Veritas 2
Naruto
Naruto walked into the Academy at 8:50 sharp. He did it every day. Class started at 8:55 and Naruto would always come in the same time. Why? Well, because Naruto was making a point. One of the teachers said that since he was always late that Naruto didnt care about being a Ninja. So, Naruto decided to come at the same exact time just to piss off the teacher. Of course that meant listening to an extra 30 or 40 minutes of droaning from teachers but Naruto dind't care. He had stuff to pass the time.
When Naruto entered, he was surprised to see it a bit more filled than usual. Naruto shrugged, it was getting closer and clsoer to graduation exam. Naruto walked over to his regular spot, next to Lee.
"Yo, Lee, what's up?"
Lee smiled and replied energetically, "Pretty good, We an spar after school today."
Naruto sat down and nodded. "Yea, I a gonna hve to start using lightening steps on you."
Lee nodded and then thoguht for a moment. "Well I finally got the Ninth attack flow down so I'll try to use it on you."
Naruto graoned. "I hate when you do that. It hurts to push out the Ki on my own."
Lee smirked. "heh, its not that bad as your lightening fist."
Naruto shrugged. "E.O.T.L is meant to be 'shocking'"
Lee nodded and then stoped as he saw another occupant enter the room. The newcomer was the prodigy of the lass, Neji Hyuuga. Naruto looked over to Lee and then back to Neji. Naruto laid his head down in his arm and mumbled. "Why did you lose to him again?"
Lee shrugged. "I didn't want to use Northern board strike just yet... not when I haven't perfected it yet, Why haven't you been using it?"
Naruto gave a long sigh and graoned. "Would cause a hassle if revealed."
Lee nodded. "Hai, Shishou did say that Ki was not well known."
then the door opened again and another person came through. Naruto looked up, his eyes widening. "eh? What is the Uchiha doing here? I thought he was a year behind us."
Lee scratched his head. "I wonder as well, but maybe he was moved up. I heard he was considered a prodigy in the school"
Naruto groaned once more. "We already have a prodigy, I don't thin kthis class can take two emo, attention hogging prodigies."
Lee sighed and patted Naruto on the back. "its alright, Lets just get ready for class."
Naruto nodded and reached in his poket and puled out a small tube. He placed the tube on his desk infront of him like always. He then straightened his back and looked down, so that he was looking at the tube. Though to everyone else it looked like he was paying very good attention. Lee did the same thing. The classes now were actually based off of chakra techniques. Lee, not being able to use chakra, decided to use something ot pass the time. Naruto cam up with an idea to make a miniature water filter composed of some trinkets. Naruto built two because, Naruto as well, was very bored of the lectures . So they opted to do the breathing exercises through the miniature purifiers.
After the lectures, the calss would be led outside for some field practice. Naruto and Lee would seriously practice on their weapons, as they were never gd at using thm. Though they did have some helpfrom their fellow weapon's mistress who Naruto and Lee ahad taking a real liking to. She was very nice and knew to have fun. On the plus side too, she didn't treat Naruto like all the other kids and she took the time to get to know Naruto. Anyways, Naruto and Lee struggeld to get proficiency in weapons but if it came to a real fight, Naruto and Lee knew that they would use their styles to cursh the opponents. If Naruto had to judge their srength right now... they were definetly beyond gennin level Naruto wasn't tooting his own horn but he had seen some gennins sparring and Naruto could easily follow teir movements nad see the flaws and openings they had. That was one thing but the other thing is that they moved like shit, they were sloppy, unoriginal and would become cannon fodder if they didn't shape up.
After that, it would come to he most dreary part of the day, sparring. They would have two people get up on a dirt stage and fight each other. Almost everything was allowed but no B rank jutsus. This was a handicap to make sure that kids didn't kill each other, or start something that the Chuunin instructers couldn't. Naruto wanted to bang his head on the wall because this was the worst part of the day. For some reason, and lee and naruto didn't know why, but both of them restrited themselves. The restricted themselves a lot. It was like fighting in a battle against petty thugs with you bare fists and they had pipes and other make shift weapons, except you had a full steel katana strapped to your back. The only reason yo udidn't want to use it is because you didn't want to stain it on worthless blood. Maybe, that was the turht behind their actions but it dind't realy matter because no one knew about their true level.
