuma shuriken. The stunned look under the blonde's mask faded as the clearing filled with killing intent. Later, some ANBU would say they'd heard some girly screaming coming from the forest, but had chalked it up to Anko finding someone to play with. But an hour later, Naruto, Forbidden Scroll in hand, dragged a heavily beaten Mizuki into the Hokage's office, where he was greeted by the Hokage and several ANBU.
"Ah, Naruto-kun. I see your hunch was correct. And thank you for returning the scroll as well", he said, retrieving the proffered document. "I still can't believe it though. Mizuki was a well respected teacher". "With a fetish for torture", Naruto whispered, but the old man still caught the bitter comment. "Yes, Naruto-kun?" "Remember my 'accident', old man?" his normally calm voice spiking from the agitation he was failing spectacularly to hide. The Hokage nodded, wincing slightly at the anger in his voice. "Was he involved somehow?" Naruto answered with a sharp nod. "To what extent?" Naruto simply turned and made his way out the door, answering in a calm voice laced heavily with venom. "Old man, if I see him again, I can't guarantee I'll spare his life", and he was gone.
Sarutobi pinched the bridge of his nose, as he always did as a habit in tiresome situations. The ANBU had just finished taking Mizuki away, leaving in the wake of the blonde he regarded as a grandson. As soon as the former teacher was healed, Ibiki would have him. Though from what he saw, it would take a while for him to heal. Thinking back, he felt a certain amount of proud. Not only had the blonde boy noticed the treacherous behavior of his teacher, he'd spearheaded his capture. And after finding out he was one of the people who'd tortured him, he'd resisted killing the man, a mark of the integrity the boy had. It was a proud, sad day for the aging Hokage. Though he had to admit, Mizuki was a high level Chunin, and yet Naruto had worked on him like a side of beef. A small smile crept to his face, "Minato…that boy is worth more than his weight in gold. I wish he didn't have to go through so much pain though. But with a heart like his, he'll be Hokage yet". It was still dark out, but his gaze lingered on where he knew the Yondaime Hokage's face was carved into the mountainside, and where he also knew, instinctively, Naruto was currently. He really was somewhat particular in his habits. Whenever he was disturbed by something or just needed to think, he always went to the monument. Sighing, he went back to what he'd been planning on doing all evening. Looking over the Academy's progress reports, he began thinking up team possibilities for those that he already knew would graduate.
The following morning, he jogged to the Academy via the rooftops of Konoha, appearing as a blur of black to those who looked. He arrived to find several others already there, twitching in anticipation of the exam. Kyubi positively giggled at the fear on their faces, cackling evilly. "I should have been a teacher. To be allowed to strike such fear into children. Hahahaha!" Naruto sweatdropped, sometimes his sister got a little carried away. Sitting at his usual desk in the back of the room, he waited for the exam to start, too distracted by his nechan's ranting to notice someone's gaze on him.
"Naruto-kun", Hinata thought to herself, blushing at the memory of his face. She hoped that they both passed and were on the same team. Then, maybe, she could learn from him how to be so confident and strong. She'd long admired how strong he was on the inside, something that she wasn't. It was her hope to learn from him and actually work up the courage to talk to him. And they could save each other from their loneliness. Watching him over time had revealed to her that beneath his solitary uncaring exterior, was a kind boy, longing for human contact. But what she still couldn't figure out was why he, on purpose, stayed distant from others. She wondered if it had to do with why most of the villagers seemed to hate him. She sighed quietly, mulling over thoughts of her crush. At times, she was unable to stop herself from thinking of him as her Naruto-kun, as no one knew him as well as she did, though she'd be too embarrassed to admit it. Most of the class was still so centered on Sasuke Uchiha that it even interrupted their training. She knew that was a mistake so even though she longed to be with her blonde-haired crush, she had trained hard to be worthy of him, to be recognized, noticed, by him.
Slowly, the room emptied as students were called to take the test. It wasn't until after Sasuke had been called, that his name was called as well. He was lead into a room where he found Iruka and two others. The test was relatively simple. As asked to, he performed a henge (transformation jutsu) and kawarimi (replacement jutsu). The request for bunshin (clone jutsu) was tricky though.
