Chapter 2: The Energy of What is…
A single drop…
A single drop of water fell on the stagnant waters of the sewer pipelines, and in effect, the murky waters on the floor rippled quietly. It slowly spread on the surface making small waves on the sewers, it was unusually quiet in this place, the small drop echoed through the dark and unending doorways that awoke made Naruto conscious of his inner self
"I'm here again?" Said the blonde looking at the pipes, he slowly walked through the hallway. He glanced at his surroundings as he felt that the entire place had a … Solemn atmosphere in it, it wasn't like the time where the pipes were continuously leaky, or if there was a feeling of dread, there was absolutely, nothing but hollow pipes, as he walked towards the Kyuubi's cage he had immediately noticed that the place was brighter than what he first encountered, looking around he tried to look for the said tailed beast, but found none.
A voice as menacing as that of a demon boomed inside the labyrinth, the voice echoed through the hallways,
"I'm glad you're finally here!" the voice mentioned, it's voice sent shivers to the young blonde's spine, as he looked on into the cage. Naruto instantly recognized the voice, Kyuubi no Kitsune
"After making that foolish wish, look at what you did to me!" Said the voice the figure suddenly appeared from the dark reaches of the cage.
Naruto had to stifle his laughter at what he saw
"I don't see the reason why this is funny gaki!" Said the Kyuubi as Naruto finally couldn't stop his laughter
"Stop it you ingrate! If I were still powerful I would have overloaded your chakra system with my own and killed you!"
Naruto, took the threat on a more humorous side and laughed louder.
"… I'll kill you…" Was what the Kyuubi had uttered and the blonde still laughed.
Naruto couldn't believe it, the one in front of him, the most powerful bijuu in existence feared by every human being, the tall and proud Kyuubi no Kitsune, stood a little under one feet tall, nine red bushy tails and a head that was almost the size of its body, Naruto couldn't take the irony of it all
"By what? Cuddling me to death?" The blonde retorted laughing at the demon in front of him
"You… You… Human! How dare you laugh at the Great Kyuubi no Kitsune! That's it! You're dead!" Squeaked the little fox trying his hardest to scratch the blonde only to find that his claws were dulled and couldn't even graze the skin of the one eyed genin
"Stop it! You're making it worse!" Said the blonde laughing at the fox
Another ripple was heard, this time, the blonde noticed another presence, looking around he heard water being moved by a steady rhythm, the little fox noted this and stopped his faux clawing of the blonde.
"Welcome to the world of your mind, Naruto-san." Said the voice, the blonde looked at the place where the voice came from, and in front of him, shocked him more than anything else
The one that stood in front of him was himself, but this time, he had no eye patch and the visibly blonde locks were replaced with silver ones.
"Who are you…?" Asked the blonde, he began to walk towards the person and the person replied
"I am you… The embodiment of life and the beginning of everything." Said the boy
"You! You're the one responsible for this humiliation!" Said the little fox but was rather ignored by the silver haired boy as he stayed silent with an apathetic look on his face
"I did what I had to preserve all that is life, and yours was no better." Said the silver haired boy
"Then all those people that you killed, what about them? Did you not destroy their lives as well!?" Asked the Kyuubi smirking as the argument was going to his side
"Negative Mana…" Was the only answer of the young silver head
"As I am the opposite of the negative energy that overtook this people, then it became my duty to purify the area with my energy, for I am a positive Mana incarnate, I have no qualms in eliminating this energy, killing is but a choice for me, however, it is the will of the holder whom I shall obey, an by that time, I have succumbed to my wielder's choice, his will and my duty are already one and both of us decided to purify them." Answered the boy
"Isn't killing against your primordial nature in itself?" Was Kyuubi's counter argument
"It is indeed, but technically, life is energy also, ending it is the wrong thing to do, instead, let it transfer to someplace else." Said the boy
"And where would that be?" This time, it was Naruto who asked the question
"Life energy flows everywhere when one is in the brink of expiration, energy that comes from a sentient being, is sent back to the flow of Mana in the astral plane. However, once it is my doing, the life energy that erratically flows from these beings will be absorbed by me, and the energy shall be tamed, before releasing it towards the astral plane thus renewing it." Said the boy
"However, it should not be done again, ending someone's existence is not the way of Souseiki no Me though I have brought them immediately to the astral plane to be renewed, the existence of men should be ended by their own time." Said the silver haired boy, vanishing into the labyrinth
"Remember this well me, I am you and you are me the difference in us is that I am Reason and you are Emotion because of this, one cannot exist without the other. We are both Uzumaki Naruto and that shall forever remain as fact." Said the silver haired boy his voice echoing in the hallways
With one fell swoop, Naruto was awoken from his slumber clutching his right eye and breathe heavily.