Today was different though. Since they had another person in the class, their would be an odd number of people, that meant extra sparring for some unlucky bastard. Naruto waited with Lee, his regular sparring partner. To his delight, not many people watched his battle since they were near the end of the line. Most of them were too busy nursing bruises or big heads to bother with some weirdos. But at times like these Naruto tried some crazy and wacky stuff, using new patterns he wanted to try with E.O.T.L but never ever using Ki to back it up. Lee on the other hand tried to figure out some strikes and counters for the Northern board strike.
Naruto sighed as he waited for his turn. ' wonder who hs going to spar the Uchiha.' Naruto thought with some mirth. If it was him, so help him Kami, Naruto would just parry the Uchiha till he got tired. Naruto wanted to save his strength for Lee, who would be more of a challenge and much more fun to fight.
"Next up," Iruka called, " Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha."
Naruot twitched 'oh, I see now Kmai, you're hating on me too.' Naruto stood up and trudged his way towards the mound. Now everyone looked at the stage. Naruto wanted to palm his face right there. Dammit, the uchiha's fame was too large for everyone to ignore. It was that or his the Uchiha's personality demeanor was the personification of attention. Naruto stood on the right side ofhte mound and faced the Uchiha on the other. The Uchiha got in his ready stance and Naruto simply put his foot back and lazily raised his left arm. 'Should I end it quick or make a fool out of him.' naruto though about it and debated.
"Begin!" Iruka called ou.
Sasuke shot forward with a kunai in hand. Naruto sighed. He would end this quickly, no need to drag this stupid fight out. Sasuke was holding the Kunai in reverse grip as he charged forward and so he broug hit up and stabbed downwards at Naruto's shoulder.
Naruto reacted quickly. He brought up his right arm and grabbed the Uchiha's wrist so that he could stop the momentum. Naruto then bent down so he was in a low horse stance. Naruto brought his left hand up and punched the Uchiha in the stomach. The Uchiha, caught by suprise, lurched forward in pain. Naruot pulled his hand back and the nstruck again, this time striking the chext. Sasuke was pushed backwards, winded and sore. Naruto dind't stop his atttack there. Naruto took to stepfwoards and then brought up his right leg. He turned his hips slightly and then swung his leg in a horizontal posisiton. His roundhouse kick connected with the pretty boy's face, smashing him downwards. Sasuke groaned as he hit the floor and stayed down.
Naruto sighed and waked off the mound to get some rest.
Now the sad part about this was that Nrauto now had the attention of the students. It was bad enough hthat he was considered a weirdo and an outcast by others, but this was now making everyone interested in him.
This would continue on for the next few months. And finally, finally the graduation test arrived.
Later
After the graduation test, Naruto and Lee decided to head out to Naruto's favorite restaurant to celbrae. And yes, they both passed. With flying colors? No, but they did pass nonetheless. Lee and Naruto decided to take this from a perecentatge point. Lee couldn't use chakra so he was going to fail the Ninjutsu portion of the test, Naruto couldnt form a bunshin so he was going to fail the Ninjutsu portion as well. Anyways narut oand Lee decided to pass in everything else. They passed in weapons, the written, the obstacle course, the sparring and pretty much eerything that the instructors threw at they weren't the only ones that passed. About 98 percent of the class pased and were happy celebrating. Sadly enough, Naruto didn't really bother to remember them... it wasn't because he didn't think they weren't worht his time but it was rather for his conscience. He would get to know them later if he had time, in the future. If he knew them knowthen he would probably lose some friends. Naruto wasn't as stupid or naïve to think that many classmate swould survive. Hell, Naruto didn't even think most of htme would last 10 months as a gennin and porbably drop out or get killed. Naruto didn't want ot riddle his conscience with annoing moments of grief and pain. He had already had enough of that.
But his graduation party at Ichiruka's wasw very good. They gave him an unlmited amount of ramen that day. Sad to say, Ichiruka had to close the next day because they were out ofstok and would need to shop for more.
The next day
Naruto wlaked downthe corridor of the Academy. It was his last doy here and then he would take his first step as a gennin. Naruto walked into the rom and sat down at his regular spot. He had a his regular, black jacket and cargo pants on. His Konoha headband hung proudly around his arm. Lee did the same thing with his, so when they found out they both laughed at the coincidence.
Naruto sighed as he waited for time to pass. He wondered what his team would be. Who is instructor would be. What he would learn. It was pretty invigorating and refreshing to learn about the walked in with a folder and looked around and started his speech. Naruto bbarely paid attention. I was the usual crfap about nationalism for their village. Patriotism, being a good nin. Sadly Iruka dind't put in the part where they had to uder, torture and due some pretty hardcore shit to the other nins but that was alriht they would learn later on, and naruto knew it.