After months of failed attempts at producing bunshin, he'd approached the Hokage. He'd been worried; he had followed the scrolls directions to the letter and had failed every attempt. The reason for this problem though was fairly simple. After multiple tests, the old man informed him his chakra capacity was too high, and control still wasn't good enough to perform the basic jutsu. Where most shinobi developed their control alongside their growing chakra reserves, his own reserves were already so large that what little control he had was nowhere near enough and would take intensive exercises to increase it. Unfortunately, it was slow going and even after all this time the level of growth of his chakra control was barely that of an average genin. Well, an average genin with somewhere around Jonin level reserves. But his disappointment was replaced by excitement as the old man provided him with a solution.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu", he whispered, his hands in the now familiar crossed seal. After using it so many times, he could perform it with only the last seal. A cloud of smoke enveloped him and the surrounding area, soon fading to reveal three Naruto's where there had been one. Unfortunately, one of the judges was shrewder than the others. He walked up to the trio of blondes, and promptly hit the one on the right in the stomach. The clone dispelled from the impact in a cloud of smoke. "Shadow Clones?!" Iruka and the judges gasped. "What is the meaning of this?" the judge, who'd destroyed the clone, asked. One of the two remaining masked blondes tilted his head, "You asked for a clone, you never specified what type". Iruka was fighting the grin that was growing on his face, and was losing the battle, spectacularly. "Very well. The last test is taijutsu. You will fight an opponent and be graded on your proficiency". The door slammed open, "Yosh! Where is the youthful student I will be testing?"
Naruto shivered on instinct. Maito Gai was the best taijutsu expert in all of Fire Country, but was eccentric to an appalling level. It was often thought by his sister that his mannerisms were the sign that he'd been driven insane by a powerful genjutsu. But he was beginning to wonder if the Jonin was just naturally…weird. Naruto stepped forward, "That would be me, Maito-san". "Aha! So you've heard of my youthful skills!?" the tall, muscular Jonin shouted. "Come. Let us see what you are capable". "Great", Naruto thought, grudgingly. He would love to test his personal creation against the taijutsu master, but it wasn't ready yet. So he would just have to stick to basic academy level taijutsu…with any and all tricks he could toss in.
Gai tested his defense first, seeing how he would respond to different attacks. Then he allowed a few small openings to see if the boy could spot them and, most importantly, exploit those opportunities. Even though he knew the man was holding back, a lot, Naruto was only able to last a short time before it began to tax his own massive stamina. "Yosh, you are quite skilled! There is much potential within you!" the man shouted, causing the other proctors to wince. "But I must ask, were you not using your preferred taijutsu style?" The proctors all gave him their undivided attention at that revelation, curious of what he meant as the blonde had used flawless, textbook Academy taijutsu. Naruto sighed, resigning himself to the truth. He could perform Academy taijutsu perfectly, but knew he still gave off signs, albeit small ones, that it was still foreign to him. And it would be easy for someone as dedicated to taijutsu as Gai to detect. "No, Maito-san. I've been working on creating my own style for some time now, but it is still not ready". By this statement, Gai was practically in tears. "Such a promising boy!" he thought. "My boy, if you would let me, it would be my pleasure to aid you, and teach you alongside my other gifted student of hard work in your spare time". "Now there's an idea", the blonde thought. "Do it", Kyubi told him. "This man is obviously a strong shinobi, you'll learn much", she finished in a matter-of-fact tone. Naruto nodded, "Very well, Maito-sensei. I will try to join you and your student as often as possible". "YOSH! ANOTHER STUDENT HAS COME TO ME IN THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH! WE WILL IGNITE THE FIRES OF YOUTH WITHIN YOU!!" Gai began to rant. Fortunately, Naruto had tuned him out, for sanity's sake. He was ushered out the door by Iruka who, surprisingly, removed his own hitai-ate and handed it to him. Stunned by the look of pride in the teacher's eyes, all he could do was bow. Smiling down at the silent blonde shinobi, "Team assignment is tomorrow at 9am sharp". And with that he left, the hitai-ate of a new precious person tied firmly to his left bicep.