'We are both Uzumaki Naruto, and that shall forever remain as fact.'
Those thoughts lingered within the blonde's mind, he stared towards the window with a curious look on his face, he saw the sun rising from the east, with the earl dew drops to kiss the earth below and the sound of roosters crowing in the brink of day
'Now what to do today… Oh yeah, that's right, Chuunin exams…' Thought the blonde, as he grabbed the flier indicating the registration form for the Chuunin exam. The one eyed blonde had answered the forms yesterday and they were about to be registered today to do the test, going for a quick bath, he immediately got dressed, he remembered seeing Iruka yesterday and giving him another set of wardrobe just like what he wore on the said day, Iruka gladly confiscated all of the blonde's jumpsuits and the blonde had given a deep sigh
'What's wrong with orange anyway? I like orange…' Thought the blonde, grabbing his sword and then donned it. He exited his room and locked the door shut
Academy:
Arriving at the said academy, Team seven had entered the doors of the said school, looking at the hallways, Naruto couldn't help but feel nostalgic, ascending towards the stairs, he remembered his younger days here, skipping classes, pulling pranks, every trouble that he would get himself into.
Sasuke was the one leading them, as he looked over to the area were two boys were guarding the door, he couldn't help but smirk as the two boys shoved a green clad genin to the ground.
'Weak.' The Uchiha mentally insulted the boy that was on the floor who was helped by the girl with buns for a hairstyle. Sasuke then approached the two boys and literally demanded to release the genjutsu on the sign so that they could pass through. Naruto though, thought it was best to avoid the confrontation and stealthily go to the real meeting place, he was about to mention this to Sakura when the girl, practically answered Sasuke's call and explained how the Genjutsu didn't fool Team seven.
'Great, more competition.' Thought the blonde his thoughts were filled with sarcasm
Naruto then saw that the older boy was about to punch Sasuke with the Uchiha retaliating with a kick until the green clad genin appeared suddenly and blocked both the boys attacks. Sasuke looked on in surprise as well as the blonde.
"Lee, didn't you say that it was better to hide your own strength so that the people would be fooled?" Asked the bun haired girl, Naruto quickly noticed it was the weapons girl, Tenten
Tenten then turned her attention towards the blonde and his sword, Tenten shoved Lee to the side and then like a little school girl, marveled at the sight of Naruto's sword, no pun intended.
"Hey Naruto, say, would you be as kind enough to let me hold your sword again?" Asked Tenten clasping her hands together, pleading the blonde to let her hold the weapon.
Naruto hesitantly nodded and gave her the blade; Tenten had a glint of shine in her eyes as she held it and stared at it at shoulder level.
"Tenten…" Lee called the attention of his weapon loving teammate
"Tenten…" No response
Tenten then swung the sword in a horizontal fashion that managed to graze Lee's hair and few strands of the bowl cut Genin's hair fell off…
"Ah! I love the sound of this weapon swinging! Can I have it?" Asked the girl which earned a flat out reply from the blonde
"No." Told the blonde clearly and Tenten could be seen giving a sigh of defeat and sorrowfully gave the blonde his sword back, and then the remaining teammate decided to make himself known
"Lee, Tenten, we need to go, we shouldn't be late." Said the boy, turning around, he noticed that the kid looked like someone he knew the white eyes were a dead giveaway, yet, the person he knew that had the same eye color was Hinata, except, this person was a male, had long hair and a pompous attitude that radiated as Sasuke's, he frowned as the boy looked at him with disdain in his eyes
"Tell me, what is your name?" Asked the white eyed boy towards the blonde's male teammate
"It's not nice not to introduce yourself first." Replied the Uchiha with a smirk borrowing what the blonde had said yesterday to the Suna nin
This earned a scowl from the white eyed male, and only replied
"Hyuuga Neji"
Hyuuga, Hyuuga, Hyuuga, the name sounded familiar in Naruto's thoughts, but it didn't ring a bell, well, not quite, he supposed. It was then that when they were approaching the test area, that a green clad genin approached them and had challenged Sasuke
"Sasuke-kun, I challenge you to a match. I want to test my skills and to prove who is stronger, a pure genius versus a genius of hard work and also…" Said the Genin who then turned to Sakura and as if his eyes couldn't grow any bigger, he charged directly at Sakura and asked
"I want to know the name of such a beautiful flower! Oh beautiful flower, what is thy name for you have descended to me from the heavens!" Said the green clad Genin, kneeling on one foot and extended a hand towards Sakura who just looked freaked out from the weird leotard wearing fashion disaster.