Finally, Iruka started to call out the names. Naruto listened carefully. at one point during the team calling, Naruto snorted. It seemed that the Uchiha was paired up with the Hyuuga prodigy and some other chick that Naruto didn't know.
And the nit got to his team. "Would Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee and _ Tenten, please report to room 305 to meet up with your instructor Maito Gai."
Naruto smirked as he heard the team. Lee and him made the team fun, even if he was partnered up with one of the stuck up, stick up the ass uchiha or Hyuuga. But add in a Kunoichi that doesn't think about working on their looks but rather thinks about working on her skills... naruto couldn't have asked for anything better.
Naruto stood up and started to walk to the door. Lee followed him. Naruto waited at the door and looekd over to the last member of the team.
Naruto smiled and opened the door. His other two teammates waled through and naruto followed after them. They walked silently towards the 3rd floor. It wasn't an awkward silence but rather a happy and resonating silence. Finally, Naruto broke the silence. "So does anyone know about our sensei?"
Tenten scoffed and said in a mocking voice. "Hi Tenten, its nice to have you on our team Tenten..."
Naruto smirked at her. "I didn't know you talked to yourself Tenten."
The said girl, smacked Naruto on the back of the head. Lee laughed and said, "Well, at least we know whose gonna get married."
Naruto and Tenten and then stared at Lee. Lee just smirked back and then looked at the two with a knwoing eye. Tenten's and Naruto's eyebrows twitched and they both punched Lee. Lee luckily ducked and ran up the stairs to the Third floor. Naruto and Tenten yelled in unison as the chased after him "GET BACK HERE!"
The trio ran all the way to the meeting spot. Lee opened the door and dove in, escaping several kunais. Naruto and Tenten ran after him and then found themselves staring at a jounin waiting for them. Lee, who was on the ground, looked up and saw an imposing yet... 'friendly' figure.
The man was wearing a green leotard and was smiling so large that it seemed physically impossible for someone to smile that big. Lee stood up and Naruto and Tenten walked to either side of him.
The man infrong of him nodded. "My name is Maito Gai and you are now under my team."
Naruto and co. looked at each other and then turned back to Gai. Naruto scratched his head. "Uh, pleased to meet you Gai-sensei... my name is-"
"Uzumaki Naruto." Gai said immediately. Naruto blinked and nodded. Gai turned to the rest of the group and said "you are Rock Lee and _ Tenten."
Naruto blinked and there was a silence that overcame the fresh gennin. Tenten was the one to ask the question they were all thinking. "Uh... sensei … how do you know our names."
Gai smiled and gave a thumbs up. It was in a pose that made the gennin twitch. "YOSH! I STUDIED MY TEAM'S NAMES AND MADE SURE I KNOW AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE ABOUT YOU!"
The team nodded, dumbly. Gai continued on. "ALRIGHT THEN TEAM, FOLLOW ME!"
Gai left through the room's window and the gennin immediately charged after him. Though they were looking at each other quite confused. What was with this jounin?
They ran for a straight 20 minutes till the went onto a high building that was probably one of the tallest building in Konoha. But it was in the far back region near the east gate, and not many people went towards the east gate since there wasn't much to the east. Gai sat down on the rail and the tired gennin staggered towards the benches.
Lee spoke tiredly, "Sensei... why did we have to run across Konoha to reach here?"
Gai smiled. "Don't worry youthful students there is a reason why I wanted this place to be our meeting spot."
Naruto blinked. "Eh?"
Gai got into a serious posture and said in a solemn voice. "this was the spot where my gennin team met. And I … being the only one still alive... decided to come back here in honor of them."
There was a solemn silence amongst the group. They were now comprehending the truth behind the meeting spot, its meaning to Gai. This was not something you could brush off and say unnecessary but Gai was using this place as an inspiration point.
Gai turned to them and gave a more... calm smile. "Now then lets introduce ourselves. My name is Maito Gai. I like challenges, training, and Youthfulness, I dislike un-youthful activities and my hip rival's constant attitude. Finally My dream is to create a team of the Best Taijutsu style ever!"
Naruto smirked. He definetly liked Gai-sensei now. Naruto spoke up. "I'll go then. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like Training, sparring, and Learning my style. I dislike people who are over arrogant, who are naïve and those who try to warp the truth. My dream... or dreams are to complete and master my Taijutsu style and become Hokage."
Gai's face lit up and he got into a good guy's thumbs up pose. The gennin were prepared for it. "ALRIGHT NARUTO-KUN I WIL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS!"
Naruto blushed and scratched his head. "Uh... thank you sensei..."
