Outsider Chronicles: Swirling Blades
Ever wondered what it'd be like to be seeing the events of one of those 'Naruto is a hidden badass' stories in person? Well, now I do. Its...interesting. Unfortunately, that also means that Sasuke is a pain in the neck and I have some incredible powers of my own. Aww well, I guess I'll just have to ensure I'm the best I can be.
And we're back. Nothing to say, lets get on with it! Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Following the reveal of Naruto's true gender, nothing much changed, with the exception of the fact that she dropped her illusion when we were alone. I also got to experience first hand her true personality. It was neither the idiot prankster she showed the the Village, nor the often serious, hard working persona she'd shown around me. In reality, she was somewhere between the two, along with being highly perceptive and resourceful, which was a big part of the reason she was so good at Seals. Unfortunately, she was also moody, competitive and had a tendency of jumping to conclusions. But you know what? I liked this Naruto way better than either of the old ones.
Fortunately, there wasn't that much time left before the Exams rolled around and Naruto could finally drop the Seal for good. I think we were both getting tired of the mask she was forced to wear lest the idiot Villages try and do unspeakable things to her and I was tired of having to hold back to avoid the screeching of Fangirls over how there was no way I could beat the 'Great Uchiha'. Seriously, while he was far from bad, Sasuke's overblown ego would have you believe that he was at least as good as the Hokage when he was actually just Mid Genin level. Not bad for an Academy Student, but Naruto and I were mid Chunin at least! Hell, the fact we were both Seal Masters bumped our rank at least a level!
Anyway, the day of the exam rolled around and with it, a chance to show off. I arrived in the classroom tad early and smirked at the sight of Naruto already present at the back of the room. I immediately moved over to join her. As I sat down, she shuffled closer and rested her head on my shoulder. I looked down with a raised eyebrow and frowned when I saw the bags under her eyes.
"Are you OK?" I asked, "You look terrible."
"I'm fine," she mumbled, "Its just a bunch of Villages tried to put me in the hospital last night on my way back to my hide out. It took me all night to lose them, so I only got about two hours sleep."
I growled.
"Assholes," I muttered, "Will you be OK during the test?"
"Hmm, I think so," mumbled Naruto as her eyelids drooped, "Just...need...a nap…"
Her head slipped off my shoulder as her eyes closed and landed in my lap. I gave a small smile as I started running my fingers through her hair, once again marveling at how advanced her Genjutsu seal was. I knew that in her true form, Naruto's hair reached her ass when loose, but her hair currently felt like it was the short, spiky mess everyone saw thanks to the Genjutsu. Naruto mumbled in her sleep and shifted closer. My smiled widened and I quickly wove a minor Genjutsu so we wouldn't be disturbed until Iruka and Mizuki showed up.
The classroom slowly began to fill with chattering students, not one of whom noticed Naruto and I sat in the shadows at the back of the room. Well, that wasn't entirely true, a few people did notice. Shikamaru and Ino both glanced at me and nodded as they entered, while Hinata glanced in my direction and flared her Byakugan for a brief moment, right before her eyes widened and she blushed brightly. I wonder what was going through her head...actually, I probably don't want to know.
Anyway, once everyone had arrived, Iruka and Mizuki entered.
"Alright you lot settle down," said Iruka.
He was ignored. His eye twitched and he used his Big Head Jutsu.
"SHUT UP YOU BRATS!" he roared.
In my lap, Naruto jerked awake at the sudden shout and sat up, blinking blearily with a string of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth. I snickered at the sight and indicated to her mouth. She blushed and quickly wiped it away, before smacking me on the arm with a scowl.
"Shiki, take down that Genjutsu so we can get started," said Iruka.
Everyone who hadn't noticed us jumped and turned around as I took down the illusion.
"Thank you, now, I'm sure you're all aware of this, but I'll tell you anyway," said Iruka, "The Exam is split into four parts, the Written test, Taijutsu, Throwing Weapons and Ninjutsu. The first part needs no explanation and you will have an hour to complete the test paper. The second test will be a three minute spar with either myself or Mizuki, during which you will either have to avoid us for as long as possible or land a critical hit on us. You will be graded on your performance, but surviving a full three minutes or landing a critical hit is an immediate pass. The third test is a marksmanship test where you will need to show us what you can do with Kunai and Shuriken. You will get five of each and will be marked out of ten. Finally, in the last test, you will need to perform the three Academy Jutsu to a satisfactory level. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir," we all said.
Iruka nodded and he and Mizuki began passing out the tests. I stifled a snort as Mizuki handed Naruto hers and spotted the incredibly sloppy Genjutsu that had been placed on it. It was so bad that even a half trained monkey would be able to spot it. To be honest, I'm surprised he tried it considering it was well known that I was one of the best non-clan Genjutsu users in the Academy, not to mention being Naruto's friend. Idiot.