"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME! CHA!" Screamed the desperate Sakura with Naruto just having a sweatdrop on the back of his head
"Are we going to start or what?" Asked the impatient Uchiha, with the green clad Genin complied by moving to his stance
"Tell me first, what's your name?" Asked the Uchiha
"I am the beautiful Green Beast of Konoha, Rock Lee!" Said the green clad Genin as he then appeared by Sasuke's side
"Sasuke-kun, I will tell you this now, you have no chance of winning against me, for a few reasons." Said Rock Lee as he then turned around and gave a round house kick towards the raven haired genin.
Sasuke countered by ducking the blow but found out another foot was swinging towards him fast, having no time to react, the kick sent him flying backwards when the foot made contact with his chin. Sasuke gritted his teeth from frustration and soon, activated his newly acquired sharingan.
"Activating your sharingan won't work, Sasuke-kun." Said Lee as he then disappeared and reappeared to Sasuke's front.
'Fast…' Was what Sasuke thought for a moment before being hurled by a punch on Sasuke's chest, wind blew out from Sasuke's lungs as he was forced to skid on the ground. He staggered as he stood up, panting from the blow on his chest. Lee, then reappeared on top of Sasuke with a fist cocked back aiming for a blow on the head, Sasuke reacted instantly by grabbing the boy's fist and then twisting it about that made Lee spun in mid air. Lee landed on the ground like a graceful cat and then looked back to Sasuke.
"It is true that the Sharingan could predict moves a few seconds ahead making the mind create more time for reactions however…"
Lee then disappeared from view and kicked Sasuke up high
"Konoha Shofuu! (Leaf Rising Wind)" Lee then crouched on the ground, loosening the bandages on his arms. He then disappeared from view and then reappeared at the back of an airborne Sasuke, with two fingers pointing at Sasuke's mid back
"If a body cannot keep up with the speed of the mind, then the Sharingan is near useless! Kage Buyou! (Leaf Shadow Dance)" Said Rock Lee as his assault to the Uchiha was halted when a voice boomed throughout the hallway
In a giant plum of smoke, a turtle appeared out suddenly with it, Lee, stopped and kneeled towards the giant turtle
"Lee, how many times have I told you not to use that technique? Did you not listen when I mentioned it to be a forbidden technique?" Scolded the turtle with Lee uttering apologies to the turtle
Naruto didn't think that what he saw wasn't disturbing. And as if it wasn't disturbing enough, the turtle had inquired Lee
"You know what this means don't you, Lee?" Asked the turtle and Lee, slowly nodding.
And with that, another puff of smoke appeared and this time, an exact clone of the one called Rock Lee appeared albeit this one was wearing a Chuunin vest and looked much older.
"Lee, have you prepared for your punishment?" Asked the turtle with Lee starting to cry with a yes as he kneeled down
"Alright…"
"Lee… Kono Bakamono! (You idiot)" Said the older one as he punched his younger version hard on the cheek that sent him flying
"I'm deeply sorry, Gai-sensei! I have disobeyed you! For this mistake, I shall run around Konoha five times!" Said Lee bowing his head in apology
The one called Gai, could not stand his student's repentance and had decided to cry with him
"KYAH! LEE, I SEE THE FIRE OF THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH COURSING THROUGH YOUR BLOOD, I SHALL JOIN MY DEAR STUDENT RIGHT NOW AS WE RUN AROUND KONOHA WITH THE SUNSET SHINING AT OUR BACKS! WAIT WE STILL HAVE AN EXAM TO DO! WE SHALL DO THIS YOUTHFUL TRECK ONCE YOU FINISH THE EXAM!" Said Gai, as he hugged his student and indeed, a picture of a sunset and overflowing ocean waves completed the scene
Naruto looked absolutely horrified at what he saw, he somehow, felt… Undeniably disturbed at what he saw, two men hugging with a sunset at the beach background to match, Sakura had the same impression as him and Naruto muttered
"Weird bunch…"
"Got that right." Said Sakura for once, agreeing with the blonde
Approaching the entrance they were greeted by their Jounin instructor, Hatake Kakashi, with a perverted orange book in hand.