Gai turned to Lee who saluted, for some reason. "MY Name is Rock Lee, I like sparring, learning about my style. My dislikes are people who look down on others, and my dreams are to complete and master my style and become a great nin even I can't use chakra."
Tenten blinked. And then asked. "You two are talking about styles... what do you mean."
Naruto scratched his head and smiled. "Our Taijutsu styles. We are both... uh in the middle of mastering two styles that we really like."
Lee caught on to Naruto's excuse and continued on. "Yes we have been practicing for quite a while now. And we can show you later!"
Tenten nodded and was cut off by Gai. "This is most excellent my youthful students. I shall see your styles later."
Naruto and Lee nodded. Tenten finally spoke. "Eto... I will go now..." Everyone turned to her and looked intently. Tenten blushed but continued anyways. "My name is _ Tenten. I like learning about weapons and using them. I dislike people who look down on Kunoichi and Kunoichi who don't take being a nin seriously. My dreams are to become an amazing weapons mistress."
Gai went on to rant about how they would all accomplish their goals and Gai would see it to the end or he would run to Iwa and back on his hands. The new gennins listened with some silent laughter. Thought was weird... it was pretty cool to have this kind of hyper teacher. Gai then turned to the students and said, in a serious tone which got the gennin to sit up. "I am going to show you something my sensei showed me."
Gai motioned for the gennin to stand up and stand next to him. They all stared out and saw the sun was starting to fall. "My sensei... brought my team here at the same time. He said that this place inspired him to never give up. I … came here after my team was killed during a mission." Gai's voice was not as jumpy or loud but more of a solid and sad tone. "I was considering killing myself..." the gennins eyes widened. "but I remembered that my sensei showed me this sunset and said that when sunset goes down. The Leaves will dim. But the sun will always come back up and new leaves will replace the new."
Gai nodded to himself. "I … understood the truth behind that saying. No matter how bleak it looks, there will be a new day, a new life. That is why I took a gennin team. So that I could help the new leaves grow."
The gennin unknowingly smiled at Gai's story. Gai then continued on. "Anyways we still have one thing to do before we continue on."
The gennins looked at Gai who still looked solemn. "You must accomplish a youthful task and retrieve things for me.
Naruto blinked "what do you mean sensei?"
Gai smiled and held up a metal band that had the design of an Ox on it. "I have 3 other bands with the same thing on it. You need to find this jounin." Gai handed them a set of pictures all with the same person holding up different bands and continued speaking, "And fight him. And he will decide when you can get the bands. You must have one band each or you will fail."
Naruto took the pictures and Lee and Tenten looked over his shoulder. Naruto bit his lip. Were they ready to fight a jounin? Naruto looked up and said "how long do we have?"
Gai smiled. "Meet me here by tomorrow evening at 9:00"
Naruto nodded. "We can attack anytime."
Gai nodded. "you might want to start now."
Naruto, Lee, and Tenten disappeared.
Later
Naruto was sitting at a bench looking at a specific picture. 'We need to take out him huh... It depends... we can take him if we do it silently. Simply just do a trap lure and then surround.'
Naruto clenched his fists and looked up. He would need to use everything
Jounin
He was up late. Much later than usual. He had been told by Gai that the Gennin would probably come attack him at any moment. He of course was prepared. Instead of his usual sword, Hayate got a training sword. It was a dulled sword but lighter than usual so that it wouldn't hurt so much if he hit them. That didn't mean he would go easy on the brats. If they proved worthy, he would let them get the bracelet.
Hayate sensed two presences to the right. They were making themselves known. That meant the third one was going to steal it. Not bad... ok he'd play along.
Hayate turned around to see the boy Lee and the girl Tenten facing him. Hayate raised an eyebrow. "And what would two kids want in the middle of the night?"
Tenten held up a picture. It was a picture of him holding up a band with a Dragon on it. "We need this band."
Hayate smiled and held up tree bands band "I know."
Tenten reached into her bag for Kunais. The team had already planned ahead... they wouldn't make a mistake. Lee charged forward at Hayate. Hayate raised an eyebrow but nonetheless drew his sword. Suddenly, Kunai's flew all around Lee and towards Hayate. Hayate stayed still ready to block but none of them were directed at him. 'what the …' Then he saw a glimmer in the moonlight. The Kunai's had string on them. 'Shit... restriction of movement... that means that they trust this kid to...' Hayate moved forward slashing at the boy's arm. Lee ducked under it and did a palm strike forward. Haayte was simply going to parry it with his hand but then he felt a heavy chill. It was the kind of chill that screamed danger. Hayate shot backwards away from the hand. 'Shit I can't move back because of ht string. Then I'll just have to.'