Not that Naruto needed my help though. She might not be able to use Genjutsu, but since she was on good terms with the Fox, she was basically immune to all Genjutsu short of those used by the Sharingan. Hell, even I had a hard time trapping her with my Genjutsu. With that in mind, it took all of two seconds for Naruto to remove the Genjutsu and less than ten minutes to finish the test, with me following a few moments later. Its not like it was really that hard after all. With the papers done, Naruto turned hers over and went back to sleep on the desk. I rolled my eyes and pulled out a book to read for the remaining 50 minutes, pausing only to hand Iruka the finished papers when he came by to see why we weren't working.
An hour later, I woke up Naruto and we all trooped outside to the sparing ring, which was basically just a flat ring about ten meters across and marked out with smooth, white stones around the edge. Once outside, we all settled in to wait our turn.
Most of the matches were just plain boring. Since most of the class came from a Civilian background, they only had the Acadamy style and occasionally the basics in more advanced styles in the serious students and those with Shinobi parents. Only the Clan heirs managed to get the instant passes, with Shikamaru, Hinata and, quite unexpectedly, Ino, managing to avoid their opponent for the full time, while Choji, Kiba and, of course, Sasuke all managing to land solid blows. I would say that the Uchiha had been let win, but considering his opponent was Iruka, I had to grudgingly give him the credit he was due. Barely.
When my turn rolled around, I stepped into the ring across from my opponent, who just so happened to be Mizuki. I eyed the traitor warily as I slipped into a ready stance. I really didn't like the look in his eyes, so I started channeling Chakra into my limbs to reinforce them. As it turned out, that was a good idea as Iruka started the match and Mizuki immediately dashed forwards much faster than he had in the previous matches. I ducked under the haymaker he threw at my head and darted out of the way of the follow up kick.
"Damn, hes serious," I muttered as I deflected another punch with a palm strike, "I wonder if this has something to do with me being friends with Naruto...probably."
I smirked. To be completely honest, him coming at me this strong actually gave me an advantage. See, my style was a reactionary one, meant to turn my opponent's own momentum and power against them in order to create an opening to counter attack. I may prefer to use weapons, but that didn't mean I was helpless without them.
As Mizuki came at me with another punch, I stepped forwards and slapped the arm to the side. The move was so unexpected that Mizuki overextended, practically walking into the follow up double palm strike to the chest that sent him flying out of the arena.
"Hold, Shiki Emiya, pass!" called Iruka.
"Are you OK Mizuki-sensei?" I asked as the teacher slowly got to his feet, rubbing his bruised ribs, "Sorry I hit you so hard, I guess I got carried away."
"No problem," said Mizuki with a fake smile, "But I didn't recognize that style. Its rather impressive."
"Thanks, I developed it myself," I said.
Not entirely true since it was actually based on the Tai Chi I'd learnt last time through, but I had adapted it into something quite formidable.
"Really?" asked Iruka, "Thats quite impressive for an Academy student."
I grinned and thanked the teacher, before heading back over to join Naruto under a nearby tree as the next student started his exam. Eventually, Naruto's turn rolled around and, unfortunately, she got Mizuki as well. Unfortunately for Mizuki that is. See, while for me Taijutsu was only meant as a last resort until I could Trace a weapon, for Naruto it was her bread and butter, even more so than Ninjutsu and Seals. As such, she had put her impressive intellect to work along with the many, many scrolls Orochimaru had left in the lab she'd taken over and a bit of help from the Kyuubi to create a style so nasty she called it the Hakai ken or Destruction Fist. It had one purpose, to take down her opponents as quickly, painfully and permanently as possible without killing them. Mizuki would be lucky to get out of this match with just broken bones considering she'd even added Chakra to her style to damage her opponents Chakra network.
As soon as Iruka started the match, Mizuki charged forwards even faster than he had with me. Big mistake. First rule of fighting the Hakai Ken is to never, ever take its user head on. It was suicide, as I'd found out the hard way. Naruto's fist snapped out, slamming into Mizuki's collar bone with a loud thump as the Chakra within her fist exploded out, sending Mizuki flying out of the ring and into the wall with a loud crash.
The entire class looked between the unconscious teacher and Naruto in shock as she calmly dropped her arm and walked back over to me where she plopped herself down as if nothing had happened. Unfortunately, that silence didn't last long.
"NARUTO-BAKA, HOW DARE YOU HURT MIZUKI-SENSEI LIKE THAT!" shreaked Sakura as she stormed over and raised a hand to hit Naruto.
Normally, she would have sat there and taken it, but today was the day she was removing her mask, so she instead caught the fist without looking. Sakura blinked in surprise, before stiffening as my finger pressed against her forehead.
"Wha…" she started, before my other hand snapped out and tapped her throat.
Her jaw flapped, but all that came out was a strangled croak. The whole class stared at Sakura in shock as she went an interesting shade of purple, then turned to me in askance. I smirked and held up my hand, which was surrounded by a faint aura of Chakra. Hinata was the only one who seemed to get it as her eyes widened and she glanced at Sakura with her Byakugan active. A moment later, her jaw dropped and she turned back to me.