"Hello, my adorable students!" Said Kakashi forming an upside down u with his visible eyelid signaling his happy mood
"Good, you're all here that means that you three can proceed to the exam." Said Kakashi eyeing his students
"Wha-?" Asked the confused Naruto
"Well, it's like this, I tricked you three in giving you the forms individually, but when taking the Chuunin exam, this meant that the exam need to be taken with teams of three, I wanted to test you three to see if you could comply with the standards needed for the test, I can see that you three did well in figuring that out." Said Kakashi.
In truth, he hadn't expected all three of them would be willing to participate to the exams, especially Sakura, who must've been pressured by her two teammates to go, but then again, Kakashi was willing to let it pass, for now that is…
Entering the examination room, team seven noticed that all the Rookie Nine had been nominated to partake in the exam, glancing around, he noticed that some of the people that knew him
"So it seems all the Rookie Nine this year got nominated, geez, so troublesome." Said the pineapple headed Genin, Naruto recognized the boy as Shikamaru
"You say that monotone again, I'll make you clean my house, Shikamaru." Said the blonde haired girl, that Naruto instantly recognized as another fangirl of Sasuke, Yamanaka Ino
"Aw, shit…" Was what the pineapple headed boy muttered seeing his other teammate munching on a bag of chips
"Chouji, help out your friend here for a minute…"
"Ino, keep it down, a lot of people are looking this way." Said Chouji who then turned around and noticed the blonde haired whisker marked boy
"Shikamaru… Look at Naruto." Said Chouji, Shikamaru turned his gaze towards the blonde and saw the most shocking thing on the exam for now
He saw Naruto wearing an eye patch over his right eye, Shikamaru seemed intrigued at what had happened to the blonde as a small frown etched across his face, he saw Naruto differently, the blonde acted differently, as he seemed, mellowed out, he wasn't like this when they were in the academy, but it seemed that Naruto had a sudden change in attitude, no sudden wouldn't cut it, it was a drastic change. Shikamaru noted how the blonde would be loud and seek attention, but this one, he seemed, complacent, he looked, so far away, as if his thoughts were drifting towards something else. Shikamaru suspected that the eye patch was related to what had happened back then
Shikamaru frowned, 'That attitude must have something to do with his right eye, what happened anyway? A C-Rank mission gone awry?'
Oh, how correct were Shikamaru's deductions were, at least, his suspicions were, Shikamaru didn't have the conviction to carry his investigation on though, as he settled to one thing, ignoring what had happened and go on with his miserable, pathetic life.
The one that voiced out the opinion on Naruto though, was none other than his bossy teammate and possible future dominatrix, Ino
"Naruto, what the hell happened to you!? Don't tell me something stupid happened when doing a freakin' C-rank mission!" Yelled Ino
"Eh… No, actually… You see… Go ask old man Hokage about it." Said the blonde as he the avoided the gaze of his fellow blonde Shinobi
"Yo, Naruto, you looked like you chose to do some high time piracy in Nami, what happened?" Asked the one with the dog on his head, that Naruto recognized as Kiba
"Go ask old man Hokage" Said Naruto as he then noticed the one who was hiding behind the sunglasses wearing Genin that Naruto immediately recognized as Shino
Naruto's head then clicked, now he remembered! Hyuuga! Hyuuga Hinata!
"Yo, Hinata!" Was Naruto's casual reply that earned a squeak from the girl who then blushed like a cherry
"H-Hi… Naruto-kun." Said the girl who then began to play with her fingers
"Your right eye… What happened to it?" Asked the shy girl, although she secretly saw what had happened the other day, she couldn't help but feel somewhat worried now that there was now only one ocean blue eyes that Hinata wanted to drown herself upon.