Hayate charged chakra into his sword. There was something special about this training sword. He had received it from his own sensei who was a samurai of the land of Iron. Hayate swung forward, lancing chakra from the tip of the sword. Lee eyes widened as he saw the charka spike. He stopped in his tracks when the chakra shot upwards, slicing the wires. Lee turned back to Hayate to see him jump up and away from the trap. Lee gritted his teeth and hopped that Naruto was ready.
Hayate moved upwards ready to counter if any of them tried to attack him. 'now then-'
Hayate felt the wind move behind him... which told you something if there was no breeze. Hayate spun around and saw a familiar blond fly at him. He was going at a straight charge. 'now then why would he do that.' Hayate raised his sword forward as he waited for the charge. He looked at Naruto's face... many people didn't know how to control their facial features when they fought. He saw Naruto's face change from focus to a confident smirk. Hayate was immediately on guard. 'A trap... or is he a distraction.'
Hayate looked to his right and left quickly to check for any traps but there was none... so what was going to- Hayate looked in front of him and felt a jolt. The kid had somehow closed the distance... in mid air!
Hayate swiped at him but Naruto twisted his body and then sent a kick to Hayate's ribs. Hayate moved his left arm to parry when suddenly he felt a jolt in his arm making it numb. 'Damn was that Thunder manipulation?'
Hayate flipped over and landed on the ground ready to defend himself. But his left arm was barely responding. Hayate felt a presence behind him and swung behind him adding chakra to his sword. He turned to see Tenten trying to sneak up and grab the band. If Hayate hadn't been so threatened by the sudden skill level he would have consciously let them grab it. But with the poised double trap and the strike from Naruto, Hayate's reflexes were acting on their own. He swung too hard. Tenten's eyes widened as she saw the sword come at her.
Naruto eyes widened as he saw the sword wing. 'Dammit... thats gonna-'
Suddenly a figure came in between Tenten and Hayate.
Lee gathered Ki in his hand and grabbed the sword. He circulated the chakra. Sadly since the metal didn't exactly have charka veins, Lee did the next thing to stop the blade, he melted it.
Hayate widened as he saw his blade heat up and burn, but one thing good was that it stopped. He jumped back and examined his blade. It was seared by chakra over dosage, similar to pooling up chakra and concentrating it . The blade couldn't handle the chakra concentration and melted under the pressure. Hayate turned to them and saw that the girl was a bit shaken by the close encounter but still handling herself. Lee on the other hand never took his eyes off Hayate. Hayate smiled, this one would go far.
Lee then got out of his stance and smiled. "It's over"
Hayate raised an eyebrow and then looked down. The bands were missing. "What happened?" He said with confusion. When did they get it.
"Over here, Hayate-san." Hayate turned and saw Naruto holding up the bands. Hayate laughed and shook his head. 'they got me'
Hayate nodded. "You did well no... exceptional. You all have great potential don't waste it.."
The gennins blushed at the compliment. Hayate then cleared his throat and pointed to the bands. "Gai told me that the bands were to be given to each one of you. The dragon would go to Tenten." Tenten grabbed the dragon band from Lee and wrapped it around her wrist. It glinted in the moonlight. Hayate turned to Lee. "The Phoenix goes to Lee." Naruto tossed the band to Lee, who strapped it around his wrist also. Naruto looked at the only band left. "A Tiger huh?"
Hayate nodded. "Well, its late so see you guys later."
The gennins nodded. "Thank you." They said in unison.
Hayate jumped away.
The gennins looked at each other and back at their bands ... Naruto smiled. "Well... this is cool. I guess we're a team."
Tenten nodded. "yeah... um... i'll see you guys tomorrow then?"
Naruto nodded and left for home. All the while looking at his band.
Hayate
Hayate watched the gennin leave and smiled. Yea, Gai certainly picked a talented group.
Hayate felt a familiar presence behind him and turned towards it. It was his girl... or well Yugao. She smiled at him, she was off duty so she didn't have her Anbu gear on. Hayate smiled back and said, "Gai's gennin are pretty sharp. They got me."
Yugao's eyebrow raised. "OH, the great Swordsman lost?"
Hayate chuckled. "Nah, but they are definetly worth watching."
Yugao watched the final two gennin leave. Maybe... she should probably check out their level.. maybe they could be useful... in Anbu.
And there we go I hope you guys like it!