That night, the Jonin sensei assembled in the Hokage's office to receive and discuss the finalized team assignments. "So I get the Hyuga heiress, an Aburame, and an Inuzuka. Hmm, makes for an interesting group. Hinata's Byakugan, Shino's kikaichu, and Kiba's and Akamaru's tracking skills…" Kurenai murmured. Asuma snorted, snubbing his cigarette on the sole of his sandal. "You're lucky. I get the latest Ino-Shika-Cho trio. They work well together, but individually…talk about a handful. A bossy Yamanaka, a lazy Nara, and a glutton Akimichi". There was one Jonin who wasn't very happy though. "I told you I'd be willing to train the Uchiha. Why'd you stick me with the other two?" he asked the Hokage. Sarutobi sighed tiredly at the frustration the younger man was causing. "Is it because you only want Sasuke, Kakashi, or is it because you don't want Naruto?" Hokage-sama, you know why I don't want that…boy on my team", Kakashi said tightly. "Yes, I do. And though you can't accept his innocence, I'm hoping you will learn to. Naruto is so skilled, he could be on any of these teams, unfortunately, and this was the only cohesive arrangement. So, until he makes Chunin, he is on Team 7". And though he couldn't say so, he'd put the boy on Team 7 to keep the Uchiha scion in order. Kakashi sighed in defeat.
"Do not look so down, my hip rival!" Gai shouted, appearing beside the Copy-nin. "Oh, Gai, I didn't see you there", Kakashi said in his usual disinterested tone. But Gai was hardly fazed this time, as he bounced back quickly enough. "Rival, you should feel privileged! You will be teaching someone exploding with potential!". "Oh, yes, Sasuke-". "No! The Uchiha boy has talent, yes, but is limited by the expectations he has of himself and others. I'm afraid that his youthful fires are small, if they even exist at all. I believe he thinks he is the best due to his name, and that belief will stunt his growth". Sarutobi nodded sagely, the Uchiha's psych report showed a chip of inordinate size resting on his shoulders along with a great supply of arrogance. "But no my rival, I do not speak of the Uchiha. I speak of your other student, young Naruto!" Sarutobi's concentration once again shifted to the green, jumpsuit clad Jonin. "So what did you think of him from the test?" Gai rubbed his chin, silently pondering, a rare occurrence to see. "He has great potential, Hokage-sama. He is no genius, but his will to persevere is strong for one his age. I hit him fairly hard a few times, but he never gave up. He even managed to hold his own against me and I was fighting at mid-genin to low-chunin level". Kakashi's eye widened, disbelieving, "Really?" "Indeed. Though, Hokage-sama, when I asked him, he confessed he wasn't using his preferred taijutsu". "Ah, yes", the Hokage muttered. "Sir?" Gai and Kakashi asked in unison. "I've guessed for some time that he'd been working on creating his own style. If I know anything about the boy, it's that it'll be a surprise when we see it", he finished with a hearty chuckle. Gai put forth a question that was on his mind though. "Tell me, Hokage-sama, does the boy use weights yet?" he asked. "During the taijutsu spar, he seemed a little sluggish". Sarutobi looked thoughtful for a second, taking a deep drag from his pipe. Frowning, "I do believe he purchased a set recently". And so the night went, topics ranging from their students to training methods. What irked Kakashi most though was the Hokage's parting words to him, "Be prepared for anything".
Later that night, after the assembled Jonin had left, Sarutobi prepared to call it a night when a knock at the door sounded. "Who would come at this hour?", he wondered, feeling slightly annoyed. "Come in", he barked out. The door opened enough for a figure to hobble in. It was a man close to his own age, his left arm in a sling and left eye covered in bandages, as they had been for some time. "Good evening, Hokage-sama". "Ah, Danzo-san…more like good morning at this hour. What can I do for you this early morning?", he asked. Though after several previous attempts by the man, he had a fair idea. The scarred and bandaged man hobbled his way to the chair opposite him and sat down. "I am sorry for the late hour, Hokage-sama. Having just heard about the incident involving the Uzumaki and the Chunin, Mizuki, I was wondering if you'd reconsidered my offer". Sarutobi fought the urge to frown, he'd learned long ago to be wary of anything he revealed to this man. Danzo was a dangerous figure. He was an old warhawk who had never liked his ways. It was his idea that Fire Country, Konoha, should be the most powerful and conquer the other shinobi nations. From the moment the Kyubi had been sealed into Naruto, it had been Danzo's goal to turn him into a living weapon to further his own ideals. It had taken a great deal of effort on his part for Sarutobi to keep that from happening. But Danzo had persisted and approached him with the offer whenever the opportune time arose. Like the time when Naruto'd been attacked at the academy, then when he'd beaten several graduating genin to a pulp defending another academy student, and now, just after he'd graduated the academy. It was standard for the students to be tested by Chunin. Danzo had made a sudden push, and Gai had been asked to replace a teacher during Naruto's test. It was meant to give him a detailed view of the blonde's level, but it had only served to help the boy in finding another person who did not hate him.