"Mission gone horribly wrong, nothing to worry about, I could still fight with one perfectly good eye!" Said the blonde who grinned and sheepishly scratched his head
"You guys better stop before you could do more damage here, and especially the rain ninja, they apparently don't look like they're a patient bunch." Said the voce reveling a silver haired man with glasses on his face, his eyes glanced on the rookie teams and told them the importance of keeping subtle and how Kabuto had failed the exam seven times, Naruto frowned, if the Chuunin exam was that hard, then shouldn't their Jounin instructor intend to nominate them because they had the potential to pass? It just didn't add up.
After that, he then pulled out a blank set full of cards, who then asked the Rookie Nine
"This are my Nin-info cards, it finds out everything about the Chuunin applicants here in the exam."
"Could it by any chance be good enough to have some info on other Genin?" Asked Sasuke
"Sure, who do you have in mind then?" Asked Kabuto
"Rock Lee and Sabaku no Gaara." Said the Uchiha
"Uzumaki Naruto, while you're at it." Said Shikamaru, seemingly surprising everyone.
"Now that's boring, you have their names."
Kabuto concentrated chakra on his cards and out came first, was Rock Lee's information
"Hmm, according to this, he has no Ninjutsu, nor genjutsu, but his physical strength, speed and stamina are top notch, there's also a high level grade for Taijutsu and this is the guy who graduated deadlast last year." Said Kabuto as he flipped another info card
"Sabaku no Gaara, no stats are shown but his mission profile dictates that he did a B-rank mission" Kabuto whistled
"That's a pretty big thing for a Genin." Said the bespectacled genin adjusting his glasses
Kabuto then flipped another info card and revealed Naruto's profile, Naruto shivered at the thought that the file contained his darkest secrets until Kabuto stated his info card
"Uzumaki Naruto, as of now, he has a blank status, no level of Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Stamina, Physical Strength, and speed, it's all in question marks." Said Kabuto who then scratched his head, his info obtained from the blonde were the same as that of Sabaku no Gaara, he then grabbed another info card revealing the same info about the blonde
"Well, it's the same as Gaara's but instead of a B-rank, his team received an A-rank, I'm thoroughly impressed." Said Kabuto
Naruto had to breathe a sigh of relief, there wasn't a sign of Souseiki no Me nor Kyuubi in the card, it was still safe. Or so he thought
"Well, the cards says it all, frankly I'm not surprised that Konoha had this much participants of the exam, next would be Ame, then finally, Suna and Oto, you need not to worry about Oto though, it's a new village and it's weak compared to the other villages."
With that statement, a blur of three Oto Nin suddenly appeared, three of them charged towards Kabuto. Naruto, tried to intercept the first one by immediately unsealing his blade and pointed the tip towards the neck of the one who had long ebony hair, Sasuke restrained the one with spiky black hair with a Kunai and the one that had bandages all over his face managed to punch Kabuto who evaded by slightly bending his neck to the opposite of the fist. But as soon as he dodged it, cracks could be seen on the man's glasses and the man could be seen coughing up blood
"How did that happen, we saw him avoid the punch didn't we?" Said Kiba, and a man entered the room, the mere look of the man sent chills running down the spine of the newcomers for the Chuunin exam
"Pipe down, you little mongrels! Alright, I'm Morino Ibiki and I'm going to be the proctor for this exam!" Said Ibiki as he then looked over to the Oto Nin
"You! Unless you want to continue scrapping off dog crap as a mission for the rest of your life, I suggest you sit your ass down and control yourself!" Ibiki commanded to the Oto nin who then chuckled
"Sorry, it was… a spur of the moment if you will… Hehe" Said the bandaged Oto nin going back to his seat. With the rest of the rookie nine going to their own seats
"Good, alright you brats, the first exam will be a written test!" To that people could hear a face, hitting the table from one kid named, Uzumaki Naruto…
'Oh man, is this gonna suck…' Thought the blonde
To be continued!
Okay, I uploaded a chapter for now, I'm sorry but I won't be able to update up until May, although I would like to continue, I have an OJT for six months and I will be out of town and out of my computer back then, I apologize as this is my last day before OJT's begin, I'll make it up to you guys when May and June come around, again, I am deeply sorry.