"H-how?" she asked.
I just grinned.
"That my dear, is a secret," I said.
"Whats wrong Hinata?" asked Ino, "What did he do?"
"He closed the Tenketsu in her throat," said Hinata, apparently still in awe, "It paralyzed her voice box by cutting off the Chakra flow within it while still allowing her to breathe. Even my Father would have a hard time doing that!"
All eyes once more turned to me, including Naruto. She didn't know I could do that. It was actually rather simple, creating the Chakra aura the Hyuuga clan used in their Gentle Fist was easy. It was just basic Chakra control out of the palm and fingers after all. The hard part was locating the Tenketsu to strike them as everyone's was in slightly different places and were so small that, even if you did memorize the average places, it was nearly impossible to accurately hit them without the Byakugan. However, my Tracing ability proved me with a perfect mental image of anything I used it on, including the Chakra Network in living beings. With that, it was relatively simple to zero in and strike. I couldn't do it in the heat of combat though. Yet.
"Emiya, I demand that you teach me to do that!"
Ah yes, I was wondering when he'd be speaking up.
"Er, how about no," I deadpanned, ignoring the now red faced Sakura as she tried to scream at me for turning down Sasuke.
Sasuke went red himself and opened his mouth. Before he could say anything that'd get him hurt though, Iruka decided to interject.
"Alright you lot, thats enough," he said, "Lets get on with the tests."
Sasuke looked mutinous, but stood down with a huff.
With that done, the remaining tests went by relatively quickly. I made a point of completely ignoring the looks the rest of the class kept shooting me. I honestly didn't give a shit about what they thought about me considering I'd never see most of them again.
Eventually, we finished the Taijutsu tests and moved onto the throwing range where we were joined by a bandaged Mizuki. Once again, the Fangirls did badly, the serious kids did alright and the Clan Kids did relatively well. Sasuke decided to show off by throwing all five of each projectile at the same time and ended up with 8/10, the best so far. He returned to his seat among adoring cheers from his fangirls. I glanced at Naruto, who smirked and indicated for me to go. I stepped up and took the offered Kunai and Shuriken from Iruka, before turning and throwing all ten at the same time. They slammed into the concrete wall behind the targets and embedded themselves almost half way into the solid stone. A moment later, the targets fell apart at the vital points. A perfect score.
I turned around with a smug grin which only widened at the looks of utter shock on everyone's face and the absolute fury on the face of Sasuke. Naruto just looked amused as she took my place and scored a respectable 7/10. Hey, even in a world where Naruto is a badass, she can't be great at everything.
The next test was hardly even worth mentioning, but we passed with flying colours. I had long since mastered the Clone Jutsu and Naruto had the Shadow Clones, which actually earnt her extra credit. Once everyone was done with the tests, Mizuki and Iruka vanished to tally up the scores. When they returned, they both had poleaxed expressions on their faces.
"Alright everyone, quiet down," said Iruka.
Once again, he was ignored and a tick mark appeared on his head.
"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU BRATS!" he roared with his Big Head Jutsu.
Everyone immediately did as they were told.
"Alright, we will now announce the Rookie and Kunoichi of the year," said Iruka, "The Rookie is…"
Here Sasuke started to get to his feet.
"...Shiki Emiya."
Sasuke froze, eyes widening as everyone not ainle retentive started clapping. I got to my feet and walked down to Iruka, who handed me the certificate and a scroll of random Jutsu that was the prize for getting Rookie of the Year.
"Congratulations Shiki, you were impressive today," said Iruka.
"Thanks Sensei," I said as I returned to my seat.
"And the Kunoichi of the Year is...well, its a surprise to say the least," continued the teacher, "Apparently one of our class has taken the Shinobi creed of 'look beneath the beneath' to the extreme."
He looked up at Naruto, who smirked and placed her hands in a seal.
"KAI!"
There was an explosion of smoke that cleared to reveal Naruto's true form. Apparently, her jumpsuit was a part of the illusion today because her clothes changed to a short-sleeved, dark orange kimono-like blouse , held closed with a black obi, a dark short skirt and stockings that stopped at her thighs. Actually, she looked a lot like Kushina did when she was a kid, other than her blond hair that was still worn in twintails and her headband was worn as a belt.
"Very nice," I said with a thumbs up.
Narutos eye twitched and she slugged me.
"Ow."
"Naruto Uzumaki is the Kunoichi of the Year," finished Iruka.
And done. Probably not the best way to end it, but its as good a place as any.
I may have gone a tad overboard with Shiki and Naruto's taijutsu, but considering some of the stuff people come up with, it works fine.
I based Naruto's outfit on some images I found of a young Kushina. Since a lot of stories base Narutos gear on what Minato wore, I thought it was appropriate.
Anyway, I'm gonna sign out here, so make sure you leave a review!