"I had hoped that you'd figured out by now that I will never let you turn Naruto into one of your "weapons". I made a promise to look after him and I won't let you get to him". Danzo smiled easily, "You say that but what stops him from joining of his own free will?" He was a bit startled to receive a laugh from the Hokage. "What is the joke that I' appear to have missed?". "Naruto will never agree to join your ranks. I've informed him of your offers and he has answered in few words to the negative, if not some of the more colorful descriptions of your practices", Sarutobi replied, a grin growing on his face. Danzo's remaining eye narrowed, the only sign of his anger, "I will not give up on the boy, Sarutobi", and getting up, turned and left. The door closed, "And I will always stand between you and the boy, Danzo", he said to the empty office.
Outside, "I will have the Kyubi brat, Sarutobi. And if I can't have him, the last Uchiha will be more than willing to come to my side…with the proper incentive", he whispered to himself. Nothing would stop him from rebuilding Konoha into it's proper image, his own. One where Konoha was once more the greatest shinobi village. And either the Uchiha or the Uzumaki would be his weapon of choice, striking fear into the hearts of Konoha's enemies.
Like the morning before, students arrived early for team placement, those that passed. He couldn't help thinking of some of the others as being foolish. Few, if any, knew that, of the graduating genin, only a select few went on. Most would be failed by their sensei and would return to the Academy until next year. He didn't notice exactly when, but Iruka arrived soon, and, after congratulating them at passing the exam, began to announce team lineups. "Team 7: Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha", Iruka read, ignoring the whoop of excitement from the resident pink-haired genin. "Yes! I'm on Sasuke-kun's team!" she cheered. Inner Sakura roared in triumph, "CHA! TRUE LOVE CONQUERORS ALL!". "HA! Take that Ino-PIG!" she jeered, smirking at the blonde girl. "Raarghh! It's not over yet, Forehead girl!" If anyone looked to the back of the room at that moment they would have seen a masked blonde fingering a kunai, tempted to finally end it. And he would be on the same team as her from now on. He wondered for a second if he'd slighted a deity in one of his past lives, maybe giving the finger to Kami at one point. Sighing in defeat he turned his focus back to Iruka. "Team 8…"
"Our sensei is over an hour late", Naruto murmured. "Him, huh? Better be set for a long wait", his nechan replied. Truthfully, he needed the time to think. During team assignment, particularly his own, Hinata had given him an odd look when she thought he wasn't looking. There was something in the way she looked at him that made his chest feel tight, a feeling that intensified when she had left, but had not completely faded in her absence. And now he was supremely confused. Meanwhile, his hands were frantically writing, filling up a scroll with new jutsu ideas.
Upon hearing that he'd be on the same team as Sasuke Uchiha, he began to list all his techniques, the ones he'd created and the ones he'd learned, labeling them according to whether or not they required hand signs. Some he could do using reduced hand signs, and a few he could use without any. Not that he was trying to be extremely secretive, but he just didn't like the idea that his teammate could just take his moves if he wanted to. It was his firm policy that if you wanted something, you earned, worked for it with your own sweat and blood. He'd spent years working his ass off creating techniques of his own, often hurting himself in the process of their creation. He made as little mention as possible of the things he'd learned from his sister, in case anyone should get their hands on the scroll. So for the techniques she'd taught him, he wrote only the name and nothing more. Thinking of seal-less techniques though really got his creative juices flowing.
"Hmm, what about placing seals on my kunai and shuriken so I can retrieve them with chakra strings? Possible…but someone else could take advantage of it, like an opponent who uses chakra strings. Still…" he wrote it down to think over later. Looking at the list, he saw a shortage of Earth jutsus. The list wasn't long, but he still only had one Earth jutsu and it was a defensive jutsu. He'd have to fill up that area more so he could be more well-rounded, even if the majority of the list was made of Wind jutsus.
Sensing an approaching chakra signature, he put away his notes for later. Just as he stood up, the classroom door opened and a head poked through. "Yo" the silver-haired person spoke, receiving two glares and one mask-covered blank look. "My first impression of you…I'm not impressed" which only caused the pair of glares to increase their power. "Meet me on the roof in five minutes" he said and disappeared in a poof of ninja smoke. Huffing, Sasuke left, followed by a fawning Sakura. Sighing, "I hope the old man knows what he's doing" he muttered. He gave a light chuckle as his sister sent him an image of the Hokage clutching a gigantic bottle of sake. Standing, he made his way after the others to the rooftop.
AN: Well, what do you think so far?